A Peach!

Funny how they compare baby's size to pieces of fruit! Anyways, right now baby weighs about 18 grams and is 7.2cm long. Which is about double what he/she was at 7 weeks! Growing fast!

The blood work went ok today. I think I was a little dehydrated yesterday. It still took them several tries to find a vein and the blood stopped running twice while they were drawing it. Oops. I guess my body isn't very cooperative with the doctors today. :)

Crazy Days at the OB

Today's doctor's appointment was such a fiasco. Here's the scoop-- I got there at 3:45, had a 4:00 appointment. Well, 4:30 rolls around (which is unusual because we've never really had to wait longer than about 5 minutes.) The nurse comes out and tells the jam-packed waiting room that both doctors were called to delivery. She said that one of them would be back in about 15 minutes. Well, that happens, so I waited some more. At 4:50, they call me back for the routine stuff. (Officially, I've gained 3 lbs.---13.5 weeks---not too bad!) The nurse does her thing and then Dr. Marcantel comes in to measure and listen to the heartbeat. It is so cool how your body works! I never knew that you could use a measuring tape to figure out how many weeks along you are and if the baby is growing according to schedule. Well, he couldn't find the heartbeat.

At all.
Even after several minutes.
So, he put the equipment away and said, "Let's go look." And off I was to the SECOND ultrasound. We go into the next room where he pulls up the monitor. Sure enough, the little stinker was in there, presumably fast asleep, and in just the position at the back so that the heartbeat wasn't projected. (The baby is twice the size as it was at 9 weeks! Wow!) After a nice strong heartbeat was detected (152 bpm), we all felt better and it was time to go get blood drawn...lots of it...

On to the next fiasco...

The nurse comes in to take a gazillion vials (ok, 5) of blood. She does the standard procedure: feels for the vein, wraps the thingy around the arm, I make a fist, she pokes me with a needle...NO VEIN... So, she takes it out and tries again... NO VEIN... ok, how about the other arm... NO VEIN... she goes out and gets another nurse... STILL, NO VEIN... they go out and get the doctor... YEP, YOU GUESSED IT... NO VEIN. They decided that I need to come back in the morning and they would possibly have better luck. Otherwise, they will send me to the big lab to have bigger needles do the job--yuck.

I finally left the office today at 5:55.
Anyways, it really wasn't too bad---actually, it was all kind of funny (except for the no heartbeat thing). At least my friend Keeley happened to have an appointment today at the same time so we got to hang out in the waiting room together and catch up.

Off to the doctor again tomorrow morning (hey, at least I get to sleep in a little!! :)

Disaster...averted...

Well, Wilma graced us with her presence at 3:00am and found it in her heart to leave Florida at 1:00 this afternoon. That was a pretty fast moving hurricane. She landed south of Naples, FL as a Category 3 and moved NE to the Palm Beach area.

Our house sat right on the edge of hurricane force winds and tropical storm force. What that means...well, generally we had sustained winds 50-60 mph and around 6 inches of horizontally blowing rain. Wind gusts often got higher--near 100 mph. Scary stuff.

Needless to say, although we received very little sleep due to the battering rain/wind on our windows, our poor house withstood the storm and we don't have to spend the rest of the day cleaning up damage. We could only wish the rest of FL was that lucky.

Interestingly enough, after Wilma took off to sea, the skies turned crystal clear blue and cool 58 degree temps. are gracing us with a brisk, BLUSTERY, fall day!

Baby has decided that (s)he doesn't care for hurricanes too much, so keep your ears out for teaching jobs if you are in the MN area...we think we've had enough!

Update on Wilma

The memories of Hurricane Charley are too fresh on our minds...this one has a similar path... this time, they predict it will go south of us, but they said it would go north of us last year--they were VERY wrong!

Wilma so far:

1)Tied record for most storms in a season. They are out of names and have to go to Alpha, Beta, etc. after this.

2) Tied for number of hurricanes in a season.

3)Wilma has the lowest barometric pressure on record right now (882 mbs). Basically, the lower the pressure, the stronger the storm. (Katrina was 944 mb., I believe) If the number drops, it is getting stronger--if it raises, the storm is getting weaker.

4) When Charley hit, it was a strong 3/weak 4 and by the time it hit us it was a strong 2. Charley did $38,000 worth of damage to our home. I cannot imagine what this would do if it doesn't weaken and STAY AWAY FROM US.

Needless to say, we are going through many sleepless nights again to see if this storm will directly impact us. We know we will get wind and rain, we just pray we will not get a direct hit causing more damage. Paths can change hour to hour, so we have to keep an eye out. We may spend Friday boarding up again--the scene is all too familiar after last year.

No Sympathy Weight For This Guy!

Adam plays softball with our teacher friends every Wednesday night!

Not a Great Picture...But Here It Is Anyways...

Here's me at 12.5 weeks. The shadows make it all look a little funny and I still look half asleep, but then, it is only 5:30 in the morning.

Maybe I'll have to take a different picture this week--not sure if I want this one in the albums!

Wilma! (Not Fred and Wilma, either!)

Be on the lookout and pray for us---just when we thought the season was almost over, here comes #21--Hurricane Wilma. Most likely, this one is headed for FL...destination...unknown. Keep yourself posted on www.noaa.com Go to the sidebar where it says NOAA Storm Tracker---Wilma, click on it, then click on 5 day tracking map. We live near the "L" in FL.

Mmmm...pickles...and other salty foods

SO, I think I have my first real cravings...SALT! Delicious. I can understand why the classic "pregnancy and pickles" thing is popular. But, alas, my cravings are not limited to pickles...salty french fries are good too! I'm not into the sweets though---leave the ice cream at the store!

