18w2d

well i had another OB appointment today. things look good with the baby (only one more week until the big u/s!!), but they took some more blood today to test my thyroid. they're testing it because of the palpitations i've been having. if it was just palpitations she wouldn't be real worried, but since i'm having shortness of breath when i get them she wants me to get checked out. if the tests come back normal, i'm making an appointment with my GP to see what he thinks the next steps should be. here's hoping it's my thyroid and not a heart condition.

it has been super hot here lately. it's warm outside but nice when there's a breeze, but it's like a freaking oven in our place. our central air system is 30+ years old and doesn't do a great job so we hardly ever put it on so i try to be outside as much as i can. i'm so incredibly glad they finally opened our community pool b/c i've been down there nearly every night since then. if i'm inside i tend to feel sick from the heat so i always have a wet hand towel on my neck. if the AC doesn't crap out on us before then we'll be replacing our furnace and the central air at the end of the summer when the prices come down.

our memorial day was great! my SIL had her annual party and it was nice to get together and play in the sprinklers with all the kids and have good food. we had one hell of a storm, but it only lasted for about 20 minutes and after that it cooled off quite nicely outside. wish i had pictures of all the muddy kids!

as far as summer plans go matt and i will be making a trip sometime this month or next to iowa to visit matt and lori. lori is giving me her maternity clothes since they are done having kids and since we are similar in size so i want to go and get those since i'm finally starting to grow out of my normal pants. they are also very generously giving us some baby stuff which i'm so incredibly grateful for. we'll probably go there on a friday and leave sometime saturday. then we'll drive to matt's cousin's house that is about an hour away from matt and lori and stay there until sunday. i am also planning on staying with mark and jessica at some point this summer for about a week. i can't wait for that b/c we always have so much fun when we get together! and then there is the trip to jacksonville. if dad ever gets off work i'm going down there for a week and he and i are going to go through the house and get rid of stuff and pack stuff up for later use by myself or my siblings. we probably won't get too many rooms done, but i at least want to get the downstairs looking better. dad says it'll have to happen in june if it happens so we'll see if that pans out. other than that we don't have much planned for the summer. we are HOPING to fly out west sometime early next year to see mike and rae and their little one. and while we're there we'll visit steve who is in phoenix and all of matt's relatives in vegas. i'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll have the $$$ for that.

becky

4 months

i can't believe i'm here. four months pregnant and heading into my fifth month! ahhh! 20 weeks will be here before i know it and two weeks from now is the big ultrasound!! if the next few months go by as fast as the past four have october will be here before i know it! can you tell i'm in shock???

anyway, things are going well here. i've been staying on top of the water issue so i haven't had many kidney issues lately. my IBS is acting up, but that's to be expected. and i'm having some heart palpitations that i'm going to ask my OB about next week. other than that the only new thing that has been bothering me is the terrifying nightmares i have nearly every night. prior to getting pregnant i hardly ever remembered my dreams, and the ones i had were never like how most ppl describe their dreams. no pictures, no colors, just sound. well once i got pregnant that all changed. they became so vivid i'd wake up and think that they really happened! well around 10 weeks or so the dreams went away until just a few weeks ago. then they came back and they had changed from pleasant dreams to very freaky nightmares. the other night i even woke up screaming for the first time in my life and my heart was practically jumping out of my chest. the worst part is i get a bad dream nearly every night. some baby related and some not. strangely enough after my really bad dream where i woke up screaming i read an article about how common nightmares are in the second trimester. it's something about hormones and anxiety about parenthood/delivery. regardless, i can't wait until they go away.

i started a baby blanket this week. i'm VERY pleased at how it's turning out.

it's white and it's the basket weave stitch. i can't tell you how happy i was when i figured out why all the blankets i've made in the past were curvy. this one so far has turned out straight as can be! i'm going to make a sweater, hat, and booties to match.

mother's day

well i wasn't really expecting matt to get me something today since i'm still a mommy-to-be, but he surprised me this morning with doughnuts for breakfast (i've been craving them the past few days!), a cute card (in which he wrote "happy 0th mother's day!"), and a baby name book (that we so DESPERATELY need!). it was pretty cute.

i'm all prepared for matt's "0th" father's day. matt is definitely getting this:

it's kid's music he can stomach, but SHHHHH don't tell him.

my SIL threw her annual mother's day cookout today. it's unseasonably cold here but despite that the day was pretty good. if nothing else the food was great! kathy made this dill pickle dip that is always present at family functions but i've never tried it before b/c i hate dill pickles. so i finally tried it and to my surprise i LOVED it! i don't know if my taste buds have changed because i'm pregnant, but i guess we'll see once this baby is born.

apparently my belly is finally starting to get noticiably bigger because this weekend i got my first belly pat from someone other than matt. i was kind of uncomfortable since i'm not feeling the baby yet and it just felt like mary was patting my fat, but i guess it's something i've got to get used to.

14 w1d

well i had another OB appointment today. it was very short and sweet and we FINALLY got to hear the heartbeat via a dopplar!! we've seen it on u/s and heard it through the u/s machine, but it's certainly a milestone to be able to hear it on the dopplar. it was beating at 154 bpm and matt said it sounded like kit from knight rider, and even went as far as saying that because of that we should name our kid, if it's a boy, michael. i immideately vetoed that idea because i wouldn't want my brother getting a big head...well i wouldn't want it getting bigger than it already is. all in all it was a pretty good appointment.

becky

something crafty

i finally decided to attempt the pumkin hat, and i have to say it looks pretty darn good for something i made up as i went along.

becky