See Abby (and Cornelia and Ethel) Grow

Moving Day

2008-09-27T16:53:00.003-06:00

We've moved to a prettier home. Be sure to update your bookmarks with the new blog address because I won't be posting here anymore. I'll see you in our new home!

2008-09-26T11:49:00.002-06:00

Cora slept from 9:15-8 this morning! That's her longest stretch yet. She's our good sleeper, typically sleeping about 6-7 hours at a stretch at night. If only Emma would too! She's getting better, though. Last night, she slept from 8:30pm-2:30am. Unfortunately, it went downhill from there. She finally went back to sleep at 4:15am. Then, she started grunting at 5am. She's such a noisy sleeper; she's my snooze alarm. Every 10-15 minutes, she'd toss and turn while grunting and letting out the occasional cry. She did this until 7:15! I didn't get to enjoy Cora's 11 hours of uninterrupted sleep because I was constantly woken up.

2008-09-14T19:54:00.003-06:00

I found a picture of Abby when she was about the same age as the girls. We've been saying all along that Emma looks like Abby did, but it's crazy to see they look exactly alike! They look more like twins than Cora and Emma do! Emma's on the left and Abby on the right.

2008-09-09T22:14:00.002-06:00

I was recently searching for free templates while up in the middle of the night. I'd love to update the look of this blog, but it definitely needs a new name first. I'm horrible at that sort of thing, so I need your help! I'd love any suggestions you may have. I know they'll be better than anything I could come up with.

2008-09-08T14:55:00.002-06:00

The girls had their one month checkup today. They are growing like crazy! Cora was 7lbs. 10.5oz. (5.5lbs. at birth) and 21 inches long (19 in. at birth). Emma was 7lbs. 6.5oz. (5lbs. 1oz. at birth) and 20 in. long (18.5in. at birth). Cora's around the 10th percentile for weight and 25th for length. Emma's around the 10th for both. We couldn't believe they've each put on more than 2lbs. in a month! No wonder their preemie clothes no longer fit.

We also talked about their colic. Their pediatrician gave us formula samples to try when we supplement. Hopefully that'll bring some relief! Everything else she suggested, we've already tried (walking, swaddling, gas drops...). I was thrilled she didn't scold us for letting Cora sleep 6-7 hours a night. I was so worried she was going to tell me Cora needed to wake up more often to eat. If only Emma would sleep so well too!

2008-09-06T14:35:00.002-06:00

A month later I'm STILL finding adhesive in various nooks and crannies when I get out of the shower!

One Month Old

2008-09-05T18:34:00.002-06:00

My babies are a month old today! It feels as if I was pregnant ages ago yet I can't believe they're already a month old. The girls are both growing like crazy. They're well-baby check is Monday and we're so curious to see how much weight they've put on. They're both starting to lose that emaciated look and are filling out, particularly in their faces.

Unfortunately, BOTH girls are colicky! They get such painful gas our evenings our filled with their screams. I was really hoping we wouldn't go through this again. This weekend was particularly bad since my other sister, Jennifer, and Damon's parents were here. They were overstimulated on top of it, so they screamed for a few hours every evening. Since things have settled here, they don't cry as long (or as hard!), but it's still difficult to listen to them in pain.

On the bright side, once they finally settle down and fall asleep, they're pretty decent sleepers. On 3 different nights, Cora has slept a solid 6-ish hours! From about midnight to 6-ish. Emma was sleeping a good 4 as well, but she might be going through a growth spurt. She's been waking every 2 hours the last few nights. When they wake up in the middle of the night now, they go back to sleep fairly easily. We did have one night this week where one or both were up from 3-6:30am. Then Abby woke me up at 7:30 to take her to school.

Abby does really well with the girls. She gets a little frustrated sometimes when we're all busy and can't play with her, but she tends to take it in stride. She loves to help by holding their bottles for them, but after a minute she complains that her hand is sweaty and needs to stop! For the most part, she's pretty gentle with them. She hasn't gotten jealous of them yet.

2008-09-02T00:23:00.003-06:00

Abby loves school. She was really nervous that first day, but she went in with no problems after giving me a big don't-want-to-let-go hug. Interestingly, the only kids who cried were all boys. When it was time to pick her up, she went on about how much fun it was!

She is really into counting us all right now. She loves to count how many of us there are. I think it started at mealtimes. She enjoys getting the silverware for all of us and she'd ask how much she needed to get. I'd always ask her how many of us there are and tell her that's how much we need. Anyway, when she counts us she always makes sure she's number 3. No one else is allowed to be number 3 since she's 3 years old!

ONE Day!

2008-08-26T13:53:00.004-06:00

That's how long it took for Abby to catch a cold at preschool! In all fairness, it is possible she caught it at the "Kids Cabin" at the gym since she didn't start feeling sick until the weekend, but I still blame preschool. She already had to miss a day of school because of it. I really hope the babies don't get it too!

________________

Damon went back to work yesterday, so we're trying to find our groove without him. So far, it hasn't been too bad. Jessica's been a huge help at night. I swear she's the Baby Whisperer! She somehow manages to get them right back to sleep after a middle-of-the-night changing/feeding. Damon and I really struggle with that because they seem to wake up the second we lay them back down. Cora has also recently gone from our mellow child to the screamer in the middle of the night. The last couple nights that Jessica's been sleeping with me instead of Damon, though, she's hardly fussed!

Today, we got brave and decided to go to lunch then Target. Lunch was a little harried because they both got fussy. I ended up having to eat while holding Emma. Target, on the other hand, went very smoothly. The babies LOVE Target! Ok, they love riding in the cart, but still... As long as I kept the cart moving, they were happy.

2008-08-20T13:25:00.002-06:00

My Original Baby starts preschool tomorrow! It's hard to believe she's already old enough for school. I think I'm going to be more of a wreck tomorrow than she will be! She's been so excited to go for some time now. There was an open house last week, so she got to meet her teachers, explore the classroom, and play with some of her classmates. She was pretty slow to warm up to everyone, which is so unlike her, so we'll see how it goes once she'll be there by herself.

2008-08-18T22:01:00.002-06:00

The girls had their 2-week checkup this morning. Cora is up to 5lbs. 14oz. and Emma's up to 5lbs. 5oz. Both are up well past their birthweights, and they each gained 8.5oz. in a week! Their doctor was very impressed. She said they expect babies to gain .5-1oz. a day at this point, and both surpassed that.

After their appointment and lab, we decided take them out to lunch in a real restaurant for the first time. It went so much better than the first time we took Abby out! This was their first venture out of the house that didn't involve a doctor's appointment, so we were a little worried. They both slept the entire time!

On Breastfeeding

2008-08-17T12:56:00.002-06:00

Brittany asked why pumping was better at this point, so I though it would be easier to answer in a post of its own instead of in the comments.

It all started with Abby. I thought breastfeeding was going well those first days until we met with a lactation consultant who told us she wasn't latching well at all so she was eating like she should. She wasn't gaining weight and looked awfully yellow. She ended up jaundiced to the point that she needed to spend the night at the hospital under the "tanning bed" lights to get her bilirubin down. It scared me so badly that I ended up pumping for almost 9 months instead of working with her and a lactation consultant to try to breastfeed. When I pumped, it made me feel better to be able to see exactly how much she was eating. I tried breastfeeding her a few times after that, but I was too intimidated to really put any effort into it.

Fast forward to the twins. A lactation consultant came by almost every day to work with us. Cora has the same latch issues that Abby had, so she's been mostly bottlefed. I have tried a few times to breastfeed her, but I'm more of a chew toy than a feeding source to her although she has been able to get some milk. We'll definitely keep trying this time. Emma has a great latch, but she was so small they told us not to push her too hard to breastfeed. Then she kept losing weight in the hospital, so our pediatrician told us to hold off altogether for at least a few days until she put some weight back on. So I was relieved when they kept telling us that at 37 weeks, their sucking reflex might need some work so not to worry too much about breastfeeding until their closer to their actual due date. I know pumping. It's so hard, particularly in the middle of the night when everyone's asleep, but I've done it once so I can do it again.

A few days ago, however, Emma decided she prefered nursing to the bottle! I'd been seriously considering contacting the local breastfeeding store to hire a lactation consultant to come to the house a few times to help me out. We still have to supplement feedings because she tends to fall asleep while nursing, but it's been a big accomplishment for me to be able to actually breastfeed one of my kids! Cora eats like crazy, so we still have to supplement them with formula on top of my pumped breastmilk because I'm just not making enough for both of them.

I did try to tandem feed a couple days ago which was hilarious! Emma spent most of her time looking over at Cora (who was actually doing pretty well!) like "what is she doing here while I eat?" She looked so confused by what was going on!

2008-08-11T16:26:00.003-06:00

Thank you so much everyone! Your kind words mean so much to us. We're settling in nicely at home. We were only a few minutes late to the girls' first well baby visit this morning! That included getting Abby ready too. Cora is up to 5lbs. 5.5 oz. and Emma's at 4lbs. 12.5oz. so they're growing nicely. Cora gained 3.5oz. since being released Saturday! Everyone keeps telling me not to try too hard with the breastfeeding until they get to 40 weeks gestational age (3 weeks old), so I've been pumping like crazy again. We've also been supplementing with formula because I'm not making enough to fill their voracious appetites yet.

They did have to get their bilirubin levels checked again since their doctor thought they still looked a little yellow. Their bilirubin has been high enough to keep retesting, but not enough to really worry about so far. Worst case we'll have to use those special blankets at home for a bit, but they definitely won't need to be hospitalized and go under the lights like Abby did.

I added a ton of pictures to flickr.

**UPDATE** We just heard back from their pediatrician. Their bilirubin levels have gone down since Saturday, so there's no need to do anything for jaundice this time around!

We're going home!

2008-08-09T10:42:00.002-06:00

My bp is still up, but my doctor had a hospitalist come in to assess me so I can go. The hospitalist is a doctor who works for a certain practice but only works in the hospital doing rounds. In addition to my blood pressure meds, which have been upped to 3x/day, I now have to take a calcium channel blocker and see my primary doctor once a week for the next month or so. Oh yeah, and I'm very anemic too. I've been on an iron supplement 3x/day as well since the girls were born, so I have to continue that and have that rechecked periodically. He said I'll probably be on iron for a good 6 months. Anemia is one thing I've never had a problem with, so it came as a big surprise. I love red meat! He also talked about putting me on a diuretic to get my Shrek feet back to normal size, but the swelling has been going down quite a bit on its own. Plus, they want me to take prescription Motrin every 8 hours for the next couple weeks, and I got a prescription for Percocet for the pain. I'm going to be a walking pharmacy!

