34 Weeks

34 Weeks

Taken 10/7/10

My contractions are becoming more frequent/intense. I'm guessing they're braxton hicks, but what the heck do I know? Basically my stomach/back get all tight and I feel like I'm being suffocated. It's not a pleasant feeling but I wouldn't really say it 'hurts' either. Anyhow, so I thought I was going nuts and just imagining stuff until the NST's this week finally started picking them up! On Monday it showed I was having moderate contractions every 5 minutes while I was there. You'd think someone would have been like, ooh why's that going on, but my nurse didn't even mention it while the other nurse said 'oh, looks like you're having contractions' to which I said, 'yes I feel that.' Then at my NST today, I only had one but it was a huge one, like to the top of the contraction box and lasted for about 1.5 minutes. Anyhow, if they're not concerned then I'm guessing it's nothing to lose sleep over. Especially when I'm gonna have a newborn in about a month.

Eeeeeeek! I'm gonna have a newborn in about a month!!! I don't know if I'm ready for this. That happens to be a popular question these days...'are you ready?' The answer: 'of course not!' Are you ever really ready for something like that?! You can't possibly be prepared because there's no possible way to know what it's going to be like, or what your baby will be like, or how your daughter will like/dislike/act as an older sibling. There are tons of variables and the most I'm hoping for out of it is to get some sleep...which in itself is a rather tall order. I'd like to sleep when the baby sleeps, but unless there's someone else here to take care of Embry, well then, I won't be sleeping unless they're both sleeping at the same time. Just thinking about this is stressing me out.

We got Embry a play house, which she loves, from a neighbor's garage sale last weekend. Good timing too because I'm sure we'll be spending lots of time in the backyard now that it's starting to cool off. I really don't like all the dramatics of leaving the park when we go to play at the park. I really love watching her have fun, but leaving is a whole other story. I can hear it now, Embry buckled into the carseat, screaming, 'sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide! *sniffle sniffle* sliiiiiiiiiiiiiide!' Yep, I don't like it. Sooo, we bought a swingset off of craigslist. It's pretty awesome if I do say so myself. Here's a link to it on the toys r us website. We got it used (18 months old) for $450, so really, how could I possibly pass up a deal like that? Now the issue is getting it disassembled, into a truck, across town, and set up in our yard. Oh and moving all the rocks that are now occupying the area where it will be placed. Then after that is all done, we'll have to figure out something to do with the pool fence so the swingset and grass area can both be accessed at the same time without entering into the pool area. Luckily some of the guys from our young marrieds group have volunteered to help Tony on Sat morning with all of that stuff so at least it will be set up and ready to play on. The fence thing we can figure out later. Oh and I found out that 2 tons of rubber mulch is incredibly expensive, just an fyi.

33 Weeks

33 Weeks
Taken 9/30/10

This week has been pretty uneventful, at least compared to last week...which is fine by me! Tony never ended up getting sick thank goodness. I did have an incredibly horrible (worst feeling of my life) back pain in the middle of the night a couple days ago. I seriously have never felt anything like that before and never want to again. I felt like a soreness in my back, near my spine, where it always hurts so I pressed on it to massage it and it completely freaked out. I was clutching the wall while yelling for Tony and writhing in pain. Luckily it only lasted for about a minute and hasn't returned since (knock on wood).

My twice weekly NST's are going fine, nothing weird ever happens, so no news there.

Our next ultrasound is scheduled for Oct 19 and that will probably be the last one I have before delivering.

Embry is super cute. She says I love you, which actually comes out 'yuv yoooo!' and she's amazingly gentle (for the most part) around babies. That gives me hope. This whole having 2 kids thing is sneaking up on me way too fast. Ooh, also when you ask what's in my tummy, she will say 'baby Nola' and she'll rub my tummy or give it a kissy. I can't wait to see her interact with her little sister, I might just explode with happiness.

32 week pics

32 weeks

taken 9/25/10

Embry got sick last night. Her fever was about 103, then at around midnight she threw up. I brought her into our bed while Tony cleaned up and went to sleep in the guest bedroom to avoid getting sick and she threw up again. She's been eating pretty normally today and hasn't gotten sick again, but her fever is still lingering so we've been giving her a pedialyte/gatorade mix along with alternating ibuprofen and tylenol. Hopefully she'll be all better by tomorrow and we could all use a good night's sleep tonight.

