Thursday, January 30, 2014

25 Weeks


It's been a fun couple weeks since baby girl #2 got her last update.  Most importantly, she has now made her first trip to the beach and Disney World, in utero of course!  We had the best time visiting our friends and spending some relaxing days as a family.  Big sis loved the trip and all the extra attention as well :)
 
Her dad and I finally decided to get on the ball and make some nursery decisions which is making me feel relieved and actually even more motivated.  We picked out Sherwin Williams Romance which is a really pale peachy pink... so now there will be two pink rooms in our house. ha! I hope our future buyer has a house full of girls too!  I'm really into a feminine, soft, sweet look for this nursery and looked everywhere for a pretty iron crib with a vintage look to it.  Unfortunately, iron cribs do not come cheap and I could not justify spending more on a crib than on new bedroom furniture for us!  But, I found a simple white wood crib that still has a vintage feel to it that I think we will love :)  I picked out ruffly white bedding and curtains that will be awfully sweet I think!  I tried my hand at my first polyvore board to combine the look of her room as seen below :)


Baby girl nursery

Baby girl nursery by laurahreynolds featuring green lights


I had a doctor's appointment the day before we left on vacation... the weight gain that I saw was not a happy sight just before taking off for vacay :(  No big deal though... still on track and eventually it'll come off (I hope).  More importantly, she was measuring fine and her heartbeat looked great.  We've got one more ultrasound to check everything out next week and then I'm hoping we will all be reassured and comfortable. 
 
My bump is getting bigger by the day and I had my first person randomly comment on it yesterday.  I'm glad I'm moving into the stage of obviously pregnant rather than the awkward chubby/maybe pregnant stage :)  I am sad to be losing more and more normal people clothes.  I've got 2 more months of rotations where I have to be dressed up though and then in April when I'm waddling around I will at least be doing so in scrubs :)  Harper loves hugging/poking/kissing 'mama's baby' but when she can't access my belly she is also convinced she has a baby in her own belly.  I know it's going to be a huge adjustment for her but I think she's going to be great with a new baby.  She is so gentle with Claire and just loves hugging and kissing on her... though her kisses can get a little aggressive at times ;)
 
Here's our little update:
How far along: 25
Total weight gain: 16
Strechmarks: none
Sleep: great
Best Moment this week: putting up our first bit of paint in her nursery and ordering crib/bedding
Movement: yes but I feel like she's a little less of a mover than Harper was
Gender: girl :)
Labor signs: braxton hicks only
Belly button: getting shallow
What I miss: people not commenting on my heavy breathing (cough cough, andy)
What I am looking forward to: getting all the nursery things in and put together
Milestones: 13.5 inches long and 1.5 lbs! :)


Monday, January 13, 2014

22.5 weeks

Well, I've got time to update so even though we aren't on an exact week I figured this is better than nothing!

Baby girl is quite the mover!! Her favorite times of action are about 10 pm and 6am it seems like :)  The anatomy scan went well.  Everything on baby looks pretty healthy and her heart rate was still slower than it had been but was within the range of normal so they didn't make a big deal out of it.  They peeked again this past week and everything is looking ok.  One more ultrasound in 4 weeks just to look at everything and if that's fine then probably no more ultrasounds at all!  I kind of like all the extra peeks at baby :)  She always has her hands up by her head like Harper did.  I wonder all the time about the ways they'll be different! Or maybe we'll get another mini-olivia which would be just fine of course :)

I'm having a lot more braxton hicks contractions this time around.  It could just be that I know what they are and realize that I'm having them, or am drinking less water or maybe just having harper keeps a little busier than I was the first time.  I had one episode where we had just finished running the other day and my back and belly got tight... not painful but the back tightness was the only thing that was kind of unusual when I went into labor.  Not to worry though, after drinking a glass of water and sitting for a few minutes it all went away :)

I've been pinning away for baby girl room ideas.  I think I want board and batten or bead board on the bottom half of the wall and then am leaning towards pink at the top again.  I found this really pretty blue color that was still bright and girly or so I thought but Andy didn't like that idea. We might do gray at the top? I kind of like the look of that also...

I busted out the first pair of maternity pants to work this week and it was niiiice.  Otherwise, still rocking the belly band on my pants that are tight.  I feel like being two months ahead of the last pregnancy has surprisingly made my work clothes situation a little more difficult than last time.  I need more winter tops that are long enough to cover the maternity panel :)


How far along: 22.5
Total Weight Gain: 13lbs
Stretchmarks: None 
Sleep: great
Best Moment This Week: relaxing weekend without much our agenda except hang out time :)
Movement: yes :) the best part of being pregnant I think
Gender: Girl!
Labor Signs: braxton hicks
Belly Button: lived in, getting a little more taught tho
What I Miss: not much
What I am Looking Forward to: vacation soon!!!!
Milestones: baby is the size of a papaya


18 Months

I'm late, of course, on Harper's monthly update and really have no excuses but pure laziness!  We had a great past month complete with her second Christmas which was really my favorite Christmas ever :)

We had multiple Christmas celebrations starting out with Andy's family a couple weekends before Christmas.  Harper loved all her gifts and playing with boxes/wrapping paper :) Andy's parents have an old train that he grew up with that is a walker or you can ride on it.  Harper made many laps around their house on that!  She also got to go sledding for the second time which she gave mixed reviews.  She doesn't really like getting snow on her hands/face and probably hates the way I bundle her up but she still toddled around like a little marshmallow.  At first she was riding down the hill with Andy which she did not look to fond of.  Then we realized we could let her ride by herself (with andy holding onto her hood, haha) and she absolutely loved that!!  She was soo happy for the 8 second ride and then would immediately fuss when she made it to the bottom and we had to walk back to the top to start again.  It was quite the workout for us!

