Josephine's First Year: Monthly Updates

I still can't believe it's been a year. How insane. Our final baby, the caboose to our little family, is one year old. She grew so quickly over her first year after starting out so slowly. We can't believe she blossomed into this 22 pound toddler from such a dainty little baby.

From her birth announcement photo taken at about 12 hours old to each of her monthly updates, watch Josephine grow!

Random fun fact: Josephine's birth announcement photo was taken in Wichita Falls, Texas, where we lived at the time of her birth. We moved when she was 2.5 weeks old, however, so months one through 10 photos were taken at our home in Panama City, Florida. We then moved to Hampton, Virginia, where months 11 and 12 were taken (11 in the TLF on base and 12 in our new home).

ALL of the Bumpdates from Pregnancy #2

Can you believe that I never shared a single one of my weekly bumpdates on here the entire time I was pregnant with Josephine?! Crazy, right? I was diligent about sharing each and every one while I was pregnant with Annabelle. I feel a little terrible, but... second child syndrome, I guess. Sorry, Josie.

I do want to share them, though, but I don't want to bombard everyone with 30+ weeks worth of photos in separate posts... so I'll be sharing them ALL here today. I delivered at 37 weeks, so I'll be sharing weeks 5 through 36.

The pregnancy was anything but uneventful. The first half was normal... we found out she was a girl at 16 weeks, but then at our anatomy scan at 19 weeks, we found out she only had a single umbilical artery - or a two vessel cord! That happens in less than half of one percent of pregnancies, and we had to be monitored extra closely to make sure she didn't have any heart or kidney problems (she didn't / doesn't) and that she kept growing on track (she did) because those babies can be smaller. It also increased our chance of having a stillbirth by quite a bit, so I was going to be induced around 39 weeks anyway... but then at 30 weeks, I tested positive for pre-eclampsia, so the goal was to just get me to 37 weeks.

I had twice a week BPP ultrasounds. If she failed that, I had to do an NST immediately, which happened three times. I met with my OB once per week and the midwife on staff once per week. They did a growth ultrasound every three weeks. I had to go to the lab for blood work one time each week and 24 hour urine tests every three weeks. I was on modified bed rest, which my OB referred to as "chill out rest" because he met Annabelle at appointments and knew there was no such thing as bed rest with a husband in the military. It was so insane, and we utilized a lot of hourly care at the CDC during that time so I could rest.

I was induced at 36 weeks 6 days, and she was born at 37 weeks 1 day! It was a really tough second and third trimester due to stressing over those issues, but in the end, it all worked out. I was able to labor and deliver how I wanted for the most part (I'll share her birth story soon), and Josephine was born absolutely perfect, so all the craziness was 100% worth it!

Without further adieu...

Sorry about that! But I really want these to be documented here, even if it's just for my own personal benefit. Thanks for looking... or for pleasantly skipping over this post if it's not your kinda thing!

Behind Her Name: Josephine Jayne

Josephine Jayne has been with us for a whopping five months now. That's crazy. One of these days soon, I'll share her birth story with you guys. But for now, I'll share the much shorter post about her name.

Just like Annabelle, we chose Josephine as a name that we just love. I'm particular and wanted a name with the same amount of syllables (three) that had a few good nickname options to match her sister's name. Josephine fit the bill perfectly, and it even has the same number of letters! Bonus! We can call her Jo, Joey, Josie, Pheenie, Sephie... lots of options! Right now, she's mostly just Josephine or Josie, but I really like Joey and JJ as well. We'll see what she morphs into as her personality changes.

Her middle name of Jayne was much easier for me. Dan took a little more convincing, but once he realized the significance, we went with it. My dad's name was Jay, and since we are never going to have a son, I realized we could turn his name into a feminine form and go with the normal "Jane" but add a 'y' into the middle. I'n not normally a fan of adding letters to names, but this just felt SO right. So perfect. I'm glad that Josephine will always carry her grandfather's name with her.

If you want to read about how we chose big sister Annabelle's name, click here. (Side note: we never call her Anna Kate like that post implies we would... we DO, however, call her Annie Kat sometimes!)

Introducing... Baby Cookie #2!

Well, I'm only a whole MONTH late making this announcement... but our beautiful second daughter made her appearance on November 21st! We've been a little (ha!) busy since then moving across the country (more on that later), so I'll just leave you with this for now!

Welcome to the world, Josephine Jayne! We are so glad we get to be your parents and that we got an extra 20 days with you... if pre-eclampsia is good for anything, it's extra snuggles! :)