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Just thought I’d share a few photos from the past few weeks. Let’s start with pictures of Micah enjoying his new helmet and his bike seat.
Ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s:
Fun at the basketball court:
Photos of Micah rolling around in bed saying “night-night”:
Fun at the pool:
Belly shots:
My father showed up at our house bright and early at 9:00 am, and off to daycare we went. As a side note, my father showed up a bit dressed up for the trip to the zoo. He had on a beautiful blue button-down collar shirt. I took one look at him and suggested he might be too hot in the outfit. In typical fashion, my father insisted he would be fine. Knowing my father (who NEVER likes to dress down), I knew it was a losing battle, so I gave up on trying to convince him to change into a short-sleeved Under Armour golf shirt.
We were scheduled to leave for the zoo at 9:30, and left about 9:45 – not bad for daycare time. We took the metro to the zoo – quite interesting taking our entire group on foot and down elevators and onto the trains. We had a few issues on the metro. First, we ended up with a wind tunnel as we were entering the Bethesda station, and one of those “caution” signs caught air and took flight, charging 50 feet down the tunnel and nearly taking us all out. It was a bit scary! Luckily, no one was hurt. We complained to the station manager, who was completely uninterested in helping out.
Then, as we were loading onto the train, the train operator failed to follow procedure, and caught a few of us (me and “Grammy”) in the train doors. We were quite scared, and it took several patrons to pull us inside to safety as the train started to move. The train operator did the same thing at every stop, so I decided to get the train number and file a complaint – that operator was quite dangerous. We reported him as we exited at Cleveland Park, and Elliot sent a follow-up note to his contacts at metro.
We arrived at the zoo around 10:15 or 10:30. We stopped to take a group photo – this was our trail of strollers that had just made the journey through the metro:
We started to take them out to look when we saw the red pandas and elephants. Micah LOVED the elephants. My dad did a great job carrying and chasing after Micah – it was getting to be a bit too much walking and lifting for me. He needed a few breaks, too (his back was hurting a bit). What a pair we were! His back, my belly…perhaps we both should have skipped the field trip, but we were having fun.
Micah and his Grampy had some time to kiss and hug at lunch:
I seem to be a delinquent blogger these days. I’m definitely getting nervous about reaching the end of my pregnancy. I’m about to hit 34 weeks, and I already am feeling a ton of pressure and contractions. I probably have about 2-4 weeks left of this pregnancy, and we do not have a name for this baby. I haven’t even packed my hospital bag yet! I finally pulled out the pee pad for the bed in case my water breaks in the bed again.
I’m feeling a bit bigger this pregnancy than I did with Micah, and definitely getting physically uncomfortable. My body hurts and I am having a hard time getting comfortable these days. I am loving how much Twoey has been moving around, though! I think it is interesting…I can already tell my two babies have different personalities. Micah was quite active all the time – he never stopped kicking, punching and bouncing. My belly would dance all over the place, and he loved to cause trouble whenever they put the monitor or the doppler on my belly -he’d go right over and start kicking and punching it! Twoey is also active…but in a more mellow way. She flips and rolls and occasionally kicks and punches, but she is much more likely to be stretching, or kicking one or two times in a row and sitting quietly for a bit. I think she is going to be more reserved than Micah. She does have that touch of cute-but-evil running through her – she finds a spot (like my rib) and she’ll poke it repeatedly. I almost imagine her with an impish grin as she pokes it over and over again while I’m thinking “don’t do that.” Micah STILL likes to do that now.
I’m getting excited to meet Twoey. I wonder what she will look like, and I wonder if she’ll be born bald or with a full head of hair like Micah. I kind of hope she has a full head of hair like Micah – we could immediately put adorable little bows in her hair! I wish we could figure out the name situation, but we are really struggling. We have a list of names…but we just haven’t found “THE” name yet.
On the Micah front – he is just being so cute most of the time. His Daddy took him to a free musical performance of Oh Susannah on Tuesday morning at the Lebanese Taverna. He has been busy in daycare and he has such a great sense of humor. On Thursday, we went to meet his Grammy and Grampy for a nice lunch, and Micah got to walk and hold their hands for the first time! They also played the “one-two-three swing!” game with him while they walked, and he laughed and laughed. He is definitely starting to talk more and more. Tonight, we were outside playing on his slide/basketball hoop toy that his Grammy and Grampy gave him for his first birthday, and he said basketball! (Okay, it sounded more like bah-ball, but he was definitely saying it). He kept shooting his baskets then stopping to clap for himself every time he made a basket.
