18 weeks

How far along:  18 weeks
Gender:  We don't know yet, but hopefully we'll know by the end of the month.  I have a feeling it's a boy, but we'll see.
Weight gain:  Only about two pounds so far, which is right where I was last pregnancy at this time.
Maternity clothes:  Most days I can get away with wearing my normal pants with a hair tie to keep the button closed, but by the end of the day I always have to change into comfy pants (sweats/leggings).
Stretch marks: Nope.
Belly button in/out:  In, and I'm predicting it stays that way.  It never popped last time.
Sleep:  Well, I only sleep as long as Lucy does.  She's been sleeping from 8 p.m. to 5/6p.m., but I'm getting up two or three times to pee, sooooo...
Miss anything:  I really miss beer, especially since 'tis the season for parties.  I also miss having energy.
Movement:  I get little nudges here and there, but I have to be in a really quiet environment and usually laying down.  
Cravings:  I've pretty much been craving anything that's bad for me.  With Lucy, it was fruit.  This time, it's donuts, burgers, pizza, etc.  Luckily we have a pretty tight grocery budget, which prevents me from running out and going through drive-throughs.
Queasy or sick:  Thankfully, that ship has sailed!!!  I was feeling really gross for awhile, especially right in the beginning.  We took a trip to Tahoe about two weeks after I found out, but since we weren't telling anyone I had to have a pretty good poker face. The one thing that is still bothering me is leftover food in the fridge and Lucy's poo diapers.  It's a good thing we still have old hospital masks!
Looking forward to:  Feeling more movement.  I still worry a ton about the well-being of our baby, so I remember that last time after I could feel kicks I calmed down a bunch.

Pregnant...on steroids

No, seriously!  
It's not just an expression.  In addition to the fun I wrote about last week, we now get to add a daily steroid pill to my routine.
My high-risk prego doctor to go over some techical stuff, basically a blood test they performed confirmed my condition even more and reinforced my treatment plan.
But now I get steroids!
They are supposed to inhibit the growth of the troublemaking antibody, which cold made my neutropenia better.  The idea is to also lower the number of them that could transfer to the baby.
But here's the kicker.
"Okay, so there are some side effects.  One of them is irritability and another is weight gain," said the doctor.
"Well, I'm already dealing with that, now aren't I," I joked.
The doctor giggled a bit and added sleeplessness and possible gestational diabetes to the roster.
I really hope the diabetes doesn't happen.  I have no problem following the diet, but I don't feel like stabbing my fingers on a daily basis.
The best part was telling Andy about the steroid side effects.  
I could hear slight panic in his voice as he realized I'm going to be pregnant...on steroids. 
Ha.
Buckle up kids.

I hate needles.

But I'm going to have to learn to love tolerate them starting in November up until Baby #2 arrives.
I have to back up just a bit.  I have a condition called neutropenia, which means I've been basically walking around with very little white blood cells in my body for about a year.  Doctors discovered I had it during my sixth month of pregnancy with Lucy when a blood test I had came back showing a dangerously low level of white cells.
Most of the time, as my doctor puts it, neutropenics are "created" during chemotherapy, because chemo tends to kill white blood cells in the process.
Since I'm so special (not) after a bone marrow biopsy (which suuuucked), various other tests and having my blood sent off to the Mayo Clinic, it was discovered that I have an antibody that takes my white blood cells out of commission.  My immunologist described it as police only pulling over all of the white cars on the highway, and ignoring all of the other cells.
There isn't really much they can do to treat me for it, and I'm pretty healthy despite this.  I rarely get sick.  
The problem is, I passed the antibody on to Lucy before she was born, and it not only attacked her white cells, but her platelets, too.  This left her at a high risk for bleeding out, so at two hours old she had one of two platelet transfusions, as well as other medications to help flush the antibody out of her system.
Well, I'm pregnant again, and I still have the lovely antibody hanging out in my system.
In order to prevent Baby #2 from having all of his/her platelets and white blood cells depleted before he/she is born, a treatment plan has been in the works since I let the doctor know I'm pregnant.
There's a medication called intravenous immunoglobulin that will essentially put a shield around the antibodies, preventing them from doing any harm to our unborn child.
Which means I get to go hang out at the infusion clinic at Kaiser once a week, receiving the medication through an IV.
Honestly, I'm thrilled.  Can't you tell?!  I'm accepting visitors, since each treatment is going to be up to four hours long.
I friggin' hate IV's.  I've come to accept blood draws.  But IV's?  Ugh.
There's also a chance that if they have a hard time sticking me each week, I'll get something called a PICC line, which is just a friendly way to saying long friggin' tube that goes from my wrist, snaked up a vein until it gets close to my heart, and stays there for a few weeks.  Dear God, Lucy, just don't rip mommy's PICC line out.
 

We survived the first year!

I know, bad mom!  She turned one a whole month ago.  But we survived!
Stats:  21 pounds, and 28 inches.  That means she tripled her birth weight and grew a whole seven inches in height.

Favorite foods:  eggs, sweet potatoes, avocados, cheese, bananas and pancakes.  She also drinks water like it's going out of style, so she's truly my kid.
Favorite activities:  Looking at books, terrorizing playing with her doggies, going on walks and swimming.
Least favorite activities:  Taking naps and being told no.  She roars when you tell her no.

We had her first birthday party on Sept. 7 at Andy's mom's house, and it was great to see relatives that we don't see very often.  She had her first taste of cupcake and loved it! 

 

It's been an exciting year and we're excited for what the next year brings us, including a little sister or brother for Lucy in March.

Work and weekend

We did something that's rare these days and had our friends over for a get together.  I'm going to rewind a little bit to Friday, though.

While I'm primarily a stay-at-home mom, I pick up work on the side and write articles for newspapers that belong to my old chain.

That means my lovely little assistant gets to come along on jobs.  I was a little apprehensive at first to bring her with me on photo assignments and interviews, but it's actually been really great.

We're building memories together and I'll have fun stories to tell her when she's older, which I love.

This Friday was no exception.

We went to a local retirement home to interview some of the residents and their new pen pals, which are local Girl Scouts.

Since Lucy had been refusing to nap that day, I put her in the baby carrier where I knew she wouldn't fuss.

She was as good as gold as far as not crying, but she did cause a few chuckles.

Imagine trying to take notes and having a rubber monkey shoved in your face.  Lucy loves to share, nothing wrong with that. : )

She got wriggly towards the end, though, and ended up with some pen marks on her arm.

Since we were in the area, we visited daddy at work.

The next day, we had our friends over for a barbecue.  Pre-baby, we used to get together with them weekly, but since Lucy was born we don't get to see them a whole lot so that was nice.

Andy decided to make bacon wrapped hot dogs, which he and the dogs were equally excited about.

 

Girl likes her bargains

Silly mommy.  You've been buying my toys from Target, and I want nothing to do with them.  Like poor little interactive puppy...
But you were smart and went to Ross and I can't get enough of this cube!
I can't wait to take this little bargain hunter yard sale-ing.  Hopefully her love of non-name brand clothes and toys lasts!

Shhhh....

Do you hear that?  
I do.  It's the sound of a baby sleeping, which is no crying!
We decided to try the dreaded CIO (cry it out, as known on message boards) two Sundays ago.  
My darling baby girl started playing me at night.  She'd fall asleep in my arms but wake up the moment I put her in the crib and cry.  So I'd pick her up, rock her to sleep, and then put her in her crib.  And then she'd cry.  Lather, rinse, repeat.
Nothing is harder than hearing your precious cry alone in her crib.  But I realized that that rocking a high school, or college, student to sleep each night is ridic.
I felt like a total jerk leaving her in her crib to cry.  I would plan each night to get all kinds of cleaning done at night while she put herself to sleep, and it took about a week for her to learn to get to sleep without freaking the eff out.  My house should have been spotless.
But hearing her cry for an hour would bring on a sort of attention deficit disorder where I would start projects but not finish them because I just wanted to drop everything and pick her up and snuggle her.
It wasn't until a week in that I realized her third nap of the day was probably what was keeping her from falling asleep on her own.  She just wasn't tired enough to go to sleep.
Once I dropped the third nap, it was like a switch was hit and she'd cry for a second when I put her down and then she'd fall asleep.
Naptime is the next beast we have to conquer.  I will admit this freely:  I still hold my seven-month-old during every nap during the day.  A lot of times we nap together, and it's something I look forward to.
But we agreed that in May we would try to get her to independently nap.  We gave it a go in March, but crying twice a day for an hour made her a different baby.
Hopefully it goes well.  Stay tuned!

She loves Cartman!  I couldn't get both of them to not be blurry.