I'm back again....

So here I am again...I know, I know, it's been forever. My friend Rebekah from high school is amazing about updating her blog a couple times a week, but it just takes a lot of energy, and I don't always have that after a long day at work!

There are so many updates to provide, but I will start with an update on my back pain. Some of you know that I have had back pain for probably at least two months now, resulting from my changing belly and posture. For awhile heat and rest worked to relieve it, but it has been getting progressively worse over the last few weeks, so I started physical therapy this week. She informed me that because of my long waist and posture, I have weak middle back muscles, and normally my abdominal muscles are strong enough to keep me up, but now that my abdominal muscles are weak because of the pregnancy, my middle back muscles are collapsing, thus causing the pain. So they have me doing exercises and stretches at home to strengthen my middle back and abdominal muscles, which should in turn help the pain. But no one told me that physical therapy meant they would make you exercise! 7:30 AM this morning was my appointment, and it kicked my butt! Oh well, hopefully these things will help to improve the pain over the next few months as my belly grows even bigger!

We went up to Eli's parents' house this weekend for Cailer's shower...it is so funny because it was such a Landers' shower :) They wanted just a little get-together, with no fru-fru games or unnecessary socializing...so we ate, did the gifts, and called it a day! I warned them that the Schwab shower at my mom's house in a few weeks will most likely be all the fru-fru stuff they hate, with a LOT of socializing! Haha...they said they are prepared and can handle it!

Here's Cailer and me with our bellies...she is 5 weeks ahead of me and due July 31st.

Because she is so little, my belly literally fits right over hers!!

It was wonderful to be up at their house though, it is so beautiful up there in Sullivan County, and I love it that Rooney can just run free and explore, and he comes back to us when we call him so we don't have to worry. He was an angel this weekend, even with tons of people around! Go figure....I don't get that dog! Since I was so proud of him for behaving well this weekend, I decided to take him to the softball game last night even though I said I wouldn't take him anymore....well, I'm not going to take him anymore!! Stupid dog, still barking and lunging at that men. I just don't understand because he was PERFECT with all the men this weekend...he's unpredictable and that's the problem. If anyone wants to contribute to the "Get a behaviorist for Rooney to nip this in the bud before baby comes" fund, please make checks payable to me! Haha....

Maile and Chris got a new puppy that they brought up this weekend, and he just adored Rooney...they were like brothers! The puppy wanted to do everything Rooney did, if Rooney sniffed something, so did the puppy. If rooney walked somewhere, so did the puppy. It was cute. The puppy kept trying desperately to get Rooney to play by jumping up on him and standing on his back, but Rooney just did his own thing. He did play a few times, and it was sooo funny!

Here is them playing:



So in other news, I noticed that a thing or two have been already been purchased off of our registry...I was not cheating, but I went in to check on something, and noticed that they were taken off the registry. This is getting exciting!

I don't know if you have heard of Freecycle; it is a Yahoo group where people post things they are getting rid of, and you can respond if you are interested and then you go and pick it up. Everything is free, and you never know what will pop up on there...I have gotten some good stuff! The Harrisburg group is huge, so you have to respond really quickly in order to get stuff. Well, last week I happened to be checking at exactly the right time when I saw that someone posted an offer for a bassinet and an Eddie Bauer vibrating bouncer....and I was the first to respond so I got it! I went and picked it up, and what a find! The basinett will be perfect for what we need; it has an area of discoloration where her baby pushed his head against the side, but it is white so i think I can just bleach it. And the bouncer was in perfect condition! It vibrates and folds completely up so you can even travel with it! I was sooo excited! I love Freecycle! If you want info on it, let me know!!

I need to start getting the room ready by clearing out the closet with all the linens in it that is in the nursery right now, but I just don't know where I am going to put them...it is a little overwhelming when we don't really have that kind of storage upstairs, but I will figure it out. I have to make room for things that I get from the shower before the room just gets full of stuff and I can't even move around!!

What else is going on? Well, we are starting small group this weekend with a group of young married couples and our friends Brandon and Carla, who have set it up. We are really excited, since we haven't been in a small group in over a year, and we are missing that part of our lives. It is good because Brandon and Carla have a little boy who was born last September, so they are kind of at the same place as us. I'm a little nervous since I don't really know any of the other couples, but it will be good to get to know them better. AND....everyone, except Brandon and Carla, lives on the East Shore! Finally, a group of people we can relate to! Haha...just kidding...but it will be good to have some friends on the East Shore, since the only ones left over there are us and Sara and Terry. We love you, Sara and Terry, but sometimes we just need some other peeps to hang out with!

