Moving

To start off - the kiddos are great! :-) We had Gwen in to the doctor's for her 18 month check-up on Friday. She's still a petite 21 lbs 5.6 oz, but she is 32.5 inches tall, which is not petite at all. She just keeps growing and being the sassy toddler that she is, but we love her and figure that we'll keep her for a little longer :-P Miles is growing like a weed himself. I don't take him back for another month though, so I don't have any status update on his growth. Although, he's figuring out how to work his hands and arms. It is really fun to watch how excited he gets when he's able to catch the object of his eye :-) He's turned over about a dozen times now, but he still hasn't gotten the hang of it. He will get there though.

We're in the process of moving everything out of the house into the SAMs containers that we have in our driveway. A lot of our friends helped us out this weekend getting all the big items out of the house. So now we're down to just bare essentials - cribs, one couch, a mattress for Brian and me, the TV of course ;-) Two more weeks, then we're out of here! These last couple of months have breezed by. I can't wait until we are able to get into the new house, then hopefully we can settle down and not have to worry about a thing - at least for a while :-)

Halloween Pictures

Here's some pictures of the kiddos in their Halloween outfits :-)

Me with my beatiful children.


Brian with his sassy princess.


My two main men.


Miles and Gwen having a conversation.


Gwenna getting ready to dance.


My bright-eyed Miles.


Gwenna giving the camera some personality.


Miles scrunched up in Dada's arms.

The leaves are falling...

So another month has gone by. Miles is two months old already, and Guinevere is 17 months. Miles had his two month check-up yesterday. He weighed in at 15 lbs 5.6 oz and he is 25.25" long! The nurse remeasured him twice, she didn't believe the over 25" measurement. I'm guessing she doesn't see two month olds that big very often! But he's staying on his curve, which is what the doctors like to see, and besides, he's perfect in every other way :-) Unfortunately, both Miles and Gwen have had colds this week. Gwen got her cold first, and then it eventually passed on to the little guy. Neither of them have been worse for wear though - which I'm very thankful for. It is still hard to watch though.

On the house front.... well... as most of you might have heard, the previous owners for our current house were denied the short-sale, so that means they can't sale it to us and the bank will more than likely foreclose on the property. But we're done with this place. We've learned in the 13 months that we've lived here that it is just a money pit and we're lucky to get out while we still have a chance. That being said, we did look at many other houses and found one that is in GREAT shape; that we can move in to and relax whenever the kids are napping and be constantly thinking of the next project we have to do to improve the house! Our closing date, as of right now, is set for November 20th. Although, the current owners have not found a place to live yet, so we've agreed to let them live there for up to 60 days past closing. We'll be lucky if we get in there by Christmas - so that definitely means we won't be traveling for Christmas or the New Year. I think the only thing we're going to miss is the current neighborhood that we live in and our neighbors. I can only hope that our new neighbors are just as nice and maybe on the younger side with kids.

Once again, I'm unable to post pictures. I need to find the cord for the camera to upload the most recent ones. Once I find that, which might take a while since we've been packing like crazy, then I'll post a few of the kiddos and of the house.

Pictures

Off the Charts

I know it's been a while, but I wanted to have a little more of an update other than Miles and Gwen are doing great. I took Miles to the doctor's yesterday for his one month check-up. He's healthy in every way possible. He does have a blocked tear duct, but hopefully that will clear up soon, and that was the worst of our complaints :-) He weighed in at a hefty 12 lbs 9.6 oz and is 24 inches long!!!!! The nurse went to chart where he was on the growth charts and came back laughing, saying that he was off the charts for both weight and height! The doctor said that he must have taken it away from Gwen! If he keeps growing at this rate he'll be taller than his dad some day :-)

Gwen, I think, really likes her little brother. She's always questioning where he's at and giving him her sippy cup or food. She also likes to sit by him and likes to be touching him. Other than that, she's still our little sweetheart. The tantrums have started and there's a lot of drama - but that's to be expected from a toddler. Gwen is a real talker too - the last time I posted about the words she can say, she has probably doubled the length of that list. Her new favorite expression is "did you poop?"... She'll walk around just saying that phrase over and over again ::sigh:: She also loves to tell us to "stop" :-) At least she knows how to make us smile!

It's not letting me post pictures right now, but I'll try again later :-)

Baby Miles is doing great!

