Yah!!

Nothing all that big to report.. Everyone is doing well. Mattie is growing like a weed as usual. Kelly is begging for a Wii for Christmas and I am adjusting to working both shifts. It is harder than you'd think switching between working 4am to noon and working 9pm to 6am.

Almost Christmas

We have been so busy getting back to normal life!! I have been having difficulties with work, so for a few weeks I am working 4am to 1230. it isn't as bad as it sounds. I hated the idea of it but it is actually really nice for me. I get to spend more time with the baby while I am wide awake versus being half asleep all day trying to play with the baby and get sleep.. But I will be going back to that in a few short weeks.

Manhattan is doing wonderfully. She is almost 11 lbs (10lbs 15 oz) as of yesterday. She is 23.25 inches long. So she is growing like a sprout. Doc says everything looks good and she got her first set of shots. Mattie did good getting the shots and only cried a little bit afterwards. It was later in the night that she got fussy. She wasn't crying just doing a bit of her fake cry. Eventually I fell asleep and Kelly took care of her most of the night. I woke up around 6 or so with her next to me in bed (guess Kelly brought her to me) and she's been hanging with me all day. She was only a little bit fussy this morning and has been sleeping most of the day. I think she is going through a growth spurt right now because she has been eating like crazy and sleeping more than normal.

I have begun walking her down to the library.. A little over a mile from our house. I like to read and I hope that she will too. We have our Christmas tree up but still no angel.. One year we will buy one. This year we don't plan to do much for Christmas since we already have most of what we need and all our spare money has gone towards getting anything we want for the baby. But really there isn't much we need for the baby since everything we can think that we need for her we go and buy it so now we don't know what to tell everyone to get the baby.. I think we are going to go with giftcards and that way we can just use them as we come across things.

She is still (barely) in newborn diapers and has started to grow out of some of the newborn outfits. But she is still a little too small for 3 month sizes.. She is one of those inbetween babies. She is really long but not fat so everything looks big except for when she pushes her legs out (which she is doing more and more) then you can see why she is in the bigger sizes.

She has taken to sleeping with us for part of the night. We try to get her to sleep in her pack and play, right next to our bed for the first part of the night. Then when she gets up in the middle of the night, we feed her and she usually ends up staying in the bed. I usually end up falling asleep when she is eating and I think kelly just gets so comfortable with her curled up next to him that he doesn't want to put her back. Plus, we can't figure out why but our bedroom is freezing. And her little bed gets cold so it wakes her up and she doesn't like it.

She has gotten really good at holding her head up, just not quite good enough to support herself all the time. She gave me a smile the other day that made me think that she was going to laugh. She crunched her body together and moved her head with a wide open mouth smile.. it was priceless. I wish I could have gotten a picture of it but I was out to lunch but at least my girlfriend got to see it.

Well, I am going to put up some video of her playing with me this morning and a couple of pictures. Also, we are sending out our Christmas cards, if you don't get one please let me know. We finally got an address book but for some reason, I keep coming across names of people that I don't have addresses for so i misplaced a bunch of them somewhere.

Family Picture

Here is a picture of our cute little family. I've decided to stay a brunette for now instead of red since it faded to brown so fast anyway.

My brother is in town for Thanksgiving and I am so excited for him to get to play with Manhattan while she is small and 'floppy' since he will one day have children. I will make him. It is so rewarding to have this little person that is part of you and means more than the world to you.

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving.

Video of Manhattan

Here is a video of our baby girl playing with her glow worm.. She loves to lay in her crib and just stare at it..she hits it with her hand when she wants it to play more music.. So cute.

She is almost 6 weeks!! Time is flying by! Kelly went back to work last week and this is my first week back to work.. It so incredibly hard to leave out sweet little girl behind but I am thankful to return to work because I was getting bored and needing something to stimulate me and motivate me to get out of my jammies.

We are doing very well with breastfeeding and pumping so she still gets breastmilk when I am at work or unable to feed her. I can't believe how well she and I have taken to it. We have our difficulties at times but overall it is working well.

Manhattan loves bells for some reason.. Nursery music doesn't seem to put her to sleep but instead amuse her and hold her attention.

