We need an update!

Sorry it's been about 2 months since I've posted anything. Those 2 months have been crazy, with the holidays & packing & moving & school work & adjusting to having 2 under 2! It never ends around here. We've moved into a much much bigger place and are very happy here! There's room for our family here. Now that we're here, I can't believe how long we stayed in the condo, and how small it really was.

Jeff continues to excel at everything he does...he finished up his last college class with a 100 average, and is at this moment returning from a formal school he took in NC, where he performed so well yesterday that the teacher told him he didn't have to take the final exam today! He makes me sick ;) We're almost opposites in that respect. He over-achieves, while I do just enough to get by. Not because I want it that way, of course. But because that I can't afford to put any more time into anything else around here! I just can't hold myself up to those standards anymore.

Jeffrey is a full-blown walker now. Almost as soon as we moved in here, he just took off. I guess children really do need ROOM to grow, and that condo just didn't have enough room. Makes me sad because I feel like it's my fault, and that I slowed him down. Oh well, no biggie I guess. It's a lessons learned. He's definitely understanding what we're saying now. I can ask him if he wants to go potty with mama and he walks to the bathroom. :) No, we're not potty-training yet, but it's never too early to introduce it I suppose. He's a picky eater, in my opinion. Some of his favs are PB&J with milk for lunch, grape juice, fruit parfaits from McDs, ckn nugget kids meal from McDs, stuffing, and cheerios for breakfast. He shovels them in by the handful!

Adrianna is smiling, cooing, and just being a happy little girl :) It was very difficult for me for the first 2 months...she seemed to cry for no apparent reason, Jeff didn't take any middle of the night feedings because I'm breastfeeding - so I got crappy sleep, and trying to take care of Jeffrey during the day was just plain hard. But now that we're moved and we have room, we're all much happier, and it's much easier! Adrianna has her own room with her own crib and dresser. She sits in Jeffrey's old bouncer (of course, we got her a new, expensive one that she doesn't seem to like near as much!) and talks to the fish that move around when she kicks. She's an excellent nurser, and I typically only have to get up twice in the middle of the night to feed her. The 2nd feednig is so close to "wake up" time that I might as well not even go back to sleep...

There are little playgrounds all over the place here in the community, and we have a nice sized fenced in back yard. I can't wait for summer and spring so that Jeffrey can experience the outdoors as a toddler. Lord help me.

Adrianna Rose =)

Born November 11th, 2008 @ 2:44am
7lb 4.9 oz 19 1/2"






















In the NICU:

















Out of the NICU:















3 Weeks Old:

Doc Appt 11/6

Dropped my pee off (I'm sure I looked ridiculous carrying a starbucks in my left hand and a jug of pee in my right), had my NST. The stupid monitor wouldn't continually pick up her heart rate so after 1.5 hrs of trying they sent me to L&D to monitor me there (I was supposed to have my reg OB appt after the NST but they decided to have me skip it). So I went to L&D, where their monitors picked it up just fine. They checked my cervix...still just 2 cm dilated.

My bps were good, but my protein from the pee test I dropped off a few hrs earlier had gone back up (it was 380 last Monday when they wanted to induce me, dropped to 178 that Thursday when they said I'm "not sick anymore", and today it was 301). Apparently 300 is where they start to consider inducing. So they said they want to see me twice a week now and I have to go back Monday for an NST and to "discuss" inducing. I got the feeling that they don't want to let me go to 39/40 weeks like they said a couple weeks ago. I'm getting good at reading what they're not saying.

I get that feeling because they didn't tell me to do another 24 hr urine...and they've been having me do one practically every few days over the last 2 weeks. So I don't think they're just letting it go. I just keep reminding myself that my body is much more prepared for an induction this time, and that it won't be as horrible and we won't have a tiny baby that's immediately taken away from me. It's gonna be different. It's really mentally exhausting. It makes it easier to remember it's a disease, so I don't feel like such a failure. I'm anxious to get this over with!

Jeffrey's Goofy Grins 11/5

I love his silly little face :)

Playing in the leaves

I took Jeffrey to the park yesterday so Daddy could have some alone time to wrap up some school work. We're trying to take advantage of the few "park weather" days we have left before we're stuck in the house with a newborn for the winter. He had to taste test the leaves of course ;)I can't believe we made such a beautiful baby.

I think he's mastered the art of the sippy cup. Or at least he's on his way...he's finally drinking from it instead of chewing on it or rolling it around like it's a toy. Boy does he love apple juice! He's learning how to be impatient and demanding, so it's an important time to show him who is boss. But I still smother him in kisses...and he's smothering little girls in kisses. At the park and at play-dates - he seems to understand that boys are to play with and girls are to kiss.

