Our Week :: May 18-24

This week was a difficult week - as I'm sure can be imagined - as our family dealt with the physical and emotional recovery from a miscarriage. Our sweet baby was loved and is missed; but as the days go by, God is re-instilling hope in our hearts. We tried to focus our minds on the "now" and watching our sweet girl grow rather than thinking to the past and our great loss. We know the next many weeks will be hard, but we are trusting God for the remarkable future he has for our family.

There are less pictures this week than typical. But it was a fun week with Daddy home (since his employer pays for a week of bereavement time after a miscarriage - we took advantage of the opportunity to be together!). 

Miss Meghan has been LOVING oatmeal again! Sometimes she likes to use her "dippers" to practice moving spoon-fed foods to her mouth. 

She also has been loving snap peas straight out of the garden - she was too busy munching to look up for the camera.

Mimsie gave her a purse last week when we went to Manhattan and one of her newest and most often played games is what I call for short "wear my purse and all of my bracelets, carry my phone and talk on it while walking all over the first floor." See.....

Yea, she's all girl sometimes!! (This morning she had forgotten the bracelets, but usually they are there in all of their glory!)

She loves the app "peek-a-boo barn" and has loved trying to make the sounds that the animal makes. Here she is trying them out with Daddy: 

The day we lost the baby, these peonies from my Grandma's house started to bloom. Their beauty has become a beacon of hope for me. They are just so beautiful! The close up is the flower that opened on Sunday May 17th. I was sad this week as I thought to the fact that I had nothing tangible from this baby - no pictures of my growing belly, no ultrasound pictures, nothing....and a thought occurred to me that the baby can and should be recognized on my wife/Mama charm necklace. I currently have a charm with our anniversary date on it and one with Meghan's name on it. This week I found a charm that is a blooming peony flower - the perfect charm to remember this baby with. I am excited to add it to my necklace. And to have a place in our lives where the memory of that sweet  baby is tangible.

I caught some video of Meghan with her purse and phone going "bye-bye" - which is what she frequently says while wearing her "bling".

She got a seventh tooth this week and is working on her eighth! In true-to-Mom fashion, her seventh tooth came in at least 45 degrees off center.....hoping this isn't a glimpse into what her adult teeth plan to be like!

With all the teething pain, there has often been some thing hanging out of her mouth while she bites on it for counter pressure. Yesterday it was a purple link as she walked around the first floor. And, yes! She is walking for long distances now. She still often will walk on her knees or crawl, but she can walk all over the first floor on her feet and is starting to discover that it is much faster than the other two forms of locomotion!

Turquoise is such a good color on her!

And lest anyone think that she keeps all of those beautiful bracelets to herself, her "woof" often gets to wear them as well!

Coloring has become a new favorite activity. Despite what this picture shows, she rarely colors with her left hand - it's usually the right one. She enjoys this activity immensely. She will make a few broad strokes and then make lots of little dots! 

And the last picture.....last Sunday we bought a cross-stitch kit for me to work on during the grieving and healing process. It's a birth sampler in hope of another child that we are believing God will give us. It's a HUGE project with SO MUCH shading. To keep me motivated and reminded that I am making progress, I plan to share a picture here each week of what I have accomplished. I realize that in the future I won't have as much time as I've had in the last week to work - life will get busy again and that will be a good thing - but here is the progress that I made this week. I am excited to watch this project grow as, hopefully, another baby begins growing and we are blessed with another little one to love and care for. 

Our Week :: May 18-24

This week was a difficult week - as I'm sure can be imagined - as our family dealt with the physical and emotional recovery from a miscarriage. Our sweet baby was loved and is missed; but as the days go by, God is re-instilling hope in our hearts. We tried to focus our minds on the "now" and watching our sweet girl grow rather than thinking to the past and our great loss. We know the next many weeks will be hard, but we are trusting God for the remarkable future he has for our family.

There are less pictures this week than typical. But it was a fun week with Daddy home (since his employer pays for a week of bereavement time after a miscarriage - we took advantage of the opportunity to be together!). 

Miss Meghan has been LOVING oatmeal again! Sometimes she likes to use her "dippers" to practice moving spoon-fed foods to her mouth. 

She also has been loving snap peas straight out of the garden - she was too busy munching to look up for the camera.

