Growing belly and other such things

Things are going well here at the Griffith's. Lucy is growing so fast. She knows over 50 words now! Her most recent doctor's apt. said she is very advanced, developmentally (which of course, made me swell with pride) but that she needs to gain weight. She's 22 lbs, which in and of itself isn't alarming, but she's 32 inches tall. So she's in the 70th percentile for her heigth, and only the 20th for her weight. Put the two together, and she doesn't register on the BMI. Yes, her Body Mass Index is 0. So, we're trying to fatten her up a bit.
I was recently flattered by the University of Utah when they called and asked me to sit on the board of scholarship selection! The Family Support Center is community partners with the Bennion Center at the U, and I guess I must have made an impression at the meetings I've attended. They sent the top 11 applications to me (essays, letters of rec., and transcripts). I've gone through them all, and will be conducting interviews with 4 other board members sometime in the near future. It'll be so hard to pick just one! It's a very big scholarship they're competing for. I'm so honored!
Tom is still liking his job, but applied for a lofty financial analyst position with Questar. It's a long shot, but keep your fingers crossed; it could happen!
Ethan is growing, and so is my enormous belly. 24 weeks and I'm already counting down, ha ha. Love babies. Don't love pregnancy. But enough complaining. We're blessed that he's doing so well.
Now on to the pictures:

Lucy is loving that it's starting to be warm enough to play in the yard

For some reason she insisted on wearing Tom's shirt one morning

24 week belly

Sometimes Lucy points to my belly and says, "Ball!"

My sweet girl

Loving her rocking horse. She calls it "Rock, Rock"

First day of nursery

Lucy went to nursery for the first time today. I went with her, since it was her first week, and would probably be scary. She did really well! I was really proud of her for participating during singing time and sitting nicely through the lesson.

BUT...when play time came, they brought the bigger kids in (our nursery is so big it's divided into two classes) and she really got pushed around. She's very small, and pretty passive. So other kids took her toys, pushed her down, and wouldn't let her play at the bigger toys like the play kitchen sets and stuff. It really, really upset me. I know this is all normal kids stuff that everyone goes through. She seemed fine; she only got upset a few times.

It's just so hard to watch. It's really starting to hit me that she's getting the age where I can no longer control all of her environment. I can't control 100% of the time how's she's treated or how she feels. I'm protective; I know. I just wish she could always be happy, safe, and treated fairly. First nursery, preschool isn't too far off...she's only 18 months! They don't tell you when you bring home your bundle of pink from the hospital that you have less than two years to shelter her, then it's hello world.

This is so much harder than I could have ever anticipated. I just love my daughter.

Not lovin' the new doc

My OBGYN with Lucy was fantastic. Dr. Craig never said one word about my weight, except that it was normal, and not to think about it. Except at the very end when my blood pressure shot up, she noticed faster weight gain, and decided to induce me. Anyway, she never made me feel bad about it, and I lost it all pretty fast after Lucy was born.
My NEW doctor, however, is one of those who believes women really don't need to gain weight when they're pregnant. At my 21 week apt I'd gained 11 lbs, and she said we should "watch my weight". Ok, that is significantly less than I'd gained with Lucy, plus I'd recently lost 25 lbs right before I got pregnant. I was eating only about 1300 calories a day, and running 3-5 miles every day. OF COURSE I GAINED WEIGHT WHEN I COULDN'T DO THAT ANYMORE!!!
Grrr. I don't like being told I'm fat.

Baby Ethan Thomas Griffith

We had another ultrasound (I swear, I've had a million). This was the official "20 week, gender-identifying" one. So even though we already knew it was a boy, this ultrasound confirmed it beyond a doubt. Both doctors that examined me said, "Wow. No guess work with this one...it's a boy." I guess he's not shy. We had a boy and girl name already picked out, and now know we'll be going with Ethan Thomas Griffith. I'm nervous to have a boy...it's all girls in my family. Tom will have to help a lot :0)

Everything looks good. He's measuring a few days small, but well within the standard deviation. Lucy was a really small baby (5 lbs) so our babies might just be small when they're born! Of course, that makes me wonder why I gain so much weight...ha ha. Oh, well, I'll lose it later. I guess I tore my placenta in three or four places. Most of the tears were mostly healed, and there were two that were still showing a significant amount of blood. But I'm not bleeding, so it'll probably reabsorb into the placenta.

I'm starting to show, and really feel pregnant.

Long Weekend Fun!

Tom and I both had Monday off (thank you Martin Luther King, Jr.) and we decided we wanted to do something fun. We thought about Vegas, but decided we didn't have the budget for it. So we found some local sites we hadn't been to yet. On Saturday we took Lucy to an interactive aquarium in Sandy. It was so fun to see her reactions. And we got to pet a mana ray! They feel so weird! Lucy actually grabbed one if its googly eyeballs...I hope it didn't go blind in one eye :0(
Then we ate at a random Eastside Seas restraunt I'd never heard of. For some reason I was thinking East as in Eastern United States, and that it would be a yummy seafood place. It was Chinese. I HATE chinese food; it ALWAYS makes me sick. So, I got sick. But overall, fun, fun day.
Then Monday we went to a giant indoor carnival called Hollywood Ritz Connection. Lucy loved all the rides; even rides I was sure would scare her! She had such a blast, she was all pooped out by 6:00. Then we had dinner and played games at Tom's parents. Super fun weekend. We needed a de-stresser after all the baby drama.

Speaking of which, things are going very well. I've gone five days without bleeding now :0) Me and Luc going down the slide
Riding on the ponies...I love her pigtails!

Ponies were one of her favorites. She cried when her turn was over

authentic china we ate on at the Eastseas

Tom and Lucy by a giant crab at the aquarium

petting the ray

The octopus scared her; she started shaking her head hard and saying "No, no, no!" when we came close to it

Sittin' on a frog

Slight relapse, not too concerned

Sorry if everyone is bored of seeing posts only about my pregnancy; I promise to post something else soon. But since I have friends and family spread all over the tri-state area, lots of people are asking what's going on. So, I started bleeding again yesterday, but it's very light, so I' m not too worried. I'll be going in for another ultrasound on Wednesday, and expect (and hope) to hear that things are healing the way they should. My belly is getting rounder, so I know the little guy is growing :0)

Thanks for all the prayers and concern. I'm sure it'll be fine!

Getting Better Each Day

So today is day #2 with no bleeding. Doc says after 7 consecutive days of no bleeding I will officially be out of "threatened abortion" status. I know a lot of people have been praying for me and my unborn son, and I just want to say thank you. I know it makes a difference. And for the first time since this whole mess started, I honestly feel like we're going to make it. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.