Adventures in Pregnancy 2

Month 5

2011-05-07T19:19:00.001-07:00

Okay so I have officially passed the halfway point (yay!). I am 22.5 weeks and have gained 12 pounds. With this pregnancy I am on a mission to not gain 70 pounds like I did with the last one. So far, so good. I work full time in the ER, run around after a 2 year old on my days off, and power walk whenever I can squeeze it in! I also am not participating in my delicious Ben & Jerry's taste-testing marathon like I did last time (as tempting as that sounds). Ed is on a super diet kick trying to train for fire school so for the most part we eat healthy around here.

Nausea is gone. My energy is actually through the roof. I seem to be able to more than keep up with my normal pace. I pretty much am gaining weight in my belly so I have a little basketball looking thing there. You're thinking..."great, what do you have to complain about now?"

Well...I kind of forgot about this part of pregnancy. I hate it.

HORMONES!

For those of you who know me well, know that I am not an overly emotional/dramatic kind of person. Don't get me wrong, I cry when something is sad, I feel empathy for people, etc. I'm just not used to feeling overcome with emotion. It's really hard to explain, maybe some of my preggo moms can chime in if you get what I am saying. It's like you do/think/say things and there's this teeny voice of reason way in the back of your head going, "No!! Don't do it!!!" but you can't control yourself.

You know that movie Knocked Up with Katherine Heigl? There is the part where they get into a huge fight at the doctors office and the guy is screaming at her, and I quote...

"I know this isn't you talking, it's your hormones, but I would just like to say...F*** YOU HORMONES, YOU ARE A CRAZY B****, HORMONES, not Allison, HORMONES, F*** 'em!!!!"

That in a nutshell is how I feel. I feel like I am on the verge of psychosis. I get so moody and irritable for NO REASON. My husband should seriously win an award for putting up with me. So in this next phase of pregnancy I actually feel good physically. Energy, not sick, etc. Emotionally....a whole different story. Why is there always some bullshit side effect of being pregnant? Isn't it enough that you have to lug around extra weight, and walk with a basketball in your shirt all day? Seriously.

In other news here are some more updated ultrasound photos for everyones enjoyment pleasure. Of course we still do not know what the baby is going to be. Jack says "Baby Girl" 100% of the time when we ask him. It's hilarious. I'm going to be surprised if it's a girl because everyone else in the world seems to think it is another boy. He points to my belly and says, "that's mine baby!" He's already taken ownership of his little brother/sister. Cute! We do have a boy name and a girl name all figured out...but we are keeping that a secret like we did last time too. Sorry people. :)

So one other topic I wanted to discuss. It seems like everyone who is pregnant with their second kid has this huge fear that they won't have enough love for both kids...or that the first kid will feel completely neglected and/or replaced. I don't have that fear. Is it normal to not have that fear? I just feel like if you grow your family you grow your love...therefore with the addition of a new baby there is the addition of EVEN MORE love to go around. I don't know, maybe that is stupid but that's how I feel.

I truly think that Jack will be an awesome great big brother. He is just old enough now that he does things on his own. He LOVES to go to school and play with other kids. I think that he will appreciate the new baby, but still feel loved by us. I hope that is the case at least. Hopefully we can start potty training sometime soon. It would be AWESOME to only have 1 kid in diapers at a time!!!!

That's all I have for now. :) Will post more later! PS-these pictures are from about a month ago so the baby is now much bigger. According to my little week-by-week book the baby should now weigh about a pound. So I guess technically that means I have only gained 11 pounds? Is that how that works? Haha! :)

Month 3

2011-02-24T16:31:00.001-08:00

Okay so newsflash...I don't know what I was thinking when I felt the need to update this blog every week. I already have a blog that I update every week and it is much more interesting. BUT I don't want to not do anything so I have decided to update this blog every month. 10 posts instead of 40. Sounds so much nicer...doesn't it? Lets face it, I have a 2 year old, we have 2 jobs, school, firefighting, a dog, a household to run, etc. I don't have time to update 2 blogs every single week. I will rename my last 2 posts.

So here is your update at the moment. I had my first doctors appointment today...yay! We were really excited to finally see this little peanut. I don't know about other people, but to me it doesn't seem real until I see it. I need a visualization. Earlier today Ed was like, "are you excited about the doctor today?" I was like, "no, I'm scared, what if I'm not really pregnant," he was like "umm...yeah right do you think you have just had a stomach virus for the past month or so???" I know it's not logical...it's just me. So we saw it. It's real! Based on the calculations I gave them I am 10 weeks and 3 days. They still wanted to do the ultrasound "official" measurement and guess what it said? 10 weeks and 3 days! Haha! :) I know what I'm doing.

The doctor was really nice. He seemed really cool and laid back. :) Funny story. We were waiting in the waiting room...I filled out all my papers and we were still waiting. Jack was with us so of course he was getting impatient. It is my fault because I scheduled a late afternoon appointment. It's the only way to pretty much guarantee that Ed can come with me. I definitely don't want to take Jack alone. So anyways. We waited, waited. I had to pee so bad because I drank a jug of water on the way in anticipation of having to provide a urine specimen. I ran up to the desk and whispered..."do you guys need me to pee for you today?" The lady said, "yes come on back and go while you are waiting." So I go to open the door from the waiting room to the back part of the office where the exam rooms are...Ed looked over and was like, "where are you going?" I kind of whispered (because there were quite a few people in the waiting room..."I have to pee." Ed, "what??" Me (whispering a little louder), "I have to pee." Ed, "WHAT???" Me (screaming to prove a point), "I HAVE TO PEEEEE!!! GEEEZ!!!!"

Everyone in the waiting room started cracking up. His hearing is definitely not what it used to be. I'm glad everyone got a good laugh at my expense. Hilarious! Oh well, what can you do?

The nausea and vomiting is still plaguing me...but less and less. It always comes at random times. Tonight I puked up my whole dinner. The other day I enjoyed a fantastic run (even kept up with Ed) and felt awesome. You never really can tell. 29 weeks 4 days left of torture. :) Yes I am counting down.

Month 2

2011-02-11T18:14:00.000-08:00

So this week has been terrible. Filled with CONSTANT nausea and then occasional puking. Lovely. On top of all that I have been so tired that I feel like I could sleep and sleep and sleep all day long. All of those people who love being pregnant must experience a whole different thing than I do because this pretty much sucks. I feel so bad because it is such an effort to play with Jack when I want to just lie around on the couch.

So that pretty much sums up my week. Hopefully the vomiting/puking will subside soon. On a funny note I had a dream that we went to our ultrasound and I saw three heartbeats. I say on a funny note because that will never happen. I told Ed about it and he laughed. Now I joke around and ask him if he's ready for the triplets. He was like, "If we have triplets we're getting a show...and it's going to be called 'What Jon & Kate Should Have Done'" Hahaha. Hilarious.

I have my first doctors appointment on February 24th. Woohoo! :)

Month 1

2011-01-25T16:15:00.000-08:00

Ask and you shall receive...

So I have decided to make an effort to resurrect my pregnancy blog now that I am pregnant again. I just want to warn everyone that this time around I have decided to be a little more candid about my experiences. I think I will make it a forum for other moms to join in. If you have something to say...by all means please comment!!! I welcome your thoughts and opinions!

Those of you who just "love being pregnant" and think it is the greatest thing ever...you might get a little annoyed by my blog.

I personally do not enjoy being pregnant.

GASP!

