So I suppose that I should tell all of you how that ultrasound went hmm? We learned several things at that ultrasound.
Firstly that we are indeed having a second little girl. We will soon have two little divas in our household. Dave is currently looking for a hobby that will take him out of the house as often as possible in the abject fear of too much estrogen becoming a factor. I of course have little or no sympathy for him thinking back to the days when his two boys would spend the all weekend every weekend with us and I at times thought I needed to find the cure for too much testosterone. I am seriously excited by that announcement as that means that my daughter will have a sister ( not counting Aislynn as she is an angel sister and is not terribly helpful at tea parties.) I never had a sister and so I am thrilled my daughter(s ) will have one. Dave chuckles and says that he had plenty of sisters and wonders what it would have been like to have had a brother to grow up with.... Once again feel the sympathy rolling off of me when I think of my days playing GI Joe or He-Man...
Secondly we learned that this girl is going to be STUBBORN. With double caps if that is possible. We were in that room for an hour and some trying to get that little girl to move so that we could get pictures of all the body parts that the doc wanted to get pics of.... and she didn't move. Not so much as a slow roll. Oh she pulled up her feet and kicked my belly ( as if to say LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE) but she is laying on her back transverse... ( that means her head is on one side of me and her butt on the other) rather than hanging out head up or down. With her laying with her back against me... there is no way to get the pictures of that little spinal cord. Try try try though they might ( and two people tried) She would not move. Jiggle, push, and press on my belly and she simply moved her legs a little and went back to sleep. On top of which we tried to get the 4-D ultrasound to see her little face and all we got was her holding her hand in front of her face. I kid you not ... it looked like every picture we have of her Uncle Brenden when he is trying to avoid having his picture taken. This is an issue we will have to take up with her when she is older to be sure! At least we have a fairly good picture of the little girl parts.... this having been agreed upon by three different people looking at the ultrasound pics. They have not made any references to food yet for which Dave is profoundly appreciative. The descriptions they were giving for A while I was pregnant Ex. Her little Taco.... and You see the little hamburger right there... were turning him off of his food.
So either we have a very stubborn little girl... or she can sleep through a typhoon. Either way she will take after her father to be sure. Not that it would surprise me...because I am starting to think that Dave must have really strong genes... because the one we have is taking after her father in surprising ways too. Some of those ways tug the heart strings and some of them set the pot to boil. A has a new and surprising ability to completely tune out the sound of the voice of any person who is telling her to do something other than what she wants.... ummm can we say DAVE! And then he seems to seriously mean it when he says that he never heard you... At least A doesn't have the vocabulary yet to pull that one. Although I must take a moment to brag and say that her vocabulary is OUTSTANDING for a child so young. Well lets be honest she is just outstanding period... and that is not really my bias talking she really is just outstanding.
She is approaching the terrible twos. It is funny but Dave and I remember with her brother K that he went through them at like THREE. He was the easiest baby all the way through the first year and the second and then three hit and WHAMMO! he was in the chair every five minutes and that is tough to do when you are three and get a three minute time out. A seems like she is hitting that point earlier than he did. Not that there really is any comparison as we were weekend warriors with the Keaganator and full time with the kabashlynn. ( You will find that I am fond of giving nick names that are longer than the original... and if I can't find one that is clever I will simply make one up.)
The little bear has been going through a few tough issues in the last week or so. The ear infections that woke us at 2 with a 105 degree temp was treated by a medication that gave her some... how shall I put this delicately seriously awful diaper issues. One explosion after another... some days we had four or five. By Thursday night I was crying while changing her bum. By Friday I took her to the doctor. On Sat even with prescription cream I refused to give her any more of the evil antibiotic. Two days with out the medicine and there are still raw weepy spots left on her bum... though a great deal of healing has gone on. This weekend we did not go anywhere and I left her in a diaper and shirt so that I could tell as soon as possible that the diaper had been filled... then used washcloths rather than diaper wipes... and cried as Dave helped me to hold her while I cleaned her up. She learned the word "owwie" this weekend. It has been hell for everyone involved. But we are on the road to recovery and now she says owwie when I change her butt even though I don't think it really hurts anymore.... she also crys when I lay her down to change her... but mostly just from the memory of the owwie, not because it really actually hurts all that bad. I am grateful that the worst of it is over though... because a mommy whose baby is crying so badly who is five months pregnant isn't pretty. Talk about a basket case.
