It's a BOY!!!!!

I think it was a shock to my whole family!  We were all thinking it was going to be a girl!  I now have 4 nephews and only 1 niece (someone needs to get to work making more girls!) !  I am still excited though, I can't wait to hold a tiny new baby in my arms! ♥  However, as evident by my Xmas shopping, boys are SO much harder to buy for than girls, lol!

New word!

Haven said "duck" a bunch of times today while in the bath!  She's super obsessed with the water faucet-cover duck!!  I took a video of her saying it after she got out of the bath, but I'm not sure if you can really tell by the video! :)  I'll have to see if she continues to say it tomorrow!


Also, tomorrow is the 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY of Haven's ultrasound!!  Seriously?!  I was that pregnant this time last year?!  I don't even remember it!  I've been pregnant for half of the last 3 years and I can hardly remember it at all, like I just dreamt the whole thing!  I want to be pregnant again BADLY!!  Jason has yet to budge whatsoever though, he's still set on adopting our third and demands I get rid of all of our baby stuff, so I am very sadly getting all the stuff together for a garage sale! :(  I can always get new stuff if he changes his mind, right? ;)


I remember how excited I was for Haven's ultrasound and how ABSOLUTELY sure I was that she was a girl!  I am so very happy that she indeed turned out to be one! :)  I love, love, LOVE my girls!!!!!  ♥

And Pics!

Ultrasound... its a...

ANOTHER GORGEOUS BABY GIRL!!!! I'm so ECSTATIC, I can't believe it (though I truly knew it all along!)!!!!! Oh my gosh I am so happy!! I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT!!!! Venily and Haven!! I couldn't feel more complete!! The Young crew is 5/5 on getting what we wanted, we are a very lucky family!! :)

We were able to get right in to the ultrasound as soon as we got there. And I had the same ultrasound tech that I did when I saw the baby in the E.R. and she is really, really nice! I cheated and only drank 25oz of water an hour before I had to go and not the full 32oz 90 min before and I am sooooo glad I did! I was only slightly uncomfortable but not in any pain like I was with Venily!

The baby was going NUTS in there, lol! She was moving ALL over the place and being so cute and naughty, lol! Everything so far looks great! Her heartbeat was at 154bpm and she is measuring at 12oz (which is the same as Venily was at her ultrasound)!! I wanted to videotape her telling us the sex, but the hospital doesn't allow any pictures or video taken of the screen at all. But when she told me we were having a girl I definitely screamed and laughed for like 5 minutes straight and poor little Haven was bouncing all around like crazy in there, lol! Oh, she looks just precious, I can't wait to hold her!!!

Our response from everyone has been awesome! Venily is excited! She even said that she was going to share all her toys with her sister and even her BABY! HAHA! Not that she really has a full grasp of what is going on. Also my mom and sister are very happy, they were both hoping for another girl as well! I can't believe it, I still can't stop smiling! I FEEL SO TRULY AND COMPLETELY BLESSED!!!! I am going to try and put up the ultrasound pics in a bit. We weren't able to get a real good profile shot b/c she wouldn't hold still for a second!!!

Why having another girl is so incredibly awesome!!!:

* I don't have to do anything to her room but buy her name letters, paint them and put them up... everything else is already beautiful and girly and pink!!

* Venily has a SISTER!!!

* I have more little girl clothes than is probably humanly necessary!! :)

* MATCHING OUTFITS!!!!! (They already have matching Xmas dresses that I bought BEFORE we even started trying for another baby, lol!)

* I was so hoping for another princess!!

*Bunk bed when they're older!

*I can keep them in the bath together for longer, lol!

* Venily and Haven are going to be BEST friends!!

*We truly outnumber Jason now!!! :)

CAN'T WAIT FOR MY ULTRASOUND TODAY!!!

I have to be at the hospital at 3:45 today!! My appointment is at 4:15. Today truly will be the longest day EVER- I can't believe Jason made me take such a late appt. in case he was working all day! Hopefully I'll be able to post on here by tonight, I look forward to redecorating the site too! YAY! Jacki suggested videotaping the ultrasound so I think we are going to try that- I hope it works!

I ABSOLUTELY CAN'T WAIT!!! Baby #2 is going to be a Haven or a Preston by this afternoon!!! (There is no "if we can tell".... this baby WILL cooperate, lol!) And Jason is going to be able to see him/her for the first time today!!! Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!!! I can't wait!!!! And I can't wait to tell Venily if she is having a little sister or a little brother!!!!!!!

