Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Getting closer and closer....

We are just days away from the third trimester, which is so hard for me to believe! This pregnancy has truly flown by... which is good and bad. The good = the baby will be here soon, we're so ready to expand our family, the "pregnancy crazies" will be over soon (aka - pregnancy brain... which has included me putting opened applesauce in the pantry versus back in the fridge... thank goodness Eric found it soon after, among other things!)... The bad = the movements in my belly will be gone, this could quite possibly be the last time I'm ever pregnant, and, we're going to be so busy so soon! We're trying to get things cleared out of the 4th bedroom to move Alli down there, and re-do the current nursery just a little. We won't be painting the nursery again... Eric thinks that at some point in the next few years, we'll eventually move baby M down the hall too, move our guest room back to where the nursery is now, and we'd just have to paint all over again.

So, with all that being said, as we get closer and closer, two of the best things happened in the past couple days! Yesterday, I took and passed my glucose test, so thankfully, there will be no worries about gestational diabetes and I can go back to eating my pretzel M&M's without too much concern :) And, the most special thing I think thus far with this pregnancy happened tonight while I was reading to Alli before bedtime. She was sitting on my lap, leaned against my side/belly while I read to her, and baby M was moving and grooving all over the place. The baby kicked Alli in the side, and she kind of jumped and looked up at me, with the most adorable questioning eyes, like, "what the heck was that!?" I talked to her about her baby sibling coming soon, and how they can't wait to meet her too. These moments are ones I'll never forget.

Monday, January 30, 2012

The stats are in

Alli had her 15 month doctor's appointment and shots today... she was such a sweetheart. And as you could tell from my previous post, she's somewhat known for her tantrums and meltdowns these days. She waved to everyone in the waiting room, "babbled" to some of the other kids in there, and tried to share her Cheerios with everyone. We got in to the room and they got her stats...

Weight: 22 lbs 2 oz (39th percentile)

Length: 31 and 1/2 inches (83rd percentile)

Head: 17.7 inches (24th percentile)

She was smiley and happy the whole time the doctor was in with her too. He checked her ears and said they were great (thank goodness, that's always a fear of mine when we get in there!), and everything else looks perfect. She still has a great appetite, he said she may become picky soon... and said she may start having tantrums soon (HA, check!). I talked to him about the upcoming baby's arrival... he said it's a great age for her to not really be effected by the arrival too much, but it will be interesting to see her "maternal acts" kick in, as he put it. He said she'll definitely probably try to hold the baby and "care for it" too, I can't wait to see her as a big sister.



So, her next visit, the 18 month check up and yes, more shots, is supposed to be around April 30th (ha... since our due date is April 29th...) but, Dr. Graham said we could always bring her for that visit when we come with baby for their visit too. Oh boy, I can see it now... just thinking of bringing her and a new baby to the doctor's office makes me nervous... we will be able to get through this... right??? :)

Friday, January 27, 2012

15 months

It's been a few months since I've done a "monthly" status update on Alli to let everyone know what she's up to. She's been keeping us busy, all the time, to say the least!! It's getting crazy to think that when she's around 18 months old, she'll have a younger sibling!! And every time she turns another month older, it's another month closer to her being a big sister. People keep asking how she is adjusting to it or if we've been telling her about it. We have and do talk a lot about the new baby coming, but she's really too young to understand.

She is so curious, inquisitive, and learning at such an incredible rate. She recently moved up to the toddler class at daycare, and I was in shock when I went to pick her up on Wednesday. They sleep on cots in this class instead of cribs, and they just look like such little grown ups! I went in on Wednesday, and she was the only one left still sleeping. There she was, on her little cot, in the middle of the room, lights on, with the other toddlers in the class running around, eating their snacks at the table, and chattering away. Our little snoozer slept right through it all.