But perhaps the BEST part of my week happened tonight. I got my first first Mother’s Day gift FROM Micah, MADE by Micah! I was all teary and happy – it was such a wonderful thing. They had him make it at daycare, and wrapped it up and sent it home.
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As you can see, they framed a picture that Micah painted, and they included a picture of Micah making the painting! It is currently sitting on the fireplace mantle, and I’m loving it.
For good measure, here is some video of Micah we’ve taken over the past two weeks. We finally have a new Flip video camera (we had given our old one to our niece for her trip abroad back in January, and it took us until now to replace it)!
Saw this today at a meeting. Just needed to be published:
At long last…an update on my 30 week ultrasound (along with pictures from both the 28 and the 30 week ultrasound). We had our appointment last week on Thursday. My cervix seems to be holding steady right around 2.9-3.0 cms (good news), but I’m having way too many contractions. We finally were able to talk to my regular doctor, and he gave me medication to help control the contractions now that I am no longer taking the P17 shots to prevent pre-term labor. Everything else looks great – at 28 weeks, Twoey weighed 2 lbs 9 ozs (Micah weighed 2 lbs 10 ozs at the same point in the pregnancy), and she was measuring about 3 days behind (totally normal – probably just means she’ll be small like Micah was). I was able to tell the doctor about my frustration with his staff and the other doctor, so I felt better about that. I guess I just have to believe that things are going to turn out okay this time and try not to worry about these contractions too much.
Here are the pictures from Twoey’s 28 week check. She was laying sideways across my belly with her legs twisted all over the place, so these shots were not so clear. She had a hand by her face, and in one of the 2D shots, she has a foot right in front of her face!
And here she is at 30 weeks – head down, much better shots. She made sure to suck her thumb and stick her tongue out at us!
Micah woke up this morning feeling great – he has been fever free for over 24 hours, and he barely has any sign of the rash remaining. I’m glad that he did not get a particularly bad case of coxsackie virus, but I think all these post-viral rashes are awful! I’m sure we have many more to come in the future. We double checked with the pediatrician, and Micah was cleared to return to daycare, so off he went! Naturally, the daycare manager asked us for a note from the doctor confirming that he was cleared to return 24 hours after his fever disappeared, so we had to scramble a bit to get them to fax over a note.
I’ve been on a picture binge lately…I just can’t stop taking pictures of Micah! Everyday, he is doing more and more amazing things, and I constantly feel compelled to document it. For example, a few days ago we were driving in the car. Micah was a bit cranky (this was a day or two before we realized he was sick), so I put on some music and started clapping to the beat and singing. All of the sudden, I heard a giggle from the back seat and a clapping sound! I glanced in the mirror and realized that Micah was clapping on beat with me! Yes, I said it – on beat! I stopped clapping, and Micah continued on clapping…right on beat! My son has rhythm, which is more than I can say for his Daddy (or mine, for that matter). He repeated the process again watching some music on tv – he is even able to find the beat on his own and maintain it. I’m so proud of him!
Micah has been playing with toy cars a lot lately. His Aunt Jodi and Uncle Steven gave him a toy garage for his birthday, and he seems to really love the cars. He will “drive” them all over the place, and he now says “vroom vroom” as he pushes the cars around.
Micah has also crossed into the land of “big boy” eating – at breakfast the other day, he insisted on taking the WHOLE banana to eat, peel and all. I couldn’t resist snapping a photo:
He also likes to sit at the dining room table in a grownup seat now – either to eat a snack, sit with his cousin Melissa who came for a short visit this weekend, or just to sit and act like a grownup. Melissa came by on Thursday night to drop off her car and head downtown for a conference, but she came back up Friday night to join us for dinner and hang out for a while. I drove her back downtown to her hotel, and then she came back up Sunday morning to pick up her car and grab a bagel for breakfast. Micah was SOOO excited to see Melissa, and he wanted to sit at the table and eat breakfast with her:
My little man is SICK. Everything seemed fairly normal this week – Micah had been a bit cranky, but I presumed it was due to the teething. A few times on Wednesday I thought he felt a touch warm, but I figured it was just from the teething, and I did not even check his temperature. He was SOOO cranky on Wednesday night, so I was in a huge hurry to bathe him and put him to bed.
