Video Cuteness

Visions of Nesting

I'm so sorry for my absence. Things have been crazy, to say the least, around here. I almost don't know where to start. But I guess I'll start where the absence began.

Soon after I posted pictures on Flickr of my belleh at 30 weeks, my laptop broke. Here are the pictures you missed:




Anyway, the laptop broke. Having a geeky computer repairman husband, I knew it wasn't my hard drive (THANK GOODNESS!). Turns out my fan died. The computer would start to boot then immediately shut itself off to protect from overheating. So a few phone calls later and the laptop sans hard drive was on it's way to Texas to get a new fan courtesy of Acer and my warranty. I talked them into letting me keep my hard drive so I could use Erichs enclosure to back up my stuff and be able to access, well, everything. Dude, I depend way to much on my laptop!

So it came back last week. It works well now too. :) But Erich was home on vacation and we were doing lots of stuff around the house and hanging out as a family. So my laptop time was still being robbed because Erich wins out over the Internet. We had so much fun with him home too. It was hard to see him leave us to go back to work today. :( Maybe someday he can have a job that pays well enough and work from home. That would be awesome.

He might have been a little bit glad to go back though cause I put him to work. Heh. For weeks now, I've had the urge to nest but never the energy required for the work that needed done. My list became increasingly longer as I thought about it too. The week before his vacation, Erich decided that we should have a garage sale. I protested a bit, because I knew how much work would be involved, but agreed. I slowly started going through drawers here and there and started a pile. However, while he was home I got the motivation to dig out the baby clothes and sort. Piles of clothes sorted into keep, sell, give away, donate, etc etc. (Don't worry if you have given me clothes in the past, I sorted them and sent them on to good homes. I did not sell them.) In fact I'm still kinda knee deep in the clothes, because I'm having trouble getting them put back. And all those itty bitty pink newborn gowns, man I'm getting excited!

So anyway, back to the subject. Since Erich was home I decided that he would be the perfect extra set of hands that I needed to get some of my list done! He had had to do some work before earlier in the day and was tired, but reluctantly agreed to help me sort through the linen closet. Our linen closet had turned into a dumping ground. You could no longer walk into it and you could barely get to the linens as they were all just dumped in the closet. So we started by emptying out the closet. We pulled EVERYTHING out of it and sorted into piles of sheets (twin, full, queen, blankets, etc) and then we went threw and folded and tossed and did lots of that stuff. The "keep" stuff went back into the closet in orderly piles on the shelf. All organized and neat looking, I was charged! I was ready to move on to the next closet, but Erich needed a nap. So while he napped I moved on to my closet which is supposed to be walk in, but at that point was anything but a walk in closet. I put away, sorted (just like baby clothes) and all kinds of good stuff and got rid of a BUNCH of stuff that no longer fits or I would never wear again. It was awesome. So at that point I moved on to yet another room. Heh. You see where this is going right?

At 10pm that night Erich asked me, "When are you going to start leaving things alone so we can go to BED!?" So I stopped, but man that felt good. The next day things were sent to their new homes, sold, or hauled to goodwill. Man, decluttering helps the soul. Seriously. And it's probably made better by the fact that I'm pregnant because that nagging voice in your head that says "maybe I'll need this/maybe I'll fit into this later/ I sorta like it though/ what if" and makes you keep stuff, is totally gone. That thought never crossed my mind, and I'm sure that's how the piles got so big.

So hard core nesting around here. And have you ever noticed how seeing how great things look makes you move on to the next room? I found awesome stuff too! And my next big room to tackle is reorganizing the play room!

Moving on, Magdalena is such a little opinionated girl now. It's weird how she's this totally unique person, you know? Yesterday as I was drying her off and putting lotion on her I exclaimed "I'm going to eat your toes!" and she screamed in horror "NO! NO EAT MY TOES " Poor girl, thought I was going to actually eat her toes. I couldn't help but laugh, it was to funny. The things she says makes both Erich and myself burst into fits of laughter sometimes. The way she discovers things is awesome. Like today, she came to me, grabbed my hand and said "cmere!" She took me over to a corner of the house where the sun was shining and her shadow was revealed and asked "wht's dat? Wht's dat Mommy?" It's so cool to watch her discover her world.

She also loves birds. She picked up a yard ornament of a bird the other day and started making it "fly" around in the yard. She kept singing "fly birdie fly!"

We have a new family of birds that have taken up residence on a high ledge on our porch. They are pretty quiet and don't leave messes so I left them alone. After watching for a while I realized that they must have little baby birds in the nest, which surprised me since it's so quiet out there. The Mama Bird flys in frequently during the day bringing lots of worms with her. Magdalena loves to watch her fly in and out from our living room window. The Daddy Bird comes by frequently too. I climbed up on a chair and took a picture of the nest with my phone while they were out today.



Aren't they adorable? Anyway, this has gotten long enough. Next up, more talk about baby and a new belly picture!

She Lives!

Hey, I just wanted to drop in to tell you that my laptop broke earlier this month. So that is why I've been MIA. Any computer time I've had has been brief and spent trying to keep up on the most important blog posts and email. My bloglines subscription has over 50 new feeds. It's ridiculous.

We're still here. I'm still pregnant. Bambina is doing well as is Magdalena. I'll be back with a real update really soon. My laptop just came back yesterday and Erich is on vacation right now, so computer time is still a bit lacking right now.

I've Been Hit With the Stupid Stick

That's right, the stupid stick. And in the words of Ron White, "you can't fix stupid." I'm forgetting everything. That sounds like an exaggeration, but really it's not. For instance, I sat down to check email and blogs. I saw Anathea had updated, so I headed over there to check on her and thought of something I should do online or something, and then not 30 seconds later (as long as it took for her page to load) I'd forgotten what it was. I can't for the love of Pete remember what it was.

This kind of thing happens ALL DAY LONG. It's ridiculous. It probably doesn't help that I was up until 2am this morning. I was helping Erich finish up some work for an appointment this morning. And being the loving generous wife that I am, I sent him to bed at 11:30pm and I stayed up finishing stuff. I know he is appreciative, and I know that I would have stayed up with him if I hadn't done his stuff, but I still feel like crap. And apparently I'm cranky to according to my dearest Husband. I wonder why?

And while I'm complaining (heh) why is that every morning when Magdalena wakes up she wants to use the pillow THAT I HAVE MY HEAD ON! Gah! Honestly folks, I love co-sleeping. I can't bear the thought of her sleeping in the other room. But the stealing my pillow in the morning, messing with my face, and generally poking and kicking me in the morning DRIVES ME BATTY. And in all honesty, it probably sours my already bad mood since I am so NOT the morning person.

Complaining over. Magdalena is literally running around in circles in the living room. She got her dose of Elmo this morning and now she's listening to the Dora CD running around in circles. She loves to sing and sings "baaapack! baaapack!" along with the song when it plays, though she has never actually watched an episode of Dora. She can also sing the "elmo song" It's to cute. The other day in the OB exam room she started singing "la la la la la la la la Belbos wurrl" I started singing it with her very quietly "elmo loves his goldfish, his crayons..." and she chimes in at the top of her lungs "TOO! DAT'S BELBO'S WURRLLLLLLLLLLL!" I was laughing so hard. This walls are thin, so thin I can hear the woosh of babies heartbeats, the running of water, the clanking of speculums, so I *know* that every woman in there (possibly in stirups) heard her singing. I'm sure you would all enjoy that while people were poking your girly bits, right?

My blood sugars have been good to. I definitely do NOT have gestational diabetes. If anything I'm running to low during parts of the day. So I'll be glad to be done with this on Sunday. :) Little Bambina is so active these days. I wish I could somehow capture that feeling for you guys and to keep for myself honestly. She can actually move things off my belly and if you watch for a few minutes you can definitely see my belly moving almost constantly. Last night her and I played a little game. She would stretch her foot out, I would push on it and she would pull it back. Then she'd stretch it back out again. We did this for at least a minute. It was pretty cool. :) She must have been thinking "hey I was here first!"

I'm hoping to update the craft blog towards the end of the day. So look for that. ;)

Moving Along

We're taking it one day at a time here. Magdalena seems to get busier and busier by the day. Cuter too, but definitely busy. And with each passing day, I seem to get a bit slower and more tired. 11 weeks left and it seems right around the corner, and very far away at the same time.

Magdalena and I talk about the baby's arrival a lot. We talk about how the baby will "durse" and Magdalena can still durse to. She generally agrees with me, but sometimes I think she just agrees with me so I'll shut up, LOL. She's like her father like that. ;)

I had my OB appointment on Tuesday. It was a good appointment. I politely refused her glucose tolerance test. It made me so sick last time and I really couldn't see myself going through that hell again. So, she agreed to let me just check my blood sugars for a week. I think that is a nice compromise if I do say so myself. :) We also bickered a bit about prophylactic antibiotics after surgery. So, we made another compromise. I will be receiving some antibiotics after surgery, but I won't get their usual amounts. I'm happy with that. I'll start tanking up on probiotics before surgery.

I was also told that if I go into labor after 35 weeks she won't stop me. That's really cool, because my old OB (who moved out of state after M was born) would have stopped me all the way up until 37 weeks. I don't anticipate going into labor, but it's nice to know that I wouldn't be stopped if I did. We also decided that if I do go into labor before my scheduled section, we'll play it by ear. If I come in, with no obvious progress, then I'm game for a section. If I come in dilated to 6 with bulging waters/broken waters, and it appears she's coming, well we'll go for it. So if I do go into labor early, I'll be staying home to see if it happens. Heh.

