Just Refreshing

On April 7 we went up to Pinehurst NC to visit my BFF Lacey and her family for a few days.  It had been a year since we got up there, but with gas prices so high and it being a 6+ hour trip, it's just not an easy one to do no matter how much you want to do it.  It is so refreshing to get to just be with someone you miss so much.  I think the hubbys had a good time too and I know the kids did.  Grace had so much fun enjoying the bigger kids, though compared to Jane Dare who is 10 weeks older, she is a little wimpy.  I guess that's the difference between being the first baby and being the fourth, lol.  Since we've been home though she has been much more adventurous.  She has gone down a big twisty slide without hesitation and climbed up a "rock wall" type ladder up to a slide at my friend's place.  She still isn't drinking milk out of a sippy despite watching Jane Dare do it all weekend, but it will come in time I guess, lol.

Ryan & Lacey have the PERFECT kid backyard.  Swings and a slide, a huge sandpit and Grace's personal favorite - a HUGE trampoline.  She loved, loved, loved the trampoline.  She even did ok when the bigger kids were out with her.  I was impressed.  :)

She woke up with a fever Friday & Saturday nights and ended up sleeping with us for the first time since she was just weeks old.  I couldn't believe it.  I wasn't sure what was wrong as she was completely fine during the day, but when we got home she cut 2 molars so I'm guessing that was it.  She has always had a fever when she is ready to cut teeth and these were by far the biggest.

I never make enough time to take pictures because we're having so much fun, but here's a few pictures from our together...

This was our first morning there and all 3 girls just randomly happened to be in pink monkey pjs, too cute!

Ainsley enjoying the fire place and Reid,  being ALL boy, was climbing all over everything.

The girls had a blast watching David launch rockets

I think David enjoyed "jumping off" the big kids as much as the kids did - here he is with Jake in the background.  

Look at those beautiful blue eyes!  I can't believe how big my Jane Dare is!

At dinner one night Jane Dare and Grace were sharing with each other, it was very sweet.

It was a wonderful visit, I sure wish they lived closer! In the mean time I'm just grateful for the opportunity to just have a refreshing visit with 6 of my favorite people.

Major Mommy Fail

So today was the BIG day.  Grace has been talking about going pee pee and using the potty for a few weeks - she has even been saying "pee pee" and grabbing her diaper when she's wet.  She is no where near being ready at night, but if she wants to try to give up the diapers during the day, I'm on board.

So, we got the potty in, Dad & Linda left yesterday, and we pulled up all the rugs in the basement last night and today was going to be our first official potty training day.  I got her up and we went downstairs and I was prepared to spend our day with a naked 17 month old.   Except I forgot her books, her cereal and her juice.  I ran upstairs for less than 2 minutes to grab those 3 things and in that amount of time she peed twice and pooped once on the floor.  The real kicker - I didn't find the poop until I moved the desk chair and rolled over it.  Oh Joy.  20 minutes later I FINALLY got her, me, the floor and the wheels on the chair clean.  I took her back upstairs, put her in a diaper and we are going to wait a day or 2 for mommy's sanity to return before we try again.

Hope you're day started off a little more dry than ours.  I have Easter pictures including a recap of our time with Dad & Linda and our trip to NC from earlier this month coming soon, promise.

25 Weeks!

I can hardly believe we are already 25 weeks into this pregnancy.  I said to David the other day we have 15 more weeks to go and it kinda woke us both up.  He has said it's funny that with Grace there was SO much to do before the baby came...classes, reading, painting, shopping, etc and this baby is just gonna come.  I said we still had some prep work to do, but since we did everything gender neutral and we already have most of what we need there isn't much to do.  Most of what we need to buy and what we need to do is more for Grace than for the baby, go figure.  :)

It did encourage me to get moving though.  When we cleaned out the attic a few months ago I had sorted out all the gender neutral newborn layette, bottles, burp cloths, etc. and put everything in a big bin in the closet.  My stepmom generously offered to buy the dresser we need (which will eventually become Grace's but for now it will house all the baby's stuff) so we went to IKEA yesterday and bought it.  Last night I pulled out that bin and started washing the clothes.  Wow, it was so surreal to have this big belly and look at those tiny, tiny clothes that my sweet big girl used to fit in.  It's getting exciting!  Oh and speaking of big bellies...here I am at 25 weeks.

