Baby Clara update.

Our sweet girl at 34 weeks.

So in my last post regarding baby Clara I talked about how she had been measuring small for a couple of ultrasounds and that my doctor was referring me to a specialist.

Well, yesterday was the big day. I had about an 1 hour ultrasound and then met with my specialist for half an hour and then headed over to my OB for another appointment. 

Crazy day, but we have a plan so that's good.

Right now our baby is in the 11th percentile. Which means she has dropped 3 percentages since my last ultrasound 4 weeks ago. Her tummy is measuring even smaller.

Her current weight is 3 lbs 11 ounces. 

All of her anatomy looks great, she just appears to be very tiny.

The perinatologist said that it is hard to determine why she is so small and what exactly the problem is. He says because I don't smoke, have high blood sugar, drink, ect and because all of her anatomy is normal that he would guess that for some reason my placenta is just not providing quite enough nutrients for the demands of a growing baby.
We talked for a while and then he told me that from here on out he was just going to continue to do a lot of tests throughout the coming weeks until she is born.
When I got to my OB's office. He said he talked quite a while with the perinatologist and that they had come up with weekly schedules based on what they feel would be best for the baby.
He said he was not at all worried and that she most likely is just a tiny little one but that they wanted to watch her and everything else in there closely to make sure she is never under any stress.
If at any time during my ultrasounds/non stress test there are signs of stress, for example the umbilical cord is becoming restricted, her heart rate decreases/increases or any other stress that they would take the baby. And then in 2 weeks I will have another big ultrasound where they measure every part of her and if she hasn't grown enough or has lost weight they will take her.
My doctor is so sweet and really took the time to make sure I understood everything and was always asking if I was handling this okay emotionally.
I told him I was fine, especially since I had been through something similar with Olivia.
(Not quite to this extent though.)
I just told him I really didn't want to carry her to 40 weeks and that if I could skip out on the last couple weeks and have a completely happy baby I would be thrilled. Mostly because I have just been so so sick and am just ready to be done. He just laughed and said, "Ya you won't be making it that far."

So just in case you are curious here is my schedule for next week:
Monday: Ultrasound at 9:15 am
Tuesday: Non Stress test with my OB at 3:00pm
Friday: Non stress test with my OB at 10:45 am and then an ultrasound at 2:00 pm.
It will be a busy week but I feel so blessed to have such good doctors that are really making sure me and the baby receive the best care possible. I'm grateful that Michael just took his last final yesterday so he has officially completed his first year of Law school! And I'm grateful that his internship/classes don't start until June so that he will be here 100% of the time to help. We are praying that she can stay in there just a little longer (preferably 3 more weeks) so that she can come out as healthy as possible. But we know that everything is going to work out fine. And are getting so excited to meet her!

I think it is time to enter my final nesting phase:)
If I could just get myself off the couch!

Just one of those really good days.

 First we got ice cream cones at McDonald's.

It was Olivia's first one.

(She's had more ice cream than I care say but not on a cone for her to eat all by herself!)

She loved it and did amazingly well mess wise:)

 Then we went to feed the ducks.

Olivia loves this.

She especially loves shoving half the bread in her mouth first before throwing the rest to the ducks!

 Her cheeks are a little puffy in this picture.

That's because they are full of bread!

 Belly picture at 33.5 weeks.

 I love these pictures.

The first one is so sweet of Michael tucking her hair behind her ears.

And the second one is just as precious as Olivia is telling him what she wants to do.

 After feeding the ducks we went back to the park by our house.

Michael was trying to teach Olivia how to blow those little dandelion flowers.

She struggled a bit with this and ended up with a mouthful!

  Then they ran up and down the hill a few times:)

 When we got home, we checked the mail and sure enough there was a package just for Olivia.

She was thrilled!

Right when she opened the package she screamed, "oh my gosh my ya po"

I am so mad I didn't get it on video.

But here's just a little taste:)

After dinner and a bath our cute girl sat down to watch "my ya po" with her new soft "my ya po!"

