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During this pregnancy I have been seeing my regular OB as well as a perinatologist (a high risk OB). The perinatologist is monitoring my blood sugars since I have developed gestational diabetes again. He is monitoring baby girl to make sure that she doesn’t get too big too quickly, and he will also monitor my amniotic fluid levels since Amelia was induced at 34.5 weeks because my fluid levels were dangerously low. It was only by God’s grace that my previous doctors did an unplanned ultrasound on her around 33.5 weeks, which is when they saw the low fluid. They had me rest for a week and drink as much water as I could, but the amniotic fluid was even lower at the next ultrasound and I had to be induced. We are hoping that with weekly monitoring starting at 28 weeks we will be able to catch any problems early and keep this baby girl cooking until at least 37 weeks!

My first ultrasound with the perinatologist was 90 minutes long, and obviously very detailed. They checked absolutely everything and baby girl looks perfectly healthy! We are so incredibly thankful! I was having a hard time getting truly excited about this baby because I am much more aware now of all the things that could go wrong. When I was pregnant with Amelia I never even thought about the fact that she would be anything other than perfectly healthy – oh, to be that naive again! I am very relieved to know that our baby girl is healthy!

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The next day we drove over 800 miles to Grandma and Grandpa’s house with no accidents. She was a champ at using public restrooms, although I cringed every time we had to use them – yuck! No accidents the whole time we were there, and she did great on the long drive back home as well. She started the new year wearing panties during the day and pull-ups at night. She is still waking up wet some mornings, but no accidents during the day. I think I can safely say that she is potty trained! The best part is that she did it all by herself – we just had to wait until she was ready. We are SO PROUD of our big girl!!!

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Friday was Amelia’s third birthday! Grandma and I put together these sheep cupcakes the night before – we must have spent at least an hour just cutting the marshmallows in half so they could stick to the sheep! On Friday morning we put some balloons, some presents and the cupcakes on the back porch and didn’t let Amelia peek out there until everyone had arrived. We had her “party” at 8:30AM because Grandpa had to work at 10 and wouldn’t be back home until right before her bedtime. She LOVED the sheep cupcakes, the balloons on her chair and the purple “3″ candle that she got to blow out! She was also very excited to wear The Birthday Hat! She thought the presents were neat but she was more interested in trying to get back into the swimming pool than opening her gifts! We just stayed around the house for the rest of the day, playing with new toys and going for a few walks around the neighborhood.

On Christmas Eve Grandma had to work, so we went with Uncle Erik to the hospital surprise her! She was happy to see us and show Amelia off to her coworkers. Grandma gave Amelia a cup of ice water (hospital ice is the best!) and some graham crackers – Amelia loved all of the attention! After we left the hospital we went to the yacht club to play in the sand. Amelia was thrilled to be at the beach! Daddy and Uncle Erik helped her make a sand castle (which was really more of a sand tunnel). What a fun day!

On Christmas morning we woke up early and Amelia opened her stocking while we were waiting for everyone to wake up and/or arrive. After our traditional Norwegian breakfast we started opening presents! The second picture is of everyone opening their gifts from us – we kept baby’s sex a secret until Christmas morning and they all found out when they opened our gift! They had been trying to “trick” us into giving it away ever since we got down there. Grandma was leaping out of her chair with excitement! They found out that we are having ANOTHER GIRL!!!!!! Everyone guessed that our baby was a boy except for Andrea and Cheryl, Uncle Dan and Uncle Erik’s girlfriends – they both guessed girl and they were right!!! Christmas was a wonderful day full of amazing gifts and generosity – there were even a few tears shed!!! We are so incredibly thankful that we were able to spend the day with our Florida family.

On the day after Christmas we went to the beach again – this time to Sanibel Island! We had a lot of fun playing in the sand, and we finally got to meet Rebecca! Rebecca’s mommy is one of my close friends from childhood – Becca is 17 months old and this was our first time getting her and Amelia together to play. They took to each other quickly and had a great time playing together! At the end of the day we took Amelia down to the river to watch the sunset and then Uncle Erik took us to see a house with thousands of Christmas lights that were all synchronized to music. Quite the fun-filled day!

