Bea's Blog

aunt bea

2010-03-18T21:57:00.007-05:00

On Thursday, March 11, 2010, my 21-year-old daughter Hollyanne, and her husband, Nate, had a baby girl, Mikaela Renae. She weighed five pounds and fourteen ounces, and came to us after a long labor that ended in a c-section. She is healthy. Mom and Dad are doing great! Aunt Bea isn't sure what to think of this cute little thing!! Here are a few pics to enjoy. Be sure to notice how quickly she found her thumb! :-)

We had to find something for Bea to do while we were there, so here are a few pics of her, doing what she does...

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day and we took Bea to the parade. It turned out to be a very nice day!

showers and baths

2010-02-28T10:28:00.012-06:00

We have been busy over the last few weeks! Beatrice finally got over her cold (it took about 8 days). Since then I've made squash and green beans for her to try. No go. She just doesn't want to swallow anything besides breast milk or formula from a bottle!! She does this thing now where she just lets it sit in her mouth, mouth open, and then the drooling begins. It's actually funny. We do get a few bites in now and then, but most of the time the experience is less than successful.

On Bea's six month birthday we had a baby shower for Hollyanne. At the time she was 37 weeks along, she is now a little over 38 weeks. There have been a few "signs" that she may go into labor sooner rather than later. Either way, it won't be too long before Bea is an Aunt Bea!! Bea didn't sleep the whole time we were there...and as a result...this is how she looked when Daddy brought her home!

This past Monday Bea had her six month appointment. She had four vaccinations, including the H1N1. I talked to the doctor about the fact that Bea isn't really interested in eating. She suggested that I keep trying at least once a day until that changes, and then add the other meals. Apparently, at six months babies lose their iron stores and must get iron from food (mom's milk doesn't give it). So she suggested that, in the meantime, we make sure she gets one bottle of formula everyday, to make sure Bea is getting enough iron. They will test her at nine months to be sure she is getting what she needs. I can't tell you how much of a relief it is to have the doctor tell me that I need to give her a bottle a day. I didn't even realize it, but that one small thing makes me relax so much about feeding her!! Now, I know it's OK, and even necessary, for her to get formula on a regular basis. This means I need to cut myself some slack about how much milk I produce, etc. It also means that I can drink wine guilt free because she needs to get a formula feeding in anyway!! :-) That's my favorite part! Charlie likes the opportunity to feed her, too.

She is growing up so much! Her 3-6 month clothes are starting to get too small, she's sitting up so much better, and she's even getting a bit of an attitude when we don't supply her with what she wants when she wants it. The latter includes when one of us leaves the room when she wants us both around! It's a funny little scream that she does, definitely different than her other cries...but I imagine it won't be funny for too long! She's starting to grow out of her clothes, so here are a few pieces of clothing that I bought for her today.

She LOVES to walk! When we hold her hands while she is standing, she walks where ever she wants to go. Charlie says she's like a little Ouija planchette, driving a path around the house. It's a good thing she has this opportunity to get where she wants to go because crawling is just not happening yet. Well, unless you count crawling on her back!! When she's on her back she will arch and push with her feet moving her around. It looks quite funny! She also rolls all over the place! On several occasions she has rolled herself under the couch! (see below) Her favorite thing, besides walking, is sitting up and playing with her toys.

Bath time is also fun. She is really enjoying playing with her bath toys and splashing with her feet and hands. The water in her face, eyes, nose, and mouth really doesn't seem to bother her one bit.

more firsts

2010-02-11T20:20:00.006-06:00

Our baby Bea has had her first *real* cold! First Daddy had it, stayed home from work two days (with Bea) and then Bea got it. Or at least we think that's the right order. Really, they were both just sick! Icky nose, fever, cough. She still has a touch of it, but today was much better than yesterday!

Bea hasn't really enjoyed the rice cereal, as you can tell from the video. We tried putting a bit of applesauce in it, but that didn't seem to help much. She's better than that first night, but not much. So tonight I decided it was time to try another food. Since my goal is to make most of her baby food, I bought a sweet potato at the store this evening. I cooked it up, put it in the blender with a bit of water and viola! Here are a few pics from the evening.

