19 Weeks Check Up

So today I went in for my Ob check up; everything looks great. My quad screen came back normal, my clotting factor is under control with the baby aspirin, baby's heart rate was 156. Weight gain was 6lbs since my last visit (ouch!), but since it was over the holidays it'll go back down. Dr. Le asked if I'd gone to have my anatomical scan with Dr. Gei yet and I told him that the fools didn't have me scheduled until the 11th of January. So, he turns on the little sonogram and asked if I wanted to check gender. Uh, of course!! He's scanning this way, scanning that way, and suddenly I see three little lines. He says, "Well, it looks like a girl." Then baby opened its legs a little more and he says, "Now I think I see a penis. Let me have Peaches get you on the better ultrasound." lol, and I'm thinking, Of course it's a girl. Jinxed yourself, Jess...

Peaches (yes, the tech is named Peaches) gets me on the table and there they are, three little lines. She tells me that the legs are together, but it's looking like a girl ~ her parts just look really swollen. She moved the transducer into another spot and ~ VOILA ~ there's a weenie there!!! The 'swollen bits' were little testes. Now, you all know that I would absolutely love a girl, but I've been preparing for a boy so needless to say I almost pooped my pants on that exam table. She gave me some (bad) scan photos and gave me a 95% boy verdict. Goodness, what a crazy visit!

Christmas 2009

Christmas Momo and the tree on Christmas eve.

Relaxing after placing all the gifts under the tree. "Under" meaning where ever they would fit! Aunt Amanda and Little Man Payne had to spread some Christmas love to the babies at the hospital. We missed you!

Stockings! Can't forget the stockings!!

Christmas morning, y'all!


Wowzer!!!

Candy cane break.

Looking for more presents?

Momo giving Maddie lessons on how to work this crazy contraption.

Tea party time. Did I forget to mention that opening presents took FOREVER? We had to stop and play with each one.

The 'Best Present of the Day Award' goes to: The Trike! from Uncle Dan, Aunt Amanda, and Little Man Payne.

All I can say is, "Fun".

Getting tired of opening things; time to just play.

Photo op with mommy and Little Man Rittmann!

It's P-Man! I think he spies some boxes with his name on 'em :)

And Aunt B!!! Get the party started, baby!

Showing Pauly her Kai-Lan necklace (and beautiful tutu).

Playing in baby brother's new whale bath tub. After all, he can't use it yet right?!

What a fun day. Only 362 more days until Christmas!!

(Just kidding)

Maddie's 2nd Birthday

Birthday pizza!

So happy with the WowWowWubbzy cake!

Playtime with daddy!

Presents with mommy! Thank you, everyone!

Happy Birthday to you, Baby Girl!!!

*Christmas photos are coming soon; I have over 1,300 pictures to go through!

Cookie Monster

So, this year I thought it would be fun to have Maddie help make the Christmas cookies. She's been snatching the cookie cutters from my drawer for months; I figured she'd enjoy using them. Well, she cut out three cookies total and spent almost the entire time eating the powdered sugar.

Then, after all was baked and cooled, it was time for a wardrobe change (as we were covered in sugar). Oh ~ and it was also time to decorate our little yummies, too!

Once Maddie was snuggled in bed, it was time for mommy to start thinking about the nursery. This is what we've got so far (this is my first panoramic photo attempt - 3 photos merged together - so I'm sorry if it looks weird). The bedding should be here over the next few days. I still plan to finish the blanket, but I've lost confidence that I can make it as nice as I'd like, let alone do an entire nursery! The little mobile has precious little corduroy teddy bears ~ exactly what I was looking for!! Thank you, ebay.

We've also gotten everything ready for Maddie's big 2nd birthday party. The WowWow Wubbzy plates and decorations are ready to be hung, John ordered the cake and balloons yesterday...we're just waiting for Saturday to get here! I think she's more excited for her birthday than for Christmas, which I am glad for. I feel badly about her birthday being so close to Christmas, so we will do our best to make it as exciting for her as we possibly can.

Anyhow, I have to get back to cleaning here; everyone is coming over for Christmas and I want to house to be tidy, a nearly impossible feat with a little one running around. Not to mention my ankles are starting to swell in the afternoon. Maybe a maid isn't such a bad idea...?

