Tomorrow is the BIG Day!

Well, tomorrow it is... Cam will be here! I cannot wait to see my new son. See if he looks like Maddie or not.

I am so totally not prepared for him in the house. I mean, we have everything we need, but the house is a wreck, and his room isn't completely set up. He will be sleeping in our room for a while anyhow, so again, it is fine. But I kinda wish it was more organized. I am prepared mentally for the baby to come though. I cannot wait to see how Maddie reacts to him. If all goes well she will probably come up to the hospital to see him tomorrow! I think it will be love at first sight. And then I will have to make sure that she is not pulling on him, feeding him, etc. I know she is going to be a "hands-on sister" lol.

She played so well on her own today. Read books to herself, played with a bus and a doll. She tried to fit this doll into the bus toy for almost an hour today. The doll is way too big, but she is one determined girl. Papa Don came over for a visit to which she got so excited about! She was coming out of room, and he called her name when he came in the door. Boy, did she stand up, and go running towards the kitchen. I honestly thought she was going to crash and burn with how fast she was going. Then she SHOWERED him with kisses! 4 to be exact and he didn't have to ask for one of them! Then they sat in the chair and she snuggled with him head on shoulder. She sure knows how to tug at his heart strings. Just as much as she LOVED her Grandma Pam, she also LOVES her Papa Don! Maddie is staying with him tomorrow during my surgery. Then she is going to her Nanny and Papa Danny's to spend the night.

On Sunday, her Nanny brought over two new toys for Maddie and some clothes for her and Cam. The one toy is a dog with a remote and the dog barks when you press the button. Maddie LOVES this toy. She gets the biggest smile on her face when he barks. Then she snuggles and hugs him. She is just a doll! I hope that my attention to Cam does not take away from the time I have to just sit and watch and enjoy Maddie.

Ok, well I need to get off to bed although I feel like I could type forever!

Wish me luck tomorrow and I will get pictures up ASAP!!!

A taste of Heaven this morning...

....disguised as Chocolate Chip Pancakes!! YUMMY

Yup. that is what I made this morning for breakfast and they were SOOO good. I can't remember the last time I ate Chocolate Chip Pancakes. Maddie loved the pancakes so much she asked for thirds. (Don't be alarmed, hers were plain with some butter put on them- no syrup.) But mine- chock full of chocolate chips and slathered in syrup! :)

Can you believe this makes me so happy? It does.

At some point I will make pancakes with chocolate chips in them for Maddie. For special occasions. She will probably eat them on her celebration plate I got for her. I have been meaning to order her the celebration plate from Pampered Chef since she was born. But I kept putting it off. I am glad I finally did, and maybe it was a sign that I waited cause I ordered it at a time when I realized that I would need two of them :). I used the plate on her first birthday. She ate her cake off of it.

Anyhow, I am also glad I just recently ordered them because they are being discontinued as of 9-1-08. It has a little booklet that you write down each time you used the plate and what the occasion was. I think she will love it as a kid, and treasure it as an adult!

So you may be wondering what MY occasion was, to have chocolate chip pancakes??? I just think every day being pregnant is an occasion to celebrate... or well, at least eat whatever the heck you want without feeling guilty about it!

I made a pizza tonight that was super yummy! I used the Pampered Chef pizza dough for the first time, which was actually very yummy! (Yeast Frightens me, but they pretty much dummy-proofed the prep.) It was fun to roll out fresh dough, and after using the boboli's for a long time, it was much fresher tasting. That and I put fresh Basil in the pizza sauce and OH YUM! Was it tasty! I was going to take a picture, but I cannot find my second camera and my good one's battery is dead.

Today Maddie destroyed our house!!! She played quietly by herself almost all day long. She had two good naps, and is already in bed for the night. I think she has some catching up to do on sleep after our vacation. ;) I really need to find my second camera- that is the one with the video option and she has been doing some video worthy things. Today she actually pushed our swiffer around for a good 15 minutes in a circle. Now that I am thinking about it, I am not sure why in the world I did not put a swiffer pad on it! But it was funny, she certainly knew how to use the thing.

