Hello, Sunset! Here we come!

We had our regularly scheduled ultrasound yesterday afternoon. Things are looking great. Katie and Jimmy came with me to the appointment and it was a lot of fun. Just as we suspected, it's still a girl :) I'm getting very much used to the idea of two girls. I can't wait. We kept asking Katie to look at the screen to see her sister, so she kept saying "baby... sister," over and over and over again. It was very cute and the technician was getting a kick out of it. I know Katie is going to be very bossy, but hopefully the two will get along.

I also had my Mother's Day Spa Experience after the ultrasound. IT WAS AWESOME! I can't wait to go next year. I think my new favorite thing is a facial. It was wonderful. Since I had such a late appointment, I milked my stay until they closed. I was done at 6:45 pm, but stayed until 8:00 pm. It was so peaceful. Then, I got home and the peace quickly faded into incessant nagging, "mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy..."

(I shouldn't sound annoyed because the moment I walked in the door, I heard the most precious voice say, "Mommy! I missed you!" I guess that voice only seems precious when it's not whining or nagging.)

I'm getting my haircut tomorrow morning at 10 am, then we're off to Sunset Beach!!! We'll be there from Saturday, May 24 to Saturday, May 31. Yippee! We'll take lots of pictures.

April Showers Bring May Flowers!

It wasn't all that long ago that I wanted to be pregnant so badly that I found myself so jealous of all my friends who were well into their second and third trimesters. It truly felt like everyone around me was pregnant. I never actually did the math or wrote down many due dates, but it seems that May is a popular month to give birth!

Our friends David and Lise gave birth to Robert Austin Sherlin on Saturday, May 10, 2008 at 10:13 am. He was 7 lbs. and 12 oz. Austin was born by c-section. He has a big sister, Addison, who is about 2 weeks older than Katie. David and Jimmy work together.

My friend Melissa from grad school gave birth to her first child on Sunday, May 18, 2008 at 8:09 pm. Caroline Elizabeth Short was 7 lbs. and 13 oz. Melissa's labor lasted just under 12 hours and Caroline arrived naturally.

Joe and Jamie had their second boy, Grant James Vaughan, on Tuesday, May 20, 2008. He was 8 lbs. and 3 oz. Jamie was induced Monday afternoon, not long after a doctor's appointment; her due date was May 17. Grant has an older brother, Corbin, who will be 3 on Sept. 2, 2008.

The next to arrive will be Sarah and Eric's first child, a boy. Sarah is Jimmy's cousin on his dad's side. Her due date is July 1, but she has been on bed rest since April and as of late is already 4 cm. dialated. She is 34 weeks, and the doctors tell them that since he was able to hold on this long, they should have a much shorter hospital stay than expected if he does come early.

(Joseph Doc David, aka Jed, arrived on Saturday, May 31 (one month early), weighing in at 5 lbs. 14.5 oz.)

Katie and Luke are set to have their second baby, gender unknown, June 15. Kayden is their first boy and he will be 2 on Oct. 22. I used to work with Katie at the Raleigh Chamber.

Creecy and Daniel Johnson are due for their first child, girl, in June. Daniel used to work with Jimmy at the DA's office, but left to run for US Congress. You can check out his campaign website here: http://danieljohnson08.org/.

Kristine and Todd will have their third boy (holy smokes!) around August 28. Sammy and especially Casey are excited to be big brothers (I'm sure). Sammy turned 3 on March 10 and Casey will be 2 on December 30.

The Wilsons are set to have their second girl (holy smokes!) on October 10, which also happens to be Judy and Flip's wedding anniversary. Katie is very excited to be a big sister!!!

(To back track a little, since I started with May babies, Caroline Rae Hitch was born on January 13, 2008, to start the year off right. This was also Katie's second birthday.)

A Very Pleasant Family Weekend.

For the first time in a while, we didn't have anything planned this past weekend. We were so happy to not have to run in a bunch of different directions. However, we still chose to make a few short trips to get outside in the lovely pollen filled weather.

