Baby Overload

Well, apparently I have made it onto the radar of various sellers of diapers, formula, maternity clothes, baby clothes, baby gear, etc. I get emails, I get things IN the mail - I just get a lot of stuff. I know it is my own fault because I sign up for things online or at the doctors office...but you can NOT - they promise you coupons, and all the riches of the world. Today I hit 18 weeks (even though some would like me to try to make this baby FASTER) - it doesn't seem to be working on my time table - it kind of works on a 40 week schedule that God set a long time ago. Blame Eve if you want to blame someone - she's the one who ate the apple. Besides these 40 weeks are His way of allowing us to prepare for baby.

I am already terrified that we will break our newborn - at least we have 40 weeks to get used to the idea and take classes on how to be parents. I thought I was prepared because I have been around a lot of babies. Did you know nearly everything in this world threatens to severely injure, suffocate, or choke your baby. I am not sure how we survive our childhoods. (yes I know people are ridiculous and you really don't have to worry about half of that stuff, but my daily emails and other mail tell me other wise). And I don't know how to swaddle - my child will most likely freeze to death in the winter because I can't swaddle and you can't use blankets. And what school of parenting should you follow - cry-it-out, don't cry- it- out, co-sleep, get them on a schedule, let them make their schedule and it goes on "To INFINITY AND BEYOND!" Hopefully, when the time comes - we can use the Josh and Nikki style of parenting and figure out what is best for our baby, us and our sanity in general. We survived.

Note to self: Get signed up for parent classes so that we can relax at least a little :) The marriage lessons that we took before we got married seem to be doing their job!

Weekend Update

This weekend was abnormal...I was off of work on Friday, worked a home show on Saturday and then off Sunday. What can I say, I like my 2 day weekends and I always feel out of sorts when they get out of whack. Friday night we went to a Reading Royals hockey game at the Soverein Center in Reading with my cousin, her husband and their two boys. We had a great time. Of course we had another one of those weird pregnancy moments when the youngest boy said to me, "Nikki, are you pregnant?" and I told him yet and he looked at me and said, "How do you get pregnant?" After a moment of panic I pointed out something going on in the game and distracted him long enough so he forgot what he was asking. PHEW!

The home show Saturday was busy - and I ended up on my feet for long periods of time - when I got home I propped them up as much as possible to alleviate any swelling - I didn't notice too much swelling they were pretty tired though. My husband and his dad got out new furniture moved into the living room Saturday and got rid of the old stuff. That was a nice treat to come home to. New furniture is beyond nice. So comfortable! I like it.

Sunday, I was still tired and still fighting this cold for close to a full week now, so we just spent most of the day at home with each other relaxing. We did make a trip out to the grocery store - always a fun trip. Other than that a relaxing Sunday was just what the doctor ordered :)

Whoosh, Whoosh, Crackle, Whoosh

That's the sound a baby makes on the doppler. We got to hear a heart beat yesterday - nice strong heartbeat - along with the crackle of the baby moving around. That peanut is an active little bugger. My husband is convinced that we are going to have some sort of a super baby - he is strange. I have pretty nasty cold right now that I am just trying to cope with - I did take some tylenol last night because I was pretty miserable and felt like I had a fever. I am trying to wait until tonight to see if I need to take more. Stupid being sick while pregnant. Hopefully it will go away very soon.

Out of the mouth of babes

This weekend we went out to my parents. We got to spend quite a bit of time with my cousins 2 girls. They are 5 and 3 and so cute! We had one overnight Friday night and the other overnight on Saturday night. On Friday night we went to pick up the 3 year old. While we were at my aunts (her grandmother's) we were telling the about how Josh made a really low OOOOUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGHHHH noise into my belly and the baby would move around. The girls got a kick out of it - probably because of the noise. Like 30 minutes or so later we have the 3 year old in my mom's car and I was sitting with her in the back seat. She looks at me and says, "What's in your belly", and I said "You know, what's in my belly" - her next 2 sentences I could have never been prepared for she answers, "A baby...What did Josh do?" Well this sends the 3 adults in the car into hysterics, and Josh says, "That's not for US to tell you!" - I asked her what she meant and she said - "the noise he made". OF COURSE!!!

On Saturday, the 5 year old brought about a whole new set of questions. She kept asking me "How do they get the baby out?" I danced around the subject a couple of times, just saying that we went to the doctor/hospital to get it out. Eventually, my answers satisfied her.

Kids are fun!

My little peanut is going to be a nervous wreck.

Full blow construction is officially under way. This week is also the week that baby starts hearing as well. So some of the first noises my little peanut heard was hammers, saws, oh and my dear husband making a really weird loud noise into my belly. It's probably terrified. I guess I should further explain my hubby's noise - one night he decided to get right up to my belly and just go (Uhhhhhhhhh- in a very low tone - the peanut kind of flipped out). As I said the other day when construction first started I was jumpy and when I would jump baby would jump. I am not longer so jumpy but the baby still does get starteled at really loud noises. My only hope is that somehow this translates into the peanute being able to sleep through fireworks if need be. I was talking to a friend yesterday and she asked me if when the baby jumps do I find myself trying to comfort it - like rubbing my stomach and either saying or thinking "It's okay peanut - mommy's here" or something to that effect. I laughed at the thought of it - that is until I realized that I DO that. She laughed and said she did the same thing - her little one is just 6 weeks old so she can remember exactly what it was like.

In other news, I scheduled the level 2 ultrasound for March 20th - that is when we find out the sex and as far as I am concerned that is just TOO far away. My mother-in-law wants us to try to keep it a secret - everyone else wants to know - you do the math at how much of secret it will be!

Love, Love, Love.....All you need is love!

Valentine's Day...We usually don't do a whole lot. A card typically and dinner or something like that. That's what it will come down to this year. Although, we thought dinner last night would be a better idea - you know beat the rush of tonight - yeah - seems like a lot of others had the same idea - we ended up waiting close to an hour. Oh well, that means tonight we can just have a nice dinner at home and relax. Last night I made a comment about how this would be our last valentines day alone... my husband chuckled and said that he hardly doubted that as we would have grandparents ready to babysit at the drop of a hat - very true!

So, the baby is still moving and I feel it every now and then. Our office is under construction and yesterday after it was quiet for a while and then hammers or something would start up I would jump and then it was like I startled the baby. It would just move around. Funny, funny, kid we've got there!

Nice, Snowy Weekend

It snowed this weekend, a lot. Near as we can figure we got about 15 inches at least. I couldn't go and do any shoveling so my dear hubby did. He was outside cleaning off cars in snow just about to his knees. Saturday was not bad, the worst of it came over night for sure. Since this weekend the Olympics started, we ended up watching them a lot. Overall it was a good weekend and we just got to cuddle up inside where it was warm.

Peanut is still moving around and I feel it occasionally. Some days I don't feel anything - other days I feel it a couple times a day - definitely nothing all that strong yet, but still fun for me when it does happen. I have to go for blood work this week to check the iron levels, then next week it's back to the doctor again. Feels like we are at the doctor a lot - but that will only get worse before it gets better.

Nerd Night Friday and Snowy Weekend

Looks like it is going to be a good weekend so far. Tonight we have nerd night (yes sister and mother - laugh if you must), and better yet it is at someone's house less that 5 minutes from us - I just like it better when there isn't a lot of travel involved. Then we are going to get a snow storm starting Tomorrow morning through Sunday very early morning. Now they are now calling it a 75% chance, but there are some (mainly my father in law) who seem to think that they weather men are wrong and they are just trying to get some "face time" :) I am always slow to believe the weatherpeople as well, but when they are up over 70% I think it's a safe bet! Besides, a snowy weekend would be fun - it's not like we have to try to kill ourselves to get to work or anything.

On the baby front - still feeling the occasional movement. Not regularly yet, but I'll take whatever I can get. I wasn't sure if it was movement or not at first, but when it does happen it is the exact same feeling every time. It feels very diliberate. Keep on moving peanut, mommy love to feel you :)

Might as well face it I'm addicted to LOST

Tonight is a new LOST episode. Yes, it's sad I know...my husband and I am completely addicted to this show and it is a staple to our week. It is the ONE show that we are like that with - so all in all I don't think we're doing to bad. During the superbowl - one of the commercials was clips of the show mixed in with shots of a band singing "Might as well face it, I'm addicted to LOST" (rather than addicted to Love). This show is just that ADDICTING.

On the baby front not very much new right now. I am maintaining status quo as my husband puts it. HOWEVER, the good news is that my emotions are MUCH more in check this week - that is the good news. Especially because there are a couple different people in my life that are in some sort of situation, or they're sick, or something happened etc. I'm hoping and praying that things work out for everyone.

Touching the Belly

I guess that I am officially starting to look at least a little pregnant to others. They are starting to touch my belly which is just kind of weird. Last week after our weekly bible study one of my friends came up to me and rubbed my belly saying "Bye little Nikki!" - She was the first. The second happened the other day and it was a girl at work that was joking around. Warning to those (besides Josh) that are thinking about my touching my belly: YOU MAY GET YOU HAD SMACKED. Especially right now - in a couple months when I am roughly the size of a cottage house I might not mind as much - towards the end when I am roughly the size of a large home you might end up with a broken arm - I just can't tell you yet.

