Easter Eggs!

This weekend was great. Saturday night we went over to Auntie Tricia's house to dye eggs as has been our tradition for the last 5 years. We didn't really explain to Spence what to do other than, "you put the egg in the cup and it will change colors."

So, he grabbed a white egg out of the carton and just threw it in to a cup of blue dye. It cracked. Less than five seconds later he grabbed another egg and just dropped it into a cup of green dye. It cracked. We tried to tell him that he needs to slow down etc...and he grabbed another egg and squeezed it until it broke.



He didn't seem to care too much and just took the pieces of the egg and put those in the cup, too. Ha! So, we told him he had to stop for a while because it had been less than two minutes and he'd already dyed his share of eggs.

Since he couldn't dye any NEW eggs, he just reached his hands into the cups and kept re-dyeing his old eggs over and over. He wasn't using the spoons, just dunking his eggs and fingers and everything......it was a blast.

Then on Easter morning, we went over to Auntie Haley's house and opened Easter baskets. Then he and Gwyneth and Mikaela all hunted for Easter eggs - they did great and they had so much fun.

Then he decided he wanted to golf. He golfed for an hour, hitting the same ball around the entire yard over and over and over. Then the bubble machines came out and the kids all ran in circles and chased the bubbles. They just had so much fun...he had such a great weekend!

MONSTER TRUCKS!!!

We took Spence to the County Fair tonight to see the monster truck show. He's been talking about it for days... We had fun walking around - he went to a "Farmer For A Day" exhibit and got to pick real corn from fake stalks, oranges from trees, dig potatoes from the dirt and collect eggs from a henhouse. He saw Spongebob Squarepants, goats, pigs, chicks, cows and bunnies. He ate an entire corndog and drank about a gallon of lemonade. "It's sour!" Then he went on a helicopter ride with his Dad, smiling the whole time.

Then we went over to the monster truck arena. The monster trucks came out and he thought they were really cool. One of the trucks, "Felon" is one of his favorties from his collection at home. Then they left and we watched some off-road trucks race (which he REALLY liked) and then the monster trucks came back out.

It was INSANE how loud they were. We were in the very first row to the dirt and when they passed right in front of us, we could feel it in our chests. Everything was shaking. Spence really liked the first monster truck, but by the time the second one came out it was a couple of minutes past his bedtime and he just seemed a little shaken up by them. So, we left and he said they were "awesome" and "scary".

Sniff, sniff...

Tonight I was reading Spencer some books about bringing a new baby home. He climbed on me and said, "I want to hug the tummy." So, he puts both arms around my stomach and says, "I love you, Baby."

We both got a little teary-eyed on that one.

The Last Few Weeks Have Been Rough

Earlier this month at Wesley's 18 week anatomy scan, the doctors found a Ventricular Septal Defect in his heart. It basically means that the bottom two chambers of his heart are not completely separate like they should be...there is a small hole between them which allows the oxygenated blood to mix with the non-oxygenated blood.

At the time of our appointment, he said the defect raised our chances of Wesley having Down Syndrome from 1:640 to 1:40. He said I could get blood drawn to raise or lower those odds based on the results - but that the only thing that would tell us for sure would be to get an amniocentesis.

I talked to my OB, the same one who delivered Spencer (who we completely trust and love) and she said, "Well, you're going to fall into one of two categories. You don't care if the baby has Downs and you are ok with not finding out until he's born - or - you will need to find out now so you can properly educate yourself and keep yourself from going crazy the next 4 months." Cody and I thought about it a lot because the amniocentesis procedure carries a miscarriage risk and we weren't sure we wanted to take that chance. But after a lot of thought, we decided that we needed to know.

So, last Friday I had the amniocentesis done (where they collect fluid from around the baby with a needle) and spent the rest of the day at home. It was quite painful and the rest of the day on Friday was uncomfortable at best. They told us we would have the results by Tuesday at the latest. Tuesday came and went and we didn't get a call.

I had my regularly scheduled appointment yesterday afternoon so at that point I asked our doctor if she had any results yet. She didn't, but she went and called them to find out for us. It's not 100% official (probably about 80%) but Wesley does not have any chromosomal abnormalities. We were so happy. I felt like I hadn't taken a deep breath in weeks....

I asked the doctor if there was any way that the diagnosis would change between now and delivery and she said no. So, the issue is simply that the Ventricular Septal Defect is an isolated problem and will not affect Wesley's growth or delivery. I am scheduled to have an echocardiogram in 4 weeks to get a much closer look at his heart and see what's what.

There is a very good chance that the hole might close up on its own before he's even born, at which point it will be considered cured and a non-issue. If not, then we will be referred to a pediatric cardiologist so that we have the proper staff present when he is born, should the need for anything special arise.

If it doesn't close before he is born, it still may close up in the first year. We will have to take him to be monitored every couple of months in the first year and nothing may ever come of it. If complications arise, surgery might be required. Again, after surgery the defect is considered cured and a non-issue. And surgery is definitely the worst case scenario. It might be small enough that they never do anything about it......we just have to wait and see.

But the bottom line is that our boy is ok and now I'll be able to get some sleep. Thanks for hearing me, Mother Nature.

Our Trip To The Zoo

This past Sunday, I took my sweet boy to the zoo. I wanted to get some exercise and we wanted to have Spence out of the house so we could keep working on his "big boy" room so it will be ready in time for his birthday.



Whew, the zoo with a stroller is so much harder than without! But it felt good to be in the sunshine and Spencer LOVED it. He had so much fun looking at all the animals. We fed ducks, he saw an elephant up close and he was obsessed with the tiger. After every animal, I'd say "Do you want to look at zebras or monkeys next?" And he'd say, "Ummm, no just go see the tiger."

We took a lunch break and fed our leftovers to the ducks.

Then we finished up by looking at the snakes. Of course I had to buy him a little tiger at the gift shop that he named Shere Khan after the tiger in Jungle Book. Then he kept growling at everyone we passed, it was pretty funny. The pictures are from when I say, "Spence what does a tiger say?" And he was growling. I can't wait to take him back.

It's Official

I'm showing...I can totally tell in my clothes today. Baby Wesley is making sure I know he's there, too. Lots of fluttering during the day. :)

Maybe I'm just in a bad mood

I was just messing around on Babycenter and they have like 15 different labor and delivery stories you can read. The women who delivered told their stories from their perspective - one was "A One-Hour Delivery" one was "We Got a Girl When They'd Told Us Boy"....I was reading through them and came across the one that said, "A Grueling Delivery".

I'm thinking...out of all the hundreds of women they profiled for these stories, this one must be hellacious!

She goes into detail about being induced, "After 5 hours of pitocin, I just could't take it anymore and asked for an epidural. They got it right in, but then I could still feel pressure even though I wasn't in pain anymore. I was still in labor for 10 more hours before I could push. It was the longest 20 hours of my life."

Ummm, I was in labor for 36 hours and after two separate tries, my epidural STILL never worked and I felt everything. I wonder what they would have called mine.

This is fun

THIS is why I'm not a doctor...

I was wrong. It's a boy!



Here are some of the coolest pics from our appointment today:




Can you see the five distict fingers of his hand by his face? Woohoo!



I love these - they are 3D. The first one, his back is facing right and you can see his lil hands out in front of him. He looks like a gummy bear.

The second one, his back is also facing right, but you can clearly see his legs crossed at the ankles. Very cool! He is about 5 inches right now from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet.

What an exciting day...I can't believe I'm going to have two boys! Two sweet baby boys!!!

11 Weeks

Well, so far I'm not doing too bad. I haven't been actively sick, but I have been extremely nauseated just about every single day since about 6 weeks. I'm really struggling today, but it's also in part to a sinus thing I caught from Spencer. I'm really looking forward to having a "normal" day...I'm sure Cody and Spence are, too. :)

I'll be 12 weeks tomorrow and we'll find out what we're having. I'm very excited, but I have a gut feeling that it's a girl. That's what Cody thinks too.....we shall see!