I froze the leftovers for later! :-)

first "solid" food

2010-01-24T10:47:00.000-06:00

i'm not tired

2010-01-23T17:07:00.006-06:00

Bea was tired. I put her in her bed, socks on, head on the burp towel, binky in her mouth and under the covers. She didn't fuss. She did make this noise that she likes to make, that usually indicates that she is tired and will soon be drifting off. After a while, the noise stopped on the monitor, so I peeked in the door to check on her. I could see her moving, so I approached the bed. What I saw was a combination of these two pics....

She had the look on her face of the first pic and the position of the second pic. Either way she had a sock off, binky out, covers off and she'd turned 90 degrees. It was quite cute of course, so I got my camera.

Then a bit later Daddy came home from jogging and after his shower they decided to have a beer together.

Mutual Admiration Society?

exersaucer video

2010-01-23T16:41:00.005-06:00

growing

2010-01-23T12:43:00.007-06:00

I can't believe how much she is growing! As of Wednesday, she is five months old!! And it's not just chronological age either...she's growing! I've spent a zillion dollars this month on 'new' things. Below, socks. Finally, some socks that fit! She's been too big for our stash for a while, so I bought a pile this past week.

She is big enough to enjoy her exersaucer! Prior to this she was able to sit in it, but it was only a new perspective for her, not a fun toy. Now...she has a blast. She plays with the toys and can turn herself around in it. Mostly, she likes to try to eat as much of it as possible.

Among this week's purchases...highchair and bowls. We will be starting cereal soon! Those pics will be fun, won't they?? :-)

Oh...she loves her feet!

goofy girl

2010-01-18T22:56:00.008-06:00

Lately Bea has been making this face...

Teething ya think?

The three photos below are from a week or so ago when we decided to play the pots and pans...

She's really quite good.

This next set of pictures go into my pile of favorites. Bea was getting tired, Charlie was jogging and I was wanting to do some scrapbooking downstairs. I put Bea in her pack n play. I decided to run upstairs and get some toys...but to occupy her while I did that, I gave her a book. She looked so cute I had to take a couple of pictures. I'll display them here, along with the comments that Charlie put on facebook.

Oh...Hey...OMG! Wait...you have to read this part!...

*flip flip flip flip*
"BELLY BUTTON!...bee bo..." HA HA HA! GENIUS! Boy, this Sandra Boynton should get some kind of awa...

*zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz*

Here are the two scrapbook pages I have done so far...

Finally, Charlie uploaded this video to YouTube this morning...

Bea's B

2010-01-07T16:40:00.002-06:00

Bea's B
Originally uploaded by orange gearle

I should have posted this with the Christmas pictures, but I just remembered that I took it! This was Bea's first Christmas ornament. I thought it was appropriate for the obvious reason...and Orange and Green are our favorite colors, so even better.

bea wakes up

2010-01-07T14:49:00.005-06:00

This was taken this past weekend. :-) She's always so happy when she first wakes up!

snow day

2010-01-07T10:27:00.010-06:00

I'm home today with my baby Bea. It snowed about six inches overnight and the winds are supposed to pick up later today to blow it all around. It is quite beautiful as you can see in the picture of the tree in our backyard. Although I appreciate the day home with my wee one, it's fairly bad timing...meetings to reschedule, testing to complete, etc. etc. etc. I'm also NOT looking forward to school in June!

Below are a few pictures from the last few days...

holiday (and other) highlights

2010-01-02T08:19:00.020-06:00

This time last year we started this blog to share our pregnancy with whomever would listen. (Is it whomever or whoever? I can never remember that rule) Since that time we created a facebook account for Bea, so our posts here have pretty much ended. I tend to prefer the old-fashioned blog to facebook, so I've decided to revive this blog from it's code blue, even if people stopped reading it. If nothing else it will serve as Bea's "baby book" since I'm horrible about contributing to that! Although Charlie can post too, I'll likely be it's only contributor with his focus on facebook. So this blog will mostly be a mother's musings...about a growing Bea and motherhood.

