Ashley's too short visit

A summary of quotes from our time together:

I should call the cops.

That's hot!

The tattoos I get take hours.

What did you do? Sleep with the boss?

That's time out of my life I'll never get back.

I will not let you take the baby in there.

Are you punking me man?

I have stuff I haven't even told you.

Wow, a full subscription to BET!

Another free subscription to BET.

Nothing like calling attention to ourselves.

Wow, I don't fit in and its a grocery store.

She looks hot doesn't she?

Parking garages scare me.

Firemen...hi! Ooh, there's a copper too!

Now that's gonna shoot right out of her butt.

I will if you pull over... NOT HERE!!!

Exotic boutique - we should go there.

I'm gonna do the butt out the front window thing.

That was the worst night of her entire life.

Key word: lopping!

When a girl my size gets hungry, its not pretty.

It's only cuz it doesn't have a dirty connotation.

All the people at work think I'm doing drugs.

You know I'm mad when I say flippin' and freakin' that many times.

Oh, we're gonna die!

I've been thru more tunnels today than in the whole past year.

Low fuel...WHAT?!?!

Stacey tried to kill me in the tunnel.

I want a cookie...and some more pie. Only one cookie?!?!

Effingham

Do you have spiders in your bathroom?

And after that he was no longer living as far as I was concerned.

He was just like "I have to rescue my Cinderella".

My stomach just went WHOP.

I just about peed my pants.

I just want to get on my suitcase and ride it.

It was a pleasure serving you.

I wouldn't want to be strapped in like I'm going to space either.

I wonder how many people heard you say you wanted to date your cousin?

ONONDAGA

He was really mad at you!

Pretty sure it was a shehe.

He was adjusting his tummy.

AND NUMERO UNO....

AAUUGGGHHH!! I thought you were a rat!!!!!

PS-Full details provided upon request.

We read Lillian her first book and she was completely unfazed.

We have continued to take her in the shower and she continues to love it. Water streaming down her face doesn't even make her cry. We're doing our best to create a waterbaby out of her. So far so good. We'll see how she does in a pool.

She got her first manicure and pedicure, much to her father's ridicule, but it looks so adorable.

Tomorrow night is her first sunday school party and Sunday night brings another dinner with Landon and Lena. Monday brings.....

ASHLEYYYYYYYYYYY

We're just a little excited.

I'm going to update her accomplishment list tonight, I promise. I wonder how long they'll let me get the list before they start cutting it off?

We took Lilly to the pedi again yesterday. He's quickly becoming her most frequent visitor :-(

She has just been overly fussy all weekend and that's not her at all. Turns out she has a reflux problem and so we're trying Zantac to see how that will help with the gas from both ends.

However, she has only gained 5 ounces in two weeks and is now only up to 6 lbs 11 ozs, which sounded good to me at first, until I realized that she still, at 7 weeks, has not gained a full pound form her birth weight. Hmmm.... So, we're back to the every two hour force feedings. Not fun. For me or her. She always looks at us like, "you're not seriously going to shove that thing in my face again ALREADY are you?!?"

I'm still having serious supply issues and we're working with the lactation consultants to try all our options to increase it. Nothing we've tried has worked so far.

Lillian Rolled Over!!!

March Mayhem

I can't even believe it's March already. Time has FLOWN by. We've just been hanging out in wonderment of Little Miss Lillian and somehow its March. This month not only will bring her 2 month marker, my 26th birthday (OH MY WORD!), and a vacation to Florida for Grandma Harris' 75th birthday, but it brings the arrival of ASHLEY!!!!!!! Other than the wedding and the birth, this ranks right up there with top most awaited moments of my life. I cannot wait. It will be three days PACKED full of fabulous fun.

Lilly is doing magnificently although she has perfected her banshee scream and I'm sure the neighbors debate calling child protective services daily, thinking we must be neglecting her. She has been eating up a storm, which is great for her weight issues, which we are hoping are a thing of the past. She has a bit of a cold still and she absolutely hates the saline spray we've been told to use. She has been sleeping in the swing to be upright and seems to be doing better.

The other most exciting thing ever...we actually found some pants that fit her-kind of. They are "skinny leggings" from Gap, meant to be skin tight like tights but at least they mostly fit her. They only had two colors, but we bought both of them. She finally has something to cover her little legs! And we got her a swimsuit and a sun hat too, both are big, but will work for vacation in Florida.

PS-Birthday lists available upon request :-P

At her pedi appt today, Lillian weighed 6lbs and 6ozs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seven ounces in seven days.

The pedi said "that's almost a record!"

Unless she gets sick we don't have to go back until March 31st for her two month well baby checkup and her first immunizations.

Edited to add: And finally, "Failure to thrive" was not written on her billing record.

I called the pedi's office to ask what I should do for her congestion being that the two nose bulb suckers I have don't fit in her nose because she's so tiny. The nurse actually said to me "No ma'am, you put the SMALL end in her nose."

Gee thanks honey, I'm glad to let you care for my daughter.

At the follow up appointment on Monday, Lillian measured at 5lbs 15ozs, which isn't tons better, but is a gain and she is now above her birthweight!!!!!!!!!!!!

Doc said just continue what we're doing (Feeding fortified breastmilk and formula every other time every two hours) and come back next Monday for another check up. If she is still gaining, we don't have to go back until her regularly scheduled well baby two month checkup.

"Failure to thrive"

Little Miss Lillian was admitted to the Children's Hospital for three days because of "failure to thrive". In other words, she was not gaining weight like the pedi wanted her to. Actually, she was not gaining weight at all for over a week. So not only did they tell us we had to take her straight to the hospital to admit her, they tell us that she has "failure to thrive". Then we get to the hospital and they ask "Reason for admittance?" and I have to say "failure to thrive". One would think they could come up with better phrasing for parents already in a stressful situation.

Anywho, Lillian had to have an IV put in, and had three veins blown in the process. She had to have a catheter put in, it actually worked on the 7th try. She had to have cheast ex rays done and have a heart monitor on continuously. Every half hour they took her blood pressure and temperature. It was awful. But every test they did for really bad things came back negative. The only thing they found was slightly elevated liver enzymes, but could not find a reason for that.

She had previously had some jaundice and thrush. We believe the thrush is what was causing her not to want to eat, although she still should have gained some weight. She gained 5 ounces while she was in the hospital, although their scales are different than the doctors office. According to the doctors office, she was 5 lbs 9 ozs when he had her admitted and according to the hospital she was 5 lbs 2 ozs when she was admitted and 5 lbs 7 ozs when she was discharged.

We have changed her feeding to every two hours during the day but only when she wakes up during the night. We have also started fortifying her breast milk bottles with extra calories to help fatten her up. And it looks like we are going to have to start doing some formula soon, as she is eating more than I can give her.

We have a follow up appointment on Monday at the doctor's office. Pray everything goes well. I never want to have to go through having her in the hospital again, it was horrible.

First photos

Richard

Stacey

Lillian

Its time for a poll. These are the first photos of all three of us. What attributes of Lillian do you think look like either of us. So far both of us just think she looks like Lilly. Thoughts?

Friday excitement

The excitement started VERY early when I discovered that Miss Lil cannot wear one of those dress thingys to bed. She needs a onesie on to help hold the diaper on. Because if she does wear a dress, like she tried last night, she wakes up with the diaper completely off, poop and pee on her dress, the blanket wrapped around her, the blanket wrapped around that, the sheet saver and the sheet. Its a nice surprise at 2am let me tell you.

The excitement continued when after I cleaned her up she slept for 5 hours straight!!!!!! That almost made up for the middle of the night laundry and bath session. We hope this continues but don't expect it to.

It further continued when I had to go to the dr and get my staples out. Thankfully, that was rather uneventful and didn't hurt as bad as it could have (although it did hurt more than they promised it would). They said everything looks good and I don't go back for a month. And I lost 21 pounds since last Wednesday. Let me know if anyone else can beat my record for 1 week weight loss :-). It just tells you how nasty puffy I was with water last week.

Then, poor Lilly had to go BACK to the pedi because we thought she looked a little yellow. The pedi said he didn't think it was bad but he did send us to the hospital for lab work. That hurt more than the staples even, poor thing, it took FOREVER. But she was excellent, and really didn't even cry that much. The doc called later to say that her level was 17, worse than he thought but not horrible. He said just to see if its worse tomorrow and if so to bring her back in, if not, we're okay. Here's hopin'.....

Lillian Ashleigh

Lillian joined us on 1-23-08 at 8:56 p.m. via c-section. She weighed 5 pounds, 13 ounces and was 19 inches long. She was perfectly healthy and had an apgar score of 8 at birth. We both left the hospital on Saturday. Lilly weighed 5 pounds, 4 ounces when we left the hospital.

She had her first pedi visit on Monday and she was up to 5 pounds, 6 ounces and he said everything looked great. She has to go back in two weeks.

Lilly loves to sleep.........if someone is holding her. She is getting used to a pacifier and is starting to get the hint that when she puts her thumb in her mouth someone takes it out. She loves to be curled all up but is stretching more and more and starting to gain some strength to push people away or pull them closer. She loves to wear hats and hates to be nekkid.

She is so much fun and we're all enjoying her immensly. I will put some pictures on here, but more are on our picasa web site. I am updating the picasa site regularly but this blog will probably be pretty sparce for awhile---we're kinda busy with other stuff :-)

A state of emergency

The half hour show I was watching on tv has had a constant icon in the upper left corner of the screen, a constant ticker at the bottom of the screen and the show has been interrupted twice now (22 minutes in) with warnings of this breaking news.....

We are in a state of "winter storm warning".

Even if one thought this was overkill, one might think the message was justified, IF....

It were not followed by the words "1-2 inches of snow are expected within the next 48 hours, no accumulation is expected."

Yes, I would definintly call that a winter storm warning worthy of constant announcement....

only in Virginia.


UPDATE AS OF SUNDAY MORNING: We received MAYBE 5 flakes of snow total yesterday, mixed in with the constant rain. This morning is bright and sunshiney, no sign of the "state of emergency" this state was expecting. Big surprise! I wonder what everyone will do with all those extra gallons of water and logs they stocked up on on Friday??

It's looking very much like Lillian will be a January baby.

The doc released me from the hospital this afternoon with strict orders for complete bedrest and going either to his office or the hospital every other day for testing. He said he wishes me to hold out to 36 weeks (next Friday, the 25th) and then he will induce. However he said if I gain any weight or my swelling increases at all between now and then we will deliver immediately.

This is all almost over, and our Lilly will be here. THANK GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In the hospital...

I saw the doc this morning. As of Friday I had gained 11 pounds in two weeks and he was freaked out about my swelling (as I have been for awhile). As of this morning, I have gained three additional pounds of water since Friday.

Lillian's heartbeat is fine, I'm only having the same minor contractions, I'm only dialated to one (same for a month now), my bloodpressure, blood and urine are all fine. The only issue is the huge water retention/weight gain.

So he's decided to admit me to the hospital, not to induce labor, just to poke me incessently for a while. He said he's thinking three days right now and we'll see after that.

He does not want to take her until 36 weeks now, although he told me 34 before. I'm 34 weeks and 4 days now.

I'm fine, just very very annoyed to have to go in just to be poked rather than have a baby. R is working his normal schedule 2pm-11pm so he can take time when she actually arrives. I will have my cell phone with me-no email access though.

Thats all for now.Stace

We Made It!

We had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad trip. Not due to any pregnancy or health concerns though thankfully. We were supposed to leave Norfolk at 5:40pm and arrive in Chicago at 7:00pm. Instead we left Norfolk at 4:00pm and arrived in Chicago (via Dulles in DC, two cancelled flights and three airplanes) at 4:00am. Needless to say, we WILL NOT EVER AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON be flying United again. And United will be hearing from me.

However, we did eventually arrive in Chicago, and amazingly, so did all three pieces of our luggage. Mom and Dad Shipp were there to pick us up and drive us to the hotel we were staying at (over 2 hours away from the airport) and we were able to get two or three hours of sleep before spending a fantastic day and a half with Dad Shipp's side of the family.

On Sunday, we drove back from Chicago and had Christmas at Mom and Dad Shipp's house with them and Kyle and Kristen. We got lots of baby stuff and an AMAZING rug from my Aunt Bettie that my Great Aunt Mae made.

On New Years Eve we had lunch at Rugerro's (YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY) and ran some quick errands. Richard went with his parents to see I am Ledgend and I went with mom to see PS I Love You (not nearly as good as the book). Then we all met up at Richard's grandparents house for a New Year's Eve party.

This morning, we started out 2008 with a good 9 inches of snow outside and Richard is estatic. I'm just wondering how that's going to work out with the flip flops I have that are the only shoes that fit my feet.....we'll see.

I saw the doctor yesterday and he said everything looked good, no change from the last good report he gave me two weeks ago. He gave me final clearance to go home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We leave this afternoon for Chicago and then Michigan after that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No new posting for two weeks......not that that will surprise you, not much posting at all these days -- oops.

Merry Christmas!!

We posted pictures of our decorations and gifts at our Picasa web site.

We CAN'T WAIT for Friday when we start home!!!!!

Lillian's still hanging in there, we have a dr. appt on Thursday and will post a quick update after that.

I saw the dr. today and he said I am not dialated any more than before, between the three nurses that checked me at the hospital and him; two said I was at zero, one said I was at 1, and he was kind of inbetween. He said today that he would consider me 3/4 to 1. He said had Sunday not happened, he would not even mention today that I was "dialated", just marking it in my chart, but that number is so small its inconsequential if nothing else is happening.

I have not had any contractions since I left the hospital. He said she is measuring right at 30 weeks (which I will be on Friday) and that her heartbeat was great. He said her movement is great, she is moving around a lot and that if I were close to labor, she would be slowing down and settling down to prepare for birth.

He said there is currently no infection present, the prescription he gave me, might have kicked a bladder infection or sinus infection that was just starting and causing all this ruckus, but that nothing was present now so that was good.

He said he wants me on modified bedrest for now, which means no work (easy since I'm not working), no exercise and no lifting. Also, just doing what feels okay and resting when I feel tired. He did tell me that I can pull the "bedrest" card whenever I want. :-)

I asked about the shot being good for only one dose, and best within 7 days of delivery. He said yes, that is true and on Sunday he was thinking that was possible. But as of today he would say there is no way I will deliver within the next two weeks and he would be "extremely surprised" if I delivered in two or three weeks. He said if he hadn't been there himself Sunday/Monday he would not know anything unusual had happened, everything today looked excellent and apparently the happenings in the hospital were something strange that was stopped with the medication and has no indications of appearing again.

I asked about the travel to MI and Chicago and he asked if it would be more stress to go or not go as that was really the deciding factor at this point. He said he would go and if it was his daughter he would tell her to go, but as his patient he has to tell me "You're crazy."
He said to make sure and know where hospitals are in each location and how to get there. And of course, there is always a possibility I will have her while I am gone, but no more chance of that than he told me two weeks ago at my appointment!!!

He said that he wants to see me on the 28th (the day we fly out) to give me a "hopefully great" report, so I will know as I get on the plane, that everything was perfect a few hours before. Of course, there is always the possibility that I would be dialated at that point (although he finds that highly unlikely) and not be able to go, but at least we would have seen him right before we're scheduled to leave.

I am soooooooooooooooooo thrilled at all of this good news! It is definintly the result of all the people out there thinking about and praying for us, and we appreciate it SO much.

Now, I just ask that everyone pray that we do not have her while on vacation, and she waits until we are back here in Virginia.

Pray for LIlly (and us)

We spent the last 20 hours admitted to Labor and Delivery due to losing my "plug" and having slight contractions.

When we went in they said I was having regular contractions and was dialated to 1. They admitted me overnight and ran lots of tests. They took bloodwork and gave me lots of IV liquids. They gave me a round of three shots of Terbutaline to try to stop the contractions, and for the most part it seems to have worked so far. They gave me a shot of Betamethasone to develop her lungs faster in case she is born early.

I was realeased about lunch time to come back tomorrow morning and get another round of testing, a "non stress test" and another Betamethasone shot (you have to have two, 24 hours apart). I was also given a prescription to kill any infection that may or may not have a part in causing all of this.
We (R and I) are most concerned about the Betamethasone, as everything we can find online (from trusted sources) say the drug is given once in pregnancy (in two doses, 24 hours apart) when the doctor feels delivery is "expected" within 0-7 days, being most effective 24 hours from the first dose to 7 days from the last dose. It is not able to be repeated in a second (or third, or fourth) course as it used to be, because of undeterminded health effects to the mother and baby, so doctors are instructed to use it when they think birth is "expected" within 1 week.
I called my OB before going in and the L&D were in constant contact with him by phone. He came to see me at the hospital this morning, but we will not really know anything more defininte until I see him in his office on Wednesday afternoon. I am on bedrest until Wednesday at least.

I am 29 weeks and 2 days now and the earliest doc feels "comfortable" with is 34, but we're not sure we're going to make it that long. Just pray please.

Another (seemingly smaller) thing to pray about is that because of my bad veins (increased difficulty to find with pregnancy) and between taking blood, giving me shots and inserting IVs (and repeated attempts at all of these) they have "used up" my veins in all the normal and a little wierd places. Once you get a stick in one area the hospital won't do it in that same area for more than 72 hours, so if something comes up within the next three days, I get an IV in my foot and shots and bloodwork done in some other seemingly awful place.

Thanks, Stacey and Richard

The Elves are hard at work!!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1156050039

The latest drama

Just to keep everyone up to date on my oh so normal pregnancy......here is the latest.

I have been having some lovely pregancy complications for the last week or two. Namely,
Contractions
Repeated Temporary Blindness with white twinkling lights
Numbness and Tingling in both hands

So...I've been in close contact with my ob this week, talking to him multiple times on the phone and in his office on Wednesday and again today. He did ten thousand (at least it felt like that) tests including blood and urine tests, blood pressure checks, baby fetal monitoring, baby measurements, neurological exams and of course more bloodwork.

He said the contractions would happen from here on out and were nothing to worry about. Just to call him if I "have more than 4 an hour, cuz then you're having a baby".

On Wednesday he told me he was going to set me up with an opthamologist and a neurologist to check on the "blackouts" and the hand numbness. I saw the ob this morning at 9am for a shot and follow up tests from Wednesday. Then at 1, I went to the neurologist and at 3:15 I went to the opthamologist.

The neurologist did a thourough neurological exam and used needles and electrodes up and down both arms to test for carpel tunnel. He said I do indeed have "severe carpel tunnel" in both wrists, so much so that he was surprised my hands, the right one especially, are still functioning. He prescribed a wrist splint for the right arm and gave me cortizone shots (NOT FUN AT ALL) in both wrists.

Yes, for the ones who are keeping track, this is over 50 needles now that I have had in my body TODAY ALONE.

He said I have a good, but not guarranteed chance of it going away after delivery. Most pregnancy carpel tunnel goes away within 1-2 weeks of delivery but because mine is so severe and hereditary (thanks Mom), he is not going to tell me that will happen for me.

My sight has been going completely going black, both eyes, and seeing white twinkling lights, lasting for 3-5 seconds each time, but no headaches or dizziness. He said this was "troublesome" to him because if it was accompanied by headaches or dizziness or lasted for 5-15 minutes, it would just be associated with migranes and he would prescribe me a pill, but since mine did not fit that description that would not do.

The only other time he has seen this type of thing is when the person has a hole in their heart. So, he is setting me up for testing at the hospital, a total of three tests, for now. And bloodwork, of course. He said it might not be a hole in the heart, but obviously we want to rule that out first. He said if something alarming comes back or if he wants more testing done right away, he will call me. In the meantime, call him if they start to happen more frequently.

The good news is the opthamologist said he found no problems with my vision, both my glasses and contacts are the correct perscription and he (through MANY tests) found no eyesight problems.

Barring anything unusual (I know, I know, but I can hope)...
I see the ob again December 14.
I see the neurologist again January 14.
I see the opthamologist again December 21.

Our First Christmas Card

Grandma and Grandpa Abrams get the honor of being the first Christmas card to grace the kitchen window this year. Thanks Gma & Gpa, way to be early !!

Thanks Joe & Shannon

Cousins Joe and Shannon got us this adorable bright pink and orange baby gown. It even has the fold over hands. I was just telling Mom Brill this weekend that we needed more of these. Thanks guys, we love it!

Mom and Dad left today and we are so sad.

96 days........................................

I just got finished reading Heather & Christopher's blog. I had to read all the entries, as before today I didn't know they had a blog. I had heard vague rumblings they were starting one but that was it. I had to hear from mom who heard from a letter to grandma...and so on.

Anywho, while I was reading their blog I was thinking of the need to update our blog. So I click the necessary buttons to open our blog and am immediately confronted with "only 96 days to go!" Like I am supposed to be joyful about this rather than be filled with a sense of dread and fear that I have 96 days left of this.

This being the facts below:
-If I go more than 12 minutes without admiring my bathroom walls it is a good 12 minutes.
-Our daughter seems to have inherited the restless side of Richard
-And she is obviously taking up wrestling at such a young age, what a prodigy
-Little Miss seems to never sleep, which might actually be the exclamation point to that 96 days left, unless you realize that means that
-I never sleep more than 20 minutes at a time...If I am lucky, and make it past the normal 12 minute bathroom break
-I have now outgrown several maternity tops. This is just thrilling.
-I am in constant fear that my water will break on the plane somewhere over Kansas and 150 angry passengers will not only throw their pretzels at me but it will be months and months after that before I can say "we're not in Kansas anymore".
-I know in my mind that everyone who has two legs and two feet has two ankles, but somewhere along this process, mine have left the premesis. I was told the other day that this process left me with "cankles" only to have that person be corrected by someone else to say "no, this is beyond cankles, those are thighs".
-I constantly have an awful taste in my mouth and feel something stuck in my throat, about which there is nothing the doctor can do and water, ironically, seems to only make it worse.
-I can no longer bend over. This has been true for awhile but was not as much of an issue when I could use my go go gadget toes to pick up whatever I needed.
-Today I had to have Richard paint my toenails. They are, we'll say, a work of art. He also enjoyed painting my foot and my leg...giving me "a friend" for when I get lonely. (Have no fear, I cannot reach my toes, but I can reach his upper arm. And he now has a friend also).

However, despite how the above lists may sound, we're estatic to be having a child. Well, not the one time act of having, I could do without that, but the lifelong process. And we can't wait til February 22, although it seems like its more than 96 days away, but should be so much less.

We have our first "birthing/parenting" class at the hospital on Monday. The first of about 12, seems like a little overkill, but who knows. We are supposed to take a doll or stuffed animal. I hope a 10 inch pig made with love by Gund will suffice in preparing Richard for diapering our daughter. I'm not buying the $50 version that is "lifelike" (yes, including the bodily secretions) when we will have our own version soon.

Richard's parents are coming on Wednesday, and possibly his aunt and uncle. I cannot even begin to explain how excited I am. Not being at work since last Monday, I am more than ready for some entertainment. And I'm thinking they will be roped in to Christmas decorating also. Nothing better than that.

October

We did go to Great Wolf Lodge for our anniversary and we had a great time. I would definintly recommend it, especially in groups of more than one couple to split the cost of a room, or with a family with kids. It was awesome.

Richard is working all nights now. He leaves around 2 pm (sometimes earlier) and generally gets home about 10, sometimes as early as 8 or as late as 12. He likes the fact that they are generally more relaxed on the night shift and he gets along with most of the people there.

I have seen the doctor a couple of times. He has done lots of tests. I will find out on Thursday the results of last weeks bloodwork to determine the cause of lots of foot swelling. I also take the test for Gestational Diabetes this week. Hopefully I will pass that with flying colors. There was a (very slim) chance that I might have TB but thankfully the test for that came back negative. For now I'm supposed to keep doing as I have been: not doing much, staying off my feet and not wearing any shoes that 1)are heels, 2) are dress shoes or 3) lace up. Yes, I am as lost as you about what this leaves other than flip flops in the winter.

We ended up trading in my car. (The stratus that I bought brand new four years ago and the only new car I've ever bought.) But it wasn't actually as sad as I thought. We had been planning to trade it in sometime soon for a vehicle that had more room for a stroller and baby stuff, but not quite this soon. But when Mom and Dad were here, he noticed that the tires had another week left on them, if we were lucky. So we went ahead and switched out. We traded for a 2004 Chrysler Pacifica, technically it is a "crossover SUV". I love it. It drives really nice, no different than the car really, and it has all the same features: power seats, six disc cd changer, auto stick, etc. Plus some new ones: memory seats, dual temperature controlls, an automatic (opening and closing) hatch, and my favorite of all, moveable foot pedals. The only thing I really miss is the automatic starter, but I've asked for that for Christmas. It has six bucket seats that all fold down seperately to be flat. Its great.

We have been working on Lillian's room a lot, changing it from just a guest room with a Red and Tan motif to a guest room/Lilly's room with a hot pink and orange motif. Richard has changed lots of the art on the walls and put up a set of fantastic mirrors. I just finished making some new curtains for the windows.

We are excited to have Richard's parents come down for Thanksgiving. It will be nice to entertain again, let alone at a holiday.

I got told on Wednesday that I am being let go from my job because they have decided after four months of working part time that they really don't want someone working part time. So its back to mac n cheese every night. lol. Not that that bothers me really. It was just a surprise at this time that we wern't really planning on. Oh well, it will all work out somehow.

I have put pictures of LIlly's room and the new car and even Great Wolf I think on our picture site, at http://picasaweb.google.com/StaceyBrill.

Busy, busy, busy

We have been extremely busy this last month, hence no posting.

At the end of September, R's parents and grandparents came to visit for a week. We had tons of fun going to the Nauticus museum, Colonial Williamsburg, Monticello and the Luray Caverns. We went shopping and took them on a tour of the base.

A week later S's parents and K&K came to visit. We had lots of fun going to see a sandcastle competition at the beach, Busch Gardens, and moving the furniture around in the old guest room to make it Lillians Room/Guest room. Then we went to Gordonsville, VA and stayed at a resort in the woods. We rode horses, took hikes, went swimming and boating and played games.

Yesterday, we traded in Stacey's Stratus for a Chrysler Pacifica. It actually has the capacity to hold the stroller and something else, an amazing feat. It also has tons of cool features like memory seats, dual temperature controlls, an automatic hatch opener, adjustable foot petals and a DVD player.

This weekend we will celebrate our first anniversary with a trip to the Great Wolf Lodge (indoor waterpark) in Williamsburg. We are really excited to just have a short trip for the two of us, our first since being married.

Lillian is doing good as far as we know, just making Stacey completely exhausted. She spent lots of time sitting and resting during the vacations, but it was still lots of fun. Our next ultrasound is on Tuesday.

Sugar Frosted Goodness

We spent this morning making some frosted sugar cookies in honor of Lillian/Dad Brill's Birthday & love of Michigan/Fall. Here is a small sampling...with a random easter egg and pig thrown in for good fun.

You Shipp's should get a good look at this frosting job, realizing you will not see this when you come :-), if you're lucky your's will be frosted with one solid color.

Coming this February....

Lillian Ashleigh

Left side profile, she's scratching her head wondering why this person keeps banging on her home.



The result of all the banging...a perfect shot.
Another left side profile, hand in motion back down to the side from the head.

A straight on head/face shot, although I think only the trained eye can tell.


Lilly weighs 6 ounces and is 6 1/2 inches long. The dr. said she is basically a half full can of pop, size wise and weight wise. The hematoma is slightly smaller than last time even and the blood work came back negative for downs syndrome. Excellent news all around.

It's a Girl!!!!!!!!!!

...and she currently weighs a whopping 6 ounces.

The ultrasound yesterday confirmed it. We are going to have a little girl in February. We have decided on a name and will soon post that.

The ultrasound tech said everything was looking good and I will follow up with the dr. tomorrow. She gave us a couple pictures too, and those will be posted in a day or so when I get the energy :-) If you're going to die if you have to wait, send me an email and I can email the file to you.

We are excited to start buying little girl stuff, but dismayed to find that most infant stuff is only made in pastel colors, how dull. The search is on for bright clothes, blankets and room stuff.

Blah, blah, blah

Time is passing very slowly right now. I'm still not able to do much, pretty worn out most of the time, so we're mostly staying close to home. We've pretty much cleaned or re-organized everything in the house in the last couple weeks.

We did go out on Monday to an outlet mall about an hour away. We were mostly looking for clothes for me but didn't have much luck. But it was fun to spend a day together away from the house.

We're excited to have mom & dad and gma & gpa (his) coming in just over a week, that should be really fun as well as help time pass a little faster. Then, just a week after that mom & dad and Kyle and Kristen are coming out. Then we'll be in the second week of October and our first anniversary. As slowly as time seems to be going sometimes, it seems to have gone pretty fast for this first year.

Thankfully the first three months were the most eventful in a bad way and things have calmed down since then. Right now we're starting to look for a new vehicle, prepare for baby (of course) and decide what we want to do about housing. Lots of changes coming up but for now its just same ole, same ole.

R is working nights but so far has not gotten home later than 10 so I at least get to see him to say goodnight. That has been really nice, but we've been warned not to get used to that. He's still waiting to hear if he gets the leave he requested for when family will be here. Hopefully he will, they have some fun ideas planned for us to do together. I am still working 3 days a week, and for right now I am still on temp status even though I've put in my 3 months hours wise. But things are pretty hectic there right now so the boss just wants to keep me on as temp now til he has time to think about the best way to go forward. The problem is that no one at the company is part time except for me, so he's having a hard time hiring me normally, but is trying to work something else out. Who knows, but for now, everything is still the same, and I'm still getting paid so we're all good.

Labor Day

I felt the baby for the first time this morning, twice. R tried to feel, but you can't feel it from the outside yet. Hopefully soon.

The nurse at the doctors office stuck a needle IN MY STOMACH yesterday.

Apparently it was a routine test they neglected to inform me on the details of. I was there alone.

IT SUCKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shopping for baby

I've had several people ask about buying things for baby. First of all, we don't know yet whether it is a boy or a girl. Yes, we are going to find out. And yes, sometime not too long after we do we will tell everyone.

What we know right now is colors for the nursery:
Girl: Bright Pink and Orange
Boy: Chocolate Brown and Orange

We are not a fan of pastels, for the nursery, blankets, clothing anything.