I FORCED Jason to tell me what way he was leaning on the whole boy/girl thing. (He has refused to say anything so far b/c he thinks that being greedy will make the baby turn out with health problems or something.) He truly doesn't care either way, he sees fun things for either a girl or boy, but thinks another girl would be nice for Venily since they are so close in age. And then he said we would adopt a boy (which we are hoping to adopt baby #3, but have only ever talked about adopting a girl). I honestly could go either way as well. I'm still hoping for a girl b/c I have sooooo much girl stuff and Venily's room is so girly and I understand girls and think Venily would really like a little sister, but I will be happy with a boy as well. But I am still pretty darn convinced it's a girl!!! 8 hours left to go!!!!!

Ahhhhh! What am I going to do to make the time go by? I'm going to be staring at the clock ALL day!!!!

Our Big Ultrasound Is Scheduled!!!!

I had my doctor's appointment today at 17w, 2d (though my doctor's office must have moved up my due date to September 21st based on my early ultrasound- which would put me at 17w, 4d (but I'm keeping my due date the same for my own records)). Everything is still looking good. Baby's heartbeat was at 148-149bpm (at my 18w, 5d appt, Venily's heart beat was also at 148bpm!).

I had my Quad Screen Blood Test today and should get my results at my next doctor's appt (May 15th- the day after my birthday!). Now that I got it done I'm a little paranoid about it, even though I wasn't paranoid about anything being wrong up until I got the test- I know there is a REALLY high false-positive rate too.

WE ALSO GOT TO SCHEDULE OUR BIG ULTRASOUND!!!!!! **Friday, MAY 1st at 4:00pm!!** Exactly 2 weeks from today! I am so excited to find out if we are having a little Haven or a little Preston!!! These next 2 weeks are going to take FOREVER!!!!!! :)

This is your last chance to get your guesses in! Or let me know if you want to change yours!

1st ER Visit Ever!

I've been having some stomach pains the last week or 2 and have almost gone into the doctor a few times "just to be sure" but kept talking myself out of it. Well today I had some REALLY bad pain and was just lying in bed crying because it was so bad, so Jason finally made me go to the doctor's. He called my doctor as we were on our way to the hospital and the nurse said to go right to the E.R. I kept crying all the way to the hospital because I was so scared that something was wrong. We got into a room pretty quickly and I had my blood and urine, heart rate, etc. all tested. The nurses and doctors were all really nice and brought Venily in little juices and popsicles.

Then the nurse said that they wanted to give me an ultrasound and that I had 2 options: I could either drink 3 GIANT glasses of water and then wait an hour to get an ultrasound or get a catheter put in and they would pump my bladder full of water or something. Well, I chose the 3 glasses of water! The nurse brought them in and I literally took one sip of water before another nurse came in saying it was time to get my ultrasound, lol!

I went into the room by myself and the nurse was really nice and talking with me and stuff. She was asking me about Venily and how far apart my children were going to be and things like that. Then I laid down and she immediately turned the computer screen so I couldn't see anything as she was doing the ultrasound and she became completly quiet. She looked around for 10 fricken minutes without saying ANYTHING. I was literally fighting back tears. I was just staring at her face and her eyes were kind of glassy and she looked kind of concerned. My heart was beating so fast and I wanted to scream! Then she's like "Okay, you're going to hear a sound and it's just the blood flowing through your ovaries".... and all I could think was "why are you not saying anything else and why are you not listening to my baby's heartbeat and why are you not showing me my baby?!"

After FOREVER she finally said "Can you see the screen at all?" I say "no". Then she's like "Okay, I'm not supposed to do this, but your baby just looks so cute sitting here relaxing." And she turned the screen towards me! And OH MY GOSH!!!!! GORGEOUS doesn't even describe it! Jason and I are truly blessed when it comes to making babies, let me tell you!!! The baby was SOOOOOO fricken cute!! It was completely relaxed, just laying back and then would kick it's legs a little every once in a while and move it's little arms!! And I could see the little heart beating!!! I was so relieved!!! I could have literally watched the screen forever. I couldn't believe how big the baby is either! It looked quite a bit bigger than Venily did when I got an ultrasound with her right around the same time. And it looks pretty proportional already, like a little person in there!!!



