Merry Christmas!

Tummt Time

Tummy time is advancing! Emmett continues to lift his head higher on his tummy...

My Grown Up Christmas List

In the spirit of Amy Grant's Christmas song,
I have come up with a non world piece grown-up Christmas/To Do list of my own.

Some are more serious, others are not but still a true wish of mine to accomplish this Christmas.

They are in no particular order ;)

1. To be able to spend lots of time with my family - both immediate and extended - over the Christmas week/weekend
2. Work on and maybe even catch up on all three of my scrapbooks - Emmett's being the biggest challenge
3. Have instances arise where I can help others out - financially, emotionally, spiritually, physically - any or all of these
4. Be part of and see my baby be dedicated to be raised in a Christian environment and to know the Lord
5. Have piece with my current job situation and maybe even get a new job? ;)
6. Play a board game - this I miss very much as Tyler and I hardly do this anymore
7. Take a bath in a bath tub that has a slanted back - do you know how uncomfortable it is to have a bath tub that has a straight up and down back to it?!
8. Enjoy many good meals with my family and eat too many Christmas goodies
9. Attend the Christmas Eve service at church as I only get to do this every other year now!
10. Sleep lots and snuggle with my baby lots and lots!

Emmett meets Santa!

Well it wouldn't be right if we didn't take our first born son to see Santa Clause. However, we decided that we are cheap and didn't want to pay for the mall Santa since Emmett won't remember this outing anyway, we made the trek to Santa's Village at Rheault Farm. It's a great little production put on by the Fargo Park District with live reindeer, Santa Clause, Mrs. Clause, and sleigh rides. For some unforsaken reason it was miserably cold this year just like it was last year when we hitched a ride with the nephews. But alas, this year we had our own baby and had to bring him to see Santa. We started off watching the train go round the track and writing letters to Santa. I'm so proud of my Einstein son who knew to ask Santa for a Garmin Navigation System. Hmm... I think Dad's using his son on that one.

We then went to visit the reindeer - all three of them. We then waited in a miserably long line inside Santa's house so that we could see the big red guy himself. There is a lot to be learned by waiting in line with the rest of society and their kids. 1. People are rude. 2. People will budge if they get a chance to. 3. Julie put it best when she pointed out what's wrong with society's kids today when we witnessed a dad making an empty threat to his bratty little girl that wasn't listening to him. 4. Something is wrong when there is a young mom with a newborn asking her husband (at least they were married) where the other children are. She then counts her kids and counts up to 5!

We then made it to Santa and both Emmett and Gabe cooperated. Sort of.

We skipped cookies with Mrs. Clause but she was friendly non-the-less. And since we find it ridiculous to pay $1.00 for a cup of swiss miss cocoa we headed home.

Good time had by all and even though when you are there you wonder to yourself why you are wasting a perfectly good Saturday afternoon out in the cold north dakota winter... we will do it again next year and the next!

Mom and Emmett in front of the letters to Santa.

We chose to "mail" ours and not post Emmett wanting a GPS for all to see.

Santa and Emmett! Santa didn't want to give Emmett up. We can't blame him :)

Emmett and daddy writing their letter to Santa.

Emmett poses as an elf

Two months?!

Oh how time flies!

Emmett was 2 months old this past tuesday - 11/17/09.

I feel like it was just yesterday I was posting about him being 3 weeks old and now he is 9 weeks today...

We had his doctor appointment today & everything looks good!

Emmett weighs 13.1 pounds! That is the 79th percentile...

He has also grown to 22.5 inches tall which is the 33rd percentile.

It's amazing to watch him grow and change every day.

I have to keep reminding myself to re-introduce toys, mobiles, etc. because he is becoming more and more interested in these items. I had good itentions of uploading a video of him cooing to his crib mobile but don't have my camera cord, so I'll do that later.

I am scheduled back at work on Dec. 1st and appreciate all prayers as this is something I do not want to do. I am okay with going back to work, I just don't want to go back to this job and certainly not for a 12 hour shift my first day back! The job that I had mentioned in previous blogs that I was hoping for was filled and so now I am back in the searching mode - the very tiring and disappointing searching mode. I need something mom-friendly!

Lil' Dinosaur

Emmett survived his first halloween last Saturday but not without a lot of overstimulation, a crabby evening at home afterword and many hours of sleep the next day to recoop!