Yeah, I said it. I hate sharing my body with what is basically a parasite. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE being a mom. I love the whole idea of having lots of kids but if I could do it without the whole concept of 40 weeks of prison I would probably have 10 kids. Okay, so not 10 but you get my drift.

Okay another thing to clarify. It is definitely exciting to think that you are growing a baby in your body. Yes, very cool. As far as gaining weight, stretching out, feeling nauseous, gassy, and blah...it's not very fun for me.

So far in my early weeks of pregnancy I have been SLEEEEEPY. I could probably sleep for 10+ hours a night and then take a 3+ hour nap during the day. Seriously. This is what I did when I was pregnant with Jack, especially on my days off. I would sleep and sleep and sleep. It was wonderful. All those people kept saying, "sleep now while you can." Well I heeded that advice.

Reality check: This time around I have a (almost) 2 year old to chase around. He doesn't even take a nap half the time lately. There is no sleeping in, taking naps, or resting. It's just not fair to him. Believe me, there are days I wish I could just lie on the couch with him and cuddle while watching his new favorite movie Toy Story. He would do it, too. I just have never been that kind of mom. I can't plop my kid in front of the TV and use it as a babysitter.

So for now I have been sucking it up and fighting the urge to snooze. It is even worse since Ed is gone right now for work. Yesterday Jack and I had a lovely morning at the zoo and then played at the park in the afternoon. Today we had a play date with his friend Tristan, went to the park with the twins, and then in the afternoon had another play date and did some crafts (more to come with that later) with his buddy Madelyn. After that we went to dinner and now he is asleep. I should be going to sleep but it's only 7:30 pm and I just needed a minute to vent and get my thoughts out.

So there you have it. My first post on the pregnancy blog. I am not promising to keep up with this every week...this is a trial period. For now, I am going to go enjoy a nice hot cup of my pregnancy tea and fold all the laundry. Maybe next week I will blog about the different array of teas I seem to like to drink when I am pregnant. Have a great night!

Storch Family Blog

2009-04-02T14:30:00.001-07:00

We started a new blog...

http://storchfamily.blogspot.com/

Week 40

2009-03-06T06:46:00.000-08:00

Well today is March 6, 2009. It just happens to be the baby's official DUE DATE and so far NOTHING. I was so excited when I woke up, because I thought maybe the baby would really come on it's actual due date. Here are some pictures we took in front of the house this morning before we left for our appointment.

We went to our doctors appointment at 8:00 this morning for a Non Stress Test and an exam. Here is the update: these past couple of weeks I have been gaining weight like crazy (total weight gain is now 53 pounds), my blood pressure was 100/60, baby's heart rate is in the 140's, my cervix is about the same as it was last week, I am not dilated at all.

The NST is basically where they hook you up to a fetal monitor for 20 minutes and see how the baby's heartrate is reacting to any contractions you are having. It also makes sure the baby is moving around like it should. I don't know how it moves at all since it is so squished in there, but somehow it manages. We passed the NST and now the plan is to wait. If nothing happens this weekend we are scheduled to go into the hospital on Tuesday night and check in. I will be induced early Wednesday morning.

So I guess we are just going to try and enjoy our weekend. Today we have a hot date to get pizza and go miniature golfing. :) We will keep you updated if anything happens! Here is one last belly shot for your viewing pleasure.

Week 39

2009-02-28T09:22:00.000-08:00

Well we are down to the final stretch!! 7 more days and the baby is due to come out!! :) Yay! I went for my doctor's appointment yesterday (Friday) and she says that the baby's head is right there. My cervix has thinned considerably, but not all the way. I am still not dilated at all. It still could be any day now. I have my next appointment on Friday, March 6th (due date!) and if the baby has not come by then I already have an induction scheduled for early Wednesday morning. Some good news...the baby is not big, blood pressure was good, blood sugars have been good. Everything is right on track so now it's a waiting game.

Here is a 39 week picture that Ed took today. Who needs a tan? This girl!

This weekend we don't have a whole lot planned. Basically we are going to clean the house, get the guest room ready, clean out the garage, and make sure everything is washed and ready for baby. I need to pack my bags too. I have a list that I made, but I think this weekend I will go ahead and have it all ready so that when the time comes we don't have to worry about it.

Here is a picture of baby's room still in progress...

My latest addition is the book shelves on either side of the crib. I needed more space for storage and they matched perfectly. We have started a book collection for baby. We got a bunch of books that we both loved to read as kids and we both agree that it is never too early to read to a child. I can't wait! Ed already read all of the books to Hope so he could practice reading out loud (how cute!). I think this weekend I might set up the pack & play downstairs so we have somewhere for the baby to sleep close by. I don't have a monitor yet and I don't think I'll be comfortable with the baby upstairs without being able to hear it cry.

Well I guess it's just a waiting game from here on out. We will keep you posted if anything happens!! :)

Week 38

2009-02-23T06:57:00.000-08:00

Week 38! 14 days to go! Friday I had my doctor's appointment and he said the baby has definitely dropped down into the pelvis...yay! Unfortunately I'm not dilated or anything so it could still be weeks, but at least baby is doing what it can to get here. :) Either way it will be soon!

Ed and I had a nice weekend. Friday night we went over to a friends house and played a game of poker. It was a first for both of us and we didn't end up winning, but we both had a lot of fun trying. Ed held in there pretty long. Saturday Ed went iceskating with his friends Randy and Tyson. I went shopping at the mall with Randy's wife. That night another neighbor was going to have a poker game at his house but Ed and I were exhausted from the busy day so we volunteered to watch Randy and Andrea's baby Madilynn. She is so cute!

They brought her over around 7:00. She had a snack of goldfish and shared with Hope. Then she got a little fussy so we thought a bath might be fun but she started screaming and reaching for Ed. We cut the bath short, got her dressed in her pajamas, and I started warming up her bottle. She only wanted Ed to hold her (so cute!) so he gave her a bottle and she passed out in his arms. Ed and I watched a movie and passed out on the couch.

Sunday we went to church in the morning. We came home and made delicious Reuben sandwiches for lunch. Mmm! Ed watched the Penguins game and I cleaned up a little bit. For dinner we made cheese stuffed manicotti.

On to the next week...maybe the baby will make it's debut...we shall see!

Here is the start of packing the baby's bag. I have a bunch of outfits, pacifiers, diapers, wipes, blankets, etc. Hopefully we will have everything we need. The carseat is in the car ready to go!

Week 37

2009-02-13T08:02:00.000-08:00

BELLY PIC

As of today I have 18 days to go!! CRAZINESS! We have had a good week so far. At my last appointment I had lost 1 pound from the week before (yay!) and my blood pressure was good, my sugars have been good (except when I eat yummy cake!), I'm measuring fine. They checked me and said that the baby is still WAY up there and shouldn't be here anytime soon...darn. :( I was really excited because once you hit 37 weeks in your pregnancy, the baby is considered full term.

I stopped working as of last week because I was having contractions all day long and they were starting to get uncomfortable. I really wanted to work through my whole pregnancy, but the 12 hour shifts were becoming too much and I just couldn't do it. I felt like I was sitting down for a break every 10 minutes to make the contractions stop. I guess I will take the extra time to get caught up on my cleaning, getting the nursery ready, etc. There are so many things to do around here, I don't even know where to start. I made this huge list so hopefully I can tackle everything before I go into labor.

Other than that, we are just sitting here anxious to meet our baby and find out if it's a he or a she. We're both really curious to see what baby looks like, we talk about it almost every night before we go to bed. Ed thinks baby will be blonde like he was and I think it will come out with dark hair like I did. We will see soon enough.