Blood pressure was great, I haven't gained any weight, just stayed the same as 5 weeks ago. I'm measuring between 29 and 30, so about 2 weeks ahead. I've said it before, with Magdalena I measured ahead the entire time. My uterus is very accomodating complete with spacious rooms and high vaulted ceilings. ;)

We start two week appointments now! Wow! So next appointment is April 10. It's so weird because I know that there is a baby coming, right? But it's still hard for me to grasp that there is a baby coming. It's a very different feeling from when Magdalena was coming, where I knew there was this new baby coming, but I didn't comprehend it fully. This one feels more like a dream. I know what is headed for me, but I can't comprehend that we've created this other being who will be here very shortly.

I also can't imagine what she'll look like or how she'll behave. She already reacts to different voices. Squeals from her sister send my belly into fits. Sometimes I'm not sure if she's saying "hey I can't wait to come and meet you" or if she's thinking "HUSH! I'm trying to sleep!" I looked at Magdalena the other day and was thinking about how much she looks like me and acts like Erich. At that moment I was *positive* that bambina would look just like her Daddy. I wonder if she will. Will she look like Erich and act like me? (Good Lord I hope not. I'm enough to deal with. Heh.) Will she look just like her sister? I can't imagine another little girl as beautiful as Magdalena, but I know she will be equally as beautiful. I'm excited and terrified. I'm sad for Magdalena that I will no longer be able to devote 100% of my time to her, but I'm elated that she will have a baby sister so close in age. I'll miss having Magdalena all to myself to, you know? But I'm thrilled to be a mother again. I know this is probably normal, but I still think about it. Things will never be the same, you know? It's funny because right before Magdalena was born, I had this same panic sort of feeling. I knew things would never be the same and I had to mourn the passing of an era of just Erich and myself. This is the same thing. It won't ever shadow the ultimate joy I have in my heart at the thought of adding to my family, but I would be lying if I didn't think about the passing of this era also. Am I only the one who feels like this?

I Forget Everything

I swear I do. Seriously folks, my memory is seriously getting bad lately. First off, Alisa is my new hero because she's so sweet!

Second, Allison, I have not received any emails from you. And if I did, they didn't register (see above about forgetting things) but I'm almost 100% positive that I've received nothing. I still have the same yahoo address. So try again! :)

There She Grows Again...

Alternative post titles include "oh my goodness you mean she has 12 weeks left!" or "She's Simply Huge"

Here she is ladies. Bambina in Utero gestated 26w2d (when the picture was taken)



You'll notice that you can still see my belly button ring. And let's do a quick cross reference shall we. Take notice of my "generous" shape with bambina and then go over here and see my belly with Magdalena 4 days before she was born. Is it just me or do they look awfully similar in size? I think a lot of it has to be that I feel like Bambina is more of a round basketball shape compared to her sister, who took more of an up and down oval like shape, you know? Oh well, they still seem to be about the same size, so I'm postive that the shape of me is not indicative of the size of her.

Bottles Vs. Breast Milk

I truly awesome read from a male perspective.

http://blogs.savingadvice.com/wixx/2006/03/16/bottles-vs-breat-milkno-contest_6443/

I'll be back later with a post (and a picture!)

Alive

I'm around. I'm alive. I'm okay. I promise. I'm just soooo tired!

Belly Shots

I know you all are just dying to know what I look like these days, right?

I love you all!

It's amazing you, my readers but actually my friends, are so important to me and my well being. I haven't met most of you, but feel so connected to you as we share the intimate details of our lives. And I just wanted to say, thanks. Thanks for sharing, listening, and for your input. I think we sometimes forget that we are dealing over the internet and not in a close knit group of friends, because at times that is how it feels. All of us chatting over our coffee or tea, nibbling on a cookie, and tuning into our friends. And you know it sucks when we get hurt in the process, but that is the nature of dealing with people IRL or online.

Over the last few days I've had the special treating of chatting via instant message systems and of speaking on the phone with Imacmom and Jane. And wow, wonderful ladies, who make my heart and soul sing with happiness, cause I'm so excited to "know" these wonderful people. It's times like these when I feel life is just about as good as it gets.

So thank you all. And spread the love, please.

If there is someone on your friends list who makes your world a better place just because they exist and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the internet, then post this same sentence in your journal.

Gracy Dog

Gracy Dog
Originally uploaded by Mommy2StaufferBabies.

Gracy is gone. She got out of the gate last night and hasn't been back since. I left food out for her and looked on foot this morning, but couldn't find her. To say I'm sad is an understatement. I just want her to come back.

She was a gift from my Dad before he died, and it feels wrong to just have her gone so sudden. No chance to say goodbye, no chance to tell her I love her. Please pray that she comes home today. It's cold outside.

More Ultrasound Details

Little baby girl was very willing to show us who she was yesterday! She weighed in at around 6.5 ounces and measures perfectly for dates. She has a super long femur bone that measures way ahead of the rest of her body, just like her sister did. Having a Daddy who is 6'4" probably affects that! She was very active, probably a result of the tall iced mocha decaf coffee that I drank before to get her going. She sucked her thumb, smiled at us and was throughly a happy baby to watch.

I found out that the placenta is anterior which is why I feel like her movements are a bit weird and why most of the movement is down low. That's a bit of bad news for Erich since it will be a while longer before he can feel her move.

And for a bit of comparison sake, at 19w2 Magdalena weighed in at 9 ounces and at 19w2 this baby girl weighed in at 6.5 ounces. As I told Imacmom, I apparently don't "grow 'em big!"

We'reHavingABaby!

It'sA......













GIRL!

She's Such A Big Girl

**sniff** Magdalena is growing up WAY to fast for my liking. She turned two on the 21st and was able to blow out her candle all by herself without any help. Oh, so bittersweet! So here are some highlights on the little girl.

• She loves loves loves Elmo aka Belbo and can spot him anywhere.
• She can walk up and down the stairs holding the rail.
• She uses forks and spoons like a pro. :)
• She is now really getting the hang of language and picks up at least 2 words a day.
• Erich and I really like to here her say "morning!" when we say good morning. It makes us both smile.
• She is having a bit of separation anxiety now that she has put the expanding belly and the talk of baby together in her mind.
• She still loves to nurse and asks quite often. A few days back I tried getting her to ask and say please. Now she comes up to me and says "durse, pease!" Melts my heart everytime.
  
• She can count to two.
• She gets the jokes on Sesame Street and on the tapes.
• She loves to hug and kiss and will actually let other kids hug her now.
• She's all girl. She squeals with delight, runs to her Daddy when he comes home, dances, sings and is 100% sugar and spice.
• She loves babies. And she mothers her dolls like a little Mommy should. I find her wiping bottoms and faces and hands and putting cloth diapers on the dolls. She's going to be a fabulous big sister when she figures out that the baby will demand our love and attention too. :)
• She still sleeps with us. Though she is now sleeping the entire night in the crib attached to our bed. My belly kinda pushed her away from snuggling up to me. Heh.
  
• She can put herself to sleep. So "neener neener neener!" to all the people who told me if I nursed her to sleep, she'd "never learn to do it on her own!"
• She loves the bathtub and she loves to sing "that's belbos world!" at the top of her lungs in the bathroom.
• The only thing she doesn't really like is being told "no" heh.
• Her last appointment she appeared perfect and came in at a petite 24# and 31.5" tall.
  
• She can pee on the potty when she is left naked. She still can't tell the difference between panties and diapers, but I never showed her to pee on the potty, so she'll get there eventually. With a new baby on the way, I'm not exactly holding my breath.
• She loves to eat. There isn't anything she'll turn away. She is not picky and happily tries new things. (**knocks loudly on wood**) When people ask me how I got her to "do that" I always tell them it's because I never pushed her to start solids and let her tell me, even if that meant exclusively breastfeeding her until she was 8 months old. :P
  

That's all I can think of right now, but believe me she gets cuter and smarter every single stinking day!

Tomorrow is the big U/S for Neo! Coincidentally, it falls on January 31st which was Magdalena's due date back in 2004!

The Start of An Update!

Long time no see, eh? Well, life seems to just be flying by. Wasn't it just October? Hyperemsis has really gotten the best of me and since Christmas I've been hovering near bathrooms with little vials of pills that promise to take the sickness away. They don't really, but they do give me hours where I feel "normal" whatever that is.

The Wednesday before Christmas I started feel woozy, tossed my dinner, and thought nothing of it. Thursday I spent the day feeling as if I was going to die and how on earth do you take care of a toddler while feeling like this? Friday, I actually looked like death and decided that I better go to the doctor. I could barely pick Magdalena up, it was bad. Upon arrival, they discovered that not only had I lost weight (which I still am) but that my bloodpressure was 80/60 and my heartrate was 130. I was really dehydrated. They tried to find babys heartbeat, but couldn't distinguish whose heartbeat belonged to who. So Dr. B pulled out her portable ultrasound and within a minute we were looking a fully formed baby just hanging out. Baby appeared to be sleeping and when nudged, turned the other way! Ha! Just like his/her father! :)

I was given the Hyperemesis label and sent to the hospital to be rehydrated and receive some IV anti nausea drugs. My mom was called in to watch Magdalena and apparently M wore her out running all through the hospital.

