State fair, Nashville, & doctor visit

We only had a short amount of time that we were able to spend at the fair this year. I never understood the TN state fair when I lived there. It was so small. It didn't seem to have nearly even half the exhibits or displays or ' things entered to be judged' (whatever word that is) concerts,shows,and just things to do. We always heard that the Wilson County was the fair to go to, and we tried it last year, but it was not anything at all like the Kentucky State fair. I searched on-line last year for the top State Fairs, and The Kentucky State Fair was on most of the lists for top 10. I guess that is why the others seemed so boring. It's not so cheap, but growing up everyone went multiple days. And when you do just go one day, it's a 10 hour day you spend . There are plenty of places indoors to walk and look, so it's not too hot really. We only were able to go once Luke got off work, and stayed until a little after dark. We walked around a few of the wings in the fairgrounds to see the cakes, quilts, Christmas trees (!!!!), and the KidZone. We got just a little bit of food--Landon scarfed a corndog, Lucy munched on some fries, Lucy also wanted all of my loaded baked potato, and Luke had some type of sandwich. The kids also got a msassive bag of  cotton candy while Luke and I shared a funnel cake.We only let Landon ride 2 rides, they get expensive! He had a blast and didn't want to leave. I wished he could have ridden every ride there. Next year, we will for sure go on a wristband day! 

If you want to go on a short trip in August, check out the KY State fair next year. You won't be disappointed!

Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language. 

~Henry James

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We went to the NICU party this past weekend. Lucy & Landon both loved the games,candy, and cake. I loved to see the nurses and doctors and respiratory therapists who took care of my teeny tiny baby for 53 days all day and night. It's also great to see other mommies and daddies who we've read about on the NICU facebook page, followed on their blogs, or remember watching them enter or leave the NICU daily while we were there as well. 

24 weeks & 4 days

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I had my 24 week appointment today. I'll be 25 weeks in 2 days! I've been totally fine mentally so far in the past few months. I feel like everything will be fine. I have a feeling we will be closer to the 37 week mark before we deliver this baby. But ,then in the back of my head ,I just see us in the hospital in month & thinking are we REALLY doing this AGAIN?

When my doctor walked in, before he could even see me, he expressed that he was happy I had behaved so far, and that we have something to be thankful for. (Before he came in, I had started having some doubts. As I stopped into the bathroom before my BP and weight check, I wondered how many more times I will GET to write my name on the little plastic cup. My BP was good, slight change to the top # but all well within normal. My weight is ok--I'm at 14 pounds gained. BUT 7 WERE SINCE THE LAST VISIT! ahh I had a big gain like that with Lucy right before things headed the wrong direction.) So after he said everything was good so far, there was the silence and the head bobbing. I've had that with both pregnancies. Then he said that's he's nervous now. So am I. I had been holding back tears since I had sat down on the table. We're just getting closer to the point that wasn't so pleasant before. As I laid back to measure the belly and hear the heartbeat, he said Watch, we'll be scheduling our 39 week c-section, and everything will end up fine. I told him that is my main thought when I'm trying not to worry, that at 39 weeks when everything is still fine, I'll have wasted it all for nothing. He quickly said BUT WITH NO COMPLAINING, RIGHT? I fully assured him that I hate when someone is at 36/37 week just saying they want to be done, and they just have NO clue. 

As he was walking out, he made THAT joke again. He made me promise I wouldn't misbehave--as in don't let your BP get so high, get pre-e, get HELLP, and have a seizure. That's been his little 'joke' since the beginning. He said he is too old to deal with all of that. The last doctor that had THAT JOKE with me, was after I delivered Lucy. My doctor kept telling me that we just had to make sure I didn't dance without the music. I had no clue what he meant really, or that it was that serious that I could have a seizure. He didn't joke or smile or even really laugh again until Lucy was about 2 months old. It was far enough past the scary that he felt comfortable to smile, even if it was him talking about how happy he was when I started pulling the oxygen mask off my face. You don't ever want a doctor to say that a moment they had with you was the best moment in their medical career. I've realized since then that it is the ultra scary moments that have been turned into a joking matter. It's not funny. But how else does a doctor say Hey, don't have a seizure & almost have your liver explode again! Our visits always end with a laugh and  smile, but it's a different level than I'd prefer. 

I will be going every 2 weeks from now on. Since we just don't know, he doesn't want me to get sick, and just fall in the cracks, and us miss something in a months' span. I'll be heading back on the 10th, and then 2 weeks after for the glucose screening and my 28/29 week visit. I'll keep updating as we go!

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“As for God, his way is perfect: 

    The Lord’s word is flawless; 

    he shields all who take refuge in him.

For who is God besides the Lord?

    And who is the Rock except our God?

It is God who arms me with strength^[h]

    and keeps my way secure.