Tyler and I organized the first annual Calvary Trunk and Treat at our church and in fashion, we dressed up for the event. We decided to base our costumes off of Emmett's costume that his nana bought him (a dinosaur) and Tyler and I went as Fred and Wilma Flinstone.

I wish I had interesting things to blog about like my husband, but I am not out in the "real world" much these days coming up with topics. My life has blessedly been based mainly at home the past 6 1/2 weeks and I still have another 4 to go!

Emmett decided to show us his "other" side and started cooing and smiling more and more! See below. Well, someday I might have more interesting posts, but if you are reading this, hopefully you enjoy the pictures/video of my adorable child!

I had the intention of uploading more than 1 video, but it takes forever to do that!

Newborn Pics

Check out some of Baby Emmer's newborn pictures that Lindsey Johnson took and put on her blog!

http://ljcreativecaptures.blogspot.com/2009/10/baby-t.html?showComment=1255127703482#c1246522942983019856

Three Weeks!

Emmett is now three weeks old and I cannot believe how fast he is growing and how strong he is getting!

I had a doctor appointment yesterday and for fun my dr. (also Emmett's) wanted to see how big he was. He weighed in at a whopping 9lbs 13oz! We're doing something right baby! My dr. also commented on how his outfit was looking a little small - can't believe he's growing out of the newborn clothes already! - and it was the cute outfit from great aunt angie too :(

Emmett is starting to really show his strength by lifting his head up during tummy time and he also pushes off our stomachs with his legs. He is eating well, sleeping some (still not on a set routine with this as we'll have usually 3 great sleeping nights and then 1-2 bad ones)...

Please keep me/us in your prayers as I continue my hunt for a new job. I applied again at Roger Maris Cancer Center for an infusion nurse position which I really hope to get. I was 2nd on their list the last time they had an opening and it would be an amazing position to have as a mom as it has stable hours, very minimal weekends/holidays!

Meet Emmett Thomas Tracy!

Emmett Thomas Tracy
was born Thursday, September 17th, 2009
at 2:17pm
Weighed in at 7 lbs 1 oz and 19 inches long


We started the day out by having my water broke at 7:50am
The doctor gave me until 11am to have contractions before starting any further induction.
I started having contractions within the first hour and by 11 o'clock I was contracting every 2-3 minutes. By this point I began to think that contractions really do hurt and even told Tyler I think Lamaze is a bunch of crap. I remembered my doctor saying "there are no medals for going through labor without something for the pain" and decided I agreed with her. Enough was enough and I took the epidural. Epidural worked great and I didn't even notice that I had started to contract every minute... Well that was too fast for Emmett and his heart rate did not respond favorably. I then got 3 nurses at my bedside and was moved around into many different positions - very difficult to do with numb legs! I was also put on oxygen to help our lil' guy out. In the end my doctor ended up coming to monitor me herself and spent over an hour in my room deciding what to do (c-section vs. pushing). I had then progressed and dilated to 10cm within the hour... The final outcome resulted in forceps to get Emmett out as fast as they could before any further damage was done.


God was watching out for me and Emmett and we were/are both doing well and survived it all just fine! Attached are some pictures of Emmett and a video Tyler took of Emmett after delivery. Hopefully I'll still find time to update this ocassionally with pictures/video of Emmett!

I tried to upload different pictures than Tyler - enjoy!

Emmett loves being on his tummy if dad holds him this way!

Precious Staring!

Daddy and Emmett Sleeping

Final Countdown

Soon Baby Tracy will reveal his identity and no longer be called Baby Tracy! The final countdown is on with me at 38+ weeks and not much longer to go. Hate to say it but those who guessed past the due date may be disappointed with the results... My doctor confirms things are progressing and says it is truly "any day now" and ordered that I am not even allowed to go to the lake because "you'll go quick". I "dropped" or lightened last Thursday and have not felt much else except the occasional cramps. I'm dilating and effacing despite not feeling any significant contractions...

So the wait is on and we're ready!
(as ready as you can be for something that will completely change your life...)

One Month!

One month to go!

Tomorrow is week 36 and last Saturday was 1 month from the due date...
We celebrated Nephew Gabe's 1st birthday on August 7th and it's so hard to believe that a whole year has gone by since he was born! Nephew Riley also started 1st grade today and I cannot believe he is that old!!