On Thursday, Micah woke up a bit early. He was very cranky again, and hardly ate any breakfast at all. I decided to give him Tylenol – it helps with the teething pain, and often gives him his appetite back. We took my car over to a free car seat inspection/installation event, and Micah had a great time! He wandered around, and I made the mistake of putting him in the driver’s seat – he LOVED it! Unfortunately, we could not convince them to install the car seat in the driver’s seat, so Micah was quite unhappy when we made him return to the rear seat.
After the car seat installation, we took Micah for a visit with his Grammy at work (while Elliot and I went for another ultrasound of Twoey). I was afraid he would be miserable the entire time. I’ll separately post the update about Twoey and our ultrasound appointment, but it turned out Micah actually behaved himself! When we went back to pick him up, I thought he felt a bit warm. We were running late, so we ended up missing our class and going home instead. While Elliot headed downtown to a meeting, I put Micah down for a nap.
Much to my surprise, Micah took a LONG nap. Elliot made it home before Micah woke up from his nap. I knew he was tired, but he slept for nearly 4 hours! When he finally woke up, he was burning up. I took his temperature, and it was 104.3. I immediately gave him some Tylenol. I called the pediatrician, and they said that I did not need to rush him to the emergency room unless he was listless, and I should work on getting his fever down and bring him in to the office in the morning. About 45 minutes later, I checked Micah’s temeprature again…and it was up to 104.8. I was concerned, so I called the after-hours emergency number to reach the pediatrician. While we waited for her to call back. Elliot informed me that we had gotten an email from Micah’s daycare informing us that there was a case of Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease reported in his classroom. Immediately, I was fairly certain Micah had caught the virus.
When the doctor called back, we mentioned the outbreak at his daycare and we discussed the fever. She suggested I try to give Micah Motrin, too, and place him in a lukewarm bath if his temperature did not start to drop within an hour or two. She said we should go to the hospital if the fever continued to climb and we could not get it to drop within an hour or two, or if Micah became listless and lethargic. At that point, my mom showed up (to babysit for our normal date night), and we stripped Micah down to his diaper. I checked his temperature one more time, and it was 105.1.
About 45 minutes later…we had gotten Micah’s temperature back down to 103.8. Who would have thought that a temperature of 103.8 would be a relief? Over the next hour, Micah’s crankiness started to dissipate. He started to drink some milk, he ate some graham crackers and some cheese, and he started to run around and play with his toys. He seemed to be in good spirits…so I decided to head out for a few hours and leave Micah with my mom. Instead of our weekly date night, Elliot decided to take a class that interested him, so I made plans to meet my friend Heather. We just went for dinner at a tapas place in Rockville. The weather was beautiful, but unfortunately, those Tea Party people were holding a rally on the square where we were eating. I was really annoyed to have my peaceful dinner being disturbed by that stuff. I believe they have the right to demonstrate…but I also believe I have the right not to listen!
I was definitely laughing when the Tea Party-ers decided to play their “anthem”… Independence Day by the Dixie Chicks. Yes, the Dixie Chicks. I’m guessing that the Dixie Chicks would not be thrilled about this political group co-opting their name or their song, and I think it is ironic that these are likely the same people who blasted the Dixie Chicks for being anti-war (and called them un-American). Ahh…the irony. By the way, can someone please explain to me how people can be pro-war and anti-government and taxation at the same time? Unless I’m mistaken, the war efforts are one of the biggest government expenditures (and a HUGE component of our current federal government). Sorry…got off on a tangent there.
Anyway, I came home after a few hours – apparently, Micah and my mother had a fun night together, and he went to bed easily. He did sleep until 6:00 am on Friday morning, but he woke periodically crying on and off overnight.
