Abby's Ladybug Room

Here are some pictures of the progress on Abby's ladybug room. More to come later!

I hand painted her letters with little Ladybugs on them and also made a stencil to create the ladybug border around the room.

Here are a few more pictures once I completed the Ladybugs and put the bedding in the crib.

26 weeks!!!

The network of nerves in your baby's ears is better developed and more sensitive than before. She may now be able to hear both your voice and your partner's as you chat with each other. She's inhaling and exhaling small amounts of amniotic fluid, which is essential for the development of her lungs. These so-called breathing movements are also good practice for when she's born and takes that first gulp of air. And she's continuing to put on baby fat. She now weighs about a pound and two-thirds and measures 14 inches from head to heel.

Doctor's appointment update

Joe and I went to the doctor yesterday for my 26 week appointment and had another ultrasound. I had to have another ultrasound because Abby wouldn't quite cooperate last time so they couldn't get a good look at her profile to just make sure everything looked good. We got a better shot this time though.

However, she still didn't want to uncross those legs to give us a good look to make sure she is a girl but I am pretty confident that since the "fun" ultrasound I had showed girl parts, she is a girl. The technician at the doc's office just doesn't like to say for sure unless she gets a really good look. But she does still say girl :) I didn't tell them that I went and had a special ultrasound done just to find out last time. :)

They said that I am right on track with my weight (thank god, although I still feel like a heffer) and I am measuring right where I am supposed to.

Abby is also right on track, she's 1 lb 14 ounces right now and everything looks really good. She's exactly where she is supposed to be and has a nice strong heart rate.

I also had to take my glucose test to make sure that I don't have gestational diabetes. We won't have results for a few days but I see no cause to think I would have that.

I go back in 4 weeks :)

Here are a couple of the profile shots we got of her from the ultrasound.

Taylor's Day/Night with Auntie Em and Uncle Joe :)

Well, we had Miss Taylor over the weekend for Laura and Jimmy while they attended a wedding. She even got to stay overnight and test out Abby's crib for her:)



We had a lot of fun having a little one in the house. (I'm not so sure Sammy would say the same though)



It was nice to get in a little practice having a baby in the house before Abby makes her grand entrance. I think Joe was much more comfortable this time around with her than he has been in the past. Although, I don't think he will ever sleep when there is a baby in the house because he's too worried when they aren't making any noise :)



She pretty much slept though the night for us even though she bumped her head on the side of the crib because she had wiggled her way in a circle throughout the night. All I kept thinking of was that friends episode where Monica is watching Ben (Ross' son) and she's tossing him in the air and smacks his head on the ceiling and he keeps saying "Monica bang." (thank goodness Taylor can't talk) Ha.



But all in all she seemed to survive her night with Auntie Em and Uncle Joe without too much damage :)

Have you ever seen anything so beautiful??

All hail the..........

Portable dishwasher! We just got it last night! (Thanks to the help of everyone for the birthday money!)

It's one that is portable now but can be converted to a permanent one when we are able to re-do the kitchen.

This was probably one of my BIGGEST problems with the house when we were even considering buying it was that they didn't have a dishwasher or garbage disposal. I am not really sure why since they had obviously redone the kitchen at some point. But who ever really knows what previous homeowners were thinking sometimes :)

I LOVE IT! It had it's maiden voyage last night and it worked perfectly and we didn't end up with water everywhere so I guess we used it right :)

I am sooooo glad that I won't have to hand wash everything anymore (or baby bottles when she comes) or use paper plates every time we have company. Plus, lately whenever I am washing the dishes, I end up washing my belly too!

God bless the person who invented these things :)

Abby's Nursery

Well, we went and bought paint for miss Abby's nursery yesterday and I hope to get that started this week.

Her room is going to be done with Ladybugs which I am really hoping will turn out at cute as I envision it to be.

I am planning on putting some of my own personal touches in the room as I go, but you will just have to wait until it is done to see what they are :)


We got her furniture in several weeks ago and have it all put together and we are both really happy with the way it turned out! (you just never really know when you order something from a picture)

All we have left to get is a rocker and a small chaning table.

Here is her crib which is convertable to a toddler bed, a day bed and a bench so we are sure to get plenty of use out of it.

