One Month...

Today Mika and I headed to her one month doctor appointment. My darling Nanny stayed home with the big girls - I'm not sure I could have managed all three girls at the doctor's office. Thank you Nanny!

** Speaking of Nanny, she turns 70 this month and we are having a surprise party for her! I'm so excited :)

Sorry for that little interruption.... Mika was great while we waited. Then we got called back. Apparently we've given our child a name that people have a hard time pronouncing. It NEVER occurred to me that we would have to tell people how to pronounce it, but since she was born we are constantly asked if it is like Mike-a or Meek-a. It is like Mike-a :) Crazy!

Little Miss now weighs in at a hefty 9 pounds 1 ounce. My biggest baby at one month :) We had to see a different doctor at the clinic since our doctor is on maternity leave (she just had the CUTEST baby girl!). He said she was VERY healthy!!! I love hearing those words. As a mom, I feel like I sometimes need to hear from other people that I'm doing things right - my family tells me enough, but a little outside confirmation is good for me.

Now I need some advice/opinions/etc. This doctor told me that since I'm solely breastfeeding that I need to give Mika a vitamin D supplement. I was never instructed to do this with the other girls and I breastfed them as well. I realize that different doctors do things differently, but I wanted to ask all of you moms out there - did you supplement vitamin D while you were breastfeeding? I guess I just like to know how other people do things... I do plan on doing some research before I start the vitamin supplement.

We concluded the appointment with an unexpected shot. I thought the shots didn't come until 2 months, but I guess we all know how well my memory works!! Baby girl did great - of course she cried during the shot but she quickly fell asleep and is still sleeping!!

I'm so proud of my baby girl and I can't believe that we are 1/12 the way through her first year! :) I realize that I don't have any pictures of her to share.... I really have been bad about taking pictures since I've been home with all 3 girls by myself. My focus is on making sure we all survive the day, therefore the camera doesn't get much use. I'll try to get better. I know I need to.

Happy Weekend!!!

She's On Her Way....

This will be a post devoted to my third baby girl. :) I don't spend enough time talking about her, on here or in person... so here you go Miss M!


Today I had a doctor appointment. I am 31+ weeks. All is well - weight gain is fine (almost 20 pounds from the time I got pregnant but if you factor in me losing 10 in the first trimester, I've "gained" 30!). BP is normal - yay! The insane pain is just something I have to live with - I had already come to that conclusion.... apparently each pregnancy is harder and harder on your body. 


I am having a lot of contractions... in fact, I had a good one while in with the doctor. We both laughed about it because the belly got all kinds of hard just as she was about to check for the heartbeat. Baby Girl's heartbeat was 140.... so that's good. 


And then Dr. C blew my mind when she said "I want to schedule your c-section today". We picked February 4, 2010! YIKES! It seemed so weird to get to pick the day my baby is born.... although I know I don't really get to pick that, just the last possible day for her to be born! :) I called the hubby when I left and told him and I think he was just as surprised that we did that today as I was. Usually, I joke that the appointments are so repetitive and nothing exciting ever happens (not that I want anything exciting, believe me I like the boring appointments) but not today! 


I asked what the chances were for me to go into labor early since my water broke 4 weeks early with P and 3 weeks early with L. Dr. C said it was highly likely that I will go into labor before Feb. 4 and that I should be prepared for a January baby..... I am (kind of!). 


She then surprised me again when she said one more appointment in 2 weeks then we will start every week.... That is early! She wants to start checking me and monitoring more closely since I will likely go into labor early! YIKES!!!! I'm almost to my weekly appointments. I was not prepared to hear that today! 


All in all, it was a good appointment. Now I just need to get done with all of my Christmas stuff so I can get to work on all of my baby things! I have a thing or two to buy and A LOT of clothes to wash!


Hope you all have a wonderful Monday.... I am planning on taking some Christmasy pictures to post up this week. Hopefully I can get it done!


Christmas Countdown : 11 days!

Thursday Thoughts...

There is a noise that we hear frequently in our home.... it is the sound of a bedroom doorknob turning. Big Sis likes to wake us up to that noise each morning. So when I heard it this morning, I really thought nothing of it.... until I looked at the clock. 5:30a.m. WHAT? Too early, even for me. She came and I got her all snuggled into bed with me (Hubby was at work early today) and I told her it was too early to get up. So we both went back to sleep.... ahh I love having that little girl snuggle me. She is so sweet. She actually slept in our bed until I got all ready (showered, dressed, hair fixed, make-up on) and then we came out for breakfast.

On the way to the kitchen, we heard Little Sis waking up so we got her and headed to the table. Little Sis has been IN LOVE with her baby dolls lately so she had one with her in her bed last night. And she didn't want to put it down. And as a result, this is how she attempted to eat breakfast...

She finally put the baby beside her in the high chair and took her passy out. She was cracking me up so I had to take her picture! Don't you love her morning hair! Hehehe....

