!!! Answers !!!

!!! Answers !!!

(A response to my earlier post from exactly one month ago called ??? Questions ???

Here are the answers to the questions Dominic and I were pondering ONE MONTH ago today:

? - What time will baby come? Morning? Noon? Night?

I started having contractions around 6am Friday morning. After getting the go-ahead from my OB, Dominic and I got in the van to head to St. Luke's hospital at 1:23pm and were in the ER by 1:45. After passing through triage, I was checked into a room at about 3:30. We got room 336, the pink room, so I knew then that it was definitely going to be a boy. Plus we think it was the exact same room we had William in! They started petocin at 4pm to speed up the labor because I had been leaking fluid for quite a while and was already having regular contractions. It was certain that this baby was going to arrive on Friday the 13th. Landon Dean Krupp was born at 9:03pm after about 3-4 minutes of pushing!

Taken Within 12 Hours of Landon's Birth

Pink Room! Again!

? - Will baby be born on a weekend or weekday? - Pulling for the weekend!!!

Friday night counts as the weekend, doesn't it?

? - Will baby be a June or a July baby? - Aka what birthstone will he or she have?

Rubies all the way! Landon not only made it to his due date of July 7th, he actually flew past it by five days!

? - Will I make it past the 4th of July? - I sure hope so!

Affirmative.

? - Will I make it to my due date? - I'm actually the weirdo who is still pulling for going LATE! Fingers crossed that this baby will be a Sunday baby just like his or her big brother, Mama, and Daddy. :) Or better YET - a Sunday the 15th baby like his or her big brother AND Mama!

Well I definitely made it to my due date, but I didn't get to have a Sunday the 15th baby, despite the fact that my induction was scheduled for 7:30 that morning. (I picked that day bc that was the day I originally wanted, but also to give baby enough time to go on his own.... Which he did! Just like with William, Landon didn't quite make it to his induction date.)

? - Will Dominic be at work 80 miles away when baby comes? - When we had William, he worked in Perrysburg. Even better, he wasn't even working! We went to the hospital over the weekend!

Dominic had decided on Thursday that he was going to take Friday off, so thankfully he was at home all day. I remember there was a moment around 6:30pm when I was experiencing severe contractions that I said to him, "If you would have gone into work today, you would just now be getting home!" Needless to say, I'm so thankful he had the intuition to take that day off.

? - Who will handle William when baby comes? - I know this will just fall together when the time comes.

My Mom was VERY helpful. She came up Friday afternoon around 12:30 and stayed with Will when we left for the hospital. Plus she stayed at our house that night. The second night Dominic came home to stay with Will and she went back home.

? - How long will I be in the hospital? - Fingers crossed that it won't be as long as last time!

It definitely was much shorter! Like I said before, we got there Friday at 1:45 and we were checked out almost exactly 48 hours later. What a whirlwind!

Our New Family of Four

? - Will baby be a boy or a girl? - We have to buy clothes either way, since William's will be the wrong size for the season. Or perhaps baby #2 will just be in a onesie and diaper all summer.

It's a boy! So far, Landon has pretty much been in a side snap shirt and pants. However, thanks to a few new outfits, I think we are pretty good with clothes sizes NB-3 months. Although I'd like to find some 0-3 month shorts! Do they even sell those?


? - What will baby's name be? (especially if it is a boy since we still haven't officially finalized one!)

We named him Landon Dean Krupp and it wasn't even for sure until the night before his birth. Even then we talked about our other options. And even when he was born I still asked Dominic if he was certain on the name! Now I can't imagine it as anything else.

? - How much will baby weigh? - My prediction is that this baby will not be as big as William was.

I was right about him not being as big as Will, but Landon was still a good sized baby at 8lbs 5oz. He left the hospital at 7lbs 12oz and was back to 8lbs 1oz by his first Peds check last Wednesday.

? - How long will he or she be? - See above prediction.

Yep- He was a little shorter than Will at 21 inches exactly.

? - Will this baby be tongue-tied like William was? - Man I sure HOPE not...

One of the nurses from his actual birth originally thought he might be SLIGHTLY tongue tied, and that was probably only because we asked. Since then, no one has thought he is (not even the pediatrician) and I certainly have noticed a difference in his ability to eat. It'll probably take until his Pediatric Dentist appointment to find out for sure, but it doesn't seem to be an issue at all.

William serving as BIG BROTHER!

? - Will this baby be on the bilirubin blanket like William was? - See above statement.

Nope! Praise God! He wasn't even significantly jaundice. He has been a great eater, pee-er, and pooper from the start!

? - Will I be finished with all of my work stuff before baby comes? - Uh, I better!

I feel good about where I left work. I was able to finish cleaning and organizing my room and I was able to meet with my sub and give her all of the necessary materials. I have a few small tasks to accomplish before the kids go back, but I'll probably wait until August to handle that. I'd also like to go to school to go through my orders if possible. That will take until our babysitter is back from vacation so she can watch William, which won't be until early August.

? - Will we have the baby before or after we move? - Preferably AFTER we move, but that's not likely.

We WERE able to move before baby! Thank GOD we were! I can't imagine life if we were just now moving. Originally we thought we'd move last weekend (the weekend of July 20-22) but thankfully Dominic is a doer and decided to get this done over the 4th-6th. We still had about four van loads of stuff to move after we got home from the hospital, but the major items had been moved in a Penske truck during the 100+ heat index over the 4th-6th. We slept here Friday, July the 6th after our BIG furniture move.

Our Moving Truck - GO PENSKE!

I loaded this carload up on my own a couple days over due and a couple of days before I went into labor... in upper 90s heat!

Exploring the New House!

? - When will we paint the bedrooms in our new house? Currently the plan is for Dom to paint sometime around July 4-6. But will we be having a baby then?

Dom's parents painted all day on the 4th of July while his brothers and Kasey helped us move and unpack. My in-laws did an awesome job taping, priming, trimming, and painting the three small rooms in one day. Cathy came back up the morning of the 5th and she and Dom finished touching up, a few final coats, and even did a fresh coat in the Master that we were originally not going to touch at all. I'm glad they did a fresh coat in our room though, because it looks a LOT better!

Painting the Nursery

? - When should I schedule to get the carpets cleaned? - As long as the paint is done this will probably be the weekend of the 7th, but that is my due date... So.... who knows!

The carpets were cleaned the afternoon of the 5th after the rooms had been painted, but before our furniture was moved in.

