I thought you could use a break…

From my overly-emotional, pregnancy-hormone-fueled posts.

So I gave you like a whole week and half (or something like that) off.  I’m nothing if not generous, right?

This has really been an insane few weeks.  I’m beyond tired.  All the extra time I got to spend with family & friends has been totally worth it, but that doesn’t make me any less tired.  Neither does sleeping apparently.  What’s up with that?

So the weekend before last Anna & I drove to Hendersonville for a visit.  Last weekend, my whole family came here.  We had Anna’s official birthday party last Saturday.  I think we had 23 people total.  If you’ve been to my house, you know that’s way more people than my house can accomodate!  It was meant to be an outdoor party and it was a very hot day for it!  No one complained (much anyway).  We changed things up by hanging out on the front porch/front yard.  Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.  Anna included.  She was completely uninterested in opening presents, so she played with the ribbons and bows while I opened them for her.  She gots tons of stuff!  Lots of sweet little outfits, new books and new toys.  Everyone was way too generous!

I have a ton of pictures…from 3 different cameras…so I’ll just pick a few for now!

Anna & our good friend Jimmie…

Anna in the midst of her presents:

The cake!

It took her awhile, but eventually she briefly tried the face plant method of cake-eating:

Doesn’t she look sweet eating her cake?

Sorry…just a few more!

Big handful of cake:

I LOVE this one!

 

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

I have such mixed feelings about Anna turning one.  I had such a weepy day.  I had to sneak off to the bathroom at work a few times today to get it out of my system and compose myself.  I am NOT a public crier either.  There really aren’t that many people that ever see me cry and my co-workers aren’t in that group.  Lucky them!    Ugh, these hormones are kicking my butt!

Once I got home from work…Anna was excited to see me, which is always nice!  Mark started dinner then we took Anna outside for her present…We were given an old swing set by some friends.  Mark sanded and painted it last week and I got a baby/toddler swing for her…we put it on the swingset last night.  I knew she’d like it, but she liked it even more than I thought!  She giggled and squealed while Mark pushed her in the swing…here are a few pics.  I should have done video…the giggles were so cute!

After we were all soaked in sweat from the heat and humidity, we had some dinner.  Steak, zucchini, squash & corn.  Anna LOVES steak (I wonder where she got that?).  Then we moved on to cake…She really liked the cake itself, but she didn’t tear into it like we’d hoped.  Mark finally pulled a chunk off for her to show her how it’s done.  That didn’t help much either.  She ate quite a bit, but really preferred when we fed it to her.  She’d pick it up out my hand eat the cake and then suck the frosting off her hands.  Goofy kid!  She gets to try again on Saturday, though, when we have her party.

I’ll post more pictures then.  The internet is being uncooperative and I need to get to bed.

Happy Birthday my sweet, sweet baby!

 

The day before

Ah, the flashbacks continue, and I may turn into a weepy mess at any moment.  Is this normal or are the pregnancy hormones a contributing factor?  Ugh.

Here’s a link to my post from June 16, 2008…just for comparisons sake, and since I’ve been going back and reading these lately…http://smasco.wordpress.com/2008/06/16/well/

About this time last year I was just finishing up at the doctor’s office.  I was calling Mark to let him know that later that evening we’d be getting me checked into the hospital so they could start prepping me for induction.  Mark was at work at the time and went into overdrive trying to tie up loose ends in preparation for several days off.  The only time I had seen him more nervous was on our wedding day, and it was rather adorable.  I called my mom and went home to finish packing.  I was pretty nervous myself, but really excited and, looking back now, so very blissfully unaware of the hell I was about to enter into during the next 12 hours (by that I mean labor…not motherhood itself).  If I had known I would’ve taken a very long nap.  I had gotten up around 7am that day (the 16th).  I wouldn’t really sleep again until about 4:15pm on the 17th…

At the time I wasn’t thinking about c-sections or the pain of contractions…I was focused on a sweet baby girl in my arms.  My mind knew there would be pain involved followed by many sleepless nights, but none of that really registers when you’re 9 months pregnant and ready to meet your baby…and that’s probably a good thing.

