18 Weeks!!!

Head to rump, the baby is about 5 1/2 inches long (about the length of a bell pepper) and he/she weighs almost 7 ounces. It's busy flexing it's arms and legs — movements that I have definitely already been noticing. The baby's blood vessels are visible through thin skin, and his/her ears are now in their final position. A protective covering of myelin is beginning to form around his/her nerves, a process that will continue for a year after the baby is born. If its a girl, her uterus and fallopian tubes are formed and in place. If its a boy, his genitals are noticeable now, but he may hide them during an ultrasound.

2 weeks until the Ultrasound!!! We have quite a little mover and shaker on board here. Some day's the baby is going nuts in there and then for the next couple of days after that it's pretty quiet. (It must have worn itself out) I am definitely feeling little movements going on in there every day now. I love it! Not too long before Joe will be able to feel it I hope.

Really Hard Decision

For those of you who don't know, for the past 6-8 weeks or so we have been having a lot of trouble with our little Kitty Cat Zoey. She started out having a little trouble hitting her litter box and then we noticed that she was kind of "leaking", so I took her into the vet for a checkup thinking that maybe she had a bladder infection.

The vet confirmed that she did indeed have a little infection and we put her on some medicine. Well after a week of being on meds she wasn't getting any better, in fact she was leaking even more. (now to the point where she was leaving little puddles when she laid down)

So I took her back to the vet and they gave me some pills thinking that maybe she wasn't getting enough medicine with the liquid. (pills were no easy task either) So we were told to try that for a week and if that didn't work we may need to take her to a specialist to see what was going on.

So we tried the pills, and then of coarse from being at the vet so much she picked up a cold, poor thing, (which of coarse she gave to Sammy)

After a while we realized that nothing was working so I took her to the STL Cat Clinic to see a specialist. The news was unfortunately not what I wanted to hear.

The Vet told me that my little Zo Zo has Spine Abifida and that there was nothing we could do for her as far a the leaking goes. (she also was beginning to get little sores from the constant issues)

So Joe and I had to make the VERY difficult decision to find her a new home. We had to do what was best, health wise, for everyone. We just cannot bring a new baby home to a house where the cat is constantly leaking urine all over. Plus, we would not be able to care for her in the way she needs to live a healthy happy life.

We took her back to the facility where we got her. The St. Charles Humane Society. I swear those people are angels. It is a no kill shelter where they also adopt out the animals. I am quite certain that they will give her the best care she could possibly get. And as it turns out, her Mom is still there so maybe she'll remember her :)

We took her on Saturday, which did NOT go well for me or Joe. It breaks my heart to have to give her up but I know that this is what is best for her, and us. I sincerely hope that this is harder on me than it is on her because this has NOT been easy.

I miss my little girl and I hope that she will be happy there soon. We are going to be constantly checking up on her and seeing how she is doing and even though they don't really want you to visit them so they don't get sad, I don't think I will be able to help myself. (I will just have to wait a little while.) We are also going to donate money to sponsor her so that they have the means to buy a new facility when they have enough money. I hope it will be soon.

Sam has been a little confused, but he is very happy to have mom and dad all to himself again.

I still miss my little one though. :(

Update On Home Renovations

Well, the walls are painted and the carpeting is FINALLY down! It looks sooooooooo much better. I feel like we are in a new home now.

The biggest thrill has been being able to walk barefoot throughout our enitre house. I hated having to put shoes on to be able to go down into the basement. Especially once we ripped up the old carpeting and there was nothing but dirty concrete underneath.

I also have to say it smells a whole lot better down there too. The other carpet was just nasty.

I think this year Festivus will be a socks only occasion. :)

The Big one is coming up!!!!!

Well, it's set, we go to the doctor to find out the sex of the baby on September 4th! I can't wait. Then we can finally start deciding on how to do the nursery, not to mention purchase the all important pink or blue baby clothes :)

We have names picked pretty much finally so I guess we will reveal those to everyone when we know for sure.

I think it's a boy, Joe hasn't really said, but he does always refer to it as a he. I would like a boy since that's what I have always pictured myself with first, but I of coarse would LOVE a little girl.
Everyone I know seems to have or be having girls lately so it might be nice to have something different.

We'll just have to see!

Was that? Yeah, I think it was!!!

I had thought that maybe I might have felt a little something now and then but wasn't really sure, and I know right around now is when the say you can start feeling the baby move.

Well, last Friday I was sitting down talking and got an undeniable little punch or kick or something. It really only felt like someone very lightly flicked me from the inside out. I kinda gave me the chilled and stopped me almost mid-sentence. I have since felt a few more little movements and flutters, but nothing too strong yet. Just kinda like butterflies.

I can't wait to feel more and for Joe to be able to feel it!

16 Weeks!!!

I am now 16 weeks along! I go for my appointment tomorrow. I always feel a little better after going and hearing the heartbeat.

Right now the baby is about 4 1/2 inches long (crown to rump) and looks a lot more human.

His/Her head is more erect than it has been, and the eyes have moved closer to the front of the head.Ears are close to their final position, too. The patterning of his/her scalp has begun, though their locks aren't recognizable yet. The baby has even started growing toenails. And there's a lot happening inside as well. For example, his/her heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day, and this amount will continue to increase.

In the next few weeks, the baby will double his/her weight and gain a few more inches.

Grow baby, grow!

Home Renovations

Thanks Bush for finally doing something good! (stimulus checks)
I have been wanting to rip up our carpeting in the basement pretty much since we moved in. The carpeting down there was just dirty and worn. So we decided to finally do it.

Well, I am beginning to see that when you start a major renovation, don't expect it to go as planned and don't expect it to be done nearly as soon as you would like.

We ripped up the carpeting, and thought that we had someone in place to order from and then not only did the guy not show up when he was supposed to, but he quoted us WAY higher than we planned. So now we are trying to work something out with our neighbor, who works for a flooring company, to get something done here. But there still is no end in sight and we've got a completely exposed floor with tack strips everywhere and two very curious kitties.

Then, we decided to paint before we put the new stuff in and bought a color that I absolutely LOVE. Well, it was a textured paint and after we started to put it on the wall we realized that it needed a special roller (not told about) and then we realize after buying that, that the paint only covers about a third of what regular paint covers, (again not told) and I had asked about all of these things and they just said, "nope all you have to do is put it on the wall".

So needless to say, we needed a LOT more paint. So I went over the weekend to buy more and they then tell me that the paint is discontinued!!! All they have left is 2 gallons. Plus to top it off, it's not on sale anymore (huh) and it's now 32 bucks a gallon. YEAH RIGHT.

So, we unfortunately had to nix that beautiful color and go with something else. I think what we are planning to do will work, but I really wish the other color would have worked.

So the work on the basement continues...

Mission Accomplished

Well, we finally did it, we combined our closets. (without killing each other too!)
I got all of my clothes out of what will be the baby's closet and put them into our bedroom. Joe has his side and I have mine and so far that seems to be working. We did have to put several of our clothes into bins to circulate out through the year, but it shouldn't be too bad.

And thank god for all of you who have been kind enough to let me borrow your maternity clothes. I have a pretty good selection now. And Joe is very greatful too since now I don't have to go buy a bunch of clothes. (guys just don't understand that we didn't make all of that stuff so expensive, but regardless, we can fit into our regular stuff for only so long and then we have no choice)

We also sold everything that was in the baby's room so now we are ready to paint and start buying furniture. But I want to wait to go buy anything or get colors before we know what we have here.