Pregnancy Update: The First 18 Weeks

Posted on November 20, 2014 by justeeni

Dan and I found out we were expecting Baby 3 while we were still camping out in the basement of some generous church friends. As God’s timing would have it, we found out we were pregnant only a few weeks after first hearing about the house that is now our home. It’s a good thing too, because I would have given up the house hunt if we had found out about Baby first! The timing was perfect, so, while the house buying process was going on, we began out hunt for a new doctor.

My last doctor was great, but she retired this summer. We called a couple of different offices and eventually chose a doctor who has turned out to be terrific. He has years of experience working with high risk and unique pregnancies, so mine was no surprise to him. At our first appointment we got our first glimpse of Baby 3 and a guess on the due date: April 20.

The first trimester wasn’t too bad for me, apart from the stress of trying to get settled on the house. I was sick for three weeks in a row with various viruses. Maybe I was feeling sick from the pregnancy too, but if so, those symptoms were masked by the other illnesses. My most obvious pregnancy symptoms were the cravings and aversions. Cheese and pickles were favorites, with random weird and short lived cravings like rice with soy sauce and tomatoes or chicken salad. As usual during my first trimesters, I couldn’t stand lentils or broccoli.

A couple of weeks after the first appointment we were back at the office again to check on Baby and start working on a game plan. Here is Baby at 12 weeks:

(That’s his/her head on the right side.)

There are a few things we’re going to try this time that may or may not help keep Baby from coming as early as Lydia and Abigail. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. One of those precautions is limited activity for me from 20 to 28 weeks.

Now, when you’re moving into a new house, preparing for Christmas, and anticipating another possible long NICU stay, there’s a lot to do. That’s part of what has kept us so busy lately. I’ve been working away at making some Christmas gifts a little every day. I’m happily making progress on unpacking and our goal is to be completely settled by next Tuesday. Of course Thanksgiving is coming and we’ll be hosting Dan’s family this year, but we’re keeping things simple and those present will all be pitching in to help with the meal. 🙂

The bulk of my extra time has been spent cooking and freezing meals for the time after Baby is born. If Baby spends as much time in the NICU as Lydia or Abigail, we hope to have enough meals to get us through most dinners and lunches without having to take the time to cook. We have three freezers right now (our chest freezer, the one on top of our refrigerator, and an upright some friends brought over a couple of nights ago). Two are packed full and I have two weeks left to finish my cooking!

Once twenty weeks hits, everything is going to stop. No more unpacking. No more cooking and freezing meals. No more running around like crazy buying things we need for the house. I have ten days left.

Our next Baby appointment was at 14 1/2 weeks, and here’s Baby:

S/he is bent over like someone who fell asleep in school, and his/her arms are up behind his/her head.

So that leads me to another new decision for us. We’re hoping to be surprised with this baby, instead of finding out early if it’s a boy or girl. With ultrasounds every two or three weeks, it’s likely we might unintentionally find out, but the goal is to be surprised. That said, I will be referring to Baby as “he” from now on, even though we don’t know if he is a boy or girl yet.

During November I had a small surgery done that was another one of our attempts to keep Baby from coming as early. Afterwards, I had an appointment where we confirmed that everything was well and Baby was happily staying put.

Here’s Baby at seventeen and a half weeks:

That’s a head-on picture with the head on the left. You can see the eyes and brain (kinda weird!), and everything looked good.
That brings us up to today. During the past few weeks I’ve felt the first little kicks and Baby is starting to take up my stomach and lung room. I have had a lot of energy, which has been great for getting all my preparations taken care of. But more recently I’ve been getting tired out more easily, so I’ve been having to take more breaks to rest, nap, or just prop my feet up.

Our next appointments are on December 5 (two weeks from tomorrow). The first will be the big 20-week ultrasound screening, and right afterwards we’ll be heading back to our doctor for another check up.

Whew! That felt like a lot. From here on our I’ll be able to update more frequently with any Baby news, pregnancy changes, and more pictures of our little Pumpkin.

Life Lately…

Posted on November 11, 2014 by justeeni

We’re back! Since I last posted the story of Dan’s new job, life has been a whirlwind. And, while things are still crazy, they are slowing at least enough for me to update you all on the past month and a half.

On September 24 we closed on our new house. Even though we had to wait for wood floors to be put in upstairs, we decided to move in anyway and camp out in the living room until they were done. Dan slept on an air mattress and the girls got a kick out of it every morning when it was time to deflate Daddy’s bed.

That Saturday we got a U-haul and moved all of our stuff into the garage, where it stayed for the next month before we could finally start unpacking.

