We have a name!

Her name will now be:

Bethany Gray

We're excited about it.  We realized later that means they'll both have the same initials, just different orders.  (Gregory Bruce).  Elizabeth is my maternal grandmother's middle name and Gray is my paternal great-grandmother's maiden name.

I just wasn't sold on the Nora "Nibe" part.  I loved "Beth" and it's always been one of my favorite names, but Greg said we can't name her Beth because we know someone named Beth.  I reminded him of his flawed logic given the name of our son, but apparently that's different.

I'm heading to bed, it's been a long couple of weeks of getting Bruce to go to sleep.  We went from having the "put him in bed, sing a song, close the door and he sleeps 12 hours" child to the "screams in his bed, doesn't sleep more than a few hours, sometimes climbs out" child.  It has NOT been fun.  It all started with those stupid molars.  I think we're finally making headway, but bedtime is definitely far from an easy process.  It's been taking around an hour to hour and a half to get him to sleep and naps have been about 20-30 minutes.  He whines all the time that he's tired, but he just won't sleep.  We put up blackout curtains and a noise maker/night light in his room.  That helped last night so hopefully it will continue.  We were contemplating moving him to his big boy bed, but now we're just waiting.  I told Greg, worse comes to worse, I'm fine with buying another crib for baby #2, I need sleep! :-)

Any suggestions/ recommendations/ commiserating is welcome.

Freezer cooking class

Don't know how many of you like to "freezer cook", but its one of my favorite ways to "cook".  I tend to do MUCH better when I have a freezer full of meals or half meals.  There are far fewer McDonald's drive through runs when I can pop something out of the freezer and into the oven.

I ran across this website where she's offering a free freezer cooking class.  I don't know what to expect from it, but it intrigues me and its FREE! :-)

Just thought I'd pass it along to anyone else that may be interested.

www.FreshFromTheFreezer.com

Stay tuned

The baby name is likely changing! We're not 100% sure what its changing to...that's still being discussed! If this was a boy we knew exactly what the name would be, and since I was so sure it was a boy, we didn't spend as much time on the girl name. So, stay tuned!

Also, my dr. appt. went great on Friday.  I know I say it every time, but I seriously love my dr. so much!  I was talking about the nausea and how I freaked out Sunday thinking I'd left my meds in Abilene and how I was going to have to wait until Monday and she gave me her personal cell number and told me I can call her or text her if I have a problem, that she's happy to help!

Also, Greg got to feel baby girl yesterday.  Just wanted to document that because I couldn't remember when Greg could feel Bruce.  So at almost 20 weeks Greg was able to feel her wiggling around.  It also dawned on me the other day that I'm over half-way done!  Can't believe it, I know she'll be here in no time!  I also get to have another US on Friday.  When I went in at 18 weeks she wouldn't move into the right position to get all the pictures they needed.  Specifically she wouldn't move so the tech could measure her spine.  So I get to go have another US Friday to check it out, also this week I'm supposed to go in and do the gestational diabetes test.  Yay....

It's a...

GIRL!

I know I put it on FB, but I forget that not everyone looks on there.  Plus I wanted to capture it on the blog too.  We went last Friday and had the big ultrasound.  I was absolutely sure it was a boy.  I really have no reason why.  This pregnancy has been completely different, but I always just thought I was going to have all boys!  I also had a dream the night before about all my boys playing together and it was so vivid that I was just positive.  I totally didn't believe the tech at first.

It didn't really hit me for a few days that this one is a girl, but once I started shopping it became super real! :-)  I definitely already started the clothing collection and here's hoping my SIL wants to pass some of her hand me downs this way too since my niece dresses super cute!

Things are going well.  I'm still taking my nausea medicine most days, but I have been keeping significantly more food down lately.  Although, sorry to anyone who visited the "Staples" parking lot last Friday or the Chicken Express parking lot last Sunday...that was not pretty.  I have also officially gained a pound now so hopefully the dr will be happy when I go in Friday for an appt. 

Things are progressing right along and we're super excited about it all.  We have picked a name out and we're happy to share: Nora Elizabeth to go by Nora Beth.  Nora is just a name we like and Elizabeth is my grandmother's middle name.

Yay for movement!

Just because I want to remember when I felt the movement, I officially felt somersaults yesterday!  That would be at 15 weeks 5 days.

I've felt flutters for a while now, but I have been having a lot of muscle spasms in my uterus ever since my c-section so I was never completely sure if it was that or the baby.  That being said, I always thought that I could end up being on of those "I didn't know I was pregnant" ladies since I would never know if it was a baby moving!  But seriously...I don't know how people go nine months and don't know they're pregnant...but I will admit to watching that show all the time on Discovery Health! :-)

Dr. Appt. Update

Went to the dr this morning.  Had a nice long chat with Dr. Askew about both the pregnancy and her financial planning.  I teased her as I was leaving that I don't usually go to the dr. to give advice! :-)

Based on my last U/S I was measuring nine days ahead, she decided that was accurate and changed my due date.  She also changed my status to high risk due to my humongous babies!  She said she'll schedule my c-section at 39 weeks assuming everything keeps going well.  That puts me at around March 2nd.  If this baby gets super big that might change that date.  She said she'll probably schedule the c-section either March 2nd, 3rd, or 4th.  I told her I'm fine with any of those, but if we can somehow swing it so Misty and I are there at the same time, that would be pretty fun! (Misty being my friend here in SA who's only a few weeks behind me, but pregnant with TWINS!)

She mentioned that its time to start gaining weight.  So far, all I've done is lose weight.  I've NEVER been told to gain weight...how fun! :-)  If only I felt like eating more, the gaining would be easier.  I did tell her I'd been having really bad vertigo and she asked if I'd called the office to ask for medication.  I told her I honestly hadn't even thought about it!  I grew up with parents that would tell you "oh you'll be fine" when you could see organs hanging out...I just figured it would go away.  She prescribed me some medication to help with that and also told me to STOP all my other meds.  WOO HOO!!!  I'm so done with all of the other meds. 

Basically, it was a great visit and I'm having a great birthday so far!  Oh, and the best part...I get to have my anatomy scan three weeks from today!

We're okay...

Since I know most everyone that reads this has heard about ISD's troubles, I figured I'd share our spin on it and what this means for us.

We knew ISD was having financial problems due to a lack of work which can most definitively be attributed to the dragging economy.  ISD has done well to keep its head above water for a while now, but as of yesterday the operating budget far exceeded any predicted money coming in.  This meant major cuts and unfortunately the San Antonio office was one of the major cuts.  Many many people both here and in the Baton Rouge office are being impacted by this. 

I'll admit, when I first found out, I was SO overwhelmed.  Its a stressful thing to think that we're losing one of our sources of income.  Greg has put many many hours into that company and its unfortunate that this is the position ISD has been put in.  I know they did their best for a long time to prevent this.  We'll be okay, I have a great job and we'll survive.  We've been trying to live on less and have both cars paid off so we're in a better position today then if this had happened a year ago.  Greg's deciding where he wants to go from here, and that will likely be school.  He knows he wants a different industry, but needs additional schooling to make that happen.  He has an appointment today to figure out what that means for him.

We're thankful for what ISD provided to us the past 4 years and pray for the other families who are in far more stressful situations this morning.