Latest baby updates!

It's been quite a long time since I have found the time to blog for all of you! Seems that last time I was pretty sick, which is interesting because this time I am as well....just as I began to finally recover from my THIRD sinus infection in 4 months (I have never in my life suffered from these until I became pregnant!), I was hit HARD last Wednesday with the stomach flu.

The day was just as any other. I even got off work on time (for a great change!). I had an appointment with my new chiropractor (whom I love and adore for finally providing me with lots of relief!) at 7pm. So to kill time, I headed to Mission Valley where I stopped for a non-fat, skinny, iced, latte and then made a very long anticipated trip to Nordstrom Rack. Baby and I manged to find the tiny boys section (imagine that!) and bought him some very cute, yet very cool, stuff! His first 6mos Quicksilver T and matching cargo shorts, for one! And of course a few sleep-and-play suits.

After that, I made the short drive to my chiropractor, got my 15 minute adjustment, and headed  home. I wasn't home for more than an hour before I started feeling....let's just say not so good. I ran to the bathroom several times in the hour for a visitor who definitely wasn't knocking at the "front door." The visitor soon started knocking at both doors and I found myself in the bathroom, with both the trash can and the toilet, every 20 minutes for 12 hours. No joke. After many failed attempts to reach both my Dr. and OBGYN, Matt drove me to ER, who immediately transported me to Grossmont Hospital's Women's Center. They admitted me immediately and within 10 minutes had me hooked to an IV for fluids because I was severely dehydrated (which could have potentially caused me to go into labor). After 3 IV bags and a medicine through IV to help prevent vomiting, I was discharged about 6 hours later and free to go home. I went straight to bed and slept nearly 15 hours. Matt says I remained in the same position for virtually the whole night, so you know I was exhausted! The Dr. has me on bed rest until further notice. I anticipate a release by early next week....that way I can go back to work and attract some other nasty illness from one of my walking viruses, right!?

Other than all of that unexciting news, baby is doing wonderful! Since the first trimester has passed, I am reeeally enjoying every moment of the pregnancy. During about the 8-10th week, while I was experiencing what I thought was deadly morning sickness 24 hours a day, I promised myself (and made many threats to Matt, too!) that this would be my last pregnancy! Now however, 21 weeks down, with 19 to go, I am feeling so great that I can't wait to do it all again (and maybe again after that!).

As you all know by now, we are expecting a little boy! His sweet name has been chosen, however we've decided to keep it a surprise until he arrives in early November (or late October, for that matter!)! For now, the kids call him "Jimmy Lee." Don't ask me how or why they came up with the nickname, but every night Sis rubs my belly and says "G'night Jimmy Lee, sleep tight!"

Matt and I scheduled the 4D sonogram for Saturday June 12th and of course invited all of our families to join us for that....very fun and exciting! The day before though, Daddy wanted to schedule our regular, monthly, sonogram appt. with our OBGYN and also find out the baby's sex. I was concerned with finding out the sex before the 12th because this was the day the rest of the family was finding out. But Matt was excited to do it this way, so I too got excited! Although, I wasn't thrilled about being in a sterile office: me, Daddy, and the sonogram tech, to find out our baby's sex. Seemed somewhat unexciting to me. So Matt had another terrific idea (so great actually that I was kinda jealous that it wasn't my idea for our little baby!). He said "Let's have the sonogram tech write 'boy' or 'girl' down on a piece of paper and seal it in an envelope. Then we will take that to Baby's R Us. We will pick out one baby boy outfit and one baby girl outfit. When we take it to the register, we will give the cashier the envelope and tell her to open it, wrapping the outfit that matches the paper inside the envelope!" I was so sold. But instead, my counter offer was to pick out the outfits before the sonogram and have the sonogram tech wrap which ever outfit fit our baby's sex. Daddy was now sold and off we went to pick out the outfits!

The day of the sonogram was sooo exciting! Matt and I both worked a half day and then met at home to head down for our 2pm appt. Naturally, we were running late so, naturally, mama was slightly stressed out! We finally made it and got all situated and signed it. The sonogram tech was totally pumped about our idea, thankfully, because you know they don't have all the time in the world to be wrapping a baby gift for some crazy-in-love-with-their baby couple that she's never met in her life, nor will she ever see again (not to mention I needed her to wrap up the "reject" outfit, too, so we couldn't see it either!). The appt. should have lasted about 20-30 minutes. But due to the fact that our silly monkey was moving, jumping, kicking, and flipping ALL OVER THE PLACE! the tech was not immediately able to get any good shots of him for us, nor was she able to do all the measurements, etc. that take place at the appointment, so it took about an hour and ten! Before we learned of his active movement that day, the tech asked me, "Did you just eat lunch?" I didn't know what to say because, truthfully, I hadn't had lunch yet and for some silly reason I thought she was able to tell that and would get upset at me! But I said "no," like a puppy with my tail between my legs. "She said, "Really?? Did you recently have a soda or candy or maybe an extra large energy drink of some kind?!" I said, "No! Why?" And she said, "So you two just have a very unusually active kid!?" And it was then that she turned the monitor for us to see. We both started laughing hysterically! He was alllll over the place. Every time the tech tried to get a shot of his "package", the little butt would flip over and hide his ENTIRE front side! So then she'd move the wand to get a shot of him on his other side, and over he'd go! I must have changed positions 8 or 10 times for her to get him on camera and he was just being a little tease! 

