Cortney's Crew

Yesterday was my doctor's appointment. We have Kaiser, so usually you don't get to pick which doctor/nurse you get to see. But I really liked the doctor I saw yesterday, and since I'm high risk, I now get to pick who I see every time ! (Usually you have to alternate each appointment between a nurse and a doctor, but I get to see a doctor every time now). The appointment went really well. We talked about my past history with bleeding and pregnancies and I got to have another ultrasound! The doctor was so cute, usually when a doctor does an ultrasound it's really fast - get the measurements - get done. But she spent a long time just watching the baby and taking pictures for us. She kept saying "I love doing this" and "look how cute"! The baby was moving everywhere!! Super active! Which made me feel better, just seeing the baby moving so much means (to me anyway) a healthy baby! She also took a long time looking at the placenta. So far it ...

So, I'll start out with the good news - the nausea seems to be nearing it's end!! I only feel sick first thing in the morning, when brushing my teeth (although I'm now able to brush without puking most of the time), and if I wait too long in between eating. And even then it's only just a little bit of nausea, not horrible like before. And now the bad news - Friday I started bleeding. I had a little bit of spotting after cleaning the girls rooms on Tuesday, but on Friday it went from a little spotting to a little bleeding. It's not a lot, and it's really old blood, but it looks like I'm in for another great pregnancy of being on bed-rest (and possibly in the hospital for extended periods again). I didn't go into the doctor, one - I have an appointment this next week, and two - there's nothing they can do and this I know from experience. If I had been cramping or bleeding more, I would have probably gone in, but even then where I'm only 12 w...

So this year we celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve. Dean had to work during the day on both Christmas and Christmas Eve so this seemed to be the best solution. There was no way I was gonna be able to wait all of Christmas day to let the girls open their presents. So my mom came over early Wednesday to help get dinner in the oven and play with the girls. Dad was on his way to California so unfortunately he wasn't here this year. I think this is the first year he has missed Christmas with the girls. Aric came over after work and then once Dean was home we had our Christmas dinner. Yummy ham!!!!! And we make ham gravy for the mashed potatoes. It is the best!!!! Mom found some ham bouillon one year that we use with the drippings and it's perfect! Then after dinner the girls got to open their Christmas Eve presents (which is always pajamas). This year they had enough pajamas in their current sizes, so I went up a size and they were huge on them! Then Grammy took them upstairs to...

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags - Wrapping paper - I bought a huge roll at Sams Club 3 years ago for $7 and still have about half of it, kinda getting tired of the snowmen...but hey it was quite the bargain! 2. Real tree or Artificial - I'd love a real tree, but we have an artificial. I don't have the money to buy all the stuff for a real tree, let alone the tree itself, so I make do with what I have. 3. When do you put up the tree - Usually day after Thanksgiving, this year the Monday after Thanksgiving since Dean worked and wanted to do it too. 4. When do you take the tree down - sometime during the week after Christmas. 5. Do you like eggnog - Yes, but not as much as Riley. We bought a jug of it and Riley drank ALL of it within two days (I had no idea she was drinking it). 6. Favorite gift received as a child - Toss up between the best barbie in the whole world that my sister destroyed (yeah never forgiving you for that one) or my twin cabbage patch dolls. 7. Hardest person t...

I had a fun time last night. We had a Christmas dinner get together with a couple of moms (and their families) from my ward. We have been having a play group on Wednesdays and wanted to do something together for Christmas. It was 4 families and somehow we ended up with enough food for an army! It was awesome! We did white elephant gifts and the best was a silk nightgown that James got! He even put it on! Poor Alexandra was so sick yesterday though. She woke up throwing up and preceded to continue all day long. So Dean stayed home with her and Riley and I went to the party. Riley is such a good kid, she was the oldest of all the kids there (by a minimum of 3 years) and so I know sometimes it gets boring for her. But the little kids love her. She'd come upstairs to sit with me and then one of the kids would come looking for her to get her to go back downstairs to play with them. On the way to the party last night, Riley tells me that when she grows up she wants to be a ...

Well, I have decided that I cannot do without my daily dose of sanity. With the morning sickness I was having trouble swallowing pills, so I just stopped taking my Prozac. (For those of you who don't know, I have trouble swallowing Advil on a good day - me and medicine just don't mix) When we went in for my first appointment, we had talked about me taking the Prozac during the pregnancy. The doctor told me that it was up to me and we talked about some of the risks. Mainly there are very low risks of birth defects if taken in the first trimester, and then after the baby is born there is a risk of withdrawal side effects. I really am not too concerned about the side effects - I figure if I breast-feed, then the baby will still be getting a bit of the meds, so no withdrawal (the doctor laughed when I said that and said she hadn't thought about that) plus I'm almost done with the first trimester!! She also said that Prozac is one of the safer anti-depressant meds (or ...

Saturday was Alexandra's Joy School Christmas Party. They preformed a nativity and then sang songs. They were so cute. My camera ran out of batteries, so I was only able to record the nativity. It's kinda quiet too, but very cute for 3 and 4 year olds. Alexandra was a wise man and an innkeeper. I loved Avery (our angel) she was so cute. Mom did take lots of pictures too, so hopefully she posts them on her blog so you can see them. That morning I knew I needed new batteries, but I swear I have pregnancy amnesia.... They also gave the kids Super Service awards. All the mom's who taught this month wrote down all the nice things the kids had done for each other and then each kid got to go up and have their list read and receive an award. I'm so glad that we've been able to do this for Alexandra this year. She has really grown and it's been nice for her to have her own "school friends". She was very upset on Thursday though when she found out it ...

So we finally got some decent snowfall yesterday. Alexandra has been waiting very impatiently for the day that it would snow enough to make snowmen and snow angels. Unfortunately the day started out horribly. Aric called at 6:00 am (yeah I'm not even up yet), so when I finally get up at 6:30 and talk to him, apparently his car stopped working on the way to work. Luckily he was near his school when it happened so he managed to push it a couple of blocks to his school parking lot. (In the snow and in less than 20 degree weather too) So he needs me to drive downtown to pick him up. So I get me and the girls ready and drop Riley off at school and then spend the next 3 hours driving in the car.... People just don't know how to drive the first big snowfall we get. It took me almost 1 1/2 hours just to get to Aric. Then I had to drive Alexandra to Joy School (which we were late for) and then take Aric home, and then finally get to go home myself. Yeah, not a fun morning. I...

On Monday night for Family Home Evening we got out the Christmas decorations. Usually we try to do this the day after Thanksgiving, but as Dean had to work that day, we had to change our plans. Usually I'm kinda picky about the tree, but as I was not feeling the best, I just let the girls have at it. Unfortunately after they were done my sense of "the tree should not have all the pink ornaments in one spot" kicked in and I made Dean fix some of it. The girls didn't mind, it just meant they got to move ornaments again. Alexandra's one demand was that she got to put the angel on the top of the tree. Our poor little Christmas tree has been through 8 Christmas'. We got it the year we got married and were in a little apartment, and since then we haven't had the money at Christmas to get a new one. But it was kinda nice this year, because the girls could reach the whole tree to hang ornaments on. After we got done, Alexandra started asking where her presents wer...