Franzi's Shower

First, just a quick update on Luke's health. He's doing much better. We're still doing his breathing treatments, but his appetite is much better and his spirits are way up. He's acting like his normal self.



Yesterday we headed to my Aunt Mimmy's house for Jamie and Franzi's baby shower. Jamie is my cousin (Aunt Miriam's son), and Franzi is his beautiful wife. She came here from Germany as an au pair several years ago, met Jamie, fell in love, and the rest is history :)

Oh man, Mom! This is a girl party!


Poor baby Andrea... "why are they doing this to me??"

Luke sharing his balloons with Mary Beth

He LOVED their big dog, Jack. He kept pointing at him yelling DOG!

Aunt Mimmy and Luke

Proud Aunt Katie and Baby Andrea

Franzi had her sister Stefanie in Germany on Skype for most of the shower so she could be there with her. Stefanie is also due to have a baby VERY soon. I think within two weeks of Franzi.

Jamie making a strange face, which is very normal for him.


booties that Lynsi crocheted for me to give them. Little Converse sneakers!

Luke playing gift bingo with his cousin Isabelle.

We're so happy for you Jamie and Franzi! Congratulations on your beautiful growing family. Love you so much!

After the shower we went home and rested for a little while and then headed out to meet my fam at Sakura. It was Luke's first time and he LOVED it. He ate my whole bowl of soup/broth and loved when they set the grill on fire. He also lost his freaking mind when Tommy was catching shrimp in his mouth. He was laughing so hard and jerking back and forth like he was dancing kind of. It was hysterical. I'm so happy that he's feeling better.

That's about it for now. I'll be back later in the week for my 13 week update. 2nd trimester, here I come!

Update on Luke and 12 Weeks

We ended up going to the ER last night because Luke didn't sound any better after he had several nebulizer treatments and had a fever of 102.9. He had a chest x-ray and they determined that his lungs are clear and it's just an upper respiratory infection. So, I'm just monitoring his temperature and keeping up with the treatments. He seems to be in much better spirits today. Yesterday he was crying for no reason and getting really worked up and not able to calm down. Very unlike him. I feel much better knowing he's not in any "respiratory distress" and I think he'll be better in no time.

Here's what Alphamom has to say about week 12:
Your Baby:

• Is about two-and-a-half inches long. So still in the lemon/lime range. Comparison reruns! Sorry about that.
• Already has pretty much every structure, organ and system needed for life by this point. Everything will continue to develop and mature, but your baby really is a perfect little miniature human being.
• Reproductive organs are distinctly male or female. A 3D ultrasound could possibly make a pretty good guess at the sex now.
• Can officially be Bugged By You. Reflexes have developed, so if you push on your uterus, your baby will squirm and move in response. You can’t feel it, but it sure is fun to imagine getting flipped off by your fetus.

You:

• Are you feeling better? I hope you’re feeling better. I keep thinking I’m feeling better and then I’m not. And then I am again! And then I smell whatever it is that you’re eating over there and BLEH.
• Have a big-ass uterus now — too big to remain all low in your pelvis. It’ll sort of grow and migrate upwards during the second trimester. Pros: you won’t have to pee so much. Cons: your baby will better be able to land many, many karate chops to your internal organs.
• Are probably in some maternity clothes now, especially if this isn’t your first pregnancy and/or haven’t lost weight due to morning sickness. The whole waist-butt-thigh region is spreading, and it’s best to just go with it and be comfortable.

I've been feeling kind of blah and stressed out this week. I just feel tired and overwhelmed all the time. I have a pain in my back in the lower right side that I'm being a total baby about because I've never had back problems before. I've also woken up with a headache most mornings and sometimes can't get rid of it. I just can't wait for my favorite parts of pregnancy like my growing belly and feeling flutters and kicks.

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Sicky Boy

Poor Luke is not feeling so hot. Actually, we're all sick. I took Luke to the doctor yesterday and she said his ears were clear and his chest sounded good and said to just use saline drops and turn on his humidifier. He had a horrible night last night and I ended up bringing him in bed with us for a couple of hours until I couldn't take it anymore because he is a horrible bed companion! Now he's coughing alot, which he wasn't doing yesterday, and sounds very short of breath and wheezy. It sounds like it's taking alot of work just for him to breathe. I have a call in to his doctor's office because I don't want to end up at after hours care this weekend like we did last time we let it ride. Also, because I'm off all day today and don't want to wait until tomorrow when one of us will have to take off. I'll let you all know how everything works out!

11 Weeks!

The last week or so has been pretty rough.  I’m super emotional and have been sick most mornings.  But, this is still nothing like my sickness with Luke, so I’m trying not to be too whiny. 

Here’s what alphamom has to say about week 11:

Your Baby:

• Is the size of a small lemon or large lime. With a twist! Yeah, we’re done with the bean and nut comparisons and have moved onto fruit. Next stop, small household appliances!
• Is officially a fetus, and is downright human-baby looking with non-webbed fingers and toes, although s/he needs a lot more cooking and fattening up.
• Is moving and kicking and dancing and even hiccuping, although you won’t be able to feel the acrobatics for a few more weeks (sometime between weeks 16 and 20).

You:

• Please, it’s just all more of the same. The pregnancy books are all yapping about how much better and less sick/exhausted/crabby we should be feeling by now, and I spent a very productive morning hurling several particularly annoying tomes at the wall.

Oh Yeah, THIS: I have zits all up in my hairline. I suppose that’s significantly better than getting them right on my nose, or something, but MAN, this is annoying.

