And speaking of this precious babe......thank you for playing along in my little voting game! It was fun for me to see the comments come in and read through your thought processes! I deliberately didn't post all week, so as to give you all a chance to cast your opinion. And you did.....thanks! The vote, as most of you saw, was highly skewed toward Ellie, which is what it has been all along, with just one (Diana) voting for Lainey and 2 (my mom and Jenny) voting for Paige as the first name. 70% Ellie, 10% Lainey and 20% for "Other". The final call is still up for debate here in the the McLaughlin house. Funny thing is that we have hardly discussed it since the voting started. We haven't had much 'together time' though in recent days, so maybe sometime soon? Don't be surprised though, if her name isn't decided upon until we see her sweet face in person. It may just take that long! :)
Wow.....a week since I posted last?! We've been busy this week! Lots to recap!
Father's Day turned out great! Luke and I woke early (as always!) and let Ty sleep in for quite awhile before we began cooking his yummy breakfast. Luke was really into helping me prepare the veggies for our herb and veggie scramble, so we pulled a chair up to the counter (a typical place to find him these days when I am cooking) and I gave him a 'safe' butter knife to help me dice up some tomatoes and bell peppers. He did great (and it kept him away from the stove and me for a good, long while! hehe!)
Once breakfast was complete, we arranged Ty's tray with all the goodies and snuck quietly upstairs to wake him.
He was already awake though...having smelled the aroma of breakfast cooking downstairs. We shared our meal in bed anyway, and Luke was SOOOO excited to tell Daddy how much he helped cook his meal! We played awhile afterwards, and I caught a bunch of cute pictures of my boys, but this one was among my favorite.....just snuggling.
The rest of the day was quite mellow. We ran out to Home Depot for a bit to pick up some items Ty needed to begin work on his new work bench in the garage and then we spent the majority of our afternoon working (and playing) out front, while Ty sawed and hammered away on his bench. A prickly little creature ventured into our garage at one point, and Luke investigated him for a long, long time.
It was a furry, little caterpillar (Luke had never seen one up close before) and he enjoyed watching him scurry around the garage floor, and even picked some leaves to give him as he took the little creature for a ride in the back of his tricycle! :) Cute boy! After awhile, we decided the little guy (the caterpillar, I mean) was probably homesick and needed some rest, so Ty helped Luke take him to the planters in the front of the house to 'release' him. We met some of our new neighbors after that, and Luke quickly forgot about his little friend.
Monday brought another OB appointment for me. I am extremely happy to report that all is well! My blood pressure was nice and low (116/58!) and there are ***still*** no symptoms of the dreaded pre-eclampsia!! Hooray! There were a couple of small concerns I brought up to Dr. Hage though. One being that I do seem to be putting on weight a little faster than I think I should be for what I am eating. It's not drastic at all, but just something I have noticed. I don't have swelling though, so were are both pretty sure it's nothing to worry about, but Dr. Hage will run a blood test just to be sure there isn't something more brewing under the surface. The other concern I had was the amount of Braxton-Hicks contractions I've been having lately. Some afternoons they are pretty intense and go away if I lay down, but soon return once I'm on my feet again. Yet other days, they are mild or non-existent. There is no pattern to them though, and I have read enough to know what to look for in terms of pre-term labor, so he recommended for me to rest more and take it easy (is that possible with a toddler and a house to run???) and then to keep a close eye on them from here on out. Despite those two things, I left his office with another renewed sense of optimism about the pregnancy going to term! It seems that the closer I get to the end, the less worried I become and the more confident I feel. It's a nice change from the looming worry I had in the beginning.
On Tuesday, we had Gym in the morning, and then took a trip over to the hospital for Luke to see where we will go 'when its time for the baby to come out of Mommy's belly." We toured a post-partum room, where we talked about Mommy and Daddy staying 'night-nights' in the hospital with his little sister, and we even got to visit the cafeteria! Whoohoo! (Just kidding!) Luke loved the elevator and the trays in the caf. the best, I think! We also visited our old NICU buddies, had our picture take for their Wall of Fame, and I got to show Luke where he spent so many nights when he was first born. I took along his NICU photo album and showed him pictures of him in the isolette, and then pointed out one in the NICU. We talked about the nurses who took care of him and then talked with the ones who were working that day. We looked at pictures on the wall of our buddies Brayden, Jamie and Shawn and talked more about the whole experience. Then we handed over a bag full of Luke's old preemie clothes and preemie book we wanted to donate to them. The nurses were grateful for the clothes and I was happy to be able to share them (and get rid of them!!) since we will ****ahem**** no longer be needing them. :) Before we left home with the bag-o-clothes though, I had to snap a picture of Luke with one of the little outfits...just for comparisons sake.
It is crazy to remember that that little outfit (given to us by my friend Roni) was actually BIG on him! All of his preemie clothes were in the beginning. But look at him now! You would never know! :) Thank God for miracles! :)
Yesterday (Wednesday) we invited Sarah, her boys and Krystal and the twins over for a morning at the pool. We had a fun time splashing and playing! The weather was perfect for swimming....warm and dry, but not too warm. Just right. They all joined us back at home for PB&J sandwiches, Mac-N-Cheese and lemonade for lunch before we were all zonked and in desperate need for a nap! What a fun morning!
Its now Thursday morning, and Luke and I will either head to Circle Time at the 'brary or do our massive Costco shopping excursion this morning. Haven't decided which. The library is certain to be more fun, but we pretty much have NO food in our house, so maybe Costco is more of a necessity?
I'm looking forward to the weekend and my shower....errr Sprinkle....that my girlfriends are giving us. Sprinkle.....isn't that cute?! That's what Sarah called it, I think. Just a little sprinkle of gifts, since there isn't much we need for her arrival.....just girlie stuff and bedding. A celebration of this little life brewing in my belly! Ohhhhh! It should be so much fun! I'm excited! I'm so relieved and THRILLED to actually be pregnant for this one! A rite of passage that all pregnant mommies look forward to! I'm glad I get to experience it the 'normal' way this time! Not that my shower for Luke wasn't awesome....it was! And I was (and still am) incredibly grateful to have been given one, but in my heart, it just wasn't the same, since he had already arrived. Both a blessing (I got lots of boy stuff!!) and a little bit of a sad thing too. But....not this time around....this time around it will be normal, normal, normal! Yay! I got a super cute new dress to wear too! Fun!
So.....I think you're all caught up now. Sorry to cram so much into one post! Its kinda overwhelming I bet......a lot to read. I'll try to update a bit more often now, so as to keep it short and lessen the amount of 'skimming' you need to do! :) Until next time....enjoy the start of summer! :)
1 comment:
How about Ella? I have a friend here in Tahoe and her given name is Ellianna but we all call her Ella. That flows good with your last name. I know that voting has stopped but I am protesting. Enjoy Jenny
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