Good chance it's a girl!

We had another ultrasound today, and although the tech didn't get a perfect view, she was reasonably sure we're having a girl! So I went out and got a bunch of girl clothes (been waiting to see, so I knew how to shop), now watch it's a boy anyway! The tech who did Will's ultrasound was not totally sure he was a boy either, but she turned out to be right... so we are thinking our hunches were correct this time. We are pretty excited!! :)

My cat is allergic to fish!!

Last week, one of our kitties (we call her P but her name is Panthera) was hiding out in the basement. For those of you who know her, she is gregarious, always underfoot, always yelling for something! And she and Will love each other, he mauls her all the time and she loves it. So I went to find her and see what was going on, since it's unlike her to hide, and she was covered in scabs!! Like all over her body! So I called the vet the next morning and got her an appointment, and in the meantime started reading... and found out that scabs all over is a huge sign of food allergies! AND, it just so happened that Meijer was out of their regular Iams food, so I got them something different... I thought, "Hmm, salmon! That would be a nice change!!"

So the vet checked her all over, gave her a shot of cortisone (which made her better literally in 1-2 days) and gave me some antibiotics to give her. Unfortunately she needs them for 3 weeks (the skin problems are kind of like a staph infection but not contagious) and I'm having a heck of a time giving them to her. I have to towel her and she drools out half of it. She's also on some hypoallergenic food for now. The vet recommended some new food, I got some and it's got all kinds of stuff in it - sweet potato, blueberries, rosemary... they like it though!

I have to bring her back in on Friday for another check up, and to get more antibiotics. I really wonder how much of it she is getting, since she drools out half of it now. Usually they have you mix it with tuna, but since she is allergic to fish, I have eliminated all fish from their diet right now. I just don't want to take steps backwards at this time! Poor kitty.

Will peed on the potty!!!

We were sooo excited!!! He was in the bathtub and he looked over to the potty and pointed and said "pee." This isn't anything new, he's been saying that a lot, since he comes into the bathroom with us reguarly. So I asked him if he wanted to pee on the potty and he said yes. I got him out of the tub and sat him on the potty (we have a baby bjorn seat that fits on our toilet.. our bathroom is kind of small for a little potty chair) and at first, nothing happened. He's sat on the seat several times since we got it, but nobody really expected anything to happen. I've also been making small straining sounds to get him to try out those muscles... and tonight, when he did it, he actually peed! He looked kinda surprised, looked down to see what was happening, then got this huge smile on his face! We were all so happy and proud of him! I told him anytime he wanted to pee on the potty he could come get us and we'd help him.

Since he's only 22 months old, I really didn't expect him to do this, and I'm not sure when it will happen again... we are really positive about it though, whether he goes or not, we always make a big deal of sitting on it. And he could sit in a wet/poopy diaper for a long time and not care! So we'll see where it goes from here. What a big milestone!

20 weeks and all is well

I had my 20 week checkup (that's halfway already!) the other day and everything is going just fine. I won't get another ultrasound until about a month from now, but I really have a feeling it's a girl. I've only had one dream about the baby, and in the dream it was a girl, but I thought Will was a girl too and I was wrong. I just feel so totally different this time, it seems like my pregnancy with Will was a lot more intense and I felt a lot worse. Even my skin was broken out more. This one, it's a lot more mellow, I have more energy, the baby moves but not as active as Will was. It will be interesting to get to know him/her and see how different they are! This is such a trip!

Here is a picture of me at 20 weeks. Just for comparison, here's 12 weeks!

20 weeks and all is well

. stupid blogger...

Middle Eastern grocery in Saginaw!

I am SO happy!! It's only been open for a week, it's called Yasmeen's and it's on Bay Rd, across the street and kitty corner from the Olive Garden. Their prices are really reasonable, and they even have Halal meats... which I'm sure nobody else in the area sells at all... there aren't many Muslims here but I'm sure they will be very pleased! The owner was very friendly and helpful too. I'm going to be shopping there as much as possible, they are going to be opening up a deli soon too. This is great! :D

Remembering 9-11

May all who lost someone on such a horrible day find peace in their hearts... even if it's just a little more than last year. I watched the coverage on TV today and was reminded of the enorminity (hope that's a word) of it all. I saw a display at a bank today as a tribute to FDNY firefighters and got so choked up I had to leave. What a sad day.

