My biggest wish...

for New Years is that my brother comes home safely from Iraq. We miss you, Kevin, and can't wait for you to get home!!!!!!!

For real this time, it's a....

BOY!!!!!!!!!!!! We're thrilled and beyond excited that Colin's going to have a little brother and new best friend in just 4.5 short months from now. Christmas morning, Scott sent me on a scavenger hunt through the house to find the final present, which was a little blue bathrobe he picked out for our new little man. I was in tears before I even opened the present because of how much thought he put into it all.

Anyways... I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!!!! Here's some pics of Colin's 1st haircut and some fun Christmas pictures. Enjoy!

You're going to do what to my hair???

I guess this isn't so bad...

And the final result....

Colin loved his new tent he got for Christmas and even enjoyed visitors in it:

Christmas Eve he loved passing out presents at his Grandma and Grandpa's house:

Christmas morning he had fun vaccuming our house:

But still took a break to smile with Mommy:

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night...

Fun Pictures

I know I promised pics of Colin's new haircut, but I still haven't uploaded them! Since I'm bored here at work (and mentally I'm already on Christmas vacation), I figured I'd post some cute pics of my little man taken over the past week or 2. For some reason he has a need to wear his winter hat while he's inside our house. And the Santa hat was a lucky shot - he's not a fan of wearing that one too often. Enjoy!!!

It's a.......

SURPRISE (for now, anyways)!!!! Scott knows the baby's gender and I don't. It was literally up to the last minute on if we were going to find out or not. With Colin, we did not find out and it was so much fun. I absolutely loved the moment when Colin was born and the Dr's and nurses had Scott make the big annoucement to me. I wasn't sure if I was willing to sacrifice that moment this time around. But in the same respect, I'm so sure that this baby's another boy that I didn't think it really mattered when I found out, and only one person said to leave it a surprise.

What made our decision was the fact that Scott has no gift for me to open Christmas morning, and he felt bad. He already had given me my gift (a digital camera) because I wanted to use it before Christmas, which meant no gift to give me Christmas morning. So as we're driving to the Dr appt, he mentions that he feels bad that I have no gift and that after our appt we have to go shopping so he could pick something out. So we decided that he could find out the gender of the baby and then give me a gender specific gift to tell me what we're having on Christmas morning. This is the most anticipated Christmas morning for me in a looooong time, that's for sure!

Other than finding out the gender, the ultrasound went really well. The baby was weighing in at 10oz and everything looked perfect. The first thing we saw was the baby's face and it was moving non-stop, which of course made me think it was a girl because it wouldn't stop talking LOL But as we kept looking more and more, the more I felt it was a boy. Just like I did when I had the ultrasound with Colin. When the tech went to look at gender, she told me to look away, but just before I turned my head I thought I saw something in between the legs. Scott's face gave away nothing. So in the end, my mind is made up that this is a boy.

As we were driving home from the appt, I called my Mom. I told her I suspected it was a boy and that I was actually pretty positive it was a boy ;) We shall see...

In Colin news, he got his first haircut yesterday! I was in denial that he needed one, but I guess it was time. He did GREAT! I had heard a trick about giving them a sucker while having it done, so we did that and sure enough all he cared about was the sucker LOL Not surprising considering he's only ever had a taste of a sucker twice in his life. He looks so cute with his haircut though. I'll make sure to post a picture as soon as I get the chance :-)

Oh What a Night...

Nothing is better than having your phone ring at 1:45am. It rings, your adrenaline starts going because in your mind, something horrible has happened to a family member. But instead, it's your husband's work calling with some major computer outage. LOVELY. So here I sit at work, with wet hair pulled back, barely able to function because the phone ringing at that time managed to keep me awake until almost 3:30am. I think I managed to hit snooze 5 times this morning and I swear it wasn't really 10min between each time it went off like it's supposed to.

Now I should probably mention that being awake at that hour wasn't all bad. Baby was loving every minute of me being awake and took full advantage by dancing around my belly the entire time. I'm not exaggerating at all either - Baby was all over the place. I felt him/her on one side, then the other, then back to the other side. At one point, I could feel Baby kicking in a complete circle. Now that was nuts! Colin was never this active when I was pregnant with him and he's a SUPER hyper child. I can only imagine what this means for the future for us... OY! But I love feeling the kicking so much! Since this will most likely be my last pregnancy, I'm enjoying every moment I can - well, scratch the puking in the beginning. There is nothing fun about praying to the porcelain God all night - I did enough of that in college ;)

Not much else to report in pregnancy news here at 18w. I'm feeling pretty good now, but I do get tired pretty quickly. Thank goodness Colin takes pretty decent naps because I need that downtime desperately!

Speaking of Colin, have I mentioned how cute he is in pink??? Long story, but in the end we had no option but to put him in this pink shirt. Daddy didn't like it so much.... judge for yourself!

