Goodbye Bill

This morning we found my horse, Bill, down in his run with his foot stuck in the fence.  After freeing his foot he didn't try to get up.  He was cut up, in shock, shivering, eye bleeding and his tongue out of his mouth.  We called the vet and she came and helped us roll him.  He still didn't try to get up.  She also saw some movements in his eyes that may mean he fell and had a hard hit to his head.  We just won't know for sure what happened but I am haunted for how long he may have been like this overnight without anyone there to help him.  He was in obvious pain and we decided to put him down.  I got Bill when I was 14 and he has been with me for 23 years. He was my best friend through some very tough teenage years and has been by my side while I've graduated high school and college, had career success and failure, got married and had a baby.   He will be so greatly missed.  Goodbye my friend.

Weekend & 1st Belly Pics

We had a good weekend and even made it down to finals weekend at the National Western Stock Show.  For those who don't know I grew up showing horses and while rodeos were never part of those shows I admit to really liking one now and then.  I've only missed the NWSS a handful of times in my life so it was really fun to be able to take K for her first time.

Before the rodeo we went to the petting zoo.  There were llamas, pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, ducks, mini donkeys, etc.  She said her favorite was the mini donkey but she spent the most time petty the goats.

You can see the rodeo has K's full attention.  She was a good watcher for hats - after each ride she would tell me if they kept their hat on or lost it.  If they lost it she was very concerned until it was picked up.  Afterwards she's been talking a lot about how many people fell of the horses and how high the horses and bulls jumped.  She also invented a pink horse named Isabelle that she rides through the house.

Then yesterday we spent some time in the hot tub (which is a warm tub right now since I'm preggo) and she was sporting a new swim suit.  Moving into 3T, sigh.  And yes, that is a boo-boo on her chin.  She had a run in with a kid on a tricycle on the playground Friday, neither of them were looking where they were going *shocking*

On Friday I turned 15 weeks =)  The sickness is gone and I'm feeling much better.  Energy seems to be returning too.  To date I've gained 4lbs but most of my normal pants are getting uncomfortable and I'm starting to wear maternity pants a few days a week.  The rest of the time I'm relying on the old hair tie trick.

K wanted to be part of the belly pics too too =)  

I'm feeling bigger than I seem to look in pictures.  

Random Bullet Updates

K Updates:

• K is now 100% over the flu and it looks like M and I escaped it *whew*  I do seem to be coming down with a cold though =(  Hopefully it's a mild, short one.  
• After some seriously cold weather for what seems like forever we had a weekend with highs in the 50's.  We took K to the park on Sunday and I was amazed at the difference she has in playing on the big play equipment since last time we were there (September we think).  She was running all over that thing and going doing the biggest slides without any worry at all.  Big girl!
• Next weekend we're taking her to her first rodeo.  We'll see what she thinks =)

C Updates:

• My Mom bought some things for Cole's (heretofore called C) room to start decorating =)  We're using the "Curly Tails" monkey theme for his room.  I can't wait to start putting it together.
• This last weekend I pulled out the boy clothes I've been given and organized them into sizes to see how much newborn stuff I have.  K was in newborn clothes for 6 weeks and could have actually used some premie stuff at the beginning (she was 6lb8oz at birth) so I'll need some smaller stuff than I currently have.  
• I also made my way through the maternity clothes I have and tried to determine what else I need.  Yesterday I had a 1/2 day at work so I went and got a pair of jeans and a pair of dress pants to help round out my closet.  
• K is talking more and more about her baby brother and likes to put her hand on my belly and say "my baby brother is in there".  Adorable.
• Yesterday I had an OB appointment (14w3d) and all looks good.  I asked about circumcision and the doc said it's about 50% here in our area, interesting.  I also asked about tying my tubes.  While we needed IVF to get pregnant and a miracle natural conception would be SHOCKING I also don't want to have to worry about it.  So we'll probably get the old tubes tied when I'm having C.  
• Our next two appointments (Feb 4th and Mar 4th) will both include ultrasounds =)

Flu Update & Name Decision

K is getting better =)  Her temp was 99.2 without meds yesterday so that's fabulous.  Now it's just getting her cough and congestion under control.  M and I are splitting 1/2 days with her until she's ready to go back to school.  Lucky we both work so close to home and can do that.

We decided on a name for the little man - introducing Cole Patrick!

NT Scan & the Flu

Our NT scan was yesterday at 13 weeks and everything went great =)  Our little man appears to be an exhibitionist and gave a money shot so we've verified that the MaterniT21 results were right.  His heart rate was 156 and he's measuring at 13w2d.  Our leading names right now are Cole Patrick and Jameson Patrick.  Votes? 

The bummer was that M couldn't come with me to the scan because K needed to go to the doctor and be tested for flu.  She came back positive for influenza A and was so sick yesterday with a fever of 104 that would only come down to 102 with meds.  She was seriously pitiful =(  She is now on Tamiflu and the ped suggested my DH go on it as well (the preventative course) and that I check with my OB about going on it as well.  My OB doesn't want me on it unless I show flu symptoms.  K is much better today and the fever is only 100 without meds and normal with meds.  She had her flu shot so hopefully it won't be as severe as it would be otherwise and we caught it so early the Tamiflu can hopefully help a lot too.  Poor thing!

Test Results Back

The MaterniT21 test results came back on Friday.  The nurse left a message at 5:15 while I was in K's daycare picking her up that all the Trisomy tests came back normal.  How awesome is that?!?! Such a huge relief =)  

The rest of her message said that they didn't leave gender results on voice mail and I'd have to call for that information.  Problem was their phones turned off at 5 pm so I got a very sassy, "so I guess we'll be speaking on Monday", section of her message and have been on pins and needles all weekend.  

K has been adamant since before we were even pregnant that she was going to have a sister one day.  I thought it was a girl from my very high betas, the high heart rates, the fact that I've been sick, etc.  M thought it was a boy.  Fast forward to today and I called the OBs office right at 8:30 when the office opened but had to wait until 10 am for the nurse to call me back.  But here it is folks....

A small part of me is a little sad to never get to use all those cute girl clothes I've washed and saved from K's early days but overall I'm thrilled...and surprised.  It will be nice to have one of each and I hope they will teach each other how to treat the opposite sex...nicely =)  A mama can dream.

We still can't hear the heartbeat on the doppler so worry is kind of creeping in.  I remind myself that when I was pregnant with K it was easy to pick up the heartbeat because of my anterior placenta and I don't have that this time around.  Friday is our NT scan to check for any major structural deformities and after that test I will hopefully take a deep sign of relief.  So far so good, fingers crossed it stays that way!  

Off Meds & Graduated!

The Good:

December 30th was my last day on the progesterone and estrogen I've been on for the last 11 weeks.  Whew!  I'm so relieved to be off all the meds =)  Nice little New Year's present for sure.  I had blood drawn for the final time at my REs today and everything looks good so I got the official "graduation" talk from my nurse and from now on I'm just a regular preggo!  We had blood pulled for the MaternT21 test last week and should have results by next week *drums fingers*

The Bad:

My home doppler isn't picking up the heart beat yet and it's making me nervous.  I will be 12 weeks tomorrow (YIPPY!) and by this time I could find K's with the doppler.  I know things are probably just fine but I'd feel a lot better if I could check in on the wee one.

The Ugly:

Still sick almost all day every day and still exhausted.  No vomiting though which I'm thankful for.