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I hope everyone has a great New Year’s Eve and I hope 2009 brings you lots of love and happiness. I plan to write my big “review” sometime in the next couple of weeks. I knew setting a deadline for January 1st would be a little ambitious so I’m gonna give myself a couple of weeks to settle down and write it up. A LOT happened for us in 2008, mostly good but some sad. It was definitely a busy year! And I see 2009 being just as busy with a new one arriving, though not quite in the same sense.

Tonight we are going to hang out at my house with my mom and just chit chat. I think Gene and I will get some quality Wii playing time in before the ball drops and eat lots of fattening, bad foods. I don’t like to set resolutions but one goal I do have for next year is to start taking my blood sugars more regularly and start eating a little more health consciously. If not for me, at least for the baby :) Oh and I guess another goal would be to decide on a name for the little one and maybe even get my nursery done BEFORE the baby arrives.

The last couple of days have been very emotional for me (and Gene, I’m sure). Astro has had this weird itching thing he does. He scratches the underside of his chin until its raw and scabby and he chews on one side of his rear end until it is raw and scabby as well. We got an e-collar (those dreaded cone shaped collars) for him from PetSmart last night and finally was able to get it on him, though it was a HUGE struggle. He is a big dog but he is scared of everything! He looked so pitiful and sad and miserable all evening and then for about 2 hours last night he whined non-stop in our bedroom. We tried to give him some water but he was so scared of the cone bumping into things he refused to drink. It was awful and I can’t even tell you how much I cried from the time we put it on him around 9 PM to 4 AM when I finally decided enough was enough. I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep last night but I’m really hoping the adrenaline kicks in this evening so I don’t fall asleep before midnight.

Needless to say, as soon as we took the collar off he was back to his old self and didn’t seem to hate us too much. He really knows how to grab a hold of my heart and SQUEEZE it. I swear I thought my heart was breaking last night. I went through a WIDE range of emotions from being really pissed off that he wasn’t cooperating to feeling really guilty about what we had done. It was to the point where at one point I was questioning what kind of mother I am and how I could have done this.

Oh boy, is that the hormones talking or the real me? I can’t even tell. At one point I’m convincing Gene that the ecollar is the right thing and not to worry and the next I am sobbing about how we need to take it off of him because he is so miserable and sad.

All of this. Over a DOG. But man, if you could only SEE his sad face. I’m pretty sure it would make you cry, too.

Candy :: Dec.31.2008 :: Dogs, Holidays :: 1 Comment »

I was sitting here at my desk and I all of a sudden felt this fluttery type feeling really low in my stomach. Almost like a really strong heartbeat way down in my lower stomach/pelvic area. I am almost positive this is the first time I’ve really felt the baby move. Does this sound about right for how it feels? I’m so new to all of this and I’ve googled it a bajillion times but I just don’t know. I trust all of my mommy friends out there more than I do “Yahoo Answers” (Ugh, what is with those? They are taking OVER my Google searches lately, totally annoying)!

I’m 21 weeks today. Wow! I can hardly believe it. I’m ready to start cleaning out the bedroom that will be the nursery and getting it set up.

Candy :: Dec.30.2008 :: Pregnancy :: 1 Comment »

I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday. I know we did. I got off work on Christmas Eve at about 3:45 and came home to rest up. Around 4:30 or so we loaded up the car and headed over to my parent’s house. We had chili for dinner and then I put together a Gingerbread House and then we opened gifts with my parents and my little sister. Gene and I exchanged our gifts (we set a $50 limit since I just got a Macbook Pro, we ordered a camcorder and also plan to spend more $$ on this little one) on Christmas Eve night because I was too excited and didn’t want to wait until Christmas morning. Sometimes I can be such a kid.

Christmas morning we got up and let the doggies open their presents and play with them and then we headed over to my parent’s house for the day. We had a big breakfast of pancakes, sausage, bacon, homemade bread and eggs. This was a late lunch around 11 so we ended up having Christmas dinner around 6ish. For Christmas dinner we had Ham (my Dad’s work gave them a choice of ham, turkey, or brisket), Cornflake Potato Casserole, Sweet Potato Casserole, layered salad and rolls. For dessert my mom made a Pumpkin Toffee Cheesecake. The cheesecake was TO DIE FOR. Oh and her Sweet Potato Casserole is amazing! It isn’t the kind that has marshmallows on it.. The topping is a mixture of brown sugar and finely chopped pecans. Oh boy that stuff is good.