When I got back into the room the doctor came in and said everything looks good. All my tests came back good. And the ultrasound was good too! The baby is measuring at 11 weeks (and I am currently 10w, 5days today). The heartrate was 153bpm! I had my 1st ultrasound w/ Venily at 10w, 6 days and her heartrate at the time was 184bpm (then again, she was a LOT more active and moving around like crazy in there- hopefully this baby has a bit calmer of a personality?, lol). The doctor said that the pain is probably just round ligament pain, and boy does it suck, I am still in a lot of pain right now, but am just so relieved that nothing is wrong with my little baby!! It's crazy how much you can love someone who you have never even met!!!

June 28, 2007 (24 weeks pregnant)

Well, it's been an eventful last couple of days. For the last 2 weeks I've had this overwhelming fear that I'm going to deliver the baby super early. It seems like I've been hearing a lot of stories about that recently and now I've learned my lesson! I think it has to do with the fact that I know that my baby could survive if she's born now (though she still doesn't have a very good chance and there would probably be several complications). So, please don't tell me any more baby or birth stories unless it only involves healthy, happy babies and mothers and I'm going to stop reading about them too!

Tuesday at about 3:00 I had some bleeding and called the nurse. It scared me, but for 2 months in my 1st trimester I bled every week for a day or two each week and I was told that that was pretty normal. But, I haven't had any problems with that since then, so I wanted to see what the doctor wanted me to do. I figured he'd say something like if it continues after a couple of hours or if there is any pain w/ it to call them back. But, when I talked to the nurse she said the doctor wanted to see me right away! I was trying to avoid going in there and I was asking her if that was necessary and if she thought that something was wrong. She said well, you shouldn't be bleeding at this point in your pregnancy, so you should really come in and get it checked out. Luckily for me, Jason was on his way home and only like a block away from the house when I called him so he brought me there.

Again, I thought the dr. would just check me over quick, tell me he didn't think anything was wrong and then send me home. He did an exam and said that there was still some blood and he didn't know why so he wanted me to get admitted to Labor and Delivery and have them monitor me for a little bit to see if I was having any contractions. That's not what I wanted to hear, but again I figured they'd hook me up to it for a few minutes and then we'd be able to go home. I got wheel-chaired to labor and delivery by a little old woman that looked like I should have been pushing her around! It made me nervous to go there b/c the last time I was there was about a year ago when Chase was born! It didn't feel right being in a birthing room having Venily's heartrate monitored and having me monitored for contractions at only about 24 weeks. I had to lay in the bed for about an hour and a half. Then the doctor came in and told me I was having some minor contractions and that he was going to do an internal test to see if I was in labor or not. If it came back negative I was fine and could go home, but if it came back positive I was going to have to have some ultrasounds to see what was going on. He did the test and it was really painful and there seemed to be a lot more blood than last time. He told us that the blood would almost guarantee a false positive so he ordered the ultrasound. I was starting to get really scared and told Jason that he kept saying the wrong things from what he was supposed to. He was supposed to tell me that everything was fine and that I could go home! Then a nurse came in and hooked me up to an IV (my first ever, and it hurt worse than I even imagined! The back of my hand is all bruised today!). And then as soon as that was in, another nurse came and took my blood. And then a lady came with the ultrasound machine that she had to wheel up from Imaging (they don't have one in L&D!). She did a regular ultrasound first and we got to see our gorgeous daughter again (the only good thing about this whole experience!). She looked really good, as usual! This woman took all of her measurements again and said that she was very photogenic! She also confirmed to us that she's definitely a girl! :) Based on her measurements at 23 weeks, 5 days, she was measuring at 24 weeks, 5 days! She's growing very well and is now in the 81st percentile! They estimate her to be at 1 lb, 11 oz. Her heartbeat was also really good at 140bpm, which is right where the monitor was keeping her at too (between 135-145). I had to have an internal ultrasound also which showed that my cervix was long (which is what the dr. was hoping for). Her fluid levels and stuff looked good too. The dr. was happy w/ the ultrasound results, but wanted to keep me overnight just to be sure. He called a high risk pregnancy specialist in Milwaukee and told him what was going on w/ me and that dr. said that he wanted to see me immediately, but my doctor told him that he wanted to hold off on sending me b/c he was pretty sure I wasn't in labor. My doctor isn't sure but thinks that my placenta just shifted a bit, allowing some blood to come from behind and that the blood on my cervix was irritaing it, causing it to contract. When Jason talked to Cathy Kotrba, she thought the same thing so that makes us feel much better.

