Some pictures

Jen and the kids were up this past weekend so we all went and got our pictures taken (Mom's been trying to organize this for years).

My husband, the radio personality

So Nicky-boy got a new part-time job at the AM radio station in Albert Lea. Right now he's learning the ropes, but eventually he'll be doing sports broadcasting (high school games and stuff like that). Way cool. I think there's talk of him having his own weekend show somewhere down the line, too.

I have to say, I'm loving the 4-year-old age right now (ask me that again when Adam's throwing a tantrum...) He is SO INTO Santa and Christmas. He loves seeing the Christmas lights on all the houses and buildings. He never lets me forget to add an ornament to our Advent calendar every day. He leaves drawings under the Christmas tree for Santa to see. It's so friggin' cute I can hardly stand it. Last Sunday he saw Santa at the Christmas party at the Eagles. I took the pictures with my phone so they kinda suck, but it's all you're gonna get right now.




Okay, and Photobucket sucks eggs because these shouldn't be sideways. Whatever.

Lukey-boy is still as cute as can be. He's been a little sick, he's got a cough and he's more fussy than usual, but he still shows off his big smile whenever you talk to him. I love to munch on his chubby cheeks. Pictures of him forthcoming (yeah, like you haven't heard THAT before...)

We have rollage!

Luke rolled over front to back AND back to front the other day at daycare! Haven't seen it for myself yet since by the time we get home all he wants is a boob and a nap and isn't much for floor time, but I bet he'll perform for us during the long weekend.

I also got him to laugh for me, a real 2-part belly laugh, not just the cute little baby giggles. He's never laughed this much, though:

This is a little girl from my due date club (I'm on a message board where a bunch of us all due in July formed a little club).

Three months!

Blogger's being mean to me, the pictures look cut off but if you click on them they'll come up full-screen.

Adam had just finished some gummi snacks so his teeth are kinda gnarly:

Yes, I actually did take these pictures on Luke's 3-month birthday, I just haven't been able to upload or post them until today.

Halloween pictures to come soon, and Adam had his first hockey practice last Sunday so I'll have some pics from that, too.

Better late than never...

Luke Nicholas was born 07/24/08 at 10:03 p.m. I was in labor all day at work but didn't know it (I was feeling the contractions but they weren't in any pattern and I didn't think they were doing anything). He came fast and easy (the midwife almost didn't make it, she got there about 15 minutes before he was born, and I never did get to go in the birth pool), the contractions hurt some but it didn't "really" start to hurt until about 9 p.m., and then I understood why women ask for drugs. But I'd do it all again in a second, and if there is a #3 he or she will be born at home, too.

1 day old:

Brotherly love:

2 months old:

Angry pumpkin:

Yes I'm still pregnant.

Had contractions all afternoon on Friday. Real ones, too, not just Braxton-Hicks. Don't know how far apart they were or how long they lasted because I didn't have my watch on and we were outside all day.

Don't get too excited, though - haven't had a single one since then.

Here's your chance to name our baby!

We are in desperate need of name help. We haven't agreed on a single name, everything's more of a "maybe", so I'm calling on everyone to hit us with your best name suggestions! There are only 2 rules: 1) It has to be a BOY name (duh). and 2) It has to have 4 letters (or can be shortened via nickname to 4 letters). GO!

I nested!

Okay, being 2 weeks farther along now than I ever got with Adam, this is all new to me. I nested yesterday! I completely cleaned Adam's room, rearranged all his toys, got rid of the "storage" and random junk that was piled up by his closet door, and cleared out the clothes from his dresser that don't fit anymore. Now the kid can actually play with his toys, the only stuff in his room is HIS stuff (well, and the baby's), and his new clothes will fit in his dresser! Gotta still go through the stuff hanging in the closet, though... Ooh, and I got the crib ready to go, all I have to do is wash the sheets and set up the mobile, but I lowered the rail and got the mattress up to the highest setting.

Saturday we spent the day at the Mall of America at Nickelodeon Universe with some of the Semples for Adam's birthday. He got to see Grandpa Steve, Aunt Denice, Aunt Judy, Aunt Kim, Melissa, Matthew, and Olivia. Rode as many rides as they could get on! Nick had to chaperone the boys because they were too small to ride most of the rides by themselves. And get this - they rode the log flume. And LOVED it! I was so surprised, I thought for sure Adam would get freaked out, but he came running out of the exit afterwards asking to do it again! We should have bought the picture they take of you on the ride, Matthew is holding on to the seat in front of him for dear life and Adam has a look of complete horror on his face. But they loved it and rode it again before we left.

If anyone is wondering what to get Adam for his birthday, one word - Legos. Denice bought him a bucket o' Legos for his birthday and they are a HIT. Though he did lose his Lego priviledges yesterday because he decided he didn't want to pick them up when he was done playing with them. So yeah, Legos are "it" right now, you can never have too many Legos (ask me that again when the baby starts to crawl). He also got a big pack of Matchbox cars and a carrying case, much better than the plastic grocery sack he's currently using to haul all of his cars to daycare every day, and a giant firetruck floor puzzle, one of the reasons why I was so gung-ho to get his room cleaned yesterday. And Grandpa gave us some money to go pick out a new Twins hat, his old one is getting a little small for his noggin, and it's pretty spiffy.

As far as the baby's concerned, no news is good news. Still head-down as of last week, still squirming around, no signs of coming out anytime soon. Haven't had an ultrasound since 22 weeks so no guesses on his weight, but my belly measurements are right on track every week. I'm expecting at least an 8-pounder, though 9 would be better (yes, I want a BIG baby! I want a rolly-poly chunker monster!).

Can you hear that?

Shhhh, listen carefully... Do you hear that... It's the sound of Nick, washing dishes...

IN OUR NEW DISHWASHER!! AKA my new best friend. It's not pretty, it's just jerry-rigged up to the water supply and sitting in the middle of our kitchen, but by golly it washes dishes just fine! Be still, my heart...

My son, the future midwife (midhusband?)

Sorry for not updating sooner, there's just been nothing to write about. Baby's fine, really active, and I feel fine. My lower back hurts a little bit but I heard my stepsister has sciatica so I'm not complaining too much.

We're now down to visits every 2 weeks. I'm officially in the 3rd trimester! As of today I'm 28+5 weeks. I had an appointment last Thursday and everything was peachy. No swelling, not spilling protein or glucose, and I'm measuring right on target. We're starting to talk a little bit more about the birth and what to expect now, what's normal and what's not normal, stuff like that. I'm going to have to make Nick a little cheat sheet for labor because the poor guy is going to be completely out of his element. Props to him for humoring me about my "crazy homebirth" ideas, though. He's taking everything in stride.

No new updates on the name front, Nick is nonplussed about the whole thing and thinks we have plenty of time to decide, whereas I'm chomping at the bit ready to name this kid already! Nickolas (notice the spelling) is a maybe, Braden is a maybe, Aiden is a maybe, other than that we can't narrow anything down. Nancy just suggested Cole, to keep with the 4-letter name tradition (Nick, Lisa, Adam), so I'll run that by Nick to see if he vetoes it or not. It's the name of a character on one of his favorite soaps, though, so I'm not sure how it's going to go over. On the other hand, his girl name (Hope) is also a soap name, so you never know.

So, on to my future midwife. At my appointment last week Adam was bouncing around and showing off as usual. About every 5 minutes he'd interrupt and ask if it was time for him to squeeze the black thing yet (he gets to squeeze the bulb of the blood pressure cuff when Rachel takes my vitals). So we're winding down our visit and Rachel starts getting things out to check on the baby. Of course she lets him squeeze the bulb, which he does an awesome job of. I lay down so she can check on the baby's heartbeat and he gets a tissue ready to wipe off the blue goo they use for the Doppler. Now that the baby's bigger Rachel is using a fetoscope to check on the heart rate (http://www.allheart.com/om13fetal.html) and always brings 2 with her, one for her to listen and one for the mother to listen. Well, she has her fetoscope on my belly and is trying to hear (the heartbeat is still kind of soft at this point), and while she's doing that Adam grabs the other one, sticks the earpieces in his ears, and puts the thing on my belly. It was all I could do not to bust out laughing! I kept looking at him and giggling, and apologizing to her because every time I laughed it made my belly move and she was trying so hard to listen, but then I'd catch a glimpse of Adam listening intently to my belly and I'd start laughing again. I so wish I'd gotten a picture, but I was kind of indisposed at the moment and Nick was outside working on the house. It was just the cutest thing I'd ever seen! She finally got a good read on the heartbeat and let me try to listen to see if I could hear, but I couldn't. Maybe next time. So she starts packing up her stuff and Adam asked where the blue stuff was, with the tissue still clutched in his hand, so she fell victim to his cuteness and broke out the Doppler so he could hear the heartbeat and help wipe the goo off my belly. Such a good little helper.

And now for something completely different

Puppies!!

Yeah, sorry they're sideways, Photobucket sucks. Gertie had her puppies on Tuesday morning, and 4 girls and 2 boys made it through the night (one girl died).

He MAY have turned...

I don't know for sure, but babe might be head-down now. I got a few kicks to my upper abdomen this morning.

Place your bet!

Someone hooked me up with this cool website where you can set up an online baby pool!

http://www.expectnet.com/games/sempbabypool

Two hints - It's a boy (duh) and as of yesterday the ultrasound gave a weight of 1 pound 3 ounces.

It's a...

boy! And a very healthy boy at that! He has absolutely no modesty, unlike his brother, who made us go down to Mason City for a 4-D ultrasound to find out gender, this one gave up the goods right away! I do have pictures, but we don't have a scanner; my mom has a scanner but no internet, so it may be a few days before I can get anything posted.

I can see why this OB is so popular, he had an awesome bedside manner. He was completely nonplussed about the whole midwife thing, told us if we had any questions or needed anything to let him know, and to come right in if there were any emergencies. During the ultrasound he told us exactly what he was looking at and why he was looking at it, which my last OB didn't do. In the abdomen we could see the stomach bubble, which means the baby can swallow and urinate, which rules out a specific birth defect, and it was below the heart so there's no diaphragmatic hernia; the skull was nice and round so there's no anencephaly; and the cord insertion was normal and there weren't any organs floating on the outside, so he doesn't have gastroschisis or omphalocele. And, oh yeah, did I mention it's a BOY?! His measurements were right on, I'm due July 23 and the measurements via ultrasound put the due date at July 19, so close enough.

