It's a girl!

We had our second ultrasound today. Here are a few of the pictures.

At this point in my pregnancy with Annabella, she was measuring at least 10 days behind. This baby girl is measuring 4 days behind, which is considered to be within normal range. I'm honestly still a little concerned; so I'm hoping for another ultrasound at 28 weeks. One of the doctors I saw said that this is what he would recommend, given my history; so I'm hoping the next couple of doctors I see agree with him. I just don't want to take any chances.

For right now though, everything looks to be going perfectly with this baby girl.

Thank God for Kielbasa

I don't think I've kept it a secret that Annabella is small. We've pretty much constantly worried about her size. She looks and acts like she's healthy, but it's hard not to compare her size to other kids her age. And sometimes (ok, often) those other kids tower over her.

Well, before Easter, Jason was really hopeful that Annabella had finally hit the 20 pound mark. This is an especially important milestone because it means that we could turn her around to a forward-facing car seat. And there's just not a whole lot of room in either of our cars...so a forward-facing car seat would mean that my knees wouldn't have to be up against the dash whenever I sit in the front seat.

So one day he steps on a scale, then picks her up and steps back on and declares that the scale said 20.5 pounds. And we're hopeful. So I make her an appointment to get weighed at my work's health care office. She weighed 19lb 8oz. This was on the Wednesday before Easter, for those of you keeping track.

Then came Easter weekend. And she was spoiled rotten. She ate donuts and chocolate, and pretty much anything else the grandparents gave her. And on Easter day, Annabella discovered Kielbasa. And the Polish in her came out as she kept asking for more. When she was done eating she'd take a break and then signal she wanted more food and more Kielbasa. We would normally try to give her more variety and not let her eat so much of 1 food in a day, but we estimate that Annabella must have eaten close to a pound of Kielbasa that day! We couldn't believe it.

This past Thursday we had Annabella's 18-month checkup. At her 15-month checkup, she weight 18lb 14oz. So she'd only gained 10oz from her 15-month appointment all the way up to the Wednesday before Easter. Well, on Thursday, she weighed 20lb 5oz! 13 ounces in a week! You go girl! (Full disclosure: they weighed her with a diaper on for the first time, which probably helped her weight by 2 or 3 ounces. And it was a different type of scale between the 2 weigh-ins. But still!)

So her newest stats are: 20lb 5oz (4th percentile), 30inches (9th percentile), and 48th percentile for head circumference. So she's still my little, adorable bobble-head. But we're thrilled :)

Daycare woes

Jason and I don't keep Annabella from falling. Of course we don't like it when she falls, but we figure that running around and falling down is part of learning. And if she can crawl up onto something, we figure she can learn how to get down. If she cries out for help, we'll help her...but we really don't want it to turn into a game where she climbs up a billion times just to have us help her down every time. And sometimes she falls pretty hard. Over Easter she fell into some cinder on the street going pretty darn fast.

So given all this, I really don't understand why she gets very few scratches and bruises at home but seems to come home with new boo boos daily after daycare. Right now, she's got a big bruise on her cheek, a bite mark on her shoulder, a bite mark on her wrist, scratches all over her knees, a scratch on her face, and a small bruise on her arm. Of all those, the small bruise on her arm is the only one she got at home (and it wasn't even from falling...Jas accidentally caught some of her skin when he was putting her high chair tray on).

I understand stuff happens. As much as it pains me, I understand that she's going to fall and get hurt. But lately it just seems like it's happening a whole lot, and not on our watch.

What I find especially troubling though is the bite marks. We got incident reports about 3 bite marks, one of which we never saw, one of which was pretty light, and one of which left a pretty nasty mark. None of these broke the skin. We did NOT get an incident report about the fourth bite we found on her shoulder, the one that clearly broke the skin. When we asked her teachers about it, they were puzzled, saying they didn't even remember Annabella crying like she'd been bitten. But the mark was clearly a bite (our pediatrician agreed).

And all of this has been in about the last 2 weeks. I about lost my mind because 3 of the bites happened over 2 days (by at least 2 different kids, although they won't tell us which kids.)

I have to believe that this is just an anomaly and that I need to be patient. We haven't really had these issues before, and some of this is probably due to the changing season and the short sleeves and shorts she's now wearing. And I need to keep a cool head. Annabella loves her classroom, her friends, and her teachers. I don't want to take that away from her.

But right now I mostly want to go scream at somebody.

The totem pole

Based on the number of kisses Annabella's willing to dole out, here's where I lie on the totem pole:

1) Ceiling fans

2) Dogs and cats

3) Stuffed animals

4) Most other animals

5) Most of her toys

Somewhere far below: Mommy

Spinning around and slowing down at the turn of a switch = win.

Growing her in my body for 9 months = sorta win, just not as much of a win as being a ceiling fan.