Finally, Sara took me out to buy me a maternity bathing suit this week. Let's just say that she is "renting" my non-maternity clothes for the summer. She came over and raided my closets for everything I can't fit into, and she is taking full advantage of all of those clothes. In exchange, I made her buy me a maternity bathing suit that I need. I think that's a pretty good deal, right? Haha...as long as she doesn't shrink or ruin everything! It was kinda weird to be buying a maternity bathing suit, since we will be going to the beach the beginning of August and I will be massively huge by then! I can't imagine any of those suits will look good on me, but I found one that I think will at least function for me. I didn't purchase the thong like I had planned, but I think the tankini will work out okay :)

Okay, I think that's enough....here's a belly pic for you from this week. 26 1/2 weeks now! Saturday I officially start my third trimester!!!


Sorry it took me so long to do an update!! Sara and I head to California at the end of June, so I'll write a little more about that later!

I AM still alive!!

Haha....so here I am! Truth is, there are a lot of nights where I want to sit down and write a post on here, but my back hurts so much by that time that I just need to lay down, and I can't position the laptop so I can write at the same time!



My back has been really sore lately, and the only thing that relieves it is laying down on my bed for awhile. I called the doc about two weeks ago, and the nurse told me a physical therapy consult was a good idea and she would have the doc call me to set it up. Well, five days later, some other random doc calls (Kristen, it was a Dr. Hallowell??) and asks, "Any bleeding? Contractions? Still feeling the baby move?" Then she says, "Well, there is no reason to be concerned then...." I was like "Lady, I'm not concerned, I'm uncomfortable!!" Anyway, she was not helpful and told me to just wait until my appt on 5/30. That stinks.....



So much has happened since I've last written on here. I guess the biggest news is that we have the nursery painted, we have our crib, and things are actually moving along. It still feels so weird to think that this is just real life now....a baby is on the way. Last night I was relaxing watching tv, and I got up to go to bed, and I forgot that I was pregnant with this big belly!! It was actually a little bit depressing, to be honest, because I just don't feel very attractive lately. Eli is wonderful, always telling me how beautiful I am as a pregnant woman. But sometimes, all this new weight just feels big!



Eli and I started on our budget this month with our MICS (Money I Can Spend) money. Thanks to Sara and Terry, who have used this method for years, we are now practicing what it is to be living on one income. It hasn't been too bad so far, and actually it really helps me to think through things before I just go and buy them. I keep telling Eli that I should get some extra as a pregnant woman to fill cravings, considering almost all my money this month has gone to things like McD's hot fudge sundaes, iced coffees, snacks on the road, etc., but he just won't let me :) Oh well, I will have to curb my cravings at home.



So you all know how I collect milk ads and purchase a lot from Ebay? Lately, I've been so frustrated by those people who wait until the last second, and then they outbid you. So you think you won it, and then two minutes later you get an email that you were outbid at the last second! Anyway, I saw the cutest Got Milk baby boy newborn set on there. It had a bottle, bib, onesie, blanket, pacifier, and a bunch of other stuff that was blue with the Got Milk logo. It was going for 5 bucks with 5 bucks shipping, and I was going to use my MICS money to get it. I watched it until it was 11 minutes from ending, and there had been no other bids on it the whole time. Well, I was SO disappointed when someone else outbid me with 30 seconds to go. I was so excited about it! Oh well, I guess I should just let it go :)



It's been so long on here that I don't really even know what else to add. I guess I will add the latest belly pic. I'm looking forward to summer coming up, and especially to Sara and my trip to Cali to go to our cousin's wedding. It will be so good to see family that we literally have not seen in 14 years! Pretty bad, huh? We were hoping to do some sightseeing in San Francisco, but that doesn't seem to be working out to well with our family's schedules. It will be good times though, as long as Sara takes care of me when I need it! If you see her, remind her that she needs to take care of me while we are out there. Those flights and the time change are gonna be tough!



Believe it or not, I am really looking forward to getting some swimming in this summer. I feel like it will be very refreshing during this very hot, swollen, summer for me, and maybe I will feel a little lighter in the water!! Hopefully I can find a pool to swim in!



We are looking forward to a weekend with no plans this weekend. Last weekend my parents stayed with us, which was great, but it was also crazy with all the yardsaling and the whole family over in our little house on Saturday!! My mom and I got some awesome deals at the yardsales though. Up at at 'em at 7:30. Early bird gets the worm! Our deal of the day was this big Little Tikes toddler swingset, with 6 different swings (baby swing, normal swing, those up and down swings, etc.) and a slide....for 30 bucks!!! We took it apart for now and put it away until it is time to use it, but I was really excited about it.



