More 12mon Pictures

I took a few more pictures of this little ham with her LAST month sticker! 

Leah 1 Year!

Leah Joy is 1 year old!  The year seems to have gone so fast; I feel like it was just a few months ago we were bringing her home from the hospital and prepping for Christmas.  Now this year she is a very active/busy 1 year old, making it rather difficult to prep for Christmas!

Most of Leah's time is spent walking around the house from one thing to the next, usually with a plug in her mouth.  She loves to check out what Brie is doing, and often times tries to take what Brie is doing.  She plays very well though, she often times will be playing independently in the toy room; and for this I am very thankful!  She loves to climb up on things, or I should say try and climb up on them.....she falls often.  Leah is a bit dramatic!  If you have to take something away, or if she falls, or just generally doesn't get her way she does a very dramatic cry.  This is fairly new, and Alec and I just are shocked!  She was such a passive kid.....then the drama factor hit, haha! 

 Leah is still a good little eater.  I have noticed her appetite has decreased; every once in a while she will eat TONS for a meal, but then other times she starts throwing food on the floor after only a little bit.  She really will eat anything though, which is just amazing.  Every once in a while she will spit something out and not take another bite of it; I think it is mostly texture stuff though.  She drinks a bottle with just whole milk in it 3 times a day.  She will only drink it if it is heated up; but really likes her 'bubbas' :) She still only has TWO teeth; I asked the doctor about it and he said not a concern and it'll happen.  Doesn't stop her from eating anything and everything though, so I guess whatever! 

Sleep has gone down hill a little bit.  Naps have been a huge struggle.  She seems to be starting to move towards 1 nap, which I would love because then she and Brie would nap together!  But she can't make it past 11am without completely melting and needing a nap.  But even if she takes an earlier morning nap, it is like pulling teeth to get her take an afternoon nap.  But as you can imagine with no afternoon nap, she can hardly make it to 7pm for bedtime!  Her wake up time in the morning is different every day; sometimes it is closer to 6/6:30, and other times it is closer to 7/7:30 (obviously this is a much more preferable time!).  She goes down pretty easy though; sometimes a little bit of crying, but usually none.  She has a little light up thing in her crib that lights up when she pushes the button and she loves it. Sometimes we hear her playing with that in the monitor for a while before letting us know she is ready for us to come get her.  

No words yet; she does all the normal 'babababa, dadadada, mamama' but not appropriately referring to one of us.  Brie talks enough for the both of them.....so it works out :) Lots of pointing though, her pointy finger gets quite the daily workout.  She loves to hand stuff to you, it is so cute; she usually wants what she handed you back right away though.  We do a lot of labeling of things when she does this, hopefully she is soaking it all in and learning! 

Another signature Leah move is to take her shoes and socks off; she won't leave socks on for more than a few minutes.  Most days I don't even bother with socks.  I have one pair of little shoes (pink moccasins) that she can't get off; so if she wears those than her feet stay covered.  I think she just takes them off because she can, it is a demonstration of her abilities! 

Leah loves to play with books; she will sit and look at them on the floor by herself, but she isn't to the point of letting you read them to her....no patience for that yet! She also really likes baby dolls, which is super cute, she will feed them bottles and give them kisses.  It is amazing what she picks up on without us teaching her.  When she plays with the toy kitchen she knows how to stir things, and feed people things, drink out of a cup.  

She isn't much of a snuggler; she will if she is really tired sometimes, or when she just wakes up. But otherwise she just wants to be on the go!  She will give hugs (which is just a lean in) and she will give kisses (open mouth slobber kisses!).  

Hard to believe this baby is an entire year old!  We love watching her personality develop!  The interaction between Brie and Leah is absolutely adorable, Leah loves her big sister and gets so so so excited when she sees her.  Brie is so good with Leah; very patient and tolerant.  I love our little family so much, and can't believe it will be growing in 4 months! 

Praising God for a good report

I had my 20 week ultrasound on November 23; the next day I saw that the office was calling my phone and assumed it was just the nurse calling to let me know the ultrasound looked ok.  I answered the call and when I realized it was my doctor I knew right away we had a problem, my stomach sank.

He explained that the baby has a choroid plexus cyst, which by itself is not a huge concern and typically resolves on its own before 30weeks pregnant.  The ultrasound report also noted that my AFI (amniotic fluid around the baby) was low, in the 3rd percentile.  My doctor explained that when he sees these two things occurring together it makes him want to verify there is nothing else going on with the baby, he thought they could indicate a potential genetic problem.  He gave some specific examples....none of which were a good thing to say the least.  VERY difficult phone call to take, I was sent into immediate panic and nauseating worry.  The doctor made a referral to a maternal fetal medicine specialist.  I made an appointment with them, but that appointment wasn't for another 2 weeks.  2 weeks of wondering what was going on and if my baby was going to be ok!!!!

