Are we there yet???

So it's been 28 weeks and time has hit an ultimate slow...And all I keep thinking is how in the world am I going to last another 12 weeks?  Time was flying by and then all of a sudden it seems to have come to a schreeching halt.  Life is so strange that way.  By this week, Madelyn weighs on average over two pounds, approximately the size of a Chinese Cabbage and measures almost 15 inches from the top of her head to her heels. She can blink her eyes, which now sport lashes (long ones hopefully)!!
My appointment this week was dreadful.  I had my glucose screening test for gestational diabetes.  First thing this morning, I had to drink a super sugary drink that tasted like the syrup used to make Sunkist soda with twice the sugar!!  It was disgusting!  After having to "chug" it down, I had to wait one hour until they could....you guessed it - my favorite thing - draw 5 vials of blood!  While waiting I started to get a headache and feel naseous from the sugar rush.  So, riddle me this....do you really need a separate vial of blood to test 5 different things?  Why can't you take one vial and test everything?  I'm sure all will come back good, but I'm just a little worried about the test for anemia since I've been so tired.  However, it could just be one of the many characteristics of reaching your third trimester.  If all my tests come back good, guess what I win......a shot next week  YAY!!!  As long as everything comes back clear, I will be given a rhogam shot which is necessary because I am blood type O negative and Ryan is blood type O positive.  If you're Rh-negative and carrying a baby who is Rh-positive (like the father), the baby may be at risk for a serious disease. When your immune system (which fights off invaders to keep you healthy) is exposed to your baby’s Rh-positive blood, it will begin producing antibodies that are "sensitized" (designed specifically) to destroy these “foreign” blood cells.  Essentially begin attacking the baby, so this shot will help to prevent that.
Blood pressure was good and thus far I've gained 16 pounds, so everything is right on track.  We met with the doctor to measure my belly (only the second time) and listen to her heartbeat.  Since my last appointment my belly increased 5 centimeters to a whopping 29 centimeters.  What is funny is that Ryan said at Thanksgiving my belly just popped up out of nowhere and it seems to be true.  When we listened to her heartbeat, it was beating so fast because of the sugary syrup it was funny.  Not to mention, while waiting Ryan was able to see for the first time my stomach doing the surfing wave from all her moves!

As far as the new house goes, we finally moved the weekend of Thanksgiving.  Ryan's parents were able to come down, pack up and help move all of our small personal items.  We did such a good job that when the movers came the next day to move our furniture, they said this was the lightest move they've ever done!  He said usually when people say it's just furniture that it really isn't.  Hopefully, we made their day!  The following weekend was spent unpacking the remaining items and getting settled in.  We even made time to go pick out a REAL tree and decorate it for Christmas.  It was so exciting to put a full sized tree up and a real one at that!!  We usually have a small one on the counter because of the dogs.  The only thing I wished is that we would have little Madie (or Gidget as my grandparents have nicknamed her) here!  The past weekend my grandparents helped move our last piece of furniture, a dining table and china cabinet given to us by my great-grandmother.  We were finally able to see our china that has been in storage for 5 years!  It is so pretty and now the dining room is just beautiful!!  The dogs also came to the new house for the first time and they were absolutely lost!  They are really hesitant to use the doggie door, but love the big porch.  So funny they are scared of the doggie door because they love the one at Ryan's parents.  In time I'm sure they will adjust.  So I put in a picture of the Chrsitmas tree and will post final pictures of the house after the Madelyn's room is finished.  So until then, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Holy Kicks & Punches!!!

Monday I had my 24th week checkup & met the final doctor in my OBGYN practice, Dr. Roush.  They rotate you so that you can meet all the doctors because you don't know who will be on call when you go in labor.  My blood pressure is good and the baby's heart beat was perfectly around 155 beats per minute.  I signed up for a nifty website that sends me an update each week with what fruit or vegatable compares to her size and they say now she's just a little bigger than an ear of corn (approximately one foot long and just over one pound).  However, I've gained 10 lbs and about two weeks ago my belly bump finally popped up!  I'm actually relieved because sooo many people in the office look at me funny like they want to ask if I'm pregnant, but they don't want to insult me if they are wrong.  It's actually pretty funny, especially with the guys, so I don't say anything and let the game go on!  Is that bad???  So, we took some pictures to mark the start of my 7th month!

