Fat Lip **Updated**

Tyler and I didn't have the best start to our day!
He was playing in the living room with his toys and he tripped and fell right on his sippy cup. :-( It bled a lot right away and we were both pretty scared. First I took him into the bathroom to get a look and clean him up, but that was a bad idea when he looked in the mirror and saw the blood running down his face. (DUH!) So I grabbed a washcloth, took him in the kitchen and put him on the counter next to the sink. I basically just hugged him until he stopped crying and tried to wipe up the blood. He wouldn't (and still won't) let me look at it or put cold on it. I've just been giving him cold water to drink. I hope his teeth are ok! Poor little man...

**No tooth damage, the whole inside of his lip from the middle all the way to the corner is black and blue inside. But he's eating and playing and is happy so that's good! It's still puffy though and I think he looks like one of the Simpsons!**

I'm still here!

I have no idea if anyone checks this anymore, but here is a pic of our family from June, 2007. Tyler is now 16 months and full of engery! He's eating everything, walking, running, you name it! He's also done wearing his helmet...he graduated September 28th after wearing the helmet for 8 months when we thought it was going to be 3 or 4! Needless to say, we were relieved. There has been many bumps and bruises since but now he can be a normal little boy!

So hello again to everyone...I am hoping to keep this up-to-date again!

Here's that little tooth!

Just a quick post for now...here is a silly picture of Tyler's first little tooth! As Auntie Brooke said, good thing there were no bats in the cave! :-)

(4-12-07)

Bad Luck!

Well, after my migraine on Monday I ended up with another one on Tuesday. Yuck! It was no where near as bad though, so that was good. Then on Wednesday I was bending over to pick up Tyler's laundry and my back went out. I ended up in the ER that night and I'm still laid up! Could be for another week! This is so frustrating...I guess I'll never do laundry again cuz it's too dangerous! :-)

It's in!

Tyler's first tooth is poking through! It's the first one in the middle on the bottom right. When we got up on Friday morning daddy was changing Tyler and he kept saying, "I see a toofer!" It was so cool...very exciting! It's still not completely out yet, but it's getting there. He's been a very fussy boy and doesn't seem to want the cold wash cloth or teething ring to chew on. He'll chew on his link-a-doo's and that's about it! Oh, and our fingers, of course!

On a different note, I had to call in sick to work last night. (In case I haven't mentioned it before, I'm working at Shopko Sunday through Wednesday, 6-10pm to get out and make a little cash.) My mom, Tyler and I went shopping for a baby shower gift and on the way home I got really nauseous. A few minutes later a migraine hit. Thank goodness mom was able to stay with Tyler so I could lay down. I slept from about 3:00 until 5:00. I felt better in the evening as far as the nausea, but still had a headache. Josh and I ate our dinner outside since it was so nice out. We took Tyler's exersaucer out and he played in that. It was fun and I miss dinner with my boys when I'm working!! It's tough, that's for sure.

After we ate Josh was carrying Tyler around the yard and they found a piece of a newspaper. Rather than picking it up, Josh was kicking it as they walked toward the house. Tyler was laughing and laughing and laughing!! So we had to get the video camera out and catch that on tape! :-)

Fussiness

So things have been busy at our house!

Tyler has started scooting...it's crazy! He's doing what we call the Army crawl. You know, on the belly using his forearms to pull himself forward. It's dang cute. Along with that comes frustration of getting tired, getting stuck in the corner, etc. Quite humorous to watch, really. It's great to come to his rescue when he's frustrated and he looks up at me and puts one arm up like he's saying, "HELP!" :-) Talk about an awesome feeling to be needed like that. It's just amazing. As far as baby-proofing...we need to get to that. So far it's been fine because we have a sunken living room so that confines him...for now! I know some day he will figure out the step but until then, there's nothing in there that will harm him.

And his little toofers are coming in...I SWEAR IT! Ok, so last week I was grocery shopping with Tyler and I could have sworn I saw a tooth in his mouth and I got all excited and all these people were listening and smiling and it was so cool! THEN...when we got home I stuck my finger in his mouth. NOTHING! It must have been a shiny spit bubble or something! I was a little disappointed! Well this week has been very rough. He's been crabbing all the time and constantly wants his mommy or daddy or anyone who's around. He's also figured out that HEY - I don't HAVE to open my mouth! Urgh...what a little character! So today it took him crying for me to be able to finally stick my finger in his mouth. Now...I'm dang sure I felt something poke me when I ran my fingers over his bottom gums! I'll bet there is something there very soon. This is all so exciting!

Sledding!

Some pics from Tyler's first time sledding! It finally got warm enough to play outside a little bit...he got this sled from G & G B. for Christmas and it's the first time he got to use it! We all had a blast!

Plagiocephaly

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I have posted. I haven't written about Tyler's plagiocephaly yet on our blog and I really need to. I want to keep everyone up to date as to what is going on, so here's a long one!

Some time around Tyler’s two month check up the doctor noticed a flat spot on the back of his head on the right side and that he was strongly favoring that side. We decided at that appointment we would try “repositioning”, meaning we would do physical therapy with him and do things to help him look to his left instead of his right. I mean, he still looked to his left, but not nearly as much as the right. Sometimes if there was something to his left he would turn just about all the way around to his right so he didn’t have to turn left.

At the four month check up and after our efforts there was no change in the flat spot but his dexterity imporoved greatly to his neck. And now there was a noticeable amount of difference between the symmetry of his ears. They started to become very uneven since the flat spot was pushing his right ear forward. The doctor said it was plagiocephaly, and that it could be corrected with a helmet. Since we already did the repositioning for two months and it didn’t help we decided that we would start the process of getting Tyler a corrective helmet.

We had an appointment at the end of December to see a neurosurgeon to be sure it wasn’t neurological and he checked out just fine. After that we were sent to Gary, the only orthodist in north-central Wisconsin that does the helmets. He took measurements and said that Tyler was in the severe range of plagio and recommended we do the helmet. His ears measured almost an inch difference!

Tyler had an appointment February 2nd to have the molding made. They put a netting over his head and then put big pieces of paper mache like stuff over it. They cut a hole where his nose and mouth are and made some markings where his ears and the middle of his forehead are. Gary had to sit him up to do the back and Tyler woke up a bit but they got it all done. We got to pick from a few designs for the outside of the helmet and chose a blue background with cars, trucks, tractors and that kind of "boy" stuff on it.

I took some pictures of Tyler’s head the day after his molding (Feb 3) to show the “problem” areas so everyone can clearly see what is going on. We’re very lucky that it has only affected his head, forehead and ears. In some kids it actually causes asymmetry in the eyes or cheeks, making one significantly bigger than the other. What has happened with Tyler is he favored his right side so much that when his head was growing it grew more to the right front and even to the left side because there was pressure on that right side where he would lay. Now, with the helmet, the pressure will be on the areas that are already sticking out and as the head grows more it will fill in the spaces left between the flat areas and the helmet.

We picked up Tyler’s helmet on February 21st! We are so blessed to have such a patient and laid back little boy! My mom and dad went along since Josh was at work so Grandpa held him during the appointment. (Probaby a good thing cuz I was nervous and Tyler picks up on that!) Gary brought in the helmet and let Tyler check it out a little bit before he popped it on his head. Tyler didn't care one bit! The helmet itself is cute...the pictures are quite a bit bigger than we expected them to be but it doesn't matter! :-) As long as it's working! We had a schedule to follow for breaking him into it but we didn’t really use it because things went so great! He didn’t seem to mind it one bit so Gary said to just feel our way through the process and if things are going well we can just leave it on him, which is what we did!

