Our Week :: 9/21 - 9/27

On Monday we had our first ultrasound and met baby E or K (to be determined in 10-11 weeks!).

This girl loves her bracelets - on this day she put all of them on her wrist and came to me saying "ooooooo!"

After I oo'd and ah'd them, she took them off and began counting. While she doesn't understand one-to-one correspondence, she knows that we count groups of things. 

On Sunday, she picked out her outfit, aside from vetoing her choice of a zebra hairbow, she did amazing. She looks so very grown up in this picture. She's definitely turning into a little girl and leaving her baby ways behind her. 

Baby Hoosier #3 :: Week 9

This week, Baby is the size of a: grape
Sleep: I can usually make it until 8:00/8:30 these days before passing out on the couch.
Best moment this week: We had our first ultrasound of baby this week! It's heart is beating at 170 bpm and everything looks healthy!! It even gave us a few wiggles. It felt so wonderful to watch that little heart beat - it brought so much reassurance to my heart. 

 It was also wonderful that they were able to do an external ultrasound and did not need to do an internal one to get a good view of baby; an internal ultrasound is what confirmed the death of our second baby and not having to face that again was a welcome surprise.
Movement: None felt yet - can't wait! We did get to watch some wiggles at the ultrasound!
Food cravings: Flavor! Chipotle burritos, Mediterranean quinoa, Brussels sprouts roasted in salt & pepper, asparagus roasted with garlic & lemon juice, Jason's Deli sandwiches
Symptoms: Morning sickness continues, sometimes it is all that I can do to keep up with it and sometimes I have bursts of energy in which I can do things. Belly is really starting to poke out - doctor confirmed that the uterus is up in front and swelling - and in a tighter shirt, you can see that :) My hair is super thick - like almost hard to manage it's so thick!!
Milestones: Baby is out of the embryonic stage and into the fetal stage. Baby's fingers and toes are no longer webbed!

Our Week :: 9/14 - 9/20

Morning sickness continues to be very difficult this pregnancy and I have been having a hard time getting lots of pictures of Miss Meghan. On a pretty good day last week, I made sure to take pictures of what she was doing several times. 

This girl is so smiley these days - she just lights up the room with sunshine!! She has been very into playing with her babies - she feeds them, rocks them, puts them down for naps, etc. for hours straight a day. She converses with them, cooks for them, and goes shopping for them. Almost the entire time she is playing, she is smiling and talking. 

This girl is pure sweetness!!

Meghan @ 19 Months

Fine Motor: 

•  She is getting even better at puzzles. She enjoys working on them and is showing interest in cardboard jigsaw puzzles, though they are still difficult. 
• She has MASTERED her shape sorter. She can put all the pieces in so quickly. 
• She loves her pegging, stacking flowers. 
• She loves playing with Dad's dice tower! She can hold several dice in her hands and drop them one at a time into the tower. Such great control!! She also enjoys stacking the dice. 
• She continues to love coloring and playing with play-doh. 

Gross Motor:

• She is running! 
• She loves wearing her dress up shoes - they are too big, so she just "clomps" around the house in them :) 
• She continues to love dancing. (Dancing generally means spinning in circles.) She now knows that the lab where I get blood work every two weeks plays music in the waiting room, as soon as we get to the office she starts asking "Dance?" before we even start heading to the lab area. 
• She can go up and down the stairs quickly. 
• She loves trying to jump. She does some great squats - but her feet never leave the ground :) 

Language: 

• This kid loves language! She is such a little sponge!! 
• She is labeling well over one hundred objects in her world. She does not have all of her speech sounds yet (since they aren't all due until mid-elementary school - no worries!) so many words sound the same. Given some context though, even grandparents, her doctor, nursery workers, etc. can understand what she is trying to communicate.
• She continues to show us knowledge of signs from back when we were watching Baby Signing Time during bottles. She is using signs she did not use then and we haven't watched those moves for at least four months. She knew them, but her fine motor skills are now catching up with her language skills. 
• She answers the question "What is your name?" She often recognizes her name in print when it's in all caps. 
• She is so sweet when she says "Night night."
• She knows all of her basic 10 colors except brown and grey. 
• She knows her eight basic shapes. 
• She knows her numbers 0-10. She can count to ten if you help her get 5 and 6 in the correct order. 
• She knows the names of several alphabet letters. 

Eating:

•  Eating has been great this month! Since the cream/milk combo seems to be doing a good job of ensuring her caloric needs are being met and she is maintaining growth, we have been able to breathe a little bit easier about her eating. 
• She continues to do great during breakfast! 
• She usually eats her lunch and dinner quickly and happily. Only for a few individual meals (and never whole days) did she offer much protest. This is a wonderful change! We offer her foods, she eats till she's full, and we move on with the day. Ah....this is wonderful! 

