(almost) 31 weeks

We had another biweekly doctor's/midwife appointment today. Since we're getting close to the end we have to go every two weeks. Lily's getting used to the process. Even though Daddy's there she has to stay with mommy the whole time, including while I give my urine sample (!) and get my blood pressure taken at the nurse's station. Thank goodness the bathroom is really big. The baby is doing well. Today we saw a doctor and he said that we definitely have another full-sized baby in there this time. Lily was 8 lbs 13 oz and he thinks this one will be big too. I think this baby might be bigger than cousin Bella is now at nearly two years old (are you reading Aunt Melody?). The baby was very active during the visit so much so that her heart rate was increasing. But she's active most of the time so that wasn't surprising. It seems like she's more active than Lily ever was but maybe I'm more impatient this time around.

I'm doing well. This pregnancy is quite a bit different than Lily's for me. Heartburn has been pretty consistent the whole pregnancy, with Lily it didn't start until late in the pregnancy. I've had quite a bit of pregnancy insomnia. I wake up in the middle of the night at least once or twice a week and then stay awake for a couple of hours. Usually this is around 3 or 4 in the morning so it's not a good time to get up for the day. My blood pressure is also very, very low. Today it was 118/60! 118 isn't that low for me, when I'm not pregnant, it's usually around 125. But the 60 is low, in my non-pregnant self my diastolic blood pressure is usually around 80 or so. And at random times during the day I see spots like I just stood up quickly (even though I didn't). My doctor didn't think this was a problem unless it doesn't go away but he did encourage my to stay hydrated so I don't pass out! He also said this is the point in pregnancy when my blood pressure is the lowest it will probably get but with Lily I was watching out for my blood pressure to get too high towards the end. We'll see if that happens this time.

I've also been having a lot of contractions, at least a few every day. They don't hurt really but I can feel my whole stomach get tight for 20-30 seconds, which doesn't feel like nothing. Our doctor says it's nothing to worry about unless they become regular and it's pretty typical to start having the Braxton Hicks contractions a lot earlier the second time around. I think this feels like what was happening after about 37 weeks and on with Lily when we would walk for an hour or so in the evenings trying to bring the contractions on. At this point, of course, I try to take it easy and get them to go away. Usually just sitting down does it.

I don't think I ever mentioned who's delivering this baby. Lily was delivered by a midwife who was assisted by a resident (OB-GYN), but our midwife, Ann, was definitely in charge. I don't have a problem with doctors delivering babies but OB-GYNs are trained to be surgeons are trained to deliver moms with problems, midwives are trained in normal births--which thankfully we had. Midwives are also usually more hands-on during the whole labor process rather than just there to catch the baby. This time we're using midwives again but the practice is a little bit different. The practice is not located directly at Yale (but only few blocks away) and it contains midwives and doctors. At my visits I rotate through seeing all of the midwives AND all of the doctors. Then my delivery will be attended by both a midwife and a doctor--hopefully the best of both worlds. We'll be having this baby at Yale-New Haven Hospital. When we're ready to go to the hospital, a midwife from our group will meet us there and then they'll call a doctor in when we're admitted and they're sure a baby is on the way. But evidently we're delivering in "high season" so they may already be at the hospital when we end up going in.

In other good news, our doctor today assured me that second deliveries are almost always easier than the first so that's welcome news. Compared to some I don't think Lily's birth was particularly difficult or traumatic, but even so just writing "labor" and "easy" in the same sentence is almost laughable. The "plan" again is to do this without an pain medication. We'll see if I'm as dedicated when I have less to prove since I know I can push a baby out on my own without medication.

28 weeks

I feel like I'm starting to get into the final stretch. I'm in the 3rd trimester. The baby is getting big and strong. The baby is going to really start putting on weight now. It's probably around 3 lbs at this point. I'm starting to fear how big she's going to be when she's born. Lily was large (8 lbs 13 oz) and second babies are usually bigger. At least she's not a boy, but I wouldn't be surprised if she was over 9 lbs. We'll see, maybe I'll get lucky.

We had our last monthly appointment this week, now we'll be going to the doctor every 2 weeks. At the end of last week I had my gestational diabetes test and I found out at my appointment this week that I passed. So I was cleared to "keep doing what I'm doing", which is good because I haven't been eating perfectly. I also had to get a rhogam shot this week because my blood type is Rh- and Scott is Rh+. If I don't get these shots during pregnancy my body could reject future babies. I'll probably have to get one after the baby is born too.

I'm starting to really feel the effects of being pregnant now. The achy bones if I sit or lay in one position for more than a few minutes, difficulty finding a comfortable position to sleep in, regular heartburn (almost every night), a bouncing baby that can really jab me, etc. I feel like I'm getting uncomfortable earlier this time around but maybe it's just lost it's novelty this time around. Lily is also starting to get harder for me to pick up and carry around. She's over 30 lbs now so that's a pretty big object for me to be carting around. Thankfully she's generally pretty independent these days so she often doesn't want me to carry her. I've been noticing a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions this time around. I'm sure I just know what I'm feeling this time around. A couple times I've had to take it easy for a while because I've overdone it and started feeling a lot of contractions. One day I had to ask Scott to come home a little early because I knew I should lay down and most of the time that doesn't work with Lily. Thankfully all was fine and just relaxing for a bit made everything alright.

