Words Grace says - 15 months

I am horrible at keeping up with the blog, but we want to write down the words Grace is saying now (not counting one-time words/sounds):

1. ah-ah-ah (a monkey says...)
2. apple
3. amen
4. animal
5. baa (a sheep says...)
6. baby
7. back
8. ball
9. beam (while singing "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam")
10. bear
11. bird
12. blue 
13. "Bob" (Sponge Bob)
14. boo ("peek-a-boo")
15. book
16. boom
17. bread
18. bumble
19. bubble
20. bye bye
21. cat
22. cold
23. dadda 
24. diaper
25. done 
26. door
27. Dora
28. down
29. duck
30. Elmo
31. coke (and diet coke) (NO she has not tried it!) :)
32. "coco" (for cookie)
33. cow 
34. cute
35. eye
36. George (curious George)
37. giraffe
38. go 
39. grandma
40. God ("while singing "I am a Child of God")
41. hat
42. hello
43. hi
44. hot
45. juice
46. la-la-la (three singing pigs say...) 
47. light
48. mama
49. meow
50. moo 
51. Nanna
52. no!
53. noodle
54. nose
55. oh!
56. off
57. on 
58. one
59. "oppus" (octopus)
60. owl
61. papa
62. "pider" (spider)
63. poop
64. pump (Mommy's insulin pump)
65. pup-pup (dog)
66. purple
67. quack
68. neigh (a horse says...) 
69. "Rick" (Eric)
70. row
71. thank you
72. toes
73. toot
74. truck
75. turtle
76. tutu
77. uh-oh...
78. up
79. wow
80. whoa

... you may argue some are not "words" but to her, they are! :)

She has been saying things like "Bye bye Dadda... back?"  I think that is the most complicated thing, but pretty good for 15 months!

WOW - you go baby Grace!!! :D

Where is time flying...?

I feel like the World's Worst Mom in one respect - Grace is almost 7 mos old and I'm not getting much on the blog!  I want (desperately) to finish up my baby shower thank you notes, then to get pics, etc. on here.  It WILL happen... someday... (hopefully soon)! :)

Just want to document two things Grace LOVES:  music and going outside.  LOVES, loves, loves... :)  Got to have her sit on my lap while I played the piano today - she hit a few notes herself - woohoo!  Oh and listening to "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" made her babble and "sing" today.

... she is now sitting up on her own (once you help her GET to sitting, of course), continues to talk/make more syllables, etc.  She is very observant and deliberate - it seems she doesn't do random things.  I like to think this is because she is a smarty-pants. ;)

OK anyway, will eventually post info from her calendar, pics, video, etc... no, really! ;)

Things I don't ever want to forget...

• Grace singing herself to sleep
• Grace learning to growl
• Grace loving to cuddle
• Grace loving to go to bed in her crib
• Hearing Grace playing/talking to her mirror and quilt in the middle of the night (never crying, just talking) :)
• Making Grace laugh by saying "apples" and singing "Glak-goon..." - her giggles and laughs are so cute
• Grace laughing when I have to get the "boogie monsters" (aka clear her nose) - honestly, she doesn't cry, she giggles - what a trooper!

Oh how I love this baby. :) 

No, I'm not actually still gestating...;)

Well this summer was an amazing, chaotic, scary, blissful blur. I know I owe much more than will be included here, but rest assured I am not actually 50 wks pregnant, and all is well.

As warned, I was hospitalized at the beginning of week 34 (on a Tues) to do steroid injections to prep Grace's lungs since I was found to officially have pre-eclampsia. I will post more about this some day, but to summarize, by Fri I was incredibly swollen (think very full tick) and began to have pulmonary edema. Fri afternoon I was induced, but within about 2 hrs of that, my breathing was getting worse and worse so I was prepped for a c-section, and at 10:36 or 10:37 p.m. (there is some debate on which) Grace was born.

Grace Audry Dimond was 6 lbs, 4 oz and about 19 1/2 inches long at that time on May 6, 2011.

