Friday, December 31, 2010

Naomi-isms

While looking at pictures with my dad of their travels in China -

Naomi: "Ah-ma (grandma) is so pretty! Do-do (grandpa) is so cute! Do-Do you look like me!!"


Tuesday, December 28, 2010

30 Month Check Up

We took Naomi in for her 30 month check up. The minute the nurse called us into the patient room, Naomi, as usual, started wailing that she didn't want to be there. She kicked up a fuss the entire check up, from when she was weighed, measured for height etc by the Nurse. Then once the nurse left and the doctor came in, she screamed and cried the whole time he checked her ears, eyes, throat, mouth stomach etc. Everything was a-ok. As soon as he left, she stopped crying . Then a second nurse came in and gave Naomi the second part of her Hep A vaccine. For the shot, she just said, "ow" and then looked at her bandaid. No screaming, no tears etc. The most painful part of the visit was the easiest. Silly girl.

Anyway here are her stats:
Height: 36 inches (30th percentile)
Weight: 26 lbs 8 oz (25th percentile)


Christmas Weekend

We had a great christmas weekend. With two sets of grandparents, two uncles, one auntie, a mommy a daddy and santa claus, Naomi pretty much made out like a bandit this Christmas. She actually started to get fatigued halfway through opening her gifts and had to take a break for goldfish. Such a great weekend with lots of yummy food, family, a birthday, a huge snowstorm and even a poweroutage.

Christmas Eve

Opening presents Christmas Morning
Santa brought her a grocery store!!
She named the grocery store, "Santa"



The Chef's



Birthday Boy

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Glad we got her those chairs...

Awhile ago, we got Naomi a great table and set of chairs from Ikea. They've come in handy for many occasion and have now become her main arts area down in the basement. She colors, does crafts plays with playdough etc. Definitely well worth it.
As I mentioned last week, we missed Naomi's dance recital at school since she got sent home with a rash that turned out to be dry skin. Anyhoooo who's bitter? Not me. Well, clearly still wanting to be able to show off her moves, Naomi has been putting on dance show's for her grandma while I've been resting. She also decided that some of her "friends" needed to see the show too. So she lined up her chairs, and picked out which friends could attend the show. There's Mimi 1, Dora and Boots, rabbit and Abby Cadabi. She put her whole heart into dancing for all of them, music, courtesy of her DJ LeapFrog's ABCs.

So very cute. The only problem now is that the show is long over and the audience isn't allowed to leave. Naomi refuses to let us move her "friends". No one can sit in those chairs. She's started hanging art work on the chairs too...Yea she hangs those herself. She has 3 mimi's (her lambie lovies) and always has to make sure we don't give her Mimi1 because mimi1 is on the chair...watching the show...

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Why?

Naomi's new word of the week is "Why". She will ask why over and over.

"mommy where's gail?" (our neighbor)
"She went to work"
"why?"
"Because she has a job to go to everyday"
"why?"
"Because she has to make a living."
"Why?"
"to make money"
"why?"
"to pay for her two kids who needs lots of presents like naomi"
"why"....

Or when she's getting ready for school.

"Naomi eat your breakfast"
"why"
"So we can get going"
"Why?"
"cause we have to go to school"
"Why"
"Because mommy and daddy have to work and you have to go see your friends"
"why"
and on and on and on

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

30 Months



On Sunday Naomi turned 30 months. That's 2 and a half! That means she's a full blown kid. Ok she already was. But it means that she starts transitioning out of the toddler class at daycare, and into the preschool class. sob sob. She keeps telling me, "mommy, pretty soon I'll be in pre-school. Yes. Pretty soon".
Today she saw a big girl's bike and asked if she could have it, I told her she was too little and had her little girl's trike. She responded by saying, "Mommy, I'm going to grow up fast. And then I have big girl bike?" sob.

At 30 months, Naomi has embraced whole heartedly the meaning of the terrible twos. I'm biased, but she's incredibly bright. She knows how to stall, and when she sees things aren't going her way, she has learned how to turn on the tears instantaneously. When she's not in the mood to do what you're asking her to, she manages to ignore you and look in the other direction. When she doesn't want to talk to you, she'll look you in the eye and say, "GO AWAY". When she's frustrated, she'll throw whatever is in her hands, or sometimes, though much less often these days, she'll try and swat the nearest person to her. Yea these are all things we need to work on.

