Sunday, October 21, 2007

Halloween and other news!








Wow, November already! Sorry I haven't updated in awhile, I started a post a week ago and I must have been in a bad mood or something because I was annoyed reading it back to myself. So here we go again.

Jacob was a Lion for Halloween and wore his costume for the most part. We didn't do anything last night, but on Friday we met Lisa and Noah downtown for the crazy-busy trick or treating they have down there. It worked out perfectly and the weather was actually pleasant! The boys were both pretty overwhelmed and just kind of stared at everything, but neither one of them were spooked by the scary costumes, so I would say it was a success. Afterwards we enjoyed some pizza together and watched Noah take his FIRST STEPS!!! There are few things more exciting than watching a baby learn to walk! And boy has he taken off, I saw him today and he is doing so great. You can tell that he is ready to run and catch up to Jacob, now if only those legs would cooperate...

Ever since I went part time I've been looking into things to do with Jacob that would provide him with more social interaction (and myself since we still don't know too many people up here). I've even resorted to letting him play at the kids area in the mall... something I said I would NEVER do before I had kids :) It's been a challenge finding programs that are available on the two days I am home and that aren't geared towards kids with special needs, but luckily, thanks to a lady I ran into at the mall who owns a restaurant that we frequent, I learned of kindergym. Kindergym is exactly what I was looking for... it's an hour each Thursday and for 45minutes the kids have free play and then the last 15minutes is kind of organized songs and such. We've gone twice so far and its been fun! I think I should have exposed Jacob to this type of environment MUCH sooner though, because he hates the organized 15minutes where you have to sit down. He is the ONLY kid that doesn't cooperate. Even the kids that aren't 'active' participants, will just sit quietly on their parents laps... NOT Jacob. He insists on running around, trying to escape and playing with the toys. I am sweating and can't catch my breath by the time I leave this place because I'm the only mom who is tackling their son and wrestling with him to stay put, GEESH! I keep hoping that he is just going to get used to it, but unfortunately there are only two classes left and we will miss next weeks because I have my BIG ULTRASOUND and then the classes don't start up again until spring :(. Oh well... maybe I'll find something closer.

Baby Update: We had a doctor appointment on Monday and all looks good. My fundal height (uterus) is measuring 19cm - it's supposed to correlate with the # of weeks pg you are, but as long as it's within 2cm you are good - I'm 18wks, so things are good :) Heartbeat was in the 145's, which I looked up Jacob's at this point and it was the same. Not sure if that means anything other than a healthy heartbeat! I haven't gained a pound, but I didn't gain any weight with Jacob at this point either... it was in about 2-4wks when all of a sudden... it caught up to me! Everything else looks good. She did say that she would prefer we not fly in February, so we are trying to figure out if we are going to visit Tom, Natalie and Owen in January or wait until a year from now... the only bad thing about that is we will have to pay for Jacobs seat since he will be over the age of 2, BOOO. We'll see.... In other baby news, the ultrasound is only ONE week away, so put your guess in now at the link to your left! Also, I have FINALLY began to feel undeniable movement and I love it. Crazy thing is, as sick as I have felt, feeling the baby makes me finally really feel pregnant! I'll start posting belly pics soon, but I don't have a cute belly yet. In certain clothes I look huge, but most of the time, I just feel fat :(

In other news... Mom just got back from visiting the new parents and the cutest baby ever, Owen. Poor Natalie has had a very difficult recovery and has been fighting a serious infection in her uterus which has landed them in the ER at least once :( Natalie has been receiving very strong antibiotic injections and mom thinks she is finally on the road to recovery, so send some prayers their way that this ordeal can be over.

Things have been a bit stressful here. Last Wednesday, Aaron was notified that this hatchery (and one other one) would be closing November 1st. There were so many possibilities of what this meant for us, it was too much to even try to figure out, so we did our best to ride it out and luckily, things have taken a bit of a turn. This Wednesday, it appears as though the leg*slatures have prohibited any hatcheries closing (ever), so that is one relief. There will be several cuts in the months to come however, especially if a license fee increase doesn't happen (which they have until Jan. 15th to pass). There hasn't been an increase in 11years, but unfortunately there is a strong opposition to it. We don't *think* it will effect Aaron, but it may for some of his coworkers, but we could still use some prayers! All of this information has been in the papers, if I did a bad job explaining this, feel free to check it out there! Anyways, bottom line is that we can breathe a sigh of relief for awhile.

