January

Well we had a busy last month or so. Christmas of course brought visits to my parents and Rockys parents to celebrate which we had a great time. Paige and Hayden got TONS of stuff, and Rocky and I got some good stuff too! Paige turned 4 on Jan. 5th and we threw a birthday party for her the weekend of the 8th. She picked a Barbie theme for her party and she had a great time and got lots more toys and clothes. My family sans Chris and Steph were here for the weekend and Rockys parents and little brother came for the party that day too. A good time was had by all and Paige is still talking about/ asking for her Bugs Bunny cake that my Mom made. She did an AWESOME job. I will have to upload some pictures from the day when I have more time. My birthday was the 11th so Rocky took me out to a nice fancy dinner at the Old Mill restaurant in town. Always awesome food and I make it a point every time I am there to try a new different beer. This time I had one from Chicago and it was delicious. :)
Otherwise, not much else is new with us. Hayden is growing like a weed and was right around 17lbs and 27inches long at his 4 month check up. We get comments such as "Wow, he is a good size 4 month old, isn't he?" and "That kid is going to be a linebacker!" which we think is funny. He is a very solid kid, but not fat. Paige at this age was just a little ball with a head and arms and legs but Hayden is more "built" for a lack of a better word. He is all smiles all the time and such a little sweetheart. He also recently started rolling over last weekend!

Family Pictures

Just a couple pictures from our family session a couple weeks ago. Man, is it hard to get good pictures with 2 kids! Most of the family ones either Paige had a super cheesy smile or Hayden had his hands in front of his face! I do like the one we got though, and really, who wants a whole ton of pictures that you have to choose from? :)

Hayden James

Sorry this is so late, been busy obviously. Hayden James was born on August 26th 2010 at 2:14 pm. He was 7lbs 13 oz. and 20 1/2 in long. My labor started on the night of the 25th. We had just sat down to eat dinner that night around 6:30 and I started to have contractions. I didn't really think anything of them since I had a few times where I had contractions around that time and it turned out to be nothing, but we started timing them anyway just in case. Of course they stopped around 10 that night, but I had a feeling since I was 4 days over my due date that they would start up again so I decided to head to bed to try and get some rest in case they did start up again. I went to bed about 10:30 and woke up about an hour later with contractions again, except this time I could tell they were stronger. I was able to sleep in between them so I just stayed in bed and didn't bother to write them down. Rocky was at work during this and got home around midnight. I told him I was having contractions again and this time they were more painful and in my back also so I thought they were real. We continued to lay in bed and just talked for the next couple hours because by this time I wasn't able to sleep since they were getting closer together. Around 3am I decided to call labor and delivery and they suggested to take a hot shower and try to get some rest til the contractions were 5 minutes apart. I took a shower and went upstairs by Rocky and we decided it was time to call my parents who are 3 hours away. I wanted my Mom in the delivery room so they were all packed up and ready to go, they just had to go pick up my sister and my neice to bring them too. They got here around 8:30am and of course my contractions had stopped for about 20 minutes. Mom and I decided to go for a walk to try and get them started again and they sure did. They started up again and were way more painful than before. By 11:30 they were so painful and got to about 5 minutes apart that we headed to the hospital. Got up to my room at noon. The nurses said my contractions were all over the place which they had been all night and morning so they checked me and I was only dilated to a 1-2cm. Lame! I was so discouraged at this point thinking I had done all that work over the last 15 hours at home and I wasn't even making any progress. The nurses had considered sending me home but since they could tell I was in A LOT of pain they said I should try walking around and getting on my hands and knees to try and get Hayden to flip around since I was having horrible back labor so they figured he was sunny side up. I tried all of that and they checked me again about an hour later and I was at a 5-6cm. Progress! Thank God my Mom and Rocky were there to support me and keep telling me to breath and relax and let my body do what it is supposed to do, that really helped a lot and I don't think I would have progressed so quickly without them there. My doctor came in and broke my water at this point and checked me shortly after and I was at a 10!!! Holy cow, it all went very fast. I was in so much pain I asked for an epidural which I didn't want to do but the nurse said it was way too late for that and I was going to have to start pushing as soon as the doctor got back. I could feel that Hayden was in a hurry to come meet us and it was really hard not to push when you have that urge to but the nurses kept saying that if I could not to push since the doctor wasn't there yet. The doctor had to sprint back to my room and 2 contractions later Hayden entered the world! My Mom video taped the birth (from behind/side of me!) and my reaction after he popped out and was on my chest is priceless. Paiges delivery was so hard with the vacuum and all that I didn't figure this one would be so easy! One of the nurses told me that it was a good thing I didn't get on my hands and knees to try and turn him at home because I would have had him at home!

