Sylvia is THREE!

It's surreal to go back and look at what I wrote about Sylvia last year. She has grown up so much, and so much has happened! We temporarily moved, Max got a job, we're planning a big move, and we had a new baby... Sylvia became potty trained, started school, moved from her crib to a toddler bed and then to a real bed, and - obviously - became a big sister!

She's sweet and smart and silly and stubborn.

Hope to say more soon!

Hannah

Hannah Jane

Born June 15, 1:19am

8 pounds, 1 ounce

20 inches long

Today, Hannah Jane is 33days old. Like her sister before her, she was born without a peep and diagnosed from birth as 'perfect'. She's an excellent addition to our little family. Her likes include being held, being fed, and being rocked. Her dislikes include digestive distress, having her diaper changed, and not being held.

She's had a pretty active first 33 days. She's had lots of visitors, she's attended 3 birthday parties (including her Grandma Mimi's 60th birthday extravaganza), she's tagged along on play dates and swim lessons, and she's visited her pediatrician 3 times. And she's already gained about 2 pounds since birth.

In the last week or so, she's started spending a lot more time being alert, looking around, and smiling. We get to see a lot more of her pretty eyes, which are fairly blue for the time being.

Here are some milestones in her short life:

Meeting her sister (on her birthday):

First day home:

One week old:

Two weeks old:

Three weeks old:

Four weeks old:

One month old:

...And some cute pictures...

...Hopefully I'll manage to say something about the visitors and outings soon!

Pre-Kraxaw - The Sequel

My first pregnancy was pretty well documented on this blog. (See here, here, here, here, here, & here.) Between the time commitment of caring for a 2-1/2 year old and the diminished novelty of a second pregnancy, I've somehow managed to make it to week 25 of my second pregnancy before even mentioning it!

So, yes, I'm pregnant again! Another girl, due June 14.

Like with my first pregnancy, the "morning" sickness hit me really hard in the first trimester. Unlike my first pregnancy, it has actually subsided for my second trimester. But the general discomfort of huge-ness started earlier and has been rapidly accelerating!

At almost 8 weeks, we brought Sylvia with us to our first appointment, and we all heard the heartbeat together for the first time.

At 11 weeks, we would normally have only listened to the heartbeat with a doppler, but the doctor couldn't find it that way, so we got to get a peak...

At 16 weeks, we went to the perinatologist for an amniocentesis. It's always fun visiting him! Besides the picture of him and Oprah (and some baby) on the wall of his exam room, he has the fancy 4-D ultrasound machine. She wasn't positioned well for a face-shot, but we did get some nice views of her developing heart and brain, and we got this picture of her spine, which I think is pretty cool looking...

He told us that everything looked good and that we were having another girl! Sylvia thought the whole thing was pretty cool, and she wanted her turn with the ultrasound machine.

We saw him again at 20 weeks so he could get a better look and check all of the organs, and this time we did get a peak at her little face...

At that point, they can measure all sorts of stuff and rule out a bunch of problems. The basic amnio results had come back clean. The more complicated amnio results to determine if the baby inherited my weird growth disorder hadn't come back yet, but the doctor was able to mostly rule it out based on the ultrasound. We got to hear it all in a lot more detail than we did with Sylvia because the doctor was training someone. Everything looked just about perfect. The only thing was there was still a gap in the palate that usually would have closed more by that point, suggesting a possible cleft palate. The lip and uvula were both totally intact - a cleft palate is sometimes accompanied by a cleft lip and almost always by a cleft uvula. Because of the uvula, the doctor said that there was a good chance that the gap would still close up. I think we were both too concerned with being calm and reasonable to ask questions, so we walked away with no real sense of what the chances were of an ongoing problem or the implications. When I talked about it with my regular OB, he didn't have any better idea than I did about those things. He said I should go back for a follow-up. The results of the follow-up wouldn't really make any difference because there's nothing that can be done until the baby is born, but he thought it was better for us not to be in the dark that long. So, we scheduled a follow-up and decided to mostly keep it to ourselves in the meantime. It seemed pointless to upset and worry people over something until we had more information.

We had the follow up this week (24 weeks), and it looks like the palate has closed up! Everything else looks good, too. She's a big girl, though! She's about 2 pounds, 1 oz, which is 73rd percentile, and her leg length is 92nd percentile! The doctor didn't think he'd be able to get a good view of her face because it's harder when they get bigger, but we got lucky:

I'm 25 weeks now and nearly in the 3rd trimester. I've been feeling her move since around New Year's, and now she is super active! I feel her flopping around all the time, and sometimes I can even see it. Considering how big and uncomfortable I already am, I'm nervous about the 3rd trimester. But everything is going well, and Sylvia will have a baby sister in about 3 months!

First week!

Sylvia started preschool this week. Just 2 half days a week, but it's a pretty big adjustment for all of us. We went and visited the school twice before her first day. She loved it and didn't want to leave. But we were there with her, so we really didn't know how she'd react to being left there. She does pretty well when we leave her with friends or family, but that's different - and it's usually not for 4 hours!

I had talked to her teacher about how she finds it easier to help kids make the transition when parents don't linger too long on the first day. This was NOT a problem for Sylvia.

I had been explaining to Sylvia how it would be different the next time we went to school because she'd stay there and play with her teacher and friends without Mommy and Daddy. I wasn't sure it was sinking in. She was really excited when it was time to leave for school...

...and once we got there, she turned to me, said "Bye-bye Mommy" and ran off to play. I took her aside to make sure she remembered her teachers, and I reminded her to ask them when she needed to use the potty. And that was it. She was good! When Max & I went to pick her up, she was playing and having fun. When I went over to her, she said, "No thanks, Mommy. Bye-bye." She wanted to stay, but she didn't give us too much grief when we told her it was time to go. Her teachers said that she did great. She's still learning the routines and the rules, but she's doing fine.

Day 2 was pretty much the same. There was apparently a scuffle over a toy, but you expect that kind of thing.

Our plan was always to eventually have her stay for extended days - once she got used to it. I figured we'd give it a solid month at least, but we may have to ask if we can do it sooner!

Sylvia is 2-1/2

Two months ago, I said that I could have "nearly coherent" conversations with Sylvia. Well, these days we're having complex negotiations and arguments, talking about our day, and discussing what we might like to do tomorrow. Some of it is still pretty incoherent, but it's absolutely amazing to me how much she can communicate and how much she can understand.

She's now right around 3 feet tall and weighs about 32 pounds. If you're keeping track, that means that her length has almost doubled since birth, and her weight has more than quadrupled.

Even though I started this on the 27th, it's taking me about 8 days to finish it! In those 8 days, we moved Sylvia into a big girl bed. She took to it like a rock star, until she came down with a horrible cough. She seemed to be on the mend when she caught some kind of stomach bug. That, too, is hopefully already on it's way out, but it's been a rough week! We're all tired, and Sylvia is as moody and volatile as I've ever seen her. Hopefully we'll all feel better soon!

Check back for news of Sylvia's first day of preschool!

Visitors

Before the holidays and back when Kurt was still a young boy of 3, we had a visit from Jeff, Jayne, Kurt & Maria. It was generally chaos, but the best kind of chaos! With all the different wake-up times, nap / rest times, and bed times to navigate, we barely had enough time to all get out of the house at the same time, but we did manage a few field trips, and we made the best of our time around the house.

Happy Birthday, Kurt

On the day that he was born...

And (almost) 4 years later...

How did that happen?!?