Santa Visits!!!!

After the Christmas Eve service, we were pleasantly surprised!!!! A gal from church arranged to have her son come over dressed as Santa to visit Amelia!!

She was in using the bathroom and undressing to get into her PJs when I let Santa in the front door. He was standing in the middle of the living room when she came tearing out of the bathroom in her underpants. She stopped dead in her tracks in the middle of the dining room with the most hilarious look of surprise on her face!!!! I wish I had the camera ready for that one!!

She actually did pretty well with him (so no pictures of her crying or screaming). She didn't do much talking, but she did sit next to him on the sofa, and at one point even sat on his lap for a bit. She wouldn't tell him what she wanted for Christmas--even after prompting from me. He sat with her for a bit and gave her a stuffed penguin. All in all, it was a good visit from Santa!! She was waving at him from the front door when he was leaving and saying "Bye Santa!!"

35 & 36 week Check-ups

So we've had another two check-ups fly by! Time sure is zooming since we've been going every week (thank goodness!).

At 35 weeks (12/23), we had another ultrasound for fluid check, but the gal also did all the measurements for baby's size. They guess the baby was about 5# 11oz at that time (70-something percentile). Baby's heart rate was 129, then went up to 150s (I think Baby was sleeping, then woke up during the ultrasound). My blood pressure was really good (128/70). The non-stress test turned out fine also.

At 36 weeks (12/27), we did it all over again! The non-stress test and ultrasound went great. We got to see the baby practice breathing again--such a cool thing to see!! My blood pressure was slightly elevated (138/78), but still acceptable. He did point out that it was up a little from the week before, but he was still okay with it since it still appeared to be responding to the medication. We are at the point that if it starts to go up again, we will just skip bedrest or upping the medication and have an induction. But for now, he'll let me keep being pregnant!!! On a side note, I'm 36 weeks 6 days right now; this is the day in my pregnancy with Amelia that I had her! And another note, I had gained 40 lbs by this time with her. I'm only at 29lbs!!! Go me!!! Our next appointment is this Monday. I'm still hoping to deliver the week after (1/11/11 would be a sweet birthday!!).

I'm feeling great still! Having some trouble sleeping at night, between potty breaks and trying to get comfortable. My hips are starting to hurt, especially after sitting or standing for long periods of time. But I suppose both things are just my body's way of getting ready!!!!

The picture below is from the 36 week ultrasound. Still a beautiful baby if I do say so myself (I'm not biased or anything)!!!

34 weeks

Had a check-up yesterday! My BP reading was good (132/82), so Dr. Tomjack will let me keep being pregnant :)

The baby's heartrate was 162 yesterday, and the estimated weight from the ultrasound is 5lb. 11 oz. The baby's measurements put him/her at 35 weeks 3 days. So, good news is baby is still estimated to be on the big side, so if we have to deliver early that will be good! Baby was opening and closing his/her mouth kind of like a fish :)

The tech got another 3D picture for us. Look at those chubby cheeks!!!!!

A Perfect 3-year-old

Amelia had her 3-year check-up this afternoon with Dr. Bargen. She's such a fabulous lady--we just love her!!

Amelia is doing really well growth-wise. She's 29lbs (32nd percentile) and 36 5/8 inches (38th percentile). And she's in the 25-50 percentile for BMI. Dr. Bargen was really impressed with her being potty trained so quickly and overnights already, too. She said she's very articulate with her speech and she's very smart. She knows tons of her colors, and shapes! In Dr. Bargen's words, "A perfect 3-year-old." (I had to remind myself of that this afternoon when I fought her for an hour to go down for a nap).

Amelia did really well with her shot--she cried pretty good, and milked it for a bit. But overall, she did really well at the doctor's office. It's nice to know that her experience there goes okay so that she's not totally freaked out everytime we go!

Pregnancy update and 33 week check-up!

Over the last several weeks I've started to have some issues with my blood pressure. I went to another doctor a few weeks ago to have a lump in my abdomen checked out (a pea-sized lump that is not the baby. It turns out its fine right now, and we'll probably have it removed after baby comes), and they got BP readings of 150s/100s. So they told me to keep an eye on it over the weekend and into Monday and if the readings didn't get better, that I was to call my OB. So they didn't improve much, and I called my OB and they had me set up an appt to see him. Since then, he's put me on a BP medication and I've had appointments weekly for 4 weeks in a row now. My appt yesterday we got BP readings that he felt were acceptable, but he still wasn't excited over. So he doubled my morning dose of BP meds. On top of the appointments, I now have weekly non-stress tests and ultrasounds to check the baby's amniotic fluid. The NSTs are a little boring (at least I get to hear the baby's heartbeat), but it stinks because I have to stay awake for it--I would love to nap during this time..... The ultrasounds are always great, because, come on, how exciting to SEE the baby!!!!

