Kylie is here!

Kylie Makena Strick came into the world on 10.2.10 at 4:43pm weighing 6lb 3 oz and 19inches.

This is coming a little bit late, and will be a bit long, but the day after my last post was quite eventful! Friday Oct 1st, Maddison and I were just about to head out to run a bunch of errands to prepare for the following week's induction. We got into the car, I said goodbye to my mom on the phone, turned around to back out of the drive-way noticing Maddison was already falling alseep, when suddenly I realized I really hadn't felt Kylie much at all that day. Next to me sat a full glass of ice water, so I downed it which usually perks her right up and had no response. So I sat there in the truck for about 10 minutes poking and prodding her with still no response. She is usually extremely active on her own and anytime I gave her a nudge she would normally nudge me right back, so this was just not normal. I called my doctor and headed in to L&D for some monitoring. After about 10 minutes on the monitors the nurse barged in and said the doctor was going to induce me that night because the baby's heart rate had a big dip and since she was already expected to have IUGR they needed her out asap. Marc was already on his way from work and heard the nurse over the phone so he sped over to pick up Maddison and go home and get everything ready. My doctor was off that weekend, so the call was made by the on-call physician Dr. Walter through the same clinic. My doctor had promised me that as long as it wasn't between 10pm and 4am he would be there to deliver even if it was his weekend off. I decided not to say anything to the nurses about it since by then it didn't matter who caught her, it only mattered that she was OK. At 8pm, my doctor walked through the door as promised to check on me anyway! It was like Mommy kissing a skinned knee to know he was following through on his promise! Such a huge relief! This was 4 hours on the monitors at that point, and she had a few more dips but nothing too serious, so they decided to start me on pitocin at 11pm on a very slow drip in hopes I could rest through the night.

Now, if you are not into reading Birth Stories, now is probably where you should stop and just look at the pictures. If you're into that sort of thing (like I am!) here goes:

At 6:30am they got "aggressive" with the induction and started upping the pitocin by 2mL every hour or so. I say "aggressive" because with Maddison it was increased by 5mL every 15-30 minutes! At 11:30am my doctor came and broke my water and told me that since I planned on getting an epidural, now would be the best time to get it since the contractions would start becoming more intense. Apparently I thought I had something to prove because I declined saying I wanted to experience more pain than I had last time since the epidural was basically rammed down my throat each time they came in to increase the pit until I finally caved in just to shut them up. My mistake! I labored for 4 hours, still refusing to ask for it, until Marc finally asked if I needed it yet. Since he offered, and since I was already breathing back the urge to push with each contraction, I accepted! By that time there was a wait, and I was number 3 in line for the anesthesiologist. Like I said, my mistake! At 2:30pm that wonderful man came in and got me feeling comfortable again. I was checked, and was at 4-5cm, completely effaced, and completely discouraged. I could not believe after 8 hours of pitocin (technically 15.5 hours of pitocin) and 4 hours of the worst pain I have ever experienced I was only at a 4! I was sure they would check me and say, "Wow! You're ready to go!" so I was honestly very disappointed in my lack of pain tolerance. 50 minutes later, the nurse came in at my doctor's request to check me. Again, this is his weekend off and time's a tickin'. I was starting to feel bad for the guy and was going to tell him not to worry about it, but lo and behold I was ready to go! In trying to be a hero and prove to myself that I could handle some pain, I had tensed myself up so badly that I had stalled the progression. Dr. Rathee arrived around 4pm and we joked about beating my record of 14 minutes. We aimed for 12. We got 43! She was stuck on my pelvic bone AND she was sunnyside up so I definitely had my work cut out for me, but she is worth it! She had pretty massive bruising on her forehead from my pelvic bone as you can see in the pictures, and she still has a dent on her nose but perfect in every other way! She scored 9/9 on her Apgars, and had the doctor a little surprised that she never developed jaundice being that badly bruised. We were very homesick and missing Maddison so we even came home a day early. The first night home was ROUGH. She screamed from 11pm-3am when I finally caved and gave her some formula. She zonked for 2 hours. I supplemented with formula the next 4-5 feedings and then tried pumping to see if she had been getting anything for the last 2 days - not a drop! Poor thing was starving, so we continued on formula until my milk came in and now she's a happy healthy breastfed baby!

On Tuesday Oct 5, she had her first visit to the pediatrician. She was down to 5lb 12oz and 18.4" long. Not suprised about the 7oz weight loss drop since she starved the first 48 hours of her life, but the doctor wasn't too concerned and said she should be back up by the following week (Today). Her 8" shrink in height is due to her head going back to it's normal shape, so really that's what her real length was.

As of today, she is back up to 6lb 2.5oz and 18.5" long. She is gaining her weight back perfectly and even grew a little. She had her second NBS done today (heel prick) and even had a visit to SmashBurger!

So, we are all doing well, Maddison just adores her. It took her a day to be able to touch her, but now she loves to hold her, hug her, kiss her, play pat-a-cake, this little piggy - you name it. She's a great big sister and a great Mommy's helper too! We are all still adjusting to the new addition and the lack of sleep. Marc took 2 weeks off of work, so he will go back next Monday and I am a little nervous about getting Maddison off to school on time but I am sure we will figure it out! We are still trying to introduce Kylie to everyone, breastfeeding isn't exactly the most convenient thing, so if we have not seen you yet it's only because we are not coordinated enough to just throw a blanket over us yet. But we will figure that out too! Pics to come next!

