Hidden Baby #2 Blog: December 27, 2010

We had our OB appointment today. Since we had no idea how far along we were, they did an ultrasound to date the pregnancy. The sac showed that we were a little over 5 weeks pregnant, but there wasn't any visible baby in the sac. It is a little too early to see anything, but still makes us (99% Landon, 1% Jen) a little nervous. Our OB suspects everything is great based off of physical exam, and we are scheduled for another ultrasound on January 6th.

Benton Update: 7 Months

Our sweet Benton turned 7 months old on Christmas! We feel like this is the month that we have seen the most change...and it has been so fun!
Some facts from Benton's seventh month of life:
-Wearing 6-12 month clothes. He is wearing 12-18 month jeans.
-Mainly wearing cloth diapers with no snaps. In disposables, he can wear either a size 3 or a size 4 diaper.
-Eating 4 times per day. He has started weaning, so he is eating an 8 ounce bottle with a mix of milk and formula. He doesn't mind the change at all, he just loves food. :) He has also been having solids with two meals per day...2 tablespoons of a fruit, yogurt, or cereal in the morning, and 3 tablespoons of a vegetable at night. We are about to add meat (gross).
-Still a great sleeper! He is sleeping from 7-7:30pm to 7am. He is taking 2 really good naps in the morning and afternoon, and we think he is about to drop his evening nap. He is only taking it about half of the week.
-Still loving the eat/play/sleep routine.

Random things we don't want to forget:

-He is a master at sitting up. He could literally sit up for hours without falling over.

-Ben still has 2 teeth, but there are a couple more coming in. We LOVE his toothy grin.

-He's starting to let us know his likes and dislikes. For example, he has been eating peas for months, but just in the last week or so starting trying to let us know that he hated them (clamped jaw, sad face, whines, etc).

-Bath time is quite fun at our house. He is splashing a lot and tries to gather all of his bath toys in one place.

-He has started sucking on his big toe almost every time we change his diaper. I know most babies do this earlier, but he had quite a bit of chub to work around in order to get the toe in his mouth. :)

-He LOVES puffs and cheerios, and is now quite good and getting them in his mouth. I'd say he can get 7 out of 10 in his mouth without help.

-His favorite foods are avocado, banana, pear, apple, plum, and pumpkin. He is pretty much starting to dislike most vegetables, but I can't say I blame him. He is also really liking yogurt.

-We have become human jungle gyms. Benton tries to climb all over us, all the time. We figure this is the calm before the storm (when he actually starts crawling, cruising, and walking!).

-When we pick him up from the church nursery or whoever is watching him while we work, he is starting to really show emotion. Big smiles!!! He's been recognizing us and happy to see us for quite awhile, but he is now genuinely excited to see us.

-We started 1o minutes per day of independent playtime this month. For some reason, it was a big step for us. We put him in his room with toys and he plays and talks to himself the whole time. We actually think he loves his time alone!

Ben continues to be the sweetest little guy, and we are so grateful for him!!!

Hidden Baby #2 Blog: December 25, 2010

Hidden Baby #2 Blog: December 23, 2010

Not much to report here. We have our ultrasound and OB appointment in a few days, and we are still getting used to the idea of baby #2 being in my belly. Landon has been really calm and collected, and I have been wavering between thrilled and terrified (it changes by the minute).

I'm still feeling fine for the most part. Weaning has been REALLY painful, but I think we are almost done (thank goodness!). I have had some waves of nausea, which is about the same as what I felt with Benton at this point. I figure I'm just weeks away from the real sickness. :( I've also been a little more tired, and Landon has been GREAT about making me take naps (hard for me...I want to be there anytime B is awake...he's too cute and fun not to play with). It's all worth it though!

Santa Pictures!

We went and visited Santa today! Benton totally didn't care whether we were holding him or Santa was holding him. I imagine that will change next year! I also included a couple other pictures we took today.

Merry Christmas From The Hubbarts

Merry Christmas from Landon, Jen, and Benton!

(I knew better than to put a picture of Landon, Ben, and I on our Christmas card! We had decided to put only a picture of Benton on the card, but then felt like we needed another once we were actually putting the card together. When Shutterfly sent them to us, they had pretty much blacked out my face. We went ahead and sent them out because no one cares about me. :) FYI-Shutterfly had great customer service.)

