A week of celebration :)

This past week has been a fun one for us! We spent last Sunday celebrating our Abby's 3rd birthday with the extended family. I made the cake for this celebration and it was so much fun to watch Abby open gifts especially now that she talks so well.

Then, her actual birthday was a few days later and I spent the afternoon helping my sister with the birthday 'playdate'. She hosted all of Abby's little friends for lunch and swimming; boy, what a looooong day! I now know what to look forward to when hosting little kids for ANYTHING :) That night we joined all the grandparents, Melissa, Dave and the girls celebrating at Chuck E Cheese. How a three year old knows thats where you go for your birthday is beyond me but that is what she wanted. The adults were VERY lucky though and Brad and I kept hitting jackpots and won a TON of tickets so the girls got great prizes to take home.

Abby's birthday also holds something very special to celebrate for us. This marks the 'anniversary' of our first date. :) I can't believe it's only been two years. Neither one of us can think back two years and imagine that this is where we would be today. I was just a young, single, professional going on a date and wondering if he would be Mr. Right. Now, two years later I am married to that date and waiting for our baby.

Chuck E Cheese's wasn't the only place I hit the jackpot this week. I told Brad to take me to the casino or let me buy a lottery ticket I am so lucky! I got a call right before I left for my appointment on Friday that I had won tickets to the Kenny Chesney concert the next night. I had been entering a contest every day all week through Channel 4 news and I won on Friday morning. I love me some Kenny Chesney (or as I like to call him 'my boyfriend') and took my mom since Brad told me he thought 'I would have more fun if someone other than him went'. We had great seats for free tickets and I had a blast.

I do have new pictures of our baby bear and will be uploading those as soon as I have some more free time. The summer started out so slow and it will be ending jam packed full of things to do!

We have movement!

*I think* :) I have had the 'bubbles' and 'rumblings' other moms have told me about for a little over a week now. I wasn't sure at first if that was the baby but I want it to be so bad. I really started to believe it was the baby on our first night of vacation. We arrived to the cottage, settled in, did some exploring, ate dinner and I laid down on the couch to watch some TV. I laid my head in Brad's lap, laying on my left side and all of a sudden I felt two large 'bubbles' popping in a row on the left side of my tummy. It was unmistakingly someone telling me that they were there too! I usually get the feeling when I am laying on my back too much-thus causing me to move-or after I eat dinner. I don't get it everyday and it surely isn't a punch or kick or anything that obvious. I can't wait for that and neither can Brad. He enjoys when I tell him that I feel something but he is as anxious as I am to feel something big...we are both waiting patiently for it.
We also have Godparents! We were able to finally connect with Brad's sister and Aunt Nicole was very excited to accept our inviation to be the Godmother. Uncle David, my brother in law, is also thrilled to finally be a Godparent. He will be an uncle for the first time and now a first time Godfather too. Now, mommy and daddy just need to talk to church about what we need to do for the baptism.
Another thing we have is furniture! We chose and brought home our crib before vacation and that is assembled. We also ordered a dressing table/dresser that came in the day before we left and we picked it up once we were back in town. Much to Brad's enjoyment it actually came assembled and that is in the nursery too. I would take pictures but the room is a wreck! All the boxes and packing material from the furniture take up most of the room with the furniture shoved in a corner. But, as soon as we start organizing the nursery I will take pictures.
One more thing...we have a registry! I actually put it together at Babies 'R Us a while back so we would be ready since I knew the end of the summer would be crazy for us. Now, I can't wait to get it all and feel a little more ready for baby bear!

A little R & R

We are back to everyday life today...or at least we are trying to be! We just got back from our trip up North...we spent 7 whole days renting a cottage in Houghton Lake. It was soooo nice. We spent the first 4 days alone together and then the night of the 4th day my family came to join us for the remainder of the trip. Overall we had great weather and of the two days it rained Brad and I spent one day taking rides all around the area and seeing what we could find and then the other day it rained we all packed in the car and drove to Mackinaw City where it wasn't raining. All in all a fun time was had by all! We BBQ'ed dinner every night...I swear we had enough food to feed five families sometimes! We played on the beach, Brad and I went to Higgins' lake for the day and got a fishing boat, we rented a pontoon one day for everyone to enjoy, fishing, fishing and more fishing :) and we even played a few rounds of mini golf. Don't ask Brad how that went, I think I finally got his head shrunk back down to normal size :) But, I did return the favor by kicking his butt in our card games! For all the fishing we did though we only caught a few but it was fun. Now, we are back to this HOT weather and can't wait for our next vacation!

