21 Week Dr's Appointment

I had my last Dr's appointment with my GP this past Monday. I was very sad to see the scale move in the upward motion of SEVEN POUNDS!!!! Jesus Murphy! That is way too much to gain in a 4-5 week period! sigh... Must be the chocolate that I was addicted to... Anika now thinks that my Dr. has said NO MORE CHOCOLATE!! lol

However everything is looking really good. The heartbeat is 149 beats per minute.. my blood pressure was good, and again the only concern is the placent being small and low.

My next appointment is when we get back from holidays with Dr. Awadalla, who will be my OB and hopefully deliver the baby.

Our Fetal Assessment - 20 weeks 1 day...

We had our fetal assessment last week, Wednesday.

Everything seems to be going really good. The baby was quite active again during the assessment. We were able to take a good look at the baby's face, especially the lips and they look good. We also took a look at the brain and the heart. Both look really good too. The only problem that they are going to monitor is that my placenta is small and low. This could cause a problem down the road called placenta previa. If in fact that is what this is, I maybe put on bed rest for the balance of my pregnancy. The technician asked if I have had any spotting or bleeding and I haven't so she said this is good. I have another Fetal Assessment on July 17th to see if the placenta has moved up.

Oh.. and for those of you who are wondering if we found out what we are having... yes we did... however most people don't want to know so we are going to keep it a secret as long as we can!

Here is a picture of me just before we left for the fetal assessement... I'm definately not thick any more.. I'm definately pregnant!

Hello.... Time for a big update...

Life has been hectic!

Between Anika's dance recital, and soccer finishing up... we now have time to live :)

Anika's dance recital was awesome. They did so well! We are such proud parents. Since September, Anika has been taking a dance class called "Little Ballerina's" at the Royal Dance Conservatory. They started out with 5 little girls and ended the season with only 3 of them. At the recital I found out that the 2 other girls in Anika's group were both just turning 7 years old! My poor Anika isn't even 5 yet! Considering this was her first year in dance, she did well. Many of you have heard the story of Anika not having any grace, and that we thought she'd probably stick to sports. But now we are second guessing ourselves. She was the ugly duckling that turned into the swan. It was awesome to watch!!

Here are a couple of pictures from the night of her recital...

Isn't she the cutest thing you've ever seen??

The big thing after the dance recital was that Anika wanted to get her hair cut!! We have talked lots about this, but her hair is so thick and is such a rats nest when she gets up in the morning that we usually end up leaving the house in the morning with her in tears because it hurts when we brush it. So after soccer last Tuesday we head to the hairdresser and off came about 6 inches. When she was getting it cut, I asked her "What's Grandma going to say??" her response... "Noooooooooo!!!!!" LOL!!

Here she is...

Soccer is now finished. We had our wind-up picnic at St.Vital Park tonight. It was great! The kids had a lot of fun. 2 of the boys on her team are going to be in her kindergarden class. Tuesdays game was the best game Anika played. Most nights that she played she lost interest half way through and complained that her belly was hurting. After the game she got a team picture and a medal. She is so proud of her first medal.. and its even engraved with her team name and HER name!!! I'll post a picture as soon as I get it moved over from my work computer to my home computer.

On the fence...

Well.. we are 8 sleeps away from the possiblilty of finding out the sex of the baby.

I am soooo on the fence about this. Deep down I think I want to know... but there are only so many "true" surprises in life and this is one of them.

Adrian really wants to know. Anika doesn't want to know. I'm 50/50. We asked if she'd like to come with us to the appointment to "see" the baby on the computer screen and she said no. This kids got will power.

Please leave us a comment or email us at anika1@mts.net, and let us know what you think. Should we find out... should we wait....

Time is ticking away... I don't know what to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday to Me... Yesterday :)

THIRTY - FIVE!!!! EEEEEEEKKKKK

Deep breath. Yes. This one was hard. Not sure why, but maybe because my lovely "much older" sister, reminded me that I'm closer to 40 than I am to 30. That sucks!!

