Babies, Babies, Everywhere...

On Tuesday evening I got a call from the Foster agency telling me that they had gotten a referral for two children, and they wanted to place them with us. All he really knew when he called was their ages: nine months, and 21 months. He hadn't even asked if they were boys or girls. Of course I said, "Sure, we can take them." I now have three children under the age of two - Travis, and two foster daughters. To protect the identity of the innocent, I shall refer to the older sister as Big S and the younger as Lil S. I'm not going to post any photos of them publicly until I find out what the policy is for that. Trust me when I say that they are absolutely freakin adorable. They seem to be healthy, normal little girls, and I am happy to have them. The older does have some behavioral issues, but since she's not even two, I feel like we can work past that. They came to us with about a 45 minute notice on Tuesday evening, with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Since then, friends and family have really shown their generous natures and come together on helping get clothes and supplies to get us set up for these two girls. I have been inundated with baby clothes and supplies, and it is appreciated so much.

I, of course, have been running around on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I will say, it is getting better and better though. Brad has been a saint, helping me as much as he can while he's home, and giving me little breaks whenever he can.

Today, I managed to make it to bible study. I wasn't able to find my study book, but at least I was able to find my bible. The past few days, our house looks like a baby store exploded, and I'm having a hard time finding anything. Sarah, I had to follow along with Nathan's mom this morning. Pitiful, huh?

This afternoon I took the kids to my mom's for a family get together, and we all went swimming. There were plenty of people there to help me. So aside from being physically tired, I' have had a pretty good day. Now I had better go to sleep before I collapse.

Here We Go Again

Yet again, I'm going to try to get back to this blogging thing. It's time. I haven't posted much because things have been so good, but things have been stressing me out a bit lately. Travis is 10 months old now. Here are a few pictures.

 Here, Travis was about 7-8 months old, I think. I had my mom take pics of us in the bluebonnets.

 This is Brad, Travis, and me at the family reunion last weekend. We had a good time.

 This was also taken at the family reunion. Travis is a camera hound, and a ham.

I have been staying at home with Travis, and I am enjoying it. It feels strange to not be working, but I do like taking care of Travis. It has been kind of hard on us financially, but we'll get through. We recently went through the process to get licensed for foster care and adoption. We want to take kids ages 0-12. We are finished with the process, and just waiting for kids.

A few weeks ago, I had to have surgery to remove my gallbladder, but that went well, and I am recovered from that. The only lingering effect is about $2000 worth of medical bills. In addition, we got a nice letter from the IRS saying that we owe them $500 from 2008. And since I haven't been working, I have been paying for COBRA so that I have health insurance. So we are doing our best to stay afloat right now.

But if that wasn't enough, since the COBRA only lasts for 18 months, and I have already used up 7 months of it, if I want to have another baby while I've got it, I need to get knocked up within the next two months. And my deductible resets at the end of August, so I need to take advantage of what limited fertility coverage I have with the COBRA. So today I called the fertility clinic, and got set up to start treatments as soon as my cycle starts. They ordered the meds, and I'm supposed to call them on CD1. We're going to skip the clomid nonsense this time and go straight to what worked for us last time. The protocol should be about the same as last time, with follistim and IUI. While I have a sense of deja vu about all of this, I am able to approach it with a little more calm, since I already have a real, live baby here at home with me. Part of me feels very selfish to be trying fertility treatments when I've already got my gorgeous baby boy, but the other, bigger part of me insists that I have as much right to the family of my dreams as anybody else.

So, here we go again. Dear God, please let things go smoothly, and help me to keep the number of self-injections and strangers looking at my lady-business to a minimum. Also, I pray that the hormones don't make me too murder-y. Amen.

Back to the Blog

So I haven't posted in quite a while... oh, say six months or so, but I've wanted to. Really, I swear. It was just hard to post when everything was going so well, and then the baby was born, and I got kind of busy, to say the least, and now it's been kind of overwhelming to try to get back in after so long an absence. So I'm just going to jump in like I was never gone, and I will try to fill in the gap as time allows.

Here's a quick update - or summary rather, so you're not completely clueless. Weeks 35 - 40 of my pregnancy were long, hot and boring. Nothing happened that was really worth writing about. I think around week 37 they did an ultrasound that showed the baby's head as being the size of a 40 weeker. Nothing unusual there, as massive noggins run in my family. At 40 weeks and 2 days, I had the baby. Here's a pic of me as we were leaving for the hospital - the last picture of a pregnant Stacy.