Since then I've been hanging out trying to not puke every day and take care of Magdalena.

She turned 2 on Saturday! But I'll write about that next post.

Today I had an OB appointment. I've lost about 20 pounds so far into this pregnancy. I'm 18 weeks 2 days gestated. :) I'm measuring a little large at 21 centimeters, but I'll take that with a grain of salt considering Magdalena measured large the entire time and look how tiny she was! Dr. B said it was probably because of being a bit short and because this is my second pregnancy and your uterus tends to make the second one feel much more welcome. heh. She was finally able to catch bambino on the doppler and baby sounds good, kicking, and having a grand old time.

We talked about the fact that I've been much more worried about this baby then I was with Magdalena. For some reason I feel like I should be LESS worried since this is my second go around, but my anxiety is much worse. She said I didn't have to wait for my next appointment with her to get my ultrasound and that I could schedule it for next week. So next Tuesday, send us some legs wide open vibes! And um, I should figure out how to place some bets as it seems everyone is torn between boy and girl. I actually have no idea. Erich says girl (but honestly I think he is just preparing himself **wink**). My mom says boy, my MIL says boy, and a friend says girl. What do you think?

We also talked about the csection. We are not going to be trying labor this time for various reasons and since we aren't going to try, I'd like to avoid going into labor. She said she likes to section at 39 weeks, but that she'll do it at 38 weeks. I'd like to avoid being in the hospital on Erichs birthday so it looks like we may schedule the section the week of June 12, towards the end. That will make me 38 and change and I'm down with that. It's very odd to be scheduling someones birth by the way. But this is how it has to be. I'll talk more in detail about why we will be doing a repeat section in another post.

Anywho, we talked about the spinal and about giving her warning if I dry heave on the table (so she can be prepared to hold my guts in, heh) and I asked about nursing in recovery. Apparently now, as long as baby is okay, they ALWAYS bring baby in to nurse. Thank goodness! She knows I'm a major lactivist and I think she has a clue that we are still nursing, but I'm still dancing around that subject with her since I know her views on it. heh. She says that they don't push formula, and she thinks they push people who want to formula feed, to breastfeed. To which I say, GOOD FOR THEM! Heh. So yay, nursing in recovery (which is less than half an hour from birth, which is cool) Erich will again stay with baby the entire time and I'm finally starting to believe that there will be another baby here in *gasp* 20 weeks! Yikes!

Behind..

I'm currently still trying to figure out how to take care of a toddler and get the hang of this hyperemesis stuff. I'll be back in a few days with a giant update, promise.

In the meantime, how about a little Magdalena fun? She recently learned to put her finger to her mouth and say "shhh!!"

Today, she was reaching for something she is not supposed to have. I tell her "no Magdalena" and she comes over to me and says "shhhhh!" heh.

Her birthday is on Saturday!!!

National Delurking Week

It's national delurking week!

I would say I "know" about 60% of the people that stop in on this blog. So if you are in the 40% who I don't "know" or who don't comment, please leave me a comment!

See You Next Year...

Last post of the year. January marks three years of blogging for me. I feel like most of it has been baby centered, but my life in the past three years really has been baby centered.

This year has been such a trying time for me and yet, I've also had some of the greatest moments. I watched my baby learn to walk, start talking, enjoy her first mobile summer. She made friends, she developed her personality, she danced and sang and I was here to witness every single one of those moments. I'm lucky.

And in between all of the laughter and dancing, I grew as a mother. I realized how much I wanted more family. I struggled with infertility. I cryed, I screamed, I sat with despair in my eyes and wondered "why me?"

I spent the last half of my year driving forty minutes each way to the doctors office. I did this every other day for two weeks of each month. I was prodded, poked. I had ounces and ounces of precious blood drawn. I poked myself with needles, sometimes three times a day. I had vaginal ultrasounds. I prayed. With every passing day I looked forward to phone calls from nurses telling me my numbers. I learned about my body's faults.

But I also learned how my body can nurture and that sometimes it can do things right. That even though it was hard to get pregnant, my body embraces pregnancy. It nurtures this baby. Yes, my body suffers through hyperemesis with my pregnancies, but that's just a small price to pay. It's all a small price, the pokes, the blood, the tears, it was all worth it for that baby who measures a tiny 4.5 inches and weighs only 2 ounces.

This past week or so I've marveled at how my body still takes care of my toddler and this unborn baby. I've cried when I sat down to nurse my toddler, not from pain, but from the realization that at that moment my body is nurturing my toddler and my unborn baby. They both sit in my lap, listening to my heart, and feeling my love surround them. And that is so unbelieveably awesome and such a giant thing to grasp in my tiny little mind.

It's been a great year. And I know that next year will be just as wonderful. It will have just as many hard times I'm sure. And I'm positive I'll complain. But I'll also welcome our second baby into our lives. I'll watch my baby girl become a big sister. I'll watch her turn two. I'll enjoy another summer with both my babies. Another anniversary with my Prince Charming will come. And it will be wonderful.

Happy New Year, may yours be filled with love, happiness, and all around good times.

Beggars

No, actually I'm not begging. I'm just putting this up because I can. heh. Magdalena's birthday is approaching quickly, and if you'd like to send her a gift you can find her wants and desires here.

That's Belbo's WORLD!

Magdalena is really becoming quite cute lately. I had been worried about her speech about a month ago. Until I realized that I was looking for her to be actually talking to me like an adult, which isn't going to happen obviously. And she was saying words and such that we could understand, but we have a friend who talks constantly about her 2 year old and her have these long lengthy conversations. So I guess I was looking for that instead of toddlerese. So when I started really paying attention, I realized she is normal. ;) And I'm perfectly happy with normal.

However, in the past couple of weeks her language has started to EXPLODE! She's never been one of those toddlers to try and repeat everything you say, or to "point to your nose!" She always kinda gave me a look like "what the hell for?" So imagine my surprise when she started spitting more words out. Crazy.

I've said it before but I'll say it again, the girl loves to eat. And it's a good thing cause she is a skinny girl and if she didn't like to eat, I'm sure people would point out that I'm a Bad Mother. But I just usually let people who have skinny comments offer M something to eat, and that usually shuts them up. Heh.

Anyway, she has started being able to pick an option. So at lunch time I'll ask her "do you want to eat?" "EAT!" "Would you like ham or cheese?" (sandwich) "HMMM!" or sometimes she says "CHEEZ"

She blows kisses, and says "Ehss You!" when you sneeze. Heh. She points to my belly (which is making it's presence known by the hour) and says "baby!" and generally blows a kiss.

After naps, I'll ask her "did you sleep well? was it a good nap?" And 99% of the time she'll say "uh huh" One day I asked, " did you take your nap? " and she looked all shy and grinned at me. I asked her again if she slept and she said "nope." Stinker.

This evening I had some sewing to do and Magdalena was in that lull between needing to go to sleep and actively letting me get her to sleep. So I popped in an Elmo's World tape. She loves "Belbo" and her birthday party will be Elmo themed.

Anyway, I'm in the dining room which is open to the living room so I can see her watching intently, barking with the dogs, counting "one, dew" and so on. At the end,Elmo sings his song and I hear her loudly singing "Das Belbos WORLLLLLL" And then Elmo says "say Goodbye Dorothy!" And I hear Magdalena say "BYE!" I was seriously cracking up. She's so cute! Just ask Julee. :)

Coming up in the next posts, more about when I met Julee and my hyperemesis saga. Really what fun is following my pregnancy when it doesn't have a little drama?

Meme

The rules for this meme are as follows:

Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom spot. Very simple.

1. Running2Ks
2. Allison
3. Fair Dinkum
4. Welcome to the Monkeyhouse
5. And They Lived Happily Ever After

Then you select five people to pass the love on to.
Here are my five:

1. Julee
2. Allison
3. Manda
4. Mani
5. Blessed Mama

Now, on to the questions!

What were you doing ten years ago? I was in school. **blush**

What were you doing one year ago? I was getting ready for my baby's first birthday.

Five snacks you enjoy

1. chips and salsa
2. wheatables
3. cottage cheese
4. glass of chocolate malted milk
5. flavored coffee

Five songs to which you know all the lyrics.

Wow, um I can't even begin to name songs I know the lyrics to. I know to many!

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire.


1. Pay off all our debts.
2. Buy Erich a super cool Manly truck.
3. Invest so Erich can work part time and be with us.
4. Set aside money for fertility drugs so I can have as many babies as I want.
5. Buy a piece of land and build our dream home on it.

Five bad habits

1. Bite my nails.
2. sailor mouth
3. I have about 3 knitting projects all started.
4. Spend to much money.
5. Talk to much.

Five things you like doing

1. Knitting
2. Blogging
3. Washing diapers (something about pulling clean diapers out of the dryer makes me feel warm and whole inside)
4. Laundry in general.
5. Cooking and Baking

Five things you would never wear, buy, or get new again

Heck, I don't know!

Five favorite toys

1. Laptop
2. Washer (it's a front loader!)
3. my husband **wink**
4. sewing machine and serger
5. knitting stuff

Quick

I'm dropping in quickly to show you this link I found to a really cool musical. I'm hoping to buy the CD next month when it becomes available. It's on Off Broadway and I think it has enough funding to run through the end of this year. I wish I could hop a plane and afford the $60 a ticket to see it next week, but alas I don't. So I'm just going to have to wait for the CD.

