Sat, Apr 1, 20066:25 PMSo we had our big U/S, and we are definately having….

a boy

OR a girl!

The tech wouldn’t even venture a guess. Baby kept his/her feet together the whole time. Odd how they can check on the spine, the heart, the kidneys (which aren’t even the size of a pea) but can’t tell us if I can start buying blue.

I’m doing ok with it now, but I sure was bummed at first. The baby IS healthy & perfect. Everything else is going well too. The tech also got a due date of August 3 instead of the 12th, but we’re not changing it. The baby weighs about 1 pound and I’ve gained 9. That’s less than at this point with Aviana- I ended up gaining 40 with her, but I blame some of that on the pre-e (certainly not on the ice cream snacks).

We had a busy, busy week this week, but took the day off today. Meaning we had a pajama day. we went outside several times, even though it was gloomy, it was was warmish. SO looking forward to pleasant weather.

We’re working on potty training with Aviana. It’s hit & miss (mostly miss) but I’m optimistic. She likes to sit on her potty now and will go in it about once a day. I read this great book “Early Start Potty Training”, and our goal is to have her in ‘bundies’ by the time the new baby arrives. Bundies is what the little girl I watch once a week calls panties & I just love it!

One more comment before I go watch a movie w/ DH:
Aviana has been pointing at herself and saying “toooo” when she wants something too. So precious are these moments.Tue, Apr 4, 200612:55 PMAmong the Chagga of Tanzania, Africa, there is a saying, “Pay attention to the pregnant woman! There is no one more important than she.”
Sun, Apr 9, 20061:33 AMInsomnia. Great.

Today was an all around red letter day for Baby A. She had a dry diaper this afternoon after coming inside from seeing our new calf (“af” she says over and over)and then went pee-pee in the potty.

She fell asleep in her high chair, something I never thought she would do, and proceeded to take a 2 1/2 hour nap. I was able to work on the MOPS newsletter & take a nap myself!

She didn’t cry when we dropped her off in the church nursery tonight for the first time in her whole precious life.

She is STILL ‘talking’ about the zoo trip we took when we were in DesMoines. Oddly, her favorite things to talk about are the “ha-ma-mous” hippopotomous and the “affe” giraffe (not to be confused with calf- when she says giraffe, she generally puts her hands in a choke hold on her neck & when she’s talking about calf, she moos gratuitiously)which were both not live animals, but statues. She also says “manimals” and wants “More”. Luckily it’s free week here at the Niabi Zoo, so I have decreed that we will go twice this week.

We have pretty much decided on some names (first names at least) for Baby B, but haven’t decided if we are going to share them with the general populace. So there.

Baby B is making it uncomfortable to sleep. Last night, I slept on the couch. The reasons were actually twofold- Baby A would NOT go back to bed after awaking in the night & Kevin was getting frustrated & had to get up at five, so I took over & lay with her on the couch. The other reason is I HATE sleeping on my side, but I can’t breathe on my back. At least on the couch there is support on my back while I’m on my side & it sort of feels like I am on my back. I hope I don’t have to sleep on the couch the next four months–the noises are funny out here & I miss my comfy bed. It doesn’t matter right now anyway because I got back up after lying sleepless for an hour.

Also, I can feel Baby B boppin’ around in there all the time & even cooler, so can Kevin. Plus I actually saw my stomach “pop” for the first time when s/he kicked.

I’ve been doing some research on VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). It looks positive, but I am really nervous about labor this time. With Aviana, during the pregnancy, I was excited and even looking forward to the labor. But this time, I am frightened. Pray for me, will ya?

I guess that’s all the late night ramblin’ you’re gonna get; check ya later!Tue, Apr 11, 20067:11 PMA blustery day in Iowa! Aviana & I played outside for a while and then we just went into the playhouse to hang out on the floor & get out of the wind.

Our chickies are growing so much! We just got them last Wed, and they already have lost their downy wings & have real feathers & real feather tails. We are doing an Easter-y spring theme in our music class & so we took some in yesterday- all survived the toddler manhandling. Aviana kept going over to get and carry the box all during class. She knew they were HER chickies. When she talks about them, she puts her forefinger to her thumb in a ‘talking’ motion, says in an extremely high pitched voice “peeeeee”, and discusses at length about how they “eat” “wa-wa” (water) & poo-poo.

We went to our local zoo yesterday too & it was a fabulous day. We went with my friend Anne (pronounced Ana) and her son Benjamin. It could not have been more perfect. Well, I guess if our zoo had a giraffe & hippopotomous it would have been.

Grandma watched Aviana this morning so I could go shopping. Leisurely. To buy things like shoes (a cute little sandal pair with a kitten heel), and picture frames, (pictured in photo album) and groceries. And Aviana went pee-pee for her in the potty for the first time! I’m quite pleased with her progress & even bought her bundies today-although they are HUGE, because the smallest size they had was 2T.

