Doctor's and Friends

My doc and I seem to be seeing a lot of eachother lately! I've been in once a week for the past three weeks but he gets a break from me next week! I had the lovely pleasure (ugh) of visiting the office last week to get a non stress test done which I had never had one of those before so I decided to take Zachary along with me. Not a good idea! They hooked me up to the fetal monitor and I had to sit reclined in a chair for 30 minutes while Zach just hung out. He did okay for it but I was happy when I was able to get the monitors off. The reason why I had to do my test was because the day before I was running through the kitchen to get to my son who I thought was choking who in actuality wasn't, I tripped over a sock and tumbled onto the kitchen floor. Not a pretty sight. I scraped up my side on a box that was in our kitchen but I think thankfully that I didn't land on my stomach, just my side! So everything went good with the test and she is still thriving in my belly! And today's doctor appt went about as quick as one could go, checked the heartbeat which was healthy, measured me which was exactly where I should be and I was sent on my merry way 3 lbs heavier! She is head down for now but that could change more in the next few weeks but I hope she just stays head down so I don't have to worry about a c-section! Although it's not too fun when she decides to stretch her body with what little room she has in there cuz in that process she pushes with her head right on my bladder and I feel like I might pee right then and there! But I'm not complaining because I know that when I no longer have my pregnant belly I'm gonna miss it a lot so I try not to think about the more annoying things of pregnancy! On a different note I spent an awesome morning with my friend Katie at chatterbeans where my kids enjoyed themselves immensly playing! It was a nice relaxing time just hanging out and catching up! And there is even more fun happening this weekend because I am taking my pregnancy pictures with Shasta and I'm very excited about that! Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we'll get some good shots!

The holiday tradition continues!

So this has been the second christmas spent at my parents new house and the second year that we've all gone in the hot tub before we open stockings. I think it's a good tradition that I don't mind continuing! I love to watch my husband and my brother play with the boys. They all have such a blast in there and it seems to wear my kids out right before bedtime which is always a plus!

Merry Christmas!

Well I hope everyone enjoyed there christmas! My family had a good time and I enjoyed everyone's company! It seems like we've been celebrating christmas for over a week now because we do stuff ahead of time with some of Asa's family and then with Connor's birthday right before christmas it seems like a week filled with family, fun, and presents! Zachary came down with a cold christmas morning which wasn't too fun for him. He didn't seem too bothered by it but you could tell he didn't feel completely well. He had a runny nose all day. When we finally got home and got him ready for bed I could tell he was pooped out just didn't know how pooped out until I checked on him before I went to bed. He had thrown up all over his crib and he didn't cry about it or nothing and he went to sleep. Luckily he was only lying next to his throw up for 15 minutes or so! We took him out of his crib and he spent the night on his bunk bed! Now I think that's one tired boy to throw up and not even have the energy to cry or nothing! Connor had the pleasure of staying at grandma's house last night as well and he had a blast! Today so far he's been just hanging out playing with all his new toys!

The joy of opening presents! Connor had a blast and he helped everyone open their presents as well as his own! This was Zachary's first real christmas where he got to participate! Last year he was five months old so he didn't really do much!

Doctor's Appt

I had my doctors appt this morning. It's hard to believe that I'm now on to my every two week appts. It makes me realize that yes this baby is going to be here sooner rather than later. While I'm extremely excited to finally see my daughter I'm definantly more than a little nervous as to how I'm going to handle three children. My life seems so busy with the boys and Zachary still seems like more of a baby to me than the little toddler he's turning into. But there's no turning back and I'll get through it! Anyways getting sidetracked my appt went well. I had my glucose screening test so I had to drink my lemon lime drink and then sit there for an hour. Don't know the results of that test but am fairly confident that there' s nothing to worry about. Gained two pounds in the past month so I'm at my original weight now. I need to get my butt into the gym to start exercising cuz I was told that at this point exercise will be the only thing that maintains my weight. I've been severly slacking in that dept the past 6 weeks. I'm no longer riding my bike to work since it's dark when I leave work and that was my main form of exercise. I'm hoping in January I can convince myself to exercise at least 2-3 times a week. We'll see! Our little girl was doing wonderfully in the appt, heart rate was strong and I'm measuring exactly as I should be. I had talked before about a name and I thought Asa and I were close to an agreement but he has since recanted on what he originally said. It might still be her name cuz I'm done looking through name books and if he wants to continue looking then he can but for some reason I don't see him doing that so it might just take more convincing on my part before I know for sure! Okay good enough update for you guys?