Aside from the terrible twos, she's incredibly loving, gentle and caring. She asks daily how her baby sister is doing. When she sees me she'll run up and give my belly a kiss. During our daily prayers, she is constantly reminding us about people we need to include in our prayers. If she sees me crying, which has been a lot these days, she'll come and wipe my tears and tell me not to be sad because "Yomi is right here!!" She loves to cuddle, especially before bedtime, she loves reading the same books over and over again until she has them memorized. She still loves dancing, and supposedly is teacher's pet in her daycare dance class. She also loves music, and again has won the heart of her daycare music class' teacher. She's the biggest mimic I know, and sometimes will shock me when she copies something I've said or done when I could have sworn she was not even paying attention. She loves to count things, steps, dolls, people; but she still has trouble with a few numbers on her way from 10 to 20. She can recognize a song within half of a beat of the song starting, and she likes to make up her own words to songs she already knows. She's always always singing. She finds the silliest things funny and has a ridiculously amazing laugh which can melt anyone's heart. She's in love with all things Christmas, decorations, santa, presents (to a fault), snowmen, lights, starts etc....and loves looking out for christmas decorations whenever we're in the car. When she sees decorations she'll shriek out in excitement and say, "LOOOK MOMMY DID YOU SEE IT!! It's Christmases EVERYWHERE". She's incredibly organized, and notices when things aren't exactly where she left them. She likes to line things up, from furniture to dolls, to her pens and crayons. She knows how to use a computer, probably better than a lot of adults, she even knows how to print her own coloring sheets. (we're starting to look into parental controls). She sleeps through the night in her big girl bed, and loves to say that her old nursery is for the baby. She's so close to being potty trained, though admittedly she's taken a few steps back since I've been on bed rest and haven't had a chance to follow up with her. She's quiet possibly the funniest, most amazing 2 and a half year old that I know...but again perhaps I'm biased.

It goes on and on and on and on...

So my ultrasound went well yesterday. The baby apparently grew from being under the 3% in weight for her gestational age to almost 14%. Basically at 35 wks she was measuring the same size/weight as a 30 wk baby, and now at 36, she's measuring almost at 33 weeks. Still 14% is GOOD for a kid of mine. Naomi hung in like a champ at under 2% for awhile, before she finally moved up the ranks to 12%. Regardless, it means the baby grew a full lb in one week, yea stepping on the scale has NOT been fun =) The baby is already 5lbs 7 oz, and I still have 3.5 more weeks to go till my due date. Naomi was only 6lbs 10 oz and I was 2 days overdue when I had her. I have a feeling that my old fashioned New Jersey OB wants me to deliver a 10 lb baby! Anyway since what we were doing (aka bed rest, aka sentence to depression and boredom) was working, the doctor told me to stay on bed rest. Um yea right. I can't. Especially after talking to the ultrasound technician who said the baby would be fine, knowing how small Naomi was (if you even call 6lbs 10 oz small). Anyway, so I've decided to compromise. I'm working from home up til my Maternity leave, which starts on the 23rd, so I wont be commuting into the City and working 12 hour days. I'll also try to take things easy at home. But there's no way I can lie in bed when I'm not a huge believer of why I'm lying in bed in the first place! a) it's Christmas, b) I have soooo much to get ready for the baby, her room, clothes, cleaning etc. Ok part b doesn't really sound like I'm going to take it easy..but I will =)

So here's to the pseudo good news, and to not having a 10lb baby.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Day 7..hopefully the last

