8 Months and other family updates

8 Months and Tufte News

-Mobility:  Katelyn is not crawling yet, but up on all fours rocking back and forth.  She also can reach things that are quite far away from her by going from sitting and bending one leg beneath her and get up on her knees and walks her hands forward until she reaches the object.  Sometimes, this means she ends up on her tummy since she's too far to move back (which she's not a fan of getting stuck) but often can get back to sitting.  From that position, it looks like she's going to take off, but it'll take some time for her to figure out how to move her knees as well.  She also knows how to push backwards (but this is usually when she's trying to go forwards)
-Standing: Katelyn LOVES to stand!  Put her against anything she can hang on to and she doesn't need a toy but is just as happy as a clam to bounce and giggle.  You can just see how proud she is!  She often lets go and doesn't use her hands to steady her and is certainly on her way learning balance!
-Sleeping: We now sometimes sleep ALL the way through the night!  From 8pm-7am!   But when she wakes up at 4 or 5 to eat, she sleeps longer in the morning to make it a full 12 hours of sleep.  Sometimes I almost prefer her to wake at 4 or 5 so we can sleep in a little ;)
-Falling asleep: We now completely self-soothe!  Sometimes, although she's tired, she has determined she's not ready to sleep and plays her in crib with the blanket and often talks to herself until she falls asleep.  But no crying!

-Babbling: Katelyn love to hear herself talk!  She often babbles "mamamama", sometimes "yayayaya" or "blllll" and makes many clicking noises with her tongue.  (See video at very end of post)

-Tongue: Katelyn has discovered her tongue!  She licks her lips and loves to hear the noises she can make as she moves her tongue back and forth.  Silly girl!  

-Piano: Let's just say she likes to sing while she plays. (see video at very end of post )

-Mother's Day(picture to right): Katelyn wrote me a very sweet card and made me feel very loved for my first mama's day (although I suspect she told daddy what to write...)

-First Family Vacation!: For mommy and daddy's 4th anniversary, we decided to take a family trip to Okaboji.  We took many walks, enjoyed the beautiful weather, and snuggled out little girl all day!  Katelyn had her first swing ride (which she loves!)

Team Tufte News

We made it officially public this month!  Katelyn's little brother will be here in October!  This pregnancy was a whole new ball game and the reason we didn't announce or make calls like we did with Katelyn once we hit 2nd trimester was because of the complications we were having.

Here's the story:

In February, my jaw dropped when I took the test.  I really didn't think I was pregnant.  I shared the news with Tyler and we were both in disbelief.  We had always talked about having kids close together and certainly weren't preventing it but I was still exclusively nursing Katelyn.    I was a little sick but not nearly what it was like with Katelyn.  The issue I dealt with more was exhaustion, but much of that had to do with waking up often with Katelyn in the night along with working full-time.  Things seemed fine until I was about 11 weeks.  I had a huge sneeze earlier that day that started some cramping but I thought nothing of it.  Later that evening, it turned worse and really felt like early labor but I brushed it off as I'm a whiner.  When the cramping was met with other more obvious signs that something was wrong, Tyler and I went home, called the dr, and headed to the ER.  We were convinced that we had lost our baby.  Although we were crying and of course very upset, we knew this was orchestrated by God and we have always said that God is writing our family exactly the way it's supposed to be.  Rewind back to 6 weeks pregnant and there was a night at youth group where I felt God asking if I was ready for Him to use this pregnancy as a testimony to our youth.  I remember thinking that meant we were going to have a miscarriage and we'd share how we got through it with the kids and I asked God to take the baby by 8 weeks so we wouldn't get too attached.  I honestly had forgotten about that moment until we were on the way to the hospital at 11 weeks when I remembered that this must be God's plan.  We were very sad, disappointed, but filled with an amazing sense of peace- trusting God knows best.  Yet, in the ER, they found that the baby was still alive and kicking with a seemingly strong heartbeat.  I went into a checkup with the dr later that week and they called it a subchorionic hommorage- Simply meaning there's blood in there that would take a week or two to go away.  When we went in for our 13 weeks ultrasound, they found that the organ that regulates the baby's food, blood, and well, everything the baby needs, had never attached to me correctly- probably causing all the blood.   The doctor told us he really could only tell us that one of two things will happen.  It could reattach itself and all will be well or it will give out completely and we'll lose the baby.  He said the next 2-4 weeks would be telling.  He had us make an appointment for 16 weeks to see which way the pregnancy will go.  Because of all this, we weren't ready to make things public.  However, we told the youth group and asked for prayer over our baby.  16 weeks came and we found the Amazing news that had the dr. not known our story, looking at the current ultrasound would have no idea that there had ever been any issues!  Everything had reattached beautifully, absolutely no scarring, and there was no more blood!  I was taken off all restrictions!  Oh AND?  We found out at this time that it's a boy!  Praise God from Whom ALL blessings flow!

I am now 19 weeks and feeling great!  Starting to feel a few flutters/kicks every once in a while. Baby boy is due in October (Katelyn will be 12 months).  Everyone makes comments of how busy we'll be and I have no doubt that'll be true, but we're ecstatic and although the timing wasn't exactly planned, we know this is God's perfect will and timing and we are just so thankful!  After having Katelyn, I realize that that really IS a live baby in there!  It makes everything more exciting the 2nd time around.  The picture of his feet already has my heart full as I can't wait to play with those feet and just snuggle him in close!  I'm getting all my snuggle time in with Katelyn before I have to share my time between two babies that I love more everyday!