Colds, falls, and progress on the house

Lots has happened since we last posted. Brie has come down with yet another cold. It is so frustrating because they all seem to go right to her lungs. This time it started just as every other one does with her vomiting at bedtime. It seems like whenever she starts coughing everything comes back up. She continues, almost a week later, to have congestion and cough but is in good spirits. Hopefully the congestion will clear up soon. She has gotten pretty good at wiping her own nose and this morning I even found her getting a tissue out of the box just for this purpose. It was cute, until I realized that half the box had been used to wipe her nose and were all over the floor. Now they are safely out of her reach.

After a rocky pregnancy with Brie, one would think we deserve this one to be without problem. Well it was, until yesterday. While walking up steps, yes up, I slipped and missed a step. Thankfully I did not hit my belly, but because I am high risk I ended up spending 4 hours last night in labor and delivery being monitored and having another ultrasound. Everything checked out just fine. This little one is very active and the nurses spent most of their time chasing her around with the heart monitor. The ultrasound showed lots of fluid around her and that she is doing great!

We have also made some slow progress to the house in attempts to get ready for winter and our new arrival. There is now insulation in the front room, the wood pellet stove is now functional and has a gate mounted around it to keep Brie safe, and our new munckin's room is painted. The room is a nice purple that right now is a bit overwhelming. We are hoping once the furniture is in and the trim is up it will be toned down a little. I think it will, Marcus is not so sure.

Finally, we have a date for our new little girl's arrivals. My c-section is scheduled for November 19th. I will have an amniocentesis in the morning and the c-section in the afternoon as long as her lungs are mature. If you noticed a jump in the ticker on the side that is why. I changed it to reflect her date of arrival rather then my due date. It is a little scary to think she will be here in less then 60 days.

Little bean update

Today we had another ultrasound for our new little munchkin and all is well. She is measuring 2 lbs 2 oz (6 oz more then Brie was when she was born) and is growing well. She is in the 40% for weight and length. Hopefully she will continue to grow and we will have 10 more weeks to prepare for her arrival. Marcus has spent the last 2 days sanding her room and getting things ready to paint. Her crib is ordered and her bedding is here. Hopefully we will have our "take home baby" the week before thanksgiving.

A blarring alarm

This am we were awoken to the sound of the carbon monoxide monitor. So we packed up and all went outside. Luckily it was just a malfunction with the monitor and the level was 0, but we were pretty worried. This was a new monitor the Marcus bought on Monday. Our old one had been chirping over the weekend even after we put a new battery in it. When this one went off we were nervous that we had ignored the warning on the other one and had spent the last 4 days in a dangerous house. Luckily that was not the case and we have been safe. We know our chimney needs some maintenance, but we are trying to hold out a few months to get all of the stuff we need for the new baby and get her room finished. Lets just say we are very happy it was a false alarm and we may be having someone come look at the chimney in a few weeks.

Here are some of the new pics I promised of our little munchkin:

I do not think Brie thought the Tu-tu was as cute as mommy and daddy but she was a good sport:

Buckets make great hats!

Here we are painting tigger. Brie enjoyed dipping the brush in the water and seeing the color appear on the paper.

18 month update

Brie had a good check up with the pediatrician yesterday. She is developmentally on target for an 18 month old. No correction needed for her gross or fine motor skills. She is still small for her age, but has finally landed on the growth chart. She was 20 lbs 4 oz and 29 5/8 inches tall putting her in the 3% for both height and weight (this is also not corrected and would be higher if you used her adjusted age of 15 months). Her head was 46 cm which is in the 25% where it has always been. Her new pediatrician is not concerned with her slow growth and just feels that she is going to be petite. At this point he feels that she is doing well.

