A long break and some big news!

I admit life has been busy and always on-the-go, with few pauses to take a deep breath and reflect on things. Hunter turned 16 months old yesterday. And yesterday was the 2-year anniversary from when we first discovered we were expecting him! What a long way we've come!

My big news is that we're expecting baby #2, and he or she is due July 5! I'm already almost 18 weeks along and next week we look forward to finding out whether Hunter's getting a baby brother or sister. I am impatient and excited!

So many things to do before July. We have only 5 more months to prepare for the newest addition. Fortunately we have most of what we need already, just a few big things needed to accomodate 2 babies such as a double stroller. Hunter will be 21 months old when this baby arrives.

Life with my little boy has been absolutely amazing and he surprises me every day with learning something new, to do or to say, to put things together and take things apart, he's so smart. I think he's going to be a great big brother, he's so loving with us and the kitties and I hope he adjusts well to a new baby and sharing our attention.

Of course since finding out I was pregnant again in October, I immediately had to start injecting myself in the tummy with blood thinners like I did last time. I counted the months and realized I stopped taking the needles with him in December 2010, and started taking them again October 2011 so I only had a 10 month break, poor tummy! I don't mind it though and once again pregnancy has proved to do great things for me, reversing my high blood counts and preventing me from needing to get blood taken out for the last 4+ months! I am not sure yet if we will be having any more babies though, 2 was always my *number* and I kind of feel like I would be happy to stop at 2. Jason has always wanted 3 though. Someday we'll figure out what 'our' number is, if we feel complete after this baby is born or if we'll have another in a couple more years. If we do have a third, we'll space it out a little more than our first 2 are. 21 months is ideal for me since I wanted them less than 2 years apart, but I don't think I could do 3 under 3. Plus it would require us to upgrade our vehicle and really make changes in our house setup. There's a lot of thought that would go into that decision and I'm not ready to really consider all of it just yet.

Hopefully now that life has slowed down quite a bit I'll be able to update on our lives a little more often :)

Hunter's UnBirthday - 6 Months Old!

I can't believe how fast the past 6 months have gone by! My tiny baby boy is so big now, it's getting harder to keep up with him! He's doing so well, eating solids for the last month, sleeping in his crib, doing all kinds of things! Here's a tiny bit of the last 6 months!

I'm taking better naps during the day (sometimes)

I'm wearing size 3 diapersI found my toesI can't get enough of my toes

I learned how to pull my socks off

I am starting to get into everything

I am eating big boy food...

I don't like squash!I like baby cereal, carrots, bananas, yogurt, peaches, and apples. I LOVE pears and mixed fruit!I sometimes get a cookie to chew on. YUM!

I can sit up on my own and playI can even stand up with help from Mommy!

So much has happened and Hunter just keeps on growing and getting bigger and doing more things! As of today he's 17 1/2 lbs and 26" long. We're still doing great with breastfeeding and today I have earned my silver boobs!! No sign that we will have to stop anytime soon, and I really hope to make it til he's a year old. My blood counts have been good lately and I really hope they stay that way.

Hunter is sleeping really well in his crib now! He still gets up 2 times at night to eat but goes back in the cage after. He gets gassy and fussy around 7am so I'll bring him to bed with me when that happens and we're getting up around 9am now. He still naps around 30 minutes 3x a day but I'm hoping he'll nap longer someday. And our bedtime is down to around 11pm instead of 1am so that's an improvement!

He loves to eat, and had a great start being on cereal for about a month before we tried some veggies. A couple days into our 2nd veggie (carrots), he went on a bit of a solids strike and would throw a fit and cry whenever he saw the bowl & spoon coming at him. I think we're past that now and he's really loving his pears (ate the whole jar in 3 feeds) and mixed fruits (including pears, he's 1/2 done the jar after just one feeding). I can't wait to give him sweet potatoes on the weekend. And I'm going to be making him some baby food this weekend too, sweet potatoes, mango, broccoli, and bananas to start. I can't wait.

Well there's so much to tell but not so much time to tell it in. Supper time for me, and then I'm going to get Hunter's mixed fruit ready for his supper, see if he finishes off the jar!

