Msc Update - Baby and Other Kiddos

Two posts in one day!! It's a record! Make sure you scroll down below this post to see my Sussie Layouts!!
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I haven't done much but share scrappy stuff on here lately and I figure I'm due a different kind of post. This has been a very quick and busy summer as we get ready for Jonathan to join us in just 7 short days.

I have not done well taking pics this time around, but here's one I snapped in the mirror last week at 34 weeks.


Currently I am:
Not sleeping the best. Just generally being uncomfortable, heartburn and leg cramps. Some nights are better than others, and I am grateful for the rest I am getting. I seem to get better sleep when I take an afternoon nap!

Feeling like the baby is about to fall out! Hopefully that's not TMI but he is sitting so low..
see what I mean? And yes I was just opening presents, not checking to make sure he hadn't fallen out on the floor! :)

Feeling a little anxious about the C-section being 4 weeks before he is due. I know that's not THAT early, but saying lots of prayers the everything will go smoothly and hoping he doesn't have to spend any time in ICU. But also knowing that even if he does this is the best decision to avoid any complications with my previous history of uterine window. Thankful that I haven't had any more pain that caused me some concern a month or so ago, and thankful for a doctor that is fully confident that all will go well.

Really looking forward to holding him in my arms and trying to remember to savor every moment because I KNOW those first few weeks will go oh so fast even as hectic and hard as they may be.

Feeling more organized than I've been in a long time. A little more on top of the housework (but never the less a long way to where I want to be!), making lots of to-do lists and getting lots of things crossed off! Planning a bit of pre-school curriculum for the girls to supplement their 1 day a week at Mother's Morning Out, and reminding myself to cut myself some slack because a newborn is about to be in this house, and a lot of this kind of stuff will have to be on the back-burner for a bit!

And speaking of the girls and Mother's Morning Out.. today was their first day of preschool. They will be going one day a week for 4 hours. They were both just a little bit excited!






So that sums up a bit in our world today! Hope everyone is having a good week!

It's a.........

So we went to the doctor today... no need to keep you in suspense!

It's a ............


And a couple more pics...

(Lovin' Abigail's face in that one ^^.)
These two were right after we left the doctor's office, in the parking garage. Trying to get the girls to hold up the letters.

There is absolutely no doubt that it's a boy. We got quite a view.. not the least bit shy at all. :)
I have to admit it's a little strange, and feels kind of weird. John and I both were expecting it to be another girl. That's just what we're used to , I guess. But now that we know, we're excited. Especially since this is our last baby. Now to pick out a name!

Pregnancy Update

Disclaimer: The following post is for my own personal documentation. I don't want to come across like I'm complaining because I KNOW I could be feeling a lot worse, and we are more than thrilled to be pregnant. I just want to keep up with some of the details of this pregnancy and this seems the best place. So if you don't want to hear me ramble for a bit about symptoms, etc, you might want to skip this post!

So at this point I am about 9 weeks. I remember the tiredness and exhaustion that comes with the 1st trimester, but it seems to be much worse this time around. I just have no energy and stay tired pretty much all day. Now there are breaks, where I have a burst of energy and feel ok, but overall I am just zapped.
The nausea this time around is constant. I haven't actually thrown up, but I feel like I'm going to all day long. A lot of times I wish I would just puke, so I would at least temporarily lose the nausea. It's a lot worse when I'm hungry and there's a bit of irony there because I'm hungry most of the day but yet not much of anything sounds good. I end up forcing down food, followed by a few dry heaves, but still nothing comes up. (I told you, you might want to skip it..)
The most appealing things to me right now are fruit (very cold or fruit popsicles) and Yoplait smoothies. As of today, the Dr. called me in some Zofran (nausea medication) and I can already tell that it's helping. (Yea!)

One other side effect, which is a little odd, is that I have a bit of an aversion to scrapbooking. A lot of times, just simply thinking about it makes me feel sick. The same thing happened when I was pregnant with Abby. And if you're reading this, and familiar with my blog at all, you know this is a problem for me because it's such a big hobby of mine. I spend most of my evenings, after the kids go to bed, at my scrap table.
Now I do have Design Team obligations to meet, so I am pushing through it, but I am really looking forward to this odd side effect to pass. If it does the same as when I was pregnant with Abby, it was pass when I enter the 2nd trimester.

That's pretty much it as far as how I've been feeling. Natalie is so very excited about this baby. She's even "reminded" me about taking my "medicine" for the baby (my prenatal vitamin!).
And even today, she's offered me some of her goldfish crackers to "help my stomach feel better".
Abigail is just going with the flow. She's not quite old enough to understand what's going on. We do need to start thinking about transitioning her to a toddler bed. I want to have any issues with that worked out and her sleeping in one for several months before the baby gets here. The girls will also be sharing a room before too long. Lots to do in the next 6-7 months!

Tidbits from Today

• This pic pretty much describes our day today. Lazy and dazed. I can't get over how worn out I get doing the simplest of tasks. (Like walking from one end of the house to the other, or just taking Natalie to change her diaper). Side note: She has peepee'd in the potty twice this week! I really don't want to complain because so many more things could be making me miserable, it's just taking me by surprise because I wasn't this way at all with Natalie.

