A Week of 'Firsts'

Well, I take it you've all had time to recover from the shock of my last post!!! :) Now I thought I'd update everyone on Reuben's latest adventures in 'babyhood.' First of all, he has just cut his first tooth! Needless to say, I am so proud of him. He is 4 and 1/2 months old and not only did he NOT fuss or cry about it, I wouldn't have even known it had come through had he not been trying to suck on my finger Friday morning and I felt this rough edge of something on his lower gums. It is on the lower right side in the middle and is just barely above the surface but it is definitely there and is visible if you look closely. He was such a good boy about the whole thing (let's hope all his teeth come through that easily.) Looking back to Thursday afternoon, I noticed his cheeks were really rosy and he had a massive nap (3 hours long which is huge for him) but it didn't click until Friday morning when I felt the tooth.
He's also discovered how to blow bubbles (or 'raspberries' if you live in NZ or OZ and are reading this) by pursing his lips together and blowing through them. It is so cute and he did it the first time when I was changing him at the mall the other day. Ever since, he does this regularly and thinks he's pretty clever. He has also started passing things from one hand to the other in the last few days and I even thought he was going to roll over for the first time on his own the other day but he didn't quite get there. We will persevere, though, and to be honest, if the rolling thing takes awhile, I can honestly say I'm not worried about it because I know I'll be having to 'baby-proof' everything once that starts happening! I'm going to make the most of his limited mobility while it lasts. There is another baby in a mother's group that I attend who started crawling at barely 5 months and I was like, 'Thank God Reuben hasn't started doing that already!'
I will try to post a photo of Reuben but my camera seems to have gone MIA and I will need to find it before that can happen. I'll try to get a shot of the tooth but if it's just not visible enough, I will wait until it is a bit more obvious!

A Picture Tells a Thousand Words

Well, maybe I should add a few of my own. Like, 'This is not a test.' Ha ha! This picture was taken last Friday at a 12 week scan for our second baby!!!!!! Needless to say, it was a HUGE surprise to find out I was pregnant again; I'm still getting my head around it myself so if you're all in shock, you're not alone. I wasn't sure how I was going to tell everyone and then I got the bright idea of posting it on our blog - sorry Tina that I didn't tell you last week, but I had my heart set on doing it this way. :)
At our best estimate, I am 13 weeks pregnant and due the end of November which would make Reuben ALMOST 11 months when he gains a sibling. I think they call two babies born within the same year Irish twins - not that I've been to Ireland - but I guess this happens a bit over there. The 12 week scan was done to check the nuchal translucency of the fetus (in other words, they measure the clear space in the developing tissue at the back of baby's neck.) Babies with an abnormally large space can be more likely to have Down Syndrome or other chromosomal disorders or congenital heart defects. Thank God our scan was totally normal! There's always a minute or two when they are doing an ultrasound that you hold your breath and pray everything is alright. We didn't have one of these scans with Reuben because we were in America when I was 12 weeks pregnant (and you can only do these scans between 11-14 weeks pregnancy.)
This was actually our 3rd scan during this pregnancy (I only had 3 total with Reuben!) because I experienced some bleeding early on for about two weeks and my doctor wanted to make sure the fetus was actually viable. I had a scan at around 6 weeks and then at 7 and the little heartbeat was going strong both times. My doctor told me once you see a heartbeat, your chances of miscarriage drop drastically but I still didn't allow myself to get very attached to the idea until after the bleeding stopped (I had no bleeding at all with Reuben.) Even now on some days the whole thing seems a bit surreal. Because we haven't told people either, there hasn't been the same amount of focus on this pregnancy as with Reuben - plus, I'm so busy with him, I barely have time to think about it.
The morning sickness was considerably more intense this time but thankfully, it has really subsided in the past couple of weeks and I'm feeling much better. Nathan is excited and has been really looking forward to telling people and I've been the one holding back this time. I was even thinking of not telling anyone at all and just waiting until I started showing and then see how long it took for people to get up the nerve to ask me if I was pregnant or just fat!!!!! Seriously! I have my days of feeling apprehensive about the whole thing as Reuben was definitely more 'planned' than this one, but at the same time, I know that this baby is being brought into the world for such a time as this, and I look forward to seeing what God has in store for this little one's life as I know Reuben has an awesome future ahead of him.
Anyway, speaking of Reuben, I will add another post in the next day or two updating everyone on his latest 'achievements' but I think listing them in this post would probably get lost amongst the excitement of the other news. Blessings to everyone reading this. I'll be interested to see how long it takes for the news to spread (and who will be the first to read this.)

