Christmas/NST and Ultrasound

Now that Christmas is officially over, I can really start to freak out about having the baby! My fears of the unknown tend to get to me, and this is no exception.

We had a very nice Christmas this year. Friday (Christmas Eve) Matt and I had hot spiced fruit for breakfast that had been cooking in the slow cooker all night (YUMMY!!) Then we cleaned it out and put in a beef roast and veggies to cook for dinner that night while we drove into Anchorage to go to ChangePoint's Christmas Eve service (almost 100 miles round trip....we really need to start looking for a church here in Wasilla or Palmer). We got home and ate dinner, and opened our gifts from each other. We both already knew what we were getting, we went shopping together. Hard to hide things when you are sharing a cart :P

Christmas day we went to my parent's house in Eagle River bright and early for brunch and gifts. Then on to my grandparents' house in Chugiak for our annual family gift auction. After that was said and done we went back home and had a relaxing rest of our weekend. Next year is going to be so much different! For one thing we shouldn't have the "Card Wall" because I should be able to remember next year to get a card holder for all our Christmas cards!

My parents bought a bunch for the baby to go along with everything else they have gotten for her. She got more gifts overall than Matt and I did :) 

Everything was much appreciated and things we really did still need. The bigger things they gave us were a baby bath tub, a bouncer seat and a frog humidifier for the babies room. My parents and sister have been a huge help with baby stuff from the beginning. My sister, Jody, has given us quite a bit from when her daughter was smaller (now almost 5 years old) and that has been a big help. On top of the things Jody has given us, she got Matt a small video camera for Christmas. We are so happy about that because we have wanted to get one for when the baby is here. My parents are helping out with pretty much everything else that hasn't been given to us already. Matt and I have only bought maybe a handful of things for the baby/nursery. Here are some pictures:

 

Bath Tub (it's inflatable and collapsible!)

Bath tub w/ the newborn sponge

Bouncy Seat

Matt's Aunt Jenny made a fabric art for the baby for Christmas. Here is a picture of that:

Matt's sister Liz bought a couple of plain white onsies for my niece Ashlynn to decorate for the baby. Ashlynn decorated them and the baby got them for Christmas:

My mom is also in the process of making curtains for the nursery. When Matt and I were in Oregon this past fall, we picked out some fabric for Matt's mother to send to us later for the curtains. We received the fabric last week and I got it to my mom. Talking with her today, she said she is done with them. We plan to pick them up on Saturday while we are over at my parents' house for New Years. I can't wait to see them!!!

So I had my "big" doctor appointment today. They did the NST (non stress test) again and AGAIN the baby was not cooperative. We were in the room for almost the whole hour. The only thing that saved us was that the doctor was going to be doing an ultrasound after and they were done with the NST so she would be seeing the movement. Once I got unhooked from the machine, they did the ultrasound to determine if the baby is growing too fast and how everything was looking. The doctor said that the baby is growing fine, not too big. She is measuring around 6 lbs 10 oz. The only thing the doctor is a LITTLE concerned about is the amount of amniotic fluid surrounding the baby. She said it's at level 11, which is just fine for a "normal" pregnant woman. Since I have gestational diabetes I should have around a level 14 or 15. The baby should be practically swimming in fluid. Gestational diabetes causes the placenta to fail sooner than it should. One of the signs that the placenta is failing is when I start losing fluid. So they scheduled me for another ultrasound Monday morning to check my fluid after another NST. If the fluid drops, too much, they may induce me just to be safe. We will find out more on Monday. I'm hoping to not get an induction because it can cause some difficulties during labor. Harsher contractions for one. EEK! I don't think I need them worse than they will already be.

Matt and I are still working on getting everything together for the hospital. I still need to make lists, and things need to be printed. Other than that we are pretty much set. We had a little "scare" the other night. I was having crazy braxton hicks (false) contractions every 8 minutes. I ate some carbs and drank some water and they went away eventually. Ever since then we have been trying to do baby/labor stuff every day to get ready. With luck we will be ready when the time really comes.

That's it for the Alaskan Schneiders' this week. We want to wish everyone a safe and happy New Year!

Until next year....

Weekly Appointments and Votes

A quick reminder that you only have three days left to vote on the final name poll!!


Today I had my weekly NST and OB appointment. The nurse had a heck of a time finding the baby's heartbeat to track! For about 15 minutes she searched all over my belly and every time she would find the heartbeat, the baby would move. So after she got another nurse to try (and found it for good) Matt had to sit there and hold/press the monitor onto my belly to keep the heartbeat. Geez! So we only had to sit like that for about a half hour because after finding the heartbeat, she was moving like crazy and responding very well. 
My midwife got a copy of my blood glucose numbers for the week and consulted with one of the MD's in the office. My after dinner numbers (and some after lunch numbers) are getting too high. Because when I have an unusually high number, I tend to write down what I ate that probably caused it, they determined that I'm not allowed to eat any rice. So disappointing! We don't even eat white rice, we eat brown! My body has no problem with whole grain pasta, but apparently brown rice isn't working. I have to start trying to eat protein in my lunches. I really don't want to use up our chicken breasts for my lunches! I don't know, we'll see. Next week I'll be meeting with the one person I haven't met with yet for my growth ultrasound and she is also an MD. I'm supposed to discuss my numbers with her and find out about medication. After weeks of trying to not get put on medication for the gestational diabetes, I'm looking forward to getting on them! I have been hungry since starting this diet, because I haven't been able to eat much.
So I had my Group B Strep test done today too. I won't go into details on how they do that, but it's nothing super serious. It's a bacteria that lots of people carry, and it doesn't bother them, but it could harm the baby if I'm not treated. If I test positive, at the hospital they will give me antibiotics while I'm in labor so it crosses the placenta and the baby won't be affected by the Group B Strep. My midwife also checked my cervix and it's softening (meaning it's getting ready for delivery). I'm not dilating yet (that's a very good thing since I'm just 36 weeks, and she won't be considered full term until 37 weeks) and the baby is FOR SURE head down. I'm so happy to hear that she is head down because one of the reasons I would have to have a C-section would be to deliver a breech baby. Now I just hope she stays head down and ready to go!


Matt and I made a collage tonight of Christmas post cards he had gotten. It looks pretty cool! I thought I would share pictures:

Also, we moved the pack n' play into our bedroom and got it all set up and ready to go. It should be good until we get a crib.




I think that's it for this week. I'll be blogging again next week after the growth ultrasound to give an update of the baby's size and what the MD says. I hope everyone has a great Christmas!!

