First OB Appt and Emma's 18 Month Appt

It's been nearly a week since our appointments and I'm finally getting the chance to update about them. I kind of fell off the face of the internet for a few days due to a drug-induced zombie state. Prescription, of course. But I've stopped taking that one because I think it's doing more harm than good. More on that in a bit.

My appointment went really well. I had to have a pap, since it'd been 2 years since my last one. I have virtually no risk (happily married, only been with hubby and he's only been with me), so I think it's kind of pointless to get them as often as they "claim" is necessary. That, and who enjoys getting THOSE? It's not that bad, but it's not exactly on my "favorite things to do" list. My OB said they're better once you've had a baby, but I can't remember that much about the last (and first LOL) one, so I can't say either way from my experience.

Anyway, on to the more fun aspects of my appointment. We got to see baby on ultrasound!! Yay! I love ultrasounds. I love seeing that teeny tiny little heart beating. Everything looked great. Baby is measuring right on schedule. I need to scan in the pics still.

Also, I got a prescription for anti-nausea meds. I wanted to get on zofran, but they had to put me on phenergan first because a lot of insurance companies require trying phenergan before prescribing zofran - mine included. Poo. I'd heard less-than-good stories about phenergan, so I wasn't too thrilled about that. But zofran costs 6x as much as phenergan, so it's understandable.

Before I go on to Emma's appointment and a general update on her, here are my experiences with phenergan. Avoid if possible!! Seriously. It did help with the nausea, but that stuff knocked me out for 12 hours at a time. When on it, I had no motivation to do anything other than sleep - that includes not wanting to get up and go to the bathroom, eating, or drinking anything. Not exactly good for me OR for baby. The drowsiness factor kicks in before the anti-nausea, and the anti-nausea part wears off long before the drowsiness factor does. So, by the time the drowsiness wore off, I was nausous from not eating anything in way too many hours and threw up. Uh, isn't that what it's supposed to prevent? I think it made me dehydrated. I took it Tuesday through Friday and barely had anything to drink over those days. Heck, I was barely drinking anything even before that because liquids make me nauseous in general. 7up and cherry koolaid seem to be my best options these days, and even then I can only drink small amounts at a time. Oh, and I think I read that you should increase fluids while on phenergan...well, I clearly wasn't because it totally knocked me out. I had an awful awful headache/migraine Saturday through this morning, and I'm sure it has something to do with dehydration or phenergan, or probably both. I will not be taking it again. Ever, if I can help it. I called my OB and told them about it, but I had to leave a message on the nurses' line, so who knows when I'll actually hear back from them. Probably tomorrow sometime, since they've been closed for several hours now.

Oh, a couple other things from my appt. Since I had a 4th degree tear last time, I asked what was my risk for tearing that badly again. Thankfully, it's only a 12-15% risk. Sweet! I really don't want to tear that bad again, thanks. Oh, and the nurse lectured me about eating healthy to avoid GD. Um...ok? At this point, I'm just eating what my stomach can handle. Which isn't much, and it certainly isn't that healthy! Ice cream, popsicles, etc...yeah, great diet. But I DO want to eat healthy and then already be in good eating habits by the time baby arrives so I can shed the after-baby weight and flab better. But I really don't think I'm at risk for GD...so the lecture kind of annoyed me. I'm at a similar weight this time as I was last time and I passed the glucose test perfectly...*shrug* Oh, and I only gained a TOTAL of 20 lbs with Emma, which is pretty dang good, thank you. And technically I lost it all right away, but everything else was so stretched out that none of my pre-baby clothes fit. I never did get into good shape, though I tried a little. Not enough, clearly. I'm going to do better this time!!

You know what's fun? There are 2 other girls on my mommy forum due the exact same day as me!! How fun is that? Of course, the likelihood of us having babies the same day isn't that high, but hey, it could happen. One of them will have a c-section, and they've already given her a tentative date for it, and the other had both her other babies early, so she's likely to go early again this time (though hopefully not AS early as her last baby!). As for me, Emma was born on her due date. I have NO idea what to expect this time! I know the likelihood of me having 2 due date babies is insanely slim. I just don't know if I can expect an early baby or a late baby. We'll just have to play it by ear!

Ooh, and at my appt, they told me that they do the Big Ultrasound (you know, the one where you can find out the gender) anywhere between 18-22 weeks. With Emma, the earliest I could get it was 20 weeks - but we were living in another state at the time, so I obviously had a different OB for that part of pregnancy. They schedule it depending on the previous appointments. Well, my first appointment was at 10 weeks. My next will be at 14 weeks...which means the NEXT will be 18 weeks - so it looks like I'll be able to find out at 18 weeks!!! YAY!! I can't wait!! We're going home to visit family shortly after that, so I'm stoked. I wanted to find out baby's gender before we left, and now it looks like I will! You know, cuz Mom and I will have to hit the Carter's outlet store if it's a boy...but even if I can't find out before I leave, we have an awesome friend back home who actually TEACHES ultrasound (in fact, she taught the tech who did my 20 week ultrasound with Emma), and she offered to take a peek with Emma when someone decided to hide her gender...but the awesome tech had us come in a week later on her lunch break and looked again for free! That time we knew for sure we were having a girl:)

Oh, and the vomit count is now up to 24. Just so you know. I'm 11 weeks today. With Emma, I threw up 25 times first tri...so I think it'll be more this time since that's a full 2 weeks away and lately I've thrown up everyday. I hate morning sickness. Anyway. Moving on.

After the ultrasound, John and Emma had to run next door for Emma's appointment while vampire nurses attacked me with needles. Blegh. I hate blood draws. And this one was particularly unpleasant. They had a nursing student do the draw. I think it might have been her first time drawing blood from an actual person since the nurse had to walk her through step by step, even on how to properly dispose of everything. She was nice about it, and I understand they have to learn and that experience is the best teacher...but I don't particuarly enjoy being the human test dummy. Especially since I have a nasty bruise on my arm (still - and it's been almost a week) and it hurt to move it for at least 2 days. And she didn't even end up drawing from that arm at all! Apparently the needle and the plastic thingy (real technical term LOL) weren't properly connected, so blood wasn't going from the needle into the vials that attach to the plastic thingy. Of course, the nurse realized this after the nursing student dug around in my arm a bit...so then they poked my OTHER arm and did the 3-vial draw from there. So I had matching bandages on each arm. Lovely.

After the vampire nurses were done sucking my blood, I went next door to the pediatrician to meet up with John and Emma. I love that my OB and her pediatrician are literally right next door. It's awesome. Anyway, I got there and they were already in an exam room. I went back to join them while the nurse was asking about Emma's development. She's perfectly on track or ahead in everything. They'd already done all the measurements at that point. When I asked about her weight (she's always been super low on the charts, so I had to know), they said 17 lbs 15 oz. Um, what? She hit 20 lbs 2 months ago...there is NO WAY she's dropped down that much! If she had, I'd have to turn the car seat back to rear-facing:( But she likes to step on the bathroom scale and it said 20.8 just days before her check up. Later, when the doctor came in, he saw the weight listed, looked at her, and said she looked bigger than that. I asked if we could re-weigh her, so we did. 20 lbs 2.5 oz. Thank you! I KNEW she wasn't merely 18 lbs! John told me afterwards that the nurse had laid her down on the scale and she was wiggling like crazy. Usually they have toddlers sit on the scale, which is what the doctor did when we re-weighed her. The awesome news is she's now in the 3rd percentile for weight!!! I know that might sound really low to most of you, but for a child that has spent most of her life at 0%, it's freakin' awesome. As for height, she's 31" - 27th percentile. Wow. I KNEW she'd gone through a growth spurt recently! Last check up she was 5th percentile for height. Head circumference is 18.5", which is 62nd percentile. It's funny; her head has only grown half an inch since her last appointment, but it jumped from 44% to 62%. Pretty crazy.

She got a shot, which of course she hated:( But now she is completely up-to-date with all the shots she needs until she starts school! Yay! No more shots!! Well, other than flu shots, but I'm not 100% sure how I feel about those either way. They didn't seem to help any of us last winter...

As for an update on Emma herself, she is doing great. She is SO smart. And super super sweet and lovable. She really is a well-behaved little girl. It's amazing how aware she is of everything. She picks up on EVERYTHING. I really need to make sure I'm setting a good example for her! Especially since she wants to do everything Mommy does...when she sees me put on makeup (which I only do if I'm actually going somewhere or expecting company), she wants to wear some, too. I've put a tiny bit of powder on her nose - that's it for a looooong time. She doesn't need it! When I put on chapstick, she wants to put on chapstick. That one I let her do:) And sometimes when I say something, she tries to say it, too. I already have a bad example of that...bad Mommy!

