13 Months!

Emma is getting so big. She has started walking so much better and faster. When she first learned how to walk, everytime she would try to walk fast, she would fall. But now, if she wants something, she will practically start speed walking...not running yet. It is so cute though. We love seeing her walk around everywhere. Emma has 3 teeth now..all on the bottom. Her two top teeth are only days away from breaking through though. She has been sleeping good except for the past couple of weeks, she keeps waking up in the middle on the night wet....not just her diaper, but the bed and her pj's. When Emma was 6-7 months old, I tried using overnight diapers with her but she just didn't fill them up, so we went back to using the regular diapers. But now, she sleeps on her stomach and everything fills up the front of the diaper and then comes out, soaking her bed, and her front. So we will probably be trying overnights again. Hopefully that will help. She would sleep great if she would stop waking up soaked. She still loves her blankie and likes to carry it around. Just yesterday, she was trying to carry around two blankies at one time. She is getting so smart too. I can tell she is really watching us now and figuring out everything we are doing. The other day, she took something and walked over to the trash can and lifted it up and put it in there. She was so proud of herself. I keep Emma's food and snacks on the bottom shelf in the pantry and she can pick out what snack she wants. Yesterday, she picked out applesauce, and then carried it around while I got a spoon and papertowel. She knew it was her snack time. She is still wearing size 3 diapers and 12 month clothes. Her jeans she is wearing are 6-12 months. I tried on some 12 month jeans that she got for her birthday, and they fell off of her, so luckily Autumn gave me some of Cheyenne's clothes to borrow and her 6-12's fit her perfectly. I was a little surprised too. So right now, she only has 1 pair of pants that fit her. :[ Emma loves reading books. She has one book inparticaluar that she likes to bring to you. She will sit on your lap while you read the whole book and then when you put her back down, a few minutes later, she will bring it back and make you read it again. I read that darn book about 10 times this past Sunday...all before 10:30am. But I'm glad she likes to be read too. She is becoming such a little smart person. She is really turning into a big girl.

Things for Baby

So Josh and I have started to pick out things that we will be getting for the new baby. Here are a few things we have already decided on.

We knew that we would need a new carseat. With Emma, we had the most awesome travel system, made by chicco. Since we didn't plan on having any more kids for a while, we sold it on Craigslist because we just didn't really have room to store it. Plus, with a second baby, the stroller wouldn't be any good. I loved that carseat though. Especially the colors of it. But, that print is only sold with the stroller, so we had to pick out a new one. This is the Chicco Extreme. I love the colors of it also. The orange on it is not as bright in person as it is in the picture. It is more of a burnt orange. It also comes with two pads that go on the bottom and the head. The carseat is already crash-tested with these pieces in them so I don't have to worry about affecting the safety of the carseat by adding something else for when the baby is an infant. Chicco makes the BEST carseats. They are rated the safest carseat in America and I absolutely LOVE them.The next thing we had to decide on was a double stroller. Emma still loves to be in her stroller so we wanted to find one that would work out great for both of them. We fell in love with the Contours Options Double Stroller. While we were at Babies R Us one day, Josh and I took this baby for a test drive and it was awesome. Ofcourse, like any other double stroller, it is a little bulky but thats ok, I just want the kids to be comfortable and enjoy riding in it. I love that both of the seats are able to face which ever way we want them too. The stroller also comes with a car seat adapter which is awesome. It has a huge basket underneath, which I think a lot of strollers lack these days. Overall, it is an awesome stroller and I can't wait to play with it some more. I recently discovered that this stroller is available in blue too so I'm not sure which one we will get.

Since I had breast reduction surgery back in 2006, I knew that I would probably not be able to breast feed. With Emma, I tried, and tried, and tried but it just didn't work out. My milk never really came in and she was getting so frustrated because she wasn't getting enough. She has had formula ever since she was born. It is so frustrating when I tired to pump and only got maybe 1-2 ounces in 20-30 minutes. So with this new baby, I will try but I pretty much know that this will have to be a bottle-baby too. Josh and I are already prepared for buying formula another year. So after all that, bottles are one thing that are very important to me. It is one of the big items that we will use multiple times a day and I don't mind spending a few extra dollars to get good bottles that will last. Emma's bottles were used when they were given to us before she was born and since she has used them for a year now, I feel like it is time for some new ones. So these are the ones I've picked out. They are the Weil Baby bottles. They are fairly new and they are proven to reduce air...which is a big thing for all babies. So I will probably get a few and try them and then once we see that they work for us, then we can get some more. Weil Baby also offers pacis too, in blue or pink, that match the nipple on the bottle so there is no confusion when we go back and forth. Emma has loved her paci ever since she was born, so I'm hoping this baby does too.

3's of Me

Three names I go by:
1. Jenny
2. Jen
3.

