So I know it's been forever. I'm sorry. I really am. I would say that I've been busy. Which is true. But I've also just chosen to do some different things with my free time lately. I'll get back to regular posting. I promise!

I've been feeling big lately. My belly's starting to get in the way of shaving, doing my toenails, etc. Lol. But I just LOVE feeling her kick and punch and jump around inside! I freaked out last weekend because I hadn't felt her moving much, but then I realized that on the weekend our routine is completely different from the weekdays, and I just wasn't paying attention at the right times. It's so reassuring to feel her going crazy inside there! Dan has felt her move several times, and last night she was so crazy it made me catch my breath a few times! As for a name, if we can't come up with anything stunning rather quickly, we'll probably just stick with the name Dan likes. It's not really all that bad, and I will love it if we name her it. That just means that I get full power over the next baby name! Lol.

Today we got invited to H's 3rd birthday party (the oldest of the kids I watch). When I asked Marissa later if she wants to go, she said "What should I wear?" I told her she'd wear a pretty dress, then she asked "What should I wear on my head?" I guess she remembers birthday hats, so I told her H might have birthday hats for everyone to wear at his party. Lol. It's good to know I'm raising a girly girl worried about what to wear - just like me!

Tonight we are dressing Marissa up as a princess and going to our church's small group Halloween gathering. I'm worried that I won't be able to dress Marissa warm enough, and still have her look like a princess! She'll have tights + leggings + a possibility of 2 turtlenecks under the actual princess costume. But her head and her feet are the problems! I will be wearing 2 shirts in layers, partly because I want to be warm, but mostly because my warmest sweater doesn't cover my belly very well!

Well, I think Marissa finally fell asleep for her nap. Today she was almost asleep in the car on the way home from work. So when I put her in her bed, I expected a nap soon. So I got in the shower. Once I got out, however, I heard some music playing from her room. Music from one of her toys on the floor that she could never reach from her bed. So I went to her room. Her light was on, she was sitting in her Elmo chair, and playing her little piano! I said "Marissa Lynn, what are you doing?" and she just looked at me like "Duh, Mom, I'm playing the piano!" Lol. It's great that she gets out of bed and plays in the mornings (especially weekends!) but she knows she needs to sleep first! After I put her back in bed, she talked and babbled for a while, and I think she finally stopped! It's really cool that she learned how to turn her light on too. She pulls one of her chairs over to the light switch and can just barely reach it when she's standing on the chair. She usually forgets to move the chair back, so when I open her door it crashes into the chair. But this afternoon, it was back in place on the other side of her room. Funny girl!

I think I'm going to go eat some sugar, lay down on the couch with some good tv, and wait for my baby girl to jump around inside me!

HELP!!!

With less than 18 weeks to go, Dan and I are starting to worry if we'll ever agree on a girl's name! So I thought I'd ask for some help! Here are some of our guidelines/problems:

1. First daughter is Marissa so...nothing that rhymes (Alyssa, etc.) and nothing that starts with an "M" (Don't want to name all our future kids with an "M" and I would feel like we needed to if we started the first two that way)
2. I don't really want a "girly" name (Hailey, Kylie, etc. - It just doesn't fit our family right now)
3. We would like something somewhat unique, but not crazy/odd
4. I love simple names
5. Dan only likes one name, and one name only - Arianna (I like it also, it just doesn't seem to fit for this baby, and it's kinda "girly")*
6. We've gone through entire alphabetized lists of names, and Dan doesn't like any of the ones I suggest

So get your brains moving, and start listing any and all girl names! Please!!!


*This is the biggest problem. Lol.

Ketchup

So I know it's been a while. I will try to be brief, but you know me

Baby shower weekend:

• Two weekends ago, I drove to IN to spend the weekend with my best friends from college. Nicole is due with her first, a girl, around Thanksgiving, and her family in IN was hosting a baby shower. So I spent the night with Laureann (who was also kid-free!) and then we drove two hours to the shower and met Nicole and Rachel J. there. Another girl from our original unit/co-unit freshman year, Natalie, was also there with her beautiful 5-month old daughter. We were a little late for the shower (big surprise - lol) but after the shower, we all went out together, all kid-free! We went to a really nice Italian restaurant, then to a fancy "fine chocolates" place and just talked for hours! It was so much fun, with waaaay too much pregnancy/baby/etc. talk! It was sooo good to catch up with everyone, and enjoy girl talk for a while with no interruptions. We drove back to L's house that night, and I drove back home Sunday morning.
• The weirdest part about the whole weekend was leaving Marissa. The longest I'd ever been away from her was 11 hours when I went to a Josh Groban concert when she was 11 months old, and most of that was during her nighttime sleeping hours. I missed her tons, but it was so freeing and easy to travel for a weekend without her. I hardly had to pack anything, compared to packing all her stuff too. I only carried a small purse wherever I went - no diapers/wipes/sippy/snack. Probably the last time in a LOOOONG time that I will be able to do that. She and Daddy had a blast, and when they came home from church on Sunday and she saw me in the living room, I got the biggest run-to-hug ever. It was soo cute, and she talked about "seeing Mommy after church" for about 24 hours after I got home!
  

Weekend in WV/VA/PA:

• Last weekend, we both took Friday off and left Thursday afternoon to drive to Dan's parents' house in WV. We got there around 11pm and crashed. We woke up early Friday morning and drove to meet my sister, Rach, who Marissa hasn't seen in a few months (and Rach was dying without her I think) because she was visiting our Aunt Kathy in VA. Then we all drove up to PA to visit my brother Jeff at his college. It was a lot of driving, but we had so much fun. We got to spend all day with Jeff and his girlfriend Jenna. Dan and Jeff played raquetball, Rissa and Jenna played bouncy-ball, and we all chatted lots. After Rissa got a quick nap in the car, we went out to eat at a Thai place nearby, and met two of Dan's friends from high school (I think?) there. That was fun, and the food was amazing! After dinner, we got ice cream, and Marissa got a free baby cone because she was under 40 inches or something like that. That was a huge hit with her, as we don't usually give her dessert at home very often at all. But all weekend, we ate out a lot, and she got LOTS of desserts! After ice cream, we said goodbye to Jeff and Jenna, and drove back to Rach's car in VA. Then we drove back to Dan's parents' house in WV.

• Saturday morning we just relaxed, and played around Dan's parents' house. Rissa managed to force both Granny and Pop-pop to play bouncy-ball with her for hours again, and we ate a yummy home-cooked lunch. After a nice long nap for Rissa, we all piled into one car and drove to see my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Paul's new house. They had just moved in that week, but it's huge and pretty neat. Then we raced to make it to our dinner reservations. After dinner, we all went to downtown DC because Rach hadn't ever been there. It was really cool to see everything lit up in the dark. Then we drove back to Dan's parents' house in WV.

• Sunday morning we got up early and went to church with Dan's parents, and Rach met us there too. After a yummy lunch out, where Rach got hit on by a random drunk guy, we packed up all our stuff and headed home to OH.

• It was quite a weekend, with tons of driving, but it was soooo much fun to see everybody! Marissa did not have a normal bedtime the entire time we were there, and only one normal naptime. But she did so amazing. I could tell she wasn't quite herself, and she was a little more "misbehaved" than normal, but none of it was awful, and compared to most kids her age, you couldn't even tell she was acting up.

Power outage this morning:
If you recall, less than a month ago we lost power for 8 days. This morning, Marissa woke up around 7:30am, and we were just letting her play for a bit while we slowly woke up. However, at 7:45, our fan went off, our phones beeped, and the clock went out. I just laid there, trying to breathe slowly, trying not to scream. Marissa started crying because "it's really dark in my room" and "my fan isn't working" so Dan went to open her shades. I put some socks on my cold feet, and then Dan called the power company. They did not give a reason for the outage, but said they expected it to be back on by 12:30pm. So after eating some cereal for breakfast (and I had my heart set on cinnamon rolls!) we threw some clothes on (remember, NO hot water!) and went outside in the cold fall morning to entertain ourselves. Around 9:30, I heard some neighbors yelling excitedly, then heard someone say the power was back on, so I ran inside and shouted for joy! I cannot explain to you how grateful I was for the power outage only being 2 hours long. I am NOT prepared for another power outage for a LONG time! (DO YOU HEAR ME POWER COMPANY??? IT WASN'T EVEN STORMING OR WINDY TODAY!!!)

This afternoon, after nap, Rissa and I are going shopping. She needs some long sleeve shirts, and well, so do I! I actually need some maternity shirts though. And I have some stuff to return. I guess that's all. I'll leave you with my latest belly pic at 21 weeks:

It's a...

GIRL!!!

Random tidbits...

• I finally finished cleaning the stupid freezer. Tons of stuff in there melted into this really nasty inch of gunk on the bottom of it. Then when the power came back on, it re-froze. So the main drawer to the freezer had been sitting outside for a while so I could hose it down. I finally got the hose, some soap, and a cloth, and cleaned it all out. Gross! Now we can finally stock back up on allllllll that stuff we lost.
  

• Tomorrow I have my big ultrasound! At my last appointment the hearbeat was about 155 bpm, which is the first time anyone has actually told me what it was. Lol. I can't wait to find out what and how this baby is! Dan is planning on meeting Marissa and I at the appointment. I am actually kinda nervous about it, because I'm such a crazy internet freak. I have recently found TONS of stories about pregnant moms, finding out their babies had Trisomy 13 or 18, both of which are incompatible with life. I keep telling myself that both of those diagnoses are extremely rare, but I'm just so good at worrying...

How 'bout some funny stories:

1. Lately, anytime I call Marissa something besides her name, "Cutie" "Babe" "Sweetheart" "Precious" etc., she replies with "Don't call me tootie (cutie)" or "Don't call me Babe. Call me Frissa!" It's hysterical, so we've been calling her odd things lately, just to hear her reply that way. And I still love how she says her own name "Frissa"! H at work says her name "Anissa" and they have arguments during lunch of "I'm Frissa!" "No, you're Anissa!" "No, I'm Frissa!" "No, you're Anissa" - I love this age!
   (Except when the argument is over whether a matchbox car is a car or an apple. I seriously had that argument with H this morning. He insisted, to the point of getting angry, that it was NOT a car, it was an apple! Ack! (And yes, I was immature enough to continue arguing with him. What can I say, it was entertaining - lol!))
2. While our power was out, Marissa didn't have her usual nightlight, and it was very traumatic for her. All her wonderful sleep routines are totally messed up. Anyways, she was in her bed one day (I think it was naptime - irrelevant) and was calling "Mommy, come get me!" over and over. After a while of that, when I didn't respond (I don't think she had even slept yet), she switched it to "Stacy [last name] come get me!" over and over. Lol. After watching a tv show based on a true story about a kidnapping of a baby, I had freaked out and taught her my full name. She learned it quite quickly, and decided to use it! I thought it was hysterical. But I've explained to her that she can only use it if I'm missing. Too funny! She also learned Daddy's "other name" isn't "Hun" (which is what I call him most of the time!) though she insists it is. And I've tried to get her to say her full name, but by then in a lesson of all names, she's too goofy and calling everyone the wrong name on purpose, then laughing at herself!
   
