Another Bump is to the Hump! and other exciting tales...

Well friends, here we are! We made it to 20 weeks! "What!?" you ask! "Half way already?" Yup I sure am! and yes, that is my belly button poking out just incase you were wondering.

I'm feeling pretty good. I can still sleep on my stomach, only throw up like 2 times a week, can still wear normal pants, and the giant pizza that was my face at the beginning of this pregnancy is finally starting to clear up! The only blah I am feeling is that I'm still sooooo tired. (it might have something to do with 2 kids ages 3 and under) My house looks like a tornado...pretty much every day. So if you come over unannounced (and probably even if I know you're coming) no judging allowed!

 

We had our big ultrasound on Thursday Feb 13, about a week ago. Here are some pictures of our new little MISTER!

He is obviously a very corporative little boy. Not to mention obviously a boy in general. 

Might we get our first thumb sucker with this one?? Maybe!



Conner was, as you can imagine, stoked to be getting a little brother. Sophie had no clue what was going on and therefore didn't care and just sat there like the good little girl she is and ate her goldfish. The tech left to get the Doc to tell us the results of the ultrasound. We waited for like 25 minutes for Mr. Doc to come in and see us, all the while trying to entertain 2 little kids in a small room full of really exciting things they couldn't touch. Lucky for me I was laying on the bed/table thing covered in goop and couldn't really move so Rusty got the brunt of it.

As the minutes ticked by I started thinking that  the Dr was either really busy, really slow, or heaven forbid, something was wrong.  Finally Doc came in. We talked about how we were having a boy and were excited, blah de blah, everything is fine, when the doc got serious and said, "Well, structurally everything is fine with your baby." Oh. Well that left a big fat "but" hanging in the air.

The main things looked great like his heart, spine, lip, etc. which is fantastic. But he had a few other red flag concerns. Basically this little dude has 3 what they call "Soft Markers" which on their own mean next to nothing, but if there are multiple at the same time it greatly increases the odds that the baby has Down's Syndrome.

Marker #1: his kidney's were dilated. Usually they like them to be no more than 4cm...or mm...or something. Anyway, one was 4.something and the other was a whopping 7.1. Usually clears us by the time baby grows and is born, but as I said before, if found with other markers could be cause for concern.

Marker #2: He has what is called a choroid plexus cyst. AKA a cyst (sack of fluid) in his brain. That one sounds really scary and weird but Doc said that these are reeeally common. They see them a ton on ultrasounds and they, like the kidney thing, usually clear up on their own. And even if they don't clear up they don't cause any harm. Once again, harmless unless paired with other markers.


I'm not completely sure where the cyst is but it's one of those black dot things in the circle.

 

Marker #3: Sorry no pic for this one but his umbilical cord has only one artery and typical ones have two. Doc said that this usually is harmless. We'd do a few more ultrasounds as the pregnancy progressed to check growth and make sure everything is still ok but mostly this just causes babies to be smaller. Great. Because I totally need help it that department.

With these 3 markers my odds of little guy having Down's Syndrome went from about 1:900 to 1:50. Yikes!

So anyway that was our exciting ultrasound.   I did really good talking to the doctor. Although I could totally feel the shock settling in. I was brave and didn't cry at all, which is amazing because I'm a crier in general and when I'm pregnant, well let's just say I might have been caught crying at a cat food commercial a week ago. Anyway I did so good until we got to the elevators and Rusty asked me how I was. Oh boy...

I cried all the way to dropping C off at preschool, all the way back to my regular Dr's office (I had my reg 20 week apt right after in Layton) I cried during my appointment. My Doc gave me a big hug and told me everything would be ok and really not to worry because even though my odds were down to 1:50 that also translates to only a 2% chance. That helped a little bit but gosh once I start crying it's a little hard to put on the brakes. It's every mother's fear to have something wrong (even if it's just potentially wrong) with their child. I've never had a less than perfect ultrasound an and I didn't know what to do. I felt helpless, and overwhelmed, and honestly just plain scared.

