Weekend of Firsts

We had quite the exciting Memorial Day weekend around here! Monte had Friday through Monday off, so starting out on Friday we spent most of the day and evening out at a lake near here. Our friend from college, who we haven't seen in over a year, invited us to come out since he was camping there. There is a really nice state park there, and Isabella had a BLAST throwing rocks in the water, swinging at the playground, roasting marshmallows, and fishing. We've taken her fishing several times before, but she hadn't ever caught anything. Her luck changed on Friday, though. She caught four little bluegills, they were tiny, but she didn't care, it was so much fun for all of us! Afterward, we went to a really nice restaurant overlooking the lake, and now I HAVE to go back. I can't believe we live so close to it, and have never been there before, it had the ultimate salad bar, right up my alley.

On Saturday, we decided to take Isabella to her first movie, the new Shrek movie. I think her favorite part was the popcorn and drinking Daddy's Cherry Coke, she had never really had pop before. After that, we went to a carnival that was in town for the weekend where she got to ride one of the rides.

Sunday was when our visitors came, my sister and her kids, and my parents both came out to visit. My parents stayed until Monday, and my sister stayed until Tuesday.

The girls spent HOURS on the swing set.

A random picture thrown in . . . because I like it. :)

We went to the zoo on Monday, also.

And that sums up our weekend, very fun, and also very tiring for this pregnant lady!

Beautiful Summer Day

It seems like every evening for the past week or so, when I sit down, my contractions start in, the last two nights they have been 3 to 4 minutes apart. Besides that I have been feeling a lot of uncomfortable pressure lately, along with only feeling the baby move really low, I was worried the baby had dropped already. I made a phone call to the doctor this morning, and he said to come into the clinic right away. It was the first time I have ever taken Isabella with me to one of my appointments, she had some questions for me afterwards! He did an ultrasound, and said the baby was in a very strange oblique position, which would cause me to feel a lot pressure, it hasn't dropped,* phew*! He then checked my cervix, and it was still exactly as it should be, double *phew*!! What a relief to be so reassured! He did double my dosage of anti-contraction meds since I was on a very low dose. I go back in a week for my regular appt, ultrasounds, and all that other good stuff.

Since it is such a beautiful day, Isabella and I decided to go to one of our favorite spots, a gorgeous walking trail where there's all sorts of ponds, bridges, gazebos, geese, etc. It was very windy, though, so excuse the windblown hair! Monte came home early today, so when she gets up from her nap she and Daddy are going to finish planting the garden. In the meantime, I think I'll go read a book outside.

A picture post

It seems like we've been quite busy lately, summer is here, and it is great! I normally LOVE very hot weather, but I think this year will be a little different, heat and pregnancy don't mix very well. Thankfully our covered back porch stays somewhat cool even on hot days, so at least we'll be able to be out there. Today it was 90 degrees! Monte was gone for work 6 days this past week. We were joking about how they sent him out to the wild west. The fields he had to measure were just about in the middle of nowhere. He came across 5 rattlesnakes, quite a few antelope, and he said the roads were barely roads, with cattle lying in the middle of them. There have also been quite a few reports of mountain lions where he was at, thank goodness he never came across any of those! Isabella and I are SO glad to have him home again! Although, we did have fun while he was gone, we decided to go stay with Monte's parents for most of the week, we love going there. I thought about going to my parents, but they are 4 hours away, and after my scare, I didn't want to be quite that far from my doctor. On our way home from my in-laws, Isabella and I stopped at a greenhouse to buy my flowers for the summer. That is always quite possibly my favorite day of the year! What normally takes me one good day of planting, has now taken me three days, and I'm not done yet. I'm trying to follow doctor's orders and take it a little easy, but it's hard. When summer is here, all I want to do is work outside. I weeded this morning, while Isabella fed most of the weeds (aka broccoli) to a plastic turtle. And Monte worked up the soil, and weeded my flower bed for me yesterday, I knew I didn't have that in me! I love how all the playing outside completely wears Isabella out, today I got a 4 hour nap out of her! And now on to the pictures . . .

Mother's Day weekend.

Monte wanted to do something fun as a family before he went on his trip, so we went to the zoo for the first time this year.

After all the times I've been to the zoo in the last couple of years, I've never seen the peacocks with their feathers out, so I was pleased to finally see it!

Isabella helped me pick rhubarb last week, I LOVE rhubarb!

Oh how I LOVE sundresses! Here she is modeling her new haircut, too.

She loves playing baseball, she has a tee, but refuses to use it, she always wants the balls pitched to her, and she's pretty darn good for being only 3. I think she inherited Daddy's athletic abilities, and NOT mine, thank goodness!

Yesterday was a perfect Sunday, we were outside all day. Here she is tooling around on her Jeep while Daddy works in the garden. I love that she can (somewhat) steer that thing this year, and I don't have to run along beside her to steer it!