Anyway so we had a great Holiday. Last night Gene and I drove around and looked at Christmas lights. It’s a tradition we usually do a week or so before Christmas but we just never had time to do it before now. Unfortunately it seems as if a lot of people took down or turned off their lights the day after Christmas. I thought people used to leave them up until New Years? I don’t know. The people across the street from us took theirs down yesterday, I couldn’t believe it.

I would like to get all of my decorations down soon but I don’t know how that is going to pan out. I may have Gene bring in the containers this week and that way I can slowly take the tree apart and dismantle the fireplace mantle (hah). I love right after Christmas when my house gets back to “normal.” There is just something amazing about that feeling! I’ve been getting all of these ideas for ways to declutter and minimize the amount of crap I have laying around. I think I’m going to try to sell some of the stuff I have online, I just haven’t decided where. Probably Ebay. I’m guessing these are the starting stages of nesting. Is it too early to be nesting at almost 21 weeks? I’ve decided that we will probably paint the baby’s room a VERY pale pink. I’m talking, VERY pale here. I don’t want anything overbearing or crazy. I was also thinking I could do a very pale yellow and maybe do pink stencils on the walls of something or other. I need to research nursery ideas and stenciling and painting and stuff.

Anyway, here is the rundown of gifts we received so I’ll have it down for the future. Because my memory? Almost non existent these days.

Me:
- Brown Crocs with brown wool lining (Link) – From Mom & Dad
- Giraffe print purse with red leather strap. – From Mom & Dad
- Electric Skillet (Link) – From Mom & Dad
- Snowman trash can with Japanese Cherry Blossom body wash, body spray, hand creme, a stuffed black sheep – From Layla
- Wii Fit (this was to Gene and I both) – from Mom & Dad
- Animal Crossing for Nintendo DS – From Mom & Dad
- Touchmaster for Nintendo DS – From Gene
- The Simpsons Movie on DVD – From Gene
- Nintendo DS Accessories (a stand, a game case) – From Gene
- LOTS of candy, including: A candy cane tube of sweet tarts, a candy cane tube of runts, a candy cane tube of life saver gummies, a candy cane tube of hershey kisses, a package of snickers peanut butter santas, a package of assorted Fererro Rocher chocolates, a box of laffy taffy… Oh geez I am getting cavities just typing all of this out… – From Gene
- $200 cash from Santa. We are so using that to buy a crib!! $10 restaurant gift card to Chlis/Macaroni Grill/On The Border, more CANDY, fuzzy socks, a movie ticket & free large popcorn – all from Santa

Baby Chao:
- ADORABLE sleeper in size NB that has little bees on the feet
- ADORABLE sleeper in size NB that has little lady bugs on the feet
- Very cute purple “Princess” outfit, a onesie with pants
- Pink Giraffe hooded towel 0-9 months. The hood has the little Giraffe ears & tentacles.

Gene:
- Nintendo DS Lite – Pokemon edition – From Mom & Dad
- A really expensive and fancy electric razor – From Mom & Dad
- Futurama DVD & Mario Kart for Nintendo DS – From Layla

I know I’m forgetting some stuff… I’ll update it as I remember. I also have a lot of pics I need to download off the camera and process and then upload to Flickr. Those will be coming soon.

Candy :: Dec.27.2008 :: Holidays :: Comments Off

Just a quick shout out to tell everyone Happy Holidays. I hope you all have a great one, whatever it is that you celebrate. Remember to be thankful for friends, family and life in general.

Tonight we are having our family Christmas, like we always do, on Christmas Eve. We’ll eat Chili for dinner, open gifts afterwards and then put together a Gingerbread House kit and just hang out for a little while. Gene and I will head home from my parent’s house and watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation while we fall asleep.

This is our first Holiday season together as an officially married couple but also our last Holiday season together with just us. Next year we will have a little one joining us :)

I’ll be back after the busy Holidays slow down a little.

