4 Month Stats

Marielle had her 4-month well baby visit with her doctor on Friday and she's doing great - growing just the way she should be:

Length (or height once she becomes a vertical creature instead of horizontally prone) 24.5" - 58th percentile


Weight 13#12.5oz - 52nd percentile


Head Circumference 16cm - 39th percentile (she has a little pin head!)


She is rolling over back-to-tummy, very comfortable on her tummy and can sit with minimal support. She tracks well with her eyes, reaches out for, and grasps, toys - even bringing them to her mouth! She has a smile that is contagious and almost splits her face. No sign of teeth, but drools like a faucet.

She adores her big sister and her daddy and that love is returned in spades. We all feel very lucky to have such a sweet, mellow little girl thriving in our midst.


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Training wheels

Last fall Corinne received a tricycle for her 2nd birthday, but she was a little too short for it - her feet couldn't quite reach the pedals. So, we stored it in the garage over the winter and, come spring, we found that her legs had grown just enough that she could reach with her tip-toes. Brett worked with her on her steering and by summer she was zipping up and down the street.

Imagine my surprise when we went over to Memaw & Papaw's house to pick her up and saw her riding in circles on a bicycle with training wheels!



She's a natural! Had a bit of trouble at first with getting the hang of pedal-brakes, but she's got it down now.

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Discipline

Corinne gave Cookie Monster a timeout.

Marielle was fussing on our ride home from school the other day so Corinne gave her the little blue guy to calm her down and cheer her up. But it didn't work. So, Corinne took him back and put him in timeout. Because he didn't listen - he didn't stop her sister from fussin'

Two minutes. No talking, no toys.

But apparently he didn't listen because a few moments later I heard her explain to him again why he was in timeout and reiterate "two minutes; no talking, no toys"

About two minutes later I heard Cookie Monster ask if his timeout was over...she said yes. He apologized and they played together the rest of the way home.

Marielle fell asleep amidst the behavioral correction.

Rockin' and Rollin'

Marielle rolled over (back-to-tummy) for the first time on Monday! So, I had the video camera ready Tuesday evening when I took Corinne up to the park to play and set Marielle up on a blanket in the grass:



She tends to always roll over her right shoulder, bit she will go over her left shoulder if I manipulate the situation so that she's looking for me or a toy on that side. She will prop herself up on her arms with her chest off the ground for 3-5 minutes before she starts to fuss and asks to be flipped back over.
She hasn't flipped tummy-to-back yet, but with her core strength I don't think it will be long before she is rolling all over the place and chasing Corinne around!

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Introducing

Born on April 25, 2011 at 8:09pm
Weight: 7 lbs, 1.25 oz
Length: 20.5"
Eyes: blue (mama is hoping they stay blue)
Hair: blonde!

The umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck and she was having some trouble breathing so she spent about 12 hours in the NICU before rooming-in with mom & dad for the remainder of our hospital stay.


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The 7th Month

Bad about posting the last few weeks, but good about taking weekly pictures. Here's a visual update:
31 weeks
32 weeks
33 weeks (sorry about the dark clothes, I didn't realize how much it would hide the belly in the head-on picture)

34 weeks
And now you are all caught up! Baby looks great and remains head-down. My ribs are sore from probing toes, knees and bottom. I try to take it in stride and remember that the little one is feeling just as squished as I am, but I know my family is probably getting tired of hearing me groan and complain.

On the recommendation of my care-providers I am taking a daily regimen of 5 different pills; my pre-natal vitamin, a calcium/magnesium supplement, bio-flavonoids, evening primrose oil, and an iron supplement called Blood Builder which is made completely from plant sources so it's not binding (yay!). Even after taking the iron supplement, my hemoglobin was only at 10.5...we want it to be up to at least 12.

I have always leaned toward the anemic side and have been unable to donate blood a few times because my iron levels weren't high enough. Taking the information I have learned from those experiences allowed me to make 2 important adjustments to my vitamin schedule

• I am taking the Blood Builder in the morning with a glass of OJ. Calcium and Iron use the same binding site in our bodies when it is absorbed into the bloodstream so I wasn't doing myself any favors by taking it at the same time as my pre-natal and my Calcium/Magnesium.
  
• Vitamin C promotes the absorption of Iron so I switched from taking it with water to taking it with OJ.

After a week my hemoglobin is sitting right at 12. I think everyone was surprised at how quickly I was able to bring my iron up and I have been told to "keep doing what you're doing." I also did a food diary for a week and after the first 3 days Brett sat down with me to review my progress. He was appalled and vowed to get involved. I am supposed to be consuming 80-90 grams of protein every day and I wasn't anywhere close! The next 3 days of my food diary show significant improvement and hopefully Brett will keep me focused with plenty of palatable, simple options. With the baby taking up so much space, I really don't have much of an apetite so it is going to be tough to fit everything in, but with Brett's help I am making better choices about prioritizing which food groups to include in my meals and what actually goes in my mouth.

