Bigger than we thought!

"This baby is bigger than we thought!" says Dr. E. "We'll have to get him out the last week of January for sure!"

So at my ultrasound when I was about 29 weeks (so we thought), the baby already weighed in at 3.5 lbs. That's normally how big a 32-34 week baby is. SO, we could've moved the c-section date up to the beginning of that last week of January, but we wanted a Friday anyway (to work with Joe's schooling), so that keeps it at Friday the 30th. I should've asked about bumping it up to the 23rd... I guess there's no rush. Chrismas time will be so busy, and then when we get back from WI in January I'll only have those few weeks to get everything ready. I'm sure I'll be freaking out plenty.

It's also kinda sad that our family will never just be me, Joe & Sawyer again. It's been wonderful, and I really think I'll miss it. Did any of you feel sad for your firstborn, how they wouldn't be your only baby anymore? It's like the end of an era! I have the feeling motherhood is going to come on full force... and only get crazier over the next 25 years or so... a little scary.

A Wisconsin Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving Day with the Kindt side of the family in Milwaukee, and everything was beautiful & enjoyable. I wish I would've taken more pictures, but at least I got this one, of the ladies getting desserts ready. YUM!!!

While staying with the Kindts, they took us along to pick out and cut down their Christmas tree. Sawyer decided to lean up against one... a little photo shoot with his popcorn bag...

The family sings "O Tannenbaum" holding hands around the tree before cutting it down. Very cute tradition.

It's cut and loaded on the trailer, to be wrapped up and taken home. Christmas time is here! Yay!!!

Need Mom Advice

Happy December! How exciting that it's December 1st already! Christmas decorating time!

So, I'm needing some advice on the best books out there to teach new baby to sleep through the night. I didn't read anything with Sawyer, besides the little tips in What to Expect the First Year, and Sawyer didn't sleep through the night until nearly a year old. Very frustrating. I was hoping to have a better experience with the next baby. Any tips on books to get, or books to avoid? Thanks!

SO HAPPY!!!

We are SO happy to finally have some pictures of our baby boy! And yes, it WAS for sure a baby boy. He weighs 3.5 lbs, and we'll get the report next week checking how accurate the due date was, to work out the c-section date (it's important to get the baby out before my body goes into labor, or it gets dangerous for both of us. Sawyer came early, so that might come into play as well with what date the doc decides on). The report will also verify that nothing else was abnormal about his organs or anything.

He looks so happy already, doesn't he? It must be all the chocolate I eat.

The Last One

Well, last night was our very last ND football game (as students- I'm sure Joe will want to come back as an adult somehow). What a way to finish it off! With the wind it was 19* degrees out, and we lost to a horrible team (Syracuse). I decided to leave at halftime, and Joe joined me (as did most of our other friends who were freeeeezing). It's crazy thinking how, at the start of the season, I was so concerned about how by the last game, I'd be about 7 months pregnant & probably wouldn't want to even go out... but here we are already! The last game came and went, and I WENT. Well, for half. Only 67 days away from having this baby.

The stands were full of SNOW! You'd think there'd be some kind of snow removal system, but there wasn't. Around 10 inches fell on Friday, and it was all still there, around our feet. What did people do with it? Throw snowballs. At players, policemen, the camera men, cheerleaders... there are a lot of naughty people out there (we didn't throw any, of course). We even saw a policeman get nailed, and they pinpointed the kid who did it and hauled him out of the stadium. Kinda cool. Joe hoped he'd get charged with assault of a police officer.

Joe is part of a group called GreeND (Green ND, an environmental group), and being green week and all, their group helped promote. They got the band to spell out "GO GREEN" during the halftime show, and they handed out free GreeND beanies before the game (Joe's wearing his in the first pic- along with ALL of his other clothes being green as well).

Is That Warren Buffett??

Sure is! Joe had the opportunity to go down to Omaha (Warren's home city) to meet him on Friday. A small group of Notre Dame MBAs were invited down, where they had lunch with him and were able to discuss life & business. Joe really admires this man's humility; you know, for being the richest man in the world and all. The main things Joe shared with me that he enjoyed hearing him say were 1) How priveleged these students all were to have this education and these opportunities (compared to so much of the rest of the world), so to really appreciate what they have; and 2) "Sure, I could buy houses all over the world, but then I'd feel obligated to visit all of them all of the time. I only need one house."

