Kai laughs

This was the second time he really laughed. It's so fun!!

Yeah, I know

When Kai was a couple weeks old mom took these pics...




Ok, lets get past the fact that I'm a lazy moron and never blog anymore. Or I'm a mom....whatever! :P
So Kai is 16 weeks old now...4 months. Craziness. At his 2 month appointment he was 12 pounds. The last time he was measured was at 6 weeks, he was 22 inches. His 4 month appointment should be soon, so we'll get an update on that. He's getting big so fast!! And I can't wait to be able to start feeding him cereal! For the last couple months he's been sleeping through the night every night. Sometimes its just hard to get him to go to sleep. We rock him for a while to get him asleep, he just fights it so much.
I started back to work on October 29th, its been hard, and I miss Kai every day!
Rob's aunt passed away so we went to her funeral up north on October 30th. It was Rob's dad's sister. That was the first time I ever saw Dennis cry, it was heartbreaking. He spoke at the funeral and he's an impressive public speaker, I was humbled.
My sister, April, was kind enough to take our offer for her to live with us and to take care of Kai while we are at work. She's working for Rob in the evenings. Its so nice to have someone I know watching him, and not having to pay for daycare or a sitter. I am so grateful for it!
For Halloween Kai was a lobster...and a very cute one at that.

We took him around with my siblings and neices and nephews in my mom's neighborhood while they trick-or-treated.

Rob was...himself, Josh was a....yeah...well, he was a "special friend", April insists she was 80's, but people kept thinking she was a hooker...I was a lunch lady, Gwennie was a rock star, Brycen and Maddie were vampires, Owen was Darth Vader, and Skylar was a grim reaper? I think, and Lelah was a cheetah!...They were all very cute.

Kai's blessing was the first weekend in November, and my grandpa Lockwood blessed him. It was a very nice blessing, and of course Kai screamed through it, and then puked all down the front of my grandpa on the way back to the seats. We had a luncheon at mom's after it, and it was so nice to have everyone there. I was happy to have Grandpa bless him, because he's who blessed me when I was a baby.



We finally did family pictures, it had been 5 years since our last ones, and we had 4 new family members! Here's a taste of some good ones:






For Thanksgiving we had a wonderful dinner at Rob's parents. Kai was so good, he ate right before our dinner was ready, then he fell asleep and stayed asleep while we ate!
I was appointed to plan our work Christmas party, which is on my birthday, so I hope I get it all figured out and it goes well!
I finally made a birth announcement for Kai that I was ok with:

I will try better to not wait so long to post!! I also need to post the video of Kai's first laughs!!

This just in....I'm a slacker!

I get so busy and tired so often now, I'm slacking on blogging. Kai's napping, but might not be for long...so I'll update you all.
A few weeks ago Kai had a Dr. appointment at 6 weeks. He was 11 lbs, 5 oz, and 22 inches long. He's getting so big. he's in the 77th percentile in weight. That might be because I had no idea how much I should be feeding him and turns out I feed him more than my 5 month old niece eats! oops! I've tried to slowly cut down, but then Kai acts like he's starving all the time. So we're trying to work on that. Kai's been really good most nights. We've had a couple where I'm up until 1, and once I was up til 4 am, but also a couple nights where he slept for 8 hours straight. So I'm very thankful for that.
He hasn't been too happy with his swing or bouncer, which sucks, because if I want to shower I have to wait for him to fall asleep enough to put him down, and then he usually wakes up while I'm in the shower, so that's been tough. I am the kind of person who gets irritated if I can't finish something I've started, so if I start getting ready, I just want to be done with it. Hopefully it will get easier.
Kai gets his shots this week, so that will be sad for me. I feel so bad when he's hurting. He's been pretty gassy/colicky so he can get pretty fussy and pained.
My mom took some pictures of him when he was a couple weeks old, so I will post those when I have the laptop, and she just took some more pics today that I will post when I get them!
But I hear my little man stirring from his nap, so I am off!!

Kai's birth story.

Ok. Of course having the new baby, its crazy to find the time to even blog anymore. My memory is failing me, so I hope I get all my details right! I guess I tell long stories, so sorry if this is a bit boring, But here we go!

