December Updates

Sorry it has been so long since I have provided updates... here is what we have been up to!

Dec 12 - Dinner in Longmont to Celebrate Cindy's 60th Bday!
Annabelle got to meet Scott's Aunt Cindy, and Uncle Pete & Brian!

Dec 15 - Hanukkah with Wilson Family
We were able to get together with the Wilson Family for Hanukkah a little after Hanukkah ended, but the boys love the donut menorah & this year we even taught them the blessing over the candles and how to play dreidel. How cute are these two boys?

Dec 16 - Date Night #1!!
Grandma Sue watched Annabelle for us so Scott and I could go to dinner and a Nuggets game. It was great to get out of the house and have a date night. We were both exhausted but it is important to get out and have time as a couple.

Dec 17 - Meet Grandma
Annabelle met Grandma Darlene, we ran around town for a couple days trying to get errands done, unfortunately we got Annabelle's days and nights mixed up, because she spent a lot of time in her car seat running around town in the car.

Dec 20 - Date Night #2
We are getting the hang of this - we let Grandma Darlene watch Annabelle so we could go to a late movie. Such a treat but I have to admit we both thought about taking a nap in the theater! :)

Dec 22 - Waitz Family Christmas Party
Unfortunately on Friday night after we dropped my mother off at the airport I started to feel sick. I think we did a little to much running around and I didn't get enough sleep! So Scott took Annabelle to the Waitz Family Christmas Party - She got all dressed up in a party dress and got to meet her Great Grandma Sarah. It was a fun night for them and I was able to get a couple hours of much needed sleep.

Dec 24 - Branstrom's Xmas Eve Party
We all went to the Branstrom's for an ethnic xmas eve party- we were the Jewish contingent. I brought a noodle kugel. It was super fun and Annabelle got dress up in another party dress - this one was a gift from Erica. Too cute - I wish she had her mouth closed in the picture. You have to love the leopard print! Christmas 2007
Despite 6 inches of snow in Denver we had a huge crowd at Sue's house for Christmas. Amy (Scott's cousin) was back in town from DC. Mark, Sarah, Katie, Julia & Lucy (Scott's cousins and their kids) all came from Mississippi as well as Jere & Larry (Scott's aunt & uncle). Noelle, Zac, Paige & Clay (more cousins and 2nd cousins) went to AZ earlier in the month to visit family so they were also able to join us this year. And Cindy, Pete, Brian & GG were all there as well. We had a wonderful time - we had a yummy dinner, and of course the family gift exchange which always entails some sort of a game but together by Sue. This year it was Family Feud. It was a blast. After the game we had a visit from eD Earl. Honestly I am not sure where this tradition started or if I can explain it - I think you have to be there to appreciate it.

Here is a picture of Katie & Julia - precious!

Can you find Annabelle in all her presents from Grandma Sue??

Annabelle meets Gavin

Welcome to the world Gavin James! We are so glad we got to meet you today!
Congrats Katie, Brent & Alec on your newest arrival!

Sorry Ladies... Annabelle already has her hands on this guy!

Can you believe the chubby cheeks on these babies! Adorable!

Annabelle Updates

Annabelle is back up to birth weight - as of Friday she is 8 lbs 3 oz. Yeah!! The doctor is extremely happy with her progress. She also lost her belly button scab, which makes mom & dad happy- it made me extremely nervous since nurse Lauren told me to call 911 if it was bleeding - she didn't exactly mean it like it came out but still put the fear in me.

Other updates...

Thursday night Scott was holding Annabelle while she was sleeping - she must have been dreaming because she let out a single laugh and then broke into the biggest smile... we both cracked up! It was sooo funny! Wish we had it on video it was so adorable... but we would have to have a camera pointed at her 24-7 to catch some of this stuff. So cute!!

Later that same evening we put her binky in her mouth and she grabbed it and threw it! Opinionated are we???

Happy Hanukkah

Annabelle's first Hanukkah...and our first Hanukkah as a family of 3!!

Usually we get together with Michelle and her kids for Hanukkah. I like to have a donut menorah! And the kids like lighting the candles. Hopefully we will be able to get everyone together even if it is after Hanukkah has officially ended.

Week Two with our Baby Girl

Annabelle has been doing wonderful. She had a big week of outings and visitors...Target, a Centaurus basketball game, dinner with Grandma Sue, the doctor's office, and the Price's house.... she met her cousins Noelle, Zac, Paige & Clay, and our friends Sarah H. & Kathryn. We have been doing a good job of getting out of the house for a little bit every day.

Sarah came over to take some wonderful pictures of Annabelle. Here are a couple of our absolute favorites! You will see them again on the baby announcement, but I can't wait to show them off! Thanks again Sarah for capturing Annabelle in these beautiful pictures!

Annabelle had her second Dr appt this morning, and she is thriving... they are thrilled with how she is doing. She isn't jaundice any longer, her weight is 8 lbs even, she is eating & sleeping as expected, and her blood work came back normal. Mom didn't handle the foot prick - infant blood screen very well. Good thing Dad was there to hold baby Belle!

Annabelle's 1st Doctor's Appt

Dr. Gini Taylor said that Annabelle is thriving. We have to go back for another check up in a week and then we should be good to go until her two month check up. She is back to 7lbs 14 oz (she was down to 7lbs 8oz at her lowest weight), has grown an inch and her jaundice is improving. We are now feeding her every two hours during the day and 3 (to 3.5) hours at night per Dr. Gini. Also she said to elevate her mattress so she will have less gas. I remember doing this for the kids I nannied for when they had a cold, but I didn't think about it helping the gas. Great tip!

LOVE

Everyone tells you that it will be love at first site...but nobody can really explain the true power of love you feel towards your baby. I didn't get to hold Annabelle for about 8 hours after she was born. It wasn't until that moment that I truly fell in LOVE. I will never forget it...

Our schedule goes something like the following...
Annabelle has to eat every 3 hours at the moment due to her jaundice. Since it takes an hour and a half to breast feed her, we have been bottle feeding her so we keep some level of sanity. So either Scott or I feed her, we change her diaper, and then I pump for the next feeding. Hopefully that only takes about 45 mins to an hour so we can sneak in 2 hours of sleep or some food & a shower in, in between feedings. It is quite a process... hopefully we can start stretching her out to 4 hours in the next week or so - that additional hour would really make a huge difference. But we aren't complaining, Annabelle is really an easy baby so far. We are definitely lucky!

Nicknames

So as you can probably tell by my blog posts that we are still trying to figure out which nickname Annabelle will go by... Anna, Ann, Belle, Bella, Elle, Ella. One of them will stick eventually! :)

The Nurses at Rose Medical Center

I have to say we had the most wonderful nurses during our hospital stay.... Each one helped us prepare for life with a baby in a different way...

Marta - our nurse during labor & delivery (Sun day)
While we really didn't spend much time with her, she was a familiar face in the operating room after Scott & Bella had gone to the nursery. She kept me informed with updates on Bella's stats, etc... And she helped me through my fever in the recovery room.

Michelle - our night nurse the first evening (Sun night to Mon morning)
She got me through a rough evening with our baby in ICU. She made sure that I got to the ICU every 4 hours to feed Bella (getting out of bed after surgery is a task).

Katy - our day nurse for our first two full days at the hospital (Mon & Tues day)
She was a little rough at first, but only because she has years of experience - they call her the "baby whisperer" and I would have to agree. She showed us some wonderful techniques on how to swaddle, burp and comfort our little girl. Invaluable information - I tried to soak up as much information as possible.

Laureen - our night nurse the last two evening of our stay (Tues & Wed night)
She was also awesome with Bella, she went through all the things we needed to know in order to get discharged. She also helped me with feeding advice for Bella's jaundice.

All of these ladies made our stay comfortable and invaluable!! As much as we were ready to get home and sleep in our own bed! We were extremely thankful they were our support system for the first 4 days of Bella's life!

Retail Therapy

So what do you do when your 6th day of life falls on Black Friday (and you are a girl)??? You go shopping!! :) We had to take baby belle to the hospital for some blood work in the morning to make sure that her jaundice levels were peaking (side note - they are peaking and should continue to improve over the next few days) and since we were out and the stores were open early we actually picked up our last two holiday gifts with baby in tow! I know everyone is thinking we are crazy, but we actually missed the rush at both stores, made our purchases and headed home - all done before 10:15am (of course we were up at 5am!)

Welcome to the World Annabelle!!

Annabelle Etta Iten - November 18, 2007, 2:20pm, 8lbs 3.2 oz, 19 in

We are a family of 3!! Annabelle joined us a little over 2 weeks early this past Sunday.

Here is a little on her arrival...

We had a big weekend planned finishing up last minute preparations before Annabelle's arrival. I got my hair cut, and a pedicure on Sat morning, we cleaned house and had company over for dinner Saturday night and then we were planning on running a bunch of last minute errands on Sunday finishing up our holiday shopping, packing a bag for the hospital, getting a bassinet, and picking up our stroller! Plans change what can I say....

On Saturday afternoon while cleaning and making dinner I started having some back pain. Scott told me to lay down for a bit, so we took about an hour cat nap, and then got up to finish dinner. The Price Family came over for dinner, and as it turns out were a wonderful distraction. We had a great time catching up with them - we miss them a lot since they moved away from the neighborhood.

At about 5am I woke up to go to the bathroom and realized I was having contractions. I had about 4 that first hour and then started to think I should have my bag packed my bag. I started to russle around in our closet getting my bag ready and I woke up Scott. He asked what was going on and I said I thought I was having contractions, but I was pretty sure that it was false labor. I kept saying lets wait to call the doctor, but by 7:30am I was really struggling with the pain so I agreed we should call. Dr Jacobson said to come into the hospital and we would see what was going on. On the short trip to the hospital, Scott and I were both convinced that I was in false labor and that we would be sent home. I just wasn't sure how I was going to get through the day given the pain I was feeling. We got to the hospital and checked in by 8am, and I was telling the nurse I am a wimp and can't handle pain. She was checking me, and said I beg to differ - you are 6 cm dilated and you are going to have a baby by lunch!! We were both SHOCKED to say the least, good thing we did pack up some stuff, and put the car seat in the car, just in case.

I was able to get an epidural quickly (by 9am) and that immediately took the edge off the contractions and only took about another 20 minutes for the epidural to take full take affect. Then it was time to quickly call our parents to tell them they were going to be grandparents within a few hours. We started pushing at about 11:30 but Dr decided we should stop for a bit. Even though I was fully dilated the baby wasn't far enough down in the birth canal, he wanted to let the contractions do some of the work. Unfortunately even after waiting and pushing Annabelle didn't want to join us yet! I pushed for about an hour and a half and the Dr said she just wasn't making any progress so the options were keep pushing, take a break and then resume pushing through a few more contractions and see where we were at, or just go for the c-section. It was fairly clear that Dr J thought we were going to have to have the c-section, but he left it to us to decided since Annabelle wasn't in any distress. We took a break and then decided to push through a few more contractions. Unfortunately Annabelle had a different plan and we had to have a c-section. So by 2:20pm we had our bundle of joy!!!

After she was born we had a little chaos... I had a 103 degree fever so I was sent to recovery for about 2 hours. I had horrible shakes for about an hour and then I went from being freezing to hot. Annabelle was initially put on oxygen which is standard procedure for c-section babies. She was doing great, but due to my fever they ran some blood tests, and Annabelle had a skewed CBC and her oxygen levels dropped. Which could have been caused by the stressful delivery or an infection. As a precaution they moved her to the infant ICU - SCARY!! I had been able to see her on the way from recovery to our postpartum room, but I wasn't able to hold her yet due to the oxygen - which was really tough. They put a bunch of monitors on her, and started an IV for antibiotics - she responded immediately and they actually only gave her one dose of the antibiotics. She was pulled off of the oxygen and since the IV site wasn't looking good they removed it and decided that as long as she kept doing so well that we wouldn't give her any more treatment. I was able to hold her at about 10pm and they called me twice during the night to come feed her. Initially they told us she would be in ICU for 48 hours, but it ended up that she only spent 16 hours or so there and we were able to bring her back to our room by about noon on Monday.

We are absolutely in love!!

Here is Daddy & Annabelle in the ICU after baby belle got a bath!

Here is Mommy & Annabelle (after mommy got a shower!)

How cute are these feet!! We had many many visitors at the hospital and each and everyone of them is very special to our family!! Here is Great Grandma (GG) Day - Annabelle is her 10th Grandbaby! Perfect for an I-10!!

36 Week Appt

Everything went well - not much to report, just counting down the days... She is measuring on schedule, and her heart beat is 140 bpm. We are getting anxious to meet our little girl!!

I did take a bit of a spill on Friday morning. Fell down from our curb in front of our house, tore my jeans, skinned my knee, but mostly just freaked myself out!! Luckily Scott had just left so he was able to come back to the house and comfort me. Baby was kicking all day so I don't think it phased her any... just scared me! Apparently I am going to have to be more careful about my balance over the next couple weeks.

Hope everyone is doing well - we are so thankful for all the support during my pregnancy. We can't wait to start introducing baby girl Iten to everyone!

Baby preparations in full swing...

We spent the weekend washing clothes, stocking up on some household items, organizing holiday stuff and getting lots of sleep before the baby comes! I can't believe it is 4 -ish short weeks away! I will update everyone after my dr appointment on Wed (36 weeks!)

World Series - Game 3

Scott & my Dad were at World Series game 3 here in Denver on Saturday Oct 27th!! Unfortunately the Rockies weren't able to pull out a win, but they seemed to have a great time regardless. Here are a couple pictures.....

Thank you Stephen & Diana for making this possible!! You made two dreams come true by sharing your tickets.

34 Weeks - Just 6 Short Weeks to GO!!

So we had our 34 week appt - for those of you keeping track I have gained 22 lbs, and Dr. Dix estimated that baby is 6lbs!! Not sure how she came up with that exactly, but it sounds big to me! YIKES! My mother keeps telling me I am going to have a huge baby because I was 8lbs, and my brother was 10lbs (hence his nickname moose!) We are certainly getting ready for baby girl Iten to join the family. We still have some preparations to finish, hanging pictures, window coverings, and getting some last minute items together (diapers, wipes, etc...), installing the car seat - that is probably an important one. We will keep you posted on our progress.

Baby Shower...

I had the most wonderful baby shower last weekend! Michelle and Audrey did a wonderful job of putting together the perfect event. We had ICE CREAM from my favorite place - Liks - and all the toppings! Yummy! And so many of my wonderful friends came to help me celebrate our baby girl. It couldn't have been more perfect...

Thank you to everyone who was part of this event!!

NLCS - Game 4

ANOTHER SWEEP!! Crazy! We had tickets for game 5 of the NLCS, but after the Rockies were up 3-0, Scott had to get tickets to game 4 in case of a sweep (I couldn't make the game so no pictures)! And sure enough... they did it! They are on fire, and we are on our way to the WORLD SERIES!!!

More Rockies...

I know all my posts have been about the Rockies, but when you are married to Scott - baseball is what is going on in October (or should I say Rocktober!) Just a warning Basketball gets started in November! :)

So the Rockies swept the Phillies in the NLDS... since the first two games were in Philly, we only got to go to one game but it was the winning game. We had awesome seats - five rows up from the field - they didn't announce that tickets were going on sale for the NLDS games - so only 9 people showed up at the box office to get tickets, and luckily Scott heard about it later in the day and was able to get AMAZING seats! Very cool...

Some of the festivities before the game started... cool picture if I do say so myself!


These little boys made me tear up - their dad was a first base coach for the minor league team that feeds the Rockies organization. He was hit in the head by a line drive this past July and was killed instantly. His two sons threw out the first pitch of the game! Now the Rockies first base coach always wears a helmet while on the field. Really sad story...


This is what happens when I leave my husband with the camera!!

Eric & Scott........

The Girls...

And the sign we were all waiting to see up on the big screen...

I have to say... we are doing everything we can to make sure this little girl loves baseball!!

National League Wild Card Tiebreaker Game

Best Game EVER!!! Only the 6th time in history that there has been a tiebreaker and we were there! Rockies win in the bottom of the 13th inning after the Padres scored two runs in the top of the 13th. Crazy game! Here are some pictures...

Here is the fly over -


Scott & I so excited to be at the game!!!


It's stretch time...
And FINALLY.... in 13 Innings - down by two in the bottom of the 13th - most AMAZING game we have ever been at!

We will see you at the playoffs!

This was actually a picture from the Saturday before we went to the tiebreaker (Rockies vs. Arizona - a sneak peak of what is to come?)

Welcome Eli!!

Our good friends Tavi & Erica welcomed there little boy Eli a little over a week ago! (You might remember seeing prego pictures of Erica on previous posts!) I was able to run down to the hospital and meet the little guy the day after he was born and then we got to attend the Bris on Tuesday. We are so excited for our little girl to grow up with this little guy! Congrats!! He is truly precious!

Will this Conference Call EVER end!!!!

Girls Weekend & 30 Weeks!

Last weekend I went to Breckenridge with some of my favorite girl friends!! We had a great time relaxing, shopping, eating and of course chatting! :) The colors in the mountains were amazing! Here are a couple pictures...
Check out the belly! :)

We also had our 30 week appointment on Monday - nothing to exciting to report, except that we loved the doctor we met with! We are in the phase where we are rotating around to the other doctors so we can meet everyone in the practice, in case a doctor other than our primary doctor is on call when we go into labor. She was an absolute stitch, we both agreed that we would love to have her in the deliver room with us.

Colorado Rockies

I have to mention this, because we are a baseball household (yes I was reluctant at first, but now I love the game). This is the first season since Scott and I have been together (6 seasons) that the Rockies have been in the race for the wild card slot. We know that it is a LONG stretch - they are 4.5 games out - but the fact that they are still winning games and playing excellent ball is really a treat for us! The LA Dodgers series was just about as good as any series I have watched. They won in the bottom of the 9th inning on Tues night (Helton hitting a home run) and then we went to Wednesdays game and watched another great game, and Scott went with Katie, Alec, Aaron & Sedona to Thursdays day game - where they made it a sweep! I had to keep tabs on the game from my office computer. But what a series!! Go ROCKIES!!

This week also consisted of my last plane travel. I went to Tulsa for work to visit one of my customers. Luckily I was able to make it a day trip. From now on anyone who lives out of state and wants to see me - you will have to come to Denver!! :)

Baby Girl Iten is moving around a ton! It is pretty hystarical. She loves all the peaches - thanks Jess (and her mom) for continuing to feed her wonderful produce from the western slope! Mom is enjoying as well! :)

Off to the mountains with some of the Bunco girls this afternoon for a girls weekend! WHOO HOO! Expect some pictures on Monday!

Phoebe - part 2

Phoebe is better! Thanks everyone for your support. We are still waiting on one last lab test, but all other indications are that she has made a full recovery. Tomorrow we will get instructions from the vet on our plans to wean her from her medicines. We will also have to figure out how to get her off of her wet food - or at least cut her back some, she is eating between 2 & 3 small cans of food a day. Scott has nicknamed her HORSE! She is back up to 7.8lbs though - which is great!

L'Shana Tovah

Happy New Year!! We had a wonderful Rosh Hashanah dinner over at Matt & Robin's house last night. They were gracious enough to include us and it was a wonderful evening. Lot's of yummy food - apples & honey (of course), matzo ball soup, challah, kugel, veggies, and corn beef! Topped off with honey cake and brownies that I was way to full to eat!! After dinner we had a little jam session which is always a treat! Scott & I are not all that musically inclined (however don't tell Scott I said that - he likes to sing around the house!)

Erica & Tavi are ready for their little one (Eli) to join the world! Here is a picture of us girls as you can see I am about 10 weeks behind!! :) You can also tell the difference between carrying a boy vs. a girl. Too funny!

28 Weeks - Can you believe it!

We had our 28 week appointment today - had to do the diabetis test - yuck! You have to drink this super sweet orange flavored syrup drink an hour before you get your blood drawn. It wasn't that bad but two things I don't like are sweets first thing in the morning and needles! :) Hopefully the test results come back normal. I will keep you posted. Everything else went normal - her heart beat is 147 bpm, and I have gained 16 lbs (according to the dr scale - only 14 if you go by my scale at home - of course I like my scale at home better!) We made the rest of our appointments up until my due date - that is a little scary! Only approximately 12 more weeks and we will be a family of 3 (plus 2 four legged friends!)

Welcome Simone

Just a quick post to tell everyone some very exciting news. Our neighbors who have been waiting for a baby for a long time, were blessed with a baby girl this past Friday! Simone is the newest member on our street and we are so excited! We got to meet her on Sunday and she is a quite the cutie!! (hopefully I can snag some photo's the next couple weeks so she can make her Internet debut!)

Here is a picture - look at her!! Precious!

Phoebe & Portland

The last week or so has been a tough one... as many of you know Phoebe was sick. She has been loosing weight over the last month and when she got the sniffles & watery eyes before we were leaving for Portland, I had to get her into the vet to make sure everything was okay. It wasn't.... she had gone from 8.5 lbs to 6.1 lbs, was Jaundice, and didn't have normal liver function. We started feeding her wet cat food, and the vet gave her fluids, but we weren't sure exactly what had caused her to get so sick. Liz (our good family friend) was kind enough to come and stay with the cats while we were out of town. Unfortunately on Friday night (8/31), Liz had to take Phoebe to the 24hr animal hospital because she was vomiting (the one symptom the vet told us that meant she needed to be taken in.) They admitted Phoebe for the weekend, and ran many tests. Basically her liver function wasn't normal because she had used all her fat stores and all her liver was processing was fat (much like anorexia in humans) and this was causing her liver to fail. They force fed her all weekend, and luckily she didn't have to have a feeding tube. She was happy to just eat wet food all weekend and get fluids via an IV. They took excellent care of her (as they should for what we paid!!) and she looked much better when we returned. She was re-checked this Friday, unfortunately the tests were inconclusive as to if her red blood cell count is still low, so we have to have that checked again next Friday morning - please pray this ordeal is over.

Scott has been wonderfully calm throughout this whole mess. My motherly instincts (aka hormones) kicked in big time on this one, and made me more than a little hysterical.

Here is a couple pictures of our extremely expensive cat!!

Look at those hospital paws!

And YES, I want to be the center of attention even when football is on!!!

We were able to enjoy our stay despite all the chaos that was going on at home... we spent Friday & Saturday with my mom - Friday morning was consumed with Cat drama, in the afternoon Scott & I went to Starbucks to get some work done, and relax, while Mom got her windows put in, then we went shopping at Pioneer Place & then at Tanasbourne (when mom found out that the Tanasbourne Gap was the only one in Portland that had a maternity section). Saturday morning Scott watched the CU vs. CSU football game - Sorry honey but I have to say the best team won! While mom and I went to IKEA - what a store! In the afternoon we headed down to Seaside & Cannon Beach since Scott hadn't been to the Oregon coast during daylight hours. We had some wonderful fish and chips, put our feet in the freezing water, and got some salt water taffy. Sunday we went to Dad's house.... the guys when to a Beaver's baseball game at PGE park, and the girls had a baby shower for our little one. It was really sweet of everyone to celebrate the baby girl. Lot's of PINK!! Sunday night we headed to Billy Bob Thornton's band at the Aladdin. It was an event... BBT was definitely entertaining, and it was babies first rock concert. Monday just mostly hung out... Debra came over to go grab a coffee and catch up! I got to meet Rudy Rosenthal the most recent addition to her household - he is a very sweet dog. Brett & Nikki came up after dinner so we could go out to dessert and celebrate their engagement. It was a good weekend despite our poor kitty.

No exciting news...

Not a lot of exciting baby news on this end, the last week has been mostly the continued process of getting the house ready. We have been trying over the past month or so to get the following list of things done, and it all just happened in one crazy week. We got the bedding and a rocker for the nursery. We purchased a couch for the basement so we can hang out in front of our big screen tv this winter! And we sold my car (with 141K miles) and bought a newer model with less mileage. It all just came together, crazy!

My wonderful husband also put together storage racks for our garage - and with a little supervision this weekend, he got all the tools and sporting/camping gear organized. I think we could actually get a car in the garage! AMAZING!

