The Promised Update

The visit last week went well. I am doing great, just very tired because I am not sleeping like I used to. My midwife has now added melatonin at night and I am sleeping much better. I still wake up all the time, but at least now I fall right back to sleep. The baby is measuring a little big, but the midwife thinks it is because I have a "low" pelvis. To be on the safe side, we are getting another ultrasound to make sure I am not going to deliver a 10lb baby (the thought is frightening as I know how big a 10lber is as my youngest brother was a whopping 10lbs at birth). I am hopping for more of the 7-8 lb range as I am shoot for an all natural birth. The baby's heart beat was just as it should be. I am so excited. Our little one still enjoys kicking and now gets hiccups every other day or so in the morning, well actually the baby has hiccups right now as I am typing. It is such an interesting feeling. Well, I am loving being pregnant and I am so in love with our little baby and I love my darling husband, so I guess I could say I am loving life right now.

Here is me at 25 weeks...watch out, I am getting BIG! 3 more months to go.

Baby Tai

Leann emailed me about this new baby carrier. It is so stinking cute! They are having a drawing for a free sling. Just wanted to let you-all know.

Here is the website ...
http://www.babytai.com/

Update on the Cygnet (baby Swann)

I have decided that the baby is already taking after it's father. It enjoys wiggling, kicking, wiggling, summersaulting, and wiggling all the time. The only time it is still is when I am moving, or if Randy really wants to feel the baby move. The moment he puts his hand on my belly, the baby calms down and falls asleep. It is quite funny how frustrated Randy gets. I just hope the baby will continue to calm so easily with his touch after it is born. Then, if the baby is screaming and upset, I will just hand it (I keep wanting to write her, but Randy says it is not fair to try to sway the votes) to dad and the baby will go to sleep. Oh the baby has also starting hiccuping. It is the weirdest feeling. I made the mistake of drinking sparkling cider with Valentine's Day dinner and oh my the baby just about went crazy with all the extra sugar. It was the one time that Randy hasn't been able to calm the baby. He was amazed and kept saying "it is bouncing of the walls, isn't it?" I think my insides are slightly bruised because of how tender I felt this morning. Pregnancy is so interesting.

Well, other than the baby, life is pretty much the same. Randy had me come to class with him 2 weeks ago and I got to be the story lady. I read my favorite children's book to his class. It is called "Itzy Bitzy House" by Christine Morton-Shaw. It is so much fun to read. The class he is with this semester is a preschool class and they are so adorable and so much fun. I enjoyed being Ms. Sarah for a day. Randy is doing well is school and getting rave reviews by the teacher he is shadowing. He is even doing so well that he got to teach the class when the teacher had to go to a meeting and the sub was his helper. He is definately going to be a great teacher. Less than 1 1/2 years until he graduates ( May 2010). I am so much more excited for his impending graduation that I was for my own. I am doing well at work. I am starting to wonder how long I will be able to keep working. I have the energy to do the job, but I am worried I won't be able to reach around my belly. I am growing at a speedy rate. We have a check up this week, so I will find out if I am still on target with everything. I will update again soon.

Yea!!

Yippy, the tile is finally finished! I was able to finally finish the closets last weekend. Boy were the a pain in my back. We have been doing all sorts of little projects to get ready for Baby to arrive. Yesterday we put film on the kitchen window (a south facing window) to help keep the heat out. It is so nice. We were quite surprised by the difference that it made. It also gives us day time privacy. It makes it more difficult to see in without haviing you face pressed against the window. We LOVE this because the window is facing the courtyard and several people walk past it daily. Including a neighbor girl that has a sever staring problem. We also got verticle blinds for the kitchen window. We had to make three trips to Lowes inorder to complete this project. The first time Lowes cut the blinds to short. The dude even tried to hide the fact that they were to short. We even did our best to try and make it work. Sarah called Lowes and they had new ones cut and ready for us. I pick those up and got home and put them on. Bumber, we were two short. We had to make another trip and purchase more blinds and have them cut again. This time we checked the measurment berfore we left the store. :)

Don't Forget to Vote

As you know, Randy and I are weirdos and we don't want to find out the sex of our baby until he or she is born, so we have a place for you to place your vote of the right side of the blog. Just to help swing the votes...

I am sure the baby is a girl.

Randy is sure the baby is a boy.

Vote on who you think is right.

Things I Have Learned About Pregnancy

Ok so I am now 21 and 1/2 weeks along. I know I have A LOT more learning to do, but here is some of what I have learned so far.

