Not so daily, but still here!

Speed Demon Dominic

2011-01-27T15:00:00.000-08:00

Dominic is a fairly cautious kid. He's not crazy at the park like trying to leap or walk across things that are too tall for his age. He is generally Mr. Careful when climbing at home and performing tasks that could cause injury, but the kid just loves speed!

Now I shouldn't REALLY be the one posting this because I wasn't even there, but I'm grabbing the opportunity to use the video and somewhat re-tell the story.

My Mom takes Dominic every Tuesday so that I can work. I usually drive him out to her house and then pick him up in the evening (there or at the library in RR). It's an all day event. Alex gets to come visit too because Robyn (his moma) works in RR for a couple hours twice a week. Lately, Robyn and Mom have been taking the boys on adventures after Robyn is done working (usually by 10/11am). This week they went to the Bear Creek "Castle" Park. One of the few parks left around here with cool wooden castle-like structures. Apparently they also have a TON of great wide paved walkways that make great bike paths for the boys. They rode their bikes forever on them.

Dominic LOVES to ride VERY FAST down hills. He gets VERY into steering, like weaving back and forth. He's so funny to watch. He acts SO in control leaning his body left to right just perfectly to get a slow turn without spilling. These bikes are NOT the best down-hill bikes - next time I should send him with his "low-rider" (Big Wheel) and definitely a helmet!

My mom said everyone in that area was staring at him careening down this hill with fear in their eyes like oh boy, he's going to eat it big time! ... and he did. Ha-Ha. But he didn't ball his eyes out or anything. The way my mom described it was that he crashed, poked his head up and his hate was pulled way down over his face (whew, no face injuries or missing teeth or teeth-through-the-lip) and dirt up his chin.

His response, "Let's do it again!"

13wks - Ultrasound

2010-12-02T10:29:00.000-08:00

I wanted this to be a little more exciting but I also didn't want to take 2wks to post about it. I have a really adorable DVD of the entire ultrasound too, but I have to take the time to edit and load it online, which I don't have time for right now. So you're left here with some blobs and a profile shot of our little peanut. :)

I am currently 13-weeks along. The baby is about 3" long. Our due date keeps kinda creeping closer to May instead of June, but not enough to change it officially. At both ultrasounds they have measured it sooner than later. Babies will come when they come though.

The top 2-shots are 3D. If you click on the image it'll be a lot larger to see the details. The top one is sort of a "left side" view with it's hand balled up by it's face. The second is an almost direct shot straight on. Head, fists balled up around the nose, mouth and eyes, forearms and elbows - then tummy. The last one should be an obvious profile shot with a vague balled up fist by the face. :) SO CUTE.

The DVD is great because it's doing a lot of wiggling and kicking. Dominic was always very still-sleepy with lots of hiccups every time we caught him on the camera.

We got a lot of compliments from the sonographer that it was very easy to photograph our baby. Very photogenic she kept saying. lol She's a cute lady. I hope we get her for our gender appt in January.

So that's it for now, I'll try to get that DVD up by next week. It's really worth seeing!

I'll be the only one next year

2010-11-10T11:26:00.000-08:00

So if you haven't heard via 3rd party or seen on facebook or gathered from Robyn's latest post, yes, it is true, I AM PREGNANT. :) Anyone shocked? We are umm... 10wks I think this week. So still in the first trimester, but we wanted to share.

We had our first appointment and ultrasound at 8wks and told everyone at the end of the week on Halloween because that's when most everyone was going to be over. I started popping out that week and it was showing too much as it was. I feel little ridiculous popping out so much this early, but I can't do anything about it I guess. I seriously feel like I'm 4mos pregnant some days. It seems so silly. I have also heard that many people "pop out" sooner with pregnancies after the first. I thought maybe I was just fatter than last time so it is making me look bigger (?), but we actually had a "twins scare". LOL Which would be just our luck!

I decided to use a completely new office and new doctor this time around. At our 8wk appointment (which was a Monday), we expected to go in and get to see the ultrasound and all so we dragged the whole family (John and Dominic) along - big mistake. We found out that their office only does ultrasounds on Wednesdays - ugh - which was fine, I should have found that out but I think I assumed. The last office we went to is bigger and does them whenever they want. I still like the Dr and office so I'm sticking with them. So poor Dominic and John had to hang out for an hour so that I could get the preliminaries out of the way - Good thing John is an awesome daddy and didn't make Dom stay in the aapt room, they went adventuring to the elevator. Live and learn right? Probably not. Anyway, to my point...

The Dr. "checked me" and commented that my uterus was bigger than it should be for how far along I was. Now to go back a little on how I couldn't possibly be any further along - John and I finally had a serious talk about having ONE MORE kid (that's right, this is our last, don't assume or ask if we're having any more after this one. lol). We had that talk on Sept 7th and I guess that "talk" turned in to a baby asap. LOL Not to brag about how fertile or lucky we are. We actually have a hard time telling people this because we know MANY MANY people around us who have had so many trials and hardships with pregnancies or getting pregnant. We DO feel extremely lucky. Anyway, so the Dr kept drilling me on twins in the family details and such. I'm sitting there thinking, seriously? Is this really happening? I'm sure Fiona & Zach will protest, but to me, the IDEA of twins is cute and adorable, but the actual taking care of twins is a nightmare to me - considering that I like my career of being an artist and designer as well and I already do it a minimal amount.

So we sweated bullets and didn't even talk about the possibility of us having twins on Tuesday then came Wednesday and the ultrasound showed ONE. ONE SAC, ONE BABY. hah. phew. I just have a lot of fluid in my uterus, which isn't necessarily a bad thing I'm gathering at this point. So that helps me settle with my popping out issues. LOL

So that's as exciting as it gets right now on the whole, "we're pregnant" announcement. So far, we are the only ones having a baby that we know of, next year. Everyone and their mother had babies this Fall. It might be kind of nice being the only one I suppose.

I have been extremely ill for the past month. OK Not compared to Robyn or other girls I know. I've been nauseous ALL day (heaven knows why they call it "morning" sickness). I have only puked once or twice - you know you wanted to know that. hah. Robyn on the other hand routinely pukes for 5mos. So I figure I don't have it that bad. I had a weird dizzy thing for about a month but it seems to have left, thank goodness. It made it hard to focus. It was like my eyes were cross-eyed all day. Mind you, I didn't have any of these symptoms with Dominic.

Girl or Boy? We find out officially in January. I don't have a date yet. At this point, I am supposed to go see the local specialist who deals with scary pregnancies. I have to keep tabs with the specialists office so that they can keep an eye on the baby and keep me informed about what could be necessary if my Rheumatoid Arthritis flairs up (medications wise). So far, my Rheumatoid has gone down, my RA Dr says it can go either way and it's unexplainable. So I'm hoping it stays down. Wow, I'm good at going off topic. So ANYWAY - I will most likely do my 20wk ultrasound for gender (for us) and to check out the baby's growth and insides etc with the specialist. I guess the positive to that is that we get to see it all in 3D. :)

I am betting that we are having a girl. John and I had always wanted another boy, since Dominic is soooo utterly awesome and he'd probably love a brother (as well as a sister, I'm sure), but I've recently started doing more sewing and crafting and well, now I really want a girl. I think also knowing that we are ONLY having two kids makes me not want to miss out on having a girl. Hey, I can hope. John and Dominic are a lot a like and they team up on me - need to even out the teams! hah.

OK so I REALLY think it's going to be a girl because of being so sick and opposite Dominic's pregnancy (I've known too many people with the same scenario and had those results). Also, the ultrasound tech fed in to this by telling us that it's heart beat was really fast which could imply that it's a girl too. Don't worry, she didn't just blab this, she asked politely if we were planning on finding out the sex. I won't be disappointed if we have another boy. Dominic is a terrific kid and if I had two of him life would be a breeze! I hope if we have a girl, she's just as mellow.

So there's my novel for the week! I'd post more ultrasound pics but they're not super clear. 8wks is pushing it for doing an external ultrasound. She almost thought she'd have to do an internal one, which I was sorta hoping she would because she said the pics would be much clearer. Just a blob for now.

I hope you didn't fall over from all the reading. LOL I type uber-fast. OK back to work!!

Side note. Sorry I forgot to mention our due date is currently June 5th 2011. :)

Dead Battery = Running to Day Care, Literally

2010-10-15T11:43:00.000-07:00

I realized after my other post that I actually did have a quick funny story that just happened this morning.

My latest goal for working out has only been maintaining some sort of physical activity. Sadly, for reasons here and there I'm not signed up for any big races nor have ANY except for the Portland Marathon NEXT October (2011) in mind. We plan to do the Turkey Trot around Thanksgiving again though. It's a minor fun run. I'm going to do the 5k with Dominic. John will do the 8miler. Anyway.... just a little side story on my activities agenda. This week I have been lazy, but this morning was forced to be active...I posted this along with my morning run...

So I have had a little run/activity fail this week and this morning decided I did not feel like running at all and convinced myself I didn't have time any way (in order to get Dom to daycare on time). So we get loaded in to the van, ready, set - nothing. ah, yes, when you leave the key in the ignition with it half-turned over night, yes, the van will be completely dead the next day. :( So dominic thinks I've lost the key's because that's the only way a van won't go right? He's helping me with ideas saying they keys must be inside the house, "Go in the house mom. The key's are inside." very confident and knowingly for a 2yr old. lol. To make matters sillier - I guess, or at least I couldn't figure it out, a Toyota Sienna back hatch will not open unless you have power(?) - I thought that maybe it was locked but apparently the lock/unlock switch will also not work with no power - these seem like scary safety issues, but maybe I just don't know how the van works.

Anyway, the jogger was in the back of the van, so I had to get back there and haul it through one of the side doors. Dominic in the meantime had discovered that I certainly had keys (when I grabbed them assuming the back hatch had at least a key hole to open it with - nope) and kept telling me that they were "right there mom, there's the keys. Make the van go". HAH. I guess you might've had to have just be there. He puts really great tones and emphasis in to everything he says.

So therefore that is how we ended up jogging to day care this morning. I'm glad I did. It felt good, I've been a lop all week. I snuggled him in to a blanket, he had fun. It was probably in the high 40's. Cold, but not too cold like Wednesday morning when it was in the low 40's. Now since John is at work until 5 (when I pick Dominic up), I must jog back to get him. Ohwell, it'll help me catch up on my miles this week.

My weekly goal is 10 miles. If I go at least 2 miles every day of the week it makes this goal easy. Day care is only 3 days a week but I can double some days and we usually do a family run on Monday's. Since you wanted to know all those great details with no entertaining pictures. :)

Negligent

2010-10-15T11:06:00.000-07:00

I need to start posting again and I've got a trillion things I could post about, but where do I start? I think I'll just start where we're at and if I get to all the things that happened between May and now, well, then you're lucky. hah.

I swear I'll be back on the blogosphere more. Between Sam & Emily getting married and being pretty involved with that, and work and camping and well, SUMMER, I just haven't had the time or made the time at 1am to make a post. LOL

But seriously, between managing work and family and my extra endeavors for artistic projects, I just haven't had extra time. Exciting for me though, I just re-designed my business card which I haven't done in a few years - I'm getting a TON of work and having a hard time saying no. :) You would think that working from home would be so much more flexible, and it does have it's times, but most of the time I'm swamped and over-deadline. Probably mostly my fault.

Anyway... I'll post something more interesting by the weekend. :) Just telling everyone, I'll try to be back!

