Right Before Baby Girl is Born

Practicing mouse skills

Adam continues to surprise us as a quick learner.  His language is developing everyday, as well as, his fine motor skills.  He's learning to use the computer mouse, switching between his left and right hands.  He understands that he needs to click mouse buttons to invoke certain behaviors on the computer and has recently discovered that mouseover on my laptop will display a small preview window at the desktop toolbar.  He thinks it's especially amusing to see a little version of his paintings in these preview windows.


He's created a few pictures using Microsoft Paint (I'll upload them in a follow-up post).  He can't quite select the colors himself, so he asks Mommy or Daddy for help selecting the color he wants.

Adam also likes to borrow my laptop to view slideshows of family pictures.  He typically wants to see the Easter pictures, verbalized by "Want to see pictures [from] Papa's house in mountains."  Over the weekend, I demonstrated to him how he can start the slideshow himself by clicking on the Pictures folder and by clicking on Slide Show.  I didn't expect him to "get it," but he shocks me all the time, I figured why not show him and see if he'll give it a try sometime.

Two weekends ago, we took Adam to the zoo.  I'd been promising to take him to feed the ducks and giraffes (and eat ice cream) for several days.  Unfortunately, he got sick earlier in the week with an ear infection.  He started taking antibiotics that Friday night and seemed to be doing well on Sunday morning.  We'd originally planned to take him to the Ice Cream Safari (a special event in the late afternoon/early evening), but the temperature was predicted for 108 during the event.  Too hot for our toddler and way, way too hot for pregnant Mommy.  Actually, too hot for most people.

Aunt Lesia and Aunt Shell were visiting over the weekend, so the 5 of us (6 including Baby) went to the zoo in the morning when the temperature was hot, but not yet deadly.  We got to see the tigers and lions much more closely than in previous visits.  The tiger paced along the glass window looking like he could easily have Adam for breakfast.  Or all of us.

Giraffe!

The timing worked out so that Adam could feed one of the giraffes while we were there.  About the time we made it to the elephant exhibit, I needed to get out of the heat and rest.  I went to the cafeteria for a snack and drinks while Matt, Shell, Lesia and Adam continued to tour the zoo.

Baby Elephant at new exhibit

Small turtle, big shell

Apparently, Adam was far more interested in the frog fountain next to the pond than the ducks he'd been asking to go feed for over two weeks.

Playing with frog fountain

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He got to cool off a bit in the splash area before I met the group at the giraffe feeding.  We stopped by the cafeteria for Adam's ice cream.  We didn't have a change of clothes for him and he was soaked from the splash area, so I had him undressed and wrapped in a towel in the cafeteria while he ate ice cream.

The visit was great, but probably ill-timed.  By the next Tuesday night, Adam had a fever and was feeling rotten.  We're not sure if we had fatigued his immune system in that outing or if it was the cold virus that hit him that following week.  Either way, rotten Mom and Dad, because the poor guy was fighting a fever for two days.  We could bring it down with Ibuprofen and he was drinking plenty of water, so we just kept an eye on him and made him rest at home.  On day three of his fever, we let it go without Ibuprofen and just monitored it periodically to make sure it did not reach 102.  By the end of the day, his fever went away on it's own and he settled into a solid cold illness.  So did I.

In total, Adam was sick for almost 3 weeks.  First with the ear infection then with a cold.  I'm going on my second week with this cold, but gradually getting better.  I'm hoping to be back to full health before Baby is born.  I also threw my back out last Friday, so I'm hoping to also get that fixed before her birth day.

Baby Girl is growing.  I didn't have any weight gain at my last appointment, but Little Sister seems to be growing anyway.  At our 32 week ultrasound, she was estimated at 4lbs 8oz, more than double her size from the 28 week ultrasound.  She was estimated in the 54th percentile.

At our 36 week ultrasound, she was estimated at 6lbs 15oz.  The appointment went well.  She is a good size and appears to be developing as expected.  We didn't get to see too much of her this last time, because laying on my back makes me nauseated and feel faint very quickly.  The technician focused on getting the stats she needed as fast as she could and getting me out off my back.  

at 36 weeks

This week, we start non-stress testing twice a week.  We are starting the testing a week earlier than we did with Adam.  With Adam, NST started in week 38 and during that first appointment, they found that my amniotic fluid was a little low AND the placenta was starting to calcify.  This prompted the decision to induce early.  We are all hoping that we can make it to the scheduled c-section date at 39 weeks, so that Girl has as much development time as possible.  None of this can be controlled or predicted though.  We're planning on that 39 weeks date, but preparing that it might be as soon as this week.