12 Week Belly Pic and 14 Week Update

I'm a couple weeks behind on posting this...but here's my belly at 12 weeks. I didn't mean to blend in with the wall.



I had an OB appointment last week and here is the sweet baby at 13 weeks!


Everything looked great with the baby! He/She had a heartrate in the 150's - strong and perfect. Baby was also measuring a little ahead - meaning they may move up the due date! I haven't gained much, if any, weight and the doctor wanted me to put on some more pounds. I may not be gaining much, but at least we know the baby is growing just fine.

It looks like I may be heading to physical therapy for my sciatic nerve pain if it continues to bother me a lot. I decided to hold out a little longer and luckily it hasn't been so bad these past couple of days. Fingers crossed that it stays that way! Other than that, the baby and I look good. I have another appointment scheduled for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Since the clinic will be low staffed due to the holiday, they are going to wait to do the anatomy scan :( That means we won't be finding out the gender before Thanksgiving. I guess we'll have to wait another week or two after that.

The ultrasound technician that I had last week is guessing that the baby is a boy. She said she didn't see anything and that her guess was based on the size since it was measuring ahead. Of course she doesn't realize that Adam is 6'4'' and that I may just have a big baby! I haven't had any strong feelings either way during this pregnancy about the gender. Lately I've been thinking that it's a girl though. I only guess girl because I know of 6 people who have found out the gender of their babies recently and 5 were girls. That's about a good a guess as the technician. Well, one of us will be right!

It's so exciting to be able to experience this again. Adam and I are feeling so blessed right now and cannot wait to meet the newest member of our little family!

Happy Halloween!

Every time a holiday arrives, I say "this is my favorite holiday yet." I'm sure I'll be saying a bunch over the next couple of months! Halloween was no exception. While Caroline didn't really understand the concept of dressing up and trick-or-treating - she did seem to have a great time. We celebrated for days and loved every minute of it!

Last Friday she got to dress up and go trick-or-treating at daddy's office. She was, of course, the cutest kid there. She got to be a pro at putting candy in her bucket. She even went into one person's office, grabbed an entire bag of candy and then pulled it out of the office and tried to put it in her bucket!


We woke up on Saturday and went to a Halloween party at Raughley's house. Out of the 7 kids that we there, there were 3 bees!! And 2 of them were named Caroline!


Caroline and Raughley just hanging out.


The other precious Caroline bumblebee.


Attempt at a group picture (minus the other Caroline).


My Caroline decided she was done as well...

After we came home and napped, we got ready for another Halloween party that night! This party was for grownups, but we brought Caroline along for a bit. We had a wonderful time visiting with our friends. We dressed in scrubs and witch hats (witch doctors). Caroline let us know when it was time to take her home by trying to go to sleep in the middle of the room. Precious.


Yesterday was the Halloween party in Caroline's class. Parents can go if they want and of couse I did!


She proudly showed me the toys she likes to play with.


Her ghost shirt she wore for the occassion.


One of her teachers, Miss Lisa. Caroline wasn't interested in looking at the camera...


She wanted to join her friend in squishing another friend behind the chair. How sweet.


Later that afternoon we met up with Raughley and Rebecca to watch the Halloween parade in Crestline Village. She loved it! She "caught" some beads and a pencil from the floats. After that we met up with daddies for dinner at La Paz - where she had ZERO meltdowns!! We did a little trick-or-treating before C decided she was worn out. By 8:00 the entire Israel family was in bed. We had such a wonderful Halloween and we hope yours was a wonderful as can BEE!!!

Pregnancy: 12 Weeks

Forgive the blurry picture. I took a picture of the ultrasound. You can atleast see that the baby looks like an actual human and not a gummy bear. If I ever get around to it I will actually scan them all and post... Also, belly pic will come later when someone is here to take it for me!

I finally made it to 12 weeks!! (I'm actually almost in week 13 now.) I am feeling much better as long as I eat right when I feel hungry. I seem to always be hungry. I am certainly eating more with this pregnancy than I did with the last one and I'm hoping that means I don't gain tons more weight! I have so much more energy than I did with Caroline, but by the end of the day I am ready to crash. This baby is sitting so low and putting a lot of pressure on my sciatic nerve. All I can do is take tylenol and use a heating pad on low - neither of which help a whole lot. This past week has been quite bad and I've been having a hard time walking. It flares up suddenly and causes a moment of severe pain. Luckily it's mainly happened while at home. I stumbled because of the pain the other day - while holding Caroline. I've been trying not to hold her as much just in case, which makes me sad. I never experienced this with Caroline and I must say that it's not pleasant. When that isn't giving me any trouble, I feel great so I'm trying to focus on that!

I haven't been having any major food cravings or aversions. I just find that I am always hungry. With Caroline I had very strong cravings and aversions. I have been having some pregnancy induced insomnia. It takes me forever to get comfortable and fall asleep and then 30 minutes later I am wide awake. I guess I need to get used to being up all night, huh?

We had the genetic screen appointment this week. The fluid behind the neck measured normal and there was a distinct and perfectly formed nasal bone. Abnormal measurements can be indicators of open spinal defects, Down's Syndrome, and Trisomy 18. We are waiting on blood results, but so far everything looked fantastic. We also had an ultrasound. The heartbeat has slowed down a lot (completely normal) and is very strong. He/She was just relaxing - a far cry from Caroline at the genetic screening appointment. She was jumping and turning the entire time! We were able to get a great profile shot and just like big sister, this baby has Adam's nose!! He/She was adorable!! It was still too early for the doctor to even make a guess about gender...plus the baby was super low and wouldn't show us their stuff. We'll find out soon enough! We will find out before Christmas which is great - plenty of time to get them gifts!!

