Way Behind

So sorry guys. This move has us living out of suitcases, and it's hard to find a minute to post between looking at houses and trying to stay organized.

I think last I posted, we had just put in an offer on a house. Well, the bank took a different offer, so we are back to looking. It is getting frustrating, but we know our house is out there.

I met with my new OB/GYN yesterday. She is super sweet, and I think she will work out well. They got all of my history, and blood work. They also did a quick ultrasound. We got to see the heart beating again, which helped ease my nerves.

Here are my ultrasound pictures from both ultrasounds.

6 weeks 1 day - You are seeing the baby, and the yolk sack...


8 weeks 3 days - You are seeing the baby, its head is on the left, with its arms under that. Look farther and you see the legs.


My next appointment is at 12 weeks. My new doctor said I am no longer considered high risk, since there is a baby with a heartbeat in there! That takes a lot of stress off of me. The only thing that will happen different with this pregnancy is after the baby is born, they will send the placenta off to make sure there is no molar tissue in it.

Life In The Fast Lane

So I just got my computer back. I did well with out it. I stayed busy!! Let me just say in the past 5 days we have a new baby on the way, a move date set up and an offer put in to buy our first house.

Tuesday I had my 6 week ultrasound. GREAT NEWS... it is a BABY! No molar tissue this time! And we got to see the heartbeat. It was beating at 112 beats per minute. I am going back for another ultrasound at 8 weeks to make sure Little Miracle is growing as s/he should.

We left for Atlanta that night, to start setting things up. My husband had his in-processing on Thursday for his new job. We also set up our move date. THIS WEDNESDAY!! WOW. That was fast! That's the military life for you. You wait around all month for the in-process, then you get it, and move in a few days.

We also decided it was time to become home owners! We got pre-approved for a loan, so we started looking. We found a great house and put in an offer today. We will see if we get it!

That's about all the updates. I will be back later with pictures. I have over 500 on my camera that needs to be uploaded and edited... so it may be a while!

Easter Egg Hunting

Our church had an Easter egg hunt today. Perfect day too! Not a cloud in the sky, and the temperature was about 75. They had bounce houses, face painting, potato sack races and of course, egg hunting. We all brought picnic lunches, and hung out on the church lawn. It was great!

Little Man and his first Easter basket. He had a great time just walking around carrying the basket. It wasn't until the egg hunt that he realized what you actually do with the Easter basket.


He didn't want in the bounce house. But let him play around it, OK!! I put him in the bounce house, and he started screaming. Soon Little Man, soon you will learn that they are really fun!


We tried to get his face painted, but he didn't want to sit still that long, with something going onto his face. So we opted for his arm instead. They painted a blue Easter egg with green polka dots!


All the "hidden" eggs for the 2 and under group.


We had to hold the kids at the orange line until they said go. That was REALLY hard! Little Man wanted to know what all those colorful things on the ground were!!


Once they told us to go, Little Man took off and started picking up the eggs. Its like he was born knowing how to pick up eggs!


And he was good at putting them into the basket too!


Of course, Mommy had to help too!


His stash. These had everything from candy, to necklaces, to balls, to rings in them. We traded the ring to a little girl though. He didn't want it!


The computer is going away for about 7-10 days to be serviced. The fan stopped working, and it overheats and shuts off all the time now. So, I will be missing for a while!! I may try to post some from the local library, if I can ever make it over there!

Blood Work Results

Ok. My doctor called. hCG went from 319.5 to 2054, so that is GREAT. However, with the good, comes the bad. My progesterone dropped from 25 to 18.5. This can cause spotting. They like to keep it about 20, so I get to start suppositories. Oh the fun! I had to do this with Little Man also, cause his progesterone was 19. I apparently, like to stand on the edge!

Flood Pictures and Blood Work

I have been having some spotting, which I consider normal for pregnancy, because I had it all throughout the first trimester with Little Man. Well, my doctor wanted to do some more blood work just to make sure everything is still going OK. So Little Man and I packed up and headed in.

After the blood work, Little Man and I headed to the river again to take some more pictures of the flooding. It has finally stopped raining, and the sun has come out!

Remember this tree that I wanted to sit up in and watch the river go by?


If I sit on it now, I will be IN the river.




Anyone for a concert at the local amphitheatre?


Take a look at the light in this picture


Do you see the lights in these?




Needless to say, that's a lot of water!

I am still waiting on my doctor to call me back and tell me about the blood work.

Rain Rain Go Away...

