35 Weeks and all is Right on Track

Just a quick Lily update. Our due date is very rapidity approaching and we are getting more excited and more nervous every day! We had our big 35 week check up today, so we all went to the midwife appointment together. After an exam we now know that Mommy is not dilated, but beginning to soften, which means we will probably get to our due date, but we are right on track. We had to have an ultrasound to make sure Lily was head down and in the right position...which she is! No more breached baby fears! So in short everything is going great!

This past week end Shawn and I went to our birthing class together. It was a wonderful experience. I felt like it brought Shawn and I closer and laid out what Shawn's roll will be during labor and helped us make plans for the event. Everything is starting to get real and it is hitting me that labor is getting closer and closer and I am really going to have to do this again, oh crap! I started freaking out again. We are planning on going more natural then we did with Johnny, avoiding induction or pitocin or any pain medication at all. Actually the hospital now has a labor tub suite that I have requested, so we plan on using hydrotherapy to help with the pain. But up until today it was all just a distant plan, today it became real and next week when I hit 37 weeks I will be considered full term! and ready for her to come out at any time. As a good labor partner and daddy to be Shawn helped me out a lot today reminding me that I handled labor and delivery just fine last time, when I had little idea of what to expect. With a second baby everything in my body knows and is prepared to do it all again. Labor is suppose to go quicker and be easier, we can do this! It is only a day or two out of a life time we will have. And after we will have our Lily girl and our family will be whole. I can't wait for Johnny to meet his little sister!

31 Weeks!

May 28th is very rapidly approaching! So we are getting everything ready!!! Lily's beautiful bassinet, we made a little extra sweet with a big pink bow and some sweet cloth lilies. I am not sure how long those lilies will stay there, since they are just tucked under the mattress right now.

Grams made these curtains that match the curtains on the bassinet, ceiling to floor! With a pink layered sheer underneath. And the pictures in the wall came from Mommy's room when she was a little girl! One still has the receipt on the back!!! $7.99 for one and $3.99 for the other (it had broken glass.)

Her room is very sweet!

And here is her Mommy knit keepsake sweater that she will wear home from the hospital! Mommy got it done in two days, because I wanted to see it so badly. It is the perfect size and so sweet! I can't wait to see her in it.

We had another midwife apt this week...now that Mommy is in her third trimester she gets to go every two weeks. And still everything is growing great, no weight gain and Lily's heart rate is still perfect. Mommy has been having rather painful "braxton hicks"contractions, but that is normal with a second pregnancy, as well as the charlie horses in my legs and cramps and pulls all around. Lily has not turned yet, she is breached...but that is not a big concern with 9 weeks left to go. I should start the home remedies to turn her myself and if she is still breached next visit I will need to see a chiropractor to get some help. If by 37 weeks she hasn't turned the midwife will have to try and that I have heard is painful...further then that and a C section will be needed. But with all that said the midwife wasn't concerned with 9 full weeks left.

Preparing with 3 Months to Go!!

The nursery is officially painted!!! I am not sure how well you can see the paint color with the pictures but trust me it is beautiful and I am very happy with it! The paint color we choose was actually called "sweet baby girl." It is all a little more clique then I normally like, but I can't picture anything being more perfect for our Lily. The rocking chair is the one my mom rocked me in as a baby! My mom also plans on making some white tie back curtains to go over this one.

Her room from the door way.

Some signs I forgot I bought from Micheals a while back. I was trying to stick with stark white and pink in the nursery, so we might save these for her, but we will see once the bed and everything else gets in the room.

Now Mommy gets to use her nesting energy and organize all of the stuff we have been buying and the stuff from Samantha and Ella and Johnny. I am really excited!!! Shawn won't let me stay in her room since he says it still smells too strongly of the paint.

so I guess I will have to finish organizing all of Johnny's cloths from the last two years.

Johnny is spending tonight and probably tomorrow night with Grams and Pops, of course he is having a great time, it is always so exciting for him to go over there. He spent today over there so Mommy and Daddy could get Lily's room painted and his room really clean and tomorrow Daddy is having his orthoscopic knee surgery, so Johnny will continue to get some extra time with Grams and Pops, but I am getting some great reports that he is behaving himself and being curious and sweet.

Here is the sleeper Mommy came home from the hospital in, in Germany in November of 1984! We are going to take it the hospital with us for Lily to wear there, since she has her own extra special come home outfit. This is just one of the many outfits I found in my keepsake boxes this afternoon!! It is so exciting to have these items that where once mine and can now be hers and maybe one day her daughter's!

We have so many ideas for Lily's room and now they can all start to come to life, since everyday I am reminded that we are getting closer and closer to May 28th!

24 Weeks and 4 days Pregnant

Lily's come home dress...isn't it darling? Grams found it on Ebay!! It is perfect because it is nice and small on the top but flares beautifully! Mommy is going to make a sweater, cupcake hat, booties and a blanket! all in pure white and soft pink!!!