Not so wonderful news...

I've been having my normal NST and BPP's every week. I missed last weeks, but the week before that I asked if they could give me an EFW (estimated fetal weight), but since it wasn't on the order from the doctor they couldn't. Well I haven't noticed any belly growth and barely any weight gain in the last 2 weeks, so I asked my doctor on Tuesday if he could add EFW to the order, which he did. 2 weeks ago at 35 weeks gestation she measured in the 40th percentile for growth. Not terrible considering Marc and I are not the largest people on earth! At this point the baby should be gaining about a half a pound per week. Yesterday I was told she has dropped to the 11th percentile and my doctor told me to prepare to have the induction talk at Tuesday's appointment. This is pretty disappointing for me as I was really looking forward to a better (more natural) birth experience this time around. For those who don't know about my last, there were no health complications, but upon being admitted I was strapped to continuous monitoring, IV fluids, and other than a trip to the bathroom I was to stay in bed. This lasted 14 hours. By the time I had delivered I was blown up like a parade balloon which is pretty uncomfortable! This time around I had planned on a hep-lok and oral fluids for as long as I was allowed and was planning on an active upright labor. I'm not sure how much of this will change now, but I'll find out Tuesday. I'm really hoping that although I'll have to have pitocin, I can still go without IV fluids for a while and will be able to at least walk around. But even if I have to be stuck in bed for another 14 hours strapped to continuous monitoring and blown up like a Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade balloon, this is by far what's best for baby since the concern is that my placenta is shutting down. Despite my birth plan desires, the goal isn't to have an amazing birth experience, it's to have a healthy baby so how that goal is achieved really isn't the concern anymore! Well, I will know more on Tuesday afternoon so I will update as soon as I find out. Unless they decide to induce that night!

32 more days!!!

But who's counting, right? ME! I've officially hit the miserable stage, but I won't complain to you. That's what Marc is for! :)

An update on baby: My belly was measuring 3 weeks small as of my 32 week appointment so they set me up with weekly NST (Non-Stress Test) and BPP's (Biophysical Profile). The NST is just a test done in the hospital where they hook me up to the monitors and watch how often baby moves as well as her heart rate during these movements. They want to see at least 2 heart accelerations of at least 15bpm above her heart's resting rate in a 20 minute period. Little gymnast has passed the last 2 tests with flying colors. She's extremely active, and at yesterday's appointment she had the hiccups during the test and was kicking the monitors so hard the nurse had to turn the volume way down because it was so deafening! The Biophysical Profile is an ultrasound that basically checks for the same things. They want to watch and make sure the baby is practicing breathing (which she is!), check the veins and placenta and make sure everything is flowing well (which they are!), and they also measure the amniotic fluid (which has been fine!). This past Monday the doctor did a quick growth scan in the office and she measured 4lb 15oz, which puts her in the 40th percentile. At this late in the game ultrasounds can be off +/- 1lb, so really it's just an estimate. But, basically - she's a healthy baby that has small parents. I can't complain about all the tests though, since I get to peek at her once a week!

The nursery is pretty much finished, just dragging my feet on applying the vinyl wall quote because I'm scared to mess it up! Big sister Maddison is not-so-patiently awaiting her baby sister's arrival. We created a ring calendar a week ago so she is beginning to understand just how much longer we have to wait! Marc is getting a little anxious as well. He has 2 more weekends of work and then he's on "baby watch". He will be taking 2 weeks off of work to bond with baby so it will be really nice to have him home! I do have to say that I am the most impatient of all! I am definitely looking forward to meeting her and getting some comfortable sleep! It might not be a whole lot of sleep, but at least I'll be comfortable!

One more tid bit of good news that I just heard today is that my mom and James will be moving back to Phoenix!! At the very latest they will be here by next June, but if they can sell their house before then they will be here a lot sooner! So everyone pray they get a good offer on their house soon so they can finally make it back to the valley after being gone for 4 years!

Anyway, thats a quick update on what's been going on around here! I'll post the finished nursery as soon as I get up the courage to apply that quote!

Nursery Progress!

Nursery painting is finally complete!! Well, almost. You'll see why down below. Dad came over yesterday and replastered the section of wall that was ruined by the wooden border, so this morning after I cooked a hearty biscuits 'n gravy breakfast we got straight to work!

Smoothing out the plaster job. What a MESS! Maddi helping paint the pink part.

She was very happy to have a part in painting her sister's room!

The finished product! Just missing the chocolate brown chair rail in between the two colors to match the one on top.

