Nicknames for Nora

Things that we have called our baby in the last 5 weeks:

• The Bean
• Baby Bean
• Baby Girl
• Nora Bean
• Jelly Bean
• Honey Bear
• Grumpy Bear
• Baby Bear
• The Fussy Hussy
• The Gassy Lassy
• The Sassy Lassy
• Dumpy Butterton
• Baby Burrito
• Chubbernutter
• Nora Borealis
• NORAD

Nora's many fine accomplishments

Nora Bean's granny and grandpa and aunt Caitrin visited last week from Oregon, and the presence of 5 adults in her life apparently sparked a huge leap in development. In addition to the social smiles I mentioned earlier (still the best thing ever) she can also, just as of this past week:

• track an object slowly drawn across her field of vision
• grab and shake a rattle (see figure A, above)
• find daddy when he speaks and look at him

She's also continued to improve her head control. She can almost hold it up all on her own! And she is making progress towards creeping. She has started curling her toes under--before, she was just sliding the tops of her feet along the ground. She also rolled over twice in a row, but we have yet to see a repeat performance of that trick, so I'd say that one's in progress.

She's developing so fast! It's pretty awesome to see what she can accomplish in just one week!

The experience of watching her change and develop has been so amazing. It's made us realize that we really want some kind of written record of our experience, both for us, and maybe eventually for her. All of which is to say that there should be more regular posts from here on out. Hopefully with pictures. I will also try to fill in the blanks from the last month or so, as best I can. I'm not sure how that will show up in RSS feeds, so when I'm done I'll probably post once with just the links to the catchup posts.

Dad (aka:Ross) will probably also post occasionally. In particular, the lyrics of his brilliant song, "Pooparatzzi," really need to be recorded for the ages.

First Smiles!

The Bean can smile at us! We smile, and she smiles back!

Best thing ever.

A list of things I'm hooked up to right now...

*IV line (4 bags currently)

*Epidural line

*Automatic blood pressure cuff

*Squeeze-y leg thingies (to prevent blood clots)

*Catheter

That last one's a doozy.

Not exactly what I expected...

So I'm in the hospital.

However, I am not in labor.

I went in for my regularly scheduled OB appointment this afternoon, and my blood pressure set off some alarm bells. It was really high--especially since I normally have blood pressure on the low end. So they sent me to get some labs done, and the labs came out...poorly.

Turns out, I have preeclampsia.

They categorized it as "severe", meaning that I'm hooked up to "The Mag" (Magnesium) and they are inducing labor. As our OB told us, we aren't leaving the hospital without a baby. Fortunately, the Goober is at term (38-1/2 weeks) so this isn't such a bad thing for her.

I, on the other hand, feel kind of like crap.

Updates as events warrant.

A milestone...

I just had my first stranger ask when I was due. Unambiguously preggers!

Newsflash from the start of the third trimester

The Goober has discovered my bladder. Also, her recent growth spurt has put my floating ribs within reach.

Her father is SO proud.