My next NST is on Monday (I cancelled the one for last Thurs) and I also have another dentist appt on Monday. Joy. Oh yes, so eating a cinnamon roll during MOPS on tues, the back 1/4 of my temp root canal crown broke off and I swallowed it. The remaining portion was extremely sharp and was slicing into my tongue. I called the dentist who got me in 'after hours' on Tuesday to place the permanent crown on. So Monday they'll be drilling etc a tooth on the other side and putting a temp crown on it. Hopefully this one will last longer than 4 days before breaking.

31 Weeks

31 Weeks

Taken 9/16/10

Geez, the weeks are just flying by now. I don't know where the time goes! What I do know is that I am not getting nearly enough sleep. I'm having an issue taking naps because I just lay there and have hot flash after hot flash and sweat all over so I can't sleep. At night I sleep fine except I usually don't get to bed until later than I would like (because once Embry is asleep, I can do crafts uninterrupted) and then once I'm in bed I'm getting up at least twice a night to pee. Not that any of this is really horrible, I'm just saying what's going on. Also, I'm pretty sure I'm getting some vericose veins on my right upper thigh. The other day I woke up and had to peel the bottom of my stomach off of my thigh to stand and it hurt real bad, so I did some investigation and saw some not-so-pretty veins in that area.

I've become one of those moms that drops their kid off in the nursery without having fed them breakfast. I know, I'm horrible. Getting up and trying to shower at 7:30 when you have to be somewhere by 8:30 is a really bad idea. I barely had time to get out of the house much less get any food for anyone. So I sent her to the nursery with a bowl of dry captain crunch and a guilty conscience.

I have to have a root canal tomorrow. I thought about lying to the dentist and telling him the tooth was fine so he would just put the permanent crown on it, but then I figured I might as well just get it over with. It's my last molar on the bottom left. I've had one root canal before and it was pretty much one of the worst experiences of my life. I don't ever want to go through that again. I asked if they could sedate me for it, but they said no. Ewwww. I hate the dentist, I hate the smell of the office, you can even start to smell it getting off the elevator and you're not even inside the door yet. My pulse is racing just thinking about it. So, wish me luck. I might die of a panic attack before they even get started.

I'm starting to get scared about having 2 kids. I honestly have no idea what I'm going to do. I could go on and on about all my fears, but I'll sum it up with a convo I had the other day with Tony:

While I was about in tears, I said to him
L: 'I don't know how I'm going to manage with 2 kids. I'm going to need a lot of help.'
T: 'well I'll help'
L: 'yes, I know, but you're at work all day, what am I going to do then?'
T: 'well how does everyone else do it?'
L: 'everyone else doesn't have lupus.'

About a year ago, I would have never dreamt of uttering a statement like that. I feel like it places me in the 'victim' role, but that's not the point. I've come to accept that I just can't do everything that everyone else can. I have limits and I'm pretty sure I've reached them. Shortly after that convo, I asked Tony's mom to seriously consider moving down to Tucson. I admitted that I need help, which is an incredibly huge step for me. I got very excited about the idea of having someone else around, another pair of hands, to help with the kiddos. After some recent developments I've given up hope of her moving anytime soon, so I'm at a loss. My mom has been incredibly helpful with Embry, especially recently with my twice weekly NST's and all these dumb dentist appts etc. She even lets me run errands afterwards, without a kid! Do you know the excitement that fills my heart when I can go pull any shopping cart ouf the line without checking all the straps to make sure it will work?! It's rather thrilling. So, in closing, being a hermit is looking more and more appealing. ;)

Oh, went to the OB, I have a yeast infection. Now I'm on antibiotics for the root canal which cause more yeast growth...fun times.

Nola is doing great. The NST's are going fine. We have an ultrasound on Monday which I'm looking forward to. I'm feeling kind of like there's not a whole lot more room for her to grow in there, but I know I must be mistaken.

29 Weeks

29 Weeks
Taken 9/2/10

I went to the OB on Monday. She said the cysts in my placenta are insignificant. They'll continue to do monthly ultrasounds to make sure Nola is growing on track and that will tell us if the cysts are causing any problems. Most likely all will be well. My feet started swelling on Sunday (I'm guessing from the deep bathroom cleaning I did) and she just said to keep them elevated or go swimming. My blood pressure was totally fine, like 114/70, so no worries there. My weight was up to 162 according to their incredibly skewed scale. I started my Non-stress tests today. They'll be every Monday and Thursday at 3pm till the end of the pregnancy. I've been having some contractions (I'm guessing just braxton hicks) and we'll see how that gets translated in the NST. I didn't really have any today while I was there. Basically they take you into an ultrasound room, do a very quick u/s (like 2 min) and measure the fluid levels in 4 quadrants and look at the heart. Then you go into another room with about 5 recliners and monitoring computers and you get the 2 stomach belts strapped on to monitor the baby's heartbeat and contractions. You sit there for 20 minutes and the nurses are looking for at least 2 accelerations of the baby's heartbeat within a 20 min period. That is what happened today and it was actually pretty relaxing for me. I told them I'd be coming in everday just to rest. :) Oooh, next ultrasound is scheduled for Sept 21.

