Baby Miller #2 Update [25 Weeks]

[22 Weeks]

Wait, what did that say? 25 weeks??? Wow, this pregnancy is flying by! I know everyone says your pregnancies after your first go much faster because you're busier, but I think the main reason it's going faster for me is because I'm not wishing the moments away. With Sophie, I didn't have a child yet, and I just couldn't WAIT to meet her. Of course, I can't wait to meet this sweet little girl, but I don't want to wish away the moments I have with Sophie right now because I'm enjoying her too much. And by time this little girl comes, Sophie will almost be TWO! I'm not ready to wish away these months. So I'm just enjoying them for tall they're worth :)

Sickness: I get heartburn every night now, and I get it throughout the day if I eat more than 3 bites too. It kind of stinks, but it could be worse, and I'm holding out hope that it means this baby will have a lot of hair too! I take tums, but it never takes it completely away. I haven't thrown up since around 20 weeks, so it's nice to be staying away from the toilet. I have a lot of energy. I love the second trimester. 

Movement: I still feel kicks all the time, and now I feel movement as well. It's so amazing <3. I learned that the reason I feel this baby so much more than Sophie is because my placenta is in a different spot. So interesting, but it makes sense. Occasionally, all the kicks and movement are uncomfortable, but it's so enjoyable and reassuring to feel this little life inside of me.

Pain: No real pain yet. My back was hurting pretty bad the other day, and I realized it was because I was still sleeping on my belly sometimes. So sadly, I've had to give up the belly sleeping. Sleeping on just my back and side has definitely improved the condition of my back.

Gender: We found out 6 weeks ago that we're having another sweet little girl. We are so excited. I was guessing boy, so I was surprised! It will be so fun for Sophie to have a sister close in age, and it will be nice to be able to use all of Sophie's clothes again.

Weight Gain: I'm up 14 pounds now! I only gained 21 pounds total with Sophie, so I think I'm going to gain more than I did with her. That's fine though, because I started at a lower weight than I did with her. I'm still wearing my regular jeans (no maternity), but I am having to start to unbutton and use my bella band as the buttons are getting uncomfortable. Maternity will still be too big for me though.

Sophie's Development [18 Months]

Sophie has recently learned how to match puzzle pieces with her puzzle (the cow piece goes to the cow picture). It's neat to see her connecting this as in the past she has just tried to randomly throw the puzzle pieces on the puzzle board. This also means we have a new toy to occupy Sophie!

And incase you're wondering about her outfit in the photo above... Sophie was invited to her first birthday party! It was a ballerina birthday party for a three-year old girl, so we dressed Sophie up. She didn't love it when I gave her the buns, but they were a must for a ballerina party.

Sophie ADORES helping her daddy as he works. She likes his tools (she knows that they have buttons, which is fun for her, but she likes the screwdriver and hammer and others tools without buttons too). She also likes to help mommy with cleaning and cooking. Her cooking skills still need a lot of work, however.

Sophie has also recently discovered her love for movies. Ben discovered a few colorful movies with kid songs on youtube, and Sophie is slightly obsessed with a few of them. We monitor her time with watching them, because I really don't want her to watch tv all day, but it's nice that we have this option now as we will be going on a l o n g flight soon! Whenever she wants to watch her videos, she says "bus" because she loves "The Wheels on the Bus" song.

Sophie has also been asking for her pacifier more recently. We would like to wean her from it by time she's 2, so we'll see how that goes. We also would like to potty train (she's gone in the potty about 3 times now) and move her to a big girl bed when we get back from PNG, so that along with having a new baby in February is going to make the beginning of 2013 a bit crazy, I think.

She's also began pointing out who people are a bunch ... like mama and dada. But if you ask her where Sophie is, she points at herself now... so she knows who she is now :) She still can't say her name though.

Loves: books (she loves to have me read to her and especially likes books that we can sing to and "We're Going on a Bear Hunt"), puzzles, dogs, food (especially cheese- which is funny, since I'm allergic), pacifier and blankie, baths, playgrounds, pretending and "helping," grandparents and aunts and uncles, water (in her cup), shoes, hiding

Dislikes: Being dirty or having stuff stuck to her (what kind of 1 year old is she?), having her hair washed in the bath or really having her hair done at all, being "stuck" (which includes having her hands or legs being held or being strapped into things), being dropped off at nursery (but thankfully she does well once I leave)

Sophie Happenings

Lately...

Sophie has worn all of her hair in pigtails. However, we had to redo them 3 times during the day because she moves around too much. So I decided it's really not worth it yet to do pigtails.