But trust me, this kid is all boy - as this next picture proves:

He climbs on everything - including the shelves in the refridgerator. Yes, we have our hands full and love every second of it!

Weekend Adventures

This past weekend was absolutely exhausting. Saturday was spent shopping - the entire day. Well, we did manage to go out to breakfast first and then the shopping began. I went with Scott & Colin, came home and then while Colin was down for his afternoon nap, I went out and did some more shopping on my own. Once Scott left for his work Christmas party (spouses were not invited), Colin and I met my Mom at the mall for some more shopping. It was an exhausting day! By the end of the shopping trip, I could barely walk. I had been out and about since 10am and we didn't finish up shopping until about 7:30pm. By the time I got Colin into his PJ's, into bed, and I took a shower, it was about 8:30pm. Not a day meant for a pregnant girl with a toddler! I crawled right into bed and slept until Colin woke me up at 7am the next morning. You would think all of that sleep would cure the exhaustion from Saturday, but nope! I was still tired...

Sunday morning we took Colin for Christmas pictures (which turned out super cute by the way) and then I layed on the couch at my inlaws for the rest of the day. Sunday night we decided to have dinner at Out.back Steakhouse with his parents. As usual, it was as yummy as ever. Baby REALLY seemed to like it. I felt more movement in the couple hours after dinner than I have felt so far this entire pregnancy. I'm guessing he/she is taking right after it's Mommy & Daddy and loving those cheese fries and prime rib LOL

Colin is starting to get into the phase were we're actually nervous to take him anywhere. You just never know what's going to put him into meltdown mode. At the restaurant on Sunday, he didn't want the highchair, so we put him into a booster seat. Apparently that wasn't what he wanted either. So our dinner was spent trying to keep him occupied and get him to eat some food, while we all ate really fast and could leave. Then yesterday I took him grocery shopping. Again, you just never know what he'll do. He didn't want out of the car, so I had to divert his attention by telling him we'd see Santa in the store so I could get him out of the car. We get in and sure enough, high on the display is an inflatable Santa, which he LOVED. He loved it so much, he wanted to be able to touch "Danta". Obviously this wasn't an option because of how high the display was, so I kept pushing the cart. Here comes the meltdown. He starts screaming LOUDLY, "Danta, up, Danta up", while trying to stand up in the cart to reach Santa. Have I mentioned how loud he was screaming? Of course people were looking and watching me try to calm him down and get him to sit in his seat. So finally I told him we'd find a Santa book for him to read. And wouldn't you know it - the grocery store doesn't have any Christmas books. Fortunately I found one with some interesting buttons for him to mess around with. Meltdown over.

Needless to say, I'm taking a break from taking Colin shopping with me for awhile...OY!

Happy Belated Turkey Day!

This past Thanksgiving I had a lot to be thankful for. My husband, my son, Baby (hopefully) growing well in my belly, and of course the rest of our family. Most importantly though, is my brother, Kevin. He's currently serving with the Marines in Iraq and although he wasn't able to be here for Thanksgiving *insert many tears*, we knew he was safe and that's what matters. We are forever grateful that his job assignment over there keeps him on base and not out on the streets. So Kevin if you ever get a chance of reading my blog, just know you're thought of by all of us everyday and we can't wait to have you home!!! Christmas sure won't be the same without you here.

In pregnancy news, not much to report. I am feeling Baby in there, still just those bubbly-type feelings. Just enough movement to make me think "hmmmm... is there really a baby moving around in there?" Morning/evening sickness is still gone, so I think I'm over that hurdle. Last night I had the most horrible migraine ever. I had to call my inlaws and have them wait to bring Colin home until Scott was home because I could barely function. I fell into bed as soon as I got home and spent my entire evening laying in bed, lights off, attempting to listen to the TV with my head buried under the covers until I fell asleep around 9pm. Not fun.

And Colin is as cute as ever. This past weekend we had very unusual weather here in Michigan for this time of year, it was sunny and about 60 degrees. So we decided to make the most of it and put up our Christmas decorations, and many of our neighbors did the same. The couple across the street put on their lawn an inflatable Santa (or "Danta" as Colin says) that goes in and out of a chimney. At first, Colin stopped to watch it go in and out of the chimney for about 15min straight. Everytime Santa went into the chimney, he had to wave, say "bye-bye", and blow "Danta" a kiss. Then he'd ask "where'd he go" as he shrugged his shoulders. And everytime Santa came out of the chimney he'd smile and yell "Danta"! Seriously, it was the cutest thing ever. I sure do love my little Butter Bean ;)

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Apparently last Wednesday I was tagged by Amy. And of course the clueless blogger I am just realized it. Oops! My assignment is to tell you five things that you don't already know about me. If you are a close friend of mine, these statements probably won't be a shock to you...