Back from our trip to the UP

And I was so sad to leave! :( I know I won't be back for quite a long time, since it was really hard to sit in the car as long as I did, even with breaks. My poor tailbone! The good thing is that my mom is coming here for a visit at the end of this month, and my dad, possibly for Christmas. But it's not the same, I'm really homesick this year, really bad... can't do much about it now though. :(

Once I get some pictures up on Shutterfly I'll post the link here. But I haven't had the time to do it yet. Between Will, laundry, housework and just being pooped, it's not real high on my list of things to do!

We went to this park on the way back here, and saw this really cool big spring, I'll post some pictures we took of it later on. If anyone is in the Manistique area or en route along that part of US 2, it's well worth the stop! It's in a state park so you need to pay the fee to get in, but it was just so neat, I would happily go back.

The pregnancy is progressing nicely. I feel babe move all the time now, just nice little nudges, not the crazy whacks of later on! I have a feeling I might be getting a little colostrum now, even though I can't get anything to come out. I'm basing that guess on the character of recent poopy diapers. Colostrum is a laxative, and, well, you can guess the rest! He's been wanting to nurse more often too which is another sign, makes me happy and more confident that we'll make it til I have real milk again.

Being home was nice, it was a little cooler, very dry though, and I got to spend time with my friend Laura (see her blog!) who I hadn't seen in over a year. I saw other friends too, and family, it was just nice to be HOME... I do miss it a lot although I'm still happy, for many reasons, to be having my children down here. I just cried the day before we left, I was not happy to be coming back, ugh!

More later when I get more pictures!

We are having...

One baby! :D Little stinker kept its legs crossed!! I'll have anothe chance though, because they need to get more measurements that they couldn't get today. So in another month, I'll get to see Baby again. For now, I've got cute pictures of thumb sucking and a couple of other poses, all looked good that I could tell! It might be a couple of weeks before I get the pics scanned in but when I do I'll post the link.

16 week pregnancy pic!

I just thought I would post this to show my progress. To me, I look like I did at about 23 weeks with my son! But they say you show sooner after your first. I guess my tummy has gotten all stretched out! I am having an ultrasound on Tuesday, so hopefully that evening I'll get a chance to post the results here. Going to the UP on Wednesday so I won't have time to email everyone separately. I am going to try to wear the same shirt each time we take photos, so my progress is more obvious!

Belly dancing pics

Just thought I'd post links to a couple of pictures a friend of mine took recently. She had a bunch of friends over for a night of food and dance! We had a really good time! She had all her costume stuff out so people who had never tried it before could put on some coins and shake their booties! I was probably about 10 weeks pregnant in these pictures. I was so tired earlier that day, that I felt like I'd just crawled out of a hole but managed to pull it together anyway! (I was very glad I went, it was fun!) And, that is a sword on my head in this picture. I'm not sure when I'll be dancing again, but I'll get some pictures when I do!

16 week check and all is well...

We saw the doctor today and heard a nice, strong heartbeat, that is always so nice! I've got my ultrasound in a week so hopefully we'll have some nice pictures and find out if it's a boy or girl. I think we both think it's a girl but I was wrong the last time! But so far everything is going along the way it should, I'm measuring right on time and my blood pressure is fine. I'll hopefully have more news next week, and a link to some pictures too!

It's 64 in my hometown right now...

Why does it have to be 83 here? I am SO tired of sitting inside all the time because anything over the upper 70's is just too hot and I get sick. Hopefully it's not in the 90's again when we go up for Labor Day.

It was soooooo nice out tonight...

