Today I'm 35 weeks. Can't believe it's almost time for this baby to come! I had another dr appointment today and we got good news all around. I only gained 1 pound since last week. So my total weight gain thus far is 25 pounds. Not too bad. This is about 10 pounds less than what I had gained with Charlie at this point. Last week the baby was breech and the nurse practioner did an ultrasound in the room to see if things had changed. And guess what? They have! Happy to report that at this point, baby is head down. And hopefully will stay that way! I'm sure we'll check again in a few weeks to make sure that the head is still down, but we are happy with this news. I've been having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions, but so far, they haven't really caused any changes, which is good. I'm not opposed to an early baby, but I'm hoping to make it to at least July 18. So we'll see. Next appointment is next week. We'll have more info after that!
Monday, June 27, 2011
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Award
Yesterday, Jeff received the very high honor of hanging the Soyuz 24S TMA-01M
Plaque for the Attitude Determination and Control Officer (ADCO) team in the
Mission Control Center. This is for all his hard work on the increment he worked on
for 6 months starting last fall. We are very proud of him and all the accomplishments
he has had since working at NASA.
Plaque for the Attitude Determination and Control Officer (ADCO) team in the
Mission Control Center. This is for all his hard work on the increment he worked on
for 6 months starting last fall. We are very proud of him and all the accomplishments
he has had since working at NASA.
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| Sorry it's small. This is from a cell phone. Waiting to get a copy from the NASA photographer. |
Monday, June 20, 2011
Catch up
Wow! So it's been almost 2 months since I've updated. We've been busy as usual, so I'll try to catch up on everything that has been going on.
May was busy with work during the week and working outside on the weekends. We have wanted to build a flower bed along the back side of the house for awhile now and finally decided to do it. We were going to get a landscaper to do it, but it was more expensive than we thought, so Jeff decided to tackle the immense project himself. With appropriate supervising from me, of course! ;) We got yards of dirt and mulch delivered to the house, Jeff dug out the grass/clay/various building materials left by the builders and trash, hauled away said grass/clay/various building materials left by the builders and trash, filled in the hole with dirt, added a border, then put a weed barrier on top, then planted all the new plants and mulched on top of that. We added a small bed in the back corner of the yard and planted some azaleas there. We had extra (lots of extra!) dirt and mulch, so we (Jeff) tended to the front flower bed, mulched around the trees we have AND made two garden areas in the backyard (which we will plant something in next year). We did all this for the same price that we got quoted for just digging a new flower bed and adding the dirt and mulch to it. That's it. Jeff worked really hard and I think it looks great! This was my Mother's Day present and he worked on it for a long time.
May was busy with work during the week and working outside on the weekends. We have wanted to build a flower bed along the back side of the house for awhile now and finally decided to do it. We were going to get a landscaper to do it, but it was more expensive than we thought, so Jeff decided to tackle the immense project himself. With appropriate supervising from me, of course! ;) We got yards of dirt and mulch delivered to the house, Jeff dug out the grass/clay/various building materials left by the builders and trash, hauled away said grass/clay/various building materials left by the builders and trash, filled in the hole with dirt, added a border, then put a weed barrier on top, then planted all the new plants and mulched on top of that. We added a small bed in the back corner of the yard and planted some azaleas there. We had extra (lots of extra!) dirt and mulch, so we (Jeff) tended to the front flower bed, mulched around the trees we have AND made two garden areas in the backyard (which we will plant something in next year). We did all this for the same price that we got quoted for just digging a new flower bed and adding the dirt and mulch to it. That's it. Jeff worked really hard and I think it looks great! This was my Mother's Day present and he worked on it for a long time.
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| Dirt and mulch piles in the driveway |
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| The beginning of the digging stage |
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| What it looked like before |
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| Charlie and the dogs helping |
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| The pile of clay |
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| Border is in |
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| Plants strategically placed |
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| Where the azaleas are going, before the bed is finished |
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| All done! |
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| Another view |
Another project Jeff tackled was remaking our old picnic table. The one we had was about 30 years old and was pretty rickety. I wanted to remake it the same size (it's pretty big) and make it more sturdy. So Jeff got to work and remade it and it's awesome! Very sturdy and waterproof, so it should last forever!
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| New picnic table, prewaterproofing. You can see the garden boxes in the background. |
We've also been doing some rearranging in the house to get ready for the new addition that will be here before we know it! The guest room is no longer a guest room. The bed has been taken out and the closet and dresser cleaned out and filled with baby clothes. We have purchased a futon that we put in the office so that is where guests will stay when they visit. Our next step is to paint the room, which should happen sometime this week. We are going to move Charlie's crib in there at some point, but haven't decided when to make that transition. I really like him in his crib! But he will be moving out of there shortly so we can put it in the other room.
