lil monkey update

We had a follow up ultrasound about a week and a half ago, so I wanted to share some pictures. We were able to get some decent 3D shots as well as take a look all over and measure him to check his growth.

Look at that cute face! He was sleeping for most of our appointment, all curled up with hands and even feet up by his head. He did wake up and yawn for us, which was pretty cute. BCH's parents came to the appointment as well and his mom said that he "looks like Brandon". :)

In this profile shot he is touching his foot on his forehead! He literally was rolled up in a ball, which did make it a little hard to check out some of the essentials. She still managed to do the measurements needed and he averaged in the 75th percentile for size at 29 weeks along, and had an estimated weight of 3 pounds 10 ounces (with +/- 9 oz margin error)! Crazy - he is a total chunker already!!

He is moving like crazy, and the hiccups have started. At my last OB appointment on Friday, I was measuring about 32 weeks along even though I am currently 30 weeks. Hopefully he will either come a little early, or slow down in his growth. We dont need him to be a 10 pounder!

Name update: We dont have one yet, although we have a short list of names we like. And no, we really haven't picked a name and are just keeping a secret. I promise.

More pictures, more names

This is another profile shot, similar to the one that I put on the last blog. My mom said "oh he looks like Nathan", which made me giggle.

Here is a 3D image we got at the ultrasound last week. Its looking down at baby Hanson; you can see his nose and his lips really well. He has his arms at the sides of his head so his elbows are poking out. He moved quite a bit during the ultrasound (I think he was pretty irritated by it all) once he woke up.

This is a view looking up at his privates - you can see his legs going out and his very definite boy parts in between. No mistaking it, for sure!

Cute shot of the bottom of his feet. Awww, precious!

Nathan is bound and determined to give this boy either his first or middle name. He has come up with quite a few suggestions. Some of my 'favorites' are: Sylvester, Quentin, Novak, Zephen, Sokka, Murray, Roger, and BeK (you spell it like that - capital B and capital K).

When we first got pregnant, we came up with a girl name we both loved without a lot of discussion. So it was a little sad to find out its a boy because we had not agreed on ANY boy names at all. We do now have a few we tentatively agree on, but nothing has been settled. Which is just fine, considering we are only half way there anyway.

Boy!

Apparently I am just awesome with boys, cause I am having another one! I feel mixed about it, but mostly I am just really happy that everything went really well with the ultrasound. That was such a relief! He looks great, all his parts were there and he measured on track if even a little bigger.

We have no boy names at all at this point (other than oh-so-helpful suggestions from my sons like Hoover Dam Hanson, Stanley Steamer Hanson, and the new one: Peyton Manning Hanson) and a barrage of names from my helpful coworkers ;) . I'm sure we will come up with the one that seems perfect for little boy Hanson when its time.

6 days

We had another doctor appointment today. Everything looks good - the babies heart rate was 150, and I was measuring maybe a little bigger than almost 18 weeks, but still within what would be considered normal for now.

I love going there and hearing the heartbeat, and I realize I find myself getting a little paranoid a few days before my appointment. I start thinking, what if there is no heartbeat? What if the flutters I have been feeling really are not the baby? Its paranoia, I know, but not completely unfounded. Although miscarriage is less common this far along, it happens. I can see why people get those home dopplers that you can rent or buy, although I could not justify for myself.

I was really hoping to have our anatomy / gender ultrasound this Friday. My midwife said no, that she does not want us to go until I am exactly 18 weeks - which is Saturday. I called and tried to schedule it for then, but they were full in the morning so I scheduled it for next Monday. I'm a little bummed out right now about having to wait six days, but in the long run it will not seem like a big deal (...I know this, but still its killing me). I am just DYING to find out if we are having a boy or a girl. I know what most people are rooting for, but at the same time I suspect its going to be the other.