She left no corner un-turned in our house. Normally she will hit one or two of her "spots" but this time, she hit EVERY spot! Which reminds me that I should go pick it all up, and I am also remembering that it is getting harder and harder to bend over as of late :( However, and KNOCK ON WOOD, my back hasn't been as bad at all this pregnancy as it was with Maddie. I remember if there were things that fell around the house throughout the day, I would get the broom and sweep it all to one place and then bend over once to pick everything up. Also, at work, I dropped things all the time, and wouldn't pick them up. One of my co-workers would come in, laugh at me, and pick it all up for me. Lol. I am still curious if I drop more things while being pregnant , or if I am always this clumsy, it just isn't such a big deal to pick the things up.

So as not to disappoint, I will post a pic (and believe it or not it is not of Maddie). I know some people are disappointed if there is not a pic accompanying the post. This is from our vacation. DJ used his GPS to take us through the backroads one day when we went into Pentwater. We passed by these quite unusual row of trees. It was really cool. I think this picture does it justice.

I am pregnant...

I know, you all know that, and yes, I know that. However, in the past 23 weeks, there were several times I just kinda forget I am pregnant. Well today I became very conscious of it.

Today I ate this for lunch:

A Bologna sandwich
some hot mustard flavored pretzels
a glass of chocolate milk
gummy fruit snacks

I mean honestly, who besides a pregnant woman thinks that all sounds good together?

A Baby Boy!!

Yup, that is right, it is a BOY! Oh my gosh, I am so excited! Even though I think DJ was destined for a houseful of women... I love that Maddie is going to have a brother, and I think she is destined for that!

The tech was very fast, and I don't think the pictures are that great, and she didn't even really show us much on the screen. But I guess it probably was more interesting the first time anyhow. I could see the baby move around a lot this time.

Funny thing is about the waiting/not waiting thing. I think most of you know how crappy my c-section was...and I do remember being shocked cause I thought it was a boy, to hear it is a girl! But it was a very dull shocking feeling. Kinda like a whatever, I don't care. When I kissed her all emotions and feelings came back, but not hearing it the first time. Well, this time laying on the table, the Tech asked if we were ready. I said "Wait, let me guess, it is a girl!?!" She said slowly.. and I saw her mouth form into the shape of the word NO and I was thinking "what, she is going to say No?".. and she did, she dragged it out, ya know, where the word is on their lips but they let it hang there for a minute. I remember immediately welling up with tears and saying "Really, you are serious, it isn't?" "It's a boy?!" Yup, she said, and she went back to look and said, I am 100% sure. I felt silly for being so emotional about it, but I really wanted that boy! :)

A few weeks ago, I quietly threw out there the fact that I was pregnant again. Most of you seem to have picked that up. However, I decided to do a proper post about it in case anyone didn't catch it. Well, actually I am doing a post because tomorrow is my 20 week ultra sound and we will be finding out this time what the sex of the baby is. :)

Most of the time I am so busy with Maddie that I honestly forget I am pregnant again. Then other times, it is very obvious... because of being so tired, or irritable, or whatever the symptom might be. The funny thing is that I knew right away this time that I was pregnant. All the symptoms happened right away!! Symptoms like heartburn that I did not feel until the very end of my pregnancy the last time. (BTW, the baby is in there moving around a ton... it is like it knows I am talking about it or something, haha)

I remember telling my BFF at her Mardi Gras party that I thought I might be pregnant again. She told me she had some tests and I could go take one. I told her No because it was a week before my missed period even. And with Maddie I tested negative until the day after my missed period. Even the day and two after the line was VERY faint pink. So, I didn't want to waste the test. And now that we were watching money, I didn't want to buy any until after my missed period. However, in the next couple days the symptoms got SO much more prevalent. I finally put that box of tests in my cart at Target. I got the double pack. Decided I would take one that night- knowing it would be negative, and then have the one in a week after my missed period. WELL, lo and behold, when I took that test that night, it was a blazing red line!! The funny thing is, that with Maddie's test, I had to set it down and wait to see the line. With this test, as the pee went up the stick, I could already tell that two lines were forming. Yikes! I still set it down on the tub and waited the 5 minutes to be sure. :) Sure enough.. blazing red.

