The Smiths are Smiling

An Update and it's been a year...

2010-05-09T19:46:00.005-04:00

So, first and foremost we are long overdue for an update. Sadie is a big and beautiful girl. She's been holding steady at around 32 lbs for several months now. She keeps getting taller, though, so she's thinning out a bit. We think she is around 34". She's now 20 months old, which means that it's only 4 months until we won't be counting her age in months anymore! :) Sadie has grown to be very independent and stubborn. She wants her way most of the time and all of her loving adults give in and let her have her way! :) She's finally saying more words - ball, teeth, tea (yes there's a distinction between tea and teeth!), bottle, Where's it at? (or variations with he/she), mouth, kitty (sometimes), and she'll often repeat words after you, though not necessarily use them again later. She very definitely understands just about anything you ask her to do or even say around her. She has even figured out that I-C-E --C-R-E-A-M means ice cream, so we've going to have to come up with some new code word that she doesn't understand. She is OBSESSED with her silky blanket and would probably take it every where if we allowed it. She is enrolled in gymnastics and is getting very good! She is also taking a Gymboree class. For 10 weeks she took a music class, too, but she didn't get along all that well with the teacher, so we passed on an additional session. She takes "science" classes twice a month at COSI and has visited the zoo and Franklin Park Conservatory on a number of occasions. Sadie is a VERY active toddler! She is also a good eater, except when her mouth hurts from teeth or she has a bad cold. She has 12 teeth right now, but is definitely working on her four canine teeth! She very definitely does NOT like going to the doctor, and in fact cries when she even sees the doctor's office. That said, she is very aware of her surroundings and starts jumping up and down in her car seat when she knows we are driving near the park! Sadie also got a bike helmet recently and has been on a few rides in her pull-behind-Dad bike trailer. Sadie also loves to sit in her crib and talk to herself a good long while before going to sleep for a nap or for the night. In fact, I can hear her chattering away next door as I type this! Adam, I, and all of Sadie's relatives are very proud of her and all of the things she can do and is willing to try. She loves the park and often goes down the tallest possible slides on her tummy! She is a dare-devil! No sliding on her bottom!

For Easter the Stotts-Smith clan took a weekend away in West Lafayette, Ohio. Our favorite Ohio winery, Raven's Glenn, is located in West Lafayette. We rented a cottage for the weekend that was right along the river and literally a 5 minute walk to the winery! We went geo-caching, took a tour of the Longaberger basket warehouse, visited historic Roscoe Village, and just generally had a wonderful time! Sadie even got to have an Easter Egg hunt on Sunday morning. Going right along with Easter, Sadie had some portraits taken at Portrait Innovations. After our bad luck at JCPenney's, Portrait Innovations was a complete breath of fresh air. They had a very open and not HOT studio! They were kind, caring, and did not rush us. We could have even done a couple of outfit changes and they would not have minded! Instead, we stuck to one outfit and also incorporated a lace umbrella that Aunt Rhian bought for Sadie in Cypress last summer.

Adam has continued to be an amazing Daddy! He often changes Sadie's diaper, will comfort her when she cries, and loves to climb up and down all of the playground equipment with her! He's still very protective of her, but only in the kindest and most loving of ways. He often sits next to her at meals and helps to feed her (when she's not doing it herself). He is also taking excellent care of me, making sure that I am staying as happy and healthy as possible! I am a VERY lucky woman.

I am feeling very well, certainly much better than I was a year ago today! Mother's Day 2009 is the first time I can clearly remember having UC symptoms. It's kind of crazy to think of all that has changed in the last year. While I certainly feel blessed to have such a wonderful daughter and fantastic husband, and wonderful parents and in-laws and sibling, I have met today with a fair amount of guilt. I know that getting UC was certainly not "my fault," but I feel like because of it I missed out on an awful lot of the time I would have liked to have been spending with Sadie. I have continued to feel despairingly tired on most days, making it very hard to motivate myself to do with Sadie what I would like to be doing. I keep trying to push through it, but I just don't think I'm quite there yet. My mom keeps assuring me that it takes a very long time for anesthesia to work it's way out of your system and with the two surgeries I've already had in the past year (lung biopsy and total colectomy), it's no big surprise that I am tired. Unfortunately, I've still got two more surgeries to go before we're done with this whole mess. Which undoubtedly means more time that will not be spent in the manner in which I would like to be spending it. But, I know that I have to put myself first right now in order to be able to spend more time with Sadie and every one else in my future. I just very eagerly look forward to August and my 3rd and FINAL surgery so that I can be done with all of this and move on! I am also happy to be turning 30 as it represents a whole new decade to look forward to and enjoy!

Well, enough of my complaining...here are some updated pictures of my wonderful little girl...

An Update in Pictures

2009-12-16T13:51:00.014-05:00

Ok - so for any of you the read this blog, you likely already know that I spent 11 days in the hospital in November and have been at home recovering from that experience ever since. So, while I have been home and really have no excuse for not blogging sooner, I have not. I have decided rather than update in words, though, I will update in pictures.

The first pictures show the wrap-up of Sadie's birthday celebration, snap shots from Homecoming at Butler, followed by a few Fall pictures from Brown County. She did start independently walking around the second week of October.

Next we have some Pumpkin Patch and Halloween pictures:

Finally, we will finish up with a few random pictures of total cuteness and the BEST Santa picture ever!

Sadie's First Birthday Bash

2009-09-14T08:06:00.005-04:00

Well, it’s official. On Friday September 4, 2009 at 7:50 am, Sadie Emerson Smith turned one year old! It’s amazing! She now has four teeth – two on top and two on bottom. She will eat almost anything that you give her. She enjoys feeding herself and has really started to like to use a fork and actually spear her own food. She LOVES yogurt and yogurt bites. Since turning one she has done a better and better job of sleeping through the entire night. She goes to bed between 8:30 and 9:30 pm and doesn’t get up until between 8:00 and 9:00 am! When she does get up in the night, it’s only once. She’ll have a bottle and go straight back to sleep! She’s also still taking one long (usually) afternoon nap from between 1 pm and 4 pm. She usually doesn’t nap more than 2 hours, but sometimes it’s closer to 3! Sadie is the happiest little girl! She smiles almost constantly and LOVES to clap for herself. She is an expert at walking around the furniture and can walk almost independently. She will walk with only one adult hand for help, but still prefers to have two hands. She often will stand up independently and then dance in place. Not only is it hysterical, but it’s REALLY, REALLY cute! She can clearly say “Mama” and “Dada.” She also says “ba(ll)” or “ba(ttle) (bottle)”. She very definitely understands more words than she can say, though, because if you ask her to bring you something (a brush, a toy, etc), she very often will go find what you asked for and bring it to you! Sadie also LOVES “Sesame Street,” particularly Elmo. If she is in one of her rare crying moods, you can put Elmo up on the TV screen and she will INSTANTLY calm down. It’s the one thing we have found time and time again that ALWAYS works to calm her. And, for her birthday, she received numerous Elmo gifts that she delights in playing with and allow Mommy and Daddy to have a break from TV Elmo. :) Sadie also has a strong love for books. Sadie owns more books than most children do in their entire lifetime. We keep three shelves full of these books in the living room. She delights in going over to the shelves, pulling ALL of the books off and then selecting a few that she will drag around to any adult in the room and demand that you “read” with her. By “read,” I really mean a fast flip through the pages accompanied by a very fast retelling of whatever the story is actually about. She prefers to flip the pages herself, but she really likes it when you stop and point out some of the illustrations. Her current favorite books are “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle and a book called “Cats” that has fuzzy bits and makes a squeaky noise. My mother has become and EXPERT at retelling “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” at warp speed, while still stopping to point out all of the things the caterpillar has eaten and stopping for the longest time at the last page where he has actually changed into a butterfly!

On September 3, the day before Sadie’s birthday, she woke up, had a bit of a bottle, and within an hour threw up all over her car seat and then all over grandma. My mom called me at school and I rushed to make a doctor’s appointment for the afternoon. By the time we got to the doctor – around 2:30 pm – Sadie had eaten some yogurt and a few other snacks and kept it all down. She had also had an afternoon nap. She was acting like she felt ok, but we were obviously all concerned. The doctor examined her and wasn’t too concerned. That was great, until my Mom mentioned that on Wednesday she had really hit her head very hard. Then the doctor was concerned. She was afraid Sadie’s brain might be swelling from the inside and she might be in need of a Cat-Scan. She said that we didn’t need to go to the ER immediately since Sadie hadn’t gotten sick since that morning. But, we needed to very carefully monitor and look for any symptoms out of the usual – extreme crankiness, extreme tiredness, more vomiting, etc. So, in a rather scared-to-death state, I drove Sadie home and did everything I could to make sure she was as comfortable and peaceful as possible. She was acting fairly tired, but because of the timing of the doctor’s appointment, she hadn’t had a particularly long nap. So, Adam and I just kept hoping that she would be fine and that she was just tired due to her shortened nap. Thankfully, by the time she got up on Friday morning, she seemed to be feeling better and better. Even though I had already missed so much of school due to my own problems, I decided to stay home with her. Knowing that she hadn’t been feeling well and that she had really scared me, my own body seemed to be having a bit of a melt-down on its own, so I figured I was probably better off to stay home anyway. Adam, too, took the day off. So, since it was Sadie’s actual birthday and she seemed to be feeling better, we made our way over to Grandma’s to pick her up and then went to visit Grandpa at his school. After Grandpa did a little birthday showing off, we headed over to Chuck E. Cheese for a birthday lunch. Now, when I was growing up, we never really went to Chuck E. Cheese. We went to Showbiz. But, Showbiz has long since been out of business. So, we were only left with the option of Chuck E. Cheese. And oh what a disappointment it was. I VERY fondly remember sitting and watching the cast of animatronic characters sing and dance across the stage. At Chuck E. Cheese, there was only one animatronic – Chuck E. himself. He was little and stuck in the corner. The rest of the “stage” was made up of video screens that had the other characters recorded on it and they all “sang and danced” together. Really, this just crushed my wonderful memories of the place from when I was little. Technology can be a good thing, but in this case it just STUNK! But, all that said, Sadie did LOVE to ride on all of the little rides. And, here are some pictures to prove it:

For Sadie’s birthday dinner, we decided to go to Buca di Beppo’s. I had to call ahead to make sure that they had some meals that they could prepare that I would be able to eat, but once that was confirmed, we happily headed off to dinner. Daddy, Mommy, and Grandma and Grandpa Stotts accompanied Sadie. She LOVED eating the bread, some salad, and some Chicken Saltimbocca. She also LOVED when her birthday cupcake arrived! At first, she wanted nothing more than to dip her fork into the icing and lick the icing. But, as the sugar rush started, she eventually dropped the fork and instead began using her hands. Finally, she ended up getting her head COVERED in icing. She never actually dipped her face into the cake, preferring instead to just smear cake and icing with her hands. She LOVED this whole situation and repeatedly clapped for herself for the “good job” she had done. Our waitress and some of the other wait staff even came to watch her because she was so funny! We do have the whole thing on video, and if you are a Facebooker – you must go and check it out!

Sadie’s actual birthday party was not until Sunday. Sadie had an Elmo themed party. I got all kinds of Elmo decorations from Factory Card Outlet. This included two Elmo balloons – one of which is actually features Elmo’s voice singing “Happy Birthday.” She LOVED them! I also made Sadie an Elmo birthday cake. This was a work of art! We bought an Elmo cake pan and then I decorated Elmo with butter cream frosting. It was awesome! Check out the picture:

Sadie did enjoy “slapping” Elmo in the face to get the icing off. She most preferred the black icing from his mouth. :) Sadie also had an Elmo dress on, an Etsy special, and has a very special Etsy birthday hat, though we don’t have a picture of the hat.

Sadie got to celebrate with both sets of Grandparents – Grandma and Grandpa Stotts and Grandma and Grandpa Brinkley. She also got to see her Uncle Tim and her cousins, Codey and Noah. At first, she was a little afraid of everyone, but once things got rolling, she wanted to be everyone’s friend. Sadie got MANY, MANY gifts. Her favorites included an alphabet train from Uncle Tim, Aunt Sarah, and Codey and Noah, a pull-along bead maze from Mom and Dad, a pink purse complete with cell phone and accessories from Grandma and Grandpa Brinkley, and a golf set from Grandma and Grandpa Stotts. By the time it was time for everyone to head back home, we were ALL exhausted, but certainly had had a very good day! Check out all of these pictures:

The Month of August - Sadie Update and Time in the Hospital

2009-09-09T20:28:00.002-04:00

First and foremost, this blog is about Sadie. So, I’m going to start with her. On August 17, my parents’ 35th wedding anniversary, Sadie cut her 3rd and first top tooth. Then on, August 28, my uncle’s 61st birthday, she FINALLY cut her second top tooth. She’s been working on that second top tooth since the 17th, so we were all ecstatic that it finally broke through! Yeah!

Sadie has been such a trooper over these last few weeks! She has spent a LOT of time with Grandma and Grandpa – spending several nights at their house – and has overall done a very nice job sleeping for Daddy when Mommy was unable to be at home. She is so flexible and so willing to just do whatever is needed to make everyone around her happy! I am so blessed!

Sadie also just celebrated her first birthday. But, that is deserving of a post of its own, and I will do my best to get that post up ASAP.

Now, while I normally would not want to spend a great amount of time talking about myself on here, I feel I have quite a lot to explain about recent events. So, here’s the update on everything that’s been happening with me…

Starting last May, I began not feeling well. (WARNING: I’m holding nothing back here, so be prepared for some graphic description!). This started with abdominal cramping and bloating and quickly turned into diarrhea. Then the diarrhea got bloody. I wasn’t too worried about this at first. There wasn’t a lot of blood and I figured I just had a touch of something and I’d be better in no time. I also knew I was VERY stressed about the end of school and I figured that when school was out I’d just start automatically feeling better. No such luck. So, the second week of June I scheduled an appointment with my family doctor. I described my symptoms and she did an exam in the office thinking that I probably had a mild case of internal hemorrhoids. If only that had been the case! So, armed with little to find on her own, she sent me to a colo-rectal specialist. Being a new patient for the colo-rectal specialist, though, I, of course, was unable to get an appointment until mid-July. But, the situation was what it was, so I kept feeling bad, but figured there really wasn’t much I could do to speed up the process. So I waited until mid-July and went to see the new doctor.

The colo-rectal specialist was actually a very nice man. He was very pleasant and professional. He did a procedure in his office called a sigmoidoscopy. This was not a particularly comfortable procedure, but since I hoped to get an answer out of this, I suffered through and just sucked up the few minutes of pain. The doctor diagnosed me with proctitis – an inflammation of the rectum and lower colon – and gave me some suppositories to start taking. At first, I felt a little better. But, by two weeks later I was feeling worse. So, I called him back and asked him what to do next. He said that I probably needed to have a colonoscopy and go see a gastroenterologist. This, of course, meant another specialist and MORE waiting. I actually ended up calling the GI office when I hadn’t heard back from them 24 hours after I knew the referral had been given. I had actually started having a problem holding in my bowels, and I was quite certain that I had to get all of this nipped in the bud or I would NOT be able to go back to work. So, I called the GI office. The nurse told me that they could get me in for a colonoscopy the next week, but I wouldn’t be able to have an actual appointment with the doctor until the middle of September. I started crying. I explained how long I had been suffering, all of my symptoms, and that I had been passed from doctor to doctor without feeling any better. It didn’t matter. She got me in for the colonoscopy, but I had no future appointment.

I went for the colonoscopy on August 6th – Adam’s birthday. My parents had both had colonoscopies and repeatedly reassured me that I would be feeling fine by the afternoon and would be able to do all of the birthday activities that Adam wanted to do. If only we had known! I had the colonoscopy bright and early in the morning. I got to meet the doctor – Dr. Hennessey – before the procedure. I explained all of my symptoms to him and said that I REALLY wanted an answer and for him to be the last doctor I had to see for a while. He said that he’d see what he could do and then gave me the medication to knock me out. As soon as I woke up, he said he had a diagnosis. I had ulcerative colitis. In the easiest terms to explain this means that I had giant ulcers in my colon. This was causing blood, puss, extreme urgency to go to the bathroom, always feeling like I had not finished going to the bathroom, abdominal cramping, tiredness, etc. ALL of the symptoms I’d been having and more! I knew I FINALLY had a diagnosis!

After the procedure I thought I was feeling well enough to go out to breakfast. Unfortunately, I NEVER react well to drugs that knock me out and I should have known better. About 3 bites into my eggs and hash browns at Bob Evans, I threw up. Right there at the table! Gross, I know, but there was NO CHANCE of making it to the bathroom. Thankfully we had a nice container that the biscuits had been in. So, after that not so delightful experience, we headed home. The doctor had given me two new GI medications to try – Lialda and Rowasa. Lialda was given in giant horse pills that smelled like skunk. I was supposed to take 2 of them in the morning. Rowasa was in the form of an enema and I was supposed to take it before I went to bed. Thursday night – the day of the procedure – I was still feeling so bad that I figured there was no way I was going to be able to take the enema. I went to bed uncomfortable and not knowing quite what to do.

On Friday morning I got up. I still wasn’t feeling well. I was a little queasy and things just didn’t feel right. But, I kept thinking to myself that I should just give it time and I would be ok. Adam had taken the day off of work so that we could go geocaching. I didn’t want to disappoint him, so we packed Sadie up, took her to Grandma and Grandpa’s house, and headed out to a local metro park to start searching. Pretty much as soon as we arrived, I was worried. I had to rush to find a bathroom and I was having a ton of cramping – worse than what I’d been having before the colonoscopy. I kept trying to walk with Adam, though, and just push the yucky feelings aside. Unfortunately, we finally got to a point where I just didn’t think I could take it anymore. I had Adam drive me back to my parents house. Adam went home to mow the lawn and I stayed at my parents, trying to convince my body to relax.

Around 4 pm on Friday, I decided I couldn’t take it anymore. I called the gastroenterologist’s office and asked what I should do. I actually got a call back from Dr. Hennessey. He said that if I was feeling worse than I had been before, that I probably needed to go to the ER to make sure my colon was not perforated. After contemplating this for a while – I was concerned because I knew it would be ridiculously expensive – I decided to ask my Dad to take me. So, off we went – Friday night in the ER.

I got to the ER, actually got checked in quickly, and explained everything that had been happening. That night I ended up with a bag of IV fluids, some Dilaudid, a CT Scan, and X-Rays. The final determination was that I was just SEVERLY inflamed and I needed to begin taking a high dose of steroids to reduce the inflammation. I ended up getting home around 11:30 pm that night. Again, I had the positive attitude that things were going to improve and I was going to be ok.

Several days – 10 in fact – went past. On August 15th, I made the silly mistake of having a BIG Blizzard from Dairy Queen. It sounded so good! My body did not agree. I woke up in the middle of the night with HORRIBLE cramps and felt dizzy and otherwise just gross. But, I was feeling a bit better by the time I “really” got up on Sunday. So, I went about the day and figured that I would be ok. I never got back to feeling anywhere near “good.” I went to bed on Sunday, not feeling awful, but not feeling normal either. Around 3 am I woke up and was FREEZING! It was nearly ninety degrees outside and all I wanted was more blankets. I asked Adam to wrap himself around me when all of my blanketing was still not working. It made no difference at all. I just couldn’t get warm. I kept trying different things and different positions, but never made it back to sleep. At 6 am, I FINALLY decided to call my parents. I felt awful about this – it was their 35th wedding anniversary – but I was just feeling so crampy and SOOO cold. Adam got me some fluids and some Jell-o. I was only able to comfortably keep a little bit down. I didn’t actually get sick, but I sure felt like I wanted to. Adam took my temperature, but it was registering as normal. Around 6:30 am my Mom arrived and we headed off to the ER again. Adam had to take the day off of work to stay with Sadie. My dad had several meetings to attend.

Again, I got a bag of fluids started, some more Dilaudid, and MANY, MANY, MANY warm blankets. By the time we arrived at the ER my temperature had spiked to 102.6. Obviously there was a problem. After MUCH blood work (something like 10 vials within 5 hours), no one was able to establish why my temperature was spiking. Dr. Hennessey was actually on rounds at the hospital, so he came to see me and said they would be admitting me. They had all sorts of other tests that they wanted to run on me and I was not allowed fluids or foods. However, I didn’t really want anything right then. I just felt cruddy!

By Tuesday morning I was feeling better. I was on IV steroids and all of my other GI medications. They were still drawing blood frequently and they needed stool samples to test for other nasty infections (one of which was referred to as C-Dif and I wasn’t allowed to shower until they were certain I didn’t have it and couldn’t spread it to anyone). It is rather difficult to give a stool sample when one hasn’t eaten in more than 24 hours, but I did finally manage to eek enough out that they could do their test. It then just took FOREVER to get the results back so I could shower.

Around lunch time I was able to convince Dr. Hennessey to at least put me on a liquid diet. He obliged and by the next morning was allowing me to return to solid foods. I was also visited by a whole team of doctors from the family practice where I go. My own doctor was on vacation, but I met with probably close to 10 other doctors – all at once – to go over my diagnosis and progress.

By Wednesday I was feeling better still and actually had a bowel movement that was NOT diarrhea. Now, for a person who has had diarrhea for months, this was like a HUGE celebration! But, Dr. Hennessey still did not want to send me home. He wanted to try and make sure that I did NOT have to go back to the hospital. So, I stayed on until Thursday.

Starting Thursday morning at midnight I was not allowed any fluids or foods. This was because Dr. Hennessey had ordered another sigmoidoscopy to look and see whether my colon appeared to be healing at all. Though the procedure order went in on Wednesday, they did not actually get me in until 4 pm on Thursday. This meant I spent all day being terribly hungry again. It was NOT fun. But, they eventually took me downstairs, knocked me out, performed the procedure, and gave me some anti-nausea drugs to stop the nasty after-effects. Then I was allowed to eat again!
Around 9 pm Dr. Hennessey came up to see me and share the results of the test. My colon had not healed at all. Obviously, this was not a good sign. He told me to up my Lialda to 4 pills per day (2 in the morning and 2 in the evening) and continue with the Rowasa enemas. I was also to go to a dose of 60 mg of Prednisone per day and taper down by 10 mg once per week. After then getting into a whole side conversation about how he would be going to India for the following week, he signed my exit papers and let me go home. We had also discussed further treatment options, including a drug called Remicade that is given through an IV infusion. It had lots of not so good side effects (malignant tumors being the nastiest), so I was really hoping to avoid it. But, he said he would have his secretary call me the next day and set up a follow-up appointment. Adam and I arrived home around 10:30 pm. I was able to go to sleep and actually sleep pretty well. Another side effect, however, that I forgot to mention early is that I now have these terrible night sweats. I wake up and am COMPLETELY drenched in my own sweat. This, I am told, is because of the steroids. I really don’t know, all I know is that it stinks!

So Friday morning I woke up optimistic and thinking that I was putting this whole mess behind me. I was having some pain in my jaw and some other minor joint pain, but I thought I’d just push through and be ok. I actually went to work on Friday because it was the first of two teacher work days. I didn’t get to school until 10 am, but I stayed until after 4 pm. When I finally headed home, I was exhausted, but not feeling too bad otherwise.

Saturday wasn’t a hugely eventful day. Saturday night, however, I had an AWFUL time getting to and staying asleep. My jaw was really hurting! Around 4:30 am, I decided to head downstairs and make myself something to eat. I had a breakfast sandwich and took some Tylenol. I thought I would be able to go back to sleep, so I trudged up the stairs. Unfortunately as I started walking up the stairs, I got this tremendous pressure in my chest. I attributed it to the fact that I was exhausted, crawled into bed and went back to sleep from 6 am to 9 am. At 9, I called my mom to tell her about my night. Unbeknownst to be, she called the emergency line at the GI doc’s office to ask about my jaw pain. I didn’t mention the chest pain to her since I hadn’t felt it upon waking up again at 9. Then I got up and started moving. Not only did the chest pain return, but I was also dizzy and nauseous. So, I called my parents again and my dad said, “You’ve got to go back to the hospital, we’ll be there in a few minutes.” I started crying, not wanting to be separated from Sadie again and not wanting to go back to the hospital period. But, I knew it was probably inevitable. I decided to try and take a shower while my parents were driving over, knowing that I probably wouldn’t be allowed one at the hospital for quite some time. My parents called the GI doc back while they were on their way over. He said that I absolutely needed to go to the ER. So, off we (Mom, Adam and I) went. By the time we got to the hospital, I had to have my mom get me a wheelchair. I was so weak and dizzy I didn’t think I could walk. When we finally got back to the triage room and they took my blood pressure, it was something like 80/60. Now that’s low and I NEVER have low blood pressure! They also did an EKG, but that looked normal. So on went another day in the ER. They had to get an ultrasound machine to find a vein to put the IV into. I got morphine and again TONS of blood drawn. They eventually had to start drawing from my hand because none of my arm veins would work without immense pain. The hand would work, but it also took like 20 minutes for each draw they did! It was awful!

The results of this blood work showed that I had an elevated enzyme level that is associated with your pancreas. I had a cat scan, x-rays, an ultrasound of my gallbladder, an urinenalysis, etc. At first they tried to say that I might have pancreatitis, but since I was exhibiting NONE of the other symptoms, they decided that it must all just be related to the colitis. I was again admitted to the hospital. This time I was there from Sunday through Tuesday. The eventual determination as to why I was having the chest pain and such was that I was allergic to the GI medications – Lialda and Rowasa and needed to stop taking them immediately. So, I did. I had a heart monitor on the whole time I was in the hospital (making it impossible to do more than sponge bathe). I also had another EKG and an Echocardiogram. There was some inflammation around my heart, but not much more than you would expect to see from anyone. I was sent home on Tuesday knowing that I was now anemic (requiring twice daily pills), had to take 4 Ibuprofen 2 times per day for 12 days to reduce the heart inflammation, and was being left on a steroid taper.

I was feeling better. I had missed the first day of school and took the second day off of school to continue recovering a bit more. My students were great when I finally got to school! They were genuinely concerned about me – a drastic change from last year! It was lovely!

Then, from the 27th of August to the 5th of September, I was feeling pretty well. I remained on the Ibuprofen through Sunday September 6th and was on my Prednisone taper. I stepped down to 40 mg on Friday September 4 and obviously 40 mg is just not enough to sustain me at this point. So on Sunday morning I called the emergency line at the GI doctor’s office and sought help. The on-call doc recommended that I start a Hydrocortisone enema that evening. Now, Sunday was Sadie’s first birthday party, so I had a big day ahead of me. But, I pulled myself together and mustered through pretty well! I was exhausted because I had not slept well at all on Saturday night, but I knew I had to make it through the day and I convinced myself to do it. I had more pain and troubles on Sunday night, even after taking the steroid enema. So, I called the emergency line again on Sunday. My own GI doc, Dr. Hennessey, actually called me on Sunday, but I had missed his call. The on-call doc, though, was the same man I had talked to the day before. He said that the only recommendation that he could give me would be to re-up the Prednisone to 60 mg and he would talk to Dr. Hennessey. So, I took the 60 mg and hoped for the best. It did help, though I was clearly on a downward spiral.