Since Bea's birth she has learned to breastfeed, smile, laugh, sleep through the (most) night(s), roll from her front to back, play with her toys and maybe a few other things I've forgotten to mention. Oh and drool. She drools often these days.

A quick look back in time...

In September Bea's big sister Hollyanne got married! The above photograph is Bea in her Grandma Braun's arms at the wedding. Hollyanne's beautiful wedding was at Palisades Park...and her flower was a pink Gerbera daisy...so Bea's outfit was perfect. Grandma Braun found the above onesie in a small shop in Algona, IA. It's really just a onsie...with tooling and a pretty flower attached. It came with little "shoes" (really just socks) that also have daisies on them. Quite cute!

On Halloween, of course, Bea was a bee (much to her father's chagrin). I thought the costume, a gift from my new friend, Amber, was adorable. Charlie thought it was mean to make her wear it! :-) He must've come around though...he made this video. I will admit that, at times, she did look like she was feeling a bit humiliated!

Here are a few photos from Bea's first Thanksgiving...

The above picture was taken at Uncle Mark's, where we celebrated with the Howe side of the family.

Below was at the Braun celebration...

After two Thanksgivings...Bea was tired!

If two Thanksgivings weren't enough...we had three Christmases!!!

First, at Grandma and Grandpa Howe's the week before Christmas...

A Bea sandwich with Aunt Jeanne and cousin Laila.

Cousin Rich and his son Ethan enjoying some father-son time.

Cousin Laila spent most of her day asking if she could hug Bea...and then doing it. Very sweet!

Hollyanne is holding her sister Bea while watching her baby, Mikaela, kick her! Only a few months until we get to see Mikaela (and Bea is an Aunt Bea)!

Our second Christmas was Christmas morning at our place with Hollyanne and Nate...

The first present opening (above) and loving (below)

Meet Sofie the Giraffe. Bea loves to chew on her. We think she might be teething already! You should hear the way it squeaks on her gums as she chews.

Eating the paper was probably really her favorite.

Really getting the hang of it now!

In the afternoon, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Brauns...

Great Aunt Mary is holding Bea.

Luc and Grandma

Yes, she is reading. Why not? Her mother is a literacy coach, father an avid reader and song writer, Grandma Howe was once a librarian and Grandma Braun a high school English teacher!

Cousin Jake is addicted to Hamster Ball (and quite good at it)!

Believe it or not we didn't take any photos on New Year's Eve. However, we did take lots of video with our new HD video camera. Here is a still Charlie captured from one of the videos!

Grandma Howe bought Beatrice the shirt! Happy New Year!!

45 days?

2009-07-12T09:36:00.000-05:00

As I write this, the little floating baby next to the post says 45 days to go! I haven't updated for a while, and I thought I'd better. The 45 days is probably inaccurate!!

Let's see...I've had to increase the amount of insulin that I'm taking every few days, or at least every week. Which I guess is fairly normal. My body needs more insulin as my pregnancy progresses, but my body isn't producing any more than it was before...so an increase is necessary. I'm not as stressed out about it as I was before because it seems to be working.

I've had to go to Dr. Hazelton (internist) a couple of times now, and I like her. She herself had GD with her third child. She's always very positive and informative. This week when I went they did a blood test to check my A1C levels, and the results were good. It's gone down since June (From 5.4 in June to 4.7 now). Because this measures how treatment is working overall - the big picture - this number shows that we are getting a handle on it. This helps me not cry every time I have a high finger prick test! :-)

I also saw Dr. Driscoll, my OB, a couple of times since I last wrote. Two weeks ago was the first time I've seen here since my diagnosis with GD. She measured me and I was measuring a week ahead. One of the side-effects of GD is a big baby (which isn't good). However, I also know that many people measure a week ahead one week, and then right on at the next appointment, so I'm not too worried, yet. However, she did also tell me that because I am on insulin, I will have to have a non-stress test (NST) every week until the baby comes! This is a pain in the butt and time consuming, but it's also nice because you get to listen to the heartbeat for twenty minutes or more. :-) I've had two of those now, and both were fine. It's also reassuring to know that, based on the NST, she is doing well.

