Goodbye State Fair

Yep it's near the end of August and the Indiana State Fair is over. We took Carter last Sunday on what I imagine was one of the hottest days of the fair. The fair was a good time and Carter really seemed to enjoy it. He loved the tractors and trucks. He really liked it when the shuttles (pulled by tractors, of course) drove by. He liked seeing the John Deers in "action".
Carter pet a cow and a lamb. He thought the horses and sheep were pretty cool too. He is much more brave with farm animals then his mom! Uncle Todd, a seasoned fair goer, showed Carter all the ins and outs of the fair.
The trip to the fair proved to be too much for me. As I mentioned in a previous post I went off all of my medication for my spondylitis when I found out we were pregnant. Over the last couple of weeks I could tell the inflammation had been slowly coming back. I met with the rheumatologist a couple of days before our outing and decided to get on a low dose of medication to ward off any problems. Well long story short, walking 4 hours in 90+ degree heat (pregnant) during the beginning of a "flair-up" wasn't the best idea. For the past week I've either been in bed, on the couch or using crutches to get from the bed to the couch. Kyle has waited on me hand and foot. Bless his heart. He has been super dad this week. He has changed every diaper, fixed every meal, given every bath, did every bedtime routine and got up with Carter anytime he woke up at night without complaining. Kyle is still doing all of this 8 days later. Of course even a super dad needs a break every now and then. Nonna and Papa Big have really done a lot for us this week. Carter had an overnight at their house where Nonna washed all his laundry. They came over and played with Carter whenever Kyle was out. Carter also had his first (and second) ride on the state fair train. From what we can tell, he LOVED it. Photo: Carter with his buddy, James Kelker, on the train.
Photo: Carter pointing to the fair trainPhoto: Carter telling Nonna that trains say Toot-Toot.

Thank you to everyone who help this week.

zoo highlights

So what are some of Carter's favorite things to do at the zoo?

He likes to look at the fish...

and ride in the wagon with his cousin Aidan...

and pet the goats (or I mean hug goats and try to take them home)...

and play at the splash park of course!

feeling better?

I thought since I had my 12 week appointment today (2 days early of 12 weeks to be exact) that I would fill you in on how I'm doing. So far I'm still feeling bad. The last 6 weeks have been a lot of nausea, gagging and dry heaving. The doctor put me on a medication a couple of weeks ago because I wasn't eating or drinking much at all. Since then my food intake has been better, but apparently not good enough. Since I'm still continuing to lose weight (down 14 lbs so far) the doctor put me on a different anti-nausea medication, Zofran. I started taking it tonight and hopefully I'll be feeling great tomorrow. Only time will tell, right?

In the appointment today I got to see the baby in a "surprise" ultrasound. The dr. couldn't find the baby's heartbeat during my check up (a little scary) so they decided to do a quick ultrasound....just in case. The heart beat was strong and the little baby was bouncing up and down waving it's arms and kicking it's feet. So much more activity today then just 4 weeks ago. Of course I asked the doctor if she was willing to take a guess on the sex, but no such luck. We'll have to wait until October to find out. Oh yes if I forgot to mention it, we will be finding out the sex of baby #2. Not knowing the gender the first time around was fun, but we want to be a little more prepared this time. And yes, we will be sharing the sex of the baby once it's determined. So stay posted.

As for Carter, he is a typical active 16 month boy. He wants to play with and climb on everything. He's picking up some new words, but he's still not a big talker. We know he says momma, dad and apple. We've heard hotdog, back pack and all done but he doesn't say them on a regular basis. We think he says ba (bath), da (the state fair train that runs by our house every hour), ta (truck). The rest of his sounds are impossible to translate.

Sorry no pictures on this post. I'll be sure to add some next time.

A bouncing good time

We took Carter to one of those indoor bounce places. Do you know what I'm talking about? Where they blow up huge moonwalks and slides and basically let the kids run free. Carter loved it and his parents loved all the energy he burned while playing there. Lets just say bedtime was a breeze that night! This is certainly a place we will visit again and again.

long time no blog

Sorry to anyone who reads this blog on a regular basis. I know my posts have been few and far between these days. I've been slacking and not because of lack of material. I've been going to sleep about 8:30 every night. *note to people who haven't been pregnant before - morning sickness is not always in the morning.* Also I tend to nap when Carter naps so that leaves me very little time to blog, work, clean, laundry, and cook (cook, ha! Like I do much of that anyway).

Enough about me. How about some cute pictures of Carter, right? Carter loves, loves, loves Kyle's guitar. Becuase he can't keep his hands off of it we decided to buy him a less expensive kid guitar. Now father and son can jam together.

One Post/Two Stories

Story #1

Lets check out the transition from messy baby to clean baby....

Step 1: Dinner

Step 2: bath

(before soap and washcloth)

(after soap and washcloth)

Step 3: Post bath and All Clean!

Story #2

Carter had his first 4-H experience. We took him to the Hamilton County 4-H fair on Saturday. On a side note, I must say going to see farm animals during the first trimester of pregnancy is a challenge....oh the smells! Anyway, Carter had a really good time. He saw llamas, goats, cows and rabbits. He liked the smaller animals and was brave enough to pet a couple.

The animals were not the highlight of Carters afternoon, however. He loved it when they would announce the blue ribbon winners. Every time the crowd clapped he would clap along regardless of what he was doing at the time. Also, he LOVED the tractor pull. He would point and scream when the big tractors would drive by.

Surprise!

I don't know how much of a surprise this is since Kyle and I can't keep a secret very well, but baby #2 is on the way!

It was certainly a surprise to us. A couple of weeks ago I started to feel sick and didn't really know why. Jokingly Kyle suggested that maybe I was pregnant. All the signs were there; loss of appetite, gagging, tiredness. So a quick home pregnancy test and Kyle's hunch was confirmed. Yikes!

I know in a previous post I said pregnancy wasn't possible right now because of my spondyloarthritius and my medication, but I spoke with my doctors and they are confident that the medication I was taking should not have any negative effect on the baby. I'm actually off all medication right now, but if my symptoms come back I may be put back on something.

I had my doctor appointment and ultrasound today. Baby looks great. We are 8 weeks and the due date is 2/24/10. That puts Carter and baby #2 almost two years apart (23 months to be exact).

So how am I feeling? Well, bad. I'm struggling with morning sickness, tiredness and apparently dehydration. If you see me in the next couple of days remind me to drink something. The nurse is threatening me with the dreaded IV. Like the last pregnancy my appetite is poor. I am again losing weight but as long as I keep up with my fluids the dr. is ok with it. Let's hope the next few weeks go quickly and I'm feeling like my old self again.