8 weeks, 23 months, and 5 years!

Wow, I feel like I have so much to share...where to begin?

I'll start with the good news: I went in for an OFFICIAL early ultrasound today and VB#4 was lookin' good! S/he was 1.5 cm in size and measured PERFECTLY for 8 weeks making my official due date by BOTH LMP and EARLY ultrasound May 15th, 2009. Wow-how bout that? I feel so blessed.

Aside from being BEYOND tired (I literally fall asleep sitting up throughout the day, even with my infantile bedtime of 9pm;-), crabby, irritable, and super emotional, I'm doing great:-)

Apparently my uterus is nearing the size of a grapefruit and boy, can I tell-I'm wearing scrubs now at work, and thank goodness because my regular clothes are done! Yes, truly-apparently between increased fluid, swollen "innards", and my kidney bean sized kiddo, I'm feeling like a swollen fatty.

The pregnancy sites for 8 weeks are pretty interesting...stating you may notice some fatigue (uh, yeah!), increasing waistline (yep), and full swing nausea (thank you Jesus for sparing me this;-). The sites share the baby's nose is formed and even some of the bones are starting to harden. Many cool things for this little dude-oh and the funniest part, even these websites know I'm having a boy as they refer to the baby as "him";-) He, he.

Ok, I have a fun challenge and request for help: I know this is way premature, but hey, there's no time like the present---I would love help in naming this little bean. Seriously, I need ideas-I'm spent. I mean, it's hard to top TJ, Jacob, and Owen (TJ stands for Timothy Ryan Jr.).

Here are some guidelines: It must flow well-it can't be TJ, Jacob, Owen, and Ken-it's just doesn't have a good ring to it-IT HAS TO FLOW WELL with the other 3 boys.

Please tell me your fav boy and girl names. Also, I'm a cutesy name girl, so I need to be able to cutesify the name...for example: when TJ was a baby, he was Timmy and now that he's older he's Teej. Jacob is Jake, Jakes, Jakers, etc. Owen is Owey, and Owers. I really the the ability to have that "E" sound on the end thus Joaquin (while an AWESOME name) is OUT!

I don't want to duplicate names in the family so here are other names that are out:
Lindsey, Kathryn, Jonah, Lee, Grant, Michael, Drew, McKinnley, Gavin, Noel.

This is just for fun, but wouldn't it be cool if I picked the name you wanted???


Ok, on to other things: I have a weird PAINFUL swollen knot on my leg. The left one on the outside portion between my ankle and knee. It hurts! It's been there since last week. I thought it was cancer. No seriously, it really concerned me so I went to the MD today. She said I stumped her and sent me for an ultrasound of my leg. The tech said you can see things like fluid and infection and of course blood clots with a U/S and he saw nothing of the sort so, I have no idea except that it's not cellulitus (sorry Kristy).

So, I'm hoping it will go away and of course with that, stop hurting but who knows?

The hospital opens in less than 2 weeks! It is an exciting time! We are ready but we're not. There's just a lot of details to still perfect. We have a family open house this Sunday and then a public open house the next Sunday. Apparently, I have another photo that was chosen (strangely enough, the hospital has a tree theme but the picture that was chosen was a Manta Ray-go figure:-).




Oh, and I know I will not have time to post tomorrow so I will post now about Owen's 23 month stats. Tim had to take the boys in since I was at my own eternal appointment. Anyway, Owen weighed 19 pounds 12 ounces and was 30 3/8 inches long! Yes, he's up a few ounces and 3/8 an inch so he's growing and I am happy. He's developing and getting to be really TWOISH! Just to keep up with my comparison psychopath issues, he's roughly the weight of an average 8 month old and get this-the height of a 13 month old-YAY! He is down on the weight for length chart which just compares him to him and nothing age related-he's teetering on the 3rd percentile.


I actually cancelled his 2 year check up with the endocrinologist because I've all but decided he will not be given growth hormone, but now I'm 2nd guessing myself and think he should at least be evaluated even if I have no intention of GH. So, after Owen's 2 year check up at his regular pedi, I will probably reschedule the Owester with the pediatric endocrinologist.

Now for the Jakes: He's doin' great! He's maintained his 25th percentile growth curve even into his 5th year of life-which I find so interesting-he's my little box the same growth curve for height and weight! He struggled a bit with his hearing exam -say what? but they feel it was due to Owen's chatty/distractiveness;-). He also has large tonsils-the MD said if you put them on a 5 point scale, his are a 4 so they are large but not completely obstructive. So, it will be up to us to remove them or not-reasons to remove them are b/c he snores, awakes frequently and misbehaves/is tired even when he's gone to bed at 9pm and not woke up until 7am.

So, that's it---that's the 8 week, 23 month and 5 year update(s).