16 weeks! Officially 4 months preggo! 168 days to go...

We're at 16 weeks!! 4 months down, 5.something to go!!


Body shot at 16 weeks.


The "belleh" shot at 16 weeks, or 4 months along.


Here's a picture of my new hair...my guy is amazing. It's even better in person. :)

I'll have to write more later...it's getting late and I still haven't packed for the whirlwind trip home to WI baby and I are taking tomorrow to visit family, especially cousins and Uncle Trav & Aunt Tab who are home from Alaska. Still feelin' good and after a few days with no kicking, Baby Schmidt let me know s/he was hungry right around dinner time by kicking me repeatedly about 4x...again...I'm pretty sure it was some kicking. :) Reassuring either way. :)

Cute Hair! Yay!

I just got back from J. Michael's Salon and feel like I have the cutest hair ever! I went pretty light and since I missed my last cut due to morning sickness (thank you baby) my hair was pretty blah and still dark from winter coloring. Jason framed my face, gave me a summer color (or colors, really), and when I told him I thought my hair was "frickin' cute," he laughed and appreciated the comment. :) Definitely too much money well spent. :)

Baby Schmidt has been quiet the last day or two which is completely normal at this stage of the game. Between yesterday and today, I really only felt one kick and this time it was either a punch OR the baby completely flipped b/c it was on the lower right side instead of the upper left side of my uterus/baby home. This is odd to me b/c I (for some odd reason) thought the uterus was this relatively round thing but according to where the kicks were, my baby home must be oval. Or it was just coincidence. Who knows. By the way...I'm leaning a bit more towards feeling like this babers is a boy...I've been wrong before, but even though we're kind of hoping for a boy, I still get the feeling it's a boy...we'll find out in a month (pending a cooperative baby...and since this baby has Adam for a daddy, that might be debatable). :)

Exciting Weekend

Greetings! It has been a busy weekend so I'm looking forward to (potentially) a relaxing Sunday. The house is clean...the only thing that needs to be done is laundry but that's on hold...I'll get to that in a minute.

Friday, Adam had the day off due to his 7-day run of 12-hr shifts so he did various things around the house outside and a few things to help out inside since we had company coming. I got home from work and finished the cleaning before relaxing after Adam got home from his first of 4 weekends of class. Luke & Sara Hilgers and boys (ages 7 months and 2 years) arrived late, just before 1am, so Luke could participate in a regional Highland Games meet the following morning.

Saturday morning, Adam headed off to class, I let the dogs run outside, and when the Hilgers family woke up, we ate breakfast (SOOO much different with a 2-y/o at the table!!) and sent Luke off to the games. I watched the boys so Sara could shower, and I am continually amazed at how parents function with more than one child, especially 2 under 2 (Magnus turns 2 next week). The boys were very well behaved but it's a much faster pace then when it's just us adults here. :) (the first of several eye-opening experiences that day...). Then we headed to the games which took place about a 1/2 hr east of where we live, in Davenport. Since Magnus (the 2-y/o) was a bit of a "runner," I took care of Demitri most of the day since running after Magnus left me sort of out of breath (sad...used to be no problem). Demitri gave my arms quite the workout, but that's just a perk to being a mom - great arms. :) I imagine I could probably win some arm wrestling contests after carrying around my baby for a few months. :) When the games were over, we met Adam at BW3s (Buffalo Wild Wings) after his class before the Hilgers family headed for home...they felt that taking advantage of late travel with boys who didn't really nap all day would be highly beneficial. :) I understood completely. And it was really great to see them since it had been a while and we hadn't met the boys yet.

Adam and I then went home and he headed to the driving range. The giant dinner I ate was making me feel like twisting was NOT in the cards for the night. After he left, I took the dogs outside to run around the yard as a treat for being in their kennels while we had company. We have Jessie wear a 25' check cord along with her e-fence collar while she's running around so in case she runs through the electric fence, it's a bit easier to catch her. Well, of course this happens when Adam's gone. She even thought about it 3x before she broke through. I was on one side of the yard and she broke through the fence on the far side. Since she was headed towards a road (if she made it through the two yards she was heading for) that people cruise pretty quickly around the corner/hills, I ran to try to catch her. By the time I had gotten through our yard and the next, she was in the last yard before the road and I could hardly breathe. I was nervous b/c I felt my stomach jumping all around while I was running, but the thought of watching her get hit by a car was too much at the moment not to run. (Of course there was not a neighbor in sight...) She started to slow down but just when I was about to reach the cord, she of course went out of reach. I could hardly move my legs (these back yards are all uphill) so by the time I got to her, my legs were almost ready to give out and I could hardly breathe. Needless to say, when I caught her we had words and spankings. She was dragged back home and "retrained" on the fence again before being banned to the house for the rest of the night. I was livid with her and could hardly look at her. I was so worried that the spontaneous sprint could hurt the baby and felt very strongly that a dog was NOT worth my baby's health. But I caught her and we were all safe in the house. Adam was frustrated with her b/c we've been working with her on the fence lately and it doesn't seem to be fully sinking in. We decided she's ready for some formal training (since she knows several commands related to hunting and obedience) with the hand-held shock collar. I think once she realized that the shock she's experiencing isn't under her control (like it is when she runs through the e-fence), she might have a little of that "puppy spirit" broken and start paying a little closer attention to our commands. Shortly after Adam got home, we used the lawn mower and trailer to haul some wood Adam brought home to the wood pile and she did great staying in the yard. SO frustrating.

THEN (this day was pretty long) Adam went downstairs around 9:15pm to put something away and called me to come down. After a long day of chasing toddlers and a stupid dog, I wasn't too keen on the idea but went down anyway b/c he had "that tone"...something wasn't right. I was just hoping there wasn't water leaking somewhere...so I get into the laundry room where he was and got a whiff of what he was talking about. Something did NOT smell right. We were pretty worried it was gas, but before making any phone calls, Adam poured some water into a hole in the floor that occasionally emits foul smells from the septic tank, which usually cures the problem. Since it didn't fade at all from that, we called our gas company who sent someone out within the hour. The nicest guy showed up and to make a long story short, yup, we had a small gas leak...from our water heater. He said we could replace the broken part for about $200, but since our WH is ancient and brand new energy efficient ones are about $300-350, we decided to just get a new one. Hopefully that will happen today. I'm too worried to go in the room and potentially find a way to create a spark, so the laundry can wait. The guy said we could just leave it and do nothing since the water is still being heated and working just fine, but the idea of leaking gas and things were not ok with us. Wish us luck that the replacement goes well!

Today (Sunday), Adam went to pray at the Muscatine Municipal Golf Course while I went to real church. I'm about to figure out meals for the week and go grocery shopping before all the rain gets here. Hopefully Adam will be buying a new water heater while I relax and do a whole lotta nothin' today. :)

Was that it?

Today I was emailing back and forth with some friends and mentioned to a fellow preggers SLP that I THINK I might have felt some kicks at this point but it's so hard to tell. I was reassured this afternoon (by the same said SLP friend) that the baby won't kick hard until several weeks from now. Too funny though - shortly after I emailed my two friends about it, I'm pretty sure Baby Schmidt took a few quick (wimpy) punches to my upper belly area. They're just so soft yet and if that was really the baby moving, then I think I have been feeling him/her for a few (less than 2) weeks now. That's pretty neat! Just think - some day sooner than I think, I'll be praying for him/her to stop trying to break my ribs and poke a hole in my bladder with tiny fingers. :) I joked with Adam that since the kicks are pretty wimpy at this point, the baby must be taking after him. He had words of disagreement...

Sweets are officially off the list of things that are OK to eat unless I've eaten a full meal and have a small sweet something for dessert. Cereal (semi-healthy kind) was even not so great the other morning. It's not that it makes me feel like I'm going to BE sick, but it gives me a rather sour stomach for a while that does not feel the best. I don't know if this is considered morning sickness (which, contrary to popular belief, can be any day, any time, all 9 months but not usually) but if the baby doesn't want sweets for now, I'm willing to oblige (but also think s/he's taking after his/her daddy...I LOVE sweets and Adam occasionally does, but not very often).

Luke (friend in our wedding party) is on his way right now to visit and participate in a track meet with his wife and two young boys (2y/o and 7m/o). I'm praying and praying that Maddie and Jessie behave themselves and am fully prepared to kennel them a majority of the time they are here. I just don't want them to get too excited and jump on the boys...although the practice would be good. Jessie did pretty well with little ones at Christmas, so I'm sure she'll be fine...can't help but be a little nervous though, as you never know how people really feel about dogs and most won't tell you...

Adam's on his way home from his first night of a month of weekend classes. He's stopping at McD's for me to get me some fries. He called me on my way home from work today and said he was "craving cheese curds" and asked if I'd stop and pick some up at Culver's. I did. And then told him if he didn't pick up a craving for me sometime SOON he was going to hear it (since he has YET to do this husbandly duty yet and YES, I've had cravings). Hence, he's on his way to pick up the world's best french fries ever. ;) I just had an apple so the baby got something good... :)

15 weeks and counting!

Here is the bassinet I was talking about in the last post. If it was this hard to get two dogs to sit still, imagine what it's going to be like with a baby in the mix!

Below you will see my 15 week pictures. Just say it. I feel a little defeated but nothing too horrible. I'm huge. Even just compared to last week. Update on baby size:

4" long crown to rump
2.5 oz in weight
about the size of a med/large apple

Now that said, how can that make me look like this?! Don't get me wrong. I know what I sound like so far and it's a little depressing, I know. I just hadn't realized I'd gotten that big this week and I was all prepared for a post that went something like "I haven't really changed since last week..." right. Not how it happened this time. :) That said, I'm getting really excited and anxious to feel this little tyke kick me. I find myself sitting really still just to see if I feel anything...but I'll keep you posted. Be sure that I will post it almost immediately after I stop freaking out/crying from being so excited. I still have some time for that yet though...more later. It's going to be a great day in the upper 70s and with a mental health day in progress and Adam off of work (after 10am), it's going to be just lovely. :)

What a great day!

I had the best day today. Well, after around 10am or so. :) My home visits all went well, my kids are all progressing nicely, and one of them canceled so I could get an extra bit of paperwork/email done. :) So I went to my last home visit at the end of the day to a family who's just potentially/most likely had their last little one a few months ago. Mom had packed up a van FULL of things to send to their church for a church rummage sale. Mom mentioned she wishes she would have thought of it earlier, but she had a bunch of maternity clothes (oh no! I want them! I'll give money!!) and other potentially great things she was going to give away. After a bit more discussion, she decided I MUST take home three bags of maternity clothes that she didn't have in the van (I couldn't believe she had more stuff outside of that very full van). She told me most of them were from motherhood maternity (reasonably priced, I've been there) and mimi maternity (a very expensive place that I've only looked at online and denounced b/c I wasn't spending that kind of money on maternity clothes), as well as a few pieces she made herself. She told me to "borrow" them but sounded like she couldn't make up her mind if I should keep them or not. SO, I'm going to borrow them but am so excited to have something else to choose from besides 2-3 pairs of pants that currently fit and be frustrated almost every morning b/c my shirts don't cover the band on my mommy pants. I tried to offer her money and she almost beat me up. She wasn't taking ANYthing for the clothes and after a second try, I gave in since she was NOT having it.

I was so grateful and feeling really lucky to have these clothes...and then she said wait I have this bassinet that I'm having a hard time parting with in the van - do you want to take a look at it? I said of course! Adam and I enjoy saving money (I was planning on giving her money at this point but it had to be cheaper than buying it outright). I looked at it and fell in absolute love. It's very traditional looking and all white. It's adorable. I will post a picture tomorrow when I put up my 15 week picture. 15 weeks! I know! It's suddenly going really fast and the idea that I'm only 5 weeks away from the half way point suddenly scares me just a little bit as the bassinet is really the only major thing we currently have. I think once we see the next u/s at 20 weeks and I start feeling kicks/punches, we'll be a bit more proactive about things like furniture, onsies, bottles, etc...oh, writing bottles just made me take one step closer to this being more real. I know I see/feel the belly every day. But it's still a little surreal without the kicks and flutters of the baby on the inside. Still no movements as of today besides the one tap last week. :-( All in good time I know, and in a few months I'll be posting about how I have a broken rib, I swear...I still can't wait. :) After a dinner of amazing shish kabobs, amazing weather, and a tiny piece of brownie (as sugary things haven't agreed with me the past few days), I'm going to relax on this couch the rest of the night. 15 weeks tomorrow!!

Cool Website

Hi all...things are going well here other than this obscene BLOATING I've been experiencing the past two days or so. Eat one wrong thing, I tell you, and WHAM! Bloated and looking 5 months preggo. :) This week's picture might be slightly skewed due to this bloating but hopefully it will have gone down by then. It doesn't hurt too much, but gets really uncomfortable at times. Yesterday I ate myself silly at lunch where we went out for Thai food and suffered for it the rest of the day and even a little today as the baby was not as hungry as usual. Although I say that and the next minute I'm hungry...it's dinner time anyway. :)

I know I've mentioned that I am a big fan of the website www.babycenter.com and use it regularly to ask questions and look up general pregnancy info. Today the website sent me a link to this great set of 5 animated videos of the baby's development in utero from weeks 1-9, 10-14, 15-20, 21-27, and 28-37. I'm just about to wrap up week 14 and move on to week 15 (this one went FAST) where I am getting this much closer to feeling the baby kick. I haven't had much time the past few days to really relax and hope for feeling kicks and punches, but again, it's still rather early. I know I said I swear I felt something last week sometime, but there hasn't been anything noticeable since then. Oh, but I best post the site before I forget. Here it is:

http://www.babycenter.com/2_inside-pregnancy-weeks-1-to-9_10302602.bc?scid=momspreg_20090421:2&pe=2UwFMXI

It's fast and informative and neat to see. Yesterday I got home from work and for no apparent reason was really tired. So...I put my pjs on by 5:00pm (was home at 4:45pm), sat in the recliner until I made dinner for us (Adam got home super late as everything at work went bonkers right before he had to leave), and then hung out on the couch all night. Today I had more energy when I got home and the ridiculously long grass in our yard as well as a crazy little exercise-deprived puppy motivated me to take the wheelbarrow and rake to all the sticks in the yard so Adam can mow the lawn first thing after this round of 7 day 12-hr shifts. We got about 45 minutes into it, half the yard done, and then the ol' pregnant bod said that's enough. So now we're inside, waiting for Adam to get home, and excited to watch The Biggest Loser. It's a week night. We're not very adventurous especially when Adam has to work these shifts.

Yesterday was QUITE frustrating for me. I'm beginning to run out of shirts that fit over my belly and are long enough to cover the band on my mommy pants. I figured I could run to Younkers (I had coupons!) or JCPenny (which I didn't expect much, the one here is not the greatest) but low and behold, I walk into Younkers and nope, "we don't have a maternity section." I walk down the mall to JCP and nope, we don't have one either. I almost lost it on the second lady. Where am I supposed to go to get maternity clothes in a pinch in Muscatine!?? All I wanted was a few simple, solid-colored long/short-sleeved shirts to get me through the week until I could do some serious shopping this weekend. I was able to keep my pregnant temper in check and quietly left the store with steam coming out of my ears. Then I went online at home and became so sad at how expensive this new wardrobe is going to be. I knew it was coming, but sheesh. I'd rather buy baby clothes but I will NOT be uncomfortable if at all possible in terms of clothing while carrying around this little growing person.

Lastly, Adam and I had a discussion last night about the dogs and pending baby things. They were having a rather riled up moment when I finally lost it (after asking Adam not to let them escalate too much) after they became so loud and obnoxious that I could hardly hear myself think. They were much quieter and we talked about how I don't want the dogs to get that loud with the baby around especially if s/he's sleeping soundly. I agreed with Adam that the baby will have to get used to the dogs (and vice versa) but not when they're growling and screeching at each other. So we're going to try to start the training now on playing a bit more quietly and not escalating to sounding like a pack of wolves. That said, I'm starving and am off to have a salad to hold me off until Adam gets home at 7pm. We're having leftovers tonight and I told him since he was having chili, I was going to have a burger and the rest of his potato salad. One of the first things he said to me on the phone earlier was "Please leave me some potato salad. It was traumatizing to read I wouldn't get any." Moral of the story - don't come b/w a husband and his potato salad. :)