Week 23...Pictures!

As promised, here are some pictures for the week (and the camera cord was finally located in my old laptop bag...what was it doing in there?!)

This is what the completed nursery looks like in the store - ours won't be quite this coordinated, but this way you can see the pattern and get an idea of what Ethan's nursery will look like one day

A born sports fan!

Holly could not resist the new best seat in the house (and Erin, I promise that she hasn't been allowed here since this day and everything will be cleaned before Ethan arrives and before I bring this back to you!)

Some of my favorite consignment finds - his closet is full of great deals!

The dreaded bump pic - Week 23

Week 23

So I am obvioiusly experiencing some technical difficulties on this end (our internet router is acting mildly possessed, I misplaced my camera cord to download pictures, and I somehow never posted last week's update - grrrr!) but I'm hoping to redeem myself today. I'll try to combine last week with what's going on this week and we'll see how it goes :) After I post this I am going on a manhunt to find that camera cord, and will hopefully have some pictures up later today. Cross your fingers!!

I've been feeling pretty good lately, with the one exception being that I've been waking up a couple of times a night with aching ribs. Is this normal?! With my increased size, turning over to sleep on my other side is becoming more difficult (but it's the only thing that seems to relieve the pressure on one side of my rib cage or the other.) Perhaps I am falling apart...but otherwise I've felt great. I have tons of energy and have even been making it back to the gym throughout this trimester. I feel like a bit of a slacker at the gym because I haven't gotten back into a running routine yet, so I am either walking or trying the elliptical machine. I used to love when I would run on the treadmill because I always made sure that either my speed or distance was faster or longer than anybody around me and I felt like I was winning some imaginary race. (Seriously, what is wrong with me?!) Now that I can't really run I get so frustrated when I see all the in shape people going faster than me. Hopefully it will give me the motivation I need once Ethan makes his debut to get myself back into shape. Patrick thinks it was absolutely ridiculous for me to "compete" against those around me (not that they ever knew it!) but I told him if it kept me motivated it wasn't all bad. In the interim, I have developed an appreciation for the elderly men that are all at the gym at the same time as me now, because we're all going at about the same pace and it's kind of nice to have a sense of comraderie with them. We're all trying, so that definitely counts!

Ethan has definitely been making his presence known. He gets really active in the early evenings and Patrick has finally been able to feel him kick. The first time was so cute - he looked at me and asked me if I felt that kick. Ummm, yes, I feel every one (even if my hand isn't on my stomach!) Before I was pregnant I dreaded the day that I would feel the baby move (for some reason it just really grossed me out. I always avoided touching a pregnant belly if at all possible because it seemed so weird!) but now that he's moving all around I kind of like feeling him in there. I understand if that sounds totally weird to anybody that hasn't been pregnant before though, because I never would have believed it until it happened to me.

I have also discovered the joys of consignment shopping for Ethan's outfits. A friend of mine introduced me to all the different sales in my area (most are held twice a year) and I made it to four different sales this time around. If you are interested in visiting these sales, I have a couple of tips to help make it a fun experience. First, go with a friend! I went to one by myself and it seemed like a chore, but when I went with a friend we had a great time looking at the clothes and deciding if something was a worthwhile purchase or not. Second, the last day is typically a half price day and I highly recommend waiting and going on the half price day. There is still a huge selection, and there is nothing better than finding a cute pair of khaki pants that were originally only $4 and paying $2 for them. (And I've been finding some quality brands too - baby Gap, Gymboree, Polo - all for a fraction of the original cost!) And third, there is no point to waiting in line just to get in first. I did this at one sale, and the selection was no better than at any of the others. Going at off times means there are fewer crowds to fight off and you can still find everything you need. So although I am obviously no expert and have only made it through one season of consignment shopping, those are my observations for making it fun so far. One of the pictures I'm going to try to post once I locate my camera cord is of some of the outfits I've picked up for Ethan. They are so cute!!

Our next doctor's appointment is going to be next Thursday. I don't think they'll do much at this appointment besides weigh me (gulp! - the official count at home is that I'm up 14 pounds right now, but we'll see what the doctor has to say), check my blood pressure, and check Ethan's heart beat. The following appointment will be the dreaded glucose test. Since both diabetes and gestational diabetes run in my family, I'm a little nervous about this one. Hopefully it will go well!

