Abbi has been accident free for 3 days!!!!! Hopefully she has gotten this potty training thing down. We really should thank Abbi's little cousin Kodi. She is Abbi's age and when Abbi saw that she was using the potty, Abbi was suddenly interested in using it herself! Needless to say, Mark and I are pretty excited to have one less set of diapers to buy. :-)
Ellie can be a pretty happy baby when she wants to be. She doesn't like to be put down so I end up holding her a lot. But as we are getting our routine down she is getting better. Except for the being put down thing.
Mark says that their cuteness is there defense mechanism. I think she's pretty cute!
I love her smile! Her eyes seems to light up when she does!
Introducing our little Ellie Mae. She was born April 22nd at 6:08 PM. She has a full head of hair just like her sister did. If you put their baby pictures up they look like twins!
Abbi loves her little sister. Everywhere we go she points to the car seat and says "Baby!" and wants to show everyone Ellie. To say the least grocery shopping takes a lot longer than it should simply because I have to show Ellie to people or Abbi would have a melt down.
Abbi was 7 lbs. 11 oz. and was and 18 inches long.
We love having Ellie in our family! I know it took forever to get these pictures up, but with Ellie on more of a schedule, hopefully I will be able to get more up faster!
We don't have any flowers planted in our backyard yet, just some bushes and some roses that were there when we moved in. So Abbi pretty much has the run of it as her "sandbox" and I think she seems happy with that.
And of course Abbi loves having her best friend with her!
Abbi loves our dog Jack. He is a pretty good dog to put up with all that Abbi puts him through!
Well, yesterday we went to the doctor because we thought my water may have been leaking. I was checked out and there was a hint of it leaking but not nearly enough to warrant going into the hospital. (I didn't really think anything was going on, but Mark wanted to make sure for his own peace of mind) Anyway, since we were in the doctors office we went ahead and scheduled an induction for Friday the 22nd. So if she comes before then great (I personally don't think she will), if she decides to wait, then we go in at 7:30 Friday morning. To say the least I know that both Mark and I are ready for her to come and for this uncomfortable pregnancy to be over! So we'll keep you updated!
I am so ready for this baby to come! I am absolutely HUGE! Last week at my doctor's appointment we found that the baby had turned! Yea!!!!! So we are very happy about that, with the added bonus that my iron levels went up! I guess the baby isn't growing as fast, so my iron levels aren't as drained. So all good news!
This baby is a mover and a shaker, she does not hold still for long and she favors my right side. There are many times where there is tons of pressure on my right side and I look down and I am totally lopsided. Mark can tell if she is on my right side from across the room! I call my feet elephant feet because they are extremely swollen. My sister-in-law was a gem and gave me a pedicure on Saturday. I've wanted one, but I've been so embarrassed by my elephant feet that I haven't done it. So a big thank-you to Cassandra!! My hands are a little swollen, but I still had to take my wedding bands off, so I now where them on a chain for a necklace.
I have a doctor's appointment Wednesday. Hopefully she has stayed put and not turned again, and I really hope she has dropped some. If not, I guess I'll just keep pluggin along! Hopefully soon I will have some baby pictures to post! Cross your fingers!
Well, this pregnancy has been quite different from Abbi. Abbi was pretty smooth sailing the whole way, no real concerns. However this one, I can't really say that.
My iron levels are lower than normal anyway, so when I am pregnant I expect them to go even lower and I immediately start taking an iron supplement. However, when they tested my levels I was a low 8, which they want you to be around 11. So, my doctor prescribed me a heavy dose iron pill to take twice a day. So I start taking those. My next appointment, they check my levels again, NO CHANGE!!! So, I then had to go get an IV of iron for 5 straight days. Since they are pumping it straight into my blood, I figured my iron levels would shoot right up! Well, went to the doctor and they tested and it went up 1 point to a 9. It went up, but not quite enough. My doctor was trying to decide if I should get another round of IV's or not. I really didn't want to, mainly because it is way expensive, but also, I wanted to try and see if taking the pills and really trying to eat iron rich foods could bring it up. So he let me wait a week. So after trying really hard to bring my levels up that way I went back in and it rose 1/2 a point! My doctor decided to not have me do the IV's but to continue with what I was doing and hopefully the level's won't go down. He calls this baby a sponge because of how much iron I've taken and my levels are still as low as they are! The only concern he has is if anything happens during delivery and I bleed, I don't have a reserve of iron in my system and I would need a blood transfusion. Let's just pray that doesn't happen!
So, I've been working on my iron, however this last doctors appointment, we found out this baby is breech. Yay. So we have 3 plans in place. I will crawl around on the floor (the gravity expands the room the baby has and hopefully she will turn on her own) If that doesn't happen at 37 weeks he'll give me something that will relax the uterus and he'll try and turn her from the outside. If we succeed there, great...however she could still turn back to breech, but hopefully not. If she is still breech at 39 weeks I'll get an epidural he'll go in and try and turn the baby and if successful they'll go ahead and start me and hopefully have a great delivery. Finally if all else fails, unfortunately it will be a c-section. Both the doctor and I would like to avoid that last scenario, but I am thankful that we have all these plans in place. So here's to hoping this little baby turns!
Mark and I still haven't decided on a name. We have a couple we like, but unfortunately, I like some, then he likes others. We haven't made up our mind on a common name yet. This may just happen whenever she comes!
I am ready for the constant 24 hour heartburn/acid reflux to be over! I'm excited to be able to move more freely again, not have to kick my legs up to get enough leverage to get out of bed, to be able to bend over and tie my shoes without having to hold my breath. Oh, the little things we take for granted! Yesterday my feet and ankles looked like an elephants trunk! :-( I can't get my ring off either! I just have to keep telling myself 4 more weeks, just 4 more weeks!
Well, as you all know, we are expecting our 2nd baby in April, but we also found out that we are having another girl! We are super excited for this addition, however, Mark and I are struggling to agree on a name we both like. Hopefully we can find one before she comes!
Abbi has moved into a big girl bed. We did this back in November. Overall she has been pretty good in it. She has had a couple nights where she continually gets out of bed, but that is getting better each day. We have her bed and the crib set up in the same room together, mainly because I am just not ready to put my almost 2 year old downstairs.
I got a new calling. Well, a couple new callings. I was released as a primary teacher and called as the Laurel adviser in Young Womens. I am excited for this calling and so far I believe I will enjoy it very much. My other calling is as the Ward Choir Director. I'm excited to do this, but it has been a little frustrating getting people to come to practice. Hopefully I can think of something to get people there! I am very appreciative of those who do come faithfully each week!
We have done some home improvement. We have a fireplace in our living room and it was wallpapered around it of all things (don't think that is very fire proof) so we ripped the wallpaper down and tiled around it, then instead of just a hole for a fire, we put the gas stove which was in our family room and moved it to the living room. All we need is our mantel and it will be complete! It already looks tons better! Since we took the gas stove from the family room and that was really it's only source of heat, we got a wood stove and put that in the fireplace in that room. It's really nice having the wood stove. It is one of Marks favorite "toys" to play with. It was quite the ordeal getting that stove in as the fireplace was built back in the 50's kind of funky, but our neighbor and his sons put it in for us, and they did a wonderful job! It stays nice and toasty in there! So that is one project down. We have a few more on our list we'd like to do, but need to decide which one we do first. We have some time as we are saving to be able to do whatever the next thing is!
I believe that is all the updates I have right now. When I have a little more time I have lots of pictures to download, so stay tuned!
