Anticipation

After a bit of a delay (they were running behind -an hour).  Our ultrasound went very well today.  Dr. B said everything looks good and I mean everything.  They checked everything from head to toes including the lips, internal organs, each vertabrae, feet, placenta, umbilical cord, heart, everything you could possibly imagine.  They said right now we are right on course, a little on the bigger side of the spectrum, but right on target.  I even managed to gain the required two pounds! 

After our appointment, we went to pick up the girls from Aunt Kim’s house (thanks again in case my hubby didn’t say it).  Lauren started crying when we got there, she wanted to stay -they do love playing at aunt Kim’s. **side note I thought it was funny last night when I told the girls they would be going to aunt Kim’s house Lauren had to clarify if it was the Aunt Kim with the dark hair or the light hair (Brandon has an aunt Kim and an aunt Kam, apparently Lauren has not noticed the subtle difference in their names).  So the girls finally come running out to the car and Erica says “what’s the gender, does it have a gender yet, do we know what it is?”  As he was buckling her Brandon asked her what she would do when she found out.  Erica said “either run off or dance around” (at least she’s honest).  You see Erica was on the sister “team” while the rest of us were on the brother “team”.  We told the girls we weren’t telling until we got home, so of course as soon as we pull in the driveway (or as Lauren called it the other day the carway) they asked again, what is it? -not till we get in the house.  So finally we were all in the living room and the girls were dying to know …WHAT IS IT? … first we pulled out the ultrasound photos and showed them the profile pictures, and  asked them what it looked like it was.  Of course Sam and Lauren said a brother and Erica said a sister.  Next Brandon took Erica aside to whisper it in her ear and see if she could keep the secret.  She did not dance around nor did she run off.  I would say it was more of a little skipping thing that she did with a big grin on her face.  We then told the other girls it was a sister.  Lauren first got a big surprised look on her face and then said “Owuh”, Samantha seemed a little disappointed but in true Samantha style quickly got over it.  So Erica is 3 for 3 on predicting what our babies will be (she was wrong on Uncle Darrell & Auntie Lindsey’s -must be it only works with her siblings).  I do not get to ditch the girl clothes, they will have to make it another round so here she is (again my apologies, this is a picture of the ultrasound photo)

 

Yearbook Giggles

My friend Mari had this on her blog so I thought I’d try it out.  It makes yearbook photos of what you would look like in the hairstyle of that year.  It’s quite funny.  Here are some samples (they start in 1950 and end at 2000) hope you have a few giggles:

  

 

     

  

  

The scary thing is that a couple of them look very realistic when compared to my real school photos.  Here are a few of the real deal, sorry these are pictures of pictures. First is 8th grade(1989) then freshmen through senior years(1993).

      

*sorry if you checked this post right away, it was a little bit of a learning experience

I wish

I wish I had as much energy as I had on Wednesday.  Apparently my gumption then created a deficit that lasted Thursday and Friday.  In the future I will have to pace my enthusiasm.

The real I wish story: (first let me say I don’t actually believe in wishing on a star)

Tonight as we were leaving Target late this evening, Erica asks “mom what’s that thing for wishing on a star?”  so I said “I wish I may, I wish I might…” so she makes her wish.  Then Lauren makes a wish after she gets in the car ” IwishIwish  I wish for a pony”. As we’re driving down the road Lauren changes her wish to “i want a pink pony”(I guess if you’re going to wish you might as well go for the impossible) Erica tells Lauren “your wish won’t come true because I saw the star first”, I told her ” Well if it was the first star she saw, she can still wish on it.”  after which Sam says “mom, they’re wishing on an airplane”

Oh they make me laugh.

All clear

So I took Erica in to the doctor today like a good dooby and he said she is currently all clear, no wheezing (she had albuterol not long before we left) and no sign of bacterial infection.  So we are supposed to just keep doing what we’re doing – it seems to be working =) and call if she developes a fever.  Fortunately the Dr we had (our regular Dr. is on vacation) also is the Dr. on call this weekend so if anything developes he said he can probably just call something in for us -yay!

what to do first

I am rather excited because I think I found my gumption back.  It always goes into hiding for the first 4-5 months of my pregnancies, I’m usually so aware of everything that needs to get done and even kind of itching to do it (the whole nesting thing) but so exhausted I just can’t.  Well today I started to tackle my basement office.  We moved my office space because we hope to put Sam’s room downstairs eventually after the baby is born so we needed that area.  However, that is where the overflow of stuff I couldn’t deal with has been dumped for the last several months.  I’m not done yet but I definitely made a huge dent!

Also wanted to update on Erica, she started a flare about a week and  a half ago and today, seemed to get worse instead of holding steady.  We have an appointment with the Dr. tomorrow, hopefully it is just ragweed season and she’ll pull out of it.

One week countdown

I’m so excited!  One week from today I get another ultrasound and hopefully an oportunity to find out what the baby is.  I told Brandon he should be able to feel the baby move soon because the movements are definitely getting stronger.

