Lots to report

Wow. I can't believe it's been over a month since I last blogged. Shame on me! So much has happened since our 26 week ultrasound.

1. We had another ultrasound at 28 weeks to check the amniotic fluid - which was somewhat high - and during that ultrasound discovered we have a "big boned," "football player" child, according to the ultrasound technician. I don't think she was trying to give the sex away but we took that as a sign that we're having a boy. Hey, we could be wrong, which is why still refer to our baby as either Baby Mookie or Little Monster. Baby is doing just fine and growing strong (the kicks are pretty powerful). It appears I have gestational diabetes and will be meeting with a dietician on Thursday. I'll have more information on that later.

2. We completed our prepared childbirth class and tonight have our breastfeeding class. Should be interesting since I don't know much about the subject.

3. My mom, sister and cousins threw me an awesome baby shower a few weeks ago in Lincoln. It was wonderful to see so many friends and family and look forward to seeing more at the Omaha baby shower in December.

Here's a photo of me with Jason's mom and sister at the Lincoln baby shower:


4. We got the nursery completed over Thanksgiving weekend. Jason spent HOURS - probably 24 - painting and then the two of us put together the crib, dresser and recliner on Saturday and Sunday. I love the way the nursery turned out. It's neutral in color but so darn cute with the animal theme. Jason really did a fantastic job.

Here he is working on the nursery:




And here is the completed nursery:




5. We had a nice time in North Platte for Thanksgiving. We were able to spend some quality time with his parents, sister, nephew and his sister's partner's family. We also visited Jason's friends.

I can't believe baby will be here in two months. With Christmas thrown in there I know it will go extremely fast. I just can't wait to hold this baby in my arms. It's amazing how God answers prayers ... in his time. We waited for and wanted this baby for such a long time and it's crazy to think he or she will be here in no time. I hope we'll be great parents. :)

26 week ultrasound

Tuesday afternoon we had our 26 week ultrasound. I had been very anxious to see our baby again because it had been 10 weeks since our last ultrasound.

Baby is healthy and growing well. Actually, it's legs are growing two weeks ahead in length! The legs are super muscular, too, which means they are like Jason's. :)

Here are our ultrasound images:







I think this was our last ultrasound before the baby's born. We've got a lot of work to do around the house, but I can't wait for baby to be here!

Pant length

This morning I stood in front of the mirror and realized that my pants are too short. This is a horrible pet peeve of mine and I'm embarrased to be wearing them!

I hate the thought of spending money again on more maternity clothes, but of the three pairs of maternity pants I've purchased, two now are too short - even with flats. Apparently they shrunk - I didn't buy them too short. Cheap Old Navy pants. Ugh! I guess I should purchase at least a new pair of black pants as I will wear them at least twice a week for the next three months.

Here's a great website I found to be very informative about pant length.
http://www.alreadypretty.com/2009/04/reader-request-guide-to-pants-length.html

Anniversary

Today is our third anniversary. Hard to believe it's only been three years. To me, with all we've been through, it feels like a decade, which is great! We've been through surgery, job loss, illness, infertility and now pregnancy. Still, I wouldn't trade any of these things for the world because they made us the strong couple we are today. I love Jason and am so blessed to have him as my husband.





We're going to dinner tonight at Lo Sole Mio, which is where we met five years ago. I also ordered a cake from HyVee that looks just like the top of our wedding cake. We'll also watch our wedding video together before we go to bed.

Last week we celebrated our anniversary in an extra special way by spending four days in the Black Hills. We stayed in a little cozy log cabin that overlooked a meadow with deer. No TV. Only us, conversation, baby and music. We did do some sightseeing, but mainly our time was spent being together enjoying the stillness of life.

Jason did an excellent job selecting our location. It was relaxing, romantic and another wonderful trip with him.

Here's our beloved cabin.


On our way to Hill City, we stopped at an 1880s Town. Really cool! They had lots of memorabilia from Dances with Wolves there.


Us visiting Deerfield Lake


And Jason changing our tire on the way back from the lake after we got a flat tire. After that, we drove to Rapid City and purchased new tires. While we were there, we also stopped at Target and bought Dances with Wolves and watched it that night at the cabin on a laptop.


This is how we spent our evenings - in comfy clothes, listening to music and reading.


Mount Rushmore was cool.


So was Crazy Horse Monument. It was my favorite because I loved learning about Native American culture.


Here I am with the wife of the sculptor of Crazy Horse. Had a to meet a "celebrity."


Then we went to Bear Country USA and saw the wild animals walking around our vehicle. We just couldn't get over the bears casually walking around us.


Here's how we spent our mornings - sitting on the deck, reading, watching the deer, drinking coffee (decaf for me) and eating pumpkin muffins.


And on our way back to Omaha, we drove through the Badlands. Totally worth the extra hour! Gorgeous!