It's so amazing to be able to experience this again. What a wonderful blessing! Don't forget to vote in the baby pool if you want to - we're going to close it in a few weeks!

See below for another new post.

Seventeen Months Old

Seventeen Months Old - October 23, 2011



It's getter harder and harder to get a decent picture of Caroline on demand (thus the messy face, messy hair picture above). She's such a busy girl! In one more month she'll be a year and half!! Yikes - where has time gone? She's been vocalizing more and more this month. She'll often try to repeat the words we say, even though she won't say them on her own. She's tried to copy: cold, horse, work, lunch, throw, and flower. I know there are more, but that's all I can think of. She's been consistantly saying: bye, no, go, Daisy (all same as before), but has also added yes, catch, hop and ball to the list. She can moo and quack and point to several body parts when asked. She can correctly point to different family members in pictures. It's amazing to me how much she learns every day. She doesn't cry getting out of the car during carpool anymore (thank goodness!!) and she doesn't fuss too much when I leave her with sitters or friends.

She is down to one nap a day, although on certain days she'll still take two. There are rare days when she takes none. She has been going to bed around 8:00. She sleeps like a champ! If she wakes up early, she'll always want to get in bed with daddy. The other morning she woke up. I went in to check on her and she kept pointing to go down the hall. She kept pointing until we got to my bedroom. When she saw Adam was still there, she started fist pumping. She's not a mama's girl or a daddy's girl - but she can be either at times. When she wakes up from a nap or in the middle of the night, she will always want me. When she's getting tired at night and wants to be held, she always wants Adam- but she wants me to put her to bed.

She loves music and dancing. We have dance parties almost every night. When Adam and I found out that Caroline was a girl, he said that he didn't know what to do with a girl and he was worried he wouldn't be any good. Well Adam, I think dancing to Lady Gaga and Minnie's bowtique are exactly what you do with a little girl. He truly is the best dad to a little girl I've ever seen.

Happy 17 month birthday little Caroline! We love you so much. You are such a smart, funny, sweet, curious little girl and we love watching you grow up!

Where's Caroline?



Here I am!!

Time to get out.


No!! (That is actually what she was saying here)



Apparently springform pans are good to sit in and to wear as hats. Who knew?

Old Wives Tales

There are so many old wives tales about how to determine the gender of your baby. My doctor assures me that there is no way to tell the sex except for an ultrasound (and DNA testing). Here are some of the old wives tales and where Baby Israel falls...

Heartbeat: If the baby has a heartbeat about 140, it's a girl. If it's below, it's a boy. At 9 weeks the baby had a heartbeat in the 180's - so that means girl!! Of course Caroline never got above 140 and she's a girl.

High or Low: If you carry the baby high, it's a girl. If you carry low, it's a boy. This baby is sitting much lower than Caroline - so baby boy?

Face: If your face gets rounder, it's a girl. My face isn't getting any rounder with this pregnancy. Boy? Then again...it didn't with Caroline!

Old Mayan Tale: Add the numbers of the mothers age at conception. If it's even, it's a girl and if it's odd it's a boy. I was 26 when I got pregnant (I turned 27 the following month) so that would be 8 - girl! I was 25 with Caroline so she shouldn've been a boy.

Acne: If you get acne you'll have a girl. I'm breaking out like crazy so it should be a girl. My face has never been more clear than when I was pregnant with C...so she should be a boy!! (Almost everything said boy when I was having her!!)

Cravings: Sweet means girl and salty means boy. I couldn't stand sweets with Caroline and only wanted salty. This pregnancy I'm not craving much but I can still eat sweets so it's hard to say.

Chinese Gender Chart: With Caroline it said girl and with this one it says boy!

Baby Names: If you can only think of names for a particular gender, that is what you are having. I could only come up with boy names for Caroline and she's a girl... With this one, I only have a girl name picked out!

Headaches: Headaches mean boy. I am having lots of headaches with this pregnancy - so boy!

Dry Hands: Dry hands mean boy. My hands are very dry - so boy again!! (Or it's getting colder outside...)

Morning Sickness: If you are sick and nauseaus, it's a girl. If you don't get sick, it's a boy. I've gotten sick with this one a lot - so it's a girl!

Ring Test: Circle means girl and back and forth means boy. My ring made a circle - so girl!

Dreams: Whatever sex you dream about you will have. I only had dreams about girls with Caroline and with this one I have only had boy dreams - boy! I've also read that whatever sex you dream about means you will have the oppostite...so that means girl as well. Hopefully there is only one baby in there!!

As you can tell, it's pretty much a toss up for boy or girl but it's fun to guess! I really don't have a strong feeling either way of what the sex is but I am excited to find out! At first I thought it must be a boy because I just feel so different. Then I was convinced it was a girl because I kept saying "she" when refering to the baby. Now I just don't know!! We still have several weeks to go...unless of course I can convince the doctor to try to see it sooner :)

Miss Independent

Caroline is quite the independent eater lately. She doesn't want us to feed her. Even though she makes a huge mess we let her try to use the fork and spoon. Here she is enjoying some yogurt.

Moo

Caroline hit a big milestone this week. She said "moo." She hasn't been too interested in making animal noises. She will laugh when we do it but that's about it. After weeks of going over it several times each day she finally said "mmmm" when asked what a cow says. She laughed at herself making the noise too. Precious. She was very proud of herself (as were her mommy and daddy).