I will try to put some new pictures of the nursery up soon - I just feel like it is a mess at the moment. I don't have any real organization going on - shocking to some, I know! But I have been focusing on the rest of the house and haven't organized stuff much in the nursery. I have also bought just a couple wonderful outfits on summer clearance, that I will have to post. Everything is just the cutest thing ever when it is for a baby! :)

Happy Anniversary to Daddy-to-be

Yesterday morning (our second wedding anniversary) Scott got to feel the baby moving around for the first time!! Nice work baby girl! :) What a perfect gift. At first he thought it was me moving around. It took a little bit for him to be convinced it was his daughter! Super fun.

We had a doctors appointment this morning. Rather uneventful - I have gained 12 lbs, and the heartbeat was in the 140's.

We also had some wonderful visitors this weekend... Brett and Nikki came into town from Portland. It was a quick trip, but we got to spend some time together which was super nice. Usually when we are in Portland we are rushing from seeing one person to the next so it was nice to get to just hang out. We took them to many of our favorite places to eat, the dog track for an afternoon at the races, and then for a special event- The Little Mermaid! It opened in Denver as a pre-Broadway performance. It was a great show - I love how Disney brings stories to life on the stage. To all my New York friends, keep an eye out for this incredible show opening on Broadway in November.

Butterflies...

I was beginning to think all my girlfriends were crazy. They kept asking me if I had felt the baby yet - and kept telling me that it would feel like butterflies fluttering around in my belly. Well all I was feeling was pressure & stretching - which to me is not what I think of when I think of a butterfly in my belly! However last week I started to notice the little tingles and flutters that I think everyone has been telling me about. I was in my 22nd week so I was anxious to start feeling her move even thought I have seen it happen on the ultrasound. (23 weeks today, we have another dr.'s appt on Monday, I will be sure to update everyone on our vitals!)

Scott keeps telling her to kick, kick, kick when he puts his hand on my belly. It reminds me of my early swimming lessons, and I keep telling him to teach her that in a swimming pool in about a year or two - not in my belly! I am trying to teach him to say move, move, move, but it isn't working. :)

Last night we had another JBU class. We got to work on different breathing and relaxation techniques. It was good, but Scott doesn't think he wants to rub my face during labor for fear I might not react favorably! :) He might be right! The instructor is really good, and keeps explaining that a women in labor might want one thing at one moment and a totally different thing the next and that the fathers are not to take it personally! I can only image how true that has to be.

We also got to tour the labor & delivery floor of the hospital and kind of familiarize ourselves with where we need to go and how things are going to work. The rooms are quite nice and our instructor also showed us a lounge area for early labor or after the birth that apparently nobody ever uses and is much more spacious than the hospital rooms. In case we are in need of a change of scenery! And extremely important to Scott - he now knows which door we enter the hospital through and where to park! :)

Week 21 was an easy one!

Thanks to Margaret & Jason's wedding and getting to travel for a long weekend. We were in Maine for Wed night & Thursday. Got to see Hollye & Dave's new house (very cute), the old port area of Portland, eat at a couple yummy restaurants (I had Haddock -the local fish- twice!) and a SeaDogs baseball game (Redsocks AAA team.) Portland is a super nice city and it was great to be right at the water. The game was a riot! It is a big event in Portland and everyone is a huge baseball fan! The stadium was super family orientated, tons of kids, and lots of entertainment. On Friday we headed out to Vermont, but we stopped in Portsmouth, NH for breakfast and a little shopping. That is the cutest town EVER! I could have shopped in all the boutiques for hours. But we had to get back on the road... in order to get to Vermont for dinner. We had a great time driving on all the rural country roads and winding through all the little towns. We got to the castle in time to get freshened up for the BBQ - which had to be moved inside in case of rain, but it ended up being a gorgeous night. The food was amazing, Margaret looked beautiful and so happy (despite her mother driving her a little crazy) and it was great to see all her family. Saturday we headed to Ludlow for Breakfast, and then I went to the spa for a mani/pedi, Scott got lost driving around the area, and Dad went antiquing. The wedding was at 4:30 and the weather held (for the most part, only a couple drops) and then the party & the never ending eating began. :) Margaret was so sweet and got me a birthday cake. We wish her and Jason the best of luck! They were both so happy and now I get to start harassing them about children.

At the ball game with Hollye!

Here is the happy couple!
Two glowing ladies! This picture makes me look HUGE!
Dad - Tigger loved her new catnip toy! I don't think she is going to share with her sister!
On to week 22!