Other Updates

After our wild and crazy weekend, I almost forgot to update the other things we learned at Abigail's doctor's appointment.

• She weighs 25 pounds (50% for weight - completely average).
• She is 34 inches long (97% for height - she's tall - we knew this).
• She has a big head. I don't remember exactly what the measurement was but it was the 99% for head circumfrence. I was a bit distracted during the appointment because I kept wondering when she'd throw up next.

I talked to him about her immunity, that she seems to be sick so often. He asked what she did while I was at work and when I said "daycare part-time" he said that sounds like the problem. Now, I just have to say that I think our daycare is the best there is but still, lots of kids mean lots of germs.

I guess we'll see if Abigail's sickness frequency improves when she's home with me. I understand that kids/people are just going to get sick but she's been down for three weeks now, with three different illnesses. That seems like a lot!

I believe I am now officially a fantasy football widow for the next oh . . . 4 or 5 months. Andrew had his draft yesterday afternoon, during which Abigail was terribly cranky and whiney (no matter what I did) and kept asking for "dada" so we went to his office to see him . . . where he promptly asked me if we could leave. Ha! He actually said it nicer than that - "How long are you planning to stay?" So we left. Abigail and I played outside a lot yesterday afternoon because of the beautiful weather. I just wish I had more energy and stamina!

Names

Round one of name elimination:

You all eliminated (with most negative votes):

Joelle
Tiffany (yes, thanks for that)
Felicity

Andrew eliminated:
Evie
Charlotte
Abrielle

And I eliminated:
Nora
Faith
Elaine

Hmm, I wonder where this will take us!

Today

I just wanted to update that today was much better. Besides being slightly tired, Abigail seems to be better. She still had a slightly elevated temp (99.8) at bedtime but I think that may still be related to her cold.

We spend almost the whole day together as a family and it was absolutely wonderful. It felt so good! Andrew was a huge help to me today as I am reaching the stage of pregnancy where it's hard to always be lifting and carrying a toddler around (and changing diapers on the floor).

We're ready to turn in here in a little bit for some more Battlestar Galatica viewing.

It sure it nice to have time to be together!

What a day . . .

My poor girl just can't seem to get well.

She woke up this morning with another temp (100). We had a doctor's appointment anyway so I took her downstairs to start the day.

I tried to put her in the high chair for breakfast but she resisted (that's when I knew something was up). I tried to intice her with blueberries and toast but she wouldn't eat.

Then the vomiting started! She hasn't kept anything down since then. She did drink a whole cup of coconut milk and kept it down for about an hour but then started acting cranky and I guess that didn't sit well either.

Yuck!

Thankfully she is a sleep right now, which is a blessing. I hope she can shake this thing quickly, poor girl.

I'm off to do laundry before we run out of towels that she can throw-up into. She doesn't get the toilet or trash can idea. Believe me, I tried. She only fought me harder and we got into quite a mess which ended up with me changing all of my clothes, including underwear. It was not pretty!

(P.S. We actually made it to the doctor but that wasn't pretty either. She vomited four times in the car but not once in the doctor's office.)

My thoughts on staying home - Part 1

I have been wanting to write a few posts (for memory's sake) about my thoughts on staying at home. I don't think it's any big surprise that once baby #2 comes along, I plan to be at home with my kids, at least for a while.

It is that phrase "a while" that has me a bit nervous, among other things. I'm a number cruncher and a "budget - er". I love to budget. We are so close to making it work that we're just going to give it a shot. I have no idea how tight I can pinch things when I become a stay-at-home-mom. So, we're just going to see.

I have a few other opportunities that might come up. Some of you might remember that I used to teach voice lessons. There is a possibility that I might be able to do that again to help bring in some income, without a lot of cost.

However, this brings me to the heart of the matter. . . being with my kids.

Life seems so short to me sometimes. I feel called to be the primary influence in my kids lives. I know it won't be easy and sacrifices will be made but I can't ever imagine regretting this decision.

I have gotten so much encouragement as a parent from this blog:

http://proverbs14verse1.blogspot.com/

Her words are so soothing to me and so uplifting so I hope you all enjoy it.

I was thinking the other day about how it hasn't gotten any easier to leave my daughter during this year and a half of working. I still miss her when she's not here, I think about her all day - what she's doing. I wonder if she's upset or crying and feel sad that mommy isn't there to wipe away the tears. I want to be there playing with her, feeding her, parenting her.

However, I do want to say how blessed we've been by our daycare situation. I cannot imagine any better scenario because we have loving and wonderful grandparents watching her and a loving and wonderful babysitter. I can tell by Abigail's reactions to them that she is well cared for . . . and that certainly does help. I am certainly not implying here that I'm unhappy with her care, in fact the opposite is true.

This is all for post #1 but there will be more. In the meantime, I am just simply looking forward to being mommy - the teacher, cook, comforter, doctor, playmate, and maid (and many other hats, I'm sure) to my children.