I called my insurance co and they said that the hospital wasn't supposed to charge me the $80 extra for the ultrasound. Hopefully they can get that straightened out without a lot of hassle. I'm now wondering if my trip to the ER was actually supposed to be $50 (like it says in the insurance book) instead of the $205 they ended up charging me. I should probably look into that.

The house refinance went through, so woohoo! We did pretty well keeping to our budget in August except for the fact that we had unexpected car repairs and I got a crown on my molar, so those things combined put us in the red once again. Sept should be good since we don't have to pay our full mortgage payment this month. Hopefully we can put all that we get back from our escrow account into savings.

Speaking of money, I got some cute matching outfits for Nola and Embry at Target. One is a sweatshirt/onesie/pants combo with elephants on it and the other is cute gray tights with a purple ruffled shirt. I can't wait to dress them up and take pictures, argh, such overwhelming cuteness awaits!

28 Weeks

28 weeks

taken 8/26/10

Ultrasound pics
from 8/24/10

We had our ultrasound on Tuesday morning. It went pretty well except for 2 things. 1) Nola had her face smooshed against the placenta so that means we didn't really get any good profile or 3D shots. 2) there are 2, I believe they said, cysts in my placenta. You can actually see 1 of them in the first pic in the second set. It's that black hole looking thing on the left of the U/S window. The us tech didn't seem concerned about them at all, but she said she'd talk to the high risk ob person once they came in and then send the results over to my OB. So update, my OB is out of town till Monday, but the nurse called me back and said that the high risk OB said it wasn't 'an emergency situation' ...whatever that means. I'm just going to go ahead and assume everything's fine. Also, turns out our insurance is only covering $42/ultrasound, so that means about $85/ultrasound is left to come out of pocket, yikes.

So, we refinanced the house. We got a better rate than we were expecting (4.5 instead of 4.75) and the Sept 1 payment was taken down from our normal 1700 to 334. That'll help us a lot since I went a little nutso with buying presents last month. I have a problem, when I see things on clearance, I tend to buy them. Not everything, but things that I think would make good gifts...for family, friends, friend's kids etc. Target happened to have a whole isle of toys on clearance last month and so, I stocked up. Back to the refi, we'll end up saving approx 300/month on our mortgage. Hopefully we can put that directly into savings so we can buy a van in March without having to finance anything.

I got the white car to pass emissions on Monday morning. It was truly a miracle. The check engine light hasn't even come back on yet. So I did a 2 year renewal and then poof, the brakes start making a very bad noise...kind of like metal on metal. We're going to see if Tony's dad could look at it and put some new brake pads on. Right before we left for camping, we got a new pvc valve put in for $100, then had to drive it through 2 drive cycles before taking it through emissions. So we took it camping. Everything was fine till we parked it in our camping spot, then the check engine light came on. Tony unhooked and rehooked the battery before we left to go home and it has stayed off since then. Basically end of story, both our cars need to be replaced. Tony can have a smaller car and I need a bigger one.

Our AC broke on Tues night. I've been getting calls from our home warrantly place (which has a warranty on our AC) for about a week and I just haven't called them back. They were saying that my home warranty was expiring and I needed to renew it. So after it broke, I went to look it up online ($60 service charge through the warranty is way better than whatever it costs to fix an AC unit) and miracle of all miracles, the warranty doesn't expire till next week! We got someone to come out on Wed at noon and fix it. Turns out it was a burnt wire in the ac unit and oddly, during the storm on tues night we had some VERY close lightning strikes and I'm wondering if maybe that has something to do with the wire. Anyhow, it's all fixed now and yahoo because pregnant people should not be left in AZ without a proper cooling system.

