New this week!

"Shoe"
"Ball"
"Nose"
"Dog" (Sometimes)
Blowing kisses
A cow says, "Moo"
And he can find his belly button -- and yours if you let him!

16 weeks, 6 days

By my calculations, the baby is now the size -- length and weight -- of my iPhone.

First belly pic

So here I am earlier this week, at 15 weeks, 3 days:

I'm afraid I'm already as big as I was four weeks later with Zack!  You can also tell how much more tired I am this time.  Two years and a toddler makes a difference.  Wow.

Storybooks and Daddy's memories

In the last two weeks, Z has suddenly shown an interest in books with plots, not just reference manuals!  First was Go, Dog, Go!, which we read and read and read several times a day.  And this morning, when he woke earlier than either of his parents was really ready, he and I sat in his rocking chair and read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Barnyard Dance (one of my favorites from my babysitting days).  He also wants to sit in our laps when we read -- so sweet!

After Daddy read my last post, he wanted to add two precious memories of Paris:  It was there that Z first started holding his head up on his own.  That meant he could look around, so he also started noticing the world around him.  He was transfixed by the windows at Notre Dame.

(Am I the only person who thinks that Caterpillar glorifies eating disorders?  My mother, who loves the counting in it, hates it when I say that.)

Today, Z "drove" a fire engine at the annual festival at OU's airport.  And when we were at our favorite playground in the afternoon, he ran up to me, unprompted, and gave me a giant hug.  He is happy and loving.  So far, so good.

Zack at 17 months: Updated with even more!

I have done a terrible job of documenting Zack's babyhood.  So I thought I'd record his milestones while I still remember them and record where he is now.

• After trying for months, he finally crawled in January at 8.5 months.  
• He walked independently in July, around 15 months.  Now he runs everywhere.  We're working on holding hands in public; he prefers to be independent.
• He says "cheese," "please," something that sounds like "yes, please," "hi," "uh oh," and "eyes."  "Ay, yi, yi" with a wagging pointer finger means, "I'm hungry.  Feed me now."
• He signs "more," "please," and "all done."
• He started being interested in books early this summer, especially "reference manuals" -- the Priddy and DK books of big colorful pictures and labels.  In the last week or so, he's started to be able to point out the right objects when asked: "Where's the goat?" "Where's the tractor?"
• He loves to look at pictures of vehicles, food, and animals.  Tractors are especially popular.  He says something unintelligible that means, "What is this?" when he points to the pictures.
• His favorite foods are cheese and bananas.  He's a great eater at breakfast and lunch.  Dinner is iffy (especially meat) -- he's tired and sometimes full from all his daytime eating.  
• Although he eats dairy in other forms, he refuses cow's milk.
• He makes a generic animal sound ("grrrrr") for the dog and other animals, but he also knows the dog says, "woof, woof"; sheep/lambs say, "ba ba"; and owls say, "who, who."  He growls when he hears dogs in the neighborhood, and even when he passes pictures of dogs while we're in the car!
• He loves airplanes and stops whatever he is doing when he hears them.  Trains go "choo, choo," which sounds more like "too, too."
• He knows that bunny rabbits go "hop, hop."
• He waves both hi and bye.
• He loves daycare (mostly because of second breakfast) but hates church nursery and babysitters.  
• He's survived his broken arm at birth and two surgeries.  Since his ear tube surgery in January, he's been an entirely different -- and healthier -- kid.
• After refusing to breastfeed for two months, once he finally started, he never showed any interest in weaning.  He switched to daytime formula after the ear tube surgery but continued to nurse morning and night until July.  We only stopped because I couldn't handle the breastfeeding and the pregnancy exhaustion/queasies at the same time.  He still gets rocked to sleep.  (I know, he's spoiled.)
• He naps for 3+ hours on Saturday, recovering from all the fun of daycare.  We often join him.
• He has been to Disneyland twice (in January and May), and went to the beach in August.  He had no fear of the ocean.
• I've lost count of his airplane trips.  This summer alone, he went to Boston, Orange County/Palm Springs, Seattle, and San Diego!
• He loves bathtime and would stay in the cold water for hours if we let him.  Every night, he reads about how Elmo and his friends get clean.
• Most nights, Daddy does bath, and Mama does night-night.  
• After months of calling him "Baby-No-Sleep," he suddenly started sleeping through the night.  I don't remember when!  Maybe it was related to the ear tube surgery?  We also did a little cry-it-out.  He's had a bit of a regression the last few weeks; I wonder if his molars are starting to come in.  But in general, he's a pretty good sleeper.  He goes down between 7 and 8, and gets up between 6 and 8. 
• He's super chatty with us.  And his teachers say he talks at school.  But he's often silent as a church mouse with other people.  Sometimes he won't even crack a smile.
• He loves to laugh, to make us laugh, and to laugh at/with us.
• He has a song in his heart -- we often catch him singing a little tune of unintelligible words.

Low risk

We knew things looked good based on the last ultrasound, but we got reassuring blood work today.  Our risk of Down Syndrome is 1 in 3500, even better than with Zack (1 in 800).  And our chance of the other trisomies is 1 in 2400.  At my age, the normal risk would be 1 in 227 and 1 in 127, so this is thoroughly great news.  I go in for some additional blood work in two weeks, and we'll get those results about the time of the big anatomy ultrasound on Oct. 11.  But so far, things continue to look great!

14 weeks: The healing

Today marks the second trimester!  I already feel like I've been pregnant forever; I hope the next 24-25 weeks go more quickly.  Now that we're back and busy with schoolwork, I suspect they will.

When Zack first arrived, I was still scarred by the infertility, and his traumatic delivery and refusal to breastfeed made it worse.  I felt like my body kept failing.  The OB who delivered Zack said it would be better "next time," because we'd schedule a c-section.  I didn't want a next time -- I wanted a hysterectomy.  The pediatrician said I could, "breastfeed his sister."  I couldn't imagine a sister -- what were the odds, given how hard it was to get Zack????

But now ... it looks like there will be a next time.  I am sure there are other ways to find healing.  Most infertility veterans are not the urban legends who miraculously become pregnant after treatment.  But for me, the dark times are suddenly very far away.  I thought I would carry these visible scars forever.  But right now, the only visible scar is from the c-section, and that one is pretty ordinary.