Eleven Months Old and Her First Christmas

Yesterday Julia hit the 11 month mark, just 31 days away from her first birthday!! In the last month, she's experienced a lot:

• She now sports two teeth - both bottom incisors, of course. They are sharp. Ow.
• Julia received her H1N1 shot. The significance of this was that she now knows what's about to happen when they swab her thigh with rubbing alcohol and gets right upset about it. Never the less, she gets over it pretty quickly and with no ill effects.
• She also had her second significant illness - the croup, which is a royal pain in the kiester when you have to give breathing treatments to help with the coughing at night.
• As you can see from the photo above, she is very adept at standing up, even on things that aren't the most stable, which leads to her balancing on her own two feet - the precursor to walking! She does 'cruise' a bit along the couch, coffee table, or in her crib, so we don't think it will be long before she tries to take a step on her own.
• She now is a little shadow, following us all around the house with maddening crawling speed; sometimes it's on all fours, and other times it's with her one foot in an almost walking pose.
• Eating - she has recently expressed a real interest in what we're eating, so with a few exceptions, she gets to at least try it. To date she's tried: bagels and lox, pizza (especially pepperoni and sausage), fried plantains, gryos, turkey, pulled pork, pancakes, gingerbread waffles, French toast, bacon, french fries, tandoori bread, cheese balls, Cheetos, sweet red peppers, lemon wedges, mashed sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, dried cranberries . . .there's more, but that's been in the last week or so!
  
• Julia seemed to enjoy the holidays - lights were very cool, wrapping paper was fun, and 'Jingle Bells' seems to one of her favorites. She got into opening presents pretty quickly, but mostly to play with the ribbons and paper! She scored some pretty cool gifts - learning toys, stuffed animals, books, and clothes! YAY!

Now for the final few weeks until Julia turns one . . .what will she do?

For those of you on FaceBook, friend Steven or I to see more photos of Christmas (or ask one of us to e-mail you a link, if you aren't on FB)!
See you next month!!! And have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Ten Months Old and More Milestones

It was Julia's first Thanksgiving! You might be asking: what did she think of the food? Well, seeing as how she's a very finicky eater, still doing cereal with fruits or veggies mixed in and despises finger foods, I'd have to say her opinion was rather biased toward the negative. She did try some of her sister's home-made bread (passable), mashed potatoes (blech), stuffing (plooey), and baked squash (double blech). Other than that, it was just another visit to grandma and grandpa's . . . or was it?
Julia spent the two weeks prior to the Thanksgiving holiday sick with some kind of virus she couldn't get rid of - coincidentally, but not necessarily causitory, she had started going to her new daycare just three days before she became ill with what started as a stuffy nose, then progressed into daily fevers which lasted for a week and a half. Due to the fevers, she could not go to daycare and was out for two weeks total, with Thanksgiving at the tail of it. Being sick that long, she was in and out of the doctor's office several times, which ended with a trip to the lab the Monday before Thanksgiving for a urine and blood draw - this was Julia's first encounter with catheterization as well as having blood drawn, and not a nice little draw from the heel, either; this was a full-on, needle to the inner elbow extravaganza. Mommy and daddy were traumatized as much (if not more) than she was! The whole point, from the doctor's explanation, was to eliminate any possibilities for illness aside from garden variety virus. The very next day, her fever broke and she was on the mend - we were happy, but perplexed as to why it went for so long; the day after that, her results came back as all normal. So that's the good news. The bad news is that she had to go through all the testing and the sickness. Booooo!
The Thanksgiving trip to grandma and grandpa's (to continue the story) was a great time - since she's crawling now, she introduced herself to my parents' cat, Smokey, who learned very quickly that he was not fond of babies. Julia, on the other hand, discovered that she is very fond of kitties and chased that poor cat all over the areas of the house she was allowed to get to. Smokey figured out that she was somewhat limited and used that knowledge to tease her mercilessly by sitting juuuuuuuuuuust outside of her boundary areas and watching her while in full view.
Also at the grandparents', Julia took her first major fall, taking a dive off the bed while dragging along some pillows, placed to help fence her in, but which facilitated her fall by being covered in slippery material. It was quite a scare for her and all of us - her daddy was right there, but just couldn't get to her fast enough (that says something about her crawling speed!). In the end, after hours of observation and reading every scary thing we could find on the internet, Julia came through with hardly a bump. The lesson has been learned by the parentals, but she seems hellbent to try again.
And for the big announcement . . .drumroll, please! Julia's first tooth erupted on the 28th - her 10 month birthday!!!!!! The lower left incisor was noticed by me when we were out doing a little shopping Saturday. It's really hard to capture in pictures, so imagination will have to suffice - still, it's as cute as teeth get!