His latest appointment was on March 9th and everything is right on track. Gary even said he can see an area on the flat spot that is already starting to pop out!! How awesome!

I guess plagio is getting to be more common now because of all the time babies are spending on their backs due to SIDS. PLEASE educate anyone you know with a little one at home about Plagiocephaly (flat heads!). This is preventable, to an extent. Josh and I had never even heard of this. I read a lot when I was pregnant and never once was it mentioned in a book! We had no idea that his favoring his right side would cause this!

This is cosmetic, not neurological, so having that in our minds makes this a little easier! I almost fell apart the first time I saw him in it. Now, when we take it off for baths or getting dressed he looks weird without it after only two weeks. I did fall apart the first time someone stared at him. Josh and I went for a fish fry with Tyler and this woman was blatantly staring at him. The next thing I knew tears were rolling down my face in the middle of dinner! But that’s the only time (so far!) I’ve really lost it. I told Josh I needed to just get it out of my system! :-)

SO…after a little over two weeks with Tyler’s helmet, he is doing great! I will continue to update his progress!

He did it!

Tyler rolled over from his back to his tummy today!

He's been already doing tummy to back since about Thanksgiving, but he never had an interest in going the other way because he hates his tummy. He's been practicing and getting close for quite a while now and this afternoon he did it! The things a baby will do for his toys! And he even stayed on his tummy for a little bit to play! It was a great moment!

I just finished rolling over to get closer to my keys!

Jackpot! This is just what I wanted! Did I do something special?!

Adventures in Teething

Well, I'm pretty sure that Tyler is teething now but I'm not feeling any teeth poking through yet. His gums are starting to get a little rough, but no little white things! He has been up 2-3 times in the night the last three nights. That's quite a change for us since he's been sleeping through the night since September when he was two months old! :-) We give him Tylenol but he's been coughing and choking on all the extra drool. He's coughed so hard in his sleep that two of the nights he threw up in his bed all over the place. We had to change his sheets, pj's and everything! We have two little pillows under his mattress to elevate his head but it's not seeming to help. He doesn't seem interested in chewing when he wakes up at night either. When Josh got up with him last night he ended up giving him 4 oz of formula and he went back to sleep. Then when I got up at 4:30 with him we gave him 4 more oz. I don't know if we should be doing this cuz I don't want him to become dependant on that and end up waking up cuz he's hungry.

SO...I guess you could say we're still trying to figure out what to do with him in this new stage! :-) Any advice?!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! We had a very relaxing evening out to dinner with grandma and grandpa B. (My parents.) We went to an upscale local restaurant and had a wonderful time. Tyler chilled in his car seat through the appetizer but decided to get squirmy just as our soups came! (Of course!) Daddy held him until the main course came and then Grandma was so awesome to tend to him while we ate...it was the most relaxed I've been able to be when we've had him out to eat! After dinner we came back to our house and enjoyed each others company and some brownies I made yesterday. It was so much fun!

Here's the little man in his Handsome shirt he got from grandma and grandpa B. How cute! And I just love his Bumbo seat...we use it all the time. It's a good thing he's not camera shy, huh?!

Oops! I fell over! Still not sitting up that great by my self. But I'm making progress!!

1st Christmas

Our little man's first Christmas picture! It's incredible how much the meaning of Christmas and family has changed now that Tyler is with us. We had lots of fun helping him open his presents...most of the time he was more interested in the paper. Putting it right into his mouth, of course!

Update!

I'll write one soon, I swear! :-) Life with our precious bundle of joy is amazing...and we're all adjusting well. Our Internet is hooked up in our new home so I'll be posting all the details of Tyler's arrival soon!!!!!

For now, here is something to hold you over! (This is the pic from Tyler's birth announcement, which was designed mostly by my mom. I'll have to post of picture of that as well!)

Well, Hello Tyler

Hi everyone! It's Alissa's friend, June. She asked me to make a quick post to let you all know what has been happening. It was a very exciting weekend.

Tyler Joshua was born July 9th at 4.36 in the afternoon. The little guy weighs 6 pounds and is 19 inches long.

He was so excited to meet mom and dad, that he decided to come a month early.

Both Alissa and Tyler are doing well.

I will let Alissa fill you in on all the details when she is feeling up to it, but I thought I would give you all the first of many pictures that I imagine we will be seeing.

ICK!!

I now have "pregnancy rash" all over my arms and a little bit on my legs. It's not too bad, but itches like CRAZY! I wake up in the middle of the night just scratching away at it.

Anyone else get this wonderful side effect of pregnancy?! LoL...when the nurse told me it was "pregnancy related" I wanted to scream, "ANYTHING ELSE?!" LoL...

Update: Our Jobs

Josh was supposed to start work on Wednesday, May 10th, but they called him that Monday and asked him to come in on Tuesday instead to get his SIX HOUR orientation out of the way! He was a little nervous about starting the new job, which worked out kinda nice since we were unpacking! I swear, I’d do one thing and he’d have five done!

His first day of work went great and things have been going good ever since. He's been getting home, for the most part, between 5 and 7, so that's pretty nice. Some days are earlier, some are later, just like his last job. The work outside is going good...he worked with a couple different guys to get a feel for things and now is mainly working with a guy named Adam. It's the inside computer stuff that’s ruffling his feathers! He said he’s pretty rusty with Auto CAD so we ordered him a text book and it helped him remember a lot. You know him, learning it in time isn't good enough...he wants to know it all now! I guess I don’t blame him though since his review is coming up soon. (Where did June go?!) He’s trying to prove that he is worth a lot so they pay him what he was making in the cities. They’ve been good to him already…we’ve been reimbursed for the first round of moving expenses and Josh got his bonus check last week! (Hahaha, I suppose we should get our bank switched sometime, huh?!) Dang Uncle Sam took half of it, but I guess it’s better to pay it now than to try to come up with it when we file our taxes in six months.

I have to tell about the company newsletter...LoL...they gave him a copy of the May/June issue when he first started. There was a message from the IT department saying everyone has individual passwords now instead of everyone using "packers" for the password! It wasn’t that everyone was using the same password that we laughed at…it was that the password was PACKERS!!! We’re happy to be back in Wisconsin! :-)

As for me, I called to make my appointment at the staffing company after being home for a couple days. I didn’t think I’d have any problem getting in right away to do the testing, but I was wrong! I had to wait a week to get in! I got an appointment on May 9 to go in and do my testing. That went great and they were impressed! She called me shortly after I got home to set up an interview with a place in Mosinee. I wasn’t too thrilled about the job (in marketing), but it was a 2-4 week assignment, so I was thinking it’d be perfect if it went for 4 weeks. I went to the interview and wasn’t impressed. They said I might be doing some telemarketing, which I have no interest in doing what-so-ever. When I called the staffing company to let them know I didn’t think I’d be interested they were completely unaware that there might be telemarketing involved. Needless to say they weren’t happy and neither was I.

Meanwhile, something else came up. My dad’s co-workers wife was trying to get me into where she works as a receptionist/administrative assistant. I went for that interview a week later and it went great. I know I could have done that job and I think I would have liked it…but…it was full time and it didn’t feel right to start a new job knowing that I probably won’t come back after the baby is born. That’s ok though…third time is the charm!!!

