Baby on the Move

So for a while now (weeks, perhaps?) I've thought that I could feel those now familiar flutters in my tummy that suggest baby #2 is on the move. Now today I'm more sure than ever. Even though my belly's been growing, to me, this is the truest sign that there's a life in there. I love it! 14 weeks and counting.

Sea Life

By the way Layla reacted to the sea life on tv today, something tells me we are due for a trip to the aquarium soon!

Portland

We made a long overdue visit to Portland yesterday to see friends Joe and Natalie and their kids. Another friend, Paul, who we hadn't seen since our wedding, came by to visit, too.

Layla had an absolute blast playing with Mia, Owen, Mongo, and all of their toys. It's easy to take care of her when she has such great entertainment! We were so happy that Layla warmed up so nicely to the dog. Halfway through the day she was going out of her way to find the dog and try to pet it.


Here she is hanging out with Paul.


And here she is sharing some Cheerios with Owen. Mongo might have snagged a couple, too.

Warm Weekend

We had fun at a new playground on Sunday. Layla LOVED the little tunnel.

Update

Friday was Layla's 15 month check-up. It was quite eventful because last Sunday she came down with another bad cold. I hesitated to take her in to the doc when I knew we had Friday's appointment coming up. Plus, she was still finishing up a course of amoxicillin that had been prescribed for the illness before this one. Long story short, by the time we showed up there on Friday, her cough was horrendous and she was wheezing quite a bit. Plus there was still some fluid in her ear. We had to do an albuterol treatment while we were there, which is never fun. I started to feel quite guilty that I hadn't followed through at home with the nebulizer as the doc had originally recommended. It's really hard to fit 3-6 nebulizer treatments into the work day, especially when the patient thinks it's fun to continuously turn the machine off and on! The appointment was at the end of a long work week, at the end of a long winter, and seeing the doc so concerned about my sick girl kind of put me over the edge. So we started on a new antibiotic and we are following directions this time and have increased neb treatments. Layla started to feel better right away, even though she still sounds kind of "junky". I'm feeling much better now, too, helped in no small way by the fact that Layla slept until past 6:30 both yesterday and today. In fact, today she woke up chatting instead of crying and when I went into her room she was reading a book in her crib. Getting sleep and not waking up at 5 am to play has me thinking that maybe one day I will feel human again! Not for a while....but one day :).

Layla couldn't get her immunizations, so we'll go back in about 10 days for a re-check of her symptoms plus her two shots. Good times!

Below is a video that shows Layla playing with her new, favorite toy...her neb! She likes to take her wooden people or her shapes and put them on the neb to see how they move while it vibrates. She got a little distracted this time by the fun of dumping the shapes where she couldn't get at them. At least all this nebbing hasn't made her super scared of the thing!

Sunday pics

Pretty girl, talking on her (actually, Mommy's) phone


Sometimes you regret doing something that seems *cute* at the time. Putting Layla in her toybox was a bad idea. Now she wants to be in there all the time!

Layla makes music; Daddy makes beer

We had an exciting day in the kitchen today. Daddy is getting back into home brewing and had some friends over today to help with the initial batch. Layla was fascinated by the chaos and kept checking in on the guys in the kitchen to make sure everything was going ok. As I write this, the wort is outside cooling, waiting for Chris to add the yeast. Or something like that.

Earlier today, Daddy was able to visit Aunt Trish and Sarah, who were in the neighborhood due to power outages in NH. On his way back from seeing them, he stopped to pick up Layla a baby bottle for her dolly (she was trying to "feed" her baby a Thomas the Tank Engine train) and her very own guitar (it's actually a ukulele).


In Baby #2 news, we have a couple of big dates established. On April 12th we will have our 18 week ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby. Then we start talking names :). Also, the official due date is September 13th. There's a good chance that we will have the baby at least a week early, either by C-section or early induction. Without going into detail, the doctor is hoping that I can avoid some of the problems/trauma on my body that occurred during Layla's birth. So it looks like I may make it into school for just a few days before beginning my leave. Because it will only be my first year with "professional status" (ie, it will be my 4th year there), I have to show up on the first day in order to get my 14 sick days. Hopefully this baby doesn't have another plan for me!