24. Not the One with Jack Bauer. The Sequel.

So, on Monday July 28th, baby girl and I crossed the 24 week finish line.  (Here's my 24 week post from pregnancy with Emery.)  High fives all around!

Goodness gracious - between the old age, the insane amount of posts I'm behind and the pregnancy brain, I am having a somewhat difficult time recalling the important accomplishments and highlights of each of these 4 week chunks of time.  I hope that baby Bucket will forgive me!  I promise I'm doing my best, baby child.

 As you can tell from the pictures below, the main highlight of this period was that I started showing in a serious way.  As anyone who's been pregnant can tell you, this is a very exciting time period because the knowing smiles people shoot you are more of the "ohhhh, you're pregnant," than "ohhhhh, you are having a torrid affair with McDonald's," variety.  This is a major milestone.

Much like I mentioned in the previous post, the most remarkable difference between my pregnancy with Emery and my pregnancy with Bucket continued to be just feeling generally tired all the time.  My UP band continued to applaud my sleep but I somehow never, ever felt well-rested.  I think this is probably just life's way of getting me prepared for having 2 busy little misses to chase after.  Well played.

21 weeks.  Not just rocking the hair bump any more.

22 weeks.  It appears that between weeks 21 & 22 either baby girl doubled in size or I ate very, very poorly.  Smart money is probably on the latter.

23 weeks.  I took this from my hotel room in London.  You can't fully see that spaceship looking shower, but I feel confident that my third trimester self would not have fit in it.  Good thing I'm not European.

24 weeks.  I haven't stated it thus far, but I hope you know to just ignore the constant state of disarray of our bathroom.

I would like to spout off all kinds of exciting things that Ryan and I got accomplished in this span of time, but unfortunately there aren't a TON of things we got accomplished.  This is partially due to the fact that work was still preeeeeetty busy and partially due to the fact that with #2 you have already taken all the classes and you have all of the baby paraphernalia.  So trust me, we weren't completely slacking.  Our biggest mark through the to do list for this time frame was... wait for it... we ordered Bucket's furniture!  I was starting to get irrationally concerned that she was legitimately going to have to share a bucket with Emery's practice baby, so it was quite the relief for all parties.

In order to keep the peace but allow for some individuality, we ordered the same items we ordered for Em from the same manufacturer, but a different line and in white.  I'm sure your next question is... omg, omg, how are you going to do the nursery?  That's a story/picture for another day, sweet reader.  In the mean time- bask in the awesomeness of this furniture, huh?

Oh, I forgot to also mention that Bucket scored her first non-hand-me-down piece of clothing.  That's another big milestone, right?

Also, Ryan and I made a significant amount of progress on names during this time.  At this point we had picked her middle name for sure and were at about 95% sure about her first name.  A place to lay her head AND a name?  How lucky can one little lady be?!  

I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-(C-E)

As I stated previously, the 3 day weekend summer holidays are some of my favorites and no matter how much or little we do, I always feel the need to try and capture them on here.  Luckily for the birth of our great nation I seemed to be a little bit more on top of my camera game.  Not much though.

We started our holiday weekend festivities off by deciding to attend our first school picnic/event at Emery's school on Thursday July 3rd.  Prior to this she had always been in the infant class and we didn't feel like she was old enough to really understand or interact anyway.  Unfortunately, the weather was awful and the picnic got moved inside.  On the one hand this meant reduced attendance but on the other it meant more BBQ for the Martin clan.  I think Ryan and Emery chalked this up as a point in the win column.

I thought we were gone for the day.  How did we end up back here Mama?

Daddy- you sit right here.

I love this nugget enough to plant my pregnant behind in a chair made for a pre-schooler.  That's a whole lot.

Perhaps the only documented picture of Ryan with his eyes open when someone else's aren't.

Friday morning was July the 4th and we decided to start it off like any good Americans- at Cracker Barrel.  Some choose to get tattoos of bald eagles- we choose to eat our body weight in bacon, pancakes, flaky biscuits and other breakfast goodies.  The love of America is a many-splendored thing.

