Q&A

Here's a little Question/Answer info session about baby #2 since I can't tell everyone everything all at once. Maybe you were wondering?

Due date: 12/6 (two days after Rachel's bday, maybe they will share?)
Finding out the sex: NOPE! Didn't with Audrey, won't with this one.
Thoughts on the gender: Right now I think its a girl.
Current Weight Gain: 0 lbs
Cravings: None so far. I'm eating more cereal like last time, but I think that's because its the only thing that sounds appealing at dinner time.
Morning Sickness: In the first trimester, yes, but it wasn't too bad.
Audrey's understanding: She doesn't understand. I told her there is a baby in my belly, and now she picks up her shirt and points to her belly button and says "baby". I don't think she'll be old enough to understand until I am just about due.
Will Audrey stay in our room: I don't think so. While we love having her in there with us, we don't see how it could work with both babies in our room. They will be on very different schedules for quite some time, and they'd wake each other up constantly. Our plan is to move her into her room down the hall (scary) sometime near her 2nd birthday (September). This will give her a couple of months to get used to it so she won't think the new baby kicked her out.
Where will the baby sleep: She will sleep in her cosleeper in our room until she outgrows it (around 4 months) and then will either sleep with us like Audrey did, or we'll put her in the crib in our room. Josh and I liked cosleeping with Audrey (aside from a few rough nights) and it made breastfeeding so much easier for me. If the baby takes to it, we'd like to cosleep until s/he is night weaned just like we did with Audrey.
VBAC: This stands for Vaginal Birth After Cesarean. Yes, I am hoping for a VBAC, and I am currently in the process of switching to a doctor that is well known for successful VBACs.
Delivery: Unless anything changes, I'll be delivering at The Birthing Inn at inova Loudoun.
Names: Boy - Joshua, no middle name. Joshua is strong enough on its own. For a girl we have a few that we are tossing around but nothing is settled. Probably Irene for a middle name (my middle name, also my great-grandma's middle name).

Any other questions? I have another appointment in 2 weeks...can't wait to hear the heart beat again!

Another Little Baby Falcon

That's right! Baby number two is cooking and due December 6. I had my second appointment today and will be 14 weeks on Thursday!

We initially decided to wait until after my first doctor's appointment to tell anyone (8.5 weeks), but of course both Josh and I ended up spilling the beans to a couple of people ahead of time. Its so hard to keep a big secret like this! So far, this pregnancy has been a little different than the last one. The biggest difference is nausea and morning (any time of day) sickness. With Audrey, I felt great. AMAZING. I never had nausea - the closest I came was one morning when the smell of coffee made me gag. I did have a food aversion in the first trimester (MEAT), but that went away pretty quickly and I was always able to eat something else and feel satisfied. With this pregnancy, however, I have been having bouts of nausea pretty regularly and have even had some vomiting nastiness. Eww. Like last time, the sight and smell and thought of meat has been pretty repulsive to me, so I've been eating lots of peanut butter sandwiches instead. I had some time of dizziness and fainting, which I think may be because I'm not eating enough and often enough. I actually just forget to eat sometimes. I get so wrapped up in making Audrey's food, and then cleaning it up, and then moving on to the next thing, that sometimes it will be 11am we are at Target and I realize I haven't eaten since 630pm the night before. I know its terrible, so I've been making myself eat every 2-3 hours even if its just a small snack.

The other major difference between the two pregnancies is that I have felt SO TIRED with this one. I know I was tired last time too, but this time felt much worse. Maybe because I am running around with a toddler that never stops moving? That could be it. Or it could just be that I'm lazier. Not sure. For a good 5 weeks I was taking a nap with Audrey almost every day. It was great, but terrible. I felt so guilty about it, knowing that I should be doing other things but was sleeping instead. All I can say is that I needed those naps and am glad I am home and able to take them! The doctor told me today that I am very low on Vitamin D and the doctor wants me to start taking a supplement. Does anyone know what normal VitD levels are? Mine was 19, but I can't find any good info online for what is "normal". Now on to exercise...I was working out up until I was about 6 weeks pregnant, and then the exhaustion set in and I haven't been since. Now that I'm feeling better, I think this week will be the first week that I go back. I really need to considering how out of shape I am, and also how much I pay for that gym membership.