I had a pretty good day. Woke up early - about 5:45 and got ready for work... had some breakfast, and slipped out the door at 7:15 without waking Adrian and Anika.... WOOOOHOOOO!! I then met Adrian, Anika and my Mom for lunch at this little Vietnamese Restaurant called Vietnamese Garden. It was nice to get away from the office... I rarely have time to take a good hour out of my day.... so I did it without feeling guilty. I opened a few presents and cards then headed back to chaos. Adrian and Anika picked me up from work about 4:20 only to fly home get Anika suited up in her dance costume and get her to her mini dress rehersal for 5:30. Adrian and I ran a few errands then headed back to see how things were going at 6:30 and found out that she was done so we were going to go to Earls for some snacks and maybe watch a little bit of the hockey game, but it was packed, so we headed to Safeway and picked up some cake... YUMMMMMM CAKE FOR DINNER!!!

We each had a piece (Anika had Carrot Cake, I had German Chocolate Cake, and Adrian had a little slice of both), then tried to get Anika into bed. We all know how well she does on sugar... so our normal 15 minute bed time routine lasted about 1 1/2 hours!!!

So here I am... 35 and 1 day old.... and pregnant. When I turned 30 I was pregnant with Anika. I told Adrian there was no way I was planning on being pregnant when I turned 40. I want a big party... one far far away, so he had better start planning and saving now. Maybe a holiday in Europe or the Carribbean. I think I might deserve that???

Thank you to everyone who called, sent a card and bought me a little gift. You are wonderful friends and family :)

Hugs to you all!

18 weeks - Baby Facts...

Our little one is nearly half a pound now and very human looking. Pads are forming on the fingertips and toes, and the eyes are looking forward rather than out the sides of the head. Meconium, the baby's first bowel movement, is accumulating within the bowel. If your baby is a boy, his prostate gland is beginning to develop.
If you notice your belly making jerky movements in sync, don't panic; your baby may have the hiccups!

4 Month Appointment

I had my 4 month appointment yesterday (Monday) and all went well. Anika was with me and she chatted up my Dr. like she had know her all her life. She was even excited to hear the baby's heartbeat. My blood pressure was good (not sure of the numbers), as was the baby's heartbeat. My Dr. said something about it being very strong and something about 33. I'm wondering if that was 33 beats in 15 seconds.. if so that would make the heart rate at 132 bpm.... which in theory says boy! I am on the fence at which gender I would prefer. It would be nice to have a boy here, perhaps with a little less attitude than my first child. When we were in Grand Forks a few weeks ago, Anika and I were watching the Cosby Show. When I told her that I used to watch this when I was little, she asked me if it was in black and white!!! Ok.. I'm old.. but not that old. Adrian had a good laugh until I gave him the evil eye to shut up!! LOL. Ok.. back to my appointment. I had to give a urine sample at the end, and Anika thought that was pretty funny.. that I had to pee in a little jar. Because it was just the 2 of us, I had to take her into the bathroom with me, so of course she had to be in the front row and watch... I'm sure she told everyone at daycare today all about Mommy pee'n in a jar! I have blood work to be done tomorrow, then my next appointment is my fetal assessment on June 20th... its at that appointment we might find out what we are having. Its still a big debate in our house. Please leave us a comment on whether or not we should find out what we are having.

I gotta run... I'm pooped tired from working on the site bringing it up to date.

I hope you all enjoy reading.... Here is a picture of me last week...

Oh.. Kim - thanks for the name suggestions... I'm going to post them once I get a free moment at work ;)

Teddy Bear's Picnic....

We went to the Teddy Bear's Picnic in support of the Children's Hospital on Sunday, May 27th. Anika had a blast. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, blue sky and sunny all afternoon.

We got to the shuttle drop off point at 12:30 and got to the park about 12:45... enough time to get ourselves settled in to see the Little Bear show. For those of you who don't know who Little Bear is, this is a program Anika watches faithfully on Treehouse. This was or I think Anika thought would be the highlight of the day... little did she know what would come after...

Here is a little video of our day at the park...

Alexandra's 3rd Birthday....

Oh man did Anika have a good time at this birthday party... how could a child that loves pets as much as Anika not enjoy a PETTING FARM????

