Another Awesome Announcement

Another announcement??  YES!  We have another announcement.  This announcement is quite exciting too.  

We are expecting another baby.  It is due in August.  

And we're expecting a baby boy!

We are very excited.  Mav is thrilled to have some extra testosterone in the house.  I'm excited to go shopping, along with the rest of our family.  And Squeaks, when you ask her about her new baby brother, she looks at you funny and says, "No.  It's just going to me, Squeaks.  No baby brother."  We'll see how that goes.  

So.  Now, I'm sure all the typical pregnancy questions are running through your head.  

Have you been sick?  Nope.  Just tired, like I've-been-hit-by-a-bus-tired.  

How far along are you?  Almost 20 weeks.

Wait.  You're moving to Vegas?  Aren't you worried?  Nope.  We did this with Squeaks.  Remember?  I was six weeks from having her when we moved to St Louis.  This one will be fine.  We're actually closer to home and have about ten weeks to settle in before this little one could come.  

You had an emergency c-section with Squeaks.  What are your plans this time around?  I want to avoid a c-section.  The recovery sucked, big time.  I don't want to do that again.  My doc says as long as I go into labor on my own near my due date, he would love for me to try vaginal again.  Then again, I'll have a different doctor when we move.  We hope he/she will let me opt for that.  It should be fine because we'll be delivering at a large facility.

Did you have a feeling it was a boy?  No, I had no idea.  And neither Mav or I cared which it was.  We've had too many other things on our mind to think about it much too.  

Do you have names picked out?  I thought we did.  But now that we're actually having a boy, those names I thought I loved, I don't like much anymore.  We probably have a middle name picked out because it's Mav's and his dad's middle name.  May as well keep going with it right?  

When did you find out you were pregnant?  Just after Thanksgiving.  

Why haven't you said anything about the pregnancy?  Because you never know what could happen.  I'm a relatively private person too.  We actually didn't tell our families till Christmas when I thought I was almost out of my first trimester.  I wasn't nearly that far along though. 

Have you gained weight?  Nope.  I'm super proud of myself.  I didn't lose all my weight from Squeaks so I've been keeping a close eye on it.  I've been eating super healthy, for the most part, and going to the gym three-four times a week.  I've actually lost weight. 

Maternity clothes?  Are you wearing them?  Yup.  I'm wearing maternity shirts.  I can squeeze into my pre-prego shirts but they don't look flattering, you know.  I have to do the ol' ponytail holder trick on my jeans.  I can't quite do up my top button.  And I refuse to buy jeans when it should get hot here in St Louis any second now and I'm moving to Vegas.  I am not buying maternity pants!  I want to skip right ahead to shorts and capris. 

What's up with the blue balloon in the picture?  Well, Mav is on a rotation he really likes and he's the only student.  He didn't feel like it would be appropriate to take off and leave them hanging without someone there.  I was totally fine with this.  It gave us a reason to party.  We had a gender reveal party with our friends.  It was quite a party with 14 adults and  15 children under the age of five.  My parents skyped with us and some of Mav's family hung out on Google+ to see the big reveal.  So when I went to my appointment I asked the ultrasound tech to write the gender on a note in a sealed envelope.  I took said sealed envelope to a party store with a giant box and asked them to fill it with whatever color balloons for the gender.  Squeaks and I opened the box.  Blue and green balloons floated out of the box.  It was really fun.  And we are always in for a big party! 

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween y'all! 

We've been celebrating Halloween all week long.  Last night, it was the barrel racing association's annual costume contest.  I believe Squeaks and my horse looked pretty darn cute.  I made their costumes.  I know, I know.  I'm great. 

And not only did my horse look good, she ran good too.  I finally landed in the pay window.  $42.  It's been a while since I've won money.  But that's the way it goes when you're away from home for almost four years.  With us being home since August (for Mav's away rotations), I've been riding nearly every day.  Riding consistently sure does pay off.  Literally. 

Life is Good

You know those moments?  The ones where everything is going your way and there is nothing to complain about?  I'm pretty sure the planets have to align just right for it to happen but occasionally it happens and you find yourself thinking, "Life is good." 

