weekly olive: thirty

This past week has been so much fun! We have been visiting family in Texas and Olive has just been so happy getting to spend time with her extended family.  She was a dream on the flight here and made all of the flight attendants swoon with her cuteness.

Basically we have just been running around meeting up with friends and family.  Olive has been getting to try lots of tasty things like avocados, carrots, spinach and crackers. She seems to be enjoying solids much  more these days.  She has also been taking small sips of water from a sippy cup.  She is doing so well.

Sleep wise we are kind of in a funk, but I totally don't blame her since we just had daylight savings change and are in a different time zone.  Fingers crossed we can get her back into some sort of routine when we get home.

She has definitely gone through a growth spurt! I weighed her and I think she is in between 15-16lbs.  I had to weigh myself with her and the weight wasn't consistent so I am guessing but that's a huge jump since her last doctors appointment! 

She is still basically the happiest baby on the block. She has her moments of course, but she loves everything and just goes along with everything.  We are so very blessed with this little diva! 

 

monthly noah: thirty

seriously... this boy.  I cannot believe his changes.  Just when I think he's still my baby, he grows that much more.

His verbal is outstanding! Or at least we can communicate with each other, which is outstanding to me. He is counting, recognizes most shapes - written numbers - written letters - colors.

He can recognize when he needs to use the bathroom and go on his own! We are in FULL big boy undies mode (even at bed time).  I actually wanted to keep him in pull-ups, but school said it was time to make the switch.  So during the day he was all undies and even during nap.  Then one day after his bath he said that he wanted to wear his big boy undies to bed... I will admit that I fought him on it because I could just foresee that the ONE night he sleeps in his undies he will wet his bed, but nope... he was ready! So we've been in full undies mode for two weeks and going strong.  I still ask him 400 times an hour if he needs to pee or poop, but I am so glad that we started this when we did.

He has become so very independent, which is great since I am having to be more hands-off while I am in incubation mode.  He is so very gentle and sweet.  Loves to rub my back or my belly while I cuddle him before bedtime.  He is still so so active, but thankfully school takes a lot of all that energy so when he gets home we can cuddle, watch movies, read books and just chill.

We signed Noah up for fall preschool and I am so excited to see all the exciting things he picks up while there.

I am completely head over heals for this boy more and more every day.  And I can tell that Daddy is just as smitten.  I can't wait to see his reaction to his baby sister in the upcoming weeks.  

Nugget: thirty weeks

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along: 30 weeks! This is a huge milestone! By 30 weeks pregnant with Mason I had already been on hospital bedrest for more than a week and was waiting for the notice that it was time to deliver our baby. I was rapidly retaining fluids and gaining weight. My blood pressure was crazy high, Mason had stopped growing in the weeks prior and my umbilical cord flow was reversing. All a recipe for disaster.

Size of Baby: about the length of an English cucumber. 

Total Weight Gain:  19lbs

Maternity Clothes: yesssss...

Gender: GIRLIE

Movement: she seems like she's spinning around more lately and at my OB appointment he confirmed that she is breach. I'd definitely prefer head down but whatever... My hips are thanking the little lady for not being transverse.

Sleep: not too much

What I Miss: sleep

Cravings: nothing really

Best Moment this Week: see that girl wiggle on the ultrasound screen. Hearing her heartbeat and seeing that things are okay for now. Gave me a little relief.

Blood Pressure: 130s/70s and 80s. Seems like my blood pressure is creeping a little bit. My OB wasn't freaking out on me which is good news. He checked my urine for protein and did bloodwork to check for anything else that might be causing the rise. I am pretty much seeing my doctors every week or two now so I am sure they will be keeping a close eye for preeclampsia. 

I'm Trying not to panic about the elevated blood pressures. It's really hard given my history. I really just want to get to full term and bring this girl home with us. It's my hope and prayer. 

weekly wonder: thirty

The first Sunday in September, we visited our good friends, Kaitlin and Dan, for brunch and some afternoon swimming. Upon arrival, Noah played with his baby bestie, Allison and ransacked her parents house. It was... well awesome, of course!

After the ransackery, we ate brunch and Noah had two giant blueberry pancakes! He devoured them very quickly and managed to make quite the mess out of himself in the process.

Once we had all stuffed our faces, we went back to the house and changed for pool time. We have been having a heat wave in LA lately, so because of that the pool water was absolutely perfect. Noah had so much fun swimming back and forth to anyone that would catch and release him. He really enjoyed swimming with our good friend Rachel because she was squirting water at his face, which he found absolutely hilarious. He had so much fun that I had to practically pry him out of the pool to go take his nap. I guess I could have let him stay longer, but I could tell he was getting really tired and I definitely didn't want a melt down after all the fun we had just had.

I could have shot myself that I didn't take any pictures of sweet baby Allison. She's grown up so much in just 4 months and she is just cute as a button. I actually forgot to take pictures all together, but my friend Rachel grabbed my camera and snapped some pics while we were swimming and Kaitlin took some cool underwater videos.

It was such a fabulous morning/afternoon and we are so fortunate to have friends that are willing to share their hospitality us!

get your blood pressure cuffs ready...

So part of my blog history started when I began documenting my pregnancy with Noah after my difficult and tragic pregnancy experience with our first son, Mason.

Mason was born 10 weeks early after I was diagnosed with a hypertensive illness (high blood pressure) known as preeclampsia.  This illness can be deadly for both mother and baby. Many people don't actually know anything about preeclampsia. I know I didn't. I am one of those women who likes to know what's going on when it comes to everything and I had NO clue about this deadly illness.

Anyways, you can read the rest of that story here...

Fast forward to 2013.  I have a wonderful 1 year old son and I am awaiting for my sister, Stephanie, to give birth to my precious niece, who is not due until the end of April.  I get a phone call in the middle of a Thursday (March 14...well over a month early) from my sister explaining that she is going to the hospital for an emergency c-section because of the SAME illness that I had 2.5 years earlier.  My wonderfully healthy and amazingly strong sister who does EVERYTHING right to a T has preeclampsia.

Thankfully, her doctors knew exactly what to watch for in her case.  Amazingly enough before she became pregnant she was tested and her doctors knew our family history so that she could proceed with caution.  That's how they were able to notice her high blood pressure and even more importantly her little baby's distress signals on the monitor.  This is important stuff, people!  Knowing what to look for and knowing to be proactive is the key!  I am so sad that the only way some of this knowledge is found is through trial and error, but I am so very thankful for my sister and her little girl, Clara Elise's life!

We are very excited to be participating in the Promise Walk for Preeclampsia for the second time since it is fundraising for something that catastrophically affected our family TWICE.

Please consider walking in your local Promise Walk or supporting someone who is walking!
Support the Promise Walk for Preeclampsia

weekly noah: thirty and just about 7 months

30 weeks!!

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along: 30 weeks!!! I am so happy to have made it this far and still be healthy. 30 weeks has been a personal milestone for me because at 30 weeks 3 days I was horribly sick with preeclampsia and delivered our first baby, Mason. It feels so good to see this little man growing and thriving at this point in my pregnancy, especially after how difficult everything was last time around. Now I just want to make it another week... and keep going on from there.