Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Ultrasound

I had my ultrasound for Awesome Pants today. Everything looks great! And she's not huge! She's in the 51st percentile for weight, which is pretty much perfect. Her estimated weight right now is 3lb 6oz. So she just feels huge to me because she's so much bigger than her sister was, but she's actually normal. Once again, I can't believe how normal this pregnancy has been. Jason and I both keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, and we're just so happy that so far, everything has been great!

Here are some pictures:
I believe her eyes are actually open here (according to our sonographer).

Look at those little toes!

Obligatory profile shot.

The funny stuff in front of her face in this last one is actually the umbilical cord.

Friday, June 25, 2010

New pictures up

I posted some pictured from June here: http://annabellag.shutterfly.com/

I'm having issues getting blogger to upload pictures; so for now, this is all you get:

I'm pretty sure she's so happy because we keep stopping her from shoving crepe myrtle buds into her mouth, which is great fun.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

OCD

At times, I can be a little obsessed with numbers. I prefer even numbers, meaning I'd rather eat 2 cherries than 3, and sometimes I touch something an extra time just to make sure I've touched it an even number of times. Powers of 2 are especially pleasing, especially if the power is also even. So while 8 is a good number, it's not nearly as good as 16. It gets a little weirder when I'm tapping out rhythms. I prefer 3 identical short strokes, 2 identical longer strokes, and 1 even longer stroke, if that makes sense. So I guess what I'm saying is that I'm a little OCD about some things, but just a little.

Another way my OCD comes out is when it comes to dates. I seem to run through a little routine in my head every morning where I run through the months until I figure out what month it is. Then I figure out the day. Sometimes I actually add up how many days into the year we are, and figure out what percentage of the year that is. (Hey, I've gotta have something mind-numbing to think about in the shower. I'm guessing this is how I accidentally wash my hair twice at times though.)

All of this is why I'm strangely excited that as of today, I have 80 days left until my due date and this is the 200th day of my pregnancy. (Every time I think about this my heart jumps to think I get to meet my baby in 80 days. Then I have to stop and remember that Awesome Pants might come early or late and that a due date is really not a reliable indicator for when this baby will arrive, which totally messes with my OCD.)

It's not that far away, but my next milestone to be irrationally excited about is in 10 days, at which point I will have completed 75% of this pregnancy (yes again, till my due date, meaning my milestones are oh so arbitrary).

I'm guessing all of this makes me a little weird, but I like to pretend that everybody plays these little mind games with themselves.

Regardless, today is a good day. 200 days down is exciting, no matter how you look at it.

Oh, and I really do want to post more pictures. We have some on our camera that I think are pretty cute, but I keep posting over random breaks at work, and I just don't have the pictures here. So I will try to post more from home.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

More rambling from me

Jason was watching Annabella before I got home from work yesterday. After snack time, Annabella grabbed her fork and took it to the dishwasher and tried to open the door. The door was latched though, because the dishes inside were still clean. So Jason explained this to her and went out of the room to do more cleaning. He heard her drop the fork from the other room, but wasn't sure where she dropped it. He looked, but didn't see it. Then, when she wanted to eat again, he went to go get a new fork from the drawer, there her dirty fork was! I know it's such a small thing, but I'm just amazed that she knows where the fork drawer is. She's not tall enough to see in, and it just blows my mind that she thought to put her dirty fork in that specific drawer when the dishwasher wasn't an option. She surprises me constantly by how smart she is.

In other news, I think potty training time is upon us. Annabella goes potty virtually every time we let her sit on her big girl potty. And yesterday she decided to unstrap her diaper and step out of it. So I think potty training time might be upon us, whether we like it or not. (Anybody have any potty training advice? I'm all ears.)

Awesome Pants seems to be growing nicely. My next ultrasound is 1 week from tomorrow, and I'm really excited to see her and hear how big she's gotten. As of Sunday I have officially entered the third trimester of this pregnancy, at least based on all the internet sites I used to look this up. I don't know why there's so much variation in when different people declare the trimester change, but none of the sites I found start the third trimester later than 28 weeks. So yay!

I'm really getting excited to meet Awesome Pants. She's moving and kicking around inside of me all the time, and I'm falling in love with her already. I hope she and Annabella will be the best of friends.

I know there's more I wanted to post, but baby brain has once again triumphed and I can't remember anything else I wanted to say.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Cancer Free!

Grandpa's PET scan results came back today, and the scan shows no cancer!!! Woohoo!

He'll still have to finish the next 2 rounds of chemo, and they'll still monitor him pretty carefully, but if everything continues to look good, then these next 2 rounds of chemo will be his last!

He got his results over the phone today, and he meets with his doctor tomorrow...so there might be more details then.

Woohoo!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Peanut Butter

Growing up, my Grandma always made me open-faced peanut butter and banana on toast. I think this is one of my favorite memories from childhood. So of course, PB and banana is one of my favorite things to feed Annabella in the mornings. I'd be surprised if a time has gone by that I haven't thought of my Grandma while feeding her this, and it always makes me smile. Plus, PB and banana is still one of my favorite treats.