Update on the Baby

She is doing really well. We went to the doc on Tuesday and she has an upper respiratory infection but there isn't much they can do since it is basically a cold. But she has a harder time breathing since her little nose is full of boogers and mucus. And she hasn't pooped in a few days so we are worried about that but the doc said it was okay. I go back for my 6 week check up on Tuesday.. Can you believe it has already been 6 weeks? And work is okay. I am glad to have something to do but I have to get my sleep schedule back and get Mattie to work with me. But overall it isn't too bad, she naps quite often it is just getting in the habit of napping with her... Like now. She is sleeping and I am checking my email. When we were at the doctor she was 9 lbs 13 oz and was 22 in long. So she is growing and growing and growing. She has started to move her arms and hold her head up when she pushes herself across the ground so I have no doubt that she will be crawling before you know it.

Tish, Kelly's mom, was in town for a week so we took Mattie up to the Grand Canyon, where is was really really cold. So Mattie spent most of the time under Kelly's sweatshirt in her carrier. But we all had fun.

Now Kelly and I are both back to work and learning to both work and be parents. but i think we are adapting well.

Almost 2 weeks old..

We are all doing well. We have been adjusting to being parents well. Kelly is very helpful as all that I mostly do it feed the baby and sleep. Mattie is doing well. Today we gave her, her first real bath. Her belly button fell off a few days ago so we were excited to give her a full cleaning.

We are down to waking up every two to three hours, which might not sound like fun to most but it is a lot better than every half hour or hour. We are doing well with breastfeeding for those who care. Kelly usually feeds her a bottle in the morning so I can get a few hours straight of sleep but other than that I breast feed.

We go back to the doctor on Monday for Mattie's two week appt and I go back to the doctor on Tuesday for my two week appt. We have lots of pictures to share as we are very proud parents and love to take pictures of our beautiful little girl.

Birth Story

On Monday night, I went to work and shortly after arriving my eye sight started to dim and blur. I tried to blow it off and take it easy to see if I was just over doing it, but it didn't get better so I went to the ER and had one of the nurses take my blood pressure. It was 156/86 with a pulse of 124. The nurses said that I should be admitted so I went back to the lab and called Kelly. He called OB Triage to see whether they thought that I should come in. They said I should. So he drove down to work and picked me up and we went down to the hospital in which I was to give birth. After sitting in their little make shift room for a few hours they told me that they were going to admit me and we were going to indeed have a baby. My blood pressures were just a little too high and they just figured since I was so close to my due date that it was safer to induce then to let my high blood pressure continue on. It has been an issue for a lot of the tail end of my pregnancy.

So at 0330 they finally got an IV in me (it took a few tries) and started the pitocin to get the contractions going. I wasn't having any contractions for a while and it was making me nervous that I wouldn't be able to actually go into labor.. But after 7 hours or so (you can see in the pictures) the contractions start coming. They came in and broke my water around 10 or so. Shortly after breaking my water the contractions started coming harder and a lot more painful. I got really nauseated and even after the anti-nausea meds I was sick so I asked them to give me my epidural at that point. The epidural was horridly painful to get but made the contractions bearable.. I had gone in 3 cm dilated and 50% effaced. And that hadn't changed after all the hours of pitocin and my water breaking. But a short few hours later they came in and said that I was now 4 to 5 cm dilated. It was around 330pm at that point. As I was laying and talking to my mom I could feel the contractions coming and going and suddenly I felt the need to push.. I tried to ignore it and figured that it was just the contractions getting more normal and stronger, but I couldn't ignore it for long and finally said that I needed the nurse to come in because I really felt the need to push even though it had only been 45 minutes since they had last checked. And when they did check I was 8.5 cm dilated. I went from a 4-5 to a 8.5 in 45 minutes!! And was now 100% effaced. And the nurse noticed at that point that my epidural was out so they gave me a 'booster' shot for that. Then a short while later the doc came in to talk to me and I felt the over whelming need to vomit everywhere.. and I did. But the doc said that it is a good thing because it is a sign that baby is ready to come out. As they got things ready for baby I felt a really sharp pain in my left hip area that got worse with each contraction. We later found out that it was because baby was being pushed down into my hip and the doctor ended up having to reach up there and help pull her down right.

But after doing a few test pushes, they told me that it could be a few hours of that. I got really scared at that point because I had been up for nearly 26 hours and didn't have the energy for hours of pushing.. But after 1.5 hours of active labor and me in tons of pain as my epidural had worn off once again, Manhattan Hope Orman came into the world.. Thankfully I only had to get a few stitches down there and everything else was perfect. She is doing well and we are enjoying are very well behaved little girl.

I am glad that my mom was there to take the pictures because I was so out of it that I barely remember some parts of what happened. I didn't even know that any pictures were being taken and the first thing that came out of my mouth when they put the baby on my belly was 'that thing came out of me!' I couldn't believe that there was actually a baby inside me.. As odd as that sounds!!