Also at that appointment, Dr. Driscoll told me that they will not let me go the full 40 weeks. If Raisin grows too quickly, they will do a scheduled C-section a bit early. If she's an average-sized baby then they will induce me early. She indicated that it would be around week 39 (which starts August 19). At my appointment this past week (the second NST) I measured a week behind! So, it looks like she's growing "normal" at this point.

Finally, the really cool news. Because of all this, I get to have another ultrasound!! Woo hoo! In two weeks (July 23rd, week 35) we will get to take another peak inside to see what's going on!! We've invited Grandma Kathleen and Grandma Howe to attend if they are allowed. :-) The main reason they are doing this is to check on the size, so I'm sure it won't be quite as long as the first one, but it will still be fun to watch her move around again! I will post pictures, of course.

This coming week, my friends Amy and Helen are throwing us another shower!! I will post pics as soon as I can!

g.d. update

2009-06-26T12:58:00.000-05:00

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind at best. The G.D. must be kicking my arse; I'm now dreaming about people stealing my food or forgetting and eating something with too much sugar and things like that!! :-)

When I found out about the gestational diabetes I immediately changed my diet and Charlie and I started walking each evening. It took a week or so to get into the dietician, who further "reduced" my intake of food. Then I starved myself, basically, while trying to reduce the sugar levels. All that did was make me spill ketones, which isn't a good thing.

Another week or so of that and they put me on insulin. I've been on insulin since lunchtime on July 23rd....so about four days ago. It has made a difference. The internalist that I went to has me pricking my finger 7 times a day, checking for ketones every morning (always negative now) and injecting myself with Humalog three times a day. She also informed me that it's pretty much inevitable that I will be also giving myself a fourth injection with a longer lasting insulin in the evenings....probably within a week or so. Apparently most people have to go to that at some point.

I've been to a dr. or dietician or internalist more than once a week since this all started June 9th. Next week, I go back to the dietician and I see my regular OB doc. I have so enjoyed my pregnancy, every moment of it, up until now. The last two and a half weeks have been complete hell! I feel robbed somehow, I can't really explain it.

The good news is that I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Now that my blood sugar levels seem to be getting better, I can enjoy myself a bit again (however, I do miss food)! I am hoping to put in some time in the nursery over the next couple of weeks. As soon as I have anything to show...I will take pictures and post them!

baby shower

2009-06-21T08:45:00.000-05:00

Kathleen (Charlie's mom) and my mom had a family shower for us this weekend! Pictured are a few of the many gifts we received!

Everyone had an opportunity to decorate a bib or a onesie for the baby!

Now I need to figure out what to do with the nursery!

failed

2009-06-10T17:56:00.000-05:00

Well, at my 28-week appointment, I failed all the tests. First of all, I have very low iron. It's low enough that I am now taking my regular pre-natal vitamin, and then two extra iron pills throughout the day. Although, it really hasn't been a problem yet (and it's been a week), I have a feeling that I may not be...uh...regular for the next three months!

On a more serious note, I also failed the glucose test. This means that Tuesday (yesterday) I had to go back for a more diagnostic test that lasted three hours. The result is that I have gestational diabetes. Now that I've cried for two days, I'm ready to try to take care of it. I'm waiting to hear back from the dietitian so that I can meet with them to determine our next steps. Until then I am watching what I eat, and Charlie is helping me by walking with me in the evenings.

I bought this yesterday for our beautiful Bea...

I can't wait to see her in it!

Last day of school was Monday. Mom helped me pack things up for my move to Prairie Creek. I have meetings most of the next few weeks, but I'm looking forward to getting that nursery ready in July! Expect pictures in a couple weeks, Grandma Howe and Grandma Braun are throwing me a family shower in a week and a half!

baby gifts

2009-04-22T10:13:00.000-05:00

Hollyanne learned to crochet. :-) She made her baby sister an afghan in bright orange, pink and yellow. Last night she also brought over a little baby hat that she made! It's blue and pink with a ball on the top...and very cute. I think Raisin will probably have to come home from the hospital with this hat on!! (unless it's 90 degrees or something) Check it out.....

it's a gearle

2009-04-10T16:28:00.000-05:00

We had the ultrasound today! It was so unbelievable to watch her move while the ultrasound person was trying to get the shots she needed!! We saw every little perfect part of her -- kidneys, brain, heart, bladder, spine, legs, feet, arms, hands, nose, eyes -- all pretty amazing. The pictures are almost a let down because watching it live was so cool. :-) Every time she moved (which was A LOT), Charlie and I both laughed because she looked so funny and cute.

