This Boy has grown.

2 months 2 weeks old

Height 24.3 inches 85th Percentile
weight 14.34 pounds 90th Percentile
Head 16.1 in 87th Percentile

Misc

The last five months I have had minimal break outs.... this week three pimples on the chin. I think it is school related. Last night was date night! Went and ate some yummy steaks and saw a movie. It was nice just being us two but the convo would generally lead to our perfect baby boy! Last night I also wore heals for the first time in at least 5 months, probably longer, I now have blisters on the bottoms of my feet! ouch! Here is a pick over at my dad's and stepmom's last night:

Poor Self Image

My freshman year in high school I joined the cheerleading squad. The only reason why I made the team was because 12 people tried out when 10 made the squad. I couldn't tumble, dance, and my toe touches were terrible even though I practiced like my life depended on it. Needless to say I did not make the JV squad. I did not expect to make the team, only reason why I tried out was because of my "what the hell, why not" attitude I had about life.

This is a picture of my first day of ninth grade. I had been looking through old memory photos to find a picture of Freddie, our cat growing up, for a previous post. When I saw this picture I became very angry with myself. All of middle school and high school I thought I was chunky. As you can see in this photo I was not in the least bit. I remember being in the locker room after cheerleading practice thinking I am the fattest girl in here. How are all these girls sooo skinny? I work out as much as them and don't eat tons of junk. I was mad that I made myself think I was fat. I had always thought I hadn't let the photos of actresses or models get to me. I was proud of myself for that. I was in self-denial! Subconsciously, I let my peers, magazine covers and movies get to me.

I see girls in my classroom at age 10 already worried about what their figures look like, too skinny, flat chest, too much chest, too much tummy. I see them struggle to fit in with each other. There is way too much pressure on girls to look and act a certain way. Unfortunately it's other girls and women putting that pressure there. They can be mean, rude, catty, and just plain horrible to each other. I hope that in some form or another I help them feel beautiful and comfortable with themselves.

To those people that called me fat or chubby, shame on them. Looking at this picture I think it's just plain cruel to make a beautiful girl feel down on herself. Self esteem and self worth should not be related to pant size and a belly.

Now, I have the opposite problem. I have the image in my head that I am still a size 8/12. I go shopping and pick up a ton of cute stuff, not always trying it on first. When I do there is a majorly rude awakening. This baby fat is still here and being stubborn. I haven't been the greatest at controlling what I am eating but that needs to be where most of this weight loss occurs. I have no time to work out. I am already waking up at 530 am and refuse to get up any earlier. I get home at five and only have a couple precious hours to love on Andrew and breathe in that wonderful baby scent. I LOVE smelling his head. What am I suppose to do? Any readers have the solution? I don't need to by "skinny." I want to be healthy and I think that will take around 60 pounds. 25 pounds would be baby weight the other part is the chunk I got from the teachers lounge. *sigh* That is a long ways to go.

By the way the left side of my hair still folds under while the right side flips out.....

The Perks of Being a Teacher

I think God helped me out today. I was informed that my cat I grew up with had reached the end. See previous post. He knew I would need some pick me ups. I have morning duty this week so I am a bit stressed in the morning with out my usual prep time. A student brought me this quilt today that he and his mom made for me. It is beautiful. The outfit above was given to us by another student in Ryan's classroom. The book was given to us today by a parent I had last year and Ryan has this year. This is only a small glimpse of the generosity we have received from parents and staff from work. Another pick me up, a parent from Ryan's classroom brought me lunch! I also got a letter from a student saying I was his "most favoritest teacher ever." Unfortunately he has only known me for 6 school days so he will probably be disappointed soon.

R.I.P Freddie Kruger

1992-2009, that's right, Freddie has been apart of my life for 17 years. I remember the day we got him. Our previous kitty, Tigger had a fatal fight with a wolf, so TJ (cant remember-1998) needed a brother. He joined our home on a Friday the Thirteenth so the name Freddie was perfect. My favorite memory was when we would make laps around the living room. Would run on top of the entertainment center, jump onto the curtain rods, down onto the recliner and sofa, back to the entertainment center. He was a great kitty!