Sunday night, Day 7 is almost done. Hopefully this will be the last day of bed rest. It was another night of not sleeping til almost 5am last night. So the fact that Naomi didn't wake up til 8:30 this morning was a nice treat. Another nice treat was the fact that she happily came into our room and watched videos on Austin's iPad til almost 10am. After that, we got up and made a gingerbread house together. Yes cheating bed rest again, but I figured it was restful since I was sitting the whole time, and I really needed something to get me in the holiday mood. We used a pre-packaged Target gingerbread house that Austin picked up one day after work. It was GHETTO. My goal next year is to make my own, but yea, I just didn't have time this year. Anyway, despite the fact that the roof top started sliding down, and one of the walls eventually caved in, we had a blast. Naomi loved licking the artificially sweet, almost cardboard like, icing, and snuck in probably one too many gum drops. She also took over all decorations as soon as we were done icing the rooftops. I'll post a final picture later, I think Austin snapped some on his iphone. Her decorations are meticulous. She likes to line her toys up in a straight row, so the candy pieces were no different. One note of caution, if you are coming to our house in the next couple of days, DO NOT try to eat the candy. Several pieces were accidently dumped on the floor, and possibly licked by Lilo and Stitch...so umm yea, we decided this was just a gingerbread house to look at =)
Anyway, after that I went back to bed and caught up on some sleep til the afternoon. We stayed in all day, it was a pretty low key afternoon. I am in desperate need of sunlight and fresh air.
Tomorrow morning, I have a 9:45am appointment for another ultrasound, where hopefully we'll find out the baby has grown. I'm not exactly sure how everything will work out because the OB isn't officially in tomorrow morning, so I dont know how he'll tell me I'm allowed to get up and be a free woman, or whatever else he needs to tell me. Regardless, I'm packing up my hospital bag tonight, just in case we end up getting sent to the hospital. I've completely forgotten what I need to bring with me, or what I ended up using when I had Naomi, so I need to look up online to see what is recommended. Hopefully it won't come to that, but we'll find out soon enough....here's to hoping for a 2011 baby.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

An unrestful morning which leads me to an angry vent

I forgot to mention in my day 5 post that for the first time in 6 days without caffeine, I was officially going through caffeine withdrawal. I'm actually pretty impressed that I made it that long, normally I'll go a day without caffeine and start getting mindnumbing/vision blurring headaches. Well those started yesterday afternoon. Maybe I didn't notice them throughout the week because anytime I felt tired, I just went to sleep, and yesterday was the first day I was up and not really able to sleep that much during the day. Anyway, the genius in my decided to have a glass of coke with dinner, along with two tylenols to help the headache. The headache went away, but unfortunately since I haven't had caffeine in awhile, I was awake til 4:30am. I managed to finished season 2 of Friday Night Lights. I also heard Naomi wake up practically every hour. Austin ended up sleeping in her room with her. So she officially caught our cold, has a runny nose and the starts of a terrible cough. I'm just hoping she gets better faster than Austin or I did!
Anyway this morning the whole family went to the mall, grandparents, Naomi and Austin. I can't believe I missed an outing to the Short HIlls Mall!! You know I'm tired (and on bed rest) when that happens. I figured it'd be an excellent way for me to get some rest. No one in the house, and since I had woken up at 7 and only on a couple hours of sleep, it'd be sooo relaxing. WRONG. At 8:30, right after I had fallen asleep, Austin called to ask me a question, waking me up. At 9:30, another phone call, on our house phone, had me jumping up out of bed to grab the phone. At 10:30 Amex called to check if there were fraudlent charges on our card...they weren't (note to self, Austin shouldn't be allowed to go last min christmas shopping on his own..i dread seeing our bill this month). At 10:50, another call...which brings me to now. I'm still tired, but can't sleep again because my body wants to try and cough up a lung. Instead I turned my computer on. I figure I'd blog about bed-rest etiquette. Forgive me if this sounds angry. but here is a list of things to never say to someone on bed-rest:

1) you're so lucky, at least you can sleep all day
2) i'm so tired, I need bed-rest
3) i'd kill to be on bed-rest!!
4) dude bed-rest sounds awesome
5) what isn't there to like about bed-rest? eat, watch tv all day? sounds awesome.

