Baby Update

So much has been going on in the baby department!  John Parker is 13 months old today and tomorrow I will be 22 weeks with Baby Boy number two!

JP has been so much fun - a few weeks ago we took him for his one year well check and found out he is 24 pounds (87th%), 31 1/2 inches (94th%), and his head circumference is right around the 75th%.  It's hard to believe my little 6 pound baby I brought home from the hospital is now almost 25 pounds!  He loves to play outside, and we have been especially grateful for the AWESOME warm weather we have had - he will play for hours outside and never want to come in!  He's talking a lot and is learning so much every day.  His eating has gotten a little pickier, but we are working on introducing veggies and fruits daily - even the ones he spits out!

At his one year visit, we found out he has some small discolored spots on his front two teeth that look like precursors to decay :(  I felt horrible because I have been soooo careful about making sure he doesn't eat sweets, he's never had anything like soda or tea to drink, we were only giving him one sippy cup of 1/2 juice, 1/2 water per day in addition to his milk, and he never has gone to bed with a bottle - I felt like I had avoided all the "no-no's", and I was totally shocked.  We took him to a pediatric dentist, and they told me to completely cut out the juice and to make sure he only drinks milk at meal times versus sipping on it all day.  We also got a prescription strength fluoride gel to rub on his little teeth every night before bed.  We hope these spots don't turn into cavities, and we are being very diligent to follow all the suggestions of the dentist.  They assured me that it was most likely nothing we had done, but a condition of weakened enamel that probably developed in utero, before his teeth ever thought about breaking through. Other than that, he is healthy and happy!  He seems to have had a cold every month this winter, but luckily the most recent one DID NOT turn into an ear infection.  He's sleeping great lately, from 930pm - 830am and napping twice a day.

Oh, one more big accomplishment...  we took him off his bedtime bottle.  Right after he turned one, we decided to give it a try one night, so instead of feeding him his bottle, John sat with him in his rocker and read him a book (Llama, Llama, Red Pajama) and rocked him for a few minutes then put him down.  John had to sit by his crib for about 30 minutes that first night - John Parker didn't cry, just talked and "fussed" - but finally he fell asleep.  The second night, he went right to sleep but was up for over an hour in the middle of the night - we think he must have been thirsty or hungry - but we opted not to feed him for fear of starting a bad habit.  The third night, we fed him a yogurt before his bath and made sure he had plenty of water to drink, and since then he has been going right to sleep after the book and has been sleeping all night!  I hope we have that easy of a transition when we move in a few weeks, but I'm nervous that won't be the case!

He's in a size 6/7 shoe (HUGE feet!!!), 24 month clothes (could still wear 18 month probably but we bought the larger size for spring and summer and they fit great!), and size 4 diapers.

Here he is in his element - outside playing at the park!

Now, for baby number two...
I had my anatomy ultrasound earlier this week (at 21 weeks, 3 days) and we have a healthy baby boy on the way!  He measured pretty much on target, around 22 weeks for most of the measurements, and they told us he weighs 1 pound and 2 ounces!  He is moving around a lot - I started feeling movement around 16 1/2 weeks - but he doesn't seem to move and kick as much as John Parker did.  Maybe that means he will be a little more laid back??  Not that I don't love my busy little toddler, but two of them would equal a CRAZY mama!  I feel like I am showing a lot more than I did before too, but hopefully that will level off (Ha!) - I keep telling myself the bump was already stretched out and ready to grow this time and maybe it will slow down for a few weeks!  I'm not swelling (yet) and we are praying that it won't be as severe as the last pregnancy if I do begin to swell.  With John Parker, my swelling started at around 28 weeks, and I was consistently swollen at 31 weeks (and I mean SWOLLEN) so I am praying very hard that doesn't happen, especially with this summer heat coming on us already!  We finally decided on a name:
William Croy Branyon and we plan on calling him Liam.  William is of course after John's late father, and Croy is a twist on my dad's first name (Royce).  John jokes that it's a mixture of my dad's real name (Royce) and his lifelong nickname (Chuck) = Croy, but really it's just a "version" of Royce that I liked a little better.  So, baby Liam is growing and will be here before we know it!  I'll leave you with a few baby bump photos to show the progression from 13 weeks to now...

13 weeks

17 weeks

18 1/2 weeks

22 weeks