Heartbeat

I saw my baby's heartbeat yesterday! So exciting.

We called Annabella Baby G. I'm thinking I'll call this baby BG2, at least until we finally come up with a name.

Besides seeing the heartbeat, my first baby appointment was refreshingly simple. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, because it was one thing after another with my first pregnancy. And yes, I'm not nearly far enough along to see a lot of the problems that could lie ahead, it was still nice to have an appointment that showed that I have one baby who's heart is beating, right on schedule.

And yes, I do mean one baby. The doctor verified that I will not be having twins. So yay! Not that I had any reason to believe that twins were a possibility, but still. One baby was hard. One baby with a toddler I imagine will be much harder. Two babies with a toddler...well, I don't even want to go there. And now I know I don't have to.

Besides that, Annabella has been sick with RSV, which is really just a bad cold. She's been miserable and grouchy, but I think she's coming out of it. Cross your fingers that Jas and I don't get it.

Jason most likely has torn his ACL the rest of the way through and will need reconstructive surgery on his knee. He's getting an MRI this week to confirm and to see what other damage is in his knee, but the test the doctor did for a torn ACL is diagnostic...so there's little reason to think he could have been mistaken. That will be tough, and Jason is not happy about it. Not that I can blame him. If you know my husband well, you know he's kind of a wuss when it comes to things like blood and such. Plus the rehab from this surgery is pretty intense. If all goes well though, he could be rid of the knee problems he's been battling for the last 8 years.

Annabella turned 16 months old yesterday, which is kind of a scary time for me. I was in a pretty horrific car accident when I was 16 months old; so I'm holding my breath waiting for her to make it to 17 months. I know that this is not really rational, that there's no reason to really believe that she's in more danger this month than any other. And yet it doesn't matter. 17 months can't come soon enough.

Time to run. Gotta get home!

Pink Lemonade

This past Sunday was my birthday. I'm now 29. I wish I could say that I was growing older gracefully, but I'm not. Something about approaching 30 is making me painfully aware that I am in fact mortal and will in fact die one day. I'm guessing this is just a stage of life and that I'll get over it, but right now I'm freaking out about having less than 1 year left of my 20s.

I did get a couple pretty awesome birthday presents though, which certainly softened the blow.

The first awesome gift: Annabella sorta slept through the night! Sorta because she did wake up a few times and make some noise, enough to wake me. But by the time I got upstairs to her door, she was back asleep. This was only the 3rd night ever that I haven't had to visit her in the middle of the night; so it was super exciting.

Annabella's unexpected gift was all the more exciting when I got my second awesome birthday gift, which was a positive pregnancy test! So yes, it's super early, and yes, a billion things could go wrong between now and September, but I don't care. I'm singing it from the rooftops anyway. Jason and I are going to have another baby!!!

When I was pregnant with Annabella, I craved pink lemonade ALL THE TIME towards the end of my pregnancy. This was especially odd given the fact that I don't really care for lemonade, pink or not. So I'm curious to see what it is I'll be craving this time around.

Right now though, the one thing I'm craving more than anything has nothing to do with food. I'd be the happiest girl on the planet if Annabella would repeat her birthday gift. Momma's already oh so tired...

New Pictures

Our friend Justin took some more pictures of Annabella for us in early December, just in time for Christmas. As always they turned out wonderfully. Here are two of my favorites:




We have more pictures from the set as well as some of our favorites from 2009 up at http://annabellag.shutterfly.com/.

Lions and Tigers and Molars, Oh My!

Annabella is seriously teething right now. She's got 1 full molar in, another one almost completely in, one about half-way in, and one just pushing against her gums with little spikes pushing out. And for the most part, she's handling it like a champ. We've had a couple rough patches with the sleep and such, but really, after stories I've heard and nights we've had with ear infections, it's so much better than I expected.

What else is new with Annabella? Well, just about everything. Everyday it seems she's learned something new, and everyday we get a new glimpse of her personality. I'm a little afraid that she's going to be a wild one. It's not really that she misbehaves...it's more that she runs instead of walks, climbs everything in sight, and has quite the stubborn streak.

Her newest thing that I'm just loving is she'll just walk around and then suddenly burst into giggles. I don't know what it is that's cracking her up, but I know it's her giggles that are cracking me up. So much fun.

And last night I hid behind a book. I'd peak my eyes out to see her and then gasp and yank my head back behind the book. Annabella was laughing so hard she cried.

We had her 15 month checkup yesterday, and it went well. The doctor assuaged my fears about her small size, better convinced me that she's doing just fine and might just be tiny. What really made me feel better though was her height measurement, which at just over 29" put her at the 15th percentile. This is quite the improvement from last time where she was stuck at the 5th percentile. So yes, I might end up with the only 2 year old I know who still is required by law to ride in a rear-facing carseat, but at least she is growing well in height, even if her weight leaves something to be desired. And hey, at 15th percentile height, her 50th percentile head doesn't look as big!

I know I haven't updated this very frequently, but it's because I've been busy at work. Which if you've heard me talk about my job, you know that being busy at work is quite an exciting thing for me. I'll try to remember to post though even if this busy streak continues.