Snow Day!

It was beautiful out yesterday. So warm, so Hunter and I decided to go out and enjoy!

He had so much fun, we made half a dozen snow angels and I was getting him to scoop up snow with his little Tigger paws, it was great! I let him lick some snow and he really liked it and was licking the air for more!

My little big boy will be 4 months old tomorrow! When did that happen?? As of tomorrow it will be exactly a year since I took that pregnancy test and found out we were expecting him. So much has happened since then. Found out Jan 30, had him exactly 8 months later on Sept 30. And now he's going to be 4 months old and already making snow angels. I am so thrilled to be his mommy!

I am definitely sad that I will have to start taking the chemo pill again soon. We had a followup appointment from my last MRI a couple days ago and were told that the previous blood clots are totally clear and gone, so that was great, but the neurologist reccomended that I start taking Hydrea again ASAP. He also thinks more phlebotomies might lower my platelet count, I would choose that over the meds any day. I did it once a week before and would do it again if it means keeping me off the meds and allowing me to breastfeed my boy longer. As it is, I don't think I'll make it to 6 months breastfeeding before they make me get back on the Hydrea. If only I can get my silver boobies ( . Y . ) I will be content. I feel so lucky that I've been able to freeze as much as I have so far, and I plan to put away as much as I possibly can the next few weeks so Hunter can have enough to last a couple months after I can't feed him anymore. We're doing great, I sent 930oz to my dad's to store in his freezer and have almost filled another box of 240oz in our freezer. It takes me about 2 weeks to put away 240oz so I hope to get close to another 500oz before I start the med. If Hunter eats about 24oz a day, then I'd have enough to last him... almost 70 days if I can store what I want to, so at least he's going to get breastmilk til he's at least 6 months! I suppose I can feel good about that. I hope that when I'm on a nasty chemo pill that I can have the energy to keep up with him. I don't want to miss out on more than I already know I will be. I am just looking forward to when he turns 1 and we can start trying for baby #2. Then I will have to be off Hydrea, and when I'm pregnant I know this stupid disease will correct itself for the duration. Wish I could just trick my body into thinking I was pregnant all the time, then I wouldn't have to worry about all this stuff...

The Elusive Giggles

So two people love it when Hunter gets raspberries blown on his tummy. The one doing the blowing, and of course the little man himself! It's the only thing I've done that's gotten a giggle out of him so far. I can't wait to hear his laughs, hope that won't be too far off!

So little man is almost 4 months old! And things otherwise are about the same. I do love staying home and playing with him all day, and it's great that he's been napping a lot better lately too. He will take a 45 minute one in the morning or around noon, and usually 2 more in the afternoon that are about 40 minutes long each. And he's taking them in his bassinet which is great! Next step is to get him to nap in the crib, which will probably start this weekend!

Oh... and right about this time last year, Hunter was created... LOL! It's crazy to think just a year ago we didn't even know we would be meeting our little boy so soon!

In other news, our basement is finally getting finished. It'll be a lot of work still but it's coming along. We picked up the flooring and it looks great! My laundry room is almost done, and the rest is getting done bit by bit. Can't wait to see it when all is ready, we can pick out paint colors, furniture for the rec room, a big rug for in there too... Lots to look forward to!

Baby Boy is 3 months old!

Hunter turned 3 months on Dec. 30! A quarter of a year old! 14 weeks! A solid 14lbs, 10oz! Two feet tall! Bustin' out of his size 0-3 month clothes! Talking up a storm! Grabbing everything! In his Jolly Jumper bouncing like a madman!

Not quite laughing yet, but he lets us know when he thinks something's funny. Hasn't rolled over yet, either way, but he really tries! You ever seen Homer Simpson lying on the floor running in circles, yelling Woop Woop Woop Woop? Well, Hunter does that, except the yelling Woop part, he's mostly grunting and sometimes fussing because he can't QUITE roll over but he knows he wants to! He also tends to fart A LOT while trying to roll over!!

I love you, my little big boy!

And the verdict is...

