Laurel and I recently had some photos taken by a local college student who was working on a class project. She graciously offered to take a whole session of photos and give us the images at no cost! Here is a sample of her great work!

I can't believe there's less than two months to go until my due date, and if this baby is as impatient as Laurel we'll meet in a month! For the most part we're ready for the arrival because we aren't doing a nursery (the crib we'll be side-carred next to our big bed in our room. Plus we've got plenty of onesies, sleepers, diapers, socks, etc. to last us through at least 2-3 months old. I'll need to pack a hospital bag at some point and we'll need to install the infant car seat in my van, but that's about it.

For the past week poor Laurel has had a terrible cold. Well, I guess she's learned a little too much about sharing in Sunday School because she immediately gave it to her father and me. Right about the time I got sick I noticed that the baby stopped moving quite as often or as forcefully. The first day/night of the change I just attributed it to a fluke. Also, I know baby is getting a lot more cramped and doesn't have the room to jump and kick like before. But then after another day and a half of significantly decreased movement I started to get a little concerned. I had drank coffee and got no real reaction, had a banana and nothing, etc. so I called the doctor's office. They told me to come on in.

When I got there they hooked me up to a fetal monitor and did a nonstress test where they monitored the baby's heartbeat for about 20 minutes and had me hit a button every time baby moved. It took forever for the nurse to get a good reading on the heartbeat because he seemed determined to move every time she got the detector in place. After about 10-15 minutes of wrestling (and pulling the belt so tight around my waist I was afraid I would bruise) we finally heard a constant heartbeat. Well, of course, baby finally decided to wake up a little and he started moving around a lot. The heart rate fluctuated between the 120s and 160. The doctor said the monitor usually gets babies good and upset so they'll move and kick a lot. She said the movements and heart rate were perfect, but to feel free to come in if I get worried again. I'm just so relieved that everything seems to be fine.

Laurel has been out of diapers for over a month now!! I can't believe it, but she has done so well. Accidents are pretty infrequent and she is even occasionally waking up with dry diapers in the morning and after her nap, which is totally new. Unfortunately right now she seems to be battling a cold, but other than that she's doing great.

Baby is doing well also. I had my 32 week checkup yesterday and baby's heart rate was 130. Both me and the doctor are both guessing it's a boy since the heart rate has consistently been pretty low. I'm feeling really well now that my back and hip aren't bothering me anymore; however, sleep is becoming harder and harder to come by. After lying on one side for about an hour I get sore and wake up and have to roll over. I've also had a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions this pregnancy whereas I never had a single one with Laurel. They aren't painful, but they do make me worry. The doctor said everything was okay as long as I can make them go away by lying down and drinking some water, but if I had more than 4 in an hour and they weren't going away to come over and let them check me.

It's strange, but as time gets closer I feel more calm about delivery rather than nervous. I'm not sure why since I was originally pretty terrified of a natural birth, but I really feel like I'll be in the best hands possible with the support of Tim and my doula, Angie. Also, I've met all four doctors at my new OB-GYN group and I feel really comfortable with all four of them. In fact, when they've looked at my chart, all of them have commented on how wonderful Angie is and how great she is to work with. That gives me a lot of confidence!

Disclaimer: To me, potty training (or learning) is a very child-specific venture so this post is just to explain what we've done and how it has worked, not to suggest that this is the best way to teach every child to use the potty.

When Laurel was about 18 months old she started expressing an interest in the potty. She would come to the bathroom every time Tim, her nanny or I went and she would tell us when she wet or dirtied her diaper. I knew that potty-interest is pretty normal for that age, but I still wondered if we could take advantage of it to start introducing how to use the potty.

It was suggested to me that I try reading the book Diaper Free Before 3 to get some ideas about what to do. The author was a big advocate of very early introduction and gradual teaching of potty skills (starting before a year old). She advised buying small potties and putting them in your bathrooms and initially just sitting the child on the potty once or twice a day. During that time we would read/sing/play with her and keep everything very low pressure (no bribing or scolding or over-the-top praising.)

Once she went a few times while on the potty, we started sitting her on it more and more. Most of the time she really enjoyed sitting there (even if she didn't use the potty) but occasionally it would backfire and she would refuse. At those times we just backed off and tried again later.

