The Case of the Missing Baby Monitor

About a week ago, the baby monitor suddenly disappeared. We couldn't find it in any of the usual spots. We asked Jake where he put it, but he shook his head "no", giggled, and walked away. The monitor is known to appear in spots all across the house, but this time was different. This time the baby monitor really was lost and we KNEW that Jake put it... somewhere. (Just another example of the fun-loving antics concocted by an 18 month old.)

Oh well, we thought. We really don't use the baby monitor all that much anymore. Paul and I both wake up to him either crying in the middle of the night or talking/crying when he's awake in the morning. (I must take a moment to mention that I am truly amazed that Paul wakes up so well to the sounds of Jake at 3am.) PLUS, the monitor has been battered so much that the darn video picture no longer works and the reception has gotten relatively bad. In other words, we were going to buy another one before the new little man arrives.

Did I happen to mention how much Jake LOVES the baby monitor? He is OBSESSED with cords (not a good thing, I know). And one of his favorite things to do in the morning is unplug his baby monitor, drape the cord around his neck, and carry the whole thing from room to room. (Okay, now I feel horribly guilty for being a bad mother and admitting that he does that.) This whole week, Jake has gotten upset every time he has seen the cord to the baby monitor, but can't find the monitor itself. I guess even he couldn't remember where he put it. But this all explains why the monitor has been through so much turmoil and why we weren't too surprised that the darn thing was missing.

As I finished pulling out the remaining dark clothes from the hamper this morning, low and behold, what did I see? The gleaming white of the baby monitor... sitting comfortably at the bottom of the clothes hamper, probably wishing it would stay there forever. God rest its soul, but I think this monitor is ready to retire.

Can't..... Quite.... Make It!

Jake has been having a little bit of a rough time with his naps lately... he is ready to go to just one nap in the afternoon for the most part but sometimes he can't quite make it through the morning and will take a snoozer and then be a little off in the afternoon. Well, the other day was one of those times and while he refused to actually "nap" he passed out in the corner of the couch. Now keep in mind that this is very odd for him because typically he won't sleep anywhere except for his crib when he is at home (and yes, I do miss the days of him falling asleep on me!). He has also been sick this week, which may help to explain the interrupted sleep patterns...

The snooze was relatively short lived, but fun to capture :-)

Jake's Snow Day!

Chloe & Jake

This past Saturday, Chloe spent the night with us and helped give Jakey his bath and read him his bedtime story. Jake had a blast playing with his cousin!! Chloe is going to be such a good big sister one day.

I Love Chocolate!!

Gets it from his mommy.

6 Month Update

DR: Hi, how are you today Mrs. Gunning? How are things going?

Abby: Pretty good. No real changes in the last two weeks.

DR: Are you feeling the baby move a lot?

Abby: Oh yah, A LOT! He is very active and moves all the time. He kicks down really low most of the time. (Probably trying to escape...)

DR: How are the contractions? Are you still having them?

Abby: Oh yah, still having them... But they aren't frequent and they aren't painful. Maybe a couple times an hour.

DR: Okay, I am not too concerned about that then. Let's do a quick exam...

(We'll leave out that part.)

DR: Everything still looks good. Good stitch. I feel good about it. I have another lady whose stitch isn't as good and it makes me a little nervous. (Gee, glad I ended up with the good stitch!)

(Measures height of uterus -- now above my belly button BTW! And listens to the baby's heartbeat.)

DR: The baby's size is good. Heartbeat is about 140 which is good. Sounds like you could put some rap music to it (laughter).

DR: So the best thing you can do right now is stay at home and rest. Gravity isn't doing you any favors when you're on your feet. You're staying home now right?

Abby: I have been on bed rest for the last two weeks.

DR: You have work to do from home?

Abby: Yes, I have plenty of work that I can do from home.

DR: Oh good so you're not driving your husband crazy then.

Paul: No, she still drives me crazy.

Nurse: But didn't you agree in your wedding vows to have and to hold, love and to cherish, even when she drives you crazy on bed rest?

Abby: That's right.

(Some more small talk and then the doctor and nurse leave and I get dressed.)

Paul: Did you notice that Vu is sporting a mohawk today?

Abby: Nah, I missed that!

Paul: Check it out.

(We go to Dr. Vu's office for a summary review and next steps.)

DR: Okay so at your next appointment you'll do your glucose screening. We'll make your next appointment for about 4 weeks from now at 28 weeks. Oh, we also need to discuss if you want to have another c-section.

Abby: Yes, I want to have another c-section.

DR: That's what they all say.

DR: Let's take a quick look at your stats and weight chart. Oh, you've gained 7 pounds since your last check-up 2 weeks ago. Is that reasonable?

(Lots of laughs from Abby and Paul.)

Abby: Ummm, yah. I have been really hungry lately.

Paul: Yah you ate a whole cake the other day!

DR: Well you know you gain the most weight when you're pregnant from eating sweets.

Paul: Too bad every tooth in her mouth is a sweet tooth.

Abby: Yah but I eat a lot of good stuff too! It's just a lot of everything lately.

DR: Well the size of the baby is good, if the baby was getting too big then I would be concerned but at this point, it's just something you need to worry about for AFTER the baby is born.

Abby: Don't worry, Paul will be on my case about it.

(We leave the doctor's office and make an appointment with the receptionist for about 4 weeks from now.)

Abby: Vu did have a mohawk going on.

Paul: Told ya.

Abby: Let's go to Pot Belly. I'm really hungry.

24 weeks pregnant

More Fun Jake Pics

Ring Around the Rosie!

Silly Bath

The Gobbler

Uncle Nick showed us "the gobbler" on Jake. Of course he thinks it is one of the most hysterical things ever!

