Babymoon

When I was pregnant with Caleb, Brad and I took a "babymoon". We had such a great time, and we decided then that we'd have to do it again if we ever had more kids.

Our first babymoon was to PGA National Resort in Florida. Brad played several rounds of golf, while I relaxed by/in the pool. It was perfect for us both. But now that we're not DINKS (dual income, no kids), we decided to go for a more budget-friendly option this time around. We found a nice Groupon deal for the Omni Barton Creek Resort in southwest Austin. The weather turned out colder than we hoped, but we still had a nice time. We went to TopGolf one morning (we're going to get one less than a mile from our house next spring!), did some shopping, watched a movie (Interstellar), played golf at one of the resort courses (Brad), went on a nature hike/walk, went to bed early, slept late, and ate some great food. Before the trip, I asked some friends for restaurant recommendations. I had quite a list of places to try, but then our schedule and my pregnancy cravings didn't really line up with the recommendations we were given. We ended up searching online for restaurant reviews at the last minute for several of our meals. If you're heading to Austin soon, here are a few of our favorites!

Magnolia Cafe
We went to Magnolia (the Lake Austin Blvd location) for breakfast one morning. It must be a pretty popular place. There isn't much parking, and what parking is there is hard to come by. We got lucky and a spot opened up just as we were arriving. The wait wasn't too long, and the food was excellent. We heard that they're famous for their gingerbread pancakes. They were good, but Brad and I both preferred the whole-wheat pancakes. Brad had an omelette, and I had something called the Eggscape. They were both excellent!

Salt Lick
This was the only friend-recommended restaurant that we made it to. It was a bit of a drive, but it was so worth it! We went to the one in Driftwood, TX, which is their original location. Brad ordered The Rancher (brisket, pork ribs, sausage, turkey, cole slaw, potato salad, and beans), and I ordered the turkey sandwich. We shared everything. Our favorites were the turkey and sausage. The BBQ sauces were a little different than what I'm used to in north Texas and central Oklahoma (BBQ and the sauces vary so much around the country), but they were still very good.

Marye's Gourmet Pizza
We picked this place, because it was only a few miles from our hotel... and this pregnant mama was really in the mood for pizza that particular evening. It had good reviews online, and we were pleased. It's a very small restaurant in an unassuming shopping center. The ingredients were so fresh... most of their produce is sourced from local farms! Brad and I both got salads and split a pizza.

24 Month Recap

Well, this post is more than two weeks late... but better late than never, right?  

Weight: 22 lbs, 8 oz

Length: 30.5"

Clothing size: Mostly 18 month, but he does wear a few 24 month shirts. He still wears size 3 infant shoes, and he wears size 4 with his SureSteps.

Diaper size: size 4

Eating: Some of Caleb's favorite foods are blueberry pancakes, raisins, string cheese, mac & cheese, mandarin oranges, grilled cheese sandwiches, pizza, Goldfish crackers, Teddy Grahams, and Annies Bunnies crackers. Caleb drinks all of his milk with the Talk Tools Straw #1 and Take & Toss straw cups. He drinks water from Munchkin Click Lock Insulated Straw Cups

Sleeping: Caleb goes to sleep around 8:00pm and wakes up around 7:00am. He usually takes one nap in the early afternoon. He usually sleeps about 1.5-2 hours. 

His days: Caleb still goes to Mother's Day Out three times each week. He also does several hours of speech, occupational, and physical therapies each week. 

Highlights of the last three months: Caleb is crawling, pulling up, and cruising! He walks while holding onto our hands and occasionally while holding on to a push toy. He says about 25 words (some don't sound quite recognizable to others, but Brad and I know what he's saying), and he signs about 30 words! 

Caleb has twelve teeth now. The only ones he's missing are his four canines and his four two-year molars.

And here are Caleb's final white onesie chair pics...

Caleb's Second Birthday

We celebrated Caleb's second birthday with family and friends on Saturday, October 25th. 

Before his party, we attended a NICU reunion and Halloween party at the hospital where Caleb spent his first ten days. We saw our favorite nurse and also one of Caleb's NICU buddies. He and his family live about 1.5 hours from OKC, so we haven't seen them since Caleb was discharged. It was great to visit with his parents and see our boys together two years later.

On his actual birthday (Sunday, October 26th), he woke to a crib full of balloons (we did this for his first birthday too). We went to church that morning and spent the afternoon/evening at home playing with his new toys and reading his new books.

Fetal Echo and a Fun Day with Caleb

Today was a rare day of no therapy appointments for Caleb! We couldn't get so lucky as to not have any appointments, but nothing scheduled for Caleb was nice! We started the day off at my perinatologist's office. Because Caleb was born with a congenital heart defect, my doctor wanted to do a fetal echo to check baby brother's heart. Caleb's CHD was fairly common among kids who have Down syndrome. And since we know that baby brother does not have Down syndrome, we were pretty confident that it would be fine. The echo confirmed that his heart is great. The rest of the appointment consisted of a detailed ultrasound. Baby already weighs 1 pound, 12 ounces! Because of my hospital visit and the "low-lying placenta" issue a few weeks ago, they took an extra careful look at that today. My placenta position is good and does not appear to be low-lying at this time. Wonderful news! The doctor did say, though, that she doesn't think I should resume my running routine (just to play it safe), but walking will be fine.

After my appointment, Caleb and I went to a local nature park to burn off some energy before lunch and nap time. And then after Caleb's nap, we braved the crazy fall break crowd at the zoo for a couple hours.

Down Syndrome Festival & 5k

Yesterday morning, we attended the Down Syndrome Festival and 5k in downtown OKC. Brad, along with several of our family and friends, did the 5k. Since I'm still not cleared by my doctor to resume running, Caleb and I joined everyone a little later for the awareness walk and festival. Team Caleb raised over $3600 for the Down Syndrome Association of Central Oklahoma! We surpassed last year's total by $700! Thanks to everyone who donated!

Brad and some of his co-workers after the 5k

One of Brad's college friends got 2nd place in his division! Nice job, Matt!

Having fun in the playroom. The clinic where Caleb does OT volunteers in and supplies all the toys/activities for this room every year!

Caleb liked the two-week old goats at the petting zoo.

He wasn't feeling 100% (teething, I think), but we still had a wonderful time. 

20 weeks

Sunday marked 20 weeks (hopefully about halfway) into my pregnancy... and this is how I "celebrated". 

2.5 hours of observation at the hospital on Sunday afternoon/evening. Baby and I are both doing great, but apparently I have a "low-lying" placenta that caused some bleeding. My OB is hopeful that the issue will resolve itself in the next few weeks and not lead to a diagnosis of placenta previa. For now, I have to take a break from running (and any other exercise for that matter). Our main prayer request right now is that the placenta moves up and doesn't cause any other issues. "Stephanie's placenta"... yes, weird prayer request... but still a very real prayer request. Thanks, friends. 

By the way, here's my 20 week baby bump photo... taken before the hospital drama. 

Goodbye Summer

Several cold fronts have been coming in over the last few days. While not officially fall for another week and a half, it certainly feels like it today. 

Even though Caleb's not in "real" school yet, the new school year brings lots of changes for us. Several of his therapists are either parents (so their schedules change to accommodate their own kids) or they work part-time in the schools. It's always crazy trying to piece together Caleb's schedule into something that works for us. What we've got going now seems pretty good, though we did have to give up some fun stuff like story time at the library. I'm still working part-time while Caleb goes to Mother's Day Out on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Caleb does speech therapy first thing on Monday mornings, before we go to work and MDO. On Tuesdays, Caleb has PT and OT. We also try to run errands or go to the park on Tuesdays. On Thursdays, Caleb does PT in the morning and then we head to the church so that I can participate in a Bible study. Caleb gets to play with his friends in the nursery while I take a couple hours to study and fellowship with other young moms at my church. Our Thursday afternoons look different from week to week. Sometimes we have an extra session of PT or speech, and sometimes we just enjoy some play time at home. Now that the weather is cooling down, I'm hoping that Thursdays (after nap) will be a good opportunity to go to the zoo.

Brad and I have talked about how we'll have to take a serious look at Caleb's busy therapy schedule (and therefore my busy schedule) as we get closer to Baby #2's arrival. I don't want to cut back on any of the things we're doing, but I know that we will probably need to. Caleb is in what we've been calling a " developmental explosion" lately. For now, I'm going to focus on all the exciting new things he's doing/saying each day, and we'll figure out the rest as we go. 

As for other changes...

Baby #2 is growing and making his presence known. The baby bump is starting to become noticeable to more people than just me. Brad got my maternity clothes out of the attic a few days ago, and I plan to get them washed and ready to wear sometime within the next few weeks. The baby is moving around a lot, and I feel him a little more each day. If this little guy is anything like his older brother, he will soon figure out that it's "fun" to get really active or have hiccups right as I'm ready to go to sleep. 

And my younger brother is gone for at least a year. We spent this past weekend with him in Texas and took him to the airport on Sunday. After a month of training, he will head to east Africa with the Navy Reserve. We're sad to see him go (even though he's excited about it!) and can't wait for his return sometime next fall.