You know they always say with your second baby you do not take nearly as much pictures and stuff. WELL, I HAVE to brag that I am proud that this baby already has one over Maddie. I took a pic of the test for this pregnancy, and I never did for Maddies. I will come back and edit this post later to add the picture. I am on the laptop and all my pics are on my Mac.

So fast forward to today, I am already half-way through this pregnancy and it is amazing to me how fast it is going. If I remember correctly the first time (which wasn't all that long ago, haha) that it was the first half that seemed to take so long. The second half went much faster. And I assume it will this time too. After all, we just have to get through the summertime. We have plenty of camping trips and Maddie's first birthday to keep us busy until the date arrives!

SO, tomorrow is the day... Please think BLUE for us so we can have our complete little family of a boy and girl. Not that it matters to us either way, but it would be very nice to have one of each! :)

Pregnancy

Ok, so I totally stole this picture, from some blog of a woman that I don't even know. I hope that she does not sue me or that I am not totally committing some huge blog crime...

But, I wanted to demonstrate a point to those who have not been pregnant (ahem, DJ).

I have a friend who works with someone who became pregnant, and she was doing a bit of complaining to me about her co-worker. Basically she was saying how she found out she was pregnant, and then immediately she had all the symptoms of pregnancy. I said in the woman's defense "NO, that really IS how it happens"!!!!! of course my friend just put me in the label of another crazy pregnant lady. I tried to explain to her how when I found out I was pregnant I mentioned to a good friend of mine who had 4 (yes, I said 4) children that I think I may have gotten pregnant the previous month and but still had a period. She said "NO, Melissa when you took the pregnancy test that line would have been blazing red!!" And I explained to her, yes, but you see it was like immediately all of the effects of pregnancy set in the day before, and the days following me finding out. My dear 4 child-bearing friend said "YES, that is how it WORKS"

Look at the below picture... see how the line gets more red everyday??? That is the hormones going from 0 to 60 in 4 days............. crazy!

I LOVE BEING PREGGERS

No not right now. But I did. Love being Pregnant. There are some people on the Baby Center Boards I frequent who are pregnant again after having a June '07 baby. I can't imagine, but I am secretly almost jealous. ALMOST I said. Ok, now that everyone thinks I am crazy, the real reason I am here is to go over some of my Pregnancy Memories.

Being back at work has brought back many preggo memories. The last time I was here I was VERY pregnant. Coming back on Tuesday reminded me of some things I had completely forgotten about.

~ How difficult it was to get out of my car daily. It was a huge effort, my work pass always used to fall off my side. Then I had to (HEAVEN FORBID) bend down and pick it up.

~That I got to have a super good parking spot cause our company has special parking spots for Preggos. I look at it everyday and think how I miss parking there.

~Waiting to take the elevators just one floor up when a vendor came instead of just running quickly up the steps. (I can run up them quickly now, but boy do I get winded. Ugh)

~The random bloody noses that would just appear out of nowhere while sitting at my desk.

~Eating a bag of Jalepenos Chips everyday at lunch. I just saw them today in the cafe and remembered that.

~Sitting at work, annoyed or frustrated, and Maddie would kick and it would just make me feel tons better. God, I loved rubbing that belly. Gosh, I had such a connection with her then even...

~Getting up to go to the bathroom every 5 minutes and how much of an effort it was to walk to the bathroom. I would be exhausted by the time I got there and have to sit on the toilet extra long to get the energy to go back to my desk.


Hmm, I know there has been so many more, but this is all I can think of right now. I will add some more later if I can remember. I know this has to bring some memories for those of my readers who have been PG before!!

Edited to say: After reading this I laughed at myself cause I say I had such a connection with her then, and I did, but I laugh because I totally thought she was a BOY, I just had this feeling. And here she was a girl... great connection, huh? Ha Ha.