Here is the dresser that will no doubt be filled with tons of clothes before long. :)

And here is our other baby making sure we know that he is the most important thing in the room :)

How we told everybody :)

We probably waited about 6 weeks or so to tell everybody because those first couple of weeks are so uncertain and we didn't want to "jump the gun".

For Joe's 30th birthday I threw him a surprise birthday party with the help of our friends and family. Everyone was at the house waiting for him to come home from golfing and I had been trying all afternoon to not make it too obvious that I wasn't drinking. (which isn't too big of a deal since I really don't drink much)

I knew when Joe got home and realized what was going on he would eventually want to just tell everyone since everybody that was at the house were all people that we would have told first anyway.

Of course, Joe got home and we had the big surprise (which he almost ate it coming down the stairs). After settling in we were both upstairs and he asked me if we just wanted to tell everybody and I told him that it was his party so it was up to him if he wanted to make it about the baby too. So we decided to spill the beans :)

The best part was that we hadn't even told our parents yet :) They had no idea that we were even trying and so I think they were a little blind-sided. On top of it for my parents was that my sister was due with her first in only a couple months. :)

So Joe and I went downstairs and he just made a little speech thanking everyone for coming to celebrate his 30th with him. Joe then said that we had a little announcement to make and he said that we were expecting a little one. So I guess he got the last laugh :)

It was so neat to see the reaction on every one's faces, especially our parents who were in complete shock. (my mother didn't close her mouth for like 10 minutes) I guess we could have told them separately but we are both happy with just surprising everyone.

The next several minutes were filled with hugs and congrats from everyone and then we all just enjoyed the rest of the evening!

How we found out

I just realized that I never put anything on here about when we found out that God decided to allow us to reproduce. :) (crazy I know)

There's not a whole lot to the story, we decided to start "trying" but that we would just let happen what would happen and not put a whole lot of thought into it. Of course there had to be some planning because of my medical issues over the past year. I went to all of my doctors and told them our plans and discussed everything with them before we even tried. That way we were assured that all of my drugs were okay for me to be on in case I got pregnant.

So about 3 months later I hadn't really noticed any difference just that I'd had some heartburn but I didn't really think anything of it. Because of crazy woman hormones I had no idea when would be the time that I would need to take a pregnancy test.

Well one night, crazy as this sounds, I had a dream that I took a pregnancy test and it came back positive. So, when I woke up that morning for work, I decided to go ahead and take one. Right away it showed up that I was pregnant! I couldn't stop shaking or looking at it and then looking at the box to make sure I was reading it right. :)

I immediately turned off the shower and rushed into our bedroom. Joe was still sleeping but startled when I came rushing in so fast. He woke up and asked me what was wrong and I just blurted out "I'm pregnant!"

It took him several minutes to wake up totally and he just kept asking me if I was sure and how the test worked and all kinds of other dumb husband questions. And all he was concerned about at the time was that when I was hugging him, the little stick was just a little too close to his head :)

So, then we collected ourselves, I somehow managed to get myself ready for work and made it through the day.

We had a doctors appointment later that day for me to talk to Dr. Ramos about his diet plan (the one that Joe has done so well on) Joe was just coming along to hear about it so he could decide if he wanted to do it or not.

So when the doctor came in I told him about our news and he of course said, "well, no diet for you". And since Joe still had some reservations about how excited he wanted to get because he wansn't too sure how accurate those tests are, the Doc did a blood test for me.

The doctors office called the next day and said that there was no denying it that I was pregnant. Joe finally let go of some of his denial and the rest is history! :)

24 Weeks!!!

She is growing steadily, having gained about 4 ounces since last week. That puts her at just over a pound. Since she's almost a foot long (picture an ear of corn), she cuts a pretty lean figure at this point, but her body is filling out proportionally and she'll soon start to plump up. Her brain is also growing quickly now, and her taste buds are continuing to develop. Her lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help her air sacs inflate once she hits the outside world. Her skin is still thin and translucent, but that will start to change soon.

She is constantly kicking and is even kicking hard enough for not only Joe to be able to feel it, but sometimes you can actually see my stomach move when she's doing her acrobatics.