We are going along nice and smooth. Almost in the third trimester, but sometimes Mommy feels like we are already there. Mommy is pretty tired and sore, but Lily is having a grand time in my belly, flipping and kicking A LOT! It is very comforting to feel her, but it also makes the times she isn't moving more stressful. We had our monthly OB apt yesterday and again everything is beautiful!!! Mommy's uterious and weight gain are perfect and Lily's heartbeat is "beautiful" (exact word used by the midwife.) Another blessedly uneventful month! Asides from heartburn, cramps, strange gas pain in my shoulder, some crazy emotions, and a general lack of energy everything is going wonderfully!

We have been nearly stuck in the house for 4 days with the big snow storm that hit this past week end and the other one that is going to hit today and tomorrow. Luckily Mommy is having a nesting and energy surge so a lot has been getting cleaned up and moved around. Though I am still have panic attacks that she is going to be here any minute and we are not nearly ready! I wonder if we ever really will be ready? At least at some point in the next 3 months we can clean out and paint her room!!

15 Weeks Pregnant!

We made it...safe and happy and feeling much better in the second trimester! We are now more then 1/3 of the way through this! Mommy really is starting to feel much better! The morning sickness is starting the go down, energy and motivation starting to go up and life is looking pretty great right now! (really for the first time in a long time I feel like I have everything under controll) I have been having some headaches, but the midwife told me I can be taking twice the dosage of Tylenol as I have been taking, and it is nothing to worry about.

I had my monthly midwife appt today and it was amazying! We got the results back from our ultrasound and blood work and they where perfect! We found the heart beat right away and it was around 150 and sounded perfect and everything about this baby is PERFECT! It really made Mommy feel great, everyday it hits home more and more that there is a baby in there. It was disappointing to hear that we would have to wait until January to do our big ultrasound, which we where hoping to do before we left for our Christmas vacation next week, but having had the other ultrasound and blood work and hearing how perfect the baby is really helps to making the wait bearable.

There isn't much more to report, we are truly blessed with an uncomplicated pregnancy thus far and pray that it all just keeps being so normal.

11 Weeks Pregnant

PICKLES!!!
That is the word of the week, Momma loves pickles!! I went through three jars this week, then had to take a break before I wore them out. Nothing else new Mommy wise, still sick to my stomach, still really tired, still having head aches and still having trouble sleeping. BUT there is only ONE week left until we hit the 2ed trimester! I should start really showing soon too, so we will start to do the weekly pictures again next week.

We saw the midwife today and it was a really quick appt. I havn't gained any weight, and we were able to hear the baby's heart beat with the little Doppler!!! Twice she found the heart beat, though the baby kept running away, and it was right in the 160s, which it really healthy! It is much higher then it was during the 7 week ultrasound, but that is normal and just fine. It was a wonderful morning, Mommy cried.

I was offered the H1N1 flu shot today, I didn't get since I have had a runny nose and a little bit of iky stuff this past week, want to be super strong before I get this new shot. I am still a little nervous about getting it, Shawn assures me it is just like the normal flu shot, just a different strand. But that is a debate I prefer to stay out of.

This afternoon Mommy and Johnny are headed on a plane ride to Michigan to see our good friends Tara and Tim for their daughter's first birthday! It promises to be a fun filled week end and I am really sure I will have TONS of pictures when we get back :)

10 Weeks Pregnant!!!

I am sorry it has been so long since I have posted anything, pregnancy is much harder then I remembered it! The last two weeks have been no easier. Head aches, exhaustion, nauseous, heartburn, and now I am having trouble sleeping. But I am not complaining! It is all very worth it and I am trying to not let this interrupt my life. But I haven't taken any pictures of Johnny in two weeks, or knitted much, or really even cleaned the house with any fervor. But we are just two weeks away from the 2ed trimester!!!

We have another midwife appt next week where we hope to hear the heartbeat. I am a little worried because of my weight, that they might not be able to hear it, but I am trying to take it all calmly, we heard the heartbeat once and with each day we get further along and closer to having our little baby in our arms. Nine months of worrying about life leads to a lifetime worrying about everything else!

It is fun to think that when I was pregnant with Johnny I joined a netflix thing for audio books and listened to the entire Wheel of Time series! I loved it. The author of these books died without finishing the series, thankfully the author's widow found another fantasy writer to help finish the series. And the 12th book JUST came out. This baby will get to listen to the new book, like Johnny listened to the rest of them!!! It is exciting to me :)

8 Weeks Pregnant

2 Months finally down, just 4 weeks until we are safe and comfy in the 2ed trimester!!! I am counting down the days!!

It was another rough week in Mommy's belly. Total exhaustion, super nauseous and air bubbles followed by loud and random burps. Mommy also now has been having some trouble sleeping, leading to more tiredness during the days and nights. Really that has been our week, going day by day trying to find healthy foods that calm Mommy's belly.

This week we scheduled a special 1st trimester screening for Down Syndrome and Trisonome 18, to include a few extra blood test and an extra ultrasound for mid November. Not that any outcome of these test could change the course of the pregnancy but we feel the more information we have the better we can be prepared, and we get an extra ultrasound.