Every morning we enjoy the sunshine while we breakfast in our new breakfast nook. And Abby has been practicing her crawling skills by exploring every inch of the house (and eating anything she can find on the floor too).

In October, we celebrated the wedding of our friends, Aric and Hannah. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful wedding. They are certainly a beautiful couple and we will miss them as Aric serves in the military out in California.

We have certainly been enjoying the fall weather, and having a yard of our very own. On Saturday we all spent a large chunk of the afternoon raking and playing outside.

And while Abby has been crawling all over the place, Lydia has been working on her memory verses, including the books of the Old Testament and Psalm 23:

Mostly we are just trying to get unpacked and settled so we can spend this winter together keeping cozy in our new home. We are so thankful for this house, for the changes in our lives lately, and for the way God brings everything together to create such a beautiful story.

Our One Year Old

Posted on September 16, 2014 by justeeni

Last Thursday, we celebrated Abby’s very first birthday. Dan brought her home some miniature roses which she was thrilled with (mostly because she wanted to eat them). She’s at that age when everything goes into her mouth.

After dinner…presents! For someone who has never had a birthday before, she seemed pretty excited. Lydia must have given her a heads up.

In the end, Dan had to help her out a little.

The jumbo knob puzzles may or may not have been a hit. Mostly, she just wanted to put the puzzle pieces in her mouth. Lydia, on the other hand, was happy to play with the puzzles.

In lieu of a birthday cake for our not-really-one-year-old-yet preemies, we’ve made a family tradition of giving the birthday girls watermelon instead. Abby loved her birthday watermelon and successfully at her whole piece minus the last bite, which fell on the floor.

So what’s the little one-year-old up to these days?

Well, she’s officially a big kid. Sometime in the past weeks we caved and started buying jarred baby food. It was just too much work to make our own while we’re living in transition. Since then, Abby eats like a pro, averaging two jars per meal or snack. She’ll eat anything, but has lately shown a little less favor toward the spinach potato combination.

Abby chatters away during the day and at meal times and is (still) always smiling. While we were visiting Rob and Crystal a couple of weeks ago, she figured out how to “crawl”. It’s an interesting version of crawling, but it gets her where she wants to go. She keeps up with her big sister pretty well now, and keeps us busier than ever.

Abby Update: 11 Months Old

Posted on August 14, 2014 by justeeni

In the past few weeks Abby has really gotten the hang of sitting up. Mostly she just sits in this propped up position until she wants to get somewhere else, than she just plops down onto her tummy. She’s still not crawling, but she can get anywhere she wants to go pretty quickly by rolling around.

When she’s crawling around, Abby will put anything in her mouth. We have to watch her pretty carefully to make sure she’s not eating dirt, grass, rocks, bugs, hair…you name it. Lydia is a pretty handy helper, always willing to run and get Abby a toy that she can put in her mouth.

Solid foods are coming along slowly. Sometimes when we’re eating a meal Abby refuses to eat what we give her. Other times she jabbers away angrily until we share some of our food. Her favorites right now are cooked broccoli and raw bell peppers, and she absolutely refuses avocado (and gives us a nice face to let us know how terrible she thinks it tastes).

Unlike her big sister, Abby’s first word is “mama” and she says it anytime she’s hungry, wants Mommy, or right after she wakes up from a nap.

She loves attention and she loves playing with or being tickled by her big sister. It doesn’t look like Lydia’s going to be the “big” sister much longer because Abby is catching up. When I was taking pictures of them together this morning I was surprised at how close they are to being the same size already.

She’s a delight in our home. There’s nothing like seeing her smiles and hearing her jabber away. Here’s a little video of her smiles and giggles. I hope they brighten your day like they brighten mine.

Munchkin Update: 3 Years, 2 Months

Posted on August 5, 2014 by justeeni

Lydia is in to collecting things. She collects rocks, leaves, and flowers from outside. Sometime she keeps them in her pocket and sometimes she pretends one of the rocks is her cell phone. She also tends to collect purses. And tutus. Right now the tutu count is up to four.

A few days ago Lydia pulled the blanket off of her bed and rigged a “swim suit” out of a couple of tutus. One of her favorite games now is to put on that “swimsuit” and go “swimming” in her bedroom. If anyone is friendly enough to join her she really likes to get in and out of the “water” and dry off with a blanket each time before jumping back in.

She is all go, all the time. And if you ask her, she will tell you that she is never tired. For the past few months now she has been in a “why” phase. Her response to almost everything is “why”. Often she genuinely wants to know, sometimes she does it to be silly, and sometimes it’s just out of habit. This morning I was folding laundry and Lydia asked me if I would go “swimming” with her. I told her I could after I finished folding laundry and washing dishes.

“Why?”

