28 Week Ultrasound

This afternoon was our 28 week ultrasound with the maternal fetal specialist. Mike and Emily came up to go with me to the doctor. We had to wait a long time, but we finally got called back to the ultrasound room.

The technician checked out Noah with the ultrasound for a long time. She showed us the four chambers of the heart, the long bones in the legs, different parts of the brain, the belly, the kidneys etc. When we first started, he was head down with his feet up in my ribs. The he later moved so that he was laying across me.

We got to see some cute cheeks. He had his hands by his face most of the time, but we did get to check out his face a few times. We saw some adorable little hands and feet. Some of them were 3D/4D images, but some of the pictures didn't turn out too great. He was still cute though!

Noah was measuring perfectly for 28 weeks and the technician said he was about 2lbs, 9 oz. Just perfect!

After the technician was done with her scan, the doctor (eventually) came in to take a look. He said Noah looked great and he didn't see anything concerning. I asked him if we needed to do anything differently and he said to keep doing what we're doing. He said we're doing great, but he wants to see us back in about 6 weeks for another check.

We're so grateful for the good news and the good ultrasound. Can't wait for this baby boy to get here!

Read more »

As American As Apple Pie

This afternoon while Mike was mowing the yard, he noticed that one of our trees had tiny apples on it. We have lived here 8 years and I don't remember seeing any fruit on this tree ever!

We think they might be Granny Smith apples, but we don't know for sure.

We do expect them to get bigger at some point.

Emily sure liked them!

Read more »

Will it? Wont it?

Will my new storage shed make it in time? For some reason, this is very hard to figure out. The shed company didn't call me back last night like they said they would. I called this afternoon, but had to leave a message.

When the guy called me back, he said he was "trying really hard" to get me scheduled for next Friday, but they still don't know for sure. He said one of their workers fell off a ladder and hurt himself today.

Apparently, he fell down on some boards on the ground chest first. He has no broken bones, but is in a lot of pain. And they hope to have him back at work by Wednesday or Thursday next week, but they don't know for sure. So in the meantime, we sit and wait and pray. The guy said he should know something by Monday or Tuesday and he will call me as soon as he finds out. Uh huh, I think that's what he told me last time.

I guess they already got my money and so they feel no real need to accommodate me at this point. I am sure they don't need my business as much as I need my storage shed. That's typical of companies these days, isn't it?

Read more »

Good, Better, Best

Today was Emily's last day of school for this year. Her last day of Pre-K ever. She got her report card today and it was GOOD. She passed every skill, of course.

In her Pre-K class, they have a color chart that they use to track behavior. Green is GOOD. Blue is a warning. Yellow is worse than that. And Red is a trip to the principal's office. Emily, proudly, has stayed on GREEN every day this whole year. And that is GOOD!

This is what Emily looked like this morning on the way to school.

Do you remember what she looked like on her first day of Pre-K? Check it out here.




Isn't she just growing up right in front of our eyes?

Today while I was at home, I called my doctor's office to see if they had the results from my glucose tolerance test that I took last week. The nurse called me back later and said that the results were normal. I told you that's what it would be, but I feel BETTER now that I know for sure.

I also worked on cleaning and organizing in Emily's room today. I had a lot of baby things stored in her closet and I was trying to get everything sorted out so that I can move some of it to Noah's room soon. I don't know about you, but I clean and organize with a large trash bag in hand.

Anything that has seen better days goes into the trash bag. It's much easier to clean this way when Emily is not around though. And the bag has to be gone by the time she comes back!

When Emily got home from school, I put her to work putting away her things in her room. She is a good helper if I give her specific directions. "Gather up all the shoes and put them on the shelf." "Find all the baby doll clothes and put them in this suitcase." "How many books can you find? Put them on your desk."

When Dad got home, we went to eat at Ted's to celebrate the last day of school. It was good Mexican food tonight, but Emily was more interested in checking out the other diners than eating her dinner. Lately, she has become an expert people watcher. I have to remind her often to keep her eyes over at our table.

Tomorrow, Emily and I are going to spend the day together. And I think that's the BEST news of all. We don't have any specific plans, but we are going to try to find something fun to do. We might go shopping. We might go play at the park. We'll definitely try to get some things done at home. But I know we will have a great time.