Last week, Emma insisted on going outside (after she saw Daddy leave...), so outside we went, despite me not really feeling up to it. We put on her monkey pack (I love that thing), grabbed the mail key, and out we went. Of course, Emma always insists on holding the mail key. She loves to check the mail. That day was no exception. She then wanted to go walk around in the grass median between the 2 halves of the parking lot. She LOVES walking around over there, so we do it fairly often. It started raining a little bit, but nothing much - after all, I grew up near Seattle. Rain doesn't phase me. More sprinkling than rain, really. While we were out there, Emma dropped the mail key. In the grass. The rain started coming down more. And I was tired and nauseous. I spent a good 10-20 minutes trying to find the mail key with a toddler who kept wanting to wander around away from where she dropped it. I did eventually find it, thankfully, but before I did, I said "crap" about not being able to find it. Well...Emma said "ap" immediately afterwards!! Uh oh!! Bad Mommy! I really need to watch what I say around her! I know crap isn't THAT bad of a word (certainly better than many of the other words out there), but it's not really something I want my little toddler running around saying everywhere, you know? It IS a funny story, though!! John wasn't too thrilled to hear about it LOL! Though it's not nearly as bad as what Nathan was trying to teach her...which I'm not allowed to post about:( But it's pretty funny (pst, ask me in person and I'll tell you;)).

Anyway. Emma is really exploding in her speech. It's funny; for awhile I was all worried about her lack of interest in speaking, but she is saying more words than the pediatric nurse said is normal for her age. They asked if she says at least 7 words. Ha. She says more than twice that. And she's learning new words all the time. I compiled a list to post on my mommy forum (someone posted about what words your toddler says) last week, and it's increased quite a bit just in that one week. It's amazing. She is learning so much so fast! Anyway, here's a list of words Emma says:

Mommy (she usually leaves off the first "m" so it's more like "ommy")
Daddy
baby
ball
apple
Emma
amen (she folds her arms for prayers and says it afterwards - too cute!)
Elmo
happy
yeah
no
Baba (John's grandma)
hi/eye (she says them the same usually, but you can tell which she means by context)
ow/wow (not sure she knows what they mean - says them randomly)
ouch
uh oh
oh no
poop (heehee, I taught her this one - John isn't impressed;))
please (peeee, usually, but she said the l and s tonight)
cat
duck
Noah (her cousin who lives 2 min away - she says "No-no" or "A-no" - which Nathan (his dad) informed me is Spanish for anus...)

She was trying to say Jesus and fish today, but those have harder sounds for an 18 month old. She'll get there, though. She points at pictures of Jesus and says "happy" all the time! It makes my heart melt. I love it. Then we ask her if Jesus makes her happy and she says "yeah." Sooo cute! Recently, John's been changing all her diapers when he's home (isn't he sweet?!) and I frequently hear her saying "Ommy happy" while he's changing her. He then asks her, "does Mommy make you happy?" and she says "yeah." What a sweetheart!

She pretty much tries to say anything we say, especially if we ask her if she can say it. She speaks a lot of gibberish, too. And she loves pretending to talk into a "phone" (or remote control LOL).

When we look at pictures, she knows who is who. Tonight, we looked at some pictures we took of her playing with her cousin Noah. I pointed at Noah and asked her who it was, and she said either "No-no" or "A-no" (she did both tonight - it's random which she'll say for him). Then I pointed at her and asked who it was and she said "Emma." She knows all her body parts and she can differentiate between Mommy's nose, Emma's nose, and Daddy's nose, etc. Oh, and she steals noses now, too. She also gives high 5's and can do the knuckles thing afterwards as well.

Emma loves to give us hugs and kisses, too. She usually will do so when asked. She recently started making the "mmmmm" sound when she kisses us!! It's so cute! She will also kiss our owies. She kissed my ugly bruise tonight. It doesn't hurt, but she was pointing at it and we asked if she could kiss it better. She likes when we kiss her owies "better," too. Hey, it helped calm her down after her shot last week - why not, right?

Emma also knows a bunch of signs. Here's a list:

light
kitty
fish
dog
bird
please
thank you
more
rain
outside
all done
candy (she signs this for popsicles and fruit snacks too LOL)
cookie
cracker
wind
love
hat

The last few days or so, she says and signs please simultaneously. It's SO cute! I love it!