Travis James Woodruff was born on August 13, 2009 at 7:00pm.



He weighed 8 lbs and .25 oz. and was 19.5 inches long.



I will post the birth story later. He was a beautiful healthy baby, and still is. He's now about 4.5 months old, and is getting to be more fun every day.

Exactly four weeks after Travis was was born, Brad had a heart attack. He's fine now, and in fact was back to work the next Monday, but that was certainly stressful. I'll post the story about that later.

In other news, I quit my job to be a full time stay at home mom. I'm enjoying it. I'm currently looking for an extra kid to watch during the day to make a little extra cash, but it's not a huge deal right now. I also paid off my truck finally, and rolled over the odometer to 100K miles shortly after that.



I'll be coming back to the blog, especially since I now have a laptop that I can move around the house. My mom was nice enough to give me her old laptop for Christmas, since she got a new one. Now I can actually get on the computer more than once every 3-4 days. I think most of the posts to fill in the 6 month gap will be picture-centric as the pics on my iPhone are the easiest reminder for me of what has happened during that time. It's all kind of a blur in my mind, but with the help of all the pics I've taken, and maybe going back to old facebook updates (I FB from my phone a lot), I think I can fill in the gap.

I'm excited about coming back to the blog, and looking forward to updating everybody with my adventures.

Yep, Still Lazy

So this week I am 35 weeks pregnant, and still lazy, hot, tired, and bitchy. I have been off work for the summer for a while now, and I am having a hard time getting anything accomplished around the house. I am totally unaccustomed to not working, and I don't really know what to do with myself. I started working when I was 16, and have never been unemployed since then. Not that I'm unemployed now - I still draw a paycheck, it's just summer. Summer before last, I took 15 hours at ACC, so I didn't have any free time, and last summer, I kept Shelley every day, so she kept me busy, but this year I'm kind of at a loss. I just kind of wander around the house, and hope I get a little something done. It's just that I'm tired all the time, so my motivation is really lacking.

I have been nesting some. We got a bunch of really great stuff at the baby shower, so I have been making Brad move furniture and hang new ceiling fans and all kinds of stuff to get the nursery ready. I have acquired lots of hand me down baby clothes, since a friend's baby is a giant monster baby, and has outgrown all of his stuff really fast. But as a result, I wind up washing and folding all of the baby clothes, and it reminds me how much I absolutely hate - no HATE folding baby clothes. It had been a long time since I had to do it, from when Jack and William (nephew & ex's son) were little, but now I remember. It is like folding a huge basket of nothing but socks and underwear that don't match. I hate even folding my own socks and underwear, and they are likely to sit in a basket until I notice my spastic cat has started dragging them all over the house, hiding them like they are her babies, and trying to nurse them. So to have to fold a huge basket of baby clothes is pure torture. I do not enjoy it. Maybe if they were little girl clothes that were cuter...

Anyway, the nursery, is mostly put together, but it is pretty bare. One thing I have not gotten yet is a lot of the decorative items that are on the registry. I guess those will have to come a little at a time, as we get the money. But for now, the baby does at least have a dedicated space of his own, so that will have to do. We can put stuff on the walls as time goes by.

The baby shower turned out really great. My mom and sisters did a good job of hosting it, and it was a success.

Lots of people showed up, and a good time was had by all. My little sister had the inmates  at the prison custom make a rocking zebra and a toybox for the baby. I am in love with the zebra. It is so adorable.

 

 After the baby shower, some of my closer friends and family stayed and we had a little pool party. Two of my friends have babies that were about 4 months old at the time, so the babies got to go swimming too, and they had a good time. The water was warm, and they enjoyed splashing. 

 

This is Misty, and her son Jax Danger.

  

This is me, with Jennifer's daughter Ella B

So anyway, I had better get going, and hopefully get some crap done around this house. Today, I get to work on addressing wedding invitations for Shannon, my best friend who is getting married in August, but is currently in India, so I get to do the invitations. I'm ready for her to come home!

Wow, I Am SO Lazy

Wow, I Am SO Lazy! I haven't bothered posting in a long time. I just haven't felt the blogging urge. There's been plenty going on, just no real inclination to write about it. So what's new? Let me think back... I'm going to do this bullet point style to try to keep it brief.

• At about 28 weeks I did the glucose test for gestational diabetes, and passed that with flying colors. 
• During Memorial Day weekend, I got to go to Labor & Delivery, not because of any problem with the baby, but because I had a breast infection / mastitis. Yeah, explain that one to me - I'm not even nursing yet! So they gave me a 7 day course of 4 times per day antibiotics. Blech! We also went to a barbecue, and swimming / fishing at the lake.
  