Baby Knitting Craze!

Well, I think I pinpointed one of the reasons I put on extra weight last month. Aside from: 1- it got cold out, so we're not playing outside anymore; 2- we went to WI for fall break and ate out nearly every day; 3- I got super emotional out of the blue and most anything that could be interpreted as sad/upsetting would make me cry (and I'm an emotional eater, so do the math there); 4- I started feeling REALLY pregnant/big physically, so stopped being as active as I had been.

But the NEW reason I just pinpointed is THIS: The knitting. It seems that in the course of one month I knit the entire baby blanket, and about 4 different hats... I wonder if anyone's invented a knitting project timer yet, so you can actually time how long it took to make each project... I'm guessing this was practically part-time-job-type-hours of just sitting on the cushy couch.

ANYWAY, here is the new baby's blanket I knit! Since Sawyer's blanket is so baby blue and white, I thought I'd do something less traditional than normal baby hues. I imagined up this little number instead (it's about 3x3 feet):

Go Irish! Navy and gold (well, the goldest gold tone I could find in yarn) baby beanie with curlies on top (I just made that word up... I don't know what they're called).

And one classic fuzzy blue and cream newborn sized hat:

I'm addicted to knitting!

Actually, 10 More Days...

*Tear*

Either my doctor is a liar, or I misunderstood: the ultrasound wasn't today. We did SCHEDULE the ultrasound today for ANOTHER day, though. Wierd. Why would they make two separate appointments, instead of just combining it with my regular, boring appointment? That's what my other clinic did when I had Sawyer. Thank goodness we have a very willing/available babysitter to watch Sawyer for all of these appointments (thanks Christina!)!!!

SO, the new, UNMISTAKABLE, ultrasound date (I have a sheet of paper printed out for me and everything) is going to be Monday the 24th. 10 days. I've waited this long to see my baby boy's face, I can wait 10 more days!

IT WORKS!

The used, $10 full sized pc monitor, hooked up to our old laptop WORKS!

On our laptop, the problem was that the screen went completely out (it would just fade in and out of splotchy white patches). We took it into the on campus IT guys & he said that's typical for Dells when they get old (a tip if you're buying a new laptop soon). He said the computer itself isn't broken, just the monitor, so we could pick up a used monitor to hook up to it and it should work.

Ten dollars later.... I'm back online! Thanks to Shanda for taking me to the store where they had around 75 used monitors lined up on shelves for $10-$20. You know it's a real friend when they realize the importance of SAHMs having their own computer & do whatever it takes to help out.

Now we just have a huge monitor to deal with... we don't even own a desk... and we probably shouldn't keep it on the kitchen table like I have it now... plus in about 60 days we'll be setting up a bunch more big baby stuff all over the apartment... this apartment will get real small, real fast!

ANYWAY, some fun news: We have the second, more detailed ultrasound tomorrow morning! I can't wait to finally come home with some little pics of our baby! My favorites are the little face profile shots. It'll also feel good to CONFIRM in a more detailed ultrasound that it's a boy. You know, now that I've completed the baby boy blanket...

Addiction

I love being a member of the LDS church for so many reasons, and one of them is that we've been instructed by current and past prophets not to use harmful substances: alcohol, tobacco, illegal drugs, etc... How beautiful it is to never have to worry about dealing with a very real addiction to something like that!

We still find things to get addicted to.

Our computer stopped working yesterday afternoon. It's been less than 24 hours, and I have completely been freaking out, not being able to get on the internet. My brain and body are seriously feeling physical symptoms of panic, nervousness, anxiety- isn't that insane?!

I want to check my mail, I have 2 e-mails I need to send, I have something I was bidding on on Ebay, I had to order something on Amazon, I want to check comcast tv listings to see if House is new tonight, I want to find a recipe, I want to find a knitting pattern... so much of my life revolves around being able to jump on our computer! It's hard to believe that we didn't even HAVE internet for 2 years of our marriage, only around a year ago.

SO, that's why I won't be online for awhile. If ever. I guess I can come to the community center more often... I'll miss you, blog!