Pregnancy, with a toddler at home, is definitely crazy and draining at times.

But despite the more stress and irritability I feel (quite often!), I don't want to forget to mention all the GOOD that's been going on lately with Hunter.

This boy is growing like a WEED, I tell you! He is so freakin' hilarious and feisty and there are days I tell him "no" when he is doing something bad and give him a tap on the hiney, when the little stinker starts to laugh at me. LAUGH. And the worst part? I sometimes have to turn away so he doesn't see me laughing right along with him!

Hunter is definitely quite the chatterbox now. He says lots of words:

doggie

Tucker

baby

Mommy and Daddy

bubba (our nickname for him)

Nana

'Pa (for Gpa or Grandpa)

beans

hot dog

chips

banana (which sounds more like nana)
apple

grapes (he says "gapes")

milk
wa-wa (for water)

ball

cat

light (although it sounds more like "liiiiii")

wipes

buddy

Anthony (his best friend)

no

bye bye

hi

cup

spoon

fork

car

tree

done

belly (and he tries very hard to say belly button)

tea

hot

cookie

TV

remote (which he says "mote")

potty

pee-pee

tissue

duck

bath or tubby

dipe (for diaper)

cheese
down

balloon (which he says "boon")

binky

apple sauce

teeth

toothpaste

Oh man, there are so many more, but my brain just won't cooperate right now! He is not a pro yet with stringing words together but the pediatrician said she wasn't' worried about that yet.

Hunter eats (and has been for a while now) perfectly with a spoon and a fork and most of the time even uses our normal size silverware (and not the baby size). He HATES to have dirty hands and after eating a meal, he is more than eager for me to wipe his hands off...and he now will wipe his own hands if you give him a napkin/wash cloth.

He loves to throw things away in the garbage for him, especially his dirty diapers. Anything that goes in the garbage he calls "ca-ca". He is a HUGE helper to me...always wants to put clothes in the dirty laundry hamper or if I'm putting laundry from the washer to the dryer I hand the wet stuff to him so he can do it.

We used to have a VERY loud Keurig Coffee maker and the most hilarious thing happened...morning after morning of watching/listening to us make our coffee, Hunter finally started to call our coffee, "AAAAHHHHHHH" which is what the machine sounded like. So now, even though we have a MUCH quieter machine, he loves for us to make our "AAAAAHHHHH" in the morning.

The not-so-fun things?

1. He takes stuff OUT of the garbage. Hunter knows that our k-cups are for coffee so he often pulls them out of the garbage and runs proudly over to display them to me, Saying, "Aaaahhhhh?"

2. He has an obsession with anything he is NOT allowed to play with. Remote controls, cell phones, cameras, phones, radios, fax machine, etc.

3. Hunter throws MEGA, MEGA tantrums when he is reeeeally tired/hungry or can't have what he wants. I'm talking, banging his head on the hardwood floors or walls, and sometimes smacking himself in the face. Oh yes, my boy has quite the temper.

4. This crazy kid climbs on EVERYTHING. If I have to shower for work, I shut him in the big bathroom with me, now. I remember one particularly stressful day when I had to jump out of the shower THREE TIMES becuz Hunter was climbing on a box, garbage can, stool to pull stuff down off of the washing machine. He shoves whatever he can find up to a wall, so that he can climb it to reach light switches.

5. Hunter pulls stuff down off the counter tops constantly. Before it became a daily habit, and we didn't' really realize just how good of a reach he had, he had grabbed at a steak knife, a pair of scissors, a hot cup of tea/coffee...anything dangerous of course! Mommy had a a couple mini heart attacks each and every time and now we know to keep everything pushed FAR to the back of the counter tops.

Some other fun changes...he shows huge interest in when we go potty, but I haven't pushed for HIM to go potty yet. He sits on his own little potty fully dressed when he sees Mommy or Daddy on the big potty, and then we all cheer when he stands up. I have attempted to put him on without his diapers a few times, but he sits for a second and then bounds back up. One day he seemed particularly interested right before his bath, so all stripped down, I put him on his potty. Again, he sat for a few seconds then bounded up and started lifting up his potty seat and inspecting it, sat back down on it on his own (backwards, sideways) then stood back up. And then he squatted down to grab a roll of TP and peed all over Mommy's bathroom floor! Heh.I KNOW he doesn't like being in a dirty/wet diaper and either tries to pull off the wet one, or he'll bring me a diaper to change him, so I'm thinking it's only a matter of time before I really focus on potty-training.

Hunter is now in a "big boy bed"!! After many issues lately with sleeping (and his continual need to climb out of his crib), we put our spare full size mattress down on the carpeted floor and surrounded it with stuffed animals, blankets (in case he rolls out) and he has been sleeping in it on his own for like a week now. Before that, he slept in it a few times with his Daddy. Hunter is still waking up like once a night, but I'll TAKE that compared to the sometimes 3-4 times a night he was waking up, flinging himself all over his crib, banging his head against the crib rails, like he was doing.

And his buddy, Tucker, loves it during Hunter's nap time. ;-)

He loves to hum and sing in the car, if I put the radio on, he will be bopping along in his car seat, tapping his hand on his thigh, "singing" along to Pearl Jam or whatever else may be on that tickles his fancy. Makes a Mommy proud! Heh heh.

Oh, another hilarious thing Hunter has started doing? If he is in the bathroom with me while I go "pee pee on the potty", as soon as I stand up, he tries to help me pull my pants up for me! The first time he did it, I couldn't help but laugh!

He is a VERY affectionate boy who loves to give hugs and sometimes kisses. Whenever he sees a child, he wants to bear-hug him or her. He is very generous, always giving his books and toys to any house guests who come over to play. I hope he stays this way!

Oh lord, there is SO much more but a certain boy is making a huge mess of his apple sauce right now (he now has a fetish with playing with his food! ARGH!) so I'm off to clean it up....

I'm feeling very disappointed and irritable right now.

Around 6:15 PM last night, while driving home from work, I started to feel very uncomfortable. I had to pee so wasn't sure if it was just the intense pressure of the baby on my bladder but by the time I made it into the house, I started to wonder if i was having contractions.

While Daryl, Hunter and my Mom (who sleeps over on Monday nights, when she watches the baby at my house Monday and Tuesday) sat down to dinner, I hopped onto contraction master and started to time them. The pressure had intensified but it wasn't painful yet. However when timing them, they were coming like 3-4 minutes apart. So after about an hour and a half, I called and had the doctor paged.

My doctor was actually in the middle of performing a c-section so a Labor and Delivery nurse from the hospital called me back and told me to come in to get monitored. Around 8:00pm I was at the hospital and hooked up to the monitor and still contracting every 3-4 minutes, without fail. The L&D floor was an UTTER mob scene (preggos popping all over! LOL) so it was a little bit before my doctor came in to perform an internal on me. She told me I was now 2cm but cervix still long and thick. *SIGH*

Still hopeful at this point!

The contractions started to get painful and a bit stronger, however still only 3 minutes apart and THAT wasn't really changing. Around 10:15pm ish my doctor came in and disappointed me by saying that I wasn't really progressing and maybe should head on home. I admit, hearing that made me super anxious becuz with Hunter, despite the doctor/nurses saying it was going to take forever (due to being my 1st labor and that I was induced and on pitocin) labor started to progress REALLY quickly. Nine hours later, our boy was born! What if I drove all the way home and then suddenly they started coming fast and furious?

So, my doctor said she wanted to check me out one more time before we made decision and she reminded me that she couldn't really give me anything to speed up labor due to the fact that my cervix was not thinning out. But low and behold, I was now a "loose" 4cm (and she said she felt like she could even stretch me to a 5)! The sucky part? My cervix was STILL LONG AND THICK. So even though Avery had moved down a teeny tiny bit more, she was still not engaged.

By this time, the contractions were a tad more than mildly painful (but not unbearably so) and I was so confused cuz my doctor didn't seem convinced anything would happen. She asked if I could sleep through them and I said probably not, becuz I was too amped up and anxious over everything. So, after getting me into a room, they gave me some Ambien to sleep and said the nurse would check on me later. I ate a yogurt and some jello (cuz I hadn't really eaten dinner and was STARVING) and some juice then suddenly the Ambien began to take affect and I started to crash, HARD. By this time, the contractions had died down and were not painful, so I wasn't holding out much hope but still PRAYED silently to make some progress.

At 4:00am I woke up like someone had turned on a light switch and was wide awake. The nurse put me back on the monitor and unfortunately the contractions were now sporadic and not strong, at all. I did have a little bit of cervical mucus on the TP after peeing, but haven't seen any since then. After one more internal check (which the Doctor said I was now "tight" 4cm) they discharged me.

Talk about a TOTAL let down. :-(

I made Daryl take me right out to breakfast to drown my sorrows in french toast, eggs and bacon and then we were back home where I got some much-needed hugs from my Hunter. My Mom left a little while ago to go home and rest and do some laundry just in case by some miracle contractions picked back up. But I'm not feeling very hopeful at this point. They've died down a ton. I know we are not in a "rush" cuz technically I'm still early (37 weeks 3 days) but I am mentally and emotionally READY and after last night, I feel very let down! I was SO hoping to meet my girl much sooner than anticipated and now I feel like that's been taken away for who knows how long. Just bummed out this morning.