Friday, October 30, 2009

First Ultrasound, Heart Beat and Birthing Center!

Mark Jr.! - approximately 15 weeks

Sorry for the HUGE picture, but if you look closely you can see Mark Jr.'s little face. We saw him/her wiggle all around, wave, kick and move. It was pretty amazing. So far, so good! Two arms, two legs and Mark likes to also point out that the baby has a head... good times!

We visited the birthing center yesterday as well, and its pretty neat. The midwives are all SO NICE. Everyone in the place is excited and happy, and its just got a really positive vibe. I was so scared of the sterile, hospital feel of a hospital, and this is such a nice change. They have different themed rooms, with beds, kitchenettes and bathrooms with tubs. I am going to consider the water birth, but I have to take a class on it first, to learn about the technique. The neat thing about the center is that they have photos of all of the families and babies that are born there, and they're all so different. There were very ethnic families and very normal looking people. It was nice to see the variety of people who are willing to use the midwives and facilities.

Our midwife was very cool about Mark being a chiropractor and kept talking to him like a doctor, which I always appreciate and love. I think he does too :)

Afterwards, we were in a very Latin American area of Kansas City, KS and we stumbled upon a little central american restaurant and wandered in. There was one lady working, and she didn't speak english. Luckily for me, I am an ace at ordering food in Spanish (not really) but she got our orders right and it was AMAZING! We thought that our move to KC would inhibit our love for pupusas, and this is the second place we have found that serves them! YAY!

Monday, October 26, 2009

Hiking in Weston Bend State Park, Weston, Missouri

IMG00234-20091025-1240.jpg

Sunday we took Slappy and Pokey hiking with Nicole, Spot and Jinx. We drove out to the Weston Bend State Park in Weston, Missouri so we could hike on the shores of the Missouri River. It was amazing and the trees were really great. It was a sunny and warm day. On our drive back, we got a phone call from a friend talking about the thunderstorm that was hitting Kansas City. We arrived home to pouring rain and thunder. Not bad for a morning spent hiking.

Mark and I spent the remainder of the day watching football and baseball (Stupid Angels!).

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Slow going... but getting there!

Look at the floor! This is 1 whole day of work with Mark scraping. The mineral spirits didn't work nearly as well as the water did, so he is going to use water this weekend and try to get up another section of the glue. Once that is up, the floor is in pretty good shape, aside from the nail holes that are 4 inches apart!

Once we get this all sanded down and stained, we're going to move our bedroom into the back room that is currently our guest room. The office (the room Mark is scraping all the glue up from) will be the baby's room and our master bedroom now will be a guest room/tv room. We figure that we're going to have a lot of guests in the upcoming year, so we might as well make the room comfy.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Harvesters!


talkin' turkey
Originally uploaded by atomicshark
Hey all-

Food banks are really low this year. Even if you can't do a lot, every little bit helps!

Don't ask me to explain that picture!

Hideous Flooring... lots of work for Mark!

Mark was able to chisel off all of the nasty layers of vinyl tile that was glued to the flooring. We were grossed out at the lovely glue that was left on the floor. It is stinky and gross, and probably full of asbestos. We kept it wet and he wore a mask, but how gross!Hideous

Slowly

This weekend, while I am in class, Mark is going to attempt to get the rest of the floor glue up. The water idea didnt work so well so he may need to use mineral spirits which cause birth defects. So we're going to put up plastic, get him a mask and keep me out of the house as long as possible. Here is to renovating!

Floor as of now...

14 Weeks!


Young Lemons
Originally uploaded by Daygo D.
We have just hit the 14 week mark. I am feeling SO MUCH BETTER! I played volleyball for the first time in over a month last night and it felt good to be outside. I have started walking with Mark and the dogs regularly and its been nice. I had lunch with some good friends from law school who have similar views of parenting and birth as Mark and I and I am really looking forward to talking more with them and letting our kids play together once they're born.

From a pregnancy website: "Your baby can now squint, frown, grimace, pee, and possibly suck his thumb. Thanks to brain impulses, his facial muscles are getting a workout as his tiny features form one expression after another. His kidneys are producing urine, which he releases into the amniotic fluid around him -- a process he'll keep up until birth. He can grasp, too, and if you're having an ultrasound now, you may even catch him sucking his thumb. In other news: Your baby's stretching out. From head to bottom, he measures 3 1/2 inches -- about the size of a lemon -- and he weighs 1 1/2 ounces." -babycenter.com

Monday, October 12, 2009

Baby's room/ Our new room/ We don't know what we're doing!

So we had a lovely plan. It involved taking our bedroom, splitting it, and having 4 bedrooms upstairs. We were going to move into the office, and make it our bedroom, and use the sunroom as a sun porch off the master bedroom.

Then we found out about the kid... Now we're scrambling.

We pulled up the flooring in the office to our dismay, its not in great shape and it has vinyl tiles glued to it. It smells like garbage and its really dusty. Its making us both sick. We're going to try the old water and glue trick tonight to see if we soak the glue if it will come up easily, and we're praying that it does. If not, we're going to the old torch and scraper trick which should be painstakingly awful.

hideous flooring in the office

We're still not sure which room we're going to put the baby into. If we can get a wall and door up in our current bedroom, we're moving Mark Jr. in there, and putting the dogs in the room next door and moving our stuff into the *completed* office.

I can't find any before pictures but here is a visual. Imagine the most hideous, porous white vinyl flooring that is spattered with paint, missing chunks and ugly. This is floating over a layer of wood, and another layer of vinyl and another layer of wood over another layer of vinyl that is glued on to the hardwoods. That is about 3 inches of pure ugly, stinky and nailed to the ground.

Pray for us... We hope to have this done by the months end!

Mark Jr. is about the size of a fig...


fig.
Originally uploaded by suttonhoo
One book we have says that its the size of a fig, another says about the size of a lime- around 2 inches. Either way, this week its getting reflexes. We're hoping for some Chuck Norris type reflexes, but we'll settle for normal development!

I am feeling MUCH better this week. I have fought off a cold, and the first trimester is coming to an end (thank you GOD!) so I am almost feeling back to normal.

We're excited to find out what gender this thing is, so we can stop calling it an it.

My belly is showing, I feel huge, but I can still button my jeans (trucker style- according to Mark, buttoned under the belly). Its feeling hard too, which is nice to know something is going on in there.

Hopefully at our next appt we will be able to hear a heartbeat and get our blood test results back.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

We're pregnant!



That's right! We are about 11 weeks along and we're so excited! Rachel is doing well aside from some nausea and picky eating and I'm doing well tending to the pregnant lady's needs. Rachel decided to name it Mark Jr. until we know what the sex is, which should be around 20 weeks, I think. The picture shows what Mark Jr. looks like right now. He/she has finger nails and is the size of a kumquat.