3. One night, while the power was out, Dan had plans to see a soccer game with a friend, so Marissa and I had a date at McDonald's. Yum. Lol. Anyways, we were sharing nuggets (EWWW) and fries, and we both like ketchup. A lot (that's an understatement, if you know me at all!). She was making sure I was eating too, and I quote "You want a fry to eat your ketchup with?" as if ketchup was the main menu item! Cracked me up!

That's all for now. I'll be sure to update after my ultrasound tomorrow!

...POWER!!!!

I'll be back on here soon, don't worry. After 8 full days of no power and no hot water, I've got laundry, dishes, cleaning, HOT showering, tv-watching, fridge-cleaning, food-buying, and cooking to do now!

Dying

SO because of some not-so-wimpy windstorms (no rain, no lightning, nothing else, just wind) LAST Sunday evening, we have been WITHOUT power since SUNDAY! No tv, no computer, no lights, no fridge/freezer, NO HOT WATER. Marissa's wonderful miraculous sleeping habits are down the drain. She's scared to death of the dark, and has barely even slept through the night all week. We can't do the few dishes we had left Sunday night since NO HOT WATER = NO SUDSY WATER to get rid of greasy dishes. We can't take nice long hot showers. I've spastically washed my hair a few times, but it's soooo freezing. We lost all the food in our fridge and freezer. We've been eating out every meal, once our bread was gone and we got sick of PB&J's. I also came down with the "cold of death" Thursday, and still worked as a nanny all week since Tuesday. They don't have power at their house either though. My cell phone won't hold a charge long enough. It keeps turning itself off even when it IS charged. Every time I order some food for take-out lunch, they forget to give me something precious. Thursday it was celery that I was craving so badly since we didn't have any fresh food in the house. Friday it was a wonderful chocolate cookie from Subway. Both of which I paid for, and did NOT receive. The cookie Friday was the breaking point. Lol. I basically had a meltdown to Dan over the phone because I did not receive my cookie. But it was really just the last straw in a really long week.

I called the power company Friday, and they said hopefully the latest we'd get power back would be Sunday evening. I heard rumors that it wasn't going to be until NEXT Friday, so I had to call and make sure I wasn't going to go insane. But today after church, Dan got a recording/call from the power company saying "call back if you still don't have power" - so who knows what that means. So he's currenly on hold with them to see what the heck is going on. This makes a full week of no power. I never thought I would survive, and obviously I'm going crazy. I'm at Dan's work to get in some computer time.

Well, sorry for the rambling. I will be back with a full post ASAP!

Love

I love Marissa. I love this age. I love staying home with her. I love watching her play. I love it when she asks me to play something with her. I love listening to her sing. I love listening to her playing "mommy" with her two babies. I love her running commentary on every noise, every movement, every object she sees. I even love her never-ending stream of "Why, Mommy? What did you do, Mommy? Why? What did you do? Why? What did you do?" I love the full conversations we can finally have, even when they don't really make sense. I love her memory of every little thing we do on a daily basis. I love her excitement when Daddy comes home from work. I love her excitement when she hasn't seen me for a bit and we are reunited. I love to watch her excitement when she discovers something. I love her look of pride when she accomplishes something "all by mySELF!"

Even when the day seems to drag slowly by, I love spending it with her. This week off from work has been wonderful for both of us. Her new favorite game says it all: I sit on the floor with my arms outstretched. She stands across the room with her arms outstretched. Then she runs as fast as she can, collides into my arms, and I kiss her cheeks over and over til she wipes it off. "More favorite game, Mommy?"

More potty mouth - lol

I've been feeling this baby move since last week! Last night I felt a really big kick or something while I was laying in bed. I LOVE feeling a baby move inside me!

About potty training...We gave up. I'm disappointed and kinda frustrated that I gave up so easily and early. Before we tried, I felt guilty because I felt like she was ready to try. But after trying, I could just tell she didn't really get it, and we were all (her included) just getting frustrated with her not getting it. She always knew to go potty, but not until just AFTER she went in her undies. Next time, I will just have to be more patient, and see if it rubs off on her, because I have a feeling my frustration was rubbing off on her, even though I tried my hardest to not let it show. This is just going to be a struggle, especially with all my germ-a-phobia-ness.

I'm also kinda frustrated because this week that I have off work is really the only time I'm going to have off work that's not a holiday. But if she's not ready, she's not ready. Plus, it's still very early. It just kinda hit me last night all of a sudden, that sooner or later she has to do this, WE have to do this, and the closer we get to her 3rd birthday, the closer we get to the "new baby upheaval" when they really don't recommend you potty train around then. So really, ideally, we should plan to have her trained by Christmas or so. That's very stressful for me, mainly because of my job. The little boy will be 3 in November, and is starting preschool three days a week (Yay!), so they're going to be pushing for him to be trained soon too. And I don't even know how to train ONE kid, let alone TWO. Plus, it will be at their house (Yay for messes on their hard wood floors instead of our carpet floors - the only positive point for training the kids at work - lol), where I have to chase after the younger sister (she's 1, and almost walking). It doesn't seem fair that I will have to do the majority of the training of the boy, even though I know daycares have to deal with training a lot too.

But at least now I get to enjoy my week off with my wonderful daughter, instead of stressing about going potty. Yesterday I had a friend come over with her daughter who is Marissa's age. It took them a little while before they were comfortable with each other, but once they got used to it, they played together SO WELL for SO LONG! They just babbled back and forth, playing in the play-kitchen. They set up a picnic on the floor, they put baby bibs on each other...it was soooo cute!

Guess that's all. Time for more toddler fun!

