Surprise Photos

I love finding surprise photos on my camera. I downloaded pics from my camera card this evening and found this beauty. I have no idea who took it (probably Jeramy or my MIL...maybe one of them will tell me) and when this happened. But apparently Jillian likes jam!

2nd Trimester

Today I am 13 weeks 3 days pregnant. 1/3 of the way to having another baby. Entering my 2nd trimester. SECOND trimester. Crazy, I know!

I have had a very easy first trimester as you know. No morning sickness. The sciatica is gone. I've been tired for sure, and Jillian's bedtime is often my bedtime. Of course the last time around, fatigue was much easier to handle because I could just fall asleep whenever I wanted without worrying that some little being living in my house would jump off the couch or unravel an entire roll of toilet paper.

We had the nuchal translucency scan on Monday. I got quite nervous after they measured the nuchal fold at 2.0mm, because that was higher than I remembered with Jillian. However they reassured me that it was fine, and because I didn't believe them I later confirmed with Dr. Google that this is the case. Phew! Now I just have to wait for the blood work.

Of course the real reason we even did this screen to begin with was to get a peek at the baby who was moving around quite a bit and making things tough for the technician. She got all sorts of good pictures of their profile, feet, etc. But for some reason, this is the one they printed out this one:
I think we're going to nickname this baby, the blob. I think the blob on the right is the head and the blob on the left is the body but I can't be sure. When the gal handed me this, I was sort of dumbfounded but lacked the energy to complain. Whatever. At least the blob is measuring ahead at 13 w 5 d (and this was a couple days ago). And the heartbeat was a nice 162bpm.

Thanks for all the advice on Jillian in my last post. My aunt was actually the first to suggest Roseola on facebook. The fever didn't seem to last long enough to be a textbook case, but everything else seems to match. Regardless, the rash has been gradually going away and hopefully it will be all cleared up by Halloween.

Poor Baby

On Thursday, Jilliam started running a fever. Oh great, I thought to myself. With Jeramy gone, a sick baby was the last thing I wanted. Especially being pregnant with H1N1 going around. Well thankfully the fever was short lived and broke within 24 hours. However when I picked her up from my mother-in-law's, she had developed a rash. By Saturday morning she looked like puberty hit a decade early. It's not a good look, but she doesn't seem to mind.

The rash is worst on her face and in the diaper region, but she has these lovely red spots all over. I took her to the urgent care clinic, where the doctor was not particularly helpful. It could be something viral in which case it will likely pass in a few days, or it could be an allergic reaction so he has me giving her benadryl. So far the benadryl has not touch the rash, and it leaves me with a tired and grumpy Jillian (note to self, a drowsiness side effect doesn't always equal sleep). Luckily Jeramy surprised me by coming home Saturday night rather than Sunday, so he is here to listen to her cries and tantrums too.

While I was in DC a CD with Jillian's one-year pictures arrived. They turned out so great! If you live in the Seattle area, I highly recommend Keren Fenton who I found on a local message board for mom's. Here photography blog is here.

A Heartbeat

Yesterday was my twelve week appointment, and I was pretty nervous beforehand since it was the big heartbeat appointment. As Jeramy is off hunting in Eastern Washington this week I had to go alone, and I wasn't quite prepared to get bad news. I hate that moment when the OB is fishing around with the doppler trying to find that faint sound. After what felt like an eternity but was probably only a minute I got my relief. A solid 160 bpm. Phew!

Monday is the quad screen (or whatever the call it), and I'm pretty excited to get a peak. With Jillian I really loved that ultrasound because she actually looked like a baby as she wiggled all around. Jeramy will be back by then, and I know he is looking forward to it as he was pretty disappointed to miss my last appointment.

I must admit that I'm still in complete disbelief over being pregnant. It just seems so surreal dispite the confirmation of medical professionals over and over again that I am indeed with child. And it isn't just the lack of symptoms either. I am just really having difficulty grasping that we're going to be a family of four this spring. I've come up with several theories about this of course. Perhaps it's this whole "spontaneous" pregnancy thing that has caught me off guard. Or maybe it is that I'm so busy chasing after child #1 that I don't have as much time to ponder the wonders of being pregnant. Or perhaps it is because my last memories of being pregnant not so long ago involved being quite enormous and getting kicked by a rather active little girl. Who knows. But regardless of my disbelief, this is a blessing that I am more than happy to accept.

And every now and then throughout the day it hits me...holy crap, I'm pregnant!

Jillian Goes to Washington

Taking a one year old by yourself on a plane across the entire country should be considered a special form of torture. I would know as Jillian and I got back from my business trip to Washington, DC last night. A few months ago, my MIL and I decided it would be fun if she and Jillian tagged along on my trip to see the sights since Jeramy would be out of town hunting. The one problem was that my MIL would have to be on a different airline where I had a free flight, and I would need to bring Jillian with me as a lap child. As the little Miss began walking, I started to dread the trip envisioning a screaming toddler screaming in my lap and wanting to run around in the middle of a full plane.

It turns out that the trip would be complete chaos at times, but not for the reasons I suspected.