Maddison and Mommy Day

Today Maddison and I had Mommy 'N Me kind of day. I promised her last night that if she stayed in bed and went right to sleep after Oliver & Co. on cassette was over that I would take her ot see Despicable Me. Well, she was a very good little girl and suprised me by waking up at 6:45am! I was already up and had been on my morning walk with Sedona, so we woke up Marc, sent him off to work, did Pre-Natal Yoga together, had breakfast and then started getting ready for the movies. Despicable Me was super cute! I chuckled through the whole thing basically and even teared up at the end. Then I took Maddison for a chocolate ice cream cone and she helped me try to pick out a dress to wear to Derek and Angela's wedding on Friday. After that we went to Barnes N Noble and she picked out Princess and the Frog Read Along. We read a bunch of books and then she wanted to go to Pier 1 Imports next door to go "furniture shopping". Since she was highly anticipating her cousin Joey to come over we didn't stay very long. Nicholas was sleeping so Joey and Maddison's play-time will have to wait until tomorrow which she is kinda bummed about, but all in all I'd say we had a very fun day together!

Weekly Update

I stole this from a fellow preggo blogger =)

How far along? 26 weeks 5 days!

Total weight gain: As of 7/15/10 it was 13.5 pounds! I have since eaten like a hog so I am afraid to know what it will be when I weigh myself next Tuesday.

Best moment this week: That's tough. I'm on week 2 of being a SAHM so really I am enjoying ever second I get to spend with Miss Maddison. Can't pick a best moment!

Movement: TONS! She is quite the acrobat in there! I can see my whole belly roll and move with her and she is starting to make me a little uncomfortable these days!

Gender: Female. I'll have to come up with a new one for next week since this one won't be changing!

Belly button in/out: It's pretty much out. You can't see it yet through a shirt, but very soon!

What I miss: Being able to sit and lay comfortably.

What I am looking forward to: NO HEARTBURN! This kid is going to come out like a gorilla if this heartburn keeps up! It's aweful =(

Milestones: We are now in the semi-safe zone is God forbid something were to happen and she came early. 24 weeks I believe is the beginning since baby's lungs are a little more developed but I would prefer her to bake a LOT longer!!

Inspiration...

This is the bedding we bought for Miss Cylie's nursery.

This is a little inspiration for what I want to achieve with the bedding. I LOVE this room. I'm not a huge fan of the fabric dresser though. Since we do not have tray ceilings we can not do the silk on the ceiling (which I LOVE), but I love the warmth of the room and the color scheme is somewhat similar to Cylie's bedding. The picture of it seems ultra pink, but it's more of a dusty rose in person so this would be a nice room to create around it.
I also fell in love with this room. I saw this one before I saw the last and absolutely loved it. I couldn't pull off the look exactly since we have an espresso dresser and side table and an oak crib (not excited about them not matching but oh well!). But again, I love the feel of the room and if you notice the paint colors are similar in these 2 rooms. I had originally planned to do a paint job similar to the one shown in the bedding photo but with creme stripes on top. Now I am really liking the sage green. Much to think about!

I really don't get the tree thing. If you go to Rate My Space where I found these photos and view the nursery pics like 60% of all nurseries on there have trees painted on the wall. Tree of life?? Maybe. But I really don't get where that trend started or why SO many people are following it. Another 30% have huge alphabet letters painted usualy on one wall, with the letters turned different directions. I usually see this in boy rooms. Again, cool idea, but when soooo many people do the same thing it kinda kills it for me. Still love the color scheme and overall feel of the room. Can't wait to see what mine will turn out like!

A while back I had posted about a dilemma regarding the downstairs guest bedroom. Since we had never used it due to it flooding a month after we moved in we just weren't sure what to do with it. We ended up deciding on turning it into a scrapbooking/craft room for me, and Marc could have the loft to put all of his sports stuff in. Well, it's almost finished! The only thing left to do is add a second coat of paint and install the closet doors. Oh, and it needs a shleving unit and chair/sleeper sofa which we have not purchased yet. Other than that, voila!

I can't wait to get some work done in there! So far I still have not had time. Being a SAHM is a lot busier than I had imagined, so hopefully once all the projects and construction is done in the house I can get busy scrapbooking again!

Cylie's Nursery

We have finally started the grunt work portion of Cylie's nursery! These pictures are going to be out of order since I can't figure out how to do it correctly all in one post. Anyhow...

Cylie's stroller and carseat! We splurged a little on this, but it's the #1 rated carseat in America and all the WTE moms raved about it. We went with the green versus the pink to be more gender neutral JUST in case Marc buys me that boat in exchange for kid #3 and it happens to be a boy!

Cylie's diaper collection, some clothes (all size 6 months for some reason??) and my Guess purse I am using as a diaper bag because I have a minor obsession with Guess purses.

Construction! We had some difficulties prying off the bottom wooden chair rail/border thinggy and made 3 holes in the drywall. OOPS! P-Paw Larry saved the day with a patch job. Next we have to re-plaster this whole section where the border was because it's pretty messed up, as you can see.

The whole room...in shambles...and done completely backwards since I just HAD to set up the crib before we started. Blame it on "nesting".



Again, sorry the "before pics" are posted after the "during pics", but I was having trouble and got impatient.

What the guest room/"Grandma's Room" looked like before...

24 week Appt.

