I Scream;

you scream; we all scream for ice cream! Thankfully Nadia doesn't actually scream for it, but she does request "ice" (meaning ice cream) all the time these days. When I put her in her high chair for lunch or dinner, the first word she says is "ice," not that I have ever given her ice cream before she ate a meal! Today at the grocery store when we were in the freezer section, she spotted the ice cream containers and was excitedly saying "ice." Our first "battle of the wills" was over chocolate chip cookies rather than ice cream. I baked 3 dozen cookies on Friday, and yesterday she was insisting on eating a cookie before her lunch. She cried quite a bit, but that didn't persuade me to give her a cookie first. I moved the cookies out of her sight (put them on top of the refrigerator), and lunch went much more smoothly later that day. Speaking of "lunch," that's one of her new words along with "eye." She'll say "eye" when she sees one in a book.

Her attention span for reading books is thankfully expanding these days. Awhile ago she used to have a long attention span for books, but the past few months it's been very short. She likes to have us point out objects in the books rather than reading the text, and her favorite book at the moment is God Made Me.


She wouldn't take a nap this morning. I hope this was a fluke as we had gotten back into a two nap routine. I hope she takes a nice afternoon nap to compensate. I know she's tired as at 11am she fell asleep for a couple of minutes on the way back from the grocery store.

Singing and Sippy Cups

Over the last week or so, Nadia has started singing when we have a CD of hers on or are watching Silly Songs. She has such a sweet voice! She doesn't try to say any words when she sings, but she's definitely using her singing voice, and sometimes she manages to come to the correct pitch! I need to get a video of it, but it's one of those more unpredictable things. Since she likes music so much, I decided to also get her the "High Sea Symphony" toy pictured at left for her for Christmas. I think she'll have fun with the four wooden rhythm instruments.

Her favorite letter to say is crrently "x." She says it very clearly, but she hasn't learned which letter is actually the "x." She has letters and numbers in her bathtub, and now many of them are referred to as "x."

On Thursday when I met Paul's parents to give them Nadia (plus her stroller, car seat, and diaper bag), I discovered two things were missing from the diaper bag - sippy cup and a bib. I had put the bib in it, but it had fallen out before I got in the car. I found it on the garage floor when I got home. So Paul's parents stopped at a Rite Aid to buy her a sippy cup, and the really soft spout kind that she's been using the past 3+ months wasn't available. They bought her the more traditional (Playtex) kind, and she was able to use it! I guess I can get out the ones I packed away that she wasn't able to drink from a few months ago. She is getting better at holding it herself when she's drinking although she hasn't fully mastered that yet.

Nadia still has a slight runny nose. My cold is much worse than hers. I was trying to only take Tylenol, but I couldn't sleep last night as my nose wouldn't stop running. So I looked on the list of what I could take from the OB and took some cold medicine. I had my OB appt yesterday; unfortunately I had to wake Nadia up from her nap to take her with me. I gained 3 lbs in 4 weeks, which means since the egg retrieval I've gained 17 lbs total. My next appt is in 3 weeks (when I'll be 28 weeks). At that appointment I'll be given the Rhogam injection and also have the one hour gestational diabetes test. I hope I pass it!

Walls and Balls

Nadia's newest word is "wall." Paul's mom heard her say it yesterday when she was changing Nadia's diaper, and I've heard it a few times today. Her newest "toy" that she's enjoying is Paul's basketball. She discovered it in a box in the garage a few days ago and had fun rolling it around the garage. Since then Paul cleaned off the ball so she could play with it inside. She carries it, throws it, rolls it, and sits on it.

Yesterday afternoon while I was grading papers in my office, I started to get a really sore throat, and my nose started running incessantly. Unfortunately that continued throughout class last night (along with a headache and mild fever). I wanted to go to bed early last night, but I stayed up so that I could talk to Paul on the phone after he finished his exam. I still feel pretty lousy today, but of course moms don't get sick days. If Nadia gave me this cold, then I understand why she was crying so much that first night. My throat was really, really hurting last night. Thankfully the only symptom she seems to have is a mild runny nose. This is her third cold, but so far it seems to be the mildest of the three. I hope I'm feeling better soon as well and that neither of us pass this on to Paul.

She was a hit!

Nadia was a very good girl for her grandparents. Her Great Gram and some other residents at the nursing home got to enjoy the smiles and waves of our sweet little girl. She spent time in Gram's apartment, walking the halls of the home with Pop Pop, and having dinner with Great Gram, Grandma, & Pop Pop at Hoss's steakhouse. I was having her practice saying Pop Pop as we drove to meet Paul's parents. She will easily say it for Paul or I upon request, but she hasn't said it to Pop Pop yet. Hopefully soon!