Ok, that's enough rambling for now....here's what I look like now:

I know, it's not the most flattering picture, but I am trying to get one each week, and this was the only chance I had to take a pic.

I'll write more soon!! If you have any ideas to help with backache, feel free to share!

Baby's Room

Well, it only took us about 500 hours at Home Depot to pick the colors for the baby's room. We knew what we wanted, but we just couldn't figure out exactly which hues! It was actually kinda frustrating, cuz we kept asking each other, "well, which one?" And neither of us could decide. We don't know how to do paint stuff!

Oh well, we took our best shot. Eli primed it yesterday and painted the bottom half today. It is a really sweet shade of baby green :) He is going to finish the upper half tomorrow and then put the chair rail up. He's a wonderful guy! It is going to be really cute. We finally picked our bedding and crib, so things are moving in the right direction.

Last night we hung out with our college buddies, since Ari was in from Pittsburgh, and it was her birthday too! Good times....I was laughing so much that seriously, last night after we got home, I was miserable. My back was aching so bad and my stomach muscles were so sore from laughing. But I guess it was worth it! Friends are fabulous!

So my back has really been aching a lot....it started out over a month ago that it would be sore around 8 pm and I would need to lay down and rest with some heat. Well, by now, it is sore by about 11 am and not too much really helps it except laying down, and even then, when I get up it is sore again. I called the doc on Friday about getting some physical therapy or something else that might help, since I know it is only going to get worse. Sometimes it really hurts, but this is the price we mothers pay! Hopefully I will hear from the doctor tomorrow with some good news. Anybody with advice, feel free to give it!!

Well, on that note, I'm gonna lay down and get some rest. Later!

Running Errands - who knew it could be so fun?

This morning I spent the day with Amy, Emma, and Collin at Hershey's Chocolate World. We saw the Really Big 3D Movie. Good thing Amy had a BOGO ticket, because it was completely not worth it. They make you stand in this big room for like 15 minutes, waiting to get in, and then they tell you that you can go in. That means entering another, smaller, room, where you watch a boring short movie about the history of Hershey or something. This whole time, you and whatever children you have with you are standing. Then you finally go in to the theater and see the movie with 3D effects, which is pretty cool, but it lasts about ten minutes. Poor Emma was scared by the "silly, scary guy" on the movie, and just kept asking me to hold her more tightly. Then we got some lunch at McDonald's and Aunt Sara met us at the playground for some fun.

Moving on, later on this afternoon, Eli and I ran out to do some errands. We were looking at some baby bedding, buying some maternity undies (for me, not Eli :) and returning some things. Then we decided to stop over at Babies R' Us to look at a few of the things I registered for online and to look at their baby bedding one more time. We went over and looked at the carseat and stroller we chose, and we wheeled it around a bit to check it out. It got really good ratings and we liked it, so we chose it online, but hadn't really gotten to try it. I was showing Eli how to put the carseat in and close the stroller and stuff, and as he is carrying the carseat around, I had this "OMIGOSH" moment, realizing that in just a few months, there will be Eli's little baby boy in that carseat! It was weird, but really exciting.

For some reason, this time looking around at Babies R' Us was soo much more real than the last time when we started our registry. It was really cute to see Eli, who normally would have been pulling my arms off to get out of the store, actually participating in looking around and trying things out.

Well, I think that's it for now. This is my last week of my internship, and I only have two more nights of my social service class and then the semester is over!! YAY!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures of my beautiful baby boy!

3D Ultrasound?!?!?

Hey all!!!

Check these out:

This is my little baby boy!!!

So let me tell you what happened:

Yesterday I went over to Hershey to get another ultrasound, just because the sonographer couldn't get a good view of the spine last week. I went in and she started the ultrasound, and fortunately she was able to get some good views and everything was hunky-dory. There was a medical student in there observing. She was moving the little ultrasound-thingy around, and I was like, "Wait, are those 3D??" She was like, "Yeah, I thought I would do a couple for you." How awesome is that!!!?? The ultrasound technician, Jeanie, is one of the women that I work with in my internship at Hershey Med in Maternal Fetal Medicine, and she did our first ultrasound last week. She is so passionate about what she does, and a really great lady.

So then she says to the medical student, "Hey, I wanna show you the 4D ones." WOW!! 4D ultrasound is 3D, but in real-time. So I saw the baby moving, live, in 3D. It was soooo neat....we saw his mouth opening and closing, and we saw him doing some little boxing moves as well. Unfortunately, Jeanie is not able to record the 4D stuff, but she did give me the 3D images that she did.

