Mixed feelings

Annah seems to have mixed feelings about the new baby. Most of the time she says she is excited about it, but yesterday, she said she didn't want anymore babies. When Jeremy asked her if she meant after the baby already in Mommy's tummy, she clearly stated, that no, she meant no more babies! But, then this morning, she wanted to watch the baby moving. When it did, she decided that it was poking its finger out. She asked the baby if it would please be a boy. That is something else she goes back and forth on about every other day--whether she wants it to be a boy or a girl.

We had a sonogram today! That is always fun. (No, we do not know the baby's sex!) The technician said that everything looks "beautiful," so that was comforting to know. The girls enjoyed watching the ultrasound. Annah talked to the baby when she could see it on the screen; it was quite precious. And, she tried to point out what parts she thought she was seeing. Like, one time she said, "There's it's eyes!" when what we were really seeing was its kidneys. When the technician was pointing out the abdomen and the bladder in particular, Annah said, "It has a hole in it!" Well, kind of... ;) Hey, I can't tell what we're looking at most of the time either...

Here are the stats:
- heartrate during ultrasound was 134
- heartrate when midwife checked with heartrate monitor was in the 140's
- baby's measurements are a little ahead, measuring a duedate of October 2, but the "official duedate" of October 15 will not change

Yesterday afternoon, I had a strange thing happen. It was like I had a constant Braxton-Hicks contraction for a couple of hours. I told the midwife about it today, and she did some precautionary checks to make sure things are okay, including hooking me up to the monitor for a while. All is well; I was just told to put my feet up and drink more fluids. I should have figured this out on my own, since my hands and feet have started swelling, and I've lost a lot of strength in my hands. All-in-all, we're doing well, and will be 30 weeks on Friday!

We think we have decided on girl names except for spellings, but would still welcome some suggestions for boy names! :)

Sprinkler fun!

This evening, the girls got to play in the sprinkler!



Sylvia LOVED the sprinkler, and went right up and stood in the spray! She called it "'ain" (rain)!




Annah took a bit longer to get in close to the spray. She kept saying, "I don't like to get wet!" which we tried to explain didn't really fit with the purpose of playing in the sprinkler. After a while, she decided she liked it though, and then kept saying, "I like it! I do like it!"

Eventful week

We certainly had an eventful week. It wasn't the best week we've ever had, but the blessings always outweigh the "bad." God is so good to us!

Jeremy took a trip to Colorado for work Monday through Thursday. His flying experience on the way out wasn't his favorite, but thankfully, he did get there and back safely. We sure did miss him while he was gone!! Every time he travels (which is not very often, really), I am reminded how truly thankful I am that he doesn't have to travel and be away regularly.

Jeremy got home from Colorado about 12:30 a.m. Thursday night, and left around 12:30 p.m. on Friday for Indiana. He was able to go to Daniel and Jane's wedding, which he reports was quite nice. We wish them the best!

Annah loved her week at Camp Enrichment! In fact, we are thinking of sending her for the second session too. She learned a lot, and really likes her teachers too. Annah has been working on phonics some lately, and she is doing pretty well. This week, she also learned how to write a capital letter "A." So, now we have chalk A's all over our front porch and sidewalk!

Sylvia really changed a lot this week, it seemed. Maybe it was Daddy being away, or all the one-on-one time she got with Mommy while Annah was at camp? She is really trying hard to use words more to communicate. And, she just seemed to look a little "older" to us after this week too. She's heading more towards that toddler look. She is a fun and ornery little girl!

We got to see our friend Pete while he was in town this week. We met him at Tobin's Pizza for supper on Wednesday, which was so nice!

As usual with my pregnancies, I have become very clumsy. In fact, I took 2 nasty falls this week. Friday, I tripped and was unable to catch myself. I landed on my front, banging up my knee and hip and scraping my ankle. I must have landed partially on my belly, because it hurt quite a bit once I stood up. I was holding Annah's hand at the time, so she went flying down with me. She was alright, but her first concern was that I had fallen on the baby. I went home and laid down until I felt the baby move a few times. It has been moving just like normal since, so I think the worst part of the fall was how much it scared me.

Yesterday, I was trying to stop Sylvia from climbing the stairs by herself. She had gone up about 6 or so, so I went up and got her down. Then I proceeded to fall off about the 3rd step from the bottom while holding her. I banged up my other leg, and bruised my pride. Sylvia was fine. I've been incredibly weepy this week too, so I sat at the bottom of the stairs and cried for about 5 minutes, but it was mostly unrelated to the fall--or anything at all, really. Apparently, the hormones are running over this week!

We discovered mold in our basement this week too. We got a dehumidifier, and Jeremy is working on cleaning up the mold right now.

