April 2011

Our little girl continues to amaze us daily.

She is starting to speak in full sentences, and can even count to 12 and sing her ABC's (not perfectly, but pretty darn close!). She repeats EVERYTHING - which means we are trying to be on our best behavior in terms of which words we are choosing when talking to each other. She follows conversations that are not directed toward her or that do not include her, so we have to be extra careful!

She has made lots of friends. I take her to a Mom's group through our church when I can, and she loves playing with those kids. There are a few neighborhood friends who she recognizes and runs to when she sees them out and about.

This was a very busy month. We celebrated many birthdays - mine, my sister's, my twin nieces', John's grandmother's, Luci's, and John's.All of this in addition to going to a princess tea hosted at my old high school, multiple Easter egg hunts,and Easter.

We even had the pleasure of my dad's sister from Italy to visit us for the past month. It was great to watch as Luci built a relationship with her Great Aunt.

We have been trying to prepare Luci for the arrival of the new baby by slowing introducing new things to her. For instance, a few weeks ago, I put the infant car seat in the car, then I set up the swing, and just this afternoon I set up the pack-n-play. When you ask her who those are for, she answers "new baby," who she now insists is a brother.

Here are more pictures from the past month.

Something's Happening!

****Some of this content may seem like TMI for some people - sorry!***

So we just got back from a doctor's appointment (now 38+ weeks), and I am excited to report that I am 1.5 cm dilated. I know that this probably isn't really all that significant, but I never dilated with Luci, plus the doctor felt the head, so we are assured that this one is in the correct position.

I actually thought that Sunday night was the night. All 3 of us were lying on the couch together watching "Toy Story 3" when I felt a pretty strong contraction. I have been getting Braxton Hicks contractions for weeks now, but this was definitely different. I didn't say anything, looked at the clock and noted the time. 10 minutes later I had another one, even stronger. But then that was it. Bummer.

My plan is to still proceed with a VBAC (vaginal birth after C-Section). All of my doctors feel as though I am a great candidate for this due to the fact that I never had a chance to labor with Luci with her being breech and therefore a scheduled C-Section. So I am giving myself the maximum amount of time to go into labor on my own and didn't schedule my C-Section until May 17th (41 weeks).

I have been going on walks frequently in hopes of inducing labor. My neighborhood is all hills, and I try to walk pretty briskly up them. My neighbors probably think that I am crazy, but I don't care. I am still working too. Although, the swelling of my lower extremities has just started. I was swelling way earlier with Luci, and couldn't even wear my rings at this point with her, but this time is not nearly as bad.

Hopefully something will be happening sooner than later!

Happy 2nd Birthday Luci!

My little girl is 2 today - hard to believe!

We had her birthday party today and it was a total success!

I wasn't about to have people at my house at 38 weeks pregnant - call me lazy, I don't care. So we opted to have a a little place that is basically one big play room for kids. The kids loved it - they never stopped all afternoon and the adults enjoyed watching them have so much fun. I thought for sure that Luci would crash in the car on the way home and then take a good 2-3 hour nap - WRONG! She did fall asleep in the car, for the last 15 minutes of the ride - and that was it! I even tried to take her for a walk around the neighborhood, which usually works. But after an hour of pushing the stroller up our hills, I was done, and her eyes weren't even heavy. So we are hoping that she will crash tonight instead.

Happy Birthday Angel!

Plug your ears!

My little girl can scream!

Cake Monster

March 2011

We are in full transition mode right now. Luci is officially out of the nursery and is in her new room, in a big girl bed. It's been about 2 weeks now, and it has gone very well. She has mastered the art of climbing out of the foot of the bed and running down the hall to our room. The first week, this was occurring at 2am, but now it has moved later into the morning around 6:30 or 7, which is much better!

Her vocabulary is exploding. She says full sentences now and more people understand what she is saying. For a while, there were certain words that she would say that only John and I really understood, but now they are so much clearer - I am really impressed with how fast this has developed.

Potty training has taken a major halt. We encourage her to sit on her seat before every bath, but since someone different has her every morning, there has been no consistency with that visit to the bathroom. I am not really concerned at this time because I am sure that the arrival of the baby is going to throw a wrench in any sort of progress that we make - so I am just going to keep working on it a little at a time.

She has now become obsessed with Disney. We have been watching some of the movies lately (Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, Princess and the Frog, Enchanted, Toy Story, and now Tangled). Her favorite is Snow White. Her cousins went to Disney World this month and came home with an early birthday present - a Snow White costume. It will come in handy this weekend because my old high school is hosting a Princess Tea and then the twins are having a Princess birthday party in a few weeks, so we look forward to dressing her up in it!

We have a very month ahead of us, and I will keep you all updated on the status of #2!

Here are pictures from the last month.

Nap Time

She unfolded her Elmo couch,

crawled in,

wanted me to zip her up,

got comfy,

and fell asleep.

I love nap time!