Eugene Half Marathon 2010

2010-05-04T12:17:00.000-07:00

I'm short on time these days but catching up. Just wanted to share that John and I completed the Eugene Half Marathon this past weekend. We had so much fun!

We went without Dominic, meaning he had his first overnighter somewhere else. He got to have a sleepover at Alex's house. He hung out with Gramsi all day and then got to go play with Alex and have dinner and go night-night there. He also got to go to church with Auntie Robyn and Uncle Paul and buddy Alex. He did fantastic. Ask Robyn and Paul and he couldn't have done better. That's very promising! We will be leaving him again in June for our 1/2 Ironman at Pacific Crest. Here are our results:

Dominic Climbing a Chain Net

2010-03-17T09:35:00.000-07:00

I recorded this from my iPhone maybe back in Januray? Not sure. This was only his 2-3rd time climbing this and then he did it all by himself. He's a wiz at it now.

I realize that I should flip the video but I uploaded it via my iPhone to YouTube and don't have time to flip it. So deal. :)

My Bubblegum Bike

2010-03-16T23:32:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know, John and I are training for a Long Course Triathlon (Half Ironman) this year. The race we picked is the Pacific Crest Triathlon. It will be on June 26th in Sunriver (Bend), Oregon. The distances include: 1.2mi Swim, 56.3mi Bike, 13.1mi Run

John and I rarely get to work out together between our work schedules and Dominic schedules. We did the Olympic Distance (1.5k Swim, 28mi Bike, 10k Run) in 2007 and had more opportunities to work out then even though we both worked out of the house. I will say it's much more challenging with Dominic around.

So Monday - and to my point - John and I got to go out for a 25 mile bike ride - OK, I mean a planned 25 miles. Dominic was down for his nap, the sitter was at the house, it was a gorgeous day...we headed out! Not 9 minutes and just under 2 miles out, my tire blows up. Not just a flat, no, my tire literally got sliced which made it un-bikable. We laughed at the chance that I got a flat so soon and laughed harder at the fact that it was un-fixable. What can you do in this scenario?! So I got to sit out in the sunshine while John blasted it back to the house to grab the car. I am thankful that I was riding with him and that it happened so close to home. I hardly remember how to change a regular tire, I probably would have tried and blown another tube.

So John picked me up and we headed to the bike shop (Cycle Sport). We both needed things done to our bikes aside from me now needing a new tire. We still have the stock tires on our bikes from 2007 so we ended up replacing all of our tires. On top of that, I had some gear issues and my trip computer was not working (just a battery issue) and then there was the torn up bar tape from the great attack of the Monsters in the Garage of '07 that I finally got to get fixed. I got to pick out my own color! Now, I could have gone with the original black, but they had this fabulous PINK! I realize it doesn't match my bike at all, but I think it adds some fun. My saddle back has ripped - the rubber has separated from the base in one area, but the rest of the bag is in good shape so maybe I'll use a tire-repair glue kit and fix it, during which maybe I'll add a cute coverlet with some scrap material that has some pink colors. LOL That would tie it all together. They also carry pink bottle-cages but that would be silly to replace perfectly good ones. John was laughing at my color choice, but I thought of a great reason for doing it - I will certainly be able to to pick my bike out of the hundreds on the rack at the triathlon. :)

All in all, it was an expensive day between the sitter, bike shop and we went out to lunch while waiting for the repairs. But we got a date out of it and it worked out fine and was essentially necessary for tune up's and fittings. I can't wait to ride with my new flashy handlebars! I feel like I have bubblegum strapped to the handles. haha.

Menu Please

2010-03-12T13:22:00.000-08:00

I've started making Dominic a sort of Menu Book so that he can pick out what he would like to eat and eventually use it with reading. It's a fun little project...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Easy Breakfast: GF Oatmeal

2010-03-08T11:46:00.001-08:00

Gluten Free Steelcut Oats are thick and don't cook as gummy as regular oats. I didn't really like them the first time I cooked them up, but first, I don't think I cooked them long enough. They need to cook for at least 10 minutes.

Anyway - while boiling the water for the oats, cut up an apple into about 1/4 chunks. Alternately, you can shred the apple and add it to the cooking oats. I have done both and much prefer to have the chunks.

So if you shredded the apple, you're done with that part. If you chunked it, toss 'em in a pre-heated non-stick skillet and brown the sides. After they're browned, add it to the cooking oats. Then toast some plain, raw walnuts and chop them up fairly small (optional). I liked them roughly chopped in my "mincer/chopper" if you want them whole, go for it.

Add the walnuts to the oats. Finish cooking. After dishing up, I added about a teaspoon or less of agave. The apples made it sweet enough for me. Enjoy!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

John's Blog

2010-03-05T14:33:00.000-08:00

Many of you may not be aware, but John actually has a blog. He writes really well. He's done a couple of catch-up posts and they're really great. I wanted to share... http://jbermea.blogspot.com

note: his blog was originally set up for him to use for work purposes but it also contains personal life things so I think I'll change the theme around a little bit. I'm his blog designer of course. hahah. I will try to get to this over the next few months. Just mentioning in case you were wondering why there were cars and a big intro on the side. We put the link in his newsletters.

My Gluten Free Story (also great resources links)

2010-03-05T14:27:00.000-08:00

I had posted this on our cooking blog, www.serendipitykitchens.blogspot.com but thought I would also share it here for the sake of updates on our lives. It's lengthy - there was no route around that.

This is an excellent article my broher, Ben shared with me regarding Celiacs Disease. Very simple and straight forward read (symptoms, diagnosis and info). Kind of cool to have a ".gov" resource like this. Meaning it is acknowledged "officially".

Hypothyroidism and Rheumatoid Arthritis are just a couple of SYMPTOMS of a gluten (and other food) intolerance. instead of bulking up on drugs, why not look at your diet. I'm determined to do this. Currently looking for a Dr and/or naturopathic physician to give me the test - I don't want just anyone though. You should be selective of the dr. doing the test.

Why am I posting this? I guess I would start here...

My Personal Story on my "Medical Journey", as short as I can explain it... which probably won't be very short. I have been going to a specialist for about 4 months now for chronic pain in various parts of my body. With what initially started out as a self-diagnosis of Plantar Facetious turned into a beast of a medial journey.

The plantar facetious (to which I will refer to as PL now) idea originally stemmed from the fact that I had just finished the 2009 Portland Marathon. My first marathon (completed in 4:29 so not bad!). I did about 4-6 months of training and extensive running for this. Problems in my feet started earlier in the year but I chalked it up to running too hard in the beginning. The funny thing was that my feet did not hurt while running (which with PL is supposed to be excruciating to run with). Also, my pain was generally in the frontal area in the ball of my foot centralized around my pinky toe-joint; PL is most commonly located in the heel and arch. My foot (started in my left) hurt excruciatingly to walk around the house but would ease up after a few hours and then only hurt minimally. I would wear my crocks everywhere which sort of helped. Putting weight on my feet in the morning was the worst. I looked like I was walking around on glass or nails (and it felt like it I guess in those areas). I will attest to having a a high pain tolerance, I'm not bragging, I just do and I know it. I think I have tended to just get used to being pretty miserable (body aches) over the past 10 years and just deal with it. I never really thought something might be wrong with me.

So back to the medical journey. I would like to mention that I think I am a very lucky person and that I have a lot of resources already that are getting me through my "mystery medical journey" a lot faster than most people would have. I believe if I did not have any of the resources I have to help me out, they would either stay miserable and/or be stuck on drugs their entire life.

My resources pertain to my most basic family food allergies and medical conditions from my mom and brother and sister - not even mentioning recent things with extended family members from my mom's tree. We all seem to have similar issues of some combination with food allergies.

Before I get into the food allergies, I'm going to mention my journey from where I left off after the Portland Marathon because it might be important to someone, someday also trying to figure out their problems.

This entire year, 2009, I had started having a lot of on and off issues in my hands, wrists, forearms, shoulders. I chalked it up to doing a lot of computer work (I am a graphic designer / web developer www.mollybean.com)over the years, thinking I was getting carpal tunnel or something. Afraid any doctor I went to would tell me I needed surgery, I avoided actually going in. I am very mistrusting and afraid I'll get the wrong doctor. Then one morning I woke up with the inability to use my right arm. The wrist and forearm hurt excruciatingly - so bad I was in tears. I couldn't lift my son, couldn't lift my own arm because the weight of it moving hurt so bad! My regular doctor could not get me in until 3 days. Umm... lame. It started going away the next day and gradually left. I cancelled the appointment because it was gone by the time I was going to go in which seemed stupid to try to diagnose anything when it wasn't at it's worst. So months go by. Every now and then during the year my hands and wrist would get achey and inflamed but never as bad as that one time. In the meantime the feet thing just became used to, just something that happened daily.

After the marathon my body started quickly breaking down. Everything just started going downhill fast. The "L" of my hands (see picture) on both sides swelled up, the joints hurt so bad to move (typing and clicking mouse = OUCH). I decided to take a couple months off, which turned into 4 1/2. It hasn't helped much - in fact, my right foot pain started AFTER I stopped running.

Initially, when I decided I wanted to do SOMETHING about it, someone on twitter mentioned a process called, ART (Active Release Techniques) which is pretty popular at Ironman races and Triathlons. So I looked someone up close by. The options were Mt. Shasta (1 1/2 hrs away) or Eugene (3 hrs away). I met with Janet Biondi in Shasta a couple of times. I convinced myself it was doing something, it wasn't. I stopped going more for weather and it wasn't covered by insurance. Costs were $60/hr. A procedure basically billed for 1 hr each time. Plus my gas and time off work to go there. So I made an appointment with a specialist.

I am currently with Ventana Wellness, seeing Dr. Karl Osborne. I like his overall method of solving the problem. His personality on the other hand has to grow on you.

Original diagnosis of my overall pain factor was that I am borderline Hypermobile. Which means you are more flexible than the average bear and that my running a lot resulted in an overuse of my joints combined with high arches and a sway-back and that I should get $500 orthotics made for my shoes (basically a custom mold arch and foot support). I wanted to let this sink in before schilling out the dough and we supplemented with over-the-counter orthotic flip-flops which initially have helped ease the pain from excruciating to just medium most days, but it is definitely still there and I don't believe a custom orthotic would solve the problem fully.

Going down the story-line a bit further - Dr. O is known a procedure called Prolotherapy. It's a sugar-water injection into the joint. Read the link. At the time I was having insane headaches almost every week. I did not describe them as a Migraine specifically because I always believed migraines made the person sick to their stomach and I just felt like my head was going to combust. I was mostly functional except for one time that just broke the camels back. It felt like some claws were gripping the base of my neck and wrapping their fingers around the back of my skull. I orginally had an appointment to try the prolotherapy on my hands they hurt so bad,b ut after that weekend I changed my session to my neck and shoulders. This can take up to 4-5 procedures to get a result by the way. The photo looks gruesome but believe me, it didn't hurt that bad. Felt like I had strained some muscles for a couple days, that's it. Without going into Prolotherapy too much, overall, I did this twice so far and just cancelled my next one - why - because I stopped having the headaches. My neck and mainly shoulders still hurt a bit but so does my entire body and I don't want to think I need prolotherapy on every single joint in my body. A red flag that that is not the answer - although - I don't have any headaches so I will say that it might have helped in some way.

