Ta-Da!

The floors are done! They look great :-) Although the new and the old wood don't quite match up overall it is a big improvement on the nasty carpeting that used to be there :-) Many thanks to our friends the Sullivans for letting us crash at their house while ours got fixed up!
Here are some of the middle of the project shots:



It was clearly turquoise day at work. In case you didn't get the memo.

And here are the final photos:








And this last pic is a funny one of the dog...Mark and I were chilling on the couch after a long day and she jumped up on the sofa and put her nose into my belly...the funny thing was she stayed like that for about 20 minutes...We wondered what she would have done if she got kicked!!!


In the mean time, Mark is away celebrating my Grandma's 80th Bday this weekend! He's representing the Parrett clan since I am, of course, on call...
Phoenix and I went to the dog park and she played lots of frisbee and says Happy Saturday!

Baby Bump 29 weeks will be up tomorrow once my photographer returns....

Sugar-Me!

Good news (a bit late) I passed my 1 hour glucola! This is a funny test that all preggers are supposed to take...between 24-28 weeks we have to drink this very sweet drink (50 g of glucose) and have our blood sugar checked to make sure we don't have diabetes during pregnancy cause diabetes during pregnancy can be problematic.
I had heard rumors about the flavor of the drink and horror stories about patients puking the drink up, getting headaches, passing out, etc, so I wasn't sure exactly what to expect from the experience BUT turns out, 50 grams of glucose in a punch flavor tastes just like the fruit punch from camp. Still not sure if that is good or bad. AND that I must have a pretty high tolerance for sweet stuff cause it wasn't that bad. But I guess that shouldn't come as a surprise to me ;)



We have just moved back into our place since the floors are now DONE and I will post some pics this evening. The finishing looks great and we have a few more days to wait until we can put everything back on them. The only problem is now we can see just HOW BAD our carpet is...so this week we're going to check out some prices on carpet and see what the cost might be. All this because when we bought the house the former owner had stragetically placed furniture over the HUGE HOLES in the carpet. Sweet.

Anyways, little Baby P says hello with lots of kicking...More pics to come tonight!

27 Weeks!

Here is the updated baby bump-I'm now 27 weeks exactly and yup, I think you can tell I'm pregnant. You can also see if she is having a party cause she is moving all the time! I was on call last night (no surprise) and my attending was about 32 weeks and we both sat there watching our bellies go crazy...apparently babies like to be awake at 3:00am even if mommas don't!



Also, one of the ladies I work with made me a super super cute hat/shoe combo...she picked out the colors and said it would probably fit for the first couple of weeks :) I, in the mean time, told her that if she ever gets sick of being a scrub tech/medical assistant that she could make a fortune selling these....



We're about to go to an Easter dinner and I just made some carrot cake...our crazy two dogs for the weekend have calmed down a bit and now resort mostly to licking each other faces and playing tug-o-war.

I'll try to keep this updated more now that I'm on a better rotation AND will post floor pics once they are done...

Happy Easter to Everyone!

A Bit O' Chaos...


Sorry about the delay! I have been working a bit too much these past couple of weeks and have neglected the blog in favor of sleep! But I'm back and starting a slightly easier rotation so will try to keep more regular updates :-)

We are in the midst of a lot of STUFF in our house for a couple of good reasons...
The dishwasher flooding ended up leading to our hardwood floors being ruined WHICH ended up leading to money from whirlpool to repair the floors! And we had always been planning to do wood floors in the dining room and hall so now is the time. This means we are moving out of the house next week cause of the fumes and we have a HUGE pile of wood in the family room (see below)



Add to this an extra puppy and a crazy hubby (to start to return the favor to the friends who sat for phoneix):



Plus a study full of baby furniture AND study furniture cause I can't help move any of it:



And we have a full house!
I'll be posting a baby bump picture on Sunday too...
Thanks for being patient with me! I'll try to be better :-)

25 Weeks!

So this is a big picture...because in the medical world, for some reason, 25 weeks is a magical marker of what we call "viability." What this means is that yup, although being born this early would not be ideal, the odds are now stacked in your favor that little peanut will likely survive. I've seen quite a few of the little babes at this age and they are TINY but look so much like little babies!