? - What washer and dryer will we buy? - Leaning towards the top-loaders now that the front-loaders have had so many negative "Mom Reviews".  We're also sort of waiting until we get a nice Lowes coupon in the "change of address" package because we were told by the Lowes worker that you can get that discount ON TOP OF the sale they are currently having (10% off appliances). Not bad, especially once we use our Discover reward gift cards!

After a couple conversations with Lowes employees and reading reviews online, we ended up getting the Whirlpool Cabrio Platinum top loading washer with a glass lid and the same dryer without the glass front JUST in case a kid was to smash and break the glass accidentally. We used Discover reward gift cards, a 10% off Lowes coupon plus a sale price, and then bought the rest of our gift cards at Kroger and Giant Eagle for fuel perks (we got $1.30 off a gallon at Kroger and $2.30 off at Giant Eagle because of this!) I am still figuring out all of its many features, but I've had plenty of time for this bc I have to do laundry about every day!

Day of Installation

? - Will we have our master furniture ordered and delivered early on or put it off until later? - I sure hope it's the former and not the latter. I don't feel like dealing with this once we have a baby.

Yay! We decided on a set and ordered it through a direct company in Michigan that Dominic leases trucks to. Originally we were told it would be delivered Sunday the 29th, but we found out yesterday that it'll be here THURSDAY! I'm so excited bc our master bedroom looks like junk with random piles on the floor and boxes still in the closet and master bathroom.

? - Will William be ok in his big boy bed? - We may find out tonight!  Dom and William are currently on their way to get the new mattress and we are transitioning him tonight in order to to slowly start all of his many changes.

William has done an amazing job with all of his transitions, especially this one. He sleeps very well in his bed; I think he realizes that it is much more comfortable than the toddler mattress. He curls up in the corner of his bed between two walls, which we call his "nook", so I haven't even been worried that he will fall out. I was a little nervous that he'd get upset about the fact that the nursery looks the same (just set up differently due to the room shape) yet it's not HIS room anymore, but he has been FINE with every bit of the bed and room transitions. Thank God!

First night in his big boy room in our new house.

? - How long will it take us to move? We have until early August to move out of our home on Mapleway, so we know we will be fine but we are hoping we can move all of our big stuff in a day or two.  The tentative plan is to move our big stuff the weekend of July 15-17.  Of course that depends on when the baby comes!

Well, like I already mentioned we moved in about three main days and then picked away at small loads for another week and a half. Although we had the keys until early August, we gave ourselves a deadline and the new owner an advantage by getting him the keys last Saturday (the 21st) so he could move in before his family vacation this week.

Cheers-ing at Bob Evans to Our Last Night at Mapleway

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Our Old House, Pretty Much Emptied Out

****************************************************************************************

Ultimately, the days since our closing date (June 30th) have flown by and have been packed full of craziness. We got the keys to our new home July 2nd, painted all of the bedrooms and cleaned the carpets by the 5th, moved in and slept here by the 6th, had a baby the 13th, came back from the hospital the 15th, and handed our keys over to Mapleway on the 21st. This may sound virtually impossible, but I have learned that anything is possible when you're married to Dominic and with our friends and family. A special thank you goes out to Matt McClure for being a furniture-moving beast on one of the hottest days in our area's history. Productivity and hard work is synonymous with the last name Krupp. William would even agree to this and say he can't talk long bc he has "work to do!" Now I am trying to train him that he has PLAY to do. After all, it IS summertime!

Weeding - Both WORK and FUN!

??? Questions ???

I want to document some of the questions that are running through our minds about the logistics of the next 2-3 weeks. And please don't panic, because we aren't!

Here are the questions Dominic and I are currently pondering:

? - What time will baby come? Morning? Noon? Night?

? - Will baby be born on a weekend or weekday? - Pulling for the weekend!!!

? - Will baby be a June or a July baby? - Aka what birthstone will he or she have?

? - Will I make it past the 4th of July? - I sure hope so!

? - Will I make it to my due date? - I'm actually the weirdo who is still pulling for going LATE!  Fingers crossed that this baby will be a Sunday baby just like his or her big brother, Mama, and Daddy. :) Or better YET - a Sunday the 15th baby like his or her big brother AND Mama!

? - Will Dominic be at work 80 miles away when baby comes? - When we had William, he worked in Perrysburg.  Even better, he wasn't even working! We went to the hospital over the weekend!

? - Who will handle William when baby comes? - I know this will just fall together when the time comes.

? - How long will I be in the hospital? - Fingers crossed that it won't be as long as last time!

? - Will baby be a boy or a girl? - We have to buy clothes either way, since William's will be the wrong size for the season.  Or perhaps baby #2 will just be in a onesie and diaper all summer.

? - What will baby's name be? (especially if it is a boy since we still haven't officially finalized one!)

? - How much will baby weigh? - My prediction is that this baby will not be as big as William was.

? - How long will he or she be? - See above prediction.

? - Will this baby be tongue-tied like William was? - Man I sure HOPE not...

? - Will this baby be on the bilirubin blanket like William was? - See above statement.

? - Will I be finished with all of my work stuff before baby comes? - Uh, I better!

? - Will we have the baby before or after we move? - Preferably AFTER we move, but that's not likely.

? - When will we paint the bedrooms in our new house? Currently the plan is for Dom to paint sometime around July 4-6.  But will we be having a baby then?

? - When should I schedule to get the carpets cleaned? - As long as the paint is done this will probably be the weekend of the 7th, but that is my due date... So.... who knows!

? - What washer and dryer will we buy? - Leaning towards the top-loaders now that the front-loaders have had so many negative "Mom Reviews".  We're also sort of waiting until we get a nice Lowes coupon in the "change of address" package because we were told by the Lowes worker that you can get that discount ON TOP OF the sale they are currently having (10% off appliances). Not bad, especially once we use our Discover reward gift cards!

? - Will we have our master furniture ordered and delivered early on or put it off until later? - I sure hope it's the former and not the latter. I don't feel like dealing with this once we have a baby.

? - Will William be ok in his big boy bed? - We may find out tonight!  Dom and William are currently on their way to get the new mattress and we are transitioning him tonight in order to to slowly start all of his many changes.

? - How long will it take us to move? We have until early August to move out of our home on Mapleway, so we know we will be fine but we are hoping we can move all of our big stuff in a day or two.  The tentative plan is to move our big stuff the weekend of July 15-17.  Of course that depends on when the baby comes!