Little Miles is growing like a bad weed. On Tuesday, less than 2 weeks old, Miles is up to 9 lbs and 6oz. That will get verified tomorrow at his first check-up. Miles is looking around, waving his arms, and can even scoot on the play mat if we give him something to kick against. We keep catching glimpses of smiles from him, but they are likely involuntary. He is doing fairly well with sleeping. Laura can catch 4-6 hour stretches of sleep. The lack of sleep has been fairly rough on both of us, but it appears to be getting better slowly.

Guinevere appears to be getting attached to her little brother now. She has been able to say "mise" for miles, for about two days now. When she wakes up in the morning she asks where Momma and Dada are, but now she also asks where "mise" is. Today it appeared as if Gwenny might have wanted to hold her little brother. Unfortunately, she is a bit too young for that. Hopefully she will love her brother this much when he starts playing with her toys.

Mr. Miles

Well, as most of you have heard our little bundle of joy has arrived. Last Wednesday morning, at 6:13 a.m. Miles Darwin Borawski was born. He was screaming before he was even completely out! He's a very healthy boy and the doctor's think he is perfect - I don't know why people insist on telling me something I already know! Anyways, he was 8 lbs 10 oz and 21" long, has a full head of hair and all fingers and toes! Once again, I had a marathon labor of 36 hours, but in my mind I always figure it could be worse. I'm glad that I was able to go all natural again and that he arrived safe and happy :-) Big sister Gwen is getting along with well with Miles, but she is a little jealous of her lack of time with either Mama or Dada. But she has offered Miles her sippy cup and various snacks! We'll see how things continue to go, hopefully for the better :-)

Dad's prospective

Gwen: this girl has developed quite a personality over the last few weeks. Between teething and her cold, she has not been in the best of moods. She is getting fairly demanding and is not afraid to tell us 'no' or 'stop', especially when her diaper is getting changes. She has also gotten fairly good at the remote control. She knows that it works the TV. Sometimes she will hand it to us and ask for "Blue Clue" or "Daba Daba". Othertimes she takes matters into her own hands and knows then up and down button. She also knows that if she presses "OK" several times it often brings on "Moose", her favorite character on Noggin. Hopefully she doesn't turn into a couch potato.
All in all, were trying our best to keep Gwen happy as she has had tooth after tooth coming in continuously and we want her to feel loved when the next baby arrives too. We both think that she has been a bit out of sorts and possibly knows that 'something' is coming. Maybe she's been listening to mommy belly too much.
About one week to go and the pressure is on. Laura has had this amazing list of "things I'd like to have done before the baby arrives". Now, every husband has a 'honey do' list, but this one has a due date and is always getting longer. The real trouble was that I had my own list and none of them were on hers. This has left me exhausted. Not to mention, I'm just about to send out my dissertation to my advisers!
I have had plenty of time to get ready for the baby, in terms of getting the house, cars, etc. ready, but very little time to get myself ready for #2. Well, when Gwen came I told myself that I'm as ready as I'll ever be. I guess that the same is true this time. I also don't have the same problem as Laura, as I'll actually get more of Gwen's attention now that mom is busy with the new baby.
All I can ask for is that this baby will be as wonderful as Gwen. If I can't have that, I'd still be happy with a health baby.

Less than a week - maybe....

So, I think we're down to 6 days until my estimated due date! And I'm really up in the air as to when Tiny is going to make his/her grand arrival. I don't feel anything going on with my body that would indicate that the baby is coming soon; then again, that doesn't necessarily mean anything. I went to my 39 week check-up yesterday. It was quite uneventful. My midwife had actually been called out for a delivery - since they are short staffed due to one of the midwives being on vacation this past week and another is on maternity leave herself (she's due the 15th). So the nurse just did the basic check-up. She didn't tell what my blood pressure was, other than it was good. And the baby's heartbeat was in the 140's and is still growing perfectly. She didn't assess where the position of the baby was, and I was hoping to ask the midwife if she thought the baby might be engaging into my pelvis more - since I've been having a lot more pain when it comes to walking - but the nurse couldn't/wouldn't do that. That was the extent of the appointment though; I was in and out in less than 15 minutes!

This is a picture of Gwen having fallen asleep on my belly - too precious!

