Baby Hoosier #3 :: Week 14

This week, Baby is the size of a: lemon
Sleep: I am having WEIRD dreams! They aren't usually scary, like they were with Meghan, but man - they are weird and I wake up so confused!
Best moment this week: I haven't thrown up in over a week! I've even had energy a few days!
Movement: apparently baby is moving like crazy right now - I just can't feel it. 
Food cravings: no cravings, really. I can eat mostly anything now. I have to remember to eat every few hours or I start feeling sick to my stomach.  
Symptoms: weird dreams, baby belly - it makes me so happy to be able to see my little one growing (from what I can feel, my uterus is over halfway up my belly button), I'm starting to have to go to the bathroom a lot - baby must like my bladder :), my lower back and sacroiliac joint have been hurting - a friend recommended trying a maternity support belt and one is in the mail! if that doesn't provide as much relief as I'm hoping for we will be heading to the chiropractor
Milestones: The baby now has fingerprints. Its body is growing and becoming more proportional - the head is now only 1/3 of the baby's total length. It's legs are longer than it's arms and it's beginning to practice breathing using the amniotic fluid.

Baby Hoosier #3 :: Week 13

This week, Baby is the size of a: peach
Sleep: I'm super tired early in the evening. But then when I go to bed I struggle to fall asleep. I think I might start taking my kindle to bed and read until I'm SUPER sleepy. 
Best moment this week: We had an appointment last week. It still was too early to hear the baby's heartbeat on Doppler - since Meghan was notoriously difficult to find (the doctor says we have little pistols!) and since because of our miscarriage not being able to find a heartbeat would inevitably lead to lots of worry, he didn't even try. But, he did a blood draw and my progesterone levels took a huge jump indicating that the baby's placenta has taken over making progesterone; we will do a blood draw in four weeks and I will most likely be able to come off of my progesterone supplements at that time - wahoo!!

Also - we are into the second trimester! Wahoo! 
For all three of my babies I have given up caffeine for the first trimester - there is a 12 pack of Dr Pepper with real sugar waiting for me to enjoy throughout the rest of the pregnancy.....this is my favorite drink and they had it in 12 packs this summer instead of just bottles! So Cole got me a 12 pack to set aside. That may be my best thing next week ;)
Movement: none yet...I cannot wait! 
Food cravings: no cravings; I'm starting to be able to eat  most meals and foods - especially at dinnertime; I'm digging fresh fruits and veggies! 
Symptoms: morning sickness is off and on (sometimes it's awful and sometimes it's not bad at all); today my sacroiliac joint locked up for the first time this pregnancy - looks like it's time to go see the chiropractor - this happened throughout Meghan's pregnancy, so I'm hoping that a little bit of help from my chiropractor will keep it in check this time; my skin is clearing up as the first trimester hormones are going away; I am keeping water down! Up until the last week or two, if it wasn't slightly carbonated, I couldn't keep liquid down. I'm enjoying having water back!
Milestones: The baby is opening and closing its fists, starting to use its mouth to suck, and its intestines (which have grown into the umbilical cord) are moving into position in its abdomen - I find myself praying over those little intestines pretty regularly. Hopefully this little one will not inherit celiac disease.

Meghan @ 20 Months

Fine Motor: 

• She has most of her current puzzles mastered. She is getting better at putting jigsaw pieces together. 
• She has mastered all of her foam pegging activities. 
• She loves doing her do-a-dot markers. 
• She enjoys coloring and attempts to stay in the lines on coloring book pages.

Gross Motor:

• She loves dancing - this now involves hips and shoulders! 
• She can get in and out of her learning tower. 

Language: 

• She enjoys reading books to herself and having books read to her by mom and dad. 
• She knows all of her basic 10 colors except grey. 
• She knows her eight basic shapes. 
• She knows her numbers 0-10. She can count to ten with some help.
• She knows the names of several alphabet letters. 
• She has started calling Cole "Daddy" and sometimes refers to me as "Mommy."
• She has started saying "Love You." In response to being told "I love you."
• She has started using the phrases "Oh man!" and "Oh my!" - it's too cute!

Eating:

•  Eating has continued to be wonderful! We are so proud of her! 
• She is generally willing to try new foods. 
• She has started eating fresh "wet" fruits! She loves grapes and apple slices.  