So for nearly an entire year I happily anticipated my most recent visit to the hematologist. Why?? He had told me that he wanted to see me off any form of blood thinners for the new year. I was glad to get off the warfarin (aka rat poison) after finding out I was pregnant at the end of January. Did my share of injections up until the night before said appointment, which means I poked my belly with a needle over 300 times in the last 11 months. Went to my much-anticipated appointment. I knew it would be a long one, because my old hem. had to pass me along to a different one due to his research grant that he'll be working on the next 2 years. So it would be a long one, going over all my history and records and getting to know the new guy into whose hands I was putting my life (that sounds funny!). Deep breath...

We actually got in pretty fast! Which is great, so as not to make a happy baby a fussy one! Everyone in the cancercare building thought Hunter was the cutest thing. One woman, who came all the way from Nunavut which took a 3 1/2 hour flight and a 1 1/2 hour drive (And I thought I had to travel a long way, lol) thought he was so adorable she got him a little quilt from the giftshop with kitties on it. She also claimed to share my same birthday which was more than a little creepy.

Anyways, got bloodwork done, went to see the Dr, actually got in right away, and sat and waited. He came in right away. Sigh...

Apparantly he doesn't agree that I can be off thinners. So now I'm back on the warfarin (damn rat poison) which is actually OK when I'm breastfeeding. With a very, very strong possibility of having to start taking Hydrea again (absolutely NOT OK while breastfeeding). Damnit! I hate that stuff! He actually said he wanted me to start one or the other that same day. I told him if I had to make a choice it would be the warfarin because I want to feed my little boy as long as I can. So that night what do you know. Back on the rat poison. The Dr. said the usual cutoff when he starts someone on Hydrea is when their platelet count is 600. Mine that day was 599. So it's not going to be long before I have to start taking those awful pink & blue pills again. Back to losing my hair and constantly getting sick - Yay!

I would give anything to be allowed to go till Hunter is 6 months old before I have to start those. Give me time to save up more milk for him, and get out of these cold winter months where I would constantly be sick and exhausted. Right now I've got something like 750oz of milk stored in the freezer, which is awesome, but still only enough to last about a month! I figure if I am freezing 12oz/day right now and can do that for 3 more months, I'd add a little over 1000oz to what I have now and he would have enough to last about 2 1/2 months before I had to totally do formula. Hmmm... how does that compare to what I wanted in the first place, to breastfeed til he's 1? Looks like that's not going to happen. At this point I'll be very lucky if he still gets boob by his next Dr. appointment when he's 6 months old, and won't make it to 9 months off what I can freeze. That sucks!

It seriously depresses me. I mean, I got off the awful pill Sept of 2008 and I knew my counts were slowly but surely rising. Then while pregnant, just being pregnant kept them in a normal zone which was such a blessing. Now that he's out, it seems like my counts are in overdrive and I'm already waaaaay over where I should be. I mean, 599! When I went off the stuff in Sept 08 it took 4 months to even reach 500! Now it's been 3 months and I'm at the point of needing to take pills that make me feel like poo to fix things. Damn chemo drugs. Why!!! It is so maddening and frustrating. Things are going so well, and this has to mess things up. I could live with the hair loss and getting sick if only it didn't mean I had to stop feeding my baby too. I don't feel like a failure. But I feel like my fricking bone marrow is a failure.

Oh and I forgot to mention that this new Dr. is good, I liked him, he speaks using the bigger medical terms but I know enough about my own condition that I know what he's talking about. J on the other hand didn't quite follow with all that was said. He heard: 'the average lifespan for someone with this is about 20 years' and got scared. But I know that the average age of diagnosis of this is age 60, so to live 20 years after that is pretty darn great! I really have no worries concerning that. However if I have to be on harsh chemo drugs for who knows how long, that lead to me having a higher risk of developing leukemia, maybe I won't stay healthy as long as I hope to. Then he (Dr.) says that we still have the bone marrow transplant as an option down the road, but that is so dangerous and although it would likely cure me there's a chance it might not work or that my disease would come back... Arghhh! Well, I didn't find out anything I didn't already know, I suppose. I felt bad walking out of there because I knew J was a little freaked out by some of that stuff.

