Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Dear Jesus,

My grandma (Nanny) went to live with you tonight. She was the best Nanny ever and always took such good care of me when I was little so please take extra good care of her.

I'm very sad that she won't get to meet the little boy that's growing inside me. She was so excited about him. So please introduce her to him before he arrives to be with us so that he knows how wonderful she was.

love,
Sheryl

Monday, October 27, 2008

We're buying the next kid

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that I'm pregnant.

But...
Here's what's going on. I woke up at 4:00 AM and couldn't go back to sleep because my hips were hurting so much. I'm having a ton of sciatica so it hurts to go from standing to sitting and vise versa and walking too much hurts, plus my back hurts. The headaches still haven't gone away and I'm still tried most of the time.

I'm not even half way yet and I'm ready for this to be over with. I think I'll set up a massage later in the week and see if that helps. I always suspected I'd be a cranky pregnant woman... I'm getting there.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

18 Weeks

Today marks 18 weeks gestation, getting close to the half way mark! Yesterday morning the little guy woke me up by moving around. It was the first time that I felt him really consistently. There were some little taps and flutters, I had slept in a little and I guess he was telling me that he was hungry. I threw up once this week but for the most part I'm past the nausea. My back is a little sore but it's not too bad. I feel the ligaments stretching on a regular basis but it's not really painful, just annoying, and it doesn't last long. I'm still have a ton of headaches, the doctor said that it's a hormone thing and will pass soon.

If you look to the right, you'll notice I've added a baby registry. We're registering at Babies-R-Us and at Amazon.com. That way the people who would rather order something on-line can do so.

This week:
  • Vernix (a white cheese-like protective material) forms on baby's skin with the lanugo (soft, lightly pigmented hair covering the body and limbs); both serving to protect your baby's skin during the months in water.
  • Your placenta continues to grow and nourish the baby.
  • Tiny air sacs called alveoli begin to form in lungs. He'll be putting these lungs to good use in just a few months!
  • His vocal chords are formed. He goes through the motions of crying but without air she doesn't make a sound.
  • Features of your baby's heart, including ventricles and chambers, should be visible during an ultrasound.
  • Your baby measures about 5.59 inches (14.2cm) this week and weighs about 6.7 ounces (190gm).
Refrigerator note: It's still making the awful sound. We're going to try and find someone to come out and look at it this week. Then we're defaulting and buying a new one. It really sucks, but it gives me horrible splitting headaches and it's got to change, one way or the other.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Yosemite Vacation

Day 1 - Traveling
It was a long day. It took about 12 hours from door step to door step, the last 4 were spent in the car. We did stop at Trader Joe’s in Sacramento and now we see what all the hype is about, and we want one here. Other than a creepy lady at the air port, the day was mostly un-eventful. It was good to get there though.

Day 2 – Into the park
The trailer was parked about an hour drive outside the park. It was the closest place with full hook-up’s. Luckily we got to sleep in because it was really cold in the morning, cold to us Texans anyways, it was in the low 40’s. It warmed up nicely though and the day warmed up to the low 70’s.

This is the first thing you drive through when you enter the park.

On this day we took a bus tour up to Glacier Point. The valley floor, where the main road is, is at about 4,000 ft, Glacier Point is around 7,600 ft.

We found out some interesting things about the park. Like that Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley were the first area of land in the US to be set aside and protected by the government in 1864. It wasn’t made a national part until 1890, after Yellow Stone.

Yosemite also contains California’s oldest ski resort, Badger Pass.

Also, the Sierra Nevada mountain range is one giant piece of granite that’s 400 miles long and about 80 miles wide. It makes Enchanted Rook look like a pebble. The valley was carved out by glaciers which are no longer there.

The view from the top is nice.

One of the features of the landscape is a place they call Half-Dome, the other half was taken off by a glacier. Tom and Maury took our picture in front of it and Jonathan put his hands on my belly. From then on, they called me Half-Dome.

We hiked around a bit and ate ice cream. At the gift shop, back of the valley floor, we discovered fire mango. It was dried mango that was spicy, everyone loved it, but I wouldn’t touch it. Later in the trip they wiped the store out. I also found this cute little hat that I got for the baby. The model here is Guinness.


Day 3 – Giant Sequoia Trees
The first thing we did when we got to the park was go down to the Wawona hotel and have lunch. The hotel was built in 1874 and the food was very good.


Then we headed down to see the giant trees at Mariposa Grove. This was my favorite part of the trip. We hiked through the forest and it was like being in something out of Lord of the Rings, I swore the trees were going to start walking around.


