Keech Monster

He's pretending to be a good dog.

Joe's parents are coming down this weekend, so I've been prepping the guest bedroom, which is also Keech's room until Charlie gets here. So I stripped the bed, got fresh sheets, fresh towels, the whole shebang. Well since I'm cleaning the room, I told Keech to stay out. I know he's a dog and not a kid and probably has no idea what I'm saying, but he's smarter than he looks :) So I come out of the laundry room and to remake the bed, and this is what I found:

He ate the mattress cover and foam thing underneath. I guess he didn't like being told to stay out of HIS room. I freaked out and asked him what the hell his problem was, and this is the response I got:

What mom??

He sure told me. I will never ban my first child from his bedroom again. I'm a bad mom.

Itchy Feet

So I still have a rash. And now it's on the bottom of my feet. UGH So annoying. And my hands are super swollen. My knuckles have dimples. Ridiculous. I can barely wear my wedding rings b/c of this. I haven't had any swelling of any kind until this dumb rash. I don't want to to not wear my rings. I love them! I also feel weird being visibly pregnant and not wearing my rings. I dunno, it just makes it feel extra weird. Some books and websites have suggested wearing them on a necklace so they're still close to my heart, but I dunno. I told Joe I was gonna go out and get some fake rings if it gets to the point where I can't wear mine. I got the idea from Brook, from the time she wore a fake ring to the beach. I thought it was genius :) BUT one upside to looking like a lizard, I get to soak in the tub and read books. I tried an oatmeal bath last night, a throw back to the chicken pox days. It looked disgusting, and felt slimy, but it kinda helped. And now there's like 3 bowels worth of oatmeal in the bottom of our tub. It's not like we eat oatmeal anyway, so whatever.

Turns out my mom did the same thing when she was pregnant with me, and it didn't go away until I was born. So that's kinda sucky. Joe's mom did too when she was pregnant with him, but hers only lasted about 2 weeks. So we shall see where I end up.

We got to see Charlie today! We had to go in for a follow up ultrasound. We decided not to say anything to anybody until we had the follow up today, but at our 20 weeks ultrasound the tech noticed something funky about her heart. She said it looked like there was a possible calcification of the papillary muscle. We don't know how serious this is, we resisted the urge to Google. We didn't want to get worked up over something that may or may not happen, and it's not like it would have changed anything, so no Goggling. It was hard, but I managed to resist the urge. The tech said it was very common, that is was something they saw in almost every baby, but they would need to do a follow up in 4 weeks. If there was any kind of change in those 4 weeks, then there was a problem. So instead of causing mass panic for us and for our families, we decided we were going to keep this to ourselves until after today's appointment. Turns out she's fine. Her little heart is just a growing and pumping like it should. She made it difficult to see anything, as usual. It's like she knows we're trying to look at her, so she flops and squirms as much as possible. And every time the wand went over my belly, she would kick it. I mean actually kick it and move it. She apparently doesn't like being looked at. It was definitely cool to see and feel her kick at the same time though. We can't wait for our little wiggle worm to get here!

Allergic to Pregnancy??

I bet if someone had told me you could be "allergic" to being pregnant, I would've rolled my eyes and been like "ok crazy person" and went about my day. Turns out, its true. And I'm one of the lucky few "allergic" to being pregnant. I have been COVERED in a head to toe rash and hives for two days. I'm talking EVERYWHERE! Benadryl, Claritin, Chalomine lotin, nothing is helping. I am itchy and bumpy everywhere. SOOO annoying! This morning I woke up around 12.30 just itching to death. I took a Benadryl and it worked enough for me to be able to fall asleep, but I woke up this morning even more broken out than I was yesterday. Since I'm allergic to everything b/c of this wonderful thing called Eczema, I did the usual run through of foods, soaps, laundry detergent, lotion, blah blah blah and none of those were the culprit so I called and made a doctors appointment. We finally get in to see a doctor, since mine was busy (he has other patients? whaaat??), and he tells me what I pretty much already suspected. I'm allergic to being pregnant. WTH?! He has eczema too, so he's familiar with my "condition" already, and explains that with all the different hormones running rampant in my body right now and since I've already eliminated all other possibilities, its just being pregnant. It's not that uncommon apparently. He said it could clear up in a few days, weeks, or when Charlie is born. I can NOT be this itchy for that long. So hopefully it'll just be a few days or weeks. Don't get me wrong, I'm used to being itchy, but this is bumpy and constant, and on my FACE and EVERYWHERE I have skin! It's just basically super annoying. But Joe is taking good care of me, so that's helping :) I think I might like my husband or something. Who knew?

Joe has something to add:
Have you ever wondered how you ended up where you are at?  Waking up at 130 in the morning to your wife aching in pain and being allergic to being pregnant. Ironic right?  But, she is the best, I would do anything for her. Never thought I would shave a pair of legs. But, I guess it is the 21st century.  She's amazing. You should read what she has to say.

Thoughts by a happy man

Have you ever sat around and thought that you may be the luckiest man alive? Well your not. Because that would be me. (This is Joe by the way) I have the most beautiful wife and the most beautiful child that could ever be imagined. I've never been in a position to truly ponder how somebody else's life could truly affect mine. Now I find myself wondering if I will truly perform as a father as I have done in everything else. If she looks anything like her mother, then I really will be putty. My father has said many times that you will never know until you have one of your own. I am 14 weeks out, and I feel like I already know. We have been through a couple scares, but my daughter has persevered on. To my daughter, I love you more than you could ever imagine, can not wait for you to be here. Your loving father, Joe

14 weeks to go

I am 25 weeks people! Can you believe that?! In 14 VERY short weeks, there will no longer be a baby in my belly. There will be a baby, just most likely in my lap, Joe's arms, or Keech's crate. I'm convinced he's going to call dibs on her and not let Joe or I anywhere near her unless he deems it appropriate. What the heck are we going to do with a real live human baby?! ALL the time?! I've held babies, I've babysat and nannied, have lots of siblings, and some cousins, but I always got to give them back and they were no longer my problem. The reality of having another human being dependent on me is finally starting to kick in if ya can't tell :) I mean, 14 weeks isn't that long! We are still kinda floating through this pregnancy with no freaking furniture and now I'm starting to rethink the bedding I picked out. The original stuff is gorgeous. I love it. Its grey and yellow, and not babyish at all. I don't like the stuff that has ducks or Pooh Bear, or whatever. I mean, that stuff is so freaking adorable, but I just don't want to look at it all the time, and I know she isn't going to be a baby forever so I want her to have something to grow into. So we've been looking. We found some bedding at a specialty shop here, That's Our Baby, that is just so stinking cute. It's hot pink and lime green and it has elephants and giraffes on it. I mean OMG c'mon. Its adorable. And the good thing is is that solids are incorporated into it, so when she's a toddler and little, she'll most likely not want to change it. It's something she can grow into. But I dunno, we'll see. I'm leaving the original stuff on our registry for now until I get it together and actually make a decision.

So we've talking about how we need to go to church more for awhile now, and we finally started our process of finding a church home here in Columbus. We both prefer traditional worship services, and it seems like a lot of the Methodist churches in our area are moving more towards contemporary services, so we're struggling to find something. There isn't a thing wrong with that, its just not what we prefer or grew up with. So we went to St. Paul's UMC today and it was very nice. Its small, and its an older congregation like our church at home, and we really enjoyed the sermon, but it was a guest preacher today and they have a praise band. We weren't totally comfortable with that. Everything else about the service was perfect for us though. Everybody was beyond friendly, and we were even invited to stay for the congregation lunch. We weren't able to stay, but the invitation was so thoughtful. We enjoyed ourselves, but we're going to visit a few more places before we make a decision. Joe loved that he finally got to wear his 3-piecce suit. He looked nice in it :) I think that's partly why hes pushing this whole church thing hard. He just wants to wear that suit Haha

So Family Day and Graduation for Joe's company was this week. Family Day was Wednesday, and basically what that means is all the families of the baby soldiers come and watch them get to officially put their berets on for the first time. It's also the first time they've gotten to see their kid in 10 weeks, so its a big deal. The FRG sets up a tent and we provide snacks and drinks for all the family members coming in. Recon also sets up a table and they sell shirts, those cute little bears in uniform, videos, all kinds of stuff. What's really cool about what Recon does is each platoon gets to design a shirt, and then Recon actually puts it on a shirt and the guys have the opportunity to buy the shirt. No other class will ever have the same shirt. Its a really cool concept, and the dads eat it up. We'll have whole families buy their son's classes shirt. Afterwards the babies are free to go with their families and do whatever they want. They're officially free after that. So.... funny pregnancy story related to Family Day this time around. After Family Day was over, I hung out in Joe's office for a little bit waiting on him so we could go to lunch. We finally get up to go leave, and my pants are completely soaked through. We were both like "Huh... That's probably not normal" so we get down tot he car and I call the hospital and the nurse is like "Um, yes ma'am you need to come in right away" like duh, stupid girl. So we get to Labor & Delivery and they're waiting on us, we get put in a room, and hooked up to all kinds of monitors, and they run a bunch of tests. I was kind of freaking out on the inside, thinking my water had broken. So turns out, I sort of peed my pants. Dude WTF?! How would I not know I did that? I just stood up, and boom! Wet pants. The doctor informed me that, no I'm not a dum-dum, this is actually very common among pregnant women. Who knew? So watch out, all my pregnant friends. It could happen to you :) So that was our Family Day! Graduation went much more smoothly! The FRG hosts a Spouses Panel on the morning of graduation for all the graduates wives, fiancees, girlfriends, family, whatever, and we give them information that is important for them as a spouse or family member to have. We talk about our own experiences, and things we wish we had known, or advice that really helped us, and it gives them an opportunity to ask any questions they may have. We all vary in age, time, and children, so we're a very diverse and knowledgeable group of ladies I think. It went well, and I hope we were able to help some of the ladies. Graduation was great, and everyone who was involved did an excellent job.

I also made some fantastic Jambalaya this week. It's a recipe I got off my mommy blog, Alphamom.com, and it was excellent. Chris Jordan is the mom who's recipe it is. She is a mom of 6 boys and 1 girl, and they're all still at home. So the woman knows a thing or two about cooking to please a lot of people. Here's the recipe, it's too good not to share!

You will need:
1 lb sausage sliced, I use mild Italian sausage
1 large onion, chopped
2 small red bell peppers, chopped
2 celery ribs, chopped
1 1/3 cups long-grain white rice
2 2/3 cups chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (adjust this according to your own taste)
1/4 tsp Cajun seasoning (adjust or omit according to your own taste)
4 scallions
Step One: Brown sliced sausage over medium high heat.
Step Two: Remove sausage from pan. Put onion, bell pepper and celery into the already hot pan. Stir until vegetables are cooked thoroughly and onions are soft.
Step Three: Add sausage back to pan. Stir in rice, broth and spices. Bring to a quick boil.
Step Four: Cover pan. Reduce heat to very low and allow to cook for twenty minutes or so until all the liquid is absorbed. The same way that you would cook plain rice.
Step Five: Once cooked add the thinly sliced scallions and fluff well with a fork.
Enjoy your one pan wonder.

I tried to use the picture online, but it won't let me, and there wasn't anything left of ours to take a picture of. I hope somebody enjoys it as much as we did!

Busy, Busy Weekend

 

We had such a busy weekend! It started out on Wednesday with Joe and I having a few "beers" He of course got to have the real stuff, and I drank a whole bottle of apple juice. They look the same, so it totally counts :)

  Then Kristen came down Thursday night for Brian's pass on Friday. Brian's in Ranger School, and after so many weeks all the guys get an 8 hour pass to restock supplies, sleep, and eat real food. It's a nice little break for them after what I can only guess is hell. I don't camp under the best of circumstances, I'm talking cabins, beds, electricity, etc. and these guys basically live outside the entire time and live off of MRE's. I don't know how they do it. So we picked up Brian Friday afternoon, and he was totally surprised to see Kristen. He had no idea she was going to come down, and she didn't either until Wednesday night. They went off and did their own thing, while Joe and I went off and had lunch and ran some errands. We didn't want to mess with their short time together, and we didn't want to watch them be all cute and shit :) Afterwards she dropped him back off and stayed with us Friday night. It was good to see them both, and it was nice to spend some time with Kristen getting to know her. She's so sweet, and funny. Then later that afternoon Jake called and said he, Scooter, Steve, and Brandon were going to Atlanta to go to a Braves game, and wanted to know if Joe and I wanted to meet them up there. Joe definitely wanted to go, but I was kind of hesitant at first. My pregnant ass did not want to go to a baseball game. I don't even like baseball! But Joe talked me into it, and I really wanted to see everybody. Then Scooter thought they would just find a hotel when they got there. Pshhh please! Silly boy. So I called Dad and got his Marriott elite member number so we could earn him some points, and got some hotel rooms. This left us withe the "Where is Keech gonna stay?" dilemma. Ok, I'll admit it, I am one of those slightly psycho pet parents. I am VERY protective of my dog. I don't like other people yelling at him, or telling him what to do, or disciplining him. I know, he's a dog. But he's my dog and I love him :) So Joe talked me into boarding him at this place here called Preppy Pets. Apparently a lot of the people he works with use it, and they love it so he decided that's where he'd go for the night. Ahh I was freaking out. My baby's has never been boarded before! The only other place he's ever stayed without me is at my parents house. Ugh I was having major guilt about putting him up somewhere. So I packed his bag, put his blankie, treats, and some toys and leashed him up and off we went. We got there and he went nuts. He was sniffing everything, and trying to get to the other dogs to play. They took him and he was fine. WTH?! So then I go into explaining his routine, his play level, blah blah blah and the guys is like "yeah, ok crazy lady" even though they were questions on the form, so whatever. So I leave, and I am feeling major mom guilt. I called my mom and sister to kinda freak out, and they both told me I was a psycho and that he's a dog. They just don't understand. Turns out he was fine. And there were cameras so I could get online and check on him whenever I wanted. He acted a little put out when I went to pick him up actually. So we left for Atlanta right after that. We got there and checked in, and since my dad is such a baller with the Marriott we got free snacks delivered to our room. This was awesome! I mean, it had been a whole hour and a half since I'd last eaten so I of course was STARVING. We then proceeded to wait around for like 4 hours waiting on the guys to get there. Once they finally got there, we immediately left for the game. We didn't have tickets, and ended up getting super scammed by some ticket scalpers. The guys ended up paying $20 a piece for $3. tickets. It was pretty funny. Its funnier when the boys tell the story, I just don't do it justice. The game itself was pretty fun. I had never been to an MLB game before, so it was fun for me. I might consider doing it again. Afterwards, we all went back to the hotel and I got in bed while the guys went out. I don't know what went down, but they all seemed to have had a good time. There was an empty case of beer and two empty pizza boxes in the morning, so I'm assuming everybody had a good time. We had lunch, and then Joe and I went home while the other boys went to the PGA Championship thing. I think that's what it was... Joe kinda wanted to go just to spend time with everybody, but he didn't want to drag me around a golf course with it being a million degrees outside. I was grateful for that. the rest of Sunday was spent laying on the couch. No joke. We got home and immediately flopped onto the couch and didn't move until it was time for bed. I was exhausted after going going going for four days straight. Pregnancy has made me super lazy! Haha Here are some pictures from the trip to Atlanta.

This is how Keech spent his Sunday after pick up. He was apparently exhausted from his hard day of playing.

Our sweet spread from the hotel. Brie, crackers, fruit, pretzels, beer, and water.

The game. We had good seats. We could see everything!

Baby updates!! Ok so we are now 24 weeks along. Which means her lungs are developed enough that, if anything were to happen and she had to be born early, she could survive outside of the womb. Lots of medical help of course, but its kind of reassuring to me and actually takes some stress away. Her ears are done growing and where they're supposed to be, and he fingernails are done growing as well. Her lungs are now secreting something called "surfactant", which helps her lungs inflate. By the end of the week she should be 2 pounds and 14 inches long. She's definitely a baby. And I definitely look pregnant. Almost all of my early signs of pregnancy are gone. I still feel sick every now and then, but for the most part I feel normal again. I am hungry ALL the time though. Its beyond ridiculous how hungry I am these days. I feel like I'm eating all the time, but so far it hasn't caused any problems. My weight gain has been slow, but steady and right on track. Not too much, not too little. So that's good. I recently started worrying about stretch marks and if there was anything I could do to prevent them. Turns out, unless your genetically gifted, your gonna get 'em. A good way to tell is to look at your mom, and if she got 'em, your gonna get 'em. Creams and lotions don't work. Which makes me feel better since I'm allergic to cocoa butter and can't use it anyway. According to my doctor, the only way to reduce the likely hood of getting them is to stay active and drink lots and lots of water. So, today stated my new daily routine of pre-natal yoga. Its supposed to help with labor and dealing with the pain too, so there's lots of pros to this yoga thing. I'll let ya know how it goes.  

Here's the first "bump" picture. There's definitely a baby in there :)

23 Weeks & New Furniture

We got new furniture!!  So this is something we had been talking about for a LONG time. Like, since we bought our house. So yeah. Our old living room furniture was good, and FREE, so we of course loved it. I even painted it and got new cushions, and just made it "beachier" than when we got it. It was the old furniture that was in Joe's play room growing up. His dad got this furniture before he had even met his mom. So its old, but that just shows what quality furniture it is that its lasted so long. But its not very baby friendly, or comfortable for long term sitting, and sleeping on it isn't exactly a great idea. So we got new stuff!!

Joe and Keech LOVE the new couch :)

Joe's favorite part? The ottoman tray. Its all he's talked about since we picked the couch out. Haha

The "Charlie needs to eat" Chair. It was chosen for the specific purpose of nursing. Who says we don't think ahead?

Old yucky couch :(

Old yucky chair. Not Charlie friendly.

So as you can see, total step up! We love it! We can lay on the couch at the same time if we want, I can lay across the chair if I want, Keech likes to perch on the ottoman when the tray isn't in his way, and it can slept on if needed. I think its pretty awesome. And its fluffy :)

 Now Charlie updates! So we are now 23 weeks as of Sunday. Her ears are now officially working. She can hear things, and decide if she likes that particular sound or not. Apparently big noises can scare her. So Joe has been talking to my belly more so she knows him too :) Also, she has taste buds and swallow now. Essentially she can taste everything I eat, so I expect hateful kicks if there's something that isn't up to her standards. And this apparently is the time when most women start to swell. Everyone is trying to convince me that my legs and ankles are swollen. I can assure that they're not. I have ALWAYS had cankles. I like to think its from years of dance classes and soccer, but we know that's not true. I'm actually starting to get a bit offended by it. Its like someone coming up to me and going "Woa! Your huge! When are you due again?" I lump those in the same category. Ugh. I usually just smile and go "No, I've always had cankles. I appreciate the concern though, thanks!" Its never sarcastically, and always with a smile :) People just don't think sometimes I think. Also, Keech is protesting this baby thing I think. I did a huge load of baby clothes the other day and put them in the basket and took them into Charlie's room to just sit until we have a dresser, and this is what I found:

I think the original baby is protesting the new baby. This isn't the first time this has happened either. Her bassinet is always under heavy scrutiny. It's constantly getting sniffed and given the stink eye. Hopefully he'll get it together. And Joe felt her kick Sunday night. It was a HUGE kick! I'm talking it could've been seen had Joe's hand not been there. It was crazy. She's never kicked that hard before! He got to feel her 2 more times, which was so exciting! I'm obsessed with him feeling her. I don't know why, I just get so excited when she's squirming around and he's right there so feel it. I think I get more worked up over than he does haha

First

So I've become recently obsessed with another blog by Amalah. I never thought much about blogging, nor was I really into it, but since I've started reading her blog and her Advice Smackdown on Alphamom.com and read about other mom bloggers, it sounded like a good way to help remember the early days of Charlie and our marriage before we get too far down the road to remember the little things. Little things like how I was 12 weeks pregnant when we PCS moved to Fort Benning, Georgia and not actually being able to do anything was harder than the move itself. Or how Joe felt her kick at 19 weeks BEFORE I even felt her sloshing around in there. I was beyond super jealous. And now I feel her ALL the time, and he hasn't since, so its kind of like sweet justice :) Oh, and how Heather felt her kick at 22 weeks and nearly jumped out of her skin. We spent the first 15 minutes chasing her around my belly so she could feel her, and then when she finally did it was crazy! And I want proof that I felt like pure crap until 20 weeks, so when we decide we want to have another baby, we have a reality check beyond that babies are so cute and squishy haha It probably won't be a deterrent at all, but then I can go back and read this and remember that I had the best intentions. And hopefully this will be a nice way for our families to feel apart of the pregnancy since they're all in North Carolina. This is the first baby for everything! The first borns on both sides married each other, Charlie is the first child for us, the first grandchild for them, the first great grandchild for our grandparents, my brothers will be uncles, the first great cousin? How does that work exactly? I am super close with my cousins, and they'll be Charlie's cousins, but what is the technical term? Not that it matters or will make a difference, but I'm still curious. Joe's super close with his paternal cousins, and I seem to mesh well with them also, but they're all in California so that sucks. I have a feeling that this little girl is going to bring all kinds of family chaos to our world. Good chaos, but chaos.
I have some fears about having this baby. Some are logistical, some are emotional, some are irrational. I'm a naturally territorial person. Not in a bad way, just in a "don't assume you know where things go or how I like things to be done" kind of way. I'm very type A about some things, and I'm just terrified that nobody is going to take me seriously once she's here. Joe's mom happened to take the week off that Charlie's due before we even knew her due date, which was a pretty funny coincidence. But I'm not sure how I feel about people being here immediately after she's born. I of course want my mom and sister here, but that's b/c she's my mommy and she knows everything. She did successfully give birth to 5 of us :) And I adore Joe's mom, I got incredibly lucky in the mother in law department. But I still don't feel confident in my abilities to be able to tell her what I want, or what I think, or what I may not want her to do, without coming across has harsh or hateful. I'm working on having confidence in that area, but it's a slow process. She also happens to be type A like me, which my psycho control freak self sometimes gets freaked out by. So my biggest fear for Charlie's arrival is getting frustrated. Its easy to tell my mom that I'm not interested in whatever she's "selling", but his mom or our grandmas?  Ugh, just thinking about it stresses me out. I know these fears are pretty irrational, his mother would never do anything intentional to step on my toes, but I'm still worried. Being a first time mom is stressful all by itself. The whole world feels the need to tell me how to do things, or how things were done when they had kids, and yadda yadda yadda. While I appreciate everyone's experience, and realize I have none of my own beyond helping raise siblings and lots of babysitting, but OMG I don't care sometimes. These are strangers I'm talking about by the way ;) Unless I specifically ask for your 2 cents, please don't just give it to me. I especially don't want to hear how you were sick the entire pregnancy, how you had complications, how your epidural wore off, or any other horror story you want to share. Tell me your happy stories!! You aren't helping my neurosis by telling me every bad thing that could possibly happen. Tell me how it was cake after your epidural, like my friend Stacy did, or tell me that the nursing staff was supportive of your breastfeeding choice and didn't continuously force formula on you, or how your baby was just too delicious and perfect for their own good. I want those stories. All negative Nancy's, feel free to keep quiet :) Ok so this kind of turned into a rant, my bad. That was not my intention. Happy posts for now on, mostly.

So for some baby updates! She officially owns more clothing than both her parents. Joe was concerned about all the pink, but then I had to explain to him that she won't actually look like a girl until she's like 6 or 7 months old, so the pink is necessary. Her having a boy nickname won't help, so we need all the pink we can get haha She has a bassinet to sleep in, but that is the extent of her furniture so far. Its a beautiful bassinet that we got from Stacy's friend Liz, which was so nice. I was having a hard tome finding one I liked. It will be nice to have something in our room for her to sleep in those first few nights of night nursing. I know co-sleeping is common, and the benefits are huge, but I just don't want to share our bed with her. I feel like I will need that small separation. She has some stuffed animals from various people. Joe's grandmother gave her a lamb, and that meant a lot to me. The dog my preschool class gave me when we moved will be hers, and Keech ate the bear his Aunt Libby gave us. So she's officially a part of the family now that Keech has eaten something of hers. Circle of life I guess. We've started stock piling diapers early so we won't have to stress as much over it when she's actually here. Hmmm.... what else do we have? Oh bibs. We have some bibs. That's it. So far, we are totally unprepared for this baby. We've still got 17 weeks so hopefully we can get it together by then :) According to the ultrasound we had, she's 4 ounces and something like 7 inches long. I don't remember the length, we were more concerned about her head size. Everyone knows I am terrified to have to have a c-section. I want to avoid one at all costs. So we were concerned she was going to have a giant head like her daddy, but the tech said she is normal in size everywhere. Nothing's too big, nothing's too small, its all just normal. Hopefully it'll stay that way. You hear that Charlie? No giant growth spurts!

So until the next doctors appointment, I'll just keep updates with how we're doing and what I'm feeling Charlie do. She's an active little baby so far, so we'll see if she stays that way once she's here. December can't come soon enough :)