It’s so weird that she says that about zits in her hairline because I keep getting big pimples in my hairline on my neck.  Luckily they’re not visible at all and really don’t bother me, it’s just weird. 

Another thing that’s driving me crazy that was the same with Luke is that my eyes are SO dry and by the end of the day I just want to claw my contacts out. 

I just can’t wait to get through the first trimester and hopefully get some energy back! 

18 Months!

Okay, so a little late on the post, but we just had his check up on Wednesday.  Luke is in the 5th percentile for height and weight and the 50th for head circumference :)  A normal sized head on an itty bitty body.  He is such a little guy!  21 lbs, 13 oz and 31 1/2” long. 

Luke seems to be saying new words every couple of days and is starting to use his words to actually identify things like dog, car, ball, juice. 

His personality grows every day and he keeps us laughing.  He has starting doing karate kicks.  He’ll kick his leg and say “yah!”  He loves music and loves to dance. 

He is getting good at his puzzles and has one that he can put together by himself all the time, and one that he can get quite a few pieces in usually. 

He is generally a very good listener and I’ve been breaking the habit of automatically carrying him in everywhere we go and LOVE when I can get him out of the car and tell him to hold Mommy’s hand and we walk into a store or a restaurant hand in hand.  He just seems like such a big boy and he is so well behaved (most of the time.) 

He has been indulged twice this last week when he saw the cage of balls at Giant and started pointing and yelling “BALL!  BALL!”  He got my Mother one day and my sister a couple days later. 

And now, for the good stuff.  My child is the cutest thing to ever walk into Portrait Innovations :)

We went there last night to get pictures done to give to my MIL for her birthday.  The family is coming over to our house this evening to celebrate.  Well, we got there and were told that their printer is down!  So, then we had to spend $100.00 to get the CD so that I can go print some pictures today so that we have a gift for her!  Also, we got there at 5:20 for our 5:30 appt. and weren’t brought back until almost 6:30!  I’m pretty happy with the pictures they got, and I think the prices were decent, but the wait was not cool. 

Week Recap & 10 Weeks!

It's been so busy lately, time is just flying by! Saturday I went straight from work out to dinner for my BFF Melissa's birthday at the Melting Pot. Tommy and Luke had lots of quality time together that day and Tommy took him to Hooters for the first time. :) Luke came home with an I <3 Hooters balloon that he's been playing with since. Sunday was just catch up day and running errands. Luke really needed some new shoes so we went to Kohl's and I did find a good pair on clearance there for about 8 bucks, so then I thought I'd go ahead and get him another pair since those were so cheap. We went to Famous Footwear and oh. my. goodness. I bought Luke two pairs of Stride Rites when he turned one and that's pretty much what he's worn since, so I've never really looked at shoes. I wish I hadn't realized how many adorable baby shoes were out there! I could not decide!! Everything was SO cute! I wanted to buy him like 6 pair!! I finally decided on these adorable little DC's.

He looks like a baby skater boy. There was a pair of Pumas that are still calling my name, though. Then, Jason (Dean) and Randy (Robinson) came over to run with Tommy. They ran four miles while Luke and I napped :) Brittany joined us and I made a big steak and shrimp dinner and we feasted to end a beautiful Sunday. Yesterday for Valentine's Day I came home to flowers from Tommy and Luke, both of my Valentines. Tommy had to dump all of the animal crackers into a Tupperware container because he couldn't find another vase in the house :)

Handsome Devil

Then, we went and had our taxes done. HA! I don't know why I find that so amusing, but seriously? Having your taxes done on VDay?? What losers. But, I'm not a big Valentine's person, I hate crowds, I hate waiting at restaurants, and it's a Monday. Who wants to go all out on a Monday? So, Tommy and I have vowed to have a date night before the end of February! Dinner, movie, the works. And now, here's what Alphamom has to say about 10 weeks: Your Baby:

• Will officially be considered a fetus by the end of this week.
• Is over an inch long, maybe by as much as 3/4 of ANOTHER WHOLE INCH. That’s almost TWO INCHES.
• That’s about the size of a…hmm…*glances frantically around room*…okay, it’s slightly bigger than a really big coat button, but not quite as long as a AA battery. There.
• Has a heartbeat strong enough to be heard via a Doppler.
• Most congenital conditions appear before the end of week 10, meaning the most delicate and critical development period is over. You can breathe a sigh of relief over that, but…uh, I wouldn’t go celebrate the milestone with a bathtub of gin, or anything.

She also mentions how she cried over all kinds of stuff on tv. That has definitely been me this week, except it's the radio!! I have cried while listening to/singing "If I Die Young" by The Band Perry, "All American Girl" by Carrie Underwood, and I had an extremely emotionally charged moment with Boyz II Men "On Bended Knee" while singing at the top of my lungs and making hand/arm movements. And crying. I also sobbed at the show "One Born Every Minute" when it looked like one little baby girl might have a problem. But everything turned out just fine.
So that's it for the moment. I'll be back to update soon because my big boy is 18 months on Saturday!! I can't believe it! Tommy is off work Friday and it's supposed to be beautiful, so he's going to take Luke to the park. I'm so excited because Luke hasn't been to the park since he was too small for it. I think he'll have alot of fun at this age.

Adorable!

Just a couple of pictures...

I thought Luke looked like a sweet little lumberjack yesterday with his flannel shirt and work boots



This morning I walked in his room with my camera ready. I didn't know if he was awake, asleep, happy, mad... I just walked in and snapped a picture and this is what I got!