27 Weeks

How Far Along: 27 weeks (this update is several days late, so I'm actually closer to 28 now)

Food Comparison: Cauliflower (14.5", about 2 lbs.)

Weight Gain: 20 lbs.

Maternity Clothes: Most definitely. I am resigned to wearing a lot of Kory's t-shirts and athletic shorts when I'm at home. Several of my maternity shirts are getting too short and too tight, which I remember happening in my first pregnancy also, but it was probably a month or two later. 

Sleep: Not great. I'm having a hard time getting comfortable and am starting to have some aches and pains that make it difficult to lay in one position for very long. 

Best Moment of this week: Peter woke up from his nap screaming for Mommy one afternoon (bad dream maybe?) and I went in and held him and he fell back asleep in my arms for another hour while we rocked. He NEVER sleeps anywhere but in his crib, so this was a real treat, especially as I felt a tiny baby in my belly kicking away and I know that my time with Peter as my baby is limited. 

Miss Anything: Being able to do things easily; things like standing up when I've been sitting on the ground, rolling over in bed, putting on pants, crossing my legs, etc.

Symptoms/Side Effects: I've got a few warts (ew!) popping up on my fingers and ankle, which are apparently common during pregnancy. I didn't have this fun side effect last pregnancy, so this is new for me. 

Movement: Lots and lots. That's part of my issue with sleep these days also.  

Food Cravings: I can't really think of anything specific I've been craving lately. I think my eating has slowed down a little in the past couple weeks, probably because baby is growing and my stomach is getting more squished. 

Anything making you queasy or sick: Peter's diapers. Still.

Have you started to show yet: This is a dumb question at this point. 

Gender: Boy! Still no name. 

Labor signs: I've been having quite a few Braxton Hicks contractions in the evenings, but it's pretty manageable. My stomach just feels really tight and it makes it a little bit harder to breathe. 

Belly button in or out: Out. It's not a total outie yet, but it's definitely not in anymore. 

Wedding ring on or off: On. On really hot days (which we've had several of lately!) my fingers start to swell, but normally my ring still fits great. 

Happy or moody most of the time: I've been feeling all the feels this week. Maybe I've had an increase in hormones or something because I am having some emotions! 

Looking forward to: Decorating Peter's new bedroom and fixing up the Nursery. We had a garage sale recently and got rid of a LOT of stuff, so now I'm in the process of clearing out the guest bedroom/Peter's new room and will soon paint it and start getting furniture and decorations moved in. 

Things to remember: Pregnancy makes me SO indecisive. Everything from choosing a name to picking out what I want to eat in a restaurant seems so incredibly difficult to me. I annoy myself with my inability to decide, but it still feels paralyzing when I have to make too many decisions in a day.

21 Weeks

How Far Along: 21 weeks

Food Comparison: Carrot 

Weight Gain: 14 lbs.

Maternity Clothes: Most definitely. I don't think I have anything non-maternity that fits me now except for athletic shorts and sweat pants. 

Sleep: I'm sleeping really well right now. I rarely wake up in the night and if I do, it doesn't take me too long to get back to sleep. 

Best Moment of this week: Going through some of Peter's baby clothes and getting really excited to get to use them again. 

Miss Anything: Laying on my stomach. I don't do it a lot, but I've been wanting to do it lately and even tried for a short bit but it's very painful. 

Symptoms/Side Effects: I'm one of the lucky ones who has my clearest complexion and healthiest hair ever while pregnant. 

Movement: Quite a bit. No one but me has felt it yet, but I feel movement pretty often. Baby is most active when I'm laying down in bed at night. 

Food Cravings: I am not really having any specific cravings, but I have to have a late night snack, every night. Lately it's been popcorn or ice cream or chips and dip. As you can see, I'm keeping it suuuuuper healthy around here. 

Anything making you queasy or sick: Peter's diapers. Cloth diapering while pregnant is harder than I expected. There has been a lot of gagging and I've lost my lunch a few times over it. 

Have you started to show yet: Oh, there's no question about that. I definitely am! 

Gender: Boy! :) We have no clue what we'll name him, but it's fun to know that HE is a HE. 

Labor signs: No way, Jose. 

Belly button in or out: Well, I wouldn't have thought this was possible, but the top half is out and the bottom half is in. It's quite strange looking. 

Wedding ring on or off: On.  

Happy or moody most of the time: Happy and tired. So tired! I do have more energy than the 1st trimester, but I'm still really tired almost all the time. I'm so thankful that Peter is a good napper because it allows me to work around the house while he's sleeping and usually get a small nap for myself too.  

