Kristin's Update

Oh my stars did my water break?? Nope, that is just me after spilling 32 oz of water all over me. If you can believe it, over the past few weeks I have increasingly become more clumsy!! I drop everything, chelsea loves dinner time as most of my food ends up either on my shirt or on the floor. I loose things and forget where I put things, its awful...

Last night Anthony and I went to our first birthing class. It is a small group, 4 couples. The instructor said because of the economy a lot of people are dropping out because they can't afford it.......unless you sit on your ass all day and get free health care, then its free...but thats another blog...The instructor is really nice and funny which makes it a good enviornment to ask questions. The other couples are very nice as well and I think we have a good class. Last night was a getting to know you session, you had to tell what your fears were about labor etc and the coaches had to tell what they wanted to get out of the course. Then we learned some basic anatomy stuff. At the end of class I had to give Anthony a massage, the partner needs love too, then I got one. We learned some breathing techniques and some stretching exersizes. Next week we start actual labor lessons! It was funny, when we arrive at the hospital we enter through the emergency room. I'm not sure if it was a full moon but there must have been 15 women sitting there waiting to be checked in, it was ridiculous. I hope when our day comes its nice and slow!!

This morning it was off to my doctors appt, I now go bi weekly. Everything was great, I actually lost weight so Fionna said I should start eating two buck buck eggs per day, MINIMUM. Jackson's heart was strong and all my blood work ( glucose and iorn) came back with flying colors. She said I'm probably done with blood work at this point.

Now I know some of our fans were worried about CHelsea, here she today resting while mommy and daddy worked



She is still our little baby and spolied rotten. Her new nightly routine involves sitting in between anthony's feet on the recliner, then when its time for bed she lays on me legs, she is equal oppurtunity. She is looking forward to meeting her baby brother and says if he is half as cute as her then he is one lucky duck. As I type this I hear panting behind me, someone has found daddy's socks in the laudry and is quite happy.....

Well thats all from me today.

TTFN

Week 30 'n' Things

Updated picture of Kristin at week 30:



A long way from this:



It seems like Kristin's belly is growing daily! I remember when Kristin got through her first trimester and I was bummed that I could not see her stomach yet, wondering if I ever would. Now, she cannot get between me and the kitchen island! For being 30 weeks pregnant, I think she looks really good! I love looking at her belly, excited to know our little guy is soon to be arriving. In general, these past 7 months have flown by, but the anticipation now is driving me crazy!

So tomorrow we start our ABC (Alternative Birthing Class). The class will run 5 weeks and is every Monday for 2 hours. Then on Tuesday we will be driving back up to Providence to meet with our Pediatrician. For the next month, we will be driving to Providence every Monday and Tuesday. That coupled with driving to work which round trip is 3-3 1/2 hours is sure to exhaust us quickly!!! Kristin and I have been thinking of questions to ask our Pediatrician, like circumcision, vaccinations, routine check up schedule etc. What's nice about our Tuesday appointment is that it allows us one on one time with the doctor so we get a chance to meet her and get a feel for her before we make the final decision if we are going to pick her as our Pediatrician. I am sure she will be good because our midwife referred us to her.

Yesterday DH and Babs came down to celebrate DH's Birthday. In honor of his Birthday and partly because of the constant "friendly" reminders that I have not made him eggplant parm before, Kristin and cooked him up a feast. For appetizers I made a puff pastry stuffed with sausage, spinach, parm cheese, sage and lemon zest. The inside of the puff pastry was brushed with Dijon mustard. I also made him my famous stuffed mushrooms, which were the size of hamburgers. For dinner, I made homemade eggplant parm, Caesar salad and rolls. And for dessert, carrot cake with homemade cream cheese frosting, which I have to say was really good!!!! Eggplant parm is one of Kristin's favorite foods. I do not make it that often because it is a pain to make by the time you skin the eggplant, cover in flour, then dip in egg barter and then bread. Of course, then you have to fry all the eggplant before you can start layering. The good thing though is that there is always a lot of leftovers, so this should hold Kristin down for a while!






Not much on the agenda today other than to go to church and grocery shop. The goal is to spend the afternoon doing nothing but veg on the couch. Kristin is pretty tired not to mention starting to get a lot of pressure in her lower abdomen. I'm going to spend the day rubbing her feet and feeding her eggplant!

Two more weeks to our Mass shower...wooohooo!