Dr. Hennessey did call me back on Monday and we had a LONG conversation about what to do next. He wanted to put me on a new medication that would help my colon to heal itself, but every possibility that he came up with had some component that I was allergic to. So, after MUCH consideration, we decided that my best path was probably going to be to get started on an IV infusion drug called Remicade. Now, Remicade has LOTS of nasty side effects, including malignant tumors. I was obviously not thrilled with this option, but since this could provide me the quickest relief, we decided it was probably the best route for now.

On Tuesday I went to work. I spent several minutes on the phone throughout the day with my GI doctor’s head nurse/secretary. She worked on getting me set up with some people who could get me started on the path to getting the IV infusion going. I am actually going to have a nursing company that will come to my house to deliver the drug to me. They are all critical care nurses and are trained for any and all “serious” situations, though we are certainly hoping to avoid those! My first appointment is on Friday at 4 pm. It takes about 2 hours to receive the infusion. We are ALL keeping our fingers crossed that not only do I not have an adverse reaction to this medication but that it also brings some MUCH needed relief.

This disease has certainly brought about A LOT of changes in my life and the life of everyone around me. I owe MANY, MANY thanks to MANY, MANY people! I am very lucky to have such supportive people in my life! Adam and I also have some big things to consider for our future. I have to receive injections of Remicade at 0 weeks, 2 weeks, 6 weeks, 8 weeks and then every 8 weeks from then on. There is no end in sight of being off this drug at this point. And, while I am on Remicade, it is NOT safe to get pregnant. So, we are definitely thinking about how this is going to affect our once “solid” family plan. But, the good news is that ever since I was young, I’ve wanted to adopt a daughter from China. Obviously God had a long-term plan in mind when he first planted the idea of a Chinese adoption in my head because at this point, that is certainly looking like a more realistic possibility for us than of being able to have another biological child. But, then again, the future is uncertain and things may be turned upside down again before we ever get to that point. So, for now, we are facing uncertainty with lots of hope! If you are a praying kind of person, though, we can definitely all use your prayers!

Hope all you loyal readers are doing well and I promise to update this again soon with pictures from Sadie’s birthday and birthday party! Take care!

Two Teeth, Two Trips, Four Times the Fun!

2009-08-03T15:12:00.011-04:00

Finally, when Sadie reached the ripe old age of 10 months and 5 days, she had two small teeth begin poking through on her bottom gums. Everyone tells me that the longer you can go without having teeth, the easier it is for the child. I'm not sure that I would agree. Sadie "just happened" to get a cold at the same time that these teeth came in. We went several days with very little sleep in our nights. The nights involved LOTS of rocking and singing. Then Sadie kindly passed her cold on to Mommy, Daddy, and Grandma. But, it all ended up being ok. I don't have a good picture of these teeth yet because Sadie typically likes to put her tongue over top of them. Maybe by next month she'll be willing to show them off!

Just as those teeth were poking through, Aunt Rhian came to visit. I can't actually find any pictures of this to post. :( But, Sadie did enjoy visiting with her aunt. She was a little afraid of James, but she had warmed up to him a little by the end of their visit.

Then came my birthday! Happy 29th Birthday to me! Adam, Sadie, and I drove to Indianapolis. We had pizza at the BEST pizza place in the world - Bazbeaux. It was fantastic, as always. Then we went to check in at our hotel, an Extended Stay. After checking in and getting things settled, we headed over to Al and Suellen's to see them and Parker. Parker was sleeping when we arrived, but Sadie got right to work on playing with her toys. Parker didn't sleep for long, though, and was most interested in watching Sadie play. Sadie then got very fussy - she was tired - but pretty much refused to sleep. We decided to go for a walk to the park. That ended up being a great choice because Sadie did eventually fall asleep in the stroller. But, not before we got a picture! Daddy and Al are pushing and Sadie and Parker are swinging.

After the park and Sadie's brief nap, we headed out to dinner at a Mexican Restaurant. Amy, Ben, Bryn, Shay, Al, Suellen, Parker, Sadie, Adam, and I had an enjoyable birthday dinner full of chips, salsa, guacamole, and Mexican goodness. We then decided to plan our trip to the Children's Museum the next day.

On Wednesday we went to the Children's Museum. While we had a very enjoyable time, we were also a bit disappointed. The Playscape area, the area designed for little kids, was a bit too little and a bit too crowded. We still managed to have a good time, though, and here are the pictures to prove it:

Isn't the picture of Sadie and Sam hysterical!!! Sam is the son of my friend Cathy. He was born in February. Sadie found him adorable, except when Mommy was holding him and she became rather jealous, but he is a pretty darn cute little guy! The last picture is of all of the children at the museum. Left to Right we've got: Chris, Bryn, Shay, Sam, Parker, Hailey, Sadie, and Hannah. What an adorable group!!!

On Wednesday night we all went over to Amy and Ben's. There Sadie and Shay enjoyed playing together in the kitchen. Here are the shots of that:

On Thursday we went to the Indianapolis Zoo. Sadie had a great time there! She got to see some sharks up close and then got to help Daddy feed a giraffe. We also got a great shot of Sadie and Parker.

After the zoo we headed back home. We were only here briefly, though, and then we headed up to see Great Grandma, and Grandma and Grandpa Brinkley. It was Great Grandma's 85th Birthday. Sadly, the only picture we got of the whole affair was of a picture of Great Grandma's cake.

We had a great time celebrating with Great Grandma. We got to visit with Uncle Tim, Aunt Sarah, and Codey and Noah. We also got to see Adam's cousin Stephanie and her son Justin. We had a good time hanging out with everyone.

The next day we woke up in Louisville and headed into Canton for breakfast. At breakfast, Sadie impressed an older gentleman with her incredible cuteness and he gave her a dollar! How awesome! Not even a year old and already bringing in the money! After breakfast we decided to head to Metzger Park and do some geocaching. This is one of Adam's new favorite activities. We use the GPS watch I got him for his bike and go traipsing through the wild looking for little plastic boxes. It's actually a lot of fun and we ended up picking up a Sesame Street washcloth for Sadie as a "prize" from one of the buckets.

Well, that certainly brings things more up-to-date! I'm not happy to report that I'll be heading back to work in just a few weeks. But, then Grandma gets to begin her full-time Grandma duties and she's very much looking forward to that. Sadie is waking up from her nap right now, so got to run!

Enjoying Vacation

2009-06-29T08:45:00.009-04:00

We are back from our "vacation." We followed Daddy and Grandpa around northwest Ohio as they completed GOBA (Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure). This event began in Norwalk, Ohio. We spent our first night actually staying in Milan, Ohio (a suburb of Norwalk). We went swimming at our first hotel and enjoyed a meal at an old homestead. The next day the tour headed to Elmore, Ohio. Elmore was an adorable small town and they were ready for all of the GOBA riders. They had lots of cute little shops and we ate lunch at the Red, White, and Brew Cafe. Our next hotel was in Perrysburg, Ohio. We actually stayed there for three nights! Our first night we went to dinner at Tony Packo's. Apparently Tony Packo's is a well-known Toldeo hotspot that was made famous on "MASH." It's hungarian and we all had different versions of "fill-in-the-blank" paprikas. It was ok, but I didn't think it was the best meal of the week.

The next day was Monday and the boys took a break from cycling to join the ladies at the Toledo Zoo. We called ahead on Sunday afternoon and ordered ourselves a picnic lunch. This was something that was touted on the Toledo Zoo website and I thought it sounded like a fun and easy idea. The zoo was VERY busy on Monday because it is free to Lucas County residents on Mondays, but we still enjoyed ourselves. Adam had never seen a polar bear and he really enjoyed getting to see two of them! Sadie enjoyed seeing the turtles because she was easily able to track them in their tank. She also managed to fall asleep in the stroller. This worked out very well because she slept through lunch. We ate our lunch in an area that overlooks the "African Savanna." This was awesome because we got to basically dine with giraffes, zebras, wildebeasts, and African deer. After lunch Sadie woke up and we rode on the carousel. We also bought Sadie a mini-zoo-keepers outfit, a matching hat, a frog for the water, and a puzzle. (Yes, I know she is spoiled!). Here are some pictures from the zoo:

On Monday night we went into downtown Perrysburg and ate at Zengo's. This was a WONDERFUL Mediterranean restaurant. It was by far the best meal of the week and we had enough food for probably 50 people! We had probably the best couscous that I have ever had. The whole meal was just wonderful. After dinner we walked around Perrysburg and discovered a number of cute kids stores.

On Tuesday the boys headed towards Bowling Green. The ladies went back to downtown Perrysburg to do some shopping. We found an adorable outfit for Sadie and looked at some pretty darn cute shoes. We also had a great lunch at another local stop. Then we picked up the boys, headed back to the hotel so they could shower, and then went to an outdoor shopping mall. We bought Sadie a pair of adorable tennis shoes for the fall. Then we headed to another kids toy store that we had read about. It ended up being a bit of a disappointment, but we did buy Sadie another puzzle. After the toy store we went to dinner at Gino's Pizza. This had sounded great but was again a bit of a disappointment. After dinner we decided to head to Maumee Bay State Park. This was recommended by a zoo worker. We had high hopes but things were again disappointing. For one, Sadie became horribly upset in the car on the way there. I've never seen her that upset! It was awful. When we arrived at the park, we did see a weasel chasing a bunny. That was certainly unusual. When we actually got to the beach we were disgusted to find that - due to budget cuts - the park no longer had any trash cans. Any trash that came in to the park was supposed to be taken out by those who brought it. Not surprisingly, people weren't doing this. That meant that there were dirty diapers pile along the sink in the bathroom and there was lots of other trash scattered on the beach. Gross! But, we did let Sadie get her feet wet. Here are some pictures of that:

The next day, Wednesday, the boys were off to Defiance. The ladies made a lunch/shopping stop in Grand Rapids, Ohio. This was another quaint small town. We had a good lunch. Sadie enjoyed herself. Check out this picture:

Our hotel for that evening was in Napoleon, Ohio. They had a GREAT pool! We enjoyed swimming and then headed to the local Mexican restaurant. It was actually very good and we enjoyed ourselves.

The next the boys took another break and joined the ladies in heading to Sauder Village. This is a historical village. We had a great time and enjoyed more shopping! We bought Sadie a "vegetables" collection. She had really been enjoying playing with the vegetables in Little Pioneer Village, so Daddy went and bought her some of her own vegetables. She loves them and is currently playing with them on the floor as I type this! We had a good lunch at "The Barn", the local Sauder Village restaurant. For dinner we ate at the old local pub in Napoleon.

The next day the boys headed to Fostoria, Ohio. This is a town that had seen better times. Still, we managed to get a few great pictures of Sadie. Here they are:

The first picture was taken while we were waiting for Grandpa and Dad to finish their ride. It was right before we got a phone call that Grandpa had crashed his bike. He has lots of road rash and hurt his thumb. He also pretty much totaled his bike. But, he has survived and still wants to do GOBA again next year. The second picture was taken at the hospital while we waited for Grandpa's hand to be x-rayed. Sadie was VERY patient. We spent that night in Findlay, Ohio and ended up just heading home the next morning. Adam decided to not ride the last day.

On Saturday when we got home we went to the Worthington outdoor pool for a swim. Sadie had a great time. On Sunday we drove to Uniopolis, Ohio for a family reunion. This was a reunion for my Dad's side of the family. Sadie really didn't enjoy spending even more time in the car, but she was a hit with the family.

Well, Sadie's ready for some yogurt, so I've got to run! Hope all is going well for all of you out there!

Needed Update...First Word...Pushing up to Sit...

2009-05-24T13:39:00.013-04:00

Ok, so I can tell it's been way too long since I've posted when I went to upload the contents of the camera today and realized that I still had Easter Pictures on there that had not been uploaded! I also had pictures from our zoo trip over Spring Break and many, many more pictures of our other adventures in the last month.

First, Sadie's 8 month stats: I'm not sure about her length, but I'm certain she's grown! Her pants keep getting shorter and shorter! Her weight finally seems to have hit a plateau. She weighs in anywhere from 21 to almost 23 lbs depending on the time of day and whether or not she's recently eaten or had a diaper change. She is easily wearing 12 months clothes and often wears 12-18 month or just plain 18 month clothes! She's a beast, but she's sure an adorable beast!

Ok, I figure that we should do this chronologically. Here are two zoo pictures. These were taken way back at the beginning of April. Sadie has her adorable hat on that she got courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa Brinkley.

Sadie did enjoy the gorillas, one of Mommy's favorites, but she REALLY liked the manatees, Aunt Rhian's favorite animal!

Next up is a shot of the family with the Easter bunny and his wife. This was courtesy of one of Adam's former co-workers who now owns Schmidt's Fudge Haus in German Village.

The next photo is one of Sadie in her walker. She LOVES her walker. She can run everywhere and she LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to chase the kitties!

This next photo is actually a scanned picture. But, it is a MUST share! The advantage of living in a BIG college town is that they are always looking for people to participate in research studies. This is why we received a letter in the mail at the end of April asking if we would be willing to have Sadie participate in a study. All she had to do was go to the Cognitive Development Lab (in the OSU stadium!) and look at some pictures and listen to some sounds. Since I was all too eager to have my wonderful child display her amazing intelligence, I signed her up immediately. Sadie did a GREAT job and when we were all finished she received (sorry it's sideways, can't figure out how to fix it!):

We are now FINALLY getting to our recent events! Last Sunday, one week ago today, Sadie was baptized. This was a very special day, so she got to wear a very special dress and she had lots of special visitors to witness her baptism! Aunt Rhian flew in from Arizona, Grandma and Grandpa Brinkley came down from Louisville, Uncle Kevin came, Grandma and Grandpa Stotts came, and, of course, Mommy and Daddy were there too. This day was beautiful and Sadie did a marvelous job, even though she usually naps during the time of the service! She was a trooper! Another thing that made the even special was that Sadie actually had water that was from the River Jordan in her baptismal water. When I was a teenager, my family travelled to Israel. I bought a small plastic bottle, filled it up with water at the River Jordan, and brought it home. I had thought that I would someday use it to baptize my child, but back then (I think I was 15 or 16), it sure seemed like a LONG way off. I'd sure like to go back in time and thank myself, though, because I really don't think you'd be able to get that water through security anymore, so that makes the water even more special. Anyways, here are some pictures of the big day:

Finally, our very exciting news! Last Friday night (May 15) Sadie pushed herself to a seated position for the first time. She's been easily sitting up for nearly 2 months now, but on that night (and every day and night since) she's been pushing herself from her tummy to a seated position. She will also get up on her hands and knees, but when it comes to actually crawling, she still prefers the butt scoot or to move her arms and one leg and drag the other leg behind her. One of these days I know she'll get all the steps put together, but she is getting where she wants by simply scooting how she can, so I guess it will do for now!

Also, last Saturday morning Sadie said her first word..."Dada." Now, goodness knows that I love the child, but in the week since, there hasn't even been a sort of utterance of "Mama!" And, to make it worse, it you say to her, "Sadie, say "Mama!" She smiles up at you with an obnoxious grin and says "Dada" even louder! What a little stinker! And, don't think I'll let her forget that she said Dada first when she comes crawling to me as a teenager and wants something! No, no, go ask your father, you had his name down first!!! :)

Well, Daddy wants me to come out and start some planting while he's mowing the grass, so I've got to run! Enjoy and I hope everyone is doing well!

Quick Update

2009-04-29T09:39:00.007-04:00

Well, life is back to "normal" for now. Sadie is back to the sitter for the work week and home with Mommy and Daddy on the weekends. We've been busy enjoying the recent rush of nicer weather.

Sadie has had some more "big girl" changes. She can now ride in the front of the cart at the grocery store:

She has also transitioned to her "big girl" seat in the car:

I have to be honest that I'm not a huge fan of the new seat at this point. Her little head keeps falling forward when she goes to sleep. This seems pretty frightening to me, but it doesn't seem to bother her too much. So, I guess I shouldn't be too worried.

Finally, we took Sadie out last weekend to enjoy her first swing at the park. She loved every minute and laughed hysterically.

Not too much else to report on here. I am very definitely ready to be finished with this year's group of students. Individually they are all nice kids. Together they are a nightmare. This week they are taking the state testing. I'm seeing very little effort from any of them, which is beyond frustrating. But, there's hope for next year that the new group of kids will allow me to see some improvement.

Hope you're all out there. I haven't had any comments on my last several posts, so I hope my lack of consistent blogging hasn't turned you all off!

Swimming and COSI

2009-04-09T09:12:00.008-04:00

We have had a busy Spring Break week here in Columbus. Monday and Tuesday the weather was not so great - it snowed! (Apparently something that will always happen on my Spring Break since it snowed so badly last year that we couldn't see the Grand Canyon!) But, we had fun despite the weather! On both Monday and Tuesday morning we went to the Worthington Rec Center to go swimming. Our pictures didn't turn out very well on Monday morning, but our Tuesday morning pictures were much better. Here are a couple of shots:

Sadie LOVES to swim! She's been swimming 5 times now and she gets more into it each time we go. We're hoping to sign her up for baby swim lessons in the next section, but that will very much depend on whether or not we can actually get in to the class. Hopefully we will, but if not, we will just take the class this summer.

Also on Tuesday we went to COSI - the Center of Science and Industry. They have a "Little Kidspace" that was awesome! All of my Indy friends, if you come over to visit again soon we will have to head down there. The best part is that the museum is FREE for teachers, so since that's most of you, it would be free except for parking (no more than $5.00!) I, personally, think that that's a pretty phenomenal deal! Here are a couple of shots of Sadie enjoying COSI:

As you can tell, Sadie had a good time! It was really nice that Daddy was able to take a few days off and play with us too!

Today we are going to the Columbus Zoo. They just had a baby elephant that was born at the end of March. He is on display from 11 am - 1 pm, so I hope we get to see him. Unfortunately since this is the first REALLY nice day we've had this week, I have a feeling that the zoo is going to be pretty busy! But, we'll make do.

Sadie got up at 4:30 am this morning, sucked down a bottle, and went right back to sleep. It's almost 9:30 am now, and she still hasn't gotten up. She must have been one tired girl! We went shopping down at the outlet center yesterday, so I must have worn her out!

Well, I've got some stuff to get together before our trip to the zoo. Take care everyone!

7 Months Old and Something New Every Day

2009-04-07T08:11:00.012-04:00

Well, I do have to admit that I feel a bit sad that I haven't blogged in more than a month! I've thought about it plenty of times, but I guess it's never happened. Too busy actually living life to take the time to report on it. :) The month of March was full of new things. Sadie had her first St. Patrick's Day and celebrated in true green style. Here is a not-so-great picture of Mommy and Sadie on St. Patrick's Day morning.

Sadie has also become such a big girl - she's now 20.6 pounds and still 28" - that she can ride in her stroller without having to be in her carrier. Since we've been blessed to have some warm days, we have gone for a number of walks. Here is by far one of my favorite recent photos:

Again, going with the big girl theme, Sadie has also adjusted to sitting in a high chair when we go out to a restaurant. Here is a slightly blurry picture of her being such a big girl:

Sadie has also fully mastered sitting up. We recently had some photos taken at JC Penney's. Here is one of her amazing sitting ability:

JC Penney's also always has these adorable "bath" shots posted all over their walls when we go get pictures taken. I decided to inquire about these shots and learned that they have a mini bath tub. I couldn't resist, so here are a couple of adorable bath shots:

The last shot is killer! Look at that face and those beautiful eyes! It just makes a Mommy's heart melt! Finally, we also had some Easter shots taken in her Easter dress. Here are some of those:

So, you can tell that March was definitely a busy month for us. Sadie also had to visit the doctor a couple of times. The first time because she got a yeast infection and the second time because she had a horrible rash. The rash turned out to actually be eczema. Apparently eczema is very common in babies with a family history of allergies or asthma. Since I have both, I guess it was sort of inevitable. But, with steroid Hydrocortisone cream and lots of lotion, she should be just fine. :)

It is now time to run because Daddy has taken a second day off of work and we have plans! We are going swimming for a second day in a row (hopefully I'll get some better pictures of that today) and this afternoon (after Sadie's nap) we are going to COSI. COSI is Columbus' children's science museum. They have a "Little Kidspace" that is designed for babies just Sadie's age. This will be our first trip there and I'm hoping she really enjoys it. Ok, Daddy's panicing that Mommy's not ready to leave yet. Take care!

6 Months Old!!!!!

2009-03-03T18:14:00.002-05:00

Where oh where has the time gone! Tomorrow my little girl will be half a year old! That's crazy! I can't believe time has gone by so fast! This milestone has already brought about a trip to the doctor - today. Sadie is now 19 lbs even and 28" long. Her head circumference was 17.5". She is in the 95th percentile for weight, off the charts for height, and the 95th percentile for head size. She is one big and beautiful girl.

Sadie is now sitting up for a few seconds all on her own. She still wants to lean a lot to the left and the right, but she can balance for at least a few minutes. She can easily roll from front to back. She LOVES her exosaucer and her jumperoo. She is ALMOST too long for her carrier. She has eaten rice cereal, oatmeal, peas, green beans, avocado, sweet potatoes, applesauce, pears, and peaches.

Sadie LOVES music, particularly classical music. Any of her toys that play classical musical will instantly calm her and refocus her attention. Sadie has gotten very good at picking things up and throwing them. She finds this terribly amusing. I'm sure it will only get worse, but I love her for it anyways!

Sadie will also be switching to drinking only formula. I've had lots of problems with breastfeeding in these last few weeks. This is now currently topped off by the fact that I have a HORRIBLE cold and my body has been producing even less milk than it was before. So, I'm done and Sadie will be fine. Clearly she hasn't been hurting these last few weeks when she's been getting more formula than breast milk, anyways. :)

Well, Sadie also got shots today and is rather unhappily playing on the floor right now. Got to run. Take care!

Call me Cu-Cu Crazy!

2009-02-17T16:10:00.002-05:00

So last night Sadie had a hard time getting to sleep. She kept coughing. Eventually she was able to fall asleep, but she did cough all through out the night. Then she woke up at 4:30 am because she was coughing again. I fed her and she was able to get back to sleep (after a few more coughing fits). She didn't appear to be running a temperature and actually seemed in reasonably good spirits. Still, I was very worried.

I dropped Sadie off at the sitter's and told her I would call her if I was able to make a doctor's appointment for Sadie. The doctor opens at 8:30 am. I called immediately at 8:30 am. At first they had no appointments accept one at 9 am. I obviously wasn't going to be able to make it to that appointment. I asked them to call back if they had any cancellations. Within 15 minutes they called me and had a cancellation at 2 pm. I jumped on the chance and arranged with my principal and my sitter to get Sadie to the doctor.

When I picked Sadie up around 1:25 pm, she had been sleeping pretty much since I dropped her off at 7 am. She was in a lovely good mood and I loaded her up and headed to the doctor. She didn't seem stuffy and she wasn't coughing. We got to the doctor and I think they think that I am crazy. Sadie didn't cough once. She just kept giggling and acting happy. The doctor listened to her lungs and they were clear. She happily let the doctor look up her nose, in her ears, in her mouth. She was just happy as a clam. Now, don't get me wrong - I'm very glad that she was happy and seemingly healthy. I just don't understand how she can go from coughing fits to miraculously healed in less than 24 hours!

The doctor made some suggestions - Tylenol or Benadryl if she was really having trouble again. But, basically she said not to worry.

Since we have been home, the coughing has returned. She's still quite happy and she's currently rolling around on the floor and seems perfectly content. I have no idea what the evening or next few days may hold, but hopefully she'll be on the mend!

On another note - Sadie was weighed and measured. My beautiful girl weighed in at 18 lbs 6 oz and measured 27 inches long! Since this wasn't a regular appointment, I don't have the statistics on where that fits percentile wise, but I think it's pretty safe to say that it's at the top! :)

February Update

2009-02-16T15:23:00.002-05:00

Today is February 16. Sadie is five months and 12 days old. She weighs over 18 lbs now. I'm not sure how long she is, but she's definitely gone through another growth spurt again recently. She now can easily reach the ground when she's in her Jump-a-roo and also when she's in her exosaucer. Also, when you put her in the swing, her feet hang out over the end and they're starting to do the same in her car seat! We have bought two new big girl seats for Sadie. We haven't put them in the car yet, because I keep hoping to not have to until the weather gets a little warmer. However, Sadie may be too long before the weather consistently warms up. I guess we'll just have to see.

For the last several weeks Sadie has been wearing 6-9 month clothes. She's now (starting last night) just wearing some full out 9 month clothes. These clothes seem to be plenty big around the belly, but none too long! I guess Sadie's trying to keep up with Parker!

Today Sadie has developed a bit of a cough. I'm a little worried. But, she doesn't have a temperature and she seems to be breathing just fine. I guess it's just something to keep an eye on. She also doesn't seem to have any other symptoms, so hopefully it's something that will just go away.

Sadie has continued to roll over and is now rolling in both directions. No one has actually seen her roll from front to back, but we'll leave her on her tummy, go run around to do something, and when we come back she's on her back. So, she can obviously do it, she just doesn't want an audience. Sadie is also trying desperately to be able to sit up on her own. She's very successful for about 10-15 seconds. If she falls straight forward she can get herself back up. But, she often falls to the side or to the back. When that happens, she's stuck and gets VERY angry.

Much to my dissappointment, Sadie has started receiving some formula to supplement the breast milk that she's still getting. For some reason, despite my MANY efforts (including taking a drug that nearly blinded me!), my body has stopped producing enough milk for Sadie to subsist on it alone. So, about 1/4 of every bottle ends up being formula. :( She doesn't really seem to mind, but it's really not what I wanted for her.

Other recent happenings - Sadie has discovered her feet and after several weeks of working at it can sometimes squish her chubby belly down enough to get her feet to her mouth. :) Sadie also has discovered new foods - oatmeal, prunes, peas, sweet potatoes, avocado, bananas, rice cereal, and she has even sampled a little ice cream and a little pizza crust. The last two were in EXTREMELY small portions since I know very well she could have strong allergic reactions to any of the ingredients in them and we wouldn't know what specifically she was allergic to. Thankfully, she didn't seem to have any bad reaction. In fact, the only thing that seems to have caused a negative reaction is the avocados. Sadie loved eating them, but they seem to have caused her to have some constipation. She's been able to squeeze some stuff out, but it's coming out pretty hard, which it really should not be at this point. This is why Sadie has been eating prunes. We're still waiting for the prunes to really take effect. Hopefully the reaction won't be too awful!

Finally, here are some recent pictures of Sadie. These were taken by the guidance counselor at my school. Sadie came out for a visit last Thursday night (February 12). It was conference night. I had to pick her up from the sitter's and then Grandma came and picked her up from me. Check out her little Valentine's Day dress! So cute!

Roll Over, Roll Over...so Sadie Rolled Over and Puke Spilled Out!