More

I made some phone calls yesterday and was finally able to talk to a guy about our shed. He wanted to schedule us for Tuesday, June 1, but I said I really needed it earlier than that - before Memorial Day. He said their schedule was booked until then, but there was this one customer who had inquired about delaying their installation date because their building site was not ready. And IF they change their install date, then we can get our building installed on Friday, May 28. He called it an "outside chance" that we could get installed on that date, but I explained that we were expecting a baby soon and we NEEDED to get this building in before Memorial Day. So we are praying that we'll be able to get the date that we need and everything will work out. At this point, I just have to turn it over to God and let him work out all the details.

And A Funny

This morning when Emily and I were on our way to school, Emily and I were chattering about different things. She said that "Daddy works on suitcases." I said he doesn't work on suitcases. And she said "Yes he does. He works on a lot of suitcases at work." I tried to explain that they're not suitcases, but they are computer files that are called cases and that Daddy helps people. I am just wondering how many people she has told that her Daddy works on suitcases.

Read more »

Tasty Tidbits

• Emily's last day of school is this week. Her class is having theme days every day this week. Tomorrow is sports day. She gets to wear her new OU t-shirt. It's pink.

• I've been packing Emily's lunch for the last few weeks. I've just been putting "stuff" in it - peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, rolled up slices of ham, string cheese, yogurt, chips, cookie. Just whatever I have on hand. She's LOVING this because she had been eating lunch in the cafeteria for months. The main reason I'm packing the lunch now is that the school will no longer allow her to charge her lunch because the school year is nearing an end. And I don't exactly know how much a lunch costs each day. Lame, I know.

• We went to our local home improvement store this weekend and ordered a storage building for our yard. So far, they have not called to schedule delivery. And, you know me, if they don't start doing right by me, then I'll have to start naming names on my blog. And you know they don't want that!

• On Sunday night, a bad hail storm came through our town. Many people have horror stories of hail stones going all the way through shingles and the roof deck and right into their living room. Many windows were busted out on both homes and cars.

• Did you know that the largest recorded hail stone was something like 7.5 inches in diameter? Mike told me this. He knows all about it.

• We're expecting more bad weather tomorrow. I know this because Mike keeps telling me that "Wednesday looks interesting". When he says this, I hear "Wednesday looks dangerous."

• This is a three-day work week for me. I'm taking a few days off to celebrate Emily's last day of school and her first day of summer vacation! I want to spend as much time with her as I can now before we become a family of four!

• I saw on the news that Sonic now has "real" ice cream. (Not sure why this was news.) So today at lunch, I went to Sonic to check out this new feature. And while I believe them that it's "real" ice cream (why do they need the quotation marks if it's really real?), I didn't think the ice cream had much taste. Am I the only one who feels this way?

Read more »

27 Weeks

I'll be 27 weeks pregnant on Monday. I thought I would go ahead and post a picture from today. 'Scuse my bad hair day. It's been rainy and I took a nap!

I had my glucose tolerance test this morning and it was no fun at all. They draw your blood for a baseline reading and then you drink a nice big bottle of super sweet orange drink (must finish it within 5 minutes.) I was drinking this and the technician told me not to get sick or they would make me come back and do it again another day.

Then after you drink the stuff, they draw your blood every hour for three hours to check how your body processes the sugar. In case you were counting, that's a total of four blood draws. Well, they got their four blood draws from me, but they ended up sticking me a total of 8 times! That's a miss every other time. It was awful. They poked both arms and both hands.

Noah is very active these days. He flips and kicks and hiccups a lot during the day ... and night. Sometimes you can see my belly moving when he kicks. That's very cool to see. He is about 14 inches long and 2 lbs.

My current craving is Reese's Pieces. I'd rather have these than ice cream. I'd rather have these than just about any kind of food. Too bad that won't fly. Peanut butter in a crunchy candy shell. What's not to LOVE?

I'm looking forward to going to the doctor for another ultrasound in about 2 weeks. It's always so fun to see how much baby Noah has grown and what he's doing in there.

I was talking to Mike the other day and told him that I was going to be 27 weeks on Monday. Emily was born at 37 weeks so we Noah could be here in as little as 10 weeks. Yikes! That makes me think I need to get busy.

