Pregnancy Update

Things are still going pretty well. I am continuing to get more and more uncomfortable during the day and at night. Not getting much sleep these days between the aches and pains and trips to the bathroom.

We had an OB appointment last Friday and my uterus is measuring right on track. Right now we are thinking that this baby will be about average size. We have an ultrasound on the 8th to find out the estimated growth and position. The plan so far is to attempt a VBAC if I go into labor before my scheduled c-section, which is on April 21st. The bummer is that our OB just got called for jury duty on that day, so we are not sure what to expect until the date gets closer. We also have a pre-op appointment on Wednesday afternoon.

We did some shopping this weekend to finish up getting things for the nursery. We have one more thing to pick up and then I think we will be ready for the baby. Did I just say that?? As far as the room goes, we need to repair the closet doors (they come off the track really easily) and touch up the trim and we will be done! I spent the good part of the weekend washing and putting away all of the baby clothes and sheets. Next step will be to organize the rest of the stuff (bottles, pump, etc.).

This week's project is packing our hospital bag. We never had a chance to do this with Mason since I was rushed into the hospital with little warning at 32 weeks. It will be our first time packing so any advice you have is much appreciated!

Nursery Preview

Ok, so Mason and I are both sick with a bad cold. We have cancelled our daytime appointments through Wednesday so that we can stay home and recover. It is still pretty chilly outside (only in the 50's here) so we are going to avoid going out as well. The result? We are pretty bored. Just relaxing, watching some cartoons, resting and drinking tons of fluids. The nursery is coming along, but still needs a little work. I thought I would take a few "preview" pictures to show how nice the vinyl decals turned out. I spent hours putting them up after Mason went to bed last weekend. Each bird and leaf is individually placed. It took a couple of hours of tedious work, but it was totally worth it in the end! We are going to order the baby's name in the same design after she is born.

The company we used is Lewas Designs. She has some beautiful designs and I could literally go crazy in her Yahoo store if I let myself! Mason is totally in love with the tree and birds and loves to show them off to his Mom and Dad and anyone else who is here :) I think we might look at doing a couple of decals in his room as well.






Here are a couple of pictures of Mason "reading" his books this morning.

Baby Name

Turns our that our baby name list ended up being one name long. We looked at tons of names and only came up with one that stood out to us.

Isabel May Ellinger

Lucky!

Boy, we are lucky! We had a second estimate done on our basement and the man suggested calling out a plumber to snake the drains and check for tree roots before going any further. This way, we would be able to tell for sure if our drain tile is broken or clogged. We gave one of our neighbors (who is a plumber) a call and he came out and found a huge root ball in the storm drain! Since the drain was plugged, the drain tile couldn't drain and water started to rise around our foundation. This explains why we had both leaks last week. Once he pulled it out, we heard all of the water around our house drain into the line. We are very, very happy to say that our water problem is fixed! No expensive bills, no attorneys and some peace of mind! It stinks that we had to deal with all of the water and cleaning everything out of our basement, but on the plus side there are no longer any 70's flashbacks when you go down there :)

In the meantime, we have been working diligently to get the nursery done. We just have a few more things to do and we will be finished. We found some great vinyl wall decals that look really nice in there! I am starting to have more and more contractions every day and would not be surprised if the baby arrives a little earlier than expected. We are hoping to have everything ready within the next couple of weeks. We will post some pictures soon!

Yikes!!!

Well, we have had a really eventful week. Unfortunately, it was not the good kind of eventful. It started last Sunday with some water in our basement. We were really fortunate to find the leak only hours after it appeared to have started and were able to rescue our basement belongings before things got worse. Really only a corner of the basement was ruined and Travis spent the remainder of the night pulling up wet carpet and paneling. For the next couple of days we ran fans and a dehumidifier and things were looking dry, until Wednesday. By this time we had had 4.5 inches of rain in our area over the course of 5 days or so. Wednesday evening, we were just about to begin the process of moving some of our stuff back into the basement when we discovered we had more than 3 inches of water in the other half of the basement.....just great. Travis spent yet another 2 evenings pulling down paneling and getting all the water up. This time we couldn't tell where the water was coming from.

Here is where it gets pretty interesting. We called out a basement company to investigate what the issue was. They think we have a broken or clogged drain tile under the house. They also said that there looks like there have been a lot of prior leaks, floods and shoddy repairs done to the basement and there was evidence that this has been an ongoing problem for a long time. Our neighbors even informed us that the house had a major flood while it was still on the market and the owners had to call in trucks with special equipment to suck out all of the water. This would have been fine, however, the people the sold us the house did not disclose any of this! The box on the disclosure statement regarding basement water and/or foundation issues was checked "no". They were also the original owners, so they would have been here for ALL of it. Nice, huh? Seems strange that our inspector also missed some obvious signs.

Now we are stuck with thousands of dollars in basement repairs to install a new drain tile and sump pump. Needless to say we are really upset and will be contacting the previous owners to explain that we feel they are responsible for the cost. Who knows where this will go, but we have a sinking feeling we may need to get an attorney involved.

The good thing is that the basement was only partially finished, in the 70's, so seeing the carpet and old paneling go was not a heartbreaker. Travis spent the entire weekend getting everthing out. He pulled up every inch of carpet, removed all of the paneling and insulation. We also had to pull down the framed walls.

We have a couple more quotes to get this week on the repairs. Hopefully this weekend we can get everything fixed so that we won't have to worry about the water anymore.

Pregnancy Update

It has been a while since I have updated on our pregnancy. Seems weird since my pregnancy with Mason was so complicated and we were updating everyone frequently. We are in our 32nd week and will be 33 weeks on Monday. I can't believe the time has gone by so fast!

So far, everything has been checking out ok at our appointments. We have had three clean ultrasounds and her hear beat sounds great at every appointment. She has been very, very active and will sometimes make me really uncomfortable with all of the kicking and moving around.

I have been feeling pretty good with the exception of some hip and leg pain. I think my sciatic nerve is being pinched a bit. Some days are much better than others. Sleeping has also become difficult, but that is to be expected this late in pregnancy. I try and nap when Mason naps and it really helps keep me going for the day. I will just enjoy this luxury while it lasts!

We have an appointment coming up on the 13th and I believe they might do another ultrasound to see what kind of position she is in. They also want to check her weight to see where it is. Mason was a pretty good size at 33 weeks, so there is a concern that she might be a pretty good size too. We have decided for the moment that we will attempt a VBAC if I go into labor before my due date. We are also planning on scheduling a c-section around our due date. If I were to go past my date, they can't induce labor because of the prior c-section and I would end up with one anyways, so it makes sense to schedule one for my due date. It is a tough decision because both methods (VBAC and c-section) come with risks to me and the baby. Unfortunately, there is no easy answer.

We have also decided to remove the name voting poll from the blog. Unfortunately we have lost interest in those names. We are having a heck of a time deciding on a name. We want her to have a special name just like Mason has. We have decided to put a small list together and pick an official name after we meet her. There haven't been too many names that have jumped out at us so far, so I am not sure what kind of a list we will have together when she is born.

Phase I Pics

Here are some pictures of the kitchen drywall and lighting. We still have lots to do in the kitchen after the nursery is complete. I will post more pictures after we finish the next phase (trimming out the window, painting the cabinets and putting in new countertops).