Gwen had her 15 month check-up yesterday. Other than having a slight cold, she's great! She's still under 20 lbs - weighing in at 19 lbs 11.6 ozs, and she's almost 31 inches long... So, I think the corresponding percentiles are 10% for weight and 70% for height - tall and skinny (she'll love that as a teenager). The doctor was fine with that though, she just says that's the way she's meant to be :-) I also talked to her about Gwen possibly having silent reflux, since Gwen coughs a lot when she sleeping, or shortly after lying down. The doctor thought that was probably the case, and offered to put her on some antacids. But I asked about TUMS for her, since it's more natural and not chemical based, and she said that would be fine.... So, Gwen is really happy now that I'll share my TUMS with her :-)~ She always wants one when she sees me eating them (like candy), due to all of the acid reflux I have from the pregnancy! I really hope the TUMS work though, since I'd like to stay away from prescription medications. Anyways, I'll post next week after my check-up.... or, maybe, just maybe, sooner with the arrival of Tiny! Until then, here's my 39 week belly shot :-)

August is here :-)

So, another Friday has gone by - so that means I'm one week closer my due date! I think I'm just happy to make it to August. I didn't want a July baby for some odd reason. With Gwen, I didn't want an April baby either - I wanted my May baby, and now I want my August baby :-) I'm strange, I know. Anyways, my appointment this past Friday went well. My blood pressure is still behaving at 112/78. The baby, on the other hand, was not behaving! Tiny was kicking up a storm, I thought the baby was trying to come out through my belly button when the midwife was checking for the heart beat. Now that, was behaving, Tiny's heartbeat was between 138-144 bpm, and still measuring perfect for being 38 weeks. I've been bad with taking a belly picture. I'll take at least one more before Tiny comes - promise ;-) Gwen has been loving on my belly lately. She loves to lay her head on it and give it raspberries - she's so cute! Well, this coming Friday both Gwen and I have appointments. Gwen for her 15 month check-up and me for my 39 week - so I'll have a lot to update with on Friday!

Full Term!

Well, 37 weeks is considered full term when it comes to pregnancy and babies. In my personal opinion, I think full term is as long as you're able to cook the baby! So, while I can say that I'm starting to feel like I'm ready to be done with this pregnancy, I'd still love for the baby to have as long to cook and grow as possible! I had my appointment yesterday and every was good. My blood pressure was 110/80 and the baby's heartbeat was 148 bpm. My midwife confirmed that the baby is indeed head down. When she was finished listening for the heartbeat the baby got feisty and started kicking, and she pointed to the point on my belly where it looked like I just grew an apple, and stated that that was definitely a butt! Anyways, I have my next appointment next Friday. I didn't manage to get a belly bump picture for this week - but I'll try again for next week.

Brian and I are really trying to get things tied up and finished around here, because we both figure we'll be wrapped up with family for a while in about three weeks. The den is finally going to be finished this weekend! Which I'm super happy about, so whenever we sign the papers to the house we can put the carpet right in without worries! There's still one more layer of paint to put down on the walls, and Brian still has to sand the door and the ceiling; then on to painting the trim and doing touch-ups.... So I'm really hoping we'll get that done this weekend! Anyways, til next week.....

4 weeks to go...

Well, I had my 36 week check-up yesterday. So that means 4 weeks left! I'll be on weekly appointments from here on out (although, when I scheduled my next appointment, the lady thought I said four weeks and not one - so I have to call and correct that mistake on Monday). But everything went well at the appointment. They said there was nothing to be concerned with, my blood pressure was good and the baby's heartbeat was in the 140's. Tiny was being very active for the midwife again, and when she was trying to determine if the head was up or down, she got 'hipped' to let her know that her probing wasn't appreciated :-) my doctor's office doesn't do internal checks, because for the most part it doesn't tell them anything, other than the fact that my body is preparing.... but part of me wishes they would because I'd love to know if my body was preparing. With Gwen on her original due date there was nothing going on - so, for some odd reason, I'm thinking that my body is doing the same thing - waiting til the last minute to start preparing for birth! Anyways, I'll stop in next week with a 37 week update and maybe I'll have another baby bump picture to post :-)



The other big thing we did this week was tour the hospital. I can't say that I'm thrilled with the place. There's one room with a tub for me to labor in - so if it's occupied I'm out of luck, and that's one of the things I really enjoyed with Gwen, and I think it helped with pain management a lot during labor. Also, there's only semi-private rooms :-( Although they give everyone their own room if there's room, but they start doubling up if there's more than 20... and the rooms are so small!!!!! I think I might be considering leaving early or AMA if it comes down to it! I guess that really depends on how well the delivery goes and if me and baby are healthy to leave soon after the birth. In all reality, I'd love to stay the night and get to know the new little person a little bit before taking them home to meet Gwen, but I'll forgo that if I have to be stuck in a room with another mom and their screaming baby ::sigh:: time will tell though!

