Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Edouard

No that's not the baby's name! It's the tropical storm going over our house right now! Not too bad - as you can see we still have power - but we have gotten a few inches of rain already. Lenny and I are hanging out doing "work" on our laptops. Both our employers gave us the day off due to the weather. It's nice to be able to take it easy for a day without having to plan in relaxation time.

I had my Houston baby shower over the weekend and it was fantastic! Betsy went all out on the invites and rocket diaper cake! They were awesome! It was at Katie's house and Ami, Kylie, Steph, and Heather helped decorate and set-up - thank you so much! So many friends came too - it was fun seeing everyone and getting advice - especially when I opened a gift and had no idea what to do with it :) Motherhood will be quite a learning experience.

We are almost ready for the baby to come - we still have to get some of the big items - the pack'n play, the bedding (though, I'm not sure she'll ever use the quilt with Texas temps, but it sure is cute!), a high chair, and a few small things that I haven't got on a list yet. We have to finish decorating the babies room...we have it all laid out, we just need to hang things on the walls. Lenny also redid the baby's closet and we designed and installed new shelving from the container store. It's really cool and as she grows we can change it around to fit bigger clothes. We will be picking our pediatrician next week too. We have one last interview with a doctor that's supposed to be really good and we can make a decision in plenty of time.

We also started our Lamaze class - which is Lamaze and a bunch of other topics - we covered breastfeeding last night and we went over natural delivery and induced deliveries in previous classes. We'll go over c-sections, epidurals (I'm very interested in this one), and child care for the remainder of the class. It's been pretty educational. I have had a lot of friends explain these things to me, but my engineering mind needs visuals and numbers...and they certainly provide those with all the videos and instruction in the class. Lenny got to see what it was like to be pregnant the first night - the instructor had him wear a 30 lb backpack around his front torso - it was a hoot to watch him try to sit on the floor and get up. So I think he may get a small understanding of how I just can't be graceful when I attempt the same thing.

Now for a bit a depressing news (for me at least)...I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. It's a form of diabetes (like regular type 2) that you only get during pregnancy. There's not rhyme or reason for why I got it, it just happens to some of us. It is controllable with diet and exercise and I don't feel any different - In fact for being so big I feel pretty good. The depressing part is that I have to watch what I eat very closely - no more pasta, very little bread, and no sweets. All my weaknesses during pregnancy and all I crave! I got pretty angry when I first found out...I am easing into though and am probably eating the healthiest I have ever eaten in my life. So I suppose it's a good thing in a way. But I still mourn the uneaten plate of spaghetti, the chocolate bar I have to give up, and the pizza I will not be able to order. I better stop, I am starting to drool...better go get that celery stick with peanut butter.

Here's the 31 week belly picture with the rocket diaper cake Betsy made!

Friday, June 27, 2008

99 days

If you check the little ticker at the bottom of the page you'll see we are on double digit countdown now! 99 days left until the due date! Whoa! I need to get some stuff done!

Our trips were a lot of fun. It was nice to be with family and in the northern summer weather. We got to spend a lot of time with our nieces and nephew. I got a ton a cute baby clothes at my shower and I got to catch up with a lot of family I haven't seen since our wedding. My sister-in-law Wendy, my nieces Megan and Maddie, and my Aunt Sandy threw a great shower - thank you! And thanks to all the family that helped too including Lenny's Mom and cousins!

I will post a few pictures when I download them. I hope to get a better site for all our pictures up and running soon as well so you can just go over and see all of them!

Oh and I've been asked a lot about where we are registered - Babies R Us and Target! Thanks to everyone who gave me advice on what to put on there...I needed it!

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Ultrasound video

Way overdue...but here's some of the video that was taken a month ago...look for the cute little hiccup and wave!



My ankles have disappeared

So I figured we should update since it's been a good month. My morning sickness has died down -finally! The heartburn has kicked in though. As the title says - my ankles are swelling almost every night now...it is the weirdest thing. It goes away after I get off my feet, my I do miss seeing my ankles when it does happen.

Anyhoo, Lenny, baby girl Cassady, and I are doing well. We are getting ready for the next few weeks of traveling. We just got back from Florida on Sunday for my Space Flight Awareness Award. That trip was awesome. We got to see and incredible launch and I got to feel really honored - it was a great experience and it certainly reinvigorated me. I think everyone needs to be inspired every once in awhile to keep up with face pace jobs. I really do have the coolest job in the world and it's nice to be reminded that people care. The nomination means so much more to me after experiencing last week. We stayed in a resort in Universal Studios, Orlando. We had a huge reception/dinner Wednesday night (700 people or so) where we got to hang out with astronauts and hear the upper management at NASA thank us for our hard work - it meant a lot to me. We got our awards at a smaller breakfast awards ceremony the next day - Milt Heflin (JSC deputy center director) and Charles "Scourch" Hobaugh (an astronaut who has flown on STS-104 and STS-118). We had the rest of Thursday off and went to Universal Studios - where I couldn't ride all rides, but was still fun. We happened to run into the Mendeck (Gavin got an award too!) and hung out with them at the park. Lenny got to ride all the rides with them, so that was nice. Friday we got tours of KSC all day and on Saturday we went to launch. The launch was beautiful! We could see it for about 4 minutes...much longer than STS-123. I love launches!!!!

We are headed to east coast for a wedding June 13 - 16 - our friends Robb and Sara are getting hitched! And finally to Michigan for a baby shower and family visits June 17-24. It's going to be a busy time!

Anyhoo, I am finally posting some long overdue pics!

Wow look at that belly - that's me really showing at 22 weeks.


Lenny sold his trusty old car - thank you ford probe!


We had a hail storm at our house May 11 - marble to golf ball size - it was crazy. Still waiting to hear from the insurance company as to whether they will pay for a new roof!


This us in front of Pad A where Discovery sits waiting for launch of STS-124.