Ok, so I felt little thumps like popcorn around the 16th week.  Then the kicks were strong enough just before the 20th week so that Ryan could feel them.  All of sudden, Madelyn has started doing daily aerobic workout sessions!  Every early morning around 6am she does a little routine to let me know she's ready for breakfast and then after I get to work she starts to wake up and makes some noise around 10am while I'm sitting at my desk.  During the day she's pretty quiet, but occasionally does a little "Hello I'm still here reminder" while I'm in meetings.  Sometimes I think I might just be too busy during the day to notice as much, but the book says my movement is probably just rocking her to sleep.  Once I get home and finish dinner, I take some time to rest on the couch and let her do her little dance.  When we go to bed we lay there with our hands on my belly and talk to her.  After she moves around to get settled in for the evening, we go to bed.  She might move around once in the middle of the night, but mostly I sleep really good throughout the night.  So, I'm thinking she's going to be a little active child based on the stories I hear about Ryan....oh no we are going to be tired!  Look out Grandmas & Grandpas!

Even though we closed on the house almost two months ago, we still aren't moved in.  We've just been taking our time to do a few updates each weekend, which has been really nice and less stressful.  I am proud to report that Madelyn's room has new carpet, a fancy paint job, a new ceiling fan and fixtures.  This past week I came home to a HUGE box on my front door step.  I opened it up and to my surprise I found that my mom had bought all of the bedding for her room!  The pregnant woman I am right now, I cried my eyes out with tears of happiness and excitement.  I immediately called her to let her know how excited and happy I was.  THANK YOU MOMMY!!!!  Last order of business for her room is to make our final pick on the furniture so we can order and deliver it to the new place!  I just can't wait to finish her room and it is almost killing me!  I promise to post pictures, but want to hold off until we have everything in place and decorated.  Stay tuned  :o)

Next week is Thanksgiving and I've been waiting for this holiday for six months now!  Since my appetite has started to pick up I hope no one judges the hefty plates of food I plan on consuming...LOL!  Mostly, I'm just so excited to see family!  With weekends filled with house renovations, we haven't had much time to visit with everyone.  We are thankful this year to be blessed with such wonderful family and friends, a new healthy baby on the way and a new home start our new chapter of family memories.

Bump Day!!

Pregnancy Bump Day or in other words 20 weeks down and 20 more to go.  I'm more than half way there!  Nothing new to report, just thought it would be good to start posting monthly bump pictures!

Its a .....Boy??? or Girl???

Officially 20 weeks (5 months) and our second sonogram was today, October 18th!!!  AND we found out whether we were having a boy or girl!  Before we get there, I should probably start from the beginning...HAHAHA!  So for the past two weeks we have been spending much of our time at the new house getting things prepared and that has left us with lots of time to debate on whether or not to find out.  Last weekend my grandparents came down to help paint the baby's room and even they were getting into the discussion.  I'm not even sure how it came about, but our debate went from defending each of our views to just wanting to be the one who could guess correctly and be right.  I proclaimed that it was a girl and Ryan insisted that the Chinese calendar was correct and it was a boy.  After careful negotiations we agreed that we would find out so one of us could prove the other wrong  ;o)  But bragging rights was not enough, we had to "make it interesting" as Ryan called it.  The correct guess would win "10 Get Out of Diaper Free" cards.  So, although we have agreed to take turns and help each other out, the winner would be allowed 10 opportunities to pass on their turn!  Honest, I felt I would win either way because I'm sure Ryan would waste all 10 of his the first week  :o)

The appointment was with a specialist office today so that we could thoroughly look at the baby's heart.  My grandfather was born with a hole in his heart, so the doctor wanted to be sure we found any issues in advance so that we could properly prepare if needed.  The baby was moving around like crazy all night before the appointment.  I'm not sure if it was just the baby or if I was anxious about the appointment and it was making the baby go crazy, but Baby Tolle kept me up all night long!  Then we get to the appointment and the baby was still moving all around the place.  It was making the tech's work a little more of a challenge, but it let us see the baby a little longer.  The tech started with what measurements she needed to get for the appointment before we
"looked around".  The baby measured 10" long and weighs approximately 13 ounces.  We thoroughly looked at the heart, which is the size of a thumb nail right now.  We could see all 4 chambers, the valves, and the blood as it entered (colored blue on the screen) and exited the heart (color red on the screen).  She even listened to each individual valve as they pumped.  I would look down at my thumb and I was amazed at the details I could see on the computer screen.  She measured the head, the abdomen and counted each finger!!  It was absolutely amazing and even more grateful when we heard that everything looked good with a healthy heart!  The tech ended up giving us over 20 sonogram pictures and it was really hard to pick which ones to post, but here are the three that we thought could show you the most. 

