37 Week Check Up

October 21, 2008: I had my check up today. All is well. Last week I was 1/2 centimeter dilated and that did not change at all. I've been feeling crampy and have had a few sporadic contractions over the last week so I thought I would be more dilated, but not so. I did not gain any weight since last week's check up either, so still at 31 pounds gained. The baby has been measuring small as Casey did. Last week they did an ultrasound and she looked fine, was 5 pounds 14 ounces which was the 38th percentile for weight. Because I continued to measure so small again today, I will have another ultrasound in 2 weeks to check the baby's growth. I am not overly concerned about it.

Casey is still doing very well. She has all of her teeth in now except for the 2 year molars. She is climbing all over everything and loves getting onto the new baby's changing table, as well as up to the window sill at the back of the couch. She does this after the tub everynight and flashes anyone driving by (see pic).
She talks a blue streak, knows all of her colors and can count to ten (on a good day with some prompting). She likes her doll and treats it fairly lovingly, hopefully this will translate to her new sister. We've been enjoying the beautiful fall weather and are outside as much as possible. Casey and I did a small hike last week in a town nearby. There is a big stone tower at the top that you climb up to for views of the surrounding hills.

The ice is down on one of Taft's rinks and last weekend we took her out for a skate. She loved to go "fast" with James. He would get going really fast and then let her feet touch the ice while gliding along. We also pulled her behind us on a sled. She loved it.

Here are a few pix of our outing for pumpkins including a hayride. It was a Sunday and Casey wears her Pats jersey on game days.

34 Week Check Up

October 2, 2008: Two days ago I had my check up at the OB. I am measuring small again which means the size of my belly does not match up with what week I am. This happened with Casey and when it did I was a nervous wreck over it. I had several ultrasounds towards the end of the pregnancy with Casey because I continued to measure small the rest of the way. This time I am not stressed at all and I am sure it is just in the way I carry. Regardless, I will have an ultrasound at my next check up just to be sure everything is OK. I go in 2 weeks, and then start going every week to the Dr, the end is near! I have gained 29 pounds so far and that is practically the exact same weight gain schedule I had with Casey. I ran 2 miles a few days ago and still feel OK doing it, but might taper to just walking soon.

Casey is doing great. When we stroll her around campus she loves when James lets her go down a hill strapped into the jogging stroller. Usually I let her go and he waits for her at the bottom, never anything too big, but she cracks up. She is making friends here at Taft and when we were walking into brunch on Sunday a posse of little buddies started chanting her name, what a nice reception! In the mornings the faculty kids wait at the end of our driveway to get on the school bus. Usually we stop and play with them on our way home from breakfast. She loves all the little girls just a little bit older than she is. Today was her little gym class that we go to called Monkey Business. We both get a big kick out of it and look forward to Thursdays. We've been on a bunch of other fall excursions; trips to the beach, farms, apple picking, etc. Here are a few pictures.

Mini Update

September 15, 2008: Just a mini blog entry with things that pop into my head about Casey that I want to have down and share. Whenever she hears something, like an airplane or lawn mower or anything noteworthy in her mind, she puts her hand to her ear to alert us. Yesterday in the dining hall she was really trying to use her spoon and fork solo for the first time. She is a little behind in this area b/c she has been such a small eater that we are usually sneaking food in her mouth for her just to make sure she gets enough to eat. If it were up to her she would have a few bites and be out of there. Anyways, she ate almost her whole bowl of yogurt solo and it was funny to watch. Another funny story from recently...James was looking for a frying pan and when he opened a kitchen cabinet it stunk. He looked around in a few more drawers and discovered a dirty diaper in one. We often give Casey her dirty diapers and say, 'go throw this in the garbage' she she does it and feels very proud of herself. I guess this time the joke was on us that it ended up with the pots and pans and not the trash! I'm 32 weeks pregnant now. Had a check up last week, the first time Casey has come with me. What a difference the second one is when you can hardly listen to what the Dr is saying b/c you are trying to keep her from tearing apart the supply drawers or whatever. Anyhow, I've gained 25 pounds so far and all seems to be well and on track. We are really curious about what this next little girl will look like and act like. It is so bizarre to think she won't be exactly like Casey. Still no name, although we finally started looking in a book last night. Here are a few more pix, one of our new mini van as promised.