A Full Heart

I enjoy many things. Definitely time with my husband and daughter is at the very top of the list. But, you want to know what else ranks right up there (of course, beneath them) is choral music. I keep telling myself that I'll have time to sing in a GOOD choir again someday. I am just trying to put my family first right now.

In the meantime, listening to glorious sounds like this will have to suffice:

Precious Girls Updates

After a few night wakings, Abigail woke up with a normal temperature today. I'm not sure why she was awake. She either couldn't find a paci (pachee -as she has been calling them) or she was miserable in some way. Her nose wasn't running and her temperature had gone down throughout the night, so I'm not sure what it was.

I hope she continues to improve throughout the day and will be remarkably better by tomorrow. :)

Here is a little picture of my sweetie trying out her baby sister's new bouncy seat! :)

Another photo of her on the way home from Pittsburg with two paci's (pachee's) in her mouth (mou - as she calls it). See her poor sick eyes? :(

In other news (about Abigail), she has had a big language explosion lately. She can repeat many more words after us now (that sound correct) and has started putting two words together. She often says, "bye bye dada" or "bye bye dewey". Sometimes she'll just march into the room with her baby and blanket and just say "bye bye momma" and walk into the other room.

She regularly asks for Vi, Vi C (vitamin C - only my child, I tell ya!) and has recently started telling me to put it in her mou (mouth). She can also say nose, eyes, ears, and mouth when asked what those body parts are.

She is slowly showing signs of being aware of her body. She regularly says "poo poo" when I change her diaper (whether or not that has actually happened) and has recently begun seeking privacy to use the bathroom in her diaper.

I know it would be nice to have her out of diapers sooner rather than later but everything I have read says that it does no good to rush into things and she's still quite young. So, I'm just trying to make her aware of things, offer the potty when I can, and make sure potty training related things feel "fun" to her.

I'm sure no serious potty training will take place until I am settled in at home with both girls for a while. I take a while to adjust to new things anyway, so I'm giving myself plenty of time to do that with this new baby.

Speaking of the new baby, I suppose an update is necessary. . . :)

I'm almost 28 weeks and went in for that appointment this morning. Everything looks great. Blood pressure was good, baby's heartbeat was great (around 150 bpm) and I got my RoGam injection for this pregnancy (I have an RH- blood type and Andrew is RH+). The only thing of any concern was that my iron levels were a little low. The midwife thought that it might help to add an iron supplement just a few times a week, not even needed everyday. So, I ordered some.

We had a nice talk about adding a second child (thankfully the midwife didn't tell me any horror stories like I have been hearing - but was actually encouraging - what a relief!!!). And I had her sign my paperwork for the birth center. My glucose test came back great and so I can officially be called a "low risk" pregnancy and am clear for delivery in the birth center unless something weird pops up.

I am technically supposed to be going every two weeks at this point but we both felt (midwife and myself) that we could stretch this out a little bit because I am so low risk and healthy. So my next appointment is in three weeks (not that much of a stretch) and the appointment after that will be three weeks later. Then I think I will have one or two - two week appointments then I'll go to once a week.

It is amazing how fast this pregnancy is going. I suppose it helps that I'm quite busy with my first little princess! :)

Crazy Times!

We've returned from a whirlwind and fun trip to Pittsburg for a family reunion. The unfortunate part was that Abigail started showing cold symptoms on Friday (sneezing and runny nose) and they just got worse as the weekend went on. She still was a pretty good girl, at least sleeping well, and we had fun.

She had a 100 degree temp this morning, so I'm home with her. She acts like she feels fine but does have a runny (green) nose. Yuck! We have a doctor's appointment on Friday for a check up so I'm going to see if she can last until then. Of course we'll take her if she gets worse. I'm a bit frustrated/confused as to why she seems to be sick all the time. I wonder if it is allergy related. Hmm! Anyway, just a week ago she had a cough and runny nose. She recovered from that quickly and didn't need to miss daycare thankfully.

Anyway, there are lots of fun pictures to come from our trip but right now I'm trying to work from home (to keep myself afloat in this busy season) and have a snotty nose to wipe. We also need groceries badly!

New Office

With the new baby coming, we needed more space. We have two rooms upstairs (current nursery and our master bedroom), an "office"/bedroom on the middle floor, and a guest room. We like having the guest room ready to go. I don't want to give that up if at all possible. So, we decided to turn the old office into Abigail's new bedroom and create an office for Andrew in the basement.

He was particularly into this idea. 1) He doesn't like me messing with this stuff. :) 2) He likes quiet, cool quarters. Ha!

So, we finally finished it a few weeks ago. Here are pictures.


Here is our mainly unfinished basement, except for one really nice room. Please, please ignore how incredibly messy the table, etc, is. It is man stuff that I don't know what to do with! Help! Oh, and our doggy is in the picture. This picture is showing the door into the office from the bottom of the stairs.


Andrew has a fully IKEA office. Seriously . . . bookshelves, lights, flooring, furniture, frames, desk, etc. We probably would have bought the paint and drywall there, if they sold that sort of stuff.