Another huge difference: THE BUMP. It has arrived. wait no, it was already here before I was ever pregnant. It just never really went away. So when I was like 4-8 weeks pregnant and suuuuuuper bloated, I looked about 6 months pregnant. It was awful. I've always had a belly pooch, plus I have terrible posture, but this was beyond belief. I was so uncomfortable and miserable that I had to break out the maternity clothes again. To be honest, though..I was happy to see them again. I loved my maternity wardrobe. Unlike my usual wardrobe, the maternity stuff is new and fresh and somewhat cute. I am going back and forth now between regular clothes (which still fit, but are snug around the waist) and maternity clothes (which are big and have a huge empty space to fill, but are really really comfy). Basically what I'm saying here is that if you see me looking like a frumpy hot mess its because nothing fits quite right. Here's the bump at 13 weeks. Unlike in real life, I am standing up straight in this photo. It looks bigger in person because I am always so dang slouched. Interestingly, I haven't even gained a pound yet. I guess my body is just shifting weight around at this point.

That's all for now! My next appointment will be at 16 weeks, I can't wait! I love hearing the precious little heartbeat.

Easter? Spring?

Where to start?? I've basically missed out on the first half of 2012 in terms of blogging. What can I say? We've been busy. Busy and tired. Very tired. We'll get to that later.

Since its impossible to write everything that has been happening these past couple of months, I'm just going to update with significant things. Easter was fun this year! Audrey actually enjoyed her Easter egg hunt. I'm still too chicken to give her hard candy, so inside her easter eggs were Oreo cookies. She'd never had them before so she was very excited when she found one and I showed her what was inside. She needed a lot of help staying focused on finding eggs because all she wanted to do was sit down and eat the cookies. Like last year, her Easter basket wasn't extravagant or filled to the brim, just a few small things I thought she'd enjoy. There was a pair of jelly sandals, a few books, a cookie monster stuffed animal, a new set of forks, a fruit squeeze snack, and some toddler sized gardening tools. Those were the biggest hit of it all!

After we did the Easter thing at home, we packed up and headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's house for more celebrations and of course FOOD! The food was very special for us since it was our first time eating meat in 40 days (I wanted to do a post on being vegetarian....maybe I still will?). We really enjoyed that meal. :) The kids spent some time hunting out in the yard for more eggs and candy, and this time Audrey's eggs were filled with goldfish snacks. She loved it! She even got a new Cookie Monster bath toy from her great grandparents! She also got a package from her Aunt Maile in California and inside were all kinds of fun things. Play doh, a new dress, snacks, and bubbles! Audrey sure does have a lot of people who love her.

We've been enjoying our Spring weather a lot. I bought a water table a while back and it is a favorite toy now, and then Audrey's grandma Maria bought her an inflatable pool so together these two can entertain for hours. We're expecting rain all this week, but I know Audrey will love having her little pool with her at the beach next week!

My mom came for a quick visit a few weeks ago and got in her snuggles with Audrey. We didn't get out much, but we did have fun at home! We made s'mores one night and enjoyed that "first" with Audrey.

Maria (Josh's mom) moved up to New Jersey a couple of months ago for a new job. We visited last weekend and went to a small amusement park with rides and food and all that fun stuff. Audrey really loved riding in the cars and on the train that drove through the park, but the carousel seemed to make her sick. Or maybe it was going too fast, but she didn't look like she was having fun. We also went to a park last week with Joy, Ian, Gloria, and Pete, and Audrey really enjoyed the carousel this time. She was dancing and laughing the whole time! Then we went on a train ride around the park and she kept saying, "too too" for choo choo. So cute. She had so much fun following Ian around and doing anything he did. There was even a sandbox at the park, but Audrey HATED it. This is the second time she's touched sand, and both times she wasn't happy. She even got upset when she saw Ian playing in it. I'm not sure how she will like the beach...

So this is where I usually write, "I promise I'm going to blog more" but this time I'm just not going to say it. Maybe I'll blog again this week. I hope to. but no promises.

Speech Therapy Consultation

This morning we had our initial consultation with Early Intervention. It was about an hour long meeting here at the house where we basically just talked about the concerns of the doctor, where Audrey is with language, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, social skills, and problem solving. Each section was scored on a 10 point scale, with the highest being 60. She scored 60/60 on all but language, where she scored 40/60. The two sections she did not score any points on are 2 and 3 word sentences ("GO HOME" "I GO HOME"). At this point she's not saying any verbs, so she didn't score any points on those.

Playing Trucks

Overall, the meeting went very smoothly. Audrey showed off her skills, I made a list of words that she's saying (up to 28 now, about 10 more than 2 weeks ago), and the counselor made notes about all of Audrey's other skills. This session was just an intake assessment to discuss what to expect and for her to get an idea of Audrey's language development, and we are currently scheduled to go in and do a two hour formal assessment in a month. If, after that assessment, Audrey is deemed 25% or more delayed (putting her at the speaking level of a 15 month old) then she will be admitted to the program and we will be eligible for services.

At this point, the counselor said she would be very surprised if Audrey is deemed eligible for the program, and most likely we won't even be moving forward with the 2 hour assessment next month. She has to take the information she gathered today and look over it with the speech therapist and the other program coordinators to evaluate what they think Audrey's needs are. She said she is impressed with Audrey's skills overall, and by the time next month's evaluation comes around, Audrey will probably be speaking 2 word sentences. I'm hoping we will receive the call by the end of the week saying we don't need to come in next month.  I'm ready to stop worrying about her! I feel like ever since the doctor mentioned that she might be behind in her language, I've been stressing about it and pressuring her to talk more, which I do not want to do.

So for now I feel like I can relax a bit since I have gotten so much reassurance from everyone that she's speaking just fine. I'll keep everyone updated when I found out anything else!

First Braids

The other day as we ate breakfast, I couldn't help but stare at Audrey's crazy hair and wonder what I could do to tame it. She wears pig tails and pony tails some days, other days I wet it and brush it straight, but mostly I just let it curl up naturally and hope it doesn't frizz too badly.

So I decided I would try something new and attempt a braid. Her hair parts funny and doesn't go down the middle, so one braid was bigger than the other. I've also never done a French braid before so it was a little sloppy looking, but still turned out cute on her little head.

I can't wait to get more practice as her hair grows!

One and a half

Audrey turned 18 months on Friday! We celebrated with a last minute trip to the doctor because she walked face first into a tree branch and I was worried that she hurt her eye. Well, I know it hurt, but I was worried she damaged it. The doctor checked her out and said everything looks fine and clean and sent us on our way. This girl is always hurting herself!

I thought it would be fun to do a round up of her skills at 18 months:
Words: She was saying about 5-8 words at her 15 month appointment, and then for a while she stopped saying those same words. Now she's picked them back up and added a few more. They include:
All done, down, cat, doggie, ball, bobo (pacifier), outside, book, eat, TV (oops), banana, diaper, dada, mama, shoe, love you, Audrey. Of course most of those are baby versions of the real word, but we're working on it. About half of those words are new in the past month, so I know from here on out it will be more and more each week. At her 18 month check up today, the doctor told me that 17 words is not enough right now. Audrey should be saying at least 30 words by 18 months, so she referred me to Early Intervention. I have to call them and they will set up an evaluation for speech therapy. If they do the evaluation and decide she does indeed need it, then we'll start with the speech therapy and reassess in three months. I knew she wasn't talking as much as other kids her age, so this doesn't really surprise me. Mostly I find it kind of annoying, but we'll do it and see where it takes us.

In addition to words, she knows the sounds the following animals make:
Dog, Cat, Bird, Snake, Elephant, Monkey, Cow, Duck, Bumble Bee, Frog, Sheep.
She can also identify almost all of her animals in her animal magnet set  - there are 20 and she can do 16 consistently.

She can identify her body parts - head, ears, eyes, nose, chin, tongue, mouth, arms, elbows, hands, fingers, tummy, belly button, butt, legs, knees, feet, toes. Now we just need to start learning them in Spanish. :)

We watch an episode of Sesame Street every now and then and Audrey LOVES Cookie Monster. She tries to imitate his voice and its the cutest little thing. One day she was watching an episode wear Baby Bear growls and it was supposed to be funny, and she laughed! Josh and I thought that was a neat - laughing at the right time so it means she understands what is going on, right?

We walked up to the library last week and checked out some books about colors. The Manassas Park library is fairly close, and they had a lot of activity boxes for the kids, so I can't wait to get to checking those out. Audrey really liked this latches puzzle.

