all the rest...

one christmas down...three to go!

This Christmas, out at grandma and grandpa Butch's house was a little more eventful than we all would have hoped, but it was great none the less. We went out Saturday morning, because I was supposed to be to work by three that afternoon. It started snowing pretty much right when we got there...and it never stopped! It was a beautiful day to have Christmas with the family, but then it got to the point of, are we going to be able to get out of here? It was so windy and snowing so hard there were very high drifts. And out in the country there is no one to clear the roads?!? :) So around 1:30 dad, and uncle Joel went out in Joel's truck to scope the roads out, and came back and decided we all needed to leave and we would caravan home. Otherwise we might not be able to get out of grandma and grandpa's. So Joel led, and made a path with his truck and we all tried to follow in that path. A drive that would normally take 15 minutes from grandma and grandpa's to mom and dad's house in Valley Center, took us well over one hour. It was definitely by the grace of God that our car never got stuck somewhere along the way. We couldn't even see but 30 feet in front of us the whole drive home. Well by the time we got back to mom and dads I was already almost one hour late to work, and they told me not to worry about coming in. So I got the evening off, and Jeremy and I stayed snowed in at mom and dad's!! We had a great time, playing games most of the evening (after we got mom's car un-stuck right outside the driveway). We are now looking forward to three more Christmas celebrations!

Sophie and Lili

Just wanted to put up the pictures I took of Sophie and Lili last night. Jeremy and I were at Matt and Michele's, and we gave the girls their Christmas presents. One of Sophie's being the really awesome sunglasses she is wearing :)

Our babys first video!

So I want to share a couple of videos with everyone. We did a quick sonogram at work the other night, and I happened to have Jeremy and I's video camera with me, so I recorded a couple different things. In this first video you cannot actually see much until around 30 seconds into the video. If you watch closely around that time the baby has the hiccups! It is such a rhythmic motion, we are sure that is what it is. I know it is really hard to tell what you are looking at...I had the camera zoomed in too far. But the head is down, and the baby is actually kind of laying on its neck..ouch! The big white circle toward the bottom is the head, and everything above that is the abdomen and legs. Just to trying to give you a little bit of a viewpoint. So around 45 seconds, if you see what looks like a black hole in the chest, and you can see a white thing flapping, that is the heartbeat. Then around 1:00 the baby actually brings its right hand up, so you can see it! And finally, around 1:40, the baby kind of looks like it is flexing its right arm, with its hand up by its head. Sorry, I know that is a lot, I just want people to know what they are looking at, but I know it is hard.

Ok, I have one more video. This one is not as long, but Jeremy thinks you can see things better...you probably can :). Baby's head it still down with the body above it. Around 23 seconds you can see the baby in a perfect fetal position. You can actually see both legs and feet. Then around 37 seconds, it stretches its legs all the way out, then curls back up. Ok, so I know these are not as exciting to everyone else, but I had to post them. The way the second video is frozen, before you hit play, is a really good still shot of the baby in the fetal position. You can see both feet!

Be sure to look at the post below this if you have not seen it yet, and look at our new little cousin!

Lilian Ruth Thiessen

Matt and Michele did an amazing job of bringing this little angel into the world on December 9th, at 3:15 am! I was once again blessed to help with this delivery. No matter how many deliveries I am a part of every day at work, it is always such a miracle, and so amazing to be able to help with people who I know and love!
The only pictures I was able to get were pictures on my phone, but I wanted to put these up anyways!! She is so beautiful!! I can't wait for her to meet her little cousin in about 6 months!! I am excited they are going to be so close together!

14 Weeks

Just thought I would give a little update. We are now 14 weeks pregnant, and things are going very well. I am finally feeling better, and starting to get over the total exhaustion. I still can't keep my eyes open past 10 pm, but I guess that is not such a bad thing! This is a picture of me and Jeremy at his parents house last night. You can kind of tell that my belly is getting bigger. It seems like in the past week, it has just kind of blown up :). Because of that none of my jeans fit very well anymore, and if they do button, it is very uncomfortable. Thank goodness someone told me about the product called Bella Bands. I swear by them. They are awesome. If you can see the black layer underneath my long sleeve shirt, that is the bella band. They allow you to wear your jeans for longer, because you can leave them un-buttoned and un-zipped, but you put this band around them and it keeps them up! I just thought they were the most amazing thing ever. So hopefully I can stay out of maternity jeans for a little longer. Because I bought these Bella Bands, Jeremy and I went to Marshmallow Kisses at 21st and Rock. Lets just say, there was no need for me to go in that store. Everything is entirely too cute, and entirely too expensive. I will probably have to go there a few more times to get some ideas for the nursery, because they have some adorable things. If anybody else knows of any shops that have really cute and affordable baby things please let me know, because I love to look!

