Baby GIRL

Real quick update:

Bethany Lynn was born on June 27th @ 736am
8lbs, 14oz
21 inches long

Short, dark hair and a bundle of joy. She latched on right away, sleeps wonderfully (so far) and is such a blessing to us. Big brother likes her and runs around saying her name although at this point he's still the center of attention. We're home today and doing well!!! More later

I'm still here

Just an FYI that I'm still here. Yesterday was my last day at the office and it was nice to get the loose ends tied up.

Hubby is gone for the weekend camping with the guys. Although its not the best time for this kind of trip, I was glad for him to have a "guys" weekend. He's been good to call several times already to check on me and the little man. I hope he enjoys his time relaxing on a sand bar on the Mississippi.

I, on the other hand, am home. Last night my buddy Meg came over to make me supper. We had a lovely spaghetti, sugar snap peas, garlic cheese bread and strawberries. I hit the sack early to "snuggle" with Scott. After an hour of him playing in my bed, he went to his own and I found myself watching the clock. It was a restless night.

Just a few more days till baby #2. In the mean time, I'm dealing with being miserably uncomfortable. Each time I woke up for a potty break during the night on Thursday, my eyes were matted shut. I thought it was allergies at first. My veterinarian husband said it was pink eye. Great, I have pink eye in both eyes just days before having a baby! As Friday progressed, the eye issue got better. Last night they weren't quite matted shut, although still a little yucky. Today has just been uncomfortable all the way around. [yes, this is my blog and I'll whine if I want too!!!!] I'm not sure if its allergies or what. But my dry throat has gotten worse and now my throat hurts on one side and I'm coughing. So, it might be a cold. And a cold for me, always means an ear infection too. Who in the world gets this drama right before they have a baby??? All I'm saying is that I better be done coughing by time I get my stomach muscles cut open!!!

Okay, enough of the whining. I'm at my folks tonight. They're fixing me fresh fish for supper which is one of my favorites. And then I'm just gonna stay here tonight and they can help me get the little man ready for church in the morning if I'm still whiny :)

Finally got my GIRL

Yes, I finally got my baby girl!!! Here's a picture:

No, we haven't had our baby yet. But this little girl was born on April 8th and I brought her home on Friday. She's a Toy Aussie which means she won't get more than 13" tall. She's a brown tri-colored. A definite cutie with quite a personality!!! These pups run ~$1200 and there's no way I'd pay that kind of money for a dog. However, my hubby (their vet) told me that if I worked a deal with the breeders, I could have one. He was quite surprised when I came home with one on Friday. I got a deal alright; paid ZERO for her. Yes, no money changed hands. The "deal" I worked was to give the breeder one puppy of her choice out of the first litter. What a deal!!!

I know, I know, I don't need another something right before the baby but I just couldn't pass up the opportunity. This puppy, unlike Keller, can hear. Its so cool!!!

Haircut

Okay, this isn't at all a good picture but it gets the point across...

I had it "fixed" on Friday. I came home and could have cried (yes, I'm emotional right now). I don't like it and neither does Ryan. I'm getting used to it though and it will hopefully grow out soon!

This picture also doubles as a belly update. I meant to measure this morning but didn't get that done.

Chopped Off

After much debate, I finally scheduled an appointment. And even up to the moment I had to leave for my appointment, I debated the whole thing. But, alas, I finally did it! Yes, I chopped my hair off. Since I found out I was pregnant (September), I've been growing my hair out. I didn't want to have a fat face and short hair. And, I also wanted to be able to put my hair back while breastfeeding the baby. But, with two short weeks left till baby, I just couldn't stand my hair anymore. I don't have the time or energy to blowdry it straight (not that that does a whole lot of good when its humid), nor do I have the time and energy to put tons of product in it and blow dry it with a diffuser to get it curly. I tried putting just mousse and letting it air dry but it looked horrible. So, I cut about 6" off and its right at my chin. I went to a new lady in town. She was lovely BUT I have one issue with her. I don't like how she did my layers. They're not obvious enough and on the sides it doesn't look like I have layers. It just makes me think of an old lady "bowl" cut. I think I'll stop by today and ask her to re-do the layers on the side so its not so full looking right behind my ears.