I can’t believe it’s been a year since that day and tomorrow will be a year since Anna was (finally) born.  It’s weird to sit here at my desk at work, looking at the pictures on my desk, which are mostly of Anna, and think of that last day of my pregnancy with her.  The changes in her are incredible, of course.  It’s unbelievable how much a baby changes in their first year of life.  The changes in me are incredible too.  They weren’t kidding when they said having a baby will change everything.  I don’t think there is an aspect of my life that has been left untouched…and there really is nothing better than being Anna’s mommy…I mean, look at that face!

More overly sentimental posts coming soon I’m sure!  ;o)

 

Just one more week…

Until my baby girl turns 1.  The only thing that’s making this any easier is that I’ll have another tiny baby in 6 more months.  Really that’s not helping that much though.   I can’t believe how fast it’s gone by and how much she’s changed and grown.  The first year is really amazing!

Over the past week or so I’ve spent some time reading through my blog archives…from this time last year.  I’m so glad I have those blog entries to read!  It’s made me teary some, it’s made me laugh at myself some.  Overall it’s been nice to think back to that time.  It’s amazing how blissfully unaware I was of what was to come.  I mean, there was no way I could know, but still…it’s interesting to look back on it now that I know what I know.

My entries from the last few weeks of my pregnancy remind me of how tired I was, how uncomfortable I was and how ready I was to meet my baby.  I didn’t know then how hard it would be to get her here.  I didn’t know that 2 weeks after she was born the colic would start and I didn’t have any idea that it would go on until almost October.  I had NO idea that a year later I’d be expecting another baby…if you’d told me that then I would’ve laughed!  I would have never thought it was even a possibility.

Most of all I didn’t know how fast that tiny baby would grow up.  That she would just now be starting to sleep through the night on her own (3 nights in a row and counting!) and how even just the thought of her sweet little smile would make my day.  I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world.  I wouldn’t trade a second of the pain it took to get her here…neither the years of infertility nor the 20 hours of labor.  I wouldn’t trade the days of colic even though I really thought we’d never make it through that.  Because, to me, if just ONE second was different I would be different, Mark would be different, Anna would be different and I wouldn’t want that.  Mark and I dealt with a lot and overcame alot to get the happy little almost-one-old baby girl we have today.  If she had never been such a difficult, high-maintenance baby I wouldn’t be able to appreciate all the smiles and giggles she gives us now like I do.

I get tired, and I’m scared to death of having 2 babies under 2, BUT being a mom is even better than I thought possible.  I just thought I’d share because that’s what’s on my mind today.

In more mommy news…I had my 12 week OB appt. on Monday.  This is my last appointment with this doctor…the doctor that ended up delivering Anna.  She’s moving out of state and there is no way the other 2 doctors are touching me after the experience I with Anna’s birth.  So, I’m changing practices.  I may have to deliver this baby in Jackson, which I’d prefer not to do.  I’m still waiting to hear for sure if I can get in with another doctor that practices in Martin, but delivers in Union City.  Keep your fingers crossed that works out for us!  It would be easier for us logistically since we have to make sure someone can keep Anna while Mark is with me during the c-section.  Anyway…back to the appointment.  Not a whole lot to report really.  I gained 2 pounds I think.  I had lost 5, so I guess gaining 2 is ok.  The 12 week appt is usually when they try to listen to the heartbeat on the doppler for the first time.  Of course, I have a rented doppler at home, so I had already heard the heartbeat.  The doctor couldn’t find it with the doppler.  This baby likes to hide, so it usually takes me awhile to find it.  Since it was my last appt with her and the ultrasound technician was off that day, the doctor took me back to do a quick ultrasound.  Woohoo!  I didn’t get any pictures to take with me since she was really just doing a quick check for the heartbeat.  I did get to see the baby moving around though.  And it looks like a baby now…albeit a very skinny baby.  I got to see a little arm waving at us and the baby did some flip-flops.  We did confirm that the baby has a strong little heartbeat and the doctor said he/she was very active.  I love ultrasounds…they’re the best.  I was kind of bummed that I’ve gotten to see the baby twice now and Mark hasn’t seen the baby at all.  Both times the ultrasounds weren’t planned though, so we had no way of knowing.  I imagine I’ll get to schedule my “big” ultrasound at my next appointment though…and Mark will definitely be there for that one.  Probably Anna too.  I think it will end up being towards the end of July or beginning of August.

