Gambling and Gatlinburg

We had a nice fall getaway while the polyurethane dried on the floors. Started with a visit to Erin with dinner and ice cream. Saw her home and met some of her crew.

Then hit Keenland for the first few races. Maura studied the program and picked a few winners. She of course used Great Grandma's method of $2 on the 2nd horse on the 2nd race.

Then off to Gatlinburg. She shopped like a trooper at the outlet malls (and so did her daddy). She has a yucky cold so we did some extra napping on Sat then headed for the cheesiness of downtown Gatlinburg. After we all got matching air brush t-shirts and carmel apples we headed off for more shopping and the Smokey Mountain Brewery for dinner. All in all a nice trip.

Just a few other updates. She is really close to crawling but not quite yet. She gets started then flops on her face - can't quite get there. She is clapping when we say "yeah" and still does her fake cough. In the last few days she seemed to pick up a "pose" when smiling at people. When someone tells her that she is cute or makes faces at her she leans sideways and smiles the same way each time. She's going to be trouble :-)

It's a boy!

With a very revealing ultrasound every week we decided to find out the sex of the new baby. He made his gender pretty clear so we'll have some funny pictures to blackmail him with later in life. All is well so far with blood tests and blood flow around the brain which is a blessing.

I go for an ultrasound every week to monitor the blood flow around the baby's brain. This "Anti Big E" disorder has me making the baby anemic. Anemic babies (in-utero) have faster blood flows around their brains because the blood is being taken away from other organs. So each week they measure the blood flow through a certain vein that runs down the middle of the 2 hemispheres of the brain. The number gets higher as the baby gets bigger so as long as we stay below the moving target we'll be fine. The ultrasound tech checks the baby and then measures the flow. She checks the numbers with the doctor and if all is well we are released. If there was a problem we would head to Good Sam for an inter-uterine blood transfusion. I also do blood work every few weeks to check my antibody levels. If those get high we would have to do a transfusion as well.

Back to Maura! At her 6 month check up she was in the 80th percentile for weight and height. She is 18 pounds, 27 inches long and seems to get bigger by the day! The gnawing has begun on whatever she can out in her mouth and celery keeps her amused for awhile without any choking so it's my new favorite!

She is making a lot more noise (low pitched grunts and high pitched squeals) which we know mean something but we have no idea. She is rolling over from her back to her front but not the reverse. She scoots herself in a circle but only in one direction... We'll get there! And as soon as we do I'll be wishing for the days she just sat there :-)

Food and Water

We ventured into vegetables and fruit (and boy does her poop stink!) She loves everything - thank goodness that she takes after her Daddy so far. So her daily diet consists of a jar of fruit, a jar of veggies, cereal and formula. I know, I'm drooling too!










We also switched to sitting up in the tub for bath time. She thinks she's hot stuff :-) I can't find the cute bath toys we were given (I always forget to look until she's already in the tub) but cups seem to keep her incredibly amused!

More Firsts...

Our first venture into rice cereal... She wasn't sure at the beginning, maybe texture issues like her mother, but after a few more feedings she couldn't get enough.

After a good plane/mini-van ride, slathering of 70 spf sunscreen and a hat Maura ventured into the Florida sun (in her float with a canopy). If her skin is anything like mommy's she'll look like a lobster in no time :-) She really enjoyed kicking around in the water and was ready for a nap in no time.

3 month pictures

Wow - never new how stupid adults could look until I watched people at Portrait Innovations trying to get their kids to smile (ourselves totally included). Dancing around behind the photographer and making goofy noises. And that was just Jeff... However, it all worked out well. One poopy diaper and 2 outfits (because of spit up) later we narrowed down 60+ pictures.

We went in for the $9.99 package figuring that we'd buy a few more sheets. Hee hee, sure, like you were getting out of there for under $50 (barely under $100). Below are the highlights!

Can't figure how to flip this one...

Daycare troubles

It was a tough start for Maura at daycare the other morning. Jeff dropped her off and there was already another little girl there. It's happened to all of us but Maura was very upset becuase they were in the same oufit! At least it wasn't prom :-)


Maura usually goes through multiple outifts becuase of bodily fluid problems but the change to the extra outfit may happen sooner today than other days... I'll ask Maura her name and we can coordinate things better for next week.

2 and 2

We thought that she was a bruiser before but she is ready for the WWE. Up 2 pounds and 2 inches in a month she is now 10 pounds and 23.25 inches . Now officially out of all newborn sizes she is moving into the next set of Lily's clothes :-)

The doctor said that we needed to watch the flat spot on the back of her head. Since babies started sleeping on their backs a lot of kids are developing plagiocephaly. It isn't bad yet but if it continues to develop she could have jaw and eye problems. So we are supposed to do more "tummy time" (which she hates) and to not let her lay in the same position for more than 15 minutes at a time (other than sleeping and being in the car). That has been a challenge since she doesn't nap much and unloading/loading the dishwasher and flipping the laundry can take 15 minutes but who needs a clean house??

I started back to work on 5/11 so Maura started at daycare Monday/Thursday and Grandma's on Tuesdays. It has been an adjustment for all of us but daddy is learning the drop off/pick up routine. We write notes in the morning about how much she ate so far and any other info that daddy may not remember... Tuesdays are fun with Grandma. Today was the mall and she liked it a lot (I think that I have a shopper on my hands)

1 month check up

She's a bruiser! Maura is up to 8.1 pounds and 21.5 inches. She was in the 4th percentile for weight and is now up to the 17th so we're thrilled with the progress. Everything that I asked about the dr said was normal so that was a great relief! He also said that sleeping more would be coming soon which was a great way to end the appointment!