I appreciate it when you, oh faithful reader, take the time to write in the guest book or comment on a picture. It’s wonderfully vindicating to know that I do have people out there!Tue, Apr 18, 20068:24 PMMuch like the little red button on the thingie you stick in a turkey, my belly button has POPPED! Just yesterday it was flat against my skin, and today- Nope!

Kevin & I were discussing Aviana’s personality- specifically her intensity; her ability to be so fiercely angry and minutes later, laughing just as ferociously. He said it’s because he & I are so opposite, we ended up with a baby that has “hybred vigor”–more than the average of the two. That’s what happens when you crossbreed. 😉Thu, Apr 27, 20068:49 PMMidwife appointment.

I was woefully unprepared and was chastised by both the receptionist (who made sure to write it on my ‘slip’, I hand the nurse who in turn gives it to the midwife) and the nurse. Kim, my midwife, didn’t care. I was supposed to have taken this atrocious tincture to test for gestational diabetes AND brought in a sample of my FMU (first morning urine) but forgot both. They’ll get over it.

The baby is great. Fundus (the top of one’s uterus) measured textbook perfect. Heartbeat 140 bpm, which, Kim said, would mean a boy if there were any credence to the old wives’ tales, which there isn’t. I’ve gained 15 pounds now. And most reassuringly, we had a nice long chat about birth and what to expect and how she & the other two midwives operate. I have about 17 books on childbirth on hold at the library, so perhaps I’ll feel even better after I read them.
Fri, Apr 28, 20065:00 PMAll I want to do is go upstairs and watch this adorable (I hope) video we checked out at the library today- Baby Animals Just want to have Fun-have a snack of popcorn, cheese and apples and snuggle with my daughter. But can I? NOOOOOO! I told Aviana that as soon as she picked up her blocks we could go up and do the afore mentioned fun things (& She LOVES popcorn, cheese-especially cheese, and apples) and that was an hour and a half ago. I’m trying to be patient. I even picked up half of them with her, twice! as she assisted by half-heartedly putting one or two into the bag. Then she dumped them all out again.
My stubborn stubborn girl.

Even though I have a bear of a headache, we had a decently fun day today. We went to a garage sale this morning; I’m getting some clothes for her for the winter & I found some mega legos & a baby swing- all huge bargains. Then we stopped at the bank, at the teeny library in the little town we were in- where I read about celebrities’ babies in People magazine(Like Donald Trump’s trophy wife pushing around a gilded stroller complete with its own chandelier in stilletos 3 weeks after little Barron was born(I’m surprised the Donald didn’t just name him “King”)) and Aviana dumped out all the puzzles she could before I moved them to a higher shelf. Then we went to the school playground where the kindergartners were out for recess & Aviana promptly garnered an entourage of children who wanted to follow/push her around and “help” her. On the way home I noticed one of the pig farmers outside, so I asked if we could take a peek at his piggies- he has the mamas & the piglets outside in little houses. I figured we would just sit by the fence & watch the babies running around, but he gave us a ride on his golf cart all around the pen and then took us up to the house to meet his wife who wanted to show Aviana their two week old kittens. We have kittens that are two days old, so was fun to see how roly-poly they’ll get.

Then we got home & Aviana took a long nap, I listed some stuff on eBay & read “The DaVinci Code: a Quest for Answers” which helps one to sort out the facts from the fiction in the novel and was quite well done & helpful. Since then it feels like I have been waiting for Aviana to PICK UP THESE BLOCKS!Fri, Apr 28, 20068:35 PMBlock Update:

It took 2 hours and 10 minutes for her to get hungry enough to put the blocks back in the bag. From here on out, she’s playing with three at a time. Grrr…

The baby animal video WAS pretty cute, but I’m not sure it was worth the wait.Sun, Apr 30, 20068:37 PMIt was rainy & windy here all weekend. In “Mr Brown can Moo” by Dr. Suess (a book that Aviana can ‘read’ to herself) it says “BOOM BOOM BOOM Mr. Brown is a wonder– BOOM BOOM BOOM, Mr Brown makes thunder” So Aviana says BOOM BOOM BOOM whenever it thunders, followed by a big NO! She’s facinated at the same time it makes her nervous. She wanted to go outside too, but only because we’d get to use an “mmbella”

We went and looked at chicken houses yesterday in the rain (and were in the car for nearly SEVEN hours- let’s not leave out that little detail; my tailbone is STILL recovering) But we didn’t find anything we wanted–amend that to read wanted to pay that much for. We did find out that in the whole of Iowa City there is not a single McDonald’s that has a playplace. NOT ONE. We spoke to the manager and he told us there is one in Washington. I thought he meant Washington Street. No, he meant Washington, the town. Ironically, Kevin & I had just had a big discussion about whether or not to go down & see my parents (who live in Washington) since we’d be so close (we didn’t know we’d be so close when we started out on this little venture), but decided not to when we couldn’t reach them by phone. I don’t like McDonalds and the only reason I even went there was because they are supposed to be kid friendly. (Despite the fact that there wasn’t a playplace and we were sick of driving around)Well this one had ants. Lots of them. Gross.

Forgive the overzealous use of parentheses in this update- I have no excuse.