Baby Murph

We are at the halfway point for Baby Murphy. We have decided for this pregnancy to not find out the sex, which I have found incredibly difficult. I like to plan things, so not knowing what kind of baby we'll be bringing home is a little overwhelming. We have everything we need if it is a girl, but what if it is a boy?! What will we do?

The hubs has decided to name this baby Murphy, because of Murphy's law. So far, everything that can go wrong, does. Except of course, we do still have a healthy fetus growing. It's been hiccup after hiccup though.

At 6 weeks, I had intense cramping on my left side. They wanted to rule out an ectopic pregnancy, so I had a transvaginal ultrasound with my date LaWanda. (Side note, for anyone interested, I am a huge proponent of NOT forcing women to have this test done. They are uncomfortable, painful, and awkward.) They found a healthy fetus with no reason for cramping. They also mentioned that the baby's heart rate was low, and that I should prepare for a possible miscarriage. I had  repeat ultrasound a week later, expecting there to be no heart beat, but hoping for the best. The heart beat was still there. Great! However, we know the odds were still against us, because 70% of all pregnancies with a 6week heartrate of below 100 ends in miscarriage. Murphy's was 89 at 6 weeks, and 126 at 7 weeks.

At 9 weeks, I was at work and experienced very severe abdominal pain and cramping. So bad, in fact, that I almost made myself a patient at work. I was able to hide out in one of the rooms and one of the oh-so-kind docs did a quick pelvic exam to find my cervix was still closed and paged the OB on call. I found out the next day that I had a cyst that ruptured. While they'd normally do a CT to confirm, that wasn't an option so they did another ultrasound which showed some fluid, consistent with a burst cyst.

At 12 weeks, the doctor couldn't find the heartbeat via doppler. It took the ultrasound machine to see that the baby was doing flips, literally. Even then, it was hard to get a number so we knew a heart rate.

At 19 weeks, I tried to electrocute myself unplugging a light in the basement.

Yesterday, I found out that I have a low lying placenta which will have to be monitored to make sure it moves up away from the cervix before delivery. 

I keep expecting the worst, because besides morning sickness, I had no problems with Tessa when I was pregnant. There are tons of little things that keep popping up.

But, on or before August 30, we will have Baby Murphy here!

Couponing at its finest

Last fall, I stumbled across a coupon that had a big payout. Proctor and Gamble released a coupon for $8 off any 2 Covergirl face products. I scoped out Walmart and found that mascara and eyeliner were about $5 each, and the eye shadow was $3. Hmmm... that meant I could get free Covergirl stuff, as long as I had the coupons for it.


Well, my fabulous husband produced 36 newspapers left over on Sunday night from the gas station he frequents on his overnight shifts. So, I now had 36 Covergirl coupons. I went to Walmart, grabbing 72 Covergirl products, and got them all for free!! I thought that was such a smoking deal. But, then it got better. About a week later, I stumbled across a rebate.This rebate stated that if I sent in $50 in receipts showing I had purchased Proctor and Gamble products, I would get a $10 rebate card and a Breast Cancer Awareness Bakeware set. I figured I'd give it a shot, just in case it worked. If not, I was out the stamp. The best part? The Covergirl products I'd gotten for free from coupons were included in this, so all I had to do was send in the receipts from those transactions!

I received the $10 Rebate Card about a month later, and figured I just wouldn't get the bakeware set. No big deal. I was still way up. Then, last week, a mysterious box showed up. I had no idea what it was, I certainly wasn't expecting a package. I opened it, and lo and behold, it CAME!!!!

It is so cute, and it is actually pretty decent stuff! Coupons For the Win!

Hairpain

Yesterday we embarked on a journey. A journey that took us 756 miles, across 3 states, 2 airports, and one car ride. We ended up at the front door of my brother! We flew from Des Moines to Denver, the first time we made this trip out of Des Moines rather than Omaha, and the first time with Miss Tessa.



She did very well...once we actually started moving in the airplane. She ran around in the airport, laughed at the TSA agents, and made some new friends waiting to board. She tried to climb over the seats and got angry when we strapped her into the seatbelt. Once we got moving though, she was out. She started to wake up as we touched down in Denver. Luke was waiting for us by baggage claim, and we were in the car in no time, heading to Littleton. When we arrived, 2 little faces were waiting anxiously by the door, Jaxon and Noah, our nephews! So far, Tessa has had quite the fun with them, although she overwhelms the mellow Noah.

Bob

When my nephew was younger, he had a favorite book. Officially, the book is called 15 animals, but really, it is the Bob book. Tessa received this book from her aunt and uncle and it has quickly become one of her favorites. She has started to bring the book to Joel and I and beg for us to read it. We finally caught her reading it the other day!

Valentine's day

In honor of Valentine's day, I'm filling out a questionnaire about the hubby and I.

1. How long have you and your significant other been together?  10 years, 2 weeks

2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?} T-ball, then 10 years later at band camp

3. If married, how long have you been married?  Married 3 years, 1 month

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding? January 3, 2009. Capitol City Baptist Church. We had 250 guests. 

 

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Babe, Delaney, Hun.

 

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey. His passion for helping people, dedication to us and work, his patience. He is so calm and cool.

