Year in review 2011

The year flew by! going to be hard to beat 2011 in the happiness department! Lots of changes happened this year! Here's some of the milestones in order as they happened throughout the year...

Going from this...

..to this.

Going from 117 lbs pre-pregnancy to 110 in the first 3 months to 132 at 9 months was quite the adjustment! Finding maternity clothes that were my size was quite the chore too! I did manage to find some, though by September I looked like I was about to explode!

  Going to Vermont in March. Other than having to fly on not one, but 2 planes(4 actually) to get there and back, we both loved Vermont. Alan had a business trip and I took advantage of that and tagged along. We stayed in Manchester but traveled to Burlington to do some shopping and visit the Ben & Jerry's factory. A tad boring but we did get to sample some ice cream. If you plan to go, go during the week when they are in production. That would have been interesting to see. We have recently joked about having a Fall house in Vermont. If I'm ever brave enough to get on a plane again, I would love to go back in the Fall. I can imagine it's just beautiful! And we promise next time to let our friend Brad know we are there.

 Finding out in April that we were having a girl! We both had a feeling from the beginning that she was a girl and seeing it verified was such an emotional moment. I didn't really realize how much I wanted a daughter until they told us we were having a girl! We kept going back and forth with the names Madison and Riley and once we saw her beautiful picture, we knew she was a Madison!

 Also, getting our house painted was in April. We kept putting it off and finally after 3 years, we finally committed! I'm so glad we did! It's made a huge difference. I still have not decorated the walls like I want but it's good for now. See all of the wall colors here but here is the living room painted in Sherwin Williams Grassland. It's a sage green, since you can't tell by the picture.

Alan's work threw us a huge baby shower in June. I mean, Madison is 4 months old and I have yet to buy a pack of diapers.. We were so blessed to get so much stuff!

Our baby shower in July given by my best friend Amanda, her mom, my mom and Alan's mom. We had a lot of fun and I got more great, much needed things! I'm so lucky to have such good friends and family!

 Finishing Madison's room in July. This seemed to take for.ev.er. but we did it and love it! The tree pulled it all together and hopefully she will like the color when she gets older so we don't have to paint it every time she changes what cartoon character she's into at the time! 

Quitting my job in August to be a stay at home mom and wife was the easiest and hardest thing I had done in a long time! We both knew that's what we wanted, even before getting pregnant, but telling my friends of 7 years and the greatest boss that I was leaving was hard! Not getting up and going through the motion of that work routine was an adjustment. We are so blessed to be able to let me stay home and I love spending my days with Madi and I love seeing all of her firsts firsthand.

Also in August was a not so pleasant thing- Wilma's accident. She got hit by a truck and broke her front leg. She had an external fixture for 3 months and is back to normal! We are not letting her play hard for a few more months just to be on the safe side. I didn't blog about it but she had surgery last week to remove a knot on her chest. She's had it for years but our vet decided it was best to go ahead and remove it. She is doing just fine but now has to wear that horrible e-collar again!

And of course, September was a fantastic month! Our sweet Madison was born! Lots of major changes from here on out! She has brought so much joy, laughter, smiles and exhaustion! :)  Bringing her home from the hospital on our 5 year anniversary was the best gift ever! She has changed our life for the better and seeing her and Alan playing has made my love for him grow bigger. I thought I loved him as much as I could but I was wrong!

Our 5 year wedding anniversary in September. As mentioned above, we got to bring Madi home that day and it was such an emotional ride home! I think between the happiness of bringing her home, happiness of it being our anniversary, exhaustion from lack of sleep at the hospital(boy were we in for a rude awakening when we got home!), confusion of what to do when we did get her home and the reality of "Oh my God, we have a child!", we cried the entire ride home-about 20 minutes. Being married to my best friend for 5 years has been great and now sharing the joys of parenthood with him make things even better! Love you babe!

Madison's first rollover in November! Just proves that our little girl is growing up so fast! Excuse the cheesy mommy 'yays' :)

Wilma's removal of her fixture was in November also. This was a big day for everybody! Madison got to spend a few hours with her Grandma(my mom), Alan and I got to go to eat alone(for the 2nd time) and of course Wilma came home without her fixture! We were so thrilled to bring her home without it!

Madison's 1st Christmas! She loves all the things everyone got for her! Already looking forward to this year's Christmas! A baby brings a different kind of joy at Christmastime.

Also in December, my dad passed away. It was and has been a trying time for my whole family but we are dealing with it. At least he isn't in pain anymore.

Hopefully 2012 will be a great year for us! I am anxiously awaiting all of Madison's firsts this year.. Sitting up, standing, walking, tooth, word.. Wow. This is going to be a great year! Hopefully Wilma will have a less stressful year and can get completely back to normal! Cheers to 2012!

Back off boys!