She is getting more and more of a vocabulary too, although a lot of it is hard to understand and her own "babble language." But she's so firm when she does some of the babble talking, it's obvious she has some point she's trying to get across to us. When I bring her home from daycare each day, she says "nana, nana, nana!!!" as we walk in... and as we open the door, she points and leans toward the counter where the bananas are. Her old favorite used to be clementines, which she called "ball"... the girl loves her fruit. She says "ball" and throws her ball around the room, "Pooo" for her Pooh bear, "quack", "woof woof", "kawww" (for when a bird flies by), "nah", "yah", "tank tu", "uh oh", "up", "down", "done", "shoes", just to name a few that we can definitely differentiate from the random babbling.

Alli is great at a lot of things... but one she's definitely great at is throwing temper tantrums already. Already! I'm hoping this is just the terrible two's making their appearance early... but who knows, we may just be in for it with her. I always said, right when she was born and we found out she was a girl, I knew it was payback for how awful I was to my mom as a teenager. And here she is.... my payback! Ha! She gets so frustrated sometimes and just wants what she wants, it's impossible to reason with a 15 month old. Like Dad-E had mentioned in an earlier post, she loves watching Elmo videos on our phones. If she sees either of us even touching our phone, she runs up to us and quacks and jumps in our lap. She'll quack, and quack and quack until we play a video. We have been trying to cut back on it, so most times, we just turn our phones off and throw/hide them somewhere. She has a serious meltdown when this happens. Like, throw herself on the floor, crazy head, face down in the pillow/stuffed animal, and just cries. Really? You're going to be okay. I guess if that's the worst thing in her life these days, she doesn't really have it too bad. It's still quite dramatic... oh boy.

The Stats:
Weight: We'll know for sure after her 15 month check up this Monday, but, I'm going to guess about 23 lbs
Length: Again, we'll know for sure Monday, but, if I had to guess, 32 inches?
Head: Anxious to find out...
Diaper Size: 4's
Clothing Size: 12-18 months
Shoe Size: 4's - 5's depending on the brand
Food: All done with bottles! We're all sippy cups now, one with dad in the mornings when she wakes up, and she shares his oatmeal or cereal, then an AM snack/juice at daycare, lunch with milk, afternoon snack/water at daycare, banana when she gets home with me, dinner/milk, then bath and bed. She LOVES and only wants to self feed... and is doing really great with feeding herself with the fork and spoon.
Naps: One 2 hour nap, 12-2ish
Sleep: Bed by 6:45-7ish, up by 6ish
Teeth: Thirteen! Almost 14, the top right cuspid is right there too...
Play: Playing outside (she begs to go out, stands by any of our 3 doors to the outside and reaches for the doorknob), riding in her cozy coupe with Dad-E pushing her around, playing in her kitchen, sliding down the slide, rearranging everything, she's quite the little organizer, showing us where her belly, head, nose and feet are, lots of dancing, and lots of giggling... she's so ticklish these days!
New buddies: No one new, just got to see her BFF Anneliese recently, which was great!

I love watching her grow and learn new things each day... I'm constantly amazed by this little person we created, we couldn't love her more.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Are you kidding??

It's hard to believe we're almost into the 3rd trimester with baby #2. How did the time fly by so quickly?? Oh, that's right, because we've been busy chasing around an almost 15 month old wild child. I am so excited to meet this new addition to our family, having a little newborn to snuggle with again, and see how Alli adjusts to her new sibling. I'm also excited to have the stupid comments end. People are so very ignorant when it comes to talking to a pregnant woman. Here are just some recent examples in the past few weeks I've had to deal with...

"Wow, you're really starting to waddle."
Really? What do you say back to that? Thanks?

"When are you due?" "April 29th" "Oh wow, you're going to be huge!"
Really? What do you say back to that? Thanks?

"What are you having?" "It's a surprise for everyone." "Oh! Well you'll definitely be surprised when it's twins in there instead of just one!"
Really? What do you say back to that? Thanks?