I had a mini-celebration while on call Saturday night at midnight...
below are the bump pics for this :) Also, for the record this took us many shots and I only slept 4 hours that night...so try to disregard the bags....

Hawaii Bump Pics!

Here are the more fun photos :-)
Below is my bump photo at 23 weeks...



We had the most wonderful "babymoon" in Hawaii! Mark told me we were going on a short airplane ride....we flew to San Fran and then....we walked to our second gait and it was to Hawaii!!! Needless to say I was SO excited because I haven't been there and have always wanted to go :-)

So we spent a couple of days in Maui and a couple of days in Kauai...pretty much pure bliss. Lots of good hiking, beach time and just hanging out.

Now I'm back to the grindstone with a 4:30 wake-up and a crazy day...

Here's a couple of choice pics, but my hubby put most of them on Facebook if you want to see more!


On our hike to the center of a volcano


At the luau!


Feet on the black sand beach


Muddiest Hike ever on Kauai


Boat tour of Nepali Coast.


And see the Facebook album for more!
Also, ordered our crib (Thanks Ann!!) should be here at the end of the week:
here it is!

Hope all is well :)

Business before Pleasure (aka Book Review Time)

So before I bore you all with pics of our trip to Hawaii (!!!) I'm going to give my quick review of the following book:



Overall a good solid thumb's up-only a few caveats...

Tripp's main philosophy is very similar to that in the book "To Train up a Child" in practical application, he is just a bit less extreme.
Again, huge fan of consistency and the need for obedience from the kiddies. Also ok with small amount of physical punishment, but I think to a lesser degree than the other book.

Funniest parts of the book are by far the drawings...totally not necessary and kind of silly!

As for any big disagreements, I don't think I had any with him. I liked how much he stressed evaluating progress with your kiddos-checking in with your spouse to make sure you guys are on the same page and are happy with the direction the family is taking. He also does a good job describing the changing methods with the age of the child-and that appeal to conscience doesn't really work until they figure that out!

I would recommend this book over To Train Up a Child only because it felt less harsh/extreme to me, but I think the books fundamentally say the same time...be consistent, stress obedience, don't get angry...all things that I'm sure will ALWAYS be easy with kids! haha...

Anyone else have thoughts on this book?

Old Man Pants

I will probably not be writing quite as frequently because I just restarted on my longest rotation...covering the labor and delivery deck at the University.
However! I have to enclose a new bump picture namely because I now must wear my scrubs old man style...very attractive :-)



I'm getting very excited because next week is SURPRISE vacation week!
Mark has planned a whole week (including an airplane ride somewhere...) and I have a packing list and that is it :-)
I am so looking forward to getting away and doing something fun (and unexpected!) I'll be sure to post some good pics when I get back. I will also be posting more book reviews I'm sure because I'll have some good time to read.

Happy end of the week!

Book Review Time!



So I just finished this book...it came highly recommended from a number of different sources, the most recent of which had a baby a couple of months ago...

Overall I give this book a SOLID thumbs up. The whole thing is based around a specific premise of scheduling/feeding your baby called "parent directed feeding." Now, my lay interpretation of this whole idea is that you should simply *think* when your baby cries about what you should do next...haha it sounds so simple!

But I think that a lot of what this book says will be helpful when I actually have a baby and am trying to figure out feeding/scheduling the first few weeks. I imagine I'll feel the same way about this book as I did about "The Monks of New Skete" which I relied on heavily when we first got our weird little puppy. Both have model schedules, ideas on how to think about feeding/scheduling baby.

The other big thing I liked about this book is something I know my parents did and something I know I will do...it has a HUGE emphasis on sleep hygiene. Now "sleep hygiene" is really just helping babies (and really adults too) figure out how to go to sleep successfully. Practically for little ones, what it looks like is a crib with NO toys/distractions/music/light and the idea that you put your little one to bed while still awake so he/she can learn how to fall asleep all by themselves....This is a tough and valuable skill to learn for all of life, and if it can be learned earlier then you end up with someone like me :-) who can fall asleep ANYWHERE at ANYTIME with no warning. Hence, I love sleeping!!

But really, these are the two big practical lessons for me when I think about taking care of a newborn (which I have done, but it has been a while!) There are LOTS of other practical tips and I think I will be having this book with me probably as soon as I get home from the hospital and maybe even in the hospital....

Any other thoughts?

Next on my review list: "Sheparding a Child's Heart." I'm about half-way...Also reading a recommendation from a friend called "Baby Bargains" trying to get some direction in putting together my registry!

Early Morning Snow Day

My week was a bit unusual...I had the privilege of having my mom come visit...she and a good friend of mine are so sweetly planning a shower for me :-) So we did some shower planning, visited a VERY expensive baby boutique and looked at shoes for babies that are more than my shoes!!

But ran into an interesting lady, who was with a little girl with a feeding tube. My mom and I were standing (looking somewhat confused I'm sure) in front of oh, about 50 different car seats and she just starts chatting with us. Wants to know if it is my first, what I'm having, what names I have etc...She really wanted to talk is how it seemed. So we chatted and asked her if the little one with her was her first...turns out that the little girl had had a liver transplant just over a year ago and this was the FIRST outing that was not to the hospital for she and her mom. Kind of explained why she wanted to chat. You just never know what people's stories actually are.

Anyways, the week was also complicated by a HUGE testing snafoo. Seriously, let's just say paying $800 for a test doesn't guarantee that you will take it when you schedule it or that it will be fixed in a timely manner. Seems crazy to me!

But to end on a fun note, this morning, given the forecast of lots of snow and Mark's good ideas, we took a very early morning trip out to one of the parks and I went snow-shoeing and Mark did some AT skiing. It was beautiful and snowy...with no one but us (and our rambunctious dog). These are two pics, but we couldn't take more cause the camera was getting wet!


Happy Thursday!

Baby Bump!

Here are two photos, I'm now at 21 weeks and Mark, every week keeps asking me if I'm pooching out my belly! I promise, I'm not, it is just sticking out more :-)





She keeps growing! Unfortunately, I think she has pushed me to the end of my running :(
I know there are ladies out there who run all the way, but I tried to run this week and couldn't do it anymore! Too much extra weight and kept getting belly pains...huge bummer. Guess it is the elliptical for me from now on!
Happy week!

Why Phoenix is a Weird Dog (and other random Saturday morning thoughts)

1.

We have one patch of sunshine that comes through our kitchen window in the morning, and she does everything possible to be in that patch. Sometimes it means standing against a wall, sometimes it means sitting on the stairs with her butt above her head, but anything to get a bit o' sunshine.

2. Pregnancy Dreams.
Are ODD! Last night I dreamt about the little one, she was cute and brown-haired brown-eyed. Now that is not strange, but the night before I dreamt that the planet was going to be destroyed and I had to get out. My sidekick was a giant head that could spin and shrink (no one I actually knew, mind you) and we had to break into the castle of the person who ruled earth and take the special spaceship to another planet where we would be safe. Fortunately the giant head could spin and shrink to break us in.
Yup, pregnancy dreams are weird.


3. Baby P says hi to Dad!
I have been telling Mark for about the past week that he will be able to feel the baby kick.....now, this is complicated by (brace yourselves all you squeamish) placental placement. When it is on the front of the uterus it acts like a big pillow and buffers all the movement that you feel on the skin...so it has taken a bit longer BUT on THURSDAY night the little one gave a mighty kick to say hello to dad who was waiting :-)
Very exciting!

Hope all you weekends are well and fun.

Maybe an Opera Singer....

Yesterday I had some spare time on my hands (crazy I know, but one of the perks of being on ER) and I thought I would dust off some of my classical vocal pieces from college. You see, back in my glory days, when I did lots of other stuff besides work, I studied classical vocal music, which meant I sang a bit o' opera. Now, I'm what I would call a mediocre opera singer, not terrible, can usually hit the notes, but I imagine listening to someone like me is somewhat like watching amateur skating, you hope it goes well but you know that an inevitable and spectacular crash is in the near future...but since Baby P is literally a captive audience I figured I would do some serenading...



Turns out she loved it! I got lots and lots o' kicks when I was singing, more when singing then just playing the piano, but it was fun nonetheless! Maybe if I start her early she'll have a good sense of pitch like my hubby :-)

In side news, if you want to really get them ahead, you should probably use one of these.


haha, don't really...but funny if people actually buy this stuff!!!

Also, if you like blogs and want to see a better belly series, check out my friend Cate's blog it is fun :-)

Happy Monday!

Bloopper of the Day.

Woke up at 8am this morning after getting home from my ER shift at 11:30pm....made coffee, got the dog in the car and drove to the airport to pick Mark up...



only to realize he was coming in at 8:40 PM.. sigh, not AM.

Bummer!

So now I have all day to fill! I started to look at baby registry stuff but am slightly overwhelmed-anything I should definitely have on my list?

I'm open for suggestions!!

While the Hubby is Gone....

So Mark is gone this weekend in Dallas to watch the All-Star Game. A few ironic things have occurred thus far.
1. Dallas has gotten more snow than SLC and Mark's flight almost didn't leave to get there.

2. I got a new sleeping partner:



She smells a little bit and doesn't shower as regularly as Mark but sure is warm.

3. Our dishwasher flooded 3 times. The first time, we discovered it when we woke up and cleaned up and thought it was fixed. Then I went back to bed after driving Mark to the airport super early...when I woke up, the flood re-occurred. I should have known this was a bad sign...Cleaned it up one more time, went to work then...came home from work to the biggest worst flood. All under our cabinets, soaked through to the basement, etc...not so pretty. Mind you, it is 7pm at this time. Called Mark, he scheduled an emergency plumber to come over, then I called the Sullivans to keep me company so a strange plumber and I wouldn't be alone, and they brought dinner. And Jared came, turned my water off to the dishwasher and left $95 richer AFTER he gave me a $50 discount that normally gets charged to after hour calls.
Why wasn't I a plumber again? Here's his card: note the website:



Sigh. What a day! And the little one just keeps kicking :-)

The Verdict is In!

The Parretts are going to be having a little girl!!
She looks great on the ultrasound-everything is perfectly normal and she is right on for her size...she doesn't appear to have short legs yet either :-)

Here's my baby bump photo for the week:

19 weeks 2 days

Now, the view from the inside!




These are feet...not blobs :-)


Mark thinks this looks like me!!!
We will have to see...

I'm feeling lots more kicks too and think that Mark should be able to feel them soon too.
We're excited!!!

girl or boy?

we find out this afternoon!!!

Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down

It is book review time! One down about childrearing 200 million to go...or something like that. There are many many books written about exactly what you should and shouldn't do when raising a child and what your likelihood is that you are going to permanently mess them up and some of these books seem to hinge all of this on things like...swaddling vs. no swaddling or blue sheets vs. animal print....
I guess my initial thoughts are (and the are probably relatively useless since I'm not ACTUALLY a parent...yet) it depends...on everything.
This being said, I just recently finished one of the aforementioned books: "To Train Up A Child."
Here's my review:


Reasons for Thumbs Up:
1. He is a huge advocate of CONSISTENCY and EXPECTATIONS. That little ones understand and thrive with structure and responsibility in their lives in ways appropriate for their ages. YES. I agree.
2. He thinks family time is also very important-that everyone shares in making everything run smoothly.
3. Hubby/Wife relationship ALWAYS comes first-this is the core of a successful family
4. No one gets punished in anger-any punishment comes from failed obedience and is handed out in a reasonable way...(speaking of which, I always just tried to make my mom laugh if i was going to get in trouble...laughter ALWAYS works....)

Reasons for Thumbs Down:
1. He thinks homeschooling is the ONLY way to properly educate your kids and you are kind of a bad person if you send your kids to any type of big school (Christian, secular, private, public-didn't matter)
2. He also thinks no women should ever work outside the home and trains his daughters to be homemakers-expecting them to know how to cook, clean, etc as their primary responsibilities.
3. His favorite tool? The switch...yeah.


Ok so that's the brief synopsis...thoughts?

No more Tummy Time for Mom

I am a belly sleeper (not *dancer*) but sleeper. I always have been....nothing quite like curling up on my belly and nicely drifting off to sleep...
HOWEVER
I was recently informed at my last visit (and I had been dreading this news) that it isn't ideal anymore to sleep on my belly cause I'll "put pressure on" aka squish the little one's spot. I knew this was coming and have been trying to get ready for it, but it was a sad day indeed. Not to mention that I proceeded to wake up repeatedly to shift position only to have to remember the no more belly time....I think this is a statement on shifts in childhood practices cause the little one's used to HAVE to sleep on tummies, now there is more information that back is the safest position to prevent SIDS. Oh well, farewell tummy time for mom....



And in other news, in case anyone out there still believes that autism is linked to vaccinations, read here: CLICK THIS LINK!!!
SO VACCINATE YOUR KIDDOS PEEPS!!!!

Baby P is doing well with a heartbeat going strong at 140 bpm today, and baby is also kicking the heck out of my wife!! Exciting though I wish I could communicate with the little person.

I already have my Baby Bjorn ready to go and the question is how active can a new father be with baby strapped to? XC skiing is universally accepted - how about mild alpine touring? How about hiking with some scrambles? I think in the end this will make our baby all the more rad and we'll have the next Dean Potter or Shane McConkey on our hands if we expose them to awesome adventure at a young age.

Whatever the threshold baby p is going to have a sweet time playing with dad in the mountains...

...and maybe in vegas too:

Baby Bump



18 weeks 1 day....

Bout Time.

So my shirts were slowly becoming "cropped" and any lifting of the arms revealed a bit o' belly...I figured it is about time to at least start with some shirts to accommodate the growing belly. Under the direct tutelage of "A Girlfriend's Guide" I tried to find someone about my size who had been pregnant at some point...one of the other residents in my program came to mind and I asked her if I could borrow some clothes...below is the box and pile of GREAT clothes that she lent me...note the box title.


I also went to Old Navy and found shirts all for under $15 and a dress..my only items left to procure are some pants...namely because my legs are too short to wear the nice pants lent to me! This may end up having to be an online purchase...
Also, wanted to include a pic of my baby daddy...whom I hope passes on his beautiful eyes!!!

He's so hot....

Think I Might...

Be getting kicked?
But at the point where I'm trying to figure out...gas or baby?

Figure it will start to get clearer soon!
We scheduled our big ultrasound for next Tuesday afternoon. Luck for us, both of us agree that we would like to find out the little one's gender...crazy!

And the wierd thing about the whole belly is the hardest thing for me to do right now is bend over!

Also have an OB appointment this Tuesday, am going to ask for some compression stockings in the hopes of staving off a few more varicose veins...we'll see how that goes.

Also, for my general knowledge, what's the opinion on preggers and swimsuits? any thoughts on styles or appropriateness? Bikini vs. tent vs. tankini?

And the best news of the day is I am on my LAST night of overnight call at the MICU!!
Sweet!!!

Bump Picture of me NOT Pregnant...

So my father in law just resent me a picture taken a couple of years ago in the middle of west Texas following a meal of Chicken Fried Steak.
We'll have to see when I actually catch up!

