sweet baby E

beginnings

I have been really bad at keeping up with posting, as my cousin so lovingly points out from time to time ;-) Well, she's just got a better way with words than I do, and more to say I guess. Hopefully this year will inspire me to write more, I'm sure I'll have a ton to day after my little love arrives in April. I ended last year with a trip to Alabama with my family to see my Grandma, aunt, uncle and cousin who met us there from Mississippi. My cousin's hub couldn't make the trip and neither could mine, but it was the closest thing we've had to having the entire family together in a while. It was really great to see everyone, although I did miss joining in on the late night wine drinking and chatting - I still chatted, it's just not the same without a glass of wine in hand! We enjoyed a bit of sight-seeing at a local Frank Lloyd Wright house and stopped by Helen Keller's birthplace for a picture, but mostly we just enjoyed being together.

Christmas was an adventure this year. Christmas Eve started things off with a bang by bringing Oklahoma their first blizzard (at least the first on in my lifetime). It was crazy, snow blowing everywhere with drifts in front of our house over 2 feet tall! We managed to make it to mom & dad's for the afternoon for Christmas with my family, although it took us 30 minutes to get there where it normally takes about 7. Gef had a windshield wiper break on the way there so he dropped his fam off and headed to the store to get a new one. Lisa's significant other got stuck on dad's driveway so the men spent a good deal of time in the cold trying to get his car out, eventually succeeding and allowing Mike to get his boys to their mom's for their Christmas with her. We got stuck backing out of the driveway and had to have dad and Gef push and rock our SUV to finally get us moving, only so we could get home and not even be able to get up our driveway! Christmas Eve in Norman with Greg's dad's side was cancelled but his brother caught a ride home from work and got dropped off at our place to do our annual Christmas Eve movie night and spend the night since his SUV was stuck at work. Christmas day started off a little better with the weather clearing up a bit and roads becoming easier to manage. Greg's mom, stepdad and older brother came over to do our normal Christmas day activity. I got a headache shortly before they got there and ended up in bed by 3 with a migraine that wouldn't go away. Greg's family stayed until around 6:30 and then got stuck a few blocks from our house and Greg had to go pick them up and bring them back to wait for a tow truck, which finally arrived around 8:15. Christmas in Norman was rescheduled for the following Tuesday, which ended up bringing us more snow. Luckily this was just wet snow so it didn't cause any travel issues and we were able to have a nice Christmas with the Burks family.

New Years Eve was quiet for us, which is fine by me. Greg painted the ceiling of the nursery and got the walls ready for me to paint on New Years Day. His older brother came over and we had another movie night and rang in the new year before heading to bed. Quiet, but great. New Year's Day I painted the nursery and in the days to follow we moved the furniture back in and put the bedding on and installed a new closet system. It looks like an actual nursery now!! If I were to have him now he would have a room to come home to ;-) I catch myself standing in the doorway now just staring, in disbelief I'm sure that this room will be inhabited in a few short months by a little person that we made!! I will post some pictures soon, they are at home.

Now we are into this year, getting ready to celebrate Greg's birthday tomorrow and to see our sweet boy's face on Friday when we have a 3D ultrasound! I am not sure I could be any more excited for Friday - I will post all of the good pics we get from our session so you can see his precious face too! He's really a mover - if that's any indication of things to come after he's born we are in for a crazy ride!!! I hope you all had safe and happy Christmases and New Years and that this year brings you a whole new world of possibility, I know it will for us - this year is the beginning of a whole new world!

Merry Christmas!

I have been REALLY bad about updating this thing lately! I only have a minute right now, but I do intend on posting about our (well, my family's & my) trip to AL to see the rest of the fam (Elizabeth I'm sure you're disappointed in me) and Christmas and all that goodness......hopefully tomorrow. In the mean time, I hope you & yours had a VERY Merry Christmas and that you are all staying warm!

a typical day

As unusual as this morning has been, it feels so routine at the same time. I spent this morning going to 2 doctors offices and a hospital to get blood drawn for testing and to get a Holter Monitor (basically a portable EKG) put on. It all started about 2 months ago when I asked my OB if it was normal to be laying down and suddenly feel my heart pounding so hard - the answer was yes because my blood volume has increased being pregnant it can do that from time to time. Perfectly normal and nothing to think about unless my heart rate also raises above 100 when I'm laying down. Normally it just beats hard and eventually calms down, but the other night it decided to play around with me a bit. I had been laying down for about 10 minutes or so and it started beating hard as it does sometimes, then it felt like it threw a few extra beats in there, and then my heart rate went up. Not high enough that I thought I was having a heart attack or anything, but fast enough that I knew I'd have to be calling my OB. I was having issues watching the clock & counting the beats myself (you wouldn't think it was very hard) so Greg came to my aid. He sat me up and had me take some deep breathes and he took my pulse after it had calmed down a bit. Well, it was 100 then so I'm not sure how high it had been. After it finally went back to normal he had me sit on the couch with my feet up for a bit to make sure I was okay and when I could finally muster up the energy (the ordeal zapped my energy completely) I headed to bed. The next day my OB told me she wanted to check me for anemia, thyroid problems and possibly an arrhythmia. So today I went and got blood taken for testing with her, had a consultation with my Primary Care doc to "order" the Holter Monitor, and ran by the hospital to get all plugged in. I have to keep track of any abnormal feelings I get whether I think they are heart related or not (except my little guy moving) and what time they happened according to this device. I also have to keep track of when I sleep and if I get up in the middle of the night so they can understand the declines & increases in my heart rate when they print out the report this thing is recording. When it has run for 24 hours I get to take it off, stick it in a baggie with my data sheet, and drop it off the ER. Fun times ;-)