So anyway, that is about it for his birth story. We are all very happy that he is here and he has been a very good baby so far. Very easy going and doesn't fuss much unless he is hungry. Paige has been a great big sister so far and loves to help.

Yep, still pregnant.

For anyone who reads this who doesn't already know, I am STILL pregnant. How horribly depressing. Yesterday was my due date and we did pretty much EVERYTHING to encourage the little guy to come out. Walking a ton, super spicy food, you name it. Nothing worked. So here I sit, still pregnant. I am hoping the full moon on Tuesday brings him out if he doesn't come before that. In the words of Forrest Gump: That's all I have to say about that.

20 days to go!

My due date is 20 days away! Talk about freaking out! We are pretty much ready for him to come I am just freaking about having another hard delivery/recovery like I had with Paige. This weekend consisted of getting ready for our little dude. I got pretty much everything done I hope! Got all the baby gear out of the basement, washed all his clothes/blankets/sheets ect, got the car seat ready and in the car, cleaned the house really good. I think the only thing I have to finish up yet is my hospital bag which is pretty important and I better get done SOON just in case. I have a feeling this little guy is going to be coming earlier than the 21st which would be alright with me. Mom and I are shooting for the 14th, right Mom? :) We went up and did a tour of the labor and delivery wing and it seems pretty nice though the rooms are way smaller than what they have in Pierre but it will do. Paige is really excited for Hayden to get here and gives him hugs and kisses almost daily.

30 weeks

I can't believe I am 30 weeks already and only have about 10 to go! Everything is going great as far as the pregnancy goes. I do not have gestational diabetes! Though I think my doctor is trying to freak me out still because since I am measuring a little large he thinks it just has to be something to do with that. Trying not to worry about it too much since I heard the exact same thing with Paige and she turned out just fine and was a rather small baby at 7lbs. I am feeling tired lately and my mid-section sometimes feels like it's going to fall off but otherwise I am feeling pretty good. Starting to get a little nervous about labor/delivery but I know if I just stay calm I will do fine. I think it will really help to have my Mom in the room this time to calm me down and help me through the contractions as well as Rocky. I have another ultrasound in a couple weeks to keep track of Haydens growth since I am measuring a little large with extra amniotic fluid also but I am sure he is just fine.
After my appt. on Friday I had to pick Paige up at daycare after they called saying she had a swollen and yucky throat. I brought her to Urgent Care where they told me she had a double ear infection (one ear was very infected and "bulging" so that can't be good) and it looked like she had strep also but they didn't even bother to test her for that since she had to be on antibiotics for the ear infection anyway. She is feeling fine though and hasn't been effected by it too much. Geez, I feel like the only thing I ever post about Paige is that she is sick! She really isn't sick a whole lot, I swear!
Rocky wants me to add that he has become an elite mountain biker as he is biking to work quite a bit now. He even tried to jump a curb and fell off a couple weeks ago!!!

24 weeks

I am now 24 weeks! I had another ultrasound since last time I wrote and Hayden is still a boy and everything looked good. Yeah! Had my 24 week appt this last Friday and everything is good except the weight issue. I need to start watching what I eat because I gained 10, yes 10, pounds over the last month. Yuck. I am also measuring a little large according to my doctor but I did with Paige too so he is thinking it may be the same thing with the too much amniotic fluid. I hope that's it. So I have to have another ultrasound which is scheduled for June 4th to measure the fluid levels. My next regular appt is May 28th when I will also do the 1 hour glucose test for gestational diabetes. I didn't the GD with Paige so I am hoping to stay away from it again. Otherwise everything is great with Hayden. He was measuring just over a pound at my ultrasound 2 weeks ago so I am sure he is getting close to 1 1/2 pounds if not more by now. I can't believe my due date is less than 4 months away already!
In Paige news, we had a little scare with her a couple weeks ago. She got quite sick and after a couple days of her just laying around feeling crappy I noticed her hands and feet had a rash and were puffy. Then her face had a rash. That was enough for me to take her into urgent care where the diagnosed her with Hand, Foot and Mouth disease and sent us home and that was it. Well that wasn't it. A few days later she still wasn't herself and that weekend just layed around. She also had a fever this whole time that would go away with Motrin but as soon as that wore off the fever would come back. We took her in to see her regular doctor the next day where they did a chest xray and some blood tests and an exam. Just as we got home from the clinic the nurse called and told us we needed to go up to the ER at Mayo Clinic in Rochester because Paiges levels for a bunch of different things were off from her blood test. This freaked us out a lot and we made the trek up to Mayo right away. Paiges Dr. in Austin said she thought it might be Kawasaki disease but she wasn't sure and they don't have the technology to treat it in Austin anyway so that is why they had us go to Mayo. After a multitude of tests at Mayo they determined it probably wasn't Kawasaki and sent us home with instructions to come back the next day and see the pediatric infectuous disease specialist. I took off part of the day of work and Paige and I headed up to Mayo to see him. They did another test or 2 on her and that dr. ruled out the Kawasaki disease. He did call us the next day with the rest of her test results and determined that among several bacterial infections she had something called Adnoe Virus. He switched the antibiotics she was on to something a lot stronger to kill all the bacteria/virus and now 2 weeks later she is just fine and back to normal. We are very thankful she is better, if it would have been Kawasaki it would have been pretty serious and she would have had about a week hospital stay.
Phew! That was a long post, but a lot has gone on in the last month or so! I will update more after my next dr. appt.