She has pretty apparant sleep and wake cycles now so I have a pretty good idea of when she is going to be moving around.

It's A................

GIRL!!!!!

Abigail Ann (Abby)

We went for my ultrasound on Thursday last week and found out that most importantly she is nice and healthy. However, the little booger wasn't real cooperative and so we didn't get a good look at her. The tech said that she thought it was a girl but couldn't really commit to it. She was sitting with her legs crossed and her chin tucked into her chest so they couldn't get a profile shot of her either so they need to do another one when I go back in 6 weeks.

Well, you know that I am no way patient enough to wait another 6 WEEKS to find out for sure, so I found one of those places that does just ultrasounds for fun so I went there on Friday.

Luckily the first thing the tech looked for was gender because she didn't give us a good shot the rest of the time. But they said definitely a girl. (This time you could actually see little girl parts, where before they were going on just not being able to see boy parts)

It was very cool to see her moving around in there though. She was really active the second time. She was kicking those little legs and moving around, putting her hands up by her face and even opening and closing her mouth. At one point she moved her head back and then opened her mouth up really quick so it almost looked like she laughed. :)
(figures, she's already laughing at us)


Here is the "money" shot to show us she's a little girl.









And here is a shot of her looking at the camera with her little hand in front of one eye.





I have no idea if I can figure out how to put up some of the video but I will try.

Now we get to do all of the fun stuff like buy clothes and get her room ready!!!

Joe is already setting dating guidelines and has been making plans for us to move to a one room hut on an island with no boys. :)

20 weeks and Big Ultrasound tomorrow!!!!!

The baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. He/she is also around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom and about 10 inches from head to heel — the length of a bananna. (For the first 20 weeks, when a baby's legs are curled up against his/her torso and hard to measure, measurements are taken from the top of his/her head to the bottom — the "crown to rump" measurement. After 20 weeks, he/she is measured from head to toe.) The baby is swallowing more these days, which is good practice for its digestive system. He/she is also producing meconium, a black, sticky by-product of digestion. This gooey substance will accumulate in his bowels, and you'll see it in his first soiled diaper (some babies pass meconium in the womb or during delivery).

We go in for the big ultrasound tomorrow at 1:00!!! I can't wait to find out what this little one is, and more importantly to find out that the baby is healthy and developing right on track.

We ordered the crib and dresser over the weekend and they should be in on the 10th. I can't wait to start decorating the room once we know what flavor this munchkin is.

I have been getting kicked on a very regular basis. This little one moves around quite a bit. Joe even got to feel him/her kick a few times the other day. :)

I will let you all know tomorrow how everything goes at the doctor.

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.

What's New with Mom and Dad

We are absolutely thrilled about becoming parents. I have wanted to be a mom as long as I can remember.
Joe has come with me to the doctor's each time, however for my 16 week appointment he won't be able to go, but that's not really a big appointment. The 20 week appointment is when we find out what flavor we are having!!!! I cannot wait. He's getting used to the idea :)
We are beginning to think about how and what we are going to do with the nursery.
Right now, the baby's room is our spare bedroom and my closet. We bought some bins for me to put my clothes in that I won't be able to wear for a while and hopefully I will get that done this weekend.
The next step is figuring out how to fit everything else, (Joe's clothes and mine) into one small closet in our bedroom. Hopefully we can share well.
Then I have to find a way to con my dad into doing a custom baby closet in the nursery so that it is more size appropriate for a kid.
I can't wait to find out what we are having so that I can start on the fun stuff in the nursery!

Even though the baby is growing rapidly, I am still looking fairly normal these days. (feeling normal is another story though) If you didn't know me, you would just think I had been eating a few too many cookies.
I did have a minor growth spurt over the weekend though. At the doctor's office I had only gained one pound from the last time I was in, but I feel like I have gained about 20! My pants are definetly starting to get more uncomfortable. I guess I am getting the beginning of the lovely baby bump. Luckily I have people to lend me maternity clothes!

Joe however is wasting away as I am taking up more and more space in the room. He is on a new diet that our doctor has and he is doing VERY well. 15 lbs in a week and a half. (something about this just doesn't seem fair) None the less I am happy one of us won't frighten our child with their size :)

That's all for now. More updates to come!