Meeting With The Pediatrician

Matt and I met with the pediatrician we are going to use for the baby. Her name is Dr. Peterson at Ptarmigan Pediatrics here in Wasilla. She was really nice and we are very happy with her. We got a tour of the office, and it was pretty cool! I was expecting just a regular doctors office, but they have an awesome mural in the waiting room, and animal shaped patient bed. Very cute! The rooms are themed like "The Castle Room" and the "Walrus Room". The funny thing about the walrus room is that they don't have a walrus shaped patient bed, but they have a polar bear one. She said that they just don't tell the kids that in real life polar bears eat the walruses. :)

So we will be naming her our official pediatrician to be at the hospital when the baby is born (if available) and she will be the one to give the baby her first exam. They have the best website, with forms to fill out ahead of time so you can focus on your sick child in the waiting room instead of filling out endless forms. Overall, it's just a great place! Even the baby was excited about it. She was moving around so much that she made my underwear slide down off my belly on the way home! 

We are trying to start practicing relaxation techniques, but we keep getting side tracked. Today we ended up wrapping gifts and finishing up the nursery instead. Tomorrow for sure! We really need to start practicing before it's too late and we are super unprepared. We are also struggling with packing our labor bags and suitcase. Just trying to get organized enough to figure out what we really need, what we can pack now, what we need to make a list of for last minute things, and what we still need to get. Plus what we will really need for labor vs what will just take up room in the bags. 

We got a package today from Matt's mother of more things she has made for the baby. I'll be posting pictures at the end of this post. I also have pictures of our tree and some decorations I took at the same time. I have also posted the last name poll with all the top voted names from the previous polls. The winners of this poll will help us complete our "short list" to bring to the hospital for naming the baby. I hope everyone had fun voting in these polls. We will have more later on for other things, don't worry!

We are gearing up for Christmas week. We have another NST appointment on Monday/OB check so I'll blog again after that to update everyone on how it goes. Hope everyone is ready for Christmas!! Almost a week away....

Pictures:


Link to the album "Susan's Crafty". This album shows all the clothes, blankets, quilts, wall hangings, etc that Matt's mother Susan has made for the baby. She has made a bit more than what I have in the album. I'll be adding the rest once I take pictures of them.
Click Here for Susan's Crafty Album 


Link to our Christmas 2010 album. I'll be adding our Christmas pictures too once the day comes. So far, it's just decorations.
Click Here for Christmas 2010 Album 


Link to the nursery pictures album. I took pictures of the fairies Matt hung up today, as well as the wall hanging from Susan. If you have already seen this album, just skip to the last 5 or so pictures and you'll see the new ones.
Click Here for Baby Schneid's Room Album

Another NST Appointment

Matt and I went in today for another NST appointment (non stress test). Everything is still going good, nothing major to report. Baby was more active in the waiting room than she was hooked up to the monitor though. It's pretty frustrating when we can't do anything to get her to move, she needs to do it on her own. I even planned my snack to be eaten while I was hooked up to the monitor to try and get her to move sooner. The sooner she moves, the sooner I get to see my OB and leave.
She did well once she started moving. Heart rate went up when she would move, like it's supposed to.
I am scheduled for a "growth ultrasound" on 12/29 with one of the MD's at the office. What that ultrasound does is try to determine how big the baby is and how well the amniotic fluid looks. If the baby is looking too big, then we will discuss C-section options. Otherwise, I won't be scheduled for a C-section just because I have gestational diabetes. YAY! I have read that when they do these ultrasounds, they can be pretty off on the size and weight of the baby. So I'm not going to take it as 100% truth when we find out. We will just have to see what the MD says. I hope she isn't growing too fast!
My midwife said today that December is one of the busiest months for births. She said that I'm lucky I'm due in January because it's a lot calmer. I hope it's calmer! She was saying that they have been in and out of the hospital for days delivering babies. BAH! I hope it's not super busy when it's my time.


My midwife looked at my blood glucose numbers and she did agree that they are getting "iffy". It's another thing I will be talking to the MD about. It's very possible that I'll be put on medication the last weeks of pregnancy....then again I am in the last weeks of pregnancy. :)
She said that because this is my first baby, it's very doubtful that I will deliver too early, as in before 37 weeks. That is very good news, because the baby is considered full term at 37 weeks, and as of this last Sunday I'm 35 weeks. Just need to cook a bit longer.


We have our prenatal consultation appointment at the pediatricians office on Wednesday. I'm still trying to come up with more questions for the doctor and the staff to answer. I'll blog about that visit on Wednesday night. 


Matt also has gotten word from a couple of people that he will be able to work some in the next couple of months! It's been a tough winter so far, and hopefully, this is the beginning of better times. He heard from Sheldon Air Services (his main employer) that he is officially the Director of Maintenance. They just can't afford to pay him a salary this winter. So he has the title, just not the money that should go with it. He has also been in contact with a friend of his that needs some winter work done on his airplanes in Palmer for the next couple of months before the Iditarod starts. 


That's all for now, I hope everyone is having a great week!

Appointments, Classes and Tours

We have had a pretty busy week since the last blog post. Lots of baby things going on. First, last Friday evening we had a breastfeeding class. Unfortunately, it was not really all that informative. I had a feeling they were going to do this and they did. Most of the "class" was to "sell" us on breastfeeding. If we weren't planning on breastfeeding we would not have been in the class! So for an hour or so we got to hear how beneficial breastfeeding is for mother and baby, how much better it is than formula...etc. She did give us some techniques for how to hold the baby for feeding, and we did get information about milk storage. I'm sorry to say that's about all I walked away with from that class. Since the instructor is also a registered dietitian Matt and I stayed after and talked to her about gestational diabetes and breastfeeding. She didn't have much insight on it, basically that nothing should change from what a "normal mother" would go through. We also asked her about my blood sugar. Since my doctor appointment last Monday, my blood sugar has been a little higher than it should be after meals. All of a sudden just a packet of oatmeal in the morning is making my blood sugar get up to 116 (120 is the highest I should go) when before it would only make my blood sugar in the 90's. Well, she explained to me that it helps if I eat my carbs with a protein. The protein helps the sugar in the carbs digest slower. So now I'm back to eating eggs every morning with either toast or a packet of oatmeal. Snacks have been a problem since I don't usually eat a protein at snack time, other than maybe a string cheese. 


Saturday morning we went to Alaska Sales and Service here in Wasilla. It's a local car dealership in Alaska for those of you who are elsewhere. The first Saturday of almost every month Alaska Sales has a free car seat safety check. The purpose is you put the car seat base and car seat in your car, go to the safety check and they have registered car seat checkers take a look and see if you have installed your seat correctly, if your car seat has any recalls, if it's in acceptable condition, things like that. Lucky for us, the woman that checked our seat was our childbirth class instructor. She had already seen our seat in class when we brought it during the last class for inspection. Matt and I had put the base and car seat in the car the night before and we hoped it was in right. Well, it was, the base just needed to be a bit tighter. Other than that, it was good to go! We rock...what can I say?


