Cookie Monster!

The last few days I have had a hankering for a homemade chocolate chip cookie. So when I went to the store yesterday I bought a bag of chocolate chips so I could make some. I love cookies, especially homemade chocolate chip ones. This is the very reason I never make them. It's been at least 15 years since I've made any because I know I'd eat them. I am much more of a cookie, brownie, or bar type person than say cakes. I can far more easily resist a slice of cake. I knew my hiatus of baking cookies was going to come to an end once I became a Mommy. I look forward to baking with Nadia some day!! I wanted her first chocolate chip cookie to be made from scratch by me; so today was the day! She of course loved it. She cried when Mommy wouldn't let her have a 2nd one. I'm bringing most of the batch with me to MD so I can share them with my niece, nephews, etc. In my defense, I do try to feed her healthy foods most of the time. The other foods she's consumed thus far today include: oatmeal, 1/2 a banana, quite a few fresh cherries, yogurt, peas, cottage cheese, and an assortment of finger foods such as Kix cereal, Goldfish crackers, etc.

Over the last couple of weeks Nadia has gotten more use out of her bouncer/rocker than she has at any other time over the past 13 months. Maybe baby #2 will like it more as an infant than Nadia did, but at least it's being used now although not always in the way intended as you can see by the pics. I included one of the pics because I wanted to show that the hair on the back of her head is rather curly. She definitely didn't get that from me. My hair is 100% straight. Well it's time to go pack for our trip to MD. We're leaving at 6:30pm tonight. I'm hoping the rain lets up. It's rained so much today I am thinking a boat might be a better way to get there, LOL.

Cucumbers

I can think of 3 foods over the last 7 months that Nadia has refused to eat even if she saw me also eating it. The first would be breadsticks at Olive Garden, then fresh strawberries (although she eats plenty of foods that have strawberries in them), and the latest would be cucumbers. Sarah gave us a couple from her garden on Tuesday, and both yesterday and today I tried to get Nadia to eat some while I did. She makes a funny face like it's a lemon or something and spits it right back out. I happen to disagree. I love cucumbers. I ate an entire one yesterday, LOL! My mom said as a child (age 5-6) I used to go in the backyard of our home in Alabama and eat them like you'd eat an apple. Well I am not going to complain since she will eat 99% of the foods I offer her. Today she had her first taste of honeydew and loved it. Honeydew happens to be my favorite melon. I am not a fan of cantelope, watermelon is fine, but honeydew is oh so very delicious!

Two of Nadia's favorite things to do the last few days are #1 play with Mommy's brush and #2 open and close doors. She takes the brush and actually puts the bristles up on her hair. She knows what it's supposed to be used for, and if I help her, she'll brush my hair. Awwww.... I need to buy another brush as she gets quite upset when I want the brush back to use it myself. She also has discovered it is quite fun to close a door. She can't open it if she shuts it all the way, but if it's not 100% closed she can open it again. I am glad she can't reach the doorknob yet as I'd be scared she'd lock herself in a room with me on the other side!

The last 2 days when Paul has gone to pick Nadia up at Sarah's, she has run toward him as soon as she saw him. This made her Daddy very, very happy!

I honestly have tried multiple times a day to take pictures of Nadia the last few days. She's on the go so much it's really hard to take her picture these days!! Hopefully I'll succeed in getting some great pictures this weekend in MD. I know pictures add a lot to a blog. :-)

I'm thankful...

1. that Nadia slept in until 6:40 this morning. May her wake up time keep moving closer and closer to 7:00am!

2. that walking with a shoe on wasn't nearly as painful last night at work as it was on Monday. The toe is already starting to look a little better, PTL!

3. that today one of our neighbors agreed to watch Nadia for 2 hours on Mon, Tues, and Thurs next week since I found out yesterday that Sarah (our regular babysitter) will be on vacation next week.

4. that Paul's advisor was very pleased with his dissertation proposal. She's not one to give out praise/encouragement that often, but she gave him a lot of very positive feedback regarding his proposal that he submitted to his committee recently. In one email she wrote "LOVELY!" for example. It made my hubby very happy. :-) He's meeting with his dissertation committee for the first time this afternoon to discuss his research proposal.

5. for the baby growing within my womb (15 weeks today!). I can't wait until I can feel him/her move every day! The "morning" sickness has been lessening, and the heartburn has been increasing, but it's all for a very good reason and won't last forever.

6. that I get to see my sister and her family for the first time in over 14 months this weekend. We are driving to MD on Friday night and coming back home on Sunday night. On Sunday we'll also get to see my Aunt Janet.

7. for the good health that Paul, Nadia, and I have continued to enjoy. I am still amazed she's 13 months old and never had an ear infection, flu, fever, etc. PTL!

8. there are only 6 nights left of class this summer and then I get 3 weeks off of school. YAY!

9. for the delight it is to be Nadia's Mommy. Her smiles, laughter, and hugs mean the world to me!

10. for the safety Paul & I have continued to experience considering all the hours we spend driving to and from school each week. Although the road construction has continued to annoy me, I am glad that if it had to interfere with one of our commutes, it was with mine since Paul's commute is longer than mine.

Noses and Toes

I was feeling badly about Nadia's leg yesterday morning, and then I injured the fourth toe on my left foot on "the step" in between our kitchen and family room. At first I thought it was a sort of stubbed toe kind of thing that would hurt a lot at first but then the pain would go away rather quickly. The pain wasn't too bad during the rest of the time I was at home (barefoot) however on my way to work (wearing sandals) I began to be aware of how badly my toe was throbbing. I took a look and discovered the top was badly bruised and the toe was swollen. It was very painful to walk and stand at work last night with a shoe on. The swelling has gone down today, but the bruise looks worse. Thankfully the pain is tolerable when I walk barefoot. I am not looking forward to going back to work tonight as I know it's going to hurt again with a shoe on.

