The end is in sight!

We have been living in a state of utter chaos and construction for the past few months and today there is an end in sight!!!

This is what I got to do last night to get prepped for texture

Today our friend Josh is coming over to texture the walls of our new office, the entry, the hallway, the kitchen patches and the hall bathroom(He doesn't know about that last one yet). After that I get to paint! I LOVE to paint walls. I will put on some music and my painting sweats, brew some coffee and go to town. I love to watch something as simple as paint completely transform a room...the whole feel is different afterwards. I'm not doing anything crazy with color this time....just taupe, but it will be a far cry from the white/blue paint combo, complete with a blue rose wallpaper border to separate the colors and an oversize chair rail, which were left to us by the previous owners. After the painting is done, it's time for Jon to put in the baseboards and new door trim. Then we get to move the office and I will finally have a place to put all the baby stuff that has been stacking up all over the place.

I am so excited that I will soon have my house back! I am brewing some coffee and waiting ever so patiently for Josh to get here so we can get started:)

Here are some pictures to show you what our lives have been like the past couple months:

Would this stress you out?

Speak up!

Yesterday was the last day of Brooklyn's swimming session. The teacher gave me her report card at the beginning of class and I eagerly opened it to see what new skills Brook had mastered and what we needed to work on together. Other than a note telling us we needed to do the same level again it was blank. If you have taken swimming lessons at the Aquatic center you have seen these report cards...they have a list of skills with two check boxes next to each one. One box says "Pass" and the other says "Needs Practice". Nothing was marked. As I looked over the skills I realized why nothing was marked; the teacher didn't teach half the stuff on the list! Seriously? She worked on skills that weren't even in the next two levels and skimmed over about half of the skills in her current level. I had been wondering if she was teaching the right skills for that level, but didn't want to say anything about it unless I was sure. She was really a very nice girl and the kids loved her, but it just seemed like she was treating it more like a summer camp than swimming lessons. So when I got the report card and realized that the reason she needed to repeat the class was because the correct skills were not taught to her I went to find the manager. I told her the situation, showed her the report card and asked to have Brooklyn evaluated to see what level she needed to be in. I was willing to have Brooklyn repeat that class if that is where they said she needed to be, with a different teacher of course. The head instructor got in the water and went through the list of skills with Brooklyn. At several points the teacher was met with a blank stare of confusion as she named a skill for Brook to show her, so they really got to see what was and was not taught. After seeing the teacher do the skills Brook was able to do them and the instructor said we could go to the next level! Yay!!! I made sure that they really thought she could handle the next class and weren't just passing her because I was there...that was not my intention. I really wanted to know what level she was so we could put her in the proper class. Having taught gymnastics for 7 years I have seen the effects of moving a child up to a level they are not ready for and I have also seen the effects of keeping a child in a class that they are too good for....neither are good.

Moral of the story folks: Speak up! Have your child evaluated if you believe they are in the wrong level of any class...in the long run it will save you time, money and frustration and will keep your child from boredom or feeling like a failure.

I left you Daddy...

This evening was so nice out...it cooled down enough that we were able to go out a bit before bedtime. Jon was working on the misters for my deck(Yay!), while Brook fed branches to the goat and I sat and watched all the animals playing together....it was a very peaceful evening.

Brooklyn ran past Jon on her way to get something from the house and then stopped and came back and said, "I left you Daddy!" Jon and I looked at each other and shrugged because, well, she's our daughter and she can be quite strange sometimes. She saw our look and decided to explain: "My heart is on the left side of me and so I left you means that I love you." Then she skipped off towards the house while Jon and I laughed and shook our heads.

I totally "left" that kid!

1 in 500

I had a doctors appointment on Tuesday and was told that I am growing right on schedule. The nurse listened to the baby's heart and his heart rate was around 128, which freaked me out until she told me that anywhere between 120 and 160 was "normal". Whew!

Dr Rodgers asked me if she had talked to me yet about the baby's heart......the ultrasound showed a bright white spot on one of the heart valves, called an Echogenic intracardiac foci (EIF). She told me that this white spot was a soft marker for down syndrome and that it increased my odds of having a child with downs from 1 in 1,000 to 1 in 500.

The tears that I tried so hard to hold back came flooding out as she said that she knew that we would not "do anything" about it, but that we could probably still do an amniocentesis to find out for sure. I asked if knowing now would mean there was something we could do to fix it and she said no. I told her that the amnio was not an option for us then...the baby either has it or he doesn't.

I sobbed all the way home. What parent wants to hear that there may be something wrong with their child? I prayed out loud as I drove home, still sobbing, and told God:

"Lord, I know that I can handle having a down syndrome baby; that you would not give me more than I could bear. I love this child and will take him in whatever form you choose to give him to me. I would rather have a normal healthy baby, but if you decide to give me one with downs I will love him just as much."

So now what? Now I learn as much as I can about down syndrome...and we pray and wait.

23 Weeks

23 weeks down, 17(ish) to go!!! Sweet! The baby is moving more and more, but Jon and Brooklyn have not been able to feel the kicks yet. Hopefully it will happen soon, because I think that will help them both to feel more connected to this baby.

Nausea has been replaced with heartburn.....even a small sip of water can give me heartburn. I have great energy in the beginning of the day and then crash by early afternoon....I have told Jon and Brook that if they need something done to get me early or they will be out of luck.

Here is the bump at 23 weeks.

Today I took Brooklyn to the river trail, where I walked and she rode her bike. We started at the Sundial bridge, went to Jump River park where Brook got to play for awhile and then we made the trip back to the bridge. It was such a lovely day.....the sun was shining bright and there was a wonderful breeze that helped to keep us from getting too hot. Brooklyn really enjoyed herself and got much more confident in her bike riding skills.

Brooklyn loved riding her bike across the bridge

Brooklyn and Mommy...what a fun morning!

I crashed hard when we got home and ended up being in pain and had to lay in bed all day long....I guess I may have overdone the whole walking thing:) It was worth it though for a special one on one day with my favorite girl.