Sleeping:

• She hasn't really changed here - still dealing with the 18 month sleep regression. 
• We get her up at 7:00 in the morning and put her to bed around 6:30 pm. 
• She likes her afternoon nap - when you ask her if she's ready for nap, she smiles, sweetly starts cooing "nap", and starts climbing the stairs. 

Other Updates:

• She looks forward to Daddy coming home. When she is ready for him to come home, she will often clean up her toys (like we do before I expect Dad to be home) and then go to the door and start saying "Dada! Dada!" They usually spend some quality time together right after he gets home. 
• She continues to be AMAZING at independent imaginative play. Especially in the last two weeks as my morning sickness has gotten very intense, she has taken to completely being able to entertain herself in the playroom playing with her babies and her kitchen while I rest on the couch during my most difficult time of day. I am so amazed watching her during that time. 

Baby Hoosier #3 :: Week 8

This week, Baby is the size of a: kidney bean
Sleep: I generally sleep well. I am starting to be able to stay up a bit later in the evenings with Cole. (Though, I also usually sneak a nap in the afternoon.)
Best moment this week: I had my first prenatal appointment this week. Doctor said that the cervix is tightly closed and that my uterus is feeling like it's the correct size and in the correct position - two good signs to point towards a healthy pregnancy! Results of bloodwork and UA will be available in the next few days for more confirmation. And....we are looking forward to our first peek at baby next Monday!! 
Movement: apparently baby is moving a lot; just can't feel it yet
Food cravings: steak burrito, chocolate milk, pizza....that's pretty much all I want and all that will stay down. Bland simple carbs? Nope! Those come right back up! 
Symptoms: Morning sickness is very difficult but I haven't lost weight this pregnancy, so we are calling it a win and sticking with the current plan for handling morning sickness. I'm super drowsy through the morning as a result of one of the meds I take to help with morning sickness and Meghan has been so great - she allows me to rest most of the first two hours of her morning and plays happily away (spreading her toys throughout the ENTIRE first floor in the process) while I rest on the couch. While it certainly can't be called a "bump" there is certainly a lot of pressure on my waist bands right where baby is - I'm certain I will be showing by the end of the first trimester again. 
Milestones: Baby has little fingers and toes starting to make their appearance. Baby is losing it's tail and starting to move around like crazy - just can't wait to feel it!

Baby Hoosier #3 :: Week 7

This week, Baby is the size of a: blueberry
Sleep: We've added not only progesterone, but additional med/vitamins for morning sickness. I'm tired ALL. THE. TIME. I'm sleeping great at night. 
Best moment this week: Seeing some relief from morning sickness has been wonderful!
Movement: none yet...can't wait!
Food cravings: steak, steak burrito, greasy pizza
Symptoms: Morning sickness got so bad that nothing was staying down. We started a combination of over-the-counter medication & vitamins and they have served to help relieve it enough for food to stay down. That has been a wonderful change. 
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! 

This seven week update was the last update that I made for baby #2 as the miscarriage process began that evening and our baby was delivered 2 days later. We are praying desperately that this baby is still healthy and that we will get to meet him or her in the spring!

Our Week :: 8/31-9/6

Miss Meghan loves packing all of her bracelets into her purse to carry around. She then holds her camera and phone and walks around. Often times she will put her purse on her shoulder and talk on her phone while "shopping."

This girl loves reading books! I think it's especially cute when she lays on her back to rest and read.

Daddy took a morning off and we went to the children's farmstead. Meghan got to touch calves and goats. She also got to see all sorts of other farm animals. She was so excited to see them and loved exploring. It was definitely a great experience for her!!

She has played even more with her kitchen. She enjoys getting food, putting it in there, and then going "shopping." She will get her toy shopping bag, shop for food out of her kitchen, and then say "bye bye" to leave the store. She does this over and over again in a day :) It's so cute!!

Mimsie, Papa, and Uncle Caleb visited over the weekend and brought Meghan a new flower building play set. This was the flower garden she built all by herself Sunday night:

This toy has been a HUGE hit with her! 

Baby Hoosier 3 :: 6 Weeks

This week, Baby is the size of a: corn kernel
Sleep: I'm super tired every night and ready for bed by about 7:30. It makes doing anything with Cole after Meghan's in bed interesting :) 
Best moment this week: We announced this little miracle's existence on social media at 5 weeks. We had blood work done after starting progesterone supplements, and my numbers are looking great! Meghan loves watching them do my blood work. 

We took Meghan to the Children's Farmstead on Thursday (that's why this is a day late!). Cole took the morning off work and we went and checked out all of the farm animals together. It was a blast!! 
Movement: none yet
Food cravings: ramen noodles, greasy pizza, cheese slices, steak Chipotle burrito....basically nothing else sounds good AT ALL.
Symptoms: major morning sickness and difficulty keeping anything down - waistbands make it worse, so like I did in Meghan's pregnancy, I've moved into my small maternity bottoms to relieve any pressure around my stomach
Milestones: Baby's heart is starting to beat - we are praying that this is developing normally! His/her mouth, ears, and nose are starting to form.