It just reminded me of home!!! Windy, cool, it just felt so good. I have the A/C off for the first time in I don't know how long, and all the windows open. It is SO nice to have fresh air in here instead of the nasty recycled stuff that has been in here for the past 6 weeks or so. Even now it's windy out, it's never breezy in the summer at night here, I've got all the windows open and it's supposed to get down in the low 50's tonight. I'm going to be in heaven!

Seriously, when I went outside, it felt like I'd crawled out of a hole, even better than coming out into a warm spring day after a long winter. This summer has been worse than winter, in my opinion. The heat makes me so sick!

Same crap, different day!

I don't have a lot to report on today. Thankfully I am feeling a whole lot better, I'm not sure what the problem was the other day but today I managed to get dressed before noon and get out and run a few errands. Will needs new shoes soon, he's outgrowing his current pair, so we went to the mall. I found just what I wanted right away, so that was great! I really don't like the mall!! Picked up a few things from Target too.

This house is just a huge mess. It seems like no matter what I do, it re-messes itself up when my back is turned. Or, maybe, could it be Will? Could be!!

Oh do I feel like CRAP today...

I am just NOT happy about this part of pregnancy. All day today, I have felt just down and out... no energy, headache, pukey, tired (that's not even the right word, more like run over).... my husband sent me downstairs to our guest room and I was down there from 2 pm til almost 7 pm... spent most of that asleep. I went to bed late last night (had a Coke - BAD!) and just didn't sleep well, couldn't get Will back to sleep in the morning either. It is so hard when I feel like I have nothing to give, my energy bank account, if you will, is bouncing, I'm constantly a few cents from going in the red. I just hope that I feel better, I don't want the whole pregnancy to be like this. I didn't get that second trimester energy the last time, and now I don't have much hope for it this time either. My poor son. I feel like he's getting the rotten end of this because I'm just no fun to live with right now.

We spent yesterday out and about, went to look at a car not far from Clane's folks' summer home, so we went up there too and spent the day. I was feeling kind of sick from the heat, and a nap helped, but we didn't eat well because we were on the go, and it was too warm I think, but Will had a really good time playing in the lake and it was nice and relaxing. I just think I'm paying for it today.

Well enough of this, I really should be spending this time getting to sleep instead of getting sucked into finding more stuff to do online...

Google Earth is really cool!

You can download it here. But, a warning... it is VERY addictive!! (Laura, I even looked up Ft. Irwin... weird!!) We just spent about 45 minutes looking up places we went in Germany, lots of places in Michigan and didn't even get to a lot of the really cool stuff. What a fun way to waste time online, as if we need more!!

Nursing

Today my son brought me a few of his toys to get nursies. He brought me a black bear puppet, lifted up my shirt, and put it to my boob! I pretended to nurse the bear, figured bears get nursies in the wild so why not pretend? But then he brought me this lego car (he has a bunch of those giant legos) and INSISTED that I nurse the car! I started to, then thought, this is crazy!! So I told him that cars can't get nursies because they don't have mouths. He was very persistant but eventually gave up. Then a few minutes later, he repeated the whole procedure with this little snack cup we put crackers in for the road. I had to tell him all over again about the no mouth thing. Anyway I found the whole thing highly amusing!

We regularly go through the "cats get nursies, dogs get nursies, whales get nursies, elephants get nursies, cows get nursies... birds don't get nursies..." I suppose now I need to add "cars don't get nursies, containers don't get nursies... " etc.

Blogs from Lebanon

Oh my. This just makes me want to sit and cry. I'm not sure how much of it I can stand to read. I just wish it would all stop, and soon... but something tells me the whole country will be leveled before it does.

Too #*$&*#&$ hot!

It's still 86 degrees with a heat index of 95 degrees. Did you make note of the time? Almost 10 pm. Did I tell you I hate summer? Please snow... please snow... please snow...... and I am getting on my knees and thanking God for whoever invented central air. If I could get away with it, I'd set it at 65 degrees! But, I'll have to settle for 76, and even that's generous considering how hot it is. This kind of weather makes me want to move as far north as possible. I just hate it!