Widget

K, so I added one of those cheesy baby countdown widgets. Mostly cuz I wanted to see what it looks like at this stage, cuz when we look at the books, C says our baby looks like a monster. He's kinda right. Not so much from the widget, but look up a good 3D image of a fetus (I think it's actually not even a fetus for another week or so), at 10 weeks, and it's a little monster-reminiscent. On the widget, it's just kind of alien-ish. Anyway, there it is. I don't know how long I'll leave it up, but it's pretty funny. Christopher says the baby is a boy and his name will be "Peel." He won't really put up with anyone saying anything different. He's going to be in for a rude awakening, because regardless of gender, I am not naming my child Peel! : P

By the way, thanks for the prayers, Amber! I really appreciate it! It made me cry to read that, and I'd like to say it's cuz I'm preggers, but you know me, and it's probably not, cuz I'm always a crier! : ). Love ya!

Dr.'s appointment

I should also add that today I had an appointment and all is well. It took the nurse a while to find the heartbeat, and when she did, it seemed very fast (168 & 170 the two times she could locate it); but neither she or the doctor seemed concerned, so we're calling it good. Christopher was usually in the 140's, so that seems pretty darn high to me, but whatever. Everything else is good. My due date is August 18th, not that that means anything, tho it would be really nice if the baby was born within a couple of days of that, because the Rockies are off those days and I'd like to not miss work if possible. I know, I'm a dork, but I hardly missed any last time and I'd prefer not to this time either! Now of course, I just cursed myself to a really complicated C-section or something. We'll deal with whatever, I just keep praying the baby is healthy and I'm still waiting for the end of the first trimester. 2 weeks to go!

I'm already wearing maternity clothes which I find deplorable, but I gave in because I had to wear the same pair of jeans every single day and that was getting really old. And whenever I washed them (which was obviously often!), they were still tight. The truth of the matter is, before I got pregnant this time around, I was the heaviest I've ever been, and even not pregnant I was growing out of my regular clothes. I'm going to need a workout buddy and a gym membership after this one, because I'm not letting that happen again! I can't afford the new wardrobe!

3

I've sat down to blog a lot lately but not really been able to think of anything. I'm pretty sure this has a lot to do with being pregnant. Thinking is highly overrated anyway, but I have an especially hard time doing it when I'm preggo. Having said that, I hereby apologize to anyone for forgetting anything the next few months. Feel free to remind me of things frequently! I'm starting to write more things down, but just in case.... : P

Anyway, I thought I would log something I want to remember about Christopher and his obsession with the number 3 right now. Most everyone knows about this, and maybe I've even talked about it before, but I find it pretty darn cute at the moment. Not only is it his age and favorite number, but he actually weighs 33 lbs and his height is 3 ft 3 inches. He tells me often that he's not going to turn 4. I find this ironic as well, because when Mitchell was 3, he was my little buddy and I just loved him and begged him not to age past 3. He alternated between promising me he wouldn't and saying "Nope, I have to grow up!" Obviously he did, since he's dwarfed me in height and now refers to me as his "older little sister." Now that C is 3, I remember why it's such a fun age. Don't get me wrong, he has a horrible independent/control freak streak goin' on, and we're in the middle of potty training, which is the bain of my existence, and some days it seems like everything is a fight; but he's also incredibly sweet and helpful when he wants to be. And they're just the perfect size for a good hug and cuddle at this age. And he's just so darn cute, cuz he's getting to be a boy and not a baby or toddler, but he's still so little and adorable. Everything is cutest in miniature. Anyway, I love him to pieces, and even when he is throwing a fit because there's not 3 of something, or it's the wrong answer, I find his obsession pretty dang adorable!

Tale of 2 Pregnancies

I am only talking about this pregnancy and the one with Christopher, of course. It seems to me that the only thing they have in common is that early on, I was and am, exhausted! I could take a nap every day! During our vacation, I did! Now it's just whenever I can. Otherwise though, nothing is the same for me. I am nauseaus ALL the time. With C, I only threw up once, in the 4th month. Couldn't eat Panda Express for almost 2 years. This time around, I've already thrown up twice. Ick. I am always either starving, or overly full. There's no in between! It's driving me crazy!

