A Day In the Life - 14 Months

It's been quite a while since I've done a day in the life post! Here's a recent day:

4am - I'm awake. Ever since getting pregnant again I've struggled with middle-of-the-night insomnia. I end up reading on my phone and drift off around 5am. 

5:45am - My alarm goes off. I check the video monitor and Abby is already awake and chatting. I hop in the shower so that Dave can use the bathroom after me. The joys of only having one full bath! I get back in bed for a little emailing and internet on my phone while Abby plays in her crib for a bit. We are VERY lucky that she will happily play in her crib in the mornings!

6:45am - I finally drag myself out of bed and get Abby. After a diaper change we head down for breakfast and to say a quick goodbye to Daddy who is on his way out the door. 

7:15am - Abigail is done with breakfast. I let her watch half of a Superwhy episode while I clean up and get my own coffee and breakfast. Then we spend time playing for a while. 

8:30am - Nap time! Abby is still taking two naps. We brush teeth and she goes down in her crib. She's asleep within minutes without making a peep. While she naps I get myself ready for the day, sweep the floors, unload the dishwasher, and relax for a bit. 

10:30am - Abby is still sleeping! I wake her up and get her dressed. She has a quick snack and then we walk down the street to playgroup at our neighbor's house. Abby plays and chases the other kids around while I chat with the moms. 

12:30pm - We walk home (while I chat on the phone with my sister!) and Abigail plays some more while I make us a quick lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches. Abby gets an apple/banana pouch and some milk too. 

1pm - I clean up our lunch and get started making some banana muffins. Abby wanders around the whole first floor dragging her baby dolls, pushing her stroller, and playing with her dump truck. She joins me in the kitchen wanting to play in the trash can (yuck!) so I give her an empty kosher salt canister to play with. 

1:30pm - Time for another nap! It takes Abby about 10 minutes to fall asleep. I watch her play with her stuffed animals on the monitor while finishing the muffins and making meatloaf for dinner. 

3pm - Naptime is over! Time for another snack and then we read books for a bit and play with blocks. 

4pm - I get the rest of dinner ready quickly. Roasted potatoes and steamed cauliflower to go with the meatloaf. 

4:40pm - Dad is home!! He used to come home a little earlier but has been working later since getting a promotion in December. We're still so lucky that he is home before 5!

5pm - Dinner time! After dinner I clean up while Abby plays with Dave (a nightly ritual so that they get some one on one play/roughhouse time). After that we watch recorded episodes of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. Abby loves to clap and dance to the Jeopardy song!

6:45pm - Time for a last sip of milk and then we all head upstairs to put Abigail to bed. Brush teeth, jammies, sleep sack, and kisses. Dave and I trade off nights putting Abby to sleep and it's my turn. We read her favorite bedtime book "Princess Baby Night-Night" and she goes to bed with her favorite stuffed doll and owl lovey. It actually takes her about thirty minutes of chatting to fall asleep, which is a little unusual for her! I think it's time to find some darker window coverings to help block the late day sun from coming in her room. 

7pm - Dave and I do our own thing and relax! I have plans to go see a movie with some girls from my book club, so I leave at 8:15pm to head to the theater. It's a later night than usual for me!

11:30am - Home and off to bed! Dave and Abby are both fast asleep. 

5:45am - A new day starts! 

14 Months

I'm late on this post yet again! Last week Abby got a double ear infection and we are finally getting back to normal around here after a few days of antibiotics. I can't imagine what I would do if I had a child who was sick all the time! This is the first time Abby has been sick, other than a runny nose in the week before her ear infection. Seeing my poor baby in so much pain was horrible! Thankfully, we were able to get into the pediatrician quickly and I'm glad that she was able to get a prescription and is on the mend :)

At 14 months, Abby is doing great! They weighed her at the doctor and she weighs 21.3 pounds. She hasn't gained much since her 12 month checkup, but that's to be expected with how active she is these days. She's still not walking. I really hope she does soon!! We are so ready for it, especially with nice weather on the horizon. I can't wait to take her to the park to play and to the lake this summer. She has been very vocal lately and babbles all day long. She still signs quite a bit, and made up her own sign for help, which was been very useful. Her favorite word to say is "dada" and her favorite animal sound is barking like a dog! It's hilarious and she learned how to do it because our neighbor leaves her 6 dogs outside all the time (not cool!!). Abby also loves to watch the birds at the feeder now that they have returned. 

We've tried doing one nap a handful of times. Some days go great and others she is miserable (and then so am I), so for the most part she is still happily taking two naps. She had a few nights of restless sleep last week, which we thought was teeth-related but now know was probably a combination of teething and her ears bothering her. Abby still sleeps 11-12 hours straight most nights, which is wonderful. We really are so lucky to have a child that is so easy to put down for naps and bedtime. I just hope that the next baby loves sleep as much as she does!

