Nice!

My mom, brothers, and niece are flying to Florida today. I am so jealous! Still cold up here in the Nort'.

Ultrasound today!

It was so much fun to see the baby! The first thing I saw were the four chambers of the heart, beating away. The heartrate was 141. The ultrasound tech went through and measured all of the parts she needed to measure. She said everything looked perfect. The nuchal fold was thin like it was supposed to be. The baby kept trying to suck his/her thumb -- how sweet! My daughter does that. After we got all of the measurements, the u/s tech switched wands and went 3D (my clinic got one of those after my last baby, so this was my first time experiencing the 3D) -- pretty neat! The placenta was in the way, so it was hard to get a good face image, but she did get a few.

Oh, and I was right. The placenta is anterior, which is why I felt movement later this time (I had my suspicions early on!).

He/she measured 7 oz. and right on track for 18 weeks, which keeps my due date at August 29th.

For those of you wondering, I have no names picked out yet! Well, I have some ideas, but have not centered in on "for sure" names for either gender. I'm planning a trip to the library soon to check out a name book or two (I don't have time to fiddle around online).

So here he/she is! Enjoy. :)









After the ultrasound, I met with my awesome midwife. She's so sweet! She mostly just talked to DH about gardening. I love how personable she is, and it's neat that she remembers me from previous appointments. I never really got that impression when I saw my doctor the first pregnancy.

Feeling movement!

I was a little paranoid because with my daughter, I first felt 2 distinct taps at 12 weeks and 6 days. I continued to feel movement with her, and it was a bit of a surprise, since I didn't feel my son until 20 weeks (I had an anterior placenta with him, so it tends to serve as a cushion between the baby and well, you).

Anyway, the past few days, I have started feeling Baby Surprise a few times a day. It's such a great feeling! I know that once you hit the 2nd trimester, you are more "in the clear", but I am somewhat of a worrier (cue memories of the younger me, back in my solo and ensemble days, nervous stomache-ache in the bathroom while my mom told me everything would be okay -- yeah, I was one of those kids).

My big ultrasound is a week from today (1:00 CST on Monday, the 28th, for those of you stalking). I am so excited to see my baby again, because at 7 weeks, well, he/she was just a little thing.

As you know, I do not want to know the gender. I can't completely lie, so I will say that if I happen to "get a glimpse", I will take my best guess, but I don't want the ultrasound tech to tell me. I go back-and-forth (it'd be fun to know so then I could zero in on one name of one sex), but then I think of that moment, waterbirthing, when I pull that little baby out of the water and see for myself. How emotional that day will be, for many reasons. I think of my last waterbirth often, and how awesome it was (and not to toot my own horn, but I was so proud of myself for going natural. What an amazing feeling!).

Gender dreams!

I don't put too much stock into gender dreams, and I am not one of those blessed with "intuition" on what gender I am carrying (my mom knew what she was having all five times, and this was before ultrasounds were so commonplace).

However, I will share with my loyal readers that I had a dream last night that I had my baby and it was a girl. Someone said something or it was somehow messaged into my head (you know how sometimes you can't really tell?) that Andrew is "enough boy for me to handle". LOL. Probably true.

Either way, a healthy baby of either gender is perfectly fine with me. I honestly have no "preference" and realize how blessed I am. First and foremost, when I go for my ultrasound on March 28th, I want to see a nice, healthy baby. We are not finding out the gender this time because I really want to experience finding out AT the birth.

As for gender dreams, when I was pregnant with Elise, before I had my big ultrasound, I dreamed this (I am quoting from elsewhere; thank goodness I write this stuff down):

9/12/09: I had a vivid dream last night. I had a dream that I went for my ultrasound and they didn't even look for the gender, so I let them finish up. Then a couple minutes later, I walked back to the u/s tech and begged for another one, telling her I really wanted to know. Then it was weird, I could see into the womb, almost like I was swimming in it, and we zoomed into the baby until I got closer and closer and I saw a penis and she said, "It's 100% a boy!" Then I asked if I could touch my baby (since, you know, it's normal to be swimming in the amniotic sac with him and all), , and she said, "no, let's not disturb him".

As we all know, that baby was NOT a boy.

I find all this stuff to be fun (gender guessing, old wives' tales, etc.), so if you have your guesses, let me know what you think! I'll probably put a poll up on the sidebar so stay tuned (ETA: done!).

Wow.

I had a nice 3-day weekend (took off last Friday). It helps because it makes the weekend seem so much longer! We got a lot done. I had some laundry to catch up with. We also did some shopping out of town and visisted DH's brother and his wife (their kids are all grown/in college, etc.).

Anyway, I came into work this morning to learn we have 14 cases of Influenza A. This is out of our total count of residents of 84. This is a population that is something like 95% or 98% (?) vaccinated against the flu virus (in our facility, anyway).