The joys of seeing Santa

So I was completely bummed because since I've been working so much I missed taking my kids to see Santa. But Asa took them yesterday and they went to my mom's work to get their picture taken with Santa. Asa tells me that Zachary was fine with sitting on Santa's lap only until Santa tried to talk to him then all hell broke loose. They had to take a quick picture because Zachary was just screaming with his hands out saying "dada, dada" And then I guess Connor was looking at the elf's shoes and not at the camera! Oh well, can't get a good picture everytime! But Connor was very excited to talk to Santa and he told him that he wanted balls, trucks, and cars! So I'm sure he'll get some of that from Santa ;-) 

Can you guess how many weeks?

The latest in the happenings of my belly! 

Holiday Card Fiasco

So I decided to take on the task of getting the right picture for my christmas cards a few weeks back! After two photo sessions on two different days, lots of tears and lots of smiles it's done! It is such an adventure to try to get both your children looking in your direction and smiling at the same time! Asa and I were each in the room trying to get these kids to smile and in the end it all worked out!

This is the way I felt while I was deep in the middle of getting the right picture! I don't think anyone in our household was a happy camper then we had crying kids and weary adults, not a good combo! But makes for a priceless picture that I will treasure when my kids are older! Next year is going to be even more interesting adding a third child to the mix of getting a good picture! 

The Finished Product

After much time and energy on my part there is the finished picture for my holiday cards! There could still be some improvements made to it but honestly I don't want to devote any more energy to making it look okay! 

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I decided to take some video last night and the first part is my kids version on giving my belly kisses! They love to sit there and do that and as I watch it after the fact it looks like it would hurt my belly but alas it doesn't hurt at all so no worries! Connor loves to start singing songs when I do the video of course this song he sings I'd never heard before but you never know what you'll get with him. He is singing about the cars movie from the tune of itsy bitsy spider! And the kisses at the end are for their Nana as Connor said once I turned the video off! Enjoy!

Belly Time

There's the latest on the belly! I've been trying to mess around with photoshop and figure out how to use all the features so hope you like it! And I'm also happy to report that we are really close to having a name and hopefully in the next week we'll reach a final decision. I can't believe that I only have 3 months left in this pregnancy! It seems like time has flown by! I really enjoy my time at night with her because it's about the only time at all that I feel her move. I love to lay on my bed and just wait, sometimes she starts kicking right away other times she doesn't. I'm not too upset about not feeling her all the time cuz this is the exactly the way it was with my other kids as well. 

Busy Busy

Today was a busy day for me which was good because honestly with everyone home all the time besides when I work is sometimes more than all of us can take! There is no new update on the job situation but I appreciate all of your suggestions that I've received so far and hopefully soon I'll have some good news on that aspect. Any and all prayers would be much appreciated! But on to my day, my mom is a lucky lady and through my dads insurance she is able to get a massage every week that is covered and she has to pay a small co pay. So she has become really good friends with her massage lady and the lady actually teaches massage therapy at the college so the massage lady says they need pregnant women who are willing to come in and let students pratice how to give a massage to a pregnant lady. My mom volunteered me (much to my delight) and I went in today to get my free pregnancy massage! It was very relaxing and I am more than willing to do it again! It's about the only time I've been able to have some "me" time in a really long time! And then to add to my delight after the massage I went and had lunch with my best friend. It was nice to be able to go out to lunch with her without my kids in tow. We actually had more of a chance to just talk. While I love spending time with the kids it's nice to just be for a few hours and to not always having to focus my attention on them. After lunch it was time to go pick Connor up and take him to busy buddies. Once he got dropped off I decided to go to the library and look for a baby name book since I'm at a loss and I found 3 books so I will now be sorting through them and hopefully coming up with something soon. I have one name in paticular that I like but I am still trying to convince Asa of that name so if I don't see any new names in these books I will have to start bugging Asa more about this name until he hopefully cracks! With my library books in hand I head home to load up Asa and Zachary and we are then off to the doctors office. While waiting for our appt Zachary was cracking us up because he didn't want to play with any of the waiting room toys, he figured out that if you push the button on the water fountain that water comes out! This kid thought that it was the coolest thing ever and couldn't stop laughing! It was cute :-) Once we got in to see the doctor is was quick, quick, quick. I'm about the most boring pregnant women ever because I never have any questions so all he has to do is check the heartbeat (which was healthy and strong!) and then I'm on my way. I'm happy to report that while I gained a pound this last month I am still one pound below when I first got pregnant! So that's about it for my day today and hope you all have a good weekend!

