Fun Weekend!

This weekend was extremely good!  My Mom and her friend, Kathy, came up around noon on Friday.  Robin and I were both off for a half day so we could spend a little extra time with our company.  The first thing we did was have a checkup for the baby.  My midwife was delivering two babies Friday so I went to her "alternate" midwife.  Everything is looking good but there were a few surprises.  First is that the heart rate was 140 this time.  Last time it was 150.  If you believe the old wive's tales, you can tell whether you're having a boy or a girl based on the heart rate.  Even the midwife said she couldn't tell because we're right in between.  The second surprise is that the baby may be bigger yet!  He/She was big during our first sonogram so they moved my due date up a week.  Now the top of my uterus is level with my belly button whereas it should be just under it.  This isn't a concerning issue but it makes me wonder if they'll move my due date up again. 

Otherwise we're doing great!  I'm still on track with my weight and I'm paying more attention to my scale at home than at their office.  At home I can weigh in the morning and in the nude.  From my college days, I know that this is how you should weigh so I'll take that number over theirs.  That makes my weight gain up to 5.5 lbs.  Not too shabby!  The best news is we'll find out the gender of the baby on November 1st!  Just one week and all of you can share in our excitement!

That evening we ate at Rudy's, our favorite Mexican restaurant, and came home to sit on the porch.  Kathy, Mom, and Robin drank wine while I enjoyed a water (ha, ha).  The weather was actually really nice though we were told it was supposed to rain all weekend.  Boy were they wrong!  Saturday was beautiful!

We spent the day in Lawrence exploring the shops along Massachusetts Street.  Last week I saw an article that Mass Street is one of the "best" downtown streets in the US.  I would definitely say it is one of the most interesting because of the kinds of people you see (all kinds) and the types of shops (all types).  The shops are mostly locally owned businesses.  Very few are chains and most all of them have things you wouldn't find most anywhere else.  Between the four of us, we got a few Christmas presents, a few things for ourselves, and lots of people watching opportunities!  The weather was beautiful, as I mentioned before, and we got there before the gameday traffic.  We decided on Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch simply because it was right in front of where we parked.  Thankfully they had a Mass Street patio so we had the opportunity to sit outside, chat, and enjoy the beautiful fall day!  Here's a link to the Mass Street website:  http://www.downtownlawrence.com/SiteResources/Data/Templates/t1.asp?docid=514&DocName=Home
Click on "About DLI" and you can find a directory of the stores lining Mass Street.  It doesn't do it justice but you'll see how unique this area really is!

After leaving Lawrence, we headed to the Legends, another shopping area in KC.  I specifically wanted to go there for the Motherhood Maternity outlet store.  I am still searching for work options, mostly shirts, but got only one off the clearance rack.  Along with those I got a longer pair of jeans that were on sale.  I'm set for bottoms now, other than pajamas that I can wear this winter as well as at the hospital.  I have a feeling that may be a Christmas wish-list item.  I did have to invest in two new bras.  I won't even mention how big they are now but I will say they are MUCH larger than I've ever had in my life.  I wish they would stop but I know they'll get bigger still.  Kathy gave them the nickname, Jugs, if that tells you anything!



Successful Chocolate Meringue Pie!



We got home more than 8 hours after leaving.  It was a FULL day and we were all exhausted.  We spent more time on our deck, drinks for the non-preggers and a lemonade spritzer for me.  Leah taught me about the spritzer and she was right.  It makes it feel like you're drinking an adult beverage when you aren't!  After relaxing for a bit, Mom and I began our task of attempting to make my Gradma Mac's from scratch chocolate meringue pie.  It is my all-time favorite family recipe and I want to make sure I can master it too.  The three of us ladies wore our pajamas and set to work!  I think the pajamas made all the difference; we were successful on the first try whereas last year I tried twice and never did get it right!  For supper, we ordered Chinese delivery and gorged ourselves silly but it was a fantastic end to the day.  We had zero room for the pie so it was saved for today.

This morning I woke up to a house that smelled wonderfully of coffee.  I LOVE waking up to that smell and it really reminds me of my time with my Mom.  Kathy was the only one downstairs when I got there; Robin had gone to get a paper and Mom was taking a shower.  We chatted a bit and she even served me a cup of coffee for my caffeine quota of the day.  Kathy made all of us a breakfast casserole that was fantastic!  She even made one without cheese for Robin.  She's just so nice!  We followed the casserole with a piece of pie each.  Hey, sometimes you just have to have dessert for breakfast!



17 Weeks (Post-Walk)
I feel huge and not very cute these days.

Mom and Kathy left around 1:00.  It's always tough to see Mom go and we enjoy having Kathy here anytime she comes down.  She is certainly welcome in our home anytime!  I spent the rest of the afternoon searching for shoes (if you ever find somewhere that sells 11's or 12's in cute styles, let me know) while Robin watched football.  We washed all kinds of laundry and to end our evening, we went for a nice walk with Atlas.  I would say all in all, this was a successful weekend!

We just took my 17 week picture (at left) and as you can see, I'm worn out from the weekend not to mention my belly is getting bigger by the day!  Right now I feel really big and unattractive but that varies from day to day.  Weekends, I just don't try unless we're going somewhere so I guess that partially explains why I look the way I do in these pictures.  I promise I'm not AS huge as the picture looks!



Two week update!

Sometimes you learn the strangest things about your family at the strangest times!  Last weekend I learned a couple of things about my family through observation and discussion.

1)  I have always worried that if something happened to my Grandma, my Grandpa would be completely lost.  How would he take care of himself?  What would he eat everyday?  Would he stay at home all by himself?  My Grandparents have the old-school marriage where the wife cooks and cleans and the husband does the usual husband chores like take out the garbage, wash the cars, etc.  At times that has completely annoyed me but I do understand.  They were raised that way.  Well when you take all of this into account, I really worried about what my Grandpa would do without my Grandma. 

What I didn't understand is that my Grandma would be just as lost without my Grandpa.  Watching her in the hospital was really interesting.  She hovers over him as though he's going to break.  She knows every detail of his treatment and if he wants to adjust himself even a little bit while in the bed, she helps.  She jumps up anytime he needs a little help.  What would she do without Grandpa to talk to or to help?  My Grandma is a helper and that's why she'd be lost without him.  Thankfully Grandpa is recovering really well!  We are all hoping he'll be back home and nearly back to normal in terms of walking before Thanksgiving.

2)  My entire life I've been told, and believed, that I'm German on my Dad's side.  The back story on this is that my Grandma hosted a reunion for a certain side of our family.  She was the only one who attended but it turns out a few older family members were there, and one had been tracking our family a long way back.  It turns out 4 of our family members fled France through Germany and came to America.  Everyone thought we were German because they came from Germany but we're actually French.  Amazing!  I guess my name is even more fitting...since it's French too.  That will be an interesting story for the baby.

Between last week and this week, my clothes have decided they just do not want to fit.  I retired some of my shirts and all of my jeans.  The jeans were fine when I stood up but when I sat down, they sort of hurt around my belly.  Mom and I went to Khol's, Target, and Motherhood Maternity when I was home.  I did get a few things, jeans included, and found a few great deals.  I'm going to have to buy more things in the next month or so...or this belly's gonna be cold!  Yesterday I pulled out all of my summer things and left only those that might still fit for a while in order to layer or for these days that are summer warm once again.  Currently, my closet is BARE.  That's even more overwhelming.

Sunday of last week, Daddy (Robin) decided baby's crib should be put together.  He did a great job all by himself!  It was up and ready when I got home on Monday night.  Too bad nothing else in the room is ready!  We can't even pick paint yet!  We did attempt to get the dresser put together but realized it was a bad sign when the drawers wouldn't even go together.  One piece was too long.  We skipped that and continued on, only to find other pieces were the wrong sizes.  Thankfully this baby is not due to arrive until April!  We called the manufacturer and they're sending new parts which will arrive later this month or early next.

Grandma Jeri got baby his or her first outfit last weekend!  It's a sleeper that's a little larger so that he or she can wear it after a few months.  Our reasoning here is that if I'm cold in air conditioning, the baby will be too!  The sleeper is adorable!  You can't tell in the picture but there are barnyard animals and small barns printed on it.  The animal on the shoulder is a steer.  We think this will be adorable when the time comes for the baby to sleep tight!  First piece of baby clothing, CHECK!  Lot's more to come...definitely!