They weighed me this morning and I'm down about 20lbs. from when I came in! I only gained 23lbs., but I had quite a bit to lose before I got pregnant so it won't hurt my feelings one bit if I end up losing more than just the 3 pregnancy pounds left.

I am so happy to be going home! Time to pack up everything that's not nailed down in the hospital room...

2008-08-08T14:35:00.003-06:00

I figured out a way around the firewalls to post pictures! I still can't upload to flickr, so I'll post a whole lot more once we finally get home. It turns out we're not going home today after all. My blood pressure is still way up, so we have to stay until at least tomorrow. The girls are perfectly healthy and ready to go home!

Emma Jane
Cora Rae
They have more hair than Abby did. It's definitely darker than it looks in the picture.

Finally!

2008-08-07T21:32:00.003-06:00

The laptop cord came today, so I can finally post again!

Cora Rae and Emma Jane were born Tuesday morning. Cora at 8:16am and Emma at 8:17am. Cora weighed 5lbs. 8oz. and was 19in. long. Emma weighed 5lbs. 1oz. and was 18.5in. long. Cora needed a little oxygen, but was breathing room air within a couple hours. Emma had to go to the NICU and was on a c-pap machine to breathe and iv to bring her blood sugar up. Damon checked on her around 5pm. Tuesday, and she was already breathing room air! They did keep her overnight in the NICU, but it was for observation than anything else.

We're all doing really well. Recovering from a c-section isn't nearly as horrible as I'd feared it would be. The girls get to come home with me when I get discharged tomorrow! That was always our biggest goal. I'll post pictures tomorrow. The hospital's firewalls aren't letting me tonight.

In hospital

2008-08-05T01:59:00.001-06:00

In hospital
Originally uploaded by Brandi_

Made it to 37 weeks! Bp is now way up again so c-section scheduled for 730am 8-5. Computers been down at home for 3 weeks. Cord finally coming this week.

2008-07-15T13:04:00.001-06:00

Since the babies' birthday is completely up in the air now, I thought it would be fun to start a pool. Go here to enter your guesses!

34 Weeks

2008-07-15T12:42:00.002-06:00

I'm going to be pregnant forever! I talked to my doctor this morning about scheduling an induction since he told me 36-37 weeks would be my limit way back when we first found out about the twins. He's now decided that since I'm doing so well, he won't schedule anything until 39 weeks! These babies have absolutely no interest in leaving my belly, so I'll be delivering humongous babies right before my due date. I haven't even had any Braxton-Hicks contractions yet! My cervix is still being too cooperative at 3.03cm. My bp was a little up, but still well within the normal range: 134/80. I'm also up only 3lbs. from two weeks ago--somehow I've only managed to gain 25lbs. total despite eating like a horse!--and I'm measuring 38 weeks. Oh, Whisper (Baby B on my left) is now breech again. Her heartbeat was way up near my lungs.

I will now start going to Maternal Fetal Medicine for bi-weekly non-stress tests starting Thursday. During a non-stress test, they strap a thing that monitors contractions, and another for each of the babies' heartbeats. They check for movement from the babies as well as monitoring heartrates and any contractions I may be having. I was told to eat a light snack on my way there instead of a big meal because they want the babies active.

All along, I've had my sights set on making it to 37 weeks. That seemed doable once I hit the 30-week mark, and it's what's kept me going especially during the night when I'm completely miserable. Those extra 2 weeks are going to be hell.

The Belly at 33 Weeks

2008-07-11T17:49:00.002-06:00

I forgot to mention that my belly measured 37 weeks AGAIN. That's the third appointment I've measured the same. My doctor said it's likely because the babies are head down now, so their bodies are laying against my sides. That makes sense since that's exactly how they feel to be laying in there.

33 Weeks

2008-07-09T16:22:00.003-06:00

I can't believe I've made it this far! Back when we found out we were having twins, we were told the goal would be 36-37 weeks, but to hope to get to 32 weeks. We're a weeks past that first goal and I'm still going strong. Amazingly, still no bedrest! Except for the slight cervical issues (which could've been so much worse!) and a couple trips to the hospital for dehydration, I've had a really smooth twin pregnancy. Sure, I'm huge and uncomfortable at this point and I'm so ready to be done after the 8th trip to the bathroom at night, but that's all normal stuff. I haven't had any real complications.

Yesterday, we had a little scare but it turned out to be no big deal. After my cervical check (2.96 this week!), I passed out in the waiting room of my doctor's office! I'm fine, and once they hooked me up to the non-stress test machine (where they monitor the babies' heartbeats and me for contractions), my doctor wasn't worried about it. The babies are fine, and I'm still not having any contractions. I thought surely my doctor was going to send me to the hospital, but he thought I'd be fine. Whew!

Next week will be my last cervical ultrasound. Apparently, after that--since I'll be 35 weeks in 2 weeks--the length of my cervix won't be an issue since the babies will be ok if I were to go into labor. There's a possibility they'll have to stay in the NICU for a few days if I deliver before 36 weeks, but that's nothing compared to the months they would've spent there a few weeks ago. I'll now be seeing my doctor every week and he wants me to start going to Maternal Fetal Medicine at the hospital twice a week for non-stress tests to monitor any contractions.

Speaking of MFM, I had an ultrasound last Thursday there. Baby A (my right) is now 4lbs. 3oz. and Baby B is 4lbs. 1oz. I now have more baby weight than I ever did with Abby! I can't believe I'm carrying around 8lbs. of baby. The ultrasound tech predicted this would be my last ultrasound. He guessed I'll deliver at 35-ish weeks. My next (and definitely my last!) ultrasound is scheduled for 35w6d, so I hope to prove him wrong!

31 Weeks

2008-06-24T10:25:00.002-06:00

I had an uneventful cervical check last week; holding steady at 3cm. Today's appointment was great! My cervix is now up to 3.21, so I avoid bedrest again! And, my regular ob is on vacation, so I met with the nurse practitioner instead. She'd requested the ultrasound tech check the babies' heartbeats so I was able to get a quick peek at them too. There's not a whole lot to see at this point since they're out of room, but it's still good peace of mind. Plus, we were able to see that they're both head down now! Let's just hope they stay that way!

My prenatal appointment was pretty quick since I'm doing so well and we'd already checked heartbeats. My blood pressure is up to 136/70, but that's good. That's pretty much where I should be at this point. I'm also up 2lbs., putting my total weight gain up to 23lbs. This is the best diet ever! I eat like crazy and don't gain much weight. Finally, the belly still measured 37 weeks, the same as 2 weeks ago. The NP wasn't worried, though, since the babies are doing so well.

Happy Father's Day!

2008-06-15T15:08:00.000-06:00

2008-06-11T23:57:00.003-06:00

I forgot to mention yesterday that my belly measured at 37 weeks at my ob appointment. I officially look like I'm full-term!

29 Weeks

2008-06-10T17:45:00.002-06:00

Great news! My cervix grew this week, so I get to avoid bedrest one more week. Last week, it was just under 3 cm and today it was right at 3. My doctor was impressed at how well I'm doing, so unless my cervix starts causing problems again I won't be going on bedrest until about 32 weeks. I still have to take it easy and rest as much as possible, though, so my cervix doesn't shorten again. My bp was 120/72, so hopefully that will continue to not be an issue too.

I also gained 2lbs. in 2 weeks, putting my total weight gain at only 21 lbs. I never expected to gain so little weight while carrying twins! Nor did I expect I'd actually have to work at gaining weight! I've never been one who can eat anything and not gain weight, until now.

I have this huge mole on my cheek, about 2 finger-widths from my ear. Over the weekend, I noticed it suddenly got hard, raised, and crusty. I mentioned it to my ob, and he referred me to the dermatologist in the same building. I also have this skin tag on my inner thigh that's a souvenir from my pregnancy with Abby. This time, it's gotten huge and keeps getting caught in my jeans! They were able to get me in this afternoon at the dermatologist's office, so we ended up having a much busier day than I'd planned.

My cheek is fine and the mole doesn't need to be removed unless I want it to. I'm thrilled! I'm a really moley person, so I have a few moles I'm pretty sentimental about and this is definitely one of them. It was rough on me to think I'd have to get it removed. She did find three moles that were questionable, one of which she was really concerned about, so they're all coming off July 1st. At least this time, Abby's old enough to get herself into her booster seat. Thankfully, she did remove the skin tag today. Good riddance!

2008-06-09T10:06:00.003-06:00

Friday was baby ultrasound day. Unfortunately, they're getting too big and squished in there to get good pictures, but at least they were able to get the measurements they needed. Baby A (on my right) is tranverse and Baby B (left) is breach. Basically, Trouble is sideways with her head by her sister and Whisper is laying feet first. There should still be time for them to get into position, but if they don't move I'll definitely be having a c-section. Also, Baby A weighs 2lbs. 10oz. and Baby B weighs 2lbs. 11oz. It's interesting that they switched. Last time, A weighed an ounce more than her sister.

We did quite a bit of nesting this weekend. Well, more shopping than anything else, but it was fun to go a little crazy at Babies R Us! I feel better having most of the basic stuff done. There's still a lot more to do, but we're making progress a little at a time.
-Canvas bins are bought and filled for the changing table, although I'm going to need more because I used the ones I bought for the second changing table (for the basement) in their closet.
-Changing table pads and covers are bought and covers washed.
-Car seats have been either cleaned or put together (thanks for the second car seat Mom!)
-Preemie-sized basics have been purchased, washed, and put away along with all the clothes we got at the second shower.
-Diaper bag is ready to go to the hospital.

And a belly shot. I took this yesterday. I'm almost 29 weeks here (28w5d):

We have a name!

2008-06-03T17:55:00.004-06:00

I'm feeling the pressure to get everything done now that I'm having these cervical issues and bedrest is imminent. I need more time to nest! The crib isn't fully put together yet! I hope we can get the co-sleeper back together! The double stroller's still in the box! We need to clean the swings and bouncers! We don't have "coming home from the hospital" outfits for them yet! My list of crazy goes on and on...

One of the biggest things I'm getting anxious about is that we don't have names for the babies. Finally, we did decide on a name this weekend for whoever's born first. The first baby will be Cora (short for Cornelia!). Once we figure out the other baby's first name, we'll still have to figure out middle names. We do have one we'll definitely be using, but we want to wait until we have a second first name before we commit to using it with Cora.

At the rate we're going, the second baby will be named Ethel after all!