As soon as I get the nursery cleaned up and everything put away I will take an updated picture of what I've done so far. We still don't have a theme (we're waiting until we know what the baby will be), but we have some things in place.

Week 36

2009-02-13T06:45:00.001-08:00

The Week of the Showers...Part 2

This is Amanda's famous diaper cake...ADORABLE!!

After my PSA shower I loaded my car with presents and drove straight to Jacksonville. My BFF Monica had planned a shower and invited all of my Wolfson girls!! I was soooo excited to see everyone, they hadn't seen me since September (see past blog "Last Night at Work"). I was a little nervous about driving by myself 9 months preggo, but I had been to the doctor's office the day before and she assured me I would be fine. So I made it to Monica's house and she was the best hostess ever. It was more like a vacation than anything. She had worked so hard to clean her house and she even had a low-carb dinner ready for me when I got there. We ate dinner and visited for awhile. Her hospitality was incredible. She even turned down my covers when it was time for bed. Here is a picture of her and Max.

The next morning we got up early and she made me coffee with cinnamon (mmm!) and breakfast. We ran a few errands, and I helped her get everything ready for everyone to get there that afternoon. It was soooo nice! Here are some pictures...

Here is a picture of the spread...DEEE-LISH!!

The girls trying to figure out the word scramble game...

Angela won that game...with some help from me! Haha!

VACCINATION!! (inside joke)

Baby Madelyn shared her birthday with me...she came straight from her party!

Opening Presents!!

Me & Jamie!

Lindsey & I...and my big baby!

Thank you Monica for hosting this baby shower!! It was so much fun to spend a weekend with you. It was nice to see everyone from the floor. I can't thank you enough for your kindness!!!

Week 36

2009-02-13T05:34:00.001-08:00

The week of the Showers...

I had been looking forward to this week for awhile...the Week of the Showers. It started off last Friday morning at the office of PSA Healthcare, my current job. The lovely Betty had planned a beautiful baby shower for me. It was so much fun! We had a gorgeous cake, fun decorations, and delicious food! She had some neat games and activities arranged...they had to get this tape and rip off a piece long enough to fit around my belly. We also decorated little onesies with paints. They turned out amazing. Here are some pictures from the party...

Fun Cake

Fun Presents!

Decorated Onesies! Thanks everyone!

Holly & Cathy

Brooke and I

Betty working hard!

Thank you so much Betty for this beautiful shower you arranged!! :) It was amazing!

Week 35

2009-01-31T16:55:00.000-08:00

Well Friday marked the beginning of Week 35 which means I officially have only 35 days to go!! Woooo hooo!!! :) Baby is almost here! Here are some pictures from this weekend.

Here is the latest belly pic...

People asked for pictures of me so here you go...in all of my big fat glory, but not for long. :)

We started off the weekend by going to dinner with friends at a Japanese Steak House. It was a lot of fun and the food was good. We also went to a movie (Revolutionary Road). I was disappointed in the movie b/c it wasn't at all what I expected. It was actually kind of depressing. If you know anyone who shouldn't get married anytime soon, have them watch that movie and they won't ever want to get married.

This weekend we are relaxing and getting ready to watch the Super Bowl. GO STEELERS!! Ed is very nervous about the game, but I'm sure the Steelers will come out on top. We have a doctors appointment on Wednesday, so more to come on this week...

UPDATE:

Well the Steelers won the SUPERBOWL!! Here are some pictures from our little Superbowl party. We were invited to watch the game with friends, but Ed insisted that he had to watch it in our livingroom alone so that people wouldn't be talking and interrupting his concentration.

Week 34

2009-01-31T16:43:00.000-08:00

Well this week we had our ultrasound. The baby officially weighs in at 5 pounds 1 oz. I thought that sounded kind of big, but the doctor insisted that it is in the 50th percentile and right on target. My blood sugars are still good, same with weight, blood pressure, and fundal height. I have been having contractions every so often, but not painful ones. It feels like a tightening around my tummy and then goes away when I sit down. Everything is right where it should be so we don't have to go in for 2 weeks to be seen again. Now all we need to do is wait for baby to get here...it seems like these last few weeks are taking FOREVER. We are ready!

The changing table finally arrived and Ed was gracious enough to put it together before I got home from work and he surprised me with it. It looks great in the nursery. I want to find some baskets for the shelves though, to keep things organized and looking neat. I also bought some shelves to put on either side of the crib to hold books, pictures, a lamp, and the ipod docking station. Baby will have plenty of lullabies on his/her own ipod. Any suggestions? So far we just have the Rockabye Baby soundtracks that we've found on i-tunes (the music playing on the blog).

Other than all of that we have both been working and going about normal stuff. I'm still working 12 hour shifts which are keeping me busy and helping the time pass by. At least I get 4 days off a week to relax. It's going to be very strange not working, since I've done it ever since I can remember. I'm not sure if I know how to not work. Hopefully baby will keep me busy. Haha. Well more later. Here are a couple of pictures for this week...

Here is a blurry picture of me from the side.

Ed said he took this one to show how small Hope looks next to the big baby.

Week 33

2009-01-18T15:17:00.001-08:00

Hello all. This week was pretty good and productive. Thursday we had a doctors appointment to check up on my sugars again. They are still within the normal limit so I don't have to go on medication...yay! :) I still have to check them 4 times a day and watch what I eat. Also my blood pressure was fine and my belly is measuring right on target. We have a follow-up appointment on Tuesday morning and the doctor ordered an ultrasound to see how big the baby has gotten since the last time they measured at 24 weeks. I am curious to see how much the baby weighs now. At 24 weeks they had estimated 1.5 pounds based on the ultrasound. According to all of the books a baby at 33 weeks should way a little over 4-4.5 pounds. I guess we will find out soon enough.

The weather has been "cold" here. Well cold meaning 60's and 70's instead of 80's. At least we can wear our jeans now and sometimes even long sleeves. I am still waiting for the changing table to get here. Stupid online shopping...very convenient except you have to wait. Today I bought a million baby hangers and my goal for this coming week is to wash all of the baby clothes that I have and get them put away. Last week I washed all of the bassinette pieces and those types of things. Our washing machine can sterilize so I used that setting. It takes forever but it makes things REALLY clean.

This past Saturday we had our big "Childbirth Class". We were very optimistic and open-minded hoping that we would learn something useful. Unfortunately, Ed and I have read all of the books there are to read on pregnancy and labor which kind of ruined the class. We could have gone up there and taught it ourselves. We had to go at least once in our lives I guess. We did a bunch of ridiculous breathing and visualization techniques. I was hoping we would at least see some good birthing movies where they showed everything (TLC always blurs it out which doesn't make sense since it is a natural/medical event and not pornographic). We were hoping to at least maybe make some new friends and compare pregnancy stuff, but most of the couples were older (I'm talking old enough to be my parents) which was surpising b/c it was everyone's first baby. We were pretty disappointed. Oh well.

Week 32

2009-01-11T08:21:00.000-08:00

8 Months pregnant! Aughh! I can't believe it. 56 days to go! Here is a photo image of my first official pregnancy stretch marks...I can't believe I'm putting them on the internet for all to see. Oh well, I guess it's all a part of the process, sacrificing your body.