Summer Time

Where is the time going? Some days seem like they take forever, whereas others just slip away! Gwen just turned 14 months old a couple of days ago. She's really been having fun trying to communicate! She has always loved to makes noises, but now she's a little chatter-box and it is hard to keep her quiet sometimes. It is hard to think of all the words that she tries to use, but I'll give it my best effort: mama, dada, kitty, kida (kitty's name), peek-a-boo, baby, bye-bye, hello, balloon, ball, doggy, bark, meow, down, more, that, don't bite..... I know there has to be more, but I can't think of them! Also, in the last month, she's gained three teeth, and I think there's another one about to cut through within a day or two! I was shocked this past weekend when I was feeling around to see if any teeth were close and there were already two more than I knew about - she got in two of her upper molars.... so now she's up to 9! Another thing she has been trying, is using utensils. Of couse she can't manage to hold them right, but she gets the concept of what they are used for, and gives it her best try. She's growing up too fast!



I had my 34 week check-up today. Everything seems to be going well. My blood pressure is still a good 120/80. They had trouble getting s stable heartbeat on the baby, since the little alien was doing sommersaults while the midwife was trying to hear the heartbeat, but she guessed it to be in the 170's. I go back in two weeks, and from there on out I'm on weekly appointments. I've been doing fairly well, my energy flew out the window, but I'm managing to keep up with Gwen for the most part - so I think that's good enough for now :-) The house is coming along. We still have just the den and entranceway to finish up with mudding and sanding. And while I don't have a lot of energy, I would really love to get those painted before the baby comes, because I know it'll be a while before I find the time to get back to it. The pool has been open for about a month now, but sadly enough, it really hasn't been warm enough to go swimming in. Brian has dared the cold more than a couple of times, but as for me and Gwen, we've only gotten in once. We hope that changes here in the next couple of weeks!

Vacation

So, Brian and I decided that we deserved a vacation before #2 joined our family. We headed down to the Outer Banks (North Carolina) for a week to relax with some of our friends from college. Gwen got to experience the ocean and the sand for the first time. I think she really enjoyed it too! Although, she ended up getting sick at the beginning of the week and was teething at the end of the week - she was still a trooper (except for in the car on the way down!).

Before the trip, I had a prenatal appointment. My midwife said that all looked and sounded well! I passed my 3-hr glucose test with flying colors, my blood pressure looked good, the baby's growth was prefect to date, and it's heartbeat was about 150 bpm - so she gave me the go ahead to travel 10-12 hours each way in a car - ugh! So, unlike Gwen, I avoided the sun and the ocean as much as I could - but, come on, what do you expect from me?!?! Over all we had a good time and Gwen got to visit with a lot of people that she hasn't seen in a while - including her cousins in Maryland - which I really think she enjoyed spending time with :-)

I had my 32 week appointment today. The baby is still growing on par and the heartbeat was between 142-146 bpm. They also tried to determine if the baby was head up or head down, and just like Gwen, the butt and the head feel the same, so they weren't able to tell, but based on where I feel the baby's hiccups, I believe that the baby is head down. My next appointment is in a few weeks - so I'll update further then.

On a side note, the house still isn't ours, but... they are at least moving forward with the process again - so we hope to hear something here within a week or two. Also, I'm an auntie again and Gwen has another cousin :-) My sister just had her third baby on June 15, 2009. She had her third boy, Rylen Joshua, he came into the world at 5:51pm weighing 7 lbs 1 oz and is 19 inches long.

Happy Birthday Guinevere!