28 Weeks

2008-06-03T15:27:00.003-06:00

Today was cervical check day. It's shortening, but apparently not at a rate to send me to bedrest. Yet. Last week, it was over 3, and today it was just under 3. If it's shorter again next week, I'll definitely be looking at bedrest. I'm doing what I can to keep these babies in as long as possible. At least if I did go into preterm labor and they couldn't stop it, the babies have a 90% survival rate now. They'd be in NICU for a long time, but they'd make it. That's a huge weight off my shoulders, but the longer we can hold off delivery the better.

I also got the results from my glucose test today. I wasn't too worried about it since my doctor's office hadn't called. No news is good news, right? Sure enough, I passed with flying colors. The nurse said the normal is range is 60-140, and I was at 92. Phew! That's definitely the test I wanted to pass! Now, I can continue to eat like a horse without having to carefully monitor every bite.

Things are definitely getting tight in my belly. Baby A (on my right) is constantly kicking my ribs and pelvis trying to make more room for herself. We call her Trouble because she kicks so hard is always on the move. Baby B is now Whisper because she doesn't kick nearly as much as her sister. I feel more movement than kicks from her. Already, they're both on different schedules. Trouble is up most of the day, while Whisper tends to be at her most active right as I'm trying to go to sleep. She's up a lot at night when I get up to go to the bathroom too.

Oh sleep, how I miss you! I can't remember the last time I got more than a couple hours of sleep between bathroom breaks. It's only gotten worse the last few weeks too. It doesn't matter what time I go to bed, I spend at least 2-3 hours going to the bathroom every 10 minutes. What's worse is that it takes me that long to try and get comfortable, just to have to get up again. It doesn't seem to stop until I'm so exhausted I finally fall asleep. Rarely before 2. Then, I'm up every hour the rest of the night. On a good night, I get right back to sleep every time. Only 9 more weeks to go.

Babycenter has another picture update for twins this week. Go here to read about their development this week.

27 Weeks

2008-05-27T17:29:00.003-06:00

I had a prenatal appointment this morning. Things are getting interesting. I was really uncomfortable and just plain miserable for most of the weekend, so I mentioned it to my doctor. He had me go in for a cervical length ultrasound right then and there with his u/s tech. The tech said that it was within the normal range, but something spooked them. I now have to go to my doctor's office for an ultrasound to check my cervix every week, along with my prenatal appointments every other week. Plus, I still have to go to Maternal Fetal Medicine at the hospital every four weeks for ultrasounds to check the babies' growth. Whew!

On the bright side, the babies heartbeats were nice and strong so they're fine. The biggest worry at this point is that I'll go into preterm labor. While all these appointments are a pain, it's a comfort to know that my doctor is really staying on top of it. I'd much rather have to go in constantly than get blown off.

I've also been told to slow down even more. I'm lazy, so it's no hardship, but I'm already barely leaving the house. If I take it any easier, I'll be on bedrest before I'm required to be!

The weather's been great around here, so we've been spending some time in the backyard the last couple weekends. It's so great for both Abby and me to get out and enjoy it!

2008-05-20T15:29:00.002-06:00

I was handwashing a few dishes yesterday when my back started to hurt. After thinking about it, I realized I COULDN'T REACH THE SINK! My belly's so big now that my arms just barely reached the running water if I hunched way over.

25 Weeks

2008-05-15T14:16:00.002-06:00

Last Friday, the ultrasound tech called me fat! Ok, he didn't actually say fat, but it was what he meant. He kept going on and on about how huge I look even for having twins. That's because I'm all belly! He's lucky I'm not easily offended. I am growing like crazy these days though.

Last week:

Today:

Despite calling me fat, the tech was really good at his job. It helped that he was funny too, so he made us feel pretty comfortable. The doctor I saw this time was really great too. She explained everything in so much more detail than the other doctors. I wish I would've requested her when I made my next appointment!

When I started going to Maternal Fetal Medicine at the hospital for ultrasounds, they switched babies on me. Baby A used to be the one on my left and Baby B on my right, but the first time I went to them they switched their "names" because the one on my right was now the one closest to my cervix. They kept the same names this time, so from now on (I hope) Baby A is now the one on my right and Baby B is on my left.

Now that I've totally confused everyone...Baby A weighed 1lb. 10oz. and Baby B weighed 1lb. 9oz. Just a little under average for twins at this gestational age. They were also able to get a better shot of the placenta and are pretty confident the twins are fraternal. What really surprised us was when the tech switched wands and did a "4-D" ultrasound! We had no idea they'd be doing that, so it was a huge surprise to be able to get a better look at their little faces. Unfortunately, he forgot to label them "Baby A or B" so I have no idea which baby is which.

This is the only one properly labeled:

Babycenter

2008-05-06T17:50:00.004-06:00

I just discovered something neat at Babycenter. One thing I've really liked aobut the developmental weekly emails is the picture showing what the baby looks like inside the uterus that week. I just realized they also offer the picture for women having twins!

One thing I forgot to mention before was that the babies are at the point of viability. If for some reason they had to be delivered this week, they have a better than 50% survival rate. And that goes up every week we can keep them in there! So far, we've been really fortunate not to have any complications, and it'll hopefully stay that way.

24 Weeks

2008-05-06T16:55:00.003-06:00

Has it really been 4 weeks since my last post? Oops!

A lot has happened in these four weeks. The day of those appointments, Abby threw up all over town. It started at Target after my prenatal visit, in the Lawn & Garden section where I'd stopped to sit. At least we were in a convenient place since we could buy her a clean outfit to wear. Unfortunately, that meant taking her with us to the ultrasound appointment instead of to my friend's house. After a couple false alarms in the bathroom while we waited our turn, she threw up again all over the ultrasound room right before we got started! This was a really long ultrasound, so she got bored. Poor Damon had to take her to the bathroom a dozen times since she kept saying she was going to throw up again. She threw up again in the car when were about a block from our house. She's now in a booster seat because I can't stomach cleaning it and Damon hasn't gotten around to it (that car seat is going in the trash!).

About a week later, I caught her stomach bug. I was up all night throwing up again, which is so much worse after having a several week break from it. Once again, we ended up in the hospital in the morning. This time, I was not only severely dehydrated, but my potassium level was very low. I ended up there for about 12 hours because I had to get hooked up to a potassium drip. That took 5 hours to empty. Then another 2 hours before they could draw blood to retest me. It was a loooong day! Thankfully, that seems to have been the last of the pukiness for me!

In other news, my neighbors threw us a baby shower about a week ago. Damon's mom, Rita, was able to make the trip here for it. I couldn't believe how many gifts we got! Particularly from strangers! We received gifts from people who haven't even broken ground on their houses yet! Several of those who haven't even met us yet couldn't make the party, but sent a gift anyway. I think we received a gift from almost every single person in the neighborhood! I spent all of last weekend making cinnamon rolls and delivering them to everyone who already lives here.

I had another prenatal appointment this morning. Surprisingly, I haven't gained any weight in the last 4 weeks despite eating everything in sight! If only it were that easy when I'm not pregnant! My blood pressure was fine, and I measured 31 weeks, right where I should be. The babies' heartbeats were also good and strong. I've now been given official orders to "slow down" and "take it easy." I'm so not one of those people who can't sit still and must be doing something at all times, so taking it easy isn't that hard for me to do. Lately, I can't even make it through the grocery store without getting really sore! I go in Friday to MFM for another ultrasound. Hopefully I'll upload the last ultrasound pictures before then!

20 Weeks

2008-04-08T20:02:00.002-06:00

I've been feeling much better since I went to the hospital. I got a little sick a couple days in the week after, but that's it. Now, I'm just fat and uncomfortable! And hot! I have no idea how I'm going to make it through the summer if I'm already cooking when it's only in the 50s and 60s! At today's prenatal visit, I measured 28 weeks. One thing my doctor mentioned was that at my 28-week appointment, we'll be talking about putting me on bed rest. It's not a matter of if, but when.

The really big news was that I had my first ultrasound appointment with the Maternal Fetal Medicine specialists and we found out what we're having! 2 more girls! Everything looked good at the ultrasound. Both babies weigh 12 ounces each, which is right on target for 20 weeks. They didn't measure their lengths, just individual body parts, but everything was where it's supposed to be. They are definitely active little girls! They were all over the place, and we almost left with "I think one of the babies might possibly be a girl" for an answer, but luckily she flipped around at the last minute, so they were able to clearly see that she's a girl. Now we have to seriously think of names, so we need ideas. The first initials have to be C and E.

One interesting thing about the ultrasound was that there's a possibility they'll be identical. They are in separate sacs, but it's not clear whether the two placentas fused together or if there was only one all along. If they fused together, they're fraternal. If there's only one, they're identical. Unfortunately, they can't know for sure until they're born, so we'll just have to wait and see.

Pictures tomorrow!

Our first (and hopefully last!) visit to the ER

2008-03-18T21:21:00.003-06:00

Monday was awful. I woke up feeling really crampy and had a bad backache. Thanks to the pain, I couldn't keep anything down. Not even water. My body caught on to the Benadryl trick about a week-and-a-half ago, but I'd been doing really well and had only been sick a few times since. It's like my body saved it all up for Monday.

What really scared me was that every so often, I would get a sharp pain in my back that would radiate forward to my belly and cause severe cramping. I was so worried I was having contractions that I ended up calling Damon in the morning to come home. Fortunately, I happened to have a prenatal visit already scheduled for that afternoon. I had traces of protein in my urine, and my blood pressure was slightly elevated. Combined with the back pain, my doctor thought I might have a bladder infection. To be on the safe side, though, he had me schedule an ultrasound for the next day (his tech is only there Tuesdays and Thursdays) to check the length of my cervix. This is to check whether I'm in preterm labor. I also had to go to the lab to have blood drawn and my urine checked again.

I did pretty well after we got home. I managed to keep a little food and fluids down. Until bedtime. I felt so awful I went to bed to read at 6:30. About an hour later, I got diarrhea. This caused some major vomiting. When I felt a little better, I tried to eat and drink a little more. About an hour after the first incident, I suddenly felt even worse in bed. My right hand felt tingly and I was so hot and nauseous, so I got up to go to the bathroom again.

I made it to the small hallway that separates the bedroom and bathroom before I felt like I was going to faint. Now, I've had my share of fainting spells in the past, but I've never had it happen so quickly before. I managed to slide down the wall and sit. I vaguely remember asking Damon for some juice. He asked me what kind, and I said I didn't care. That's the last thing I remember. The next thing I know, I'm starting to come to and I feel myself shaking like crazy. That's what really made me panic. When I was Abby's age, I would get really high fevers and have seizures, but I can't remember ever fainting and shaking like that before. Damon was still downstairs getting juice when I woke up, so I know I wasn't even out for a minute but it felt like hours. As soon as I felt awake enough, I flew to the bathroom and got majorly sick again. I sipped the orange juice Damon brought me and called my doctor.

