Happy Helpers

I love this age, when the kids are still excited to help with housework!

And when I told the girls they had cleaned the window long enough, this was Ella's reaction...

Pregnancy Journal: Ultrasound Results

My ultrasound appointment was at nine o'clock this morning.  Andrew's been slammed at work this week and was not able to make it to the ultrasound with me.  It was the first ultrasound he's missed and we were both bummed.  My mom and my little sister were down visiting this week (we made our move and they've been helping me get things in order), so they were able to go, which was special.  It was the first time that either of them had been to an ultrasound with me.

Once the ultrasound started, Arin and Ella started their friendly, sibling, competitive bickering.  Arin would say "Boy!" and Ella would immediately follow with "No, Girl!"  And it would go back and forth like this for a couple of minutes. This pregnancy has been pretty easy, so all along, people have been thinking it is a boy.  Arin has become accustomed to hearing that and was getting excited for a brother.  Ella never thought boy.  She always said it was a "Pink Baby".

The tech did all the measurements, then tapped several times on my stomach, on the left-hand side.  I didn't ask what she was doing, but I am assuming, she was tapping on the placenta and maybe seeing the position of the cord??  Just my guess.  Once the measurements were done, she announced "GIRL!"
We'll be adding a third princess to our family this October.  The baby is measuring right on time.  According to the ultrasound, the due date is October 17 (October 18 by the birthing center's calculations and October 19 by babycenter.com's calculations).  The tech said the baby is "perfect".  No sweeter words could have been spoken today!

When Arin heard girl, she cried and cried.  She said she didn't want another sister and that she wanted a brother.  She was sure it was a boy and she's not real good at losing.  She has accepted girl now and I know once the baby is here, she'll be super in love :)  Ella, of course is excited to be getting a little sister!

I was not given any regular pictures from the ultrasound.  I tried to upload the video, but blogger will not accept it.  These two pictures were taken from my phone during the ultrasound, so not the best quality.

On a side note, I was required to have an early glucose test because I have big babies.  They received the results this week.  My sugar is actually on the low side (which is the tendency even when I am not pregnant).  Not sure what that means as far as the pregnancy is concerned, but I know it has to be better than high sugar during pregnancy.  I will discuss it with my midwife at my next appointment.  I will have a second ultrasound to check the baby's size at 34 weeks.

Update

We're alive and well!  I have not fallen off the face of the earth, but I have been super busy and tired, and I have been lacking the motivation to blog, or to even take pictures for that matter.  I am sure that'll all change in a few weeks when life settles down and a routine is once again established.

So what have we been up to?

Arin will be five in July, which means that she will be officially starting kindergarten this year.  I have been going back and forth as far as the decision to homeschool vs. sending Arin to school.  Andrew stayed consistent and encouraging to continue homeschooling her.  After much discussion, I agreed that it would be the best for her/us at this time to continue going the homeschooling route.  We had taken a nice, long break off from regular, structured learning activities during my first trimester, while I was taking it easy (after my bleeding scare at 7 weeks), but we were all excited to get back into the "school" routine.  I ordered books (and after reading Michelle's post here, I think I will be adding a few more books to our schedule) and we decided to start school at the end of April.  This went well for all of two weeks or so.  Then, we got hit hard with sickness.  Every one of us ended up sick, though not all with the same thing.  Arin got hit the hardest and I had the easiest time.  After two weeks, we were all finally feeling better, though Andrew and I have continued to be more tired than usual.

Last week there was quite some excitement at Andrew's work.  An ex-employee, who had not worked for the company for two years, came to Andrew's work with a gun.  He started shooting as soon as he got out of his vehicle and continued once inside the building.  He also set fires inside some of the offices.  Apparently, he was on the search for his former boss, though the motive was not clear.  Andrew's brother's wife also works for the company, in a different area than Andy works in.  Andrew's brother sent me a text stating that there was a man at their work shooting people, but he had no other details.  It was only about 3 to 4 minutes before Andy called to tell me that he was fine, but it felt like forever.  All kinds of thoughts swirled around my head, not knowing what was happening, where Andy was in relation to the gunman, etc.  Life is precious and it can change in the blink of an eye.  As it turns out, Andrew had no idea what was happening.  He was out in the warehouse and didn't know to leave until the fire alarm went off, and everyone was told to leave.  It was only once he was outside in the parking lot that he found out what had happened.  His sister-in-law was much closer to the gunman, though she didn't realize that's who it was at the time.  Everyone was fine (some close to the situation were emotionally disturbed, of course).  Only one person was actually hit by a bullet.  He was an unintended target and the bullet only hit the top of his foot.  I am sure it was a painful injury, but not life-threatening.

We are currently in the process of moving again.  Andrew and I have been married a little over eight years and we this will be our eighth move!  I am so excited to be moving out of the apartment and into a house again.  However, this is the first time that I have moved pregnant and I have been wearing out quickly!  In general, I am at the point that I am ready to settle down.  We'll be renting this house, so I am not sure that this is the place that we'll be settling down long-term, but I am at the point in my life that even thinking about moving again does not thrill me!  But again, I am super excited about getting into this new house.  We'll be living two streets over from Andrew's family, we'll have an extra bedroom, more room (especially to add baby gear), lots of storage, a fenced in backyard and a screened in patio (both great places for the girls to place and enjoy the fresh air).  We'll have a bigger kitchen, so I will be able to cook/bake with my kids again, we'll have a full-sized washer and dryer again, so I will be able to conquer the laundry once again.  I am so looking forward to it.  Moving has been a lot of work and we only have about three more days to finish up before we make the big move. 

Yesterday, I hit the 20 week mark in my pregnancy!  The baby has been very active, especially at night when I am winding down.  Andy has been able to feel the baby kick a few times.  The girls are anxious to feel it too, but they are usually in bed during the baby's most active period of the day.  My ultrasound has been scheduled for Friday, June 10th.  We are looking forward to knowing our new baby's gender.

So those are the things that have been taking up the majority of our time over this past month.  I do plan to get back into more regular blogging, but not until we are settled in to our new home.