One year ago today...

*****Disclaimer - Medical talk and some disgusting stuff will be discussed.*****

I was sitting in Pre-Op at this exact time (10:14am) waiting for the OR to be cleaned as I was the next patient in line.

It was my first experience being in the hospital as a patient and even though I tried not to show it, I was soooo nervous!  My first IV, my first admission, my first surgery, my first general anesthesia, and the best part, my first PCA.

I had found out about a month earlier that I had fibroids aka non-cancerous tumors on my uterus.  Usually not a big deal, but for someone who was trying to have a baby, it was something that needed to be removed in order to prevent infertility, miscarriage and pain.  Most people with fibroids have a hysterectomy, but since we were wanting kids, my doctor recommended removing them.  On the first ultrasound, they anticipated the largest fibroid to be about 8 cm in diameter.  The next day, I had an MRI and the size was then noted to be 9cm, but I also had several others of unknown size that needed to be taken out.  Surgery was scheduled which brought me to my day of firsts.

Surgery was uncomplicated tother than the fact that my uterus was the size of a 20 week pregnancy and the doctor had a hard time getting my uterus out of my abdomen in order to remove the fibroids.  The result of which was an 8 inch long incision on my lower abdomen.  It turned out that the largest fibroid was actually 12 cm, followed by another at 5cm and 6 more between 1-2cm each.  Rob joked that I had octuplets!  My doctor was even kind enough to take pictures of the fibroids once they were removed...picture to follow :)

For the next 3 days I was a patient and lucky enough to have wonderful friends and family come visit me.  I'll admit I was not the best company...especially for the first 2 days.  I would often doze off in the middle of conversations.  I think I made Rob extremely worried.  I remember my mom trying not to cry the first time she saw me after surgery.

On November 7th, I was discharged from the hosptial and spent the next 4 weeks at home laying low and getting the royal treatment from Rob, my parents and his parents who each brought us a meal to enjoy without having to cook.

When I think back to everything that has happened within the last year, I am in awe!  Surgery, our first wedding anniversary, the birth of a nephew and 2 nieces, not to mention the wonderful new addition that has been created and will arrive come February.

To all my family and friends...Thank You for being You!  You all have made this last year so much better just by being there for Rob and I.  You are amazing!

Disaster Area

Our house is a disaster.  I keep looking at it and telling myself it's gonna get better...really.

It's all for a good cause, the main focus of this blog, the baby that is supposed to be arriving in 16 weeks.

Our current guest room is the going to be the baby's room and our lovely "work-out" room will go back to being the workout room/mini storage room.

All of this includes going through a lot of stuff...throwing some away and creatively organizing others.  I like things organized...really, I do!  It's just getting them that way that bugs me and usually takes forever. 

As I'm going through our stuff, I am also realizing that we not only have a lot of stuff, we also have a lot of stuff that we will never use.  I am currently calling all the extra stuff "crap."  I have never had a garage sale, but that might be what it will come to....after baby but before maternity leave is over.  It's a good thought, right?  Maybe I won't call it a garage sale.  I'll call it a crap sale.  That'll draw the buyers, won't it? Ha!

As for the organizing, I'm about half-way done, but it seems never-ending.  That's the way cleaning and organizing goes, doesn't it?

I keep telling myself it'll be worth it when it's done.

It'll be worth it when it's done!

For the sake of my own sanity and pride, I am NOT including pictures this time around.  But visualize this...a small tornado has hit all of the rooms in our house with the exception of the bathrooms.  Maybe a medium tornado would be better and no, I'm not exaggerating.

It'll be worth it when it's done.

21 week ultrasound

Today, I have hit the 21 week mark. It's really not that special other than the fact that we had our ultrasound today!

We have decided that our baby is going to be a stubborn thing. The ultrasound tech was not able to get the usual "profile" picture cause it wouldn't cooperate. It was also a good thing that we didn't want to find out what Baby P's gender is, cause we had a modest kiddo on our hands. Because they were not able to visualize the face, I have to have another ultrasound (oh, darn) at my next visit in 4 weeks.

We were able to get a picture of a foot as well as an arm and hand. If you look really close, you can see the baby's head and shoulders in the arm picture.

I am feeling the baby move a little more. However, I did find out why I'm not feeling it like most people have told me I would by now. My placenta is in the front (anterior) acting as a cushion for baby's kicks and punches, making it difficult to feel.

All in all, it was a good day! Rob had the day off, so we went out for lunch and then checked out a couple stores for cribs. I have to be one of the most indecisive people on the planet and can't decide on a crib for the life of me. Good thing we won't need it for a while! With being fortunate and having sisters who are sharing their baby stuff with me, we won't get too much new stuff, so getting to pick out the new things our baby will use is wonderful and helping me get into "mommy mode"! Too bad I can't decide and thanks goodness we have a few more months before we really need the "baby gear."

I know the pictures are a little blurry, but like I said, baby wasn't really cooperating that day.  Enjoy!

Half-way...kinda

Today I hit the "official" half-way mark!

I am 20 weeks along which is technically half done.

However, since I'll be having a c-section at approximately 38 weeks, I hit the milestone last week.

Either way it's nice to finally say...

"I'm half-way...kinda"

The Stuewe Family

Last week my sister, Jodene mentioned that she wanted to try to have a fall family picture taken to commemorate Jayde's 7 month "birthday" as well as to simply have a recent family photo including Jayde. Instead of going to a "pro", she asked me if I would be willing to take some pics.

I am not a professional. I am simply a photographer wanna-be with a mediocre camera and average eye. I told her I'd give it a shot and hopefully we'd come out with something decent enough to put in a frame.

The problem? Her husband Andy is a busy farmer who recently cut all of his hay and is in the middle of fall harvest. What's the big deal? In farming, a good weather day is a crazy busy day. We knew getting him to agree to take even a few hours off to sit in front of a camera was going to be tough.

I had to be the annoying sister-in-law and text him yesterday saying "This is your warning. Pictures tomorrow in Chaska." His response "K". What a guy! No arguing.

We planned a trip to the Arboretum in Chaska for today...a beautiful fall day. It was almost too warm! We stayed in the car and did the 3-mile drive. It's gorgeous! I had never been to the Arboretum and I was amazed just driving into the parking lot how beautiful everything was. Part of the reason the pics turned out so great was the scenery.

The other part was how cooperative my "subjects" were. Andy was very generous with 2 hours of picture taking and even Ava and Jayde held it together long enough to get some good shots. At least...what I think are good shots.

Here are some of the results. I'm not good with photo editing, but I think they turned out pretty good all the same. Enjoy!







My Favorite One




















Being silly

F-A-R-M again... and the new ride!

For those of you who don't believe me when I tell you that Harley knows the word farm...I'm attaching a short video of when I told him we were going there today. Hopefully it works since I've never uploaded a video on here before! (Okay, so I checked it out after I posted this and it didn't work. I'll have to pick the brains of some of my fellow bloggers to figure it out in the future!)


Before we left for the farm, I had to move some stuff around in the van. That's right. I said van. I'm a convert. My co-worker/friend's husband recently got a job at Burnsville Dodge. Knowing that Dodge still makes a mini van and that this was a salesman we could trust (hey, I know where he lives!), we decided to check it out. Rob and I have been considering buying a van since before we even knew we were expecting. We were leaning towards one of the more "popular" brands, but when we looked at the prices and what we would get for the money, we decided on the Grand Caravan. With financing being a steal and getting a good price for my trade-in car, we couldn't pass it up! We went and looked at it on Thursday and brought it home on Friday. Believe me, it took a while to get used to driving it and I'm still extremely cautious, but so far I love it! My entire family is taking a trip to the Dells in January, and we've already been assigned to have Ava in the van since it has built in DVD players. Yup...players. Two! With headphones! What's not to love! I guess it has good horsepower too. Me? I'm all about the fun stuff. Just give me a back-up camera, DVD player and a phone that connects to the van, and I'm a happy camper.



The new ride!


Going out to the farm also gave me some time to spend with my sister, Jo and my two nieces Ava and Jayde. Who am I kidding? She just wanted some help with cutting back her perennials. (Just Kidding, Jo!) I got in some "holding" time with Ava and a nice little snuggle with a napping Jayde. There's nothing better than a baby falling asleep on your chest and being prefectly content. Content enough to even let the nuk fall out of her mouth and the light snoring to start. She's such a sweetie!


Jayde Marie























Ava Gabrielle



















Harley was hyper as ever during his trip to the farm. He tortured some cats, ran after Ava, pooped twice in the first 5 minutes of being out of the van and rolled around in some cat poop. Let's just say he needed a bath desperately before we left. Thanks, Jo, for helping me give him a bath! On the way home, he crashed in the back and inhaled his food when we got home. He's currently passed out on his bed. It'll be a good night!

By the way, there's no pics of Harley cause he's just too fast to get a good pic of him at the f-a-r-m.

I Feel It!

For the past few weeks now, I've been dealing with continued "morning sickness" as well as the arrival of that nasty stomach bug. There's been alot of stuff going on in my abdomen!

So much stuff, that I still wonder if what I think I'm feeling is really "it".

"It" being the baby kicking/punching/moving!

Yup, I am finally almost sure that I am feeling the newest little Polingo moving around in there.

It's not everyday or even every other day. It's only when I'm really paying attention or if it's a significant movement. The little taps don't get my attention. It's usually the big bumps that I feel. Rob tries to feel it too, but I explain to him that if I can barely feel it from the inside, it's going to be a while before he can feel it on the outside.

We have our ultrasound in 2 weeks to make sure all has developed normally. We are both praying for a wonderful result and can't wait to see how much Baby P has changed in the last 13 weeks.

More good news is that I am feeling much better. I finally realized that maybe my nausea wasn't just nausea, but also a touch of the heartburn. I started taking Zantac a couple days ago and so far so good!

That about covers the latest goings-on in our world. Hope all is well in your world too!

Until next time...