11 weeks

Aw yeahhhhh....back down to 5 total pounds gained as of this week! Can I tell you how happy I am? Very, very, very. To think at this point last time I was over 10 pounds already. Lord have mercy!! I just finished a giant bowl of green beans, and while it is definitely not my fav food, it's much easier to eat when I see the results every week on that scale.

Zantac is my hero

My OB said I could take Zantac to help with the insane hunger issue, so last night I popped one before bed, and let me tell you, I feel like a new woman. I wasn't ravenous in the middle of the night (not even during the 1.5 hours I stared at the ceiling with insomnia), and here we are at 1:15 in the afternoon and I STILL haven't had that gnawing pain yet. Not that I haven't been hungry--I've just been normal. Blessedly normally hungry. WOOHOO!

Yesterday was my first appointment with my OB, who I absolutely adore. Few women can say they actually look forward to their annual exam every year, but I honestly can say that I do. I wish I could figure out what exactly it is about Dr. Robinson that is so wonderful, but it's hard to put my finger on. She's somewhat soft-spoken, and her voice is very calm and warm. She's very gentle and always lets you know what she's about to do, so you're not caught off-guard by cold fingers in intimate places. She's the most thorough explainer I've ever met; ask her a question and you get the same answer about four times, in different words, along with some ancillary information and possibly even other doctors' opinions on the subject that may differ from hers. Makes the appointments rather long sometimes, but I never mind.

She freaked me out, though, by launching into the appointment with the sentence, "So the pendulum is swinging in the other direction when it comes to doing VBACs." (VBAC, for the acronymally-challenged, is "vaginal birth after c-section.") Those of you who were with me during the first pregnancy know how much planning and work I put into having a natural birth, and how crushed I was when I ended up with an emergency c-section. Dr. Robinson was sure to do the kind of incision that allows you to do a VBAC, and all along that has been the plan for Baby #2. However, the hospitals in the area are changing their policy and now require a doctor to be ON the hospital campus the ENTIRE time a VBAC woman is in labor there. So, for example, rather than coming and checking on me and then going back to her office to see patients and get some work done, Dr. Robinson will have to get there as soon as it's determined I am in active labor, and will not be able to leave until the baby is delivered, be it 3 or 6 or 12 hours later. Think what this does to her office! All those patients have to be rescheduled. Or if it's in the middle of the night, she can't nip off to home for a quick nap. Apparently a lot of the doctors are just saying "No more VBACs!" But my doctor is the bomb and understands that a woman should have that choice, so long as it is likely she can deliver, and given the circumstances of Abby's birth, she doesn't think the same thing will happen again and believes I will be a successful VBACer. 'Course it took about 15 minutes for her to get to the point where she made it clear that I would still be able to try for a VBAC, and for that whole time she was talking I was trying to decide if I should look for another doctor or what. Because as much as I love and adore her, I don't want another c/s. Thankfully I won't have to make that choice. Whew!

Well, Abby's sleeping and I'm getting peckish (Ha! Peckish! Not voraciously hungry and about to eat my arm off! I love it!) so I'm off to forage in the kitchen. Got some more YUMMY hummus at the farmer's market yesterday, and some more yummy giant carrots to dip in it, so I'm thinking that's my next dish. Though the snack packs of sugary cereal I splurged on at Target yesterday are calling awfully loud...

YES!

Nine weeks today, and a happy surprise when I hopped into the scale: I'm DOWN 1.2 pounds! Score!

I was so out of it yesterday. I got a decent night's sleep the night before, but I still ended up spending about 2.5 hours dozing on the couch during the late morning/early afternoon. A bad mommy day--Abby watched Blue's Clues the whole time. Though she did it her way, meaning she watched about 1/4 of that time and spent the rest playing. So I didn't feel *too* bad.

Eight weeks

Well, I gained nearly two pounds this past week, so that kind of sucks, but I barely exercised and I was out of town for basically a week, so that explains it--you never eat well on vacation, you know?

Today was my intake appointment at my ob's. The staff there is so great. I always look forward to going there, everyone is so pleasant. And my doctor rocks the casbah. If you're in SoCal and need an ob, Dr. Ming Robinson is the one to go for. LOVE her.

Our little Peppercorn has knees and elbows and bends them now--even though it's only 5/8 of an inch long! Isn't that just amazing?

Oh Happy Day!

Today marks week seven--33 to go!--and I gained LESS than a pound this past week! Woohoo!! That makes it a total of about 3 pounds. So far so good. The hunger thing is actually sort of coming and going--the last couple days I've gone quite a while without being horribly hungry--though when it finally hits it REALLY hits hard. And there are still times when I've eaten SO MUCH and I'm still hungry. Very frustrating. But I'm still able to eat protein, for the most part--it's getting harder, but I'm doing it! :)

Say "Cheese"!