I admire anyone that can wait for birth to find out the sex, but it will really help me with some planning and reduce some anxiety when we do find out. So far, the only thing we have bought is a crib. You cannot buy clothes without knowing the sex, there is very little that looks gender neutral. So, now I wait 6 days...

second trimester

I've officially been in my second trimester for a couple weeks now. Other than being really tired today and yesterday (circumstantial, is my guess) I feel great. I still hate that my body is in this in-between stage; my pants are too tight (yay belly band and bigger size pants) and my shirts selection has gotten smaller. Since I finally told my boss about the pregnancy on Monday, I wore a maternity shirt to work today. It was comfy, but again makes me look bigger than I really am. I am fascinated by the fact that my waist and belly are changing, but my weight has not changed at all the last few weeks. I guess everything is getting re-allocated.

Our last doctor appointment went well. Heard the heartbeat again which is always exciting (and a relief). We should be able to find out the sex in about 4 weeks!

11 weeks!

According to our ultrasound a few weeks ago, I am officially 11 weeks along today. I feel great. I haven't had any sickness for a few weeks now and feel pretty lucky that it only lasted about 2 weeks. But boy, those were a LONG two weeks!

I bought some maternity pants the other day because I was getting tired of wearing pants that were too tight (and I was doing this trick I learned where you use a hair tie to keep the snap closed, giving you a little extra room), so I figured it was time. I got three pair and they are super comfy, but still too big as the belly part doesn't really fit and I have to roll it down. So, I'm still in that 'in-between' stage I guess.

We have told a lot of people now. Its been so fun to share, and its nice to finally 'get it out there'. We have told all of our family (a lot of disbelief on the part of my family) many close friends, and Brandon told work people. I plan to put off telling work for at least another week, but I'm not sure how much longer I can hold out. I am glad we made the decision to wait, but it has been kinda hard to do so and I am relieved to be at the stage where we can talk about it with others now.

we are having a baby

Its going to be a bit before I publish this, since we are being pretty closed lipped about it, but I am pregnant! I was figuring we were close to 8 weeks, and had an ultrasound yesterday to confirm and reassure. The tech put us at 7 weeks 2 days, which seems about right really based on my high tech calculations I had done (but won't go into detail here about).

It was SO COOL to see the little flutter of heartbeat on our little blob on the screen. She pointed out which ovary it came from (the right) and everything seems to be growing well. She even did a 3-D picture for us, which is kinda silly cause its just a blob in 3-D and the regular picture actually looks better I think. I really can't wait to show the pictures with everyone, but right now we have just kept them to ourselves.

I have been so sick! Not throwing up ever (although I wish sometimes I did), just a really precarious stomach not unlike a next day hangover stomach (i'm sure there are those that can relate). I had about 1 1/2 weeks of feeling just horrible, not eating made me feel crappy, eating too much made me feel crappy, and eating anything was the same. Water made me feel sick. I usually drink a lot of it, so that was hard and also made me dehydrated. I started taking B6 pills and trying really hard to eat small meals and not drink with my food (SO hard for me!) and I have felt a bit better the last few days. I'm not sure if its the vitamins or what, but I am thankful that instead of constantly feeling nauseous I just feel it mildly a few times a day. Amanda says she heard on NPR that the sicker you are, the higher your babies' IQ. Uh huh.

I have been EXHAUSTED. I feel totally lame cause we just moved and there are still so many things to do around here and its all I can do to go to work and come home and stay awake until bedtime. BCH has certainly taken on a heavier load around here and I love him even more for it. I don't remember feeling like this with my other pregnancies; I am worried that my age is going to really make this a tough one if its killing me at this point. Hopefully I will get that second trimester surge of energy I have read about.

We have our first appointment with our midwife, Lindsay, in about two weeks and I hope at that point everything is on track. If so, I think we will start telling people then. I can't wait!

Our house - in pictures!