Hi everybody!

Someone else wanted to stop by and say hello to you all today. I was able to scan some pictures and had my mom take some of me so we would like you to see baby bear from the inside out. As of today I am almost fifteen weeks; two days away. The baby pictures were taken at exactly fourteen weeks in the ER in Indiana and the pictures of my belly were taken just today. In some of them I look a bit bigger than I am but that is probably because I wasn't standing straight with my shoulders back-we are having a bad back day today :( No fun...but we hope you enjoy the pictures anyways!
So, they are a little blurry but that's just how they scanned. In this one if you know how to look at one of these-which I didn't-you can see baby bear raising an arm over his face.This is a close up shot of just the head....so sweet. You should have seen him shaking it all around whenever they pushed the wand down over my belly. :)

All shook up.

If you've seen my facebook status today you know that I've had a horrible day. This morning while driving Brad to the plant here in Indiana we were in a car accident. I had gotten off the freeway and was at a dead stop at a yield sign and we were rear ended. I mean hit hard. I can still here the noise and see everything flying forward in our car. We are ALL ok! We pulled over and the other guy felt horrible and once he found out I was pregnant he was besides himself. The crazy thing is that he is from Detroit and was going to the same plant Brad was. By the time the police got there to make the report I was having different pains and when the cop came to talk to me I basically broke down crying...again. And, Brad and I decided we would both feel better if we had a medic come by and 'check me out'. I was picturing them feeling my back and my stomach and then me driving myself to the ER for a check on the baby. But, NOOOOO. They came with sirens and lights and the fire department and the ambulance took care of me. They talked to me at first and then explained to me what would happen. Before I knew it the back and neck pains I was complaining about were being taken care of by a neck brace and being strapped to one of those back boards and being loaded into the ambulance. Being on that straight board made the pressure in my abdomen worse and I started to cramp a bit so I of course panicked. But, they took care of me especially when Brad wasn't allowed to accompany me :( That didn't stop him though! I thought he would stay and finish up with the accident but it turns out as soon as I got in the ambulance and we headed off he got in the car and left the accident.! The officer came to the hospital later to give me back my license and registration and joked with Brad about leaving the scene; of course he was joking and everyone at the scene completely understood. So, I was now in the ER and they were doing it all. I had an IV and a BP cuff and the heart monitor on my finger-the whole shebang.Plus, they did bloodwork and even did a quick catheder to get a sample of that. The one GOOD thing about all this today was we were able to see our baby! We had our first ultrasound today! They took the baby's heartrate soon after we got there and it was hard to find which of course worried me. But, the nurse said she found it, I didn't hear but Brad did but the baby moved and they couldn't find it again. The ER doc also tried to do an ultrasound with their portable machine but that of course was crap and I couldn't even see anything but Brad saw the beating heart and made me feel better. So, she sent me for the real deal and even though I had a neckbrace on and was hard for me to turn I was able to see some pictures. Absolutely everything was perfect. Nothing seemed out of place and the baby had a heartrate of 132 which is great! (at the doctor two weeks ago it was 152 so they were happy with it today) We of course got a few printouts of our very tiny little one and as soon as I can scan them they will be on display. Then, mommy had to go for a pelvic exam and they were finally able to take the neckbrace off and a nurse helped me to the bathroom. Nothing was leaking, no blood anywhere and my uterus is still closed-all good things. After which they all asked if the walking felt better; they expected it to. But, unfortunately it didn't but made my back feel worse and even the top of my butt. So, the doctor was alarmed again and talked to me about taking back X-Rays. When they took the neck ones I was fine because the machines wouldn't be pointed at my belly and they actually put me in TWO lead aprons. But, for the back there wouldn't be the same precautions. After the ER doc talked to the OB on duty and then talked to me we talked to my doctor's office back home and decided that we would do the X-Rays. We wanted to be sure that nothing was slipped or fractured in my back which is already curving to my growing uterus and therefore a bit more susceptible to damage. The X-rays also came back fine and they FINALLY released me. They told me to take it easy and take Tylenol when I need it and follow up with my doctor next week. Surprisingly Brad feels fine and stayed with me all day today :) He is taking such good care of us. And, everyone from work has called today too. All the guys on the way to work at the factory called because they saw us as they passed. Then, before long Brad's boss and his director called to check on all of us! My mom left work early today to come and be with us and is here now. She will stay with us for a few days until I can get in the car and travel again and take me home this weekend. Just say some prayers and again I will post baby pics as soon as I can but in the meantime here are some other pictures to feast your eyes on...