Really and very thankfully there is no news and each day is just waiting to pass till be can get to the 12 week mark, that is all I can think about right now.

6 Weeks Pregnant

I opted to not do a profile picture of me this week, trust me I don't look any different! Instead here is a picture of the baby's first gift. My dad brought this to the hospital when I was born, as far back as I can remember there is this bear! My first toy! From my favorite Daddy! The bear had a music box in it, in the 25 years since I was born the child me ripped open the teddy bear and removed the music box (I think it was broken.) But for years there was just this torn apart piece of my childhood laying around. Recently my mother found a store on Ebay that sells wind up music boxes in many different songs! We got "A Whole New World" the song Shawn and me danced to at our wedding and really my theme for life, every day is a new world and especially for this baby and us.



The music in the bear.

So pregnancy wise there still isn't much news, right now the baby is the size of a sprinkle! Momma has had a ton of symptoms this week. Cramps, headaches, emotional outbreaks, heartburn, tiredness, cravings (tonight it was thanksgiving) and most recently a lot of nauseousness! (which is strange because I didn't have any with Johnny, I keep telling Shawn it must be twins because of how intense my symptoms are :) he doesn't think it is funny, I do :)

I also got more serious about reading my books this week and started to scare myself. I am about 40pds over my idle weight and my BMI is high, which puts me at risk for gestational diabetes, preaclapsea, high blood pressure, and a lot more pregnancy complications directly related to me being out of shape. The baby could be born large and be more likely to be born via C-section, but mostly I have made this pregnacy harder on me and my body, by not losing weight before we got pregnant. The entire time we where trying to get pregnant I was trying to loose weight, but there was always an excuse and now I am very upset with myself for those excuses and not taking it as seriously as I should have! It is not about how I look anymore it is about the health of my baby. So I called my OB, since my first apt isn't until the 8th, and the nurse was very helpful and supportive. She said I could go on the diabetic diet now and restrict my calories to 2000 and maybe down to 1800 after my apt. It is important to note that this is not a diet, I am not taking anything away from the baby, it is a strick method of making sure the baby gets everything it needs and we don't take in anything we don't need. It has me really excited! and feeling better, kind of more aware that each meal or snack is something I am doing for the baby and not for me. For me, I hope to gain no more then 15 pds this pregnancy. (and that would still be healthy)

5 Weeks Pregnant

5 weeks down and ONLY 35 weeks left to go.

This week I felt like the week went by fast, one day I am only 4 weeks pregnant and the next I am 5, but at the same time I realized how far we still have to go! How long it will be until we know the sex, or get to meet the baby. This week the excitement started to slow, and the worry set in. Thinking of all of the dangers and how delicate the baby is right now, there is still more then a month before we can hear the heartbeat, and 2 months before we are safe in the 2ed trimester. It is hard to just go through the day without thinking that everything I do and eat and breath is going to the baby. I don't know that I felt this scared when I was pregnant with Johnny.

Momma added some extra folic acid and calcium supplements to her diet, as well as drinking organic milk with DHA and light V8 Splash (fruits and veggies in juice form.) This week was about settling into being pregnant again, going to bed earlier, eating better, and avoiding what I should avoid, such as cleaning out the litter box, blue cheese, lunch meat, and caffeine. But also this week I hung up ALL of the maternity cloths I have inherited, there are a LOT of really cute cloths!!

4 Weeks Pregnant

So today I am officially 4 weeks along, that means 36 weeks left to go...wow! I thought that every Friday I would post a picture in this dress and an update of that week. Admittedly I didn't want to post a picture this week, I retained a lot of weight from the last year, and I don't look all that great, but I wanted to start this, and have a point of reference.

So this past week as we learned we where pregnant, we spent most of the week excited and in shock. Momma has been really tired!!! Falling asleep almost randomly, and having little energy. Momma switched from the fertility vitamins to her chewable prenatal vitamin and set up her first appt for October. We have discussed gear we have and gear we will get or borrow and how to clear out and set up our extra room for the baby. We have even thrown around names, so far we have Lilly or Aurora for a girl, but boy names we are a little stuck on. It has been a very exciting week for all of us and I know it won't get any less exciting as the weeks go on. Sometimes I think that it all hasn't set in yet, I don't think I feel that we are pregnant and I keep reminding myself, and Shawn. We are at the beginning, again :)

We are Doing it Again!!!

We are proud to announce to the world that we are officially expecting our second baby around May 28, 2010....this means that Mommy is only 3 weeks pregnant, which explains the extremely light line on the home pregnancy test above. Yesterday morning when we saw that line we went right to the clinic here on post and had a blood test done!!! It was positive and now we are on this road again!

Johnny is finally getting the baby he has been asking for for so long.

I wish I had more to tell, but truly we are just so happy to know that we pregnant, it is really enough. Mommy is tired, but still feeling pretty good!! Daddy is in shock but handling it all very well. Everyone has been so supportive and and the blessings and well wishes make us all feel so great!