Infertility: The Musical That's Hard To Conceive

You can listen to some of the soundtracks on the website. :)

Whistle While You Work

I know I know I know, I haven't updated lately. And I know you are all sitting on pins and needles waiting for me to update. Hahaha!

I do need to mention that today my baby is 23 months old. Sniff. I'm planning her birthday party and of course, it's an ELMO party. Who else?

No time for a great long update other than that though. I'm up to my ears in knitting for Christmas projects. Ugh. I promise I will update next week after I'm finished and my fingers no longer hurt. Is it possible to make your fingers skinny? Cause my wedding rings are falling off. Or I guess it could be that 12 pounds of lost. Yes I'm bragging, what's your point? ;)

I owe Chatgoddess some things I love about heralong with some crockpot recipes. And I owe Shana a meme. All in good time my friends. Also I have a box to pack up and ship to Mani.

Oh! And I get to meet Julee next week. Neener neener neener! :)

And since you are all watching, I'm sailing past that first trimester mark and into my honemoon trimester on Sunday! So while you're opening your presents, breath a silent sigh of relief for me. I did it, I made it through the first third. And holy crap I'm going to have a newborn in (less than!) 7 months.

More next week. Promise!

PS To tide you over until I return next week, I posted 12! pictures over at flickr.

We're Here

We're still here, covered in snow, but here. The popping continues in my lower tummy area. I'm 99.9% sure that it isn't gas, it just feels different. I can only feel it if I'm lying really really still and generally just at night. Oh well.

Magdalena and I went out in the snow yesterday when it had just started it. She had been admiring it through the window for a while, so I decided to bundle us up and take her outside. It took longer to get ready to go out then the actual time spent outside. She is so funny and cute!

We came in and I gave her dinner and took her upstairs for her bath. We went into the bedroom and nursed and I asked where she was going to sleep (her crib/sidecar, or in the big bed). She patted Erichs pillow and said " Daddee Daddee" and laid on his pillow. She then promptly demanded that I cover her up. After I covered her and kissed her on the forehead, she closed her eyes pretended to be asleep. Silly girl.

After she was asleep I finally put the Christmas tree up. I just have to hang the stockings and put the manger up. I seriously don't feel like putting it up, but my Dad made that manger and there hasn't been a Christmas yet that I haven't put it up.

Then I donned all of my snow gear again and shoveled the porch, sidewalk, and driveway. Erich was stuck at work and the last thing I wanted him to have to do is shovel just to park his car. I knew he wouldn't be home for hours and hours, but at the rate it was falling I figured I should get a head start.

Through this all I've really wanted a ham sandwich or roast beef sandwich, toasted with cheese. I had gone to the meat market around noon when Erich was still home and it was CRAZY. People are nuts! So I didn't get the roast beef because the line was to long.

Erich finally got home at 2am. I went outside at 1:30am to start shoveling snow again since it had started blowing and such. I went out and you could no longer see where I shoveled. There were two foot drifts. Ugh. So I started shoveling again and I had just finished the second tire track ( I decided NOT to do the whole driveway again) when Erich pulled around the corner. Then I had to shovel and area for him to get out of the car. LOL

My thighs hurt today. Boo. I did decide that I could no longer stand not having a roast beef sandwich so I bundled Magdalena up and we took off to walk the three blocks to the meat marked. Actually I should say *I* walked it while carrying her because she decided she didn't want to walk in the snow. We just got home a few minutes ago and Magdalena ate an ENTIRE sandwich and I just had my roast beef sandwich toasted with colby jack cheese and a touch of mayo. It's amazing what a pregnant woman will do to satisfy her craving. :)

Magdalena keeps admiring the tree. I tell her no touch! and she stops. A few times I've looked over to see her touching the tree. When she sees me watching her, she comes over to me and says, "no tuhk teeee!" heh.

So I'm warm and my belly is full **yawn** I believe it's naptime...

Silly Questions

When did you feel your baby move? More importantly, when did you feel your baby move on second pregnancies (or third, fourth, whatever.) I felt Magdalena REALLY early at 14 weeks and consistently at 15 weeks. Currently I'm almost 12 weeks.

Anyway, last night I was laying in bed all relaxed after my shower and I felt a series of popping in my lower belly. It didn't feel like gas, just like some sort of popping. It was to far foward to be gas or my bowels or anything. Just popping. This morning I felt the same thing. It's crazy, but could this actually be the baby, this early?

First Prenatal Appointment

I'm going to start this out by saying that these appointments are not going to be easy accompanied by an almost 2 year old. I remember when I was pregnant the first time, I would just go in with a good book (usually some sort of breastfeeding book I had picked up) and sit and read and just ignore the wait. That's not going to be the case this time I think. I did think ahead though, after the whole apple juice/specimen meltdown in the ER last week, I packed a sippy with apple juice. But I'm going to need to be more creative, lots of snacks and drinks and such.

Anyway, my appointment was at 10:30. They asked me to be there a few minutes early to fill out the forms and such. We arrived at around 10:15am. I signed in and started my wait. They finally called me to the receptionist and copied my insurance card, verified I still had the same emergency contacts and address, and explained my benefits. Seriously, there is something very satisfying to see the paper that says your insurance will pay $XXXX amount and the amount you owe is $0 after your $0 deductible is paid. Seriously, that's heaven. ;)

Anyway, a short while later after one meltdown they call us back in to the office. They weigh me and confirm I've lost yet another pound bringing me up to an eight pound weightloss. (Considering I'm 8 weeks post conception, that's a pound a week. And believe me, I'm eating, um, lots.) Moving on, they ask if I can produce a sample. HA! We get through that with zero drama and I fill M's now empty sippy up with some water. We go into the exam room and get my blood pressure taken 112/60 and she leaves us to wait, and wait, and wait. I don't really notice since I knew my OB was oncall that day, but I must remember to pack the diaper bag with surprise goodies for when we move away from the germ infested great toys they provide in the waiting room.

The wait didn't seem bad considering when my OB came in she spent a good 40 minutes with me. We talked about a repeat section, we talked about how I was feeling (great, knock on wood), and we talked about my near constant cramping and the great ER visit. She was not happy about the way that visit had gone. She had said that should have done a pelvic and that they should have cathed me for the specimen. (Here is where I was relieved that the ER had screwed up. heh.) Like last time I declined all the genetic testing stuff. She sorta tried to pressure me into the triple screen, but I was adament that I didn't want it. She did keep saying that it came back positive, then she would send me to a larger hospital for a 4D ultrasound. That really didn't sound incredibly appealing to me. I explained that I KNEW the test had a high false positive rate, and that it was even higher for heavier women. I also know that we've done well on taking prenatal vitamins and taking care of myself while making this baby and since it's been growing. And Erich and I are both young, so I didn't really see a point. I won't terminate the pregnancy, I trust their u/s tech to find heart abnormalities, and honestly if something were wrong like Downs Syndrome, I wouldn't want to spend my pregnancy feeling doomed and stressed. I feel like this baby is fine and my gut should be trusted. Plus I didn't want the stress of having that blood draw looming over my head, you know? She did agree with me that I was extremely low risk and she didn't feel uncomfortable with me declining it. ;)

She decided that she should go ahead and do a pelvic, take a quick look to make sure that my cervix is behaving (considering I had that LEEP a couple of years back it's nice to know it behaves) and declared my uterus to be of an appopriate size for 10w2d. She commented that my csection scar really healed well, and that she would cut that scar out when we do the section so that I don't have multiple scars which increases adhesions and such. We also talked about stitches and staples and I was relieved that she said she always does stitches. Thank goodness! She tried to hear fetal heart tones with the doppler, but kept finding mine. She said since I was having cramps and that she couldn't find heart tones, she would send me over for an ultrasound. She okayed it for me to go to a chiropractor as long as he has experience adjusting pregnant women. Yay. (Appointment is tomorrow AM for both myself and Erich.)

At this point, my OB is upset that she can't find the note from Dr. H the RE (they went to school together). She teased me that he's seen me naked. hahaha. If you had seen Dr. H, you'd know why that was funny. He is a hot-tay. She was also upset that she couldn't find the ER note either. She sent me back to have my ultrasound.

Wow. That baby changes SO fast. Baby appeared to be sleeping but you could see him turn from side to side at times. FHTs were 170 and he measured perfectly for 10w2d. So baby is already making Mommy proud! Magdalena is SO used to the ultrasound drill, she is the best girl ever. And it was cute because when she saw the screen she said "baybee!" And the u/s tech said, "Yes! You see your baby?" My heart is filled with pride and joy. You would just not believe how happy I am. She printed us some pictures and my OB came back to fetch me.

She took me to her medical assistant who drew my blood and then sent me to her nurse. She said she'd see me in 4 weeks and that she was so happy I was back! Me too! We drew blood and I visited the nurse who gave me my prenatal vitamin script, lots of papers, and my favorite "the breastfeeding support supplementation kit!" Yay! Just what I wanted, formula samples! I kept my mouth shut from saying that Magdalena has NEVER had a drop of formula and I have every intention of making sure that this baby NEVER has a drop of formula either. I kept my mouth shut because I wanted the cooler. ;) I did take the samples over to the WIC office and gave them to them. :)

And that ended my first prenatal. Only about a bazillion more to go, look forward to the next one on December 30. :)

We're Home

We sorta came home to a mess, but I'll explain later. In the meantime, I've maxed out my upload limit at Flickr. Go look! Leave comments! Enjoy!

The Fun-- It Never Ends...

Just when I thought I could relax as I was sailing towards the 12 week mark, I was taught a lesson. It's not over, until the fat lady sings (or until the baby cries, whatever.)

Yesterday, after a particularly stressful week (remember that damn turkey? nuff said) I started having these cramps that turned into contraction like cramps. You know the ones that wrap around your body, hug on to your kidneys, then radiate right into your crotch? Yup those. And all I could think was Oh.My.God.Not.Now.Please.

Erich wanted to go straight to the hospital and I said (through snot and tears) not right now. If we are losing it, we can't do anything. The cramps/ctx type thingies stopped after a glass of water and a few refreshing breaths. I did have some sort of bottom/cervix pain, but no spotting or bleeding.

So this morning I felt great, and after that 6am rush, I took T and Magdalena to ToysRExpensive to LOOK at the toys to make a list for Santa. We met up with Erich for lunch (and scored two free meals since they didn't get our food out in less than 14 minutes) and we all came home. I sent the girls to take naps and sat down to start checking email. I had just opened up Diaper Pin (which I still have not been able to read) when I got this gigantic cramp. Mind you I wasn't doing anything but sitting on the couch tapping on my laptop. And then after the second cramp, I started having a panic attack. I could.not.breath. I called Erich, frantic, and he told me to go straight to the ER. Through snot and tears (again), I said I'd call the OB.

But obviously, the OB was not in the office and the on call doc was paged. She called me back and told me not to panic. (She says to the lady who just finished a $3000 cycle of drugs and one year of TTC.) She said I should not panic at this point because I was not bleeding or spotting. I did mention that over the last day or two I've been feeling sick and like not eating. She said that there was no way to get an "official ultrasound" until Monday, but that I should go into the ER and have them take a look. She said that they would listen to the heartbeat , do an ultrasound, and check urine. Her guess was I was getting the flu.

So I call Erich and fill him in. Then I call my mother and tell ask her politely to meet me at the hospital to help with Magdalena and T. Then I pack everyone up and we head to the hospital.

After checking in and handling meltdown #1, they escort us back to my room. The nurse comes in promptly and I kid you not says, "take off your clothes." Sweet. Anyway, the ER does not have a doppler and only has a fetoscope. After five minutes of her looking and telling me "don't panic" she finds "the buggar" (She actually said this and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Oh well. And I wasn't panicked because I'm barely 10 weeks and baby is small.) FHT were in the 140s and baby sounded fine. She let me listen, which was nice.

Then the doctor came in (why oh why are ER docs always cute young boys while family docs are old and wrinkly?) with the ultrasound. After feasting my eyes upon him seeing him all I could think was "please God do not make this a vag u/s." He said at 10 weeks we should be able to see baby with minimal trouble through the belly. And he was right. He instantly saw my "enlarged" uterus and there was baby, hanging out, moving around, and with a strong heartbeat. I wish I could have seen this beauty, but I couldn't as the u/s machine was like a laptop and you couldn't see it unless you were at the right angle. He tried to print a picture, but of course, the printer was out of paper. Anyway, he assured me that baby looked appropriate measuring at 10weeks and was moving and had a heartbeat.

He said we would get a urine sample and that if I have an infection, it can sometimes cause uterine spasms because the urinary tract will irritate the uterus. He leaves and at this point someone comes in and gives T and Magdalena beanie babies (to add to the coloring books and crayons we got in the waiting room). The nurse comes in, asks if I can pee (hello? is that a stupid question to ask a pregnant woman who has been in the ER for an hour and a half? I thought so.) and sends me to the restroom. She takes T to see the collection of beanies, and Magdalena goes with me.

We come back to the room and handle Meltdown #2 when Magdalena wants apple juice after seeing the specimen. **rolls eyes** So the nurse brings in apple juice for both girls and leaves. This is when my Mom and StepDad arrive. So they come in and I fill them in and we play around in the room for about 10 or 15 minutes.

The nurse comes in and informs me that I have a rather intense UTI. Bleh. Antibiotics, yogurt, rest, and lots of water and cranberry juice are recommended and with that they send me on my merry way.

My parents took us to eat and we called Erich to tell him Neo is fine and so am I for that matter. A quick visit to the pharmacy and we are now home. Of course I need to wash diapers and pack because we are going on a trip tomorrow. (Doctor okayed.) We'll come back Monday evening and Tuesday morning I have my OB appt. yay.

Oh and I forgot to tell you this last week, but I found out why Erich calls the baby Neo. He said that since we talked about it being multiples for so long he had thought it would be two, and then when he found out there was only one he started saying "the one" which led him to Neo. So it's Neo "the one." Don't ask me, I can only follow his train of thought about half the time. ;)

It's The Little Things

I sometimes have to remind myself that I'm pregnant. This pregnancy is just going to well. I'm not sick, just overly tired so I have to remind myself, hey you're baking a baby! But there are some things that do remind me, so here they are:

• I'm ready to go to bed at 7pm.
• I get really sick if I don't eat say every two hours.
  
• I go to the bathroom every hour and a half.
  
• I'm tired after being up for 2 hours in the morning
• One minute something sounds wonderful to eat, the other not so much
• Getting a card that says "glad you had a 'positive' experience with us" from my RE
• My pants don't fit, yet I've lost seven pounds.
  

At nine and a half weeks pregnant, it's safe to say I'm 25% done with this pregnancy. How in the heck did that happen?

22 months ago...

I was laying in a hospital bed two hours after giving birth. I was exhausted and thrilled and totally in awe of this tiny creature they pulled from my body. She nursed all night long that night and slept on my chest and I was never more happier.

This evening, at 8:14pm I was nursing my baby to sleep and remembering that first cry she made while only her head was out. She cryed before they could even pull her out. And at 9:30 pm this evening when she woke and I nursed her back to sleep, I remembered the first time I held her and latched her on. I remembered the first time she ever nursed. If you would have told me 22 months ago that I'd still be nursing this creature, that I'd still be in complete awe, that I'd marvel at how she is such a baby and a little girl all at once, I wouldn't have believed you.

What's that sound?

That would be me, hyperventilating. That stinking bird is really getting to me. I think I have the whole cooking thing down. Nana talked to me last night and walked me through the process. Like a good student, I diligently took notes. I'm going to cook the bird on my gas grill, thus freeing up space for my rolls, pie, and casseroles in the oven. So why am I hyperventilating?

The bird is still frozen. Sure parts of it feel thawed, but one big hunk feels frozen. I put it in the fridge on Wednesday. It only weighs 12 pounds. This page and this page say that it only needs 24 hours per 5 pounds, so it should be thawed by Saturday. But it isn't. My mom says to not worry about it. That once I take all the stuff out of the middle and give it the remaining 16 hours till I have to cook it, that it will be thawed enough. I do know that it can go into the grill a bit frozen, just takes longer. So I'm going to increase my cooking time and throw it on the grill at 6:30am instead of 7am. Family is supposed to be here at 11am and we are supposed to sit down and eat at 11:30. So, really I should be OK.

I need to remember to show Erich the video that shows how to carve the turkey. We are going to be all fancy pancy over here and carve at the table. Cool, eh? (But remember I won't be carving because that squicks me out.)

I'm getting ready to set the table now. My mom bought me a tablecloth that goes well with my dining room and will work for Christmas also. She scored a rocking deal as it was normally priced for $40 and it was 66% off. She bought it for $13 and change. I already pressed my napkins last night and they are already in the napkin rings. (I said we were going to be fancy pancy.) So I'll get the tablecloth on and then I will wash all the china and set it out. I'm going to get out the wine glasses, but we'll all be drinking water. I'm not offering anything else, to help smooth the bumps in the day. We'll have coffee and milk with desert.

So I should get going and set my table and wash dishes and stuff. Do you think I can convince Erich to take me out to Outback tonight to satisfy my hankering for a steak and some of those cheesy fries with ranch sauce? It'd be nice, because I don't want to touch anything so it's all ready to go in the morning, without having to wash dishes at 5am.

Tickers Pickers

I'm not incredibly fond of the two tickers on the page. Someone asked when I was going to put a pregnancy ticker up, and although I wanted to put one up immediately, I didn't just want to kick Magdalena's off, if you know what I mean.

I already had plans to get rid of Magdalena's ticker on her 2nd birthday. That seems a good place to stop the ticker madness so to speak. But I had a ticker for Magdalena's pregnancy, so it seems appropriate that this baby gets one to.

So until January, ya'll will just have to live with two tickers. Then it will be back to one ticker. ;) Can you guys handle that until January?

My Life In Bullet Points

• My house is a disaster and I don't want to clean it. I'm tired*. Damnit.
• Family is coming on Sunday and the house needs to be clean by then. Ugh. And they insisted on eating at 11:30am. That means I have to be up at 6am to start the grill and get the bird ready. Does anyone else see the problem with this besides me?
• Erich brought a fern plant in from outside to escape the cold. It smells funky and makes me want to hurl. Why am I the only one who smells this?
• Last night I broke a drinking glass. Of course, it was while I was in a hurry, but I was very careful and meticulous in picking it up and sweeping since we all walk barefoot.
  