On Tuesday we did lots of laundry and figured out how to pack all of our gifts into the car. My best friend Daisha arrived around 3PM and we had fun catching up. We (me, Mark, Daisha and Erik) went to the movies that evening and on Wednesday we got up early and left Grandma and Grandpa’s house. We (Grandma, Grandpa, Daisha and the three of us) drove to Legoland and had a lot of fun! We only stayed about 5 hours though, because the park had reached maximum capacity and it was way too hard to maneuver through the crowds. After leaving the park we drove to Daisha’s house near St. Augustine – we had fun catching up with her and her mom that evening and then the next morning we left to drive back home. We had a fun-filled and jam packed trip, and we were very glad to get back home.

On New Year’s Eve we went to Grandma & Grandpa’s house for our Christmas with them. Uncle Paul was in town and we had a lot of fun seeing him! Amelia helped Grandma makes some yummy chocolate chip cookies and later in the evening we ate some delicious smoked turkey.

Our Christmas holiday was wonderful, and we enjoyed every minute of time we spent with our families. 2011 was a wonderful year for us – the biggest events were buying our first home and finding out that we would be adding another member to our family! We are looking forward to what 2012 holds for us, and are very excited about meeting our new little girl in April!

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The first few days after we moved in Amelia would cry whenever we left the house! She kept saying “big big big PURPLE” – she didn’t want to leave our new house with the big yard and her purple bedroom! No matter how many times we reassured her we were just running errands and would come back when we were done, she still was incredibly upset to leave her new house. Also, Amelia BAWLS when we drive in the direction of our old apartment – she says “big! big! big!” and cries her eyes out – she is afraid we are going back to the apartment, poor dear. Even when we tell her we are just running errands and will go back to the new house when we are done she still cries when she recognizes the scenery around our old place.

A few weeks ago I bought a large pumpkin to decorate our front porch, and a few days later we made pumpkin bread and pumpkin chocolate chip bars. Now whenever we pull into the driveway Amelia yells “MMMMMM! YUM YUM YUM!” when she sees the pumpkin on the porch!

A few nights ago we heard Amelia fiddling with a little wooden “treasure box” in her room after we put her to bed. When I went to check on her a few hours later, she had her bean bag in her bed  (at the foot) and was using it as a pillow while resting her feet on her actual pillow. Curiously, I looked all over her room for that little wooden box she had been playing with and couldn’t find it. Finally, I checked her bed – it was by her feet, hidden under her pillow! I guess she hid it there and decided it wasn’t comfortable to sleep on, so she used her bean bag as a pillow instead!

Whenever we have to fuss at or be stern with Amelia, she reacts by dramatically shutting her eyes and snoring/pretending to sleep. If she is sitting down she flips her body around so her back is facing you while she snores. It is SO HARD not to laugh at her!

Amelia and I were having a tea party and I asked her what she was serving. When she told me it was hot chocolate, I said it was very yummy, and asked if she had any marshmallows to go on top. She thought for a minute and ran to her kitchen . . . she came back with a mushroom and shoved it into my cup! I guess marshmallow and mushroom sound similar? Who knows!

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Amelia got her birthday gift a few months early this year! Mark and I decided to give her a Radio Flyer trike so that she (and we!) can enjoy it while the weather is so nice. One of the rough things about having a birthday two days before Christmas is that you can’t really go out and ride your brand new trike in the snow and ice. She already loves it, and Mark and I are thrilled that she is enjoying it so much!

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The first four pictures were taken around our old apartment, and the rest were taken around our new house!

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One day recently Amelia went through four outfit changes and six shoe changes, not because she needed to, but because she wanted to. The most notable outfit was a pair of my heels with her frilly apron! Another favorite outfit is a just a shirt, diaper and pink cowgirl boots!

Amelia loves strawberries, but she will ONLY eat them if they are whole. If they are sliced or even if I have taken off too much of the stem she will not touch them.

Amelia’s favorite book is Go, Train, Go!, and the reason she likes it so much is that Thomas drives through some mud and gets dirty. Each night before bed she says she wants to read the “yuck” book!

Amelia thinks it is extremely funny to take her shoes off and shove her feet towards my nose. I pretend to sniff and then scrunch up my face and say “PEE YOU!” – she laughs and laughs and laughs!

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