Violet Austeja Dougherty

Test Results Are In

noreply@blogger.com (Brigitta Dougherty) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:01:00 +0000

Spoke to my midwife today after having three blood tests run on Friday.

Results:

No Hep C, which means I can labor in the bathtub if I so choose. +
No Anemia, which means I don't have to take any iron supplements. ++
And last but definitely not least, no Gestational Diabetes! +++ :)

We have an ultrasound scheduled for Friday to check on the baby's growth. At my last midwife appointment, I was measuring approximately 4 weeks ahead (should have been about 28 weeks and I was measuring 32). Until then....

More Snow!

noreply@blogger.com (Brigitta Dougherty) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 00:26:00 +0000

We had some fun outside this morning in the 7+ inches of snow we got yesterday. Our neighbors joined in on the fun - there was a small fort, snowballs and a snow "bird". Violet's new mittens, the L-Bows, were really helpful in keeping her happy and her hands dry and warm.

(throwing snow in the air)

(inside the fort)

(making snowballs - the snow was pure powder, which made making snowballs challenging)

(a snow "bird")

First Dentist Visit

noreply@blogger.com (Brigitta Dougherty) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:57:00 +0000

Violet's first dentist visit earlier this month was soooo smooth. I took her to Growing Smiles not too far away from our house. She had a light cleaning and an exam. The hygienist, assistant and dentist all complimented her and said she was one of the best 2-year-olds their office had seen. I think the movies they had playing on the ceiling and all the toys and cute things they had around really helped make the experience so easy on everybody, even me.

Ballerina

noreply@blogger.com (Brigitta Dougherty) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:15:00 +0000

Violet is loving her ballet classes...on the way to class this morning she asked, "Mommy, where are we going?" I told her "ballet class" and she replied "Goody Goody!" I put some iPhone photos below and some videos here.

Violet's Latest Shenanigans - Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Brigitta Dougherty) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:16:00 +0000

For Thanksgiving, we took Violet on her first real road trip to the NC/GA mountains aka Grandma and Grandpa Moose's house. It was a 12-hour trip and Violet was a champ both ways.

In early December, Violet started Lil' Kickers soccer...she's a real wild woman in the class and really enjoys the time running around and getting out some energy. Classes run through March and then we're hoping to get into a weekend class, so she can go on Saturdays with Matt instead of on Thursdays with her pregnant mommy (although my sister Erika has been helping me out the last couple weeks taking her).

Christmas came quick - Violet put together her first gingerbread house with the help of her Aunt Erika, helped bake some cookies and got to meet Santa not once, but twice! Her number one request this year to Santa - a ball. That's it. Just a ball. Santa delivered her a soccer ball, which has managed to disappear somewhere in our house.

Violet's Latest Shenanigans - Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Brigitta Dougherty) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 01:16:00 +0000

Here's a quick update on what Violet's been up to since our last post in September...

In late September, Matt and I took Violet to Disney World and stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for about a week. I was about seven weeks pregnant and was nauseous the entire time...besides that I suffered from a crazy migraine for about four days. For me, the trip was pretty awful...for Violet, it was a a Mickey dream come true! Violet's Nana Banana and Grandpa Mickey (my mom and dad) stayed nearby at another Animal Kingdom hotel and Uncle Ryan and Aunt Taylor came to visit too! She's quite familiar with Disney World now and asks when we are going there any time she sees Cinderella's castle before a Disney movie.

Violet also turned two in October! We had all the family over to celebrate and of course, had a Mickey Mouse theme coming just off our trip from Disney World. Grandma and Grandpa Moose (Matt's parents) and Nana Banana made the trip to help make her birthday special.

Violet got her first haircut at Aunt Krisi's hair salon, Mops Beauty Shop. She loved every second of it...and even asked for a shampoo after the cut since she didn't get one before. Of course having spent a good amount of time in the salon, she knew what kind of experience to expect and held Aunt Krisi to those standards.

For Halloween, Violet was a wolf. She howled away in the costume, trick or treated at the neighborhood shops and got to go to Matt's work to trick or treat. Now she calls Matt's work the "trick or treat work".