This past Monday (the 6th) I had my weekly doctor appointment. Things were a little hectic with them that day. I got a call about an hour before we were due to be there from the receptionist saying that the practitioner I was supposed to see was called to the hospital. In order to keep my same times we saw just a regular nurse practitioner, she was not a "delivery nurse" so she wouldn't be a person who would deliver the baby. That could be why I had never heard of her before. So we got to the office and they did my regular stuff, then hooked me up to the baby monitor machine, gave me my clicker (to click when the baby moves) and said they would be back to check on me in 15 minutes. A half hour later the nurse finally comes in to check, and we already knew from looking at the graphing, that the baby did WAY better this time than she did last week. Almost every time I clicked when she moved her heart rate went up instead of down. YES!! To make a long story short, we were at the doctors office for almost 2 hours for something that should have only taken 45 minutes at the most. It was the longest time we had been at the doctors office (other than when I had to do my three hour glucose test). The practitioner said that my blood sugar numbers have been a bit high, but she said it's nothing to worry about just yet. She said that overall my numbers are pretty good, so we aren't worried about getting medication just yet.


Tonight we went to the hospital's birthing center for a tour. 
We were there with two other couples (and a mother of one of the mother's to be). The nurse that took us around has been a nurse for 43 years, so we had no choice but to believe everything she said! She was really super nice, and did a very good job explaining everything to us. She told us when we should call, when we should come in, what we should bring. She sat us down for the first 15 minutes or so and just talked to us about the beginnings of labor. When we should call the labor and delivery department, what to do if we start having contractions but aren't sure if they are false or real. She went over things to look out for in the beginning of labor, and also how their security system works for baby's safety. Then she walked us around the birthing center. We went to the triage room where they will put me first to test and check to see if I'm a keeper or to be sent home. It's a room with three or four beds separated by curtains. Apparently they try to keep you in there as little as possible, so it should be a short stop. The second room we went to was one of the labor and birthing suites. This room was VERY nice. Almost like a hotel room...with the occasional medical equipment. They have a couch (that folds into a bed for dad), TV, DVD player, nice bathroom with a bathtub, seating for 6 people! Unfortunately, if I end up having a C-section I don't get to stay in that room. They have special C-section rooms that are smaller and have a walk in shower rather than a bathtub. Plus, from what I remember I don't think the C-section rooms have windows. Anyway, after we saw the birthing suite, she explained that they do have a nursery, but because of confidentiality reasons, we couldn't go in because they had a new baby in there. But they do have a nursery, and it's not very big because it's a family birthing center. Since the baby is now a part of the family, the baby stays in the mother's room. The only time she will be in the nursery is if there is a problem, or if they take her to get tests done (and in that case Matt will go with her). She said that if the baby really has problems, or comes too early, she will have to be transported to a hospital in Anchorage because Mat-Su Regional doesn't have a NICU. That really isn't good news, but we knew about this ahead of time and are prepared to deal with that if it comes.
After the nursery talk, she was on her way to take us to the "big hot tub room" that has a huge bathtub that I can labor in if I want the extra room. As we got closer to the hallway where this room was located in, we started hearing this awful, bloodcurdling, horror movie screaming. The nurse started apologizing saying that a woman was having a very hard time, and that it wasn't a normal birth. It really sounded like she was having limbs cut off. I was seriously (and still am) freaking out. I can still hear her screams....
So we are standing in the hallway while the nurse explains about the doors to the birthing center, how you have to press a button and talk to the front desk nurse before they will let you back into the unit...all the while this poor woman is screaming her head off. I just wanted to get out!! The nurse finally got us moving to the cafeteria (which we had already seen a number of times since we had our child birth class at the hospital and my diabetic counseling and meeting with the dietitian). After that, she brought us back to the dreaded hallway of nightmarish screams...but no more screaming. She just took us to the C-section rooms to show them to us. Once that was over, we were free to go...and I was glad to go! I'm glad we went, I'm glad we learned so much more about the hospital birthing center and what we can expect when we go, and during our stay. I'm really hoping that I don't end up with a C-section so I'll be able to stay in the awesome room, but I guess even then, sometimes we can get bumped to a C-section room if another mother needs the labor room. So either way, I'm at risk of losing the awesome room.


I did call the Red Cross on Monday to find out about an infant CPR type class that we had gotten a flyer about during our childbirth class and they had never heard of it. Ooooooooook. So apparently we aren't doing that. 
I also have been in contact with a receptionist at Ptarmigan Pediatrics (who believe it or not is named Stacy, but is a guy) regarding forms that had to be filled out before I made a prenatal appointment. I got all the forms emailed to him on Friday and called Monday to make the appointment to see Dr. Laura Peterson (our future pediatrician). We have that appointment next Wed to tour the office and to meet with Dr. Peterson. They have a fantastic website with all sorts of information and forms that you can fill out ahead of time and bring with you. Helps when you child is sick and your trying to keep them calm in the waiting room rather than filling out forms. I hope we like Dr. Peterson because she is the best out here from what I have heard from other parents. Plus her office isn't far from the house, and she also woks with the hospital here too. We need to find one soon though so we can get a name for a pediatrician that needs to be called in when I have the baby so they can be the one to check her over. If we don't have one named, or our pediatrician is unavailable, the hospital has pediatricians on call.


Whew! I think that's it for now. I'll have more to report next week after my doctor's appointment on Monday. Until then, have a good rest of your week and weekend!

Doctor Appointment

I had a doctor appointment today, the one I should have had last week but was rescheduled. When we got to the office, they had me do the usual routine, then said I had to do a NST. An "NST" is a non stress test. It's a test where they put a monitor around my belly and I push a button when I feel the baby move. Pushing the button creates a "tick" on the paper that comes out showing when the baby moved and what it did to her heart rate. What they are testing is how the baby is reacting to the movements. Ideally, her heart rate should go up when she moves...like when we exercise our heart rate goes up. They had me on the monitor for almost an hour and her heart rate only went up two times or so in that time period. Most of the time it went down. Apparently she was sleepy. They had me turn to my left side (because she hangs out on my right side 99% of the time) and drink some really cold water to try to wake her up. She just wasn't being helpful. But the two times her heart rate went up was just barley enough to get me off the monitor. 
Matt and I were not aware that I was going to have to do this test during this appointment. Poor Matt had to sit in a tiny room with me for almost an hour while I was hooked up to this machine. The room had a TV in it, but I couldn't watch. I had to concentrate on the movements of the baby so I could push that button to get that tick mark on the paper.
A NST is something that most every pregnant woman has to do, but especially with the gestational diabetes. Also because of the diabetes, today started my weekly appointments. They totally skipped me going every two weeks because of the gestational diabetes. So I now have a standing appointment every Monday afternoon at 2:40 from now until Jan 17th (hopefully it won't be that long!). My NST will be at 2:40 and my actual OB appointment will be at 3:40 (or about, depending on how well the baby is reacting). 
My nurse practitioner said that my blood glucose is doing well, but not to get discouraged if my blood glucose numbers get out of control in the next few weeks. Later on in pregnancy it may become impossible to control my blood glucose with just diet alone. She said not to freak out if they do end up putting me on a medication. I really hope it doesn't come to that, but if it does, it does. This is the second time she has told me this, so I know it's a real possibility. I also learned today that because of the gestational diabetes, I have an even greater chance of being induced into labor instead of it naturally happening. Not just because of the babies size, but because labor might not go as it should with this complication. I really don't want that to happen either, mostly because being induced sometimes prolongs labor and makes it more difficult. If I'm going to try and do this without an epidural, it would work better if I didn't have medical intervention hindering labor. But, if I have to be induced, we will just have to make do and change our birth plan a bit. Luckily we are pretty open minded about everything having to do with labor and delivery. As long as we are kept in the loop and told what is going on we can make the right decisions for us pretty quickly.