I'm not so great at uploading pictures on this blog, but here you go. Please ignore the few random boxes that are in some of the pictures - still got more things to put away, but we have made some great progress so far. This is the master bedroom. It has a walk in closet, which is really an add on room, but it was too messy looking to take a picture of.
Upstairs half bath. It overlooks the back yard, and its nice to have a second bathroom for Nathan.
Nathan's bedroom upstairs. Its a decent size room, despite the slanty ceilings
Kitchen. You can't really tell from this picture but it has an old cast iron one piece sink / drawers. Its pretty retro cool. The cupboards are really old as well but they are in decent shape and have a nice charm to them.
Back yard. Kind of a ghetto cement patio. I plan to put in a garden off the back of the house (on the left side of the picture) but this year my tomatoes and peppers get to grow in pots.
Front view of the house. The yard and landscaping is really nice; a lot of great shade plants on the west side of the house and these bushes provide great privacy for our fabulous porch.
Porch. The previous owner rebuilt it using Trex board about five years ago. He also left us this nice bench. We look forward to many many hours of porch time here.
Our 100+ year old house comes equipped with a boiler and radiators. This terrified me when we initially looked at the house, but supposedly radiant heat is a better heat. Now we just need to figure out how to turn it on and control each radiator. Most of our radiators look like this one, which are original to the house, and are pretty cool looking.

Dining room. Almost every floor in the house is hardwood. The floor is a little wavy in this room (BCH says it undulates) but its not too bad and our inspector assured us it wasn't a structural problem. Our hardwood floors are REALLY creaky though (no sneaking around the house at night, thats for sure!)

Living room. The fireplace is not as bright red as it looks in this picture, its just the lighting. But it is red. I hated it initially. But its grown on me, and we found this really nice rug that mostly matches. I would like to paint it a slightly different shade of red. Also, that faux painted wall is going to be re-painted. Its pretty awful looking.
Another angle of the living room. It has a really nice window bay and a lot of light coming in all the windows. Our furniture looks pretty good in here. I love this room!

There you go - not pictures of everything (bathroom, walk in closet, 3rd bedroom, mud room and basement were not included). We have some more things to change, like painting, as well as installing a dishwasher in the kitchen and creating some more counter space. But so far we are loving it even more than we thought we would.

Settling In

Our new house is finally feeling like ours. The closing / recording / possession did not go as we had hoped, and we ended up moving on Sunday of Memorial weekend. Luckily, we have some great family and friends that made it go quick and smooth (for a move, at least).

One cool thing is we keep getting checks in the mail. Interest reimbursement from the title company, car insurance overpaid, appraisal fee paid back for all our loan troubles, deposit on our rental place refunded, it just goes on! Its been awesome because we have been able to get some nice stuff like a new tv stand, an awesome rug and coffee table for the front room (the whole house is hardwood / tile so we need a lot of rugs), and a nightstand so far. We plan to install a dishwasher, build a cabinet around that, and buy a butcher block table for more counter space. And of course there are a lot of 'house' things we don't own yet and need; such as a ladder and yard tools.

A week of cleaning and unpacking and now I feel home. I LOVE this house. Everyone that comes over says they love it too. This house feels like US. I love that we own a 100+ year old home, with its high ceilings, boiler, creaky floors, and odd additions. I love that I have this with Brandon, and that we are making steps like this together. Building a home for my boys, and for our future.

three weeks

We are set to close in three weeks.

If all goes well, moving in four weeks.

(side note: whats everyone doing Memorial weekend?...)

Super excited!

We love this house.

The inspection went well, and they agreed to fix a few of the minor things. BONUS.

went to IKEA yesterday and wrote a very long list of things we need, and things we want.

(Man, we have some crappy furniture that should have been put out in the pasture long ago.)

I've also been keeping an eye on KSL and Craigslist for a used portable dishwasher.

This will make Nathan very happy.

It will also make me happy cause my dishes will get chipped and broken a lot less.

We have a bit of painting to do, but not much.

I still want to paint the fireplace purple.

BCH does not like this idea, but its better than the fire engine red it currently sports.

It will look good with our green couches, I promise!

Did I already mention I love this house?

