On the road again

We're heading off to Miami again for the next 5 days. We'll stay with the in-laws, as usual which does cause me a certain amount of stress. MIL is a gem. I do sincerely love her. She does a lot for us and absolutely adores Audrey.

It'll be nice to have an extra set of arms on the plane for a change. Audrey isn't a fan of sitting on my lap for hours at a time and I can't count on being able to nurse her down for a nap. Hopefully Todd isn't more trouble than he's worth :-P

Speaking of Audrey, she's amazing. Of course. Chattering up a storm. Night time is going better than ever. I still nurse her before bed (gasp!) - lately she hasn't been falling asleep in my lap but has been sitting up and pointing to her crib. Last night I put her in her crib fully awake and she tucked her blanket around her and I didn't hear from her again until 4 AM! I can get used to that. She even went back to sleep at 4 (with a little nursing/rocking) and she slept until 7:15. I think that's a record for her.

She's a bossy little thing. We were at a playgroup on Tuesday and she quickly gravitated to the play kitchen. One of the younger boys crawled over to get a bowl and she turned to face him and morphed into a harpie, shrieking "no no no no no no!". I confess, I had to fight back some laughter. Naturally, the more she didn't want to play with him the more he wanted to play with her. It's like middle school already. Oy.

Pregnancy is going well. I'm crazy bloated and thiscloseto busting out maternity pants already. At 9 weeks. Having some food issues but no major morning sickness. I'm not as tired as I remember being last time - I guess having the worst sleeper ever is good for something :-P

Good news!

I saw/heard the heartbeat this morning. The little tiny flicker was going strong, around 162 bpm. I cried, not realizing how worried I was until that moment. Sweet, sweet relief. Everything looks perfect. PERFECT. I am low risk, healthy and my cervix is fabulous.

Which makes me a great candidate to birth this baby at the local birthing center. I toured their facility yesterday and felt very comfortable. I love the midwife model of care and am looking forward to my first "official" appointment there (we met briefly with a midwife yesterday but it doesn't really count). Our insurance will cover part of the expense but we will have to pay part of the fee out of pocket. Totally worth it in my opinion. I'm pumped!

Audrey had her 15 month well check on Monday. My little peanut is tipping the scales at 21lbs and 12 oz. and a whopping 29 1/2 inches tall. That puts her right in the 25th percentile range if you're into that kind of thing. She small but mighty. A little ball of sunshiney dandelion fluff. My little pumpkin baby. She was pronounced "very smart" by the doctor based on her vocabulary :-P She was yelling about bunnies (Annie's graham crackers) and bananas while we waited for him to do the exam. He brought her a little rubber duck and she started quacking at him. Adorable.

It's a miracle, y'all!

Audrey slept through the night for the first time in her life on Thursday, 4/9. 8:30 PM - 6:30 AM!

I'm sure many of you (all 3 - 4 people that actually read my blog :-P) are appalled. An almost 15 month old that doesn't STTN yet. Well, that's the way we roll at our house. She's never been a terrific sleeper and I've done everything I can to make her feel comfortable and secure. It's finally paid off and night time is improving DRASTICALLY!

In the past week she's slept 9+ hours without waking 3 times. The other four nights she's woken once or twice - all this while she's dealing with some congestion and cutting molars.

Some other things: she's had quite the verbal explosion. At last count about three weeks ago she was regularly saying about 25 words. I can't keep track anymore, there are too many. She stunned me twice yesterday. I was carrying her through the kitchen to the garage to put her in her carseat to go to work/daycare. We walked past the toaster where she caught a glimpse of the waffles that had long since popped up. She points that way and ever so casually says "wau-poo" in a "Geez mom, you almost forgot" tone. I about died. We got home from work/daycare around 4:30 and apparently Miss Thing wanted a snack. She walked into the kitchen and pointed to the cutting board where Todd normally slices fruit/veggies and said "app-pull". Over and over and over again. She's blowing my mind.

We have a big week coming up.

Monday - 15 month well check
Tuesday - tour of local birthing center (so excited!)
Wednesday - sonogram and OB appointment
Thursday - I leave for Dallas for my first overnight trip away from Audrey
Friday - reunited and feels so good

6 weeks

By my count, I'm 6 weeks along now.  Way more IRL people know than I'm necessarily comfortable with - my sister outed me on Facebook in her excitement.  Oh well.

I'm relatively symptom free for the most part aside from bone crushing exhaustion and constant hunger.  That beats nausea any day so I'll take it.

My P4 level is terrific - 19.9.  I see my OB on 4/22 and will have a sonogram.  On 4/21 I have a tour of a local birthing center.  I'd like to consider a homebirth but Todd's comfort level is quite there yet.  We'll see how the birth center looks - that might be a nice happy medium.