Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Pregnancy update - 20 weeks
The results are in... We just got our 20 week ultrasound and...
IT'S A GIRL!
That's right, we're going to have another baby girl. Which is great because now I don't have to buy more clothes. ;-) So now that we know the gender, I'm starting to think about what I'm going to do for the new nursery and thinking more seriously about names and so on. Everything seems more real when baby has a gender.
Mira watched while the ultrasound was being performed, and I tried to explain to her that we were seeing pictures of the baby on the screen. But I don't think she got it. She was more interested in getting her fingers into the goo on my belly than looking at the images on the screen. Oh well.
This month I gained weight for the first time during this pregnancy. That's right, I gained... wait for it... a whopping 1 pound. That's right, a whole 16 ounces. This brings my total pregnancy weight gain to negative 6 pounds, so far. I'm really happy with that number. By this time in my pregnancy with Mira I had already gained at least 10 pounds. I'm sure it helps that I'm much more active during this pregnancy, what with chasing a toddler and semi-regular workouts. I'm also being careful-ish about what I eat.
I'm still feeling pretty tired all the time. And I have to pee about every 2 hours. But other than that I'm feeling good. So let's hope for another relatively easy pregnancy, like I had with Mira.
My belly's continuing to grow, despite my lack of weight gain, which is great. I now fall much more firmly into the "looks pregnant" category rather than the "looks like she has a beer belly" category. And my mom took me shopping for some more casual maternity clothes, so I can't wait to start showing off my baby bump in my new threads. (Thanks, Mom!)
I've also been feeling the baby move a lot this month. I started noticing it at around 15 weeks. With Mira, I noticed movement for the first time at around 17 weeks, so a little earlier this time, as would be expected with a second pregnancy. Brian's also been able to feel her move for the last week or so, which is cool for him.
IT'S A GIRL!
That's right, we're going to have another baby girl. Which is great because now I don't have to buy more clothes. ;-) So now that we know the gender, I'm starting to think about what I'm going to do for the new nursery and thinking more seriously about names and so on. Everything seems more real when baby has a gender.
Mira watched while the ultrasound was being performed, and I tried to explain to her that we were seeing pictures of the baby on the screen. But I don't think she got it. She was more interested in getting her fingers into the goo on my belly than looking at the images on the screen. Oh well.
This month I gained weight for the first time during this pregnancy. That's right, I gained... wait for it... a whopping 1 pound. That's right, a whole 16 ounces. This brings my total pregnancy weight gain to negative 6 pounds, so far. I'm really happy with that number. By this time in my pregnancy with Mira I had already gained at least 10 pounds. I'm sure it helps that I'm much more active during this pregnancy, what with chasing a toddler and semi-regular workouts. I'm also being careful-ish about what I eat.
I'm still feeling pretty tired all the time. And I have to pee about every 2 hours. But other than that I'm feeling good. So let's hope for another relatively easy pregnancy, like I had with Mira.
My belly's continuing to grow, despite my lack of weight gain, which is great. I now fall much more firmly into the "looks pregnant" category rather than the "looks like she has a beer belly" category. And my mom took me shopping for some more casual maternity clothes, so I can't wait to start showing off my baby bump in my new threads. (Thanks, Mom!)
I've also been feeling the baby move a lot this month. I started noticing it at around 15 weeks. With Mira, I noticed movement for the first time at around 17 weeks, so a little earlier this time, as would be expected with a second pregnancy. Brian's also been able to feel her move for the last week or so, which is cool for him.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Splash pad
This summer Mira and I have been spending a lot of time at the local (free!) splash pads. There seem to be a ton of them in the Austin area; I just never knew they existed until I had Mira. I'm so lucky we live in Austin with all the cool fun things to do nearby! Anyway, Mira always has a blast when we go to one of these splash pads. If you don't know what I mean by "splash pad", they're basically just a flat area with drainage where fountains come on for kids to play in. Some are little, like the one pictured below, and some are huge. Here are some photos from one of our recent trips.
This particular place has a big covered playscape, too.
Mira is so funny. She likes to run around the outside of the splash pad, squealing with excitement the whole time. It's only after she "warms up" a little that she'll actually go into the middle where she'll get wet.
This ball is awesome, in case you couldn't tell with your non-toddler senses.
Squeeeeeel! (This is toddler speak for "OMG this is the most fun I've ever had!")
Sharing a ball with one of her friends:
This particular place has a big covered playscape, too.