Nine Months and Super Milestones!!

Apologies for the delay - I had only planned to wait a few days after Julia's 9-month birthday to include data from her check-up and that turned into a week! But what an eventful week!!

Vital Statistics - Julia weighs in at 16 pounds 14 ounces and is 27 inches long. The physician's assistant called her a "peanut", but she is growing normally, even if she is a bit small.



New Tricks - These started the day after her checkup . . .

• On November 3rd, Julia officially crawled! She has been toying with it for the past several days, but finally took more than one "step" forward and now, after a few days, is very confidently moving across the floor (and into places she's not allowed, therefore getting into trouble)
• Then, on November 4th, she was hanging out in her crib for a moment and . . .pulled herself up into a stand! Now, she is pulling herself up using the couch, coffee table, Nordic Track (don't ask), and anything else she can find. She is also already doing one-handed stands (meaning that she is cockily letting go with one hand and turning her body around to look at things)
• Although not really a new trick, Julia is so well behaved in restaurants that she's sitting very well in the high chairs they have and amusing herself during dinner. We'd been reluctant to use the chairs before because they seemed so easy to slip out of (especially as little as she is) - well, why were we worried? She sits like a pro and proceeds to throw bread bits on the floor. At least the staff makes over her and we do clean up after ourselves, so no one has complained so far.
• Holding the bottle herself - not perfectly, mind you (as evidenced by the photo above), but she likes to do it herself (even if the carpet does get quite damp).

Julia is growing more hair, but still no teeth. She has a devilish side to her (hmmmm - wonder where she gets that?) and a bit of a stubborn streak, but it all revolves around discovery and exploration. She delights in taking off daddy's glasses and grabbing the paper to "read". She does love books (to read as well as eat) and enjoys bouncing in her Exesaucer.
More photos will be on the side which will include Halloween and some of her new skills.
Stay tuned for more next month!!

Eight Months - Such a Big Girl Now!

As Julia grows, we are amazed almost daily at what she does - she picks up new skills so easily and then acts like she's done them for months! She is also growing very much like a weed;
.just the other day I came home from work and could have sworn she grew and changed in her face Don't ask me what her measurements and weight are because I have no clue, but I can tell you it feels like she weighs a metric ton :-)
What she's doing:

• Laughing spontaneously at things she finds humorous, including but not limited to: zerberting being done to her neck and belly, daddy bobbing his head and making weird noises, mommy shaking her head and screeching, tickling, other people laughing, being "baby hat", and "getting" sissy.
• Rolling over and doing a strange Jane Fonda-esque pose a la aerobicising (or whatever Jane was doing in legwarmers in the 80's), holding her foot in the air. She's also big into her feet. And ours, which makes me crazy because I have a thing about my feet.
• Getting herself into a nearly-seated position, all by herself.
• Sitting up with some assistance and maintaining it for a bit. Eventually she does fall over, but we've made this as non-traumatic as possible.
• Getting up on her knees, then to her hands and knees. We're still not moving forward, but at least we're up - she can sort of go backwards and today we helped her move forward, much to her delight, but she needs to practice some more.
• One day two weeks ago she looked square at me and said "mama"but she has not done it since. She'll babble ma-ma-ma, ba-ba-ba, da-da-da, na-na-na and variations on those themes.
• Leaning towards what she wants while being held - this includes going to daddy, mommy and sissy.
• Grasping things using more refined fine motor skills - she's getting pretty good and picking things up, using pinching to grab things she wants, and manipulating things in her hands.
• Growing hair. It may not be as evident in her photos, but there is a healthy patch of hair coming in on her noggin. She gets "Alfalfa" hair in the morning or after her bath, which is adorable. It's still light brown with some reddish tints from what we can tell when she's in the sun, but we still don't know what it'll be.
• Starting to get upset when she realizes we are not in her immediate vicinity. Separation anxiety is starting to rear its head and she has begun to demonstrate favoritism towards us when she's in certain moods. For example, right this minute she's daddy's girl curled up on his chest taking a nap, but last night when she wasn't feeling well and she was tired, she was mommy's girl.
• Expanding her interest in toys and activities. Some things she was introduced to earlier may not have tripped her trigger, but now she is into them - like her caterpillar, Pooh and Piglett toys, blocks and exesaucer. She also likes books, but more for touching and turning the pages. She is a very tactile child and spends a lot of time touching and scratching at things. This includes our skin.
• Eating more solids. She's done great with cereal, but does not enjoy much else unless it's mixed into her cereal. She goes ape over cereal mixed with prunes (yeah, I know but she doesn't poop nearly as much as you might think) and does quite well with pears and squash in the same manner. This week, Steven says he'll try cereal with green beans or peas, since we tried beans on their own and it went over something like a lead balloon. She will try things is we put it on our fingers (or hold it) - like the caramel apple smoothie I had last night, some guacamole from one of our favorite local restaurants, and home made bread. Sometimes it goes over well (bread), sometimes it doesn't (smoothie and guacamole), but she tries it.