2009-01-31T21:06:00.002-05:00

It's 9:00 pm and Sadie Emerson Smith just rolled over for the first time! My little girl has taken her first giant leap towards complete independent movement! Sadie's been laying on the floor of the blue room (computer room) and just rolled over from her back to her front. She rolled to her left, which is a bit unusual since she usually favors rolling to her right. I guess she needs to roll to the left more often, though, because she landed on her tummy! She hasn't been able to roll over when she rolls to the right, but she's so darn close that I don't think it will be long!

This really is a momentous day all around because Sadie had some rice cereal this morning - something she's been enjoying on and off for the last few weeks - then sampled some pizza crust at dinner, and had sweet potatoes just before rolling over. Yes, she's puked up sweet potatoes more than once since rolling over, but who cares?! Sadie is just a few days shy of the 5 month mark and she's rolled over!

Both Mommy and Daddy gave her a round of applause and she was a bit flabbergasted, though clearly excited. She's still rolling happily on the floor as I write this. Hopefully all of her moving around will tire her out a bit because she hasn't been the greatest sleeper these last couple of nights. I really think she may have been hungry since she's been so willing to sample all of these foods in the last 24 hours, but maybe she's just been frustrated that she couldn't quite get turned over. Right now she's happier than I've seen her in close to 72 hours! Rolling makes for one happy baby, it seems!

Roll, Sadie, roll! :)

Snow Days Means School Until July!

2009-01-30T12:07:00.002-05:00

Last Tuesday night I kept saying a silent prayer that we would get out of school on Wednesday. I just wanted one day off so that I could break up my week a bit and spend a day with my beautiful little girl. Apparently God REALLY wanted to answer my prayers because I didn't just get Wednesday off of school, I got Thursday and Friday off too! The very good news about this is that I basically will have gotten to spend 5 days with Sadie before I have to go back to school on Monday (maybe?). The bad news is that at this rate I'll be going to school until July! This past fall, while I was on maternity leave, my students had 4 days (I think) off of school when we had no electricity (due to the Hurrican Ike winds). Then we've had a day off because of the weather being too cold and 3 days off this week because of the snow and ice. Another good part about the days off is that this is ultimately cheaper for us. We are blessed to have a babysitter who only charges us when Sadie is actually present (I know - we are EXTREMELY lucky for this!). So, this week we will only have to pay for two days! Unfortunately another downside to this weather is that both Sadie and I seem to be going a little stir crazy. Neither of us have left the house since Tuesday night. Adam and my parents didn't venture out until yesterday, but everyone but me is back to work full time today! I think we may try to join my parents and uncle for dinner tonight just so that we can escape the house.

Since most of you loyal readers are also readers of Amy's blog, I feel like I should also share the following stories. This will assure Amy that she is not alone! Until about the age of 4 months, Sadie was a very reliable pooper. She would have one good poopy diaper per day. She'd grunt and really have to work at it, but she always managed to get at least something out. Then she hit the ripe old age of 4 months and something changed. She will now go as many as 6 days between poopy diapers. This is extra concerning because then when she does have a poopy diaper, it explodes and covers her and her clothes. This happened on Wednesday this week and since Daddy was home, we immediately went to the bathroom and took a bath. This was possible because one of us could hold her without setting her down to move around even more in her poopiness. Since we had the explosion on Wednesday, I really thought we were done for the week. I guess I should have thought twice.

Sadie did not nap much during the day yesterday, but she went down without fussing at 8 pm. This was lovely since Mom was EXHAUSTED! Dad was volunteering at the Cozy Cat Cottage yesterday and didn't get home until almost 8:30. My mom came over for about a 2.5 hour stint in the afternoon, but I spent most of the day with Sadie. Since she was refusing to sleep, this meant I had a very active day moving around and trying to occupy a rather fussy baby. Anyways, I got up around 12:30 am and pumped. I was fully expecting to have school today, so when I came downstairs to put the milk away, I also loaded up the dishwasher and did some minor cleaning up of the kitchen. Then I returned to bed around 1 am. As unfortunate luck would have it, Sadie woke up crying at 2:30 am. So, Daddy got up with me and changed her while I got myself ready to feed Sadie. (Again, I feel very thankful for having a husband so willing to help!). So I fed Sadie and then rocked her and sang to her. She was snoring, so I thought it would be safe to take her back to bed. No such luck. As soon as I put her down in her bed, she woke right up and was fussing and staring right at me. I tried for 5-10 minutes to settle her down by singing and rubbing her tummy, but no luck. So, I picked her back up, brought her back into our bedroom, and put her in the swing. After 5-10 minutes of swinging and Mommy continually popping her passy back into her mouth, Sadie finally went to sleep. By this point it was almost 3 am. We let her swing for 15 minutes and then Daddy carried her back to her bed. She slept soundly until 5:15 am. She woke up again and was fussing. It was time for me to get up for school anyways, so I put her passy back in her mouth and went to the bathroom to start getting ready. She actually ended up going back to sleep, which was great since I got a call around 5:30 that school was again cancelled for the day. Sadie slept until 8 am, and Mommy slept until about 7:30 am. So, some sleep was made up. At 8:20, Sadie ate breakfast. By 9:30, she actually agreed to a nappy while Mommy rocked her. She slept about 45 minutes and was then WIDE awake again. Around 11:00 am, I fed her again in hopes I could get her to take another nap. (She was quite fussy when she woke up from the first nap). I took her upstairs and put her in the swing. I kept sticking the passy back in. After about 10-15 minutes, Sadie had several MASSIVE squirts. (See, this whole saga relates back to pooping!). I picked her up and carried her to the changing table. She had poop dripping down her leg, all inside her onesie and her outfit, and it required 10 wipes to get her all cleaned off. Obviously, she must have been having some cramping from all of the poop built up inside her!

So, while Sadie doesn't seem to have quite the trouble that Bryn has been having, she does seem to be creating some problems all her own! Right now she is happily watching "Sesame Street." It's wrapping up, though, so cross your fingers that Mommy will be able to convince her take another nap.

It's been a snowy, icy, and poopy week here in the Smith house! There's another storm on the way on Tuesday, so who knows what may happen next week! Hope all of my readers have been able to dig themselves out!

Something New and Exciting

2009-01-22T20:06:00.003-05:00

At a recent teacher inservice, I learned about an on-line scrapbooking program called Smilebox. Basically, you go to Smilebox.com and can find MANY, MANY different types of things you can create - cards, slideshows, photo books, etc. I FINALLY had the chance to play around with it tonight and came up with a very quick presentation of Sadie's life so far. I thought I would post this and let all of my fellow bloggers learn of this wonderful program. The basics of Smilebox are FREE! You can also pay for individual items or for a subscription. I thought I'd just start out with the free stuff and see how often I actually end up using it. You also have the ability to print everything that you create (though I think you have to pay a fee to do that), but it still may be cheaper to create your own stuff on Smilebox and then print it out yourself too. I'd love to see other creations that people create, so let me know if you use the program and create something! I send you creative and happy thoughts!

Enjoy:

Make a Smilebox photobook

4 Month "Official" Update and An Interesting Discovery

2009-01-18T10:14:00.007-05:00

Last Tuesday Adam took Sadie to the doctor for her 4 month check-up. She was weighed and weighed in at 17 lbs even. This puts her just above the 95th percentile for weight. She was measured for height and is 25.5 inches. That puts her between the 90th and 95th percentiles. Her head size was also measured and she is between the 75th and 90th percentile for head size. Adam also got to experience the unpleasantness of having the baby get her shots. She had an oral vaccine and then two shots in the right leg and one in the left. The shots didn't seem to have too much of an effect on her at first, but that was made up later when she didn't go to sleep until after 11 on Thursday night and was then up every hour until 5 am. Thankfully, Mommy did not have school on Friday due to the unusually cold temperatures! It was well below zero with the wind chill!

On Friday night, Adam and I decided to try setting Sadie down to sleep and then leaving her in her room for 10 minutes. Until this point, we have always made sure she is asleep when we put her in her bed (either by having been rocked or by falling asleep in the swing). Sadie spent the 10 minutes sort of fussing, but clearly attempting to get ready for sleeping. When the 10 minutes was up, I went into her room, stuck her pacifier back in her mouth, and sung to her a little bit. She was sound asleep within 5 minutes and stayed asleep until 7:30 am! We tried this again last night. It didn't work quite as well, but after giving Sadie about 1/2 of a bottle (I had already fed her for about 20 minutes less than an hour before this), she fell very soundly asleep and again slept until 7:30 am. I hate to listen to her cry, but I also know that is important that she begin to learn to self-soothe so that she is able to eventually get herself to sleep.

Now, for our interesting discovery. Up to this point, we have believed that Sadie most closely resembles me. While it is difficult to tell , for sure, who she will ultimately resemble, Adam stumbled upon a picture that has made us both think through things a bit more! Below is a picture of my mother-in-law, Adam's mom.

Doesn't she look familiar? For comparison's sake. Here's a picture of Sadie that I converted to black and white.

Pretty amazing, huh? I guess we'll just have to keep waiting to see who Sadie will ultimately resemble or if she'll end up being a pretty good mix of both of us. :)

Wordless Wednesday

2009-01-07T19:59:00.006-05:00

I have three pictures to share. I couldn't choose between the three of them.

What do you suppose this bathing beauty is thinking?

I kind of feel like her shirt says it all! Thank you Pam! :)

What do you think we were thinking?

4 Months and Surviving the New Year

2009-01-06T14:19:00.003-05:00

Once again I have a very quick update! Sadie turned four months old on Sunday! My how time has flown. She is a big, beautiful, and healthy girl. She definitely has some teeth that will be coming through before too long. They haven't broken the skin, but you can certainly feel their presence.

My mom and I took Sadie over to the hospital last Friday to weigh her. With clothes on she came in at 17 lbs 1.5 ounces! She's a chunk, but she's SO long that she doesn't really look all that chunky. But, all of you out there with super skinny children, just know that my kid can take your kid down! (Just kidding - the teacher in me would NEVER encourage such behavior!)

Sadie started at her new sitter on Monday. The little stinker was all smiles and giggles when I left her yesterday morning. I was not nearly in that good a shape. I spent much of my first period, which thankfully is a plan period, trying to get myself pulled together and not in tears. Amy, our sitter, said that she had a great day when I picked her up. She slept on the way home and was happy as a clam when we got home. I'm hoping today's report is equally good. I didn't have as hard a time leaving her this morning. But, I'm certainly ready to go pick her up right now!

Hope all is well with all of you and that your new year's are all off to great beginnings!

Many, Many Glorious Pictures

2008-12-30T08:27:00.016-05:00

Ok - so I've promised some pictures for quite a long time and I've FINALLY been able to get them onto my computer so that I can get them to you! This first picture was taken way back in October when Aunt Rhian came to visit. This was the first time both she and Mortimer got to meet Sadie. Here's the adorable shot:

Next is a shot of Sadie and her friend Parker. This was also taken in October. We drove over to Indianapolis for Butler's homecoming. I can't wait to take a similar shot of both girls next year to see how much they've grown and changed! I know it will be astonishing!

Next is a Thanksgiving shot. It's not the greatest, but you can kind of see Sadie's cute little Thanksgiving outfit.

Now we have a shot that I just can't resist. Sadie has recently begun to actually enjoy being on her tummy for longer periods of time. She's almost rolled over a number of times and if she's on any kind of an incline she will actually roll over. She's a genius, I know! :)

The next two shots are also some favorites. There is one of me and Sadie and you can kind of see our Christmas tree in the background. I was dressed up and ready to go to the Orange Johnson House. This is a historical house in Worthington. The Worthington Historical Society gives tours of the house every Sunday. The house was built by Mr. Buttles sometime in the very early 1800s and has been in Worthington ever since. Obviously, Orange Johnson and his family lived in the house for a long time, which is why it is now named after him. Anyways, for the last 28 years there have been special Saturdays in December for children in 3rd and 4th grades (the years you study Worthington history in school) where children can pay a small fee and come to the Orange Johnson house and celebrate a 19th century style Christmas. They get to enjoy a meal that they help prepare. The meal is all cooked over the open fireplace. (My mom's the one who does ALL of the cooking over the fireplace - very HOT work!) They make a craft, sing some carols, play 19th century games, listen to stories, and get a visit from Saint Nicholas. This has all led up to the explanation of the other picture. This is Sadie and Saint Nicholas. If you look closely enough you might recognize Saint Nick (hint: at least thus far, Sadie has avoided inheriting his nose!).

Next, here's a shot of Sadie opening her first Christmas gift. It is a tradition in our family that we always open one present on Christmas Eve. It's always the same thing - a new pair of pajamas. This is Sadie opening her new pair of pajamas!

Then, there's a shot of my Dad's favorite gift that he purchased for Sadie. It's a Po-knee (pony). It actually makes horsey noises and both Grandpa and Sadie seem to love it. I will do my best to actually get the video posted. It's very funny!

Finally, here's a family shot at the Columbus Zoo. Earlier this week we had an unseasonably warm day - 66 - so we took advantage and took Sadie to the zoo to see the Wildlights. She was captivated, but, as you can see, all that looking around was tiring work!

Holy cow - I almost forgot one! Here is Sadie with Santa!

Well, hope everyone had fantastic Christmas celebrations and are anxiously awaiting your New Year's celebrations. I'm definitely looking forward to 2009 and all of the wonderful things that are in store for us. Hopefully there will be as many wonderful blessings in our lives in 2009 as there have been in 2008. We began this last year by learning that we were pregnant with Sadie and this year we begin by celebrating with her! Adam, Sadie, and I all wish you much joy and happiness in the year ahead!

Catching Up - 4th Photo

2008-12-21T09:10:00.004-05:00

Ok, I've had the luxury of catching up on some blog reading this morning and have seen a recent trend. Apparently, there is this "fourth photo" challenge going around. Below are the directions.

The object of the picture tag is to:

1) Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer
2) Select the 4th picture in the folder
3) Explain the picture
4) Tag 4 people to do the same

Here is the picture:

This is obviously a picture of me. It was taken in the Bahamas. It was taken the night that Adam and I arrived in Port Lucaya way back in December of 2005. We decided to go somewhere exciting to ring in the new year because (as some of you may remember), I had a particularly bad Fall at school that year. I had the principal from Hell and was an emotional wreck from everything that she had put me through. However, this picture does bring back happy memories. It was Adam's and my first big trip, only Adam's second time flying anywhere, and definitely Adam's first time digging on a beach. This particular photo shows me chowing down on some lobster. We had high hopes for tasty lobster, but that little fella was disappointing!

On a totally different note, another quick update - my mom, Sadie, and I travelled to West Chester, Ohio yesterday to make a pilgrimage to IKEA. I bought a ton of picture frames for all of our new pictures and enjoyed the chance to just wander that fantastic store. Sadie was a GREAT little girl and enjoyed traveling around the store in her Baby Bjorn. She is now outward facing, most of the time, so she thoroughly enjoyed getting to see everything and have everyone coo over her when they saw her adorable little face. My mother got more of a chuckle out of the whole thing because she thought Sadie looked like some little alien trying to escape from my chest. We'll have to get a picture posted and let you decide!

Also, Aunt Rhian and Mortimer are now home safe and sound. This is very good since we're now having a bit of scary weather. Hopefully things will cooperate tomorrow, when Pam comes down for a visit, and on Tuesday when cousins Megan and Amanda fly in. I'm nearly jumping out of my skin with excitement at seeing all of these people. Woohoo!

Well, I'm going to try to catch a shower before my angel wakes up! Take care!

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-18T07:30:00.003-05:00

Well, I have good news to report this morning, so I thought I better report it. Sadie has a place to go during the days beginning in January. She will be going to stay with a lady here in West Jeff. Her name is Amy and she is currently only watching two other children - an 8 month old boy named Blake and a 2 year old girl named Lily. Amy, Blake, and Lily all seemed very easy going and I felt very comfortable in Amy's house. Plus, Blake is a super cute little boy and if Sadie's going to have to have a boyfriend, I guess I'd be ok with it being him. :) Having this decision made has made me feel AMAZINGLY better and I'm quite glad to have Sadie be so close to me during the day. She's literally less than 5 minutes from my school. Amy is also not charging us an arm and a leg and will not be charging us if Sadie is not actually in her care for the day, which is a pretty unusual policy. So, I'm feeling pretty darn lucky at this point.

I'm also feeling really excited because my sister is flying in today. She doesn't get in until 10:30 tonight, so I won't actually get to see her until tomorrow, but just the thought that she'll be actually reachable in less than 24 hours is filling me with holiday giddiness. And, we're having our holiday potluck at school today and my mom is bringing Sadie out to school. So, I get to see my baby in only a few more hours!

Finally, our pictures are in from Penney's. I'm posting a few of my favorites, but you can follow the link below to see all the rest.

On another note, if you know Tiger and Megan, I talked to Tiger yesterday and they have learned the gender of their baby. Megan is due May 14. You'll have to talk to Tiger or Megan to find out, but they do know now. :)

Here's the link for the pictures:

Go to http://www.smilesbywire.com and enter the following:

Customer Name: KRYSTEN SMITH
Access Code: LTPP0741120209JCP

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Very Quick Update

2008-12-16T07:38:00.002-05:00

Ok - this is my second time typing this.

Sadie was weighed on December 3, 1 day before her 3 month birthday. She weighed in at 15 lbs even.

I really don't enjoy being back at work. This year's crew is not particularly pleasant and that doesn't help motivate me to want to be here. Plus, it's super hard to work all day and come home to Sadie in the late afternoon. Like her mom, she's a morning person, and typically by the time I get home she's not in the greatest of moods. That just adds to the guilt.

We've also had a horrible time trying to find someone to watch her that I both like and can afford. I think we have this finally resolved, but I'll have to keep you all posted on that.

She's been staying with her Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa. I've been pumping like crazy and she's been happily eating from her bottles. She even likes to hold the bottle herself!

We spent Thanksgiving at Uncle Tim and Aunt Sarah's house. Sadie got to play with her cousins, Codey and Noah. They were GREAT with her, thanks to lots of practice playing with their little sister. We also got to see Grandma and Grandpa Brinkely, which is always a treat. We even got to see Grandma and Grandpa again this last weekend because they came down for a visit.

I'm very excited for Christmas. Aunt Rhian gets here on Thursday and then my cousins Megan and Amanda arrive on Tuesday. Pam is also coming into town, so Sadie will have many new friends to meet.

Well, I do actually need to get some work done this morning, so I have to run. We got pictures taken last week and I'll post that information as soon as I have it. Merry Christmas everyone!

2 Months and Facing the Inevitable

2008-11-12T19:04:00.002-05:00

Well, it's been a while since I've had a post. I still haven't downloaded the latest round of pictures from my camera, so I have no new pictures to post. Since last I've written, Sadie dressed up as an adorably cute pea pod for Trick or Treat. We took her around my parents' neighborhood and told everyone we had a treat and did not need a treat in return. All of the neighbors were delighted to meet Sadie. And, she was absolutely the cutest baby ever! :)

Sadie is also two months old now! To celebrate her two month birthday, we went to Red Lobster. Sadie then enjoyed her shrimp flavored breast milk! :) Also, her two-month check-up was yesterday. She now weighs in at 13 pounds, 6 ounces and is 24 inches long. The nurse also measured her head as 14 inches in diameter, but that was smaller than at birth, so clearly she measured incorrectly. The doctor said that that particular nurse always seems to have trouble with measuring babies heads. Anyways, Sadie is the 95% for length and 90% for weight. She is such a cute girl! Her hair is starting to come back in. It's definitely going to be dark!

Now the inevitable - I have to go back to work on November 24th. I'm freaking out a little bit. I've left Sadie for about 5 hours, when Adam and I went on a date. But, that's about the longest I've been away from her and I'm not looking forward to being away from her for a longer period of time. I have a feeling I'm going to be a nervous wreck. I'm already feeling terribly guilt-ridden and have moments where I want to burst into tears. In other ways, I am looking forward to returning to a job that I do really like. Hopefully the good and bad moments will balance out and we will both be able to survive this rather difficult transition. I think I would feel a lot better if I knew a bit more about what to expect.

Well, it's time for Sadie to eat. She's currently dancing with Daddy. Daddy is holding her in the baby Bjorn. It's adorable! Take care all!

More New Pictures

2008-10-28T12:29:00.004-04:00

We had a great weekend in Indianapolis! Sadie got to meet her friend Parker for the first time. Though I'm not really sure that either girl realized the others' existence, us parents sure had fun talking for them and making it seem like they were interacting. I will have pictures to post to show both girls, but I can't seem to locate my camera cord right now.

I did receive the link for our latest JC Penney's pictures. We had some taken when Aunt Rhian was here. Plus, we were hoping to get some better pictures in Sadie's halloween dress. But, not surprisingly, it was still ridiculously hot in the studio, so things didn't turn out so greatly as far as smiling in her dress. But, they were a little better than the first time. I'll post some of my favorite shots below and also the link for how to access everything. I'll have more to say later when Sadie is actually sleeping She's currently playing under her mobile in her crib! :)

We've got a pictures of Sadie in her dress, our family and mom's whole family. Enjoy!

Go to http://www.smilesbywire.com and enter the following:

Customer Name: Krysten Smith
Access Code: LTPP0741118363JCP

Quick Update and Paying it Forward

2008-10-22T19:51:00.002-04:00

Quick Update:

I had my six week follow-up appointment with my ObGyn yesterday. I am well-healed and things are "back to normal". This is excellent news on many levels and I am very thankful.

Since my Ob is at the hospital, I took Sadie down to the women's center after my appointment. The women's center has a baby scale where you can drop by any time and weigh your baby. At six weeks and five days, my beautiful daughter now weighs 12 lbs 8 oz. That's right - she's not even 2 months old and she's already wearing 3-6 month clothes! (Truth be told, because she's not SUPER long, her 3 month clothes are fitting her just fine at this point, but I know it won't be long.)

Sadie has begun making the cutest little noises. Right now she's laying under her Baby Einstein play gym and making the happiest of noises. She grabs at her rattle toys and and LOVES to watch her flashing star. While she is doing this, she makes the most delightful coos and happy noises. It makes my heart melt. Every time she makes a happy noise I think it makes me love her even more (not that the sad noises make me feel the opposite, I just LOVE the happy noises!)

Aunt Rhian came in for the weekend. She got here on Thursday and left Monday night. She brought Mortimer with her. You may remember from previous posts that Mortimer is her miniature dachsund. He wasn't quite sure what to make of Sadie at first, but ended up wanting to be her protector. He did this with a lot of barking and much licking of Sadie's hands and arms. This was a bit nerve wracking to me, but in the end everything was just fine. As soon as I get a chance, I will upload my new pictures and get them posted. Aunt Rhian was delighted to meet Sadie and really seemed to enjoy her new "Aunt" role.

I got FANTASTIC news at dinner tonight. I'm still so excited I want to leap for joy. I am one of those people who has always been really close with her family. Any of you who know me well, know this is true. I only have 3 cousins, 2 of whom I grew up with living just a few blocks away. We went on vacations together every summer and we saw each other all of the time. However, since we've all grown up, I am the only one of the 4 girls (my sister and I and my two cousins) who have remained in town. Megan is the oldest of us (3 months older than me). She lives in Seattle. Amanda, her sister, now lives in New York. Rhian lives in Phoenix. Even though we don't see each other much, we do still e-mail and actually talk on the phone on occasion. Anyways, the last time I saw Megan was when I got married. Obviously that was more than 2 years ago. I saw Amanda last Christmas. But, my excellent news is that Megan and Amanda are both coming home for Christmas. I am so excited. My heart is bursting with excitement. They'll get to meet Sadie and better yet, I'll get to spend time with both of them. It's been at least 5 years - maybe more - since everyone's been home at Christmas, so this will REALLY be special. :)

Ok, now to the second part of this post.

Paying it Forward

Today I was driving back from the mall with my mom. My back right tire literally exploded off of my car. This happened as I was driving down the exit ramp from the freeway. I turned the corner with my blown off tire and a VERY nice man, who saw my "Baby on Board" sticker, pulled over and changed my tire for me. I have never had someone actually do this for me. I do have AAA and could have easily called them and waited for them to come and help, but this man just felt the need to help and had my tire changed out for the spare within 5 minutes. It was awesome. So, now I feel that I need to pay this amazing favor forward. If you know of anyone in need of an extra kind deed, please point me in their direction. Hopefully I'll stumble upon an opportunity before anyone else needs to point anything out, but keep your eyes peeled for opportunities for me.

Well, that's the update for now! I can't wait to see my Indy friends this weekend! Woohoo!!!!!

More Pictures

2008-10-16T09:56:00.003-04:00

I finally got the link for the pictures we had taken at JC Penney's. As previously stated, they are ADORABLE! The pictures in her white dress are a little better because she wasn't fussy. She got fussy in her Halloween dress. I could hardly blame her since it was ridiculously hot in there, but it made for some very sad-face pictures. We're having them taken again tomorrow since Aunt Rhian is home and can be in the pictures with us. Hopefully Aunt Rhian's mere presence will bring out many happy Halloween smiles! :)

I promise that at some point, I will post the picture of me in a white dress at Sadie's age. The similarities are eerily scary. Clearly she will grow up to be one very attractive girl! :)

Anyways, here's what you need to do to view the pictures:

go to http://www.smilesbywire.com and enter the following:

Customer Name: Krysten Smith
Access Code: LTPP0741118134JCP

Enjoy!

An Update in Pictures (and a few words)

2008-10-13T08:54:00.015-04:00

Ok, I have finally uploaded the pictures from my camera and have some adorable new shots to post.

First, here is our little sleeper:

Here are Sadie and Great Grandma Winter. Remember, Sadie is Great Grandma's 28th great grandchild!

Here are Sadie and Uncle Tim. She has the curious look - this guy looks kinda like my Dad, but I'm just not sure. :)

Here are Sadie and Grandpa Brinkley. She was very amused with Grandpa.

Here's the delicious cake that Aunt Sarah made for us. I wish we still had some!

Here's a family shot when we visited the pumpkin patch last weekend:

Now for the words:
Last Wednesday we had to visit the doctor. This is becauase Sadie's tear ducts have been blocked since she was born and her eyes are very gunky. Things seemed to be getting worse, not better, so we decided to go to the doctor. We now have an appointment for this Wednesday with a pediatric opthamologist at Children's Hospital here in Columbus. Hopefully they'll have some good suggestions and they won't have to do any procedures on Sadie, but we'll just have to wait and see.

While at the doctor, "the chunk" got weighed and measured. She weighed in at 11 pounds, 6 ounces. That is 2 lbs and 5 oz up from her birth weight. This girl can eat! She is also now measuring 22.5 inches, which is 2 inches up from birth. Additionally, her head now measures about 16.5 inches around which is 1.5 inches up from birth. She has a BIG brain too! My mom pulled out my baby book so that we could compare Sadie and myself. I was 9 lbs 12 oz at birth. At six weeks, I was 11 lbs. Sadie was 11 lbs 6 oz at five weeks. So, she may have been slightly smaller than her mom at birth, but she has more than caught up!