This last time the ultrasound tech informed us that the baby has a lot of hair--you can see it on the screen!!! She also showed us a bunch of little fat rolls on the back of the baby's neck! And I quote, "See all those little fat rolls on the back of the baby's neck?!? Like a little shar pei puppy!!!!" So with all the hair and fat rolls "like a shar pei puppy" maybe we are indeed having a puppy--Amelia did say that several months back when we asked her if the baby was a boy or a girl.... I should have some U/S pictures to post next week. We'll be having a size check on the baby at next week's ultrasound and she usually prints some pictures then.

So Dr. Tomjack said that my BP readings can only get worse or stay the same, they won't get better until delivery. So if they continue to be okay, he'll let me keep being pregnant. If they continue to get worse, then we'll be delivering early. He did say that after next week, we may not do anything to stop early labor. But overall, it sounds like he's thinking this will probably be another induction around 37/38 weeks.

That's all for now--except some pictures of my expanding body!!!!

^Some of my maternity shirts are working really hard these days....

Super Sibling!!

This past Sunday we took Amelia to a Super Sibling class that was held at Bryan. We told her it was a "Big Sister" class where we'll talk about how to be a good big sister. She was pretty excited about it. When we got there, the lady running the class (Lisa) met us in the hallway so we knew where to go. She asked what Amelia's name was and Amelia told her, "Amelia. It starts with an 'A' like this...." And she proceeded to draw an 'A' in the air for her to see. Lisa said "Amelia with an 'A' come over here where the class is!!" Then Amelia said, "I'm also three." She was very outgoing.

Lisa got everyone seated and she asked "Who here is going to be a big brother or big sister?!?!" Amelia was very overzealous and stood on her chair and yelled, "I AM!!!" She acted almost as if it was amazing that Lisa knew that!!! We started the class of by watching a short video with a crazy scientist guy who covered very quickly the basics on what big brothers and sisters could do to help. It was a good video, and Amelia thought the fella was funny.

After the video the kids practiced changing a baby's diaper (Amelia is a pro at this--her dolls have dirty diapers all the time), feeding the baby, and swaddling the baby. The kids also used fabric markers on little hats to make gifts for the new baby. Then Lisa took everyone upstairs to show the kids the hospital rooms where the babies will be born (they're quite swanky--I want to live there.... they have room service you know...).

Here are some pictures from Amelia's special Big Sister day!!!



^Getting ready to clean up baby and put a new diaper on. I especially like how she cranked the doll's legs as far as they would go!


^Putting on a new diaper--we may have her practice this quite a lot, so she can be the official diaper-changer. We'll have to tell her she can't crank baby's legs up like in the previous picture.


^Swaddling

^Feeding baby

^Making her new baby a hat.

^Enjoying our snack!

^The hospital tour. She did a really good job listening!!

Amelia's 3rd Birthday

We celebrated Amelia's 3rd birthday last weekend. She actually turns 3 this Saturday (11-27). She had her list of things that she wanted (a puppy, a guitar, and a red DS). I have to say we did pretty good, because we got 2 of the 3 items she asked for. I just don't think she's quite ready for a DS, so she'll be getting one of those learning handheld games for Christmas.

Anyway, she seemed to have a super time, and the first thing she did when everyone got here was open her presents. She tore through them like a professional!! She got a guitar, a stuffed puppy, a tricycle, a Toy Story Barbie, a Ken doll, Toy Story 3, and a talking Woody doll. She seemed pretty pleased with the stuff as she was going through them like crazy. Then, at the end of the gift opening, she said "I thought I was getting a DS?" Maybe that's why she was ripping through all that wrapping paper so fast!!!! She's still happy with everything she got and she plays with Woody all the time and takes him everywhere.

(^opening presents)

(^riding her new trike, its one of the only ones she's been able to pedal)

(^not sure what she's waiting for/upset about, but it's a cute pic!)