20 weeks!

I am half way done!! The time has just flown by so far, and now that I am getting bigger and feeling him kick from both the inside and the outside I am sure the 2nd half will go even faster! Can't wait to see my new little man! I had my 20 week appt. on Friday. Everything was great. I gained 4 lbs over the month which would be ok but since I was overweight in the first place I probably need to try and watch it a little more. I only want to gain 25 lbs at the most since that is what I gained with Paige and that was gone a week after delivery. So far I have gained 10 lbs. His heartrate was 154 on Friday also. I go back for our follow up ultrasound for the spine pictures on Monday the 19th and then my 24 week appt is Friday the 30th. I am feeling pretty good, though starting to feel more pregnant now that I am bigger. Won't be able to tie my shoes for long!! :)

Figured it out!

OK sorry for another post, but I figured out what was wrong! My backround is black and I had the text color set to black so it wasn't showing up! Nice!

Whats going on?

So I have no idea what is going on with these blogs! I have tried and tried to publish my last post and for some reason it won't work. I will try and write it later!

It's a...

BOY!!
We are so excited! We had our ultrasound on Friday. Everything looks great with our little Hayden. He wasn't cooperating very well when the ultrasound tech was trying to get a picture of his spine so we need to go back in about a month so she can get those pictures to make sure everything is ok. I am going to have her check to make sure he is still a boy at that time since I am still in shock, but I saw it on the screen and he is all boy! :) I am also on with my due date of Aug 21st, though the tech said the 20th, but I am sure my doctor won't change it for one day. He was weighing in at 10 oz. also, which is supposedly right on track to be between 6 and 7 lbs at birth, though I am sure that isn't always right. Obviously not hoping for a large baby though! Anyway, just had to share that great news that there will finally be a BOY grandchild! Paige is very excited to be having a little "brodder". My next appt is this Friday, so I will update after that!!

2nd Dr. Appt.

I had my 16 week appt. today. Everything is great! Got to hear the hearbeat which you never get tired of. It's just so amazing. Today would have been the day to have the genetic marker testing for Downs ect. but we decided against doing that. For one we wouldn't terminate the pregnancy no matter what the results were, plus our Dr. said the tests have a high rate of false possitives and also our insurance doesn't cover the testing. Since we don't have any history of any genetic defects on either side of our families we decided we were pretty safe in skipping the testing. I also got to set up my BIG ultrasound to make sure everything is alright and hopefully find out the sex!! That is set for March 26th, exactly 3 weeks from today. Can't wait!!
In Paige news, she has been sick for the last week or so. I hate it when she is sick, it's so hard to see you baby laying there feeling like crap and there isn't a thing you can do for them. I ended up taking her to the ER on Tuesday night as she was breathing funny and had a 104.7 temp!! She is fine now but she did get meds for an ear infection. Poor kid. Otherwise, she is doing well. She is excited to be a big sister and tells us daily that SHE has a baby in HER belly!! So cute!!

2nd Trimester!