Three Cars I have had:
1. VW Bug-Convertible
2. Ford Mustang
3. Ford Explorer

Three Jobs I have had in my life:
1. CNA
2. Nursing Secretary
3. Bi-Lo

Three Places I have lived:
1. Greensboro, NC
2. Stokesdale, NC
3.

Three Favorite drinks:
1. Sweet Tea
2. Pink Lemonade
3. Dr. Pepper

Three Favorite hobbies:
1. blogging...when I have the chance...i've been slacking lately
2. apparently I don't have many hobbies
3.

Three Pet Peeves:
1. people who talk about someone else when they don't really know what they are talking about....if you have something to say, just say it to my face.....that would hurt a lot less
2. a messy house
3. telling someone something, and then they swear I never told them. [hubby] :]

Three TV Shows that I watch:
1. Greys Anatomy
2. The Biggest Loser
3. Glee

Three places I have been:
1. Disney World
2. Georgia
3. Washington D.C.

People that text me regularly:
1. Josh
2. Katie
3.

Most Visited Websites:
1.Blogger
2.Facebook
3.Yahoo

Three of my favorite foods:
1. Homemade Chips
2. Pizza
3. japanese rice

Three Things I am looking forward to:
1. October....to find out whether we are having a boy or girl
2. October 17-State Fair....really craving a funnel cake...or 2 or 3 :]
3. March-bringing home baby

Tag KATIE!

Toddlin' Around

Here is a video of Emma toddling around. This video was taken a few weeks ago and she has gotten a lot better since then. She never crawls anymore. She has learned to go from sitting to standing without holding on or pulling up on anything. She is so cute walking around everywhere.

Playin'

Here are a few pictures I took of Emma just playing in the living room while watching some Backyardigans.

Lookin for Something

Emma has gotten to the age where she loves to go look in all the cabinets. We have only locked the cabinet under the sink because of the chemicals that are kept there, so all the other cabinets she can go in. For the most part, she just likes to open them a little bit and look in. She won't really mess with anything. But once she finishes looking in one cabinet she will move onto the next one. Once she's done looking in them, she'll go play again and then come back to them later. She also loves to mess with the little nob on the dishwasher. She can't turn it yet, but I'm sure that she'll be able too soon.

14 Week Check-Up

This morning I went to the doctor for my 14 week check-up. I thought that the doctor was just going to check the heartbeat with the doppler but he decided to do an ultrasound in the room to make sure that the tear he had seen a couple of weeks ago was gone and IT WAS!! Thank you Lord. I can't tell you all how terrified I've been about that, and I'm so glad that everything is exaclty how it should be now. However, he did change my due date again. I got pushed back another 4 days so now my new due date is March 20th.[only 3 days before my birthday] It's not a huge deal, but I feel like every time I'm making some progress and getting farther along, the due date changes and I get pushed back. But he said that now that I'm 14 weeks or so, the due date won't change anymore. He thinks that since I have PCOS and was never "supposed" to ovulate, that I just ovulated a lot later than the normal pregnant girl, so that's why it keeps changing. They have to rely only on the size of the baby as opposed to be able to look at dates too. So, no big deal, just a little frustrating. One of my main problems right now, is that I'm not sleeping good at all. I've been working 3rd shift for about 5 years now and I've never had a problem with sleeping during the day or switching my schedule around until now.....not even the past year with having Emma. But now, everytime I get a chance to sleep, it takes me forever to fall asleep and then I wake up several times and sometimes can't even go back to sleep. Not only does it make me absolutely exhausted all the time but I think it is part of the cause that I get up feeling really sick and stay that way throughout the day. So my doctor gave me a prescription for Ambian and I'm really hoping that it helps. My next appointment is in about 3 weeks when I go for the big anatomy ultrasound and then we will know if Emma is going to have a little brother or sister. Everyone keeps asking me what we want to have and I honestly will be ecstatic either way. There are different reasons why I would want another girl and why I would want a boy. Either way, we just want a healthy baby and that's all that matters. I think since working in the NICU, I have realized that having healthy babies is a bigger blessing that most people realize and sometimes take for granted. I just can't wait to find out what we are having so that we can prepare for little peanuts arrival. :]