24 weeks!! 24 week appointment went well. My belly is measuring exactly at 24 weeks, heartbeat was 156 like usual. I just had a couple people notice for the first time that I am pregnant yesterday at work which is kinda funny, so I guess I'm doing better this time as far as not gorging myself on Big Mac's and Footlongs! I will have my glucose testing at my next appointment, not really looking forward to that. Ugghh...my blood needs to stay IN my body!! With Maddison I was borderline diabetic, but with the way I ate back then I am not suprised! Hopefully everything will go fine this time around.

Good news: TOMORROW IS MY LAST DAY OF WORK!!!! AHHH!! I'm so excited!! I am a little nervous too, that I'll get bored or just simply miss people interaction, but Maddison will keep me very busy I am sure! We also shave a lot of work left to be done on the nursery so that will keep me busy, and my scrapbook room finally has the wood flooring installed! All that's left in there to be done is the baseboard in the closet and it will be good to go! Marc put together my desk which is awesome! It's HUGE so I will have more than enough room to let my creativity spread out! So by the time all of that is completed I will probably have a little one in my arms so I think I have more than enough to keep me busy. So excited!!!

It's been awhile...

Well I have had a very busy couple of weeks! I am almost done with work (YAY!!) Friday will be my last day. I'm so excited to spend all of my time with Maddison, and have time for early morning walks with Sedona, and work on the nursery, and clean, and learn to cook....well...maybe not so excited about that last one! But anyway, my scatterbrain is getting to me so here is an update of my last 2 weeks.

The 16th was quite eventful! A typical HOT Wednesday at work, in my typically HOT storage room, doing the typically non-pregnancy friendly things I do, ended up not-so-typical spending 4.5 hours in the L&D unit. After spending about 45 minutes in the heat and lifting boxes and all of those super fun things, I started feeling contractions. A couple were very uncomfortable, but nothing resembling the horrific labor pains (sorry to scare first-time Mommy's out there!). I was having 4-5 an hour just sitting at my desk at work so around noon I called Dr. Rathee. They had me come in and did some poking and prodding and decided it would be best to just send me to the ER to get hooked to a monitor and make sure nothing was happening. Most of the 4.5 hours was waiting in the lobby, and by that time they had completely stopped. The nurses talked me into staying so I did. An hour and 15 minutes hooked up to the monitor and they didn't see anything alarming so they sent me home. Good news! AND a good excuse for an 11pm stop at the McDonald's drive-thru for a Big Mac!

The next day was even MORE fun! I hadn't been to the dentist in 6, yes SIX, years so I went in for a routine cleaning and exam. Nothing routine about that visit either! 5 cavities (3 under old cracked silver fillings), 2 fractured teeth, impacted wisdom teeth, root canal, crown, and gum disease. Uggghhh. I decided to let them go ahead and work on the worst tooth (the one needing the root canal and crown) and also did the most horrific gum treatment ever. They numbed my entire face, pulled back my gums from each tooth and power blasted water at them. They also chiseled away 6 years worth of tarter build-up (yuck, not sure why I am sharing all of this...). I left in absolute agony. Thankfully, this was during Maddison's week long vacation (sad face) with her father, so at least I got to go home and sleep, but I was in agony until my root canal the following Monday. That part actually turned out very well. The only bad part was there wasnt much tooth left to clamp to, so they had to clamp to my gums and I ended up with stitches back there, but I felt asbolutely amazing once the novacaine all wore off. Amazing that is for 24 hours...until the infection set it. Yikes! So I am currently on a round of antibiotics and the sore is clearing up good now so hopefully that should all be gone by the time I get my crown on July 7th. Yippee. Can't wait for that either. I still have a LOT of mouth work to be done, but the rest of it is pretty pricey so some of it might not get done until after Miss Cylie arrives. Definitely not the wisdom teeth until then. I very much would like to be able to have percocet for that!

As far as the week being away from Maddison...it was tough! It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I always prepare for the worst and hope for the best (pessimistic? Maybe!), so I was really expecting to be in a deep depression the whole time. Especially when I called Tuesday and realized they were out of cell phone signal! Ugghh, so I spent my days watching lots of re-runs and put in a few extra hours at work. I was SO excited that she wanted to come home early on Friday, and surprised her dad let her. So she came home Friday and boy was she the snuggliest kid on the planet! She stayed with me until the following day until about 3:30pm when they had a BBQ but came home Father's Day (Sunday). Ohhhh soooo good to have her back! Not letting her go for that long for a WHILE!

Well next baby appt is tommorow where I will be 24 weeks!!! She is definitely getting very strong! My entire belly moves every time she kicks or rolls, and every once in a while she does something that really hurts! So I will definitely update tomorrow on how that goes. The anatomy scan was June 10th when my mom was in town for Maddison's recital (WOW am I behind on this!) and she was 13oz at 21 weeks 2 days. I doubt Ill get another ultrasound but a girl can hope, right?!

