Ellie is really the sweetest thing around!

I love my daughter with all my heart. Not that there ever is any question of that, of course! She's so adorable and sweet and FUNNY and smart and... and....

The things I love about her right now:

• The way she will walk goofy and then turn to see if I'm looking at her. She'll do it on her tip toes or with her knees bent or just step big with one leg and shuffle with the other and look at me sideways with a goofy grin. It's hysterical!
• She loves to share! She will feed me some of her food, then eat some, then feed me some more. If someone walks in, once she feels comfortable with them, she will offer them someting - her toy, a piece lint from the floor, some of her food, a sip of her drink....
• When I ask her if she needs her diaper changed, she'll walk toward her room - then, while I'm getting a diaper, she'll laugh and watch to see me then start walking away.... and then run once she sees me coming laughing her head off! LOL! She LOVES to be chased!
• She loves when her dad comes home. She gets sooooo excited to see him and will run to the door if I ask her if daddy is home.
• She will hug and kiss me more and more. She does this with dad, too. She grabbed his face tonight and kissed him. So sweet!

But I think the thing that melted my heart the most was her reaction to Baby George, who was born yesterday morning. Although it too her a much longer time to relax around everyone in the hospital room, once she did, she was quiet, well behaved and sweet with everyone. But when Baby George started crying, she got so upset! She just sobbed and wanted me. Huge tears rolled down her face and she was looking at me like "why is he crying? I'm so sad that he's so sad!"

Later in the evening, my mom took Ellie out in the hall, the boys went downstairs and Gwenan had to go to the restroom so I held George. When Ellie and mom came back into the room, mom put Ellie next to me and George.... I was blown away with how sweet she was to him! She gently touched his hair and head, she touched his face and patted his hands... With the most amazing touch.

I can't wait for her to meet her little brother or sister! She will love him/her and be the BEST big sister ever.

I love my daughter with all my heart!

Random ramblings on Dos

Although I've been excited, I wouldn't say it was high on the whole scale of excitement. I dont' know if it's been because of being so nervous about Dos for so long or just because I'm so busy with Ellie.... But I just haven't been really excited like I was with Ellie. It's not that I was dreading or unhappy or anything like that. It was more like "I'm having a baby in a few months... Okay. Cool. I'll get excited later."

But then I went to the hospital last night to see baby George... and my SIL was trying to get him to breastfeed.... And she was beaming and excited. And my sweet husband was so happy to see this precious life. And I realized.... I'M GETTING EXCITED! I want to breastfeed. I want to do it longer and feel more relaxed about it. I want to take pictures and really see him or her grow. (Me? Take pictures?!?) I want to sleep in our big king sized bed with Dos and Ellie and my DH during a lazy Saturday afternoon. Then cozily feed Dos while everyone else is snoozing. I want to see how Ellie does with Dos. (She was amazing with George! Sooooo gentle and sweet. She sobbed when he cried for food - like she just felt so bad that he was so sad - and it was so heart wrenching and sweet! She touched him like he was a fragile little baby.....)

I just am getting excited. And I want to meet him or her! I want to see if this is a little rambunctious boy or a little sweet little girl. And if it's a girl, I want to know what her name is! LOL! I want to see if he or she looks like me or Chris or is really just a combination like Ellie. I want to know if Dos is going to be easy or needy or somewhere in between.....

And it feels good. I hope this feeling sticks around for a while, but I doubt it. But I do know it'll be back in force when the time gets close so I don't worry about it.

And I know baby Dos will be loved by everyone in this house. (No, there weren't any doubts, but it was wonderful seeing Chris and Ellie's reactions.)

Baby Dos stuff....

Well, "he" has definitely been VERY active lately! LOL! Crazy. Kicking, pushing, finding my ribs and my cervix. (Okay, "he" found the cervix a long time ago, but since "he's" bigger... ACK!)

But all in all, things are going well. I do have a tendency to throw up about once every week or two from brushing my teeth. Luckily it's in the morning when I haven't had anything but water.

