Week by Week Belly shots

I thought this would be fun to see how I've grown over the last 32 weeks:

12 weeks

14 weeks

16 weeks18 weeks20 weeks22 weeks24 weeks
26 weeks 28 weeks
30 weeks 32 weeks

Getting ready!!

I know babies are expensive, but I didn't realize how much would be spent before she even gets here. I've got lists all over the house of stuff that we need to buy. I've got a full page of items that need to be packed for the hospital or bought. I'm slowly getting them check off. We got the rocker ordered and still need to buy the other pack n play (for downstairs) and a swing.

We only have 7 weeks left.....maybe she will be early. I've started packing my bag just in case, I don't want to have to send Mike back home to pack things...(scary thought)!!

Last night we picked up a white bookshelf and got that put together. I have to still put up a closet organizer.

Taking Responsibility for your own action....I don't think so!!!

So here's the newest thing: Intermittent Explosive Disorder. This is what the "Experts" are now calling the disorder that causes people to have road rage. Give me a freaking break! What ever happened to taking responsibility for ones own actions? I can see it now, some guy is going to be unable to control his self, get pissed off, cause some person to drive off the road, over a bridge and kill them and the guy will get off because he has IED disorder!

What has happened to our society that every one has to blame someone else for their actions? Lets start suing our parents for our genes, " Sorry Mom and Dad, I'm suing you because its all your fault that you passed these faulty genes on to me." I get so tired of people blaming everyone else for their problems.

Painting is done....Landscaping is not....

YEAH!!! The loft and living room are finished!! I'm so excited. I'v been waiting for this for years, here are the finished walls:


BEFORE: UGLY GREEN

AFTER: PRETTY TAN AND RED

Landscaping is still not finished in front, although most of the bricks are in place, its just a matter of now getting dirt, rock, plastic and plants. Hopefully it will be done by this weekend.

I'm gettin bigger and bigger every day: Here I am at 30 weeks.

I'ts amazing to me that your body can stretch the way it does, so far I've been lucky and I haven't gotten one stretch mark (Knock on Wood). Ella is due in 8 weeks and I'm just about ready to be done with being pregnant. My feet are "SWOLLEN" ( some of you get this) and my belly is starting to get in the way of simple everyday things: Shaving my legs has become a circus act. Putting lotion on my feet and legs, almost impossible. Getting out of bed......rolling over in bed......

I've Totally lost It!!!

What in the world was I thinking? I'm having around 30-40 people at my house Saturday for Mikes 40th Birthday and we decieded that this would be a great week to redecorate the house!!

Mike is in the process of trying to finishing the landscaping in the front and I've got my hands full inside. As I type, a Man is on a very large extention ladder prepping my walls for the paint that is going to be applied Thursday and Friday. My living room and loft have to be completely emptied out and then everything put back before the party Saturday.

FYI: If you are coming over on Friday night, I may put you to work :)

On top of that, I've got to decorate, get the yard ready, get the food ready and finish the laundry. Am I crazy, ABSOLUTLY!!!

(ps. my ankles are swollen and I'm not getting any sleep, I'm ready to have this baby)

For those of us who can't read.....

I think the little handicap button next to the word verification on blogger should be for people like me ,that can't make out the flipping letters half the time.....

It's really to listen and type the letters...uhm isn't that kinda of like the braille machine at the ATM?

(I'm not being mean, just wondering outloud)

Front Yard Makeover

So what started out as a Saturday morning of pulling weeds, turned into a full on landscaping makeover: This is what Mike did on Saturday while I supervised:


BEFORE:

AFTER:

This weekend will be spent doing the other side of the house, it looks like this right now:

Mike is going to pull all this crap out, put in a rock wall, replant and rock. It should be a busy weekend!!

Lobsters, Nurserys and Goofy

Things have been busy in the Williams Household. Mike and I spent this weekend finishing Ella's room. We still have to order the rocker and buy a book case but other than that, she is ready to move in. Here are the pics of the finished room:

This past Saturday was the monthly card game with Mikes side of the family, it also happened to be his Step-Moms and Brothers birthday. We got a call on Friday from his sister asking us if we wanted 11 whole lobsters (they were left overs from a company party her husband had), of course we took them. So Saturday was a food fest, ribeyes, chicken breasts, ribs and of course the lobsters:

Just a goofy pic of my husband on Cinco de MikeO:

Baby Ella

Mike and I went last Friday to get the 3D ultrasound done. Ella wasn't cooperating, so we got to go back Tuesday and try to get some decent pictures. She was good this time and we got some really cute pictures and video of her. According to the Ultrasound Tech, Ella has a lot of hair, just like her mommy did.

Here are a couple of the pictures:

Picking her nose, nice!!

So its a rainy day here in St. Louis and I'm thinking of all the things that we could do today. Of course, my husband would rather spend the day playing his new "Teaching Guitar". I, of course, have a much different view of how today could be spent.

* The garage needs to be cleaned out. I refuse to come home with a new baby and be able to park in the garage.
* Finish painting the Baby Ella's Room.....
* Go check out the St. Charles Home and Garden show
* Work on cleaning up the basement
* Pack up all the old clothes in this house and take them to Goodwill
* Laundry

None of these really sound any good and we will probably spend the day on the couch watching stupid Saturday Afternoon movies.


A couple of months ago, Mike and I bought a dopplar to hear the baby's heartbeat. We could never hear it until this morning. We decieded to try it out and sure enough, there it was. It was really neat to be able to hear that. She has been moving around like crazy the last week (I'm thinking future Olmpyic Gymnast Perhaps?).

26 weeks....

can you believe that in less than 14 weeks little Miss Ella is going to be here? Kinda crazy to think about. Here is the latest pic:

I am getting so big and to think I still have 14 weeks of weight gain to go! YIKES!!

Pictures.....

Here are some pictures of Ellas room so far and one of the little suit I HAD to buy her:

Happy Belated Easter....

This was too funny to pass up!!

Touchy Subject

Mike and I were discussing the fact that a women in the US can have a late term abortion just because they decieded that they didn't want it, through the 2nd Trimester, week 27. I know this is a touchy subject and before I was pregnant wasn't real sure how I stood on the issue. Thinking about it now, when Ella is 24 weeks, it just makes me sad. This is a photo of what a 22 week old baby looks like, Ella is 2 weeks ahead of this:

I don't mean to offend anyone, or start any sort of argument. I just wanted to state my thoughts. Right now as I'm sitting here, I can feel her moving and kicking me in the ribs. While I'm totally enjoying that part of it :), I couldn't even imagine having an abortion at this time. If she was to be born today, she has a pretty good chance of survival.

On a different topic, for those of you who are not keeping up with her website, I will post on here how the doctors visit went yesterday. Each visit the doctor measures my Uterus and in CM, it should equal the number of weeks that I am. As of yesterday I'm measuring 26 weeks, 2 weeks bigger. I asked the doctor what that meant and she said that if it goes over 2 weeks, then another Ultrasound will be done and my due date will be adjusted. Little Ella may be earlier than we thought. Her heart was good beating at 141 BPM.

We started our Childbirth Prep Classes Wed. night. The information is useful, Mike is a little bored, (been through this how many times in school)? One of the nurses giving the class is a horrible speaker and makes the class drag on but there are some good things too.

Week 24......16 to go

Here is the week 24 pic, not much growth since last time. Can you beleive that I only have 16 weeks left? The time has flown by so far. I have a feeling that these last 3 months are going to creep by!! Ella has been getting more and more active. She loves to wake up and do the salsa on my bladder around my bedtime...I really don't mind though, at least I know she's okay.

Tonight is our first Child Birth Prep Class. It should be interesting, we'll see how it goes tonight to see if we continue them.

Here is pic of Sigma, for some reason he loves to sleep on the remote:

And just so she doesn't feel left out, here's one of Tigger

Stuff...

Here is the latest picture of my belly:

22 Weeks



The furniture has been ordered and should be here next week. The bedding has been ordered and should also be here next week. Things are coming together in the room. Mike and I still have to finish painting, put up blinds and the closet organizer. My brother has to put in a light and ceiling fan. The goal is to have the room done by June 1st. We shouldn't have a problem with that.

I've finally started feeling Ella kick. She's finally strong enough for me to feel her on the outside moving around. It's kinda creepy, in a good way. Everyday it still amazes me that this little being is being created inside of me.




Does it make me completely nuts that I'm excited that Mike is going out of town tomorrow and I have the day off and my plan is to clean out the kitchen cabinets?
I'm starting to think so!!!

BRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!

Update: 15mins and $220.06 later and I have heat. I can't believe that in 15mins the guy got my heat working. Not that I care, I would have paid whatever he wanted....It is already warmer in here.

As I was getting up this morning around 5:30am to pee for the 50th time (this is what happens when you are preggo), I noticed that is was really chilly in the house. I woke Mike up and asked him to go check on the heat. He said, "It must be really cold outside." I told him it's too cold in here, somethings wrong. He finally gets up, goes downstairs and then down to the basement. He was down there for awhile and curiosity got to me, so I piled on a bunch of clothes, shoved my feet in my slippers and shuffled down there. Apparently our pilot light was out, I told him to light it. He says its not the kind you light, its self-ignighting.

We called the repair man and I'm now waiting in this freezing house while Mike got to leave and go sit in a warm class room. They are charging us $160 bucks an hour because it's Saturday. Why couldn't this freaking thing have gone out 2 days ago?

Fridge Magnets...

First day of Spring......

Today was the first day of Spring and we were hit with a snowstorm. Sleet, Rain, Snow the whole sloppy mess. We haven't had a decent snow all year and the first one we get is on the first day of Spring. I'm hoping that Mother Nature got that out of her system and we can now start having warm and sunny days. Mike took this picture out the front door last night:

Ella's Room

Here is the picture of what Ella's room will look like. It will be almost identical to the picture. The furniture we are getting is almost the same color and the walls are the already the tan color:

Surprise!!!

Yesterday was our 20 week office visit and anatomy ultrasound. They check to make sure all of the organs are formed correctly and that the baby has all the parts it is supposed to have. While we were in there the Sonographer asked us if we wanted to know the sex, of course we said, even though we already knew.

(If you don't already know we had gone into the 3D place about 3 weeks prior and was told it was a boy.)

She looked around for a minute and said, "congratulations, It's a defiantly a Girl!"

Mike and I both got that the deer in the head light look and I started stammering....Uh, Uh, Uh. Then I told her what we had done and showed her the pic of the "Boy Parts." She says, "Well, if I had looked at these, I would have said it was a girl with her hand between her legs." Mike and I were in totally shock and I made her look 4 more times before I was satisfied. She told us that she never says 100% but if it was her Ultrasound, she would go home and paint the room pink!

So our little man has turned into a little Lady! Alex James is now a Ella Marie and we have a ton of work to do. We started re-registering last night and now we have to pick out bedding and repaint the room!!

Here are the pictures:

Ella's girl parts



Ella's Profile



Ella's Foot

Animal Abuse...

For those that know my cats.....

MOOOOOOOO!!!

Current
Week 20....half way there


Before, Mexico Sept 2005




OMG!!! What the hell happened to my belly this week? It got really big this past week. I'm going to be freaking huge by the time this kid gets here. Check out Alex's website to see the progressive slideshow so far.

HELP!!!!

Oh my gosh! There are literly thousands of bedding sets to choose from. Here are a few that I really like, let me know which ones you like.

Sanford and Son

Today was trash day at my house! We took an entire truck full of clothes and furniture to Goodwill and now the boys are on their way to the trash dump with another truck load full of trash, old mattresses, ect. We are clearing out the house for the baby!

We finally decided on a paint color. Some of you know the story, some of you don't. Mike and I have been trying to find a light tan color to paint Alexs room. It was a lot harder than we thought it would be, it was either too light or too dark. After 3 gallons of paint and $75 later, we decided to head to the paint store instead of Home Depot for some professional help. We told the man, "we want a light tan", he said, "how about subtle tan?" We bought a $4.00 sample can, took it home and it was perfect. So now after all of that, we are finally going to get the room painted today!