On Saturday morning, we decided to go to the Smithfield Outlets to do a little maternity, golf, and beach shopping. I have to say that I am still 100% impressed with my husband and daughter. Their behavior during the long, grueling pick out and try on session at Motherhood was phenomenal. I am really so happy with how helpful and patient Jimmy was with me and Katie the entire time we were in that pack-everything-into-the-smallest-space store. The dressing rooms were pretty huge and had toys in them, so Jimmy and Katie lounged and played while I tried on almost everything in the store. It was lovely that they could be in the dressing room with me because trying on a maternity bathing suit is pretty traumatic. I needed all the support I could get. The visit was relatively successful, even though I'm still not 100% happy with my growing shape, which is much larger at this point than I was at the same point while pregnant with Katie. The things we do for love!

On Sunday, we headed downtown to Artsplosure. This is an outdoor exposition for artists to sell and display their work. They do a great job making this event kid friendly with activities and music for kids. The weather was great, minus the wind that stirred up the pollen causing both Jimmy and I to sneeze uncontrollably all afternoon. It was still pretty fun though.

After we left downtown, we decided to head to the Farmer's Market. We picked up some lovely tomatoes who later became part of the most satisfying BLT sandwiches ever! As we walked up and down the aisles, Katie tasted every free strawberry available. She would shout "BERRY," so the nice ladies would offer her one. Of course, we couldn't pretend like she hadn't already had one at a previous stand because she was wearing bright red juice all over her face. She loves her strawberries, probably because I ate a million of them while pregnant with her.

We almost picked up some berries at the Farmer's Market, but ended up stopping at a local farm (Porter Farms & Nursery) near our house for those. We love this little farm stand. The people are so friendly AND they sell very scrumptious homemade ice cream and lemonade. Katie loves the bucket that the strawberries come in and has been pretending to cook with it all day today.

Even though we came home exhausted, I think I've transitioned into that nesting phase, so I'm loaded with energy. This week, you know, before we leave for a week's vacation, I am gutting our house to make room for Katie's sister :)

Dancing!

Dancing to the closing credits of MADAGASCAR. Poor Caroline is in the background saying, "Hey, I wanna dance too! Get me outta this thing!!!" (Don't worry, I did get her out, but I couldn't video tape her dancing while I was holding her.)

Maybe I can handle two...

Yesterday was a pretty good day with two girls (Katie and Caroline). For some reason, I must have timed everything right and both girls actually slept AT THE SAME TIME from 2:30pm to 5:00pm. It was perfect. I was worried in the beginning because Katie was super whiny in the morning. There was confusion about whether or not I was going to drive Jimmy to work. I said to Katie, "Do you want to go bye-bye in the car?" But, when we decided that Jimmy would drive himself, Katie was upset and wouldn't stop saying, "Go, car. Bye-bye..." I was forced to come up with an activity in which we needed to use the car. After I fed the girls, I got Katie dressed and we headed to Planet Child in Cary. I was amazed at how well Katie played this time. She is getting so much better with other kids, as well as with playing by herself in one place for longer than 2 seconds. We stayed longer than I think we have in the past, maybe 2-1/2 hours or so. Katie didn't want to leave and even though it took some coaxing to get her out of there, she did finally come willingly. The girls had lunch at home, then off to bed. I even caught an hour nap. I actually felt refreshed for once. I even made dinner! Of course, when Jimmy got home he made a bunch of side dishes, so I can't take all the credit. At the end of the day, I started thinking, "Hmm, maybe I can handle two," but I guess before I can claim that this kind of day will need to become routine. I'll let you know.

Katie, Katie, Katie!

I can't quite get over how quickly time is flying by us. Even though it wasn't all that long ago, it's getting hard to remember without looking at pictures or videos how small and helpless Katie used to be. She used to sleep all the time. I could run errands, have lunch with friends, and even catch a great nap in the afternoon all while sleeping beauty had her eyes closed. It didn't take us long to learn how two short years make a whole world of difference for these growing wonders.

Katie has the silliest personality that I've ever seen. I love to sit back and watch her pretend one strange thing after another. Lately, my most favorite thing to watch is how she can fill a cup/bowl/whatever she can get her hands on of pretend liquid from some pretend dispenser in the sky. She walks around the house doing this all day. After it's full, I'm forced to sit there and drink this pretend beverage that is clearly too hot to drink as it scalds both our mouths. But, all is takes is for Katie to blow (spit) in my cup, then in hers, and all is right with the world again.

