Pregnancy Update

It's been a long time since I have blogged about Baby Girl #2. I will try to recap the past couple of months...try being the key word here.

Here are belly pics from Week 32 (3.5 weeks ago)




At week 32 I got sick with some sort of virus. Fever, chills, couging, headache, etc. It was horrible. Due to the high fever we decided to head to the MEU to make sure that everything was okay with the baby. Luckily she looked great but I was having regular contractions every six minutes. I got two shots of terbutaline and that was able to stop them. We went home to rest...only for me to wake up the next day with contractions every 3 minutes. Back to the MEU I went. Thankfully the contractions stopped by themselves and I was home soon after arriving. Apparently being sick can cause contractions. A few days of rest and I was feeling as good as new!!

That same week I also went to the cardiologist. He said that since there was no change, he didn't see any reason to see me again before the baby arrived. This is about the best news we could have hoped for!! While I am still "high risk," all the doctors feel confident that this delivery will go well. What a wonderful blessing!!

Around week 33 my black line started getting more noticable. It's not a big deal, but it's not the most attractive thing I have seen... I have still been craving sweets and fruit and have been eating more than enough of them.

I had an ultrasound at week 34 and she looked fantastic! Her little arms were covering her face so we didn't get any good profile pictures. It looks like she is still a girl!!! Yay!

I have been going to the doctor every week and went this week as well (week 35/36). My blood pressure was fantastic. I have had no swelling or other signs of preeclampsia so that is great news. My lab worked looked perfect so now we are just in the waiting game. I have finished almost everything that I wanted to at this point. The nursery is 99% done. I have two things in temporary frames until we bring them to get framed. We had our maternity portraits last week. We have washed all the little clothes and the car seat. We are ordering the new double stroller this week. All I have left to do it get a wreath for the door...and that's not a necessity, just a fun little project for Ann Parker!

At this point in my pregnancy with Caroline I was 1.5 cm dilated and 50-75% effaced. I am 0 and 0 with this one...so who knows when she is coming!! This part is the most exciting for me. Each day I wonder if today will be the day or will we be waiting another week or month. I am not at the point of talking about induction yet since I am still 4 weeks away from the due date. Hopefully I won't have to be induced and we get to be surprised again!!

I am certainly getting anxious about becoming a mother of two and hope that I can do well at that job. I am just praying for an easy transition for Caroline. This is the only family life she has ever known and everything is about to be shaken up. Having a little sister is such a wonderful thing and I know that after the initial adjustment she will have a best friend forever - but I am still worried about it. Please say a prayer for our family as we get ready to become a family of 4!!

I am so thankful for such a wonderful pregnancy and I cannot wait to meet my new little girl!!

Twenty Two Months Old!!!

Twenty Two Months - March 23, 2012



Holy Cow!! I am so behind on blogging and C is actually almost 23 months now, but I want to record some of this stuff so here goes...

This past month her vocabulary has just exploded! She is getting so good at saying names. She says mama, daddy, kiki (my sister, Katie), Mimi, Papa, and Daisy all the time. She is also remembering some of her friends names which is so cute! She likes to point out things that she knows like trees, balls, cars, and doors. She will say "knock knock" when we get to a door and "hello" when we go through the door. She calls balloons "loons" and swings "wee wees." When she wants to jump on the trampoline she will say, "I boop." We just love her little language!!

She still loves to be outside all the time. We spend a lot of time in the backyard or at the park. Her other favorite things are puzzles, painting, her new Melissa and Doug decorate cupcake toy (a big sister gift from Daddy), her bubble machine, stickers, throwing/catching balls, and dancing. She loves going to school and playing with her friends. She's such a friendly and happy little girl.

The biggest change this month has been that she moved to a big girl bed!! I have been having a tough time with this ever since we found out that we were having another baby. I was worried that she wouldn't be ready. She's not the best sleeper anyway so I just knew that this would make things worse. Maybe it's just beginners luck and it will get bad later - but she's actually doing alright. She wasn't that comfortable in the crib. She would end up sleeping curled up on her pillow each night. She does have a harder time going down, but she is sleeping better. She hasn't tried to get out of the bed yet which is a miracle! So far, so good!

The biggest issue that we have with her is that she whines a lot. She (like every other human) wants to get her way all the time. Since she cannot express herself very well yet, she ends of whining and it drives me crazy!! Eventually the whining turns into tantrums and has won her several trips to time out lately. We are heading into the terrible twos at full speed!! Other then that, she really is a sweet girl. I hear stories about kids biting and hitting and I am so thankful that so far we haven't had to deal with that. It may be coming, but for now I am happy :)


Happy 22 Months sweet girl!! I cannot believe that you are almost two! Daddy and I love you so so much. You are going to be the best big sister. You are sweet and loving and just a wonderful part of our family and I cannot imagine my life without you!!

Ice cream!!

Caroline loves ice cream. I do too so we are eating it most days. We decided to give her her very first cone last weekend. It was a huge mess but she loved it!

Like father, like daughter

We are still without internet service so be patient! I am so behind on blogging!

The other night Caroline decided to put on Adam's glasses and do some work on his laptop. It was so cute!!! She has been copying us more and more so it's fun to see what we often do. Apparently Adam works a lot...