Speaking of water. UGH! I'm soooo sick of drinking as much water at night as I do! I constantly am up to pee and then I'm dying of thirst so I drink a ton. And then I pee more! I think I was up about 6 times last night. I'm sick of it.

And even when I am in bed, I'm not always sleeping well. I often wake early in the morning (5-6am) and can't get back to sleep. And it doesn't matter when I go to bed. I am also VERY tired no matter what!

29week 1day appt for Dos

Well, nothing exciting to report... Well, when I did my "wiz quiz" (LMAO, CAS!), I actually DIDN'T pee on myself as per usual. That was nice! LOL!

I did get an internal (my only 'til 36ish weeks) and I'm closed up tight... Don't get me wrong, I know that's a good thing, but I think it's also a sign of another induction. LOL! Seriously, it's better for everyone for this baby not to think about coming early so....

Oh, I'm also measuring 30 weeks - slightly ahead. And I have gained 3lbs in the last two weeks. Although they aren't worried, I'm freaking. I'm at 29 weeks and I've already gained 19lbs. (I was at about 14lbs with Ellie.) So I'm starting to think I'll be gaining more this time. ugh!

Otherwise, things are going great!

Oh, I do go for a colposcopy and a pap next time. Ugh! Not fun, but definitely necessary.

Nothing exciting about Dos today!

Just tired, as usual. I stepped on the scale the other day and I'm up about 13 or so pounds.... I'm pretty happy with this considering I was gaining MUCH faster this time than with Ellie. It finally slowed. I need to weigh myself again tomorrow just to see for sure. If only I can remember! LOL!

I didn't do any yoga. Bad Andi. Just plain forgot.

But I am feeling well. Some reflux. Achiness. That's about it!! Yeah.....

Ellie is definitely saying words!

I know I talked about this yesterday, but she's starting to try to repeat more than just a few words... Although she's a long way from talking for real, the fact that she's repeating is so awesome! I be she catches up to the other Junebugs pretty quickly!

I am currently printing out the Valentine cards. I'm so happy with the way they turned out! I love doing the photos and coming up with fun ideas for cards.... I hope everyone likes 'em!

Ellie missed the birthday party :(

Well, if you read my Dos update for the day, you'll understand. We were supposed to go to Macy Davis' 2nd birthday party today. I was really looking forward to taking Ellie to the Children's Museum. It sounds like so much fun! Guess I'll have to take her another time.

Her new word: Cracker!!! (Okay, "acker" or "cacker".) I'm so excited that she's actually starting to copy words! Another she's copying is "apple" ("ackle"). I've also heard her say "nana", but not sure if that's just playing with her sounds or if it really means "nana" as in my mother.... We'll just keep working on it!

She's doing good, but today was tough at the end. I haven't seen her get this cranky in a while. We're thinking teething. (Canines. I know they are almost through and this is the first time any teeth have come this far in without us really feeling the effects, if you know what I mean... Waking a lot at night, very unhappy, NEEDING Tylenol, that sort of stuff.)

I hope she *really* does start to talk! That would be so awesome!

Dos & mommy's fun adventure

Well, today was interesting... I had planned on running out to a few stores to return some clothes and then get something for Macy Davis' 2nd birthday. (And for Zach & Brett & Sarah.) After doing ll the running around, I stopped to get gas and wash my car. While sitting in the car wash (a drive through one at the gas station), the car overheated. ACK! I called the Audi dealership and they had me call roadside (not so) assistance.

An hour and a half later, the tow truck finally shows up. (It only took them 30 minutes from the call, but it took roadside non-assistance an hour to call them. Bleh.)

Then an hour after that, the clueless cabbie showed up. (Took him 20-30 minutes to find the place - just off a MAJOR highway and a MAJOR road. Grrrr.) I didn't think his car was going to make it up into the mountains. Thankfully, it did

So... from the time of my car overheating to me getting home - 3 hours. Ugh.