My friend Jamie came down from Phoenix yesterday and spent the night. We had lots of fun hanging out with her and she has a massage therapy license, so she brought down her massage table and gave me a wonderful prenatal massage today before she left. :) She took some pics of Embry and I at the park this morning and I didn't think I looked quite that pregnant. Woah.
Yes so about camping. It was great. Friday night was a little warm trying to get to sleep. I think we need an air conditioner for our tent. We had people directly next to us that night, but they were out fishing till late, so it didn't really matter. Then on Saturday, we had new neighbors move in and I believe I said to Tony, 'I didn't know people really talked like that.' They had some issues getting their tents up while it was raining. It appeared that it was a dad and his kids and his girlfriend with her kids. So we got to hear lots of swearing and yelling. It got more interesting the more they had to drink. I woke up around 1am to go to the bathroom and had a very hard time falling asleep once I got back. Let me just say that I heard a lovely rendition of 'Do your balls hang low?' I've never heard it sung quite like that before. I think I'm going to have to invest in ear plugs for our next camping trip. All in all, it was a good time. The weather was nice for the most part and Embry had lots of fun. Here's a photo after I got bit by a fire ant. I didn't realize that was so painful.

27 Weeks

27 Weeks
Taken 8/19/10

The pregnancy is still going good. I passed my 1 hour glucose test last week, so woohoo. Nola was kicking up a storm after I drank the juice so I thought maybe she was 'reacting' to it, but apparently that's normal. I got wooden letters to hang up in Nola's room that spell her name. I'm tearing light pink and dark pink tissue paper and putting it on them with glitter mod podge. I only have the 'a' left and so far, they look very cute! I love the glittery mod podge, it's all sparkly, I love sparkles. Ooh, I bought a used double stroller and carseat from a lady in the mom's group. It's the graco duoglider in a tan color with the infant carseat and base for $90. My mom and I washed it all up and it's looking pretty good, definitely used, but for the price it's a winner. It also fits in the trunk, so that's a big bonus. Now we just have to put it back together. It's a very hard process to get all the covers and shades off for washing, as in, you have to take the stroller apart.

Speaking of needing room, we've been looking at minivans. I don't like minivans. #1) since I'm blind in one eye, I don't have any depth perception, so the bigger the car the more afraid I am of accidentally hitting something. #2) they're ugly. #3) I like to think I'm more than 'just a mom' and by driving a minivan, that is automatically what I'm labeled. #4) did I mention, they're ugly? But when it all comes down to it, they're cheaper and more economical than an SUV and we need to get a bigger car. So the minivan wins over the SUV for practicality purposes. Now we have to figure out, should we wait until we have all the money saved to buy one used from a private seller? Or buy one after our house refinance goes through (end of Aug) and just finance a couple thousand until we get the money to pay it off (most likely March of 2011)? For now (and I say this hesitantly) we have both of our cars working. Will they break again before March? Probably. Will we then continue to throw good money after bad? Probably. For now though, they work and hopefully we can keep the 'check engine' light off on the white car until we run it through emissions on Monday. Kelly blue book has assigned the generous amount of approx $800 to each of our cars. How much money do you spend fixing an $800 car before you just throw in the towel and buy a new (new, meaning used) one? I don't know. Hopefully the worst is that I'll have about 4 months where I try to cram 2 kids, 1 adult, and 1 double stroller into a compact car. Don't plan on seeing me outside my house from the months of Nov-March, let's just say that. Then if I do manage to make it out, you will be pleasantly surprised.

Embry is adorable. She is saying so many things, she'll pretty much repeat whatever you say too. She now calls my dad (previously known as papa) 'Don' which is his name and obviously what my mom calls him. Now she'll willingly dunk her face in the water in the pool while holding her nose and closing her mouth and eyes. She saw my friend Anna's kid, Olivia (who she calls 'Dahlia') do it and now she thinks it's super fun. She will also lean her head way back to get her hair wet which she would never dream of doing before. She wanted her wings off the other day in the pool, so I took them off and she acted like she still had them on. It was slightly scary yet pretty funny too. She'd just go and jump off the steps and start sinking and with her head under the water look up at me like 'what the heck just happened?!' She just didn't understand that she was no longer quite as bouyant. She gets ver excited when I tell her we're going to see her friends or they're coming over to play...especially Noah. She gets equally as excited if I tell her Elmo is on or that she can have a popsicle. Suddenly she really loves to have 'hair ties' in her hair. She even asks for them when her bangs are in her face...which is great, because I love them and spent a lot of time making bows for her. She still doesn't really understand that she's getting a little sister. She'll point to my belly when I ask her where the baby is, but I don't think it's actually registering yet. Oh and everytime we say Nola, it inevitably sounds like Noah, so then she goes into hysterics about the idea of seeing Noah. Tony taught her how to say my name. I'm not very fond of it. He was downstairs with her saying 'Leatrice, come here!' and she repeated him saying 'tree-trice, umm, heore!' I have to say it was cute, but to her, I should be 'mama'.