Just Plain Tired

I have to say that the last trimester of having to get up every hour trained me well for this stage in sleep deprivation. No matter what time Andrew goes to sleep whether it be 5 pm, 7pm, or 11 pm he always wakes up in the 2am hour and 4am hour. I think only twice he has slept through the 2am feeding. Waking up 2 times a night is nothing to what I was dealing with in pregnancy. Though only 2-3 hour stretches of sleep at a time and waking up every morning at 5:30 can be a bit draining. Though I had no problem waking up this morning at 4:45 because of the adorable face I woke up too.... and the thunder was scary.




In attempt to blog more I will start keeping these short and sweet.

Stuffiness Is Stressful

Stuffiness is stressful. There is nasty snot, runny snot, dry snot, and a sad little raw red nose! Is he sick? Does he have a temperature? No. So why does this little angel have to struggle breathing? Too young to know that you can breath out of your mouth, I hear him struggling through the congestion. Humidifier, check. Baby saline nose spray and the hospital ball sucker thing. What is the official name for that blue bulb snot sucker thing? I swear I think he thinks I am trying to suck his brains out. I guess this is just one of those things we are going to live with. This blue bulb snot sucker thing is the object of Sophie's new obsession. Every time I pull it out there she is ready to grab if I accidentally drop it. There have been a few times I have found it in her mouth.

Attempt #2

Anyways, Drew is doing great. He starts day care on Wednesday. Horrible, I know. I don't start until Monday but thought those few days will be a good adjustment period for the both of us. I know Drew is going to do great but the thought of being thrown into a brand new environment and a strange lady holding him without my supervision is a bit nerve raking. But I will remain confident in my decision of where Drew will spend his days without me. Really, it will be OK.

He has grown so much but I have really noticed a difference this past week. He has been interacting and playing so much. He makes these adorable sounds and half grins. It truly is amazing that Ryan and I have created such a cute boy!
1 week old
6 weeks old



I am pretty sure I will stare at his picture all day while I am at work!

Drew is growing!

On Monday I go back to work. Dumb. I need a job where I can work from home and enjoy my time with my little man. The past 7 weeks have gone by so fast. It is hard to believe. We sure have been busy. Lots of friend and family coming through town and exploring with a new born. I have probably taken him out of the house more than I should of especially during flu season, but after the hottest summer ever and being the size of a whale I have had to need to get out!