Now She's Seven Months Old - Growing So Fast!

Every day is an adventure with Julia and the time is whipping by so fast; it seems like yesterday when she turned six months and now all of the sudden it's seven. Since last we wrote, she has gotten taller, heavier and more expressive. She also can now not only roll back to front, but front to back and is scooting all over the place - next step is purposeful rolling and getting up on her hands and knees; she does one end and the other at different times, but we're anticipating the coordination of both really soon!
She definitely loves to laugh and we love to hear it! The video is a sample of just SOME of the amused (and amusing) sounds she makes - the one variation that is missing is the "pterodactyl" noise she makes by taking in air and making a noise at the same time - very funny and very cute; I'll try to get it, but she can be an elusive little beast when she sees the camera . . .
More photos have also been added, including the gratuitous naked baby photo. As you will see, she is now fully into cereal, but not so into sweet potatoes (didn't get that reaction, but it truly was a Kodak moment).

Hey! She's Six Months Old!!

Yesterday Julia turned six months - it just doesn't seem possible; heck it's only been a couple weeks since she was born, right?
Anyhoo, at six months, she is constantly changing and developing - just recently we have seen her:

• recognize the sound of her big sis as she came down the stairs and then giggle when she saw her
• reach for toys, grasp them, play with them, and ostensibly chew the dickens out of them
• respond to her name
• scoot all over her play mat and twist her body into crazy angles to reach for toys (or the carpet, which she loves to scratch at)
• laugh and laugh and laugh, which she has been doing now for about six weeks
• stand with support
• squeal and scream - both done as a way to get attention as well as to practice her vocal range. She babels and is seeming to use certain consonant and vowel sounds to express feelings or wants (ah-niy-niy-niy seems to mean she doesn't want what is happening while ah-mahm indicates a desire for mommy to feed her).

Every day is a joy with her - except for last week when she was going through her fist cold; not so much joy and we were very worried about the possibilities of worse things, but it turned out fine. She got through it, gave it to Kennedy, and aside from a lot of lost sleep, Steven and I have been fine.
So there you have it - half a year old! And at the last doctor's visit, 14 1/2 pounds (no wonder my arms get sore!!!)!

Please Vote for Julia!

Julia is in the Beautiful Babies Contest! Please take a moment to go to her site and vote - it’s quick & easy to register (Just 3 steps!) If she wins, she wins a cash prize and a professional photo shoot (look out Cindy Crawford!!!)! Voting is on now through Monday, August 4 Midnight EST. Click the link below to go directly to Julia’s photo!

http://beautifulbabies.trb.com/wgnamerica/babies_home_gallery,0,7517665,permalink.ugcphotogallery?u=AHGoddess


Of note, the "three easy steps" are pretty easy, but when you log in, come back to this blog and click on the link to have the voting site reset to Julia's picture, otherwise you'll be sitting there all day voting on other baby pictures - which may be fun for you, but if you're like me, you want to get the business done before playing around. :-)

THANK YOU!!!!!