The fainting and the shaking is what ultimately had me calling my doctor's after-hours nurse hotline. After a bunch of questions, the nurse told me to go to the hospital to get checked out. The hospital my doctor is affiliated with is brand-new and only about 10 minutes from our house, so despite the circumstances, I was pretty excited to see inside. I couldn't believe how smoothly everything went! They didn't even give me a chance to sit down in the er waiting room before they were ushering me in. By the time we got there, I was feeling pretty good all things considered. They checked my vitals, then the nurse drew some blood and hooked an iv needle to my arm.

That's when everything went downhill again.

I'm a wimp when it comes to needles. Remember I mentioned I've been known to faint in the past? 90% of the time has been because of needles or procedures done at a doctor's office. Since she drew a few vials of blood and had to hook me up to the iv, it took a while. I could feel myself slipping while she worked. The on-call doctor came in shortly after that to ask me questions, and I barely remember maybe half of what was said. When he left, I told the nurse I really needed to vomit. I thought I was well enough to walk to the bathroom assisted. What a mistake! I made to the nurses' station a few feet outside my room when I had to stop and hold on. All I wanted todo was slump down and pass out, but the nurse wouldn't let me. A few more feet, and she had another nurse bring a wheeled desk chair over to get me back to my room.

I felt so much better once I did get to vomit. In a bag. Yuck! While I was getting sick, the nurse hooked me up to oxygen and the iv drip. After that, it was a waiting game. Waiting to get the fluid in me. Waiting for the blood results. I went through 2 bags of fluid, and my bloodwork came back normal. They decided that the fainting was caused by severe dehydration.

The best part of the night came at the end. Before they released me, they brought in a portable ultrasound machine to check on the babies. They were laying horizontally across my belly, touching feet. Their little feet weren't just touching, though, they were kicking each other like crazy. It was hilarious to watch! They were fighting for space in there. Baby B is definitely going to be a handful. He (or she) was the one starting it. He (or she) would pull back and wait for Baby A to stretch out, then would kick and shove like crazy. Baby A didn't put up with that and fought back! Sorry Rita, we didn't get to take any pictures home that time. We would've loved to have a video of that!

I was sent home with a prescription for Zofran (anti-nausea medication they give to chemo patients and pregnant women) and was told to fill it before we went home, so we went to a 24-hour Walgreens. I was starving by then, which was the first time I'd been hungry all day, so we stopped at McDonald's. Their cheeseburgers never tasted so good!

Yesterday morning, we went back to my doctor's office for the cervical ultrasound and were told everything looked fine. No preterm labor. Whew! We didn't get to see the babies, but it was a relief knowing everything's going to be fime.

I felt better than I have in months yesterday! I couldn't believe how great I felt after how horrible I felt the day before. I couldn't seem to get enough to eat and drink all day and I never once felt the least bit nauseous. I can't remember the last time that happened!

17 Weeks

2008-03-18T07:45:00.002-06:00

I had a prenatal appointment yesterday. Everything looked good; babies' heartbeats were well within the normal range. I, on the other hand, had a really bad day that I'll go into more detail about later.

My doctor again measured my uterus and this time I measured at 25 weeks! I can't remember if I explained before, but basically that means that my uterus is currently 25 cm from pelvic bone to the top. In a woman who's pregnant with one baby, the number of cm should more or less correspond with the number of weeks pregnant she is, so I already look like I'm 25 weeks pregnant! Yeah. Obviously, that's not the case when carrying twins. What's really crazy about this is that at my last visit 4 weeks ago, I measured 15 weeks. In 4 weeks, my uterus almost doubled in size! I can't believe I grew a full 10 cm in 4 weeks. And only gained 3 pounds. No wonder I've been so sick!

The best thing about my appointment was that I found out that I'll now be going to a perinatologist for an ultrasound every 4 weeks in addition to seeing my ob regularly. Yay! A perinatologist is essentially a high risk ob, so they have better equipment than my regular ob. They should be calling me in the next day or so to schedule my first appointment. My ob wants me to see them as soon as they're available since it's been 4 weeks since my last ultrasound. He also said that they should be able to tell us what we're having at that first appointment, if the babies cooperate!

Thanks to my really awful day yesterday, I have to go back to my ob's office for an ultrasound to measure the length of my cervix. I'm fine now, but yesterday was a scary day. The babies are definitely doing really well too, so there's nothing for everyone to worry about.

Happy Birthday Rita

2008-03-12T10:24:00.003-06:00

My mother in law, Rita, has been asking and asking for the ultrasound pictures from a few weeks ago. It finally dawned on me last night to take a picture of each with my camera since my scanner still isn't working. I can't believe I didn't think of that sooner! It just so happens that today is her birthday. Good timing! Happy birthday Rita!

Here's both of them together. Baby A is laying with his/her head by Baby B and the body going away from Baby B. Baby B is laying vertically in my belly with his/her head down by Baby A (that's why only the head shows up in this pic).

Birthday Party

2008-03-11T11:40:00.005-06:00

I finally got around to posting the few pictures I took at Abby's birthday party to flickr. We had close to 20 kids here, so it was pretty chaotic! Unfortunately, that meant I didn't get to take too many pictures. Most of them are from before everyone got here, waiting with my mom and sisters.

Benadryl is my new best friend!

2008-03-04T07:36:00.003-07:00

At a previous prenatal vist, my doctor gave me a list of safe over-the-counter medications and the illnesses they aid. Benadryl was listed under nausea. Huh? I had no idea! I was leary to try it because Benadryl puts me right to sleep. Finally, last week I couldn't take the constant vomiting anymore, so I bought some children's chewables. I decided I'd rather be sleepy constantly than sick, and really I'm tired all the time anyway so it hasn't made much difference. I have a hard time swallowing pills on a good day, let alone now, so I thought chewables was the way to go. Two chewables are the same as one adult pill, so I've been taking 2 chewables twice a day. What a difference! I haven't gotten sick once since I started taking Benadryl! I did get sick yesterday, but that was my own fault. I forgot to take it in the morning, so I decided to try a day without it to see how I felt. That lasted until about 3 o'clock, but by then the damage was done. I felt so awful that not even the Benadryl helped.

Here's a more current belly shot. I took this Saturday. Same top as before.

And since Abby's been neglected around here lately, here's a picture from her birthday party back in the beginning of January! I have a bunch of pictures I need to post to flickr now that I'm feeling better. Hopefully I'll get to them soon.

14 Weeks

2008-02-26T15:44:00.002-07:00

Thank you all so much for your kind words of encouragement! We really appreciate it. After we let it sink in for a few days, we started to get over the shock and got more and more excited. Going to the bookstore and buying a couple books on being pregnant with twins really set us at ease. Now, we are thrilled!

I'm just so tired of puking! So far, there's no end in sight. I'd hoped it would all go away now that I'm out of the first trimester, but no such luck. I went an entire day last week without getting sick! That's been the only day all month so far. My body paid me back by not letting me keep one bite down for several days after. Since I haven't been able to keep much food down, I didn't gain any weight between doctor's visits. That means that I now need to gain a good 10-15 pounds in the next 6 weeks! It's pretty hard to do right now, but I'm trying.

Last week, I went in for a nuchal translucency screen. Basically, they measure something in the babies' neck and compare the results to my blood test. It's to test for things like Downs Syndrome, but it doesn't tell us whether the babies have it, just whether there's a risk. You can read more about it here. I'm not really concerned with the results since it doesn't really tell us anything definitive. I just agreed to it for the extra ultrasound! I'll happily take an ultrasound whenever it's offered. I'll post pictures once I can figure out what's wrong with my printer/scanner/copier all-in-one thingamabob. For now, I can't scan them.

The babies looked good and measured where they're supposed at this age. Twin A was 6.9 cm long (about 2.7 inches) and Twin B was 7.5 cm long (just a hair under 3 inches). They were moving around like crazy, but I didn't feel a thing yet. Twin A stayed in pretty much the same position, but we did see her/him squirm around. Twin B was all over the place! At the start of the ultrasound, Twin A was laying horizontally across my belly, while Twin B was vertical along my right side feet down. The tech took some measurements of each then went back to Twin A to give us some pictures to take home. By then, Twin B was in the same spot but head down so their heads from the corner of an L. I had my prenatal visit with my doctor after going to the lab to get blood drawn (we waited over an hour for what only took a minute!). When my doctor used the doppler to find their heartbeats, he found them pretty much on top of each other.

At my prenatal visit, my doctor also measured my uterus. That measurement should correspond pretty well with how many weeks pregnant a woman is when carrying one child. At 13 weeks, I measured 15 weeks. So I'm as big as I would be at 15 weeks if I was only pregnant with one. It sounds like I'll be measuring even bigger than that as I progress in this prenancy.

I took a picture of the belly a couple weeks ago, at 12 weeks, that I'm finally getting around to post. I've definitely grown more since then!

10%

2008-01-22T14:59:00.000-07:00

That's how much Clomid increases the likelihood of twins. 10 measly percent.

Guess what I'm having.

I was only on Clomid for 2 months, and on the lowest dosage both times! One thing none of us took into account was the fact that my sisters are twins, so I'm already genetically predisposed to them. My mother-in-law also mentioned that her grandparents had twins, so it's Damon too. Whoever said it skips a generation lied!

I'm a little freaked out by it right now. How am I ever going to go to the grocery store with 2 infants and a preschooler? What if one, or God forbid BOTH, has colic like Abby did? That was a nightmare when I didn't have anyone else to take care of. My mom didn't sleep for 2 years because one would wake up, then the other would wake up right after the first went back to sleep. TWO babies! I know it will all work out, and it'll be a blast when they're older. I just hope we can all survive the infant stage.

2007-12-29T13:55:00.001-07:00

I've only known I'm pregnant for a little over a week, but already it's so much different than the first time around. I know I'll be showing earlier since my body "remembers" what to do, but I hadn't expected how completely different everything would be.

I had a pretty easy pregnancy with Abby. I was naseous for about a month total, and only really got sick for about a week. After that, I felt great. One of the first things I remember happening was around 6 or 7 weeks my jeans being way too uncomfortable, especially when I sat. At the time, I had a desk job working for my grandpa Ed, so it was grueling until I bought a couple pairs that were about 3 sizes too big. I wore those until about 4-ish months when I switced to maternity jeans. This time, I felt uncomfortable in my jeans the day after I found out! They're not too tight yet, just painful when I sit down because they put pressure right where I'm feeling crampy and bloated. I already bought a pair of maternity pants on clearance at Target because I'm nowhere near ready for my old jeans with the big panel.