Babies

Getting ready to go get our H1N1 vaccines (yuck!). I guess a hat was unavailable? And ask me how potty training is going...

After the shot, McDonald's ice cream and a play date at the park was in order. 'Cause sundaes make it alllll better.

I've got gifts wrapped and ready for Christmas morning! Maddie is obsessed with daddy's present and points it out every time we go by it. And, no, none of these are hers; hers are hidden after she got an accidental peek at some Wonder Pets blocks...

Here's the other baby :) 17wks and 2days. I went to get my hair done today and my stylist says,

"What are you now, 6, 7 months?"

"Almost 4 1/2.", I reply.

"Are you sure you're not having twins??" she laughs, as she rubs my belly.

Whatever. Just cut my hair, woman.

Second Time Around

It's funny to me that I thought, being our second time around with this, that I would be more relaxed. Me, the worry wart, borderline paranoid. Pregnancy brings such worry. Even with all the tests, all the doctor visits, all the ultrasounds, the worry about your precious unborn child is immense. Of course it never goes away; my whole life, I will always worry about my babies. But when you're growing them inside you, you have no control of what happens to them. Like when we found out about Maddie's little kidney, it was such a helpless feeling; here we were, her mommy and daddy, our duty being to protect her ~ and we were completely powerless to make it all better. The whole nine months is just wait...and worry...and wait and worry some more.

In the interim, there are only a handful of things to take your mind off of it all. Hearing that heart beat for the first time. Seeing the rascal on an ultrasound. Feeling them move. Finding out whether your tiny cargo has a hot dog or a hamburger. Picking names. Preparing the nursery. Getting supplies stocked up...six or seven little things to ease your mind in 40 weeks seems like a big, fat gip, but you do your best to make it exciting.

I am almost 17 wks and I have most of these things done, at least partially. Our furniture should be ready for pick up on Friday. John has the next two weeks off, so we'll take advantage of that and get the nursery painted. I've got the last four bundles of clothes coming this week. Target.com has our baby registry completed. Next month I'll be scheduled for a c-section, so I'll know when this little guys birthday will be. By the end of January, I guess I'll have everything finished and then it's just time to wait for him to get here. No Lamaze classes, no infant care classes; nothing to help pass the time. See, only part of getting things ready so early is because of impatience. Mostly it's a way to beat back the worry for at least a moment. It's a way for me to make this pregnancy special ~ the way that Maddie's 9 months was special ~ when everything seems so routine. I know that everyone thinks I'm silly for doing the things I'm doing so soon when we have so much time left to wait. Well, that's my explanation folks. It's not about finding great sales or good deals...it's about making this fun when all I want to do is worry.

xoxo

Goodbye Storkcraft...

We got our nursery furniture ordered today!

After receiving our "replacement part" after the crib recall, we decided to go ahead and get a new set. What I thought would be a crib-front to make it stationary turned out to be tiny, 2" plastic pieces that you clip onto the slide rail! Attention, dear Storkcraft: TWICE, my crib has been recalled for faulty PLASTIC parts that are breaking and putting our baby in danger. TWICE, you have sent me PLASTIC replacement parts that supposedly fix the problem. This time the part is red (yes, RED), so now my crib is not only potentially a hazard, but also an eye sore. Apparently your bottom line is more important than our kids...we will never buy your brand again.

Anyway, our crib and dresser/changer combo should be here next week. They have a beautiful matching hutch for $299.99 that I want to buy, but it'll have to wait until later.

Firsts

Maddie's first candy cane! She really enjoyed it. ~ Who wouldn't?! ~ it's from the Jelly Belly collection and is the flavor of blueberry jellybeans!

Mommy's first shipment of little boy clothes!

I also spoke with Dr. Gei's office and am (finally!) scheduled for my big ultrasound on January 11th. A whole rotten, stinkin' month away. Thankfully, I have Christmas and birthdays to keep me occupied for a bit :) We took Maddie around to look at the neighborhood Christmas lights the other night (carrying on that Payne tradition) and she really got a kick out of it! I think her favorites were the candy cane lights and the giant blow up Santas and Snowmen. She also wants to wear her dress shoes all the time and can even put them on by herself ~ on the RIGHT feet even! They have evolved from plain old "Princess shoes" to "Snow White Princess" shoes. I can hardly wait until she sees her new princess "big girl" bedroom. Hopefully she'll like it enough that she'll finally start sleeping in her own bed all night long. Well, I can dream, can't I??