Five Months Old!

Ok, we're a few days late here, but bear with us - Sunday was such a cool day it just had to be savored - the weather was great, we went to the park and experienced nature, and just enjoyed ourselves. As it turned out, Julia's five month birthday coincided with our anniversary weekend (Steven and I celebrated three years of marriage on the 25th!!) so a lot of our time was celebrating our time together as a couple and as a family with Kennedy, too!

At five months, Julia is rolling over quite adeptly (although she is still working on front to back), working on that lower right tooth, and laughing. She has also made peace with the "baby in the mirror", who until recently, was a threat; she now seems to understand that SHE is the baby in the mirror and flirts with herself. Speaking of flirting, she is quite good at that, too, acting all shy and sweet when she sees someone she likes (daddy, for instance, who she has wrapped around her pinkie). In other news, she is trying cereal, but I can't say she's a big fan of just yet . . .

Ladies and Gentlemen! Drumroll Please!

She's been trying to do this for the last week with some success (if the surface was uneven or someone was helping a bit), but as of today, little miss is rolling over like a pro! YAY!!

A Party for Great-Grandma

Last weekend we went to northern Ohio to visit with Steven's family and celebrate his Grandmother's 88th birthday. It was a big test for us to see if Julia would travel well and as it turned out, she slept the whole way there and back! Yeah for us! She behaved pretty well during the day, with the exception of when we were at dinner and she was a bit overwhelmed by all of the people and noise at the restaurant - that resulted in a rather fussy child, but later on, as you can see from the photo, she was calmer and cuddly, giving her great-grandma her own special present (a hug, not what might have been in her diaper).
In other news, Julia has been very active, exercising her legs and such, so much so that she apparently rolled over yesterday at her sitter's; we tried to recreate the experience at home, but Julia was either not in the mood or had done it by accident at Samia's (I'm going with option "b"). We are pretty sure that she'll be doing it for real before too long which means we'd better start baby-proofing soon!
Julia has also begun drooling and for a few days last week was very irritated, which she expressed by fussing and gnawing on her bottles (or me). Like it or not, we're pretty sure she's got a tooth developing - we felt something in her lower front gum. Maybe one of these days we'll have a toothy smile photo! Speaking of smile photos, you will see a new set in the sidebar; these are shots from last weekend, right before we left. She is smiling and laughing so much more - an absolute joy!
Let see, what else? Oh yeah - she's trying out a new attention getter: the "kissy" noise. At night when she wants changed and fed, many times instead of outright crying, she'll make a kissing or sucking noise (which is a much nicer way to be woken up, I'll tell you). The other night when we were eating dinner, she wanted to be picked up and when we didn't respond to her fussing right away, she resorted to making kissing noises - we have a short viseo that we may try to get on soon - it's interesting, though, because she uses her top lip instead of her bottom lip to nake the sound. It is adorable :-)

Three Months Old!

Our little one is growing up so fast! Just yesterday she hit the three-month milestone; it seems like she was just born last week and now she's doing weird, modified sit-ups so she can roll over, smiling unabashedly, solidly holding her head up, and nearly sleeping through the night (thank God). Alas, with progress comes loss - as she has developed her vocal range (and volume) we miss some of the simpler, sweet little sounds that she has shed in favor of more complex sounds. In like fashion, she has mostly outgrown her first round of clothes (0-3 months) and is solidly in the next level, so now some of our favorite little outfits just can't be worn because her little legs are just too long. Regardless, we are so proud of her - she's not only cute but strong to boot!