Aside from all her pretend activities that occupy her time, Katie is cracking us up daily with the things she has learned to say. It's kind of fun how she'll repeat what we ask her to say. Of course, it's funny to us now, but we'll be kicking ourselves shortly when she repeats it at inappropriate times. My favorite is from the other day when we were outside watering the trees and she was running around in her bathing suit (baby soup, as she likes to call it). Her bottoms were sagging awfully low, so I put my hand on her tushie to check for number one or two. I said, "C'mon, Katie. We have to go inside and change your load." Katie quickly followed me toward the house saying, "Oh-no! Load!"

She likes to say "Oh-no!" to everything. It started with "Oh-no, moon." We couldn't quite figure that one out. This craze has blossomed into "Oh-no, sunshine. Oh-no, broken. Oh-no, boo-boo. Oh-no, rock. Oh-no, mess. Oh-no, ants." And so on and so on.

We've taught her to say, "What's up, dude?" "Awesome, (dude)." "Boobies." "Yucky." "Gross." "Thank you" is now "Thanks." She refers to both "Poo-poo" and "Pee-pee" as "Poot."

She loves Tom and Jerry, Mickey Mouse, and Curious George. Lately, she's been kind of interested in the Wiggles, but mainly because she has also become a huge fan of dancing. On Monday and Tuesday nights, when she's good and gets to stay up later, she is all about Dancing with the Stars! She will make me get up off the couch to dance with her every time.

Her favorite movies are Finding Nemo, Curious George, Cars, 101 Dalmatians, The Little Mermaid, and as of late, Madagascar.

She's getting much better about brushing her teeth. We still have issues with thoroughness, but at least she is actually doing more of a brushing motion instead of just sucking on the toothbrush.

Katie is silly all the time. She's starting to learn the mechanics of Hide-n-Seek, although she's got a ways to go. She loves when we scare her, too. All you have to do is jump out from behind a corner and she will scream at the top of he lungs in glee, then run away so you can do it again. She is nosy and inquisitive; she would find the time to speak to everyone at the park if she could.

Sometimes I can't believe how fast she is growing. Other times I can't wait to see what she'll do next. I'm so excited to see how she'll react to a sibling who never leaves, unlike her newest best friend, Caroline who has to go home everyday. I imagine we'll have our fair share of trials, but my guess is that they'll be fast friends who look out for one another... in addition to getting each other into lots and lots of trouble!

It takes a little girl to make a father...

So, I can't stop thinking about two (2) little girls. What will they be like as they grow? How will they bond?

I am an only child. As life goes on, there are so many things I have learned from being "alone". I think I gained a tremendous amount of resolve and self determination from having to go through some things without a constant companion. Still...

Katie will always have a sister. A little sister she will hopefully look out for as they grow. Obviously, there will be jealousies. I'm sure there will be hair pulling, screeching and name calling. At the end of the day, I'll probably have to step in and sort it all out more than I'd like. But I hope that as boys come and go, as mean pre-teens pass snarky rumors and hateful comments in crowded hallways, that these two girls will be there for each other.

I love Katie's goofy inquisitiveness. She's a total ham. I just know I will love to be an observer as these two little ladies egg each other on... What will this new girl be like? Will she be shy? Will she be more independent? Will she follow Katie everywhere she goes?

I have a hard time not following this train of thought out ten, even fifteen years. Karla always gets frustrated that I seem so jaded about humanity at times. It's hard when you deal with people at their lowest, ugliest, meanest moments for a living. It's hard to see girls who constantly go back to the no-good, high-school dropout convicted felons who beat them. It's hard to see those girls commit crime to support their illegitimate children when the father inevitably goes to prison. It's hard to see those girls use their own babies as tools at probation revocation hearings, thinking a judge will have sympathy and not send them to jail because they brought a poor, innocent child with them to the ugliest of places, criminal court.

I hope that, as time goes on, the catastrophes my two girls experience remain minor in comparison to the brutal reality I see daily. I hope my girls are there to hold each other up amid the moral minefield that is modern America (even here in bucolic NC). I remember how much pressure Karla and I, and many of our peers, placed on ourselves to achieve certain goals, and how, in the perspective of what I see so often, that pressure seems so excessive in hindsight!
I hope my girls are happy, that they pursue their dreams, and that they dream as big as they dare. I hope they can provide for each other the support they will need as Karla and I periodically go crazy trying to guide this ship.

Just like everything else in life, though (as Karla always tells me), I have to take it day by day. That means we'll have to live smile by smile, scraped knee by scraped knee, and have faith. One thing we know for sure...they won't have to go it alone. Come to think of it, neither will we...