Hmmm?  Were you saying something, Dad?  I was just thinking about biscuits.

Yeah, yeah.  You guys keep trying to distract me with these checkers but how can I focus when I know the eggs are juuuuust inside those doors?  (You may think I'm exaggerating but this kid looooooves herself some breakfast.  "Mo," "mo," "mo!" is about all that she says once she hits the seat.)

Our little business professional getting some last minute work in on her puppy laptop.

After breakfast, we hit the road for Conroe to go play with Nonnie, Grampa, the Herndons, Rachel, Morgan & Uncle Matt.  Per usual, I got way too relaxed hanging out with everyone and forgot to take pictures.  Also because it's been many moons and pregnancy brain ago- I can't even recall exactly what all we did.  If it helps you to feel like all my posts don't all sound the same, we'll pretend that we slayed dragons and had deep discussions on how to end world hunger.  It's more likely that we ate too much, drank too much and laughed way too much though, but hey- I aim to please around here.

Her face foreshadows exactly how successful putting her in that float will be.  It lasted 5 seconds.  If America is free, she wanted to be too.

Dad, that shark looks a lot like Grampa.

It was BYOB in the pool this weekend, clearly.

My amazing Mama made me my very own pitcher of virgin margs.  I hope I'm half as incredible to my daughters as she is to us.

Thank you muchly to all who participated in the making of another fantastic birthday for our great nation.  I look forward to many, many more!

Welcome back 20's: The Sequel

Well sports fans, clearly I'm behind in getting these bad boys posted, but I promised equality and equality I will deliver!  Let's hope that I can remember how I was feeling and what I accomplished in each of these 4 week chunks of time.  (For those of you who like comparisons, or just want to see how much bigger I am the second time around, check out the same post for my first pregnancy here.)

During this pregnancy, it wasn't QUITE so recently that I kissed my 20's good-bye as in my previous one, but none-the-less I got to relive being in them starting on Monday June 30th.  For the most part with baby Bucket I felt similar-ish to with Emery.  I still felt pretty sick my whole first trimester.  The difference was that with Emery I would feel sick, hurl and then gain some temporary reprieve.  With sweet baby Bucket I just felt terrible (read: world's worst hangover) all day but I rarely actually yacked.  I think I racked up a total vom count of 3 in the first trimester which was a significant improvement over the first go 'round.  Luckily this all straightened itself out around 14 weeks which is about when it did for Emery as well.

I remember with Emery the second trimester was like the heavens opened up, organs played and angels shined down on me.  The entire world was awesome.  This time around I would say all of that happened but like at 50%.  I was, and still am, far more tired than I was previously.  I have a sneaking suspicion this may have to do with trying to care for a very busy toddler at the same time as growing another diva, but who can say for sure?

19 Weeks & 3 days.  Can you spot the photobombers?

20 Weeks.  *sigh* RIP iPhone 5.

Let's see- what else?  We had our anatomy scan done at 19 weeks on June 24th.  We were blessed to find out that baby girl was measuring and growing right on track.  Bucket's heartbeat has typically been just a hair below where Emery's was at most appointments.  For instance Emery's first documented heartbeat was about 153, I believe.  Bucket's was 145.  They've continued to be about that far apart at each appointment.  I like to think this is because you're the laid back one, little missy.  (Haaaaa- Mama's hilarious.)

I definitely started feeling this sweet princess kicking around 18 weeks and she hasn't stopped.  I remember not thinking that Emery was a super active one until later in pregnancy but Bucket has been leading some jazzercise classes in there.  This does not bode well for my aforementioned theory that she's more laid back.

Oh, another thing that doesn't gel with my theory that she's laid back?  That at her anatomy scan, the ultrasound tech kept trying to get us a good face shot and Bucket kept her arms squarely in front of her face in an "x" the entire time, completely ignoring all poking, prodding and shaking to the contrary.  Is it possible that they both got my stubborn streak?  Heaven help us.