We had our 38 week 6 day appointment today and they did an ultrasound to see how big Madison was. She is weighing in at 7 lbs 15 oz! They said to give or take a pound since it's hard to get an accurate measurement-that it's a rough estimate. Here are some of the pics:

This is a regular profile picture. You can see her mouth open. We saw her moving her mouth like she was sucking a bottle. See all the stuff floating around in front of her face?

Here are the 4D pictures:

Mouth open! So cute!

All that stuff floating around is why you can't see her right eye very well. You could see it just swirling around! So weird! That is her arm up by her face.

Those lips. To.die.for. I mean seriously! That is her arm and you can see 3 of her fingers. The cheeks. Oh dear.

This one makes her face look squished :) Look at those cheeks! The chin!

So peaceful.

We can't believe how cute and perfect she is! I'm so glad they did another ultrasound, and that she did some 4D pictures so we can picture what she looks like. I am still 1/2cm dilated which is no change from last week. But it doesn't mean I can't go into labor tonight since everyone dilates at a different rate. It may take me another week to get any farther or it could take a few hours. We will see! All I know is that we can't wait to meet her!

To Alan on Father's Day

Madison doesn't realize yet just how lucky she is to have you for her daddy. She doesn't realize how cute it is when you giggle every time you feel her moving or hiccuping. Or how involved you have been with helping me do things that I can't do anymore, without complaining. How you drop everything and make a cupcake run 15 minutes before the bakery closes, and you are 10 minutes away and in the middle of doing something. How much I loved it when the girl that cuts my hair told me recently that you always make a point to talk about her and ask questions about kids. How you didn't hesitate to taking 3 prenatal classes to learn things that I know will come natural anyway.

She doesn't realize how you wouldn't miss a doctor's appointment for all the money in the world because "I get to hear her heartbeat every time and that's enough reason to go." How he constantly asks if I'm too hot or if I'm comfortable or tired and to "Sit down and put your feet up" and "Don't lift that!" How everyday he asks if you have been moving around or will randomly ask "Is she awake?"

She doesn't realize the many questions you have for the doctor at our appointments and how involved in everything you are. Even down to decorating her nursery! She doesn't realize it yet, but I've picked the best daddy for her that I could find and how wrapped around her tiny little finger you are. But I promise to tell her, when she is old enough to understand, what an amazing dad you have been while I've been pregnant. But by then, she will already have figured it out on her own... I love you so, so much! Happy Father's Day!

It's a girl!!

We had our gender and anatomy ultrasound today! The tech looked at the heart chambers, brain, spine, kidneys, bladder, stomach, hands and feet. She said everything looked perfect! She now weighs 13 ounces and she was measuring September 4 for my due date. The 3rd was my original date. It was such a huge relief that our baby girl is so healthy! Thanks for all of your continued prayers! On to some pictures!

Here's our baby girl's first and hopefully only naked picture! For those of you that can't tell what's going on, that is an upward shot of her lady parts. That is her right thigh at the very bottom. The arrow is pointing to the 3 white lines that proves she's a girl! And above that is her left hip.

Here's our beautiful baby girl's profile picture! The little nose.. those lips! Oh help me!

Another profile picture and this time she's waving! You can also see a good shot of her left ear and her right hand is above her head(you can see her fingers)

And if this isn't the cutest thing, I don't know what is! She yawned twice back to back while on camera and luckily the tech was able to catch one of them! I think we woke her up with all that mashing of the ultrasound tool on my belly. The tech kept trying to get her to roll over by pressing my belly up and down quick. She was laying head down with her face toward my back. She eventually rolled over so we could see her pretty face. The ultrasound pic didn't come out great on that one though. It was very shadowy.
And the cutest little right foot ever!And the cutest left foot to match!

She is a very active little girl, like her daddy! She would hardly sit still for pictures! She was constantly moving her hands and leaning her head back! I made a comment to the tech about being worried about the umbilical cord being so close to her head. At that exact moment, she raised both of her hands and pushed it away from her face! At least she listens a little bit :) We are just elated that everything went so well today! We have decided on a first name but not a middle name and Alan wants to keep it between us and the people we've already told. Hopefully we will come up with a full name soon!

And this is what we did when we left the doctor's office! We had to buy some girly clothes! We got the dress and pajamas from Children's Place and the pink onesie from Gymboree. They were both having great sales! Alan fell in love with the dress and had to have it! We got it in a 6-9 months so hopefully she will be able to wear it this time next year! Maybe it will be her Easter dress!

We then went to a local seasonal consignment shop where everything was 50% off! I went a couple of weeks ago and noticed they had some great looking clothes! We got all of this for $25 and 3 of the outfits still have the store tags on them! The little flower on the white card at the bottom is a hair clip! Maybe our daughter will have a tiny strand we can attach it to!

Week 14 - March 3-10, 2011

Since I just finished up my 14th week and am 15 weeks today and we went to the doctor today, it's time for some pictures and info!

