The Linda Family

I know, I know…I am horrible at updating….I will try to do better.  I blame it on, well..life!  We went to the midwife a few weeks ago and baby was doing well.  Heartbeat sounded good, nothing to report.  This one sure takes after his/her big sister with energy levels.  My goodness!  It’s a good thing the baby is only 12 inches long and 16 ounces at this point, or I’d be loosing sleep already.  I think Ashleigh will have quite the playing partner in a few months.

As for Ashleigh she is still very excited about being a big sister.  Every Wednesday I get my weekly baby update from one of those parenting sites.  It’s usually a bunch of sillyness, but she likes hearing how big baby is, and having something to comepare it to.  This week they told us that baby is 12 inches long, or roughly the size of an ear of corn.  I think that’s a pretty big ear of corn, but at least it gives her a visual to hang on to.  We also learned this week that baby’s taste buds are starting to form.  Ashleigh had a little anatomy lesson about tastebuds and how we all have them and what they do.  She was a little freaked out at first as she heard “taste bugs” instead of “taste buds” but I think we’re all straightened out!

We also have other new and fun stuff going on.  This week I finally forced myself into actually starting a pre-school program with Ash.  It’s something I had planned to do starting about 3 weeks ago.  We have learned about the letter A and the letter B.  She loves the school time.  We learn to write the letters, do some puzzles or flash cards that pertain to the letters, and then some activity sheets and a craft. Craft time is her favorite.  She LOVES gluing and making things.  We’re getting into a good pattern with her learning, and as we learn more we can add more fun activites to the whole day.

Wes is keeping busy with Hopkins, WorldFire, and PassionSpice.  I’ve been working on getting our name out there and preparing the house.  On Tuesday Wes and I are driving to Olean, NY to pick up all of the PassionSpice inventory and bring it back here.  We’re a bit fearful of the sheer volume of merchandise we will have in our home, but we’re excited about having actual physical control over our products and shipments.

I forgot to mention that at the beginning of September Ashleigh headed to CT for a weekend to visit Aunt Beth and Uncle Roy with Nana and cousin Virginia.  She had a blast!  She came home with some fun new clothes, a new game, and a book she loves!  We have read Where Do Balloons Go so many times in the past two weeks that she knows most of the words.  It’s quite frightening how much of a sponge she is.  At least I can be sure that now is the time to teach her good habits and lots of things that will help her through life!

I’m sure we have pictures floating around here somewhere, but I don’t know where right now.  The next update won’t take as long and I’ll find some pictures!

Yesterday was visit #2 to the midwife. It is hard to believe that I’m 13 weeks pregnant as of today! 1/3 of the way through this pregnancy. Wow. Wes couldn’t make it to the appointment, as he had a lot of pressing stuff that needed to be done for work, so Ashleigh and I headed to the visit ourselves. She took a lovely nap while I drove. The problem came when I needed to take my “bag o-tricks”, my purse, her stuffed animal, and her out of the car, walk to the elevator, go down 4 floors, walk across to the next building and all the way down the hall. I was unsuccessful in keeping her asleep. I guess that is good, since the first thing I have to do when I get there is weigh myself…I can’t imagine the midwives would be happy with a 30lb weight gain! I’m actually down 1 lb from my last visit, though I am down a total of 4lbs for the pregnancy. I like how this is working. Belly is growing, baby is growing, I’m loosing. I can only hope and pray this continues. My goal is to have a pregnancy just like our friend Jen. She was 6lbs under her pre-pregnancy weight by 4 weeks post-pardum. What? A girl can dream!

So, back to the midwife. When we got into the room I warned her that Ashleigh would pretend that she didn’t exist. She mthought I was crazy, but I proved to be right. She asked the “normal” questions, how are you feeling? Any movement yet? Contractions? Then it was time for the heartbeat. She assumed this would get Ashleigh talking. I looked over and Ashleigh had a HUGE grin on her face, but she still didn’t say a word. Once she was done there was a call for the midwife from their sponsoring OB practice. She had to take the call and excused herself for a moment. Once the door closed jabber jaws started. She went on and on about the baby and how she was hungry and anything else she had been holding in for the last 10 minutes. When we got home she told Wes all about the baby. How we got to hear the heart and it was LOUD and it was FAST. She was very excited. She must have told Wes about it 3 or 4 times last night.

I have some photos from the past few days, but I need to get them organized and off the camera. I’ll post those later…

Ashleigh woke up this morning and requested a hot dog for breakfast. I’m not sure which one of us is truly pregnant! I tried to talk her into breakfast food, but it wasn’t happening, so off I went to make her a hot dog. After she ate her hot dog, she proceeded to finish my yogurt and ask for more. She had a bowl of yogurt and then decided that she wanted popcorn! After a bowl of popcorn she asked for a slice of the Amish Friendship bread I made last week! Geez. There are days I can barely get the child to eat a sandwich all day, and then days like today where she must be eating for the whole week! What a kid! I was finally able to get some of the videos I’ve taken of Ashleigh off my phone and onto the computer, you’ll find those below. Wes also got our scanner to work, so I do have the ultrasound photos posted as well. Keep in mind that while the machine the Perinatologist has is a higher tech machine than the OB who delivered Ashleigh had, my ultrasound with this little one was a full two weeks before the first ultrasound with Ashleigh, so the baby doesn’t look like a baby at all yet At that point the baby was about the size of a blueberry, as of Wednesday we will be onto the size of a fig. It’s amazing to me how such a tiny little being can cause so many changes in my body! I’m excited for the changes to be more fun changes, more movements, belly growing, and less feeling sick and tired. But, the time will come. Until then I’ll just be happy and thankful that I am carrying a healthy baby. That is the important part.

Enjoy the videos of Ashleigh and the ultrasound photos!

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