And this was just the short list.  Hence the reason why I am focused on Philippians 4:6 right now.  Worry about nothing and PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING!  Or the verse below from Isaiah - one of my favorite books of the Bible. I know that God is in control, and He is the only one with these answers.  Therefore I am calm and leaving it up to Him!!!

Thank you, Lord, for handling all of these many stress-ers.  I appreciate not having them all on my shoulders.  I am already carrying enough baby weight!

Top 5: The Five Most Uncomfortable Aspects of Being 36 Weeks Pregnant in June

Here are my "Top 5 Pregnancy Discomforts" for the moment:

5. Over the past two days my right side/pelvic bone area has been throbbing after I sleep.  Maybe I am putting too much weight on that side.  Regardless of where the pain originates, I wish my girl Jackie would come up and massage it again like she did in Dayton a couple of weeks ago.  I know, right?  She's such a good friend to me!

4. Being SUPER hungry, but then not being able to eat much at all because the baby is taking up so much room that food doesn't fit... so then I'm super hungry again in 20 mins. 

3. Having to pee 100 times a day... especially in the middle of the night when getting up from a horizontal position has become a chore of its own.  Sometimes it hurts my entire body just to sit up.  Typing that makes me sound COMPLETELY out of shape, but I swear that's not the only reason.  This baby belly is out of control.

2. Shooting pains in the lower pelvic bone.  I actually asked the doctor about this at Thursday's check and he said that these pains were new for me during this pregnancy because my bones are already loosened from the first baby.  (I guess this is better than my thought that being pregnant in my 30s is 10x more challenging than being pregnant in my 20s.  I feel a little reassured that age isn't a factor here, since I am still planning on having another kid and I'm not getting any younger!)

1. The swelling in my feet.  I know that this is the stupidest thing to whine about, but I feel as though when my feet are in pain my whole body is in pain.  I can't even remember what it feels like to wear regular shoes, because my feet haven't fit into anything other than Crocs sandals for about 8 weeks.  I think that my feet are so swollen that anyone with a needle could pop them in an instant.  In addition to the swelling on the tops of my feet, I think the enlarging of the feet PLUS the sandals have callused my feet so bad that now I have tiny razor-blade like cuts all over the sides of my  heels.  These small cuts are like paper-cuts, tiny in nature but extremely powerful and annoying in pain.  I think that wearing socks could be beneficial, but it's too hot for that.  Therefore, my only real option is to shut up and bear it for the next 3-4 weeks.  I have to keep reminding myself that the light is peaking through at the end of this tunnel.  It won't be long now!

I know you were all waiting for me to complain about the heat, but that really hasn't been TOO big of an issue except on SUPER hot days, and the worst part of the super hot days is that my feet are EXTRA swollen.

* Despite all of this, I know that I am super honored and blessed to be able to have this miracle growing in me and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. <3

36 Weeks Pregnant: Update on the Li'l One!

Good evening! Here's the latest on Li'l Krupp.  Honestly, don't get excited because it's not much!

Today was my 36 week check (although I am technically almost 37 weeks along), so the first of my weekly visits from here on out. Wow... it's getting real now!  My OB/GYN office has been extra busy lately because one of the female docs just moved to Arkansas to be with her kids.  That was pretty sad for me, because I loved that doctor.  However, I don't blame her for wanting to be nearer family and I am super happy for her! Anyway, I was supposed to see the doctor who delivered William, but she was called to labor so I was with the only doctor left in the office (the male doctor) instead.  That's really not a big deal because I have been seeing him almost every time I have been there, since the doctor who delivered William has been on her OWN maternity leave for a while.  Needless to say, it's pretty crazy at the office and they should probably hire someone else since they are so busy.  I had to wait for a half an hour in the waiting room, which is uncomfortable when you are mega-pregnant and you have been waiting to pee for a few hours b/c you know you will need a urine sample when you get to your appointment (but that's beside the point).

Anyway, since this story is really anti-climatic I will keep it short.  Basically, I gained two pounds since my last check-up two weeks ago, which I thought was reassuring because before that I hadn't gained any weight in four weeks!  (I have only gained 7 lbs in the past 10 weeks... that's when I started keeping track on my phone, so before then I am not exactly sure how much I weighed.)  The baby's heart-rate is still at boy level, according to this doctor who has predicted boy for the past four visits, and he or she is so high that the doctor couldn't even tell what position he or she is in... so that's it!  No more news!  I actually felt reassured by this because I have been in so much pain lately that I thought baby had dropped and was going to come pretty soon.  It's not that I don't want to see baby, because I definitely do, it's just that despite my pains and the extreme level of discomfort I have been in... I still want to go late.  My goal is to make it to Sunday, July 15th... as unlikely as that is!

I will return for my 37 week check next Thursday morning.  Stay tuned for the next update!

Selling and Moving: The Timeline

People have been asking a lot about the progress of our home sale and purchase, so I figured it would make sense to put together a timeline of events here because I never remember who I told what to and when... and for a while things were being updated by the minute! Now that it is pretty settled and most of what is happening is figured out, I will fill everyone in on the entire process.

January 2012

• After months of talking about it, we decided to put our home on the market. The primary reasons for our move are to have a little more room, a fourth bedroom, and to be closer to things such as our jobs, babysitter, doctors, etc.  Plus we know that we will ultimately move anyway because our home is not big enough for us and we knew we were not going to send our kids to TPS.  Since interest rates are so low, we knew we could get far more bang-for-our-buck this year and since we "gambled" and lost in the housing market when we bought this place (because we bought in 07 during the peak of the market, the year before the crash when we could have got far more for the buck) we figured we should try to WIN with our next place.

• We made a few calls to our babysitter's former realtor.  We decided we wanted to go with him for our home sale.

February 2012

• During the first week of February, we met with our new realtor and determined what would need to be done in order to prep our home for sale.  He recommended a complete roof tear-off (the final project we needed to get to in order to basically have our home completely remodeled), buying bins and binning a lot of our excess "stuff" (as it was apparent that we were outgrowing our home), sanding and painting the rod iron handrails outdoors, putting a hook where the curtain rod to the downstairs storage shelves are just for added support, tear off the Styrofoam that Fred had used to "insulate" the vents in the basement, finish the trim on the front door that was never done, and thoroughly clean the entire house.