Getting through security was of course a circus, and trying to get on the plane with a toddler, car seat, diaper bag, and laptop back was challenging. However, the plane ride went rather well. Since neither plane was full as I had feared, I was able to get a seat for Jillian and bring her car seat. She is always much more cooperative in a car seat. Both ways she fell asleep so quickly upon take off that I'm starting to consider plane rides as a solution for those sleepless nights. After a couple hour nap she'd wake up and play happily for a little while. About 4 hours in she'd start to get restless, so I stuck her in my hip carrier and we'd hang out at the back of the plane. Apparently watching flight attendants set up drink carts is completely enthralling. Then it would be time for a cookie. Soon after we'd begin descent and the five - six hours of trying to find ways to constantly entertain a 12 month old were finally over.

When I arrived in DC, I was feeling rather good about the whole experience. When I learned that my checked bag did not arrive due to a flood in the basement of Sea-Tac airport I was less thrilled. I had packed my carry on bags light since I would be by myself, so I had little for myself and Jillian besides the clothes on our back, a few diapers, and a bit of formula. My bag wouldn't get there for another 36 hours, so at 11:30pm at night I was at the drug store down the street from the hotel stocking up on baby essentials. The next morning, instead of seeing the sights, I had to catch a Taxi to a local mall in order to pick up clothes for Jillian and myself since I couldn't very well wear jeans to the conference starting that afternoon.

And that wouldn't have been so bad, but I got about three hours of sleep on the night we arrived. You see some kids next door decided that it would be a whole lot of fun to throw a party in their room. Considering that my work was footing a bill of $300 a night at the Ritz Carlton, I was not so thrilled about that. I called the front desk at 1am who came up, and they shut off the music. However I could still hear shouting. I went next door and asked them to quiet down twice explaining the sleeping one year old in my room. Apparently I was not persuasive (aka bitchy) enough. So at 2:30am I marched down to the front desk where management was not very happy to hear about the continued disruption of my sleep. After threatening to kick them out, the punk kids (don't I sound old?) finally got the hint. And I got my room free of charge for the night...so I guess my employer can thank me for the savings.

And just when I thought my problems were over, I discovered my debit card was missing and had to cancel it. Thank goodness nobody had charged anything on it inappropriately.

But wait, there is more. When I opened my suitcase this morning I discovered that an entire can of formula exploded over the contents. It is a big white powdery mess. I'm still trying to get that little mess cleaned up.

I know the trip probably sounds like hell, but really it wasn't all bad. My MIL and Jillian had a great time playing, and the conference I attended was excellent. It is admittedly nice to be back home though.

Now if only Jeramy would hurry back from hunting because this single parenthood business is for the birds. He'll probably be gone until Sunday afternoon though.

1 Year Appointment and Stuff

Right after Jillian was born, I clearly recall the fear that consumed me at the prospect of taking her to the doctor (or anywhere in public for that matter). Mostly my fear revolved around whether she would cry the entire time, as she seemed to cry 20 out of 24 hours every day. Now I know that taking a newborn to the doctor is nothing compared to a one year old bursting with energy and destruction. In the past she has liked doctor visits because that meant attention which she is all about. However stranger anxiety has since set in making the whole experience so much more fun.

Jeramy had taken her to the appointment, and I arrived just after it began (thankfully after the 30 minute stay in the waiting room). When I found her she was crying quite pathetically on the scale. We then took her back to the waiting room where she proceeded to tear up the tissue sheet on the exam table piece by piece while screaming (her happy scream) as loud as possible. We tried letting her wander around, but those draws and cabinets proved far to interesting to let her stay on the ground for long. Then it came time for Dr. M's exam, which led to the unhappy screaming and was mostly performed while she was clinging to me. He deemed her a precocious child and warned us that toddler temper tantrums would develop early with this one (ummmm we noticed).

As usually she is perfectly average except for that head:
Weight: 21 lbs 5 oz
Height: 29 inches
Head circ: 19.25 inches

In other news, great advances have been made related to talking. In addition to yay, yeah, dog "dah", daddy "dada" and touchdown "tuh duh" she is finally saying something that sounds something like mama! Finally!

On the pregnancy front, 1st trimester has happily been symptom free until now. First, I've developed the itchiest boobs on the planet. Just like with Jillian I never have gotten sore boobs, just super itchy ones. Do you know of an appropriate way to itch your chest in public? I don't. It also seems that I'm developing some sciatica. It seems a bit soon for that given that this baby is about the size of a grape, but for the past few days I've had this horrible shooting pain in my lower left back/butt. It hurts like hell, and of course there isn't much I can do about it. *sigh* At least I'm not spending first tri puking my brains out. Nancy asked if I've began showing yet. No, but I'm curious to see when I'll start showing this time around. In my favor would be having two pregnancies so close together as ladies always seem to show earlier with the 2nd. Going against me is that I quite a bit of tummy leftover from being pregnant with Jillian. However, if people want to pretend that my tummy fat is a baby bump, I am not about to argue!

Pumpkin Patch

We took Jillian on her first trip to the pumpkin patch today. I'm not sure who had more fun...her or her daddy! You can probably see why she is such a Daddy's girl. I don't know what I'm going to do with her when Jeramy goes hunting in another week.