Abby weaned herself completely from bottles a few weeks ago, so that was a pleasant surprise. I thought that it would be a long and drawn out process, but she made it quite simple! She was only having one bottle a day before bedtime, so we started reducing the amount of milk in the bottle by one ounce per week. By the time we got down to 3 ounces she started refusing the bottle. After she refused it for three nights in a row, we just stopped offering. How great! Now we just offer Abby her sippy of milk before heading upstairs to bed. She usually has a few sips and then it's time for brushing teeth and jammies and a story. I worried so much about stopping the bottle so I'm glad that it went so smoothly! I put them all away until the next baby arrives :)

I think that's all for now. Here are a few recent pictures!

8 Weeks - Baby #2

I have no idea why that picture is so blurry!  I could have sworn that I had a clear one on my camera.  I don't feel like retaking it though, so that's as good as it's going to get.  I feel HUGE.  And not in a pregnant way, just in a fat way.  Other than feeling as bloated as the Goodyear Blimp, I've really been feeling fine this past week.  I had a few nauseous moments, but nothing that I could even really call morning sickness.  It's more like I feel hungry but nothing sounds good.  I've been super tired too, but that's nothing new!  We still have a little over three weeks until my next OB appointment, so I'm trying to stay positive and have faith that everything with the baby is progressing like it should, despite my lack of symptoms.  We announced on Facebook a few days ago...which felt really early to me but I was also ready to share.  This might sound silly, or self-absorbed, but I mostly worried that people would judge us for announcing publicly so early.  Especially people who have experienced losses and wouldn't dream of telling anyone except close family before the end of the first trimester.  But, we've seen the baby and the heartbeat, and even if something terrible were to happen, I wouldn't want to keep that a secret.  So, I'm happy that we shared our news.  Abigail turns 14 months tomorrow, so I'll be back then with another blog post all about her!

7 Weeks - Baby #2

I published a post yesterday with a picture saying that I was 8 weeks pregnant...and then I went to my OB appointment that afternoon and found out that my doctor DOES want to change my due date after all!  So, in actuality, my new due date of October 29th makes me exactly 7 weeks along today.  I think this pregnancy might feel very, very long when all is said and done!  That's ok though, it's all for a good cause :) So, here is my 7 week picture!

The really crazy thing is how HUGE I already look and feel.  I wasn't this big until I was about 17 weeks with Abigail!  And I'm very close to the same weight that I was at this stage with her, so that's interesting to me.  I've heard that the body remembers what to do much sooner with subsequent pregnancies, and I guess that's true!  I'm feeling really good lately and barely feel pregnant at all.  I'm just having some mild breast tenderness, and of course I'm tired, but other than that I feel pretty great.  I had one slight wave of nausea yesterday, and I did get sick once a few weeks ago, but no real morning sickness to speak of, which feels VERY different than my first pregnancy!  I know that every pregnancy is different, but my lack of symptoms makes me inclined to think that this baby might be a boy.  We'll see in about 13 weeks or so!  My OB intake appointment went pretty well yesterday, although they want me to do a one hour glucose test right now at the beginning of my pregnancy.  The nurse claimed it's new policy for any patient with a history of PCOS...but for some reason I feel more like this has to do with my weight.  At any rate, I'll be doing that and getting all my bloodwork done later this week.  I had to change my next appointment so that I will be far enough along to hear the baby's heartbeat on the doppler, so that isn't until April 11th, which feels like a very long time to wait!  Hopefully when we go for that appointment all will be well.  In the meantime I just need to have faith that baby is growing well and I can stop worrying :)  I am hoping to keep doing weekly pictures like I did with Abigail.  I love having it as a way to document my pregnancy.  This will most likely be my last pregnancy so I want to enjoy it and have lots of pictures to remember this time!

First Ultrasound - Baby #2

First of all, in exciting news, Dave and I have a new niece! His sister and her husband welcomed their daughter Audrey Marie last night and she is just beautiful! We are going out to Denver in May and cannot wait to meet her!!

So, I had my first ultrasound for the new baby today! I had some pretty intense abdominal pain a while ago and it started to localize on my left side, so my doctor was concerned. I've had five blood tests to check my hcg levels, and while they have continued to rise appropriately, the levels were not as high as they should be for being as far along as I am. Hence the ultrasound. Dave met me and Abby at the OB today and we went back in the ultrasound room. The tech started the ultrasound and right away I could see the gestational sac...but it appeared to be empty. In that moment I felt like all of my worst fears were coming true! Even worse, Abby was not cooperating and Dave ended up needing to take her out to the lobby, so I was left alone. The tech searched and searched and told me that she could see the sac but couldn't find a fetal pole. I literally felt like I couldn't breath. But then she thought that she saw something, so she kept searching around and was finally able to find the baby! I'm measuring over a week behind, so that puts me at exactly 6 weeks today, which is still so very early! I was able to see the heart beating too, so I am definitely feeling much less anxious about everything! I ended up not seeing a doctor because there was a wait and everything on the ultrasound looked normal. The tech didn't give me a new due date, but I have an appointment next week so I will talk to the nurse about that then. Technically, my new due date would be October 29th. Here is the first picture of our new baby!