Manhattan has arrived!!

I don't have the time to go into the details but trust me I will.. Manhattan Hope Orman was born on october 14, 2008 at 6:32pm. She weighted 7lbs 8.8 oz and was 19.5 inches long.. I will put all the pictures up on the side link here and once we get a little more settled I will tell the story of how she came into the world.

Thyroid Issues.. Again

Well, the doctors say that Mattie is growing well and her little heartbeat it GREAT.. But I pointed out to them that my pulse has been really high for a long time. They figured it was my thyroid medication being too high.. But my endocrine doc ran all the test and said that my levels are completely normal. But she is going to drop my dosage just because we are getting so close to my due date. But now we wait till Wednesday to find out what else they are going to do. My pulse was 124 when I was at the doc yesterday.. Well, it went anywhere from 118 to 124 (not a whole big difference). Mattie's heartbeat is 140. So, there isn't much difference. Now we just wait for the docs.

We dropped Foxy off at the vet this morning and we'll see how expensive that is. I hate the vet it always seems like you pay so much for them to do so little. But she is our last unspade female so we will finally not have to deal with bleeding and keeping them seperated. But now for the next day or two we will have to deal with keeping Foxy calm so she can heal. Shiloh didn't take long at all to get back on her feet so hopefully Foxy will be the same way. But we opted for pain meds to bring home for Foxy since she is so overly excitable, Kelly said we should keep her out of it for as long as we can.. I guess I agree. :)

Kelly made the neatest little fountain. I'll have to put up pictures of it. We bought the bowls at Pier 1 and then got the rest at Michael's and the pump at Petsmart. It took a bit to figure out how to make it babble (make noise) but he did it. I love it and so do the dogs!! It puts them to sleep or at least calms them down... So funny!

Almost Mattie.. not belly.

Well, I thought I had broke my water a few days ago.. But I didn't.. After spending a few hours in Labor and Delivery, they ran some tests and said that I just have a whole lot of discharge. Which is gross, but I just had to be sure.. I felt like I kept peeing myself but I knew that I wasn't.. So, we got a little taste of what it is going to be like when Mattie is coming for real. I loved seeing Kelly get all excited and he got to see how they put the heartmonitor on the belly and the contraction thingy too. They said that I wasn't dialated at all and was still not effaced at all.

We did get an ultrasound done on Friday. The doc wanted to check baby's thyroid since I've had issues with mine. The pictures are sorta hard to see, but once you see it then you really see it.. Baby is so big that all you can see is her head. And she is definetely a she. They looked again since Kelly insisted and there is no doubt that we are having a girl. Let's see if I can explain the ultrasound pictures.. She is face up. On the right side is the top of her head and the left side is her chin. Going from right to left, the little dips are her eyes, then the little protrusion is her nose then her lips and her chin.. She has her hand up next to her face.. Do you see it?? I know it is hard to see, that's why they don't really do ultrasounds this far along. But it was nice for us to get to see her.. The second pictures is of the same thing except her other hand is coming up and covering her eye.

Anyway, so now we have everything in my car and ready to go in case it is time. No running around and searching for things. The only thing we have left to do is to get the car seat base installed in the car, which we could technically do on our own if we needed to..

Foxy is in heat once again.. Yippee.. So we are keeping all the dogs separate right now. We caught it early this time so there isn't any chance of puppies. We are taking her in to get her spade on Thursday because we don't want to have to deal with it later. We will have to pay more since she is in heat but we just want it done.

We are having a baby shower on Saturday that my mom is throwing, so it should be fun. And then next Saturday my grandma is renewing her vows for their 50th anniversary.. So we will have a couple of busy weekends coming up.

We are soooo excited to finally have this pregnancy wind down. Not that it has been really bad, but I get so worn out from working but I don't have enough time saved at work to take off now. As it is I only will get 4 weeks after baby is born to be home with her. The docs said that baby weights 5 lbs 8 ozs, which is what I weighted when I was born, so she is going to be a healthy little girl! And don't worry everyone will be getting their phone calls when something is really happening.. My family was very upset with me when no one got calls saying that I was in L and D but I didn't want everyone coming down just to find out it was nothing. So once I get the nod saying that we are going to be having a baby, everyone will be getting calls. Probably from Kelly though. (he was so darn cute when I was all strapped up in the bed.. just had to share)

33 Weeks.. Almost 34

Well, tomorrow I will be 34 weeks along.. Time is just breezing by.

