The New Addition

We had our ultrasound today for baby #2! Everything looked fine. The baby's heartbeat was 147 bpm. The only thing the ultrasound tech couldn't see was all of the spine so the doctor will have us do another ultrasound at our next appointment. That will be my 24 week appointment so I'll also have the glucose test for gestational diabetes.

Oh, and we didn't find out the gender, so it's still a surprise!

Christmas Family Fun

We had our Kerns Family Christmas Party on December 11th with lots of aunts, uncles and cousins, many of whom had never met Laurel. As you can tell, she made friends quick!








A White Christmas

We had lots of fun here at Christmas! We hosted a luncheon on Christmas Eve for both sides of the family and had about 18 in attendance. Later that afternoon we did a gift exchange at Tim's parents house. Later we went to visit my parents. On Christmas morning we woke up and opened our family and Santa gifts. We spent the rest of Christmas Day (and the next day) at my parents house with my little brother Aaron. We were even blessed with a White Christmas!



Laurel was a little unsure of getting bundled up and going out in the snow, but once she did I thought we'd never get her back inside!







Nursing Dilemma

As you know from the ticker at the top of the page, I'm currently 18 weeks pregnant. What some of you may not realize is that Laurel is still breastfeeding. Before the stones come out, I assure you that it is perfectly safe to do during a low-risk pregnancy and I've not had so much as a Braxton-Hicks contraction at this time. But right now I'm facing a dilemma and I'm not sure what I want to do or what the best decision is.

When I first found out I was expecting again, I contemplated tandem nursing (nursing a toddler and a newborn at the same time). After reading and talking to a few mamas who had been down that road, I decided it was not the best choice for our family.

Right now, Laurel is only nursing once or twice a day (mostly at bedtime). On weekends (when we're together all day) she will also nurse for naps. She has seemed much less interested lately as my milk supply has greatly diminished. Up until two weeks ago she had never gone to sleep without nursing at night. We nightweaned about two or three months ago and have just cuddled with her when she wakes up during the night, but she doesn't get nursies (she did surprisingly well with that). We cosleep, so the cuddling is pretty easy to do when she does wake up, which I can thankfully say is pretty rare now and for usually only a couple minutes!

There have been probably 4-5 nights in the past two weeks where she will go to bed with me and be happy to just cuddle to go to sleep without asking for or needing nursies. There have been a couple instances where I have told her nursies have already gone night-night when it's a particularly late night. She seems to be doing the cuddling to sleep very well.

Initially I had hoped to nurse her until she was two years old (as per the WHO recommendation). Her birthday is Jan. 29th, but I'm afraid that I'll miss a "prime-time" for complete weaning if we keep doing what we're doing for another month and a half just to hit that milestone.

My biggest fear is that while waiting for the next six weeks, she will become reattached to nursing, and we will have to start this weaning process all over again. I want to make this as easy as possible for her (and me), but I was also previously pretty set on nursing to two years old.

Doing well

Everything is going well with our family. It has been a rough few weeks for some friends and makes it hard to write uplifting, entertaining or informative blog entries. I also don't feel like it's my place to share their very private and heartbreaking experiences.

I am starting to feel the baby move now most days, which is exciting. We're scheduled for our 20 week ultrasound on Dec. 28th. We do not plan on finding out the baby's gender (much to the chagrine of some family members.) Laurel's being her usual brilliant, wild and hilarious little self.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

The New Addition

We had our ultrasound today for baby #2! Everything looked fine. The baby's heartbeat was 147 bpm. The only thing the ultrasound tech couldn't see was all of the spine so the doctor will have us do another ultrasound at our next appointment. That will be my 24 week appointment so I'll also have the glucose test for gestational diabetes.

Oh, and we didn't find out the gender, so it's still a surprise!

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Christmas Family Fun

We had our Kerns Family Christmas Party on December 11th with lots of aunts, uncles and cousins, many of whom had never met Laurel. As you can tell, she made friends quick!








A White Christmas

We had lots of fun here at Christmas! We hosted a luncheon on Christmas Eve for both sides of the family and had about 18 in attendance. Later that afternoon we did a gift exchange at Tim's parents house. Later we went to visit my parents. On Christmas morning we woke up and opened our family and Santa gifts. We spent the rest of Christmas Day (and the next day) at my parents house with my little brother Aaron. We were even blessed with a White Christmas!



Laurel was a little unsure of getting bundled up and going out in the snow, but once she did I thought we'd never get her back inside!







Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Nursing Dilemma

As you know from the ticker at the top of the page, I'm currently 18 weeks pregnant. What some of you may not realize is that Laurel is still breastfeeding. Before the stones come out, I assure you that it is perfectly safe to do during a low-risk pregnancy and I've not had so much as a Braxton-Hicks contraction at this time. But right now I'm facing a dilemma and I'm not sure what I want to do or what the best decision is.

When I first found out I was expecting again, I contemplated tandem nursing (nursing a toddler and a newborn at the same time). After reading and talking to a few mamas who had been down that road, I decided it was not the best choice for our family.

Right now, Laurel is only nursing once or twice a day (mostly at bedtime). On weekends (when we're together all day) she will also nurse for naps. She has seemed much less interested lately as my milk supply has greatly diminished. Up until two weeks ago she had never gone to sleep without nursing at night. We nightweaned about two or three months ago and have just cuddled with her when she wakes up during the night, but she doesn't get nursies (she did surprisingly well with that). We cosleep, so the cuddling is pretty easy to do when she does wake up, which I can thankfully say is pretty rare now and for usually only a couple minutes!

There have been probably 4-5 nights in the past two weeks where she will go to bed with me and be happy to just cuddle to go to sleep without asking for or needing nursies. There have been a couple instances where I have told her nursies have already gone night-night when it's a particularly late night. She seems to be doing the cuddling to sleep very well.

Initially I had hoped to nurse her until she was two years old (as per the WHO recommendation). Her birthday is Jan. 29th, but I'm afraid that I'll miss a "prime-time" for complete weaning if we keep doing what we're doing for another month and a half just to hit that milestone.

My biggest fear is that while waiting for the next six weeks, she will become reattached to nursing, and we will have to start this weaning process all over again. I want to make this as easy as possible for her (and me), but I was also previously pretty set on nursing to two years old.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Doing well

Everything is going well with our family. It has been a rough few weeks for some friends and makes it hard to write uplifting, entertaining or informative blog entries. I also don't feel like it's my place to share their very private and heartbreaking experiences.

I am starting to feel the baby move now most days, which is exciting. We're scheduled for our 20 week ultrasound on Dec. 28th. We do not plan on finding out the baby's gender (much to the chagrine of some family members.) Laurel's being her usual brilliant, wild and hilarious little self.
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