Mastering the Art of French Cooking

To anyone that loves to cook, I recommend seeing Julie and Julia.  I thoroughly enjoyed it. Although, I also love Meryl Streep and Amy Adams.  My in-laws just gave me the cookbook that the movie is based around, Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" Volume I.  I'm excited to look through it and see which recipes I'd like to attempt.  If any are a success, I'll be sure to post about it!

Mason Charles Mavis

It's taken me 3 weeks to get this updated, but our baby boy is here! He arrived Sunday, August 16 at 9:13 am via c-section. I was checked into the hospital on Friday, August 14 at around 4pm due to symptoms of pre-eclampsia. After my water breaking at 9:30pm on it's own Friday evening, I was induced at 2am on Saturday morning after my contractions were not progressing. On Sunday morning at around 8am, my doctor advised that we needed to do a c-section as I'd been in labor too long and wasn't dialating fast enough. I believe I only made it to 4 centimeters in 37 hours - even though my contractions had been 1 minute long, 2-3 minutes apart for hours and hours. So, I agreed to the c-section even though I really had never considered it an option and about an hour later Chip (in scrubs) was handed our 6 lb 14 oz healthy baby boy!

Bed rest

To all who may not be aware, I was placed on bed rest on Tuesday. The doctor wanted to take some precautions and run some tests to rule out Preeclampisa as my blood pressure has slowly been rising and I've had some swelling, among other things. After more bloodwork being done on Tuesday and collecting my urine for 24 hours (oh so fun) I went back in today for another visit. My bloodwork ended up being normal and my blood pressure was pretty good. However, my urine (can't believe I'm blogging about my urine - never thought that would be happening) came back abnormal and showing that I do have mild Preeclampsia. So, the doctor now says I am on bedrest until the baby comes and that they may be inducing "soon". The other side of the coin though is that I'm not progressing (dialating) at all. (Again, can't believe I'm blogging about dialating.) Which poses a bit of a pickle because they aren't too keen on inducing labor, unless it's absolutely necessary, if I'm not dialating. The risk is that if they induce and I don't or am not dialating it increases lots of risks for me, including c-section.

So, I am set to go back in tomorrow and do a non-stress test. I don't know enough about this to know what this will show, but he said that I will have to do one every Tuesday and Friday from now until the baby is born - which he said means I probably won't have very many. So really, we don't know anything except that the baby is head down, turned in the right position, weighs 7 lbs 5 oz (which is normal at this point) and that his heart rate is normal. All things are good, just a little frustrating to be told I have to be laying down at all times except to eat, shower and use the restroom! As I'm sure you all know, it's very difficult for me to let go of control and have someone waiting on me. And thank goodness for my mom and Chip - that's all they've been doing.

Thank you to all for their kind words and prayers. I will try to keep the blog updated as I know more since I really have no excuse - I'm just sitting in front of the computer all day! Haha!

Belly pics!

I'm not too thrilled about posting my HUGE belly on here - but as requested here's the best I can do. The most recent I have is from July 11th...so about 3 weeks ago with mom. But you get the idea!! Only 3 weeks go go!

It's a boy!

It's a bit delayed and most of you may already know - but it's a boy! Chip and I are so excited for the little guy to get here. Only about 15 weeks to go, too! I think August 23 will be here before we know it. Let's just all say a prayer that he doesn't decide he can't wait and try to come sooner than that, haha.

We don't have any names decided on, yet. I have a feeling we'll have it down to 2 or 3 and end up waiting until we meet him to name him for sure. You'll all have to find out his name when we do - haha! Hope everyone's doing well. Here's some ultrasound pictures...

New House - Fingers Crossed!

As some of you may be aware, Chip and I have been looking for a house for the last couple of months. We've explored Plainfield and all of the areas surrounding it. It has been extremely stressful and difficult as it seems that all of a sudden EVERYONE is looking for a house. Just as we would find something we like, someone would come along and snatch it up, or we'd end up in a bidding war before even submitting a first offer.

After what seems like forever spending so much time searching online and looking at houses almost every day after work (or so it seemed) we finally have an accepted offer on a house! It's in Avon, IN which would not add much to my drive to work and seems to be a good location for Chip to start at. This 4 bedroom, 2 bath house has a huge backyard for Kona and an attached 2 car garage for us :) We still have to get through the inspection and appraisal, and I hesitated to even blog about it because we don't want to jinx it - but we're excited and figured that lots of prayers would certainly help! This would mean a great deal for us because it would allow us to get into a house and get settled well before the baby comes. In addition, it also gives Chip a place to have some equipment so that he can actually do work for the customers he's now acquired down here.

We'll keep you posted, but let's hope that the inspection doesn't find anything too crazy!!

Everything's Looking Good!

Chip and I went in for another checkup today at the doctor's office. We got to hear the heartbeat again and it was going strong! It's incredible to hear that heartbeat - for both of us. It's one thing knowing that you're pregnant, but (especially lately) I don't exactly "feel" pregnant. Since my nausea has worn off - which I'm grateful for - there's not a whole lot that feels different. So when we heard the heartbeat, it just makes it all real again. Chip said that last time, the heartbeat sounded like a washing machine and this time it was definitely stronger.

Overall, they said everything looks good. We'll go back in a couple weeks for some blood work and then (hopefully) around the first week of April we should be able to find out if it's a boy or girl. We can't wait! But we're also excited to make sure there are you know...ten fingers and toes, and everything else is in the right place - haha! We'll make sure to let everyone know when we know more.

Thanks to everyone for all of your love and support!