I decided to try to make matching dresses for Nola and Embry. I was wanting to get Nola a cute 'coming home' outfit like Embry had, but then saw this pattern online and luckily someone else who made it also made an enlargement pattern for a toddler...so matching dresses it is! I'll be trying to make 2 of these but that one in particular looks like it's made out of jersey material. Mine will be cotton. Here are the fabrics, piping, and bias tape I picked out. I'll use the pattern for the main fabric on both dresse, then the light pink for Nola's accent color and the dark pink for Embry's. I'm excited!

25 weeks (1 day)

25 weeks
Taken 8/5/10

I'm 25 weeks pregnant, wahoo!

I had an appt with the OB today. It was uneventful. Heard the heartbeat, which was great and that's about it. I'll be having ultrasounds every 4 weeks from now on, so the next one is the end of August. I got the order form for the 1 hour glucose test and then at I believe 28 weeks, I'll be going in for 2 non-stress tests each week until the end of the pregnancy. Oh, I guess the most interesting part of the appointment was taking my weight. According to their scale (which I swear weighs you 5 lbs heavier than a normal scale) I'm now at ... ... ... 152 lbs. Eeek. I guess I'll be fine as long as I don't exceed what I weighed with Embry (which was 167 lbs). Although that doesn't give me much room for weight gain in the next 15 weeks.

I'm very tired and my sciatica says, 'ow'.

24 Weeks (2days)

24 Weeks (2 days)
taken 7/31/10

Today in Walmart Embry pointed out 'blue flowers' to me. I was kind of amazed that she put together that we were standing next to flowers, and blue ones at that, yay for her. :)

We had a fun time going to Breaker's water park in Marana for the Mom's Morning program yesterday. It starts a tad early (7:45am) and lasts for 2 hours. Basically moms and kids (who are under 48") can use the kiddie area for like $4.50. Embry was a little hesitant at first, but got pretty good at going down 3 of the slides all by herself and 2 other ones I had to push her down while she was screaming. Ha, I showed her! Anyhow, she had a blast and I think we'll be going back sometime before the summer is over.
Then we headed out to the Children's Museum to spend a few hours playing with Embry's friend, Noah. Embry loved it and had lots of fun, she especially liked the sand/light table. I swear she sat there for about a half hour just playing with the sand. Then we went with the Francisco's to Chick-Fil-A where Embry spilled her chocolate milk, played in the play area, threw a fit when we had to leave, and plopped herself face down on the floor in front of the door as I was trying to haul her outside. That's her new thing. When she gets upset, she just throws herself on the floor and whines, screams, cries. Normally I just walk away, but in public, not exactly the thing to do.
Funny Story: today while I was napping, Tony and Embry had this conversation:
T: *farting noise*
E: 'Dada, poopy'
T: 'That's right, dada does poop'
E: 'Ewwww, gross.'
Yep, that's my daughter.

In pregnancy news, I'm off pelvic rest, woohoo! I called the dr and she said she was very pleased with my ultrasound results. I also developed a weird itchy rash across my cleavage area, so I asked about that and she said from sweating etc you can get a yeast rash in certain areas and to put nystatin powder on it. It seems to be getting better. I'm getting to the point where I can tell when my bladder is full or my stomach is full because all my organs are getting squished more. Nola is still moving a lot. I can't wait to meet her. She's going to be so cute! :) I never said how I was feeling in last week's post, but not particularly good. Just the same stuff, but more of it...pain. Tony has been quite helpful though, giving me massages and trying to stretch out my sciatica. That's about it I guess. Dr. appt next week and then I'll find out when the next ultrasound is. Ooh, and I went and bought Nola one of those side snap t-shirt/long sleeved shirt/pant combo's for wearing in the hospital. It's super cute because it's zebra themed, so she will match my hospital gown. I LOVE MATCHING OUTFITS!

23 Weeks (1 day)

23 Weeks
Taken 7/22/10

I'm actually posting 'real' belly shots for the first time this pregnancy. I hadn't because, well, I've got stretch marks and then some more on top of the old ones and it just isn't pretty. Now I figure, who really cares? Nobody except me, I'm sure, so whatever.

I'm 23 weeks along and feeling Nola move a ton. She jumps around, punches, kicks, etc all the time. You can even see it from the outside now, it's great. Tony's felt her move a number of times and watched it from the outside too. It's so exciting to be constantly reminded that she's growing, developing, and still alive in there.