1) When my first serious boyfriend dumped me, I got a tattoo. When my 2nd serious boyfriend dumped me I got my tongue pierced. All I gotta say is that Scott better not leave me! LOL

2) I really wanted to go to Yale. I was obsessed with going there when I was growing up and I still wonder to this day why I never applied.

3) I eat pizza with nothing on it, not even the cheese. But I do eat the cheese separately, so it doesn't go to waste ;)

4) I would love to be a celebrity for a day, just to know what it feels like.

5) I regret not BFing Colin, and hope I'm more prepared the 2nd time around to make it work.

See Ya Later, Alligator

Now that I can access Blogger Beta at work, I should be posting a little more often. Plus I know I have at least one loyal reader that I should give a "shout out" to - HI TERRI!!!!! Onto the news for the day...

Colin has decided saying "bye-bye" to Mom and Dad is fun. He even makes it all dramatic with a wave, blowing a kiss, and then giving us the scrunched up face smile we love so much. Seriously, I wish we had to leave the house a million times a day because watching him go through his little "bye-bye" ritual is just that cute! And honestly, it doesn't even take us leaving the house to get the ritual, he'll do it when either us or he leaves the room. Talk about melting your heart. Seriously, this boy is going to be a heartbreaker someday!

Not much going on in pregnancy news today. I though I felt something in there earlier today and don't know if it was Baby moving or my imagination. I've been through this once before, so you'd think I would know LOL I've been told you usually feel baby #2 earlier than the first and while pregnant with Colin I started feeling movement around 18wks, so maybe 15wks isn't too early this time around, who knows. I'm getting anxious to feel those movements though. Those movements are what reassures you that things are okay in there everyday, and I definitely like reassurance!!!

How Sweet the Sound

Today was my 16w OB appt. Granted I'm only 14w3d, but close enough I guess. I got there and did the usual - peed in a cup (tested fine), had my blood pressure taken (Nurse said it was good), and then what all PG women fear - stepped on the scale. I stood and watched the little digital reader pop up it's numbers. (If you think I'm going to tell you what those numbers were, you're out of your damn mind! LOL) I looked and looked and low and behold - I only gained 1 pound since last month!!!! Ahhhh... the relief! Granted, the throwing up probably contributed to that because I've been eating like crap. Seriously, all this baby wants is unhealthy food - first it was Doritos, then Ruffles, and now greasy McD's. I *try* to eat some fruit and it makes me want to throw up, so I give in to the urge and eat the other stuff. So only 1lb to me was awesome! I'm too ashamed to admit what I had gained at my appt last month - I'm still in shock over that, actually. But I digress.

So I get done with the routine stuff, go into the exam room and Nurse has me lay on the table. Here comes the fun part - the doppler! Of course once I see it, all the fears rush into my head of "what if something bad has happened", "what if there's no heartbeat?" I felt my anxiety level rising. So she starts doing her thing and trying to find the heartbeat and nothing. She keeps looking and looking.... and then gets paged! She excuses herself, saying she has a procedure to assist the Dr with. So I'm laying there freaking out because I didn't hear the heartbeat. Finally 15min later she comes back - that was a looooong 15min. She has a different doppler, saying it was "better". She starts doing her thing and there it is - one of the sweetest sounds to hear - the baby's heartbeat!!! She said it was about 160bpm, pretty much what Colin's HB was at this stage of the pregnancy. The rest of the appt was pretty much nothing exciting. The Dr asks the usual questions and since I'm starting to feel better and get my energy back somewhat, I have no complaints or issues to discuss, so I was on my way.

Being pregnant again is so surreal. I cannot believe how different this is than the first time around. With my first pregnancy, I remember it being all I think about, how everyday I wanted to announce how far along I was to anyone that would listen. This time around I barely remember I'm pregnant. Well, other than the throwing up and clothes not fitting of course. But seriously, I had to ask Nurse if she was sure that was my baby's heartbeat we were hearing because I just cannot process that we're having another child!

Do you think once Baby arrives, reality will finally hit us?

Catching up

Okay, so I’ve been slacking a bit. I knew this blogging thing would be slow for me to pick up. But I’ll *try* to get better!

In pregnancy news, I’m 9w2d today. I’m still dealing with morning sickness, which is NOT fun, but at the same time it comes with the territory of being pregnant, so I’ll take it! I’m tired pretty much all the time and go to bed around 8-8:30 every night. Luckily my son has an early bedtime, so that makes things easier on me. I’d love to take a nap during the day, but I don’t think my boss would appreciate that LOL My clothes are getting impossible to wear - pants especially. I can’t button any of mine, so I guess it’s time to go out and buy some maternity pants. I got rid of all of mine except maybe 3 pair from my last pregnancy because I wore them out so bad.