It just goes to show how "awesome" that shot is (insert sarcasm). About 3 weeks ago, we also had a staff member (vaccinated) out with the flu.

Now they are talking about pushing Tamiflu on those of us who have not been vaccinated. Over my dead body! I will not take that junk either. I'll just tell them I'm taking Sambucol, which has been PROVEN to be more effective than Tamiflu.

I'm sorry, but I have never had Influenza, and pride myself on my strong immune system. I truly believe that those who get the flu shot year after year are just increasing their chances of getting the flu. Not to mention, if I do get the flu, it's not a death sentence. You have a higher risk of dying of LEPROSY, for Pete's sake.

Updates!

I feel like my blog is so boring because the blogs that tend to get a lot of hits and comments have a lot more exciting stuff going on -- either that or drama. I am not a dramatic person, so what you get is the girl next door who happens to be a mom!

So, I will just continue to update my loyal followers on what's going on in my everyday Wisconsin mama life. :)

I am doing well. I am 15 weeks + 3 days today and am starting to feel a little bit of Round Ligament Pain (RLP). It's nothing to worry about, but I do notice from time-to-time. It's mild at best, so nothing that hurts. I finally talked to my boss yesterday and told him I was expecting. It was one of those things I was putting off because I feel like I'm talking to my dad or something (not my dad, because he's not in my life, but I feel like I'm having the conversation you see on t.v. when a girl tells her parents she's expecting). He's very quiet and he's older and a GREAT boss -- I adore him -- but I see him as a father figure, so it feels weird. Anyway, he's happy for me. I'll take 12 weeks when the baby arrives, working up until that point. He said, "just don't deliver that baby here!" LOL. The woman I supervise will work full-time during my maternity leave, and the HR Director will also come 2 days a week, so between the two of them, they will cover my duties.

My big ultrasound is on Monday, March 28th, and I'll be 18 weeks then. The plan now is to not find out the gender, but rather, wait and be surprised at the [water!] birth!

Andrew is doing so awesome! Since he had his tonsils out in October for Obstructive Airway Syndrome, he has gained five pounds and a few inches. He looks so grown up now! I did mention to the pediatrician when I had Elise in for her 1 year check that Andrew had grown so much, and he said that it could very well be due to the fact that he's getting better quality sleep at night, allowing those growth hormones/receptors (whatever they're called) to do their job. He's so sweet, and last night said, "Mom, I love you. You're the best mom in the whole world". For how hyperactive and out of control he can be, he sure has his adorable moments. When I tuck him in at night, I think he's the sweetest little man in the world.

Elise is doing awesome! Like I mentioned, she had her well check this past Tuesday and She is 21 lbs, 2.6 oz and 29.53" long. She's in the 50th percentile for both! She has slid down a little on her weight curve, but she also started walking 6 weeks ago and has been super active. Her appetite is awesome -- she eats anything and everything. She only eats table foods -- no purees or anything (she never really cared for them). She still nurses 7 times a day, and even more on the weekends. The nurse asked when we started the appointment if she had any allergies to medications, and I said, "well, she's never been on anything yet!", and she thought that was really good. Of course, we all know that breastfeeding dramatically reduces the risk of ear infections, and neither of my children have had one. Elise had a slight cold once, but it was mainly just a runny nose that lasted a few days. Not too shabby! As I mentioned, she started walking awhile ago and goes all over the house. We have to keep our bathroom door shut because she LOVES the toilet and thinks it's just a fun place to play, not knowing how yucky it is!

The only other thing is that I have spring fever so bad! I cannot WAIT for this snow to melt so that we can see green grass and experience warmer weather again. Winter just SUCKS a fat one here.

Here's my 15 week belly pic, taken with my crappy cell phone. You get the idea. I'm basically showing pretty good now.

Growing, growing, growing!

Belly pic from yesterday, at 14w2d:

Bike trailer/stroller!

I had posted a few weeks back that we were getting a double bike trailer. Anyway, I was just going to update because we found an even better deal! We decided on this one, the Kidarooz 2-in-1 trailer. It's almost identical to the double Croozer we were going to order, plus we saved 15% on it because they had a President's Day sale.

It's already here and put together (thank you, hubby!) so now I am just waiting for warmer temps, both to melt the snow and so that I can enjoy walking. Bring on spring! March is here, so there's really no reason for it to be slow.

The bike trailer part of it will also be nice (although heavy, considering Elise is about 22 lbs. and Andrew is 35, and the trailer weighs 30 -- but those big wheels really push the trailer along pretty good and the hubby is an avid cyclist. I will ride along next to him with my bike and we'll probably keep an even pace. :)