Unfortunately of all my 10 toes, this was the worst toe for this to happen to. As a child both of my fourth toes were curved so that when I walked, my third toes would step on my fourth toes. Since I wasn't a very physically active child (most of my time was spent in school, reading, or practicing the piano and flute), it didn't bother me too often. However the first summer I worked (not counting babysitting), it became a serious problem as the toe kept bleeding since I was standing all the time working at McD's and a department store. It hit me then that I'd be doing a lot more standing as a teacher; so I decided to finally go see a doctor and do something about it. They cut the tendons in both toes and removed a section of bone from each toe in order to straighten the toe out. The surgery on the right foot was a success. That toe no longer gets squashed by the third toe. However the surgery on the left foot wasn't. The surgeon offered to do another surgery, but I found the process rather traumatizing so I declined (I was wide awake for the procedure and could feel the pressure of them cutting my bones although I didn't feel pain). Normally it doesn't bother me. It just means when I paint my toenails I only paint 9 nails as that toenail is hiding under the 3rd toe and can't be seen. However it's a problem right now since the top of the 4th toe is bruised and now when I stand (particularly with a shoe on) the 3rd toe is pressing down on the bruise. Ouch! Oh well... this too shall pass! It did hit me yesterday again how we take things for granted until something happens, and then we realize how much pain something like a little toe can cause!

For many months I've been working with Nadia on parts of the body (nose, chin, ear, cheek, etc.). I know she understands some of them because if I say give me your hand she will do that or if I say hold onto Mommy's finger she'll grab my finger. Generally though she hasn't gotten to the stage yet where she'll point on command to a certain body part. Today she did it though! She was sitting in her high chair, and I said "touch Mommy's nose" and she reached out and touched my nose with her index finger. YAY! Afterward I realized asking her to do this while eating wasn't the smartest move on my part since her fingers are usually pretty messy during mealtimes, LOL!

Poor little leg

Nadia cried (I should say whimpered) for maybe 1 minute around 9pm last night which was very unusual as typically she doesn't make a peep from 7pm to about 6:30am. I was going to go up and comfort her if she had kept crying, but she went back to sleep very quickly. Well I discovered at 6:30am the reason she had cried at 9pm. Her leg was stuck out of the crib. She was lying on her belly with most of her one leg outside of the crib. The red marks on her chubby little thigh didn't go away right away. Poor girl!!! I felt awful. I would have checked on her if she had cried more than 1 minute. I can't say for certain her leg was stuck all those hours, but by how dark red the marks were on her leg, I think she did. So Paul said I need to buy the video monitor we've been talking about getting TODAY, and I agreed 100%! I had planned to put it on our Christmas wish list, but I started bidding on one on eBay today instead. Thanks, Chrissy for giving us input on which one to buy! I plan to buy a second camera so that if I set each at a different channel I can flip between the two during the hours they are both sleeping at the same time. The bumper just doesn't do any good these days because she pushes it down. I imagine she tries to use the bumper as a way to climb out of her crib, but the bumper just squishes down below the mattress when she does that.

Nadia is using pointing more and more to express her desires. The item she points to the most frequently is the CD player that is on the fireplace mantle. She likes to listen to music ALL the time these days, and she can tell if it's her music or not. If I turn on the radio she shakes her head "no" and continues to point to the CD player until I start playing one of her CDs. I am glad she likes music!

She also LOVES to go outside. She'd spend hours on end out there if Mommy was up to it. When Debbie babysit last week she said she played outside almost the whole 2 hours that she watched her. The only problem we have while we're outside is that Nadia loves to eat mulch. I constantly say "no eat," but I still have to routinely fish pieces of mulch out of her mouth. I can't imagine that it actually tastes good!

UP

For several weeks Nadia has been using the signal of lifting her hands up to let us know when she wants up. Then she started making the "uh" sound when she did that. Over the last few days sometimes she has actually said "up" instead of just "uh" so her current vocabulary includes the words "dada", "mama", "yes", and "up". She still hasn't resumed saying "hi" which was her first word that she said many months ago. Waving is her way of saying "hi" these days.

Increased Risk

An OB almost gave me a heart attack yesterday. I've never met her and didn't recognize the name so I didn't know it was an OB who had left a message for me to call back regarding my first trimester screening. With Nadia I wasn't offered the nuchal u/s, and I turned down the blood test. I wasn't planning on doing the blood test this time (just the u/s), but after the u/s the nurse said she needed to prick my finger so I thought oh well I guess I'll go ahead and do the blood test also. I've had friends who have gotten false positives and then went on to have the amnio test only to find out everything was fine but were rather upset for a few weeks in between. I called back and was eventually transferred back to the OB. She had a very somber tone of voice which already got my heart to start racing and then she said my results were that I have an increased risk of the baby having Down's syndrome. I said I didn't understand because the sonographer said the u/s results were good. Eventually by the end of the conversation I learned that my results WERE good from the test (blood and u/s). The increased risk was 100% a result of my age and not a result of the test. At the end she told me that with the test results my odds were 1:265 (or something like that...I didn't write down what she said and am bad at remembering numbers), and before the test (just bc of my age) my "odds" were 1:150. So actually the test results lowered the risk. That's how she should have started the conversation in my opinion! She totally had my heart beating out of my chest with the way she worded it and the serious tone of voice she used. I told her I definitely didn't want to do any diagnostic tests (all involve at least a small risk of miscarriage). I looked online later and 1:250 is the cut off used be geneticists to define high vs. low risk. By that info I am considered low risk since I'm above 250. The doctor kept emphasizing that I am 37 (like I don't know my age?). I wanted to say well at 36 I gave birth to a very healthy little girl. I realize there is no guarantee baby #2 will be as healthy as Nadia, but no matter what we will love this next child just as much as we love Nadia.

First Happy Meal!

I took Nadia to McD's for lunch today in between doing some shopping at Walmart and Staples. She got her first Happy Meal. The toy it came with was a Beanie Baby. She ate some of her hamburger and a few fries (I finished her fries for her), but the highlight was the itty bitty ice cream cone that also came with the meal. You can see from the one picture she's reaching out "give that to me, Mommy" and then I let her feed herself the ice cream cone. Aside from what I wiped off her face, she ate the whole thing (cone and all). I took her to the Playland, but the slides were too big for a 13 month old although she was ready to start climbing. She cried when I took her out of Playland. We'll try it again when she's bigger. I had my usual fish filet and then decided to try a mango raspberry milkshake. I won't ever order one of those again.

I have tried to take a photo of her with the big teddy bear today, but so far I haven't had any success because Nadia likes to pick the bear up and carry it around, OR she runs and lands on it like she's tackling a football player. She does the same thing to Daddy when he's lying on the floor. Paul says he's being ambushed. :-)

Our 13 month old...

