26 weeks... and 17 months!

Huh?, you might say.

Well, I am 26 weeks along with baby boy and Eli is turning 17 months tomorrow! How fast time has flown by! It seems yesterday I saw the positive test announcing that we were going to have our FIRST baby and now we are 14 weeks away from the arrival of our SECOND baby!

Pregnancy, after the scare at 22 weeks, has progressed beautifully. Belly and baby keeps growing at an adequate pace. Recently, I had to take the glucose test to determine if I have a tendency towards gestational diabetes. Yep, that dreadful day where you have to drink the super sugary orange (or in some cases lemon) drink and then have your blood drawn an hour later. I certainly hope I passed the test as I did with Eli. How could I give up chocolate or sweets?!?! Never.

Also, we went to a new mother's fair in a local shopping mall and won our first thing ever: we won a basket full of Pamper's products!! Yay us! In addition, we wen to a conference given by a renowned pediatrician in PR, Dr. Mario Ramírez, who spoke about how a healthy and happy delivery should be; Much like what Ricki Lake showed in her documentary, The Business of Being Born. It was very interesting and educational at the same time!

As for Eli, she is doing great! At her 16 month old checkup she was 2 1/2 feet tall and 25 lbs, very healthy at 75% and 50% percentiles. She is also saying over 25+ words, in both English and Spanish plus some signs. And recently, she started putting 2 words together as phrases or trying to say sentences. The other day she asked for "more water" in Spanish or "más agua". She is so smart!! Her new likes are balls, which she says in English, Spanish and Sign Language. She throws them around and bounces them trying to play with you.

On the other hand, she is at the stage where she thinks that she can do her own thing and gets mad if we say no or steer her away from wherever she is trying to go or where she is not allowed. And just this past week, she started throwing herself to the floor if I grab her hand to walk someplace and she doesn't want to. Can you say tantrums?

That's it for an update for now. We couldn't be happier with our little family!

-themomthelawyerthehousewife

...and then there were FOUR!

I know, I have been MIA for a while but with the move back home, starting a new job and readjusting our lifestyle, it has been hard to log in during the past few months!

Also we have some exciting news to share... the family is growing by TWO FEET!! Our daughter will get to be a Big Sister soon! During the next few months, I will attempt to share my experiences being pregnant along with E's milestones.

What a proud big sis!

During the time I have been MIA, many things have happened. After 12+ months of breastfeeding, we had to stop due to a varicella (chicken pox) scare since I was already pregnant and never had them before. But I am glad to say that we made it that far.

As for hitting milestones, E (who turns 15 months tomorrow) started talking and signing: she now signs milk, more, all done and eat. She also says both milk and daddy, both in English and Spanish! We try to incorporate both languages as much as we can and it seems to be working. She also had more Spanish words incorporated in her expanding vocabulary, such as: mamá, más, leche, agua, jugo and others. In addition, she learned how to wave and say bye bye!

Other milestones she has reached are learning to dance, sometimes sings and just recently, started walking. Now, she walks everywhere!

She also played with sand for the first time!

As for my pregnancy, I am happy to be in the second trimester. The first trimester was tough on me, though not as tough as pregnancy number 1 was. I felt completely tired all the time and was nauseous almost all my awake time every day. Also I have had more acid reflux and heartburn...Tums (which are safe during pregnancy) have been my best friend. As for food aversions, I could not drink water or coffee, which are the only two things that I normally drink. Thankfully, that is all gone now and I am back to drinking my 8+ glasses of water and morning cup of coffee.

Did you know that you are supposed to drink more water than you normally do during pregnancy? The lack of hydration can cause contractions. I know that all too well as I ended in the hospital at 30 weeks during my first pregnancy with contractions caused by dehydration.

Also did you know that you can still drink caffeine, but you need to limit your amount? According to doctors, you can drink up to 200-250 mg a day which translates into 2 maximum cups of coffee a day. So there is no need to go cold turkey on this one if you need it. I drank 1 cup of coffee daily while pregnant with E and I did not notice any change on her. In fact, she started sleeping through the night at around 2 months and at 15 months she still sleeps 10-11 hours at night and takes 2 naps.

I will keep updating during my pregnancy with more experiences and fun facts!

- themomthelawyerthehousewife

Can babies understand more than one language?

A friend posted a link to this news article by the New York Times - Hearing Bilingual. I though it was an interesting read for all bilingual parents whose babies and children come in contact with more than one language on a daily basis.

In our household, we speak Spanish most of the time but living in NJ, we have to speak English as well. Thus, Eli is constantly in contact with both languages. The question always is: which language do we teach her first? According to research studies, bilingual babies can distinguish between languages at a very young age. When reading the article I went back in my head thinking about how Eli reacts to both languages and I think the research might be into something. She in fact does react differently to when it is us speaking to her in Spanish as opposed to someone who is a native English speaker. She will pay more attention and open her eyes real wide to the English speaker as she comes in contact with it less.

So I guess, we will keep talking to her in Spanish all the time and let her come in contact with the English in other settings. Hopefully, she will be bilingual at an early age.

Here is the link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/health/views/11klass.html?_r=2&emc=eta1