We need to get moving with preparations! Well we decided we would finally put together the white crib we bought months ago (see previous blog for picture) and what do you know, we broke it. We busted a tiny piece of wood on one of the rails that goes up and down and it pretty much made the whole thing unsafe. We attempted to fix it with Gorilla Glue and clamps...but it was a no go. We got so mad that we decided to go out and buy a brand new, solid wood crib that would last us for years and years. Here is the finished product...This one is solid wood and doesn't have a drop rail. We love it and can't wait to see what it looks like with all of the bedding on it. We still don't know how we are going to "decorate" the nursery since we don't know what the baby is going to be. We did go ahead and order a changing table though and we have a rocking chair. This weekend I'm going to wash all of the clothes and linens I have so I can put them away. Here is a picture of the changing table...it's supposed to arrive sometime this week.
When we went to buy the crib we found these really cool cd's called "Rockabye Baby". Basically it's rock bands songs turned into lullabye music. I put some on the site so you could hear them. We got Pink Floyd & NIN to add to the baby's ipod.

Next week we have Childbirth Class. We are taking the full day speed class on a Saturday. We're pretty psyched about it. Hopefully it will be worthwhile. So far everything is going great. At our doctor's appt. this past week my sugars were good, I hadn't gained anymore weight, and the baby is measuring right on target still. :) Ed starts his school this week coming up so he is pretty excited about that. More to come!!

Week 31

2009-01-11T07:58:00.000-08:00

Here is the belly at 31 weeks...

A few days after Christmas we had more guests arrive!! Grandma and Grandpa Bullock! :) Haha! They drove down with Scarlett to visit us. They got here on Saturday afternoon and their first night we had a nice dinner at a restaurant on the water called The Chart House. It was soooooo good and I even managed to eat and still pass my blood sugar limits.

Yes I am still checking the sugars and so far I don't have to go on medication b/c it is being controlled with diet and exercise. Let me explain this b/c everyone always asks me...basically gestational diabetes isn't really like regular diabetes at all. My body still makes insulin like it normally would, but since I am pregnant the placenta is soaking it all up so that my body is unable to use it, therefore I am not breaking down sugars properly and so my blood sugar is elevated. It doesn't hurt the baby except that it puts me at risk of gaining more weight, thus the baby being bigger. So far the baby is measuring perfectly so we are good.

When you have a large baby you are more likely to either deliver earlier than normal or have a ceserean section. Some people have to go on medication to keep their sugars down, but not everyone. Basically I eat a low-carb diet and avoid sweets/white breads/rice that kind of thing. No more icecream for me! :( Oh well. Ed and I have also been walking twice a day for 1.5 miles each time, which we probably should have been doing anyways. No I don't have diabetes, when I have the baby my body will go back to normal. No, the baby doesn't have diabetes (everyone asks that). It's really not a big deal at all as long as I keep my sugars under control.

Okay back to week 31. We had a lovely dinner at the Chart House and then came back to our house and opened Christmas presents. Scarlett and Hope got to play with each other (they are BFF's). Ed got a Bose speaker for his ipod. The sound quality is insane! This was perfect b/c we had a smaller speaker and now we are going to put it in the baby's room. We loaded Ed's old ipod with baby music and so the baby already has its own ipod sound system in the nursery. I got a huge KitchenAid mixer that I can't wait to use!! I have to hold off a little while until the baby is born b/c I can't make any "fun" stuff right now. I really want to use it to make cookies. I've always wanted one.

Sunday we had brunch/lunch at the Hilton and then got ready for the Steelers game. Unfortunately it wasn't on tv so we had to find somewhere to watch it. We went to a few places and they were crowded so we finally settled at Beef O'Brady's. Here is a picture of Ed and his mom rooting for the Steelers!!

Sunday night Aunt Kathy, Uncle John and cousins Ashleigh, Alyssa, & Jonathan came over to visit. They were in FL visiting their other grandparents and were nice enough to drive up to see us and our new house!! We had a great time with them. We got to talk and even got everyone to play some Guitar Hero. Here are some pictures of that...

That Monday it was back to work after the holidays. :( Time to get ready for Happy New Year! Not much to report about that...I was in bed by 9:30 and had to work the next day. Oh well. Maybe we will get to party next year.

Week 30

2008-12-26T15:45:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!! :)

Well this week was pretty hectic. It started off pretty rocky when I had my second glucose tolerance test and was told that I failed the fasting blood sugar. So now I have to test my sugars 4 times a day for a week so they gauge whether or not I need medication. Very nice thing right in the middle of the holidays when the BEST food is around. We'll see how that goes after the week is up. We had a very good Christmas. My mom, brothers, and sister came down to visit and we all just hung out, ate food, and played with all of our new stuff. It was a good time! We woke up Christmas morning and opened presents...here are some pictures.

Christmas Tree

Here is our tree with all of our presents on Christmas morning.

Here is a picture of each person opening presents...

Caroline

Will

Mom

Andy

Hope

Later on Christmas Day after all our presents were opened and we had showers we decided to go to the beach. It was a nice day, warm enough for shorts and t-shirts. Here are some pictures.

It was so nice to have everyone down at our house. Ed and I are so grateful to be able to spend Christmas with each other...FINALLY! :) It's hard to believe that next year it will be Baby's First Christmas. We will have a 9 month old!! Crazy! We can't wait!

Week 29

2008-12-21T16:56:00.001-08:00

Yay it is almost Christmas!! :) We have been busy preparing for family to come visit. My mom, brothers Andy & Will, and sister Caroline are all coming to visit. We're pretty excited about "hosting" Christmas for the first time at our house. After Christmas we're hoping to see Ed's mom and Harvin as well as his Aunt Kathy, Uncle John, and cousins. It will be a great holiday season. So this weekend in our preparations we cleaned the house from top to bottom, did all the laundry, cleared out the nursery for air mattresses, planned out meals, went shopping, and planned out some fun stuff to do. Since we did so much work Friday and Saturday we just hung out today and went to a bar to watch the Steelers game (it didn't air on tv here). It was a disappointing game, but it's okay b/c they're still going to the playoffs. The bar was pretty neat though, it was ALL Steelers fans and packed to the brim. Pretty exciting. We're happy that we found a place to go when the games aren't on tv. We felt like we were watching the game in Pittsburgh. Ed is on leave (yay!) and I have to work tomorrow and Tuesday...but then I have 5 days off including Christmas and Christmas eve. It will be our first Christmas we actually get to spend together in 5 years I think. We are grateful to be able to celebrate the holidays together. Here is the latest belly picture...

Ultrasound!

2008-12-16T15:32:00.000-08:00

Today we went for our 3-d/4-d ultrasound. Here are some of the clips from the session. No, we still don't know what the baby will be. We will find out in March along with everyone else. :) Enjoy!

Week 28

2008-12-14T06:47:00.000-08:00

This week has been great so far. We're really starting to get into the Christmas spirit. We've been recording all the Christmas movies on tv and watching them. Some of our all time favorites are A Christmas Story, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and It's a Wonderful Life. It's been especially nice this year since we don't really go out much anymore. After a long day at work it's nice to turn on the Christmas lights in the living room and curl up with a blanket on the couch. Hope loves "family time" on the couch. Last night we had a Christmas party for my work. Before we left we attempted to get some pictures in front of the Christmas tree by using the timer on the camera. Here are some of our shots. Yes my belly is getting ridiculously large. We also took some new belly shots and I will put those down at the bottom of this post.

Back to the Christmas party...People were supposed to bring their spouses, but no one did so it was Ed and 5 women sitting around a table doing word searches with Christmas music in the background. It was pretty cute b/c they were asking him all about the Navy and his job. He's such a good sport. We did an ornament exchange and had cookies and punch. We also got a secret santa gift from someone in our neighborhood and we need to keep the tradition going. We have to pick someone in the neighborhood, put a gift on their doorstep, ring their doorbell, and get away before they answer the door. It's a pretty fun game.