Change Can Happen

We feel very honored to witness such a spectacular event in our nation's history. To think about Jake reading about this in a history book one day and learning about it in school is profound and we look forward to telling him and his little brother that mommy and daddy watched the inauguration and helped support our 44th President. Actually, we will tell him that he watched the inauguration on TV while mommy held him and that his little brother was inside mommy's belly... too bad he won't remember any of it!

Bed Rest Poll

So the poll has closed and Pass the PMP Exam got the most votes with 5. Watch all seasons of Sex in the City came in a close second with 4 votes.

Lucky for all of our readers, passing the PMP exam is at the top of my list of things to accomplish in the next two months. And for those wondering, PMP stands for Project Management Professional. It is a certification that I am working on achieving. Every time I finish a chapter in my prep book, I think that it isn't so bad but then I think about taking the 200 question multiple choice test and I am terrified of failing!

So I will let everyone know once I have passed the exam, but lips are sealed until then :-)

What's New

1. We ordered Jake's new bedroom furniture yesterday. We bought the crib and combo hutch/dresser that you can see in a link from one of my previous posts. It should be here in 14-16 weeks... Now it's official, this new baby is really coming, and probably soon!

2. I am 24 weeks (6 months) along tomorrow. Where has the time gone? If this baby comes at the same time that Jake arrived (34 weeks and 1 day), then this little guy is making his grand entrance on April 1st. That is a little scary. I have a gut feeling that I am going to make it longer than that this time, but feel like he is going to be an April baby. I have a check-up with my OB on Wednesday morning so more to come after that...

3. I survived my first full week of bed rest. It wasn't so bad. I am really busy at work so the times goes by pretty quickly. I hope the rest of bed rest isn't like last week! I was still working at 9/10pm some days last week. That's no way to relax :-( But I am sure to take my break from at least 5:30 - 7:30pm to spend time with Jakey and put him down to bed.

I have pictures and videos to post so I will work on that today or at least later on this week!

Only One Week To Go!

Can't wait!!
http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/index?pn=index

Jake's New Room

I think this is what we're going to order for Jake's new furniture. The crib converts to a toddler bed and then to a full size bed so it will last him for a really long time. He isn't ready for a toddler bed yet and we don't want to move him to one too soon. Three years old seems to be pretty average for making the switch. http://www.babyappleseed.com/davenport-crib.htm

The lady said this takes 14-16 weeks to come in, so I figure it'll be here by the time the new baby is about 2 months old (just kidding!!!).

Here is what the new baby will sleep in at first. That will give us plenty of time to get Jake's new room ready for him and get him transitioned.

Jake is getting a safari jungle theme in his new room. This is what we picked out for the bedding. The colors in his room will be green & brown.

UH-OH! And Body Parts

We decided it was time to teach Jakey some new little tricks! In the last week we have conditioned him to say "uh-oh" to just about everything. Though when he drops something or something falls on the ground, he seems to understand that you say "uh-oh" because he does it with a good deal of regularity. We've been working on body parts for a little while now but have been focusing a little more on it in the last week or two. He is pretty consistent with "jakey, where's your nose?" and "jakey, where's your ear?". Of course "where's your nose" ends up with him sticking his finger up his nose (which is a new trick he picked up recently). Then he claps in amusement at his parents being overjoyed that he can point to places on his face.

So funny. Gosh I love that little kid!

Baby Update

Quick update on my doctor's appointment today:
--baby is doing quite well, growing well, very active, hard to find the heartbeat because he kept moving!
--we got to see the little guy on the sonogram today, purpose was to check the heartbeat since we couldn't find it on the doppler, it was about 150bpm which is normal
--he is kicking and punching me non-stop! Sometimes it hurts!

On to the more medical stuff:
--put me on the contraction monitor for 10 minutes, didn't have any contractions so that was good news. Based on that, decided not to put me on any medication at this point (like the yucky terbutaline). I can feel painless contractions throughout the day but they aren't regular or spaced extremely close together. (The nurse said to me, "really, even this early on?". I said, "yes, even this early on... trust me".)
--cervix has shortened slightly but not enough to be concerned. I didn't know this but 3cm or longer is what they want to see. Mine is 3cm. It's still stitched shut very nicely!! (my apologies, all of that info gives me the heebie geebies too)
--best we can do right now is bed rest and of course the cerclage that was done almost 2 months ago, might use medication down the road if needed
--between 28-30 weeks I will get a steroid shot to speed up/ improve the baby's lung and brain development in case he is born prematurely
--I asked, bottom line, what are the chances of this baby being born early. The response - without the cerclage and bed rest I would most certainly have this baby even earlier than Jake. With the cerclage and bed rest, it's estimated about a 60% chance of making it to 36 weeks or beyond.

Hey I will take it! We have a healthy little baby growing here. I think everything is going to go well and while it might be a very long 12-18 weeks, I will be so ecstatic to make it to the finish line with a new little bundle of joy to bring home. Jake needs a playmate!!

Fun Jake Pics

Happy New Year!

We wish you all a happy and prosperous 2009!

Our New Year's Eve celebration this year was pretty low-key.... just a couple people over to enjoy lots of good food and fun games. The two pictures below are of Paul and I with Jake dressed up in his New Year's outfit (from Auntie G of course!).

Baby Names

Our baby name poll was inconclusive! Ethan and Alex tied for first place. I LOVE the name Ethan -- in fact, Jake probably would have been named Ethan if Paul liked it. I also think that Jake and Alex would make quite a pair -- best buddies and brothers!

I did forget to put two names on there as options -- Colin and of course, Grant! I have quite a few diehard lovers of the name Grant Gunning :-)

So we'll keep discussing and Paul will inevitably not decide on a name until we hold little BG2 for the first time. Even though he knows that we really will have decided on a name way before that :-)