SO far behind...

Things have been going OK. I have been a bit stressed out at work and hit panic mode for baby 2 coming...


I have been going to my Non-Stress Tests only 1 time per week now and the baby has been doing good. This past week on Tuesday the baby was sleeping so they woke her up using a stimulator as they called it. It was a noise maker basically that made her jump out of the top of my belly almost! Andy decided to come with me this week and he was so shocked and looked at me like is that good for her? I had no idea but it felt so weird having her jump so hard. The monitor showed I had a few contractions also. I didn't really feel them.



Sammy has her new room. She started sleeping in there on Saturday night. I felt bad it echoed in there still cause there wasn't much in there. We are still working on the details and I am very proud of myself and some of the ideas I have actually come up with for her room! She will maybe have a treasure chest or sunken "human world" trunk for her stuffed animals... We still have to finish up hanging her mirrors which will look like bubbles going up the wall and her stickers of Flounder and Ariel but it will come together.



The nursery is still a DISASTER!Andy was gone most of last weekend at a bachelor party and I did way to much lifting but the baby laundry had to get done. And this little girl will not go naked! We have so much from GREAT family and friends and Sam hand me downs too that I think new baby girl could go the next 3-6 months and never repeat an outfit! Less laundry for me I guess.. HA! I have had to run out to the store for hangers about 3 times.. Andy thinks it is a little out of hand..



I have been trying to spend time with Sammy but it didn't really happen to much. I feel horrible and we didn't even get out to enjoy the weather last weekend but she is getting excited for her sister and helped me put away shoes and diapers the other day. And then proceeded to ask me if she could use the diapers for her baby. I had to say no... they cost too much! : )

More to come....


This was just too cute not to post. My little book worm will just sit here in the pile of her library books and read by herself. And then of course wants you to really read them to her too! And she is learning to add. She is doing great at picking things up. Hopefully we won't have major regression with baby coming... I know I have been a little overly crazy I think.

Belly Shots

I had gotten the idea that I wanted pictures taken of Sammy and my belly.. so I asked my awesome photo genius friend Becky to take a few for us. She is amazing! THANK YOU BECKY!

I looked online for some ideas--some people go a little crazy with the naked shots--
This is exactly what I wanted...
there are a ton of good ones but I am not posting the naked belly shots..

Sammy's Friends...

As I have mentioned before Sammy has been loving playing with the little girls down the street. Well Allyson turned four on May 21 and we went to her house for cupcakes--before dinner, which Sammy thought was AWESOME! And I think Sammy had at least 2. I even had one..they were GOOD!

Thank you Karyn!

As you can see I am definitely filling out! And don't ask me what the look is on my face. I am at 37 weeks and total weight gain is at 27 which is way better than with Sam!

3 year check up

I finally got an appointment for Sammy's 3 year check up. She was a total HAM at the doctor's office entertaining all of the nurses. Most of the office knows us well from my pregnancy but she was in rare form. Sam is 30 lbs and 36.5inches tall. She is in about he 40th percentile I guess. My doctor doesn't dwell on that at all. While we waited for the doctor to come in Sammy was playing doctor. She would spin from the desk and pretending to type on a computer to turning towards Daddy and checking his legs and his head. It was so cute but of course I didn't have the camera.
She meets all the norms for a 3 year old and then some..
Dr. Shih laughed at a few of the questions...Can she say 3 words.. (in less than 3 seconds) Does she know 3 colors? (YES--LOTS!!) Can she count to 3? (or 20..) Then we did have to answer a few of them like can she peddle a tricycle--she just started this this spring, she had to stand on one foot, can she dress herself (Sammy isn't the best at this one), and finally is she going potty!!!! I was happy to hear she is doing well. I have been concerned about her ankles and feet rolling inward a lot lately and she is still very knock kneed. The doctor said this is very normal but of course being the dancer Mom I may have her reevaluated by a physical therapist. Dr. Shih also recommended Stride Rite Shoes.

Sammy's Wonderful Dress

For Mother's Day my Mom sent Sammy a gift??? She loved it. She was holding it up and spinning around on Monday night saying this is a wonderful dress and then singing I love to dance and I love this wonderful dress.



Sammy has been singing made up songs about everything for about a week. It is really cute. She definitely takes after her Daddy with making up silly songs!

Happy Mother's Day

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day.

Ours was a bit eventful. I decided we needed to get up and go to church even though it was a MONSOON outside. We got to church late of course. Sammy had to go potty 2 times during Mass but we are just excited she is going! We haven't had any accidents and she loves going now and has gotten lots of Beanie Babies! We then went to breakfast as usual. But when we got home Andy and I started trying to clean up the house cause his parents were coming over for dinner and as I walked down into our finished basement I stepped in a big wet spot on the stairs. I thought the dog or Sammy had an accident and then we realized we had water running down the side of the wall. Luckily it was along the unfinished wall in our storage room but of course there were some keepsake posters and some boxes of clothes under that area that we quickly had to get moved. I did way too much lifting! I also started having a few contractions but finally got a chance to sit and relax. We have no idea why or where the water was coming from. We did have our siding and roof done lately and we have NEVER had water in our basement.... Andy and I just had to laugh about it that no matter what we do there is always another project to work on. We got fans blowing on everything and it dried out but what a mess.