Ha, now Drew is waking up so I will have to continue this post later.

~~~ There is no more than two seconds warning before a full on screams come for food!!!!!

Andrew Ryan Bilski

This post is way over due and I apologize for not getting to it sooner! So I will start from the beginning.

Thursday, Aug. 20th, Dr. was amazed I hadn't gone into labor yet, as was I. I as 3-4 cm dilated and 50% effaced. He stripped my membranes and I begged to be induced. I was 3 days shy of being 39 weeks. He was apprehensive about it and said he would call me later about it, he had to go deliver another patient. When he called he said that there were no openings for that Friday and suggested Monday. I didn't want Ryan ( he is a teacher, too for those that don't know) to miss the first day of school and Dr. said we could schedule it for Wednesday. Now, I am not a huge fan of induction but when you are in this constant pain and pressure your willing to do anything to make it stop!

Saturday, Aug. 22nd, First trip to the hospital. I thought that my water was possibly leaking. I told Ryan not to call anyone because I was 75 percent sure I would be sent back home and I was. The Dr. on call asked me if my Dr. had mentioned anything about size.... I said not recently. We were thinking around 8 pounds. Mom found out and was a little peeved. Oops.

Monday, Aug 24th (First Day of school) I started having some intense contractions, I spent the day taking showers and baths to help with the back pain. Around 9pm they started getting pretty close together. Mom came over and we went for a walk around the neighborhood in hopes to jump start true labor. They were around 3-5 minutes apart, so we headed to the hospital. They checked me and I was still 3-4 cm and hooked me up to the machines. They didn't think the contractions were strong enough, but gave me a shot of stadol (sp?) to manage the pain and let me sleep for awhile. And three weeks later my arm STILL HURTS from this shot. After a few hours the contractions got further apart and they sent me home in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Tuesday, Aug 25th, Sent Ryan to school and my mom opted to take the day off. She came over in the morning. I was still a bit loopy from the narcotic they gave me the night before. However, I was having more intense contractions five minutes apart. I called my Dr. and he said to come in if I thought it was time. I decided to wait a little while because I didn't want to be sent home again. They did tapper off a little bit during the day and I was able to be somewhat comfortable on my couch while mom took care of me. She went home when Ryan got home. Around 7 contractions started back up but were pretty far apart. At 8 I had several contractions that were really strong and close together. They say to wait for an hour, I waited 2o minutes, haha. I told Ryan were going to the hospital and I was pretty sure this was it. Called mom and we were on our way. When we got there we skipped triage and went straight to my room they had already set up since I was scheduled to be induced the next morning. Turned out my waters were leaking... oops, and I was admitted. I asked this Dr. on call about what size he though the baby would be and he said 7.5 pounds.

Wednesday, Aug 26th, Birthday. I got my epidural somewhere between 4 and 7 am... Details have blurred. I was then started on Pitocen. I had lots of family there hanging out with me and keeping my spirits up. I was pain free for a while but it got pretty intense at the end. It's always helpful having my family crack jokes and talk about there new iphones to distract from the pain. I had several large doses of the epideral medicine but in the end the pain always returned. At 1 pm everyone was kicked out so the pushing could begin. I don't know if Ryan was planning to be involved as much as he was but the nurse in charge placed him and mom in jobs and they were great. The whole time I was pushing I felt like the baby was about to fall out at any moment and kept asking the nurse if it was time to get the dr. Two and half hours later of extreme pain baby Andrew Ryan Bilski was born at 3:25 pm. They were worried his shoulders were getting stuck but they were fine, they ended up having trouble with his broad chest. I did not get to hold him when he came out. There were some third degree tears and a bit of bleeding. I had also developed a high fever. They weighed and measured him. They had asked my mom what we were thinking he would weigh. She said 8.5 pounds. When I heard her say this, I thought they were saying how much he actually weighed but then a few minutes later I heard the nurse yell 10 pounds! I was shocked. To our great surprise he was 9 pounds 15 3/4 ounces and 21 inches. My nurse said I was allowed to round it to 10 pounds, haha. I had joked with the Dr. that people kept telling me I had twins since I looked so large, he laughed and said he would of caught that one earlier! The nurse did mention that I have birth to the equivalent weight of twins.