One of Emma's absolute FAVORITE activities is coloring. She loooooves to color. She'll lay on the floor with her crayons and paper for hours. Looks like we've got a little artist in the making! Maybe my sister will teach her a trick or 2 in a few years;)

Emma also loves to watch things on TV. I have mixed feelings about this. It's really convenient when I'm dealing with morning sickness and don't the energy to entertain her. However, she's been watching more than I think she should, and she asks for it first thing every single day. But how can I say no when I'm sick and can't take her out to play? Her favorite things to watch are Sesame Street and VeggieTales. Mostly VeggieTales these days. She LOVES the silly songs. She "sings" along and knows which parts they do or sing certain things. She says "oh no" when they do, or "happy" when they do, or oo's and ah's in all the right spots. She also really likes the VeggieTales movie The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. So, if you're interested in giving Emma a gift, VeggieTales or Elmo stuff is always good. Just check with me to make sure it's something we don't already have;) She also will watch the Garfield movies. She LOVES cats. Well, animals in general, really, but I think cats are her favorite so far (must take after Mommy;)). She also watches various videos we get from the library. We just checked out The Lion King today and I really think she'll like that one. My family has it on DVD AND VHS, so maybe they'd be willing to give up the VHS one...I know there's absolutely no chance my sister would let Emma have the DVD...but she'd probably not care about the VHS. We'll see if she takes to that one first. She wasn't intersted in Mulan, Robin Hood, or Sleeping Beauty, but I think she's a bit young to find those appealing.

Hm, what else? Oh! Emma is now in nursery at church! And she loves it! We have absolutely no problem with it. I know some kids have a hard time adjusting, but somehow we managed to luck out and get a kid who is super easy going about it. I think it helps that she doesn't see us leave LOL. Her first week there was a short week. Nursery was only about half an hour. I stayed with her, just to see how she did. But the next week, we tried dropping her off and it went great. I was on my way to pick her up after class and only then was she having a hard time and one of the nursery leaders was bringing her out to us as I was on my way to get her. I stayed home this week because of my awful headache/migraine and nausea, but John and Emma went and he said she was absolutely perfect the whole time she was in nursery. Wow. How did we get so lucky? We seriously have the most amazing, wonderful, adorable, cute, and lovable child ever! Not that I'm biased;) The only difficulty with nursery is that it falls during naptime. For all the kids, really. Gotta love the 1-4 block with nursery first...I used to think that was the best time for church. Now I have a toddler...

So, for a long time, Emma was not so interested in dirt. She freaked out when she fell down and got her hands dirty. Well, apparently our camping trip a couple weeks ago cured her of that because now she loves mud puddles. She sat in a puddle today, in fact. When John took her to the library and they were putting their library goodies in the car. With all the rain we've had lately, there are more puddles than usual around here. We've had quite a bit of rain for this area at this time of year. Back home, this rain would be nothing - but, again, that's Seattle for you;)

As for Emma's eating habits, she's finally warming up to fruits and meat again. It's funny; she loved the baby food fruits, but when she started eating actual fruit, she wasn't impressed. I think it was a texture thing. The only fruit we could get her to eat was bananas. But now I can get her to eat peaches and sometimes apples (ironic, since she loves to SAY apple, knows what they are, but rarely eats them). As for meat, she'll eat deli meat and hot dogs. She'll put chunks of chicken or ground beef in her mouth, but then spit them out a minute later. But she looooves her dairy; especially yogurt and cheese. And she loves graham crackers. She's kind of picky about bread sometimes. She likes bagels with cream cheese, too. And she loves her veggies. I think carrots are still her favorite. I had some canteloupe a few days back and she acted like she wanted some, but she spit it out right away. I really think it's a texture thing. She'll get over it eventually. And of course, she loves junk food, but we try to keep that limited. It's hard these days, though, since junk food is what I can eat. She used to freak out over popsicles, but now she'll take half a twin pop and eat the whole thing by herself. I try to avoid eating them around her, because I know she'll want one, but it isn't always possible.

Oh, and funny story! Last week, we were over at Nathan and Jessica's with some friends for Sunday dinner. Nathan had left a full cup of cherry koolaid on the edge of the table. Emma saw it, wanted it, and reached up to grab it...I saw her grab it and exclaimed just in time for everyone to turn around and watch her dump a whole cup of RED koolaid all over herself! We were all laughing hysterically!! Well, everyone but Emma - she wasn't impressed. Of course, she'd already had a blow out diaper over there (why does she do that when we're at their house?!? I don't get it.), so she was already in her spare outfit. We had to borrow Noah's clothes LOL. So she was dressed like a little boy for the rest of the night. Which reminds me, I washed them (she wiped boogers on the shirt) and need to give them back. Oh, and the koolaid came out of her clothes perfectly - you can't even tell she spilled anything on them. Yay! I love Spray 'N Wash.

Aaanyway, I'm sure there's much more to say about Emma, but this entry is extremely long already. Time to go! I think I need to eat again.