After the blog that I wrote on August 18th, where I was having more painful contractions and questioning if I should call the Dr. and what-not. So finally at like 4 pm, I called the Dr office, and got voicemail, so I left a message saying I thought I was having contractions, but didn't want to go to the hospital and be sent home if it wasn't labor, and could I come by and be seen by the doctor. One of the girls from the Dr office called me back and said, "Can you come in right now?" so we grabbed my bag (just in case, but I really didn't think I'd need it, I figured we'd be home in a little while), and we headed to the doctor.
At about 4:45 pm, we went in, of course they checked my blood pressure and urine. The blood pressure was way up and there was protein in my urine. Then the Dr checked me (painful as hell), and I was dilated about 3-4, he said I was in early labor and I had a choice to make. He said, "You can go home, if you want to be comfortable there and come back when labor progresses more, or I can call Labor & Delivery and tell them you are coming over." I got really nervous. Rob asked, "If she goes to Labor and Delivery, is there a possibility that we'll be sent home? Or are they going to move things along?". Dr. Lunt said, "No, things are moving along anyway, but we'll probably do some pitocin to keep things going along." As scared as I was, I said, "Well, my mom would be mad if I didn't just go over, so let's do it!" The nurse walked us through the back way from their office to Labor and Delivery. As they passed us to an L&D CNA, I started crying. I felt so stupid, but I was realizing that this was it! I was so scared. She turned and saw me crying and asked if I was ok. I told her I was just scared. They wanted more urine, and when I was in the bathroom, I realized I was bleeding quite a bit, but I figured it was expected.

