Baby #3 -- 19 weeks

Not really showing yet -- although rounder than normal.

I  can SEE the baby kicking now which is lots of fun.  Victor, Erik, Grandma Kay have all felt the baby move as well.


From a GI standpoint I feel normal again -- first time since around mid-July.  I think I have gained 2-3 pounds.

I have had a cold/bronchitis for the past 2+ weeks which has been keeping me up at night (coughing) so I am super exhausted.  Off to take a nap but I wanted to get some photos of this baby finally.

We should find out the sex and more importantly health of the baby later this week -- assuming our insurance gets straightened out.  Vote in the poll to let us know what you think -- girl vs boy!

19 weeks with Lainey

Notable Moments

Lainey ---

This afternoon I have been busy unpacking and organizing my bedroom closet.  Lainey didn't feel the need to nap very much today so she was helping.


To keep her from jumping in, or pulling apart the piles of clothes I was organizing, I gave her my phone to play with.


3 hours later I realized I had no idea where my phone was and the ringer was off.  Great.  I take Lainey upstairs with me and search every nook and cranny of all the rooms upstairs.  No luck.  After about 30 minutes I figure it was best to just give up and have Victor look for me tonight.

I told Lainey that I couldn't find my phone and was going to go downstairs.  She didn't follow after me immediately.  About 2 minutes later I heard a thunk -- she had thrown something down the steps.

What was it???

Why my phone of course.

When she saw me she pointed to the phone and said, " Mama!"

Little stinker must have known where it was all along.  I was very thankful she found it and praised her for her "seeking" skills.  Pretty impressive for a 16 month old.

Sleeping

Erik and Lainey are different in a lot of ways -- their sleep habits is one of them.  For some reason, this makes me chuckle. 


Brief description of sleep habits....


Erik:

Has always, always loved being held and cuddled while going to sleep.
If we were parents who had rocked their kids to sleep he would have been very hard to break of this habit -- we aren't those parents.
If someone is willing to sleep in bed with him he will always be happy about it.
The person sleeping next to him is not so happy as about 5 minutes after laying down next to him he will have flopped some body part on top of your head. 
Can sleep anywhere -- frequently falls asleep in the stroller, car seat, couch, etc.
Sleeps about 11 hours in a 24 hour period.


Lainey:
Has almost never fallen asleep while being rocked-- at least since around 4 months of age.
Hates being touched/held while falling asleep.
From around 10 months of age after she finished nursing (before naps/bed) she would point to her crib and grunt indicating she wanted to go to bed.
If you are trying to sleep next to her for some reason, know you can not touch her and she will want  need to be in charge of how the covers are placed.
She likes to spread out across the bed -- but again doesn't want to be touched or cuddled.
Will only sleep in her bed or car seat.  I have NEVER seen her fall asleep in a high chair, etc.  =
Sleeps 13-14 hours in a 24 hour period.

Why do I find this so amusing?  Well, lets take a look at a couple other sleep habits.....

Victor:
Can sleep anywhere at any given time.
Would prefer, if given the option (he isn't), to have his arms draped around whoever happens to be closest to him.
Does fine with 6-7 hours of sleep.

Ann:
Hates to be touched -- sleeps with pillows lined up in the middle of the bed so no one will try to cross over.
Very particular about blanket and pillow arrangements.  Can only, unless in the first trimester or very sleep deprived post partum, sleep in a bed (with a noise machine and ear plugs).
Likes 8 hours of sleep (although have given up on this about 3 years ago).

Poor, poor Lainey -- it does appear that she has inherited not only my bad sleep 'habits' but also my need for extra sleep.  Not a great combo.

We survived!

Well moving week is over.  I am really tired and have a nasty cold so I am not going to do a long update but here are a few basics from our move....

-- Last Monday-Wednesday (3 days!!) the movers were at our Alexandria house packing everything into boxes and loading it all onto a truck

--  Wednesday evening Erik and Victor drove to our new home in southern maryland (SOMD) and spent the night "camping" in the living room of our new, vacant house

-- Wednesday evening Lainey and I "slept" in a hotel in Alexandria -->  Lainey was not happy about being put in a pack and play so around 10:30 (after short crying episodes every 30 minutes) I went to bed and brought her in with me.  She woke up crying at midnight.  We were awake for about 30 minutes.  She woke up again at 4:30 am when she fell out of the bed.  Sorry baby!  She wasn't hurt but was awake for the day.

-- Thursday at 7:30 I met the carpet cleaners/house cleaners at our Alexandria house.  They did a great job and were there until around 11:30.