I've started working on the nursery, and we have the pattern picked out and are deciding on paint colors now. Patrick likes one shade and I like another so we have the swatches hung on the walls and once we come to an agreement we'll start painting. I ordered the chair for the nursery this week. It was my big spluge - this chair is fantastic!! It looks like a big arm chair, glides, and has a hidden latch in the cushion to turn it into a recliner. I am already in love with my chair, and it won't actually arrive until the end of May or early June. I had a moment of guilt after ordering the chair because we're not really in a position to be making any big purchases right now, but I justified it by knowing that I waited until I had a 20% off coupon to order it. Oh, and if anybody recently got the coupon to Buy Buy Baby and isn't planning to use it, a friend of mine is waiting to order her chair until she has a coupon and for some reason they never sent her one. If you are willing to part with your coupon, I think you may have made a new friend for life! As soon as we paint and start putting things together I'll take some pictures of the room (but for now it's just relatively empty.)

This weekend my sister and I are driving up to Virginia to visit my aunt and cousins. I'm really looking forward to getting the chance to visit with them (and for some time with my sister too!) We're meeting up at the halfway point where our routes converge and riding the rest of the way together. It should be pretty fun!

Here's the official word on Week 23: "Turn on the radio and sway to the music. With his sense of movement well developed now, your baby can feel you dance. And now that he's more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound (about as much as a large mango) you may be able to see him squirm underneath your clothes. Blood vessels in his lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that your baby's increasingly keen ears pick up are preparing him for entry into the outside world. Loud noises that become familiar now - such as your dog barking or the roar of the vacuum cleaner - probably won't faze him when he hears them outside the womb."

My Blogging Return

So under threat from several sources (you know who you are!) I am returning to the world of blogging. I'm not sure why I took such a long hiatus, but in the interim there have been many changes going on around here. The biggest such change is that Patrick and I are expecting our first child in July. We are sooooo excited! My goal is to post a picture and pregnancy update every Friday until our little baby arrives since that is when I officially make it to the next week of pregnancy. This week I'll be posting the 22 week update. Pregnancy so far has been fairly easy on me. I had several days of what I refer to as the "yucks" (all day nausea) early on, but fortunately they didn't happen all in row and seemed to subside around week 10 or so and since then I've been feeling great. I never had any vomiting (and for those of you who know me well, you know my feelings about that one and what a huge blessing missing out on that experience has been!) and since I've been in the second trimester my energy has totally returned. I remember when one of my good friends was pregnant with my adorable goddaughter several years ago and she was fantastic about posting pictures, updates, and everything in between so that even though I was far away I felt like I wasn't missing anything. I have been horrible about returning that favor, and am therefore going to try to keep all of you updated regularly from now on.

That said, here's the exciting news for this post - Patrick and I found out that we're having a boy! Shocker, I know, considering that we both come from families full of women. We had been debating back and forth if we even wanted to find out the gender, and finally I decided out in the parking lot of the doctor's office that I officially did not want to know. Little did I know that this baby had other plans.

Everything went well with the ultrasound, although the baby was extremely uncooperative. All he wanted to do was nap, and the ultrasound tech had a hard time getting all of the measurements that she needed. And let me tell you, there were a million measurements she needed. I had no idea how involved this process was, and was completely unprepared for the fact that we were going to measuring the distance between the eyes, drilling down to examine all chambers of the heart, etc. etc. She had to jiggle my ever expanding belly several times in order to get him to move so that she could get what she needed. That was definitely not my favorite part. I was thinking that by the time she got down to the area that would tell us if our baby was a boy or a girl she would ask if we wanted to find out the gender (since I couldn't tell what was what by looking at the screen - I thought the cord looked like gas bubbles at one point!) I was just watching foreign objects float by on the screen when all of a sudden I saw her type a b and an o. What?! We are really having a little boy!! I was floored, and am definitely nervous about taking on the task of raising a little gentleman. I'm really excited about this too, because growing up with sisters, female cousins, aunts, etc. I was never exposed to the world of trucks and karate and climbing to hide on top of the garage (ask my neighbor about that one!) This is going to be a whole new world for me, and I'm sure we'll have many ridiculous stories of me trying to navigate the world of little boys in the coming years.