So, that is what's going on with all that. I hope baby Schneid's cooperates next Monday so I'm not attached to that monitor too long! Until next week, hope everyone has a good one :)

33 weeks: Baby weighs as much as a pineapple

Your baby is proportioned like a pineapple when it comes to weight -- a little over 4 pounds. (Length: more than 17 inches, head to heel.)

What We Did On Black Friday

While everyone was out and about today shopping like crazy, we stayed home and finished the nursery. We have been trying to gather the materials we needed to test the decals we had that were not sticking. In the end, the decals that were still attached to the backing, I cut out very close to the design edge and we used that Tac-Stick stuff to stick them to the walls. It worked pretty well, and we aren't having issues with them falling off at all. The decals that we had already stuck to the wall that had already started falling off, my mom gave us the suggestion to use wallpaper glue that she had laying around. It totally worked! We just outlined the decals on the sticky side with the glue, and again, we aren't having any fall off. We were so relieved that we could still use all the decals and my mom and our friend Robins' money didn't go to waste buying these decals.


Matt's family contributed to the room decor also. The pink daisy lights Matt's sister Liz got us are SO cute in the room. They are "wall flowers" and when the big light is turned off and just the daisy lights are on, they create such a soft pink glow over the room. Almost like giant night lights. Liz, you did good picking those out!! Matt and I added some leaf decals to them to add to the "stem"...just a finishing touch. Matt's father, John, painted two paintings for the room that we brought up with us from Oregon. They go so well with the room too, and we already had one frame and found another frame that matches pretty well. You can't even tell that they are two different frames. He is working on a couple more paintings for the room for Christmas. Matt's mother, Susan made the quilt that is on the chair in the room, one wall hanging, and she is currently working on another wall hanging for the room as well. We are so lucky to have such crafty people in the family!!


We have started packing the diaper bag to bring to the hospital for the baby. So far we just have her going home outfit, a hat and a blanket. I have been told that the hospital provides pretty much everything needed for the baby so we don't have to bring much for her other than her clothes and the car seat. When we go to take the hospital tour (as soon as one of us calls to schedule it) we will find out for sure what we need for her. We are trying to figure out what to bring for ourselves also. I need to start packing my bag ASAP just in case. We are getting a little too close now to not be prepared. My thinking is to just buy some travel size bathroom stuff and that will take care of that part. I am also going to need to make a list soon of last minute things that we will have to pack just before going to the hospital, which with the look of things, might be just about everything.


In case some of you remember, we had a doctor appointment scheduled for this past Tuesday the 23rd. That appointment ended up getting rescheduled because of the awful weather we had earlier this week. For those of you who are not in Alaska, we had crazy warm weather that caused rain, turning the roads into ice rinks. Schools closed, a lot of businesses closed too...including my doctor's office. The appointment has been rescheduled for Monday Nov, 29th. I'm supposed to be having an appointment once every two weeks, and by the time of my next appointment it will have been almost a month since my last appointment. I haven't been having many problems so I'm not very worried about the amount of time that had passed. I'm sure things are fine, I just have regular aches and pains. Occasionally I feel a little light headed and sometimes fainty, but that is normal stuff. 
The gestational diabetes is going well. I'm still able to control it with diet. I'm so happy that I'm doing well with it, because I really didn't want to be put on any medication for it. So far, so good! I wouldn't be able to do it as well without Matt though. He helps me figure out all the math of the carb servings, and he makes sure I eat my snacks and my meals the way I should. I'm really lucky to have him! I did very well on Thanksgiving. We went to my parents' house for Thanksgiving, braving the roads. Even with only being able to have two carb servings for lunch (when we ate the Thanksgiving meal). I just had small amounts of potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing and fruit salad. I had more turkey than I normally would have (because I wasn't stuffing myself with carbs) and I didn't have a roll at all. I was well under 120 (my max) when I checked my blood glucose two hours later. I even had pumpkin pie after for my mandatory snack after the two hour wait after the meal and I still did good.


Here is the link for the nursery pictures before I forget: http://picasaweb.google.com/Smile161/BabySchneidSRoom?authkey=Gv1sRgCM2trJKNo4uqtAE&feat=directlink 


I will blog again after my doctor's appointment on Tuesday. I hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving! 

Nursery...We Have A Problem/Baby Shower Pictures

Yesterday Matt and I started working on decorating the nursery. Now that we have decorations for the walls, we thought we should use them. So we put up some decals on the walls, feeling pretty apprehensive about it because we have textured walls. None of the instructions said anything about working on textured walls. They all say "A clean smooth surface". BAH, we tried it anyway. This morning we woke up to "leaves" on the floor from one decal set, and the other is peeling away from the wall. I thought for sure the decal set that was not on an outside wall would be ok, but it's the one peeling away from the wall. The set with leaves falling is on an outside wall, meaning it's pretty cold so I had doubts that things would stick for long. *sigh* We had big plans for wall decorations, and I'm sure people spent a bit of money on these decals, and for that I'm sorry. I doubt they can be returned now. We might try another trick to see if they stick, but we can't chance them falling off into the babies crib or even on the floor because Chloe will eat them. Matt did, however, hang up some paintings that his dad made for us. Also, a "Baby" plaque that was given to us as a shower gift. We still have flower lights that will get hung up on the walls, along with a few other things. So the nursery won't be super bare, it just won't be what we wanted.

Also, I added on to the Baby Shower album a couple of days ago. I just finished the captions for them. Here is the link:

BABY SHOWER PHOTOS 

Matt and I will be taking pictures of the nursery soon...once we figure out what we are going to do about the walls. Until then, hope everyone has a great day!

Baby Shower

First of all I want to thank everyone who came to share the occasion with Matt and I. We had a lot of fun, and it was nice to see everyone. We really appreciated everything we were given for little baby Schneider. Since we don't have much, everything was welcomed with great big open arms :) I hope everyone had fun!!