It's hard to believe that two years ago tomorrow was mom's surgery!! I remember going to the hospital like it was yesterday. We had to get up very early to be there and they took mom late and she tried to leave. The anesthesia guy was about 17 years old and when he asked mom for her weight it did not go over well.I got to sit with Boppie in the waiting room, well I sat he pretty much slept, and my friend Stephanie came to visit as she is a nurse at Brighams. When mom came out of surgery around 530ish I had to help dress her but she swears she dressed herself. I slept at mom's that night and the next day we got to have number 9's from Dangelos...hmm this blog might start to sound like Jared's...wah wah wah.

After surgery I got to attend several chemo camp trips and even a few radiation visits. After one trip to the hospital I had to drive around to THREE different subways to find one open so mum could get her sub. Now she HATES subway. When she would visit CT I'd make her chemo pasta and chicken, bob tried to replicate at home after that but it was NEVER the same.

She will get mad but look at the difference in mum from two years ago. Heloooo chicos prints




And who's hair is real in this picture???



This is when moms hair just started coming in and nana would lick her fingertips and try to fix it..



And look at JOdie Foster now..




Look at how much has changed in two years mum, you beat breast cancer and welcomed your first little guy Callum Cakes and now are getting ready to meet little man #2 in the spring. Who could ask for anything more??

We wish you many many many more years of being cancer free!!!!!

Games, Shopping & Celebrations

Kristin and I have had a really busy weekend so far. Friday night, we hung out with David and Stephanie at their new place. We first stopped at the Providence Place mall because Kristin had to return something. From there, we headed to their new apartment, which was in a great community. David and Stephanie had gotten a variety of special cheeses, pate and also shrimp. We later ordered pizza for dinner. We got the pizza from Caserta's, which is in Federal Hill. Pizza was really good! David took me on a drive through Federal Hill, which I have never been before. On the way home, we drove my a street lined with pubs and great restaurants. He also showed me where there was an ice skating rink in the middle of the city, which I never knew existed. Finally, on our drive home, he brought me by the Providence park, which stretched lengthwise along the river. He mentioned that this is where you go to view Water Fire in the summer, which I am hoping Kristin, Jackson and I can go this summer. After dinner, we played Spinners and had dessert from Pastiche. David and Stephanie got a chocolate torte which was really good but incredibly chocolaty! Kristin and I did not get home until almost 1am!

Yesterday, I got up early to make a Birthday Cake for the mudda in law. I even made homemade frosting for the special occasion. After finishing up the cake, Kristin and I went to Babies'R'Us to pick up all our special order room accessories which came in on Friday after taking 7 weeks. While there, we bought the little guy and outfit to wear on Father's Day. It is an adorable argyle sweater vest with a polo shirt and plaid shorts. We also picked up a Pat's jersey, which was marked down 40%. We ended up changing our carrier/carriage yesterday. While we liked the original one we registered for, the one we changed to has a better carrying handle and more color. We also ended up adding the correct bottles to our registry after realizing we registered for all wide neck bottles. After all was said and done, we were at Babies'R'Us for over 2 hours...EXHAUSTING! After our shopping excursion, we headed up to MA to celebrate mudda Annie's Birthday. She made an incredible stew, which was perfect for a cold night. After dinner, we had some cake and stared at each other in silence....joking! I included pictures below from last nights Birthday celebration and last weeks Birthday celebration which was for my mom.







Today, while Kristin slept I hung up some of the decorations we got yesterday. I also shoveled the driveway before we headed out to Church. Kristin and I have been trying to find a church that we can go to once Jackson is born. We like the church in Mystic but do not like the priest. Today we went to Our Lady of Lourdes. We both liked this church much better. Seemed to be a younger community and the priest was more engaging, although he did say the word porn 2 or 3 times. He also said he was with women before the priesthood. Either way, I think we will go again next week and if we are comfortable with this parish, we will continue going, otherwise we will go down to the next church on our list. Jackson seemed to like the church though because he was kicking around inside his mommy's tummy. Tonight we are heading over to my mom's for dinner. She is making pasta fagioli.

Kristin and I are both happy to be off tomorrow. It is our last day off until Jackson comes. On the agenda for tomorrow is a little house work and relaxing. As I write this blog, Kristin is doing work for MetLife...blah! As a preview to our next weekend, the celebrations continue as we will be celebrating DH's Birthday. For his Birthday, I will be making him homemade eggplant parm and maybe another special surprise. So, DH, what will you pick on me for now!!!

Week 29ish and Things

Our blog updates seem to have become infrequent. To be honest, between work and whatnot, the blog is at the bottom of the list.

