Life of Graham

Laughing and playing

Building a wall with pantry stuff at Grandma and Poppa's house

Trying out a birthday present

Leaving the park is no fun and makes for an unhappy boy

What's better than playing with your trucks?

24 Weeks

 

 

At my 24 week everything (baby girl's heart rate, my belly, blood pressure, weight gain, etc.) measured right on track.  Graham came to the appointment with me and enjoyed hearing the baby's heart rate.  He also thanked the doctor for checking his baby sister!  Updates on me: I have been feeling good, but goodness can this girl ever kick!

Yipee, Someone Is Three!!

Happy 3rd birthday to our funny, thoughtful, kind, generous, loving, smart, energetic little boy (and the list of adjectives could on and on and on)!

 

At his 3 year check-up, Graham weighed in at 34.5 pounds and was 38.75 inches tall.  This puts in the 75th percentile for both weight and height.  He was in excellent health and did very well during his appointment.  He didn't even cry when he got his flu shot, just yelled "ooooow!"

Doin' The Robot

Graham really loved Halloween this year!  Last year, he did enjoy going trick-or-treating, but didn't really understand what Halloween was or talk about it much in the days leading up.  This year, he was very excited about trick-or-treating, painting and carving pumpkins, and general Halloween décor.  He was, however, unsure about wearing his costume.  My mom made him a robot costume, but he wasn't willing to try it on.  In the days leading up to Halloween, I really talked up wearing a costume and even had him help me pick out a witch hat to wear as my own costume.  The morning of Halloween we decided to go to story time at the library.  Much to my surprise, Graham quickly agreed to put on his costume and was even disappointed when he didn't have a hat/headpiece for it.  I quickly fashioned something and made a mental note to work on something a little better while he was napping.  Michael was able to make it home from work in time to head out with us this year!  Just like last year, Graham loved seeing people's houses and animals.  We were incredibly proud of how outgoing he was with everyone and how well he remembered to use his manners!

Going to the library!

Halloween Story Time

Dressed warmly to head out

Hitting the houses with Daddy

What A Weekend!

Last weekend, Graham got to spend the night at Cookie and Bompa's house!  He had such a great time.  He went to several parks and a pumpkin festival.  We took Graham to this same festival last year and it was amazing to hear (and see the pictures) of how much he has grown in wanting to participate in the activities offered!

Runnig around at Cookie & Bompa's

Bowling with pumpkins

Rolling around inside the giant ball

Decorating a pumpkin with Cookie

Smiling in the train

Riding the pony

Meanwhile, Michael and I attended a wedding.  One my good friends from college married a wonderful, so we traveled up to Ft. Collins to celebrate!  The ceremony was beautiful and the reception was a lot of fun.  The best part was the delicious food.  The food was Mexican-themed.  The appetizers and buffet were absolutely amazing!  We had such a great time at the wedding and then next morning we went out to breakfast together before picking up Graham and celebrating Cookie and Bompa's 34th anniversary with another delicious dinner!

Wedding celebration

20 Weeks

We are halfway there!  Unbelievable!  I know I've said this before, but there some moments early on where I really doubted we would make it this far, but our little girl is growing away!  I also did a comparison to my belly when I was pregnant with Graham.  It's crazy to me how different I look!

Belly shot!

Let's compare!

Think Pink!

We are having a GIRL!!  You read that correctly, come late February/early March Graham will be getting a baby sister.  We are thrilled to be adding a daughter to our family and surprised that there will be a Pretekin girl (there's not a whole lot of them)!

And now for an update on the pregnancy so far.  I have been feeling good, but experienced a bit of bleeding again around 16 weeks.  My doctor had me come in for an ultrasound just to make sure everything looked okay.  Baby was looking good during the ultrasound, but the tech thought that my placenta appeared to be very low and at my next visit, she would check to see is it had moved down over my cervix causing a condition called placenta previa.  Placenta previa typically means some level of bed rest with very regular doctor visits in order to monitor mama and baby, since the condition can have complications.  The tech also thought that my placenta looked like either it had an accessory lobe (totally normal and does not cause any complications) or could have another tear.  I was told to take it easy and to do as little lifting as possible.  During this visit, the tech also told us that she was fairly certain we were having a girl, but was not 100% sure since it was still early and baby wasn't completely cooperative.  We told our immediate families the news about the baby's sex, but decided not to tell anyone else until we got confirmation a few weeks later.

So on to my next visit.  I am happy to report that everything looked great!  My placenta moved up quite a bit, so I am no longer at risk of developing placenta previa.  The tech was also able to determine that my placenta has an accessory lobe and there are no new bleeds.  Our baby girl looked great, is developing normally, and measuring right on track.  I'm also happy to report that our baby girl is quite the mover!  I didn't feel Graham move until a bit later in the pregnancy due to the location of my placenta (me and the placenta, right??).  Even when I started being able to feel him, he was never really active.  Baby girl sure is!  We are so excited!

Yawning @ approx. 16 weeks

Little face @ approx. 16 weeks

Are those girl parts??? (approx. 16 weeks)

Yup, baby GIRL @ approx. 20 weeks

Little feet @ approx. 20 weeks

Little face @ approx. 20 weeks