13 Weeks

I hit 13 weeks on Friday so now I'm definitely out of the 1st trimester. Yippee! Still not over the nausea unfortunately, but fingers crossed that it won't last as long as it did with Ella (16 weeks). Only 3 weeks from today until we find out what we're having. Don't forget to vote in our poll! (link in the right hand column) And, you can still continue to vote even after we find out because you're also entering a guess on birthday, weight, etc.

Oh, and Baby Dos is now a peach!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving, I hope everyone else did also! I only have one picture to share because I wasn't good about taking pictures this year. We spent the day at my parent's house and had 3 OTs (officer trainees) spend the day with us. When in Officer Training at Maxwell for the Air Force, trainees aren't able to leave during the holidays. So for Thanksgiving, senior officers can offer to have OTs spend the day with their family. We had 1 guy and 2 girls and they were all great...really neat people and lots of fun to talk with. Ella absolutely loved them and all the attention they gave her!

We took advantage of the warm weather that day to try and snap a few pictures of our family for our Christmas card. I knew it was going to be a challenge with Ella since she's so busy and does not like to sit still, but GOOD GRIEF! It was almost impossible to get a good picture! So, our Christmas picture this year will be more of an action shot. ;-)

We heard the heartbeat!

We had a doctor's appointment this morning and were able to hear Baby Dos' heartbeat. What a sweet sound! Dr. Lawhon said it was about 160bpm. We'll go back on the 29th of December for an appointment and ultrasound to find out the gender. But, shhhhh...we'll actually already know the gender from a private ultrasound we're having on the 20th. You'd think I would have learned the first time with the whole blood test fiasco, but I'm just so impatient! :-) 3 weeks from Saturday, we should know if Ella is having a baby bubba or baby sissy!

Here's a couple of pictures of Ella playing in the leaves at the Shakespeare Festival two weekends ago. The holiday season is almost over for my photography so then I can get back to the business of photographing Ella again! :-)

Baby Dos is a Plum!

I found a website (www.thebump.com) that shows the size of your unborn baby compared to a piece of fruit. This week Baby Dos is the size of a plum. Cool!

12 Weeks

Well, I've officially made it into the 2nd trimester. I've never really known whether it's 12 weeks or 13 that marks the end of the 1st trimester, but womanshealth.gov (the federal website) declares that my 2nd tri started on Saturday so I'll go with that! :-) We go back to the doctor on Wednesday to hopefully hear the heartbeat instead of just see it. If you get a chance, please pray that the appointment will go well and I'll stop being so anxious about it! :-)

Here's my 12 week belly pic. Not much growth yet!

Take a guess at the sex of Baby Dos!

We did this game when I was pregnant with Ella and it was a lot of fun to see what people guessed. Please play again this time around and take a guess at the sex of Baby Dos. You can find the game at http://www.expectnet.com/games/BabyW2. We have our gender ultrasound on Dec. 20th so only 4 short weeks until we find out! :-)

Ponytail

Ella's hair is finally long enough to put it in a little ponytail. We tried it out tonight and she liked it once I got her to sit still long enough for me to put it up. Then we got out her pink baseball hat and she really thought she was something! She loved taking the hat off and then putting it back on again. What a little stinker.

Belly Pictures

I know I promised in a comment a while back that I would start weekly belly pictures last week and I just kept forgetting to take one. So we finally took one today and I have one from 6 weeks to compare. Not much to show yet! It took me until about 26 weeks to really "pop" last time. It will be interesting to see if I show earlier this time. We had a really wonderful, HUGE meal at Bonefish last night. I should have taken one after that...I looked about 6 months pregnant!

6 Weeks:

11 Weeks:

11 Weeks with Ella (already in maternity clothes and totally not needing them yet! I was so excited...bless my heart ;-))

Baby Dos at 11 Weeks

I found this image on the internet today and thought I would share (note: this isn't a picture of our baby). Even at only 11 weeks gestation, the fetus already looks so much like a little baby. Isn't God amazing?!?!

Playing Dress-up

Normally while I blow-dry my hair and put on make-up I put Ella in her pack 'n play to contain her. This morning I decided to give her a little freedom and let her run around in our room. I looked over to check on her and this is what I found:

She had gotten into my swimsuit drawer and proceeded to put on just about every article of clothing. And was so happy about it! It made me laugh out loud. :-)

18 Month Check-Up

Ella had her 18 month check-up with Dr. Trumbull today. I'll say again, we LOVE our pediatrician!! Anyways, the visit was traumatic to say the least (not because of the doctor!). Ella was scared to death of him and pretty much screamed the entire time. Dr. Trumbull said that's pretty common for 18 month checks and it should be better next time (is this true or was he just saying it to make me feel better?) She weighed in at 21 lbs. (25th percentile) and was 32 in. (60th percentile). Her head was in the 80th percentile this time! She's got a big noggan now! Normally it's in the 40th-50th. Her brains must have had a growth spurt. ;-) Anyways, two weeks ago she was disagnosed with a double ear infection and unfortunately the antibiotics didn't quite take care of it so she had an antibiotic shot today and will start a stronger oral antibiotic tomorrow. We'll go back in two weeks for an ear check and to get her 18 month shots (she couldn't have them today because of the antibiotics). But, overall, he said she looks great.