Grand Forks.. May Long Weekend

We had a great time in Grand Forks. Did some shopping, bought Anika her summer wardrobe, Adrian some clothes, and myself.. I found a cute pair of jeans at Old Navy and 4 tank tops. I tell ya, finding nice clothes when you are pregnant is next to impossible unless you want to spend an arm and a leg. What I'd really like to find is a nice linen A-line skirt... is that too much to ask... maybe in a nice chocolate brown color but nothing... grrrrrrr.

Anika had a blast at the new hotel... Canada Inns Grand Forks. She swam and did the water slides all afternoon on Saturday. After Mommy gave her a little "push" down the slides, so that she'd go on her own, there was no turning back. She must have gone up and down the slides 50 times on her own.... oh.. it wasn't just Mommy pushing her down... it was the $20 she would get if she started to go up and down the slides on her own! She enjoyed them so much that when she was supposed to be playing in the little kiddie pool under the watchful eye of Angela, with Amber and Alexandra, she decided that those slides weren't good enough for her so she wandered off to the big slides... which gave us all a heart attack because we couldn't find her. With the help of one of the life guards, we found her... when I asked her where she was ~ "I was sliding Mommy... all by myself!"

Lesson learned... my child is now going to wear the ugliest bathing suit out there.... no more cute pink and purple tankini's. When the life guard asked me to describe her ~ she is 5 years old... blonde hair in a braid, wearing a pink and purple bikini.... He then proceeded to ask me if 20 other 5 year old little girls were her!

Anyways... we had a good weekend, even tho the hotel service kinda sucked... we will be back, probably September long weekend :)

Here are a couple pics from the waterpark. I didn't have my camera at the waterpark to much... so there are only a few pictures...

At the top of this picture you can see a big bucket

that is being filled with water....

This picture is from the front of the above picture.

You can see people waiting to see what is going to happen....

This picture is when that big bucket at the top dumps

gallons of water on the people below.

We saw one little girl lose her bathing suit bottoms,

and a couple other smaller kids get washed up like a tidal wave had hit...

Everytime it dumped Anika nearly pooped her pants.

We all know how much Anika likes getting water on her face!!!

As promised...

I promised a few people that I would post a picture of Anika and her husband... Garrett. She claims that they aren't married but they sure act like they are... arguing and telling each other they don't want to play with one another but the next minute can't wait to get outside and play together at the park.

Ironically... Anika's first soccer game was agains Garrett's team....

Friends and Family... meet Garrett! I love the fact that in both pictures he is grabbing his crotch... do you think Ted and Lil's first picture was like this???

A little behind...

I apologize.. I'm a little behind in my updates....

I'm going to seperate the events that have been going on over the past couple of weeks in a few different posts...

15 weeks 1 day....

Well... we are almost 4 months along. I have been feeling pretty good. Nausea for the most part is done, but still have a few adversions. One in particular is fish. A few weeks ago Adrian made salmon and it looked really good, and I'm sure it tasted really good, but could only do a couple of tastes... that was it. The other thing is when we roast a chicken. Can't touch the meat, nor cut it off the bone. YUCK. Still loving all the fresh fruit I can get my hands on... Watermelon, Pineapple, Apples, Bananas, Oranges, Cantaloupe, Honeydew..... yummmmmmmm, and salad. Anything cold and fresh.

Not much is new around here. We are busy with soccer 2 nights during the week and ballet on Saturday. With that and the yard work that we need to accomplish, there isn't much time for anything else.

Baby seems to be doing fine. I am growing each week. No hiding it now. Someone at work told me that I popped over the weekend.... not sure if that is good or not - is he saying I'm fat?? My weight gain each weight gain fluctuates from 0lbs to 3lbs gained.

Here is a picture of me this morning before going to work.... definately have a belly started!!

Can't wait for the long weekend to get here. I am off Friday and don't go back to work until Tuesday :) We are heading down to Grand Forks for the weekend. The dogs are going to love being at home with the sitter rather than going to the kennel. Between going to Grand Forks and seeing her friend Maddy (from Calgary)... Anika is soooo excited. I can't wait to meet Maddy's new brother Rowan, and to see Lori :)

Thanks about it. Will update after our long weekend.... Hugs to you all :)

Help us name this baby....