What can I do about all this? Well, for now, I can hold my baby boy close and tell him Mama will always be here, and not to be scared if I have to go through some hard things in order to get better. I can feed him the thing he loves best in all the world, for the time being. I can look forward to giving him a baby brother or sister because thank god this disease won't be passed to my children, and being pregnant appears to be really really good for me. I can take a million and one pictures. That's really about it.

Merry Christmas!

From my wonderful little family, have a Merry Christmas! We sure will, I know before the day is done that Hunter will have been spoiled with toys and cuddles from Grampa and Aunty and Uncle! He was so good when we got his picture taken, sitting so nice on Santa's lap. Too bad Santa thought he was a girl!!! But my little guy in his snowman fuzzies did a great job and took a great pic for his first visit to Santa. I know he'll do well out at Grampa's house for the night too!

Hunter - The first two months!

The last full moon of the year...

Tonight there is a full moon. The last one before the new year. The year began with a full moon and soooo very much has happened since then! I wrote that I had high hopes for this past year, and I feel as if everything I hoped for has come true. What a crazy 12 months!

We got the OK to try for a baby, and less than 4 weeks later found out we had one on the way.
We bought our first house after lots of delay and paperwork. Moved in and started fixing things up.
We traded in our old truck and sold the motorcycle in exchange for a smaller, cheaper on gas Jeep. Made a couple dozen trips to Winnipeg for so many doctor appointments.
We found out we were going to have a little boy and picked out the perfect name for him. We got to see him on close to a dozen different ultrasounds and watch as he grew from a little speck into a chubby-cheeked boy who liked to cover his face with his hands (sometimes feet).
We took our childbirth class when I was 38 weeks pregnant. My water broke when I was 38 weeks and 4 days pregnant - Yikes! Waited for things to start happening for over 12 hours. Got induced and finally got to meet our boy another 8 hours later!
Started an endless cycle of feeding, diaper changing, crying, soothing, getting up every 3 hours at night, and so on. Finally saw light at the end of the tunnel when he started sleeping 5 hours at a time and filling his diapers a little less frequently. Things feel easier now than they felt for the first 2 months or so.
Today we are supposed to have someone come over to start work on finishing our basement, a big project that I can't wait to begin.
We go to Winnipeg in 2 days where I find out whether I'm finished with blood thinners for good (exceptions for being pregnant again!), and I can take my final needle after a little over 300 self-administered shots.
My amazing little boy turns 3 months old on the 30th.
And finally, the year comes to an end and a new one begins. It night be hard to beat all that happened this year, but I'm going into the new one with my expectations just as high. So much to look forward to in the future!

The sweetest birthday present.

The sweetest birthday gift I have ever recieved I actually got 3 weeks before my birthday. And it was a little present that I kind of gave myself, with the help of J... My little Hunter is the best thing I could ask for anytime of the year! He's 3 weeks and a day old now and getting so much bigger than he was when he arrived. I am doing my best to enjoy him so small because he really does change and grow each day. He's lying beside me on the couch right now, part awake and part asleep, smiling at his mommy. I know I'll have a diaper to change and be up feeding him for a while yet tonight but for now I'm enjoying quietly looking at him. It is amazing to love someone so little who is truly a part of yourself. And when he laughs in his sleep, he's like a tiny baby owl, with his Hoo-Hoo-Hoo-Hoo-Hoo giggle. I love him!

Hunter is here!

Just a quick note to announce the arrival of baby Hunter! He arrived 9 days early on Sept. 30, weighing 7lbs 2oz and measuring 20.5" long! He's absolutely adorable, a very easy baby and the new love of our lives! I will tell the whole amazing story later, but for now this should suffice:

38 Weeks, 3 Days - Dreaming of Baby :)

Last night I dreamed that we had baby Hunter and brought him home all bundled up in his carseat. He was a pretty quiet little guy and looking around at his new home all bright eyed. He had light brown eyes, short fuzzy blond hair, no dimples (unfortunately!), and was a bit skinnier than I had expected. I mean he still had that new baby chunk but was on the skinnier side. He was a real cutie though! I wonder how accurate that will be compared to what he really looks like. Hopefully we will find out soon enough!

