May 23-29

Another week, another round of sick child. Tuesday was supposed to be my mom's first day watching Aubrey for us. I say supposed to, because Aubrey had a fever of 103.2 Monday night and then 102.7 Tuesday morning. She also pointed to her right ear and said "my ear hurt" so back to the doctor we went Tuesday morning. The doctor looked at her left ear (the one that was infected earlier this month) and said it had fluid built up inside of it. Then she looked at the right one and said it was in fact infected. Double ear infections. Fantastic. This round brought us a stronger antibiotic (that Aubrey tells me repeatedly "don't taste good"). Hopefully this will take care of these infections for good because I really don't like having a sick baby all the time. She was doing better by Wednesday, so we went back to school and work. Thursday was Mom and Aubrey's first day together and Mom said it was pretty good. It was so nice not having to get Aubrey ready for school and then deal with the stress that I feel everyday when I drop her off. Plus, Mom brought me some of her homemade potato salad so I was a happy camper on the way to work that morning. Mom said they had a great day playing and Aubrey seemed happy when I got home so I'll call the first day a success.

Saturday morning was shopping time because we have a lot of activities going on the next few weeks that require gifts. Saturday afternoon was our friends' son Landon's birthday so we went to a local children's art studio for his party. The kids had such a blast. It was awesome to see them just be able to make a big mess and not have to worry about cleaning it up. Sunday was a lazy day around the house and it was so hot, so we got the water table back out and let Aubrey have at it. I also bought a pack of popsicles for Aubrey to eat so I got my payback from having the art cleaned up because she made the biggest mess on our back porch with that popsicle. We grilled some steaks for dinner and ended the day by watching the race. All in all it was a good weekend and I am glad we get one extra day thrown in by being off of work tomorrow.

Aubrey and the birthday boy painting the wall art.

She loved her cupcake

Getting a hug from the birthday boy

Water table fun

Enjoying her popsicle

Week 7 (again) and 8

We went to the doctor on May 20th for our first ultrasound. I was so nervous going in and it showed when the took my blood pressure (144/70). They asked if I had hypertension and I told them no, but I did with Aubrey and I was really nervous about the ultrasound. Once the ultrasound started it seemed like it took her  forever to turn the screen on. I knew she wouldn't turn the screen on if there was bad news so her taking forever gave me a sinking feeling. Finally, she turned on the tv screen and showed us the little peanut. She said despite my period dating me at 8 weeks the baby was only measuring 6 weeks 6 days. The heartbeat was great at 145 so I felt a little more reassured at that point. So, our new due date is 1.7.12. They took my blood pressure again, and it had come back down to a much more respectable 117/60. Following the ultrasound, we met with Dr. Miles (who is really cute by the way. Made it a little hard to focus). He believes I just ovulated a little later than we thought and that's what is putting us a week behind. He said I would come back at 12 weeks for my first true OB appointment. After I scheduled that appointment, I realized I would be seeing him again for that appointment and I groaned. First, I'm not to keen on men doing my Pap smears and exams. Just weird to me. And secondly, he's cute for crying out loud. I need to be serious and ask good questions, not be distracted by a cute doctor ;-).  On the way out of the doctor's office it hit me how crazy December and January are going to be for us. We have the Christmas, 2 weeks later I'm due, and then about 3 weeks later is Aubrey's birthday. We are going to stay broke from December to February of every year.

On the Saturday following the ultrasound, we had a party for Todd's birthday as an excuse to get our families to the house to share the good news. I bought Aubrey a shirt that said "A little birdie told me a secret" on the front. The backs says "I'm going to be a big sister." After everyone was here, I took Aubrey upstairs to change her shirt and put the big sister shirt on. I brought her back outside and let the family figure it out for themselves. They started squealing with excitement and Aubrey was pretty confused about what all the noise was for. It was a fun way to share the news, though and I am excited to see her wear the shirt again.

So, we are finally back to 8 weeks and I am feeling it. I've already gotten out my bigger sized pants because my regular jeans were getting snug. I crave comfort food (fried anything, mashed potatoes, ice cream). And for a new symptom to me, I am having food aversions. I made italian crockpot chicken this week and took the first bite and almost threw up. Ugh, I don't like this symptom one bit. I loved everything I ate with Aubrey so this was a rude wake up call for me. I've also got more upset stomach this time around. The nausea is still present, but worse in the afternoon and evenings. And exhaustion is my ever present friend, from the minute I wake up until I crash at night. And napping is so much harder since I want to spend all the time I can with Aubrey. So, I am just in survival mode at this point. Only 4-5 weeks left and hopefully I'll be back to my old self again.

May 16-22

This week was a little calmer than last week. Wednesday was Todd's birthday so we celebrated with dinner out that night. We decided to have a birthday party with all of the family Saturday at our house. The weather was gorgeous and everyone enjoyed some yummy grilled hamburgers and hotdogs, followed by the birthday boy's carrot cake. After the party,Todd went to the NASCAR race so Aubrey and I hung out with my mom, who recently moved back from Baltimore. We made a trip to Babies-R-Us to buy a new car seat for Mom's car because she is going to start watching Aubrey 2 days a week. I am super excited that Aubrey will be home with family those days instead of dealing with the drama of her daycare. After our shopping trip, we went to my parents' house to help them set up some computer stuff and get the car seat installed in Mom's car. Aubrey took a ride with my parents on the golf cart and cried most of the way, but loved getting the attention from them. Sunday was mostly a lazy day, except for a trip to get some ice cream and to Best Buy for my shiny new iMac, which I love by the way. The only bad part of the day was that Aubrey has started fighting a cold so she was not so much fun to deal with. She had almost no appetite all day and went to sleep without a peep at nap and bed time. Hopefully, it will pass quickly because she is miserable.

I didn't take but many pictures yesterday because I was busy with party stuff, but here are a few.

Aubrey decided cornhole was more fun when you stood on the boards and put the bean bags in the

Aubrey was supervising the guys grilling.

May 9-15

We had a really busy week last week. Todd found out on Tuesday that he was accepted to grad school so we had to celebrate that Tuesday night. Wednesday night Todd was out of town so Aubrey and I did the mommy and me thing that night.

Then the weekend brought super business. Todd ran a 10k Saturday morning, so we were up at 6:00 AM to start the weekend. Aubrey and I hung out while he ran and the sponsors put up a bouncy house up and Aubrey was immediately curious. She's been in bouncies before, but never without me so I wasn't sure how she would respond. But, she loved it. Even though she couldn't stand up on her own without falling, let alone trying to bounce. I had to drag her out screaming when it was time to go meet Todd. After the race, we were supposed to meet some friends of mine and their son for Aubrey to have a trial soccer session. Unfortunately, the geniuses that designed the 10k decided to run part of the race around the parking deck, so we couldn't get out once Todd was finished. So, we missed out on the soccer. We still got to meet up with our friends at a cute little breakfast place in South Charlotte. After breakfast, we all came home and crashed for 2 hours. We spent the rest of the day being lazy at home and grilling for dinner.

Sunday morning, we went to hear a friend give his first sermon at the church he has been offered an associate pastor job with. I was really nervous about leaving Aubrey in a strange place with strange people, but the nursery teacher said she only cried for a few minutes before playing happily the remainder of the time. The church hosted a picnic after the sermon so our community group stayed for some yummy burgers. We noticed on the way to the picnic they had another bouncy house and Aubrey was dead set on bouncing again. After we dragged her out kicking and screaming again, we came home for more naps. After naps, we decided to take a trip to the Charlotte airport observatory. Aubrey is fascinated with planes so we knew she would love seeing the planes land and take off. She loved it, but after about the 4th plane, she was over it and intent to cause as much havoc in the car as she could. It was a great weekend and I could have taken a few more days of rest, but Memorial Day is coming soon so I should have some resting time then.

Completely out of focus picture of her in the bouncy, but you get the drift.

Her face while watching the airplanes.

I thought this was cool with the Charlotte skyline in the background.

7 weeks

Oh, the real pregnancy fun has started. I have been feeling so good the past 3 weeks and I had a tiny glimmer of hope that would continue. That all came to an end by Thursday. The "morning" sickness has started and is constant whenever I start getting hungry, about every 2 hours. Luckily, no actual vomiting and I hope to keep it that way. The exhaustion has also started, but I can't nap after work like I could with Aubrey, so I am sleeping like the dead at night. My breast have already blown up at least a cup size I believe. Luckily I hadn't bought new bras since loosing weight, so I am good for a while in that area. Even though I am not feeling the greatest, I am trying to work out as much as I can. I haven't run since my 5k race on April 30, but I have been doing prenatal Pilates twice a week and that is a lot more than I can claim while I was pregnant with Aubrey. I really want to keep running as long as I can, but the heat and exhaustion make that darn near impossible right now. I've contemplated walking on the treadmill just to do something, but the couch usually wins after work. For now, I am trying to stay as positive as I can. I am grateful for the symptoms because that means I am carrying a baby and I know how worth it in the end all of this yuckiness is.

May 2-8

The week started out pretty rough. The fever from the weekend decided to hang around which meant I was home from work Monday and Tuesday. On Tuesday morning, I knew it was time to take her to the doctor because she woke up with an even higher fever than the days before. Dr. Zurawick barely even had to put the otoscope in her left ear before telling us it was infected. She was also concerned about the coughing and weezing Aubrey was doing. So, we got to hang out in the office for an extra 10 minutes for Aubrey to take an Albuterol treatment. I dreaded watching her take it because I'd heard kids usually fight it, but she ended up taking it like a champ. She then gave us another antibiotic (3rd one in a 4 month period, by the way) and sent us on our way. Luckily, Wednesday she was fever-free so we were able to get back on routine.

Friday night was dinner at the mall followed by some Mother's Day shopping. Saturday, we met my dad in Mt. Holly for their annual Spring Fest. We checked out the vendors, ate some typical festival food and even went to a petting zoo for Aubrey. We came home long enough to take a nap and go back out for some more shopping. We then grilled some steaks for dinner before crashing early to bed. Sunday morning, we continued the tradition we started last year of Mother's Day breakfast at IHOP. Then we came home to get ready for lunch with our families. We grilled for lunch and spent the day hanging out. It was a nice relaxing Mother's Day and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Pitiful girl getting her Albuterol treatment

Petting the goat at the Spring Fest.

Our Mother's Day picture.

April 25-May 1

We had a busy week this past week. Todd had a lot going on with work so I spent a lot of time doing the solo mom thing after work and over the weekend. Friday night I took Aubrey grocery shopping with me and I can promise that will never happen again if I can help it. She doesn't like to sit in the cart anymore, so I thought giving her one of the little carts to push around the store would help entertain her. She loved it, but she also loved to push it with reckless abandon, which meant constantly running into my ankles with the cart, which hurt. And I had to keep putting back everything she pulled off the shelf, which was most of everything at her eye level.

Saturday morning, I ran my first 5k of the season. The plan was for my dad to come with us and watch Aubrey while I ran. He called on Friday and said he was sick and didn't want to get us sick. So, that meant Aubrey was stuck going with me. I was a little nervous because I had never run the full 3 miles with her. Todd and I usually alternate while we run. But, I had already paid my money so I just decided to suck it up do it. All the nervousness wore off once I started running because it really wasn't that bad. It was pretty cool outside Saturday morning so it didn't seem that bad pushing her, except for her unhappiness with being strapped down for 35 minutes. But she loved seeing the police officers and their cars blocking all the intersections and she entertained herself by taking off her shoes and pulling out the velcro straps. I ended up only finishing 3 minutes slower than my PR, so I consider it a success. Doesn't mean I want to do it again, but I still feel good about doing it that one time.

Saturday night, my sister Lacey and her friend Katie came over to watch Aubrey while I went to my high school friends' girls' night. It amazes people that I still socialize and hang out with friends from high school, but I love it. I've known many of those girls for 20ish years so I enjoy getting to see them again. The bad news on the way home was that Lacey said Aubrey had been coughing all night. She woke up early Sunday morning running a fever, which meant I was not able to go to a get-together with some message board ladies at the Duke Gardens. I was really sad about not being able to go, but Aubrey was so pitiful and Todd wouldn't be home from his retreat in time for me to go. So, we just hung out at the house all day Sunday and enjoyed being lazy.

I didn't take any pictures of Aubrey this week with my real camera, but I did take a lot of cell phone pics of our weekend.

Picking her up from school and she wanted her shades

Her first and last time helping me get groceries

Before the race

Here we go again

Its been no secret to a lot of our friends that we have been trying to get pregnant again for several months now. We were a little frustrated because it was taking a lot longer than we thought. Aubrey was a little bit of a surprise, so we didn't play the wait and see game each month the first time around. The last 5 months brought us a slew of negative pregnancy tests and a few tears over the results. We thought April had given us the same results because I tested at 12 and 16 days post ovulation and I still got negatives so I had just accepted it and prepared to move on the May. Until day 33 of my cycle and there was still no sign that my period was coming. So, on a whim I decided to test again at 1:30 in the morning after waking up with Aubrey. I fully did not expect to see a positive on that test so when it showed up a few choice words came out of my mouth in surprise. I sat there and debated for 5 minutes about whether to wake Todd up or figure out a cute way to tell him when our alarms went off. I couldn't stand not telling him so I woke him up with the good news. Needless to say, neither of us could easily go back to sleep, so we just lied there and talked for a while. According to the calculator, the due date is 12.30.11, which could be lots of fun for the holidays. December really doesn't seem that far off from now, which is a little scary and a little exciting at the same time.

My first appointment is not scheduled until May 20 and the waiting is tough. We aren't telling the families until after that first ultrasound and that is even tougher. I've started doing prenatal Pilates and counting calories. I really want to keep my weight in check this pregnancy so I don't have to work so hard to loose it all again. I am trying not to get too wrapped up in excitement about it, but its really hard. I am excited to see Aubrey as a big sister and I can't wait to hold another new baby in my arms.