Here's a family photo that my sister (Wendy) took during our family reunion in the Poconos in August. It's rare to get one of all 3 of us. Family member #4 was hiding as I was 18 weeks pregnant at the time.

Belly Button

I asked the dentist if I should be concerned about Nadia's "missing tooth," and he said that teeth coming in slowly is better. He said even if that tooth happens to be missing, there's nothing they can do about it. Hopefully eventually that tooth will appear!

Last night I recorded a really short (8 second) video of Nadia making this little sound. Normally I say a word and try to get her to imitate me. Well she was the first one to make that oohhheeeooooh sound yesterday, and she thought it was very funny when Mommy would imitate her so I recorded it last night. I need to do a better job of recording little videos of Nadia. Another thing she found very amusing yesterday was when I'd lift her shirt a little and touch her belly button, and then she'd locate my belly button. Who knew that belly buttons could be so entertaining?

Normally, Paul comes home by 3:30 on Thursdays so he can watch her while I'm at school. In light of his exam, Paul's parents agreed to watch Nadia, and Paul's dad decided it would be nice to take Nadia down to see his mom (Nadia's Great Gram). I am sure she will be a hit at the nursing home. Her waving and smiles should bring joy to the residents. Then Paul's parents are going to take Gram & Nadia out for dinner before bringing Nadia back home. They are going to be doing a lot of driving today (over 3 hours even with us meeting them in another town which will save them one hour of driving), but I am sure Gram will enjoy having her great grandaughter visit her! Hopefully Nadia will be a good little girl on this "field trip" with her grandparents. I'll get home about 8pm, but Paul is spending the night in State College as the earliest he'd get home would be 10pm.

1,000th Post

This is my one thousandth post! I am sure a few people, such as my mom, have actually read all those posts. I started this blog in December 2006 shortly after we started the process to adopt two children from Ukraine. When I started this blog, we had already tried to adopt a newborn within the US for 2 years and tried to conceive for 4 1/2 years. We had lost one baby in July 2005. Early in the summer of 2007 we found out that our 2.5 year contract with Lifetime was coming to a close without us ever being presented with a possible match with a birthmother and also that our translated dossier was going to expire in Ukraine before it was submitted to their government agency that processes adoptions. In light of those two "closed doors" we signed a contract with a different domestic newborn adoption facilitator and also began our first cycle of IVF. That summer it was very hard to understand why trying to conceive and trying to adopt (both domestic and international) were so difficult for us. I really thought by 2007 we'd finally become parents through adoption. However God had another wonderful plan for our family. It's amazing to think that in October 2007 we were still childless (having lost the 3 embryos transferred that August), and now 2 years later we have a precious 15 month old daughter and are expecting our son to be born in 3 months (I'm 25 weeks today). Praise the Lord!

I'm sure it's pretty obvious, but I love being a Mommy!! Of course every "rose" has its "thorns." For me, I'd say the thorniest part of being a parent has been the sleep deprivation. Those first four months were tough, and although I cannot wait to hold my son in my arms, I admit I'm dreading the weeks and possibly months of getting very little sleep. I got a brief taste of it again last night as Nadia woke up sometime after midnight and didn't go back down until almost 4am. Monday night she woke up crying at 10pm, and I gave her Tylenol and let her rest on top of me while I was in bed for about 20 minutes and then she easily went back down in her crib. Last night Paul had a hard time putting her down to bed, so he kept her up until I got home (a little after 8pm). I gave her Tylenol and put her down. She fell asleep about 8:15pm, about an hour later than usual. When she first awakened in the middle of the night, I went and brought her to our bed and she actually fell asleep on me. It was very peaceful listening to Paul & Nadia sleep, but of course I was also wanting some sleep! So I took her back to her crib, but she immediately started crying. I let her cry awhile, and then went and got her and gave her Tylenol and again she fell asleep on me in our bed. Again she screamed when I took her back to her crib. After letting her cry awhile, Paul tried giving her milk and rocking her, but she just kept crying even in his arms. I brought her back to our bed, but this time she just wanted to play, and it was 3:30am! After awhile I took her back to her crib and thankfully this time she finally fell asleep after crying just a few minutes. She slept from 4-7:30am and was very fussy in the morning until after her morning nap, which thankfully was 2 hours long (much longer than usual). She's been sneezing a lot the last couple of days, and today whenever she sneezes, junk comes out of her nose. She at least has a mild cold. If we have another rough night tonight (I hope not!), I am going to ask a doctor to look in her ears tomorrow morning when I have my OB appt. She doesn't have a fever, but she definitely doesn't feel well.