Last Friday we went to a doctor's appointment and I had to do my glucose tolerance test. Basically you drink this cold orange drink that kind of looks/tastes like orange soda, but with way more sugar. You have 5 minutes to drink it and then you have to sit there for an hour. After the hour they draw some blood and test it to see if your body processed it or not. If you get <140>

So here are the rest of the belly pictures...

Ed thought this was a cool shot from this angle.

Here's the traditional side view that we've been doing.

Here's a scary view from the front. I think my belly button is going to pop out soon and it really freaks me out. I can't believe I'm putting this online, but here you go. Enjoy!

Week 27

2008-12-13T16:23:00.000-08:00

This week started off kind of rough. I started it off by getting rear-ended in my brand new car. No one was hurt, but I was really sad that my brand new car got hit by a crazy old lady. Luckily the Highlander did it's job and took the hit really well. We have a few knicks and scratches on our bumper and the ladies 1994 station wagon is totalled...the whole front end is smashed in. We're getting everything fixed (thank goodness she had insurance) so the car will be good as new. Saturday night Ed went to Orlando to a Misfits concert with his friend Tyson. I decided that since I was home alone I would watch chick flicks and make a huge banana split. I took pictures...it was DELICIOUS!! :) Here are the steps to a pregnant woman's heart...

Step 1:Line bowl with cut up banana pieces.

Step 2: Add icecream of choice. This particular night I was feeling Neopolitan.

Step 3: Add syrup(s) of choice. This one has fudge, caramel, and marshmallow.

Step 4: Add whipped cream. I prefer the extra creamy kind.

Step 5: Add cherry on top (or in my case like 5 or 6...whatever looks good). :)

Step 6 is to obviously devour the whole thing and don't feel guilty about it. :)

So the rest of the week was kind of a bust too. I worked Sunday and then Monday Ed came home sick and has been getting over it since. He was on the couch for a good 4 days pretty much just resting and taking his medicines. I took the week off to relax with him.

Thursday was my birthday (yes I am old now) and we spent the day relaxing. Well I spent the morning at the dentist and ended up getting a cavity filled and then we decided to get milkshakes and watch season 2 of The Office for the rest of the day. It was quite nice to sit around in my sweats all day. Ed finally let me open my presents that I had been looking at under the tree for days. He got me a pink ipod...it's the cutest thing ever. Yes not only am I old, but I'm the last person on the earth to own an ipod. I also got some jewelry from my grandma that was gorgeous (of course). She got me a charm for my bracelet and a pair of amethyst and diamond white gold earrings to match the ring she got me for college graduation. I got some wonderful cards and thoughtful birthday wishes from friends on facebook and myspace. All in all it was a good day.

Week 26

2008-12-06T16:46:00.000-08:00

Clemson vs USC

The big game that we wait for ALL year!! This weekend we had friends over and it was a lot of fun. We cooked a bunch of food and I baked a cookie cake and cupcakes that Ed and I decorated. My personal favorite was the "house divided" cookie cake. It was pretty and delicious. Ed decorated the USC cupcakes (he says he is not a pastry chef). I baked red velvet cupcakes so that the insides were garnet. For Clemson I made orange cupcakes and put tiger paws on them.

We got some cute pictures that day. My jersey barely fit my big belly and Hope wore her jersey and Clemson collar.
We had a great time and Clemson won once again so Hope gets to keep all of her Clemson stuff for the year. :) Just for the record, the beer I am holding in the first picture is Non-Alcoholic. Kind of tastes disgusting, but I had to feel cool and use my Clemson coozie. It was a fun day. After the game we played Rock Band and had a singing contest. Crystal was the big winner. She is the Rock Band singing Champion! Good times!

Week 25

2008-12-06T16:22:00.001-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a nice quiet Thanksgiving with each other and the dog. It was a family day. We got a later start than we had planned because the day before I suddenly got really sick and we ended up in the hospital. Everything turned out fine, but it was a little scary and we didn't get home until late. When we woke up we started cooking the turkey and any kind of pre-cooking that could be accomplished. Once we got all of that under control we decided to play Christmas music and put up all of our decorations. We got a lot done. We decorated the whole living room by putting up the tree and also decorated the banister. There are colored lights everywhere and it is so beautiful! We put up the other tree in the dining room and also the Christmas village that we love so much. Everything turned out beautifully. Here are some pictures...

That was pretty much the extent of our Thanksgiving. We ate our big dinner after we decorated and it was delicious! This weekend we are having people over for the Clemson/USC game. :) Go TIGERS!

Week 24

2008-11-20T16:29:00.001-08:00

Well we have surpassed the 6 month point in the pregnancy. It seems like my belly gets bigger and harder everyday. Lately we've been excited because we're really feeling the baby move around more. I've felt it for a few weeks now, but at first it was just little fluttery feelings. Now it's full on kicks that make me stop what I'm doing and pay attention b/c they're so strong. Ed has felt it a few times too, which makes it more exciting to share. Here is the latest picture of my ginormous belly. If you look really closely you can see the huge vein on the side of it. Ughh.

Nothing too exciting to report this week. We've both been cleaning the house and clearing out the study for the baby's stuff that I've been buying. Last weekend I got a great deal on a crib that I absolutely love. We haven't put it together yet, but here is a picture of what it will look like. I'm not going to put the wheels on it. Other than all of that we have both been working pretty much everyday and going to bed early.

Last night we went to bed before 9:00 pm. We've been exhausted b/c neither one of us has really been getting sleep. I don't know if it's nature's way of preparing us for the baby when it comes, but we've both been waking up all through the night. I can never seem to get comfortable and it keeps Ed up. Also, what we call "Pregnancy Brain" has gotten worse and worse. I can't remember anything and I lose my train of thought. I think most people who come into contact with me think I am completely insane. It's the worse symptom so far of pregnancy and drives Ed crazy. Thank goodness he is patient enough to put up with me. We're looking forward to Thanksgiving, even though we will just be sitting here with our neighbors and other friends who are stuck in the area. Yay for the military to ruin every holiday. I really can't complain though, because at least we will get to spend it with each other. We're going to share the cooking with our next door neighbors and try to make the best of the situation. I'm sure it will be nice. We'll try and take pictures to post.

Week 23

2008-11-11T17:21:00.000-08:00

Well we are almost to the 6 month point. Aughh!! Crazy! :) Lately we have been noticing that this baby has a personality. I've been able to feel small flutters for a few weeks now, but just this week Ed got to feel a kick for the first time. Lately I've been feeling it move more and more. Mostly though, the baby seems to sleep most of the day and awaken right as we lay down to go to sleep. Great...hopefully this isn't going to be true after it's born!

Today we went for our ultrasound. Last time we got to see the baby I was only 13 weeks along so we were pretty excited to see how it's changed and grown. The pictures were INCREDIBLE. The tech went through the entire anatomy of the baby and explained every little bone and parts of the body like the brain, kidneys, stomach, etc. It took about 45 minutes and we were glued to the screen the whole time in awe of how amazing it was. We made sure to tell her before she started that we didn't want to know if it was a boy or a girl so we had to close our eyes for that part. As hard as it was we both didn't peek so it remains a surprise that we will find out in March of 2009 like everyone else. At the very end of the ultrasound she clicked on a button and all of a sudden it was in 4-d!! We were so surprised b/c we had no idea that she could even do 4-d! We got to see our little baby's face. It is so AMAZING. Here is the picture she took.