*You can vomit and have it come out of your nose if you vomit too hard (this hurts a lot by the way)

*Constant nausea is worse than a short burst of vomiting

*Being overheated increases nausea

*Grocery shopping is pure torture when nauseated

*Seeing meals prepared makes eating meals impossible when nauseated

*"Worshiping the throne" has multiple meanings

*Breaking blood vessels in your eyes while worshipping said throne actually happens and is not pretty

*Okay this is embarrasing to admit, but anyways, stress incontinence is not just for older people

*Husbands are angels of mercy or demons of torture, depending on the second and the hormones of the pregnant woman

*Never throw up Kix cereal, the smell is horrifying

*Motion sickness and morning sickness don't mix well

*Packing for vacation includes a vomit bucket with a securely fitting lid

*Sea bands (motion sickness bracelets) are life savers

*Rolling over with a big belly is hard work

*Patience with others during pregnancy is truly a miracle

*Maternity pants are the most comfortable article of clothing imaginable (and I work in scrubs all day, so that is saying something)

*Body length pillows are worth having, no matter the cost

* The baby's favorite thing to kick is the most uncomfortable thing for mom, the bladder

*Napping is severely under appreciated in the USA

*Squeezing through tight spaces is a thing of the past

*Second hand stores have super cute and mostly hardly used maternity clothing (no need to spend $35 a shirt or more at Motherhood)

*The baby's heart beat is the most beautiful sound in existence

*The baby is soooo cute even when it is just a blob looking thing on an ultrasound screen

*Falling in love with the baby happens long before the baby is born

*Worrying about the well being of the baby also happens long before birth

The most important thing I have learned is...

*It is completely and totally worth it (Only 18 1/2 more weeks until parenthood!)

So Ummm Suprise!

For those who don't know. I bet you weren't expecting this.



Yes, Randy and I are expecting, but we are a bit further along than just finding out. So here is the story. Many of you know that Randy and I have experienced a bit of the sorrow that comes with infertility and with miscarriage. We had actually started the process of getting a reproductive specialist. They believe that I have polycystic ovaries (PCOS) (making getting pregnant very difficult). Well about a month prior to our first appointment, I start to feel weird. I often felt weird due to crazy hormones with PCOS, so I ignored it. I kept getting my hopes up that we were finally pregnant over the past year, that I was getting a little sick of having them dashed by negative pregnancy tests over and over again. So I finally gave into to my hopes (not really believing that there was any possibility that they would be true) and took a pregancy test. To my utter suprize, the test was very positive. I believe I all but fell over in shock. Randy was at school at the time and was unaware of my hopes or that I had bought a test. So I called him and told him that I had seen something really cool and I took a picture of it for him to see. I waited all day for him to get home. I almost went crazy. When he walked in the door, I handed him the camera and he saw the above picture. He looked at me and said something to the effect of "your joking right?" When I told him I wasn't we both sat down and cried. It was just so shocking and unexpected. Due to my irregularity, we had no clue how far a long we were. We could have been anywhere from 4 weeks to 2 1/2 months along. So we called up the Birth Center (my OB/GYN) and got an appointment for an ultrasound to determine gestation and to make sure everything was okay with the pregnancy given my history of miscarriage. So this was what we saw at the ultrasound the following week.






Everything looked great. We were estimated to be about 6 weeks along. We were beyond thrilled, but we were also very worried that something would go wrong. I was much more worried than Randy because miscarriage, although difficult for would be Dad, it is horrific for would be Mom. All dreams and hopes and wishes crushed and followed by lots of pain and misery and sad hormones. The idea of telling everyone and then having something go wrong and having to tell everyone "nevermind" was too difficult to fathom. Thus, our secret began. We had to tell family because we needed their support in prayers for things to go right and in hugs if things should go wrong. Work for me had to find out rather early on too given my job as a nurse and the bad exposure I could be forced into if work didn't know any better. But other than that, we have been remarkably hush hush. So don't feel too left out. Anyways, the reason we are "letting the monkey out of the sleeve" as Randy would say is that secrets have a way of growing.



This is me at 18 weeks. We are now 20 weeks. I will have more "preggo" pictures of me later. Today was our ultrasound and no, we did not find out if it is a girl or a boy. We are willing to take guesses if you want to guess. I think it is a girl, Randy thinks it's a boy. We have the names picked out for each so we are prepared. We plan on doing everything neutral so it won't matter which sex our child is. Anyways, the ultrasound went great! Everything is developing normal and the baby is healthy and perfect. A lot of the pictures look the same, but they are all a tiny bit different, so we posted them all.









So this little bundle of joy is expected to arrive around June 8th, 2009. You can't take our names okay... So the names we have picked are... JD Lyle (after my grandfather and Randy's late father) or Jolee Sarah (after our moms JoAnn and LeAnn and after my grandmother). So anyways, we will be posting a whole lot more on the pregnancy front now that the monkey is out. Stay tuned.

Answer for Aubrey

In order to speed up your blood donation you first need to prepare. The day before and the day of you need to drink plenty of water. (Well hydrated, fast flow). Then when you are in the bleeding stage of donation, ask for a squishy ball and squeeze regularly and strongly to keep up the flow. My longest time is 6.5 minutes and shortest is 4 minutes 55 seconds (that was difficult to pull off though). I encourage all to donate blood. Believe me, it is needed and used. My patients' require blood all to frequently at work. Hurray for the Red Cross.

For Carolina

Our email address is swannsnest@gmail.com. If anyone ever wants to contact us, Randy is an obsessive email checker and you may be able to get a hold of us faster via email than via phone. Hehehe.

Goofy Swanns

Just goes to show, we can only be serious for so long