The only problem with this whole situation is that Annabella rubs peanut butter all over herself while she eats. Her face, hair, belly, arms, and legs are usually coated in the brown goo before she's finished. And no matter how well I try to clean her, I'm always worried that her friend Ava, who is severely allergic to nuts, will somehow pick up some peanut residue off of her little body. Which would of course be absolutely terrible.

This morning, our routine was a little out of whack. Annabella was a grumpy bear because she woke up a little earlier than normal, and it always takes her a little bit to wake up and be her cheerful self. She takes after her momma this way. I didn't have time to get her milk ready first because she was clinging to me, and instead I made her PB and banana first. When she saw the food, she finally let me strap her little body into her booster seat. Then I went to get her milk. By the time I got back, she was absolutely covered in peanut butter. I think she must have rubbed the bread all over her face. Seriously, getting this messy takes talent. And it was all up in her hair and everything.

I took one look at her and realized that normal cleaning techniques would not suffice. So this morning, Annabella took her first morning shower with Mommy. She's taken a couple with Daddy before, but he's braver than I am. And he was always just in there to clean her off, not to actually get clean himself. So I was a little nervous about the logistics and such. To my surprise, she LOVED her shower. We have one of those shower heads that are on a tube and can hang down, and she loved playing with it. She didn't love putting her face in the water, but she didn't mind it as much as what I normally have to do to get her face clean. And she let me have the shower head back when I needed it. So it worked out really well, until it was time to get out, at which point she screamed and lunged towards the shower and repeated "mine" longingly over and over. I promised her she could shower with Mama again tomorrow, but I'm thinking that it will probably just become part of our routine for the next little bit. I don't see a way around it. Showering while she screams is just not good for my nerves. And even though I love the few minutes of solitude a shower usually gives me, having her entertained and safe during these moments is more important. Plus, I'm next to positive we're not going to accidentally kill Ava today, which counts for a lot.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Some pictures

I'm taking a photography class, and I need to practice. So I'm going to try really extra hard to post pictures. Hopefully you'll see improvements in them over time.

Here are a few from this past weekend:

Mommy, can I pleeeeeze watch some Baby Einstein?


My pool is awesome!

Why hello, belly! I can't help but notice how you've grown.

What Mommy? You mean I can't take these home?

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Punishment

When Annabella misbehaves, she goes to baby jail for 45 seconds. We swing a baby gate around so that she's essentially trapped in a little hallway area and let her scream her head off about it. (I say essentially trapped because she could crawl under the gate if she really wanted to.) She mainly gets punished for climbing onto tables, standing on chairs repeatedly, or biting/hitting.

While I hate hate hate baby jail, it's been really very effective for us. And it's hard to feel too bad about it since she gets locked up for all of 45 seconds. (Soon enough, we want to move towards a non-gated timeout, but we just couldn't make that work the last time we tried.) Plus, we almost never have to punish her (not including the first weekend we put her in baby jail, as it took her a little bit to learn, and she was being STUBBORN). So all in all, it's been a good thing for us.

I feel like this punishment is in line with what the pediatrician has told us, which was basically that we should ignore behavior we don't like as long as it's not dangerous or aggressive (like biting). For behavior we see as being dangerous or overly aggressive, he said to pick her up, put her in a corner, say no sternly, and walk away, ignoring her. He gave us this advice awhile back though, and she seemed to have outgrown it. Which is why we had to implement baby jail at all. (During her weekend of constant climbing, we couldn't ignore her long enough to be effective as she'd be making a beeline right back up on the table. It was ridiculous.)

So that's the background. Now here's my question: at what age do we start punishing behavior that's not dangerous, but still undesirable?

For instance, I can tell Annabella to come to me a billion times when I want to put sunscreen on her, but she runs and runs. I know that she knows what I'm asking for, she just doesn't want to do it. So every morning, after asking her repeatedly to come to me, I end up chasing her around and pinning her into corners to lather her up.

Is she old enough that she should be punished for this? I just don't know. Baby jail seems extreme for this, but at the same point, running from me when I'm calling her to come to me could be potentially dangerous in other situations. I could try the route where I just ignore her until she comes to me, but I just don't have the time for that in the morning. And I'm honestly not even sure she'd remember what it was that I wanted by the time she figured out I was ignoring her.

So those of you with older kids, what did you do?

Monday, June 7, 2010

26 weeks

Yesterday I finally made it to 26 weeks! Which for me, means I can breathe a little easier. 26 weeks is an arbitrary milestone, I know, but last pregnancy I read a book that said the survival rate for a baby born at 26 weeks was something like 60%, which feels like a fighting chance to me. I think the medicine must have improved, because today I found this chart (on about.com, but about.com credits March of Dimes with the chart.)