Afterwards, Charlie's parents, my parents and the two (well, three) of us went out to eat in Marion so we could show them the pictures. :-) Here's a looksee for you all....

The shot above is 3D!

Her feet are middle right of the above picture. You can see one fairly clearly (toes facing right). The other foot is right above it.

Just one foot. Little toes are so cute!

Check out the leg in the 3D pic above. See how it's bent up by her chin, and then around her arm.

I like the above profile picture because it shows her little leg bone and her knuckles!

A 3D smile!

eighteen weeks two days

2009-03-27T16:41:00.000-05:00

booties for baby braun

2009-03-25T21:27:00.000-05:00

Last week was spring break, and it was beautiful outside! Helen and I spent one day in Iowa City exploring. We went out to eat, browsed a few stores, enjoyed the art galleries, and of course, the hall mall. One of the stores we went to was a sports store that had all kinds of fun things....including these cute little booties...made of wool...perfect for CAMPING when it's a little bit cold. :-) And they are orange and green!! Helen made me buy them. The conversation went a bit like this:

Helen: I think you should get them.
Me: OK

We also had a doctor appointment last week. It was all of 5 minutes, of course. The heartbeat was 145 bpm. The exciting part was setting the next appointment...for the ultrasound. April 10. Good Friday.

Raisin has her second recording...give it a listen here. (recorded today - 18 weeks)

riverdance on mom's spleen

2009-03-14T09:39:00.000-05:00

Wednesday as I was driving home from class, the above song came on KUNI. A few bars into it, I felt Raisin move for the first time!!

You can become Raisin's facebook friend here.

Baby Raisin's Heartbeat

2009-03-01T16:10:00.000-06:00

Late last night Charlie and I (and the baby) recorded the heartbeat! We used the baby heart monitor that I rented from heartones.com and hooked it up to the computer. Give it a listen here...

http://69.65.33.125/~zvbd9ze5/heartbeat.mp3

fourteen weeks, two days

2009-02-27T19:15:00.000-06:00

thirteen weeks, two days

2009-02-20T21:57:00.000-06:00

Today's appointment was very short. Our appointment was for 4:30, and we were in the car driving home at 4:40!

Weight check, heartbeat check (165 bpm this time). That's about it. Our next appointment is on March 20th and at that appointment we will set a date for the ultrasound! :-)

I rented a doppler so that we can hear the heartbeat whenever we want!! It should be here on Monday...and so should the WiiFit that Charlie ordered!

180 bpm

2009-01-30T21:42:00.000-06:00

The nurse we met with two weeks ago that made me cry, was wrong -- and I've already failed my first motherly task (with this baby).

This morning, around eight a.m., I realized that I forgot to catch my first morning urine for our doctor's appointment!! I waited until they opened at nine o'clock to call the doctor's office and they told me that if they need it, they would get a sample when I get there. I'm sure it's not a big deal...but I'm not going to get a mother of the year award either. :-)

The nurse weighed me. Then made me pee in a cup (which is not difficult, since I pee every half hour). She left me half of a gown and told me to undress...everything. Seriously....the gown was not a regular hospital gown, it was half size. When you go for a mammogram, they only make you take off your top, and they give you the same half gown thing. How is that right?

The nurse left and Charlie said, "Uhh...do I have to stay for this part?" :-) I told him that this is where they would check for the heartbeat. He chose to stay (in the chair, behind me). :-)

The doctor came in and asked a lot of questions. Many of the questions were centered around my eating habits, beginning with, "What does vegetarian mean to you?". She seemed to dwell on the vegetarianism a bit more than needed. I eat beans. I eat rice. I eat eggs (thanks to Charlie specifically making them for me because he wants to be sure the baby gets the needed protein -- he's so cute). :-)

We told her that we weren't interested in having any of the screenings or tests. What's the point really? We will have the ultrasound, though. :-) That's just too fun to do without!