Good-bye bride of frankinstein

Yay! I got to take off the leads for the holter monitor.  However, now I’m left with sticky patches where they used to be. Brandon told the girls that they turned me into a robot.  They thought it was cool to see that mom had snaps on her.  Erica got to take one of them off which she thought was fun.  It was so nice to take a nap this afternoon without wires =)

My beautiful heart

No I’m not being conceited, the exact words the doctor used when he walked in the room were”you have a beautiful heart”.  This was after my ECHO.  So far they did another EKG which is still showing the PVCs and they did the ECHO which established that my heart is structurally sound, and I am currently wearing a holter monitor to check the electrical impulse side of things.  I don’t get to take it off until Sunday afternoon.  If it looks okay then I think I’m all clear.

the pitter patter …of my heart

I also wanted to ask for prayers tomorrow.  I have an appointment with a cardiologist b/c lately my heart has been doing some irregular beats.  I had an EKG a couple of weeks ago and there were some PVCs (premature ventricular contractions) which I am assured are quite normal (as a matter of fact Brandon gets them) as long as you are not having too many of them.  So just to make sure everything is AOK I am meeting with the Cardiologist tomorrow to go over family history etc.  Please pray for peace of mind for me (and a good night’s sleep) and wisdom for the doctor.   I’ll let you know what I find out.

Me and my brilliant idea

Saturday morning I came up with a brilliant idea. Let me back up a bit. As you know Erica has asthma and allergies. Her allergist has advised that we get rid of our carpet and furniture in the basement because of the potential for dust mites and mildew etc. or that we switch to leather furniture because it reduces the dust mite issue.  In the past our basement has been where furniture goes to die.  It is our TV area and the children are allowed to play on the furniture (read: jump, bounce, create forts etc.) inevitably they kill the furniture.  So you can see why I was not interested in buying leather furniture (more expensive if you didn’t know) for my basement where the children are bound to destroy it.  I have been trying for quite a while to come up with an alternate solution.  Now, Friday Brandon spent the night in the basement with the youth group kids for an all-nighter.  He was miserable by morning because, while we have never had him tested, we are quite certain he is also allergic to dust mites.  Saturday morning it finally hit me ….da,da,dada!…. hammocks!  if we had a hammock down there it would still allow for comfort but eliminate the dust mite issue.  This was on the same thread of my idea last year -to get some of those ergonomic reclining lawn chairs where there are bungie type things holding the mesh to the frame -my BIL has one and it was quite comfortable.  I had kept my eye on them at walmart, meijer, and target last year to see if they would go on clearance (the only way I could afford them) -they don’t go on clearance.  So I checked for both on craig’s list.  I found a 2 person hammock, a hanging hammock chair (both NIB) and 2 of the mesh chairs (used but in good condition).   I shared my idea with Erica thinking she would think it was a fabulous adventure -she ran away screaming something about “why do we always have to get rid of everything I love, and vowing to never leave the couch so that we could not remove it from the basement.  Over the course of the week we picked them up first the chairs then the hammocks.  The chairs are quite comfortable.  Last night Brandon got one of the youth group kids to help him move the furniture upstairs to the garage (thanks Zach).  As we were watching the olympics we started setting up the hammocks.  Oh dear!  First of all I’m quite sure the length of our TV area shrunk by like a couple of feet because I had figured the hammock would go where the couch had been (I neglected to measure) it most decidedly didnt’ fit.  Next, as we are setting up the hammock we get to the point of hanging the “net” part.  It is cotton so the thing says we will need to adjust it after it stretches.  The instructions say that at first you may experience a “bottoming out” -ya think!  I might as well have tried to sit on an imaginary chair.  It’s a good thing I’m not more pregnant than I am because as it was Brandon had to help me get up.  throughout the whole experience I kept saying, Ooah, I think this was a bad idea -we couldn’t even fit both recliners because the hammock was so huge!  Brandon assured me it was not and that we had gotten a good deal.  Fast foreward to this morning.  The children are thrilled with the new additions  to the basement.  They have been down there most of the day trying them out.  We did have to establish one rule… only one child on the hammock at a time.  This is not because any  of my children exceed the 450lb weight limit – no it is because at one point all three of the girls where on the hammock when Sam decided to get up,  not aware of the need to compensate for the wieght shift, the hammock tipped the other direction and promptly deposited Erica on the floor, or more precisely with her head on the support bar…she actually had a dent right behind her ear.  I have been watching her closely all day and she seems fine.  She never losts consiousness or anything but I was totally afraid I was going to have to call the doctor and say “well in an attempt to help her asthma, um …I think she got a skull fracture”  Oh yes after the incident Erica comes marching upstairs and says, “mommy that thing is dangerous!  I think we should get a different one that kids can’t get hurt on”.  I also had to laught because after lunch Sam said she felt a little sea sick, then Erica says you mean motion sickness and Lauren says “ya Ocean sick”  …how cute.