• This afternoon while running through the kitchen I stepped on a piece of glass. When I went to dig it out, I realized it was very lodged without edges, making it almost impossible to pull out. Thoughts of taking a toddler to the ER drifted through my head, so I squeezed the darn thing (cutting myself even more) and "birthed" the very large piece of glass. So now I'm tired and my foot hurts.
• In an effort to make things go smoothly tonight, I remembered that all of the night time diapers were dirty. So at 2pm, I put the diapers in the washer and then proceeded to forget about them until about an hour ago. So now, they are doing their vinegar wash at which point they'll need another hour to dry. So Magdalena won't be in bed until 10pm. Have I mentioned that I'm tired?
• Erich has to back up 5 computers tonight after work because they are moving them to a new building in the morning. Since he doesn't get off of work until 10, he'll be gone a long long time tonight. And then tomorrow he must be up at the crack of dawn to finish the job.
  
• When I roll on to my tummy in my sleep now, it feels like I rolled over onto a ball.
  
• My insurance has decided that all the prenatal vitamins I have samples of are non formulary and I should pay 50% of them. I AM NOT paying $25 a month for prenatals when they should stinking pay for them. UGH.
• Imacmom, we talked about prenatals before. Can you drop me an email and tell me which ones you like?
• I'm tired. When is someone going to invent that self cleaning house?

*I'm not exactly complaining about my pregnancy. I know that someone is going to come out of the woodwork and tell me that since I wanted to be pregnant so bad, that I shouldn't complain. Obviously this person has never been pregnant and tired. So to clear it up, I'm thrilled to be pregnant. I'm thrilled to not be sick. I know that beggars can't be choosers. I'm just simply stating the fact that I am really really really tired. Okay?

The Ultrasound Where My Heart Stops

We had our last ultrasound on Monday with Dr.H. I've been released to my regular OBGYN with good wishes, promises to come back and show them a beautiful baby in June, and the promise to help me if I should ever want more help. It was bittersweet. The nurses came and hugged me and Magdalena waved "Bye!" and blew kisses.

The ultrasound was really cool except for the fact that my kid scared the LIVING CRAP OUT OF ME. Normally, when you have those vaginal ultrasounds as soon as the wand is, *ahem* placed you see baby. But that didn't happen. And as the wand was moved around all we kept seeing was this empty sac. This is where my heart starts to race and then just stops all together. Finally, in the most umcomfortable place, they find baby, perfectly happy, healthy heart, just hanging out avoiding us. Baby kept flipping not wanting us to see him (or her!) or let us measure or anything. But we finally did with the help of others and everything looks fantabulous. Baby is three times the size he was last week! Isn't that amazing and crazy all at the same time? Measuring a day ahead of all of our dates (measured 6/24), we saw a tiny umbilical cord and a strong strong heart. He was moving lots and just doing really well. We are thrilled.

I called my OB's office, where they congratulated me and scheduled my first OB appointment for 10/29 at which point I'll be 10w2d. Can you believe that? That is less than two weeks away! We are almost out of November! And in less than two weeks , I'll have finished 25% of this pregnancy. For trying so long, it seems it's just flying by.

I'm still not sick. I've had the occasional awful feelings and one night of not being able to get off the couch, but other than that, things have been great. I seem to have a lot more headaches this time around, but I've been treating those with rest, water, and small frequent doses of caffiene in the form of beverages.

This Sunday we are having Thanksgiving dinner here at our house for Erichs family. We're having turkey, green bean casserole, sour cream mashed potatoes, steamed carrots with butter, stuffing, and homemade rolls. For desert, a made from scratch apple crisp with homemade vanilla ice cream. Sounds yummy huh? I'm having a lot of anxiety over cooking this damn bird. I've never cooked a turkey and the thought of it kinda makes me queasy. I like turkey and I like chicken, but I have this quirk where I refuse to eat things off of bones. Seriously, it makes me ill. Anyway, my grandpa "Pa" wants me to cook the turkey on the grill. This sounds like fun and scary all at the same time. I had decided I should use one of those oven bags, but when I got them home there were only two bags in the box. No ties, no instructions, urgh! If I cook the bird in the bag, there is no basting right? And how do I season it? Just brush it with some olive oil and throw it in the bag? So many questions, such little time.

Other than that, not much going on around here. Erich is working like a madman. The crazy crazy rains came through yesterday. It was 65 degrees outside yesterday and overnight it dropped to below 30 degrees. They say it won't get above 40 today and there are lots of small little flurries outside. I think I'd be okay with a chilly day with some flurries on Sunday for Thanksgiving. I made a cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream and I'm about to sit and watch the first snowflakes of the season while Magdalena naps upstairs.

What A Difference A Week Makes

Baby appears to be growing well! :) We saw a very strong heartbeat today. There is nothing
better than seeing that brand new heart working so well! Dr. H did come in during the u/s today to make sure we looked in my tubes and ovaries to make sure there were no misplaced babies because my HCG levels are so high. There is indeed only one and the clot/twin? from last week seems to have been absorbed completely by my body. Dr. H said baby looks great and declared it a boy. :P One more u/s and then I leave that office for my regular OB. **sniff** I've grown quite fond of them, and it will be hard, but I'm so excited. As things progress, I'm embracing the fact that I have a healthy pregnancy and beautiful baby that I will meet early next summer! It's a little to overwhelming.

In other news, I've been looking at some maternity pants at Old Navy. I'm actually looking at the maternity pants that don't actually *look* like maternity pants. This is very important. I am only 7w1d and there is absolutely NO reason I should be donning maternity wear. But unless I want to go to Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners in sweatpants, I'm going to have to jump on the maternity wagon because my jeans kissed me goodbye. So I'm going with maternity pants that don't look like maternity pants. If I had more money, I would buy myself some fat pants, but I have enough to buy fat pants or maternity pants. And I'll need the maternity ones sooner or later.

Erich has nicknamed the baby "Neo" and declared him "the one." (I didn't ask why, I'm just going to say it's "the one we worked so hard for") We talk to Magdalena about the baby that is coming, mainly because she likes toget up in the morning and jump on tummy. So we talk about the baby in Mommy's tummy and she rubs my belly fat and says "baibeh preetee" Erich had a conversation that went something like this:

Erich: Are you going to be a big sister?
Magdalena: Yes!

E: Do you want a baby brother?
M: NO!

E: Do you want a baby sister?
M: NO!

Alrighty then. Magdalena continues to demonstrate her motherly ways. She now nurses her babies which I find absolutely gut wrenching adorable. She changes diapers on the babies by getting her own and trying to put them on the baby. She dances with Elmo and sings "preetee baibeh" She loves holding real babies and gets frustrated at LLL when she can't hold the babies (because we don't know the people. heh) The other night I went in to bed to find her sleeping with her baby in the crook of her arm. This is the position she puts herself in when she climbs into bed with me. It fills my heart with joy and my eyes with tears. My baby is growing up to fast. She is going to be the best big sister.

Deep Inside My Womb...

You find this.

A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes

Remember the movie Cinderella? (Note to self: Need to buy DVD for Magdalena. Must have movie. heh) Anyway, the song A Dream is A Wish Your Heart Makes has been floating in my mind for the last day or two. I've been remembering my dream about the little boy I gave birth to. Anyway, I looked up the lyrics and found they were so appropriate for my situation right now.

"A dream is a wish your heart makes
When you're fast asleep
In dreams you lose your heartaches
Whatever you wish for, you keep
Have faith in your dreams and someday
Your rainbow will come smiling thru
No matter how your heart is grieving
If you keep on believing
the dream that you wish will come true"
-- Disney Cinderella

This morning I went in for my ultrasound. It was a trying night, because my mind was filled with random thoughts, multiple heartbeats, bleeding, no sac. Anything you could imagine.

My ultrasound was so good though. There is one good sized sac, fetal pole and yolk intact. There appears to be another smaller sac that could be a blood clot or a vanishing twin. Either way, we are over the moon that there is a healthy baby in there. Baby measured 6w1d (right on track for my calculations, 1 day ahead by thiers) and we saw the fluttering of a heartbeat! :) It's early,so it was hard to see, but the nurse and I both definitely saw fluttering! :) I convinced Dr. H to bring me back in next week for an ultrasound. yay! He said he'd probably see me one more time, and then send me to my OB. Probably just in time to hear baby on doppler. Now is where you hear me (and Erich) breathing a giant sigh of relief. (Erich is over the moon that there is only ONE! heh.)

Dr. H came into the room said "good job! my nurse tells me you'd like to come in every day for an u/s" heh. Yeah, I've been a bit nervous. But knowing that things are going just according to plan, that there is a sac of appropriate size and a tiny fluttering heart, sets me at ease. Now it's time to enjoy my pregnancy that is not making me vomit daily (so far).

**yawn**

I have never known exhaustion like this. It almost hurts! Anyway, Allison asked when my due date is. We are looking at June 25, 2006 ish. If there is more than one baby in there, I will most likely have another section and will deliver early. If only one baby, I would like to VBAC, but there are a lot of things that need to be thought out first and a lot more conversations with both my husband and my OB.

June 22 is Erichs birthday. I'm really excited for him because I know that he thinks that is pretty cool. I do know that I will make sure not to have a baby on the 22nd. ;) That just isn't fair!