Today we got to go in for an ultrasound! The tech said everything looks great. we even got to see the heart beating--can you believe there's a beating heart at SIX WEEKS?! And some people say it's not life--WHATever.

Anyway, here is Baby Morrow's first picture:


Now, I know you probably won't believe me, but I swear it's true. Dan had Abby on his lap in the ultrasound room, and as the tech began the scan Abby pointed to the screen--which had that blobby image on it that looks like nothing whatsoever--and said, "Baby." Oh, and the other day she pointed to my stomach and, thought she usually says "baby" because we've been telling her there's a baby in my tummy, this time she said, "Girl." So, Abby the prophetess has spoken.

Ugh.

Had my first bout of morning sickness this morning. I started out fine, had breakfast and everything, and then while Abby and I were outside playing I started feeling nauseated. I think if I'd run back in and eaten something it might have helped, but I left it too long and then I was just miserable for the next hour and a half. :( I did manage to choke down one of my protein shakes from my nutritionist, and I think that definitely stopped it from getting any worse, but it didn't exactly make it feel any better.

The hunger thing is just as powerful as it was with Abby. I'm just hungry hungry hungry all the time. But I don't think I'm eating enough at each meal either. Abby throws a total tantrum if I spent more than ten minutes cooking and eating, and with the short fuse I have right now thanks to my raging hormones I'd rather give her my attention and thus shut her up than listen to the screaming. I just can't take it right now. I hope that goes away; I don't like feeling so short with her. What I wouldn't give for a personal chef.

I'd post more, but I have to go eat. Surprise surprise. Oh, forgot to post this yesterday, but my weight at 5 weeks is 132.

And so it begins

Today I am officially five weeks pregnant. March seems sooooo far away, but when I think of it in terms of weeks and realize I only have 35 left, it suddenly seems far too soon!

Abby has taken to using my stomach as a drum. I don't know why she started doing this now but for some reason she has, and she does it a LOT. And thinks it's hilarious. At least Peppercorn doesn't have ears. Or anything else at this point, for that matter.

Peppercorn, you ask? Yes, I've nicknamed Baby #2 Peppercorn, not for any significant reason other than it came up as a joke when Dan and I were thinking up names. And I get so tired of saying, "the baby" all the time. It's bad enough that I refer to it as "it" but I have to admit that I'll get attached to whatever sex I use, so for my own sanity "it" is a necessity.

I'm feeling really good so far, long may it last. I am hungry pretty much all day, just like before, but the protein aversion hasn't started yet so I'm loading up on meat while I still can. Speaking of which, my stomach calls....

The news in Abbyland

She's been babbling forever, but her new word (repeated at least ten times in a row) is her own name, with the 'b' sounding more like a 'p': "Appy. Appy. Appy." She can also shake her head (usually resulting in the shaking of her whole upper body and executed with a huge, slightly evil-looking grin) and uses the sign for "more" when eating. And speaking of eating, she's pretty much off baby food, which figures since I just stocked up and have, like, 20 jars in the pantry. She still takes some at breakfast, but the rest of the day it's bits of chicken or egg, cucumber or carrot, a myriad of fruits, and the occasional funky vegetable (like this morning, when she had green peppers).

And the best new development is that she's finally useful! I gave it a shot yesterday with, "Abby, take this (a napkin) to Daddy!" (Said with much excitement, like this is the most thrilling thing she's ever had the opportunity to do.) With a big smile she did exactly that. Vacuuming and laundry are just around the corner. ;)

Her vocabulary of words she understands is really getting impressive. You can ask her where her paci or shoe is, to come or to go to a certain place, to brush her teeth (just tried that one out yesterday), to lift her foot (for putting on her pants in the morning)--all sorts of stuff. It's incredible how much that little mind comprehends.

The Official One Year Checkup

Abby went in for her one year doctor appointment today. The best line of the visit: "She's very verbal for her age." Tell me about it.

She's in the 85th percentile for her length, which is 30.25 inches. Her weight was a little less than what we had it pegged at: 19 pounds, 12 ounces, which puts her in the thirtieth percentile! Talk about lean!

The worst part of the visit, of course, was the shot, her third in the Hib series. (One more left, hallelujah!) But she was already screaming because we were making her lie down, so the shot might not have been that bad, honestly--she was probably more annoyed than anything else. Within two minutes she was chatting away again. Oh, and we can see her top teeth coming in! Finally!

What a difference 365 days makes!

Today is Abby's birthday! All day we've been playing the "what were we doing at this time last year?" game. I just can't believe it's been an entire year. It doesn't feel like it's been that long.

We had a party with her friends on the 19th, and then we did a family party on the 24th so Aunt Kelli & Uncle Kyle could be there--they left Christmas afternoon to go to Kelli's parents' place and won't be back till January. Even after all that present opening she still doesn't really get the concept--we'd end up unwrapping everything and trying to get her to take some interest in it when all she really wanted to do was play with the gift bags or scraps of wrapping paper. Figures, eh?

In the last few days she's really turned a corner with her eating and sleeping. Two days in a row she went to sleep in the house instead of needing to be driven around in the car. Three days in a row she's actually let me feed her, and she's eating 1.5-2 jars of food at every meal. (Although she just now ate FOUR jars for dinner!) And for the last couple weeks she's been sleeping for 1-1.5 hours at naptime, which is a welcome improvement from the half-hour to forty-five minute naps she's been taking for months. And the other night she slept for seven straight hours before waking to eat! A dream come true! 'Course she didn't do that the next two nights, but who knows, maybe she's slowly turning towards that. (Please, God, let her be turning towards that!)

Here are some pictures from the last few days. Enjoy!


Her first kilt, courtesy of our Scottish relatives (who had a grandson born on the same day as Abby last year!). She wore this on Christmas Eve.


She's been so good with the tree--she got the concept of being gentle with the ornaments, although she really liked taking them off, too. Then one day she started trying to put them back on. Adorable!


"So what's the deal with this unwrapping thing again?"


Abby's first cake! I'd tried to make some oatmeal apple muffins instead because I really didn't want her having the sugar of a cake, but they didn't turn out and I ended up having to run to the store the morning of the party to get a cake. Turns out she only stuck her fingers in her mouth once and wasn't at all pleased with the taste--thank you, God!

So funny I can't think of a proper title for the post to do it justice

This is from a message board for women who breastfeed. It is HILARIOUS. (It's also British, so for those who don't know, Tesco is a grocery store.)

Went to Abigail's school Christmas concert (no "proper" Nativity this year). Each class did a little something followed by a song or 2. Anyway, Ab's class did a Nativity scene, with Ab as Mary (How proud was I?). A few mins into their bit Ab promptly lifted her dress & shoved baby Jesus up it. The script then wandered away from what they'd learnt & goes as follows....

Joseph: "What are you doing?"
Mary: "I'm feeding our baby"
Shepherd: "Have you got a bottle up there then?"
Mary: "Don't be silly, he's having milk from my booby"
Joseph: "That's disgusting"
Mary: "No, that baby milk they have in Tesco's is disgusting. My baby's having proper milk"
Shepherd: "What's a booby?"
Mary: "Those sticky out bits ladies have"
Shepherd: "They're not boobies, they're nipples"
Mary: "No they're not, they're boobies"
Joseph: "So why can't Jesus have milk from a bottle then?"
Mary: "Because I haven't got a breast pump with me - you forgot to put it on the donkey"
Shepherd: "Can't you ask the teacher for a bottle to feed Jesus with?"
Mary: "No because this is the best way to feed Jesus. Anyway bottles haven't been invented yet & even if they were I've just had a baby so if you think I'm faffing about round Tesco's to buy baby milk when I make proper milk in my boobies you can think again"

I felt a teeny bit sorry for their class teacher - she did try her best to steer them back towards their proper lines but she was laughing so much she didn't really stand a chance. The line about Joseph forgetting the breast pump finished her off - she slid to the floor & couldn't get up for laughing....

Closing in on one year

It's a real shocker to think that I'm pretty much the mother of a toddler already. Now a whole lot that's still babyish about this baby, other than perhaps her inability to talk. She walks like a pro (although is still unclear on the concept of looking where she's going), dances to anything that vaguely resembles music (my cell phone's ring, me making senseless "do-do-dee-doo" ditties), and is frighteningly fast at mimicking anything we do. For example, she and Dan were playing with a ball the other day, and when he hit it with his hand, she'd hit it back with her hand, and when he hit it with his foot, she'd hit it with her foot, even if she had to grab it from somewhere else and put it on front of her foot to do it.

And the other day, Dan was trying to dress her while she stood up, and when he said, "Lift your foot" so he could put on her pants--she did! And she did it again for the other foot, too! So stinkin' cute. And handy.

If only we could tell her, "Lie down and rest" and have her do it. I'm praying for that day.

Technical difficulties

First of all, whoa. Sorry it's been for-freaking-ever since I posted. Time moves too fast, man. Grr.

Anyway, my main blog is experiencing technical difficulties, just so you know. Going to it will bring you to my website. Hopefully we'll be back up again soon. Keep checking back, things happen quick!

Pilates, baby edition

I was a big pilates fan back before I met Dan, and it's one of those things I go back to now and then when I'm feeling motivated. Well, I've been feeling mighty motivated lately, so I've been using my morning time with Abby to do the quick version of the video I used to watch. 'Course it becomes a whole 'nuther experience when Abby decides this is just the most hilarious thing she's ever seen and she just has to get involved.

I lie down to do the first exercise--the 100, which you do flat on your back with your legs straight up in the air--and suddenly I'm Abby's speed bump for her to walk on.

I move on to the roll-up, which starts flat on the back and involves slowly sitting up and reaching for your toes and then slowly going back to your back, all without bending your legs or lifting them off the floor. Abby sits at my feet, and instead of reaching for my toes, I reach for that tubby baby belly and thighs and tickle her, and she laughs that wonderful baby laugh that motivates me to do just one more...

Then on to the leg lifts where you lie flat back and trace capital D's in the air with your toes, but I'm tracing some funky cursive letters trying to avoid kicking Abby in the head as she steps over the leg that is still on the floor.

She finally tires of me and my leg-waving shenanigans and takes off for the other end of the room, so I manage to squeeze in the rest of the exercises on my back without any issues. But then I roll to my side for the "side leg series" (my favorite part of the Windsor pilates exercise videos--can I get an Amen from anyone who's tried it?) and it's a new game for Abby. She's grabbing my leg and "petting" my hair and flopping herself over my body while I try to count out leg lifts. I'm working out muscles I didn't know I had trying to keep my balance and (again) not kick Abby in the head (which works most of the time).

And by the time I'm finally done, my t-shirt is soaked, not in sweat but baby drool, my hair is a ratty mess from little hands playing beauty salon, and the stomach and butt muscles I haven't felt in a year and a half are screaming their names. Rather than the ten minutes it used to take, it's a twenty-minute (at least) endeavor. But I'm just going to assume those extra minutes of rolling on the floor with a giggly wiggly Abby are burning some calories, too.

She kissed me!

Oh how cute. Last night she started head-butting our lips when we puckered up, and this morning she started "kissing" my knee (of all things) with those great baby lip-presses.

I can't wait till she knows just what all those kisses (and toe-nibbles and raspberries and exclamations of "Oh my goodness I could just eat you up!") mean...

Taking Peek-a-boo to the next level

Dan and I were outside the other day, finally taking down the Easy-Up that's been in our backyard since July. We'd corralled Abby in the family room with a complicated configuration of furniture while we tackled the task, and about fifteen minutes later we were back inside, discussing how to handle the tree full of bees we discovered outside our dining room window. (It's never good when the sound of their buzzing is so loud it sounds like someone's a/c unit working overtime.)

So I'm in the kitchen washing my hands when I hear Dan say, "Do you have Abby?"

"No, she's in the family room still."

"Um...no she's not."

Panic.

I'm racing around the ground floor, which takes all of 1.6 seconds since our place is just not that big, and nope, she's not in the family room, or under the dining room table, or in her fortress, which is the living room all fences off and chock-full of her toys. I'm about the check the utility room and garage when I hear, "Well hi there, sweetie!" I follow Dan's voice UPSTAIRS.

Yes, she traversed the entire staircase alone: 13 steps, including a rather large landing and a 90 degree corner. Images of her tumbling like a slinky splatter themselves all over my brain, and Dan looks like he's seen a ghost he's so pale from nerves.

Abby, on the other hand, looks like she just conquered Everest, the stinker. She's so proud of herself, you can just tell. We, on the other hand, are looking for asprin to head off the heart attacks we think we might be about to have.

But at least we know she knows how to climb stairs. For what that's worth.

Who turns the world on with her smile?

princess abby
Originally uploaded by AlisonMorrow.

So today was a sucky day. First, I took Abby to the pumpkin patch with a friend and her son and took all sorts of great photos of the two of them amongst the pumpkins, sitting on haybales, all sorts of cute things. Then I got home and realized the camera didn't have the memory card in it. Sayonara pictures. Then I spend an hour covering one of her walking toys (this little cart-type thing she can hold on to for balance while she walks) with adorable pink material so she'd have something to hold onto at the church's harvest party tonight. But then we got there and realized she would never use it, just try to pull the material off, so all that work was for naught. Then I spent the afternoon turning the house upside down looking for a necklace I bought for a friend, only to realize after working myself into a fuming mess that I never actually bought the necklace, only thought about it.

And then we put Abby in her Halloween costume and it made me smile. So worth it.

Not again

Okay, 6:15 is way too early, too. How long does it take babies to figure out Daylight Savings?! Please tell me she'll get it tomorrow.

Notes for Improvement

Babies need a Daylight Savings Time setting, because 6:30AM is TOO EARLY.