Mother's Day

My Mother's Day started out great. I got to sleep in a bit while Jimmy made breakfast and he and Judy looked after Katie. The food was wonderful. It was a quiet morning until the nausea set in. It came from no where, but I now believe it's because I took my prenatal vitamin too soon and didn't let the food settle on my stomach. Anyway, that wonderful breakfast came right back up. Sorry Jimmy!

Judy got me a lovely basket of flowers for Mother's Day, Katie got me a snow cone maker, and Jimmy got me a spa package at The Umstead. I seriously can't wait for that! I get a mother-to-be massage and a European facial. AWESOME! So, on May 22nd we'll go to our doctor's appointment at 2pm to have another ultrasound and check-up, then Jimmy will take the rest of the day off of work and watch Katie while I get pampered! YIPPEE!

After presents, we all ended up going to the Carolina Kid's Expo at the Jim Graham Building at the NC State Fairgrounds. It is exactly what it sounds like, but I must have had a brain fart because I just thought it would be fun playtime for kids. There were activities for the kids, and they also had swing sets and such for kids to test out, but it wasn't exactly what I had expected. I did get to test out a Moby Baby Wrap carrier that I've been curious about, so that was neat. It wasn't a total waste. We signed up for a few raffles (Judy, did you win anything yet?) I think Katie had a decent time, and she got to hug some strange person in a bunny costume. So, all-in-all, it was a nice day.

Landscaping

We recently hired a company to help revitalize our enormous backyard (http://www.justrees.biz/). Even though we have two more large beds to plant near the screened porch and deck, we are so happy with the layout of the new trees. We think they'll provide some decent privacy from our three neighbors' play sets, houses, fences, etc. once they mature. It's just so nice that we can see them from inside the house and from the road when driving up to the house. Additionally, we're hoping the Birch and the Trident Maple will provide shade to the back of the house, which gets direct sunlight in the afternoon. It might help on our cooling bills, but we'll see. Make sure you click on the flickr.com link to the left of this post to view all 6 pictures of the backyard.

Sisters. Sisters. There were never such devoted sisters.

We recently had a stage two ultrasound because of our abnormal AFP screen results. This news of abnormal numbers sent me into a frantic whirlwind of emotions. I was so angry with myself for taking the test to begin with. I know there are so many false positives, why would I risk such unnecessary stress to myself or the baby? It was a last minute decision. I took the test when I was pregnant with Katie, so why not take it again with this one? Lesson learned.

The genetic counselor explained everything quite well. Basically, my risk of having a kid with Down Syndrome is about 1/650 just based on age alone. The statistic changed after adding my age risk to my blood work, which left me with a risk of 1/270. In the AFP screen, they look for 4 protein levels, two of which need to be above 1.0 and two of which need to be below 1.0 (alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), beta human chorionic gonadotropin (beta-hCG), a type of estrogen (unconjugated estriol, or uE3), and the level of hormone inhibin A. In my case, I think the level of inhibin was what sent up the red flag and triggered the call. Basically, they had ruled out the spina bifida and omphalocele (where the intestines stick out through the belly wall) based on my numbers, but were concerned with Downs (trisomy 21).

The ultrasound technician was young and nice, but uninformed as to our reason for being there. We clearly stated our wishes of not wanting to know the gender of the baby, if it could be avoided, until we left the office so that I could recover emotionally from this unnerving experience. We asked her to write down the gender on a piece of paper and allow us to view it after we left the office. I thought I was clear in my request.

The tech told us she didn't see any of those genetic markers associated with Downs kids on the ultrasound, so our risk was lowered by half. This was such a blessing, but it didn't change my desire to wait for gender results until after our visit ended. The doctor came into the room and took a look for himself on the ultrasound. He abruptly revealed the gender to us sending a wave of shock and disbelief to us both. My request wasn't honored, so it took me most of the day to stop crying...

We joked about wanting a boy, but the two of us have always said that we just want a healthy, happy baby, regardless. I know everyone says that, but obviously after the AFP results, it meant a lot more to us than gender. I've always said that I wanted Katie to have a sister someday. Sisters are spectacular, I should know, I have two of the best in the world. We're pleased and proud to bring another girl into the Wilson mix. But, poor Jimmy! That's a lot of estrogen!