15 Weeks!  Obvious bump!

Last but not least, my body has been changing pretty significantly lately.  I'm now 15 weeks and it's usually very obvious that I'm pregnant.  Sometimes I still feel "fat" because I'm in between with clothes.  Maternity is too big, normal is too small.  I try not to think about it too much because I don't want to stress about being "fat."  I've started to have some ligament pain in my abdomen and hips.  Earlier this week, I thought the baby was standing on my left hip flexor it hurt so bad.  I also have horrible acne on my face and upper back.  Most mom's tell me that went away for them so I'm hoping they're right.  NOTHING seems to help!  On a good note, I haven't been sick in 3 weeks now!  I have had bouts of slight nausea but nothing at all like I did the first trimester.  It is so nice to have an appetite again!  The only interesting craving I've had is continual cravings for Mexican food.  Specifically, our favorite place in Kansas City, Rudy's.  Apparently this baby wants salty, not sweet!

A week from Friday I'll go back for a checkup and two weeks later we'll find out if this is a boy or a girl!  Stay tuned!

Stressful Week!

As the title implies, we had a pretty stressful week!  None of it was related to the baby but I did have some baby adventures mixed in there.  Some of you are patiently awaiting news related to this weekend so let's dive right into the back story.

My Grandpa has had knee pain for quite a while now and we started to notice he was quitting some of his favorite activities.  The first to go was hunting.  Walking in the timber and through the fields got to be too much for him so he quit going.  Then he stopped walking around town quite as much, or at least not as far.  Lately Dad has noticed it's a lot harder for him to get in and out of the boat when they go fishing.  I think there have been other indications that something's not right too.  Dad mentioned all of this to Doug who is my Dad's cousin and also my Grandpa's doctor.  Doug took a look at Grandpa's knees and after a few tests, they found that he didn't have any cartilege in there and that he was walking on bone to bone contact.  No wonder those knees were hurting!

 After some talking, Grandpa decided to have both of his knees replaced.  One of his friends had had one and he got along great.  He had his first knee replaced about two weeks ago and 5 days later, they replaced the second one.  Now, you have to understand that in the first place, Grandpa is 78 years old and to me, this seems like a lot of surgery.  But the doctors say that's the procedure so we trusted them.  All went well with both knees, he was getting along great, and they sent him home to start therapy.  He did fall once but he landed on his butt and was fine afterwards.  However, during PT this week, he couldn't stand on his right leg at all and it was very painful.  Not a good sign.  They discovered that during PT, his quadriceps muscle (the one that makes up the front part of your upper leg/thigh) was torn.  The only way to repair it?  You guessed it.  Surgery #3.




He had the third surgery on Thursday and got along fine.  On Friday, things did not go so well.  Grandma arrived at the hospital Friday morning to discover that he'd had a small stroke.  His left arm was very weak, his left lip was pulling down at the cheek, he was slurring his speech slightly, and he was a little confused.  Thankfully, he was in the hospital and with a nurse when this happened.  They recognized it immediately, gave him the drugs to stave off a larger stroke, and it appears they stopped it in record time.  I got a call Friday night about all of this and immediately decided I needed to go home.  Robin wasn't home all weekend because he was in Maryville with friends.  I think that made the situation a lot more stressful for me but I did my best to stay calm for the baby's sake.  Hopefully I did a good job.

The first time I saw Grandpa in the hospital on Saturday, he was really happy to see me which made me feel really good about making that trip.  I noticed a slight tug at his left cheek but it was barely visible and he was just barely slurring some of his words.  We stuck around for about 3 or 4 hours.  In that time, he had two or three other visitors.  Two were friends from home and fishing trips and one was his sister, my Aunt Iney.  She's a spitfire and if you need entertaining, she's the person you want around!  At least he's not sitting around bored all the time!  We visited again on Sunday for a few hours and I got to spend more time with him.  By then the slurring was gone, he was fully coherent, and no other signs were present that he'd had a stroke at all.  It really is a miracle he was in that hospital!

This morning he was supposed to be moved to skilled care for PT but unfortunately they found an infection in his knee.  Until that is taken care of he can't be moved.  I know he's disappointed.  Grandma told my Mom he was really happy to be moving to another area of the hospital.  But, it sounds like they caught things early once again and I just hope that all turns out well and he can be moved soon.  He's doing okay and is out of the 48 hour window when they say a stroke can get worse.  He seems in pretty good spirits and as though he likes his nurses.  Grandma only leaves his side in the evenings to go home to sleep and take care of a few errands.  It's really amazing to see them together.  It is really apparent they couldn't get along very well without eachother.  They make a good team!

Tomorrow or the next day I'll post about the baby stuff I did over the weekend as well.  Not a huge amount to report as I was mostly focused on Grandpa but my 14 week picture will be there along with a few other notes.  Hug your families tonight!  I certainly wish I was closer so I could hug mine more often!