Read Previous Post and VOTE! :)

I wanted to post some cute pictures of Noah, but I am having so much fun reading what people are guessing about baby's gender, I want to make sure you vote on my previous post....tomorrow is the big day!

On to baby #1. Some of the pics I've taken have been a little random, but still super sweet. Enjoy! **Some of them are blurry, I must have had the camera on a weird setting...sorry!**

My little handsome guy:

Playtime with (rather, on) daddy:

He was helping me make banana bread this morning, enjoying a banana of his own!

Brushing his teeth after a delicious breakfast (he started in the bathroom but followed me out when I got the camera!)

Trying soooo hard to put on mommy's flip flops! Enjoy the progression of pics!

What's YOUR guess?

Already several people have commented on what gender they think baby #2 is. Obviously, none of these people have any real reason to guess one way or another, but still many have a "gut" feeling. I like keeping tabs. So, comment and let me know what YOUR guess is...boy? or girl?

I stole this from my friend Julie just because it looked fun!

1. Do you like blue cheese salad dressing? nope
2. Do you own a gun? No
3. What's your favorite drink at Starbucks? Iced caramel machiatto or Iced White Mocha (Hylke and I split a Venti w/ 4 pumps instead of 6)
4. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? coffee or OJ
5. Do you do pushups? I should, but I don't.
6. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? My engagement/wedding rings.
7. Favorite hobby? cardmaking/scrapbooking
8. Do you have A.D.D? no
9. What's one trait that you hate about yourself? people pleaser.
10. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment: It's nice to have a quiet afternoon, I really liked 3 of the homes we looked at today, I'm really ready for fall
11. Name 4 drinks you regularly drink. Water, juice, coffee, tea
12. Current worry right now? Will we be able to buy a home soon?
13. Current hate right now? THE WEATHER!!
14. Favorite place to be? It really depends.
15. Do you like to travel? love it! I love going on big trips, but I also love taking short little trips with my family. I get through hard days by thinking of the next little trip we get to take (4 day trip to Carlsbad in October. :))
16. What color shirt are you wearing? White
17. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? I like really soft, high thread count sheets.
18 can you whistle? not very good
19. Favorite color? red
20. If you could would you be a pirate? no.
21. What song do you sing in the shower? Don't really sing in the shower
22. Favorite girl's name? Hmmm...right now I think it's Elliana (Ellie) Joy
23. Favorite boy's name? I'm thinking Zachary something....Zachary Jacob? (Hylke's middle name)
24. What's in your pocket right now? nothing
25. Favorite bedsheets as a child? i don't remember
26. Worst injury? Fractured elbow and tore bicep senior year in HS
27. Do you love where you live? yes, we live in a great neighborhood. Although, I'm praying it will change to somewhere we own soon.
28. How many TVs do you have in your house? We have one working TV. We're not big TV people (both our TV's are hand-me-downs from our parents....it's ok, you can laugh. :)
29. Who is your loudest friend? Hmmmm.....Amber?
30. How many pets do you have? No pets.
31. Does someone have a crush on you? I'm pretty sure Hylke stills has a crush on me. :)
32. What is your Favorite Book? I'm not sure, I like lots of different books.
33. What's your favorite candy? depends on the day...snickers, starburst, peanut butter m&m's
34. Favorite Sports Team? Don't really follow sports.
35. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? Why is Noah playing in his crib when it's still pitch black out? You've got to be kidding me.

Check out my previous post

Wednesday

This Wednesday is our BIG DAY! We will hopefully find out if we're having a little boy or a little girl. I'm so excited. I sure hope baby cooperates and lets us get a good look. It's hard to believe that we might actually know in just a couple of days. I've thought boy the whole time, but the past week I started thinking maybe girl. Hylke has thought girl. We will be thrilled either way. I'll be sure to post our exciting news sometime on Wednesday evening.

Long overdue...

Ok, our rechargeable batteries for the camera are all out of charge....for good. We've had them for 2 years, and they just won't keep a charge. Unfortunately, we were also out of our Costco size pack of AA batteries. We finally got new rechargeable batteries and a new Costco pack of AA's today...I'm ready to start taking pictures again. However, b/c of this, I haven't taken pictures for over 2 weeks!!! Since Noah was in bed by the time I got the batteries in the camera, you'll have to settle for a couple prego pictures of me. These were just taken 1/2 hour ago, so they're very recent. :)

Back to normal

It seems like we are all getting back to normal. Noah is 100% better and mommy is feeling better (more rested) too. :)

Since Hylke's been so busy lately, we decided to take a little "daycation". Sunday after church Hylke decided to take Monday as a comp day and we got some stuff packed and headed to Carlsbad for the night. What a great little get-away! The weather was beautiful...coastal weather is just delightful! Noah slept great in the hotel room...7:30 pm-8am!! I don't remember the last time I slept until 8am. Even if Noah sleeps late, I'm usually up, not yesterday. After spending the day in Carlsbad, we were able to stop by Temecula and see Hylke's parents and some of our friends.