I can imagine that in 3 weeks I'll be ticked off at myself for cutting my hair and not being able to put it up when baby is eating!

Two calves

You know you live in the sticks when you're driving along the road and see two young calves taking a stroll down the road together and think nothing of it.

You really know you live in a small town when you're about 10 miles from your home but you still know who's cattle they are and try to call and let them know they have calves out.

16 more days (and counting)

We have just 16 more days till the scheduled c-section!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was a wild week last week. I didn't get to my weekly OB appointment. My scheduled appt was interrupted as Dr. Ryan was delivering another baby. My rescheduled appt was cancelled because Dr. Ryan was sick. I would not reschedule for Wednesday because I had a massage scheduled. And anything after that would be way too close to today's scheduled appt.

My massage was wonderful. My friend, Kelly, gave it to me as a belated birthday gift. She's such a sweetie. I had been complaining to her about my aches and pains and wanting a massage. I was by no means hinting to her but she's got a giving heart and within an hour of me complaining, emailed me saying "schedule your appt. It's paid for. Happy belated birthday!" It was great! I wish I could get a massage on a regular basis.

I had a good day working around the house on Saturday. Unfortunately, in doing so, I missed a buddy's wedding. I knew that the hour drive to the wedding would be rough on my aching hips and back. So, I opted to stay home and get things done. I had to lay down for a while after my shower because my hip was hurting so bad. I almost didn't go to the reception either. But we made that, visited with friends, dealt with a tired child and left.

Made it back to town just as the band was getting through their set before the message started. It was the summer kick-off event for our local contemporary church service. My son had a blast in the park. He ran around in the back and played with Chi-Chi (7 mos) during the message and then rocked out to the songs at the end. It was so stinkin' cute! Afterwards, he even had to go up to the lead singer who he knows real well and keep singing the last song to him. It was precious!

I slept almost 10 hours on Saturday night. 10 hours! It was glorious! And to top it off, I even took a nap yesterday during the baseball game. Go Cardinals!

Scott is finally feeling better. Coughing occassionally and a bit of a runny nose but otherwise back to normal. He played on the swing set that his dad finally finished (there was over 100 steps to putting it together), climbed the stairs and did all kinds of little boy things without incident this weekend! The two fun stories must be included of course:
1. He was watching a baby blue jay when my mini Aussie grabbed it up in his mouth and ran off with it. Scott was quite surprised and fortunately doesn't understand the end result.
2. He tried to change the diaper of his little stuffed animal cow yesterday. He had the wipes out and was trying to figure them out, had the cow sprawled open on his back in the window sill and was asking for a diaper. It was too cute. Maybe he will take to this big brother idea fairly well.

Thoughts of the Day

I wish, I wish, I wish I was in California [as I tap my heels together which apparently only works with ruby slippers]. Cori is getting married in just 10 days and I really wish I was there to celebrate with her and help her get ready. I'm making my sad pouty face right now! Cori, I thought of you today when I grabbed change out of my desk drawer and went to buy a candy - totally a trip down memory lane when we worked together.

Ryan's vet clinic is having an open house today. Hasn't happened in a LONG time. I'm not sure that he's getting much support from the other employees or the owner. I'm really hoping that he gets a big turnout today. He's put a lot of hard work into preparing for this and could use the encouragement of people stopping by. I could only imagine the crap he'll get if it doesn't get a good turnout.

Mixed feelings... we were supposed to have company tonight. A few visitors from Mongolia who are at the nearby college. Ryan has done veterinary mission work in Mongolia and we were really looking forward to visiting with some "local" people. I did hear last night at 11pm that they aren't staying with us after all based on their schedule. Whew! I was a bit nervous about hosting people, getting my living room cleaned up before they arrive. I have a packed day and no energy so I knew it wasn't going to be pretty. THankfully, Ryan met them last night when he was gone setting up for the open house.

