The Universe

Today, the universe was laughing at my expense.

After a semi-peaceful morning, I took my time getting to my classroom, only to remember that a student was supposed to make up a test this morning. Totally claiming baby brain on that one.

Then, a few periods later, the contractions started.

They weren't painful, but never eased up and did get a bit worse and closer together.

After teaching my final class, I decided to head home a bit early and relax, hoping that putting my feet up would slow them down a bit.

On the way home, I got a flat tire. On 35E. During rush hour. AAA estimated 45 minutes. It took over an hour. Getting in and then continuing to ride in a tow truck does not make contractions go away, in case you're wondering. In fact, it makes them worse.

Once I got home, I discovered that laying on my side and drinking water didn't slow them down. And since I'll be having a c-section, the on-call nurse told me to head for the hospital.

Anja was very cute in the entire 23 minutes that I got to see her today.

4+ hours of having my contractions monitored by a less than stellar night nurse in labor and delivery, I was finally sent home.

I hadn't eaten anything since my apple and cheese snack at 3pm. Please remember that I am a pregnant woman with insulin dependent gestational diabetes. I was allowed ice chips. Oh, and my IV. Yummy. (PS - the stellar nurse didn't read the notes from the first nurse who actually knew that I had diabetes. Excellent.) I did finally get some Taco Bell on the way home. But that is a story for Dan to tell. Just mention "grain burritos."

Got home around 10:30pm to realize the AV adaptor I need for tomorrow is still at school and the one Dan has is too new for my computer. We figured it out, though. Which is good, because tomorrow morning I have to go defend my dissertation. I'm sure I'll be well rested.

Dear Universe,

I hope you enjoyed your laugh.

Love,

Susi

Anja fix it

Anja has had an eventful few weeks. Mostly funny things - nothing truly monumental. Except for balancing the federal budget. But you know, all in a days work.

She has decided to start potty training again. Mostly at daycare though, unfortunately. We did decide to take full advantage of this round, however, and gave in to the reward system. It sure is incredible how much a package of 90 Sesame Street stickers being put on a purple file folder hanging on the fridge can motivate a 2 year old! But she's slowly improving. Who knows, maybe she'll actually be out of diapers during the day by the time Kif makes his/her appearance!

She also has started trying to help around the house a lot more. Here she is helping Daddy with the dishes. She thoroughly enjoys starting the dishwasher, too.

Besides her usual goofiness, she's started using her vocabulary to make us laugh more. For example, dinner time conversations are always interesting.

Dan: "What's Mommy?"

Anja: "Mommy a girl."

Dan: "What's Daddy?"

Anja: "Daddy a boy."

Dan: "What's Anja?"

Anja: "Anja a silly girl."

She has also started to proclaim her love for various things. Namely her toy train that we keep in the car, hot dish, and Yo Gabba Gabba.

But I think my favorite story from the past few weeks was definitely when she, Dan and Jim were out in the garage. Anja loves to play out there with Daddy and helps him "fix" things - like the tires of the car and rearranging his tools and bolts that he leaves laying around. But this one day, she was out there and picked up a wrench, proclaimed she was going to "fix Daddy" and proceeded to smack him in the head.

Awesome.

Of course, time out occurred and she refused to apologize for over 25 minutes. I finally got out of her and her toddler English that she didn't think she had to apologize because she honestly thought she was fixing Dan.

Love it.

In addition to smacking Dan upside the head with wrenches, Anja also now enjoys poking my belly button and yelling "Poke the baby!" Luckily, Kif doesn't seem to mind. In fact, even with a ton of poking and prodding the other day, stubborn, calm, and apparently sleepy Kif refused to wake up and move during a fetal echocardiogram the other day. S/he wouldn't get off his/her belly. Fetal echo attempt number 2 will be on the 1st. Hopefully Kif will cooperate this time.

And since I've managed to keep the diabetes under control with very little insulin so far, they've actually tentatively scheduled Kif's birthday to be March 16th! Crazy to think that we may already know his/her birthday.