Last Monday we actually had our first Sadie photo session at JC Penney's. She did great for the first round of pics and then kind of lost it. It was ridiculously hot in the studio and, like her mom, she does not deal well with excessive heat. I don't have the link to post the pictures yet, but I will post the like as soon as I get it. I can't wait to post the picture of me at Sadie's age and then her picture. It's kind of scary how similar we look. I will say, though, that she has far chubbier cheeks! :)

One more "Hallelujah Moment" to mention - Sadie had been VERY resistent to a pacifier. Plus, the lactation consultant kept discouraging it because it can change the way she latches on the nurse and make nursing more painful for me. But, this basically means that I get to serve as her pacifier. (This is also perhaps why she has gained so much weight!) We had a break through this weekend though. I got my hair cut and my mom watched her while I was at the appointment. During the appointment, she got Sadie to take and keep the pacifier. Since then, she has spent many moments happily sucking away. This is great for while we are in the car as well as just calming her down so she can go to or go back to sleep. It's fantastic. God bless the pacifier! :)

Ok, because I can't resist, here are 3 more pictures. The first is a shot of her adorable feet.

Here is a shot of Mommy's other baby. This is our little kitty, Beau. This is a relatively small basket that he has absolutely fallen in love with. He's so cute that I couldn't resist posting it.

Finally, here's a great shot of Daddy and Sadie. We had a picnic lunch at Antrim Lake on Friday. Antrim Lake has very special meaning for Adam and I because it's where we met the first time. Adam can take an hour break for lunch, so he drove over to the park and met us for lunch. It was awesome!

Ok, I feel like I've sufficiently flooded you all with pictures. Hope you're all off to a great week. Aunt Rhian is coming to visit on Thursday morning, so I'm sure we'll have more pictures and stories to post very soon! Take care!

Wordless Tuesday

2008-10-07T11:18:00.002-04:00

Ok - I do realize that it's Tuesday and not Wednesday, but I had a spare minute to insert a picture and I couldn't help but do it. I had to send this picture from my phone. Unfortunately, I can't send more than one picture at a time and it takes quite a while to do it, so I'm only posting one picture. As soon as I can get caught up on some sleep and have more than 5 minutes at a time, I promise that I'll post more pictures.

In the meantime, what do you think this sweetheart is thinking?

Thursday Thirteen: Thirteen Reasons Why I am Having a Hard Time Posting

2008-10-02T09:21:00.002-04:00

Since it's been well more than a week since last I've posted, I figured I should update everyone as to what's been happening in Smith world. We've been busy. Here's my list of 13 things that have kept me so busy that I've been unable to post:

1. I spend most of my days at home by myself from 8:30 am until 5:30 pm. I spend much of my night wide awake with the baby. So, I sleep during the day. When I am not asleep I am either comforting the baby, feeding the baby, showering, or checking on everyone else's blogs.

2. Even when my husband is home to watch the baby or my parents come over, I usually just want a few minutes to relax instead of work on the blog.

3. I really wanted to have new pictures to post and kept telling myself that as soon as I downloaded them, I would do a new post. I still haven't downloaded them, but I decided to do the post anyways. Hopefully Adam will help me out with some new pictures soon.

4. On the days when I have had more sleep at night, I've been trying to get out of the house. Last week we visited the lactation consultant on Wednesday and my school on Thursday. Yesterday we met Daddy for lunch and then went to Babies R Us, out to Grandpa's school, and then out to Grandma's school to pick her up.

5. Last Thursday, my mom "fell" in the parking lot while walking to her car. By "fall", I really mean almost passed out. She had been having physical therapy on her shoulder and then all of a sudden got very dizzy. She thought she had an ear infection or was coming down with some kind of flu. So, on Friday, after going to school, she called the doctor. Unable to get an appointment, she went to Urgent Care. The Urgent Care doctor sent her to the ER. Her own mother died of a Massive Cerebral Hemmorage, so she had some concerns that my mom had perhaps had a stroke and that was what caused her to "fall." My dad had to go pick my mom up from the Urgent Care and take her to the ER. They got there around 6:30 pm on Friday night, weren't seen until after 10:00 pm, and then my mom was in the hospital from Friday night until Tuesday morning. They did all kinds of tests: cat-scan, EKG, MRI, scope down her throat to look at her heart, and a tilt-table test. The diagnosis finally came with the tilt-table test. She has this syndrome where her body doesn't efficiently pump the blood back up from her feet and when the blood pools there, she passes out. As soon as she feels symptoms coming on, she's supposed to lay down immediately. There's not a great treatment for this syndrome. Here's the worst part: she's not allowed to drive for a month! So, I've been rather worried about this whole situation and focusing my energies there instead of blogging.

6. Baby's first road trip. Last Saturday morning we loaded up the car and headed to Great Grandma's house. Sadie was Adam's Grandma's 28th great grandchild! Pretty amazing! We have a great picture of Great Grandma holding Sadie and I promise that I will post it at some point.

7. From Great Grandma's house we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Brinkley's house. There we visited with Grandma and Grandpa Brinkley and Grandpa Brinkley's daughter-in-law and grand child. We didn't stay there too long, though because Mommy was hungry for some dinner.

8. We went to Uncle Tim's and Aunt Sarah's house. We got to see Uncle Tim, Aunt Sarah, and cousins Codey and Noah. We had pizza and calzone for dinner, watched the cousins play video games, and spent the night. We were awake until about 1 am and then slept until almost 10 am. Aunt Sarah made us a delicious and HUGE welcome cake. We have a picture of it too and will someday post it. We ate lunch around 2 pm and headed home around 4 pm.

9. We had to meet my dad at the Urgent Care to pick up my mom's car.

10. We went to my parent's house to drop off the car and also to catch up with my dad. We ended up staying and ordering pasta from Pizza Hut. It was actually pretty good! We didn't head home until almost 8 pm.

11. I spent Monday text messaging between my parents and Adam. We were still without a diagnosis for my mom at that point, so with each new test we all communicated about what we thought would be next.

12. We went to the hospital on Monday night to visit Grandma. Daddy was very tired from all of the driving and from staying up half the night with Mommy and baby.

13. It's taken several attempts to get this list completed. I had to feed the baby, attempt to go back to sleep with the baby (mission failed), and go to the bathroom while Daddy changed Sadie's diaper. Adam is working from home today, which I why I even felt like I could attempt blogging this morning. Currently Sadie is in her swing and quite content. I wish she would fall back asleep because I'd sure like to. On the other side of things, it might be nice if she'd stay awake now and sleep tonight. If nothing else, I'm learning what's on TV in the middle of the night. Thank goodness for Law and Order!

I do really, really love being a mom, but I am also quite sleepy and would very much appreciate a few uninterrupted hours of sleep. Maybe tonight if I'm very lucky! I promise to post some more pictures as soon as I have a few more spare moments to upload them, sort them, and make appropriate choices about what to post. Hope all is well with everyone else!

Back to This Century

2008-09-22T12:02:00.004-04:00

Well, it's been a crazy week! We were without power from Sunday night at 5:00 pm until Thursday afternoon around noon! But, we can now see at all hours of the day and night and have a newly stocked refrigerator full of food! Here are some of the highlights of the past week:

Monday night - Wednesday night: Stay at a hotel with Grandma and Grandpa Stotts, get spoiled by constant attention and Grandma's willingness to rock or walk with her at all hours of the day and night

Thursday dinner: Eats out with the family at Olive Garden. Marvelously well-behaved the entire meal!

Thursday night: Misses Grandma and cries for 2 hours straight during the middle of the night, Mom finally consoles her and we can all go back to bed

Friday - Saturday nights: Grandma and Grandpa Stotts have a sleepover since they STILL didn't have power! Sadie goes back to full-on spoil mode!

Friday night: Took a trip out to the tailgate at Mommy's school. Enjoyed being fussed over by Mommy's co-workers.

Sunday: Take a trip to Easton to enjoy some sunshine and shopping. Cries when we initially arrive, but then calms down and sleeps peacefully while being wheeled around.

Monday: Currently sleeping in her swing! Yeah! Mommy and Daddy both got to take showers while she was swinging. Daddy is working from home today!

And now for the best part, here are some new pictures of Sadie. Even though they might just be accidents, she has started to smile. She's also enjoying the luxury of sleeping in between Mommy and Daddy, at least when she's not sleeping somewhere else! :)

Adventures in the World of No Electricity

2008-09-16T10:10:00.002-04:00

Seeing the title of this post, you may be wondering - if she has no electricity, how is she posting? Well, I'm at a hotel. Let's start from the beginning, though.

On Sunday morning we woke up to a hot day that was rather windy. Throughout the day it kept getting more and more windy. Then, around 3:00 pm, Adam and I decided that we would try and venture out and go to Babies 'R' Us and pick up some food for dinner. Unfortunately, this was the point in the day where the wind was really picking up. We made it about 5 blocks from our house and then were attacked by an orange barrel that was flying through the air. We decided that we would keep going, but we were getting a little scared. Branches were starting to fly around and lights were dangling perilously from the stoplight wires. We headed to the grocery store to buy some gift cards (we get gas points when we shop at the grocery) and the grocery had no electricity. My parents' electricity was already out, so we really weren't sure what to do. Adam decided that he really wanted some salad from Buca di Beppo's though, so we headed in that direction to get some take out. I stayed in the car while Adam ran in to get dinner. The gutter on the side of Buca's was barely hanging on to the side of the building and was quite creaky. Finally, Adam came back with the food and we headed back home. By the time we were heading home, many more stoplights were not working and people had NOT mastered the idea of the 4 way stop. We got back home and had lots of branches down in our yard. At that point, they were mainly small branches. We flipped on the TV and decided we would go ahead and eat dinner. We had no sooner begun to eat, than the lights flickered and then went off completely. That was about 5:00 pm on Sunday night. We have not had power since. Sunday night was INCREDIBLY long! We found candles and a flashlight. We even managed to find a radio that would take batteries. But, we had winds blowing up to 70 mph and as time passed some HUGE branches started to fall from our trees. We have a GIANT branch down from our big tree in the back yard and one of the smaller trees split in half and is now dangling dangerously over our power lines. Adam kept running in and out while there was still light to assess the damage. This was making me nervous because I was worried about his safety as well and just simply worried about how the house and trees were going to stand up to all of this. Sadie had spent much of Sunday sleeping, so she was not all about the sleeping on Sunday night. This only made things worse, since Adam and I were worried about what was going on, didn't have electricity, and were already running on less than great amounts of sleep. But, we survived.

Adam did have to report for work yesterday. Only IT's were allowed in to Cardinal Health because all power was being run by back up generators. Adam spent his day moving servers around to make sure that the essentials were going to be taken care of. I spent the day with my parents. No one in Central Ohio has had school because no one has power. This has been nice for me because I have more people to help me with the baby. But, the stinky part of this is that even though I am "losing" these days as part of my maternity leave, I will get to be the one who has to make them up at the end of the year. Grrrrrrrr! It does not seem quite fair!

My parents decided to get a hotel room last night because they both use CPAP machines to keep them breathing regularly at night. Obviously, with no power the CPAP machines will not work. They ended up getting a Hawthorne Suites hotel room. It actually has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a full kitchen. They graciously invited Adam, Sadie, and I to stay with them. This was great because it meant that we had electricity and could move around much easier with the baby during the night time hours.

Adam had to go in to work again today, but he got an e-mail last night saying that Cardinal had power back up. It's kind of funny to me that they sent an e-mail since you would have had to have had power in order to get the e-mail, but anyways...

So, that's the story from here. AEP, our power company, is saying that it may be Sunday before we all get power back again. CRAZY! It's certainly going to make for some long days ahead. Hopefully they will get things back up sooner, but this may be my last post for a while.

On a final note, Adam and I spent this day two years ago with many of you faithful readers. It's our second anniversary today. I hadn't even realized it until Adam mentioned it last night. Neither of us even had a card to give the other this morning, but I guess we're both quite content with the gift of our beautiful baby girl. :) Hope you are all doing well!

1 Week and 1 Day Old

2008-09-12T21:16:00.003-04:00

Well, Sadie has officially been a part of the "real" world for one week and one day. It's really quite hard to believe that it's been that long already. The week has really flown by. Here's a quick summary of Sadie's adventures during her first week.

Thursday September 4:
* Born at 7:50 am
* Nurses within first hour
* Nurses multiple times throughout the day
* Receives first bath in hospital room in front of Mommy, Daddy, and Grandma and Grandpa Stotts
* Immediately begins filling diapers with lots of sticky-icky meconium
* Watches first episodes of "Law and Order"
* Stays up much of the night and cries

Friday September 5:
* Seen by the doctor for the first time
* Seen by the lactation consultant who lets Mommy know that Sadie has one of the strongest latches she's ever felt (no wonder Mommy is sore!)
* Visited by Mommy's doctor who comments again and again about what a good team Mommy and Sadie make
* Visited by Aunt Holly
* Visited by Jackie Haworth, Mommy's friend from school
* Watches "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" and already responds well! ;)

Saturday September 6:
* Visited by a couple from Mommy and Daddy's baby birthing class
* Visited by Daddy's friends Johan and Kristy, who are on a tour of Labor and Delivery for when they deliver in December
* Gets to take first ride in the car and go home!
* Spends the day getting acclimated and getting to know the kitties
* Enjoys being held or rocked while Mommy and Daddy eat sloppy joes

Here are some pictures of her grandparents holding her:

Sunday September 7:
* Visited by Grandma and Grandpa Brinkley
* Visited by Uncle Tim and cousins Codey and Noah
* Takes first bath at home
* Shows everyone how well she can already hold up her own head
* Still rather confused about her days and nights

Here's a picture of her first bath at home with Mom and Dad:

Monday September 8:
* Gets to take a trip to the doctor's office after the doctor "loses" Mommy's records when they put in Sadie's information
* Gets to take first ride in the stroller when Mommy goes to purchase some more nursing bras and tanks
* Visited by Great Uncle Kevin
* Continues to show off her amazing abilities to hold up her own head and do push-ups on anyone that's holding her

Tuesday September 9:
* Visited by Daddy's cousin, Dianne
* Sleeping improves slightly during the night time hours
* Spends a big chunk of time alone with Mommy while Daddy runs some errands
* Takes first ride in Baby Bjorn when Mommy takes her out on the back porch to enjoy the nice weather

Wednesday September 10:
* Feels very sad when Daddy has to return to work
* Excited that Grandma Stotts gets to spend the day with her
* Takes a trip to the pet store

Thursday September 11:
* Gets to visit the doctor for her first check-up
* Is up to 9 lbs, 2 oz - one ounce up from birth and 6 ounces up from when we left the hospital
* Pees all over the exam table - nurse comments on how well hydrated she is. :)
* Takes another stroller ride to help Mommy return the rented breast pump
* Enjoys afternoon in the stroller while Mommy, Sadie, and Grandma meet Daddy for lunch at La Chatelaine for an al fresco dining experience
* Waits anxiously for news that her friend Parker has been born
* Sleeps in 3 hour spurts during the night!
* Prefers sleeping on her side rather than flat on her back
* Tries her best to go through as many diapers as possible while she's on the changing table

Friday September 12:
* Hangs out at the house while the electrician noisily continues to work on finishing up several unfinished electrical projects
* Spends afternoon time fussing - maybe an indication that she'll sleep better tonight?
* Enjoys being held by anyone willing to hold her - but spent a good amount of time asleep on Grandpa

Our plans for this weekend include attending the Worthington Market Days celebration in downtown Worthington and letting Mommy and Daddy catch up on their sleep. Mommy will be preparing for spending her first day completely alone with Sadie on Monday.

I am feeling pretty good overall. I'm definitely still sore and expect that I will continue to be for at least a few weeks. After all, my body has been through the ringer and with my little barracuda latching on so strongly, it may take even longer than a few weeks for me to get back to feeling "great." I am loving being a mom and Adam is doing a FANTASTIC job as a new dad. I really have no idea how he's been able to go back to work, though I also know that he's had a really hard time leaving us in the morning. And, he texts us or calls several times throughout the day to make sure we're doing well and to tell us that he loves us both.

Well, I'm feeling pretty sleepy and it won't be too long before it's time for another feeding. So, I'm going to go and get ready for bed and in turn get ready for Sadie to go to bed. Hopefully it will be a good sleeping night.

Sadie Emerson Smith

2008-09-05T14:12:00.005-04:00

Well, the last post's title was a lie. September 3, 2008 is NOT Sadie's birthday. She was a long time in coming and did not arrive until 7:50 am on Thursday September 4, 2008. I did arrive at the hospital at 7:00 am on Wednesday for the induction. But, we had a bit of a problem from the get-go. I have very deep veins in my wrists and the first time that they stuck me to try to get my IV going, things did not go well. The nurse kept digging around and trying to find something, but the only thing she found, in my opinion, was lots of pain for me. So, another nurse came and stuck me on my other hand. Basically, the day did not start off that well for me.

By 9:00 am, they finally had started me on the pitocin and things began to move along. I also had a follet (sp?) that was basically inserted into me to get my body to dilate with the need for prostaglandins. The follet was supposed to get my body to start making its own prostaglandins. Anyways, the follet usually takes 4-6 hours to fall out. Mine came out within 2 hours, but at the end I was only a little over 2 cm dilated and still not effacing much faster with the pitocin. So, they upped my pitocin. By 3:00 pm, I was up to 4 cm dilated, but they had to have a resident come to break my water and all of the on-call residents were working on C-sections. It was after 5:00 pm before they finally came to break my water. I had heard that this was not an altogether great feeling, but I actually didn't think it was that bad. I was more disturbed by the fact that the doctor got my socks all wet with amniotic fluid and then took them off of me. I didn' t have another pair of socks with me that I wanted to put on, so I was just more irritated than anything.

Unfortunately, breaking my water did little to get my dilated or effaced much faster. So, I did end up asking for an epidural when I was not much past 4 cm. I decided that it was silly to be in pain, particularly knowing that if it took as long to get anesthesia there as it did to get the residents to break my water, I probably wanted to get moving. Anesthesia actually got there really quickly and I had just had some nubain right before they put in the epidural. This was great because the nubain completely calmed me down. They went over with my all of the risks and such for epidurals, including that it's possible, though, rare that the first epidural will not take. Again, remember that September 3 was not my lucky day. :) The epidural did not take. It made me very itchy, but that was about it. So, about an hour to an hour and a half after the first epidural, anesthesia came back, removed epidural number one and started epidural number two. Epidural number two was great. It had me numb up to right underneath my breasts and down to right above my ankles. I could still feel pressure, but much less pain.

Many, many, many more hours went by and around 6:00 am, my nurse told me that my doctor had called and that if I did not make some serious progress fast, that she would be taking me to have a c-section for lack of progress. By this point I was 100% effaced and a little bit more than 9 cm dilated. And, I was darned sure not going to have a C-Section after all that I had already been through. So, my great and wonderful nurse got me into this position where I boosted by butt up into the air and did some pelvic thrusting. Then I laid on my side with my bottom leg straight and my top leg up like a flamingo. The nurse kept coming back and checking me. No progress after the butt in the air position. I started crying and basically mentally yelling at Sadie to please get moving. She FINALLY listened! When the nurse checked me one last time, I had come down to zero station and was fully dilated and effaced. Yeah! She called my doctor immediately and said we could begin to push with the next contraction. My doctor lives about 20 minutes away. My goal was to push for as short a time as possible. After all, we were nearing 22 hours of this actual laboring process by now and I was ready to go. I was completly out of epidural medication by this point, but I figured that it wasn't really going to make much difference at that point anyways. I was going to feel pain and I was going to have to deal with it. I just wanted this all over with and done! Within 3 cyles of pushing, you could see Sadie's head. The nurses actually made me slow down and do half-cycles because my doctor wasn't there yet. This, of course, irritated me further. Half-way through my second set of half-pushing, my doctor arrived and I finished the set pushing for the full 10 seconds. Within 4 more push cycles, Sadie was out! Her head was 15 cm in diameter. She weighed 9 lbs 1 oz (11 oz less than myself and my crazy mother didn't have an epidural!) and 20.5 inches long. Her first APGAR score was an 8 and the second was a 9. She has lots of REALLY dark hair. She has very chubby cheeks and is quite the beautiful little girl, if I do say so myself.

I did require about a half-hour of stitching up, but my mom tells me that the whole process took as long as it did because my doctor was very careful in her stitching and I should actually be pleased with this because there's much less chance of an infection with the thorough job she did.

As soon as possible, I got some breakfast in me and immediately started feeling better. Life was good! Here are a few pictures of Sadie:

The first two were taken yesterday shortly after she was born. The last one was taken this morning after she had had her professional picture taken here at the hospital.

You will be able to view more pictures of Sadie at the hospital's website. I can't give you a link yet, because I don't have it myself. But, I can tell you to go to Google and type in "Ohio Health". It will be the first web page to come up. Next click on Riverside Hospital. Then on the left side will be a link for the Peakaboo Nursery. Click on that link. Then you'll need to change the date so that it reads September 4, 2008. Then Sadie's name will come up as "Sadie S". Click on that and you'll be able to view the professional pictures.

Well, it's taken me nearly 2 hours to write this because of all of the people that have come in and out of the room in that time. So, I'm going to go and start filling out some of the millions of forms that are requried for us to go home tomorrow. Please send your glowing comments! :)

Today IS the day!

2008-09-03T00:47:00.002-04:00

Well, it's almost 1:00 am and here I sit at my computer, instead of sleeping in my bed. I laid down around 9:00 pm and slept fairly restlessly until about 12:15 am. So, I've had 3 or so hours of not so great sleep. I woke up having some pretty intense contractions and decided that I would come and sit on my exercise ball instead of continuing to lay in my bed. This is a MUCH more comfortable position at this point in time.

Adam and I have to be at the hospital at 7:00 am to officially be induced. After talking to my good friend, Amy, I'm feeling a lot less anxious about the induction than I have been. Amy has two daughters and was induced both times. Things turned out quite well for her in the end, so there is hope and reason to believe that they will turn out well for me too! Both my doctor and my mother seem to think that once Sadie FINALLY descends into my pelvic bone that things will move fairly quickly. I'm very hopeful that they are both correct. My guess is that by the time most of you read this, I will have already ventured into the world of induction and things will be moving along. Then, Adam will likely be posting something later on in the day to give everyone an update and hopefully a picture. :)

To "enjoy" our final day as non-parents, Adam took a work-from-home day on Tuesday. He actually got called in on Sunday night/Monday morning and had to work on fixing a pretty big problem for about 6 hours, so he figured that working from home on Tuesday wouldn't be such a bad thing. But, since everyone knew that he wasn't going to be at work for the remainder of the week, not a whole lot got thrown at him yesterday. This is really a good thing, I suppose, but it left him a little bored. I, on the other hand, spent much of my day either playing on-line solitaire or lounging around in bed. I did actually get to talk with my sub. He seems like a very nice guy. He didn't have a ton of questions for me, so I'm hoping that's because my awesome team did an awesome job of explaining how things kind of work in my room and in theirs. He said he'd send me an e-mail at the end of the week to kind of give me an update. I hope to actually get out to school towards the end of next week and at least meet this man (and show off Sadie), but we'll see how well I'm actually feeling by that point. Anyways, Adam and I did actually venture out to Babies 'R' Us to make a few last minute purchases. We also decided to have one final dinner out without the baby and without needing a babysitter. We went to Bravo. I had a really yummy salad and cheese ravioli. This seemed to make me feel good and has sat amazingly well, despite my rather nervous stomach. On our way home from dinner, we stopped over at my parents for a final pre-baby visit and then headed home.

Well, I'm actually feeling a bit sleepy again and the contractions seemed to have died down a bit. Hopefully there will be at least a few more hours of sleep in my future, because I know it will be awhile before I get a REALLY good night's sleep again! :) Keep checking the blog throughout the day and hopefully sooner rather than later there will be official baby news! :)

Due Date Dud

2008-08-31T21:17:00.002-04:00

Well, the day has come....and gone. Today is the day I have waited for for 9 months. It's 9:15 pm as I start to write this and I figure that even if I were to start having contractions right this very second, that Sadie would still not be here on August 31st. This is MUCH to my mother's delight. She has said ALL along that she didn't want her to be born until September. For some reason my mother has become obsessed with the Sapphire birthstone (also my sister's birthstone) and felt that the August Peridot simply wouldn't do. It seems she is going to get her wish. In fact, I just called her to tell her that she better be gathering the largest collection of Sapphires possible because I really feel pretty deserving of them at this point!

Anyways, here is a chronicle of things I did today to perhaps encourage Sadie to make an appearance. I began my day by bouncing on my exercise ball. I did this for quite a lengthy time while playing on-line solitaire. I wrote thank you notes to those people who have recently purchased gifts in Sadie's honor and whom I had been putting off the thank you note writing in hopes of including a picture of my daughter. I made Adam follow me around the house with light bulbs, installing them in all of the places where light bulbs were burnt out or missing altogether. I did some final rearranging in Sadie's room, including plugging everything in to all of the new outlets so that I could be absolutely certain that all the plugs were working and ready to go. I also convinced Adam to do some vacuuming after he had already emptied most of the upstairs trash cans. The two of us also cleaned off our desks and Adam spent a fair amount of time shredding those things that we did not need. Then, around 11:00 am, Adam's parents arrived. They decided to come down for the day, I think in hopes that I might go into labor. Obviously, no such luck. After visiting for a while and showing off Sadie's room, Adam's mom still hadn't seen it in person, we decided to go and eat some lunch at Buca's. We ordered eggplant parmesan and penne arrabiata. The eggplant is supposed to have labor inducing substances in it and the arrabiata is REALLY spicy! Even after filling up on those two tasty treats, Sadie does not seem like she's going to budge. We spent the afternoon back at our house with Adam showing Jerry how to play the many games of the Wii. Patty and I spent much of our time observing, but I eventually joined in when it was time to play Mario Party 8. Then, it was time for them to head back up to Louisville (right outside Canton) and Adam and I had some of the leftovers. Multiple servings of eggplant and spicy pasta and STILL nothing! Adam then headed upstairs to play World of Warcraft and I stayed downstairs to watch "Law and Order" and play more on-line solitaire.

So, for a day that I was QUITE confident I would be spending holding my new baby girl, I am left with still holding a sore belly and experiencing some tummy aches and heartburn from the spicy food! However, my dad assured me that he has read up on some new labor inducing technique that he will reveal to me tomorrow. So, since I will have met my mother's goal of having a September baby by tomorrow, maybe Sadie will be kind to me and start on her way out tomorrow! Plus, as several of you have mentioned to me via comment, e-mail, or conversation, perhaps Sadie already has a strange sense of humor and has decided that I should be laboring with her on Labor Day. If not, there's always Wednesday! :) No matter what, by this time next week I WILL have a baby in my arms! Hope you all enjoy your extra day off tomorrow!