“So we have clean clothes to wear and clean dishes to eat off of.”

Her answer was insightful: “So they will get dirty again?”

Lately Lydia has memorized the books of the New Testament and a large portion of scripture put to song for our Church’s Vacation Bible School. Dan and I also realized that we were emphasizing a lot of numbers and shapes with her, so I decided to start teaching her the alphabet.

Every morning I pull out some magnet letters and we play with them. Big A and Little A are on our fridge right now along with Big B and Little B. They tell Lydia what sounds they make and sing the ABC song. It’s sort of like a little puppet show every day and she loves it.

Lydia is always my big helper. If I let her help me make dinner or wash dishes, she’s thrilled. She’s happy go get a clean diaper for Abby or throw away anything we say can go in the trash. She’s also as sweet as can be and frequently asks us to hold her or sing with her. Sometimes she spontaneously comes up and says, “I love you Mom”. We love her spunk and her energy and her silliness, but more than that we love the sweet hearted helper that she is and her precious sensitive heart.

Abby Update: 10 1/2 Months Old

Posted on July 22, 2014 by justeeni

I know this update is late. It’s been busy around here and mostly I just haven’t gotten a chance to take pictures of our adorable Abigail. And I know you all really read these updates mostly for the pictures. 🙂

Last month I told you all that Abby was very smiley. Now I want to make it known that Abby is the happiest baby on the planet. It certainly wasn’t our doing or I would give everyone our method, because I think everyone should share the pleasure of having such a happy baby. Abby smiles almost all the time. The only times she isn’t really smiling are:

1. When she is asleep.

2. When she wakes up hungry. Or anytime she is hungry.

3. When she is being denied food at the dinner table, or if anyone takes something away while she is playing with it.

It’s true, Abby has a bit of a temper. She doesn’t really like to stay on her back during diaper changes and she will yell at you if you take away her toys. But it’s not hard to get a smile out of her even after snatching away a toy, shoe, or whatever other odd item she picks up during her wanderings.

Abby is becoming more and more mobile. She’s still not quite sitting up, but she can rotate and roll to get anywhere she wants. Despite her active wandering, Abby has kept her chubby cheeks. She’s not as heavy as those cheeks make her look, but it makes us so happy to see her plump and healthy after such a rough start.

Abby and Lydia are best friends. One day I asked Lydia, “Who is your best friend?”, thinking she would mention one of the friends she had just seen that morning at church. She answered me very matter-of-factly: “Abigail”, and went on playing.

When I go running, the girls hold hands. When I change Abby’s diaper, Lydia lies down next to her and makes her laugh. When Abby is hungry and crying because I can’t get to her right away, Lydia talks to Abby while she waits and Abby loves it. It’s enough to melt your heart.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, and it’s not obvious in the pictures, but Abby has red hair. She doesn’t have a lot, and we’re not sure if it’ll stay or change, but right now we love her red locks. She still has brilliantly clear blue eyes, making her the smiliest, chubbiest, blue-eyed redhead in this household.

Abby Update: 9 Months Old

Posted on June 19, 2014 by justeeni

Weight: 14 pounds, 4 ounces

This month has been a busy one for Abigail, but mostly she is just full of smiles. Abby will sit in her jungle, bouncy seat, or on a blanket and play happily until someone gives her attention. Then she greets them with the biggest grin!

This month Abby got her first tooth, and her second tooth is really close. She also ate her first and second foods: avocado and sweet potato. At first she gobbled it right down, but lately she hasn’t been too interested. That’s ok, we’re not in a hurry either. Abby is also (dangerously) close to sitting up. And she’s becoming more and more mobile. One evening I changed Abby’s diaper on the floor, then left to throw it away. When I came back, Abby was gone! I found her under our bed with a big grin on her face.

Abby is as sweet as can be, and I am so thankful that she is one content little girl. She loves to get attention though and will make friends with anyone who gives her any. Everywhere we go we catch people smiling and talking to Abby from all around us, out for walks, at garage sales, in restaurants…Now if only she would sleep as often as she smiles, I would be one happy Mom! Abby has lately been getting up 3-4 times a night. Let’s just hope this is a growth spurt. That’s ok. I’m still getting my naps in on most days and she’s so adorable I just can’t stay mad at her for long even when I am tired.

Abby Update: Eight Months Old

Posted on May 13, 2014 by justeeni

Weight: 13 Pounds, 7 ounces

Abby is a lot like me. First of all, she looks very much like my baby pictures. The only real differences are that my eyes were not so blue and my hair was not so red. Although, Abby’s hair seems to be a little less red these days. It’s hard to tell because there’s just not too much of it.

My mom always told me that I was very adaptable. I don’t know about that now, but with all of our packing and unpacking and moving, Abby has displayed some adaptability of her own. She just eats when she’s hungry, sits in her bouncy seat, and smiles at anyone who will take a moment to give her a grin. She is very content and really, a very “easy baby”. The only exception is that she still usually gets up once a night. Again. But sometimes she’ll sleep nice and long and she still takes regular naps, so we’re doing ok.

Abby has officially found her thumb. And, like me, and Lydia, Abby sucks her left thumb. It brings me great happiness to hear the sound of thumb-sucking echo through our basement home as the girls nap.

Abby is also ticklish, and, like me, she doesn’t like being tickled. It’s so cute to watch her try to fight it as you tickle her tummy. She lets out little resistant grunty giggles, but she’s so ticklish that she really can’t resist very long.

But no one can make Abby’s face light up like Dan. When he gives her his attention she gives him the biggest, cutest smile you’ve ever seen. There was a period of a couple of weeks when Abby liked to stick out her tongue all the time. It was a little weird, I thought. But one time Dan just reached out and gently grabbed it. She thought that was the best thing in the world and continued to stick out her tongue in a way that made it look like she was fishing for Dan to grab it again (and he did).

As I wrap up this post, Abby is sitting in her bouncy seat chattering away: “Ehhha, ah, wah, huhhh, ayahhh, huhh, huhh, aieeyabubu”. She is more adorable than words can possibly describe.

Abby Update: 7 Months Old

Posted on April 15, 2014 by justeeni

Weight: 12 pounds, 11 ounces

This month, Abby learned how to roll from her tummy to her back! Although she can now roll anywhere she wants, she remains pretty content on her back or tummy most of the time. When she does want to move, she rotates in a circle and can make it more than halfway around.

Abby has also learned how to hold on to things and grab. She likes to hold on to blankets, toys, and her sister’s clothing. She, like her sister, loves to hold my hair.

Abby has the most squishable chubby cheeks and amazing blue eyes. I don’t remember Lydia’s eyes ever being so brilliantly blue and I am secretly hoping the blue eyes and reddish hair are here to stay. But we’ll see.

Can you believe she used to be the same size as that doll?

Abby has no teeth yet and we are really enjoying her happy toothless grin. I’ve mentioned, occasionally, that I don’t want the toothless grin to ever go away, but Dan assures me it would eventually cease to be so cute. I guess he’s right. She is often very smiley, but occasionally gets in moods where nothing anyone can do will get her to smile.

Abby is a conundrum when it comes to sleeping at night. Some weeks she’ll sleep until 7 AM every single day. Other weeks she gets up once or twice. She almost always will go right back to sleep, so I’m still a happy mommy. And, even though we can’t get her on a consistent schedule during the day, she always lets me get a nap so I am, again, a happy mommy.

It is hard to believe that Abigail is now over half a year old. The first months were slow and long and hard, but since she has been home the time has flown and she just keeps growing bigger and happier and more and more loved.

Munchkin Update: 2 Years, 10 Months

Posted on April 1, 2014 by justeeni

Sometimes when Lydia is sleepy, all curled up in my arms with her hair in one hand and her thumb in her mouth, and I’m just holding her as she absentmindedly plays with that hair and sucks that thumb, I think “I don’t ever want to let go”.

This kid is full of

fun.

energy.

sweetness.

spunk.

joy.

The other day Lydia disappeared into her bedroom. When she walked out again she had on a bracelet rattle, a talking toy purse, and a pair of pajama pants on her head. She said, “I’m Mary.” We still haven’t figured out if she is Mary from the Bible or someone we know named Mary.

Later Dan took Lydia to Meijer. We always stop to let her look at the fish, and the last time we visited them she said goodbye to every fish tank before leaving. When she got home from Meijer she promptly went back to her room and put the pajama pants back on her head.

Lydia has been mastering Bible memory verses little by little. We are currently working on John 3:16 (to the tune of Silent Night). I added hand motions this time and was extremely confused when we had a visitor one day and Lydia kept telling her she liked the “lotion”. We finally figured out that she wanted to sing the song with the motions.

Speaking of visitors, one of Lydia’s favorite things to do when we have a visitor is fetch them their shoes when they are getting ready to leave. We never told her to do it, she just figured out that when people leave they need shoes, and she decided to be helpful. Now she fetches their shoes, will give them their purse if they have one, and often insists on a hug before they leave.

Dan’s current favorite though, is at bedtime. After Dan spends a few minutes laying on “the green bed” with Lydia, he wishes her goodnight and gets up to leave. She stops him and insists, “No, no, stay for a while!”

MI Taylor Family

We live in Michigan.

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