The staffing company called me with an American Family Insurance agent that needed a receptionist/administrative assistant for the month of June. So I came to meet with Jeff just before Memorial Day weekend and we hit it off! The atmosphere was great and I just knew I’d be comfortable working here! My first day was May 30 and I work 9:00 to 5:00 every day. I really enjoy this and am hoping he offers me a part time position here before my last day this Friday. (Again, where did June go?!) Sometimes I think he will and other times I can’t tell so we’ll just have to wait and see. If he offers me something I’m planning on asking for part time hours until the baby comes and then playing it by ear after that. But we’ll see how things turn out! We’re just thankful I was able to find something for the month and put some money in the bank!

Update: The Move

Our going away parties for work were both a lot of fun! The Thursday night before we left for WI we met a bunch of my co-workers at Green Mill and then Friday night we met Josh’s co-workers at Jake’s. We’re both very lucky to have had such awesome jobs and great co-workers! I know Josh had a tough time leaving work on Friday and I did too. They had a “meeting” that afternoon for me at work and I started crying as soon as I walked into the conference room! (Go figure!) We all ate ice cream cake (YUM!) and they gave me two cards signed by the whole office. The first one was a “Good Bye” card and the second was a card for the “mom to be.” Everyone in the office pitched in to get us a $200 gift card from Target for baby stuff! Awesome, huh?! Josh’s buddies at work pitched in and got him a $100 gift certificate for Cabela’s too! They were both pleasant surprises!

The move back to WI went great...we moved a lot more than Josh and I had planned on doing because my mom and dad were able to come over and they brought dad's truck and trailer. We pretty much moved everything except furniture. There’s nothing left in the kitchen cupboards and I’m so glad that’s done cuz that’s the worst room to do!

When we got home my Uncle Randy came over to my parents house to help unload everything. Now not only do we have stuff in half of mom and dad's garage but we have stuff in their shed too! But we're all settled in our one room apartment so I guess that's all that matters! :-) It’s hard saying, “I have no idea where it is” about everything, but that’s not important right now. We’re just lucky to have a place to stay for free and not be paying rent on top of a house payment!

Ticker thingie

It's amazing how fast this pregnancy has gone...I think when I added the ticker at the top of this page baby was in the first or second little picture thingie. Now he's getting so big and is on the second to last one! I couldn't believe it when I noticed it today...at the time I posted it, it seemed like so far away!

WHOOPS!

Wow...it's been a month since I posted! I don't know where the time has gone, but things have been pretty busy.

Quick update - baby boy is still doing great! I am too, just enjoying all those third trimester aches and pains! Baby shower is this Saturday...I can't believe how fast the time has gone!

Josh's job is going great and I have a job for the month of June that I really like!

More to come...sorry it's been so long!!

Busy, Busy!

Our social calendar is keeping us busy and I can’t believe it’s Thursday already! Our dinner on Monday with Luke and Dora had a bit of a change. When we got to TGI Friday’s Luke was there by himself cuz Dora was home with a migraine. What a bummer! But we still had a good time with Luke talking about their work (oh joy!), hunting (yay!) and how he never would have started ice fishing if we hadn’t met! We even had the same bartender that we had when we used to go there three years ago…it was a lot of fun!

Tuesday Dora had a job interview down the road from my work, so she stopped in to say hello. That was such a surprise and it was great to see her! We chit-chatted for a little bit and then she had to get going. I hope she’s able to make it to Josh’s happy hour after work on Friday so we can spend a little more time together before we leave.

Tuesday afternoon, kinda last minute, Mindy suggested going for pizza in town. It was the only night this week we didn’t have something going on, but at this point, who cares! I’m glad we got to go out with them, just the four of us, before we leave. It was lots of fun, as always! I’m sure going to miss them…Mindy has been a great friend since we met over three years ago when I started at R & H.

Last night I met Mindy and Linell for dinner at Applebee’s. (Yes, Applebee’s again! It’s about the only place to go in town!) We had a lot of fun catching up and talking baby stuff. Linell and her family got Squirt an ADORABLE outfit and a cute picture frame! After we shared dessert we all headed home. I got some packing done!!! Well, not much, but it’s a start. I packed up all of the little baby things we’ve accumulated so far.

Tonight is happy hour with my co-workers. I don’t know how many people will be there, but I know it will be fun! And Josh is going to come too!

THIRD Trimester!

WOW! I can’t believe it…I’m 26 weeks today. If my calculations are right I’m starting my third trimester today! The time has flown by with all the excitement going on and hopefully continues to fly by through these last 3 months!

Squirt is now about 14 inches long from head to heels and is a little under 2 pounds! He’ll start putting on more baby fat now and fill out all his wrinkly skin. He is able to respond more to noises now that his ears are getting more developed. And now he’s starting to take in small breaths of amniotic fluid, mostly in R.E.M. sleep. I had to post this picture (from BabyCenter) because I love how the baby is all scrunched up!
When Josh left for work this morning (he leaves an hour before I do so I was still in bed) he was playing peek-a-boo with Squirt. Lucky me since that consists of him yanking my blankets off, yelling peek-a-boo, and then throwing the blankets back on me! Nice way to wake up, huh?! I always tell him it’s a good thing I can laugh at him!

I think Squirt has had the hiccups before, but I’m positive he did this morning! I was sitting at my desk at work and had some very rhythmic movements in the lower part of my uterus, where he seems to like to hang out. I sat back to enjoy it for a couple minutes and then it stopped! It was cool!

And just to rub it in to everyone…we’ve picked a name for Squirt and we just love it! We use it all the time when it’s just the two of us. But it’s still a secret!! Your only clue is that it isn’t a new age name, it’s pretty traditional. To hold you over until he arrives, his middle name will be Joshua, after his daddy who already loves him so much.

Our last week of work in MN

When Josh woke me up before he left this morning he said, “Happy last week of work.” WEIRD! We’ll both have our last day of work this Friday.

Josh put in his two week notice last Monday and he said it went good. (We didn’t know how it’d go since everyone at his work has been in the dark about what is going on.) His boss said he had a feeling we'd be moving but he was still bummed because he’s been such a good worker. The rest of his coworkers know now and everyone has been very understanding since we are moving to be closer to our families. Everyone keeps saying how important family is, especially when a little one is in the picture, and I can’t help but agree!

Our plan for this weekend was to start packing, but that just didn’t happen! Friday night we went for our last fish fry at Bar & Grill and to tell our favorite waitresses about the move. We didn’t even stay to play pool, went right home after we ate! Then Saturday morning I went to get my hair done and say goodbye to my stylist while Josh ran to the grocery store to get some more boxes. We got home around the same time and left a little while later to meet Stevi for lunch. It was so much fun and SOOOO good to see her. It’s been too long! We got there at 12:30 and when we got into the car the clock said 3:55!!!!! No wonder my butt was getting sore! It was a blast catching up! Saturday night we had dinner with our neighbors, Ray and Pam, at Applebee’s. That was another 3 hour dinner!! We had a blast…they took pics and got us some super cute baby gifts, which we totally didn’t expect! I don’t think we’ll ever have neighbors like them again…we’re sure going to miss them!! Sunday was supposed to be our day and we were going to get a lot of our packing done and out of the way. Well, after we went for breakfast Josh napped and I did some stamping and worked on another craft project. When I went upstairs three hours later I napped and Josh went downstairs on the computer! Needless to say, after I got up from my nap neither of us felt like doing anything. Silly us, cuz if you think the weekend was busy, our week is going to be just as crazy!