Looking forward to: flying to NM next week to see my parents! 

Things to remember: I can't remember anything these days. I had to ask Kory the name of my favorite movie last week. I couldn't think of the word "door" for almost two days. I'm writing myself notes and taking pictures of things and using my calendar more than ever because my brain cannot be trusted. 

He or She?

Since we're nearing the time when we hope to find out if this baby is a boy or girl, I thought I'd have some fun with a few of these old wives' tales that are supposed to help you determine the sex of your baby. 

1. How does your skin feel?: Soft or Dry

2. What foods are you craving most? Salty or Sweet

3. Did you experience morning sickness? Yes or No

4. Have you had extra acne while pregnant? Yes or No

5. How fast is the baby's heartbeat? Under 130 or Over 140

6. What does your hair feel like this pregnancy? Dull/limp or Thick/Glossy 

7. What happened with the wedding ring test? Spinning or Swinging

8. Is Dad gaining any weight with you? Yes or No

9. Where are you carrying the baby? High or Low
(A couple people have told me they think I'm carrying low, but I am carrying higher than with Peter. I still have some non-maternity pants that I can wear and button, which is much different than last time. I also looked back at pictures of my first pregnancy and am significantly higher this pregnancy.)

10. Chinese Gender Predictor Test: Boy or Girl
(I know this is supposed to be highly accurate, but for reference, the Chinese test told us Peter was a girl.)


We're pretty much split down the middle with these "tests". Do you think baby Mereness #2 is a boy or a girl? 

16 in 2016

It's taken me a long time to figure out my goals for this year. I'm trying to be realistic, while still challenging myself, and that's hard to balance, especially because I spend my days with a one year old aka a tiny tornado. I always enjoy working on these goals, so here's what I am planning for 2016.

(The pictures have nothing to do with my goals; I just think posts with pictures are more fun to read.) 

1. Finish the KonMari method on everything we own.
When I set a goal to get rid of 300 things last year, I discovered an organization/decluttering book called The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I used the author's method, called KonMari, to get rid of a lot of items (well over 300). I found a great checklist which helps you sort through every single item that you own and I got about 2/3 of the way through the process before I lost momentum. I want to finish going through every item we own this year.

2. Get rid of 200 items. 
While completing goal #1, I will get rid of another 200 items this year. I am going to go back over some categories I did last year as I think I will be able to part with some more items now. I know this seems like a crazy high number (especially after doing this last year too) but I count every single item that goes in the trash/donate/sell piles, whether is a shirt, a pen, a book, a coffee mug, a poster, a broken sewing needle, or an expired bottle of pills. It's really nice to have a better idea of what we own and where it is, which eliminates a lot of time spent looking for lost items.

3. Send a handwritten card or letter once per month.
I love receiving these items, but I almost never send them. I want to do better about sending birthday
and thank you cards and also just writing a note to let someone know I'm thinking of them.

4. Complete command/mail center.
I really want to organize our desk and computer area so I have a better way to pay bills, file paper, and keep organized. I've purchased a few items and pinned a lot of ideas on Pinterest, so I've just got to put it all together now.

5. Make 24 new recipes.
I think 2 new recipes per month is totally reasonable. I've got a lot of recipes bookmarked and saved, so it will just be a matter of actually putting them into our meal rotation.

6. Complete Blood:Water Mission's 40 Days of Water challenge.
Each year during Lent, Blood:Water Mission hosts a challenge for participants to drink nothing but water for 40 days and to donate the money they would have spent on cokes, coffee, tea, etc. to give life-saving water to those in need. Kory and I have done it in years past but didn't participate this past year. Part of me really doesn't want to do it because I don't want to give up my beloved sodas, but that only convinces me further that this should happen.

7. Learn how to use our camera.
This one is carried over from 2015, and since I didn't accomplish it, I want to give it another shot.

8. Go on 1 date night per month.
We've got lots of people who volunteer to watch Peter for us, so I want to take them up on their offers and make sure we continue to have date night every month.

9. Keep up with my One Line a Day journal.
Now that I've had this for over a year, I can already tell how much I love reading my entries from the previous year. It's like TimeHop or Facebook Memories, but with stuff I actually care about. :)

10.  Read 10 books.
I easily accomplished my goal of reading 5 books last year, but then I kind of stopped once I reached that goal. I want to continue reading all year long, so I'm aiming a little higher this year.

