Megan's 3rd Birhday Party

We had Megan's 3rd Birthday party at a local bounce house place and the kids had a blast!  We had attended a party there a few months ago and I decided then that I would LOVE to have M's party at a place like that because she had so much fun.  Especially now, since I'm pregnant, I just didn't want to have the party at home where I would have to clean before, prepare food, and clean after.  Way too much work when someone can do it for you!!  Here are some pics from the big day!

Waiting patiently for the party to begin!

Coming down the big slide.  She was a little apprehensive at first and wanted to slide with Daddy or Grandma but quickly learned how much fun it was!



The Emster had a great time bouncing too!!

Here's a group shot of the party!

Having snacks after bouncing.  Just waiting for CAKE!

That's cousin Noah next to Emmy.



A Minnie Mouse Cake!!

How cool is that?

CAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKE!

We had time so we opened presents there.  Emmy wanted to help!

The party "host" actually wrote down who gave what on a slip of paper.

SO CONVENIENT!!

Playing with leftover balloons at home.  So. Much. Fun.

We still have one stuck up on our little ledge in the living room.

The girls had such a great time at the party and it was SO EASY that we're doing the same thing for Emmy's party in January.  Em's party will be Dora instead of Minnie Mouse and it will be in the morning ... and in their jammies!  I'm looking forward to it and the nap that's sure to come afterwards!  aaahhhhh!

Baby #3 Update

I had my second visit with my MFM specialist doc on Monday.  Things went GREAT!!  James was off work so he was able to come with me to the appointment.  Isn't it funny how things change after that first baby?  He went to most of my appointments when I was pregnant with Megan and he made a few when Emily was on the way.  This was the first appointment he came to and I'm 17 weeks pregnant.  :-)  Poor 3rd child.  I had an ultrasound and it was mainly focused on the anatomy.  They measured everything and said he has "beautiful anatomy".  I was 16 weeks 5 days along and baby boy measured 17 weeks 1 one day, so right on schedule.  We got confirmation that the baby is a BOY.  There really isn't any doubt in my mind, or the doc's!!  After they scanned the anatomy of the baby, the doc checked my cervical length.  After Em came at 30 weeks we're not taking any chances that strange things are going on in there.  Also, it's possible an "incompetent cervix" caused Em's early arrival so I'm going to the MFM doc every 3 weeks for cervical checks, for now.  It was "very good" so I was relieved to hear that because a shortening cervix means bedrest and a possible cerclage.

I also started my weekly 17p shots.  It's a form of progesterone delivered to my ass in a dose of olive oil.  Sounds pleasant, right?  It's relatively new, I think, and is thought to prevent pre-term labor.  The side effects are pain and itchiness around the injection site and I'll be doing these injections weekly until 37 weeks, or maybe my scheduled c-section date.  So far, I haven't had any of the sore itchy butt other women complain about so I'm pretty excited about that.  They were willing to teach James how to do them but he chickened out.  I can't blame him because I certainly would have blamed him for any pain he would have caused.  So I'll be popping in to the doc's office to have the nurse there do them.  She was good!!

We had to change MFM doc's this time and I'm so happy we did.  The guy gives us a DVD with every ultrasound and we got to see the baby in 3D/4D.  It was SO COOL!  I would share the pics but our Fred Flintstone scanner doesn't work with our computer so I can't.  Maybe I'll take some pics of the pics and upload them.  Everyone loves a good sonogram pic.  They're always so clear, aren't they?

So after the appointment, since mom was hanging out with the girls making our date at the doc possible, we had lunch at Freebirds (YUM! ) then hit the baby store for some shopping.  We were hoping to check out this bedding we liked online and ended up buying something completely different.  I think James is itching to paint so we had to get the color scheme down.  The room is already tan so I think it's going to stay that color with some accent stripes in blue and brown.  We're also going to repaint the attached bathroom blue but we've wanted to do that for a while now.  It's yellow and white and just looks blah!  Here's the bedding we picked for our little monkey!