Tonight we’re having dinner with Luke and Dora at TGI Fridays…where we used to go hang out when we first met! Fitting, huh?! Tuesday we’ll both be home, Wednesday I’m having dinner with Mindy and Linell, Thursday night is happy hour with my co-workers and Friday night is happy hour with Josh’s co-workers! Good thing we don’t have a lot to pack since our realtor said it’ll be best to have our furniture there for showings. Saturday we went room by room and made a list of what we NEED to pack, so I guess that’s better than nothing. Then when the house sells we’ll come back, pack what’s left, and try to fit it all into a big UHaul trailer so we can get it in one trip. We’ll see how that goes when the time comes!

So…NOW our plan is to get packed little by little this week. My parents are most likely coming here on Friday some time to help us haul stuff back to their house. We’re hoping to be ready to go to Wisconsin (for good!) late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. HOW EXCITING!!!

Baby appointments

We had our 3rd ultrasound appointment last Tuesday. It was exciting to get another chance to see him since at the last one we couldn’t see his face and he wouldn’t move at all! So I had a plan…since I had to have a full bladder I’d drink 12 ounces of apple juice and 12 ounces of water before the appointment! :-) He always wiggles around when I drink apple juice so it HAD to work! Well, I think it did because Squirt was a lot more active and we finally got to see his face! OH – and he’s still a boy…I had the ultrasound tech double check! :-)

It was very hard to make out what was what, so we decided to make a “map” to post here so you can compare it to the plain ultrasound. The pic is turned to the right and has everything marked on it – keep in mind he is a lot bigger this time! Red is his heart, orange is his whole head, yellow is his right arm, blue are his eyes, green is his nose, pink is his mouth!

This one is a little easier to see after you see the “map.” We think he has my chin! :-) I hope you can make sense of them...we had a hard time at first! :-) I've seen so many ultrasound pics on other blogs and ours never look anything like the other ones!

My follow up (and sadly, last appointment) with Dr. B was on Wednesday afternoon. Everything went great...we went over the ultrasound and baby is right on track for growing! He was 1.7 pounds! I was a little worried about his size because the ultrasound tech said he was measuring 23 weeks, 3 days and he was supposed to be 23 weeks, 6 days. She reminded me that the bigger the baby gets, the harder it is to measure how old his is in weeks and days so I shouldn’t worry. Then we got all my files wrapped up and ready to be transferred to Marshfield Clinic in Weston. She even said if I have questions in the future about anything, whether it was the pregnancy or about my files, that I could call her. How awesome! :-) After I met with her I had my one hour glucose test. Well, my blood sugar level was 190 something and it was supposed to be under 155 or something!! So I had to go back first thing Thursday morning to have a THREE HOUR fasting lab done. I had to drink a double dose of the soda thing and then have my blood drawn every three hours. Three hours in a doctor’s office…joy! Needless to say I almost finished The Baby Whisperer book mom and dad got us for Easter! The good news is I passed the second time! :-) She said my other result could have been due to something I ate during the day since my appointment wasn't until almost 3:00. Whew! So everything is OK! I'm so glad cuz like I need something else on my plate right now!!!

Baby side effects

My wrists hurt SO BAD! The water retention can cause symptoms similar to carpal tunnel syndrome in your wrists and is, of course, one of the symptoms I have! Joy! I get to sleep with braces on my wrists and when I wake up my fingers don’t seem to want to bend. Gets better as the day goes tho. I also use a brace at work while I’m at my computer to make sure that my wrist doesn’t bend while I’m typing. (My left one seems worse than the right one so that’s the one I wear the brace on.)

I also have to say that NONE of my sandals fit except a pair of cheap Old navy flip flops. I'm so annoyed!!!!!!!!! Yes, Karol told me her feet grew when she was pregnant, so I knew it was coming, but it’s different when it actually happens!! I started my search because of all the water retention. I started trying on sandals with mom at Walmart a few weeks ago and I had to get a ½ size bigger than usual! I ended up taking back the ones I got with her cuz they were too tight across the top of my foot. Then I tried on shoes at the local shoe store and Maurice’s before Josh and I went back to Walmart to search there again. I ended up getting a pair of backless white canvas shoes that fit SO GOOD! But I still wanted sandals cuz I live in them during the summer. Found a great deal on a pair at Kohl’s on Saturday!












They’re Adidas flip flops with really good soles on them and adjustable straps! They’re perfect and I feel much better now! :-)

The sign is in!

* Please excuse the poor picture quality...camera phone doesn't like the morning sun! *

The official For Sale sign came yesterday! It's really surreal driving up to the house and seeing it. But exciting too!! The first day our temporary "New Listing" sign was up I got teary eyed as I drove around the block. When I pulled into the garage all of the neighborhood kids followed me! They were standing outside the car and when I got out they said, "You can't move!" and "We don't want you to go!" I, of course, started crying! There have also been various neighbors saying, "We're going to take your sign!"

We live in such a great neighborhood. It's hard enough to leave and they're sure not making it any easier! :-)

Baby News and Relocation News!

Ok, it’s been awhile! Life has been pretty crazy around our house!

I’ve been slacking in my baby updates for the last two weeks, so here goes! I am now 24 weeks along…6 months! It’s hard to believe, isn’t it!? Squirt is now 1.25 pounds and just about a foot long! It’s just incredible…I keep thinking about when he was just the size of a grape! The time has really passed quickly, but I guess we’ve been keeping busy. His taste buds are developing and I wonder if he tastes what I eat or if he just gets the nutrients from what I eat. Anyone know? I think it’s pretty cool that he will get used to all the loud noises he hears in utero so when he is here with us they won’t phase him! The top of my uterus is now about an inch above my belly button, making it about the size of a SOCCER BALL! HOLY MOLY!!!!! :-)

Squirt has been moving around so much since he is growing bigger and Josh is able to feel him easily now. I don’t know what is normal as far as how much babies move, but it feels like he is VERY active! Last weekend when we were with my parents he was kicking so hard I said, “It feels like he’s going to fall out!” Now, I know that’s not possible, but that’s how it feels! Some times he even kicks so hard out of the blue that I jump! And then I laugh and laugh, so it’s welcomed! :-)

I’ve had a little bit of trouble with swelling, but it seems to be under control if I watch my sodium intake and keep drinking lots of water. It was a little scary when it got really bad on Saturday last weekend, but I realized, after I called the doctor in fear of preclampsia, that I ate some potato chips on Friday! The nurse reassured me that they aren’t worried about toxemia or preclampsia so I try to remember that if the swelling differs from day to day.

Speaking of the doctor, I had an appointment on April 11th and that went great. My blood pressure is back to where it was before, so she is going to keep me on the dose of my BP meds that the other doc put me on. She reassured me that the dose I’m on is still REALLY low and it’s nothing to be concerned about at this point. Whew. She asked me about the move and at that point we still didn’t know what was going on. So I talked her into bumping up my next ultrasound appointment just in case we move! :-) She actually wants them to be four weeks apart now instead of six since I’m “high risk” now for two reasons instead of just one, so it all worked out. My next ultrasound is Tuesday, April 25…next week already! Josh will be coming along, as usual! They’ll be checking to be sure Squirt is growing like he is supposed to be…and I’m also going to have them “make sure” he’s still a boy! (Not that I wish it was a girl, just so the shower invites are the right color! Hahaha!) Then I’ll see Dr. B on Wednesday for my last check-up with her and to get things ready to be transferred to a new OB/GYN in Wausau!

Our house officially went on the market on April 5th and we had a showing that same night! After that we had a couple more showings and even had an offer on Friday! The couple ended up backing out, which worked out ok since it was only on the market for three days. We have lots of time yet!