Greetings!
Sorry I haven't been able to update you since last month and about my appt. ect. I have tried but for some reason blogspot wouldn't let me sign in! :(
SO-My first appt. at 12 weeks on Feb 5th went great. Rocky was able to come with as we took Paige to daycare for a couple hours. We were at the doctor for about an hour or so and it consisted of the usual family and personal health history, exam and an ULTRASOUND! I wasn't sure if I was going to get one of these but my doctor wanted to do one to check and make sure the due date was on and that there weren't any larger cysts on my ovaries. There are some on my left ovary but he said it isn't anything to be concerned about yet so that is good. My due date is still on target for August 21st also! We got to hear the heartbeat and it was 166 beats per minute, so a nice strong heartbeat. We did get a few pictures of our little one but none of them were too clear. The coolest thing was when the baby flipped around one of the times we got to see it's face and it was SO CLEAR. So cool. It still looked a little alien like but it was still cute. :)
I go back for my next appt on March 5th, next friday. Then our big ultrasound to find out the sex would be 4 weeks after that. Super excited! I have a feeling this is another girl but I thought 100% that Paige was a boy so maybe I am wrong this time too? :) Either way, as long as it's a healthy baby we won't care about the sex.
Otherwise, I am at 14 weeks right now and into the 2nd trimester. The baby is about the size of a lemon which is probably why I have been having pains from everything stretching out.
I will post an update next week after my 16 week appt!!

Happy New Year!

Wow, I can't belive it's been like 6 months since I have updated. A few things have happened since I wrote anything last in July. Summer was a very busy time for us and we were gone almost every weekend. I got to see my family a lot this summer which was really nice and it was nice for Paige to be able to hang out with Ava. I am pleased to say they get along a lot better now and we only have to break up the occasional fight. The holidays came way too fast this year and I didn't even get any Christmas cards out like usual. We were very busy in December. My sister Lindsey graduated from Nursing school on the 17th so Rocky, Paige and I spent about 4 days at Mom and Dad's for her graduation and party. We had a great dinner the night of her graduation and there were a few more surprises to come! When Lindsey was opening her gifts from everyone she had an extra special one from her boyfriend Geoff! You guessed it, an engagement ring! It was a very special moment for them and of course Lindsey cried. Her ring is beautiful!! They are planning a June 2011 wedding.
Paige also had a little news of her own later that evening as she announced she is going to be a big sister! We found out on Dec. 14th and it was hard to keep it a secret until we saw everyone in person! We are all so excited as it took us a lot longer this time compaired to Paige. We are really hoping for a boy and I am due in August. So far the pregnancy has been a lot different than the first. I have had lots of heartburn already, some "mid afternoon/evening" sickness and am A LOT more tired this time, and chasing around a toddler isn't helping any! :) I will be updating every week or so now and letting you know what is going on with the pregnancy and how I am feeling!
In Paige notes... she is doing well with potty training and pretty much has #1 down. #2 is coming a lot slower but we are hoping she will get it soon. At least she is wearing big girl undies most of the time now! She just turned 3 yesterday and is quite the handfull. Full of energy and loves to read and her new thing is puzzles. LOVES them. She also loves the movie Cars and does the cutest Lightning McQueen impression. We did a Cars themed birthday party for her last weekend.
Well thats probably about it for now. Hope everyone has a great New Year! I know we will!

Oops!

OK, I guess I really suck at this blogging thing. :) It's been quite a while since I have wrote... we moved into our new house and we love it. So nice to be able to do whatever we want to it and not have to worry! It's also great to not have someone living right next to you and be able to hear their tv or yelling through the walls!!

Otherwise... just living life I guess. My new job is going awesome, I love it. So much better to have some variety in my day than just being a teller. I also really like the girls I work with, we get along really well.

I guess the only thing "new" really is that Rocky and I have started trying to have another baby. We are hoping for a boy this time, but we will take whatever we can get as long as it's healthy! Hopefully Paige will adjust to the change and be a great big sister. I am sure she will. By the time we have another one she will be at least 3 so hopefully she will be able to help out some. I am hoping it doesn't take us real long to get pregnant either. We got Paige on the first try so we are hoping for a speedy one this time too!
I would also like to give a "congrats" to Alissa and Ben, they are having a girl!!

I will try and update more regularly from now on, and for sure will update lots when I get pregnant! Have a great weekend! I know I will, it's River Falls days! Lindsey and Megan are meeting us in RF and I am sure it will be a fun, crazy time!!

Catchin' up!