Come ON people, just shut your mouth if you can't think of anything polite to say.

On a fun note... it's been SO nice outside (in the mid-70's!), that I pulled out the tank top I wore the last time I was 26 weeks pregnant to take a picture in the same tank top. So to think that when I was 26 weeks pregnant with Alli, it was July, and now I'm 26 weeks pregnant with baby M #2 and it's January, and I am able to wear almost the exact same outfit, that's just amazing.

Here's the comparison... how do you think the baby bump compares from baby 1 to baby 2?

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Cartoon of the Week


As we've mentioned before in This Space, Alli's all-time favorite thing to watch is Elmos' Ducks. And since Mommy B and I finally got rid of our dumb phones for smart ones... we've spoiled her by letting her in on the secret that we can now stream YouTube videos directly to our phones. This means that instead of her coming over to the computer to watch her favorite two minutes and five seconds of Elmo, she'll now make a quack sound anytime she sees us with our phones in our hands. This of course is immediately followed by her grabbing the phone out of our hands and plopping herself down to stare at the screen. Obviously she doesn't understand all the other wonderful things a smartphone can do, but in her world the only thing it's good for is seeing Elmo with his guitar and ducks quacking along to the beat.

There have actually been instances where the only way we're able to get her to eat dinner is by pulling up a Sesame Street mix online and feeding her while she stares blankly at the screen. I'm not particularly proud of this development, although I have to applaud her ability to see the spoon coming in her periphery and to open her mouth without ever taking her eyes off the screen.

However, it's gotten worse on other occasions - and while having a DVD player in Mommy B's Pilot is great for long trips - we're trying to curb her boob tube intake as much as possible. There really isn't any reason she should be watching much (if any) television at this age, so we're taking steps to ween her back a bit. We leave the TV off in the evening when Mommy B brings her home from daycare, that way she can just interact with us (and Scarlett) and not get distracted by whatever crappy daytime program is wrapping up or influenced by all the bad news that comes on during her dinner time.

Needless to say, we're taking this week's cartoon to heart! I don't want to have a TV-zombie kid already...

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Apologies

Please accept my humblest apologies, dear Followers. As you can tell I've taken a bit of a break from This Space for a while and luckily Mommy B has been picking up the slack for me. Like she doesn't have anything else to do... Anyway, I've been taking some time to relax, reflect and attempt to recharge my batteries......... SIKE!

I'm the parent of a 14-month old... we don't get time to relax. Ever. The past few weeks have been crazy-go-nuts for me and I just haven't had the time to post an entry here. I've been anxiously awaiting an update on the recent position I applied for at Blackbaud, and finally heard on Tuesday that they shot me down. No worries though, I'm not going to let it bother me too much.

Even though I had a lot riding on it, at least I still have a job and am in no fear of ever getting fired. I'm not so bummed about not getting the job, I just know who did get it instead - and needless to say there are many individuals who are none too thrilled about management's decisions. Also, they gave me some pointers to work on and told me to definitely apply again in the very near future if I was still interested. So, I have my work cut out for me over the next couple of months.

What else is new? Let's see... Alli caught a little bit of a cold this week and has been coughing all throughout the last few nights. As any parent (and Followers) know, this coughing all night causes the kiddo to not sleep very well, which in turn causes them to be even more of a cranky-butt during the day. Of course, Mommy B and I haven't been sleeping well because we can hear our poor child practically coughing up a lung from across the hall. This is after giving her Children's Tylenol and Children's Benadryl, plugging in her humidifier, and rubbing Baby Vicks all over her chest and back. So it's not like we're making her suffer through it. I can't even imagine how much worse it would have been had we not tried to treat her symptoms.

BUT, the good news is that she barely coughed last night and this morning... so I think we're almost out of woods. Thank goodness too - for the entire household. There truly is nothing worse in the world than seeing your child in pain (or in this case, major discomfort). And to make matters worse, there really isn't anything else we could do for her. One of the major advantages of having a pediatric nurse as a wife is that she can tell me almost exactly what the doctors would do if we took her in. Needless to say, it has saved us a lot of unnecessary trips to the pediatrician's office.