In other news, Uncle Mike was in town for the past week or so for the various Chau birthdays. It was great to be able to spend time with him again. Anja loves playing with him. And bossing him around. I think he enjoys spending time with her, too. And taking bizarre (*Edited for Mike's benefit to add: creepy) pictures.

Due to the number of Chau birthdays in a one week span (3), Anja has now mastered the art of the birthday blow toy.

Thank goodness. I was starting to worry.

And we finally had our first major snowfall. We got nearly a foot and Anja was very excited to go outside and play in it. She kept demanding that Daddy build her a snow man. Once he finished shoveling, he obliged and built a little 2 foot tall snowman for her.

She immediately kicked it over, giggled, and said she was ready to go back inside.

Denver and Kif's Cameo

Last weekend, over MEA, Dan and I took our first (and much needed) trip by ourselves since Anja was born. We spent 2 nights in Denver and stayed at my aunt and uncle's condo in the heart of downtown. We had a fantastic and relaxing time, but were also very excited to return home to see our little lady! Anja spent the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa and thoroughly enjoyed herself and wore herself out. All in all, every one had a great few days, but it was obvious we all missed each other, too. By the way, we are now accepting bids for a full weekend of babysitting for next MEA. Don't wait - the offer will be snatched up soon!

In other news, today was our Level II ultrasound. Everything went incredibly well. I think even the doctor there was amazed. She wasn't our normal doctor since we were referred to the hospital for this ultrasound due to my insulin dependency. Even according to her, Kif and I were both in much better condition than she could've hoped for! That being said, I am looking at having a bunch more tests coming up until Kif is born. The extra ultrasounds and non-stress tests I already knew about. I will also need to have a fetal echocardiogram done (precaution only, probably only once) and biophysical profiles (basically really quick ultrasounds that measure things like amniotic fluid) 2-3 times a week starting a bit later.

In the mean time, we can relax knowing that Kif is a healthy (and obviously cute!) little boy or girl. The tech did confirm that it is one of those two, so that's nice. : ) Kif is measuring right on to the date and has 10 fingers and 10 toes and the same nose that Anja has, apparently.

So, here are a few pics of Kif from today and a short video of the 3D/4D portion of the ultrasound! Way too cool!

Kif's Birthday Update

I had another routine pre-natal appointment today (18 weeks) and found out a few things that I wasn't expecting. First, let me say that things are still looking very good for Kif and that I have felt him/her moving for a few weeks now. (I think Kif's a night owl.) At our first appointment, we were told that Kif would be born 1 week early since it will be a repeat c-section. Turns out, since I've already been started on insulin for the gestational diabetes, I now have what is considered a high risk pregnancy. Awesome. In other words, they're going to keep a close eye on me including regular and frequent ultrasounds, non-stress tests (NSTs), and they'll eventually start me on growth hormones (for Kif, not me, for all you smarty pants folks out there...) to make sure that Kif's lungs and everything are mature when they do the c-section. The hormones are because, if my doctor was a bettin' kind a guy (which he is), they'll be moving up Kif's birthday by a week, possibly two. So now we're looking at the beginning of March instead of mid-March.

On the plus side, if we were to make it to 39 weeks (only one week early and the day from the original plan), Kif would very likely have been born on St Patrick's Day. But I suppose that's still better than the day after...

**Update: Kif decided to make Mommy and Daddy feel better about everything by allowing Daddy to finally feel some kicks tonight! : )

Brother or Sister?

Life has continued to fly by since I stopped writing the Focus Anja blog. We did Anja's 2 yr photos with my talented sister, Jill. I had another doctor appointment where we heard the heartbeat on the Doppler for the first time (already heard/saw it on an ultrasound twice) and learned that I have gestational diabetes again, but Kif is doing great.

Speaking of Kif, today Anja and I were outside, playing with the neighbors.

Me: "Would you like to have a baby sister, or a baby brother?"

Anja: "Hmmmm...(pause)...Nope."

Could be a rough spring.