Uncomfortable Update

2008-08-30T08:01:00.004-04:00

Well, I had my final doctor's visit on Thursday. Before I get to the details of that appointment, though, I need to give you some additional background information about my week. On Monday we had our second and final work day. I spent much of this day getting things together and discussing plans with my team. Late Monday afternoon we (my principal and I) interviewed yet another person for my position while I'm on maternity leave. Unfortunately, there was a miscommunication about his certification and he's not actually yet certified in SpEd. He's going back to school to get certified, but he hasn't even started those classes yet. Because he is not certified, this means he could only work in my room for 4 days and then the 5th day would have to be covered by someone who is certified. So, needless to say this seemed to be more wasted time. On Tuesday we actually started school. Things went shockingly well. They weren't perfect, but I had had some serious worries about the behaviors to expect from my students and I think by explaining my policies to them and the rewards they could reap by doing the right thing, they realized that the year might just go ok. Wednesday went equally well and I was impressed that the students still seemed respectful and were getting work completed. This trend continued on Thursday, but I was feeling a little more stressed out. On Tuesday night my principal and SpEd coordinator interviewed another candidate. This person was certified, but my principal had some concerns. But, at least he was certified and available. On Wednesday night, my principal and SpEd coordinator inteviewed another candidate. They liked him better, but he couldn't seem to locate his license. They offerred him the job anyways and said to come to school on Thursday with his license. When my principal arrived at school on Thursday morning she had a message from this guy saying that on his way home the battery in his car died. He no longer had reliable transportation because he couldn't afford to fix the battery right now AND his wife said that this wasn't a good enough job for him. (Now, I would think this would have been something they would have discussed before he ever interviewed, but clearly my expectations of people seem to be WAY too high). So, my day on Thursday had already been a bit stressful. My doctor's appointment was at 2:45 pm. This meant that I had to have plans prepared for Friday and potentially for next week BEFORE I left for the appointment. I had to leave before school was actually finished for the day, so I spent most of 9th period scrambling to get the final things together to leave as plans. This meant I was pretty much neglecting my job, but what was I going to do?

Ok, now that you know some background leading in to my doctor's appointment, things might be a bit easier for you to understand what happened next. My doctor actually has 2 offices - one at the hospital and one in Dublin. My appointment in December to discuss getting pregnant was at the Dublin office. Since then, every other appointment has been at the hospital office. Strangely, I was put into the same room that I had been in in December. So, my first and last appointments were in the same place. Anyways, the nurse took my blood pressure and - surprise, surprise - it was something like 138/92. The doctor doesn't like it to get higher than 140/90 with either number being higher than that. When the doctor came in I wasn't overly worried because I really felt like my pressure was up because of my stressful situation at school. Also, I told her that I was pretty certain Sadie has descended at least a little bit and that I was feeling some pretty extensive pressure in my lower uterus. She agreed that she was at least a little lower because she had to move down further on my belly to get a good read on her heart rate. Then she completed the internal exam. I am still only 1.5 cm dilated and 60% effaced. This is because, while Sadie is putting EXTREME pressure on my pelvic bone, she has yet to actually go underneath my pelvic bone. Until she makes that deeper descent, there won't be any change. So, this was obviously disappointing and then she wanted to talk again about induction. Then, she wanted to take my blood pressure again to see if it had gone down. Now, let's think - I hadn't had a great day to begin with, then I find out my blood pressure is high, next I learn that I still haven't dilated or effaced anymore, and then she wants to talk about induction, something I really wanted to avoid. So, when she takes my pressure again, there's been no change. Now she tells me that she wants me to lay down on my left side for 10 minutes and she'll take my pressure again. If my pressure's still not down then I will need to have a blood draw. Ok - let's be real. If you know me at all, you know I HATE having blood drawn because this almost always leads to me feeling faint. You already know about all of the other stressors on my mind, too, so this is clearly not looking good for me. And with no surprise to me, my blood pressure was actually up at the end of 10 minutes - 130/102. So, the doctor comes back and tells me that I have two choices. I can either go next door and have the blood drawn or I can go to Labor and Delivery and have the blood drawn there. If they draw the blood next door, she won't be able to learn the results until Friday morning. If I go to Labor and Delivery, they can get the results much quicker AND if it's determined that I do have pre-eclamsia, she will induce me on Thursday night. Now, it seems to me to be rather stupid to not just go to Labor and Delivery, even though I'm still pretty darn certain that my pressure being up is solely related to my stress caused by work. She tells me to go home and get my things and have something to eat (since I won't be able to eat anything at the hospital if she does end up inducing me). So, I leave the doctor's office not feeling too well.

Now the real fun starts - I try to call Adam. He had told me pre-appointment that he had a meeting, but to call if I really needed to talk. Since I knew we'd have to head to the hospital and he would need to leave ASAP, I called him. He wouldn't answer his phone. He wouldn't answer his personal cell, his work phone, or his work cell. This worried me a bit. Then I tried calling my mom. She had actually called and left me a message while I was at my appointment. I called her several times, and she wouldn't answer her phone either (supposedly her phone never rang and she had no indication that she had missed a call). By this point, I was in tears. I couldn't get a hold of either of the people who are supposed to be accompanying me into the labor and delivery room. So, I call my dad. He can't understand me because I'm crying. I finally calm down enough to convey what's happening and he says he'll get in touch with my mom and to try and calm down. I keep driving towards home and eventually Adam calls me back. He had turned his phone on vibrate and didn't feel it. Grrrrrrr!!!! But, he drops everything that he's doing and gets in his car to head home. Then my mom calls me. I explain everything to her and this is when she tells me that her phone has never rung. She had been at the salon to get her hair cut and colored. We both go to the same place to get our hair done, so they had no problem letting her get up and leave and they, thankfully, hadn't started cutting or coloring yet. This is also when I learn that my dad has no car. My parents decided that now that they were back in school they would take their cars to get detailed. Goodness only knows why this seemed like a good idea to them when they had all summer to do this and have it not be an inconvenience to either of them, but that's neither here nor there at this point. So, my mom headed over to pick up my Dad and then they headed to dinner. I, in the meantime, had arrived home and was waiting for Adam to get here. He began gathering up all of our stuff to take to the hospital while I continued to clean and tidy up so that if we didn't end up coming home Thursday night we would NOT come home to a messy house. Eventually we headed to Wendy's. This is the Wendy's where Adam and I went on our first date (to get some water) and where my mom's water had broken when she was pregnant with me. We thought this would be a good omen.

We all (Mom, Dad, Adam and I) arrived at the hosptial and headed up to Labor and Delivery. Since I wasn't actually heading all the way back into the real delivery room, though, I was only allowed to have one "guest" accompany me. My parents then had to go and sit in the waiting room. After not too long of a wait, a nurse came back and started asking me a million questions. She then took my blood pressure (128/80) and said she would be back soon to do the blood draw. She held true to her word. I had to give three vials. But, she listened to me and took the blood from my surface vein. This ALWAYS hurts less and usually leaves much less of a bruise. And, since I had just eaten and my blood sugar was up, it really wasn't too awful to have the blood drawn. She then brought me some water and Adam and I basically sat around and played the waiting game. I was all hooked up to monitors. I had a fetal monitor so we could hear Sadie's heart beat and then I had a blood pressure cuff that automatically took my pressure every 15 minutes. Adam took a couple of goofy pictures of me to send to my parents and we kept conversing with them through text messages. After nearly two hours of sitting around, the results of my blood work came back. Everything was normal and my blood pressure was now way down (112/74). They called my doctor. She said that I was not to go back to work since it was obviously causing my pressure to increase and that her office would be contacting me about when to come in for an induction. Then we got to go home. I had already contacted my principal earlier and she assured me that she would have the permanent sub cover for me on Friday and then let me know the plan for next week.

As luck would have it, my mom didn't have school on Friday. No reason, that was just their agreed upon schedule. So, she came over and we ran a few errands on Friday. I got an e-mail from my principal telling me that they ended up hiring the "concerning" guy, since he was seemingly the ONLY person in the Central Ohio area to not already have a SpEd job. I also did some more cleaning and laundry. Adam then stopped at Yanni's, our FAVORITE Greek restaurant, on his way home and got us some delicious food for dinner. We then watched "Dan in Real Life", one of our options available on On-Demand, and Adam removed my toe nail polish and gave me an extensive foot rub. Isn't he a NICE husband?

This morning, it looks like it's going to be a beautiful day! It's the first Ohio State game of the year, a game Adam and I attended a year ago. I think we'll continue to do some last minute tidying up and a lot of trying to relax. Maybe that will convince Sadie to make her deeper descent. If nothing else, we are scheduled for an induction to begin at 7:00 am on Wednesday September 3, so we should, hopefully, have a baby on Wednesday. We have learned that the hospital does have free WiFi, so Adam will have his computer with him and we will hopefully be able to give some updates from the hospital. In the meantime, I would greatly appreciate all of your positive thoughts being sent my way. I can certainly use them! Hope everyone has a GREAT Labor Day weekend!

Definitely Descending on an otherwise Dumpy Day

2008-08-25T19:24:00.003-04:00

Ok, I've already decided that I want to end this post with good news, so I'm going to start it with the frustrating news.

I get to school this morning. It was a work day. My principal finds me and tells me that my substitute got a full time job and that she is no longer going to be my substitute. Here's the worst part. To tell my principal this, she called her at school on Sunday morning and left a message. Now, I was with my principal when she called this girl on Friday and I KNOW my principal gave her her cell phone and home phone numbers to call her. Clearly this girl was embarrassed and didn't want to confront my principal, but come on! And, it gets worse. I had given the substitute the keys to my room. Did she keep them? No. Did she offer to drive them back to school? No. Did she suggest meeting somewhere to have them picked up? No. What did she do? She mailed them! Who mails keys?! So, goodness only knows if I'll ever actually get them back! Grrrr!

Continuing with my frustrations...I LOVE my team members at school. They are wonderful people with great ideas and they really and truly care about kids. The one thing I both admire and stress about, however, is how laid back our two male teachers are about everything. They had a general idea about what they were going to do tomorrow - our first day of school - but one of them didn't actually share those plans with me (I found out from another teacher) and the other one just happened to have written his schedule for tomorrow on the board. Now, the two ladies I work with were quite a bit better. They at least had some papers copied and/or power point presentations put together, but neither of them were in a particularly large hurry to get everything "finalized" either. I think this is because they are fairly used to what to expect and don't feel they need to worry. If I knew I was 100% for sure going to be there, I could relax and feel the way my team seems to feel. But, since I'm not quite sure what Sadie's thinking, I can't quite keep my cool. I did the best I could with the plans that I had and have emergency plans prepared if I should not be there tomorrow.

At 2:00, my principal came down to tell me that she had found someone to interview for my position, again, and that she would be meeting him at 2:30 pm. This was great! So, around 2:30 pm, in walks this guy. He's very nicely dressed and seems pleasantly intelligent. Then we start talking about his certification. It turns out that he's currently only certified K-12 in Phys Ed and Health. He is actually going back to school to get his special ed certification, but he doesn't even start taking classes until the middle of September. So, whereas I think students might be a little afraid of him (he does look like a very large and strong gym teacher), he can't legally work in my position for the length of time that I will be gone. Only after the interview did I find out why my principal had thought that he already had SpEd certification. My SpEd coordinator had called my principal and told her she found the perfect candidate on the Madison County substitute list. Under his certification it says, "Special, K-12, PE and Health." Now, I can completely understand why the label "special" could be misunderstood. What is meant by special in this context is that it is a special license. Very few licenses are issued for grades K-12 and those that are are for subjects like PE, Health, Band, Choir, Library, or Special Ed. However, if he were actually certified in SpEd, his listed certification would say Intervention Specialist, my actual "legal" title. So, needless to say, I got to whittle away a little bit more of my time by talking with this nice man who my district will very likely not be able to hire. Grrrrr!!!!!

Then, to top off all of this fun, I have started having a few contractions. I would imagine that this is due to the fact that I was at school today for nearly 10 hours and I am just a bit stressed out, as you may be able to tell from above. But, contractions coming are good because that means Sadie can hopefully move on out and this is actually leading to the good news bit of this blog. :)

It is clear to me that Sadie has begun to make her descent. Even when you look at me you can tell she is lower. It is also very hard for me to sit comfortably, making writing this a bit challenging. Additionally, when I am feeling her kick, it is no longer directly into my ribs. It's actually hitting me in my spongy middle! Woohoo! So, I am finally feeling that the end may in fact be very near! I don't actually have a doctor's appointment until Thursday afternoon this week, so it will still be a few days before I can give you an "official" report, but maybe Sadie will decide she doesn't need to wait until Thursday! If not, send good thoughts my way tomorrow as I start school one VERY pregnant lady! :) Take care everyone!

39 Weeks and Counting

2008-08-23T08:11:00.002-04:00

Well, we've reached yet another milestone today - 39 weeks. At one point I was quite certain that I would not make it to see the start of another school year from my actual school building. I had thought and somewhat hoped that Sadie and I would be at home, hanging out together as she got used to life "on the outside." But, it doesn't seem like that was Sadie's plan and as EVERYONE keeps telling me, she'll come when she's ready. My mom has even taken to repeating this gross mantra that my dad's family used to say, "When the core is rotten, the baby will fall." Disgusting, right?

Yesterday was my first "real" back-to-school day. It was a teacher work day. It was a day that I had initially been very worried about even attending and, as it turns out, clearly didn't need to worry about at all. I managed to get quite a lot done and felt pretty satisfied with my progress. For some reason, still unknown to me at this time, my substitute did not show up to the work day. When I left her last Tuesday morning (after our 4 hour meeting) she told me and my principal that she would be there on Friday. My principal called her twice during the day on Friday and left two separate messages. Again, as far as I know, she hasn't returned my principal's phone calls. This is worrying on three accounts because she either 1) has a new job and just hasn't told anyone yet or 2) is certainly not a pillar of responsibility or 3) has gotten injured or otherwise impaired and couldn't use her phone. No matter what, it would certainly have been nice to hear from her and at least have a clue as to what was going on. I've done just about everything I can to prepare my classroom and my fellow teachers for my departure, but I'm certain the transition will be a little rough no matter what. Again, though, there's only so much I can do. None of my fellow team members have a definite plan for next week and without their plans, it's very tricky for me to write plans. Hopefully they'll have something together by Monday and we can all sit down and go over the outline for the week. I know that would ease my stress level a bit more. The kids start on Tuesday and it's certainly looking like I'll be there at this point. I'm just extra hopeful that the squeals of ornery middle school boys will scare Sadie and force her to make her arrival!

Anyways, more about this 39 week milestone. I have been following weekly updates through babycenter.com. Every Saturday I get an update in my inbox that reveals what the "typical" pregnancy should be like for that particular week. I have been laughing for the last several weeks when I receive these e-mails because my pregnancy is clearly not "typical." Here is a sampling of what today's post reads: "Your baby's waiting to greet the world! She continues to build a layer of fat to help control her body temperature after birth, but it's likely she already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds, a mini watermelon. (Boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls.) The outer layers of her skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath." Yes, my baby was almost over 7 pounds 5 weeks ago! I would say that Sadie is no "mini watermelon", she's a full size watermelon!

Yesterday while I was sitting in my teacher meetings and again last night while I was taking a break from walking around a craft show with my mom, Sadie decided she wanted the world to see her GIANT feet. Without even touching my belly you could see her drag her foot from left to right to left across my body. Then she would occasionally kick rapidly for good measure. My mom FINALLY got to feel her moving so I figure that is one more reason why she should feel like she can make her way out.

Well, it's ridiculously hot here already today and it's not even 9:00! Adam is off to downtown Columbus to complete a 3 mile walk for the American Heart Association. I might seriously have considered going with him had I not woken up with already swollen hands and feet. I figured that the walking could do me some serious good at this point, but with the heat and already mentioned swelling, I decided that this was just not the time for me. I have had a rather serious urge to do some more cleaning this morning which seems to be another much mentioned sign that the end is near. I certainly hope so! Take care everyone and I'll keep you posted!

Is today the day?

2008-08-19T07:19:00.002-04:00

Well, the last few days have been interesting, if nothing else. I've pretty much decided that I'm DONE being pregnant. I had my hair cut and colored on Saturday. This was the final milestone of things I wanted to have complete before the baby. I know it was a bit vain, but I also know my picture's going to be taken a lot in the upcoming days and I want to look my best! :)

Anyways, starting on Sunday I have been bouncing on my exercise ball, eating spicy foods, eating any other recommended "natural labor induction" foods, talking to Sadie about making her entrance, continuing to work fairly hard during water aerobics, and trying many other methods recommended to me. If you have "the one" guaranteed method, please feel free to share. As long as it's not going to be painful or dangerous, I'll try it!

All of this work seemed to have paid off a bit. For the last several days, even before I started the "exit procedures", I've been having cramps. These are very similar to the cramps I would be having if it were just that time of the month. After telling my mother and several others this information, the general consensus was that I must be having contractions and just not recognizing them as individual contractions. In addition, my need to go to the bathroom, both kinds, seems to have increased significantly yet again. This means I spend a great deal of time in or around the bathroom. (NOTE: I am VERY, VERY ready to stop needing to visit the bathroom with such frequency!!!!)

Then, last night, I thought we were having a break through. I woke up around 1:15 and there was no doubt in my mind that I was experiencing some contractions. My constant flipping had pretty much already woken Adam up, so he finally said, "What's going on?" I explained that I was fairly certain I was having contractions. This spurred Adam to near instant action. Everything has been ready and packed for the baby for several weeks. However, my mommy bag had yet to be packed. So, starting at 1:30ish, Adam began throwing things into a bag. I had a very thorough list that was included in one of my doctor's handouts and he kept going down through the list to make sure we had everything that it mentioned. One important thing on the list was an outfit to wear to and from the hospital. As luck would have it, all of my most comfy maternity clothes were dirty. So, at 2:00 this morning Adam trucked down to the basement and put my clothes in the wash. Isn't he an amazingly nice man? After rolling around on my ball for a while and walking around, including up and down the stairs, my contractions seemed to have subsided and I decided to return to bed. After his laundry pursuits I convinced Adam to do the same. We watched/listened to an episode of Family Guy. Adam was relaxed enough by the end of it to go to sleep, but I decided I was too hungry to be able to get back to sleep. All I really wanted was a fried egg. So, I got up, went downstairs, and made and ate my egg. Then, I returned to bed. I got back in bed around 3:30 and slept fairly soundly until this morning at 6:00 when Adam's phone alarm went off.

Now I am wide awake and ready to head out to my school. My substitute was finally hired yesterday and I am meeting with her this morning to go over what the next 12 weeks may look like for her. Then, I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon. I keep hoping that she's going to say, "Wow, you're fully effaced and dilated at least 4 cm, so you should just stay at the hospital!" I'm not certain that I'll get that lucky, but a girl can hope, right?

There's no WiFi at the hospital, so it may be a while before I am able to update the blog once Sadie does make her entrance. I'll do my best to get something put up ASAP so that you are all at least vaguely aware of what's happened.

Well, I've got to go to the bathroom and then it's off to school! Keep your fingers crossed for me that today is really the day!

Making Progress

2008-08-13T18:04:00.004-04:00

We are now at 37 weeks and that means full term! Yeah! Is everyone doing the full-term dance? I got to visit the doctor and got some great news and some not so good news. First, the not so good news: my Strep B test came back positive. This is certainly not the end of the world. It basically means that I have to have antibiotics during labor. Since I will already have IV fluids during labor, adding one more fluid to the mix shouldn't be too awful. Strep B, for those that don't know, is a common bacteria that women carry. It doesn't mean I have strep throat or anything like that. It can be dangerous for Sadie, but the antibiotics should prevent her from any ill effects it could cause.

Now the good news: I have made much progress since last week. I am now 60-70% effaced and a little more than 1 cm dialated. Woohoo! They always ask me if I've been having contractions and I always say that so far I'm not feeling anything. However, when the doctor was completing her exam she commented that she could feel a contraction. So, I must be having them and just not know it yet. I suppose that's ok with me since I'm certain that my time for feeling them is most definitely coming!

As I mentioned in one of my last posts, my blood pressure has begun to sneak up a little bit. It's still not at the level where it was pre-pregnancy when I was unmedicated, but it isn't as low as it has been for 90% of my pregnancy either. Because of this, the doctor is thinking that if Sadie doesn't make her grand "exit" in the next week and a half, she will probably induce me. She says that because I have effaced and dialated at least some on my own than an induction should go well. But, I'm still hoping that Sadie will decide that she can come on her own. :)

In EXCELLENT news, I had a chance to have a half work-day at school today. We had a "Data Day" where we analyzed our state testing data. We have a second half-day "Data Day" tomorrow. These two half days add up to one full work day. Woohoo! Yeah! And, even if I should not make it to the day tomorrow, I did actually put in a full day's work today. I stayed past noon and put together some final touches on things. I learned what my schedule for the year will be and couldn't be more pleased. Here's my schedule:

Hall Duty
1st Period: Plan
2nd Period: Inclusion Math
3rd Period: Pull-Out Math
4th Period: Study Hall
5th Period: Tutoring
6th Period: Lunch
7th Period: Inclusion History
8th Period: Inclusion Language Arts
9th Period: Inclusion Science
Hall Duty

This is the schedule I was hoping for and it's worked out that I can have it! I'm really, really excited and it certainly makes me feel more comfortable about returning to school in November knowing that this is the schedule I can return to. :)

One final update...this week we are having our electricity updated in our house. We got a brand new 200 amp panel that has proper outdoor wiring coming into the panel and several new outlets being installed in the house. They are also putting in individual circuits for each of our window air conditioners. In addition, they installed an over head light in the baby's room and have created 3 working outlets for the room! (There were 2 outlets in the room previously, but only one was working). They are also making sure that all of our plugs are grounded, which will make Adam feel quite a bit more calm about all of our computer equipment. So, with new electricity flowing there's one more reason why Sadie should be able to arrive!

Tomorrow afternoon I have scheduled a car seat safety check for Adam, my mom, and myself. This will allow us to know that we have installed our car seats correctly and fix any mistakes that we may have made. Again, just one more signal to Sadie that she is welcome to come into the world.

Well, I've got to run because my bladder is screaming at me yet again! More to update later! :)

Crazy Animals and Belated Birthday Wishes

2008-08-08T11:55:00.004-04:00

Apparently August is the month for Crazy Animals! Last week I had to take Josey, our eldest cat, to the vet because he was straining to pee. We were quite worried because older male cats often develop bladder and/or kidney problems in their older age. However, this did not seem to be Josey's case. Josey has a VERY tiny bladder. In order to even see it, the vet had to hook him up to the ultrasound machine. This is actually a good thing because a smaller bladder means he is less likely to have problems, or so we've been told. However, the vet was unable to actually get Josey to pee, so this means that we're going to go ahead and treat a problem that we aren't quite sure exists. Josey has to have two antibiotic pills per day and three anti-inflammatory pills sprinkled over his food each day. Thankfully the anti-inflammatory pills can be consumed by the other cats because trying to separate food for the three of them is nearly impossible. Josey is not the ideal medicine taker so Adam and I must tag team him in order to get him to swallow his pills. We've only had one truly awful experience so far where more of the pill was dissolved on Adam's hand than was taken in by Josey and hopefully that won't be a repeated performance.

But, not wanting to be left out of the crazy animalness, Mortimer, my sister's dog, decided to do something REALLY stupid. Today is actually Mortimer's first birthday. So, he is really still a puppy. As a puppy, he likes to put just about anything and everything in his mouth and chew it to bits. Unfortunately, his "chewing to bits" did not work quite so well recently. On Wednesday afternoon James, my sister's boyfriend, returned home from work to find a rather large pile of doggy vomit. This is a bit unusual for Mortimer, so James was a bit concerned. Then, Mortimer got sick again while James was actually at home. This time the vomit actually contained blood. James was now officially worried and called my sister to inform her. Rhian has been working roadside in Camp Verde, Arizona during the week. Camp Verde is somewhere between an hour and a half and two hours away from Phoenix. Normally Rhian is picked up on Monday mornings by the work crew and is driven home on Thursday nights. However, Rhian was in town last weekend for the wedding of her college roommate and didn't get back to Phoenix until Monday night That meant she had driven herself up to Camp Verde on Tuesday morning. So, when James called on Wednesday afternoon, Rhian drove herself back down to Phoenix and met James and Mortimer at the emergency vet. The vet did an X-Ray and lots of blood work. They determined that Mortimer did not have Parvo, a fatal flu, and may have a blockage, but they couldn't tell from the X-Ray. When James had gotten home, Mortimer had managed to get into the 3rd roommate's room, Andrea, and chewed up a package of gum. This was a concern to the vet because gum can (and VERY often does) contain Xylitol. Xylitol is a sugar substitute that is safe for people but is almost instantly toxic for dogs. It basically shuts down a dog's liver. (SIDENOTE: If you are a dog owner and ever chew gum, PLEASE make sure you keep it away from your dog! I had never heard of Xylitol myself, but have now looked at several different kinds of gum and it's in ALL of them.) Mortimer's liver panels came back normal, though, so there was still no clear diagnosis. They ended up giving him a diagnosis of pancreatitis which is swelling of the pancreas. The vet gave him IV fluids, an anti-nausea medication, and an anti-inflammatory. They kept him over night and said they would do an ultrasound in the morning. So, on Thursday morning the vet did the ultrasound (yes - 2nd family pet to have an ultrasound in a week period!). The vet did see a rather large blockage this time and determined that the only way to remove it was through surgery. So, yesterday afternoon Mortimer underwent a pretty major surgery. He is a dachshund, so he was a long torso. He has a cut from his rib cage to his private parts where they had to cut him to get to the blockage. When they got there, they discovered that he had bitten off the foot of one of his favorite toys and then swallowed the foot. CRAZY, right? I'm posting two pictures below. The first is of the chewed off foot and the second is of my sister and Mortimer right after he came out of recovery.

Mortimer has a long recovery in front of him, but he should be doing well and back to normal within a month's time. Hopefully he has learned his lesson. I know this is not the way that anyone thought he would be spending his first birthday!

So, two crazy animal stories and you think I'd be done, right? Nope. My parents did not want to feel left out. When my mom went out of the house on Wednesday morning, she was hoping to go to a workshop. Instead, she was greeted by a sick raccoon who refused to move out of the middle of the driveway. My parents immediately called the Ohio Wildlife Center, which is actually located at the back of our vet's office, to see what they could or should do. The Wildlife center said that the raccoon likely had distemper and would not survive but my parents were welcome to bring it in. The Wildlife center doesn't do any kind of pick-up, so my dad spent the morning trying to find some place that would come and get the raccoon. This was not successful. Worthington no longer has an animal control section of their police force and everywhere else he called either wanted to charge them an arm and a leg or would kill the raccoon in order to trap it. So, my dad finally found a cardboard box and using a broom, coaxed the raccoon into the box. He then taped the box shut and drove the raccoon over to the Ohio Wildlife Center. We won't actually find out what happened to the raccoon, but since my dad saved it from death in their driveway, he should have brought about some good animal karma, right?