Isn't technology absolutely incredible??? Our baby is so cute! You can even see its little ear and everything. Both of its hands are up to its face. Today was the best day ever!! The tech told us that the office offers a full session in 4-d for only $75.00 for their patients (it's normally $200+) because they want them to have the opportunity to get it done at a reasonable price. She said the best time is around 28 weeks or so. We are definitely considering doing it. They can put it on a cd/dvd so if we get it we'll post more pictures like this one.

We also went ahead and took another picture of the ever-expanding belly...getting bigger and bigger everyday! Here it is...

I can't believe I live in Florida and I'm this pale...oh well. I'll get out to the beach after the baby is born. There's no way I'm wearing a bathing suit now. Haha! :) Well we will keep everyone posted. That's all I've got for now.

Week 22

2008-11-11T09:04:00.000-08:00

Well we are finally settled into our new house and getting really great at navigating the area. This week we had a doctor's appointment at our new OB/GYN here in Florida and we were very pleased. The practice is very nice and there are 4 doctor's available to rotate. They deliver at a hospital right around the corner and we have heard that the delivery suites are very nice, the whole unit is newly built. Here are some pictures from the hospital's website. There is a slideshow you can click on and see everything.
http://www.health-first.org/hospitals_services/hrmc/birth_suites.cfm

We haven't been there yet, but we are planning to take a tour soon. Next month we are going to start our "Prepared Childbirth Classes" at the hospital. We are pretty excited about it! We are just now starting to collect things that we'll need when the baby gets here. I am so excited about getting the nursery together. It's so much fun to look at baby stuff. I pretty much spend all of my free time looking online for the best deals. Ed likes looking at baby stuff too, but he's not obsessed with it like I am.

Updated..Finally!

2008-10-28T17:10:00.001-07:00

Whew! I think the page is finally updated!! After the move it took awhile to get everything caught up. We are finally settled into our house. We got our phone/internet/cable set up, email me for our home phone number. We are going to use that one primarily because we paid for long distance this time (I had a problem going over my cell minutes). Last week I had a job interview with Pediatric Services of America (PSA). I will be working with kids who have special medical needs, but in their own homes. I'm excited because it will be more personalized care than at the hospital. I'm interested to see the differences between the two jobs. I still miss my old job though and everyone I worked with. I start orientation tomorrow so wish me luck!

Last weekend we went out to Orlando for our friend DJ's birthday. There were 12 of us total and we went to this great Greek restaurant. The food was incredible! They let people dance on the tables and they started dances around the whole restaurant with the people. Here are some pictures...

Week 21

2008-10-28T16:37:00.001-07:00

Well our stuff got here first thing Monday morning!! They brought it over in a huge van and it took most of the day to get everything moved into the house.

After the movers left we looked around and realized we had a lot of work to do. Not only did everything need to be unpacked, arranged, organized, etc. We had to call and get all of our utilities set up. It pretty much took most of the week for us to get everything settled, but by the end of the week we had everything under control. I had a job interview in the middle of the week with PSA and I start my orientation next Wednesday. I'm so excited to finally get back to work. I hate sitting around all day...it sounds like a great idea but after about a week or so it's not fun anymore. I'm excited about starting home health nursing. It will be interesting to see the difference between that and working in a large hospital. Back to unpacking...

Week 20

2008-10-28T16:23:00.000-07:00

Well this is the week we finally got our house!! :) We got up super early and left for Cocoa! We were excited to drive back down in the new car (pics to come soon!) and finally see where we would be living!! We got down here on a Thursday and did our initial walk through of our new house. We didn't get to sign the papers that day b/c it was too late in the afternoon. We spent the night in a hotel and planned on coming back to the office first thing Friday morning. We didn't mind too much, after driving/riding in the car all day we wanted to get some sleep. Here is a picture of Hope with her new dog bed...she fell asleep on this chair in the hotel with her leg hung up on the arm. She was exhausted!! :)

We signed our papers stating we accepted the house on Friday morning. We were so excited to finally get the keys!! The house is awesome...here is a picture of the front of it.
We couldn't get our stuff until Monday so we camped out for the weekend. We had to go to Wally World and get a big air mattress, tv, and dvd player so we didn't go insane in an empty house. Over the weekend we explored the area and ate out pretty much every meal except breakfast. It was exciting to look forward to getting our stuff and deciding where everything was going to go. So far the area is amazing with so many things to do, places to eat, etc. The movers brought our stuff on Monday and we couldn't wait to get everything unpacked and settled.

Week 19

2008-10-28T14:50:00.001-07:00

Well we are still on vacation and this week we went to Jacksonville, FL to the STEELERS GAME!! Ed's mom and Harvin got all of us tickets for his birthday. We loaded up the car and drove down to Jacksonville on Saturday afternoon. We stayed in the same hotel on the river where we spent our first night as a married couple. :) Here is a picture of Ed and his mom on the balcony of the hotel. You can see the stadium in the background!

Saturday night we went to dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse (yummy!) and relaxed the rest of the evening. Sunday morning we had a nice brunch and then donned our jersey's to get ready for the game. We went down to the Landing and met up with Crystal, DJ, Tyson, and other friends.

We had dinner and then got onto the ferry to head to the game. We had awesome seats and the game was suspenseful...but we WON!! :) It was awesome! Here are some pictures of the ferry and inside the stadium...

Here is a picture of Ed and I after the big win!!

Week 18

2008-10-09T07:55:00.000-07:00

Well we passed our final inspection and drove down to Cocoa Beach. We got to the housing office right at 3:37 and they closed at 3:30...DANG IT!! We had to find a hotel and camp out for the night so we could go back first thing in the morning. Luckily we found a pet-friendly hotel right on the beach and Hope LOVED it!! We let her run off all her energy from being in the car all day and Ed and I went to bed early since we were exhausted. The next day we woke up bright and early and went straight to the housing office to get our letter we needed to take to Pelican Coast. From there we went straight to Pelican Coast and the lady said we were getting a house, but it would be 2 weeks. Here is a picture of the beach down the street from our house.

That was fine with us. Since we had so much time off we figured we would take off and visit our families for awhile. In the meantime, I was talking to PSA trying to set up a job interview so that when we did come back down I would be all set to start working until the baby gets here.

So we came down to Sumter, SC and have settled in with his parents for a nice visit. It has been so nice to be able to sleep in and not worry about the boat, or shiftwork, or the hospital. After all the driving the Jetta needed some attention so we took it to get serviced. When we went to pick it up from getting an "oil change" we found out that somehow it wouldn't start suddenly so they were going to have to keep it over the weekend. Well that was pretty much the final straw for Ed (he pretty much hates the Jetta) and since we were going to need more room in a vehicle with the baby (and future babies) we decided it was time to start looking for a car...

Here are some pictures of us while we were vacationing in Sumter. The first one is of Hope and Scarlett. They were best buddies and followed each other around everywhere. We got them matching collars!! :)

Here is a cute family picture!

Here is a better view of the ever-expanding "bump".

Week 17

2008-09-29T15:45:00.000-07:00

Another week has gone by already. This was the week of the big move! In the beginning of the week I had to get everything organized and ready for the movers/packers/cleaners/final inspection. Then Wednesday I had a doctor's appointment. Ed was able to come with me, which was awesome. I did the usual stuff...weight, blood pressure, urine sample, etc. They took some blood. I have now gained 15 pounds (OMG) and my blood pressure was higher than normal. I generally have very low blood pressure. Well the nurse was a little concerned about the elevated BP and asked if I was under any more stress than usual. I told her we were in the process of moving and Ed had been working 12 hour shifts 7 days a week so I was doing most of the stuff by myself. She said I should take it easy and hopefully my BP was just caused by undue stress. Here is a picture we took while we waited at the doctor's office...