Candy :: Dec.24.2008 :: Holidays :: 1 Comment »

Good morning 5 AM on a Saturday. How not-so-nice to see you. If you would let me fall back asleep sometime soon I would greatly appreciate that. In the mean time, I figured I would write up a little entry to document my Level II ultrasound that I had last Wednesday.

So my doctor’s appointment was at 1:40 PM with a high risk doctor. I think they’re called perinatal doctors? I don’t know. It’s 5 AM, remember? The reason I am going to see a high risk doc is because I have gestational diabetes. Actually, since they caught it so early, my OBGYN is saying that I have Type 2 diabetes now. Whatevz. Anyway, back to the doctor’s office. On the paperwork they mailed me in advance it said specifically to not be more than 5 minutes early to your appointment. I thought that was kind of weird, a doctor’s office telling you to NOT come in early. Anyway, so I showed up at 1:30. Which I realize that is 10 minutes early but I took my chances and walked into the office early.

We got called back to our room at 2:35. Yes, a whole hour and five minutes later. The good news is that as soon as we got into our room, the nurse started the ultrasound immediately. I wanna say she did an ultrasound for a good 30-45 minutes. We got to see so many different angles of the baby and it was soooo wonderful to be there. At one point about half-way through I couldn’t take it anymore and I asked her if the baby was in a bad position to find out the sex and she said no that we should be able to find out. Right then and there I got giddy with excitement and also had this strong urge to punch my OBGYN in the face, AGAIN.

So she did the ultrasound and we got to watch on a big (maybe 42″?) flat screen monitor on the wall. It was really great! She first said she thought it was a girl but the legs were crossed. Then she did get another view and still we saw no boy parts at all and I knew right then and there that everyone has been right and in fact it IS a girl! She left the room to get the doctor but came back shortly and said she wanted to do a vaginal ultrasound to measure my cervix and make sure its not opening or anything. So I got even FURTHER undressed (ugh, I hate that part!) and she came back in and violated me in yet another way. All was good so she left and the doctor came in and he did more ultrasound and checked things like fluid in the brain (yes there is, so no Spina Bifida!) and the lips (No cleft lip) and said everything appears to be great. He checked my blood sugars and said my fasting numbers ARE a little elevated but at this point they all look great and I seem to be doing just fine. They’ll see me back again at around 28 weeks for a follow up ultrasound.

We didn’t get to see the baby in 3D very much. However, I’m kind of glad. The one picture we did get in 3D is a little on the creepy side LOL I’m sorry but seriously, it looks VERY alien/witch-ish. The baby is still so small, they estimated she is about 8oz right now. There is no fat on her at all so she isn’t looking all cute and baby like in the 3D ultrasound. However, on the regular ultrasound she looks ADORABLE and I want to cover her in kisses and hold her in my arms so bad. But don’t worry, I realize the importance of letting her bake a little longer so I’ll hold out until it’s time :)

Gene and I went to Babies R Us where I got a girly outfit, a pink blanket and some pink socks. All very adorable stuff. Most of the stuff I have is 0-3 months because there is no way me for me to know if I’m going to have a small 6lb baby or a large 9lb baby. Am I going to deliver early, on time or late? There is NO way to know these things (which by the way, is driving the PLANNER in me crazy)! I think closer to the due date we will buy a going home outfit in newborn size and also 0-3 months size… That way we will have time to return one or the other within’ the return policy limits.

After all of that, we ended up driving back into the city to the UPS Customer Service center to pick up the Macbook. UPS had been trying to deliver it for a few days but we were never home to accept the package and sign for it. So that night I was all giddy.. we’re having a girl and I got a new Macbook! I knew something had to go wrong and of course, it did. Gene noticed Astro had been rubbing the bottom of his chin on the carpet and there was blood all over the carpet. He must have itched himself crazy or something. So then I cleaned that up and got him cleaned up and went to bed and at 1 AM (an hour after I fell asleep) I woke up to the sound of him standing at the back door, puking. Niiiice. So I got up to clean that up and let him outside. What a fun night that was!