I stopped bleeding about a week ago. I was hesitant to say anything because I figured it would just start up again, but it hasn't. I'm thinking this is probably a good thing, but it also means the remaining clot isn't passing, but it might just be reabsorbed into my body. Our ultrasound is on Tuesday and I'm looking forward to seeing if the clot has grown, shrunk, stayed the same, or gone away. I'm guessing the placenta will just keep moving away from the cervix, so I hope I'm right about that.

Embry: sleeping in her big girl room is going great! She even got into bed all my herself the other night without me plopping her down in there. We need to move her bed so there's more wall space and then I'd like to move the bookshelf out of the nursery and into her room and paint it pink. I've been working on potty training her the past couple of days...it's umm interesting. She had started telling us when she'd poop and pee about a week ago, so I figured now was as good of a time as any to see if we could make some progress. She hasn't peed in the potty at all yet, only on the floor, but she did poop in the potty once. It was more of an accident than anything, but I still made a huge deal of it and gave her m&m's. She looked at me, made a weird face, said poopy and I quick threw her on the potty and out it came. She was actually a bit shocked I think. Then she warmed up once I started clapping and cheering, etc. She tells me when she's going or when she just went, but not beforehand...I guess that's the whole point of potty training.

22 Weeks

22 Weeks
taken 7/15/10

I had an OB appt last Thurs and naturally the perinatal assessment dept didn't send her the ultrasound results, but she seemed pleased with what I told her. She said I'm still on pelvic rest till the bleeding stops (which I think it might have, but can't be quite sure) and the second clot has dissolved or passed. I go in for another ultrasound on the 27th and then I have another OB appt the beginning of August.

I had my Rheumatology appointment which was a huge pain because the insurance company messed up again. Anyhow, got in finally and it was just a 'yep this is what's going on, yep, I know you can't do anything for it, yep, refill my prescription. K bye' kind of an appointment. The dr seemed nice enough, he's taking over for my old dr who started his own practice in CA.

Embry slept in her big girl bed for the first time last night. She stood at the door pounding on it and crying/screaming for about 15 min, then gave up and went to sleep in her bed. After that, I didn't hear a peep from her all night until she got up this morning, so yay!
In other news, I've recently been experiencing more of my lupus symptoms. Nothing I can't handle, just thought it was odd that they'd come about all of a sudden. Although with the stress of the scare we had, it really doesn't seem that weird I guess. Anyhow, so mainly fatigue, hand/foot/mouth/nose sores, joint pain, sciatica, and headaches. All the usual stuff. Good thing is, I'm still pregnant! Woohoo!

21 Weeks

3D Face shot

3D profile, arm and ear

profile

another profile with foot above stomach

the remaining clot

21 week belly shot
taken 7/8/10

a foot

profile with hand above belly

3D shot of eyes, nose, mouth and arm next to face

We had an ultrasound on Wednesday and it was great! The news was that one clot has passed and the other one is still about the same size (like 1.4cm x 3cm) but it has moved a lot further away from my cervix. So that's all good, but my placenta has only slightly moved. Before the edge of it was just over the cervix and now it's pretty much right next to the cervix, still almost on it. So it is moving in the right direction, just very slowly.

The ultrasound tech was awesome and spent about 30 minutes just looking around. She got some great 3D shots and wouldn't give up until she got a good profile picture. That made me happy :) and not to toot my own horn, but my baby is so cute! Based on ultrasound pics, I think Nola will look a lot like Embry. Looks like she has the same nose and lips from the profile shots. I love her. I just want to hold her and squeeze her and give her lots of kisses!

I don't think I ever mentioned that I stopped nursing Embry after we got back from Maryland. I'm proud of myself. Although recently she's been having major issues (I think due to teething) and I sometimes wish I could just fix it, but I can't. She'll fall down or something, which normally doesn't phase her, and then cry uncontrollably for 30 minutes while I hold her. Nothing will calm her down...except maybe Elmo.

She won't share no matter what. She will take every toy that someone else has even if there are 100 other toys to play with. Then I have to rip it out of her hands while she throws a fit and give it back to the kid who had it in the first place. It's rather embarrassing, although I'm sure most parents understand since they go through the same thing themselves. I took her to the stay and play at the library on Tuesday and she had a great time, I think we'll be going semi-regularly from now on. They had just open play for about 45 minutes, then songs and dancing and instruments, it was fun. Last friday I had the girls over from my mops discussion group for swimming and pizza...besides embry stealing everyone's toys, it was a lot of fun! Today I'm going to clean up and then have some ladies over from the mom's group for swimming and snacks, I'm looking forward to it since Embry is being a complete crankster and swimming brightens her mood. :)

Oh ps, our white car stopped working. I knew this was bound to happen sometime soon. Argh. Tony's dad is coming over on Saturday to take a look at it. Basically when you stop or turn, then press on the gas, it won't accelerate and then all the lights on the dash come on. Then you have to pull over and restart it to get it going again. I pray it's an easy and inexpensive fix. We need a van. I'm so serious. Speaking of small cars, I was at costco the other day and I came out and a smart car was parked next to me...I stood there thinking, I can't fit my stuff from costco into my car, what in the world are these people getting that will fit in a smart car?!