On a slightly different note, Greg finally has some answers about the pain in his leg lately. He had an MRI last week (our hospitals love us lately I'm sure) and it turns out that he has dysplasia of the L4, L5 & S1 vertebrae and the S1 is sitting on a nerve, causing the pain down his leg. This is good news and bad news. It's good because we finally have some answers about his back/leg issues AND because this MRI has finally shown something his past MRI's haven't. Now we can get cracking on treatment and hopefully have a new man by the time this kiddo arrives next April. The bad part is not huge, it's only a possibility really, but it's still not great. He begins specialized physical therapy daily starting next week, which is probably going to cause him some pain until he gets used to it - that sucks. They are hopeful that it will help the problem and get him to a better point than he's been in years - that is great. There is a chance that it won't be enough, which we will know 2 weeks after he starts, and if it's not then they do surgery - that SUCKS. I am hoping and praying that the therapy (and the drugs they've given him) will be all that it takes to get him on the right side of things. I pray that it doesn't come to surgery, but that if it does I can stay calm during the ordeal and that he can recover from it before the baby comes. He wants so badly to be able to play on the floor with his son and run around or play ball when the day comes, but that couldn't happen as things are now. Only time will tell how things turn out.....

So that's us in a nutshell lately! I DO get to start the baby registering today though!!! My beautiful sis and I are going to the store after work today and will be picking out all of the fun and necessary things for her favorite nephew!! That right there could make the crappiest day great, I'm so excited!!

snips & snails & puppy dog tails...

Well our ultrasound was this morning and all signs point towards a BOY! The little booger was being stubborn at first and had his legs smashed together so the tech went about her business checking all of the things she needed to check. When she finally came back to the gender he decided to cooperate and showed her his goods few times! The he decided to be stubborn like his daddy and kept turning his head away or sticking his hand in his face every time she went to get a good profile picture - needless to say we didn't get one! We got a few pictures, probably as good as any ultrasound pictures are. I am looking forward to January when we go do a 3D ultrasound and really get a look at his precious little face! He looked healthy and strong - his heart rate was a strong 156 and they estimate his weight for now around 9 ounces already (YIKES!)

I am SO excited to really start planning now - finalizing bedding, painting & decorating the nursery, picking out his name (not sure I'm looking too forward to that one though, it's so hard!) Greg and I just couldn't be happier - it's so surreal when I think about where we were just 5 months ago and where we are now. Every time I hear his little heart beating or see his picture I just couldn't be happier!! Such a huge blessing we've been given, one I wasn't sure we'd ever get, but already couldn't imagine life without.

17 weeks!

Well today marks 17 weeks for me! It is either the shirt I am wearing today, or I reached the point where I wake up and go "WHOA! I actually look pregnant!" I guess we'll see if I still look this way as the week progresses ;-) We have our big ultrasound THIS WEDNESDAY - as in less than 48 hours from now!!! I will post any news we get later that day or shortly thereafter, and some pics of munchkin! Still in disbelief how fast this is going, but I am so ready to see and hold this little blessing!!!

a little fun with baby

So I decided that I wanted to try the old wives tales that can sometimes predict the gender of your baby. I was hoping to get some consistent results that I could compare to the ultrasound in a few weeks but no such luck. Here's what I did get though:

Chinese Gender Chart - Tie
I tried a number of these, mainly ones that didn't ask for you to use any formulas to figure them out. Out of the ten that I tried (maybe a little overkill, but I was trying to break the constant tie), I came out with a tie - five boy and five girl.

The Drano Test - Inconclusive
There is actually an over the counter test you can buy at the drugstore that is similar to this so we decided to try it. Unfortunately the box clearly states that is you have PCOS (which I do) that it won't give you clear results. We tried it anyway but as the box says, it was not clear which way it should read. We decided to try the actual Drano test too, but it turned out the same way.

Heartbeat Test - Girl
I had an appointment this morning (just shy of 15 weeks) and the heart rate was 157 and beating strong. Apparently this points towards girl.

Cravings - Girl
I guess they say if you crave sweet the it's a girl and if you crave sour it's a boy. Well, I never really have like sour and that hasn't changed. My sweet tooth has gotten significantly worse though, especially where candy is concerned ;-)

Wedding Ring Test - Inconclusive
SO I tried this on my wrist and on my belly. Once we stabilized the ring we waited, and waited. It never moved.

Husband's Opinion - Girl
Greg has been positive it's a girl from the start, no question about it. Of course he has said that he doesn't prefer one over the other and is just excited to have a baby in general, but he just feels that it's a girl this time.

General Opinion of Friends/Family - Boy
So far according to the poll I have posted on the left, more people feel it is a boy that a girl.

Well, that is all that I have tried. I guess more say girl than boy. I don't really have a feeling one way or the other. We are both SO excited to find out though, so I hope that this munchkin cooperates on November 4th!!!