Traveling to Sweden - Part 1

I am writing this a few days later so let's see how much I can recall.

I always put the packing off to the last minute. I tried to be better about it but we had so much laundry to catch up on that it made it hard to do. We ended up forgetting some things too which is inevitable but what disappointed me was that they were Christmas gifts and the shell for my jacket. Doh. A friend of ours is sending them over to us so we should have them soon. Too bad it will be too late for Christmas but at least we will be here to see them open them. 

Our schedule this day was pretty good. We wanted to leave the house around 3pm in order to get to the airport around 4:30pm. We had a 6:45pm flight time and we figured that would be plenty of time. We actually left the house around 2:45pm so we had enough time to pick up Davin at school and were on the freeway around 3:10pm or so. We needed to stop in Seattle at a golf course to pick up my dad who was going to take our car for us while we are gone. I am pretty sure we got to the airport around 4:30pm since there wasn't much traffic. We got to the ticket counter and were surprised that there wasn't a line so we walked right up. Of course, we learned a few minutes later that our flight was delayed by an hour! Oh well, we had a lesiurely dinner and we beat the crowds which came in right after us. 

Even getting through security wasn't too bad either. Again there were barely any lines and the most time consuming activity was unloading all our belongings. We had a stroller, the baby car seat, two laptop computers, medicines, baby food, formula, and my wrist brace. Apparently, everything food related needed to be "swabbed" and also my wrist brace too. Ok, after a quick Google search I learned that they were checking for exposives. Whew. Glad we aren't explosive! Of course, we had to all take off our shoes, coats and whatever else was in our pockets. THEN, there was the fun joy of repacking all our stuff again but we made it and we had PLENTY of time still to enjoy some dinner. 

We didn't have great dinner choices but we took what we could. Davin picked out a huge sandwich from Starbucks but didn't eat any of it. I think we gave him some snacks that we had packed for the plane. Fredrik had Wendy's and Linnea had some baby food. The hard part about eating was finding a place to sit down. The one table we did manage to score was covered in soda and we had to wait for someone to come and clean it. They didn't do a great job since all they had were paper towels so everything was still sticky. Good thing we had wipes! 

After eating we managed to make our way to our gate and we realized there were some food options there too. We would have had less food types to choose from but at least there were plenty of tables. At the gate there were not a lot of spots open for 4 people. We ended up sitting one gate away but at least we only had to wait for about 30 minutes or so. There were a LOT of families on this flight so we had a long line when we actually got to board the plane. At least we got on the plane easily and there was lots of space for our stuff in the overhead bins. On to part 2!

Time to Blog Again

So, it's been awhile since I have blogged. I am lazy. That and I had a difficult time with being nauseous for so long when I was pregnant with Linnea. It was a good 4 months before I felt better but I was also on some medication which helped me eat but it made me super tired and I think even a bit depressed. Anyway, after that it was the holidays then it was time to give birth and then it was adjusting to taking care of two children ... etc! Also, my business has been booming so that has been exciting as well!

Now we are taking a 4 week vacation to spend the holidays with my husband's family in Sweden. I will try to blog about our experiences here so stay tuned!

18 Week Update

So, here I am updating my blog again and hopefully I can go back and remember all that happened in the last month and a half. That is just how it goes ... I blog in spurts. I don't have the motivation to do it every day or week. Especially lately because I have been nauseous and tired almost all the time. It is getting better but much, much slower than I wanted.

Let's see ... I had my regular doctor's visit today for a check up. Pee'd in the cup, got weighed and I FINALLY gained some weight! A whopping 6 pounds this month. No wonder I have no energy and feel huge. This means that now I am plus one pound for the pregnancy so I made up for lost time during the first 4 months. I hope I can keep it up!

I also got scheduled for another ultrasound since my first one was sort of a bust and I REALLY want to know what the sex is. I have a nice doctor. :) Other than that, I am doing well and the baby's heartbeat was a good 150 bpm. I also got my nausea medicine renewed so I can keep eating. More later!

~Monica~

Davin's 3rd Birthday Party

Today was the big day for Davin! We decided to have a party at Jump Planet which is a huge warehouse type of place that is filled with these huge blown up inflatable toys that you see rented out at fairs or parties. Anyway, it is one of Davin's favorite places so even though it was a bit pricey to spend on a 3 year old, it was well worth it.

We got there and we had someone who helped coordinate all the kids and getting them ready to jump. There were a good number of kids there ... maybe a dozen or so? We had half of the facility to jump in and of course we got the half that Davin likes the least. I think I knew it would be divided but it never occurred to me to ask for the better half. Oh well. I think some of us moms spent our time keeping the kids on the half that was assigned to us. When we go there for a drop-in session during the week we have the whole place to run around in so it was an adjustment for the kids. Still, they had a lot of fun and Fredrik was in charge of Davin so he got to jump too. Both boys had tons of fun. :)

Then they transferred all the gifts and food upstairs so when we were done jumping, we had everything prepared for us. Our JP helper even set the table, helped serve and kept track of who gave the presents when Davin was opening them. Everything was great and I got all the food at Costco so it was nice to have good food, good friends and a good time.

~Monica~

16 Week Ultrasound

Well, I goofed. I got a little anxious and scheduled this a week earlier than I was supposed to but I thought it would be okay. I forgot that my doctor is counting a week later than my first ultrasound so this is 16 weeks and not 17.

Anyway, we got up early this morning for an 8am appointment. I sucked down some orange juice or some liquid so I had a full bladder by the time we got there. Davin did really well through the appointment and he liked looking at the "tv" to see the baby. He lost interest real quick however. We found out from the tech that the early ultrasound ... I think it was before 12 weeks? ... is the most accurate for predicting the date since all babies develop at the same exact rate in the beginning. After that, there are other factors that kick in ... gestational diabetes, diet, genetics, etc. So, that decided it for me to count my development by the ultrasound measurements from this point on.

As for determining the sex of the baby ... the tech got a fairly good look early on but she did mention it was a bit too early to be sure. She said that she did think it could be a girl since she didn't see any boy parts. The next time she got a look she was a bit more hesitant. Still no clear boy parts but no real clear image of any girl parts either. The baby was really moving a lot too so it was hard. The final time she looked she totally was going back on what she thought before because now it was smooth between the legs so it could be the testicles we were seeing. Still no penis but ultimately we know no more today than we did yesterday.

They did get most of the measurements but they were missing a few so they had to have us wait for the in-house doctor review them to make sure I didn't need to come back. After about 20 minutes waiting, they sent us home since all the critical stuff was accounted for and nothing looked abnormal. Still, I am hoping for another ultrasound even if it is mostly just to figure out the sex!!

~Monica~