I got into a hospital gown and into bed. It was about time for the shift change, so I didn't see a nurse until the new one started at 6 pm. The CNA worked on getting things all ready for me, and Rob had called my mom on the way over here, so she showed up pretty quick after we did...heck, she almost beat us there! When the nurse finally came in, her name was Nicole, and she was the nicest girl ever! She was so great and I am so glad we had her! She got my IV going and said I needed to have a full bag of fluid emptied into me before I could get an epidural.
See, I hadn't been totally positive that I was going to get an epidural, but the pains I was having were so bad. I had really bad back labor all day, and it got so much worse once we were at the hospital, I couldn't even feel the contractions in my abdomen anymore, just the horrible back pain. My mom always tells me that I have a low pain tolerance, and I figured I did, but I just wanted to see how things were going to go. But the pain was bad enough to justify the epidural...why have all that pain if I don't have to?
Rob and my mom hadn't eaten, so at about 7 or 7:30 I told Rob to go get something for them. While he was gone I finished my bag of fluid, but I told them I wanted to wait for Rob to get back before I got the epidural. As they were getting things ready for the epidural, our nurse aparently had to go talk to her manager, so the nurse down the hall came in to get things ready. BLAH!!! It was the nurse that helped us when we had to go in to L&D in May, when I was having the first hydronephrosis pains. I was very unimpressed with her then, and when she walked in, from the look on my mom's face, I could tell it was a nurse she did NOT like, and had talked to me about. GREAT! She was pretty rough with me as she got me in position for the epidural, etc. She told my mom that only one person could be in ther with me when they put the epidural in, so my mom said it would be Rob, so when it was time for my mom to step out, that nurse escorted her way down the hall to a waiting room, by her arm. What the hell?? Is my mom a criminal? Thank goodness that was the last we saw of that nurse. When my nurse, Nicole, came back in, I asked if my mom talked to her about that nurse, and she said, "No, she just said that the nurse stressed you out", so I told her we've had bad experiences with her before, so she said that she wouldn't be back in there, she promised. Thank goodness.
So time for the epidural...that was an experience. It was just after 8 pm. Rob sat in front of me and put pressure on my knees to keep me from moving forward or jolting. The nurse held me at my shoulders...couldn't tell if it was to keep me still or be reassuring! It was pretty bad. When the needle went in I felt the most painful shock down my spine, and down my left leg. I shreiked so loud. I was bawling and I think Rob felt so bad and didn't know what to do. Finally the pains subsided and the nurse told me I did so good. She said most people jerk forward, and some have to have it done again, but I held perfectly still. It only seemed to numb my left side at first. I could still feel on the right, so I had some pains still during the contractions. After a while they propped me up to help "drain" some of the meds to the right side. It did help a lot. I could still feel a tiny bit, but it was good to feel when the contractions were. The nurse was excited to check me and see how far I was. I was a 5, couple hours later I was 5-6.
We let my sister-in-law, Jalee know that things were going on their way, so she came over around 10pm, I think. Dr. Lunt had come in before the epidural and said he didn't want to check me until I had the epidural, since when he checked in his office, it was so painful. I had been shaking like crazy since before the epidural, which is something I do when I am in pain anyway, and nervous, but it also happens in labor. I shook like crazy until after I had Kai. Rob kept feeling bad thinking I was cold, but I wasn't I was so hot. But Rob, mom, and Jalee were freezing the whole time. They said the room was very cold. I asked the nurse for warm blankets for them, but that didn't seem to last long, they got cold quick again.
I hadn't eaten since lunch, so I was starving, but I couldn't eat. They said I could have liquids, so finally I got some yummy grape juice (Jalee's suggestion of hospital juices), and broth, which was TASTY, since I was starving!
All of us were laughing and joking, the nurses probably thought we were crazy. Around 2 a.m., I was dilated to a 10. They wanted me to stay at a 10 for a while to allow Kai's head to cone more to come out easier. Since I had the epidural it wasn't painful, but I did feel quite a bit of pressure with each contraction, and I would tense up my muscles automatically and would try to relax. They turned my light off and try to sleep...yeah right. After an hour they were back to get things moving. The nurse and CNA were there to get me pushing to get Kai down more. They told me that with first births, its usually about 3 hours of pushing. I was quite a bit nervous about that because I was so tired, and hadn't slept in about 20 hours. I hoped I had the energy. My mom had a leg, and Rob was by my head to support my back with each push. I was thinking "Ok...here we go!" I had heartburn all day, and they gave me some Malox, but it hadn't helped. At the end of each push, I could feel the acid burn my throat and I felt like I was going to puke. They gave me a barf bag and finally it came into use. I almost felt like my pushing wasn't doing any good. I felt like I wasn't really pushing enough. The nurse kept saying how good I was doing and that he was moving down good. They started saying they could see his head and the nurse was trying to see what color his hair was. After a while with each push they could all see his head and all the hair he had. (I was so glad, I thought he was going to be bald!) An hour later the doctor got there and after a few pushes Kai's head was out and the doctor told me to sit back and relax, and he'd do the rest, and within seconds, Kai was out at 4:27 a.m., After 21 hours of labor. His little cry sounded like a car's motor trying to start, it was so sweet! Everything after that was such a blur! Rob held him first, and called his parents. I did tear, and the spot lights in the room weren't working so we had a portable spotlight that the dr was trying to work with, but he'd move and his head would block the light, so the stitching up took FOREVER! Finally I looked at him and said, "Are you stitching the whole thing up??" :P Kai was 8 pounds, 5 ounces, and 19 1/2 inches long. Rob's parents came and left, and the nurses wanted me to try nursing. By then I was SOO SOO tired, and it was a little frustrating. Kai was making little grunting sounds like a pig, it was so funny. We then got moved to the mom and baby floor and they had me try nursing again, and by then I was just like, "C'MON!! Just let me SLEEP!!!" It was after 7 am, and I had been up for 24 hours, Rob and I were so tired. Kai was in the little cart, and slept so quietly while we did for a few hours. He ended up having jaundice, and we had to stay an extra day. I really didn't mind. I had a hard time leaving, I cried as I packed my stuff to leave the hospital, it was nice to have people to help, and now we had to leave and face this alone. And the hospital food was REALLY GOOD! But....it was crazy that it was over and he was here.

Baby Kai

I will have to find some time to do a birth story, but for now I'll just update. Kai was born on Wednesday, August 19th, at 4:27 am. He was 8 lbs 5 oz, and 19 1/2 inches long. He's got blonde hair, and grey-blue eyes, he looks so much like Rob. In my last blog I mentioned how miserable I was, well, thats because I really was in labor. Good to know! We ended up staying a night longer than we were going to in the hospital because Kai had Jaundice, but he had the light treatments, and I think he's doing ok. Last night being our first night home was pretty hard, he's got his days and nights mixed up, and since I didn't have him until early morning, I had spent a day in labor with no sleep, so I still can't manage to catch up. I got maybe an hour and a half, or two hours last night. Everyone keeps saying "sleep when he does", so I'll be trying to do that so I can catch up a little.

