Sunshine

Just enjoying the lovely sunshine and warm weather . . .

She has a name

We had decided on the name Addison long before we even knew we were having a girl.  If I remember it was within a week or two of finding out we were going to have a baby.  It was an easy choice that we agreed to immediately.  We were a bit nervous because we didn't have any boy names.  It was a girl - and therefore she immediately became Addison. 

This time around we didn't even talk about names until we found out the gender.  Immediately we realized our girls name lists didn't match up.  (Lets be clear, not that big of a deal, since in this household the person that carries and births the child is the final decision maker.  Oh yeah, that is me. Lucky me. )  But of course we wanted to decide on a name that we could all live with. 

Addy's name was Sally . . . she's never waivered.  Even though we have a name and she's approved it, she's decided the baby's nickname for her will be Sally.  Sounds like a plan to me!

I quickly laid out my very important name philosophy points in order to establish the important factors.   It is so fun to hear how other people decide.  I love to hear them all, the fun, traditional, new age . . . I really love all names.  I just am weird about the criteria for my own name selection process.

Here are the three most important ones:

1) Must be presidential (I stand by my comment that a girl named Gidget isn't going to be voted President.  Don't get me wrong, I am not saying my child should be president, but darn it I am not going to break her dream because of a name I picked out). 
2) No backseat cheerleader names.  You know the kind I mean, they are cute, but they could result in a less then desirable outcome of being seen as stupid or cheap. 
3) It must go with Addison.  Pretty simple, but effective in ruling out many options.  Some of my favorites got ruled out because of this.

(And there are about 5 others that I won't bore you with since they made Scott roll his eyes.)

And this is all really just a cover for my real name issue . . . I am obsessed with old, traditional names.  Give me a Harriet, Margaret, Betsy any day.  All names on my list that Scott crossed out by the way.

My very favorite name ever is what we decided on.  Scott took a little convincing, but after trying it out for a week or so, it won him over.  (Of course it did, it is a great name.)

To me it is sweet, traditional, old-fashioned and most importantly for me a strong and confident name.

Charlotte Leila is the name we have chosen for our daughter.  I couldn't be happier with our choice.  She has been Charlotte to me for a while.  Leila is my mom's name.  I can't think of a better middle name then the name of the most strong and worthy woman I know.  (It is pronounced Lee - I - la)  She would be a lucky girl to grow up to be a woman like my Mom.

Now that we have a name we need to get started on all the other things we need to get ready.  Wow, the list is pretty long!

Summer Lovin'

Its going to be a great summer!!

Our New Playset

After a full weekend of work the playset is up!  It is lovely!  Addy is so excited about it, she watched anxiously as each piece went up.

The building process . . .

Addy on the steps waiting for the final word to get to test out the swings.

Last touches going on.

Here she is in all her finished glory.

Swinging fool.  Addy was so happy to get to swing and try out the slide.

The minute she got on the swing she started giggling and she giggled for about an hour. Here's a video.

Thanks so much to Scott and Frank that put in hours and hours to make this happen!!

Work Trip

This last week we traveled to Wenatchee to hold our bi-monthly manager's meeting so that we could say a proper good-bye to our friend and co-worker, Shirley.  It was a great trip - we had dinner in Leavenworth, spent a great and productive day together as a team and had a very nice celebration lunch.

Congratulations Shirley on a stellar career and wishing you years of adventure and joy in your retirement!

Look at that lovely sunshine! Where did it go?  It was gone too fast. :)

It's a . . .

This morning we went to the doctor's office to do our 20 week anatomy ultrasound.  It was wonderfrul to see our little pumpkin moving around, kicking and swinging!  Little fists pumping (now I know what I am feeling) little feet wiggling and kicking around.

Overall things look very good.  Growth is good and baby looks healthy!! There is one thing they will be continuing to monitor, but so far so good.

And although we originally weren't going to find out the gender, we decided that for Addy it would be fun to know sooner so we can help her plan and get ready.  Addy got to attend the ultrasound, which was really fun.  My Mom came too so she could help with Addy - but Addy did really well during the entire procedure.

We are having a little girl!!  Addy is very thrilled!  It was so fun to drop her off at school afterwards and watch her run in and tell her friends.  I am very excited as well, although either way would be great, I am really happy to be getting another little princess.  Scott is a little disappointed, but already coming around to the idea.

Now we can really start planning and getting ready.  No names . . . nada, zip.  So, we'll be working on that too!

Arizona

After a 5 week delay we finally got to take our trip to visit family in Arizona.  Although I started off the trip feeling pretty terrible (bacterial throat infection and pink eye), my nausea was pretty much gone.  Once I got some medicine, I got to hang out with everyone.  Here are some picture highlights:

Addy loves spending time with Grammy!

Our first day together.  For the most part it was spent sitting in two different urgent care clinics, but at least we got to look out and enjoy the lovely sunshine.  :)  It is amazing how much better sunshine alone will make you feel.

Addy and Daddy getting ready to spend the day with family at the Scottsdale Railroad Park.  The park was so great - something for everyone.

The train ride with Grammy and Plumbly.

Love this shot of Addy, enjoying the sunny weather, hair blowing in the breeze.

The whole family together on the train.  I think all the cousins really enjoyed it!

Addy with her cousins Rylee and Taylor. 

Having frozen yogurt (so yum) with her cousins Ethan, Luke and Taylor.

Addy and Daddy enjoying each moment of the sunshine.

Plumbly took us to the Natural History Museum.  We got to see dinasours, solve puzzles, visit jail, pan for gold and watch a flash flood simulation.  It was a really fun day!

Yikes, Addy and Plumbly aren't too sure about this dino.

Solving a puzzle and learning about Native American pottery.

This was so cool - there were two different rooms that allowed you to show up on the TV.  Here Plumbly and Addy are showing up in a video about prehistoric sea life.

When we first arrived Addy was NOT interested in hanging out with her cousin Trevor.  When he tried to talk or play with her she would start crying.  It was so sad.  By the end of the first day Trevor had totally won her over.  I think she's talked more about Trevor then anyone else since we've been home.  She got to do a sleepover with Trevor and Rylee one night and she is still talking about that.  On a side note, I have always thought that out of all her cousins Addy and Trevor look the most alike, so it was fun to see them actually hang out together - they could easily pass for siblings.

Playing in the pool with the girls.

It was a great visit.  I have one more very special part of the trip to show you.  In my next post I will show you a sample of the wonderful photos my very talented sister in law took of Addy.  I can't wait!!

Back to Me

Oh how I have waited for this day!  I can actually say I am feeling better.  The nausea began to let up about two weeks ago, at which time I got terribly ill with a bacterial infection.  After 4 doctor visits and lots of medication I am feeling more like my old self then I have in months.  Woo hoo!!

So thanks to all of you that have put up with me for the last three months and sorry to those that were cancelled on and missed.  It was a miserable time there for a while.

We have our big ultrasound next week.  Accepting prayers and positive thoughts for a healthy baby! Also taking bets on the gender.  Will it be a boy (that is my guess) or will it be a girl (Addy's guess).  Place your best bet now.  Really looking forward to finding out and starting to think about names, the nursery and getting ready.

Meanwhile life is rolling along.  Remember how excited I was about the royal wedding?  Even though I was very sick I enjoyed every minute of the event.  I was home ill on that day so I got to gorge on 12 hours of coverage, between blowing my nose, coughing and mopping at my eyes.  On the day before I got invited to a high tea at work in celebration.  We were encouraged to where hats.  This is the hat I made for the big event:

Try to ignore the purple pajamas and picture a sophisticated brown dress.  Perfect!  How fun is that?  We need to where more hats.

We finally got to take our trip to Arizona.  About 5 weeks after our first planned trip was cancelled.  More on the trip to follow including lots of pics and highlights.

We returned just in time to have Mother's Day brunch with my parents.  Addy was so proud of the card she made Grandma.

 

It was wonderful to feel well enough to celebrate and enjoy the day with my Mom and family.  What a blessed life I have, sickness and all, I have a wonderful motherwho is a constant inspiration to me, a wonderful daughter who lights up my life, a husband who is my best friend and a little one growing inside me that I can't wait to meet.  Happy Mother's Day to all those wonderful mom's I know.

 Sometimes I look at Addy Bear and it makes my heart squeeze tight.  She isn't going to be my only baby in 5 more months.  I realize most of my friends and family have more then one child and probably think I am crazy feeling so worried about having baby number two.  But it is hard, mostly because I don't want to change the dynamic we have with Addy.  I look at these silly and cute pictures and wonder what life will be like in a year.

 Perhaps it is because we waited so long between kids . . . they will be 5 years apart.  Perhaps it is because I am an only child.  Addy was so cute and grown up today in her green dress and her hair pulled back in the pony tail . . . this just added to my angst that she is growing up and we are starting down a totally new path.

It is with such a strange mix of excitement and worry that I look upon the next 5 months.  I am starting to feel better, health wise.  The last two weeks have brought more and more relief from the constant misery of the nausea.  It is such a relief.  And right in time for the royal wedding!!  YEA!!

Art Show

Addy has been doing a lot of drawing lately.  Here is a very small sampling of the artist.

 Scott and Addy trade a lot of pictures.  He'll draw her a special picture after she goes to bed and will slide it under her door as a surprise when she gets up.  Then she'll make something special for him.

 Addy decided she needed to help us to know whose bathroom is whose.  So now we all have pictures like this on all the bathroom doors.  And she has put us on notice that if we want to use each other's bathrooms we should really ask first.

 I got this card one morning when I work up. 

 This is one of my favorites of the family.

My BFF

Remember in my last post how I commented on how great Addy has been to me?  Tonight she made this very special bed for me to lay down in.  She even included books to read, a baby to snuggle and snacks for me to choose from.  What a sweetheart!!

I love this girl!!

15 weeks

Hi everyone!  Its been too long . . . sorry about that. Wish I could say it is because we are doing very exciting and fun things here or going on trips.  Alas, I am still feeling very sick.  I am in my 15th week of pregnancy and although I have had a couple of days where the nausea was less, 95% of the time I am still pretty miserable. 

I decided to do the more advanced genetic screening testing since I fall into the category of advanced maternal age ( I will be 35 when the baby is born).  Wow - that is depressing.  I think I am the oldest person ever to have a baby, I am always in the waiting rooms with these girls that are so young. :)  We've completed the first portion of the screening and in two weeks we do the final screening and should get our results back.  So far the pregnancy has gone well.  Outside of the sickness, everything else seems like it is progressing as it should.  Looking back on my first pregnancy I was still sick at this stage, but better around the end of April -  I really hope that happens this time.  Cross your fingers.

Did I mention the due date yet?  October 5th . . . that ring a bell for anyone?  Yup, its Addy's birthday.  It doesn't really matter because I have to have another c-section, I will be scheduled a week early, so it looks like the last week of September will be the time.  It seemed like there was a lot of confusion for the doctor's at first regarding the due date so we really didn't have a definitive date we could all agree on until we did the ultrasound as part of the genetic screening.   Scott and I both just burst out laughing when the due date popped up.  What are the chances?  Could you even plan that if you wanted to?

But the one thing about the due date is that it is easy to measure my two pregnancies since they are unfolding at about the same time.  I just hope that the nausea goes away like the first time, I don't think I can survive too much more of this!!

Here are just a few pictures of what we've been up to lately:

Grandma and Grandpa came over and helped Addy decorate the Easter tree.  Grandma brought Addy a pirate costume.  This girl is in heaven.  She runs around in it screaming "aaaaaauuurrrrggghhh" for hours.

 

This is her scary pirate face:

Just Addy.  She has been such a trooper during my tired-nausea-crying-nausea-do nothing stage.  She is very kind to me.  Scott and Addy are such a blessing to me!!!

Oh yeah . . . and look this is my misery spot.  I sit here - a lot.  I swear when this is done you won't be able to pay me to sit down here.  We may have to get a new couch.

 

Awkward moment of the week:  I was on the verge of gagging at work.  To be kind to everyone else and save myself the humiliation of people hearing me as I was walking between meetings, I jumped into an empty conference room.  It wasn't empty.  I was gagging before I even was able to realize there were 5 people I'd never seen before eating lunch in the room.  Wow!  They must have been pretty impressed.  As I am gagging I am frantically ripping open a bag of crackers and literally stuffing them into my mouth.  It doesn't make sense to chew too much because I gotta get the food to my stomach as quickly as possible.  Very lady like.  Partial crackers falling to the floor out of my stuffed fist, and crumbs going everywhere.  Typically I am trying to heavy breath to steady myself and squinching my face up to try to hold back the gagging as my stomach clinches.  Sometimes I even moan in misery.  This was all probably going on as well as I am realizing there are people watching me.  I just turned around and left, didn't say a word.  I mean what do you say?  Can you imagine what they were telling their co-workers?  I look pregnant for sure, but not so much so that it is terribly obvious if you aren't looking for it.  So who knows what they might have thought.  Good times.