I promise...

....that I will have a better post sometime this weekend. I just wanted to get it out there that I will NOT be posting about my doctor's appointment today. The doctor that originally said that I have high blood pressure is who I saw today and all I can say is I will do everything in my power to not see her again this pregnancy. She upset me. She upset Nate. Everything with Claire is going beautifully. She's looking to be about 5lbs 8oz right now, which puts her right on target for being a beautiful, healthy 8lb baby girl at full term. Obviously 5.5 pounds is an estimate since it's an ultrasound, but it's good!! Today the "bad" doctor talked about how she was worried that my blood pressure would make her a small baby and that the high blood sugar problems would make her a big baby. Okay. Which one is it? The only time I've had high blood pressure problems in this pregnancy is when I've seen her and the very first appointment when I saw the guy OB and I had never been to a male OBGYN so I was waaaay nervous. That's it. It's been pretty much perfect ever since. Claire is measuring exactly where she should be. I have had no protein in my urine and no sugar either. Another doctor there said she would be able to tell that there were blood sugar problems if sugar started spilling into my urine. I'm almost 35.5 weeks and that has yet to happen. She made me feel bad about not checking my blood sugar levels. No other doctor there has been concerned about it or given me crap about it. You know what she did? She threatened to possibly start me on insulin if she thought the baby was getting too big. That pisses me off to no end. She's all about making sure Claire is the perfect size. She needs to step back and stop trying to be some hero doctor who tries to keep every mother/baby in this perfect little mold. I won't go into all the details. I've already fibbed because I said I wouldn't talk about the appointment and here I am still talking about it, LOL!! I told her today that I would do 1 NST a week if she thought it was medically necessary. We discussed the cost with her and told her that every single time I had an NST, Claire was completely fine (the nurses were always impressed with her heartrate and everything) and so was my blood pressure. We'll see. I see a different doctor next week and I'm happy about that. *sigh* If this doctor really wants to be a good doctor, then she needs to back off and stop trying to use scare tactics. She's not helping anyone but herself (and the doctor's office make money) by using these stupid scare tactics. I'm not an idiot and I won't be bullied around. Especially when there are 3 other doctors in the office who aren't throwing a big hissy fit about everything like she is. Okay, so there you have it. A post about my doctor's appointment. I sure know how to stay true to my word!! I'll post later to cover up this yucky post!! ;) I have some awesome news on the digi-scrapping front!! Yay me!!

Okay that's enough for this entry. I need to let go of being upset about this appointment. I have Nate's full support as well as the support of my family. I have just over 4.5 weeks left in this pregnancy. I will not let some doctor who likes to overdo it on the intervention stress me out and ruin this experience. This is in God's hands and He will give Nate and I the strength and knowledge that we need to make our own decisions.

I'm here...

....just have not felt like blogging lately. I've been sick since last weekend and I'm just getting to that stage in the pregnancy where I'm just completely wiped out by the time we get home from work. I'm ready for a break from there!! Ready to just be home enjoying my family and the holidays!! I'll hopefully have a real post this weekend :)

Hooray for weekends!!!!

I seriously love weekends. I honestly think Claire does too!! She's been SO active today - I think she must be able to sense my elation of being at home!! LOL!! I had a doctor's appointment today. I was dreading it because I was afraid of the whole confrontation that might arise because of me not going to my NSTs anymore. What? I didn't post about that yet?? Oh brother - I'm behind!! Long story short - I've gone to a total of 5 NSTs so far...Tuesday comes and I get a second statement from our insurance company saying that the second NST I had was $357. I thought the first statement I got that said that was for all of the NSTs (silly Laurie, nothing is that cheap in healthcare!!!). So our insurance is NOT the best and we end up paying for 20% of everything after our deductible is met (which after being pregnant, doesn't take long at all). So in essence, each NST is costing me $71.40. If I were to go 14 more times (like they think I should), that's an extra $999.60 out of our pocket (on top of the $357 we're already having to pay them). It's more expensive to have those stupid NSTs that it will be to actually have Claire!! Isn't that insane? The most insane part?? The reason that I'm supposed to be having them!! High blood pressure. Every single time I go in there I typically get readings of 115/73 (on average) sometimes a little higher, sometimes lower. How is that high? The nurses are always impressed with Claire and her movements and heartbeat and reaction to things...it's a waste of both time and money. Okay - back to today. I went in being pretty nervous. I didn't want to get lectured or anything like that. We walk in, I go in right away to give my urine sample (no sugar still - I half think they're expecting it)...then a minute later they call me back and Nate, Libby and I go back to the room. First they weighed me. I actually GAINED a pound these past 2 weeks!! How sad that I was excited about that?!?! So the offical tally is up 2 pounds!! Then she came and took my my blood pressure. I almost fell off the chair when she told me what it was....110/70. Yep. So proud!! The doctor came in said to keep doing whatever it is I'm doing to keep my pressure down. (I think it has a lot to do with not going to the hospital twice a week for NSTs and eating more of what I want). The more relaxed I am, the better things seem to be. Obviously I didn't say anything about the NSTs. She didn't either. I figure if that's 2 appointments where neither doctor is saying anything, why should I? It's obviously not a big deal to them, so why should it be for me? I go back in 2 weeks and this time I'm seeing the doctor that started it all - the doctor that suggested I do the NSTs twice a week in the first place. Grrrr. Knowing her, she'll probably say something. Oh well, as long as things are still looking good, she can't say much. All she has to do is look at my numbers from today and from the NSTs that I did go to. Anyway. No need to worry so much about things I can't control right now - the important thing is that Claire will be here in less than 7 weeks!!

Not too much else going on here today. We got our dishwasher this week. I am so excited to get that baby installed. Nate and his dad are probably going to be working on it tomorrow!! YAY!! We also got the paint for Claire's room and we've been steadily working on getting the house in shape for her arrival. Seems like there is still so much to do!!

Tonight after dinner, the three of us are going to make and decorate Halloween cupcakes. I am so excited!! We decorated cupcakes with Libby last year when my dad and sister came down to see us. I thought that would be a fun tradition. This year it's more Halloween themed than it was last year. Libby is SO excited!! She thinks we need to have a party now!!

I did manage to scrap a few pages this past week:


Well that's about all I have for now. Happy weekend!!

xoxo

We've got quite the....

....sensitive girl on our hands!! I don't know if it's just more of her amazing little personality emerging or if it's because she senses very big changes coming soon, but Libby has been so unbelievably sensitive lately!! She's also extremely attached to both Nate and myself right now - more so than usual. The thought of her being separated from us upsets her tremendously. Last weekend at Long Lake, Nate was going with Calista and Libby (and the other kids) on their second hayride. I was going to go, but it looked awfully crowded already and I figured it wouldn't be a big deal if I missed out. Wrong. To Libby it was a very big deal. As soon as she noticed that I was walking away, she cried and cried and wanted me. She wasn't going to go if I wasn't going. So on a hayride we went!! Then on our anniversary she spent the night at Nate's mom and dad's house. We got back earlier than we had planned and I HAD to stop in and give her hugs and kisses. I couldn't stand knowing that she was still awake over there and not giving her some love. When I told her that we were leaving to go home, she wanted to go too. She was actually disappointed when I told her she was staying. I felt so bad. She ended up having lots of fun and was excited again about sleeping in Gram's bed. Then yesterday we went pumpkin picking. Nate's mom and dad went along but had to drive separately since we were headed out to my mom's afterwards. Libby always wants to ride with them wherever. She didn't want to - she wanted to ride with mommy and daddy. And before we left, we stopped back over at our house to get the car and my purse - she was so insistent that she come too. I guess she's finally going through a bit of separation anxiety. Poor girl. Today at church she had another episode. I didn't go because sitting in those stiff wooden pews is SO unbelievably uncomfortable right now. Nate took Libby down to children's church and she wasn't too keen on him going, but he said she seemed okay. Well he was sitting back upstairs and all of a sudden he heard crying - he realized that it was Libby (in the basement) crying and she was inconsolable. Talk about heartbreaking. :( She's such a little sweetheart, it makes me so sad when she gets sad or upset. She's also on a kick right now where she HAS to go through a list of things to say when she's saying goodbye. She makes sure she always says:

I love you
Be careful
Don't cry
Have fun
Have a good day.

And she will say those things 2 and 3 times a piece just to make sure you know that she's thinking about you and wishing these things for you. Seriously, I wonder how we got to be so blessed with such an amazing little girl. Her sweetness and big caring heart are such a gift!!

She's also very excited about her new sister. She and I went to Target yesterday to grab a few things and when we walked by the baby stuff, she was rattling through all of the things that we need to get for baby Claire. The most important of those things was baby wipes so we could wipe Claire when she poops!! LOL!! I told her that we need to get Claire a bouncer too, so Libby picked out the one that she wants to get her:



I think it's adorable too and I think Libby would really love it if she got to pick it out. :)

When we went pumpkin picking yesterday I quickly found that Libby had an agenda when it came to picking pumpkins. She wasn't there to pick one out for herself. She was there to get one for her sister. Bless her little heart!! She looked and found what she thought was the perfect pumpkin for her sister!! I promised her we would take lots of pictures so that we could show Claire her first pumpkin someday. Here's what she came up with:


And here's the pumpkin that Daddy found:


And here's how Libby decided she wanted Claire's pumpkin to look:


And here is my absolute favorite shot from yesterday :)


So that's about it for this weekend. Nate and I had a wonderful time on Friday night. We went to Pasta House and it was delish!! Can't wait to go again!! It was so nice having an evening where it was just the two of us and we could do things at our own pace. It was so nice not having to worry about getting home at a certain time or anything like that. Oh and you know how I scrapped a page for him? Yeah, that was our thing this year - to make eachother a "card". I printed off that layout for him and he absolutely loved it!! Well he dug into my paper scrap stash (which is hardly ever touched anymore) and this is what he came up with for me. Had me crying like a baby!! He was self-conscious about it, but he had no reason to be - I couldn't have loved anything more!!


I haven't done all that much scrapping this weekend, so here are just a few pages to show you!!


And that about wraps it up. *sigh* Another weekend almost over. They go entirely too quickly, that's for sure!!

Later dudes!!

xoxo

Five years ago today....

....I said "I Do" to the love of my life.


I am so thankful that God brought Nate and I together. It's a marriage that I know will last forever and I'm so grateful to spend eternity with him!! Nate you are such a wonderful husband and father!! I am so blessed that you are mine!! I love you SO very much and look forward to all the years we have together!!

FOBTY 10/16/2008 and some layouts!!

Halloween Candy Quiz

You are a Pumpkin Cookie


Like the pumpkin cookie you are both sensible and always welcome


Find out which Halloween Candy you are at Quizopolis.com

Not a whole lot going on there that's out of the ordinary. Just completely ready for the weekend!! Work has been so stressful and I'm anxious for any chance I get to get out of there!! I'm fully convinced that the stress of the place is a big part of what's causing me to not gain weight (or lose weight). It's very frustrating. *sigh*

Just some layouts to share today. I have a special one to share tomorrow :)


And that is all I know for now. :) Time for some kick counting!!

More tomorrow!! xoxo

Katie...

....this one's for you chickie!! :)


I can't stop giggling at this picture!! I just looked again and zoomed in and yep, it's definitely a mosquito!!