26 Weeks . . .

and only 1 week away from the last trimester, yay!

To the hospital and back

OF COURSE, just as I post that everything is fine I end up in the hospital today! I was feeling very nauseous and sick this morning, so I decided to lay down for awhile. While I was laying down I started having very regular contractions, one after the other, about 7-8 minutes apart. After a couple hours of this I called my doctor, and he told me to go straight to the hospital. Thankfully Monte happened to be home at the time, and we called our neighbor to come stay with Isabella. Thank goodness she is so easygoing, even though it was about an hour and half before her naptime, we put her to bed without any complaints from her, before we left. When we got home she was happily playing babies with our neighbor lady, and calling her "Mama" (her term for grandma).

Once we got to the hospital I got a sick feeling, thinking back to all the times I was there when I was pregnant with Isabella. The nurse recognised me right away. They hooked me up to the monitors for the afternoon, did some tests, and sent me home this evening with a prescription for anti-contraction meds, and doctor's orders to "be a couch potato". Boo. I'm supposed to hear tomorrow on the pre-term labor test.

This week is turning out to be a doozy of a week. Monte's dear grandpa passed away over the weekend, and we are heading home to his parents tomorrow for a couple of days for the funeral. His grandpa was 97, and ready to go home. We are thankful for his good, long life, it is a bittersweet time.

24 Week Update

I see the little lady on my sidebar ticker got larger today, ha! I'm not entirely sure how accurate 24 weeks is. According to my NFP charting I'm 24 weeks, but that was a completely wonky cycle for me, so I'm not entirely confident in my charting that month. According to the ultrasounds, I'm 25 and a half weeks along. My appt. last Thursday was a LONG one, and all my appts. from now on will be also. I had my appt., my usual monthly ultrasound with the doctor, he checked my cervix, then I was sent down to have another ultrasound with the tech to get precise measurements of my cervix, then I had another appt. right away with my doctor. The good news is that I am not dilated at all, and my cervical length is normal! This is great news considering that I was dilated and in pre-term labor with Isabella at 24 weeks! The not as good news - some days I'm having a lot of contractions, and the baby is low and "in position". My doctor is not too worried at this point though, so no bed rest or medications yet, yay! Since my cervical length was so good, he decided not to do the pre-term labor test yet. If anything has changed in 3 weeks, I'll be getting steroid shots to develop the baby's lungs faster.

He also told me that if I make it until then, he'll be inducing me 2 weeks early. The reason for this is that my labor with Isabella went insanely FAST (from 4 cm to having her out in 15 minutes!)! He wants to make sure I get to the hospital in time. He was telling us about a patient he just had who delivered her baby just as they were pulling in to the hospital parking lot! I know a lot of people don't like to be induced or have a scheduled delivery, but I am more than okay with it. Having that fast of labor was scary, and it's something that's been on mind lately, hoping I can get to the hospital in time, especially considering Monte's mom is the one who will be coming to get Isabella, and she is 1 and a half hours away. We also live 20 miles from the hospital. I can't believe I only have 3 months to go! Please, please pray with us that this little baby doesn't take after big sister, and decide to make too early of appearance!

This and That - Time Flies Edition

I turned the big 3-0 on Sunday, yikes! I can't believe I'm no longer in my twenties, boo. :( We went home to my parents for the weekend to celebrate my nephew's First Communion. It was great to see everyone, and we all went out to eat on Saturday night to celebrate my birthday. Following the weekend at my parents, Isabella and I went home with my sister and her family to stay for a few days. Our girls had a BLAST playing together, they are both three, and you can tell how much older they are getting, as they now just go off and play together without even needing us around! My sweet little nephew is now 8 months old, and is a very easygoing little guy. My sister and I and the kids all went shopping one day, which was great fun, and the rest of the time was spent talking and baking while the girls played in a big princess tent in the basement.

We've had really nice weather up until this past week, the amount of wind we've had lately has been insane! And now there's a chance of SNOW tomorrow, yuck!

Monte was gone on a trip for work a few weeks ago, thankfully my mom came out to keep me sane while he was gone.

We're looking forward to a visit from my mother-in-law tomorrow. She'll be staying with us overnight, and staying with Isabella while I have my OB appt. I'm almost 24 weeks, which is the point that I went into labor with Isabella for the first time, that makes me a tiny bit nervous, I'm so glad I have an appt. tomorrow! I can't believe that right now I'm only 10 and a half weeks away from the point when I delivered Isabella.

Isabella is SO excited about this baby, she can hardly stand it! She talks about it all the time, she's going to be a big helper.

My energy levels I had the other week have definitely dropped off! I have two more closets to clean out, then I will have gone through everything in the house. I really want to get it done, and am determined that I will get it done, but don't have much of a desire to do it anymore. I'm starting to feel more fatigued, like I was in the beginning, and have been resting when Isabella takes her naps, which drastically cuts down on my "getting stuff done" time.

And that's about all I've got for now!