So, we spent the night in the hospital and it was not fun at all! I haven't spent the night at a hospital before since I was born! Jason is such a sweetheart and slept in the tiniest, most uncomfortable looking recliner I have ever seen even though I told him several times that he could go home and sleep and that I would be fine! He's the best! I didn't get much sleep either. The bed and pillows were uncomfortable and I was still hooked up to the IV, which made things difficult. The IV also kept beeping really loudly every time I would fall asleep and then I'd have to call a nurse in to fix the problem. I also had to go go the bathroom a million times and I'd have to drag the whole big IV thing in w/ me! Yesterday morning at about 9:30 the doctor said we could go home. I was put back on the contraction monitor for another hour or 2 that morning and it didn't show any more contractions, thank goodness! My test from the night before came back positive though, as the doctor figured, so I have to go back in a few days and hopefully then it will be negative! It it turns out I am in premature labor they are going to put me on medication and do everything that they can so that my baby can bake longer and come out healthy.

We learned a lot, though, through this experience about what it will be like to give birth here and neither of us are very confident about it. I told Jason that I wanted to deliver here as long as there weren't any problems, but now that there has been we are more than likely going to be switching over to Aurora in Kenosha. The nurses and doctor were really nice here, but didn't really know what they were doing. It felt to both of us that this was everyone's first time dealing with anything like this and even the whole atmosphere wasn't very good. The rooms are VERY small and in order to do anything, they have to take out all of the furniture and move it into the hall and go and find stools or lights or things from other rooms to bring them in. They were also always looking for outlets and stuff and running in the bathroom to get paper towels. It just didn't seem very organized at all. Plus, here at Burlington there are 2 rooms you go to. The birthing room where you stay until about an hour after birth and then you are moved to an even smaller post birth room. At Kenosha, you get a really nice birthing suite that you stay in the whole time and it's so much nicer and also fully equipped with all of the necessary things (no furniture moving into the hall necssary!) and it has the feel of a nice hotel room rather than a cramped hospital room from the 80's. They are also remodeling the rooms here at Burlington, which is good, but no matter what, there is going to be construction going on in at least one set of rooms when we're ready to have the baby. They are supposedly set to start the post birth rooms in August and they will take 2 months. They should be done by the beg. of October, but you know how that goes! Then, when they finish those, they are going to work on the birthing rooms. Sooo.... if we thought things were disorganized now and no one knew what they were doing or where anything was, it's only going to get worse! So, that's what is going on! Jason said he could get me to Kenosha in 12 minutes if necessary! :) Lol, and if we have any more problems, I'm pretty sure Jason isn't going to let me have any more kids any time soon. He already said that we're adopting our next one, but I want to have a couple before we start adopting! We'll see!

Jason has limited me from doing almost everything because he doesn't want anything going wrong (which I understand). So, I've had to tone down my obsessive cleaning and there will be no more moving of furniture by me or lifting boxes or anything like that! I've definitely learned my lesson!

Oh, also, we might have a few changes in where and when we have the baby shower, so I will let everyone know when it's figured out. It'll probably still be the same weekend, but maybe a different park.

Here's some good pictures too of what my baby looked like at 8 weeks, what she looks like now, and how she'll look at 40 weeks! Jason gets freaked out by these, but I find them facinating! :)
8 WEEKS

24 WEEKS

40 WEEKS

June 1, 2007 (20 weeks, 1 day pregnant w/ Venily)

I'm so excited about our baby girl- I couldn't even sleep last night! And every two seconds I think "I'm having a girl, I'm having a girl, I'm having a girl!" over and over again. It's all I can do to keep from skipping when I walk, lol! Yay for pink and purple, dresses and skirts, bows and lace, pigtails, painting nails, makeup, Barbies and dolls, and Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice!!!! Along with all other things pretty and girly! :) Now watch, I'm probably going to end up with a little Tomboy, lol!

Oh and I forgot last night to tell you that she was waving at us during the ultrasound and opening and closing her little mouth and sticking out her tongue. And at one point she had the hiccups- it was so fricken cute! I really wish we could get a 3D ultrasound done, but I don't want to spend the money! I'll just have to wait until October to see her again!

