Oh, P.S. Those on facebook know, Valerie cut her hair *again*. Soo the pixie bangs and giant chunks on the side of her face are not -my- doing. Oh well.. she thinks she has magic hair that grows back over night apparently.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Playing at the Forest Preserve
I threw sundresses on the girls today and ran over to the local forest preserve to snap some pictures. I've been having issues with my shots lately and finally verified that it is indeed that I have a junky filter, but luckily is not my new lens! (I have had to throw out entire sets of photos, like our trip to the zoo, for example because every single photo was blurry!) Lesson learned. Here's what we came up with today:
Oh, P.S. Those on facebook know, Valerie cut her hair *again*. Soo the pixie bangs and giant chunks on the side of her face are not -my- doing. Oh well.. she thinks she has magic hair that grows back over night apparently.
Oh, P.S. Those on facebook know, Valerie cut her hair *again*. Soo the pixie bangs and giant chunks on the side of her face are not -my- doing. Oh well.. she thinks she has magic hair that grows back over night apparently.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
34 week appt
I just got in from the doctor. I had some pretty bad swelling over the weekend and sudden weight gain,etc. but it seems to have gone down a lot since then. I'm thinking it's because it was 90 degrees in St. Louis and only 70 up here! I'm not quite used to that hot/humid weather! Just incase, I'm going to go every week from now in to keep me monitored, but my blood pressure and other signs were normal.. so for now, no pre-eclampsia! I also fully passed my glucose tests so no GD either. great!
I have really been dreading having another c-section and told him I really wanted to try to go naturally and he said, "absolutely not." I have met several people that have had vbacs after 2 c-sects but we don't have much choice in the hospitals/doctors we see, so once again, I have no choice. It angers me since he would have let me had I had a vbac with Ellie.. but they didn't give me that option in Italy either. This is the downside to free healthcare!!!
On a weird note, he is sticking with a July 11th due date. This frustrates me because my due date was July 7 and the only thing I can think of is that my previous doctor in Italy changed my due date after my first u/s which wasn't very accurate. I know my body, when the baby was conceived,etc. It's not a huge deal, except that a July 11th due date puts my c-section date for July 4. Since it's a holiday, it's not allowed to be scheduled then, not that I'd want to, so he thinks I'm going to have to move it up for the week after, into my 40th week.
Since I had both the girls weeks before my due date, it's basically pointless because now I'm going to be sitting around waiting to go into labor so that the hospital with accept me into the ER for a c-section. Trying to get ready for a c-sect while in active labor is NOT awesome and either is the anxiety I'm getting trying to figure out what to do with my children before my parents can get up here. It takes 2 hours for them to get here, and that's if they walked out the door the second I called them, and it isn't rush hour. arhghhh!! I just have this fear of me having a c-sect alone for the 3rd time while D is in the waiting room with the girls :(
Anyway, that's all I know for now. He said he'd check with the hospital on dates because they have 'policies' that apparently don't budge (aka he's not sure he can schedule me for an earlier c-sect before 4th of July unless I can somehow prove that my due date should be 7/7.. riiiight). SO I should know more next week at my next appt.
Ciao for now!
I have really been dreading having another c-section and told him I really wanted to try to go naturally and he said, "absolutely not." I have met several people that have had vbacs after 2 c-sects but we don't have much choice in the hospitals/doctors we see, so once again, I have no choice. It angers me since he would have let me had I had a vbac with Ellie.. but they didn't give me that option in Italy either. This is the downside to free healthcare!!!
On a weird note, he is sticking with a July 11th due date. This frustrates me because my due date was July 7 and the only thing I can think of is that my previous doctor in Italy changed my due date after my first u/s which wasn't very accurate. I know my body, when the baby was conceived,etc. It's not a huge deal, except that a July 11th due date puts my c-section date for July 4. Since it's a holiday, it's not allowed to be scheduled then, not that I'd want to, so he thinks I'm going to have to move it up for the week after, into my 40th week.
Since I had both the girls weeks before my due date, it's basically pointless because now I'm going to be sitting around waiting to go into labor so that the hospital with accept me into the ER for a c-section. Trying to get ready for a c-sect while in active labor is NOT awesome and either is the anxiety I'm getting trying to figure out what to do with my children before my parents can get up here. It takes 2 hours for them to get here, and that's if they walked out the door the second I called them, and it isn't rush hour. arhghhh!! I just have this fear of me having a c-sect alone for the 3rd time while D is in the waiting room with the girls :(
Anyway, that's all I know for now. He said he'd check with the hospital on dates because they have 'policies' that apparently don't budge (aka he's not sure he can schedule me for an earlier c-sect before 4th of July unless I can somehow prove that my due date should be 7/7.. riiiight). SO I should know more next week at my next appt.
Ciao for now!
Monday, May 25, 2009
Just catching up.. and some belly pics!
Happy Memorial Day!! I hope you got to relax on your day off, but also hope you remembered these guys and gals who die fighting for us!
We have been so busy, but doing really great! A little over a week ago we had lots of fun visiting with our dear friends April and Brian and their cutie pie kids. Derrick took Brian's job, so unfortunately they moved on as we arrived here and we never even got to see each other!! We were thankful to be invited to Brian's 40th birthday bash and got to spend some time here at the house with them and the kids. It is hard to see your best friends' kids grow up in pictures!!! :) muah!
Last week we spent much of it getting the baby's room put together and clothes washed/organized,etc. I think we are nearly ready!!! My parents came up Thursday evening to watch the girls and Derrick and I flew out to St. Louis on Friday morning, very early. The Navy will ship your car to the States for you, but it's up to you to pick it up, annoying. It was nice to have a few days away though before the baby arrives and made the most of it!! Other than Sears ripping our exhaust system off our van and causing us to spend the entire first day of our "getaway" in an auto waiting room, it was a fabulous weekend!!!
We ate many relaxed meals with adult conversation (imagine that), went shopping (poor D), and hung out with some great friends of ours, Sarah and Dave!! We took turns taking pics for each other in Forest Park (downtown St. Louis.. gorgeous!!) and went to eat. I made Dave drive us all the way out to the famous ice cream/custard place, Ted Drewes (thank you, Dave) and got my fill. I have been craving it since Julie took me there last year. YUM!
Sarah is a great photographer and friend.. for those in the St. Louis area-- I recommend her! :) If you want to check out my pics with D in the park, go to her sight and click on 'feature' and we're the pic with hands on the big belly.
http://www.sarahlough.com/
Tmrw I have my 34 week doctor appt.. I will update after!
We have been so busy, but doing really great! A little over a week ago we had lots of fun visiting with our dear friends April and Brian and their cutie pie kids. Derrick took Brian's job, so unfortunately they moved on as we arrived here and we never even got to see each other!! We were thankful to be invited to Brian's 40th birthday bash and got to spend some time here at the house with them and the kids. It is hard to see your best friends' kids grow up in pictures!!! :) muah!
Last week we spent much of it getting the baby's room put together and clothes washed/organized,etc. I think we are nearly ready!!! My parents came up Thursday evening to watch the girls and Derrick and I flew out to St. Louis on Friday morning, very early. The Navy will ship your car to the States for you, but it's up to you to pick it up, annoying. It was nice to have a few days away though before the baby arrives and made the most of it!! Other than Sears ripping our exhaust system off our van and causing us to spend the entire first day of our "getaway" in an auto waiting room, it was a fabulous weekend!!!
We ate many relaxed meals with adult conversation (imagine that), went shopping (poor D), and hung out with some great friends of ours, Sarah and Dave!! We took turns taking pics for each other in Forest Park (downtown St. Louis.. gorgeous!!) and went to eat. I made Dave drive us all the way out to the famous ice cream/custard place, Ted Drewes (thank you, Dave) and got my fill. I have been craving it since Julie took me there last year. YUM!
Sarah is a great photographer and friend.. for those in the St. Louis area-- I recommend her! :) If you want to check out my pics with D in the park, go to her sight and click on 'feature' and we're the pic with hands on the big belly.
http://www.sarahlough.com/
Tmrw I have my 34 week doctor appt.. I will update after!
Monday, May 11, 2009
Mother's Day and Millennium Park
Happy (belated) Mother's Day to all you mama's out there!! I hope you had a great day and felt as loved by your family as I did! :)
Our weekend was nice. Friday and Saturday we got the painting finished downstairs, put some things on the walls,etc. I will take pics soon. There are still random boxes of things we haven't figured out what to do with, paint rollers,etc. setting around. ugh. another day.
Sunday I woke up to my cutie pie's YELLING in my ear that they were awake and Happy Mother's Day!! It was the sweetest thing. They gave me cards while I was in bed and helped Daddy make me crepes with nutella for breakfast! (That was my favorite thing I ate in Paris). We went to church and finally found our church home after weeks of searching and growing frustrated. In the afternoon, we met my parents downtown at Millennium Park and walked around for awhile. Right now there are tulips blooming everywhere and it's a great time to be downtown! We had a nice dinner and had a really great day!! Here are (a lot) of pics from our day:
behold the hugeness that is my belly. lovely, eh?
Thursday, May 7, 2009
New Lens, and big news for Elle Belle
... she's almost fully potty trained!! (well, except pull ups for night time, but that of course is a physical development and will take time!) A couple months ago we started putting her on the potty and she would randomly go but usually not. I didn't really want to deal with it until after we moved and I could stay in one spot to be able to take her to the potty every 30 mins or so. Since it's so nice out, last week we put her pullups away and told her they were only for night time and made a huge deal out of the fact that she gets to wear big girl underwear!! She is currently wearing the gerber kind with extra layers so it helps soak up any liquids if she has accidents. I highly recommend this, as I did not have these with Val and ohhh what a difference. At any rate the first 2 days I think she had like 18 accidents. No joke, the kid would pee, change her underwear, and pee again 20 mins later, after sitting on the potty. It was frustrating but I hit a point that I was done with pullups. After only a week she is now down to about one or two accidents a day, and today survived an outing of an hour and a half walk/park and came home dry! I was impressed (and had extra underwear in the wagon incase. thank goodness for sundresses) We're so proud of her (and relieved, we may only have one in diapers again! hooray)
We are going to use cloth again with this baby, so I don't need too much. I'm feeling pretty prepared, and quite honestly think I could get more done around here if I could actually bend over or climb a ladder so we're ready! I am 31 weeks, however she is measuring very large and there's some discrepency between me and the doctors on the due date. I know my body very well, so I'm sure that's when she's due but I think my babies just seem to be done cookin' a little sooner. Ellie came at 38 weeks, so I told D to just be prepared.
Lastly, my new portrait lens arrived today and it's wonderful! It's a canon 85mm f/1.8 and I highly recommend it. What is lovely about it, in comparison to my 50mm f/1.4 is that you don't have to get so close to the subject (aka a running toddler) to take a portrait. The clarity is wonderful (I've read comparable to an L-series in many reviews) and the background blur is beautiful. This might replace my 50mm for my fav. lens, but I'm happy to have something new to play with. I'll take lots of pics this weekend as we are meeting my parents downtown at Millenium Park on Sunday! Here's 2 we shot really quick when I got my lens to test it in our front yard:
Monday, May 4, 2009
Just talkin..
No pics to share today, sorry. I'll have some this week though. I finally found my camera's battery charger that has been gone for months randomly packed away! I also am getting my portrait lens fixed and Derrick let me get a new portrait lens too!! I can't wait for it to get here, I will definitely shoot a bunch this weekend. Happy Mother's Day to me!! :)
It was gorgeous here this weekend. Since it rained the last two, we spent most of this weekend outside. There are beautiful forest preserves and huge parks full of lakes, hiking trails, and gardens all over up here. We went to one Saturday and the girls loved to watch the ducks swim on the lake and play at the playground. Derrick is in heaven here.
Sunday we tried out yet another church, our third thus far. It was a United Methodist church in Libertyville and it was small but really warm and friendly. They have a very large congregation seemingly but we chose to try out the contemporary service which unfortunately is very small and in the social hall rather than the sanctuary. yuck. I don't like sitting on folding chairs (esp when I have this restless leg issue being pg) and it didn't feel churchy. Their ministries are great, they are very involved with habitat for humanity and others that D and I would love to volunteer with. The girls had a good time. They had a praise band/modern music but traditional elements and it was a nice blend. We're torn on whether or not to return. I just can't find one that totally clicks. Will keep looking.
I hope you all enjoy the week and pamper your mom's for Mother's Day next weekend! I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon with my new OB, but seemingly all is well with this pregnancy. I feel like my hips are breaking apart at times but the nurse informed me that it's very normal for a 3rd pregnancy. How do women do this 4,5,etc. times?? geeze. :) off to clean up some chocolate milk that my 2 year old spilled all over the place.. them smeared all over the table and seat cushions. lovely. Ciao amici
It was gorgeous here this weekend. Since it rained the last two, we spent most of this weekend outside. There are beautiful forest preserves and huge parks full of lakes, hiking trails, and gardens all over up here. We went to one Saturday and the girls loved to watch the ducks swim on the lake and play at the playground. Derrick is in heaven here.
Sunday we tried out yet another church, our third thus far. It was a United Methodist church in Libertyville and it was small but really warm and friendly. They have a very large congregation seemingly but we chose to try out the contemporary service which unfortunately is very small and in the social hall rather than the sanctuary. yuck. I don't like sitting on folding chairs (esp when I have this restless leg issue being pg) and it didn't feel churchy. Their ministries are great, they are very involved with habitat for humanity and others that D and I would love to volunteer with. The girls had a good time. They had a praise band/modern music but traditional elements and it was a nice blend. We're torn on whether or not to return. I just can't find one that totally clicks. Will keep looking.
I hope you all enjoy the week and pamper your mom's for Mother's Day next weekend! I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon with my new OB, but seemingly all is well with this pregnancy. I feel like my hips are breaking apart at times but the nurse informed me that it's very normal for a 3rd pregnancy. How do women do this 4,5,etc. times?? geeze. :) off to clean up some chocolate milk that my 2 year old spilled all over the place.. them smeared all over the table and seat cushions. lovely. Ciao amici
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