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?

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?

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.

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?

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. :)