Potty mouth

Since today marks the beginning of 10 days of vacation from my nanny job, I decided to see if Marissa was ready for potty training. I didn't want to have to worry about the kids I watch, and I didn't want to have to train Marissa AND the little boy at the same time, since I have no clue what I'm doing. So this is really the ideal time. She used to seem so ready, way back in July (when I was miserably "morning sick"), so I figured she'd be even more ready now.

But...

today she seems clueless. We slept til 9am (which was a miracle, since I went to bed at 9:45 with a migraine last night), and she's been in undies since then. Dora undies even. But she already soaked one pair, pooped in another pair, and has only dribbled one time in the potty (which she promptly received an M&M for). I've had her sit down and try about every 10-15 minutes, but she hasn't gone at all. Shouldn't she have to pee more than once in the morning? Lol. I keep trying to get her to drink more juice, but everyone knows you can't really force a 2-year old to do much of anything

So...help? Tips? Advice? What to do differently? What NOT to do? Anybody? If she doesn't start to really get it over the weekend, we'll wait and try again later. But I just want to get this over with!

A 2-year old or a 3-year old?

For the past few days, I've been asking Marissa how old she is. "Two" she says, and spends 15 minutes manipulating her two fingers to hold up and show me. But I don't believe her. Because all of a sudden, she asks "Why?" about everything, multiple times in a row!

"What you doin' Mommy?"
"I'm doin' dishes."
"Why, Mommy?"
"Because they're dirty."
"Why, Mommy?"
"Because we used them today."
"Why, Mommy?"
"Because we ate dinner."
"Why, Mommy?"
"Because we were hungry."
...and on and on it goes, til I give up!

When did my baby become such a big, curious, girl?!

Happy happy happy

August 2005 - pregnancy #1
April 29, 2006 - Marissa Lynn!!!
July 2007 - pregnancy #2
August 2007 - miscarriage (8 weeks)
September 2007 - pregnancy #3
December 2007 - miscarriage (8 weeks, but didn't find out til 10 weeks)
June 2008 - pregnancy #4
August 2008 - STILL PREGNANT!!! (at 15 weeks 1 day)

Today the doctor actually found the heartbeat on the doppler very quickly, so I got to hear it for the first time! (All the other times they couldn't find it, even last time at 12 weeks, so we only saw it on a quick ultrasound) I scheduled my next appointment for the 25th, and the BIG ultrasound for the 30th! It's so exciting to finally be this pregnant. I haven't made this much progress in a pregnancy since Marissa! My belly is definitely poofing out, which I love.

That's all, just wanted to share my excitement! Can't wait til Sept. 30th!!!

Random tidbits...

Yeah, it's been a while. Sorry folks. I think bullets will work nicely today:

• On Rach's last Saturday here, we went to the Cincinnati exhibit of Bodies. It was awesome, especially the babies in their developmental stages before birth - so cool! After Bodies, we went into the children's museum part (I forget what it was called) and Rissa had a blast! Marissa was so extremely well behaved the entire time. Not a single meltdown! She mostly played in the huge water table, then we explored the "jungle" and finished it up in the little kids' play area. She loved to dunk her head in the running water - she did that over and over and over and over. Lol.

• Oh, I keep forgetting to write this down. A few weeks ago, I think it was the weekend we moved her to a big girl bed, Marissa did the coolest thing. She has this weird thing she likes to do with all the utensils from her play kitchen. She collects a whole bunch out of the drawer, and takes them all over to the piano bench. Then lines them all up. Then one by one, she gently strokes her cheeks with each one. She calls it "neck" and we can't for the life of us figure out what she thinks she's doing. She's never seen Dan shave, and we certainly don't do anything else that resembles that. But anyways, a few weeks ago, as she was lining them up, she started counting them. And she counted exactly up to 8, and then looked at us expecting great excitement for something. It wasn't until I counted the utensils, that I realized that not only had she properly counted in the correct order, but she had actually counted the correct number of utensils! For some reason, I thought this "one-on-one correspondence" (that's the right term, right El. Ed. people?) was a Pre-K or even K concept. Because I remember learning how to teach it (in college for Elementary Ed). I was shocked that she understood the concept and did it properly! She just seemed so smart and old all of a sudden. It's amazing how fast she's growing up!

• So, since I'm finally starting to feel better, I'm starting to eat quite a bit more. Last Wednesday, on our date, Dan and I ate at a local Indian restaurant, and we both always get the same thing. We've been getting it since, oh, probably 2003? Our favorite restaurant closed, but we found two more in the area that are just amazing. Dan gets Lamb Choley, I get Chicken Vindaloo, and we both get Bhatura (bread - tastes like funnel cake without all the sugar, perfect for putting out the fire of those spicy dishes). We both LOOOOOVE our meals. What's the problem? you may ask...
  
  I HAVE THE BIGGEST CRAVING for that same dish and it WON'T GO AWAY. The other part of the problem? My meal is $13, Dan's is $15, plus bread, tip, etc. Not exactly a meal we can get often. But I CAN'T GET IT OFF MY MIND! I'm going crazy, and everything I see reminds me of it. Today at work, they had leftover Indian food that smelled similiar. A show I watched today was about different cultural aspects of India. And that's ALL I WANT TO EAT right now! I want to eat my Chicken Vindaloo, that's so spicy it makes my nose run. I want to stuff my face with Bhatura, and go back and forth between too spicy chicken and warm bread, then spicy chicken, then bread, then more and more til I'm about to puke.This just might be the worst/best/strongest craving I've ever had. Do you think I can blame it on being pregnant, and Dan will give in and we can go again? Then again? And again? Lol. I think I'd like to go once a week at the least. Maybe every other day, k? I've been looking up recipes for my meal, but it has some weird spices in it that I'm not so sure we can find. Anyone else crave something too expensive/rare that wasn't an easy fix? I finally got to order take-out because I worked some late days last week and it was heavenly!!!
  