New Routines

Well, like it or not, Steven and I are now back at work - Steven had a four-week head start on getting into the groove of work, which means that Julia and I are on our second transition; for the first six weeks, Steven or I would take Kennedy to school, then come back home to do whatever Julia needed (which, thankfully, included taking naps when she did). The last four weeks has been a similar pattern with me getting up to make some tea, eat some breakfast, take Kennedy to school and then come home and crash with Julia for a few hours because she had kept me up a good chunk of the night. Yesterday was our first day of life with two working parents - Steven taking Julia to the sitter and me taking Kennedy to her dad's (since she's on break this week, which means another transition next week because as of today, we wouldn't have made the tardy bell - oops). We've got a few kinks to work out.
So, you may be asking: did Wendy cry? I'll be big about this - yes, I did. In fact, all last week was difficult for me because I knew I only had so many days left. Saturday and Sunday were particularly rough with me fighting off tears for much of the time while trying to be all cool and whatnot around the family; once I was home and putting youngsters to bed, the gloves were off, so to speak - waterworks galore. Monday's drive in was challenging as well, but I kept it cool - once I got home, though . . .well, I think we all needed cuddles.
Update on being a baby: Julia is sleeping much better, thanks to something called "gripe water" - handily found in any pharmacy, this liquid wonder has been around for over 100 years and boast the ability to sooth colicky infants. Century-old or not, this herbal infusion has been a godsend, as has the addition of probiotics to Julia's diet. Yes, she still farts like a mad fiend, but at least she's not doing her Jekyl and Hyde act on a daily basis with Daytime Baby being so angelic and sweet and Nighttime Baby being equally cute, but very loud and fussy.
Also in the news, smiling is very big and thanks to taking countless pictures, we FINALLY got one of her smiling (most shots were the immediate emotional phase after a smile - usually interest or confusion). She is a doll (this is a direct quote from Steven's grandma, who met her great-grandchild a week ago)!

She Ain't No April Fool

Ah - we must apologize for not posting recently. Believe it or not, having a newborn takes up a lot of time. Aside from the care-taking, we do spend a good chunk just staring at her - for good things, like wonderment at such a beautiful being and the daily changes in her appearance and capabilities, and for other things, like wondering what the hell we're still doing up at 4 a.m. and why what worked to calm her last night isn't working tonight.
There are more pictures . . .tons more, and I'll get those up here shortly. In the meantime, in observance of April Fool's Day, here's a guide to all things Julia:

Zodiac Sign: Aquarius ("When the Moon is in the Seventh House, and Jupiter aligns with Mars . . ." Yeah, now that's going to be in your head all day - MWAAA-HAA-HAA)
Chinese Zodiac: Ox (Just like Big Sis - how cool is that?)
Eye Color: Turning blue - kind of like the sea after a storm
Hair Color: Light brown, but after a bath or in the sunlight has blond-ish look with red highlights (hmmm - could we have a Ginger on our hands?)
Favorite Activities: Cuddling, eating, smiling, cooing, screaming, sleeping and farting (not necessarily in that order)
Enjoys: Being in her Baby Bjorn carrier while shopping, watching the ceiling fan, holding her head up, sleeping in weird positions, being naked, kisses, bath time, and looking adorable
Skills: Peeing all over herself and yet totally missing the diaper when being changed, collecting "neck cheese", and wrapping her daddy around her pinkie
Things She Doesn't Like: SHOTS, having to wait to eat for more than a nanosecond, gas and poop, when mommy gets shampoo in her eyes, and being put down when she wants to be cuddled (which is always)

Sister Love

As you can see, not only is Kennedy smitten with her "mini me", but Julia is equally taken with her big sis. Kennedy is enjoying taking care of Julia - she has taken on diaper changes and soothing her when she gets fussy. Julia smiles for her and seems to respond when she hears Kennedy come home at night - it is so sweet! The other night, Julia was lying on her back on Kennedy's bed - we were finishing homework and loading songs on her iPod, - anyway, Kennedy was talking to her and next thing I know Julia has turned her body to look at her big sis and gurgle at her. Won't be too long before the two of them are conspiring . . .

Julia: The Movie

Here is a video taken of Julia on Valentine's Day. She is so sweet!

Update

Well, I must apologize for both myself and Wendy. We have been so busy that we've not been keeping everyone updated with the goings on. Of course, we're home now.

In my last post, I talked about being stuck in the hospital and the need to give Wendy two units of blood. All went well, and we were able to come home the next day, Sunday. Since then, it's been diapers, sleepless nights, and lots and lots of cuddling. I have loved every moment of it!

Julia was born "tongue-tied," which is a real condition, not just what happens when you do not know what to say. The medical term for the condition is "ankyloglossia." It results when the frenulum (the band of tissue that connects the bottom of the tongue to the floor of the mouth) is too short and tight, causing the movement of the tongue to be restricted. To avoid breastfeeding issues and the potential for a speech impediment, the frenulum had to be cut. We had it done when Julia was just 5 days old. She was a trooper.

Other than that, our little girl is perfect!

Wendy is doing well, too. Her blood count is on the rise. Despite wearing out easily (which i am sure all new mothers do), she has been great.

I'm sure we'll have more for you soon. Until then, we just wanted to let you know that we're doing great! Grace and Peace!

Say Hello To Julia Katherine Smiseck

Sadderday

I'm writing this from Wendy's hospital room at camp Riverside. It is about 9:00pm on Saturday, Jan 31, and we are still here. We were supposed to have gone home yesterday, but Wendy's blood count was still dropping. So, we were given one extra day. We thought we would be home for sure today. However, a 7:00am visit from our OB changed all that. Wendy's bloodcount took another drop. The doctor told us we'd be here for another day. She also ordered an ultrasound to see what, if anything, was happening. Plus, the doctor went ahead and ordered a blood transfusion, as the count was so low. The ultrasound informed us only that there were no "significant issues," which is good - no surgery needed; Wendy is just healing slowly. The transfusion took about four hours, and Wendy now looks and feels better. They took a blood count this evening, will compare it to one they will take tomorrow, and, if things Look stable, we will finally go home. But, as of now, it is an unhappy Saturday for my girls.

As to baby Julia, she is getting prettier everyday, and has become quite the cuddlebug. I do love her so.

Those who keep asking for photos, please be patient. As soon as I get to a real computer, I will upload a few. Until then... Grace & Peace to you all.

Baby - Day 2

Our little angel is now almost two days old. The universe appears to have smiled on us. Not only is she beautiful but she is also very well behaved. A real angel sent for us to love.

Some of you may have noticed that we've not given you a name yet. Truth is, we've been all over about what name we think is best. After lots of discussion, we finally came up with a name we think fits, so say howdie to ...

Julia Katherine Smiseck

As for mom, she is doing fine. There is a slight concern with her hemoglobin level, which may keep her here to Saturday, but we have yet to hear. As of now, I still hope to take my two girls home sometime late today.

She's Here!

Wonderful news, everyone! Wendy and I welcomed out beautiful baby girl into the world at 11:28am on January 28. She was six pounds- six ounces, & 18 inches long. The delivery was a little too eventful for this dad. They had to use the wicked vacuum device to get the baby out, as they were a bit worried when they had trouble tracking her heartbeat. This procedure resulted in her having trouble getting her breathing started, and I think I aged ten years in the few moments it took to get her off and running. But, the baby is a trooper and is doing great. She even reached out and grabbed her daddy's hand. Talk about wrapping me around her little finger! Took less than five minutes of life for her to steal my heart.

Things were not so pleasant for mom. Wendy's placenta grew into the muscle wall of her uterus. The condition is called placenta accretia. No need to go into details here. What is important is that Wendy had to endure 2.5 hours of her OB basically scrapping the placenta off the uteral wall. This was neccessary because leaving the placenta intact could cause hemeraging. Wendy held up well, even having the OB and a whole coven of nurses laughing despite the discomfort. Some drugs are good.

All Is now well. They're watching Wendy close to make sure she does not bleed, and they are also going to keep us in the hospital a day or two extra to make sure Momma is healing up well.

We do have photos to share and more info, but I have no computer access to post everything yet ( I'm doing this on my I-touch, which takes forever.)

Now, if the hospital staff will just stop coming in every ten minutes so we can rest ...

Grace & Peace to all

....and so it begins

Just want all to know that Wendy's water broke at 11:45 pm on Tuesday Jan 27. After a crazy drive through the ice and snow, we made it safely to Riverside hospital. It is now after 3:00 am, and we're chilling out awaiting all the fun! I'll update you as I can

Whew - Close Call

We had a bit of a scare last Friday at our checkup - things initially were looking good: baby's heartbeat going good, dilated one centimeter, looking good in general - but when we went in for the NST, they were concerned about Flipper's position. She had gotten annoyed and moved north, so they were worried that she hadn't turned. This lead to an immediate ultrasound - now pipe down; we didn't get any new pictures because she's too big to get a good shot of, but believe me, she seemed fine. Anyhoo, as they were checking (and yes, she's head down now), they noticed two things: one, that the amniotic fluid was low, and two, that the placenta was starting to age and calcify. Now with the fluids, I am known to drive my vehicle until the gas gauge is riding the "E", which makes Steven nuts; our OB does this, too, so I felt somewhat vindicated, but in this case, having low fluids is not cool, so I was ordered to drink fluids like they were going out of style AND to spend quality time lying on my left side doing nothing. I complied completely with edict one and mostly with edict two (we had some nursery work to do). Placenta aging is another issue, apparently affected by fluid levels; it gets old, just like the rest of me, and functions less and less. This happens with all placentas, but in *ahem* younger women it is seen after 40 weeks instead of earlier.
So, today's checkup was a bit of a nail-biter because if the fluids weren't up, we'd be on our way to Riverside hospital. The good news - fluids were up and that makes both Flipper and the placenta happy (yes, the placenta looked a lot happier when I saw it on the ultrasound - smilin' and everything) and we got another centimeter. Doc says we bought some time and every day Flipper spends cooking, the stronger she gets. Friday she "weighed" in at just over six pounds - they can do this with the ultrasound somehow, which is pretty cool).
On the sort-of bummed or wistful side, we were ready to go today - packed up and relatively mentally prepared for a birthday. I know when Kennedy gets home from school she will be an unhappy camper because she is really, and I mean really, excited about being an older sister. But, as the doc said, we bought some time - exactly four days; we go back in this Friday to do the NST, ultrasound, and internal check again to see what's up - Kim (OB) was not guaranteeing anything after Friday, so we may be going at the end of the week, or we may advocate to schedule for a day that we all can agree upon, at least getting us into February AND having our OB available. Of course, she had to throw in that with the snow coming, a drop in pressure could trigger the water to break - apparently they see that a lot this time of year. Now why did she have to go and harsh my mellow? I was cool with just hanging out until Friday but now I have to worry about spontaneous uncontrolled leakage? Oh, and here's the kicker: with a twinkle in her eye, Kim informed me that because of my "advanced maternal age" I was classified as "elderly". Guess I'd better start practicing chasing kids off the yard with my cane and signing up for my Golden Buckeye card - hey, where do elderly people hang out these days? Anywhere cool?

Flipper's Shower

This past weekend, we were treated to an awesome baby shower by Steven's mom and sisters - as you can see from the picture, we enjoyed ourselves (note laughter abounding to the left). And to appease those who keep asking to see what I look like, take note of picture to the right which demonstrates not only my buffalo belly, but the approximate position and activity of its contents.
It was a beautiful and cold day, but despite the frigid temperatures, we were very happy to spend time with friends and family - in fact, we were overwhelmed by the love and generosity! It was a great day - thanks to all who were a part of it!
Alas, after a great party and some additional time with family sorting through gifts and assembling stuff that requires some assembly, we retired to our customary places in the living room, in our PJs, doing what we normally do on a Saturday night (hanging from chandeliers, making prank phone calls, egg tossing . . .) when tragedy struck - the frozen water pipe issue we were trying to solve turned ugly. Yep, the pipe cracked. Behind a wall. And flooded three areas. At the time, we didn't know it was behind the wall - we thought it was under the concrete. So, quick action stopped the water flow, Sham-WOW and a shop vac caught some of the worst flooding, and the patience and help of Steven's parents kept us in comfort while we sorted through repairs and clean-up.
In the meantime, amidst the chaos of our house, we were able to take a time out to watch the inauguration of Barack Obama all the while explaining to Flipper the significance of a day she'll never remember, even though, in a way, she was there. She was pretty active the whole time, moving around and pushing (she's been advocating for room expansion for the last few weeks - I told her "no").
All in all, it was an emotional roller-coaster of a weekend/week start but I can't say that it was bad at all - we got to see people we love, spent time together as a family in both fun and adversity, and saw history unfold. It's definitely a time we'll never forget . . .