Kai is so precious and I love him so much, and its so awesome to see Rob in his Dad role. Rob's been amazing. He stayed at the hospital with me the whole time except to stop by the house twice to get somthing. He helps me with feedings and anything else I need. He's even at the store as we speak getting girl things for me! Now I have 2 amazing men in my life and I couldn't be happier!

Lame

So this morning I woke up to some contractions that were crampy and my lower back hurt pretty bad. I was spotting a tad yesterday morning and this morning. I tried to sleep a little, but kept waking up to the crampy feeling.
I finally decided to get up and shower, etc. I had a few contractions during all that, but then when I sat down they started getting worse. They were about 4-7 minutes apart for a while, then eased up a little after a couple hours and are now like anywhere from 5-20 minutes apart. I keep thinking maybe I'll call the Dr and see what I should do, but I have an appointment tomorrow morning, so maybe I'll just wait until then. I just hope things don't happen in the middle of the night....that would just stress me out.
Maybe I'll go lay down.... :(

7 Days....

7 Days....makes me think of "The Ring" but really, its 7 days until my due date. I was hoping that I wasn't going to be sitting around wasting my maternity leave on bedrest. But, alas.....no baby yet.
Here's me at 38 weeks and 4 days (gotta love my 87 chins and the maternity shirt that Jalee gave me that doesn't really fit, but I don't have much else!):

I've been havng quite a few contractions, sometimes they get regular, and they're getting stronger, but not productive yet.
Tuesday I had my dr appointment. My blood pressure was way high. Something like 162 over 90. They checked me and I'm almost 2 cm dilated and 80% thinned. She stripped my membranes, but if labor doesn't start in 24 hours, it didn't work...so yeah, didn't work. They reiterated the fact that I need to NOT do anything, no cleaning, no shopping, no sex (there goes that labor-inducing idea), etc. I go back this wednesday. On Thursday I went to the stress-test fetal monitoring, and my blood pressure was a lot better, I only had 3 contractions during the half hour, but they were stronger than last time. My amniotic fluid was a tad lower than they like, so they want to see me twice a week now, so I have another appointment for that tomorrow.
Friday night Rob's parents brought us Cafe Rio! YUM! That was so awesome of them! :D Yesterday and Today Rob has been doing a lot of cleaning, since I can't. But he's been amazing about it. He makes me food, cleans the kitchen, and anything else I need. It's nice that he's being so helpful because I really wanted the house clean before the baby comes.
Last monday a little birdie brought me some crib bedding!! Thank you!!!! So we're FINALLY completely ready in the baby's room. I had wanted to do a tropical/underwater theme, but everything was so expensive, so this works just as well, and I really do love it. The whole room isn't very fancy, so here's just a picture of the crib:

And now that Rob cleaned off the desk, Gizmo has a new place she likes to call her domain. And now if there's ANYTHING on the desk, she likes to knock it off on to the floor! (she's such a turd)

Gizmo has some really bad matted fur right now, we try to brush her a lot, but she just likes to attack the brush. The matts have been pretty easy to brush out or cut out before, but now I think we might have to break down and pay $100 for a groomer to shave her. It's so bad. (and I can't believe it costs that much!!)
My friend, Cami, brought her 5 month old over the other day to visit me and Gizmo did NOT know what to think of that! She hasn't been around any babies or anything, so she just watched from across the room very intently, then gradually came over to take a look, but just for a second. It will be interesting to see how the cats react with a baby here all the time!
Well, I am hoping that Kai decides to come soon or I'm going to go crazy on bedrest! And I am so sore all the time, that needs to end.

Getting yelled at.