• We also moved Marissa to her actual "big girl bed" instead of just her crib mattress on the floor. It's a daybed with a trundle, so we pulled the trundle out a few feet so she can climb up on her own, and in case she falls. She calls it her "new big girl bed" and loves it! I bought some new sheets the other day (once I realized I only had one set of sheets - purple flowers - that weren't flannel) and they're green and tonight she was so excited to sleep in her "beeeeeen" sheets. Lol.
  

• She's starting to really catch on to learning all the colors, especially green obviously. Although she guesses yellow a lot. Lol.
  

• This past weekend, Dan went camping with some of his buddies, so I invited a couple of my friends over to spend the night. I let one of them sleep in Marissa's room, since Marissa has always been so perfectly adaptable when it comes to bedtime/sleeping arrangements. Well, not so much this time! I was just going to put her on her crib mattress on my floor, but she said "no sleep on the floor mommy!" at midnight when I moved her from her own bed. So I offered to let her sleep in "daddy's spot" on our bed. Well, to make a long story short, she ended up being wide awake for 2+ hours, moving between "daddy's spot", next to mommy, and her bed on the floor. I dozed through most of this, since our room is a safe zone, and only found out where she spent most of the night when she woke me up at 8:15am and was laying in "daddy's spot". She thought it was soooo cool that she slept in "daddy's spot" and I actually kinda thought it was cute and fun. But I was soooooo tired, and I have no idea how she's been fine since. She never made up for those 2 hours of missed sleep in the middle of the night!

Well, I guess that's all. I'll be 15 weeks on Tuesday, and I have another appointment on Wednesday. Still feeling good, but still nervous about one more appointment. After 15 weeks, I PROMISE I will start to accept this pregnancy with no reservations!

Wow, grocery shopping kicks my butt!

I went to buy some groceries this afternoon since we ran out of food around here. And I hadn't felt that exhausted/weird since last week when I got groceries! Last week, I was dizzy, had a pounding headache, lost my list halfway through, and couldn't even get everything we needed because I didn't think my legs could hold me up. This week, I finished fine, got everything on the list, put everything in the car, brought everything inside, then crashed. Rach had to put all the cold stuff away because I just couldn't make it anymore! Crazy!

Today I had another doctor's appointment. Not a regularly scheduled one, but a "Fetal Heart Tones" appointment for my sanity. After waiting an hour in the waiting room (Rach and Marissa came straight from Rach's last day at my job to hear the heartbeat too), we finally went into a regular room (I've only been in the ultrasound room so far!). Some student person got a doppler and attempted to hear the heartbeat. She tried and tried and tried. And I tried and tried and tried NOT to freak out. So then she went to get a different doppler that is shaped differently and sometimes works better. She tried and tried and tried some more. Still nothing. Still trying not to freak out. So she went to get the midwife, and moved me back to "my" ultrasound room. The midwife took one look and we saw the heart beating. Then, as we watched, the little blob bounced and bobbled and did somersaults over and over in circles! It didn't stop the entire time! It was soooo hyper and fun to watch! So either that's why they couldn't hear the heartbeat on the doppler, or they also said my uterus could be tilted funny. I don't care if I never hear the heartbeat, as long as it's there and I can see it! But it was sooo neat to see the little hyper baby in there!

Tonight Dan and I went on our last "free babysitter" date since Rach is leaving on Friday. We went to our favorite Indian restaurant since no one else likes it, and Marissa won't eat anything there - so it's only a "date night" place. Then we went to Old Navy since I had a gift card. And then we came home and ate a bunch of strawberries - YUM!

And tomorrow I start work again. Hopefully I can hang in there. Very exhausted these days. I threw up again on Monday after taking all my prenatal vitamins. My gag reflex is still in overdrive these days (That ever happen to anyone else? Brushing my teeth, taking pills, or seeing something gross literally makes me puke - before or after eating - it doesn't make a difference!). That's getting annoying. But overall I feel better and I'm finally eating three normal meals most days (besides snacks) and putting some weight back on. 12 weeks, 1 day! YIPEEEEEEEEE!

The Big Girl Bed Story and other random topics

The Big Girl Bed Story

So last Friday we took Marissa's crib out of her room. Not sure why we picked then, it just seemed like it was time. And she had been getting her foot pretty high up about to climb out her crib, and I wanted to get her out of there before that happened! So after reading many stories of the "big kid bed" switch, I had decided that I just wanted to start her on her crib mattress, just on the floor instead. So we took the crib out (and stuffed it into our bedroom, still assembled, because we will put it in the guest room once my sis moves out next week), moved the changing table into our huge hallway (she climbs up it on her own - scary - and it fits in a square corner part of the hallway perfectly), and moved the rocker/glider into our bedroom (yeah, it's packed in our room right now!). Her bedroom is actually quite large, but since my sister's twin bed is in there, along with the mattresses for Marissa's future twin bed, it was so tight in there. But now she has tons of floor space, and can actually play in there. Anyways, I took everything she uses out of her crib, and put it all back together the same way, just on the floor. She sleeps with a baby, a blanket (actually it's a washcloth now, since it's way too hot for an actual blanket but she insisted she needed one), and a cup of water. So for 2-3 days before this, we talked about her getting to sleep in a "big girl bed, just like mommy and daddy, and Ra-ra" (my sis). By the time we got everything set up properly in and out of her room, and I vacuumed and cleaned it up quite a bit, it was 9pm, an hour past her bedtime. Great start, huh? Lol. So we got her all ready for bed, and she walked over to her bed, and laid down with her head on the pillow, asked for her blanket on her back, and that was that! We closed all the upstairs rooms (child-proof doorknobs) and closed the gate at the top of the stairs. And then we listened on the monitor. And she babbled for a bit, and went straight to sleep!