The main pregnancy symptom at this point is exhaustion. It doesn't help that yesterday I worked a 16 hour shift at the assisted living place. I went in yesterday at 3pm and came home this morning at 7am. Erich brought Magdalena to see me after she woke from her nap at 5 and then they went home and had some quality one on one time. Erich really needed that as he misses his baby. Afterwards he gave her a bath and then she went to bed without fuss. I'm trying not to beat myself up for not being there for her bedtime. She was in more than capable hands and things appear to have gone really well. I really needed to work this shift for our family so I'm trying to reassure myself.

But being awake for close to 23 hours is not easy for a woman how is 5 weeks pregnant. At about 2am I thought I was dying. Seriously. Then the woman wanted to go to the bathroom so I some how got my 6th wind or so and carried on. :)

I really haven't had any nausea. Yes, there have been waves of nausea, but not the all day awful feeling I felt with Magdalena at this point. I'm trying to tell myself that this is okay, that things are fine, and that baby is fine too. I'm trying not to worry, but it is awfully hard.

There have been waves of nausea, and there is definitely that feeling of wanting to eat the things you can't have. (That's Erichs favorite part of pregnancy! hahaha!) I have to talk myself into things. Like yesterday, Erich brought me some leftover beef noodles. Normally, beef noodles sound like heaven. But it took me a good hour to convince myself that those noodles would be delicious!

I'm also having the symptom of pregnancy where you are eating something that is SO delicious until the end of the meal where you start thinking "this is awful, why am I eating this?"

I seem to have a heightened sense of smell this time. There were all sorts of smells floating around the Assisted Living place,and took a lot of my strength to ignore them as they were making my tummy turn.

And last but certainly not least, my uterus has appeared out of nowhere. At first I thought it was my swollen ovaries, but they seem to have deflated a bit. While my button pants still fit, they bother me something terrible. I've switched to my elastic waisted pants. It is way to early to be turning my regular pants away. It's like I got pregnant, and my uterus exclaimed, "finally! I now have a reason to free myself of that drafty old pelvis. It is much nicer up here!" Or alternatively, my uterus could have four or five babies and is just growing accordingly. hahhahaha. Really I'm laughing, ha ha ha...

Anyway, 7 days until next Monday's u/s. Anyone have ANY recommendations on how I can help myself feel like this pregnancy isn't failing? Ugh.

I Remember This...

This mornings beta was 319. So it looks like this baby is a keeper. :) One nurse thinks there **may** be two babies in there. I say the more the merrier, but Erich being the primary bread winner gets a bit nervous at that prospect. I know we have enough baby girl clothes to clothe at least three girls simultaneously and enough blue/gender neutral to last at least a year. I know that my mom is likely to go crazy again, so I see no problems in that front. And since I'm so anti formula, we don't have to worry about that. So no problems, until you know they start eating food. heh.

Anyway,u/s is scheduled for October 31st. Then another u/s (I believe?) at 8 weeks and I'm free to go to my own OB! By Christmas, I'll be out of the nightmare that is the first 12 weeks. That isn't bad, now is it? Time will fly since Halloween ( u/s)is in less than two weeks, then we have Thanksgiving (another u/s, released to OB), then Christmas (end of first 12 weeks), and January is Magdalena's birthday. See? Time is going to fly! Yay!

The nausea is coming in waves, though still not as bad as with Magdalena. I wish it were worse though, so I felt better. I do feel better after the second beta, and I'm going to sit back and relax. Baby is fine, right? I am exhausted though. We got home from going to see a baby (remember my friend who was due now) and the blood draw, and I was ready to fall down into bed.

Yesterday I opened up the fridge, starving, and thought "oh yeah, I remember this." Nothing looked good. I really wanted some Franks Red Hot Sauce , the vinegar taste was calling me. I thought a hamburger to put the sauce on it, but we had no beef. I have a major hankering for beef, just like with Magdalena. So looking through the fridge, I see some cottage cheese and think, cottage cheese with some franks red hot sound DELICIOUS! And it was my friends. Though now it doesn't sound as good, but believe me, it was. :) Why is that you can be so hungry, but nothing in your fridge sounds good, but everything NOT in your fridge sounds fabulous. Ugh.

I got an offer to go sit with an older man at the assisted living place tonight. He takes himself to the potty and stuff (yay!) he just needs to be watches so he doesn't leave the apartment and get hurt. It's going to be a long night. I'm going out there at about 8pm and I'll be home around 7am-ish. I'll take my knitting to pass the time. My mom is going to come and watch Magalena, give her a bath and play with her until Erich gets home. I'm going to miss snuggling with my family, but I'll make it. I need to, the money is to good to pass up. :(

I want to thank you all for the well wishes, the crossed limbs, the positive vibes, and all of the excitement. It meant so much to me and Erich to see all of the excited people. I'm going to print them all off and save them for the future baby book, so this little person knows how excited everyone was to know s/he was on the way. I sincerely believe this would never have happened without your support and well wishes. I'm truly, truly blessed.

The Results Are In

I couldn't sleep last night. I tossed and turned. Around 4:30am I just lay in bed listening to Erich and Magdalena sleeping. I was so scared I wasn't going to wake up. And I was thinking about the inevitable.

I arrived at the clinic at 7:40am. I was supposed to be there between 8am and 9am. I can never predict the traffic. Sometimes it's heavy, other times it light. I was called back into the office at 8:15. Immediately after drawing my blood, I felt like crying. It was awful. They said they would call in 3 hours.

Erich left for a service call when I got home, and I spent the next 2 hours facing the facts that I wasn't bleeding because of the progesterone. I cried a bit to get myself ready for the awful phone call that was to come. I talked to my grandparents and they wanted me to meet them at the dentists office.

I went over to the dentists office. Magdalena razzled and dazzled everyone. I was talking to the receptionist and my phone rang. I immediately said "I need to answer that!" I walked away from the counter and answered the phone.

The phone call was the call. It was Jaime, the nurse, calling. She sounded very happy and I was a bit peeved that she would sound so happy when she was calling to tell me bad news. She said," we have the results in Suzanne! Congratulations, you're pregnant!" I immediately started crying hysterically. All of the emotions of the month came flooding and I just couldn't hold back the flood gates. I had myself so convinced that it was negative and that I had wasted one entire year of my life trying to make a baby. The beta came back at 158. I'm officially pregnant.

The Post Where I Go Insane

It's 6:30pm. 13.5 hours till my blood draw. Magdalena and I are home alone. Erich had a service call. I'm anxiously waiting for him to call me and tell me he's on his way home so I can start dinner. We are going to have enchiladas and spanish rice. We are really tight on money so Erich told me to start being creative. His exact words were "pretend you're the Iron Chef, you love that show!" Alrighty then.

Last night was full of more bizarre dreams. I kept dreaming about not making it to the clinic in time, and the refused to draw my blood. I remember I was at home getting ready to leave and it was 8:30 when I realized I needed to be there between 8am and 9am and it takes almost an hour to get there. Thinking about it kinda stresses me out. I'm sure I'll be on time and I'm sure if I were late they would draw my blood, but it still makes me wanna be the first one in the door. Then maybe my blood will be the first in the machine. ;)

So a fellow clinic person who went to this doctor said they called by noon with pregnancy tests. Seriously if I have to wait until 3pm, I may go batty. I need to remember to stick my cell phone on the charger.

I am in the process of making my Mama Pads. I finally got the design right with something that I love. :) I'm making a dozen of them and then I'll probably tweek the pattern a bit more before I sell them. Who wants beautiful Mama Pads? :) My pads will be done tonight, so I'll post a pic of them.

I'm trying to talk myself into two things. I'm trying to tell myself that I will be okay if I have to bleed. No big deal. Just isn't the right time, right? I'm also trying to talk myself into being an optimist and thinking positive thoughts. I'm so torn that I have no clue what I think! Is it Monday yet?

I haven't taken a pregnancy test. I've been very very tempted today, but I've been a very good girl.

Okay, I don't think that I can ramble anymore. Send good thoughts. Though at this point, everything has already been decided. I just want it to go my way, ya know? I can still smell that tiny baby in my dream and feel his soft skin.

Video

Here's a short video of Magdalena this morning. Please ignore the mess, she drags all of her toys to the living room and then at the end of the day I pick it all up. And my knitting is on the table to because I am so close to finishing her sweater.

In the video, Magdalena is eating cottage cheese (Erich let her eat it in the LR not me!) and she is putting spoonfulls on the floor for Gracy (the dog) to eat. You can kinda see Gracy moving around eating the food, but she blends into the darkness.


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The Dream

When I was TTC the first time around, I had a dream about a beautiful brown eyed toddler girl that ran around the house filling it with laughter. That little girl is Magdalena, she matches the picture in my head perfectly. That dream will forever be burned into my brain and it seemed like a gift from some greater power when she came true.

Last night, I had this dream that I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy in the kitchen. I remember seeing the kitchen floor, and this teeny tiny baby sliding out of my body. I asked Erich to get something to cut the cord, and he handed me the kitchen scissors. The baby was so beautiful and I held him to my chest and smelled his sweet head. After we were detached, I took him upstairs where I washed his hair and cleaned him up. I put him in a kissaluv diaper and the tiny newborn wool wrap that I have and looked at him. He looked exactly like Magdalena did as a baby and I remember my heart feeling full as if it were going to burst.