• We've been attempting to leave the TV off a little more, rather than just having it on just for the sake of it. Some days we do good, others we don't. One thing that I have noticed is that when we leave it off more Natalie will ask to watch her Elmo videos occasionally which she never did before. So that's what's she's doing in these pictures, watching Elmo's world.

• We can tell Natalie to kiss baby Abby and she'll come lift up my shirt and kiss my belly. I managed to get a shot of her doing that, but I don't really think you can tell that's what she's doing.

And here's another shot of the mammoth belly. :)

Too Cool in the Pool

We finally blew up the little pool we got Natalie and let her play in it today. She got in it as it was filling up, so the water had no time to warm. After about 15 minutes her teeth were chattering, so she didn't stay in it long, but she did have fun. I left the water in it, so maybe tomorrow it will be warmer!




I want to take a sec to brag on my husband tonight. He doesn't even read this blog, but I want to anyway. :) I had my dr. appt today, and while I was out I ran some errands. I was probably gone for about 3 hours. When I got home John had done most of the laundry. I'm getting really tired very easily these days, and after taking Natalie outside for that short 15 minutes and then bringing her in and bathing her, I didn't feel too well. John knew what I had planned on fixing for dinner, and without a word, he went and cooked supper. And then also finished up all the laundry. He ended up doing about 3 loads, I think. I was very grateful for his help today!

I had him take this picture of me, and when I saw it, I knew he must just be feeling sorry for me. LOL! I think I look hediously huge!

Somehow making it a black and white pic made me feel a little better...I'll just try to blend into the background! HA!

Couple of Pages and a Mini

I've said before that I really enjoy the evenings when John stays up playing his online game and I'm scrapping. Even though we are involved in different things, our desks are next to each other and it's an easy way to enjoy each other's company.

I got quite a few things done last night.
This first page, I wasn't really sure what I was going to use as a title, but when I checked out the latest challenge over at Scrapping the Music, it fit.

And then this one of Natalie and Uncle Alan makes me laugh because they both have funny expressions of their faces.

I worked on finishing up the mini I had planned to do of the trip to the Park that Natalie took with her cousins. This was a fairly simple design. I used Making Memories paper that was already in a 6x6 size. I cut all the pics to 4x4 so that I could use the same format throughout. I also used Hambly transparencies for the front and back cover. I've still got to do the journaling, but I need to think about what all I want to say. I will do the journaling on the left side in the scallop circles and around the pictures on the pages that are pink.









I also finished painting the zebra and monkey canvases from my previous post, and almost finished up the elephant one. Once I finish it and do the giraffe, I'll post them all.

I've had a couple of inquiries about the pregnancy and how I'm feeling. Lets just say I'm making it. Some how I didn't realize when I was sitting at my scrap table for so long last night, that my feet were turning into sausages. LOL! I knew it when I stood up though, and my poor little toes looks like stubs. I'm doin ok, but really just trying to take it easy because most anything is making me very tired and sore. Natalie is doing much better in the toddler bed and is even taking her naps in there now. The only other thing to overcome with that is to get her to sleep past 5:30 am! But I'd rather her get up early than be up 3 and 4 times a night. We ran some errands today and I picked up a blackout shade for her window, so we'll see if that helps.

Happy Monday!

Happy Valentine's Day!

The above picture was totally by accident. You'll also notice a white cord next to her head..she was playing with the blind cords.

Let me just say that I have some serious respect for photographers. Especially when they are taking pictures of toddlers. The last time we took Natalie to get her picture taken, she had just turned one. She was standing, but not walking yet. Today, I decided I was going to try to do a photo shoot of her for Valentine's Day. It is SO HARD to take pictures when she can get up and walk off! Regardless of that, here are a few that I was happy with.





That last one of both of us was tough to get. How in the world do you get the camera to focus, to set on a timer. Obviously, I wasn't in front of it when I was trying to focus, because I needed to be able to reach the button. HA! And here's my belly shot at 5 months.

Now I'm gonna get the girl fed and down for her nap. I plan to print out these pics, along with a few others, and make John a small album to give him tonight. Talk about waiting til the last minute!

Fall is Here!

First I want to say thanks to everybody for all the sweet comments and emails. You guys are the best. Hopefully I'll answer the handful of questions I got, in this post.
I am currently about 5 weeks, which makes the baby due in June. The official due date is June 29th. That will make Natalie and new baby about 21 months apart. It wasn't a surprise, we actually planned it. Some people have questioned my sanity. :) And I tend to agree with them some days when I've chased Natalie around all day, but I'm glad they will be close in age. I had some fertility issues when we were trying to get pregnant with Natalie, so we didn't want to put off trying for number two. We were pleasantly surprised that it happened so fast this time around!
We went to the doctor today although it was basically just to confirm that there is a baby growing in there. He did do an ultrasound, but because it's so early all we could see was the embryo sac. I go back in a couple of weeks for another ultrasound. The 1st trimester tiredness is already setting in, but other than that I'm feeling pretty good.

So what else have we been up to? This past weekend we went to Tate Farms. My boss and his wife took his employees and families to the local pumpkin patch. Natalie had an absolute blast. She rode in the corn train with Annessa, picked out a pumpkin in the patch, and played her little heart out in the corn bin. We took so many pictures! Here are just a few of my faves.