Snow Day

noreply@blogger.com (Brigitta Dougherty) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 01:04:00 +0000

To tide you over until I can give a full update on Violet the last few months, here's Violet last week enjoying the snow. I pulled around in her sled before our neighbors had a chance to shovel their sidewalks and the plows has a chance to salt/plow our street (which they never did). By the end of our 15-minute field trip, Violet's mittens were soaked and she was not a happy camper.

Update!

noreply@blogger.com (Brigitta Dougherty) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 01:02:00 +0000

Hello again! We apologize for the disappearance the last several months. Matt's mom brought to our attention that we weren't keeping everybody as informed this time around about the pregnancy as we did with Violet and we thought it was the perfect opportunity to get blogging again.

In case you missed the news, we're expecting a baby boy at the beginning of May some time (EDD 5/6/2012). We're six months along and things have been a lot different this time around. For one, my nausea was 10x worse this time and lasted almost three times as long as it did with Violet. My food aversions seemed way worse in the beginning this time around too. Thankfully we left all that behind us a little over a month ago!

Heading into my seventh month of pregnancy, other things are different too. For one, I looked pregnant a lot sooner. Looking back at blog posts from my pregnancy with Violet, it wasn't until 24 weeks that someone said I looked pregnant. I heard that this time around some time around 16 weeks. I also had just started to feel kicks around 24 weeks with Violet. I felt this baby at about 20 weeks. Oh! And the most uncomfortable pregnancy symptom of all with Violet - my feet and ankles blowing up by week 18. This time, I have yet to experience that kind of swelling (who can forget the notorious ice socks?!) I feel it creeping up on me, but it's mostly just at night, whereas with Violet, it was a 24/7 ordeal.

For Baby D #2, we're using midwives to help deliver the baby at Prentice Women's Hospital - Northwestern. We're aiming for a VBAC and have received clearance from two ob/gyns to attempt one (based on delivery and operating reports they reviewed from Violet's birth). My midwives say I'm the perfect candidate for one. As back-up though, we have scheduled a C-Section for Monday, May 14th (I'll be 41 weeks and 1 day) should the little guy choose to not come on out on his own. The midwives/doctors prefer not to induce VBAC patients, so Matt and I are ok with this and advised we schedule the C-Section for sometime between 41-42 weeks. The positive thing is, we were also told based on Violet's birth, that we should experience the same situation any second-time laborer would (aka hopefully a much-shorter labor and pushing phase) and more than likely, this second baby should come sooner than Violet did (Violet was born at, depending on which due date you go by 40 weeks 3 days or 39 weeks 6 days).

That should catch you up to speed on this second pregnancy. Next up, catching you up to speed on Violet. XOXO

Who Dat?

noreply@blogger.com (Brigitta Dougherty) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 21:03:00 +0000

Long time no blog. Violet is now 22-months and growing into a little amazing, hilarious person.

Last weekend, we flew down to New Orleans for our friends, Shane and Amy's wedding. We also were able to sneak in a couple tourist attractions - the Audubon Zoo (which was an awesome, awesome zoo!), the Mississippi River, Cafe du Monde (yum!), the French Market and a streetcar. We had a great time hanging with our friends, Renee & Camille at the zoo where they have a water park for the young ones.

Mooooose.

noreply@blogger.com (Brigitta Dougherty) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 19:31:00 +0000

Grandma Barb and Grandpa Bob brought Violet a mooooose shirt when they visited us a couple weeks ago. Violet loves her oversized moooooose shirt. Here she is modeling in our new chair that Matt found at Randolph Market Festival last weekend.

And we've been eating a lot of cherries this summer. Here's our little cherry face...

Head-band.

noreply@blogger.com (Brigitta Dougherty) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 19:27:00 +0000

It's been a while since I posted an update on Violet - we've been super busy this summer. We moved a few blocks away into a greystone. Besides the entire move, we did a bunch of remodeling and updating to the house...on top of that, we went on a trip and have one more planned before the summer is through. Violet's been busy building up a vocabulary and testing out tantrums. Here she is with her "head-band" (pronounced very phonetically if you can imagine).