So needles to say Sammy's new Mermaid room has been put on hold again... I feel like i am going to have this baby and not have anything ready! Dinner with Andy's parents went well and Sammy was in rare form. She wanted Nana and I to watch her play with a new toy and she said "Ladies and Gentleman, Boys and Girls, Welcome to my show". I about died laughing. I asked her where she learned that and she didn't know. It was so cute!

Sammy's Room--STEP 1 Complete

So we finally got the Ariel Bedding, picked a color, and painted Samantha's new big girl room!

Andy doesn't really like to paint but he was a great Daddy and got the room painted finally! We had a hard time picking a color but we got it narrowed down to 3 and let Sammy pick. HE HE! She tells everyone how beautiful it is and it is the color of Ariel's Fin. She even got paint in her hair while she was trying to help Daddy.

It is definitely bright! Andy calls it Echto Cooler Green. You can see the border on the bed too but that hasn't gone up just yet...

Potty Update

Sammy had a pee pee accident playing outside today at Ms. Cindy's and ended up back in a pull-up... after No accidents on Sat Sun or Mon.. but then I got her to go 3 times tonight without her crying or screaming I don't want to let it out!!!! Beanie Babies and stickers are working so far! (I finally found a good use for all those beanies I still had from my College days)

35 Weeks

I had my first Non-Stress Test today and it went OK. It was a little frustrating because I didn't know what to expect, it was at the hospital in the maternal fetal department which is about a mile from the parking garage, and I had to miss 2 hours of work in the middle of the day... The poor nurse had to hold the monitor almost the whole time by hand on my belly cause little Miss Lady was moving "TOO MUCH" and the monitor couldn't keep up with her. This doctor who I didn't know came in and said the baby wasn't cooperating... I thought wow what does that mean... So anyway we couldn't get a very good long heart rate reading--it looked good when she wasn't kicking the monitor off. The doctor then did an ultrasound to make sure the baby wasn't measuring big from the diabetes and it was fun to see the baby again. He kept asking me questions about my pregnancy with Samantha and family history and I had trouble answering the questions. PREGNANT BRAIN!!! I had some light headed-ness after a few minutes laying on my back on the table and had to roll on my side before I passed out. This doctor said everything was measuring just fine and I got to see the baby yawn and "practice" breathing. She is still "a she" and weighs approx 5 pounds 6 ozs and is an estimated 17.5 inches long. Which is right on track to having about a 7 and a half pound baby. (Sammy was 7lbs 6 oz). You can really see that nose! : )

I am finally posting the dreaded belly shot.... For thinking I haven't gotten THAT BIG... I look at this picture and can't help but say WOW I am huge!!!! This was LATE last night so I am not looking my best : ).

Updates from April-May 3

Sorry we have been M.I.A. lately.

Samantha is growing up so fast and is saying some of the funniest things... Daddy likes to call our beagle Slater a Putz. So the other day Sammy was helping out by letting Slater in and out of the back door and looked right at him and said stop being a putz.... Samantha helped set the table a few nights this week. And yesterday I looked over at her standing by the kitchen table eating a chip with Daddy and I thought who is that 7 year old... However, she still will not potty train.. we are at this moment sitting in big girl pants and have been on the potty about 30 times already in an hour and still nothing. She keeps asking for her diaper. I have to admit this is not a fun thing... I keep telling her that she can't take gymnastics or dance until she goes all the time on the potty and she thinks about it and has wanted her own tap shoes lately but then she just says OK I will not get tap shoes or take class. I was hoping that would work.

Samantha still loves her animals and has been telling us that she is a different animal almost everyday. She calls us Mommy and Daddy Dolphin or whatever animal she is that day. It is pretty sad though when we didn't even know what the animal was that our 3 year old came up with on Thursday... I figured it out finally but she was calling herself a Tapir.

She has been able to get her own pants and shoes on a lot more these days but shirts are still too hard.

Sammy has been excited to get a new room but we have been put in a holding pattern due to her bedding not showing up yet. I of course found Little Mermaid toddler bedding that I liked on-line. Target had it on their website but it wasn't going to be available for 6 weeks so I thought I would see what I found on eBay. I found a few people that had it available that lived out on the west coast so I ordered it. Of course it has taken over a week now to get here....and we are still waiting. I contacted the girl I ordered it from but still no luck. We can't get the paint till the bedding comes in so I feel like I can't get any of the baby stuff ready until I get Sam out of the nursery.. that has been a little frustrating. Sammy has helped me space bag all the blankets and things we had stored in the spare bedroom--which will no longer be a spare... And I finally got all my "extra/skinny/summer clothes" out of there and either donated some or binned them in the storage room or hung in the new portable closet bag we put in the storage room as well. Am I really ever going to be a size 6 again and do you really ever wear those bridesmaid dresses again??? I hope to need my size 6's--I gave up finally at Christmas time on the 4's I had from my Rush dancing days. And I guess I could have my Mom convert some of the dresses to fit Sammy and Baby for dress up or even Easter--some of them are so pretty..