The worst part has to be the worrying, tho. With Christopher, I had already miscarried, but for some reason, I had no fear. I was thrilled with every horrible thing that happened to my body. Perfectly happy to be exhausted, worried when I was NOT nauseaus (Oh, what I would give for that now!) and relieved the very few times I was. Thrilled to be wearing maternity clothes.....everything. This time, although I am so excited, and I really, really do feel like I'm going to have this baby; there's still fear behind everything. Every little pain makes me want to call the doctor (I don't). I feel immense pressure, pressure I'm sure I'm putting on myself. I feel like it's a huge miracle I got pregnant at all, and if something happens, I'm not sure I'll be so resilient emotionally. My magic date (I hope) is February 5th. According to the chart, that's when I'll hit the end of the first trimester. I hope I'll be able to relax at that point!

The best part has been Christopher. Some days I really worry that we told him to soon, just in case something happens. But most of the time, I'm glad. He says the cutest things. Everyday at least twice he says "Mom, I'm happy" and if I don't ask why, he'll keep saying it until I do, at which point he'll say "I'm so happy about the baby" He already "kisses the baby." He gets new toys and the first thing he says is "I'm going to share this with the baby." Other things he throws out at random: "Our baby is a good baby;" "Our baby is cute;" he also says it's a boy. I really and truly don't care what this baby is, as long as it's healthy; but I am a little worried about what will happen if it's not a boy for him. Of course, everyone else wants a girl; so I'll be consoling someone no matter what! The cutest thing happened at church the other day. During sacrament, a little 1-year-old boy (The Perry's, for those of you GWV ward members) toddled over to us and hovered at my knees. After a minute I gave him one of C's cars to play with. C was not happy about this, so I said "How are you going to share with our baby if you can't share with this baby?" I unknowingly completely confused him, because he looked from me to the baby and back again, and then said "Did our baby get out? Is this our baby??" Joel and I had to laugh. Not sure how that looked to everyone in the middle of sacrament meeting, but it was just SO funny! I assured him it will be quite a while before our baby comes out, and that my tummy will get really big first. He seemed relieved that he doesn't have to share everything quite yet!

Expecting and Extremely Excited!

Well, now we'll really see if anyone reads this blog, because besides family and a couple of others, I haven't really told the news yet. Although I have hinted at it a couple of times in my last couple of posts.

Yep, we're expecting Baby #2. I found out the night we got back from our Christmas trip. I was fairly certain at that point, but part of me still wanted to explain everything away with Holiday stress. But a quick test confirmed it. The first thing I said to Joel was "I'm scared," and I was for a few days. I wouldn't really let myself be excited. But Monday I had bloodwork done, which all looked good, and today I had an ultrasound and actually saw the little heartbeat. I am still in the first trimester, and ideally I'd wait til the end to tell everyone, but we made the mistake of telling our son who understands way more than we think he does sometimes. He has started frequently saying "Mommy, I'm happy about the baby" and he doesn't care who's around to hear! And although it's fairly early, it's the furthest along I've ever been (besides of course, Christopher) in a pregnancy; and the only time besides Christopher I've had nausea and been SOOOO tired! My biggest clue was that I took a nap just about every day on that trip. Not really like me. Anyway, we're very excited and are just praying for a healthy, complete pregnancy and baby to add to our family. I'll keep everyone updated.

I do have to talk about one of the early conversations I had with Christopher. He was much more curious than I thought he would be! We should have realized he would kind of "get it," because he actually understood a lot over the summer. After the whole situation, he started sticking balloons up his shirt saying it was his "baby," and once even remarked to me "Mommy, your baby is gone, this one is mine." This time, it came up because we were around so many babies for New Year's, and he kept saying "I like that baby." Finally, one of us said "Should we have a baby?" I believe that at first he said "no," and then I said "But, if we had our own baby, would you help with it?" and he said he would. Then "Well, there's a baby in mommy's tummy." He climbed up on my lap, took my face in his hands, and started asking all sorts of questions. "How are we going to get our baby out? Does it come out your mouth?" (kind of insightful if you think about how we're always saying a baby is in a woman's tummy!) I tried to side-step that one by saying the doctor may have to cut it out. We're going with that explanation for now. Then he asked if we had bottles to feed the baby, and I told him that we have his old ones upstairs. He said "So, we will feed our baby milk in the bottles." I kind of corrected him about the milk, and then, catching myself, I said at first the baby will eat formula out of bottles (did NOT want to get into the nursing issue!). He ran out of the room. He was back a minute later, rather distraught, and said "We don't have any formula!" I assured him we have plenty of time before the baby will be here, and we can buy some formula. I'm sure there will be many more interesting conversations!

So, that's it for now. More good news to come, hopefully! We have a lot of people praying for us and we're all crossing our fingers!

Welcome 2009!!!