To wrap things up on a happy note, I would like to throw out belated birthday wishes to my husband! Adam's 32nd birthday was on Wednesday. He did have to work, but he got to have Grinder's for lunch (with me) and then dinner with me at On the Border and we watched "Pineapple Express" at the movie theater. All in all it was a pretty good birthday! And, as my Dad pointed out, we can now claim that Adam and i were 60 (our combined ages) when Sadie was (is) born! ;)

Well, hopefully all of you animal lovers out there do not have similar crazy animal stories to share and are instead preparing for fulfilling, fun, and relaxing weekends. Hopefully we are headed down that same path! Take care! :)

Today's Appointment and Pictures!

2008-08-05T20:23:00.004-04:00

Today was my 36 week appointment. Boy was it fun! I had my first internal exam, to learn if I was dilated or effaced, and I didn't even get to see my own doctor! My doctor is on vacation - again! I figure since she has taken 2 weeks of vacation this summer that she should certainly be in town when Sadie actually decides to make her grand entrance. Right?

Anyways, I have lots of good news. I've been concerned that my blood pressure was up. I had problems with my pressure being high pre-pregnancy and was even on medication for it. However, since getting pregnant my blood pressure has maintained itself at a nice low level. I think this is partly aided by the fact that since I am not working this summer I have a lot less stress as well. But, I was beginning to get a little worried that my pressure was up. I've had a few headaches over the last couple of days and I've been very swollen. These are typically signs of higher blood pressure, so I was preparing for the worst. But, this pregnancy has been kind to me and my pressure was actually 120/80 which is considered normal. Yeah! I explained to the doctor that I wasn't sure if the headaches were allergy related or blood pressure related and since they haven't been a constant problem, she said not to be too concerned. She also said that because of the incredible heat and the mere fact that I am, after all, 36 weeks pregnant, that the swelling wasn't anything to be overly concerned about either. Fantastic news!

The doctor measured me and even though I have a giant baby growing inside of me, I'm actually not measuring big. I, personally, think this is largely due to the fact that I am not a small person by nature and that even though it's not feeling that way to me, I do have the capacity to carry this giant child to term. The doctor did squeeze my belly rather hard to make sure that Sadie was still head down. Sadie is still head down, but she did not seem to appreciate having her head squeezed. Ever since then she's been all kinds of squiggly and seems generally discontent with her surroundings. The doctor said that she was fairly high up still, but I said that I thought that that really depended on the moment because at times I can definitely feel her pushing down lower. She agreed that that is possible and said it wasn't too concerning at this point anyways. The doctor also revealed that I am 50% effaced. This basically means that my cervix is half-way thinned out. (Look back through previous posts for more specifics on effacing and dilating.) This is VERY good news because it's very hard to dilate when you are not at all effaced. I am not dilated at all yet, but this is ok with me since I have to make it at least another 10 days with Sadie as an internal passenger! I have another appointment in a week, so hopefully I will have started to dilate by then and things can begin moving along. I just have to start using the Think Method again! :)

Finally, to the second part of this post ... maternity pictures! As I mentioned in my last post, Adam and I went to JC Penney's on Saturday and had some family shots taken. We were told it would be 10 business days before the pictures would be available for viewing on-line, but I got my e-mail tonight saying that they were up and ready to go! Yeah! I did go ahead and change the picture that shows up on our blog "faceplate", but I wanted to share the link and information with all of you so that you can see all of our pictures too. I was really quite pleased with how they all turned out. Here are a few of my favorites:

Here is how you can see the rest:

Go to: http://www.smilesbywire.com

and enter the following:

Customer Name: Krysten Smith
Access Code: LTPP0741117018JCP

Enjoy!

Updates

2008-08-03T09:19:00.003-04:00

Well, with more than a week since my last post, many things have been happening! First, something that I find rather funny. :) Sadie keeps getting hiccups! This has been happening for more than a week now and happens at least every other day, if not every day. My entire belly will shake because her entire body is shaking! I kept reading about the possibility of hiccups in utero and many people told me they had experienced them with their babies, but until recently I had not had this very unique experience. Adam and I hope to get my belly recorded on video the next time she is really hiccupping, but we'll see if she'll actually perform for the camera. :)

A second notable topic is our graduation from Baby Birthing Class. Last Monday was our last class and now we are officially "ready" to give birth! We completed a very difficult simulation during class. To test our mental and physical readiness for pain and remembering our breathing techniques, we had to hold ice cubes. That's right, Pat would say, "Contraction begins, pick up your ice cubes!" Then, as the contraction got stronger we were to grasp the ice cubes tighter. Finally, as the contraction came to an end we were allowed to drop the ice cubes. Now, I have no idea how the pain created from grasping ice cubes will relate to the pain of labor, but grasping ice cubes is really quite painful. If you don't believe me, go get three cubes out of your freezer and grasp them tightly for sixty seconds. It hurts! Adam and I learned that we definitely need to keep practicing so that our breathing techniques are more like second nature and less like a partially rehearsed routine.

A third happy topic is that my sister and James came into town last Thursday night. Rhian was in a wedding for her college roomate in Elida, Ohio. The wedding was yesterday, so she and James were in town for Thursday night and Friday morning before they had to head up to Elida for the rehearsal dinner and then, of course, the wedding. Today, after brunch, they are supposed to be coming back down to Columbus so that we can all go to the Ohio State Fair. Now, I'm confident that I won't be enjoying the fair as much as I normally do since it's supposed to be 91 degrees here today and going to the fair requires lots of walking. However, I LOVE the fair and getting to see all of the baby animals and other fun things, so I'm really hoping that that love will far outweigh any other concerns. I'll keep you posted! :)

Fourth, I got some more excellent news on the "back-to-work" front. If you've read previous posts, you know that I have to work at least one day of the 08-09 school year in order to qualify for FMLA. This is because I won't technically have worked for a full year in the district until I have worked a day of this new school year. Originally, I thought this was going to have to be August 22nd. That Friday is the district's first official teacher work day of the 08-09 school year. Unfortunately, August 22nd comes at the end of my 38th week of pregnancy. Because of Sadie's large size, my doctor was pretty skeptical that Sadie would stay in utero for that long. But, here's the excellent news! The district is having "Data Days" on August 13th and 14th. These are days where teachers can come in for half a day (and be paid) to analyze state test scores and work together to look at curriculum and different ways of teaching concepts so that we can do a better job of meeting students' needs and in turn improve their test scores. I am super excited for this opporunity no matter what, but when I contacted the lady in charge of the "official day" count, she said that if I attend these days that they could count as my official return to work for the 08-09 school year! Yeah! That means only having to convince Sadie to stay put for 12 days from now instead of 20 days. Twelve seems like a MUCH smaller number to me!

Finally, Adam and I went to JC Penney's portrait studios yesterday and had some maternity photos taken. Even with MANY coupons, this ended up being a VERY expensive process. However, the pictures turned out really great overall. We picked several different shots to give away as gifts and several more to keep for ourselves. We also purchased the $4.95 on-line package so that our photos can all be posted on-line. It takes 10 business days for them to make that happen, so I have no link to share yet. As soon as I see they are up, however, I will be most happy to share with all of you. :)

Well, that brings us fairly up to date with everything. I'm currently having an allergy attack, so I've got to go take a shower and some medicine so that I can breath and not want to scratch my eyes out! Hope you all have a wonderful and rest-filled Sunday!

Friday Fill-Ins

2008-07-25T17:27:00.002-04:00

I decided I would finally give Friday Fill-Ins a Shot. Most of those I happily blog-stalk participate in this Friday ritual, so I figured it was worthy of my time as well. Here goes...

1. I believe whatever doesn't kill you ... very definitely makes you stronger. If you know anything about my past experience in the teaching world, you know I had a very, very, very bad placement that really made me doubt myself in just about everyway. However, I persevered and have come out a much stronger person and have slowly built back my confidence in myself and my ability to teach.

2. If you're good at something, ... keep doing it, but don't do it so much that you no longer enjoy it.

3. Why so ... HOT? Now, I will say that it's been better this week so I can't complain as much, but I wish it could be about 70 degrees year round. That would be so MUCH more comfortable!

4. Something is out there, it's ... a cat! Seriously, with 3 black cats lurking around the house there is always one waiting to step in front of you and try to trip you up.

5. If my life were a sitcom, it would be titled ... Happiness Through Love, Hardwork, and Medication! :)

6. Sitting on my back porch I see ... my newly stained deck and also the reason why I know longer want to live here, my mean neighbor's back yard. When they have their shed door open the lovely phrase F*** You! is written on the inside. Doesn't that just scream, "I'm such a nice guy; live next to me?"

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to ... dining somewhere good with my husband, going to Bike Source so Adam can purchase new mountain biking tires, and reading my new book about baby's first year, ...tomorrow my plans include... doing more laundry, trying to get more of the baby's scrapbook finished, relishing in the fact that Adam is getting a hair cut, and maybe going putt-putt golfing... and Sunday, I want to... spend some one-on-one time with Adam, get the car seat base installed in his car and my mom's car and take my car, Adam's car, and Mom's car to have them safety inspected at the fire department, and relaxing!

Well, hopefully you've enjoyed by first attempt at Friday Fill-Ins. Have a great weekend everyone! One more baby-birthing class for us on Monday!

Happy Birthday to Me and the Wonders of the Think Method!

2008-07-21T16:34:00.003-04:00

Yes, I am putting in my own Happy Birthday plug. :) I am officially 28 years old now. I can't say I feel drastically different than I did yesterday, but I did get some EXCELLENT news today, so maybe I'm actually feeling younger and more sprightly! :)

This morning I got the best present that any expecting mother can hope to get. I got to see my daughter! I had an ultrasound. This ultrasound was in my doctor's office rather than at the more specialized center so the printed out pictures were not stellar. Adam, my parents, and I, however, got to get a pretty good real-life peek. :) And, here's the most exciting news - the Think Method works. So, for all you doubters out there you better start thinking more positively! After much picture-staring and discussion with Sadie, she has made the shift from breech to head-down! Woohoo! Go Sadie! Go Sadie!

And, in even better news, not only is Sadie head down, but she is way down! This means that she's more likely to start pushing against my cervix and causing me to dilate and efface. This in turn means that she can be born! Yeah!

In addition, the ultrasound also calculated Sadie's weight. Prepare yourself, she's a giant... the head, stomach, and leg calculations combined to guess that she now weighs about 6 lbs and 14 oz. Since our last ultrasound 4 weeks ago that means that she's gained more than the projected half-pound per week. According to my doctor her growth should slow down a bit after week 36 (that's still 2 weeks away!), but that she is definitely still on track to be over 9 lbs. Amy, you will also be glad to know that when she measured her head my doctor's comment was, "Whoa, that's one big head!" So, I guess Bryn is destined to have a big-headed buddy! :)

All in all, things are looking pretty darn good. I'm certainly feeling lots of movement still and I'm getting kicked a lot more in the ribs, which I guess is a good thing. Adam and I have baby birthing class tonight and are eagerly looking forward to sharing the success of the "Think Method" with our teacher. We fully expect her to give us a "baby birthing prize" or something! :) We'll keep you posted.

Hope all is well with all of you! I'm sure I'll have lots to share after class tonight!

New Nursery Photos

2008-07-18T08:53:00.008-04:00

Happy Friday everyone! The day here is looking to be beautiful, despite the ridiculous amount of heat. I know, though, that it could be worse. We could be visiting my sister in Phoenix where they are trying for another record-breaking string of consecutive days over 100 degrees. I really don't think I could survive there in the summer! Plus, crazy Rhian is spending her days outside scouring the side of the highway for any archaeological remains so that the Arizona Department of Transportation can widen the highway. She works from 6 am to 3:30 pm with, I'm assuming, a break in there for lunch. This particular job is actually not in Phoenix, though, so the company is paying to put her up in a suite Monday through Thursday, at their expense, giving her per diem money for food, providing transportation to and from the worksite (including to and from Phoenix), and paying her an hourly rate. Now, I still would not want to be crawling around in the dirt in 118 degree weather myself, but Rhian seems to actually be enjoying this job. This is excellent news, since this will likely be how she'll be spending a great majority of her time over the next several years. But, back to the topic I said I would be writing about - the nursery.

I am posting the worst of the pictures first. This picture was supposed to show you the nicely framed window, the turtle hamper, and the crib. The crib is complete with freshly laundered mattress cover (thank you Mike and Kathleen), mattress pad (thank you Mom), animal print sheet (thank you Pam), decorative comforter (thank you to me), and one very soft and wonderfully sounding Sleep Sheep (thank you Dee and Ashley). It's a little dark so you'll have to look closely for all of the above mentioned things.

Now on to the better photos. As I have previously posted, Sadie is already a bit of a clothes hog, though she really doesn't know it yet. :) This is a picture of her closet. You can see 0-9 months clothes hanging. Then on the bottom of the closet in a laundry basket are 9-18 month clothing. Yes, she already has so many clothes that I had to start a basket to hold the overflow! You can also see on the shelf immediately below her clothes a basket full of baby socks and hats and a basket full of pacifiers, pacifier clips, and bibs. In addition, my fantastic Vera Bradley Capri Melon diaper bag (thank you to my Mom for attending the outlet sale in Fort Wayne) is on display on the right side of the shelf.

On to something new that I haven't posted before. This is a picture of the door leading into the hallway. You can see the Pack 'n' Play in the corner (thank you to Jerri, Debbie, and Jackie), an IKEA hanging device on the door, a giant safety pin that's holding the hand-knit blanket that Adam's Grandma made for us (thank you), and our baby swing (courtesy of one of the resale events that Mom and I attended).

This next photo gives you a peek at a wall you have seen in a previous post but with new additions. We now have several excellent board books (thank you to the Harris family, Pam, and my mom), a video monitor (thank you to Aunt Julia and Kary), a fantastic 3-tiered fan (thank you to my mom), our car seat, and a different angle of the crib.

Here is a photo of our diaper changing station. You can see the lovely pink crates that are storing many diapering goodies (thank you to Patty and Jerry), the Stride-and-Ride Lion (thank you to Kristen and George), and our new Diaper Genie II which I got an EXCELLENT bargain on at Babies 'R' Us with a sale this week and a coupon!

And finally, an area that has become one of my surprise favorite parts of the room. During our early-June trip to IKEA we bought a white bookshelf unit. It's FANTASTIC!!!! I bought 4 bins (2 pink and 2 blue) to slide into 4 of the 8 spaces (from the Container Store). Then we have room on top to display the cow humidifier (thank you Jenny), the Twilight Turtle, the Brightlings Stations (thank you Tiger and Megan), an IKEA lamp, a picture frame (thank you Patty and Jerry), and a crocodile clock. You can also see various toys and books in the other shelves.

So, for a room that isn't overly large, we've fit quite a bit in and I think it still gives you enough space to easily maneuver. We're pretty pleased with how everything has turned out this far. Now we have to wait for the electrician to come and install the overhead light and fix the outlets, but all-in-all this room is potentially ready for Sadie!

Well, my mom just called and she's on her way over the pick me up! I haven't even showered yet for the day, so I've got to run! Hope you enjoyed! Have a great weekend everyone!

MEALS, Differentiated Instruction, and a Baby Shower

2008-07-14T15:29:00.007-04:00

Hello everyone! It's been a busy past few days. Since last I have blogged, Adam and I attended a breast-feeding class, I attended a 3-day conference on differentiated instruction, and my mom, Adam, and I (with Pam :) ) made our way to and from Indianapolis for a fantastic baby shower thrown by our friends Amy and Ben! So, I decided I would keep this blog entry in time order and start from our breast-feeding class.

Our breast-feeding class was last Thursday night. It was offered by Pat Rice, who is also our instructor for baby birthing class. We had to bring a doll with us and then be prepared to listen, participate, and watch a video. I was a little worried about this class and had fear that we might be whipping off our shirts and actually having to fully expose ourselves during the participation stage of the class. Fortunately, those fears were just that - fears - and there was no whipping off of clothing! Yeah! :) During our class we learned several positions that seem to work best for breast feeding, particularly at different phases of the baby's life. For instance, apparently one of the easiest ways to nurse immediately post-delivery is with the mother laying on her side and the father helping the baby to latch on and get in a position that will both allow the baby to be fed and the mother to not have pain. We also learned that we should record the time of day when we attempt to feed the baby (particularly while at the hospital) and let the nurses know. But, we should not worry about the actual length of time that Sadie nurses. This is because "normal" nursing time can range from anywhere between 8 and 35 minutes. Some babies are very fast and others like to take their time. Instead of worrying about time, we are instead supposed to observe MEALS. This stands for:

M - Mouth widely open (like Mick Jagger and with the mouth resting about 1/2 an inch back from the nipple)

E - Ears wiggling (this is to be a very smooth and slow movement and she should be keeping an even tempo - like a metronome)

A - Areola compressed (breast feeding is really about the areola (the area around the nipple) and not the nipple itself)

L - Lips flared (the chin should be touching the breast and Dad moves the baby's lips around by pressing underneath the chin)

S - Swallows (baby should only need to be burped if she's swallowed a lot of air)

This sounds easy enough and I'm certainly a big fan of memory devices such as this one. I've put it on yet another note card that we will be carrying with us in our stack of note cards that we're taking to the hospital. I'm hoping these note cards will prove useful and not just a tedious extra thing to carry. I think in the heat of the moment it may be nice to have something already prepared to look at and help both of us regain our focus, but depending on my amount of pain and frustration, I may just want to throw all of the cards in the garbage. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. :)

On one final breast-feeding class note, we also learned that the mother can consume up to 1 pound of chocolate per day without having to fear she is going to cause her baby to have an allergy to chocolate. So, if nothing else is making me feel better during my many upcoming sleepless nights, at least I can have chocolate! :)

Alrighty - on to topic 2 - differentiated instruction. Differentiated instruction is a fancy term for finding different (differentiated) ways to teach (instruction) all of your students. The conference I attended was the Midwest Conference on Differentiated Instruction and I'm really glad that I went. I attended only one horrible presentation and the rest I was able to glean at least some useful information from. I got some great ideas about organizational devices to use, motivational devices to use, and math songs that will help get math concepts "stuck" in students' heads. I took a lot of great notes, received several good handouts, and even got 4 new books on how to better differentiate in the classroom. Hopefully all of this will come in handy next year and make the school year flow more smoothly. For anyone that's interested, I'd be happy to tell you more, but I figure that most of you aren't itching to know more about differentiated instruction so I'll move on to the "good stuff." :)

Topic 3 - The Baby Shower
Our good friends Amy and Ben hosted a dual baby shower for Adam and I and our friends Alicia and Suellen. Sadie is due on August 31, but baby "P" is only a few weeks behind and is due on September 17. We are both having girls so we've really created ready-made friends. Isn't this fantastic?

Here are the four of us opening some of our gifts:

As you can tell from the picture, we have some very generous friends! To give you an idea of some of the gifts we received, we got: a baby bather and bathing products, a "Stride-and-Ride" Lion (it converts from a walker toy to a rideable toy), some clothes, a baby gate, an exploration station, a safety kit, and more! All of our gifts are very much appreciated and will be well used and well loved.

Here are some more pictures of our friends in attendance:

In the foreground of this picture you can see Jason, Kristin and Miles, Emily, and Andrea's back.

In this picture you can see Amy, Rob, Cathy, and Pam.

In this picture you can see Mike, Andrea (Andy) and Andrea's husband, Josh.

In this picture you can see Sarah, Pam with Shaylee, Kristen, and Adam and I.

And, one final picture that is perhaps my favorite. Two of our smallest party guests: Emily and Hannah. :)

Hopefully this photo is just a sneak peek at what Sadie and Baby P will look like together in 2 years!

All in all we have had a wonderful last week and felt very fortunate to get to catch up with some old friends. Tonight we have our hospital tour after baby-birthing class, so I'm sure I'll have more to report on soon. Thanks for reading! Take care!

Baby Birthing Class Winner and Loser

2008-07-08T08:08:00.002-04:00

We had baby birthing class again on Monday night. Adam was "Mr. Correct Answer!" We were discussing amniotic fluid and question number one arose - You may see little white flecks in the amniotic fluid - what are the little white flecks? Adam, clearly having paid attention last week, knew the answer. (Sidenote: I was thinking to myself - poop, it must be white colored poop!) Adam says, "The stuff (vernex) that's coming off the baby's skin." This was the correct answer. Vernex is the stuff that you have previously heard referred to as "cheese." It's basically the gunk that covers the baby's skin when they are born as is the body's own natural lotion. So, it looked like we were off to a great start - right? Score one for Adam!

Then we continue through class and were discussing why breathing techniques are so important to use during labor. One of the advantages of breathing correctly is that it oxygenates the uterus during labor. And here was question 2 - Why would oxygenating the uterus be so important during labor? (Sidenote: At this point I'm thinking, "Gosh, oxygenating any part of your body would be important, maybe it's so your uterus can already start to heal itself?") Ah, but baby birthing class superstar Adam has the answer again - the more oxygen the uterus gets, the stronger the contractions it can make and the faster you can get the baby out. How does he know these things?

Finally, we got to a question that I, too, actually knew the answer to, but Adam was the one who actually shared the answer with our instructor. What do you need to make sure the laboring mother is doing every hour? Answer - Emptying her bladder. This is because the baby will be moving right over top of the bladder and if the bladder is full, this will be MUCH more painful.

So, yes it's a good thing that Adam made us appear like all-stars because I certainly did my best to turn that right back around. :) While discussing breathing techniques our instructor kept pointing out the importance of breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth. Now, while this sounds great to 99.9% of the world, it does not sound so great to me. I would LOVE to be able to breath through my nose, but unfortunately I did not inherit that ability from my own parents. Any of you who know me well also then know that I suffer from rather horrible allergies - funny since I have 3 cats and live in a place where the pollen count is always astronomically high, right? Anyways, I decided to brave the question - What if you can't breath through your nose? To this our instructor replies, "Ah you must have pregnancy rhinitis (sp?)." Now, I should have probably just said yes and left it at that, but I instead said, "No, I have horrible allergies and can't breath through my nose ever, not just when I'm pregnant." Score one point for the "not looking so good anymore, are we?" team! So, either no one else in our class was brave enough to mention that they can't breath through their noses or I'm really the only one. Either way, simply asking the question made me feel a little inferior to my fellow classmates. The "real" answer to my question, for all you inquiring minds, is that you should breath through your mouth but tuck your tongue behind your teeth so that your mouth still produces saliva on a more regular basis.

But, fear not, I was able to keep scoring "loser" points for us. Our instructor asked if any of us where aware that our babies were currently in a breech position. Having just confirmed this again with the doctor on Monday morning, I was able to say, without doubt, that Sadie is still quite happy being a "breech baby." (Sidenote: By remaining breech, Sadie can consistently aim her kicking, giant feet straight into my bladder!) Of course, and yet again, I'm the only one who speaks up and says that my baby is breech. So I'm left with thinking that either I am the only mother whose child is already being uncooperative or I am the only one brave enough again to speak. Judging from the looks of the other mothers in the room, though, I'm going with option one. So, to encourage Sadie to move into the correct position, the instructor tells me that I need to find a picture of a woman's pelvis with the baby in the correct upside-down, ready-to-come-out position. Then I am supposed to place this picture somewhere where I will see it multiple times each day and talk to myself and Sadie about getting into position. I tried to post the lovely picture that I found, but it keeps saying that there's an error with the format, so no luck for you!

Finally, our night ended with having to get onto the floor to practice our level one breathing techniques. Now, I don't mind getting on the floor at all. What my problem stems from is that our instructor wanted us to place a pillow under our heads, a pillow under our knees, and lie on the rock-hard floor on our backs. Just thinking about the possibility of this position pretty much made me instantly start hurting. Even in my nice comfy bed I find it nearly impossible to lie on my back. So, when the instructor asked if anyone was struggling with this position, guess who got to raise her hand again? (Sidenote: I will say that there was one other person in our class who has also been having lower back pain and would not even attempt the position, so I didn't feel like quite as big of a loser this time around). The instructor helped Adam to position the pillow under my butt and then kind of roll up the bit that was sticking out so that my knees could be slightly elevated. While this position was not great, it was at least vaguely tolerable. Then, while reclining in this position, we got to practice "relaxing". This is funny since it is hard to relax when the position you are in is not comfortable, but I made the best of the situation and was able to get as relaxed as I could at 32 weeks of pregnancy. :)

So, the night had its ups (Adam) and its downs (me). We did learn a lot and we have quite a bit of "homework" to do this week in the form of making notecards and practicing all of the techniques we have learned so far. Next week our night will conclude will a tour of the labor and delivery ward at Riverside. I'm actually pretty excited about this because then I will be able to picture everything more clearly in my head.

To end this post on a happy note, I have to share a funny story about my daughter's visit to the doctor this morning. I had my standard check-up with the doctor this morning. I wait and wait and wait until it's 45 minutes after my scheduled appointment time and then the doctor wanders in and spends about 5 minutes with me before moving on to her next patient. Apparently Sadie was not going to have any of this "only 5 minutes with the doctor" business, though. Before the doctor even arrived in the room she had been moving about like a busy little bee. I informed the doctor of this before she tried to find Sadie's heart beat, but until she actually had the wand out and over my belly, I'm not quite sure that the doctor understood what I meant by, "She's been moving around A LOT this morning." Every time the doctor would locate Sadie's heart beat, Sadie would start to move and kick and punch. This movement accelerated her heartbeat so that her readings were 190 beats per minute. Because the doctor wanted to make sure that this was not a "constant state" for Sadie, she had to keep following her around in my belly and trying to get her to calm down. Sadie finally calmed down to around 160 beats per minute, which seemed to satisfy the doctor because she cleaned the goop off my belly and said that I definitely had a "wild child." I found the whole thing quite funny! :)

Well, I fully expect to be exhausted for the next several days, so I'm not sure when I might post again. On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I have an all-day conference 8 am to 4 pm in downtown Columbus. This is an education conference on differentiated instruction. I am excited to be attending the conference, but this will be the most "real work" I've had in a while. I then follow it up each night with some sort of activity. On Wednesday night I have water aerobics. On Thursday night Adam and I have breastfeeding class (Adam's super excited about this one!). On Friday night I have to pack and get ready for the trip to Indianapolis for Baby Shower # 2. So, if you don't hear from me for a while, don't worry. I'll be back soon! Take care!

The Wonderful World of Baby Birthing Class

2008-07-02T18:09:00.002-04:00

On Monday night Adam and I got to partake in our first baby birthing class. Truth be told, I have actually been looking forward to these classes. This is primarily because it signals that the end is near and Sadie will soon be here. My husband, on the other hand, has not been so excited. This is primarily because the classes are every Monday night in July and run from 6:30 to 9:00 pm. He thinks this time commitment is a bit over the top and he's not happy that he has to spend this whole time block talking about things that he doesn't like to talk about in front of people he does not know (i.e. a baby coming out of me!). However, after our first session, some of his fears seem to be eased as the other father's do not seem ecstatic to be there either!

We were given many tasks to "practice" for the week. The first task is to be able to explain dilation and effacement. When the cervix dilates this means that it opens up to allow for the baby to move down the birthing canal. Dilation is measured in centimeters and the most you can be dilated is 10 cm. Many of you have likely heard of dilation. What you may not have heard of is effacement. Effacement is the thinning out and pulling up of the cervix. Her analogy was to compare this process to pulling a turtle neck shirt over your head. Just as the turtle neck flattens out as you pull it over your head, the cervix flattens out as it is stretched to make way for the baby. Effacement is measured in percent, as in "You are 20% effaced, 50% effaced, etc."

