Hanleys 2 Year Check Up

Hanley had her 2 year check up well  appointment yesterday.

She's a hefty girl weighing in at 31lbs (90th percentile) and 34 in tall (74%). It was a good checkup - nothing out of the ordinary. She was very excited to have the doctor check her ears, eyes, and heartbeat since she constantly plays with her own pretend doctor bag.

When the nurse came back in to give her the flu mist and her hepatitis shot I got a little nervous. She did so well with the flu mist, she kept sniffing in and didn't object to it at all. They actually had to prick her finger for a lead test checkup and collect a sample of blood. She didn't even flinch with the finger prick or try to pull away as he collected all the blood. She did so well, the nurse kept commenting on her demeanor on all of it. Then time came for her hepatitis shot in her thigh - and I even said "well don't speak too soon, she might not like this one very much..." but he warned her, squeezed her thigh and poked her with that needle and she barely flinched and never teared up even a little bit. It almost made me sad because she's such a big girl and seriously so easy going and sweet spirited. She was so excited after it was all done because I was telling her how proud I was of her and she got bandages so that's always a plus to her. She was telling people in the waiting room and then the grocery store that she got a shot "but it's ok" is what she would say haha silly girl!

Also, her doctor said "how is she already 2!?!?" Right!!! She said there's certain children she always remembers, especially their names and that Hanley has always been up there as one she remembers and has always been very beautiful. She said she remembers when she first came in as a newborn and I thought that was very sweet.

1st Trimester Update {baby #2}

I'm closely approaching the 2nd trimester of my second pregnancy. It seems so crazy to me that we are here again - we chose this but it's a little surreal.

I found out very early, 3 weeks to be exact. It seemed a little too early to take a test but I had a very strong intuition and the test very quickly confirmed that!

One thing that tipped me off, I was waking up in the middle of the night to pee and I have been sleeping through the night since Hanleys been sleeping through the night so that was a little odd to me. Another thing, I was getting up in the morning and not feeling like I could wake up. I was so fatigued and that wasn't normal for me.

So I stuck Hanley in her wagon and walked up the street to the drugstore and purchased a pack of tests. A "pack of tests" thinking I would need more than one because it was very early. Wrong...

Hanleys 2nd birthday party was around 8 weeks away and I had told Michael before getting pregnant I thought it might be fun to announce it then!

So I had my first doctor appointment at 8 weeks. Nothing special, just the routine check up, blood work, and questions. My next doctor appointment was around 3 weeks later, the day before Hanleys 2nd birthday party and it was an ultrasound. It was nice to have an ultrasound picture to have for her birthday party. The baby was itty bitty but there, actually must've been sleeping because it never moved, not once, during the ultrasound. The heartbeat measured at 164bpm.

I had another ultrasound last week, at 12 weeks, for the down syndrome testing. I opted to do the testing only because I knew it included another ultrasound and posed no threat to the baby. The tech ultimately wasn't able to get a good enough picture but I never rescheduled because the outcome of the test won't change anything. It was just nice to see the baby again. The baby was a complete wiggle worm this time and flipped, flopped, and hiccupped all over my belly. The heartbeat then was 160bpm.

I have another doctor appointment, just the regular monthly checkup, at 17 weeks (4 weeks away). And then we do the anatomy scan just a week and 2 days after that, at mid 18 weeks!

I'm thankful for (so far) an easy going 2nd pregnancy. Hanleys was a breeze, except for sciatica for a few weeks at the tail end. Never any morning sickness, heartburn, or anything else. I gained exactly 30 with Hanley, which is what was recommended and so far this time I haven't gained any just yet. (Which never makes any sense to me because I clearly have more of a belly than I normally have not pregnant yet the scale hasn't moved?????)

Kids can be so Cruel

We are in Chicago on vacation visiting my brother and his family. It's pretty cold today and the kids were itching to get out of the house. We took them to the mall to play in this big tree house play area and some boy around Hanleys age squeezed Hanleys face as hard as he could, TWICE, with his nails too, and made her bleed.

It took everything in me not to punt him and I made him take me to his mom.

I brought Hanley with me to his mom and I told and showed her what happened and she said "He's normally a pretty good kid" and I said "Well he obviously is going to need watched a little better" and she said "Well I can't watch him every second since I have him" (because she had a smaller baby on her lap) and I said " She's bleeding!! If you can't watch him better then maybe he shouldn't be here at all!" And then they left.