We talked a little bit about discipline and about moving her to a big-girl bed. Keith and I have said that we would like to do it a couple of months before the baby gets here but Dr. Trumbull said he thinks that's too early and to wait until a few months after the baby arrives. He said we'll probably have more issues with her staying in bed if we do it too early. What do you experienced mommies think? Advice on that would be great!

Pop-Pop

This picture was on my purse camera from our trip to Big Stone Gap. I think this picture is hilarious for multiple reasons:

1. My Dad is sleeping with his mouth open (rare that we catch him doing this).

2. He's sleeping with Barney and Ella's blankie.

3. Ella is pinching a huge hunk of his elbow skin while he sleeps.

I don't know if I've discussed this on the blog before or not, but Ella has a skin pinching obsession. She absolutely loves to pinch elbow skin. If that's not available, then knuckles will do. I tell you, that child is W-E-I-R-D!!!! ;-)

Reading

Just...one...more....paaaage...zzzzzzzzz

Trunk Or Treat

I know I said I would post these days ago...Agg...could someone come over here and help me get it TOGETHER?!?! I'm blaming it all on preggo brain. Anyways, a few days before Halloween we headed out to Shoal Creek Baptist Church (Keith's parents' church in Slapout) for a Trunk Or Treat. It was COOOOLD, but Ella had a great time eating hot dogs and going from car to car to fill up her pumpkin.

18 Months

Ella turned the big 1-8 today...18 months that is. I can't believe she's a 1 1/2 years old already! Crazy! If you look closely at her picture, you'll see that I had to bribe her to sit still for her picture. Yes...that's a Smartie in her hand...I'm not ashamed...

17 Months

16 Months

In honor of turning 18 months old, we brought out the pink princess throne (otherwise known as The Potty). She thinks it's pretty cool to play with...we'll see how the actual potty training goes in a few months. Fingers crossed...I REALLY would love to not have two in diapers.

"Ella...where's Mommy??"

Halloween 2008

We had a really fun Halloween. Ella was a flower and what a cute flower she was! We went to a party at our friend's house and did a little trick-or-treating in their neighborhood before heading back to their house for pizza and scary treats. Check out Lauren's blog to see more pictures from the party. So much fun! Keith dressed as Dwight from The Office and I was a poodle-skirt girl from the '50s. Ella was terrified of Keith in his wig and wouldn't have anything to do with him unless he took it off. (Oh, and look closely...you'll see Ella's busted lip from a fall she took on the bleachers at Keith's softball game the other night...nice!)

Ella quickly got the hang of trick-or-treating. Keith took her up to the door and she got some candy for her pumpkin. The only problem was she immediately wanted to sit down and go through her loot. :-) We probably trailed a few pieces of candy through the neighborhood as Ella dropped them along the way!

And here's one the Nana took of Ella in her pumpkin shirt:

I'll have one more Halloween post later today of pictures from the Trunk or Treat that we went to at Keith's parent's church.

Ultrasound #3

I know I have been horrible at posting lately. I have had horrible morning (all-day) sickness this time and am just trying to function most days. When I do make it to the computer, it's just to work on client's sessions so I don't get too ridiculously far behind. I know Ella's probably thinking "Mom, is this what we do now? Just lay around all day?" Poor child. But, this morning I'm feeling pretty good, so I figured I would take advantage!

Here's the latest ultrasound picture. Amazing how much the baby grows in 2 weeks! At this ultrasound I measured a few days ahead and at my first ultrasound I measured a few days behind so my doctor said we're going to average the two and stick with my original due date of June 5th. That means only 2.5 weeks left in my first trimester and hopefully the nausea and throwing up will start to fade away once I reach that point. My next appointment is the Wed. before Thanksgiving, but no ultrasound that time.

If you ask Ella if she wants a bubba or a sissy, she normally says sissy...even though she really has no idea what she's saying at all. I change my mind daily about what I think it is and Keith says he won't even consider the fact that it's not a boy. Haha...I know he would be just as smitten with another girl as he is with Ella. At this point we like the names Parker Reese (or Rhys, the traditional spelling but I know the poor child would constantly have this name spelled wrong) and Anna Elizabeth, but of course that's always subject to change.