End of Summer Wrap Up

Sept 8, 2008: The last few days saw big developments in Casey's comfort level in the swimming pool. She has always tolerated going in but never showed any interest in staying in for long periods of time. My brother put the heat up pretty high the other day and suddenly we could not get her out of the water. She would stay in for 2-3 hours at a time, started dunking her own face under (see picture and her response after popping back up), jumped off the sides to us in the pool, and would play on her own on the steps. In general she turned into a little water bug and had so much fun. We are very conscious of the dangers of falling in and always keep a very close eye on Casey whenever she is near the edge. She has always been really good about knowing the pool is not allowed (she goes to the edge and shakes her finger at the water and says 'no, no, no' the way we do). Yesterday was the first time she actually fell into the pool. She was helping me clean leaves out of the filter and when i turned to reach in to grab the leaves I heard a splash, she had stepped back too far and went in. Of course I was right there to jump in and grab her and she was not even that scared. Funny though that she lasted all summer and fell in on what was probably the last pool day of the summer. Besides the pool she has had some other changes too. For at least the last few weeks her naps have been getting worse and worse. She would take almost an hour to fall asleep sometimes, or just never fall asleep at all. So I finally caved about a week before she turned 16 months old and moved her to one nap. I was reluctant to do this because I was just hoping to hang onto the additional free time and was hoping it would last for awhile after number two came so that I would have more time to nap myself. Alas, this was not to be but I have been happy with the schedule change. Now she goes down at 1 o'clock, right after we get back from lunch. She goes down immediately with no fuss and usually sleeps for 2 hours, sometimes even a little longer. It allows us to do more in the mornings, so I try to plan an activity for the morning, then we meet James for lunch, go home for naps, then James usually takes her for an hour or two in the afternoon until dinner and before you know it the day is over. Since school started up we've gone for walks at an Audubon trail area, gone to see a petting zoo, story time and arts and crafts at the library, and today we went to a country fair. Casey's vocabulary blows me away, she really picks up on words so quickly now and remembers them and uses them. She loves running places now.
Baby number two is doing well also. I am 31 weeks and feeling pretty good. I've been sick actually for the last two and a half weeks so I have not done any running. I went for a short one today and felt OK, but it still made my coughing start up somewhat. This baby moves so much it's incredible. I had been sleeping great throughout this pregnancy and just recently started getting worse sleeps. I guess it is all part of gearing up for the baby's arrival. I told James tonight that I have a hunch this baby will not go to the due date. Obviously I have no clue, but I wanted to get it down on the blog just in case my prediction comes true. I go to the Dr. in 3 days for a check up. Now that James is back in school I have to bring Casey with me which should be interesting. We've been reading a book to her about bringing home the new baby. She seems into the book but when we were visiting with our nephews this week she was very jealous if James or I were holding one of them. I had to have the three hour glucose test as a follow up to the routine one hour one because my numbers were high (whatever that means). It was a pain in the neck; I had to fast for 12 hours, and then get my blood drawn four times in three hours. Fortunately the results came back fine and I am not at risk for gestational diabetes. Well, that is all I have to report for now. Oh one last thing...we bought a mini van this summer. We love it, but it's still hard to believe that we drive one and have arrived at that stage of life. I'll post a picture of our sweet ride soon.