It is still raining here. Another 4.5 inches since yesterday. We got a much needed break tonight, so we ventured out to look at our river. This river flooded in 1994, and destroyed half of this town. We were not living here at the time, but everyone here talks about it all the time.

The river is no were as close as it was in 1994 to flooding (apparently the sewer backed up in 1994, causing the flood) but it has spilled its banks.

I dug through my collection of pictures, and found some old ones for comparison.

My favorite bridge here in town


Same bridge tonight


Another bridge


Same bridge tonight


We are going to venture out tomorrow to get some more pictures in better light. It is supposed to stop raining tonight. But it will be back on Sunday.

Great News

I had the second round of pregnancy blood work today. My hCG went from 42 on Thursday, to 319.5 today! It is supposed to, at minimum, double every 72 hours, so this is good news.

My doctor is having me come in for an ultrasound at 6 weeks, which is April 14th. Please keep praying for our Little Miracle!

Let me also say a HUGH THANK YOU for all the prayers so far! They are appreciated!

Tornado Warnings and Puddle Jumping

We had a day of severe storms yesterday. When I say a day, I mean from 9 am till about 6 pm, we were under some sort of warning. Tornadoes, severe weather, flash flooding, you name it, the news people were telling us about it. The worst of the weather came about noon, right at Little Mans nap time.

If you know me, you know my fear of this kind of weather. Needless to say, Little Man did not sleep upstairs in his crib. He skipped his nap, well, pushed his nap till about 3 pm.

In the mean time, we colored, watched it rain, wrestled with Daddy, and looked for tornadoes.



When the rain came, it POURED for hours!!


My little frog was sitting outside, waiting to tell me how much rain we got.


I took these pictures from our bedroom, this is our normally grassy back yard.




Well, after the storms passed, I decided it was time to take Little Man puddle jumping for the first time. This was something I remember doing with my mom, so I want Little Man to enjoy it too. We put on his sandals, so he could feel the water, and off we went.

We looked around for a good looking puddle. We found this one, but Little Man did not realize I actually wanted him to go into it!



After a little convincing, and making Daddy show him what to do, he dove in!





He had a BLAST!! We jumped, splashed and giggled for over an hour in those puddles. By then, it was time to head home for a much needed bath and off to bed for all of us.

Oh-yeah! My frog that weathered the storm all day, reported almost 4 inches of rain to me.

A Miracle!

After being due in July of '09, I fell in love with the idea of an '07 baby (Little Man) and an '09 baby. The July baby-to-be ended up being the molar pregnancy. I thought I would never have my '07 and '09 babies.

Fast forward to St. Patrick's day. If you remember I was cleared on that day from my molar pregnancy. Turns out, I also ovulated that day.



I am just over 3 weeks pregnant. I got a positive at home pregnancy test today. My doctor already did blood work, and will continue to do blood work to make sure everything looks good. So far, my hCG is 42, and my progesterone is 25. I have another appointment on Monday to make sure the hCG is doubling like it should, and that the progesterone is staying high.

I am due December 8th! It's my little miracle. If you are a person that prays, would you mind saying a little prayer for our litte miracle baby-to-be?

Another Head Wound

I think I am gonna have to stop posting about these! They are making me feel bad!

My husband and Little Man were wrestling on the floor the other night. He decides to pull his legs out from under him, not noticing how close Little Man was to the coffee table.

You guessed it. He bit the coffee table again. Not the corner, no, we have protection over the corners... But that spot that is not protected.

Here it is right after it happened.


And what it looked like yesterday. You can barley see it in the picture, but it is about 2 inches long and blue in person.


I have some news I will be sharing in the next few days, so stay tuned!

A Budding Artist?

Remember this post? Well, my son still loves to play with pens, but recently he learned that they draw on everything. I am starting to see pieces of his "art" throughout my house.



He decided to decorate his "forehead protectors" on our coffee table. He did this when I was sitting right next to him, studying. Daddy was supposed to be watching him.

Now, after seeing that, I picked up all the pens and put them away. He is no longer allowed to play with them. Imagine my surprise when I saw this in his play room.



He must have swiped a pen from my stash. Sneaky Little Man!

An Award!

How fun is this? I just got an award!!



I got it from a friend I met in high school. She has an adorable 3 year old son that she home schools. Check out her blog Cheeky Monkey Preschool

Now... This award comes with rules... so I am gonna post those..

Rules:
1) Add the logo of the award to your blog
2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you
3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4) Add links to those blogs on your blog
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs!

Man, I am having a hard time picking 7 blogs! Here are my 7:

1) Firefightin' Soccer Mom My sisters blog about her job.
2) 2 Cruisers My moms blog all about her travels.
3) Simply Chic Where I design Sig's at
4) Steece's Pieces A blog I like to read about a mom to quads.
5) The Development of Festus Foo A good blog by a friend.
6) The Little Pete That Could Another good blog by a friend.
7) Heartbeat A woman's blog that I met at church.

Read the Manual People!

I have a toddler who is still rear-facing in his car seat. I have done the research and seen the proof that it is safer for kids to rear-face as long as your seat will allow this. Our Britax Marathon will allow Little Man to rear-face till 35 lbs, and he will be that way, even if he is 3 before he hits the weight. They have a height limit also, but I think he will hit the weight first.

My sister is a car seat tech, and has taught me a lot about car seats. She even bought us the Britax Marathon that Little Man rides in. I know, what I consider, a lot about car seats. I notice seats in cars next to us at red lights, and next to us in parking lots.

That being said, Friday I saw an infant car seat in the back of a Taurus sitting next to us at a red light. Nothing wrong with that, right? Wrong! Problem was, that infant carrier is only designed to rear-face, and it was forward facing. Top that off with a toddler sitting in it. Most of the infant seats have a weight limit of 22 lbs. This child was bigger than Little Man, and he is 27 lbs.

Then today, on the way back home from our trip, we stopped at McDonald's to change a stinky diaper. There was a white two-door truck parked next to us, with two people sitting in the bucket seats. Behind the drivers seat was an infant seat. Actually had an infant in it, BUT it was not an extended-cab that has seats back there! The car-seat was in the "jump seat" that has no buckle! There was no base to this car seat either, so I have no idea what was holding the car seat in.

Why even bother to buckle your child up if you are not going to do it correctly?

Check out these links if you want to learn more about extended rear facing. Remember, the law states that a child MUST rear-face until 20 lbs AND 12 months, but that is only a minimum.

http://messageboards.ivillage.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=iv-ppcarseats&msg=63647.3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psmUWg7QrC8
http://www.thecarseatlady.com/car_seats/rear-facing_seats.html

Keep your kids safe please!

St. Patty's Day and A Haircut!

We headed up to Atlanta again this week. We needed to get some work done on the house that we will be living in in a few weeks. We got baby gates installed, all the construction trash cleaned up, and gave the house a good cleaning. We are getting excited about moving now! My husband had his "interview" on Friday also. I say interview, but it was really only about 10 minutes of 5 different people shooting questions at him. He said it went well, and that we would hear something this week. The guy that offered him this job was the head of the interview, and it sounded like a done deal even before the interview.

On Tuesday night, we went out for some green beer to celebrate St. Patty's Day. I am not Irish that I know of, but I love my beer... So why not celebrate? Here is my hubby's "dark green" beer.


And my "light green" beer


While we were up in Atlanta, I decided it was time to get Little Man's hair cut.



He is almost 18 months now, and he has never had a cut! He was born with semi-long hair, and it was to the point where it was curling now. So we looked online for a place that cuts children's hair. Being his first haircut, I wanted somewhere that would know how special it was. We found a place that only does children, and took him there.

This place was awesome! It had bright, colorful decor, and tons of toys to play with. When they heard it was his first haircut, they offered to take a picture for us. I declined, since I brought along my camera. They also offered to save the "curls" for me. I wanted this!!

So they take Little Man back, and put him on the chair. They put a "cars" smock on him. As the lady was about to get his hair wet with the spray bottle, he decided that he did not want the smock on. He does the same thing with bibs. Pulls them off. So, the smock went to the floor. At this time, he was starting to get curious.



The lady wet his hair down, and showed me just how long his hair really was!



The lady then combed his hair down and started to cut! This is when the tears started... not from me, from Little Man. He started SCREAMING!! He has never had his hair brushed with a comb either, so I think that freaked him out. I found a sucker in my purse and gave that to him, which took away all the tears. Then the lady pulled out the whole bucket of suckers, and he played with that the rest of the time.



When he was done, we got a certificate that showed how brave he was, along with all his "curls". Those both will end up in the scrapbook.



He really looks like a Little Man now!

It's OFFICIAL!

I am officially cleared from my molar pregnancy!! YEA!! I had my last blood work today, and it was 0.3. Now we can start trying for another child again.