This is us by a tree in the parking lot. Tom took a pine branch from Yosemite (a $300 fine if caught) and hand carved these walking sticks for us. They used to be one long branch and they are super light weight. We couldn’t take them on the plane so we’ll get them in February when they get back.


The roots of these trees only go down 6 to 8 feet, but they grow out. This is the bottom of one that has fallen over. Apparently this tree fell 300 years ago.

This tree is the Grizzly Giant, it’s between 1,900 to 2,400 years old. Its trunk is 30 feet across and it’s 90 feet around. It’s the oldest tree in the park, and the thing is massive. The picture doesn’t do it justice, it’s just too big to get a picture that accurately shows its size. This is taken from a distance and you can see the people at the bottom.

In 1895 the California tunnel tree was cut through. It’s still living and doing fine. They used to pull buggies through it.

This is Jonathan… being Jonathan ☺

And this is just a random tree that I took a picture of as we were hiking back down the trail. If you look really close you can see Jonathan standing next to the tree on the right side of the picture.

In the car on the way back to the camper I saw a bear on the side of a hill. We saw very little wild life the whole time we were there. A few birds and lots of squirrels, but that was about it. Jonathan saw a bear crossing the road on day 3.

That evening we watched the Longhorns win a great game! It was very nice of all the Aggies to watch the Longhorns, and even not pick on me too much. Of course the Aggies are doing so bad this season that they couldn’t talk much.

Day 4 – Off the wall

On our last day we first had a pick-nick in the meadow across from El Capitan, commonly known as the most popular climbing spot in the US, and looked for climbers.


At a height of 3,000 feet it takes most people about 3 days to climb it. They have slings that they attach to the face of it to sleep in. We saw 3 different groups of climbers.

The rest of the day was spent driving around to different look-outs and taking a few pictures.

And we went to the most expensive hotel in the park. Rooms ranged from $450 - $1,000 a night.

That evening we went out to dinner and then played a game called Quarto, which was fun. Overall it was an awesome trip and it was so good to spend some time with Tom and Maury. We are definitely going back to Yosemite and hiking more and exploring more of the park. I think we’ll go back in the spring time when all the water falls are flowing and everything is blooming.

Day 5 – Traveling again
This was just another long day, again about 12 hours of traveling. We got back to the house at about 12:30 AM and Jonathan had locked us out. He locked the door from the garage into the kitchen and all the windows were locked up tight. He had to climb into the attic and drop into our closet where the other entrance is.

The pregnancy went fine the whole time, nothing really to report, which is what we wanted. My hips got really sore from sleeping on the air mattress and my feet were swelling the whole time but my feet usually swell when I travel.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

discouraged

I'm not one to complain about money issues. We generally live paycheck to paycheck but we know that we're extremely lucky and I know that things always work out. They always work out. That being said, I'm getting frustrated with things breaking. Like my sewing machine, the space heater in the bathroom, the computer... etc. We just replaced our washer and dryer, the old ones were dying and replacing them on our time table was cheaper and we could find a good set of used ones. Now the fridge is making an extremely high pitch noise and is freezing things. If we have to replace it too I don't know that I'll be able to stop working before before this baby comes. The noise comes and goes but it gives me an awful headache and makes me want to rip it out of the wall.

Thanks for letting me vent.

I promise to post pictures of the trip soon. I have them on my lap top and I just need to finish the editing process and then pick the ones I want to post, that always seems to be the hard part.

The swelling in my feet is going down, and thankfully I only had to work today so the rest of the week is getting the house in order and sleeping.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Home!

We're home. I want to do a big post with pictures and everything, we had a blast, but I'm too tired right now. It took 12 hours to get home and then Jonathan had locked us out of the house, he had to James Bond up through the attic in the garage and drop into our closet to let me in.

For now, I'm going to do some laundry and put my feet up to try and get the swelling to go down a bit. My feet always swell when I travel, hopefully pregnancy won't make it any harder to get rid of.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Off to Yosemite


I'm so excited to be going on vacation! It's not Europe or Mexico or Hawaii, but we get to go spend some time with some great people who I haven't seen in ages and see part of the country that neither Jonathan or I have seen.

The last time I was in California I was 10 and Jonathan has never been so this is very exciting for both of us. The bad news is that it's 8:25 PM and I'm still not packed. Above is a picture of Yosemite and the new header is also from there. We will have no cell phone coverage but I'll have my iphone and should be able to get e-mail.

