Grayson at 18 Months

Saying: everything. mama, dada, mamaw, mimi, papa, wa-wa (water), layla, go, ball, baball (football), be (bear), babi (paci), tanku (thank-you), no, nose, mou (mouth), boo (book), cou (couch), horse, cow, hot, bath, truck, daw (dog)

Eating: nothing but carbs. he likes eggs, crackers, yogurt, bread and sweets pretty much all the time but everything else (all the healthy stuff) is only a maybe if he feels like trying it. the things he will sometimes tolerate include bananas, lentils, rice, green beans, peas, squash, grilled cheese, peanut butter sandwiches, carrots, mac & cheese, applesauce, and cheese.

Hating: when people leave, potatoes, getting his nose wiped, getting eye drops put in his eyes, the carseat

Dancing: to the King Julian theme song on Netflix, veggietales, or any other music he hears

Reading: Goodnight Gorilla and the slide and see version of Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?

Loving: being outside, Mrs. Sam and especially Mr. Robert, graham crackers, chasing layla, playing chase (or run from mommy), going to "mamaw's" house, music and musical instruments, pushing buttons on anything and everything

Climbing: Couches and chairs

Learning: lots of words, colors, how to follow simple directions (put it back, bring it to mommy), how to push the limits, how to drink out of an open cup (he's actually pretty much a pro now)

*He is now approximately 20 pounds. We haven't had his 18 month appointment yet but they weighed him at his sick visit. He was a little over 20 pounds but he had his clothes and shoes on so I'm guessing it was a little less (hopefully not much).

Morning Out & Update on Bennett

So today I got to have a mommy's day out. I felt a little guilty because Grayson has been fighting a cold and his canines coming through all weekend but Brandon assured me that if he couldn't hang at Mrs. Sam's that he would go pick him up and they would be fine.

Last week I debated whether or not to hurry back to Boone for a workday after an early ultrasound this morning in Hickory but after I found out Christi would be in Hickory anyway - I decided to  take the whole day for me. I drove down at the crack of dawn (literally and it was beautiful) listening to the "Find Your Flow" message by Steven Furtick, had my appointment, and now I'm spending some time sitting at Barnes and Nobles blogging, sipping coffee, and maybe reading some of Unbroken and then I'll meet up with Christi and Megan in a little bit! Praise!!

So thank you to my awesome husband. I've told him like five times how much this day means to me. I've been looking forward to it all weekend. But yet I will say it again. The freedom to be here and see friends and sit with no schedule in a coffee shop is a blessing.

So - some updates on Bennett: On Friday I was feeling nervous about today because I hadn't felt Bennett kick yet so I drank some cold water, ate a reeses, and laid down on the couch to the encouragement of my FB mom friends.  Minutes later I was feeling him move! It was awesome and wonderful and I've been noticing it more and more all weekend. I didn't feel Grayson until about 23 weeks (mostly because of my anterior placenta) so it was so exciting to start to feel Bennett sooner.

And today I got to see him on the big screen again! He looks great! This mommy is so happy. My titers have also gone down to 1:4 which is a relief and an answer to prayers! Keep praying that they stay down throughout this pregnancy! He weighs a whopping 9 oz and was extra wiggly. I absolutely can not wait to see his sweet face in 21 weeks.

Sweet Baby Boy (#2)

I must say that this gender reveal party was the most wonderful celebration I could've asked for. Initially - I didn't really care to have this party. The second we found out it was a boy - I just wanted to go ahead and tell everyone. Partly because I just can't keep a secret for long and I wanted to wrap a Christmas present for our parents the next day. But also partly because almost EVERYONE thought baby was a girl. Brandon had me convinced he was a girl and everyone just couldn't stop talking about how I "needed" a girl because I had a boy and how fun it would be to buy girl clothes and ribbons and bows. Obviously everyone says "as long as it's healthy it doesn't matter the gender" but at the same time - you know that the family would love a girl to spoil and to be quite honest - I had my mind set on having a baby girl as well.  So I kind of just wanted to tell everyone rather than having a big party and then everyone being like "aww. oh well."  I think it took actually having everyone there and screaming and excited over our baby boy for me to really feel excited myself. I don't know why but I kind of felt like I was going to disappoint people by having another boy. Ridiculous, I know. But I'm just trying to be real here.

But our party was nothing but wonderful. All of our favorite people in the same place (minus just a few) and just a really good time of fellowship and fun. I loved that some of our friends didn't know each other until this party but still just sat down and talked and mingled and ate dessert and celebrated our second baby boy. I loved that both sets of our parents were there and G was running around showing everyone his new toys and eating way too many desserts. It really was just so perfect.

