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!