Good News and Bad News...

After three attempts I finally got the results for my gestational diabetes test back...my glucose levels are good, which is great. That means I do not have gestational diabetes. However, my hemoglobin levels are low, which means I am anemic. The good news about this is that it is easily treated (by taking iron supplements) and it really has no effect on the baby since the baby gets his nutrients first and I get the leftovers, but it can cause preterm labor if it isn't treated enough or can cause the baby to be anemic after he is born. Can I just tell you how much I love the iron supplements?? NOT! They are so disgusting, they make everything taste like metal (even water) and they upset my stomachs. Let me run you down the list of meds that I have been on during this pregnancy:

-progesterone suppositories

-aspirin regiment

-prenatal vitamins

-folic acid supplements

-B6 to treat nausea

-Ferrous Sulfate (Iron)

That's just during the pregnancy...that's not courting all of the meds I had to be on just to get pregnant...I'm not complaining, just getting used to being a walking pharmacy. It sure makes packing for trips fun!

Well we are under ten weeks and counting...I'm getting a little nervous about the whole labor part. I don't know why but I am not nervous about having him home at all, just about getting him out. They say the best way to combat this is to educate yourself, but it seems the more I try to educate myself, the more nervous I become. I guess I'm kind of an ignorance is bliss kind of person. Jeff and I made our birth plan the other day and looking at all of that typed up just makes it real. So crazy that this little person is going to be here so soon!

I promise I will post pictures soon. We have the baby's room almost done, we are just waiting on the changing table to be delivered and the rocker, and then once it is completely done I will post the finished results.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and is looking forward to a wonderful New Year! Take Care!

~Haley

3-D Sono Pictures

We had a 3-D sonogram last Saturday. I am so happy with the pictures! It is amazing to me still that this little person is really growing inside of me and that my body is capable of creating this miracle! Enjoy and Merry Christmas!!!

The Queen of Irrational Fears

Have I mentioned that I have a very active imagination? I think that in part is why I became a teacher, and it has served me well throughout the years in the creativity department...not so well in the big, scary, life-changing event spectrum.

I keep having day dreams of horrible, unimaginable (except in my mind) things happening to me and the baby. Just so you get an understanding, here are a few:

• I keep wondering if the baby can actually do damage to my organs and, perhaps, cause a hemorrhage, and I will slowly bleed to death internally.
• In my head, the baby's umbilical cord is like a creeping vine, just waiting to wrap the baby up and drag it off somewhere...always lurking, waiting for its opportunity.
• Can the baby's nails poke through my uterus and cause me to die a toxic painful death because of the amniotic fluid slowing leaking into my system?
• What if my amniotic fluid is slowly leaking out and the baby is flopping around in there like a fish out of water??
• Is there someone stalking me, waiting for the opportune time to kill me and take my baby?
• Can a baby fuse to your body?
• What if I have a C-Section and they put my organs back in wrong? It's not a game of operation!!

Like I said I have a very active imagination. Part of it is a defense mechanism, like if I think of everything bad that COULD go wrong, then I won't be surprised if something DOES go wrong. I don't believe in self-fulfilling prophecies, like thinking about all of this will make any or all of this happen. I just like to be prepared. And yes, I am neurotic...Happy Friday!!!

It's A...

I have some crow to eat...my mother has been telling me from the get go "It's a boy It's a boy It's a boy." I was skeptical to say the least...then we had our 14 week and we were told with 95% accuracy that we were having a girl. Ha! Take that! Not only have I been confidently calling her a "her" for 6 weeks, but also have been calling her by name (Maddie) and picked out colors for her nursery.

Well...........

She is actually a he. Oops! HIS name will be Logan Hunter Olson...

I love these statements from the sonographer...
"He's not giving your bladder much room. You must have to make frequent bathroom trips!" Um, Yeah, no kidding!!!
"Wow, He's active!" Yup, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! My little man doesn't like mama to sleep much...even now he is very attention hungry. If I might be resting he'll give me a swift kick to the tummy just to say, "Hey mom, remember me??"

Anyway, that was our eventful trip to the doctor this month. Next Appointment is November 9th. Enjoy the pictures from our Sonogram...

17 Weeks and counting!

We bought one of those over the counter doppler/movement listening devices last week. I wanted to just to see if we could hear anything. It was a $20 non-medical one, so I knew it wouldn't be as good as the doctor's office, but I thought it was worth a shot. The first night we had it, Jeff looked like a little kid playing doctor. Not only did he try for a good ten minutes to find the baby's heartbeat, he also found his own, mine, and the dog's. It was quite amusing!!!

Last night was the first night that we were successful finding her heartbeat. I had to lay on my side and cram the doppler under my stomach and lay on it, but we finally heard it. We also heard her moving around. It was funny, it almost sounded like a fish jumping in water. Just short quick little movements, but they were definitely there. I'm hoping once I figure out how to record it and put it on here.

I'm so excited for our next appointment on October 12th. Even though it's only been four weeks, I am so anxious to get another peek at her. It feels like after each appointment I can breath a tiny bit easier because we have made it another month.

We picked out colors and a theme for the baby's room the other night. We are waiting to get the "official" word on the 12th before we buy any paint or decorations, so I feel like an a car stuck in Neutral. I want so bad to start doing stuff, but we have to wait. Feels like I am constantly doing that lately, hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait.

We did get signed up for two parenting/birthing classes last weekend. Our first is this Sunday from 3-5. It is just an introductory what the _____ are we doing? class. We get to take a tour of the birthing center at the end of it which I am really excited to see. Hopefully, I will have a better idea of what everything will look like when the time comes. The other class is our birthing class that is in December. It is an all day class, but is only one day as opposed to an entire weekend, or several weeks. I can't believe it is all coming up so quickly!!!

Hope this finds everyone doing well! Gotta go :)

Love, Haley

Belly Picture Week 15

Here is the 15 week belly picture...I'm finally to the point were I don't just look chubby, but maybe almost pregnant. My friends have noticed and talk excitedly about the baby and rub my belly and say hi to the baby.

We think it is a girl, but they won't give us a definite, or more definite, answer until our next appointment on October 12 when we have our 3-D sono. Hopefully then they can confirm it more.

I have felt her move on a pretty consistent basis, no jabs or kicks yet, but can really feel when she is moving around and turning over.

Other than that doing good!

T-G-I-F!!!!!!

Hello, remember me? Sorry it's been so long...here is a quick recap of the past couple of weeks.

Last Monday I came home from my night class and was having horrible abdominal pangs, felt like period cramps on steroids...some were so painful that I was getting short of breath. I laid down on the couch and put my feet up and they seemed to diminish some, but came back throughout the week, especially when I was on my feet a lot. I finally sucked it up and called my doc last Thursday. They wanted to see me Friday. When we went in, they did a doppler and the heartbeat sounded fine. He said it could be a number of things, including stress, getting off the progesterone, or just growing pangs. Since then things have been going fine.

Morning sickness is still hanging around, but getting less pronounced. I haven't gotten sick since last Saturday, so I am crossing my fingers that it is making a quiet exit (knock on wood!) My belly just kind of showed up a couple days ago...I thought it was just the food I ate, but it doesn't seem to be going away. It's very little compared to other pregnant bellies, but it is a belly none the less, and people actually seem to be getting that I am pregnant and not just cranky and fat :)

We have our next appointment on September 15. I hope they do a sonogram that day so we can find out what gender the baby is. I have started trying to register for stuff, but it makes it hard to register for clothes and things for the nursery when you don't know what colors to get. If not I suppose I can make it to our 20 week appointment, although I may not be a very pleasant person. I am very Type A, and like to prepare well ahead of time for things, so waiting until then will practically kill me!

Hope all is well with everyone else!

10 week appointment

De-Stressing

I just have to get a few things off my chest that have been bothering me lately...If I seem ticked off, it's probably because I am...what is it about being pregnant that makes everyone and their mom have a sudden opinion about what you are doing right and wrong, and their own piece of advice for you...please forgive the following post and chalk it up to hormones and anxiety.

1. If I have to hear another person, particularly another pregnant celebrity that you can't even tell is pregnant except for their perfectly rounded tummy, talk about how wonderful pregnancy is and they are just loving the fact that they get to eat anything and everything and it's just so glorious, I might puke...well more so than I already am. It's probably just jealousy that is making me so mad at this, but I seem to have more morning sickness, headaches, and just all around blah-ness than anyone else I talk to. It feels like the worst flu combined with forced starvation that I could ever have imagined. I cannot eat meat or eggs. I cannot smell meat. I cannot see meat. I cannot smell olive oil, which really sucks because I love Italian food. I can't stand the smell of Taco Bell, my all time favorite place to eat. I hope once the hell months, aka the first trimester is over in two weeks that I will get a little bit back to normal and can start eating like a semi-normal person again.

2. I can not even tell you how many people I talk to that say, "I didn't even know I was pregnant until the doctor told me. I never had any morning sickness or felt sick at all." Well ladi-freakin'-da for you!!!! Now, when I am trying to express how down right miserable I feel, that is not the kind of crap you should tell me unless you have a death wish. This is what my diet has been resorted to: soup, bread with butter on it, water, mashed potatoes, occasionally mac and cheese. That is all that sounds good, tastes good, and stays down.

3. Everyone keeps asking me if I am eating my veggies and fruits and getting enough vitamins and blah blah blah and I really might shove my foot down the next person's throat who asks me that. I am eating what will stay in my stomach and not make me feel like I am going to throw up the kitchen sink, thank you very much.

4. If one more person asks me how far along I am and if I should be as big as I am, or reminds me of the weight gain limits of "healthy" pregnancy, I might shoot someone. For one, I am no bigger than I was before I got pregnant. I happen to have a lot, no really, A LOT, of air in my stomach all the time. I constantly feel like I need a pin to pop it and release some pressure. It is not baby weight, especially since I can't keep anything down long enough for me to gain weight anywhere. Secondly, it is none of your freakin' business, and unless you are my doctor, or a doctor period, please keep your mouth shut.

5. I am pregnant, and it is a major part of my life right now, and will be for the rest of my life. I am very sorry if that does not correlate to what you want to "deal with" or "talk about". I have a constant reminder every minute of every day that I am pregnant and that is what is on my mind. If I listen to what is going on in your life, and ask you questions about your goings on, yet you don't want to hear about what is going on with me, then you should probably not plan on being my friend from now on.

Whew...okay...I'm done for now. Just a few things I have been carrying around (haha literally and metaphorically) for the past few weeks. Thank you for listening to my rant, and I hope I didn't offend anyone out there in blog land...trust me when I say with 110% confidence that none of you are part of the problem. You all keep me sane, or at least as sane as can be expected right now.

Sorry it's been so long...

I apologize for not blogging in a week and a half. Let me tell you what my life has consisted of the past couple of weeks.

Before school ended I had to pack up my entire classroom, including taking everything off the walls so when I went back to school at the end of July I was starting from scratch. I had no bulletin boards up, nothing on shelves, nothing on the walls. Literally today is the first day where I can say I feel like my classroom is ready for kiddos, which is a good thing, since school starts tomorrow.

The morning sickness is being to subside (thank goodness!) and my appetite is slowly but surely coming back. I am now combating constant fatigue. I literally fall asleep for at least two hours when I get home at night. I am impatiently waiting September. Please don't think I am ungrateful or saying I don't want to be pregnant, I very much do. But you have to understand I have felt like complete and utter garbage the past six weeks and have been able to eat crackers, soup, and water only. Nobody can tell I am pregnant, and I certainly don't look pregnant. I feel bloated, cranky and fat. My old clothes are uncomfortable, yet I feel silly trying to fit into maternity clothes. I feel bigger than I should yet not big enough for it to be obvious I am pregnant. It is a very emotionally draining, and uncomfortable place to be in. I can't wait for September and 4 months to be here so I can start showing officially and look pregnant. I also can't wait to wear all these cute maternity clothes that my friend Sara loaned me, and to feel the baby move.

We also moved in the last weekend in July and have been trying to put that together as well. I also start my fall masters class next Monday. It is every Monday until December from 5 to 8 at night. So with the house torn apart, my classroom torn apart, and feeling like crap, I haven't had a lot of down time to write. Hopefully with everything falling into place, I will be able to write on a more regular basis. Hope everyone is doing well!

Ultrasound Photo As Promised

Ultrasound 7/27

We officially graduated from the RE in KC this morning!

Baby O measures in at 7 wks 2 days and is doing great. Our estimated due date is March 13, 2010. His/her heartbeat was a whopping 160 bpm. I didn't think we would be able to, but we got to hear its heartbeat this morning! One of the coolest moments of my entire life. We now are dealing with our OB/GYN in Topeka. It feels a little strange...after going to KC for so long that these doctors and nurses start to feel like family. I know Dr. Teply and he's a great doctor and his nurses are great too. It just feels like our safety net is gone. Weird I know.

Anyway, we have pictures, but our Internet isn't hooked up at the new house yet so once it is then I will scan the pictures in and post them, hopefully tomorrow.

Hope everyone is doing well!
Love, Haley

Morning, afternoon, and evening sickness...

Sorry I haven't written in a few days. I have become a walking Pepto-Bismol commercial...nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach...check. I haven't been able to keep anything down except yogurt, whole wheat bagels, and crackers with peanut butter. After last night, yogurt is no longer on that list after I took one bite and ran to the bathroom and threw up everything I'd eaten since six. I have come to the conclusion that a man came up with the name "morning sickness." It sure doesn't contain itself to the morning. It's morning sickness, noon sickness, afternoon sickness, evening sickness, and midnight sickness. I finally stopped feeling bad about midnight last night and started again about 7:30 this morning when I woke up. I ate a bagel felt a little better and then an hour and a half later my stomach started revolting. My biggest fear right now is that I can't keep my vitamins down. Right now is the crucial period where vital organs and spinal cord are forming and folic acid is crucial. I'm going to try and take them at a different time of the day and see if it helps. I tried Starlight Peppermints (thanks K!) and they worked for a while, but last night I got sick when I put one in so I think I will stay away from those for a while. I am going to go and track down 'preggo pops' and try those (thanks Court!) Any other suggestions are most welcome!

Updates

We have had a busy couple of weeks. We went to Jeff's parents house over the weekend and enjoyed seeing the family, as well as our good friends, especially the Neys.

A few things to update everyone on...

1. Jeff is no longer going to Minnesota this week. The meeting is for Midwest Taqueria stations and supposedly his is the best in this part of the nation (according to his boss) so there is no need for him to go. So while it was cruddy timing for him to be gone, we are excited he will be staying in town to help gear up for the move.


2. We are now closing on the house on Wednesday instead of Friday. We changed it because we thought that Jeff would be out of town on Friday, but as it turns out there was no need. Oh well...at least it will be done early. The sellers also compromised and agreed (after we told our realtor to tell them that they signed a legally binding contract stating they would do what they were trying to get out of) that they would pay us the difference in closing costs. Whatever works for us, money is money!


3. Our ultrasound is still Monday the 27th...a week from tomorrow! So excited to see our baby and see that little heartbeat flashing...just got to cool my jets and wait seven more days...harder than it sounds!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Love to you all...

~Haley

My grandma lied to me...

So my grandma and I had a conversation last week about how morning sickness doesn't run in our family and I believed her. She told me she herself never had a stitch of morning sickness. Anyone who has asked how I am feeling lately, I have replied "Great! Really haven't had anything bad at all." I have happily gloated these past two weeks about how great I am feeling and how I really had escaped the dreaded queasiness (for the most part) and vomiting...Haha not so fast Haley Olson.

This morning I woke up to take the dog out and felt like I was dying. No exaggeration. I dry heaved a couple times then stumbled to the kitchen cabinets for some Ritz crackers and a bottle of water. The crackers felt like sandpaper going down my dry, irritated throat, and the water hit my stomach and instantly came back up along with last night's dinner. I thought maybe I would try some milk. Growing up milk always settled my stomach and made me feel better. I didn't even get a swallow down. The smell of it made me vomit again. No, milk is not an option for the next couple of weeks.

I have googled ways to cope and came up with a couple of things, but for the most part it seems like I will just have to ride it out. Could be interesting since I go back to school next Monday to start setting up my classroom...maybe I will just get use to it and it won't put me down for the count every day? Luckily kids don't come back until August 12, so maybe by then it won't be so bad.

I would love to hear stories from people who have gone through this themselves, or who know someone who has. Any remedies are welcome! I'm going to go try and stuff some more crackers in my stomach so I have something in there. Wish me luck!

Some new pictures of the kiddos...

Sleepy kiddos...

The kids playing nice for once!!!

Sleepy Bella with her favorite toy, the pheasant daddy gave her...

Dutchess not really caring for the flash on the camera.

I interrupted her nap...Her mean look :)

Week in Review

So I'm getting increasingly more worried that I will have more than one child...As you can see from the picture my stomach isn't huge, but it definitely is bigger. I'm trying to console myself by telling myself that this was right after I'd eaten Mexican and my stomach was just full of air. It might also have been the way I was standing. Jeff says he thinks I was pushing it out. I smacked him for saying that. (don't worry, not hard).

He's being so good right now! He has been reading my what to expect books and actually suggested going to Barnes and Noble and getting a book on recipes for healthy eating during pregnancy. He is going to make such a good dad :) I'm going to miss him when he goes to Minnesota.

So on the symptoms front:

• I have started having to go to the bathroom a lot! It's a vicious cycle...I drink water and then I have to go, especially at night. Pretty much every hour I am up and in the bathroom. I think I see the bathroom more than anywhere else in my house right now. I don't want to drink that much water, but my body is so thirsty right now!
• I've started to feel slightly nauseous in the morning, but nowhere near actual "morning sickness" yet.
• When I get hungry, I turn into a crazy person, ready to kill the person that stands between me and my next meal. I have been known in the past couple of days to be on the verge of tears if it will be some time before I can eat. Since then I have learned to keep a Ziploc bag of Wheat Thins around to munch on.

Still have two weeks until the ultrasound...going to be so hard to wait! Well, Baby is screaming at me to eat again, so I need to go. Have a great day!

Top 5

Top 5 things I learned this week:

1) I need to learn the difference between scary miscarriage cramps and indigestion from too much Chipotle.

2) I am growing much more side to side than front to back.

3) It will be very hard to not buy any baby stuff for a while.

4) Even though I say I don't care what we have, I have started speaking about the baby in female terms.

5) Pretty much all smells with the exception of lemons right now make me nauseous.

House News

We received some unsettling news...the sellers are trying to change the contract that we signed on the house. We had put in the contract that we would accept the house up to $750. Anything over that the seller was responsible for fixing or giving us the monetary value for. The inspector found misc. things like a leaky faucet, and windows that slammed shut, a non-working attic fan, etc., that added up to around $650. We also paid for a sewer cam inspection which found a hair line crack in the PVC pipe of the main sewage line. The bid for that came back around $1040. So all together that would be a difference of $920 the sellers would be responsible for. Their realtor called our realtor and said that the sellers felt the inspector was being too picky and favoring us so they aren't willing to pay the difference, but they would be willing to give us $750 dollars towards our closing costs and then we would be responsible for fixing and paying for all repairs. Excuse me? Let me back up and explain why this royally pisses me off (aside from the raging hormones.)

We went above their asking price. They asked for $124,900 we gave $125,500. We didn't ask for any of our closing costs to be paid. We paid for the home inspection, sewer inspection, and termite inspection. They also moved our closing from July 31 to July 24 which gave us one less week to pack and get things together. They haven't had to pay for crap yet. The only thing we have asked of them is to leave all appliances when they only wanted to leave the dishwasher and built in microwave.

So I called our realtor back and told him to tell them thank you for your offer. However, as much as we have cooperated with them thus far, we feel that this is an unfair offer and we would like to continue with the contract. They may either write us a check, or contribute $920 towards our closing costs. We have yet to hear back from our realtor. I'm willing to play hardball and tell them we will walk if the contract is not upheld. Jeff is willing to accept the $750. I don't think they will break the contract simply because our realtor told me the reason they had to push closing up the 24th is that they close on their new house the next day and need to prove that they have a sell to attribute for the money towards their new house. What do you guys think? Are we doing the right thing? What would you do?

Beautiful Evening...

Our landlord called on Tuesday and asked if he could show our town home in hopes of getting it rented out for August 1st. That's fine, except since we are moving in 2 weeks, we have some boxes here or there. So we are trying to rearrange things so it at least looks presentable for someone to come look at. They are coming at 5, so I have a busy day of picking up!

Some clarification on my first post...I should have clarified what I was talking about with my hormone levels and multiple babies...There is no real way to know until our ultrasound. The nurse was just surprised my levels went up as fast as they did. Normal pregnancies your hormones will double every two days. My first level was a 74 and then I had it taken again five days later. So if it was doubling correctly it should have been 148 on Friday, and 296 Sunday. By Monday when my blood was taken it would have been around a 444 or so. My level was 961. My levels doubled every 1.35 days. Yes, it is in line with twin pregnancy levels, but it doesn't necessarily mean anything. Some women have levels much higher than that and only have singles, and some have levels lower and have twins or triplets. The only true way of knowing will be our ultrasound when they can see how many babies and how many sacs there are. Please just keep praying that we make it that far this time and we can see our healthy baby, or babies, whichever it may be :)

We were outside the other evening and it was the perfect evening. We took Bella out to the backyard and were sitting on the deck and happened to see 2 hot air balloons in the distance. One flew over the next town home over, and one flew right over us! They waved at us, and we waved back. It was so cool! We could literally see right up into the balloon! It was so neat. I had never been that close to one before. Here are some pictures we took...
Hope everyone has a great day!

School and Work News

More exciting news on the Olson front...

I had taken two master's classes this summer to work towards a degree in becoming a Literacy Coach/Reading Specialist. I got the official word that I got A's in both classes for a 4.0 my first semester. I was pretty excited about that! Next up is one class apiece in the fall and in the spring. Don't know how that will work when I have the baby, but hopefully I will have an understanding instructor :)

Jeff also received some exciting news yesterday. His head chef was invited to a chef's meeting in St. Paul, MN on July 23rd and is not going to be able to make it. The district manager hand picked Jeff to go in his place. I am so proud of him, and it is a huge honor for him. It will be a busy week! Wednesday the 22nd is a board meeting at Jeff's work which he will help cater, working from 4:30 am to 9:30 pm. Then he will come home, get a little sleep, and hope on a plane to MN. He will spend Thursday at the chef's meeting and spend that night in MN, then fly back early Friday morning. He will work some part of Friday, and then that afternoon we close on our house. Saturday we pick up the U-Haul and start packing it up, then Sunday morning we officially take possession and move in, and Monday is our first ultrasound in KC. BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!

If anyone is just really bored the weekend of the 25th-26th and wants to come help us move, you are more than welcome!

And baby makes three...

Hello Hello! We've decided to create a blog for our family and friends devoted solely to our family and what is going on with us.

In case you hadn't heard, Jeff and I found out last week that we are expecting in March 2010. We have been through two different blood tests to check levels and things look great, actually better than great. My HCG hormone level doubled so fast, we are kind of worried maybe we have more than one baby in there! So now begins the waiting game until July 27th to see 1) if we have a healthy baby 2) how many babies are in there! I'm so excited to see our little bean, I don't know if I can wait that long. Luckily between now and then we have a lot going on, so hopefully time will fly by and before we know it we will be seeing our little one for the first time. We move in to our new home on the 26th, and we are really excited about that too! Hope everything continues to go smoothly between now and then. Please feel free to leave comments on here. We would love to hear from everyone! Take care for now!!

Love, Haley