-- While the carpet cleaners were at the house Lainey and I met up with Sonja, Jamison, Hanna, and Zack who were all in town.  It was nice out so we spent some time at the park.  It was great to see you all!  Good luck on your move to Mozambique Hanna and Zack!

-- Thursday late morning through late evening the movers were at the SOMD house unloading all of our stuff.

-- Friday - Sunday a mad rush to unpack boxes, install ceiling fans, organize, etc.  Plus a trip up to NOVA (northern va) on Sunday for the marriage class we are taking at church (only 2 more weeks left).


Overall Thoughts....


The process was pretty smooth.  So far the kids have adjusted well -- although sleeping has been a little disrupted.  Not too bad.

The area/our neighborhood is SO beautiful and quiet.  It is very heavily forested and our neighborhood is the last one on the main road before it dead ends at the elementary school. 

The house is great.  I forgot how enjoyable it is to live in a house that you own.  It is a good feeling.  I have met a few neighbors all who seem nice.  I am very hopeful that I will make some new friends quickly.

We spent the morning at the library -- it is really beautiful and have TONS of kids activities/story hours which is neat.

Victor started orientation at work today so back to a more normal life.

Anyway -- we made it through the big move and now are looking forward to creating a life down here in southern Maryland.

I'll update with photos when I can find my camera cord!

Artwork

I like doing projects like this -- the kids have lots of fun and everything is washable so the mess doesn't bother me much.  I would have to say that the mess will likely bother me much more in our new house - the kids may have to move these projects outdoors.  We'll see.

Erik has really taken an interest in learning recently.  He isn't in preschool this fall but we have been working at home some.  He recognizes all uppercase letters correctly (calls Y a V sometimes) and 17 of his lower case letters.  Big improvement from a couple of months ago.  

He doesn't love art projects but did sit and color this letter/color matching sheet the other day.  I am marking this as his first "school" project.  Good job honey!

Notable Moments

Elaina...

Victor has been gone a couple nights this week working on painting the kids bedrooms in the new house.  The first night he was gone Lainey was up from 11pm - 2:30 am.  She had a bad cold/cough and upon examining her ear I discovered she also had an ear infection.

Her room in our current house had been repainted the day before and it seemed like the lingering paint fumes were making her cough worse.  At first I tried rocking her back to sleep.  This failed.  I then put her in the pack n' play (set up in our room due to the recent painting).  She screamed like she was being tortured. 

I brought her downstairs then to check her temperature, give her some Ibuprofen, listen to her lungs.  She seemed okay, other than the red ear. 

Since I knew she wasn't feeling well I didn't want to force her to cry too long so I tried laying down with her.  She climbed all over me.  If I tried to put covers on she yanked them off. 

So, being a super smart mom and all, I decided I would just lay down and fake sleeping and just let her fall asleep on her own.  (It was about one in the morning by now).  I laid down on my stomach and Lainey immediately started rubbing my back and leaning in and giving me hugs and kisses.  Sweet baby.  About 5 minutes later she leaned in really close and then shouted -- " BOO!"  I still played dead. 

She did not give up -- peek-a-boo and back rubs continued.  So after I realized she wasn't going to fall asleep on her own I told her to lay down and started to rub her back and sing her songs.  As soon as I started signing her lifted up her head, pointed her finger at me  and said, "STOP!" 

No more singing.   

Just back rubbing.

She thought this was fun and popped her head up every 30 seconds and smiled at me.

1:30 am.  Finally I figured I would just surround her with pillows and leave the room and see if she would go to sleep on her own.

Erik is no longer wearing pull-ups at night.  He has only been wet once since he stopped wearing them at night.  Guess what night that was?  Yep. After I left Lainey alone in our bed I went to check on Erik and take him to the bathroom.  He was wet so instead I changed his clothes and sheets and tucked him back in bed.  (He had been with the sitter that night who must not have restricted his drinks.) 

After changing Erik's sheets I went to check on Lainey who by then had crawled out of bed and was hanging over the foot rail.  (She can get off the bed but must have been confused by the pile of pillows surrounding her). 

Finally, I decided the baby was going to have to cry. 

I tucked a ticked off baby girl into the pack and play.  45 minutes later (2:30 am) she finally gave up and went to sleep.  Poor girl.

Erik was up for the day by 6:30 am.  Good thing I am out of the first trimester and both kids usually sleep really well -- plus Victor is usually home and very helpful. 

It was a long night but she was so sweet and funny in the midst of it that I thought it was noteworthy.

16 months

Helping me with breakfast dishes- prior to getting her hair fixed for the day.