Ok…I’m at work, so I suppose I should do some work.  Even if it is pretty slow right now.  I hope everyone is having a great week!

Edited to add…I just found this picture on my computer.  I don’t know if I’ve posted it before, but I LOVE it!  It was just a quick snapshot while she was sitting in her stroller down by the garden.  It’s about a month old, but just look at that sweet, sweet face!

 

Busy weekends for the wannabe farmer

Mark has this dream of selling vegetables on the side of the road.  No, seriously.  Actually I think he wants ME to do it.  He talked about me doing this while I was on maternity leave with Anna, and seemed to think that this would be a simple think to do with an infant in tow.  Mmmmhmmm…Now that Anna is staying home with him again.  I think he should do it!  We’re going to have plenty of melons and vegetables.  And it’ll be NO PROBLEM to do with a 1 year old!  She won’t mind hanging out on the side of the road in her pack-n-play in 90 degree weather…for hours at a time.  Right?  Oh, you think she will?  Hmmm…

Anyway, I guess because he secretly wants to be a full-time farmer, when it comes time to plant the garden, he goes a bit overboard.  This year was no exception.  I don’t know how on Earth he thinks a family of 3 will be able to consume this many vegetables!  I try to talk him down every year.  We really only need one squash plant, etc.  Well, we ended up with 4 squash plants and 2 zucchini plants.  We have a whole row of tomato plants (different varieties) and more than 1 row of pepper plants.  Oh, and that’s not all!  I won’t give you a complete inventory, but it’s a big job to stay on top of it all.  We’ve done better each year.  This being (I believe) the 4th year…though I really shouldn’t count the first year.  It was really, really a sad “garden” that year.  I think we harvested one inedible squash the whole season.  Last Sunday morning, we loaded up Anna (once again) in her Jeep stroller and she hung out down by the garden while Mark and I weeded the garden.  The thing about gardens is that they are in full sun.  It got hot fast.  We managed to get the whole garden weeded, landscape fabric under the melon plants.  Then we went and planted another garden.  Really.

On our back 25 acres (I so need a better name for that section of land), Mark had tilled a section about as large as our “real” garden.  So last Sunday, we planted that section too.  Pumpkins, butternut squash, acorn squash, gourds and corn.

That brings us to this weekend.  The garden needs weeded again.  AGAIN!  It’s not terrible, but it needs to be done before it gets out of control.  Thankfully the garden has decided to produce something to make all these weeding worthwhile.  Even if it it’s really only been cucumbers so far.  Oh, and 2 or 3 little squashes.  Is that the plural of squash, or is squash the plural of squash?  It’s just squash, isn’t it?  You get the point though.

It just occurred to me this morning that this is the last weekend I’m going to be home before Anna’s birthday party.  So I had to sit down and make a list of all the little things that need to get done.  It’s a long list.  We have about 20 people coming for the party itself, plus my family coming the afternoon before and staying until the day after.  It was never my intent to have  “big” first birthday party for her, but when your family is as large as mine, things get big fast!  I’m excited to have everyone here.  This will be the third time in the almost 4 years that Mark and I have been married that my family (sisters, brothers-in-law, parents, niece and nephews) has come to visit us on the farm.  The only year they didn’t come here we all went on vacation together in Florida.  It nice to have everyone together.  This year we’ll be missing one…my brother-in-law Wayne is in Iraq for a few more months.    I know we’ll all miss having him here.  It’s never as fun when even one person isn’t there.

Next weekend I’m headed to Hendersonville to see my sister Laura and her 4 boys who are coming to visit (finally!) from Hawaii.  They moved last year just before Anna was born so they haven’t met her yet.  I can’t wait for them to meet her…and for her to meet them!

The weekend after that is the party.  The weekend after that Mark is going on a camping/fishing trip.  The weekend after that I will be sleeping.  Alot.  Maybe I should start now…I’m tired just thinking about it!  I can’t wait though!

 

Life keeps getting more interesting!

Anna seems to be going through a developmental growth spurt.  She’s learning new things so fast!  Every day it’s something new!  Just a week or 2 ago she learned to pull up on things…but she’d only get up on her knees.  It didn’t take too long before she learned to get up on her feet.  Now she’s really fast at that.  She hasn’t started crusing yet (walking around the furniture while holding on), but I don’t imagine it’ll be much longer.  I watched her yesterday as she stood holding on to the coffee table eyeing the exersaucer that was a foot or 2 away.  She wanted to get over there so bad!  I could see the wheels turning in her little head.  She hasn’t quite gotten it together yet, but walking is clearly not far behind.  She’s figured out how to get upright and now she wants to move!