Memorial Weekend at Upper Lake Mary

My catchin's

Sedona enjoying the freezing water

Maddison and her Ladybug friend

Marc getting his pole ready

P-Paw Larry and Maddison




Ahhh...what a peaceful weekend it was! Marc, Maddison, my dad, Sedona and I all made the drive up to Lake Mary on Friday afternoon for a camping and fishing trip. I hadn't been there since I was 4 years old and my dad caught a fish that was literally as big as I was. I'll have to find that picture and post it on here. The weather was beautiful during the day, around 72 degrees both days. the nights were a little more chilly. 36 degrees Friday night and 32 degress Saturday night! WOW that's cold! It was a great trip, so relaxing and refreshing, it was just what I needed! Not to mention Saturday I was the only one to catch anything and I caught three 7lb Pikes!!!! We haven't eaten any of them yet. Dad filleted one of them but his knife wasn't sharp enough to do a decent job of it so we canned that one and brought the rest home for him to do with some decent utensils. I'm excited to try it! I have never had Pike, neither has my dad. In fact in all the times he's been to Lake Mary he said he has never caught a single Pike! So I am pretty proud I was able to catch 3 in one day! Not to mention, decent sized fish at that! Anyway, we all had a great time, but it's soooo good to be home and showered and have a real bed to sleep in. Our air mattress apparently has a hole in it so within an hour or so we were all on the rock hard ground. Ah well, that's what "roughin' it" is all about!

Belly Pics

19 Weeks 1 Day.

16 Weeks I don't have my 8 week photo because it is stored on a phone that no longer has service. But considering there's not much to see at 16 weeks, there was even less at 8 weeks!

3D Ultrasound

Beautiful Baby Cylie

It's a................

GIRL!!!!


We had our 3D ultrasound today and got some good pictures and some very good looks at many different angles to double/triple/quadruple check that she really IS a girl. Maddison played a trick on me at one point (well, actually the ultrasound tech just wasn't the best...), so she is definitely a girl. The whole last week Ive been saying its a girl, so has Marc, and even Maddison decided she wanted a sister after she found out boys can't wear dresses with her! =) So I am very excited to start a new search for girl stuff. At first I was very set on it being a boy, I had bedding picked out and I knew exactly what I would do with his room. Now, I get to start fresh! I am a little relieved, I must say! Boys are just...not my thing! I know nothing about them, and they are just too roudy and loud for me. Plus, I am so used ot my little cautious queen, I think a dare-devil boy might give me a heart attack! Maybe next time...if there is a next time!!

As far as names for a girl, we are thinking (so far...like I said, we were set on a boy until a week ago I just had a feeling it was a girl so we havent put as much thought into girl names as we had boy names):

Top Contenders:

Cylie (Kylie)

Rylee

Makena

At one point Mackenzie was on this list also...not so sure anymore.

Names I LOVE but are afraid to get negative feedback about:

Aspen

Blake

Blair

Denver (Yes, even for a girl...I don't know whats up with the Colorado cities...don't ask.)

Kennedy

Rylee is sort of on this list too!

Prescott (Strange, maybe! But I think it's cute!)

...as of now that is all I can remember.

If she had been a boy our names were:

Mason Montgomery

Easton Montgomery

and TODAY on the way I came up with the greatest of them all which we just might use for the next (if it's a boy)....

COHEN! Yes, I did watch 2 episodes of The O.C this morning when I was up at 4am, and I'm glad I did, my special love for Seth (it's a special kind of special....like a "I wish he was my best friend/brother" kind of special) brought me to this name because as you ALL know, Summer always referred to Seth as simply, "Cohen". "He's Cohen" was her explaination for his many quirks. So Cohen Michael Strick would have been our boy, but we always have next time...maybe! =)

Very long week for Maddison =(

Well this post isn't the most pleasant, but the next one will be. Maddison has been sick since Monday night (it is now Saturday night) when she developed Pink Eye in her left eye. Tuesday we took her in, she had a low-grade fever, got some drops for the eye, also diagnosed with a URI By the end of the day it crossed over into her right eye as well. Fever got out of control (over 104) all through the night horrible hacking cough, so bad she was hacking up huge masses of mucous (enough that it was like throwing up). Wednesday her condition worsened, fever stayed very high and Mortin was only keeping it down 3-4 hours at a time. As soon as it wore off, it would spike back up to over 104. I took her back in for a throat culture because she said it hurt her mouth to swallow. Strep test came back negative so no antibiotics were given. Thursday and Friday no signs of any real improvement. She would have ups and downs throughout the day. Saturday we went and had our ultrasound (that will be the next post). She seemed to be doing much better and I even felt silly for calling the doctors office the day before and leaving a message with the nurse. They did call back, just waited until they were closed to when I missed their call and tried ot call back they were closed of course. Anyway, after the scan we went to Target where she seemed very tired. She fell asleep on the way there, and on the way to PPP for Justus' birthday. Unfortunately we couldnt stay longer than 10 minutes or so because of her condition, but she was so ill she just wanted to go home and sleep anyway. She fell asleep on the car ride home and was extremely cranky when we got home and laid her down. She was crying over nothing, and then said she wanted ot watch a movie. We put one on, and she fell asleep shortly after. I'm not sure exactly how long she was sleeping, but she woke up SCREAMING as though the dog had bitten her arm off or something. Marc ran to get her, and as he passed her to me, he noticed her eye. Her eye had swelled up to about 3x the normal size, just her left eye. She was fire hot, and when I sat her down to take her temperature I noticed she was covered in a rash. After looking for some sort of bite or scratch to cause it we took her into Urgent Care. She had intercostal retraction and her O2 sats were a little low due to her excessive congestion so they gave her a breathing treatment, which brought her skin color from bright red to normal, and oddly enough, her eye swelling went down about half the size during this as well. They still don't know what caused her eye to swell but she was diagnosed with Scarlet Fever due to undiagnosed and untreated strep. The strep also went into her lungs causing the horrible congestion and hacking. and the lack of her ability to breathe. So they sent her home with antibiotics and steroids. She should show some improvement within 24 hours with the steroids and if not - straight ot the ER we go. Poor girl =( She's doing fine right this minute, she doesnt look anything like her normal self, her eyes are very swollen and dark and she has a very raspy voice, but right this moment she is her happy self. Hopefully she will do okay tonight so we can both get some much needed sleep (I've been up since 4am!), and hopefully she improves tomorrow!