Baby's room is pretty much done and the waiting has begun! I'm doing fairly well, but starting to become more uncomfortable and noticing that bending down and sitting are not fun or easy anymore... I am also discovering that although my job is rewarding it is becoming increasingly difficult to do. I lack the energy, strength, and motivation to work now, knowing how demanding my job is. I just finished working the weekend shift of three 12 hour shifts and then an 8 hour shift and cannot fathom doing this much longer :) We'll have to wait and see if God has something else in mind for me!

"Baby" Gabe's 1st Birthday:

Baby Brody and the Water Spritzer

No, we are not naming our baby - Brody. Just simply blogging about the other "baby" in my life right now, my 1 year old Golden Retriever, Brody...

Now if you have dogs yourself or know of how puppies can be, they have loads of energy. Brody has calmed some in the last few months since his 1st birthday but not nearly enough. With the sun rising at 6am in the morning (or earlier) Brody feels he needs to wake at this hour as well. If I am working a day shift I am up at this time and will take care of the little bugger and then hand him back into our room to sleep longer with Tyler. On days like today however, Brody held out until about 7:30 and then was fanatic wanting activity and attention.

PROBLEM:



Tyler had a busy day ahead of him and left for work. One would think that I could settle the energy problem within Brody by taking him for a walk. However, this is no small task! It's no secret that Brody does not have much respect for me as I never commanded it from him from the beginning. He loves me and all, but does not like to listen to me in 2 special circumstances: the first being on a walk and the second being when I want to sit on the couch and watch T.V.

In recent months this has continued to frustrate me and I have made multiple attempts (despite what Tyler would tell you) to correct this problem and to try to fix it to no avail. Add in my pregnancy and not wanting a 60# pup jumping on my prego stomch and I pretty much am clueless as what to do with him and walking.

After a short and teary (for prego emotional me) arguement with my husband this morning over our dog's energy level and who is responsible to control it, I attempted again to walk him. Step 1 was to get the leash on and step 2 was to walk. Step 1 is not hard but step 2 requires Brody to not grab the leash from me and prance around the yard with it. Frustrated, I gave up!


SOLUTION:


That is until I went and scrunched my curly hair and had an epiphony while using the water bottle spritzer. I went back outside to where Brody was still prancing around with his leash and got him to come and give it to me. Upon starting to walk with him again he pulled on the leash and continued to try to jump on me and bite my arm. Couple spritzes in the eyes and no longer had a problem! It was a miracle! I then continued with our walk while carrying the spritzer. There were numerous times that I could tell Brody stopped during our walk and had every intention of jumping on me. However he would catch eye of the sprtizer and continue walking!

I hate to have to use this type of enforcement on him, but feel it is better and so far, more effective than hitting, yelling, tugging, and all out throwing him into the ground that we have tried so far.

Now Brody can continue to be "Man's Best Friend" and I found my new best friend (the spritzer) that allows me to be Brody's friend and owner too!

Stubborn Boy

Yesterday marked the beginning of the 31st week of baby.
I'm in my third trimester and 7 months along!

My doctor said my uterus was measuring a little small
and wanted to see the baby again to make sure
he was doing alright and see how big he is.

So...
I had an ultrasound done today and we got
to see the little guy again.
He is measuring just fine and our due date didn't change.
We also learned again that he is definitely a boy as we got
to see a nice view of his boy parts on the ultrasound...


Any guesses on who he looks like yet? haha...

I'm glad that I can see that he looks more human in this picture as the 3d/4d images from our 18 week ultrasound creeped me out a little bit as they were more skeletal like...

If you look long/hard enough you can see his eyes, nose, and lips. You can also see that he is holding his hand and arm up by his left cheek!
It was because of this that I heard for the 2nd time from an ultrasound tech that we have a stubborn child who doesn't want to cooperate with the ultrasound!
She then asked if that's from me or Tyler ...

Well Baby Tracy is 50% German as Tyler and I both are and
probably going to be stubborn as Tyler and I both are!!

Tyler and I at a wedding - Me at 28 weeks...

5 months already!

It's been 5 months already and baby is starting to show!
5 months down and have the rest of the summer to go!



People keep telling me it will go by quickly, and quickly I want it to go! However, I don't want to give up summer that fast, so I think I'd rather keep the little guy in and not wish away my last summer before baby... I have been mentally compiling a list of all the things we need to do and all the things left to buy before our little one arrives.

