11 week Ultrasound

Here are a couple pictures of Shepherd baby #2. I had an ultrasound yesterday (at 11 weeks & 2 days) to test for any birth defects. I was so paranoid about the baby's health because of the scare that we had previously...and you can't feel anything at this point. But as soon as the technician put the ultrasound thing on my tummy, the baby was bouncing and moving around a lot. They say the baby looks good and healthy but won't know the definite results until the second test at the end of October. Ben says that "she" looks like me during my favorite pass time, which is curling up like a cat and napping ;) haha. We won't find out for at least 8 more weeks what the gender of this baby is, but obviously Ben thinks it's a girl. My gut instinct says it's a girl too, and I've been told that women who went with gut feelings on gender were 80% accurate. But who knows, I don't mind either way.

20 Months

My little boy is now 20 months old. That's how old I was when my sister Rachel was born...so weird to think about. This is a picture of him trying on his Halloween costume for this year(he's a spider!). He didn't want to take it off for a whole hour...which was kinda nice actually cause at least he's not one of those kids who won't wear their costume, right. Well, I guess we'll see on Halloween.

Latest Words: "Hold", "I love you", "show", "train", "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10", "rainbow", "sun", "bunny", "Landon", "monkey", "crying", "seahorse", "crab", "starfish", "push".

Favorite Things: baseballs...the other night Ben went in to check on him and Landon whispers, "baseball" in his sleep. It's so cute to know that he was dreaming about baseballs. Still loves going outside and playing basketball. Its going to be sad when it starts raining so much that he's not able to go outside.

Favorite Foods: baked spaghetti, italian chicken, enchilladas, quesadillas, bread, macaroni & cheese, regular spaghetti, still likes string cheese, pretzels, crunchies, McDonalds cheeseburgers and dipping fries in ketchup andjust licking the ketchup off, Garden Salsa flavored SunChips (he LOVES them).

Dislikes: Kidscare. He threw the biggest tantrum this morning and it was sparked purely by approaching the kidscare playroom.

Accomplishments: Helping me make taco soup by dumping the cans of beans and corn into the pot. He climbed up on the jungle-gym by himself the other day, which was pretty scary for me cause I seriously thought he would fall right through the bars. Eating a bowl of spaghetti by himself.

Highs: Throwing the basketball in the hoop. Holding his own cup without a lid. When daddy comes home. Watching football on tv. Playing "chase" with other kids.

Lows: When Mommy doesn't let him hold something that he's not old enough to hold by himself yet. Having to go home from the basketball court.

Tender Moments: When we ask him where the new baby is and he already knows to point to my tummy and then kisses it. It's the cutest thing ever! And those unexpected kisses while he's playing are the best too. He is also very intuitive. He knows when people are sad or happy and will point out and say "crying" if someone is crying. Sometimes he'll even say Elmo or his bear or giraffe are crying if he throws them on the floor and then brings it to me to kiss better. Its so funny how they pick up on things so fast.

Battle Wounds...

So about a week ago my little guy joined the official boy club. You know, the one where you get the scar underneath your chin. He fell in the shower just before church and hit his chin right where the shower slopes up. He had a nice split that was just gushing. Surprisingly, I was pretty calm about it and just called out to Ben to get Landon's towel cause he split his chin open...thank goodness it wasn't bad enough to need stitches.Then, on Thursday we were playing at the park just behind my house and I was sitting down and Landon was going down the slide. He's usually fine going down on his own. But I guess this time he decided to go down face first and must have banged his eye on the side where it winds a bit because he gave out a huge whale of a scream and would not calm down for like 10 minutes (which in crying time seems like forever). I looked at his face and asked him where it hurt but I couldn't find anything....and then I found the rug burn like mark just below his left eye. Now he's got a nice shiner. Poor little guy.

SURPRISE!!!

Its official. Another little one is coming to our family. We actually found out about a month ago, but we've just been keeping it a secret. This little spirit is due to enter the world on April 10, 2010, and I say, "perfect timing." Mainly because I won't be pregnant in the summer and he/she will be born really close to when the flu season is over.

We were hesitant to come out with the news of course because of the whole risk of a miscarriage. We already had a scare almost 2 weeks ago where I started bleeding, but I didn't have any cramping. This started on a Thursday night. The bleeding stopped on Friday but then started up again in the middle of the night on Saturday when I woke up sweating like I had just ran a marathon. I thought for sure that the pregnancy was over. I had an appointment that Monday and Ben and Landon came with. Landon was VERY well behaved. I'm seeing a group of midwives this time because my Dr. at Evergreen left and now I'm going to a closer hospital. So I saw a midwife on Monday and she was VERY nice. She asked me if we could try finding a heartbeat with the Doppler and if we don't, then she'd order an ultrasound. She immediately found a REALLY STRONG and healthy heartbeat with the doppler, which was very comforting. I was only 8 weeks along and she said the reason she was able to find it was because my pelvis tilts forward. She also said that she could see where I had been bleeding and that it was probably a blood clot from the placenta starting to form. She said that its actually pretty common for women to bleed in the first three months.

Anyway, other than that, things have been going well. I've been more sick than I was with Landon, which makes Ben think its a girl this time. But I told him that just because I feel different, doesn't mean that the sex of the baby is different. I really don't mind either way. I just want the first trimester symptoms to go away.