Silly Hannah moments. More pictures.

More activities coming up very soon. I'll be babysitting a few more hours a week, starting now, since The Mom is actually teaching her college class again.
We are getting ready for MOPS and AWANA to start next week.

Plus we're really looking forward to our beach vacation, which begins Sept 21st! Mike is counting down the days.... Poor guy, he's been sleeping terribly, and having lots of stress/busyness at work. I felt proud that I made him dinner tonight, from stratch, (ncluding dessert! how rare!) and had it all ready when he got home at 7pm. We almost never get to eat meals at the same time, so it was really nice to do that today.

Today Hannah and I looked at pictures from our OBX trip in Feb 2007, which she doesnt remember, but it was neat to show her that area. She is excited to visit Jockey's Ridge (she says "Jockey Bridge" instead), and she also called it Sand Mountain, which was very cute.

It seems like Hannah never stops moving these days. Even while eating, she's kicking her feet, twisting in her chair, clapping hands, singing ABC's, and running over to tend to her "crying" baby doll. It drives me crazy, though I try not to get frustrated.

Hannah has been having a blast hearing her name on the news lately. Every time she hears anyone say "Hurricane" or "Tropical Storm Hanna", she instantly perks up. She thinks its hilarious that news reporters and weathermen are mentioning "her." Hah.

Another funny Hannah moment that I have to share: While grocery shopping on Thursday, Hannah asked me about the baby in my belly, then pointed to her father and asked, as loudly as she could in her sweet little voice: "Daddy, do you have a baby growing in your BIG TUMMY, too?"
Poor Mike was totally embarrassed!
But it WAS funny.

PICTURES! :)
Nicole's Pregnant Belly: 23 weeks



Nicole's Pregnant Belly: 24 weeks
Not the greatest angle. And why is it that women always, somehow, look bigger than they truly are in a bathing suit?!



Silly Hannah, relaxing at my parents house



Hannah and my dad playing around, the day after he got home from the hospital.
He really is no different than before - and we are so thankful!




I havent uploaded any new pictures from September yet. Actually, I dont know if Ive TAKEN any pictures since we've been to Maryland! Hmmm, I'll have to work on that. I've been seriously slacking with my photos. I havent even gotten any scrapbooking done in at least a month. But Hannah sure has been making more crafts lately (it's about the only constructive thing I can get her to do during these rain days). Today she strung together enough beads to make necklaces for her entire Sunday School class. We actually ran out of beads, and had string left over!! That never happens.

Im slowly making Hannah's bedtime a little earlier, because she doesnt seem to be getting quite enough sleep. She always wakes up before I do in the mornings, and is super-tired by mid-afternoon, though she won't take naps. Tonight it was lights-out at 9:20 instead of 9:30. We'll see if that helps. Maybe I just need to be more firm about instituting "quiet times" for her in the afternoons, I don't know.

Here we are, home again.

We got home from Maryland last night. Had to babysit for 2 hours, and all the kids were cranky. We'll be with them all day tomorrow.

My dad is doing just fine. He actually went to the gym with my mom yesterday, just to walk on a treadmill and lift 10 lb weights (due to dr's restcrictions). But he's feeling prefectly fine, and to look at him, you'd never know that there was anything wrong with him last week.

Lately, a lot of people have been mentioning homeschooling to me. Mike completely supports this idea. Ive been doing some online research and I really dont think it will be too hard.

The Not-Good Day

Yesterday was just one of those days that started out bad, and kept getting worse.
First, I was woken up at 6am by my in-laws, who were preparing leave our house. Dont ask me why my MIL had to use her incredibly loud hairdryer at 6am, but she did. I was less than overjoyed about waking up so early. The weather set the tone for the day: dark, dreary, pouring down rain.
I laid in bed for awhile, until my alarm went off, and got myself ready to babysit. Drove the 5 yr old to kindergarden. I was about 3 mins late dropping him off, and he was mad about it!
From there, I was going to pick up Hannah, who was begging to see her best friend Rosie... and I got into a car accident! It was raining, the roads were wet and slippery, and my brakes locked up going downhill. I rear-ended two handicapped old ladies! Talk about feeling horrible. No one was injured, since at most I was going 20 miles an hour, but I still felt terribly gulty. My bumper is embossed with the other car's license plate, and has a crack in it. The bumper looks awful, but its ok, and I didnt see any damage tp their 16-year old car.They very much wanted to file a police report, but it took an officer an HOUR to get to the accident scene, and when he did, he dismissed us, saying in a kind way that there just wasnt enough damage to warrant a police report. When I finally tried to close my eyes and go to sleep last night, I just kept seeing that image of my car smashing into theirs, over and over again. UGH!
After that, I was kind of paranoid to drive for awhile, so instead of me picking up Hannah, Mike drove her to us. She was only around for about 2 hours and she whined the entire time. It made my stress levels rise even further.
When babysitting was finally over the afternoon, I drove to my ultrasound appointment at UNC Hospital. I waited for 45 mins, just to have the head nurse tell me that there was a tornado warning in our area, and they were sending everyone home! (I was thinking, "Isnt the hospital one of the safest places to be? Why do you want to send us all out into this storm?!") So, I spent an hour and a half at the hospital, had to spend $3 for parking (but I had no cash! embarrassing!), and didnt even get an ultrasound done! ThenI was forced to drive home in rush-hour traffic, which I generally like to avoid.
On the way home from that, in an awful rainstorm, I called my mom to tell her about my not-so-good day, and this is what she said "I cant talk right now, all I know is that you father has been transported to the hospital by ambulance, and is in the emergency room. Im pulling into the parking lot right now and I'll call you back later."
Wow, my day went from not-good to tragic in about 2 seconds.
I got home at 6pm, the 3 of us ate dinner and packed up the car, and started driving to Maryland at 7pm. We arrived at minight. My father had chest pain, very high blood pressure, damage to his heart, and 3 blocked arteries. (Youre not supposed to have heart attacks when youre 48 years old!) They performed surgery last night and he is recovering in the hospital for at last 2 more days. I'll be staying here with my mom indefinitely.

I am thankful that the car accident was only superficial damage, and I am so glad that my dad has been coherent and acting like himself this whole time, and that his heart damage could be caught early on. We're going to visit him in the hospital very soon.

Pregnancy Stats

According to my doctor's appointment yesterday:

5 1/2 months pregnant (23 weeks)
Starting weight: 128 lbs.
Current weight: +15 lbs.
Blood pressure: 117/59

Everything is measuring right on target.
Uterus is right where it should be. Baby is moving around all the time.
Even my thyriod gland is completely in the normal range, thanks to my medication.
New Baby's heartbeat is strong, and has consistently been in the 150's.
I feel so blessed to have a healthy little one in there!

My in-laws are visiting this week.
See you next time, with pictures!

Nicole

Picture Proof.

It's 2am, and I cannot sleep. Therefore, you get to read another entry from me.
Ok, it's mostly pictures, so not a lot of reading required. Still, here it is...

A picture of Hannah's new haircut:
Can you tell that the sides are totally uneven?! It's not too terrible, is it? And it will grow out eventually, right? Right.


Hannah took this picture of me today.


Hannah and I at the beach, in Maryland last week.


Belly shot: 21 weeks pregnant.


This week: 22 weeks pregnant. I really think my body shape changes, depending on the clothes I wear. Still, it's getting very obvious that there is a baby in my tummy.


Tonight, Hannah turned to me and asked: "Mommy, can there be TWO babies in your tummy? Can we have two babies at Christmastime? A boy AND a girl?" Haha, I almost fell off my chair from laughing! I don't think she was quite convinced that I am only having one baby at a time.


Ok, Im going to lay in bed now and stare at the ceiling until I fall asleep.
Glad I don't have any appointments or meetings to go to tomorrow... Those are all next week. I think.