Farewll to a good friend

Last week was a difficult week for us. Not because of anything to do with the baby, but because we made the decision on Monday that were going to have Daniel put to sleep on Friday evening. He hadn't been doing well lately and given that he was recently diagnosed with cancer we didn't want him to suffer any longer. The anticipation was agonizing for us, but on the brighter side, Daniel had a really great week. He was more active than he had been and was eating well again. For the past few months Daniel has been exclusively eating canned food and we've had to monitor it closely, as when he walked away from his dish, Tobin would gladly finish his food for him. It is because of this habit that we ran out of canned food on Thursday night, so I ran out to the store at 10:30 to get him more; 6 cans more to be precise. Christine called me on Friday morning to inform me that it appeared as if Daniel was on pace to finish all 6 cans. I spent the second half of the day at home in order to spend a little extra time with Daniel. I'd like to think that Daniel had a good last week and especially a great last day. We were both there for him at the end, and honestly, it's one of the hardest things I've had to do in my life.
Daniel had a great 16 years with us and we're glad to have had him for that long. We was a good pet and friend.
Aside from all that, Christine has entered the 18th week, which means the baby is about 8 inches long and 6 oz. Her uterus is roughly the size of a cantaloupe. We also found out that fetal movement is technically called quickening, which for those of you fans of "The Highlander" movies occurs when one immortal lops of the head of another and sucks away all of their life energy. Yup, sounds just like a fetus.
This weekend we kept ourselves distracted by doing some more work on the baby's room, prepping the walls for painting. The weather was also nice enough that I could finish repairing the window frames in our white room.
We were also relieved to hear today that my Mom's surgery was successful and that she is on the road to recovery. She had to have a mass removed from the tissue between her skull and brain, that was putting pressure on her brain. The surgery went better than expected and was done approximately 2 hours early. The mass they removed was benign to the relief of everyone.
Lastly, we're getting excited for the ultrasound next week. Christine's mom will be in town and Christine had scheduled the appointment for Thursday, which also happens to be her birthday. I will be off that day as well, so we can all share in the occasion.

Hope you all have a great week!

John

As lively as a turnip

So this is the start of week 17. The baby's skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone and the umbilical cord is growing stronger and thicker. Bebe can move joints and is developing sweat glands. Size is still about 5-6 inches and the baby weighs about 5 ounces, about as much as a turnip. Fat is starting to accumulate and weight gain will increase more rapidly from now on.
On my part, I am feeling good still. My body is still looking forward to afternoon naps, but I can skip them if I need to. I am usually ready to head to bed about 9pm, if not earlier. On Saturday morning I was waking up with my hand on my belly and felt a bit of a faint fluttering a few times. I have not been able to repeat it, but it was nice to actually get some movement. John still has not gotten a chance to feel any movement yet.
John has been busy this weekend redoing the outside window frames in our upstairs back room (the white room as we call it). The lower part of the frame had rotted out and was allowing air in on windy days. We thought only the two windows on the north side needed to be done, but walking around outside on the garage roof we saw the west window was actually the worst. The weather has been clear in the low 80's all weekend, so a great chance to have the windows taken out. John has two windows 90% done and should be able to do the last one next weekend. We hope his being able to put in foam insulation will really help the drafts. We may have to take a look at some of the other windows as well!
The dogs got to play with the Triplett kids next door 3 days in a row, so they had fun being outside in the cooler air and sun. I keep telling Jana I need to get our maple tree to get a lot bigger to shade their yard in the afternoon. It has gotten several feet larger, but not enough to cast a good shadow.
We also picked up some paint to freshen the yellow room and to cover up patches from cracks and nail holes. I found that there are many layers of paint over some red wall paper on the bottom and blue wall paper on the top. A lot of blue and turquoise colors, maybe there were more boy babies in there than girl? It was built to be a maids room, so who knows. The Kelly green coming out from under the white trim is one of the weird parts. Hopefully we will be able to work on it throughout the week and get to organizing things soon!

Finally feeling ducky!

Well today marks the beginning of week 16. The baby is about the size of a rubber ducky this week, about 5-6 inches. Bebe is growing hair, eyebrows and eyelashes and has the ability to move all of its joints. The sex is now evident and we will find out on my birthday, August 6! So, this leads to our poll on the side of the blog as to whether you feel it is a boy or a girl. It is anonymous, so feel to put down what you really think. Please give a vote, this should be fun!
We also added the option to subscribe. I did not realize I had to activate this, but it is there now and you should be able to put the blog on your home page and see new updates as they happen. And please try to remember to comment every once in a while and let me know if it is still not working.
It seems this past week things seemed to finally come together for me. I have been feeling better and much less nauseous. Yeah! I even felt well enough Friday night that John and I went out for Italian. Now when I feel hungry I just feel hungry, not like I am going to get sick. I feel like eating salad and fruit, so my diet should be much better now. My belly continues to seem larger than it should to me, but I keep getting told that it looks like a pregnant belly, not a over filled one.
I had another appointment this past week. It was a quick one just checking to see if the heart beat was still good. It was much easier to find this time. The midwife I saw this week was okay, but not my favorite so far. She seemed in a bit of a hurry even though I was the first appointment after lunch and was 15 minutes late. One more to see and then I will decide.
Not much else going on for us this week. We had a rainy weekend and I worked five days this week, including yesterday. It seemed long after having been napping so much lately and not exercising too much. It was nice to get the extra hours.
John was excited about an article we heard about in Mens Health magazine from this year. It was a list of Anthony Bourdain's 13 restaurants to eat at before you die. Number 13 was our local favorite BBQ joint, Oklahoma Joe's! He says, "People may disagree on who has the best BBQ. Here, the brisket (particularly the burnt ends), pulled pork, and ribs are all of a quality that meet the high standards even of Kansas City natives. It's the best BBQ in Kansas City, which makes it the best BBQ in the world." Kind of cool.