In other Alli-news, the girl has almost a full set of teeth. I'm not kidding... her molars came in over the past couple weeks, and now some cuspids are filling in as well. This girl will seriously be able to eat a steak by the time her little sibling arrives... which is quickly approaching. The teething hasn't been quite as bad - but we've been traveling and so distracted lately that perhaps we just didn't notice. I believe she's working on tooth #13 or #14, but since they're so far back in her mouth, it's hard to count them.

Oh yeah, and in about three and a half months we'll be having a b.... baby! Time sure is flying by. It's amazing the difference between the two pregnancies. With the first one, it's all you can think about and focus on... it becomes your life - preparing for the baby. But with the second one, you don't have time to focus on it. You just have to make sure you get everything you need for the second one before they get here. The rest of the time is spent chasing the first one around and making sure she's not giving your new iPhone a bath in the dog's water dish.

We still need to get Alli's new room painted and set up for her big move down the hall. I'd like to get working on it this weekend - at least moving all the crap that's in it right now to somewhere else. That way we can get it painted and her moved down there soon so she can get used to it. The last thing I need is her getting freaked out at night and not sleeping well while her little s... sibling is keeping us up all night. If it goes anything like everything else we've had to "transition" her to, she'll probably care less. That's my girl - just roll with it.

Good enough? I think so. I'll try to keep it more regular moving forward. Thanks for not bashing me while I was gone... it's been a busy couple of weeks.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Look-Alikes

We took a few pictures of Alli this weekend (no way, right? I know we don't have enough pictures of her as it is... ask Eric, he'll show you all 8 of her photo albums and say it's a bit ridiculous... but I can't help it!) Anyway, we took some pictures and both stated at the same time that she looks a lot like Cindy Lou Who from How the Grinch Stole Christmas. She had the same lil twirls of hair sticking out on both sides and her big blue eyes... here's a lil comparison...



And since we're talking about look-alike's... has anyone ever noticed that my husband kind of resembles Val Kilmer, especially in his Top Gun "Iceman" era??




And, since I don't have anyone exciting to look like, I'll just compare Baby M #1 (Alli Ru) bump picture at 24 weeks pregnant with Baby M #2 at 24 weeks....

I sure look a lot more tired and frazzled this time around... could it be the toddler we're chasing around all the time this pregnancy, vs. the naps I was getting back then?? Oh, to take a nap again... that would just be amazing...

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Count with me...

1: Number of days it took Alli to get used to having no bottle in the morning and at night. She is doing wonderfully... hopefully, it stays this way. I'm sure tomorrow morning will be more of a challenge with Dad-E getting her ready alone while I'm already at work, but, here's hoping for the best!!

2: Extra hours Alli slept in today... she used to be an "Up at 6, on the dot, no questions asked, you could set your alarm by it type girl"... today, she slept until 8:15!! Needless to say, Dad-E and I were impressed, and refreshed. =)

3: More months until baby #2 is scheduled to arrive!! Today I'm 24 weeks (or, 6 months) pregnant... and I'm feeling huge already. A girl at work told me I waddle already. Who says that? Ugh, there really needs to be a book written by pregnant women about inappropriate things said or done to them. I am still wearing my pre-pregnancy scrubs, so, I'm proud of that fact.

4: The number of quarters of football the Bengals performed terribly in last night. Which to those of you who don't watch or know football, would be all of them. In all honestly though, I'm proud they made it to the post-season with a rookie quarterback and no expectations for a great season... so, like most Bengals fans are getting quite used to saying, there's always next year!