I'm glad Dos was good. I didn't get any really bad gas pains 'til I got home. And I didn't get too exhausted sitting and waiting forever at the gas station....

Oh, well, at least I.... um.... I.... got to have my car towed? No.... Get to have it in the shop 'til Monday? No.... At least I got home safe! LOL! Yeah! That's it....

Dos is making my shoulder hurt!

Okay, so I'm not sure if it's *really* baby Dos, but man, my shoulder is bugging me. It feels like there is a bubble or something in there that makes it tough to move in certain positions. I need to do some prenatal yoga, but the thought makes me cringe! I hope it goes away soon!

But Dos has been kicking up a storm! I'm laying on the couch with the computer on my lap and against the tummy. And it's kick kick kick "get this off me"! Defnitely an active little critter!!! I can't wait to meet him/her!

Ellie fussed... arg!

Since I hadn't been sleeping well, I decided to be good and go to bed early. I was in bed at 9pm and asleep by 10pm! Pretty amazing for me!

But Ellie started fussing at 3:30 and *finally* went back to sleep. Only to fuss a little while later. And again... And again. I figured there was a specific reason (pooped or peed out of her diaper), but nope! Don't know what it was! But I didn't sleep more than an hour after 3:30am 'til we got up at 8am. Yuck!

But we had a good day. Ellie's such a delight! I love her little jabbering. it's really changed lately. She's trying to copy words (finally) like "apple". Oh, and Chris swears she copied "hi, Chris" last night! Her babble is more like trying to communicate something than just random babble. Could this mean she's going to talk soon? I can only hope! LOL!

We also took Valentine pictures today. My hard drive is so full, I am just now downloading 'em after cleaning stuff off. I sure hope they turned out good! (They looked like it on the back of the camera.)

Cross your fingers

Ellie update

Okay, since I got caught up on Dos, I should get caught up on Ellie! What I *really* need to do is go back through all my posts on Junebugs and pull out the stuff that Ellie is doing. Hmmm, if I do, I think I'll have to do that and put it in a doc rather than here since there's so much more than for baby Dos!

For now, I'll just catch up on the last month or so....

We took Ellie in for her 18 month checkup on 12/24/04... The doctor was happy with where she was. She was impressed with how well behaved (I guess that's what you'd say) Ellie was - she just sat on the table and allowed Dr Hire to check her out. The doctor mentioned that most 18 year olds will fuss and want to get down - Ellie was as patient as a 2 year old. She was also impressed with Ellie going up and down the stairs without holding on.

We (Chris went with me) asked about her not really talking and Dr Hire wasn't concerned. As a matter of fact, she didn't think that any of the special programs for kids that were behind would take her since she was ahead or on target with everything else. And since her comprehension was so impressive, she wasn't concerned at all. (We have since worked MUCH harder on baby signs and that has helped a bunch!)

She was 22lb 9.5oz and 33" tall at this appt.

In early January (actually, New Years ) she got sick with a stomach flu and just had the worst diarrhea. She got to be like a wet noodle she was feeling so bad. When we brought her into the doctor, she had lost a pound! The doctor (Dr Pin-something) was really concerned about dehydration, but luckily Ellie was sucking down Pedialyte at the appt. We kept an eye on her and she just continued sucking it down - and we narrowly avoided having ot bring her in and get an IV in the ER!

After she started getting better, we noticed a LOT of things: her love of meat went WAY up, she started learning and doing more, she was more active, more alert, eating like a HORSE and even more easy going about things! Her naps changed (got later and more consistant)... So much! We are attributing this to more iron and a bettter balanced diet with less milk.

Yesterday I decided to see how much she weighed. We had weighed her about 2 weeks after her illness and she was 24lbs fully clothed. Yesterday she was 24.5lbs! (That's with clothes and a new diaper.) Whoa! And I measured her - 34"! So she's gained about 1.5lbs and grown 1" in just over a month. Hmmm, growth spurt?!? LOL!