elf yourself

So this is only part of the reason why I have the best sister ever. Because she makes things like this, that make me smile and make my day. Just wanted to share it with everyone. Hope it makes you laugh too :)

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9635455174

Thanksgiving

We had the most amazing Thanksgiving this year. We definitely have an enormous amount of things to be thankful for. My whole mom's side of the family (aunt, uncle all the cousins, and my grandparents), were able to go to Galveston, TX for Thanksgiving. Since John and Erika were not able to come back to Kansas this year we all went to them. Jeremy and I actually stayed with John and Erika, which was awesome. It was great to see where they live and what they talk about all the time! It was such a great break away from everything here. Mom and Dad rented a mini van and the five of us rode down together. That was a treat in itself :). We really did have a great time in the van for 11 hours there and back :). And it was a very good idea of dad's to rent the minivan, because I am pretty sure Jeremy, Erin and I would not have lasted in the back seat of the VUE together for that long.
We left Wednesday morning and arrived in Galveston that evening around 10:30pm. Thursday Erika had planned and AMAZING thanksgiving lunch for everyone. Keep in mind, there was 14 of us!! And she cooked for us for all but 2 meals from Thursday-Saturday. They were wonderful hosts!!
I know that while we were gone Wichita got a little cold front, and Galveston got that as well. Just not quite as cold. It was in the 50's every day we were there. Just so everyone knows, 50 degrees in Galveston is colder than 50 degrees here. I guess because of all the moisture in the air, and the breeze off the gulf. Well Erin and I were a little disappointed that it was a bit chilly, but that was not going to stop us from swimming in the gulf. So Erin, Annette and I went swimming while everyone else sat on the beach wrapped up in blankets watching us :). It was a bit cold, but as long as we stayed under the water it was not too bad. Annette taught Erin and I how to boogie board, which was a lot of fun.
Friday, all of the grandkids, but John :) had bought tickets to the amazing water park in Galveston called Schlitterbahn. So despite the chilly weather we all went, and had an amazing time. It was enclosed pretty well, but was still pretty cold. We will be lucky if we get out of this weekend without getting a cold :). Before we went to Schlitterbahn a lot of us went shopping on the Strand, which has a lot of custom boutique shops. It was a bad place for me to be because they have the most adorable baby things at these shops!! But I had to hold off. Friday evening we all went to the Festival of Lights at Moody Gardens. They have an amazing display of Christmas lights, that you walk through by the harbor.
Saturday, we ate lunch together and then Mom, Dad , Erin, Jeremy and I left and went part way back to Dallas that evening. Everyone else stayed until Sunday morning. It was just an amazing time away with our amazing family. It really could not have been a better Thanksgiving. Thank you John and Erika for making our time in Galveston so amazing.