It didn't help that the weather gave me a migraine on Sat morning ( very very early) that didn't let me go until Monday afternoon. And still is giving me flashes of pain and tenderness. It also doesn't help that being pregnant I can't take anything for that pain. So poor Dave was left in the house defenseless with a woman in pain and a baby in pain. Over all I think that he pulled through it like a champ. This is not the first migraine that I have had since my child was born... it is however one of the worst. I spent a good portion of Sunday laying in the bed with my daughter hoping for a merciful death. Note to God: it is a strange and cruel torture to give a mother of a toddler a migraine. At least A was in a mellow mood because of the Tylenol that and Benedryl that she was getting on a regular basis to keep her rear from hurting and itching. I can hear all of you now.... "Why wasn't David taking care of the baby" Well that is easier said than done. Dave is a very passive parent, responding only when there is a crash or a scream. He is also more often than not totally engrossed in the computer or the TV or what have you. So after A tries to get his attention and fails she comes to me. So laying on the couch or the bed when you don't have a door on your bedroom is really not a safe zone. These are the things that drive me crazy about him... but one of the nice things about the migraine is that I get fuzzy. I don't get mad about much because getting mad hurts... so I just layed on the couch and Dave put on an endless string of movies and I let my young daughter crawl and climb all over me until nap time... at which point I sacked out with her. We would wake up and so it all over again. There are times when having a low-key child is REALLY a blessing... though Dave and I are both pretty low-key so it was bound to happen. Here's hoping for another in the same key!
As you can see there is never a dull moment in this household... although it never seems like we are doing anything. I suppose only a mother can find all of this exciting... but then I am the mother of the most outstanding little girl in the world... and in a few short months I will be the mother of the TWO most outstanding girls in the world. Can I get a HELL YEAH!!!!!!

A says happy Valentines day my Ear!

Dave and I had plans for Valentine's day. They didn't include our child! My parents were going to babysit and we were going to my favorite restaurant for dinner... followed by a leisurely and enjoyable visit to the bookstore. Ahhhh Heaven. I started thinking around nine o'clock on Friday that those plans were headed south.... As I was changing our princess for bed I noticed that she felt awfully warm. Checked her temp and sure enough 102.8 not a good temp. I gave her Tylenol and she went to bed with an alarming ease. I informed my dear husband when he got home and he said well sounds like she will need to go to the doc tomorrow. We decided we would play Sat by ear until we laid down next to our daughter and both of us were SERIOUSLY disturbed by just how warm she felt. Off I went to get the thermometer.... only to find that her temp was now 104.6. I informed Dave of that and he said " Nuh uh" and took the thermometer from me.... only to get a very similar reading. "Turn the light on" he ordered. I got out of the bed to do so and he took her temp again. 104.5. Ummm gulp uh oh. So we started getting dressed and getting A dressed for a trip to the hospital as that temperature scared the ever living crap out of both of us. We stopped occasionally to take her temperature and be concerned over the number. Why I am not sure.... perhaps we were hoping that we had used the damn thing wrong. Perhaps we were waiting for divine intervention. Meanwhile our little angel though that this was all great fun and was laughing and chortling and otherwise showing her enjoyment. Apparently checking her temp every couple of minutes was not a terrible idea because about 20 minutes after we got the original scary reading it started going down. Yeah your guess is a good as mine... but it was 102.8 by the time we all were ready to go. Well with that in mind we decided to do what every parent wants to do in these times of crisis.... I woke up my mommy.... who despite the hour was very helpful with tips to pull down the temp and the bit of advice that we really wanted to hear. " you don't want to bring her to hospital if you can control it yourself. Wait until you can get to the doc tomorrow if you are able to bring it down some."
So at 2AM daddy and mommy popped A into the tub. She thought this was GREAT FUN!!! ( until we got to the rinse your hair part) and by the time we were done the temp was moving downward. We then proceeded to take turns following her around the house with a glass of water asking her if she wanted a drink. At 2:30 AM we had a temp of 100.9 and both felt it was safe to go to bed. So at 8 the next morning I called the doc and got an appointment. Where A did not pull the "I'm fine I don't know what she was thinking" routine that she usually plays and was indeed visably sick. She also still had a temp over 102 and was glassy eyed. We walked away with a script and a verdict... Double ear infection. And Doc was seriously impressed by how the left ear looked. I didn't take that as a good thing.
So off we head to home armed with a script and looking at our daughter we knew that we couldn't take her out. My parents had started making plans for their own Valentines outing and so we adjusted our sails and went in our new direction. A nap was the first order of business and while she did that Dave went to the grocery store to get comfort foods for her ( and me). She didn't nap nearly as long as she should have considering her post midnight hi-jinks. After about and hour and a half up she popped though not exactly looking for a good time. Her wonderful daddy pulled the couch to the middle of the room so that mommy and baby could sit on it and watch T.V. and sit we did watching one kids movie after another. This was the first time that A really watched T.V. as this is not a big pass time in our house. But she did so like a champ curling up in mommy's lap with her bear bear and her blanky with daddy's pillow under her head she watched T.V. and cuddled her little heart out.