Thank you Mickelsons she loves her new "my ya pos"!

I'm grateful for warm sunny days with my cute husband and baby.

Pregnancy brain post #2.

Remember these stories?

Well I have more.

A few weeks ago when my mom was visiting I decided to make those one brownies that are the best ever!!

I was so excited for my mom and siblings to try them.

After I frosted them I set them on the back burner of the stove to sit until after dinner.

(We don't have a lot of counter space.)

In the meantime, Michael and I got to work on making some yummy pasta.

I turned on the burner to start heating up the water for the noodles and then turned around to start cutting tomatoes. Michael was next to me cutting mushrooms.

(Both our backs were facing the stove.)

When suddenly there was an explosion.

Seriously it sounded like a bomb went off.

Michael and I of course turned around only to see that the glass pan of brownies had completely exploded.

There were brownie chunks and literally a billion pieces of glass everywhere.

And the stove was on fire.

It took me a minute or so to respond because I seriously could not believe what had happened.

But we put out the fire and spent the next half hour cleaning up the brownies.

I almost cried because I was so sad about the brownies. I tried to save a few chunks until I realized that they were covered in glass and smelt like a burning fire.

Luckily no one else was in the kitchen, and neither Michael or I were hurt.

But seriously how in the heck did I turn on the wrong burner?

I honestly remember looking and really trying to focus on turning only the front one on.

That just goes to show you what happens when I focus ha!

So it's a funny story now, especially since I quickly made another batch of brownies:)

(If you ask people that know they won't be surprised at all by this story. I mean I've blown up microwaves and caught so many things on fire it's embarrassing. I'm just thankful that for this particular mishap I can blame it on the pregnancy!)

Ready for #2?!

So one night I sat down to a few cookies and a nice glass of milk.

Michael was in our bedroom studying.

He came out about a half hour later and went to open our pantry.

He found the gallon of milk I had used right on the top shelf.

He of coursed asked why it was there and not in the fridge.

And I honestly had and still have no idea how it got there.

Well I know it was me, I just don't know why I put it there and not in the fridge.

Oh and one more for ya.

Tonight I asked Michael what 150 divided by 3 was.

Thinking that it was going to be a tough one.

When he looked at me and responded with an " uh 3" in like .1 seconds.

I realized what I had just asked.

Just 7 weeks to go and that's saying I carry her to 40 weeks!

My baby loves French!

So obviously Olivia loves the song "Can you feel the love tonight" from Lion King.

She always wants to listen to it and sing it.

One day, Michael thought it would be fun to have her listen to it in a different language.

Spanish to be more specific. He was pretty sure she would like it since she has heard him speak Spanish to her so much.

Well the second they started singing she just looks up at him with this disgusted look on her face and says, "turn off." ha! So Michael tries to talk to her and get her interested but she just keeps telling him to turn it off.

He was a bit disappointed but decided to try it in French. Olivia immediately fell in love. Seriously!

She just sat and listened and now will ONLY listen to the song in French. When we try to turn it on in English she will just say, "no ahtch fratch tan feel ov night" (no watch French can you feel the love tonight.)

So it looks like she will be learning French!

Her great pa would be so proud.

Maybe for her highschool senior trip she can go to France just like her mommy:)

32 weeks.

So, I had a doctor's appointment last Thursday.

I've been going in every 2 weeks now.

My doctor went over the ultrasound results and measured me.

I  guess she has dropped down in size from the 25th percentile to the 15th percentile.

They like to see babies growing at a steady rate even if it is just at the 15th percentile.

So for instance, when she was in the 25th percentile which is borderline small for her age they wanted the next ultrasound to show her in at least the 25th percentile.

Since she has dropped it is a bit concerning just because it means she may not be getting enough nutrients from my placenta to grow.

This can be caused by a number a reasons.

Because I have gained the recommended weight and such it won't really make a difference whether or not I eat 10 extra donuts every day:)

Apparently I just have a not so good placenta.

As with Olivia.

So he referred me to a high risk specialist who I should be meeting with this week.

I will get a high tech ultrasound and then we'll go from there.

My doctor said that if she doesn't start showing some growth they will have to take her.

Which is a little scary now.

Of course with our wonderful medical technology she would be just fine if born now, she would just have to be in the hospital for a few weeks.

My twin sisters were born at 34 weeks and were in the hospital for 10 days.

My goal is to make it to 37 weeks.

That's the week Olivia was born and she was perfectly healthy and was able to stay with me the whole time.

I'm not too worried since I experienced this with Olivia but it will be nice to meet with a specialist that knows exactly what to do.

It's crazy how fast time has gone with this pregnancy.

We are so close to meeting our baby Clara and couldn't be more excited!

I am so ready for her to be here.

I don't want to complain but at the same time I want to remember everything that I've experienced this pregnancy.

Since about 29 weeks things have just gone quickly downhill.

I am more tired that I have honestly ever been in my life.

Every morning I  wake up feeling as if I seriously didn't sleep the night before.

Which is partially true since I wake up about every 2 hours during the night and remain awake for at least 30 minutes before falling back asleep.

I have really bad sciatica pain in my legs and my whole body just aches. Especially now that the baby's head is down putting immense pressure on my pelvic bones.

(Sorry for the graphic details.)

I still wake up every morning and either barf or dry heave. Depending.

Luckily my Zofran relieves most of my nausea unlike during my first 18 weeks.

I really believe I will get more sleep waking up with a newborn every 2-3 hours than I do now.

Just because I will get better sleep.

I'm so thankful for Michael who has been so good to me and so supportive. He is always giving me rubs and getting up with Olivia in the mornings bright and early to feed her breakfast and such before heading to school. He's so helpful with all the daily chores and is always more than willing to play with Olivia. Even though he himself is under immense pressure finishing up his first year of law school and all.

I think we will all be relieved as a family when our sweet girl is born:)

It's definitely been an interesting 7 months.

That being said, I am so grateful for the blessing I have to be pregnant. And for the sweet blessing of our baby Clara.

Even though this pregnancy has been hell (literally) I would go through it all over again if I had to.

So here's to the coming weeks!

Please go by fast!

Waving ba bye ya to dad.

One of the first things Olivia does in the morning is pretend to go to school ("schlool") as she says.

Just like daddy.

She puts on her cute backpack and follows him around until he is ready to go.

He likes to go down and start the car and then come back up to give "last kisses" to us girls.

Olivia is usually waiting for him at the door with her arms wide open and her wet lips right ready to give him at least three smooches.

Olivia always makes sure I get a kiss and hug as well.

 And if Michael pretends to leave without giving me one she gets really mad and says, "da mommy tiss hug" (dad give mommy a kiss and a hug).

She always has this little smile on her face as we do.

Sometimes after Michael leaves she will even call down to him and ask for "a more tiss" (one more kiss). He of course will come right back up.

She then stands at the door waving her little arms while yelling "ba bye ya da" at the top of her lungs as he drives away.

It's really the cutest thing ever.

My Petunia.

My mom found this beauty on sale and was nice enough to get it for me.

I couldn't be more excited!

It's seriously the best diaper bag ever.

I think I'll be able to tackle any adventure with my two girls as long as I have my Petunia!

A special kind of cheese toast.

Sometimes Olivia is a fickle eater.

Well, actually a lot of times.

So we are pretty much willing to do whatever it takes to get her to eat dinner.

Even if that means putting a dollop of whipped cream on her cheese toast.

Disgusting right? 

But she loves it!

Another thing we often have to do is to tell her how all her favorite characters/people love to eat what she is eating.

For example: Santa Clause, Little Mr. Roo and Lumpy from the Heffalump movie, her aunts and uncles and so on.
We will say, "Santa Clause loves (whatever we are eating) so much, do you want to take a big bite like Santa Clause?!" She will get so excited and open her mouth nice and wide and take a bite.

This definitely proves to be effective most of the time!

 Oh the joys of feeding a toddler right?!

Easter.

Happy Easter. 

(Or late Easter.)

We had a very relaxing day, just the three of us.

Of course we had church bright and early. (8:30 am)

But that was just what we needed to help start our day by remembering the true reason we celebrate Easter.

Our beautiful little Olivia.

Of course she wanted to do a silly face picture:)

Oh gosh on me. But as always Olivia is as cute as can be!

Only family shot ha.

As you can tell we struggled.

But here we are!

When we got home Olivia immediately started fussing and throwing fits.

She was very tired.

So Michael and I sort of let her do her thing while we quickly changed out of our Sunday clothes so that we could do her Easter basket.

Well, she of course followed us bawling but stopped right in front of the laundry closet.

Neither of us were paying much attention until she let out a little shriek followed by uncontrollable laughter.

She had found her Easter basket and was so very excited!

Nothing like a basket full of goodies to turn the mood of a toddler around:)

Her favorite thing in her Easter basket was probably the gum.

The cheapest thing in there:)

Although she did love her "my ya po stuff" ha.

That seemed to be the theme of her Easter basket.

Thanks to my mom!

See video below for a glimpse of her going through her Easter basket!

She was very excited about her lollipops.

Don't think I'm a mean mom for not letting her open them right away.

She definitely ate more than enough treats throughout the day:)

I was obviously dead serious about getting her to open her presents on video!

The end is my favorite part.

On her Easter egg hunt.

It was fun this year because she actually seemed to get it.

She was pretty good about finding the eggs all by herself!

I love her hair!

She was so excited to find all the eggs!

Now its time for the fun part.

Emptying out all the yummy treats from the eggs!

It was so fun this year celebrating with just our family.

We are so grateful for our Savior and His sacrifice.

Because of Him we get to be a family forever.

And it definitely can not get better than that!

Easter Eve.

It was a beautiful day so we of course decided to take a walk to the park.

It had been one of those days for me.

The constant nausea and all, but I just couldn't resist taking cute Olivia out into the nice sunshine to play.

Michael was at school but ended up meeting us there a while later.

My baby and me.

I tried and tried to take a picture, but that bright sun was just too much for my pretty blue eyed girl:)

After a lot of playground play and some yummy snacks dad joined us with his basketball.

Olivia absolutely loved playing.

It was dang cute watching her try to shoot and all!
See video below.

After having "sooo much fun" (as Olivia says) we headed to the grocery store to pick up a few things to dye Easter eggs.

I boiled the eggs and got all the dyes ready in their individual glasses and then called Olivia over to begin the fun.

Well, the second she saw all the colors "tas" she burst out bawling. 

 As you all know she has some fear of colors.

Thanks to my good mom effort of freezing colored ice cubes for her to play with during her bath. 

For a refresher click here:)

I'm not going to lie I was really trying not to laugh because it is kind of a funny fear.

But, after some seriously comforting and pep talks about how the colors we were using were not going in her bath, ect  and how coloring eggs is the best thing ever she reluctantly got up to the table to help dad dye.

She was a little reserved at first and did not want to touch anything but quickly got excited and wanted to do it all by herself!

Not sure what she thinks yet:)

She's excited now!

And concentrating so hard on getting that egg out without making a mess:)

This picture is a bit blurry but I love how happy both my loves are.

And here is a little video of our fun!

She did it!

It is so dang fun to have a little person to do fun things with.

She gets excited about the littlest things.

I truly believe there is nothing better than being a mom and a dad.

We're excited for many many more memories to come!

Making the BEST brownies ever! Seriously.

Olivia is such a good little helper.

She loves to put ingredients in the bowl, stir, and sneak her little finger into whatever we are making to get a taste:)

I absolutely love pinterest. 

For many reasons, but mostly because I meal plan every week off it.

I came across this recipe when I had a random craving for brownies and didn't have a mix on hand.

Not wanting to run to the store I searched my dessert board and came across this recipe.

They are called the best brownies ever.

And that is literally the truth.