1. Loves to play outside whether that means running around barefoot in the grass, swimming in her pool, climbing up the slide, or using one of the swings.


2. Enjoys putting things into containers. For many months she only enjoyed taking things out, but recently she has found delight in putting small toys into various little cups and buckets.


3. Often hands a toy she's playing with to Paul or I. Her generosity is rather temporary as she often wants the toy back very soon after she's handed it over. I know we'll be working on the concept of sharing with her sibling. :-)


4. Loves to wave "hi" although she doesn't understand that people can't see her waving through the telephone. Her face lights up when someone (a stranger or someone she knows) acknowledges her wave by waving back or saying "hi." She's a very friendly girl!


5. Enjoys clapping her hands. I recently learned I can't sing "If you're happy and you know it" as one of her bedtime songs any more. Normally while I sing to her she rests her head on my shoulder and sucks her thumb, but when I sing the words "clap your hands," she lifts her head off my shoulder and claps her hands. It's really cute, but isn't a good choice when trying to get her ready for a nap or bedtime.


6. Wants to eat whatever Mommy is eating. If Mommy is eating it, it must be good!


7. Needs to have her fingernails trimmed 1-2 times a week. Thankfully she has gotten much better about sitting still while Mommy trims her fingernails.


8. Is constantly on the go. She gets a lot of exercise every day!


9. Loves to be tickled! Her laughter is one of the sweetest sounds in all the world to me. :-)

10. Squeals with delight. Not everyone is keen on hearing her squeal as it's rather loud and high pitched, but it is a happy sound!

11. Loves to cuddle. Throughout the day she periodically comes up to her Mommy or Daddy for hugs, kisses, and snuggling. Sometimes she makes the "awwww" sound while we cuddle (just like Mommy often does).

12. Has not grasped the concept of gravity. Left to her own devices she would step off the ladder side of the large slide in the back yard, dive head first off of the couch or our bed, etc.

13. Shakes her head "no" when she's near something she knows she's not supposed to touch. Sometimes she resists the temptation, and other times she doesn't. We'll keep working on that!

Number 7

During the night last night, Nadia's seventh tooth broke through. She now has 4 on the top and 3 on the bottom. You can see the first 6 clearly in yesterday's photo. Seven might be considered at times to be the number of completion, but that certainly isn't true in terms of teeth! I think number 8 (the fourth on the bottom) will be soon to follow although to be honest I expected these two teeth to break through a couple of weeks ago.



Nadia is enjoying her lion again today. The only problem is she figured out how to stand on top of the seat. Oops! I read an article recently that said that walking early (they defined as 9-10 months old and Nadia was walking then) is not a predictor of how athletic a child will be in the future but it IS a predictor of personality. The author said that early walkers are less cautious and more adventurous. That certainly seems to fit Nadia thus far. Of course a bit of healthy fear can be a good thing. If it weren't for the fact we supervise her carefully, our little daredevil would have gotten quite a few bumps and bruises.



Nadia's biggest meal of the day is breakfast, and that's actually what is good even for adults. She eats TWO entire packets of instant oatmeal for breakfast! She also feeds herself some cereal (today it was Kix) while I feed her the oatmeal, and then sometime in between breakfast and her first nap (which starts at 8:30am) she drinks several ounces of warm milk (sometimes as many as eight). I serve her the oatmeal warm. She's getting better about eating warm food.

Back-up Babysitter

Today I learned the importance of having a back-up plan for Nadia as Sarah called me this morning to tell me her son had the stomach flu. She was keeping him in his room; so if I really needed to bring Nadia there I could have, but thankfully Debbie was available. Debbie goes to the same church, and I had her in a couple of classes. She just graduated in May with her degree in Elementary Education. I knew this option was going to cost more $$, but Debbie charged $6/hr which seemed reasonable. Paul's mom is going to come up tomorrow afternoon if Sarah's son's bug proves to be more than the 24 hour variety.

I know I've said it before, but I am really happy that Nadia is such a good eater. Today I made some macaroni and cheese using small shells, and they were the perfect size for her. I didn't need to cut them into smaller pieces. I also gave her apple slices which she also really liked. I admit I haven't been very good about giving her veggies lately, but she's been getting lots of fresh fruit!

I gave the midterm exams in my classes on Monday and Tuesday. I have nine classes to go (tomorrow and then two more weeks), and then I get three weeks off of school. I can't wait! One of those weeks will be spent in the Poconos. The Monday after that vacation (Aug 24) I get to find out if baby is a girl or a boy (at 18w5d). I can't wait! I plan to do some clearance shopping for Nadia's clothes for next summer this weekend, and if I knew what baby was I'd be buying for him/her as well. Hopefully I can still get some bargains from clearance racks or garage sales in late August of summer clothes for baby #2.

Nadia's new thrill today was that I switched her lion toy from the walking position to the sit/ride position. She loved it! She learned how to get on/off by herself. She enjoys being pushed OR going backwards using her feet. I am sure in the near future she'll learn how to go forward using her feet.

Sorry I've been so bad about taking pictures lately. I just added one to a post from this weekend that shows one of Paul's towers. He gets quite creative building towers for Nadia. :-)

Two Cribs?

First I have to say a huge WELCOME to my sister and her family who are arriving in Virginia this evening. I haven't seen them in 14 months. Thankfully they'll be around at least until May before they head back to Turkey. We had planned to go down to MD to visit them this coming weekend, but my Aunt from NY will be in MD the first weekend of August so we postponed our trip to MD by one week so that we can also see them as Aunt Janet hasn't seen Nadia since she visited her in the NICU (which means she's never held her). My sister and her family haven't met Nadia, and we haven't met their youngest (Nathan) who is exactly 5 months younger than Nadia. In less than one month we will ALL be together for the first time in 20 months. By all I mean my parents plus my siblings, their spouses, and their kids. All seventeen of us are going to spend a few days together in the Poconos (eighteen if you count the one in my womb). It's going to be very special!!! That's when we'll meet Rachel for the first time (born in May).