I'm sure I'll have tons of pictures to show you when we get back. Enjoy the weather while we're gone, I know we'll be enjoying it!

Monday, October 13, 2008

16 Weeks: Belly shot & Dr's apt.

The picture above is from my point of view, this is what I see when I look down and it's why I feel so big. Believe me, I know that this is nothing yet but it is much bigger than it has ever been.

My dr. apt went well today. We waited for over an hour but everything looks good. I got the test results back from my blood work and there is a 1 in 7,600 chance that the baby has down syndrome and a 1 in 10,000 chance that he has trisomy 18 (both chromosomal disorders). Basically what is says is that we cooked up a good one.

All of my little complaints are normal, they sympathized and told me to take tylenol for the headaches. That's what I expected. The baby is measuring right on track, a day ahead actually, but he's 5 oz and all of his measurments look great. I forgot to ask about a flu shot, I'll call tomorrow and figure that out.

Of course the best part was the sonogram and getting to see our little man. He slept through most of it but we managed to wake him up eventually. This is him sucking his thumb.

This is a view from the front, you can see his face, his torso, and his legs are curled up. He's so big now that it's difficult to get his whole body on the screen.

The doctor said he would bet his next pay check that it's a boy, and this is why...

Here it is circled, in case you need a little help identifying parts. And, this is the only time his penis will be allowed to be displayed on the internet.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

The rest of the weekend...

Here is the finished product. It turned out great, and Emily really likes her "princess tower".

We picked up cousins Christopher & Meghan and took them all to a great park. They have a bran new baby sister so we figured they could use some play time outside. That, and Emily LOVES them so much, they all provide great entertainment for each other.
A friendly game of duck-duck-goose.






When it was all said and done we dropped the cousins off back home and took Emily back to her parents, who were very excited to see her. Now Jonathan and I are going to enjoy our last few months of having a quiet house.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

A princess weekend

This weekend we are taking care of our niece Emily, who is 4. She's very into princesses and is quite the little princess herself. This morning as I was getting dressed she was in the bathroom talking to me. After I put my bra on she looked at me and said, "wow, those are big". Trying not to laugh hysterically I explained that they were getting bigger because when the baby is born they will make milk to feed him. I'm not sure she really got it...

This morning we went down to Zilker park to the dinosaur exhibit. It was in the gardens and we took the camera to do a photo shoot. Mostly, she looked like this:

I did manage to get a few good ones. As you can see, I couldn't pick which one I liked the best.


There's a dinosaur in the background!

This is what most of the exhibits looked like. These were just some of the little ones, but there were some really big ones too. She's was a little unsure of those.




Emily was very curious about the HEB Buddy. She said hi to him but didn't get too close. This was her peaking at him from a safe place.





After we got home she watched a movie in the bed room while I watched UT beat the #1 team in the nation! It was an awesome football game, one of the best I've seen since we won the Rose Bowl. Emily had a little crying spell when she realized that she wasn't going to get to watch her movie on the big TV (even though we had just talked about it in the car) but she did great and enjoyed her movie. I think that crying to try and get what she wants is a stage thing, it doesn't work on me but it is annoying. I told her that she could cry as much as she wanted, but that she couldn't watch the move in the living room. It didn't last long.

We also put together an art project that was a haunted tower. She added a princes in the tower that needs to be rescued. It was a lot of gluing and got a bit tedious. Now that Emily is in bed, Jonathan pulled out the glue gun and is finishing it up. I'll post pictures of that later.

Tomorrow we're picking up her cousins, Christopher and Meghan, and taking them all out to a huge play scape in Georgetown. We're going to have a pick nick and let them run and play before we get back in the car to take her back to mom and dad.

She pulled out all the stall tactics when going to bed tonight but she cleaned up a bit and never melted down so I'd say it was successful. She's a good kid and so far, we're surviving too!

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Finally, something worth voting for

Care2 is going to donate $10,000 to the most voted animal shelter. Click on the link to go to the Town Lake Animal Shelter. http://www.care2.com/animalsheltercontest/70072
There are also thousands of other but this is something I'm glad to put my vote in for.

Check your batteries

This is the most recent picture I have of Nanny, she's holding baby Grace when she was a week old. This morning my Nanny had her battery in her pace maker replaced. She literally wore the first one out. Back when I was in college we thought we might loose her, but she pulled through and is doing great.

