those eyes...

2-month check-up

2 month-15 day stats:
length: 24.25 inches/92nd percentile
weight: 12.87 lbs/81st percentile
head: 16 inches/80th percentile

rolls over (tummy to back)
first tears last week
sleeps "through the night" (five to six hours at night before nursing then goes right back to sleep!)
doc started her on prevacid for G.E.R.D.

{9.5 weeks}

smiling & cooing

8 weeks

up until i saw nash smile for the first time, i can't think of one instant in my life where i thought to myself "wow. this makes it all worth it." but now i feel like i'm having these experiences on a daily basis:

nash amazes me with the things he knows. i find myself saying aloud: "did he really just do that? did he really just say that?" and then testing him to see if he knew what he did. last night i told nash (as i often do) "i love you." he quickly said something back that sounded quite a bit like he told me the same thing. after a few minutes of testing it was confirmed. he told me he loves me: "i you." my heart skipped a beat.

haven has started smiling at me-and not just because i'm smiling at her. if this doesn't put your heart at ease, i don't know what does. she does this one smile where she smirks one side and scrunches her nose and her left eyebrow arches a little higher than the other one. ooohhhh, it kills me.

and then, to see the two of them together: nothing in the world is sweeter. the way nash worries about her, takes care of her, and gives her kisses. he's so proud of his baby-we went to a bbq and when we got there he pointed and cooed at her and looked around the room to make sure everyone realized that the baby was there. and the way haven watches him as he crawls around her. i think she even gave him a little smile today...

cuteness

7.5 weeks
smiling and cooing
super chubby cheeks, tiny little nose, big blue eyes
dada bonded with her yesterday and now he can't put her down
probably because she looks so stinking cute in hoodies (thanks, hol!)
too bad i can't manage my camera and a baby at the same time (they're all a bit out of focus).

sick babies

haven had been acting sort of "off" for a few days this week-spitting up more, fussing more, sleeping less, and then projectile spitting up (vomiting?). i decided to check her temperature, which turned out to be 100.4-a low grade fever right on the low line of the "call the doctor" warning signs. it was 4:45 and i wasn't about to wait it out in the off-chance things turned ugly in the wee hours (as they usually do) after instacare closed. so i rushed her in. the doctor, suspecting pyloric stenosis sent us to primary children's ER for an ultrasound. hours and hours later haven's labs were all collected: bloodwork, urinalysis, lumbar puncture, and x-rays. her fever dropped and all the labs came back negative for everything, but because she'd had the slight fever and the vomiting their protocol required us to stay a full 24 hours (to await any possible bacterial growth in her spinal fluid culture).

it was not a fun stay: construction outside our room woke haven up every time i finally got her to sleep (which was a huge feat); no window in the room left me feeling in a time warp; and the tv channels were much too kid friendly (disney, nick, etc.). haven slept a whopping four hours and pretty much screamed the rest of the time. i felt my sanity slowly slipping (good time to be in a hospital so i was forced to keep my cool!). and while it all pretty much stunk to high heavens, i do have to say that i was thoroughly impressed with the staff and their aggressiveness. although i started feeling like a paranoid mom (when she quit vomiting and her fever barely manifested by the time we got to the ER), i knew in my gut something was wrong and they believed me. i love when doctors trust a mother's instinct. haven was a little trooper-she had to have way too many temperature checks (rectal-ugh) and monitors on her and had to be down to her diaper. after going through rounds and rounds of screaming cries that i could only manage to calm for a few minutes, i finally laid her down and went to the nurses station in tears begging for the doctor to come in because i couldn't take it anymore. the doctor came and decided to try some malox and tylenol. voila. she fell asleep and has pretty much been sleeping since! most likely she had some sort of virus that was causing her to have acid reflux. (we're keeping our fingers crossed that it was temporary reflux and not GERD, which nash had.)

fourth of july

5 weeks

haven is the easiest baby in the world. i feel so lucky. i'm sure she'll make up for it in her teenage years, but for now we'll call her perfect.

tub

blessing day

rescue haven

it was cold and raining and grandpa and emilie were acting pretty weird: "we need to borrow haven". they saw this sign at the shelter down the street. emilie drove down and grandpa carried haven because we didn't have the carseat here. all for this:

2-week check-up

11-day stats:

length: 21.5 inches/91.5%
weight: 8.05 lbs/46.8%
head: 14.5 inches/75.91%

leaving the hospital

20-week ultrasound

happy birthday to me-we're having a girl!

week 16-i'M a gIrL!

profile: you can kind of see her little foot up across from her eyes

arm: sort of looks like a bony dog leg at this point. this shot really shows you how crunched up she is.

cute little feet (i think she got my high arches!)

and here's where there aren't any boy parts, leading us all to agree that she's a girl!

mommy is feeling pretty good-still as nauseous as she's been all along, which isn't very and is much less than with nash. and she's only actually thrown up once or twice. total weight gain thus far: 4 lbs. and it's starting to start to show-the uterus is starting to push up and pants are applying a little uncomfortable pressure...there's no turning back now!

week 10-i'm real

it's official-it's really in there! baby measured 2.5 inches from crown to rump, so the doc set mommy's official due date as 5/28/08 and a c-section was scheduled for 5/21/08. that will put nash and new baby just one day shy of being exactly 18 months apart. mommy hasn't gained any weight-must be her loss of appetite, but baby is fine and growing.