I have been going back and forth regarding what to do as far as sleeping arrangements when the baby arrives. I used the bassinet feature of the pack-n-play for Nadia's naps a little bit (to save myself a trip up the stairs while my incision was healing), but mostly she either slept on me or in her crib. Before she was even 2 months old we had transitioned exclusively to the crib. Her crib can be made into a toddler bed, but that's not really a help to us as it can't be used as a crib and toddler bed at the same time. So the questions are #1 when to transition Nadia to a twin size bed and #2 what to do with the baby until Nadia makes the move to a "big girl" bed. She'll most likely be 18 months old when the baby arrives. Although I know some people have transitioned a toddler to a "big" bed that early, it sounds too soon to me. I figure the most economical route would be to use our pack-n-play as the baby's "crib" for say at least 6 months, at which point we could transition Nadia to a "big" bed and move Nadia's crib to the baby's room. For whatever reason, it isn't sitting well with me. I know it's probably crazy, but I don't want to feel like I'm forcing Nadia to move into a bed quicker than I would otherwise AND I feel like the second child is getting gyped to not get a crib the first 6 months. Like a baby really cares, LOL! I know it's ridiculous that it's bothering me, but it is. Part of me is leaning towards just purchasing a second crib. You can get them for about $120 so it's not like it would cost a fortune to get a 2nd crib, but on the other hand is it really necessary? I don't like wasting money. Any input is appreciated!

2nd Trimester!

If I go full-term, I am 1/3 of the way through the pgcy. YAY! Yesterday I officially entered the 2nd trimester at 13w3d. I would love to say that my "morning" sickness has gone away, but it hasn't. Not yet anyhow. I will say that at least eating something usually helps, particularly if what I eat isn't sweet. I'm not normally one to eat crackers, but I have been the past couple of months! Sometimes I think to myself surely I'm not hungry and don't need to eat, but then I do feel MUCH better after eating something (like last night it was a 100 calorie container of yogurt). I thought the heartburn was getting worse lately, but I think it was just that I had made a dish that had cajun spices in it that wasn't sitting well with me after I ate it. I guess I had better stay away from such spices until after I give birth. The most exciting pgcy development was on Thursday morning when I felt the baby move - that butterfly type feeling. Oh it was heavenly. I was 99% sure it was the baby as I had just awakened and was lying on my side in my bed, but then I thought is it too early? I looked online and nope 13 weeks isn't too early to feel those types of movements although I certainly didn't feel them that early with Nadia. I haven't felt the baby since. I look forward to the stage when I will feel the baby kick every day!

Yesterday afternoon Nadia attended her first baby shower. The shower was for Paul's oldest niece who is due to have a baby boy in early September. They're naming him after his Daddy (Quentin) so the baby will be called Q.J. (for Quentin Jr.). I'm becoming a Great Aunt, and my youngest child will be 4 months younger than my grandnephew. Our nephew Shawn will become an uncle at the age of 13. :-) After the shower we headed over to Paul's parents house (where Paul had been during the shower) and spent a couple of hours with them before we headed home. When his parents were shopping for a gift for the baby shower, they saw a Steeler cheerleading outfit and knew I had been wanting one for Nadia. I can't wait to see her in it this fall/winter. I want to teach her out to raise her arms and do the sign for "Touchdown" so she can do that during the NY and Pittsburgh games when our teams score a touchdown!

The only unpleasant moment yesterday was when two women referred to me as Nadia's grandmother at the baby shower. What?!?!?! I felt awful, but then later it made me feel belated empathy for my mom. She was a year older than I am now when she had my brother. I was in middle school and got a kick out of it when people would make comments assuming I was his mother. I now understand why my mom did NOT like it when people assumed she was Maurice's grandmother. OUCH!

Anniversary Plans

The first couple of years we were married, we took a little mini-vacation over our anniversary. For example, the first year we went to the Williamsburg area, and the second year we went to Rehoboth Beach (Delaware). Instead of exchanging gifts, we took a little getaway. Last year we obviously didn't go anywhere with an about 6 week old baby especially as we were also gearing up to move about 5 weeks later. Next year I figure we won't go anywhere since I hope to still be nursing our youngest in August 2010. If my parents or Paul's parents are up to watching our kids for an extended period of time, we are thinking of going away for several days for our 10th anniversary in 2011. I was thinking it would be nice to getaway for a day or two this year. I was actually open to the idea a two day trip, but Paul wasn't keen on being away from Nadia that long. Not that I won't miss her A LOT, but I think a day or two with just my hubby sounds fabulous. We bantered around a wide variety of ideas from going to a dinner theatre in the Lancaster area to a riverboat dinner cruise in Williamsport or Harrisburg, etc. The "winner" was to go to NYC for a day.

I went to my first Broadway show in DC (at the Kennedy Center) in 1993. I remember because it was my second date (of my life and I was very embarassed to be that old and only have been on two dates). The last one I went to was Mary Poppins with Paul in London in 2002 (I hope to take Nadia to see that in a few years in NYC; it was excellent!). In between I've seen 3 in NYC - Miss Saigon with a friend and 1776 and Les Miserables with Paul. The last time we saw one in NYC was in 2000. Today I purchased tickets for us to see Wicked (the prequel to the Wizard of Oz) in NYC on August 9th. I can't wait! I was aiming for August 8th, but the cheapest tickets available were twice as expensive on the 8th compared to the 9th. The good part about going on a Sunday is that for years I have wanted to eat at the Tavern on the Green (ever since I noticed it one time when we were in Central Park), and they have a Sunday brunch for $30 which is *cheap* compared to what you would normally spend if you ate there (although certainly more than we usually spend on a meal!). Unfortunately the brunch isn't in the Crystal Room, but I am sure it will still be oh so very lovely! I made reservations to eat at 1:00 and bought tickets for the 3:00 show. Paul's parents have graciously agreed to watch Nadia - ALL day (as it takes over 3 hours to drive to NYC one way). We'll probably leave when she goes down for her morning nap at 8:30am; so I'll still get to spend about 2 1/2 hours with her that day, but it will be the longest I've ever been away from my little sweetheart. I am looking forward though to having that much time in one day with my hubby!

This morning I took Nadia to the toddler story hour at the library. Thankfully the woman in charge today was soooooo much better than the woman in charge the last time we went. I feel greatly encouraged that library hour will be something worth going to every week once Nadia gets a little older. At the start of the story time they have the preschoolers and toddlers together, and I have to say Nadia was again the friendliest kid in the room. As is her usual habit, she circulated around the room several times making sure she went around and waved "hi" to each person in the room. I think she's more of an extrovert than either of her parents are!