This is my 14 week picture. This was taken last Saturday(March 5) and today I feel like I'm twice this big! It has been a really good week. I have gotten my full appetite back! I also went from 106 to 108 back down to 107 pounds. My belly measures 32" at my natural waist and my pants are getting more and more snug! I am not staying quite as tired. My bedtime this week has been closer to 9 and I'm getting up once during the night. I am still craving sweets like nobody's business! The pregnancy dreams have come back with a vengeance! One night this week I think I dreamed from the time I fell asleep until the time my alarm went off. Some are nightmares and some are just the most random things I've ever dreamed. We discussed boy names this week. Alan has went through the book to the J's and I have gone through it all the way. Out of all the names to the letter J, we agreed on one name. This is a tough decision! All in all it was a great week. I am loving being pregnant and finally having a bump to show off!
We had a checkup today(15 weeks) and everything went great! My blood pressure was 100/50. Baby's heartbeat was about 150. Dr said it wasn't registering on the Doppler but it sounded around 150, which she said is great. I mentioned to her that her husband(also a Dr there that we saw last time) told us he would do a quick ultrasound to let us see the baby. So here's baby's 15 week picture!
Isn't he/she beautiful?! That is the spine, not an arm. The doctor showed us both arms, legs and feet. She also showed us the brain and the heartbeat. She said everything looked really great. It's amazing the difference between this week and the 7 week ultrasound. He/she looks like an actual human! And he/she looks like they are smiling! The big bubble thing in front of it's belly is part of the inside of my tummy and has nothing to do with baby. We go back April 11 for a checkup and the next week we go back to see what we are having!

and baby makes 3!

Or 8, if you count the animals... We're expecting a baby September 3 and couldn't be more thrilled! And the story goes:

December 27, 2010- It was pretty ironic because Alan had my debit card since his card number had gotten stolen the week before, so he had to stop and get me the tests. He got me a 2 pack of non-digital. I took one right away and waited on it. In no time, it had a + on it. I came out with it in my hand and said "Umm, it's positive" in a trance! So I somehow was able to take the 2nd one and it came out positive. So Alan said "Let's get a digital just to make sure we aren't reading it funny". Goes to store, brings home digital and:
No mistaking that! The next morning I called my doctor to make an appointment to confirm and had to wait 3 hours before I could go in. I was about to burst in a million pieces! She was very routine with everything and after she tested my sample, came to draw blood(for disease testing) and Alan said "I'm assuming since you are drawing blood, it was positive?" And the nurse said "Yes" She finishes testing and takes us to a room where her first question was "Where would you like to deliver?" I was like "um, um, um, uhhh" I mean we just found out I was pregnant! She told us our due date was September 3 and that I was 4 weeks 5 days that day. We made it through all the questions with no problems and she told us to come back in 3 weeks for our first ultrasound!

January 18, 2011 - 7 weeks 5 days. Our first ultrasound day! I didn't sleep a wink the night before! I was so worried that there wouldn't be a baby in there or something would be wrong. And I forgot to mention, I had been taking pregnancy tests every few days up until this appointment since I had no morning sickness. I just wanted to make sure, okay? :) So we met with the doctor who went over, very thoroughly, the pregnancy, delivery, testing, food things and all the many questions we had. After a 20 minute meeting, onto the room for the ultrasound!
Isn't that the most beautiful peanut ever? We were able to see the heartbeat which was amazing! We couldn't stop crying! Doctor said everything looked perfect and my sac looked really great! Said baby was measuring perfectly for our due date. He seemed really pleased which made us feel so much better! What a really awesome day!

February 9, 2011 - 10 weeks 6 days. Today we got to hear the heartbeat! The nurse warned us when we went in that with me only being 11 weeks, we may not hear anything. She said it's better if you are at least 12 weeks. She ran the Doppler over my tummy for a few minutes, or a lifetime, and we heard my heartbeat and right under it was the baby's thumping away! She said it was beating at 180 BPM(Old wives tale says above 140 is said to be a girl) which was really good! The doctor came in and said that the heart sounded great at 180 and we would come back in 4 weeks to do a check up and would have our next ultrasound at 20 weeks. I said "Excuse me but I can't wait 9 more weeks to see my child, can't I see him/her before then?" And he said he'd run it over my belly when I go back next. Yay! He answered a few more questions and sent us on our way!

Things have been going really, really well for me. I have had zero morning sickness! The only thing is around suppertime I wouldn't want to eat. I would be hungry and want food but when I sat down to eat it, my stomach turned. So because of that I have lost 10 pounds the past 2 weeks. I think my suppertime appetite is gradually coming back though. The only cravings I'm having are for sweets! Cupcakes are a favorite right now. It was waffles one night so we made a Waffle House run. All in all, things have been great. Alan is the best dad already! He's doing a lot of the chores around the house like vacuuming and a lot of the laundry.. He's been great and I really love him more for it. I know he's going to be the perfect dad to our little miracle!