It's not just my clothes that already don't feel right. For the most part, I feel pretty good but not as good as I did the first time. I'm living with constant heartburn, sometimes it's worse than others, but it's always there. When my in-laws were here, I was constantly having to stop and sit for a bit while cooking or cleaning because the crampiness and heartburn gets worse when I moved around too much. I have to take a break after showering and drying my hair! I even got sick one afternoon already while they were here. We'd just eaten, and my mother in-law and I were cleaning up the kitchen. All the bending and squatting while putting things away really got to me.

And the cravings! With Abby, the only thing I really had to have was fruit punch Powerade. I had to be Powerade, and it had to be fruit punch. We bought that stuff by the case every week! And I normally really don't like those types of drinks. This time, the biggest thing is that I'm not really interested in sweets. Everyone who knows me "in real life" just dropped dead from shock. I normally don't have just a sweet tooth, I have an entire sweet mouth. I would happily live on dessert if I could. Now, nothing dessert sounds good at all. We have a house full of cakes and candy, and I've hardly touched it. For awhile, I was craving salads and healthy food. I only ever eat salads if it comes with my meal at a restaurant, and I've never ordered just a salad ever. Right now, the baby's crying for pizza from this local restaurant. I must have it now!

My brain has already left me too. I'd heard of pregnancy brain, but it wasn't something I really experienced before. This time, I feel like I'm going crazy! Before our company came, I tore apart every closet looking for the bath towels that match the hand towels in the guest bathroom. It wasn't until the next day that I remembered that I never actually bought the towels! It was one of those things I meant to pick up, but moved on to something else and forgot about. I was certain they were somewhere in the house, though. I'm constantly setting things down and completely forgetting where I put them 2 minutes later. The other day, I put some potatoes in the oven to bake, and forgot all about them. My mother in-law happened to ask me about them a couple hours later. Oops!

Birthday and Christmas with Damon's Parents

2007-12-28T10:14:00.000-07:00

Since they weren't here for Abby's birthday the week before, we bought her a birthday cake and celebrated her birthday with Damon's parents over the weekend. Abby's loving having a December birthday because she'll have celebrated 4 times (including Thanksgiving in Iowa) by the time we're done!

Merry (few days after) Christmas!

2007-12-28T09:39:00.000-07:00

Abby was awesome with Santa this year. She went right up to him and started talking while I paid for the picture. She had no problem sitting on his lap to take the picture. I had no idea that I could bring my own camera and take a picture myself! Definitely next year. When she was done, she asked if it was time to go home and open presents now since she already saw Santa.

Big News!

2007-12-19T08:16:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Abby!

2007-12-18T08:49:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my baby's 3 already!

Birthday breakfast.

Thanksgiving pictures are up

2007-12-17T08:36:00.000-07:00

And before Christmas even! You can see them all here.

Abby's First Recital

2007-12-13T20:48:00.000-07:00

Abby had her first dance recital this evening. I so wish I would've recorded the whole thing instead of trying to take pictures too. None of my pictures turned out well. After the girls came out and lined up, they stood quietly looking around wondering what was going on before the music started. In the silence, one of the girls screamed "HI DADDY!" That's my girl! I'm so sad I didn't record it.

Abby's First Recital from Brandi on Vimeo.

2007-12-06T12:54:00.000-07:00

I hereby do solemnly swear to be back next week with pictures from our Thanksgiving trip. I'm at the finish line with my class, so I have a term paper due Monday and a final exam I have to take sometime next week and a chapter quiz next week. The earlier I take my tests next week, the sooner I'll be free! Then I can take the time to post pictures. On top of that stress, we're having a birthday party for Abby this Sunday so I have to clean the house, get supplies bought, fill goodie bags, cook, and bake about 3 dozen ice cream cone cupcakes because I'm crazy and thought they would be more fun than a store-bought cake. This was before it dawned on me that Monday is the due date for my paper and I kind of forgot I had to clean my house for the party. Someday I'll break myself of my evil procrastinating ways.

Happy (Week After) Halloween

2007-11-05T11:56:00.001-07:00

This is how behind I've gotten...

2007-11-02T08:56:00.001-06:00

Damon's parents came to visit in SEPTEMBER and I just now got the pictures uploaded. I have no excuse. We had a great time while they were here. Rita and I had some power shopping trips, and Abby loved tagging along. For the most part.

Hawaii

2007-11-01T13:47:00.000-06:00

I finally got all the (good) Hawaii pictures uploaded to Flickr! It only took me 2-ish months. Oops! I'll be back with a real post soon. In the meantime, here are a bunch of pictures to make the grandparents happy.

A few of my favorites:

Abby-isms

2007-10-30T07:57:00.000-06:00

When Abby wakes up in the morning, she crawls into bed with us and we cuddle for a while before getting up. One day, Damon and I were talking about having another baby (yes we're trying, no I'm not pregnant), and I asked Abby if she wanted a brother or sister.

Abby: Stares blankly at me.
Me: Do you want a baby boy or girl.
Abby: A baby boy!
Me: So you want a brother?
Abby: Yes! I want a boy brother. From Target!

Some kids think the stork brings their siblings; mine thinks we buy them at Target. I'm so proud!

5am

2007-08-18T08:54:00.001-06:00

5am
Originally uploaded by Brandi_

Abbys been up since 3am Hawaii time. That is 7am her time after all.

Finally

2007-08-17T11:38:00.001-06:00

Finally
Originally uploaded by Brandi_

No time to breathe at airport. Made it to gate with only minutes to spare. Abbys already grumpy.

Ready to go

2007-08-17T08:06:00.001-06:00

Ready to go
Originally uploaded by Brandi_

2007-08-17T04:29:00.000-06:00

It's 4am and I can't sleep. I laid in bed for an hour tossing and turning before I gave up. What ultimately got me up was that I can't find the charger to the dvd player! Uh-oh. At least we'll be able to use the laptop if I can't find it. On the bright side it'll be one less thing to lug around. I finally got up because I remembered that we used it quite a bit at our last house. When we'd rent a movie, I'd plug the portable dvd player into the tv, so I know it's around here somewhere...

I'm mostly packed. There are a few last-minute things I still need to throw in the suitcases and I need to pack my backpack with all the carry-on stuff. I packed Abby's backpack full of toys for the plane last night, but it weighs as much as she does! I'll have to take some things out and add them to my backpack.

I love my backpack. I've had it since my freshman year in high school, and it's been everywhere with me since. I don't think I've ever taken a trip without it. It's been my only suitcase on some trips. I still remember going shopping with my mom to buy it. Remember that, kids. When buying a backpack for your teenager, it's best to spend a little more and buy a good quality one. It'll last a lifetime. Well, at least half a lifetime. This may be one of its last trips since the seams where the straps meet the actual pack are starting to show signs of wear. Why am I writing an ode to my backpack?

I'm going to be so tired on the plane!

I programmed the flickr email address into my cell phone, so I can upload pictures directly to the blog through flickr. Be prepared for a lot of mundane airport pictures taken with my phone ~~tomorrow~~ this afternoon.

Please don't tell me they don't allow me to bring food on the plane

2007-08-16T15:55:00.001-06:00

Did you know they no longer serve meals even really long flights? For $5, we can buy either a sandwich or a salad--none of which Damon or Abby would eat--that come with chips or fruit? Everytime I think of SEVEN HOURS on a plane with Abby with no food, it sends me back to the store to buy more snacks.

From left to right: 2 kinds of dried fruit, wheat crackers, granola bars and raisins, mini Teddy Grahams, fruity Cheerios, and Goldfish. I hope that's enough food for us for SEVEN HOURS.

Oh yeah, and Bubble Yum as a special treat to be chewed during take-off and landing in the hopes that the pressure won't bother Abby too much.

Not pictured: Benadryl since it was the first thing I packed.

Hawaii-bound

2007-08-11T19:00:00.000-06:00

Last October, during the annual conference for Damon's work, he received an all-expenses trip for 2 to Hawaii for exceeding his budget goals for the year. They pay for airfare, 7-nights at a gorgeous hotel, and $100/day for food! All we had to do was buy a ticket for Abby. Damon's birthday (Thursday) seemed like the perfect time to take it now that we're settled in the house, and Damon has filled some key positions at work. We leave Friday for paradise!

The only thing I'm absolutely dreading is the flight there. We fly from Denver to Honolulu NONSTOP. SEVEN hours. With a 2-year-old. Who's suddenly become a typical "terrible two" year-old. At least the flight leaves at noon, which is around naptime, so hopefully she'll sleep for part of the flight. And she's old enough now that she'll actually enjoy being on a plane and be able to take it all in. I'm just know the novelty will eventually wear off when she realizes that she's stuck in her carseat for seven hours! I've been stock-piling provisions from the dollar store to hopefully buy us an hour. Seven hours with nowhere to hide! I'm having nightmares just thinking about it.

The flight home? RED EYE!

We're back!

2007-08-02T12:52:00.000-06:00

We finally have internet access! The developer of our neighborhood talked to some higher-ups at Qwest to get things moving along, so we were finally able to get DSL. Comcast is now saying that they wait until a certain percentage of homes in the neighborhood before they even bother setting up service, so it'll be at least 4-5 months before cable and cable internet are available here. They're not going to have many subscribers since no one is going to wait that long! I'll be back soon with tons of pictures before the grandmas attack!

First Haircut

2007-07-21T16:05:00.000-06:00

Still no internet access at home. It'll be the middle of next month (hopefully!) before QWEST will be available in our neighborhood. Cable internet won't be available for 2 months! Thank goodness for a laptop and coffee shops! Anyway, here are some pictures of Abby's first haircut. A month ago. I'll post some better "after" pictures next time I can sneak out to get online. It's really a cute bob. She didn't lose the curl; it just gives it a cute flip. Click on the pictures to see more.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

We're still here

2007-07-11T11:27:00.000-06:00

We still don't have internet access at home thanks to a mix-up with Qwest. We'd decided to go with them instead of the cable company because we'd be hooked up by now. Unfortunately, they weren't able to hook our phone up today since they refused to believe that everthing was already in place for them. Everyone else in the neighborhood has phone service but us. Hopefully we'll have internet soon, so I can post a bunch of pictures.