On Monday we had our follow up appointment with the perinatal specialists.  They said everything looks great and even though the baby had rotated positions and was forward facing, we still didn't get any great pictures.  I blame the tech this time, lol.  We did get this cute profile picture of our precious bean...

Baby Bilbo 24 1/2 weeks

The Doctor said they did want to continue to monitor us monthly which we are more than fine with.  It will be nice to get to see the baby a few more times in utero before he/she joins us in person.  We have decided to switch practices and go back to the Specialists we saw with Grace.  Their office is over by David's work so we can make midday appointments which should make it easier to get child care for Grace and David won't have to miss as much work.  Plus we were generally in and out in less than an hour with them and these last 2 appointments have taken forever.  We'll see if they agree we should continue to be seen monthly when we go in 3 weeks.  We'll keep you posted!

Just Plain Cute

Grace got this precious outfit from my friend Troy.  Troy has the BEST taste in everything and I have loved Grace in this outfit for the last few months.  We're coming to an end of our time in the 6-12 month footed apparel, so I had to get a few pictures of her in this one before she grows another inch and it won't fit anymore.  With the AC broken, and it being almost 80 degrees in our house, Grace has slept in this super cool, short sleeve outfit the last 2 nights and today we're having an all day PJ day.

You may be wondering about the "You're Special" balloon in the pictures.  Grace LOVES "boons" as she calls them.  Her Nana bought her the coolest big Happy Birthday balloon for her birthday and it lasted for almost 4 months!  Since it deflated she has been talking nonstop about balloons so when we went to Kroger the other day and they had this one non-occasion, likely to last balloon (with a slogan that just happens to apply to our sweet girl) I had to pick it up.  I saved more than $2 using my coupons so I was ok with it, lol.  Anyway, hope you enjoy these pictures I took this morning...

In Baby Bilbo news, we got to hear the heartbeat again last week and everything seems to be going great - Praise God!  We will have another ultrasound on the 18th and hopefully by then our little bean will be turned upward or forward so they can get all the pictures they need and hopefully get us some good ones too!

20 Weeks!

We were 20 weeks on St. Patrick's Day.  David & I were both sick that night and Friday, so it was Sunday before we finally got some pictures.  I can't believe it's been 20 weeks already and we are half way to meeting our new addition.  I am feeling him/her move all the time and I love it...especially when I am holding Grace and I feel the baby move.  Something about feeling Grace & this new precious life at the same time that just blows me away.  The baby particularly moves when I'm giving Grace her bottle at night.  I didn't feel too connected to the baby early in the pregnancy, but those days are over.  I think I just needed the baby's movements to make the pregnancy "feel" real.  :)  Yesterday David was able to feel the baby move for the first time.  As much as I love to feel the baby move, I equally LOVE to see Daddy's face as he rests his hand on my belly and feels his precious child for the first time...

Anyway, here are some belly shots we took yesterday.

For comparison purposes, here I am at 20 weeks with Grace.

Here is the baby at 20 weeks too!  These are the pictures from the ultrasound last week.  We didn't get a ton of great pictures because the baby still wasn't facing sideways or forward, but the tech got us a two really cute ones.

Baby smiled at us!  :)

Oh and Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Here's a flashback to last year and one of my favorite pictures of Grace & I.

All Is Well - Praise God!

We had our appointment today and the baby is PERFECT!  They like to see the fluid levels at a 2 or more and we were at a 4.6, the kidneys looked great, as did all the other organs.  As soon as the tech told me the levels were fine I immediately relaxed.  David joked that she could take my blood pressure again now and it would be lower.  :)  We got to see our precious bean and she got all the information she needed.

When we met with the Doctor he said he didn't see anything abnormal in any way or any reason for concern.  They want us to come back in 4 weeks just to follow up, but he said everything looked great.  We are still measuring a week ahead, and he confirmed that he didn't see any reason we couldn't try for our vbac, so we'll see how it goes!

Thank you all SO much for your thoughts and prayers.  I am grateful for a Lord who loves me even when I worry and takes care of all He has made, including our precious baby.  I am grateful for conservative doctors who would rather cause unnecessary alarm than assume everything is ok and it not be.  While extremely difficult going through it, it's worth it.  I am also grateful for my amazing, wonderful, adoring husband who loved me so well in the last 2 days (and always).  I love you David, thank you for being my supporter, my best friend and my forever love.