The outfit she's wearing today (see the picture above) was a yard sale purchase. I never used to shop at yard sales, but I have quickly become a fan of them! :-)

What's New with Nadia

Nadia has started to show us that she wants to hold her sippy cup herself. That is fine with us, if she will actually drink milk while holding it. Generally she wants to play with it or bites the spout instead of drinking from it. Unfortunately this leads to tears when we take it away from her because she's not using it properly. I know it's something she needs to learn to do herself, and she's certainly old enough to be able to hold it and drink from it. On the other hand, the initiative to have her try feeding herself with a spoon came from me. So far I've only let her try feeding herself with a spoon when she's eating oatmeal for breakfast. Again, she seems to view the spoon as something to play with more than something to eat with. Maybe I should wait a bit longer before we work on teaching her to feed herself? She feeds herself with her fingers all the time. Well if anyone has any tips to share regarding teaching a child to use a sippy cup herself and/or feed herself with a spoon, I am all ears!

Nadia hasn't gotten any new teeth lately. Should I be concerned that she still only has 3 on the bottom in the front? She has her 4 top teeth and has 4 molars. The 4 on the top came in 2 at a time, as did the first 2 on the bottom. She's had those 7 front teeth for 4 months, and I am starting to wonder if the 4th front tooth on the bottom is ever going to come in.

Her vocabulary is growing on a daily basis. It's getting hard to keep track of all her new words. A few recent additions include "ice," "house," and "no." I was impressed with her use of "house" as she said it (totally of her own initiative) as we were driving into the garage. It's so easy to impress one's Mommy, isn't it? She hasn't used the word "no" in a defiant manner, yet. So far she just says it very nicely in response to a question like "do you want some banana?" I am sure the day will come when she won't say it nicely and/or will say it in defiance, but we haven't had it happen yet. I am still amazed that she said the word "yes" for about 4 months before she said "no."

She's really into her stuffed animals these days. When Paul or I are sitting in the glider in her room, she brings us her big stuffed animals (dog and Minnie Mouse) and then says "up." Let me tell you my lap gets pretty full with a pregnant belly, 15 month old, and two large stuffed animals! It doesn't matter if the stuffed animal is bigger than she is, she still finds a way to carry it around.

Today she's wearing her sneakers (see top photo). I

think even her sneakers are so cute. I just love infant and toddler clothes and shoes! The sneakers have pink and purple stripes so they match her outfit perfectly, not that I am buying different shoes for each of her outfits, lol! She has 3 pairs that fit her - black patent shoes for Sundays, sneakers, and the brown shoes that she wears the most often. Although the turtlenecks from Target didn't fit her, thankfully the 2 I bought a LONG time ago at JCPenney do fit over her head. The sweatpants and turtleneck she's wearing today cost me a grand total of $2.40 because I bought them so long ago on clearance.

I recently bought her a small comb and brush. She's not crazy about having her hair combed when it's tangled in the back, but she loves having it brushed, and of course she enjoys using the brush herself as well.


Nadia really loves giving Mommy and Daddy "eskimo" kisses these days (with our noses). She also loves to play with my earrings. We are working on the concept of "gentle," which will come in handy when brother arrives.

Many Blessings...

1. Nadia slept in until 6:30 this morning. That may sound like an oxymoron, but considering she woke up at 5:15 the last two mornings, the extra hour was greatly appreciated.

2. Paul's parents came up last night to join us for dinner at Applebee's. Nadia enjoyed the pb&j sandwich I had brought for her to eat. Several of us (including Nadia) shared a big yummy chocolate chip cookie sundae for dessert at the end.

3. After dinner, Paul's parents watched Nadia while Paul & I went to a concert. There were four different artists - Chris Sligh (who was a finalist on the 6th season of American Idol), Aaron Shust, Meredith Andrews, and Andrew Witt. Witt was our least favorite, and Aaron Shust was our most favorite. The concert only cost $10 (and that covered admission + a t-shirt), and it was held at a church only 10 minutes from our home. It was nice to have a date with my hubby!

4. Last night Paul's parents brought us our son's crib. I am glad we got it for $50 (Craigslist) and that Paul's parents were able to pick it up for us.

5. I felt great while teaching on Thursday night; this was a great improvement over how I felt when teaching on Monday and Tuesday.