The ultrasound doc had offered us a new blood test we could do that takes the place of and is WAY less invasive than amniocentesis (the one where they stick a giant needle in your stomach and get a sample of baby's DNA) and my doc suggested if it would put my mind at ease we could meet with a genetic councilor back at Mackay Dee hospital (that's where I had my ultrasound) and talk more about it. We decided that we wanted to definitely at least learn more so we called and they could see us in 20 min. Just exactly enough time to drive back to Ogden!  And thankfully C was at preschool at this time. (and thankfully preschool = awesome neighbor who could watch him for an hour longer after it was supposed to end!)

We got to our appointment right smack on time (11:00) and saw the councilor right away. He was the nicest guy ever ever. He explained this new test that is essentially 99.5% accurate called MarteriT21. It is a blood test where the take only my blood and they have found that trace amounts of baby's blood is in mom's and they have come up with a way to separate the two and test the DNA of baby. It's only really been around for about 2 years and the closest place to Utah that has the technology to do it is San Diego. He said that we could do it today if we wanted to but if we wanted to think about it this test can be done at any time in the pregnancy and the only need for rushing is for termination purposes. Which was absolutely NOT an option for us. We knew that we would love this baby NO MATTER WHAT. And be so grateful for any baby we were given. But I'm not a very patient person in things like this and I tend to over analyze everything and I knew that not knowing for sure would eat me up for the next 4 1/2 months. Also, I like to be prepared (I'm kind of like a boy scout) and if our sweet little boy ended up having Down's I wanted to be able to be ready so we could hit the ground running when he was born and give him the best start possible. So I said sign me up! and they drew my blood that day and shipped it off to Cal-i-forn-i-a. He said that it would take about 10 days to get the results back and we were on our way.

By this time I still hadn't called my parents because I was just a big old blubber bucket. Every time I felt like I had stopped crying long enough to call just the thought of calling made me tear up again.I finally got my composure and called them on the way home from the hospital and had to have Rusty explain everything because somehow, 27 years later, moms and dads still make me cry when I'm already sad. That sounds bad. Not cry in a bad way, but it's pretty hard to be brave around them because I know they won't care if I get tears and snot all over them and they'll just want to give me a hug.

Rusty explained everything (twice, since both were at work and I had to call them separately) My mom said she could be here in an hour and a half but I told her I would be fine. Rusty said he could stay home from work but it's Tax season! I didn't want him to get in trouble! So I told him I just needed a nap and I would be fine. So we put on a show for Conner and Soph was sleeping and Rusty left reluctantly to work. I laid down and was totally fine. What is it they say on "The Italian Job"? Fine means "Freaked out, Insecure, Neurotic, and....something that starts with an E. Oh, Emotional!" Yup, I was FINE all right. I cried for almost 2 hours before I called my momma back to see if her offer to come was still good. An hour and a half later my mom, dad, and big little brother (he's 5 years younger but like a foot taller than me) came bearing gifts of popcorn, Oreos, and hugs and later took me to lovely Café Rio for dinner. Those 4 things can make anything better.

From then on out it was a waiting game. Every day got a little bit better. I thought more about the 98% that baby boy wouldn't have Down's than 2% that he would. But I still didn't let myself get my hopes completely up incase we were in the 2%. Through prayers and blessings I knew that everything would be ok. I just wasn't sure if "ok" meant that the baby would be fine (the real fine, not "The Italian Job" fine) or if it meant that the baby would have chromosome abnormalities but we would be able to handle it.

Although I felt everything would be ok, I was still a ball of nerves while I waited for my 10 days to be up. Gosh if I was this crazy and only had to wait 10 days there was no way I could go the rest of the pregnancy at all without knowing! By this point I would have taken any result, I just wanted to get the heck out of limbo!

So you can only imagine my relief when on Wed. Feb. 19, only 6 days after my blood draw, (the longest 6 days of my life, I might add) my phone rang at 5:30pm and it was the genetic councilor calling saying "I have good news for you!" This little guy's blood work came back negative for any chromosome disorders and therefore has only a .5% (they have to have their margin of error on the test) of having Down's! (or Edward's and one other one I can't remember...) Most likely this baby is going to be perfectly healthy which is music to any mothers (especially this mothers) ears!


The end...that was really long!  I didn't mean for it to be so giant! If you made it to the end, YOU my friend are a true friend!