2 Samuel 22:31-33

Bronze

It's been 8 years. If I had to do it all over.......we'd go to a beach, have wonderful wedding pictures with the ocean & sunset,& enjoy the day! We contemplated that idea 8 years & 2 months ago (when we got engaged), but didn't want to hear opinions & deal with family not wanting to travel. At least my Florida family would have made it . They couldn't really get out anywhere to come north due to traffic from hurricanes & my grandma had diabetes complications with her foot & was told not to fly....the week before....and my grandpa was marrying us :/ But we survived & ended up married! I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend. Lucky to have been where I have been.

I decided to try to attempt to get Luke a present from all the traditional yearly gifts. I had to get creative & make believe a little bit. His year 1--paper --was the card, and I listed all the year/gift/meanings for them inside it.  Then i put a sticker on each gift with the year/number. His cotton & leather, year 2&3, were flip flops.

Yep, a little bit of cotton & leather on there ;) I guess I skipped 4. A flower or ...I forget. Something like that? 5 is wood.

Check out the bag his other present was in.6,7,&8 I just assumed all that metal stuff was in his real present ;)

iron, copper, bronze? Yep, I bet they're in there somewhere.

Then Luke got home with a box & said that the bow was almost a bronze color. I immediately started laughing and asked him if I left his iPad up to the page I was looking the stuff up at. He couldn't understand me through my laughing, but then told me that even the inside of my card had a bronzing color on it! CrAZy boy!

The other gift for 8 years is pottery. Of course he bought me a soup cup (for coffee) to go paint at the Paint Spot & signed us up for a class next week too. ALONG with a pre-natal massage! He is thoughtful after all ;) He did good!

And I'm also SO very proud of Landon for keeping his daddy's present a secret. He did good too!

We also hit 23 weeks Wednesday in this pregnancy #3.

I'm not so sure how these pictures will show up on here because I'm using the blog app on the iPad,& I haven't done that before. Hopefully I won't have to re-arrange later on. I'm sure they are crazy big where you have to click on them to see the entire thing too. :)
Keep the prayers up. We need 2 more good weeks of no high blood pressure. We'll take 16 though, in case you didn't know. Next weekend we head to Nashville for the NICU reunion birthday party. Then I'll go back to the doctor on Monday. I wanted to get out of town again before my doctor suggests staying around-- I'd hate to feel bad going against what he says. BUT if I happen to get sick, I'd rather be AT the hospital anyways in Nashville, so we should be fine. I'll have plenty of pictures to post when we return!

2:20AM. Bad habit is back. Mommy needs her sleep to take care of 2 kids & grow #3. Good night!

O

22 weeks and 2 days

I think I forgot to add a picture last week. Back to my 'normal' looking self--work out clothes, after coming home from a walk to the park with Luke & the kids. This includes walking back up up up up our hill. The hill has a 16% incline in one part. 

She's the length of a carrot at 21 weeks, about 10 1/2 inches. We are getting closer to moving houses. I'm still not thrilled about not having our own home that we can renovate, fix the kids' rooms, & make our own. I miss our new Martha Stewart carpet we had gotten installed in our TN house. I miss our floors. I MISS OUR POOL. I'm so pale this summer.Ugh.

When we were getting Landon's room ready for him, we started with a hot pink room that we hadn't touched since we moved in.

We ripped up the nasty builder's grade carpet that was stained all over, and put down a laminate hand scraped looking floor. The floor came up 2 years later when we bought every box left in Nashville ( on clearance) to put down in the living room and dining area, and put new Martha Stewart so so soft shaggy carpet. We painted 3 walls a tan we color matched & 1 wall a color we matched from his bedding also.

The room got new baseboards, bead board, chair rail, and crown molding-- all painted an off white to match the crib, dresser, and dresser we re-painted to match.

Finished product.

With Lucy's room, we decided to leave it the tan it was whether it be a boy or girl. We figured we wouldn't get pregnant again after the fertility treatments didn't seem to be working, and if we did we were sure we'd have all boys. Once we found out it was a girl, we had both seen a bedding we really liked. We're not 'theme' people, but both liked the smocking and stitching colors. The only thing we had done by week 28 with Lucy was the crib:

And then one week later we went from this on Sunday:

to this:

 to this Monday evening:

 Once I got home we waited a few weeks still to paint. We had already decided to just do one wall.

We used Behr Tuti Fruiti and Foxy Pink.

The finished product:

We didn't do too much, but we thought we might be moving soon after. We just did a little bit to make it hers. Now, I hate the thought of bringing home this baby to a rental home, and not being able to make it hers. I know she will never have any clue what her first house or room is like, but it still makes me feel bad.

We have some ideas for Baby girl #2's room:

We will see how it all turns out!

HALF-WAY THERE!