37 Weeks, 5 Days - Uncertain about the next two weeks...

Well J and I got to go in and see baby Hunter again today, he's doing just wonderful in my tummy tum tum... growing perfectly and getting bigger. He's estimated at exactly 7lbs now, and I don't think he will be too much more than 8lbs by his due date. 16 days until then! It's not him, but my body and blood that might cause him to have to come out early. My blood pressure is better than it has been, the last couple weeks in the 130's / high 80's. Today it was 122/81 and the Dr. was happy. So, that's been better under control lately, I'm still getting it checked every 3 days though. It's my darned thick blood that's the problem this week. Last week the count was high enough that I needed a phlebotomy. I hoped that I could go at least this week without needing another one. Nope, the counts are higher this week than they were last week so I need blood out again tomorrow. Last week's bruise is ALMOST healed, and now I'll have another to match. For me, I don't care how often I need to get this done, it's a pain but I can live with it. The problem is, my pregnancy doctor is concerned about my thick blood not supplying the placenta adaquately enough. So, next Thursday she's going to do a cervix check to see if it's 'favorable', I think she may want him out sometime next week if my counts don't drop by then. While I would really prefer for him to stay in as long as he wants (well, reasonably so, because I'm getting uncomfortable!), it looks like next week I will head to the city with my hospital bags all packed and ready just in case we end up staying and having him early. I had hoped to get out of being induced, and I still hope to not need to, but I really just hope that my blood counts will settle down and cooperate as we've only got a couple weeks left anyways! Maybe I'm fortunate that I'm only 16 days from the due date when this is all happening. He's doing great and practicing breathing, I know he would do well on the outside. I'm glad that no complications have popped up before now. I am a little disappointed that it's my body that is the problem, this stupid condition is interfering with my little boy's entrance into the world. I guess the only thing I can do until next week is hope things with my blood counts normalize a bit, and make sure I've got everything I need for the possible hospital stay ready just in case we meet Hunter sooner than expected!

37 Weeks and Full Term At Last!

It's unbelievable that there's only 21 days left until little man's due date! I can't wait!

Things are starting to slow down in some ways, and at the same time it's all moving soooo fast. I'm starting to feel more tired out now, less energetic (except times like today when I was too restless to sit down and spent the day cleaning, baking a strawberry pie, making delicious tacos for dinner, walking down to J's workplace to visit him with a free milkshake and otherwise keeping busy), and I started waddling in the last week or so too! Seems like there's so many little details to take care of before baby gets here and I've been slowly crossing each off the list. If he shows up sooner than expected we would be ready, but I would prefer him to wait it out a little longer first!

I feel like my whole body is full of squirming, solid baby at this point! At my last ultrasound two days ago they estimated his weight at 6lbs 12oz, and I'm feeling it for sure! The weeks are pretty busy with all the appointments in the city. Thursdays generally go like this: morning appointment in my pregnancy Dr's office with a resident where I get weighed, measured, etc (and 'checked' starting next week!); right afterwards we run to CancerCare to do my bloodwork and go over it with my nurse there, counts have been pretty great since changing my Fragmin dose to 7500mg last Monday; then back to the Women's hospital again for an ultrasound and see my pregnancy Dr before leaving there. She has been wanting me to have weekly u/s to keep an eye on the blood flow to the placenta and make sure the little guy is growing on track, which he has been all along so far. I like being able to see him every week now, he's getting so cute and chubby and I can't wait to see if the way I picture him looking is what he'll actually look like. I still say he's got his daddy's chin, hopefully the dimples, and he's got a full head of hair that I think will be blond. Not long now and I'll see him live and in color!!! We had an appointment last week as well with the high-risk anaesthetics team, that was interesting but I think it's more so they know what they're dealing with with my condition. I still don't want to have an epidural. The only time I'd agree to it is if I absolutely need a c-section and need that anaesthetic to be awake while they're doing it. Otherwise my plan is to hold out as long as possible with no meds, and if it becomes impossible to make it to the end without anything they do have other meds that are taken through IV and get out of the system a lot faster. Because I don't tend to handle drugs very well, I really prefer the stuff that doesn't last as long! Better for me and the baby I think.