I am looking for some really cool names. We are having a hard time deciding on a girls name and a boys name. Leave us your ideas in the comments part at the bottom of this post... thanks :)

GGGGGGGGGOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heeeeheeee...

Anika had her first soccer game! It was so much fun! The kids are all 5 years old, they are all very eager to get the ball, and starting to communicate with each other... asking or telling the other kids to "pass it to me!!"

The games are an hour long, with the first 15 minutes as their practice.

Todays game was a 3-3 tie.... Next game is Thursday at 6pm - Island Lakes - Waterfront drive.

Another Great Weekend...

We had another great weekend!

Friday night was a big night for Anika... she FINALLY got her new bike! I had been out at lunch on Friday to see if I could find one, and did at Toys-R-Us... for $130.00... yes a little excessive for a 5 year old's bike, but we had looked EVERYWHERE for one that would fit her and they were either too big or too small. When I picked her up from daycare, I told her we would go by Sportchek to see if they had anythere.... sure enough they did. We were steering clear of "girl" colored bikes because what if this little munchkin in my belly is a boy... really can't explain to him that its too bad your a boy.. you're going to ride a pink bike, with a barbie basket and purple and pink pop-pom thingies on the handle bars. Just not cool. So there was the bike.. it was silver. I loved it and it was only $99.00. Nope... that one wouldn't do... Anika didn't like it. She wanted the blue one with the checkered flag decals on it... because what if the baby is a boy.. he will like them (yes.. she is coming around about the baby). Well.. I have to say my child is smart. The one she picked was cheaper than the silver one... only $79.00... now we can pimp it up with girlie things ;) I have never in my life see a child so proud, than when we got home and she saw her friends outside and she could show it off to them!! Her "husband" Garrett had to give it a try and really liked it.... told her that it was cool and he couldn't wait for them to go biking together! (I will have to post a picture of the 2 love birds).

Saturday was dance, and we still think she will excel at sports... rather than dance. She just doesn't have the coordination that the other kids have.... its quite amusing to watch! When she got home it was off with her friends for another afternoon packed with drawing on the driveways with sidewalk chalk, arguing about Garrett not inviting her to his birthday party, and how she wasn't going to invite him either... because boys aren't allowed to her party, playing at the play ground, and sharing snacks on the front step with the other kids.

Dave, Lisa and Zora came for dinner... the kids were great and both stayed up well past their bed times!! Thankfully Anika slept until 9:30 Sunday morning... Dave and Lisa didn't have it so lucky with Zora!!

Sunday we headed out to Steinbach for a visit with Auntie Kim and Uncle Ray. Anika was so excited to see them. We wanted to see their house before it got sold and they moved into their new one... so we invited ourselves out there. Anika had a blast playing with the kitties (really should have taken a picture of her and the cats - but forgot)... and then we went out for lunch. Anika loves to go out for lunch so this was right up her alley. We had a great time, laughing and eating... then we went for ice cream. Ohhhhhhh does Anika love ice cream!!!

Anika (not quite ready for a picture) with

her Auntie Kim and Uncle Ray....

Ok Mom... I'm ready now!!!

Anika insisted that we get the waitress

to take a family picture of all of us

.... so here it is...

Sunday night we went to the Moose Game, came home after Anika entertained everyone in the suite... and proceed to get a fever during the night. She complained that her throat was sore and that her ear was a little sore so we druged her with some tylenol, and kept her home from daycare today. She spent most of the day on the sofa watching her show's and dosing on and off.... she seems better tonight so she will be going to daycare tomorrow.

Hope you all have a great week!

Ciao.

Baby Dream

Last night I had my first baby dream. In the dream we were at our first fetal assessment. Everything was going really well, so the nurse said to us "would you like to know the sex of the baby?" With a little hesitation, we said "sure". She said "Its all boy!!!!"

BOY???? What on earth would I do with a boy. I know on my "guessing game" I said boy, but I just did that to stir things up a bit. What would I do with the 18 crates of GIRL CLOTHES that I've saved for our 2nd daughter??? What if this is really a boy?? What would we name him? We have been arguing over one girl name... I love and Adrian doesn't love so much.

Potentially we could find out what we are having on June 20th. We haven't both decided if we want to.... maybe we should??