Dilemma Resolved!

Marc LOVED the idea of having the loft/pool room be his sports room, and he was even excited about having the team be red. Coyotes or Cardinals?!?! We are leaning more to the right on this one!

As far as the craft room, I picked out a table and bought 2 samples of blue paint (MORE?! Yes!! That makes 10 colors on my wall!) And AGAIN I didnt like either of them! I first came across 3 different shades of blue, one more of a true blue, another a dark Tiffany blue, and the last was somewhere in the middle. Then I got scared they might be too bright and vibrant for a downstairs room with only one small window so I went with 2 shades that are so light they may as well be white! So I think I am DONE with samples, I am just going to nip it in the butt and buy a gallon and just og with whatever my heart feels! I have the full vision of the room now, I am just hoping I can get it all done before I quit my job so that all the projects can be finished and purchased with my pay checks so we can practice living off of just Marc's income - because believe me, after a Monday like I had today I dont know how many more I can handle! (Headache, billing due, scanner broke for 4.5 hours so I was stuck in limbo doing nothing, by the time it was fixed I had to leave, got stuck in accident traffic, came home dropped the open paint sample and splattered it all the way across the room, up the door, over my favorite pair of scrubs, all over Marc's favorite shoes...aye yi yi!)

So now that I have my vision, its time ot just DO it and stop my nonsense of being afraid of paint color! I have 7 bright cheery colors in Maddison's room and never thought twice about it. WHY does this room scare me so much?!?! Anyway, I am thinking:
A cheery bluish/turquoise paint color
The laminate wood flooring
My white craft table from Target
I'd LOVE a frumpy funky white chair with ottoman in there for a reading nook with a bright blue chenille blankie to snuggle with and blue and green accent pillows (Im thinking Ikea might have something along those lines)
A tall white 5 shelf book case - nicely organized with blue and bright/lime photo storage boxes
2 white shelves on both sides of the window with 3 holes drilled in them to drop cool cups in to store all my crazy scissors/markers/colored pencils...etc.
2 flat white...boards on both sides with silver clips to hang stuff (if that makes sense...I have a vision okay!)
And I am currently browsing table lamps...I have a couple in mind...but will buy that last as things come together. I am so excited!!! I can actually have a space to myself to do something I love!

P.S. Baby appt tomorrow. I am going to BEG for a quick U/S to check gender...I highly doubt Ill get my way but we will see!

Demo Room Dilemma

I'm very delicately teetering the rope of sanity right now trying to decide what to do with our downstairs bedroom. It's driving me absolutely insane! This room has been stripped for the last 13 months due to flood/sewage damage that happened just a month after we moved in. Long story short, the ceiling in the closet caved in and sewage spilled everywhere onto the carpet and seeped into the walls. After a VERY expensive clean-up, we had to rip out the carpet and re-do the ceiling and door casings for the closet. Everything is done, except the flooring. We have decided to go with a hard surface, and got a quote for Brazilian Hickory laminate from Home Depot, but Marc's brother sells hard surface flooring through Shaw and could get us a good deal on real hardwood. Even with the deal I am thinking thats a little more than I am wanting to spend on flooring for a guest room, so we will probably go with laminate wood. I currently have 5 horrific paint samples painted on the wall - all of which I LOVED in the store - none of which I could ever fathom staring at in my own home once the paint dried. UGH!



So the main dilemma is what the room should be.



I want it to be a fully functional and comfortable guest bedroom since my mom and step-dad visit so often, also for people to just crash since some of our friends live pretty far away and usually our nights of entertainment (few and far between as they may be) usually go into the wee hours of the morning.



I also have a DREAM to have a craft room. A nice big table to scrapbook on and just let my creativity wander into making whatever it is I feel like in that moment and having everything right there at my fingertips and the space to spread out and get it all done.



We also thought about having an office, but we really don't have a strong need to have anything more than a computer sitting on a table. He is finished with school, and I am...well...in remission (school can very much feel like a disease!) so other than a place to blog and pay bills we really don't need much space. Plus, we have a built in corner desk upstairs that I already have a vision for. Now whether this becomes the office space or the scrapbook space is still up in the air. DECISIONS!