Sleeping:

• She has been a very good sleeper this month. 
• 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 is very much into stranger anxiety. She screams when I drop her off in the nursery for Bible study, but fairly quickly settles in with a baby doll to cuddle. At the doctor's office for my prenatal appointment, she screamed anytime a doctor or nurse was in the room and clung to me - even though she was never touched she was petrified! 
• She is loving art time - having a magna-doodle makes it so she can do art whenever she wants without a mess :) 
• She has been enjoying playing with her "choo-choos" and has learned how to put some of the pieces together. 
• She is petrified of vehicles going down our street or flying over the house. She runs to Mom or Dad whimpering. We talk about how it's outside and it's okay. She will now say that the vehicle is "outside" and she'll say "bye-bye" to the vehicle. 
• Dress up continues to be a very favorite daily activity. 
• When she wants to do something she will say the name of the activity while nodding "yes" to help you know what answer she wants. She will say "please" in her cutest, most pathetic little way while smiling ear to ear if you first tell her "no." - Oh this girl! 

Our Week :: 10/12 - 10/18

She enjoys using a fork as a brush all the time! It reminds me of the Little Mermaid and how they called a fork a Dinglehopper!

She mastered all of the letters in her name - so we pulled out the whole alphabet! She is enjoying playing on the letters and naming the ones she knows. She points out the "M" first thing each morning!

She has been enjoying this pegging activity recently. She matches the colors and then puts them in the holes - she has figured out that it's harder on the carpet, but she enjoys "powering through."

We did our first Do-A-Dot letters this week - A and B. She was very accurate and now enjoys looking through the book I am putting them in and naming them. She is LOVING art activities more and more these days.

She is with us during worship and has been imitating the motions of those around her - raising arms, clapping hands, swaying, etc. This night we were listening to a worship mix on the chromecast and she was imitating the worship pastor raising his hands. We love seeing her starting to go through the motions that we are praying her heart will come to understand and put meaning behind in the coming years.

Baby Hoosier #3 :: Week 12

This week, Baby is the size of a: plum
Sleep: Weird dreams, often scary continue. I am sleeping very little during the day, but falling asleep before 9:00 most nights.
Best moment this week: I had two days this week where, compared to recently, I felt GREAT! As the second trimester is coming, morning sickness is decreasing some days. Also....I find it so amazing that baby is already the size of a plum when he/she was just two cells less than 3 months ago! 
Movement: none yet...a few more weeks and there will hopefully be something to put here!
Food cravings: Not really craving much....I have to eat ate consistent intervals during the day and little sounds amazing at those times. But, I am starting to eat a wider range of foods without feeling sick - yay for better and more diverse nutrition for baby! 
Symptoms: still some morning sickness, still tired, starting to be able to eat more!
Milestones: tooth buds are starting to grow, some bones are starting to harden, and baby is hiccuping as his/her diaphragm is developing

Our Week :: 10/5 - 10/11

Just a few pictures of her in her church outfit last Sunday...she LOVED her striped tights!!

We have all been loving this adorable fleece leopard vest of hers. It even has little ears on the hood! She has mastered unzipping it - which means lots of "help!" cries so that I will zip it for her to try again :)  

She has been using "hot" and "cold" to describe things recently - she is about 60% accurate at correctly using the terms. Cole was helping her by having her touch a container with warm burgers inside and an ice pack. She's been much more accurate in her use of those words since this "science experiment" with Daddy.

Speaking of Daddy - that's his new name. Rarely does she use Dada, it's usually Daddy - which is just so sweet!!

We've been working on spooning skills a lot. She does not like practicing with "wet" foods that might get her hands or face messy (related to her Sensory Processing Disorder) - so we have been practicing with her morning cheerios. This day she decided to try using a fork....which was even slower than the spoon!

A new favorite is carrying some books to the stairs and reading them on the bottom step. She's learning more and more lines from her favorite books and it's so sweet to listen to her read them to herself.

The weather has been beautiful. Meghan loves playing out in the backyard - picking clovers and dandelions ("flowers" of course!), "cooking" grass in a metal pail and stirring with a stick, kicking her ball, and running around. This day when we were getting shoes on to go outside she kept repeating "outside! ball! kick it! okay!" over and over and over.