Last week we went on "vacation" with my family to Galveston. I'm not allowed to travel very far, so that's as far as we went. We stayed at Jeff's Uncle's beach house for the week and did a few things in Houston and some in Galveston, many of which we had never done before. We went to Discovery Green, the zoo, the beach, Moody Gardens Rainforest and Palm Beach. The boys also went to an Astros game one night, while the girls stayed home with the kids. We went on a couple of boat rides into Galveston Bay and rode the golf cart around. The kids had a blast and I know the adults enjoyed themselves too. Here are a few pictures from that:
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| My sister and Charlie |
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| At Moody Gardens Rainforest |
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| Nicki, Grayson, Charlie and Kirsten |
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| Jeff and Charlie and the dinosaur exhibit |
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| Grayson, Nicki, Mom, Charlie, Me, Kirsten |
Now for a baby update:
I'm currently 34 weeks along. I had an ultrasound today to see how big the baby is measuring. We found out that he's breech, measuring 2 weeks ahead and weighs about 6.5 pounds. (For reference, Charlie was born at 37 weeks and weighed 6.9) We're praying that he'll turn at some point in the next few weeks. I'll have another ultrasound at 37 weeks to see if that has happened and we'll make plans from there. I've been feeling good. Having contractions here and there, mainly when I'm walking around and they'll stop when I sit down, which is good. I was slow to gain weight at the beginning of the pregnancy (with Charlie I was at a steady pace of a pound a week from the 2nd trimester on). This one I'm gaining it all now towards the end. For instance, from my appointment last week to today I have gained 3 pounds! That's a lot! But I'm not swelling anywhere so it must be going straight to the baby. Hence the measuring 2 weeks ahead. So lots will be happening in the next month or so. Never a dull moment around here, that's for sure!
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Updates from the last 6 weeks...
So it's been awhile since my last post because we have been extremely busy around here. Let's see where to start. My last post was about Maggie, so I'll update her status first.
Maggie:
She was starting to build up fluid around her neck again and antibiotics didn't seem to be helping, so she had surgery to remove the cysts around her neck. She did great and only spent one night at the vet. She was ordered to be on limited activity for 2 weeks while the incision healed. Anyone that has met Maggie knows what a challenge that is. She had 2 cysts removed and came home with 2 "drains", which were open to air, meaning anything that came out of those drains just dripped out. Nice, right? We prepared for this by placing sheets on the couch and rug and hoping for the best. Luckily, she only had one instance of really oozing out of the drains and incision, so it wasn't too bad. She had the drains removed on Monday and is not leaking out of the holes where the drains came out of. We take her back in a week to remove the stitches from her neck and then she should be good to go. She kinda looks like Frankenstein because of the large incision on her neck. But all in all, she's doing great.
Here she is post surgery with drains:
Mini Vacay to Fredericksburg:
Jeff finished his increment and shuttle mission, so we headed to Fredericksburg for some R&R for about a week. We stayed with his parents and had a nice time. Jeff and his dad went to a few wineries, we picked strawberries, made jam with those strawberries(well, helped a little bit with the making of jam ;)), went to Austin for a day to visit a couple of friends of mine, went to a "living farm" and saw cows, chickens and sheep and had a nice picnic and then went to our niece's first birthday party. We were plenty busy on our "relaxing" vacation!
Here are lots of pics from our trip:
Rebecca's Birthday:
Charlie:
Charlie had his 18 month checkup and weighed in at a whopping 21 3/4 pounds! Still my skinny little guy! He also had a double ear infection, which we had no clue about. He didn't exhibit any symptoms. He took his 10 days of antibiotics and was fine at the follow up visit. He continues to learn and do new things everyday. He understands more and more of what we tell him, which is nice. He has so many new teeth that I lost count. We have gone to mostly one nap a day, which I was dreading, but it hasn't been too bad. He's mainly in 12 month clothes and some shorts fall off of him cause he's so skinny, but what can you do? We get a lot of wear out of his clothes, that's for sure!