NEWSFLASH

Bed rest blows. It's not restful, it's not awesome. The reason you're on bed-rest is most likely because something is WRONG. Please think about what you're saying before you open your big mouth. Yea I'm on bed-rest, yea I got to get out of work for a week. But you know what? I'd so much rather be at work than lying on my back all day. I'd rather be working on no sleep, ridiculously tired, starving etc, than be on bed rest because something is potentially wrong with my baby. I'm achey and sore from lying on my back or on my side all day. When I do get to stand up my legs hurt. And most of the time I'm not even motivated to watch tv or movies or videos much less read any books. Which leaves me with lots and lots of time to lie here and worry. Worry about how my kid might not be big enough to survive on her own if this whole bed rest thing doesnt work. How maybe I'll end up having her this coming Monday and while it's kind of selfish of me, I really wanted her in January so I could take some real time off work where i could get some things done around the house, like get her nursery ready, wash all her clothes, and just relax. Or like how, if she does come on Monday, it'll be because I'm induced because she's still too small, and most likely will have to spend some time in the NICU instead of being allowed to come home with me. And of course there's the guilt that sets in. I have a lot of time to think back on this pregnancy and how differently I behaved than when I was pregnant with Naomi. Partly because I literally just didn't have time to take as much care of myself, partially because Naomi was such an easy pregnancy and she came out to be such a perfect child with no complications, maybe my own selfish pride allowed myself to take for granted how awesome of a miracle it is for a child to be born. To think of all the little things that God puts together in your body to make a child grow with out any complications. Regardless, I was lazy this pregnancy, often forgetting to take my vitamins when I just passed out at night, not eating as healthily not cutting out caffeine completely, not getting as much rest, not getting as much exercise. There are a million and one things that i think about that maybe if I had just done differently this baby would be ok.
OK i'm going to stop here because now I feel like I'm just being bitter and angry and I know a lot of this is just exhaustion and frustration of being in bed yet again while the world moves about enjoying their holiday festivities.
So anyway, forgive me if I sound angry, but DON'T TELL ME YOU WISH YOU WERE ON BEDREST. Becaust you don't. Not if you truly knew what it meant. You wouldn't tell a cancer patient you wish you could be going through their chemo would you. It's the same thing. This is the treatment for an ailment. It's not bliss. It's not a vacation. It's not relaxation. It just blows.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Day 5...cheating

Woohoo, it's Friday, day 5. Just the weekend to get through then fingers crossed no more bedrest. Day 5 could pretty much be compared to what most people go through midway through their diets...where they fail, miserably so, to be disciplined and stick to it. The morning started off fine. Austin went to work, I passed Naomi off to my parents who promptly took her out for a walk with our puppies Lilo and Stitch where they went back to the park, played at the playground and fed the ducks again. At around 11am though, bed rest pretty much went out the window. My mom needed to run to the store to pick up some groceries and Naomi wanted to hang out in bed with me. We watched a few videos on youtube, I introduced her to Ricky Gervais singing Elmo a lullaby. She had watched this video with Austin when she was younger, but now that she could understand what was going on, her reaction was hilarious. Check out the video on youtube if you haven't seen it. Anyway, I told her she could stay in my room if she listened to me and napped. Of course she said yes, but when it was time to turn off the computer she freaked out and was rolling all over the bed, bumping into me, and nearly falling off the bed several times. Finally I asked her if she wanted me to rock her, which of course she said she did, and within 2 minutes she passed out. I made the mistake of putting her back down on my bed too early, and she woke up and immediately said, "hey mommy remember when you put me on your bed and you and daddy left me?" This was referring to the last time I let her nap in my bed, months and months ago, after she fell asleep I left the room, and when she woke up she accused me of having left her alone. Anyhoo, she wouldn't go back to sleep after that, so I picked her up and rocked her again and after she was asleep, I kept rocking her for a good 10 mins until I knew she was fast asleep. I know I know I pretty much broke every parenting book out there in terms of getting your kid to nap, and I'm sure rocking my 25 lb 2.5 year old is not what my OB had in mind when he said that I was on bed rest. Anyway I put her down in her own room had lunch, and was about to jump in the shower when she woke up. Not even a 30 min nap. At this point my mom was still out. So for the rest of the afternoon I was pretty much out of bed, entertaining a cranky, tired Naomi. I did try to make it less strenuous by plopping us down on the couch in front of the tv for a good amount of time. Yea yea again, every parenting books nightmare - too much tv. Well you KNOW Naomi has had too much tv in the past couple of days cause I heard her saying, "And NOWWW on ON Demand."
When my mom did get home she promptly took charge of Naomi again, and I went to shower and lie down, except looking at my bed grossed me out. I've been lying in it for 5 days non stop, with both Austin and hacking up our lungs. It just looked gross. So I stripped the sheets and threw everything in the wash. Then I realized how late it was and knew my mom would want to start cooking, so I went down to the basement and took over watching Naomi while my mom got dinner ready. I pretty much stayed with Naomi til Austin got home and my mom had finished dinner. Then Austin and I had to go out to Hackensack University Hospital, where I"ll be delivering, because I had an appt to pre-register for the delivery. I set the appt up weeks ago and didn't want to try and reschedule at this point.
so there you have it, my eventful, non- bed rest ridden day.
I do admit I feel incredibly guilty, but hey, when I compare it to my regular daily schedule: up by 4:30am, at work by 5:30, leave work by 4:30 to catch a ferry then a train, then walk to our car, then to daycare to get Naomi, then home by 6:10 then dinner, bath, bed (for naomi) then getting dinner ready for the next day, cleaning up etc....it seems pretty relaxed, no?!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Day 4 we're half way there...

