18 months later....

Well it seems impossible, but our little girl is 18 months old. "What?!?!?!" you say? "You guys actually had that baby you were writing about?" Of course we did! And she's been keeping us on our toes this past year and a half.

Any of you reading this blog probably know our little Julsie by now. She was born on August 15, 2010 at 8:59pm (after 25 hours of labor - ouch!). She weighed in at 8 lbs 2 oz, was 20" long, and her head circumference was 13.5". Here's a picture of her as a newborn:



She is absolutely the best thing that's ever happened to us and amazes us constantly. Out little peanut, though, is growing up fast. Here's her stats after her 18 month check-up today, and a look at her from last week during our family trip to St. Petersburg, FL:

HEIGHT: 33" (85th percentile)
WEIGHT: 24 lbs. 12 oz (60th percentile)
HEAD CIRCUMFERENCE: 18" (45th percentile)



For a girl who for quite some time was in the 30th percentile for weight and 50th percentile for height, Julia is now towering over her peers. Born with very little hair, it's been growing slowly ever since and is coming in now. But no need for her first haircut just yet (sorry, Aunt Kristy). We think by the time she is 3 she'll be able to wear a barrette, and maybe by 7 we can give her some pigtails. (*smile*)

These days, Julia is into just about everything. She likes to dance and listen to music, play with balls, read books, stack her Mega Bloks, carry around her baby doll, take things apart and put them back together (the remotes, caps on bottles, buckling and unbuckling her highchair straps...), climb, play peek-a-boo, help mama feed Emma, go from stroller rides outside....the list goes on and on. She is one busy kiddo! She also loves to do things by herself more and more. She often insists on putting on her shoes, coat and hat all by herself. And of course she likes to feed herself and is getting better and better at using utensils. Julia is also talking up a storm, and now says over 20 words. Her most common words are mama, papa, Emma, uh-oh, up, more, please, ipod, boo-boo, Elmo, and two. (Yes, she really likes Elmo, and we watch little snippets of Sesame Street with her every now and then. The same is true with Kipper, who's a British doggie that is very mellow, but Kipper's a lot harder to say).

I could go on and on about my little girl, but I'll end this post with a promise to update you on all of the Maier family happenings MUCH, MUCH more often from now on. Lots of love to you all!

8/9/10 Has Come and Gone

Well, my due date has come and gone and we are trying to stay patient for peanut's arrival. We were hoping our baby would have the coolest birth date ever (8/9/10), but at least they will always have the coolest due date ever :) At this point, we are hoping I go into labor by the end of the weekend, because our midwife, Meg, is going on vacation as of Monday. We've been working with her throughout our pregnancy and would really like her to be there for the delivery. We've met with all of the ob/gyns in the practice and they are all nice, so I'm not concerned about having one of them at the delivery instead; I'd just prefer to have Meg there instead.

We had an ultrasound yesterday to check the baby's growth and it looks like the growth slowed only a little, but it's still in the normal range. The estimates for weight went from the 78th percentile to the 80th percentile, and now to the 70th percentile. The technician said that the estimate for weight (give or take a pound) is 8.5 lbs at this point. In addition, we were told that all of the amniotic fluid levels look good, the heartbeat is in normal range (147 beats/min.), and the baby is in the proper head-down position for birth. These are all great things to hear and be happy about, and we're glad that the baby's doing well in there.

That said, here's to hoping the baby decides it's time to be born this week. If he or she doesn't, I'll be posting an update on Monday after our doctor's appointment!

Watermelon

Yesterday Jason and I went to the grocery store together to do a little shopping. While in the produce aisle, we came across these small "personal watermelons" and I said to Jason that that they probably weighed as much as a baby. We decided to weigh a couple of different ones and compared an 8 pound one to a 5.5 pound one. Jason and I were both floored with how heavy the 8 pound watermelon felt in our hands. I think it gave us both something to think about, especially if our baby is as big as they say it'll probably be. I think it also gave Jason even more appreciation than he already has for how tiring carrying around this extra weight is becoming!