Our goal is a healthy baby!

30 weeks - A comparison

I don't have very many pictures from my pregnancy with Corinne. That makes me sad, but there really isn't anything I can do about it and so I've tried to learn from that experience and have more pictures of myself from this pregnancy...not a lot, but more. When I was about 29-31 weeks along in my pregnancy with Corinne, Brett & I went to Arizona to spend some time with his parents and I have several pictures from this vacation. I've included a front-view comparison and a side-view comparison below.
I don't see a huge difference between the pregnancies, do you? With Corinne I was able to take advantage of my relatively light responsibilities and rest as much as I felt I needed; I would come home and take a nap after work most days. With this baby I don't have quite as much freedom; I can't exactly expect Corinne to fix/feed herself a healthy dinner or give herself a bath in the evening! The down side to this is that I am exhausted and put myself to bed shortly after Corinne goes down in the evening. The upside is that I seem to be staying in pretty good shape! I gained exactly 30 pounds over the course of my pregnancy with Corinne. Currently, I am on track to gain 20-25 pounds with this one.
With my first pregnancy, I worked right up until the week Corinne was born. I plan to do the same with this pregnancy. Wish me luck!

Meet Finn

Brett & I got Corinne her first pet! Since Brett is allergic to cats and we're not quite ready to take on the responsibility of a dog since we'll be adding a baby to our family in just a few months, we decided that a fish would be a great place to start. So, the week after Christmas Brett ran around and picked up all of the necessities (tank, filter, gravel, etc.) and set everything up in the basement for Corinne to find, she was so excited when she noticed the addition and soon after we all piled in the car and drove to the pet store so she could pick out a fish.

Then, about a week later we left for vacation - oops. We were both pretty nervous that we would come home to a floating fish, but we got lucky and he survived our abandonment. He's a hearty little guy.

This is Finnegan or "Finn" - he's a fantail goldfish and he's really dumb...but really cute. And, he begs! No joke. I'll be sitting on the couch and he will swim up and down in his tank, just watching me and hoping I'll open his jar of pellets and toss a few in for him. Honestly? Sometimes it works, it tugs at my heart and creeps me out a little to have his fishy eyes staring at me.

Eventually we'll probably get him a friend...I feel bad for him, I think he's lonely. Brett takes really good care of him and Corinne just adores him. They have a big fish tank with 8-10 fish at the entrance of her school and she tells them "good morning" and "bye-bye" almost every day so we were pretty certain that she would enjoy having a fish of her very own. Yay!

29 weeks

I don't have many pictures of myself from when I was pregnant with Corinne, something I really regret and had vowed to do differently with this pregnancy...but I haven't been doing a very good job. This morning as I headed out of the house for the day I tossed my phone at Brett and asked him to take a couple of pictures of my 29-week-pregnant self. Here are the results!
And here is a side view so that you can see how much I've popped! This baby is officially out of room horizontally and has started to push my belly out in a major way. I've had several people comment in the last week about how quickly I have popped and that I just look like I swallowed a basketball (funny how when I was pregnant with Corinne in the fall everyone associated my belly with a pumpkin and now that March Madness is almost upon us, all of the comments are basketball related!)
Overall, I am still feeling much better than I did during the first trimester when I was pretty nauseous and exhausted. I cannot lay flat on my back and when I do I almost immediately have severe pain in my lower back and find it difficult to even move to get myself up off the floor!

I'm going to try my best to do another pregnancy update with photos next week, I'm determined to have at least some documentation of this pregnancy!

Back to Reality

We returned from vacation and have had a couple of decent snow storms to welcome us back to the Ohio Winter.
Corinne has gone from dresses, bathing suits and shorts & t-shirts to boots, layers, coats, hats & gloves!
Her snow boots make her feet look huge! But, they keep the cold and snow off of her feet. She has learned the difference between snow boots, rain boots and 'fashion' boots; whenever we are walking outside she will ask me about her footwear to see if it's alright for her to stomp around in the snow.Over the weekend we were over at Grandma Chris' house when Corinne decided she wanted to play outside (which she refers to as "out Kio's side" since we use the side door and play in the fenced backyard where Kio roams) for a little while. We got her all bundled up and braved the frosty weather. She played on the rings and laughed herself silly when she would drop to the ground.

There was even a dry swing so she requested to be pushed for at least 10 minutes. I was surprised at her endurance considering the temperature and the fact that the swing was creating wind right on her rosy cheeks!
Corinne and Uncle Scott started packing the snow to throw snow balls. I decided to head back inside to warm up. They came in soon after me; Corinne's gloves are not water proof and her poor little fingers were cold! She's a much better sport about playing in the cold and snow than I am, thank goodness she has other people around to enjoy the winter experience with!