After breakfast we got dressed and all fixed up. The girls went to Nana's house today while I went to the doctor. Have I mentioned that I'm loving Fall and my girls' Fall wardrobes? Be expecting pictures because each day I think they look too cute not to take pictures of them. Here is Big Sis sporting her "Big Sister" shirt and a ponytail - she is very proud to be able to have a ponytail!

I have no idea what is up with her smile.... she's crazy!

And Little Sis actually got to wear a big girl bow today! YAY! I managed to get a little twig of hair and clip a bow to it... and I think she looks awfully cute! You can bet I'll be putting more bows in her hair now. :)

All was well at the doctor.... everything looks fine with Baby M. I got a flu shot... my first one ever! I hate shots.... seriously, I'm a big baby. But this one was surprisingly painless. Woo Hoo! I got to hear Baby's heartbeat - love that sound :) And Dr. C said she looked over the u/s and saw nothing of concern to her.... other than she feels bad for Hubby because he is incredibly outnumbered in our house! :)

I hope you all have a fantastic Thursday! I'll leave you with one final picture from this morning...

"No more pictures. Please, Mom!"

Tests, Operation, and a Surprise....

Here is the background. Thursday afternoon I noticed Baby Girl was warm. Temp 101ish. Motrin and bed. I was up in the middle of the night to give her more medicine as her temperature was still up. This has been ongoing since Thursday afternoon. The tylenol and motrin get rid of the fever but it comes right back as soon as the meds wear off. Then Sunday night I noticed her lips turning purple and her arms and legs were too. They were cold to the touch even though she still had a fever. We got her warmed up and gave her some more meds and put her to bed. Needless to say, Momma didn't sleep well (and hasn't slept well since Thursday night). So Monday morning I called the pediatrician and made an appointment. Thinking this would be no big deal, just a quick look over and make sure there wasn't anything wrong, I took Big Sis with me. Oh how wrong I was....

The doc wanted to do a blood draw. She then decided we needed a chest x-ray and possibly we would be doing a urine test. So the three of us sat in the waiting area for blood and x-ray. Blood draw came.... Baby cried. Big Sis didn't know what to do, so she just patted Little Sis on the back and curiously watched.

Then came x-ray. Since I'm pregnant I couldn't go help. So they took her away, which caused Big Sis to cry (she's pretty protective of her sister). After a few minutes we heard the unmistakable cry coming from the x-ray room. Baby Girl was NOT HAPPY! A few minutes later they brought a sobbing baby girl back to me. We went back to the exam room to wait for our results.

Chest x-ray was good. No problems there. Blood count was not perfect. Her white blood cell count was elevated and it caused the doc to think it may be a bacterial infection rather than a virus so she wanted to do a urine test. Now.... if you have never had a urine test run on your baby you may not know what happens. Sadly, this isn't my first experience with a baby urine test. They can't pee on command so how do you get the pee pee out? By catheter.... so sad. But Little Sis survived (not quietly.... she screamed A LOT). Urine came back fine so the doctor decided to call it a virus for now. Keep treating it the same and hopefully it will go away. If the fever is still present Wednesday or Thursday.... bring her back in. Got it!

Thankfully, we woke up this morning with NO FEVER!!!! Praise the Lord! Back to normal!! And in case you were wondering, Big Sis was awesome the entire time we were at the doctor's office. She was such a help to me and I am SO PROUD of her!

Now.... we are in day 2 of "Operation: Get Big Sis Ready for Mother's Day Out". I realize some moms may think I'm crazy, but I am very concerned with how she does with MDO. She has never gone to MDO or DayCare or stayed with anyone who wasn't family. I think this is great... that we've made it 2+ years and have been fortunate enough to keep her with us most of the time. However, this is presenting me with a problem as MDO gets closer. One problem - naptime. We've always had a scheduled naptime (flexible, but I try to keep to a schedule). However, I've always said as long as she plays quietly in her room during naptime then it doesn't bother me if she doesn't sleep. There is no playing at MDO during naptime... she needs to know how to lay down and rest.

Well, lately this has become a problem so Mission #1: Naptime = lay quietly in your bed. Yesterday's nap was not a success but today has been a different story!!! YAY!

We also have a lot of things to do to prepare for her to be away from us one day a week (I know how crazy this sounds, but it is an adjustment for all of us and I prefer to be overly prepared for EVERYTHING). Hopefully we can get naptime under control so we can focus on discipline and all the other things that I have to have figured out before next month.

And finally.... I got a surprise on my doorstep yesterday.... are you ready for this??????

Oh yeah baby.... that's my giveaway package that I won at Natalie's Blog!!!! She sure does know how to host a giveaway! This made my day. Check out all the great things in the package (and there are still more things to come).

The girls both LOVED the Sophie the Giraffe.... They thought she was so cute and her squeak is precious! And Big Sis has had a blast with the See What I See game! She has played with it constantly since I gave it to her. So great!