We went to the doctor and they said they don't think I have preeclampsia. They just want me to keep an eye on my blood pressure. If it gets to be 140/90, I should go to the hospital. It was 135/70 at the doctor's office yesterday morning and 135/83 at work last night. So I am right on the border line. And I am to watch for blurred or spotted vision, headaches or right sided pain. I am pretty determined to not have this, as they put you on bedrest. With only 6 weeks left, I figure I can make it this last little stretch. At least another two weeks. I've said for the longest time I wanted to make it to 34 weeks and now that I have (tomorrow) I want to make it to 36.

I don't want Mattie to have to struggle through the first part of her life. Yes, she won't remember but I want what's best for her. I'm ready to meet her, but I am really enjoying being pregnant. Well, when I'm not at work. It's hard with my big fat swollen feet and the back pain and Braxton Hicks to enjoy work, but when I am home and taking it easy life is great. :) As you can see in the belly picture, I am starting to get a linea nigra (the little dark line in the center of the belly). Kelly says that means I'm getting close.. Once it reaches the top and the belly button pops then baby is ready, just like a turkey! And the belly button is almost completely flat now.. It's so weird..

We got a new keyboard and mouse. Kelly had been playing on the computer and accidently dropped the old keyboard and the next day when I went to use it, the whole middle row didn't work. So of course we had to go buy a new one THAT day. :) And the new one is awesome. It is so quiet and it is all contured for your hands or whatever they say. And the mouse is super neat too.. yes, I love the little things.. But the computer is my number one way to keep in touch with everyone.

So, we are still on weekly visits to the doctor since they want to keep an eye on my blood pressure. And we talked about inducing this last visit. They said they won't let me go a week over my due date. So at the latest Mattie will be here by my birthday. My due date to them is between the 17 and the 20th. But I am thinking, if I'm not in labor by the 20th, why not just wait till my birthday it is close enough that it will always be grouped with my birthday and our anniversary.. But I am still hoping that she will come early so that it isn't just another overlooked day. Our anniversary is already always overlooked because of my birthday so if the baby comes on the same day what else will be forgotten.. Definetely not the baby's birthday.

Anyway, if I haven't already asked you, please email me your addresses and birthdays as Kelly and I finally got a address book. I think I am nesting because I think this is like the most important thing right now.. got to get organized.. Plus, if I have your address you will get a beautiful birth announcement of our little one..

Remember?

This is me getting ready for our wedding.

This is Sept 07 at Brandon's Wedding.

This is in Feb 08, not long after we found out we were expecting a little one.

Then this is Father's Day.. Kelly and I's first professional photos together.

Here I am trying to feed Mattie her first PB and J.. Around 6 months pregnant.

Me and Lindsey at my friend's baby shower.. I was around 6 months again.


Mattie's Halloween outfit.. This is the back of it.. SOOOO cute.. I just hope she can fit into it.

Results..

So, today we found out the results and they were negative!! Just like I thought!! We will talk to my oncologist more tomorrow to see what they are going to do with teh lump still left in there. I'd like for them to take it out so that it is gone and I don't have to worry about it growing or anything, but we will talk to the doctor to see what they say...

I finally took some pictures that are more than just the belly.. I look wonderfully tired, as usual, but you can really tell that I am a pregnant chick! That's why I took them. There is no hiding it now.. But of course I only have a few weeks left to enjoy it.

Not so bad..

So, the biopsy itself wasn't so bad. They numbed me up and then I didn't feel anything.. The worst part was being able to see the screen of the ultrasound so I could see exactly what they were doing.. Which was neat at the time, but a litte gruesome now that I think back. I won't go into details as I'm sure no one really wants to know, I know I didn't. Going in semi blind was a-ok by me. Now we are playing the waiting game. They said 48 to 72 hours, so Friday would have been 48 hours, so I'm guessing either Monday I will get a call or they might just wait until I go into the doctor on Wednesday.

Anyway, as I was saying the biopsy wasn't so bad. But the pain afterwards sucked.. I was supposed to keep ice on it for 30 minutes then 30 off, 30 on... you get the idea. But I went to lunch with my mom instead so I missed part of that and by the time I got home I went straight to bed as I had to be back up in a few hours to go to work. I put a baggie that zip locked closed with a little ice in it in my sports bra to keep the soreness down. Well, I woke up to the whole front of my sports bra wet, the sheets wet, the pillow I was laying with was wet and the bed itself was wet.. Nice, huh? But I was so tired I simply took the ice (now water) pack out and went back to bed. Yesterday I got tired of the itchy steristrips they put on it and I pulled them off. They were ready though, they came off really easy. But now I can see the full damage they did.. And of course I took a picture cause that way I will always remember.. As you see I have a pretty bruise, but it looks to be almost all gone and that little red spot is where they made a little cut to go in through.. And I had a bandaid on it at work so you can see what that did as well..

