26 weeks, Nursery, and other things

Ok, so my plan to blog during this pregnancy isn't exactly working out. I don't know why it's so hard for me to sit down at the computer and write a simple blog post, but it is! I am now 26 weeks 3 days pregnant. That means in 4 days I will be in my THIRD trimester. How is that possible?! It's terrifying how fast this pregnancy is going. I remember with Lauryn I would think "man, 14 more weeks until my due date. That's FOREVER away!" But Seriously... 14 weeks until my due date... THAT'S LIKE TOMORROW! I have learned how fast time goes, so 14 weeks is literally nothing. A picture of my large self:

I am almost done with the nursery. I need to finish painting the trim a brighter white and get a few more decorative accessories. I also need to get crib sheets and my mom is going to be making a crib skirt. She made the crib blanket and bumper pads. She's so talented! Here are some pictures:

I've been feeling pretty good lately except for having PSD (pubic symphysis disorder) which is causing extreme hip and pubic bone pain. My pubic bone basically burns like fire all day long, and then at night, after having a long day, my hips make it very painful to walk and makes rolling over in bed nearly impossible. Basically, once I sit down to relax and I try to get back up, it feels like if I bear weight my hips will pop out of the sockets. I have to force myself to walk through the pain, and then it eases off somewhat to where I can get to where I'm going. Since I'm an RN, this has been causing a lot of pain after working. I went to the doctor last week because I felt I was having contractions, and sure enough my uterus is much lower than it should be, although my cervix is still closed. My doctor wanted me to stop working but I begged her to write me a light duty note for work instead. Well, work is trying to deny my light duty request and giving me some not-so-desirable alternative options. I'm currently dealing with that stress... I might have to get a lawyer involved. Even with the drama I'm dealing with at work, I am counting my blessings. A close friend of mine lost her husband unexpectedly last Tuesday. He had his tonsils removed on Monday and, as is routine, he came home after being monitored for a couple hours (a tonsillectomy is always an outpatient procedure) and took a nap. My friend is a nurse, so she knew to check on him frequently. At one point she went in and didn't hear the light snoring that she had been hearing, so she turned the light on and there he was, laying in a pool of blood, not breathing. She screamed for her sister to call 911 while she started CPR. The paramedics came and took over the CPR but weren't able to get a pulse until they got him to the hospital. Tuesday morning they ran some tests and determined he was brain dead. The brain can only survive for about 30 minutes without oxygen, and he obviously went much longer than that. My friend is heartbroken and devastated, as you can imagine. They have a 3 year old little girl and an 18 month old little boy. I haven't talked to her, I've only talked to her cousin and sister because she has basically shut everyone out, and I don't blame her. The very sad part (which is also the happy part) is that he is an organ donor so, while several lucky people will be getting new organs, her husband is being kept on life support while they harvest his organs. Can you imagine going through something like this and not being able to lay your husband to rest, get a death certificate, write an obituary, etc. because they have to harvest his organs? I just can't imagine. Anyway, I have spent a lot of time sobbing for her and her kids. And I have spent a lot of time thanking God that my husband is still here with us. It's been a very eye-opening situation. On a lighter note, Lauryn is doing amazing! She is growing up so quickly. My two goals before this baby is born were 1) to potty train Lauryn and 2) get her sleeping through the night in her own bed. Lauryn has always been such a good sleeper, but over the Christmas holiday my husband's parents came to visit and for some reason Lauryn started waking up and coming into our bed. We let it happen while they were here, and then she was hysterical when we tried to get her back into her bed after they left. So, we stopped trying (big mistake). Potty training was a breeze compared to the task of getting Lauryn to sleep in her room. It only took a couple weeks of consistent effort and Lauryn is now putting herself on the potty and is in big girl undies most of the day (I put her in a pull-up when we go out, but I still take her to the bathroom and she stays dry 99% of the time) and she wears a pull-up to bed (I plan to keep doing this for a while... not prepared to deal with bed-wetting quite yet!). We have worked pretty hard with her to get her to sleep in her room, and as of right now she will fall asleep in there, but in the middle of the night she comes into bed with us. I believe it's sometime after 2:00am, and one night I got up for work at 5:00am and she was still asleep in her bed... but I guess I made too much noise in the kitchen because she crawled in bed with my husband before I left. Anyway, we aren't giving up, and I still have 14 weeks to perfect that situation... pray for us! Hope this post finds everyone well. I'll update again after the baby is born (haha!). Just kidding... hopefully well before then!

