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)...