Then she did the exam. When she was getting to the end of feeling me up inside and out she said, "How many weeks are you?". When I told her, "ten" she said, "Now we may not be able to hear the heartbeat yet...." I quickly responded with, "But you'll try, right?" And she did.

180 beats per minute....it was beautiful.

the first appointment - eight weeks

2009-01-14T21:15:00.000-06:00

Today we had our first appointment at the doctor's office. I cried, so it must've been successful?

We didn't even meet the doctor today. It was just a family history appointment with the nurse. I was weighed, measured, and all that normal stuff (thankfully, Charlie waited around the corner for the weighing). Then she asked question after question about our family health history. I was very thankful that Charlie was there for a zillion reasons and it was extra important because I had no idea what to answer for many of the questions on his side of the family! We do have a history of twins...and I am over thirty-five...so higher risk for twins. Wouldn't that be cool??!!! I'm not going to bank on it though. :-) The nurse also gave us a few pamphlets about screening and testing that we are able to have. A few extra since I'm over that magic number. We'll have to talk about that a bit more before we decide.

I didn't cry until the nurse asked if we had any questions. My question was about hearing the heartbeat at our ten week appointment. I believe the way I asked it was, "What will happen if we don't hear the heartbeat at my ten week appointment." I only asked this because I know that you don't always hear it at ten weeks, and I also know that I am going to worry until I hear it (well, until it's born...ok...I'll worry forever). Basically, I just wanted to know if I would have to wait a month to try again, or if we could have nother appointment sooner, or better yet an untrasound if we couldn't hear it! Instead, her reply was, "Doctor won't try to hear the heartbeat at the ten week appointment". I'm not exactly sure why I cried, but I did. Geez.

When I called the doctor's office to make the appointment for today, they actually made two. The woman on the phone asked me for the first date of my last period, calculated my due date for August 26, and told me that we would make two appointments. The first appointment would be on January 14, the day I am eight weeks along (and explained that I would only meet with the nurse for a family health history). The second appointment would be scheduled at ten weeks and that is when I would meet the doctor and the doctor would try to hear the baby's heartbeat. She offered up that information. I did not ask. So now this nurse is telling me that the doctor will not even try to hear it at ten weeks??? This same nurse also used the same tool to calculate my due date at August 24...(instead of 26th) but also said that I wouldn't be eight weeks until tomorrow (so...a two day earlier due date, but it's one day later that I turn eight weeks? -- that doesn't even make mathematical sense)! Of course the due date thing doesn't really matter, since they never come when they are supposed to...and although it is mathematical, it's really just an estimation. So I'm not completely concerned about that. I only tell this part of the story because it makes me wonder what this woman's problem is. :-)

My good friend Amy had her "ten week" appointment today, too. Same doctor's office (different doctor though). They checked for (and heard) the heartbeat. So I'm hoping that the woman is wrong about that -- and since I think she is -- I'm keeping my estimated time of arrival at August 26th.

christmas eve announcement

2008-12-25T01:00:00.000-06:00

Tonight we got a call from Charlie's parents. They wanted to let us know that no one is coming for Christmas tomorrow -- it will just be us. They were wondering what we were doing tonight, and if we wanted to just come out there.

It was very funny actually, because Charlie said, "Let me check with Dona and I'll call you right back." When he got off the phone to tell me I said, "So we can go out there right now and tell them tonight??!!!" He laughed. As he was calling them back to tell them that we were on our way, I was pushing us out the door.

When we got there, we talked, drank eggnog (except me), and then ate supper. Meanwhile I was bursting inside! We opened presents from them. They got us a Wii!! Which was exciting! I also got a gift card for a manicure and pedicure. I think I will be waiting until I am big and uncomfortable this summer -- then treat myself! Finally, it was time for the present from us!