Thank the Lord I have numerous medical people around me!  I called my doctor back a week later and got more specifics, after getting my head on straight and talking to people that know a thing or two about this all.  I was able to ask more specific questions regarding the original scan.  I was then actually able to talk to a maternal fetal medicine doctor (my very good friend's dad); he assured me this was not a huge concern and a false alarm.  Obviously that helped IMMENSELY!

On December 8 I have my appointment with the specialist.  I felt pretty good and was just hoping and praying this appointment confirmed what we thought we already knew, that really everything was ok. Alec was able to come with me to the appointment thankfully.  They started by doing an ultrasound right away; before she started the tech asked me "so tell me why they referred you to us."  I explained they saw the choroid plexus cyst and thought I had low amniotic fluid levels.  She put the wand on my abdomen to take a look and immediately said "Well I can tell you right now you have enough amniotic fluid, actually I would say you have a generous amount."  WOW!  Ok, well that is a huge relief and great start to the appointment.  As she was scanning she also pointed out the choroid plexus cyst in the brain; she said she hardly could see it and by the look of it it appeared to be resolving.  Which they expect these to do; they are considered a normal variant especially with no other indications of problems with the baby.

We then talked with the doctor after the ultrasound.  She reviewed both the most recent ultrasound and the previous one done at my doctor's office.  She was so kind and took time chatting with us about her findings.  Bottom line, she did not even know why we were referred.  She said looking at the previous ultrasound she did NOT see how they could have thought I had low amniotic fluid; she actually seemed quite irritated with their office and wanted to know more specifics of who performed the test and was going to follow up with them and give feedback.  She said she was so happy to give us good news and said from what we can see everything with baby boy looks great.  Wow, wow, wow.

After the appointment I cried tears of absolute joy.  Praise the Lord for answered prayers; so many prayers.  Pregnancy is such a challenging thing, there is so much anxiety associated with it.  I am beyond thankful for a good report, and give all thanks and praise to God.  There are no guarantees with any pregnancy; you could have great scans and no abnormal findings through an entire pregnancy and there are still a whole host of potential complications that can occur.  Everything is in the hands of the Lord.


I am thankful for the support of family and friends that were praying during those couple weeks; the power of prayer really is amazing!  I was reminded by a couple different people of the verse in Psalm 139:

"For you created my inmost being; 

you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 

your works are wonderful, 

I know that full well"

Alec and I are both glad to be past this and just continue to pray for this little boy growing inside me! We pray he grows healthy and strong, (I'd be ok with less than 9lbs however...) and as he grows up becomes a man of God.  We still have no idea on names for this kiddo, I did buy a name book recently so just need to go through that and see if anything jumps out at me!

Leah 11 Months

Little Leah is only a month away from the one year mark!  I just sent out her 1st birthday party invitations!

Our newest change has been sleeping arrangements.  I'd had it with Leah in our room, almost a year is too long!  We had tried combining the girls but someone always woke up someone else and then kids were crabby....not worth it.  So our new arrangement is Brie is sleeping in the guest room and Leah is in the crib in the girls room.  We have been doing this a few nights now and it is PERFECT!  The girls don't always go to bed at the same time, and always wake up at different times.  The other challenge we had was Brie had to try and be quiet while Leah was sleeping up in our room; that isn't the case anymore which is so much easier on me!  So until further notice Brie's new room is the guest room!  Leah goes to sleep easy, she has a little light up thing in her crib she likes to look at.  But for bedtime and naps she goes down great.  She usually goes down around 7:30/8pm, then wakes up between 5:30-6:30am, takes a bottle, then goes back down for 2-3hrs.  So I guess that isn't technically sleeping through the night, but close enough for now.  

Leah is still a good eater, however I have noticed she has been eating less recently.  And she is getting a little bit more picky, she doesn't really refuse food but she will whine for more waffle instead of eating her banana!  Also at times she won't drink all her bottle, especially if dinner time is too close to bedtime.  She will only drink 2-3oz of her 6oz bottle.  She really likes her bottles though, if you say "do you want a bubba?!"  Leah gets really really excited! 

She has her mama radar on most of the time, she likes to be where I am.  She seems to be ok going to other people, but likes to keep track of where I am!  Whenever I sit down she wants to be up by me, but never wants to sit nice.  She wants to stand on me, climb all over me.....she's a wiggly worm!  She is happy as a clam when I hold her and walk around with her, I've done many loads of laundry one handed!  She gets very excited when Alec gets home; if he doesn't pick her up right away she starts crying, it is ADORABLE!

Soooooo much drool these days...... she still only has two teeth!  I keep thinking more are going to start coming through, but no signs yet of anything.  That doesn't stop her from eating whatever she wants though! 

Love this baby girl so much!

It's a..........

This pregnancy is really moving along quickly!  I am about 17.5 weeks already.  When I was pregnant with Leah I was able to have one of the OBGYN residents that I work with scan me to see gender.  I had the same opportunity a couple nights ago!  It was SO fun being able to see baby again, and find out gender!!!  And it is fun for me to be the only one that knows for a short period of time :)

Alec had no idea I was doing it. When I was scanned with Leah I called him before and asked if it was ok.  This time I just went for it! After I found out I had to start brain storming how I was going to tell him!  I knew I wouldn't be able to hold in the information long.  So I consulted with a few people and came up with an idea!

I stopped at Meijer on my way home, and they were able to have someone help me get some helium balloons.  Then I came home and set up a box that Alec would see first thing in the morning.  (Now mind you, this all at like 12:30am.....)

Alec got up in the morning before me as normal.  I snuck out of bed behind him quick so when he saw the box I was able to say "surprise!!"  He was so surprised I knew and very excited to open the box!

It's a........

BOY!!!!!

We are very excited to change it up around here and have a boy!  I think Alec and I are both a little afraid of the unknown of having a boy, that we don't really have any name ideas for a boy!  But we have a lot of time to work on that.

Here he is, our little man!!

And I know someday he is going to mad at me for posting this on social media, but it is very obvious baby is a boy!!

Wisconsin Visit!!

Our last Wisconsin visit was a bit of a train wreck!  Brie was sick and very poorly behaved, Alec got sick, it was just rough all around.

This visit was far better!  The kids slept pretty well; taking into consideration the change to central time zone and daylight savings time happened.  Both the ride there and the ride home went really well.  We made great time thanks to Alec :)  We got a chance to test out our new van, Brie loved the DVD player of course!

We arrived Thursday just before dinner time.  It was great to just let the kids play and be out of the car.  Friday we headed to the Milwaukee children's museum.  Such a cool place with a little town set up, Brie really liked it!  There were so many people though which was kind of a bummer.....but we still had fun.

Pretending to be a vet!

They had the coolest grocery store, I would have just LOVED this as a kid!!!

We had a ton of fun spending time with Brad and Jessie again!

Brie and Bennett played well together!

We even got an adult only dinner out which was amazing!  Reminded me so much of the 'olden' days before we all had kiddos :)

We took turns with the guys getting out of the house.  Brad and Alec went and checked out a couple local breweries. And Jessie and I got to sneak out for a bit to do some shopping and get pedicures.....it was heavenly!

Saturday night I started not feeling so well.  I kind of just figured it was something weird and kept on going.  We got the kids ready for trick or treating, deciding to leave Eleanor and Leah home since the weather was rough.  I started feeling worse so also stayed back from trick or treating.  2 other couple friends and their kids came over for the halloween festivities so I was trying hard to feel up to it.  But by the time dinner time had come around I was so sick feeling. I threw up a few times, felt light headed, and just couldn't be upright.  Despite that little hiccup though.....the kids and Alec had a fun halloween!  Brie loved trick or treating!  

She loves to dress up like a princess!  So naturally she had to be one for halloween :)

We had such a fun time though; bummer I got sick and had to miss church Sunday.  But Alec was able to go and took the kids (he really is super daddy!), he said it was cool to be back in our old church and say hi to people there again.  The ride home went far better than I thought it would.  I could hardly move my head without feeling super sick; both kids slept for the beginning part of the drive (and so did I!).  Then Brie watched a movie and we just kept handing Leah random things and food to keep her busy.  Alec drove like the wind and got us home in 4hrs and 3min (that is a new record for those that have not made that drive before....).

It really was a great trip!  Sometimes I just can't hardly believe how much life has changed since we started hanging out with Brad and Jessie.  We used to hang out at least once a week, sometimes more than that!  And now we live 300 miles apart and have 4.5 kids between the two of us!  Crazy!

We aren't 100% sure when the next time we will get together again is; hopefully once more before I have this baby!  Beyond having the baby I can hardly think about what life will be like....probably a bit more complicated and busy!

Leah the destroyer!

This little kid is more like our little monster :)  She is into anything and everything!!  We had to install more drawer and cupboard locks, then we ran out of them....I need to order more, because she found more drawers to open and empty.  Nothing is safe from her, I move things around every single day and yet she always find something to get into!

She sure is a busy body.  I love this age though, she loves to try and do whatever Brie is doing or whatever we are doing! 

Leah is taking steps now, she will walk between Alec and I or take a couple steps towards something.  But she just isn't ready yet to do it on her own, she still crawls all the time.  

Baby #3!

Alec and I are about to be officially out numbered this April!  We are very excited to be expecting baby DeLange #3!

Brie kind of knows what is going on, if you ask her about the ultrasound pic on the fridge she knows it is a baby that is in mommy's tummy.  But she never brings it up or anything like that, so who knows how much she actually understands.  

Leah will obviously have no clue what is going on!  Leah and baby will only be 16mon apart :)  Yes, they will be close together in age.  And yes, we will be very busy!  But we are super excited.  

Prayers that everything continues to look good for baby and the baby continues to develop and grow into a healthy little he or she!  We will be finding out gender, and we will be sharing what the gender is this time around :)  We have a few more weeks yet for that!  

Leah 10 Months

Leah is a very busy 10mon old!

There is never a dull moment with this kid, she doesn't sit still unless she is eating or sleeping!  She is always on the move and always has an agenda.  This week she has learned to open the cabinets in the kitchen (most are locked, not all); this has thrilled her to pieces.  She hasn't really started taking the stuff out yet, but is fully amazed she can open and close them.  Leah is always on the go, she just buzzes from one thing to the next.  Unless she is doing something she isn't supposed to be doing (and she knows usually what falls on this list!), then she will sit there and work on it until she gets caught (ripping pages out of books is her favorite).  We can't have anything on lower shelves, everything has been moved up.

Leah crawls very quickly, pulls up on everything, walkings along the furniture, and likes to walk while holding your hand.  She also loves to push and walk behind things.  She just started clapping her hands, and it is absolutely adorable!  Leah will give you a kiss, and by a kiss I mean an open mouth slobbery mess :)  She also has started copying what you do; if you stick out your tongue and say "where's your slicker" she will stick out her tongue.

She had a good streak going with sleep; she was starting to sleep through the night pretty consistently!  She would go to bed around 7:30p/8p, but was waking up around 6:30am (which is too early for me).  But that has seemed to all go away, she has more recently been waking up around 4am, and not wanting to go back to sleep.  It has been HORRIBLE though; we need to get her back to sleeping through the night.  I'm this close to just sticking her in the guest room and buying a good set of ear plugs.  Leah usually takes 2 naps a day, sometimes a third depending on timing.  When she goes to bed I put her in a fleece zip up sleep sack, put her plug in, and she has a lovey she cuddles with.  She really loves her plug, we have a million of them all over the house and she is very excited when she comes across one!

Leah is a wonderful eater; she isn't picky at all (which is refreshing after Brie, who is VERY picky!).  We have moved to bottles; no more nursing for little Leah.  Its a good decision for both of us, it was hard for me at first to be done but it is for the best.  She loves food, she is really good at picking foods up and feeding herself.  She eats almost everything we have put in front of her.  When Leah is done eating she just starts throwing it on the floor.  She will look right at you and chuck her food on the floor.....stinker.  Josie, however, loves this little habit of hers.

Some of Lele's favorite thing to do are:

• Books: She doesn't like to sit for books, but she loves to go through books herself.  She really likes to crinkle and rip pages in books....so we have to watch the paper books around her.  But she loves to turn pages in the board books we have!  
• Get into whatever Brie is doing: Poor Brie is so tolerant most of the time, Leah seeks her out and just has to have her hands in whatever Brie is doing!  I took a picture of Leah screaming as I was telling her she was not allowed to destroy the puzzle Brie was working on.  She does not like when you take things away from her, or take her away from something. 
• Seek and destroy:  She will literally stop, look around for something to get into, and high tail it over there!  She has a magnet for things she is not supposed to get into; books, my bible, picture frames, kleenex, , shoes, anything really! 
• Be held: sometimes nothing makes her happy except for just holding the baby, the problem is it always seems to be at the most inopportune time.  But I love holding a baby on my hip, so I try and do it as much as possible :)

We love this little kid so much.  She is getting so old and I can hardly believe we are approaching the year mark!  

Brie's 3 year pictures

My mother in law took Briana's pictures today turning the big 3!!  It is hard making a 3yr old smile normal....but we got some super cute ones :)