See now aren't you glad you know me? I can prep you for all this fun stuff :)

Well, Tuesday I go to my oncologist, although I doubt he'll know anything since he is at a different hospital than the doc that had the biospy done. But he is doing a check up for the military ( I have to get it done every 1 1/2 yrs) to keep my benefits through them.

Then Wednesday we are going back to the OB, who will have the results of the biopsy. I'm hoping they call me on Monday, but if they don't oh well.. Although, if it is bad news would they call me on Monday or just wait till I'm there in person??? Or are they going to wait till Wednesday no matter what since I'll be coming in anyway?? See I got all sorts of questions about this crap.. Kelly says I worry too much. I think I worry just right. :)

Anyway, I'm hoping that at the doctor we can discuss possibly inducing me so that Kelly and I have a set date to have everything ready. And I want to know how they are going to know that baby is head down and not too big if they won't do any more ultrasounds.. That's what they told us last time, that we are only suppose to get one ultrasound and that was at 18 weeks.

Well, I am going to get off to bed so I can rest my big ol' pregnant body before having to work again tonight.. UGH.. I have to work by myself. It's cute because it's almost like my bosses don't remember that I am PREGNANT! And walking that much can induce labor, which I'm not worried about right now, but if they are planning on keeping the schedule the same then they are going to be upset when I have to leave in the middle of the night because I walked myself into labor.. :) But we will see.. Just cause I don't have a big huge belly like some people, doesn't mean that I don't feel it just as much as they do.

Oh yeah, Kelly and I went to our first baby class and it was interesting. Everyone there was due around the same time that I am and all of them had big HUGE round bellies.. I was a litte jealous. But all and all we made it through and possibly even learned a few things..

Baby is getting bigger and her movements are getting a lot stronger. I will take another picture on Monday, I think I am starting to get that little line down the belly.. Maybe it is all just my hairy belly... LOL.. :)

Look at Mattie's Growth

I do have some updates to post. A few weeks ago I found a lump on my left breast. I brought it up at our doctor visit on Wednesday. They felt it and decided that I needed to get an ultrasound to get a better look at it. Thursday I went and had the ultrasound done. And now we are getting a biopsy done on Wednesday. Now, there is no need for anyone to worry. It is a tissue mass. Not a clogged milk duct or fluid filled cyst. But they think it looks like a non-cancerous tissue mass. So, Wednesday we are going to get the biopsy and the following Tuesday I see my Oncologist (cancer doc) and Wednesday I see the OB again. So, now we play the waiting game again.

As you see, I have put together a slide of the belly growth as I can't believe just how big it has gotten in the last few weeks. I am very very excited to meet my little girl, especially now as I feel her move around a lot and the movements are stronger. The other day it felt like she was sticking her elbow (or maybe a knee) out and I could feel the whole arm or leg when I touched it with my hand, it was weird.

We also bought a special bag for Mattie.. I'll have to get a picture up on here. It is just a diaper bag from Pottery Barn Kids, but it has her intials on it so I think it is extra special.

Kelly and I have started putting together our hospital bag. The last week or two I have been buying little things for the stay and Kelly pulled out a bag. He put everything in its own little compartments and even put tags on each section of the bag that states what goes in it so we won't have to dig around to find things when we are in the hospital. And I got our diaper bag all ready too. Now all we need is to find the take-home outfit for Mattie and I think the diaper bag will be ready. We still have to put an extra set of clothes for Kelly and clothes for me to wear home as I doubt that I will fit into the outfit I am going to wear to the hospital.. It's exciting and nerve racking as well. Time is flying by, but I guess that is a good thing. The only bad part of being pregnant for me right now is not being able to get comfortable to sleep, but we've got the pillow thing down so that doesn't bother me so much anymore. And my feet hurt really bad when I'm at work, but we bought some ace bandages to wrap them up to help support my ankles and arches when I'm on my feet all night.

Boring..

Well, not much has been changing for Kelly and I the last couple days. Just working and sleeping. We go to the doctor on Wednesday so maybe that'll be exciting. We are starting our birth classes next week so that's going to be exciting. Except they moved our Labor/Birth classes from last week to the end of September.. Which will be interesting. I hate waiting that long because what if baby comes early and we end up not even going? Oh well..