As far as the job side of things, Josh has accepted an incredible offer from Company #2 in Wausau! He is SO excited and so are the management and owners there! He'll be starting his new job on May 10th, so our last day of work at our current jobs will be May 5th! The owner of Company #2 arranged for a $5,000 sing on bonus, $500 for moving expenses and our insurance will start the first day he is employed there instead of after 60 days, so no one will have to pay for COBRA insurance. After 60 days they are going to give him a review and if he is performing (which he will be!) they will give him a raise to get him up to what he is making now!

As for work for me, I have a couple options right now and am also going to look into doing some temp work until the baby comes. We’re both hoping that after Josh’s 60 days he will be making enough so that I can stay home when the baby is born. That is our main goal and one of the only things now that is still up in the air!

The move is bittersweet as we have been here for four years now, have a beautiful home and have made some close friends that we'll have to leave behind. We both truly enjoy our jobs here so that will be hard as well. HOWEVER, we both know in our hearts that our lives and Squirt's life will be much better being closer to our families and friends. And I know we're both looking forward to having "normal" weekends with less driving! :-)

We love you all and thank you for supporting us in our decision to move to Minnesota and our decision to come back to Wisconsin!!!

New Stuff for Squirt!

I had to share a few goodies we picked up for Squirt! The diaper bag is from the doctors office and is filled with a bunch of samples and fun stuff! I picked up the lamp at Target, which was on clearance, TVM! :-) The green matches perfectly to the baby's bedding. And the little Chicky...I shouldn't go into details but I will! Josh had a Chicky when he was little (which he still has) and wanted to make sure his little boy had one too so we've been keeping our eyes open for one. I found this little guy at Target as well and HAD to get him!

I HAVE AN UPDATE!

Josh had a message from Company #2 yesterday when he got home and the guy said they are "definitely interested and want to continue this." SWEET, HUH?! He mentioned meeting next Friday, which is weird cuz it’s Good Friday, but on the other hand, Josh can take the time off and no one will question why! Josh is calling him back today to set up a meeting time.

AND…I just talked to Josh...he had his review with his boss this morning and it went good. No one at Josh's work knows about us moving except Fred, Josh's 2nd man that meets at our house in the morning. Josh wanted to tell him before he saw the for sale sign in the yard! BUT...a couple people at his work have been saying stuff like, "So since you're having a baby when are you moving back to WI?" and stuff like that. We weren't sure if his boss would say anything about it today, but he didn't. AND...Josh got a $3 raise! I can't believe this! Maybe he has an idea about the move and that's why he gave Josh such a big raise...to get him to stay! Urgh...who knows! All I know is the money isn't going to keep us here! :-)

It Happened!

JOSH FELT OUR LITTLE GUY MOVE LAST NIGHT!!!!!!!!

It was so exciting…his eyes got BIG and he had a HUGE smile on his face!!

The baby seemed to be moving a lot in one place when I was laying in bed. So I told Josh and he put his hand on my belly. I felt Squirt kick and watched his face light up! It was so cool! He said, “I felt it! It was just little, but I felt it! I thought it would be harder!” :-)

I’m 22 Weeks Today!

This week our little guy is looking like a miniature newborn…no more alien! He is 10.9 inches and almost 1 pound! Even his eyes are developed and the first little tooth buds are appearing under his gums!

Not a whole lot of new stuff to report today, which is ok too I guess! My belly button has been pretty sore…it’s stretching sideways! (I guess pretty soon it will be flat and then start sticking out!) And speaking of stretching, I’m starting to get some new stretch marks on the sides of my belly button. I knew in the back of my mind I’d get them because I had some before the pregnancy, but it was really weird when they actually showed up! I’ve been feeling a lot of movement from the little guy, but still not able to feel him from the outside of my belly. I’m starting to retain water on a daily basis now, it’s not just sporadic anymore. So I have to make sure I get up and walk around a lot, keep my feet up at my desk and DRINK, DRINK, DRINK! Water that is! :-) Otherwise, I’m settling in to the “easy” part of pregnancy…I’m getting used to all the weird things my body is doing, so all that’s left is to enjoy it until I get big and uncomfortable! :-)

Josh and his co-worker Fred picked up a glider/ottoman from one of his other co-workers’ house today. They said they didn’t need it any more and wanted it to go to a good home! We’re so lucky…those aren’t cheap!

…ok, so maybe I had more to report than I thought!

Furniture knobs

My grandma and grandpa from my dad's side are making all of the nursery furniture for our little guy. (Except the crib, which my mom and dad are so graciously getting for us!) After a short visit with them a couple weeks ago of brainstorming and flipping through JC Penny catalogs for ideas, we found the perfect set to model ours after! Before we left we got to talking about what type of knobs to use and I decided to try to find some animal knobs to match the bedding!

An unsuccessful trip to Target, Menard's and Home Depot, I decided to do some checking on eBay. I hit the jackpot with that one!! I found a woman that hand paints knobs and even customizes them to match whatever you want! So I got in touch with her via email and sent her some pictures of our bedding. I received my knobs in the mail today and couldn't be happier! This woman was so fast and is so TALENTED! Here is the sample sheet she sent me...they are exactly like this! And perfectly match the animals on our bedding!

Catch-Up Post!

Hi everyone! I’m a little bit behind schedule, but here I am! Last week was an insane whirlwind but now that I’m caught up I can write and get everyone up-to-date.

3-24…Went to PJ’s for Brooke’s birthday party. We had a really good time, we even stayed until 1:30! I couldn’t believe how fast the time went cuz I thought I’d be ready for bed at 10:00! :-) It was good seeing Brooke and Brad and all of our friends and some of our family. On our way back to my mom and dad’s house we came upon a car accident by the road my parents live on. Apparently the guy was drunk and drove down my parents road (which comes to a T intersection), across the highway, down the ditch and up onto the railroad tracks! When we got there his car was stuck on the tracks! So I called 911 and Josh made sure he was ok since he is certified in First Aid. The Sherriff’s department got there pretty quick to take care of things. Pretty exciting way to end the night I guess! Didn’t get to bed until prolly 3:00am!

3-25…Got up around 11:00…very rare for us! We took a ride past one of the houses we wanted to look at. It’s a great location but the yard is quite small. Then we headed up to Josh’s home town to visit with his family for a while. That was fun...we hung out there and ate dinner with his mom, Jim and Dan before we went to see Zach and Kim and new baby Kadince! She is just adorable and we had a great time visiting with them!

Today we got some great news! After three weeks of waiting for word on job offers or interviews for Josh we finally heard something! Josh checked his email and he got a job offer from Company #1, the place he already interviewed with! They sent him a benefits package (which looks good) and want him to come in to talk salary! Then he had an email from Company #2 saying they want to interview him! I think he will like that place better than Company #1 because they are more surveying oriented...I hope it all goes well!

3-26…Visited with Josh’s grandma and grandpa and then headed back home.

3-29…I’m 21 weeks! The baby is supposed to weigh ¾ of a pound and is about 10.5 inches long. But we all know our little guy is ahead of that…I just don’t know how much! His eyelids and eyebrows are fully developed too! I’m definitely feeling him moving around. A LOT! :-) BabyCenter said the little guy is oblivious to my schedule. That’s a little surprising because I’ve still been sleeping good, minus my one trip to the bathroom, and he seems to settle down right before I go to bed! I’m starting to see his patterns and have an idea of when he is active and when he’s not. I’ve been, for the most part, feeling great! It’s so nice to just be enjoying the pregnancy and not being miserable!