Eli and I thought this was just gonna be a simple ultrasound to see the spine, and we had no idea that she would do a 3 and 4D one! So Eli wasn't there and didn't get to see them, but he has seen the pictures and he was pretty excited. Last week Jeanie told us that they only do 3D ultrasound for medical purposes, if there are concerns. But she so gratefully did it for me. I said "Wow, Jeanie, I guess it does help to know people huh?" She said "I guess so :)"

On a side note, during the regular 2D ultrasound, I asked if she still thought it was a boy. She zoomed over to the baby's little private area, and she was like "Oh yeah!" Haha...hilarious.

Anyway, I guess I forgot to officially tell you that our baby is a little boy!

Take a guess...

Ok, tomorrow I have another ultrasound just because they couldn't get a good shot of the spine last week. I will post more tomorrow after that...and I will post ultrasound pictures. I'm sure most all of you know by now what we are going to be having....if not, try to guess from this picture.

Don't forget to vote on my new poll!

The Ultrasound

What a day! Yesterday we had our 20-week ultrasound, which is the detailed ultrasound when they check out the anatomy, size, and other things, and they can see the gender! Going in, I oddly didn't have a feeling either way, I really wasn't sure if we were having a boy or a girl. But now we know!! I have to finish telling family and close friends, but then I will post it here later.

It was a great day though. We both took a full sick day, since our ultrasound and dr's appt were right in the middle of the day. We stayed up late and woke up late, then went in for our ultrasound. Our ultrasound was scheduled for 10:00 and then our dr's appt was at 11:20 down the street. Well, go figure, the ultrasound didn't happen until 11:10!! They were running reallly late, so we just kept sitting there waiting! It was frustrating, but it wasn't too bad. The whole time we were waiting, the baby was kicking like a maniac. I guess the baby was telling us to hurry up so we could see him!

This is us right before the ultrasound (what are we having???):

Since my internship works with Maternal Fetal Medicine at Hershey Med, I knew both of the ultrasound techs, and I was crossing my fingers that we would get the tech, just because she is really sweet and passionate about what she does. Sure enough, she calls us in for the ultrasound. So I lay down and she puts the jelly on my belly :) You know, they keep it in a warmer so it's nice and warm! So I lay down and she starts moving around, talking us through the entire time. It was amazing to see the baby kicking and rolling around, and then to feel it in my belly at the same time!! What a miracle! So she shows us all the separate pieces of the baby's body...brain, stomach, bladder, heart, kidneys, arms, legs, everything! It was so neat.

Then she says "Do you want to know the gender?" We told her we did, and she showed us the little baby privates we were looking for! We are soo excited!! I looked at Eli, and he looked at me, and I just felt so blessed. We are going to be a mommy and daddy!

Since I am on a medication and have been the whole pregnancy, our one concern was that the baby may have cleft lip or palette due to the risks of the medication (one of the main risks of this particular med). She looked for us, and the baby's lips and mouth appear to be perfectly normal! I am so thankful! She took videos of the baby moving all around and the heart beating like crazy.

At one point, she was trying to see the spine, and the baby wouldn't roll to the right position. She finally said "Mom, could you tell your baby to roll over so we can see the spine?" So I started poking my belly and coaxing the baby to roll over....AND THE BABY DID!! Haha....the tech said that she has only ever seen that one other time. What an obedient child we have already!

The doctor came in afterward and said there are absolutely no concerns at this point,but I do need to get another ultrasound next week just to see the spine since they couldn't see it yesterday. She put all the pictures and videos on a CD for us, and when I got home and tried to open it, it was empty!! I called over there and Jeanie said she would do another for me and have it ready for Monday when I go back for my internship. I can't wait to post it.

After the ultrasound (We know what we are having, and we are thrilled!):

It was an absolutely beautiful day! We went out to lunch at Panera, came home and took Rooney for a hike - what a workout! Then I took a little rest and we spent the rest of the day hanging out outside. It was just an amazing, wonderful, beautiful day! I praise the Lord for all of the amazing things He does in our lives, and especially for this little life growing inside, that will be out with us in the world before we know it!

I think Eli was just soo happy and he was taking all these pictures of me on the beautiful day...Even though they aren't the most flattering pictures, I will post them anyway:

Last but not least, we spent the evening together and watched the movie "Juno." Well, for some strange reason, it made me sob! Hormones, an exciting day, who knows? But it is an excellent movie...

Today it is off to Eli's softball tournament, then we head up to Allentown for college friends' Bruce and Steve's house parties. We can't wait to spend the beautiful day up there with friends! Tomorrow baby Collin gets dedicated.

I will post the pics and videos as soon as I get them from Hershey on Monday....

Until then, keep guessing the gender!