The first picture (above) is a traditional sonogram profile picture showing how Baby Tolle was bent in half almost the entire time with legs up over the head.  If you look closely you can see the toes (little white specs) just hanging over the head.  Also in this picture, the knee is literally touching the nose!!!  No wonder I feel little kicks constantly :o)  The second picture (below) is the new 4D picture format that is looking at the side where you can see the face with nose and mouth, little arm and again those legs!

The final picture is of the face where you can really see the nose and mouth.  We thought it looked like a little grin and wanted to share it with everyone so you could finally meet our little girl, Madelyn DeLois Tolle!!!



The "Tolle House"

We closed on our new house September 30th!!!  We were searching for probably close to 8-9 months and almost gave up.  The foreclosures were completely wrecked and would need a ton of money to fix up.  The short sales either weren't really "short" or would take 10 years to ever hear back from the bank.  For all others, people were either so upside-down or haven't "realized" the market conditions that they weren't willing to negotiate their price.  Luckily, Ryan found the one (and I don't mean me...lol) and suggested it to our realtor.  I didn't even want to go see it because I really thought the sellers, like so many others, were not willing to come off their price.  Ironically, we were leaving another property and our realtor said "Now, let's go see the house your going to buy"!!!  How funny is that?  We pulled into the neighborhood and immediately loved the feeling of a warm and cozy family neighborhood.  Lots of trees lined the drive, passing some peaceful ponds and a long winding sidewalk with tons of people out taking a walk or jog.  As we pulled up to the house we were excited to see it, but I had to keep a realistic focus and calm down.  As we walked in the door I was AMAZED how clean and maintained the home was kept.  So many homes we previously visited were so dirty I was almost gagging as we walked through, but not this one!  We loved it so much that the same evening we put in our offer and immediately (like minutes) they sent us a counter offer, which was promising because everyone else would just decline.  After a few logistics we were set to close in a little over 30 days.  After lots of paperwork and signatures, we finally have our new home in a great neighborhood with top-notch schools for Baby Tolle.  We haven't moved yet, since we decided to take our time making changes prior to moving in.  Nothing too dramatic, just replacing carpet in bedrooms, paint throughout & a few other items.  Not having to rush & move has really helped with the other baby items we need to accomplish (day care interviews, hospital registering, etc).

As of yesterday, I am 18 weeks along!!!!  Almost half way until we get to meet our new family addition.  The past 2-3 weeks I haven't been sick at all and last week I really started to get my appetite back.  I still struggle with what to eat for a meal, but I have my "between-meal" snacks down to a science.  After breakfast, I have my morning snack of dry Life cereal.  After lunch I usually have either raw veggies or fresh fruit.  I haven't really wanted anything sweet besides fruit, but even then I can only have a small amount.  Late afternoon before I go home, I have cheddar cheese squares with wheat crackers (Toll House...lol) to hold me over until dinner.  I've even been feeling well enough that I started taking yoga classes!  Although awkward feeling at times, she says it is extremely helpful in preparing your body.
Our 16 week appointment was pretty non-eventful, but they did take more blood.  Goodness gracious, I can't believe how much blood these people need!  At least this is the last time they will take blood until my 28 week appointment.  WoooHooo!  Just before we left, we met with the doctor and got to hear the baby's heartbeat!!  This is my favorite part because it makes it so real!  Since the baby is a little bigger, the heartbeat is a slower than last time and was around 150 bpm.  As you can imagine, immediately Ryan asked for her to make a guess on the sex based on the heartbeat.....but the doctor said 150 bpm is very average and really could go either way.  If you haven't heard the great debate of 2010, I would like it to be a surprise and Ryan is dying to know whether it is a boy or girl.  So the debate can only continue a little longer before we will have to come to a concensus.  So stay tuned :o)

Lastly, I've started to gain a little weight!  I've gained about 3-4 pounds, but don't have much to show for it.  I decided to take my first "baby bump" picture, but it really isn't much to show at 4 1/2 months.  Ryan thought this was probably a good time to start doing them each month, so look for more going forward.  The small amount of weight I've gained is mostly due to the increase in the baby (although only about the size of a sweet potato).  Exactly one week ago, September 27th, I felt the baby without a doubt.  I actually have felt the same thing about 3 times previously, but I didn't know what it was!!  It felt like a light thump or like a popcorn pop, but turns out it was the baby!  That morning I was sitting on the couch drinking my hot tea and enjoying the news and it suddenly started moving all over the place for like 15 minutes straight.  I could even press my hand on my tummy and to confirm it!  Ever since then, Baby Tolle has been on the move anytime I'm sitting still.  I keep trying to get Ryan to feel it, but I can never seem to time it right.  He gets so frustrated, but I'm sure it won't be long until he will get to feel it too!