The packers came right on time Thursday morning and started putting all of our things in boxes. It was pretty neat how quickly they moved. Ed had to work that morning so I stayed at home to keep the dog occupied and help the packers with small things. I took all the pictures off the wall, took apart all of the lamps, disconnected the computer and the tv's, and separated things that needed to stay with us. Around 12:00 I ordered everyone pizza b/c I couldn't leave and we were all starving. Ed came home right around that time and they had an awards ceremony at work. Ed got a NAM (Navy Achievement Medal) and a plaque from the boat. I was very proud of him for working so hard. That's another ribbon to add to his collection on his uniform!! :) He was excited to have completed all of his check-outs on base. And the best part is...he is finally free from the boat!!Well after we had lunch Ed decided that I was too stressed out trying to do everything with the move so he packed up the Jetta and sent me to Columbia to visit my mom. I didn't want to at first, but it sounded like fun to go see her and relax for a few days. I took Hope with me. The movers came on Friday and loaded up all the packed boxes and our furniture onto a big truck. Now I'm at my mom's house relaxing, I'll go back down to GA for the final inspection on Tuesday morning. Then we will be on our way to Cocoa Beach to get our new house!! :)

Here are some pictures from my Columbia trip. I got to visit with Dave & Courtney before they moved to Italy. I also got to see his parents and Lauren...we all went to the Irmo Okra Strut. :) It was raining, but the food was deee-lish!!

I also got to see Andy, Will, & Caroline. We went out to Pancho's for some Mexican food, it was a lot of fun. Here are some pictures from that night.

Last Night at Work :(

2008-09-21T13:57:00.001-07:00

I have to put up a little post to say my goodbyes to all my nurses at Wolfson. I can't believe it's been a whole year already. My first job as a nurse was awesome and I will never forget the things I've learned and the people who taught me. I want to thank everyone who worked my last night with me for making it so special!! I'm really going to miss all of you guys! Here are some pictures from our "party" at 2:00 am. :)

Here I am holding my beautiful and delicious cake!

Thanks 99 year old mean Publix lady for your shaky writing on my cake! JK!

Carrie carefully cutting my cake into HUGE pieces. :)

Kirsten waiting patiently for a piece of cake.

Lindsey and Amy all smiles after cake and goodies!

Night shift has been a lot of fun and I will miss everyone!! Thanks for making my first job so great! :) XOXOXO

Week 16

2008-09-21T13:18:00.000-07:00

Wow!! Week 16 already...that is 4 months! I'm almost to the halfway point, which seems unbelievable and a little scary. Well this is going to be a busy, busy week for us. The packers and movers are coming on Thurs/Fri which gives me a couple of days to get rid of anything we don't want to go with us and also separate the stuff we want to take in the cars. We have to prepare to live up to a month or two without our stuff so it is careful planning to figure out exactly what we need to keep with us. Of course I will keep all of our papers (luckily I have them already in little travel file folders), medications (since they won't pack those anyways), clothes, uniforms, dog stuff, toiletries, etc. I'll also be sure to take our valuables such as pictures, letters, movies, jewelry. You get the idea. Ed is going to have to go up into the attic and get all the Christmas stuff and camping stuff that is up there so we don't forget it. Supposedly the movers won't go up there.

We've been trying to eat all of our refrigerated/frozen and opened food. They will pack canned goods and stuff that won't go bad as long as it is unopened. Thank goodness...I didn't want to have to buy all of my spices again b/c they get expensive!! I feel so bad that Hope has to live in a kennel for a few days. Once we get up there and find out how long our wait is going to be, if it is weeks then we are probably going to visit family in SC instead of living in a hotel. Hopefully we can get a house right away and get settled.

So we've been talking about what our plans are for the holidays. It's a little hard since we technically don't know our schedules with work, but here are our plans for now. We are going to Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving since Ed's whole family is going to be there. I figure that will probably be the last time I will be able to safely fly before the baby comes. December I will be in my third trimester so we are going to stay home for Christmas and hopefully have family come down to visit us. That is all far away though, so who knows what will actually happen.

Well this might be the last post for awhile. I will try and post somewhere if we have computer access while we are nomads. I'll get pictures of the movers and our new city when we get there. Bye for now!! :)

Week 15

2008-09-15T11:10:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone. I can't believe October is almost here! We have been getting ready for the big move. Well I've been getting ready for the big move and poor Ed has been working 84+ hour weeks. Thankfully when we leave here he will never have to do that again. I have been cleaning and throwing excess stuff away. A man from the moving company came last week to walk around the house and see what we had so he could estimate how many boxes and packing materials they would need to get us all set to go. Here's a picture of Ed and Hope on the couch. Ed fell asleep after sitting down for just a few minutes. He's so tired when he comes home from work. I thought it was cute how Hope cuddled up with him.

I'm making lists of all of the people/companies I need to contact to cancel the water, power, cable/phone/internet, etc... I've scheduled a cleaning company to come in after all the stuff is out and then a carpet cleaning company to come in right after them. I just need to schedule our final walk-through inspection with the real estate lady and hopefully that will be it as far as the house.

Today I need to find the number to the lodging facility on base so I can reserve a room for us. The packers and movers are coming the 25th and 26th but we can't leave until the 1st so I have to find a place for us to live. I have to schedule the puppy to stay at the Pampered Pets Resort for a few days. Poor puppy. I looked up another boarding facility in Cocoa Beach to have on hand in case we can't move in to our new place right away. I found one online that is at a veterinarian's office and every single review I read about the boarding and the vet were outstanding. The veterinarian (Dr. Fuller) has been in practice at this place since 1968 and everything I read about him seemed to be incredible. I think he just might become our new veterinarian as well since the place is right near the base and our new neighborhood.

I feel like the list just goes on and on. Next week is my last week of work. :( I'm very sad to leave everyone b/c I love my job and even more I love the people I work with. I can't believe I've been a nurse for over a year now. I have learned SO MUCH at this job and couldn't have asked for a better experience as a new nurse. I'm truly going to miss everyone. One of my co-workers (Monica) is talking about throwing a shower at her house when I get closer to my due date. She said it's not fair to everyone b/c they all want to see me get big (thanks a lot) so she wants to get everyone together. I think that will be awesome and I can't wait to drive down to see everyone. Here are some pictures I took at work this past week. I'm trying to get everyone I work with before I leave so I can remember my first job and all of the best nurses and ACP's ever!! :)

Well I guess I'd better get back to my never ending list of things to do!! :)

Ultrasound Pictures!!!

2008-09-11T06:51:00.000-07:00

They're finally here for all of you who have been waiting!! :) I got some of the pictures scanned from my most recent ultrasound a couple of weeks ago. These are baby at 13 weeks. They are pretty amazing pictures. Soon I will try and get the rest of them up or at least get the first ones up (done at 9.5 weeks) so you can see how much change happened in only a 3-week span of time. I'll go through and explain them a little bit.

This one is a nice profile shot. You can really see the nose and mouth, baby's arm is to its side and legs are straight up in the air and a little out of the shot.

This one is one of my favorites. It looks like baby is relaxing in a hammock. Arms are behind the head and feet/legs are straight up on the right side of the picture. This is the one that makes Ed think its a boy. We were happy though, if the baby is this relaxed when it comes out our jobs will be a piece of cake!! :)

This one is a little scary. Instead of a profile shot it's the face straight on. Since you can really only see bone in an ultrasound you are seeing a skull. It looks kind of like an alien, but that is normal according to the ultrasound tech.

