Goodbye Previa, Hello Third Trimester!

Well, it was a long, looong 8 weeks of waiting and scary Google research since our 20 week ultrasound when I found out I had a centered placenta previa. That's just way too much time for a worrier like me to be alone with her imagination and the internet.

Our 28 week followup ultrasound showed that it has cleared cometely! They didn't even need to measure how far away it was. It moved up to my front-ish, left side which sounds about right, because I rarely if ever feel her move or kick around that area.

Our little girl had herself folded up in a Frank breech position at the sonogram. Nothing to worry about yet. There's still plenty of time for her to flip head down. 

Here she is; toes to head:

Here are my bump pictures from weeks 26, 27 and 28:
(I think the shirt makes it hard to really see growth, but I can assure you it's growing rapidly.)

Now for a little catching up on Lily...

We had a fun time trick-or-treating with some school/neighborhood friends.

Her Sofia the First 3rd birthday party was a hit.

Thanksgiving was nice and relaxing.

               

Now we are preparing for Christmas, which Lily really understands this year. She is so excited! Although she gets the whole Santa brings gifts to good kids thing, it hasn't really curbed her little attitude. She's as stubborn as ever. Actions and their consequences are still something we are working hard to get her to understand, remember and take into account before she does or says something. Nevertheless, Christmas is absolutely magical with a 3 year old in your house :)

Just last weekend we went to a classmate's birthday party. It was fireman themed and so much fun!

It is highly unlikely that I'll post again before Christmas or New Years, so Happy Holidays everyone!

Bumpdate: Weeks 20 - 25

The bump has experienced a major transformation since I last posted pictures at 19 weeks.
Here are weeks 20, 21 & 22:

And 23, 24 & 25:

She is moving around a lot more lately. She still has her quiet days that make me nervous, but even when she's being lazy I can still feel her squirm here and there when I jiggle her a little. She is most active at the very end of the day when I crawl into bed around 10 pm. Her movements seem more subtle than Lily who packed a strong punch and loved to curl/bunch herself up on my right side making my stomach completely lopsided. This little girl feels more sprawled out. I think she is, more often than anything, laying transverse in a cradle-like position with the occasional flip to vertical for fun.

I have a regular OB appointment on Monday along with my glucose test for gestational diabetes. I "failed" the one-hour screen when I was pregnant with Lily but passed the three-hour test which is really common. Nevertheless, I'd rather just pass it the first time this go-round. We'll see.

Still counting the days til our next ultrasound at 28 weeks...2.5 weeks to go.

Lauren

Pregnancy Brain: It's Real Y'all

So I went to the grocery store and then to pick up Lily from school yesterday. About an hour worth of running around. It wasn't until I got home and saw two different shoes on the laundry room floor that I looked down at my own feet...

Talk about pregnancy brain!

Sisters!

It's a girl!

Kevin and I are so excited to be blessed with another little girl. I absolutely love that we get to raise sweet sisters who will hopefully grow into best friends. Kevin absolutely loves that we won't have to buy any (or very many) new things :) Always the frugal one, he is. But for real, he is just as excited to have a second girl as I am.He called it from the beginning.

The anatomy ultrasound went well as far as our little girl's growth and health are concerned. She is 11 ounces and her various measurements are all on target. All organs and limbs are present and in working order, and her "gender photo" was clear as day.

In addition to all of this good news, we were told that I currently have placenta previa, a condition where the placenta has attached directly over the cervix. This condition requires a c-section and could possibly mean bed rest later on in the pregnancy and an early delivery which scares me tremendously. However, as the uterus grows the placenta may very well move out of the way. I'm told and have read that a good portion of women diagnosed with placenta previa at 20 weeks end up with a clear cervix by the end of their pregnancies. Here's hoping I'm part of that portion. We have another ultrasound at 28 weeks to check for any movement. I welcome any encouraging words from women who have experienced this condition or any condition that required an early delivery.

Back to fun stuff...

Her profile looks different to me than Lily's, so I'm super excited to see what this little face looks like when she's born!

Baby Girl Wood #2 @ 20 weeks

Lillian Carys Wood @ 18 weeks

Finally, you may have noticed I keep referring to her as "her" "she" or "baby girl" but not by name. We have not settled on a name yet, but we do have some favorites. We may take these names to the delivery room and decide when we see her or we may pick one some time between now and then. Who knows! I'll leave you with a couple more photos from our ultrasound...