• I should note that during this meeting, William was extremely sick. He had two blow-outs while our realtor was here meeting with us and spent the rest of the time with his eyes half-open, watching a movie.  I felt so bad for the little guy.  February was a really rough month for us over-all and we spent a large part of it sick.  I never got it as bad as Dom later did, but I attribute that to the the fact that I got the flu shot and Dom did not.

• By the middle of the month, only weeks after meeting with the realtor, we had a roofer out here and our complete tear-off and replacement was complete. Seriously, when Dom gets told what to do ... it gets done in no time flat. Luckily for us we had a very warm winter, so that conditions for roofing (and the price during the off-season) were unbeatable!

March 2012

•  We began to have second thoughts about selling our home. These second thoughts mixed in from this point in time until the minute we ended up agreeing to a price with our buyer. We are big fans of Dave Ramsey's, and the fact that we had refinanced our home just last year for a 15 year mortgage that theoretically we could pay off within two years was very much a deterrent to buying a new home that costs twice as much (or more) as this one originally did. 

• Due to our second thoughts, we dragged our feet with the selling process.  I had purchased some extra large bins from Big Lots at this time, but I only filled one up with some clothes that William had out-grown. Work was busy for both of us at this time, so we weren't focused on the selling process.Dom kept talking about sanding and painting the rod iron handrails outside, but the weather conditions were not prime for painting, so we didn't do much at all.

•  At the end of the month, our realtor just "happened to be in the neighborhood" and dropped by to see how our progress was going.  It was the WORST possible time for him to randomly drop by (a few days before my spring break, when we had planned on working on our to-do list) and the house was in complete disaster.  We had just finished eating dinner and this time we hadn't even cleaned up the dishes like we usually do.  Dom had said to let them sit so we could play with Will before putting him to bed, because it had become more apparent that William needed some one-on-one time with us.  It was around 7PM when our realtor stopped by, William's typical "winding down" time. With an exciting guest in the house, rather than winding down, William WOUND UP and went nuts.  He was chucking toys everywhere and screaming, "Can you hear me?!?!?!" into his mega phone as the adults tried to meet.  I can't even describe the pure chaos that was going on, but it ended with William yelling, "cash" (meaning "catch") and whipping a toy right into our realtor's chest.  It wasn't something that hurt or anything, but just embarrassing. The time was now like 8:45 and he was WAY passed his bedtime.  I knew the following morning was going to be a nightmare...

• Perhaps it was because of our realtor's random drop-by, but after this visit I was feeling very anxious about the entire for sale process.  I felt totally unprepared, and since I was about 26 weeks pregnant, I began to worry about the amount of time and pressure this would take on our family and my body.  Had we made a rash decision? Either way, we had just promised our realtor to have things ready for pictures by Easter.  Actually, Dominic promised that. I promised the exact opposite:  That there was no way we were going to be ready to have the pics taken in a week's time with work being so busy.  I love my husband, but he thinks in terms of getting stuff done and not in terms of the time we have to do them.

 April 2012

• Things started happening quickly in April.  From here on out, I will try to use dates to show you how close the events happened.

• April 14th - We completed our "Spring Cleaning" and made the house as organized as possible. We finished up the projects our realtor had suggested, except for the one about painting the rod iron railings outside. We still haven't even done that, and now we probably never will...

• Sat. April 21st - Our realtor came over to take the pictures of our home in the morning. (See I told you we would never get this done by Easter!) We also finished signing all of the paperwork for our home sale.

• Sun. April 22nd - After MONTHS of dragging his feet, Dominic finally broke the news to our neighbor that he is close with.  I know he was putting it off because the neighbor was going to be sad.  They have built a great relationship and friendship, and the entire home sale is very hard for us because we don't want to leave our neighbors and neighborhood.

• Mon. April 23rd - We put the sign in our front yard.  Our home was officially on the market.

• Sun. April 29th - We had our first and only "Open House".  We had three couples and one neighbor go through our home.  One of the couples seemed very promising.

May 2012

• Thurs. May 3rd - The promising couple took a second look at our home.

• Sun. May 6th - We went out looking at homes for a second time. This was the day we found the home we ended up falling in love with.  William was even with us this time (this was the only time, the other times he was being watched by either his regular babysitter or our good friend Danielle - thanks to both for all of the support during all of this!)  I'm glad that William was there this time, since we are now buying a home we saw that day.  The house was not one I was even sure I wanted to see at first, but I threw it on the list and when we were there I FELT something.  I specifically even told that to Dominic as we were leaving.  I really do believe that God gives you a little nudge when you find the right one.  The way the home is designed is completely perfect for what we are looking for.  It is not grand or showy, like many of the places we looked at in Perrysburg.  There is nothing wrong with "grand or showy", it's just not who we are at this point in our lives.  It's a large home (over 2400 square feet with a complete basement) but it feels so HOMEY.  The biggest selling points were the fact that the upstairs floor plan feels like it's HUGGING you in a circular motion, there has only been one owner and it was custom built so almost everything is very nice and extremely well-cared for, it's in the township so we don't have to pay income taxes, it's super close to almost EVERYTHING yet it feels a little "removed" from the hustle and bustle of city/town life, and perhaps most importantly it has an awesome, private, good-sized backyard.  As with all properties within our price range in Perrysburg, there is a downfall...you can hear the turnpike because it runs right behind the house. :-( Yet that's most likely the reason for the very good price!  So it's half a dozen in one hand, six in the other... and this home has EVERYTHING ELSE we are looking for.

• May 12 - We looked at homes for a 3rd time, including a 2nd visit to the home we felt pulled toward.  We looked at it longer and more closely at this time, checking for details that we might have glossed over during our first visit.  I took a plethora of pictures.  This home was the first we saw that day, and nothing before or after it ever measured up to the way we felt about this place. Dominic agreed that this was the home for us.

• May 25 - I got a text from Dom shortly after school.  I will probably always remember this, because it was the Friday before exams and I was sitting at my desk finishing up the last bits of my exam.  I saw the message at 3:15.  It simply stated, "Got an offer.  Realtor wants us to call him when we get together today." Instantly I broke into tears. It was all happening, and happening so fast. We would soon be moving away from the first house we ever called home, the place where William grew up, took his first steps, and the only place he knows as "home", the place where we poured our blood/sweat/and tears and remodeled almost EVERYTHING, creating our perfectly designed house.  It was a lot to take in at once.  I cried by myself in my classroom for a good 20 minutes before going down the hall just to cry for another 20 minutes while I was making 90 copies of my 16 page exam.  I know that some people will want to attribute this to the fact that I am pregnant, but it's so much more than that. Many of you know that Dom and I hand-designed and remodeled our entire home with the help of his father and some friends. We feel very tied to the home, and it is challenging and emotional to leave it.  
• Later that evening, on our way to home group, we heard the offer from our realtor.  I felt as though it was a slap in the face, but looking back I shouldn't have taken it so personally.  It's a buyer's market and what this guy did was start a conversation that eventually got us to a point of agreement.  We spent the next few days countering with the guy.