So really I haven't been doing that much over the past few weeks but yet I've still felt like it's been extremely busy, extremely stressful, and I'm just exhausted and haven't had anything to blog about! I'm hoping this new week offers a fresh start for us and a brighter outlook than last week turned out to be. The week started to go bad by Tuesday because I got really annoyed really quickly with Zachary's doctor's office. With my doctor he told us about a year ago that he was going to start praticing neonatal medicine in Portland and he would only be in the office a few days a month. So I've known that I need to schedule my appts in advance which is why when I called the doctor's office to schedule Zach's well baby check up I scheduled it a month and a half in advance. I was asked over the phone which office I preferred and I told them and thought everything was peach keen. Well we had Asa leave work early on Tuesday to meet me at the doctor's office and when we got there on time for our appt we were told that our doctor was not in this office today he was at the other office. I explained that I had made this appt a month and a half ago and I was told it would be at this office. The receptionist called the office where he was at today and told them that we were on our way to visit with the doctor. After we hauled butt through town to the other office we got the kids unloaded I went to the front desk only to have them tell me that the doctor had an appt that he had to go to so I could come back at 4 this afternoon. I said no I couldn't come back at 4 because I would be at work then and she got really snippy with me really quick and I was getting rather pissed with having driven all the way across town just for them to tell me he couldn't see Zachary today. I then got on the phone with the appt center to reschedule and the soonest they could see Zachary was a month away and I was not willing to wait another month so I rescheduled with a different doctor hoping that maybe I'll like this other doctor and will possibly switch pediatricians. So we rescheduled and went to see this new doctor this past thursday and I absolutely disliked this doctor! He did not talk to Asa or I at all, didn't explain anything just basicially wanted to get in and out as quickly as possible. I was less than impressed. And as it turns out he told us that Zachary has an ear infection so I was then given a prescription and sent on my home after they gave Zachary 5 shots in his leg. Zachary was not a happy camper at all. I have to take Zachary back next week to have his ear rechecked so I am going to see Zachary's normal pediatrician and hopefully talk to him about who he would recommend if I was to choose to switch. I really love his pediatrician but with me having a new baby coming I don't think that the doctor can be or wants to take another patient when he's not in the office that much and I want my kids to all have the same pediatrician so we'll have to see. And to top off that bad day the next day Asa was late to work and they decided to let him go. When I had went on my vacation to California Asa had trouble getting himself up to go to work and they told him if he was late one more time that he would be let go and so two months went by and until last week he was on time. But that day he was only late by 30 minutes but I guess that was enough and he is now jobless. I'm trying not to stress out too much right now but it is definantly got me worried because his job was our main source of income. There is absolutely no way that we can live off my income alone so I'm hoping he'll get a new job quick. He put in a resume at a different airplane manufacturing company so hopefully he'll get an interview this week with them. And if this other airplane company falls through I'm at a loss for what we are going to do...But on a brighter note we thought it would be fun to take the kids to the monster trucks this weekend. I had forgotten how loud those monster trucks could be. Luckily we went with our friend Nick and he had brought ear plugs for everyone. Zachary and Connor's ear plugs didn't fit too well but they were better than nothing. I think we had to put Zachary's back in his ear at least 10 times because they kept falling out. I thought Connor would've enjoyed the monster trucks more than he did but he seemed less impressed with everything and he was already asking when we were going home after the first 45 minutes. And then Zachary was even more unhappy about the monster trucks than Connor. The noise level was too much for him to handle and after two hours of the noise he hit his breaking point. He was crying uncontrolably and nothing that Asa and I did would comfort him. I was more than happy when it was over and we could all go home. But my kids slept wonderfully that night for me and I got to sleep in so it all worked out! Not much else going on with me, I'll be posting some new pregnancy pics hopefully this week when I get them edited into my computer. We are still at a loss for names but hopefully we'll come up with something soon. I'd really like to put a name to the talk about this baby espicially with my children.

Happy Halloween!

 
 
 
I hope everyone out there had a wonderful halloween! The Dean family had an awesome time, we went to our church where all the kids can play games and then they get a trick or treat at the end of each game. I like it so much better than going door to door trick or treating and everyone stays warm! My kids did wonderfully well with their costumes and I'm glad my pics turned out cute! Enjoy :-) 

Connor's Favorite Game

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He absolutely loved to play this game and he was having so much fun trying to get the yummy powdered doughnut!