In other news, well, there's not a lot of other news. Haven't gotten a call from the daycare for a few weeks which is fine because I took about 2 weeks getting over a miserable cold from the last time I worked there, and at this point I don't think I'd be very useful working with a couple dozen screaming kids. My last couple shifts were 4-5 hours and that was perfect, not too long for me to be exhausted. I don't think they'll call at this point though because they know I'm pretty close to having the baby. We were without a computer for a couple days because we apparantly got this awesome virus that deleted Windows entirely off the computer, rendering it totally useless and unable to start up at all. Took it in to get fixed and they replaced it with Windows 7, for a nice $250 pricetag... Arghhhh! Also, I got to enjoy an amazingly delicious donut with chocolate icing and rainbow sprinkles that made my whole week. We also had a very fun night a couple weeks ago that involved cramps, contractions, and rushing to the city through a horrendous thunderstorm, getting there at midnight and then getting home at 5:30 the next morning after finding out it was a false alarm. A long story that warrants another post on another day! Right now my delicious strawberry pie is calling my name!

33 Weeks! Baby boy is growing like a weed!

So we're down to 49 days til D-day! Hunter is doing GREAT, we got to see him on Thursday which was awesome (as usual) and watch him move and play in my tummy. I'm really going to miss feeling him move, but can't wait to see what he looks like and hold and kiss him! The ultrasound tech told us she could see hair on his head, so he appears to be NOT a baldie like I was! I wonder if it's blond, or brown... He's head down now so it was harder to see his face because he's in my pelvis. We got to watch him put his fist in his mouth and suck his thumb. His little cheeks moved as he sucked his tiny little thumb and he just looked so adorable! He's really gaining weight and filling out, J said he looks like he's got a little potbelly already! As of Thursday (32 weeks 5 days) his approximate weight was 4lbs, 12oz. So he's nearly 5lbs already, so much bigger than at the last u/s where he was only 1 1/3! He's right on track with how big he should be, actually 2-3 days bigger which is fine. I think he'll be between 7-8 when he comes out. J's afraid he'll be like 10!

I saw my blood Dr. as well and found out my blood thinner dose will be cut in half when I run out of my current dose, which will be the first week of September. Just a couple weeks until that happens. I can't believe it is nearly September! I'm going to Winnipeg every 2 weeks now and things are moving so fast. Anyways because a 'normal' pregnant woman at this point is usually anemic (or close to), and my iron levels are that of a normal healthy not-pregnant person, my Dr. wants to artificially bring those levels down below normal and make me a little bit anemic. So I'm going in for a phlebotomy every week until my numbers are low enough. Did the first of many yesterday and let me just say that if I have to do this every week my veins had better start cooperating better! It took 3 tries to get a good vein for the IV. The big needle in my elbow went smoothly as usual though. Just hope that yesterday's holes heal up before next Friday when I have the next one scheduled.

We're going to be pretty busy the next 7 weeks with appointments for phlebotomy, appointments for the baby, the childbirth class next month, and whatever else comes our way! Every week there's something to do and somewhere to go. Looking forward to our next appointment in Winnipeg where I find out about the hospital tour. 49 days and counting! I can't wait!

31 Weeks Today - From 9 months down to 9 weeks... Where did the time go so quickly?

It seems like October is coming so fast. It seems like we have so much left to do, so many little thinbgs we still need to get in order to be prepared for little Hunter's arrival. In reality I'm sure we're doing well and are probably a bit ahead of the game, but still... it seems like there's not much time left before he's here and we'll really find out if we have everything we need or what we might be forgetting!