Catching Up & Number 2

August 5, 2008: After three months of no blogging this will probably be a long one to catch up on a lot of different areas. Let's start with Casey and how she is doing. We just returned home from her 15 month appointment. She weighed 20 pounds 3 ounces which was the 15th percentile and was 31 1/4 inches long which is the 75th percentile. All in all she got a very good report. We have been weighing the decision about her MMR shot, the one linked to autism in the media. We opted not to give it to her at her one year check up when it is generally given. We planned/hoped to wait another year or so and give it to her broken up into three separate shots. This new pediatrician in CT said we have to leave the practice if we do not schedule it right away, so we are looking elsewhere. Last week Casey had her first major sickness of her short life. She had the coxsackie virus. She had 103 fever for a few days and then developed a rash on her hands, feet, and mouth. She would not eat because of the blisters in her throat. There was nothing we could do for her but wait until it passed. The one day when her fever was really high she was very unlike herself. She was just a lump, would lie on us all day, did not eat, hardly talked at all, and just was sleepy and had no energy all day. It was so weird and sad. Besides that, Casey has not seemed phased by the move to Taft. She is still a very funny and good girl. She is "talking" so much and tries to say a lot of words. As she is speaking more she is signing less and less. We have stopped teaching her new signs and just try to teach her words. Her daily schedule is pretty much the same although her stamina for awake time in between naps is growing and she is showing signs of being ready to adjust to one nap a day instead of two. She has been to the beach this summer, spent a lot of time in "Ya Ya and Deadie's" pool, she is getting more courageous and comfortable in the tub, she now lies on her stomach, likes to dip her face in, blows bubbles, etc. When she wants to go play outside she brings us our shoes, we can hand her a dirty diaper and she will take it to the trash and throw it away, she then claps for herself in delight. She loves climbing, we call her a monkey. When it is time to eat we say climb up into your chair and she does. Loves reading books and remembers the ones we read a lot. She seems so big to me now, like a little girl instead of a baby. On that note, most of you know already but baby number two is on the way! I am due November 8th, which makes me 6 months pregnant at the moment. It has been a healthy and easy pregnancy so far and it has been going by a lot faster than the first did. This baby is a mover and shaker, it seems to be break dancing in there all day and night long. We found out we are definitely having another girl. We are trying to get Casey prepared to no longer rule the roost but we'll see how she handles it. We ask her where the baby is and she lifts up my shirt and points to my belly. My belly has gotten bigger faster this time around but my weight is exactly the same as it was at this point with Casey. Here are a bunch of photos from the past three months....

1 Year Check Up

May 5, 2008: Casey had her one year doctor appointment today. She was 29 3/4 inches tall which is 71st percentile and only 19 pounds 2 ounces which is the 18th percentile. Still long and lean. I was hoping she would weigh 20 pounds so we could turn her car seat around, but not quite yet I guess. We got the OK to start her on cow's milk. We chose Hood whole milk which is growth hormone free. For now I am combining it with formula and will slowly switch the proportions similar to how we did it when we went from breast milk to formula. After much research and thought I opted not to give her any of the shots offered at the one year appointment. We did not do the MMR, chicken pox, or Hep A shot. I am going to wait a few years for the MMR and we'll see when we do the chicken pox. Hep A is only really necessary if you are going to travel outside the country. On the subject of health choices we are also on BPA free bottles for Casey, we use the Born Free company. We switched about 6months ago when the news started coming out. My concern is that we make her formula with bottled water and the water has most likely already been exposed to plastics from the Poland Springs bottles for much longer than the 10 minutes it actually sits in her baby bottle. Oh well, hopefully the media attention will bring some more changes to help this. Besides all that she got a glowing report and seems to be very healthy.

Happy Birthday Baby!!

April 30, 2008: It has been an amazing first year with Casey. Her birthday was fun, but in reality she has no clue what was going on. Lala and Eddie came up to visit for the birthday. We made Casey the same cake that I had on my first birthday, a yellow cake with white icing in the shape of a bunny. She put her fingers into the piece we gave her but refused to try even a bite. We thought maybe she was full from lunch so we tried again later and the next day but she still wanted nothing to do with the cake. So there will be no classic icing all over the face pictures for her albums! Besides her actual birthday it has just been such a fun time with her lately. She is a full-time, confident walker now and does not crawl anymore at all. With the arrival of spring and her walking it has been great to play outside. She loves the swings and usually cries when we take her out. She loves being outside and loves getting dirty. We go through several outfits a day. She is "talking" so much more and makes lots of sounds. She has finally picked up on the sign language. We did the sign for "more" for almost 6 months before she really started doing it back to us and now we barely have to sign something at all before she learns a new one. She is doing more, milk, help, & food and I am starting on diaper change. Her 7th tooth is about to come out and there are three more that are very swollen and ready. Her naps have been great for the past 2 months, maybe the walking tires her out more. We go for her 1 year check up in a few days so I will report back on her height and weight. After her check up we will hopefully have the go ahead to turn her car seat around and also to start up on regular cow's milk instead of formula. It is very hard to believe that one year has already gone by since Casey was born. There were times when minutes seemed like hours, but all in all it seems to have gone by in the blink of an eye. It has been a great year for me and James and we feel very blessed to have such a happy and healthy girl. Here are some pictures of her gifts and cake experience.