Our Humble Abode

As promised, a long time ago (haha) here are some pictures of our new house. I can't believe it has been 1 year and 2 days since we closed on this house! My how time flies. It's 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3 car garage. Some side notes before you see the pictures: Someone else built this house and picked everything out, then their deal fell through for some reason. I love most things they picked out, but some things I despise. I will add notes to the pictures.

This is the front of the house when we first moved in. We have coach lamps now.

I painted the shutters blue/green. It's really not this blue in person. I tried to get that Tuscan blue, if you know what I mean.

This is the entry way. To the left of this picture is the dining room, that will soon be converted to an office to make room for #2. To the right of this picture is the door that leads to the laundry room.

Another Home Goods find. Little table in the foyer with a basket for mail.

The kitchen. I totally had them throw in that amazing refrigerator. Its the same refrigerator they put in their $1,000,000 homes they build at the beach. Score!

Other part of the kitchen. You can't see it in these pictures, but the dishwasher is stainless steel. I HATE the black ovens and the black vent hood. I plan to replace those on day... I just can;'t justify replacing brand new appliances right now. I want to refinish the cabinets in a warm white one day, too. But once again... new cabinets!

Laundry room. No complaints here. I have my prized washer and dryer in here... love love love!

Cute picture I hung in the laundry room of a little girl hanging laundry up to dry.

Dining room.

Cubbard I found for a deal at Home Goods... $350! And its solid wood! I think it's maple wood, because it has a sweet smell when you open the doors or drawers.

Shutters... love!

Looking into the family room from the kitchen. I love how open the kitchen, eat-in and family room are. I also love the windows in here.

Ignore the doll stroller lol.

Our huge backyard. We are on 1/2 acre... which is HUGE for a subdivision. We also back up to a forest preserve which means no one will ever live behind us except the animals and trees!

Guest bathroom with a door to the backyard.

More guest bathroom.

Guest bedroom.

More guest bedroom.

More guest bedroom... the rocker is from Lauryn's room, but we weren't using it and it was taking up needed play space, so it's in here until I start on the nursery for #2. This armoire used to be a hideous natural wood color until my awesome friend re-painted it with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint!

The office. This will become the baby's room. It will have the same white shutters that the rest of the house has... I didn't put shutters in this room because I thought I was going to do something else with this window, but plans have changed! We have done the least to this room. It's kind of our junk room right now, haha. It has the biggest closet of all the secondary bedrooms.

More office.

Lauryn's bedroom. We just painted it this color last weekend. Her big girl bed is being delivered on Friday so we wanted to be prepared!

Her new bed will go against this wall. It's a twin size and is about 3 inches shorter than this wall... a nice tight fit! The comforter on her toddler bed is actually a twin size I just bought from Pottery Barn. It's a duvet and down comforter. It's so pretty! I can't wait to see it on her new bed. Here is a close-up of it:

Gorgeous!!

And Lauryn's en suite bathroom... so spoiled!

Master bedroom. For some reason I don't have very good pictures of the master bedroom. I have pretty flower plaques on the wall from Ballard Designs. I have a separate picture of those:

Swoon!

Here is the dresser that matches the armoir in the guest bedroom.. but I like it in our room :o) And below is a picture of what I put on top of it:

If you haven't noticed yet, I love bird stuff. There are bird things subtly throughout the house.

View of the other half of our bedroom.. and my most prized piece of furniture in the whole house... my Restoration Hardware dresser. Amazingly beautiful!

I also love this mirror... the detailing is so beautiful. Another great deal from Home Goods... $100!

Master bathroom when we first moved in. I have little decorations around the tub and I put a shelf up, I just don't have a picture of it. Our bathroom can't stay clean long enough lol.

My sink. There is another identical sink to the right of the shower, behind the door. Another thing I'm not too wild about with this house... tiny vanities without drawers. Thank God there are two of them!