Well, for a normal pregnancy that is! We know we at least won't go past week 39--a day or so after Landon's birthday. Today, Saturday, I am officially 20 weeks & 3 days. So that leaves about 18 weeks & 4 days?

Everything on Baby Girl #2 measured  right on track! She hid her face and heart for a long time, and she had to keep going back to try to see it. Finally, after laying on my left side, she peeked out and was in a position to check the heart. She showed us that she was a girl almost as soon as the thing ( what is that called?) touched my belly. Luke and I both saw the 3 lines, but she said she was going to measure everything else and then come back to the gender. At one point when she was measuring a leg, we both thought we saw a boy part, so then we were confused. ( We discussed this all in the Dr office waiting room after). Then when it came time to look for the gender , she kept shaking my belly and saying she was trying to get good open legs. But we both knew we had already seen the 3 lines a few times, so she really confused us! Finally she said Ok, I'm pretty sure we see it, and I told her Yeah, I think there are definitely 3 lines before she said Baby Girl. After she finally got a good view of the face and heart, we headed across the hall to see the doctor. Everything is great with me. I'm rocking a blood pressure of like 117/62, gaining weight on track ( I think?) 7 pounds, and have no protein in the urine. We didn't really have to discuss much with the doctor since we just had the ultrasound and everything looks good. He joked on us for calling her Baby girl #2, and likes to tell stories of friends or family friends, but no 'sick talk' or 'worries' to discuss. I've said before that Pre-e is really unpredictable, besides knowing that it most likely will happen at some point. We probably still have quite a while to go before it hits( if it does!), but we will be happy when we get about 5 more weeks in. My next visit is in about a month, and then we will see how often I will go back in, and how often they will check on baby girl#2 --from previous Oligo with Landon & the few other things Lucy had going on.

We don't have a name yet. We had a boy name, I really wanted my Beckett. Maybe a dog one day. . . or not. Throw suggestions at us on here or facebook!

We have plenty of other things to work on and accomplish BEFORE we think about buying baby stuff for the room. That's because she doesn't have a room! We still don't know where we will move in about 6-8 weeks. We went and looked at one possibly to rent this week, and I think are going to look at another this weekend. After that, we will also know if we have 3 or 4 bedrooms, and will be able to think more about this baby's room.

Sugar and spice

And everything nice,

That's what little girls are made of.

What's going on?

A lot! That is what is going on around here. Luke has a very very busy schedule this week and next. He has been working his regular hours ( which have consisted of at least 15 hours days, because his new store is not up to par), and also some overnights along with his regular hours. He worked an overnight once when we were in Orlando without him, one last week, and then he went back in Saturday night after coming home for a few hours. They have inventory this week. That is usually a long process leading up to the one day, but it is apparently overwhelming because his store has not been taken care of at all. He told us he would be working a lot this week, &  I told him I thought 15 hours was already a lot :/ So he won't be around much this week. Then the Southern Division President comes back next week. She was here a few weeks ago on a surprise visit, and it was NOT good. We were unsure about Luke still having a job once she left. After all this is done, he will have a week of vacation. We also have our 20 week appointment and ultrasound this week. Here is a 19 week picture:

Lucy hopped in too! We were heading out to eat dinner with Luke before he went back to work. Landon was at the farm with his Nana and Poppy. Unfortunately, she whined the whole time and was up all night with a fever. She's has been napping for about 3 hours now today, and is stll fighting it off. I have finally felt some little kicks.And all of a sudden this week, I'm HUNGRY! I can't eat much without feeling full up to this point, but I bought some tutrle cookies to make after we had pizza Sunday night, and ate 3 =(  I'm HUNGRY like all of a sudden all the time! I had gained 4 pounds at my 16 week appointment, but I have a feeling I'll tip the scales at my 20 week!

Our lease also runs up in September, so we will be starting to pack everything up very shortly. We don't have a house to move into yet. We've looked all over different parts of Louisville--houses, apartments, town homes, rental or for sale. Hopefully we will figure it out soon. This house is just too big, and costs too much for us right now. Our renter did say she wanted to stay in our LaVergne house, so we don't have to worry about finding another tenant for that! Before we move, I will have gone back for my 24 week appointment. AND I think our lease runs up RIGHT as I will hit 28 weeks. So, hhmmm  I wonder if I will have to do all the unpacking or get out of it if my BP has stared to rise? This will be different! We will also have to get a different car once baby comes. We love the nitro, but it is too narrow in the back for 3 car seats. We were about to purchase one in June, but we decided to wait until September, once we get some more milestones under us.

I'm not sure what my Dr. visit schedule will look like from here on out. We have a few questions to ask this week when we go. Still no definite names for baby either. Lucy also had her 18 month well visit--a little late, closer to 19 months. I saved a chart on the computer, and tried to plot her growth. I didn't do the best job with the plots, but you can still see.