Sweet Lainey is a busy, busy girl!  This is a what she has been up to this month....

1-  Talking...  She has really started talking now.  I think she says 20-30 words and initiates speaking on her own, rather than only when I ask her to say something.  I love it when they start to talk.  So cute!

2-  Climbing... As displayed in the video from the park Lainey is very active and agile.  She climbs up slides unassisted, swings from any bar she can find, climbs onto chairs, couches, etc.  She goes up and down the steps without trouble now (still slides down about 1/2 the steps - walks while hanging on to the railing the rest of the way).  She is on the go every moment she is awake.

3- Health....  Not so great this month.  She came down with a fever/cold 3 weeks ago and it never really went away.  I took her in 2 weeks ago because I thought she had early stages of an ear infection.  The dr. agreed but thought it didn't need treated.  She seemed to get better on her own for a few days but then her symptoms came back and got worse.  I spent 3 hours up with her in the middle of the night on Friday and finally looked at her ears again - this time it seemed like a full blown infection.  I took her in Saturday and the Dr. confirmed.  She is now on day 3 of antibiotics.  Still very congested and coughing but sleeping at night again. 


4- Eating/growth....  She refused to eat very much the past week since she wasn't feeling well.  At her doctor's appointment this week she was still 20 pounds 14 ounces -- only up 1 ounce in the past month.   This puts her at the 14% for weight.  I was really hoping she would make 21 pounds - not quite.  I am going to work on trying to get her to eat avocado and fatty fish to see if we can bulk the baby up.  It is hard to bump her calories with no dairy.  She is at the 85-90% for height -- very tall and skinny.

5- Dairy intolerance....  She still can't have dairy.  Our sitter accidentally gave her a glass of Erik's milk.  For the next 48 hours she had diarrhea and terrible diaper rash.  No we know -- no dairy for the baby.  I do give her food with small amounts of dairy in it but no cheese, yogurt, milk, etc.  She is on rice milk as a replacement. 

6- Teeth...  She still only has 8 teeth.  A little slow in this department.

7- Personality/Learning...  Lainey is a sweet, social baby.  She loves other people and waves at every we pass when out on walks.  She also loves animals -- dogs, cats, birds, fish.  I took her to the pet store the other day and she was SO excited.  Her favorite animal was a pair of cats.  The one cat was very feisty/batting at everyone/fully clawed.  Lainey kept holding her arms out to it trying to hold it.  Little did she know it would scratch her to bits if she got too close.  Elaina seems to be really smart.  She understands EVERYTHING you say-- even if you aren't talking to her.  She is quite opinionated and independent.  She really wants to be able to get dressed on her own and gets very frustrated when I have to help.  This amuses me because Erik, although he can dress himself, would ALWAYS prefer to have someone else get him dressed. So funny!  Lainey has a great sense of humor and loves to be chased, tickled, play peek-a-boo, get airplane rides,etc.  I am excited to watch her grow!

Lainey we love you dearly!

Moving Update

Well, since my "FUNK" post we have had a lot of changes/answers on the moving front.  I have been really tired and a little stressed out still so sorry to those who I owe phone calls/e-mails.  Soon I will be in southern md (somd) with little to do -- expect phone calls in excess then!

Anyway, here are our updates....

1)  We took the house off of the market.

It did not sell but last Wednesday I figured I might as well try posting an ad on craig's list to see if anyone was interested in renting it.  Less than 24 hours later I had a signed lease for the "full asking price".  He was only one of 2 people who wanted to sign a 12 month lease within 24 hours of posting the ad. 

Yeah!  This is much better than an empty house sitting on the market for who knows how long only to lose 100K when we sell it.

We did have to pull a large chunk of money out of our 401K to pay for a down payment on a second house.  This is of course not ideal but we really had no other option.  If we took money out of "stocks" we would have been taxed a lot.  The 401K is tax and interest free and we have 15 years to pay it back.  Pretty good place to borrow money from although we would of course prefer that the money still be there and growing but nothing else we could do.

We will be making payments for the loan against the 401K in addition to our 2 house payments.  Yikes -- at least the rent covers pretty much all the costs of carrying the WI house.  Our hope is that we can sell the house in 3-4 years when the market has improved and not lose as much (or any money for that matter) so it will make the loan against the 401K worth it.

2) Maryland house...

We close on the Maryland house on Friday.  Everything is set up so this process should be fairly painless.  We have already purchased 5 ceiling fans, picked out paint for the kids rooms, ordered blinds, and arranged to have garage door openers installed (yeah -- this is not included -- nice).  Victor is planning on spending Friday night in our new house so he can install fans and paint the kids rooms before we (and all of our stuff arrives).

