Santa (well sort of)

Last Thursday we met up with Chris, Misty and Reece to see the local fire department "Santa". It was very cold out, probably around 10 degrees. We bundled up our little munchkins and headed out for pictures.

Abigail looks scared, but she was taking it all in. Lots of commotion and lights to distract her. This was the best one we could get of Reece. I think his stranger danger radar kicked in with dear old Santa.



Happy mamas = happy babies. I love how Reece is looking at Abigail, "What the heck is going on here?". Abigail says "I have NO idea!"



This picture has been a long time coming. I look forward to the many memories, and family pictures we will be taking in the coming years.

Homemade Goodness

My coworker Danita knitted Abigail a hat and a hooded sweater. They are now my favorite two things she wears. There is something special about homemade knitted goodies from friends.

Bebe Pod

Abigail's neck is finally strong enough for her to use her exerciser and Bebe pod. God bless the Bebe Pod.

First Food

Last night was Abigail's first experience with solid (pureed) food. I pureed sweet potatoes with a little added water. Simple and delicious.

It was hilarious. Not because of any funny faces, but because she thought it was the greatest thing! Once she got a taste she was hooked. Every time I brought the spoon closer she started to giggle. She didn't spit it out and actually chewed and swallowed. Towards the end she was going for the spoon.

You can't tell she is our daughter or anything. She is such a blessing!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2Ovo8tbU5Y

Here is a link to youtube to watch the video.

Mouth

It amazes me that babies discover with their mouths. I am curious about it. Everything now days makes it to Abigail's mouth.

She will sit in her exerciser bouncy activity chair thing and open her mouth and use mind power to will an object to her mouth. Well not exactly but she thinks she is doing that. It is hilarious.

We introduced her to her first toys. Ones that make that great crinkle sound. This was her first toy and she had sheer delight written all over that adorable little face.



Here she is with her beloved monkey. Well maybe he needed a bath.


She is even holding her own bottle. Silly girl!



Here is the link to the youtube video of her demonstrating her fascination with her tongue. Excuse the laughter, I couldn't help it. Enjoy - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71qmHrNaFVs

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know this is late...but better late than never right?

We celebrated her first Thanksgiving. We went to Caleb and Ashley's new apartment and had the most amazing Thanksgiving dinner to date! We had a deliciously moist turkey, skillet fresh green beans with mushrooms and prosciutto ham, crazy delicious dressing with carrots and prosciutto (loving dressing was a first for me), twice baked potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes with cinnamon and other yummy spices, cream biscuits, ambrosia salad and Grandma Hanson's rolls (my contribution). It was a great dinner with family.



Beckett was fascinated with Abigail. It was quite adorable. Here they are comparing finger and toe sizes.



Then we went up to Grandma's house to introduce Abigail to my cousins Rebecca and her beau Scott and KK and Rowan. Uncle Dick, Aunt Susan, Aunt Julie and Kelvin were all there too. We stayed for a few hours so that everyone had a chance to spent time with Abigail.

Grandma bought her the cutest dresses for Christmas and a faux fur coat. She looks like a mini pimp in it. My favorite was a cranberry red dress with a ruffle duster shawl. It barely fit so Grandma was going to see if she could exchange for a bigger size. I am crossing my fingers. Second place is a red corduroy with little Scotties on it.



Someday we will be able to teach her about all the things we have to be thankful for. There are so many things in our life that we are grateful and thankful for this year particularly, but the one that stands out the most is Abigail. Life got a whole lot sweeter when she came along.

The big 4

Abigail is a hair over four months old already, well 17 weeks.

Our little baby is growing up so fast!

She had her 4 month check up today, with shots. She weighs 15 lbs 11oz (four lbs more exactly since her 2 month check up) which puts her in the 95th percentile for weight. That surprises me that she is high on the percentile for weight because she doesn't look like she should be. She is long and evenly healthy but I don't think she is big per say. She is now 25 inches long (she grew 2 inches in two months) which puts her in the 80th percentile for height. Sheesh!