Last night we received another gift at our house from our registry. We got our frog wash clothes and our diaper bag. Last week we got out tub and the week prior our playmate. It is very exciting for us to be getting baby stuff outside of all the clothes we have been getting. Speaking of clothes, Kristin and I picked up a couple of more things at Kohl's this weekend. They were having a good sale on Carter sleep sets. We ended up getting 3 sleep sets, for 0-3 months, which we do not have much of. One has farm animals on it, the other frogs and one has zoo animals. With both showers soon approaching, we cannot wait to see all the stuff we get!




This past weekend Kristin and I went up to MA. She and her mom did some shopping for something to wear at the shower(s) and some other odds'n'ends, like mom underwear (underwear that goes up to your chin). While they shopped, I did what have become the usual, which is painting. This time I painted the Kren a nice Stuart Gold color. I think at this point I am retiring from painting for a while having had my share between the nursery, bathrooms(DH's and ours) and the Kren.

So, our pellet supply seems to be severely decreasing. We are almost through our second ton with only one ton left. I am beginning to think we are going to run out before the end of the winter with their being 2-3 months left of cold/cool weather. I think we will make it through the end of Feb unless it gets warmer. We called today to inquire how much it is to get our oil burner services (cleaned) in the event we need to turn it on. They now charge $250 compared to the $115 I use to pay which was for both the A/C and oil servicing. So, we decided to hold off right now on getting it serviced. At least next year I will have an idea of how much pellets I go through when ordering.

As I write this, I just realized we have not posted an updated picture of Kristin in a while. Her stomach seems to be growing by the day now. We have noticed that her stomach has started to drop. The baby is quite active. A couple of time we have been able to see him pushing up through her stomach, even making her bookmark that was resting on her belly move. Couple of more weeks and we start our alternative birthing classes. I told Kristin that I heard they make you (mothers) undress for the classes, which is why they ask you to bring a blanket. Not having done these classes before, I fear the gross factor in them! Anywho, below is an updated picture of preggo as well as of Ms. Monroe sleeping in Jackson's room waiting for his arrival.

Update

I know, we are behind. I don't have any new pictures to post but will post some tomorrow or over the weekend.

We had a very busy baby day on Tuesday. The day started with my doctor's appoitnment and diabetes testing. All went well. The drink wasn't as bad as people at work had told me, so im hoping the same goes true for labor :-) My check up went fine, Baby's heart is strong and Im doing just dandy. Now that I am in my 3rd trimester I have to start seeing the doctor every two weeks, sure to become exhausting.

Tuesday night we went to Women and Infants Hospital for the Grand Tour class. We started off learning where to park, when to arrive, and what to pack. Basically Anthony will need a U-Haul...I want my own pillows, blankets, slippers, and of course Chelsea. They suggested Anthony pack extra layers as the mom's usually are roasting during delivery and want the heat off, not to be an issue with Anthony! After the lecture we went for our tour. Not going to lie, little overwhelming. Just seems more real now that I've seen a room where Im going to be in labor etc. but all the staff seems nice and I like a lot of the rules, like no cell phones or visitors during labor, no one will ever find us...hahaha!!!!!

Anthony could not locate a starbucks so any visitors please bring him a mocha choca venti spice lady marmalade with an extra shot of tahitti.

Yesterday was also a very exciting day for Daddy Anthony. He has felt a few little movements here and there but I was on the couch last night and the baby went nuts. I called Anthony over and he got to feel some really big movements, maybe some flips?
Then last night after reading " The Little Engine that Could" and listening to some music, I was reading and rested a book mark on my belly. He kicked so hard you could see the book mark move. So we lifted my shirt and watched the little monkey move around and make my stomach poke out, it was so neat!!

So " thats all" We'll be sure to post some pictures over the weekend.

TaTa for now.

New Years in Maine

We were on location in Maine for New Years, just got back Friday night and are uploading some pictures today. Please see the slide show on the right for photos. Here are a few of Mr. Callum lounging in his chair from Nannie and opening his presents from Auntie KK and Uncle Twon.





Callum became a big fan of his Uncle Twon. In the picture below they are dancing around the kitchen and Callum loved it!


Anthony and I split the duties, Anthony was in charge of bath and I took over responsibilty of fashion directer. We shared the duties of feeding him his cereal for breakfast and sweet potatoes or carrots for supper. Jared in turn was in charge of Chelsea and letting her outside in her trail to go the bathroom. She knows her boundries well.

Here is a shot of the three of us on New Years Day...
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Last but not least Callum insisted he pose with Auntie for her 27 week picture and start of her third trimester, he is very involved in the pregnancy...





Just a quick blog. Perhaps Anthony would like to post his own blog about his snow shoe adventure, our maybe just a blog regarding all his outdoor adventures with Jared.....