I got a picture from one of my friends of her neice who is two weeks farther along than I am. Kelly and I were looking at the picture of her belly and I said 'My belly's not even close to that big!' Then Kelly made me get up so he could take a picture and we could do a side by side comparison. It was really funny because he MADE me do it! And then he would run from the computer to me and back again to make sure we were in the same position.. So now I have a picture far enough away to see my face... And I look tired as all heck but you can definetly see the baby bump now. :)

Baby Shower.. Done

Here is the last picture we got of the puppy before he went to a new home.. he was laying with all four paws out and belly flat on the ground.. it was so funny, but I couldn't get any closer without him moving.. He went home on Saturday with one of Rachael's good friends.

Well, we got through Kelly's Birthday. We did the baby shower/ Kelly's birthday party. In all of the pictures you can see just how tired I was.. I got 2 hours of sleep both Friday and Saturday.

We had a lot of fun at the parties though. We got a lot of the things that we needed for baby and a bunch of diapers. Kelly was reading to our neighbors little girl, she's 2.. it was so cute I had to get a picture and share.

We are 29 weeks now.. Only 11 to go..

I put a whole bunch more pictures up on the other website.. Just click on our wedding photo on the upper right side and it'll take you to all our pictures..

Whoo Hoo..

We are now 28 weeks pregnant. 84 DAYS!!

It's flying by! I'm getting more and more excited to meet our baby girl. She's getting really big. I can feel where she is by pressing down on the belly now. And I'm finally starting to look like a pregnant chick! :)

I guess I can show off the belly. Side wise doesn't look all that impressive in the pictures but forward wise you can see that the belly really is getting round and out there. And YES, I'm getting little fat rolls on my sides (it's soooooo cute, right? :( )

We are throwing Kelly's Birthday Party on August 2nd. It's going to be a Baby Shower/Birthday Party. I figured it's early to do a baby shower, but since we'll be doing all the food and what not's might as well throw a shower at the same time so it's worth everyone's time for driving over here. And I'm terrible about remembering things so I just now am mailing out the invites!!

We are OKAY..

So, we went to the doctor and everything is fine.. The pain I am feeling is just because she is growing so fast. Everything is normal and baby is doing fine. Today I had to take off my wedding ring because my hands are so swollen.. I am hoping that it is just for today that it'll have to be off, I think it's weird not wearing my ring and looks bad now that I am pregnant.. :)

Well, that's all for now just wanted to update everyone by saying that I am okay and baby is fine..

uuuuuuhhhh..

Well, I was worried last night that I was starting to have contractions, but I think I am just paranoid.. I am going to take it easy for a few days and hopefully by Wednesday (when we go to the doctor) everything will be okay or at least they will be able to check on everything.

Our camera sucks, but I got some new pictures of the ever growing belly. We are now 26 Weeks.. Only 14 Weeks to go or 95 days. I feel like she's gone through a growth spurt and the belly is huge, but everyone tells me that it's not.

And my brother and his wife sent us the cutest little package with a bunch of farm stuff for Mattie.. I just had to take a picture. The cow is a bottle holder! So stinking cute!! I've never seen anything like it!

We still have 3 puppies running around here. They are getting to be real handfuls.. We have the two boys we are trying to sell, but too many puppies out there right now. And then the one we are keeping for my ex-step-mom, who has been really ill after her last chemo treatment. But I hear that she may not even want the puppy after all, but I want to hear if from her before I try to sell the puppy.

Now back to resting and keeping my swollen feet up and trying not to worry.. I can't wait to meet my little girl but she needs to incubate a little bit longer, at least 3 weeks. Ah, yes, I updated the picasa albums with puppy pictures and belly pictures for those of you who want to keep track..

Baby Born at 24 weeks.

http://mackandcheese.tripod.com/index.html



This is a website for a baby that was born at 23 1/2 weeks.. She survived for 9 days, but died after they did a heart operation on because she had three brain bleeds.



It's sad but I love seeing just how big Mattie would be if she came into the world today.. And she could survive. It would be a struggle but she could do it.. This story makes me want to stay pregnant and deal with everything because I want my little girl to come into this world without having to struggle to live there are enought other things to deal with.. :)


YIKES... I updated my little baby badge on the side of here and realized that in 6 days, we will be down to 2 digits left.. That's scary!!! 105 days to go..

Rough Day already...

Well, Shiloh is doing okay. She is suffering through it. They pulled two teeth, gave her the rabies shot and took out all her girl parts. She doesn't have any pain medication so she is still pretty wimpy and sleeping in bed with us for now. She ate a ton of food this morning and drank a bunch of water, which is good. Just healing.

We had an odd occurance yesterday. Monsoon season is in town and it broke our big beautiful tree into peices. Only one little branch left standing. This is the same tree that we fought with all of last monsoon season to get it to stay upright, but this time the wind won.

And this morning we had an accident with Kelly's truck and it ran through the garage door. So we are now sitting her waiting to hear from a repair company and the insurance company. However, we are just glad that it didn't hit the garage or my car and it didn't really do any damage to Kelly's truck, just a little scratched but no dents. I will put up all the pictures of Shiloh, the tree and the garage door on the link..

Time is going..

SO fast! Today Kelly and I signed up for our birthing classes (there are 4 of them) but we won't take them till August and September. It's exciting! We took Shiloh to get her girl parts taken out this morning, so now I'm all worried about our little girl.. but in a week or two we are going to be taking Foxy to get her done too. No more puppies for us! I am relisting the puppies in the paper too.. Busy busy.. I feel like we have a hundred things to do and no time to do it in.

This is a picture of Shiloh when she was just a few weeks old.. Seems like so long ago.. Soon it'll be Mattie we are taking pictures of!

We played last night with the carseat to make sure it fit okay in the backseat of my car.. Well, it fit.. But no one can sit in the passenger seat of my car. So, we took it out and we are leaving it up to the firemen (they know what they are doing) which was the original plan, I just worried that it wouldn't fit and then it would be too late to take it back. But it does, its just huge. I checked on consumer safety to make sure it's a good car seat and it rates okay. Not the best but not the worst. Which is what I expect.

Well, I'm sure I'll be back later today or tomorrow with pictures of Shiloh after her adventure and updates on how she's doing.. She's like a child, you know.

Oh yes, Kelly reminded me this morning, in 27 days he will be 30!

Updates on page.

I put up a bunch of pictures finally. If you click on the picture of Kelly and I, it'll take you to the page with all our pictures for everyone to see.. I'm still working on it, but trying to keep everything up to date and easy to access so when baby gets here it'll be easy to put new stuff up.

Haha, so I've (Rachael) been doing the blog to keep everyone up to date and just found out last night that Kelly has been reading it too with everyone! I thought it was funny that he reads it but never says to put anything on it or anything about what I put up.. hehe, boys are so funny. :) This is a picture of me and one of my friends (she's 8 months preggo and the same distance around the belly that I am.. UGH, makes me feel sooo fat, but Kelly says it's all baby)

Tomorrow we are going to go tear out our baby's (puppy) insides.. I'm excited. Finally we are getting her spade. Which reminds me of a funny story to share. I was at work Saturday night and Kelly called me sounding paniced and asking if he could come to work and I could help him with something. I said 'sure what is going on'. I can't remember what he said, but it no where prepared me for what I was going to find when I got out into the truck (I wish I would have thought to take a picture of this). Chesty (the boy) had gotten the small loop on his metal collar stuck around his bottom jaw. It was behind his canines so it wouldn't come off. We fought with him trying to get it off without hurting him for a good 20 minutes before I thought to go ask the ER nurses if they had a ring cutter.. So I had to give them the run down on how dumb my dog is and they went to look for it. While a couple were looking for them one of them came and looked at the dog. And told us to bring the dog into the ER. Kelly came in wearing his slippers, sleep shorts and no shirt carrying the dog. To make it a little shorter, I finally pulled it off his jaw and we didn't have to cut it off.. And he is back to his normal, well manner self. These are the two puppies left.. Aren't they cute? And we need to get them gone.. Anyone want one? :)

So, I'm losing my belly button.. I'm wondering if it will pop out. No stretch marks.. (this is important) but Kelly and I noticed that it looks like I'm getting like spider vein looking things on the top of my bely.. I wonder if it's because that part of my belly hasn't stretched before? Or maybe my bra puts pressure on it.. *sigh* I don't understand this stuff. But I do try, don't I? hehehe. Everyone I work with say that I am going to be the most prepared new mom out there. I think it's more like I'm the most paranoid mom! And it helps pass the time while I wait for Mattie to finish cooking. :)

Which reminds me, I found this girl that had her baby at 24 weeks.. The baby is now a week old and it is so scary seeing what Mattie would look like if she came out now. Seeing this helped me deal with the terrible bout of heartburn and painful feet I was having last night.. Give me all the pain so that Mattie doesn't have to deal with it. :)

You Tube.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=AC94FA8727E087E2

This is the link with the videos of the puppies.. Only 2 left!