My family kept giving me a hard time all weekend. My mom had a lunch at her house yesterday because we had some family in town, so I went over there to SIT AROUND. I personally figured sitting at home and sitting somewhere else was about the same. BUT others didn't agree. "Aren't you supposed to be on bedrest?!?" was the constant question. Yeah yeah yeah. The lunch was good and it was really nice to see everyone. And a couple family members hadn't met Rob before, so I wanted him to meet them. They were having a community yard sale in my mom's neighborhood, and on our way to my moms house I saw a baby swing, so we had to go check it out. That was one thing I didnt have yet, so we looked and it was only $5, so we had to get it. Rob cleaned it up today, and it's as good as new! :D That evening was my neice's birthday celebration because all of Jalee's family was in town. The kids all were playing on the slip'n'slide. I was saying maybe I should go ahead and play on it with them, maybe get some labor going! :D
Today was my neice's baby blessing. Lots of family was there, so it was really nice to be there. Its so awesome to see my brother bless all of his children, I'm so proud of him and his worthiness to be able to do that. After sacrament we got some family pics out front (hopefully I can snag a copy off Jalee's blog soon), then my grandpa and my brother gave me a Preisthood blessing. I was very grateful that I was able to get one before the baby comes. My grandpa is also going to bless my baby when he's here. I'm glad for that, because he's who blessed me when I was a baby.
I am still pretty swollen, we went to Walmart today (before you yell at me, I rode on the motorized wheelchair!)I checked my blood pressure on the machine there, and it was 148 over 88. So still a bit high :/ One of Josh and Jalee's friends was talking to me after the blessing today and said, "Don't be surprised if at your next Dr. appointment, he tells you that you're blood pressure is still too high, and they tell you that you'll be induced that day, and walk you over to labor and delivery." Its probably true, I heard him tell someone that last week. So I guess we'll see what he says with how this appointment goes, PLUS the blood and urine they took last week, and the monitoring. I still have had some mild contractions, but nothing monumental. My next appointment is Tuesday, I guess we'll see what the dr says!

Resting

Warning: may contain TMI
So yesterday started with me losing my mucus plug. I wondered what this meant for me. Would I start having stronger contractions? Would other weird stuff follow?? Well, not right away. My mom came and got me and we went and picked up my urine collection kit...YAY. I hung out at my moms for a while and began collecting my urine in her fridge. My step dad was none too thrilled to hear about that. My mom helped me to make sure the nun's cap I was peeing in would pour nicely in my brown jug, and was convinced that I started having the "bloody show". Then I had to go get monitored at the fetal monitoring office at the labor and delivery unit. (so much for bedrest!) My mom and Rob came with me and I had to make sure that on this outing I didn't have to go to the bathroom, because we had to leave my pee jug in the fridge. I made it alright. I was hooked up to the machine for just over a half hour. My blood pressure was A LOT better 143 over 84. Kai's heartbeat was good, and I had 5 contractions in the time I was there, but they were mild. The tech monitoring me said she thought it wouldn't be long before the baby was here, with all the contrating and the baby being so low. I guess we'll see. I keep having contractions off and on, but nothing strong.
Rob worked all night last night, and I think he was a little worried about me. I told him I'd be fine. And I was...other than not getting much sleep because I can't get comfortable AND because when Rob's gone, I don't sleep well. This morning my mom came to get me and my jug of chunky urine to take to the lab. They had to take my blood (again, I hate needles) and the girl looked to be about 16. I was worried she wouldn't do well. It took her a while to get my vein up and she even suggested using my other arm, but I promptly told her "No, that vein rolls!" So she figured it out and got the vein, but I could tell she wasn't quite a pro, I could definately feel every time she changed the vial. With that done, I called the Dr's office to let them know I didn't get everything done wednesday night, but it was done now. But I'll probably have to wait til monday to hear anything about my urine, blood, and monitoring.
I'll just hope things start moving along on their own, since I can't go walking or any other stuff to move things along. *crossing fingers*
But to end on a really good note, Rob is sooo good to me, he's been cleaning up and making me dinner and everything. And now he's asleep on the recliner since he worked all night. Poor boy!

37 weeks and 3 days...what do you get?

Bedrest.
I had a Dr. appointment today. When the nurse started taking my blood pressure, she says, "HOLY COW, your blood pressure is high!!! Do you have a headache or anything??" I said no. So they had me lay down for a minute and checked it again. It had gone down, but I guess it was bad enough that they said I couldn't go back to work. In a way its good, today was the last day of Month End for Accounts Payable, so I got Robyn trained on it. BUT I wasn't expecting to not go back to work yet. So THAT stressed me out a little. There's still so much that I have to do and get ready before I start my Maternity Leave...but Oh well! I have to stop working. I hope things at work go ok. :/
I have to go get blood work in the morning and then I have to collect my urine for 24 hours....and keep it in the fridge...."WHAT?!" I dunno, but they want every drop to check for protein, etc. I have to go to the hospital and be monitored once a week to make sure the baby is not stressed and see how I am doing. If it stays bad or gets worse, they will induce me early. If not, they're hoping things progress on their own. The dr. thinks that in 7-14 ish days I'll be a mom. Crazy. I haven't progressed much. I am dilated 1.5 cm, and thinned 70%. The exam about killed me today and I am cramping in my abdomen and back a little. I have been having Braxton Hicks contractions more, and some get a bit uncomfortable. I hope things progress quickly because this bedrest thing is going to get old fast. And its stressful to just be sitting here not being helpful at work, home, etc. I know its only going to help me and baby Kai, but its hard for me to just let go and relax. :(
So tomorrow starts my Maternity Leave. I just hope Kai comes soon, so I'm not wasting my leave by just hanging out watching soap operas! :P
I will try to keep my blog updated, so you all know how its going.
I will leave you with a couple cool pics my wonderful mother took this weekend. Yes, its my bare belly, which I have refused to post on here so far! EEK