This afternoon I had my 2nd prenatal appt. Paul ended up staying home from school to work on his dissertation proposal which is due to his advisor today (he's a perfectionistic procrastinator). This meant that Nadia was able to sleep in her crib at home during my appt. I saw a different midwife this time. I was there about an hour, but my wait wasn't nearly as long as my first appt so I was encouraged about that. I am doubtful any of my OB appts will be as quick as they were at the OB I saw with Nadia, but at least I was only in the waiting room 15 minutes today before being called back. I would have been done in 45 minutes, but then I had to go to the lab to get some bloodwork done. This midwife was trying to talk me into a scheduled c-section. She actually seemed shocked that I was even considering VBAC. I still am leaning towards VBAC, but we shall see. My next appt is in 4 weeks; this one will be with an OB.

She tried to get me to schedule my next u/s at their clinic. They have a Maternal Fetal Medicine group from Harrisburg that sends a doctor up their way on Mondays, but I said that although I don't want to deliver at the hospital where I had Nadia, I did like their MFM clinic. I never had to wait, they did part of the one u/s in 4D at no extra charge, and they are very thorough (one u/s with a pediatric cardiologist for example). She said if I wanted an u/s with a pediatric cardiologist I'd have to drive to Harrisburg. No thank you! Also, I have a friend who lives very close to the other hospital, and I'm hoping she'll be able to watch Nadia while I have my u/s. So I insisted on the referral to that MFM clinic. She said I'll probably have that appt in about 3 weeks. YAY that means only 3 more weeks to wait to find out if baby is a girl or a boy! The baby's heart rate today was 160, which if you believe the heart rate wive's tale, that means this baby is a girl. We shall see... :-)

Tonight I had dinner out with friends. This was the first time I've gone out for lunch or dinner with a friend in the last 10 months. It was heavenly. I had arranged the get together in honor of a colleague's upcoming 40th birthday. The five of us spent 2 hours chatting while we ate delicious meals and desserts. Now it's time for me to get some sleep! Sweet dreams...

Clap Your Hands!

I know most babies wave "hi" and clap their hands a few months before they learn how to walk, but Nadia walked for a couple of months before she started clapping. Yesterday was the first day she was clapping (a lot!). She still gets a little confused and sometimes waves "hi" when I ask her to "clap," but she definitely also enjoys clapping. I have no idea how big her receptive vocabulary is, but it's rather large. For example, I can say to her "go play the piano" and she'll walk into the living room and (while standing) reach up and play the piano.

As is true of most children, Nadia loves climbing up the slide. She can climb up the large slide that is part of the swing set all by herself, and she can also climb the much smaller slide we got her for her birthday. We use that as a water slide. When she's in her wading pool she climbs up the slide and then I help her turn around and slide back into the pool.

Tomorrow I have an OB appt. I wasn't thinking when I accepted a 12:45 appt as that is during Nadia's afternoon nap (which is usually from 12:30-2:00). Thankfully she can take her nap at Sarah's house instead. I'll make sure not to schedule future appts during Nadia's nap time.

Couldn't Resist

Yesterday morning we went to the mall to pick up Nadia's pictures at Sears and to purchase a few other items that were on my to do list such as a 40th bday card for a friend as four of us are taking her out to dinner Friday night. Usually I have been saving running errands for the afternoon, but now that I'm leaving for work at 3:15pm four days a week, that doesn't really work. Thankfully I can keep her awake for the 15 minute trip to the mall now that she's facing forward in her carseat. She used to fall asleep, which would then mess up her naps. At the very beginning I let her walk in the mall (before I put her in a shopping cart at Sears). At one point we passed an elderly lady sitting on a bench. Nadia waved "hi" to her as we passed by. A little time passed and then I heard the lady exclaim "That baby waved hi to me!" It's so fun to watch how Nadia brings smiles to so many people.

All the other times I've purchased pictures at Sears, I've resisted buying any of the extras that the lab prints, which they show you when you go to pick up your order. Today I couldn't resist. You get 5 extra sheets (in our case it was two 10x13's, two 8x10's, one 5x7, and 4 wallets for $25. They only use some of the poses that you did purchase some prints of, but they print ones in sizes and with features you didn't buy. Well I fell in love with some of the ones they made so I splurged and paid $25 more than I was planning to spend. I justified it because I don't plan on returning until late November when we go to get our Christmas pictures done. The ironic thing is that the first two pictures I hung in the house were two of the ones I hadn't ordered. I put a sepia 10x13 in the family room. I think the sepia looks great with the color of our walls in that room, and I put an 8x10 on my dresser in our bedroom. The pictures I replaced in those two frames were from February. Even though the pictures were only taken 4 1/2 months apart, she really had changed a lot in that time span! I am quite certain I will get my money's worth of enjoyment out of these pictures, plus now we have a few more to give away to family members. Some relatives (such as some of our aunts) haven't gotten any new pics of Nadia since Christmas; I think they will enjoy receiving a new pic of our sweet little girl! :-)

Often at the mall I am tempted to buy an ice cream treat as both Dairy Queen and Friendly's are there. Yesterday I steered away from sweets since I usually don't feel well after eating sweets while pregnant, and instead Nadia and I shared a meatball sub at Subway. It was her first time eating a meatball sub, and she loved it! Moments like that almost bring me to tears (the happy kind!). I am not exactly sure why, but sharing a treat together at the mall with her is very special to me.

 I've now had a couple of people in the last week mention that I now look pregnant (people who already knew I was). One student last night commented that my belly has popped out in the last week or so. It's so funny when you think about it. Most of the time we'd feel awful if someone said our belly was popping out, but when you're pg, you love that comment, LOL!

Social Butterfly

Paul continues to be amazed at how social Nadia is; he calls her the "socialite" and wonders where she gets it from, LOL! Whenever she's in a waiting room, she goes around the room and waves "hi" to each person. Children are naturally the biggest draw. This past Sunday there was a luncheon after the morning service. Nadia loved being able to run around the fellowship hall. She first ran toward the kids playing basketball. I had to move her since obviously she could get hit by the ball or trampled by a bigger child. Then she went toward the people waiting in line to get their food. She walked up and down the line waving "hi" to everyone. It was so cute! Ever since she was very little she's been a people person. When she was less than 6 months old the nursery workers discovered that if she was alone in the nursery, she would cry, but if she could be held in a room where there were other people, she would be content to watch those people.

On Wednesday afternoons there is a 10 month old boy (Eli) at Sarah's house when I drop Nadia off. It is so much fun to watch the two interact. They babble and laugh back and forth as if they understand what the other is saying. Sarah said sometimes Eli will come over and give Nadia a kiss on her head. Awwww.....

Nuchal Translucency

The sonographer says he never tries to determine gender at the nuchal translucency scan. He said it's too early. I know plenty of people who have learned the gender of their baby at 12-13 weeks, but we'll be waiting until I have the Level II u/s. I'm hoping to have that one done in August as I have 3 weeks off in between the summer and fall semesters, but it might not be until September if we have to wait all the way until 20 weeks (which is when we found out with Nadia). The good news is that baby passed the test. They look for a measurement under 3mm, and the measurement today was less than 2mm. I always go into each ultrasound excited to see the baby but also a little nervous. I am very grateful to the Lord that this baby is doing great!! The jellybean was moving all around - waving an arm, kicking a leg, etc. The unique thing for me was this was the FIRST pregnancy ultrasound I've had where the baby's head wasn't facing down! Nadia's head was facing down every single time - all the way from 8 weeks to 36 weeks. During the previous ultrasounds, the jellybean's head has been facing down as well. I'm used to seeing the head on the right and the feet on the left. They weighed me today (just for an u/s appt?), and I gained 1/2 lb in the last 3 weeks. I hadn't weighed myself the last 2 weeks so frankly I was relieved. Since my pre-pg weight was a little higher this time around, I am 5 lbs above where I was at my 13w appt with Nadia. Thankfully this appt went MUCH faster than the last one. We were in and out of the doctor's office within about 25 minutes. Whew... Now I hope my appt on Friday goes that smoothly since I'll have Nadia (and Paul won't also be there like he was today). I wish they could have scheduled both appts to be back to back (with the midwife and the u/s), but when I was there 3 weeks ago they said they couldn't.

Blueberry Festival

Sometimes I wonder how they determine the boundary lines for towns and such. The Post Office for the town which we live in (according to our address) is about 2 miles from our house. There is another Post Office less than 1/2 mile from our house, and in fact our polling place (when it's time to vote) is located in that town, not the one named in our address. Well anyhow that little town is having a blueberry festival today, and Nadia and I are going to check it out in between her first and second naps. We both love blueberries so hopefully we'll eat some yummy blueberry treats of some sort!


Paul is coming home this afternoon. Recently he said to me that no one gets as excited as Nadia to see him. I said well maybe the better way to say it is that no one shows their excitement at seeing him as much as Nadia does. I know I for one am always very glad when he comes home, but I don't squeal with delight like Nadia does. I'm sure she'll be glad to see him since it will have been more than 24 hours since she saw him last. This evening we're having a family over for dinner. They have one son (Henry) and are expecting the arrival of their daughter in August. Dave was Paul's advisor when he was working on his Master's degree at Bucknell. They only live about 15 minutes away from our current home (their trip out to our previous home for Paul's graduation party was much farther last July). I'm looking forward to spending time with them tonight. I think Nadia will have fun playing with Henry also. :-)

Bad Garage Door!

Nadia's bedroom is located over our garage. We selected it as her room since #1 it was already painted pink by the previous owner's who had one daughter and #2 it is the largest of the other 3 bedrooms (not including our master bedroom which is of course larger than hers). If baby #2 is a girl then probably that room will stay the nursery, and Nadia will move to what is now the guest bedroom. If baby #2 is a boy, then the guest bedroom will become his nursery, and Nadia will stay put. Well one disadvantage to her bedroom's location is that sometimes the garage door opener wakes her up. It doesn't happen often as usually when she's at home napping, I'm the only one at home so obviously I'm not leaving the house! When I come home from school she's always asleep, and up until last night it never woke her up in the evening. However last night when I got home about 8:15pm (she had been asleep since 7pm), it woke her up. I wasn't sure what to do as it's been over 6 months since she's awakened during the night and cried for more than say 30 seconds. I waited a couple of minutes and decided to go rock her and put her back down. She was very calm while I was rocking her, but then she just screamed as soon as I put her down. I let her cry for about 20 minutes and then decided to give her some milk to see if that would help her go back to sleep. She drank some milk and was practically asleep in my arms, but again started screaming in the crib. I let her cry longer this time. I wasn't sure what to do. She hasn't been crying AT ALL for her naps or bedtime lately, but usually when I go get her then we start in a bad cycle again of her crying before every nap. However it was really hard to listen to her cry. Ironically I had planned to go to bed early last night, but I certainly wasn't going to bed while she was screaming. So finally I went and got her a 3rd time as it now had been a whole hour since she had first awakened. I brought her downstairs hoping a change of scenery would break the cycle. I gave her more milk and some Tylenol as she's still teething. Well the third time was the charm, and she didn't cry at all when I put her down. Paul thought maybe she'd sleep in since she was up for 90 minutes when she would normally be sleeping, but I figured she'd get up the same time as always - which she did (about 6:10am). However, she did make up for the lost sleep today as her nap this morning was the longest ever - 2 1/2 hours! WOW! She's taking her afternoon nap right now and so far has been down 80 minutes. Her naps are usually 90 minutes at the longest.

There has been a vacant lot very near our home (a corner of our backyard touches a corner of that yard). Today they started construction building a new home there. The ironic thing is that there are several houses in our very small subdivision which are for sale - actually the house right beside this property is one of them that has been for sale since last fall. I guess they'd prefer to build the house exactly the way they want it to be. I hope the sounds of building a home don't wake her up from her naps over the coming months.

Speaking of construction, they have been doing a lot of it on I-80 which is the road I'm on for most of my commute to and from work. In the last couple of weeks it's lengthened my trip a few times, but yesterday was the worst. After it took me 35 minutes to go two miles, I got off I-80 the first chance possible and took back roads (which are usually slower than I-80) the rest of the way. From Nadia's babysitter to work is usually 30-35 minutes, but yesterday it took EIGHTY minutes. I missed my office hours, but thankfully I made it to class on time (with maybe 5 minutes to spare). I called the janitor at 4pm to ask him to tell a student who had an appt with me that I was caught in traffic. I met her with after class instead. She waited for me up until 4:50 (according to a nursing prof on my hall). I felt badly, but I left my house at 3:15 which should have meant I would arrive at school early or at least on time not very, very late! The trip home took the usual 35 minutes. I could start avoiding I-80 altogether for awhile. My trip would take longer than 35 minutes, but it wouldn't take 80 minutes! I wish there was a way of knowing which days I should go the back routes and which days it would work out fine to go the usual route. I will be glad when that road construction is done that is for sure!!! Thankfully Paul hasn't encountered any as his trip is much longer than mine (normally anyhow - yesterday mine was longer than his).

12 Weeks

In 10 days I'll be in the 2nd trimester. YAY! I know that bad things can happen after that point, but most women seem to breathe a big sigh of relief when they make it out of the 1st trimester. That's also the point at which my "morning" sickness went away with Nadia. I'm hoping for the same this time. It hasn't gone away yet. Last night during class I felt particularly awful unfortunately. Last night was my last progesterone suppository! I am looking forward to the end of the leakage that comes along with taking those. In terms of napping, I have been taking one nap when Nadia naps each day (about 90 minutes). It's so funny because most of my life I have NOT been a napper. I could literally go an entire year without taking one nap. Now I can hardly imagine going a day without one, LOL! Paul used to say I was "anti-naps." There was one day this week when I actually napped during both of Nadia's naps. I can't make a regular habit of that as I depend on using the time during one of her naps to get work done for school.

On Sunday I started wearing maternity clothes. I still had 3 regular skirts that fit just fine, but I was tired of wearing the same three skirts. It was okay to do so when I was teaching 2 nights a week, but now that I'm teaching 4 nights a week I need more than 3 skirts to be able to wear to work. It has been wonderful to wear "new" clothes the last few days (clothes I hadn't worn in over one year). An added bonus is that although I am sure no one could look at me and figure out I am pregnant yet (that didn't happen until I was about 28 weeks along last time!), when I look at myself in the mirror I can tell I look pregnant whereas in my "regular" clothes I just felt like I looked fat. I'd rather look pg than fat, LOL! I'll have Paul take my first belly pic of this pgcy sometime in the next couple of days. I was thinking the only maternity clothes I'd need to purchase would be some winter items since most of what I have is for spring/summer since I was due in July with Nadia. However we are going to the Poconos for a family reunion in August, and I'm sure we'll be swimming (we plan to visit an indoor water park for one thing). I was able to wear one of my 2 regular bathing suits when I was in the Caribbean while pg with Nadia because I was 11-12 weeks at that point. However I'll be 17-18 weeks along for that trip, and I really don't think either swimsuit will fit.
I am looking forward to my u/s on Monday morning and hoping maybe we'll find out if baby is a girl or boy. It did not work out well to have Nadia with me for my last u/s, and Sarah isn't available on Monday to watch Nadia (she's going to the spa - yay for her!). So Paul is going to stay home from school on Monday and go with me to the doctor. He'll be in charge of Nadia while I have my u/s.

From January until the end of June I was only going on campus 2 days a week. Last week I went 3 times, and starting this week (and this will continue for 4 more weeks after this one) I'm going 4 nights a week. I can already tell I am glad that I don't normally go in this often. One thing that has made it more unpleasant is that they are doing a lot of construction on I-80 and sometimes my trip either there or back has taken a lot longer than usual. I'm teaching 3 nights a week in the fall, but in the spring after my maternity leave (6-8 weeks) is up, I'm just going to go back 2 nights a week, and I've decided for fall 2010 all I want to do is 50% (2 nights a week). I am grateful that I only have to work part-time at the university now that I'm a Mommy.

Playing Outside

Nadia enjoys playing in the grass - barefoot or with her sandals on. Surprisingly even though the sound of the hair dryer and vacuum have been known to scare her, the sound of the lawn mower doesn't frighten her at all. I have to stay very close to her when she's outside while Daddy is mowing as she likes to run straight toward him. Sometimes Daddy stops mowing and gives her a hug as it's really hard to resist your daughter when she's running toward you. :-)

I gave Nadia some fresh cherries again today, and she decided they are quite tasty after all. They are one of those foods I wish were cheaper so I'd buy them more often.

Nadia's babysitter has a doctor's appt this Thursday; so Nadia will be going to her home Mon-Wed instead of Tues-Thurs this week. Paul will come home early on Thursday to watch her. I just put Nadia down for a nap, and so I need to switch gears to work on the syllabus for a new course I am teaching this fall.

I hope you enjoyed the pics! I had a hard time deciding which ones to post today. :-)

Video Monitor

When I did the baby registries for Nadia, I purposefully kept almost every item under $50. I think I had fewer than 5 items that were over $50 and all were under $100. We definitely don't need as much stuff this time around. We'll need some new clothes - even if jellybean is a girl because almost everything size 0-3 months for Nadia was summer clothing whereas this baby will be born in the winter, and of course if jellybean is a boy we'll definitely need to get some new clothes. Aside from clothing, I've thought of 4 items I want this second time around. First, I want an Ultimate Baby Wrap as Joy told me it never bothered her back, and the ones we have certainly do bother my back. That's an inexpensive item. The other three items are expensive (as in more than $100 each) - a double stroller, cradle swing, and video monitor. I have decided I cannot let baby #2 cry it out unless I have a video monitor. It hasn't happened often, but a couple of times I discovered (after letting her cry awhile) that her leg was stuck through the crib. I felt like a total heel. There have been other times I have wished for a video monitor, but that reason is enough for me. If anyone has a particular recommendation in terms of a cradle swing, double stroller, or video monitor, I would greatly appreciate it!

I say thank you to those of you who have voted in the poll. So far the majority has selected "girl." With Nadia, the majority selected "boy." So if the minority has always been correct with my polls, does that mean I'm having a boy this time? LOL! Paul really has zero preference. I don't have a strong preference, but I am slightly leaning towards hoping for a boy. I do see advantages though of having a second girl. I just pray for the baby to be healthy. That's far more important than the gender! I am WAY more curious about the gender than Paul is. I think he wouldn't mind waiting until I gave birth to find out although he doesn't care if I want to find out earlier. I definitely would love to know as soon as possible!

This past week Nadia tried several new fruits. She loved the blueberries but wasn't crazy about pineapple, strawberries, or cherries. For many months she's eaten unsweetened applesauce and bananas.

Happy 4th of July!

Today Nadia's 6th tooth broke through her gums. She now has 3 on the top and 3 on the bottom. The two newest teeth are both on the left side of the middle two.

Yesterday Nadia & I ran a few errands. At Walmart I got her two more sippy cups (the Munchkin kind). Of all the sippy cups I have purchased for her, there are two that she drinks out of now (Nuby and Munchkin). Ironically the one that she first had success with a few months ago (Nuk), she won't drink out of these days. I am just relieved that the transition from bottle to sippy cup went so very smoothly this week! Walmart was a ZOO yesterday. I have no idea why it was so jam packed. Unfortunately I bought 2 cases of size 3 diapers instead of size 4. I discovered it in the parking lot, but didn't want to venture back in. I figured out when I got home what had happened, they've started putting fewer diapers in each case so the amount that used to be in the size 4 cases is now the quantity of the size 3 cases. Even though this now means the diapers will cost a little more, they are still the cheapest option I've found. I recently looked into G-diapers again for baby #2, but if I use their biodegradable disposable liners, the cost would be 5 times more than what I'm paying now. So I guess I'll be sticking with the option which isn't very environmentally friendly.

Last night Nadia had her first corn on the cob. I saw a picture on Facebook of a daughter of a friend of mine eating corn on the cob, and although she's only about 3 months older than Nadia I thought to myself Nadia couldn't do that yet. Well last night I decided to let her try, and I was wrong. She was able to bite and eat some corn off the cob! She thought it was great fun. :-)

This morning we watched our town's parade for about 30 minutes (we skipped the first 45 minutes). The kids sure got a lot of candy!! One newspaper photographer took Nadia's picture and asked for our names. Maybe she'll be in the paper. :-) She liked Nadia's little patriotic outfit (a bday gift from Aunt Millie & Uncle Al). It says "I Y the USA" on it. There were of course lots of old cars, tractors, fire engines, and such in the parade; Nadia did a good job of waving at the people going by. A woman standing next to us had a little dog named Sadie that Nadia enjoyed petting. After the parade was over we headed to the park for lunch (carnival type food). We finished eating before it was time for the Christian/patriotic puppet show to begin, so Nadia got to enjoy some time on the swing set first. When they started playing music at the main stage, she started dancing in the swing. The lady who was pushing her 2 year old granddaughter in the swing next to Nadia thought it was quite funny. We only stayed for a few minutes of the puppet show as it was time for Nadia's afternoon nap. She enjoyed the time we were there though! Another highlight of her day was getting very close to a large horse and a pony (they were charging $3.00 to ride them).

Blueberries!

We live very close to a blueberry farm. I contemplated buying some plants from them in the spring, and I wish I had done so although it probably takes a couple of years before they start producing fruit. Today I stopped at the little roadside market they have and bought some blueberries and corn on the cob. Nadia LOVED the blueberries. I definitely am going to plant some bushes next spring! I wish fresh fruit were cheaper at the grocery store, but it certainly will be cheaper if I grow them myself. I think that's one of the reasons we three always eat a banana every day (in addition to the fact we enjoy eating them) - they are probably the cheapest fruit at the store. Paul doesn't think our apple trees are going to produce any apples this summer due to the gypsy moths attacking them awhile back. Bummer! Hopefully next year we can enjoy eating apples from our two apple trees.

It's really funny sometimes when Nadia chooses to say the word "yes." Yesterday I asked her if she wanted to talk on the phone with grandma. She shook her head "no" (which is the only way she shakes her head - neither grandma should feel offended by this). Then I asked her if she wanted to talk on the phone with Daddy. She said "yes." Of course I promptly called him on his cell phone for a brief chat. :-) Today when we were running errands and I was getting her out of her car seat at the Post Office I asked, "Are we at the Post Office?". To which she happened to respond, "yes." Of course she has no idea what a Post Office is! LOL!

Eleven Weeks!

I've still been having many days of "all day" sickness. I am hoping that the end is in sight although I realize it could be different and last longer this time around. With Nadia the morning sickness was gone by around 13 weeks. I get a little bit of heartburn after eating certain things, but I have to say the heartburn is definitely better this time around (thus far anyhow). I added a poll regarding the gender of "jellybean." I am going to assume whatever the minority chooses is the correct answer, LOL. I've done 5 polls on this blog the last 2 years. I can't remember if the majority was right with the first one (whether I should do another fresh cycle first or do the FET with just one embryo), but with the other 4 polls the minority was correct (Nadia's gender, what week I would go in labor with her, when I'd get the bfp this 2nd time around, and how many babies I'm expecting this time). With the last two polls there were only two people who picked the right answer both times, but it's still fun to see what people think! :-) I put the ending day of the poll as July 13 because some people do learn the gender of their baby at the nuchal screening. It's definitely not a guaranteed thing that we'll find out at 12w5d, but we might! If not then we'll have to wait until the Level 2 ultrasound to find out (done between 16-20 weeks).

Yesterday it proved to be no big deal to pack up the bottles. Nadia is doing just fine on the sippy cup. YAY! She doesn't hold it herself yet, but I am very happy to hold it for her. :-) She's also doing better and better with what time she gets up in the morning. The last few days it was 6:15, and this morning she didn't get up until 6:30! I would love to be able to sleep in until 7:00am some Saturday morning. That hasn't happened in over a year for me. Of course I'd much rather be a Mommy than get to sleep until 7am on Saturdays! Paul does get up with her on Saturdays so I usually am in bed until 6:45 or 7:00, but I am the one who wakes him up to let him know she's awake, and I can't get back to sleep. I do enjoy at least being able to rest in bed a little longer one day a week.

Often when I'm snuggling with Nadia I will make little sounds like "awww" and other contented sounds. The sweet thing is that now Nadia has started doing the same. Sometimes when she crawls into my arms for a snuggle she'll initiate the same kind of sounds. It's so cute!!! She's a very active girl so she generally doesn't want to spend extended periods of time snuggling, but she does like to be held, hugged, and cuddled many times throughout the day. Of course I am very happy to comply!!!!

Paul now has four professors who have agreed to serve on his dissertation committee. He is now trying to find a date that will work for all of them to meet together as they must sign off on his 5 page research proposal by the end of July.