• The next weekend, we went to Port Aransas for a deep sea fishing trip. The time on the boat sucked, but the trip overall was fun. More about that later.
• This past weekend, we went to Houston for a cat show, and then to let Brad regain a portion of his manliness, we went to a gun and knife show. After that was done, we went to Huntsville and visited my little sister. (More about the reason for the cat show later.)

Last week was my last week of working. I am now off for the summer, and with no plans to return to work after the baby is born. I am currently 31 weeks pregnant. Everything seems to be progressing just fine. My feet have started to swell some, but my blood pressure is staying exactly where it should be, and everything is about par for the course. This weekend is the child birth class, and I'm a little nervous about that. But a friend of my Mom's is teaching it, and she is doing it for us for free, so I will take advantage of it. Especially since I have started to formulate a birth plan that does not include an epidural. I'm not going to be psycho about it, but I have decided that I do not want to be induced unless it is absolutely medically necessary, because inductions can fail, and then you wind up with a C-section. Better to just wait for it to happen when it happens. I am going to try to do it without an epidural or pain drugs, for many reasons. Hopefully I can do it as naturally as possible. We'll see. I know a lot of first time moms say that, and it doesn't happen, but I will give it a try anyway.

I'm getting excited about the babyshower that is coming up on June 27. I want to get to see everybody, and I'll be honest, I want goodies. I haven't bought anything for the baby yet, and I want to start getting the baby's room ready. But I don't want to buy anything until after the shower, and it's getting harder and harder to wait. This is the first shower of any sort I have ever had, and it's exciting. I didn't have a wedding shower or a big wedding, so I got 2 or 3 little wedding gifts and checks from my parents and in-laws and that's it. So I'm excited. But anyway. That's enough for now. I will write separate posts about Port Aransas and the reason for going to the cat show later.

Proverbs

Yesterday afternoon, I was surfing the net, as I am so prone to doing, and I came across a quote that I like. I am not religious; really I am more agnostic because I don't know what to believe. I think I could believe in a higher power, but I have a hard time buying into the whole organized religion thing. I have a great respect for people's various religions, and absolutely cannot tolerate bigots who want to judge others based on their given faiths. Anyway, the quote that I came across is from the Bible, and since reading it, it has stuck with me. It says:


Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. --Proverbs 22:6

I like it so much that I think I am going to embroider or cross stitch it, then frame it and hang it in the baby's room as a reminder of how I would like to do things. Hopefully this philosophy will take us where we want to go with this child. I think it will. My goal with this baby, and any others that I might bring into this world, is merely to have them grow up to be good people. That's all I'm really hoping for. Nothing fancy. Just good, honest, hardworking, happy kids who will grow up to be good, honest, hardworking, happy adults.

Fish & Whistle

This morning, Brad and I went fishing. Well, really, Brad fished while I sat and watched since my fishing license is expired. We started off at the pond by the hospital, but the cast net got a big hole in it so we switched to rod and reel, and moved over to the old Main Street bridge. It is an old one lane bridge that nobody uses for much of anything anymore. Brad caught probably 15-20 good size perch, but it was a strictly catch and release program this morning, since neither of us felt like cleaning fish today. Here are some pics of our fishies.

 

Redbreast Perch

 

Bluegill Perch

 

Longear Perch

We had a good time catching the fish. There were a lot of pretty ones. We also caught a turtle. It was a Red-ear Slider, but I forgot to take a picture of him. I was kind of hoping to catch a softshell turtle, as we have seen them in that creek before, but we have never been able to catch one before. If we had caught a little one, I would have brought it home and set up an aquarium for it. But, no luck on that. I wish I had thought to take a picture of the bridge and the creek. Maybe next time. We enjoyed ourselves. It was good to get out of the house and do something relaxing that had nothing to do with the baby. Plus, it's always good to get to spend time with my honey. Anyway, that's all. Just thought I would post about fishing.

