Tiny tiny new baby update

Between technical difficulties and general uncooperativeness on New Baby's part, we ended up at the 3D ultrasound place three times and still haven't been able to get a clear photo of her face. She just loves to keep her fists up by her mouth - we might have a serious thumb-sucker here! As far as I can tell, she looks a lot like Julia but might have a little more me in her. That's a pretty safe guess though, so we'll just have to see the old-fashioned way -  when she gets here.

She's more active than Julia was, and she hiccups rarely. She's finally head-down and positioned much how Julia was for the end of my first pregnancy (that's good - even though I still get the occasional bladder-punch, generally she's just kicking the outside and not my kidneys!). 

I'm getting Braxton-Hicks a lot by now, brought on by everything from Julia nursing to me standing up quickly. No need to be worried until/unless they become consistent and time-able, says my OB, and they haven't been close. Not to mention that, at almost 33 weeks, she's plenty viable - not that I want her to come out underdone, but it's a relief mentally that she'd be fine if an emergency were to arise. 

Her nursery has the essentials - furniture and diapers - with quite a ways to go on the details still. Fortunately I still have everything from Julia so I've had to buy very little. Getting ready has been so laid-back compared to the first time around that it feels like I'm forgetting a whole bunch of things. Thank goodness for Amazon and online ordering.

I also *finally* got a photographer lined up for an upcoming photo session. Whew. That was surprisingly tough - I've gotten a LOT pickier since I've taken more photos of my own. Although I'm nowhere near professional, I know just enough to be really critical of other peoples' portfolios.

16 Month Update!

So here is my long overdue Julia update. (Mostly, I just want to share the non-outtakes from our photo sessions yesterday.)

Basics: She's sleeping from about 8:00-7:00, and napping from around 12:30-2:00. Those are rough estimates because she goes through weeks where she seems to think 11 hours of sleep a day are plenty for a little baby, and other weeks where she sleeps great and it's 7:45 in the morning and I've showered and eaten breakfast and read the internet and I'm wondering if she's still alive in her bedroom. But, I've noticed she's MUCH better at rolling with slight changes in schedule; it's nice to not have to be so rigid any more.

The big news around here lately is the Taking Away of the Bottles. I just did this about a week ago. She drinks milk from a cup just fine so the change had to do with her bedtime ritual and her need for closeness and sucking as part of relaxing for bed. The first two days went great, then it was like she realized we were being serious, and she was pretty upset about the process for days 3-6 or so. She's mellowed out by now, and we seem to be over the hump. She's drinking a decent amount of dairy now, although I'd like to see her drinking a little more overall. And she's asking to nurse during the day, which was not rare, but unheard of, before. I'm letting her for the moment although I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to tolerate it. Crossing my fingers that she drops it on her own if I just don't make a big deal of it.

No attempts at potty training but she does sit on her toilet before her bath, and she's been on quite a streak lately - peeing in the toilet almost every time these past few weeks. We're not making a big deal about it but I'm happy she's at least aware of what the toilet is for and what it feels like to use it.

She's also gotten her bottom two eye teeth. I'm sure the top two are close behind but I'm happy to check another set off our list! Bring on those two-year molars so we can be done with this process!

Talking: She's slowly (slowwwly) adding words to her vocabulary. She'll say: Mum, Dada, Mama (her doll, Emma, not me), ham, alala (umbrella), duh-duh (duck), ba-ba (school bus or cookbook (??)), and buh-buh (bye bye). She's starting to imitate sounds better, and she'll make an attempt to repeat a word back to us now, even if she's usually pretty far off. ("Can you say 'apple,' Julia?" "Uh." "Good job! Apple!") But: She signs like a maniac and knows pretty much every animal sound ever. I totaled it up and she can use a combo of signs and sounds to tell us over 70 different words. It's not like I don't have the moments when I have NO IDEA what she's trying to tell me, but she can actually communicate pretty effectively with me now. 

Other development: She does all sorts of stuff now. She still can't run around a playground without me right next to her but she's getting much more adept at steps, slides, and other things like that. (I'm just waiting for the day when I can take her to the playground and sit on a bench and watch her play!)

Right now she likes:

• books and reading (LOVES this. it makes my heart so happy.)
• the doggie
• actually, all doggies
• actually, all animals
• pushing her dolls around in her stroller (but her blanket MUST be draped JUST SO over the handle)
• riding things and going for rides in the stroller
• being outside
• throwing things in the trash can
• snapping buckles

And dislikes:

• diaper changes
• strangers
• getting her teeth brushed
• when she doesn't get her way

And here are my favorite photos of her for the moment:

I know the color's off. Get over it and look at those eyes.

Conducting. Or doing the sign for "bunny."

I think we already saw this pic but I think it's just adorable.
Wish I had framed it better but she caught me off guard.

Baby, bunny, and blanket. What more could you ask for?

Want to just squish her.
(I need to find a better backdrop for these indoor photos. Or maybe I need a studio. Robert?)

Photo class outtakes

Because I've been keeping up so well with life lately, I decided to take another photography class. This one is focused on photographing children, and not offered all the time, so I decided to jump on it. I made Julia sit through two photoshoots today, and got a few outtakes I thought my family might enjoy.

First photoshoot - you can see how excited she was to model for me:

I got smart and gave her makeup brushes and jewelry to keep her happy for the second one, and ended up with some cutie photos:

Well how can you expect her to know how makeup brushes work when I never use them?

She does know they can be used to highlight your lips.

She also gets that you make funny faces while using them.

"Julia please put that down AND look at me for one second so I can get a decent shot of you."

  (And then I moved her to the bed, where I had actually calibrated the white balance for...)

Always happy giggles when the blanket makes an appearance.

Again with the makeup brush fails.

Awww.

We've got to do something about that hair.

There we go. Perfect solution. And versatile.

Pearl city over here.

It's SO HARD being a baby with pearls!

Of course I have eight thousand more but that should be enough to make my mom happy for a little while. :) When it rains, it pours around here.

Alive

Yep, my child is still alive. I needed a break from blogging and photo-taking, then my computer completely died (pats on the back for having everything backed up!), then we got the whole interior of our house painted, then I got really pregnant and the thought of doing anything other than collapsing at the end of the day got overwhelming.

But I don't intend to give up blogging altogether. Posts will be light from here on out probably. I'm blaming pregnancy exhaustion and hormones (which gets blamed a lot these days).

The weather is starting to get a little nicer on a consistent basis so we've been trying to get outside a little bit. Here is J at the park today. (And yes, she does have other shirts. The butterfly one is just a favorite because it's so darn cute to ask her what's on her shirt and she gives her little "butterfly" sign.)

I owe Julia a 15-month 16-month update ASAP. Send some energy my way, k?