Day 4, the morning started off a lot easier, mainly because Austin called out sick from work again, and Naomi stayed home from daycare given her fever last night. Thankfully she slept through the night and her fever never came back today, so she was in a great mood today and for the most part it seemed, pretty easy to handle.
Austin is still really sick though, hacking up a lung. Thank goodness for grandparents. Maybe that's what the title of this post really should be. My mom swooped in today and saved the day by taking care of Naomi for pretty much the whole day. I could hear them playing down in the basement, singing songs, laughing and shrieking with joy. The one time I did hear Naomi cry was when Ah-ma tried to comb her hair, and heaven forbid, did NOT use Naomi's cinderella brush. Naomi came up later and told me she had given ah-ma a hard time cause she NEEDED her Cinderella brush.
Naomi had a great day though, she went on a walk with her Grandma and Grandpa. Despite the cold weather, they got all bundled up, braved the elements, and had a grand time. They went to the playground, went on the swings, slides, drove the car, and then went to the pond and fed all the ducks. As soon as Naomi came home you could just hear how excited she was and what a great time she had. She ran upstairs and told me about the ducks and the swings..and then she told me she fell off the swings and do-do (grandpa) had to pick her up and rub her cheek, then ah-ma rubbed her cheek. She's too cute.
The tough part about keeping Naomi home is that she has a hard time napping at home. At school she's used to such a strict routine, lunch, then nap. She doesn't argue cause everyone in the class is doing it, and she'll get a daily nap of 2-3 hours. At home we're hit or miss with naps. These days she's winning. Everytime I think it's time to transition her out of taking daily naps, she'll pass out and take a huge 3 hour nap and still be ready for bed at 8. Go figure.
Anyway I did end up cheating bed rest a bunch today. Mainly in the afternoon when Austin was napping, and my parents were working on other things. It was a nice break even though I did feel guilty about getting out of bed for that long, especially since I had to carry Naomi around every once in awhile.
It's really hitting me today too that if my checkup doesn't go well on Monday, we could be ending the day with a brand new addition to the family. It's completely scary and surreal and I'm totally not ready for her arrival. Her room is a mess and her clothes aren't clean. Blah. Plus the fact that she may need to spend time in the NICU if she's too underweight is really scaring me as well. I'm just trying not to think about it too much though, leaving it in God's hands cause at this point all I can do is rest and hope she's getting enough nutrients and blood flow. Grow baby grow!!