24 Weeks

Today I am 24 weeks along in my pregnancy. That means I have 16 weeks left to go. I had my regular OB checkup yesterday, and everything looks good. Blood pressure was fine, he seemed pleased with everything else. Aside from the back troubles, everything is progressing smoothly thus far. We have narrowed down our name choices for our baby boy to two - either Austin James Woodruff or Travis James Woodruff. We keep going back and forth between those two, and may not make a final decision until we meet him. We still have not purchased any baby stuff, and we are trying to hold off until after the baby shower, which will be on June 20, at my mother's house. I hate having to stand in line for customer service, so I am trying to avoid needing to return anything. The urge to nest is starting to get a little stronger, though. Especially since it is starting to look more and more like I am going to get a take-home baby out of the deal. According to some sources, a baby born in the 24th week has a 60% chance of survival, depending on sex, race, and NICU quality. As someone who has dealt with infertility, statistics like that definitely cross my mind. It certainly is helping make it seem more real, knowing that even if I suddenly went into labor today, I could still get a live baby to take home with me in the end (after NICU, of course). Not that I want that to happen, of course, but if it did, there is a decent chance that it could turn out okay. I know it's probably kind of morbid to think like that, but I can't help it. Each week that passes will make it seem more real.

Long Update

So it's been a while since I posted. What can I say - I've been busy/lazy. I guess the biggest news is that during week 19 (spring break), we found out that the baby is a boy, and is by all indications healthy. The video from the ultrasound is below, if you're interested.

 

Brad and I also celebrated our one year anniversary on March 18. Also during spring break, I went to San Antonio and visited a couple of my friends from high school. One of them has a brand new baby girl, and she is adorable. Then after I came back from S.A., we had the ultrasound, and it went well. After the ultrasound, Brad and I drove to McGregor, TX and spent the night at my Dad's house. We had a good time visiting there. Then we continued northward to Corinth / Denton, TX to visit Brad's little sister and my friend Shannon. I have known Shannon since elementary school, and she is my bestest buddy. We stayed with my s-i-l for three nights, and had a great time hanging out with her and her two girls and their dad. Then we came home and spring break was over. The next weekend I babysat for our friends, Jay & Misty. They have a new baby boy, and needed to get of the house for a while. I had a good time with the baby, and got a refresher on my newborn skills. And I got to lay on the couch and watch Dirty Jobs, which is always a crowd pleaser. (Mike Rowe is hot!)

 So anyway, back to the blogging. Last week, I missed 2.5 days of work because I was having really severe headaches and nausea. I went to the OB, and my blood pressure is fine, and there was only trace amounts of protein in the urine, which the doctor seemed fine with. He referred me to a neurologist, and said that the headaches were likely causing the nausea. My neurologist appointment is scheduled for this coming Monday. This week my allergies are kicking my ass. I've got a sore throat, a cough and congestion. Blech. But I am 22 weeks pregnant, which means I am more than halfway done. So yay! for that. We got our baby registry done. We are registered at Babies R Us. The baby's room will be done in a jungle theme. I saw this set and fell in love. It's perfect - masculine,  not too cutesy, and it will match the paint that is already on the walls so that I don't have to repaint. The set is called Baby Cocoa. I have also started crocheting a blanket for the baby from a soft, terrycloth-like yarn. It is in chocolate brown and forest green stripes, and is very cuddly.

For those of you who are thinking about asking - no, we have not picked out a name yet. We have a list of contenders, and will pick soon, but we don't know yet. We'll see. I have had a bajillion different people pestering me about the name, and I am starting to get a little annoyed. Anyway, that's about it for now.

Weeks 17 & 18

Let me just start by saying that pregnancy sucks. It has its moments, but for the most part it sucks. I really miss my good migraine medicine, and wish I could take it. But, since it causes birth defects, I'll refrain from taking it for now. I'm still having to visit the chiropractor twice a week, to keep the pinched nerves in check. The morning sickness is pretty much gone, although it did actually make me puke last week, which was a first. Other crappy things aboug pregnancy: I have to pee like every half hour and it's getting worse. Also, my bras have shrunk. Or my boobage has expanded. Whichever it is, it sucks. I had a breast reduction for a reason, dammit. I don't like having gargantuan titties. Most women like this side effect of the hormones, but not me. I hate having to buy expensive bras, but this increase in size may make it so I don't have a choice. Ughh! I thought I had tamed the twins, but apparently Eddie & Earl are back in action.

On to the good news: I am looking forward to next Wednesday, when we will (hopefully) find out the sex of the baby. It will also be our one year anniversary that day. I've felt the little bugger wiggle around in there a couple times (I think), but I have to be laying very still to notice. We got the results back on the Nuchal Translucency / Sequential screening tests. We are all clear for Down Syndrome, Trisomy 18, and spina bifida. So that's a relief. Also, I only only have 3 more work days until spring break. Then I will have 9 whole days off. Yay! We got our trees last week, and 7 of them are already planted. Brad has been working his ass off, and the front yard is done. Now for the back yard. But, most of the trees that are going in the back yard are much smaller, so they should be easier. That's about all for now.

