Trip to NJ

As we had been planning, we decided to head to New Jersey to celebrate Micah's birthday, Chanukah, Elliot's brother Dan's birthday, and his nephew Brian's birthday with his family. On December 29th, we packed up and took off on our trip. Not surprisingly, traffic was a bit heavy, and we left later than originally planned.

I was driving, but the morning sickness was making the drive challenging for me. Micah was actually wide awake for the first 1 1/2 hours of the trip (we were hoping he would fall asleep quickly and nap for most of the trip). Luckily he was in a good mood, playing with his toys and enjoying the Elmo CD playing in the car.

About 1 hour or so into the trip, Micah started playing his new "game." You see, he thinks it is funny to stick his fingers so far down into his throat that it makes him gag. It is an awful sound (especially for someone like me who already feels nauseated), and I just think it is a terrible thing to do! He sticks his fingers down his throat, he gags, and then he laughs and does it again. I kept telling him no and told him to stop, but that just seemed to make him want to do it more. I tried to ask Elliot to give him some food or a bottle or another toy to distract him, but no such luck. I actually said to Elliot that if we didn't get him to stop, he would make himself throw up. No sooner than I said that...yup, you guessed it, Micah puked all over himself. And started laughing. He thought it was hysterical! All I could think about was the smell and wanting to throw up myself.

We pulled over to the side of the road in the middle of nowhere on the highway. Elliot did the best he could to wipe him down, but we decided in the cold weather and on the side of the road, it was too difficult to change Micah. So...we got back on the road. Micah quickly fell asleep asleep after this, but I kept smelling vomit the entire trip.

Micah woke up near a rest stop about 30 miles from our destination. We decided to pull over, change his diaper and clothing and give him a snack. He was really cooperative and enjoyed his break, but he was very unhappy to be returned to the car. The last part of the trip was awful - Micah was crying and the traffic was terrible.

We finally arrived around 5:30 pm. I was still so sick from the traveling that I immediately threw up. Micah spent some time with his cousins Melissa, Brian and Stephanie and Aunt Jodi and Uncle Steven while I did my best to recover (and popped another Zofran). We headed out to dinner to celebrate Brian's birthday at this cute little restaurant, but it was FREEZING cold there! We had these incredible potato chips (made fresh), but I couldn't get Micah to eat the macaroni and cheese or any other food. Micah started to melt down towards the end of dinner, so we headed back to the house and quickly put him down to sleep. He was not thrilled to be sleeping in a new environment, unfortunately, so it took him a while to fall asleep - he needed Mommy to stay in the room and hold his hand for a while.

Elliot and I stayed awake until about 2:45 talking to our nieces and nephew. We finally went up to bed, got settled in, and I even got into bed without waking Micah who was sound asleep in the pack 'n play next to the bed. Until Elliot made a ton of noise in the hallway and woke him up!! Micah was crying and would not stop, so I had to pull him into bed with us. Naturally, Elliot passed out a few minutes later, and I was awake for the next 1 1/2 hrs with a very perky Micah who wanted nothing more than to cuddle with Mommy and bounce on the bed. Finally, Micah fell asleep around 4:30. I woke Elliot up to help me move Micah back to the pack 'n play so I could get some sleep.

Around 6:00 am, the room started to get very hot. By 7:00, it was almost unbearable, and Micah woke up crying. I knew we were in for a long day!! We opened up the door to the bedroom and got Micah's bottle. He drank his milk and fell asleep again for another hour. By 9:00, I took him downstairs and gave him breakfast. I think he threw most of it on the floor, but he was having fun. After breakfast, he kept using the chair as a "walker" and he made circles around the first floor. We managed to get him down for a nap, and he woke up in time for the rest of the family to start arriving.

Daniel, Jody and Ethan arrived first. The kids all played together while we waited for their grandparents to arrive. We also learned that Micah is quite musical - he was enjoying playing the piano with his cousin Brian. He was actually pretty good. I do think he has a musical sense - he loves to bang on things like drums, and in music class, he loves to dance and shake the egg shakers to the music, and he loves both real pianos and his toy piano. Grandma Roberta and Poppy Ira arrived around 1:00, and we had a wonderful lunch of latkes. We exchanged gifts and then had birthday cake, and just had a lovely day together.