My doctor appointment today went well...Squirt’s heartbeat is 158. Just right! My blood pressure was 132/90 so they added an extra dose of my meds and I'll see Dr. Brown in two weeks to check it again. I honestly chalked it up to seeing a new doctor and being nervous, but I’ll still check it at the pharmacy and keep an eye on it between now and April 11th when I see Dr. B. I asked Dr. F. about the numbing in my hands. He said a lot of pregnant women get carpal tunnel during pregnancy because of water retention. It’s also irritated by sleeping with your wrists bent, which explains why it’s only bad first thing in the morning. So for the most part, all is well! :-)

3-31…We left work early today cuz Josh has an interview with Company #2 at 3:30! (WAHOO!) He will be meeting with the President of Company #1 on Saturday morning to talk about a salary! FINALLY...after over three weeks we get some answers! :-) He isn't going to take the job at Company #1 until he hears from Company #2 because we both think Company #2 will be a better fit for him since they are more surveying oriented!

Today…Josh's two interviews went great this weekend! The one at Company #2 looks pretty promising. He is really excited about that place because they are very up-to-date and surveying oriented. They gave him a tour and introduced him to a few people, so that's a good thing too! :-) The interview with Company #1 went good as well...we thought they were going to offer him a job, but it was actually a second interview with the president of the company. He likes that company too, but is really hoping Company #2 will offer him a job. Company #2 is calling him back this week and Company #1 will get in touch with him in the next couple weeks when they have a better feel for how much work they will have this summer.

I'm pretty sure Josh is FINALLY ready to put the house on the market...I can't tell you how relieving that is because we just don't know how long it will take to sell. He mentioned last night about putting the final touches on the house so the realtor can come take pictures, so this is a good thing!

Speaking of houses, we looked at about 6 houses in the Rib Mountain area with a realtor on Saturday. Mom and dad came along too…it was a fun afternoon! Didn't find anything we couldn't live without, but definitely got some ideas! And…we had Papillion’s for dinner…YUMMY! I love those Wisconsin pizza fries! :-)

Look!

After our ultrasound, we received some cute outfits from family and friends. When we got home Sunday night I felt the need to take pictures of them and post them! :-) I'm just so excited I have to share! I sure wish we could get a nursery set up, but it's just not going to happen right now...I'll come to terms with that sooner or later! Meanwhile, we have "baby drawers" in the dress in our spare bedroom that are reserved for "Squirt." (That's what Josh has been calling our little guy!)

Outfits from Christmas when I was only a few weeks along! Packers outfits from my parents, Pooh outfit from my Aunt Kathy, slippers from Josh's mom, and the giraffe is a little something my mom picked up for him a few weeks ago. It's so cute!

These are the outfits and Squirt's very first little toy that mommy bought him. I picked them up the day we had our first ultrasound and found out he was doing well!

This little outfit is the one Josh and I picked up on clearance at Walmart...the one with the kahki overalls and #72 on the onesie and hoodie!

Our friends Mindy & Ron picked up this outfit the night we called them to tell them we are having a boy...more overalls and they are just adorable! The shirt has a scooter on it and there is a little puff of smoke on the back too!

Last, but not least, this is the outfit my mom and dad gave us. My mom had picked up a boy and a girl outfit so she had this picked out to give us before we even had our ultrasound! :-) We just love it...it's adorable and Josh's mom told us Josh had that was similar to it when he was a little guy!

Soccer Player?!

I think I got kicked in the bladder for the first time this morning! I was driving to work and all of a sudden I felt like I could pee my pants! There was a ton of pressure...and then…NOTHING. LoL…Gotta get used to that I guess!

When Josh left for work this morning he said, “You have got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night for four days in a row now!” LoL…I had been very lucky and still been sleeping through the night up until Monday night. When I get up I have to turn on the lamp on my nightstand so I can see where I’m going so I always wake him up. I think we need to find out nightlight and plug that in on my side of the bed…then again, he can wake up with me! ;-) Monday through Wednesday I made it until 4:00 am, but last night I had to get up at 1:00 am! Oh well…I really don’t mind except because of taking the Unisom I’m a zombie and have to do all I can not to fall asleep on the toilet! I won’t be surprised if it happens!

In not so good news, I’ve started to retain water again. I got rid of it last time it happened about two weeks ago, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to do it again. I think it is around two pounds, unless I actually gained some weight from this pregnancy. I really don’t think that’s it though since my fingers look like sausages and my feet hurt in the shower! I’ll just keep pushing my water and stay away from those yummy, salty foods! :-)

Ultrasound results!

Josh and I had our 20 week ultrasound yesterday! My gut feeling was right...our little Peanut is a BOY!!!!!!

The whole ultrasound experience was very interesting, to say the least! I didn’t have to have a full bladder and I’m SOOOOO thankful for that because our stubborn little boy wouldn’t move so the tech was doing all she could to get him to! When she first started she told us that the baby had his head down and was facing my spine. Not very easy to get at the head to get measurements, so there was a lot of poking, prodding and pushing on my belly. She said, “Sorry if this hurts!” and I said, “Well, do what you have to do cuz I’m sure the birth will be worse than this!” LoL. At one point she pushed on my belly and we heard a little thud on the ultrasound thing...I felt a kick at the same time! I think he was telling her to get out of his space! She took a few measurements and then we tried a few other things to get him to move. She laid me back on the table so I felt like I was standing on my head – didn’t work! Turned on my right side – didn’t work! Turned on my left side facing away from her – still didn’t move! As I’m facing away from her she said she was getting a better angle and I kept an eye on Josh’s face to see if his expression changed. Slowly a little smirk spread across his face and I knew something was up. When I rolled back over she had a picture on the screen and she showed us the two legs and then she pointed an arrow between his legs and said, “IT’S A BOY!” Since he wasn’t cooperating very well we didn’t get too many good pics, but we got the important one! This isn't very good since I just took a picture of it with my camera phone. Our scanner isn't hooked up yet, so that's all we have for now! :-) His butt is facing up and his legs are spread apart. If you look close enough you can see where she typed the word leg and the little arrow she put on there pointing to his boy parts !

This is his little foot, if you can make it out!

When we met with the doctor for the results, he said everything looked really good and he is ahead of the size schedule by 4 days! With the level two ultrasound it even shows the flow of blood in red and blue coming into and leaving the baby’s body from the umbilical cord. That’s the only place there was a little issue. They are going to have me back for an ultrasound every 6 weeks not only because of my pre-hypertension, but because instead of having two arteries and one vein in his umbilical cord he only has one of each. Normally this hinders the growth of the baby, but the doctor said he's growing just fine! :-) The doctor assured us there is nothing to worry about at this point and he was very happy with what he saw. Even though he is ahead of his growth schedule they aren't changing my due date since I had an early ultrasound and those are very accurate in determining the due date. Big babies run in my mom's side of the family, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised! :-)

When we were done we had dinner at Friday’s and spent a lot of time on the phone. Everyone was excited...we're very excited too! Then we ran to Walmart and had to stroll through the baby department to pick up something boy-ish! We picked up a little outfit that was on clearance… khaki bib overalls that have cute little patches on the knees. It came with a blue onesie with the number 72 on the sleeve and a grey zip up hoodie with the number 72 on the front of it. We had to have it since 72 was Josh's racing number when he raced snowmobiles! :-) And my dad’s old football number!