7. Tell us how he proposed? Or your ideal proposal? He bought me an empty 8x10 picture frame and gave it to me 3 days before Christmas. I asked him why the hell I would want an empty frame and he said it was for our engagement pictures. Then he busted out the ring.

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals? Just strawberries, dipped in chocolate. Yum!

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch? Movie and couch. In fact, many of our dates were a movie rental, popcorn, pop, and a big comfy blanket for snuggling. 

 

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere? He would love to travel to Australia so I would love it too. Or Europe. Or a spa trip somewhere sunny.

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day. Not too much. We don't celebrate much but we'll rent a movie or something. 

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day? To sleep in for a day!!

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love. If someone says I love you, always say it back. Kiss hello and goodbye.  

14.  Show us a picture of what love means to you

Dancing Queen

Tessa likes to jam. A lot. She's got moves like Jagger. Well, maybe Jagger now, not in his prime.

Yep, I'm here

Here's an update about our month, and then I swear I'll get better about blogging.

• My little genius somehow knows how to spell BATH, or at least knows what spells B-A-T-H. Everytime we try to spell it out so Joel can go get ready for work in peace, she takes off for the bathroom, saying "Bath. Bath. Bath. Bath. Bath. Bath," and trying to climb in the bathtub. Luckily it's a deep tub or she'd be in it with the water on.
• Joel is still working plenty of overtime every week, which limits our time as a family. 
• Tessa is obsessed with her baby. At least 15 times per day we wrap her baby in a blanket, she gives it hugs and kisses, and puts it "night night". But she doesn't like her baby sleeping for long, because sooner or later she's back with the blanket and the baby, asking for it wrapped again.
• We've been having a sleep regression the last few weeks. Every night between midnight and 1, she wakes up crying. I'll let her cry a few minutes but usually end up going to get her. She falls back asleep easily in bed with me/us, and will sleep on top of the comforter at the end of the bed until morning. I realize I should let her cry, but mama needs to sleep and get up for work so this works best for everyone, at least for now. 
• I'm harboring a clean freak. Every time she sees trash or empties a package, she obsessively needs to find a garbage and put it in the "trash." Every time she sees crumbs she tries to get the broom out of the closet and sweep it towards the central vac. 
• We've been in our house for 2 months now and there is still nothing hanging on the walls. We'll have to change that.
• We got a new kitchen table! Joel's parents bought us one for Christmas and it finally came last week. It's bigger than our last one and seats more people, but looks smaller and fits in the small dining room so much better.
• Tessa is a monkey. Seriously. She loves to climb onto the couch and sit like a big girl. She loves to sit at the table and sit in adult chairs. 
• She passed her 15 months appointment. She was 21 pounds, 12 oz (just under 25th percentile) and 30.5 inches long (60th percentile) Her iron levels were back to normal so we can just do regular flinstone vitamins instead of that yucky poly-vi-sol crap.
• My stomach is still bothering me, and with no solid answers, it's frustrating. Oh well.

Live and Learn

I tried a new recipe tonight. By recipe, I mean I threw some random crap on top of some stuff and cooked it to see what would happen. I'm a mad scientist in the making.

I had gotten some free boneless ribs thanks to couponing ($2 off any ribs, wait for a sale=4 pounds of free ribs!) I've never eaten ribs in my life, and Joel has only had them on the bone, but he certainly had never been a part of the cooking process.

So, I grabbed some spices, a couple random sauces, and the ribs and I threw it all in the crockpot. When I say random, I mean random. Adobo, garlic powder, ketchup, chili paste, worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, and teriyaki sauce. Oh, and a pound of carrots I'd frozen earlier in the year. Threw it all together, and turned the crockpot on low. 5 hours later, I had cooked ribs that smelled delicious. I took a bite. The flavor was ok, but it was so.farking.salty. Wow. I guess that what happens.

I took a few bites, then faked a stomach ache and excused myself. Joel was a trooper, and either didn't want to say anything negative, or actually liked them. I'm not sure which. Tessa wouldn't eat it, so she got a hot dog and some cheese cracker sandwiches. I'm now eating Mike & Ikes. Next time, we'll try a different recipe, maybe one that someone else has had success with.

Here's to a new year!

We had a very busy Christmas week with so many different families (6 different Christmas celebrations I think!) By Christmas day, we were down to our last one, and were kind of relieved that the whirlwind week was coming to an end. Tessa, of course, got spoiled rotten. What I wasn't expecting was for us to get spoiled as well! We had so much fun with everyone, especially my brother and his family from Denver. We've already booked a flight in March to go visit. It'll be Tessa's first airplane ride!

christmas is here!

We have been busy bees around the house getting everything set up in our new home! The Christmas tree is up, there are ornaments on the top half of it (Tessa is destructive), and I've already baked a batch of Christmas cookies. I didn't go all out with decorating this year since I figured I should spend time unpacking boxes instead of hanging a wreath, but we're still feeling the Christmas spirit.

I decided to buy Tessa an Ergo baby carrier for Christmas this year. It's really more of a gift for me, but I use it for her. We tested it during the sugar cookie bake-a-thon which turned into naptime for Tessa. Joel likes it too he's decided. She's also getting a couple puzzles, a few books, some clothes, and a stocking full of little goodies. Oh, and these. <---My favorite gift of all.