3) Movers...

Someone is coming tomorrow to access how long it will take 2-3 men to pack up all of our belongings!  The movers are scheduled to be here on the 18th and 19th so we should be in our new house around the 20th.

Overall, I am very thankful that a lot of the things I was worried about are lining up.  I have lots more emotions about actually moving but will save those for a different post.  Off to check on the pumpkin pie and pumpkin apple muffins Erik and I made tonight (with a real pumpkin we baked this afternoon).  Good night!

Monkeys

Lainey is a busy, busy girl!  My parents love to tell me about how busy I was at her age so I guess she gets it from me.  She is also a daredevil.  Not afraid of anything (except for being left with a babysitter or at the church nursery)!

Here is my, not-quite-16-month-old, baby girl playing at the park....

Lainey Climbs

As I mentioned I think some of her little personality has been passed down from me while the other she has learned by watching....

Erik Climbs

The weather has been so perfect here -- hard to stay inside even for nap time!

Baby #3

Pregnancy Highlights:

 

How Far Along:16 weeks 3 days

 

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Zero - ( I am headed upwards though as I have regained the 3 pounds I lost during the first trimester/stomach bug)

 

Maternity Clothes: Nope -- my stomach is not as flat as it used to be but my clothes still fit

Sleep: I'm sleeping okay --I just don't get to bed early enough! Still sleeping on my stomach although I can feel the baby bump when I lay down.

Cravings: Generally speaking I have become a vegetarian because at first meat made me sick and now I just don't want it- doesn't appeal.  I am generally hungry for fruit and carbs (but don't like tomato sauce).

 

Symptoms: I am still having some mild GI distress-- improving though-- it is just bothering me about 2 days a week now. If not gone in the next 2 weeks my OB would recommend I be seen by internal medicine.

Complications: None.  Had a check up this morning and everything seems normal.  Will have the anatomy ultrasound around 3 weeks from now.  Hoping that everything is normal!

Fun Facts:  This baby is very active!  Kicks and kicks all day!  I really, really love feeling it move around.  Victor can't feel it kicking yet.  Soon!

Lainey's Baby Book

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaMnDJo2buWLlI

Let me know if you have problems viewing the book.

Thank You

Another person helping me out of my funk....

Thank you Grandma Sandy -- your thoughtfulness means a lot to me!

Cutie Pies

These kids, plus a nice 80 minute massage (thanks Jill, Katie, and Victor), have helped me out of my funk.  Still stressed out but no longer overwhelmed.  Phew.

Lainey loves her babies. I love doing her hair!

Erik on the high balance beam at gymnastics - he will stand on it alone but wants a hand when walking across the bar.

Funk

I am in a funk - finding it hard to feel really happy about life at the moment.  Here is why....


1- Terri and Austin losing Jake

2- A good friend just had a second miscarriage

3- Our house is still for sale with no guarantee it will sell and for sure we will lose 75K but could easily be more

4-We are moving in 2-3 weeks but nothing is set up yet.  We can't arrange the movers yet because we are still waiting on the military to process some paper work.  Closing is in 12 days though and Victor starts working down there in 3 weeks. Not much time to arrange everything.  Generally the movers require a minimum of 3 weeks notice.  If this is the case we will be left paying for 3 houses for a short time and I will be in charge of the move and my 2 kids as Victor won't have time off at his new job yet.  That does not sound fun to me.

5- Another good friend of mine has been diagnosed with a rare and very serious health condition.  She is also a young mom with a 1 and 3 year old.

6- I still don't feel good.  It started 3 weeks ago with a presumed GI bug and still hasn't gone away.  About 1/2 the time I feel pretty good but a lot of days I have crampy stomach aches, nausea, and diarrhea.  This is leaving me just feeling tired and making it difficult to a productive mom and wife.  I am going to ask the Dr. if he thinks taking a probiotic might be helpful (and safe) as in addition to the original GI virus I was also on antibiotics for a UTI recently.

7- We are moving.  We think this is the best thing in the long run but it still means we have to start over -- new friends, new home, new grocery store, church, doctors, schools, neighbors, etc.  I will miss a lot of people when we move.

8-- Household stress -- all of the above things has increased the tension levels in our household which is just frustrating.  We are working on dealing with things together rather than getting crabby at each other but we aren't always successful. 


Anyway -- I never for a moment forget how much I have to be grateful for but am still having a tough time dealing with all the concerns above and still feeling happy and smiley.  Thanks for "listening" to me grumble it sometimes makes me feel better to just write it out.