23 weeks

Viable outside the womb! A great point to get to. I love that new ticker...


With her sense of movement well developed now, your baby can feel you dance. Those dainty fetal movements have progressed to karate kicks. You may even be able to see your baby squirm underneath your clothing.


How your baby's growing: Your baby is more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound. His skin is red and wrinkled. Blood vessels in his lungs are developing to prepare him for breathing. He can swallow, but he normally won't pass his first stool (called meconium) until after birth. Loud noises heard often in utero — such as your dog barking or the roar of a vacuum cleaner — probably won't faze your baby when he hears them outside the womb.

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring......

except a chocolate shadow named Hank who is spending Christmas at our house and can't seem to settle down (Cooper is all snug in his bed, dreaming of sugarplums), and me. I'm still up, because at 7:42pm, the earliest Morgan has gone to bed this week, after several minutes of reading books and singing "Twinkle, twinkle", I still had to:

finish making Kathy's Christmas gift - a last minute idea to create two 8x8 albums, as she's wanting to get started in Scrapbooking but is overwhelmed and knows not where to begin. One album is for Nedonna Beach, 2004, when the Fiero's spent a week at the coast. I embellished some pages, and lightly embellished others so that she could take "baby steps" to creativity. The other album is only the front and back covers, and is for their recent Mexican adventure. I included paper and some fun embellishments so that she can do it herself.

Make Frog Eye Salad for dinner tomorrow - it needs to sit overnight

clean the kitchen

mop the floor

finish the laundry

wrap all presents and arrange them under the tree

clean the bathroom downstairs

mop the bathroom downstairs

I still need to clean the counter/tub, but will do part of that tonight, the rest in the morning when Morgan and I take a shower.

clean the living room - before bed Morgan and I cleaned up so that I could vacuum, but she followed behind me and rearranged everything, so I need to tidy again before the lights go out....

and, for some reason, I feel compelled to take pictures and BLOG before bed, must have lost my mind.... but wanted to give Mom something to see. Hi MOM!

And now, I am done with it all, and am going to get off of this chair, grab my bowl of chocolate chip cookie dough icecream that I HAD to buy today at the store (Hey, it's calcium for the BABY), and press play so that I can finish the chick flick I rented... Wedding Date. Haven't been paying attention so far, but I think it's about a date for a wedding.....

Anyway, Steve is on shift today, so in the morning, I am going to get Morgan up, we are going to go down and get showered and dressed, and then wait in my room for daddy to come home. He should be here shortly after 8 unless they are on a call. Then the fun begins! Steve's parent's are coming over with oyster stew somewhere around 10, and will be here for the day. Then I am making a prime rib roast for dinner. So, the day will be busy!

Have a Merry Christmas!

My little Christmas SpriteMorgan in her skivies with her pink boots on. The girl would go neked all day if I'd let her, but she's gotta have her shoes on! What does a turkey say? Gobble, gobble, gobble!

(The newest thing she's learned from Sesame Street - even the flapping wings!)

Our pathetic tree. It was fabulous on December 3rd, but it is now so dead that you can't even hang ornaments off of it... The branches just break right off. To be sent to the Christmas graveyard, or perhaps, Steve's woodshop stove, 12/26.

The loot. Steve gets the two little packages on the right....

Unfortunately, she has seen most of the gifts under the tree, because I cannot seem to keep them from her..... but I give them to her for a while, and I later take them away. Now, I can just let her have 'em! I will endeavor to do better next year... :)

22 weeks and 8 pounds

How your baby's growing: Your baby now looks like a miniature newborn, checking in at 10.9 inches and almost 1 pound. Her skin will continue to appear wrinkled until she gains enough weight to fill it out, and the fine hair (lanugo) that covers her head and body is now visible. Her lips are becoming more distinct, and the first signs of teeth are appearing as buds beneath her gum line. Her eyes are developed, though the iris (the colored part of the eye) still lacks pigment. Eyelids and eyebrows are in place, and her pancreas, essential for hormone production, is developing steadily.

Morgan and I went to my next appointment again on Wednesday. And again..... seems like I was just there! I felt like I had doubled in size, and it turns out, I kinda did. I gained 8 pounds since last month! Egads! It's been one here, two there, but now EIGHT! I thought everything was getting heavy! Steve needs to get that darn bathroom done asap!

We went over the ultrasound, and everything looks good. They weren't able to get an assessment of the spine, because of the way the baby was positioned, but they way this little one is bouncing all over the place, I'm sure it's doing fine. Baby's heart rate was 150, and beating strong. Morgan's eyes lit up when she heard the heartbeat and I told her it was the baby.

I can't wait!

Isn't this amazing?! Same Santa, same hand-holding, same bear ............................ I BELIEVE.