Pretty Gifts


I wish all of the gifts under our tree looked like these.... hint hint artistic graphic design hubby of mine

Diamonds and Twinkling Stars

Naomi's rash ended up being just dry skin per her pediatrician, but she did come down with a little 24 hr bug/fever, so yesterday was still a pretty trying day. She just hates taking her medicine, and bargaining, bribery etc do little to persuade her. We finally ended up getting her to agree to take some tylenol mixed in with juice. Although it takes forever for her to actually finish it all, at least she gets some meds in! It's amazing how different she is when she has a fever vs once the medicine has kicked in. Last night she woke up at 10pm completely distraught, crying and lethargic. Here's what she was like once the meds kicked in. For some reason she kept getting hung up on the "diamonds". Guess she's gonna be like her momma and like her some pretty bling...

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Bed Rest Day 3

Well I finished my first complete day of bed rest yesterday. I spent most of it asleep, I guess I'm still catching up on a lot of lost years of sleep and trying to get over a disgusting cough/cold. Thankfully my sore throat went away with all the sleep, but my cough is never ending. Austin's had it for over a week now, so I'm only on day 2 or 3....
I did manage to get some christmas shopping done online for Naomi's daycare teachers, and for Austin's gift. yay.
But overall I'm completely sore from lying in bed all day, and definitely getting a bit restless. I started watching Friday Night Lights. I have only ever seen season 1 so I guess now's a good time to catch up.
Day 3 pretty much started off like Day 2 except worse. Naomi woke up super early at 6:30 (vs her usual 8) screaming cause her tummy hurt. She wanted milk, so we thought maybe she was just hungry since she didnt' have a big dinner. After milk, she was still complaining her stomach hurt, and was passing some majorly foul odors. There definitely has been a stomach bug going around at her school, so we were worried she was coming down with something. And it didn't help she kept yelling that the doctor said she was sick and needed to stay in bed with mommy. Anyway, after awhile she calmed down and by the time Austin was ready for work, she was set for school. She still cried and demanded I go with her, but managed to calm down by the time we got to the car. By the time they got to daycare, Austin started feeling really crummy himself. He has had a cold for a week now, as I mentioned, but since he's never getting any rest, and has been working late nights, it really started hitting him last night and again this morning. He ended up calling out of work sick and came home and fell back asleep. At around 10am though, we got a call from the daycare saying Naomi had a rash on her hand and foot and needed to be sent home in case she had a virus. Which means 1) we have a house full of invalids. 2) bed rest will be extremely interesting today 3) Austin isnt' going to get the rest he thought he could 4) we have a doctor's appt for Naomi at 3;30 today and 5) which is the saddest bit, she's going to miss her first dance recital! Of course it's not really a huge deal, how much dancing can a bunch of 2 year olds really do? Well if every kid was like Naomi, a LOT, but oh well. Hopefully it's nothing serious and she'll be back up in no time.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Potty Update

We had our first completely accident free day!! Not one single time did Naomi need to change at school because of an accident. And she's actually telling her teachers, and us, when she has to go potty. Up until today she never really said whether she had to go, but if you asked her if she needed to go, she would say yes and willingly potty. But today, according to one of her teachers, there was several times where all of a sudden she'd stop playing, yell out, "I have to go potty" and book it to the bathroom. A couple of times she was grabbing in between her legs as she rushed to make it in without an accident.
Her daycare teacher did call me today to tell me she fell OFF the potty in the afternoon, hit her face against another potty, and had a small red mark on her cheek. No bruising, but I guess pottying is a hazardous thing...especially when you're 2.5, and you're my child, who literally cannot sit still for more than 2 seconds.