"makes us happy"

It has been quite the dramatic day; actually the whole last week. We got back out there again and saw houses the very next day after cancelling our contract on the Kensington house. We saw a house we LOVED. So the next day we went out again, saw a few really really cool houses, and again saw the house we loved. This time, we brought my sister for another perspective and had both of our real estate agents with us. Christina admitted, after touring the house and deciding she also loved it, that she had come there with the agenda to talk us out of making an offer on it cause it had a shared driveway.

Our previous experience of rushing into it made us hesitant. So, we slept on it. And decided the next morning to make an offer. Offer submitted, with an expectation that they might counter offer. The next morning Christina tells us that they had gotten another offer and we were to bring back our 'biggest and best' offer. We talked a lot about what we were willing to do, and amended our offer.

Christina called this morning trying to track down our finance guys cell number so she could get a pre-qualification letter. This was a good sign and made us feel hopeful.

Then we don't hear anything. Finally BCH can stand it no longer and calls Christina. They have counter offered, and we needed to quickly sign it before they changed their mind, as there were now 'multiple offers' on the table.

It felt so dramatic, printing the offer off and signing it and faxing it to BCH. Then re-faxing it cause I did it wrong. Then faxing another time cause the fax machine missed a page. My heart was seriously racing. What if they got a much bigger offer before getting our agreement and decided to take it?

Finally, it was done. Everything signed, everyone in agreement. Under contract. I looked over the paperwork again that Christina had emailed to me, and saw the original fax cover page she had submitted to their agent. She had written, "My clients LOVE the house and hope this works out". Their agent had circled the word "LOVE" and had written below it: "Makes us happy".

This makes everyone happy :)

Disappointed

Remember when I said the home we were in the process of buying was built in the 1920's? You know when you buy a home that old, there is going to be some settling. And this home seemed to have a bit, but we were not overly concerned when we made our offer. Well, after our home inspection we have decided it has had a bit TOO much settling.

I keep going through the "shoulda"s in this process - but that isn't productive or helpful at all. I'm disappointed and discouraged; I was already tired of looking at houses when we made this offer (which I think was part of the reason I was so quick to agree to an offer) and having to look again is not encouraging to me. I need to get re-energized but I don't know how.

The other disappointment is that backing out of the contract might mean we are going to miss out on the $8,000 first time homeowners rebate. It requires you to be under contract on a house by April 30. While this is still very possible, we are not going to hold out hope on it. BCH and I also agree that we shouldn't just 'settle' on a house we don't love just to get the credit. The point of buying a house was not to get the credit, it was to buy a house. Which is what we still plan to do, its just going to take longer than we had hoped.

Jumping through the hoops...hope we don't trip!

We have been a bit hush about it on Facebook and around town (I think that both of us are a bit superstitious and dont want to jinx this - heard too many bad stories and already got one house rejection) so we aren't shouting on the rooftops about this, but we are very excited that we are currently under contract for a house. Closing date is set for April 29th, and the big hurdle this week is the home inspection, set for Wednesday. Found out today that our loan is approved (its amazing the difference between pre-approved and approved) but of course they have requested yet another round of paperwork and information from us. Sigh...

Its a 1920's Tudor, three bedroom and two bath. Its only a couple of blocks from where we currently reside, on a tidy street in the Sugarhood area that we already know and love. As our Realtor pointed out, its a good street because there are a lot of Subaru owners on the block. She cracks me up.

I am not thrilled about moving (AGAIN) so we haven't done a bit of packing yet, but I am excited that this will be the last move in a long time (as I am sure my siblings - ie: moving team - are thrilled about as well...)

The home has been updated, for the most part, so it is pretty move in ready. But of course we have already come up with a list of things we want to do immediately and in the near future. We also have the start of a needs list - things we have not owned but will need ASAP - like a garden hose of all things.

Do not fret, those of you who have asked. Despite searching and looking for one, we do not have a big porch (as seen from the picture) for infamous summer nights porch time, but it does have a nice backyard which we plan on putting a patio in. There is even a fire pit already installed, so I anticipate porch time can make a smooth transition to the new digs.

That is, if, and when, we finally jump through the last hoop and get those hot little keys in our hands.

Spring

Relationships come, relationships go. (Yes, I realize how flippant that sounds but it is not my intention.) Reasons for dissolution vary. And one thing I have noticed, which I cannot quite understand, is that sometimes the very reason one relationship flounders and goes under, is the same thing that reinforces another and causes it to thrive. I truly believe that we are of the latter.

I don't talk about it much (for various reasons, but one of the big ones being that I hate it when someone 'alludes' to a problem, but then won't respond to questions about the aforementioned issue. I suspect I am doing just that right now, so deal with it) but BCH and I have really been through quite a bit the last year and especially this last winter. Events that can (and have) destroyed the bond between two people have really caused us to buckle down and hold tight. I feel like we have had a sort of hibernation this winter - physically and mentally - and are just now starting to stick our feelers out into the world to see that basically life continues to go on. Nothing stopped for me while I was wallowing in my head. And that is the way it should be.

I feel so revived and hopeful with the spring weather we have been having. The little things fill my heart with joy, like the new red buds coming out of the ground where our Bleeding Heart was. I suspected the plant was dead, but it has surprised me. Spring has brought on this great sense of anticipation for us and for our future. I know that anticipation can be a blessing and curse, for anticipation does bring expectation which can result in disappointment, but I choose to not worry about that now. I do know though, whatever may happen in the coming weeks, we will be okay.

A hunting we will go!

We have actively begun looking for a house of our own to purchase. It will be small, it will be old, and it surely will still be in Sugarhood.

We went out with our realtor Christina on Friday and powered through about a dozen houses in 3 hours. I say 'about' cause honestly I lost track. It was actually a little overwhelming at the end, but we saw some great places, some decent places, and a place or two that I walked out of without even seeing the whole house. Christina is awesome; giving us newbie tips and questioning why we want certain attributes in our house (she asks one homeowner: "could you store beer in that basement?" ")

We realize we are not the 'fixer upper' type of folks, so that eliminates a few of the houses. I just cannot see the potential hidden behind mirrored walls, bad flooring and unfinished basements.

We came up with a top two list (separately we had decided on the same two houses!), and so now when I do something around the house I try to imagine myself doing it in either of those two houses (and wondering - where was the linen closet in that house? Was there enough kitchen cupboards?). I want to go back and spend more time in them, but I also want to see other houses.

We are feeling pretty confident that we can find a house that fits us and (almost more importantly) contract or close on it by April 30 so we can get the cash money the Gov wants to give us. Wish us luck!

"Hows Married life?"

I've gotten the question, "hows married life?" many times over the last five months (BCH reminded me the other day that yes, it has been five months). Its a fair question, I guess, but it sure gets old and I don't exactly know how to answer.

It kinda has a two part answer: One, it doesn't really feel any different than before. We still strive to make things the best they can be, enjoy spending as much time together as possible, and appreciate what we have. But then there is this other part; this 'future thinking' that comes with being married. Getting married propels you into your future (with your partner) and makes you plan ahead. That part has been fun too - Setting goals, figuring out what your priorities are together (which don't necessarily coincide). And when there are disappointments or things don't go the way you think they should, it has been invaluable to have a partner to rely on. It has been a Lifesaver to have BCH to rely on...its been a rough couple of months for me.

We had our first holidays together as a married couple - Thanksgiving with all the coordination it requires; Christmas (more coordination) and meshing different experiences and expectations together, and even Valentines day (which was fabulous). Our holidays and family events as this new family for sure looks much different than a Norman Rockwell painting, but it feels right because it is what we are.

I feel so lucky to have such an awesome life, and a wonderful partner to set those future goals with. We have a few things we hope (and have a plan for) to see in our near future, one of which is purchasing a house together. Again, this requires meshing of different ideas, experiences, needs and wants. Beginning this process has already had its own frustrations and set backs, but we just keep looking ahead.

So, next time you see me and ask "Hows married life?" you might get a snarky answer in response. But if you read this, then you know that secretly (well, maybe not so secretly...) I am loving being married and the changes it has brought to my life.