Guess that is it! I'll be writing next Thursday for sure with some big news (hopefully), if not before then.

~Danielle

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Jacob, Lately



Here is a list of the bosses current likes and dislikes:




Likes:



  • Wearing mommy and daddy's shoes around the house

  • Playing hockey

  • Candy, pop, sweets (thanks, grandpa Bruce)

  • Anything he is NOT supposed to have

  • Throwing things

  • Pinching mommy (luckily, biting has mostly subsided)

  • Apples

  • Putting cords, strings, etc. around his neck

  • Pulling himself up on the stove (by standing on the bottom drawer)

  • Finding his belly button

  • Finding YOUR belly button

  • LOVES looking at the fish at the weir and in the raceways

  • Standing/balancing on things (kitchen table, riding toys, etc.)

  • "Driving" our cars

  • And he STILL loves being outside (I'm bracing myself for a very cold winter!)


Dislikes: Haven't changed too much...



  • Halloween costumes

  • Eating at restaurants

  • Bath time, go figure, this used to be under the "likes"

  • Sharing, except when it comes to dinner with Roxy

  • Goodbye's




Monday, October 8, 2007

Happy Birthday Owen!!!


It's official, Tom and Natalie are parents! Owen Edward was born today via C-section after Natalie's induction stalled at 4cm. Owen weighed in at 7lbs 10oz and was 21" long with blondish-red hair! He scored an 8 and 9 on his APGAR and everybody is in good health. CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Can't wait to meet my newest nephew...

Big Day...

Not too much to report except that my nephew is going to be born TODAY!!! I get my updates from Mom and here is what she has told me so far... they arrived at the hospital this morning (for their scheduled induction as she is overdue) and Natalie was already contracting on her own and they were 'uncomfortable' at this point. They were going to start pitocin to speed them up. Around 2pm (our time) she got her epidural and mom did a bad job updating me because she didn't tell me how dilated she was or anything (she was on the golf course). So, very exciting. I hope they are doing ok. I think they were both very freaked about the birthing process, so hopefully they have some excellent doctors and nurses guiding them through it. I'm guessing it's going to be a BIG boy and I'm so curious what they are going to name him! I'll keep you posted!

In other news, Aaron is assisting the fire safety officers with a fire near Thompsonville (Crystal Mountain). He ASSURED me that it would be safe and he was only doing clean up work and that he would keep in touch. Haven't heard from him all day. But I gotta feeling he is doing just fine, I'm just a little curious when he will be home! I better go turn the A/C up full blast... not only is he wearing a big protective fire suit, but it is unseasonably HOT here - 81 degrees and HUMID!!!

Monday, October 1, 2007

October!


On Friday, Aaron and 35,000 others were told not to appear for work on Monday and every day thereafter until an agreement was reached on the State's budget. Luckily, an agreement was made before Monday (or I should say VERY early on Monday), so we didn't have to deal with any days without pay. Still made for an uncomfortable weekend though, not knowing... well, anything, really. Thank goodness. I wasn't worried though because in five years, I'm going to be blown away :)


Jacob is doing much better. Still has a runny nose, but as long as that is his only complaint, I can handle it. He is officially back to sleeping through the night (thank God), but is pretty difficult for naps. Aaron has him tomorrow, good luck, hon.


We received the preliminary results on the NT scan and they are NORMAL! :) The doctor is extra thorough and will be combining the results with some 2nd trimester blood work for what they call a "sequential screen", so we are covered on all bases. I think this test can identify potential problems with like a 95% accuracy, which sounds great to me. So, I go in on the 15th for the final blood work. Then I should be good until 28wks when they will do the gestational diabetes test and CBC or something like that to make sure my iron levels are good, etc. My blood pressure was normal. I'm down a pound but I think she read my weight wrong and accidentally gave me 5lbs in my favor, like --2 instead of --7, so at my next appt she is going to be like "whoa, holy weight gain!" Because in addition to her error, I will most likely be wearing heavier clothing and shoes (it's warmer today, so I had t-shirt and flip flops on). Oh well. She didn't find baby's heartbeat right away, but I wasn't nervous since we heard it loud and clear at home on our doppler. Once she did find it though it was perfect coming in in the 150's. Next appointment is on the 29th. And for the BEST news of all... we've scheduled the BIG ultrasound for November 8th!! I can't wait and I hope the baby cooperates. I've suddenly developed this fear that the baby won't cooperate and we won't be able to find out the sex. Which is strange because that never occurred to me for one minute with Jacob. Oh well, keep your fingers crossed that the baby will keep it's legs UNCROSSED!


Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Jacob Hates Halloween...

Or maybe he doesn't like Lions?


Good news is he is feeling great now! He hasn't had a fever since Saturday and he finally slept through the night again last night, Woohoo!

~Danielle

Friday, September 21, 2007

What a week...

Wow, 6 doctor visits in 6 days. Ouch!

Sunday - Jacob Urgent Care
Monday - Roxy Vet
Tuesday - Jacob Pediatrician
Tuesday night/Weds Morning - Jacob ER
Thursday - Me, Prenatal test/Ultrasound
Friday - Jacob follow-up ER visit

We should be good for awhile, right? Hope so. I'll recap our last few days beginning with Jacob:

Jacob is doing so much better! He still has an occasional low (100-101) fever, but responds well to Tylenol and Motrin. He still can be a little cranky, but he is moving around a lot more now and acting much closer to normal. Still not much of an appetite though... he is skinny enough as it is, he better get that appetite back soon! His sleeping patterns are a mess, last night was TERRIBLE. Aaron and I are just exhausted from the late nights. We had our follow-up appointment with the pediatrician this morning who was very relieved to see that Jacob was feeling better. His blood culture came back positive that there is some bacterial infection (doc mentioned staph, but I don't know if that was an example or what) Jacob is fighting and the doc said that if he came into the appointment today still not feeling well that would mean he would be admitted for iv therapy. Luckily he IS doing better, so there is a chance the blood culture was contaminated. Either way, he switched Jacob from Amoxicillin to Cefprozil. I hope this new med tastes as good as the Amoxicillin did, because Jacob didn't mind that at all!

Baby Update:
So we had our NT scan yesterday and it went well. Our technician was a biotch and refused to provide ANY information, let alone scan a bit between the legs. So looks like we have to wait a few more weeks on that one! Here is an example exchange from our ultrasound:

Me: So from what I read, a measurement of 2.5 and smaller is what we hope for, right?
Tech: Uh, ya. Generally anything under 3 is good.
Me: So how are the baby's measurements so far?
Tech: Uh, 12weeks 4 days.
Me: No, the spinal measurements?
Tech: Oh, I don't know
(Doctor walks in...)
Doctor: How does it look
Tech: Great, ranging from 1.2 to 2.0
Me - banging head on wall

So besides having a completely unhelpful technician, the doctor said the measurements look good. I had bloodwork done too and they will combine that for the overall risk. The baby wasn't entirely cooperative and the tech kept hurting my stomach trying to get the baby to move. The baby moved a ton, just not in the direction she wanted. Blah.

Oh, and Julie, we did not have this done with Jacob, just the quad screen. I didn't know much about it at the time and at my last ob appt my doctor mentioned the quad screen and I asked her about the NT scan. She said she usually doesn't mention it because most patients are not interested in traveling to Grand Rapids for it (I always forget how much of a small town I live in until something like that), but that she thinks it is superior to the Quad screen as far as fewer false positives, etc. And with the added bonus of getting another peek at the baby, I was sold! Even though we don't have any risk factors, Aaron and I both prefer to be prepared for the possibilities and know as much information as we can. Lot's of people say that they prefer not to do any testing because "it wouldn't change anything", but for me, I would make lots of changes! I would learn as much as I could, I would consider delivering in Grand Rapids, I would try to find other moms dealing with the same thing, etc., etc. We have no reason to believe that the results will be anything but normal though, so let's hope that it was nothing more than a poke of my arm and a glimpse of the baby! The baby looked good though, lots of changes since our last ultrasound at 6wks! We could even see the little one open his/her mouth! We should get the official results at our next OB appointment on October 1.

I broke the news to two of the important people at work. They took it well. One of them was funny, he was trying to figure out how I was going to have a baby in March when it takes 9 months. When I told him I was three months along, he said "Did you just find out?" Like it never occurred to him that we would keep it mum for awhile. They both acted surprised, which is good since I have not been sneaky at all (drinking caff-free pop, being nauseous all day and wearing maternity pants). So I'm sure that by the time I return to work on Tuesday, the rest of the office will know. Great. Can't wait to hear the bad pregnancy and labor stories ALL OVER AGAIN. Not to mention the "you are going to have TWO kids in diapers!!!" comments.

Guess that is all for now. Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Oh, and thanks Julie for all the information, it's so nice to have a nursing expert in the family!!