Read more »

Glucose Tolerance Test

My glucose tolerance test is in the morning. I just want to take back what I said earlier this week about knowing that I'll pass the test this time. It's sorta like when you say that your kids sleep through the night ... or when you say that you or your kids never get sick. As soon as you say that, you know whatever you said WILL happen. So I take back what I said about the glucose tolerance test. Just because I don't want to press my luck.

So tonight as I prepare for the test, I'll be eating nothing after midnight. And I'll dutifully show up at the doctor's office early in the morning to start my test. Oh, and someone told me that it's not three blood draws. It's actually four. OUCH! I was thinking I might take pictures of all my "wounds" and post them on the blog, but I think Heather might not like that. Sorta like the alien baby pictures.

I told Mike that I might need some TLC tomorrow when I get done with my test. Mike went to the doctor's office with me when I had to do the three-hour test when I was pregnant with Emily, but he's not going to be able to go this time.

There seems to be a lot of confusion about the difference between the one-hour glucose screening test and the three-hour glucose tolerance test. I keep getting asked about this A LOT. The point of glucose testing in pregnancy is to look for gestational diabetes (aka diabetes during pregnancy.)

Like any screening test, the one-hour glucose screening will not give you a diagnosis. It's purpose is to identify which women need a closer look at their glucose levels. I think about 80% of women will pass the one-hour glucose screening.

The women who do NOT pass the one-hour glucose screening will have to take the three-hour glucose tolerance test and this will tell her doctor if she has gestational diabetes. Of the people who have to take the three-hour test, only about 30% of them will end up actually having gestational diabetes. So statistics (and history) are on my side.

I'll have to take a good book with me or something because three hours is a long time to sit in a waiting room. Especially when you're hungry. And especially when you're hungry and pregnant. And especially when you're hungry and pregnant and had to drink a bunch of nasty orange liquid (which gives me wicked heartburn) and have to get your arm jabbed repeatedly.

Okay all this talk about the test tomorrow is making me grumpy so I better go to bed.

Goodnight all!

Read more »

Spring Storms

As you know, we live in Oklahoma. Oklahoma is known for being in "tornado alley". On Monday evening, we had some damaging storms in the area. A tornado came through about a mile and a half from our house. There's a lot of major damage just down the street. As of today (Wednesday), there is only one north-south road that is open out near our house and it has power poles and power lines leaning over the roadway. Some of the cross streets are closed or blocked off.

And the sad thing is that we're having more bad weather in the state tonight. I think we're supposed to get storms every day from now until Monday or Tuesday next week.

We lost power on Monday night and finally got it back on Tuesday night. We stayed at home in the dark on Monday night, but we were getting ready to go stay with family on Tuesday. As we were packing our bags, the electricity came back on. I was soooooooo glad!

There are lots of people that had it much, much worse than we did. Many people are in need of our prayers during this time. I can't drive through the damage area without getting emotional. (I mean, I am plenty emotional right now without seeing all that.) But, it just breaks my heart to think of all those people who worked so hard for what they had and now it's all destroyed. Just seeing them out in the yards putting tarps over their roof or boarding up part of their house that was damaged, I can't imagine what they are thinking or feeling.

So all that to say ... please pray for these families who have lost their home or who have damage to their home.

Read more »

Mother's Day 2010

What a wonderful Mother's Day I have had!

This morning, it looked like we were going to get rained out, but the rain only lasted for a few minutes. Then we headed off to Sunday School. Cherry and I had some cute things planned for our SS kids to do for Mother's Day. Well, most of it was already done. And Cherry did most of it. But I think their mothers will be very happy.

After church, we went to lunch with Mike's family. The place was packed, but we got there early and didn't have to wait long. Mike's mom was excited about her gift - a large framed picture of the grandkids. The picture was from our Easter/Spring photos a few weeks ago. I think it turned out really cute and I'm glad she liked it.

After lunch, we went back home to take a nap. I think I'm the only one who actually took a nap, but I did take a long one. And it felt GOOD. Well, except for one little part.

