33 Week Update.

I have made it another 2 weeks without incident and my midwife was quite pleased by that. She said now I just need two more weeks of being careful, and then I can stop worrying so much! Okay. . . 2 weeks. . . I can handle it.

My belly is measuring right on, even though I feel so much bigger than I did with Erin. Comparing pictures of my belly with Erin and how I look now, I am definitely bigger. I did not gain any weight from my last appointment two weeks ago. I am not surprised because I do not have much room in there to eat. I get full very quickly on a small amount of food and it takes me a long time to feel hungry again. Mostly I am just thirsty. . . very thirsty. But Izzy is definitely growing. My guess is that she will be about a pound more than Erin was.

My midwife also checked my cervix just to see if there were any changes, and because I am driving to Kenosha to visit my dad, his wife, and my sister. I am fingertip dilated, but she said it is less than a centimeter. She also said that the cervix is still long and the baby has not dropped. As long as I am symptom free (no spotting, regular contractions, etc.) she was not worried about me going on the trip. She does want me to take very good care of myself, eat well, and get plenty of sleep. So Erin and I are going to take off this afternoon for Kenosha. . . I hope the car ride isn't horrible.

Other than all that, we had a going away party for my brother Jon here on Tuesday. Thankfully he set it up as a pot luck so I didn't really have to do anything. I was so exhausted all day that I don't think I could have done anything anyway. He leaves on Sunday for Kentucky and won't be back until the end of November. . . crazy. So I will have to send pictures of his new niece to him.

The vegetable garden is doing well. I have decided that this year is the experiment year and just plant stuff and see what works and what doesn't. However, it is hard to find out what will grow well when the deer nibble everything. I got my husband and brother to put up a nice, tall deer fence. . . I'll show them! I finally got cucumbers, watermelon, muskmelon, honeydew, pie pumpkins, and zucchini planted thanks to help from my mom. I have corn and carving pumpkins left to do. Of course there are flowers that I need to get planted too. . . sheesh.

Alright, just need to make it to my birthday weekend now. . .

Como Zoo!

This is Erin's first trip to the zoo. We went to Como Zoo as it is free and I remember going there as a kid. I also love the zoo so it was fun for me too. Thankfully the weather was perfect. We drove through some rain on the way there, but it was sunny and in the low 70's, a pregnant woman's dream! My brother Ben and his girlfriend Katie (whom we all adore!) live very close to the zoo so we all went together.

Here are the huge turtles that they have and Erin looking at them.

These are the African hoofed animals and it smelled like poo in this area, so whenever Erin sees this pictures all she says is "stinky".

It was nap time for the large cats, but they were still very cool to see. Erin was getting quite tired by this time so we had to move quickly to avoid toddler melt-down.

When Erin saw the giraffes she was so excited and BEGGED to ride them. . . the real ones. We eventually got her to settle for the fake ones, but had to wait in a small line for other families to get their pictures. Of course once it was our turn some rude family walked right up in front of us and put their kids on the giraffes instead. So as we kept talking to Erin about waiting, being patient, and taking turns it's the adults who needed the talk instead.

It was surreal to see these gorillas for me this time. They are so big I would hate to meet one in the jungle. There were some gorillas inside as well and Erin was amused by the one that was picking it's nose and eating their buggers.

We saw the short seal show, but we didn't make it there in time to get a seat. Erin had a good spot though, Ben is a little over 6 feet tall. She loved the way his hair felt so she just kept rubbing his head the whole time.

Here is Erin with Katie, Ben's girlfriend. She is the best and so pretty!

I remember coming here and were able to buy a little bit of fish and feed the seals, but it you can't feed them anymore.

They have an old carousel here too, and Scott took Erin on it. She was beyond tired by this time and it was a creative chore to keep her happy. Once she got on her horse she was happy, and then when it started to spin a huge smile spread across her face. Getting her off was a whole different matter. . . tears and more tears. So what did we do, went to McDonalds and got her chicken nuggets, fries and a little pop. We didn't leave my brother's apartment until about 3:30 and Erin was asleep in about 4 minutes after we took off. She has never fallen asleep that fast in the car!

Baby stuff is going well. I have given Izzy her own pillow and that has helped tremendously with my sleep. My back pain is nearly gone, which is so great because I NEED my sleep! Contractions seem under control even with getting some stuff around the house.

We got the peppers and tomatoes in the ground the past few days. There were nearly 40 tomato plants to put in the ground with their corresponding steaks. Scott was kind enough to cut me some steaks out of branches that were laying around our property, as well as dig the majority of the holes for them. Now we have cucumbers, melons and corn left to plant! Plus we have decided that we need some sort of fence to keep the deer out as they seem to enjoy nibbling on my vegetable babies. Then find someone who has some straw for sale to mulch the garden so we don't go crazy with having to weed all summer. I have a feeling that we may be busy with other things.