Lauri & Baby:
I've had an interesting month myself. At the very end of March, the pollen was out of control here. I got pretty sick from it, sick enough for my OB to get concerned and send me to the hospital. I had a lot of fluid in my sinuses and a bad cough that turned to wheezing. So I went in for a 23 hour "observation" to see a pulmonologist that would make me feel better. That was a joke. He claimed that I had a "virus" that just had to run it's course. My xray was clear and when he examined me, I my lungs were clear as well. :( I did not get one respiratory treatment while there. I got claritin, sudafed, and one dose of iv antibiotics. Oh, and lovenox, a blood thinner (a shot, by the way), since I was laying in bed. I did my best to be a "good" patient and tried to get out of there as soon as I could. I got a z pack prescribed to me for when I went home (not sure of that since I was told I had a virus), but I think that helped me get better, since I really think I just had a bad sinus infection. I was fine for 2 weeks, when I woke up one morning just feeling weird. My stomach was crampy (more menstrual than contractions) and my hips really hurt. I took a warm bath, but that only helped a little. A couple of hours later, I noticed blood in my urine. Knowing that is not good, I called my OB, who promptly sent me back to the hospital, but I went to the Assessment center this time, I was not being admitted. They checked out me and the baby and really could find nothing wrong. The baby was fine, I was not contracting or dilated or in danger of going into labor, so all good news there. My OB ordered an ultrasound, which was supposed to be a kidney ultrasound, but instead I got a baby ultrasound. Every time I get ultrasounds, I ask them to make sure of the sex of the baby. I told the girl that I was having a girl so let's be sure it's still a girl. Well, she did a really thorough u/s and then started acting kinda weird and even left the room at one point. She had seen what she thought were boy parts and didn't want to tell me! She fessed up that she thought it was a boy, but she had been wrong before and maybe it was really a girl with swollen parts, blah, blah, blah. But from what I saw on the screen, I thought it was a boy too, but what do I know. Now I was really confused and wait till I tell Jeff! He took the news well (it really doesn't matter in the end) and now we have to come up with 2 sets of names just in case! I went back to my OB the next week for a follow up for the blood in my urine (had just a trace, so that's good news) and told her the whole story of we thought it was a girl, but now we think it's a boy and she's confused as well. My high risk dr is the one who told me it was a girl (twice!) and he's NEVER wrong! We had a quick scan in the office and it was pretty inconclusive, so now we have no idea what it is. Guess we'll find out when I deliver!
I had my 3 month checkup at MD Anderson today and the results were great! No tumors showed up on my xray, so my next checkup will be mid-August after the baby is born. Yay!
Easter:
We had a nice, quiet Easter at home. Charlie and I went to church so the Easter Bunny could come. We had an egg hunt inside and outside, but Charlie figured out quickly that the eggs with the candy were only inside, so he wasn't too interested in the eggs outside. We have one smart cookie on our hands! But it was a nice, relaxing day and we enjoyed ourselves. Here are the pics from Easter:
Charlie with the Easter Bunny:
I think that's about all I had to update on, and I'll try not to wait so long between posts!
Maggie:
She was starting to build up fluid around her neck again and antibiotics didn't seem to be helping, so she had surgery to remove the cysts around her neck. She did great and only spent one night at the vet. She was ordered to be on limited activity for 2 weeks while the incision healed. Anyone that has met Maggie knows what a challenge that is. She had 2 cysts removed and came home with 2 "drains", which were open to air, meaning anything that came out of those drains just dripped out. Nice, right? We prepared for this by placing sheets on the couch and rug and hoping for the best. Luckily, she only had one instance of really oozing out of the drains and incision, so it wasn't too bad. She had the drains removed on Monday and is not leaking out of the holes where the drains came out of. We take her back in a week to remove the stitches from her neck and then she should be good to go. She kinda looks like Frankenstein because of the large incision on her neck. But all in all, she's doing great.
Here she is post surgery with drains:
Mini Vacay to Fredericksburg:
Jeff finished his increment and shuttle mission, so we headed to Fredericksburg for some R&R for about a week. We stayed with his parents and had a nice time. Jeff and his dad went to a few wineries, we picked strawberries, made jam with those strawberries(well, helped a little bit with the making of jam ;)), went to Austin for a day to visit a couple of friends of mine, went to a "living farm" and saw cows, chickens and sheep and had a nice picnic and then went to our niece's first birthday party. We were plenty busy on our "relaxing" vacation!
Here are lots of pics from our trip:
Rebecca's Birthday:
Charlie:
Charlie had his 18 month checkup and weighed in at a whopping 21 3/4 pounds! Still my skinny little guy! He also had a double ear infection, which we had no clue about. He didn't exhibit any symptoms. He took his 10 days of antibiotics and was fine at the follow up visit. He continues to learn and do new things everyday. He understands more and more of what we tell him, which is nice. He has so many new teeth that I lost count. We have gone to mostly one nap a day, which I was dreading, but it hasn't been too bad. He's mainly in 12 month clothes and some shorts fall off of him cause he's so skinny, but what can you do? We get a lot of wear out of his clothes, that's for sure!