Maddie fun:

[Sipping her lemonade and making a face]

"It's sour, mommy...but it sure is tasty!"

***

Maddie: "Where's daddy's mustache?"

Me: "On his face, baby."

Maddie: "Mustache face at work?"

Me: "Yep, daddy's face and mustache are with daddy at work."

Some Fun (and Some Not-So Fun)

Getting ready to have her picture taken with Santa, Maddie danced around in her "Princess Shoes" (black patent leathers). She really likes them!

Hanging out with the Big Guy! She loved him and even walked around Santa's little area at the mall while he pointed out the reindeer and snowman. She wouldn't stop pointing at Rudolph, so all of the photos have her pointing :)

A few weeks ago, Maddie and I mailed her Christmas list to Santa. This morning, she got a letter back! She still too young, of course, to really appreciate this but I think she'll really

enjoy it in the years to come.

What a great group of people those folks at the North Pole, AK post office are.

And this is my 16wk belly (well, 15wks 6days...close enough!)

Yesterday afternoon, I started having some pretty intense pain in my lower abdomen that would begin as a stabbing pain and change to a really bad cramp. They were happening every 30 minutes and uncomfortable enough that I called the on-call obstetrician. He directed me to the ER, where I sat for about three hours last night. After ruling out a urinary infection, they sent me for an ultrasound, where the lady proceeded to scan me without saying a word ~ making me really nervous. Suddenly, she gasped, "Oh baby, sit STILL!" Turns out he was moving and kicking so much that she was having a really hard time getting her measurements. She confirmed that we've got a definite baby BOY in here (even showed me his 'parts'), but most importantly, everything looked great. He is measuring 16wks 1 day, my cervix was closed, and they let me know that my placenta has moved away from my cervix so I don't have to worry about a previa anymore (thank God). The ER doctor thinks it may have just been pain from hauling Maddie around (the girl weighs a little over 35lbs, after all) or maybe that the area near my c-section scar is stretching and causing the discomfort. It started out to be a pretty scary visit, but ended up great.

In other news, I got Maddie's birthday supplies ordered and they shipped today. She is a Wow Wow Wubbzy fanatic, so we're doing a Wubbzy theme. She is really enjoying all the Christmas commotion and can even sing Jingle Bells. She also expressed her first "I want it" after seeing a toy commercial for a Strawberry Shortcake play set. Ahhh, it has begun. She is growing up so fast, guys. She has a wonderful vocabulary and uses sentences; her words are clear and she remembers the names of everything (like carbon monoxide detector. She used to just call it "Beeeep", but now she says "Carbon monoxide detector"). She is also starting to understand that mommy has a baby in her tummy (well, as much as a 2yr old can understand the concept of a person growing inside of another person). She says, "Baby in mommy's tummy, Maddie's baby [to] play wiff". We won quite a bit of boy clothing on ebay (oh, do I have a love-hate relationship with ebay y'all!). $40 for about 105 pieces of clothing (and another $50 for shipping ~ ouch!). Almost everything is brand new with tags. With Maddie, we spent about $200 every other month on clothes - or more - so I am really excited to have found such cute things for a great price. We got all kinds of stuff from 0-9 months, so I'm hoping it'll hold us over for the next year. I don't think there were too many newborn items, so we still need those. So much fun! We also got an email about the crib recall, stating that Stork Craft is sending a replacement part to fix the problem (as in, they're sending us a whole new side of the crib to make it non-dropside). So, no new crib to hunt for. The nice thing is that a. we won't have to spend any money on new furniture (except for a dresser for Maddie) and b. the nursery will get set up pretty much as soon as Maddie gets all of her Big Girl Room things together. Fun, fun, fun!!!

Snow Day ~ Take Two

Hot Chocolate Time!

'Tis the Season!

(Better pictures of making snow art)

Helping daddy hang up the Christmas lights

Dressing herself this morning in mommy's hat & shoes to go check out the snow!

Snow!

"It's sooo cold."

Having so much fun!