As for the milk issue. His suggestion is that we add some lactaid to her milk and retry whole milk again in a few weeks. He does not agree with the GI docs suggestion to cut out all dairy and soy for the next 6 months. We explained to him that many of the things she actually eats and asks for are milk products so to take them away would not be beneficial to her growth. We also discussed the bottle and how to get rid of it. He suggested that we not take it away until we can get her off of the Elecare and onto something she likes to drink as she needs the calories from the formula. Hopefully our next milk trial will be successful and we can get rid of both the elecare and the bottle before the new baby comes.

Brie has also had another language explosion. She enjoys repeating things that we say and has actually started to put some words together. Instead of just signing all done when she wants to get out of the highchair she says all done and signs it. She has also started saying bye-bye da-da and ma-ma. In addition she says hi, beans, book, eyes, baby, and eggs. We think she has about 15-20 words that she says on a consistent basis, which is right on target for her age.

Another big development, which was more a mommy issue then something Brie had control over, is that we finally turned her car seat forward facing. I was leery of doing it because she is still so tiny, but she has consistently been over 20 lbs now for a month and before the pneumonia she was almost 21 lbs. This weekend she took her first long car trip forward facing and she was very happy. Normally she fusses in the car after about 30 minutes, but this time she was pointing out the window and saying truck and giggling if she saw cows, doggies, or any other animal out the window.

Sorry there have not been new pictures recently. I have to get them off of the camera and will try and add some tomorrow.

Feeling better

Well after a few rough days and nights our peanut is pretty much back to normal. She is still not eating well, but we have been trying to get her to eat better in her high chair as well. She has been running around the house asking for yum-yums, but when you sit her in her highchair she refuses to eat what you put in front of her. We know she is hungry because if you pick her up and walk around with her she will eat. For some reason sitting at the table is the problem. This is one habit we would like to break before the new baby arrives. It is a difficult predicament we are in, we want her growing and gaining weight, but the more we carry her around the more we feed into the problem. Her weight has dropped again because of the illness and she is now 20lbs 0.5 oz today, so she lost 12 oz. Hopefully she will be able to gain it back fairly quickly.

Today Pop came for a visit and he and Marcus built a closet in the new babies room. Now all that is left to do is finish spackling, prime, paint and order carpet. Marcus has the new dresser all sanded and ready to refinishing. In a few weeks we will order the crib and then our little girls room will be complete. We already have her crib set and are going to paint the walls lilac. It should be nice. My c-section is just 12 weeks away and we are nowhere near ready. Most of our newborn and 0-3 month clothes are summer so we will have to buy some warm outfits. Nana Green has already started her out with a few outfits and Brie and I bought her coming home outfit yesterday.

Pneumonia... again.

Well after a great day on Saturday, Brie woke up somewhere in the night screaming. After about 10 minutes she vomited her entire stomach contents and she has not been the same since. She started with nasal congestion during the night and coughing the next morning. Yesterday she refused to drink or eat anything and she is just shy of being dehydrated by some miracle. After another rough night of fevers, vomiting with coughing and breathing very labored we were off to the pediatricians this morning. Sure enough Brie has pneumonia again. The chest x-ray confirmed it. Currently she is sleeping and has had about 2 oz of fluids so far today, so hopefully this time we can manage to keep her home and treat this pneumonia with some antibiotics and rest. Marcus and I decided it was best if I stayed home today as she eats and drinks best for me. We both were scheduled to work and Sandy and Donnie were going to watch Brie for us, but with her being so sick we figured it was best I stay home. Hopefully she will recover quickly and be back to her old self in a few days.

Just a quick look at our bbq pictures!

Brie had a blast helping Poppop fill up her new pool. She of course had to check it out with her clothes on!
Look at me!
Christina and Marcus playing on the slide. The swing, slide and pool were a big hit.

Meghan and Erin had a great time sharing their chair and enjoyed the slide and swing.

Kerrilee and Chris made the long trip as well. Kerrilee is expecting a baby girl at the beginning of December as well. We joke that maybe our new little ones will share a birthday like Brie and Erin.

Meghan cuddling with her mommy, Michelle.

Here is daddy balancing Brie and Michael. I think he is practicing to see how difficult it will be to carry two babies at once.