Most of the family left by 4:00. We stayed a few hours longer to feed Micah dinner. We put him to sleep in the car around 7:30, and we had an easy ride home (except for my nausea). We stopped to pick up the dog, then went straight back to our house. It was a very nice visit!

Christmas Morning

Every year, Elliot and I volunteer together at the Original Pancake House in Bethesda on Christmas morning, which serves hot breakfast to the homeless. Elliot spends his time cooking, and I have taken charge of the "gift" table - we give out a bag of toiletries to every person who comes in, along with warm clothing - gloves, hats, jackets when we have them, sweaters, sweatshirts, thermal socks. Through lots of hard work, Elliot and I managed to get the toiletries together and bagged for over 400 people. I sit on the board of a youth group, and the board there really helped us gather some supplies, and one of the chapters bagged about 150 or more bags for us. Elliot managed to get a vendor to provide us with some extra toiletries that were unclaimed from FEMA, and my cousin, who works at a Marriott hotel, managed to get us 300 bars of soap and 300 shampoos. We also used cash to buy gloves, socks, and sweatshirts, and we got about 6 boxes of sweatshirts and jackets donated from a vendor. Here were all the goodies Elliot & I brought that morning:


We distributed EVERYTHING, and the recipients were so thankful. It was a fantastic way to spend our Christmas morning.

Update on Twoey

Morning sickness has been a constant for me - as long as I remember to take 2 Zofran every 8 hours, though, I can function. I hope this lets up soon! In the meantime, I am not exactly certain when I took this test, but we decided to do Intelligender again. From what I have read, it is about as accurate as flipping a coin, but hey, it's fun, right? So, the results, once again....



Yup, it says Twoey is a boy. I can't help but think Twoey is a girl, but it could be wishful thinking :). I've always thought the "perfect" family is one boy and one girl, so it probably means I'll be a mom to 2 boys instead. As long as he/she is healthy and happy, right? We have to go back for another ultrasound on January 8. My fibroid is growing at a nice rapid rate, so I definitely need to be monitored again. At the NT scan a few weeks ago, the fibroid was still bigger than Twoey. So, we'll be going back on January 8, and there is a good chance they'll be able to tell us the gender at that point!

I've been feeling some movement from Twoey for a while now. It is very different this time around. With Micah, it started very softly, almost like bubbles or a flutter. I think I started to become aware of it around 13 or 14 weeks. With Twoey, the movement feels stronger, but I've almost been second guessing it because it seems too strong a feeling for so early. I guess we'll see what happens with time!

Playing Catch

Today was one of those days that just melted my heart - Micah played catch with me all day!! We were stuck at home, again, post-blizzard. Micah grabbed one of the little ping-pong like balls from one of his toys, and he threw it to me. I said "yay" and clapped, and he laughed and clapped with me. I rolled it back to him, and he grabbed the ball and sent it back to me. We played on and off all day long! He just laughed and clapped and giggled, and he kept chasing down the ball and sending it right back to me. Sometimes he rolled it, sometimes he actually threw it. Sometimes, when he threw the ball, it accidentally flew backwards! No matter - he chased it down and tried again. It was such fun to sit and play with him, watch him learn, and pass a wonderful lazy day with my beautiful son.

One year appointment

We took Micah in for his one year checkup today. We had to postpone it from last week because he was sick (and they won't vaccinate when the baby is sick). Micah weighed in at 18 lbs 15 ounces, and about 31 inches. He is a tiny little thing - in the 3rd percentile for weight, but around the 75th for height. We gave him several vaccinations - the last one against meningitis and a flu vaccine. We opted not to do the chicken pox vaccination at this time. He is hitting all of his developmental milestones, and he showed off (and flirted) for the doctor. She told us he looks great, we were okayed to start him on whole milk, and we do not have to go back until he is 15 months old.