  

We also bought the kid a crib.  Yes, that's our 3rd crib purchase in about 3 years.  We have convertible cribs for the girls and Megan's is already a full-size bed. We plan to switch Em's to a toddler bed soon so we needed another one.  The girls' furniture is the same but we decided to go a little different with the boy.  It's the same brand but has straight lines instead of a curved top.  We thought it was a little less girly.  It will arrive in 8 weeks so the nursery should be done with about 3-4 weeks to spare IF I make it to term!!  :-)

I know I still need to post the rest of Moo's birthday and ... oh we just had Christmas too didn't we?  Looks like that will have to come at a later time because Em is starting to wake up.  It's 6:20 am.  She's back on her "early cycles" again.  Don't know why I'm up before her either.  I woke up around 5:45 am and just felt the need to get out of bed.  Check ya later!!

My Little Girl is 3!!!

We had a few different celebrations for Megan's birthday this year.  James had to go to NYC on her actual birthday, which was Monday, so we celebrated as a family on Sunday.  All day Sunday!  I think she had a good day.  I'll have pics of her other TWO celebrations coming up but this is all I had time for today!!  I'm pretty sure we went somewhere for lunch that day but I can't remember where.  Maybe we didn't leave the house but I was pretty sure we did something.  Ehhh ... who knows!   

Not bad, if I do say so myself! It was YUMMY too!

She finally has her own train table.  She always throws tantrums when it's time to leave a place that has a train table.  Now she can play as long as she wants!  They both LOVE it!

Apparently it's fun to crawl UNDER the table too!

She pretty much played with the trains ALL DAY LONG.

We coaxed her out of the room with promises of cake ...



So, she's 3.  When will she learn how to eat without making such a mess?



On Monday, her actual birthday, we went to Gattitown with Grammy and Grandma.  We had a BLAST spending too much money on silly little games so we could win silly little made in china crap toys.  The day couldn't have been better.  Her party was at Pump It Up the following Saturday.  That was a TON of fun.  We had some old friends there and some new ones too.  It was a great time and I can't wait to share pics!!

14 weeks

And all is well.  So far! 

Apparently this is what a ginormous belly you get when you're 14 weeks along with baby #3.  Umm ... pretty sure I was barely this big when Emmy was born.  Seriously.  I'm not killing a box of Little Debbies every week.  I wouldn't mind doing that but I'm pretty sure there are many in the medical field who would frown upon me doing so at this time. 

Speaking of docs, I had my First Trimester Screen done.  My OB switched to a different MFM (Maternal Fetal Medicine) guy since my last go 'round.  I like him.  I liked the other guy but I understood why they had a lot of complaints. You just had to get to know him like I did.  ;-)   ANYWHO - so I had my screen done where they test for chromosomal abnormalities like Down's and Trisomy.  My results came back very good and I probably don't need further testing but there is another blood test I can do in a couple weeks if I want.  This test also involves a very in-depth sonogram.  Baby is growing right on schedule and they were even able to tell me it's a BOY!  I'm pretty excited about that but we're not 100% convinced (well, I am but we're waiting until my next visit before we slap paint on the walls or buy anything).  Something about a nub and if it is perpendicular to the spine it's a boy and if it's parallel to the spine it's a girl "or a boy with it laying flat".  So I'm convinced.  Well, at least that's what they said they saw.  I didn't see a perpendicular "nub" but I'll go with it.

I start my 17p shots on December 27th (at 16 weeks).  It's a shot that is supposed to reduce my risk of pre term labor.  They will be done weekly until 36-37 weeks.  Yay Me!!  Someone should tell James he has to give them to me.  He's going to LOVE that.  The specialist will also start measuring my cervix to make sure it's not shrinking or thinning before it's time.  If it is they will do a cerclage.  In case you're curious, and I know you are, that's where they stitch me shut.  It's a day surgery and might win me some bedrest.

And on that note, we're taking applications to see who wants to take care of the girls for free while I'm laying in bed eating bonbons.  :-D

At my OB on Wednesday I learned that I have gained a pound. *gasp*  I'm still dieting a little, limiting my carbs per sitting, but my blood sugar is behaving nicely and I've been able to eat what I want for the most part. 

The study has been taken over by toddlers trying to take out the Christmas tree so I guess I should wrap this up.  Just wanted to post a pic and fill you in on the joys of a high risk pregnancy.