And here's the belly.. Getting bigger and bigger.. It's sooo fun and yet not so fun.. :) No stretch marks... YET. ;)

Bye Bye

So, we are down to 2 puppies left to sell. I'm so excited and happy to get getting them off to new homes. The first one we sold was the one we were debating on keeping, so that settled that question. Plus, did we really need a 5th puppy? I didn't think so! We got videos of them up on youtube.. I'll just have to remember to put a link on here so you guys can see how funny they are.. I guess you could look under Orman and chihuahua, it should bring it up that way, but I will try to remember to get the link up here.

Kelly and I had a fantastic morning. We went to a spay/neuter clinic to get Shiloh (the youngest) to get spayed before she started that nasty stuff (she's 9 months so it has to be soon). But we got up early because it was a first come first served basis. So, we sat around there for an hour or more with a bunch of other people and their dogs before I had to go pee (ah, love being preggo). I drove down the street to a Circle K because I figured they would have a bathroom.. yep, that had to be the nastiest bathroom I've been in in a long time.. There was no toilet paper, no hand soap and a roach ran across the wall while I was in there. But I HAD to go so there was no choice. Well, back to the clinic I went to find that they don't do spays on Friday's. So after all that, we got no where. So, we drove all the way back home to find out what we could do because their next appt they could get us in for was at the end of July.. HA, I'm not waiting that long and risking our puppy. She's only like 3 lbs so I don't know how she would be able to handle a litter of 6 or 8 (like ours have been). We finally found one that could get us in on Tuesday and it's only $75. I just can't see paying the $300 the vet wants to do it.. So, now we are getting the little one done in a few days and then a few days after that we want to get Foxy done so we won't have any more puppies.. I'm considering getting Chesty done too so maybe he won't lift his leg, but I hear that doesn't work.. Oh well.

Then we went to see 'Wanted', our first movie in a year. It was really good. I love Angelina Jolie but Kelly said it wasn't too bad. We aren't theatre people.. Too expensive, but we had free tickets and there were a hundred kids going to see Wall E so we went for Wanted instead.

Anyway, I'm getting fatter and fatter... I mean, Mattie is growing and growing. It's exciting and yet scary at the same time.. My belly button is getting more and more shallow, so I might end up with a popped out belly button! I think those look so funny, but I want to experience all the wonderful little things that go with being pregnant. I'm loving and hating it all at the same time. I have a hard time getting to sleep and feel like I'm huge all the time. But I absolutely love feeling our little girl kick around and dance (or I say she dances). Kelly and I are looking into taking some prenatal classes to help us prepare for the baby and labor.. I just can't have my big manly man passing out during birth or cutting the cord. :) And heaven knows we will have fun with diapers and feeding. I'm taking all the help I can get now because I might not take it after baby gets here.

So, how is everyone else doing? Sometimes I feel like I talk to myself on here, which I suppose I do.. :) Anywho, 24 weeks and counting. Oh yes, I get to do my gestational diabetes test next time I go to the doctor, so I'm extremely excited.. NOT! Ah, well, another one of those fun things.. :)

Tah Dah..

So, Kelly and I went and had pictures taken on friday for Father's Day.. I know late, but these days I can't seem to do anything on time. It was really nice to get to sit down with Kelly and get some nice pictures taken of just us, since we have no pictures of us together in the house. Actually we have one but thats the only picture of either of us in the house, its sad really. So, I figured for Father's day we could get pictures of us and some of the baby too. We are putting the puppies in the paper this week so hopefully they will go very quickly. I go see my oncologist this Thursday, which won't be very eventful since they can't do any of their normal scans and what nots since I'm pregnant. But I haven't told them I'm pregnant yet so hopefully they will be more excited than upset. I went to a baby shower yesterday, which was fun because I got to see a whole bunch of my friends that I haven't seen in a while. The girl is due in July and she is having a girl too, so it'll be nice to know someone with a baby that is close in age to our little girl.

I am feeling pretty good most days now, except sleepy. I am so tired, but I think some of that has to do with the benadryl that I am taking to help ward off the itchiness that I was having. Baby moves around quite a bit. Kelly got to feel her really move the other day. And he has felt her a few times now. But before he couldn't really tell if it was her or gas, but now you definetly can tell. She gets really active when I eat pineapple and spicy food. So, I guess she is a little of us both. I love pineapple and Kelly loves spicy food. :) I'm really excited to get to meet her and wish the time would go by quicker, but then on the other hand, I'm enjoying being pregnant. Besides the horomones.. They are crazy. I cry over nothing, get really angry at nothing and forget some pretty important stuff. So, that stuff I'm ready to see go. :)