13 Months

I'm not sure where the time went, but our cutie is already thirteen months! She is doing great these days. She is saying a few more words, although nothing very consistently. She can say mama, dada, cat, out, all done, and I did it (or at least we both swear that's what it sounds like she is saying!). She is signing more these days too and can wave hi and bye, in addition to signing all done, more, milk, bath, and her version of help, which has become incredibly useful because it really reduces her frustration level. It is so nice to see her signing for help instead of whining and getting upset. I really want to work on more signs with her soon too, because verbally she isn't ready to speak the words but she understands SO much. She follows many requests easily and it still takes my breath away when I watch her learn something new! Just tonight she put some pieces in a puzzle that she's never done before and I was just so proud! I'm wanting to soak up all of these moments even more nowadays because I know that my time alone with just her is limited. Abby is babbling a ton these days, and has very long conversations with herself where it seems like she is narrating everything she does. It's interesting and hilarious at the same time. I wish I knew what she's saying, and yet I know the day will come soon enough when we won't be able to get her to stop talking! :) She's still not walking, but she is finally getting brave enough to let go and stand alone, so that's a huge step in the right direction! I'm really hoping that walking isn't too far off, because as I get further along I won't want to carry her as much as I do these days. I've been trying to carry her less and make her crawl or wall-walk to follow me around. Sometimes she'll oblige and other times she will pitch a fit, but it's helping her understand that she needs to get around on her own more. We put a removable gate at the bottom of the stairs and that has really helped put my mind at ease. Now she can roam the whole first floor, and then we also have the family room gated off as a playroom for her, so I can close that gate if I need to run upstairs or to the basement. So far it's working out! I think that's all on the uldate front for now. Here are some recent pics!

Lately...

I've been noticeably absent from this blog lately. I even missed posting about Abby turning 13 months! We've been busy as usual, of course, but the main reason that I haven't been blogging isn't because of that. We have some big news in the Main family...but we're not quite ready to go "Facebook" public with it just yet. Thankfully, I'm pretty certain that most of the people who read this blog already know our news, so I feel comfortable sharing it here.

Dave and I are expecting Baby Main 2.0! Due to our fertility struggles the first time around, we decided to stop preventing pregnancy back in October. I was not having regular cycles at all, and they were lasting between 50-60 days, so I knew I probably was not ovulating. We had decided quite a while ago that we would just let nature take its course until June, and then we would head back to The Fertility Center in Grand Rapids to try another IUI. I had also made up my mind that I wanted to wean Abby when she turned one so that I could start taking Metformin again and hopefully regulate my cycles. So, I nursed Abigail for the last time on the morning of her first birthday, and I started taking Metformin. I got really lax about it though and only ended up taking it for about a week before just kind of forgetting. The day before Valentine's Day I realized it was cycle day 31 so I randomly decided to take one of my cheap internet dip stick pregnancy tests. It had a super, super faint line once it dried, but I honestly didn't give it much thought. The next day, on Valentine's Day, I casually mentioned to a friend that I had a super faint line on a test the day before and she immediately told me to retest. So, that afternoon while Abby was napping I took another test, and a faint line popped up. A really, really faint line. Then I took a different brand of test, and a slightly darker line came up. I started to get really excited!! Abby was napping but I wanted to go get a First Response. I finally ended up waking her after two hours because I was so impatient. And of course, the First Response was positive as well!! Dave had absolutely no idea about any of it at that point, so I put the positive test in a plastic bag and then in a gift bag and gave it to him when he got home. He freaked out and was so surprised and excited too!!! To say that we were shocked is the understatement of the century. Obviously it was always a possibility, but we really didn't think that we would be able to get pregnant on our own. I'm still in shock even now!

Unfortunately, everything hasn't been super smooth sailing. I started having some very bad cramping a few days after we found out. It turned into some really intense abdominal pain, so my doctor had me go get a blood test to check my hcg levels. The good news is that the blood test did confirm my pregnancy, but my level was much lower than it should have been for how far along I was. The reasonable explanation is that I ovulated late and found out that I was pregnant super early, which makes sense because my tests were so faint in the beginning. The pain could be a cyst like I had with Abby. I went back and had my blood drawn two more times to make sure that my hcg was doubling appropriately, and it was, so that's great news! My doctor wanted me to go back one more time this week just to check again, and by that time my level was over 6,000 so I am thrilled. I have yet to talk to the doctor after my last blood draw, but the hope is that on Monday she will be thrilled with the number too and we can schedule an early dating ultrasound. I will feel much better once we see the baby and hear the heartbeat!!

So, that is our exciting news! So far I've been feeling really good, and have just had some very mild breast tenderness and some slight nausea. It's been absolutely nothing like my first pregnancy, which makes me happy and worried that something is wrong all at the same time. I'm trying to stay positive that all is well and baby is happily growing in my belly! I'm honestly a little terrified about having another baby when Abby is only 21 months, but of course we'll make it work. We've been thinking of names and are getting really excited. I'm due somewhere around the end of October, and hopefully we will have a more specific date soon. I told Abby that there's a baby in my tummy tonight, and she lifted up my shirt and looked for a baby! Then she went and got her baby doll and brought it over to me. What a smartie pants. I hope that she will love having a sibling and that they'll grow up playing together and will be the best of friends!