I went through our registry lists and removed things we received, but I'm keeping things on that we still really need just in case people want to refer to the lists for Christmas gifts. We are planning to save any gift cards we receive for either after the baby is born ( to buy last minute things we didn't think we would need) or until my due date is closer and we are still missing things, we can purchase them with gift cards.
Pictures were taken at the shower, but I haven't been sent them just yet. I'm sure Jody and Teresa (who hosted my shower) were pretty beat once they got home today. So I'll be posting another blog later on with a link to a Picasa album of baby shower pictures. Tonight, Matt and I went through ALL the gifts we got and took pictures of some things for the blog. I did not take any pictures of onesies, sleepers, sleep n' plays, socks and other clothing items that we have a bunch of. I did, however, take a couple pictures of a few sleep sacks we got, just because they were cute and....sleep sacky :) Click on the picture below to view the album of just gifts.

Baby Shower Gifts

Anyway, as I said I'll be posting more pictures later on once I get them. I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Doctors Appointments

Today Matt and I went to my doctor appointment and my follow up eye appointment. The doctor appointment was just a routine appointment, nothing out of the ordinary. I have gained around 20 pounds though (YIKES!!). I had lost almost 40 before getting pregnant and I was a little disappointed that I'm gaining so much, but I'm sure I'll be able to take it off...I hope. Apparently they don't seem concerned about my weight gain because no one at the office has said anything to me about it. They just weigh me and write it down. Matt and I had written a little bit of our birth plan and showed it to my midwife to see if she had anything for us to think about adding. She wasn't much help in that area, so we will continue to research and try to think of things that should be added. In case you don't know what a birth plan is, it's a form that you fill out explaining what you want and don't want to happen during labor and delivery. Some people want to do things completely natural and don't even want to be asked if they want drugs, so they put that on the birth plan. Some people want to only have certain drugs, or want to be able to move around the room freely (assuming you have no medical reason not to) that goes on the birth plan. Also, who you want in the room, if you want to be allowed to bring things from home to "decorate" the room with to help you feel more relaxed. These things that go on the birth plan help the doctors and nurses figure out what you want and don't want so they aren't bothering you with things in the middle of labor. Obviously, if medical intervention is needed, most of this stuff doesn't matter. They will have to do what they need to. Matt and I are pretty open minded about most everything, so we are easy to work with. We aren't opposed to anything, especially since this is our first baby and we have NO idea how things are going to progress.
We did talk to the midwife a bit about early labor, when to come in, that kind of thing. She took a quick look at my blood sugar numbers, and didn't seem to concerned with them. I explained that I'm still trying to get the hang of how much carbs I can have. Plus, the snacks are really messing me up during the day. Sometimes we don't eat dinner until 7:00p or later because I don't want my after lunch snack to be too close to a meal. It's really hard, I spent over a year training myself to not snack during the day anymore, and now I'm being forced to snack.
My midwife also did another heartbeat ultrasound, and it sounded good. I asked why the baby seems to always hang out on the right side (it's hard on that side about 80% of the time) and she said that babies sometimes favor one side over another....awesome. Makes it hard to lay on my left side when the baby is on my right side and not moving to the left. Silly baby!! So now starts my "every two week" appointments for awhile, then it will be every week. My next appointment is on 11/23 with my regular midwife. They are still trying to get me to meet one more practitioner in the office but she isn't available during that week. They want us to have met everyone that could deliver the baby just in case.

My eye appointment was a follow up from July when I first went in. Some of you may remember, suddenly one day I noticed a blind spot in my right eye. It's only visible when I close my left eye and rapidly blink my right eye. It sounds stupid, but it's there. It hasn't changed, and the eye doctor still couldn't find anything wrong with my eyes. I did tell her that I was recently diagnosed with gestational diabetes, and that might be a factor. She agreed that it could be, but we won't know for sure until after the baby is born. I just have to keep an eye on it (HA! Get it, and EYE), and let her know if the shape changes or if it moves or anything.

Well, Matt and I haven't really looked at baby names in weeks. Just suggestions we have gotten from various people. I think we are pretty dried up with names. Here are the results of last weeks name poll:

Penny: 1
Rebecca: 5
Bethany: 1

Before I post the final name poll (with all winning results) I'm going to look once more around websites, baby name books, etc and see if I can come up with any more names we might consider. Please, if you think of a name let one of us know, we don't turn away names, we think about all of them. I hope the poor baby gets a decent name, if we leave it 'till the last minute she might be named Skeletor or something equally as crazy.
To close I thought I would post another gem from Matt and Chloe. Matt was trying to figure out the baby carrier the other day and thought it would be a hoot to put Chloe in it just to see. Surprisingly, she didn't seem to mind.

Back From Oregon & New Name Poll

Hello all! I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. We just got back from Oregon late Monday night. When we got to the Portland airport, they told us that our flight was cancelled, but the silver lining was that we were already booked on a later flight non stop to Anchorage! The original flight was to take us to Seattle where we would have to board yet another airplane to Anchorage. I was VERY happy to hear that we would only have to get on one airplane. The downside was that we got into Anchorage later than expected. We didn't get home until close to 1:00am on Tuesday because of the drive from Anchorage to Wasilla. We had a good time overall in Oregon. A couple bumps, but so far everything has turned out fine. It was a very busy time while we were down there, visiting Matt's family and enjoying out last "vacation" without a baby in tow. Next time, it won't be so easy...

I put up a new name poll. It's looking like it will be the last one, we have run out of names we like, and have used all the ones we did like. If anyone has any more suggestions, please let us know so I can add them to the next name poll. Otherwise, this will be the last one before the final poll featuring all the "winning" names in the previous polls. Please remember that when a name wins, that doesn't mean it's going to be the name we use. So please don't go out and buy a bunch of things with the winning name on it. We may or may not use it. We won't be staking claim on a name until she is born. We want to see what she looks like before we name her. No one will know the name for sure until after the birth...even us! Here are the results of the last name poll:


Rose: 2
Annaliesa: 1
Faith: 4
Libby: 0
Lorelei: 0



Matt and I had our last childbirth preparation class last night. I'm glad we made it back in time for it because I learned much more in this class than I had in previous classes. Did you know that it isn't safe to use crib bumpers anymore?? I sure didn't. Something about air flow being blocked by the bumper. This class was pretty important because it was the class we had to bring in our car seat to be checked over by the instructor. We wanted to get it done especially since we are using Jody's old car seat, so it's not brand new. Even though we knew the history of the car seat, it was still a good idea to get it checked out to make sure it was still in safe shape for the baby. The good news is that it passed the inspection. We even got props because we are using a car seat "cover" that stretches over the top of the car seat (protecting the baby from wind, rain, snow and cold) Example. Another couple in the class had one that pretty much wrapped the baby up in the car seat, and apparently that is not ok. Example
The instructor said that you really don't want to add anything that didn't already come with the seat. So, because the one we have just goes over the seat, the baby isn't in any real danger. The other one actually fits inside the seat, the baby sits on it, and it engulfs the baby. Not good. So we got props and at least two other couples had already bought the "wrong" one. HA! :)

I think that's all I have to report this week. I hope everyone has a great rest of the week and have a
Happy Halloween!