Happy 4th of Juy!

So Happy 4th everyone! It has been a quiet week 14 here for us. We saw the new Transformers movie for a second time at the new all digital AMC theater in downtown KC. John was very happy to see it again and liked it just as much the second time. I told him that he better get all the movies out of his system for a while, as we may not have many opportunities come next year. Last night we went out to dinner with some other recent Hallmark transplants. It was nice to go out with some people, for a change.
I am still nauseous, maybe more so than last week. I still do not feel any movement, but with having an upset stomach I am sure it is hard to tell. The baby can now smile and frown and the heartbeat should be a lot easier to hear at next weeks appointment. The baby can now make a fist and may even be sucking at a thumb!
I will write more after the appointment next week.

Egg baby

So this is week 13 entering into our second trimester, yeah! So far I am feeling a bit better. I went swimming at the gym and am I out of shape! I am hoping to go more often to keep up some muscle tone. I even feel like getting things done around the house which I am sure John appreciates.

The baby is about 3 inches this week, about the size of a large egg. The baby weighs about 1 ounce and has a more pronounced nose and chin, a tiny person! Still building up reflexes and starting to be able to suck on those tiny thumbs. Gender is well defined now, but we still will not find out for another 6+ weeks.

It has been warm here, over 95 for the past 10+ days. The humidity is not too bad, only in the 75% range. We have had some thunderstorms pop up which helps cool things off. Now, if we were from here we would be telling you that it was horribly humid and terribly hot. Glad we have more experience with weather.

We got a new tree for the front of the house and also grabbed one for the back. We had credit for two plants we lost last year, so we did not have to pay much. We (mostly John) got those in the ground Sunday in the heat and have been watering them like crazy.

That is about it this week. John's group did well with Father's Day, leading the company. That's great! Have a great week everyone and Happy Belated Father's Day (forgot last week).

Week 12

So big countdown this week waiting for the lucky second trimester to start. I am hoping with the start of week 13 my nausea will decrease.

We spent the weekend outside working in the yard and attending some activities. I split up 5 of my huge hosta on Saturday, washed dogs and we went to our neighborhod block party that night. There we were able to share our news with a lot of neighbors and caught up with people we see 2-3 times a year. My back was really tight after all the digging. John was mowing while I dug and hung out with Evie, our 4 year old neighbor. She was checking out the bugs in the plants and "helping." I also showed her how Milo loves to chase water out of the hose. I got sprayed twice:)

On Sunday we got up early and went to the Dog 'n Jog at the Plaza. We did the 2 mile walk. Last year I ran, but was not up to it this year. But when I saw people with 11 min, 30 sec miles I should have! We were back home by 10 am. I was out talking to our neighbor Ron about plants and we got involved in a hosta exchange. We traded plants, I planted some of my split hosta and gave the rest to our neighbors across the street. John trimmed back the holly and we hung out with the Tripletts (Evie's family) again. All in all a busy weekend. I was bushed.

So baby wise this week we are seeing more reflex movement, especially fingers and toes. The baby is about the size of a pacifier this week and growing quickly!

Hope everyone is having a good week!

We are up and runnning!

Hello everyone and welcome to our blog! John and I had discussed having a blog to keep everyone up to date on what was going on in our lives. Steman Tails for all our four footed friends!

So, the big news is we are expecting a baby for January 3, 2010! This was planned, but still happened sooner than we expected:oP Things have been going okay. I have been nauseous and very tired. Thankfully with my job at Barnes and Noble I am done at 11 am and can get a nap in during the afternoon. My belly has puffed out already, but it looks like I ate too much, not so much that I am pregnant. I have had food aversions, sometimes very strongly, poor John. Not too much vomiting, yeah for something!

We are getting excited. We heard the heart beat yesterday, even though the baby was moving around and hard to locate. In 8 weeks we will have a sonogram and find out the sex. We already have a yellow bedroom we will probably use and adapt to the baby. Just need to clean out the closets!

I am almost 12 weeks along now and the baby is about 2 1/2 inches long with hands, feet, eyelids and even finger prints already! Moving around a bunch and soon I should be able to feel the baby.

Thanks Shannon for this idea!