Our sweet girl did so good at Sears! She marched right up like she's been posing for photos a million times, and sat on the background. Look at that smile! I apologize for any distortion. We went today, and can't pick up the photos until 1/10, but wanted to post something, and the mini versions you can look at online blow up to be big blobs.

Morgan with her Christmas cookies, waiting for Santa. So adorable!

My sweet lambchop with Santa..... It was weird. I believe in Santa! That's the same Santa from last year, and he was so adorable, it just made you want to believe. She did good! We thought she'd be scared this year.

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Cooper Christmas 2004

Christmas 2005

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asleep on daddy

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Grammabon loves Morgan in the sand

I'm smooshing her eye down just like that close pic of her and Grammabon last year.

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Funnier pic of Morgan's "cheese" but we need lightened

Lighting better here, but we are covering up a rock.

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The latest!

4-5 months pregnant with Morgan. I didn't show my belly until the end, but should have, because it would make it more clear how big it was! What do you think? Bigger this time, the last, or the same?

HALFWAY

Halfway from the front

Halfway from the side

I can't believe it! 20 weeks!

How your baby's growing: Your baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. She's also around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom, and about 10 inches from head to heel. (For the first 20 weeks, we use measurements taken from the top of the baby's head to her bottom — known as the "crown to rump" measurement. After that, we use measurements from head to toe. This is because a baby's legs are curled up against her torso during the first half of pregnancy and are very hard to measure.)A greasy white substance called vernix caseosa coats her entire body to protect her skin during its long submersion in amniotic fluid. (This slick coating also eases the journey down the birth canal.)Your baby is swallowing more, which is good practice for her digestive system. She's also producing meconium, a black, sticky substance that's the result of cell loss, digestive secretion, and swallowed amniotic fluid. This meconium will accumulate in her bowels, and you'll see it in her first messy diaper (although a few babies pass it in utero or during delivery).

Is this better?

My latest!

On Saturday Morgan and I went on our first of many annual outings..... to see the Nutcracker. I purchased my tickets online not knowing it was assigned seating.... and managed to get myself the absolute best seats in the house. Morgan sat on my lap, and actually watched the entire thing. We talked a lot about the "kids dancing" "jumping" "hopping", and the Christmas tree, the rat, and the nutcracker. Halfway through we had a cookie during intermission, and it wasn't until 3-4 minutes before the show ended that she started saying "all done." She did MUCH better than I had anticipated, considering it was a 2 hour show. I am so glad I took her! We had a great time, and the Tchaicovsky (sp) music really helps to bring the Christmas cheer. On a side note, we bought a tree this year, because Steve really wanted to have one for our Christmas party. While I thought last year would be the hardest year for a little one and a Christmas tree, I do believe my guess was wrong. I think all we'll manage to do this year is a star on top, and Christmas lights. Morgan loves the tree. We might finish trimming it and put up bulbs this evening. If that's the case, more pics to come! Welcome holidays! They are so much more fun with little ones!

1st Annual Christmas bash

Sunday we had a Christmas bash at our house. Folks arrived at 1pm, and we didn't boot them until almost 9pm. We had a blast! The kids played, we went sledding in the yard, then ate a big feast of ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, frog-eye salad, rolls, and pumpking roll, chocolate cream pie, and brownies for dessert! It was actually a ton-o-fun. We are definitely going to do it again next year. We even turned the Christmas lights on the tower to celebrate. It's nice to have the space to play. The guys even had a blast on our little sledding hill. Good times!

Morgan heading down! She did awesome! For some reason, her sled was always headed for a spin, but she didn't care! She loved every second. In fact, one time she did a face plant, and just peeled her little face out of the track, and headed back up for another go! She did awesome. I got her a lot on video.

Morgan and Krysta on the hill.

Morgan and daddy heading down the slopes

Morgan on the side

Rylee on her own!

Steve getting set to saucer

Eric preparing to launch down the driveway

Krysta wasn't a big fan of the sledding. Unfortunately, it was her nap time, so she quickly went inside for a snooze.

Here's baby bunny, @ 12 ounces, still due 4/28. The pictures were so vivid this time, and it looked like the little one was busy dancing around. It was great to see the little one, who, by the way, is breech! The little stinker!

19 weeks

How your baby's growing: Your baby weighs about 8 1/2 ounces, and he measures 6 inches, head to bottom — about the length of a small zucchini. His arms and legs are in the right proportions to each other and the rest of his body now. His kidneys continue to make urine, and the hair on his scalp is sprouting. This is a crucial time for sensory development: Your baby's brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. If your baby is a girl, she has an astonishing six million eggs in her ovaries. They'll dwindle to fewer than two million by the time she's born.