Our House is Secure

After 6 months of talking about it, we finally got a security system installed in the house! It took the guy about 2 hours to put it all in because the entire house came pre-wired so all the windows and doors are covered. We are leaving the motion detector off when we are gone because we are pretty sure that Lucy climbs all over the place throughout the day.

The system has a cell phone backup in case the phone line is cut. It also has an extra smoke detector that will automatically call the fire department.

I've already set it off when I opened the back door to let the dogs out. The siren works!

One down...a lot more to go

I finally signed us up for some parenting classes today. I was starting to realize that with our trip home quickly approaching, days off for the holidays, and oh, the birth of our son, the days in which we could actually take the classes were numbered. We are now officially signed up for prenatal care class and breastfeeding class. I still have to pick a date for the labor classes, but that can wait a couple of days.

I also think Andy and I are starting to realize that a lot of the things we like to do together, such as going to the movies, or playing video games, are going to come to a stop very quickly. With that in mind, we might as well get it out of the way now. Andy went out and bought Super Mario Bros. on wii and we've been playing non-stop. I know that I will eventually have more important things to tend to instead of playing games, but for now I better enjoy it.

My goal for next week is to get the nursery almost completely finished, along with getting some Christmas shopping done. I found a couple of gift cards laying around the house and I bought some curtains for the nursery, along with a cover for the changing pad, both in orange. I'm currently trying to think of what I would like for wall art. I really don't want to go the animal route and I don't want to spend a bunch of money...we'll have to see how creative I feel. I have found that this year's Christmas has left me only wanting items for Logan. I can't believe it's already started! I should probably think of a couple of things I want for myself...perhaps a personal trainer to help get the baby weight off?

It's been awhile

I know, I'm a horrible blogger. I always spy on everyone else's blog, but never have the motivation to add to my own. But, with Andy leaving me all by my lonesome while he goes and works (plays) in Vegas. So far the pups and I have been pretty bored. I got a lot of grading done if that tells you anything.

Little Logan has been kicking up a storm in my tummy the past few weeks. A favorite past time for Andy and I is to sit and look at my belly while he kicks. It's so crazy when you can actually see one of his body parts moving inside of there. I think we're both getting to the point where we're ready to meet him, we just don't have everything quite into place yet. I had a little freak out the other day when I realized that I didn't actually know if we had daycare set for him. I quickly sent a message to my friend Tricia who assured me that she was saving a spot for him at her daycare. Definitely a relief. There are just so many odds and ends and I really should get on them.

To do list item #1: Sign up for parenting classes.
This has been on our to-do list for at least a month, if not more. At this rate, Logan will be born by the time we sign up for the classes. Hopefully we'll figure out how to set up the car seat.

To do list item #2: Pick a doctor.
I'm not quite sure if we pick the doctor before he is born, or if we pick the doctor after he is born. Then there is the whole thing with interviewing a doctor. Don't know if I'm comfortable with this one...

To do list item #3: Finish the nursery.
There are many things that need to be done to our nursery. We need another shelf to hold toys, lamps, odds and ends, etc. Then we need to put it together. That's the part I have to talk Andy into. I REALLY want an orange rug and orange curtains, but I'm not finding them anywhere. We need items to hang on the walls...blah. All of this will have to wait until Thanksgiving break.

To do list item #4: Make sure he stays in my belly until the due date.
I'm freaking out about this. I have a schedule that I want to stick to. If he comes early, it's all screwed up. Lauren is visiting April 4-9. I have that week, then one more, and after that I'm back to school from my maternity leave. I'm really hoping that she's not going to be stuck babysitting during her spring break. I also have a scheduled time in which I asked for time off. It would be a lot easier if he came during that scheduled time.

For now I'm just trying to relax and enjoy being pregnant...especially the food part!

Rocktober

Not too much going on lately. We went to another hockey game and Rachel got both flu vaccines today.

Logan's First Hockey Game

Logan's first hockey game was the Phoenix Coyotes home opener for the 2009-2010 season. The Yotes lost a tough one and I think he could tell how frustrated I was because he spent the rest of the night kicking up a storm inside his Ma. I think I felt one but he stopped once I kept my hand on her stomach.

Little Kicks

Rachel has hit the range where she should start feeling kicks. I heard from some people that at first it just feels like gas until the quads get built up some more and little Logan can really throw a roundhouse into the wall. She might have felt one last night and I need to know if it was just one or 3 at a time. I'll be really excited if he is born with retractable bone claws.

The registering process was fun for a bit and then I got sick of it right around the time I realized it was like clothes shopping. I did sneak over to the Toys 'R Us section and managed to scan a Darth Vader Lego TIE Fighter into the registry but she found it later and deleted it. What newborn kid can live without that!?!?

That whole thing made me realize that he's probably not going to like the same things that I do at first. I remember the first time my dad showed me Monty Python and the Holy Grail or Cheech and Chong movies. I thought they were pretty dumb but later realized that they were classics. Logan will probably be like that with Star Wars.

I was telling Rachel that it will be really fun once he starts going to school and we can put a desk in his room and maybe a computer that he can use (locked down of course). I even mentioned that maybe he would learn to program and she flips out about how she isn't accepting any more nerds who sit on the computer all day into the household. If I can't live vicariously through him, why are we having kids at all?

I'm also finding myself out in the garage more often as I get older. It won't be long before I start changing our oil in the cars in order to save $10. If you talk to my dad he will tell you how this is a complete 180 from what I've always said growing up.

We have made it...

To the halfway point! Today officially marks week 20, which means we are half way through, only 20 more weeks until we meet Logan! Yesterday Andy and I went to babies r us to register for our showers. It was a bit overwhelming. It's amazing to see how many different types of bottles there are, pacifiers, bottle warmers, and so on, and so on. I think we both felt a little helpless. I already had the big items picked out, which were the stroller/car seat combo, pack and play, high chair, etc. They're all from the same Graco line, so it was easy to match them and I made sure to do my research on whether they were actually worth the money. I think Andy was happy that we didn't have to sit there and ponder over all of the large items. Once we finished up, I came home and of course added more items, took off the ones that I changed my mind about. So, that's out of the way. Next item up, pick a crib and buy it. I want to paint before the crib comes, that will be happening next week during fall break. I'm very excited to get this nursery started!

Drumroll please...

IT'S A BOY!
Andy and I are happy to announce that in February we'll be welcoming Logan Patrick McKenna into the world. I will admit, I was a bit bummed out that he's not a girl (still a little bummed), but as the days continue I'm getting more and more excited. It is very strange to think that my belly is getting bigger because I have a little BOY growing inside of me. He was being a bit stubborn (apparently he gets this from me) when we took the ultrasound and would not show the goods. Eventually we got a quick picture of the family jewels, but alas, no profile pic to go with it. Not sure, but this may be defined as baby porn.

Now that we're sure of the sex, the planning of the nursery begins...along with the stressing out about money. Secret: BABIES ARE EXPENSIVE! When you actually start adding up how much cribs cost, and bedding, plus the mattress, add in a stroller, car seat, and on and on and on... You get the picture. I almost passed out. Even so, I refuse to have my baby is foofy animal nursery with tons of pastel blue, I might throw up. It's just not my style. So, with that said, we bought this very modern, very un-foofy bedding set from Target.

We're thinking about painting the walls the light blue color on the bedding, with a chocolate brown stripe going around the top portion of the room. I'll try to bring pops of orange into the room with picture frames, rug, etc. We haven't actually seen the bedding in person yet, but it should be arriving this week. Hopefully I still like it. Then it's on to painting (with low VOC paint so that Logan and I are safe) during fall break. I've done multiple rooms at once, I think one room is doable. I still haven't felt a kick yet, although I'm definitely showing.

I can't wait to finally feel something though. Very exciting. On other news, tomorrow is my birthday! Presents are always accepted.

Lucykins

Rachel hosted a candle party last night and I was intending on helping her do some last minute cleaning before retreating to the office to spend the night coding and watching Aliens. I let the dogs out when I got home from work like always but this time there was a problem. Lucy was squatting for too long and there was blood coming out. She would walk a few feet away and then squat again and only blood this time.

I was thinking about it and noticed that she had been doing the same thing a few days ago. We went to the vet and $375 later, she is on antibiotics and wearing a diaper. They sent some tests off to the lab but it's most likely a bladder infection. She couldn't hold it in last night but ever since we put the diaper on she has been fine.

I think the medicine is doping her somewhat because she has taken two pills so far and just seems to want to lay around all day now.

Damn kids

We have been in school for exactly 29 days...and I'm sick. The worst part is that I can't take the good meds, such as Nyquil that puts you into a deep deep sleep. I apparently am dumb and did not know that there is alcohol in these wonderful medications and so I taking Tylenol cold and flu...which doesn't work. Blah. I'm just hoping that baby Mc understands how much I love him/her because I really want to take nyquil, just to be comfortable for even an hour.

Speaking of sleep...I have been having baby dreams. In all of my dreams, the little one is a boy. I'm thinking that I am magically a psychic and am dreaming about my unborn son. Andy agrees, since he thinks we share a brain now and our son is streaming his own thoughts into my head. I always thought mothers could read the minds of their children. I've been losing weight the last week. I think this is because of my illness though, hopefully. I still feel as though I'm not really showing and am hoping that changes soon. I just feel fat. Listen to how I'm complaining about losing weight. Definitely not normal. I'm hoping that I'll be able to post about a little kick in the tummy soon!

Week 15

Baby Mc is the size of a baseball. I finally started emptying out the storage room and need to sell off that old tv that was in there.

3 weeks until the ultrasound where we find out the gender. I hope it's not a tease like last time.

I just bought...

Granny panties. This is not something I'm proud of, but it had to be done. Apparently pregnant women do not have the correct body structure for bikini undies. Andy laughed. I made a sad face. I'll get over it because I'm soooo comfortable now. I have finally started to accept the fact that I may not get my way and we may be bringing a Logan into this world instead of an Eliza. To help me accept this, I have been scouring the internet for cute boy rooms. It's very hard to find them, but they're out there. Girl rooms are still cuter. I'll be crossing my fingers until the end of the month.

Andy and I are getting ready to take our last real vacation, just he and I, to a place other than Michigan. Next weekend we'll be heading to San Diego and have booked tickets to go to Sea World and the San Diego Zoo. I wish we had more than three days to visit, but I'll take what I can get. It's scary to think that our vacations after this point will be family vacations, including baby Mc. I wish the weeks would slow down just a little bit.

Quick update

It has happened...I started school again. What this essentially means is that I am over worked, over tired, and falling asleep at around 9:30 every night. It also means the blog has not been updated in FOREVER. I'm apologizing now. I became very spoiled over the summer. I took 4 hour naps during the day, did no chores, and simply lounged on the couch. This is no more. The lounging on the couch still happens, but I'm actually trying to be productive. This year is actually a big step up for me. I am team leader (way excited), gifted mentor (not sure why they chose me, but I'm happy), still taking my masters classes (4 more to go!), and still incubating the babe. There's a lot on my plate, but I can do it.

Speaking of baby Mc. We have not been on the best of terms. I was very excited to be able to called Mc by its first name, preferably Eliza. However, he/she prefers the name baby Mc still. As we went to the ultrasound, Andy and I were so excited to find out the sex. We got to see a dance party going on in my belly...and then nothing. A whole lot of stubborn is what we saw. At first they said it was a boy (NOT HAPPY), then they said a girl. At the end, it's still undecided. We must wait for exactly one more month. It better show its goods!

I have officially started showing, although it may be baby bump mixed with Rachel chub. Even so, I'm going to say baby bump. It makes me feel better about myself. I'm excited to take pictures every few weeks to watch the bump grow. I actually started thinking yesterday about how I'm going to lose this weight. You see, I'm not a fan of exercise, or eating healthy. In fact, I just made brownies tonight. However, I refuse to keep my baby chub. REFUSE. I suppose I have many months to think about that.

Anniversary

Well we haven't posted in a few weeks because I'm lazy and Rachel was out of town for a while. Her best friend Emily got married back in Michigan and we flew in for the ceremony. I was only back for 4 days but Rachel had the summer off so she went back for almost 2 weeks.

The entire time we were there I just couldn't get over the weather. It was upper 60's and overcast or raining most of the time. It was awesome! Phoenix started the summer late but we were above 105 almost every day in July. We were able to sneak down to Indiana to see my family which was fun.

The wedding was fun and then our anniversary was on the 28th, just 2 days after we got back. We've wanted to eat dinner at the Melting Pot ever since we moved here so this was a good occasion to go on. The Melting Pot is a fondue restaurant and we got the full experience: cheese, salad, meat tray with Mijo sauce, and bananas/white chocolate dessert.

Less than 2 weeks until Gender Revelation! Rachel is back in the classroom so her days sleeping in until noon are over for a long time.

About 1 month until gender identification

The ultrasound last Wednesday went great, I was on cloud 9 when I heard that boom boom pow. It's crazy to think that 7 days ago, Baby Mc was 3 mm long and grew to 5 mm since then. That's 60% bigger in just 7 days! This kid's going to be a lineback if he keeps that growth rate up.

Our next ultrasound is August 14th and we should be able to see the gender if he cooperates. I'm pretty confident as you can probably see from my use of "he" throughout this post.

Baby Mc's first drum solo

Andy and I made our way to the doctors office today for yet another ultrasound. I was a bit nervous since last time they couldn't hear our little peanut's heart beating. I plopped myself up on the table, the ultrasound was started, and we heard the technician say, "I can see the heart beating". YAY! It was crazy, we could actually see the little flickers, kind of like a fast lightening bug. We could actually see him/her this time too. Last time I had no idea what I was looking at. This time, we definitely had a peanut shape. Baby Mc's a grower! After a few more uncomfortable minutes, she turned the sound on and we could actually hear the drum solo going on in my belly. It's all very surreal. Andy was giggling like a little school girl, while I just tried to wrap my mind around the fact that the drum solo was going on in MY stomach, but it wasn't me producing the heartbeat, it was a little living thing. I still don't really think it's hit me that there's a child inside of me. Other than being nauseous all the time and wanting to eat only fruit, my life hasn't changed a whole lot. But yep, there's a baby inside of me. A real one. With a heart beat. Andy was carrying the photos around like a proud father, so cute. We scheduled the next two ultrasounds and from what they tell us, we'll most likely be able to tell the sex of the baby at our next one, which is August 14th. That's so soon! I was expecting 5 months. The craziness of technology I guess. When we came home, Lucy made sure to raid my purse and almost chew up our precious pictures. I can tell she's going to be jealous of the little one.

On another high note for the week, Andy bought me an iPhone, mostly because he wanted a new phone too, but partly because he realized we will never again be able to splurge on things we want. Better get it over with now.

We're incubating a theatre buff

Baby Mc had his/her first taste of the theatre on Friday night. Andy and I bought tickets to see Wicked at the ASU Gammage Theatre. Everyone said that the show was great and I was really excited to see it. They didn't lie! It was amazing! Andy even enjoyed himself. I was a little afraid that he wouldn't like it at all. For those of you that don't know, Wicked is based upon The Wizard of Oz, but it tells the story of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. It's fun to look at such a beloved movie from a different perspective. Although our seats were all the way in the balcony, I thought we had a pretty good view and enjoyed every song that was sung throughout the night. Hopefully Mc will come out and enjoy the theatre as much as I do. I would love to have an excuse to see more musicals.

On another note, I think the morning sickness/nausea is hitting me. I have yet to throw up, but have ran to the toilet a few times, luckily there was no food in my stomach. I'm pretty much nauseous all day long and thinking of all foods (except fruit) makes me sick to my stomach. The good news is that new preggo symptoms is a good sign of a healthy baby Mc. The bad new is that I have to fly on a plane in a week and a half. I may have to ask for extra barf bags. Fingers crosses that this doesn't happen.

A bit of a scare

The last few days have been a bit of a scare for Andy and I. On Sunday night I found that I had been bleeding a little bit and immediately started crying. To me, bleeding equals miscarriage. I haven't had any cramps at all, but any blood to me is not a good sign. Since it was a weekend, I called a triage nurse on call and spoke to her about my fears. She was very good at calming me down. I wish I could remember her name so that I could call my the Dr. office and leave a nice message for her. Anyways, she told me that it was normal, I should watch the bleeding and if it continued to make an appointment with my Dr. It ended up stopping that night and I felt much better. Baby Mc was still making me extremely tired and the sore tata's continue. Tonight I wiped again and found some more spotting. Again, there is a little cramping, not too much, and it's just light pink, which, from what I've seen online, is normal. Even so, I think I'm going to try to schedule another appointment tomorrow. I would rather hear from a Dr. that I'm crazy then have to wait until Monday at my ultrasound and get yelled at for not calling. So, lets cross our fingers that everything is alright. Andy keeps telling me to think positively, everything will be fine.

This baby already runs the house

When we got the house, Rachel and I shared the little 4th bedroom as our office. She eventually got tired of my blazing typing speed because it bothered her during her paper writing. I figured if I moved into the empty bedroom that was going to be for a future baby, I could spread out a bit, watch tv more often, and play my classy music and video games.

I knew that whenever we spawned, I would have to give the room up and figure where else to go. Well today, we broke down my computer and moved me back into the small room with the Incubator herself. She came up with a great way to arrange our desks and now we are facing each other and I'm right under the AC register. I also have my back to a window so that I can look at the forest of weeds growing across the street.

My desk was a little too big for this configuration so it's going in the garage as a workbench. I need to clean out the garage and throw some junk away before that can happen. It's too bad because I enjoy putting that chore off every weekend.

The best thing about this move is cutting out the yelling across the house. We can both sit on our computers and carry on a normal conversation, which is nice.

And so it starts....

I have purchased the first piece of baby apparel for baby Mc. I couldn't help myself from driving down to Kids R Us and perusing the merchandise. It's pretty crappy that I can't pick out boys or girls clothes, I will most likely be whining about this until we find out the gender of our little one. Even so, I happened to find this cute little onesie...ON SALE I might add. I made sure to check out all the bedding and find that I tend to like girl's bedding, which in my mind means we're having a girl. Andy says this isn't enough proof for him. Blah. After my shopping excursion I managed to come home and take another nap, yet again. The joys of the first trimester. I do love to sleep though, I better take advantage of it while I can!

A good thing for once

Expected Due Date...

Is February 21, 2010. Looks like the little one is going to pop out sooner than expected. I had the first Dr. appointment today, but it wasn't as exciting as I would have liked. They took about 5 vials of blood out of me, which made me a bit woosey since it was only 8:30 and I had had a breakfast bar to eat and nothing else. My obgyn came in and started laughing at me because I had just seen her about a month and a half ago and we had talked about Andy and I having kids. She said that we must be the most fertile couple in the world. I made sure to ask her my list of questions I had.

#1: Can I exercise and if so, how much: She said yes I can, but no lower body weights. I've been okayed for the eiptical.

#2: Can I fly home for Christmas: She has given me the ok for flying, although I really think it would be getting close to my 35 wk cutoff (I'll be about 31 or 32 wks along). We'll see. I almost want to drive home since we want to have the baby shower and will have to return all the gifts if we fly. Decisions decisions.

#3: In case of morning sickness during my flight home this July, what types of things can I take: She gave me a long list of meds, which kind of surprised me. Lets just hope I don't get any morning sickness.

I came home from the appointment and promptly went back to sleep, as I was up all night tossing and turning thinking that they were going to tell me I'm stupid and can't read a pregnancy test. After my mid afternoon nap I trolled around on the internet and made a wonderful meal for my husband, Chicken Picatta. Hopefully I can be a bit less lazy tomorrow :)

My bro is 17?

Happy birthday to Dylan! In my mind my little brother is still 5 years old and playing with power rangers. It's crazy to think that he's 17 and almost an adult. Even so, I bet he would still go to Chuck E Cheese and play video games with me.

Andy and I were watching TLC late last night and a pregnancy special happened to be on. Before the show cut to commercial, a quiz question popped up on the screen. "True or False: A woman is more likely to conceive twins within the first month of coming off of the pill?" The answer: TRUE! I think Andy had a melt down. He's now freaking out that we have twin baby mc's in my belly and we don't have enough money for them. Haha! Although we'd love to have two little ones, how about just one at a time? I'm becoming impatient waiting for the first Dr. appointment. Wednesday can't get here soon enough. I keep having nightmares that the Dr. is going to tell me that we're actually not preggo. If I'm not, I have to figure out what's making me SO incredibly tired everday. It's 7:30 and I'm ready to hit the hay.

Is it too early to already have names picked out?

First official entry...First official Pregnancy!

Andy and I have decided to dabble in the world of the blog. Since so many of our friends and family live across the country, and we know that they want to hear about every minute of this pregnancy, we thought that a blog would be the best way to share the news. I suppose the best way to start is to share the story of our pregnancy, so here goes...

Andy and I had talked about trying to conceive during my school year, but with my Master's degree still going in full force, I was a bit apprehensive to give up the birth control and start letting nature take its course. We finally agreed that since I had been on birth control for awhile, it would probably take awhile for my body to adjust and to get rid of the ucky hormones related to the pill. Boy were we in for a surprise. After a tip from a teacher in my school, I ended up buying the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility in hopes to helping us figure out when I was ovulating and timing the pregnancy. Our plans were to get preggers in July, tell our family when we came home, and pop a baby out right before the end of the school year so that I would have 5 glorious month with baby Mc instead of having to break up my time in chunks.

About a week before my period was due, I began to notice that my breasts were very tender, something I have never experienced. My mom thought that it was because my body was getting ready for Aunt Flo, but without the help of birth control. I kept making jokes that I was pregnant, hoping, but not really thinking I was. When I missed my period on July 17th, I went to the store on a whim and bought a pregnancy test, along with some prenatal pills. I have been doing my research on vitamins I should be taking. I came home, did the peeing on the stick thing, and figure I just wasted a good preg. test. My mom actually called right after I took it and I was joking around, telling her that I took a test, but it was most likely not positive. I took a glance at the test and screamed! Instead of the two minus signs, there was a plus and a minus. I kept telling my mom that I thought I was pregnant and I think she was confused, so I had to explain exactly what I saw on the test. So much for keeping it a secret until we went home in July. I realized that it may in fact be a false positive, so I told my mom I would call her back once I downed some more water and had to once again use the facilities. An hour later, and the 2nd test down...another positive! After calling my mom back, I called my grandmother, who in turn told my aunt and cousin. Please remember, I have not yet told Andy, the father of our little poppyseed.

I waited two hours for Andy to get out of work and return home. The tests were waiting on his computer and his first reaction was "So, how did you fake this?" Afterwards there was hugging, kissing, some tears on my parts, realization that all of our saved money would be gone, and then pure happiness. I did take another test, just in case the first two were wrong, and it again showed a positive. I guess I should have noticed how tired I've been (I just thought I was being lazy), and of course there was my EXTREMELY sore chest. The first doctors appointment is Wednesday and hopefully all will go well!