11. Take a baby-free vacation.
We've already got plans for this, so it's kind of cheating to make it a goal, but I'm still putting it down because A)16 is a lot! and B)It's still going to take a lot of work from me to make this happen. We haven't had an actual vacation with just Kory and I in several years because our trips are always to see family (which we love!) or to youth group events. I'm equal parts excited and nervous to spend a week away from Peter.

12. Decorate one of our bedrooms. 
It's no surprise that Peter's room is the only room in our house that is fully decorated and organized. Our guest and master bedrooms look a lot like they did when we moved in, though we did paint a couple walls in the master at least. I don't want them to look like they're straight off a magazine page, but I would love if the paint, decorations, and bedding all looked like they belong in the same room.

13. Visit the public library.
I can't believe this, but I've never even set foot in our library. They have some weird hours which used to be my excuse while I was working, but now I have plenty of time to get there while they're open. I even saw recently where someone said you can borrow digital books from them as long as you have a library card-that's an easy money saver!

14. Go on {at least} one family outing per month.

It's way too easy for us to spend lazy weekends at home, which are nice occasionally, but I'd like us to make a better effort to get out of the house and make memories as a family.

15. Make six crafty Pinterest projects (not recipes).
This is another repeat from last year. I enjoy doing crafts and sewing, but don't always make them a priority. The fact is that I'll never be done with sweeping, laundry, and dishes, so I want to just let them go at times in order to do something fun and relaxing for myself.

16. Plant a garden.
I find immense satisfaction in growing fruits and vegetables for our family to eat. This year might be a little trickier with a certain "helper", but I want him to grow up understanding just how delicious a fresh-from-the-garden tomato can be!

15 in 2015 Review

Well, it's time to wrap up another year of goals for me and I'm feeling pretty good about my results this year. I'm still working on my 2016 goals, so I'll get those posted soon.

I ended up completing 10 out of 15 goals, so that's a win in my book.

I started 2015 with a tiny, cuddly newborn.

1. Write at least 2 blog posts per month.
This didn't happen. I had 19 blog posts in 2015, most of which were Peter's monthly updates. 

2. Read 5 books.
Check! I completed 5 and started probably 3 more that I still haven't finished.

3. Eat more whole foods.
I realize now that it's pretty hard to decide if I accomplished something like this that is pretty subjective, (aren't goals supposed to be measurable?) but I do think I ended the year better than I started. I still love junk food way too much, but I also really like a good variety of vegetables now, so there's more balance than there was before. 

4. Spend less time on my phone.
Again, this is hard to quantify, but I made some real progress in taking time away from my phone this year and prioritizing face-to-face time with others. 

5. Find creative ways to save and/or earn money for our family.
I think my real goal here was to live on one paycheck and not dip into savings. We did it! In fact, we even continued contributing to our savings account each month (although it was a fairly small amount). 

6. Keep up with my One Line A Day journal.
I don't always write in it every single day, but I am able to catch up on the past several days enough to still be going with this. It's already fun to read the entries from last year and remember what happened on that day. 

7. Purge our home of 300 unnecessary items. 
Huge win!! I stopped counting at 500 items, but I donated or sold at least 10 more garbage bags of stuff after that. I actually found and used an organizing/cleaning method called KonMari which I'll post more about in my 2016 goals. 

8. Spend time outside.
Staying home with Peter has made me much more of a home-body than I was before. Too many days go by without us leaving the house. I wish I had done better on this one.

9. Learn how to use our new camera. 
I'm still trying to figure out how we have such an awesome camera and many of our pictures turn out blurry or have weird lighting. I know the problem is the user so I'd still really like to work on this. 

10. Run a 5k.
I completed the Run for Ohm in June and that was pretty much it as far as running goes. I really am only motivated by a race it seems. 

11. Complete 6 crafty/house/Pinterest projects.
I made a doll carrier, pretend tea bags, a drawing pad/crayon roll, a Father's Day framed handprint of Peter's, several mason jar plant containers, quite a few decorations for Peter's birthday party, a Christmas fabric garland, and Frozen-themed hooded towels for my nieces and nephew.

12. Try 12 new recipes.
I did a really bad job tracking the new recipes I tried. I'm thinking I probably tried 12, but since I didn't keep track of what they were, I'm not going to count this one.  

13. Lose 20 pounds.
I'm not 100% sure what I weighed when I made this goal, but I think I was trying to get down to my pre-baby weight and that didn't quite happen. I am 5 pounds away, or at least I was before the holidays. I didn't actually make too much of a concerted effort to lose the weight, so I'm not really upset about not reaching it. 

14. Organize and file our stacks of paperwork.
All the paperwork in our house is neatly filed away or in the trash. I've got one small bin that I keep bills and mail in that needs to be dealt with, and I try to empty it fairly often.