5: Yesterday marked the five year anniversary of the date I started working at MUSC. I can't believe it's been that long already! I've had a lot of great experiences and learned so much in those years... and I'm sure it will only continue.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Bye Bye Bottle

For the past few months, we've cut down to only giving Alli a bottle right when she wakes up, and right before bed. All day while she's at daycare or home with us, she uses her straw cup and loves it... she'll drink milk, water and juice out of it, no problem. I just knew that the bottle in the morning and at bedtime was more of a comfort thing, and what she was used to... so that was going to be the difficult part... not necessarily making her drink out of the cup.

This weekend, we decided to take the plunge. We packed up all the bottles so there are none in sight, and none for us to just grab and give to her in a moment of desperation. Last night, she did a lot better than I expected. We went through the normal routine, and when Dad-E came upstairs with a cup instead of a bottle, she was obviously disappointed. But, we didn't make a big deal about it, or force her to have any. She had a few sips while we read a book, and gave us the signal that she was ready for bed. So, off to the bathroom we went to brush those 12, almost 13 teeth... and off to her crib she went. No problems!

This morning was another story. She was very upset about not having her normal bottle while she lounged on the couch watching 3rd and Bird. Or Little Einsteins. Or Chuggington. Or whatever is on when she wakes up. She cried and cried, but, we held firm. We made breakfast and let her help quite a bit.. she had pancake batter all over her face, but that's the fun part. She then sat with us and we all ate breakfast together, and she chugged her milk out of her cup... no big deal. Bedtime went similar to last night too, so, I think we'll be fine. I'm sure tomorrow morning will bring a few more tears, but, we're getting through it. Of course I figure that by the time she really gets used to no bottles and not seeing them around, the next baby will come along, drinking out of bottles, and she'll want one again. I sure hope not, but, ya never know. For now though, we're making it!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Cartoon of the Week


Today after work, I had about an hour to kill before my 24 week (6 month!) OB appointment. So, where else to go but shopping?! Victoria's Secret is having their semi-annual sale, so I decided to venture in and see what great deals they had. I was so excited, I found so many pairs of underwear, a couple new bras, and headed out as happy as could be with the deals I'd gotten and how relatively cheap everything was. I went to my appointment, which went wonderfully, and found out I'd only gained 4 lbs this month, which wasn't too bad! I was expecting a lot more for as much as I'd eaten in the past few weeks, being at home with Chipotle and Steak and Shake (two favorites that we miss down here!), and of course, all the holiday foods! So, I'm still feeling pretty great about everything... until... I come home and try the underwear on. Well, I guess they'll be post-pregnancy underwear.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Welcome 2012!!

Is it really 2012??

I graduated high school ten years ago. That's just crazy to me... I remember when they would ask us in high school... where do you see yourself in ten years?? I'd have to say, I'm very happy and content with where I am in life. I found an amazing partner and best friend in Eric, I have some great friends, some who have come in and out of my life but I'm thankful for the good times we shared, and some that have come back in within the last few years and I couldn't be happier and luckier to have them. We have a beautiful house we've made our home, a loving and sometimes a little crazy rescued dog, and of course... we have a sweet baby (ok, toddler?!) girl that I definitely couldn't imagine ever living without.

It's hard to believe our life is going to become even more blessed this year. We are so excited to have baby M make their arrival this year, and see how life will be with two under two. Oh boy. We're ready for the crazy ride... or at least, we're pretending we are. I can't wait to see how Alli is as a big sister, and how Eric & I handle being parents of two. And of course, I can't wait for all of you to find out if baby M is a boy or girl... :o)

After we went to a neighbor's house last night to bring in the New Year, we came home, got Alli situated in bed, and went to bed ourselves. Little M was quite active, so I had Dad-E see if he could feel them moving too... and he could! It was an amazing moment in the wee hours of 2012, what a way to start out the new year... both of us together feeling our little one moving around in my belly. Just wonderful.
Cheers (with a non-alcoholic drink for the pregnant one) to 2012, may it be wonderful and full of happiness for all!!