Saturday morning she somehow climbed out of her crib.  It about gave me a heart attack.  Mark and I were outside (with the baby monitor) when it apparently happened.  It’s not unusual for her to cry when she’s ready to get out of bed, so I went to get her only to find her crawling out of her room towards me.  Thankfully there is a baby gate there and she can’t get out into the rest of the house!  And thankfully she seems to be perfectly fine after her crib-escape stunt, but it did really scare me (and I think her too).  This kid needs to SLOW DOWN!!

For the record…the crib mattress has been lowered as far as it will go.  I wonder how much longer that will be enough?

Last week was an interesting week.  Anna has been cranky (teething again I’m pretty sure).  She’s not eaten or slept well and therefore I haven’t slept well either.  Going back to work after a long weekend is no fun anyway, and the lack of sleep didn’t help.  I didn’t have to deal with daycare last week though and that was good.  Mark stayed home with Anna.  I think it made for a much happier mama and baby.  Back to daycare for Anna today though…although I think we’re going to make this her last week…at least at this daycare.

That 45 minute commute each morning and afternoon gives me lots of time to think.  I guess I’ve been in an unusually pensive mood anyway this past week.  The Friday before last I got my rental fetal doppler.  I’ve listened to the new baby’s heartbeat several times since then.  I think after dealing with infertility for so long before Anna, that extra reassurance just means so much to me.  I know some people think it’s silly, but I’d challenge you to walk a mile in my (formerly infertile) shoes.  It helps my anxiety level so much to know that the baby is in there with a nice, strong heartbeat…which means that my body is doing things exactly as it should be doing things.  After feeling like my body was failing me (by failing to get pregnant), it’s nice to know it CAN work properly.

I was thinking during one of my commutes last week about something my cousins wife (Patti) said in a blog comment either when I was pregnant with Anna or just after I had her.  I don’t remember the exact words, but the gist of it…she was talking about she and my cousin (her husband) seeing eachother as parents and the way that affected their marriage after their first child was born.  Yeah.  I think at the time she left that comment I wasn’t at a place where I knew how that would be for Mark and me.  Now our daughter is almost a year old.  I guess to some degree I thought I knew about what kind of father Mark would be.  I was certainly on track with how I thought it would be, but maybe this is just one of those things that you can’t see the depth of until you get to a certain point (and I’m sure this will continue to change).  Mark started out being pretty hands-on.  I had a c-section and watched from the hospital bed as he changed Anna’s first few diapers, he never complained about it, he just did it.  He was never particularly tentative with Anna either.  He’d never been around infants much, if at all, but he just stepped in and learned as he went and, with very few hiccups, did perfectly well.  I don’t guess it ever occurred to me at the time to be impressed.  I had too much on my own plate.  I am impressed, though, thinking back now.  I’m not saying we didn’t have our disagreements with how things should be done.  We still do and I’m sure that’ll continue.  I’ve watched him grow into his role as a father and it’s really a remarkable thing to watch…especially when it’s the father of your own child.  Watching them interact sometimes makes me want to cry…and I mean that in a good way.  The way he is silly with her…the way he makes her laugh.  It’s the best thing in the world to see.  It’s interesting to see how it affects the way I feel about Mark.  It really has added a whole new dimension to our relationship.  I’m not sure why that’s surprising, but I didn’t expect it.  It’s like I get to share a bit of the love that Anna has for him, and it’s so, so special.

 

First swim…

We had a nice, warm (ok…kinda hot), pretty day yesterday.  I had bought Anna a little baby pool a few weeks ago…before all the rain, and we had not had a chance to use it yet.  Mark and I cleaned it out yesterday morning and put a few inches of water in it.  Now, we have well water, which is  cold coming out of the tap year round.  So, we filled the pool and let it sit for several hours so the water would warm up a bit in the sun.  I finally got to put Anna in it after her afternoon nap yesterday.  She thought it was LOTS of fun!  She splashed and played and crawled around in it (thankfully Mark didn’t make if very deep!)…then she discovered the grass and decided it was MORE fun to lean over the side and pluck handfuls of grass!  So the pool ended up with a lot of grass in it, but oh well.  It was fun to watch…Here’s a few pictures.  I had to do a lot of processing on one of these (the first one…it was WAY underexposed) so the color is off, but…do y’all really care?  Still cute!