12 Week 2 Days... Belly Pic

Watch me grow....

Here I am at 12 weeks 2 days.

12 Week Fetal Assessment....

Here is our little sweet pea....

We have ANOTHER stubborn child on our hands...

Thankfully the nurse was able to get the measurements needed for the nuchal fold test before (s)he decided to stand straight up and wave at us for close to 20 minutes. When (s)he decided the waving was done, (s)he layed down on it's stomach and went to sleep!!

Laying on his/her back with leg up

Laying on his/her side - Face forward

Standing up waving!!!

12 Week Appointment....

Today Anika and I went to my 12 week appointment with my GP ~ Dr. Visch. I was hoping that this might help get her in the swing of the baby thing... I was wrong.

We got to the appointment and had to wait a little bit. When we finally got into the room she thought it was pretty cool. She asked me all kinds of questions, about what things were.... like the blood pressure cuff, the ear checker outer light thingy, the stir-ups at the end of the table!!! She asked what the handles were for!!!! How do you explain that one to a 4 1/2 year old????? There were pictures of the spine when it was in good shape and pictures of when osteoperosis (sp??) had set in... great time for me to take advantage of what not drinking milk, eating cheese and yogurt will do to you!! It must have sunk in because she had 2 1/2 glasses of milk tonight at dinner.... and speaking of dinner, any of you who know my child, she has never ever ever liked salad. We have tried time and time again to get her to try Caesar Salad or even Greek Salad but she gag's as soon as she puts the piece of lettuce in her mouth. When doing a few errands after my dr's appointment,
I said "how does chicken caesar salad sound for dinner".....
Anika - "bleh" (usual response).
Me - "you know... you should try it again... you might like it. All your friends like it"
Anika "like who"
Me "Alexandra, Connor, Micah, Angela, Jenelle, Brett, Eric, jand I'm sure some of your friends at daycare like it"
Anika "Daniel doesn't. But I think Nina does"
Me "Will you try it?"
Anika "OK"

Sooooo she tried it... gagged on the first bite, but once we put a piece of chicken on the fork lettuce and cruton, she seemed to not mind it. We might have made progress!! LOL... this is a big thing for us. We eat salad every night with dinner.

Ok.. back to my appointment...

My Dr came in and we chatted a little bit about how I've been feeling and about the nausea. I told her that I was scared to go off the Diclectin and she said not to worry that I can stay on in through out my entire pregnancy if needed. She did suggest that in 2-3 weeks to try cutting back to 1 pill at bedtime and if I felt really crappy that I could take the other one in the morning or at noon. I'm not sure I want to try this or not.... but we'll see how things are in a couple of weeks. She took my blood pressure and it was great (can't remember what it was). She then checked my belly and said she could feel my uterus about an inch above my hip bone. She asked if I have felt any flutters and I said yes. It dawned on me on Saturday that this feeling I have in this one spacific spot is the baby. I am now convinced that I am pregnant, and we are having another child!! The other really good news is that I only gained 1/2 a pound. Yes.. that is right a 1/2 pound since the middle of January!! Woooooooohooooooo!!! So to my Mom that said I was looking a little "thick"... I'm sticking my tongue out at you!!! LOL

My next doctors appointment should be in a month.. at 16 weeks with Dr. Awadalla. I'm really looking forward to seeing him as he will be the doctor that will be delivering this little one.

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.... WAIT!!!

I nearly forgot the best part of my appointment! We got to hear the baby's heartbeat!!!! I thought this would maybe make things click with Anika.. but NOPE!!! When I layed down on the table, Anika sat in the chair BACKWARDS, and COVERED HER EARS. When Dr. Visch asked her if she wanted to come over and hear the baby's heart beat, she said "NOPE"! My Dr looked at me and said, "oh right.. she is in denial" LOL... Sheesh!! This kid is tough!! We laughed because she made it soooo obvious that she didn't want anything to do with this baby.

Well our little sprout has a very strong heartbeat of 160 beats per minute and it wasn't at all hard to find!!

That's about it for now... We have our 1st fetal assessment on Wednesday. I will post pictures if we get them!! I can't wait to see our little sweet pea on screen!