Length of Pregnancy

Likelihood of Survival

23 weeks

17%

24 weeks

39%

25 weeks

50%

26 weeks

80%

27 weeks

90%

28-31 weeks

90-95%

32-33 weeks

95%

34+ weeks

Almost as likely as a full-term baby

Sources: March of Dimes, Quint Boenker Preemie Survival Foundation


So if something were to happen and I had to deliver today, BG2 would have an 80% likelihood of survival. So whew. I feel like I've made it. Every day from here just makes her stronger. So while I really would like for her to wait 13 weeks or so before she makes her appearance, I'm pretty relieved that she now has a chance outside of my body, should the worst happen.

I know I said that I would call her BG2 on the blog, and I have been. But Jason and I have been calling her Awesome Pants, which is currently our frontrunner of a name for her. Which tells you we need to sit down and seriously talk names. For realz.

I also remember awhile back lamenting how I just wasn't able to focus on this pregnancy as much as I could with Annabella's, and how it didn't feel fair. Awesome Pants has made me sit up and pay attention. She kicks and rolls and lets me know she's there. Her little jabs feel so much stronger than Annabella's were, at least for how far into this pregnancy I am. And I think she's just outright more active than Annabella was. I remember needing to concentrate to count the kicks with Annabella to make sure she was moving enough. I never feel that way with Awesome Pants. She's like a little boxer when she gets going. Boom boom boom. Kick kick kick. Roll roll roll. Repeat.

I'm sure some of the difference here between the 2 sisters has a lot to do with size. Annabella was and is tiny. She could have been kicking me as hard as her little legs permitted and it just wouldn't feel as hard as a normally sized baby could kick. And I think Awesome Pants is actually on the large size. My uterus measured a week or so ahead of schedule at my last appointment. I have another ultrasound at the end of the month which should estimate her size, but she just feels big to me. Granted, a baby who was in the 25th percentile would probably feel huge to me; so we'll see.

On a completely unrelated note, Annabella has now gone pee pee in the potty 4 times in the last 2 days. One of the times she even pointed to the bathroom to indicate she wanted to go sit on the potty. I don't think we're quite ready for potty training yet, but I am so completely proud of my little girl.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Because I realized it's been since March since I posted a new picture

Full Disclosure: Neither Jas or I took this picture, but it's the only new one I have handy. And Annabella looks adorable in it, if I do say so myself.

Because I realized it's been since March since I posted a new picture


Full Disclosure: Neither Jas or I took this picture, but it's the only new one I have handy. And Annabella looks adorable in it, if I do say so myself.

This baby might be huge

At my appointment yesterday, my uterus is measuring a week or so ahead of schedule in size. And this baby kicks with an impact I don't remember until much later in my pregnancy with Annabella.

While I'll be thrilled if this pregnancy is normal and this baby is not growth-restricted, I have to admit there was one definite benefit to having a small baby. A benefit I maybe took for granted because I was worried about everything else.

How will I ever push this baby out if she's huge?

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

MINE MINE MINE!!!

Annabella picked up a new word at daycare last Monday, and it quickly became her favorite. Anything she wants to see/do/touch, she yells "MINE MINE MINE!!!". Jason and I are translating this into, "May I have that, please?" It definitely makes "MINE MINE MINE!!!" easier to hear. Heaven forbid we have to say no, because then her body immediately wilts into a giant screaming mess. The terrible twos will be fun, I can tell already. But at least Jason and I recognize her triggers. If she's hungry or sleepy, her mood deteriorates quickly. And there are some toys/objects that she freaks out over way more than others. So maybe we'll survive her second year?

Besides the little temper tantrums and the occasional screams of "MINE!!!", this weekend was pretty darn awesome. We bought a blow-up kiddie pool and played in it a couple times, which was way fun. Annabella was cautious at first, but now she seems to dig it. She'll even go over to where her pool toys are drying and pick them up and say "wa wa" (aka water). It's pretty cute. And I'm totally digging the kiddie pool as I think it'll be a fun way to spend time with her this summer while staying cool and not over-doing it, which is easy to do with this pregnant body.

Besides the pool, we drew pictures and went to cook outs and looked at chickens and just had a really nice time as a family. Oh, and Annabella has really started repeating words. She pointed to something and asked Jason what it was, and he said, "it's blah blah blah, actually". And she turned to him and said "ackshee". I got her to say it again this morning. So cute. Oh, and I finally got her to repeat Momma, and she even said it when I pointed to myself and asked who I was. This isn't the first time she's said Momma or anything, but she certainly saves it for the rare occasion (as opposed to Dada, which she babbles after Jason constantly.) So it was nice to hear her say Momma a few times this weekend.

Oh, and Jason is officially the favorite parent. My tenure in this role has come to an end. This has become increasingly clear the past week or two, but this weekend put the final nail in the coffin. I was playing with her, and we were having fun in the play room. She went to the door and signaled "all done". When I let her out, she ran to go up the stairs. When I asked her what she wanted upstairs, she said "Dada". Ouch. I have to admit I was tempted to let her run up and wake him up, even if it was his sleep in day. :)