Baby Names

So Brady and I are debating between a few names and can't seem to decide on any of them.  The top two contenders are Olivia or Violet.  We've liked Olivia since we had Lily - it has a lot of options for nicknames, it's just plain cute.  But it's also very common and many syllables.  Violet we love because it is less common but still really cute and not too weird.  The only thing holding me back is that there is not a good nickname for it.  We are not a fan of the obvious "Vie" but we don't necessarily need a shorter name.  I think I would commit to the name but Brady, I think, likes Olivia a little more but just won't come out and say it.  We'll probably wait until the baby comes out to decide but if anyone who reads this blog has an opinion, let me know!

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Pregnancy Update

Well, I'm almost 29 weeks now.  I don't have an updated photo.  I usually take them on Sundays when I dress up but we've been sick the last couple of weeks so I haven't taken one.  But I'll be going this Sunday, hopefully, so I can do another pic.  I feel like she is already huge and I can barely breathe.  So onto some fun stuff (sarcasm should be detected).  I took the one hour glucose tolerance test around 27 weeks and the results came back a little high so my doctor said I had to go in and do the 3 hour one at the hospital.  I felt really gross most of the time but I brought my laptop and Gilmore Girls and it went by fairly quickly.  Although I arrived at the hospital at 7:30, as per my doctor's instructions, only to discover that no order for my test had been sent over so we had to wait until they opened at 8 and then had to wait some more for them to fax it over.  So I basically spent an extra hour in the awesome hospital lobby waiting for the test to start.  But they had a reclining chair set up just for expectant mothers so I set myself up nice and comfy.

Well, that three hour test was a week ago and I hadn't gotten any call from my doctor so I was going to call today when he finally called this morning.  It was a little annoying that the first thing he said was 'I've been trying to get a hold of you' when I had had my phone glued to my side for a week with no calls.  So whatever, doc!  Anyway, my test results we abnormal so now I guess I technically have gestational diabetes.  Yay!  Not.  What that basically means is that I have to limit carbs, especially the type of carb, and take blood sugar measurements four times a day.  Here's my kind of cute blood sugar reader thing:

The thought of having to prick my finger four times a day is not great but I have a feeling I'll get real comfortable with it real soon.  I'm going in tomorrow so the nurse can show me how to use it but I think already know after reading the instructions.

My numbers are not too far off the normal range so my doctor is optimistic that I'll be able to control it just by diet changes.  If I can't, then we'll have to talk about early delivery, etc. because the main problem with having gestational diabetes is that the baby will be huge and it'll increase the chances of having a c-section and going into preterm labor.  I don't think the diet changes should be too hard - once I found out I failed the first glucose test I've already been trying to modify my diet.  It's just combining carbs and protein and fat in all the right amounts.  And I'm not a huge fan of meat so I'll have to get creative on what to cook for protein.

Huge babies already run in my family so I'm not sure how this condition will affect that.  Brady is freaking out that the baby is going to be super early while he's still doing class (I probably will be too, for that matter) so he is all for he new diet.  But my doc already likes to induce at 39 weeks, as long as your favorable, so this baby might be coming early.  Of course, she'll probably be late but we'll see.

Bangelina (Think Angelina with a B)

Lily really likes to pretend she is Angelina Ballerina.  And she adds a B at the beginning of her name, for some reason.  She doesn't actually watch the show very much (she prefers Kipper and Curious George) but she found her Halloween tutu a week ago and has been loving playing around in it.  It's a little more scrunched up now but she has fun with it, so it's ok.  And it was super easy and cheap to make.

Tutu on Halloween

Performing some "Bangelina" moves

New (to us) Couches

So a couple weeks ago we decided we need more seating in our living room.  We've only had one couch since we moved in in August but as I'm getting wider I kept wanting more and more of the couch space.  So we started looking around Craigslist to try and find something decent.  Brady really wanted a recliner, and so did I really, because it was great when we had one with Lily.  I felt like we needed another couch, too, for laying out purposes.  We found a few choices and emailed them but then, for a week, no one responded.  (Sometimes I feel like people on craigslist don't really want to sell their stuff - they just want to tease people with it).  Anyway, one of the ladies contacted us, finally, after I sent a second message and went to see the couches.  They were in West Virginia, about an hour away, so we rented a U-Haul (just in case) and drove out there.  It was both of our first times to West Virginia so we can cross that state off our list.  The lady was wanting to sell her microfiber recliner and couch (with a recliner on each end) for $300 originally, lowered the price to $250 when she emailed back and then when Brady asked her if $250 was her best price, she lowered it to $200 because we'd drive so far for them.  We brought them home and have been loving the extra space!  And the recliners!  I looked up how to clean microfiber on Pinterest so I gave them a scrubbing and a fabreeze-ing and they are good to go.  Here are pictures of them:

The recliner

The couch that has two recliners.