Bath time interviews

A rough morning

We had a rough morning today. Naomi knew I was home, knew I was stuck in bed, decided she was sick too and had to stay in bed with mommy. She kept begging to stay home with me. I couldn't help but start crying myself. When did my baby start talking like a real kid? She was sooo clingy, begged me to take her to school and stay with her. Finally I ended up just walking her downstairs. While Austin finished getting his stuff together for work ,Naomi just cuddled up in my lap and clung to me. Seriously the hardest thing about being on bedrest is telling Naomi I can't be there to pick her up from daycare, or I can't get up to run around and play with her. I know it's only temporary, hopefully just this week, and we should be thankful that soon it'll be all over and we'll have a healthy baby, but I can't help but feel like I'm already being forced to choose which kid I'll take care of. I've been careful not to tell Naomi I'm stuck in bed because of her baby sister. I dont want her to have things to resent the baby for or to be jealous of the baby. So I'm just telling her I'm sick and have to stay in bed. Tomorrow is Naomi's first dance recital at school. She's so incredibly excited about it and will shriek and jump and dance for you if you ask her about it. She's excited that mommy and daddy and ahma and do-do are all going to watch her. I'm totally busting out of my jail sentence for the recital, but part of me feels guilty because aren't I essentially picking Naomi's happiness over the health of my second child by disobeying the doctor's order? And of course another part of me tells worry wart self to shut up cause I'm making mountains out of molehills and one afternoon out where I'm sitting down the entire time, isn't going to hurt.
Anyway bedrest blows!! 6 more days and counting. PS thanks for all the calls, emails and prayers. Totally means a lot to us that we have so many people thinking of us.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Unexpected complications

Today I went in for my 35 wk checkup and ultrasound. I've been getting extra ultrasounds throughout this pregnancy to monitor the baby's kidneys (which were too large) and her growth rate (which was too slow). At today's check up, the kidneys are a-ok which is great news since enlarged kidneys can be a soft indicator for birth defects such as downs syndrome and heart disease. Thankfully it looks like we have nothing to worry on that front.
Unfortunately, the baby's growth rate isn't exactly where the doctor would like it. Despite the fact that Naomi was a small baby (6lbs 10oz and 19 inches) and remains a small toddler (the last we checked she was in the 2% class for weight and 25% for height, the OB was still concerned. Ultimately he had to make a decision to have me deliver today, meaning the baby would probably be in the NICU for awhile, but at least getting the necessary nutrients she needed, or to have me go on bedrest for a week and check to see if that would help get blood flow to the uterus. He ultimately chose bedrest, which is a blessing and a curse. Bedrest is not fun. I've only been officially on bed rest for half of a day and I'm already getting antsy. Not only am I worried about the baby, yes I had a mini meltdown in the car on the way home, I'm literally supposed to be on my back for 99% of the day, not even sitting. I'm allowed to take one bath/shower, go to the bathroom and have meals out of bed. (plus I have a cold and sore throat to boot). After an afternoon in bed, I'm achey from lying down all day, my head hurts, and I'm totally stir crazy! I still have another 6 days to go! And of course I feel like I'm missing out on precious time with Naomi before the baby gets here. Thankfully my parents are here, and Austin is able to get out of work earlier to pick her up from daycare, so she's completely well taken care of. But I am completely envious of Austin as I hear them laughing and singing songs during her bathtime. Hopefully the week will be enough to get baby 2 on track growth wise so I can be back on my feet for the last 4 wks of my pregnancy, and hopefully we'll be able to hold on until the new year until she makes her appearance!

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Gifts....its the thought that counts.

Christmas shopping is hard. It's harder when you're in your last month of pregnancy and your husband is using his sickness, a "cold" as an excuse to not come up with any ideas for family members.
Which brings me to the point of this post. A couple years ago, for one of our wedding anniversaries, the traditional gift of that year was Leather. You know, like how on the first year you give paper, and as you get further into the years the gifts go up in stake/value? Like eventually I'll get to my diamond anniversary? lol. Anyway, for the year of leather...Austin got me beef jerky and a 3 slim jims. Yea cause they all come from cows....

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Potty Time 3.1....no going back now

Potty training was excellent yesterday. Naomi only had half of an accident, and that was because she couldn't get to the potty in time, so half got on her pants, half in the toilet. On the way home, I wanted to put a diaper on her for the drive home, but she refused and said diapers were for babies, so we went to the potty one last time and braved it home. Thankfully we had no accidents en route.
Once we got home, she sucecssfully went #1 and #2 in her potties before bed and bath.
Surprisingly after her bath, Naomi had no qualms with putting a diaper on for bed.
However, when Austin got into her bedroom this morning, he came into find his 2.5 yr old butt naked. Yes, she had pulled her pants off, untaped her diaper, and was lying in bed naked from the bottom down. She looked at Austin and said, "daddy, I need big girl undies. Diapers are for (baby #2)". Thankfully, she didn't have any accidents and never wet the bed, so Austin took her to the potty where she proceeded to do her business.
Well day 2 started of strong, and there's no going back now that she's decided diapers are for babies. I see a similarity in how she's viewing the advancement to how she viewed her crib. Once she got it in her head that it was time to move on, there was no going back.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Potty Time Part 3