20 weeks 5 days

Last night's appointment went swimmingly. I'm measuring right on target and when she busted out the Doppler to hear the heartbeat we got it on the first try. Then s/he decided to play hard to get and swam away. I'm starting to feel a lot more kicks, and when I lie down at night and press on my belly I can tell where the baby is hanging out - whether it's on the right side, left side, or way up top. Pretty cool.

AND, I just called and set up my ultrasound, it's next Tuesday at 1:30. We intend on finding out the sex, so if you don't want to know stay away from the blog next week!

We have heartbeat!

Rachel (the midwife) just left after my 17-week appointment. We heard the heartbeat loud and clear this time, it was running about 150 beats per minute. It's also an active little bugger, we heard a bunch of kicks in the short time she had the Doppler on my belly.

Our next visit is scheduled for March 10, but before then I'll get my 20-week ultrasound. Rachel is going to get ahold of one of the OBs at the clinic and see if I can get an ultrasound without officially becoming a patient or having to get a whole mess of bloodwork and labs.

The husband of a member of a message board I'm on wrote a really great entry on their blog about homebirth. http://ronrothman.com/public/leftbraned/is-home-birth-courageous I highly recommend reading it. It's a lot of what I wrote in my "hombirth soapbox" entry but a lot "nicer"!

I'm organized!

I emailed my payment plan to my midwife yesterday (because I, um, forgot to print it out before my appointment on Tuesday) and she emailed me back thanking me and saying I was very organized. Ya see that?! I'm ORGANIZED! Ha! I think I'm going to print that out and hang it on my cubicle wall so I can show people when they start griping about how cluttered my desk is.

Oh, and so far this little bean is taking after his/her big brother and really liking Mexican food...

And now, my homebirth/midwife soapbox

Being the "odd" one of the family, I'm sure people are wondering why the heck I'm using a midwife and having a homebirth (if you didn't know before, you do now!). Well, for one, I'm not sick and don't need a doctor. Second, I don't like being told what to do and really don't want to worry about having to tell some random nurse to get their hands out of me when I'm in the middle of a contraction, or to stop yelling at me to push, or be put on a timetable from the moment my water breaks, my first contraction, how many centimeters I am, etc. Third, I like being treated like a person instead of a paycheck. When I was pregnant with Adam the longest my OB ever spent with me during a prenatal was 15 minutes, and after I got married she didn't even notice that my name had changed on my chart. At my prenatal with my midwife Tuesday night she was there for almost 2 hours and knew I'd just had a birthday. Just a random prenatal, nothing special. I don't have to worry about taking off work or sitting in a waiting room for an hour to spend 10 minutes with the doctor. My son and my husband get to be at all of the appointments and be involved in my care (the highlight of Adam's day is getting to squeeze the ball to pump up the blood pressure cuff when Rachel takes my vitals). I know when I go into labor Rachel will be the one to help me deliver my baby, not whichever OB happens to be on call that day. I know that by having my baby at home there is a decreased chance of needing any interventions like episiotomy (which you know was created by a man), epidural, or C-section, and the risk to me or the baby isn't any greater than birthing in a hospital (check out http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/330/7505/1416?ehom_ if you don't believe me). I don't have to worry about the baby catching some infection from the hospital (MRSA, anyone?). I will know exactly what procedures are done to my baby and why they're being done. I will know exactly what procedures are being done to ME and why they're being done. My midwife will actually listen to me if I want to decline something or ask questions instead of citing "it's procedure" ad nauseum. I won't have to bring my baby into a germy doctor's office for a checkup, Rachel will come right to my house for all of the postpartum mother and baby visits. Basically, I am in control, which is just better for everyone :)

Well, the midwife appointment went well last night. Mostly talked about my medical history and how the pregnancy is going so far. We did attempt to hear the heartbeat but the little bugger didn't want to cooperate, we'd get a blip on the Doppler then s/he'd swim away, so we never really got a good "bump-bump-bump" rhythm going. Rachel warned me that we might not be able to hear the heartbeat, and I had to promise not to freak out if we didn't before she'd agree to trying out the Doppler. All in all everything is going well, my uterus is starting to peek out over my pubic bone and growing into my abdomen more, and I'm officially in the 2nd trimester now, so hopefully I'll start looking pregnant soon instead of just fat. Grow, baby, grow!

Our midwife Rachel called last night, we have our next prenatal set up for Tuesday at 6. Should have some nice updates after that visit.

On a lighter note, my gag reflex has fully kicked in. Nothing like almost making yourself puke just by brushing your teeth!

Baby News

So, I'm 12 weeks 1 day. Nothing going on. No sickness, no movement, no belly bulge. Boring. I should be having my next midwife appointment next week, so if anything fun happens I'll let you know (we should be able to hear the heartbeat!).