Aspen Visits Santa

We had some practice to prepare us for a future toddler who is afraid of Santa yesterday when we tried to get Aspen to visit with Santa for a picture. Our local feed store was offering free pet pictures with Santa, but Aspen didn't like it at all. If she was a toddler, she would have been crying but she settled for cowering. Even a treat wouldn't make her perk up. Not sure that photo will turn out :).

It's a Boy!

Our doctor's appointment went very well today, and we found out we are having a boy! Baby Boy Pierce currently weighs only 12 ounces, but he's healthy and growing well. We are planning to name him Jackson Marlow Pierce after our grandfathers. We'll call him Jack for short, but Mike called him Jack-in-the-box earlier today, and I don't like that nickname at all, so its been banned. Here's a video of the ultrasound:

So that means both Lesa and I are expecting boys. I think mom was disappointed. She really wanted a granddaughter. Mike's parents, on the other hand, are happy because they have only granddaughters so far. We are all excited nonetheless and glad the baby is doing okay.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving and enjoys lots of good food. I spent the day making fresh bread, pumpkin and chocolate cream pies, appetizers, and a brine for the turkey in preparation for our day tomorrow. I'm looking forward to my sister and Colin arriving tomorrow. It should be a fun weekend. Happy Thanksgiving!

Baby news

I had a doctor's appointment Friday and everything is looking good. Baby's heartbeat is 150, which is good. I've only gained 2 points so far, but my tummy is beginning to round out quite a bit. I've had to start wearing maternity clothes recently. Baby is apparently resting on my right side because I'm all out of alignment. I generally feel like I have a pulled muscle from hip to knee and lower back pain on that side too. I find that I favor that side when I walk now, which is adding to the problem, so I've been consciously trying to shift to my left side. The doctor recommended I start seeing a chiropractor. At my next appointment in 4 weeks (first week of December), we will finally get to find out the gender through an ultrasound! We are very excited about that.

I've made it 1/3 of the way through the school year too and since we are on trimesters, report cards are due Tuesday and then the second trimester starts this week. I'm counting down the days to Thanksgiving as I really need a break right about now. Two more weeks!

At home, things are as hectic as every, but going well. We spent two hours vacuuming leaves yesterday, and then today the wind kicked up and it looks like we never cleaned leaves at all...sigh...Maybe again next weekend. I'm starting to think about the holidays and gifts for everyone too, but not much time for homemade gifts this year.

Happy Halloween

Mike and I had to come up with some last minute costumes for a party our neighbors threw...

A Little Craftiness

I made this cute sign with my Cricut as a fun and quick project. It took me about 40 minutes and is the only decorative concession I've made to Halloween. It's all I've had time for! We did get our candy purchased over the weekend, so we are ready to go!

Update

Sorry for the long silence. I'm finding it hard to keep up with everything these days. Let's see...everything is going well with BABY. I've officially graduated from the specialist in Denver, and now I get to visit a regular OB in Loveland. On the one hand, it's nice to have graduated into the "low-risk" category. And of course, our major goal is to have the baby be healthy. However, the one benefit of the "high-risk specialist" was that I got to see the baby on Ultrasound every visit, and I was there every two weeks to ask questions and get extra attention. Now, I don't get all those high tech views. I won't have another ultrasound now until Week 20, which is when we can find out whether it's a girl or boy too. Also, I now only have to go to the doctor every 4 weeks for the time being. Health-wise, I am still using medication to control my all day "morning sickness," and I'm feeling very, very tired. Still, I'm doing pretty well.

People often ask me, "What has baby taught me so far?" Let's see...Lesson #1 is never take the freeway to work in the morning when you are pregnant. You never know when you will need to quickly pull over, and the back roads are much more convenient for this purpose :). Lesson #2--the scale may say you haven't gained weight and in fact have lost weight, but your clothes still won't fit right. Lesson #3--once you tell your students you are pregnant, they get very opinionated. I finally told them last week, and I now have lists of names they like for baby, very firm opinions on whether I should have a boy or girl, and several kids running campaigns to convince me that I should name my baby after them :). As one very cute kid told me, if I name my baby after him, "there will be another person in the whole world who has my name!" He does have an unusual name, but still it's a little dramatic!

I'm looking forward to our 3-year anniversary on Wednesday. We won't do much since it's on a weekday, but we are planning to go out for dinner at least. And we have a 3-day weekend this week because it's fall break, so that's exciting! We are hoping for a good weather day so we can get out and about and enjoy our day off. I'm also gearing up for Halloween at school. I'm not sure whether to be excited or to dread having to do the costume and treats thing. Oh well! It will all be over in two weeks! And, we don't do much at home for Halloween, but I'm starting to think about plans for Thanksgiving and the holidays.