The appointment on Thursday went really well. Drank up my tall glass of orange sugar water which didn't taste as bad as I'd expected, but on an empty stomach it felt really awful for the next half hour or so until it started leveling out in my system... Hunter liked it, and tried his hardest to distract Mommy throughout the appointment. We heard him punching the doppler while trying to find his heartbeat, must have been hard punches because they were pretty loud on the microphone! He must have decided during the long drive to wiggle out of my side and I feel a lot better now that his head isn't bulging out to the right of my stomach anymore. When my doctor came in she said things look great and my stomach is measuring right where it should be, but just to be sure his growth is on track she wants to see us for another ultrasound in 2 weeks. This will be our 5th one! I'm sure everything will be A-OK and am thrilled we get to see him again, I wasn't sure if we would be able to after the last one. I can't wait to see how much bigger he's gotten, and am curious about how much he weighs now... I can tell he's getting big now! When I stepped on the scale I was surprised to find out that since my last appt. 5 weeks ago I've gained 9lbs!!! Bringing the total to 17lbs so far. Hopefully it stays at a decently low amount in the next couple months because I was really hoping not to go over a 25lbs gain, but now I wouldn't be surprised if its between 25-30. Gotta keep up my motivation to stick with my bike riding because I've been slacking off with that lately... haha which might have something to do with the 9lbs in 5 weeks!

We also found out that my doctor doesn't want to induce me after all! She said that because she'd like to see as few interventions as possible, we'll just let him come on his own, and avoid a c-section at all costs. The fewer risks to me and the baby, the better. I love my doctor! I guess the only downside now is that we can't schedule J's days off, we'll just have to wait and see when Hunter decides he'd like his birthday. I hope he doesn't wait 13 days to come out on my birthday even though that would be pretty cool!

We also got our baby monitor (the motion detection one from Angelcare) and will be installing it and testing it out soon. J's mom got that for us, the last of the big items we need before Hunter is born. Now it's a short list of small things... fortunately we've got a couple months to gather up what we need!

I finally got a new updated belly shot. Last weekend (30 weeks) and you can really tell 'someone' has had a growth spurt! My belly has just exploded since the last picture I took, and you can really see where those 9lbs went to!

30 Weeks! Hunter will be here soon, and I can't wait!

Well the title pretty much sums it up! I can't wait until baby Hunter is here, and time is going fast and he'll be here before we know it!

I'm hoping that this Thursday we might get our induction date and then we'll know just how soon to expect him. But either way, he should be here in 8-10 weeks at the very most! Unbelievable! We better get a move on buying the last little bits of what we need for him, like the newborn size diapers, baby monitor, and enough little baby clothes to last through however often he spits up and poops... I can't wait!

Hunter's cousin-to-be is a...

GIRL!

Finally today J's younger brother and his wife went for their 3D ultrasound. They had told us that they weren't sure whether they wanted to find out the gender, and that if they did, they likely would keep it to themselves. Fortunately for me, they decided to spill th beans! So I just got off the phone and they're expecting a little girl! The first girl in the family. J's mom had just the 3 boys, and so far J's older brother had 4 boys and we're of course having a boy. So J's mom must be thrilled to finally be getting her first granddaughter! I know they had been 'hoping' for a boy first, to be the big brother and protector of any future siblings, and we had been 'hoping' for a girl first; funny how it ended up being the reverse. Well I'm super happy that we're getting a boy first, I think it will be easier, and I know they're thrilled to get a girl first! She told me a couple weeks ago that if this was a girl, she might not have any more just because this pregnancy has been hard on her. But I think she'll change her mind. After finding out she's got her little princess, I bet all the morning sickness and misery has been worth it!

As for me, Hunter is 29 weeks old today and getting big and strong! I can actually feel his little head pressed up against my right side. It makes my belly bulge a bit on that side, and can get pretty uncomfortable if I sit up or stand for too long. Apparantly he should be about 15 1/2 inches tall and weigh around 2 1/2 lbs already, and I'm feeling it. I can't imagine how huge I'll be in another 2 months. He has to gain like 5 more lbs before coming out and I will be gigantic. Hopefully on the 5th we will find out when to expect to have him out, I'm thinking either the last week of Sept or first week of Oct, which is only 9-10 weeks from now. Really feeling the time crunch now! Fortunately we don't have much to do in preparation for him, just need to pick up a few things like the baby monitor and miscellaneous things like thermometer, baby tylenol, burp cloths, etc. At least we've got the basics covered!

Now I can't wait to see the DVD of the 3D ultrasound this weekend, how exciting! And I will put up some new belly pics as well, it's gotten huge since the last ones I added over a month ago!