The big pregnancy news was announced yesterday at work. I really didn’t want to tell anyone until after my next OB appt (which is next week), but people started making comments and blabbing behind my back, so I gave in and spilled the news. So that’s it as far as pregnancy news.

This past weekend we went to the Cider Mill. Colin seemed to have fun, he really liked the animals. The ducks and bunnies were his favorite part, although the cow seemed to interest him quite a bit too. After visiting the animals we decided to let Colin pick out our pumpkin. We let him wander around and then he went running up to one and tried to pick it up. His Grandma & Grandpa have a couple fake ones at their house that they let him play with, so apparently that’s what he thought these were. Once he realized it was a bit heavier than he was expecting, he looked up and said “uh-oh”. So of course that was the pumpkin we bought - how could we resist when our child hand-picked it?

And Colin’s new favorite word? “Stuck”, only he says “uck”. It took us awhile to figure out what he was saying until he got stuck in between the chair and ottoman and kept saying “uck, uck, uck” until we got him loose. He had been saying it for a few days until we figured it out though, so you can imagine what our first thought was when he first said “uck” ;-)

Oops and I just realized that my last post was right before my u/s. Everything went well, the baby measured 6w exactly, which put my due date at May 14th, just 15 days after Colin's 2nd birthday! And the baby's heart rate was 115bpm, which apparently is right where it should be that early in the pregnancy.

Yep, it's for Real

Yesterday I had my third and final beta test... it came back at 19,226!!!! Which is way higher than me or the nurse were anticipating. So even though I've been pretty relaxed since finding out I was PG, I'm even more relaxed now. And Monday is the big ultrasound day! I'm hoping these high beta numbers don't mean there's 2 little beans growing in there ;) Not that we wouldn't feel extremely blessed, it's just that we're still in shock from finding out we're PG, let alone finding out it's twins LOL I have a feeling it's just another BIG baby growing in there. My beta numbers doubled really fast when I was PG with Colin, and he ended up being 11lb 9oz. So my guess is these high numbers mean I'm having another huge baby. Which means another c-section. I won't even get into my thoughts on that one today, we can save that fun topic for another day.

Tomorrow we're finally telling my parents the news. They're going to be so excited! And my brother and SIL will be there with their 2 kids, so it'll be fun. I already sent a letter to my other brother, Kevin, who's being deployed to I. on the 25th. He should've got the letter yesterday or today, so he's officially the first family member to hear our news. I hope that makes him happy - I know he's getting homesick :( We're hoping on Sunday to tell Scott's parents the news. His Mom has been sick lately, so even though they live so close, we haven't had a good time to share the news with them. Hopefully she's feeling well enough on Sunday for us to visit for a bit!

So it's only 8:25pm and I'm heading to bed. The exhaustion of the first trimester is kicking my butt. That and the all day nausea. Nothing helps it but to eat.... constantly. At this rate, I'm going to gain 100lbs during this pregnancy!!! I guess this is good night. Wish us luck telling the parents this weekend!

Is This For Real?

Last Friday, Scott and I got some surprising news. We're having another baby!!!

I'll try to make a long story short with this on how it happened. Well, I'm sure you can figure out how it happened, but there is a reason why this was such a surprise. This cycle was pretty irregular and the Dr had me go in for a Progesterone test to see if I had ovulated. The test showed I hadn't - it was 1.06. They started me on Provera, which induces your period to come. It had been 11 days since I finished taking the Provera and still no period. I called the Dr and the nurse sent me in for a blood test to see if I was pregnant. In my head I was thinking what a waste of time it was since I never ovulated. How could I get pregnant if I never ovulated??? Well she called back 2hrs after I gave my blood and asked if I was sitting down. Yep, I was pregnant!!!! I, naturally, freaked out and ran into my friend Amy's cube (I was at work). I was hysterical - crying, laughing, and in complete shock all at once. I couldn't believe it and still can't! Scott was equally shocked when I told him the news that night. We both agreed - this is how we wanted pregnancy #2 to happen - totally by surprise and couldn't be happier.

I was sent for a second beta test today and my levels skyrocketed, making this all more real to me. Colin's going to be a big brother.... Holy Moly!!!! We're planning on telling our parents this weekend now that we've absorbed the information and got used to the idea somewhat. I'll have my first u/s next Monday, the 18th so I can be given a due date. Hopefully there will be a little heart beating away for us to see!

This BFP is what prompted me to start blogging. I know with a toddler I may not take the time to focus so much on this pregnancy, so maybe blogging will keep me connected to this baby a little better. I'm sure Colin will be talked about just as often too LOL

So as of today, I have no idea what my due date is, but I'm guessing somewhere around May 10th... I'm feeling tired and a little naseous (I had actually thought I had the flu, before I got my BFP).

Stay tuned.....