We stayed in Mitchell, SD, home of the Corn Palace, on our way to the Black Hills. We got there in time to watch Texas beat Nebraska - boo - and drove around to see the Corn Palace and explore the town. It was the opening weekend of hunting season and I have NEVER seen so many hunters in my entire life. Found it entertaining, although Jason wouldn't let me have my picture taken with them. Instead he let me be photographed with a huge bunny and a dinosaur.

Of course we stopped at Wall Drug and while we found the shops boring, we did enjoy taking pictures with the scenery.

It was a fantastic trip - a great way to spend our last vacation together as a couple.

Nicholas Sparks

This last weekend revolved around Nicholas Sparks, you know, the author of The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, Last Song, Message in a Bottle, etc. He appeared in Lincoln on Saturday and Mom, Alicen and I spent the day anxious to meet him. He did a book signing at the Nebraska Bookstore from 1-3 p.m. Mom and Alicen had him sign books and I had him sign an article that was published in the Catholic Voice in 2004. I interviewed him then about his Catholic faith, so I thought it would be cool to have him sign it...you know me. Always looking for an opportunity to stand out when near a celebrity. :)

Nicholas was so incredibly sweet. He signed everyone's item and allowed them to sit in a chair next to him and leaned in for a photo with each person.
That night we went to a fundraiser for Lighthouse in Lincoln where he was the featured speaker. It was really fun to hear him talk about his life, about how his career got started and about how his real life stories end up in books.

Here's me and Nicholas:


It was just a great weekend with my mom and sister.

Here's one of me and Alicen trying on things at the bookstore:


I went Friday night to Lincoln (without Jason) to celebrate my brother Stan's 30th birthday. The party at Legend's bar didn't start until 9 p.m., which is when I typically get ready for bed, so I was pretty tired when we got there. Thinking I'd only stay a couple hours, I was really surprised that I didn't get home until 1:30 a.m.! Wow!

Here's me and Stan:


Me trying to look cool dancing:


And the 4 of us siblings:


Saturday morning I went to my grade school friend Erin's house for coffee and snacks. It was great to see her and to meet her new little girl. Her children are so cute and we had fun conversation.

I loved playing with my nephews, too.



On Sunday, when I got back to Lincoln, I was so surprised to see all the work Jason had gotten done around the house. He finished the closet in the spare bedroom, cleaned out the nursery and painted a wall in our bedroom (part of the ceiling, too). This weekend we also decided to go on a trip to the Black Hills for a week this month. Neither of us have been there before. We are renting a little log cabin in the woods, so I expect it to be very relaxing and romantic. :)

Baby news: 23 weeks along. Everything is going well. I can see my stomach move when the baby kicks, which is pretty cool. Tomorrow I have my glucose test. Yuck!

Busy weekend

Sorry it's been FOREVER since I last blogged.

As of yesterday, we're 21 weeks along in the pregnancy. The little baby is moving and moving and sending me little jabs all day long. I love it! Many people have been able to feel the baby move and I love sharing the excitement of it. Right now the baby likes to be active around 3:30 a.m., so I hope that's not an indication of what's to come. :)

Yesterday Jason was awesome and painted, cleaned and transformed our office into an office/guest bedroom. We moved the queen bed we had in our basement up into that room and will eventually get rid of my double bed, which is in the former guest room. It's a little tight, but the room looks great.

Here's Jason work hard on the painting:


Soon we'll be clearing out the other room and turning it into the nursery. I'm so excited about that!

Friday night we went to Lincoln to celebrate my Aunt Barbara's 60th birthday. It was great to see my family and cousins. I love spending time with all of them.

Here's a picture of me and Aunt Barbara:


And one of me and my cousin Kristi - the two pregnant ones:


And finally a photo of my cousin Erin, left, and my sister Alicen:

Baby decisions

Yesterday we made our first baby purchase and our first big baby decision.

After work, Jason and I bought a crib and changing table from Target.

We also toured Hamilton Heights Child Development Center in our neighborhood. We both were excited to tour this one - the only one we toured - because I've heard nothing but good things about it. Our friends Courtney and Tracy and my cousin Jenni all sent/send their kids there and the kids love it. While I'm not happy about having to work full-time when the baby is born, I am glad I can send our child to a high quality center where I know he/she will be cared for and loved during the day.

Working after the baby is born has been a big discussion between me and Jason. My former boss and I had discussed and agreed that I could work from home 3 days a week and come into the office the other 2 days. But after his passing, things changed. My current boss doesn't see that working and honestly, after more thinking, I don't see it either. We even discussed part-time work, but that seems stressful to me because my job requires me to conduct interviews before I can write my stories and many times I have trouble getting people to call me back as of now. If I were only available for interviews three days a week, plus write the stories during those days, that would be nearly impossible.