Thanksgiving - the recap

Thanksgiving was awesome this year. Fun times with family and friends and more yummy food than I'd like to talk about.

Riding the airplane alone with Annabella? Not so much fun it turns out. Lots of struggling to handle all the stuff (even though I packed very light and Jason had taken most of our stuff up already). Lots of screaming (Annabella's, not mine). Lots of running around like a maniac (well, this was both of us...she ran, I followed.) There was even a diaper incident or 2. Oh, and a possible flashing of an old college friend while trying to discreetly nurse Annabella in the airport. So pretty much everything I could have imagined going wrong kinda did go wrong. But then she slept like a rock on the second flight, and everything was good.

Still though, we're taking the car from now on. Or at least I'm not flying alone with her. No thanks. Especially when we figured out that driving through the night is really not so bad and that she'll actually mainly sleep in the car. And especially now that I remember that I can take 5 unpaid days off a year...and that our 2 plane tickets made my extra days at work close to even. :(

But yay family, friends, and food!

On Thursday we went to Jason's Aunt Jo's. There were close to 30 people there, and outside of an incident with an over-excited teenager and a yippy little dog when we first arrived, everything went great! Annabella played and ate and didn't scream at all. Then we went to Jason's Aunt Linda's. And again, she was great! Jason's cousin Koral was there and chased after Annabella and played with her, which gave us a break and Annabella thought was great fun. Then Annabella actually slept well Thursday night even after going to bed late and being all out of her routine. So all sorts of awesome.

Friday I spent the day with Corrie. Which was SO NICE. Spending time with Corrie minus baby makes me feel like I'm slipping into my old skin a little bit. And it's nice to feel like me. Of course I missed my baby like mad, but getting quality girl time is pretty much the awesome.

Then we went to Grandma G's for dinner. Where Annabella ate an entire piece of pumpkin pie, much to Jason's dismay. But it was Grandma G's made from scratch real pumpkin pie! And when Grandma G saw Annabella loved the little tiny sliver of a piece I gave her, she cut a big ole piece for her. I didn't let Annabella eat much of the crust...so there's that at least. But Annabella already understands that there are just some foods that are just sooo good, and that Mommy and Daddy barely let her have them. So when she gets something with sugar she doesn't mess around.

Saturday we spent the morning and early afternoon at my Mom's. We saw Grandpa M and Millie, and my old next door neighbors. I'd told Mom in advance that we did NOT want a big Thanksgiving dinner, that salad sounded about right. Well, we didn't have turkey. There's that I guess. But the amount of food that was served certainly rivaled a Thanksgiving feast. My tummy felt like bursting, but so yummy. And seeing everybody was great. Annabella at this point was starting to get a little bit tired of the nonstop new-ish people though. But she still did pretty great.

We spent Saturday evening with Grandma B and Ray. Annabella got some down time, which was nice. Then after she went to bed I got to see an old friend from high school. (Ashley, if you're reading this, you totally forgot your hat at my Gma's.)

Sunday we say Aunt Katy. Always fun. And we went out to see some property Gma and Ray own. My grandma's grandparents actually originally owned it. Walking on land your great great grandparents walked is quite a feeling. It made me all nostalgic for where I grew up.

But Sunday was a little more somber. I said goodbye to somebody I never really knew, but somebody who'd impacted my life anyway. Because that somebody, in May of 1982, poked a baby girl to keep her awake after a terrible car accident. And that somebody in all likelihood kept that baby girl alive. So standing there, looking over his coffin, telling my baby girl that this man had saved her Mama's life when I was a baby girl...well it certainly made me catch my breath. And made me so very grateful to this man on this Thanksgiving weekend.

Sunday was capped off though with a parade through my hometown which Annabella loved, even if she doesn't quite understand candy yet. And then it was bedtime routine time and then time for driving home through the night and back to work the next morning.

Overall, it was a pretty amazing Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving

I'm so excited for turkey day this year, which is a bit unusual for me. I like Thanksgiving, but it's not usually a holiday I look forward to. This year though, I have Annabella. And I'm so excited for her. She'll get to see a bunch of family that loves her to pieces. She'll get to try all sorts of yummy new foods. And I'll get to spend 4 days with her where hopefully she'll be healthy the whole time (quick, knock on wood).

I haven't posted much over the past month or 2, and honestly, it's been a tough time. Annabella has been sick continuously since about October 14th. Even though she's got a rash covering her tiny little body, I think she's finally getting past it. I know the rash is counter-indicative of getting better...but I still think she's getting better. Why you ask? Well, we've had 2 nights in a row of sleep that was not terrible. Granted, it still wasn't great, but I'll take not terrible, especially 2 nights in a row of it. And last night, my little baby floored me with the amount of food she shoved in her face. I think that what I thought was her normal appetite was actually her not having much of an appetite. So when the docs would ask how her eating was, I would say that it was about normal. But when she's been sick for so long with so few breaks (even before Oct 14th she's had so many colds and ear infections), I just didn't know. And then this morning she ate way more than normal again.

So yeah, I'm pretty much stoked that my baby might actually get to enjoy spending time with family and eating new foods without feeling like crap.

Halloween

We dressed Annabella as a bumblebee for Halloween and took her to a couple of neighbor's houses.