I have another midwife appointment on Wednesday and as long as things are still looking good Erin and I will be headed to see my dad for the weekend.

My brother Jon is leaving for basic training on June 7th!!! So we are having a little going away party for him on Tuesday. Also with other big news. . . he got married on the 27th! That boy and so much stuff at once. . . enough to make a pregnant woman go crazy!

32 Week Appointment News.

No dilation and baby Izzy has not dropped at all, so those are very good things. My midwife is still concerned with all the contractions that I have and really wants me to make it at least another 4 weeks. The end of June is my goal as I will be 37 weeks pregnant by then. She said as long as I am not having more than 4 contractions in an hour that I am okay, but to call them right away if I am having 4 or more.

She also wants me to take it easy and not do anything that is strenuous or using a lot of abdominal muscles. And no lifting anything over 10 lbs. Poor Erin, she loves being picked up by mama.

So over all, I am very happy that there is no dilation and feel pretty confident that we will make it to at least 35 weeks.

On other Erin news, she now has decided to call her dad by his name most of the time. It is cute, but I think he has grown tired of it. He says it makes him feel like a step-dad. Such a silly girl.

I am getting more and more uncomfortable by the hour it seems. What has been the most frustrating is that my back hurts so much when I go to bed that I am not sleeping well. . . and I NEED my sleep! I'm already limited to my sides and when that causes pain as well I feel I am out of options and doomed to suffer uncomfortable, sleepless nights. Grrrrrr. . .

30 Week Pic.

Well here I am at 30 weeks pregnant. I had to take the picture myself, and it didn't turn out too bad. Things are going well still. I am trying to get last minute visits in before we have the baby and I am far too busy and tired to do anything but take care of her.




We had some Target gift cards leftover from Christmas so I used one to order a new diaper bag. The one we have is okay, but gets stuffed with just stuff for Erin. So I researched and found one that people loved for having more than one kid to bring stuff for. I am excited to get it and plan to pack it up as my hospital bag. It seems crazy that I should be doing that already!


My other brother Jon graduated on May 13th with an Accounting degree. We went to his graduation, but did have to leave early to get Erin to bed. For some reason the ceremony didn't start until 7pm and there was over an hour of speeches. Very hard to get an almost 3 year old to sit still for. But there were plenty of laps for her to travel to and they were happy to see her. My brother did inform us that afternoon that he had spoken with a recruiter and decided to join the Army Reserves. I was a bit shocked, and am scared because who knows what could happen!









We went to Forestville Park to hang out with some friends while they were fishing. Scott made Erin her own pole out of some string he found and a stick. He put a bobber on the end and she had tons of fun throwing it over the side of the bridge and pulling it back up.


Here she is holding a worm, and she also thought it would be a great idea to put one on mom's head. I'm very proud of her that she isn't afraid of them though.























Aparently the park was also a real town and some of the buildings are still there. The bridge is also only for foot traffic or hoof traffic as we had a few groups of prople on horseback ride through.














We did some pruning of one of the flower beds in the back yard. There was some sort of shrubbery thing that must have been planted 50 years ago as it was a monster! We cut and ripped that thing out of there and burnt it in our fire pit. Wonderfully enough there must have been some poison ivy somewhere in it because I got it on my arm and to my delight cleavage. As if I wasn't uncomfortable enough being pregnant now I itch!











We are absolutely loving our new home in the spring. Driving up our long driveway seems almost magical. We have discovered a raspberry patch and we have all three colors of lilacs as well. Lots of the flower beds and "curb appeal" has been sorely neglected, but we will whip it into shape little by little. There is tons of field stone on our property that we plan on putting to use whether in borders or even a patio! So many possibilities. I also ordered fruit trees as I have plenty of room. We already have some apple trees so I though I would try a pear, peach, plum and apricot. Who knows what will happen, but it can't hurt to try!


The latest antics of Erin. . . she had a poop accident in her underwear, didn't tell anyone and tried to take care of it herself. She must have pulled down her pants and the poo fell onto the floor. Well she couldn't have that so she used her little hands to scoop it up and put it in her potty chair, smearing it all over the floor. I found her carrying her potty bucket with the poo in it into the bathroom half naked. Somehow her hands were all clean though. She then informed me that the brand new toothbrush that I bought her was used to scrub the poo off her hands!!! Gross. I promptly threw that toothbrush in the garbage and she melted into a tearful puddle because she really did love that new toothbrush. . .it lit up when you pressed a button. However, I was able to teach her the lesson that poo does not and should not go into your mouth, it will make you sick.


