Photo of Me at 28 1/2 Weeks

I realized that I hadn't taken any pictures of myself during this pregnancy, so I asked Nancy to take a picture of me tonight.

Good thing I don't look pregnant, huh?

:-)

Actually, I feel pretty good. Huge and uncomfortable, but pretty good otherwise. If I deliver when I delivered Megan, I'm only about eight weeks away. Wow! (I'll try to keep him baking for as long as possible, though.)

Silly Pop Culture!

We found out yesterday that Britney Spears' children, Sean and Jayden, are now attending Megan's daycare (see picture, courtesy of tmz.com). I find this really, really odd. Don't get me wrong: we're having a really good experience at daycare, but if I had Britney's money I'd hire a really great nanny! I'm not really sure why group daycare is something that Britney or her ex, Kevin Federline, want, but okay...

In any case, it's been a little wild outside the daycare fence with paparazzi. But as long as they leave my kid alone (she's not in either kid's class), I'm okay with it.

Can't wait for that Halloween parade at daycare next Friday...will Britney be there with her posse?

I thought I'd seen it all when Ashton Kutcher became the freshman football coach at the school where I work, but this might top it...

New Moves

Well, we're over the strep throat (although Mommy got the stomach bug!), and on to happier things.

Megan loves books. Here she is reading a Sesame Street book that is part of a set that Aunt Missy, Uncle Hans, and Siena gave her.

She's also learning to use a spoon by herself. It's messy, but she's doing well! (Except for when she stabbed herself between her two front teeth with the handle of the spoon--ouch!)

Oh, and she has her front teeth! We're now up to a total of seven teeth. Megan is really getting the hang of biting off pieces of food with her chompers.

New words this week:

Elmo (pronounced "Melmo")

bite

uh-oh

cookie (right now it's just "cook")

It's Different When It's Your Own Child (Warning: Graphic Content!)

When I was pregnant with Megan and would tell people about how I was afraid I'd be grossed out by poop, spit up, and other bodily fluids, everyone said, "it's different when it's your own kid." And I thought, "no way." My mom said that when I was little she would hold my hair back while I was throwing up into the toilet while she did everything she could not to throw up herself. (But I suspect if it had been someone else's kid, she would have thrown up for sure.)

And these people were right. I've changed countless poopy diapers, and they really don't bother me, but I'm slightly grossed out at the thought of cleaning someone else's kid's poopy diapers. I pick Megan's nose regularly, and I joke that it's my favorite hobby because I just can't stand when she has a snotty-looking nose. But I'm totally grossed out by other people picking their noses.

Well, the other night, the true test happened. Megan woke up in the middle of the night, and as soon as I opened her bedroom door, I could smell it. Vomit. Vomit in her hair, on her clothes, on her hands. She'd thrown up in bed and rolled around in it. And this wasn't breast milk or formula--this was real, honest-to-goodness vomit. Her dinner from a few hours before was easily identifiable in all its glory. Oh. My. Gosh. Disgusting. So what did I do? I cleaned her up, washed her sheets, and held her tight. Poor P.C. held her tight too--and was rewarded by Megan throwing up all over him. But did he freak out? No. He just held her and said, "It's okay, baby. You can throw up on Daddy. Daddy's here." Very impressive, I must say.

So, the stomach bug moved on and two days later she had strep throat. She's on the road to recovery now, although she'll stay home again tomorrow. But you know what? I think P.C. and I passed a very big parent test this time around--but we know deep down that we might not be as tough down the road!

In other news...I'm on week 26 of my pregnancy. Sprout seems to be doing okay. Being home with Megan when she's sick definitely makes it tougher, because the more I pick her up to comfort her, the more uncomfortable I feel. But I'm taking it day by day and feeling pretty good.

Megan is cruising like crazy and standing on her own a little bit. She knows lots of words, too--here are the ones I can think of:

ball (of course)

bat (of course)

book

bath

more

all done

mama

daddy

banana

Megan

milk

nose

eye

hi

bye-bye

no

dog

Bert (her stuffed dog)

duck

And, she's discovered that toys are great, but an empty diaper box is just as much fun.

Picture Day

Today is picture day at day care. So, we dressed Megan up in her finest dress for the occasion. I'm sure the dress will be a wreck by the time photos are taken (and can you imagine what their class picture will look like? I'd hate to be that photographer, trying to wrangle all those kids), so I took a few snapshots before we left the house.

Feeling Better

Megan is much, much better today, thankfully! She showed her team spirit by modeling her Ravens onesie...



...and she proved that she is Bubby's great granddaughter by trying raspberries and loving them!

Nice weekend...long week

Megan had a rough night last night. Teething out of control with four teeth coming in. The day before, we sat in the doctor's office for two hours trying to get a good urine sample because she might have another urinary tract infection. And if that's the case, we'll need to consider the source of the infection (structural or just bad luck) and consider the next steps.

(Why might she have another UTI? When the last one cleared up, we did another sample, which came back positive from the lab, so we did another sample just to be sure before we treated her, because she wasn't showing any symptoms. As a side note, do you know how hard it is to get a urine sample from a child who is in diapers? You tape these bags over them and pray some urine goes in! That's why I went to the doctor's office--in the hopes that they'd be able to tape the bag better than I could...)

Yesterday, I called day care to check on her because of the teething, and they told me she had a fever of 100.4 and that I needed to come get her. I called the doctor to see if we should come in, since we were waiting for UTI results and maybe that was the cause of the fever. So, we went to the doctor and...bam, an ear infection! The tubes appear to still be in place, but one of them looks clogged. So, first we need to treat the infection and then we'll reexamine that tube. Whew!

So...teething + ear infection = uncomfortable baby! Poor thing. Hopefully the antibiotic will kick in today and she'll be on the mend!

In other news, I went to the perinatologist last week, and Sprout is getting big. The doctor anticipates he'll be 8 1/2 to 9 pounds if I go to term! But she suspects I'll go early, as I did with Megan (that was three weeks early). As I type this, he's kicking like crazy. Oh, how I love that feeling.