Alright, so it’s the same old room with the same old stuff in it for the most part. Even the cats don’t appear to be overly excited in the picture. Still… it’s BETTER.

First of all we did our friend and professional furniture rearranger, Kelley, proud by rearranging all of our furniture for the first time in 5 years! Kaycee and I spent an hour pushing stuff around the living room to see how well it fit. I think we ended up with a really good arrangement that opens up more space and puts all of our storage in one spot.

As if that wasn’t enough, we also changed things functionally. Kaycee had the DirecTV rep crying in despondency yesterday as she heartlessly ripped away their $70+ per month allowance. See the rabbit ears on top of the TV to the right? That’s now our live TV feed along with a CM7000 DTV converter courtesy of our own tax dollars.

Right now, the rabbit ears give us a fairly decent digital signal. I’ll soon be boosting that BIG TIME by building one of these beauts for a couple of bucks.

The final thing we’ve done is integrate a Home Theater PC (HTPC) which is tucked in to the left of the entertainment center. Hardware-wise I built it from a throwaway machine and added a video card from our friend Nitin. It’s running Ubuntu as an OS, and uses XBMC and PlayOn to play media from a variety of sources including DVDs, downloaded content, music, and live content from places like Hulu, Netflix, and YouTube. It’s a great little system that can be remote controlled by anything with a web browser, and will soon be remote controlled by… a remote control. 

What’s left to do: Another shelf for the entertainment center would be useful for the Wii Fit (which you can see is kind of jammed in there). The speakers are in weird places at the moment and I’d like to correct that. I’ll be running some cable in the crawlspace for surround speakers, and also to wire up the HTPC which tolerates wireless but occasionally disconnects itself when it’s doing heavy lifting. All simple stuff, really.

Being out from under a monthly TV payment makes us happy. The kids are going crazy over old shows (Flipper, for example) and we’re not missing out on anything except for some live sports (*cough*Hurricanes*cough*). Overall I think we’ll be glad we kicked DirecTV to the curb.

With a couple of vacations coming up, we’ve been discussing which to tackle first with Gavin: Big boy bed, or toilet training. Choice number one… well… I already ruined the surprise in the title of this post.

So Gavin has been using a twin mattress on the floor for a couple of weeks. He’s been generally refusing to nap in the middle of the day, and happily dismantles his room instead. No biggie. We’ve gone through these things before.

Today was different. He got quiet after a while so Kaycee went up to check on him. There was an obstruction blocking his door! She opened it enough to look inside, and this is what she saw.

The obstruction.

She had the presence of mind to stifle her laughter and reach her arm around the door for another picture. Considering she couldn’t see what she was taking a picture of, she did pretty well!

Oh the humanity.

Yes, he is breathing. No, we’re not waking him up.

Many women won’t even talk about their weight, let alone post it publicly for the world to see.  I am finally under 200 pounds again.  I haven’t been under that since being pregnant with Kaitrinn about eight years ago.  Each pregnancy then added a bit more than the previous one.  I’d lose some only to gain even more the next time around.  Recovery got harder.

Louie and I both started using a program called “Diet Power” in mid-May after it was recommended to us by a few friends.  It offers a way to log your daily calories and then uses your daily weight and calorie totals to offer a suggested calorie budget.  I used it religiously for a few months.  I now just log on every few days to add my weight and pat myself on the back when I see the nice graph showing the downward trend.  I’ve lost 25 pounds in the past 5 months.  My next goal is another 20 by Spring.  Louie has lost just as much.  We’re both feeling – and looking- much better!  Life is good.

Louie and I both hit a total mental block when it came to dinnertime tonight.  It was one of those evenings where you just stand in front of the open pantry and blankly stare at the shelves.  If there hadn’t been two kids to feed, I would have probably just skipped dinner because it hurt too much to think about it.  *laugh*  Louie finally broke down and confidently said “Well, I’m going to make something.”   I beamed and said, “Ooooh!  It sounds yummy!”  We both laughed and were soon enjoying a homemade pizza with ham, bacon, and “giant” pepperoni (as we explained the deli pepperoni to the girls).  It WAS yummy.

I considered posting this all almost 2 weeks ago when it started, but was still in denial. Lol….

I woke up one day with a fever of over 103 and back spasms so strong that I couldn’t even sit up. Hmmm… gee, I think something is wrong here! I was perfectly fine when I went to bed the night before. After a visit to the Dr., it was found that I had a bladder AND kidney infection. He wanted to immediately send me to the hospital for IV fluids and antibiotics because it was so far advanced. When I explained Gavin and Shealyn… and how I would be alone and stressed to the max if in the hospital, he agreed to let me go home as long as I would take an injection and promise to return in 24 hours. I was basically an invalid and stuck in one position on the couch for another 48 hours or so. Louie and Dad took care of the kids and house. Thank God for help! =) the symptoms of the infection were the same as several things you go through anyway soon after childbirth, so I had no idea there was anything wrong until the fever and pain showed up.

I have slowly improved over the past 2 weeks and will return on Wednesday for a follow-up. He’s worried I may actually have kidney stones as well since I’m still having back pain from time to time. Cross your fingers for me!! Passing kidney stones is apparently ranked up there with Gallstone or Childbirth pain… two things I have already gone through and did NOT plan on ever doing again! Lol

Happy Mother’s Day to any moms out there! =)

I got a waffle and bacon breakfast to start the morning and then was presented with a homemade card. Daddy and Kaitrinn worked on it all week. Shealyn and Gavin added their touches yesterday. Apparently, Gavin didn’t care much for having his foot painted blue and pressed to paper. Lol… Louie managed a great photo of the four of them with the self-timer on our camera.

Kaitrinn also gave me a certificate that she made at school. They had to fill in the blanks on a few sentences that were pre-printed. Apparently I’m as pretty as an angel… or an ‘angle’ as Kaitrinn spelled it. Lol! I’m also 6 feet tall and weigh 51 pounds. Did you know I’m so smart that I even know what 100 + 100 is?? Ahhh… the thoughts of a 6 yr old. =)

Sorry we haven’t updated the site lately…. I’ve been busy with trying to get ready for Baby Gavin’s arrival and the days have rushed by. I had some complications over a week ago when the boy tried to turn transverse (yes, totally sideways!) on me and caused sharp pains on one side, while leaving my other side numb. Hmm… sharp pains and not feeling baby move? That immediately calls for a trip to the hospital for monitoring according to my OB. After monitoring, he got a good bill of health and I was sent home.

On Monday, an internal exam revealed that I was already 3 cm dilated. It’s a nice head start! =) He had turned back to head down and already dropped into my pelvis. The OB thwapped him right on the head when he checked. Lol… Gavin didn’t appreciate it and tried to scurry away. There’s nowhere to hide buddy! Yesterday’s non-stress test showed about 5 contractions in the 20 minutes I was monitored, but then they eased off as they often do.

If I don’t go into labor on my own over the weekend, the OB will do another exam and strip the membranes on Monday. It’s basically just a jump start to help me out and should send me into labor. Kaitrinn is very excited that Gavin should be here within the next five days.

Why oh why do they call this procedure a ‘non-stress test’? Lol…

You lay on the table while they wrap two big belts around your stomach. One is to monitor for contractions and the other is to record the baby’s heartbeat. They then hand you a little button doodad and you suddenly feel as if you’re on “Jeporady” or something. Now… push the button each time you feel the baby move. Then they walk out and leave you alone for the next 30 minutes.

So what happens? You lay there perfectly still trying to determine every little baby movement while the sound of your baby’s heartbeat is pumped out at loud volume for anyone walking by to hear. Wait.. his heartbeat picked up but I didn’t feel him move. Why the increase? What was that?! He just dropped from 160 to 120 in a few seconds time. Is something wrong?!

Time crawls by and the the OB walks in to rescue you and unplug you from the machine. “Baby looks great!” he simply says with a smile. “Hmmm… are you feeling those contractions?” What? I’m having contractions already? I thought I was just uncomfortable because of his movements. Turns out, he’s moving in reaction to my uterus contracting. Well gee, that explains it I guess. Lol

One good thing has come from my appts twice a week now. We discovered he has at least turned around. Yahoo!! Now he just needs to stay that way! I want to avoid a C-section delivery if at all possible. However, not only has he turned, but he has already started to drop. I have seven weeks to go! At one appt, they found his heartbeat way up by my lower ribs. Just three days later, it was located just above my pubic bone. Umm hello? He doesn’t need to burrow down any further than that, thank you very much!

I go every Monday and Thursday for the non-stress tests. I also go back to the specialist on Thursday, April 5th for another ultrasound to check on his growth rate. I still haven’t gained any weight, but my stomach is sure growing.

I had my 30 week OB check-up this morning as well as another ultrasound to check on baby’s growth. Everything went well but I learned two surprising facts…
1) He is completely and totally breech at the moment. Why am I not surprised (considering both of his sisters were as well just before birth)??
2) He apparently has huge feet! Lol… I saw one flash by and actually had to ask if that was a foot I saw. The Dr. just laughed and said ‘At least there is a matching pair!’ as he found the other big foot as well. All those newborn sleepers with built-in feet shall be interesting! Lol… I’m hoping it was just altered because of the angle of the u/s scan or something. His foot seemed to be almost as long as his thigh bone.

I go back on March 19th for another check-up and the first non-stress test. I will then have to go in twice a week for another non-stress test for the rest of the pregnancy. I’m sure that will get old really quickly, but I’ll do whatever is needed. They want to keep us in close check due to the blood pressure and problems that could arise. I’m going to attempt to attach a photo here from the ultrasound. It’s a profile shot of his face. He was very peaceful and you could see his chin quivering as he sucked his lower lip.

I got the call today from my OB nurse saying I passed the 3 hour glucose test. Yahoo!!! I soooooo needed to hear that right now. Adding Gestational Diabetes to my plate right now would just be too much. I have enough going on with trying to remember to sleep and eat enough for baby (and myself) right now while dealing with Shealyn’s insulin and sugars.

I go back on Tuesday, March 6th, for my 30 week appointment. I will also get another ultrasound done that day as well. They want to check on baby’s growth to make sure the high blood pressure hasn’t stunted his growth at all. Apparently, that can be a common complication. Cross your fingers for us.