Sophie ate a cake pop to learn if she was going to get a little sister or a little brother! To be honest, she didn't care about the sister or brother part. She just wanted as many cake pops as we would let her have.

I heard the fan going in the room that Owen, the boy we babysit, sleeps in. Sophie's not allowed to turn the fan on unless I tell her she can, so I went to investigate... and this is what I found. I just couldn't punish her for this. It was too cute...  (as a side note, she LOVES her Bear and Baby right now... she feeds them, rocks them, takes them on wagon rides, and apparently even puts them to bed now)

And a favorite snack... apples! I love it that she can eat them whole because it saves me time. Yesterday she ate the ENTIRE thing... well, I think she did spit the stem out. Anyways, I'm glad she loves apples, and she's super cute when she eats them.

I'm so thankful for this little girl, and she makes me excited about having another one!

Boy or Girl? Baby #2's Gender Announcement!

Boy or Girl? That is the question!

We learned the gender of our baby yesterday. We went in for our ultrasound in the afternoon, and waited patiently as the u/s tech checked everything else, and then finally asked us if we were wanting to learn the gender. Yes! We wanted to know.

So she checked and was able to tell right away.

And so, it looks like Sophie will be getting a little...

SISTER!!

We're very excited to know what this energetic little baby is! We can't wait to meet you sweet baby girl!

Thanks to Created By Carrie Photography for our wonderful pictures!!

Sophie Photo Blast [17 Months]

Thought it was time to post some new photos of Sophie! She's a pretty cute girl, if I say so myself :)

Baby Miller#2 Update [19 Weeks]

[18 weeks]

I can't believe I'm 19 weeks today! Time seems to be flying with this pregnancy. I thought it would be good to give an update on the pregnancy!

Sickness: I've been feeling mostly better since 13 weeks. I would say that's when the morning sickness officially went away. I have had some random bouts of sickness here and there (threw up twice since then), which didn't happen with Sophie, but I think my stomach is just a little weaker than normal and I have to be careful around gross diapers and stinky food. I've had heartburn a few times already and anticipate the heartburn to be the same as with Sophie. I have far more energy than I did in the first trimester (I was taking naps everyday then and am back to not napping).

Movement: With Sophie, I didn't feel movement until 21 weeks, and at that point, it was kicking I felt. I know many women talk about feeling "flutters" first, being kicking... but I've never felt flutters with either of my babies. Just went right to kicks. That being said, I felt this one SO much earlier than I did with Sophie! I'm positive I started feeling kicks by 16 weeks, and I think I even started feeling them at 15 weeks. This baby moves ALL.THE.TIME! I'm just amazing how much he/she kicks. I would seriously be worried if I went more than half a day without feeling kicks. With Sophie, I never worried about not feeling movement because she moved so little in the womb. The little kicks are so fun and reassuring!

Gender: Still a mystery to us right now. We're hoping to find out next week!

Weight Gain: I'm guessing I'm going to gain about the same as what I gained with Sophie. I've gained 6 pounds so far, and as you can tell, I'm not showing very much yet. No maternity clothes yet. Which is nice since my normal closet supplies me with more choices :)

I'll update you next week with ultrasound pictures and hopefully a gender reveal!

Words [17 months]

I can't believe 3 months have gone by since I did an update on the words Sophie knows... where has the summer gone?

I guess that means it's time to write down the newest words that she's saying.

Here they are: wagon, truck, keys, hot, this, no (and it's her favorite word, of course), trash, thank you, grandma, grandpa, swing, bib, bottle, diaper, potty, eye, ear, mouth, nose, hair, sock, bug, fly, bear, kitty, bath, bubble, potty, stuck

She also says a couple of phrases: "I got it" and "I did it!"

She says quite a few names now too.

And she'll repeat almost any word you try to ask her to say. Daddy's favorite is to get her to say "xylophone."

I will note one thing... a lot of the "B" words she knows sound the same... like bubble, button, and  bottle.

It's so fun watching her learn new words!!

She's also learning possession. She knows which things are dada's (the TV remote, the black computer, shoes), and which things are Mama's (the blue computer, phone, shoes). Of course, this also means she knows which things are "hers," and she's not too eager to share. Oh the joys of teaching a 1 year-old to be nice and share.

She also likes to dance in the grocery and clothing stores when she hears music... this includes putting her hand in the air and waving it. haha :)

And one of the cutest things she does is pick up trash and say "trash" and take it to the trash can. We just have to be careful that she doesn't throw away things that she thinks are trash that aren't really... like earlier today I found a plastic re-usable cup in the trashcan...