It has been really great, too, since I've been sick that I can lean back without being completely horizontal because I'm at the stage in pregnancy where breathing air gives me heartburn.  It also helps stretch out my stomach and baby bump so they aren't so cramped, thus worsening the heartburn/acid reflux feeling.  I think we'll be keeping these for a while!

Flu

Well, I have experienced something new in the past month.  Twice.  When we got back from California (I'm talking the day we got back) I got sick with some kind of stomach bug/flu that wiped me out for several days.  The actual gross part only lasted a few hours but then I was weak, achy and had no appetite for days afterward. But, I got over it and considered myself done with flu season.  Apparently my body, and the rest of the world around me, decided I should get whatever that bug was again!  So, almost a month later, I am sick with a stomach bug again!  I am on day 3 of feeling yucky.  I'm hoping I'll feel almost better today.  Being sick normally just stinks but when I have to take care of Lily too it is just the worst!  But luckily Brady has been able to be home most of the time while I've been feeling sick.  He only has classes two days a week so he was able to stay home the rest of the day.  I am just going to have to stay away from people now and use sanitizer a ton until this baby is born (which incidentally marks the end of flu season).  I do not want to get more sick on top of already being pregnant anymore!  (And, of course, there are no pictures to document this incident.  I'm sure you understand why).

Christmas 2012

We went to California for Christmas.  It was a really awesome trip especially since we weren't sure we were going to be able to go but we did and since we live in Virginia now, it was really great for Lily to spend time with her cousins.  She has 6 cousins on that side all under 10 so she had a great time.

This was the best picture we could get of all of them.  And soon there will be another one!  We are definitely girl heavy on the Duitsman side.  Both my sister Stacey and I will have two girls and then my older brother has the other four, including the two boys.  We'll see if we can get some more boys in the future!  Lily already misses her California family.  She asks all the time to go to Grandma/Grandpa Duitsman's house and sometimes even asks if we can go on the plane again (since that's how we got to Cali).  It kind of breaks my heart but just cements in me that we will move back West as soon as we're done here!  Even Brady's brother who is having a baby this month (a boy) lives in Utah so we'd be closer to cousins on the Redfearn side, too.

Baby Girl #2

So we're pregnant again!  Obviously, everyone who reads this blog probably already knows this but I'll do a post on it anyway.  I'm due on May 11th, so I have about 3 months left.  During those 3 months I'll be finishing up my final semester of my Master's program.  The semester technically ends on May 13th but I'm hoping to be done earlier in May so it won't interfere with the baby delivering.  Since Lily was 6 days late and they had to force her out of me (via induction) I'm guessing this one will be the same.  Maybe she'll surprise us and come early but probably not.

The first trimester was incredibly easy.  I could hardly believe I was pregnant, except for the fact that my pants stopped fitting way faster this time than with Lily.  I felt sick a few times but nothing to really complain about.  It was good I could go and hear the heartbeat because otherwise I wasn't sure I actually was pregnant.  The second trimester, which is almost over (I'm just over 26 weeks), has been much worse.  And it is supposed to be the easy trimester!  I have had almost a constant headache and the heartburn is really bad.  But I figure that I had a ton of headaches with Lily too, I just didn't have a toddler to look after that time.  I'm already feeling huge and uncomfortable but when I compared my current bump to my bump with Lily I'm about the same size now.  I got big much more quickly but it's kind of tapered off now.

We found out it was another girl just before Christmas and we are really excited.  It means I will not have to do anything but unpack and wash all of Lily's old clothes/toys and that'll be that.  We already have another dresser so each of the girls can have one and her bassinet is already set up in Lily's room.  Lily is excited for her little sister as much as a 2 year old can be.  She knows there's a baby in mommy's tummy and she has heard the heartbeat and saw the ultrasound but it won't really set in until we bring baby #2 home.  I hope these next three months go by quickly - mainly because that means I'll be done with school forever but also because pregnancy gets weird in those last three months.  At the same time, though, I want to try to make it the best three months Lily has had since she will no longer be our only little girl and will have to share us with another little person.  Granted, she'll be the only sibling that will ever get us all to herself but she'll also have a bunch of other responsibilities because she'll be the oldest.  It's weird having my parental love extend towards another person.  I love Lily so much and couldn't imagine having another baby but, now that she is kicking the heck out of me, Baby Girl #2 has just been brought into the parental love bubble.  I think my girls will have so much fun together and there is nothing quite like a sister to be a life long friend.  Here's a grid of pictures of my two pregnancies.  I was curious what the comparison was.  It can clearly be seen that I got huge early but now the difference is not so much.