We were complimented on her nicely shaped head again today. I think that is a funny thing to compliment you on. Makes me wonder what they are used to looking at!

I am glad that she is healthy and happy. She is still on her medications for Acid Reflux and she had some constipation this month. But all and all she is doing great. Thank heavens for that. We are blessed.

I made it through my first week back at work. Other than being really tired when I got home and getting to bed too late, I think it was ok.

I was really busy which helped keep my mind occupied. Gabe and I skyped a few times so I could see Abigail at lunch.

Going back to work actually is helping with my breast pumping too. It keeps me on a schedule and we have top of the line symphony pumps.

The weekend is almost over and it has gone by MUCH too fast, as always.

Giggle Proof

I told you she giggled and here is a little proof. We got a snippet of one on video.

VCUG Scan

Today Abigail had her voiding cystourethrography or VCUG scan to see if she has Vesicoureteral Reflux or VUR. To do the scan they put in a catheter and then fill it with a liquid that shows on xray. They fill her bladder and wait until she empties it to see where the liquid goes. The point of the scan was to see if she was refluxing urine back up into her kidneys which could be the source of her UTI a few weeks ago.

I did not see any reflux happening, but I am not a doctor. The RN that did the scan said that if she was refluxing we would see a dark line go up to her kidneys and make a flower pattern. No dark lines went anywhere but out her catheter.

The only thing that I think might be a problem is that when she does urinate she doesn't empty her bladder. She goes and stops, goes and stops. But maybe that might be caused from the catheter.

She was such a trooper. Little punkin was smiling and talking to the nurse while she was getting the catheter. The nurse said that almost never happens and thanked Abigail for being such a sweetie.

In order to get a good scan they had to strap her with her arms up above her head and her legs down. She did not enjoy that part one bit, but once she was done being strapped she was fine. Of course I was right there and she was holding onto my fingers. At least she had lots of stickers to look at while they scanned her.

After the scan was done, they pulled out her catheter. She wanted nothing to do with the RN after that and wanted out of the hospital ASAP. It must have hurt coming out. She was fussy for awhile after that.

This is a picture of what she looked like strapped to the board.



I noticed that it looked like she had a smiley face on the scanned image. It was her spine and intestines of course! The RN got a kick out of that.

The conclusion might be - she received a UTI from bacteria in her stool. At least I hope that is all it was.

Three months and counting

Abigail turned three months old yesterday. I can't believe how fast the time has gone by!


Abigail continues to become more active and engaged in our every day activities. She is talking to us all the time and we treasure those moments where she is giving all her attention.

I go back to work on Monday and dread the time that I will be away from her. I am hoping that the pictures and videos can help me feel connected while I am gone.

We are getting ready to leave for her VCUG scan now. More to come later.

KB

Sweet music to my ears

Abigail giggled for the first time today, not once, not twice but three times. It was the cutest thing I have ever heard!

I was in changing her, which she always likes, and I was getting her into her jammies when she giggled at me. I screamed with delight as I ran into the living room (no worries about her rolling off the changing table yet)to get Gabe. He came back into her room and she giggled again! That made me cry because I knew I didn't imagine it. And then she did it again, just to show off.

It was awesome. She is growing up so fast!

I love this face

It makes me happy to see her smiling again. I love her smile.

Immunization time

Abigail had her 2 month immunizations this morning...although two weeks behind schedule.

She is my hero. One tough little cookie. She was all smiles right before the 3 pokes. One big cry and lots of pouty lip was all there was to it.

Such was such a trooper.

A bump in the road

Last Wednesday Betty and I took Abigail to the doctor because her urine was smelled really strong, like ammonia. Doctor said that she was probably dehydrated and for us to give her Pedialite. We also switched her formula to one specific for Acid Reflux (it is thickened with rice starch to help it stay down). He said there was a possibility of a urinary tract infection or UTI. But it is hard to diagnose because if she cries or is fussy we check her diaper...so if there is pee we assume that that is the cause for the crying.

I took Betty to the airport on Saturday and came home, exhausted, so Abigail and I took a nap. When we awoke from the nap she was BURNING hot. I took a rectal temp and she was at 104.5!! WHAT? I fed her and took her rectal temp again, 102.5! Oh no! At her age anything above 100.4 is considered a fever and justifies a trip to the ER.

I packed an overnight bag because I had the feeling that she was going to end up getting admitted.

Well I was right unfortunately. If you have to look on the positive side, at least it happened on a weekend when it was less busy, and that Gabe was able to stay with us too. It would have been more difficult had he not been able to do that.

She did have a UTI and we ended up having to stay until Monday afternoon. She had to have the IV put in through a vein on her head. The ER nurse couldn't find a good vein in her hands or feet and I just couldn't bear the thought of them poking at her over and over to find a vein, so I said "she has two good veins on her head if you want to use one of those."

The nurse later thanked me for being so calm (I guess she figured that because I didn't cry and freak out?) and for offering a head IV. She said it made it much easier for them to get the IV going. Apparently that is the last resort for them most of the time because parents are usually really upset by seeing an IV in their child's head. I figured, you gotta do what you gotta do, and it was better than her getting poked multiple times. Poor baby.

They gave her IV antibiotics and fluid to hydrate her and to get her temp to come down. She had an ultrasound done of her kidneys and bladder to check for any anomalies, which there were none found. She still needs to have a VSUG test done, which does a reflux scan of her kidneys to make sure that no urine is going back up into her kidneys, causing infection.

I don't think they will find anything. My gut feeling on this is that she got an infection from the three blow outs she had that went out the front, completely covering her little vagina with poo. There just wasn't any way that I thought that would end up being a good thing.

We are thankful to be back home again. I celebrated by baking an apple pie. I am also thankful that I work at the Children's Hospital, so we both knew our way around and we felt 1000% confident in the care that she was receiving. The team of nurses on the pediatric unit are GREAT!

Poor little baby. She is ten weeks old today, and missed her two month vaccination because she was hospitalized. We are going back to the doctor tomorrow morning for a follow up and to hopefully get those vaccines.

Thanks for all the prayers and support.

Meeting Nicole

A few weeks back, Abigail met Nicole for the first time. She came into town for a surprise visit the weekend before Labor Day. She has been in Dominica and in Miami for medical school. She is going to save babies lives!

Oh boy did Abigail LOVE Nicole. Big eyes, her best attempts at a smile, and all kinds of expression in her face.



We were even able to have time for Nicole to feed Abigail. Although breast feeding is the ideal, let me say, that pumping and having the flexibility of a bottle is very nice. It allows others to feed and bond with her too!


Nicole brought her boyfriend and fellow medical student, Farley along this time. I stupidly did not get a good picture of Farley, that's him in the background petting the attention hog Harley. He is very nice and I think that we would have quite the time with those two next time we have the opportunity and can go out.


Someday, after she gets done with medical school and has a moment to catch her breath, she might decide the time is right for her to have a baby, until then, she can enjoy mine anytime she is here and has the notion. She definitely has a way with the wee ones. I think it is because she is so kind, gentle and easy on the eyes. See what I mean?

All at once

Well it was bound to happen, as it does with all parents. That one day, that one time that everything happens all at once. Let me explain just what I mean.

Gabe offered to help feed Abigail by bottle so I could get lunch made. I put a pot of water on the stove and started getting everything ready for a pasta salad.

After a few minutes I went into the living to see how things were going with the feeding. Abigail was faced away from Gabe and he hadn't noticed that she had slipped down and was scrunched up (TV has a way of distracting him).

I start to say "that position isn't good for feeding because....",

Well, Abigail felt it was better to show him why, by projectile vomiting out her mouth and through her nose.

Of course she started to choke on all the milk that had just come out of every hole in her face so I grabbed her and rushed to the kitchen sink with her face down, as she chokes up all the milk that is left in her airway and I basically washed her down clothes and all. By the time I got her washed off and peeled down, Gabe had come into the kitchen with a towel for me to dry her off.

The water at this point is boiling on the stove, splashing over onto the burner, she is screaming her face off because she is now very mad at what just happened, and she is cold, wet and naked. Then it happens, she pees on me. It goes all the way down my pants and all over the floor.

Of course, this left us with vomit in the living room, and pee in the kitchen. Gabe was SOAKED, I was SOAKED. It was a little like a Chines fire drill with us both running around trying to "fix" things, and if it was caught on tape, The Entertainer would be the appropriate choice for the soundtrack.

It was quite the ordeal. Needless to say, lunch was finished, the house didn't burn down and we all made it through. Phew.

Great Grandparents

Although her great grandparents will not always be alive - she will always know how special they are and how their love and generosity impacted the lives of those around them.



This is her first time meeting GG Joe and GG Charlie. GG Charlie may not remember that he met her, but I will always have this picture and the memory of this time that he was able to see her for the first time.

After this picture was taken we all headed back to dads for lunch. I stole a moment alone with GG Charlie. He talked lovingly to her, rubbed her tummy and she smirked when he kissed her hands. He most certainly loves his great grand daughter.



GG Joan lights up when she sees Abigail. She says "you have such beautiful long legs", "what a sweet sweet little girl" and "you are just darling!" You practically have to pry Abigail from her arms, and all the while this smile never leaves her face.

It is a very special thing to see so much love for my child, but that is what you get when you have special Great Grandparents!

The Girl and Her Monkey

Looks like a special bond is forming between a girl and her monkey. Many secrets this monkey will hold. I wonder what this one is?



Together they will conquer the world.



A most trust worthy companion.



And she will never be without her friend Monkey.

Crappy days can end in a laugh

Well even crappy days can end in a laugh. I was in the kitchen cleaning up and I hear this comes from Gabe in the living room "Oh, LOVELY!"



When I came out - this is what I found - along with the look of disgust from Gabe. Apparently liquid came out both ends in an explosion. Abigail didn't know what all the fuss was about.

This still makes me laugh.

Her first month

I cannot believe that my baby is already a month old! Well technically today she is five weeks old, but lets not go there yet.

There is NOTHING in the world that can prepare you for having a baby. Even if you had a perfectly happy, healthy, easy baby - which Abigail did not bless us with the good fortune of being easy.

The first three weeks were so very hard! She developed a pretty bad case of acid reflux which made things almost unbearable. She was only sleeping about 6 hours a day, spitting up most of what she was eating and crying the rest of the time. Seeing your baby writhe in pain and not know why is heart breaking. Then add to that the one - two hours of sleep a night I was getting (five minutes here and there) was maddening and I really had doubts whether or not I was even cut out to be a mom. Those moments laying awake at night, sleep deprived, feeling helpless in comforting my child made me feel like a failure.

Realizing that people would not willingly go through child rearing again if this were "NORMAL" we sought help from our Pediatrician. And just in the nick of time!



Abigail is now on some medication for acid reflux and it has made all the difference in her little life. No more writhing in pain, and she is sleeping again. She fusses when she needs to tell us something, and that is what we call NORMAL.

Although her size is still small (9 lbs or so) she has made some big progress in her development. From the first moment she arrived she made a statement that she was ready to take on the world.



She has stayed true to that her first month. Her hands are always in motion, open and exploring. Her typical poses are what we refer to as jazz hands and drama queen hands. She often is found with her hands folded together resting on her chest. She has also discovered that she can fit parts of her hand in her mouth to comfort herself. This is a discovery that we sure hope doesn't develop into a "sucking" problem.



Abigail is very alert and will follow objects, and her look of surprise is precious! There is nothing quite like your baby looking right into your eyes. I wonder what she thinks about when she does.

There was lots of practice time on her smile. She gave us a few good ones.

Spending time with her during her quiet and calm time, usually after feeding her, makes the thought of leaving her to go to work almost unbearable. It breaks my heart to think that there will be milestones and development happening and I will miss out those "first time" moments. Someone else will experience them and probably not even think twice about it. There must be a better solution! I am working on that and I think about what I can do to prevent her going into daycare. It is on my mind most of the day. I am open to suggestions by the way.



I know that she will never be this age again, and I am definitely soaking up as much of the wonder and amazement that she offers while I can.

She is pretty awesome.

Meet my dream team

Gabe

Gabe was ahold of my left leg when I was pushing. He was able to witness his daughter being born. I can't even imagine what that must feel like since I was on the other end of things, but Lisa tells me the look on his face was PRICELESS! I love hearing him tell the story. I love that he is now a dad.

My Dad


My dad was ahold of my right leg. I was so thankful that he was able to be part of this experience and share in the joy of bringing Abigail into the world. It will always be very special to me that he was there. Some people think it is very odd that I would ask my dad, and to describe the reasons other than in simple terms is difficult because the reasons go beyond words for me.

Lisa

My good friend Lisa was my "coach" if you will. She was the voice that kept telling me to breathe, push, and that I could do it! Lisa has been one of our biggest supporters from the very beginning, and it was fitting that she be there to witness us become parents. Things came full circle that morning. Man was I glad to have her there.

And there you have it, my dream team. I could not have done it without them. And thank you just doesn't seem like big enough words.

It's time!

The picture above, is our last photo taken before our lives changed forever.

On August 3rd at 8:30am I started labor. I awoke to a contraction that I knew was NOT a Braxton Hicks contraction. Gabe and I tracked the contractions all day long waiting for them to get closer together.

Around 6:30pm I called the on call physician, which was Dr. Kelley Mathia (my regular physician was on vacation wouldn't you know it!) and asked her what we should do as I did not want to go through another 12 hours of this since they were intensifying just not getting closer together and I was getting increasingly more uncomfortable. There was no way for her to determine if I was indeed in labor and told me to hold tight since there was a good chance that if we went to the hospital I would be sent home. Great.

Mom came over around this time and graciously wanted to make me something to eat, as she knew that I had been having these contractions all day and was probably hungry. And I was! She made me some comfort food - spaghetti noodles with butter and parmesan chees like my grandma used to make me and some tortilla chips with cheese melted on top (virgin nachos). While mom was here Gabe finished doing some last minute things around the house, like watering the garden, just in case we ended up going in to the hospital.

Well as luck would have it, while mom was here my contractions got farther apart! They went from 9 minutes, to 15 minutes to 20 minutes. But all the while intensifying. I was making plans for ice cream later since I was sure at this point I wasn't going to the hospital.

Gabe made his way back in and my dad called and then I had a DOOZY of a contraction. Except this time, I felt like her head moved down and I thought to myself "this is it - I think my water broke..." I didn't want to cause alarm, since I didn't feel that "gush" that everyone describes, but I was laying down. So I calmly said, "Well I am going to head to the bathroom." Gabe hung up the phone with dad, it was 8:18pm.

I got up and walked around to the foot of the bed and sure enough I was right. I felt a warm liquid trickling out. I looked up and said, "Well, my water just broke, so I guess we are going to the hospital after all."

Mom exlaims "I knew it, I knew it!" She helped us get the house closed up and load up everything into the car and off we went. I called my mom, grandma and dad on the way there.

Once my water broke, my labor jetted into hyperdrive. I just wanted to get to the hospital and get that epideral going because the pain intensified by leaps with each contraction, which were about 5 minutes apart now. I about ripped the door handle off my car as we approached the parking garage and hit the notorious Spokane potholes.

We got inside about 8:50 and checked in at the desk and were asked to head to the waiting room because all the rooms were full and we had to wait. What! Are you kidding me?

A nurse did take me back to try and get a slide of fluid to confirm that my water broke. She came back a few minutes later to inform us that she had to do an exam because the slide didn't confirm anything. The exam was one of the most painful experiences of my life. There was no way to hold back those tears! It felt like she went in with the jaws of life and then used a mortar trowel to dig a hole to China. It was awful. She confirmed that my water broke and that I was dilated to a 4 - no kidding! Really?

Not long after that I was shown to my delivery room 2041. They knew my labor was progressing quickly and I made sure they knew that I wanted my epideral STAT! They called Anesthesia and they were on their way as the nurses worked on getting me admitted. Within 45 minutes I had dilated to a 6.5 and having contractions about 3-4 apart and I was praying for relief by this point.

Once I got the epideral life was good. Night and day really. It took awhile for it to kick in but even with part of it, labor was bearable. Why in the world women CHOOSE to labor without pain relief is beyond me. I didn't need to earn that badge thank you very much. Give me drugs!

Grandma came down which surprised me. She said "you told me to wait, but you are in labor for heaven's sake I am not going to sit at home and just wait!" I guess she would rather sit at the hospital and wait with the rest of us. Dad, Lisa, mom, Caleb, Ashley and Beckett joined the party, ahem, I mean waiting game.

There was a lot of waiting involved in the process now. I could feel when I was having contractions and kept confirming with Ashley, since she was keeping watch on the monitors. I loved it when she would say "yeah this is a bad one, it is off the chart!" and all I felt was pressure, it was great!

At 2am on the 4th the nurses adviced us to try and get a nap. The cafeteria was open for the night shift and we suggested everyone head down and get a bite to eat, since they had already been at the hospital over 4 hours and had to be hungry. We TRIED to sleep, but who can sleep when you know that your daughter, which you have been waiting for over the last 39 weeks and 6 days to meet, is on her way! Yeah, right.

The nurse came in around 3am and wanted me to let her know when I felt the urge to push. Well I didn't, I just felt the pressure of each contraction. At 4:24am she comes back in and says, "let's try some practice pushes".

Equipped with Dad on my right leg, Gabe on my left and Lisa at the helm coaching we gave pushing a go. My practice pushes were effective apparently because her head started to crown and we were on our way. Dr. Mathia was called and then we waited some more. I pushed for I think around 5 contractions and then the rest of the time (about 30 mins) we waited for Dr. Mathia and I had to just breathe through the contractions and not push. Funny thing is, that your body is designed to deliver a baby and my uterus was pushing her out all on it own. It was a really strange feeling. And thanks to the amazing Anesthesiologists we have I was able to FEEL that, and the pressure of my contractions. I had a perfect placement on the epideral.

Once Dr. Mathia arrived and got set up, it was a one, two, push and she was out. Bam! At 5:35am Abigail Laurel-Josephine Strine made her debut to the world. All 7lbs 13 ounces of her. She was a beautiful 20 inches long with lots of hair. And she came out sunny side up! Which was why I didn't feel the urge to push, she was facing the wrong way!

Dr. Mathia was very impressed that I was able to deliver her that way, as a first time mom, as 90% of them she said end up in c-section. The trick was this, in my head as I pushed I screamed "GET OUT!!!". I am convinced that made all the difference, hehe.

Because Abigail came out so fast, I did have a partial 3 tear and required some stitches, but all that mattered to me was that it wasn't a c-section. Stitches heal MUCH faster than a c-section and I knew I could deal with that, plus I was within moments of seeing my baby girl.




We had lots of visitors in the next 24 hours between family, friends and coworkers and we were looking forward to going home and starting the next phase of our life as a family.

Her room is ready and waiting....

The nursery is done. We went with a bird theme, if there is a theme. We painted the walls Baby Blue Bird blue, added the white beadboard and moulding then added the finishing touches.

The crib is actually the second crib we went with. The first one was supposed to be a natural color and it looked more like some kind of recycled yellow plastic McDonalds outdoor toy. We returned it and opted to go with white. I don't know why we didn't just go with that to begin with!

Gabe made the all the art in the frames from some pieces I had seen on Etsy that I liked. He customized them just for Abigail. For example, he added a map of Spokane behind two birds sitting on old fashioned wood board swings. Then the five birds above the bed are a Cardinal (because Gabe is from Ohio and that is the state bird), a Chickadee, a Robin, a Northen Flicker Woodpecker and a Quail. All birds that Abigail will see around our house someday. This is by far my favorite piece Gabe has ever done. He added the Elm branch by hand for the birds to sit on. I love it!

With some help from dad, they built the moulding shelves above the dresser.

After trying to make roman shades for the fourth disasterous time, I opted to just get the curtains I had seen at Walmart. I should have done this from the beginning because they match perfectly with all the colors in the art pieces and pull the tan in from the carpet. Lesson learned.

We went to Mels nursery and picked up two small birds nests to go with the little chicks we found at Pier One on clearance. Aren't they cute? They sit on some box shelves we found at Goodwill and spray painted white to match the room.




Now the only thing missing is a baby.

Our First Glimpse

Here is Abigail at 37 weeks! Not much longer to go now. The ultrasound department was slow this day and the tech offered to give us a 3D glimpse of what our little baby will look like. Pretty crazy isn't it?

My placenta measured at 3.1cm from the cervical osp. After speaking with our physician he suggested that I try laboring and not go for a c-section. He explained that while my condition isn't very common, another patient of his is in the SAME boat and just delivered vaginally over the weekend without problem. He feels pretty confident that I can do it, and since I trust him, that is what we are going to do.

Now we just wait for her to decide when she is ready to meet us. Tick Tock!

Abigail at 33 weeks

Here is the latest ultrasound shot of Abigail.

It is pretty grainy looking, but that might be because she is so big, who knows. Any how the blob above her forehead is her hand, kind of looks like she is giving us a thumbs up!

This last ultrasound tech was a different person than normal, and it was a guy, so I am glad that I didn’t have to have a vaginal scan done as that would have been a little awkward.

He took the time to show us things we hadn’t seen like her: bladder, kidneys, lips, nose, hair on her head, eye sockets (her face was creepy looking like something from a horror movie poster, but cute too….), diaphragm, heart vessels, brain, tongue, along with the usual, legs bones, spine, stomach, head, etc. We saw her sucking with her mouth and apparently she emptied her bladder during the scan, so it looks like that is working 

She is estimated to weigh 4lbs 8oz already, which is right on target for 33 weeks. Her heart rate was 143 beats per minute, again perfectly normal. If she gains the estimated half a pound a week from now until, let’s say 39 weeks, she would be around 7 ½ pounds at delivery.

Abigail is head down and ready to go. The tech did not see anything that would indicate a cord around her neck and felt that we were “in the clear” as far as an accidental umbilical cord death, being that she doesn’t have much room to move around now. Yes, of course I think about those kind of things!

Her movements have changed because she has less room, and because she is head down. The other day we felt her foot clear as day! That was pretty ____ (fill in the blank). It is those kinds of things that really blow your mind and make you feel like you have an alien in there.

The other good news is that my placenta has moved 2.8 cm from the cervical opening, and from that the technician didn’t feel that a c-section would be needed. Looks like I will have to come to grips with the fact that she is going to be pushed out of my body. Lovely.

My OBGYN took me off the “restrictions” that I have had the whole pregnancy. YAY!!! Been waiting to hear that for a LONG time, it seems. Obviously it isn’t like I am going to go do a marathon or lift hay bales, but it is nice to know that I could take the dogs for a walk if I wanted to without feeling like I am putting myself or Abigail at risk.

All an all things are progressing as they should. Mere weeks left to go! Let’s hope she keeps baking for at least another month.

A year has passed...

A year has passed since performing with the cast of Tony n Tina’s wedding and it is hard to believe that much time has passed.





Looking back on that experience, I can honestly say it was some of the best times I have ever had! By the time the show was over it our cast felt like family.




Most of us still keep in touch to this day. However, because of the show I met two amazing guys that have become very good friends of mine. Our time together made last summer one I will never forget! And we will never be able to recreate that magic either. We were all living in the moment and taking full advantage that it wouldn't, well couldn't last forever. The friendship will last a lifetime, but the lack of sleep and alcohol consumption would take its toll no doubt.





We spent many a days and nights together after that hanging out, laughing, going on adventures, and getting to know each other. It was so much fun! We began to refer to ourselves as the threesome because we were spending so much time together. In fact, the guest bedroom became known as Jeff and Andrew’s room.

But things change – life goes on and we will always have our memories. Oh what memories we have!