Every night since, we have peeked in on her before we go to bed, and a few times have found her asleep on the floor across the room. Lol. But she has not given us one ounce of trouble about sleeping on her bed!

One of the shocking things about this whole story is how she got on her bed. For months now, ever since she decided she required a pillow in her crib, she has slept with her head on the opposite side of the crib from the pillow. But she won't let me take it out. She puts her feet right near the edge of it, and that's how she sleeps. But all of a sudden, when put in a "big girl bed" situation, she realized she was supposed to put her head on the pillow! We never talked about it or anything, but she just realized that's what big people do!

The other, most shocking thing, is that she stays in her bed til someone comes to get her. We expected the worst those first Saturday and Sunday mornings. But she actually slept late (8:30 and 9) and once she started talking to herself, she waited for someone to get her "out"! Then yesterday, she was kinda upset in the morning so she stayed home with me (more on that later). I put her down for her regular naptime in the afternoon while I watched a movie. Towards the end of it, I heard her talking a little, but she was still mostly quiet so I thought I'd wait a little while. Well, a while later, she was still only making tiny noises every once in a while, so I decided it was time for me to take a shower (yes, I'm lazy when I stay home). So I secured the upstairs in case she decided to explore, and took my shower. By the time I got out of the shower, it was an hour past the first time I heard her talking. Once I got dressed, I went into her room and she was STILL talking quietly on her bed. But the second she saw me, she bounced up and ran to greet me with a huge happy hug!

She rolls off her mattress sometimes, or her legs dangle off the edge, but it doesn't wake her up at all. I can't believe how easy this transition was. I don't expect it to stay this easy forever, but I guess we may be surprised. She has always been an awesome sleeper (well, since about 16, 17, or 18 months - I think - when I laid down the law!) and I was worried this would mess that up. But she still goes to bed happy at 8pm, stays in bed, doesn't cry, doesn't ever wake up in the night, and sleeps til at least 7:30 most days.

Once my sister moves out of our guest room (she's going back to college in VA), we will figure out what we're going to do with all the beds and mattresses we have around here. Then we will give Marissa a regular twin bed in her room. But after this "huge" transition, I'm not too worried about another!

Me, Rissa, Rach, and work

In other news...I'm SO VERY HAPPY to report that I'm finally starting to feel better! This has been the LONGEST month of my life. I think I said before, but I felt so awful and nauseas on vacation with my family, that when we came back, I knew I couldn't keep working my nanny job while I felt so miserable. Fortunately, my sister was planning on quitting her job soon to move to VA for school, so she just quite a little sooner, and took over my job! She even took Marissa, mainly because Marissa and the boy, H, were such good buddies and H's mom didn't want him to lose his friend. It was the hardest thing to watch Rissa go off everyday without me. I'd never done that before, but I'm glad it happened because I needed it. I also put myself on bedrest/couch rest just to be safe because I have been so nervous about everything. So I literally laid on the couch for a month. Dan and Rach were sooo extremely helpful. I didn't do any dishes, make any meals, change any diapers, clean anything, or do any laundry. I felt so awful, and even threw up a few times. It was so great to have all that help, but at the same time it was SO FRUSTRATING because I like things done a certain way and that wasn't happening. Lol. I was not a nice person to live with, I'll admit it. But this week I'm feeling better, and have started doing all those fun things again. Lol.

So between me sitting around all the time doing nothing, and my sister taking Marissa with her every day of the week, most of the time all day, Marissa has had some moments. Poor girl. She has done extraordinarily well with all this upheaval, but we could tell it was wearing on her. One day last week, we decided she would stay home with me, and it made a huge difference in her behavior the next few days. Then yesterday, I woke up hearing a huge meltdown before they left for work. Rach brought Rissa into my room, and she was crying so hard we could barely understand what she was saying. We finally were able to make out two sentences: "I want to stay home with mommy. I want to eat lunch at Frissa's house." (I just love how she says her own name - makes me smile every time!) Poor girl! It made me so sad, so of course she stayed home with mommy. Other than that, she has loved still getting to see H (2 yrs) and M (1 yr) with Aunt Ra-ra.

I was so glad this all worked out. Rach will be working a few more days next week, and then I'll go back to my normal hours there (9am-1pm) with Marissa. I still don't have much of an appetite, but I don't feel like I'm on the edge of my seat ready to run to the bathroom every 5 seconds. I lost 8-9lbs this month. But I know the way I eat (when I feel good) that I won't have a problem putting on the proper pregnancy weight!

Family Vacation July 2008

This seems like old news, but I want to at least have it recorded on here. The last week of June through the 4th of July, we went to Salt Fork State Park and met my parents and brother there (Rach came at the end because she couldn't get the whole week off work). We stayed in a cabin on the lake all week. It really was fun, but would have been much more enjoyable if I had felt like a human being. My parents brought their kayak, there was a hot tub in the cabin, and a huge pool at the lodge. It was a really neat place. Marissa loved riding in the kayak with her life jacket on (I forget already how she said life jacket, but it was cute). She wasn't a huge fan of the pool, unless Daddy and Grandpa were throwing her back and forth high up in the air and terrifying Mommy. But she loved spending time with "Mum" (grandma), "Poppa" (grandpa), and Jeff (which she finally says right instead of "Jep"). On top of "ALL DAY sickness" I managed to burn my legs, thighs, neck, and chest horrifically bad on one of the first days, so that made me feel even better In fact, my legs have been peeling from that sunburn all month til last week! We saw some cool fireworks at a nearby small town, and Marissa fell in love with them! For the longest time after vacation was over, she kept asking for more fireworks! The only part she didn't like was the finale - she covered her ears and buried her face in my shirt. She really did so well the whole vacation. She napped great, and went to bed great. Since there wasn't a full extra room for her sleep in (and none of us sleep well when we're in the same room - remember Christmas in Georgia and Dan driving around all night to keep her sleeping? UGH!), we put her to bed in our room in the pack-n-play. Then when we went to bed, I picked her up, Dan moved the pack-n-play into the living room, and she went right back to sleep! It rained a few days there, but we still had some really nice days.

Guess that's all finally. I should be able to post more often now that I feel better. 11 weeks, 3 days. Starting to see some hope!

Win cloth diapers!

Go here to enter: http://babycheapskate.blogspot.com/2008/07/giveaway-12-bumgenius-30-diapers.html

I'm trying to win since it would be a great way to save money in the future. 10 weeks today. So far no reason to worry, but I'm still not believing we'll be ok...

Stuff

Been busy:

• vacation with my parents and bro
• MISERABLE AWFUL MORNING ALL DAY SICKNESS. Due Feb. 17. Saw the heartbeat a few times, still nervous since my miscarriages.
• my sis is taking over my job for a month or so until I start to feel better
• put myself on bedrest for my peace of mind

Guess that's all. Rissa is hilarious and wonderful. More later :-)

3s

Yesterday, June 4, was our 3rd wedding anniversary. After dating for 3 years, we were married in my home church in NY, and had a beautiful reception in some gorgeous gardens.

Love ya, hun!

We're baaaaack!

Sorry it's been so long. We went to NY for the long weekend to visit my parents and grandparents, and I've just been too busy to catch up on here! I'm sure you don't want the entire weekend play-by-play, so I'll write today's "ketchup" in bullet style:

• We left Thursday around 3. I didn't put Rissa down for a nap, hoping she'd just take a long one in the car. Well, she didn't fall asleep until almost 5, and then only slept for 20 minutes! She woke up VERY grumpy (wonder why!) so we broke out our latest "secret weapon" - Dan's video iPod, The Backyardigans, and this! It was an instant hit (no surprise) and immediately changed her mood to ecstatic! She watched for a little while, and then we it put away and she was happy and talkative until she fell asleep around 9. We were pleasantly surprised with how well she did in the car, since we haven't travelled anywhere since the big Christmas disaster. She did so well entertaining herself with her cup (pretending it was a baby, kissing it, etc. - lol) and a few toys, and when she was tired of them, she was entertaining to us! We just had a good time talking about the funniest things: supposedly she was wearing Timmy's socks, and Timmy (friend of Dan's, well, I guess my friend too, lol) was wearing her socks - where does she get this stuff??? About 2 miles down the road when we left at 3, she started saying "All doh (all done) Frissa's car, nuh-uh!!! Muuuum, where are yooooouuuuuuu?" I was very worried that we were in for a miserable trip, but obviously she reconsidered spending a little more time in "Frissa's car"!
• Friday was a relaxing day, and we spent some time outside with my mom, aka Gramma = "Mum."
• Saturday we got up and went to a drop-in shower for a family adopting their first baby. She was adorable, and Marissa ended up wandering around with a bunch of little (and big) girls, all holding hands. It was so adorable! One of the girls was also named Marissa - she was in the Kindergarten class that I spent a week with waaaaaay back in my freshman year at college. She was by far the cutest girl in that class, and I just fell in love with her. You know, the favorite you're never supposed to have? Haha, anyways, she goes to my old church now too, and is still beautiful. She was the inspiration for naming our daughter Marissa, and she thought that was very cool. She hung around Marissa a lot, and I can tell if we lived there, she'd be an awesome babysitter in a few years!
• My dad mowed the lawn Saturday afternoon, and took Marissa out on the tractor for a little while. She thought it was the coolest thing ever. It was so cute to watch her laugh and giggle as they sped around the yard. Expect pictures!
• Sunday we went to church with my family, and then headed to a local park for an afternoon picnic. It was a BEAUTIFUL day, and we had a blast. I finally got some sun, so I'm not totally pale anymore. And Marissa totally wore herself out! We knew it was risky, but we decided to skip her nap, since it would be right in the middle of things and there wasn't a good place for her to nap at the park. She never even noticed! She ran around like a maniac the entire afternoon and didn't bother to eat much at all. Lol. Wherever we were, she had to run in the opposite direction as fast as she could! She finally crashed on the 8 minute drive home, and slept for an hour in her Gramma's lap!
• Over the weekend, she learned zillions of new words and phrases. But there are two that just crack me up. Dan randomly asked her to say "Mississippi" and she repeated it perfectly, only a bit twisted: Missippissi (Miss-i-pee-see). We also got to look at many caterpillars at my parents' house. After telling her they were caterpillars, she very carefully repeated "catter-boo-foo" and continued to say it exactly that same way every time!
• Monday we left around 11:30am. Again, this was risky for us, but based on the drive there, we thought Marissa would be fine. And we were right! She took a nice normal almost-2-hour nap in the middle of it, but the rest of the time she just played and talked with us. She watched a little of The Backyardigans, but overall, the drive was very successful. Surprise, surprise, our little girl is growing up!
• Tuesday I worked my second real day at the massage clinic. Blah...More on this later.
• Today a bunch of guys came from the company we built our house through, and did touch-up on all the drywall issues we had at the 10-month check-up. Which means...

