Claire vs. The Coffee Table

Coffee Table: 1
Claire: 0

Home Sweet Home

Ahhhhh . . . . we're home. We've actually been home for several days now, but it has taken me several days to get caught up from being away for a week. Looks like we were very lucky as our house sustained absolutely no visible damage from Hurricane Ike. We still have to get up in the attic and check for small leak possibilities, but so far our only loss was the contents of our refrigerator. No biggie, it needed to be cleaned out anyway.

While we were in Dallas, I did get to spend several hours in the ER one night. We thought I was having contractions once again. Turns out? A kidney infection can feel a lot like contractions. Who knew? So that was my diagnosis. I am now taking a lovely dose of antibiotics twice a day to keep the infection at bay. Plus I am drinking enough water and cranberry juice to drown a fish. I am doing everything I can to avoid kidney stones in this pregnancy. My friend, Pigs, dealt with that during her second pregnancy and it didn't sound like any fun at all.

I get to go in this Friday for another sonogram to see if my rogue placenta has migrated to a safe spot for the remainder of this pregnancy. I am hoping all is well because we have a trip to Vegas planned for next week. I would hate to have to cancel all our plans this close to the departure date. I doubt Southwest Airlines has a cancellation clause for troublesome placentas.

Oh, did I mention the trip is kid-free? Yep. My mom is coming to stay with Claire so we can be foot loose and fancy free. Well, as foot loose and fancy free as one can be while almost 6 months pregnant.

Powerless

Greetings from DFW! We fled the fun that was Hurricane Ike. Fortunately, Michael has family within a reasonable drive so we are camping out at his mom's house until we can head back home. From the reports I have heard so far, we have minimal damage to our house which is great. However we are still staying away because we are facing day 4 with no electricity at our house. Apparently most of the neighborhoods in our city have been restored with the exception of a few small pockets here and there. We must be in the "here and there" because we are in fact powerless.

No big deal to us since we are sitting comfortably in an air conditioned house 5 hours away, but I do feel sorry for my neighbor. We have kept in touch with her and she said it is pretty miserable. I would imagine so. The heat would be tough enough to bear, but then trying to entertain a 16-month-old on top of that? No thank you.

Fortunately (if you can call it that) Michael's office is shut down until at least the end of this week so he is not missing out on work. We are just trying to look at this as a little extra vacation time.

We did lose our cat in the process, but he has since been recovered. He scampered out of my mother-in-law's back yard fence and was MIA for about 24 hours. But he eventually got tired of the "independent life" and made his way back around 4 AM.

No more outdoor wandering for him, I can assure you that!

My 16-Month-Old is a Genius

Complete with baby sign language for all the colors except for yellow. For some reason she hasn't mastered that one. Plus the sign for "smart"! I am sure glad she inherited her Daddy's intelligence.

NOTE: Please ignore sugary, baby talk.


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Rogue Placentas

So last Tuesday I spent the evening timing contractions. Not something one usually prefers to be doing at a mere 20 weeks gestation. The doctor agreed that I might need a look-see so we made an appointment for the next day since the contractions were fairly minor that night. (yeah right, tell that to my aching back!)

Who knows where the contractions came from. They have gone as mysteriously as they came and left me with instructions to "rest and take it easy".

Okay, you try that with a 16 month old. Go ahead, I dare you.

But for the sake of my dear husband and mom, I am staying horizontal during Claire's naps each day and all evening long once Michael gets home.

Now for the fun stuff. I got to have a sonogram as a part of my look-see. They discovered that I have a marginal case of Placenta Previa. Oh goody.

There truly isn't much to worry about at this point. Apparently those little placentas can migrate upward as the pregnancy progresses--quite a freaky thought if you ask me. So we go back in 4 weeks to see if said placenta has indeed, erm . . . migrated. Until then, we just wait and wonder.

I seriously have issues with placentas, apparently. A faulty placenta was the reason for Claire's need to be induced at 37 weeks and now this. I am obviously not a master placenta grower.

On a very happy note, we learned in the sonogram that we are having another girl! I am so glad that Claire will have a little sister so close to her age. BFF right?

Okay, I am off to relax and rest on my left side whilst sipping some water.

Just a Quick Ramble for Ya

Wow, if I am not careful it will be an entire month since I've last posted. Good grief!! And it's not for a lack of things to post. Quite a bit has happened around here lately. But that is probably the main reason I haven't had time to post.

Claire and I traveled out of state to attend my cousin's wedding recently. It was a beautiful wedding and such fun to visit all my family again. The only hard part of the trip was traveling with a toddler who doesn't understand the point of sitting still in my lap on the airplane for over an hour. Combine that with an ever expanding pregnant belly and you've got yourself a recipe for a really hard travel time.

Her schedule has been a mess since we've been home. It's largely due in part to several missed naps and late nights during our trip. She usually bounces back so quickly that I didn't give the schedule upheaval a second thought. Boy was I wrong. I think we are finally getting back on track though which is a huge blessing!

Michael's family came in to visit the weekend after Claire and returned home. It was great to see them. The majority of us headed to College Station to watch an A&M game. It was the first game for our nephew---let the brainwashing begin!

Claire is starting to mimic words now which is so fun! She has been signing words with her hands for several months now, but to finally hear those words come out of her mouth is a blast. Especially now that she has mastered "Ma Ma" and "Da Da". She has also mastered "Yeah" and "No". She isn't using either of them with too much attitude yet, so they are still cute to hear.

She is finally giving hugs and kisses to us as well. She has been offering them up freely to her stuffed animals and picture books for over a month now. But anytime we'd ask her to kiss us, she'd just shake her head and say, "No!" Glad she has now included us in the list of those worthy of a smooch.

Well, I'd better end this ramble of a post. I did have a fairly interesting sonogram yesterday. More on that in a couple of days.

Later!