What's New

A few updates, since it's been a while...

I had my monthly prenatal appointment this morning which included my Glucose Tolerance Test to check for Gestational Diabetes. All seemed to go well. I'm almost back at my pre-pregnancy weight and my belly is measuring one centimeter shy of my number of weeks along, which is just fine. Pink Floyd has a strong heartbeat on the cusp of the upper 120's to 130, and she is currently head down with her little bottom sitting to the right. I now know those rolling movements across the top of my belly several inches above my belly button (or "boo-tee" as Adeline calls it) are feet ;-). She's actually laying on the opposite side that Adeline preferred. When I push the lump jetting out to my right this time instead of feet I know it's a little tushie :) - at least for now. Now that I'm in my third trimester I'm already due to start visiting every other week! I can't believe it! If I have more than 4 Braxton-Hicks contractions in an hour I'm supposed to call in (and follow some other instructions to get hydrated and rest). At the top of the to-do list is still to find the time to get over to the birthing center for a tour. We can't take a scheduled tour because they are only on Wednesday evenings a couple times a month and Alan has youth group. The only other option is to call them when we think we might be able to stop by and they let us know if they're busy or not and have the time to walk us through! [**As I type this Adeline is feeding Daddy fishies and trying to stick her sippy cup of milk in his mouth. Such a good sharer :)**] I'm beginning to get more and more excited about the arrival of little Pink Floyd and more and more excited about being able to share her real name with the world, which is not 100% decided upon but pretty darn close :). I'm working on my Bradley exercises and relaxing and take the uncomfortable Braxton-Hicks contractions as an opportunity to pretend it's labor and consciously relax all the muscles in my body. For having done this before there are still so many unknowns, and being in a new place with new midwives and a new birthing place makes things just as unfamiliar as they were the first time. It's like having baby #1 a second time :).

Anywho, enough about me... Adeline seems to get bigger everyday. I continue to be astounded by all she understands and is able to communicate back to me. She says, or at least tries to say, EVERYTHING! Just today at lunch Alan offered her some of his tuna saying, "Do you want some tuna?" She'd never even heard the word tuna before and she promptly replied, "No tuna," clear as day. She knows a whole host of animals and their sounds (cat, dog, monkey, cow, duck, frog....), is becoming a pro at her clipo blocks, can complete her farm animal puzzle and put the shapes through her shape sorter, and continues to add to her phrase vocabulary daily. We're starting to do some intense work on "I Love You" ;-). Everyday she mentions other family members she hasn't seen in weeks or months and remembers that she's seen their pictures on our camera. She loves the scarf her Grandma made for her (and says, "Scarf" quite well too!) and turns almost everything into a phone and/or a hat (including her food, much to her parents' chagrin). She is also getting very good at saying her name. She started that about a month ago, but it is starting to get much clearer. She also can pick the letter "A" out of just about anywhere and knows it "stands for" her name. We sit at the dinner table together for our meals, now that we're all able to be home and together for dinner most nights and even occasionally some lunches. She sits in her booster seat and eats at the table with Alan and me, no longer off of a tray, and can manage forks and spoons with ease now. She loves to sing. Some of her favorites are "Wii Pooh" (Winnie the Pooh), "Baa baa" (Baa Baa Black Sheep), "Ah-C's" (ABC's), "Row Row Boat" (Row Your Boat), and - my personal favorite - "Ooh Boo-Tee" which is the belly button song from the Boynton Belly Button Book. It has a real tune but we don't know it so we made one up. She loves her "boo-tee". I think it's funny she calls it that because she knows how to say "belly" and "button". I guess it's just its own thing! She also knows lots of body parts - from hair to neck to back to toes - and is getting better at "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes". She also loves to bounce like Tigger :). She really does and says so much more than this too but it's a lot to type!! Hopefully this is enough to satisfy our long-distance readers at least :). Oh, and the plug has been all but forgotten :).

We have a busy and exciting couple of weeks coming up. Today Alan's sister Beckie is coming to town and will stay with us tonight. We haven't seen her since... hm, actually at the moment I can't think of the last time we saw Beckie! We're glad she's passing through on her way to her new job. Papa is coming to Michigan for a few days this week so we get to see Amma and Papa probably on Tuesday. The week after that we're heading down to Cincinnati to visit Nathan, Johanna and William for a couple days. So we'll finish out February with lots of fun visits with people we love.

I think that's all for now. Again, sorry for the lack of belly pix. We took some at week 27, I just haven't gotten around to uploading them yet. Maybe we'll take more this week and try to get them all posted soon.

That's all from our neck of the woods for now. Happy Valentine's Day to all :).