Beach!

noreply@blogger.com (Brigitta Dougherty) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 22:57:00 +0000

Puddle Jumper Rules!

noreply@blogger.com (Brigitta Dougherty) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 22:55:00 +0000

Florida Trip!

noreply@blogger.com (Brigitta Dougherty) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 22:49:00 +0000

Violet and I visited the Siauciunas grandparents in Florida last week while Matt went to California on a business trip. Violet showed off her swimming skills in her Puddle Jumper, which I can say is THE BEST toddler floatie device out there. She was amazingly confident in the floatie and I was completely at ease with her swimming alone with it. I highly recommend to those friends of mine who are looking for something better than water wings. Five stars! We also visited the beach and Winter the dolphin. All in all, a good trip.

Summer Bubble Time

noreply@blogger.com (Brigitta Dougherty) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 23:19:00 +0000

haaaaaayaaaaa!

noreply@blogger.com (Brigitta Dougherty) — Fri, 20 May 2011 18:51:00 +0000

Hoppy Easter!

noreply@blogger.com (Brigitta Dougherty) — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 00:25:00 +0000

Hope everyone had a nice Easter; Violet's grandparents were in town and we had a fun-filled day starting off with a delicious brunch, a romp at the Brookfield Zoo and a nice visit to Violet Great Teta Mary's house. Violet completed her Easter Egg hunt training with flying colors; she quickly figured out the big eggs had all the goodies inside and the tiny ones were bupkis. Next year, I teach her the tiny ones are where the big $$$ and/or goodies are deceivingly hidden...oh and how to box out to get the most eggs.

Swim Class Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Brigitta Dougherty) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 23:09:00 +0000

I meant to post these last week when I posted the video...oops! Some other good ones from swim class last Sunday. Swimming resumes a week from today.

Swim Class at 17 Months

noreply@blogger.com (Brigitta Dougherty) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 23:07:00 +0000

It wasn't Violet's first time in the pool and it certainly won't be her last...she had a BLAST at swimming this morning with her daddy.

Hot Hot Heat

noreply@blogger.com (Brigitta Dougherty) — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 12:25:00 +0000

Yesterday was HOT and HUMID here. I'm all for no more winter, but can we at least get a bit of spring before jumping right into summer?! Beggars can't be choosers...anyhow, we went to the zoo in the morning with Violet's Nana Ruta, GG Jan (Great-Grandma Jan), Aunt E, Aunt K, Uncle Jason and Uncle Adam. Then, we came hope and cooked up a Lithuanian feast of kugelis, Lithuanian sausage, and pierogies (which are actually Polish, but we might actually be a bit Polish so it counts). While things were cooking, we enjoyed some time outside in the late afternoon as the temps started to cool a bit, and Violet had a blast playing keep-away from Lola. She ran in circles around the deck and jumped off one side into Uncle Adam's arms. It was fun fun fun!

Smile for the Camera!

noreply@blogger.com (Brigitta Dougherty) — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 13:15:00 +0000

When you ask Violet to smile now, she does an interesting face distortion that looks...well, see for yourself....

Jumped the Gun

noreply@blogger.com (Brigitta Dougherty) — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 13:13:00 +0000

We jumped the gun a bit, thinking Violet was ready for potty training. We read the potty training readiness checklists, checked off 95% of them and went ahead and got the Prince Lionheart Potty POD, as recommended by Swellbeing and the presentation we went to on potty training a couple months back. Ok yea, she's only 17 months (TODAY!), but she's smart enough to know to use the potty, right? Wrong. Our Potty POD arrived, we took it out of the box and Violet said "no" over and over again. Absolutely no interest in even sitting on it with her clothes on. I read that sometimes the potty is a sign of getting older and tots don't want to grow up just yet. After playing with the box and taking the potty apart a couple times, we packaged it up and put it away until we think she's ready again.

Today at the Zoo

noreply@blogger.com (Brigitta Dougherty) — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 23:16:00 +0000

Today we went to the Brookfield Zoo. Violet got to go in the goat area of the Children's Zoo. She loooooved it, especially the goat part of the Children's Zoo...she would get up close to the goats, bend over, wave and say "hi".

Ball Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Brigitta Dougherty) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 18:39:00 +0000

Gorilla

noreply@blogger.com (Brigitta Dougherty) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 18:31:00 +0000

What does a Gorilla do....?