Our little princess just turned one! Can you believe it - I hardly can! She had a fun birthday, and we made sure that she didn't have any reason to cry at all that day! She got a lot of fun toys from all her family, and she loves playing with them all.... I just need to start rotating them about so she doesn't get bored with any. Unfortunately, the day after her birthday she had to go to the doctor's and get some shots :-( at least the doc was kind enough to give her a book on the way out :-) Gwen weighed in at 17 lbs 15 oz - so she's still a tiny, but man can she pound the food down! And she measured 29.25" - so she's still growing like a weed.... everything else checked out great :-D



I had my 24 week appt. today.... and everything is measuring and sounding great with #2. The heartbeat was a good 158 bpm, and the baby was wide awake, kicking the heck out of me to get that darn doppler off my belly.... I have to laugh because Gwen was the same way - she hated whenever they'd use any type of ultrasound on her - she'd always kick the crap out of me - so it's looking like #2 is going to be a lot like Gwen! I think I'd like that a lot :-) if not, I guess that'll be alright too ;-) My blood pressure was a beatuiful 112/68 - let's hope it decides to stay that way over the weeks to come! Anyways, this week ends my 2nd trimester - so we'll be on the last leg of the pregnancy from here on out! My next appt. is in two weeks and I have the dreaded glucose test - ugh! So I'll try to get on and update then.

In the meantime, I've been a painting fool - I'm trying to get the rest of the house painted before I'm too exhausted from this pregnancy to do anything! But, I'm down to two rooms and a hallway and a handful of trim work - so if you're bored and have some free time - feel free to stop by and help ;-) Brian is trying to stay a step ahead of me and finish the mudding and sanding in those two rooms and hallway! I'll try to have pictures of the finished rooms the next time - expecially of Gwen's big girl room :-)

Ultrasound

Well, I finally had the 'big' ultrasound for baby #2 (after being canceled on a couple of times - grrr...). Everything looks great! The doctor still has to look over the scan pictures, but from what the midwife could tell me from the print out sheet of the ultrasound, the the baby looks normal and healthy - yea! That's all we can ask for, right? Now, I know we said we weren't going to find out the gender - but, same as last time, we went in there with are minds undecided.... so, we figured - why not let #2 decide if they want to give their gender away - so when the ultrasound tech was scanning to check for gender she found...... that the baby's legs were crossed! So, like I mentioned in the last post - you will all have to wait til August til find out! Brian and I are both just as excited with not knowing - we both like the surprise! Other than that, my blood pressure is still in the good range (110/70) and the baby's heartbeat was a good 148 bpm.



Gwen is still the sweetheart that she always has been. She's starting to let me hold her hands and walk her around more - which she refused to do until about a week ago. But, she's mastering her balance at standing alone and I think she gained some confidence to start walking with us! Other than that, she's learning more about cause and effect with certain things, and she's figuring out where certain things belong - like my sunglasses - they belong on my head, and she demands that they go 'on my head' whenever she sees them lying around! She really enjoyed her visit with her cousins (the twins) a couple of weeks ago, and was happy just to sit by them or watch them run around - I can only imagine that she wishes she could be a big kid just like them already! Her other set of cousins will be visiting her next week, let's see how she responds to crazy Caden when he comes rolling in :-)



Brian is still plugging away at the thesis - making slow, steady progress.... all we can both hope is that his advisers will let him defend and graduate this summer, before #2 decides to grace us with his/her presence! We have no further word on the house - we're still waiting to hear back from the bank. In the meantime we're fixing up what we can, and I plan on painting the remainder of the rooms just as soon as the temps stay above 60 so I can open the windows and let the rooms vent! I'll be sure to post pictures when they're finished! Anyways, I'll post again after Gwen's next check-up and my next doctor's appointment!

One month closer....

So, it's been a pretty uneventful month in the Borawski household. We're all just waiting for Spring to stick around so we can get up and get out of this house and enjoy some nice weather! Everyone is doing well after being sick for a good part of the month. Poor Gwen had her first ear infection - which I don't think bothered her that much, but she did require some antibiotics to get rid of it. I had her into the doctor's again today for her weight check - she's gained almost a pound in 5 weeks! So the doc was happy with that and we don't have to go back again until she's a year old - yippee! Other than that, she's up cruising around the furniture. She's starting to push things now, and walk behind them - she was unsure of this at first, but now she finds it to be a challenge that she has to overcome! I try to walk her a little each day, but she thinks that it's bouncy time when I hold her hands like that - needless to say, we don't get very far, so I'm glad she's starting to push and walk with some of her toys - otherwise I don't think she'll figure this walking thing out for a long time!