Lastly, it would be nice if Marc and I could compromise somehow on where exactly all of his sports shenanigans should go. Since we finally decided to keep the pool table I am thinking floor length red drapes and he can pick a red team to go with. Picky Nikki just cant have green as much as I LOVE my Green Bay Packers, their colors are aweful. But not near as aweful as the Bears!

SO! I will present my ideas to hubby and get back to you!

NT Scan 13w3d

Just got a call from the Doc today. Everything checked out well. baby looks good, measuring exactly where he/she should be, and no signs of downs or any other abnormailities. YAY! Here are some pics of our little bean!

Nice pic of his/her brain.

Ultrasound 11w6d

Baby turned to wave and say hi!Profile pic

We're Married!

It's been quite a while since I last updated this thing. I just about gave up on the whole idea but now that the wedding and honeymoon are over I have a little more time for myself. A little!

The wedding turned out beautiful! It was all worth the months of stress and planning and it was so nice to be able to share such a special day with all of our friends and family. Marc turned out to be quite the disco dancer at the reception! I don't think I will soon (or ever!) forget the garter show he put on. And it was quite a show indeed! So much in fact, that his mom came and whacked him on the back afterward and his brother told him he had some explaining to do to his two kids trembling in the corner! LOL! It was hilarious, we just wish we had it on film! We can't even remember the song that was played. I think I have blocked part of it out as a coping mechanism for the trauma of being center of attention for a day, but again, it was all worth it in the end and we couldn't thank our family and friends more for the wonderful memories of that night!

The honeymoon was equally amazing. We spent 5 days at the Westin in Maui. Absolutely beautiful!! We went whale watching and spent a lot of time around Lahaina admiring the Banyan Tree and browsing all the fun little tourist shops. It was extremely windy the entire time (25-35 mph winds with 50 mph gusts!) so our snorkling trip to Molokini Crater got cancelled which was a bit of a bummer, but I was also very nervous to be out on the water in those kind of winds since I got sick the last 45 minutes of whale watching. I had never been sea sick before, and I do not ever plan on being sick again! It's aweful! It's a constant total body whirlwind that does NOT go away until you take a few steps on level ground. Due to the wind, we also chickened out on driving the Road to Hana ourselves. We really didn't want to be the front page of the newspaper, "Local Newlyweds get blown off of Maui cliff", so we decided there will definitely be a "next time" and we will do it then. Preferably not in March which is apparently known for trade winds. This is an extremely brief summary of our stay, but we had a great time and met some fun people. An ER Doctor and his partner "Coco" vacationing with the newly and much happier divorced ER nurse, fun group! Another newlywed couple from LA and then the strangely similar couple from Chandler, AZ! We went to the Old Lahaina Luau (awesome show and great spread!) and met a couple from Chandler who have been together as long as us, got married the same day, were staying at the same resort, 2 floors and one room number apart (754 and 553), AND....they work at Target Financial. How strange this small world can be! And speaking of small world, I ran into a co-worker at the Maui airport and we took the same flight home! We had no idea the other was there! But other than the wind, the weather was gorgeous. The wind actually was kind of nice because we were able to get a lot of tanning in without overheating! We plan to go back in a couple years, probably with the kids, but I'd also love toplan something with the entire family. I've always wanted to take a huge trip like that so hopefully we can get something in the works!

Baby Update!
Today I am 13 weeks and 3 days! We just had out NT scan yesterday so we got some good pictures of the little bean. I will upload them soon. Baby is measuring exactly on schedule and looks great. Heart rate was 154. We got a glimpse of the gender (barely) but the tech wouldn't zoom in so I am not convinced at all at what we did or did not see. I will just have to wait a few more looooong weeks to find out for sure!

Maddison Update!
Maddison is having her 4th birthday party tomorrow! ::sniff sniff:: She is getting a CD/Cassette player and 2 CD's from up. (And of course, tons of Gymboree!) I am sure my little singer will be very excited about her gift! 4 might seem young for such a gift, but if she's not singing she is dancing, and if she is not dancing she must be asleep! She is very musically inclined which is exciting, but so was I at that age and I can't carry a tune to save my life now. Hopefully she was blessed with a better singing voice than I was!

February 14, 2010

Well, waiting a while to tell people went just like every Christmas, birthday, anniversary, mother's day, even Hanukah was celebrated early this year! (On accident...I know, really?!) I, of course, told Tricia right after I told Marc. I also e-amiled my two WebMD gals that night. Marc on the other hand, told 3 Target stores worth of "team members" the following day. Friday I told 3 girls at work to even it up. Well, he couldn't contain himself, so then he told his mom, who couldn't contain herself, who told his sister...and also told her two sisters, Aunt Sis and Aunt Rosemary...who have probably spread the good news SO I guess the cat is out of the bag! Which, actually feels so much better than trying to hide it. I still have a few friends to tell, and some family members on my side, but my side doesn't feel the same...enthusiasm...as most families do when such good news is spread. My dad was pretty neutral, but his transmission seems to have been stuck in that same gear my whole life. It takes a lot to excite him and even more to tick him off to the point where you'll know he's truely ticked. He definitely comes across differently, but I think us Peabody's just have "pissed off" stuck as our default facial espression most of the time. We can be 100% content, and we still look mad! Grandma Peabody was very excited and happy for us. I got the expected reaction out of my mom, not exactly happy, but at the same time definitely not mad. But, she has made it very clear that she still stands by her choice to have only one child, and I think she expected the same from me. Quite the contrary! If this were the 1800's, but epidurals were readily available and safe, as well as vaccinations and overall medical technology what it is now...I would probably have 5 or 6. Growing up as an only child seems to have waaay more cons than pros. Yes, I had Jessica, who was very much like a sister. We were attached at the hip 90% of the time, but that 10% when we weren't, was because she was doing family things...with HER sister. So as spoiled rotten as I may have seemed, I never got the one thing I ALWAYS begged for. A sibling. Five or six kids these days are just too expensive. So until we go back to farming days on the prairie, 2 or 3 is plenty!