Don’t you love that bathing suit?  Thanks Grandma!

My gorgeous girl…She is SO pretty! (not that I’m biased)

Crawling out of the pool to me…just after I took this she did a face plant in the grass.  Don’t worry, she was fine!  Mark just picked her up and plopped her back in the pool!  Silly girl!

Ah, that girl!  She’s so fun!

We all had big, busy day yesterday.  Anna slept through the night Friday night for the first time in at least a month!  Woohoo!  Of course, I woke up at 6:30 freaking out because I hadn’t heard a peep out of her in almost 12 hours.  I went and peeked in her room and she was laying on her back with her feet in the air playing with her aquarium crib soother.  Whew!  She didn’t see me, so I let her stay in her crib for a bit, but she was still up before 7:00.  Normally Mark would get up with her on the weekend and let me sleep, but when she started to get fussy…meaning she was ready to get up…Mark was outside already working in the garden.  So I got up with her fed her a bit of breakfast, strapped her into her Jeep stroller, filled the snack tray with Cheerios, gave her a sippy of milk and off we went to garden too.  Mark was watering everything using his miracle grow sprayer.  I went around and staked some of the tomatoes plants that needed it.  We wandered around in the garden for a little while longer.  This is something we do at least once daily…we got through and look  at all the plants, see how they’re coming along.  They’re coming along well so far.  We should have squash ready to pick in the next few days.  Our tomatoes seem to be taking forever to produce any fruit, but they have flowers on them, so maybe it won’t be too much longer.  Our cantaloupe plants are starting to bloom, so they should have tiny fruits starting to grow soon.  We have some cucumbers and zucchini that should be ready in another week or so.  The corn looks good, the beans and peas are coming up.  The peppers are *just* starting put on peppers.  Ah, I love this part of gardening…you know before the REALLY hot weather hits and I get to the point where I’m just OVER it!

After that, Mark brought Anna’s playpen outside and she hung out under the cedar tree while I hosed off the patio furniture and the pergola floor.  Have I mentioned lately that I hate our chickens?  They have decided the pergola is their personal refuge.  They are about to be permanently fenced into the chicken yard.  Between the poop and the destruction of my hostas and coleus, I’m pretty pissed off at the chickens.  After I finished that, we went BACK down to the garden, Mark tilled up a spot to replant our lima beans (they kind of got washed away with the big rains we’ve had).  He dug out the rows and I planted the limas.  Then I planted the honeydew that Mark had started from seed.  I’m not sure how those are going to do.  This is our first time trying to grow those.  We’ll see.

Then we put Anna down for her AM nap.  While she was asleep, Mark mowed (I think) and I cleaned the bathroom and vacuumed the house.  I managed to get way to hot and felt pretty zapped the rest of the day.  After Anna woke up, I vacuumed and dusted her room.  Then we took a break.  Anna and I shared a couple grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and watched Yo Gabba Gabba.  Weird show, but Anna really seems to enjoy it!

The rest of the day is a blur.  I did make a trip to Wal-mart AND to the grocery store.  I had to do both because I can’t stand Wal-mart’s meat selection…especially the beef.  Our grocery store had steaks on sale (OH THANK YOU!!)  So we had steaks on the grill for dinner last night.  They were SO good!  Anna and I shared a filet (that I got for under $6.00!).  Not a splurge I usually make, but it was as cheap as Mark’s T-bone, so I was ok with it!  I also got lots of fruit.  Mark had bought a cantaloupe sometime the week before last and we didn’t eat it until last week.  He just had it in the fridge.  When I was sick on Monday and couldn’t hold anything down, he chopped some up for me to eat.  Oh. My. God.  That was the best tasting thing ever!  It was sweet and light and cold and wet…and I didn’t throw up after I ate it!  I’ve been craving cantaloupe ever since.  So I got a cantaloupe yesterday and some fresh cherries and strawberries.  I’m going to have to go eat some of that now…I made myself hungry!  And Anna’s awake from her nap, so I guess she might like to eat too…