So the big reveal? I decided to go with envelopes this time. I just didn't want anything as stressful as cupcakes or something that people could figure out before it was time. I did REALLY good keeping this secret for a week and a half and I didn't want someone peeking and figuring it out before it was time. So I let everyone choose a sealed envelope with their guess on the outside. And I had a few for people that just didn't have a guess. Then we counted down and let everyone rip them open. It was fun seeing the people that were so proud that they were right and the few that couldn't believe that they were wrong. But it was a moment of pure fun. We have the best friends and family. Truly. We are so blessed.

Also - at this party we revealed our son's name. Because again - I just can't wait. We tossed around a couple other names but just kept going back to the first one. Grayson's little brother will be 

Bennett James Hall

Oh, how I can't wait to meet him!

Our Sweet Baby and Isoimmunization

I went for my normal check up on December 22nd and my midwife, Carrington, shared with me that they had found antibodies to the E antigen in my blood. At first I was terrified but Carrington assured me that it was something that could be monitored and that they would go ahead and set up an appointment with a Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist. We also listened to sweet baby's heartbeat and that made me feel a little better.  So they set up an appointment for December 24th. Christmas Eve. And asked if that would be ok. We weren't doing anything until that night and I was eager to know what was going on so we said that we would.

So I took to googling of course. I found several articles and several pregnancy boards that helped me really get an understanding of what I was dealing with. This is what I have learned:

The development of the anti-E antibody in my blood was most likely a result of one of my previous pregnancies (Grayson or the baby I miscarried back in May). It is most likely that Brandon is a carrier of the E antigen and he passed it to one of our babies. When the baby was born - our blood mixed and my blood (since I do not have the E antigen) started producing an antibody to fight off that E antigen. The problem with this pregnancy is that there is a chance that this baby could also have the E antigen (passed from Brandon) and now that my body has produced the anti-E to fight off the E, my red blood cells could break down the baby's red blood cells and cause the baby to become anemic or jaundice. Apparently the anti-E is one of the milder anti-RH antibodies. With proper monitoring, the outcome is usually good.

So, we drove to Hickory on Christmas Eve morning. My appointment was for 10:30. We went in for our scan first (which I wasn't sure if they would do or not) but they did a full anatomy ultrasound and WE FOUND OUT WHAT WE'RE HAVING! (Yes, that was a little Christmas Eve surprise). We then met with the doctor and she said everything looks great right now but that I would come back again in 4 weeks to finish our anatomy scan (since they couldn't quite get pictures of everything at only 15 weeks). They said that I would also continue to get my blood drawn every four weeks to make sure that my titers don't rise. Basically that is the ratio of the amount of anti-E in my blood. Right now my levels are only at 1:8 but if they rise to 1:16 I will be going more frequently for scans and they will start doing Doppler scans of the baby. The doppler scans can show the rate of flow of the blood in the baby and if the blood is flowing too quickly- that indicates anemia. If the baby does show signs of anemia or hydrops, they can do an intrauterine blood transfusion (which is super freaky but also kind of amazing). We are really praying that my titers stay low and that it never becomes a concern. There is also a chance that this baby doesn't even have the E antigen. If that were the case - there would be no reason to even worry because my anti-E would have nothing to fight. But the only way to tell that is an amnio and I would rather avoid that procedure if possible.

So - here we are. I guess I have a lot more appointments in my future. Please pray for our baby. Pray that this baby does not have the E antigen at all, that I will not worry, that my titers will stay low and we will just be able to enjoy being pregnant!

My big gender reveal party is forced to be more of a last minute get-together because there is no way I can wait until late January to spill the beans. So next Saturday (January 3rd) we'll let you know! :)

Pregnancy Symptoms

Even though this is my second (viable) pregnancy - it's sometimes hard to remember the symptoms. Through this whole first trimester I was basically wishing for more obvious symptoms to reassure me that this baby was growing and healthy. I guess they are just more subtle this time. But they're there.

1. Moodiness - the reason Brandon is convinced this is a girl. With Grayson, Brandon was terrified that I would be crazy and mean but I really never felt out of sorts. But with this baby - I have had some moments where even though my rational mind knows that I am being dramatic - my emotions go from 0 to 100 in a hot second. I think I have kept it under control pretty well but there are some times that I come across pretty harsh and I know my patience is very short.

2. Round ligament pain - the random twinges and shocks in my lower stomach that make me feel like I just pulled a muscle. Sometimes it happens when I move to quickly in one direction or another and it happens LOTS of times when I sneeze.  I remember it with G but this time it is more obvious.