Getting closer?

This is me at 36 weeks and 4 days (my lips are blue because of the shaved ice I was craving!):

Went to the doctor on wednesday. Had to have the Strep B test...girls...not so fun! But I got checked and I am thinned 60-70%, dilated 1 cm, cervix is soft and baby's head is down. I have 22 days left, but everyone thinks I'll be early. I kind of hope so, but I have to wait until after this wednesday! I'm still training people to cover me while I'm on maternity leave. I have had a LOT of pain in my hips and pubic bone. It feels like someone wrapped a chain around my pubic bone and tied it to a mack truck on the freeway...so it feels nice as you can imagine! :P My ankles are so swollen, and don't go down at night anymore. They're ridiculously huge! I can only wear flip flops now, and almost all of my maternity clothes no longer fit. I've been having Braxton Hicks contractions quite a bit, so I guess my body is getting ready. Also....we have decided on a name! Kai Tanner Dammann. Rob kept coming back to that, and I liked it a lot too, but I really wanted Rob to have a big part of choosing it. We're getting very excited and I am also getting very nervous. We didn't do a birthing class because we wanted to save the money, so I hope Rob will be ready for this.
Gizmo has been such a turd, she's been getting into everything and knocks everything of counters, tables, the desk, everywhere, but this is how she likes to lay now, shes funny: SUPERMAN!!!! (I think she's just hot and trying to cool of on the tile)

31 days and counting..

One month until the baby is here!! So crazy to think. I had a Dr. appointment on tuesday, everything's still going good. I'm measuring perfect and all seems well. My feet are still swelling like mad, and I'm still getting migraines. :(
I just keep checking my blood pressure to make sure I'm ok. Lately if I don't eat in a couple hours I get SOO shakey, lightheaded, sweaty, and hot. So I just gotta keep up on that. I am definately to the point of being DONE! I feel so huge and swollen and nothing fits me right now and my hips and pubic bone hurt all the time. In the evening I am so stiff. But one good thing is Rob's gotten to feel the baby move a ton lately. He sticks his foot or butt out a ton and it amazes Rob. Rob also will pull me to him and kiss my stomach, its so cute. I'm so excited and so freaked out at the same time. We have the car seat in the car and my bag is pretty much packed. I just wonder how my cats are going to handle this! :P I still don't know what I'm going to do after my maternity leave, I have to work, but don't want my baby in day care. I'm just praying that something works out. Or maybe I'll have to change jobs. Thats the LAST thing I want to do! My job pays well and I enjoy it, no other job will pay as good right now. Too bad Rob doesn't make double his pay!
My next Dr. appointment is next wednesday, I guess we'll see how that goes. I'll be 36 weeks, maybe they'll start checking me?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Happy Birthday to my best friend, Sharise!
Sharise, I am so glad we've been friends for so many years. You've been there for me through everything and I cannot thank you enough for everything you've ever done for me. You're so amazing and I WISH WISH WISH you lived closer to me. I miss you and hope your birthday weekend was wonderful! Love you!!

Last week (week 33) and stuff

This was last week at 33 weeks:

Today I am 34 weeks. SO CRAZY. We started getting the baby's room a little more ready. Not exciting enough for pictures yet, I still don't have my bedding, but we have the crib, dresser, and an extra twin size bed all set up where they're going to be. Its so weird that its getting so close. I'm washing some of his blankies and clothes right now, and I'll be getting a hospital bag packed this week.
At work we had our annual "Freedom Breakfast" at work this week and I helped Paula decorate for a few hours, my feet were CRAZY swollen! They've been pretty swollen consistantly lately, they did go down one day, so I took a picture:
then I got one of the day after decorating to see the swelling: (I'm lucky any shoes fit!)

