18 months...can you believe it?

I know that I can't. I have been looking at her in amazement thinking where did the time go?

But yesterday we went to her 18 month check up. She is doing very well, except she really wants nothing to do with laying on the exam table. The moment I set her down on it she starts crying...and my heart just breaks.

But she is now 33 inches tall (90 percentile) and 23.11 pds. (50 percentile). And I did clarify, and that means she is taller than average but she is average weight. I am pretty sure that means she is a typical Nicoll--tall and lanky. :)

Crazy Times

Ahh--this is the toothless grin that I am sure is going to get me in lots of trouble as Danica gets older. I just look at it and think who could say no to someone so beautiful...certainly not mommy. At least not yet. I have been told by a few friends with children that it gets easier to say no when they are older. We shall see.

**on a side note--how long does it usually take baby's eyes to change colors? Her eyes seem to be staying a very dark blue color and I am wondering if that is the permanent color or if there are changes in our future.

Okay back to the regularly scheduled update...hehe: This little darling has been sick for the past week. She was all stuffed up and her eyes were draining. And she was overall a very crabby girl--which is not like her at all. I could tell she didn't feel well and was in pain.

I took her to the doctor's on Monday. She now weighs 13lbs. 9oz. My baby is not staying little for me at all--but that is another post.

They checked her out--and after cleaning her ears, which she hated by the way, said she would be okay in a couple of days. And gave her eye drops. And so far they were right--her eyes cleared up within 24 hours. And she has been a lot less congested.

But now I am not feeling well. I am pretty sure it is a sinus infection which usually plague me about the same time I am stressed--and I have been stressed a lot lately. So I get to go on antibiotics today too. I guess you could say we are almost two peas in a pod. :)

Shot Through the Heart

At least that is what it felt like while I watched the nurse give Danica her shots today. But now she is immunized against a whole bunch of things.

On the upside she is growing wonderfully. She weighed 11 lbs. 11 oz. and was 23 1/2 inches long.

And now that she is home she seems to be okay--which helps me feel a little less guilty about taking her for her shots.

At least Christmas will be here in a couple of days and then she will have other things to think about. :)

Doctor Update

I was going to take a picture of Danica for everyone to see, but she is asleep and I am relishing her sleeping--so I am not risking waking her up to the flash of a camera. But we have more family pictures scheduled for Wednesday so I will hopefully have more pictures for everyone soon.

But the point of this post is to tell everyone that Danica is growing like a weed. I took her to the doctor and she is already 9lbs and 10oz. She has grown over two pounds since she was born. And everything looks good.

updates

I have learned one very important thing--newborns do not make blogging easy. Its much harder to find time to tell you all what is going on around Danica's schedule--but we are working it out.

I have to say I am very lucky--Corey is very hands-on and helpful. He really tries to make sure that I get as much sleep/rest as possible. And he only complains a little (and usually very jokingly) about having to change diapers. :)

But here are some pictures--the flowers are part of an arrangement that Corey's mom and step-dad sent to us after she was born. They are so beautiful!! And I thought it would be fun to share them (for like 2 seconds while I snapped a picture) with Danica.

We also went to our first doctor's appointment--and Danica passed with flying colors. But I will have a funny story to tell when she is older because the first thing she did was pee all over the exam table--and I am not exaggerating it was almost the entire table. So I guess we all know what she thinks of doctors, offices, and appointments. :)

Doctor's update AKA the Waiting Game is Winding Down

So my doctor's appointment today was--well I would say fun but then you all would know I was lying because honestly when are they fun? So I will say it was encouraging--at least now I am starting to see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and a day that Danica will greet the world. According to my doctor, Danica's day will be Thursday, October 23rd. Corey and I will be going to the hospital on Wednesday night to start the induction, but they don't anticipate her arriving until Thursday.

So hopefully we will have a post full of pictures for everyone by Friday. :)

Doctor's update

After waiting an hour after my scheduled appointment--no I am not a little annoyed with my doctor--I finally got to have my appointment. Anyway, I found out today that I am 1 cm diulated and Danica has started to drop. So any day now--or next week--we could have our baby.

Doctor Update

Really I have so many things to share--and pictures to post of the neat new things I have gotten recently. But I have been so overwhelmingly busy that I haven't been able to keep up. But I did want to share with everyone that I went into the doctor yesterday for my weekly appointment and everything is still good. She is still head down--but still very high. She was so high that he actually did a 2 sec ultrasound to make sure she was still head down because he couldn't tell by touch. Unfortunately two second ultrasounds don't come with pictures :(.

But anyway, she does not seem to be in a huge hurry to join us which is good because she still has two weeks to stay where she is. In two weeks I am sure I will be fully ready for her to come out. :)

And I will post more fun stuff as soon as I have two seconds at home to play with pictures and such.

Doctor Update

I went to the doctor today. Danica is still head down (thank goodness) and still a little high. But overall everything looks good. And her heartbeat is still the most beautiful sound in the world.

In talking to his mom, Corey learned that he and his brother were both 17 days early--yikes that would ruin my plan to get the entire holiday season off. But in talking to my dad, he and I were both late (he was like 20 days late). I am hoping that together these will even out and she will be right on time. Isn't that how these things work?

Hope everyone else is having a day full of fun and exciting news like this. :)

Isn't she lovely...isn't she beautiful

Corey and I went to my ultrasound appointment on Thursday--we would have posted pictures earlier but our scanner was not behaving so Corey had to get it working first.

Danica is very healthy. She is practicing breathing. Her heart, brain, stomache and kidneys all look healthy. And as you can see from this picture her spine looks good too:
The person told us her placenta is in a good location and that her umblical cord looks very healthy as well. She was very thorough which was wonderful.

They took her measurements--she is currently 4 pounds 14 ounces. They expect that she will be between 7 and 8 pounds when she is born. And we could see that she has hair on the ultrasound (this is very exciting for me since I was the baby who didn't have hair until I was like 2 years old). But Danica has so much hair we could see a curl in the ultrasound--unfortunately we didn't get a picture of that.

We also got to see a great view of one of her feet--and we were even able to count her toes. It was so much fun but we didn't get a picture of that. We did get another very cute picture of her profile. Ahh we are in love.

Danica was also a lot more cooperative for this ultrasound--she was looking up instead of at my spine. And this ultrasound person asked our permission to practice using the 3D ultrasound machine since she was new to this office and not quite used to the setup. So we got to get a couple more 3D pictures--and these show that Danica probably has Corey's nose. And that she is the cutest baby we have ever seen.


Corey also got to hear the heartbeat for the first time--and his face lit up. I don't think he was quite expecting it to be as neat as it was.

The only downside was that Danica was full breech--so I wasn't making it up when I said her head was invading my rib cage. She still has a couple of weeks to start moving to a head down position before they really start worrying. But if she doesn't the doctor went over the possiblity of c-section. So we are hoping she is more cooperative and starts moving around.

Be Still My Heart

Okay I had one of the most exciting expereinces of my life today--even better than getting married--I got to hear the baby's heart beat today. So I realize that this post is really boring because it has not pictures--sorry not to the ultrasound part of this event yet. And I have no audio because they don't record these things--they really should. We should all get a burned cd with the sound because it is clearly the most important and thrilling thing I ever heard, but alas we don't. So I have nothing else to share except that I got to hear the most beautiful sound on earth.

And just in case you are wondering, my sinus infection is better. I am at work today. But everyone is laughing at me for carrying around my own box of kleenex. So I am not healed yet. But it is all okay because I heard the baby's heartbeat today.

Bad Shanan

So I went to the doctor today--my second official appointment as a pregnant woman (not including the one I walked out on the doctor because he left me waiting for over an hour--but we don't talk about that one...hehe). And I got scolded--okay scolded may be a little harsh but anyway I got scolded for having lost weight.

This experience constitutes my second--or third--or whichever who can keep track of numbers anyway--weird pregnancy thing. I never thought I would go to the doctor and be told it was bad to be losing weight. Really when does that happen.

Besides--how does it happen. I know any normal person who has eaten my diet--which has consisted of some meals of chips and salsa because that sounded like pure heaven--would not be losing weight.

Anyway--wait for more updates. I am under strict orders to be back in the office in two weeks. And lucky me I get the first appointment of the day (compliments of my wonderful first appointment where I walked out because they left me waiting forever).