I say this completely wholeheartedly, since 2008 was a very hard year for me emotionally. But I rush ahead a bit..... We got home from Florida (we came back the southern route, no spinning off the road, thankyouverymuch!) Sunday night. It was back to real life pretty fast. Joel had to work Monday. I, on the other hand, did just about nothing but rest and recover from the trip. I went back to work Tuesday and Wednesday.



Wednesday I went over to my parents and got to see my cousin Ashley before she jetted back to Arizona a little early. It was nice to get to talk to her, because I don't get to see her very often at all. Later that evening, most everyone from my Dad's side of the family came over to my parents'. No one stayed until midnight- not even us! People had early morning flights and other New Years things to get to (I just went home and went to sleep. I've seen enough balls drop). But it was fun to visit with everyone. Doug's family lives in Arizona now, and my cousins are still in Florida. These branches of the family used to get together quite often, but now we hardly see everyone, let alone altogether! Denise made us all get together for a picture, so here it is:

I'm not going to name everyone (we aren't exactly in rows!), but there are 3 branches of my Dad's side of the family. He and 2 of his brothers, their wives, children & spouses (with a couple of exceptions) & 8 1/2 grandchildren (I say that because Jenny is about to enter her 3rd trimester). Again, so great to see everyone. I wish we could do it a lot more often!

Hmmmm...what to say about 2008? It was a rough, humbling year for me. A lot of great things happened. I started my business, C turned 3 (k, that one could go in the good and bad columns! : P), Joel really got going with school, and we got to travel to Florida (twice) and California to see family. Most of this is overshadowed for me by the tubal pregnancy and everything that came with it. I really went through a whole grieving process, and was surprised at how intense it was. There was also the whole economy downturn; and an election that, though I can appreciate the historic significance of, I was not necessarily thrilled with the result of. But, life goes on, and I have every reason to believe that, at least personally, 2009 will be much better! I hope everyone had great holidays!!

Christmas in Florida

So, we got off the "Mickey Boat" Christmas Eve Morning- They pretty much make you have breakfast (it's assigned and ours was the earliest at 6:30am!) and get off the boat. I do have a pic of Christopher crying because we're leaving, but it looks more like he's sleeping. Still was hilarious though!

Anyway, we got off the boat and drove back to town (although I should mention that along the way, my Dad ran out of gas. So, we had a little detour to go get him gas right around where there are a ton of tolls, and then we got back on the road). We got settled at Joel's parents' house, and Joel and I took naps (I took a lot of naps on this vacation.....). I knew Joel's family would keep C occupied, and I woke up to find them making cookies for Santa. Thus the following picture:That's Joel's sister Jody, his mom Bonnie, brother Jeremy, and of course, Christopher. This is the first year he's really been old enough to start understanding the whole Santa thing, so we've never really done anything like leave cookies out. I'm glad he got to do it with his Grandma. She's so cute about all of the Christmas stuff! This is the plate they ended up leaving for Santa:

The carrots, of course, are for the reindeer. They also made sure to sprinkle "reindeer food" on the lawn just in case. Grandma also explained to C that since they don't have a chimney (who need a fireplace in Florida???), they have a key they leave out for Santa so he can get in. It was the cutest key.

So, after all of this preparation, C conked out in our room:No worrying about this kid trying to wait up for Santa! He was totally out.

That evening my family also came over and we all had dinner together, made by Joel's mom. It was really fun to have everyone together.

The next morning we opened a few presents. Christopher got Pixos (the one thing he really asked for, and we have still not played with yet!), a car from Cars from Jody and Jarred, some clothes, a thomas the train set from Joel's aunt, and money from other family. I'm probably forgetting a couple of things.... He loved opening his stocking as well. All we got him were stocking stuffers, since Christmas was basically the trip, but he loved the (tons of!) viewfinder cards and toothbrush. He actually got 2 toothbrushes, which is good because he loves to crush his teeth! Here he is with Grandma waiting to open presents that morning:

Then we went to DeLand (it's like an hour drive), where my mother-in-law's family lives. They always have a midday meal with all the trimmings, and a white elephant-type gift exchange. C's favorite part was their Dog:


After DeLand, we went home and (I'm pretty sure) took naps! Then we drove down to Orlando and had a Christmas Dinner my mom made for both families. Not as many people this time, as just Joel's parents and Jeremy came with us, but the dinner was great. I had no idea my mom was going to do a full-blown turkey dinner. We had all been eating for days, so there were a lot of leftovers, but it was very yummy.

All in all, we had a great Christmas. I personally really loved having both of my families together. It may be the only time it will ever happen, so we're going to treasure the experience. It was a little hectic, but I always think "the More the Merrier!" I definitely want to thank everyone for compromising and being so hospitable to one another. Love all of you!!!