The Biggest Adventure So Far: Labor & Delivery

Tuesday June 26th 2007. D Day. Or should we call it I day, for induction day. That’s right, I was scheduled to be induced partly because of a meltdown I had with my doctor the Thursday prior. (I was put on a project at work that had me working 12 hour days 2 weeks before my due date. To say the least, it was quite overwhelming, and my doctor took me off work the day after my appointment.) I was also being induced partly because I had been measuring big for my last 3-4 appointments. Dr. Belen wanted to make sure I did not have a gigantic baby. So the date was set. It was nice to have an end date in mind and know that I was going to finally meet this baby growing inside me!!! We didn’t go in until 9:00 at night, and I was very excited and expecting to meet my baby the next day, Wednesday. How foolish of me.

My entire family was there. My Mom, Dad, and Sister. Not much was happening at first. We were just all sitting around talking while we awaited for a pill that was inserted do it’s job in ripening my cervix. Every time the doctors would check me the results were positive. I was moving forward. They had said there was a possibility that I may need 2 doses of that pill. But when they checked me later that night (actually early Wed morning) I was set to start petocin. Yeah, things are going well, I should meet my baby by lunchtime Wednesday. How foolish of me.

The contractions progressively got stronger, and I was actually happy about the minor discomfort, because this meant it was not too much longer till I get to meet my baby girl. How foolish of me.

At one point the nurse comes in and said that my contractions were getting too strong too fast, and they had to back me down on the petocin. What they don’t really mention at the time is that when this happens you have to basically start from scratch with the petocin. So we start back over. Contractions get up to speed again, and they continue to get stronger and stronger. I finally decided to get some pain medicine. Let me just tell you, after 9 months of not drinking, those meds hit me like a bottle of vodka! I have to admit, it was kinda fun to watch the hospital room spin and spin. But soon enough, the meds did the same as the bottle does, put me to sleep!!! So, I took a nap. And it was good. I was feeling great, these contractions were nothing now!!! I remember turning over at one point and DJ saying to me “You haven’t had a contraction in over 45 minutes”. I just mumbled something like that is great under my breath and went back to sleep. A couple hours later and my family comes back in to see how things are progressing as I groggily rise from my slumber. I pull my left hand out from under the covers and am shocked to see that my hand has tripled in size!!! I can’t bend my fingers which really look more like sausages than fingers. And the back of my hand, think Wil Smith in Hitch, when he has the reaction from the seafood. My sister runs out to get the nurse, and they realize that my IV has come out of my vein, and all of the petocin is being pumped into my hand. SO, once again, we have to start from the beginning with the petocin, as the contractions have almost completely stopped. (Darn, I was hoping it would stay that easy!) At this point, I am staying in good spirits and while watching TV I see a commercial for the Detroit Fireworks that will be aired that night after dark. I think to myself. Oh yay, I can watch those on TV tonight with my Husband and new baby. How foolish of me. To make a really long story (a bit) shorter, the rest of the night is filled with stronger and stronger contractions, getting an epidural, and another epidural, finally pushing, and pushing, and pushing, and pushing. Thinking that any minute I will meet my baby. How foolish of me. As midnight of WEDNESDAY nears, I remember pushing like hell to try to get this baby out. And I am told that I used all sort of descriptive names for that baby that I so badly wanted out. (I will not repeat these here). Finally, I succumb to the idea of a c-section. It was not fun. I would do it again, for the same outcome. That outcome, being the first time I met my sweet baby girl. Our first Kiss. Something I will never forget. I am on the table, feeling scared and exhausted, and surprised to hear it was a girl! I am trying to see my baby. Trying to see what they are doing over there. Before I know it, the nurse brings over this little bundle. All I can see is this precious little face with the gigantic eyes looking at me. I say hello and then I lean over to kiss her cheek, totally unprepared for the most amazing feeling ever. She was so soft, and warm, and let’s just say, a VERY warm and needed welcome after the c-section. I am instantly in love.