When I got into bed, the sheet was sorta stuck down in the bed (because you KNOW I didn't make my bed when I got out of it this morning.) So I tugged on it to get it pulled up. And I ended up punching myself in the mouth with my fist. Got a nice fat lip out of the deal. Very classy look, I might add.

It was so nice to have a relaxing day. We had been so busy lately. It's been hard to keep up with all the little chores around the house ... like laundry. I can't say that I did great job of getting things done today, but there is always tomorrow. Or maybe the next day. Or sometime soon. Relatively soon.

In Other News ...

• We had a grand time yesterday in Tulsa for Miss Brynlee's first birthday party. Brynlee was so cute. The food was delicious. And Emily had a great time playing with all the kids. My ankles swelled quite a bit and I was sooo tired when we got home, but it was a lot of fun.

• I failed my one-hour glucose test last week. Total fail. Boo! So I have to do the three-hour (three-blood draw) test this week. So. Not. Fun.

• Emily only had about two weeks of school left. This week, she has to bring snacks for her class for the last time this year. It's also a day to celebrate her summer birthday. I was thinking we could stop by our favorite bakery and pick up some iced sugar cookies. And maybe one .. or two .. for baby and mommy. But Emily wanted to pick something else. So she's taking pre-packaged cookies from the grocery store.

• Cubbies is done for this year. Very happy about this. Wednesday we'll be able to relax instead of running all around town. I'll miss my Wednesday night date with Mike though.

Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day this year. I can't wait until next year when I'll be a mom of two. *squeal!* So fun! I think that almost makes up for the three-hour glucose test that I have to take this week. I just have this feeling that I'll pass the three-hour glucose test just fine. Sorta makes me want to call the doctor's office and say "ya know what? I don't feel like doing a three hour test this time so I think I'm just gonna pass. See you soon." What do you think?

Read more »

Where We've Been And Where We're Going

Have you noticed that the blog has been silent for a "few days"?

We have been extremely busy. This weekend was the city-wide garage sale weekend where we live. We went in with Mike's family to put on a garage sale at Mike's parents house. Well, they did most of the work, but I contributed some things to the sale.

Mike and I have been gathering up things for the garage sale for the last several weeks. One night last week, Mike's dad and brother came out to get a couple loads of the big things. I was so tired that I felt like I was done gathering up my sale items. But then I went to help at the sale on Friday afternoon and they were selling a lot of baby and kids clothes and toys. And I knew that Emily had lots of clothes stored in her closet that no longer fit. So Friday night I went home and gathered up 5 bags of clothes and shoes to take to the sale. And then I was pretty sure I was done.

On Saturday, we set up a table with my kids clothes on it and we sold lots and lots of them! I was so excited that I decided to go into Emily's room and look at the clothes hanging in her closet to see what might be too small. And I ended up dragging out another 3 bags of clothes. I had no idea I had that much stuff in Emily's closet, but I did. If I had more time and was not so worn out, I would have gotten out some of Emily's old toys too. But I was bone tired.

Today after church, we opened up the garage for a few more hours. I put out my three bags of clothes and we moved some of the larger items out closer to the street. We did not have a lot of traffic, but we did sell some items.

Overall, I think we had a great sale and I am soooo glad that I moved out so many things. It will be a huge help when baby gets here in a few months.

And to top off a great weekend, Emily sang in the church choir spring program tonight. Her class sang four songs and they did a GREAT job. Madison and Sarah were also in the program and they did really good too. They both had big roles and it was wonderful to watch!

So that's where we've been, but where are we going?

Hopefully things will be slowing down for us this week because I could sure use the rest! But I do have my 25-week doctor's appointment this week. This is the one where I do my glucose tolerance test and I am not looking forward to it! This is the one hour test and I'm not supposed to eat before I go in. The nurse said to have nothing to eat 6 hours before the test, but the lab technician said to fast for 12 hours if I want to avoid the 3-hour glucose test. (She wants to help me avoid that because it is not easy to get blood out of me and she sure doesn't want to have to stick me three times in one day.


All that's fine except that my appointment is not until 1:30pm. I am already cranky about how much I will be starving by 1:30pm. I'm thinking there is no way I can avoid eat something that morning. I'm thinking I can get up early and eat something that is low in sugar/carbs. Do you have any ideas on something I could eat for breakfast that morning?

Read more »