Random Musings from a Pregnant Brain

1. Leggings are probably one of the most comfortable fashion inventions of the last 100 years!

2. Yes, a baby moving around inside you feels like an alien has invaded your body...but it's a very cute alien!

3. Clingy toddlers are much harder to handle when you have a bump that starts to take over your lap and makes it harder to bend down!

4. Laundry is like taxes and dying, it's inevitable and does not go away!

5. Keeping up with scrapbooks for 4 children is very hard, but it's also very fun!

6. Your idea of a perfect evening is kids in bed, watching episodes of 24 on Netflix, with a personal pint of ice cream (any kind) balanced on top of the bump...my how things have changed since you were 18!!

7. 7 year olds who throw temper tantrums, roll their eyes, stomp their feet and slam doors are going to find it very hard to live until their 8th birthday if they continue with said behavior!

8. 7 year olds who kiss and talk to the baby in your belly every morning before they leave for school earn one more day to be alive!

9. School is almost out for the summer- Lord help me! On second thought, Lord help them!

10. Lazy days by the pool laughing with my girlfriends may be just what the doctor ordered...so on second thought...bring it on!!!

These are the things that run through my brain right now. Yes, they are random. Yes, you can probably relate. And no, I don't think delivery of said baby will help matters much. I think more than anything I have mommy brain, and I'm not sure that goes away...ever!

Not really too much to report these days. We have another doctor's appointment next week (your basic tummy measure, climb on the scale and let's find out how much ice cream and candy you've been shoveling in!) but this time I also get to add my gestational diabetes test to this appointment! Fun, fun! I always look forward to drinking that orange sugary whatever they want to call it. Hopefully the results will be like all the others, it will come back negative and I'll be fine to continue with my sugar feigning! lol

Well, that's all for now!

Spring is Here!

I have actually started to miss my blog, which means, I believe that I'm ready to get back to it! There for a while it all just felt like too much and something had to give! For me, it was the blog, but now things are feeling more stable and steady. I think it's time to make a come back!

A lot has happened since I last posted over a month ago. I turned 30! Yes, it happened, as much as I didn't want it to! I wouldn't think about it! Wouldn't really mention it. I don't know what the big deal was but there is just something about leaving behind the 2-0's that feels so...final?!? I'm not sure what it is but I wasn't really looking forward to it. But it came, and my family made it a great day! And it went, and now here I am fully into my 30's and totally OK with it! LOL! I realized the other day I spent my entire 20's pregnant or nursing another human being! I'm kind of hoping the 30's aren't like that! hehehe!!

Easter was great! It was busy like every other holiday around here but we were able to make it to church Sunday morning and then spent the afternoon/evening with Steven's family at his aunt's house. It was nice and relaxing. And the kids had a great time! It was a little chillier than it had been all week but they still spent most of the day outside which made this mama very happy!

By the dogwood tree before Mass...ugh! So dark! I need to learn photo editing! lol

That's better-but Jonah! Gosh! Cheese much!?!?

Almost! One day we'll get this right! lol They're still cute!!

Back out by the tree-nope! Still too dark! Oh well!

The birthday cake my mom made for me to take to Steven's family's house. Isn't it cute?!?!

And yes, I blew out all 30 candles with one breath! Singing lessons still paying off all these years later! lol- oh and you can get a glimpse of the baby bump! It doesn't look as big from this angle but it's there!

Speaking of the baby bump...this past Saturday we went to the doctor for an ultrasound. Baby is looking great! Measuring right on target (about 14 ounces, which is actually a little big for 20 weeks so maybe my wish of being induced early due to a big baby will come true!!!) and looks very healthy! We also found out that the bump can now get a name because...it's....A BOY! Yes, we will be welcoming another boy to our family in August. Jonah was very excited, Brianna not so much! She cried big ol' crocodile tears! She wanted a sister so badly!! I'll admit I was a bit disappointed myself. I wanted to round out our family with another little girl. But the Lord has other plans for us instead! So, since we're pretty sure that this one will be the last to join our family we spent the day totting to Bri all the ways that being the only girl in the family is pretty awesome! Like, never having to share your room! Or your clothes! Or your shoes! Your brothers won't fight with you over your boyfriends (well, I guess that one remains to be seen! lol) and since mommy and daddy will only have to pay for one wedding....it's gonna rock!!!! ;-)  She's finally started to come around and see the benefits. I think she's gonna be OK. But what really melted my heart was when we were sitting in Bob Evans after the ultrasound waiting to be seated when Jonah looked at his Nina and said "Brianna can be the princess and we'll be her 3 knights!!" Goodness I love that boy!!!