3. A little nausea in the evening - but really not bad compared to the first pregnancy. I remember being so nauseous for a solid 2 weeks that I was pretty miserable. This time I kinda wished I was more sick so I'd feel more convinced that I was pregnant and staying pregnant. But luckily I wasn't. Every once in a while dinner would take a back seat and then I'd wake up hungry at midnight. And other times, I felt the need to snack all day at school. But like I said - not too shabby.

4. Exhaustion - a result of pregnancy, being a mom of a 16 month old or being a teacher? I'm not really sure if it's a pregnancy symptom or just a life symptom but I am basically ready for bed at 9:00 every night.

5. Food aversions - coffee is SO good to me on a not-pregnant day but coffee is the biggest turnoff when I'm preggo. It happened with Grayson and it happened again. Although I did enjoy one good Starbucks for Thanksgiving - most of the time I can't imagine drinking the stuff. Weird, huh? I'm hoping this will go away soon and I can continue to drink seasonal decafs! Also - dinner basically never sounds good. I just force myself to eat a little and then wake up at midnight starving. It's an annoying pattern.

6. I'm cold - all the time. I kind of remember this with Grayson. Only because I am normally pretty hot-natured and towards the end I was wishing that I was still having those "cold" problems because I was constantly overheated and swollen. But for now - I am cold. I want lots of layers and thick socks and blankets. I'm not sure if that's truly pregnancy related. But I'm blaming it anyways.

7. Pregnancy brain. Jamie says she's going to write down the dumb things I say this time around. You can ask her about the things that have already come out of my mouth that make no sense. But it's true that my brain is MIA.

Rainbow Baby

On October 6th, Brandon and I went to Charlotte to see All Sons and Daughters. It was a Monday night and we were feeling adventurous going on a school night but we LOVE this group and we both thought it was worth the drive.

On the way we stopped at Chik-Fil-A for dinner.  While we were ordering, we noticed that it was raining if you looked out of the store one way and not raining on the other side. It was pretty crazy but cool.  Then we sat down to eat and we looked out the window and there was a HUGE rainbow across the sky. One of the only complete rainbows I've seen and this one was even a double (although it looks kind of faint in the picture).  As crazy at it sounds - I had read my friend Emily's rainbow baby story here a couple months before and the whole time I couldn't get it out of my head. I had thought that her story was a little too "picture perfect" and that it was kinda cheesy - but here I was praying with all my might that this was my sign.

According to the urban dictionary:
- A "rainbow baby" is a baby that is born following a miscarriage or still birth.
- In the real world, a beautiful and bright rainbow follows a storm and gives hope of things getting better. The rainbow is more appreciated having just experienced the storm in comparison.
- The storm (pregnancy loss) has already happened and nothing can change that experience. Storm-clouds still might be overheard as the family continue to cope with the loss, but something colorful and bright has emerged from the darkness and misery.
**Also - I know that rainbows symbolize a promise from God (even though urban dictionary doesn't have that part)

And here was my rainbow. Two days later, October 8th, I tested and it was positive. Of course I was still nervous and held back my excitement until December 2nd (when I saw my baby on the big screen) but so many times during my two months of waiting - God was reassuring me. Through times of prayer and through times of worship - I kept feeling that this was my rainbow. Although my faith was sometimes weak - God keeps His promises.

Our First Ultrasound

I waited for this day forever. At least it seemed like forever. We found out we were pregnant on October 8th and didn't have our first ultrasound until December 2nd. And I didn't let myself get overly excited until I saw that sweet baby on the screen. Isn't our baby so precious?

I think I took more in on this ultrasound than I did with Grayson. Our technician knew about our loss back in May so I think she took a little more time showing us around our new little human and pointing out the amazing things that you can see at just 12 weeks. We saw the hands, the heartbeat, the eye sockets and we could even see the two hemispheres of the brain! It is amazing to me how detailed and perfectly created our baby is even at only 12 weeks past conception. (Really only 10 if you know how counting pregnancy weeks works).

The other really cool thing she did was to measure our baby's foot.  You could clearly see the bottom of the feet so she measured them and they were an amazing 7 mm long.  Isn't that cool? I immediately wanted to find a ruler to see exactly how sweet and tiny my baby's feet are.

What better way to prove God's almighty power and creativity than through his development of babies in their mother's womb. I love being pregnant because I'm just in awe of how God can design something so incredibly perfect.  That our cells would divide and multiply in just the right way to create a seeing, feeling, speaking, hearing, loving, and understanding person inside of me. We are so blessed.