7 more............

I can't believe how exhausted I am lately. Seriously, so tired. Of course I wake up several times during the night to pee. I actually woke up Nick (which I do once and awhile, because I think he should experience this pregnancy too - I know, very thoughtful of me), he had to help me up. I felt like I was having contractions or something, but I think I just tried to use my stomach muscles (which no longer exist).  I'm actually awake most of the time though because I have insomnia or something. I guess my body is preparing for when I have to be up all night for the baby, which is lame because I don't need practice. I don't get why it works that way. I can't believe I will have a newborn in a week from today (or maybe sooner). I'm excited to see what he looks like and to do baby things. Ellie seems so grown up lately, so it will be nice to have a little baby around.

Below are some pictures from the Hartford Balloon rally, which was a total dud because of the storms. Ellie had fun though!

My pretty little girl!

Nick and Nick performing. lol!

Ellie and Wendi

Ellie and Daddy

New Stroller!

Back in March, I was talking about buying a double stroller. Well, we finally got one. We decided on the Baby Jogger City Select double stroller. I put it together and really like it. Ellie helped me too. She loves it! Not sure how she'll feel when there is a baby in it too. I ended up getting it at buybuyBaby and got a 10% discount because I filled out a registration there.  You can't get this thing for cheaper or on sale anywhere, believe me I looked.

Ellie really likes playing with boxes!

Here is Ellie in her seat. You can see the infant car seat adapter behind her. We are reusing Ellie's infant car seat, I just don't have it out yet. (I better get on that since we will need it next week)  Once the baby gets bigger he can sit in the other seat that I have that connects.

Just keep swinging............

Ellie is in love with a couple different things lately:

her blanket (of course)
applesauce
popsicles
swinging

Nick, Ellie and I went to the park the other night and let her run around crazy and swing, swing, swing!

Ellie's 2 Year Pictures

I love how Ellie's 2 year pictures turned out. I know I'm pregnant and about to pop, but I'm not so crazy about the ones I'm in. I don't know how women do maternity ones. I guess I'm just self conscious and would prefer not to be in photos, but I know it will be nice to look back in 20 years and laugh.  I seriously LOVE all the ones with Ellie. The second and last one are my favorites. There are other ones, but they are so similar that I posted the ones that looked the best. These are done by the same photographer we've used since Ellie was born. I was looking at her 1year old pictures and it's amazing how much older she looks. I think she could probably pass for a 1st grader. I mean this, first one she looks like she's 5 and the 5th one down, she looks like she's 10.

18 days

Being off of work is kinda weird. I don't even know what day it is.  The weekend didn't start out all that great. Our air conditioner broke again! The guy came out Friday afternoon and found that it was the compressor again - they just replaced that and a new fan 2 weeks ago. I was annoyed because they charged us a service fee. Anyways... it's been working and the house is now cool and not sticky. I like summer, but I am definitly a fall/winter girl. I can't wait until fall comes! My mom's cousin's daughter from Japan is visiting for a couple of days. She is an exchange student in San Diego and is going to college there.  Yesterday we spent the day at Nick's parents house. Ellie was so tired by dinner time and fell asleep in Nick's lap. That was a first! She was so cute sleeping there and I got a kick out of it because Nick had to go to the bathroom. I told him that that was a just a itsy bitsy small feeling of how it feels to be pregnant. He couldn't pass her off because we didn't want to wake her. He had to hold her and suck it up.  I'm counting the days now (18) and visited the doctor on Friday. She said I was thinning out and it could be any day now. I'm further along then I was when Ellie was born and I'm also bigger! I seriously don't know how women have multiples, like my mom did or babies that are bigger than 5 1/2 lbs. Nick is already talking about our third. He's crazy and his timing is off.

Ellie's new swing set!

Ellie finally got her new swingset. We bought it from our neighbors who have outgrown it. It took about 3 hours or so to take it apart and move the 3 big pieces. We already bought a baby bucket swing for Ellie and need to replace the ropes and some other parts on it. It's a Rainbow Play System, but I think we'll shop around too. They are pretty pricey.
This is the before picture in our neighbors yard. Nick and Ron are standing there and Nick (wendi's bf) is driving the bobcat. It was scary to watch them do this!!

 

This is the big middle part being moved into our backyard.















Here they are carring the swing part over.

Ellie was busy drinking ice water.

Here she is with my dad in our backyard.  I'm by the house, water the plants :)

Here we are watching in the back by our neighbors. We were excellant supervisors.

Ellie is checking it out.

It looks like it was easy, but it wasn't!

Ellie is testing out the new picnic table.

Some updates

I haven't blogged in awhile because I've been so busy taking care of my short term disability and maternity leave. It's been such a nightmare. My company wasn't clear on how this worked and either was the std benefits company. It's still not resolved, but basically it doesn't make sense for me to work part-time and be on part-time benefits when I am covered and paid at 100%. I also didn't know that my std leave and maternity is the same thing. I thought when I had the baby my benefits would start over, but low and behold it doesn't. So I won't be getting 100% pay when I'm on leave. I know I shouldn't complain because there are a lot of people that don't have any coverage, but I've been paying std for the last 10 years at my company. I'm coming up on my 10 year anniversary this year. NUTS. Time flies so fast, it's scary.

So, the jist of it all, is that I'm on full-time leave until the baby comes and then 8 weeks after. I will also probably take about 4 weeks off unpaid time off. Nick doesn't think it's necessary, but then again he shouldn't have a say since I've done a lot of work the last 10 months. I'm not milking anything now either, but I've had a rough couple of weeks. I have this rash all over my body. It itches like crazy to the point of wanting to cut off my limbs. I either have something called PUPPS or intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy. Both of these suck, but the cholestasis is a major problem. If I do have that, then I'm looking at an earlier delivery. My doctor has prescribed some meds and I bought some lotion called Sarna - benedryl doesn't do shit. I'm waiting for my blood results on my liver to come back too. Hopefully any day now.

So, I've been spending time at home and hanging out with Ellie, my mom and Meeko.... waiting for the baby. I'll be 36 weeks on Thursday. If I had the baby today, it would be the same time Ellie came. That would be weird. Here's what we've been up to: