Our First Look at Our New Baby!!

Our Little Peanut!

Yay, I almost couldn't wait for today! We got to look inside my belly- and the new baby is tiny (right now) but already has a strong and fast heartbeat (150 beats per minute)- that was a BEAUTIFUL thing to see!
Our radiology technician was a sweetheart and told us everything "as we went" which was a wonderful surprise! So we were happy to leave with not only a feeling that everything looks good so far, but also with a DUE DATE!! The ultrasound said- I am 7 weeks and 1 day along, and it also provided a due date of May 12, 2011.

I am so excited to officially begin our countdown to "when 3 become 4"... and I am so excited we are going to have TWO kids running around here soon!!
It is possible to find out the gender as early as 12 - 13 weeks of pregnancy with the new high tech ultrasound machines, so we could possibly know what we are having within 5-6 weeks from now! Standard machines can take up to 4 weeks more, the place we go has both kinds of machines.
We were so happy that they allowed Maletch to be in the room, because he already knows about the baby coming (well as much as he can understand). If you ask him what is in mommy's belly- he will tell you "A baby!" He is already such a sweet big brother too, he talks to the baby sometimes, "Look at this, baby!" while holding (showing the baby in my belly) his toys or whatever, and sometimes he kisses the baby (my belly)- he just melts my heart!

It was hilarious, while he was watching the monitor (which does look weird- it looks like a storm tracking video to me, LOL)-- well Maletch pointed to the monitor and said, "Look a turtle! A turtle is swimming in the water!" Then he went on to talk about "Dude Crush" and "Squirt" which are 2 turtles in the movie "Finding Nemo." So I may be having a turtle or a baby, definitely one or the other! The girl doing the ultrasound was giggling the whole time at "Maletch's commentary" and she just fell in love with him! I don't know how many times I heard, "He is so CUTE" or "He talks so well" etc. He has a way with the ladies, hehe!
Above are 2 of the ultrasound photos that they gave us- although the 'still photos' are extremely hard to see any detail- it is much easier to tell what you are looking at when you can see it "real time" as we did (which is almost like a constant video). I am still playing with adding 'pregnancy widgets' to my blog, they are fun and also provide a realistic view- more like what we saw today live on the monitor. The widgets will be changing and growing daily, as our baby develops daily- it should be fun to watch!

What Happened to Jack and Bulgy??

In case you don't know who Jack and Bulgy are: They are 2 of Maletch's favorite characters from his wooden "Thomas the Train & Friends" collection. Now what happened to them is a lovely story.... (yes that is sarcasm)

"Jack"

"Bulgy"

Why is there a toilet in our front yard???

What happened here??

And who the heck is this guy??

All good questions...

The pictures truly tell the story, but in case something isn't quite clear...

One day (about a month ago) I briefly ran upstairs leaving Maletch downstairs and I heard the bathroom door open and then I heard the toilet flush... I immediately thought "Uh-Oh!" I went tearing downstairs to find out what he was up to. He told me, "I put Jack and Bulgy in the potty chair!" Uh-Oh was right!!! I was hoping so badly that it wasn't true- but 2 yr old's never lie- at least not this one! Sure enough after a quick search Jack and Bulgy were missing-- and then after a test flush came a HUGE mess! Jack and Bulgy were lodged deep down and clogging the toilet!!
We called a plumber. He tried to "snake" them out (among other things) but they were STUCK! He had to pull the toilet out and even then- he had a lot of trouble trying to get them out! At one point, he was pretty sure we were going to need to replace the toilet completely- but they finally came out- first a sock- then Bulgy- then a LONG time later out came Jack. They were so covered in sludge (Oh-- so gross) that there was NO WAY we were going to clean them and let Maletch have them back!

I had a talk with Maletch and now he knows that he can't put any trains, cars, or any other toys in the toilet. He thought it was a fun game to name everything that was NOT allowed in the toilet, hehe! For example he said, "No putting Thomas in the toilet." "No putting ___ in the toilet." Among listing MANY of his toys, he also added, "No putting pizza in the toilet." He got very creative and this was a pretty long game!

He has been pretty sad and talks about his missing "friends" very often and says, "Jack and Bulgy are gone." (he says it with such a sad face) and then he'll say, "Don't put trains in the toilet" Although we feel really sorry for Maletch, since they were two of his favorites- we thought that if we replaced them too soon that he might think that toys can "come back" from the toilet somehow. We know that he didn't know better when he did it- so he shouldn't be punished for it- but we thought that missing them a little while might help teach a good lesson. He has shown us that he can be completely trusted and that he has learned about not putting things in the toilet. In case you are wondering, several weeks later we did replace Jack, and we will replace Bulgy soon.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the first time he put a bunch of stuff in the toilet- and it is too bad the first time- that I didn't find it until he was in bed for the night. I had received a package that day and he took all the air pillows and bubble wrap and stuffed it down the toilet- and took a bunch of "Thomas" books we had just bought at Barnes & Noble and put them on top of the air pillows/ bubble wrap! That night I went into the bathroom and found the toilet was full all the way to the lid with stuff, hehe! Luckily that time I was able to pull everything out and we didn't need a plumber! BUT, since he was sleeping, I missed my opportunity to talk to him about it, and then forgot to bring it up after that. Had I "caught him" the first time, the Jack and Bulgy incident probably wouldn't have happened.

This probably deserves it's own post, but...
One good thing that came out of this was that not only was he eager to learn what was NOT allowed in the toilet, he was super excited to learn that he COULD put pee pee and poo poo in the toilet. Shortly after this incident- he began using his potty chair regularly and we let him pour it- from his potty into the toilet- and flush it all by himself cuz he loves doing it so much!
BTW, he is pretty much potty trained now. He wears "big boy underwear" ALL day (not training pants) and the only time we put training pants on him is at bedtime or when we go out in public, because he is too small to use a real toilet- (or at least he will need some practice with it first). Even for naps he holds it till he wakes up.

Although normally you teach boys to do everything sitting down (at first) and teach them standing and "aim" later- Maletch made it very clear that he wants to stand to pee (like daddy) and he has not had a single pee accident in over 2 weeks. He does need help with taking his clothes off- well he pulls them down- but he thinks they need to come 'all-the-way-off' for him to use the potty, hehe. I am sure these little quirks will get worked out as he gets more experience.

Almost 2 Years of Wishing and Hoping......

Well, after almost 2 years of trying, wishing, and hoping and getting a little help from the doctor..... I am pregnant! (insert doing a cartwheel here) YAY!!
It is funny that it seems when people focus on trying to get pregnant- that it doesn't happen- and when you stop thinking about it, give up, or in my case- "Give it to God"... then He takes care of the rest!!
It wasn't long ago, that I realized that I was worrying too much about it, and every month I was disappointed when I found out I wasn't pregnant. We wanted Maletch to have sibling(s) and we wanted them to be close in age and then taking into consideration my age and medical problems-- as the time went by in the past almost 2 yrs, we knew that the window for opportunity was closing..... One day it finally "clicked" that children are gifts from God, and that I needed to stop worrying about it and completely "Give it to God." I 'wrapped my heart' around believing that He has His own timing and plans and that it will happen if it is supposed to, and that I need to 'be OK' with whatever happens... John and I even 'revisited' the idea (and were getting on-board) of adoption... and soon after I got my head and heart in the right place.... I found out YESTERDAY that I am pregnant!! God always takes care of us so I wonder why I forget that sometimes?
I am so excited for Maletch because I know he will love having someone to play with, and this baby is very lucky because I know Maletch is going to be the BEST big brother anyone could ever have!!
We can't wait to share the news with everyone, and I wanted to post this for anyone that stops by my blog!
Tomorrow (Tues) we will be calling my OB, and hopefully we will be able to get an appointment soon. I am anxious to find out how far along I am. We figure that I will be due in May, if not sooner.
I am in the "over 35 yr old category" now (YIKES, I can't believe I am that old) so that does put me in a higher risk category. I mention it because all prayers for the health of our new baby are important and very much appreciated!
I will post updates here on my blog as we find out the "guesstimate" due date, the sex of the baby, get ultrasound photos, and all those good things!
And just for fun, I posted a "Baby Gender Poll" in the upper right hand corner of my blog- I thought it would be fun for everyone to try to guess if it will be a boy or a girl? So be sure to vote, LOL!