=^..^=Chloe loves her pumpkin =^..^=

Registry Instructions

Hello from Oregon!!

We are on our way out but I wanted to write a quick blog to let everyone know that things are going fine with us while we are here. I'll write a bigger, more detailed blog when we get home. We have been pretty busy since we got to Oregon on Wed night. My blood sugar has been a little high at times, but I'm sure it's either due to stress or over eating a bit on the carbs. I have been trying to stay hydrated, and put my feet up when I can. Eating has been challenging sometimes, especially my between meal snacks. Otherwise, things are going well.
I wanted to give more information regarding the baby registries (still located to the left of this page). The baby shower invitations have gone out and I wanted to let people know before they started buying off the registries how to use them. Some people may already know, but others don't. If you buy online, it's not a problem. Everything should work out accordingly. However, if you buy things at the store, it's a little bit more complicated. If you are planning on going into the store:

1. Print the registry list at home before you leave. It has a bar code on the top that you will need later. If you don't want to print it at home, you can always go to one of the Kiosks in the store and print it there.

2. Pick the items you want to buy and when you get to the cash register, give them the registry list so they can scan the bar code before they start scanning items. This will insure that the items you are buying comes off the registry so we don't get duplicates.

If you forget to print off the registry, or just don't do it, it's still not a problem. Getting duplicates of some things are fine. Also, if you are OK with us knowing what you bought before we see it, and you noticed it didn't come off the registry list, you can always send one of us an email and let us know what it is. That way, we can take it off the registry manually. :)

Just a heads up on how to use the registry lists. We will be putting up a new name poll when we get home. I hope everyone has a great weekend, and we will be back in Alaska Monday night!

Diabetes/Nutritional Counseling

Talking with the diabetes and the nutritional counselors helped a lot today. When Matt and I went to the pharmacy to pick up my prescription it was a little nerve wracking. I had never had a prescription in such a huge bag before! I didn't want to look all crazy, so we waited until we got to the car before we opened the bag. I got a One Touch Ultra Blood Glucose System (the diabetes counselor later upgraded me for free to a One Touch Ultra 2 Glucose System) plus a box of test strips and a box of lancets (scary needle pricker things). I had to pick up the supplies before we went to speak with the counselors because the diabetes counselors' job is to teach us how to use the system. So away we went to the hospital to speak with them. We met the diabetes counselor, Kandice first. She ran us through the set up of the machine and a little on what Gestational Diabetes means. Before she got too into it, another girl showed up for the "class" with her boyfriend. She also has Gestational Diabetes. After Kandice caught her up, it was time for the moment of truth. She taught us how to load up the lancets, and how to put the test strips into the machine. She gave us tips on how to get the blood flowing to our finger tips, also said that we need to prick the sides of our finger tips and not the tips themselves. Now it was up to us to just do it. Let me say, it wasn't as bad as I thought. Sort of like a TB test. Anyway, the other girl's results came up on her meter sooner because I was trying to figure out how to get the blood onto the strip. Her results were something like 140. Then when mine came up, I was 93! Anything over 120 is bad, so I was doing good today before the appointment!

Talking with the nutritionist was very informative. I'm glad they have a person like that to help because if you would have handed me a bunch of papers full of information, I would have been so overwhelmed. She explained things pretty well. It also helped that Matt was there because I can't remember much anymore, and she said some things that even now I don't remember, but Matt does. This is why I bring him to all this stuff! I thought that I was going to have to watch my sugar intake, but come to find out it's carb intake that matters. So the diet I'm on is pretty strict with carbs but nothing else. I can eat a high calorie food, such as cheese, because it doesn't have enough carbs to count. My days will consist of this:

Blood test first thing in the morning
Breakfast with 2 carb servings
2 hours after my first bite of breakfast I do a blood test again
Mid morning snack with 2 carb servings
Lunch with 2 carb servings
2 hours after my first bite of lunch I do a blood test again
Afternoon snack with 2 carb servings
Dinner with 3 carb servings
2 hours after my first bite of dinner I do the last blood test of the day
Bed time snack with 3 carb servings

I have to eat like this every day.

You might be wondering what a "carb serving" is. Well, it's 15g of carbohydrates. So if you look at a label and see that one serving of the food is 24g of carbs it's almost 2 carb servings. There are some foods that are "free" such as the less starchy veggies like broccoli, carrots, lettuce, etc. Other "free" foods are condiments, mayo, salad dressings, meats, fats, etc. It's strange that in this calories and fat don't matter, but carbs do. The reason why they have one more carb serving at dinner and bed time snack is because, for some reason, pregnant women's hormones go down at night, so we are able to tolerate more carbs.

The whole process is going to be tough, but I know I can do it. I don't have a choice. Matt is helping out a lot with the math side of this. I'm having a hard time figuring out what I can eat and how much. I know it will get easier, but for now it's pretty confusing to me. Tonight I did my first test without a trained professional watching me. Two hours after dinner I tested and I was at 117. I'm concerned that I was too close to 120, but I'm told that as long as I don't go over 120 I'm just fine.

She did say too that I might be going to the doctor more often because of this. The baby will have to be tested a lot after she is born while we are in the hospital, to make sure her blood sugar is normal. Also, she will have to be seen three days after we leave the hospital to check her blood sugar again. I'm unclear right now on what I will have to do after delivery. I might be monitored for awhile still, but overall I should be ok afterwards. The nutritionist told us that she knows women who had GD that ordered every carb on the menu after they delivered their babies because they had gone so long watching carbs. I hope I will be one of those women!! Only time will tell. I will keep everyone updated on how things progress.

Also I added a new name poll, don't forget to vote!!


Here are some pics I took of Matt with Chloe tonight. He decided it was time to start practicing on her for when the baby is born. He has been carrying her around, supporting her neck (much to her dismay) and tonight he put a onsie on her (again, to her dismay)...it was funny though!

The Results Are In...

First the results of last week's baby name poll:


Abigail: 6
Brenna: 2
Taylor: 1
Tiegan: 0
Isabella: 1


We really like Abigail too, so this was a nice surprise to see so many people agree with us :)

After being on the special high carb diet all weekend, I went into the doctors office's lab Monday morning and started my three hour glucose testing. I had my blood drawn right when I got there around 8:00am. Afterwards, they had me drink a bottle of glucola (in 5 minutes this time instead of 10) and rest for an hour. Then they took my blood again and sent me back to the small room with a TV, movies and a recliner for another hour. I spent that time watching the first hour of "The Babysitter's Club" movie while I waited for my next blood draw. Lucky me, the movie got over with just in time for my 4th and final blood draw of the day. Matt brought me a peanut butter sandwich when he came to pick me up knowing I would be starving since I had to fast all night and the whole morning. We were optimistic and spent the rest of the day not thinking much of the results.
This afternoon I got the call from the doctor's office saying that I did fail 2 out of 4 blood draws. This means that yes, I do have gestational diabetes. Sure I'm pretty devastated, but I'm trying to look at the upsides of this situation.