We're definitely getting excited for May to hurry up and get here. It's exciting to think about having a little newborn around again. I'm a little worried about the sleepless nights again but I'm really excited to have a tiny baby around again.

And now for a comparison shot. Here's a shot at 28 weeks (or almost 29 really).

26 weeks with Lily

Obviously I'm bigger with #2 but there is a couple weeks in between pictures here. I do think I'm definitely bigger this time around.

22 months

Lily is going to be 2 in 2 short months. It's hard to believe. Some days I feel like she acts more like a 4 year old though.

She's beautiful, she's sweet and she's so smart. She still loves her kitchen and she prepares meals in it multiple times during the day. She likes to make pizza dough and soup and she likes to show you how to eat it. Usually she says "hands" and she wants you to pretend to pick up the food with your hands to eat. She also likes to make food for her rabbit. She'll open his cage and leave a row of plates and bowls at the front of his cage. If he doesn't come up to them she shouts "try it! try it!" to him. She loves when he comes up and smells the bowls and sometimes he'll pick them up in his mouth and toss them around--she usually finds this hysterical.

She loves working on her numbers and letters. She loves counting but she still skips 7 & 8 when she counts to 10. I think she thinks this is a joke because when I correct her she laughs. She starting to want to count past 10 also, she really likes the number 13 and often just says "9, 10, 13" so we're going to start counting higher. She can also recognize some numbers. '8' for sure, which is funny since that's a number she always skips. The other day in the grocery store she just started telling me what all the checkout lane numbers were. She's also starting to have some number sense. If there are two of something she always says, "two babies", "two cups" or whatever it is.

She's also getting close at having the whole alphabet down. She sings her ABCs on her own to practice. She has an ABCs DVD that she loves to watch. She can get through 'I' in the alphabet all on her own and then she'll add in other letters along the way for the rest of the alphabet. She knows some letters by sight as well. She knows 'O' and 'W' and a few other letters. She wants to learn all the time. I can see her mind working all the time and figuring things out.

She is talking up a storm. She talks non-stop. Her vocabulary is huge, she's always surprising me with the words she knows. She's also starting to string words together into short phrases. Her pronunciation is also getting much better. Occasionally she'll still says a word or two that I don't understand but she's getting a lot better. She says, "Here, go mommy" all day long and hands me things. She's also very good about saying, "Thank you mommy" when I give her something (like lunch). She's a very sweet girl. She's saying a few other short phrases as well and is putting together words on her own.

She sleeps about 10 hours or so each night. She's been staying up later until 9 or a little later some nights. It makes it a little easier for her to talk to her grandparents on the West Coast. She looks forward to that so much. She often gets out her play laptop and says she's going to "Skype" with "granma, bauby, papa". She's still napping, which is a great break for mommy during the day. She's still napping for close to 3 hours every day. Hopefully she'll keep that up for a while longer.

She's made some friends here that she loves. She talks about them all the time. Her two best friends are Avery (20 months) and Skylar (2 1/2). She asks about them every day and always wants to do things with them. Although when they're actually together she doesn't do a whole lot of playing with them. That will come with time, but for now she just likes to see them. She's really good at sharing. Most of the other kids her age are taking toys from the other kids but Lily is sharing. She doesn't get upset if another kid takes her toy and she'll pass out toys to the other kids. She recently had a few kids over to our house. At first she was a little surprised with the kids playing with her toys but she got used to it quickly and did well. Now she asks for kids to come over all the time.

She's really interested in babies too. She talks about her baby sister a lot. She recently said that her baby doll's name is "baby sister". She's always talking about the baby in mommy's tummy. She's very excited to meet her. She likes seeing other babies too. One of the 3 year old boys Lily plays with has a 3 month old brother named "Rocco". Lily is constantly asking about Rocco and wants to see him. She always points out babies and baby strollers.

We also took a trip to Philadelphia this month to visit Papa Jim while he was on a business trip. Lily loved seeing her papa and also swimming in the pool and looking at the pond inside the hotel. We ended up leaving a little earlier than we planned because a big snow storm was rolling in the day we were driving back. We still went to Independence Hall, took in some sights and had a Philly cheesesteak before we headed back but we thought it'd be smarter to drive during the day. We hit one rough spot in New York City where the roads weren't plowed or salted yet but overall the drive wasn't too bad.

Lily got some new teeth this month. She got her 1st eye tooth last month and this month two more popped through. She has one more that's just getting ready to pop out. They don't seem to bother her too much. A few times she's said she has said her mouth hurts but mostly she just chews on her fingers or her sweatshirt.

This is what Lily does if you say "Cheese!".

Standing next to a possum at a children's museum.

Our family in front of the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall in Philadelphia.