11 Months Old

April 1, 2008: Well Casey tuned 11 months old a few days ago, it is so hard to believe she is almost a year. This past month has been so much fun with her as she seems to be developing by leaps and bounds both physically and mentally. We took her to Florida for a week during our spring break and it was so nice to get outside and not have to wear a snow suit. She loved the pool and could stay in there for an hour at a time. She was very curious about the beach and was always trying to eat the sand, shells and seaweed. The day we returned home she took her first steps. She takes some every day now and can get herself to a standing position without needing something to pull up on. She still prefers to crawl 95% of the time. She has really started to make a lot of connections on things we have been doing for months. When we read books she can point out where the fish is, or where the ball is. She plays peek a boo with us where she hides herself under a blanket or behind her hands . She has four big teeth and more coming soon I think. And another big development is that after a few weeks of banging our heads against a wall b/c she suddenly stopped wanting to eat baby food we decided to try table food and she took right to it. So no more baby jars, she sits at the table with us for 3 meals a day. She loves blueberries, bananas, waffles, and yogurt for breakfast, ham, turkey, chicken, american cheese, peas, bread, meatballs. She likes when things are dunked in ketchup or red sauce (just like her mom!). She loves waving to people and things, and also growls when she sees dogs. Casey loves copying us and will laugh, cough, or sigh when we do. She also imitates the sounds you make, for instance if you say thank you, she will do her best imitation of that but without actually saying it. She is still a very good girl and we feel very lucky for that.

Where's The Duck?

February 26, 2007: Here is a short video clip of Casey's newest trick. When we ask her 'where's the duck' she will crawl to the bathroom, stand up on the tub, and pull the shower curtain aside to look at her two rubber duckies which are in there. It cracks us up.

In Good Times and In Bad...

February 20, 2008: Casey is a very fun, easy baby, so do not let this title of this blog entry throw you, but we do have our moments. Here is an update...Her top two teeth have popped out. She discovered them and now loves to grind her teeth. The noise is like nails on a chalk board. We've been working on sign language (more, milk, water, and thank you) for awhile now but she has not done it yet. The trouble for us lately has been with her eating. Previously she has eaten very well and not been picky about anything. Over the past two weeks she has started acting very cranky the minute we sit her in her high chair, and getting her to eat her solids is a huge and growing challenge. We had tried to move her up to stage 3 solids, which are more chunky, and she will have nothing to do with them. We continued to give her stage 2's but she is getting finicky about those now too. Last night I could not get her to eat a single bite of dinner, and I have a lot of tricks in my repertoire to sneak a bite in here and there. Besides those troubles, we are working on her second big cold of the winter which has not been too bad, except for one night of crying. Her mattress is propped up and her humidifier is cranking. We started her on fluoride drops because we make her bottles with bottled water. She is standing alone on her own more and more without holding on to anything and she is also cruising a lot now. Yesterday she said the word "go". We were cheering, 'go, go , go' when she was pushing her wagon down the hallway and she started to copy us. She also loves to growl right now- sometimes she does it when we see a dog which is funny, but she does it other times too. Here is a classic face she makes quite often-and you can see her teeth a little bit. You can also see her messy onsie, from her spitting mouthfuls of food back out me. She also refuses to wear a bib so that adds to the mess.

9 Month Check Up

Jan 31, 2008: Today Casey had her 9 month check up at the doctor. She weighed in at a whopping 17 pounds, 5 ounces. We were happy because that puts her in the 24th percentile, up from the 10th at her 6 month check up. She is 27 and 3/4 inches long, which is 58th percentile. Besides that the doctor said she looks very healthy.