Friday morning, Micah still had a fever of 104. We made an appointment and took him to the pediatrician. Naturally, when we got there, his fever was only 98.4! Apparently, all the meds were helping. Micah looked fine upon examination, and we mentioned the case of Hand, Foot and Mouth disease (also known as the Coxsackie virus) at his daycare. Micah’s throat was red (and he had a negative strep test), so the doctor presumed that this was likely a Coxsackie viral infection. He warned us Micah’s fever would stay high for another day or two, and that he might develop sores in his mouth and a rash on his hands, feet, and possibly his tush.
We kept him medicated and comfortable all day. We also learned that 4 other children in his daycare class (out of 6) were out sick with this virus. Ah well…I guess in the scheme of things, this really has been fairly minor. Elliot took Micah on a long walk in the afternoon, we watched Sesame Street, and we had a nice afternoon.
Around 7:00, our niece Melissa came over for dinner – she was in town for a conference, and Micah got to spend some quality time with his cousin. We bathed him and put him to bed by 8:30, and the three of us stayed up talking until about 1:00 am. I then drove Melissa back downtown to the Omni Shoreham Hotel.
This morning, Micah woke up with some blisters on his tongue and a slight rash on his feet, tush and hands. Definitely Coxsackie! I have to say, that sounds so much better to me than Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease, doesn’t it? I checked with the pediatrician again by telephone…I do not need to keep him isolated while he has the rash – just until 24 hours after his fever breaks. His fever has been below 100 today, so we will hopefully be able to return him to class on Monday.
In the meantime, Micah has been having some fun around the house. Apparently, he pulled this box off of the counter so he could play with it:
In the past few days, Micah has learned to shake his head “no.” Another sign of the terrible twos, I suppose. He says “no” when he doesn’t want food, or if he doesn’t want to go upstairs for a nap, or really for anything else. It is kind of cute, but I have a feeling I’m going to grow to hate that.
For giggles, here is a picture of Micah in “his” chair:
Here are a few other pictures from last week.
Natural History Museum on Tuesday:
Hanging out with Daddy (after stealing his glasses):
Thursday night with Grammy:
Friday Spring Fling:
I then called the nursing company who administers the shots each week. They informed me they are getting reports of many reactions – almost 50% of the people who are receiving them. I was told that in most cases, the reactions are limited to the welts and itching, but can progressively get worse with continued shots (although some people only react the first time). I tend to be extremely allergy-sensitive, so I immediately decide that I’m not willing to risk escalating allergic reactions. I asked if they could obtain the P17 from the prior manufacturer and was told they could not. My only choices are: 1) to continue with the shots and deal with the allergic reaction ; or 2) stop the shots.
I tried to call my maternal fetal medicine specialist, but the gatekeepers at his office made it impossible for me to speak to anyone. I called the midwife, and she agreed that it was reasonable (but unfortunate) to stop the shots now. We also discussed my contractions and my concern about them increasing (or continuing to go on untreated). I now have a prescription for terbutaline, and directions about how she suggests I take the medication. I guess we will see where things are on Thursday.
After my crazy morning, I took Micah to a “Mommy and Me” event at Congressional (where his Kidville class is scheduled). We got a balloon, signed up for some free things, ate a quick lunch – it was a fun morning. We then went to our class at 12:30, and Grampy surprised Micah with a visit in class. Micah was SOOO excited to see him – he started to scream and yell and ran over to him.
We did have one meltdown in class. Micah was nestled securely in his teacher Paige’s lap (he LOVES her) and I saw another child in the class try to go running by. I grabbed that child and plopped him on my lap during the music circle time, and then Micah spotted me sitting there with another child in my lap. He went ballistic! He started to yell and came running over ready to push/hit/smack/move the other child out of the way and off my lap. All I can say is “uh-oh” – Micah is in for a rude awakening if he thinks he can keep me all to himself all the time. I’ve never seen him be so possessive of me, but it is definitely starting to show.
Thursday night was our weekly “date night.” Once again, Elliot used the time for practical purposes, and ran to the baby stores. We returned a few items, bought a few items, and looked at baby furniture for Twoey. We think we might have picked out her bedroom set! There is a new line of furniture coming out through this store later this month. It is American-made, green (as in environmentally friendly), and very reasonably priced. We are just waiting for the floor samples to come in to make sure we like the way it looks in person, and we are all set! If not, then we may just buy the same exact set we got for Micah in a different color.