Oh Also, we've been working on getting Embry's 'big girl room' all set up. It's sooo adorable, I want to move in there! I'll post pics once it's done, but for now, we left 2 walls orange and then painted the opposite walls hot pink. Her toddler bed is from Ikea and a bubble gum pink with red feet. Then my mom helped me sand down the dresser (which was very ugly from the 70's) and she watched Embry yesterday while I primed it and painted it the exact color of the bed (bubble gum pink). Now I need to get cute drawer pulls to put on there, like flowers, or red knobs or something. I also got these awesome curtains that are vertical striped with white, hot pink, light pink, lime green, blue, red, yellow, and orange. I can't wait till it's all done!

20 Weeks

20 Weeks
Taken 7/1/10

I've reached the halfway point, yahoo!

Nola has been moving a lot more over the past week and Tony even got to feel it once! She moves mostly at night when I'm laying down and I just have time to concentrate on what she's doing. This is very reassuring to me. I just hope she's not having a good time kicking her placenta cuz we don't want that getting jiggled around.

Our ultrasound is on Wed and I'm excited to get some answers and see how everything's going in there. According to the dr, the placenta should be moved away from my cervix and the clots should be getting smaller based on the type/amount of blood loss I'm having. It will be good to see sweet little Nola again too, I just love her.

We (or really I should say Tony because I didn't move anything) moved both of my desks downstairs and out of the office and put the guest bed in the office with tony's desk. Tony then put together Embry's toddler bed and my mom is resizing one of my hello kitty bedding sets to fit her bed. The walls in that room are orange and I'm going to paint 2 of them pink, so it will be a very bright, fun, girly room when I'm through with it. We haven't tried to put Embry to sleep in her toddler bed yet, but we've showed it to her and she likes it quite a bit. She lays down and sits up over and over while saying, 'bed! bed! bed!' Somehow I don't think she'll be too thrilled when she realizes we've left the room and locked the door behind us. Oh well, I'm sure we'll all manage. I'm still not sure what to do with the dresser that's in there. Tony is using 3 drawers of it for his clothes and video games. I was thinking of trying to paint it white and then put neat pink handles on the drawers, but I'm not sure if it'll work to paint something with such a shiny veneer.

I'm really enjoying having my computer/sewing machine/scrapbook stuff downstairs. I do a lot in photoshop and Embry hated being cooped up in the office while I worked on pictures (or whatever else) so now I'm downstairs with her and I can edit pictures to my heart's content.

We're thinking of refinancing our house which would lower our interest rate over a percentage point and thus lower our payments about $150/month. I'm still not sure how good of a deal it is though. We have to put a lot of thought into this big of a decision. Tony also found out this week that he got a raise at work, which is fantastic! He works so hard and he's incredibly smart, I'm glad they are recognizing all his efforts. Plus, we really need to start saving money for a minivan. I'm serious. I went with my friend Sarah today in my car to run errands and we put Embry in her carseat and her baby in an infant car seat, then I had my stroller in the truck (bonus, need to get a double stroller which is even bigger), and we barely had room for the stuff we got at walmart...it was a tight squeeze. Anyhow, it's all a lot to think about.

19 Weeks

19 Weeks

Taken 6/24/10

We had our doctor appointment this morning. So basically things are looking good. I'm only having light red blood spotting at night and the rest of the time it's the clots dissolving and passing during the day. We got to hear the heartbeat, which is always reassuring and since I was in there last week, I've gained 2 lbs, so no worries there. We got the ultrasound scheduled for July 7th at 1pm and then a doctor appointment for the day after that. I haven't really been feeling much movement from Nola, but I think that would be normal having the placenta anterior and right over her. I'm hoping to feel more in the coming weeks.