The top chart is her head circumference, and the top of the second is height, followed by weight. We are on the charts in ALL THREE! Height was on the chart at 15 months, and head hit the charts right around 6 months. Her head was right around 50% about 10 months, and has quickly gone almost off the charts. Her Dr. did say if it continued to grow as quickly by the next visit, then we would need to look into it. Her head is larger than Landon's at this point, she is about 10 pounds lighter, and 9 inches shorter. There are some large heads on Luke's family side, so it could just be that, and it just grew very quickly all of a sudden I swithched her to a different doctor in the practice, so we went over everything from birth until now. He just kept saying over and over how amazed he was with her progress, and he'd never know she was a 29 weeker. That also led into the discussion of me being 16 weeks along. We talked about the doctor I am seeing and everything we'd found out since her birth about my health. He also made sure to ask me if I was doing OK emotionally, getting breaks from the kids ( Landon was off the wall during the appointment), and making sure I am doing what I need for help along with taking care of Lucy's development and Landon being 3.He told me several times he'd keep us in his prayers, and let him know of anything at all that we needed. I miss our pediatrician in Nashville A LOT! But he made me feel much more comfortable going into another pregnancy. He sat and talked and showed concern and care and love towards my children and me. He wasn't just in and out, and then charge me a *sick entity* while discussing my child's progress. That's another story--and why I switched her to see another doctor.
We will be busy for the next couple of months, and then HOPEFULLY it will slow down in fall before the baby comes! I might post again when we find out the gender this week!

To the beach and back!

My last post was FINALLY about our last day at WDW, and now we've already been back to Orlando again. My aunt her her little baby #3 ( Stella) about 3 weeks ago, so we had to go see her. We also didn't get to spend much time with family during WDW trip, so we stayed with my grandparents & visited family.



Sweet sleepy baby



Before we went I had my 16 week Dr appointment. Blood pressure is still great--as expected. All of the blood work and ultrasounds have come back negative for Trisomy 13 & 18 , down syndrome, and Spina Bifida. So, we are set for July 27th for the full anomaly ultrasound. We're praying for a nicely progressing baby, all body parts to be developed where they should be, and a healthy strong heartbeat! I'm not quite sure if I want to know yet if baby is a boy or girl! Luke will see, but he might end up telling me later.

The belly is growing, the pelvis constantly feels out of place--until it loudly pops--, the headaches are ridiculous, and the bathroom visits are out of control. Maybe I'm drinking more this time around, because I never had to go to the bathroom ALL THE TIME with the other two like all moms talk about. I had a little dehydration day a few weeks ago and had to stay in bed all day, drink water, and sleep.

I'm trying not to think about an early delivery--early as in only 10 more weeks of pregnancy like Lucy--, but am keeping in mind that Pre-eclampsia is ugly and can strike at any time. Every day past October 1st, we will count as a blessing! We know the latest we will carry this baby will be until December 5th @ 39 weeks. Yep, 1 day after Landon's birthday :)

We do NOT have a name decided on. We did not pick 'L' names with the kids, we just liked 2 names that started with he same letter. So, this baby will most likely not have an 'L' name. I don't really like any L names right now. We have a boy named picked out, and have loved it since Landon was born too. I had a girl name I liked, but it is ALL over the place now. And I really thought I was going to be like the only one with a kid that name. We still have a while to get it figured out!

Rewind--Disney , last day

We spent the last day at Magic Kingdom.But first we started with breakfast at a pretty cool resort ( I think it was the Beach Club) that I'd LOVE to stay at!

We headed back into the car --we skipped the buses this day-- and drove up to the Magic Kingdom. We pulled the stroller onto Main Street right as Buzz & Jesse in the parade. We headed straight over to see Mickey & Minnie with about a 15 minute wait, & got some Fast Pass tickets to see the Princesses later.

Lucy shook, but she walked up to Mickey and tried to make herself hug him.

We went over to get a FastPass to the Buzz ride ,ride the People Mover, and wait in line to see Buzz Lightyear .

It was time to see the Princesses.

 Landon was proud to show off his 'Baby Sister Lucy' to each one.

It was time to head back to the Buzz Lightyear ride.

We rode the last 2-3 things in Fantasy Land (because it's all under construction), while getting pretty wet from more rain. It was time to head back to the hotel, & we had planned to come back

for fireworks on the last night!

But the rain never let up, nor did the thunder & lightning. We were soaked by the time we got back. I don't remember what we did really that night besides change out of soaked clothes, and eat dinner at the hotel.

In the morning we ate breakfast at the hotel, and finally showed Landon the Toy Story part of the hotel.

WE planned on swimming before we left since it was the only sunny part of the trip basically, but Landon was NOT in a good mood, and we decided to just head back to my grandparents.

We loved our trip! We have in mind what we will do different next time, but definitely plan to return! Landon still asks every day if we are going to Disney.