 

11 Months Old…

Not one of my best photo efforts.  Anna hasn’t had the best day, so I was trying to get done quickly!  Still, I like them.  I LOVE this dress…too bad it’s still a smidge big!  The wagon was Mark’s…

 

We had a long week…

I won’t go into it all here since I’ve been updating about the daycare saga on Facebook throughout the week.  What I don’t think I’ve said yet is that yesterday went better for Anna.  That makes me feel a bit better, but I’m still not thrilled with the situation.  At this point I don’t think it’s the daycare’s fault.  I think for them it may have just been a matter of figuring out my somewhat atypical baby.  I know the owner (who is the primary caregiver for the infants) really wanted to hold and rock Anna to try to soothe her, but as I had tried to gently tell her, Anna’s not a big cuddler.  Especially if you aren’t Daddy or Mama.  I think them trying to cuddle her like when she was upset just made things worse.  She wanted to get down and explore and be a bit more independent.  That’s just what makes her happy right now.  So, maybe we have made a breakthrough after Friday.  I don’t know.  I’m still not 100% sold.  I think I just have some hangups of my own about daycare, and that’s not helping.

Yesterday Anna was a bit fussy when I picked her up from daycare.  She had actually done better every other day this week, so I thought maybe she was just extra tired.  I got her all buckled in, gave her a sippy cup of juice and a Baby Mum-Mum (she seems like she’s always ready for a snack after daycare) and off we went back to Martin.  Mark had some dinner ready for Anna when we got home.  She ate a TON last night.  Like she just could NOT get enough food.  After dinner, we all took our nightly walk down to the garden, Anna played a bit in her Johnny Jump-up, and then we got ready for Anna’s bath.  She was super-tired.  We got her bathed and dressed, I read her bedtime stories and put her to bed.  She went right to sleep at around 7:30.  Around 10:00 she woke up crying, so I went in and nursed her like I usually do and put her back down.  Usually she goes right back to sleep, but last night that just wasn’t happened.  She cried and cried and cried.  I got her back up and gave her some Tylenol (she has a tooth coming in) and let her hang out with Mark and I on the couch for awhile.  She drank an ENTIRE sippy cup of milk and layed there on Mark kind of listless and sleepy.  Finally Mark got her back to bed without a fuss around 11 or so.  I went to bed and heard Anna again around 12:30, Mark took her sippy cup to her and she drank a bit more then went back to sleep.  From there she slept until 9:30 am!  I heard her cooing and talking a little before that, but she went right back to sleep.  I finally went and got her up at 9:30.  She had her usual scrambled egg breakfast with a side of banana.  She ate as well as usual. I cleaned her up and put her on the living room floor to play.  She played quietly and babbled to herself while I checked my email, message boards, facebook, etc.  The next thing I knew she had thrown up…and I mean PROJECTILE vomit.  It was awful!  She threw up twice…back to back.  Then I noticed her diaper…I won’t even go into it, but it was VERY full and VERY disgusting!  Poor baby was NOT feeling well.  After consulting with my mom, I think we decided she probably has a little stomach bug…I SOOOO hope I don’t get it.  I just got over the nausea!  She’s taken 2 extra-long naps today, but otherwise seems fine, minus the diaper issues.  I made some chicken noodle soup for her (with spiral noodles) for lunch, but she didn’t eat a whole lot.  She drank a TON though.  She’s played pretty well.  She doesn’t seem quite as peppy as usual though.  I’m hoping she’s all better tomorrow.  Tomorrow is her 11 month birthday!

I felt great this morning.  I think it’s the first day I’ve felt good in a few weeks.  The 9 hours of (relatively) uninterrupted sleep  I’m sure helped!  I just felt noticeably normal!  No nausea, no overwhelming fatigue.  Ahhhh…so nice!  So, after getting Anna down a nap and talking to my mom on the phone I went outside and wandered around for a bit.  Our mulberry tree is full of berries, so I decided to pick some.  I think I picked about 2 quarts.  We don’t usually pick the berries, ever.  Last year was the first time anyone ever really ate them…We had my entire family visit the first weekend of June last year (just before Anna was born) and the kids went crazy eating the mulberries off the tree!  They had purple hands and purple mouths, but they really seemed to enjoy them!  Anyway…one of Mark’s online friends has since mentioned making mulberry wine.  So Mark has decided he wants to give this a shot.  He also made dandelion wine this year.  I think it’s more of a science project to him than anything else.  He has drank a very small amount of the dandelion wine and he says it’s pretty decent…a little sweet though.  So I guess he’ll taste the mulberry wine too, but I wouldn’t say he’s making it so he has it to drink…more just for the fun of it.