Sammy even helped Daddy fix her new closet organizer.

A few weekends ago Sammy had on her church clothes and wanted some pants instead to go play. I grabbed a pair of black leggings out of her drawer and didn't realize they were so tight...so Mommy turned her into an 80's rocker...side pony, big socks, big bow and all.

Sammy has also started realizing it is fun to play with some of the little girls down the street that are just about a year older than her. She has gone on walks with Daddy or I 2 nights now that we end up playing till bedtime or dinner time with the kids in the neighborhood. It is cute. She even wiped out on the play set the other day and didn't even come to tell me. I see her chin is all scratched up when she came around the house and she never even cried.

We went to dinner where Sammy wanted to go for my Dad's birthday last week--Red Robin. Her favorite meal consists of a cheese quesadila, cantaloupe, and french fries.

I got my first "picked flowers" from my little girl. There is a field next to her daycare that they pick dandelions.

I finally had a few of my tulips come up this year. I have had these bulbs in the ground for 3 years I think and this is the first year the bunnies haven't eaten all of the buds.

If you noticed from my countdown ticker baby #2 is only 38 days away and probably shorter due to my C-Section and the diabetes. The diabetes hasn't been that terrible. Frustrating some days but I have to say that the MINI Ben and Jerry's have been my favorite thing these days. I found these tiny little tubs of Ben and Jerry's at Meijer the other day and bought a ton of them even though they were $1.25 ea. They are just over 1 carb serving--which I am allowed a 1 carb snack before bed--and it keeps me from going back to get more out of a pint or 1/2 gallon of ice cream. I gained a little weight finally. (probably from the Ben and Jerry fetish) I am now up to a 25.5 total weight gain. Again the diabetes has been a good thing I think. The scary thing is I looked up what I weighed at my 34 week check up with Sam and I am only 0.6 pounds heavier this time at 34 weeks. I started 25 pounds lighter with my pregnancy with Sam.... YIKES. The new male nurse at the doctor's office even said there was no way I was that far along so I guess that is a good thing. A lady at work also told me the other day that I was a pretty pregnant woman. That felt good too--especially with how crappy and tired I have been feeling again.

I have hit panic mode from not having things ready. I finally bought some diapers and nursing pads and Andy asked me today if we had an outfit to bring home "Miss Lady" from the hospital... Oh boy more things to think about. She is still being called Miss Lady due to the fact that this is the name Samantha has given her baby sister and we haven't chosen a name yet. I am still stuck on wanting an A name because we already have Shannon and Samantha so I figured we could have Andy and an A name.. cheesy I know but I can't get it out of my head. I have gotten a ton of great suggestions and we have tossed around a few names but nothing seems to stick yet. Samantha wasn't named until the day after she was born so I guess it will come to us...sooner or later. I have to start my bi-weekly Non Stress Tests at the hospital this week. We will see how that goes. The baby seems to be doing just fine. She definitely doesn't think there is enough room in there for her lately. I thought last Friday she was going to punch herself out of the water bag! I have been getting more and more braxton hicks and lots of lower back pain.

I have taken a few days off work lately. One just for me..I ran around shopping and buying things I probably didn't need. Including matching outfits for the girls already. My Mother has warped me! And then yesterday we had a Sammy & Mommy day. We went and visited with Tracy who is already on bed rest, and is not supposed to be due until June 20, and then we spent a few hours at the library. Sammy loves to get books at the library.

Andy is still trying to get his pilot's license. The weather has not been cooperating with him. He is doing well but then he has to wait almost 2 weeks between lessons and then he doesn't get to solo. I still can't believe he is doing this and I do not want myself or my children to go up with him but I am sure the kids will eventually. Sammy even out of the blue the other night said to Andy..when I get bigger I want to go up with you in double O nine-er. That is the tail number of the plane Andy does most of his lessons in. And then she said and then I can go up with Papa in 662. We talk about the planes I guess but she picks up on things so well.

SAMMY JUST WENT POTTY ON THE POTTY!!! That is only the 2nd time she has pee-peed for me!!!!!! Andy did the Sammy went potty dance and she finally got to put a sticker on her chart!!! And Daddy caved and let her have a Beanie Baby out of the bag of treats (she was supposed to have to go 4 times to get a treat out of the bag) and he is taking her to cold stone. You would think she just got a full ride to Harvard! Well Daddy and Sammy went to Cold Stone solo because I couldn't be tempted with that much ice cream... and Sammy is in her big girl pants... oh boy we will see how that adventure goes.

Sorry for the novel..that is what happens when you go a month between posts!

Congrats to Jen--Becky's sister on her new baby girl!

Becky I hope you are feeling better. I too didn't feel well after last Sunday...