We were kept an extra day in the hospital since we had fevers but everything was fine. It was a blessing in disguise because that gave me some extra time to heal and relax with the comfort of the nurses. We went home Friday evening at five. Andrew's weight had dropped down to 9 pounds 7 ounces, they said that was completely normal. On Monday, we went in for the Newborn well check and he had dropped down to 9 pounds and 2 ounces, once again normal. We had to go into the doctor again on Wednesday because he developed a bad case of thrush. Which seems to be clearing up just fine now. We had our Two week well check this past wed, sept 9th and he had regained all his weight and doing just fine.

I have the greatest and calmest baby. But now he is being fussy and wants to be held. I have not figured out the one handed typing skills and will have to continue this at a later date!

Apparently summer does not make me a better blogger, but a worse one! I am just lazy. That is a fact that I have known about myself for a LONG time!

My Summer has been a great relaxing time! I have taken multiple naps a day, swimming at the pool, reading, preparing for baby, enjoying life.

I am ready for this baby to be out! Well, out and healthy.

Too tired to type about anything else, hope everyone is doing great!

Dedicated to Sophie

Dear Blogging World,


This week marks the one year anniversary that Ryan and I have been dog owners. We are the proud parents to Sophie Mae Bilski! The anniversary was actually last week but I was busy then.
This picture was taken the day or day after I found Sophie! 12 weeks and 12 pounds.

You can read this post http://mrssarahb.blogspot.com/2008/06/sophie.html to recap Sophie's dramatic entrance to our lives. Through the long process of healing a sick puppy, potty training, expensive dog food for her sensitive tummy (which she may of finally grown out of... we will see), sliced paws, cut on eye, pink eye, ear infections and many many episodes of messy diarrhea I believe we have been slightly trained to be the soon to be parents we will be in approximately 10 weeks.

Things that Ryan and myself did not expect to encounter is her constant attempts to drive Diego crazy. Her dependence on us was another surprise. Sophie has yet to stay in our backyard alone with digging, barking, crying, or clawing on the door. She prefers to be apart of the family. Her barking and growling reaction towards the door bell and/or knocking. Which I attempted to begin training more appropriate behavior today. How easy it was to crate train her and her eagerness to be in her crate every time I fill her Kong with yummy goodness. We did not expect to her be bigger than 45-50 pounds but she now weights close to 70 pounds!!!! The vet did say last visit she was a bit chunky... which I have no idea where the fat is because I swear it is all muscle. I did not expect her timidness. She was extremely scared of doorways, bathrooms, the tv, and hide underneath the bed. She has grown out of the door ways, and sometimes she is a bit skiddish in the the bathroom, and still trys the get underneath the bed. Which Ryan has had to life the bed up so she could get out!

She is such a cutie pie! I love watching her facial expressions and trying to imagine the thoughts that are going through her head. The funnest thing is when she is dreaming. She will bark, growl, whimper, and move her legs around and be sound asleep.

Here is picture montage of our life with Sophie over the last year!




She was soooo tiny!!! But would play just as rough with her big pup friends Gracie (German Shepard), Chloe (Yellow Lab), and Rusty (Vizsla). She is now larger than Chloe and Rusty and pretty close to Grace.


Trying to force a friendship that has now developed into co-habitation.



Sophie plays with puppy pee pads and pees on the carpet!!!! How could you be mad at that cute thing!



Why sleep on a comfy expensive pillow when the ground is perfectly fine. Plus there are toys here..... No plush toy lasts longer than an hour. "Indestructible" toys last maybe a day. Only toy we have had the entire time is her Kong.... though we had to buy a second one because one magically disappeared. Don't worry we found it a few months later.





Sophie loves the Dog Park.... and mud.



Sophie is never shy around a camera!




Is that a friendship building?


Sophie LOVED being in the bed!!! Too bad we had to change that rule with a baby on the way.



She loves her new backyard and puppy pool. Note: This one was donated to our school. We had to buy a bigger one.

Hope she realizes that her life is about to change big time!!!! Maybe we she get her a puppy??? You agree!! Thats great, please convince Ryan for me, thanks!

Mexican Martini Anyone?????

From the British Medical Association's 1971

'You and Your Baby' magazine.

I found this on another blogges site while blog surfing and thought it to be very entertaining. I sure could use a Mexican Martini.

Summer has arrived. My sleeping in has progressed from 6 am to 8:30. I am taking one to two naps a day and eating to my hearts content. Now my doctor may tell me differently at the next appointment. I do not own a scale but thinking in investing in one. My maternity clothes are getting a little tight but I am not sure sure that is related to my eating but hopefully a large baby growing. The twins question and "are you sure there is only one in there" has been mentioned several times. At my next appointment I am doing my glucose test to see how my body reacts to sugar. I don't think I will have a problem because I feel like I eat a lot of sweets and that my body should be immune to it by now! After this last monthly appointment I will start seeing my Doctor every 2 weeks.