Yes, my friends you can indeed now see the street THROUGH my bumper/trunk!

Travelin Man

That's my husband! We are back in Lafayette, IN. once again. Go back to the first few posts of my blog...that's where we are. I decided to join Brad for at least a portion of this trip and we hope I can get home at some point before the end of the month :) A good thing (I suppose) about this trip is that I have discovered that 2 hours is the maximum amount of time I can spend in a car before having to get out, stretch, eat, go potty etc. Whew! What a trip...everything is so different now! My poor little piggies were a little puffy by the time we got here. It took us about 7 hours when it used to take us about 5 because of the stops and rest times. But, Brad was a trooper about it and we made it here before dinner even. I made it and was only a little sore, in the lower back, at the end of it all. I am growing quite nicely. I swear we hit twelve weeks and went into a growth spurt. I do look pregnant at least a little now :) Plus, I get lots of little aches, pains and twinges in my abdominal muscles every now and then too...my body just has to figure out what is going on I guess! And, the baby is still eating my brain. You should have seen me packing trying to be sure that I didn't forget anything! Lately I forget words in the middle of sentences, I lose train of thought really easily, I write everything down so I don't forget it and I have almost walked out of the house (like one foot out the door) TWICE now barefoot. Sheesh, I thought I wouldn't lose my mind till after the kids were around for a while! That and I am still very emotional. I cry so easily without being pregnant and I HATE that but now it is just worse. I am going to have to stop listening to the radio while I drive soon. I have been know to cry through many a song lately..the culprits are all country too. Darius Rucker, Tracy Lawrence and even Carrie Underwood have me in hysterics by the end of the first line ;) Then of course there is the lovely display I put on while behind the wheel when a patriotic tune from Toby Ketih came on the other day. Oh, and don't get me started about the morning I watched "Pollyanna" on TV...what a mess! I never thought I could be more emotional than I already was. Other than that things are still going good. And, for now pray for us while we are away from home and that Brad's project is successful and ends on time.

12 Week Appointment

Well, I would say this was the most 'un-fun' appointment but we did get to hear the heartbeat :) The nurse did it before the doctor came in and she told me not to worry if she couldn't find it; we would try again with the doctor. As I laid back I closed my eyes and kept saying to myself: 'God, Please let me hear it' over and over again. She tried on the left side of my belly and got nothing. Then she moved it to the right side and almost immediately said 'there is is!'. It was quiet but we could make it out just fine. Brad stayed in the chair on the other side of the room and I couldn't even see him so when I started crying (of course!) my stomach started to shake and she had to relocate the heartbeat again :) When I sat up Brad was very excited and had a big smile on his face. We were both very happy to have heard it. The doctor came in and talked to me and gave me some advice for the nausea and headaches that I've been having. Then, of course I had some fun female tests done and he checked my pelvis out. I would like to thank my BFF, Amy who once told me in High School to thank God for my 'child bearing hips'. My doctor told me she was right, my pelvis is a great size in terms of delivering the baby. Very good news since these don't really run in my family and C-sections do :) I also found out I lost some weight. Last time I had only gained one pound but this time I was down less than before I got pregnant. I have lost almost four pounds but they told me I'm fine and it's normal. So, for now we are doing excellent and I go back in four weeks for the next round of fun. As for anyone who may want pictures of the baby we have to wait for Labor day...we won't go in for it until at least then. I don't know how I will wait!