What A Monkey

January 24, 2008: Casey just cracks us up all the time. She is into everything now. She loves going into the bathroom- she pulls up on the tub and cracks herself up by pushing the shower curtain back and looking for our feet if someone is in the shower. She also loves dipping her hands into the toilet so we have to always remember to keep the lid down now. She has also unrolled two rolls of tp into heaps on the floor. She likes looking into the refrigerator and even crawled up onto the shelves the other day (see pic). We push her around the house in her wagon or her car and she loves to go zooming really fast down the halls and will squeal with delight. She hates to wear her bib during meals now and will always pull it off which makes for a lot more laundry. Her newest thing at meal time is to take little pieces of food and "hide" them down by her seat buckles. She sleeps thru the night on a regular basis, although last night we were up for about an hour at 1:30am because she was crying. I think it it because her top two teeth are just bursting thru her gums ready to come out. In the morning she will crawl around on the bed and loves to smoosh her face into the soft blankets. Casey likes clicking her tongue and will sometimes do it to imitate me. Also we have started working on some sign language with her. She has not really done any of it yet, but it is fairly early on in the process. She is still very wiggly and changing her diaper is always a challenge. She is loving the bath and likes splashing in it now. I think we are going to sign up for a class where I can take her in the pool. She is still just crawling all over and pulls up on everything very easily. She stands on her own for very short moments, so we are just waiting for those first steps to happen any time now. Lately James has been playing the didgeridoo to her and she acts really funny when he does it. We gave her a paper towel roll to play her own (also see pic). James will blow into his and then she will make noise in her paper towel roll. It's funny. Casey goes in for her 9 month check up next week. We are very curious to see how much she weighs and how tall she is.

First Christmas

December 30, 2007: Casey has had a busy vacation so far. She went to a wedding in NH on the 22nd (see Christmas dress), then down to CT for Christmas eve with her mom's family, and up to Boston for Christmas day for a week to be with dad's family. Here are a bunch of photos from break. Casey is 8 months old today, which blows my mind how quickly the time has passed. She is a real monkey and pulling up on everything. She crawls so fast and loves to play hide and seek. You crawl around with her and get ahead and hide behind a corner, she knows you are there but gets a big laugh when you pop out. She can clap now and even does it when you say 'clap'. She is more and more vocal, loves saying 'dada' even though we don't think it is in reference to James. She has also slept thru the night the past three nights which has been amazing. We have not even heard a peep from her. Today she was pretty cranky, we think she is getting a tooth, but we'll see. Off to FL tomorrow if the snow lets us get out.

Oh Holy Night

December 20, 2007: The moment we have been waiting 7 1/2 long months for finally arrived; Casey slept through the night! We had started closing her door so we would not hear every single peep she makes but I still would have to go in to give her the paci a few times. I know she wakes up a few times but on this night she got herself back to sleep on her own each time and I never went into her room from 7:15pm-7:15am. Hooray!! More picture updates to come soon. Heading onto the holiday road for two weddings, and Christmas in CT and MA then to FL for a week.

Update

November 25, 2007: Casey is changing so much and is such a funny little person now, it amazes me. She is crawling around, pulls herself up on everything. She drools like crazy. One thing that has been very interesting is how her patterns change. One week she will do something the same everyday and I think we've got a routine going, but then one day she does not do it anymore and its gone. For instance, some weeks she will lie down for her nap and fall right asleep, this might go on for a week or two. Then one day she will cry and protest and I will have to go in to settle her down several times. When she first figured out how to stand up in her crib it took ages for her to get to sleep at nap time b/c all she wanted to do was practice her standing up skills. Changing her diaper and clothes has gotten to be a big challenge as she does not want to lie still for the two minutes it takes. She flips over and wants to crawl off of the table towards something more interesting. She is not pooping in the tub quite as often, although it still happens occasionally. She tried fruit for the first time this morning, some mushed up banana, she is not sure she likes them just yet. Last night she went to her first hockey game. It is really cold up here and she was bundled up like a pink Michelan man. She seemed to enjoy the game and followed the action around the ice with her eyes.