We are very excited for this little boy to come into our family! While we would have loved him with all our hearts no matter the test results, I would be lying if I said I wasn't so grateful that he (more than likely) will be a healthy bouncing little boy! I almost said that I'm also so grateful for technology, but then I realized that it was technology that got us into this crazy medical goose chase in the first place...but actually, I still am. Because if the results would have been the other way around I would have been so thankful for the heads up!

The End (for real)

Dang Murphy and his stupid law

Back in the day before Sophie knew that it was ok to sleep during the night (when she was like 6 or 7 months old) desperate, exhausted me asked her pediatrician for ANY tips to help. Aside from just letting her cry and figure it out, doc also recommended getting a little tiny blanket for her to sleep with. She told me to nurse with it and introduce it into our bedtime routine and NEVER wash it (unless she throws up on it or something equally really stinky) so that it smells like me and comfort and love and stuff. "The scientific name for this is a 'transitional object'" said Doc, "but really it's just a lovey"

 

Lucky for us I was given a cute little "transitional object" taggie blanket that a neighbor had made when Sophs was born. She never really took to it before but I never really tried hard to make her like it. So we tried all of the tips and they worked! Combined with letting her cry it out this blankie within a few days she was finally sleeping through the night! yay!

 

Sophie LOVES her blanket. She wouldn't even let us take non-screaming pictures without it during her 12 month photo shoot. She loves to have it covering her face while she's drinking her night time bottle and cuddles it on her face when she gets all snuggled into her bed to sleep. In fact, she now can't sleep without it! Which is fine...until we lose it!

And lose it we did. Right after Christmas. For 3 days I searched for it. I called grandparents (even though I was 99.9% sure it wasn't at their house) moved furniture, all but dumped out my diaper bag, searched the car, tore apart her bed, well you get the idea. And for 3 nights she woke up many many times sad and crying. I had given up on ever finding it. I had looked EVERYWHERE! So what does a desperate momma do? Probably should have weaned her off of it so that she could sleep by herself. but nope, the Saturday after Christmas I marched myself (well, actually I drove) down to Hobby Lobby and bought stuff to make a replacement. I had to go by memory and what they had available but I wanted to match it as exactly as possible, ya know, so I could fool her.

 

It wasn't too hard, except that the nice lady who made it picked the most slippery material when put together in the world and combine that with my crazy anal perfectionism you get 1 hour worth of pinning. But it was done and it looked pretty close to the original! I rubbed it all over my face and arms and then gave it to Soph when she woke up from her nap. She was really excited at first, then when she grabbed it she stopped and looked at kind of confused like, inspected it, and then gave a baby version of a shrug and walked off with it. And it worked at night! She slept great! 

 

This all happened on Saturday, and on Sunday we were all sitting in sacrament meeting (church) and Conner couldn't find one of his toys and wanted me to help him. I dug through my bag and looked in all the pockets...and you'll never guess what I found. That dang blanket! Folded (I NEVER fold it)and tucked in bottom of and inside pocket (I never put it in pockets) covered by diapers. What! I was so mad I just started laughing. It was so ridiculous. I swear I tore that bag apart, but apparently not good enough. I gave it to Soph right then and there and she grabbed it and cuddled it to her face.

 

Left one is the copy I made, Right is the original. pretty close!



 So now she has 2 blaknies. And it's a good thing because it seems like ever since I made the other one, one of them is usually lost. Go figure. But she still loves the original slightly more. It's probably because it's all crusty and nasty. kids are weird like that.

And...this is just a cute picture.

Operation:FATTY Sophie Edition, 15 months

Little Miss is 15 months old! Well, actually she's almost 15 1/2 but mamma is kinda slacking in the blogging department. We went to her 15 month check-up a little over a week ago and here are her ginormous stats!

Length 28.35 inches = 4%

Weight 17.53 lb = 0% (really looked like -5ish still. just chugging along on her own little curve below the main curve :) )

Head Circ 44.5 cm = 14%

 

Doc says she looks perfect, albeit small, but she's growing so no concerns at all! I was waiting to see the official weigh in to decide what to do about a car seat. She's still too far away from the 20 lbs for my liking to switch her forward, but since she screams every time I put her in her infant seat (plus the fact that she's over 15 months and still in her infant seat) I figured something had to be done. So I present Sophie's big girl convertible Car Seat! (Graco classic ride 50 if anyone wants to know)

Not only does sophie seem to like it, but it came with the most amazing box of all boxes. I'm pretty sure my kids played with it for almost an hour.