The husband and I have argued about whether or not the swaddle blanket and the sweater and booties are gender neutral since I showed him everything I got. I have a feeling this will be an ongoing discussion if we have a baby boy :) I guess we will find out in about a month!!!!

Ok... I think this is enough for one day! I don't want to overload the readers. :) I have a lot going on, so hopefully I'll have some good posts for you all this week.

Come on Mom...

I'm sure this is what went through my little Doll's head all day today! We had her one-year checkup today which is always a fun time! Her appointment was at 10:30 this morning. She goes down for a morning nap around 8:30 or 9:00 and usually sleeps until 10:00 or 10:30. Well not today. I had to wake her up from her slumber. Aww come on Mom! Side note: I love to wake her up because she is so snuggly (she's a pretty snuggly little girl all the time, but especially when she is sleepy!) but I hate to wake her from a good sleep. My girl likes her sleep! This is what I found when I went to wake her up this morning....

She has this little snuggly blanket that is hot pink minky-like on one side and zebra satin-like on the other. SHE LOVES IT! Seriously, if she happens to see it laying on the floor, she will stop what she is doing and go over to it and lay her head down on it. I think it is absolutely precious! When she goes to sleep she rubs it on her face... so cute. So this is how she was napping today.... with the blankie over her eyes. Ahhh is there anything cuter? I guess it was too light in her room! :)

So I got her up, got her dressed and the girls and I headed out. We dropped Big Sis off at Nana's. She was so very excited to spend the morning with her Nana! And Little Sis and I headed to the Doc... Surprisingly, we didn't have to wait long and were only at the office for a little less than an hour - I'm amazed!

We did weight check (21 pounds) and height (31 1/2 inches). How does that translate? Tall and skinny! She is 50th percentile for weight and off the chart for height (well over 95th percentile which is above the lines on the chart). Anyway... Daddy is pretty excited because he thinks at least one of our girls will play in the WNBA - we shall see! :) If my kids are anything like me they will be Mathletes rather than Athletes!

Everything looked good and Dr. W was so proud of her. They just laughed and talked together... it was a good visit.... until the dreaded shots. YIKES! 4 shots today which means two in each thigh. Aww come on mom! Owie! She did not appreciate that and cried so very hard. But Mommy came prepared with a juice cup, a passy and the beloved blankie!

After we were done we headed to pick up Big Sis... Nana invited us to stay for lunch and we did. She had made my favorite - Chicken and Dumplins.... ahh thank you Nana! We had a good visit. Now we are home and napping. It has been a busy morning but a good one! I really love days like these!!

Oh My Word...

That is what my lovely daughter would say. (That's her favorite phrase, by the way). I went to the doctor today.... and the appointment took 3 hours! Seriously.... 3 hours. I knew I would be there for a while, but really???? 3 hours???!!! Oh my word!

Other than that, everything went great! I got there and filled out the remaining paperwork (my husband made so much fun of me because I asked him probably 5 questions on one page... including one about my last period! HA!). After a while we went back for the ultrasound. It was great.... we saw our little peanut (you know there is a reason they call them that.... they look EXACTLY like a nut!). Heartbeat was great, although I can't remember what it was now. :) I'll have to ask the hubby when he gets home. We saw the little one wiggling some which was precious. Baby measured perfectly - 8 weeks 6 days. And there is only one in there (whew!).... I had been so worried I was having twins.... I'm not!

Then I waited..... waited.... oh and waited some more. Husband went back to work and then they finally called me back for bloodwork. Five vials of blood and a sugar cookie later I was back in the waiting room waiting on the nurse to come get me to go see the doctor.

I LOVE my nurse. She is so great! We chatted and laughed... I peed in a cup, she took my bp (good), then she sent me to the room to get halfway undressed..... I was so hoping I could get out of it since I was just there in February, but no such luck!

The doctor came in and we had a good chat about this pregnancy.... we both agree that a c-section is the right plan this time. She explained some of the possible complications if I were to go the other way and while they are maybe not statistically very likely, they are very serious for both me and baby. So we decided c-section and if I don't go into labor early (which I probably will) she will schedule it for 7-10 days before the due date which is FEBRUARY 12, 2010.

Next appointment is 4 weeks.... and that about sums it up.

Different note: We are having serious potty training success! This is one proud Mommy!!! I really think that my girl just needed to be the one to make the potty decision instead of me pushing her. She's doing great and I love it!

And have I told you how much my little Doll loves food! I made spaghetti tonight and I had spooned it onto our plates and set them on the table to cool.... well the Doll saw the food and started screaming. I mean serious crying. The girl loves food and hates to see it but not be able to gobble it up. She actually eats better than her big sister.... it amazes me every day!

Sorry I don't have any pictures - we did get an ultrasound picture but our scanner is all kinds of crazy so I didn't even try to mess with that. Maybe I'll scan it someday. :)

Hope you all have a wonderful day!