That's all for now, soon I will be getting the registries all up and going.

R got put on nights. Fabulous. Just freaking fabulous.

Thursday update

The doc said things were AMAZINGLY better this time than last time. He said he didn't tell me last time but I had only a 35% chance of carrying the baby even to 8 months. And that the hematoma was the biggest he had ever seen in his 20 year career. He said if it was the same size this time or bigger still, he was going to refer me to a specialist, feeling it was out of his range.

However, it shrunk from the size of a 5.5cm 3D sphere to that of a 3cm flat circle. This way, not only is is less in size, it also takes up almost no room, as it is basically flat. The difference of a baseball in my uterus compared to a piece of cardboard.

He said the baby is 3.5 inches long from head to butt (or CRL Crown Rump Length), which is right on target. Because of this good progress, he is moving my dr. appt schedule to "normal" which means I see him not again til 16.5 weeks, 4 weeks from now. This is good, but I was liking the pictures every two weeks.

Also, he told me, that in the third "set" of ultrasound pictures on our website, you can see the hematoma very clearly. This is actually the 5th picture down if you're counting the ones with the arrows and non arrows. The baby is laying on his/her back and you can see a white circular, U shaped object hanging down right next to the baby. This is the hematoma, ideally, this whole area around the baby would be a black sphere.

He also said he couldn't endorse travel at all in the 3rd trimester but he wouldn't stop me at the airport. He said the major risk is blood clots. He said air travel is much better than car travel though, as the most I can be in a seated position from this point out is 2 1/2 hours. I have to sit for 2 1/2 hours, then get up and walk around and eat/drink for at least a half hour before sitting again. Not bad, we can handle that. Now we just have to hope that everything is boringly normal from here on out so I have no questions about traveling by air home for Christmas, when I am 31 weeks preggo.

All in all, the baby is doing completely better than last appointment, when we had pretty dismal results. We are so excited! As I think I said last time, we might actually have this kid after all.

12 weeks 4 days

Here are our pics from tonight's ultrasound. The tech said the hematoma seems to have gotten smaller from the last time, and is now more the size of the first time they saw it. The baby is right on track size wise and has a strong heartbeat still. We might just end up actually having this baby :-D. Everything looks good now, we just have to wait to talk to the dr. on Thursday. We got four pics today. The unedited pic is on top, right above the pic I have put words and arrows on. Therefore, the first and second pic are the same photo, one without arrows and one with.

Boy or Girl?

We will find out in September whether it is a boy or a girl. For now, we are opening up a poll. Start the guessing...

The dr. said today that the baby is 4.5 cm long from head to butt. The hematoma is 5.5 cm long and 5.5 cm wide. He said he is "worried" and "concerned". He said there is nothing they can do to treat this, the only thing is to wait until the next ultrasound and see if the baby is still growing and has a heartbeat. That will be in two weeks.

4D Ultrasound

THIS IS NOT OUR BABY. I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT OUR BABY. However, it is an example of a 4D ultrasound of a 10 week 5 day old fetus. This is the exact age of our baby. We will probabloy not get the 4D ultrasound done because Tricare does not cover it, but I think its really neat and wanted to share it with ya'll.

10 week 4 day ultrasound

**Edit** If you double click on the image, it will open in a new window, larger.

This is a shot of the whole body. I don't think it was the best view we had today by far. But "he" is laying on "his" stomach, arms hidden, one leg can kinda be seen at the far left.

This is the one that amazes me. Everything is just what she labeled it as.

** Edit ** Mom wanted some clarification on this second picture, it is two ultrasound pictures on one printing. THERE ARE NOT TWO BABIES. The left side is a pic of the butt and legs as if he were sitting on a glass table and you were looking up at his butt (shame on you). The right side is a side view of the right leg.

Its amazing how developed "he" is already, at only 2 inches from head to butt. So total of about 3.5 inches now, head to foot. We saw "him" moving around, saw two arms and obviously two legs. She said the heartbeat was 160. She didn't tell us what day measurement the baby was measuring at though, so we'll have to wait until Thursday to find out. She said my subcorionic hematoma is actually bigger, I was hoping after these two weeks it would have been less but not so. So we'll have to get some specifics from the doc on Thursday. She seemed kind of surprised I wasn't on full bed rest. Hmmm... Lots of questions for Thursday.

This is the matching bassinette and swing we found on craigslist fo great deals.

This is the car seat and stroller combination we also got for a great deal.

Both of these surprised me when I came home from a long day of work yesterday. Not only two vases of roses but also a COMPLETELY clean house. It was great.

I worked M-W-F this week and it killed me. For some reason my body is acting as if there's a switch in it....When I lay down I feel fine (and bored) and want to get up and do something. However, if I get up (including sitting up) I feel awful, have bleeding, nausea and pains in my stomach. I talked to the dr. and he said just to keep doing what I'm doing for now, the three days a week, until the end of the first trimester, unless anything gets worse than it is now. So that is what we're doing, working 3 days a week and laying flat most of the rest of the time. Craziness....

Lots of information, not lots of answers

We saw the dr. today and he said I have a subchorionic hematoma. 2% of all pregnant women have these, but of pregnant women who beed during pregnancy that percentage increases to 30%. He said that is what caused the bleeding last week. What is left is the remainder. It is currently 3.5x3.5 cm. I still have a 50/50 chance of having a miscarriage. But he did say "everything will probably be fine" right after he said "you are still in danger of a miscarriage". The chance of miscarriage from a subchorionic hematoma are greater by three things 1) age of mother, 2) age of baby 3) size of hematoma. The older the mom, the younger the baby and the bigger the hematoma the higher your chances of miscarriage. I have the age thing for me on my side. But for the baby I am considered "in the danger zone" until completion of week 13. You are also in greater danger as long as the hematoma is larger than the baby. Right now the baby is 2.1 cm and the hematoma is larger. But there is a strong heartbeat and the baby is measuring right on track. The hematoma shouldn't get bigger and the baby should. The hematoma might be 1) absorbed into my body 2) expelled by my body (producing bleeding-red or brown-better if its brown) or 3) stay in me for whole pregancy.

He said I was okay to go off bedrest but to take it easy still. He said it was okay for me to go back to work on Monday. He said nothing I do, bedrest included, will help or hurt at this point. I have found information online that agrees with this and information that conflicts. I am going to tell work I can come back on Monday, but only working M-W-F next week and see how that goes before going full time.

I go back on Tuesday the 31st for another ultrasound and then again on the 2nd for a follow up with the dr.

Our tough little gummybear

The baby is 8 weeks 5 days old (I gained a day!!). It is 2.1 cm long. It's heart is beating 172 bpm. It has a head, body, arm and leg buds. And yes, there is only one. Whee!!!!!!!!!! We got to see it moving and hear the heartbeat. We see the dr. tomorrow for more info, but this is the important stuff. We will post more tomorrow afternoon after our appointment with the dr. Hopefully he will be able to explain some of the happenings of the last week.

For those of you who don't already know...we had a HUGE scare this past Wednesday. We spent the whole day in the hospital and I'm on bed rest since then. But they did find a heartbeat then and said everything looked ok for the moment and we had a 50/50 chance of carrying full term. I have an appointment for an ultrasound Tuesday night (tomorrow) and then a dr. appt Wednesday afternoon to find out if things are still okay or not. So for now we just wait...

Its alive and beating!!!!!

We had an unexpected dr. appt today and he said everything was fine and did an ultrasound and we got to see the heart beating!

This is just a closer up shot the dr. took showing just the sac and the baby.





We still have an appointment next week for a full spectrum ultrasound which will give us the exact (almost) age of the baby and let us LISTEN to the heartbeat :-D YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The dr. said....EVERYTHING IS GOOD!

Our weekend

We had a fun weekend. Friday night, Rich's friend from Jax, Logan called. He was to be our best man but was deployed. He now lives in Beaufort, South Carolina and called because he was up here getting ready to go out again. After just getting back in November...crazy. That is one cool thing about living here, all the east coast boats leave from here so we might get to see old friends once in a while.

Anywho, we picked Logan up from a friend's house and he came over for a bit. Then we picked up two more of his friends and we all went to Cheesecake Factory. It was such a fun night. We just sat there for two hours or so and chatted. Then we had to take them to the boat. We were able to drive right up next to the boat, which was the closest I've ever been. It was neat except there were lots of families there saying good bye to their dads/husbands and it was really sad.

Saturday we went to the mall for a little bit but had to come home because I was so exhausted. I mostly just laid around for the rest of the day.

Sunday we went to Sunday School but couldn't stay for church cuz I wasn't feeling very good. So, surprise, surprise, I just laid around for the rest of the day Sunday too. Richard spent two hours cleaning up and doing laundry which was marvelous. I see everything and want to do it but I just don't have the energy to get up. Or if I do, I immediately feel sick. Its very odd.

But that was our weekend and now its off to another week of joy at work !!! Yipee!

Oh Boy!

For those of you who are just dying to share all your baby naming wisdom with us, we are now accepting applications for names-with several stipulations.

1. It must be a boy name (no, we don't know yet, that is way down the road, we just have lots of girls' names that we like).
2. It must be a first name only (we have a middle) that goes well with Brill.
3. It must be a long name that has a shorter version or common nickname. For example: Jonathan (Jon) or Samuel (Sam). However.....
4. It must not be a common name-no Jon's or Sam's allowed. It must be unique but not wierd. If its on any top 10 list, we don't want it.

There, if you feel you must offer suggestions, this is the area we could really use help in.

Again, we DO NOT KNOW THE SEX OF THE BABY, we just have girl names we like already.

We keep being off in our checkbook balance, by hundreds of dollars. However, we cannot find any discrepencies, and the errors are always in our favor. I just would like to say a quick thank you to whoever is making mysterious deposits to our account. But we are keeping track of all this money separately, in case it just disappears some day. Hopefully not though.

On the baby side of things, we started looking at names this week. I am thouroughly convinced choosing a name will be harder than 18 years of raising that same child. We have several good books, some that we purchased, and two that were loaned to me, so we've been reading up.

Yesterday and today I have been very panicky about losing another one. Part of me knows its probably silly, yet part of me knows its very real. Its been a very long weekend.