We had Maddie and Brycen over for a night a couple weekends ago, it was pretty fun, we ate pizza, played Rock Band and other Xbox games, and had fondue!! We finally broke out our fondue set we got for our wedding from my cousins Shawna and Jason, it was WAY GOOD and WAY FUN!

Lately Gizmo has a new place to lay, she's so funny!

Rob and I ate at Panda Express the other day and when he openned his fortune he just smiled and handed it to me. I said, "What do you think it means?" and he said, "The baby!" It was soooo cute

Yesterday the girls at work gave me a baby shower, it was way fun and the food was sooo good. Here are some pictures from it. Ok...in all reality I am SWOLLEN ALL OVER. I look sooo huge!! :/





And although this is very blurry, I wanted to post it anyway, this was the girls from the shower Amanda, Marge, me, my mom, Cheri, Paula, Michelle, and Debbie. Cheri is the girl in front of my mom, and she is pregnant, and due 4 days before me. Shes so small!! :P

My doctor appointments have gone ok, I had to go two weeks in a row because my blood pressure was up quite a bit, but its gone down now. Things are looking ok. But I have had a few more migraines in the last few weeks, which is torture, All I can do is take tylonol, and lay down with a cold rag on my head and try to sleep.
I think I've had a Braxton Hicks contraction or two in the past couple weeks, but that's it. I've been watching my belly move around a lot when the baby moves, its so fun!
We're still thinking through a couple names....so hopefully this kid has a name when he's here! I tell Rob maybe we need to see him first, and he said, "I don't think its going to help me to see him, unless I can see him when he's like 14!" hahaha. Hopefully we figure it out!

Baby Shower at moms

I hadn't blogged but 2 pictures from this, but I'm finally doing so. I didn't have a lot, but here are a couple more: (beginning of June)

Michael

When I was little I seriously thought I was going to marry Michael Jackson, I dont know how...he's my mom's age, but I really believed it. Too funny. As I heard the news today, I felt the world had lost an icon. As strange as things got with him in the last 15 years, he is an amazing artist that has had a HUGE impact on music. My very first record (yes, it was a single, but a record) was Thriller, I listened to that SOO MUCH!!! And I could watch that video and the "making of Thriller" over and over when I was little, and even knew most of the dance! Another thing I thought of was his movie "Moonwalker" (1988). I made my brother watch that like 500 times with me! One of my favorite parts of it was this (some TALENTED kids):

If you watch the real video, the kid does an AMAZING job at doing ALL of Michael's mannerisms!
I was pretty shocked to hear the news today, but I hope him and his family find peace.
When I was little, this is the poster I had on my wall, all but their faces was covered in my sticker collection, but I would stare at this every day and think, "we're getting married". A little funny!


I know I haven't blogged in a while, but I'll try to get a more personal one in the next day or two! :P

Diagnosis: Hydronephrosis

So that's what they say it is. The baby is squishing my kidneys and ureturs and backing my kidneys up, causing intense pain, etc. I've been alright since then, so I'll hope that it was a one time thing. :S I'm surprised that something like that could hurt so bad, but apparently you have lots of nerve endings in your kidneys and anything with them can be quite painful.
Baby's been kicking a lot more lately, which is fun. I can feel his hiccups now, usually.
My baby shower was Saturday, and was so fun!! Thanks you to everyone who was able to make it, I was very grateful for all of you there!
My mom still needs to get me some pictures, but here are some I stole from her blog:
The awesomely cute and DELICOUS cake that Amanda made me:

Opening the blanket my Aunt Carolyn made:

Before my shower, we really didn't have ANYTHING. My mom and Dave got me a crib, its so cute, I'll have to post pics when his room is done. Rob put the crib together Sunday morning, it was cute, he got up early and everything. Rob's mom and dad got us a stroller and car seat. We got a lot of diapers, wipes and tons of other cute stuff. I'll post more pictures when my mom gets them to me. We had some really good food and about 20 or more people showed up. I want to thank my mom for putting the shower on for me. She's so awesome, and I know she had a lot to do and worry about, but I appreciate it so much. My sister, Madison helped so much, I'm so grateful for her! And Sharise helped by bringing a salad, and getting the prizes for the games. Thanks EVERYONE!!!
Rob and some of the guys went to the lake for the day, we got Dave to go and he actually tried wakeboarding!! He got up right away, but just needs to get the hang of staying up sideways, its hard to get a handle on sometimes. And Rob finally got to wakeboard for the first time this summer, so I was glad they were all able to go.
75 days left to go until our little baby is here!!! I guess we better figure out that name!! :S

Not so awesome...