Since our little guy was so uncooperative during the ultrasound, we unfortunately do not have very fabulous pictures of him (I was hoping for a cute profile shot or something!) but he may be turning out to be stubborn just like his mother. My mom warned me that one day I would have kids just like me. Yikes!! The clearest pictures are from when we were in 4D mode, although I have to admit they're a little freaky looking. He looked right up when the tech was taking the first picture, which totally scared me. We're naming him Ethan Burgess (Burgess is Patrick's middle name, which was also his mother's maiden name) in honor of her memory.

Our little alien - he's kind of scary looking right now

His daddy sleeps in this exact same pose!

So anyway, I realize that there is a lot to catch up on and I have barely scratched the surface today, but I promise to try to get back into the habit of posting pictures (I have several ready for Friday's 22 week update, including the dreaded bump watch!) updates and keeping everybody up to date on things around here.

Update

Just wanted to let you know that Caddy is home now. She had to spend the night at the animal hospital with a continuous antibiotic IV drip, but it appears to have done the trick. She's recovering a little quicker this time than she did last time, and fortunately we don't have to inject her with fluids this time either. She still has two medicines that we're giving her and we'll have to do some follow up appointments with the vet, but for now she appears to be on the mend. She is eating on her own, is cuddling us, and is getting some much needed rest in her own room for awhile. (And yes, I am staying in there with her at night!) Please keep praying that she continues to make good progress and that whatever has caused this to happen (again!) will stay away for good.

We're having to modify her diet pretty drastically, and will now be shopping for her food at the whole foods store. Even Patrick and I don't eat this well! (I will say that the food at this store looks incredible though - I will have to try to resist temptation every time I'm in there since it is about twice the price of regular food!)

Caddy's leg is shaved from where the vet had her IV fluids and medicine inserted, so hopefully the fur will grow back quickly. For those of you that don't know, it took her over 6 months to regrow the fur on her tummy they had to shave last time for her ultrasound. I'll try to take a picture of her with her shaved leg soon.

Thank you everybody for helping us through yet another pet crisis. I had a cat growing up that got sick ONCE in all her 18 years. I never knew there were so many potential feline ailments, but we seem to be seeing them all. Thank you for praying for Caddy and for us!

Please Pray

I realize that I have not been blogging at all lately, and I'm really sorry I've been out of touch. If you would not mind saying some special prayers for my Caddy, we could really use them. Yesterday afternoon she started vomiting and within an hour vomited somewhere between 15 - 20 times. We immediately called the vet who instructed us to bring her in so that they could admit her to the animal hospital. They called last evening to tell us that her x-ray was clear (I could have told them that!) and that her blood work indicated increased levels for her liver (again - I could have told them that) which could indicate her pancreatitis is back. She will undergo another ultrasound this morning (I bet I know what it will tell us) and we'll have more answers then. Please just pray for my little girl. She is only 2 and it has only been 9 months since she last went through this. She was able to fully recover last time, and I am clinging to that hope again. I just don't know how much her little body can withstand. Please pray for healing, comfort, and for a miracle for her to fully recover.

Suzanne's High School Graduation

This past weekend I drove up to Blacksburg, VA to help my cousin celebrate her high school graduation. My mom and sisters made the trip up from Raleigh, and it was nice to have the whole family together for the weekend. I arrived at my aunt's house first, and got to spend some time visiting with her before my mom and sisters arrived. As soon as they got there, my sisters and I grabbed our swimsuits and headed over to the pool where Suzanne works as a lifeguard. Of course we thought we would be funny and point and make stupid faces at her while she was sitting high atop her lifeguard stand...we couldn't figure out why she wasn't laughing and saying hello to us until we looked over at the other lifeguard stand and realized that we had been pointing and making faces at somebody else altogether. Whoops! Fortunately all parties involved had a good laugh out of it. Suzanne got to come hang out with us on her break and then worked on cleaning the pool tiles of the deep end so she was still with us for the remainder of her shift.

On Sunday we went to the graduation ceremony and were all surprised that Suzanne got to speak during the ceremony. (Even Aunt Susie was surprised to see her name in the program for that!) The whole group went out for a great lunch/dinner afterwards and then we hit the road to head back home. It was great to get to spend time with my extended family - the 5 of us are the only grandchildren on that side of the family and our families have always been really close since my mom and her sister (my aunt) are pretty much each other's only family. Here are a few pictures:

Suzanne speaking during the ceremony

Suzanne (the baby of the family)...a high school graduate

The 5 girls - Bethany, Carolyn, Suzanne, me, Anna

My Office "Visitor"...Part 2

So I made a rather disturbing discovery last night. And by disturbing, I mean that I may just pack up the cats (and I suppose my husband as well, although when you hear how he handled this discovery you may agree that he can stay here while I take my hiatus from our infested abode) and move!