14 Weeks!

Today marks 14 weeks for me and baby Peanut. I thought time would fly by with working and keeping up with Emma but I don't really think it has. But I'm happy to be done with the 1st trimester. The first 12 weeks are a bit scary for anyone who is pregnant. I haven't really been too sick this time. I can usually tell when I'm not feeling "quite right" and maybe shouldn't eat anything or it will make me sick. I am getting better about that. I get carsick very easily now. I'm hoping that will pass soon, as we have a few trips planned the next couple of months. I am having to take it "extrememly easy" lately because of a couple of complications that I've had over the last couple of weeks. At my last doctors appointment, I did the elective early screen ultrasound. While doing the ultrasound, I started to bleed and the tech noticed that I was contracting a little bit. The doctor came in and looked at everything and noticed a small tear in the placenta. [talk about being scared to death] So he sent me home on bed rest and said he thought that it would heal itself in a couple of days. So I went back for another ultrasound 2 days later and everything looked great. He could barely...if at all...see the tear anymore. [Praise the Lord] So I was told to just take it extremely easy for while and everything should be ok. A few days later, we went out to eat with my mom, Katie, and Victoria at Sagebrush. On the way home I was feeling very sick and while I was walking up the stairs to the condo I felt a sharp pain on my left side. As soon as I made it upstairs I completely lost everything I ate[TMI I know] and the pain on my left side got much worse. So I called the after hours nurse and she said that she thought I was contracting again and put me on bed rest for 48 hours...with only bathroom privileges. So after that, everything has been ok so far. I'm still trying to take it easy. I haven't been doing too much around the house and I've been trying not to pick up Emma as much. I think it's really helping. I'm hoping that this is the end of all of that and everything will be ok from here on out. I am so thankful for everyone for helping us out over the last couple of weeks. You guys are the best. I'm so glad to know that we have you if we ever need help. At my ultrasound, I was also able to hear the heartbeat for the first time as opposed to just being able to see it. I actually started feeling little flutters about 11 weeks. I thought that I was going crazy because I thought it was too early. I knew that with the 2nd pregnancy I would feel them sooner....but 11 weeks....that's crazy. But everyone I've talked to said that they felt flutters with their 2nd child between 10-12 weeks. So I guess I'm not that crazy. Then last night, I started feeling tiny kicks. They were a little harder than than the flutters I had been feeling. I go to the doctor on Thursday for another check-up and then we will find out what we are having the middle of October!

Blankie

Emma has recently gotten very attached to her blankie. She has never really had an interest in them until a few weeks ago. Now, she carries them around everywhere. She likes to try and drag it between her legs while she walks but that usually ends up making her fall down.

Shopping

Emma loves to push around the shopping cart that she got for her birthday. She usually puts a bunch of toys in it but sometimes she likes to pick up daddy's stuff and push it around.

Tis the Season

Now that fall is upon us, it's that time of the year again....when all the new shows start!!! Summer is filled with "nothing to watch" and I'm so excited about all the season premieres coming up. One of my new favorite shows is Glee. It is one of those love it, or hate it shows. But I LOVE it. Me and Emma like to dance to all the songs together. I'm really super excited about

The Biggest Loser...starting 9/15

Surviror...starting 9/17

&

Greys Anatomy...starting 9/24

Could it get any better?? :]

1 Year Check-Up

This morning Josh and I took Emma for her 1 year check-up. First they weighed her and measured how tall she is. She weighed in at 21 lbs 1.5 oz, which puts her in the 50th percentile for her age. She was also 29 1/4 in. tall....also in the 50th percentile. So I guess, she's about average. Then Emma had to get her finger pricked and also 4 shots. One shot in each arm and then one in each leg. :[ She didn't cry at all when they pricked her finger. I was sitting down filling out some paperwork and Josh was holding her while the nurse stuck her. I was just waiting to hear her scream but she didn't. I had to look up and make sure she was ok because I didn't hear a peep. It just really shocked me because even finger pricks hurt me. So after that, the doctor came in and examined her and answered any questions we had. The nurse came in again after that and did the four other shots. Emma cried for a minute or two and then was fine. Other than the big bruise she was on her left arm from the shot, she is doing just fine. In other news, I'm so happy to say that we are now a zero formula family!!! For any of you who were not able to breast feed and have been buying formula since your baby was born, you know what a big deal this is. $25.00 a can really adds up over a year. Emma has always had a very sensitive stomach and I've been trying to switch her over to real milk for a while now but she couldn't do whole milk. It just tore her stomach up too much. I was able to switch her to 1%....but the doctor said that she really needs 2%. So she said that we can do the 1% for a little bit and then wean her over to 2%. Overall, it was a great check-up and we are so blessed to have a healthy little 1 year old.

1st Corn on the Cob

Last night, Emma had her first corn on the cob. She has eaten corn before but never on the cob because she only has her bottom teeth. At first she didn't really like it and didn't know what to do with it but she caught on. But she liked sucking on the end of it the best. I finally had to cut the rest of the corn off and feed it to her on a fork.

This is the face I got after I first gave it to her!

But she quickly caught on!

Drivin' Around

Yesterday, we went to my mom and dads house but we stopped by Iron Play on our way there so Josh could fix something really quick. Emma and I rode out on the golf cart with him around the golf course. Emma had so much fun driving with daddy.

Emma's 1st Year

Just the 3 of us!

6 hours old

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

12 months