Beck & Ellery: February 2011

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

New Room! (and other fun stuff)

We've made the transition from crib to bed! Getting Elle excited about her new room and her big girl bed was the easy part. Getting her to fall asleep in her bed took a little bit longer. I wanted her to embrace this new room and have zero negative associations with it so I overcompensated by lying with her for the first 5 nights until she fell asleep. Big mistake and I knew it. She was so good at putting herself to sleep in her crib and having our same routine in the new room was wishful thinking. I called my go-to-girl, Mallary, for a pep talk. It was just what I needed. So, on the 6th night, after 5 books, a goodnight kiss and 9 attempts (Elle getting up and one of us walking her back and tucking her in) she crashed. She got out of bed 4 times the next day at nap time and ended up only sleeping for 45 min then crawling out of bed and playing quietly in her room. The 7th night started off with a few sad sounding "da-eeee's" but she fell asleep without getting out of bed once and I knew we were making headway. With a new night light, a sticker chart and a lot of praise... We're there! And it was much easier than I had anticipated. Also, I'm happy to say that we're back on track with her 2 hour naps, phew! She is so excited to show everyone who comes over her big girl room, so if you can't make it in person...

Bennett sliding for his first time at the zoo...

Showing her cousin how it's done!...

Cutie Ri Ri...

A beautiful day at Seaport Village...

Up to Rick and Cari's for dinner. (and Christian's dessert! I'm still thinking about it... tart lemon cake with two layers of homemade frosting and fresh berries! Yep, I accepted the leftovers. Yep, I ate them the next day. Yep, I'm pregnant. So nope, no guilt)...

Happy 6th Birthday Claire!! We love you! (Okay, there was a teeny bit of guilt after 3 doughnuts this morning!)

Happy Valentines Day!...

Jordan had V-day off so she got to choose between SeaWorld or the Zoo. SeaWorld it was...

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Our Other Baby Pannier

We have ventured into the 3rd trimester! We're in the home stretch and I'm sure the next few months will fly by. This baby has been extremely good to me however we did have a scare back in early December.

After having our "it's a boy!" ultrasound, the results were sent to my ob's office and I was told no news is good news. So when I received a call from my doctor I felt sick to my stomach and Zach's heart sank. An echogenic focus (basically a bright spot) had shown up on the left ventricle of the baby's heart and I needed to see a high risk specialist and get another ultrasound done. I was told that 9 times out of 10 this is nothing more than a calcium deposit but they can't ignore it. Of course this call came right before I was taking off for Mexico, but being with the girls helped take my mind off of things. Sort of.

The following week, while at the specialists office, we were pulled into the genetic counselors office and were told an echogenic focus is a marker for down syndrome and during the ultrasound they would check for other markers such as arm and neck length. My blood work had come back negative for down syndrome but there's still a 1 in 32,000 chance that he could have it. This soft marker now doubles our chances to 1 in 16,000. She proceeded to tells us that we needed to decide that day whether we want an amniocentesis performed and if so, the chances of miscarriage are 1 in 600. She started to explain that sometimes the puncture hole doesn't always heal itself and the result could be a miscarriage. It was at this point the tears started swelling up in my eyes.

During the ultrasound the technician informed us that our baby's arm lengths looked normal and his neck length was in the 71st percentile. Babies with down syndrome are usually below the 10th. The echogenic focus was so tiny it would take a trained eye to spot it on the screen. So, with all of this information, we opted against the amnio. In one hand we had a 1 in 600 chance of losing Baby P and in the other we had a 1 in 16,000 chance of having a child with down syndrome. If it's meant to be, it will be. The choice was clear to us. We already love this little guy with all we've got and the thought of losing him is unimaginable.

I was going to post a picture of "us" but realized I haven't taken any pictures of the bump lately. Will do.
Instead, here's some pics of Miss Ellery Grace...

She's crazy about trains and trolleys so we hopped aboard and spent the day in Old Town...