18 weeks

Since I've put a few new posts on the blog recently you can probably guess that I'm starting to feel better finally. I'm definitely not 100%, but far better than I was a couple months ago. I've got quite a bit more energy and eating has gotten a lot easier too. I'm 18 weeks now...almost halfway to the end! We have our big ultrasound on Monday morning and we're hoping to find out whether we're having a boy or a girl. This will be a level 2 ultrasound, which means it shows more detail. My clinic doesn't routinely do level 2 ultrasounds, but because of the birth defects that Clara had they want to look at this baby more closely. We'll be sure to post results of the ultrasound later on Monday.

Hidden treasure

Clara started walking about two weeks ago. Now she cruises all over our little apartment, exploring all the nooks and crannies, crumbs and fuzzes, cords, cupboards, books, appliances....anything she can possibly reach.



This morning I pulled out my mixing bowls to make up a batch of pancakes and I found this...

The picture turned out a little bright, but that's a pacifier in there. She loves to open this cupboard multiple times a day, but I didn't realize that she had decided it would make a good hiding spot for her treasures. It made me smile!

Big game!

Before the big game:

After the big game:

Well, we don't actually have an "after" picture. When the game ended, Clara was sound asleep in her bed and Jeremy was not a happy camper. Who wants a picture of that? Better luck next time, Packers!

It's been a long time since I've posted much here. Sadly I can't seem to find our camera so this post will be without pictures, but nevertheless I thought an update might be nice.

The past two months have been quite challenging for us since I was hit with all day, every day "morning sickness." I don't know why they call it that when it lasts all day. We've definitely been living in survival mode, meaning I wasn't cooking, cleaning or running any errands. My family has helped us a TON (I would not have survived without them!) and Jeremy has picked up a lot of my slack. Thankfully things are starting to turn around and I'm able to contribute more to the household operations now. I'm not yet feeling as well as I would like, but way better than two months ago.

As for the baby, as far as we can tell everything is great with him/her! I'm almost 16 weeks now so I expect to start feeling this little one moving soon. I felt Clara at 18 weeks, which is right around the corner. Because of Clara's birth defects we will be having a level 2 ultrasound this time so we can check out this baby more closely. As far as we know this baby doesn't have any higher chance of a birth defect like Clara's, but they want to check him/her out more closely just to be sure. That appointment is scheduled for October 12th and we do plan to find out the gender again. I'm too impatient to wait until Spring!

Clara is almost 11 months old now, which I can hardly believe. She is walking all over the apartment holding onto furniture and getting into everything! We expect her to be walking on her own by the time her birthday rolls around. She's getting closer every day it seems. She has eight teeth, and judging by the amount of finger chewing that has been happening for the past several weeks, more teeth are coming soon. She loves to dance to music and wrestle with her daddy. Recently she has become more snuggly, which I love. She'll come up to me and give me a hug, or snuggle her stuffed animals, and one of my favorites is when she lays on a pillow and says "ohhhhhh." So cute! She seems to learn something new every day. We are definitely loving being her parents.

As for the house that we mentioned several months ago, that has been a rollercoaster in and of itself! It's way too long of a story for me to tell here, not to mention I probably wouldn't remember most of it anyway, but the good news is we expect to be closing sometime next week! We are super excited to get in there and start cleaning and painting and getting settled. It's going to be so nice to have more space, and to have a yard and a garage and...oh, I'm so excited! We'll keep you posted on that.

Beyond those things I'm not sure what else to report. With me spending most of the summer feeling sick we didn't get to do many of the fun summer things I had hoped to do this year. And if we do indeed close on the house next week the month of October is going to be crazy busy. I'll try to post some pictures sometime soon, but for now I can't find our camera.

Praying you all are well!

Daddy Daughter Weekend!

Hanging out with Daddy is tiring! It's been a long weekend and there's
so many new things to do that I don't like to slow down to sleep. But
the car got the best of me and out I went.