Her daddy brought me a box of chocolates and got me the largest shrimp for shrimp cocktail that he could find. He got every treat that he could imagine that my heart could want..... ( we are definately going to have trouble getting through to the next paycheck, but I couldn't complain when I had my breath taken away by what he did) as well as three new books to read. He then climbed up on the couch next to us and we all three did the cuddle as we watched movie after movie after movie. It was a slice of heaven. Truly some of the most enjoyable hours that I have ever spent in my entire life compliments of my sick and clingy daughter and my impulsive and very indulgent husband.
I had to chuckle the next day as I realized that our little one now has done this for our anniversary and our valentines day.... and that is the only time that she has really ever been sick other than allergies or a cold in her entire life. Maybe she is making a point. Maybe she just has really bad timing. But both dave and I agreed that we enjoyed those hours on the couch with our daughter far more than we would have enjoyed a latte in the bookstore with out her. That is NOT to say that we are not eventually looking forward to the opportunity to get out ( or even stay in) WITHOUT her. Just to say that sometimes you really get what you need.... even if you didn't know to begin with that it was also what you wanted.

Okay so I am bad.... very very bad. It has been so long since I last wrote anything for you guys that I am sure that most of you have stopped checking. I apologize profusely. I would love to be able to give you some really great excuse as to why I haven't done this in a FULL MONTH. But the truth is that the only excuse I have is motherhood. And while it is a good one.... it really only covers about half of the issue. You see it is EXTREMELY difficult to type when my daughter wants to be on my lap constantly. However she does sleep every now and then... although this last week she has been teething yet again and sleep has been elusive and that causes a frustration in and of its self. The other problem is that I haven't done a very good job of making my daughter play by herself. She is of course the center of my universe and so when I sit down to do something at the computer she immediately wants to be a part of it... and being the type of mommy I am, I get up and do something with her.
Again that is only half of the problem the other half is that ummmm I found reading again... so I have been filling up my free time with reading other people's writing... That means that the few minutes of Melissa time.... have been used to do something that Melissa enjoys... the problem is that I don't compartmentalize very well. I have a hard time saying that I will read for a half of an hour and then work for a half of an hour. I just read through the writing time. I am bad I know.
So anyways.... enough with boring explanations when I have probably lost all of my readers anyways. I survived the cerclage... and so did the baby. I am still pregnant and we still have a healthy heartbeat. It was a pain, literally and figuratively. I HATE spinals. I don't do paralyzed well at all. We were there from 7:30 until 5:00 and most of that was me on my back in a bed waiting for the spinal to wear off. The whole time wishing that I could be home with my daughter. We have started the evil 17-P shots and we go to the doc once a week these days. All is well and we have nothing but confidence at this point that we will have a happy healthy baby.
As to our happy healthy baby at home... She is mile a minute and a laugh in every one. Every day she learns new words and we have to be very careful not to say bad ones around her. She picked up the word "ANNOY" the other day and walked around singing "annoy annoy annoy annoy" Cracked us all up. She has also learned the word "me" and tacks it on to every thing. "down me" , "up me" , " Nursies me" Having so many words at her disposal is VERY helpful because she has learned the word for a lot of things that she frequently needs or wants. That is so nice. She has learned a whine that drives me crazy, but we are working on that and we are adding please to our vocabulary as we have already mastered " thank you" She also now tells mom or dad if she needs a diaper change. That is AWESOME. As I told Dave it is the first step in potty training.... and as long as we always change her as soon as we know she needs it she won't like sitting in a dirty diaper!
She is Growing like a wildflower. I refuse to say a weed because she is definitely wanted. At this point we cannot cram her into 12 months anymore.... and she is starting to move into 24 months with out looking ridiculous. She is out growing her shoes. So a trip to the shoe store will happen with in the next few weeks.
She had everyone laughing so hard we were in tears last week as she stood in front of the full length mirror contorting herself to see her back in the mirror. She has also started to dance and that is just as much fun to watch. She tries to help fill the dishwasher at gramps and grans house which consists of taking everything that was just put in out. It makes for a long chore when she helps.... Which for that matter is just about every chore. Dave and I have been trying to involve her in the cleaning up of her toys and books, but once again it consists of her following us around the living room tearing apart everything we just did. She always gives us a very dirty look as she tears the house back apart. She has this scowl that just rocks you back in your seat with a laugh. She has taken to jumping on the couch and standing up in chairs and just giving mom a general heart attack.... But before she stands she always looks to see if I am watching. She knows that she doesn't REALLY want to fall.
Our little princess is growing so fast it boggles the mind. Every day is something new.... and every day she seems just that much bigger. Life is good with her in it!!!