This morning we didn't wake up until 8:45. This is unheard of. Most parents out there know that there's really no need for alarm clocks, our children wake us up plenty early (unless you like getting up REALLY early). Well, this morning, since our alarm clock didn't wake up until 8:45 (catching up on lost sleep...) we didn't wake up until 8:45!! Again, this just doesn't happen...we're always (except for this morning) up before that. I must admit, it felt very nice!!

Ok, off to finish being productive! :)

Good Report

Yes, I have a good report!!! Noah's fever broke about 4 hours after we started him on the antibiotics...YAY! The best part is that it hasn't returned. So, Thursday night he slept great! HE slept great, mommy did not. 2:22 am...I wake up to "The wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round..." WHAT?!?! Why is his toy randomly going off? Is someone in my house? I know exactly where that toy bus is, right under the window. Did someone climb through the window and step on the toy? This is one of those toys that makes noise when buttons are pushed. What should I do? Wake Hylke up. We decided to go out and turn all the lights on (praying there wasn't anyone there since we were quite defenseless :)) Everything was fine, perfect silence, nothing had been moved. Bus, still sitting nicely under the window in it's spot. We look through the house (closets and all) and realize we were safe. :) Back to bed, and for Hylke, back to sleep. For me....back to laying awake for the next 2 1/2 hours..,NOOOOOOO!! Noah is finally doing great, and here I am, awake for 3 hours in the middle of the night. :( I'm happy to report that Noah and I slept GREAT last night. Hylke's at another retreat, I have yet to hear how he slept. :) I did, however, enjoy a great first mom's meeting at our church. It's so nice to sit, talk, share, pray and eat a yummy breakfast with other mommies. I'm excited about my table this year...it'll be fun to grow my friendships with the girls I do know, and make some new friends. Noah's already down for his am nap....catching up on all the lost sleep...I think I'll join him!!

What was I thinking?

So, Tuesday night went NOTHING like I had planned. Shortly after I had posted, Noah was up and BURNING UP! He had a fever of 102.0...poor guy. We ended up being up most of the night trying to get him to rest and his fever to break. Wednesday morning, Hylke stayed home with Noah so that I could attend our first day of Bible Study (Thanks, Love!) When I got home, Noah was in the middle of a 3 hour nap. The rest of yesterday went fairly well. His fever never completely broke, but did go down. By the evening it was lingering around 100. I was very optomistic about last night. I gave him some motrin and he was out. Right about 1:20 he was up...and burning hot! It had been just over 6 hours since his last dose of motrin, so I gave him some more and rocked him. His fever was back up to over 102, so we stripped him down to his diaper and just loved on him...praying that his fever would break and that he'd get some rest; he was miserable. He slept a couple more hours last night and then was up again early this morning. His fever was still high. We took him to the Dr. late morning today, ear infection. :( He's on his first antibiotic...I sure hope it works...fast! Oh, the other thing is that he hasn't eaten much of anything since monday...literally, almost NOTHING!! Poor guy!

We had originally planned on going to Disneyland today (Hylke's day off) but it looks like we'll have to wait until next week. Today we're just trying to get Noah healthy and rested!! While I was out running a few errands (pedialite and Rx) I decided to get a little treat for mommy and daddy....sweet tea from Chik-fil-a....yuuuuuumy. I hope to give a great update tomorrow.

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Ever have "those days"? Today was one of "those days" for me (I say was b/c I'm hoping that for the next couple hours it won't be!!) It was just a combination of no sleep (well, not enough sleep) a teething baby and hot weather.

So, the past few nights I've stayed up way too late (I'm a sucker for Dateline investigative mysteries that begin at 10pm...we need TiVo) and last night, just after I put my head on my pillow (at 11:20) my sweet son woke up crying. It was one of those sad, i'm in pain, and have a fever cries. I got up and rocked him (something I cherish these days) and after a bit went back to bed. I think I was up 3 more times last night. :( He's cutting 4 teeth and has had a fever for the past 24 hrs.; I'm hoping it'll be gone when he gets up. Tuesdays are Hylke's really long days (8am-9:30ish pm) and today was one of those days when I could have really used him at 5pm. It's still too hot for me to be outside (well, Noah wasn't feeling like doing much today anyway) but I just felt cooped up, tired and crabby with a little guy that wasn't feeling well, was fussy and tired himself. I'll gladly say goodbye to Tuesday and look forward to what Wednesday might bring!

Speaking of Wednesday, tomorrow I start Women's Bible Study at church. I'm really looking forward to it!! I think I'll have a great small group of women to get to know, and I'm looking forward to our study on "God". We're study the character and attributes of God...should be great! Our mom's group at church also begins this week (Friday) and I'm really excited about that too!! It's such a nice time to connect with other moms while our kids are being cared for...over breakfast....and coffee!! :) I am a little nervous...Noah is still taking 2 naps and doesn't ever really go w/o. Since both of these mornings go from 8:45-11am, they both go right through nap time. Last semester he missed his morning nap a couple of times, but actually napped a bit in the nursery (shorter than normal, but still a nap). I'm thinking he's out of the "napping in the nursery" stage, especially since he's moved up to the next age group. Maybe this will be what we need for him to move from 2 naps to one...we'll see. Regardless, I'm very excited! I'm even excited to have a schedule! I like planning my week and having set things to do...the summer is great, but I'm looking forward to these mornings away. I'm off to get things together before the morning and then hit the hay...i'm not even going to turn the TV on! :)