Oh and the baby's name you might be wondering? 

Meet Elijah Zike Fischer!! 

We tossed around a few names when we found out we were pregnant. If it was a girl it was going to be Julia Marie after Steven's great grandmother. For boys we tossed around Jeremiah (to which Steven would always sing "Jeremiah was a bullfrog!"...yeah that one didn't stick around long!!!), Josiah and Elijah. Elijah won with both of us so it got to stay! We are already calling him Eli. It's funny how that happens! His middle name, Zike is my mother's maiden name. We felt it worked well as a middle name. So there you have it! Hopefully Eli will continue to behave himself in there and we will get to meet him soon! (But not too soon! lol)

Well, that feels like a pretty good update of what we've been doing. I'd promise to write more often, but we've seen how well that's worked out lately! So I make no promises, but I will do my best to be better at this! I have missed it!

Grrr....Google!!!

So Steven goes to get on the blog the other day and walks into the room and says "Did you delete the blog because I can't get on it?" DID I WHAT!?!?! Ummmm....no!!! Come to find out Google had blocked it for "suspicious activity"...ummmm...well, I guess no activity could qualify as suspicious...I guess! lol  But anyway, if you've tried to get on lately and wondered why we disappeared it wasn't me...it was Google!! But we're back now and it's time for an update!

Things are starting to feel normal again. The (all-day) morning sickness is finally gone! YIPPY!!! (insert happy dance here)  My energy is slowly starting to come back, although if I sit in place for too long I will fall asleep! (yes, church is a battle right now! lol) My appetite is definitely picking up. As in, I'm eating everything in sight! (Didn't want to gain 40 pounds this pregnancy but we'll see! lol) Now if only my motivation to get things in order in the house would come back!! Thanks to Steven I'm doing an OK job on keeping with dishes, laundry and that's about it! Most days it looks like a tornado blew through here but one day at a time right?!? (or does that only apply to addicts and alcoholics?)

About 3 weeks ago the belly popped! And I mean popped! Those of you who know me in real life know that I am a very thin person. I've always been a really thin person and no amount of fatty fast food has ever changed that. So when I woke up one morning and realized the bump on my belly wasn't going away and I couldn't suck it in anymore I started to feel pregnant! (Without feeling like I was gonna puke my guts out!) That got pretty exciting! Since then the kids are in full talking to the belly bump mode. Micah walks up and waves at my belly often and gives the baby kisses. It'll be interesting to see how he does when there's a real baby here to talk to and kiss. I'm not sure he'll be thrilled with the noises it makes or the smells it can emit but we'll see! I'm not good at taking self-portraits so I'm going to have Steven take some belly shots this weekend so I can start posting them.

Other than baby news not much is going around here. OK, that's a lie but it's really just the general busy life stuff that comes with having a family! Our annual play at church that I am involved in once again this year wraps up this weekend which gives me my weekends and Mondays and Wednesdays back. This is always bitter sweet because I enjoy doing the show so much, but after 6 months I'm ready to get my life back! But knowing that I'll have 2 month old when the show starts prepping next year and that I'll probably be sitting it out makes me feel a little sad! It's been an incredible run this year! I've loved every minute of it!

Steven has been accepted into the manager training program at work. He's tried for the program several times now and never seemed to get it, even though they were constantly using him for manager coverage whenever a manager needed to be out. They knew he had it, but kept dangling it in front of him. He finally got it this last time and for the next month is working as a co-manager with his manager to provide coverage for his team while his manager works on a special project. It feels like he's finally getting to where he wants to be (and should be really!) and I'm so happy for him! 

Jonah is doing really good in preschool. We had a review a few weeks ago with his teachers and he still hasn't met his goals that were set out when he entered the program. So they are having him tested by PTs and OTs to see if they can identify the problems. But he is thriving in school! He loves going. It's all he talks about all weekend long. And I love seeing him blossom into this independent little person.

Brianna continues to be our social butterfly who loves school and does really well. She blows me away with her reading and writing. She can always be found with either a book in her hand or a stack of paper that she has stapled together to write a book of her own. We definitely have a budding writer on our hands!

Micah is enjoying his afternoons alone with mommy. We grocery shop, go out to lunch or go home and snuggle on the couch and watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, which he never gets to watch when his brother and sister are around! He is such a sweet loving boy who at the moment is engrossed in The Polar Express, his current obsession. He walks around the house singing "hot hot! Oh we got it! hot hot! Yeah we got it! hot hot! Oh we got it! Hot chocolate!" all the time! It always makes me laugh! I wish I had some pictures to share instead of all the words, but we've been bad about pictures lately! We'll have to start making up for that!

Well, that's about it for now! I wanted you all to know that we hadn't deleted the blog! We aren't dead! And since the last post things have finally started to turn around. The weather is warming up too, which helps soooo much! Goodbye winter hello tornadoes?!?!? Let's hope not but tomorrow has strong severe storms in the forecast. The closet under the stairs is ready to go, just in case! So we'll take some belly pictures this weekend and get those posted- and maybe a few pictures of the others too! They've grown leaps and bounds this winter!

What's up with Kari?

I have been MIA lately. I know that. In fact, every post that has been written the last few months has been written by my husband. To be honest, I couldn't bring myself to sit down and write. It wasn't like there wasn't anything to write about. I mean, Brianna turned 7. We had Thanksgiving, Jonah turned 5 and started preschool, Christmas, New Years. We found out we are pregnant! There has been a lot to talk about. To be honest, I just couldn't find the energy to do it. I know that I have been depressed. I know losing the baby in May sent me into a spiral, and I thought that I was doing good for a quite a while. I had myself fooled to believe that if I just continued to push through I would come out of the fog and life would get normal again. So I pushed through. But the house started to fall apart, Brianna's birthday came 2 days after the day we were due with out baby, and while I told myself the distraction of celebrating her birthday was a very wonderful distraction it brought to light even more what we would be missing with that baby. Christmas time rolled around, and I probably wouldn't have noticed. Steven decorated the house. We went Christmas shopping. I probably could have just let it roll on by, but I have 3 children that needed the celebration. I did too, but I just didn't have the energy. The day after Christmas we found out we were expecting again. I should have been excited...instead I called Steven into the bathroom and sat on the toilet seat and sobbed. How could this be happening again? I can't do this again! I don't know want anyone to know. We will keep it to ourselves and once we hear the heartbeat we'll tell everyone. I can't go through all this again. That lasted all of 1 week. The morning sickness (which I swear was named so by a man who has never been pregnant and has no idea what pregnancy induced nausea and vomiting is like at all!!!) was lasting all day, I was exhausted and knew I wouldn't be able to hide it from anyone any longer. We told everyone on New Years' Eve, an exciting way to start a new year, the expectation of new life! But I felt like I couldn't breathe. I'm not going to, I told Steven, until I hear the heartbeat. Then maybe I'll be able to exhale.

Everything with this pregnancy has been exactly what the other pregnancy was not. I am sick all the time, I have no energy. But for the most part things have been good. The kids have been really excited and they are calling my belly Julia. For their sake I really hope it's a girl. They'll be really upset otherwise! But who am I kidding, I'd love for it to be a girl too! Balance things out, 2 boys and 2 girls. That would be about perfect!

Thursday I started bleeding. We're still not sure why but it scared me to death! I called my doctor and they had me go to have some blood work done to check my hCG levels. They put a Stat order on it and my doctor's office called me an hour and a half later. She laughed when she said my hCG levels were over 200,000 (and I'm only about 9 weeks at this point!!!) and said I was definitely pregnant. They had me come in the next day for an ultrasound. When the baby popped up on that screen I felt my heart start to race. There it was, a little peanut kicking and punching away. And then I saw the blip on the screen that was the heartbeat. The feelings that rose up in my at the moment...I can't even tell you! My eyes filled up with tears. What I didn't get last time was filling up the room, the sound of that little heart! And boy was it fast. 185 beats per minute (sounds like a girl heart rate to me!) They never figured out where the bleeding came from or why. They aren't worried about it, but if it happens again we'll have to take a look and do some more testing. But for now, I have peanut pictures on my fridge, and I can't help but smile every time I pass them!

I can't say that I'm completely out of my fog. I have battled with depression off and on over the years. I will probably be treated for it for the rest of my life. My parents both suffer from depression also so I come by genetically and I tend to be at a high risk of situational depression. I worry about postpartum depression with this one. I had it with Brianna. So I have a feeling I'll end up back on meds after this one is born, but I know they'll help me, so I say Bring it on!

For now I'm trying to figure out how to get the house back in order and prepare for this baby. Steven has been a huge help, but I feel like he is doing an unfair share of all the work right now, especially after he's been at work all day. I'm thinking it's time to get back on the FlyLady wagon since I did really good when I was following her program in the past. I think I'm just going to have to babystep my way through this pregnancy and learn to FLY again!

So that's where I've been. I can't guarantee that I'll be better about posting any time soon. I don't see daily posts in the near future. But I will try to post every few days and let you all know how things are going. And of course, it will be time for belly pictures soon! ( *yippy*) Thanks for sticking with me as I've been so in and out lately. I hope you'll continue to stick around!