Another Bump!

Well, it's happened. We're having another baby! Crazy! But we're SO excited!

The best one with both of them. My kids are just so photogenic I can't even stand it.

Here's my bumpity bump at 12 weeks. Gosh I just get exponentially bigger faster with each one.

 

Yes, Sophie and little baby are going to be pretty close. 21 months. I know, I know, lots of people have little surprise babies closer than that but I never thought I would be one of them. It usually takes me FOREVER to get pregnant. See, I thought I had pinned down my bodies way of getting preggo. First we try and try for months and months and months...and months and months and months. Then I usually miscarry once or twice 6-8 months into trying, we'll call it a practice baby to see if my body can remember/figure out how to be pregnant. And then finally (Conner after a year and Soph after 8 months) something sticks. This method is not very practical. It's hard, and stressful and sad and makes me cry a whole dang lot, but up until now it was the only way I knew. So imagine my HUGE surprise when this time it only took one month! and  no sad stories! Wow! In August when Sophie stopped nursing we (and when I say "we" I mean "I". Rusty just says "yes ma'am" to whatever I say) decided that since it takes so long we would just start not not trying to have a baby and see what happened. At first I didn't think it was possible! I didn't even take a test until I was about 7 or 8 weeks. I blamed the tired all the time on Conner  waking up 5 times a night for weird random stuff, and the hungry all the time on...being hungry? and the getting fat on being hungry all the time, etc. I finally took a test when I started getting sick. So anyway, long story not quite as long, here we are! And everything is going great so far! (oh wow I'm a poet) I'm also really glad that I can finally tell people (I don't tell non-immediate family until at least12 weeks...for obvious reasons) because I'm pretty sure I could hide it any more! Getting SO BIG!

 

So, here are the answers to all of your burning questions.

 

How far along are you? I am a little over 13 weeks putting my due date at July 4 2014. We're not EXACTLY sure since things never got completely back to normal after nursing, so dates could possibly change as time goes on, but for now this is what the doc is telling me!

How are you feeling? Oh thanks for asking! I'm doing good...now. I haven't thrown up in 4 days which is awesome! So I think we're getting past the biggest ick part. I'm also starting to get my energy up. I was pretty tired for a while. And 2 kiddos, one of them being Conner, doesn't help. But I'm either just getting used to being SO tired all the time or it really is getting better.

Are the kids excited?Well, obviously Soph doesn't care. Or even know for that matter. C is coming around. At first he was like "no way!" but not he just says "no" every other time I ask him if he wants a baby. He's really excited to share his room with Sophie though! so that's good!

How's the BP? If you remember I have weird stupid scared of the doctor high blood pressure during pregnancy. No good. So it has been crazy high at my dr apts. They made me do the lovely 24 hr pee test again (you remember? the one where I have to keep my pee in the fridge. yummy) But so far no itchy bug head medicine yet. Hopefully never!

 

I kind of feel like my amnesia hasn't quiet set it yet. Like when I found out I was excited, but Sophie was still pretty fresh on my mind. I still totally remembered what it is like to HAVE a baby. Sophie still feels very much like a baby to me, because she is! But while it might be crazy to have 3 kids ages 4 and under I would absolutely take my little sort of surprise over the long and sad alternative! Yay for babies :) Well that's all I can say because I just heard a crash from the other room. I'm out!



October's nutshell

Well, I officially suck at blogging as of late. just been busy I guess. Actually I'd rather take a nap with free time than blog. That's really what it is. So anyway here's a bazillion pictures all about the month of October! hooray!

 

Pumpkin Patchin'

 

 Our first super event of October festivities was going to a pumpkin patch with some people in the neighborhood and the beginningish  of the month. That's the great thing about where we live. It's kind of in the boonies but that means that we are a 5 minute drive from like 5 pumpkin patches! but we only went to this one...

C got to pick his pumpkin and they cut it off the vine for him! So cool. But the one we ended up taking home wasn't the one he picked. I looked at him a few minutes after we got it and he had no pumpkin! So we just found another one that some other kid accidentally set down. it all worked out!

train ride!