Well, I am now 4 weeks, 6 days pregnant! Woo progress! ha! 247 days to go, and I must say, that after holding Melissa's teeny tiny brand new baby girl today, this is going to be a long, LONG 247 days. Especially considering I was 9 weeks before I found out with Maddison! Nothing has changed in the 3 days since I posted last. Although, when I went to have my dress altered she wrote down my waist as 24", but I haven't measured it to be any smaller than 26", so I am a little worried about my dress coming out correctly!

February 10, 2010

Hello! Welcome to Marc and Nikki's blog! A very short intro about us just incase you are a stranger, bored at work, and just happened to google us somehow. Right now, Marc is 25 and I am 23. I have a little girl named Maddison who will be 4 in April, who is our little ray of sunshine! I could go on and on and on about her, but that's for later! We have been together for 2.5 years now, but have known each other since 2003. We originally met through AOL shortly after Marc moved here from Indiana to attend ASU. We never met in person until 2007 even though we were living in the same apartment complex just a building away from each other for about a year and going to the same college, the same days, and the same times!! So, we like to say we met at Starbuck's - our first meet and greet. Especially because that's when I knew for sure he wasn't some 400lb, 60 year old internet stalker....

Anyhow, Marc and I are about to embark on a very long journey together. We will be getting married March 27, 2010!!! He proposed last May on my birthday, very romantic - wrote it in the sand on Coronado Island in Cali =) Mr. Thoughtful spent a lot of time planning everything out to make it perfect, and it was! Wedding planning is well under way. In fact, we are just down to the little details now. We are both getting very excited!! We plan to honeymoon for a week in Maui immediately following the wedding. I'll miss my little one terribly, but it will be very exciting and romantic to have a whole kidless week together!

Now, for the really big news!

Marc and I do almost everything out of impulse or sponteneity. Nearly all of our purchases, from the pool table we NEVER use right down to all 3 dogs we've bnought were done on a moment's whim and probably with waaaaay too little thought. This is why out of three dogs, we are down to one! It definitely keeps things interesting around here to say the least! There is one thing however, that both of us have never wanted to do on impulse or without proper thought and planning, and this is planning our family together. Especially because children are not like dogs, if one is hard to potty train and the other bites you - you can't just take them back!!! Marc was ready about a year ago for this, and I needed a lot more warming up (and a fat rock on my finger) before I would even consider it. Well, after much consideration, and months of due date calcuations and trying to figure things perfectly to fit between everyone else's birthday's, holiday's, and most importantly - keeping the age gap between Maddison and her sibling as minimal as possible - we finally decided January, yes January, 2.5 months before the wedding would be the best time for us as a family to start trying. Well, it didn't take long!! February 9th I found out I am pregnant!!! So currently, I am 4 weeks along and due October 19th. We are both very excited!! I am a little anxious, only because I am stressing a bit about telling everyone, and answering EVERYONE'S first question which will be, "OMG, WHAT are you going to do about your DRESS?" Well, luckily babies take a while to bake so I doubt by 12 weeks I'll be showing much!! We still haven't decided when exactly we will tell everyone - a very select few already know - but right now we are contemplating just making an announcement at the reception. We will see!

So the main purpose of this blog is to keep track of our first pregnancy, and all the little changes that will be happening in the coming months while I grow a little baby sister or brother for Maddison. She doesn't know yet, only because she can be a bit of an accidental blabber mouth, but she has been asking for a baby brother for quite some time now so I know she will be VERY excited once we tell her! So very quickly, as it is after 9 and I need to get her in bed, so here goes:




Starting weight is....nunya...(ok I'm only telling so I can reminsce later) 112.5

Starting waist is....

I know this is early, but my little pregnancy app on my phone has these listed and I thought it would be neat so:

Cravings: If any, sweets, but I always crave sweets so I don't know if I can really count that.

Mood: Happy

Energy: I actually have felt more energetic than normal in the past week.

Morning Sickness: Slight nausea in the mornings, sometimes after each meal, but it is really very minimal.

Forgetful Me

So I am a little forgetful and forgot my username and password for the old blog. Unfortunately, I also forgot the password to my original gmail account so I had ot make a new one of those too! So here's a new blog! I think I'll e-mail myself my info this time so I won't lose it! I'll copy and paste the old posts to this (luckily there were only 2!).