16 Weeks and the Fertile Girdle

So I'm 16 weeks pregnant now, and I wore maternity pants for the first time today. Yesterday after my appointment with the perinatalogist, I went to Motherhood Maternity at Highland Mall. I just wanted to try on some maternity pants so that I would know what size to get if I want to order some online. Well, the shop at Highland didn't have a single item in the store larger than a 1X. But the girl there told me to try the store at Barton Creek Mall. So, at 4:30 in the afternoon, I drove through Austin traffic on MoPac to try a different store. I got there and they did have a limited selection of big girl clothes. One little wall and two little racks, but it was better than nothing. I discovered that I wear a 2X in maternity clothes, which is a size smaller than I was expecting, so that was a pleasant surprise. Really the 2X is even a little baggy on me. But I wound up getting a pair of denim capris, and a pair of blue jeans. I also got their version of the bella band. I got home and was showing Brad what his money bought, when he made me laugh so hard I almost peed myself. I held up the Tummy Sleeve thingy, and the first words out of his mouth were, "That should be called a Fertile Girdle." That's funny shit - I don't care who you are. So hereafter, I shall refer to my bella band / tummy sleeve as a Fertile Girdle. Today I wore the pair of capris and they were very comfortable. I was pleased.

15 Weeks

It has been a long week. I am exhausted. I keep having to go to the chiropractor because my back/pelvis keep getting out of whack while I'm at work. When I come home, I rest for a little while, and when I try to get up again, it hurts so bad I can barely walk. It holds just fine when I'm not at work, but it keeps slipping out of alignment when I go to work and deal with the kids. It's very frustrating. I'm 15 weeks along, with 25 to go. Oh well. It will be over eventually.

I do, however, have some good news. We got our tax return back. $6603. Not bad, huh? So after we pay the house taxes, and a few outstanding medical bills, we are going to get trees. In the 24 years that Brad has lived in this house, he has never gotten around to planting trees. We have a couple hackberry trees that have come up on their own, but they don't really count. So we are getting trees. We are going to get a bur oak, which will get absolutely huge, and a Monterrey oak. The Monterrey oak is also known as a Mexican white oak, and in this area they are generally evergreen. They lose their leaves in colder climates, but here in temperate central Texas, they stay green all year. We are going to also get some fruit trees - peach, apricot, and plum. The peach tree we get will be a Sam Houston peach tree, which is the same variety I grew up with. We may also get some crepe myrtles, and maybe a bradford pear or a flowering dogwood. Maybe also a sycamore. If you can't tell, I'm excited about trees, and the promise of shade.

The tax return is also going to allow us to go on a little trip during spring break. Brad has March 18-22 off. That's five whole days. On the 18th, which is our one year anniversary, we will be finding out the sex of the baby. Then after that we are going to drive up to Dallas to see Brad's sister and my best friend Shannon. I'm excited about getting to go out of town. With all the fertility treatments, it's been a long while since we have had the time and money to go anywhere. During the beginning part of spring break, I am going to try to get down to San Antonio to see my friends Penny and Jenny, and Jenny's new baby. I haven't seen either of them in well over a year, I believe. It may have been longer than that. Anyway, I'm out of here to go find something for dinner.

14 Weeks

I am 14 weeks pregnant, and I am tired. That is the main thing I can say about all of this so far. I'm just tired. I feel exhausted all the time, and I just want to sleep. The nausea is only occasional now, mostly in the evenings. I have not gained any weight, and I'm trying not to, but my little bit of a bump keeps growing. My back / hips hurt like hell. My pelvis is doing funky things, which pinches a nerve that makes my low back hurt really bad. I've been going to the chiropractor twice a week, and that keeps the pain mostly manageable. There's really not much else going on right now, and this a boring part of the pregnancy. Oh well.

Still Bitchin' as Usual

Yet again, it has been a while since I've updated. I am 13 weeks pregnant today. Pregnancy is still miserable. I can't take my allergy medicine, so I am now sick because of all the damn cedar. The all-day-sickness has subsided to just being evening nausea, so that's good. The cravings haven't stopped, though. Today, I absolutely had to have tater tots. My headaches have been getting steadily worse - I have one right now, so I am trying to keep this short. My back hurts like hell, and my chiropractor says it will likely continue to get worse. Lifting anything hurts my back, and my OB has restricted me from lifting more than 25 pounds for the duration of the pregnancy. Every night I come home tired and miserable. I have been living on tylenol, and tylenol PM. I go to bed early, and wake up still tired and sore. And I know it will just get worse. The next person who says, "Oh, you're past X milestone - now you can sit back and enjoy your pregnancy," is going to get slapped. Thus far, I have found nothing enjoyable about pregnancy, and anybody who says differently can bite my ass!