The solid foods he happily eats now include: chicken (nuggets or baked), hot dogs, toast, peas, mac n cheese, pancakes, banana in a mesh feeder (it looks like a pacifier but the part he puts in his mouth is mesh and I put fruit in it for him to chew), french fries.
The ones he just picks at and occasionally gets into his mouth are: broccoli, pasta, and cantaloupe in a mesh feeder.









I'm still feeling decent, although my right foot has looked like a marshmallow for a couple days. So I've been trying to do housework in one run so I can sit down and elevate it for a while. Jeff has got November off from school, and I will have a little over a month off beginning around Nov 5th.

The doc I saw last week said that they want to induce me at 39/40 weeks. I totally didn't expect that, so I questioned it and he explained that being as the baby will be ready to come out and be healthy at that point, there's no sense in keeping her in there when she's putting a lot of strain on my body by increasing my blood pressure. I can't really deny that, I know high bp is dangerous, and she will be big and healthy at that point so I don't think I'll fight their decision. 40 weeks will be the day before Thanksgiving - and I'm NOT spending Thanksgiving in the hospital. So I think I'll give them the go ahead to schedule an induction for 39 weeks, which will be Nov 19th. That way we'll both be out of the hospital for Thanksgiving. I'm hoping that I'll go into labor by myself before Nov 19th. If they do induce, I don't expect it to be the nightmare it was last time, a lot of things are different this time around.

35 Weeks - Doc Appt

Jeff and Jeffrey came with me, because I was getting an u/s and Jeff wanted to see her. The NST went good...the whole time I was laying there relaxing, I could hear Jeffrey out in the hallways going "DADADADADADADADADAADA!!!" lol

The u/s went really good...they say she weighs 6lbs now! When they said that, let out a few tears. Just the thought of having a "normal" weight baby makes me so happy!!! They were going to confirm that she's "still a girl"...so the guy doing the u/s (he was a student) was looking for her lips - yes - that's what he called them. Not labia, her lips. Jeff squirmed in his seat lol
And they took a 3d pic of her face for us.

Then for my doc appt - apparently they want to induce me at 39/40 weeks, which took me by surprise because no one ever mentioned it before, I kinda assumed I was on the right path for a good, "normal" delivery, but they said that being as the baby is the cause of the high bp, as long as she's healthy and ready to be out, they want to take her out. Everyone kept saying "So we're inducing at 39 weeks..." and after a few times of hearing that, I said "Well you know, there IS a chance I can go into spontaneous labor!!"

And they want me to do another 24 hr urine test. Yay, because I really enjoy collecting it the 4 times I go during the middle of the night and keeping it in the fridge!

So hopefully I'll just go into labor like a normal person would...I don't know, I've never made it that far before! I'm not having any ctx or anything yet, but hopefully next week we'll get rolling!

Future Einstein

I think we may have almost everything ready for our little girl :) We've got the bassinet & swing out of storage, washed them both and washed the infant car seat (wish I could find the base for that but I think it's buried in storage so that's out of the question). Washed all her clothes so they're pre-shrunk and took out all the preemie, newborn, 0-3 months, and a few 3-6 months outfits just in case we're here in this condo that long (grrrrrr). The next thing on the list is to order some diapers for her. We'll be trying a different kind of diaper for her than we did with Jeffrey (partly because Jeffrey's diapers are $20/piece and won't fit a newborn anyways). Also in preparation, I bought a playard for Jeffrey (http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/superyard-xt-play-gate-by-north-states-industries). I bought it used and off of Craig's list. The one in the picture has 6 gates, but the one I got has 12, so it's super big! It takes up almost all of the living room and there's just enough room for us to walk around it. That way, I don't feel bad about "confining" him to his crib or him jumper while I do something (ANYTHING!) and I know he's safe and happy with all his toys. I just had to get something like this with another baby coming. Jeff and I like getting in there and playing with him without having to worry about him crawling at high speed to the computer corner and getting into everything he shouldn't get into.

I'm kind of in new territory now, never been pregnant this long before! I know that every day counts and so I'm thankful for every day that she's still nice and snuggly in there! We have an u/s on Oct 23rd (the day before my 25th birthday!), so I'm excited to see how much they estimate she weighs at that point. She's very active and pretty mean sometimes. I usually have to get up at least once in the middle of the night to give Jeffrey back his pacifier (plus a few trips to the bathroom!) and I try really hard not to wake her up because it makes it that much harder on me to get back to sleep.

I think Jeffrey is showing interest in walking. He's recently started letting go of his toys while he's standing and not falling. It's just for a second or two though. And when we hold out our hands for him to grab on to and walk to us, we don't have to coax him into walking, he does it by himself :)

And last but not least - enjoy these pictures taken last night after bath time with Daddy!