Hawaii pictures

As a continuation from yesterday, I thought I would share a few photos from our vacation to Hawaii with Brett's family. This is the beach where Corinne first dipped her toes in the Pacific Ocean, she liked the waves coming up to roll over her and eventually got a little too adventurous when a big wave caught her in the face and delivered a splash of saltwater to her mouth & eyes. She quickly recovered from that hit and we moved on to building a sand castle complete with a moat that she helped me fill up (although the water just kept seeping back into the sand so it was a never ending project). Around lunch time Corinne decided she had endured the sand long enough and became very unhappy with her sandy hands, legs, face, etc. so we headed back home for a nap.
We were able to enjoy lunch on the patio looking out at the ocean on a very sunny day. Brett realized we hadn't lathered C in sunscreen so in an effort to protect her face & neck he wandered into a nearby store and bought a souvenir bucket hat which Corinne enjoyed and we all thought was very cute!
During most of our vacation, the optimal hours for pool time ended up coinciding with Corinne's nap, but there were a few days when she was able to float around and jump into the water. She is a thrill seeker and was constantly asking if she could go in the pool or even just lay near the edge to splash her hands.
We ventured out to a botanical garden and grabbed lunch at a 'local' joint that John picked out on the way back. Everything we ordered was fabulous! I shared a chocolate shake with Corinne and we agreed that it was quite yummy. After everyone had finished eating Corinne wandered down to the other end of the table to visit with Aunt Lindsey and "Uncle Jam"
Just a random picture of Corinne on the porch at the house...not sure what she was doing? Maybe she was looking for the geckos we kept noticing all around the house, and once even in the house!
Corinne was very excited to be given the daily chore of feeding the fish in the koi pond at the house where we were staying and thought it was the greatest thing ever when they would swim over to retrieve the food pellets she thew into the pond.
Overall, it was a great vacation and I think Corinne enjoyed getting to spend so much time with Memaw & Papaw, Aunt Lindsey & Uncle Jam and our very special guest, Pauline (Jamie's mom!).

Redesigned with Renewed Intent

The blog template I had been using was about to expire, so that motivated me to make a few changes and post an update:

I haven't posted since October, and I guess I never got around to announcing that Brett & I are expecting to welcome our second child at the end of April! We know the gender, but I will refrain from posting that here since I know of at least one close friend who wants the birth to be a surprise. Corinne is excited to be a big sister and seems to understand much more about the concept that a baby is growing in mama's tummy than I thought she would. She is not quite as excited about the fact that my growing belly means that I can't/won't carry her around as often or that I am not willing to participate in more physical play with her - daddy and Uncle Scott are filling her rough-housing quota so I'm not feeling very bad about our calmer activities.

Some of Corinne's favorite things to do right now include playing with play-doh, reading and doing the activities from her Highlights for Children subscription, painting with watercolors, going on pretend vacations in airplanes and doing creative imaginary play with Baby Stella and her stuffed animals. With play-doh we have a "one color at a time" policy that Corinne happily adheres to - I get a little OCD about cleaning up all of the tools and the play area before we move to a new color and I was heartbroken when a little bit of brown got mixed in with the white, but now we have tan so Corinne is learning new colors!

For a week in January we were able to escape the frigid temperatures and get away for a vacation with Brett's family in Hawaii. Corinne was a trooper on all four flights, she is such a great little traveler. I, on the other hand, had to wear compression hose due to my pregnant state of being and was not entirely amused with the experience. While we were away Corinne slept in a portable toddler bed (thank you Aunt Tina!) which I was worried about since she has always slept in her crib - recently modified to toddler bed - at night, but she never questioned her sleeping arrangements and slept soundly the entire trip. The weather was a huge improvement over what was happening in Ohio while we were gone and we were able to spend time in the pool, at the beach, exploring farmer's markets and Brett & I even got away for a day of whale watching while Memaw & Papaw babysat. We had a great time and now Corinne like to get out our luggage (which she likes to call her packages), pack up her toys and take an airplane to Hawaii. Our pretend plane rides are complete with overhead bins, tray tables and turbulence. Love that kid!

She was very excited to return to her normal schedule, go to school and see her teachers & friends and sleep in her room. However, after about a week she came down with a pretty serious cold/virus and was out of school for 3 days - throwing her schedule off again and surrounding her with people willing to cuddle her all day. The transition back to school has been a little bumpier this time, but we're getting there. She is definitely happy while she's at school, she just doesn't want mama to go to work during the day. I'm guessing that by the end of next week she will be back to her normal departure; a hug & kiss for mama after removing her coat and then picking out a book to read with her teacher...never looking up to see if I have left. I love that I feel so great about her care during the day!