My birthday and my first Mother's Day!

Well, I have now officially experienced my first Mother's Day as a mother! Yay! I got a lovely card from Reuben in which he had even done some drawing (i.e. some lines and squiggles) and it was pretty good for a 4 month old, I must say. Perhaps there is a future artist in our midst. :) Ha ha ha. I also celebrated my birthday yesterday and got lots of what I had asked for (money!!!!) I really wanted cash this year so I could pick out some new clothes and flat boots because I'm not sure my body will ever be exactly the same shape it was pre-baby and all my pairs of boots are high-heeled which just isn't practical anymore. Overall the day was relatively quiet (well, I did go out to breakfast and lunch which was lovely but nothing wild) and I must say one of the highlights was just getting to spend the whole day with my little boy. He is the best present ever and I am seriously tempted to spend some of my birthday money on him but I have been given strict instructions that the money is only for me. :)
I would love to say I have some photos of the weekend but ufortunately I can't find our memory card for the camera (grrrr!) so alas, no photos for now. I will definitely get some up by the end ofthe week, though.

Baby Update

I've been meaning to post some more recent pictures of Reuben and give an update on his new 'achievements' for a few days now but this seems to be easier said than done. He is getting SO talkative in his own baby way. I would say his latest sound could best be described as a 'gurgle.' I often try to imitate the sounds he makes back to him but I'm not sure if he realizes that this is what I'm doing. Sometimes if he starts to 'grizzle,' I imitate those sounds too and this seems to stop him in his tracks. He is most talkative in the morning after he wakes up (a definite 'morning' baby) and around people he knows well. He also recognizes people he knows by sight now (I don't have to talk to him first) and kicks his legs and smiles when he sees us.
Let's see... what else? He tries to pull himself into a sitting position, especially when I'm trying to feed him and his head control is really good. He can't do a full rollover yet, but if he's on his back and I half roll him to his tummy he will pull himself the rest of the way (I don't mind too much about the rolling part because as soon as he starts, he'll be everywhere and I will have to pay very close attention to him all the time.) He's sleeping about 12 hours a night now which is awesome and is getting up for his first feed between 7-7:30am. YAY! More sleep for us, although I haven't been sleeping well myself for some reason. Finally, a lot of his hair has grown in (he lost quite a bit about a month ago) and he has a good covering over his whole head (you may or may not be able to see this in the pictures I post.)

He will be 4 months on this coming Sunday (wow, it seems like just a few weeks ago I was holding him as a newborn.) We went and saw Amy and Ferg Turnbull's baby, Sophia Esther (who was born 29 April), last night and she is so tiny! She is only a few ounces smaller than Reuben was when he was born but it was still hard to remember him being that little! They grow so fast.
Anyway, now I'm rambling so I will add the photos and shut up! By the way, the reason I added the last photo is because he is holding his own bottle. :)

Monarch Butterflies

Those of you who have had any contact with me recently know that I have had a lot of monrach butterfly caterpillars this summer and lots of them are starting to emerge from their cocoons. Unfortunately, the weather has now turned cold all of a sudden and I am a bit concerned about the remaining chrysalises as I'm not sure they can survive in the cold temperatures. I've put some of the butterflies who hatched recently in our shed to shelter them a bit and have fed them (but I'm not sure if they eat much when it's this cold outside.) I really hope we get a few more warm days before the winter season really hits because I will be quite sad if I lose them - so many seem to die before they reach maturity anyway. :(

Anyway, I thought I'd add a couple of photos of the butterflies that 'hatched' a few days ago. They seem to be predominantly female although one of the ones in my shed is male. I'm not sure you can see the sex in my photos anyway.