Week 8-a little pinto bean

baby is 1/2 to 3/4 inches long from crown to rump. bab is the size of a pinto bean! eyelids, nose and ears are forming.

mommy is still feeling pretty good. morning sickness hasn't been as strong and she hasn't thrown up yet! does this mean it's a girl?!

Week 7-a little BB pellet

baby is 0.16 to 0.2 inches long from crown to rump. baby went through a growth spurt this week and more than doubled in size! leg buds appear as fins.

mommy is feeling morning sickness, but as long as she eats a little something it goes away quickly. she's also feeling pretty fatigued, which says a lot for what's going on in her body since she's not doing much these days!

Week 6-a little fetus

age of fetus: 4 weeks
baby is 0.08 to 0.16 inches long from crown to rump. they embryonic period has begun. early brain chambers have formed, eyes are forming, and limb buds are appearing. heart contractions begin and may be seen on ultrasound!

Q's: Multiple Children

today i'm wondering a few things about having multiple children:

1. while i'm pregnant with number 2, are number 1's diapers going to make me throw up?
2. since they will be sharing a room: if one wakes up in the night, will it wake the other up? and will it start a neverending circle of crying and waking?
3. how soon can i kick number 1 out of his crib so that number two can use it? number 1 has been in his crib since day two...
4. what if number 1 and number 2 are on completely different napping schedules? does that mean i can never leave my house again?
5. how old does number 1 have to be before he can babysit? (totally kidding).

Week 5- a little embryo

baby hasn't grown much- total length is about 0.05 inches. baby's skeleton is starting to form as well as the central nervous system and baby's muscles. baby still has a tail (kind of looks like a puppy, huh?). this is the most obvious week, and the tail gradually disappears by week 13.

how dad found out

daddy was at school when i took the test. remember how i told everyone i was pregnant via text with #1? well, i had to let someone know via text this time too! who better than daddy? this is our conversation:

mommy: 'i bought a family dollar test. it didn't even work.' (that's when i ran to walmart and got the good test)

20 minutes later, mommy: 'when are you coming home?'

daddy: 'about an hour'

mommy: 'okay, haven's coming too.' (haven is the girl name i'm in love with right now)

daddy: 'really.'

mommy: 'i'm freaking out! this is crazy!'

daddy: still no response......

maybe i shouldn't have told him via text. maybe he thinks i'm joking since i think i'm pregnant every month. and i don't blame him because between school and work we have been very busy and we can't think of when this possibly could have happened!

september 26th...a day we have been looking forward to...

or is it? we'll never call IT an accident, but let's be real: we weren't trying. and obviously not trying hard not to. well, IT happened. my clearblue easy digital just confirmed what i had already suspected.

i've been running a lot more lately and about a week and half or so ago this wall of fatigue hit me. i first chalked it up to my increased activity levels, but this was bad..this was like the fatigue i had during my whole pregnancy with #1. wouldn't you know it, i forgot to track my period for the month of august, so it's been sort of a guessing game. a game i play all too often, so i decided to ride it out and save the money i would normally blow on pregnancy tests. today, if i counted from the first day of my july period, would make me 5 days late. and i was feeling sort of nauseous and have had a pretty bad headache for two days (not normal for me). i tried a family dollar test and nothing happened. so while nash was napping i flew over to walmart and bought my trusty clearblue digital test. all the while i was thinking: "i can't have another kid! i just left my first one home alone to run to wal-mart!" of course, i locked the doors and left lexi to guard him, but probably not the best idea in any event. I JUST COULDN'T WAIT!

after i saw the word "pregnant" i pretty much freaked out. first it was excitement, now fear and disbelief. can my body handle this again after only ten months?!?! can my sanity?!?! let's hope #2 is as good as #1 has been.....and am i hoping for a girl or a boy? a boy means i already have a huge wardrobe for him. a girl means ALL NEW CLOTHES! oh the anxiety.

i do know one thing. number one has been the best thing ever, once we got past the first few months! so number two will be welcomed and loved. we just might not be quite ready for this! good thing we've got 36ish weeks to prepare....