2 weeks ago I was having back pain and cramps, I called my doctor and they said they were closing the office, so I needed to go to labor and delivery. I said, "even if there's no blood, or anything, I still need to go?" and the lady said, "Yes, anytime you have cramping, back pain, and/or pressure, you need to go be checked". I was pretty bugged, feeling like nothing would be wrong, I just wanted the reassurance from the Dr. office....well, didn't get that. So one of the nurses at my work said maybe it was a UTI, so she had a cup and a dipstick available (of course) so she checked my urine. She said there wasn't infection, but that there was a trace of blood. That freaked me out enough to pull Rob away from work and go to L&D. So we went.
I laid there in a gown, with monitors on my belly. It was pretty cool to sit and listen to our baby have the hiccups, since I couldn't feel them. They said that there was a trace of blood, but they didn't know why. They said the baby seemed fine, was moving and had a good heartbeat. They took blood and some kind of fetal/cervix test to see if there were signs of labor. After 4 hours, they said everything looked ok, and to follow up with my Dr. the next day they were open. Blah....I knew it was pointless, but I guess its better to know. When I went to the dr, he said that it could be kidney stones, but I hadn't really had any problems since the hospital, so he said we'd watch and see how I felt, if I did ok, they'd just shrug their shoulders and keep going.
A few nights ago, I was tossing and turning because my back was killing me. When I got out of bed, it eased up and was fine. Then the next night (night before last night), my back was hurting REALLY bad and kept me up, when I got out of bed, I figured it'd get better, but it just kept hurting no matter what I did. It was just on the right side this time. Then when I went to the bathroom, yep blood visible in my urine. I had some deadlines at work, so I had to go in. I felt like I was dying, it hurt so bad. I had a Dr. appointment set up for 4 that afternoon, and I called to see if I could get any earlier, but still have time to get my work done. I was able to move it to 2. I tried my hard to just focus through the pain and just get what I needed done. I got done at noon, and made Rob take me home. I laid down and put a heating pad on my back for a couple hours. The pain eased up quite a bit, and after peeing blood all morning, that also stopped. So by the time I got to the Dr, I had nothing to show for my miserable morning. They decided it was time to send me to get an ultrasound on my kidneys. They said its very painful to pass stones, and there's not much you can do about it, you just wait for them to pass. They might have to put a stint in to help it pass though. They took urine to test for infection, and sent me to the hospital for the ultrasound. They also sent me away with a prescription for Lortab. I don't really want to take it, but if I am hurting like yesterday, I will. I was supposed to find out the results today, but they never called. I called and left a message, then tried again at 5, but they'd already turned their phones over for the night. So I'll try again tomorrow. I really want to know whats going on. I wasn't really hurting much at all today. But there's gotta be a reason for all that pain and the peeing blood, right??
And ohhhh....tomorrow is another thing anyway.....I failed my glucose test last week, so I have to go in for the 3 hour test tomorrow! The glucose drink really isn't all that bad, but they have to take blood 4 times while I am there....and I HATE needles!!!!! So I'm not excited for that. And I have to fast for 12 hours...the earliest I can go in is 8 am, and I won't get out until 11. I'll be HUNGRY!! So anyone who doesn't know about the glucose testing...they have to check to see how your body is producing insulin and handling sugars. If you fail the tests you have Gestational Diabetes. And depending on how severe, you might just have to adjust your diet, and check your blood daily, or even have to have insulin shots or pills. So I hope I pass it!
I am now 28 weeks and 4 days pregnant...I have 80 days left. Crazy. My baby shower is saturday, so I am excited for that. My friend and coworker, Amanda made my cake and it is SOO CUTE!! I'll have to post pics of the shower and the cake after saturday. Rob and some of the guys are going to the lake while we have our "girl time", so at least he'll be occupied.
Rob has been so good with everything with me. He takes care of me and checks on me a lot at work. I'm so lucky to have him. He's the best!
28 weeks: (feeling like a cow)