Baby Hillin #2 | 15 Weeks

How Far Along: 15 Weeks

Baby is the size of a(n): naval orange

Gender Predictions: Pretty much everyone thinks it’s a boy! I had my ultrasound this morning but all I know is the heart rate, which was 148. Our gender reveal is this weekend and we’ll be finding out with the rest of our family! I secretly hope it’s a girl, because duh, matching outfits. And for the shock factor, since everyone thinks it’s a boy. 😜

Weight Gain: 5 lbs at my last appt. I go back to the doctor this coming Monday, so we’ll see how much damage I did during Thanksgiving. 

Maternity Clothes: Definitely wearing some, but a lot of the styles now are loose and flowy so I’m still wearing a lot of non maternity shirts. Another note of difference this time, at this point with Whitlee I could barely squeeze into my jeans anymore and the hair tie trick was the only thing barely holding me in. This time, I can still wear quite a few pair. They’re tight, but still button all the way. But I basically live in my maternity leggings. 

Belly Button In or Out: In, but I have felt the shallowness coming. 

Wedding Rings On or Off: On

Sleep: Getting better! I usually have to pee 3 or 4 times between 9/10 and midnight but after that, I sleep through the night. I still have the occasional issue with being awake for an hour in the middle of the night. I did remember from my first pregnancy that if I don’t nap during the day I sleep better at night, so I cut the naps and that helped. 

Best Moment The Last Few Weeks: feeling and seeing this little babe squirm around in there and Whitlee’s second birthday party!

Miss Anything: Beer. I could go for an ice cold Corona these days. 

Movement: I don’t think this baby is quite as active as Whitlee. That or I’m too busy with Whitlee to sit and notice just yet. I’m sure when the big kicks happen I’ll start noticing it a lot more. But today has been a super active day in there! 

Cravings/Aversions: Craving pickle juice, cake, grapes, cheddar cheese, McDonald’s chicken nuggets, potatoes of any kind, and steak…like charbroiled steak, yum! Not really any strong aversions right now thankfully. 

Symptoms: Whew, I think the SPD has set in super early this time. I had it with Whitlee, but not this early. Having some minor round ligament pain and occasional increased heart pvcs. Oh and still starving all the time. I feel like this child steals all my food! 

Additional Notes: Im pretty sure we’ve decided on a name either way! We’ll be announcing it at the gender reveal party, once we find out if it’s a boy or girl. I have little signs made up for each one so we can take a picture announcing the name like we did with Whitlee. I know nobody means anything by it but it seemed like if we ever say “oh we’re thinking about this name or that name”, we’d always end up in a discussion about a dozen other names and we’d end up second guessing the name we picked. So with Whitlee, we nailed down a name the night before the ultrasound and then announced it solidly at the party. No debating. 😊 I will say that like Whitlee, this baby will have a more rare-ish first name and a family middle name. 

On another note, I still can’t believe I got my husband to agree to find out with everyone else. He said if it’s a boy, he literally might do a little dance. And if you know my husband, he’s not a guy who displays any type of extreme emotions like that. I’m sure it will be entertaining either way! I’ll try to get a post up and a video Sunday night after the party. But if you follow me on Instagram, it’ll be there first! @jaimehillin 

Whitlee | Two Years

Where in the world has time gone? How do we have a T W O year old?? Our baby girl just blew through her second birthday and left her poor momma over here in the dust, wondering where my tiny baby went. But here we are.. a two year update. Our Whitlee is ALL girl. She loves skirts and bows, sometimes wearing multiple tutus at one time. She loves her tea sets and giving people “haircuts”.  She is the sweetest, snuggliest little girl and is so quick to brighten someone’s day. She tells everyone in the store “hi!” and gives hugs and kisses so freely to be people she loves, sometimes 100% unprompted, and I swear my heart just explodes. My favorite is when she grabs your face and plants one on you unexpectedly. She insists that we’re having a baby sister and most recently, boy or girl, we’re naming the baby “Tick Tock”. I’ll have to remember to put that in the baby’s book. 😊 

Our girl is a major talker; she got that one honest. But we are forever amazed at the phrases she says and the stuff she picks up and unfortunately some of the stuff she repeats. She likes to say “me go?” and “let Maggie out!” and the other day “Maggie don’t get me no more” complete with a finger pointing, bossing the dog. She’s actually pretty bossy sometimes and has a little bit of attitude, sometimes telling me “okaaayyy, maaamaaa” , and I swear she’s 16 already. But then she says “I love you!” and all is well. 

Stats: We go for her two year appointment next week but we were just at the doctor earlier this week and she was 22 lbs and 33 inches tall. Those measurements put her in the less than 5 percentile on weight but in the 25th for height. Still a little skinny, but looking like she’s taking after her daddy. He’s tall and thin too.