Earlier, I had wrapped a frame with this photo in it:

Kathleen opened it, and of course couldn't really tell what it was. I turned it so it was facing the right way, and soon she got it! She screamed, jumped up and down a bit, and immediately called her sister Julie! Meanwhile, Larry was still trying to figure it out. As the Kathleen was waiting for Julie to pick up the phone, she said to Larry, "She pregnant!". Hugs all around. :-)

The rest of the evening was posting status messages on Facebook, making phone calls to family, and enjoying the evening. Finally, everyone that needed to know had been told and now we could let the world know!

who are those for?

2008-12-21T21:29:00.000-06:00

With Christmas just a week away Charlie and I decided that we'd take advantage of the timing and tell our families as a "Christmas gift". Honestly, it's been killing me to keep it inside...but Charlie's right on this one.

I went out last night to purchase some baby bibs and fabric markers. I made two bibs and wrapped them to give to my parents at the party.

Our Christmas celebration is basically: eating lunch, getting presents from Santa, the kids open presents from the adults, and last, the adults do their own fun gift exchange where they play a game and steal gifts from each other, etc. It's pretty fun. We waited until all the gift giving was over, and then we had my parents open their gift together. Everyone watched.

They held up the bibs and everyone looked confused. Later, several family members told me they thought we were making fun of Dad somehow because he sometimes doesn't realize that he has food on his face! Finally, my nephew said, "Who are those for?" and I replied (while pointing to the two of us), "For the baby that we are going to have in August!" Long pause. Loud celebration.

Everyone was very happy for us, of course. Jeanne was worried about the kidney situation. She came over to us and said, "Are you sure that everything is OK since you only have one kidney?" Charlie, always witty, immediately responded with "Oh yeah, there's more room in there! This kid is in FIRST CLASS"! He further demonstrated his point by stretching out his body, putting his feet up on the coffee table with his hands clasped behind his head.

you're what?

2008-12-20T14:22:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was a full day!! Thursday we got out of school early because of a big snow storm. Thank God for that because I really had a difficult time not telling everyone -- and this way I only had to get through a few hours. Plus, since the line on the test was so faint, I wasn't positive that I was pregnant. However, the online research that Charlie and I both did seemed to confirm it. Either way, Friday morning I took another "at home" test and it was darker.

Also yesterday, we had a snow day. Since I was home, I called the doctor to get a confirmation blood test. They told me if I got in that morning, I would have the results by the afternoon! So I ran over quickly to get the test taken. They told me they would call me with the results. I called Charlie at work and let him know that I'd gone.

Next, I took Hollyanne to get her wisdom teeth out! While Hollyanne was "under the knife" I got the call. Of course, it was confirmed!! I called Charlie at work to let him know -- neither of us were surprised, but it was nice to have the confirmation!

We decided that we'd wait until Hollyanne was off drugs to let her in on the news. So, this morning I woke up as usual to give piano lessons. Charlie went to his place for his weekly house check (and to get out of the house to aviod hearing Christmas songs being played on the piano over and over by beginning piano students).

When the lessons were over and it was just Hollyanne and I left at home, I went downstairs to check on her. She said she was about to go back to sleep. I asked her if I could talk to her for a minute about something kind of important. She reluctantly agreed.

I just blurted it out. "I'm pregnant." She was completely surprised - pleasantely so. She sat up and asked me several times "You're what?" and said "I'm going to be a sister?" As soon as it sunk in she wanted to tell everyone. I explained that we haven't told our families yet, so she would have to wait until after Christmas to tell everyone. Our plans are to tell my folks at our family Christmas tomorrow, and Charlie's family on Christmas day.

It felt good to be able to tell someone! I can't wait to tell everyone else.

Side note: We had supper with Charlie's parent's tonight -- Mexican. I hardly spoke at all because I just wanted to blurt it out!! I can't believe Charlie is making us wait until Christmas -- that's a lifetime away (or five days).

conception

2008-12-18T09:25:00.000-06:00

I was a day "late". When the alarm went off, I quietly, trying not to wake up Charlie, crawled out of bed and into the bathroom. I carefully opened the test, did my deed, and waited. After two minutes I looked and saw a faint line. Of course, I wasn't sure, so I flung open the door to the bedroom and said, "Turn on the light! Do you see a blue line??"