Game Time

 
There were lots of games for the kids to play and here are a few that Connor had fun with! 

Pumpkin Carving Time

 
So the unimaginable has happened and we actually managed to get our pumpkins carved this halloween! I was very impressed that it actually got done and we all had a good time doing it, well everyone except Zachary cuz he conveniently decided to take a nap then! I think that Asa did an excellent job of carving out the faces and I'm very happy with them! On a side note I got a glimpse of my near future tonight because I got the long awaited phone call from N & S that their baby Logan is about to make his debut so I was off to the hospital to pick up their older son and have him spend the night with us tonight. The five of us all went out to dinner at Quizno's and then over to Rocky Mtn. Chocolate Factory. It was quite different when there is three kids and only two adults! Everyone did excellent. All the boys ate their dinner wonderfully and they each got to pick out their own chocolate to take home and eat but it was just more involved in getting three kids out the door, dinner ready, in the car and all that! Asa and I definantly have our work cut out for us in the future! 

 
Connor was somewhat less than thrilled about how we actually had to take all that stuff out of the inside of the pumpkin! He only put his hands in there twice and then insisted of wanting his hands washed right away! But he did have fun helping daddy decide what faces he wanted on the pumpkins and he watched while daddy drew them on there. Proud daddy with his artwork! 

Proud Display

 
 
 
I think my hubby did an awesome job!! I love how they turned out! 

New Shots!

 
 
So Connor and I decided to have some fun a few nights back when I was starting to feel a little better so we got the self timer ready on the camera and took some pictures! She's definantly in there!! And an update from the last post I am finally starting to feel better. My voice came back for the most part on Wednesday and I've only thrown up once in the past 3 days so definantly an improvement! Hopefully the worst is behind me and I can continue to feel better cuz man that sucked! 

Gettin' Bigger by the Minute!

 
Zachary is really starting to become a little toddler now, all over the place! The picture in the top right corner made him espcially proud that he could hold the cup in his mouth without hands just like Connor! And he espicially loves to ride that dump truck through the kitchen! We even had a ride on toy for him that actually fits and he could use that but it is just not as fun as the dump truck! Like I said he's all over the place and definantly keeps me on my toes! 

Definantly not the best week ever

This past week has been pretty excruciating for me. As of tomorrow morning I have been sick for 8 days and haven't had my voice for 7 of those 8 days. This sucks! I keep going to bed each night thinking I'll feel better in the morning but then when I wake up I feel just as bad as the night before. I've been tossing and turning every night because of my cough and runny nose that tends to keep me up. And you know one of the lovely symptons of pregnancy which is losing bladder control when you sneeze? Yeah I have that when I cough and I swear I have gone through more underwear than I thought was possible this week! On Friday I woke up with pain in my right cheek that has been constant now for three days. I called the doctor on Friday and talked to a nurse who prescribed me prescription cough medicine. I went and picked that up Friday night and started taking it right away and while it's helped minimally with my cough it hasn't done a damn thing for any of my other symptons! I have thrown up more times this week than I have through each of my previous pregnancies combined! I was told by the nurse on Friday to do nothing this weekend but rest. I talked with my boss at the pool and we found someone to work for me Saturday but I also still have my other job that I have to do on the weekends. My mom told me she would help me out with my other job so she worked for 2 hours for me and I worked 3 hours. Again not fun at all. I came home just exhausted, tired, and ready to lay down. So I spent the remaining Saturday laying down as much as I could and today spent the morning in bed. Asa has been somewhat responsive to watching the kids for this weekend. But if the kids see me in bed they automatically want in bed with me so they've spent a good part of the weekend in bed with me. Today as I was looking online trying to figure out why my face would be in so much pain I discovered that it might be a sinus infection. So I decided that I would call my mom to pick up the kids and Asa and I would go for a visit at the hospital. When I got to the hospital they sent me to the birthing center to make sure everything was okay with her first and thankfully she was fine. Her heartrate was 163 and was steady the whole time. I was at least happy for that part because with the way I've been feeling, I've definantly been more than a little worried about how she's doing. After the birthing center it was back to the emergency room where after discussing the same symptons with 3 different nurses I was finally put in a room. I waited in that room for 45 minutes before the doctor came to see me. He seemed confused as to why I was even in there and after looking me over he said that it's just a basic cold and he doesn't know why I'd be having pain in my face. He told me he wasn't going to give me antibiotics he just wants me to ride it out and see how that goes. I was somewhat dissapointed that nothing was wrong with me because I want some good medicine to make it go away! After dealing with all of this for a week already it was not what I wanted to hear. So Asa and I were sent home and now I sit here with a throbbing pain in my face and getting ready to take some cough medicine and go to bed. Say a few prayers for me if you can :-)

Pregnancy Talk!