Little Ones to Him Belong

The past couple days at work...lets just say, they could have been better. When I arrived at work on Monday, I found out that one of our nurses was in a very bad horse accident, while riding with her daughter, and was on life support in the SICU. Her family was most likely going to take her off that afternoon. I was not very close with her, but worked with her quite often, but there are a lot of nurses who were close with her, so it was a very rough day on the labor and delivery floor. Her family did decided to take her off life support after confirming there was no brain activity, and she passed away around 4pm. The atmosphere was something like it had never been before.
Then early in the afternoon I took a patient who was 22 weeks pregnant, fully dilated and about to deliver. I had taken care of this couple last week, and we had been able to hold this off for a few days at least, but now there was no holding her off. The age a baby is viable is not until 23 weeks and even then there is only an 8% chance of survival. So there will be no resuscitation done for this baby. This couple had been trying for 6 years to get pregnant and this was their first pregnancy. This is going to have to be one of my questions for God some day. Why does this have to happen to such a loving couple who wanted this so badly, and who had tried for so long? Needless to say, my emotions were overboard especially being pregnant. I went back to work, for one more day of fun today, to find another situation (though not my patient) almost exactly like the couple the day before.
Before the past couple of days, I have been feeling really good. The nausea is so much better, and I am almost reaching the 12 week mark, which dramatically decreases my chance of miscarrying. Which has always been a concern in my mind, just because of where I work. I am still feeling better physically, but still worry very much about every little complication possible just because of what seems to be around me every day. Lately as I have been worrying about this, God brings to mind the simple song of "Jesus Loves Me". The part that says "little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong". I just keep reminding myself that our baby is in God's hands, and so are we. Then I look at our sonogram pictures, and I cry (tears of joy), mostly because I am a hormonal emotional wreck, almost all of the time, but also because I cannot believe what God has blessed us with. It is the most amazing thing.
I am sorry, I rarely post about such depressing things, but I really felt like writing all of this out. I hope I didn't ruin anyones day! :) I also want to share a new sonogram picture from our last appointment on Friday. I like to think the baby is waving, but if you look where I put the "Hi!" caption, you can see the little hand and all 5 fingers! That was very exciting, and we got to see the little guy or girl move around like crazy!
Thanks for bearing with me through this post :).
WE ARE WEAK BUT HE IS STRONG...

best friends...

Here is a non-pregnancy post! :) It is still kind of about our child...even though he is a dog :). Yesterday we were at Josh and Tessia's for 6 1/2 hours, and this video shows how our dog (Emmett) and their dog (Ace), played the whole time. They seriously went this hard and fast the whole time we were there. I thought surely they would run out of energy soon, but they just kept going! They are so cute playing together, they were definitely our entertainment for the evening. Ace is a huge golden retriever who thinks he is a lap dog, and Emmett thinks he is much bigger than he is, so it works out quite well. When we are in Galveston over Thanksgiving Josh and Tessia are watching Emmett for us, and I think they will have their hands full, if this is what the dogs are like the whole time! Needless to say Emmett has slept most of the day today. Here is the video...you don't have to watch the whole thing, it seems kind of long, even though it is only 2 minutes :) Oh, by the way, I decided I am asking for a little video camera for Christmas, because my digital camera just doesn't cut it...and with a child on the way, I am thinking it is a must :) ...hint, hint, mom :)

week 10

Ok so I promise I am going to try to not make all of my posts pregnancy posts, but that is about the most exciting thing going on around here lately :). Jeremy and I continue to get more excited by the day!! And I feel like I continue to get larger by the day. Tonight at work was a fairly slow night, so the girls and I decided to try to listen to the baby with our doppler and then also did a sonogram. With being only 10 weeks it can be very difficult to hear the heartbeat already, without using a sonogram machine, but we heard it!! I recorded it with my cell phone and sent the recording to Jeremy so he could hear it. We will be able to hear it again on Friday at our appointment. It was between 160-170 bpm tonight.
But I wanted to share the sono pictures with everyone. It is amazing how much the little guy or girl is growing!! You could actually see he/she moving around!! It was moving like crazy on the sonogram!! It was the neatest thing to see. So I have tried to edit the pictures so you can see them a little better and maybe define what you are looking at. Our sono machine is really old, so they are not the best pictures, but we think they are quite amazing! We got a couple good profile pictures, and then the one where I have the leg labeled; we were able to freeze it while it was kicking its leg!!

8 weeks

Here is a post for Erika's request. She said she heard I was getting a belly and wanted to see pictures. So here is a picture. I am now about 8 1/2 weeks and I feel huge already. I feel like I have to have the biggest 8 week baby ever. I don't think anyone looks as big as I do at this early!! But I guess I could be wrong :) I think the best way to describe how I feel now, is, bloated...all the time. Lovely, I know. I just can't suck my stomach in anymore!

There is really nothing new going on with us. I have been trying to think of things to post on, but there really has not been much excitement in our lives!

(Oh, if someone can tell me how to get the pregnancy ticker that I have at the top of our blog, readable, that would be great! I have been messing around with it, and you still can't read the words underneath!)

our baby.