Toilet room with my Home Goods industrial-looking shelf for towels and magazines.

Window in the toilet room. Further to the right is the toilet with a dark wood cabinet above it for toilet paper and girly products. I don't have a picture of that either.. but its pretty awesome :o)

Yes, this IS a picture of my garage... and yes, it IS that organized! And, last but not least... my ABSOLUATE favorite things in this house? These guys:

I'd say they kind of make this house a home! Hope you enjoyed the tour of our house! We love living here, and can't wait to make baby #2 a part of it.

Here we go again!

Well, in normal blogging fashion, I am going to start blogging again... but only because I am pregnant again! And I want to have just as many posts for this baby as I did for Lauryn. As most of you are aware (assuming anyone has read this blog in the past) I was diagnosed with PCOS when we were TTC our first baby. After 9 months of trying we were told the unfortunate news that I did not ovulate. I tried two rounds of clomid, which didn't work and gave me awful side effects, and then I did one round of Femara, and voila! I was pregnant after almost 1 year of trying. That pregnancy lead to a beautiful baby girl who is now a happy, health, 25-month-old.

So, we were a content family of 3. I'm not sure if I posted about this before, but my husband started law school in the Fall of 2011 and I started a new job in June of 2012. We bought a new house in February of 2012, which I still need to post pictures of. My new insurance with my new job became effective August 1st, 2012 and I quickly learned that, because I work for a Catholic hospital, they do not cover birth control through our health insurance. So I was paying $60 per month for birth control that I felt I didn't need anyway, since we tried for a year to get pregnant the last time before it actually happened, and that was with medicine to make me ovulate! So by the end of September I had had enough... I stopped taking the birth control. I didn't get a period for 52 days after stopping the pill. After that was this most recent cycle. I was schedule for a tonsillectomy for this coming Monday, January 28th, and as of last Thursday, January 17th, I still hadn't had a period and it had been 64 days, and I did NOT want to be on my period during my tonsillectomy recovery, so I called my OB/GYN and she called in some Provera to help my period start. The nurse asked if I had taken a pregnancy test, to which I replied "Yes, several over the past 64 days, the last one being a week ago, all negative." So she called the prescription in. The next morning, Lauryn climbed into bed with me, and I got up to use the bathroom. I had one pregnancy test left and decided to take it, just to be sure I wasn't pregnant, before starting the Prevara. I set the test on the bathroom counter and went about my morning, making breakfast for me and Lauryn. Jimmy was getting ready for work. About 30 minutes had passed, I forgot all about the test, and I went into the bathroom to get something and saw it on the counter and thought, "oh, I forgot about this, I should throw it away before Lauryn gets to it." I picked it up and about fell over when I looked at it. It was like deja vu: there, right before my eyes, was a faint line, much like the one I saw exactly 2 years and 11 months ago.

I ran out into the kitchen where my husband was, and started crying. I believe my first words were, "shit just got real!" Haha. I don't know why that's what popped out of my mouth, but it did. So we both stared at the test in amazement. Apparently we were more fertile than we thought! I called my mom, then the doctor, then my mom again, then my sister, then my dad, then my good friend. I was in shock. I was shaking. How could I, this supposedly infertile, non-ovulating woman, be pregnant? And after less than 3 months off the pill? And after only having had sex TWICE in the past month due to busy schedules, being out of town, illness, etc.? I had a doctor's appointment Monday where they did an ultrasound to determine how far along I was since my LMP was 11-15-12. They didn't see anything other than a thickening, brightening endometrium and a Corpus Luteum on my right ovary. The OB/GYN I saw was new, and she told me "I'm calling this a normal vs abnormal pregnancy. We need to do blood work over the next couple of days to make sure your pregnancy hormone is rising." She really had me worried sick, so over the past couple days I have taken at least 20 pregnancy tests at various times to make sure the lines get darker. Yesterday morning this is what I saw:

Yes, that's right, the "pregnant" line is darker than the "control" line! And then today, they called with my beta results: Monday at 11:30am my beta was 148. Yesterday morning at 7:30am (less than 48 hours later) my beta was 399! This number is supposed to double every 48 to 72 hours, so I think it's safe to say we have a healthy, thriving embryo in there ;o) More posts to come!