Anyway, we're fine. We're getting settled. Having John at the house with us has been a huge help. We have pictures on the walls already! My mom, sisters, and aunt came for a visit last weekend. It was so great seeing them again! I can't believe it's been a year. Abby got her first haircut a couple weeks ago. She looks like such a little girl now!

2007-06-15T11:06:00.000-06:00

Our walk-through yesterday went really well. Most of what we found were just paint touch-ups. I love that we got to do this a week before we close, so they have time to fix as much as they can before we move in. The project manager we met with told us they already have a lot of their subcontractors scheduled to come in today to get started. Despite taking more than a year from the initial contract-signing, we've had a terrific experience with our builder. Everyone has been very helpful, and they've treated us as if we're they're only clients. Now, we are definitely anxious to move in and finally get settled. This coming Thursday is the big day! We have another walk-through in the morning to check the stuff that was supposed to get fixed and go over how to use things like the thermostat, and we close in the afternoon. We'll be loading up the car with as much as we can and spending the night in the empty house that night. John will be here Friday to help us move our things out of our current home, so we'll at least have beds and a couch for the weekend.

They mentioned to us yesterday that the Air Force Academy's head football coach, a neurosurgeon (McDreamy!), and a head guy for Comcast are all building houses in our neighborhood! We're going to have some very impressive neighbors. If only someone would buy a lot on our street already! Damon jokes that it's going to be like living on an acreage for a while.

Let there be light!

2007-06-11T13:38:00.000-06:00

Our house is done! The city turned the electricity on to the neighborhood May 30 (right on schedule!), and the electrician hooked up circuit breakers and all that last week. We finally have electricity!! All that was left was carpet and the driveway, and both went in last week too. Our walk-through is scheduled for Thursday, and we close next week. The next 10 days are going to fly by!

He was a little early, but my Gumpa came for a short visit last week. It's too bad we weren't in the house yet, but we had a nice visit anyway.

And a bonus picture because I haven't posted Abby pictures in a long time.

The official end of babyhood

2007-05-08T14:51:00.000-06:00

Something amazing has happened in the past week. I've been a little hesitant to blog about it because I was afraid of jinxing it. It's now been a week, though, so it's time I come clean. I still can't believe it's happened so easily and quickly.

Abby's potty-trained.

We've been pretty lazy about it the last couple months, but last Tuesday I realized we were down to 6 diapers. I vowed then that I wouldn't buy diapers again. Abby spent the rest of the day in panties, only having one accident at home. That afternoon, I decided to try to overcome my fear of Abby having an accident in public. We had an errand to run about 5 minutes from home, so it was a good first step. I spent the entire drive telling Abby over and over that she needed to tell me if she had to go, and that she wasn't to go in the car. It turned out my fear was unwarranted. We spent about an hour away from home, and she did fine in her panties. No accidents!

A few days later, on Thursday, she completely shocked me. I had a doctor's appointment, which turned into 4 hours of errands. I put her in a Pull-Up and didn't push the whole "potty" thing at all. I completely expected her to go in the Pull-Up. While we were in the waiting room, she excitedly told me she had to go! We made 5 trips to public bathrooms that afternoon, and only 2 of them were false alarms. She went every other time, and her Pull-Up stayed completely dry!

After a couple days of going out in public wearing Pull-Ups, only for Abby to stay dry, we bit the bullet and let her wear panties out on Sunday while we ran some errands. We've been fortunate that the few accidents she's had this week have all been at home. We've already had to stop at a gas station only 5 minutes after leaving home a couple times, but for the most part she's been great about only telling us when she actually needs to go. We're still using Pull-Ups during naps and at bedtime, but she's even been staying dry at naptime as well.

June 21st

2007-04-29T06:43:00.000-06:00

Finally! June 21st will be THE DAY. They were supposed to pave the roads this coming week, but they got a foot of snow out there last week so it got pushed back. We're having the most perfect weather this weekend, it's hard to believe we had a big snowstorm just a few days ago. The electricity won't get turned on by the city until May 30, so they need a couple weeks after that to do final inspections. We'll do our final walk-through on June 14 and close on the 21st. This is actually perfect timing for us; we were hoping to move in that week if it was going to have to be June. The Yankees are in Denver that week, so that'll entice John to come out and help us! They'll be able to go to a couple games before the work begins. It's been so long since we saw most of our furniture I don't remember what anything looks like anymore. Abby will think it's Christmas!

We still don't have a closing date...

2007-04-15T21:45:00.000-06:00

But it's not slowing them down at all. Thankfully, it's been warm enough for a good month now that they've been able to keep working. Of course, now that the city is finally working on our end to get utilities up and running, the weather's been awful for outside construction work. We did find out that once the city's done in the neighborhood, they're going to start paving on our end. There's one other house that they started about a week before ours, and it's on the corner of our cul-de-sac, so they want to keep us happy. We're at the fun stuff now! We finally get to see everything we picked out almost a year ago.

The exterior is pretty much done with the exception of the stone accent. They need water for that.

The interior walls are all painted now. The hardwood floors are also in. The tile floors were supposed to be in in the bathrooms, but it was too cold Friday, so they're going to work on that Monday. All the prep work is done for that, so they're ready to go. The linoleum flooring is in the laundry room now as well. Cabinets are supposed to be in this week!

Where did Spring go?

2007-04-12T22:23:00.000-06:00

Last night, we were in a BLIZZARD watch for tonight through tomorrow! They're now saying that the worst of it is supposed to be south of us. The weather man just gave the updated snow totals for tonight and tomorrow because the snow is "letting up." Yeah, we're DOWN to 5-10 inches for tomorrow! Last weekend, we got hit with icy rain and some snow. I blame it on the new time change. It screwed up spring, so now we're back to winter. We got spoiled with a good month of gorgeous weather while the rest of the country was finally experiencing winter weather.

Friday's high: 30. Saturday's high: 55.

Happy Easter!

2007-04-07T12:03:00.000-06:00

I'm cheating. This picture is actually from last Monday. It's 25 degrees and icy this weekend, so we won't be going anywhere!

(be sure to click on the picture for a link to last year's Easter at the park)

Where did my baby go?

2007-03-25T10:37:00.000-06:00

Damon's been working a lot of "manager on duty" weekends, so he took Wednesday off last week to do fun family stuff. One thing on the list was take Abby to the park. I've been going on and on about all the things I've been amazed she can do there, so Damon wanted to see it too. The first thing she went to as soon as we got there was the "rock wall." Damon was completely shocked to see how easily she was able to climb all the way up. It hit him like a ton of bricks that she's no longer a baby, but a ful-fledged little girl. The most difficult lesson we have to learn as parents is to let her try despite our fears. We know she may fall, but all we can do is try to support her without getting in her way while she learns. We can no longer protect her from everything, but have to let her try on her own. Abby is fearless so it's such a hard lesson for us to see her accomplish something we never thought she'd be able to do. We so want to tell her she can't climb that because we're afraid to watch, but we let her try because we don't want her to take on our fears. We don't want her to learn to be afraid, to think she can't do it. I love that she doesn't think she can't do something, but is willing to try new things despite the challenges, and hope she will always be that way.

Busy Busy

2007-03-14T15:39:00.000-06:00

I've been really busy lately, so here's a quick update on things I keep meaning to write about.

1. Not last weekend but the weekend before, we took Abby to a Wiggles concert in Denver. SO. MUCH. FUN.
2. We ended up making a little vacation out of it and spent the night in this really cool new hotel right in the heart of downtown. Every floor was decorated in a different genre. Ours was the television floor. The 13th is the horror floor.
3. The next day, we went to the aquarium. They have a restaurant with a huge tank that takes up one wall. We got quite the surprise when a diver swam by waving at all the kids!
4. The weather has been fantastic here, so we've been to a different park every day this week with our playgroup friends.
5. Abby was sick all last week, so she ended up sleeping in bed with us. It's so nice that she can just crawl into bed with us and go right back to sleep instead of dealing with trying to get her back to sleep for an hour.
6. This makes travelling so much easier. We had 2 queen beds in the hotel, and she stayed up until 9:30 when she climbed into bed with me and was asleep within minutes while Damon and I watched a movie.
7. I've been made an assistant organizer for our moms group. We have almost 200 members, so I've been put in charge of making sure everyone actually shows up to the events they agreed to come to. This has been taking up every spare minute of my time.

I remembered some things.
8. The house: outside is stuccoed, and the deck is being worked on today. Inside, the walls are all sheetrocked and they're going to start doing the rest of the wall stuff early next week. We lucked out that the weather has been so gorgeous. The fact that there's no power or heat (which was the big since it was so cold) isn't slowing them down much.
9. The residents here put on a St. Patrick's Day golf-cart parade. Damon, Abby, and I got to ride in the front cart with the "grand marshalls." Everyone decorated their golf carts with St. Pat's green. There was one couple who dressed as a bride and groom. She wore white pants and top, tiara and green veil, and carried a bouquet of fake flowers. They even attached toilet paper rolls and empty plastic containers to the back of their golf cart! A local news station even came out to film the parade.

I'm sure there's a bunch more I forgot right now. Pictures are here.

What her hair looks like when it's fixed up

2007-02-22T16:31:00.000-07:00

I swear one day she didn't have any hair, and the next she suddenly had too much! I'm still not-so-patiently waiting for the sides to catch up with the rest of it. (As always, there are a bunch more pictures on flickr.)

Potty Training Revisited

2007-02-22T12:12:00.000-07:00

Abby's doing a great job of training herself. Seriously, all we do is praise her when she goes and she does the rest. A couple weeks ago, she was playing in her room naked after having just taken a bath when she went running to the bathroom. The entire time I'm in there with her she's chanting, "Peepee woom, peepee woom." I could clearly hear her peeing in the toilet, so I was confused and asked her to show me when we were done. Sure enough, she takes me right to a spot on the floor. Apparently, she'd started to have an accident but stopped herself and went to the bathroom instead, so there were just a few drops on the floor! That's the last accident she's had.

We've now graduated from walking around completely bottomless to wearing panties accident-free in the last few weeks. When we're home, she spends about half her time in just panties and the other half in a diaper and pants, but she's spending more and more time in panties. I usually put her in panties until she decides she no longer wants to wear them and brings me a "big girl diaper" (Pull-Up). As long as she's not wearing pants, she can work the Pull-Ups in the bathroom too. She now insists on being changed the second she pees in a diaper, so it's much easier to put some panties on and let her use the toilet.