I will try and keep updates coming about the baby!

Spring Thunderstorm.

We had quite the storm come through the other day. It was gorgeous outside all day and then some big, dark, nasty clouds rolled in and brought wind, hail, and downpours. Erin thought it was great the ice was falling from the sky and Scott went and gathered some for her. We also got a beautiful rainbow in the middle of it all that seemed to end in our field. No, I did not run out there and look for a pot of gold. I didn't feel like getting beaned in the head with golfball size hail.

Erin is still doing really well with potty training. We have graduated from being naked to being able to have pants on without accidents. She still resists going poo poo on the potty and holds it for far too long and then has to run for the bathroom. But I am very proud of her progress.

We have cancelled our cable and our land line. It will save us about $65 a month! I was a little nervous about saying goodbye to the landline just because I know that it is the only way for you to be able to call 911 and have them know your location. However, we do have our cell phones and I know our address and hopefully we will never have to use it!

We cancelled the cable because it was only used for Erin and she was getting bored with the same shows every day anyway. We subscribe to Netflix and with a certain level of subscription ($8.99 miniumun I believe) you can watch lots of movies and shows instantly over the internet. So I connected my laptop to our flat screen and we watch on there.

I am now 28 weeks pregnant and our last appointment went well. I got tested for Gestational Diabetes, did our birth plan with the maternity counselor, and a follow-up ultrasound to get better pictures of baby's spine. Great news, it is still a girl and she looks great! They were also checking what my cervix looked like because of going into pre-term labor last time. My cervix is still closed but it has shortened a bit. My midwife called me on Friday to give me this information and explain that when mom's come in because of contractions they are using cervical length a lot more to judge when they need to intervene. Their cutoff is 3cm and I am now at 2.9cm. . . so I need to be careful. She cautioned me about paying attention to the contractions and back off exercising if I need to. I really can't afford to spend a week in the hospital for pre-term labor this time with a toddler at home. Maybe gnomes will plant my garden??

We also got the garden tilled up. We ended up hiring someone with a tractor to come out and do it. It cost us $70, but with the size of it we felt it was worth it. Now this rain needs to stop so I can get my cold weather veggies in the ground!

Easter and Stuff.

We had a fun Easter this year. Erin was at a much more fun age to do things. We colored eggs, went to a communtiy egg hunt, and had a little Easter basket for her. She loved putting the stickers on the eggs, and then taking them off, and putting them back on. The Easter egg hunt was a crazy mess of kids where she almost got trampled by the bigger kids, but she found two eggs and then got to play on the slide, so she was happy. She was very excited to go through her Easter basket, but she is kind of particular about the chocolate she likes. She likes Hershy's plain chocolate. . . and that's about it.

We didn't do any family visiting for Easter this year. We decided to have a nice quiet holiday here at home. I baked a ham with a pineapple glaze on it. I also did some creamy Rosemary Au Gratin potatoes that turned out really well. I made a roux and did the cream sauce before baking it so that it turned out really creamy and not chunky. It was a great dinner.

Pregnancy stuff is still going well. I'm still walking on my treadmill most days for about an hour. I get a little bit of heartburn once in awhile, which I'm sure will increase as baby Izzy gets bigger in there. I go in for Gestational Diabetes testing on Wednesday. They also want to do a quick ultrasound to get a better picture of baby's spine because they didn't get a very good one the last time. They will also check on the ultrasound that my cervix is still long and closed. No pre-term labor this time please! On top of all that I meet with the Maternity Counselor to set up my birth plan and meet with my midwife. Whew. It will be a long morning.

I have noticed that stress affects me a lot more this pregnancy. I just can't handle much of it at all. So it doesn't help that things have been stressful with my mom. Hopefully over time they will get better.

My baby brother Ben graduated from Le Cordon Bleu cooking school this past Saturday! Scott and I were able to leave Erin with his mom and drive up for that. We also got to go to the restaurant that he works at after graduation and he cooked some amazing food for us! It was also the first time that my mom and dad had been in the same room since my wedding. They did fine, but it did not help my stress problems. =) We had a great time and I am so proud of him! Here is a link to the restaurant he works at http://www.inonnirestaurant.com/

My garden plans are in the works. We picked up a tiller from Scott's brother yesterday so as soon as the ground dries out a little bit we can get the ground worked up. It is a previously unworked area so there will be a lot of roots and such to get out of the ground, but I couldn't be more excited about it! My seedlings are still doing very well and I should be able to plant cold tolerant things like potatoes, onions and cabbage by the end of this month. I can't wait to see my little plants in the ground!