I subbed elementary gym today and I overheard a third grader telling her friends that I looked pregnant! She's really sweet and I went up to her and told her that I was. It was funny because she just shook her head like "yeah, I could tell," hahaha, and then told me congratulations! So it's got to be pretty noticeable if a 3rd grader that hardly knows me can tell!

I took pictures of my ultrasound pictures, (lol, I know that's terrible!) but I hope to scan my actual pictures this weekend. So you can see a very blurry pic of her for now!

May 31, 2007 (20 weeks pregnant- HALF WAY! w/ Venily)


Picture: 19w,2d

Venily: 20 weeks

I HAD MY ULTRASOUND TODAY AND EVERYTHING LOOKS AWESOME AND WE FOUND OUT THAT WE ARE HAVING A LITTLE BABY GIRL!!!! We're so happy!!

While we were in the car on the way to the hospital Jason said that he had been thinking about it and he thought that he'd rather have a girl! I was very happy with that, but was sad too, in case it was a boy and then both parents would have been hoping for a girl, lol! That's not something you would ever want to tell your child! Then, while I was getting my ultrasound done, during the first part they just looked at my organs and stuff and Jason was still in the waiting room, but I kept looking at the baby and thinking I saw "something" that would indicate that it was a boy. Of course I wouldn't have been unhappy if it was a boy, I was just really hoping for a girl and had VERY strong feelings that it was going to be a girl! Then Jason came in and they did all of the different measurements for our baby. They look at all of the major bones and all of the organs and things. She said that our baby was very active but that it was very good at taking pictures, lol! I knew it was active, she has already woken me up a few times in the night! Everything looks good with the baby though! Her heartrate was 136bpm. Then, by using all of the measurements that they took of things like her leg bone, waist, and head they calculated where she is at. She weighs about 3/4 of a pound. She is in the 55 percentile (which is good). And at exactly 20 weeks today (I'm halfway there!), she is measuring at 20 weeks, 1 day!!!! Just perfect!! Then she looked to find out the sex! I was preparing myself that she was going to say "boy" and she looked at her for quite awhile, just to make sure. Then she said that she was 99.5% sure that it was a GIRL!!!!! I was screaming and laughing and crying and grabbed Jason's arm because I was so happy! She said that she hadn't seen someone get that excited in a very long time, LOL!!! I couldn't help it, I'm so excited- that's exactly what I wanted! Then she showed us her little girl parts, lol, and said she could tell it's a girl not only by what she couldn't see, but by what she could see too! Hahaha, Venily must know that I'm getting all excited again just writing this, because she's kicking me hard right now, lol!!! And yes, we're still going with Venily for the name!! We still haven't decided on a middle name or names, but I'm sure we'll have one very shortly!! So, yep, we're parents to a gorgeous little baby girl named Venily Young!!!!!!!!!! Can't wait until we can finally meet her!

Our scanner isn't working, but as soon as we are able to we'll have up the ultrasound pictures from today. There is a picture of her foot, her face from the front, and one of her whole profile. She's a little cutie!!!! Also, when I get some time tomorrow, I'll be updating this whole site, so check back!

March 28, 2007 (10 weeks, 6 days pregnant w/ Venily)



Well, we had our first major scare today with the baby! I was spotting this morning and, of course, freaking out!! I looked at all of my books and the only thing I could find was about m/c's (I can't even write out the word). So, I called Jason crying and he told me to call the nurse. I did and she told me I could come in right away for an ultrasound.

We went in and everything looks great!!!! I am SOOOO RELIEVED!!!! We got to see the baby moving around like crazy! He/she was waving his arms around all over the place and kicking like crazy! Then he (it's just easier to refer to one or the other, we don't know yet!) was arching his back up and practically doing flips! I was laughing too which made her (haha, I'm being annoying just like the books) move all around! We also got to see her little heart beat and we got to hear it too! 184 beats per minute, perfect!!! And she's measuring the perfect size and everything else is great! Jason was just absolutely in awe, I loved it!! The woman doing the ultrasound said that everything looked great so we went to the nurse and she said that everything is fine. Sometimes that just happens b/c the placenta isn't taking up the entire uterus yet and there is still some area where blood can come from. I'm just glad that's over, and it was great to see the baby and know that everything is going to be okay! I wish I had taken a video of our little baby moving around, it was so crazy how clear everything was, the picture doesn't do it justice, but he/she is still the cutest baby I've ever seen in my life!