After the extra long appt., the tech sent us out to the waiting room until she had finished wrapping each of our gifts. Soon after, she came out holding one present, beautifully wrapped in the baby bag and tissue paper that I brought along, and the other closed up in a plain-jane Trader Joe's bag. Off we went, headed to our favorite sushi restaurant in the Gaslamp, with "our gift" in hand. We could hardly stand the anticipation of opening our gift that we didn't even wait! We decided that I'd open the little envelope that the tech had included with a "?" drawn on the outside and Matt would open our gift. Of course, I finished opening the envelope, which contained a (VERY CLEAR) sonogram picture of baby's "goods", before he finished SLOWLY opening and pulling things from the gift bag. So what does he do!? Drops the gift bag, without seeing either outfit, and takes the picture right out of my little hands! I've never seen this man smile so big in my entire life. It was sweet and something very peaceful, yet proud, about it. That night in the restaurant was like our wedding day on the beach: we were THE spotlight; no other single person mattered in that busy, boisterous sushi bar--no other people except for Mommy, Daddy, and their soon-to-be baby BOY!!

The waitress then came to take our order. She clearly noticed us looking at all of our new pictures and "awwwing" over the baby boy clothes we had purchased--they suddenly meant so much more to us! She joined in our conversation and excitement, peeked at our pictures, and said, "WOW, guys! Your little guy is 'packin' already!" Dad liked that, of course!

The last couple of weeks have been so exciting! We thought life couldn't have been better on March 6th, when we learned we were pregnant. But adding "boy" to the conversation of baby just adds soooo much more meaning and excitement! Immediately following the 4D sonogram, Grandpa Patrick took the 5 of us to lunch to celebrate...thank goodness my appetite was back because that was some of the best Mexican food I've had (of course, I paid for it later when I didn't have my tums within arms reach!). After lunch, Matt and I and the kids went straight for Baby's R Us. Again, we awwwed over just about all of the little boy stuff that we came across! Each of the kids picked out a little something for their little brother. Jacob got him a bib that says "My Big Brother Rocks!" and a fun bath toy. Jess got him a bib that says "I'm the Little Brother!" and some little toys that will velcro onto his car seat. Mommy of course bought some more Eric Carle and Todd Parr baby board books (because they are 1, her favorite children's authors, and 2, she is determined to teach Jimmy Lee to read while he is still in the womb! Not really...but she certainly intends for early language development and no time is a better time than now!)

Last week, we saw the OBGYN for our regular, monthly check. This time, since the appointment was late in the day, the kids were able to join us. So that was exciting for us all to be together and see and hear baby! As of last week, I have lost 2lbs since our last appointment in May and I have gained a total of 6lbs. The Dr. didn't say anything about it, but I know it's good because I gained more than I should have in the 1st trimester...must have been all those comforting carbs that helped cure my 24 hour morning sickness!! My blood pressure was (and seems to always remain at) 110/70. And Dr. Lafferty said everything else was perfect and I'm just a "normal, healthy pregnant lady!" He suggested I take advantage of access to swimming pools this summer, as it will obviously help me to be more comfortable in the unforgiving heat I am sure we will have very soon. But he also made the suggestion because it will help to eliminate the swelling in my legs and ankles that will likely begin happening in a few short months (GREEEAT!) Near the end of the appointment, he asked if either of us had any questions. Matt said, "yes, I do! What can we do about sleeping....or lack thereof.....for me?!" Lafferty responded: "You're S.O.L. Dad! Let the good times roll! If Mom is up, so are you!" I love this guy already!

Last weekend, Matt and I started our baby registries. After I spent endless hours researching 1)what we need and 2) the best quality of all of those items according to US Consumer Products Safety Commissions as well as reviews in Parenting Magazine, we headed for Target first. My husband, as most of you know, is NOT a shopper. The man would be perfectly content having the same 2 or 3 items in the closet and if something went wrong with those 2 or 3 items, mark my words, he would find a way to fix it or manage to do without, as opposed to going out to replace it (opposites DO attract, apparently!)! This day in Target though was something no single person has ever witnessed! As soon as we made it through the entrance, he let go of my hand, making a mad dash for the wedding and baby registry kiosk! He quickly typed in all of the information and then darted to the customer service rep to obtain our registry scanning gun. And off he went, literally! This man was a scanning machine! Scanning everything and anything that he simply thought was cute! I had to finally take it away from him and begin DELETING things that we did not need! Or we'd see something that I hadn't put onto our list of "needs." And I'd say, "This looks neat...helpful...useful...what do you think?" SCAN! Before I could thoroughly read the box or user manual...SCAN! He was quite funny! It all began to get very overwhelming actually. Of course, maybe we weren't necessarily supposed to nearly finish it in one day. Originally I told Matt to be prepared for a 2-3 hour event; he told me to make it 1. It turned out to be 4.5! After that, we decided to do the Baby's R Us registry on-line. I anticipate having to make a brief trip into the store for the very few items that we could not find on-line at some point...yet, it's not like we aren't there on a weekly basis anyways!

I think that's about it for now. I'm feeling very tired so I am going to take advantage of this "bed rest" and crash until my body decides to wake up. I plan to try my best to keep the blog updated more frequently. So check back soon!

With love,
Mommy and "Jimmy"