4th Ultrasound

I had my 4th ultrasound this week after a horrible visit to the doctor and the hospital. All of my tests are coming out perfect but my BP is still elevated and there is a great chance I will not be returning to work. That thought alone stresses me out. I just want Noelle to bake until at least 37 weeks. She can come on September 26th. (I am partial to even days.) I have switched doctors and will be meeting with the new one this Thursday. I'm doing my best to rest and not stress but me and worry go hand in hand. I have nothing to do but lay around and worry! And then lying around really does a number on my neck and makes me feel like poo in general and then I start crying. Hello crazy hormone crying. I thought I was spared from that lovely side effect but I don't care anymore. I just cry. Sob actually.

Here are some pics of my baby girl. We have video that we are working on editing and going to try and upload. (I know, we haven't even uploaded the cake video yet!) But the video shows her kissing the placenta with her big baby lips, opening her eyes, kind of smiling and giving us a wave. She is 3 pounds 10 oz. as of Thursday and is in the 20% percentile which the ultrasound doc said is perfect. She is on target to be a 7 pound baby. She should be putting on a half pound every week now. If she'd let me eat. Welcome back third trimester puking.



You have to kind of sit back to really see her face here. But it's there. The video is much better. We are still contemplating the 4D ultrasound. They finally called me back and are having their grand re-opening. I think I'd rather have the $80 in my maternity leave fund though which makes me sad. I would really like to see her better.



HAIR! Who would have thought a child of mine would have hair!?! I was bald for a really long time! I hope she is a blondie. Dave and my mom think she could have red hair. We shall see! I guess it's an old wives tale about having lots of heart burn and the baby having lots of hair. So far that looks to be true!



No fear, she is still a girl. We have LOTS of pictures to confirm that but I will spare Noelle the shame of having those posted on the internet!! We found her a babysitter right down the street so I feel good about that. We go to our hospital tour today and get pre-registered. I'm trying to not think about a human being coming out of me in 5 or 6 weeks but I'd really just like her here, healthy and safe, and this whole pregnancy crap over with!!

My Pirate

Dave woke up Thursday morning with a horrible red/pink eye. He had a horrible day and then he came home and I saw his eye. I sent him off to Urgent Care. They loaded it up with dye and could not find anything in his eye. They told him he had pink eye and gave him an ointment and wrapped him up. I felt so bad he had to drive home like this! What a way to end an already crappy day!



I freaked out because I didn't want to catch pink eye. I have been avoiding him for days and obsessively washing my hands. He missed work on Friday and I called off a lunch date in case I was contagious too! I was pretty worried though that it wasn't pink eye and that he got something in there when he was working in the garage and welding.

He got a referral for a regular eye doctor and went today to get checked. There was something in his eye! Thankfully they got it out and gave him some drops and drugs to make sure it heals up.

What's Hers is Ours

That's what my cats believe. I think I have the three nebbiest cats in the world. They are very curious about all this baby gear that is arriving and being put together. They look at me and ask "who is moving in?" I have a feeling Noelle is going to rock their world. They have no clue what having a "sister" is all about! They have tried out just about everything...the vibrating chair, the playpen, the bassinet, the changing table, the stroller, her crib, and now her clothes.

This isn't the best picture but it just demonstrates that they think everything belongs to them!

So We Bought a Minivan...

Hello adulthood. Nothing says "you're getting old" like buying a minivan! After the Taurus burned up I did nothing but obsess for 48 hours and scour every online posting for wheels in the valley and even into Mesquite and Cali. I was a woman on a mission. Granted the Taurus and me had issues with each other but I was in full blown panic mode. How the heck were we going to afford a car payment, registration, and insurance as well as find something big enough and safe for a family? Good grief!

Dave wanted to get me a Jeep. I like driving his Jeep. It's so easy to see out of and people get out of my way when it roars! We hunted. We found a few options. We started our physical search at the Ford store and they reiterated the bad news about the Taurus and were going to charge even more for a new engine. They had a Jeep Grand Cherokee there. It was nice. It didn't really seem that much bigger than Dave's regular Cherokee. There wasn't a whole lot of space in the back seats for legs and all I could picture was us picking up my parents at the airport with this thing and Noelle stuffed in the middle in her car seat. This wasn't going to fly. Plus, my hips were overflowing out of those bucket seats. What is up with that?!

