December Update

We are so excited for Christmas this year! Caroline loves looking at the lights outside and on the tree, and she enjoys all of the Christmas books we have been stockpiling. One day I hope to have enough of them so that we can read a different Christmas book each night in December as we count down to Christmas. (Her favorite right now is Christmas Mice which we received from Martha and family last year... it is also well loved by a couple of Caroline's friends so I had to special order copies for them, too!)

In order to protect the tree from Caroline I wrapped up all of our gifts and stuck them under the tree early. Instead of pulling down ornaments she's busy trying to unwrap the paper on the gifts! By the end of the first day she had pulled off all the fancy gift tags so I had to replace them with sticker tags. I am not even going to bother with bows this year.

This weekend the three of us are going to make and decorate Christmas cookies and if the snow sticks around we hope to get out for a snowshoe (or a hike if it melts). It has been steadily snowing at our house for the last three days; if you drive down the hill though the snow disappears! It's like we have our own little winter climate up here.

Tyler and I have a list of projects we'd like to get done over the break, including getting the wall paper border off the new baby's walls and painting that room. The baby will stay in our room for a long time but as anyone with more than one child knows we won't get much done once there are two babies in the house!

Yesterday I was 16 weeks pregnant - the halfway point in my pregnancy with Caroline. I had a quick ultrasound to measure cervical length (TMI, I know) yesterday and I should know those results at my appointment today. They are going to measure me at 16, 18, and 20 weeks to see if my cervix shortens. If so I might require a cerclage (stitch) to keep it closed until 36 weeks. They have to do the surgery for the cerclage by 20 weeks but they can't start measuring until 16 - so there is a short window to do something if there is a problem. A cerclage also means immediate bed rest for the remainder of my pregnancy so we really don't want that.

Today I also start my P17 (progesterone) shots. These are proven in some cases to reduce the chance of another preterm delivery. It's a nice intramuscular shot in the butt cheek that I will get weekly from 16-36 weeks. I'd love to do them at home but instead I have to go to the office every week... this is why I wanted to be co-managed between Dartmouth and North Country so that I wouldn't need to drive to Hanover every week just for a quick shot.

On January 2 I have 5 different appointments scheduled at Dartmouth. Labs, the BIG ultrasound where we hope to find out the gender, a meeting with a genetic counselor, the MFM appointment and finally, if I want it, an amniocentesis. Tyler is taking the day off work (which stinks because it's the first day back after break) to come with me and watch Caroline throughout the day.

Caroline continues to do well and we couldn't be happier with her! Yesterday I woke up to her at the side of my bed trying to crawl up saying, "Mama, Mama!" I know we are biased as her parents but she is so cute and sweet and curious, man is she curious! She loves playing with her Megablocks these days. Yesterday she went to a friend's house during my appointment and tore apart the Lego creation that his dad had created the night before. She loves getting into the cabinets and drawers and emptying everything in them (child locks are being installed tonight!). Caroline still loves her baths although she's learned that she can stand in the tub and that is no good at all. She's a good sleeper and napper and eater on most days; a few weeks ago she decided she no longer wanted baby food and has been eating real people food ever since. One of her favorites is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich cut into fun shapes (which seals the edges so she can't pull it apart... and it's also cute). She is going to be such a great big sister!

Caroline had just discovered that she has hair! She no longer has to pull her Mommy's!

Dancing

Getting our Christmas tree - looks like Florida!

Lights!

Our gift "barricade"

PBJ

My Aunt Bobbie sent this cute and cozy jacket and my girlfriend Jane sent the skirt and Snowhio sign!

Spaghetti night!

Ready for a bath

Fun with drawers, not so fun for Mama

Hide and Go Seek

Sled ride

Love for Daddy

Cuddles before running inside to the heat!