On Friday morning, I took Nugget to her follow-up appointment at the animal hospital. I had a long discussion with the doctor before we signed out last week, and she said this was just an xray and a blood draw, so I did not need to schedule an appointment. She placed a tech service order to allow me to drop by any time. Needless to say…I got there and they insisted I needed an appointment. The doctor I dealt with was nowhere to be seen. I had to deal with a condescending “case manager” who was solely interested in telling me they were right and the confusion was clearly my fault (can we say customer service was not their strong point?). I was so angry at the whole situation. Ultimately, the emergency doctor saw us and ordered the xray and bloodwork. The good news…Nugget looked good on examination, her lungs were clear, and her kidneys seem to be doing okay (her creatinine level was normal, but her BUN was *slightly* elevated). We do not need to go back again for another 3-4 months for a follow-up with the cardiologist.
On Friday late afternoon, we went to a Spring Fling Luau event at Kidville, which included a musical performance, open gym time, some art projects, and pizza. Micah was climbing on the slides, and he loved the musical performance, and he even spent some time putting stickers on the art project. He ate a few pieces of pizza and then we headed home for the night.
Saturday, Daddy and Micah went to services in the morning. The weather was beautiful, so in the afternoon, we set up the gym set that my parents’ bought him for his birthday outside. Micah spent a while playing basketball, climbing on the slide and running around outside. We then had Jen and Dave come over to meet us for dinner. We just ran out for Chinese food, and then spent a few hours relaxing and catching up. Unfortunately, we could not find a babysitter for the evening, but it was still a wonderful night.
Sunday, we decided to meet some friends at Butler’s Orchard for a bunny festival! Micah had SOOO much fun – he got to pet sheep, a bunny, baby chicks (well, he nearly smashed those), and play with some toys in hay. Then he sat on a wooden choo-choo train, rode John Deere tractor tricycles, played in a wooden house, watched some children on pony rides, took a hayride, went on the moonbounce…it was a day full of activity!! We got some amazing photos of Micah:
After all the activities, Micah was exhausted, so we took him home for his nap. We fed Micah dinner, and I decorated some cupcakes. After dinner, I headed out to an Indian restaurants with the cupcakes to help celebrate a friend’s birthday. It was a nice evening.
Yesterday was back to the grind – I had a meeting downtown today, so it was a busy day. The traffic was also awful because of the Nuclear Summit. Today, Micah’s daycare had a trip to a the Natural History Museum, so I decided to take Micah and join them instead of going to his Kidville class in the morning. He had a lot of fun – there were all kinds of animals to see and a butterfly exhibit! Unfortunately, the trip started late and Micah started to get grumpy partway through the trip. I had to leave a bit early to get back in time for my OB appointment, so they agreed to keep Micah to finish up the activities (and Elliot met them back at the daycare when they returned). I took a few pictures, but I’ll have to upload them another day.
My OB appointment was this afternoon – 30 weeks!! I can’t believe how fast this pregnancy is flying. We discussed my contractions, and the midwife was concerned about the number of contractions I”m having. She recommends that I start taking the terbutaline on a regular basis now, and she did a fetal fibronectin test (it can predict pre-term labor) just to be safe. Other than that, I’m measuring 29 weeks now, baby’s heartrate sounded great, and my sugars have all been normal. I picked up the booklet on the diet – I have to say, I could never eat that much food! They recommend something like 2400 calories a day, 12 ozs of protein, 10-15 veggies a day, 3 fruits….perhaps it would be easier if I wasn’t vegetarian, but the only way I can consume that many calories a day is if it includes a nice big vat of chocolate ice cream…and brownies…and I don’t think that is what they have in mind.
One last note…Micah (and his Daddy and I) wanted to wish his Poppy Ira a VERY happy birthday today!! We’re thinking of you, and can’t wait to see you.
Nugget is hanging in there, but we are having some issues with incontinence (because of her new medications). She has peed in the house two times so far, but our biggest issue is that she tends to pee when she sleeps (particularly overnight). Elliot thought he had a brilliant idea to solve this problem:
