Frequent Flier...

That is me these days... ultrasounds, non stress tests, appts with regular OB, appts with high risk OB, calling in blood sugar numbers. That and working 40 hours a week, being mom and wife. It makes for a busy time! NSTs on Tuesday/Fridays and an appt with the regular OB right afterwards (or during as the case was on Tuesday.) Then a fluid check at some point during the week.

I appreciate all the attention - don't get me wrong... but wowza! Yesterday was NST morning - it went just find and dandy. The doctor I had the appt with right after came in so we kind of had a two-for-one appt which worked out nicely. NSTs are pretty simple - blood pressure check - and then sit with my feet up with monitors on my belly and push a button when she moves. Easy
enough. This is the monitor that spits out the heartbeat stuff.


Today was fluid check day. Fluid was pretty great at 10.1 - well pretty great for me at least! So I'm happy about that. I also had a check with the high risk OB - they manage my diabetes.



The frustrating part is that the regular OB is saying they will likely induce me around 38-39 weeks (around the first week of October - dude date Oct 16th) and then the high risk doctor said assuming all goes well she would let me go 40 weeks. I think I have to listen to the regular OB as they are the ones delivering. But I suppose that is a question for next week's regular appt.

Abby is still breech. The high risk OB today said I should start trying seriously to get her to flip. A few ideas have been suggested to me... swimming... rent a tilt table and hang out upside down for a while... acupuncture in the sides of my pinky toes or burn this herb right next to the outside of my pinky toes... or chiropractor to do something called a Webster technique. Sounds fun, right? I will probably try a couple of these (although the last two look to be QUITE expensive in our area since our insurance doesn't cover alternative medicine.)

Lots to think about, but for now - I'm enjoying my non-bedrest state and just being a normal uncomfortable pregnant woman. It is a strange concept for sure compared to Logan's pregnancy. Here is a belly picture - 33 weeks, 1 day! :)

Gone Fishin'

Friday after work we headed out to my parents house to spend the night. Logan, his cousin Thomas, Nathan and my dad were going to go fishing in the morning so we wanted them to be able to get an early start to lake.

Thomas and Piper were also spending the night and wow - when those three get together it is a mad house. They have so much fun - always running, chasing, laughing, shouting, squealing and everything in between! Before bath time they even got on the couch for some cousin cuddles. I managed to snap this quick picture with my phone before the went on to kiss and hug and tickle each other into more squeals of laughter!

The boys left to go to the lake a little before 8. Dad said he was a little bummed because the lake was pretty turned up and not great for fishing. They did all have a good time. Dad has a little motor on his little boat, but had the boys paddle with the oars at first. Thomas being 5 and Logan being 3, Thomas out oared Logan and they just went around in circles! ha! There was some rambunctiousness that went on - mainly with Logan, but hey he is 3 and it was his first time experiencing anything like that, but thankfully Grandpa switched out his regular pole to a cane pole and the experience improved greatly!

Nathan had never really been fishing before either and he caught the first fish - a tiny bass. Then Logan caught his first fish - a blue gill! He didn't want to touch it at first, but eventually did when cousin Thomas did... he'll do just about anything Thomas does!

Thomas caught the third and final fish (another blue gill) - making the outing a rip roaring success. No keepers in the bunch, but that didn't really matter to anyone.

Logan has asked about a half dozen times since then to go fishing again. Another outing will have to be planned soon I guess!

While Grandpa and Daddy/Uncle Nate were loading the boat back up the boys took their shoes and socks off to wade in the water. Next thing everyone knew they were swimming in their clothes! ha! Nathan dried them off the best he could and loaded them naked into the car for the drive home. There are some hilarious stories of naked boys doing what naked boys do - but I shall spare you the details! :)

A great Saturday morning for sure!

I stayed home with Mom and Piper for some girl time - we watched Snow White and relaxed - it was lovely! Then I helped mom purge one of the bedroom closets! FUN! We headed home after a MUCH needed nap time. We cleaned out and organized our linen closet, Nathan put some magnet closure thingys on some of the cabinets in the kitchen and after church on Sunday we dug up a free-to-us burning bush someone wanted to get rid of. Thank you FreeCycle! My car is packed again with another trip to Salvation Army during lunch. Quite literally no one could fit in my car except me due to the lovely donation collection between our house and my parents!

We were quite ready for Logan to go to bed last night - he is certainly testing his boundaries and talking back more than what is acceptable. WOW - Nathan and I were both about at our wits end. All part of the growing/learning process, but geez... I can only take so much!

Oh - let's end on a cute story. Logan was given a new pair of sunglasses from my mom. All of a sudden we hear, "I'm a man!" coming from the backseat. We look back to see him pull his new shades down his nose and then repeat again, "I'm a man" and then "I'm like a man" followed by "I'm a man." Allllllllllllllllllllllll the way to church and back afterwards. It was pretty stinkin' funny!

Alright - happy work week all!

Lookin' Good!

Had another check in today on Abby - things are looking good. She was asleep as she is most mornings. She has moved a tiny bit, but not in the right direction. Now she is feet down and her head is all up in my diaphragm which explains why breathing has been a bit more difficult the past couple days. My fluid level was 9.65 which is the best it has been in the past month - from the past 3 weeks it looks like it is pretty stable which is great!

They also took Abby's measurements and she is measuring about 6 days ahead and they estimate her weight to be 5 pounds (give or take up to a pound.) Crazy to think at just shy of 33 weeks she potentially weighs as much as Logan did at 36 1/2 weeks (5 lbs, 3 oz) - goes to show what pre-eclampsia can do to make a baby smaller.

Feels great to not be on any bed rest at this point - I was already with Logan so I enjoy this extended freedom! Next week I have two non-stress tests and two doctors appts (one with regular OB and one with high risk OB) - should be a busy week. Looking forward to the weekend for sure!

The other part of our weekend

Saturday morning I woke up feeling just fine and dandy. Around 9-9:30 I started feeling just off - definitely didn't feel like normal. I had slept 11 hours the night before and was still feeling quite tired and quickly started feeling weak and like I said - off. It felt like my blood pressure should be super high, but I tested it at home and it was fine. My blood sugar was fine. I laid down for a while and Abby didn't move. Laying down is an almost sure fire way to get her jumping around. I called my OB and they said if I don't feel better in the next 45 minutes to an hour to go to Labor and Delivery triage. Some time passed and I was still feeling pretty crappy. We loaded Logan up with some snacks and off to triage we went around noon.

My mom came in to take Logan back to their house and after two-three hours we were released. Blood pressure was still fine and when they put Abby on the monitor she started bouncing around like mad. So home we went. I very much just relaxed and didn't do much of anything other than direct Nathan on the sorting of the crap from the closet. It made me very much appreciate my parents to have the afternoon/evening to relax and feel better. We were going to pick Logan up after his nap on Sunday, but since my mom watches him on Mondays we opted to have him spend Sunday there as well.

It was a blessing as it gave Nathan and I had a really enjoyable day on Sunday together - couple time. It was pretty wonderful. :)

The Great Purge!

Last week I read this article. Many of the suggestions in this are not applicable to our situation or are things we already do in our household. However suggestion #2 really caught my eye. (Oh and so did suggestion #1 as I hadn't pulled our credit score/report in over a year and I did - our scores were super duper high and I was able to call and get our AAA rates lowered! YAY!)

Anyway... I digress...

So suggestion #2... Nathan and I have decided to tackle this effort. It is hard because we have two very different styles of how we organize or go through the process of organizing. We have thankfully found a way to merge our styles. We started on Saturday evening with the front hall closet. We don't use it that much - mostly because we have stuffed it full of random crap when we have had the quick clean effort before company comes over. I'm mildly embarrassed to show the before pictures, but they really make the after more impressive!

Here are the before pictures:

I was relaxing/resting most of the afternoon/night after a visit to Labor and Delivery Triage (more on that later.) So Nathan emptied everything out and brought the items and together we separated into piles, keep - donate - trash. It was empowering!! I went through our donate pile, itemized a list of what we had, took a picture and now we are ready for doing our itemized taxes next year. (Yes. I'm a dork. I embrace it.) So - on to the AFTERS!!! Yipee!

(The wicker basket has our winter stuff in it and the red bin has some of my mom's things she keeps at our house that she may need on days she is here with Logan.)

HOW FREAKIN' GREAT IS THAT?!?!?!?! So clean!!

On Sunday we slept in (Logan was at my parent's house) and then Nathan decided to tackle the kitchen. I was still needing to rest/relax so I sat in a chair in front of our roll top desk. I love the roll top as I can close it up if people come by. However - again - it becomes a catch all for things. A bad habit we are trying hard to break - we are hoping this cleaning effort will help us move in that direction.

BEFORE:

AFTER - everything has a place:

Nathan emptied pretty much all of the kitchen cabinets and started moving things around and such. We also had a trip to Ikea in the afternoon. And if you have been to Ikea you know that is an event and not a quick stop. My back has been giving me fits if I walk for more than 5-10 minutes so I was questioning how I was going to make it. Nathan came up with the bright idea to push me around in a wheelchair. I must say - once I got over myself and worrying about people staring at me - holy cow was that the best way to go through Ikea! Seriously - was great! I was a very happy Momma! We bought some cabinet organization stuff and headed home to start putting things back together. Nathan did the overwhelming majority of the work which I very much appreciated. We have half the kitchen done and need to finish the dreaded tupperware/bakeware/random crap cabinets and our pantry. Hopefully both will be done tonight with the kitchen.

I am loving how great Nathan is at working through this process with me.

I am loving that we found a way to manage our two organization styles into a way that seems to be working!

I love that I took a car load of stuff to Salvation Army to donate yesterday during lunch.

I love that our next small project after the big kitchen project is our linen closet in our upstairs hallway - it is pretty big and wow is it unorganized right now!!

Good stuff! Okay - goooooooood stuff!

I made it!

This morning was my 32 week appt (granted I'm 31 weeks, 3 days) and with Logan this was the appt I was put on bedrest. I was nervous going into it and to be honest I prayed about a half dozen times between the time I woke up and got to the doctor. I just wanted to stay calm and relaxed and have the crazy butterflies/anxiety go away. Thankfully it worked! At 7:20 I had my fluid check and it wasn't awesome - it was 8.9 (.5 down from last week) but still good enough to recheck in a week. That appt is next Friday. Oh and she is still happily breech with her feet in her face. Sounds so uncomfortable!

Then at 7:50 I was off to my regular OB appt. The BP was a biggie - thank GOD - it was 130/70. YIPEE!!! So so so happy. I actually told the nurse that I loved her! :)

Monday was the point that I went on bedrest with Logan (32 weeks, 1 day) and at least I know I will at least make it until Tuesday! ha! I have an NST (non stress test) a requirement of gestational diabetes. Basically you lay in a chair with the heartbeat/contraction monitors on and push a button every time the baby moves. You do these twice a week. Since I have a fluid check next Friday, I only have to do one NST next week - on Tuesday.

I will be at the doctors 3 times the week after that - Tuesday I have an NST and regular OB appt, Wednesday is growth ultrasound and appt with my high risk OB and Friday is another NST. GOOD TIMES! I'm an OB Frequent Flyer. :)

Logan's 3-year well-child visit

This morning Logan was able to go visit Dr. Brenner. He is always pretty great about going to the doctor and today was no exception. He graduated to being weighed on the big kid scale and standing to get his height. He weighed in at 34.4 pounds (76th %tile) and his height was 37 1/4 inches tall (46th %tile) and the doctor was very pleased with his growth. He is pretty much on the same growth curve he was last year so that is great.

He showed off his knowledge of colors and counting and gave her lots of smiles and high fives. She asked about Logan's favorite things - of course the answer is most anything physical. At every appointment she always comments about what a doll he is. I like to pretend she doesn't say that to all the kids and rather she only says about Logan! :) What mother doesn't love to hear a doctor talk about how smart and advanced her child is? She was impressed with his clear speech and please/thank yous. She did say that it was time for Logan to go to the dentist. That will FOR SURE be a Daddy task. I don't like the dentist and don't want my issues rubbing off on him. Should be fun! ha! All in all - it was a great appointment. And even better as he didn't need to get any SHOTS! Perfecto!

And here is a little picture I took yesterday before church. How stinkin' cute is he?? :)

Birthday Ice Cream!!

