Life's A Beach

Monday was a wonderful day! I had the day off, Russell was still in town, Mallory’s teeth were almost totally broken through and Matthew had a long lunch! So the four of us took advantage of the perfect day and drove to the coast for lunch. We stopped and had fresh clam chowder in a bead bowl (Mallory loved the bread, not so much the chowder). After lunch Matthew then headed back to work (poor guy) while Russell, Mallory and I drove on to Salmon Beach. It was perfect. The sun was warm, a little breeze, the sand was toasty and the waves were ideal. At first Mallory was just having a field day playing in the sand. She would stand up, take a few steps, then fearlessly fall straight back into the sand. She would just roll and roll in it, occasionally sticking her tongue out to taste the sand (hey I get it… if it’s that much fun to play in, it’s got to taste good too, right?). Her face was always priceless after the fact… her nose, lips and tongue all covered with a thick layer of sand. Soooooo Funny! Then she noticed the ocean. It was like a light-bulb got flicked as she realized that the waves were actually water… then the ‘fun’ began. How can something so little be so fast and strong???? She wanted to just walk out into the ocean. It didn’t matter that it was supper cold or deep or that she can’t swim. It was water, which meant she should go in it. And once this girl has an idea in her head there’s practically no stopping her. Finally after countless times of trying to bring her back from the waves/out of the water we just left. It was easier that way. It was nap time anyway (for me, not her).

Week 13

Before I get too far behind in the week, here is week 13: Our little BB is about the size of a 3 inch outdoor screw and now weighs about an ounce. Its little organs are now all inside its abdomen (hopefully) and it is developing ribs. Bone is replacing cartilage and our little one has defined fingerprints AND genitalia now.
Mallory is starting to understand that there is a baby coming… well, as much as a 13 month old can understand that concept. It’s really cute, if you ask her where the baby is she’ll come over and lift up my shirt and kiss my belly. That being said, she is also wanting to lift up other peoples shirts and kiss their belly too (hey you just never know who might have a baby in there…. Daddy, grandma, babysitters, other babies…. Might as well kiss them all).

Week 12 (is almost over)

Little B.B is steadily growing! Week 11 it was 2 inches, about the size of a master-lock key, this week B.B is about 2 ½ inches, roughly the size of a master-lock! At the three month mark most of the internal organs are now fully formed and startling to function, so now we start the long process of maturation. Some of organs are still outside the body wall, so they are slowly working their way inside. B.B now has reflexes, and can start to respond to pressure put on my abdomen (not that I can feel the little sucker yet) along with opening and closing its hands, and mouth and wiggling its toes.

Another First

I had yet another parenting first this weekend. One that I really could have done without! Matthew was still at a friend’s b-day party so I was getting our little lady all ready for bed by myself. No big deal, right? I do it with about once a week. We have a pretty regimented routine: Bath, reading, p.j’s, snuggle, prayers/signing, bed. Easy-peasy… and most of the time it is, until you throw in a monkey wrench.
Mallory LOVES bath time, rarely is she the one who wants to get out, but it’s more of us being tired of sitting there watching her. Such was the case on Saturday. My bum was getting tired of sitting on the world’s most uncomfortable bath-stool so I help Malory pick up most of the bath toys and I pulled the plug on the water. I turned to grad her towel…. When I turned around (seconds later) she had THREE floating, brown friends with her in the tub! SHE POOPED IN THE TUB! Luckily she didn’t seem to notice them and had left them alone. I pulled her out, rinsed her off and set her down beside the tub. Now giant wads of toilet paper and I made mad dashes at the slippery ‘friends’ so that I could get them out before they became mashed in the drain. Ever the copy cat, Mallory kept trying to reach over the edge and grab them too. So now I have one had full of soggy toilet paper and poo, the other hand was lifting the lid of the toilet/trying to keep poo-water drops from splattering everywhere, so I have to use my foot and legs to keep a wet/slippery baby from both falling back in the tub and from grabbing her poo. It was quite the adventure! After bleaching down the tub and remaining bath toys, the rest of bed-time was relatively uneventful… Thank goodness!!!! Got to love parenthood!

Thumbs Up

Ok, I want you to give yourself a good ol' fashion Thumbs up! Go on, do it. Thanks! Now not only have you given yourself a little self-induced positivity this morning, but you have also seen how big B.B is. I've been a slacker and haven't taken a week 11 picture yet (even though it's now almost over). But B.B is about the size of an average thumb (so for you outliers with big or small thumbs you rs don't count... go find someones elses thumb to look at). The little one is about 2 inches long and is now able to kick and throw punches in it's little warm water world. It can also swallow! And as of now, it's 'little' head it about HALF the length of its body. So fun.

Work Update

I just realized that I haven’t given you all a work update…. And last you knew ‘work was work’. Well, that is no longer the case. I can’t tell you how much fun/mentally stimulating work is! Now, in hind site I realize that God truly did have a reason behind what I felt like at the time was a horrible/hopeless situation. The caliber of medicine that I know get to practice is phenomenal! (Not to toot my own horn… but, Toot, Toot). The tests that these clients allow me to run are out of this world, the things I’m learning and cases I’m seeing are more then I had ever dreamed of!!!!! I feel like I am getting to practice the quality of medicine that I have heard all my classmates talk about!
So now looking back I am flabbergasted by the fact that I COULD have stayed at the original hospital that felt ‘comfortable’ due to how familiar it was and never would have realized how much MORE I could be/do…. And I would have been ok with at (6 months ago)… but now, when just the other day someone mentioned that ‘maybe you could work back for Dr. Dave in the future’ the first thing I thought was I will NEVER go back to practicing that sort of medicine. Not that its bad medicine, it’s just not how I want to practice any longer. You know? I do have to pay credit to Dr. Dave though; HE gave me the foot-in-the-door that I needed to break into the small animal world, so I have to thank him for that… But now I feel as though I have spread my wings and am finally learning just how much I am capable of! It is an electrifying feeling! So YES, I am LOVING work again!

1th Dr. Apt.

I had my first baby doctor appointment last week for little B.B. It went great! According to ‘them’ I am currently due anywhere from March 3rd to march 8th. Not really sure what date to go with. (March 3rd sounds better to me, since its sooner).
With that in mind here are the week 10 stats (yup, I’m already a ¼ of the way finished)…
Little B.B is about a 1 ½ inches long (roughly the size of a large paper clip). Its little bones and cartilage are growing and tooth buds are forming, along with hair and fingernails. B.B’s inner ear is now working, which means it can hear! Sooooo fun. It can bend at the elbow and has distinct fingers (no more webbing). Its ‘basic’ brain divisions are also present…. And when I say ‘basic’ I mean highly advanced and very, very smart!
I can’t believe how much quicker this pregnancy is happening. I already have a baby bump going on and I am putting on weight like it’s a race (guess what, I win)! Uhgggggg!

This pregnancy has been quite different so far, I was sick! I mean vomiting sick for about 3 weeks. Just the sight or the image of meat would bring it on. I still don’t feel wonderful, but at least it’s just a dry heave every now and again. I have been breaking out like crazy (I feel like a teenager) and I’m MUCH more moody then with Mallory. Matthew walked in to the kitchen a few weeks ago and there I was, sobbing! All by my self, just crying! He asked me why I was crying and my tearful reply was “I (sob) don’t (sob) know” sniff, sniff! Some people are speculating that all these ‘new’ events mean that I’m having a boy…. But on the other hand I keep hearing that ‘every pregnancy is different’ even if it’s the same gender. So for those of you with gender duplicates, what do you think?

humpty Dumpty

I hope this video works…

Our Fish

Starting this past Monday Mallory started swim lesions! It’s been a blast! It’s a half hour class every night (kind of long, since after about 20 minuets Mallory has pretty much lost interest in it). Matthew and I are both able to go with her since we purposely signed her up for the 7-7:30 lesions. It’s fun, we sing song and do little dances and have just some free ‘swim’ time. Mallory’s favorite part is the Humpty Dumpty song, where she gets to fall back into the water/our arms. She’s so funny. I’ll TRY and post a little video of it. Oh, and yes, that last picture is of Matthew trying to keep Mallory from drowning…along with himself!

In trying to organize for the all-to-fast approaching arrival of B.B Matthew and I are working on making use of the limited space that our sweet little house gives us. We added an extra shelf in the kitchen (which is helping), and our next project has been to move all of the stuff out of the ‘guest’ room, so it can be transformed into Mallory’s new big-girl room!!!! But in order to do that we needed to make/find room to up ALL that stuff. We started by realizing that our closet was where a tone of it would end up, so with that in mind we knew we needed to re-do our walk-in. Matthew and I designed what we wanted (it turns out it would cost us about $700 bucks for a custom-ordered closet system) YICKS! Not going to happen! But my very hand hubby and father-in-law thought that we could do it. And we did! It took about a day and a half and only about $200! It turned out great! And it fits ALL our stuff! Clothes, jackets, wine, and random stuff. PERFECT!