There is much to tell - I am keeping a calendar of firsts and will post hopefully soon - but to summarize (again), we are the luckiest parents I think! This little girl is the most sweet, mellow, beautiful baby we could have ever dreamed of. Between her complexion and ears (clearly Blake's) and nose (mine) there is no question she is uniquely and magnificently ours.

She will be 16 wks old tomorrow. I am embarrassed in a way that it took me so long to officially document our wonder baby's arrival here, but I truly have struggled with accepting the early end of the pregnancy, how sick I was, and that I had a preemie/NICU baby so just had to process some things for a while. I will say, though, this whole experience strengthened my knowledge that Heavenly Father knows us, loves us, will only give us challenges we can handle with His help, and will place people in our lives at seemingly insignificant times that will help us at the exact, precise moment we desperately need them. I'll expand on that later, too.

I am amazed and thankful for our little Skooch/Peanut/Grace/Gracie Lou. It may be a cliche, but how true to say I never quite expected or knew just how much I would love my own baby, and how amazing it would be.

I have to say it, in the words of Ren and Stimpy, "happy, happy, joy, joy!!!"

More (including pics, video, etc.) to come. :)

Week 31 - 33 (oops)

OK OK, it is absolutely horrible to go this long without posting.  Poor Gracie's story is missing a bit here!!!

The past few weeks have been completely exhausting - primarily because we've been involved with assisting with measles investigations.  Folks from my staff may wonder why I'm whining about this given they're really the ones doing the work - hopefully my contributions (however small) are helpful!  Anyway trust me when I say an incredible amount of work from all of my peeps has gone into this response, and it's just a piece of what has gone on statewide between local health departments, schools, clinicians, etc... Wow.  If you ever wonder "what does public health do for me"? give me a call - there are amazingly dedicated people who work very hard to help those who are sick and prevent illness in others.  While I am zonked, I certainly love my job and the opportunity to work with these folks!

ANYWAY - on a fun note, I had my first Utah baby shower - family and friends - on Sat April 16 at Danielle's (my sis-in-law's) house.  My Mom and Genevieve came into town and stayed with us, which meant Blake and I really cracked down in the week or two before to finish two BIG projects: finishing the basement and finishing the office/guestroom remodel.  We did it though, which gave us plenty of room/options for company! :)  The party was so great - the hostesses worked really hard to make things so lovely.  Again, people were incredibly generous, and we continue to see that Grace is one loved little baby!!! :)  I need to get my thank you notes out - planning to work on that this weekend!!!

Weeks 29 and 30

Soooo much to share!!!  Whoa.  Have I mentioned time is going by SOOO fast???  Holy cow.

So - during week 29, I had two dr appointments - one with Dr. Silver where I had an ultrasound, and one for a fetal echocardiagram.  Everything is great - no detected problems with anything!  Grace is measuring just a little big but Dr. Silver is very happy.  I will start having twice weekly non-stress tests starting week 32 (VERY SOON!)

Here are pics from the ultrasound - done March 29 - she was measuring about 3 lbs 4 oz and I know has grown quite a bit since! :)

 ...profile pics...

... pics of her face - I don' t think it's very easy to know what she looks like from these, though...

... and her foot and one more profile - she is grabbing her umbilical cord here.

Week 28 - LOTS to share!!! :)

Holy cow - first of all, I get to label this 3rd trimester.  Crazy!!!

This week went by FAST (again)!  I'm feeling pretty good though my heartburn is back and I have to be REALLY careful about it or I'm miserable.  Other than that, I'm getting tired pretty quickly again and getting swelling in my feet and hands (especially if I don't walk around).  That is totally ok though!  I've been feeling kind of crummy today - really tired and hot - again I think that is just fine.  Yesterday I think Grace found a spot to rest that was great for her and terribly painful for me - I had one spot at the bottom of my belly that HURT - ouch.  But this morning it was just fine!  

Grace kicks and moves a LOT.  It's pretty cool.  I'm now having trouble remembering when I DIDN'T feel her kicking throughout the day and evening. :)  Sometimes those little kicks are kind of shocking!