First Sonogram!!!

Our first sonogram was August 23rd and I was officially 12 weeks and 1 day along!  I was so nervous, but it was mostly because of the sequential screening that was going to require MORE blood to be taken.  Ryan and I waited forever it seemed like to even get called back by the nurse.  Then they called my name and we headed back and I was expecting the worst again; to lay down, get stuck with a needle and then pass out....but we went right in the room to have the sonogram.  I laid down on the examination bed and Ryan sat in the chair down towards my feet.  She showed me how to position my pants and then explain that if the baby was in good position she would start with what she needed to complete and then move on to show us and let us hear the heartbeat.  As soon as she put the device on my stomach Ryan said "Whoa!  It's right there!  You didn't have to find it???".  The technician continued to complete her task of measurements and photos, making the baby move all around.  Ryan kept saying "It's moving all around; can you feel that?  Can you feel that?  Or that?".  As I lay there I can't see a thing so it was driving me crazy!!!  I told him I couldn't feel anything.  The technician reminded us that it was only 2 inches long and I wouldn't feel anything for some time.  Ryan couldn't believe that it was only 2 inches because of how big it was on the screen.  Once she completed what she needed, she turned the screen so that I could see.  There it was, perfectly in position and I could see it's nose, arms and legs.  So adorable, but it still didn't feel real.  How do I know it wasn't some video being played on the screen????  And then she played the heart beat....and I cried!  We were amazed how fast it was beating.  She took a few pictures with one picture above it (like looking down on it) and it had one arm up with its little hand like it was waving at us!!!  Below I have posted our favorite one to share with everyone!!!  My friend Melissa gave me a gift bag full of presents when we found out we were pregnant and one gift was a frame for our first picture.  So this one we have next to the bed to see each morning and night!

As for other general updates....I've started to feel better last weekend and the last two days I have actually been hungry for dinner!!!  Yay!  There is hope for survival of this process.  Mornings are still horrible, but I start feeling better by lunch each day.  My appetite still isn't what it use to be, but one day I'm sure that will all change.  Until then, prenatal vitamins better do their job.  At my appointment they noted that I actually lost weight, so let's hope that changes soon to help this baby grow! 

Welcome to Baby Tolle!

Alright, so I have a little catching up to do.  I will try not to overwhelm everyone with the many details, but wanted to create a place for all the family to stay updated and connected!

It all started the week before the 4th of July weekend.....something was missing  :o)  Before heading off for our big week long trip to St. Thomas, we decided it best to take our first pregnancy test before going.  We knew it was early and I really didn't think it was going to be positive, but there it was....the faint pink line.  (Word to the wise, do not buy a bulk of non-digital tests thinking you would be taking so many it would be a waste to buy the more expensive option.)  So I stood there in the bathroom staring at the faint pink line waiting for it become clear and distinctive, but it didn't.  Did it mean what I thought it meant???  I wasn't sure, but in all previous ones there was no line at all.  Based on that, I decided to open the door and yell out to Ryan "It's positive"!!!  I knew it would happen, but I was in still in shock when it actually did happen.  Ryan was great!  He was calm, cool and collective.  With a big grin ear to ear, he was able to calm me down so we could celebrate.  Although early, we decided to tell our families before our trip to St. Thomas.  We knew with me not drinking on the trip our friends would immediately know something was up and didn't want our families to find out by a facebook posting  :o)  Sure enough, it wasn't even a day before Ryan Wood picked up on our secret in St. Thomas.  So I am sure glad we told everyone early.

The first two weeks after we found out were awesome!  I felt good and was motivated to eat well and exercise!  We were reading all our books and getting prepared.  Then the second to last day on our trip in St. Thomas it began...the morning sickness hit me.  I actually thought it was motion sickness from the car ride, but then it would randomly reappear.  At first it wasn't consistent and it wasn't at any particular time.  Right around the eighth week of pregnancy it became all day, every day sickness.  So why do they call it "morning" sickness again????

Our first prenatal doctor appointment was July 26th.  I was 8 weeks and 1 day along and they set my due date for March 6th!  We were glad the books prepared us for a non-eventful appointment.  Some regular tests, diagnostics and then they took all my blood!  OK, not all my blood, but for those of you who know me--I don't do needles well.  I didn't watch and was already laying down, but even Ryan said "I couldn't believe they took so much blood.  Like 4/5 vials".  We don't have any photos of the appointment, of course, but thinking back, we realized that the photos we took during our trip were probably our first "family" photos because just 1 week earlier we found out we were pregnant. So we posted some to enjoy from that trip.

(Important Date:  Due date is set for March 6th)