We received our crib the other day but unfortunately will have to wait until our kitchen remodeling is done before we tackle decorating the baby's room. One by one things will come together we know, but it seems as if there is so much to think about! Definitely way more than when we just randomly decided to buy this cute puppy and bring him home with no food, bed, or collar. No, I am not comparing my baby to a dog; I'm contrasting how completely new and different this is and how I want to be prepared when the baby comes. We have the food (hopefully me), we have the bed, (crib to be assembled), and no collar needed. Now I'm sure there are TONS more items that we will need to get and if anyone feels like offering advice and said items, feel free! Julie has already offered to attend my registering session, but I have a feeling I will need to buy plenty of items myself before any such gifts would be blessed our way...

Well, now I'm just babbling! 5 months - everything's going great. Baby is moving lots and lots. Still not many pregnancy symptoms except my sister warned me of the awful night time Charlie Horses and I have experienced a few already. How can you be sleeping one minute and the next wake up with an excruciating pain that is so bad you can't hardly speak to wake your husband up?! Julie says the cure is to eat a banana a day.
It is going to be a long summer...

Another picture for good measure so you see the baby better!

Boy oh Boy!

Bring on the hand-me-downs!



On Monday, April 20th we had our ultrasound and found out that we are having a BOY!
We also found out that our baby is a little stubborn and did not cooperate much during this ultrasound, hence we do not have any fun pictures to show off from the ultrasound. In order to peek at the sex of the baby the ultrasound tech had to sneak her wand under his but and look in between his legs!

If you look hard enough you can see the femur bone laying parallel to the bottom of the screen. The Left foot is hanging out in the black space and there is a little "thing" sticking up from the bottom right corner of the screen...


On Friday, April 17th while I was watching Baby Gabe, I had the pleasure of feeling the baby move around for the first time. I have now felt it frequently since and am still getting used to that tickling/poking feeling! On Saturday, April 18th while we were watching TV, Tyler and I both got to see the little flutters appear on my stomach!

Tyler expressing his excitement! Tyler also bought this balloon and one that says "It's a Girl!" and then subsequently popped the "It's a Girl!" balloon when we got home!

Baby's (apparently) Moving!

Since I have nothing else exciting going on in life except carrying this babe inside,
here's another baby update:

I had my 18 week Dr. appointment today and baby is a moving!
The Doppler picked up all sorts of whooshing, moving sounds, but I still have yet to feel a thing. Baby's heart beat is 150 today.

AND we get to find out on MONDAY "what we are having"!!!

So stay tuned...

Turning 23

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

That's the question these days that most are constantly asked in life. I remember being asked this countless times throughout Jr. High, High School, and more recently in applying for jobs after college.

I turned 23 on Saturday and cannot say I would have said yes if someone would have asked me 10 years ago if I would have my first child at 23. I would have said yes if the age would have been 25, but not 23 (Big difference 2 years makes, huh? haha). I have dealt with people being shocked finding out that I was married at 20 and now at 23 have been married for over 2 years. I have a feeling that the same will happen when I meet new people and tell them I am 23, have been married for over 2 years, and am having my first child.

Why is the world obsessed with age and stereotypes about what people should be doing at a particular age?

I have often dreaded when people notice that I am married and then more often that not ask, "how old are you?" or "you don't look old enough to be married". I have even thought about lying and not telling people my true age because I feel it is not their place to judge me and my life choices. One of my more significant memories of this is when I had a conversation with my manager at work and somehow ended up telling her that I was 20 when I got married. To this she responded, "I was 20 too, with my first marriage, and that's why it didn't last long".

Here are my thoughts on my age: I do not feel I have ever truly acted my age in retrospect to the stereotype. I skipped my Sr. High prom because I felt I was already "over" high school. My family and I even had a "death to high school" themed graduation party for me instead of the typical celebration party for graduation. I believe we joked about that for weeks and then decided against it because most others attending would not have gotten our humor. Instead of taking fun trips or time off on the summers during college, I was doing summer school and still working which led me to graduating a semester early from college.

I do feel that my family has greatly influenced my decisions to marry and have a family early. As most know, my sister, Julie is my best friend and has the most adorable baby (see below). I do not believe that sibling rivalry has led me to keep up with her in life, but more admiring the lives that my siblings have and wanting to be a part of it with them. I do not want to experience these joys of life 10 years later than them. And let's face it, "Tyler's not getting any younger!"