My precious lovey!  Note hand position.  No paparazzi, please.

Also at this point in pregnancy baby Bucket had already accumulated 2 stamps on her passport- 1 to Finland with Mama for work at around 16 weeks and 1 to the Dominican Republic for Aunt Julie's wedding at 17 weeks.  In case you are wondering- she absolutely did not like traveling.  The smell of the tiny plane bathrooms inspired her to remind Mama of her existence via puke near-misses.  Point taken little one- we'll try to hold off on travel until you're like... 15.  

That's about all I can think of to share for the first installment of my monthly pregnancy posts.  At this point in pregnancy Mama was still craaaaaaazy busy at work, so no progress was made on names, nursery ideas or even Zulily-purchasing.  I know this is shocking for everyone who is reading this.  Don't worry though- I've made up for it later on.  ;c)

As always- thank you to everyone for all of your love and support with this second pregnancy.  It's certainly been a bit more difficult than the first with all the extracurriculars we were juggling and we absolutely couldn't do it without you.  That tiny little doodle bug has no idea just how blessed she already is!

Julie's Wedding - The Outakes

Okay, and now to round out your Herndon wedding tour, I bring to you all the things that didn't fit into the other two posts.  So basically this will be a montage of the well-mannered and sharply-dressed people you have seen in the previous posts behaving slightly less well-mannered and looking much more scantily clad in most cases.  Sound exciting?  It was.

What did we do with our in-between events time, you may be asking?  Oh, you know.  We admired the scenery.

It's like a postcard.  Only it was real life.

Mmmm... reminds me of Galveston.  Right?!

This is what the beach looks like from a boat.

This is what a beach looks like from a different angle on a boat.

We lounged at the pool or by the beach.

This is the adult pool where my family could be found 95% of the time.  Also a group of drunken cougars from Tennessee could be found here about 95% of the time.  No correlation.

Sunscreen in one hand & beer in the other.  Double-fisting island style.

I have no doubt that Aunt Jean was imparting priceless wisdom upon these kids.

We wandered around the resort aimlessly trying to find one another.

... and we looked good doing it?

Seriously.  We wandered around a lot.

We ate a lot.

Perhaps this heading should also mention that we drank a lot.

I couldn't drink a lot.  I requested decaf coffee.  I did not realize it would be a DIY situation but it was.  Apparently no one has requested that since 1971 because I am fairly certain this tub they brought me was hanging around since then.

Mom & Dad having a wild night out.

John & Aunt Jean getting their grub on.

More evidence that my Dad's goal was to stand on every possible surface of the resort to take group photographs.  Also, a bunch of hotties.

My Mom's stellar friends, the Luchts & Mrs. Howarth.

It looks like Brendan is trying to discipline these children.  Good luck, sir.

We tried to babysit our husbands.

Small flotation belt?  Not enough support for this "man" (see below).  Essentially styrofoam, unstructually-sound horse?  Sure- game on.

Pesos make $100 look like a lot more.

A few of the men in the family, both my Mom's side and Dad's side, were brave enough to do a deep-sea fishing excursion.  Of the crew a fair number had done it before and a fair number hadn't.  Two newbies experienced vom sessions and probably won't become seasoned deep-sea fishing veterans as a result.  However, the group did manage to catch a really big marlin.  So I think the vast majority would chalk the excursion up as a W.

View of the beach from the boat.

Deadliest catch has nothing on this motley crew.

And then, my friends, we decided to take an excursion.  Jen, Shawna & I decided on day 1 while our other halves were golfing to go look into what adventures we could sign up for.  Apparently if you are with child there's only one excursion deemed safe enough for you.  Luckily said excursion was one we were considering in the first place, so I don't think that Shawna & Jen are too angry with me.  The excursion that we settled on defaulted to was one where you go out on a boat, snorkel for a bit, swim with stingrays and sharks and then end your trip with a cool down in the water complete with a "floating bar."  We thought surely the boys would be amiable to this and asked them to meet us in the excursion office to book our tickets as golf wrapped up.  