More bookshelves. I deleted the picture of the couch. I should have taken another picture but the original had me laying on it in all my pregnancy glory with a lovely double chin to boot (you can see a glimpse on the left hand side of this photo). So, sorry. Couch pictures later.

Andrew's chair, desk, and computer. Also, his beloved IKEA light. This is where all the web magic happens for several lucky companies that hire him to do their website or tech support. Can you see the baby monitor on the desk? Abigail must have been in bed when these were taken.

And there he is now . . . the brilliant web and computer guy . . . working on something important. I don't see a chess game open on the computer, so he must be doing something important (always what I assume).
And there you have it. A tiny but cozy and beautiful room that I'm sure he'll use for a long time!

Names and Meanings

Ah! I keep adding names. I need to be subtracting. I think I'm going to scour through my baby name book one more time this weekend and after that we're going to start eliminating names slowly but surely.

I think we may do it by veto. I get to veto one, Andrew gets to veto one, and then the least popular one voted on by all you wonderful people get's eliminated as well. We may do that every few weeks until we have a small list to really pray over (hello - that's important, right?!) and decide from.

Anyway, here are the meanings. Hopefully this doesn't change your vote. :)

Abrielle: God is my Strength
Audrey: Noble Strength
Cara: Dear
Claire: Illustrious
Charlotte: Free
Ellen: Light
Eliana: God has answered
Elaine: Light
Evelyn: Beautiful Bird
Evie: Life
Faith: Faith
Felicity: Happiness
Gwyneth: Fortunate, Blessed
Hannah: Blessed by God
Inara: Illuminating, Shining
Joelle: God will be willing
Joy: Delight
Karis: Graceful
Lily: Lily Flower
Lainey: From the Lane
Lucy: Light
Nora: Honor
Olivia: Elf Army
Sadie: Princess
Tiffany: Manifestation of God
Zoe: Life

There are new ones to vote on, if you wish!

Mind Numbing!

Oh my! I have been doing mind numbing data entry today. It is for the automatic funds transfer here at the preschool. Wow!

I must take a quick break before the ole brain explodes.

Fun Fact about me:

When I was in High School, our school participated every year in something called the "Academic Olympics". We all got out of a day of school and went to a "local" Junior College and took tests. These tests were judged on accuracy and speed. Our school competed as a whole against other schools and we all competed individually in different subjects. (Pretty sure our school usually won or ranked fairly high).

All four years of High School I was chosen by the school administration/teachers to take the music test . . . and I never ranked in the top five. Of course, there were probably 8 or 9 schools competing (I don't remember how many delegates from each school could take a single test but it was more than one), and the ranking only went to the top 5th place.

However, my senior year, one of my teachers recommended that I take two other tests, 1) Secretarial Procedures ("how to make a proper filing cabinet" amongst other things), and 2) the 10-key machine speed test. I also took the music test that year.

Well, needless to say, I was shocked out of my skin when my name was announced as #4 place finisher in the speed 10-key test (a skill that is coming in handy today!) and as #1 finisher in the Secretarial Procedures.

See, I guess I was always destined to be a secretary/office type. If you want to know how the "textbooks" tell you to organize a filing cabinet, I'm your woman.

I'm not sure what this fun little story tells you about my musical skills, though. . . hmm!

P.S. I think my sister ALWAYS placed in the psychology test during her high school years. Guess that's why she's a doctor of psychology now. Go figure!

Results Thus Far . . . *Updated*

*Updated: I just added a few more names. These haven't been Andrew approved yet so he may hate them. Just thought I'd see what people thought! I think I'll post the meanings today or tomorrow.*

(Click on link below to see new names).

I thought I'd post the baby name results for those who can't see them. Of course, this is just as it stands so far. It will be interesting to see if more people vote in the days ahead.

Girl	Audrey Schechter	13 7
Girl	Claire Schechter	13 5
Girl	Charlotte Schechter	8 9
Girl	Ellen Schechter	8 11
Girl	Eliana Schechter	6 12
Girl	Elaine Schechter	4 13
Girl	Faith Schechter	10 8
Girl	Felicity Schechter	4 14
Girl	Hannah Schechter	12 7
Girl	Inara Schechter	7 11
Girl	Joelle Schechter	1 16
Girl	Karis Schechter	9 8
Girl	Lily Schechter	13 6
Girl	Lainey Schechter	8 10
Girl	Lucy Schechter	10 9
Girl	Nora Schechter	7 12
Girl	Olivia Schechter	9 8
Girl	Sadie Schechter	12 7
Girl	Tiffany Schechter	5 13
Girl	Zoe Schechter	4 14

In all honesty, I'm a little shocked at the results. :) Of course, now I can think of a few more that we talked about that aren't on here but I guess they weren't big considerations. I can't redo the list now! :)

At some point (not today), I want to put up the meanings of some of these, which might explain why we chose a few of the "weirder" ones.

Voting is still open. Click here to vote: