4 months old - 6 wks corrected age

Hi All:) I realized this morning that I hadn't updated in about a month! So here are some pics from the last month...The most recent are the 2 at the bottom. Again, they are posted backwards. ;)

It's been a good month. Lauren turned 4 months last Saturday. Wow, where does the time go?! And today she is 6 weeks corrected age. This is around the time that they start smiling, on purpose! We aren't all the way there yet but we have gotten a couple. Of course daddy got the first one. He's quite proud of that. Lol. Lauren had a doc appt on Tuesday. Doc was really happy with her progress and her all the way around. She was 9 lbs 13 oz and 20.5 inches long! She is not on the charts for a 4 month old yet but she is much closer. Big progress since our 3 month appt. The newest medicine for her acid reflux is helping so we are happy about that. She had a couple of immunizations that day also, and other than maybe being a little tired after, she didn't react to them this time. She has her next pulmonologist appt at the end of June and we are hoping for her to come off the monitor at that time. She will finally be wire free!!! He also loosened some of the restrictions as far as people and places with Lauren. We have to be very careful but minimally we can take her around some kids and people's homes. No public places still for quite awhile...We are happy for this news!! He also said we could (again using our smarts and common sense) begin taking her in our pool at the end of next month. WOOO HOO!! We will not put her head under water, it needs to be warm enough, hat for her, sunscreen etc. Minimal amounts of time, yada, yada. We plan on getting a little float that has a little covering that will protect her from the sun and we can float her around some. Seriously cannot wait for this!!!

We began stroller walks this month and I started using the Baby Bjorn. Best invention ever. I posted a pic...I can put her in it, she loves it, and get stuff done...walk to mailboxes down the street, etc. It's great...we usually take her strolling around the neighborhood but tomorrow morning we are loading her up and going for a long stroll. Looking forward to that. Mommy has cabin fever big time!!!!

Lauren has also started getting more vocal, trying to communicate, not just crying when she is unhappy/tired/hungry. It's the cutest thing. All these other sounds are coming out now...high and low pitched, soooo cool!! Watching a baby grow is hands down, the most incredible experience ever. We are just soaking it all in......AND, she is sleeping through the night! For over a week now. About 10 hours a night. I have her on a sleep/eat schedule throughout the day and since I tightened up her schedule a bit, she has slept through the night. We are loving this!!

I guess that's about it for now. I hope you all had a good month!! :)

Early entrance 1-30-10 :)

First of all, these pics posted backwards, Lol...As we all know, or most of us anyways, Lauren came into this world at 5:44pm on January 30th of this year. She was 12 weeks early, I was 28 weeks and 1 day. I had an incompetent cervix but I was too far along to have a cerclage put in...I spent a good part of 4 weeks in the hospital on bed rest, beginning New Years...She was born at 2 lbs, 3 oz and was 14 inches long. She was in the NICU at Winnie Palmer for 63 days and we brought her home on April 3rd! The day before Easter. She was 37 weeks gestationally. And she weighed 5 lb 4 oz, 17.75 inches long. Her health has been amazing since the day she was born. Her lungs were in great shape. Part of that was due to her being a girl, making it to 28 weeks and having 2 steroid shots 3 weeks before she arrived. She did not need a ventilator. She was on room air through a nasal cannula for several weeks...And lots of wires and testings, etc. This experience has been a life changing, eye opening experience. We met so many great people and the care she received was just beyond...I will forever be grateful for those doctors and nurses. Amazing, truly...We are loving having her home. It was so scary that first day or two...but we quickly adjusted! I was feeling pretty good by day 3. She is growing like crazy and was just seen by her pediatrician on Monday. She was 7 lb 15 oz!! And 19 inches long! I can't believe how much she has changed and how strong she is. Developmentally she is a week and a half old, my due date was 4/23. Her immune system will take awhile to build and catch up, therefore we cannot bring her out in public or have kids around for awhile...Every day it seems like she is doing a little something new that she wasn't doing before, or that just shows me she is growing. She is a strong one and a fighter and we keep getting the same answer from all the docs...that we will never know she was a preemie in a couple of years, if not sooner...Enjoy the pics. I've probably left out a ton of stuff...but for most of you, this is not new anyways. I will try to continue to blog and post pics as often as I can...I hope you enjoy! Thanks so much everyone for all the support through the months...Take care. :)

21 weeks tomorrow...

Hi all! I hope everyone had a super fabulous Gobble Gobble Day! Ours was great, we had mine and Aaron's families here. Now all company has returned home and the house is quiet again...ahhh....for a few months anyway. Lol. Here are a couple pics of me from last Friday I think. 20 weeks. And I had a sonogram on Monday. She's still a girl. :) Her heart rate was 148, got to see her kidneys, the 4 heart chambers, etc. My mother in law went with me to this one, she was amazed. However, as usual, she would not sit still; or roll over for a good profile picture this time. Speaking of...I am feeling her now! Gosh, I almost forgot to mention! Duh! It started right about Thanksgiving. I wasn't sure what I was feeling but I specifically mentioned it out loud to Aaron, my mom and aunt, that I felt something, and just in case I figured out later it was her, let it be known for the record that this was the first time I remember feeling her. And it's been going since...At night and in the mornings mostly. The two times of the day I'm still and calm. And I do feel her several times throughout the day while working at my desk. It wild. It's low, lower than I thought it would be, and the best way for me to describe it is a flutter. Aaron is just dying to feel it. I told him it's going to be awhile I'm sure. I just started feeling her myself! He is getting soooo excited for Lauren to get here. He talks about her alot now. It's so cute, I cherish all of this with him...She's going to be daddy's little girl, that's for sure. Whether she wants to be or not. Lol.

I went to register on Sunday. April went with me, she's a mommy pro and someone I knew I wouldn't want to kill by the time we were done. ;) I had done some research already, so I knew a few things I wanted. But what a loooong process. And I'm not done yet! We had a fun time though. :)

We haven't started on the nursery yet. I wanted to enjoy some quiet time after company was here/decorate for X-mas, etc. before we started. Will start with picking out the paint. I think we'll go this weekend to get the paint, then see when Bart can come do the painting. There are several things that friends have given/are giving me, in good condition, that I'm sooooo thankful for!! Thanks you guys!!!!

My next regular monthly doc appt is on Monday. For now, that's it! xoxo

It's a girl!!!! :)

Finally, we know that we are having a baby girl! Yesterday was such a great day. Long, but good! I had a regular doc appt and my sono, back to back, but it ended up taking forever to get out of there. And all I wanted to do was get out of there and share the news with our families and friends!! As you can see, we got a couple of really good shots this time during the sonogram. But in person we really got to see so many shots. Got to see her kidney's, heart- all 4 chambers, spine, bladder, and so on. It was the most amazing thing I think I've ever seen. Aaron was in awe. If you remember, he wasn't there for my 11 weeks sono, so the last one he saw she didn't look like a baby yet. We saw several shots "between the legs" and there no mistaking she is a girl! We talked alot about names the last few days and decided that Lauren Elise it is. We both love it, I just wanted to make sure DADDY loved it just as much as mommy and he says he does. Her heartbeat was 141 and she weighs 7 oz.

From my doc's office we went straight to Target. We bought 2 gift bags, one each for his parents and my mom. They were baby bags, gender neutral and we put yellow tissue paper, so you couldn't tell the sex from the outside. Then put pink baby stuff in them. Pacifiers, "I love Grandma(pa)" bibs, pink socks, etc. I loved that idea!! (Read it on internet somewhere) They are both tickled "pink". Haha. Get it? ;) For our friends we sent out a Thanksgiving greeting/surprise that announced we were having a girl. Fun stuff... :)

My blood pressure was right on, everything looked good for mommy's health, doc was thrilled. Also stayed the exact same in weight! Loving that! And we heard the heart beat again!! :)

The next couple of weeks are going to be busy! Family and Thanksgiving. REALLY looking forward to it! After that's over we will start on the nursery. If I don't update again, I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! xoxo

17th week

Well, time is starting to move along. Yay for that! Before I forget, the pic to the left was taken about a week and a half ago. Many of you have seen it...First prego pic! Baby bump is here now and the last weekly update I got from Baby Center on Friday said the baby is starting a big growth spurt now; baby should double in size over the next few weeks. Wow! She or he is about 4 1/2 inches now. 

I am feeling great. Aaron and I went to Sea World Saturday, it was beautiful outside. I am loving going walking, now that it's nice outside. I was pooped by the time we were done though! We've been very busy which I think has really helped the last few weeks fly by. We helped my mom pack up and move. And we spent yesterday doing house stuff. My aunt is flying in for 11 days a week from Saturday for the Thanksgiving holiday. The painting is done and we got most of the soon to be nursery cleared out and moved to the new spare bedroom. I'm so excited. I will be even more excited once it's all DONE. ;) House has been in a bit of an uproar the last few weeks. 