This one is neat b/c it shows the heartbeat. Pretty neat! :) She said baby looks perfect and everything is right on track. We got our blood results back the other day from this visit. The doctor said everything was normal! Yay, one less thing to worry about. We are very lucky to have such a perfect little baby.

Week 14

2008-09-06T16:40:00.000-07:00

Well I'm a little ways into my second trimester and feeling much better. I get the occasional wave of nausea (especially with smells) but it usually goes away quickly. We finally heard from the Navy and the packers are coming Thursday the 25th and then they will load up all the boxes and our furniture on Friday the 26th. I guess I'd better call the hotel on base and book a room for that weekend. Ed's last day of work is on Tuesday the 30th so we will be living in a hotel for awhile. I'm sad that we will have to put the puppy in a kennel because she HATES it. We are excited for a new adventure and looking forward to making new friends. Hopefully they will have a house ready for us when we get there. If you want to see where we will be living you can go to this website: http://www.patrickfamilyhousing.com/ On the website you can find virtual tours of the inside and the floorplans. We are going to be getting floorplan 3-C. If you go under "New Home Concepts" you will find it. It's a neighborhood that is occupied by all military families, but it is not on base. We don't like to live on base because you feel so secluded. At least this way we are in a "normal" neighborhood and all of our neighbors will be in the same boat as us. Most of them will be younger with kids and won't have their families nearby for support. I'm hoping to find people who share similar interests as us. It would be really great to find someone who is pregnant like me so we could go through it together. It's always nice to be able to talk to someone who understands what you are going through. I guess we will find out in a few weeks. Here is my latest picture. We took it last night before I went to work. I'm really starting to pop out now.

Week 13

2008-09-04T17:19:00.000-07:00

Hi friends! Not much new to report for this week. I had my second doctor's appointment and all went well. So far I have gained 7 pounds total, my blood pressure was great, and I'm feeling much better. Everything is right on track. The best part of the doctor's office visits are the dopplar they use to hear the heartbeat. She found it right away and it was going strong in the 150's. Last time we had our ultrasound it was in the 140's...I guess it was a little excited that day. We are pretty much just working and sitting around waiting to see what is going to happen with all of these hurricanes. We are getting ready for the big move. We're excited about a new place. Hopefully all of our stuff and our family will make it there safe and sound. Like I said, nothing new to report. Check back in soon!

Week 12

2008-08-24T13:06:00.001-07:00

Well these past few days have been a bust. Because of stupid tropical storm "Fay" my ultrasound appointment in Jacksonville got cancelled and so did our trip to Sumter to visit Ed's parents. I was really looking forward to going to Sumter. We were going to have a birthday for Ed and his mom was going to cook some fantastic dinners. Mmm...her cooking is always delicious!! Well we didn't go so now it has been the most boring week ever. To top it off Ed had to work yesterday and today so I'm just sitting here. I decided to spend this free time getting ready for my big moving sale I'm having in a couple of weeks. I did get a lot of stuff done so I can't complain too much. I got to go through all of the stuff, clean the house, and get some laundry done. I think I might reward myself with some Ben & Jerry's later tonight. I got up early this morning and walked about 2 miles with the puppy so I deserve it. Tropical storm Fay has finally passed us. It was mostly just a lot of wind and rain for days.

I had a little "un-birthday" for Ed on Friday since he will be starting shiftwork in a few days and will pretty much miss his birthday. Shiftwork means that he has to work 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week, for almost a month. His shift is 3am to 3pm everyday. I pretty much will not see him until we move in October so I thought he should at least get some kind of birthday. We opened presents and I baked a cake. Poor husband...he can't wait to get out of here and get to his new job. Hopefully it will be much better with his schedule. Here are some pictures of the birthday party. :)

The first one is of Ed showing off his candles...TWENTY NINE!! Well he will meet his goal, which was to have his first baby before he turned 30. The next one is him blowing out the candles, and the third one is of him opening presents. He got Mario Kart for the Wii, which is what he has wanted for months. His real present was a couple of weeks ago. We went to a NIN concert in Duluth, GA. He loves NIN and I went b/c I love him. It was the baby's first rock concert. Haha! Well I'm going to get back to my cleaning. Tomorrow I'm going to call and reschedule my appointment. Have a great weekend!! :)

Welcome Everyone!!

2008-08-19T18:05:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!! If you're here you probably got my e-mail. I have secretly been working on this blog for a couple of weeks now. I didn't want to tell everyone about it until I had it ready and I'm still getting used to all of the features. Since most of you are probably looking at this for the first time I figured I would give an update on everything that's happened so far. Ed and I have been to 2 doctor's appointments and so far everything has checked out perfectly. All of my bloodwork was fine and all the tests the doctor did were normal. We had our first ultrasound and it was the neatest thing I have ever seen. Since we had the ultrasound at 9 weeks (that is still super early in a pregnancy) you can't see a whole lot. It kind of looked like a gummi bear. I will try and get to a scanner so I can post those pictures up with the rest of everything else. I hope everyone will continue to check back and read about what we are doing. Our lives have not been the most exciting since we can't do much fun stuff anymore. For example, tonight is a typical night. We are staying in and eating icecream. I think that by the time this pregnancy is over we will have tried every kind of icecream in the store. We have tried almost half of all the Ben & Jerry's flavors. Tonight we're sampling Chocolate Fudge Brownie and ONE Cheesecake Brownie (yeah I was craving chocolate). We'll let you know how it goes. :)

Week 11

2008-08-19T13:06:00.000-07:00

Well it is officially week 11 and I am starting to feel a little more normal. The nausea/vomiting is waning and there are even days I feel great. I am excited that I have a little more energy back because I was starting to feel pretty useless around here. Ed was doing everything and I felt really bad about it. Here is my latest picture. We take them every Wednesday before I head to work. The changes are not very noticeable to the naked eye, but my pants are definitely getting smaller. Our favorite thing to do around here is eat since we can't do much of anything else. This Thursday we have to go to Jacksonville to get some bloodwork and a special ultrasound that helps to detect genetic defects in pregnancy. It is new testing that is being done and we are excited that it is covered by our insurance. We are excited to get an inside view of what our baby is up to. Last night we watched a movie called "In the Womb." It was a documentary of all the things that happen through a pregnancy and the footage in the film was incredible. Well it's about to pour (hurricane Faye is coming) so I'm going to get off the computer. We will write more after our appointment.

Week 9

2008-08-03T21:30:00.000-07:00

I am now in the 9th week of pregnancy according to my own calculations and the theme of this week is morning sickness. I think it should be called the pregnancy flu b/c that's what it feels like. Basically I start each and every day feeling tired, achy, and on the verge of vomiting. It's all I can do to get something in my stomach which lately has just been coming right back up. Poor Ed, he has been cooking some of my favorite foods and all of his efforts are returned to the porcelain god. Yesterday he woke me up around 3:00 (I had worked the night before) with some surprises. First he had pancakes with blueberries and strawberries mixed in. Mmm...I love pancakes. He made them like the ones at IHOP and he even had a variety of syrups on the table. It was DELICIOUS, but unfortunately only stayed in my stomach for about 5 minutes. The next surprise was that he had cleaned the house while I was asleep which was awesome. Then...he opened the garage door and there was my car...washed, waxed, and detailed with a very sweet card. I have the best husband ever. He is so patient and kind through all of this. I am very lucky!! :)