And me staying home full time isn't an option for me right now. We'll address this issue again next year and see but our goal is for me to be able to stay home in two years.

Anyway, yesterday we chose our daycare and I'm really excited about it. Great security, great curriculum, interactive teachers, clean, and a web cam, which will allow us to check in whenever we want! That's probably my favorite part.

Fall is finally here!!!

I know fall doesn't officially start until the end of September, but I think it's here already ... and I couldn't be happier!

Being pregnant during the summer heat didn't work for me, so I spent much of it indoors.

Now that the weather is cooling off and the breezes are getting stronger, I find myself longing for time outside.

Besides the gorgeous fall weather, there's so many other things I love about the season of fall.

1. Husker football ... football in general, but Husker football definitely!


2. Jean weather!


3. Chili and pumpkin muffins!




4. Leaves changing!


5. Macintosh apples!


6. Baby is that much closer to being here with us!


For the past 2 weeks I've been able to feel the baby move. It's an amazing feeling and difficult to describe to someone who hasn't felt it. I can't wait until Jason can feel it move.

This weekend I finally went shopping for maternity clothes. Jason wanted to take me, and we found some cute stuff at the Gap and Old Navy. I emptied my closet of the clothes that no longer fit (which was pretty much everything) and replaced them with the new ones I purchased and with borrowed ones from friend Jaci and cousin Jenni.

I've gone from needing two progesterone shots a week to just one, which is nice. My butt thanks Dr. Keefe. :)

Baby Maxson

Today is such a special day for me. It's the day I got to see our baby ... we had our 16 week ultrasound this morning. Our baby was moving all over so it took awhile to get some good photos. Apparently Baby Maxson is growing faster along than expected. It's charting 17 weeks and a couple days. Already baby is 6.7 inches long and 6 ounces. I've been going by the veggie/fruit size chart that I get sent to me from The Bump, but instead of being the size of an avocado (in length), our baby is the length of a cantalope! The heartbeat was 147, which I guess is good.

I got emotional when I saw our baby sucking its thumb.



And then just was so happy to see him/her happy and moving around.

Here are some more photos:



I love this one because of its little arm tucked behind its head ... like he/she is lounging.







I guess we'll have another ultrasound at 26 weeks. Oh, and we're back to two progesterone shots a week.

Yesterday we made our usual trip to Lincoln for an adjustment from Stan and we were able to go to dinner with Stan and Brent afterwards. I always love spending time with my brothers and I love to see them laughing with Jason. I don't say much when the four of us are together because they're always doing all the talking!

This last Saturday I was able to go to Lincoln while Jason worked. I hung out with Alicen and my dad and the twins. Alicen, David and the twins are moving into a new house so they're living with mom and dad for a little over a month until they can move in. So we played in the kiddie pool and the sprinkler. The twins were so cute.

Family time

This last weekend we had a lot of family time with Jason's parents and nephew. It was great! They came up Friday afternoon (surprising us with Corby). Saturday morning we went to the zoo and had a great time. Unfortunately, Jason had to work, so he couldn't join us.









Corby brought three duffle bags full of guys and vehicles, which ended up being sprawled all over our living room much of the weekend. I saw it as an opportunity to get used to having kids' stuff in our house and now always having an organized house. :)

Jason's family left Sunday and we spent the rest of the day relaxing.

Yesterday we went to Lincoln for an adjustment and stopped by to see Alicen, David and the twins. They were so darn cute!





On the baby front: My belly is growing and the baby is doing well.



I'm feeling good, except for when I spent long periods of time in this heat! My appetite has returned and so has my energy. This week I started getting up at 6 a.m. and walking around our neighborhood praying the rosary for a half hour. It's been very nice.

From babycenter.com:
Your growing baby now measures about 4 inches long, crown to rump, and weighs in at about 2 1/2 ounces (about the size of an apple). She's busy moving amniotic fluid through her nose and upper respiratory tract, which helps the primitive air sacs in her lungs begin to develop. Her legs are growing longer than her arms now, and she can move all of her joints and limbs. Although her eyelids are still fused shut, she can sense light. If you shine a flashlight at your tummy, for instance, she's likely to move away from the beam. There's not much for your baby to taste at this point, but she is forming taste buds. Finally, if you have an ultrasound this week, you may be able to find out whether your baby's a boy or a girl! (Don't be too disappointed if it remains a mystery, though. Nailing down your baby's sex depends on the clarity of the picture and on your baby's position. He or she may be modestly curled up or turned in such a way as to "hide the goods.")

We have our next ultrasound next Wednesday and I can't wait!!!!! The last time we saw the baby, he/she looked like a little blob. Now he/she will look more like a baby!

We still cannot believe we have been given this beautiful and amazing gift of being parents. We pray every night that we'll be the best mommy and daddy.