Weeks 14 through 19

I'm 19 weeks along today. I had a regular OB visit yesterday, and baby's heart beat has now settled down to about where it will stay for the rest of this pregnancy - a healthy 143 bpm.


I've been able to feel teeny tiny movements for a while now - a very different experience than when I was pregnant with Lily. I didn't feel her move at all until I was almost 20 weeks! The first time I felt this baby was all the way back at 12 weeks. It was like a little burst of bubbles all in one spot. I didn't feel anything for a while after that, but around 14 weeks when I entered the second trimester I began feeling nudges and rolls here and there. The movements are still not strong or consistent but they're definitely there. Baby kicks are by far my favorite part of pregnancy. There's nothing like it.

As promised, I have been keeping up with bump photos this time around. The first set below is from weeks 14, 15 & 16 and the second set is from weeks 17, 18 & 19.

We have our anatomy ultrasound next Wednesday (10/16). Hopefully in addition to seeing a healthy baby, we will find out the gender of our new little one! We are very excited. I have absolutely no inclination toward what we're having, so it will be a total surprise either way.

All About Lily

So..major updates on Lily from the past 7 months include:
- Talking! Lily's vocabulary exploded and the way she strings words together is impressive and, at times, hilarious.
- Favorite activities now include coloring and painting, both of which she is getting better and better at; more complex games like puzzles and mazes; big kid activities on the playground; pretend play like taking care of sick baby dolls, cooking "food" for us, putting stuffed animals in time out. Lily has also just started dance class, ballet and tap, and she LOVES it!
- Obsessions - Sofia the First is #1 in Lily's world right now. It's her first real obsession. She loved Elmo for a long time, but her interest in Sofia is more involved. She can relate almost anything back to her. She has one dress that looks nothing like Sofia's except that it's purple, but she refers to it as her Sofia dress simply because it's the same color. Lily also loves Cinderella and still enjoys the Sesame Street crew.
- Silly Lily: She went through a phase recently where she would wake up from sleeping and tell me that she slept like a _______. Every day was something different - a princess, a mouse, an owl, a camel (my personal favorite). She also distinguishes between babies, little girls and big girls. Most of the time she insists she is a little girl, but every now and then she'll claim to be a baby or a big girl depending on what she is trying to get out of us.
- Potty training: Lily was amazingly easy to daytime potty train. We waited until she seemed ready (sometime between 2 and 2.5 years old), started with a training toilet and graduated to a toddler seat on the regular toilet. She still wears a pull up for nap and bed times, but we haven't even begun to work on sleep potty training. We'll tackle it soon, but right now we're enjoying our big girl's accomplishments so far.

Ready to dance

Climbing High

That's right, they're all in timeout

Magnetic marble maze

Big kid swing

Pretend play with her little girls

Mad coloring skills

We're Back!

What better way to end a 7 month blogging hiatus than with happy news? Kevin, Lily and I will welcome a new member to our crew in early March! I will be 15 weeks along tomorrow. This year has been full of ups and downs (a lot of downs), but this little one makes it all so worth it.

Here is the little bean at about 9 weeks
HR - 188 bpm

And 12 weeks
HR - 174 bpm

 

And here I am at 14 weeks

HR - 165 bpm 

The bump popped out a lot quicker this time! I have been using the Be Bands to extend my regular jeans for a few weeks now, and I don't remember having to use them with Lily until week 17 or so.

I'm really going to try to take more photos of my myself during this pregnancy. I was terrible about taking pictures when I was pregnant with Lily. I always wished I'd taken more, but I became particularly disappointed once I began to show this time around as I have nothing to visually compare it to yet. 

Our official due date is March 4 - a Pisces! Supposedly, Scorpios (Lily) and Pisces are compatible and get along well. Wouldn't that be nice?

I'll post more on Lily soon. Poor girl deserves some mention after 7 months :)

Fisheye Lily

My sister got us a 3-in-1 lens for the iPhone for Christmas. I upgraded to the iPhone 5 yesterday and had a lot of fun playing with our new toy :)

Fisheye Lily

Catching up to 2013

After a long, long hiatus it seems the best way to catch up is through pictures. So, here we go...

Halloween: Lily was Gossie for Halloween this year - red boots and all!

 Turning 2!

Fun times :)

Christmas!