Check-up

I saw the doctor today for my monthly check-up. I learned that I have only gained 10 pounds so far, which really surprised me! I feel very big for having four months to go! Actually, the doctor did say I am measuring 2 weeks ahead right now. She advised that I cut back on the calorie intake, which did not surprised me at all! The baby's heartbeat was very strong today, and was 150. I'll go back in 4 more weeks and have another glucose test--yuck. After that, I will start going every two weeks!

Teething

Sylvia is teething again. Her first 8 teeth all came in at basically the same time, so it's been a while, but she's cutting 3 or 4 new ones now. She's doing pretty well, but at times it's evident that they're really bothering her.

Annah is getting very excited about the new baby. She likes to sing to it, and she is amazed to see it kicking and moving.

Level 2 sonogram

We had a Level 2 Sonogram today, which was a new experience for us.  The doctor was able to check for neural tube disorders and other possible problems.  Thankfully, he said, "The baby looks perfect."
We did not find out the sex of the baby.  We both thought we saw "parts," although I thought I saw girl parts and Jeremy thought he saw boy parts.  Obviously we don't have a clue how to read a sonogram!
The Level 2 sonogram was much clearer than previous sonograms we've had, which was pretty amazing.  We got to see the baby's blood pumping through the 4 chambers of the heart, blood flowing through the umbilical cord, and all kinds of other things!  It was pretty incredible.
Baby's heartrate was 158 at the time, and we measured 19 weeks and 3 days on Friday.  Technically, that would put us a few days earlier than the October 15 due date, so maybe we'll actually come close to it.

HCJ

Friday, May 14, 2004 - Yesterday was our 4-year wedding anniversary!  I am so blessed to have a wonderful husband!

Jeremy let me go see Harry Connick Jr. in concert on our anniversary!  My friend Lori came over from Indiana, because we have always said we would go see Harry together when we got the chance.  (We've been trying to make it happen for several years!)  Harry and his band put on a fantastic concert!!  Lori and I were like silly jr. high girls; we were so excited.  The only bad thing was that when we got there, our seats were double-booked!  Ticketmaster screwed up royally and double-booked a whole bunch of seats!  We spent probably almost the first half hour of the concert trying to find empty seats and repeatedly being kicked out of them when people got there to claim them.  We ended up in the 7th row, which was actually 4 rows closer than our original seats, so that was good.  It was a great concert nonetheless, and I was so thankful to get to go!

BBQ Cool Whip

This morning Annah woke up and went downstairs looking for Daddy, like she does every morning.  When she realized he'd already left for work, she came back upstairs and got in bed with me and slept a while longer.  When we both decided to wake up and go downstairs to get breakfast, I cracked up laughing when I saw the kitchen table...  There was an opened bag of barbeque potato chips and a container of Cool Whip with a knife in it.  Annah had been putting the Cool Whip on the chips for her "before breakfast snack" while I was still sleeping!  She claims it was good, but to me it sounds worse than any weird pregnancy craving I've ever heard of!

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Sylvia has been saying "Uh-oh!" for a couple weeks now.  Sometimes she uses it appropriately, but most of the time she just says it either because it is one of 3 things she can say ("Mama" and "Dada" being the other 2, of course) or because we laugh and say it back to her every time.  We got her 1-year studio proofs today...

Learning to pray

As Annah says her bedtime prayers, I have recently started to help her say more of the prayer on her own. I'll start out a phrase and then she finishes it how she wants. Here's how her prayer went last night...

Me: Dear...

Annah: God

Me: Thank you for...

Annah: The good supper we had tonight.

Me: and...

Annah: Thank you for the snow we played in today. And the world you made. And the shoes on our feet. I love you God. Amen.

Hearts at Home

I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the National Conference of Hearts-At-Home this past Friday while Jeremy took care of the girls from 6:45 a.m. until 10:30 p.m!  (What a great husband he is!!)  Hearts at Home is a non-denominational, Christ-centered, professional organization for mothers at home or those who want to be.  The conference was fantastic!  I was able to take workshops with Lisa Whelchel (She was "Blair" on The Facts Of Life.), Susan Alexander Yates, Jill Savage, and Dr. Jerry "Chip" MacGregor, all of whom were incredible speakers and shared great ideas.  I wish I could attend this conference every month, rather than only once a year!!

Since everyone is asking how I'm feeling...I am feeling pretty well most of the time--just tired.  I do have a lot of nausea, and here and there some days where I just try all day not to throw up.  But, I know many women struggle much more than I, so I can't complain.  I'm feeling pretty good most of the time.

Sylvia hates the whole milk.  She will take a little swig of it and then spit it out all over herself!  Has anyone ever dealt with this?  I don't know what to do, but we certainly cannot continue to keep her on formula for long.  She's eating like a champ now though!