Uh, oh! I have to run! I hear her waking from her nap! (Laughing and jabbering, as usual. Such a cutie!)

Baby Dos update

Okay, now that I'm finally caught up and actually got all my updates of the Junebugs board, I feel better! LOL! Poor baby Dos hasn't gotten the journaling attention that I should have been giving. Ellie certainly did! But I've also been able to take a TON more belly pics with Dos than I did with Ellie! (It's time for another, but I'm so tired I just look like crud and don't want to!)

Had a horrible night the night before last, but finally figured out that eating things with either maltitol (a fake sweetner for a low carb diet) or peanuts caused me to have HORRIBLE gas and kept me up most of the night. I'm glad I figured that out - last night I slept much better... But silly Ellie woke me at 6:45 instead of her usual 8-9am. Ugh!!!

But Dos is super, duper active. I can't believe how much kicking goes on in there! Whoa! I do NOT remember this happening as much with Ellie. Maybe she was this active, but I don't remember....

A note on calling Dos "he"... I started thinking about it and if I make this into a pregnancy journal and Dos is a "she", I don't want "her" to think I was in any way disappointed with having a girl instead of a boy! Sure, I would rather have a boy right now - I've always wanted to have at least one of each, but how could I be disappointed in a girl? I mean, Ellie amazes me every day and a sibling of hers, whether boy or girl, would be equally as amazing!

If I *truly* thought I'd be disappointed, I'd be heading off to get that ultrasound (u/s) right this second! LOL! But I'm excited just to have this baby.

Did some yoga today, but my shoulder was bugging me. Weird. I keep thinking it might be because of caffeine. I tried to work through it, but it didn't really help. I'll avoid caffeine tomorrow and see if that helps.

Baby Dos updates from the beginning.

Most of these are taken from posts on my Junebugs board.

2/2/04 - Taken from two posts:
My big whine: Ugh, I feel like crap. I have the worst gas. I mean, not only do I not smell good, I also HURT. It's awful! Last night sucked - I kept waking up in pain and the gas didn't "release" until about 5:30am. By that time, i couldn't get back to sleep 'til 7:30am. And had to get up at 8:15. Ugh!

So now... I"m exhausted, gassy and very hormonal. (In a sad way, not mad way.) About nothing.

Ugh, I'm going to go cry it out for a while..... I hate hormones.
And now for some good news: My GTT test came back. Good. Really good. With Ellie I think I was 110 (140, i think, is bad). This time - 74!!!

1/26/04 - Taken from a post:
Wow! Can you believe it?!?! Amazing... I have less than 95 days to go! (My ticker is wrong by a day. I never understood that. I put in my due date and it's always off by a day. Ah, well.)
Anyway, I did my GD test today. Drank the orange stuff, which I don't find to be that bad. I'm measuring right on. And my weight, which I think is a *little* high when compared to my pregnancy with Ellie, is great according to my doctor. (This is just a different pregnancy so I'm not worried at all.) "His" heartbeat was in the 130's... So we'll see!

I am having a lot of BH contrax so I need to keep an eye on that. But other than that, everything looks GREAT!

Can you believe I"m in my 3rd trimester? I'm at the point that I go for appts every two weeks now!! Whoa... I need to start getting my poop together. Nothing is done!

1/17/04 - Was very, very tired. Worried about anemia, but turned out to be a flu of some sort. Took me several days to get over, but ended up being fine.

12/29/04 - Taken from a post:
Okay, first I want to clear up a tiny bit of confusion.... I had a friend who will remain nameless that was surprised when I pronounced Dos for her... She had been thinking DOS, like the operating system....

Nope, this is baby Dos as in Uno, Dos, Tres... Baby #2! LOL!

Anyway.... Baby Dos is definitely a more fiesty one than Ellie was... To get Ellie's HB, the nurse would just put the doppler on and voila! There is was! For baby Dos it's like this:

Thump, thump, thump, whooooosh, silence..... *move doppler*
Thump, thump, whooooosh, silence..... *move doppler*
Thump, whooooosh, silence..... *move doppler*

After a few times we finally got the HB and it's doing GREAT in the 140's.

I get my GD test in 4 weeks. Bleh.

I've also gained 12lbs with Dos - with Ellie, I had only gained 6lbs by this time. But I'm also measuring at 24weeks so maybe that has something to do with it? I am still only hoping to gain 25ish lbs, but I'm starting to wonder if it's possible! LOL! (As long as Dos is happy, I'm fine.)

But all in all, it's going GREAT!

12/1/04 - Taken from a post:
Let's see.. The short version. The colposcopy was okay, not great. I have some precancerous cells so they'll do a few more colpos (NOT colonoscopy as a few of you though! LOL! wrong oriface!) to make sure it's not getting worse. Then, after Dos is born, they'll do another to see if it's gone away. If not, I'll get a LEEP which basically removes all the bad cells and fixes everything. So keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't get worse!
11/30/04 - Taken from a post:
The test results are back and.... everything is fine with baby Dos!
Okay, okay, I know I didn't post about this - like I've said a million times - I've been really nervous about this pregnancy. But I got my amnio last week. It was not as "fun" as my first with Ellie. They didn't numb my belly before sticking in the needle. I like the people there, but wasn't happy about that.... Well, the results came back and everything is normal! I'm so relieved....

Now all I have left for testing is the Level II u/s in 2 weeks... And I'm not too worried since they essentially did one before the amnio. (This is to check things that were too early to see at teh amnio.) I did get about 14 u/s pictures and I'll post 'em as soon as I scan 'em. I think I was afraid of jinxing things....

I also go tomorrow to find out the results of my colposcopy. I'm a bit nervous about that.... I'll also be asking about my eating - since I get full so fast.

11/22/04 - Taken from a post:
Okay, went to my 17 week appt.... It was okay. Not fun. Baby is fine - HB in the 150's.... But still not a girl, in spite of all the wives tales. Or so we hope! LOL!
But I got a colposcopy because of a bad pap smear. They put vinegar on your cervix and then look through a scope and can see bad spots. Then they take small biopsies of those and send 'em off to the lab. I find out next week if it means anything. Ugh. Keep your fingers crossed that it's nothing serious....

I did get my AFP results - 1:10,000! Pretty darn good odds....

10/29/04 - Taken from a post:
Went in for my 14 week checkup today. And I didn't get an u/s! LOL! I think it's the first appt I've been to that I haven't gotten one! And that's not a bad thing - that means that baby Dos is being "good"....
"His" heart rate was in the 150's and "he's" measuring right on target. So far, so good.

I did have an iffy pap so I'll be going back in 2 weeks or so for a colposcopy. Ugh. (That's where they look at my cervix and take, as my mom said, a few small bites from it. Fun.)

I also am going to get an amnio still. So that should be next week or the week after. I need to make sure it's a time that my DH can go so..... And right before I do that, I need to get my AFP done.

All in all, good for baby Dos, not so good for me. But we'll find out in a few weeks if it's good or not for real. In the meantime, I'm not thinking about the colposcopy - I've had enough stress and just don't feel like stressing anymore for a while. I'm just going to enjoy this time of feeling better, being off the progesterone and not being quite as tired.

10/7/04 - Taken from a post:
I swear I felt the baby move... Ellie will straddle my tummy and sit low and give me books to read.... Well, 3 days ago I felt a *thump* and thought "that was weird". Then a minute later, *thump*.... And I thought, "Whoa! Baby?!?!" *thump*
And then it happened again today! Definitely *didn't* feel like gas or anything else "normal"....

10/1/04 - Taken from a post:
We went to the doctor again today. Or rather, the Nurse Practitioner.... (The doctor had a family emergency.) So she tried to use the doppler to find the heartbeat, but couldn't. So she said she'd try to find the heartbeat with the u/s, but not to freak if she couldn't.
Well, she found baby Dos and the hb almost right away! She turned the monitor and DH and I got a great shot from the side of the baby wiggling up and down. I was so excited to see it! It was so amazing....