Her new cute thing right now is singing. I try to have music on or sing to her as much as possible even though I have a horrible voice. Now she sings too, and I absolutely love it. Her little voice saying, "Laaada Daaaaa da laaaa". She sings to and rocks her baby now, and also has started giving the doll her bottle. Imaginary play was one of the things on the doctor's checklist, so Audrey met that one.

She weighs 29.9 lbs and is 32.25 inches tall, putting her in the 85th and 70th percentiles. The doctor said they are perfect and are right on target for her. She's a grazer eater - she says she's hungry pretty much all day long it seems. I asked about that - if this is because she is truly hungry or maybe because she is bored. The doctor said it is normal for toddlers to be eating all day since they don't eat very much at each meal. We're hoping for an uneventful couple of months that will keep us out of the doctor's office, but we'll see her again for the language evaluation in June. I'll follow up with that and more soon!

Blogging Commitment

Lexi and I decided to make an agreement to blog more. Not for your entertainment, but more for ourselves. I love going back and re-reading my blogs and plan to have it printed annually, so I need to actually keep up with it if it I want that in the future. So our plan is to have a weekly blog date where we both sit down and blog on Sunday nights. Last night was the first night, and I missed it. I have no excuse. I was on the couch watching this new tv show that Josh and I are getting in to and I just completely forgot to blog. So here is the overdue blog of stuff we've been doing lately.

 I've been home now for about two months, and so far it is working out wonderfully! I feel rested, less stressed, calmer, and happier. Audrey seems to like having me home too. Every morning I cook our eggs and toast and we enjoy our milk and coffee together, and I love that I am able to take a nap with her in the afternoons sometimes. I love that our evenings are calmer - instead of rushing to get dinner on the table, clean up, get ready for the next day, baths, bed, and then fell asleep myself, we are now able to actually enjoy our nights together and have even had some movie nights in the living room! I know Josh is enjoying it too - we get time each night to spend together after Audrey goes to sleep and neither of us are exhausted anymore.

 Most of my day with Audrey is spent reading books (who is surprised) or outside. That is ALL she wants to do! For the most part, she'll only play by herself for a short while before she is running towards me with a book in hand. I've found some activities for us to do together aside from reading so that we can have variety day to day. I threw together some color boxes and we look over them together and talk about the colors. I thought she was too young for colors, but around the time I took her out of daycare, they were just introducing color games to the toddlers, so I guess she is the right age. I also used my laminator and made her a matching game with the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear". I got the idea from a blog, and it has been a successful game with Audrey. It took a few times for her to figure out what I was asking her to do, but now she does it easily if I can keep her focused the whole time. She is getting really good at coloring now that her motor skills are getting stronger. We even had a milestone - crayon on the wall! It is right next to her coloring table, so I think her hand slipped and marked up the wall. Surely my sweet girl would never actually color on the wall. Or the toilet seat. Or the tile floor. No, not my Audrey.

 We've been so lucky this winter - so much sun and warmth and very little dreariness. I'm loving it because it means we can spend lots and lots of time outside. Audrey gets so restless in the afternoons (and I admit, I do too) so on nice days (pretty much every day lately) we put on our coats and go out in the yard. Amazingly, we already have some little yellow flowers blooming out there. She just finished taking a class at the Rec Center every Wednesday and right behind the rec center is a walking path. We checked it out last week for the first time and its very cool. We didn't get very far down the path, though, because Audrey wanted to stop and look at every log, leaf, and bug we saw! We've made friends with another mom and toddler in the class and have hung out with them once, so hopefully we will have some new playdates with them.

We went to Frying Pan Farm Park last week with some friends and got to see the new baby animals. The day was perfect outside and the kids were in just the right mood. Audrey saw the sheep and started 'baa'-ing and mooing at the cows. Although she doesn't say the names yet, she knows all the animal sounds and had so much fun pointing them out to me.

 We went back on Saturday with Joy and Ian and didn't spend as much time there, but still had lots of fun. We rode around the farm on the tractor and enjoyed some ice cream!

So now that I have Lexi to hold me accountable, I really am going to have to blog at least once a week! I want to do this for myself, anyways, and with Audrey getting bigger and smarter every day, I'm sure I won't have any trouble finding something to write about. So I'll be back here next Sunday night to write more! Maybe, if I am *really* responsible with my time I'll write before then.