This coming week is going to be another busy one.  Thank goodness next weekend is 3 days long!  Another week of daycare for Anna.  Another week of wiring a house for Mark.  Another week of work for me.  I am taking the afternoon off on Tuesday for another OB appointment, so Anna will get rescued early that day.  I think my mother-in-law is going to keep her while I’m at the doctor’s office.  I get to have blood drawn and fun stuff like that.  Woohoo!

I want to mention this here, because I just can’t help it.  I had such a rough week and this was the one thing this week that made me happy and excited.  One of my online friends is expecting baby #2, she found out Tuesday…just as I was trying not to cry my eyes out about leaving Anna a daycare.  I got the priviledge of obsessing over her pregnancy tests with her and being one of the very first people to know.  I have lots of online friends, but this is one of my oldest online friends.  I think we’ve been in our online group together since late 2006 or so (is that right?).  There are 4 of us in the group and out of all the groups that I’m a part of, I feel closest to these girls.  We went through the ups and downs of trying to conceive, surgeries, fertility drugs, etc.  And as luck would have it, we all ended up with 2008 babies!  It’s a great group of girls.  The phenomenon of online friends is so interesting.  None of us have ever met, but they’ve been there for some of the toughest times…and the happiest too.  So, when I saw this post on our group on Tuesday, I was so excited!  Just as excited, if not MORE excited than if she had been a friend that I see every day.  We were pregnant together last time and had our babies pretty close together…and here we are again.  I know she’s not telling anyone in real life for awhile, so I won’t mention her name…just in case.  I’m just so excited that we’re pregnant at the same time again that I couldn’t keep my mouth shut!  So, congratulations!  You know who you are!  

 

An update on Baby #2

I had my first OB appointment for this pregnancy today.  It was kind of a long one.  I had figured a due date of December 6th based on the usual method of determining a due date, but I had a feeling that was pretty off…it was.

I saw the doctor that delivered Anna…I really like her alot.  We spent lots of time joking and laughing about me being pregnant again, but she was anxious to figure out exactly how far along I was.  She did an exam and said I felt like I was between 12-14 weeks…Ummm…WHAT???  If I was due on Dec. 6th, that would make me 9 weeks, and I didn’t think I was any further along than that FOR SURE.  So then she asked about twins running in the family, etc.  At that point I was pretty freaked out.  She brought in the doppler to try to find the heartbeat, but she didn’t have any luck with that.  I’m sure at this point she really wanted to make sure it wasn’t a molar pregnancy or if it was a multiple pregnancy, and for sure how far along.  Luckily they have their own ultrasound department, so she had them squeeze me in.  I was pretty nervous to see how that was going go!

They fit me in for the ultrasound pretty quickly.  It turns out there is only 1 baby, with one very sweet little heartbeat…measuring about 7 weeks, 4 days.  That actually is closer to how far along I thought I was.  That makes my due date officially December 17th.  It’ll most likely be a week before that though since I have to have a repeat c-section.  So right around my nephew Jack’s birthday!  Oh, and that means that when I found out I was pregnant, I was actually less than 3 weeks along!  Holy cow!

The doctor didn’t seem really sure why my uterus itself was measuring further along than I am.  She said maybe because it is tilted pretty far forward (first I’d heard of it!) and maybe because of how soon after my previous pregnancy.  I’m secretly still worried about twins…Ok, maybe not so secretly since I’m about to publish that on my blog!  Babies are just so tiny at 7 1/2 weeks, I sure hope we didn’t miss one in there!

Ok, Mark just brought me a bowl of ice cream, so I’ve to wrap this up.  I can’t let it melt, can I?  Uh, noooooo!

Here’s a pick of our newest little one…not much to see at this point and the picture is rather fuzzy.  The ultrasound was much more interesting in real life, and we could just make out a little face…and of course we could see the heart beating away.  The pictures just don’t do it justice…