Make a Smilebox photobook

It's been a long weekend...

Mike and I have learned more about false labor contractions than we ever wanted to.

I woke up at 5am on Saturday morning with contractions that seemed to come every 20 minutes or so. I called Mike (he was at work at the golf course) and I was so excited to let him know. Once he got home we started timing the contractions and for awhile they got closer together but as I became more active the contractions weren't coming as consistently. This continued all day long. We called the hospital's Labor & Delivery line several times just to be told that we needed to wait until contractions were 5 minutes apart for one hour before we came in. At this point the time between contractions ranged everywhere from 6 minutes apart to over an hour apart yet I was still in a lot of pain because my abdomen and back were staying contracted. Well, around midnight I couldn't take the pain anymore and we went in. It was a long drive (both ways since they sent us back home) to find out that I was only dilated to a 1.

After getting home around 3am we both went straight to bed. I was exhausted from being in so much pain all day and slept soundly until a little before 8am when the contractions started again. They were incredibly intense and were coming every 10-15 minutes until I got up around 10:30am- that's when they started to taper off. Through out the day they became less and less frequent and less intense when they did come. Mike and I ran some errands and even went up to Majestic Oaks where he played 6 holes of golf and I walked along in hopes to get things started again (which didn't work out the way we would have liked).

Now I'm writing this blog at 6:45am after being up all night w/ contractions. And yes, you guessed it- w/ false labor contractions again which means the contractions are just painful and annoying but don't bring me any further along in my journey of labor and delivery. Around 4:45am the contractions were only 7-9 minutes apart so I woke up Sadie and we walked up and down our street for about 40 minutes. As we did this again the contractions slowed down. We came back in the house and I laid down to try and get some sleep. After that my contractions slowed down to 23 minutes apart then 14 then 12. I called Labor & Delivery again just to be told that I was having false labor contractions. I guess they're my body's favorite kind since that's all I have.

Now I'm up and trying to be active so my contractions will go away. What a weird thing for a pregnant woman 39 weeks and 5 days along to say...

We'll try and do a better job of updating this blog to let everyone know how we're doing. Hopefully next time you log in you'll find out that our little Ellie has arrived!

Hello strangers!

Wow...so much time has passed since my last blog I don't know where to start!

Our family has been through our share of major ups and downs in the past month. On April 24th my grandma Dorothy (my dad's mom) passed away after a tough fight w/ pneumonia and other infections. She was surrounded by her family as she took her last breath here on Earth which was exactly what she would've wanted since her family was truly her pride and joy. I learned a lot of things from this amazing woman but the number one legacy of hers that I will always keep w/ me is that family is the most important thing in the world. She worked hard and sacrificed a lot to give her kids and her grandchildren and great-grandchildren the kind of life she felt they deserved. She was always there when you needed her to provide a kind word, a comforting hug, or a shared laugh. I needed her one night and she never once complained that I woke her up at 2am and kept her up talking until after 5am. I think her ability to be so understanding and supportive is a great lesson for me as an expectant mom. She also taught me the importance of humor. During her last hours she continued to joke w/ us and giggle at herself and others. I'm so blessed to have had her as my grandma. She truly was the warmest, most generous person I have ever met. I'm sad that Ellie wasn't able to meet her great-grandma but my grandma did make several blankets for her complete w/ a tag that reads "Made with love by Great-Grandma Dorothy".

OK...now I need to take a moment to breath and dry my tears....

Several weeks later I enjoyed my first mother's day as an expectant mom. My family dragged me away from my studying and gave me some great cards and gifts. I wasn't expecting anything so it was such a wonderful and touching surprise! Mike and Sadie bought me a gift certificate for a relaxing pedicure that Sadie and I used a couple weeks later. It was amazing! My mom picked up a Canadian Tuxedo for our little Ellie--the cutest jean skirt and jean jacket! Mike hates when any of us wear jeans w/ our jean jacket so it was the perfect gift for his daughter! W/ Sadie's help my dad picked up some cute pink cowgirl onesies and w/out Sadie's help he found some adorable pink cowgirl boots for his granddaughter. They are too cute!!! There's some pics on this blog of Ellie's cute cowgirl outfit...enjoy!

Another one of our major ups was me finally becoming a normal human being again! What I mean is that I finally finished my Master's degree!!! Since the beginning of March I haven't done anything except talk about my master's project, work on my master's project, and stress about my master's project. Several nights before I presented my project Mike and I were struggling to have a normal conversation about something other than my master's project and I was having a lot of trouble following what was going on when he said "I can't wait until your done so I can have my wife back". Awww.... so sweet! Before you give him too much credit though let's not forget his other comment about a week earlier though where he referred to me as a "fat hobo that sits in the basement all day". Not so sweet.... ;) I still laugh outloud when I think of him saying that because it's so true- for 3 straight months I gained weight (thank you Ellie), put on my sweats and threw my hair back in a pony tail every night, and sat in the basement in front of the computer for as long as I could handle it. Wow-what a relief to be done!!

Now that I'm done it feels good to have a normal life back! Papa Joe, Tone Loc, Mike, and my aunt Sandra and uncle Jon came to my commencement at Northrop on the U of M campus and then we met Sadie and Mike's aunt Julie at Granite City afterwards for a post-graduation celebration. We had a great time and I was glad to spend that evening w/ all of them!

Part of my graduation present to myself was a cute little U of M shirt for my little Ellie. I figured since her dad went to undergrad there and I was a grad student there it was only fitting! There's also a pic of the shirt I bought along w/ a U of M onesie Ellie received as a gift from the professors in my grad program. After we presented our projects there was an award ceremony for all of the students. One of my peers is also pregnant (and due just 3 days before me!) so after the awards ceremony we were presented w/ these adorable little onesies for our babies! Our professor said we proved to everyone else that it IS possible to have a life and finish your master's project!

And now the update that this blog is supposed to be all about....Ellie! She's still doing well and moving around all the time. I can feel her getting bigger and am getting to know her schedule and what gets her excited. She loves hearing her dad talk to her but she doesn't like when we push on my belly too much since she always ends up pushing back! At our last doctor appointment her heartbeat was 154 which is normal for her and I was measuring right on schedule (although I feel like I'm huge for having so much time left!). We'll now be visiting the doctor every 2 weeks for awhile so we should have another update soon!

OK...that's all I've got for now. Hope everyone is doing well. And enjoy this last pic of me at 32 weeks.

Love ya!

Welcome to the 3rd (and final!) trimester

Hello everyone!

I haven't been doing too well lately at keeping this blog up to date so I apologize. I have been overwhelmed w/ attempting to complete my last semester of grad school and my master's project so that has taken up all of my time and brain power for the last several weeks and will continue to do so until May 15th. On top of all that Mike and I have been renting out our townhome and have just recently put an offer in on a new home in Andover. We haven't heard anything back yet from the seller's bank so keep your fingers crossed for us and I'll try and keep you updated.

As for baby news, we are now well into week 27 and baby Ellie is doing great. She gave us a little scare a week or so ago when I woke up w/ some major abdominal pains but after getting checked out by the doctor everything is fine. Could've been anything from contractions to just plain old gas but either way whatever it was didn't affect anything so Ellie and mom are both still very healthy.

Very healthy....and getting very fat! I still enjoy my hot fudge sundaes and chocolate ice cream w/ marshmallow swirls whenever I can get them! I've gained somewhere around 16 or so pounds which I think puts me right on schedule. (I think my goal should be to try and weigh as much as Mike by the end of this pregnancy though so maybe I need more ice cream!) ;)

Well, I need to get back to studying. Enjoy the belly pic though from just a couple of days ago along w/ a pic of the Easter bunny cake my mom, sister, and I made. It's a tradition in our family and we can't wait to share it w/ Ellie next Easter. Hmm....a 9-month old decorating a cake...could get interesting!

Hope you are all doing great! (only 13 weeks to go!)

24 Weeks! (and we have a name picked out!)

We're over halfway there and so far things are going great.

I hope you enjoy the pic and can see that I've finally truly "popped"! It actually feels like I am getting bigger by the minute. It seems like my "baby belly" starts in my back and then wraps around and just keeps getting bigger and bigger as it reaches my belly button. Well, what is left of my belly button. It's now practically flush w/ my skin so it's not really an innie or an outtie but more like an evenie....if that's even a word. Mike laughs at me everyday and tells me how swollen I look- which is exactly what I am. My ring finger was almost purple late last night. I noticed it during either my 2nd or 3rd trip to the bathroom overnight and had to leave my wedding rings on the counter. They fit again this morning but I'm doubting I'll be able to wear them all the way up to the baby's arrival.

Speaking of the baby...we have picked out a name! Her name will be Ellie Marie Engelhaupt. We think it's beautiful and we hope you all love it too! We have always loved the first name Ellie and luckily both of our first choices for girls name was Ellie so we're both really happy. Her middle name is after my sister, Sadie Marie. Hopefully Ellie's auntie doesn't mind us borrowing her middle name! ;)

Other than that the only new thing is how active Ellie has become. I feel her little fingers poking me off and on through out the day and then in the evening she starts to kick and squirm around even more. It seems that she's already a die-hard volleyball and basketball fan. Whenever I'm at a game or in the gym practicing she's very, very active. I think it's her way of cheering the players on! She also responds to Mike's voice. When I get home and he starts talking she starts kicking and moving around. It's almost like she's trying to get closer to her dad. Easy to say it's by far the best part of my day and probably Ellie's too.

More ultrasound pics

It's a Girl!

