Oh boy! Where have I been?!

First off, I am so sorry I have been MIA for almost 4 weeks! At first I was waiting until my baby shower came and went so I could write about all that excitement. But then I realized what all was going on the weeks following and I got very stressed out and not to mention, exhausted. That's right, exhaustion has set in. In full force I might add.

My baby shower went swimmingly! Everything was fantastic, tons of food, cake, games and gifts for baby boy! I knew my cousin was my cake hero before, but dang! She did such a fantastic job!! Not only did she make a monster cake, but she made THREE! All were different flavors too! Here is a similar photo of what mine looked like:


 Anyways, there was tons of delicious food, and punch all made by my in-laws. The best game we played was "The Price is Right--It's in the Bag" Game. That one where you have to guess the price of the item. We had 6 baby related items and the most anyone got correct was 3! It was the funniest thing to see the women's faces when we revealed the prices! My grandma was like..."But it's just plastic!" to the $7.99 2pk snack catchers! lol.

Some of my favorite gifts for Liam were the cloth diapers! Yay! I was so excited to receive these! I got one weehuggers diaper cover found here. and 2 pockets by Imagine found here. We also got lots of cute clothes, and our pack n' play. Here is a photo of it.

We also got 3 sound machines! We kept the one we registered for, and returned the other two to buy some fun summer clothes and the Twilight Turtle. We actually use the sound machine every night already! It has fantastic sound quality and you can choose to have a timer or not. We love the Summer Night option, sounds like a hot summer night back home in the country. Find it here.

There were so many other things that I cant wait to have Liam use! Lots of handmade blankets and a few sweet books. We are so blessed with the family and friends that helped us celebrate our little boy!  <3

So after the shower, we were crazy busy trying to clean out his bedroom (which was used for storage, hobby, craft things). Also, our doula was coming for a home visit and we needed to clean the house up--big time! I also had missed my 34 week midwife appointment due to car issues, and had to reschedule during my busiest week so far. This is what my week looked like...

Saturday: Work 10-6:30, Scott needed new rear tires so badly that when I followed him to the garage, I was seriously praying they would hold up. They looked so terrible! At work, my stress about the upcoming week just hit an all time high, and when a pile of boxes and product went spilling to the floor in the backroom, I couldnt handle it anymore. I broke down and cried. That coupled with my stress, anxiety, swelling, and braxton hicks, just did terrible things to me. I ended up going home after 2 hours of work. After that, when Scott left for work, he called me a few minutes later saying that some douche pulled out in front of him, and he had to avoid hitting this guy's truck and had to put his car (new tires and all) in the ditch!! Worst part was the guy didn't even stop, and he had his kid in the front seat--which Scott would have hit if he didn't take to the ditch! So anyways, after all that I ended up taking a nap, and feeling a lot better. I even managed to get more boxes packed up to move downstairs.

Sun: Work 6am-12pm, Mother's day at my mom's 1pm-3:30, Mother's day at Scott's mom's 4-6pm. *try to clean-ended up with a terrible sinus headache and used my netipot and took a nap*

Monday: 7:45am chiro appt, work 9-5:30, *try even harder to clean*

Tuesday: leave house at 6am to see the Dali Lama in Madison with Billie. Spent all day in Madtown. Walked State street, it was hot, and I swelled up terribly. We hung out by Vilas Park for a few hours, it was beautiful!

Wednesday: Midwife appointment 9am (1hr 15 min drive) made it back by 11:30 :) Cleaned a like a mad women! Exhausted myself :( 6pm Doula Rachel came over for our home visit! She is so fantastic! She left at 7:30. I made dinner, and then sat down to enjoy our clean house! PHEW!! I also tried to take a bath, but the water wasnt very hot due to the dishes being done earlier. So I ended up crawling in bed, and passing out.


So I guess that pretty much catches you all up to speed. Things were so crazy, and hopefully now they will settle down, and I will enjoy these last few weeks. :) 

TTC update

Here's my quick update on our ttc journey.

Cycle day 11. Cycles trying: 3

I can't wait to see what happens this month! We have so many things going on in our lives that being pregnant would only add more happiness and joy to our lives!

Ive gotten to work in the infant room a few time in the last few weeks. We have some very tiny little ones in there, and it makes my heart melt! I cant wait to hold my own child and rock him/her to sleep :)

My friend is on her way over to give me a massage. She does in-home massages and is AMAZING!

I have some crazy work news, but that will have to wait until my next post. Lots of changes at work as well.

I hope you all are doing well and I send you buckets of baby dust!!

Nikky

ohhh boyyy...

Well, the last 24 hours have been strange...it all started after work yesterday. Scott was about 20 mins away and got a flat tire (with the farm truck). Luckily, I had the spare key to his car, and I drove to the farm to get the spare tire, the jack and all that jazz. Then I drove in the other direction to where he was and waiting for him to change the flat. 

Then, this morning, I get a call from my brother saying he is sick and not going in to work (we carpool). Unfortunately Scott needed the car for the day, so I had to walk about 1/2 mile to my brother's house at 6am to drive his car. Ive never driven his car before, but he was nice enough to let me borrow it.

So I guess it wasn't all that crazy, but it was just eventful which is strange. Usually my days are pretty boring.

In other news, I found a job posting in for the school district in my town. I am interested in it, and am very very tempted to apply. It would be nice to do something else for a change, and in this town! We'll see...

Also, yesterday Billie and I were finalizing our plans for Thursday. I figured we'd leave here around 9 or 10am. But Billie suggested noon. I was slightly bummed b/c I took off an entire day of work for this; and at that rate, I could have taken only a half day. But I just figured I would sleep in and find something around the house to do. But something came up last night. My friend Becca just finished massage therapy school and needs to log hours...(you see where this is going). Well, she asked if I needed a massage (who asks such a thing!?) So 9am she is giving me the ol' rub down! I'm so excited! I love massages! I haven't had one professionally since 2006? Best part, Becca is picking me up on the way, so I don't even need to figure out the car thing! Wahoo!!

I really don't mind having one car between the two of us. Luckily our schedules usually work where we both don't need it at the same time. (for now at least.)

Nikky

CD5

Cycle 2 of TTC. 
Cycle Day 5 
I remembered to temp this morning! Hurray! 

No news on the TTC front as of right now. I did, however, have this really weird moment today at work. It was a pretty stressful day to start off with. One person called in sick, another was going to be late, two extra children showed up that weren't on the schedule so I had to magically pull an extra teacher out of my butt (not a pretty thought, thank you very much) to cover the class with the extra children. So, on top of all that, I couldn't start making breakfast for the kids. My boss came in and was busy with her emails and I couldn't update her on all of this. For some reason, this made me break down and cry. How silly! So of course in the back of my mind, I'm thinking well...your period was a day shorter than usual... NO no no! I refuse to think that I am pregnant. Yes, it could happen. BUT...chances are slim. My period usually is like this 
Day1 spot
Day 2-4 medium to light
Day 5 spot

this time it was 
Day1 spot
Day 2 medium
Day 3 light
Day 4 spot
So not much of a difference. But any TTC-ers know that we definitely make mountains out of molehills. 
So that's all I have for now...I hope this post finds you all very well!
Baby Dust!
Nikky

First workout logged

Today starts my weight loss journey. I downloaded a new app to help me track my meals and exercise. It's a decent app. Reminds me of self.com's trackers.

I actually went for a run. Well...let's be honest, I walked 5 min, ran 1, walked 5, ran 2, walked 2, ran 1, walked 3, ran 1. Totalling 20 mins. Not bad for me and my exercise induced asthma. It was hard (not too hard to make me give up after the first workout) it felt so great! I get great thinking done while running...it gives me the strangest clarity. I suppose it's because I'm focusing so hard on breathing that my mind can't think about the daily stress.

Anyways, its nice to focus (obsess) about something other than babies for once. Balance is the key I suppose.

Tomorrow we will be canning pickles and visiting our town's street festival. :)
Nikky

Sweet Potato Fries, ebay, and symptoms ohmy!

Mmm....sweet potato fries...

Thanks to Lala! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txOY8nvJHzw&feature=plcp

I will hopefully add some pictures later :)

Work today went a lot better. Still on shaky grounds emotionally, but I'm definitely doing better. :) 

In other news, I held off testing this morning. Mostly because I was running late. But I am proud of myself for waiting. I dont need to test every day. Especially since I'm not late yet  (not officially until Saturday)

I am currently CD28 / DPO 14. 

Symptoms: creamy CM, backache/back cramps, thirsty, frequent urination, nausea, skin break outs, sinus cold/cough, and of course, exhausted.

Ooo, I have some fun news! I won my first two ebay auctions! I bought two lots of 5 (10 total) medium perfect fit fuzzibuns for $30 each! They are used, and the elastic needs to be replaced, but I can handle that for $6 per diaper! They are blues, greens, orange, red, yellow! Fun and bright! Hooray! Should be here soon! We obviously wont need mediums for awhile yet, but at least I'm building my stash! w00t! 

Also, in ebay news, I ordered 20 more OPKs and 5 pregnancy test strips, along with Pre-seed. I figured we'd try it. (it also came with 2 free pregnancy tests! sweeeet!)

Anyways, I haven't mentioned much about our garden. We have a huge raised bed, I'm talking 3 feet tall, and 4'x8'. We have carrots, sweet peas, beans, pickle cucumbers, and slicer cucumbers, bell peppers, and cherry tomatoes growing, Everything is doing fabulous!!! Then in a much lower bed, we have sweet corn, butternut squash, pumpkins (for pies), and sweet potatoes. They are all doing extremely well also! Then by the side of the garage, we have (very sad) sunflowers, and gigantic pumpkins! :) up in front I have my herbal bed with lavender, rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil, mint, and lemon basil. I love cutting fresh herbs for my breads and sauces! YUM! I'll have to post some photos of my gardens soon as well!

I suppose I should get dinner going. 

BBQ Cheeseburgers, Sweet Potato Fries, & Root Beer!! YUM!

Sticky Baby Dust!

Nikky

mama mia...here we go again...

what a crappy day! I got to work in a decent mood. Opened my locker and there was a passive aggressive note inside. Problem is, I cant even recall what I've done to deserve this! It would be different if I did something wrong, and i knew it. I really honestly truely cant think of anything! What drama! My workplace is getting terrible. Everyone talking about everyone else, back-stabbing....blah blah blah! Ive got better things to worry about! Sometimes though, I can be sensitive, and it really got to me today. But as I write this, I feel like I am brushing it off. It feels good to stand back and scoff. How silly these things! I have a grand adventure to look forward to ahead of me. Hopefully sooner rather than later!

CD27 / DPO 37  AF due between today and Friday (thanks to wonky cycles). --Hopefully not at all! My symptoms seemed to have lessened, other than moodiness. My breasts are a little tender, not as bad as they have been though. I do have some extra CM right now, I'm not sure what that means...and i get bouts of nausea here and there. plus tired of course! Time will tell i suppose! More later...

Nikky