It's a ...

GIRL!!!

That's right, Fiona will be getting a little sister :)

I think it is pretty convenient because now we don't have to repaint Fiona's room.  Nathan was really hoping for a boy, so he's a little disappointed.  I'm sure he'll get over it quickly.  I know this little girl will have him wrapped around her finger, just as tight as Fiona has him wrapped around hers.

She was not terribly cooperative, so we didn't get too many cute shots.  I think the 3d is pretty creepy looking, but it looks like she was smiling in this one.  She was sucking away on her thumb through most of the ultrasound.

Baby girl looks healthy, now we just have to settle on a name.

I, however, failed my one hour glucose test, so have to go in for the long 3 hour one again.  Say some prayers, because I don't think I'll survive pricking my finger every day.

Toddler Diarrhea Stinks!

I'm going to complain today.  Fiona has had diarrhea since well before Thanksgiving.  It stinks ... literally.  It all started when we all got the stomach flu the week before Thanksgiving and has been going on pretty much nonstop.  I'm at my wits end.  It is not fun to have to change her clothes 2-3 times a day because of blow out diapers.  And I'm talking about blowing out of cloth diapers.  Don't even bring up disposables.  We tried switching to disposables at the beginning of all this because I didn't want to wash all those stinky diapers.  However, it was a major fail because a blow out in a cloth diaper is frustrating, but only minorly messy.  A blow out in a disposable requires a hazmat team.  So I've had to suck it up and wash all those stinky diapers.  We're talking 3-4 diapers a day, since Thanksgiving.  It has not been pleasant.
Aside from the general frustration with stinky diapers and wardrobe changes I was getting pretty concerned about her health.  We've tried just about everything to try to get rid of the diarrhea.  We've tried the BRAT diet, we've tried anything and everything that usually constipates kids with absolutely zero luck.  So I just try and really push fluids every day to make sure she doesn't get dehydrated.  We've been to the pediatrician multiple times.  We've actually switched pediatricians because the first wrote the whole thing off as teething and wouldn't take any of my concerns seriously.  After long hours on the Internet searching for answers and talking to a family friend who specializes in infant/toddler nutrition, I knew that probably what she had was called "toddler diarrhea".  However, since we do have some family history of celiac and crohn's and other food trouble I wanted to just have her tested.
Thankfully, the new pediatrician completely agreed with my concerns and we tortured my poor baby girl with blood samples and stool samples.  They tested for everything under the sun.  It was hard to wait to get all the results back.  My gut said they would be negative, but I still worried.  I imagined how much our life would have to change if she turned out to have celiac.  Anyway, all the tests came back negative.  It was a sigh of relief, yet still extremely frustrating.  I'm not saying I wanted the tests to come back positive, but it would have been an answer and we could have developed a plan from there.
The pediatrician deemed it "toddler diarrhea".  Basically chronic diarrhea, where the child still maintains a normal growth curve.  Thank God.  At least she is gaining weight and growing like she should.  However, since Fiona is on the lower end of the curve, we have to go in regularly and weigh her just to be sure that she keeps gaining. 
I'm just so frustrated and annoyed.  Toddler diarrhea usually occurs when kids drink too much juice or eat foods that have sorbitol in them.  Fiona has never gotten to drink juice.  I think it is just empty calories and we have never given it to her.  She also doesn't have any sorbitol in her diet.  We've tried every suggestion out there for toddler diarrhea.  However, it is challenging, because she does still have a sensitivity to dairy products.  We've tried high fiber diets, we've tried high fat diets, nothing works.  I'm trying to be patient and let it clear up on its own, but this can last until age 4.  Age 4?!?!  I think I will lose my mind if it lasts that long. 
Anyone go through something similar with their kids?  Is there a light at the end of the tunnel?

An Update

I haven't been very good about blogging lately.  I feel like our lives aren't terribly interesting lately.  Due to yucky weather and Nathan being super busy at work, most days Fiona and I are stuck at home.  Fingers crossed, if things keep going well for Nathan at work then we will be purchasing a second car in the very near future.  I cannot wait.  We survived for a long time as a 1 car family and it worked well.  However, with Nathan working such long hours sometimes it's a struggle to just make it to the grocery store.

Fiona and I have been trying to stay busy to keep from going too stir crazy.  Miss G comes over during the week, which is nice because she and Fiona are actually starting to play together nicely.  It's funny to watch them jabber at each other and laugh.  Fi tries very hard to make G laugh.  She is quite the ham some days.  We spend most of our days playing in her car seat box though.  I cut some windows in it and we taped up some pictures inside and she thinks that is great fun.  She goes in there and sits and plays or reads.

Since Nathan has been working so much, he's often not home before bedtime during the week.  Fiona has figured out that if she wakes up in the middle of the night that Daddy is home, so she has been getting up a lot at night lately.  Luckily, she doesn't cry for Mommy in the middle of the night anymore.  Fiona cries for her Daddy at night now.  Unfortunately, Mommy usually wakes up and and has to kick Daddy so he goes to check on her.  Fi misses her Daddy when he's not home.  On the occassional night that he is home, she doesn't let him leave her sight. She follows him around the house and insists on reading 102 books with him.

Fiona's all time favorite toy is her doll these days.  She carries her baby around and rocks it and sings to it.  She's going to be such a good big sister.

I can't believe how much she grows and changes everyday.  She is very much a monkey and climbs everything.  She also figured out how to open our baby gate, so pretty much nothing in our house is safe.  She drags toys and boxes around to climb on so that she can reach high counters and shelves.  Part of me wants to tear my hair out and the other part is secretly proud at how creative she is about figuring things out.

Fiona has also been learning a lot more signs.  She still doesn't say a ton of words, but at least she is signing more and more.  Just this week she has started signing:  please, dance, music, and cookie.  I love it when she figures out a new sign because she gets sooo excited and uses it ALL day.  I've never been more tired than the day that she figured out how to sign dance.  We danced all. day. long.

That is pretty much our life lately.  Our big ultrasound is in 1 week from Thursday.  I'm so excited to find out if this is a girl or a boy.  Hopefully, baby will cooperate.  It's hard to believe I'm already almost 26 weeks pregnant.  This baby will be here before we know it.