Today was our appt with our doctor! I was very anxious and excited to go. I always get kinda nervous that he might find something wrong with this baby but our baby is excellent. Great little heartbeat on her! You know when I had my first pregnancy I was so nieve about what was actually happening in my body and so with each subsequent pregnancy I find myself getting more and more worried about what could possibly go wrong. Now hopefully soon I can put my fears to rest but I don't know. Like take tonight, my kids and I have all had nasty coughs for about a week now. Today I lost my voice and had this cough which is just lovely when you spend your day talking with little kids! But anyways tonight after dinner, I couldn't stop coughing and finally I was coughing so much that I ended up throwing up, twice, in the bathroom. Not too fun. So then I start worrying about me throwing up and coughing so much and how this is affecting my little girl but from what I've read in my books it's nothing to be worried about unless it's accompied by a fever which it's not. Hopefully after a good nights sleep tonight I'll feel better tomorrow! But on a brighter note when I got weighed at the doctors appt today I had lost 3 pounds!!! So as of right now I am two pounds less than when I had started! Pretty amazing to be losing weight but yet she weighs almost a pound! Hopefully I can continue on this road of exercise and not gain that much weight. I am already anxious to start working out full force and losing more weight. I have pants that I refused to give away from pre kids that I hope to fit into someday! Other than that not much new on the baby front, just getting more and more anxious to meet her. I went to Target yesterday and found her outfit that I will be bringing her home in. Which if anyone doesn't know one of my biggest excitements is finding the perfect outfit to bring my child home in and picking the perfect outfit for my childs baptism! A few friends of mine from work who have girls have already started giving me some of their old clothes, which I love, so I've been anxiously sorting through these clothes picturing what they'll look like on her! I believe I have even found the dress I want her to wear for her baptism and some adorable shoes to go with it, all courtesty of my friends at work!

Pumpkin Patch

 
So we had a wonderful time this weekend spent with Asa's family at the Pumpkin Patch. Both my kids enjoyed themselves immensly! The weather was fairly crappy but got a little better towards the end. The wind was extremely bad at first so we all got extremely dirty from all the dust kicked up into our faces! At the pumpkin patch we got to watch some pumpkin shooting, feeding the Clydesdale horses, riding an animal train, petting zoo, playing in the haystacks, and of course picking out our own pumpkins to take home! I think everyone enjoyed themselves that day and hopefully this week we'll get to carving our new pumpkins, of course that means I have to go buy some carving tools so hopefully it will get done! 

 
 
 
There was even a petting zoo and I was somewhat suprised at both my kids not getting scared of the animals all around them, espically the turkey cuz just a few weekends ago we visited my mother in laws neighbor and she had turkeys and Connor was freaked out by them and wanted to be held the whole time! 

 
The kids were all having fun playing on the haystacks! 

New Belly Shots

 
 
So I'm officialy halfway through this pregnancy! I've now had a few days since my ultrasound and it's starting to sink in that yes this is a girl cuz it was hard for me to grasp at first. I couldn't be happier than I am at the moment. I have a womderful husband, two beautiful children with one more on the way, and some of the greatest friends! So thank you to all of my family and to my friends out there for the outpouring of excitement and happiness for me! It is so nice to finally be able to refer to this baby as a she and not an it. I am just now starting to pour through the baby names that are available online cuz the ones that I liked so far Asa doesn't but I'm thinking it shouldn't be too difficult to come up with a name since we've never had a chance to sift through girl names! I'm finally starting to feel her move! It's nothing consistent but I have felt her a couple times. It was pretty awesome to see her on the ultrasound machine because she was moving all over. Her hands were up and down back and forth. And her legs were moving around too. When the ultrasound lady was trying to get a good profile pic of the baby she started poking my stomach and it was funny cuz she would poke my stomach and my little girl would respond! Aaaahhh technology is awesome!