She did mention, though, that I did have an abnormal pap that i'll be going back at 16 weeks (I'm 10weeks now) to get checked out. Bleh.

Then I got home and promptly found out I was bleeding. Since I didn't have an internal, I was a bit freaked, to say the least. So I called and they put me on bedrest for the weekend... And to take it easy for a while.

The bleeding stopped, but has started up again. Ack! (Talked to her after this happened.) So I'll definitely take it easy. DH came home from work early. And if need be, my mom will come next week to help with Ellie. (Thank goodness I have a laptop so I can stop by here! LOL!)

Anyway, just wanted to update you on the latest with my high maintenance baby!

9/24/04 - Taken from a post:
Got my new car (love it! i'll post pics later, maybe next week), went to a bbq with Norah Jones and her band (they are awesome - i'll post about that later - maybe next week) and then went to the concert last night (awesome concerty, ditto). And I was feeling better, but with not getting enough sleep,I am sick again. Ellie is still snotty, but feeling a little better.
I also had more brown bleeding on Wednesday. So I called the doctor on Thursday and they had me go in for another u/s and a progesterone check... Well, the u/s was great! It was a MUCH higher quality one than my doctors and you could see soooo much. Turns out I have a tiny sub-centimeter tear that might be what's bleeding. What it's from, they don't know.

And my progesterone has gone from 37ish to 28ish to 21ish... So they put me on prometrium, an oral progesterone. (Any info on others that have been on this would be GREAT.) I took my first one today and it made me quite dizzy. Bleh.

But so far, so good. Not great. I'm still having a hard time bonding with this baby - I'm just nervous that it won't make it. (You know, I worry about there being a real reason that all this is going on that that there are going to be problems during testing in a few weeks.)

But the u/s showed a baby that was 8w6d and I was 9w - so right on target.

9/12/04 - Some spotting - turned out later to be because of a tear between the placenta and the uterus

8/17ish/04 - The story of finding out whether or not I was pregnant (taken from a post):
I dont' think I told ya'll (yeah, my 18 years in Texas coming through) about testing postitive... Then slowly the lines started getting lighter and lighter over 4 days.... So I finally assumed, when the last one was barely visible, that I was miscarrying... And promptly drank several glasses of wine that night....

Next morning, I felt weird. Weird twinges in my sides... And nauseous and light headed later that day. So I grabbed my last test sorta freaking out... and it was a BIG FAT PLUS almost instantly. Damn, did i feel horrible about drinking!!!!

Anyway, then last weekend, a quick spot. Enough to surprise me and worry me, but not much. Just something I never had with Ellie.

Then last night I was shopping and felt liquid. Damn.... Ran to the bathroom (poss TMI) and I was bleeding. Bright red. And it soaked my undies.... Needless to say, I was freaked. Called the doc and she said take it easy and come in to my regular appt in the morning for an u/s.

Bled off and on over the night - not a lot, but enough... It slowed to a trickle and turned more brownish. But I was still very sad and depressed driving to the doctor.

Chris, Ellie and I were in the room waiting. (Okay, Ellie was babbling, but still.) The doctor came in, looked at my cervix and said that all the blood looked brown. Then did the u/s.... And promptly showed us the baby with a heartbeat! I just started to tear up again... I was amazed!

So, this little one has already driven me nuts 3 times! I just can't wait to what happens when he/she is born!! Ack!

But if you could still spare some sticky vibes, I'd really appreciate it. I'm still at a higher risk for m/c. She didn't know what caused the bleeding (no, haven't had sex - and can't until this trimester is done!) so there's no telling what's going on. I could just be early in a m/c or it could be placenta previa or it could be.... whatever.

One other good thing: "he's" measuring 8w1d-8w3d depending on the angle - and I'm 8w1d so right on target or bigger!