Back to Reality :)

We had a great weekend last weekend... On Friday, Martin took off of work and we went to Jim's for breakfast (awesome pancake & breakfast taco!). Then, we went to Babies R Us and registered for stuff for our little girl. The rest of the day we just took it easy. On Saturday, we got up and went with a group from church to Krause Springs, a natural spring outside of Austin, where we ate a picnic lunch, lounged in the water, hung out, and watched people do tricks on the rope swing. Saturday night, we went and saw The Hulk - and I actually enjoyed it. Sunday morning we got up and went to San Antonio to visit with Martin's family. His sister, brother-in-law and their two kids were at his parents house, so it was a really nice chance to visit with them. We came back to Austin and went straight to get the kids.

They had a blast in Turks and Caicos. They came back very sunburned and peeling, so that night when I was putting lotion on Jake's face, I barely brushed his ear and he yelped! Both kids had swimmer's ear infections and couldn't go to camp on Monday because 1) they couldn't swim and it was a swim day and 2) they needed to go to the Dr. to get the antibiotic ear drops. I was pretty frustrated at losing a day of work, but we hung out and had a good time. I was asleep before 9, which has pretty much held true most of the week. It got me thinking...

What a difference a week makes. This will be an unintentional birth control argument for some, but last week when they were gone, I worked about 10 hours a day, took roughly 3-4 hours/day for a date night or girls night out, and slept about 8 hours a day. I didn't cook, didn't really clean or do much else. This week, I am taking about 3 hours a day - not for a relaxing night out but to run errands, go to the grocery store, pick up kids from camp, etc. I spend another 2 1/2 hours a day on my feet getting the kids ready and out the door, making dinner, doing dishes and laundry and cleaning/picking up. A couple of hours go to hanging out with the kids - getting them ready for bed, reading, playing ball, riding scooters, playing games, etc. I sleep about 1 1/2 hours more/night because of the extra physical and emotional energy I'm spending, which leaves me about 7 hours/day to work - on a good day... HA! I love my life but I absolutely need to limit my work time to 5-6 hours/day. Unfortunately right now, I need to work 40 hours/week for the next six weeks in order to finish this project I've been working on by our deadline of August 1st. Oh well, I've faced crunch times before and I have no one to blame but myself. If I'd worked a few more hours each week up to this point (I've been working on this project for almost six months), I wouldn't be in this boat.

Even with my time issues, I like summer fun with the kids and am not going to give that up. Tonight, Sydney has a sleepover with her friend Bria, and Spencer is staying over at our house. Tomorrow night, Sydney goes to a Camp Rock Premier party - Disney's new movie that comes out on t.v. - at a friend's house, and we're going to have a house full of 8-year-old boys here to play, make pizzas, and watch the movie. Fun!

Our Last Kid-Free Week...

We're nearing the end of our last kid-free week at home for who knows how many years :). We'll have others, but they will be much harder to plan and we surely won't go to the trouble unless we're going on a special vacation with just the two of us. Unfortunately we didn't have the option of taking a vacation since we had the time off for the wedding and the wonderful honeymoon. Can't complain about that... We are both taking tomorrow to play (not sure of our plans), but we've made the most of our week.
Last weekend, Martin arranged for a massage for me at a swanky salon downtown - it was VERY nice. Then, we ate dinner at Castle Hill (one of our favorite Austin restaurants). Finally, we went to see Sex in the City, which we both really enjoyed and would recommend to anyone who hasn't seen it. This week, we went to Bellagio for dinner on Monday. On Tuesday, Martin did all kinds of honey-do's while I went to dinner and a movie with girlfriends - he mowed the lawn, edged, changed light bulbs, etc. - what a man!! On Wednesday, we headed downtown and ate at Austin Java. Then, we walked over to Zilker to check out Blues on the Green. It wasn't our kind of music and none of the friends we invited last minute could come, so we didn't hang out long, but it was a nice walk and good people watching - hee hee. Tonight, we're off to a neighborhood Mexican restaurant and then we'll see what the rest of the weekend holds. On Sunday we're going to San Antonio for lunch and a quick father's day celebration with Martin's parents and then back to get the kiddos.

It's a Girl!

We had our ultrasound yesterday and saw a perfect little baby girl! The kids are excited - Sydney maybe slightly more than Jake at the thought of having a baby sister :). My Mom was thrilled to be there with us again.

We saw amazing detail of the inside of the brain and the heart. In the heart we could see the four chambers and the two valves letting blood through with each beat. We saw two little hands and two little feet, a well-formed upper lip (no cleft pallet), the stomach, kidneys, spinal cord, etc. Everything looks great and, based on this ultrasound, the Dr. reduced our odds of a Downs baby from 1 in 260 to 1 in 390. We weren't really worried about that, but it was nice to hear.

The due date based on my last period they report as October 20th, and the due date based on the measurements they took yesterday was October 23rd - so they said the due date will remain the 20th. The good thing about that is it means the baby is actually three days smaller than the norm - so maybe I won't have another 9+ pound baby!!! That will be nice, I think, although there was some comfort in handling a newborn who came out the size of many 3-month-olds! Jake was 9 lbs., 5 ounces and Sydney was 9 lbs., 4 ounces. I still think I'll play it safe an skip buying the newborn sizes in clothes, but we'll see if that turns out to be wise.

A couple of the sonogram pictures are below. I left one out with a front view of the skull where you see the eye and nose sockets and it looks like an alien, and Martin veto'ed posting the one with the private parts :). He's already looking out for his little girl!!

a cute little baby foot

and a profile shot

We are pretty much finished with any kind of tests or checks, except for regular check-ups with our ob-gyn that I described in a previous post - weight, blood pressure & urine checks plus listening to the heartbeat and checking on the size of the baby by measuring my tummy. We go monthly for another couple of months, I believe, then every couple of weeks until the last month when we go weekly. In the next couple of months I will complete a routine glucose screening for gestational diabetes and get a shot of rhogam since I am Rh-. Hopefully that will be the extent of our excitement in this pregnancy! We'll keep you posted...