We headed off to see "Chop: The King of Cars." Their Jeep was priced better. Of course we were at the wrong location and not willing to drive the 45 minutes to the north end of town. They did have a Dodge Caravan there though for us to look at that was cheaper than the Jeep. Let me tell you, I fell in love with the "stow and go" feature. The inside of that thing was huge. Downside... it had been hit in the back, reeked of smoke, and had cheap fabric seats. Oh, and nothing like incredibly pushy salesmen!!! Ugh. But this got us thinking. Maybe we were barking up the wrong tree with the Jeep? After seeing the size of the van a car didn't seem reasonable anymore. So started the minivan hunt. Seriously, life got put on hold and I contacted every store in the valley. I searched through seedy websites that offered vans for super smoking deals that claimed no tax, title, license fees if you pay in cash. Hmm....wonder where those vehicles came from? I hunted Craigslist. I was starting to get very disheartened and I know my blood pressure was going up. Not what this preggo needed!

Dave found a listing on Craigslist for a van at the local Pontiac store. It looked like a nice van and a good deal. It was the end of the month so they were offering a special on the internet to get it off their lot. I called up and hounded the salesman with all kinds of questions and even made him go out in the 115 degree heat to sit in it and make sure it didn't smell before I bothered to come look at it! We told him we would come out that night.

We liked what we saw and took it for a test drive. Kind of like driving my old Grand Am, only bigger. A lot bigger! It has power everything. I love the power sliding side doors! It has tons of space and is in great condition! It's a 2003 Pontiac Montana. I think they named it Montana because Montana is the "Big Sky" state and this van has huge windows all around and is actually pretty easy to see out of. It also has back up sensors that beep at me if something is behind me when I go to back up. Too bad the tilt of our driveway makes the sensors "sense" the road behind me and beep at me every time I back out of the driveway! So we have wheels once again. There is plenty of space for two kids (if Dave ever talks me into having another) and we have room for visitors and their luggage.

I will admit I'm driving more like an old lady and have driven over the curb a couple of times! Whoops! Maybe that puts me more in the Asian lady category rather than old lady....but I'm getting the hang of it.

New Van. (Purchased June 29, 2010). I haven't decided if it's a "he" or a "she" yet so therefore it still needs a name.








And then there is my new friend, The Tummy Shield. I saw an ad for this in the parenting magazine and it's a great idea!! It was pricey and comes out of Australia. There is nothing like it made in the US. I've looked. That metal bar holds the seat belt down between my legs so it doesn't smoosh the baby if we were to get hit. I was annoyed that when I ordered it in grey to match the Taurus they told me it was back ordered and could send me brown right away. Brown worked out for the best. We had to get seatbelt extenders for the Jeep and Taurus but the van seat belts worked just fine without having to be extended. If we were in a wreck I'd mostly break my legs and maybe dislocate my hips if it was bad enough but baby girl wouldn't get crushed!



Let me tell you, that metal bar that holds the seatbelt gets HOT out here!!

So this is me demonstrating how it works. Never mind my ghetto painted pants. I went to Super Wal-Mart today and wanted to fit in. Actually, they are one of my few pairs of pants that still fit. My summer uniform has basically been white t-shirts and grey lounge pants. I'm sure Dave comes home and wonders "did she shower and change her clothes today?" That is for me to know and him to find out. Oh and see that baby belly? Yeah...me neither. 7 months freaking preggo and I just look fat. Noelle is hanging out way low down there. I can't even get sympathy when I walk slow or park in the "mother-to-be" spots without getting looked at funny. Supposedly it's because of my long torso and wide hips. I think that's just the Doctor's way of nicely saying "You're a big girl."



The sucky part of getting a new vehicle out here is that you have to go to the DMV in person. I put it off and put it off. I went out early one morning. There was no place to park. The place was swarming with people. Cars were being redirected to go park at the Ocean Spray plant down the street. Um, sorry but I'm not walking a half a mile back here in the 100 degree weather to then stand in line that is going out the door for over an hour. I went baby shopping instead. When I came back I finally got a spot. I had to stand in line for an hour and then wait for my number to be called for the next 2 hours. There were over 100 people ahead of me trying to register cars plus the hundreds there renewing their licenses. Looking back now I should not have waited until the end of the month! My bad! So $200 later we are legal. Gone are the days of the $45 registration. Guess this state has to pay my salary somehow!

Crazy Weekend

Dave has been working like crazy on his Jeep and I've been trying to get my curriculum rewritten for next year as well as sub lesson plans and working on my library classes. Our Saturday seemed like any other week day for me. I was lonely and wanted to hang out with Dave. So we decided to go down to Primm on Sunday to do some outlet shopping. As we got off the exit Dave said, "did you hear that?" Nope. I didn't. A monster truck roared past us and I thought that was what he was referring to. He said he heard something in the car.

