Sunday, November 30, 2008

USCIS TRIP TO NAPERVILLE

About a week ago, I was wishing that Jim and I could "get away" for an overnight trip, as we sometimes enjoy doing. It's nice to stay in a hotel (I have always loved it!) and be somewhere different, and feels like a mini-vacation. Well, the exact same day I was mentioning to a friend of mine how I wanted to do that, Jim got a notification from the USCIS that he had to go to Naperville to get biometrics. This is because he has just applied to have the conditions lifted on his permanent residency. Never mind the fact that he already did this two years ago (do fingerprints change??) . . .that's okay. It gave us the excuse we needed to get away!

We stayed about a mile from the biometrics office in Naperville's Staybridge Suites. We LOVED the hotel! It was clean and very nicely decorated. Our room was huge, and had a fridge, stove, microwave, sink, dishwasher, dishes, cable, HBO, DVD player . . .a couch, a desk, and a great view! On top of that, we knew that we would get "light Hors D'oeuvres" on Thursday night. This consisted of: mashed potatoes, gravy, turkey, sweet potatoes, really nice green salad, corn, biscuits, and breadsticks. This was served buffet style, all you could eat, and also included limitless wine (5 different kinds), beer (Miller Light and Samuel Adams Winter Lager), and soda (including iced tea, Powerade, and lemonade). Now, while I clearly couldn't take advantage of the beer or wine, I was still impressed by the offering, and Jim had a glass of pinot grigio . . .and when we go back next summer (which we've already planned to do!) I will certainly enjoy a small glass of wine. :)

That night we drove downtown to see the Christmas window displays at Macy's. It was a lot of fun, though we were a little confused by the window theme. I can't really describe it, except to say that it was like . . .little fairy-type creatures (kind of looked like Thing 1 and Thing 2) who made Christmas stuff out of Chicago . . .like bubblegum using bubbles from Lake Michigan. ?? Your guess is as good as mine. The poems were bizarre and did little to shed any light on the whole thing. But we had a great time and are glad we went! The only glitch was that I am pregnant, and a pregnant woman has to pee . . .a lot. So even though I peed several times before we left, I had to go REALLY BAD when we got there, and it being Thanksgiving, EVERYTHING WAS CLOSED!!!! And the people we asked for help we SOOOOO friendly (note the sarcasm). The clerk in the parking garage looked at me as though I were the dirtiest, most disgusting piece of human crap she'd ever seen and shook her head with a vengeance. hahaha Needless to say, I was relieved when we found a Walgreen's store open on the way back.

The next morning we enjoyed a huge full breakfast of waffles, oatmeal, cold cereal, omelets, bacon, sausage, hash browns, biscuits, gravy, donuts, muffins, bagels, toast, hard-boiled eggs, various fruit, yogurt, and various fruit juices. Yummmmy. We also discovered the hotel had a really nice pool, hot tub, and exercise room, along with FREE washers and dryers for guests! We debated for about 2 hours about going to the Brookfield Zoo. We had decided to go, when I started to feel a little heavy and crampy . . .which is "normal" (apparently) for this stage of pregnancy, but for someone like me, it's hard to know what normal is, and so we decided to take it easy instead. We agreed that the Brookfield trip will be another thing we do when we stay next summer, as well as Shedd Aquarium, The Field Museum of Natural History, The Museum of Science and Industry, and The Art Institute of Chicago. Looks like we'll have to stay for a week!

So instead of going to the zoo, we settled for coffee and reading at Borders, followed by a painful excursion into a parking lot . . .see, we forgot it was "Black Friday" (shuddering) and decided to go out for lunch at a Cajun place. So we turned into a mall parking lot at 12:50 PM, realizing instantly it was a mistake. They had traffic cones blocking off the turn we needed to take, because they wanted all traffic to move in a gigantic circle around the mall. There were very frustrated traffic cops at every intersection, and people literally (for real!) crashing their cars into each other, all trying to get the BEST DEAL! The circle was 2 lanes wide on each side. Well, we travelled all the way around, could not get over to the turning lane to get to the restaurant we wanted, passed the point where we needed to turn to get out of the lot because no one would let us over STILL, continued in another half-circle before FINALLY we caught a break and were able to get over . . .and turned out of the parking lot at 1:20 p.m. THIRTY minutes and several near-crashes later, we finally were free. I'm not even going to get started on how I feel about the way most people behave on "Black Friday" because this blog would never end. We ended up stopping about 20 miles further on our route at a place called Johnny Rockets, which was like an old-fashioned diner. We arrived home at dusk to pick up our whiny little Beagle from the kennel. And I say whiny only because it's very cute the way she whines when we get her . . .like, "How COULD you??" All the way home, we ask her about various favorite pursuits of hers, such as, "You want to see Sammy???" (our cat) and she howls hysterically.