15. Plant a garden.
I planted quite a bit, but the things that actually grew were basil, strawberries, zucchini, tomatoes, lemon cucumbers and jalapeños.

We ended 2015 with a climbing, running, very active toddler. 

One Year

Height: 29" (25%)

Weight: 19 lbs. 4 oz. (10%)

Head Size: 19.5" (98%)

I have been dragging my feet to get this final monthly update written for Peter. I haven't really felt too emotional about him turning 1, but this feels like the end of an era and so it's been hard for me to make myself sit down and finish this post. I do want to document his life at this age, however, so I'll do just that. (This update ending up being random ramblings, but I'm sure I'll be glad to come back and read this some day so I'm leaving it.)

These pictures were taken by our family friend, Amy Holst. I am so happy with the way they all turned out. 

Peter's saying a lot during the day, but most of it could be better classified as "babbling" than actual talking. His very favorite word is "kuh-duh" and while we're not sure what it means, we do know it's very important as he says it all day, every day. He also says "uh-oh" and Sky, which sounds more like "ky". 

He has 10 big teeth and his bottom molars are currently coming in. It's a lot of teeth for such a little guy. He is a great eater! He will truly eat anything we give him. Well, he did turn down mac and cheese, but he's eaten everything else we have offered. Bananas and Cheerios are still probably his favorite, along with anything in a squeeze pouch. When you get food out for him, he starts opening and closing his mouth kind of like a fish and makes the cutest little noise. 

He is still nursing a lot. In fact, he's only had cow's milk a few times so far. The main reason is that I'm just not ready to wean. It's easy, we both like it, it's free, and I want to keep doing it for now. My original goal was to make it a year, and now that we've done that, we're going to just keep going until one of us decides to stop. I've already received a few comments insinuating that it's time for us to stop, but I'm really not concerned about that. If anything, it only makes me want to keep going for longer. ;) 

I've long described Peter as a great napper and not such a good night sleeper. While he is improving at night, this really still describes him. He's down to waking up once many nights, which is wonderful! He goes to bed at 8:00 and will often wake up about midnight to eat. Some nights he wakes up once more about 5:00, but lately he sleeps from midnight until 8:30-9:00 a.m. I am SO enjoying the fact that he sleeps in for now. 

He is really into giving hugs right now and it is THE BEST. If I'm kneeling down or sitting on the ground, he will come up behind me and hug my back. If you lay down on the ground, he lays his head on you and often lays down on top of you for a full body hug. It's SO sweet. I can hardly handle it. He also holds his arms up for me to pick him up and then just goes in for a full squeeze around the neck hug occasionally. I wasn't ready for how his hugs were going to melt me. It's overwhelmingly wonderful, particularly because he's not a big cuddler. 

Since he's been walking for almost 3 months now, he's got great balance and walks really well. In fact, he's actually running around the house these days. When he can't find me, I can hear the pitter patter as he runs from room to room looking for me. He also really loves climbing these days. He's gotten really good at getting himself down from the bed or couch by putting his feet down first and holding on to let himself down slowly. It's pretty impressive to me...but let's me honest, I'm pretty easily impressed by anything this kid does. I think it's all wonderful and genius and awesome. 

Peter dressed up as a Hershey's kiss for his 1st Halloween. We went to Jeremy and Abby's house and hung out with them that evening rather than going trick-or-treating. The funniest part of that holiday was that I tried the hood to his costume on him multiple times in the weeks leading up to Halloween and he immediately ripped it off every single time. On Halloween, I put the whole costume on him for the first time and he never even tried to take the hood off once that night. It was like he thought the hood was dumb by itself, but he was cool with the whole ensemble together. 

I'm SO excited for this holiday season with Peter. Last year was wonderful because I got to snuggle a newborn during the holidays, and while he won't really understand a lot about the holidays this year, he's at a really fun age and I can't wait to celebrate with the rest of our family.  

Everyone keeps saying that they can't believe it's been a year since he was born. Well, I can. It honestly hasn't rushed by like I thought it would. I'm sure being home with him every day has been a big part of that. That is such a huge gift to me and I don't take it for granted. 

The picture above is my favorite family portrait but I also really love the one below because it's so true to real life. Peter loves to dig his fingers into your eyeballs, which is never enjoyable, but was especially concerning when I got pink eye recently and was trying SO hard to make sure it didn't spread to Peter. Thankfully, he and Kory never got it, but I had some really swollen and pink eyes for about a week. 