Mimsie gave her a purse last week when we went to Manhattan and one of her newest and most often played games is what I call for short "wear my purse and all of my bracelets, carry my phone and talk on it while walking all over the first floor." See.....

Yea, she's all girl sometimes!! (This morning she had forgotten the bracelets, but usually they are there in all of their glory!)

She loves the app "peek-a-boo barn" and has loved trying to make the sounds that the animal makes. Here she is trying them out with Daddy: 

The day we lost the baby, these peonies from my Grandma's house started to bloom. Their beauty has become a beacon of hope for me. They are just so beautiful! The close up is the flower that opened on Sunday May 17th. I was sad this week as I thought to the fact that I had nothing tangible from this baby - no pictures of my growing belly, no ultrasound pictures, nothing....and a thought occurred to me that the baby can and should be recognized on my wife/Mama charm necklace. I currently have a charm with our anniversary date on it and one with Meghan's name on it. This week I found a charm that is a blooming peony flower - the perfect charm to remember this baby with. I am excited to add it to my necklace. And to have a place in our lives where the memory of that sweet  baby is tangible.

I caught some video of Meghan with her purse and phone going "bye-bye" - which is what she frequently says while wearing her "bling".

She got a seventh tooth this week and is working on her eighth! In true-to-Mom fashion, her seventh tooth came in at least 45 degrees off center.....hoping this isn't a glimpse into what her adult teeth plan to be like!

With all the teething pain, there has often been some thing hanging out of her mouth while she bites on it for counter pressure. Yesterday it was a purple link as she walked around the first floor. And, yes! She is walking for long distances now. She still often will walk on her knees or crawl, but she can walk all over the first floor on her feet and is starting to discover that it is much faster than the other two forms of locomotion!

Turquoise is such a good color on her!

And lest anyone think that she keeps all of those beautiful bracelets to herself, her "woof" often gets to wear them as well!

Coloring has become a new favorite activity. Despite what this picture shows, she rarely colors with her left hand - it's usually the right one. She enjoys this activity immensely. She will make a few broad strokes and then make lots of little dots! 

And the last picture.....last Sunday we bought a cross-stitch kit for me to work on during the grieving and healing process. It's a birth sampler in hope of another child that we are believing God will give us. It's a HUGE project with SO MUCH shading. To keep me motivated and reminded that I am making progress, I plan to share a picture here each week of what I have accomplished. I realize that in the future I won't have as much time as I've had in the last week to work - life will get busy again and that will be a good thing - but here is the progress that I made this week. I am excited to watch this project grow as, hopefully, another baby begins growing and we are blessed with another little one to love and care for. 

Meghan @ 15 Months

Fine Motor: 

• She can put her socks on her feet - not over her heels, but on. 
• She can put her legs through her shorts.
• She puts blankets and toys over her face to play peek-a-boo. 
• She stacks 4-5 Mega Bloks independently. 

Gross Motor:

• She goes up the stairs. When we say it's time to change her diaper or take a nap she will usually crawl up the stairs by herself. She will not go down them by herself.
• She is walking more and more, but still resorts to walking on her knees and crawling a lot. 
• She enjoys walking with sticks or her lawn mower in the backyard. 
• She has started trying to crawl up her slide. 
• She can crawl into her little chair; she has not yet figured out how to get down and will sign & say all done and please when she wants help to get down. 

Language: 

• Words (26): teeth, that, sock, please, prune, papa (popcorn), yay, more, balloon, oatmeal, bug
• Previously: ball, bye-bye, hi, mom/mama, baba (Dad), book, baby, bottle, wow, yum, ah (all done), hat, eat, uh-oh, boo
• Sounds (9): horse, cat
• Previously: dog, cow, rabbit, duck, sheep, "vmmm" for cars,  "mmm" while eating
• Signs (23): thank you, hot, cold, help, water, shoes, socks, up, book, bird, sleep, dog
• Previously: all done, more, milk, hat, no, yes, eat, diaper, wash, phone, please
• Points To (9): hair, teeth, belly button, nose, mouth, shirt, pants, socks, diaper
• She signs please and then points to what she wants. 