We're doing better on boys names than girls names. Drop us an opinion (if you have one!)...

Darren Seth
Gavin James
Kyle Grant
Derrick
Erik

Kira Ann
Hannah Faith
Alanna Grace
Kari (car-i) Ann
Brianne

I know people are interested in more pictures, but really, I don't look any different yet. I can feel where baby is, but it is not really that visible yet. Maybe a 12 week picture this week if I can squeeze it in between soccer playoffs and volleyball practice!

Milestones...

We made it through the 1st trimester! Wahoo! Officially 12 weeks now! Adam keeps telling people we have 8 more months...gee...I hope it's not quite that long! :)

The next Dr.'s Appt. is next week, Thursday, 10/24. It seems like we look forward to these appointments so much! It is so interesting hearing the baby and finding out where (s)he is in developmental stages. Although, I may not be too happy while there.... I think this is the time that I get poked with needles to get a gazillion vials of blood drawn. At least they only do that twice. (Ok, I know, I need to get used to being poked and prodded!)

Not much else is new though, baby seems to be content...lovin' this pregnancy thing so far!

Adam took me (us) to Cheesecake Factory for birthday dinner last night...mmm mmm good! I love their Madeira Chicken/Da Vinci Pasta! Thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes--whether in the form of phone calls, cards, packages! You are too sweet!

EPCOT today!

One of our favorite Disney activities of the year is here...the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival! We're heading to the park with some friends after our teacher workday today. I graciously accept the designated driver post tonight as we eat our way around the park, sampling from over 76 varities of foods from all over the world!

Here's a sneak peak into the World Showcase (remarkable facts)!

1,200 wine and beer seminars featuring more than 100 topics
Over 1,200 fireworks rockets exploding each night over World Showcase Lagoon in "IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth" grand finale to the festival
90 Eat to the Beat! concerts performed (Beach Boys, Chubby Checker, etc.)
33,000 bottles of wine and champagne
1,200,000 hors d'oeuvre plates
750,000 beer cups
690,000 sumptuous samplings including samosas, spicy tuna rolls and moussaka
600,000 forks
337,500 wine glasses
100,000 miniature desserts including traditional apple strudel, baklava, flourless chocolate cake with Irish whiskey sauce and kiwi custard roll
32,000 quesadillas
28,500 pieces of sushi
17,000 shrimp on the barbie
16,500 escargot
13,000 Spanikopitta
10,500 servings of maple glazed salmon
9,750 servings of lamb chops

WOW!!! Can't wait!!! Baby and I will feast tonight!
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On another note, it looks like we will be in MN from Dec. 22 (evening) to Jan. 2.
We will be traveling to Chicago Dec. 27-30 and back to MN on the 31st.
We are open for New Year's Eve right now....
Vikings game New Year's Day...

Since we will do both MN and IL over the Christmas holiday, we probably will NOT be going to IL in February! I think this will be easier for us all!

When we're traveling...

Ok, the days available to travel will be limited (car distance only) after Feb.

So, right now we plan on being in IL/MN sometime between Dec. 21-Jan.2
We hope to be in Dallas/San Fran. Jan 13-18. (Monday, 16th MLK Jr. day off)
Most likely, one or both of us will be in Chicagoland Feb. 16-19.
All 3 of us are flying to Vancouver either July 6 or 7 through the 16th.

That's it. We can't travel anymore then...we'll be broke!

No longer a peanut...or an olive...now, A LIME!

11 weeks....

Baby is about 2-2.5 inches long and weighs about 8 grams.

Baby's head is double the length as the rest of the body's length right now. The neck muscles are starting to strengthen. It is only a matter of a couple more weeks before boy/girl status can be determined!

Feelin' Better

OK, I'm feeling better today. Apparantly, the ligaments stretched enough for now and decided to give me a break. Adam thinks that the baby is just going to be big like he was (9lbs. 6oz.). I DON'T THINK SO! 7-8 lbs is fine, thank you!

I think I've been blessed with the most fun and exciting 1st trimester! I've felt good and am getting really excited now that I'm almost in the 2nd trimester!

Adam already talks to the baby and gives baby extra little love pats. He even pretends to be listening to baby's responses. I can't wait for the day where the baby kicks him in the ear when he tries to listen....that would be a hoot! What a cutie!

Ahhh...the joys of pregnancy...

Today baby decided to make it feel like I have done 4 bazillion situps. After my initial panicsville central, I called the nurse. (All of you who have had babies already are now chuckling)

Diagnosis: My nice tiny little ligaments are being STRETCHED and enlarged (against their will, apparantly). This is proving to be VERY painful. Julie the nurse says it is completely normal and is a sign that maternity clothes are coming soon.

Hope this doesn't last too long.

We made it....first hurdle!

We passed the critical 10 weeks...yippee!

Baby is doing great (at least we hope he/she is being kept happy). I'm still feeling good. I can't wait to get the rest of my energy back for awhile. (It's not as bad now as it was a few weeks ago, but I definitely have a new bedtime!)

Baby is still hungry all the time. It doesn't seem to matter what I consume or when, baby is still hungry a half hour later. I keep telling myself that it is because the baby lucked out with Adam's metabolism. I figure that growth spurts are occuring rapidly---it's hard though when I can't snack at my desk and when I'm awoken in the night to a growling stomach. Weird.

Our next checkup isn't until Oct. 27 which seems so far away!

Maternity clothes are probably in the near future---another couple of weeks or so... well, better than just looking oversized, I guess!

I spent 2.5 hours in Babies R US yesterday scoping out the terrain before Adam comes back there with me to start picking things out. I fell pretty good about the research (Oprah's trusty baby consumer guide is great!)

That's it. Busy week. Not sure if I'll blog again for awhile!