The three of them wandered in and immediately Austin and Ryan turned into terrified school girls.  Austin kept asking us if we had heard what happened to Steve Irwin.  Ryan peppered the lady with questions about the sting rays and sharks including, but not limited to, "do the sharks have teeth," and "have you removed the sting rays' wieners?"  Brendan was definitely husband of the hour.

As the excursion lady laughed and Shawna and I questioned our life choices to date, eventually the men somehow came around.  Probably because Jen kept telling them they needed to get their lady bits in check and come "protect Amy and her unborn child."  So we paid the lady and promised to arrive at 8 am on Friday morning.

At 8 am on Friday morning, we all met at the agreed upon location and Austin had already bailed.  Stingrays/sharks - 1, Excursioners- 0.  Undeterred, the 5 of us set out on this excursion amped up to see some wildlife.  Ryan had his party hat on which I can only assume is the one thing that kept him calm.  

Things went swimmingly (see what I did there?) until we all hit the water to snorkel.  I have snorkeled before, but somehow each time my anxiety when I hit the water ratchets up just a bit higher.  I eventually mellowed out, caught up with Jen, Brendan and Shawna only to realize that Ryan was not around.  We all seemed to realize this at the same time.  So we turned around to locate him and spotted him, several yards behind the whole group, snorkel gear on head yelling, "I HATE the ocean.  This is miserable.  Where are the sharks?  Tell them to take me now."  This moment answered the long-standing question of where Emery inherited her flair for the dramatic from.  He went on to spew off borderline incoherent statements about how the life-jacket belt "was made for people like Shawna," and "wasn't ready for a 200 pound MAN."  (This is my real life guys.)

Luckily he managed to dig down deep within his soul and propel himself along to catch up with the rest of us- including his pregnant wife.  It's a real survival story, I tell you.  Once in the area with the stingrays and sharks he found himself outraged that the stingers were not removed and that they were definitely "real sharks."  He also refused to touch the stingray claiming that it "looked like a dinosaur."

Despite Ryan's Mariah Carey-esque moments, we all made it back to the boat un-maimed.  Thankfully then we all got to relax and enjoy something much more his highness' speed- drinking and hanging out in the water.  All in all, it was actually an awesome excursion and I'm glad that we did it.  Mad props to Shawna and Jen for being the instigators.  Also, don't believe Ryan when he tries to tell you his survival tales from Punta Cana.  

Nothing scares off wild-life like a little pre-snorkel flexing.

3/4ths of the Martin fam.

Take another one Brendan- take another one!

My fellow stingray survivalists.

Snorkel gear: making people look hot since... whenever it was invented.

The girls.

Jendan.  The one true man who adventured with us.

The official excursion photographer loved Shawna.  He took about 50 pictures of her.

Our devilishly handsome crew sporting some JT-esque dance moves.

The gang meets a dinosaur.

Last, but certainly not least, I would be remiss if I didn't fill you in on what Miss Emery was doing while her parents were galavanting about in paradise, wouldn't I?  Emery was originally supposed to go with us and due to a mosquito virus we found out about last minute, she stayed home with a combination of Aunt Melanie, Uncle Jonathan, Jakey & Avery and her Grandma & Pawpaw Martin.  As luck would have it, while we were gone she also came down with a respiratory infection and an ear infection.  Aunt Melanie was a superstar and took her to the pediatrician and managed to ignore the looks she was getting for having a 15 month old and nearly 5 month old.  We are eternally grateful to all parties for taking such good care of baby girl so that we didn't have any added stress.  It was comforting to know she was in such good hands, even though we missed this little love bug terribly.  You guys are the BEST!

We skyped with our confused Princess.

Aunt Melanie, are you SUUUURE my parents have to come back?  Your house is way more fun.

Sooooomewhere out theeeeeere.

Getting her spa treatment on at Grandma & Pawpaw's.

Hard to say whether we were more relaxed or she was during this vacation.

Just having a deep conversation with Lola & Grandma.