What you may ask, has caused me to want to abandon ship and relocate? As I was walking from our mailbox towards our front porch area I happened to catch sight of something kind of shiny at the corner of our house…shiny…and scaly! At this point I begin to hyperventilate (no joke!) and immediately punch the code to open the garage door since there is no way I am now walking past whatever is shiny and scaly on our front porch to reenter the house via the front door. The garage door cannot close fast enough and it is then that I realize that the door from the garage to the house is locked. I began having visions of snakes crawling all over me and proceeded to pound (yes, pound…and scream for Patrick) on the door until he comes flying to the door from upstairs wondering what in the world has caused me to absolutely lose my mind (again!)

I yelled something incoherent about there being snakes on me and it takes a second for him to realize that I may have spotted my office visitor again. I’m putting a picture of our house below so that you can envision what I’m describing now. From the safety of the confines of our house, I open the front door and peered out through our glass storm door (without which, there is no way in this world I would have been examining the front porch area!) and what I saw wasn’t quite as scary as the actual snake but may be even more disturbing. It was actually the skin of a snake (I guess they shed those in whole pieces…ewww!) but here’s the worst part – the tail was coming from behind the bushes (which are in front of my office since it is the front corner of our house and beside the front porch area) and the body continued around the corner and went up into the siding of our house.

Yes, you read that correctly – evidently (whether at that moment or at some point earlier in the day) a snake was crawling from the bushes in front of my office, where I am sitting all day, into the siding of my house, which is by the way the exterior wall of my office – where I sit alone all day!!!!!! I guess he decided to shed his skin on this little adventure and when I was walking back up the driveway I noticed the shine of the skin. Now don’t ask me if it was there when I walked out the front door a few minutes prior or if it happened while I was at the mailbox, but in either event my skin is still crawling.

At this point Patrick and I were not sure if the snake was still in the siding or if he looped around and came back out at some point earlier in the day. Here is where my husband turned this whole adventure into a complete comedy routine. He goes into our garage and gets a golf club and then bravely walks onto the front porch. (I am watching from behind the safety of our glass storm door yelling at him to be careful and to please come back inside.) I should also mention that he did not take the time to put on real shoes so he has on socks and grabbed his flip flops that were in our foyer. I just want you to be able to fully envision this scenario!

Patrick proceeds to hit the snake skin with his golf club several times and lifts up the tail portion from behind the bushes and flings it onto the front porch area. At this point about a foot and a half to two feet of snake skin is visible. Holy grossness! He tried to press on the skin with the club to get it to come out of the siding, but decided that he needed a second golf club to help. (Kind of like salad tongs?!) So at this point, if anybody walks past our house they can see me, hysterical, in the foyer of our house, and Patrick, wearing socks and flip flops, wielding two golf clubs wacking the siding of our house to see if he can dislodge the snake skin. I seriously don’t know if the snake was still up there, so he is very lucky it did not come shooting out to bite him.

Eventually the skin snapped in half and so Patrick lifted the two foot long piece of snake skin onto his golf clubs and walked it around to the side of our house to dispose of in the trash can. He then knelt down to look up the part of the siding that the snake skin was originally in and said he could see more skin but didn’t want to put his hand up there to pull on it in case the snake was still there. Finally he decided this may not be the safest of endeavors and came back inside. (I had at this point convinced myself that the skin was still attached to the snake which was why it was not pulling out of the siding easily, and I did not want to have to drive Patrick to the hospital if this thing managed to reappear and bit him!)

At this point I do not know if a 4 foot snake is living in the siding of my front porch. I don’t know if somehow that connects to the interior walls of my home and if eventually the snake could slither into the air ducts and appear behind the air vent in my home…can you see how this is making me crazy?! In any event, there is evidently not much out there that can kill snakes that does not attract them in the first place. I’m not sure if it’s worth putting out snake poison that will cause them to want to come and visit me (although I’m pretty certain that my office visitor did not sail off into the sunset that first day we met since the piece of skin we did find was just the right size for him.) Patrick is now referring to him as Axle (hence he can stay here while I temporarily move!) What a night!!!!!