So we had our first appointment today, and we are now totally excited. Not that we weren't excited before, but now we have seen the little guy or girl and heard and seen the heartbeat!! Dr. Kauffman said that it looks like everything is going great, and the baby is growing as it should be for this stage. According to my last menstrual period, my due date is June 7th, which puts me at 6 weeks and 6 days today. According to the sonogram he got me at 7 weeks and 1 day. Since it is very little difference we are sticking with the due date according to my LMP. So the official due date is June 7th, of 2008!!
So we wanted to share our sono pictures with everyone. In the first picture you can see the little peanut in the black sac (in the lower left corner of the sac). In the second picture you can see the baby in the same spot (the little sac to the right of the baby in this picture is the yolk sac, that is where the baby is getting its nutrients from right now). The lines at the bottom of this second picture is the tracing of the babies heart beat. It was 139 when we listened :)....oh...and there is just one :) Thank goodness!

psalm 23

Ok if you guys have not seen this video it is worth watching. This little girl is SO adorable!! I only hope Jeremy and I's child is this cute! :) I have watched this video over and over again.

baby stuff...

Ok so I promise not all of my posts from now on are going to be about baby stuff, but I'm sorry it is just really exciting :). I wanted to post a picture of some of the stuff people have already given us and I have bought. I know I am still so early, but I just can't help but look at baby stuff and want to buy it all up! In the picture above, I bought all the cute little outfits...I went to Von Maur, and they actually have decent sales on newborn stuff! So I couldn't resist. Notice all of the colors in the outfits are neutral. That would be because, we are not finding out what the sex of this child is. Jeremy really really wants it this way, and I keep trying to convince him otherwise, but he isn't budging. I always thought I wouldn't want to find out, but now that we are actually pregnant, I kind of want to know, but Jeremy really doesn't, so it will be a surprise!
The wall hanging is from my mom. I just love it, it is so cute. The quote on there is an Abraham Lincoln quote and it says "The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time." Which I have to keep reminding myself since every day I just want to be further along than I am!! Also, the Baby Einstein CD is from my mom. She said we should start playing it now. I told her, why don't we wait until the child actually has ears :).
The beautifully crocheted blue blanket and the cute pink bunny are from my grandma butch. I just love that blanket. It is so soft, and I don't even care if we have a girl, she will just have to have a blue blanket :)
Well nothing else too exciting going on. Time is still going by very slowly ever since we found out, and every day I think it sinks in a little more that we are going to be parents...scary. I have started not feeling too great. Just nauseous and tired...and I feel like a have a bladder infection because I pee all the time! All of this just kicked in this weekend. It is definitely hard to drag myself out the door and to work, but I just remind myself why I feel the way I do! I am not a huge fan of the way the first part of pregnancy makes you feel, but I don't really know who is :).

new baby

Now I think it is safe to put it on the blog, that Jeremy and I are pregnant! We are so excited! It was not exactly planned, but evidently not prevented well enough :). So, I know that we are really early, but we cannot help but tell everyone. I am somewhere in between 4-5 weeks, which puts my due date at the beginning of June....which is SO far away!! This is going to be the longest pregnancy ever!! Ever since we found out on Friday, each day has crept by. It has already been the slowest weekend ever...only 35 more weeks to go. Wow. I need to stop counting. So far everything is going really well. I am starting to dread the next couple of weeks, because that is when I hear the morning sickness kicks in. I have not been very sick yet, occasional bouts of nausea, and being a little more tired. So far so good! We are really excited to go to our first appointment which will be in the next couple weeks. Then you can expect pictures of the little bean on the blog :). Because I am pretty sure that is all it looks like right now. I know once I see the heartbeat it will put my mind at ease. Being in my profession I can't help but worry about every little thing. So I guess that is one thing we could use prayer for. I know God has this baby in His hands, and that is what I keep telling myself :).
It has been so much fun watching Jeremy tell his friends over the past few days...he is completely ecstatic. Two nights ago, I had him pick up a couple things at the grocery store around midnight so I would have them for work the next day. When he got home, he said he got really excited when he was at the store, because he thought of all the nights that I am going to crave something and send him to the store in the middle of the night. I thought that was really cute...whether that will really happen or not, who knows, but if it does, I wish that I had recorded what he said, because I am thinking he will not be as enthusiastic about it at that time :).
Well below is video of the reaction my mom and sister had when we told them we were pregnant. We were at my grandparents house, and wanted to tell them then because we knew it would be one of the only times we saw grandma and grandpa for a while. In the video you will hear us talking about Mexico, and that is because we started out by telling them that we will not be able to go to Mexico at the end of May with the rest of the family.