Friday, December 26, 2008

Christmas Eve

We spend Christmas Eve every year at my grandma and grandpa's house. This year was no different, and Emily wore her Christmas jammies to celebrate in style. She opened her presents from Great Grandpa and Great Grandma. She got a baby doll (we're hoping she can use it to practice for when her baby brother gets here), a super cute outfit, and a purse that has all kinds of goodies inside. Here she is playing with the purse and its contents:


One thing that Emily loves to do is stand on boxes. Rather than simply opening them, she enjoys giving them a good bounce first, to make sure they are quality boxes.
She finally went to bed around 9:00, just missing Aunt Jen, Uncle Jason, and Isabelle. But, we knew she had a big day on Christmas, so our tired little elf had to sleep.

Rocky Ridge



We went to Rocky Ridge to see Christmas Magic this year. Last year Emily liked it, but this year she absolutely loved the lights! She had so much fun with Grandma Sipe, Great Grandma March, Dan, and I! The only part she didn't like this year was Santa. Dan tried to sit her on his lap, but she immediately began reaching for Dan and crying. So...Dan and Emily both got to have their pictures taken with Santa.

In a sleigh there, we sat to have our picture taken. Since my mom was the one in charge of picture taking, it took way longer than it should have :)

Friday, December 19, 2008

Busy, Busy

This week was crazy busy. On Monday, I got a call from Diabetes Management; it was time to begin insulin shots. So, I picked them up, gave myself a pep talk, and got started. I can't say it's fun...it's definitely easier to take the oral meds...but it's not torturous. The only problem I seem to have is bruising on my one side...I must stick the needle in differently when reaching across my growing expanse of a belly. I also had an ob appointment Monday night, which was worrisome since my blood pressure was way high. I've never had an issue with high blood pressure, so the doctor was a bit worried. After three tries, it did go back down, but the issue scored me another appointment on Wednesday for another blood pressure check. Luckily, that day it was just fine, so I'm off the hook for my blood pressure. The doctor did mention that while my due date is in April and the goal is to schedule the c-section at the beginning of April, I should be aware that they may push me earlier.

Thursday I had my ultrasound and echocardiogram. The baby looked great! His heart is perfect, and he is growing just fine. They are estimating his weight at one pound twelve ounces right now. It sounded big to me, but the tech told me it's right on schedule. He's very active in there, and at one point he actually kicked the probe off my belly! My next ultrasound is on January 19, so we'll see how he's coming along then.

The big news is that Dan has chosen a name! Like last time, we are not going to share. There are a few reasons for this. First and foremost, we want the option to change our minds if we need to :) Also, I have been around too many pregnant women who have gotten negative reactions to the names they've chosen. I figure once he's out, most people will just be so enthralled with him that they won't need to comment on his name. Plus, we like to have a surprise for everyone, and since everyone knows the gender, this is our secret we're keeping. I will say that I am very happy with the name, and I think that most people will like it. Dan did a great job!

Monday, December 15, 2008

Baby Bedding

After the fiasco that occurred when Dan and I bought new bedding for our room, I was determined to give up some control over what the baby's nursery would look like. I chose Emily's bedding pretty much by myself. I showed Dan what I liked, he agreed, and we bought it. This may be part of the reason why the word "dictator" was thrown around when we were arguing about which bedding we should put in our room. So, this time I allowed Dan to choose. Sort've.

I found several bedding options I liked. Two had ships on them. One featured whales and monkeys. I was purposely staying away from anything sports related for a few reasons. First, I don't really like sports. I've seen some events in person, and they're actually fun, but to sit around and watch ESPN and listen to those announcers? It's like nails on a chalkboard to me. Second, I think it's sort've expected that if you have a boy, he will have a sports related room. While I don't think that's a bad thing, I did want to do something a bit different. After all, that's part of the reason why Emily didn't get a pink room. Third, I kept thinking that subconsciously, we would be setting up expectations for our son to be an athlete. Why put that kind of pressure on an infant? What if he's artistic? What if he enjoys ballet?

So, Dan looked at my "pre-approved" options. Then he chose this:

Yep...our little guy will have a sports room after all. And that's okay...because this dictator promised to accept the choice that Dan made.

Monday, December 8, 2008

21 Week picture


I absolutely hate having my picture taken while pregnant, but I didn't want to feel guilty for not having any pictures this time around. So...this is me at 21 weeks. I feel much larger this time around, even though technically I don't weigh more. Maybe it's because it's a boy, so I'm carrying differently.

Quick Stats Update

Emily had her 18 month appointment last week. For those of you not in the know, at her last appointment (15 months) the doctor was concerned about her weight. As in, she wasn't gaining enough. Yeah, I know, tough right? Anyway, I knew that she had to have made some progress because the girl shovels food into her mouth like it's going out of style (like Mommy, like daughter). Also, when looking at us side by side, you have a hard time guessing which one is carrying a baby in her belly (I'll post some pics at a later time).

