Snow Fun

It was 8 degrees this morning! It took me about 30 minutes to de-ice the car and about 15 to shovel off the back deck so the dogs would be more willing to go outside to go potty.

Blaine and I went to Evans hospital on post for my weekly monitor (NST). He got to sit in one of the fancy chairs with the massage feature on and the heat while I sat for my monitor. We were explaining that this was his "visit" that he got to go with me before he goes home on Sunday so the lady did an ultrasound! Blaine was so excited, even though we couldn't see the face. He got a print out of a "baby bum", "baby foot" and a "baby head". He was very excited to come home and tell the girls about our outing. We even stopped at Starbucks for chocolate milk with whip and I got a decaffeinated latte. 

Jamin had lunch started when we got home. Grilled cheese and tomato soup! Perfect snack before play time in the snow out back. Dallas was so excited that the kids were going outside to play! She was jumping around and biting the snow. We had to call her in because she was freezing out there and was too stubborn to come inside. She was shaking and holding one of her back legs up.

 View of the mountains with tons of snow!

Week 32! The lady made a smiley face and had Blaine take a photo before the ultrasound.

 Dallas being stubborn.

Still looking outside wanting to go back out and play with the kids

32 weeks along today

Ice skating at World Arena today! Jamin had a bad stomach flu and I had to take him to the E.R. so he stayed home. When we left the World Arena it was just starting to snow. It is really coming down now! We are hoping to get enough tonight for sledding tomorrow AKA free fun. We have 4 sleds we all have snow gear (snow boots and bibs). So we are looking forward to what tomorrow brings. It's getting ugly out so I think we are going to stay in.

Pike's Peak

Jamin took the kids up to Pike's Peak today. I packed them a lunch and made sure they had plenty of warm clothes. I can't go up because of the altitude. I know there is snow in the summer, so I imagine it was freezing today.

 This is a time capsule that the Mason's put there. Many people don't know what it is.

Road trip

Well We made it back from Lubbock. On the way home we stopped and saw a volcano in New Mexico. Very cool! We got to walk down to the middle of the "bowl" of it.

That's all for now, dead tired, kids are playing with their Christmas presents.

4D photos!

She is sleeping just like me! Her little head is resting on her cheek. Hopefully we will get more next week!

Piper's Room in the making!

Dad and Sherry each bought a piece of furniture for Piper and Jamin and I got the crib. The crib turns into a toddler day bed, then headboard and foot board for a full size bed. So these pieces should last her forever.


I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of the step-cuties to help me set up the nursery. We had a friend come and help move the furniture upstairs from the garage and set up the crib. Enjoy, more to come before the New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Well We hit 30 weeks yesterday! I went to a 3rd trimester class last night and the teacher didn't show up, but a nurse gave us a tour of Labor and Delivery. All the rooms are private and really nice. They even have a DVD player and TV in all the rooms.

We got some snow yesterday, and a bunch more last night/today. It is really "fluffy" though and isn't sticking to the streets.
Here are our Christmas pictures from this year. We thought we ordered enough to send to more, but didn't. So Enjoy your own personal E-Christmas card!

I'm about 27 weeks in the Christmas pictures and 20 weeks in the one from the Army Ball.

Memorial Visit!

I had my first weekly appointment at Memorial today. I had my normal weekly monitor then they did a bio-physical. She said the placenta looked good! Which is good news. She was positioned perfectly for a 4d photo but the lady said that the regular ultrasound machine would get it better.
Well I waited and got my doppler done on the ultrasound machine and the brat moved! Head down face buried and down. Good news is I will have one done every week so maybe next week I will have better luck. She is measuring around 2 lbs 12 ounces? There were so many numbers up there. But she is in the overall 11th percentile now, but her abdomen is only in the 2nd percentile. So progress! I asked the doctor where I would deliver and she said the only way I would deliver at Memorial is if I'm less than 36 weeks.

We should get our stroller in the mail today and I'm calling around to movers to get furniture moved for Piper's nursery!

Who are these grown kids?!?!?

The trip to Lubbock went great! I left Colorado Springs around 6 AM Saturday and got in about 4 PM Texas time. I picked up the kids and took them to Mr. Gatti's where we stuffed ourselves with pizza and a little salad and played overpriced games. The kids have gotten so big! Sunday morning I met Tom and Dana (Jamin's dad and stepmom) for breakfast at McDonald's and we went to Church together. The Christmas play was great. They moved around so much it was hard to get a lot of great photos. After Church we went to Chili's for lunch and saw Megamind in 3D. I met up with them and their mom that night at "Santa Land". It's a big outdoor light festival. The kids got to see Santa, we had hot chocolate, listened to kids singing and sat by the fire pit. It was a great time. I left Lubbock this morning about 6 AM (5AM my normal Colorado time) and got into "the springs" about 1:30 this afternoon.

29 Weeks

So I had my first "monitor" appointment today at Evans (on post). It was easy. I got there early because I had lunch with Jamin that day and was trying to kill time. They hooked me up to two monitors one on my cervix to make sure I wasn't contracting, the other on Piper. Every time she kicked I had to push a button. The lady was laughing because when she kicked the monitors were dancing on my belly. They have these nice lazy boy type chairs that are heated so it's a room full of "preggos" on their cell phones flipping through magazines.

Tuesday is my first day getting "monitored" and "doppler-ed" at Memorial (downtown). I have about 45 minutes in between appointments so I'll make sure to take a snack and magazines. The doppler will take a look at the umbilical cord to make sure the blood flow is good for Piper.

My next doctor visit isn't until December 21st. But these other appointments keep me busy.

Saturday I'm going to drive out to Lubbock by myself, about 7 hours and meet up with the kids. They have a Church play that they are all in. The kids really wanted us to be there and Jamin has to work. So I'm going to drive out and take a lot of pictures. I'll drive back Monday. So be on the look out for more updates next week!

Chair together!

Well yesterday I was fighting off a nasty food poisoning bug. I had about 2 apples and some yogurt to eat all day, along with some Gatorade. Ben saved the day and went to Walgreen's and picked up pepto and Gatorade, snickers ice cream too - but I haven't been able to stomach it yet. I had a low fever for a few hours but it went down, so I didn't need to go in to get checked.

Ben went to the field today until tomorrow so I'm sitting around the house still recovering a little from yesterday. I put together our glider chair that I bought online. I'm feeling pretty accomplished today!

 Our dog Addison got the first "rock" in it and tested perfect. She was snoring within minutes.

Piper Update! Almost 29 weeks!

I had my monthly Doctor update and things are definitely changing. My doctor at Evans (on post) looked over the recommendations from the doctor at Memorial (downtown) and I will see seen twice a week now until I deliver. Piper is now under the 10th percentile on growth and for now they aren't sure why. They used the term or something like it "Restricted Fetal Growth".

Early in the week I will go to Memorial and have the blood flow checked to see how the umbilical cord is functioning. Every three weeks there I will get an ultrasound to check the placenta and see little Miss. I haven't set up those appointments yet, they will probably call next week sometime.

Every Thursday I will go to the "Antepartum test" lab on the labor and delivery floor of Evans and get hooked up to a monitor to watch the stress level.

Every two weeks I will see my regular doctor at Evans on post. My next appointment will be December 21st. I will definitely be put on bed rest, but he doesn't know when. I'm not looking forward to that at all. It's been hard enough not working, but now bed rest? But I will learn to live with it.

I went to my first OB education class on breastfeeding and have another class in a few weeks. I think the next one is on healthy mom and baby after delivery.

We get the final piece of our nursery furniture tomorrow. Our glider chair came in the mail today! Everything is sitting in it's box in the garage for now. We have to figure out where to put the queen bed before we can move everything in.


Keep checking our blog! We will update when we get an update!

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving here at our new house in Colorado! Mom came in Tuesday night and stayed until Saturday afternoon. We showed her around Manitou Springs, which is a little town lined with shops - and our favorite ice cream stores! For Thanksgiving I roasted a 5 pound lamb seasoned with salt and pepper, fresh rosemary and lemon zest. We had asparagus, corn, mashed potatoes and crescent rolls on the side.

We ventured out to Castle Rock outlet mall that evening. We left around 8 for the sales starting at 10. We got a great parking spot too! We stayed warm in the car until the stores opened. We got a ton of great baby clothes at Carters (50% off plus an extra 10% off at check out) and Osh Kosh (40%off). The line to get into the coach store was 1 1/2 hours so we didn't go for that. We ended up shopping until about 1 AM. We all crashed and I got up at 7:30 for the Babies R Us sale. I got jeans for $5 and a jumbo pack of over 400 baby wipes and some blankets that were on sale.

Our crib furniture is in. We will soon move the queen bed out and move the changing table and crib in. We don't have it set up yet, it still in the garage. I ordered a glider chair that should come sometime before December 14th and our chest of drawers that matches the crib should be in next week.

I had a phone interview today with the unemployment office in Kansas and all systems are go! Everything is coming together and we are looking forward to Christmas and having the kids here!

Our Dallas Baby shower!

My friends put together a beautiful baby shower this weekend in Dallas. We got so many cute and thoughtful presents!

 My sister in Law Melissa made the cake. She also made our wedding cake.

I have a preterm labor class at the hospital today and my mom comes in town tomorrow night. We will post pictures later this week of her visit!

Check up on heart

I had about a 45 minute ultrasound today at the downtown Memorial hospital here in Colorado Springs. On my last ultrasound they had been concerned about the heart rate range going somewhere from the mid 80's to 160's. Today none of that occurred. They are concerned about her size, she is in the 25%. So on the smaller size. The doctor is recommending that I get checked weekly and ultrasounds every 3 weeks. They want to check Piper's growth and my placenta. He has put the recommendation to my doctor's at Evan's (Fort Carson hospital). He said I will probably be seen there at the downtown hospital since Evan's has to many patients, but I will have to wait and see.  I'm not too concerned about it since everyone on my mother's side has babies under 6 pounds. Any extra sneak peeks we can get of Piper is a blessing.

Last lazy day

All the snow melted before 10 this morning, but the two Boston's played in what was left on the deck. We had a fire this morning and the guy came out to fix the garage door opener... again. Ben made a big pot of chili, so we had a big lunch.

We got a call from Memorial Hospital and my ultrasound is scheduled for Tuesday at 9:30. I think Ben will be in-processing and wont be able to make it, but I'm sure they will send me home with a lot of pictures. I'm excited but know that the real reason of this ultrasound is to make sure everything is ok with little Piper's heart. The doctors seem very positive and that this is a routine "double check" type thing.

Ben checks in to post today. We will probably drive around post and check out the PX and Commissary.

We hope everyone enjoys the rest of their week!

First Snow

Ever since we arrived here it's been in the 70's but today it got windy and cooler. This afternoon we got some rain that turned into a rain/snow mix!

We saw the ugly clouds and tried to get a lot done early in the day. We ended up buying 100 pounds of pine firewood for $13. We want to get some oak maybe next week. The battery went out on the Suburban so we had to make a trip to replace that. Also one of our Boston's "Addison" got out and decided to take a tour of the neighborhood. She is quite the runner so when she took off our hearts started racing. The wrong way down our street and she would end up in heavy traffic! Ben took off in the truck and I started off on foot with a box of treats. Luckily Ben caught up with her not too far from the house and brought her back.


Addison tired after her adventure around the neighborhood:

Dallas doing her half smile

Addison and I

Not a lot of snow, but pretty good for our "first snow" of the year