Appointment #2

Yesterday I went in for our second "baby appointment" as I call them. Gabbie tagged along since our poor daycare provider has been sick. Bringing her with was pretty entertaining...she hasn't been to the doctor since last summer, but boy did she get really nervous when I got called into the lab, then back to the patient rooms. It wasn't easy to convince her that we weren't there for her to be checked out! She was a good trooper, as we had a long wait.
Everything went well; good heartbeat again. I still have a bit of infection left in my right ear, but he said I could quit the medicine. The only thing was that I didn't measure much bigger than the appointment a month ago, 'small for weeks' he called it. He wasn't concerned, and we both figured it was probably from fighting the respiratory and ear infection and the nausea that came with the medicine, plus the pregnancy nausea. He figures we'll catch up by next month. I am hoping by then the prenancy nausea is gone too :-) Doctor offered the genetic testing to be done anytime now. I turned it down, we hadn't done it with Gabbie, and I told him "if I love Brice then I can love whatever condition this baby comes out in". Doctor found that entertaining and laughed, then Gabbie laughed her big laugh (the new thing she's been doing), and we all had a nice laugh at Brice's expense. Sorry dear.
While we were there doctor said they'd schedule our ultrasound to be on the same day as my next appointment. I told him that I thought we were waiting until half-way through to do the ultrasound. He reminded me that at our next appointment we'd be over 18 weeks, close to half-way. Yikes...at first this one was going slow, now it suddenly seems to be flying by.
This week I'm feeling more myself again. I was really starting to feel down in the dumps the past month after I just felt worthless and sick all of the time. Yesterday I stopped and got a library book, since I've been staying up past 7 p.m. again. Today I plan to go for a jog. I cleaned the house (what's left of it, doesn't take too long!) and I do not feel like I'm dragging through the workday. One of my patients on Monday said to me "you actually look like you have energy today". I may even get my haircut this week for the first time in almost 3 months.
I don't have any new pictures to post, but progress has been made in our home improvement project. The wiring is mostly done and today they will be here to work on the plumbing. I laugh that we will probably get it insulated after winter is done!
Like I mentioned above, Gabbie's new thing right now is the 'big laugh'. She thinks she needs to let out a big laugh when other people are laughing too. I need to get it on video to embarass her with in 10 years! She is getting good at her alphabet and knows all but a few of the letters when we draw them for her. Of course yesterday I realized we were showing them all in uppercase; hopefully she catches on quickly to lower case as well. Now she loves to take a shower to play with her foam letters. Too bad we've listened to 2 years of screaming and fighting to get her to take a shower every other day, now she wants to shower twice a day.
Have a great rest of the week...one more week until March! Spring is near!

Home Improvement

Well, I think we officially have half of the house 'gutted'. This project has been a year in the works already...we are hoping its mostly done before summer starts! Moving Gabbie into our room has not helped anyone's sleeping habits...she regularily gets up at 4:30 and sleeps in our bed. I like to get up between 5:00-5:30, so she thinks she can too. Brice is having to deal with it more than I since I've been sleeping on the couch for a month dealing with the stomach flu, respiratory crap, and acid/reflux. Here are some pictures:

Gabbie is suddenly interested in 'water' and 'dishes'. This has been very handy for me lately. When I don't feel well and want to rest the 'dishes' keep her entertained for a good half hour.

What Brice is calling our "Japanese hotel". He is becoming a pro at organizing lots of furniture into few rooms :-) It is quite congested, however I have stayed in a Japanese hotel and it is not nearly this roomy. Too bad that was 10 years ago in the days of 'film' cameras, so I have no picture to post!

We had an obstacle course in the kitchen for awhile, but this carpet has since been put away. Gabbie enjoyed walking it like a tightrope walker!

Don't even try to come in the front door...

Brice's "office" :-)

Plenty of seating...

I took this while Brice was gutting the ceiling and south wall in our office; obviously the dust was still flying. He worked hard and within a week the room was gutted and cleaned up, ready for the carpenter and electrician.

I took this mess in stride until a few days ago. I've been fighting a respiratory bug for over 2 weeks, which got much worse this past week. I could get through a day at work, then was so tired I didn't even get up for supper. I got short of breath in WalMart trying to buy our basics, and one night an ear infection became so painful we thought about a trip to the ER. Luckily we found an online home remedy to get us through until the next day! I was given 3 medications and by Friday had minimal to no relief. Went back to the doctor and was told that the ear and sinus infections were 'plenty nasty' and that I could expect at least 10 days to feel better. Today is the first day I've actually felt half way normal. I tackled the 7 mile 'lake walk' with a friend and helped Brice with chores. Its the first time in a week I've sat here at the computer to check e-mails and catch up on the ever important Hollywood news on people.com. I hope it helps me sleep well tonight! Anyway, now that you've heard all my complaining, this past Thursday I lost it with the mess in the house. I was convinced the dust in the house was keeping us from feeling healthy and demanded we clean up as much as we could. I had called in sick to work thinking I'd sleep, but the piled up dishes and dust were appearing in my dreams. So, Brice helped me a few hours and we got everything possible cleaned up, put away, and dusted. Whew...

That's all from here. We request that everyone pray for an early Iowa summer :-)