So that’s it, really. We registered at Target already because we had a $20 gift card we could get if we registered by December 20th. I’ve created a registry online at Babies R Us just to bookmark some things that I’d love to have but we haven’t actually done a registry in store. I figured we wouldn’t do that at Babies R Us until sometime in February. A lot of the stuff we scanned at Target had “limited quantity” in the store because they were things that would probably be clearanced out in the next few months. I registered for all of the Classic Pooh stuff.. It is soooo adorable :)

This weekend I need to pick up this house, do laundry, buy the last Christmas gift on my list and then get some much needed rest. I’ve had a lot of tension in the right side of my neck, shoulders and back over the last few days and I think it’s just from all the going, going, going that we’ve been doing lately.

Candy :: Dec.13.2008 :: Daily, Pregnancy :: 1 Comment »

I have so much I need to do this evening and I know I’m not going to get enough time to type up a whole entry about our Level II ultrasound yesterday or about what has been going on and stuff so I figured I’d give a quick note here to say that we found out we are having a GIRL! We are both so ecstatic.

Tonight I have a HUGE list of things to do and I don’t think I’m going to have much time to get on here and post anything. These are the things I really need to accomplish:

• Laundry!
• Grocery Shopping
• Scan Ultrasound photos and order Christmas cards online
• Pick up Kitchen as much as possible
• Upgrade Wordpress!
• Play with my BRAND SPANKIN’ NEW MACBOOK PRO! Yes, I finally got it yesterday. It’s beautiful.
• Upload photos to Flickr
• Take photos of all of our baby loot that we have so far
• Spend time with my doggies and my husband

Candy :: Dec.11.2008 :: Baby, Daily, Geeky, Pregnancy :: 3 Comments »

So yesterday we went to tour a hospital nearby but every single room was full in the maternity ward. We got to walk around, see the nursery, see the surgery room for c-sections and get a little information on how the hospital works. We plan to go back one weekend when they have a room available so we can see inside one of the birthing rooms. I feel confident that we’ll go with this hospital and I’m hoping to fill out pre-registration forms within’ the month.

We went in for my monthly OBGYN appointment yesterday. I’m currently about 17 weeks 4 days and they still couldn’t find the heartbeat with the doppler. I think she had it at one point but then lost it. So we did get to see the little ninja on ultrasound. It was hard to see him/her, but it was nice to see the head, body and spine. The doctor mentioned something about if he/shew as still in this position by next Wednesday then there is no way they will be able to find out the sex and tell me what it is. Kind of a bummer. I’m hoping she’s wrong but I’m worried that she is right.

She also brought up the Gestational Diabetes thing and then went on to say she thinks I am Type 2 diabetic and it’s not actually Gestational at all. Whatever. My numbers are pretty good.. I haven’t been very good at taking them regularly so I’m promising myself to get back on track with pricking my finger and be more consistent with it.

Every time we go in, we talk about diabetes and pregnancy and controlling my weight gain and I leave a little bit depressed. It’s always fun to go see the baby and know that I am one month closer to meeting my little one but at the same time, it is hard on my nerves when all we talk about are all of my problems or potential risks. Don’t get me wrong, I am glad she is trying to help me out and inform me of all the risks associated with it. But at the same time, I just want someone to tell me NOT to worry and that I’m doing great and that our baby has a good chance of being perfectly healthy. I guess one good thing is that we will get MANY ultrasounds due to this diabetes situation. She said I will probably have a “BIG” ultrasound at least once a month until the baby is born.

I also apparently gained 5 lbs from my last appointment. However, I am still UNDER the weight I was back when I first went in at 8 weeks. I don’t know if that is good or bad? The doctor wants me to MAINTAIN or lose over the next 5 months but not to gain anything more. Trust me, I don’t wanna gain anymore either. But I am going to have to work my ass off to eat the right things and exercise more. She told me some stories about babies that were born that had breathing problems due to a diabetic mom and that they had to be in the NICU for a week.. And can I just say that I did NOT need to hear that? I have been nothing but worried since then.

A lot of my frustration is probably having to do with hormones. Over the last two days I’ve cried at least 3 times. Over silly things, I’m sure. But in my hormone induced state, I find them as very important things that upset me. It takes one tiny thing to cause me to burst into tears. I hope it passes soon because I am already frustrated and annoyed and stressed out beyond belief from all of this emotional nonsense.

Candy :: Dec.04.2008 :: Pregnancy :: 3 Comments »