(This is the best picture from my birthday. Anytime we go out to eat with Gabe he finds the edge of the table to bite down on - must make his teeth feel better! Come on' Gabey, cut one already!!)

In ten years...

I will be 33 and a mother of at least a 10 year (God willing) probably toting him/her off to a sports practice of some sort (not basketball b/c wrong season, maybe baseball?). I may also have a 7 year old and 5 year old? Who knows how many kids we'll have or their ages - guess we'll see how much trouble Baby Tracy is ;) Our family will love still having Brody around (sorry Aaron, but he should be much better trained by then!) Not sure where we will live, not sure where we will be working, and honestly don't really care to plan ahead 10 years ;)

In other news:

At 16 5/7 weeks, Baby Tracy is hopefully doing well. I have had numerous people ask me, "how's baby doing?". Honestly people, sorry, I have no idea! I know how I'm doing and I'm still not feeling any "side effects" of pregnancy. I am not as tired anymore. Still squeezing into my regular clothes (not for much longer) and am noticing a definite baby bump starting to protrude. My mom took Julie and I shopping for some maternity clothes (for me, not Julie!) which was fun but a definite realization that I will actually be wearing those soon! I will be going for another visit to Dr. Card on Tuesday, April 14th. At that appt. I will be 18 weeks and am not sure when she will decide to do the ultrasound so we can see what gender I am bringing into this world!

Here is my baby bump shot at 16 weeks (mainly so Grandma Fay can see there is indeed a little baby starting to grow)...

Baby Mama

Baby Mama!
(lots to catch up on - can't believe it's already been 5 weeks!)

Well, I did say I would start a blog once I had a child and had something to blog about. I guess that day came sooner than I thought ;)

Thursday, Feb 11th 2009: I had an upcoming Dr. appt for Friday, 2/13 to discuss fertility with my Dr. I had previously been told that we would have more difficulty with fertility due to my thyroid condition and extremely irregular menstrual cycles. So the night of Tuesday, Feb. 10 Tyler told me to take a pregnancy test in the am because "you know your dr. will on friday anyway" (She always takes a pregnancy test before she does anything with me because I am so irregular). Anywho on Wednesday am I took a test and it was positive. In complete disbelief I called Tyler who had just left for work and told him he should come home. Tyler was then annoyed with me because he had just left, but when he realized what I had done that morning he said his mood changed to being excited to get home! I went out to walmart that afternoon to buy more pregnanacy tests and took another one in the pm that was positive as well.

Thursday, Feb 12th, 2009: I still did not believe that I could be pregnant and took yet another test which of course, was positive (see below)



Friday, Feb. 13, 2009: I kept my dr. appt and when I told her that I thought I was pregnant she wanted to confirm it with a blood test. Before being sent to the lab she said "If you're pregnant, I think it will be a miracle (well, yes I know all pregnancies are miracles!)... It was confirmed! Baby on the way!

Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009: Can't believe it's already been 1 month since we got to see the first ultrasound of our baby! We were told by the ultrasound tech that we probably wouldn't get to see the baby because I probably wasn't the far along... Another surprise to us that the image on the ultrasound definitely looked like a baby and was a 10 week old baby non-the-less...


Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009: 12 weeks along and hardly any symptoms of pregnancy: the only one really being increased tiredness! Today we had our 1st Dr. appt with Dr. Card whom we have absolutely fallen in love with! We (Amanda) chose to go to a family practice physician who also does OB/GYN and can deliver babies because Amanda gets a little sick of hospital physicians and how they do things! Good news: got to hear the baby's heart beat: 160 -
which has Grandma Fay thinking it's a girl...
Bad news: Amanda got scolded for losing weight in her first trimester (didn't know I was pregnant and wasn't hungry so I probably didn't eat as much as I should have)

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009: 14 weeks along - Happy St. Patty's Day little Irish one! Nana Stroh has already bought you a St. Patty's Day onsie for you to wear next year! Had my 2nd appt with Dr. Card (she wanted me back in 2 weeks because of my weight loss). Gained 4 pounds everyone so all is well! Good things happen when you start eating knowing it's not just for you anymore ;) Heard baby's heart beat again and still holding strong at 160 bpm!

Well that's all for now! More exciting baby news to come and can't wait to find out if you are a boy or girl!!