I had my 16 week check-up last week for #2. Everything seems to be going well with the tiny one. The doctor had a hard time finding the heartbeat again - but he said it was because the baby was flipping around a lot. He spent a good 5 minutes trying to get a stable heartbeat - he caught it for at least 2 seconds before the baby moved again - so he never got an accurate heartbeat count.... Anyways, my blood pressure was good and I'm still measuring right on track with how far along I am. We have the ultrasound appointment scheduled for the 31st of this month, along with my next check-up. And to answer everyone's question about finding out the gender..... well, I guess everyone is just going to have to wait til August to find out :-) Sorry! I think Brian enjoyed the surprise too much the last time - especially after the marathon labor and delivery - it was a good way to end it! And we're keeping the names a secret as well, unless you're someone that is also having a baby and we don't want to compete for names with you!

Anyways, I'll be back on at the end of the month or beginning of next with an ultrasound update! And, of course, a Guinevere update!

9 months old!

Our little Gwen turned 9 months old on Wednesday - I can't believe it! She's growing up so fast! She's had a busy week this week - we had a friend visit from Penn State, and then we went to the library for lap time - where she got to see a lot of crazy toddlers running around, on Thursday we went to see the midwives for a mommy and new baby check-up, and then today we went for Gwen's 9 month well-baby check-up!

#2 - this is what Brian has taken to calling the next baby - is doing well and growing on par. They had a hard time hearing the heartbeat with the doppler, so they had me do a quick ultrasound to make sure the baby was ok. The little thing was just flipping around so much that they couldn't get an accurate reading! My blood pressure was great too - everything else went well. The pregnancy so far has been a breeze, it's following the same pattern as it did with Gwen - so could this mean another girl? I guess we'll have to wait to find out - I personally don't have any intuition telling me boy or girl yet, but then again - I didn't have those feelings until I was 2/3 of the way through cooking Gwen! This time around it's Brian's decision if we're going to find out the gender - since I got my way last time with not finding out the sex - but only by default since Gwen had no intention of presenting herself at the ultrasound! Brian is being indecisive about that decision.


As for Gwen's appointment she weighed in at 16lbs 4.4oz and is 28 in. tall. They are a little concerned about her weight because she fell off her normal curve. They want me to supplement her with formula to see if we can bring it up a little, or at least keep it stable... she's not losing weight, she's just not gaining as much as she was. So we go back in a month so see if it has improved. Other than that though, she able to due all the crazy things that a 9 month old is suppose to do and then some! Gwen's starting to really enjoy standing. She was very cautious in the beginning and would only stand up next to a few things - but now she'll pull herself up on anything. She's still being cautious about furniture walking - the legs just aren't working the way she expects them to, so she'll move a little if the object she's holding moves a little, or she'll pivot and move to something that's really close and that only requires one footfall for each foot. She's getting bored with things a lot more quickly, so I'm having to move her to different areas of the house with different toys throughout the day so she won't get grumpy with me! Sleep is slowly becoming better - she's going to bed at 8pm and while she might wake a few times to fuss, I'm not going back in the room til 6am - if she wakes sooner, Brian has been really good about going in there and soothing her back to sleep - if I go in she gets mad that I won't nurse her and then she won't go back to sleep at all. I'll be back to update on the next prenatal appointment - which will be in 4 weeks, and give a report of our Gwen, but until then, here's some pictures....

Happy New Year!

Well, we've crossed into the new year, and Gwen is still a happy baby. She had a fun Christmas, with traveling and gift receiving and visiting family. New Year's she spent sound asleep! Maybe next year we'll let her stay up! She's crawling now and pulling herself up on a few things! I've even taught her to wave bye-bye (or hi-hi) - it's so cute to watch! She's got to grow fast now so she can be a "big" sister this summer! That's right - #2 is on the way - due sometime mid-August. So anyone who wants to help paint Gwen's big girl room - feel free to come and help! So maybe next post we'll put up another poll to see what everyone thinks we'll have this time, that and I'll start posting on updates from the prenatal appointments! Until next time - here's a picture of Gwen being happy!