Pregnancy Update

Well, here I am, just over 2 weeks until my due date. I can’t believe how quickly this pregnancy has flown by. It seems like just yesterday we were sharing the news with everyone. But that was back in December.

36 weeks

I’m doing well, except for the cough I caught from Caty 2 weeks ago. The cough then turned into a stuffy nose and a plugged up left ear that is constantly ringing. I saw the doctor yesterday and she prescribed some Amoxicillin to help clear up my ear. When she looked into it, she said “wow, that’s really inflamed” – no kidding! No wonder why I can barely hear out of it. Hopefully it’ll clear up soon.

As you’ve seen from another post, we’ve got Caty moved into her new room. Hanna’s room is basically ready for her, we just need to get a few things up on her walls and the crib set up. My parents will be staying with us for a few days after her birth so during that time she’s going to be in her bassinet in our room and they will be on the blow-up bed in her room. We’ll get the crib set up once they head home.

My due date is June 16th but I’m hoping that she’ll arrive a little early, but not before next Friday – for a number of reasons: 1) Scott’s last day of school is Wednesday, 2) Caty’s last day of school is Thursday and 3) my parents won’t be back from San Diego until Wednesday. They’ll head up here (a 2 hour drive) once I go into labor – one of our friends will watch Caty until they can get here. My parents will then hang out at our house until I start pushing, then head over to the hospital with Caty – it’s about a 20 minute drive.

I have a question for you mom’s out there that have more than one child – did your labors start the same way? From my friends that I have talked with, their labors started the same way, either their water breaking or contractions.

Scott’s school threw us a Baby Shower last week. We ended up with almost all clothes, which found their way back to the stores. Caitlyn has so many clothes, so Hanna is well stocked! We ended up buying things off of our own registry from Babies R Us. Hey, however we get the stuff that we need!

The table set-up

Caty helping me open presents

My New Niece, Riley Conklin

They say that when one door closes another one opens, well just 3 days after losing my Uncle Barry to Pancreatic Cancer, my sister-in-law gave birth to my niece Riley. Riley was born on Monday, May 11th at 7:34 AM weighing in at 6 lbs 4 oz. Erin was lucky enough to only have a 7.5 hour labor – I can only hope!! Considering my labor with Caitlyn was 18 hours and 3 of those hours were spent pushing, then she was delivered by c-section, I’m hoping this time around it will be a little easier or at least quicker. Anyways, back to Riley….

She’s doing well. My parents are down in San Diego visiting right now and heading home on Wednesday, so they can be back here for when I go into labor.

Erin’s mom, Karen, painted Riley’s room and it looks amazing! Todd didn’t want anything too girly, so they went with Bumblebees. I can’t wait to see it in person but I’ll have to settle for pictures for now.

Here are some of the pictures that I have received from Erin as well as my parents. What a cutie she is. We’ll unfortunately have to wait until Labor Day weekend to meet her in person. We’re planning on all heading to the family cabin for that weekend. Can’t wait!

Home from the hospital and meeting Buddah for the first time

Meeting Puma

I'm ready, where are we going?

I can't believe my "little" brother is a Daddy!

Caty's First Swim of 2009

Caty and I headed to my parents for a weekend and with the weather being so nice, she and my dad got in (the hot tub) for a swim. She had a BLAST!! She’ll be taking swimming lessons later this summer but did pretty well in the pool. She’s not fond of getting her face wet and has to wipe it off every time it gets wet, so I’m hoping with the swim lessons she’ll get over this.

What happens to your feet after being in the pool for an hour!

Losing My Uncle Barry

My Uncle Barry was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer in March of 2008. He fought the disease for over 13 months but lost his battle on Friday, May 8th. He was a remarkable guy with a wicked sense of humor. His nickname was Bear and he gave the biggest hugs you could find! I think that my back cracked every time I got a bear hug! We will miss him dearly, but we know that he is looking down on us.

Love you Uncle Barry!

Uncle Barry, Aunt Claudia and myself, Thanksgiving 2002

Holding Caitlyn for the first time

Playing horseshoes at the family cabin

Uncle Barry with Todd and Erin on their wedding day - June 14th, 2008, 3 months after being diagnosed



Uncle Barry with his granddaughter, Ella, who was born in January

Pump It Up Fieldtrip

Caty’s preschool class took a fieldtrip to a bounce house place called Pump It Up. I wasn’t sure how she was going to do, but she managed pretty well. One of her teachers offered to crawl through the obstacle course with her and another parents took her down the HUMONGOUS slide. Luckily, for Miss Susan, once through the obstacle course was enough for Caty, but once she got a taste of the slide, she went back for more and more. After being helped up by the parent, Caty was able to do it all by herself and must have done it 15 times. She and her classmates had a great time!

Making her way up the HUMONGOUS slide

Here she comes! I told you it was a HUGE slide!

Shooting hoops

Caty's New Room

With Hanna arriving soon, we moved Caitlyn into her new room and she’s really loving it! My mom came up in the end of April and she and Caty painted the room. When they first started painting, my mom said that my dad thought that Caty would only last about 10 minutes painting – well she painted for a good hour, took a break and came back again later to help. You’ll notice from the pictures that her area to paint was the inside of the closet – better safe than sorry. Here are a few pictures from the painting weekend.

My mom then found a chair rail to go around the room and she painted it for us.

My dad built Caty a dresser for her room – actually a second one because the one that was in her previous room was also built by my dad. He had built the first one before she was born and diagnosed with Achondroplasia, so the size of the dress was just a tad too big for Caty. This second dress is now the perfect height for her!

Here’s a picture of the first dresser, which will be Hanna’s. Notice how I have to take the picture from outside of the room – the room is 10x10 and the dresser takes up almost 8 feet of the wall.

Now here is a picture of Caty’s new and appropriately sized dresser:

Then one evening around 5:00, Caty decided that she wanted to move into her new room that night. So we moved the essentials in and then slowly moved the rest of her things into the room.

Here’s the finished product, minus the pictures on the wall, which I hope Scott will get up this weekend:

ps - I went back to blogger to post this post because I really want to get it done and I'm not getting anywhere with Windows Live Writer. I'll have to work on that some more.