I cried and cried and cried. I couldn't stop because I was so angry. Plus, I'm sure I'm a little hormonal haha

She did apologize and made the boy apologize (not that he knew why, I'm sure) but it wasn't enough for me at the time, not much would've been enough because I was so upset. Then I started to feel guilty later after I calmed down that they left because I'm sure it's tough with a little little one and then a toddler that wants to run and play. I might not have reacted so strongly but when Hanley was a little younger, she was playing at another mall play area and some boy just came up to her and bit her chin and left perfect teeth marks on her and I watched the whole thing and Hanley never provoked anything. You can actually read about the first biting incident here . She's such a sweet spirited girl, it makes me so mad these kids do this to her. That first time we just left and I didn't say anything to his parents, even tho I should have.

And apparently while I was gone shopping in a store nearby for 15 minutes before this incident, Hanley was trying to walk up or down the stairs and some girl basically put her in a choke hold and threw her down. So then, when I got back Michael said "I gotta go walk around for a couple minutes" because he was getting overwhelmed. There was tons of older kids running around and climbing up the slides, which is so annoying, when it was definitely for younger kids. It was chaotic since it was a Saturday and pretty chilly outside.

And I totally get that she might get knocked down or run into by bigger kids because she's small, dainty and young but I shouldn't have to worry about kids being cruel to her.

Happy 2nd Birthday Hanley Monroe

It's shocking to me how the second year of Hanleys life went even faster than the first! Who thought that was possible?? I certainly didn't!

So I originally was planning for a Daniel the Tiger 2nd birthday party. Then I slowly started to realize everything was Dora. She stopped asking for Daniel the Tiger and constantly started asking for Dora everything.

New plan : Ah-DORA-ble Fiesta birthday party!!

I planned to have her birthday party in our backyard with mostly family and closest friends. I personally never really wanted Hanley to like Dora the Explorer but oh well. One of the good things about having Dora as the theme of the party, pretty much any bright colors will be good to decorate with, and thats exactly what I used!

 

 Her party was a huge success in my book and I enjoyed making all of her decorations!

Also at her party, we announced that we are expecting our 2nd baby!! I had a box for her to open after all other presents were opened that contained a few books and a movie about being a big sister, a tee shirt that says "Big Sister" and also one of the ultrasound pictures from our doctor appointment we had just the day before. 

It was a huge surprise and we had been keeping this secret for nearly 8 weeks! I'm currently 11 weeks and it was so incredibly hard to keep quiet!

We hadn't even told Hanley about her going to be a big sister until her birthday surprise because she is so bright and talkative that we were afraid she would have spoiled it! Good thing we didn't tell her too, because after her party I was telling her all about how mommy has a baby in her belly and what that means, a few hours later I was going through her bedtime routine and reading her a few books before laying her down. I wasn't reading any books about baby's or anything relating to the topic and all the sudden, she cut me off saying "baby in da belly!!!" HAHA so she definitely would've slipped at some point, I believe! It was a great day and she had so much fun playing with all her little friends and cousins!

On the day of her actual birthday, I took her to the zoo in the morning and then later we took her to Chuck E Cheese!

 Happy Birthday beautiful girl!!

24 Month Update

Not much has changed in terms of Miss Hanley; ~28 lbs and finally cut one of her cuspids! 3 more cuspids to cut and then her 2 year molars. Conversations are getting better and better with her daily. Eating is hit or miss, she usually eats breakfast very well, lunch ok, and then dinner is horrible. Loves singing and watching TV. Getting very close to be able to count to 20 - can count to 10 in Spanish. Knows her ABC's (for months now) but we are starting to work on identifying them individually. Teaching her colors has been the most trying thing to teach her - if she picks something up and names its color, she usually gets it right. But if we ask her what color something is, she is usually wrong; unless its pink or blue. lol

Still very polite and is starting to know the right things to reply when someone says something to her... i.e. "You are so pretty" she will reply "Thank you!".

Still not a tantrum throwing girl. Thankfully, she is normally very pleasant and go with the flow! I can probably count on one hand how many tantrums she has thrown in the past 4 or so months.