Weekend in Milwaukee

We've had this weekend planned with Josh, Annie, Jason, Jaclynn, and Maddy since October and it was finally here. I was so impatient while waiting for this weekend to come. I almost slipped a few times talking to Jac on the phone...it was so hard to keep it a secret this whole time.

We met the Kreider's south of Chicago and then we drove up together. That way we got to spend a few extra hours together. We were so excited to see our Goddaughter Maddy! We hadn't seen her in almost 3 months and she was growing so fast. Brad and I had so much fun playing with her all weekend! Late Friday night we finally told all of them our news. They were hoping we would have baby news for them. Jac and Jason over the past month had put a few things together (me being sick for 2 weeks, our surprise visit to Wausau, and a few other things that I mentioned to her) and thought for sure we were pregnant. They even brought us each a mother/father book. I guess we didn't hide it as well as we thought. This weekend we also got to see Buddy, Gretchen, and Owen Thompson, Andy and Andrea Bonk, Sean Gene, and Emily McClone and her fiance Dave. A weekend full of Tech friends! After we had told everyone it felt so good to finally talk freely about it and not have to hide it anymore! We had a great weekend together as usual. There was lots of baby talk and Jac showed me how to set up this blog for Baby Spins! Thanks Jac! She set up a link for Maddy on our blog too. Click on Miss Maddy on the right to check out her blog. She is so darn cute!

Sunday morning we ate at McDonald's and got a picture with Maddy before we took off. She is smiling so big you can even see her teeth!

Lesley's Baby Shower

Saturday morning Brad and I headed to Chicago for Les's shower. I was so excited to see Les and the girls! Nichole, Teal, and Jenny were all going to be there and I couldn't wait to share our news with them. As we were getting ready for the shower I told them I had some pictures to share and I showed them the ultrasound pictures. They were all excited and some tears were shed (mostly by Nichole) and lots of hugs were shared. I am glad that I got to tell them in person instead of over the phone. We had a great day and it was so nice to see Les again before she has the baby. She looks and feels wonderful! She is really lucky because I don't think a lot of girls can say that when they are 7 1/2 months pregnant.

Our 1st Ultrasound!

Brad and I were so anxious for this day. We couldn't wait to see our baby for the first time and to hear his/her heartbeat! Once again it was hard to sleep the night before because we had so much on our mind. We were so excited but a little nervous too.

I have to share this story with you because now Brad and I can look back and laugh but believe me, we were not laughing at the time. Let's just say the way to the Dr.'s appointment didn't exactly go as planned. The ultrasound was scheduled for 2:30 and our Dr.'s appointment was at 2:45. Well, somehow, I managed to write it in my palm pilot as 2:45 and 3:00. So at 2:15 while I was sitting impatiently in the parking lot of Brad's work waiting for him, I found the piece of paper that I originally had wrote the times down on. That's when my hormones really kicked in and I started freaking out. We had a 20 minute drive or so and now we were going to be really late. I called Brad's cell 5 times and he didn't answer. I was so frustrated I even started beeping my horn outside of his office building (not my proudest moment). I would have went in but I have no clue where his office is and at this point I was already crying. After what seemed like the longest 10 minutes Brad finally came out (he had got stuck talking with his boss and he couldn't get away.) When Brad finally got in the car I was a crying mess. I told him I was a terrible mom because I messed up our appointment times (and I couldn't believe I could do that on something that was so important). I also yelled at him for making us even later. Brad was definitely shocked at what a mess I was. He tried calming me down and eventually after he called the Dr.'s office and they said we could still come in, I did. We ended up being over 20 minutes late but they were really nice and they were still able to take us. We sat and waited for a few minutes and it gave us time to focus back on the ultrasound that we were so excited for!

The nurse came and took us back and of course one of the first things she did was check my blood pressure. Needless to say, it was very high (surprise, surprise). Then I had my urine test and then it was finally on to the ultrasound room...This was one of our most amazing moments ever! She did the ultrasound and we could see our little baby for the first time. Our baby was moving all around and it looked like the baby's arms were waving at us. Then from the side profile we could see the legs kicking. The nurse then turned on the monitor for the heartbeat. It was accidentally turned on to the max so it sounded like thunder in the room but it was such a great sound. The heartbeat was 180 beats/min. Of course I asked right away if that was too fast but they said that was normal for this early along. The nurse also measured the baby and the baby was an inch long. It was so crazy for us to think about how small our baby is but yet we can see the head, arms, legs, heart, etc. It is all so amazing! We were so happy when we walked out of the Dr.'s office...no more tears of frustration just tears of joy!

Baby Spins first pictures!

Front view: (hint) the head is towards the bottom

Side profile: body with little arms and legs

January 1, 2007

We had a great time New Year's Eve but I probably shouldn't have stayed up til 3 in the morning. Between the late night and the busy week we had before, I had pushed my body way too far...it was not happy with me. New Year's day was the first day of a very long 2 weeks of being sick. I came down with a fever that day and when it reached 101 I started to worry. Not for myself but for the baby. I knew an elevated body temperature was not good for the baby. We called my parents and the doctor's office and between all of them they got me to calm down and reassured me that the baby was going to be ok. I just had to get a lot of rest and make sure my temperature didn't keep rising. Luckily the next day my fever went away but because I couldn't take any medicine my sinus infection and cold stuck around for another 2 weeks. Being sick really made me realize that I am taking care of 2 people now and not just myself. I couldn't help but worry about the baby the whole time and it was such a relief when I finally felt better.