Finished

We finally painted, installed and touched up the trim. It's good to be done with the upstairs and have it look nice. It has been the neglected room in our house and it's neglected no more.

Bubbles

His Very Own Chair

Upon rearranging our family room and clearing out the clutter, Aric discovered he has his very own chair. He's been getting lots of use out of it the past couple of days.

Aric's New Hobby

Almost 19 Weeks

I've been remiss in having a picture taken of my growing belly. Here's a photo of me from today:

And if you had any doubts about what our life is really like, here's the uncropped version:

Aric is never far away from the action. Would you expect anything less?

Small Victories

After offering Aric cut up, cooked sweet potato on four separate occasions he finally ate it last night instead of tossing it on the floor. It was wonderful to find him another finger food. Tonight I plan to cook the other sweet potato and some squash. Hopefully he'll quit being so picky and start eating more foods on his own.

Finished Painting

Ryan and I finished painting our family room this week. It looks much brighter and cleaner. We decided to put less furniture back into it to make it seem less crowded. Of course that means we have more junk to sort through and get rid of. That's alright, though, we needed to eliminate clutter.

As you can see we'll always have clutter with Aric around. We still need to buy, paint and install trim on that half wall. We'll probably do that this weekend since Home Depot is having their Memorial Day sale. Today I'll be busy sorting through things and hopefully getting some pictures hung up on the walls.

And next, I'll be repainting the kitchen...

Cooling Off

It was a little warm today. This afternoon Ryan set up Aric's baby pool for the first time. The water was a little cold, but Aric didn't seem to mind. I was surprised that we ended up spending about 30 minutes outside before he became bored. Thank goodness we bought a pool with a sunshade on it. Now if only I can find one for myself...

I was out earlier looking for a life jacket for Aric for the summer. I plan on going to the pool and thought it might be nice to have. I snatched one up today that was apparently last year's model. It was originally $26. I bought it for $7. I love finding sales!

Freaked Out

I brought home these today, a gift from a coworker, and freaked Ryan out. Not because they were baby clothes, but because they are pink and girly.

Hope

Hope seems a fitting title for this past week.

At the beginning of the week I struggled with trying to get Aric to eat solid food. I used the baby food grinder on two separate days with different foods. Everything I gave him caused him to gag and throw up. I decided to try a banana again. For the past four days I have given him banana chunks and he has devoured them. What a reassuring feeling that maybe there is hope we won't be sending him to kindergarten with jars of baby food. After all my time is running short, I only have a little over four years left to get him potty trained and eating solid food. This morning at the grocery store I bought butternut squash and sweet potatoes. Both of them are veggies he devours. I plan on cooking them up and giving him chunks to eat. I'm hoping that with a little time and patience he'll eat them up like he did with the banana chunks.

Everyday this past week I have felt the baby wiggling around. It has been reassuring to know that she is in there alive and well. I also don't feel a need to take my OB up on his weekly doppler offer since I can feel her now. I have continued to have no bleeding and no cramping. I haven't done anything too strenuous other than evening walks when the weather is nice. Ryan has been great about carrying things for me and taking Aric up and down the stairs. I have hope that the baby and I are healing and that both of us will be just fine.

Yesterday I finally talked to my supervisor about the possibility of working part-time after the baby is born. I don't want to quit outright, but I'd like to be home to raise my children. I also don't want to watch half my paycheck go towards daycare. My supervisor was open to me working part-time and is working to see if the other people up the chain of command will be willing to work with me. I don't have a definite answer yet, but I have hope (and alot to pray for).

And something not related to hoping- we are planning on tackling our upstairs family room. It's the only room we haven't done anything with (except for the two rooms we use just as storage). Tomorrow I have to mud the half wall and prepare it for paint. Ryan plans on starting to move the furniture out of the way and we both need to declutter the room. I'm excited to begin the project and finally get the room painted. It will look so much brighter. Here are a couple of before pictures:

Truth

This is what we really do on my days off. Just in case you were thinking I spend my days off doing housework, going to doctor's appointments, running errands and having play dates.