Update

I didn't sleep well last night so first thing this morning I called the perinatal specialists' office to see if they had any cancellations and could get us in any earlier.  The nurse I talked to was WONDERFUL and totally understood that we would want to be seen ASAP, so she called around to a few other offices and found us an appointment for 1pm tomorrow (Wednesday) at their downtown location.  I am thrilled to know we only have less than 24 more hours until we'll find out what's going on.  

Today has been filled with distraction which is much needed and appreciated.  Grace slept until 9:30 and I slept off and on all night with her...I was grateful for the few extra chunks of sleep.  Then, since it was raining, we played inside for a bit and headed off to lunch with Daddy.  It was great to get a few errands run, visit with Daddy, enjoy lunch together and have Grace run around and see everyone at his office.  :)  We got home a little late for naptime, but my girl is a trooper and she went right down.  I only have to make it another 2 hours until David will be home.  Having him with me makes me feel so much better.  I am beyond grateful to have such a loving and supportive husband.  

Anyway, say a prayer for more sleep tonight and for everything tomorrow.  I'll update when we know more.

"Potential Abnormalities"

Those are NOT words you want to hear when you get a call from your OB about your nearly 20 week old baby.  Well I got that call from my OB's office this afternoon.  They said there were some "potential abnormalities" in the ultrasound we had last week.  Since the baby was rear facing the tech couldn't get any pictures of the front organs (heart, kidneys, etc) so we knew we would have to go back in a few weeks when hopefully the baby would be forward facing and they could see and measure everything.  She also noted in her report that the amniotic fluid was low so apparently since I was borderline preeclampsia at the end of my pregnancy with Grace this red flag was enough to warrant a visit to the perinatal specialist.  As you can imagine I'm a bit anxious so we got the first available appointment for 8:15 Thursday morning.  The great thing about the specialists (we saw them exclusively with Grace) is that the Doctor comes in and does the ultrasound while explaining everything.  Plus their equipment is far superior, so Lord willing we'll be able to see everything and rule out the low fluid.  A quick trip to see "Dr Google" told me that if the fluid was really low they would have called last week and I'd already be in the hospital on bedrest. 

Our wonderful pastor Jim is going to watch Gracie for us so David can be present with me.  Please pray for the baby, for the Dr to be able to see everything, for the fluid level to be fine and for me to rest in the Lord and not worry.  

We appreciate and covet your prayers and will let you know when we know what's going on.

It's a...

...healthy baby!  LOL, we had our big ultrasound yesterday, but of course we didn't find out the sex.  :)  Good thing we didn't want to know because this little one was being difficult and the tech couldn't even see.  The baby was transverse and rear facing, so we'll have to go back in a month or so for them to check the heart and all that other good stuff.  I'm measuring a week ahead, which is nothing but good news as far as I'm concerned.  They won't change my due date for just a week, and any extra time I have between when this baby could potentially come and when they will schedule a c-section is a gift in my eyes.  We really want to try a VBAC, but since most babies come at 41.5 weeks and they will schedule a c-section at 40.5 weeks, the extra week could make a difference.  Of course, it could also just mean I need to stop buying newborn sized diapers, lol. Our little one was just a moving and a shaking and had the hiccups 3 times during our ultrasound and the tech said everything looked fabulous.  

We did finally get a few pictures of this precious one.  None of them are really great, but it is nice to have some pictures of our sweet little bean.  Hopefully next time he/she will be more cooperative and we can get some great photos.  :)  Until then, please meet our sweet Baby Bilbo!

This one kinda creeps me out a bit, but the eyes are to the left and the mouth is to the right.  I'm sure he/she will be cuter  in color.  :)

Spoiled...not Rotten

While Grandpa was here he spoiled Grace with all kinds of fun things.  I kept saying you are spoiling her rotten and he said she's just spoiled, not rotten.  I like that.  :)  Her favorite treat of this latest visit was for sure her new bike.  She has loved getting outside to ride her bike everyday and I love it because I'll be able to push her on it all summer even as my belly gets larger and larger.   We even ride inside on rainy/cold days... so many options!

Inaugural Ride!

We had alot of other fun while Grandpa & Nana were in town, here are a few more photos from our time together.

Grace loves to get into her toy chest

She hopped in her chair half way through changing her clothes to read a book - she was trying to avoid having to put her PJs on and go to bed...little stinker.  :)

Swinging with Mommy

Grandpa is fun!

She loves this big ball!