Eating: Food is still sometimes a struggle. It comes and goes a lot and she’ll eat everything in the house one day and then won’t hardly eat anything at all the next. When she does eat, she’s fully feeding herself, using utensils pretty darn well for the most part. She can even eat cereal with milk, mostly without spilling. She’s a big snacker, like her momma. I can always tell when she’s had a lot of snacks, because she won’t touch her next meal, so we try to keep the snacks down to a few a day. When I noticed her weight was slowing down, that preemie mom anxiety got me a little again and I started making her eat the yogurt squeezers on top of whatever meal we were eating at the time. It helped though; she gained a few lbs in the month or so after that.

Food Likes: Still loves macaroni and cheese and is very picky about the brand. She will only eat Velveeta Shells and Cheese. No other kinds will do. Also loves chips, chicken, grapes, olives (green and black), sausage, waffles, cheese, black eyed peas, and oranges. I think her absolute favorite right now is pizza. 

Food Dislikes: She still won’t do mashed potatoes, really potatoes of any kind except french fries and doesn’t like eggs or baked beans. She also doesn’t care much for any drinks other than milk. Happy about that one, though! Occasionally she asks for water. 

Sleep: She does really well sleeping in her crib all night, usually sleeping 12 hours. She takes one nap, about mid day that lasts about an hour and a half up to two hours, and randomly a super long one at closer to three hours. We just bought her a twin size bed and will hopefully be transitioning to that sometime after the new year. I’m a little nervous for that! 

Milestones:

-She has a full set of teeth all the way up to the first set of molars, and the next set are about to break through the skin. Those canine teeth were R O U G H. 

-Talking in full sentences now, usually 3-5 words. 

-We’re smack dab in the middle of potty training. She can go all day 100% with no accidents, IF I let her go naked. Panties are still a struggle.

-sings several songs with shocking accuracy, including “Hello” by Adele, Do You Want to Build a Snowman, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, and Jingle Bells

Likes:


-Movies – favorites are Finding Nemo, Minions, Frozen, and How the Grinch stole Christmas 

-Baby dolls and taking care of them – she got a baby stroller, high chair, and bed for her birthday and she’s been obsessed. 

-Bathtime, hates to get out and tells me “can’t get out, I’m fish.”

-Being outside

-Swimming

-Playing in the dirt

-Riding in her stroller

Dislikes:

-Being inside

-Being told no

-Bugs 

-Getting her nose wiped

We love you so much, little girl! We never knew what we were missing before you and as I’ve said a million times before, we are so thankful we get to be your parents. 

Old Wives Tales

  
I can’t believe is almost already that time! Our gender ultrasound is scheduled for November 30 (15 weeks) and our gender reveal party is the following Sunday, December 4. This time we are switching it up a bit though! With Whitlee, Nolan and I found out her gender at the ultrasound and then had a party to share it with our family and friends. This time, I’m going to the ultrasound solo, getting the ultrasound tech to put the results in an envelope, and we’ll be finding out the gender with everyone else. I’m so excited and anxious! 

I thought it would be fun to do the old wives tales again and let everyone reading vote again. So here they are!

Morning sickness? They say if you’re sick, it’s a girl and if not, it might be a boy. I was super sick with Whitlee and haven’t been anything close to that this time. BOY

Baby’s heartbeat? Supposedly a higher heartbeat means a girl and lower means boy. Whitlee’s was in the 160’s and this baby was 141 at my last appointment. BOY

Craving salty or sweet? Salty leans towards boy and sweets means girl. Most recently, I think my legitimate cravings have been sweet. I seriously ate a waffle with butter and powdered sugar the other night to satisfy a sudden craving for cake. GIRL

Graceful or clumsy? Graceful means a little girl and clumsy would be boy. I have been insanely clumsy, but I was with Whitlee too. This might just be a pregnancy thing for me! BOY

Chinese Calendar prediction – Chinese calendar predicts by the month baby was conceived and the age of the mom. I had Whitlee’s miscalculated last time, it actually said girl for her. This time – BOY 

Mayan calendar prediction – The mayans predict based on the age of the mom and the month conceived too but it calculates odds and evens based on that. Two evens or two odds are a girl, and opposite is a boy. It said girl with Whitlee. This time – GIRL

Is dad gaining weight too? Supposedly if the daddy to be is gaining weight with mom, it’s possible there’s a sweet little girl in there! Nolan seems to have been eating for two as well lately, so yes. GIRL

Hand test – a friend of mine told me this one. They said if you tell a pregnant woman to put both hands out without telling them why, and she places them out palms down, it’s a girl, and palms up, it’s a boy. We tested this on three people we knew were pregnant and knew what the baby was already and it was true! I put mine out palms up. BOY

Previous child’s age at conception – This one only works if previous kiddo is less than 2 years old. An ultrasound tech our family uses swears it’s never been wrong. She says if your previous child is an odd number months old when the second baby is conceived it’s the opposite sex, even months age, same sex. Whitlee was 21 months when we conceived #2. BOY

So once again, there are a lot of them pointing towards a boy, but to be fair, there were a lot saying boy with Whitlee, too. Two and a half weeks to go! 

And I’d love to know what everyone thinks this time. Last time I believe it was 100% girl guesses here on the blog. Post your guess in the comments! 