Eating:

• NO MORE REFLUX MEDS!!
• She seems to prefer eating while standing in her learning tower rather than sitting in her booster seat. Often times she eats her whole meal this way - I think she just enjoys seeing what is going on!
• She is ready for breakfast as soon as she wakes up in the morning, for lunch at/by 11:00, and eats dinner around 5:00. She is a light breakfast eater, but more than makes up for it at lunchtime!
• Favorites this Month: mozzarella cheese, prunes, popcorn, brownies (she got to try these and loved them!)

Sleeping:

• We tried going to just one nap - and she was not ready for that yet! 
• She takes a morning rest from 8:30-10:00 (she rarely sleeps, but always rests). 
• She takes a nap, a good one, from 11:45-2:00/3:00. I lay her down awake, she usually falls asleep quickly, and plays quietly until I come get her if I don't notice right away when she wakes up. 
• She wakes up between 6:30-7:00 most days and goes to bed between 6:45-7:15.

Other Updates:

• She loves reading books! She requests it all the time! She especially loves books with animals so that we will make animal sounds together. 
• She loves to play with toys in front of the door. 
• EVERY TIME we hear a dog bark, she stops, barks too, and looks for the dog. 
• She loves playing outside. It doesn't take much to entertain her for a long time out there! 
• She loves to pretend cook and often brings us "food" to try. She holds the spoon up to us and says "mmmm". 

Our Week :: May 11-18

Meghan is way into imaginative play! She continues to love to cook and bake....this day I found her on the floor with her plates and bowls spread around her and she was dividing her food up onto them.

Of course, Mama was offered a bite of what she was cooking!

Our bulk order of toilet paper showed up on our porch. Meghan spent a long time working on opening the box for me. She's already showing a strong work-ethic and a desire to help. These are traits I plan to continue encouraging in her! 

I took this picture of Meghan at play - sometimes she happily plays with just a few toys. But, most of the time the playroom ends up looking something like this! This is why we limit how many toys are out and rotate her toys - I can't imagine cleaning up all of the toys she owns!

More pretending to cook and eat. Look at those beautiful big blue eyes!!! 

Meghan loves the video camera and always wants to have it when it's out. She usually doesn't want to "perform" for the camera either. However, on Tuesday she was willing to show off! Here she is showing off a few of her signs.....

When I play this video for her, she will sign along with herself on the video! She knows many more signs than this, but these were the ones that I thought to ask her.

She also showed off her animal sounds....so cute!! 

On Wednesday morning, this sweet girl and I left for Manhattan to meet her two newest cousins.

We fell in love with these sweet babies! Meghan loved touching their toes. She was generally very nervous about any other touching, but sure seemed to enjoy their toes!

She watched so carefully as Mimsie, Aunt Lauren, and Mama took care of the babies and she took care of her baby doll so well: 

Someone put her in Papa's office chair....she was pretty big stuff! 

Cute Girl 

We got an awesome picture of Grandma and Grandpa with their grand kiddos:

And some big smiles from Meghan: 

After coming back inside, she was very interested in Jase taking his bottle on the porch: 

Meghan had her first brownie while at Mimsie and Papa's house.....she thoroughly enjoyed the experience! Four bites of heaven....she's pretty sure that was what she had just tasted. 

--- Warning: What Follows is the Short Version of Our Miscarriage Story ---

We came home from Manhattan on Friday morning. Friday night, things turned very difficult for our family. Friday night I noticed some spotting while I was going to the bathroom. By Saturday morning it had intensified and I went to the ER. While there they did an ultrasound which revealed that the baby was measuring five days small and still did not have a heartbeat - which would be expected by seven weeks and one day. I was given a list of symptoms to come back if I experienced. By evening the bleeding had intensified and in the morning I felt as though I was having early labor contractions. We returned to the ER where an ultrasound confirmed that, earlier that morning, when I was fairly certain I had seen our baby pass from my body, we had in fact lost the baby and my body was completing the miscarriage process. Blood tests also revealed that I was no longer pregnant, but that my body was managing the miscarriage as well as can be hoped for. We returned home and are now waiting out the rest of the miscarriage process. We are heartbroken and so very sad. That little baby's life was short - but that baby was well loved the entire time. 

We end the week clinging to this verse from Isaiah 25: He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away all tears from all faces. 