I also decided to drop my online classes today. I don't have the disipline to take online classes. I get too distracted by Facebook, my message boards, and random stuff. Also that is not the way I learn. I have to see things, and reading it just does not make it sink in. So after the move I will start back in school... again.

My Child and His Forehead pt 4

Well, it's official. My child hates his forehead, and will do anything to injure it! This time, he was walking around with my scrapbook container lid, and fell. I have NO idea how this caused the huge scratch on his head, but here it is.

This one is not as bad as this one, or this one, or even this one and it does not look too bad because he just got out of the tub.



I know this will stop eventually, but for now, I am amused...

Edited to add:
Here it is this morning... Looks kinda painful when its dried out.

Pollen

I hate living in the south in the spring. Yes, the weather is beautiful. BUT we have this pesky yellow stuff. Now I know it is everywhere, but it seems like it is worse in the south. It makes my eyes water, my nose run, then makes me cough and my throat hurt. It makes life miserable for about 2-3 months.

Some years ago, while reading the paper, I found the funniest comic depicting life with pollen. I have searched and searched to no avail to find this same comic. Since I could not find it, I decided to make one that looked similar. The comic had two little kids staring out the window, at what looked like snow. I could not find that picture, so I found one close, and after some editing, give you this...



Ok, so maybe that is a little extreme, but somewhat true. We had a short rain shower last night, which meant some of the pollen puddled. This is what awaited me this morning.



And this is what happens when we get a lot of rain. No, that's not foam or bubbles on top of the water... its pollen. This last picture was a cell phone pic, sorry its not of the best quality.



How much longer till summer?


comic image found at http://www.durochers.org/journal/images/house.jpg

Jury Duty and Cat Pee.

This week I had jury duty. I have always wanted to do jury duty, it always seemed like it would be fun.

I showed up early Monday morning to start my fun day of jury duty. There are two misunderstandings in that sentence. First off, it was NOT fun. Second off, day? NO... week!

Monday I was picked for a panel for a felony murder trial. We sat in a room being questioned as a group for over 4 hours. We got asked what we know about gangs, guns, the accused and the lawyers. I was kinda nervous about being picked for that one, knowing it was a gang shooting. Finally about 4:30, they named the jury. I was not picked on that one, so I thought my jury duty was over. Nope... come back tomorrow at 9 am.

Tuesday I got picked for a panel again. This one was for a child molestation case. I was NOT happy about that. Having a child, I think I am partial. Anyone ever touch my child, and they will not be in court, I will be... for murder. First thing we had to do on that panel was fill out a questionnaire about sexual crimes. If we were ever a victim, ever knew anyone who was a victim, ever knew anyone who was accused of or arrested for a sexual crime. After we filled that out, we were questioned about our children, who we know in the police department, and our prior jury service. They picked that jury at 5:15, and I was again not picked. I have to go back on Thursday.

I did have a criminal defense lawyer sitting behind me in the second panel. He was explaining how it all works, and why I did not get picked. That was nice. We will see what I have to do tomorrow.

While I have been at jury duty, my husband has been a stay-at-home-dad. He has not been very good at this job! I came home on Monday to a very messy house, and very cranky child. Yesterday the house was a little better, but by no means clean! I don't understand why he cant do everything I do in a day! I can clean the house, do a load of laundry, dishes, and cook dinner all while playing with Little Man and keeping him happy and out of trouble. Well, I will give my husband some credit..he was busy with our cat yesterday.

We have had this cat for 5 years, and had no problems with her until the past few months. She started peeing on things. Only towels or clothes left on the bathroom floor. If nothing is on the bathroom floor, she uses her litter box. We took her to the vet a few months back, and she had a UTI. She was given an antibiotic and seemed to be better. We also made it a point to not leave towels on the bathroom floor. We are not messy people by any means, just leave towels on the floor occasionally. Well, when we came back from Savannah, we discovered the cat was peeing on the living room rug. That is a NO!

I figured the cat had another UTI. Nope.. They did a urine test, ultrasound, blood work... everything in their power to figure out why the cat is peeing on the floor. Cats usually only go outside of their litter box when they are sick. Not our cat. $280 bucks to tell us we have a very healthy cat!

They say it is behavior. They gave us several things to try. We got her a new litter box and moved it to a new location. They told us to try to get rid of the stray cats we have around our apartments, but since people feed them (NOT US!!) they are not going anywhere. Plus we are moving so the strays wont be a problem anymore. I really don't want to get rid of the cat, but if she continues this, she will be gone.

Top all that off with Little Man getting a cough and a runny nose with yellow mucus, and it has been a great week!