So glad that school is over, I was ready to relax. Moving around is getting a bit more difficult than I imagined. I don't know how all you do it who work right up to their due date. Drama from school had be a little bit on edge and I just needed to walk away for awhile.

Andrew isn't necessarily kicking a whole lot but he is squirming and stretching like crazy. I think he is trying to manually stretch my stomach because at times I feel him pushing at three different spots at once. Last night he kicked my bladder and I almost peed on myself... tmi?? sorry.

Coming back from Dunkin Donuts... yes more sweets. I really wanted Cinnamon Rolls after an extensive dream about them last night but Round Rock Donuts had a line that would last till my due date and Cinnabon was just too far away. Anyways, this morning walking in the house i had to stop because it felt like Andrew was standing on my hip bone. The crazy things in pregnancy.


Well I don't have anything else too interesting to share with you but I will try and brainstorm some interesting topics. Though I am not sure how productive they will be since this thing called Baby Brain is really taking its toll on me. I couldn't even remember which way I parted my hair last Monday.

Week 27 (7 months) Belly Picks

So, this is my belly. As I am looking at the camera to make sure Ryan did a good job I say " These pictures make my belly look big." Ryan's response.... "because it is!" I cannot believe I still have three months of growing to do! I don't have any stretch marks (well I do but those were there before I found out I was preggo) but if baby only weights approx 2 pounds now and will be a Bilski/Heckeroth baby which have been known to produce 9+ pounds babies I will have some of those pesky stretch marks! In the pic where I show some skin the belly looks fake! This was obviously the first time the skin has seen daylight.

This week has been busy. Ryan's birthday was thursday. Yaya, love my sweetie, hope we had a great day. We only have two days of school left. Thank the lord. Though these two days are going to be extremely busy. Feild trip to the park and then bowling on Monday and Fifth grade Graduation on Tuesday. We have a work day on Wednesday but should be pretty relaxed. As much as I love my job and working with kiddos I am completely burnt out. I need a vacation. I don't want to go anywhere, I just want to sit on the couch and relax! But it is weird thinking I wont be in the classroom till around November 1st. That is 5+ months away.

I took Sophie to Red Bed Isle off of Town Lake this morning. She loved it and was very well behaved! She is a natural swimmer. For an hour and half I was throwing the ball into the lake and her retreving it. I was worried she was going to wear herself out and not make it too shore. I love going down there every once in awhile so if your dog likes to swim let me know and we can all go down together. Tonight Ryan is having some friends over for poker and I am going to camp out in the bedroom doing some late grading for students 50 state and capitals test and writing overdue Thank You Notes for baby showers! Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Chuggin' Along

So last night, laying in bed, unable to sleep because of achy back and no comfortable position to be found I realized I needed to blog. It had been awhile. But last night the only title I could think of was "Crankiness." This morning I feel like I need to remain positive if I am going to make it till August!

There have been lots of improvements in life since I have last communicated with the blogging world. Ryan and I have closed and moved into our house. Almost all unpacked but this have some settling in to do. Sophie and Diego love their new found space. From a small apartment to a 2,ooo square foot house with an enormous backyard. Sophie did take at least a week to get used to be being in her crate when we left that first week. But I believe all is well. Diego's stomach needed to get used to him eating grass... yuck. Ryan did a good job cleaning up after him after he attempted to dye our new carpet green. Yesterday I bought Sophie a small baby pool for the backyard so she can cool off in the hot summer months. Being all black can be hard on poor puppy! I will get some pics up soon.

My family has been so wonderful in helping us out in so many ways! It has been amazing. Thank you again!

Updates in preggo world. I am definitely gaining ground in the poundage area. Last week at the doctors apt I had gained 10 pounds in a month! Dr wasn't worried though because that was still only 5 pounds more than what I weighed around 5 weeks preggo. Maybe there was a reason for the tough first trimester.... telling your body not to eat three months can make some fat go away. I measured right along schedule doc is still saying sometime between the Aug 23-30th. Which is the first week of school. So I am most likely not going to start the year off.