• May 29 - We went out looking at homes for the 4th time (we saw about 20 homes total) and saw the house we liked for a 3rd time. We also saw another house that was new to the market on this day. My realtor and I liked it, but Dom wasn't thrilled. It was a lot smaller on the inside, but the backyard was amazing.  They had a long, fenced-in lot with nothing behind it but a field (which knowing Perrysburg will one day become a shopping center or highway).  They also had a sweet glassed-patio, hot tub, amazing landscaping, and an in-ground pool. Yet there were some features in the house that we didn't like as much and like I already mentioned, it was smaller on the inside than the first home we liked. They were asking the same price as the home we liked, so it seemed as though they were trying to recoup some of their "utopian yard" costs.  Ultimately, we ended our day at the home we were still feeling pulled toward and it felt as though we were kicking off our shoes at the end of the day.  We even said, "Honey! I'm home!" as we entered the front door.  This was the home for us. Earlier that evening, our realtor had given us some really great news... the owners of this home had JUST CLOSED on their new home on this exact day.  As my coworker and friend later said to me when I told her I was looking for a sign, "That's not just a sign!  That's a kick AND a push!"  I couldn't agree more.  God had been directing us to this home since the first day we saw it, and this was to be the home for us. To top it off, we signed the sale papers for our current home at the new home's kitchen table that very night.  Things were set in motion.

• May 30 - The following day, we had agreed to the price we wanted to offer on the home we wanted to buy and we put our offer in.  Up until this point, there hadn't been much activity on this home since it was placed up for sale in January.  However, we were getting word from their realtor that there were two more scheduled showings that week on the house and one was a doctor who was currently in Italy.  We wanted to act and act fast, since there was nothing else on the market that compared to this place in our minds and our budgets.  We spent the next couple of days countering with the family.  We had asked for their kitchen table and television console because it perfectly matches their woodwork, but they initially came back and told us that the furniture was NOT for sale. 

June 2012

• June 2nd - We settled on an acceptable price for the new home.  Fortunately for us, it included the kitchen table AND the television console (which we really needed after agreeing to sell our bookshelves that we built as our current entertainment center with our home.)  Furthermore, our final agreement included their LCD television that was sitting on the console, an amp that is in the console which amplifies the speaker system that runs throughout the entire home (owner's brother is an electrical engineer who custom-wired the speakers throughout the home when it was built), and a large armoire and an older-style tv in their basement!  So I would say we made out ok... less furniture to buy which is great since the baby will be coming at the same time as we are closing on this house.

• June 5th - The buyer of our home had our home inspected.  We are now working on three small issues: replacing a missing spring in one of the master bedroom windows, adhering the electric panel to the siding, and spraying for carpenter ants.  Man, I wish I would have sprayed for the ants a month ago.  They have been driving me nuts since it got warm out!  Now I won't get to reap the benefits of the exterminator. 

• June 8th - We did our inspection on our future home.  Their house is 15 years old, so things are starting to come to the end of their life.  There were some minor problems and a couple bigger ones.  The main concern is a piece of flashing that is missing on one of the spots on their roof which has caused water to get into the garage ceiling.  Additional items to be repaired include the sump pump, the electric box outside, and leveling the A/C unit.  

Where We Are Now

• Now we call for repairs, have things repaired, and wait... Please keep your fingers crossed that everything turns out hunky-dory and that we are able to make a smooth transition on June 29th when we are tentatively scheduled to close on both of our homes.  Side note:  We worked it out so that we will have possession of our current home for 30 days after closing, yet we will have possession at either closing or 5 days after for our new home.

Thank you for your support through all of this. It has been an emotional journey, but we are grateful for God's blessings and we look forward to moving on with our lives and raising our children in the home they will always think of as their "childhood home". 

A Top-Secret Sneak Peak of the FUTURE Krupp Family Residence!

Sex? Sex? Sex?

Baby #2's 20 Week Ultrasound

Li'l One,

GUESS WHAT?  Our due date to meet you is exactly ONE MONTH FROM TODAY!  That is so exciting and I will tell you why:  I love you... but I am going NUTS wondering if you are a boy or a girl.  I have sworn this ENTIRE pregnancy that you are a girl.  Here are the reasons why I am going to stick with this prediction:

1. I have had two dreams about you, and both of them have been that you were a girl.  The second of these two dreams was had sometime between using the restroom around 2AM and getting up at 5AM on my 31st birthday, so I think of this dream as a birthday memo from God.  Unfortunately I don't remember what the dreams were about at all... yet here is a funny story from my pregnancy with your big brother which supports the reason why I believe that dreams tell the truth:

• I only had one dream when I was pregnant with William and he was a boy.  Granted, he didn't have a name... or if he did I still wouldn't tell my Dad what it was after driving over the Cedar Point causeway to attend his first birthday party only to deny his grandparents the right to know his name.  Weird dream, I know... just wait until I tell you about my Ronald McDonald festival and bowling dream... now that one was weird!

2. All of the ring tests have said you were a girl.  Of course your "Uncle Tim" Phillips does these and I think he influences the results, but don't tell him I told you that. In addition the ring tests (which I don't swear by, because they were wrong with William) my coworker told me about this crazy prediction test you could use to tell the gender and THAT came out as you being a girl too. 

• Here it goes: Add the age you were when you conceived and the month you conceived in.  I was 30 and it was October (10) = 40. Odd is boy, even is girl... therefore you must be a girl. This is like Scientific PROOF!

3. Mother's Intuition... I just FEEL that you are a girl.  Shouldn't that count for something?  I knew William was a boy and he was, so I trust my gut and I will eat my words if you are a boy.


Honestly, at this point if I were to HAVE to have another ultrasound for some reason (I've already had three with you) I think I might just cave and have the tech tell me if you are a girl or a boy.  Your Daddy and I are still planning on having three kids, but I am not sure I can wait to find out the sex again after this time around.  I know I only have ONE MONTH to wonder if you are a girl or a boy... but that month seems like eternity to me right now.