Another task we were told to practice is the Mitchell Method of Relaxation. This is basically a series of steps that the laboring woman is supposed to follow to calm her down during the labor process. We are supposed to run through this process until it "becomes like second nature." Adam is supposed to give me a series of commands that I will then follow and relax. Additionally, he is supposed to do all of this without actually saying the word relax since hearing that word generally tends to be a trigger for tensing up. We are also supposed to go through this method with positive thoughts on the mind because positive thoughts lead to positive progress. :)

Ok, so who knows how well this will actually go? Our instructor does seem to really believe that thinking positively will lead to positive progress, though. I do tend to believe that thinking positively does make you feel better and therefore that may make you feel like things are moving along quickly, even if they are not. I will do my best to be positive. :)

One funny/amazing thing we learned is about breast milk. Apparently breast milk is the cure-all for just about everything. Your baby has scratched herself on the face - squirt some breast milk on her scratches and she will heal more quickly. Your baby has pink eye - gently rub some breast milk into her eyes and the infection will more quickly cure itself. Your husband has bad acne - yes you guessed it - breast milk. When I told my sister this she looked it up on the computer and found that breastmilk has even been shown to help kill some forms of cancer. All of these wonderful benefits of breast milk are supposedly due to the fact that breast milk is very full of white blood cells. So if you're feeling ill or suffering from a strange ailment, find a woman who is breast feeding and ask her to turn on the tap for you! :)

Well, we are only one class down and have four more to go, so stay tuned for more amazing updates! I'm sure we'll have some fantastic stories to share! Only one more work day this week! Woohoo! More baby-room pictures to come soon.

Baby Shower # 1

2008-07-01T12:57:00.004-04:00

On Sunday June 29 at 1:30 pm, my mother hosted my first baby shower for me and for Sadie. Preparations for this baby shower began weeks in advance! I created the invitations on Microsoft Publisher and put them all in the mail. My mom handled pretty much everything else. :) We went to Flower Factory together and got lots of decorations. Then my mom's friend Holly, who I've always called Aunt Holly, came over in the week before the party. She made her famous sugar cookies and decorated them, despite having sliced her thumb on the Sunday before the shower (she has several stitches in her thumb!) My dad even got in on the cookie decorating! I made a few cookies too and had some help eating them when Amy, Bryn, Shay, Andrea, and Hannah came to visit! :) I'm quite glad I had visitors to keep me occupied and to motivate me to clean my house! :) My mom and Aunt Holly also made sandwiches and all sorts of other goodies to get ready for the party. Then Aunt Holly brought over her collection of glass serving plates to add to my mom's collection. Aunt Holly also brought over a punch bowl and punch glasses. In addition, she brought over this really old baby stroller. It was very cool and that was where we had the guests put all of their presents. Silly me, however, did not take any pictures of all of this. I'm hoping that my mom's friend Julia, another person I've always referred to as my Aunt, took some pictures of everything all set up. Aunt Julia also helped with getting all of the snacks and punch ready and just generally helping with the final touches of everything. Plus, Aunt Julia and Aunt Holly both work to keep my mom sane, so their help is ALWAYS appreciated greatly by me! The house really looked nice and I'm bummed I don't have more pictures of the whole set-up.

Another thing I did in preparation for the party was to assemble a folder for each guest. Each guest's folder had a nametag on the front and then directions for what to do while waiting on the inside of the folder. I had a huge and diverse collection of guests. I had relatives, family friends, co-workers from Dublin, co-workers from West Jeff, and old friends. One thing that each guest had to do upon arrival was to get a drink with a "baby" ice cube. Inside the ice cube was a frozen plastic baby. The idea was that whom ever's ice cube melted first to "free" the baby had to shout, "My water broke!" It was pretty funny, but the babies didn't stay frozen for as long as anticipated, so it was a game that ended pretty quickly. Other activities the guests were to be working on were filling out an advice page and their baby bingo sheets. My mom also had the guests try to answer 11 questions about me and my likes and dislikes.

Let me show you some of the pictures of guests at the party:

Picture 1 is Jerri (my co-worker at West Jeff), Patty (my mother-in-law), Jeanie (Patty's sister, Adam's Aunt), and Sarah (my sister-in-law)

Picture 2 is Molly, Emily, (Holly's daughters) and Aunt Holly.

Picture 3 is me opening a gift. You can see Molly and Emily again as well as Dee and Ashley (family friends) and several co-workers in the background, including my principal, Debbie.

The party was a HUGE success and Sadie is going to need to have her clothes changed at least 5 times a day in order to wear all of the clothes that she received. Despite Adam's great fear, I think Sadie may be an even bigger clothes hog than me! We also got some wonderful other gifts including a video monitor, a BeBe Pod Orange chair, a pack-and-play, wonderful books, and many, many other goodies. As soon as I get it all organized in Sadie's room, I will post further pictures. Adam and I are tremendously thankful for all that we received and thank everyone who attended. Sadie is certainly one very lucky little girl!

Adam and I took our first baby-birthing class so I have quite a few funny stories to share and will get to those ASAP. Hope you're all off to a great and SHORT week! :)

Ultrasonic Sadie

2008-06-23T13:49:00.006-04:00

This morning was our last scheduled peek at our little bundle of joy before she makes her "real" debut in the world. As you may have guessed from the title of the post, we have decided to name her Sadie. We have a middle name that we like, too, but we haven't decided how to spell it yet, so you'll just have to wait a few more weeks to learn her middle name!

We have a couple of 3-D images and I think this one is the best. Sadie kept holding her hands over her face, so even when she didn't have a hand directly on her face, the ultrasound kept picking up the shadow. This is why it appears she has a hole in her head. She does not have a hole. :)

We did learn that Sadie, not surprisingly, has some rather large feet. Check them out! She also has some pretty long legs!

Sadie is measuring in at 4 lbs and 2 oz right now. The ultrasound technician said to expect her to gain half a pound every week until she is born (in 10 weeks). This means that she will likely weigh in at around 9 lbs. Her momma was 9 lbs 12 oz, so Sadie being big is no surprise!

Sadie is currently in a breech position and loves to kick mommy right in the bladder. Also, because she was breech and not overly cooperative, the technician wasn't able to get the greatest profile shot. It somewhat appears she has a GIANT bulbous nose. It's actually her hand again and not her nose. The top of her head is at the left of the picture and you can see her knees curled up at the right of the picture.

We learned that Sadie is in the 75th percentile for weight and length right now and that doesn't seem to have anyone worried because she is neither too small nor too big. And, because she has been growing so much, the fibroid has not been growing! It was exactly the same size as before! Yeah! This is very good news because it shouldn't interfere with delivery at all. :)

Finally, my mom and I worked on a few more updates to Sadie's room, so I wanted to share those too. Please see below!

Well, after a less than restful night last night, this momma is ready for a nap! Hope you're all having a great Monday!

Big Kicks and Big Excitement

2008-06-19T21:14:00.009-04:00

Ok, ok. I know I've been a bit of a blog slacker. However, I have been keeping myself pretty busy! Since last I have written, lots of exciting things have happened. First, I finished my first year in West Jefferson as an intervention specialist. It was a FANTASTIC year and I think it would have been hard for things to go any better! I will definitely miss my kids next year, but they all promised to come back and visit and I do really believe that they will. After all, the high school is right down the hall!

My second piece of exciting news is that I'm going to have more sick days than I thought! When I left my position in Dublin to come to West Jefferson, I moved from a classified to a certified job. I was told when that happened that I could not transfer my sick days. While I thought that that really stunk, I didn't know who to complain to or that the person who told me was actually incorrect. I went over to central office in West Jefferson about 2 weeks ago to fill out the FMLA paper work to make sure everything's a go for my maternity leave. I was complaining to the one and only person who handles insurance and payroll for the district and she said that she thought that sick days should transfer from any public job to any other public job. So she got out her handy-dandy book of facts such as these and sure enough, my sick days should transfer. As luck should have it, the treasurer, whose office is next door, had been listening to our conversation and popped her head in to tell me that she used to work in Dublin and would call the person in Dublin who was in charge of their payroll. She did and after I wrote a letter requesting my sick days to be tranferred, I have now gained 17.5 sick days to the 15 I already had. This means 32.5 out of my 60 days I will actually be paid for. This is WONDERFUL news given that that's more than half of my time off paid for instead of only a quarter of the time paid for. Woohoo!!!!

In other exciting news, my wonderful and crazy husband has taken a week off of work to truly challenge himself! On Saturday I had to drive him to Wellington, Ohio. Wellington is a small town that's about 2 hours North and East of Columbus. This year Wellington was the starting and ending point for GOBA, the Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure. Since last Saturday Adam has been cycling almost every day and camping at night in different towns. On Sunday he rode from Wellington to Gallion, Ohio, which is almost 60 miles. On Monday he rode from Gallion to Mt. Vernon, Ohio. This is around 40 miles. On Tuesday he had a layover day in Mt. Vernon and I went and picked him up and brought him home. He enjoyed a shower and a nap and then we headed back to Mt. Vernon with my parents. My Mom lived in Mt. Vernon for three years, so we drove by her house and then dropped Adam back off in "Gobaville." Wednesday Adam traveled around 50 miles to get to Coshocton, Ohio. Today he had a layover day in Coshocton and he will finish out this tour by going to Orville, Ohio tomorrow (home of Smuckers) and then back to Wellington on Saturday. While I, personally, feel is a little crazy for taking on this much riding, not to mention camping, he seems to really be enjoying himself, so I am greatful for that!

While Adam has been away, my parents have been busy keeping me busy! On Sunday they came over to help move the bed out of the baby's room. We then reorganized all of the clothes we have already purchased and put them back into the baby's closet in size order. Next, my parents helped to build the book shelf that we bought at IKEA last week. Then my mom put together the shelves that we had actually purchased at IKEA back in February. Then over the course of this last week, my mother has drawn (completely freehand mind you) several Dr. Seuss characters on the walls of the baby's room and then painted them. I am super excited about all of this, so I have to show you the pictures. The first several are of the walls of the nursery and then I tried to show you a little bit of the lay out of the room.

Isn't the room going to look amazing? Horton the elephant, One Fish-Two Fish-Red Fish-Blue Fish, the Lorax, and Yertle the Turtle are all making the room one very cool place to hang out! :)

Finally, the other part of the my entry's title is Big Kicks. This is because this baby has definitely been kicking a lot lately. She loves to move around and I guess I would prefer the movement than not have any and be worried that something was wrong. I have had many of you ask me "how big are you now?" So, even though it's far from the greatest picture in the world, here is a visual for you on "How BIG is Krysten?" :)

Hope you enjoyed reading and take care!

Tornadoes and Test Results

2008-05-31T05:00:00.002-04:00

It is 5 o'clock in the morning on a Saturday and I am awake. I have had trouble staying asleep since around 2:00 am when my husband burst into the bedroom to tell me that he was going to take a shower (which I thought meant come to bed afterwards) and, by the way, we had some tornadoes heading straight for us. I guess that since I was only partially awake and therefore only partially processed what Adam had said, I went back to sleep, at first, with little trouble. Then my brain must have continued processing while sleeping and I kept waking up expecting to hear high winds or pounding rain or some other scary storm-related noise. These noises finally started occuring around 4:30 am. I got up to find my husband standing in the bathtub and looking out our small bathroom window so he could view the storm. When asked why he had not come to bed after showering, Adam replied he was expecting another phone call from work between 4 and 5 am (it never came) and didn't see the point in going to bed at 2:30. Call me crazy, some sleep is better than none, right? I guess this means that Adam can stay up with the baby when she can't sleep. :) Anyways, I decided that I was hungry and wanted to see what the weather people were saying about this storm. Adam and I both came downstairs. I had some cereal and now Adam is continuing to play his 50-turn game of Mario Party 3 for Wii. For those of you who don't know, a 50 turn game lasts at least 3 hours, but you can take breaks so that you don't have to play all at once. (Now I, and you, also know the real reason why Adam never came to bed. :) ) Adam is down to his last 10 turns now so the fun is wrapping itself up. I plan on returning to bed when I am finished with my blogging. I would guess that Adam will start another game. We'll see.

In other interesting news, I had to complete my glucose test on Wednesday. I was very nervous about taking the test. I know I have many risk factors for gestational diabetes and I had pretty much convinced myself that I was going to have gestational diabetes. Plus, I have known 3 people who have had gestational diabetes within the last year and just read an article the other day saying that more and more women are being diagnosed with the disorder.

I had to take my glucose drink to school with me and was supposed to drink it at the end of science class. On Tuesday I had had a discussion with the science teacher (who has 2 children) about having to consume the drink at the end of class. This then turned in to a whole class discussion about gross glucose drinks, tests done during pregnancy, and whether or not the students thought I would get sick while drinking the stuff. This, of course, meant that on Wednesday all the students were chomping at the bit to see me drink the stuff. It's a relatively small bottle, but it has to be fully consumed within 5 minutes. After seeing how excited the students were about the possibility of the stuff making me sick or have some awful reaction, I decided that there was no way I would be able to drink it in front of them. I figured one of two things would happen if I tried to drink it in front of them: 1) I would end up laughing and spit a large part of the stuff out OR 2) I would actually get sick (which seemed to be what most of them were hoping for). So, I dutifully waited for class to be over and then got in my car to race towards the hospital. I opened the container and started swallowing the stuff. It really wasn't so bad. It was like a strange version of orange pop. Now, admitedly, I don't like orange pop, but I had built up such great fears about how awful the stuff would be, that orange pop didn't seem so bad.

I arrived at the doctor and continued my waiting process. The nurse finally called me back. She asked me some questions and then wanted to check my blood pressure. I told her that I had no problem with her checking my blood pressure, but that I would expect it to be running a little high because I hate having my blood taken and I knew that that was going to be the next part of the appointment. She seemed very surprised that I needed my blood taken because the nurse that I checked in with had failed to mention that I had consumed the glucose. They are supposed to take your blood exactly one hour after you finish the drink. At the time, this was about five minutes away. Just as we were getting up to go over to the "blood station," a woman rolls past us with her stroller. In the stroller is her 9th month old son. Walking beside the stroller is her 18 month old son. And, as I soon learned, she was getting her blood taken because she was pregnant again. So, the fact had already been established that this woman was crazy and therefore what happened next came as no great surprise. The woman went to sit down in the "blood-draw" chair. The nurse had just given the 18 month old son a Dum-Dum sucker. Being that 18 months is still a little young, in my own opinion, to be fully responsible with a sucker, the kid decided to stick it to his baby brother. He took the stick of the Dum-Dum sucker and stuck it up the 9 month old brother's nose. Of course, much crying ensued and the 9 month old was gushing blood from his nose. However, since the mother was having her own blood taken, there was not a great deal she could do (not that I think she would have done a lot to begin with - she clearly has her hands full!). So as I'm watching this whole seen unfold I'm thinking to myself that since I hate the sight of blood, maybe I'll pass out before the nurse can actually get to me and she can just take my blood while I'm already down. :) Fortunately, the nurse that had brought me back to begin with interrupted this whole seen and told the blood draw nurse that I needed my blood drawn immediately because I had had the glucose drink and was out of time. This forced the other woman to deal with her screaming child and her 18 month old and allowed for me to have a seat in the "blood draw" chair. I explained to the blood-draw nurse that I don't like having my blood drawn and would prefer to get this over as quickly as possible. I also told her that my veins have a tendency to roll which usually means that I get stabbed multiple times, hence one of the reasons I hate having my blood drawn. She actually listened to me and used a surface vein in the corner of my elbow pit. This was GREAT because not only did it not hurt, but it left virtually no bruise! She had to take 4 vials of blood because of all the different tests they were running so while it did take a while for her to draw all of the blood, I didn't mind so much since it wasn't hurting me.

After the blood draw I had my regular check-up with the doctor. She had a hard time measuring me because my fibroid sits at the top of my uterus. This meant that it was challenging to tell what was fibroid and what was baby. So, she said that we would just get more accurate measurements at my next ultrasound. That ultrasound is scheduled for June 23rd, so stay tuned for those results. I did ask her about when I might hear back about the results of the tests. She said I should expect to hear from her by Friday unless there was nothing to worry about, in which case, she would not be calling at all.

On Thursday I had an appointment with my regular doctor. She always gets duplicates of my test results since she is my primary care physician. She came bounding into the room and was excited to tell me that I do NOT have gestational diabetes. YEAH!!!!! For those of you who don't know, a typical blood sugar level is somewhere betweeen 80 and 120. For a pregnant woman they typically extend the top number to 135. My number was 116, so things are really looking quite good!

So, I am now feeling much relief at having avoided another possible pregnancy complication. I'm beginning to even hope that I may make it to August without having preeclampsia (high blood pressure), but it's just a glimmer of hope at this point. :)

Just so that you all know, Adam has finished his Mario Party 3 game. He won, by a lot, and just told me that he is going up to bed! Fantastic! Additionally, the storm has now completed passed over us. So, it's clearly time to go back to bed. Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Road Trippin' It With 8th Graders & "High Fives"

2008-05-24T19:04:00.004-04:00

It is Saturday May 24 and I arrived back home late last night (around 11 pm) from a 4 day trip with my beloved 8th grade students. We left very early (6:30 am) Tuesday morning on a bus headed for Washington DC. We visited the Smithsonian museums (I only managed to make it to the Natural History Museum with my group), the Hard Rock Cafe, the White House, took a subway ride, and visited the Iwo Jima Memorial and that was only Tuesday afternoon!

On Wednesday we were up very early and had our picture taken on the steps of the Capitol. Then we got to go up inside the Washington Monument and view Washington from high above. Then we ate lunch and headed to the National Cathedral. Next we visited Arlington National Cemetary. We had two students who actually participated in the wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and then got o witness the changing of the guard. This was particularly neat for me since the last time I was at Arlington was when I was in 8th grade and I was in the wreath laying ceremony. :) (On another side note, Arlington is VERY hilly and I would like to give myself special kudos for trekking up the many hills of the cemetary while 6 months pregnant! Go me!) After Arlington we headed to dinner and then took a walking tour of the FDR memorial and the Jefferson memorial. By the time we got to the memorials it was getting darker, which actually ended up being pretty cool. Finally, we headed back to the hotel.

On Thursday we were up very early again and headed to the Capitol once more. This time we got to go inside the chamber where the House of Representatives meets. This is where the President gives his (or her) State of the Union address from every year. There were fewer than 25 representatives present that morning, which was kind of disappointing. However, the representatives that were there were giving 1 minute speeches on various things to basically just ensure they would be on the record. It was an interesting process and it was definitely pretty neat to see the actual building itself. From the Capitol we headed to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. This is where our money is made. It was a very cool process and I was very excited to see the piles and piles of money just laying around and waiting to be shipped. If only it could be shipped directly to me! :) After our tour we went to the Mall where we enjoyed a picnic lunch. Please understand me clearly, I am NOT complaining, however, I must say that it was rather chilly eating lunch on the Mall. While the sun was out sporadically, there was a constant wind that made being outside a bit cold. But, I would MUCH, MUCH, MUCH rather be cold than hot, so I did not complain even once! After lunch we walked over the the World War II Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, and the Korean War Memorial. All 4 were exciting to see and our language arts teacher and the students left a book of poetry behind at the Vietnam Memorial. It was dedicated to Clarence "Beau" Casto, who was the only man from West Jefferson to die in Vietnam. (Again on a happy side note, ALL of my students had their poems finished and turned in on time, so their works were all included in the book!) After the memorials we headed to the United States Holocaust Museum. Again, the last time I had been at the museum was when I was in 8th grade. That was 15 years ago and the museum had just opened. I can remember going there, but I didn't remember a whole lot about it. We unfortunately did not have a great deal of time, but I can definitely say that it is a museum that is well worth the visit. My students got a lot out of the visit and I did too! After the museum it was off to the National Archives Building. We got to see the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Since we spent a great deal of time talking about all 3 documents this year, the kids seemed to really enjoy getting to see the actual papers themselves. From the National Archives Building we headed to the pier for our Potomac Dinner Cruise. We had a decent meal and then all the kids (and many chaperones and teachers) enjoyed dancing. I enjoyed sitting and watching everyone dance and got to enjoy the sensation of the baby dancing inside of me! Based upon Thursday evening's experience, this baby girl should be quite the dancer. :) Finally, around 10:15 pm we boarded the buses and headed back to our hotel. It was a VERY long day!

On Friday we were up early one last time and headed out to Mount Vernon. The whole plantation was very beautiful and we got to head down to the Potomac to get one last up-close view of the very pleasant surroundings. After Mount Vernon it was back to the buses and then a VERY long trip home. There was a horrible accident on I-70, so we had to take a different route for a large part of our journey (I-68). It was pretty, but quite hilly. We finally arrived back in West Jeff around 10:15 pm. It really was a great trip and I was very proud of all of my students. They weren't perfect angels, but I would say they behaved better than any other group we witnessed, which is really saying quite a lot. They are a good group of kids and I'm glad they got to enjoy this experience.

Now, with my journey told, I thought I would also complete this "Fivers" challenge that I have seen Amy and Al complete.
The questions are listed one at a time and my answers are right below the indvidual questions.

What were you doing five years ago?
In May of 2003 I had just moved back to Ohio and was settling in with Sarah and Jenny at 58 Crestview. I had just secured my first full year job for the 2003-2004 school year at Windsor Academy in Columbus Public. I was substitute teaching in Dublin and basically enjoying a fairly lazy existence. I wasn't dating anyone and my grandfather was still alive and living with my parents. My sister was getting ready to graduate from high school and life was all around pretty good.

What are five things on your to-do list for today?
Well, it's almost 8 pm now, so I'll reveal what was on my list for today.
1. Get caught up on my sleep (I accomplished this by getting up and eating breakfast and then going back to sleep!)
2. Enjoy eating food that wasn't prepared with tons of grease and prepared really quickly. (We went to a Mexican place!)
3. Play our new Nintendo Wii! (We just got it yesterday!)
4. Go shopping for a rocker/glider. (We went out to the JC Penney outlet store, but had very little luck)
5. Enjoy spending time with Adam and the kitties (I've done this all day!)

What are five snacks you enjoy?
1. Ice Cream - vanilla or strawberry are probably my 2 favorites
2. 100 calorie snack packs (pretty much any variety)
3. Chips with French Onion dip
4. Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
5. Mom's macaroni and cheese (usually a meal, not just a snack)

What are five things you would do if you were a billionaire?
1. Pay off our own and our family's debts (It would be fantastic to be debt free!)
2. Move to Worthington
3. Travel - anywhere and anytime
4. Buy some new furniture (a bigger bed, a new couch, new dining room table and chairs)
5. Donate at least some of the money to a worthy charity (Cozy Cat Cottage?)

What are five of your bad habits?
1. Being too negative
2. Being too hard on myself and others
3. Not cleaning up immediately when I make a mess
4. Not speaking with friends as often as I would really like to
5. Not getting enough exercise and/or eating out too much

What are five places you have lived?
1. Columbus, Ohio (in Clintonville - Kensington and Crestview)
2. Worthington, Ohio (on Stafford)
3. Indianapolis, Indiana (at Butler and 2 different apartments)
4. Florence, Italy (while studying abroad)
5. Columbus, Ohio (in my house in the hood!)

What are five jobs you've had?
1. Worthington Public Library book processor
2. Babysitter
3. Blockbuster Video Cashier
4. Insurance Saleswoman
5. Teacher

What five people do you want to tag?
1. Adam (you can put your replies in my comments section!)
2. Rhian (she doesn't have a blog either and she's in Cyprus right now, so I'm not counting on this anytime soon!)
3. Jerry or Patty (I know you read this!)
4. Mom or Dad
5. Anyone else who feels they have something to share!

Well, I get to go to the doctor again on Wednesday and this will be my gestational diabetes "check" appointment. So, as soon as I learn something one way or the other, I will let you all know! Take care!

Fine and Dandy

2008-04-28T15:02:00.003-04:00

Well, I had a doctor's appointment today. Nothing too extraordinary to report. According to the doctor, you can feel my uterus up past my belly button. Thankfully I'm not feeling the baby up quite that high yet, but I'm sure my time is coming. She's certainly been active today and even the doctor said she was hard to keep track of while she was trying to get her heart rate. I, of course, was unsurprised by this since I know full well that this is one active little girl. Her heart rate, by the way, was 156 bpm. This is fairly normal.

Originally, my doctor had wanted me to have blood drawn today because of my history of high blood pressure. However, I also take my blood pressure nearly every night and brought all of those recorded readings in to show the doctor today. Because my blood pressure has been pretty close to normal (120/80), she decided that the blood draw was unneccessary today! Yeah! Unfortunately, she still wants to do the tests, but I'll have to be stuck at my next appointment anyways because it's the dreaded "Glucose Test" appointment. I guess that it was at least nice of her to not have me stuck twice. :)

I'm also happy to report that I had not gained any weight since my last appointment which was at the beginning of the month. I guess the daily walks with my mom (and sometimes dad) and the two times per week of water aerobics must actually be helping. I have also noticed that I have not been able to eat quite as much because someone is squishing my stomach. I'm beginning to think that for weight loss you might always want to have someone squishing your stomach because it certainly forces me to stop eating MUCH sooner!

Mom and I did make it to yet another consignment sale over the weekend. We really only bought more clothes. We also stopped at Once Upon a Child, a local resale shop. On Sunday we ventured down to the Prime Outlets at Jeffersonville. While I certainly spent some more money on the baby, I also splurged a little on myself and bought a dress at GAP and was jean capris from Motherhood Maternity. Hopefully both will make warmer weather a little more bearable down the road. Additionally, I bought some new shirts for Adam to wear while he is biking. I don't think I have previously shared that my crazy husband is taking a week off in June for something he is referring to as his "bike vacation." For the "sane" person, this week of bike riding does not in any way, shape, or form resemble a vacation. But, one of Adam's endearing qualities is his "insanity" in regards to biking. When we met, he was biking an average of 60 miles per day. For the past two weekends, he has begun to return to old habits and biked at least 40 miles for 2 days in a row. This "bike vacation" is actually an organized event called GOBA (Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure) and he'll be biking with a "pack" of riders all around Ohio. I have to admit that I am quite happy to be pregnant because Adam had previously asked me to accompany him on this crazy adventure and I'm sure that as his dutiful wife I would have attempted it. Thankfully, this lovely little gift of a baby girl has saved me from this event. Hopefully she'll be able to save me in the future too! :)

Well, that's really the update around here. We're having Ohio Achievement Tests this week so I've been kept quite busy today making sure all of my students are receiving the proper accomodations so that they can hopefully pass this test. Today was reading and we have math, science, and social studies still to come. Maybe if everyone keeps their fingers crossed it will provide a little extra luck for my students!

Okie-dokie! Take care everyone!

Big baby - not a big surprise!