Iowa's Rank in Agriculture

Having grown up in the central valley of California, I saw a huge variety in agriculture. Now, living in Iowa, there is some variety although in comparison to what I grew up with, there isn't much variety. My buddy, Cori, and I like to share statistics (maybe because we have the same line of work or maybe because were both stubborn). Anyway, I thought I'd share some of the statistics dealing with Iowa Agriculture. The information is ranked by the top ten states for several categories:
- Number of farms - ranks #3
- Cash receipts for farm marketing - ranks #3
- Ranks #1 in 6 of 11 categories based on crops (ie: Corn and Soybeans for grain production)
- Also ranks #1 in several livestock categories (ie: all hogs and pigs, Commercial hog slaughter, Value of hogs on farms [do you see a trend here] and surprisingly #1 in egg production)

With all that in mind, it really makes me think about where I live. Yes, we have lots of farms and I understand that to translate to small family farms which I appreciate. Yes, we have lots of corn and beans too - yipee! And the hogs, well apparently the state has lots of those too. Fortunately I live in a part of the state where the topography and geology help play a limiting factor in having millions of hog farms around. Sure, we have them, but they're not every farm you pass by. Okay, enough of that.

One Wet Weekend

Did I mention Scott's appointment from last week yet?
Trying to make a long, frustrating story short... I asked the doctor about Scott's seizure medicine when there about Scott falling out of the tree house. I had him look at it because we were told it was medicine and they even set it to the correct dose. But, we recently saw a sticker on it that identifies it as not being real medicine. Doctor said that the medicine was empty. And I'm not so sure of that so I double check with the pharmacist. But what he noticed that outraged me was the dosage. It was set for an adult dose. When I candidly mentioned that we didn't want to knock him out for several days as the medicine is Valium and his reply was "or permanently". Are you kidding??? For the past almost 3 months, we've either been carrying around an empty medicine container or a medicine container set at a dose that could be lethal!!! I'm so irritated with that whole situation!

Poor child is accident prone lately
Just 6 days after falling out of his play thing and wimping around for 4 days, Scott had another minor incident yesterday. Ryan almost has the swing set ready for use. Because we've had lots of rain lately and because the area is bare ground right now, Ryan opted to leave Scott's infant swing on the tree instead of moving it to the new set where its really muddy. My child loves to swing really high and Ryan pushes him as high as he can. Well, the rope finally rubbed through and broke. Here's my kid, mid way through the air swinging backwards and the rope breaks. The swing falls, stays suspended in mid-air by the other side and Scott stays secured in the little harness straps. Meanwhile I freak out, Scott starts crying and Ryan is helping calm him down. He caught a little rope burn on the back of his neck which was gone in a few hours. I held him in my arms on the ground and when he was done being scared, he continued to cry because he was mad that he couldn't swing any more. So, Ryan got out his tools and moved the swing to the new swing set. We spent some time stomping around in the mud, pushing Scott on his new and improved swing!

Rain, it's lovely!
We've had over 2 inches of rain this weekend. The storms have been short but beautiful. It pours for a few minutes, then goes back to a light rain for a while and then pours again for a few minutes. I like the rain.

Baby bird
Scott has this book called Are You My Mother that he really likes for us to read. It talks about a baby bird. Saturday when I was getting ready to mow, I saw a baby bird and about 15 feet away found the nest. Scott got quite the kick out of it while I held back the cat who also wanted to play with it. Come to find out, it was a grackel (what hubby calls them) and they're a pain. Rum Tum the cat took care of the baby bird for us and Ryan attempted to take care of the mother in the tree but she flew away before he came back out with a gun.

Last night
Yesterday my kid started coughing and sounded congested. It got progressively worse. By time I put him to bed, I'd given him pediacare. I listened to him wheeze and whine and toss and turn till midnight when he woke up crying. That was the beginning of a long, sleepless night. After a second dose of Tylenol and pediacare, it was some time between 3 and 4am when I finally got to sleep. At 5am, I made it back to my own bed where I found some comfort (as if that's possible for me at this point). The morning came way too fast and I'm looking forward to a shorter than "normal" day today.