I have my sonogram to find out the sex soon. I am counting down!! We are so excited. I just want to know - boy or girl?!?! I feel like I will have even more of a connection with the baby. And fun to toss around names, etc. And to shop and look for stuff! We have decided on the nursery decor/crib set for a girl and boy, after many hours of looking around on line (and a couple of you girls helping me look!!). I am so glad that's done. We were kind of specific on what we wanted, I did most of the looking and dad said yeah or nah. Worked out great. Lol. We're not big on themes so that takes a large portion of the "looks" out of the equation. Aaron's mom saved a bunch of small toys from when Aaron was young and I want to find a way to incorporate some of those into the room as well. 

I'm probably leaving out a bunch but over all everything is going great!! Hope this post finds all of you doing well. :)

14 weeks and counting!

Hello everyone! I don't think I have much to blog about really but I did have a doctor's appt today and we heard the heart beat for the first time! It was amazing!! So fast!! I heard my own first and several times, while she was trying to find the baby's. Ours is so slow in comparison. Daddy had a huge grin on his face. Makes me so happy to have him there with me at the appts. I can imagine how much different it is for the dad, like they say. Until now, I haven't been showing, I'm carrying the baby and experiencing all the "side effects", so to me it's real! But, dad is just hearing about it and trying to be supportive. So for him to see the sonograms and hear the baby's heart beat is so important. Gives him more of a sense of it being real. My blood pressure was good and I lost 2 pounds. Woo hoo! I'll take it. A lot of women lose weight before gaining, or just start gaining later on. I guess I am one of them. I had a few to spare going into this so no worries! ;)

The date is set for the gender sonogram! I am sooooo excited!! We aren't telling anyone though! :) You'll know soon enough...

I am just now starting to get a little pooch...it's so weird because I feel like it just looks and feels like I'm SUPER bloated! So I'm at that in between stage...blah. No maternity clothes yet. I think I can still hold out another month. Who knows though. If my stomach grows alot this month we'll have to see. Other than around the belly getting tighter everything else fits fine so I'm trying to hang on as long as I can...Lol. Just this week Aaron has really noticed though, he's kinda chuckled and said wow, look at your belly! I'm like, really?!

Overall I am feeling just fine, some days more tired than others but that has alot to do with how I sleep the night before...Sleep is different every night. I'm just not sure what to expect. But if I wake up at 3 or 4, I usually lay back down around 7 or 8 for an hour and get a nap. That super helps...I have been kinda craving a "treat" at night. Most of you know I am not a sweets person, never have been. I'm not sure why but a few bites of ice cream usually crosses my brain now! So I worked out a deal with myself that I could have some. Lol. Didn't take much negotiating. Ha! No but really...the deal is kinda like nothing for a week then something for a week or however long that Ben n Jerry's pint of ice cream lasts. ;) Usually a few days or so...

To finish...I finally started my second trimester last week! Woo hooo!!

Sonogram - 11 weeks

I'll try to keep this short...I blabbed enough yesterday! But, today was really cool!! I wished I would have thought it through better and had Aaron come to this one. I just figured it was for testing and ANOTHER sonogram so no big deal. Well today baby really looked like a baby!! For the first time! It was awesome!! Here's the thing...for the testing part, baby was still and perfect. Great pics and could see profile so well. Then AS SOON as she went to take the pics for me to take home baby WENT WILD!!! He or she was soooooooooooooooo active. It was so funny!! She was laughing. She could not get a single picture to save her life. It was amazing! And we were cracking up. Somersaults and just not stop moving all over! I could see arms and legs moving, the whole nine. So the best picture she could get was the one above. Still much more pronounced than any of the others and you can see the head and the umbilical cord slightly. Worth a bad pic to see baby moving around like that. I did not expect to see anything like that today!!

Also...can't leave this out. Of course I had to ask her about gender. I told her that I've read sometimes they have an idea at 11 week sonograms, depending on certain things. I wasn't sure what kind of reaction I would get from her but she was nice and told me 11 weeks is too early to tell for sure. That maybe had I gone at 13 weeks, she would have a better chance of knowing. But she said let's take a look...so before baby got so active she was able to see and show me perfect shot of between the legs and she said she saw nothing at all. BUT, she said I just don't want to tell you that I think it's a girl and then find out it's a boy in a few weeks. Because there is a chance we just can't see his pee pee. Lol. Soooo....???????

Have a great weekend!