6. I haven't had any contractions for a week. Hopefully they won't return until January.

7. Aside from the "bright spot," our son got a good report on Wednesday.

Early Bird

Well Nadia's sleeping habits have been a bit erratic lately. Tuesday and Wednesday she woke up between 6:15-6:30am, Thursday at 7:15am, and this morning at 5:15am. She cried a couple of minutes and then was quiet until 5:30 and then cried another couple of minutes and was quiet until 5:50 when I went and got her. I modify the time I put her down for her morning nap based on when she got up. The earliest I put her down is 8am, and the latest is 9:30am. She generally takes about 30 minutes to fall asleep and then sleeps for about 90 minutes. Then I put her back down about 3 hours later; this means her afternoon nap usually starts sometime between 1-2:30pm. The length of this nap has been very variable. I had to wake her up on Tuesday to take her to Sarah's, and other days this nap is not even 45 minutes long. Her bedtime has been pretty consistent - between 7:15-7:30pm. Tonight for some odd reason she is having a really hard time going to sleep. It's 9:00pm, and she's still awake. I have no idea why! Usually she goes to sleep very easily at bedtime. She'd better not get up at 5:15am tomorrow in light of her very late bedtime tonight!

I had some more bleeding today. I haven't had any contractions since Saturday night, but I've had a little bleeding on Sunday morning, Wednesday evening, and this afternoon. The quantity was the greatest today. I called the OB triage nurse, and she said to stay off my feet as much as possible, drink 8 ounces of water each hour, and not lift anything over 20 lbs. I said that is impossible as my 15 month old daughter weighs more than 20 lbs. I said I would try to lift her as infrequently as possible. This weekend Paul can do most of the lifting, but starting on Monday I'll be lifting her again. My next OB appt is scheduled for Thursday.

8th Ultrasound

Yesterday was the 8th time I got to see my son via ultrasound. It will probably be quite awhile until the next one, but the good news is now I'm at the stage where I can feel him moving every day. During my pregnancy with Nadia, I was seen by the perinatologists 3 times because I had placenta previa (her placenta was over my cervix) as well as polyhydramnios (excessive amniotic fluid). I have neither condition this time so yesterday was my last visit with the specialists. The only abnormal finding was that he saw an echogenic intracardiac focus (bright spot in the heart). This actually does not indicate any heart problems. About 5% of healthy babies have this condition during pregnancy. The percent is a little higher for those with Down's syndrome. However, the doctor doesn't think it's likely our son has Down's since the other physical features that are associated with Down's didn't show up in the ultrasound. He's grown a lot since the last ultrasound! At 18w5d he weighed 10 ounces, and at 24w0d he weighed 24 ounces (1.5 lbs). The sonographer gave me 4 pictures - two 3D profile shots and two 4D facial shots. I have to say I prefer the 3D ones to the 4D ones.

I talked with the doctor about the contractions and bleeding and also the fact that he often kicks so low it feels like he's about 1 inch from exiting my body. He said if the contractions are strong enough that they are worrying me, I can come in for them to check my cervix even if I'm having less than 4 an hour. He said usually it's not a problem for baby to kick that low, but that if those kicks are persistent and strong, that it actually can be a problem. He just kept emphasizing that it was better for me to come in if I was concerned due to bleeding, contractions, and/or really strong/low kicks. I think he was surprised they didn't have me come in over the weekend. I thought maybe he'd do an internal exam in light of what I shared with him, but he didn't. I visited with Donna for about an hour and then drove home. When I got home I discovered a little more blood. I didn't see the point of calling the hospital since that's where I had just been! I haven't had any contractions since Saturday night. I did notice I felt super lousy while we stood for one song during choir rehearsal last night. I definitely need a stool for school although I was informed yesterday they don't have any available. I guess I need to try to buy one myself ASAP. I left choir a little early since I just wasn't feeling that wonderful. My next regular OB appt is scheduled for a week from today. If I have any more bleeding or contractions, I'll ask if we can move that up and include an internal exam.

Nadia did well yesterday considering her afternoon nap was 2 1/2 hours later than usual and only 25 minutes long (taken in the car on the way home). I've noticed that when she gets less sleep during her naps, she sleeps more that night, which makes sense. The last few days she's been getting up between 6:15-6:30, but this morning she slept until 7:15.

I've mentioned after her well baby visits that her head circumference has usually been in the 90th percentile. Well I guess it means no turtlenecks for her. I bought a few at Target a few weeks ago. There are even snaps on the back of the neck so I thought it would go over her head unsnapped (size 18 months), but nope there is no way these shirts are going over her head. I hope they'll take them back as I didn't keep the receipt. Thankfully the tags are still on them.

Nadia's newest word is "pop." She said the word many, many times yesterday as a package that came in the mail yesterday had bubble wrap around it. I put it on the floor and when she walks on it, she pops the bubbles. She already had fun again with it this morning; after hearing the popping sound she says "pop." Paul's dad likes his grandkids to call him PopPop so we shall see if she'll start saying his name now that she can say that word. :-)