When we got home we made the cupcakes to take to our offices today…with cute blue frosting on them! The cupcakes are going over well...I put them on my desk and made everyone come over to me to get one so I could share the ultrasound pics! Mindy and Ron gave us an outfit (she went and bought it after we called them last night!). It's a blue polo shirt that has a scooter on it and a pair of jean bib overalls! SO CUTE! And my mom said when we go there this weekend she left a present for us on the table!

All-in-all, it was a great visit with lots of awesome news! Again, we are so blessed! :-)

Today is the big day!

I’m SOOOO tired today even though we were in bed by 10:45 last night! The hockey game was a really good and we WON 3-1! We had a blast…maybe I’ll post some pictures. On our way back to I-94 we took a different route than we usually do and drove through an AWESOME old neighborhood with huge, beautiful, old mansions…I know some of my family (mom and AJ for sure!) would have loved to see them. LoL…Josh was asking the street names so he could figure out where we were and I said, “I can’t look right now, I’m busy!” Hahaha…

This week the baby is 6.5 inches from head to rump. After this week the measurements will change…instead of measuring head to rump it will be head to toe. This changed because the baby’s legs are able to stretch out more now than it was able to in the first 20 weeks when they were curled against the body and hard to measure. (He/she must know I’m writing about him/her because I’m getting some kicks!) SO…after that explanation, this week the baby is actually 10 inches from head to heel!! WOW!!!!! That’s way bigger than my hand now! :-) The baby’s weight is now 10.5 ounces, quite a size change from my last ultrasound when the baby was the size of a small grape! Speaking of food, I’m a little bummed because BabyCenter.com didn’t give a fruit/vegetable this week!

There’s some other gross stuff happening that I’ll just briefly mention – a greasy white substance is coating the body to protect the skin from being in the amniotic fluid so long and will also help during delivery. The baby is also producing a black, sticky substance from swallowing amniotic fluid that will show up in the first messy diapers. GROSS! ;-)

My uterus is now at the same level as my belly button and I can definitely feel it. My belly button hurts! (Again, I’m sure this is nothing compared to what it’ll be feeling like in 2-3 months!) When I put my finger in my belly button I can feel the top of my uterus…last Friday we really had to push to feel it, but yesterday it wasn’t difficult to find cuz it’s so hard!

In this week’s info they also mentioned childbirth education classes and I just don’t know what to do about it. I don’t know if I should sign up now or if I should wait until we know more about moving. Advice anyone?

I’m leaving work today at 2:00 to go to the ultrasound! I’m all set…have our directions and just called the hospital to confirm my appointment. It’s at 3:00 in Minneapolis, which is why we are leaving so early. There is NO PREP at all, which means I don’t have to chug all that water and have my bladder pushed on! Sounds like good news to me! :-) I told her I just wanted to be sure and she said that the view on their machines is so clear that they don’t need to do that anymore…WAHOO! I’ll post again in the morning unless I have time tonight. But if all goes well and we find out the sex, Josh and I are planning on making cupcakes with corresponding colored frosting for us to take to work tomorrow! :-)

Interview Update

Another busy week at work! Too bad I don’t have a computer at home…oh, wait…we do! Uhm, I just don’t get paid to use that one! :-)

Josh’s job interview went great on the 11th…it was TWO HOURS LONG! Everything they said was good and they really seemed to like Josh. They are impressed with his qualifications and he said the company seems to be very good to its employees. The bad part…Josh was pretty disappointed in the equipment that they use because it is very outdated. However, he is still going to consider employment there if they offer it to him. He should be hearing from someone soon, they are supposed to mail an information packet about their insurance and other benefits. Oh – dad talked to the guy from this company on Monday and he said he hasn’t heard anything about the details, just that the interview went good and they liked Josh. He also told dad he thought they would lay Josh off in the winter. That really put a different spin on things, which sucks. But I guess it will all work out.

As for the house, until we hear something on employment, it’s not up for sale.

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT THE ULTRASOUND IS TOMORROW!?!?!! The time has just FLOWN by! We are so excited we can hardly stand it! Tonight will go by fast cuz we’re going to the MN Wild hockey game. Hopefully tomorrow morning will fly! I’m picking Josh up at work at 2:00 and we’re headed to the hospital!! Eeeek! I’m sticking with my prediction - I think it’s a boy. I sure hope we’ll be able to find out after all this excitement! :-)

Another beautiful baby!

Kim (Josh's cousin Zach's wife) went into labor around 8:00 last night and had their baby girl at 2:16 this morning, ON her due date! She is 6 pounds, 8 ounces and 20.5 inches long. Everything went great and mom and baby are both doing fine. Of course, Zach is tired, poor guy, huh?! :-)

Today I am 19 weeks!

I can’t believe how fast the time has gone…our ultrasound is next week already. The 22nd will be here before we know it. Seems like I just made the appointment and that was almost two months ago! We’re hoping and praying that we can find out the sex that day, but even if we can’t, it’ll be great just to see the little one on screen again!

This little baby has been moving SO MUCH lately! It is just unreal how much difference a week has made! I feel him/her more than ever and much, much stronger. It’s still so amazing to me and still makes me stop whatever I am doing so I can enjoy it. I know Josh is just waiting until the kicks and moves get stronger so he can feel them too!

I’m a little bummed right now. After my last dr. appointment with Dr. B on the March 1st, she let me know that she wouldn’t be in the week that my next appointment was to be scheduled. At the time I didn’t think it was that big of a deal. But this weekend I decided I’d rather see Dr. B again in case we are moved by the end of April. I called her office this morning and she has NO openings at the office I go to until April 18th! What a bummer…so I’m keeping my appointment with Dr. F on the 29th and hoping that we will still be living in MN for my next appointment on April 26th. If not, I guess someone will have to take a road trip with me! :-)

So this week, at 8.5 ounces and 6 inches from head to rump, our little one is now the size of a small zucchini! (Again, so close Ash! She guessed an eggplant.) I got out my ruler so I could see just how big 6 inches is and it’s amazing! When Rayn and Meghan asked last weekend how big the baby was I cupped my hands together to show them, like someone was going to put something in my hands. But now 6 inches is from the tip of my middle finger almost to the bottom of my palm! What a difference! This week the little one is starting to grow more hair on his/her head…I wonder what color it is!
(Has anyone else noticed the difference between my BabyCenter info and the info on my baby ticker?!)

Josh’s job interview update coming soon!

Radio DJ has made a guess at the sex of our baby!

My cousin Brooke emailed me yesterday from WI and said, “You should call WIFC now to see what Dave Calloway says your having. All he needs to know is how old you'll be when you have the baby and the official month of conception.” I said it sounds a lot like the info you need for the Chinese Birth Chart, but I’ll give it a shot. I tried calling shortly after and no one answered. I emailed her back and said she should do it for me today! SO…she did! This is the email I, and a bunch of family and friends, got from her this morning:

Ok, so Alissa talked me into doing a baby check for her on WIFC cuz she couldn't get through. Dr Dave said that she is going to have a boy!! When Alissa has the baby, she or I need to call back to the radio station and let them know what she had. If Dr. Dave was right, they will send her a bib that says, “Dr Dave said I was going to be a boy!” If he was wrong they will send her a bib that says, “OOOPS!!!” He also said that since he's been doing this, Greece is the farthest they've sent a bib. Now I'm listening to the station to see if I'll be on the radio or not, I know....what a dork!! The things you do for the ones you love!! :O)

Now isn’t that cool?! So it’ll be fun to see if Dr. Dave and the Chinese birth chart are both right! :-) Only 12 days until the ultrasound!

