Monday's First Portrait

Look what Lina and I made!!!!

If you look closely, it looks as though Monday is saluting - look close and you can see 5 little finger tips.

Labor Day Weekend

"Labor Day" - A fitting name given all the baby talk that occurred this weekend. Lina, Monday and I spent the Labor Day weekend in Soda Springs with family and friends. In short...it was great!

Beth, David and little 4mo. old Brennan came in Friday evening and stayed thru Monday mid-morning. It was good to have Brennan there as sort of a test bed for mothering...Lina coddled, fed, burped and while not directly sitting on the receiving end, witnessed much upchucking of curdled milk. *blehk*. "They" say its not nearly as disgusting when its your child...let's hope "They" are correct.

Kevin, Jeannie, Cody and Kylie all showed up for Saturday and most of Sunday. We had fun getting advice from Kevin and Jeannie, hearing their point of view on the first few years and witnessing their never ending patience with their kids. We are so impressed with how Kevin and Jeannie work with their kids. By my measure, the kids are always behaving...a few melt downs when tired, but all in all perfect little people.

The Grand Reeths showed up Sunday morning and stayed through until Monday afternoon. This time there was far less water in the meadow and more time to decompress and take in the beauty of Soda Springs. They walked around camp and met a few of the extended family. Patsy and Mom exchanged phone numbers as they are almost neighbors. Patsy is so warm its no surprise that she has reached out and welcomed my parents so completely. Its appreciated by all.

The weekend was full of fantastic food, conversation and activity. Pa'__(Reeth)__ gets the award for most emotional moment when he read an excerpt from "How to Win Friends and Influence People"...it was a sweet and tender moment. I blame my tears on a big heart and three glasses of wine, Lina blames hers on mine and Beth and David likely think we're all weird. It seems my father can't come to Soda Springs without getting water gushing some how or another.

Super huge day yesterday

I am pleased to report that Monday is doing great! We went in for a Combined Ultrasound & blood test yesterday as a screener for chromosomal diseases, and we actually got to see Monday! We're please to report that Monday has the required 2 arms and 2 legs, but that was about all we could tell. We got some photos of her that we may post up... all 2 inches of her. We could see her heart beating quickly and the occasional bounce and movement. What an experience that is. The first results of the test came out really positively. By my age, there is a 1 in 600 chance to have Downs, by the skin/neck measurement, we're at about 1 in 2600 chance to have Downs. We should hear back in a week about the blood work and then there is one more blood work test at 16 weeks. But as of today, Monday is perfect, and I finally got a good nights rest with the stress of this first benchmark behind us.

We then went straight from there to dinner with the Reeths! We chatted for a long time and Tim finally announced it when the wine came -- much to everyone's excitement. What a way to bring family together. We had a wonderful dinner and then left after several rounds of hugs. After we got in the car, Debbie called Tim in tears just to tell him that he's going to be a great Dad, which is true, but it still made our night.

We're now in the process of rolling the news out to the family. Tim is calling his brother's today, and I will call mine tonight... after that, the cat (or Monday in this case) is out of the bag. YAY!!!

12 Week Update From Baby Center

How your baby's growing: Your baby's hit the 2-inch mark (about the size of a lime) and weighs half an ounce. Her face is beginning to look more human. Her eyes, which started out on the sides of her head, have moved closer together on her face, and her ears are near their final positions on the sides of her head. Your baby's intestines, which have grown so rapidly that they protrude into the umbilical cord, will start to move into her abdominal cavity about now. Her kidneys are secreting urine into her bladder. Her nerve cells have been multiplying rapidly, and synapses (neurological pathways in the brain) are forming. Your baby may have acquired more reflexes by now, including sucking, and she'll even squirm if you prod your abdomen, though you still won't be able to feel her movement for several weeks.


(Is the drawing over-sharing!??!?!)

We get to see Monday on Wednesday!

Oh my, we have our first ultra sound on Wednesday afternoon. Right after that, we're going to have dinner with the Reeths and share the news!! Big week, big week!!!

Not such a good weekend

After several weeks of feeling fine - exhausted!!! - but fine, this weekend hit me like a ton of bricks. Tim and I were out and about on Saturday afternoon when I started feeling terrible. We hopped in the car at that point and zoomed home. I didn't actually speak much, and simply walked through the front door, went to the bathroom and lost my cookies. I hate losing my cookies. However, I am grateful that its only been the first time and it has been at 12 weeks... could have been a lot worse for a lot longer.

I spent and hour or 2 on the couch contemplating another trip to the bathroom before I started feeling better. Once I did, Tim went out and got us takeout (yay!). But halfway through dinner, I completely lost my peripheral vision to the left with an optical migraine. My dad is prone to them and I have gotten one before so I knew what it was. (It's a little crazy - kind of like a mini light show with all the colors in the prism taking over a piece of your visions. It starts small and gets bigger.) After that, I went upstairs into the dark room and closed my eyes hoping for it to go away, and waiting patiently for the corresponding headache which came about 20 minutes later. The good news is that I took Tylenol early - the only-over-the-counter I am allowed to take - and feel like I beat off part of the pain. The headache did follow me into a lazy Sunday filled with errands, laundry, and cleaning. Needless to say, it wasn't the best weekend, but it sure beats 9 am monday (not our Monday) morning.

Nearly to another milestone!

Our folks (GrandReeths) are en route to sunny CA. By now they have hugged Greg and Tara goodbye in Colorado and are nestled into their truck seats making their final push to Reno, NV. They are roughly 4 days from dinner with Lina and I, where we will make the big announcement! This is great for many reasons...but one in particular is that we've set telling the GrandReeths the marker for when we can tell the rest of the world. Take last night...Lina and I had a wonderful dinner with a long-time friend of Lina and the Chicks; Krissy. Lina had to pass on the complimentary oyster in some green sauce (Lina will give more accurate details as she is the "foodie" in the family). Then had to pass on the wine (s). Wouldn't be so bad, except Krissy is SMART and JUST had her own baby, so she knows what to look for. We had to hold off telling her in person, which is big given this is the first time we've seen her since our wedding. Oh the drama!

Lina's spirits are great even though her sleeping is still choppy. She is cycling into restless nights, where she wakes up a few times and has trouble falling back to sleep. Feel so bad when she IM's me saying "I'm dragging ass today"...I use to sit helplessly, only able to offer her words of support like "leave now, get on the couch and snooze until I come home with dinner". Unfortunately Lina is busy and is not always able to find time or a spot to rest...Until now, I have done some quality research and have found a solution to both Lina's need for cat naps and my feeling helpless to help. Solution: Pillowig

I love you sweetheart - get some rest :)