This year Logan really GOT the fact that it was his birthday and would randomly exclaim "Happy Birthday to Meeeeeeeeeee!!!" to anyone within earshot! He was so pleased to have a couple presents to open and tell everyone he was 3. It was adorable. I had to work most of the day - so Logan spent most of his day with Daddy and Grandma. (side note: we had a repeat ultrasound and my fluid is looking better - it is in the normal range now, but just the low side of normal. Logan came to the ultrasound and was thrilled to be watching an "Abby movie." She is still breech so hopefully that changes soon! They will recheck again next Wednesday.)

I left work a little early as Nathan and I thought it would be fun to take Logan to some place new. We ended up taking him to go putt-putting... this was fun, but for sure an exercise in patience. WOW. Logan had a good time and did a pretty well taking turns, however the whole concept of leave your ball where it stops rather than running up and whacking it again! Silly boy... he did pretty good though and we had fun. We did stop before the 18th hole and explained to him as best we could that when the ball went in the hole on this one it wasn't coming out again. He said that was okay, but when it actually happened... not.so.much. It wasn't an all out tantrum, but rather he was MAD! Oh well - live and learn. (pictures from putt-putt coming another day)

We then headed out to grab a pizza as that is what the birthday boy requested. This is when the lack of a good nap started to hit. My aunt and Nathan's dad called during this time to wish him a happy birthday and he refused to talk to them. Again - oh well. We ate some pizza and of course wore our birthday hats... a requirement at each meal that day! After pizza we headed into Dairy Queen for ice cream - which went much better... that is until Daddy licked a little bit too much off of Logan's cone. At that point we decided it would be a GREAT idea to head home. The night ended well with a visit from our wonderful neighbors with a birthday gift and cuddle time and pudding before bed.

Here are a couple pictures from my phone of our ice cream outing:

Tomorrow will be Logan's family birthday party... just keeping it to immediate family this year as I wasn't sure if I'd be up for a big hoopla of a party. I'm glad we made this choice... but with immediate family that is still 23 people! FUN! We are having it at our house and hopefully won't have tooooooo much prep work to do tonight and tomorrow morning. We shall see!!

Happy Weekend!

Happy Birthday Logan!

Dear Logan,

You are THREE years old today! You have gone from our little toddling toddler to a full fledged little boy. You are the light of my life Logan and constantly amaze and impress me with the funny things you say or the random ideas you have on ways to give me a heart attack. You are such a physical little guy - running, jumping, dancing and anything that involves you moving - you are happy. But thankfully the physical side of you also allows for lots of cuddles and lovin' and hugs and kisses. It is the bests parts of the day.


The joy and zest in which you live your life is amazing. It is contagious and spills over into your Daddy and my's world every minute we are around you. You are constantly laughing - still have the best belly laugh ever - however you actually have a fake laugh as well. This also makes Daddy and I laugh - let's be honest - almost everything you do makes us laugh. You light up the room when you laugh and smile. I think my favorite is when Daddy and I are laughing about some adult thing and you end up laughing along with us even though you have no idea what we are laughing about.


You have been really into baseball the past few months - thanks to Grandma and Grandpa. They hosted a baseball camp for you, Thomas and Piper and even 6 weeks later you are still talking about it and asking to go back! That is why we ended up taking some pictures of you at the baseball field - you were having a blast!


You are very proud of yourself when you accomplish things. There is always a lot of "I did it!!" "Watch this Momma/Daddy" "Look at me!!" You still have your moments of frustration and tantrums, but it seems the majority of those times are when you aren't allowed to help us as much as you want to. Or if we try to help you and you want to do it yourself. The phrase, "No, I do it by myself" is a frequent one as well. You are a very very independent little boy. (Speaking of independent - you have been potty trained since you were 2 1/2 and did GREAT with that process!)


This is going to be a big year for you sweet boy - you are going to become a BIG BROTHER! Abby is going to be so blessed to have you as her brother. I know you are going to teach her all sorts of new and exciting things. I know you're going to be so helpful with her and protect her as much as you can.

I love you sweet boy - more than you can even imagine. Being your mother is about the best thing I could ever imagine. Thank you for bringing joy to each and every person you touch.

All my love,

Momma

My boy is THREE!!!

Okay...technically he will be THREE on Wednesday... Three?! How is that possible? Where is our 5 pound bundle of babiness? Alas... it is so gone... Here is our little boy... our little bundle of ENERGY now... our happy Mr. Man... our funny boy... our show off of a child... our lover boy... our cuddle bug... He is our everything - and we are SO SO SO blessed by Logan... and so beyond thankful that God trusted us to raise him into everything we all hope him to be.

On Saturday morning we headed out to a local park with our fancy pants camera and hoped for the best. Logan thankfully really really is great about getting his picture taken and was such a trooper. Here are my favorites... what do you think?

We have a second half of photos we took of Logan at the baseball field - the point of them was to capture Logan doing something he is enjoying and wanting to do all.the.time. More of them later. These above are by far my favorites from the day!

Logan's mood faces...

Yesterday morning Nathan wasn't feeling well so Logan and I had some momma/Logan time with cuddling on the couch and then running some errands around town. We were being silly on the couch while we watched the end of "Cars" and I asked Logan to make his scary face - this is what he produced....



Next I asked him to show me his happy face (please note that in all these pictures he is still watching "Cars")

Next up we have two of his different "sad" faces... I think these are the funniest to me. He said in the first one he is crying.

And finally we have his silly face:

I think I asked him do make his faces probably a half dozen more times throughout the day - it just cracked me up every time! Love this little man and his faces!

Next up will be Logan's 3 year pictures we did on Saturday morning! SO much fun!

An Abby Rollercoaster Update

This morning I had a growth ultrasound to see if there was any effect on little miss from my gestational diabetes. Thankfully she is looking GREAT! She is measuring within two days of her due date and her estimated weight is 3 pounds 4 ounces. I was so happy with that! The first negative we came across is that Abby is no longer head down. She is now BUTT down... not ideal little girl, not ideal.

Here is the only half way decent picture of her little face. She is cuddled up to my placenta (it is below her face.) After the ultrasound I met with the doctor and that is where things got a bit concerning.
In my doctors appt (with my high risk OB) she mentioned my amniotic fluid level was low... and when she said low - she really meant LOW. It was a 4. That is not great. At this point they want it to be at least an 8. So I was pretty worried. They scheduled a repeat ultrasound for next Wednesday and told me to rest up and drink lots of water and to watch her movement and make sure it was still normal. I left there feeling worried and to be honest - Google is NOT your friend - I really should avoid that under any and all circumstances when it comes to concerning things.

So I spent the day going back and forth and back and forth between feeling peace about the situation and utter panic. I am thankful I finally decided to put a call in to the office I was at this morning and also my regular OB's office. The high risk office called back and REALLY put my mind at ease. The doctor was gone, but the nurse and sonographer rewatched Abby's ultrasound. The sonographer said that first of all - it was a difficult scan because she was in a bad position. And then they said that the fluid was "subjectively low" - this is meaning that there were other pockets of fluid, but she couldn't include them because the cord was in the way. So of the two they were able to measure it was only 4, but there were more that they couldn't include. That makes me feel a lot better. The nurse said from her perspective she thought there looked to be a good amount of fluid. It is amazing what a few more details and a whole lot of context can do to improve your mood/opinion/disposition about a situation!

I will be resting and I will be drinking my water and I am looking forward to my appt next Wednesday to make sure all is well.

It sure was an emotional roller coaster of a day that is for sure. Would still love prayers that the next couple months go by smoothly and Abby stays put as long as possible!

A Grandpa morning!

Mondays are usually Grandma days... however, today Mom was going to be at the hospital with my uncle while my aunt (her sister) was having some surgery. So my dad headed in and he and Logan had some breakfast together at the dining room table and quickly headed outside for BASEBALL CAMP! Don't all roads lead back to baseball camp? They do these days! As soon as Logan heard it was Grandpa coming in he ran to get his baseball stuff. The boy is focused - I'll give him that!

So they did some quick batting practice... (I watched Logan hit two REALLY great hits off his tee - it was pretty great!)


Then they took a break to read one of Grandpa's books from when he was little (at least I am saying it is my dad's since he brought it - it could very well be my mom's or a find she came across... either way - it is cute.) Nathan snapped a picture when they weren't paying attention. (Through the window so ignore the screen.)

The book...

I know I have said it before, but I love that my parents think ahead and plan things that are fun for Logan... even something as simple as bringing in a book for them to read together. It means a lot to me. And I love that we are able to capture those moments with a quick picture from our phones! Helps the memory last longer!