I've been thinking about the dream all day. Feeling that tiny baby against my skin. It brings tears to my eyes when I think about it to. I can only hope that it was another gift from above.

Keeping Busy

I'm trying to keep busy. I'm very proud of myself as I haven't "cheated" and taken a HPT yet. And I'm not going to. If they tell me I'm pregnant on Monday, then I will probably take a test so I can see those two lines. I kept the test with Magdalena, wrapped it in plastic and put in a baggy where it now lives in her baby box. I know that is kinda gross, but I feel like I worked so hard to get those two lines, and I wanted to keep that prize. :) It's only fair that I do that the next time.

I need to sew my Mama Pads. I've neglected to do that every month and I feel like I really need to do that. Maybe if I actually get them done, I won't need them. A girl can hope, right? I also have a special embroidery project that needs to be done by Monday just in case things go our way. :)

I reorganized our kitchen the other day to get our toaster oven out and accessible. When Erichs grandparents sold their house in MO (then moved into Senior Living in TX near a son) I noticed they had a nice toaster oven, sparkling clean, and in the original box. I mentioned to Aunt Jan and my MIL that I would really like a toaster oven, but thought nothing beyond that. I was very surprised a week or two later when my in-laws brought it over. :) But I've never really found a good place to put it where it was accessible until yesterday. I'm excited about having it to use. I was able to clear out the toaster since the toaster oven will take that job over. I made Erich some sandwiches and froze them. Now all he has to do is pop it in the oven. ;)

On today's agenda is making an apple crisp (I'm having a major craving) and making banana muffins. The muffins will be wrapped in foil and frozen. They'll make an excellent snack or quick breakfast for Magdalena and Erich. This morning I made English Muffin Bread and later I'll be using it to assemble some egg and cheese sandwiches, which will be frozen. Erich will be able to pop those in the toaster oven in the mornings when he has early jobs, and be able to eat those instead of stopping at McD's.

Right now Magdalena is napping, T is at school, and I have a baked potato in the toaster oven. Soon I'll be eating a meal without anyone asking for a bite of it. That is true luxury my friends. ;)

Yada Yada Yada

I've started using Live Journal for some more intimate posts. If you have a LJ username and would like to be able to read that journal, just leave your username in the comments. I do have veto rights, but there shouldn't be any problems with 99% of your reading. :)

Erich and I took Magdalena up to Michigan City, IN on Monday. Since it was a bank holiday, Erich had the day off and we were able to enjoy a little mini road trip. I went and picked up some things for Magdalena and Lili at the Hanna Anderson outlet store. Magdalena's snowsuit was ordered from there also and should be here soon along with a playdress/daydress, leggings, and some pj's. I'm uploading pictures on my flickr account. You need to be a friend to see the ones of Magdalena though. And for your viewing pleasure I'll post a video for you here. :)

Magdalena had fun running in the sand barefoot. It was pretty windy out there but it was still nice. Erich said we couldn't leave without letting Magdalena dip her toes in Lake Michigan. (brrr! That lake is cold!) She didn't really enjoy the dipping, but she did enjoy chasing Daddy!


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ETA: Everyone who left their LJ name has been added. :) You should be able to see me when you look at the manage friends screen. Manda, I've emailed you. Dianna, could you make sure I added the right name.

I've Got Meme

You are RACHEL RAY, host of "$40 a Day"
and "30-Minute Meals". Youre zany,
just a little bit dorky, but you know your
stuff. You show quick and easy meals that dont
break your budget. You also love to travel,
and hunt for the most fun and the best deals.
You obviously love having fun and love showing
others how to have fun. Youre adventurous and
happy-go-lucky, yet way frugal and thrifty.
Good job!


Which Food Network Personality are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Imposter

From Ovagirl:

"So this was me, mincing, up to Mary'?s place, to have a little chat and make a couple of requests. It couldn'?t hurt, I figured. I asked for me But I asked for all of you too. I asked for the women who know the fear, the loss, the hurt, the grief, the gut tearing anger, the tears. The women who write about their pain, and the women who read about it and who recognize their own story about infertility on the screen before them. We all tell the same story, again and again, in a multitude of variations. Like snowflakes. Like popcorn kernels. Like babies. Like us. I know logically there can'?t be happy endings for every single infertility story being told on the web. But I asked anyway. For all of us."


I often feel like an imposter in these rings of people who are dealing with same crap I'm dealing with. I may have had a drug cycle like IVF'ers, but I didn't do IVF. No egg retrieval, no transfers, just needles and loving. To be honest, sometimes the loving feels a bit routine and mandatory. After all someone told us to have "intercourse." But it isn't in a cold sterile room (though a change of scenery might have livened things up LOL). Anyway, what I'm saying is that they just pump me full of drugs and send me home to my husband.

So yeah, that was pretty much my weekend. Friday they called to tell me they wanted me to take another dose of Antagon, FOUR vials of Repronex, and then on Saturday AM take 175 of Follistim and trigger Saturday evening. So essentially they gave me a giant booster of fertility drugs and then released! Actually they didn't come out until yesterday morning, and it woke me from a sound sleep. Oh the agony! I lay in bed imagining all those follicles rupturing and the little eggies traveling into my tubes being met up by the most handsome spermies they had ever seen! They danced, talked, and hopefully some of those spermies jumped right in if you know what I mean. And don't you worry, there were plenty of spermies and as long as they weren't all shy, we'll be successful. I told Erich that I'd hate for his boys to go all middle school dance on me. You know, a cafeteria with punch and balloons, his boys on one side of the room, my eggs on the other. There better have been dancing! Sheesh. :)

So now we wait. Each night I get out my crinone suppository and think, please God Please! I feel nothing. A bit of soreness but nothing terrible. I'm waiting. 8-10 days before they implant. 13 days until we find out. Please God please. If those kiddies danced, we'd have babies due just 3 days after Erich's birthday. 9 days before my birthday! Happy birthday us! Please God Please! Let me have my birthday early. I'll even make it up to you and not complain at the end. You can even make me way overdue so I'll be pregnant on my birthday. Please. I'm begging!

If the test comes back positive, I have a plan to tell Erich. I want to make it special. I'm so excited. I sit on my hands right now, willing myself to not start on that project. I don't want to jinx it. I don't want to be to hopeful. I don't want to not have hope though, that would be no good. I'm neutral. I'm ready. I'm praying. Wishing, hoping, thinking, praying. I'm not going to take tests this time. Maybe I'm supposed to learn patience. Maybe this is my lesson to learn. It didn't happen for a reason last month. This is my month. That is what I keep chanting. **whispers** This.Is.My.Month. Please God Please.

Ouch

Well this morning was the last u/s of this cycle! yay! It was a very very good u/s at that. There are three follicles in the right and seven in the left for a total of NINE follicles! Wow. We trigger tomorrow and by Monday there should be SEVEN follicles mature enough for fertilization. So we achieved Dr. H's request of 5 or 6 follicles.

My stomach looks awful. It's littered with little bruises but the big thing is that I'm having some sort of skin reaction to the injections of Repronex. From one side of my tummy to the other is one giant hive that is raised, red, hurts, and itches. I was told that this was somewhat common with Repronex but the website says 5 in 100. I've been slathering on hydrocortisone cream like it's going out of style. The funny thing is that the hive doesn't appear until the next morning (I take the Repronex at night). So I have two different injection sites that have meshed into one and another one that should pop up in the morning. I just got back from the drugstore with some oral Benadryl. I'm going to start popping those. My tummy hurts so bad! I can't even do the dishes because I can't stand to get up next to the darn sink!

In really great news, my body is giving me all the signs that it is ready for a baby. It probably shouldn't surprise me that these signs are very strong and abundant considering my ovaries are very very full.

And someone asked what ovary pain felt like. I feel pressure, twisting, throbbing, and stabbing pains. It's uncomfortable, but I know things are going well. It hurts if pressure is placed on my tummy (from the allergic reaction and the ovaries). It also really hurts if my bladder gets to full kinda like when you are really really pregnant.

So, we'll trigger tomorrow. Should ovulate Monday morning(ish). I'll start progesterone support on Monday evening and Monday October 17 I'll go in for a pregnancy test. So we are in the final stretch! Please be thinking sticky egg vibes this weekend and next week. I'm hopeful and excited and ready!

Cycle Day 10

I'm okay. I kind of vanished for a bit there and I apologize. Life has been super busy. Saturday I had an ultrasound and blood draw. All looks well, and at that point my left ovary looked a bit sluggish, but was responding. My estradiol level came back at 97 (we're aiming for 100) and so my meds were increased from 150iu to 200iu. My estradiol should be doubling every 2 days at this point so on Monday I went back for another ultrasound. Both right and left ovaries have "a bunch" (nurses words not mine) of follicles all measuring at about 9mm in size. Right where they should be at this point. My left ovary seems to have pulled ahead and is looking a bit better than the right side, though they both ache all day long. My estradiol level came back at a whopping 245! So, I was told to take 200iu yesterday and 175iu today. Tomorrow AM I go back in for another blood draw and u/s. Hopefully this time both ovaries will be on track and we'll get a better count. We weren't really able to count last time because my bladder was full, though I didn't feel like I had to go to the potty until that dang u/s wand was um, you know, put into position. So alls well right now. I have all of my drugs. Erich asked me if I was planning on opening a pharmacy on our front porch. heh.