Mind you...I'm not pregnant so you can see what I mean about my theory of having an extra transverse colon!
Although I think he has a picture of my sis-in-law similarly "full" from our meal....

BeBand
Yup. Just enough extra room so my pants don't have to be buttoned...but still stay up!
I love it.
Thanks Catie!

Video for your enjoyment....
This is a two-fer day, true, but the below video is pretty funny. Kind of can't wait to see what Phoenix does when she meets an actual baby!

Friday Morning Hello

Snuck a listen to the little one's heart this morning in my clinic...still going strong :-)
Going to schedule my big ultrasound in about two weeks...excited to find out what we're having! Would be hard for me not to notice...

I figure I'll give a quick update on books we're reading in preparation for baby's arrival, and we are open to suggestions-the more we can read the better!
1. Babywise

This one comes highly recommended from friends who have a six week old who they now claim sleeps through the night...that would be nice!
2. To train up a child


We also spent some time looking at a daycare today...the funny thing was, about four sets of parents came to pick up kids when we were there and we knew EVERY single one of them...some from Mark's work and some from mine! They all seemed pretty happy and so did their kids...Think we'll put our names on this waiting list and then poke around a bit more to make sure nothing else looks better.
It is crazy to be thinking about daycare especially because we don't even have a kid yet! But at OB visit #1 I was instructed to start looking...crazy!

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Baby Bump Photos...


So here it begins. The first two of a series where I will slowly get bigger and bigger. I have a few goals in this endeavor, to not have my butt expand at the same (or faster) rate as my belly AND to figure out if I do indeed have an extra transverse colon (which is my theory).
You see, the problem is I know that my uterus isn't actually sticking out yet, it is just pushing everything that used to be where it is UP and OUT. That is my current bump. So it is really more of an "intestine bump" and the size does somewhat depend on what I have recently eaten (please refer to earlier apricot post). But all this aside, I am starting to get slightly bigger and found last night that I had to unbutton my top button because my pants were too tight. This may or may not have been related to the HUGE portion of nachos we just ate...
But anyways, see below...

14 weeks


16 weeks.

For future consistency, all photos will be taken in front of the green wall AND depending on arm size, may or may not be with a tank top....

And in honor of bumps in general, I have included the below photo for all those who strive to have big hair:

New Post

I'm bringing back the blog...and not because I am a stellar blog author but because I think a couple of you out there might be interested in some upcoming photos and events...
The little thing at the top lets you know that somewhere along the way we realized we were pregnant...and yes, we were as surprised as all of you.
But the truth is, we couldn't be more excited, a little one is a huge gift and we can't wait to see what we get!
I'll probably be the main one writing on the blog, but Mark may chime in occasionally...
I'll give the brief update of pregnancy thus far....


I made up a word for it. It is called "naugry." It is a terrible combination of really really hungry with really really nauseous. And it meant that I ate a lot of chips and snacks because that was the only thing that sounded appealing...now don't worry, I took my prenatals like a good girl and tried to eat some veggies but let's just say I'm glad I'm feeling better now!

We've had a couple of appointments so far and everything has been boring (which is exactly what you want from your visits!) I usually sneak a listen to the little one's heart when I have clinic....one of the many advantages of being an OB!
Here are the U/S photos if you haven't already seen them from our first visit:






I'll be due for the next big u/s in a about a month...that will be the fun one.

As far as fun pregnancy stuff, I have one book I would highly recommend that anyone pregnant reads and that you give to anyone who was pregnant. A funny and educational comment on the whole pregnancy thing...seriously, I laughed out loud while reading most of it and had to keep reading portions to Mark. He was equally entertained...



Anyways, my next post, which will occur when Mark brings the camara home, will include the much anticipated baby bump series...I start with 14 weeks and am now almost 16...I call this the "ate too much during the holidays" period of pregnancy...

Feel free to leave comments about topics and any requests! This blog is for all you family and friends who can't be here to experience all of this with us :-)