An awesome feature in our new house

So since moving in a few weeks ago we are still getting used to the differences this house has compared to the rental. The best one so far is that the washing machine & dryer in the basement are directly under the main floor bathroom, and so you can hear perfectly if you're in either area. I was downstairs doing some laundry a couple days ago and (thanks, little Hunter!) let out the biggest, loudest fart! I finished loading the dryer and came upstairs, and asked J if he had heard me. He said yeah, clear as anything, because I was just in the bathroom when I did it, right? Nope honey, I was in the basement and you were sitting in the living room and heard the grossest fart clear as day from all the way across the house. Awesome!... Well at least now I know that can happen. Haha!

27 weeks, 3 days - Busier every day!

So I now realize it's been about a month since my last update... Eeek! Things have been so busy lately the summer is slipping past really quickly! We are now comfortably moved into our new house... Yay! Actually there's more unpacking to be done but that will happen sooner or later. We kept pretty busy painting the bedroom, nursery, and living room, finished up cleaning before moving all our things and furniture in, and I am extremely pleased with how everything turned out. The nursery was the first thing we finished, and now has a Winnie the Pooh bouncer and swing just waiting for Hunter to try them out! We're keeping the baby stuff all in there for now, so I'm glad it is a big room!

Our bedroom was next and we did the walls in a chocolate-ice-cream brown which looks incredible, installed a nice ceiling fan instead of that awful fluorescent light, and our wardrobe and dresser fit nicely (thank goodness)! I was happy that the room is big enough to fit the King bed and still allow us to open the closet door no problem!

The living room looks cozy painted a pink-beige that really warms up the room. I have it set up so our couches square off the living room and I have room behind them for my bike and to do laundry. Bike has been doing well, and getting used. Laundry on the other hand... well it's clean, and why put it away when we'll just need to take it out to wear anyways!?! LOL, kidding. I do need to put those 2 baskets of clean laundry away sometime. Some of it is baby clothes; we need to pick up those small hangers for his closet so we can put them away too.

The bathroom, hallway, and kitchen are things we will work on later on. I'm just glad we were able to get the 3 main rooms done by the time we moved in. The basement looks a lot better now too since we took all of the old scrap wood out and cleaned it up down there, J's weight machine is set up and I can't wait to finish the basement with walls, ceiling, and floors eventually. It feels good to be done with renting and in our own place!

We had some difficulties with the mortgage in the last week of June, because it turns out the bank had it as a 35-year and we had signed and agreed on the 20-year. So it took a few days to sort all of that out, but thankfully June 30 we got everything signed off and finalized under the 20-year agreement and took posession the next day! I'm so happy to be out of the rental, which had actually flooded a couple weeks back because of massive rainfall and the landlord got to deal with that mess. We were already out of the basement and just finishing cleaning upstairs at that point. Done with that, and now it's just J, me, and the baby-to-be in our own little place!

We had gotten tons of rain the last few weeks, it was awful. I had the truck one day and went to pick J up from work in the rain and the streets were filling up fast. I turned down the street to the store and it turns out there was a good 6 inches of rain sitting in the entire street. I just shook my head... arggghhhh... and kept going. I was happy we don't have a car because that would never have made it down the street.

Anyways in other news, baby is doing great! He's getting bigger and I can feel and see it happen. I need to update my tummy pics... it's gotten much bigger from the last one I put up! He's kicking a lot more consistantly and a LOT stronger now, and he still likes to keep me up around 11:30pm while he kicks and plays. It's pretty constant now, I feel him at least a few times an hour, especially after eating or lying down, and J gets to feel him all the time. He saw my belly move from the kicking one night! I am happy that we haven't had to make a trip into the city for a couple weeks now for appointments. Making that drive every 2-3 weeks was getting tiring. My next appt. is August 5, which is still another 3 weeks away, and it will be nice to have a few weekends at home without having to go anywhere! I will be a day under 31 weeks then and get to enjoy the diabetes testing. I'm doing it later than usual, which is between 24-28 weeks. I am hoping to get an induction date at that appointment as well, so we know when to expect our little boy! I can't believe how fast the big day's coming, less than 3 months until we meet him! It seems like we have almost everything ready for his arrival, hopefully I'm not forgetting anything!