Baby Hillin #2 | 12 Weeks

  
How Far Along: 12 Weeks

Baby is the size of a(n): plum

Gender Predictions: Ha! Sometimes I think okay, there’s for sure a boy in there and other times I’m like, nope, gotta be another girl. I think I’m a little more focused on healthy and full term this time. Boy, girl, just give me 40 weeks! But! Our gender ultrasound is scheduled for 2 1/2 weeks from now and our gender reveal party is in 3 weeks.  

Weight Gain: 5 lbs.. doing a little better this time. I’ve discovered that basically with both pregnancies my belly bloats super big and super fast, so as soon as I find out I’m pregnant, there’s a “bump”. But then as bloat slowly turns to real bump my belly looks about the same for a little while. So it’s like whoa, there’s a belly, then it slowly chills out into the normal growth rate. Funny that my weight is a little different this time though. 

Maternity Clothes: Definitely wearing some, but a lot of the styles now are loose and flowy so I’m still wearing a lot of non maternity shirts. Another note of difference this time, at this point with Whitlee I could barely squeeze into my jeans anymore and the hair tie trick was the only thing barely holding me in. This time, I can still wear quite a few pair. They’re tight, but still button all the way. 

Belly Button In or Out: In, but I have felt the shallowness coming.

Wedding Rings On or Off: On

Sleep: Still so tired and still sleeping kind of crappy. We’ve all had colds the last week so I’ve had trouble breathing and Whitlee wakes up coughing once a night. I think we’re finally on the mend this week, though. 

Best Moment The Last Few Weeks: getting to hear baby’s heartbeat again at my 11 week appointment. Heart rate was 141!

Miss Anything: Nothing really, just trying to enjoy everything right now. It’s been so nice not being super nauseous this time. 

Movement: Sooo, I’ve read that you can feel a second baby much sooner sometimes and I felt the tiniest questionable flutter with Whitlee at 11 weeks so I knew it could be any time now. I really started feeling her flutters significantly about 12/13 weeks and then of course the big kicks much later. But over the the last week (11/12 weeks) I started feeling the familiar flutters in almost the exact same location as Whitlee. Just tiny little flutters for now but I guess I recognized them this time. So sweet! 

Cravings/Aversions: Craving sushi, broth like soups, potatoes, and the Chobani Flips in PB&J flavor. Not really any strong aversions right now, but some stuff just doesn’t taste right to me like cream cheese, cheesecake, and tacos. Also, if I see anything with a weird texture, I literally dry heave… soggy cereal is the. absolute. worst. 

Symptoms: Still the lightest mild nausea in the evenings, nothing like with Whitlee though. Lower backache, occasional increased heart pvcs, and holy mess I am s t a r v i n g all the time right now. 

Additional Notes: My blood pressure did start creeping up a couple of weeks ago into the borderline questionable range. My doctor and his NP both agree that it had to be something preexisting because preeclampsia is not likely to show this early. They started me on a low dose blood pressure medicine and it’s been perfect since then. I immediately asked if they thought this meant I would get preeclampsia again and they said “not necessarily”. They think they are two different things. I’ll still be praying that the pre-e stays at bay this time, though. 

Also, next post is coming before the gender reveal so I’ll be listing old wives tales and where we’re at this time and do another vote! For the record at the moment, Nolan thinks (hopes!) it’s a boy, I think it’s another girl, and Whitlee has changed her mind to a sister. Mom and Nanny think it’s a boy this time; they both predicted a girl last time. 

And! I’m not sure I’ve officially mentioned it but our family is growing exponentially! Nolan and his sister and their two cousins are very close, more like four siblings, so it’s basically like I have 3 sister in laws (but really just one sister in law and two cousin in laws). Well we found out shortly after we found out we were pregnant that one cousin’s wife is pregnant and due 3 days after me and last weekend the other cousin’s wife announced she is expecting too! Three Hillin babies due within two months! So exciting!

  

Happy Halloween!

This year I sort of let Whitlee pick her costume. I made a collage of four pictures of costumes I was thinking about and let her pick from the four. She picked Tinkerbell! 

  

I don’t know if you remember last years costume, but she was a kitty cat and I made her entire costume. And it lasted for all of about 10 minutes before she shed the tutu and the tail. She only kept the ears on. So this year, I happened to roll through the Halloween aisle at Walmart and a perfectly sized tinkerbell costume jumped out at me. 

  
So I went with mostly store bought this year but I did make her shoes myself. I took a pair of second hand Toms and glued green glitter all over, then hot glued little bells on white pom poms and hot glued them to her shoes. They were adorable! 

  

Here’s our crew of four (soon to be SIX!) – Supergirl, Jack Skellington, Tinkerbell and the tiniest baseball player. We did a hayride in my sister in laws pasture and the kids LOVED it! Whitlee has asked to go another hayride every day since. Holidays with kids are so much fun! Next year I’m hoping to at least coordinate my two (two!) and maybe coordinate with the others.