Nanny is my dad's mom and was the one who stayed with me after school every day. She did that from as far back as I can remember, all through the summers, and then when I was in high school she moved in with us.

When I told her that I was pregnant the first thing she said was, "Oh, I hope I live to see that baby." And I have a feeling she will. She'll be 96 next month, and though she has normal "old people" problems she seems to always bounce back quickly.

She's involved in a few social things in the nursing home she's at and she always has funny stories about the other residents. I only hope that I have her attitude when I get to be that age.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Cravings

One question I get asked a lot is what I've been craving. The truth is, not much really. I'm still nauseous a lot and it's difficult to really want anything in that state. When I do "crave" something it's usually protein. Fish has been the main thing, and the occasional chicken fried steak. I've always loved sweets and I eat them on occasion but they're more of an after thought. Oh, and milk, I drink a lot of milk now days. I've gotten to where I just buy 2 gallons at a time, otherwise I'm back at the store in 3 days.

Jonathan on the other hand has had some weird ones. He eats egg salad with avocado on it and he sent me this picture and said it looked good: It's a cornbread cake with icing and bacon on top. It makes me want to gag. Honestly, you'd think he's the pregnant one.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

15 Weeks

My sinus infection is mostly gone. I feel fine, but I'm still a bit snotty. The nausea comes and goes. Last night after dinner I felt the baby move! It was 2 or 3 thumbs all in a row. Everything is going along just fine, I'm having a bit of indigestion and am taking tums. I have a mild headache most of the time, it's annoying but nothing uncommon or serious. I can't wait for my next dr's apt, it can't come quick enough.

I still don't have the house cleaned up, I'm going to work on that next, and there's no way I'm getting to the painting this weekend. I had a long lunch with my friend Rita, which was great, and spent some time with my family yesterday evening. Jonathan and Randy finished their ride and had a blast. I post a few pictures after he gets home.

This week:
  • You may begin to feel some fluttering movements as baby kicks, flails, twists and turns (but don't panic if you don't yet). She can also grasp, squint, frown, grimace and maybe suck her thumb!
  • Your baby's legs have grown longer than the arms and the body is now longer than the head.
  • And you'll be happy to note that he is moving those arms and legs often!
  • His skin is very thin -- so thin blood vessel are visible. It's covered by a fine, soft layer of hair called lanugo. Lanugo comes from a Latin word meaning "down." This hair is thought to help insulate your little boy.
  • The three tiny bones in his middle ear have begun to harden. The auditory centers in your baby's brain haven't developed yet, so she might not really understand what you say but her hearing capacity is in the process of developing.
  • Fingernails and toenails are growing.
  • Eyebrows are beginning to grow and even the hair his head is sprouting. It will probably change color and texture after birth.
  • All this and your little one is an amazing 3.98 inches (10.1cm) long and may weigh 2.47 ounces (70gm).

Saturday, October 4, 2008

A completed project!

Look what I made...

It's a wee little baby hat. I made it for Nicole and it's just right. This is my first successfully completed knitting project. I'm very proud of myself.

Friday, October 3, 2008

On my own

Jonathan is off to San Antonio this afternoon for a bike to the beach. Randy (our brother-in-law) and Jonathan are riding their road bikes from San Antonio to Corpus Christi, it's to raise money for MS. Mostly they just wanted to do some big miles on the road. It's a 2 day ride totaling 160 miles... I think.

So I'm at the house by myself this weekend. I hope to get the house clean, knit a little baby hat for the newest arrival in the family (a little girl named Nicole), and possibly paint the babies room. I have a busy day tomorrow with watching the football game and all but today and Sunday are mostly free.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

No Luck

I went to Barton Creek mall today in search of a maternity bra to exercise in and had no luck. I went to Motherhood maternity and if they had anything with big enough cups, it was too big around too, and vise versa. I also didn't like that all the straps they had on everything were too skinny and hurt.

Next I went to JCPenny's and also Lane Briant. Penny's had nothing and Lane Briant only had things that were way too big around, and they sill didn't have a cup size that was big enough. The sales person recommended Fredrick's because they have things that are smaller around and bigger up top, but the only things I could find there were a bit... skimpy.

I have one maternity store to try tomorrow. I ordered a few from a clothing company that I really like and I'll just return them if they don't work. If I can't find anything else I'll go to Petticoat Fair and try there. That's where I got the 2 bras that I have now, I just don't know if they have anything to exercise in. I also haven't tried Academy or REI, but I don't think I'll find anything big enough. This is getting annoying.