In the meantime, Dr. O started in on some blood tests to figure out if I had any Arthritis and/or Autoimmune Disorders. His main ones were Lupus and Fibromyalgia which have both been ruled out. Labs screwed up my tests initially so it's taken like 2 months between appointments and blood draws to get an answer. I see another doctor in the office for regular girl stuff and (side not, found out I was 2x negative on vitamin D - another story) Dr. O had piggy-backed my Rheumatoid test on her blood work so I accidentally found out before meeting with him that I basically have Rheumatoid Arthritis. This sucks! But it's an answer to everything and will actually make everything better I hope! I'm over the hump of not knowing.

From here, I talked to my mom, who is self-diagnosed gluten and corn intolerant (the short story on her). I want to say that I have been trying to, but not too seriously, be gluten free to see if I feel any different (even before all these issues). I'm always tired and feel prettymuch crappy without my added current conditions.

My mom found this article about arthritis and gluten and food allergies related to Rheumatoid on Celiac.com. An excellent website for information, by the way. Reading this article, ben's article (top of post) and the Rheumatoid Arthritis article I am now fully convinced that I have a gluten intolerance. Good to mention here - if you read the article on Celiac.com about the arthritis, I am also allergic to milk (a milk protein, Casein - found in most animal milk). This sort of nails it on the head according to that article. The .gov article that Ben shared under "...health problems that people with celiac diseas have" says directly:

What other health problems do people with celiac disease have?

People with celiac disease tend to have other diseases in which the immune system attacks the body’s healthy cells and tissues. The connection between celiac disease and these diseases may be genetic. They include

type 1 diabetes
autoimmune thyroid disease
autoimmune liver disease
rheumatoid arthritis
Addison’s disease, a condition in which the glands that produce critical hormones are damaged
Sjögren’s syndrome, a condition in which the glands that produce tears and saliva are destroyed

And also, my theory that my entire family and extended relatives coming from my mom's branch of the tree... this part of the .gov article states:

How common is celiac disease?

Celiac disease affects people in all parts of the world. Originally thought to be a rare childhood syndrome, celiac disease is now known to be a common genetic disorder. More than 2 million people in the United States have the disease, or about 1 in 133 people.¹ Among people who have a first-degree relative—a parent, sibling, or child—diagnosed with celiac disease, as many as 1 in 22 people may have the disease.²

I meet with Dr. O again in a couple of weeks to go over the Rheumatoid test results. I am glad I asked my regular doctor what the result was and got a snippet because I have found out so much in the week since then - everything is starting to make sense. She said that there are other tests that she would have done in order to get a more clear answer (not sure what that means, I'll find out) - but said I should just discuss with Dr. O since he originally ordered the test.

Why are celiac disease symptoms so varied?

Researchers are studying the reasons celiac disease affects people differently. The length of time a person was breastfed, the age a person started eating gluten-containing foods, and the amount of gluten-containing foods one eats are three factors thought to play a role in when and how celiac disease appears. Some studies have shown, for example, that the longer a person was breastfed, the later the symptoms of celiac disease appear.

Interesting - most of my siblings and I were only breastfed for a couple months if that.

Symptoms also vary depending on a person’s age and the degree of damage to the small intestine. Many adults have the disease for a decade or more before they are diagnosed. The longer a person goes undiagnosed and untreated, the greater the chance of developing long-term complications.

I am even more convinced though from reading the Rheumatoid Arthritis article from health.google.com:

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a long-term disease that leads to inflammation of the joints and surrounding tissues. It can also affect other organs.

Symptoms

The disease usually begins gradually with:

Fatigue
Loss of appetite
Morning stiffness (lasting more than 1 hour)
Widespread muscle aches
Weakness

Eventually, joint pain appears. When the joint is not used for a while, it can become warm, tender, and stiff. When the lining of the joint becomes inflamed, it gives off more fluid and the joint becomes swollen. Joint pain is often felt on both sides of the body, and may affect the fingers, wrists, elbows, shoulders, hips, knees, ankles, toes, and neck.

Additional symptoms include:

Anemia due to failure of the bone marrow to produce enough new red blood cells
Eye burning, itching, and discharge
Hand and feet deformities
Limited range of motion
Low-grade fever
Lung inflammation (pleurisy)
Nodules under the skin (usually a sign of more severe disease)
Numbness or tingling
Paleness
Skin redness or inflammation
Swollen glands

Joint destruction may occur within 1-2 years after the appearance of the disease.

The highlighted are my symptoms for the most part. It is crazy to me how it happens equally on both sides of the body. The scary thing is that it can actually break down your joints if not taken care of under a year.

RA usually affects joints on both sides of the body equally. Wrists, fingers, knees, feet, and ankles are the most commonly affected. The course and the severity of the illness can vary considerably. Infection, genes, and hormones may contribute to the disease.

The last bit of this story is that I have gained at least 12lbs in the last 4-5 months. That's in incredible amount of weight gain for a person that generally eats healthy. A lot of people toss the fact aside and say,"well muscle weighs more than fat - you probably just got muscly" - I know I got stronger, but nothing changed about my body with it's physical appearance. Really, think about it. A person would have to lose at least a pound, running that much?! On top of the fact that I did not lose one single pound while training and running the Portland Marathon - I had an original 10 lbs left over from having my son in 2008 that I just couldn't get to go away. So now I am 25 pounds overweight. Another note, think about this one, for my weight and height at the time fo the race, I supposedly burned 3,500 calories that day. A marathon is 26.2 miles. And .2 IS HARD after running 26 miles, so don't forget that! Anyway, I ate a horrible breakfast that morning, basically went on an empty stomach. I didn't nutrition well at all during the race. A banana and some water and sports drink (I will change this for the next one).... and had a big burger, fries and some candy - I weighed myself that night, I did not lose one pound. That's just insane to me.

So this was not short by any means, but I hope by publishing it online, it may one day give someone else some resources to go by.

Our blog is dedicated to creativity in the kitchen. My mom and I mostly post about gluten free, corn free, milk free and other stuff. Occasionally we publish non-allergy-free items because let's face it, we have other family members who are not affected and sometimes making the original recipe is where you start to make it an allergy free one. My sister has hypothyroidism - a symptom of Celiac Disease or some level of a gluten intolerance. She is categorized under a lot of the symptoms of Celiacs. Hopefully she will join the ranks and go gluten free 100%. The world is fast catching on that a LOT of people are wanting to be Gluten Free. I think it's wonderful.

My last note is that I am now headed to finding a good local naturopathic physician to do a celiacs test. I am interested in the outcome.... either way, all things point to the necessity to go Gluten Free.

We're back but stalling...

2010-02-28T15:45:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, bear with us. our google images (picasa) account is full. John and I have the ability to post from our iPhones now, which is so very cool but now can't post images because I'm out of space when I shouldn't be. So when I have time to look into it, we'll be back on track. :)

Tattoo Artwork

2010-02-15T18:26:00.000-08:00

I've been working on some freehand inked projects lately because of some tattoo work for some clients. for those of you not on facebook, here they are. I haven't really drawn anything in like 2yrs...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Puddles

2010-02-11T14:55:00.000-08:00

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Spitt'n Out the Window

2010-01-12T15:35:00.000-08:00

Monkey See, Monkey Do.

Just Another Day at Gramsi's

2009-12-18T10:05:00.000-08:00

I know, I've disappeared off the blogging grid. Here's a fun video from Gramsi. :) Dominic and Alex chasing each other with their new tunnel.

First Easter

2009-04-12T02:25:00.000-07:00

It seems that we have not done a huge family Easter in years. When we were kids, the Jentzsch's and Rollins used to come down to Oregon (from Washington) and we always had the best time. I have missed that. I am glad that having babies around can bring back these fun times long overdue!

What we used to do: Like any event with the Ford's, Jentzsch's and Rollin's we have a knack for being crazy and having too much fun. We would decorate and dye a gzillion eggs and our parents added a ton of plastic-candy-money-filled eggs to the mix too. There was always a small hunt for the younger kids and then a more intense, harder hunt for the big kids. I mean seriously, our parents were cruel - hiding eggs in snake holes and way up in trees and in berry bushes.

After the egg hunts, we got to search for our baskets... all cleverly hidden by our parents in the woods. My parents have 9-acres so we always used one section of the property that was made into a motorcyle trail. It had a lot of dense brush and was hard to find even the brightest sunniest of baskets. Each kid's parents could help us with "hot/cold" hints. Easter had nothing to do with the candy. It was everything to do with the "hunts". I can't wait for Dominic and Alex .... and I'm sure more siblings and cousins of the next generation to add to the mix.

Dominic & Daddy

Missing Summer

2009-03-05T23:35:00.000-08:00

I am so missing summer. Are you?

Fat Bottom'd Girls Make the Rock'n World Go 'round

2009-03-05T23:22:00.000-08:00

I was browsing some pictures and just had to post this because it made me laugh so hard in my brain. Fat, Pregnant girls in bright solid colors! :) This was at my baby shower.

Fun Fact

Baby Shower - April 5th
Alex was born - April 7th
[Oh poor Robyn! She was such a trooper this day helping out!]

Dominic came around on the 26th (like 2 1/2 wks later). They had just put me on bed rest the day before. It was lame. Hardly anyone came to my shower supposedly because they thought something was horridly wrong, yet no one called or asked what was wrong. LOL Annnyway.. those who came were much appreciated.

... I just can't believe we were this fat almost a year ago. How time flies!

Backed Into A Corner

2009-03-04T22:03:00.000-08:00

Dominic was yelling at the top of his lungs (not crying) so I went to check on him and he had somehow trapped himself.

Expressions for Lunch

2009-02-28T01:12:00.000-08:00

There Is Always A Dad's Way

2009-02-25T14:41:00.000-08:00

"It's so simple! When he's done eating, roll him over to the sink, shake him out over the sink, hook the high-chair up here and wallah! Clean seat."

"Banana's Have No Bones"

2009-02-21T15:19:00.001-08:00

"Sad Clown Face"

2009-02-18T18:05:00.000-08:00

Dominic does is really into making funny faces. He seems to be doing them as small reactions to things or just generally testing out his facial expressions. He does the "Sad Clown Face" twice in this video. I'll have to get a better shot of it, but this was pretty funny. If you can make the video larger, you will have better luck at seeing it.

*update: I've re-uploaded this video from YouTube instead of Picasa for quality purposes. Not sure if you can catch the expression still.

Helping Daddy Get Ready for Work

2009-02-17T11:53:00.001-08:00

A Day with the Three Musketeers

2009-02-17T02:18:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday we decided to go to Storytime at the Jacksonville (Oregon) Library. I met a new friend, Ulana ("you-lane-uh") at the grocery store and she had invited me to come. She has an 8-month old boy named Lawson. Robyn decided to come, but she was also babysitting, Gavin, her other nephew. Gramsi also came along. I don't think we would have survived without her there! So here we are, each with a baby. Gavin is about 10 1/2 mos old, Alex is about 10mos and Dominic is about 9 1/2 mos. They are all about 3-weeks apart basically. ha-ha. What an adventure.

The moment we showed up, Alex charged right to the center of the room and sat next to a little girl like he was her buddy and just soaked it all in...."WOW KIDS! I'M IN HEAVEN!" He was being really good and non-bashful going around "meeting" all the kids. Gavin of course started to join in although he was more interested in the "Happy Birthday" sign up front than meeting any of the kids.

I didn't get any good pictures of Dominic at Storytime. He was just chill'n in Gramsi's arms the whole time other than trying to chew on someone's crochet book in front of us. Here is our new friend Lawson. He is 8 months old and not yet crawling. LOL

After Storytime we decided to go out to lunch. GREAT IDEA! ha! Three of us, three babies and lunch in a tiny little tea shop. It was actually not that bad. I imagine Fiona managing two babies by herself and I'm sure our adventure was a breeze. Aside from the extremely grumpy waitress and 30 minute wait for sandwitches, we had a great time and delishous food.Left to Right: Alex, Robyn, Gavin, Gramsi and Dominic.

After lunch we checked out a thrift shop. Not that great. And this toy shop.... super great! Dominic threw trains around while Robyn played the puppet master with Alex and Gavin.

Robyn is the true artist when it comes to making puppets come to life. Gramsi should have a pretty funny video coming soon with their new monkey friend Herman.

Gramsi and Dominic played kick ball.... so of course mommy had to buy Dominic a ball. I figure it's one of those toys that will never become outdated. He loves to throw balls too.
We are planning on going to the Jacksonville Storytime again this week, but Brooke, Gavin's Moma is going to come instead of Gramsi. It should be pretty fun.

Lastly, I took these shots with my iPhone which is a complicated matter when shooting babies as they move lightening fast. The iPhone doesn't have a quick "shutter speed" on it so some can be a little blurry. I thought they were pretty decent though.

A Day at the Park in February

2009-02-17T01:56:00.000-08:00

We have a small neighborhood park just a couple of blocks from my house (within the 'hood). Since we live in Pleasantville it is of course a quaint little place for the kids to play and [doggy]poo-free too. I have been meaning to post this for over a week now but couldn't decide om the photos. The result of which is now a fast-scrolling sideshow of the 135 photos we took! ha-ha... enjoy!

BTW - The credits blasted by so... I downloaded the music from www.freekidmusic.com. The SqueeGees "Apples, Oranges, Peaches". Sorry, it's almost 2am and I couldn't really pick the music too well, hope it's a good song! :)

Truffle Shuffle 2009

2009-02-09T19:39:00.000-08:00

This past weekend (Sunday) we took the short trip to Eugene (Oregon) and participated in the Truffle Shuffle, a benefit fun-run held at Alton Baker Park every February. We completed this run in 2007, skipped 2008 because I was prego and now have 2009 under our belts. It's just a short, 4-mile run with no competition (some people feel the need to compete I suppose but we do it for fun).
The running crew (Left to Right): Hilary, Jeff, John and me (Molly). Jeff is my cousin and Hil's is his lovely wife. I think Hil's is the only one that tried to make good time today. John had been sick for two weeks prior to today and was STILL sick during the run with bronchial/chest/cold stuff. So no fun for a run, especially when cardio is important. Jeff had started feeling ill that morning too, but still participated. I hadn't ran for a week and a half as it was (my fault. sympathy sick with John ha-ha) ... so John, Jeff and I ran together while Hil's blasted ahead and finished a bit ahead.

Our missing team member is Serena. Unfortunately she hurt her knee in college sports the week before the event and ended up having surgery the Friday before. :( We were quite sad that she could not make it. Hilary used Serena's number and didn't bother to change the name on the roster so Hilary's time is under "Serena Lee". (See "Sir Weiner" you can vouch that you had surgery on your knee on Friday and ran a great on Sunday. ha-ha!)

Here are the times

We would be a little embarrassed, but keep in mind, we weren't running at all close to what we are capable considering our unprepared selves. LOL John, Jeff and I conversed the entire run. Good times!

Taking a walk before the race. Everyone thought the race started at 12:30pm so we were all ready and then heard the announcer say that our's didn't start until 2pm! Seriously?! So we hung out for a bit until then. We got to spend more quality time with Sam, Emily and Daniel so that was cool.
Getting pinned and ready!
"I'm not touching youuuu!"

Hot Tub Buddies

2009-02-05T14:45:00.000-08:00

Family Networking

2009-02-05T12:57:00.000-08:00

A lot of the family has started to appear on Facebook. I think this is great. We all have graduated from blogging to networking on FB. To me this is really exciting because we are now getting more of a back-and-forth communication with each other.

Connect with me on facebook

And.... For those of you who might be thinking that being on FB is going to be an entire ordeal of taking up more of your precious time... think again. Yes, getting initially set up with adding all the friends and family COULD take more than 5-minutes, but the long-term maintenance is pretty simple. I actually don't do much with my FB other than the occasional hi or hello via the public "wall". It is definitely a great way to quickly and easily communicate with the friends and family that I don't often (or never) call, email or see in person. Anyway, it's a good resource for quicker communication. It's nothing you have to do daily either.... so make an account, connect up with some of the fam and your friends you havn't seen in 10+ years and you will see what I mean.

NOTE: PLEASE don't be offended if I have or will ignore your action if you've sent me chocolates, hugged me, invited me to some game or other external FB application. I barely have time to make a blog post as it is. Although all those extra gadgets are funny. I find the "Birthday Calendar" and "Related To" to be nice enough apps. :D

Dominic 9-Months Old

2009-02-02T13:51:00.000-08:00

I know that I've skipped posting between 6-9 months! What can I say, I've been so busy. Like everyone else hasn't. I just keep telling myself, "I'll do a post tonight or tomorrow" and poof it's 3-months later.

Dominic is, holy cow, NINE MONTHS OLD already?!! I can't believe how big the boys are getting.

He is currently in the 25th Percentile. But not to worry, babies start to take on their parents genetics around 6-9 months. As John and I are Hobbits, it makes sense. He was in the 90th Percentile in the beginning.

9-month stats

Height: 28 in.

Weight: 18.5 lbs.

Head: 12.75 in.

Yeah, he's not as hefty as his cute cousin. Notice Alex's head is a whole 5.5 inches bigger than Dominic! haha! Robyn is quite lucky that he GREW to be that big and was not ORIGINALLY that big coming out! eek! Alex was quite tiny when he first arrived.

Here are some cute mug's from a recent rock climbing adventure at Rattlesnake. Daddy and Uncle Bean were the climbers, Gramsi and Mama were hikers. My mom posted on this day too. Dominic was a little Yoda for the day in my ErgoBaby Pack.

RunKeeper for my iPhone

2009-01-20T23:59:00.000-08:00

My newest iPhone app for my running-hiking-biking activities is Runkeeper. The results of our hike up Roxanne on MLK Day/ Monday.

*I realize I haven't posted in months....and this is what I give you? lol. I have a lot to catch up on for us and of course Dominic! He's gotten so big and active! For now, this is all you get! :)

EveryTrail for my iPhone

2008-12-04T11:43:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to get back into my running and it's been pretty sporadic. Every time I start I get really determined to keep doing it and something like uhh... Thanksgiving week comes along and blows my plans apart or I'm trying to do too much like work 40-hours a week while taking care of Dominic and of course dealing with the rest of life.

Sometimes it's nice to have new things to make working out more motivating too. You know, like when you get a new pair of shoes or shorts or headphones. Heck even a new pair of running socks will motivate me! So today I loaded EveryTrail onto my iPhone (oh yeah, I never posted that we got iPhones/3G on Sept. 2nd! rad huh?). You can watch your data as you run, take photos of things along the way then save and share online by uploading it to the website where you can network with other trail-minded people. EveryTrail is FREE and for ANY kind of movement tracking. So far I like it!

(edit: 2008-12-05. Sorry guys. I thought about this a bit and felt it was unsafe to post a trail leading to my house. I shouldn't go out of my way to make myself a possible victim eh? so here's a limited screenshot of the map. EveryTrail is pretty neato. you can take photos along your trail/trip/run/walk/whatever and it posts photo-markers on the map with a slideshow to the side.)

Jeans For Your Toes Too!

2008-11-22T00:28:00.000-08:00

Shannon.... another one for you! :)

.... I know a lot of the GUYS are all like, "wow..." (OK really, close your jaw you're drooling LOL). And you girls might be judging her by her looks.... but I gotta give her props, she can do some pretty nifty tricks with all this toss-out stuff. makes me want to go thrift store shopping or dig up something to shred from the back of the closet.

Who's Laughing Now?

2008-11-16T00:26:00.000-08:00

Peter Schiff. Laughed at for his views... uhh... like who's laughing now?
(originally I saw this from this site which you should also check out, liked their commentary)

Blog Attachment Baby Tracker

2008-11-03T15:17:00.001-08:00

Not sure if anyone noticed, but I added an age tracker for Dominic to the side of the blog. It's just a snippet of code from Lilypie.com. It's really easy! And now that Blogger has added the ability to add a 3rd Party HTML-code-snippet as a sidebar layout thingy-bopper, you can add it yourself REALLY easily.

It's fun and cute. You can customize all the little details of the tracker. Try it out! :)

Raaaaarrrrr!!!

2008-11-01T15:27:00.000-07:00

Mama's Little Piggy

2008-11-01T12:18:00.000-07:00

Just sitt'n on a pile of tubs

2008-11-01T12:14:00.000-07:00

Shannon, this one's for you...

2008-11-01T09:57:00.000-07:00

This site helps people with interior decorating using refurbished/recycled materials.

GreenLandz.com

My Grammy & Me

2008-10-31T04:13:00.000-07:00

Gramsi & Me

2008-10-31T03:50:00.000-07:00

Dominic 6-Months Old

2008-10-31T03:06:00.000-07:00

6 Month Stats

Height: 26 1/2in.
Weight: 16lbs. 13oz.
Head: 17in.
*50th % for all stats

Eating solids:
Dominic is so far, his fathers child for sure. John is a very "meat and potatos" kind of guy. When I first introduced solids we tried rice cereal, Dominic was 4mos. old then. He didn't really care about it, so I waited a couple more weeks. Rice cereal is real boring.... so I started baking sweet potato's and yams. I would mush them up all smooth with some BMilk and he was loving it. I've given him some banana here and there too. Otherwise we weren't very adventerous in this first month of eating (around the 5month mark). So at six months the doctor says to feed him twice a day... which I already started noticing a week before the appointment that maybe he was ready for this as he would be quite interested in me eating lunch.

So after his appointment I start making green beans and squash for something new. Probably a bad idea in the first place because he was a little affected by his shots more so than the other times. Anyway... I should video him eating green beans... IMPOSSIBLE. He gags and pukes and then clamps his mouth shut.

So we were back to the same old stuff which was giving him "play dough poo" as I referred to it. Gramsi made us some homemade canned peaches and pears so I wizzed those in the magic bullet and he was in love with those. Of course, they're sweet! I don't consider fuit alone a meal... so after trying and failing at Butternut Squash, I thought I would mix some pear in with the squash and what do you know, it worked. finally, something new.

Activities:
Dominic is always laughing or smiling at something. He's pretty happy 99% of the time. He is a really funny kid - very observant to EVERYTHING. I dont' think I've ever seen a kid pay attention to things like he does. Gramsi say's he is scary sometimes because he will just stare and stare studying your face and locking eye-contact. He's done this since he was a peanut.

He's rolling everywhere, also getting up on his hands and knees and rocking forward. We feel like he will start crawing tomorrow! Which will be another fun adventure (yes yes and trouble too!).

Dominic and I go jogging daily (try to). Adventures to the grocery store in the jogger are really fun. When John comes home from work, Dom get's to go hang out on the closet floor while Daddy gets changed.

We have him on a nightly routine for dinner, bath and bedtime which is working out really nice. He usually sleeps from 8pm - 4am. I am usually up late working so I feed him and put him back to bed, then go to bed myself by that time.

Gramsi watches Dominic two times per week. Tuesdays and Fridays. I drop him off at 9am and pick him up around 5 or 6pm. He has a lot of fun hanging out with Gramsi, Uncle Bean and Auntie Robyn and cousin Alex usually come by. Gramsi takes him on long walks and bounces him to sleep on her yoga ball and gets to help cook.

Pumpkin Patch Buddies

2008-10-17T10:25:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin Time!

2008-10-17T10:16:00.000-07:00

My First Blog Post for Less

2008-10-15T22:36:00.001-07:00

My bosses, Allan & Steve ("The Guys")

Check out my first post on the Less Blog

Daddy and Me

2008-10-15T22:33:00.001-07:00

5 Months Old!

2008-10-08T17:48:00.000-07:00

Our sweet little munchkin is now 5-months old! (i know i know... a little overdo in announcing). He does so much now! Rolling over (of course!), eating real food, taking a bottle like a champ (when the time calls) and maybe crawling coming up soon? Lots to look forward to!

I'm pretty impressed with myself here... I like to do my own stuff so researched what photographers use for backdrops and went out and got some black velvet. Now we have our very own home studio! We are going to get some great halloween shots of the boys. I wish I'd had this black backdrop when Dom was just new. I think this one turned out so good. I will upload the rest to Picasa soon.

Apologies for my lack of blogging lately. I am determined to return to it consistently soon.

One of my new jobs

2008-09-30T02:18:00.000-07:00

The company Ben, Robyn and myself have worked for over the past 2-3 years just recently went bankrupt. Robyn and myself had been doing contract work after the babies were born so we were not technically employees at the time so we totally missed out on unemployment benefits. I have enough work as it is to not need it though.... on that note...

Amazingly within days, Less Everything, a company that produces some great online applications/products contacted me to start working with them. We had discussed possibly doing this earlier in the spring, but I was 8+ months pregos and we all decided to wait a bit. So that's the short of it.

I have been using their online product, Less Accounting for my freelance invoicing, expenses, etc...since last spring (2007) as a beta user and continue to use it today. I was a very active beta user and tried to provide tons of feedback on the product because I just fell in love. I had been struggling to use ugly huge QuickBooks for my tiny little side business (at the time, now I'm full time). I also started using their time-tracking product, Get More Honey.

Anyhow, I will be doing some fun things for them and it will be a nice change of scenery for me. See my "bio" on their website. Yup, I'm feeling pretty hip.

So far I have been testing their products for cross browser compatibility, sending out tweets (Twitter.com) and will start posting to the blog soon.

The life we live

2008-09-03T00:24:00.000-07:00

Ben shared this video with me today. Maybe some of you can relate, but maybe most of you will just think it's just a cute video.

Ben.... you nailed the feeling... ha-ha! I just can't get over this video.

(sourced: http://www.develop-one.net/blog/2008/08/27/HugADeveloper.aspx)

4 Months Old

2008-08-30T10:13:00.001-07:00

Dominic turned 4-months old on August 26th

Height: 26 inches
Weight: 16 lbs. 3 oz.
Head: 16 1/2 inches
Tempermant: Lots of Fun!

Asleep on the Job

2008-08-16T00:05:00.001-07:00

My Bumbo Mumbo

2008-08-10T17:11:00.001-07:00

My new big boy chair! Momma thinks this is just the best invention ever.
It's like Crocks! but in a seat (the material).

Rocks Rock

2008-08-10T16:55:00.000-07:00

John has been doing quite a bit of rock climbing at the Rogue Rock Gym. He was quite inspired after we got back from Yosemite to get back into it. Dominic and I watch his skills on the wall after we go for a run on the Evergreen Trail (a paved trail from Ashland to Grants Pass).

John usually meets with his friend Chad...
...who is the head chef at Elements - Tapas Bar & Lounge
(I did their website, logo, business cards, etc.)

whew! sometimes climbing can be tiring! ;)

William Joeseph - Pianist Icon

2008-08-08T10:33:00.000-07:00

I normally don't watch daytime TV, but sometimes I take a break from nursing Dominic at the computer (while working)... to see what kind of boring talk show or court TV drama I can entertain myself with for 30-minutes.

Yesterday I watched the end half of a Dr. Phil show and caught this amazing musical artist, William Joseph. Can you say WOW!??!! It's almost like listening to an amazing soundtrack score... Watch how he plays, it's just sooo intense. I am jealous!

The song he's playing on the show is called, "Ausperius"

...I wonder how many calories he burns by playing one song? haha.

more.

Carol of the Bells

....and of course, he plays UPSIDE DOWN! (the "Upside Down Song")

Elvis Lives in Joseph Hall

2008-08-08T10:03:00.000-07:00

For anyone who isn't keeping up on America's Got Talent, I must update you on one of my latest favorites - Elvis Presley in the body of Joseph Hall. This kid is 23 yrs old, never had voice lessons and totally has that 50's Elvis look down. Not like the cheesy Las Vegas acts. I personally would pay to see him in concert!

We haven't watched the show much, but we start too later in the game when it's more interesting and there are not as many kooks to sit through.

Here (below) in his first performance he nailed it!

This next performance is a little off. I think he got a lot of flack for NOT sounding like Elvis here. If you got to hear the commentary afterward, Joseph Hall admitted it was difficult not having the screaming crowd to pump up his performance. I think also as a viewer, it was weird not having a screaming crowd to accompany the Elvis performance as we all have that image of Elvis and his screaming lady-fans. haha. I still think he's one of the #1 performers, even with his bad night and I hope his confidence stays up for his next performance.

I'm a totally oldies music buff so I hope this kid makes it through. If anything, he could get kicked off tomorrow and still make something for himself. What do you guys think?

Dan Dunn - Interviewed

2008-08-08T09:57:00.000-07:00

Dan Dunn - my new art hero

2008-08-07T22:40:00.000-07:00

Baby Buns

2008-08-05T15:47:00.001-07:00

Poor Poor Pinata

2008-08-05T13:34:00.000-07:00

Kung Foo John!

...only John would artfully destruct a pinata by removing all his limbs before busting its gut...

(I hate being the camera person. Hearing yourself being the loudest laugher is not quite that nice.)

Another Year, A Week to Celebrate!

2008-08-05T12:35:00.000-07:00

Monday was John's birthday (Happy 37 honey!!). We have been celebrating for over a week now.

I threw a surprise party that wasn't a surprise at all, on July 27th because my family would be out of town for his real day. You can get a great overview of that party from my mom's post "Happy Birthday You Old Poop!". If you haven't seen it, you should. She has all the photos from that day because our new camera was still on it's way. Aside from the radically disgusting poop themed cake....I especially loved the shot of John clobbering Daniel with a cooler full of water (remains from the water balloon fight).... and don't forget all the unicyclists. What a family circus!

Anyway... I threw another party this past Sunday (3rd) for John's family. His Mom (Linda), brother (Ken), our sister-in-law (Jen) and our niece (Taylor) came over for a pasta lunch, cake and fun of course!
After lunch we played with a cool water toy that Taylor had gotten for her birthday and had been dying to use.

Then we busted a pinata (from Ken, Jen & Tay-Tay). John's FIRST pinata ever in his 37 years! His dad's side is Mexican so I find that pretty funny.After all the outside fun we finished it off with a little Trackmania (looks like such a serious game!)...

...and more laughs and giggles with Grammy.It's sooo tiring playing all day... whew! Happy Birthday Daddy!

Monday, John's REAL birthday... FINALLY! John and I got to go out to dinner and a movie thanks to my mom (gramsy) for watching Dominic. We got to so see The Dark Knight and went out to Si Casa Flores. It was a nice relaxing afternoon/evening.

The week of celebration came to a close. :) But what a fun one it was!

Simon Says,"Do what Grammy Does!"

2008-08-05T12:22:00.000-07:00

Crack a Smile!

Be Serious!

Say Aaahhhh!

Make a Funny Face!

....You're funny grammy! I love you!

A Not So Lucky Month of July

2008-08-02T16:44:00.000-07:00

We are celebrating July being over with. It started out great... a family reunion camping trip and all that... but the weekend following the campout the poo hit the fan at our house. Ha-Ha!

Things broke and had to be replaced:

1.) All four tires on my subaru. The day after I got back from the campout I was heading out to replenish the refrigerator and what do you know, I had a flat tire. WAY FLAT. There is still a mark from the wheel rubbing through the rubber out the garage and down the driveway. Fortunately I noticed a few blocks down the road from the house. I guess it was so bad it was irrepairable which means you have to replace ALL the tires. yuck! Not to mention or rub this in but we had just sold our other little impreza wagon and threw in the extra tires we had laying around. duh. I guess we learned that if we ever have an extra set of tires to just keep them around. lol.

2.) The living room ceiling light/fan. The light went "pop!" and would not work anymore. I know this seems like a small deal, but that fan costs $160 new. Luckily we gave our old one to my parents and my dad was able to salvage it. The dimmer feature broke which we use a lot so would have replaced it anyway. Other than that the "broken" one works just fine. So maybe it was more of a vain replacement.

3.) Camera. Hence the new wide angle pics of Dominic that I just posted. We just got another Kodak EasyShare (but the new Z1012 IS). I'm really liking the upgraded features, but would have liked to not have had to replace the camera in the first place. ohwell...

4.) Monitor. Newly added. John reminded me that one of my monitors of my dual monitor setup died too (yes, for those of you who don't know... you can have the use of multiple monitors at once on one computer - it's quite efficient!). This really put a cramp in my day. It was a Dell flat panel.... funny thing though is that John's old Samsung, our very first flat panel back when they were uber-expensive (I think he paid like $350 for it) is still alive. Luckily we have no shortage of computers or monitors at our house. John doesn't use his desktop PC often so... I just stole his Dell widescreen. Now I've got this nice new (bright - nice contrast) wide monitor dualed with a frumpy-dump (dull and dim) square Samsung. But whatever works. Better than just one single monitor. I won't be replacing any monitors anytime soon.... I'm not quite THAT vain. haha.

I feel like there is more... haha...well there is, it's just doctor stuff though and that's just how life goes. So I just felt like venting about our money sucking month of July.

We are really looking forward to September 2nd! One month from today we will both officially be owners of iPhones! Yes, we are joining the ever-growing army of iPhone addicts! WE CAN'T WAIT! (we get a $200/discount each phone if we wait until Sept.).

Hang'n Out

2008-08-01T18:08:00.000-07:00

A good solution when you can't have mommy....
...have daddy hang you over the couch!

Montage of Droool

2008-08-01T17:41:00.000-07:00

Dominic is so sweet at 3-months old.
He started drooling a few weeks back and boy is he talented! I mean, just look at that innocent face (above)! "Who Me?"

Then here (below) ... he knows it!

oh! there it goes...

...and bam! Down the chin and to the floor...

"But I'm sooo cute! Look at my soaked shirt!"

Droolmaster 2000!

A First of Firsts

2008-07-21T17:36:00.000-07:00

John gave Dominic his first bottle. We just got our pump and had to see how he would do. So far so good and no rejection of the original food source! :) This makes things much easier!

Not Quite Heavy Enough

2008-06-27T10:48:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have been fun seeing Dominic grow and change. He has gradually started getting interested in objects (floor toy, a small rattle, swing lights + toys) and sounds. This week he has become SUPER interested enough to entertain himself for at least 30 minutes or so twice a day. This is nice for me... working from home and all.

Our morning usually starts at 7 or 8 AM. He wakes up and wants to "play" and poo. Every morning at 7 or 8 AM I have to prop him up on a pillow so he can fill his diaper. It's pretty funny. He's quite scheduled with his nighttime/morning routine and his daily napping changes weekly depending on what we're doing.

So back to entertainment of objects. Now that I can see him being entertained, I've had my eye open for some toys. We did buy a Johnny-Jump-Up because he LOVES to stand and holds his head and body up so well. He's just a tad too small and unstable for that yet (of course)... BUT I came across this Fischer Price Rainforest Jumparoo on craigslist. I picked it up for $45. It was bought in January this year and only used a couple of times. Her little girl didn't like it.

John re-assembled it this morning and we put Dom in it. HA-HA! He is not quite heavy enough for the shortest setting. I do realize that your baby is generally supposed to be 4-6mos before expecting them to use one of these. He was fairly entertained by the experience. I put some books under his feet so that he could stand easier (being 6 inches or so off the ground!).

A Day at the River

2008-06-27T02:05:00.000-07:00

Monday was absolutly crazy! We went to the Illinois River, ate lunch with the Jentzsch's in Grants Pass, swam in the Jentzsch's pool (Dominic got to visit with Gramsy) and topped off the day with some rock climbing (bouldering) at the gym. Of course, Dominic and I were just spectators to the climbing... although maybe soon we will start climbing. :)

We took Michaela and Luka, our friend Michael's kids (6 and 10) on our adventure. This is Luka...

...and this is Michaela... she jumped off the rock! :)

2 Month Stats

2008-06-26T18:22:00.000-07:00

Height: 24 in. / 95th percentile

Weight: 12 lbs. 4 oz. / 75th percentile
Head: 15 1/4 in. / 50th percentile

Dominic is proportional but HUGE! Not the chubby, fat huge .... but the height!?? You would think his parents were tall or something. Granted my dad and bros are all tall.... but still. He is as big as Alex in height alone. Alex has a rounder belly and I think is still a smudge taller and a bit heavier. Do you think he'll pass him up? maybe!

Hopes for a hockey-player-son are so far so good! haha!
(NOTE: backdated post. Dominic is currently 3mos. old)

2 Months Old

2008-06-26T01:37:00.000-07:00

Dominic is two months old today!

Three Generations of Bermea's

2008-06-05T15:29:00.001-07:00

I took a normal photo of hands when we were down in San Jose visiting. The hands are of Dominic, John and John's Dad Hector - three generations. I edited it in photoshop to make it look like we did it in a studio. I have a couple others I'm going to do this with. This one was my favorite. (The original photo is below)

Dominic's Blessing

2008-06-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

Dominic was Blessed June 1st by my dad.

He looked so cute in his blessing outfit that his Gramsy made him.

(I realized when looking back at Dominic's pictures that I never posted on his Blessing. :( So I'm dating this one back to the day. What a squishy-head he was! I can't believe he was that small!?)

Mommies Nipple...My Cousin's Arm...I'm not picky about what I eat!

2008-05-31T20:37:00.000-07:00

Road Trip! (Chico, Yosemite, San Jose)

2008-05-31T08:58:00.000-07:00

While Dominic was between two and three weeks old we had a lot of spare time on our hands so we decided to take a spontaneous trip into California. First (Monday/Tuesday) we headed to Chico to visit some friends (Mark & Esther) we haven't seen in four years! They now have a one year old little girl, Amelia. Such a cutie! We had a great visit. The video is Mark and Amelia. Amelia is quite the character. She does this hilariously animated gesture every time someone asks a question.

Then (Wednesday/Thursday) we headed on down to Yosemite National Park. WOW! John and I have never been. I would highly recommend visiting here. We hiked everywhere all day long! Here we are in front of Half Dome. I hope that I hike this one of these days. Too dangerous for a new baby and getting back into hiking.

The Mist Trail (below) - If you hike to the top you have to pass through mist so heavy it's like rain. We didn't think we should drag Dominic to the top. The stairs are pure granite and he'd would have gotten too soaked. I'd like to come back and finish the hike still. check out the video.

Lastly (Friday/Saturday), we visited family in San Jose. Dominic got to meet his Grandpa Hector and Grandma Ruth, Aunt Canella and (soon-to-be) Uncle Shannon and his other Uncle Daniel for the first time. We also hopped over to see his Great Aunt Janan and Great Uncle Harry.

Grandpa Hector & Daddy

Grandma Ruth

Auntie Canella-Bella

Uncle Daniel (Dom has TWO Uncle Daniels!)

Great Aunt Janan

Great Uncle Harry

John took Dominic and I around his old stomping grounds in Santa Cruz as well as Los Gatos. Here's Dom and Daddy...

...and of course Dominic in Santa Cruz. Cute as a button at three weeks old.

What a fun trip!

Bathtime

2008-05-13T10:28:00.000-07:00

Taking a bath with Mom. It was fun floating around.

Drying off and getting my oil treatment under the heat-light. Ahhh... I love this part.

I fell asleep so Mom decided to leave me wrapped up for a little nap.
An hour or so later Mom realized she had not put a diaper on me.
I was good, no mess. I do like to stretch out when I wake up though.

What acute bum!

Lifting My Head

2008-05-04T11:36:00.000-07:00

Dominic is one week old as of yesterday (Saturday, the 3rd). He's been lifting his head from the moment he was put on my chest. He likes to lift up and look around.

A Busy Day

2008-05-01T22:48:00.000-07:00

I had such a busy day today! First of all, my moma would like to brag that last night I slept from 12:30 AM - 4:30 AM and then from 5:30 AM - 8:30 AM. Yes she knows I'm supposed to eat every two hours but considering I'd eaten a ton all day she thought it was fine.After breakfast and reading with Dad, my Aunt Pat stopped by. She brought me some more really cool burp-rags! Then I got to go on a walk and hang out at the Park...Don't worry... my parents didn't leave me to fry in the sunshine.

I ended my day with my first bath and a wonderful oil massage under the heat lamp.

I was pretty content here.

What an exhausting day! Goodnight!

Funny Smiling

2008-05-01T22:14:00.000-07:00

Playdate

2008-04-30T23:31:00.000-07:00

Today my cousin Alex came over. He brought my Aunt Robyn and Gramsi along. First we both had a long lunch... then we did a little photo shoot.

I was totally chill'n... I don't know what Alex's deal was. Maybe he had a problem with me laying on him? Here I am with my Aunt Robyn (Alex's Mom). I'm just yawning here. :)

pampering from daddy

2008-04-30T22:12:00.000-07:00

Daddy, Mommy and Grammsy gave me a royal spa treatment. I got a full body oil massage with my wonderful Calendula Oil that smells so good. Grammsy was in charge of oiling me up because she was so fast at it. Then Mommy gave me a foot rub while Daddy brushed my hair. Oh I sooo loved my hair being brushed! It was so soothing. Grammsy also posted this on her blog, but I wanted to show my friends too!

I love hanging out with Daddy!

Thanks!

2008-04-29T23:42:00.001-07:00

I just look too cute! I'm so lucky! My Aunt Pat made me some really cool blankies and burp-rags and brought me this boppy on my birthday. I REALLY like my boppy. I get to lay on it when I eat and sit in it so I can look all around the room.

My Uncle Sam & Aunt Emily got me this cool onsie. I wore it all day today. It fits great with some growing room. They also got me a cute t-shirt and my most favorite stuffed animal, Mr. Penguin.

I'm Four Days Old!

2008-04-29T22:28:00.000-07:00

I'm just too precious!

So far Mommy and Daddy consider me a pretty mellow little guy.
I am very good at night and all day long. I really like to eat a lot between 3 and 6 am. I really like to have the deepest sleep in the late afternoon around 3 to 8 pm. Mommy and Daddy are trying to find creative ways to wake me up for my dinner.... so far with no luck.

Today I had my first Dr's appointment.This is my pediatrician, Dr. Young. He's very cool.
I only lost 4-ounces so I am now 7lbs. Dr. Young gave me a lot of compliments too. My next appointment is in 3wks. I'm not crying in this picture. I just scrunched my face up. I don't really cry about anything actually.

Happy Birthday Dominic!!

2008-04-28T17:03:00.000-07:00

Dominic Joel Bermea
Born: April 26th, 2008
Time: 6:00 PM
Weight: 7 lbs. 4 oz.
Length: 21 inches
Head: 13 inches

(above) about 4 hours old in the heat-lamp bed. I loved this thing!

Grandma love! I love my grandmas!

Daddy's gives me my first bath...

Inchworm: 38 wks

2008-04-21T19:17:00.000-07:00

Dominic is now 38 weeks! For those of you who don't know, a full term pregnancy is 40 weeks and a baby is technically OK to deliver after 37 weeks.

Today John and I decided to go into the Dr's office for some baby movement monitoring - called a Non-Stress Test. Over the weekend Dominic seemed to have slowed down in this area so we thought just to be on the safe side we'd call in... well, wallah, we ended up going in of course.

We had an appointment scheduled for tomorrow so they just mushed it all into one and we got it all covered today.

Results from todays appointment:

Blood pressure is looking good
Dominic's monitoring looked really good (heart rate and contractions for me)
I'm dilated to 3cm now
Effaced 80% (this means my cervix has thinned. Needs to be 100% for birth)

We decided to just make an appointment for inducing because I'm simply sick of sitting around worrying about him. Although all the tests have ended up good in the end.

We had decided to make the appointment before we were checked for dilation, etc. So now we may not even make it to the end of this week. We would like things to happen naturally of course, but for inducing they are just going to start with popping his water bubble.

If we do actually make it to the appointment, it will be next Tuesday, April 29th - the day before my little brother Daniel's 19th Birthday. And hey, if we have an insanely long labor he could even be born ON Daniel's B-day. :)

----------------------------------------------------
(edit: THE 29th IS THE DAY OF DANIEL'S BDAY!! DUH! I knew this! I am such a dorkus!!!)

fire station

2008-04-15T21:15:00.000-07:00

This is our stop by the fire station in Central Point to get our carseat checked out.We learned a tip from the guy on how to position a carrier/car seat more efficiently so that you aren't straining your back, shoulders and arms. John's trying it out here (left). We thought we'd share this amazing trick. Anyone currently doing this?

We learned some other tips too:

Placing the carseat in the center is better than either passenger side. The baby will be in better shape with your car getting T-Boned and the seat should stay in pretty good shape if you get in a head-on collision.

Don't jam your front seats back against the carseat (the impreza has a shorter backseat area). The seat needs to be able to shift a little.

Do not ever have the carrier bar up while using the car seat in the car (even though the cute toys can be entertaining for baby, it's just not safe).

Don't bundle your kid up too much prior to belting in, it's safer to wrap warm things around them.

Do a sort of pinch test after belting in on baby's body straps. You should barely be able to pinch the belt up. Of course, keep all belts untangled at all times. ;)

Dr. Appt. Update

2008-04-15T14:14:00.000-07:00

Dominic get's a big gold star for todays doctor appointment. :)

Today's report:

Blood Pressure: 116/70 - HURRAY!!
Cervix is thinning further (not that all you guys out there really want to know that)
Haven't lost the groty mucus plug (again, sorry guys)
Still only dialated to about 2cm
His head has dropped further down which I think I have felt the results of that in my lower back more.

John is predicting that he'll come this Monday (21st) and will be around 7lbs. I would LOVE for that to happen, but considering I haven't been feeling contractions yet and the mucus plug is still in tact (that I know of), I have my doubts. It is still only Tuesday (today) though so we'll see. Our Dr will be out of town this Wednesday thru Sunday, so he's not allowed to come then! We discovered that if our Dr is not available (out of town) then we get whoever is on call. This doesn't mean from OUR Dr's office. It means whoever in the valley is on rotation at the hospital. I was thinking we would at least get someone from our office. I'm sure this is no suprise to all of you who have had kids, but well really, that sucks! Ohwell, there is nothing we can do about it.

So no stress today. Everyone was quite happy and we made it out of the office in a timely manner. We are still on bedrest because it obviously helped, but we don't have to keep going in more than once a week for strict monitoring or more ultrasounds. Thank goodness!

The rest of the updates...

2008-04-14T18:18:00.000-07:00

I know these updates are a bit lengthy, no one really has to read them I guess. :)

I left off with last Monday being that Robyn delivered little 'Zander and we had a Dr. Appt. that Tuesday at 9AM. So we go into our appointment, hopeful things will go better than the week before. John was with me today. After checking my blood pressure it's given a slight "OK" so the Dr. decides to put me on monitors for a bit. These are the ones that wrap around your tummy with little discs with goo on them pressed on various areas of your big round belly. One is for the baby and the other for tracking contractions. So I get to lay on my side on this uncomfortable gynecology table with two stretchy belts wrapped around me, goo getting everywhere and the sound of Dominic's heartbeat... I can't decide if he sounds like a choo-choo-train or hoof beats.

We did this for quite a while. The Dr wasn't completely satisfied with the results so she decided to send us over to the ultrasound office (next door) for a more thorough look at Dominic's activity. From what I have learned though, the in-office monitoring is not as great as the hospital ones. We also had to do some labs (in-office). It was close to 10:30 AM now...

At scheduling, our options were an 11:00AM ultrasound or a 3:00PM ... we did want some lunch, but decided to take the earlier appt. to get it all over with - John was planning on going back to work after this. In between the office visit and the ultrasound we waited to do our labs... made it next door for the ultrasound with 10 minutes to spare.

We make it into our appointment with a technician we normally do not see. So we're in there with goo all over my belly for the second time... all of a sudden she starts shaking and squishing my belly all around, poking and prodding. We can clearly see that Dominic is not wiggling around ...BUT his heartbeat is going great. She fails to explain anything... so we finally ask after a minute. I don't even remember her answer, but it really didn't explain much other than her wanting to see him move. I kept telling her that he ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT liked to be shook. She did not listen. She even made me stand up and hop up and down and drink a big glass of ice-water. No luck, the little guy was simply pissed off at her by now and was refusing to budge. I suggested we go get some food and come back, but she was already worked up about him not moving for her and dashed out to get our Dr.

We met in a side room to decide what to do. Ultimately, the Dr told us that little D only scored a 4 out of 10, which was terrible. You need to get at least an 8 out of 10. There are a certain amount of points your baby scores when he gets checked out like this. Anyway, being on the low end, our Dr wanted to dash to the hospital now to deliver him. We had really wanted to wait until he was at least 37wks... we asked for alternatives, like could we just go get monitored and take it from there. She was stressing that she was worried that we were not on a monitor as we were talking. So we jumped across the street to the hospital (Rogue Valley Medical Center)... which is so convenient being across the street and all.

We checked in at the front in the Maternity Ward, but sadly got dumped in the Post Partum Ward because all the birth rooms were full. These rooms were not as luxurious as the birth rooms... especially John's little chair. I called my mom on the way over to the hospital... she was waiting for Robyn and baby Alexander to be released from their hospital and planned on helping them out a bit because he had screamed all night. Anyway, she gave this job to Dad (although they didn't make it out of the hospital until late that evening so he never got to help) and jetted on over to us in case we really were going to have DJ.

For the third time this day, I got all goo'd up and had more belts put on for monitoring. By the time we were all settled in, Dominic started moving quite a bit. Clearly meeting his Kick Count rules (Kick Count = moving at least 10 times in one single hour pretty consistently). Even my blood pressure was monitoring quite well. So our alternative to delivering today was a) to be on the monitor and b) to have Dr. Sole, the area's top high risk baby dr come check little D out. We got in about 11:50 AM and was told Dr. Sole would be by at 1PM. I was starving by now, John was also hungry. I was just going to get lunch at the hospital but the nurses told me we had to ask my Dr first. She was in the middle of a procedure and said she would get back to us, we waited a while longer, finally I we got an answer to wait until after the ultrasound and check from Dr. Sole. I had an hour. OK I could handle this. The hour goes by, no Dr. Sole. He finally shows up at 3PM. This was an insane delivery day so he had been running around the Maternity Ward too.

We got to see Dr. Sole's Ultrasound Tech, Mary-Beth. She was great to deal with! Although Dominic was finally moving around for her in the ultrasound, what the other tech had wanted to see was his Diaphragm working out. She wasn't concerned and explained to us that since there is no actual air inside of your tummy, they only play around with exercising this organ. She did catch it moving just a tad, but assured us that he would have passed the test anyway by other means. This was SUCH a relief! So Dr. Sole came by, checked out the ultrasound results, and told us that "he's happy as a clam in there" and if he could, he'd give him an 11 out of 10. WHEW!! No delivering, we could go home today. What a relief.

He didn't make it out of the hospital until about 5PM. Still haven't eaten. So we took my mom to Red Robin and gorged on FOOD!!! I think our day would have gone completely different if we had had a different ultrasound tech to begin with.

Wednesday was a day of rest. What a week.

Thursday, another dreaded (by now) Dr. Appt. We started with an ultrasound...but this time with our usual lady, Carol. We discussed our last appt. with her regarding all the belly-shaking from Tess, the other tech. She said that we aren't the only ones that have complained about that. So we are allowed to request Carol from now on. Dominic passed with flying colors and headed next door to the Dr's office for a quick blood pressure check... which was doing pretty good. WOW! our first appt. under an hour in what feels like months but was really only a week and a half.

That's it! All the updates! We have another appointment tomorrow (Tuesday). I dread these appointments now... :) Will keep everyone posted. I need to catch up on all my other posts.

Inchowrm: 37 wks (Major Updates - NO Preeclamsia)

2008-04-04T17:01:00.000-07:00

I guess I should update everyone on our status. I kinda left you hanging after the last post. So last weeks post was I believe how last Thursday (apr. 3rd) went, Friday continues like so...

John and I started at 8AM to get ready for the Dr's office and prepare for whatever the day would give us (possibly delivering little DJ). We had started preparing the night before by washing ALL of the baby clothing in the house...being VERY thankful for little Preston's hand-me-downs from Heidi & Douge, which have filled Dominic's dresser drawers to the brim! We haven't really bought anything clothes-wise yet because I was having my "baby shower" (open house) on Saturday and a lot of people generally buy clothing. Anyway, the only thing we hadn't done was to take a trip to the fire station for our car seat check.

Back to the day...

So off we go with our hospital stuff packed and hoping we won't end the day there. We had an ultrasound scheduled first followed by a doctor appointment. We had just done one two weeks prior to this one and Dominic had been measuring 2-wks on the small side. Which was an additional concern leading to the preeclamsia - which can leave the baby malnutritioned and with less oxygen and bloodflow. That's why they choose to evacuate your baby when you have this condition. So anyway, our results were that Dominic had a huge growth spurt in that two weeks and had grown THREE weeks within that two week period. GOOD NEWS! *sigh* Everything else measured and looked healthy too.

At the Dr. appointment my blood pressure was still up a bit. My regular (low) blood pressure is around 100/60 and I had jumped to 121/98 .... they weren't too happy about that. I think we did more monitoring and another blood pressure check... it's all a blur with this weeks events. They finally let us go, but with strict instructions for bed rest (ugh!) and three appointments for the following week. Our day was still not done.... we had to drop my jug-o-pee off at the hospital at a certain time which we were keeping on ice (haha) on the back seat. So we had some lunch and then off to the hospital. The urine drop off did not go as smoothly as we imagined and John ended up having to wheel me inside on a wheelchair (EMBARRASSING!!) to clear everything up. FINALLY got out of there and on our way home stopped by the Central Point Fire Dept. for the carseat check and install. This went well, I'm going to post separate on it. What an exhausting morning/day.

The Dr. called us that night to let us know that my urine was fine and we weren't at Preeclamsia levels. They were checking the amount of protein going out of my body through urine. I don't know what these numbers mean, but to have preeclamsia you have to hit "300" ... mine was a little high, but not enough to worry about at "180". This made her VERY relieved and we got off the hook for a Sunday run to the hospital to check my blood pressure. yay!

Saturday rolls around, Baby Shower Day. I'll also post separate on that. :) So that takes all day... Then Sunday, just trying to relax... we had scheduled a hike and mountain biking for dad and John ...which of course, I was banned from the hiking. We just went out to my parents and I got to hang out while Dad and John did a bike ride in Grants Pass. Robyn and Paul showed up ... Robyn was a little uncomfortable... more so than normal... and ah-ha!

Now onto this week. Whew! It never seems to stop! We were scheduled for a Tues and Thurs appointments...but lets start with Monday...

Monday morning, 5am rolls around and I get a call from my mom telling me that Robyn's water really broke and she's at the hospital. We had been thinking Robyn would have a long labor, WRONG! Her labor lasted under 2hrs. Lucky duck! I hope mine goes that well. Such a blurry morning though. I didn't sleep well.... after I finally did get up that morning I realized I had a horrendous head cold/sore throat. I was really bummed because I wanted to go visit my new nephew! I still did of course... terrible going in sick, but ohwell. He seems to have survived. ;)

We had them check my blood pressure while I was at the hospital (not the one we're delivering at) and it was like 130/85 ... the numbers had split ways ... we weren't really sure if that was good or bad so we stopped by our dr. office. They just re-checked my pressure and did a quick urine test (my dr. wasn't in that day), said it was OK and we should just come in on Tuesday at our appointment.

I think I'll post this now... I'll continue our Tuesday - 9hr. dr/hospital day and the rest of the week later. Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm alive and well, with no baby yet. :) We're all doing great.

Dominic hits 37 wks today. YAY! We are safe to deliver for sure at any time....

Inchworm: 36 wks / Preeclampsia

2008-04-03T17:06:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, no fun picture this week because I have to keep it short. I'm supposed to be on bed rest now. UGH! seriously lame. We had another hike scheduled for this weekend too! :( muy mal...

Don't be confused... Here's the gist of it, in short...

I had a dr. appt. this morning. Results: Blood pressue (which is normally very low) was VERY high for me so I got red flagged and had to hang out and be monitored. Then I got sent to the hospital for more monitoring and to check out some lab work.... been there ALL DAY.

Luckily I got sent home with a 1/2 gallon plastic container to collect ALL of my pee within a 24hr period. LOL. This is, from what I gathered, to check how much protien is coming out my urine and totally missing going to the baby. The Dr was threatening to induce and have him today if my lab results were crazy. Basically my results indicate that I'm going have a mild form of preeclampsia and I have to be monitored.

I feel JUST FINE and the monitoring of the baby was also fine.

From the Dr. Appt. - I'm dialated to 2cm and my cervix is thinning already which is good that my body is naturally taking that path to birth, but he's not due for another month (may 5th). We do hit 37-wks in well, a week so that would be preferable to wait to have him then. Giving him another week of growth. Oh and his head is and has been down (she felt his head while checking the exit path).

We have another checkup tomorrow starting with an ultrasound and dr appt to follow. So I will have more news tomorrow.... or disappear for a bit if we end up having him. ;)

Reasons the Dr. might send us in to have him would be:

If the ultrasound displays little or no growth of the baby from the one two weeks ago.
If my blood pressure still goes crazy (higher I guess?) or if anything weird happens between tonight and tomorrow

I'm strictly on bed rest which I wasn't too disappointed with until they said I couldn't even do very much computer work. grrr... I am also irritated at not being able to go on at least a neighborhood walk because the weather is really fantastic!

So that's it, now I have to get off the computer for the evening... oh wait, here's a link about Preeclampsia

Inchworm: 34wks (re-posted images)

2008-04-02T10:01:00.000-07:00

In case your GoogleReader (or you don't use it) does not show that I've updated this post.... I have. The ultrasounds should enlarge now. They still aren't that great, but I think we have to have more this week, maybe tomorrow anyway. Robyn just got some great face shots of her tubby little guy, hopefully they will post them.

Inchworm: 34wks

Out on the Safari in Oregon

2008-03-29T11:51:00.000-07:00

After the wedding weekend, Monday we planned on going to Wildlife Safari in Winston, Oregon with our friends Hollee and little Lillee. Plans changed slightly when Hollee had to go in for an immediate root canal. So even though Hollee couldn't go we still went.

We decided to have Lillee over Sunday night so John made a fort in the living room for Lillee to sleep in.

Monday rolled around and we got up to have waffles with Maple Syrup from Trader Joes. Yum! Then off on our adventure! The local weather wasn't too promising, but we ventured out anyway and what do you know, we had sunshine the entire time in Winston! :)

We saw all kinds of cool animals. Neither John and I had ever been there before. We can't wait to take Dominic!

We saw a bunch of animals with heavy heads...

Some animals with long necks and long horns!

Some scary animals!

Some funny looking sheep!

Some outrageous monkey's...

OK so we really did see come cool monkey's...

The gift shop even had some interesting looking creatures...

Someone played too much and completely crashed out on the way home. haha.

Portland Weekend & Night Hiking

2008-03-29T11:22:00.000-07:00

Shannon's wedding was a great excuse to go visit my little brother, Sam and his girlfriend, Emily. They live in Portland. My dad, mom and I traveled up together on Friday so they could catch the Endowment Session (for both Chris and Shannon) Friday night.

Saturday morning was promising beautiful weather for the day. We all got up and had a leisurely breakfast. My mom and I went for an hour walk down to this little village square and back and then got ready for the wedding. Emily and I dropped my parents off at the Temple to attend the ceremony (Sam had to work until the reception) and we headed over to Trader Joes. This is the best place ever! Every chance my mom gets, she's stealing all their coconut milk. haha. It's cheaper than what we have down here and tastes MUCH better to boot! Emily and I almost had a brawl with another Joes customer because we cleaned off the shelf (only 15 cans) and there were no more in stock. We had to give up one can to some lady who was throwing a fit that we took it all. I explained that we lived out of town. Sheesh lady!

After the Temple part of the wedding and photos, we jetted out to grab a snack at the apartment. Then off to the reception. The break from the crowd was good because it started all over again at the reception. I plopped down on the floor and decided to just hang out there. Shannon was busy running around.... I think I barely got a glimpse, didn't even know she'd left when she did. So after hours more of visiting with more friends and Washington family... we left.

After taking a breather from the loudness, we decided to go on a hike to get our blood moving. It was getting late by now... maybe around 7pm. It was dusk as we headed out to the hills around OHSU. The hike was cool though because it lead through a series of ravines... a little on the muddy side, but what the heck.
We left dad in the dust (or mud?) because he was hunting down a geo cache. I swear we should have a beacon on him so that we can find him after things like this. Luckily, we didn't lose him this time. The hike was about a mile out and after turning around it was really really dark! Emily brought a headlamp so my mom and I shared it while Sam and Emily walked ahead in the darkness.... Sam, telling us stories about a guy that had been murdering Portland hikers. Lovely. If that won't make you walk faster eh?

I thought these flowers were cool. They were night bloomers. I don't know what they are, but there were large patches of them everywhere on the hillside of the path.

Sunday gave us dreadful weather. Originally we had wanted to go on a big hike that day. John ended up flying into Portland to buy a car (to drive home). So he met up with us after the purchase at the airport. Hiking seemed out but Emily had told us about this fabric warehouse so we decided to try it out. I needed to get curtains for Dominic's room. We did attempt many times to phone them to see if they were open, they seemed like they were although we never got ahold of anyone.... we were wrong. We drove all the way across Portland and they were closed. We gave it a shot, Easter Sunday and all.

After that failed attempt, we decided to locate another Trader Joes. We did in downtown and filled up on our remaining needed coconut milk and before heading back home decided to go to Beau Tie (sp?) for lunch. A Ford Family favorite! It was quite delicious!

That's about it. Weather was horrid still all the way home. What a fun weekend though!

Mrs. Ralph Faulkinbury!

2008-03-29T11:02:00.000-07:00

Wow we had a lot going on from last weekend extending into this week. I'll keep all the events in separate posts. First of all, CONGRATULATIONS to little miss Shannon and her new hubby, Ralph. They actually went through with it! They are officially hitched as of Saturday, March 22nd. You can check out Ralph's older brothers (and fam) blog on my blog-links (www.faulkinbury.blogspot.com). They look like a really fun family and dang it, I forgot to meet them.

The weekend was REALLY overwhelming with family and friends (in a good way). Like my mom posted, it was like a huge reunion. I had a sore throat and started to think I might be getting sick after the weekend... I didn't get sick so I think it was just all the yapping. It was very good to see everyone Although I didn't get quite as many photos as I'd have liked. I'm hoping the Jentzsch's post all the wedding shots on their picasa album. My mom posted most of the best shots between our two cameras. So I'll just share a few others...

Robyn and I rolled around one of the fountains...

Here's one of Hilary (Jeff's wife) and I. She's such a cutie! I wish they lived closer!! With Jeff finishing up his schooling, it sounds like they may be moving WAAAY far away. :(

How sad, that's really about it off of my camera. I do of course have some group shots, but they are quite the same as my moms. Well then, onto the rest of the weekend! ...

Inchworm: 35wks

2008-03-29T09:57:00.000-07:00

BabyCenter.com Updates:

Inchworm doesn't have much room to maneuver now that he's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew melon). Actually, from our ultrasounds he may be a bit smaller than this estimate from babycenter.com. I'll bet he still doesn't have much room to maneuver though.

His kidneys are fully developed now, and his liver can process some waste products.
Most of his basic physical development is now complete — he'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.

My Updates:

I received a call from the doctor later the day of the ultrasound (last week). She basically told me that he was measuring 2wks behind on the small side, but they don't worry about this unless he was 3wks+ on the small side. She thought this was odd because I was originally sent in to do the ultrasound because I was measuring a bit on the bigger side. She said not to worry because he is quite active. We are going to be doing another ultrasound, although I don't know when - to make sure he is still growing regularly. We aren't too worried as we are hobbits ourselves, we should expect a hobbit-sized baby. haha. He has been very active this week so I'm not putting too much worry into the matter.

Other than that, I'm still keeping busy - walking and going on hikes are pretty much it for now.

I have started working full-time from home which is a nice plus. The company I work for (Morgan & Chase Publishing) has agreed to keep me on through contract work. I will still be pretty involved with all the things I was doing before, only now I am at home doing it. It will make leading up to the birth a lot easier and give me more flexibility for naps or errands or whatnot. I'm pretty lucky to have them give me this opportunity. I will continue to do so after Dominic is born too.

That's it for this week!

Inchworm: 34 wks

2008-03-20T13:14:00.000-07:00

BabyCenter.com Updates:

Inchworm now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe) and is almost 18 inches long.
His fat layers which he'll need to regulate his body temperature once he's born should be filling him out, making him rounder.
His skin is also smoother than ever. His central nervous system is maturingHis lungs are continuing to mature as well.

My Updates:

I had a doctor appointment today (as usual every two weeks now). I keep measuring a bit bigger than normal when she measures my tummy. My weight gain has slowed down quite a bit *whew*. So she sent me over to get an ultrasound just to double check his sizing. I had an hour so I grabbed John from work and we went to the appointment.

Everything is very normal and he is pronounced VERY HEALTHY looking by the technician. She was VERY positive in all the comments and remarking how well he was cooperating and doing. From her comments he shouldn't be a very big baby. He may be around 18" at birth, he has a small head (which would be great for me right?! hahah). I guess around this point the baby should be taking on his parents characteristics. John and I joke that we are hobbits so we're hoping for a hobit-sized baby. j/k. She also said he is not very chubby at this point so he should be a leaner little guy.

She tried to get some good shots for us. The first makes his head look like a blob. He was wiggling around a lot. She liked that he was VERY active. The main focus was his hand and you can kind of see his wrist/other hand under the first. She wiggled him around and he just wouldn't move his hands away from his face. She said the machine couldn't catch the face features because he was moving his hands all around in front of it.

The last thing that might be funny to mention is that he doesn't like to be pressed on. He shys away from it. When he's wiggling and moving around and I'm around family and I say, "oh he's moving now if you want to feel him" then he suddenly stops and shys away. I thought it was my imagination, but I guess not. She was really commenting on this. Thought it was just funny.

Anyhow - Dominic is doing really well and is quite healthy! yay!

(Click them now, I've re-posted through a different browser. they should enlarge now.)

Green Eggs & Ham

2008-03-13T08:59:00.000-07:00

This past weekend aside from my hike (actually following that), we had a pajama party with our little friend Lillee. After hiking we made homemade mini pizza's and then went out bowling. Of course, I did not bowl, but John and Lillee did. Quite a pair they make!

Sunday morning we played a little kickball down at the park after a breakfast of Green Eggs & Ham (green omlettes actually). I know, I know, the ham is supposed to be green too, but that may have turned out looking moldy - I'll have to experiment with that one.

And of course, here I am looking like a big pink stick of cotton candy. lol.

"Cankles"

2008-03-13T08:48:00.000-07:00

***WARNING***
Viewer Digression Advised: If the sight of feet make you ill, look away now!

I just had to post on this for everyone's enjoyment to laugh at my fat-feet/ankles. I noticed for the first time that my ankles were truly swollen about mid to end of the day (Tuesday). How sad. If I like anything about my body, it's my ankles, hey I like nice ankles. To see them disappear into a "cankle" was a sad moment. *lol* (I had just taken off my socks in the cankle shots so I have a little bit of a sock-line. )
This has happened for two days in a row and they are mostly back to normal in the morning. I noticed yesterday that they started to go back to cankles after our morning walk (Ben and I work together and walk for 10-15min. on every break we get). What's really annoying is that I've been walking as much as possible to stay active and now this?! lame. gross.

Looks like I need to re-paint my toenails too! :)

Inchworm: 33 weeks

2008-03-12T17:32:00.000-07:00

BabyCenter.com Updates:

This week Inchworm should weigh a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark.
He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening.
The bones in his skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.

A Beautiful Weekend for Hiking

2008-03-11T17:08:00.000-07:00

Saturday was such a beautiful day! I went hiking on Lower Table Rock with my mom, dad and a couple of friends (Hollee & her daughter, Lillee). Lower Table Rock is about a 2-mile hike. It's not a drastic feat for the hike, most of you reading have been doing the hike since we were kids. So for those of you thinking, Holy cow you're 7 1/2 months prego and your out hiking?! Really, it's no big deal. If you can walk 2-miles, you can do this hike. lol.

When we showed up there were probably 60-cars in the parking lot! The trail and top seemed fine considering the assumed crowd. There were a lot of cute old people and little kids and an entire scout group.

Once we reached the top, my mom, Lillee and I ditched our shoes for a walk on the old dirt airstrip. We played in a few marsh-puddles along the way. :D

Dad did some geocaching.

Overall, it was a lot of fun and nice to be out! I posted plenty of round belly shots here to hopefully satisfy everyone. Man! My face is getting chubby! I don't realize how round I am until I see photos. Enjoy! I can't wait to just pop already!