Reassurance

I had a normal checkup with my OB yesterday. It was reassuring to meet with him again and get some of my questions answered. He is still really optimistic that the abruption will heal itself and not be a problem for me or the baby. Apparently placental abruption happens to women frequently and the majority of them have no problems. The timing of it was good. If it happened earlier in the pregnancy I would've miscarried. If it happens later in the pregnancy it usually means emergency c-section.

I have another ultrasound scheduled in four weeks to check on the baby and how the abruption is healing. My OB said that I can come in weekly if I would like to use the dopplar to hear the baby's heartbeat in case I need reassurance that everything is alright. Have I mentioned how much I like my OB?

I am allowed to resume normal activities on Sunday if I haven't had any bleeding. I don't know that I'm going to be quite as ambitious as I had planned to be this summer. The gardening might get put on hold for another year. If that's what it takes to bring a healthy baby to full-term then I'll ignore them for another year.

And, should we choose to have more children, I'm not at risk to have this happen again. I get to start with a clean slate.

Swinging

Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny day. After dinner we decided to take Aric to a nearby park and let him swing for awhile. He laughs so hard when he gets to swing. We're discussing giving him a Little Tikes swing for his birthday. I think he'd really enjoy it.

A Scare and an Unexpected Ultrasound

Last night I discovered I was bleeding. It was very disconcerting and I immediately called the on-call OB. She told me to go in if it became worse, otherwise I was supposed to take it easy and call in the morning for an ultrasound appointment. Thankfully I already had the day off from work. I called this morning to make my appointment and met Ryan at the clinic this morning.

I have a minor placental abruption (the placenta separated from the uterine wall). The doctor said that it should heal over time and not be a concern. Apparently it just happens sometimes and they have no idea why. It's sill disconcerting, but since I'm not bleeding anymore or cramping at all I'm not going to stress over it. I will take it easy, though.

The baby is healthy and developing like she should be. Yes, it's a girl much to Ryan's dismay. Ryan, by the way, almost wrote a blog entry yesterday when he discovered everyone was voting for a girl in the poll. He wanted to know why everyone was out to get him.

Struggling

Aric, soon to be 11 months old, still hates textures. We are having quite the time getting him to eat anything other than pureed baby food, Cheerios and graham crackers. At this rate he won't be able to enjoy any birthday cake in June.

He had two days of success with small banana chunks and now refuses them. We've given him various fruits and veggies that he will barely touch. He clamps his mouth shut if we try to put anything in his mouth. Last night Ryan managed to sneak pancakes into Aric's mouth. Aric promptly gagged and threw up.

I'm at my wits end and unsure of how to proceed next. It would be wonderful if we could get him self-feeding and eating some of what we make for ourselves. I'm afraid that as easy-going as Aric has been, he's going to be just as stubborn learning how to eat "grown-up" food.

I'm definitely open to any suggestions and tricks you might have!

Goose Eggs and Toilets

This past Monday I received a call from Ms. Autumn while I was at work. I hate receiving calls regarding daycare while I'm working. It always means something is wrong. Sure enough, Mr. Sure-Footed stood up, let go of the coffee table and fell forward bashing his head into it. After crying, Ms. Autumn said Aric seemed fine except for the rather large goose egg developing on his forehead. I decided not to drop everything and rush to take him to the ER, since Aric wasn't acting in a way that made us think he had a head injury. Besides I can't just leave at work. They have to find someone to come in and replace me. Which isn't always an easy task. I did make a doctor's appt for Aric for later that day and after work I took him to get checked out. He was fine, except for the bump. This was taken a couple of days later. It doesn't look as bad as it was.

Aric discovered the toilet yesterday. I was taking a shower and letting him roam free in our bedroom and bathroom. I heard him in the bathroom and when I peeked around the curtain he was playing with his stacking cups. When I finished my shower and pulled back the curtain, he was standing next to the toilet banging on the lid. I then watched as he lifted the lid and stuck his hand in the water. Ick! I washed his hands and talked to him about the toilet not being a toy and being icky. I'm sure he understood every word. After I set him down, he picked up a golf ball, scrambled over to the toilet and lifted the lid, poised to drop it in. Lesson learned! We need a toilet lock and someone will be spending time in his crib playing with toys while Mommy takes her shower!