October

October was a busy month. Grandma came to visit which is always so much fun. Everett couldn't get enough of nana. They played none stop. First thing every morning he wanted nothing to do with me and would run straight to her room and wouldn't leave her side all day long. Stephen and I were able to go on a mini vacation for a couple nights and had the best time. Everett has been so much fun lately. He says the cutest things. I have been caving lately and letting him watch movies. I can rest or get so much done while he watches his hour show. No wonder some moms let their kids watch tv all day. I will usually let him watch little baby bum or trolls. Except that lately his new obsession is the movie cars and little baby bum. It really is so adorable how happy he gets when his favorite show is on.

Baby Peirce: First Trimester

August 2: Today we found out we are going to be blessed with another baby. What an exciting and shocking day it has been. I couldn't sleep at all last night because I just had this feeling that I was pregnant. We have a box of about 50 test strips because when you try for 11 months with negative after negative you resort to buying in bulk because it is so cheap. Stephen and I had given up trying until I could go to the doctor and figure out what was up because its not that I just wasn't getting pregnant. I wasn't having many periods either. I decided two days ago that what the heck I would just take a few more tests just to see. If I squinted a lot I could barely imagine a second red line showing up on the test but I knew I was just trying to convince myself of it. So I took those cheap little tests for two days and then thought I need the real thing.

So this morning I went to the store and bought the nicest test they make. After seeing so many negative tests you try your hardest to not get excited or hopeful. Then I looked at the test and it said pregnant! I was in shock for a good long while. Very similar to my experience after finding out we were pregnant with Everett. 

I immediately pulled out Everett's big brother shirt that I had bought a year earlier. Luckily I bought it like two sizes too big so it still fit him. Poor Stephen had just finished 3 weeks of night shifts and was dead tired asleep on the couch. I gave Everett the test and told him to go give it to dad and show him his new shirt. Stephen was as shocked and surprised as I was. A couple days later and we still aren't sure if we believe it but as that day went on Stephen and I had already started talking plans for our sweet new baby and celebrated by eating out as a family. I have a doctor's appointment in two weeks that I scheduled a month ago to talk about options in helping us get pregnant. Instead we may be getting our first look at baby!

August 14: Today was our first ultrasound and doctors appointment. I absolutely love my doctor. Her name is Dr. Fisher and at first seemed a bit intimidating until she started talking to us. She is incredible and I feel so blessed to have found such a great doctor. She suggested an ultrasound to get an accurate due date. Baby measured at 6 weeks 2 days old meaning my due date is April 7th! If this baby is anything like Everett though we will expect due date to be sometime at the end of March. It was so incredible seeing its little heartbeat. The ultrasound tech told me that if I had been in there a few days earlier it probably would have been too soon to see a heartbeat. My next appointment is in four weeks.

September 11: Today was a very special day. Stephen and I were both able to listen to babies little heartbeat for the first time. It was such an amazing thing. The little heartbeat was going so fast. 175 bpm. I have been feeling oh so sick the last four weeks, especially at night all night. As long as I have food in me I feel a little better. Which means I have done nothing but eat non stop. And I had forgotten just how exhausting it is to make a human. Especially while taking care of a two year old. It has been so fun though. I wouldn't change any of it. 

October 10: I am writing about this doctors appointment about two weeks late but this was my last appointment in my first trimester! It was a short visit and babies heart was still sounding good at 160 bpm. We scheduled the gender ultrasound!

Halloween

I always have these intentions to go all out for Holidays and make them super special and meaningful. Like pinterest style my whole life. But it rarely happens. Still we had a great Halloween this year. We had a Halloween party at our gym which was so much fun! Everett loved it. We went to one pumpkin patch which was a little bit disappointing compared to the huge one we went to in Atlanta but it was fun in its own small town feel kind of way. The pumpkins there were pretty awesome looking. The pumpkins we actually ended up carving were $2 at Aldi. That is a win for me. We couldn't pass up trick or treating at publix. It is our favorite grocery store and last year in Atlanta they had treats and games for the kids on Halloween. So we checked it out here because a publix just opened up in town a few months ago. It was so fun for Everett. We went to our ward trunk or treat and then to a Halloween party the next town over was having at the police station. Police officers were handing out candy from their cars, they had bouncy houses and games, free hot dogs, chips, and drinks, and caramel apples. It will definitely be our Halloween tradition while living here. We even made it home in time to pass out some candy to trick or treaters.

Potty Training

Potty training has been quite the little adventure. Everett did so well the week we decided to put away the diapers. He had hardly any accidents and would poop and pee in the toilet. I very quickly realized that he was potty trained because I was trained to take him every so often. When left up to Everett he would never tell me if he needs to go. So after about a week the frustrations started kicking in. And Everett decided he wasn't so happy about the potty anymore. After day four of him pooping his pants and me needing to give him a bath to clean it all up we had both about had it. The final straw was when he was hiding behind the Christmas tree crying because he needed to poop but didn't want to go because he didn't want to have to in the potty. He had a pull up on so I finally convinced him to just go in his pull up and he held on to me crying the whole time he went. It about broke my heart.
So we are putting a hold on potty training for now. Even though all of the advice out there is to not give up. We still talk about it all the time and after our trip to Utah we will casually get back into it. But until he decides he wants to let me know when he needs to go I don't want to battle him. He needs to be potty trained by the time he starts preschool next fall. So we have plenty of time. I am trying to keep the potty a positive thing and the only way to do that is to put a pause on the whole thing.
He sure does look adorable in his big boy underwear though!

Outer Banks

Spending two nights away just the two of us was fantastic! After wondering where to stay for a couple nights that was decently close we decided on the outer banks. We had only one thing in mind when planning the trip. That was to relax! It ended up raining the entire trip until about the last 30 minutes before heading back home. We didn't mind though. We still had plenty of walks on the beach and ate seafood for every meal. It was a short and sweet trip for us and maybe the last one we take before baby comes. We had such a great time!