Hidden Baby #2 Blog: December 14, 2010

Wow. We are still in a state of shock about this whole baby thing, but we have been moving along and getting things done. I had lab work drawn yesterday, and we made our OB appointment for December 27th. We will have an ultrasound and appt with the doc.

Another thing we have been doing is a weaning Benton from BFing (at the doc's recommendation). Ben totally doesn't care who or what he gets food from, so that part has been easy thus far. I hated BFing, but felt like I should as long as I could due to the benefits to Benton, so I'm partially glad there is a reason to stop. The only problem is that I also don't really love being pregnant either, so it's really just an even trade off. I was kind of hoping to stop before we took a big vacation this spring (Hawaii), but it is appearing that we will probably have to put that off for another year. HA! :)

For those that haven't had to wean quickly, IT HURTS! Oh.my.goodness. I won't go into too many details, but I will say that Ben keeps looking at me strangely because I smell like cabbage and that I have already had to change clothes a couple of times today.

With all of this whining, I do want to say that this sweet baby and our sweet Benton are worth doing anything. We are so grateful for them!

Hidden Baby #2 Blog: December 12, 2010

Yes, the title really says Hidden Baby #2 Blog.
Yes, we are expecting our second baby.
Yes, Ben is going to be a big brother.
No, we are not kidding.
No, we are not crazy.
No, we did not plan this.
Yes, we were trying to prevent this.
Yes, we are excited.

Here's our story for Baby #2. As we were driving home this afternoon from doing Advent ("Joy") with our small group friends, I told Landon that I felt nauseated and had a metal taste in my mouth, and it seemed identical to when we found out we were pregnant with Ben. I just said that in passing, totally not thinking I was actually pregnant. When we got home, Landon told me to go take a pregnancy test, just because he was curious. I took the test and thought it was negative, but went ahead and brought it into the kitchen to show Landon. We played with Ben for about 30 minutes before I remembered to show Landon the test, and when I looked at it again, I noticed a faint line. My first response..."Oh no!" Ha!

Obviously, we are thrilled with this gift of life. It certainly wasn't in our plans to have another baby this soon after having Benton, but we are more grateful than we can ever express. Right now, Ben is 6 1/2 months old. By the time baby comes, he should be about 15 months old.

ETA for Baby #2: August 21, 2011. That is based solely on the fact that the pregnancy test line was faint (thus assuming we weren't very far along)...we really have no idea!

Benton Update: 6 Months Continued

Ben had his well child check-up on Tuesday. He is no longer hanging out at the very top of the charts for weight. The nurse said that they had seen all 4 and 6 month well child checks that morning, and that they had all been boys...and she said that he was the smallest 6 month old boy! Ha! That is hard for me to imagine. Seriously, when she put him on the table she said "Hey little guy." :)

Stats from 6 month Pediatrician appointment:
-Weight: 19 pounds, 7 ounces (75th percentile)
-Height: 26 3/4 inches (60th percentile)
-Head Circumference: 17 inches

Prayers Please!

One of our dearest friends, Courtney Cartwright, was recently diagnosed with recurrent thyroid cancer. Today, she and her husband, Matt, headed down to MD Anderson in Houston to begin treatment. They have been faithful and honest and have an eternal outlook on the whole situation. Hopefully she will keep the blog up-to-date (hint, hint), and we promise that you will be inspired by their journey. Please read their story and add them to your prayers.

http://mattncourtcartwright.blogspot.com

And This Is Why We Are Different...

Funny story. A week or so ago, I was giving Benton a bath and I grabbed the "F" and "L" out of his foam alphabet letters...to teach him about his feet and legs, of course. Benton totally didn't care and was trying to eat the letters or throw them out of the bathtub. :)

A few days later, Landon is giving Benton a bath, and I hear all kinds of crazy noises coming from the bathroom. Apparently, Landon was teaching him about guns...the single shot and automatic. Ha! Benton was much more interested in Landon's lesson, which came with sound effects.

The difference between males and females is just too funny sometimes!