All in all, we had a wonderful time and a little trip away from home was just what the doctor ordered. Now, back to reality. *sigh*



I had to post this, just so Jim's family could see what a dork he still is! hahaha

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Monday, November 24, 2008

UPDATE!

Okay, first and MOST IMPORTANTLY . . .the baby is healthy! I got the quad marker test results (finally) and they were absolutely wonderful, and the baby looked great today.

However . . .the moment we have all been waiting for, sadly, will not arrive for at least another week, possibly 3 weeks. Dr. Egley could not tell yet if it was a boy or a girl. So you're all just going to have to be patient--like mom and dad--until we can tell for sure!

I will be going back to Dr. Egley's in 3 weeks. I was not quite far along enough yet for him to check all the things he wanted to . . .but I am a lot less nervous for next time, being fairly sure this baby is healthy. If there are some problems, we will be glad to know so that we can get them taken care of after the baby is born. My prayer this whole week was to know that this is our miracle baby, and that whatever the test results came back, I would know that he or she is a PERFECT creation of God, and no matter what I would love and cherish him or her. And I prayed that we will be the best parents we can be to whoever this baby is. :)

Dr. Egley did tell me that Dr. Harrington spoke with him on the phone just this morning about my case, and about scheduling my C-section. They decided at that time that I should have the C-section at one day short of 38 weeks (possibly because I'll be 38 weeks on a Saturday?) . . .and by our calculations, that should be on April 17. Who knows--this could change, as we are all aware that things don't always follow a perfect plan. But if things happen the way Dr. Egley seemed to think they will, then April 17 would be a perfect day. I will have the steroid shots for the baby's lungs, just to make certain that everything is okay in the breathing department.

Next week I have an ultrasound with Dr. H, so we'll see if he can tell any clearer whether this is a he or a she! :) Please continue to keep us in your prayers--I am right smack dab in the "risky time" of this pregnancy. If we can get from 16 weeks to 26 weeks without problems, we should make it to the end just fine!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

QUICK UPDATE:

1.) Today my cervix measured 3.9 cm with no funneling. This is exactly what it measured the day BEFORE my surgery! When I was 15 weeks along with Sawyer, it was around 3 cm. So this is GREAT NEWS!

2.) Our OB has speculated on the gender of baby #3. He says he is 50-80% sure. :) So Jim made me swear to keep it a secret until after our high-level ultrasound in 12 days! I will announce it if we are able to see for sure on that day. Until then . . .I'm going to get a poll to have everyone vote on what they think! That should be fun!

3.) I started my p17 shots today to make sure I don't have preterm contractions. That thing hurt like heck. It actually BURNED going in, and still hurts now. However, it WILL be worth it in the end . . .I keep repeating it to myself to make sure I remember!

Wow--two for the price of one today! I'm on a roll!
Well, I have done it. I've started to believe. Kind of.

I felt the baby move recently, and it's been happening nightly. When I'm sitting or lying very still, I can sometimes feel him/her rolling around. Jim's been able to feel it once too.

I also bought some baby clothes. Steve and Barry's is going out of business, so I bought a few gender-neutral outfits and lots of baby socks. I also bought the sweetest onesie . . .it has baby Dumbo on it, and says, "Mama's Little Peanut."

I've also started to dream of putting the nursery together, of baby showers, and of all the things we will do to prepare for this little one.

I start my shots today. I am almost halfway through the pregnancy, and only 6 weeks away from the point where things have gone wrong before. I have a feeling I'm going to sail right through. I didn't have that confidence when I was pregnant with Sawyer. I was scared all the time. But this time, I know the TAC will hold. I have heard from several women who all made it full term, with no complications. I am praying for this every day. I pray no pre-term labor, no contractions, no gestational diabetes, no high blood-pressure. But most importantly, I pray this baby will make it as close to full term as possible with the TAC, and that he/she will be born healthy and we can take him/her home.

I have fallen in love, and I can't wait to meet our child for the first time. It makes me cry just thinking about it. I long for the moment I see our baby's face and look into his/her eyes . . .and just know that I am mom to a living child, finally. I miss our boys so much, but I know they will be SUCH a huge part of that moment. They will be part of our lives no matter what, and our third child will always know how much mommy and daddy love ALL their children, and how proud we are of them.

Little one . . .I can't wait to hold you. I have longed for this moment all my life. Your dad and I are waiting, every day, with the highest of hopes and hearts full of love.

(And very soon I should be able to stop with the him/her stuff and find out for sure!)