We shopped for a few hours and walked and walked. We are both kind of slow these days. We didn't find much in the way of clothing for Noelle. I got three p-j outfits that I hope I can wear in the hospital to stay comfy. We got a few things at Williams-Sonoma and Dave got new shoes and shorts. Then we found the cutest hot pink chucks for Noey. They were normally $30 but no one was buying the hot pink color so they were marked down. Since Dave bought shoes you could get another pair for half off so her little shoes were only $5! Size 4 was the smallest they had so she's gonna have to grow a bit before she can wear them but either way we were excited.



We were shopped out and decided to head home finally. We got back on the highway and I noticed the battery light was on. We just got a new battery. Then the AC started pumping out hot air. Then the thermostat kept rising...almost maxing out. Holy crap! Jean, NV is about 10 miles north of Primm and 20 miles south of Vegas. There is a correctional facility there and two gas stations as well as a run down casino. Dave said he couldn't and wouldn't stop along the highway. It was over 106 degrees that day and if we stopped there was no way we could guarantee getting the car started again or getting me any kind of shelter from the sun and heat. Dave turned on the heat of all things to try and get the thermostat to come down...it worked. For a bit. Then it rose again. Those were some seriously tense miles as we got the car to Jean watching the thermostat. It made some horrible noise as we got off the exit and when we pulled into the gas station smoke was coming out of the hood and fluid was boiling. I think we are lucky that it didn't catch fire on us! We called AAA and they were on their way to get us. We only had to wait an hour and we could get drinks at the station and go to the bathroom. Dave worked on the car to try and figure out what was wrong.

Finally the AAA tow showed up. He got us loaded and took us north. Dave commented on how strong the AC was in his truck and he says, "Is it working ok for you? This truck just got out of the shop so we are working the kinks out of it." Great, all we need is for the tow truck to break down!! He dropped us off at home to get the Jeep and then we met him at the garage. The bad news, he couldn't get the car off the truck bed. That would be one of those kinks!! We said whatever...let me sign the papers now, get it unloaded and you put the key in the drop box when you get the bed fixed. It was after 6pm at this point and it had been a long day!

Inu is One!

Inu, Inu, Inu. He is such a cute little dude. Well, he's not little. He is certainly the biggest of the three and he is only getting bigger. His paws are huge! He will always be the baby though. His face looks like a baby, he acts like a baby and the other two treat him like a baby! Inu loves his daddy more than anything in this world. They are bonded. He tolerates me holding him but doesn't snuggle with me like he does with dad. Oh, and when I go to kiss him those ears of his go back faster than anything I've seen! He sleeps all the time and can't be bothered to get out of bed in the daytime even if we have visitors. He only gets up when daddy comes home. He is afraid of the washer and dryer and will find a new sleeping place when those are running. He loves to play fetch. He wants nothing to do with treats or people food. He thinks Whiskas cat milk is the nectar of the Gods and he is still trying to nurse on Ninja. Ninja is his security blanket and we don't think at this point in time he is ever going to kick the habit!! It is an enduring little quirk I guess! Inu didn't get any of the first birthday hoopla the other two cats got for their big first birthday. No presents or cake. Is that how it goes with the more kids you have? What do you get a cat who has everything he could ever want or need? Happy Birthday Inu!

"Mmmmmm... Ninja you be tasty!"

Dave's Birthday Celebration!

We celebrated Dave's birthday today. He gets spoiled now in June with Father's Day and a birthday in the same week!

I made him a Stargate cake. I had to try and out do Jabba the Hut from last year! It was quite the project and it took all day long. I just got it done before he came home from work! It was my first time working with fondant and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The Chef Duff's brand from Michael's doesn't taste too bad either, it's just hard to cut through without a really sharp knife!

We took pics before Dave hauled the cake off to work to share with those who would truly appreciate it as well! It wasn't a totally "authentic" Stargate but I did my best!





I got him a 1 terabyte hard drive at Fry's in late May because they were on sale and he was salivating over the display. I still wanted to get him something to open on his birthday so I settled on something else he salivates over, Lego's! It's the anniversary edition of Darth Vader's TIE fighter. He was very excited and put it together in under 40 minutes. I told him when our baby girl comes along I'm going to have to get 2 of everything at Christmas so there is no fighting over parts!