Mira is so funny. She likes to run around the outside of the splash pad, squealing with excitement the whole time. It's only after she "warms up" a little that she'll actually go into the middle where she'll get wet.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Pregnancy update - 16 weeks
Last week I had a checkup with my birthing center. I met another one of the midwives this time, meaning that I've now met all 4 of the midwives that work with this center. (The policy is that you rotate through the midwives at each of your prenatal visits so that by the time the baby comes you have a good relationship with all of them. Then at your delivery, two of the midwives attend you, maybe only one if they have a really busy day.) I like all of the midwives just fine, so far. I haven't had much of a chance to really get to know them individually yet, but that will come with time. They all have very nice bedside manner, though. And they all seem very supportive and attentive. At this checkup, I didn't have anyone lined up to watch Mira, so I just took her along. I brought some activities for her to do while I was being examined, but it turns out I needn't have brought anything. She was fascinated by watching me get checked out. She watched every move the midwife made. She got to listen to the baby's heartbeat with the doppler, which she thought was pretty cool. And all the staff at the birth center thought she was just adorable. They responded really well to her being there, which makes things so much easier for me since it means I don't have to try to find babysitters for my future prenatal visits.
It was just a routine appointment, so the most note-worthy thing that happened was that when I weighed myself, I discovered that I had lost 2 pounds since the previous visit a month earlier. I was so relieved to see that. My belly keeps getting bigger and bigger, and in my mind that translates directly into weight gain. But apparently, that's not necessarily true, which is great for me. My goal for this pregnancy is to keep my total weight gain to under 20 pounds, and so far I'm at negative 7 pounds. So that's a really great start toward meeting that goal. (Disclaimer: if you are of a healthy weight when you begin your pregnancy, it's usually not necessary to set weight goals and is healthier to just let your body do what it needs to. However, I am beginning this pregnancy overweight, still carrying excess weight from my previous pregnancy. I've consulted my care professionals about my weight goals, and they agree that they are healthy and achievable for me.)
The other bit of good news was that we scheduled the anatomy ultrasound, which is hopefully when the gender of the baby will be determined. We'll be finding out if we have a boy or a girl on Monday, August 30th. We'll be sure to update the blog with u/s pictures and results shortly after that visit, so stay tuned!
It was just a routine appointment, so the most note-worthy thing that happened was that when I weighed myself, I discovered that I had lost 2 pounds since the previous visit a month earlier. I was so relieved to see that. My belly keeps getting bigger and bigger, and in my mind that translates directly into weight gain. But apparently, that's not necessarily true, which is great for me. My goal for this pregnancy is to keep my total weight gain to under 20 pounds, and so far I'm at negative 7 pounds. So that's a really great start toward meeting that goal. (Disclaimer: if you are of a healthy weight when you begin your pregnancy, it's usually not necessary to set weight goals and is healthier to just let your body do what it needs to. However, I am beginning this pregnancy overweight, still carrying excess weight from my previous pregnancy. I've consulted my care professionals about my weight goals, and they agree that they are healthy and achievable for me.)
The other bit of good news was that we scheduled the anatomy ultrasound, which is hopefully when the gender of the baby will be determined. We'll be finding out if we have a boy or a girl on Monday, August 30th. We'll be sure to update the blog with u/s pictures and results shortly after that visit, so stay tuned!
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Sea World
Last week, my dad and I took Mira to Sea World. She had a great time. We saw 3 shows: the Shamu show, the one with the dolphins and the aerialists, and the goofy one with the sea lions and otter. She seemed to really like it when the whales or dolphins would jump up out of the water. Every time it happened, she pointed and then signed "more". I did learn that the trick to getting her to sit through a show is to not arrive too early and to bring in a snack. If we were sitting there too long for the show to start, she'd get antsy or fussy. And I think with all the fun things to do and see, she just forgot to say when she was hungry... until we'd sit down to wait for a show and then she'd remember. I had planned for her to nap in the stroller because the idea of trying to leave the park in the middle of the day and then come back later was just too cumbersome for me. She did fall asleep in the stroller twice, but she only stayed asleep for 15-20 minutes, if that. But despite the lack of a good nap, she made it all the way from when the park opened at 10am until 6pm when we left for dinner. She was utterly exhausted by the end of that, though. But that was good because it meant that she slept all the way back to Austin, thereby escaping the carsickness that had plagued us on the trip down.
Mira's favorite thing by far was the sea lion enclosure. She could have leaned on that wall for hours, just watching the sea lions swim around. Several of the female sea lions had recently born pups, so she was also really interested in watching them. We saw them nursing and saw the mother sea lions caring for them, helping them back out of the water and such. It was pretty cool.
One of the last things we did that day was to go see the dolphin tank. With the sea lions, you are looking down into a pool that is maybe 10 feet below, so they are pretty far away. But with the dolphins, the water comes right up to the edge of the wall. They are so close you can reach out and touch them. I think this was a little unnerving to Mira at first because it took her a while to warm up to the dolphins, but she did eventually decide that they were kinda cool, though she kept a wary eye on them.
