I am getting so horrible about taking photos and updating our blog.  I promise I will make a better effort. 

We spent this weekend at Lane's parents place in Paradise, CA to celebrate Grandma Janice's 80th birthday.  We missed the Santa Barbara Grovers (Gabriela cried and cried when she learned they weren't coming), but we got to reconnect with Lane's cousin Sarah and meet her adorable kids, Miles and Journey. 

Gabriela spent the weekend swinging on the tire swing, and the new swing that Grandpa got after learning she could swing all by herself.  She also dug "gopher holes", played in the mud, explored the property, ran around like crazy, caught bugs, swung in the hammock, and tasted her first s'mores ever. She was a fan.

 oh yeah, and jumping off of beds.  Miles said he wished he had long hair so it would fly when he jumped like Gabriela.

Yeah, she was a fan.  I had to explain what s'mores were, so I told Gabriela they were like sandwiches except with marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers.  She kept asking for her sandwich after that.

We are so happy we got to spend this extra time with our family, and that we live close enough to pop over for a long weekend.

Belly Love

I have been hesitating to post belly pictures, partly because I had other worries on my mind. One of the exciting things about my pregnancy this time around is that my sister-in-law, Annie is also pregnant! How exciting that these little cousins will only be a couple months apart!

This is us on Easter, about one month ago. I was 12 weeks, which makes Ann about 19 weeks.

Here we are again over Memorial Day weekend. Just a month later and those babies and bellies have grown a lot!

 Gabriela doesn't miss anything.  Here she is sporting her own belly bump. She cracks me up. Look how proud she is!

 

The funny thing is that I'm sure this is an accurate portrayal of what I will look like around Halloween. Stay tuned. 

It will defy the laws of physics.

Relief

A couple weeks ago, we got some shocker news from the midwife. My blood test results indicated that I had a 1 in 7 chance of carrying a baby with Down Syndrome and we were referred to the genetic counselors.

This completely surprised me. In fact, I had actually told Lane before that I wasn't at all worried about growing a healthy baby - I knew my body knew how to do it. There went that theory.

The genetic counselors confirmed the midwife results. There were three indicators they were looking at, and all three combined pointed in the Down Syndrome direction. When I was pregnant with Gabriela, the odds they gave me were 1 in 5,000 I think. just for comparison.

Our options were to wait and see (yeah, right), get the 2nd trimester blood screening, which is just a screening and in order to be in the clear, I would have to get a 1 in 200 stat. I was already at 1 in 7. Or, I could have an amniocentesis. It's an invasive procedure, and there is risk of miscarriage. But the risk is 1 in 400.  So I had it done then and there. It was the only way to know for sure, since they analyze each of the chromosomes. And then we had to wait 10 to 14 days for the results.

Even though they got back to me in 9 days, it was a long wait. Instead of thinking about baby names, or deciding on the best cloth diaper options, or even worrying about the birth, I was thinking of much heavier things like whether or not our family could handle such a challenge.  I tried my best not to stress about it too much - my worrying wouldn't change the results. But let's get real. How can you not worry about it?

We are so relieved that our baby is healthy. I can't imagine spending the rest of my pregnancy worrying and wondering if everything would be okay. 

Gabriela Says...

reaction to my haircut:

"It's too short! It's not growing longer, it's not growing longer!"

On getting caught getting into stuff:
me: Gabriela, what are you doing?
G (immediately springing into my sight): I LOVE YOU, Mommy!

On being a big sister:

"Mommy, I think we should teach our baby signs. Let's teach the train sign to the baby"

"Rockabye, baby in the tree tops...and big sister will catch you, cradle and all"

After the chef at the Indian restaurant told her he would make her a nice mango curry the next time she came back:

"Mommy, why that man was talking Spanish?"

this confirms my theory that, to Gabriela, Spanish means any language that is not English.

On working it:
"Mommy, can you please cuddle with me because you're the best mommy in the whole world"

Our Little Swinger

Over the last month, Gabriela has gotten really good at swinging like a big girl. Daddy taught her how to swing by pushing and pulling her body, rather than by pumping her legs. She caught on very quickly and practices every chance she gets.  It was hard to catch a video because every time she sees  us using the camera, she wants to see the movie we're making. 

Gabriela gets up to swing in the morning before she even changes out of her jammies. As soon as Daddy gets home from work, she asks him to push her on the swing. It's their special time together. Gabriela and Daddy on the swing, laughing and playing games, and then Daddy picks an orange from the tree and they share it together.

A visit to the midwife

This morning, Gabriela insisted on wearing her Big Sister jammie shirt our midwife appointment.