IT'S TIME TO PAINT!!!!!

We went to Lowes tonight and bought some paint samples, and the plan is to go back and get the full amount once I decide, and PAINT SATURDAY! I'm soooooooooooooo excited to get rid of these BORING off-white walls! I'm starting in the living room/dining room/kitchen. It's one ginormous room, with no place to change paint colors. So I hope it won't be too overwhelming. But since BEFORE we moved in, I've been picturing it a beautiful light/bright green color. Dan is tolerating it, but I can tell he doesn't care one bit! Lol. After painting, a nice new couch is all we will need to complete our downstairs (at least for now)! There's obviously a bunch of other stuff I want to do/buy, but I won't mind waiting once the painting is done and a couch is in! WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!! Definitely look for pictures of this on Sunday!

• HAHA, I almost forgot the best story from our weekend away:
  Sunday morning, everyone was waking up and getting ready at different times. Soon after I woke up, I found Marissa playing upstairs with someone, and decided to take her downstairs to get her dressed. Well, my parents live in kind of a split level. You walk in to the main floor, but there is about 3/4 of a stairway that goes up to the bedrooms, and 3/4 of a stairway that goes down to the family room (there's also a basement 3/4 of a stairway below that). Also, all the floors are hardwood floors, including the stairs. So anyways, we were all the way upstairs by the bedrooms. I took Marissa by the hand, and slowly started to lead her down the stairs. Instead of keeping her safe...instead of her slipping on her socks like we all were terrified of all weekend...I SLIPPED ON THE TOP STEP and bounced my way all the way to the bottom! Thankfully, Marissa somehow let go of my hand, and simply sat on the very top step and watched her mommy bounce all the way down the stairs! By the time I reached the bottom, everyone had come running (well, except for Dan who somehow slept through the entire thing!). Also, by the time I reached the bottom, I was laughing hysterically! Poor Marissa didn't know what to think! My mom picked her up right away, and then she wanted to come to me. But she didn't actually cry, which was surprising. So yeah, I'm pretty sore and have some awesome bruises. But the funniest part about the whole thing, is that for the next few days - in fact even today still - she said over and over "Mama fell over? Fall down stairs? Mama hurt? More fall stairs?" LOL. Poor girl, traumatized for life!
  

• And lastly, a quick story from (nanny) work:
  They have a circle to run around (you know, kitchen, dining room, living room), and Marissa and H. will run around forEVER! And after every loop, Marissa says "more running?" and they just run and run and run, and giggle the whole time! Marissa somehow convinced her Grandpa to run the loop at my parents' house, but that didn't last nearly as long! I'm so glad this nanny job is such a good fit for us. I don't always have the most patience, and I don't always enjoy it. But Marissa loves every second of it, and I'm even starting to have fun!

Oddities

So Marissa has always been the best sleeper, and has gone to sleep so easily and quickly for nap and bedtime. But suddenly, Friday (the day after I started working my new evening job!!!), she started this new thing. For nap (if Dan and Rach are both here) and bedtime. We go around and everyone gets a night-night hug/kiss, and then one of us (so far it doesn't matter who) takes her upstairs and gets her ready for bed and puts her in her crib. But instead of laying down with her blanket on her and quietly babbling til she falls asleep, she now hysterically screams to "bye Dada, bye Ra-ra" like she didn't get to say good-night to them. She seriously cries so hard because she wants to say bye to them again (or whoever doesn't put her to bed). The first time she did it, Rach was putting her to bed, so Rach just came downstairs and let her say good-night to us again. And yesterday, Dan and I were getting ready to leave to go to my work meeting and then out to dinner and a movie (for Mother's Day since he was out of town last weekend). She could tell we were getting ready to leave cuz we were both all dressed up and had our shoes on already. And Rach was just starting to do her hair since we are all lazy on Saturdays. So I think Marissa thought everyone was leaving her while she napped. But I assured her we weren't leaving her alone, and eventually just decided to let her stay up til we left, and then Rach would just put her to bed after we were gone. Then today she did the same thing for nap and bedtime, crying SO HARD to get what she wanted. So now I think she has just figured out a way to postpone going to bed! Isn't that bizarre? The first few times she did it, I gave in and comforted her and reassured her over and over. But today, I just told her she already said good-night to them, and then started to leave her room. When she realized I was leaving even though she was crying, she suddenly insisted she needed her blanket on, so she finally laid down and calmed down a little. She still whined quite a bit before she fell asleep, but at least she knew I wasn't going to take any more manipulation. Can you believe what she is up to? WOW!

I just really hope this whole nap/bedtime thing is not because of me starting my evening job. If it continues, I will be quitting immediately! I only work one day this week, then two days next week (because of appointments and stuff), but the following week my schedule will be kinda crazy. If Marissa starts becoming upset too easily, or thinking that everyone is leaving her - I will quit with now qualms whatsoever. More money is not worth her misery

This afternoon, after her nap, we went to the mall and were walking through JC Penney's I think. We were walking past the men's section, and suddenly she loudly exclaims "Oh no!" and walked off the walkway. The flooring was hardwood off the walkway and in each end of every individual plank was a big dark brown circle, supposed to look like a nail or something I guess. But she thought something fell all over the floor! She kept trying to pick up each dot but she obviously couldn't. It was funny!

She's still so funny lately, but she's definitely starting to form some stronger opinions. I just mentioned to Dan and Rach the other day that I was suprised that Marissa wasn't acting out and throwing too many tantrums, but I guess I spoke too soon! Haha, we had a few interesting experiences at the mall today, including one SUPER loud screaming session in a tiny store. Here comes the fun of "terrific" twos!