The only thing that Mira really DID NOT LIKE was feeding the lorikeets (a tropical bird, like a parakeet). You could buy these cups of nectar, then go into their enclosure and the birds would fly right up to you, land on you, and drink the nectar out of the cup. Well Mira thought this was kinda neat until one landed on her head and then TOTAL MELTDOWN. I did manage to get one good picture before she lost it and we had to rapidly evacuate the birds' enclosure.
They were selling a "Fun Pass" for the same price as a single day admission that would allow you to come back as often as you want for the remainder of the year. We went ahead and bought those instead of just a single day pass (no point not doing so, they were the same price). So we can come back any time we want. I would really like to go back again, though I think we'll wait till the weather is cooler.
Mira's favorite thing by far was the sea lion enclosure. She could have leaned on that wall for hours, just watching the sea lions swim around. Several of the female sea lions had recently born pups, so she was also really interested in watching them. We saw them nursing and saw the mother sea lions caring for them, helping them back out of the water and such. It was pretty cool.
One of the last things we did that day was to go see the dolphin tank. With the sea lions, you are looking down into a pool that is maybe 10 feet below, so they are pretty far away. But with the dolphins, the water comes right up to the edge of the wall. They are so close you can reach out and touch them. I think this was a little unnerving to Mira at first because it took her a while to warm up to the dolphins, but she did eventually decide that they were kinda cool, though she kept a wary eye on them.
The only thing that Mira really DID NOT LIKE was feeding the lorikeets (a tropical bird, like a parakeet). You could buy these cups of nectar, then go into their enclosure and the birds would fly right up to you, land on you, and drink the nectar out of the cup. Well Mira thought this was kinda neat until one landed on her head and then TOTAL MELTDOWN. I did manage to get one good picture before she lost it and we had to rapidly evacuate the birds' enclosure.
They were selling a "Fun Pass" for the same price as a single day admission that would allow you to come back as often as you want for the remainder of the year. We went ahead and bought those instead of just a single day pass (no point not doing so, they were the same price). So we can come back any time we want. I would really like to go back again, though I think we'll wait till the weather is cooler.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Beach!
A few weeks ago (yes, I'm behind on my blogging), Mira and I went to the beach (Port Aransas) with my parents and my sister. (Brian couldn't come; he had to work. Boo. But thanks to my parents for paying for the room so that Mira and I could afford to come!) I would say that the trip was overall a success: we had a lot of fun and Mira seemed to really enjoy herself. She was very interested in the ocean and the sand and all the beach animals. The only negative things I have to say about it was: a) we have definitely confirmed that Mira got her carsickness from her mother (yuk); b) it's still pretty difficult to get Mira to sleep in an unfamiliar place, especially if I'm sharing a room with her. On the bright side, our hotel was on the beach, so it was really awesome having someplace neat to go just a short walk away. We were at the beach as often as possible, basically only coming back to the room when Mira needed to sleep. Which was tiring, both for me (being pregnant) and for her (because sand + water + cool things to learn about = yawn). I think she woke up from her naps still tired. By the 4th and last day, she was completely worn out from all the constant stimulation, so I think our trip was the perfect length.
Here she is on the beach.
In this one, she's in the waves. This was pretty much her reaction to every wave: even the smallest of waves would knock her down and then she'd run away only to come back for the next one.
In this one, she's found a particularly intriguing sea shell.
The thing she most enjoyed on the beach were these little bivalves (I think they are some kind of clam, or maybe a mussel... not sure). When a particularly large wave would come up, it would expose tons of these on the shore. As soon as the wave retreated, they would all dig themselves back into the sand. Mira was fascinated by watching them dig. If they didn't dig fast enough, she would "help" them by pushing them down into the sand herself. Then when they were all buried again, she'd sign "more". We eventually started farming them for her to play with.
Here she is on the beach.
In this one, she's in the waves. This was pretty much her reaction to every wave: even the smallest of waves would knock her down and then she'd run away only to come back for the next one.
In this one, she's found a particularly intriguing sea shell.
The thing she most enjoyed on the beach were these little bivalves (I think they are some kind of clam, or maybe a mussel... not sure). When a particularly large wave would come up, it would expose tons of these on the shore. As soon as the wave retreated, they would all dig themselves back into the sand. Mira was fascinated by watching them dig. If they didn't dig fast enough, she would "help" them by pushing them down into the sand herself. Then when they were all buried again, she'd sign "more". We eventually started farming them for her to play with.
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| All dolled up for the beach! |
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| Looking for clams |
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| "Where'd they all go?" |
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| "More!" |
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