Lauri & Baby:
I've had an interesting month myself. At the very end of March, the pollen was out of control here. I got pretty sick from it, sick enough for my OB to get concerned and send me to the hospital. I had a lot of fluid in my sinuses and a bad cough that turned to wheezing. So I went in for a 23 hour "observation" to see a pulmonologist that would make me feel better. That was a joke. He claimed that I had a "virus" that just had to run it's course. My xray was clear and when he examined me, I my lungs were clear as well. :( I did not get one respiratory treatment while there. I got claritin, sudafed, and one dose of iv antibiotics. Oh, and lovenox, a blood thinner (a shot, by the way), since I was laying in bed. I did my best to be a "good" patient and tried to get out of there as soon as I could. I got a z pack prescribed to me for when I went home (not sure of that since I was told I had a virus), but I think that helped me get better, since I really think I just had a bad sinus infection. I was fine for 2 weeks, when I woke up one morning just feeling weird. My stomach was crampy (more menstrual than contractions) and my hips really hurt. I took a warm bath, but that only helped a little. A couple of hours later, I noticed blood in my urine. Knowing that is not good, I called my OB, who promptly sent me back to the hospital, but I went to the Assessment center this time, I was not being admitted. They checked out me and the baby and really could find nothing wrong. The baby was fine, I was not contracting or dilated or in danger of going into labor, so all good news there. My OB ordered an ultrasound, which was supposed to be a kidney ultrasound, but instead I got a baby ultrasound. Every time I get ultrasounds, I ask them to make sure of the sex of the baby. I told the girl that I was having a girl so let's be sure it's still a girl. Well, she did a really thorough u/s and then started acting kinda weird and even left the room at one point. She had seen what she thought were boy parts and didn't want to tell me! She fessed up that she thought it was a boy, but she had been wrong before and maybe it was really a girl with swollen parts, blah, blah, blah. But from what I saw on the screen, I thought it was a boy too, but what do I know. Now I was really confused and wait till I tell Jeff! He took the news well (it really doesn't matter in the end) and now we have to come up with 2 sets of names just in case! I went back to my OB the next week for a follow up for the blood in my urine (had just a trace, so that's good news) and told her the whole story of we thought it was a girl, but now we think it's a boy and she's confused as well. My high risk dr is the one who told me it was a girl (twice!) and he's NEVER wrong! We had a quick scan in the office and it was pretty inconclusive, so now we have no idea what it is. Guess we'll find out when I deliver!
I had my 3 month checkup at MD Anderson today and the results were great! No tumors showed up on my xray, so my next checkup will be mid-August after the baby is born. Yay!
Easter:
We had a nice, quiet Easter at home. Charlie and I went to church so the Easter Bunny could come. We had an egg hunt inside and outside, but Charlie figured out quickly that the eggs with the candy were only inside, so he wasn't too interested in the eggs outside. We have one smart cookie on our hands! But it was a nice, relaxing day and we enjoyed ourselves. Here are the pics from Easter:
Charlie with the Easter Bunny:
I think that's about all I had to update on, and I'll try not to wait so long between posts!
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Poor Maggie...
Last week we had some excitement with Maggie. On Wednesday, I noticed that she had some bloody drainage coming from her left side. After further inspection, I found that she had a couple of areas that were like sores or wounds. Only one was "oozing", the other looked like it had a scab over it. And she was also swollen on the left side of her neck and shoulder. I could tell that it hurt and she didn't feel well, so the next day I brought her in to the vet to see what was going on. I didn't know if she had gotten bitten by something or gotten attacked by a stick (she's been known to get long sticks stuck in her collar) or it was something more serious. The vet shaved her neck and found that it was a cyst (or cysts) that had gotten infected after she scratched it and her skin was getting stretched by all the swelling and fluid build up. So she got put on some oral antibiotics and a cream to put on her skin and we were told to come back in on Monday to reevaluate. Depending on how well she was healing, she may or may not need surgery to remove the cyst(s). By the end of the weekend, she had stopped oozing and was starting to look and act like her old self. I brought her in on Monday and the vet said that she was healing very well and she didn't lose any of her skin so we will continue antibiotics and come back when she's finished taking them and go from there. Thank goodness! We were very happy with that result and very happy that Maggie is feeling better. She looks a lot better, too. She is prone to these "cysts" and has a few of them that have been there for years and not bothered her, so we leave them alone. They are sort of like pimples, harmless unless they rupture or get infected. Hopefully we have seen the worst and nothing like this will happen again. And the only way to describe how bad it was is to show a picture of it. And a little warning, these pictures are pretty graphic so if you get grossed out easily, DO NOT click on the picture! But, me being a nurse, I have to show you! And I know some of you are curious and want to see it, too!
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| Maggie |
Monday, February 21, 2011
And the verdict is...
Today I went and had my anatomy ultrasound with my high risk doctor. Everything looks great and really low chance of the baby having any sort of birth defects. The baby weighs about 6 ounces and is measuring right on at 17 weeks 1 day. Yes, back to my original due date of August 1! I guess we just caught the baby on a growth spurt or something last time. And for those of you waiting with bated breath on what the gender is, here you go:
Thursday, February 17, 2011
First birthday...
I know it's a little late, but we had some pictures taken for Charlie's first birthday way back in September. I am just realizing that I didn't put them up here for everyone to see. They came out so good! We couldn't decide on which ones to get, so we got most of them!
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| The birthday boys |
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| My favorite |
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