On the hay ride. That ironically had no hay.

bouncy house! waited in like for 15 min for a 1 minute jumping experience. totally worth it to C though! 

Zoo Zoo ZOO!

We went to the Zoo with Rusty's family over fall break. Lots of fun!

She loved the car...even though she kept trying to escape.

Oh C and his popcorn. Pretty sure he'd live on it if I let him.

watching them feed the elephants honey and peanut butter. yummm!

sort of a good family one! if you consider the giant gorilla with bib yabos part of our family I guess...

first failed attempt at a cousin group shot.

And second attempt. I'm not even sure where Conner is...at least Sophie showed up!

practicing walking!

 

 

 

HALLOWEEN!
For Halloween night we went to Orem and hung out at my parents place.

Conner finally got his headstone!

Yup we're pretty cool

Another great picture where my children are totally looking at the camera and smiling :)

 

And that's all she wrote! Conner has like 30 minutes until he's done with preschool and Soph is sleeping so what the HECK am I doing on the computer? My bed is calling to me. even if it's just for a few minutes! Bye!

Christmas Stocking tutorial

 

 So I made these suuuuper cute stockings a week or so ago and posted them on facebook and gosh! I had no idea they would be so popular! I have had so many people ask me about them and how I made them so I decided to make a tutorial and expose all of my deep dark secrets (on making stockings that is...) I wasn't planning on making a tutorial so sorry for lack of pictures if you're wanting a really detailed step by step. Hopefully I'm just a good explainer!

 

So really they were SO easy. (and I'm no sewer. Usually I stick with strictly straight line sewing projects) I've had the idea for a while now and I've been slowly making trips to hobby lobby with my 40% off coupon each time. I just got the standard red and white fuzzy stocking. it was reg. priced $3.99 but was (and they still are I believe) on sale 40% off so I got it for just over 2 bucks each. You can use whatever fabric you want but I used a cotton duck chevron pattern in both red and green (reg like $8 a yard s make sure to bring your coupon!) and burlap for the other side.

 

 

 I won't put my pattern on here because it will vary depending on what pre-made stocking you get. I just took a piece of paper (I have 11x17 inch paper at my house but you can just tape 2 reg size printer paper together to make it large enough. ) and folded up the white part (so that you can trace it without it being in the way) and traced around the stocking. Make sure to add an inch or so for a seam allowance and to let the "slipcover" be a little larger. (I didn't do that and it is sure a tight fit to get it on and not that it really matters because you don't see it but the pre-made part is all squished and weird in some places.

 Anyway I did one side the cotton duck chevron(for non sewy knowing what fabric is by name people like me "cotton duck" is the thicker kind of bumpy cotton fabric.) and the other side burlap. (if you use burlap make sure to leave at least an inch seam allowance as it frays easily and you may end up with holes that you have to go over and re-sew and make the stocking smaller than you plan...not that I have experience with that or anything...) So anyway, cut out the pieces from your pattern.  I hemmed the top straight part of each piece and then basic sewer things, put right sides together and sew them up! slip the slipcover that you made on and fold the white fuzzy part down and tada! You have a way cute stocking that cost you about $5 each to make and only took you a couple of hours! hooray!

 



I'm still trying to figure out putting names on them. I'm thinking maybe stenciling on the burlap is the way to go. Here's a photoshop mock-up of what it could look like! 

I also haven't permanently attached the two pieces together since I'm still trying to figure out the name thing but I plan on just sewing them together around the top under the white fuzzy part.

 

I got a yard of each fabric and had PLENTY left over so if you make them all one color you could easily just get one yard for your front and one yard of burlap or whatever you use for the back. But I'm glad that I have extra because now when other people decide to come into our family I don't have to scour the world trying to find matching fabric! I also got a few more stockings just to make sure they matched if I have to make more someday (I can't even begin to tell you the largeness of my husbands eye roll on that one)

 

Side note:

as for the burlap I got 2 yards and made this wreath and the left overs were the perfect amount to make 4 stockings. Just incase you want to make a wreath too you can do it all with 2 yards! I guess as long as  you just make 4 stockings...

Was that clear as mud? Probably. Hopefully it made enough sense that you can make your own all by yourself! If it didn't I'm really good at answering questions!!