I did try to put her in pants and panties last week once, and she did well for awhile. Until I had to change her clothes twice in a half-hour period. Then it was back to diapers. I tried again this morning, and it went much better. No accidents! When she wakes up from her nap, we'll try again. I'm still terrified of taking her in public without a diaper on. We'll wait until she can comfortably wear pants without accidents for awhile before trying that. Until then, she's pretty much house-trained already.

Bed Head

2007-02-21T14:22:00.001-07:00

House Update

2007-02-14T08:28:00.000-07:00

For safety reasons, the workers have to stop working whenever we're there to see the house, so we hadn't been in yet. They've been working every weekend we've been out there. Finally this past Saturday, we were able to go inside the house and walk around, so I took a ton of pictures. You can see them here if you're into that sort of thing.

We have our framing walk-through with the project manager tomorrow. When we first met with him shortly after they broke ground, he said he'd be able to give us a closing date at the framing walk-through. Back then, it seemed so far away. It's hard to believe we're already at this point! After this walk-through, they'll start sheetrocking the walls and it'll look more like home.

A little something for the grandparents

I got in trouble for not posting pictures...

2007-02-13T21:51:00.000-07:00

So here you go. I had these up on flickr from our trip to the zoo last week, but I haven't taken any others recently, so this will have to do. Abby had such a great time that day, and kept talking about feeding the giraffes crackers, the "beezas" (zebras), and the ephants that we took her back a few days later, on Saturday.

She's a big girl now!

2007-01-18T12:26:00.000-07:00

When we were in Iowa over Thanksgiving, we discovered that Abby could easily climb out of the Pack & Play. She's such a good kid, though, that all we had to do was tell her she wasn't allowed to climb out and she wouldn't. When she'd wake up from a nap, she'd just stand there and holler until someone went in and got her.

Recently, we realized that Abby's getting too big for her crib. Back in May, we tried to convert her crib into a toddler bed because she'd been trying to climb out. It so did not work! We never did put the front rail back on, and just put the open side up against the wall. For months after, we'd hear her crash into the wall in her sleep! It never woke her up, and she didn't wake up covered in bruises, so we just let her be. At least that setup lasted almost a year.

Now, however, she's so tall that the shorter part of the side rail (where the front rail attaches) hits her at lower chest-level. I've gotten so worried that one of these days, she's going to flip right over. She's made a few half-hearted attempts to climb out, but she's never gotten as far as she did back in May.

As an aside, Abby's suddenly very much into being a "big girl" these days. She loves to go "peepee pie" because that's what big girls do (I bought her an "I'm a big girl, so I go to the Potty" book recently), although she doesn't want to go all the time. A few months ago, I accidentally bought a pack of Pull-Ups while searching for overnight diapers. They've been sitting in a drawer since. The other day, I needed to get a diaper back on her for her nap, but she was having none of it, so I conned her into wearing "big girl" diapers. Now, all she wants to wear are Pull-Ups when she's not running around bottomless. Also, I had my annual mole check at the dermatologist's office yesterday, so I sat her down before we left and explained where we were going and why. I told her that she needed to sit in the chair like a big girl while the doctor was looking at Mommy, and it worked! The whole way there, she kept saying "mole sick" (she has an Sesame Street DVD she loves where Elmo gets sick and goes to the doctor) and "big guhl chair." She was a crazy kid in the waiting room, but as soon as we got into the exam room, she sat herself down in the chair and didn't move until we were done. I had to grab a toy out of my purse occasionally, but she didn't get up from that chair once. I was so proud of her, I took her to play in McDonald's afterward.

What was I talking about again? Oh yeah, her crib. We'd already agreed to flip her crib around this weekend, but I tend to be too excitable and impatient. I couldn't wait! I told her all about the big girl bed while she watched as I flipped it around. Also, I kept her up later than usual before her nap, so she'd be good and tired. She was pretty nervous about it, so I tried staying in with her until she fell asleep thinking it would make her feel better, but after awhile it was clear I was keeping her up so I left and told her not to get out of bed. I could hear her talking to herself for a few minutes, and whine a little for a few minutes more, but she's now sleeping peacefully in her very own big girl bed.

Waking up.

2007-01-13T08:54:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since she's let me do anything with her hair. Occasionally, I've been able to sneak a barrette in if she's properly distracted, but pigtails have been unheard of. I finally figured out if I bribe her with a lollipop, she'll sit still long enough for me to put her hair up (I bought a bag of Dum-Dums as reward for potty training since there's less risk I'd eat the bag myself than if I would've bought M&Ms). By threatening to take the candy away once her hair's done, I've finally gotten her to leave it alone. It only takes a few threats before she's completely forgotten about the pigtails and moved on to something else.

Her hair's gotten so much longer since I first put it up in pigtails!

2007-01-11T21:34:00.000-07:00

Abby loves to come up to me while I'm reading a book and have me point out letters on the front cover. Since she's become so interested in the alphabet, I bought her some spongy bath letters a couple weeks ago. Between the two, she's suddenly picking up so many letters. She can now recognize F, H, K, O, Q, T, and W. She gets a little confused with letters that sound the same, like B and P, and she struggles with M since it's just an upside-down W. She loves to imitate our excitement whenever we coach her on a letter. If we give her the answer, she'll repeat it back and squeal like I do when she gets one right.

She finally listens when I tell her to smile!

Just in time for some more snow

2007-01-11T21:32:00.000-07:00

I went out to the house today since the weather's supposed to get bad again tomorrow. It's amazing how much progress they've been able to make this week!

Our house is never going to be finished

2007-01-05T08:33:00.000-07:00

NO MORE SNOW!!! We are now in the middle of the third snow storm in as many weeks. We were only supposed to get 1-3 inches with this one (to add to the FEET of snow they've gotten in our new neighborhood), but it's only 8:30 and we already have 3 inches on the ground. This doesn't bode well for our house. I drove by yesterday since we had a playgroup in the mall near there, and they were finally starting to frame. They were supposed to have started framing 3 weeks ago, but the weather slowed everything down. I didn't take any pictures because I didn't trust the dirt road that leads me to my house (they weren't able to pave the streets before the weather turned bad). We'll be lucky if we're in our house by next Christmas!

Stalled

2006-12-27T22:27:00.000-07:00

We had 3 terrific potty-training days. We only had 1 or 2 accidents each day despite running around completely bottomless all day long, and most of them happened on or around the toilet. Suddenly on the 4th day, however, Abby decided she no longer wanted to sit on the toilet. I don't know what happened. The novelty wore off and she suddenly became scared to sit down. We haven't been pushing her too hard since because I don't want to end up with the first kid to ever graduate high school wearing diapers because her Mommy gave her a fear of toilets! We still ask her every so often if she wants to go sit down, but she always answers with a scared little "no." Oh well, we'll just give her some time and try again when she's ready.

2006-12-21T15:21:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when Mommy's snowed in for 2 days and is going stir crazy!

This Potty Training Thing is Easy!

2006-12-19T12:32:00.000-07:00

Ever since I bought that cushion yesterday, Abby has wanted to do nothing but sit on the toilet. All. Day. Long. She didn't have as much time on it as she would've liked yesterday because we were busy, but today we're homebound. I've been letting her run around the house bottomless because it's too much trouble to help her out of her pants/diaper every 3.2 seconds when she wants to sit on the toilet. So far, we haven't had one accident yet. But I'm sure I've just jinxed myself. Not only have there been NO accidents, but she's peed in the toilet TWICE! The second time I knew it was coming because she stopped watching The Wiggles to sneak into the bathroom. I followed but stayed outside until she was done. Then I was able to do the happy pee-pee dance and cheer her on.

UPDATE: The only accident of the day so far happened after I put her in panties. Bottomless is best. Also, she just POOPED IN THE TOILET!

UPDATE2: I had to run to the design studio this evening and while I was gone, Damon said Abby successfully peed in the toilet AND WIPED HERSELF AFTER! We're nowhere near ready to get rid of diapers completely, but I'm amazed at how well this first day has gone.

24 Months

2006-12-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I wrote a big update. Her 2-year checkup was on Friday, and she's now 29.5lbs. and 35" tall. She finally seems to have quit growing by leaps and bounds in height since she only grew by .75" this time. She's around the 80th percentile for both weight and height this time.

Friday was a busy day around here. After her checkup, we met with the project manager for our house and he walked us through the entire construction process, but that's a post for another day. That afternoon, we had a birthday party for her at a local pizza place. We ended up having 8 kids there, which was a nice manageable number. I wish I would've been able to take more pictures, but I was too busy.

Late last week, I was letting her run around naked after her bath when I noticed her squatting as if she was about to have an accident. I scooped her up and sat her on the toilet, and she loved it. Now she wants to sit there all the time, so I bought her one of those cushions today. I'm so not ready for this! I was planning on waiting until at least the summer, once we're well settled in the house, before even thinking about it but she seems to be ready now. I can't get her off the toilet now that she has that cushion! She was having such a good time sitting there today, she decided to make herself comfortable by grabbing the magazine off the counter.

I took her to see the mall Santa today, and she did a lot better than I expected. She kept trying to get off his lap, but she never cried.

Her vocabulary has grown like crazy recently. She started putting two words together about a month ago, and since then she seems to learn a ton of new words every day. While we were visiting family during Thanksgiving, she finally started calling me "Mommy" all the time. Before that, she'd only scream "Mommy" when she was ready for me to get her out of the bath. It's music to my ears. The last few days, she's been testing out "Mom" and "Mama" too.

She's become very maternal toward her dolls recently. When we first moved here, the residents threw a little welcoming party for us and gave Abby a doll. She's been sleeping with it in her crib since, but she's never been particulary attached to it. A couple months ago, she became attached to her Po doll again. She insisted on taking it everywhere with us, and she'd lovingly sit it next to her in the grocery cart. Shortly after, she found a small Po I'd bought awhile back in the hopes of leaving the big one at home, but it backfired. Suddenly, she had to have both of them with her. They all sleep with her too. Now, she has to sleep with both Poes, the baby doll, a big doll that's supposed to teach her how to button/zip/tie her shoes (thanks Susie!), and a giraffe we bought her at the zoo when we went to the Electric Safari. She also has one of our pillows, a down comforter, and 2 quilts that Damon's grandmother made. She refuses to sleep without any of that stuff!

Before Abby was born, I was prepared for all the changes we'd see in the first year. Everyone always talks about how much babies grow in that time. What I wasn't ready for, however, was how much she'd change during this second year. She went from a toddling baby who didn't understand much of what we'd say to her to a full-fledged little girl.

Santa Cheated!