I've been keeping two little kids one day a week and it's great to see Peter interact with them. One is a 3 month old boy and the other is a 2 year old girl, so Peter gets the opportunity to play with someone older and someone younger than him. He really does pretty well with them, but doesn't love it when I'm holding one of them and not him (like any other infant/toddler). It's been a good introduction to what life with more than one kid would be like...and it's been eye-opening for sure. 

I thought I would be a lot sadder about watching Peter become more of a toddler and less of an infant, but I'm having too much fun to be sad. I LOVED holding him as a tiny baby, but it's far better to see his personality develop and watch him learn new things every day. I have never laughed more in my life than I have in the past two months with him. 

I've enjoyed watching Peter start to approach Kory more to be held and played with, rather than just coming to me. Dad can throw him higher and makes better noises/impressions, so he's quickly beating me out in the entertainment department. 

We did a football themed party for his birthday and it was really fun! Kory's parents were in town and we had several families from church over for dinner and dessert and presents. I made Peter a Boston Cream Pie (Kory's traditional birthday treat) and he seemed to love it. 

What a JOY this little guy is to all who meet him! These past twelve months have been the best of our lives. I absolutely can't wait to see what the next year with him looks like. 

I sure do love you, P baby. 

Eleven Months

Height: 28.5"

Weight: 18 lbs, 1 oz.

Lots of people told me that life would change when he started walking. I thought I understood what they were saying, but as usual, you really can't know until you're experiencing it for yourself. I'm exhausted in a way I've not been exhausted before. It's hard to compare it to the tiring days with a newborn, because I'm still living in those sleep-deprived days. 

It's not the fact that he's walking that's exhausting. It is the constant messes he makes and the pulling things off tables & night stands and out of cabinets and hurting himself when he falls over (a million times a day) and wanting to be held and then immediately wanting to be down and making more messes. The fact that he is still up 2-3 times every night just adds to the exhaustion. 

I'm happy. I love being a mom. I love Peter. I am SO tired. 

It's clear that we had a tough night last night because I can't think of anything to write about except how tired I am! :) I'll come up with something though. I want to remember other things about this stage of his life. 

He continues to be a really happy baby! This month he learned to clap and give high-fives and it is SO much fun to watch him because he grins so big every time. He also loves to "pat" people and tables and all solid objects. His patting is pretty hard, though, and is a problem when he's patting a 2 month old baby's face. He thinks it's hilarious to hit me in the face and while I tell him no and make him stop, it's so hard to not laugh when he's got that wonderful baby belly laugh going. 

He's also started holding his arms up in the air for you to pick him up. He doesn't like being held for very long, however, because he wants to be walking around, making new discoveries (aka making more messes). 

Fun Memories From This Month:

*Peter attended his 1st volleyball game 

*He summited his first mountain (Mt. Tipsoo)

*We picked vegetables from a friend's garden & he ate tomatoes and green beans fresh off the vine

*Peter got to move to the "Big Kids" side of the nursery 

We had a scare this month when Peter had an allergic reaction to cashews one evening. We ended up in Urgent Care the following morning when he had full body hives and his breathing was a little odd. He had blood drawn this past week for allergy testing and we're still waiting to hear from the Dr. to find out the results. We're really praying that he won't have to deal with a severe nut allergy. 

He only uses his pacifier when he's sleeping, but he does like to chew on them if he finds one laying on the ground while he's playing. There is only one kind of pacifier he will keep in his mouth, so we've got quite a collection of them now. He loses at least one every night when he throws it (or it falls) behind his crib, so we've got a stash ready in order to pop the next one in his mouth and get him back to sleep quickly. 

His hair is a little bit darker and thicker now, but not a lot. It's crazy to look at his newborn photos and see that he doesn't have much more hair now, almost a year later. He has the softest head though...I love rubbing it, and so does just about everyone else he meets.

I know how you feel, little dude. And now we're back to the subject of being tired. It's really a theme for us these days.

But so is being grateful! We have experienced great tragedy recently with the shooting at Umpqua Community College here in Roseburg. I think that the events of that day and the resulting grief is a part of why I feel so tired. It's been a busy, hard, and draining time for us, and so many others. In those dark days immediately after the shooting, Peter was a source of happiness and joy for so many people. It was good to be reminded that there is GOOD in the world and it's worth celebrating.  

It was even nice to focus on teeny, tiny milestones like the fact that he can now open his toy box on his own. We've still got a long road of mourning and healing and figuring out what "normal" looks like from here, but it has been amazing to watch this community come together in the face of this tragedy. I'm grateful that Peter gets to call Roseburg home.