She loves her animal magnets and enjoys when I get out the cookie sheet for her to play with them on (they easily slide under the fridge, so this is safer). She is starting to say their names AND sounds rather than just their sounds these days. 

I tried to take some pictures of her in this favorite shirt of mine - but she wanted to hum and read books, so no smiles. 

Wow, what a difference a year makes! She has this shirt in 2 consecutive sizes (I kinda liked it!) and it was fun to see how much she's changed in just one year. I can't imagine what she'll look like in another year (though, I don't have this shirt in the next size....bummer!). 

I don't know where she gets this - as a friend says about her daughter, she's part fairy princess - she walked around with a phone to her ear repeating "woh. woh? woh!" while wearing sparkly flower shoes, a purse, and bracelets. This isn't at all like me - this is totally nature! 

We have a book about continents that Meghan loves reading - the outlines of the contents are raised and she loves feeling them. She has learned how to say Asia, Europe, and Africa. She can also point to them on the map when you say their name or name them when you point to one! She shocked me with this skill! We haven't "worked" on it - she's just picked it up in a few readings. 

I love the way she says "ac-ric-a."

Baby Hoosier #3 :: Week 11

This week, Baby is the size of a: lime
Sleep: Seriously, I'm ready for the weird dreams to go away - they have started getting scary and I'm not a fan!! I nap for a short period a few times a week, but no longer depend on a daily nap to make it through the rest of the day. 
Best moment this week: There have been a few days where morning sickness has been lighter and Meghan and I have enjoyed playing outside in the beautiful fall weather! 
Movement: lots of movement, hope to feel it soon!!
Food cravings: I don't really crave anything right now. Some foods sound awful and some sound okay. Most of the time I have to force myself to eat when it's time. 
Symptoms: Still have morning sickness - sometimes it's completely debilitating and sometimes it's super light and I can manage to get several large tasks done around the house. Baby is beginning to be prominently noticeable. My skin looks AWFUL - like a 13 year old; the things that I usually would do for acne breakouts are not considered safe for the first trimester - so I'm just dealing :) 
Milestones: The baby is in the fetal stage now, and has been for a week. All major organs are in place and now just need to continue growing and developing. Baby has fingernails and peach fuzz is beginning to grow all over its body. 

Our Week :: 9/28 - 10/4

Meghan has fallen in love with her Magna-Doodle and colors on it multiple times a day. This time, when she was finished drawing, I asked her what she drew, and she said it was a pig. 

She has also been loving to spread out her I Spy Quilt and read books on it. I call them her story picnics.

This is how Daddy usually eats breakfast - Meghan knows that he's leaving soon for work and wants to sit with him and spend time with him as long as possible. Throughout the entirety of the meal she labels his "O's", "milk", and the color of his bowl.

She also has been loving making her baby sit up against the couches and reading her stories.

The weather has turned to fall here and we are now wearing long sleeves, pants, and socks. But it's still warm enough to play outside and we have been taking full advantage of that! This day I took random pictures of Meghan while she played.....like a lot of pictures :)

We also picked some marigolds from our garden to bring into the house to help it feel like fall.

Munchie Mug of crackers and Magna-Doodle - is there a better way to start the morning?

Just a random snapshot of Meghan - sunshine in a little girl's body for sure!

Baby Hoosier #3 :: Week 10

This week, Baby is the size of a: fig
Sleep: I'm able to give up naps about 50% of days. Weird dreams have definitely kicked in; I can't even try to follow the story lines in the morning :) 
Best moment this week: Morning sickness is lightening some - it's been great this week to be able to spend more time doing things and playing with Meghan. 
Movement: baby is moving, I just can't feel it yet
Food cravings: peanut butter and jelly - always! 
Symptoms: Morning sickness was awful at the beginning of this week - probably the worst it had been so far. However, after those first two days, it seems to have been lightening some with good parts of every day. I'm getting a bit more done each day and Meghan and I are getting to do more activities together. 

I pulled out the small and medium sized maternity tees this week - being so short waisted, baby is starting to make it's presence known enough that my fitted tees were getting tight and were noticeably shorter in the front than the back. It is time to start wearing shirts that account for baby to take up some space. I feel like baby is showing about 2 weeks ahead of Meghan's pregnancy. Milestones: Baby has working arm joints. Vital organs are all working and fingernails are starting to grow. Baby is swallowing amniotic fluid and kicking.