2008-04-14T17:44:00.002-04:00

Well, today I went in for yet another ultrasound. Not surprisingly this little girl was wiggling around again and making it challenging to get her measurements. Today's ultrasound was a medical ultrasound to get measurements and to make sure that baby girl is healthy. Her head, you'll be especially happy to know Amy, is right on target for her current gestational age (20 weeks and 1 day), but in other measurements she is longer and chubbier than expected (21 weeks and 4 days). This could potentially push the due date up to August 24th. Hopefully she'll hang on a little longer than that because I really need to get in at least one day at school and our first teacher day is August 22nd! Oh my goodness!

In addition to actual measurements, we got to take a peek at all of her parts. Her brain looks great. She has both hemispheres of her brain, a perfectly formed cerebellum, a well-formed brain stem, etc. She has all four chambers of her heart. She has ten fingers and ten toes. This is all very good, of course, and pretty exciting.

The only mildly disturbing thing that we also learned today is that I have a fibroid. A fibroid is basically a ball of muscle tissue and grows inside the uterus. These usually grow in women of child bearing age and are typically discovered prior to pregnancy. However, pregnancy can also trigger them to grow (or sometimes shrink) which may be why I've never noticed the fibroid before. Fibroids pose no real risk to the baby and mine is very high up in the uterus which means there is not likely to be a complication with it getting in the way at birth. Plus, at this point it is only about the size of a golf ball. While this sounds alarming, a large fibroid can be as big as a grapefruit! The only real side effect of the fibroid is one that will be an effect to me. They can be quite painful. However, since I don't know anything different, this is baby number 1 after all, I guess I'll just attribute most pains to "normal" pregnancy. The most important thing is that the fibroid should not affect the baby in any way!

Well, nature is calling - or rather baby girl is kicking my bladder and making nature call - so I've got to run. Take care everyone!

It's a Baby. . .

2008-04-12T08:57:00.006-04:00

GIRL!!!!

I know, I know - she looks a bit strange. She is only 20 weeks old and she is very skinny. Obviously, this will drastically change before she is actually born. At this point, she's just been working on growing a body and getting all of her parts to form. Now that she's got all of her parts she can work on getting fat!

Here you can see a sneak peak of her face, her arms and hands going up towards her face, and a little bit of the umbilical cord twisting its way from the bottom left of the photo. She kept trying to hide her face behind the placenta and she was fairly successful. I'm absolutely amazed that you can see things as clearly as you can. If you ever have a chance to go to a 3-D/4-D ultrasound, I highly recommend it. It's even more exciting to actually be in the room and have the ultrasound technician pointing things out to you.

Here she is flexing her muscles for us! How cool is that! She may not have any fat, but she's got some muscles! You can also make out some of her facial features - bulging eyes, squished up nose, pursed lips, and you can even see the definition of her chin!

Adam, our parents, our siblings, and I are all very excited. This will be the first grand daughter for Adam's parents and, obviously, the first grand baby for my parents. My dad thinks she may be a little spoiled because of this. Oh darn! Adam and I already went out to Babies R' Us last night to add a few more things to the registry and Mom and I are planning a shopping trip out this afternoon. Adam's mom and her sister are taking a shopping trip on Tuesday. She's only half way to being born and she's already the star of the shopping world! Awesome!

Well, hope you all enjoy this as much as Adam and I are! We're actually having another ultrasound, this time a medical one, done on Monday, so I'll probably have more to post then. Take care!

Costly Kitty: A Child Preparation Lesson?

2008-04-09T18:48:00.002-04:00

On Sunday night around 8:00 pm, our middle kitty, Parry, started getting sick. This sickness continued about every 15 minutes throughout the night and into the next morning. Parry couldn't keep anything down - food or water. This had happened to Parry once before. At that time he had been diagnosed with something called Megacolon. Basically this means that Parry's colon doesn't work correctly to help him get rid of his solid waste.

Adam graciously agreed to take Parry to the vet on Monday morning. This delayed Adam's plans for the day and made him have to delay his cycling later in the day. However, Adam put the needs of the sick kitty ahead of his own desires. (Won't he make a great dad?) Adam then waited and waited for the vet to call him on his cell phone so that we could figure out what was going on with Parry. When the vet finally called (around noon) they said that they had done an x-ray and Parry's intestinal tract and colon were about 75% blocked with hard, non-moving solid waste. She said that they would be giving Parry several enemas and a laxative and hopefully be able to get things moving. She said she would call again around 5 pm to update us.

The vet did call again around 5 pm on Monday night, but she did not call with good news. Parry had still not been able to pass any of his waste. She said they would be giving him another kitty enema and then keeping him over night for observation. (Lord willing we will never have this same problem with our own child!) She said that she would call again the next morning and update us.

On Tuesday morning the vet called Adam to tell him that Parry had still not been able to pass anything and the next step was to sedate him and manually remove the blockage. Without any other options, Adam made the decision to go ahead and permit this next step. (Unfortunately Adam forgot to ask about the cost of this procedure, but cost becomes somewhat irrelevant when you're dealing with someone you love, right?) The vet said she would call again later to update us. She called around 2:30 pm to say that Parry had come out of surgery but would need to stay the night again so they could continue to monitor him.

At this point I did a great deal of research on the internet about Megacolon. I learned that there is no known cause for this disorder and that there are a great deal of medications that cats can take that can help eliminate some of the problem. I had a little fear because one of the medicines, Propulsid (cisapride) had been removed from the human drug market for causing heart arrythmias. I made sure to note this so I could ask about it when we got to see Parry and the vet. I also learned about some of the other medications and how they work to treat this disorder.

On Wednesday morning we got a call from the vet saying that Parry was doing quite well and had actually eaten some of his food. The day passed and we got to actually meet with the vet when we picked Parry up at 5:00 pm. I asked her all of my questions and she thought I was a pharmacist because of all the medicine questions I asked. I explained that I was not a pharmacist, just a concerned "mommy."

In the end, this whole business was an expense, but not as much of one as we had anticipated. We also learned a little bit more about the sacrifices that we will undoubtedly be making in the years to come.

Only 2 more days until we find out if the baby is a boy or a girl! I'm sure I'll post again soon!

Spring Break 2008: To Phoenix and Beyond!

2008-03-24T16:59:00.011-04:00

Greetings to one and all. I am writing this blog in a bit of a bad mood today. Adam and I awoke yesterday morning to a gloriously sunny Phoenix day. When we boarded our plane at 11:40 in the morning, it was more than 80 degrees outside. We spent most of the day on Saturday in the sun and went to the Phoenix Zoo. So, it seems completely unfair that while flying down into the Columbus skies yesterday afternoon it was both gloomy and miserably cold!

Last night I tried desperately to download our video to my computer, only to realize that I didn't have the right connecting cables to make that happen. That, too, was both annoying and disheartening.

Enough complaining though, I will tell you about our adventures and then make myself feel better. We flew out on Saturday March 15. Our flight was delayed by almost 2 hours because of horrible fog, but we finally got under way and made it to Phoenix. We picked up our rental car, headed to Rhian's, picked Rhian and James up (also visited with Mortimer for a bit), checked into the hotel, and headed for dinner. We tried a Japanese place called Sakana. Rhian had been misled to think that this was like the Japanese steakhouses from home where they cook in front of you on big, hot surfaces, but it was really a Sushi restaurant with a very limited grill menu. Obviously I cannot eat sushi right now, so I was left to choose from the grill menu. Fortunately, I had chicken teriyaki and it was very good. After dinner, we returned to Rhian's apartment and Rhian and James taught Adam and I a new card game. It's called King's Corners and is sort of like solitaire except you don't play alone. After several rounds of playing, Adam and I were tuckered out and headed back to our hotel for a good night's sleep. See the picture below of Rhian and I waiting for Sakana to open.

On Sunday morning March 16, Adam and I left very early and headed for the Grand Canyon. We had breakfast at U.S. Egg, a local Phoenix breakfast spot, and then stopped a few hours later for pie at the Rock Springs Cafe. Both places had delicious food! Adam and I were very excited to be on our way to the Grand Canyon and had high hopes of seeing magnificent views never before seen with our eyes. Our wish was granted, but not in the way we had expected.

As it turns out, the Grand Canyon had both record cold temperatures and record snowfall for the day and night we spent there. I told Rhian before we left that I sensed we would be bringing the snow with us. She kept saying that it rarely snows in Arizona and not to worry. It was SO snowy that you couldn't see more than 5 feet in front of you! That's a lot of snow!

On Monday March 17 (St. Patrick's Day), Adam and I gladly left the frozen tundra for lower ground and warmer temperatures. We arrived at Hoover Dam just before noon. I have seen many pictures and watched a few TV specials on the Hoover Dam and none of them really do it justice. I'll go ahead and post our best picture there, but you really need to see it for yourself to appreciate its true magnificence. After taking a tour and eating lunch, Adam and I drove on into Las Vegas. We checked into the MGM Grand and got upgraded to a suite. We were on the 8th floor and had a HUGE room with an extremely comfortable bed. Adam and I both wished we could bring the bed home with us. We could sleep all the time on that thing! Anyways, Monday night we ate dinner at the Rainforest Cafe and then took the monorail over to the Mirage to see "Love." "Love" is the Beatles Cirque du Soleil show. It was AWESOME! If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend that you go. The music, of course, was great and the theatrics were just amazing. I have no idea how the actors can do all of the things that they can do. After the show we wandered back through the drunken "Irish" crowds and arrived at our hotel room anxious for a good night of rest in our luxurious bed!

On Tuesday March 18, we did some major exploring of the strip. We walked the 2 miles down towards the Mirage and Treasure Island and then part of the two miles back towards our hotel (we eventually hopped on the monorail due to walking exhaustion). We stopped at the Venetian and watched the gondolas on the canal. We also went to Madame Tussaud's and had a very funny time posing with all of the wax sculptures We ate lunch at the buffet at Harrah's. We did some light shopping. We went to the Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Exhibit at the Mirage and saw white and bengal tigers and dolphins. We took a nap. Adam and I ate dinner at Diego, a Mexican restaurant at our hotel. It was delicious. We had table-made guacamole with sundried tomatoes. It was REALLY, REALLY good! After dinner we took the monorail to the Bellagio stop and made our way to the water show. I had only really seen the water show in pictures and on "Ocean's 11," so I was very eager to see the show in person. It was certainly not a let down. It was really quite amazing to see what could be done with water. We decided to walk back after the show and ended up stopping at New York, New York to wander through the casino and shops and see the sights. We ended up buying another cute baby outfit and then going back to the hotel for an early night's rest.

On Wednesday March 19, we were up very early in the morning. We had to be at the parking lot of the Tropicana (across the street from our hotel) by 6:30 am. We were there by 6:15 am, but the bus did not actually show up until 7:00 am. (Those of you who know me well know how very irritated I was by this - this was our first impression of the company and they were 30 minutes late!). Anyways, we were headed for our second Grand Canyon adventure of the week. This time we had very high hopes of actually seeing the canyon and we were not disappointed. We flew on an 8 passenger plane from Henderson, Nevada to the Hualapai Indian Reservation. At the reservation, we boarded a helicopter. The helicopter flew us down inside the canyon to the Colorado River. We boarded a float boat and took a mini tour of the canyon and the river. Then we got back on the helicopter and flew back up to the top. Next we boarded some buses that took us to Eagle Point (where the Grand Canyon Sky Bridge is) and then Guano Point where we ate lunch (no, we did not have bat poop for lunch). Then were got back on the buses to head back to our original point, boarded our mini-plane, and flew back to Henderson. The ride back was rather bumpy and uncomfortable, but we managed to make it safely to the ground. When we arrived back at the hotel we took a well deserved nap and then headed over to Excalibur to see the Tournament of the Kings. (This is like a Medival Times restaurant and show place). We sat in the France section and cheered on our king. We had tomato soup, chicken, french fries, broccoli and a desert and we ate the whole meal with no silverware. Our king did quite well in the competition and we left the whole event quite happy. We did a little gambling when we arrived back at our hotel. I won 12 cents! I decided to stop while I was ahead! :) Then we turned in for the night.

On Thursday March 20 we ventured down to our hotel's buffet for breakfast. All Las Vegas buffets are massively huge and packed with people. Our buffet was quite typical but it did have good food. As soon as we were finished, I headed off to the spa for a prenatal massage. My wonderful and fantastic husband promised me a massage with the whole Las Vegas package and with all of the walking and general pregnancy crampiness I had been experiencing, I was very excited for the opportunity. I had a great female masseuse who I learned had given Marie Osmond a prenatal massage during her last pregnancy. She had this technique where I stacked myself up on towels and could then lay on my stomach. It was fantastic because I really miss being able to lay on my stomach AND because on my stomach she could really work on my lower back. It was great! After the massage Adam and I again ventured out onto the strip. We walked through Planet Hollywood and the Bellagio. Adam and I ate lunch at Magaritaville. We then headed back towards Excalibur and took the tram over to Mandalay Bay. At Mandalay Bay we went to the Shark Reef and saw sharks as well as many other aquatic creatures. After taking the tram back to Excalibur and walking over to the MGM, we quickly had to change for dinner and our show, Ka. We went to Fiamma, and Italian restaurant at the hotel. It was expensive, but it was delicious. We had these delicate raviolis in this amazing red sauce. Yummy! After dinner, we headed to Ka. Ka is another Cirque du Soleil show. This one is about two imperial twins who get separated and the struggles they face trying to get back to each other. It was another amazing show with a stage that I am confident cannot be equalled anywhere else. With a somewhat sad heart, we headed up to bed knowing that this was our last night in Vegas.

On Friday March 21, we began by stuffing ourselves again at the MGM buffet and then hitting the road to drive back down to Phoenix. This time we did not encounter any snow and actually arrived in Phoenix and to our hotel in under 6 hours. We went to Phoenicia (a Mediterranean restaurant) for lunch and then met up with my whole family at Rhian's new rental house. At the house we got caught up with my parents and their adventures seeing my cousin Amanda in San Francisco and filling them in on our adventures in Las Vegas. Eventually we ordered some great pizza from Oregano's (a local Chicago-style pizza place) and then we all taught my parents how to play King's Corners. Eventually we left Rhian's, dropped my parents off at their bed and breakfast, and then gladly got into our own bed at the Best Western Papago Inn.

On Saturday March 22, we began our day by eating at U.S. Egg again. They have these delicious protein pancakes with all sorts of yummy things inside. Then Adam and I went to the Phoenix Zoo. We saw giraffes, orangutans, squirrel monkeys, zebras, and even some bald eagles. Eventually we got hungry again and met up with my whole family at Phoenicia. Yes, it was the second day in a row of eating there, but it's very good food. After lunch, Adam and I drove around Phoenix with my mom and my sister. Adam's parents lived and were married in Phoenix so we drove around looking for their old residence and church. The residence no longer existed and we're hopeful that we found the church. After our drive, we took Rhian to Sam's Club and then headed to Nordstrom Rack. We bought some more adorable baby clothes and then headed back to my parents bed and breakfast so that they could change for dinner. We went to King's Fish house for dinner. Adam and I both ordered coconut curry shrimp, which was delicious but extremely filling. After dinner we headed back to Rhian's for a bit to gather our chocolate Easter bunnies from my parents and to do some final visiting with Mortimer and the whole family. The night wrapped up by dropping off my parents and then heading back to our hotel.

On Sunday March 23, we again ate breakfast at U.S. Egg. We had our final taste of protein pancakes and then quickly raced to the airport. After dropping off our rental car and checking our bags, we learned our flight was slighly delayed. However, Adam was kind enough to let me play games on his laptop while we waited for our flight to arrive and then board. Adam and I actually managed to sleep for a majority of the flight, which made time pass much faster. And I think that pretty much brings everyone up to speed.

We had a great time and now we are home in cold, often sun-less Columbus weather. Here's to hoping that the sun starts to shine more and the weather gets warmer quickly!

14 Weeks and Growing

2008-03-07T18:09:00.004-05:00

Hello everyone!

Baby reached the ripe old age of 14 weeks this week and with that came another doctor's visit. Adam and I travelled to the doctor on Tuesday March 4. This was our last doctor's appointment with the doctor we know. Next time we will be meeting with a new doctor. Our doctor is retiring on March 14. But, everyone I have talked to about this has really, really recommended another doctor in the practice and that is who we will be seeing from now on. Hopefully we will like her as much as everyone else does.

Adam and I got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time. It was very exciting! It's heart was beating at 155 beats per minute! It took the doctor a while to find the heartbeat and we found out why as soon as we moved on to the ultrasound. This baby NEVER stops moving! :) During the ultrasound the baby was moving all over the place. We got a little wave and saw some kicking feet. The baby even did a few flips just to be sure and show off. It's no wonder the heartbeat was so hard to find because this baby doesn't want to stay still long enough to let anyone listen! :)

Here is a picture of the baby. I know it's a bit hard to see, but I'll explain below.

Baby's head is on the right side at the top. If you look closely you can sort of decipher a face. Coming from the baby's head is a long dark line. This is the baby's spine. Where the baby's spine stops, there is a bit of a blur above the line. That blur is the baby's bottom and legs all curled up. I know you have to use your imagination with these things. It would be much easier if I could show all of you the actual picture. The ultrasound machine prints the pictures on glossy paper and that makes it very hard to scan the pictures well.

In other news, I kept insisting to my mother on Monday night (March 3) that I thought I could feel the baby moving. I said that I couldn't quite put my finger on what exactly I was feeling, just that something felt very different. My mother, even in all of her wisdom, kept insisting that I just had a very vivid imagination and was feeling nothing more than what I "wanted" to be feeling. So, when we got to the doctor on Tuesday, I had to ask her if she thought it was possible that I was feeling the baby. She said that it was completely possible, especially since the baby was very high up in my uterus. So, ha, I am feeling the baby! How cool!

Finally, Adam and I are now counting the hours until we can escape "The Blizzard of 2008" and retreat to the warm and happy bliss of Phoenix, the Grand Canyon, and Las Vegas. (Yes, I do realize that it will not be warm at the Grand Canyon, but it will be VERY warm in Phoenix and moderately warm in Las Vegas!) No matter what, we are both very excited to be getting out of town for a while. We leave next Saturday, March 15 around 12:30 pm. For those interested in the hour count...It is 6:30 pm here so we have about 161 hours until we board our plane. Daylight savings time starts tomorrow, so I included the "sprung" hour in my estimation. I wish we were looking at a mere 18 hours, but I'm not sure we'd be able to get out of town 18 hours from now, so it's probably better that it's 161 hours.

Well, I do hope this posting finds everyone well. We have a 3-D/4-D ultrasound scheduled for April 11 and we should be able to find out the baby's sex at that point. I certainly hope to post again before then, but start preparing your guesses for whether or not you think baby is a boy or a girl. :)

Big Slacker

2008-02-24T18:17:00.007-05:00

Ok, I've had several comments about how I've been a big slacker. I'm very sorry. Days have been passing, but nothing overly exciting has been happening. I've had several days with delays to school and one day off of school. We've had lots of snow and ice. I had parent-teacher conferences on Valentine's Day. My wonderful husband sent me an edible arrangement for Valentine's Day. It had all sorts of yummy fruit in it! My mom and I went to Pittsburgh over President's Day weekend so that I could go to IKEA.

IKEA, as always, was great. I LOVE that store! Check out the pics below:

That's a picture of the crib (actually set up in the baby's room), a picture of what the changing table will look like (there's an extension piece that you can add to actually make it into a changing table), and a musical giraffe (that is one of MANY stuffed animals we got for the baby's room!)

We are very excited, obviously, about everything associated with this baby! I get to go to the doctor again on March 4, so I may have more to update you on at that point. Hope things are well for all of you!

Visiting the Doctor

2008-02-06T17:31:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in a while. There just hasn't been too much going on here. I went out this past weekend and purchased some maternity clothes. I'm certainly not popping out of all of my clothes yet, but they are definitely getting tight. My mom also ordered me 2 "Bella Bands" which are basically extensions to a shirt that will allow you to be able wear your regular clothes longer because you don't have to button everything. I'm really hoping that those work and I'll certainly keep you posted.

Today Adam and I got to make our first actual doctor's visit. We had another ultrasound. The baby now has viewable arms (not just arm buds) and is bigger than at last week. He/she is progressing at the same rate as previously found, which means that I am 10 weeks and 4 days pregnant as of today. I've decided not to post the ultrasound pictures because they were pretty fuzzy and even harder to distinguish than those that are already posted.

We got some sad/frustrating news too. My Ob/Gyn is retiring at the end of March, so I now have to find a new doctor. She recommended some of the other doctor's in her practice, so I'll be checking them out...I guess. :( I'm sure it will all work out, but it does make me a bit sad.

I've been feeling pretty well overall. I'm excited for our Tempe/Grand Canyon/Las Vegas trip that's coming up in a bit more than a month!

I'll keep you all "posted" if anything exciting does happen! :)

Relief and Excitement

2008-01-28T17:32:00.001-05:00

Sunday morning I awoke with a sad surprise. I was having very bad cramps and some other pregnancy symptoms that really scared me. So, I did what any freaking out, hormonally-challenged pregnant woman would do and called the emergency line at my doctor's office. The doctor said to calm down and that all of this worry was likely for nothing. She did say to call again first thing Monday morning and get myself in for an ultrasound. So, no worries, but if I needed an immediate ultrasound, that still left room for worry in my mind. In addition to baby problems, I also had a terrible ear ache. Sunday was a rough day!

Today I did not go to work. With my ear and with knowing that I would have to call the doctor, I just decided that I was supposed to stay at home. So, I called my doctor at 8:30 am this morning, as soon as the office opened. Around 9:30, my doctor's nurse called me back and made me talk through all of my symptoms again. She said that she couldn't get me in to see my doctor, but she could send me to Riverside's Maternal Fetal Medicine. They specialize in high-risk pregnancies there and they could get me in today for an ultrasound.

My appointment was at 3:00 pm this afternoon. I was very nervous, especially since everyone kept reassuring me that everything was probably ok. I think all of the "probably ok's" made me worry more because what if I wasn't one of the lucky ones. As it turned out, however, I had nothing to worry about. :) Phew!

This is a picture of our baby! The head is on the left and the body on the right. You can even make out a bit of an arm bud! The heart bead was 183 beats per minute, which is great! All of this worrying seemed to be for naught. We were even lucky enough to see our little baby move around. Clearly he/she is taking after his/her mother's side of the family and feels the need to show off already! :)

The other exciting news is that the baby is bigger than estimates have previously stated. The baby is the size of a baby that is 9 weeks and 2 days. This means that my due date is now August 30, 2008! Yes, that is very likely as school is starting! Whatever happens, is going to happen and Adam and I are just so excited that everything is ok. Yeah!

One more picture just to show off!

Hope you enjoy these as much as Adam and I are! :)

Fish, Fun, and Breakfast Dreams

2008-01-20T20:17:00.000-05:00

My desire for food has now crept into both my waking and sleeping conscious states!

First, I should tell you about last night. I really, really wanted Stuffed Tilapia from McCormick and Schmick's. I don't know how many of you have been fortunate enough to dine at McCormick and Schmick's, but it is delicious seafood. It is not cheap, but it is good. So, Adam, Mom, and Dad and I headed to McCormick and Schmick's. It was delicious, as always. Then we went and saw "27 Dresses." This was a wonderful movie and I highly recommend it to any of you. Adam went into it thinking it would be your typical "chick-flick" and he actually ended up thinking more highly of it than that. It really was good!

So, I went to sleep when we got home last night, clearly having had a great evening. Round about 3 o'clock this morning when Josey, our eldest cat, started his nightly ritual of scratching our bedroom door, I had to get up and use the restroom. The frequent bathroom trips are getting old very quickly, particularly in the middle of the night. However, when I woke up at 3, I was also very hungry in addition to my bathroom needs. I decided, though, that I was too tired and too cold to drag myself downstairs and actually get some food. So, I snuggled back into bed and went to sleep. I woke up again at 5 am needing yet another bathroom break and was even more hungry. I continued to ignore my stomach and went back to sleep.

At 7:30 am I woke up again. This time my stomach was growling and I had a very vivid memory of the dream I had been having. I had been dreaming of breakfast. I had imagined myself at Waffle House eating cheese 'n' eggs (a childhood favorite), hashbrowns, raisin toast, and grits. Knowing that my growling stomach was getting ever angrier at me, I made Adam get up and drive me to Waffle House. I completely indulged myself in all of the foods from my dream and didn't even have the desire to eat again until 3 pm this afternoon! It was fantastic!

Now, I can only imagine what I might dream about tonight... where will Adam have to take me next? Stay tuned!

Pizza Saves the Day

2008-01-14T18:48:00.000-05:00

Ok, so all day I have felt like poop! I carried around my bathroom trash can with me from about 8 pm last night until I left for school at 6:30 this morning. Even then, I brought the trash can in the car with me because I wasn't sure I'd make it to school. I still haven't actually gotten sick, just kept wishing I would.

Strangely, the only food I really felt like I wanted was pizza. I have no idea why this sounded appealing, since pizza is usually not a food that settles one's stomach. However, since I couldn't stop thinking about it, I decided to give it a try. I stopped on my way home and got some pizza. Ever since eating the pizza I have felt absolutely terrific. I have no idea why pizza turned into such a magic food for me today, but if eating pizza is what is takes to feel well, I guess I'll be a regular customer.

Well, hate to keep it short, but I've got water aerobics to get to and both mommy and baby can use some exercise! Take care everyone!

Blah and Yeah!!

2008-01-09T06:11:00.000-05:00

Well, the symptoms continue to come. :) I've had funny cramps and have been making many trips to the bathroom. My tummy doesn't seem to like it when I eat anything besides saltines. And, while I love saltines, I don't think I will be able to survive the next several weeks with just eating them!

Because of the funny cramps, I called the doctor. She wanted me to come in and have some blood drawn so that they could potentially determine what may be happening. They've pretty much determined that all funny cramping is pregnancy related and that the baby is actually doing quite well. When you are pregnant, they measure the amount of HcG in your blood. This is basically a hormone that (approximately) doubles every three days. This is no exact science, but the number can help to date the pregnancy. My number is 30, 763 which is higher than the doctor would necessarily expect at this point and she assured me this is a very good sign.

So, I will continue to visit my porcelain friend with the knowledge that at least all of these trips will eventually lead to a happy, healthy baby! I'll try to update again soon! Take care everyone!

The Big Announcement

2008-01-04T19:30:00.000-05:00

Well, the time has finally come for the Smith household to join the new century and start a blog. This seems most appropriate at the time because...I am pregnant!

I haven't had any horrible symptoms yet - some queasiness, but I haven't actually gotten sick. :)

We've had the big "family" reveals now, so I figured I could reveal it to anyone else who may be interested. :)

The likely due date is early September, but we won't actually see the doctor until February 6. She may give us a more specific guess at the date at that point. We also have an ultrasound on that day, so we'll get our first peek at our growing baby! I'll definitely be posting some pictures on that day!

Well, not too much else to add for right now. I'll keep posting as things get more interesting! Stay tuned!