Baby Hoosier 2 :: 7 Weeks

This week, Baby is the size of a: blueberry
Total weight gain/loss: I don't know and really, I'm not too concerned with keeping track.
Sleep: I've been very tired and struggling to sleep the past few nights - though, the last two I slept in a room with Meghan and she's noisy! (see best moment for more!)
Best moment this week:  We went to Manhattan and got to meet the newest cousins - Jase and Avery! They are so sweet and it was fun to practice all those newborn Mama skills with them. Meghan loved the babies and everyone who was at the house knows with 100% certainty that she knows and understands the word "baby". She was nervous to do much with them, but most definitely enjoyed touching their toes while they sat in their Boppys. She showed no jealousy when I held them at all and I am hopeful that her love of babies, her gentleness with them, and her lack of jealousy will continue when this little nugget joins our family!
Movement: None yet. 
Food cravings: fruit, energy bites, hard boiled eggs, COLD things
Symptoms: Nausea has hit hard this week - still no vomiting though! Very tired. And boy am I breaking out - I feel like I'm back in 7th grade!
Belly Button in or out: in, hopefully for a while!
Milestones: Baby is working on growing arms and legs. As well as the sensory organs - honestly baby is growing so fast and in so many ways each week that it's hard to even keep track! Baby is growing 100 brain cells per minute. The sex glands are forming and facial features are becoming much more recognizable. Baby is looking much more like a small little human being than a tadpole! 

Our Week :: 5/4-5/10 2015

Watch out!! Here come the pictures!!

This was a super busy week for Miss Meghan. She was sick with a good upper respiratory/chest cold for quite a bit of the week. However she was also so sweet and learning so quickly! Check it out!!

Meghan loves playing with her bracelets by the front door. She puts them on, takes them off, lines them up against the door, and generally just has fun!!

I brought up a chair for her table and she LOVED sitting in it. She likes playing at the table while sitting in her chair. She can get into the chair all by herself but cannot get back down alone. She will sit and say all done while signing please to get down!

She has been getting very good at independent play! She has been concentrating on tasks for longer periods of time and really trying to figure things out. These are two things she built in the early week with her Mega Bloks. 

She continues to love dogs. In this picture you can see her lips saying "oof" while she was playing with the dog. 

She tried banana again this week....and still isn't sure that she likes it.

This night was so cute....she and Daddy were both working hard on tasks at her table. With some intermittent peek-a-booing. She is WAY into peek-a-boo these days! She is starting to cover her own face and say "boo!"

She enjoyed crawling around for about 30 minutes beating a plate with a spoon. She makes a wonderful one-woman band. 

Her band took her behind the couch and she was so proud of herself and her "hiding place."

Imaginative play EXPLODED in the last week! She spends so much time pretending to cook. She puts food in pots and pans, mixes, and then brings food to us with a spoon - she extends it to us while saying "mmmmm" until we try whatever she has cooked.

She found her belly button this week!

We went to a garage sale this week where we found this awesome gear toy. Meghan figured out how to make the gears move, to take them off, and put them back on. Way to go motor skills! 

Meghan can eat popcorn without needing us to bite it for her first - she loved sticking her whole hand into the bowl and shoving mouthfuls in just like she see's Daddy do. Her love of "papa" is so cute!! 

I love those curls! And love that this girl knows we just pick things in the garden and eat them....she loved several snap peas on Saturday!

More cooking pictures - apparently this required two spoons! (AND LOOK AT THOSE CURLS! Sweat and humidity really bring them out!!)

Playing peek-a-boo with her pot.

Love this cooked, scrunch-nosed smile!

Playing peek-a-boo with Daddy.

She has started pretending to answer phone calls and hand the phone off to other people; apparently this phone call was for Dad!

Her "mommy" play has also been amazing! She carries baby around, puts baby under blankets, feeds baby with a spoon (despite the fact that she doesn't like to be fed off of a spoon), kisses and hugs baby, sings to baby, and has started giving baby bottles. Every time we see a baby she shouts "BABY" and points. Hopefully she will continue to love babies this much when her brother or sister gets here! 

Today she "cooked" three chocolate cupcakes - she's a girl after my own heart!!

I feel like this little girl is just growing up so fast - especially in her play. It's so fun to watch her learn, explore, and imagine. We're just so proud of her!!