I realized I never blogged about the results of our attempts at potty training several months ago. Long story short, we decided to hold off. She was having a ton of accidents at school and I could tell it was starting to stress her teacher out a bit since she wasn’t grasping the concept as quickly as some of the other kids had when they attempted to train them at school. And given she spends more time at daycare than at home, I didn’t want Naomi to feel any stress and possibly resentment towards the potty. One day she p’ed while she was on the playground and didn’t tell anyone cause she knew it would interrupt her playtime. Eventually one of her teachers found her standing in her own puddle. Gross. They tried to reinforce the idea that we go p.p in the potty. Naomi said, “ok I go pp in the potty”. Five minutes later when her teacher asked her, “Naomi where do we go pp?” Naomi yelled out, “on the playground!!!!” lol.
Anyway after two days of potty training at daycare, we decided to pull the plug and hold off.
Until about a month ago. We started noticing that everytime we got Naomi in the tub, she’d start pee’ing as soon as she got in the water, which would mean draining the tub, and refilling it with fresh water. Finally tired of this game, Austin and I decided to make her sit on the potty each night before bath time, until she pee’ed. The first couple of nights took a LONG time, we plopped her on her potty in front of some nickelodeon shows, or with the iPad. It was a late couple of nights, but each night she would eventually go, get sooo incredibly excited (we had to catch her to wipe her down before she ran around and dripped all over the house), and she received huge, generous prizes. Yea we bribed our kid to go on the potty. Amongst the prizes, a tinkerbell fairy dress, tinkerbell crown, tinkerbell wand, necklace, bracelet, stickers etc.
Each night we noticed she’d take less and less time. And a couple of mornings, Austin would find her with a completely dry diaper and they’d make it to the potty in time for her to do her business then as well.
This past Sunday, in the middle of the day, for the first time, Naomi told me she had to go potty. So we went. I figured she’d just sit there, jump up without going, and go back to playing. But to my surprise, and her excitement, she actually went!
So today, we sent her to daycare with loads of extra clothes, big girl underwear and a lot of good lucks for her teachers. As of 3:30 the status update I’ve had from her teacher? No accidents at all. Tons of potty time though! And Naomi is super excited, and telling all her friends and teachers how her diapers are going to go to her baby sister now.
Anyway, it’s a long post with no pictures, cause really do you want pictures of potty training? Who knew bathroom business could be so exciting!! It’s just the beginning, but it’s terribly exciting to know we’re getting somewhere with this potty business.

Monday, December 6, 2010

A simple prayer

A simple prayer by a 2.5 yr old:

"Dear God, thank you and please take care of Everyone Amen"

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Naomi's Snowman

At Daycare, Naomi's class colored snowmen for their class wall. The teachers then wrote their names on the snowmen with each kid's birthday. Naomi loves to color. In fact she loves anything artistic, that has to do with crafts. Guess she gets that from her graphic designer daddy. Anyway, with this particular snowman, she worked so hard on it that her teachers had to finally tell her she could only color for 2 more minutes because it was time to move on to the next activity and put all the crayons away. Can you guess which snowman was hers?



Of course there are good days too..

I feel like most of my posts referring to our morning routines insinuate that they're always rough, chaotic, fully of tantrums, etc. They're really not. Yes we have our off days, and there are days when Austin struggles to get Naomi to school on time without tears....but there are days where from the minute Naomi wakes up, she's excited, rearing to go, helpful, and just completely happy. Yesterday was one of those days. Thank goodness. After two rough mornings, and only 2 days on his new job, Austin needed a break. Here's to hoping for more good days than bad!


- Naomi waving bye to her daddy from daycare


- Naomi ready to go to school!