We are Pregnant!

Well it has a been a while since the last post and a lot has happened.  We had a wonderful Christmas and spent a lot of time with the family.  It was a busy one but we did manage to make all our rounds.  It is such a great time of the year just to spend time with family and appreciate the time we have together.  Seeing our children's excitement brings joy to anyone's heart.

So, Steven's sister Samantha is getting married in September and pretty much everyone is in the wedding.  To make it interesting we are Pregnant!  That is right!  There will be another little one, God willing in August.  If our calculations are right it will be August 20th.  We are so excited and Jonah finally gave in and said we can have a girl so Brianna can have a sister.  Isn't he sweet?

So if it is a girl her name will be Julia Marie Fischer.  Julia Marie is Steven's great grandmother's name.  If it is a boy we are thinking Elijah Zike Fischer and call him Eli.  The middle name is up in the air, but Zike is Anita's maiden name.  It's always fun thinking up names now we have to get rid of the office and make room for the baby.  So time to get organized.

Since this will probably be our last, we are planning on doing the nursery in Owls instead of reusing the Winnie the Pooh like we have had with the others.  Just a change of scenery if you will. Plus is will give us some pictures to post as well.

Children are such a blessing and even with all the morning sickness we know that God has a special plan for us.  We have a lot of people praying for us, especially since our loss that we had back in May.  St. Gerard - Pray for us.

So as we start off the New Year, from our family to yours we wish you many blessings.  We are so grateful for our family and friends.

St. Nick

Celebrating St. Nicholas on his day in Advent brings a bit of fun and festivity into our home. His small treats and surprises help keep the spirit of good St. Nicholas, especially when stories of his goodness and kind deeds are told and ways to express his care for those in need are sought. Saint Nicholas helps us remember Christmas is a feast of love, hope, kindness and generosity. 

 

St. Nick has come!

Stockings are stuffed with treats!

Looks like the kids have bubbles and some toys to play with!

Brianna and Jonah checking out what St. Nick brought!

Micah looking at his candy!

Brianna loves her sock monkey!

Jonah in his hat and showing his Christmas Ornament!

 Each year we get an ornament as well!  This year we had a special ornament!  This ornament reminds us of our little one that we lost that would have been part of our family this Christmas, but now is our angel in heaven. 

For our child that we never met and is in heaven!

Kari's 2011 Christmas Ornament - Glass Angel

Steven's  2011 Christmas Ornament - Snowman

Brianna's 2011 Christmas Ornament - Precious Moment

Jonah's 2011 Christmas Ornament - Cars

 

Micah's 2011 Christmas Ornament - Curious George

 

 

 

Last year our Aunt Robin gave us her Willow Nativity Scene when my Uncle David passed away.  It was missing something and the new addition is the ANGEL!  Isn't it beautiful and such detail!  Advent is a time to prepare and to have some fun along the way.  St. Nick is a great story to read to the kids and the children really enjoy his visit! 

 

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!!!

This year my mom combined birthday gifts for Brianna and Jonah (whose birthdays are literally 30 days apart) and got us a family pass to the zoo. We are blessed to have a very good zoo where we live, in fact it's considered one of the top zoos in the country. It recently went through some major renovations and is looking incredible! Every year they do an incredible Christmas lights display called The Festival of Lights. The entire zoo is decked out and it also gives you that rare chance to see the nocturnal animals awake and active, which is always really fun! This year they have also switched over all of their lights to LED lights to be more green and the display is completely new, so that was a great surprise! Last night we decided to take advantage of our new passes and kick off the Christmas season by spending a few hours at the festival.

Walking in

Mrs. Frosty the Snowman

Looking at the light display around Swan Lake.

Flamingos are so cool!

Micah with Uncle Josh.

Touching the lights.

Those bats were HUGE!!!

Walking Bear Hill

Trying to point out the bears to the kids. They were black bears so they were kind of hard to find in the dark.

Happy kids (Jonah looks drunk but he wasn't...I promise!!!)

Enjoying some hot chocolate outside the polar espresso.

Looking at the bonobos. They were picking each others fur..it was pretty cute!

What's a trip to the Festival of Lights without a gingerbread man!?!? (And a pose on a gorilla statue!!)

Uncle Josh and Uncle Chris

Mom, Chris and Josh

It was a great night! Merry Christmas!!!

Today we are decorating the house and getting ready for Advent to start tomorrow. That means putting the finishing touches on our Advent fun for this year. I'll post more about it later! Have a great weekend!