Dental Update

Well I went to the Endodontist today for and evaluation on what to do about my stupid tooth. He did a really good job of explaining to me what was going on (not that I could acurately re-explain it on here) but I do need to have minor dental surgery, technically called an apicoectomy. Basically they have to go into the root and bone through an incision in my gums....yuck. And I have to do it, option #2 is a tooth extraction.

Luckily they can do it using only novacaine so I can do it now while I'm pregnant, wooh! The doc wanted to get the okay from my OB to use codene based pain meds afterward. He said this will be painful so if I can't use the codene he won't do the procedure until the baby's born. I called the OB and he says yes to tylenol 3 w/codene.

So now we just have to figure out when. I need Jeremy to take a couple days off work to help me with childcare since I will be both doped up and unable lift Tessa. Doc said if I were working he would write me a note for two days off work....so I guess that still applies to this 'job'.

Once we get our ducks in a row on J's schedule I'll get 'er done. I'm happy to get it over with now rather than when I have a newborn and am nursing...I think that would be even harder to work around.

It could have been a crummy day but I had this to lift my spirits...

My Fall Makeover

Before

After

Home from Rome

21 wks pregant in front of Roman Forum

Well as I said in the previous post we're home from Rome! We had a great time. Jeremy was working but I got to steal him for two afternoons and every evening after 6:30, other than that I was mostly on my own. I thought I might go crazy with all the alone time but it was pretty restful. After the second day I figured out that lazing around the hotel until noon and going out all afternoon and evening was a good plan. So I slept in and read...I actually read a book and a 1/2!

Alot of great stuff was with in walking distance of our hotel...the colleseum and forum, trevi fount and spanish steps.. so I headed out to see all of that stuff. My feet got seriously swollen on the long plane ride there so I had to be careful to keep walking but not TOO much. I was probably the slowest fat lady waddling around the hordes of tourists, but it didn't much matter.

We ate alot of great food and luckily I only got nauseous a couple of times. Along with Barbara's help and some investigation into some very old credit card records, we found a great restaurant that we ate at when we were there 6 years ago. It was really great and off the beaten path from tourists, so we went there twice.

Overall it was a great trip...a little slower than our previous international adventures but just the right pace for me. Being without Tessa was strange at first but I got used to it, especially when I heard how much fun she was having with the Gs.

Oh and I started a new book....Twilight by Stephenie Myers. I'm just over 1/2 the way through but already give it two thumbs up!

Here's my little series of self portraits I tried to take while touring around by myself. It's really hard to get both your face and the attraction in the picture!
Colleseum

Roman ruins

Trevi Fountain

A Week with the Gs

Well we did it! We actually left Tessa for a WHOLE WEEK, the first time I have ever left her overnight at all. I tagged along on a business trip with Jeremy to Rome (seperate pics to follow) and Tessa stayed here with Jeremy's Dad and Stepmom who prefer to be called 'the Gs' (Grammie and Grampie).

I was nervous, not about the excellent care Tessa would receive, but more about going nuts from missing Tessa. I'm happy to say every one had a great time, both at home and abroad. Tessa was very well behaved for the Gs and pretty much stuck to her normal routine. It was also great that we got to see her a couple times using our webcam and Skype.

The Gs left this morning and I think Tessa is looking around for them, especially their dog Annie who became her good friend. I wonder if they are having baby withdrawal too :)

Here's a few pics from their stay...

Before we left town we went out to St. Elmos to celebrate Jeremy's belated birthday. Truly one of the best restaurants in Indy, I was very pleased at how well Tessa behaved and ate. She did decide to stick her hands down into her dirty diaper but luckily that was right as we were leaving!

They had lots of fun during their stay....
....they went to Mamaw's house
....ate yogurt with peaches
.....played kitchen
.....played with the wiener dogs
....snoozed on the couch

.....went to library storytime
.....and the children's museum
....had nakey time
....and became good friends with Annie
Those Gs sure did a GREAT job!!!

It's strange being back home and settling into today. I'm still pretty jet lagged with swollen feet, but Tessa seems to not have noticed any major change in her life and is acting normal. I'm glad she's not mad at us for leaving, but how could she be....she had so much fun!

It's A......

Just kidding! Yes we had the big ultrasound today but as promised we did NOT find out the gender. The ultrasound lady didn't even look 'down there' so she doesn't know and neither does our doctor....so there's no chance of him slipping up.

Everything looked perfect and the little Peanut was bouncing around. It's heartrate was 152 which is apparently right on point.

Everything is good with me too. My bp was 120/78 and I've actually gained TEN POUNDS since last month's appt. How that happened I'm not exactly sure since I'm still nauseous alot and not eating very big portions. I'm always hungry but pretty much always queezy too so I snack alot....lots and lots of bananas and cereal bars.

So that sorta sucks but I'm calling it a baby growth spurt. I've gained 16lb total and Doc Bowers is pretty happy with that.

Paying a Visit

Earlier this week Jeremy's Mom and Stepdad were here as one of the many stops on their cross country road trip. They got some good quality time with Tessa including a little trip to the zoo.

Daddy went along while Mommy stayed home to sleep in :) Apparently Tessa quacked at the ducks and roared at the lion, which I'm sorry I missed.

As you can see Tessa got into a fight, you should see the other guy. Actually she took a fall on the concrete on our patio, poor girl.

Why couldn't I go to the zoo?

Jeremy's New Toy

One benefit of Jeremy's travels is that he racks up both airline points and Marriott points, with which he can sometimes get free stuff. He got his playstation last year and yesterday his newest reward arrived, an HD camcorder.

When I told him the UPS man was here he practically leaped the furniture and knocked over the baby to get to his camcorder, and has been playing with it since. Here is some test footage:


Pretty cool eh? Apparently we can burn this stuff to HD dvds someday. He is only 15 night in Marriott away from a free Wii, so I've been telling him to get on the road!!

You may notice the boo boo on Tessa's face. Believe it or not that's what left of a bug bite she got on Tuesday. It was really swollen and her eye was all red but I've been giving her benadryl and it's progressively getting smaller. No idea what kinda bug, something she swatted away while were outside playing.

My New Bling

Last time I was pregnant and my fingers got fat, I just took my wedding ring off and wore it around my neck. That worked except when it was all said and done my ring is really scratch now. Plus I don't want guys hitting on me all the time cause they thing I'm single ;)

So Jeremy's cousin Meradith who makes jewelry made me three beautiful rings to choose from in great big sizes for swollen finger. I LOVE THEM! They are the coolest rings ever. It's hard to see the detail in the picture this one is all wire and little silver beads.

Thanks Meradith for your great work! Everyone should check out her work: www.meribella.etsy.com
www.myspace.com/meribella
meribella@comcast.net

I thought I'd show you how Tessa 'helps' me get ready in the morning. Either she watches Sesame Street or plays in my closet. Shoes are her favorite, she loves to pull them all out on the floor and try them on. She also just discovered she can reach in my makeup drawer, pull out lipsticks and stick her finger in them...that's not good.

First Belly Pic

I thought it was time...

19 wks pregnant with Peanut

Looky we're wearing long sleeves! The weather today is awesome, in the low 60's and we finally can turn the AC off. The other thing that made my day? Pumpkin Spice Lattes at Starbucks! Yup it's officially fall people, my favorite time of year.

Back in Action

We were back at stroller aerobics for the first time since July this morning. Our instructor took off 6 wks to have a baby and was there with her 3 week old boy ready to go. She's super woman! It was great to be back at it, although I'm a little more restricted than before, haha! She warned me not to overheat and watch my balance. I also got to take a break while the other women did their abs.

Our other normal activities have been on summer hiatus also so I'm very happy that both library storytime and MOPS are starting again. We haven't been bored exactly, it's just nice to have somewhere cool to go several days a week instead of just wandering around.


I realize this is the darkest picture ever but I tried to capture Tessa napping with her baby who she insisted on laying with this afternoon. I was trying not to wake her with flash.

Look Ma!

I can climb up here...

And here...

Make a funny face...

And drive an Indy Car!

The last picture is from yesterday's visit to the Children's Museum. Since Tessa has been so into climbing lately I thought I should take her there to blow off some steam (and the park was too wet).

I plan on taking a belly picture of me and Peanut soon, stay tuned!

Barf

I threw up again this morning. This time it wasn't my pill, I just coughed really hard.

Skinny Butt

I tried Tessa's size small fuzzinbuz on after naptime and I'm shocked that they actually fit. We retired these when she was like 9mos old because they were too tight on her legs, and now they fit again. I wasn't expecting that.

Maybe this is a temporary fix to our diaper fit problem which is great cause we don't have to buy anything new, yay!

By the way, Tessa just figured out how to climb on the coffee table and stand on it....great.

Tooth Update

Well I went to the dentist this am to see what's up. The antibiotic she called in for me last week worked serious wonders on my tooth pain, which actually had me worried it was an infection.

And lo and behold it is, boo :( I have an infection in the site of my one and only root canal, under the crown, but the crown in still in tact. It's not horrible or emergent but needs to be dealt with eventually.

So I have two options and the dentist said it doesn't matter to her which I choose. I can go ahead and have a fix-it procedure on the root canal in which they would drill a hole through my crown or God forbid as she put it 'go in from the top'...either of which would require anesthesia. Option two is that I can continue to take antibiotics the rest of my pregnancy to keep the infection down and have it done after Peanut is born.

So it's anesthsia vs. antibiotics. I have an appointment with my OB in two weeks and I'm going to ask him which route he prefer I go. The dentist said she didn't have enought pregnancy expertise to advise me.

This tooth is seriously the bain of my existance. I have a crown there because about 3 years ago I had a filling in that tooth that got infected and I let it go and writhed in pain during the whole week the office was closed for Christmas. By the time they re-opened the infection was so bad I wanted to kill myself and also I lost the tooth. Now it's infected again....crap on a cracker!

Argh..more poop frustration!

We've had some very messy and disgusting frustration around here lately. Tessa's bumgenius diapers are one size fits 5-35lbs so she's been wearing them forever. We bought them when she was about 7 months and outgrew her small fuzzibunz.

Well she's an active girl and has skinny legs (didn't get them from me) and lately has been blowing out of the legholes of dipes, like once a day. Argh!! They are all the way tightened on the legs snaps but still leave too much room.

So I have a couple of ideas.....double stuff the diapers to make them thicker (and tighter), buy vinyl covers to protect from blowouts, feed her lots of bananas and white bread so she doesn't have such loose poo, borrow some of another brand from a friend or pull out her size small fuzzibunz from the closet and see if they still fit. They actually probably do although they might be 'low rise', haha.

Or I could feed her more junk food in an effort to fatten up her legs. Hey it worked for me :)

On the topic of diapers (if you haven't left by now I commend you!) Tessa has been diaper rash free for over a month! I told Jeremy I feel like someone in AA...hi this is Tessa and she hasn't had a rash in 32 days.

I really credit cutting back her fruit intake. I think her stomach just can't handle too much acid. She pretty much only has bananas, apples and grapes. If she has something acidic it's only in very small amounts. That plus triple (instead of double) stuffing her diapers at night have really cleared things up. Her nightime dipe is seriously so thick she can't walk when she has it on. You remember the little brother in A Christmas Story?