I worked on Christmas eve and didn't think we would be able to make it to the King's Cmas but fortunately I discharged almost all of my patients and one of the other sweet residents let me go a little early so we trekked down to visit that side of the family.  We always have so much fun seeing my grandparents/aunts/uncles/cousins that are able to visit for holidays!  We went to Christmas eve mass in Brandenburg which was a mess to say the least.  Andy thought Harper might behave better if we sat closer to the musicians.  That was a negative.  We wrestled her the entire thing and I'm sure those around us were beyond distracted by her and her shenanigans.  Regardless, it was a beautiful mass and I love going to that one bc I really like the youth choir at their evening mass.

We went back to Lexington Christmas Eve so Santa would know where to find Harper the next morning ;)  Andy and Olivia were teasing me as I set all of Harper's gifts up knowing that I was probably 10 times more excited about the following morning than Harper would be but nobody could rain on my Christmas spirit ;)  The next morning, Harper woke up in her adorable Christmas pj's and headed down to find what was waiting for her! Her first stop was to say hi to the Santa that hangs on our coat closet and then she came to check out all her goods.  She loved her chair, stroller and baby right off the bat :)  We then had fun quickly opening the rest of our gifts.  We made a big breakfast and had Carrie and Claire join us while they were waiting for David to get home for work.  Luckily for them David was able to get off early and celebrate most of Christmas day with them.  Later that afternoon the rest of the Hamilton's and Andy's parents came over to our house for lunch and to hang out.  I was really sad to only be getting Christmas day off this year (but still super thankful for that because there are a lot of other residents who were working) but we had a great, great day!

We had our last Christmas celebration the following weekend in an activity packed 2 day event.  We had Claire's baptism Saturday morning, opened presents that afternoon and the following day all the extended Hamilton fam came to my parents for cards and soup :)

Basically all of the past month was filled with preparing for Christmas/celebrating - kept us quite busy!!

We did have some sad news a couple weeks ago.  Harper has had the same sitter ever since she was 3 months old who we absolutely loved and so did Harper! She began having some health problems and and has had to leave us :(  I was so sad because it can be so hard to find someone you trust that you know will take good care of your babies!! Fortunately it was about as good of timing as we could ask for as Andy always takes a few extra days off around the holidays and we've been able to have friends/family pitch in while we're figuring out something more permanent again.  We've got a few potentials and are just trying to figure out exactly what will be best for miss Harper.

Harper's vocabulary is really taking off.  She yaps nonstop and new words appear all the time.  She finally says please correctly and says it in the most pitiful little highpitch voice you've ever heard.  I made muffins the other day and she was repeating 'cu-ca cu-ca cu-ca' over and over again until we realized she was trying to say cupcake.  She had been at Carries a couple days before and apparently they had a 'tea party' with a cupcake that left a big impression on Harper.

She has become sooo attached to her stuffed bunny that she sleeps with.  We swapped the bunny for her paci when we were making that transition but now bunny needs to go everywhere with Harper.  I washed it the other day while she was out playing with Andy and when she came in she looked everywhere for her 'Buh'.  When it came out of the dryer she was more excited to see it than she was on Christmas morning ;)

Her favorite activity right now is coloring and we're working on learning colors.  I was offering her chalk yesterday but her choices were pink and green.. but she refused and then she said yellow! It's always amazing hearing words that you had no idea they knew.

She went to the doctor this past week for her 18 month appt.  She's 20 lbs 10 oz and 31 inches tall.  We're going back for them to recheck her height in a couple months as her height appears to not be increasing as it should.  I feel like she is growing out of clothes all the time and it likely has to do with a falsely elevated measurement at her 12 month appt so I try not to worry.  She's wearing 18-24 month clothes and size 5 shoes.

Harper knows where mama's baby is and loves kissing my tummy... but she also thinks she has a baby in her own tummy ;)  We ask her what name she prefers, emma kate or caroline and she always says 'ka.'  She has plenty of people she loves with names that start like that... cam, claire, carrie, christie, kate... haha so we figure she'll adapt just fine to either :)  We're thinking about trying out some potty training relatively soon?  That would be pretty amazing to have done before another baby arrives... but I have a feeling she may want to regress anyways.

I'll have to add more pics soon! I'm on a naptime deadline to get my blogging finished for the day :)