Regardless of whether you are a boy or a girl, your Daddy and I love you very much and we can't wait to show you everything there is to see in this big ol'world.  If you are a boy, I hope and pray that your big brother is your best friend... and that you wear approximately the same size clothing so I don't have to get a ton of new clothes.  Hey!  Don't get upset that you are getting hand-me-downs, your big bro got all of his clothes from cousin Zachary and Zachary got a lot of those from HIS cousin... so there.  Not only are you getting hand-me-downs, you are getting hand-me-downs TIMES FOUR! 

Now... doesn't that make you want to be a girl? ;-)

* For the record - Daddy thinks you are a boy.  I had to put that out there so he can tell me, "I told you so" if he's right and I am wrong.  What's his reasoning?  I am not entirely sure.  He just always swears that he is going to have three boys since he was one of three boys.  However, I am always quick to point out that his brother Andy who has TWO kids has TWO daughters.

PREDICT THE BDAY, GENDER, DATE, WEIGHT, and LENGTH OF BABY KRUPP HERE

Email from 11-18-09 - The Birth of William

Here is the email that I sent my family, coworkers, and Masters classmates the first full day we were home from the hospital.  I thought I had posted it on this blog as well, but I see that I didn't. My apologies!

"I can't type much now, but I'll do my best. Here are the basics that everyone is asking about... I'm sure Jan really has been wondering about all the nitty-gritty details, but I'll leave them out.

I had been having mild labor pains all day Friday and finally after timing the early labor contractions at 3-5 minutes apart lasting for about 45 seconds to a minute, we decided to go to the hospital at 2AM. Luckily I showered before we went b/c I didn't get to for a loooooooong time after! :-P

After a really rough 29 hours, I delivered William Elixander at 7:32 am on Sunday, Nov. 15th. Dominic and I were both Sunday babies and our bdays were on Sundays this year, so we think that's pretty cool. Will was 21 3/4 inches long and weighed 8 lbs 14 ounces. Both the OB and nurse on duty said that the longest baby they had ever delivered was 22 inches, so our big boy was almost a record-tier. And I beat Carrie's baby size with Xavier so now I have all the bragging (or complaining) rights! William doesn't look that BIG right now, he's just really long. (Allison, our stories were unfortunately rather familiar! Have pains all one day, go in another day, a deliver a day after that - I think you cursed me when you told me your story - JK!) BTW - William is Dominic's middle name and Elixander is a name that my Mom found in my family lineage while doing geneology. Dom and I both loved the name Eli, but with Elijah being so popular now and that just not seeming like a name we would use we instantly fell in love with Elixander (pronounced like Alexander, but with an "L" sound at the beginning.) It is our hope that since we named William after Dom's middle name that Will will one day name his son Elixander something.... and he can go by Eli if he wants. Of course, you all know me to be the one who has her first grandson named already! Such pressure for poor Will!

BIRTHday Gift from St. Luke's

William Elixander Krupp - Born on 11/15/09 at 7:32am.  8 lbs 14 oz, 21 3/4 inches long

The "only two people per room" rule with the H1N1 virus made the time at the hospital really tough b/c we never knew if people were sitting in the waiting room waiting to visit ... so we'd talk to the people in our room for a long time without even knowing other people were waiting to see us. Due to this rule, we had to tell the same stories over and over when it would have been simpler to have all our guests listen to it once and stay in our room for a while and talk to one another as well as visit with the baby. Instead we were pretty much flooded with visitors from the first minute he was born until the day we left, which was awesome but didn't allow us much time to rest.

Proud Mommy - 11/16/09

Proud Daddy - 11/16/09

So anyway, we were at the hospital until Tuesday evening. Tuesday was the worst day of Will's little life because he got circumcised first thing in the AM, and right after that he had his tongue snipped b/c he was tongue tied, then he had three blood tests done, got immunized, had his hospital pics taken, had his hearing test, and on top of everything else he had to take a bath. :-( The entire day was a huge emotional roller coaster for both Dominic and myself.

We just got home last night (Tuesday evening) at about 5:30. It was crazy to be outside for the first time since Friday night, and it was really bizarre b/c the radio was playing Christmas music so I felt like I time-warped about a month... oh 101.5 The River.... but it was really cool b/c it just made us even more excited for Christmas now that we have the best gift ever. Anyway, we left later yesterday that we wanted to b/c Will had an elevated level of jaundice (his level was 14 and anything 12 or higher is considered elevated... if it was 20 or so he would have had to stay at the hospital) and so he has to be on a Bili Rubin (sp?) blanket. Sooooo we had to wait around because he had to get that blanket set up from a company who brings it in and explains it all to us. Don't worry if you have no idea what that means, b/c I didn't until yesterday, but it's better than having to be under the Bili Rubin lights. So all last night we hung out with our little glow worm and felt terrible for him. So much for playing fun dress-up games and hanging out in the bouncy seat. :-(

Our Little Glowworm - 11/18/09

We took William off of the blanket for a little bit, just so we could hold him better. 11/19/09

Sooooooooooo after our first night at home, we had to go back to get bloodwork tested today at St. Luke's to see if his level had gone down at all. Therefore we were right back at the hospital this morning on day 3 of his life. Sadly, his test results came back even higher, so we have an appointment with the pediatrician tomorrow and after that we have to go AGAIN to St. Luke's for another blood work test tomorrow. This is all so sad, emotional, and overwhelming. I just wish we could enjoy this time at home together on our first day as a family, but instead we went to St. Luke's this am and just got back .... and it's already 3:45. I feel like it was just morning! Added to the fact that we haven't slept much at all.... I have only slept 18 hours from the time I went into the hospital Friday night/Saturday morning at 2:30 AM until today...

Anyway, if you are a praying person please just pray that William's Bili Rubin level is down tomorrow so he can finally be off of the blanket and able to move around more.

I hope everything is going well for all of you."

Father and Son on Day #1 ... This Makes My Heart Melt <3

Six Days Overdue - Patience and Pictures of the Nursery

First, I want everyone to know that I have come to terms with being induced Saturday night, although we still pray that Baby comes naturally on his or her own tonight or tomorrow! I have been having a lot more regular cramping today, but it mostly feels like menstrual cramps so I think it's more of Braxton-Hicks than real contractions. However, my aunt said this could be the beginning of labor so we're keeping our fingers crossed! Hopefully tonight's the night! :-) If not, I am satisfied with being induced and have decided that having this week off has not only allowed for me to get healthy, but it has also kept me away from even more germs I could have picked up at work this week. SOOOOOOOOOO, I am feeling much better today about everything. In general, Dom and I feel like we are ALMOST over our colds/flu whatever it was and Amber and Jeremy are feeling great again ... so it's all good news here! However, I am not sure how my parents are doing. I haven't talked to them yet today.

