Alex holding a baby for the first time

We have been talking a lot about babies around our house lately.   Alex even thinks he has a baby in his belly, along with Bella, our dog.   Mama always says that you have to be careful of the baby in her tummy so we have to be careful of the baby in his tummy, too.   And sometimes, the baby is hungry and wants to eat a lot!

Well, we got to visit Eric and Becky with their new baby boy, Evan, a few weeks ago.  We talked about how there was a baby at “Allie’s” house and how if he was really careful – he might even get to hold him.  We sat him down and put a pillow on his lap (and you can see Eric’s arms helping out) and he did GREAT!  He was so proud.  He remarked how little his fingers were and his little nose. 

All practice for this coming summer!!!

 

P.S. Sorry folks for the time in between posts.  It’s been very difficult for me in the evenings to even think about doing anything (let alone starting up my computer and all that).  Bare with me – I’m hoping to feel better within about a month or so. 

Chainsaw ears

I bet you're wondering what "chainsaw ears" are.... kinda weird, I know.

Here's the story of how Alex uses the words he learns and uses them in real life...

Lance wears ear protection when mowing, weed-eating, and when using the chainsaw. We got Alex to wear them a couple of times because he LOVES riding on the lawnmower with Lance and mowing the grass.

He won't wear the ear protection anymore, and for a while we were OK with him just plugging his ears (little does he know - next time he will have to wear the ear protection or he doesn't get to ride).

So, the other day, there was a neighbor mowing their grass (or something else loud) and he told me that I had to put on my "chainsaw ears". He took his hands and kind-of put his hands on each of my ears and told me now I had "chainsaw ears". He's done this a few times to me and I didn't really think anything of it until he did it to Lance and Lance just had the funniest look on his face.... Like, "what did he just say? Chainsaw ears? What does that mean?"

I told him I thought he meant lawnmower ears (which is what they are used for most of the time) but got it mixed up and then it stuck.

We laughed and told ourselves that we will have to remember this moment.

Chainsaw ears. Love it!

Guess what????

I'm pregnant and expecting a baby at the end of April (April 25th to be exact)!

I have been feeling tired and nauseous, like a normal pregnant lady, but you do forget! I'm about 11 weeks along and right in the thick of it all. Hopefully by 14/16/18 weeks, I will be feeling full of energy, the urge to nest and be feeling like food sounds even remotely good. I've lost about 5-10 lbs because of the nausea. But, the same old foods that if I can't eat anything are holding true this time - cold cereal, bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and yogurt. Weird mix - I know - but that is what it is.

I haven't been feeling like doing ANYTHING, not even taking pictures lately. Vacuum/cleaning/cooking/picking up toys - why? It's too much for me right now. I come home from work and pick up Alex and sit on the couch for the rest of the night. Lance has been calling me "lump" because all I do is sit on the couch. We got to see a quick ultrasound of our baby and he/she is doing well.

But, with all this - my back has been hurting and a good friend told me about how she has been seeing a chiropractor during her pregnancy and how she has been feeling better. I looked into it and decided to go. I went last Wednesday and had an adjustment and felt SO SO SO good afterwards. Nausea usually comes around lunch time for me, and lasts until about 8-9 PM. But, that day and the next day I barely had any nausea. My back felt better, so much better, and I felt like my old self again.

I went again on Friday having great expectations.... sidetrack here ..... Along with everything, I'm monitoring my blood pressure daily because of the pre-eclamsia with Alex. So, I got a new monitor a few days before and started monitoring. It was reading about 100/65. Pretty low for me. But, I thought... it's a new monitor for me, so I would talk to my doctor about it when I saw her next month. Well, Chiropractic is known for lowering blood pressure, which is one of the reasons I wanted to do it. It's natural and it could help me out if my blood pressure starts to creep up. But, on top of that I am taking a low dose of a blood pressure medication because after Alex, my BP was pre-hypertension (~135/85) and it's better to control it now that have 20 years of pre-hypertension. Which I take in the morning.

Some of you might see where this is going....

I fainted at the chiropractor. She took my BP before the adjustment, did the adjustment and I started to feel lightheaded. I sat down and she started to take my BP again and I got that black tunnel vision and the next thing I know I'm resting my head on her shoulder wondering what the heck happened. I was only out for a few seconds, but it was pretty scary. I probably scared the crappola out of the chiropractor.

Turns out that early in pregnancy with all the blood volume changes, my blood pressure actually was ~100/65 and the chiropractic really lowered it even more, so much more that I fainted. I guess it's normal to have your BP lower in the first trimester. I had no idea.

I went to see my family doctor the day I fainted to make sure everything was OK, and it was. But, she told me to get off the BP medication immediately and to keep monitoring 2x a day.

We'll see how it goes!

Anyways, It's been hard to not share the news that we are expecting. But, we've come to the time when we can shout it from the roof tops. We are exciting, scared, thrilled, tired and wondering how we are going to do it all. But, what we've learned from parenthood, is that we'll figure it out together.