Steelers win the big game...

Well, the Steelers won the Superbowl. I offer congratulations to my brother-in-law, grandfather, and other friends and family that are Steelers fans. I was cheering them on (for a couple weeks, but now I am back to the Eagles again). We spent most of the weekend with a friend (that I knew since college and Josh has known nearly forever). We had fun together. On Saturday night we saw King Kong - that movie was YUCKY. Too many disgusting scenes for me to stomach. Yes the graphics were good, blah, blah, blah - there was still a man that got eaten by a worm and I watched most of the movie peaking out of my hands that were covering my eyes.

Other than that, not much is new. The peanut seems to be behaving. Everything seems to be good. We'll just keep working to maintain status quo.

TGIF...Is it time to go home

Friday afternoons are always the worst - talk about your typical case of so close, yet so far away. That and it's Feb. 3 and it's over 60 degrees out there. B-E-A-utiful. At least the weekend is within reach. And it's Superbowl weekend so that is even better. Tomorrow a friend of ours is coming out for the evening and for the game on Sunday. That means I need to get food for said game. I am not sure how the peanut will react to "Superbowl food" (Or maybe I should call it "Big Game" food as to not mess with any copywrites). Steelers vs. Seahawks - I will be cheering for the Steelers - but a note to the peanut - we are not Steelers fans - we are Eagles fans - and you will have to be one from the day you come home from the hospital in an Eagles outfit - otherwise your daddy may disown you :) I figure since the eagles are not in it we might as well keep it in the state. On top of that my brother-in-law, my grandfater, and many other people that I know are Steelers fans and I don't wish the feeling of your team losing in the superbowl to anyone - we experienced that last year and it's a sad SAD feeling. So, Goooooo Steelers!

Worst Roller Coaster Ride EVER!!!

So, I am all for rollercoasters - I love them - they always promise to be a good time. The rollercoaster of emotions that you go through while pregnant - NOT A GOOD TIME. Lately I have been not good, but I've decided to make myself get over it (I am really hoping that I can). Random STUPID things set it off to. I explained to my dear husband the other night - he gets the tears, people besides him that tick me off just get one pissed off Nikki. So, I don't know what's better (or worse), but at least I am not taking it out on Josh. So, because I don't know what will set it off it will be hard to get over it, but I figure lots of happy thoughts about my little peanut can't hurt. And imagining little Lashandra or Darnelius as a baby will also be uplifting. (By the way - we have decided that once we settle on a name we aren't telling anyone - rather we will say when asked that the name will be either Lashandra or Danelius - what can I say we have a twisted sense of humor).

I was proud of myself earlier this week because I did a full grocery shopping trip - so now tonight I hope to spend some time cleaning. During the first trimester grocery trips were short quick ones to just pick up what I needed and cleaning was picking up and dusting around crap - I am ready for a deep clean and organize now - maybe that will make me feel better - or at least accomplished. Maybe a visit to see my favorite little gal Lydia will also be helpful. All I now is the time is now - and I am going to do whatever I can to control this rollercoaster - I worked at Hershey Park and ran rollercoasters, so at least I know how they work :)

Baby on my mind

I have baby brain. I think about them a lot. I also have "Baydar" - I can tell when there is a little one within 100 yards of me, and when I do actually see the baby I ooohhh and ahhh like there is no tomorrow. A friend of ours just told us that they found out today that they are having a little girl. They are about 6 weeks ahead of us and I'm jealous :) I constantly flash forward to like a year from now - "next year at this time...". I would guess that thinking about a year from now and what might or might not happen kind of prepares you for the changes that will take place in our life.

It's also kind of weird because we have run into what could be our first "scheduling conflict" because of the baby. Friends of ours are getting married this summer. It looks like the date could be August 11th or 12th (I forget which). Regardless, that is exactly 1 week after my due date. Now lets just pretend I give birth on my due date - am I going to be able (or WANT) to get to a wedding 7-8 days later. If I go early, it probably won't be much of an issue. If I am late - FORGET IT! I am now one for ruining another girls wedding day because I am going into labor and need to rush out of the church to get myself to a hospital. I am also not one for sitting through a wedding, a week overdue, and roughly 2 times the size of a house. We were with these friends last night and we were laughing about what could happen - they have said they don't mind us bringing the baby - if that can work out. So, when we get the invitation I guess our response will be:
"Maybe 2 and a baby - depending on when said baby decides to grace us with his/her presence - if there is no baby at that point it will have to be a cold day in hell to get me to the wedding - if the baby is only a week old - It might depend if we have a good baby or a crying baby - we just don't know, but wish you lots of luck regardless".