1. It should/will go away after the baby is born
2. I only have a few more months left to go, so I won't have to deal with it much.
3. It will jump-start me into eating healthy again. A habit that was left curbside once I started getting morning sickness and just ate what I could.

So far that's all I have, but I'm sure more will come. The nurse said that she was sending a prescription for my monitor and "supplies" that Matt and I will pick up tomorrow before we go to our appointment to meet with a diabetes/nutrition counselor. I hope all our questions will be answered during that appointment. It's pretty scary to not only have this, but to already have your unborn baby be at risk for diabetes later in life. I'll blog tomorrow with what we learned at the appointment and what I have to do to control this. Also, I'll be adding a new name poll tomorrow too.

We had our first childbirth preparation class tonight. I didn't learn much that I didn't already know. I have been reading books, blogs and websites for months on childbirth and pregnancy so I doubt much will be said that I haven't at least heard of. The instructor went over the anatomy of pregnancy, getting ready for labor, warning signs of labor, the different stages of labor, coping with discomfort and at the very end we got on the floor with our pillows and did some relaxation practice and slow deep breathing practice. My tail bone and hips were KILLING me by the time we had to get on the floor. So needless to say, I was not doing my relaxation stuff. I was just waiting for it to be over so I could practice at home where I would be more comfortable.

Once we got home and ate some dinner, Matt got online only to see a strange email from me. Apparently my email account got hacked...again! So I'm working on trying to do something about my email without changing my email address on top of everything else.
Overall today has been a mixed bag of strangeness. With any luck, tomorrow will be one of answers and confidence. I'll make sure to blog tomorrow night about what we learned at our appointment.

Glucose Screening Test Update

As you know, I had my one hour glucose test on Tuesday. I got a call Wednesday from the office saying that my results came back "high" so I need to go back in to do the three hour test. UGH!! She did tell me that it doesn't mean anything right now, just that I need further testing. So we went into the office today to talk to the nurse and get my instructions for the three hour test while I was picking up my pregnancy medical records for our trip to Oregon. The instructions are for me to be on a high carbohydrate diet for three days before I go in for the test. I opted to have the test done Monday morning so we could get this taken care of ASAP. Starting tomorrow, I'll be on my high carb diet until Sunday night at midnight. My high carb diet will consist of:

Breakfast: 1/2 cup grape juice
                2 slices of toast
                1/2 cup cereal
                1 cup of milk

Lunch: 1 meat serving
           1 potato
           2 slices of bread or roll
           1/2 cup cooked vegetables
           1 banana
           1 cup of milk
           1/2 cup ice cream

Dinner: 1 meat serving
            1 potato
            2 slices of bread or roll
            1/2 cup cooked vegetables
            1 cup apple juice
            1 cup milk
            2 cookies

These measurements are all "at least this amount". They say that if I need to eat more, I can. I can also substitute foods as long as they are still in the same food group. It even says that I can substitute the dessert foods for something else high calorie like cake or pie. I don't think I have ever seen that before. Doctors telling you to eat cake or pie. HA HA!! On the more sad side, this might be the last time I'm able to eat like this for another three months or so.

Anyway, then I will be fasting (only drinking water) after midnight on Sunday night. I have to be at the doctors office in the lab at 8:00am to get my fasting blood draw. Then I drink a bottle of Glucola and wait in the small room they have for me for an hour until my next blood draw. Then I wait another hour for my next blood draw, then another hour for my last blood draw. Not eating the whole time, just drinking water. They do have a special room set up for people doing this and things similar. It has a recliner and a TV and VCR with some VHS tapes, plus I'll be brining a book. I don't know if all this is going to distract me from the hunger I will be dealing with, but I'm optimistic.

Matt will be dropping me off for this one instead of sticking around, I don't blame him! I think I'll have him brining me a peanut butter sandwich when he comes back to pick me up though. I'm going to be starving (possibly even sick from being so hungry) and I don't think I'll be able to wait until we get home to eat.

With as fast as I got the results this week, I expect to hear back pretty quickly again (maybe even Tuesday) about my results. I'll update everyone through the blog as soon as I hear! Wish me luck!!

Glucose Screening Test and New Name Poll

Hello All!

First, let me give you the results of last weeks baby name poll:

Kendal: 2
Lilybeth: 3
Lilliann: 2
Norabell: 1
Paige: 3


Both Lilybeth and Paige will go on to the final round! Thanks to everyone who voted!!

Matt and I came up with (possibly) our last round of names. They are on the new baby name poll to the right. Please vote on your favorite name! If you have any suggestions for us on a name, please leave a comment at the end of this post and tell us! You can always email either one of us, or send us a Facebook message too. We are running out of names and apparently, naming a human is not the same as naming a pet (and we didn't even name Chloe!). If we get enough names, we can post another poll!

Today I had my glucose screening test. We won't find out the results until later on in the week. Even then, they will only call if they found something with the glucose test. They also took another vile of blood for an anemia test, and they will call if they find anything wrong with that. I'll either have to go back in for the three hour glucose test, or if I seem to be anemic, I'll have to start taking iron pills. So if I don't hear from the doctors office by Friday I'm going to assume everything came out fine.
Some of you might be wondering if I'm really seeing a doctor for my pregnancy. The answer is no, I'm seeing a midwife/nurse practitioner. I don't deal well with doctors and I find they don't have the best bedside manner. I always go to nurse practitioners if I can. Anyway, my midwife will be the one who delivers the baby, unless she is not available. Then whoever is on call at the time will. Matt and I have met both midwives and the "real" doctor who work at the office. So we are ok with whoever will be delivering...I just hope it's not the doctor.
At today's appointment, besides the blood testing, we heard the baby's heartbeat. Everything is still going fine. They gave us a packet to preregister at the hospital, and things I can expect in the last few months of pregnancy. I only have a couple more weeks left of the 2nd trimester!!!
Our first labor and birth class is next Tuesday (Oct 12th) and we are pretty excited about it! I can't wait to hear what they have to say about everything. I wish a tour of the labor and delivery wing was part of the class, but it's not. We have to call the hospital to make special arrangements for a tour. We will be doing that in the next month or so.

Before I head off just wanted to thank those of you who have subscribed to the blog via email! It's a great way to stay on top of the blog posts. Just make sure that you click the link you get in your email when you first sign up so FeedBurner knows your authorized. It will insure you get the emails when I post.

That's all for now! I hope everyone has a great week!

Name Poll, Oregon Trip and Pregnancy Update

Hello All!

We hope you are having a great week so far. I wanted to update you on the new name poll I added to the page. In case you didn't see the results of the last poll here they are:

Cadence: 0
Callie: 1
Daisy: 3
Elly: 2
Gabriella: 4

Gabriella was the winner for the last poll, so that name will go onto a separate list that will be included in a "final name poll" later on. It's fun for us to see everyone's opinions of the names we like!!