To make matters worse, even though I have not gained any weight, my middle has started to expand just enough that I have to leave my blue jeans unbuttoned. Nobody else can tell the difference, but in order to leave my jeans unbuttoned, I need longer shirts. Nearly all of my shirts are just not quite long enough. So I went to Wal-Mart yesterday to find some longer shirts. I discovered that fat chicks aren't supposed to get pregnant. The largest maternity shirt they had was an XL. There were plenty of smalls, but only like two XL's, which won't even fit me. So I had to go to the men's section and get huge men's shirts to find something long enough. I was so mad when I left there. Oh well.

Last Monday I went to my two doctor appointments. At the first one, I found out the results of my bloodwork. I got a 91 on the glucose test, which means I passed that bitch with flying colors. Hopefully I will do that well on the one at 28 weeks. Also, my thyroid is within normal range, so we don't have to adjust that either. Then I met up with my mom for the NT scan, and everything looked good. We found out that they only do a video at the anatomy scan, so I got some regular pics. The kid is starting to look a little more human, so that's cool. To get the baby to turn over so she could take measurements, she jiggled the ultrasound thingy around on my tummy. Boy, that pissed the little person off. I thought it was funny. I go back to my OB on Feb 23, and back to the perinatologist on Feb 24. Then I find out the sex on March 20. I can't wait. I'm excited about the whole baby thing, but the whole pregnancy thing I could really do without. I'm going to go lay down now -- or lie down -- whichever is the proper way to do it. Anyway, I'm out.

Lazy Me

Okay, so I've been really bad about blogging lately. I'd give you all sorts of reasons and excuses as to why, but mostly it boils down to one thing -- I'm LAZY! Granted, I have been going to bed several hours early nearly every night, due to sheer exhaustion. And I have felt nauseous pretty much all day, every day. But in the time when I could have been blogging, instead I have laid upon my fat ass watching TV and whining about how tired and/or nauseous I am. Real productive, right? It's not like I have been puking or anything - I haven't. I never throw up. I just wish sometimes that I could. In this first little bit of pregnancy, at one point I had lost 14 pounds. It's just that there wasn't anything I wanted to eat (weird, huh?). Although, I will admit that I have gained 3-4 lbs. back in the past few days, due to my weird cravings. Friday, I NEEDED nachos - lots of nachos. Yesterday, I HAD TO HAVE CiCi's Pizza. Several times, I have craved Chicken and Gnocchi Soup from the Olive Garden. And through all of this, Brad has been a good sport, bringing me what I crave. Well, he is still bitching about the time I made him go into the Olive Garden in grease-covered clothes after he had been working on Michael's car all day. But he's still been really good about it all.

On Monday, Jan. 12th, I got to go to my first appointment with my regular OB. It was really nice getting to go to an appointment where the doctor is willing to spend time with you, and listens to what you say. If anybody in Austin wants the name of a great OB/Gyn, just let me know. I've used him for years, and he is the best. So while I was there, he did an ultrasound. This was the first time I have had an on-the-tummy ultrasound. We weren't able to see very much, as his machine isn't that great for early pregnancy, but I did get to see the baby moving around inside the sac. It was measuring just over an inch long. I did get a printed picture, but you really can't see much. I also got scheduled for the Nuchal Translucency scan, for Monday, Jan 26th. That will be done at the Texas Perinatal Group. It should be a good ultrasound, and I will get a video of it. I also go back to see my OB that day. Tomorrow, I have to go do a test to make sure I don't have Gestational Diabetes. Normally, that vile test is done at about 28 weeks, but if there is a reason to suspect it, they do it earlier, and again at 28wks. I don't have a previous history of it, obviously, but since I am a fat chick with PCOS and a family history of diabetes, it puts me at risk. So I get to do the test early. Yay, what fun!

I think later on today, we will get a big box of chicken, and go for a picnic at the river. The high today is supposed to be 74. I realize it will still be too cold to go swimming, but the boys and the dogs can run around and play. Sounds fun to me. Everybody have a great day! Oh, and don't forget to vote in my poll over to the right. And leave a comment, so I know who bothers to read this crap. Laters!