25 Weeks

I had my 25-week appointment this week, and my OB thanked me again for making his job easy. I love being boring in the eyes of my doctors! :o) Weight gain & blood pressure are normal & Sophie's heart rate is good. He also measured the "height" of my belly for the first time this pregnancy. They'll measure it every time I go back now to make sure Sophie is growing sufficiently.

I go back in about a month for what will be my last ultrasound as long as Sophie is head-down and ready for delivery. Between now and then, I also go in for the blood sugar test where you drink a bottle of orange-flavored double-sugar soda and sit in the waiting room for an hour until they draw blood. I imagine after not eating, chasing Mia around a waiting room, and letting my blood sugar soar for an hour that I will be in a great mood after this test!

"Happy Cake"

Mia has long been a fan of cake, and this weekend she coined a new phrase: "happy cake". She's figured out that birthday cake is always served after the song "Happy Birthday", and this weekend while we were singing to our friend Eli at his 1st birthday party on Saturday, Mia turned to me and said, "happy cake, happy cake." :o) We also took a trip up to Fresno for Sean & Evie's 6th & 3rd birthdays, respectively. Here are some shots of that trip:

Mia after more "happy cake".

Not sure why she's scowling, but I like this photo of Mia showing off her "makeup".

Mom hands over the laptop so Mia can watch Elmo during the last 30 minutes of our 7-hour car trip!

Mia's 1st Bubble Bath

Mia *loves* bubbles and wasn't really feeling like taking a bath a few nights ago, so I decided it was time to bring bubbles to bath time. Here are some pictures of one of the longest baths Mia's every had. ;o)

Structurally Sound

My mom and Pat joined us for dinner a week ago, and while the rest of us were eating, Mia built a tower out of yogurt and squash. Jeff grabbed this video of our little engineer at work.

Plastical

"Plastical" is my hormone-induced Word of the Day.

My friends keep asking me how it's been to teach my Stroller Strides class as I get more and more pregnant. Surprisingly, while the physical changes in my body (read: breaking pelvic bone) have caused me to scale back a bit, the hardest part of teaching lately has been talking... I hear some of the words coming out of my mouth, and I wonder who came up with them sometimes.

This morning, I was trying to remind my moms to keep their core muscles engaged during an exercise, and instead I yelled out that they should keep their core muscles "tucked under". I just had to laugh at myself, wondering how you would even pull that off if you wanted to. More often, I'm telling my moms to "switch legs" while we're working out our arms, or something similar. And after class today, I was telling someone about a "plastic" toy I saw at Costco yesterday, but I made up "plastical" instead. I can't even imagine what I'll be telling these ladies to do in the coming weeks!

The experts term this condition "pregnancy brain," and here's an article verifying that it exists. ;o) My favorite comment here is that it's a "modest" impairment, sort of like comparing the memory of a 20-y/o to that of a 60-y/o. Modest? My brain has aged 40 years in just over 20 weeks, and that's modest??

The Name

Jeff and I think we have finally settled on a name for our little bean. We have been calling her Sophia Grace for the last week or two, and we still really like the way it sounds. We'll probably go with Sophie as her nickname, though. Mia seems to like it, too, and most importantly -- she can say it! ;o) And now when I ask her where Sophie is, she points to my belly.

"Hi, Daddy"

It's been about three or four weeks since I first felt the baby kick, and she's getting stronger every day. Today she was finally kicking hard enough that Jeff was able to feel her. I was pretty excited we got it on the first try, too. With Mia, the scenario played out like this about a dozen times first: "Hey, Jeff. Come feel the baby kick!" [Jeff walks all the way over to where I am.] "Oh, wait. She stopped. Never mind." ;o) So this one may have been more stubborn w/ the whole ultrasound thing, but at least she's more cooperative with the kicking!

Password

Do you remember that game show Password? I feel like I've been playing that game constantly since Mia's vocabulary has exploded, but her ability to speak in sentences or even phrases has not yet developed.

For example, Mia walked up to me the other day and said, "driving". Okay, so now I know she wants to go somewhere. "Food." "Eating." "Spoon." "High chair." "Buckle." Ah, got it. Mia wants to go out to eat. And the other day, she walked up to Jeff and said: "Driving." "Sand." "Shovel." "Playground." They then got in the car and drove to the park to play.

So, if they ever resurrect that old show with an option to bring a toddler along, I know who my partner is going to be! ;o)

Orange County Fair

Jeff and I took Mia to the Orange County Fair last night, and I'm not sure who had more fun. :o) Mia definitely had a blast petting the farm animals and riding the rides, but Jeff and I were laughing the whole time at how excited Mia got at absolutely everything! It was so much fun watching her jump up and down and giggle in anticipation over and over and over. Here are some pictures and a video.

Dress to Impress

Thought I'd share this fun picture of Mia after getting "dressed" a couple of evenings ago. I'm sooo looking forward to the toddler years of picking out clothing. :o) This time, she was insistent that the entirety of her outfit was my pink jacket & her diaper. Enjoy!

It's...a Girl!

Jeff, Mia, and I went in for a private ultrasound today in the hopes of getting a better look at our little bean. The ultrasound tech told us about a minute into that she was 100% sure it was a girl, guaranteed. After learning that Mia's going to have a little sister(!), we spent the next 15 minutes just watching our little one hide from the camera. The tech kept trying to get a great shot of the baby's face, and every time she almost had it, the baby would flip back around toward my spine. But we got some really cute shots of her hiding behind her hands. (About 12, in fact.) Hope you enjoy the pics. If you're ever at Casa de Sketeris and want to see the (awesome) 15-minute DVD of the entire ultrasound, just let us know! :o)

It's.....

...still a surprise! :o) This baby refused to give up the money shot today, so we still have no idea what we're having. Baby's knees were locked together the whole time w/ it's ankles crossed and folded underneath. So, this poor baby is in for at least another 9 weeks of being referred to as "it". Most importantly, though, Baby looks healthy and is measuring well for gestational age. Here are a the ultrasound pics we got to bring home:

What's your guess??

We are two days away from our "big" ultrasound, and I thought it might be fun to see what every thinks we're having. :o) I personally have no idea, so I'd love to know what your hunches are.

Santa Fe Recreational Dam

I'm excited to share these pictures with you all. I took Mia to the Santa Fe Recreational Dam on Saturday with a moms club we belong to, and we had a blast. They have a water play park, which is restricted to kids under 52" tall, so the littler kids aren't getting run over by teens. (I'm such a mom now...) The playground itself is a structure to climb on with several slides, and the whole thing sits in 1 1/2 feet of water. There are tunnels to crawl through, levers to pull, and lot of water sprays to run through. Most of the pictures below were taken by my friend Amber and her husband Brian. If you're looking for a photographer to capture you & your little ones, let me know and I'll put you in touch w/ them! ;o) Enjoy!

Jinxed!

I'm not going to write down anymore hopeful thoughts about this pregnancy on this blog! Last Monday I blogged about how great the exercising had been going... Then Tuesday, I went for what turned out to be my last run for this pregnancy. :o( I went for a pretty easy two-miler as a part of my bootcamp class, and I could feel my pelvic bone starting to ache. And then it really ached all day Wednesday. So....I won't be doing anymore running until about February it seems. This whole pelvic bone thing sucks, and it came on just as fast and just as bad as it did the first time around. So all week, I've been moving around like an 80-year-old: I have to sit on the bed to get dressed/undress b/c I can't stand on one leg at a time, I swing both legs locked together at the knees to get into/out of bed and my car, I try not to shift my weight while standing to just one leg or the other, and I move in a really slow & measured way, especially if I'm trying to pick something up. The funny thing, though, is that if my hips are completely stable and even, I'm still really strong. So this week I went back to the gym (which I haven't been to in months b/c I prefer my bootcamp class). A couple of days ago I rowed on the rowing machine, and today I rode on the stationary bike and lifted weights. I don't think the rower is going to be a long-term option, though, b/c there just won't be room for the belly as it grows. And I remember feeling like my legs were bumping into the bottom of my belly towards the end of my last pregnancy, but it did work. ;o)

1st Belly Photos

This is Mia saying "hi" to the baby at a day shy of 17 weeks.

16 Weeks

Mia and I just got back from my 16-week appointment, and I'm happy to report that this pregnancy is still "boring". :o) So far all of my lab work, weight gain, blood pressure, etc., are all textbook and uninteresting. (Just the way I like it!) I go back in two weeks for the "big" ultrasound, which is a couple of weeks earlier than I got it with Mia. So we may be able to update the color of the blog soon. ;o)

Now that I'm solidly into my second trimester, I'm feeling pretty good again. The nausea has been gone for a few weeks now, and my energy levels have returned to normal. The only real annoyance is that I've got the same constant head congestion that I had with Mia. Every day I feel like I'm almost over a head cold, only it never actually goes away. Every once in a while I get a twinge of the wrist & pelvic bone pain I had last time, but so far, neither has lasted. I keep crossing my fingers that I'll be able to avoid both this go around, but we'll see. Pregnancy is one surprise after another.

One thing that is going really well this time around is the exercising. :o) After all the studying I did about prenatal fitness when I was getting my Stroller Strides certification, I learned that the "keep your heart rate under 140" rule has been outdated since 1996. I felt like I gave up almost all of my fitness within a couple of months last time, but this time I'm still feeling pretty good. I'm teaching my Stroller Strides class five mornings per week, working out with our bootcamp program 2-3 times per week, and trying to get in one additional run/week. I'm definitely not trying to set any records these days, but it feels good just to be moving more or less like I'm used to. Being this active has also really helped keep the weight gain in check. I'm finding it's a lot easier to eat the food that Baby and I need w/o stressing out about the scale. It took buying my doctor a copy of Exercising Through Your Pregnancy, but he's on board w/ my exercise plans as long as I use common sense and the baby keeps growing well. :o)

Mia's First Camping Trip

Jeff and I took Mia on her first camping trip this weekend. We met up w/ Heather and Justin at one of the campgrounds at Bass Lake, which is about 15 miles south of Yosemite. Mia had a blast, and the trip was definitely a success. I think she thought we'd moved into a playground for a few days. She was covered in dirt the whole time, and kept giving me this look that said, "Aren't you going to make me go home soon?"

The only thing I was really worried about was how well she would sleep in a tent... She still sleeps in her crib at home, so I had no idea if she would take to a sleeping bag. The first night she crawled in between our mattress and her sleeping bag and slept right on the tent floor. The second night, she stayed on her bag, and slept with her butt up in the air. It made for a pretty cute picture, which you can see below. ;o)

Mia also had fun feeding ducks, splashing in the lake, and collecting sticks and pine cones. Jeff and I are both excited about taking her out again, especially since she had so much fun the first time around.

You can also click here to visit the album to view larger versions of the photos.

One to Ten

Mia blew my mind today by counting to ten by herself. I was giving her a cracker, and rather emphatically, I told her to only take ONE. And she repeated "one". Then proceeded to say, "two," which I repeated back to her. Then she said '"three", and "four", and "five"'.... and by the time she got to six I started staring at Jeff and Regina to make sure they weren't missing this. And she made it all the way to ten! Crazy. I've never heard her go past "one, two" on her own before, and then she just shot straight for ten. It's amazing what kids can learn without letting you know until they're ready! :o)

Garden Tour

This video is a couple of months old now, but I have been struggling to edit some of our clips down to a manageable size. I think I've finally got it figured out, and I'm still eager to share this one. :o) I shot this while Mia led me on a walk around our neighborhood. If you ever need a guide for a garden tour....let me know! Enjoy!(