Emily now weighs a whopping 21 pounds, putting her between the 5th and 10th percentile for weight. The doctor was happy about this, since she did gain since last time. She is now officially heavy enough to flip her car seat to forward facing, although our pediatrician recommended we wait on that since she's still "on the small side". She is 31 and a half inches long, which puts her at almost the same height as her Grandma Sipe. Those two will be trading clothes in no time! Actually, she's in the 50th percentile for height. But what is really growing on this girl? Her head, which is in the 60th percentile. So basically, if you have a kid who is in the 5th for weight and the 60th for head size, you can sort've picture her by picturing a lollipop with feet.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Happy Anniversary (Part 2)

I ordered tickets for us to go to the top of the Washington Monument at 4:00 P.M.  I'd never done this before, even though I'd been to the monument numerous times.  After a very fast geography lesson from a park service guide (he seriously said everything so fast, I only caught a few words), we were shepherded inside to the elevator.  The elevator took 70 seconds to reach the observation deck, which was at 500 feet.  The pictures were taken through the glass windows, which is why they're a bit fuzzy, but you get the idea.  It was really cool to be able to see all over the city.  The first is of the Lincoln Memorial and the reflecting pool.


This is the Capital Building
After a slower descent on the elevator (it slowed and opened the windows so you could see all the stones that were given by states, countries, and organizations) we headed toward the World War II memorial.  This hadn't been completed the last time we were in town (way back in 2003 when Dan and I first began dating).  We wanted to see it and get some pictures for his parents, who were with us the last time.  This is Dan standing in front of the fountains and water in the middle of it.
I'm in front of the Atlantic side.  It's actually really huge and beautiful.  
We were going to try to walk to the Lincoln Memorial after that since Dan wanted to see that again, but by this time we were both tired, sore, and getting cold.  We decided to head back to the hotel.  I got this picture of the White House on our walk back.
Saturday night we went for dinner at McCormick and Schmick's, a seafood restaurant I'd wanted to try in Baltimore.  I will admit a large part of the reason we decided on that restaurant was its close proximity to our hotel.  My feet, legs, and back were killing me from walking around for over 7 hours during the day, and while Dan was a bit better off than I was, he was feeling some pain as well.  We had a good dinner, then like losers, went back to the hotel to simply hang out.  I think we were asleep by 10:15 (which was our late night!)  It was a far cry from the days living in Waldorf and just getting out to the clubs and bars at that time!   I think we both enjoyed two nights of sleeping without hearing every sound and movement on the baby monitor though...it will be awhile before we enjoy that luxury again :)


Happy Anniversary (Part 1)

Over Thanksgiving weekend, Dan and I went to Washington, D.C. to celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary.  With a toddler and a new baby on the way, we knew it was going to be awhile before we got a chance to get away again.  Plus, I couldn't even remember the last time we'd had dinner without anyone else!  So, Friday afternoon we dropped Emily off at mom and Ron's, and we headed into the city.  

We stayed at the Capital Hilton, which I have to take a minute to highly recommend.  When we checked in, the woman at the desk noted it was our anniversary and upgraded us to a 2 room suite.  We had a separate living room with a wet bar and fridge, two televisions, three phones (one in the bathroom, which baffled me), and a huge king size bed.  She also gave us vouchers for appetizers each night of our stay and the breakfast buffet each morning!  After checking out our room, we decided to take a walk and see what was around.  We found the White House 2 blocks away:




After seeing some sights, we decided to stop for dinner.  We spotted a gaudy red and yellow place called Ollie's Trollies which was touted as a "Washington, D.C. landmark".  Um, not even close.  It smelled funny inside, but we braved it anyway.  Dan got the famous Ollie burger...see how much he's enjoying it?



I think the funniest part was when a woman brought her two little boys in the restaurant to use the bathroom.  She took one look at it, turned them around, and said, "We'll go across the street to Barnes and Noble!"  Yep, it was that classy of a restaurant.  I couldn't complain though...they made a yummy BLT!

Saturday after breakfast, we decided to go to the Washington Zoo.  I hadn't been here since an eighth grade field trip, and I wanted to check it out.  Who knew it was so big?  It took us hours to get through, which was fine, but I didn't realize it was so extensive.  My favorite animal, by far, was the panda bear.  Only one was out, but after some creative acrobatics on my part, I got some decent pictures of her eating.  

Dan was more impressed with the Big Cats area.  There were two lions playing, but I think Dan's favorite was the tiger.


After the zoo, we hit a little place in Adams Morgan for lunch, then hopped on the Metro for our Washington Monument tour.