Job update!

Just wanted to let everyone know that Josh’s informal interview (“meet and eat” as AJ called it!) was changed from last weekend to tomorrow. Please keep poor Josh in your thoughts and prayers…he’s a bit nervous! As I am too! :-) Things sound pretty promising, so I’m sure everything will go just fine. Depending on how things go on Saturday, our house might be for sale some time next week! I’ll update as soon as I can!

If, for some reason, things don’t go as planned, he has a back-up. Another company in Stevens Point also called. Josh talked to them and they basically said they aren’t hiring right now, but if the right person came along they wouldn’t hesitate to hire. SO…if things don’t look as promising as we’d like after tomorrow morning Josh will call and set up and interview there! I’m glad we have options, but I hope we don’t have to use them. :-) I’d rather live around the Wausau area and one of Josh’s “unruly” classmates from high school and college works there and he’s a bad influence! I’m just kidding, if that’s the way things work out, that will be fine. Josh is more responsible and mature anyway!

Shameless Plug!

Jacki (Josh’s mom) called Josh last night to let him know that Dan’s band, 4th Floor, is going to be at Coral Lanes Saturday night! They’re playing from 9pm-1am, no cover charge!

SO…go check them out if you don’t have plans! Mom, dad, Josh and I are going after Mom and I go with a friend of hers to see Bye, Bye Birdie at one of the high schools.

Let me know if you want to meet us!

No more adoption updates…IT’S DONE!

I had a very exciting email from Ronda waiting for me when I got to work today. It's finally over!!! *tears* The court hearing is done, papers are signed, and Aliya Mae is home for good! She attached some cute pictures, all taken in their home last night! I think these are the best pictures that I've seen through the past 5 weeks.

Thanks for everyone’s thoughts and prayers and for letting me share this story with you all! We’re going to Aliya’s welcome home party on Saturday and I’ll ask then if I can post a pic!

I’m 18 Weeks!

Every morning when Josh leaves for work he wakes me up to kiss me goodbye and usually touches or kisses my belly too. (I know, awwww!) Well, yesterday morning he said in a little sing-song voice, “You’re starting to get a belly!” LoL…I’d have slapped him if it wasn’t a baby! :-) But it’s true…my abdomen is starting to really show some changes and we can feel the top of my uterus almost at the bottom of my belly button. Just in the last week I’ve been noticing my belly button starting to get sore as my uterus keeps growing! I’m sure that uncomfortablness (lol…I don’t think that’s a word, but just go with it) will be nothing in comparison to what will be happening, but still! I’ve also quit wearing my pants at my waistline for that very reason…and now they’re hiked up damn near to my chest…it’s HOT! I’ve noticed more heartburn so my Tums are close by my side and my appetite seems to be growing, but I’m keeping it to small and frequent meals so I don’t get an upset stomach. At the moment I feel like I have these few things under control! :-)

The comparison food of the week from BabyCenter.com is..........drumroll please..........a large sweet potato! (I was so tempted to put a picture of sweet potato pie here...yum!) Baby is now 5.5 inches long and weighs almost 7 ounces. I’ve been feeling a lot more movement and that’s due to him/her being able to flex his/her arms and legs! Again, welcomed movement! Also, the reproductive parts are now formed if the baby is a boy or a girl…which hopefully we will see in 14 days at our ultrasound!

Josh and I did something very exciting on Saturday! We decided on and made our fist big purchase for the baby…BEDDING! It doesn’t have the ark on it, but has all the elements, even an olive branch above the little birdie! The colors are very gender neutral…green with light stripes and a yellow gingham in the backrounds. The animals all have different textures on them…the lion has corduroy on his mane and the elephant has denim on his ears. SO CUTE! There is a possibility that if we find out it’s a girl we might go with a simple pink bedding set, but just a small possibility. You know me and my indecisiveness!

Here are some snapshots I took of it in Target. Josh is such a good sport! LoL…and while I was taking pics with my camera phone a worker walked up to us and said, “Can I help you with something?” I nonchalantly replied, “No!” We got a good laugh from that one!

This crib also happens to be very close to the one we have picked out!

I’m 17 Weeks!

The baby is around 5 ounces, 5 inches now, about the size of a large onion! (Ash guessed a green pepper…SO CLOSE!)



I picked this picture cuz of the blue background! Man, if this kid is a girl, I hope I haven't given her a complex!


My doctor appointment yesterday afternoon went great. In and out in no time, with all my answers answered, just how I like it!

First topic of conversation, “How have you been feeling?” So I go into this big thing how I tried going off the Unisom and B6, got really sick, so I’m back on it. My doctor, who is awesome by the way, told me to QUIT feeling guilty about taking it and just be happy that I feel good and we’ve found something that can fix it! Ok, that’s doable. Then I told her that I can’t keep down the prenatal vitamins that she gave me. NO PROB! Keep taking the Flinstones, my iron is fine and that’s basically why you take special prenatal vitamins, so I’m good to go.

Second topic - blood pressure. It’s GREAT! 130/76! She’s very happy with that so I will continue to take 3 – 250 mg doses a day. I ask for a new prescription, which she almost forgot to give me before I left! We get to talking and both forget little things! (Last time it was prenatal vitamin samples)

Third topic – ultrasound! She made sure I had made an appointment at the hospital to have a Level 2 ultrasound done. YUP! March 22nd! It’s cool when you are so excited about something you can get the doctor excited too! I commented that we were hoping to find out the sex and she said, “Oh yeah, that won’t be a problem.” Of course I didn’t think about it until after I left, but I wonder why she said that! Are the Level 2’s that much more detailed or do they just make you walk around until the baby is facing the right direction?! Oh well, guess we’ll find out in 3 weeks! She said the tech doing the u/s will walk us through it, explaining everything, and then we will meet with a doctor for results the same day. My next appointment with Dr. B will be March 29th, four weeks from yesterday, but she won’t be in the office. I don’t mind seeing a different doctor, but with a possible move getting more real I kinda want to make sure I see HER again. So I might change it to the following Wednesday, but I’ll update on that. At that appointment they will measure my uterus to make sure it’s where it’s supposed to be, but yesterday she told me it is just below my belly button. Right where it should be! :-)

Fourth topic – weight. Another “Quit worrying about it!” This time I was worrying I wasn’t gaining enough weight. She told me between the 1st – 2nd – 3rd appointments I lost weight (from being sick) and between the 3rd and this appointment I stayed the same. She’s very happy with that and said as long as I’m eating and drinking I’m doing just fine! Since I’m eating smaller meals that is helping my metabolism, as well as just being pregnant, which could be why I’m not gaining any weight. She said she has had overweight patients that actually come back for their check-up after the baby is born 10-15 pounds lighted than when they got pregnant! WORKS FOR ME! :-)

After all the talking I got to hear the heartbeat again! It was 150 BPM, which is down from 170 last time. Apparently it goes down as the baby gets older/bigger. How cool! SO…according to the wives tale, it could qualify to be a girl! Am I wrong about my prediction?! We’ll see on the 22nd! (Hopefully!)

Animals!

I just had to post this picture of the stuffed animals we bought for baby while we were on vacation in San Diego. Josh laughed at me, but I wanted everyone to see! Especially since my discription of the giraffe from the zoo wasn't that great and I think it's just adorable!! :-) I can picture it hanging off the dresser or side of the crib...or our little one running around with it! Awww...