Andrew, my Karate kid is turning into a wrestler I think. Not so much sharp jabs anymore but more like a person getting a running start, jumping, landing on a wall and sliding down the surface. Does that makes sense???? There have been some moments where my breath has been knocked out by his full body rolls or when he "tries" to stretch out ( I only assume) pushing on my stomach, bladder and spine.

As you read earlier my poundage is up along with my appetite. BUT I am going to try and not eat 20 cupcakes/cake this week or a bag of oreos or a package of guacamole or a whole pizza. No need to reach the 200 pound mark..... right? Very Scary. No cankles so far.

Right now Sophie is enjoying the outer layer of a 8-12 years old girls soccer ball. We thought she would like to nudge it around the backyard with her nose and place soccer but all she wants to do is destroy it. Which is fine by me because a. not any of my personal belongings b. it has already lasted longer than many other expensive dog toys b. keeps her occupied c. Intimidates the birdies in our backyard. Home the woodpecker that has already put a whole on our porch is watching.

Is it bad to dream about Mexican martinis??? I am waiting for the day when I can just have a sip!

Pictures to come. Summer is only a week and half away! And I am not proof reading this so sorry if you are frustrated!

I Wonder?

Dog Park and Furniture Wish List.

Two important topics that are completely unrelated to each other.

Went to the dog park today. Unfortunately, they closed half of it to let the grass grow and it was Pet Fair weekend. So, there was three times the dogs, people and half the space. All factors leading to an unpleasant experience. We probably should of left three confrontations earlier than when we did. First, an extremely fast smaller Great Dane was chasing Sophie and I think snipping at her. Sophie can be timid and is usually the faster dog. So when this dog over powered her she started whimperings and hiding behind Ryan and me. Right after that a few hounds started barking and Sophie over and over. This definately startled Sophie because she was shaking! Both owners got their dogs and put him on a leash for awhile and after that left poor Sophie alone. Next in a small space with lots of running Sophie was involved in a collision and was slightly airborn at one point. Later, I was talking with another woman whose dog (lab/german shepard) looked identical to Sophie. Their noses were a little different. And I am always interested in figuring out what Sophie's other half is. She had her two children at the park as well, one being an infant. I have decided after today Andrew is NEVER going to the dog park until he is at least 5 years old or unless I am desperate to get out of the house one day and that is where we end up. They were about to leave and had their dog leashed when a doberman (not sure what exactly set him off) started to attack the poor lab, lots of teeth and bitting hard. The dad had the dog and baby and was trying to stop the fight and was nearly knocked to the ground and in the process the baby was left on the ground crying with dogs everywhere. Mom ran and got the baby and was kicking the the doberman while while the owner had his arms wrapped around it, hitting it in the jaws. VERY scary. I think the lab is alright. I know the owners of the doberman were pretty upset too. The mom and dad seemed very calm about it. I on the other hand was almost in tears. Leaving the park Ryan and I decided Andrew does not need to go to the Dog park for awhile.




Subject Change:
I am in love with four day weekends. I need them more often, at least this time of the year. 53 days till summer vacation. Can't wait. I already know what my time and money will be spent on. I have started thinking about furniture and wheather or not to paint. The walls are a great creamy neutral color and not stark white. The tile and carpet are a medium beige.

Kitchen: Cabinets are a light oak with laminate counter tops that are dark black/brown granite pattern. Appliances are black. There is not much counter space so I want to get an island. I was thinking that this all black island would be a good contrast to the light oak cabinets and match the black appliances. If I got black island I would probably want a black kitchen table to match in the breakfast area.



Family Room: I like this set, dark so it will hide stains. Though the lamps that come with this set I am not a huge fan of.


In the living room we will also need somesort of TV stand for our flat screen. There is a TV nook but we haven't measured the width yet and there is some concern that our tv may be too large for it. If so it goes to the man room/ office/den/ a place that I will have to compete with for my husbands attention.

I like these stands:



Master Bedroom:



Dinning Room: This room will probably the the very last room we furnish because it is not a high priority or need.



Some other things we will need will be ceiling fans, garage opener, under counter storage, etc.





So, this is all a WISH list. Hope everyone has a great Easter Break!