latest ultrasound-was 15 weeks

Here is the pics we got from the ultrasound 3 weeks ago...little hand in bottom picture is easy to see. Baby's head is to the left, facing down in the top pic.

she's growin' up

All this potty training and toddler bed stuff is making me realize how fast our baby girl is growin' up! And things like the fact she is growing out of her latest foot brace AGAIN don't help, either. I tell ya, she will be in school before we know it, I don't even want to think about that quite yet. We are getting very excited about the OB appt. next Friday--ultrasound, here we come! Can't wait to see the new baby in June, then we'll have the cutest TWO babies on earth!!! :)

milestone

Last weekend (twice) and today, we've rushed Olivia to the potty to do #2 and she does it! How great that I can post this milestone on a blog and be proud of it! She's still going in the potty about half the time, so we're still training, but she's getting there!

I met the PT & supervisor at daycare Tuesday for the monthly session. It went well, they said her foot positioning is much better than before and could still see a difference after we put on the kinesio tape (rt leg)...she didn't seem to swing her hip and leg out and around when running, but completely straight. So we are going to continue with the tape as long as her skin tolerates it. We have an appt. next week to check on her foot brace, though, because it either needs adjusting or we need a bigger one already! It's rubbing a few spots on her foot.

We put Olivia's Princess "big girl" bed in her room on Sunday are are transitioning her into that this week...she doesn't like for us to leave the room until she falls asleep! :( but each night seems to get a little better...a LITTLE. Hopefully it will be easier for her to fall asleep here soon so we can get some sleep, too! Well, that's all for now, will post sonogram pics soon!

This week

First full week back to work...yuck. But for Olivia, she got to see her best bud, Abby, at daycare every single day-life was good! Although "Abby's sick" (Liv tells us this every day at least three times), she did make it to daycare. Linda came over Wednesday for speech with Olivia...she's coming along great and I really do not think we'll continue that therapy come April. The PT and OT are different stories. The botox has definitely helped some muscles relax in her right arm and so it's easier for us to stretch her arm, hold her right hand, etc. She seems to be using it more on her own now that the tone/tightness is not as overbearing, for lack of a better word. We're working with her on holding things with both hands, crawling/any kind of weight baring on that hand and grasping items with her fingers. She's been using the right hand to assist her left with lots of things, even before the botox, though. OT still sees her once a week. PT once a month-scheduled for next Tues. and speech sees her twice a month for 45 min. here at the house. All this may change come April when Olivia turns 3 and doesn't qualify for Early Intervention services. Today, Bri, Liv & I met a group of people at Grandin Court Elementary out by our house to do an initial evaluation of Olivia's situation. We wanted to see if she qualifies for therapy assistance through the school system, but currently she does not. They base it on educational needs and since Olivia is on track or very close to it on all aspects except the use of that right arm, her needs are more medical (therapy)... if she had needs like keeping up with other children on the playground, climbing stairs, writing, etc. then she would have qualified (therapy would be provided there at school for free). But they were all very supportive of what we're doing right now with having her in daycare full time,keeping her stimulated at home and with therapy, etc. They said in the 3yr old program there, she may be exposed to children that aren't the best role models for her like she has now, too, which was a big concern. The preschool program would only be 3 hours of the day at her age. Once she turns 4, she could go there for pre-K, but Lakeside Daycare has a pre-K program, too, so we'll probably just stick with that. So basically if any new issues come up that affect her educationally, we can call them to reevaluate her, but for now it's best to keep her where she is.

As for other issues, we are still potty-training. It's going pretty well, she is just not there quite yet! She took off her diaper the other night before we put on her pajamas, gave it to me and continued to play in her room and peed on the floor!!! :) And her new phrase is "no want it".

Happy New Years!

Olivia was at Nana & Papa's when the ball dropped this year and was not awake to see it, thank God! Baby needs her sleep! But Brian & I went out with friends to the New Year's Blast in Roanoke, it was so fun--other than going to friend's houses, that was probably the first New Year's night out in 4 or 5 years! Bands were great and I even saw a few friends from the past.

On NY Day, we went to RM to pick up Olivia, went by Walmart for a few things and later that night, met up with Ashley, a friend from high school who was in town.

Friday, we both worked but made it to my 16 wk OB appointment. The sonogram showed the baby at appx. 9 cm, heart beating at 162 bpm, we could see the head, hand, spine, and he/she was on their knees faced down and towards my back. Moving a lot, once the little hands went up and touched the head. It was awesome! Next appt in 4 weeks is the formal sonogram where we get to see the baby for 30 minutes and tell the sex, yay!

Christmas

The Christmas holidays have been fabulous! We had Christmas at Nana and Papa H's last Sunday since Angie and Tom drove to Boston for Christmas week. Olivia opened all her gifts and enjoyed them all! Grandpa Q was still in the hospital w/pnemonia that day so we visited him there for awhile. On Christmas Day, we did Santa at home, then had lunch at my aunt's house with Dad's side of the family. Olivia played with Owen (4) the most and just had a jolly ol time with aunt Margie at the piano playing Silent Night! Most of the adults brought gifts to do the chinese gift exchange, lots of fun! As for Santa gifts, Olivia slept in until 7am, then really wasn't fully awake for the opening of gifts...but she saw a sheep stuffed animal and said "baaaa" for the first few minutes :) Santa gave her a princess toddler bed, comforter, Hello kitty sleeping bag for naptime at daycare, crayola items, fingernail polish, hairbows, Little Mermaid Aquadoodle, Bella Princess dance DVD/mat/wand, shoes, Dora and Elmo DVDs, Toddler Bible Songs CD...she was actually TIRED of opening gifts by the end!

Oh yes, I had Bri's gifts and a few of Olivia's unwrapped gifts under our bed before Christmas and a couple of days before Christmas, guess who is looking under there and finds a Wiggles coloring book and brings it out to mommy? Yep, the little angel happened to be on the floor playing and noticed it under the bed!!! So that gift was given early.

Well, after Aunt Margie's on Xmas, we drove to Grandpa Q's house, now home from hospital. His twin came down and we all opened gifts and ate a good ham dinner. Olivia loved the baby doll and carrier from Grandpa...carried it around all night! Then Friday we drove to Ohio to have Xmas with Bri's family until yesterday. It was a nice trip seeing family up there and getting lots more gifts and eating good food! Olivia is a piggy pig sometimes, must be going through another growth spurt! She did really well around everybody though, and just struts around between people like she owns the place :) She got to play with Emma (4?) and Grace (2) again (saw them back in the summer) which she loved! She and Grace headbutted at one point and Grace got a bloody nose :( Overall, a wonderful 4 Christmas' for us all!

Update

Olivia feels fine this week...the injections from friday gave her slight bruising on a couple spots on her arm, but she never said it hurt or anything after we left the doctor's office Friday. Over the weekend, I noticed she is using her right hand more on her own and wants me to know it, she says "hand" and looks at her right hand, until I praise her for using it! We are starting to strech her arm and will be getting her to do tasks with both hands like carry a tray or big ball.

Brian is off all week except Wednesday, so Nana is keeping olivia that day. Until then, she is enjoying extra time with her daddy! Today he said he felt like he cleaned up the living room all day (toys, toys and more toys from Christmas at the Holland's yesterday!) and Olivia talked his ears off. They went out to get the oil changed in the highlander and had lunch at McDonalds. We leave Friday for a weekend in Ohio for Christmas with Brian's family up there. I'll just be glad to get the work week over with, it's SLOW although I have a lot to do in 3 days!