I got a letter from my OB saying that starting in Dec (which luckily is after I'll have Nola), she will be taking off a semester of work to attend the U of A to study. She said to get further OB care she would recommend 1 of 3 doctors that she listed. I thought it was particularly funny because the first 2 doctors were doctors that I'm somewhat familiar with mostly because my friend Kim had the first one for her first child and the second one for her second. I thought it was funny because the first doctor is not someone she would ever recommend and the second, she highly recommends, yet my doctor thinks they're both good...just goes to show, people act differently in different settings. So when I was in there I asked her about it to see what she'd be studying...yep, large format photography. Let's just say I'm a little jealous.

18w1d

So let's not comment on how I look without makeup...but here's my 18 week belly shot from last night. Enjoy!

17 weeks, 1 day

17 Weeks

taken 6/10/10

I feel like I'm showing more, but I have yet to gain any weight. With Embry I started out overweight which is why I lost about 15lbs in the first trimester. This time I started out normal weight (around 135) and still haven't gained any. I figured over our vacation, with eating a ton of junk and fast food, I would have certainly gained at least 5 lbs...not the case. I know it's most likely 'normal' but it still concerns me. I'm excited to see baby bean and find out whether it's a he or a she, but more so excited to just make sure Bean is still alive and kickin.

Our ultrasound is on the 17, so less than a week away! Yay! I feel like with Embry it took forever to get to this point, but chasing a toddler around really makes time fly! Sometimes I think, 2 kids is going to be so hard, it might actually kill me. Then other times I see pictures of friend's kids who are a little older giving each other hugs and playing together and I'm reminded of the whole reason I wanted Embry to have a sibling. I just pray that these two get along...if not, I've got a long road ahead of me. :/

16 Weeks, 6 Days

Well, we were on vacation in Maryland for the past 2 weeks which is my excuse for not posting in a timely manner. Here is my:

16 week belly shot

taken on 6/3/10

Ok, I can't get the picture to go under the text, so whatever.

Baby News: I do believe I felt baby Bean move last night. I'm pretty positive that's what it was. There were a couple times in Maryland where I would turn over and I would think I felt something, but never could be quite sure. Last night it felt like Bean poked me about 5 times in the lower belly region. Tony tried to feel, but of course it was too soft to be felt from the outside.

14 weeks

so didn't take a 14 week pic till Saturday 5/22, but here it is.

On Thurs I went with my mom to my OB appt and we got to hear the heartbeat. It was between 140-150. I made my appt for the Ultrasound for June 17 (exactly 18 weeks) which I'm very excited about, but also slightly nervous. I have in my mind that Bean is a girl, so I'd be surprised if it was a boy. Everytime I buy Embry some clothes, I think, 'oh good, baby bean can wear this too!'

We went to Phoenix this weekend and had lots of fun. Thurs was Tony's sister's high school graduation, which in itself, was fine. Beforehand though I got to take some senior type pictures of her which was lots of fun! Afterward there was a mini get together at Tony's mom's apt and we tried to put embry down to bed, but she wanted to be in on the action so she freaked herself out and threw up all over the carpet. So, about an hour later, Tony went in there to get the tripod and she was standing there, awake, and moaning. So he took her out, we got a group picture, and then went swimming. Friday we went to Canyon Lake and after asking people, making multiple turn arounds, and talking to more people, we got down to a really nice swimming/camping area. Tony grilled some breakfast burritos and we swam and took a walk. It was fantastic and I'd love to go camping there sometime this summer which we're planning for the end of June. Also on the agenda for this summer...tubing down the salt river finally. :) Saturday we went for a bbq and swimming at Tony's aunt/uncle's community which was lots of fun. Then his mom watched Embry while we went to see the new Shrek movie (liked the other ones a lot better), then went to motherhood maternity (where I spent my $100 giftcard, yay), and then out to eat at a place in Scottsdale called the Chop and Wok. It was like a bar with some tables outside, but the food was incredibly delicious and Tony was impressed with their extensive beer selection. We stopped at wine store on the way back to the apt and Tony got a bottle of Mead (he's been talking about mead for like a year now) and cooked that up once we got back. I had a few sips (yes, call cps) and I have to say, it was actually quite good. Tastes kinda like apple cider. Sunday we went to church, met up with Jamie at Culvers for lunch (mmmmmm), and then went to the outlets at Anthem where I got Embry some clothes for cheap. Once we got back to the apt, I played a game of Cranium (where I lost, naturally) and then I drove us home.

Embry had her 18 month check up today. She's in about the 35% for weight (at 23lbs) and 75% for height. Dr said I'd be lucky to get 1-2 good meals in her a day, so don't worry about her not eating as much as I think she needs to. It was pretty uneventful and the next appt is at 2 years, so I'll take her and baby bean in at the same time. :) Fun fun!