Blog delay

I know I haven't blogged in forever...but for a good reason. We haven't had working Internet for a couple of weeks. We are getting new service but not until next week. I have about 5 posts to catch up on so stay tuned and I am sorry for the delay!!!!

Twenty One Months Old!!!

Twenty one months old - February 23, 2012


My little girl is almost 2!! AND - she can tell you that! She doesn't do it all the time, but if you ask how old she is, she'll say "Twooooooo" in the cutest little voice. I thought it would take her longer to master that...what a little smartie pants! Time is flying by and I just want to slow it down. This is such a fun age with Caroline, although it's also been the hardest. Her vocabulary expands by the day it seems. She has been copying words that we say so we better watch ourselves! She is speaking in some sentences!! Nothing long or incredibly profound - but she's going to be a big talker soon. She'll say things like: "Where'd it go?", "I see it", "I got it" "Right there", "Daddy gone", That's daddy's", etc. It's amazing to watch her learn things so quickly. The first year of her life we watched her grow so much physically and now that has slowed down, but we are watching her grow mentally and it's just as fun!

After several nights (as in weeks) of horrible sleeping - waking up 6-8 times through the night - we finally called the doctor. While waking up some at this age is normal (I was shocked to learn that most kids don't sleep through the night 100% of the time until age 4), the amount she was getting up isn't normal. She has been having night terrors, which accounts for some that. The rest is either stubbornness, separation anxiety, or some other cause. We gave her some medicine to help her sleep for the past week and that has helped. Tonight will be the first night without it so I hope that we have established a decent pattern at this point so we can all get some rest. If the next few days don't go well we will be headed to the doctor to get checked out. She had been on such a great schedule for so long and I feel like we have reverted back to the newborn days!!

Caroline is so incredibly kind and loving. The other day I was crying (which isn't uncommon during this pregnancy) and I don't usually get so emotional in front of her so this was out of the ordinary for her to see. Caroline crawled into my lap and started making funny faces at me. When I started laughing she gave me the biggest hug ever! She has a few baby dolls/stuffed animals that she loves. She will rock them and hug them. She is so sweet with them and we are hoping that means she'll be sweet with her sister. She always seems so worried when another child is crying and acts like she wants to help in some way. She has such a beautiful heart!

Her favorite things to do these days are play on the swings and the trampoline, finger paint, playdoh, flash cards, dance, throwing/catching/kicking balls, and her play kitchen. She's still as busy as ever. I've been getting exhausted earlier and earlier these days so it's hard sometimes to keep up with her!

She's a super tall but super skinny girl! Her waist size still fits into 6-9 month things, but her legs and torso fit 24 month and 2T. She's still in a size 4 diaper and will probably be in those until she's potty trained. She hasn't used the potty yet, but she is very interested in it. We haven't transitioned her to a big girl bed yet but that's because her new room isn't done. Our goal is to have it done by March 31st. We better get to work!! She is a good eater and often prefers fruits and veggies to sweets and other snacks. Her favorite things by far are broccoli and grapes. She won't turn down french fries - but she has opted for green vegetables over pizza and mac and cheese.

She likes to get her way (who doesn't?) and this often leads to tantrums. When she gets over tired or hungry she gets very irritable and lately has started swatting at us. She doesn't ever hit us hard (she did that one time and got in trouble and has thankfully never done it again). She just swats her little hand in our direction when she gets frustrated. We are working on stopping this annoying behavior before it gets too far!

Caroline is such a joy to us, even in the challenging moments. She is turning into such a wonderful little person and we cannot wait to see what's in store for her in the coming months. I cannot say it enough - I feel so blessed that I was chosen to be her mommy and I love every second of it!

Happy 21 months baby girl! We love you so much.

Daddy's gone...so break out the Cool Whip!!

Adam left for Washington DC this week for his first trial. I know he's having a great time but I already miss him! Caroline misses him too. She asked last night "Where's dada?" like she does at around the same time every day. I told her that he was working like I always do. Several hours later she must have noticed that he never came home so she asked again. I told her that daddy was away but he would come back. We called daddy so she could say hi. As soon as we hung up the phone she burst into tears. It broke my heart!!

This is the longest that Adam has been away since we got married. Every night he usually comes home and plays with Caroline. This gives me some time to get things done, rest, or whatever else I need/want to do. I plan a lot of activities for the mornings but our day slows down after nap time so this also wears her out for bedtime. Since Adam isn't here to do this, I've been coming up with fun things to do each afternoon to wear out some of her infinite energy. After reading my friend Sarah's blog about an activity with shaving cream, I decided to give it a try. I decided to use Cool Whip instead since Caroline still loves putting everything in her mouth. I was so sure that she would love it...


I put some Cool Whip on a cookie sheet and added some food coloring.

I stripped her down and showed her the big glob of fun...she wasn't too impressed.


I should have known that my child, who hates anything on her hands, wouldn't be too excited.


But she was ready to play once I gave her some utensils...gotta keep things off your hands people!


She may or may not have seen mommy eat a huge spoonful and decided to join in...


Something's on my hand - get it off!!


A nice long bath was in order after all this fun! We sure have had fun doing fun, new things but I'm looking forward to having daddy come home and helping me wear her out :)