By the time she was about 20 months old we started letting her wear training pants/underwear around our house and her grandparents' houses. She had a lot of accidents at first, but the feeling of wetness in her underwear and having to change clothes was a much bigger chore now than it had been before with diapers. (We've used cloth diapers since she was three months old and I do feel that those may have contributed to her early association of going pee-pee equals being wet because there is a little more wetness against the skin with cloth versus disposable.)

We still used diapers for car trips or any outings away from our home or her grandparents' homes and during nap/night time (we still use diapers for sleeping). After she turned two I started thinking more about the book and how the author talked about completely taking away diapers once the child really seemed to know what was going on and could communicate their potty needs. It was a very scary thought, but Laurel was smart enough to know she was getting a diaper to go bye-bye and lots of times she would wait until the diaper was on to go to the bathroom.

Last Friday (Feb. 18) we stopped using diapers completely except for sleeping. And you know what, it's working! Yes, she has an accident once every 2-3 days, but she is going to the bathroom on the potty now not only at home but at restaurants, stores, church, etc. (We use a potty ring on top of a big toilet for public bathrooms.) She is articulating to us when she needs to go without us constantly asking. In fact, her telling us when she needs to go works a lot better because when we try to make her go there's often a power struggles that results with her intentionally holding it and then having an accident once we leave the bathroom.

Since we took away the diapers (and yes, she had plenty of warning) we continually reinforce that she'll need to at least try to go every time we leave the house and before taking a nap or going to bed at night. In lots of different ways, Laurel responds very well to being forewarned of our expectations and as long as she knows what to expect, she rarely argues or resists. This has been the key with getting her to go to the bathroom away from home and when we are leaving our house.

I am not naive enough to believe that she is fully potty trained or that we won't have accidents and possibly regressions, especially with the baby on the way. However, I think all this work on the front end will ultimately result in her complete independence from diapers at a much earlier age than if we just left it all up to her.

As most of you know, we've been using cloth diapers on Laurel since she was about 3 months old and absolutely love them. They have been a huge money saver in the long run and almost all of our diapers are still in great condition to pass on to #2. We started using cloth by doing Jillian's Drawers Trial. They have a great return policy (http://www.jilliansdrawers.com/customerservice/returnsandcancellations) which allows you to return any stain-free diaper within 30 days for full store credit! That makes trying out a new diaper pretty risk free!

Right now I'm leaning toward using disposables with the new baby until about three months of age simply because I'm unsure if the cost of purchasing a whole set of tiny, newborn cloth diapers will be worth it (and because there is a LOT of newborn poop.) I'll keep you updated on our decision!

"That was so fun" was what Laurel told us tonight at dinner right after she sneezed. This is her first "real sentence." As soon as she said it I asked Tim, "Did she just say 'that was so fun'?" He laughed and said he was pretty sure that's what she said. Lately she's been putting lots of words together. For example:

"Mommy, 'side me!" = Mommy, sit beside me
"Shebby, mere!" = Shelby, come here (Shelby's our cat)
"Daddy, say 'gin!" = Daddy, say it again
"Nanny, with us?" = Is Nanny coming with us?
"Chuch fend peas." = Can I see my church friends please?
"Stop it Shebby!" = Stop it Shelby (this was her first three word sentence, probably because we say it so much)

Right now she is picking up new words like crazy and her favorite thing to do at night when we're going to sleep is to play the "door game." What I do is say household words and she repeats them. I call it the door game because the easiest way for me to think of words is to mentally walk through my house and name everything I see. She repeats every word, some clearly...and some not so much. (I doubt anyone would recognize "ayter" as refrigerator.)

Another trick she's learned is to count to nine! It's really hard to get her to do it, well, to be honest, you can't get her to do it, but she knows how. Tim and I have heard her and my mom has heard her do it.

Also, we've got magnetic alphabetic letters and it amazes me how often she can pick up a letter and accurately identify it. No one has ever actively tried to teach her either the ABCs or to count, but she's picked them both up on her own.

It's so fun to watch your baby learn and grow!