I made lunch plans with Mandy and Danielle thinking that maybe if I actually made plans something would happen. No such luck, but it was very nice to dine with them on a weekday (something I would normally never be able to do) and see Aiden and Allison. They are growing up so fast! Then Mandy and I went to a couple of stores and did some walking. I started having more and more cramps and Mandy got excited thinking I was going into labor, but I'm still here typing this so no such luck yet!

Since there really isn't anything else new to talk about today, I decided to post some pictures of our nursery now that it's finally as finished as it's going to be before Baby arrives. Enjoy! We're off to dine with Amber and Jeremy who are bringing over a nice casserole dish for dinner! :-)

 

Our crib and bedding.

Thanks to Mom and Dad for the crib, mattress, and mobile.

Thanks to Sarah, Audrey, Emma, and Judy for the bedding.

Thanks to Grandma Schreiner for the crib soother.

Thanks to Traci for the rug!

Our hamper and shelf and bookshelf we had painted.

Thanks to Melissa for recommending Mia Isaacson to me!!!

Thanks to Mia Isaacson for painting the shelf and bookshelf.

Check her work out at www.funkybrushdesigns.com

 A closer view of Mia's handwork!

Note the picture of Baby's grandparents and the ultrasound of Baby at 20 weeks pregnant!

Thanks to Cathy for the Willow Tree figurine.

Thanks to my Masters classmates and a few family members, friends, and coworkers for pretty much filling our Baby's bookshelf.

Our tall dresser and rocker/glider.

Thanks to Mom for the matching lamp.

Thanks to Lisa for the teddy bear.

Thanks to Jessica for the recommendation of the sound machine/projector. It's so cool!

Thanks to Michelle for the matching blanket.

 

Our second dresser/changing table.

Thanks to Michelle for the diaper stacker.

Thanks to Jeanna and Grandma Krupp for the Diaper Genie! (Sorry, we had to take one back but we proibably should have kept it for the downstairs!)

Thanks to all of our friends and family who bought us wipes and diapers!!!

AND OF COURSE THANKS TO DOMINIC FOR ALL OF YOUR HARD WORK IN THE NURSERY!!!! Love you, Babe! And to Mike for carrying the furniture upstairs with Dom and to my girlfriends Michelle, Jackie, and Kim who helped put it all together!

Well, I hope you have enjoyed looking at our Baby's nursery. Hopefully the next time I post pictures there will actually be a BABY in them!

Love to all!

Four Days Overdue - Doctor's Appointment and Frustrations

I hate to whine, but I HAVE to. I just returned from seeing the doctor and having to listen to even more people pour pity over us for not having our baby yet with statements such as, "Don't you wish you weren't here right now?", "Man, I hate to say it but it's sad to see you made it another week!", "Wow... we weren't expecting you." and blah blah blah. I know I am annoyed right now for a plethora of reasons, but why do people have to share every single thought with you when you are pregnant? For over nine months I've been listening to complete strangers talk about if it's a boy or a girl, recall their favorite cravings, and tell me that I've dropped. It's sort of nice to get all of this attention, but most of the time I just want to ask people why they feel like expressing every little detail of their thoughts is important to me... especially when I don't even know them!!! I'm not talking about people I am friends with or related to; I'm talking about complete strangers. I know it's only going to get worse once we have the baby and people want to comment about the baby's outfits, or yell at you for having the baby in the sun (happened to my friend), or touch your little girl's leg at the mall (happened to Dom's cousin) SERIOUSLY PEOPLE - Why do you think you have this sort of "free reign" over babies and pregnant women? I can't even go to the grocery store and get through the aisle anymore without three to five comments flying my way. OK... I am just irritated right now and it's showing in my little rant. My apologies. I'm over it.

* I should mention that I am mostly irritated with this cold & flu season. Dom and I are STILL sick - but we're a little bit better every day, my Mom is feeling a bit better today, my Dad is feeling the same if not worse, and now I hear my sister and Jeremy are ill. Arg!!!!! It's no one's fault, but it's so frustrating b/c I know they all want to be there for us and the baby, and who knows if they will be permitted or not. *

So no real news from the doc except for the fact that the ultrasound could be a pound off either way and that she really doesn't think I'm hiding a baby that's 8lbs 11ounces like they said I was yesterday.  She said she predicts upper 7lbs, which is fine by me. Other than that, I haven't dilated any more than last week and the baby seems to be content staying where he or she is. Sooooooooooooo, we scheduled an induction. Trust me I'm none too pleased, and I'm still praying that the little one comes on his or her own. We could have been induced this evening, but we decided to give the baby a few more days to make his or her grand appearance on their own. Plus, I know this is stupid, but I really don't want our baby to be born on Friday the 13th IF I can help it. If he or she wants to be born that day, that's fine, but I don't want to schedule it that day or tonight (if it's going to take up to two days to deliver once the petocin sets in.)  Instead, we chose to be induced Friday night (so delivery would happen Sat or Sunday) and apparently that didn't work for St. Luke's, so we are going in Saturday night at 8PM instead which mens the baby should be born Sunday or Monday. I guess we could have a  Sunday baby afterall. (Dom and I were both born on a Sunday and our bdays fell on Sundays this year. I just thought we'd have the baby LAST Sunday, not Sunday the 15th!)

Until today I didn't really know much about getting induced, but I learned that I'll have to sleep with something in me for about 12 hours to "kick things into motion" and then the labor process begins. After labor begins, it can take one to two days. Apparently being induced makes labor a lot longer (on average) than a natural birth. GREATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT. Just what I wanted. So, long story short, if your guess on our Baby Guessing Game is either Nov. 14th or 15th you could be our big winner. Thinking about that game, I am not sure anyone guessed those dates. I know Brett guessed Christmas morning as a joke, but at this rate he may actually WIN. Or Marie, who guessed what she called an "outrageous" guess at Nov. 17th just because it was her niece's birthday... or someone else close to her.

Wow, as I type this I am already second-guessing our decision to wait until Saturday to be induced. Perhaps we should have chosen tonight. My Mom is off work Thursday and Friday, so that would have allowed her to come up and visit for a few days. I'm just so confused, lost, frustrated. Dominic and I are not God, and we don't enjoy playing Him. Why should we have the ability to decide when the baby will be born? But on the other hand I don't want this baby to get any bigger than it already is! And of course I don't want to waste any more days of my maternity leave. I don't like this predicament at all. I guess I'll just continue to pray that the baby debuts on his or her own when he or she is good and ready to. Hopefully tonight... or tomorrow.

BTW, I appreciate all of the advice on how to make this baby come see us earlier and I think I've taken about every piece of it that has been given to me... except the scrubbing of the floors. I may end up breaking down and scrubbing them tonight, but it is seemingly THE most uncomfortable and undesirable thing to do right now at almost 41 weeks pregnant. I took a 45 minute walk this morning, and I suppose I'll take another one tonight and tomorrow morning.

Until tomorrow . . .

Three Days Overdue - H1N1 Drama and Fourth Ultrasound Today!

Well, well, well, here I post again as a childless mother.

I am feeling pretty downtrodden right now about everything. Not just because I am spinning my wheels and wasting my maternity leave, but because of this entire H1N1 scare. I had thought about getting the H1N1 vaccine for quite some time, but there hadn't been a clinic I could attend until Oct. 24th, two weeks before my due date. When I called the doctor about going to it, he said to wait it out because he was concerned about potential side effects and thought it was too close to my delivery.

Then I started getting a bad cough two Sundays ago (Nov. 1st) when Dom's parents and grandparents were in town and by the time they left, I felt absolutely lousy. I battled an "elevated temp" for a few days, called the doctor on a few different occasions, and took a lot of Tylenol Cold to make it through my last three days with my students and then parent/teacher conferences which were last Thursday and Friday. I started feeling a bit better on Friday, but by then Dom had come down with whatever it was I had (I am still calling it a nasty head-cold, but with 22% of the students at one of our elementery schools sick and 18% of our students at the junior high... who knows what it was.)

My due date came and went on Saturday the 7th without any fanfare. This was also the day after that the news announced the death of the mother who delivered her twins and then died a few days later, most likely from H1N1. Now I was potentially only hours away from delivery and hadn't protected myself or my baby. Fortunately, I saw that St. Luke's hospital was going to have a clinic on Sunday afternoon. So I called the doctor's office again and this time a different doc was on call and he strongly urged me to get the shot no matter HOW close I was to delivering, even despite the fact that it was the day AFTER my due date. So Dom and I went to the hospital and stood in a line behind about 2,000 people. It was the nicest day I can ever recall in Nov. (70 degrees!!!) so that was fine, but it was EXTRA special that after about an hour's wait the pregnant women were sent to a "backdoor" entrance to get priority shots.... yes, there are many pluses to being a pregnant lady!!! So although we should have had to wait for about 4 hours or more, we were in and out in an hour and forty-five minutes. It was SO NICE! Dom and I were still sick, but we didn't have a fever so they allowed us to get the shot. I felt better about protecting my baby, and I thought that would be the key to going into labor ... as if the final puzzle piece was in place. No such luck!

My parents came to visit us Sunday evening and they didn't stay too long, but by that night my Mom was ill and she felt worse Monday (yesterday). Today she stayed home from work and reported my Dad was getting a cough. Here I am feeling the best I've felt in over a week and thinking the baby was just waiting for Dom and I to get better when BAM! now my parents are ill. Perhaps we gave it to them, or perhaps my Mom got it at work like she thinks she did. Either way, my heart goes out to her because she is terribly worried she will not be able to visit us whenever the baby finally comes since the hospital rules are so strict now. I can't fathom the sadness one would feel if they were unable to see their first grandchild on the day of his or her birth, so I am so sorry about my parents' illnesses and my heart is breaking for them both. I was thinking that the baby really wanted to wait until we were all better, but at the rate of this disease spreading throughout my entire family and the fact that it takes so long to overcome (I am STILL battling it 9 days later and so is Dom who RARELY gets ill) that I am starting to think that baby wouldn't be able to come out until springtime ... and we can't have that!

So now I'm left with the inducing dilemma that I am certain to be presented with tomorrow at the doctor's appointment we have scheduled (if we don't have the baby between now and then.) Do I go through with it and spend my maternity leave with my baby instead of sitting around WAITING for the next few days or WEEKS? Or do I just give it to God and trust that the baby will come when he or she is good and ready and everyone is healthy enough to see him or her... but possibly waste a good 5-10 of my maternity leave days? It's such a Catch 22. The timing of all of this couldn't seem worse, but I do know that God does have a plan for us and that it will all work out in the end.

We were scheduled for another ultrasound today at St. Luke's, which was nice but we wish we would have already had the baby instead. I thought it was interesting that they now have a "Well Waiting Area" and a "Sick Waiting Area" so I took a picture. I decided since we were coughing into our elbows when we walked in the door, we would have to sit in the "Sick Waiting Area" but then I wondered - how often to they clean these sick chairs? Ewwwwwww....

If he looks sick, it's because he is.

First we did the regular 2-D pics. Our ultrasound tech informed us that the baby is measuring around 8 lbs 11 ounces, which is FAR MORE than both Dom and I weighed at birth, with a head-size of 9.77 centimeters - YIKES!!! Hence another reason for my hesitation to wait for the baby to be born on his or her own - how much larger will it get? And I really, really, really do NOT want to have to have a C-Section if at ALL possible. And yes, I know, the ultrasound measurements are not known to be extremely accurate, but what if baby is BIGGER than those measurements??? EEEEEEEEK!

St. Luke's is just starting to play around with 4-D technology, so after she got all her necessary measurements from the 2-D images the tech had us work with her for about another 1/2 hour to get some practice in with the 4-D machine. Baby's hands were in his or her face most of the time, so the pictures aren't the greatest, but they are still cute. If you have never seen 4-D ultrasounds before, they are a bit "alien-esque", so I'll warn you now!

Check out that thumb in his or her eye!

See... he or she wasn't cooperating. The hand is in front of the face.

 

 He or she was probably sleeping. Lazy baby, come on out and play with us!

OK, well that's all for now. I am off to make some homemade chicken noodle soup for Dom and myself.  If you are a praying person, please please pray for the health of our baby, my parents, and even us. And throw in a prayer to get this baby out of my womb ASAP! :-P Love to all!