She told her daddy, “We are going to the doctor.  Excuse me, the midwife. We are going to see the midwife today”

She helped the midwife with the fetoscope machine so we could listen to  the baby’s heartbeat.  When the midwife asked Gabriela what she thought the heartbeat sounded like, I expected her to say something like a train. Instead Gabriela said, “hmmm, a girl or a boy??? A BOY!”

After Gabriela watched the midwife feel around my uterus, she walked up to me and started pushing down lightly on my tummy with her little fingertips too.

She also insisted on peeing in a cup. It took me a lot of explaining to convince her to just pee in the toilet.

RIP Charlotte

Last night Gabriela and I finished reading our first real chapter book together! At first I thought Charlotte’s Web might be a little to advanced for her, and worried that it wouldn’t keep her interest. But Gabriela was sitting through other long, less wordy beginner chapter books and asking for more.  She’d wake up and request to read more first thing in the morning, and ask for the book at nap time and bedtime.  We finished the book in a week! Gabriela talked about Fern and Wilbur and Templeton and Charlotte throughout the day. She pretended to read the book herself, and her pretend stories were similar to what we’d read the day before. And, my favorite part, she’d interrupt to ask what words meant that she didn’t understand. “mommy, what means manure? Boasted? Brimming?” and all sorts more.  She was into it.

Then Charlotte had to go and die.  I knew she would, but still.  Now Gabriela knows what dying is. In the last year we’ve explained the deaths of a bunny, two rats, and a dog. She has been totally okay with it, and still talks about how we won’t see then anymore because they died. So I thought she would handle Charlotte’s death similarly.

I thought wrong. When Charlotte died, Gabriela instantly got the saddest look on her face. She burst into tears and sobbed, just like Wilbur. Giant tears rolled down her little face. She just couldn’t stand that poor Charlotte was gone.  She even said things like, “But now Wilbur won’t have any friends” and “How will we have any more story without Charlotte?”.  She was crushed. Heartbroken.  I had no idea she’d react so strongly, and couldn’t help getting a little teary eyed myself as I consoled her and helped her think of all the happy times Wilbur would remember about his friend Charlotte, what a wonderful friend she was, and how lucky Wilbur was to have known her.  We talked about the funny parts from our book.  Gabriela was relieved when three of Charlotte’s (514) children stayed and befriended Wilbur, pledging their friendship forever.  But she couldn’t help getting sad all over again at the mention of Charlotte.  Poor sweet baby girl.

She’s still looking forward to watching the movie Charlotte’s Web with hot cocoa and popcorn. I wonder if she’ll react differently to Charlotte’s death since she knows it’s coming, or if we will mourn her death all over again.  Wish us luck.

Nevertheless, it’s been such a fun experience sharing this story and love of reading with her. I’m already thinking about what we can read next. 

Gabriela, Professional Heart Melter and Big Sister

While I was looking for library books on Friday, Gabriela came up behind me and said, "Mommy, I think we need to get this book for our baby."  

She handed me this book. She found it all by herself and picked it out. 

It's perfect. I nearly cried.

Happy Mother's Day Card

 Gabriela came downstairs today telling me she made me this mother's day card.  The girl loves to cut, as you can see.  But check out that picture of me! She even told me, "see, I drew your baby"  Can you see the purple baby bump? And all the Gs?

I love how long she made my hair. I cut it short a couple weeks ago and Gabriela was devastated. She grabbed my hair and sadly exclaimed, "it's not growing, it's not growing!!!"  Later that day she told me, "I'm so happy you are growing your long hair back, Mommy"   You can see how she's envisioning it.

The inside quote from the card. How does she come up with this stuff?!?!

Thank you for having me so much. 

I love you.

Happy Mother's Day, Mommy. 

I love you so much. 

I love you.

Yay for homemade sweet cards. I'm keeping this baby forever.

Baby Grover's Debut

Here's our baby!  We are proud to report that there is only one baby growing in my uterus.

Look at that sweet little profile!

I was excited to take video of the ultrasound but the technician told me I wasn't allowed to - some privacy rules, which I thought were pretty silly, but didn't protest. Total bummer.  But then she double checked after my ultrasound was over and found out that it was okay to take some video and pics to burn on a CD for me. So she gave me another ultrasound, just so I'd have some images and photos to take home. How sweet is that?

See that little heart beating fast and furious? That's 149 beats per minute, folks.

What you see here (from left to right) is the baby's belly, then some arms, and then the totally rad Skeletor head. Isn't our baby darling? 

Even though I'm supposed to be 12 weeks pregnant, the baby is measuring at 13 weeks.  This happened last time with Gabriela too.  So, my due date might actually be one week earlier.

And just for fun, Here's what Gabriela looked like at 12 or 13 weeks also.