Wow, it's been a long time since I have written anything on here! Sorry!
I guess catching up from where we were a month ago... we are buying a house! That is probably the biggest thing. We found a perfect 3 bedroom 1 bathroom story and a half house that we absolutly loved. It has been recently totally redone so it looks like a brand new house when you walk in! It's just awesome! There was a lot of interest in it so we hurried and got an offer in after Mom and Dad came and took a look at it and gave their approval. We had a little scare here a couple days ago when the appraisial came back to the bank on the house and it was appraised $3400 less than what we had agreed to pay for it, so we went back to the seller and told him we weren't going to pay any more for it than what it is worth (duh!). He agreed to sell for the appraised price and we now have a new house!!!! Super excited! We close on the 31st of March and will move in sometime after that. We have to be in our townhome until the end of April, so it will be nice to be able to slowly move the small stuff and boxes over there, even though I would like to move in right away on April 1st!

In other news, we had daycare orientation for Paige yesterday. We are just doing "drop in" with her when Rocky has to do an interview or what not for work while I am working. It will be on a very limited basis, but she will like being there I am sure. She didn't want to leave yesterday and said "Bye, friends!!" when we were leaving the classroom where she was playing with the other kids. It was really cute.

Otherwise... super excited for this weekend. We are having a birthday get together for my sister Steph's birthday at my parents. Paige and I are making the trek there by ourselves this time as Rocky has play off basketball to go to this weekend. I am taking a day of vacation on Friday so we can get to Mom and Dad's on Friday afternoon and spend a little extra time there. Yay!! Friday night I will be going to Pinz' place for a "slumber party" and then we are going down town in Rapids. Should be an excellent time! Mom is going to watch Paige, so they should have lots of fun!

Have a great rest of the week and weekend!

House!

Rocky Paige and I are going to go look at 5 houses tomorrow in Austin. We are meething the realtor lady at 9:30am. SO EXCITED! We weren't sure we wanted to buy in Austin since we would rather live somewhere in Wisconsin closer to our families, but we thought as long as the rates are so low and there is so much out there on the market that we might as well. With the economy being so bad right now it looks like we won't be going anywhere for a while anyway and better just be happy with the jobs we have since it seems like so many people are being laid off right now. This will be our first home buying experience, so it's kind of scary but exciting all at once. We are paying a crazy amount for renting our townhome right now and actually if we stay in our price range we will be saving money by buying. It will be nice to have a little extra money, though I am sure after all the money that goes into taking care of a house we won't have a whole lot left, but thats ok. It will be nice to be able to do what we want with it and not have to worry about having to pay for a stain on the carpet like we do now. I will write again soon and let you know if we find anything we like!

PICTURES!!!!

Finally!!! Yay!! So excited!! I am really happy with how they turned out, and we even got a DVD with her pictures on that is set to music and files through all the pictures. How cute. I went to Walmart this afternoon and got them printed out for family and friends, which was more expensive than I thought it was going to be, but at least we didn't spend almost $200 like we did last year on them! Here are a couple of my favorites, enjoy!!

tomorrow!

I am going to pick Paige's pictures up tomorrow morning! Yay! The wait is finally over. When I get them tomorrow I will for sure post some on here for you to see. I hope they turned out cute!

Had a fun weekend. It was awesome getting to hang out with Liss and Grange, we had a really fun time. Barkers food was awesome, the 45 minute wait for a table, not so much. :) It really didn't seem all that long but I got super hungry while we were standing there. Oh well, it was worth the wait, and actually once we got seated our food came in like 15 mintues so that was nice. Liss and I got my Pampered Chef party closed and the stuff ordered and it will hopefully be here by the end of the week. Excited to get all my fun new gadgets!

Paige is talking up a storm these days. Not that she wasn't before, but now you can actually understand a lot of what she says and she is putting 2 and 3 words together! My baby is growing up so fast... soon it will be kindergarten... then proms, graduation, marriage, grandkids.... oh gosh, guess I shouldn't get ahead of myself and just cherish everyday with her now while she is still little!! :)

Anyway, she is jumping up and down in her bed right now so I suppose I should go stop her and see if she will go to sleep. I will for sure post those new pics of her tomorrow morning right after I get them!!! Night!

No pictures yet..

STILL haven't seen Paige's pictures... gettin a little upset!!!

Not much going on with us right now. Getting super excited for the weekend to hang out with Grange and Liss. Grange is for sure a yes now, so thats exciting too! We are planning on going to eat at Barkers in Hudson for dinner where I will get to try my first Great White Hope sandwich. Liss and Grange always rave about this sandwich so I decided I must try it. Grange also informed me that there is karoke at Mainstreeters bar that night, so we can go sing our hearts out! Woohoo!!!

Otherwise.... thats about it!!! Started working out again now.. so hopefully I can get these last 30 lbs off that I need to lose, hopefully it doesn't take too long!