Mind Games

Isn't it funny how we play mind games with ourselves? Sometimes unintentional, other times fully intentional, and each time we do it in order to feel better about a situation. Does that make sense? I'll share my most recent mind game. So, I was trying to figure out when exactly the 2nd trimester began...sometimes we think it begins at 12 weeks (3 months) since pregnancy is supposedly 9 months long...but really, it's 40 weeks long, 9 FULL months, so 2nd trimester begins in your 14th week which would be 13 wks. 1 day. When I was reading this I realized (not sure why I hadn't realized this before...:)) that when I was 12 wks. or 13 wks or whatever, I had actually just completed my 12th or 13th week...I wasn't just beginning it. Which, of course makes TOTAL sense...we don't celebrate 1st birthdays as our kiddos begin their first year, we celebrate birthdays when the year is complete...duh. Sooooo, here's where my mind game comes in...so, today I'm 14 w. 1 d pregnant (unless my ob wants to give me the 2 extra days from the u/s, then I'd be 14 w 3 d)...that means I just started my 15th week! For some reason I like the sound of, "I'm just beginning my 15th week" more than, "I'm 14 weeks". Same thing. The only difference is the wording. I know it won't go on like this...for some reason I think that when I'm 16 weeks it won't make a difference...I guess 16 wks. is my magic number. :) Does anyone else play games with their mind?

Salad and Apples

Lately I have been on a huge salad kick. I have made myself a salad for almost every lunch and dinner since Tuesday! I love finding new things to add...sooooo yummy. This week my salads have pretty much consisted of the following:
-baby romaine
-mini sweet bell peppers (red, orange and yellow)
-fresh mushrooms
-persian cucumbers (my new favorite)
-grn. onion
-sometimes a little avocado
-grapes

Last night my good friend Julie and her daughter Eva came over since both our hubbies were away at a retreat. She introduced me to Bok Choy Salad. I first experienced it on Monday at Eva's one year birthday party, but we had it again last night for dinner....delicious! I now know that Bok Choy is really good. I like the crunch it gives. So, today for my lunch, I had a salad with all the previous mentioned items (no avocado) but I added some Bok Choy that was left here (thanks, Julie!). So, go and make yourself a yummy, fresh salad for your next meal...you'll be glad you did!

On to Apples. Yesterday, Noah and I went up to Oak Glen and met some friends for a Picnic. Oak Glen is about 20 mins from Redlands and is just beautiful. There are apple orchards all around...it's during this season that people from all over come and expericence the fun of apple picking, pressing fresh cider and eating all the yummy things you can make with apples! Some friends from our church own Riley Farms at Los Rios Rancho up in Oak Glen. They have a beautiful property with a huge grass area with picnic tables and big trees for shade. The drive alone was wonderful. I had my windows rolled down as the fresh breeze was enough to cool us off. The weather was about 20 degrees cooler than it was at my house...heavenly! We ate our picnic under a big tree and just enjoyed the beauty of Fall. I think the three of us will go back tomorrow and maybe enjoy lunch and a special apple treat. I've decided that this year we will visit as often as possible, even if just for a couple hours.

You can find out more about Oak Glen, and the apple farm here.

Baby #2

Here is our first picture of Baby #2. I talked with the Dr.'s office today and the ultrasound report looked wonderful. The fetal movement, size, abdomen and all the other things they look at came back looking healthy and normal...what a special blessing! The baby actually measured 2 days ahead of schedule...I'll take that!



I have some things to think about during this pregnancy; primarily, how I will deliver. I was under the impression that since our hospital does not permit VBAC's (vaginal birth after Cesarean) that I was going to have a repeat c-section. However, at my appt. on Friday my doctor told me that if I wanted to have a VBAC, he would contract me out to Loma Linda University Medical Center and have the VBAC done there. I told him that I didn't think my insurance covered LLUMC, but he said they have an agreement, checked our insurance and said, yes, they do cover it. Hmmmmm....interesting. If I did elect to have a VBAC, my care would be transferred at 36 wks. to LL and that physician would take over.

I'm not sure what I'll do...part of me would love to try a VBAC, and the other part of me doesn't want to put myself, or my baby in any unnecessary harm (there is some risk associated with a VBAC, and yes, I know some with a repeat c-section....). I'm glad that I'm not overly passionate about either one, I feel like we're going to be able to make a good, educated decision and I really think I'll be happy either way. If I did decide to have a VBAC, I feel very good about being at Loma Linda. This is one of the top hospitals, with a great team of physicians. I had a friend who had a successful VABC just weeks ago at LL and another who is planning one this month. I'd like to talk to a/the physician who would be my physician if I decided to go with a VBAC and talk through a couple of things. I also have to understand that I may end up with another c-section even if I decide to do a VBAC. So, I'll keep you posted on what we decide. I'm glad we're able to think through this, and at least have the conversation.