I realize I've been neglecting my blog for some time now, but mainly just got distracted with other things. We're 30 weeks pregnant today so there are only approximately 10 weeks left until my due-date of April 5th. It's crazy how fast time is flying. This stage is the "heavy stage" and it will only get heavier as the baby weighs close to 3lbs now and is getting bigger every single day. I've been feeling a lot of movement every day, and Matthew can now feel it too without any difficulty. Many days the baby would also break down in a session of hiccups that would continue for some 15 minutes; it's cute, but it's also very annoying! Heartburn kicked-in as well, along with the infamous Charlie's Horses. Heartburn I can tolerate but CH are the absolute worst - I hear eating bananas can boost up the potassium which can help reduce CH pains. I had them bad with Natasha as well, so it's not a surprise.

Besides this, we've been preparing Natasha's nursery for another "tenant". The new baby will not be sharing a room with her for the first few months, but we will still utilize the nursery furniture, such as the changing table. We've also bought an additional wardrobe from Home Depot so I can better organize the girls' many many outfits. And then we ended up purchasing a small bookcase for Natasha's growing book collection. So the room is way more organized now and looks a lot neater.

New Wardrobe

Natasha is growing like a weed!

She first started walking on her own at 13.5 months of age, and now at 16 months, she's running around the apartment like someone is chasing her. She's gotten a lot stronger and can sit down or stand up without any effort whatsoever. She's very proud of her motor skills as well. Besides this, she's become a lot more "human" as we call her. She's starting to copy many different words we teach her, and of course they hardly ever sound right, but at least she's trying. For instance, the other day she brought me her big yellow ball, and loudly declared "boo!". She's also starting to love Dora the Explorer a lot more and gets excited whenever she sees her picture on TV or on a toy; she runs up to Dora, and goes "doda!". She is copying practically everything she sees and we find it enjoyable to just watch her soak everything up like a sponge.

Although the freezing winter months are dragging on and we cannot wait for the start of spring. Natasha is eager to go outside and walk in the snow, but with the extremely low wind-chill and freezing weathers it has not always been possible. She misses the playground and her favourite swing and slide. Hopefully when it warms up, we'll be able to take her there again. In the meantime, she is finding new ways to entertain herself inside the apartment.

I've been feeding her a lot more 'adult-foods' lately as well. For breakfast she eats eggs with ham & cheese, yogurt or veggie pancakes, and sometimes cereal. She loves macaroni and mashed potatoes. She's still eating her jars of baby food but loves to nibble on our food even more. She's gotten really good at sitting in her highchair and stuffing sliced grapes, strawberries, kiwis, or other small fruit into her mouth. She also loves Rosehip herbal tea and can drink a sippy of it within seconds. Our baby is getting so big!

There are only 3 months left until our baby's due date of April 5th. It's hard to believe that we're already 6 months along and heading into the 3rd trimester. Things have been going well so far - I passed my one-hour Glucose Tolerance Test which was wonderful news, and the baby has been kicking pretty regularly (2-3 times every 24 hours). Matthew can feel her too, now. Sometime within the next 5 weeks I have to go through another Ultrasound session which is great because I'll get to see the baby once again, hopefully get a newer picture, and confirm the gender once again. But the main reason for this Ultrasound is to check whether my placenta has moved up since it was laying a bit too low in the 19-week screening. Most of the time it moves up on its own, but it's better to check just in case. So we'll get the result for this at the same time as well.

Besides this, I've organized all the newborn baby clothing we have this far. We got a lot of clothes handed-down from family and I've also kept some of Natasha's older items, and it was really strange to pull them out again; I even forgot some of them existed! It's also weird to look at them and wonder how in the world our 15-month old ever fit into them, they're just tiny! I went and organized them into 3 dresser drawers just to see how much space they'd take. Too much! So we ended up ordering an additional wardrobe from Home Depot to make room for everything that doesn't fit. That should arrive any day now.

Also, I think we've finalized a name for our baby girl (considering it really is a girl!) - her name will be Veronika, and she'll go by Nika. It's purely Matthew's choice, and although I like the name, I wanted to consider other options too. But Matthew's pretty much stuck on this name and is ready to beg me to name our daughter Veronika, so be it. Natasha's name was more-or-less my choice, so I have to let him have it. We haven't finalized any middle names, but we're considering either Claire or Elizabeth. The middle name is going to be my choice, so unless I see something better, it will be one of the above two. We also need to come up with a back-up name, just in case this baby turns out to be a boy; but... that would probably go back to Nathaniel.

Here are some pictures of the baby girl's clothes, all organized:

Drawer #1 - onesies, sleepers, socks

Drawer #2 - Sleepers, pajamas, full outfits

Drawer #3- Hats, bibs, pants, shirts

The holidays are finally over with and as exciting and fun as they were, I am just glad to be back to our normal routine. We spent Christmas Eve with Matthew's family and New Year's Eve with mine. Natasha had a lot of fun both evenings and got to try a whole variety of different foods, although in the end she decided she would just stick to bread ("safe territory"). And now, that the holidays are over, Natasha is surrounded by a bunch of new developmental toys, a few stuffed animals, and other new toys to play with. Aside from toys, she also received a whole lot of new clothes ranging from 18 months to 2T; I even had to purchase two huge plastic bags from Canadian Tire to fit her new wardrobe and I don't think I have to cloth-shop for her for at least another year.

She also received a new 3-in-1 musical potty. Yes, potty training is in our near future although we haven't given it much thought yet. I was originally going to start the potty-training process around 18 months, but considering this coincides with the birth of our second baby, this might not be a very good idea. All sources say that the potty-training process is overwhelming at first and you don't want to combine that learning experience with another major change in the toddler's life. So we might be postponing the training until our 2nd baby is at least 2 months of age and Natasha has had a chance to adjust to her.

All-in-all, Natasha is loving her new toys, and she loves making a big mess with these new toys, but that's expected!