2006-12-12T19:38:00.000-07:00

We took Abby to the "Electric Safari" at the zoo tonight. I told her we were going to see Santa and that she'd get to sit on his lap, so she'd be prepared. The entire way over we heard "Santa. Santa. Santa." from the back seat. When it came time to sit on his lap, though, she got scared, so Santa had Damon sit in his seat instead.

We stopped to see the giraffes while we were there because it's Abby's favorite exhibit. This was the first time she got to feed them, so we were surprised that she loved it!

Yay!

2006-11-26T21:01:00.000-07:00

We spent Thanksgiving week in Iowa, and we came home to find a hole in the ground! After 6 long months, they finally broke ground on our house.

Happy

2006-11-14T15:35:00.000-07:00

She was thrilled to be outside despite the fact that it's so windy and cold!

My little fashion diva

2006-11-09T14:11:00.000-07:00

Abby loves clothes, but we've been fortunate so far that she still lets me dress her. If I'm holding her while I search her closet, she'll tap her chin with her finger and say "Ummmmmmm." CUTEST. THING. EVER. She is starting to want to put the clothes on herself, though. It makes for frustrating diaper changes because I'm trying to wipe her butt while she's trying to put her pants back on. She's gotten really good putting on shoes.

Oh how she loves shoes! Whenever I tell her where going somewhere, the first thing she says is "SHOES!" She'll repeat it over and over until I get her shoes on. She especially loves to try on my boots, so she was thrilled when I bought her her very own pair of boots. She hasn't taken them off since.

She's also fascinated by hats all of a sudden. I lived in fear of winter all summer long because refused to wear hats. Now, she will gladly wear them all the livelong day. I just bought this one for myself, but she decided it looks better on her so I'll probably never get to wear it.

We have a start date!

2006-11-06T14:18:00.000-07:00

Sort of. The permit date on our house will be the 17th, but they could break ground up to 3 days before or after that date. It's progress! They estimate 5 months from start to finish, so we should (hopefully) be in our house mid-April.

I had to go to the Design Studio to finish up some things and I finally remembered to take my camera!

Left to Right: The little bit peeking through will be used in the main-level bath; slab granite countertop in the kitchen with the stone as backsplash (it doesn't look as yellow in person). That little square is a coppery colored glass that will break up the backsplash every 18 inches. Middle-bottom is the slate tile that will surround the fireplaces. Carpet, obviously. Maple, Shaker-style cabinets everywhere. Right: master bath. Granite tile countertop. The big tile will be used on the floor, around the tub, and on the shower walls. We have his & hers sinks on opposite walls with the tub in the middle on the adjacent wall. The backsplash will go under the mirrors and above the tub, so it goes all the way around the room on three walls. There will also be a big rectangle on one wall in the shower with the big tile at a diagonal inside.

Main-level bath. The big tile will be the floor. There will also be a generic 4x4" "bone" colored ceramic tile on the countertop and above the tub, surrounding the shower. The backsplash will be under the mirror and in the shower surround.

Abby's bathroom upstairs. The big tile on the floor. Sea Blue glass will be the backsplash under the mirror and in the shower. Generic white 4x4" tile on the countertops and above the tub, surrounding the shower. Disregard that other backsplash on the left.

It Still Fits!

2006-10-26T13:14:00.000-06:00

And with much better results than we had last year too.

Congratulations Damon!

2006-10-22T23:02:00.000-06:00

He's at his annual conference in Kohler, WI, where he was named Executive Director of the Year! We are so proud of him.

First Snow of the Season

2006-10-18T13:05:00.000-06:00

Really the first snow was last week, but it was overnight and melted off by late morning. This time, it started to snow in the afternoon so we went out to the patio to check it out.

2006-10-17T19:27:00.000-06:00

Damon's parents came to visit us a couple weekends ago (and I'm just now getting around to posting pictures. Bad!). Abby had so much fun with them, but she adored their dog, Molly. As soon as she'd wake up, she'd ask for "DOG! DOG!" Whenever Molly would try to climb up somewhere that she wasn't supposed to, they'd say "OFF!" Abby would be right there shrieking "AUF! AUF!" She'd even taunt Molly with one of her toys and climbing up onto the furniture. Now, any time we come across a dog, she says "Dog. AUF!"

2006-09-25T18:46:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago, I bought Abby an adorable faux suede coat with a fur lining. It terrified her! She'd stroke the fur lining and say "Shah!" (soft), but she'd run away screaming any time I tried to put it on her. I cried when I returned it because it was so cute! I so wanted one for myself.

I should've learned my lesson.

I bought her this duck costume for Haloween thinking she would look adorable and it would keep her warm. After several laps around the house, I've given up. It's going back tomorrow. She thinks it's a neat toy, but I couldn't get anywhere close to her to get it on her.

Abby made a liar out of me. I tried again after her bath, and she let me put it on her with no problem. She LOVES it! I thought I was going to have a fight on my hands when it came time to take it off.

I took a bunch of pictures outside this afternoon. You can see them on flickr.

First Haircut

2006-09-19T19:10:00.000-06:00

Abby's bangs were to the point that they got in her eyes. Since she refuses to keep anything in her hair that would keep it out of her eyes, she got her first haircut today. I just take took Damon's eyebrow scissors to her bangs.

BEFORE

AFTER

2006-09-16T19:38:00.000-06:00

We ended up back at Urgent Care this afternoon. Abby's been doing much better the last couple days, but her face and chest were covered in a rash when she woke up from her morning nap today. I called first this time, and they told me to bring her in. The pediatrician on call said she has roseola, which is what triggered the high fever. There's nothing to do but wait it out. It doesn't seem to bother her even though it's now spread all over.

Our night in the ER

2006-09-13T13:27:00.000-06:00

When I opened the car door yesterday afternoon, Abby walked toward it at the same time and bumped her head. Once I got her calmed down, she was fine the rest of the day. She only has a small bump and a scratch; she's definitely had worse. We got her to bed like normal, and I left to run a couple errands. Damon called me later and told me to come home now. The worst thing you want to hear when you're out! When I got there, she'd stopped screaming and was sitting next to Damon on the couch drinking milk. She started up again when she saw me, though. She was burning up, and acting weird. Very limp and sort of drunk. Damon told me he heard her whimpering, so he went in to check on her, and she barely acknowledged he was there. He lifted her arm and it just fell limp, but he thought she was probably half-asleep. He stayed until she fell asleep (which is strange for her because she can't have an audience), but she suddenly started screaming about 20 minutes later. She was completely unconsolable and weird. When I got there, I went straight into "Mom Mode." I gave her some Tylenol and stripped off her sweatshirt and put her in a t-shirt. Since she'd hit her head earlier and she was acting strange, we decided to head straight to our doctor's Urgent Care. The pediatrician had just left, but they talked to him on the phone. The nurse told us he said she was going to need a CT scan, so we'd have to take her to the ER. WHAT?!?! This is when I started to panic.

At the ER, they checked her vitals (whle she screamed the whole time), and the doctor there said she would definitely need a CT scan to be on the safe side. The nurse came in and gave her a shot to sedate her, and we waited for it take effect. It never did. She got a little stoned, but never fully sedated. The doctor finally said to just go ahead and take her into the scan. She sobered up quickly when they put her in the machine! That was the hardest thing ever to watch. We could only see the very end of the machine, but we could hear her screams and several nurses come in to try to hold her down. It was horrible! They managed to get a couple images, so we hoped they would be clear enough that we wouldn't have to try again. Luckily, one was, and the doctor said she was fine, so finally got to go home after midnight.

The thing is that Abby's teething too. She's cutting a bunch of molars and canines at the same time. If she hadn't hit her head and acting weird last night, we would have figured it was from teething, given her Tylenol and did our best to make her comfortable. It was the other stuff that had us running to Urgent Care. She woke up this morning with a fever but definitely alert, so I gave her some more Tylenol and we laid on the couch together. Abby doesn't usually sit in one spot for more than a minute, so I knew she wasn't feeling well when she wanted to cuddle with me on the couch. About an hour after she woke up, she even fell asleep next to me! She's doing much better now. Still a little warm, but running around like normal. Damon stayed home with us today. I think he needed that reassurance that she's ok; he needed to see it for himself and be here for her. They're now taking a nap together in our bed.

We have dirt!

2006-09-12T09:59:00.000-06:00

Labor Day weekend, we went out to where we're going to be building to walk around a couple of the completed versions of our house. They have a couple for sale, so we go and dream about where our furniture's going to go someday. While we were there, the sales office told us that we now have an address! Before, we had a street, but the house number was our lot number. Now we have a real house number! On our way out, we drove by where our lot is going to be and were surprised to see the lots and streets clearly defined. Since our lot sits at the edge of a culdesac near the road that will lead into the neighborhood, it wasn't hard to find. We were so excited we went back Monday and took pictures. They should (hopefully) be breaking ground toward the end of this month/beginning of next.

The view from our backyard. That's Cheyenne Mountain hiding in the haze.

The view to the west from the side of the property. Eventually, there will be houses there, but our house sits high on the hill. One of those mountains is Pikes Peak.

This is looking into our backyard from the lot behind us. That hill is where our house will be. We have the highest lot in the neighborhood.

We have a street...sort of! I think I was standing on the western edge of our property for this one.

She loved it out there.

The poles on either end mark our property lines. It's shaped kind of funny. It's narrow up front, then the western side widens out quite a ways, and the eastern side goes out just a little more. At the widest points, it goes straight back to that wall.

2006-09-02T11:13:00.000-06:00

Our laptop, and only computer, died earlier this week. It shut off without warning, and when we restarted it, the screen was dark but you could just make out that it was running properly. I took it in to get fixed and was informed that the backlight went out on the screen. Apparently, this is an $800-$1200 part! Since I'm in school, and my classes are online, I can't be without a computer, so we bit the bullet and bought another laptop. Sadly, I've lost everything on my old computer. All my pictures are gone! I might've backed them up to cd's in late March when we moved. If I didn't, I've lost everything from November on. Thankfully, between this blog and flickr, I have a good chunk of my pictures, but I've still lost a ton of them.

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On my way to meet my running group this morning, I get a call from Damon. Normally, Damon bathes Abby and I get her dressed and ready for bed in the evenings. Last night, however, we switched. Damon couldn't find her usual long-sleeved top and pants pajamas, so he put her in a zippered sleeper with feet. When he went to her room this morning after she woke up, he found her standing in her crib COMPLETELY NAKED and holding her diaper! Her diaper was completely dry and the bedding was soaked, so she must've gotten out of her sleeper pretty early in the night. After he called, I remember her crying maybe an hour after we put her down, but it only lasted a minute or two so we never went in to check on her. I'm betting that's when she stripped down.