Matt and I bought our airline tickets last week for our Oregon trip in October. Oregon in October. I'm pretty excited!! I don't know if I have ever seen a "real" fall in my life. Fall here in Alaska isn't very long, and the only colors we seem to get are yellow and brown because of the amount of birch trees. Sometimes, if your lucky, you will see a tree that has red leaves, but not often enough. Our temperature goes from the 60's to the 40's almost overnight, so not much cool weather, just warm then cold. We will be in Oregon from October 20th to October 25th. We have to fly during the day both times because now that I'm pregnant, I get sick if I stay up too late while I'm stressed and nervous. So we won't be in until later in the evening of October 20th. It will be nice to see everyone again :D

On the pregnancy front, things are going good. The baby is more active now than ever. She seems to almost never sleep. Always moving around and kicking. You can see her kicking now if you stare at my stomach, that's pretty interesting! My next doctor's appointment is next Tuesday (October 5th). This is my last prenatal testing appointment and it's a pretty big one. They will be doing the Glucose tolerance test. It will determine if I have gestational diabetes. In a nutshell, I will have to drink a bottle of Glucola (flavored sugary drink) and an hour later they take blood for testing. I'm pretty nervous about it because if I fail the test, I have to do it again but instead of waiting an hour, I have to wait three hours before they can take my blood and I have to wait at the doctor's office. If I fail the three hour, it's pretty clear I have gestational diabetes. Worst case, I will have to watch my diet and inject myself with insulin, just like a diabetic. Best case, I will just have to watch my diet and calorie intake. On the upside, it does go away after the baby is born, but if/when we have another child, I have more of a chance of developing it again. Gestational diabetes is not good for me, but it's really not good for the pregnancy and the baby. It can cause me to go into pre term labor, the baby can get too big for a natural birth and I will have to do a scheduled C-section...it's just all around not a good thing. Overall, we hope I'll pass the one hour test and not have to deal with any of it.
I am officially to the point in pregnancy where I'm hungry all the time. It's getting tougher to control my eating and what I'm eating. Drinking water, juice or milk doesn't help curb my appetite either like it used to. I'm a little afraid of what the scale is going to say at my next appointment.
Lastly, Matt and I signed up for our birthing classes. I'm pretty excited about it, I really am anxious to  learn about the hospital, and what my options are as far as labor, birth and delivery. The hospital I will be delivering at is new to us, we have never been in it before. Everyone I know has had their babies in Anchorage. We will have class October 12th, 19th and 26th. We opted for the three part series rather than the one day class so we have more time to comprehend the information and have more time to ask questions. That's the reason why we are coming back on October 25th from Oregon because we have our final birthing class the next night.

That's it for now. Don't forget to vote on the new name poll. You have until October 6th to vote :D

Have a great rest of the week!

Vote Soon!

Don't forget to vote on our first name poll! You only have until Monday to vote, then we will be posting a new poll with different names :D Thanks to all who have voted!!

Some Q&A

I have gotten a few questions from readers about the blog and I thought I would address them in this post.

Q: How will I know if you update the blog with a new post?
A: I try to email who I can when I update the blog, but I don't have everyone's email address. I did, however, add a new element to the blog tonight. Located on the upper left side you will now see a box asking you to subscribe to the blog with email updates. It took me a bit to figure out how to get this feature, otherwise it would have been on the blog already. Sorry for that delay! All you have to do is enter in your email address and when I publish a blog post, you will receive an email from the blog.

Q: On the name poll, are these the ONLY names you have come up with?
A: Nope! I have been going through baby books/websites alphabetically and what show on the name poll right now reflect the names I have chosen so far. Every two weeks or so I will post another set of names for everyone to vote on. At the end, I will post the "best of" that people voted for to get the ultimate name chosen by everyone. We may or may not use the name, but it's a way to keep everyone involved and get opinions on the names we are looking at.

Q:When will you post pictures of you being pregnant??
A: Now that I feel like I'm showing more than just looking heavier, we will be posting some pictures soon. Well, as soon as we take any. :)

Q:Will you link your baby registries to the blog?
A: Yes! I created links to them the other day. They are located under the subscription box on the left hand side of the page. The links should take you right to the baby registry search pages to search for a registry. You can search with either name. Just keep in mind that the registries are still in early stages and things will change on them frequently for another month or so.

Q: What are your colors/nursery theme?
A: Our colors are green, yellow, brown and yes, the occasional pink. The nursery theme is something of an "enchanted forest" since I will be decorating with fairies that I have collected over the years.

Q: How do I find your previous posts?
A: If you look on the left side of the page under the weather in Wasilla, you will see a list of blog titles that I have posted. If you click on them, they will bring you to each post.

I think that's it for now! If you have a question about the blog let us know and we will address them!

Nursery Updates

                                           Hello All!

We hope everyone is having a nice weekend. Matt and I had another house warming party yesterday afternoon, and we had a lot of fun. It was nice catching up with some people that we hadn't seen in awhile. Mostly friends from Change Point were there. We have had to have a couple of house warming parties because it being summer in Alaska (despite the rainy weather this year) it has been very hard to catch people on a weekend that they aren't busy. I think we are done with them now. Soon it's going to be tough to just get people to come out for dinner because the roads will be snowy.


As some of you know, Matt and I finished painting the nursery Friday afternoon. The Tinkerbell green is...brighter than what I thought it would be. I'm slowly getting used to it now.Unfortunately, pictures just don't show the color the way I want it to. So when you look, imagine the green being a tad bit brighter. Almost neon, eek! Painting stripes was a little more challenging than we thought it would be. Apparently, painting stripes on a textured wall is more complicated than if we had done it on a non-textured wall. Click HERE to see the nursery album.


I figured out this week that what I have been feeling for the last week or so really are baby kicks. Heck, I didn't believe it until one day I was sitting on the couch and actually put my hand on my stomach where I felt it and I felt the kick on my hand! I yelled for Matt to come so he could feel before she stopped. He was able to feel the baby kick for the first time that day last week. You know that we are a tech family because as soon as he felt the kicks, he jumped on Facebook and updated his status to tell everyone he felt the kick. She has been moving around more these days. She moves and kicks quite a bit when I'm hungry, which is an interesting reminder to eat. :)


We don't have too much going on in the next week. It's a good thing because we had a lot going on this past week. Matt will be heading up to Talkeetna to work for a day or so, and I'm thinking about making some vegetable stock to freeze. Chicken stock will be next because we have three or four chicken carcasses frozen waiting for stock. Chloe is being a pest at night, trying to sleep on my stomach, but otherwise she is handling things well. She is afraid of some of the stuffed toys we have been getting from Ashlynn's baby days. Especially the ones that make barking noises. 


Everyone have a great week ahead!!


Stacy Schneider