So Far, We're Fine and TOMORROW is 30 Days

Ok, so a non-stress test (or NST, as they refer to it) is basically me sitting in an easy chair-like chair with heartbeat monitors hooked up to a thing that looks like a polygraph machine - you know, with the graph paper and all. The basic idea is to capture Flipper moving around to see what her heartrate is when active - if she's taking a nap, it doesn't work for them. So you sit around hoping the kiddo decides to play, read whatever magazines they have on hand (note to self: bring something in that's cool) and listen to the machine do its thing, which can be a little freaky, especially if you watch too many "Forensic Files" shows and slip into a moment when you think you're supposed to be answering quetions and yell for your lawyer. Anyhoo, we didn't get to talk with our doctor, which was a bit puzzling - the graph paper disappeared into the hall and next thing we know, we're told all is fine and "see you next week and then each week after in which you'll be doing this again." Wait, what was that? We hadn't gotten the "you'll be doing this often" memo, but I guess since I've got gestational diabetes (which the doc says is looking fine) and creeping blood pressure, they need to monitor closely. The weekely checkups start, well, I guess now. The technician working with us informed us that not only were we going to get to know her quite well, but that we were naming Flipper for her (her name is Lillian, by the way); for the record, no on the name, although I'm sure we'll get somewhat familiar with her - you tend to get to know people who put goo-covered monitor things on your exposed belly. In the near future, I'm sure I'll be great pals with the medical staff at Riverside hospital, whether I want to be or not.
In other news, we didn't get to do the ultrasound - apparently they were very busy yesterday and we hadn't been scheduled for it, even though both of us heard that Kim wanted to see what was going on - we plan to ask about that next week. So the bad news: no pictures to share this week. The good news: we must be doing ok because they sent us packing.
Last week I was griping about heartburn and insomnia; this week I will continue to gripe about insomnia but will add to it having a cold (thank you, Kennedy, for bringing that home) and doing a masterful job of pulling a lower back muscle - you know when you do it right, you can almost hear the "ping" of the muscle as it pulls. Anyhoo, that last action made life as I know it pretty interesting - it's already a task to walk, sit, stand, roll over (my God, I'm starting to sound like a trained dog), but add to that a reminder that I shouldn't have been putting dishes in the dishwasher . . .yes, I strained it doing something as simple as putting a bowl in the dishwasher. Isn't that pathetic? Of all the things . . .anyway, it's better now. Let's just hope I don't do some other benign activity and throw it out again.

Update

My last entry said something about updating you all on January 5th - we had a bit of a delay and didn't see the doc until today . . .something to do with a vehicular breakdown in Indiana and a hormonal pregnant woman meltdown, but I won't bore you with the details.
Here's the scoop:

• The 24 hour urine test (which I did study for, ad nauseum) came back as normal which is a very, very good thing. The main concern was that I might be dumping protein, but I'm not (in fact, it sounded like I was well within normal perameters). Too much protein in the whiz means naughty things are afoot, so from that standpoint, no nautiness.
• On the other hand, the blood pressure issue is a matter for caution. Although it's not off the scale, it is elevated for me, so Kim is keeping her eye on me. This means another appointment Monday with what she calls a "non stress test" (the meaning of which is a bit confusing to me, but apparently does not involve me having my feet massaged while sipping a glass of wine and watching live video of a calm beach in Belize) and - oh excitement of excitement - an ultrasound to see what Flipper is up to. Oh, and to see if the amniotic fluids have decreased and how the blood vessels and placenta are doing - you know, important stuff like that. I have never had a late stage ultrasound before and am super excited, even though the reason is to check for problems. Did I mention I was excited? We'll get to see pretty much what she will look like when she's born - that's really cool.

So, that's what's up. In related news, chronic heartburn sufferers have my complete sympathy, seeing as how it now keeps me up at night (and for which I now have a remedy - thank you Kim), insomnia comes and goes but tends to have a lot to do with my body getting sore at night and a little somebody thinking late night bathroom trips are her cue to start playing, and I have a belly that seems to resemble something akin to a watermelon (although much less green). I am sadly watching my navel go from "innie" to "turkey timer". Still, Flipper is a daily source of entertainment for Steven, Kennedy and I and will continue to be so, even when she's busy doing whatever she's doing now on the "outside" (and I'm hoping to catch some of her shenannigans while seeing ultrasound so I know just exactly what she's been doing).