On another note Jon is leaving tomorrow for Iraq. We went to the ceremony today at Xavier to wish everyone well. They are all in our thoughts and prayers!

Easter

Maura was up all night in anticipation of the Easter bunny coming! She wore Lily's bunny shirt to get ready but is never thrilled about getting her picture taken.

She is up to 7 pounds and we have our 1 week doctor appointment tomorrow so more vital stats to come...

She worked hard during the Easter Egg Hunt and only tackled a few cousins in the process. Next year Jared will be helping her hunt eggs :-) He is a very proud big cousin!

Next to the Tiemeier household and all 4 generations together. We had to hunt for Maura's basket and Jeff found it in her pac-n-play. The Easter Bunny at Grandma's got her a bathing suit and bonnet to wear to the swim club this summer.

We tried to wake her up to get a good picture in her Easter dress but... She slept the entire day but I'm sure that it was because she was held the whole time. I was never worried about where she was but only saw her enough to change a diaper or 2 and let her eat.

2 weeks...

A few more updated pictures from this week. She is a very good baby. Not too fussy (cries for dirty diapers and food) and sleeps for 2-3 hours at a time. Mostly during the day but...

We went out for St. Patty's Day to Barleycorn's on Wed to meet the family. The table by the band (and a huge speaker) and she slept the whole time. Was up the majority of the night but whatever... :-)

Slept through her first grocery store trip and having friends over towatch the Xavier game so will be a great bar baby :-)

Welcome Maura!

She's here! Maura Terese arrived on 3/10/09 at 6:23pm. After arriving at the hospital about 11:30 Monday night we were about to head home. The doctor said to go in to be checked but when we got here everything was fine however my water broke as we were standing up to leave. So instead we got a room :-)

Had contractions all night but they were only about 10-15 minutes apart. By about 6:30 they were more regular and steady. Got pretty bad about 8am so we started petossin and the epidural came by 11 or so.

Progressed well and was 9cm at about 2:00 but she was facing sideways instead of down so they put me on/in a tire tube in the bed to help her turn. She eventually turned and we started pushing about 3:30. 3 hours later she arrived and we were all exhausted!

Should be coming home sometime this afternoon!

5cm and counting

We are at the hospital. Called the dr last night b/c I was really tight but no contractions. he said to get checked out. so went to the hospital and they said all is well but just early labor. as i stand up to get dressed water breaks all over. so they admitted me last night about 12:30. contractions all night but not bad till 7 or so. just got epidural so all is right with the world. 5cm and counting

"Could be tomorrow, could be 2 weeks"

"Could be tomorrow, could be 2 weeks". Love the scientific nature of labor! As of Friday I am 2cm dilated and 50% effaced so we will see. Baby Franzen has dropped (so I can breathe) but I am peeing all the time. More back/hip pain has set in so sleeping and most activities are a lot more uncomfortable...

We had another wonderful shower this weekend given by Aunt Karma and Aunt Mona! Last weekend we had a shower with dad's family on Saturday and one with Jeff's family on Sunday. Both were great and everyone has been overly generous with time and treasure! We are now officially overrun with baby stuff! The car seat has been professionally installed so we can bring her/him home so now we just wait.

24 day left (maybe...)

Down to the once a week visits which are a little more interesting than the pee in a cup, blood pressure, heartbeat and out the door visits. Love the paper gowns! Heartbeat was 135 this week and 155 last week so when I asked what that means the Dr said "that heart rate is no predictor of gender". He said that it is good if the heartbeat fluctuates because if it is too steady then the baby may need to come out. On 2/20 he said that the baby was about 5.5 pounds and if I go to term to expect about a 7-7.5 pound baby. We'll see...

The room is pretty much ready and I have done laundry so the child will have something to wear after birth. It will be green or yellow (I know, that's our fault for not finding out) but the clothes are too cute no matter the color. In fact I already lost a sock and a mitten thing in the dryer. They are just sooo little! So I bought a mesh bag to wash those things in from now on.

2 family showers this weekend so that will be fun! I need to finish reading about immunizations and get the bag packed :-)

33 weeks

33 weeks on Friday and all is well! Blood pressure was up a little (130/80) but they said not to worry. Measuring normally and all that jazz so back on 2/12 for next appointment. Still nauseous and throwing up but once a day is OK (at least I can handle it for a little while longer...) The Xavier-UMass game gave me some Braxton-Hicks (good thing we won) so it may be March Madness that puts me into labor!

We have some free time this weekend so really need to work on packing a bag and trying to get things in order. I still have a lot to read before this kid gets here :-) The rest of the furniture should be here in the next 2 weeks so that will help complete the room and give me a place to put the clean clothes/blankets that I washed on our snow day.

We had 2 great showers so far! "Game night" which thanks to pregnancy brain I didn't pick up on was a great surprise. Sunday was a shower/Superbowl party which was also a lot of fun! Friends in from out of town meant a lot and made for an overall weekend of nuggetness. I definitely need a nap :-)

29 Weeks...

Made it to the 3rd trimester! No gestational diabetes andI am measuring on schedule. I start going every 2 weeks (in 2 weeks) so I'm sure that appointments will be more "exciting" from here on out :-) Baby shower planning is beginning which is fun and makes things more real.

Spent most of New Years Day throwing up - almost like I was drinking the night before - but have been OK so far today. I'm averaging one bathroom trip a day so that is a lot better than before. Still not back to pre-pregnancy weight but that is OK with me (hope that I never am).

Off to Babies r us and Target tomorrow to make registry changes. I got some good advice and I need to make some additions/deletions. Fun stuff :-)