When I say I could eat the whole pan in one sitting, I'm not even joking.

I will never ever buy another brownie mix again.

So if you are looking for a super easy, absolutely to DIE FOR dessert, make these!

Just like daddy.

This girl is literally a little clone of her daddy.

There are so many faces/mannerisms about her that are exactly his.

I definitely think it's the cutest.

One thing we've noticed is her ability to make silly faces. 

Michael has been making this face at her for quite sometime now and she's gone ahead and decided that she wants to make it too.

I begged Michael to let me take a picture of him making it, but so far I've had no luck.

Luckily, we all know what Michael looks like,  so I think it's safe to assume that Olivia's face looks exactly like his when he does it.

We definitely can't get enough of our silly baby girl!

Cute girl.

We went to Applebees for dinner one night.

Olivia was so excited when they brought her out her very own brownie dessert!

(Love their $1 brownie bites.)

Stay tuned for more posts.

I'm quite behind, but hopefully will get caught up this next week!

A visit from my mom and the 3 littles.

We were lucky enough to have my mom come visit for 5 days a week ago.

It was Michael's spring break and since my mom didn't get to see him at Emerson's farewell she decided she would just make the 14 hour drive up here.

(Crazy if you ask me:))

But I definitely can't complain.

It was so nice to have her here. She is always such a huge help and it definitely is nice to get to sleep in a little bit!

Olivia absolutely loves my mom and always wants her to read to her and put her to bed. And the first thing she does in the morning is call "maaaa" to come get her to cuddle.

I love that.

She was able to bring me up some things I needed from home for the new baby as well as take a bunch of things back to her house that I don't need here.

As you know, I've been in nesting mode for coming up on 3 months and I'm still going strong.

We were able to have a lot fun despite the mass organization that also took place.

We seriously spent an entire day shopping at the Woodburn outlets and Washington Square in Portland. (Mostly H&M, love that store!), went shopping here in Salem for other baby needs, painted a dresser, organized and prepared Olivia's room for another little person, ate delicious food, went on walks to get pop, went to the merry go round, my mom enjoyed a nice golfing round with Michael, played lots of basketball while Olivia played on the playground, watched movies and talked, sometimes in to the night. It was wonderful.

Sometimes I feel like I am so darn good at taking pictures of the going ons in our little family. Other times I seriously want to kick myself for not taking enough pictures. This is one of those times. At least,  I did manage to take a few.

 So we were in the outlet store Janie and Jack freaking out over the stunning clothes for Olivia and Clara.

Meanwhile, Olivia is freaking out by the door begging to go see the Easter bunny.

So we take her outside and go right up to the Easter bunny. 

She just stares not saying anything or smiling.

So I go sit down right next to him while holding her.

She immediately burst out bawling and latched on to me like a little monkey!

I think it's safe to say that she preferred the Easter bunny from inside the store:)

 Shoulder ride from Elizabeth!

The before.

And the after of the lovely dresser!

I still have some decorating to do on top as well as finding some cute knobs to put on.

Waiting to go on the merry go round.

Olivia was a bit skeptical at first but as long as the twins and Harrison were doing it she wanted to!

 I love how she is holding her little token. She wanted to give it to the guy all by herself!

I love this picture even though it is a bit blurry.

This is right as it is starting to move.

She's so very excited!

Totally loving every second of the ride.

Every time she would come around she would look for my mom and I and wave to us all while dying of laughter.

It was the cutest thing to watch.

She loved playing at the park with ma.

It was a little on the cold side and we weren't planning on going so my mom let Olivia wear her sweatshirt ha!

Having so much fun going down the slides!

She looks absolutely adorable in her oversized sweatshirt.

I just want to squish her!

We had such a fun few days and I was definitely sad to see them leave.

Olivia always has such a hard time saying goodbye. Which is sad because she obviously doesn't really understand.

Maybe someday soon we'll move back to Utah:)

It's weird and exciting all at the same to think that next time we see my mom will be when Clara's born!

Which luckily is not too far away:)