Life is good. 

Wanna know why? 

I'm home.  With my family.  My whole family.

Wanna know what else? 

I just spent all morning pampering my horse.  It's therapeutic for me.  And I have missed it so much. 

Wanna know more?

As I was braiding my horse's tail, I could hear Squeaks giggling as she was being chased around the yard by my dog. 

Life is so good, guys.  So, so good.   

Sick Squeaks

Last Thursday, Squeaks and I had an uneventful day.  We didn't do much.

Squeaks was pretty whiny.  Typical two year old, right?  I didn't think much about it.

Thursday night, is Big Bang night.  Mav and I are crazy about The Big Bang Theory.  We love it!  Squeaks loves it too.  She gets up and dances with the theme song.  When we settled down to watch it and the song came on, Squeaks didn't move.  Instead she crawled up onto the couch and put her head in my lap.  She has never done that.  Ever.  My child is not cuddly.  That night she was though.  She wanted to share my blanket.  My hand had to be just right on her cheek.  If I moved my hand, she screamed.  Then I noticed she had goosebumps.

It was kinda neat to watch Mav shift right into doctor mode.  He grabbed his stethoscope and borrowed our neighbor's ear-looker-inner-thingy and went to work.  She had a temperature of 102.9.  Actually, it was 103.9 because you add a degree when you check a temp in the armpit.  I forgot about that.  Good thing I have an almost-doctor around.

So Squeaks had something.  Mav concluded a visit to the ER or the doctor the next day wasn't worthwhile.   She didn't have a cough, a rash, no ear infection that he could tell, maybe she had a sore throat.  Her temp went down a couple degrees with Tylenol.  She was fine, she felt crummy, but she was fine. 

I think, for the most part, I'm going to like having a doctor in my house.  It just might come in handy.

Feeling Like a Single Parent

Some days I feel like a single parent.  It comes with the territory of being a med school wife.  Some rotations are cake but then there's the horrible ones.  You know, the ones where you only see your better half when they're climbing into or out of bed.  Or not at all, I've had to meet Mav at the hospital for lunch so Squeak and I could actually see him in only partial zombie mode.  The joys of third year...

Today is one of those days that I feel like a single parent.  I've rarely had this feeling.  Squeaks is a super easy toddler.  Nonetheless, she's still a toddler.  But Squeaks makes it easy being a single parent for a short amount of time.

Until today.  Squeaks had a slight running nose yesterday.  I think it's allergies.  Nothing horrible.  But this morning, she came into my room with thick, gooey snot creeping from her nose to her chin.  Gross!!

Now, this wouldn't be a problem any other day of the week but today is Sunday.  We have church.  Squeaks attends her own classes.  (Yes, my two year old attends church classes but it's more of two hours of play time with a five minute lesson about Jesus.)  And I teach a class too, the five to six year old kids.  And Mav is working.

So today, I had to call in sick for my class.  I feel bad.  But I'd feel worse knowing that someone else would be constantly wiping my child's gooey nose.  Oh.  And I would feel twice as bad if Squeaks actually had a cold that spread to the whole class.  That's just not cool.

So today, I had to be a single parent.  I had to suck it up and ask someone else to take over my responsibilities.  It's actually a good thing for me.  I'm a rather prideful person.  I need to learn that sometimes I simply can't be there all. the. time.  And that's ok.  Because we all know, there's going to be a lot more of this single parent thing in the years to come.  And that's ok too.

P.S.
I'm secretly excited to sit at home and watch some NCAA basketball.  Hee!  Hee!     Go SLU!  Tip off is at 1:45.

No Homework!

Squeaks said a new word today.  Usually I'd be jumping with joy but today it made me sad.  She said homework.

This morning I sat grabbed my books and went to the kitchen table.  Before I could sit down, Squeaks was clawing up my leg screaming, "No!  No homework!" 

Sad, huh?  I've been doing a lot of homework lately.  I actually have two math units due tonight and Mav has his surgery shelf exam on Friday.  We've been doing a lot of studying around this house. 

Luckily, there's only six weeks left in the semester.  After that, I am Squeak's for the whole summer. 

And yes, I'm counting down!!