The Pregnancy Part 3- Nausea, Mood Swings, and Cravings. Oh yeah, and Crying, headaches, extreme exhaustion, bloody noses, aching back, broken ribs (

I think the title says it all. I think most of the population has either been pregnant, been married to a preggo. Or known someone who has gone through it all. I really can’t complain too much. Even with all of the above, I think I had it pretty good. And overall, I loved my “bump”. To me, it meant that my baby was in there thriving, and what more can you really ask for. I loved for people to comment on how big it was, and I didn’t even mind if they touched it. When I think back on being pregnant, I have overall great feelings toward it. When DJ and I first would talk about having babies, we talked seriously about only having one. I actually enjoyed the pregnancy so much, that I honestly couldn't imagine not going through it one more time (at least not by choice). DJ on the other hand might have different feelings about my pregnancy, as he got the brunt of my complaints from the Nausea, Mood Swings, and Cravings. Oh yeah, and Crying, headaches, extreme exhaustion, bloody noses, aching back, broken ribs (or at least it FELT broken) and many other untreatable effects of pregnancy.

The Pregnancy Part 2: Telling DJ

After I recovered from jumping up and down, and I am able to wipe the grin off of my face, I go out to the garage to get DJ. I politely and calmly ask him to come into the house for a minute. He follows me back into the house where I pick up the test and thrust it in face.
“WE, ARE, PREGNANT!!!” I say with much excitement in my voice.

“Its very faint” he says calmly.

“But its there” I reply.
I forget what he says next, but I know that he knows it better be something good so as not to set me off into tears. I think it was like a WOW or something like that.

Then he also calmly says “Ok, well, don’t tell anyone.

To which I reply “Why not?”

“Cause we don’t know for sure” he says.

To which I think about kicking him for, but instead say “Yes we are sure. There are no false positives, only false negatives”

“Ok, but still let’s not say anything to anyone”

Little did he know, I had already called my Mom and told her, and my sister happened to be over, so she already knew the news too within 3 minutes of the appearance of that wonderful pink line. Needless to say, that night when I made him call friends and family to tell them, he started the sentence with “We THINK we are pregnant.” Infact, he said we THINK for the next couple of weeks. I think he finally started to believe that faint pink line meant something once the crying and frequent mood swings set in.

Next Blog: The Pregnancy Part 3- Nausea, Mood Swings, and Cravings. Oh yeah, and Crying, headaches, extreme exhaustion, bloody noses, aching back, broken ribs (or at least it FELT broken) and many other untreatable effects of pregnancy.

Our First Big Adventure: The Pregnancy

My first adventure with Maddie began on a Monday in October. I can’t remember the exact date. But I know it was a Monday. The day before would have been my missed period, and I barely noticed since I slept the entire day. I am not joking… the only time I woke up was to go to the bathroom, which seemed to be a crazy amount for the fact that all I had done was sleep all day. I remember thinking to myself that I might be pregnant based on the exhaustion and frequent bathroom visits. The thought excited me so much that I actually exerted enough energy to go to the upstairs bathroom where the pregnancy tests were tucked away in the vanity. I pulled it out, carefully peed on the stick, and set it on the tub to wait the fateful 5 minutes. By minute one I realized the test was a dud. That’s right, even the first line had not appeared! I waited the full 5 minutes just in case, and when I confirmed it was a dud- no lines at all- I went back downstairs and was asleep again before my head even hit the couch. So along comes Monday, and still tired, still peeing every 10 minutes, and now, with a ravenous hunger, I make it through the day at work. At 5:00 (it might have even been 4:50) I race out the door to go to Target to get a new box of tests, but not before stopping at Burger King to scarf down a double cheeseburger combo- I ate every bite and was still hungry! I make it home, go straight to the bathroom, and again, carefully peed on that stick. I take a quick glance as I go to lay it on the tub as I can already see a first AND SECOND line forming. The second line is very faint, almost not even there, but I see something!!! I walk out of the bathroom and vow not to come back for 5 minutes. But who am I kidding, I walk straight back in to look at it again. That second line is there, but it is almost like a shadow, not really pink or any color, but certainly it is something. I decide I must wait the 5 minutes before jumping to any conclusion. I again leave the bathroom. I make it all the way to the kitchen this time, drink a glass of water, and less than a minute later, I am back in the bathroom looking at a now very very faint, but PINK second line. I grab the test and start jumping up and down while chanting “I am pregnant, I am pregnant, I am pregnant.” Let’s just say, that was probably the last time I hopped around for the next 9 months.

Next Blog: The Pregnancy Part 2- Telling DJ