Profile pic of our beautiful little girl

Waving hello to everyone!

Our future trumpet player (or boxer)

Little baby feet

We had our ultrasound today...

...and Baby E is a Girl!!!

We got up bright and early for our 7:30am ultrasound appointment today.  Right away we got to see a great profile pic of Baby E.  After that the tech roamed around the baby's little body and showed us some of the vital organs: the heart, the brain, and the kidneys.  She did measurements of each and then moved on to show us the hands and legs.  All of this sounds like it goes pretty quick but it doesn't....about 40 minutes had passed and the tech still hadn't told us the gender.

At one point we were looking at the legs and Mike whispered "Girl" to me and I had to nod my head to agree.  It seemed pretty obvious to us but the tech hadn't said anything yet so just waited patiently.  After awhile she finally asked if we wanted to know the gender and of course we said yes!  Mike was right!  Baby E is a she!  :)

Our little Miss E already has lots of energy just like her dad.  While the tech was trying to take pictures of her feet she decided to do a little dance because she seems to not be able to sit still!  Her hands were always moving too.  Up and down like she was waving to us and then one would move up by her mouth and then the second one would come up too like she was going to play the trumpet.  Or like Mike said "It looks like she's getting ready to box someone!".

I'll post some of the ultrasound pics and then maybe I'll even get Mike to post something on "our" blog later today.  Hope everyone is doing well!  Can't wait for our little girl to meet everyone!

There's an alien inside of me...

...or at least that's how it seemed the first time I felt our little Baby E moving around. Nothing can quite describe the feeling of our baby poking me from the inside out...knowing that our baby is active and alive and well is quite an amazing thing. I'm looking forward to when Mike will be able to feel our little one too.

8 days until the ultrasound. Keep your fingers crossed for us that we'll be able to find out if we're having a little boy or a little girl and most importantly, a healthy baby!

Tight quarters

Each week Mike and I get an email update from babycenter.com on how our little Baby E is growing and developing.  (This is also where we find out what produce item our baby is most like that week.)  Along w/ the updates we get an animated picture of Baby E in the womb.

                  

                           

     Here's the picture they emailed us from Week 12.

This is the picture from Week 15.

Here's the pic from Week 18

As  you can see Baby E has lots of room to grow and develop and make him or herself comfortable for the next couple months.  But wait...things start to change in week 19.

This is apparently the week that the baby learns he or she is 

double jointed (in every joint in it's body) and also 

begins to develop claustrophobia.

Wow...

p.s.

We go in for the ultrasound on March 3rd! Keep your fingers crossed for a girl....right Mike?! ;)

Our roller coaster (pregnant) Valentine's Day

Mike and I have never been able to celebrate Valentine's Day on the actual day. Because of busy volleyball and basketball schedules this is our 4th Valentine's Day that we've celebrated on some other random day of the month of February and I don't expect it to be our last.

So last night we went and tried out a new restaurant, The Vineyard, to celebrate the day of love, romance, Cupid, and all things pink and red. We got to the restaurant and right away Mike ordered the drink special...two margaritas (my favorite). Although I would love to get my hands on a big margarita, preferably the Texas Margarita from El Loro, it usually doesn't bother me that I can't enjoy a tart, sweet tequila drink and Mike can but I guess my pregnancy hormones are kicking in because this immediately put me on the edge...why does HE get to have margaritas when I can't?!! Then I couldn't decide what to order because everything that looked good I can't have because I'm pregnant. Lobster...mmm...nope-can't have it. Crab...mmm...nope-can't have it. Steak...mmm...nope-can't have it unless it's well done. Mike then orders a prime rib medium rare and now my hormones are winning and my (pregnancy) crabbiness is taking over. I can feel it in my blood, in my bones, and he's just sitting there smiling at me from across the table. And actually, not just smiling but laughing and mimicking me. I stare back because I'm (pregnant) mad but then have to look down and pretend to still be contemplating my dinner order because I can feel myself starting to cry because now I'm (pregnant) upset.

All of a sudden his phone rings and he answers it--let me remind you we are at a restaurant in the middle of our Valentine's Day dinner! It takes all of my will power to not let the (pregnancy) crabby hormones declare victory by reaching over and choking him....

Well, Mike is a lucky, lucky man because as fast as my severe moodiness takes over it usually goes away. What an interesting new addition to my life as a pregnant woman. So now that I'm finally physically feeling pretty normal I get to become emotionally (pregnant) imbalanced/crazy. Can't win 'em all, right? ;)

Although we had a rough start it ended up being a great Valentine's Day dinner. I even felt like we were on a first date or something as we both started spouting out our favorite movies...especially the comedies and our favorite parts and lines. We even learned that we have the same favorite comedy-Super Troopers. Mike's reaction to this new piece of knowledge--"Where have you been all my life?!!"

After dinner we headed home and took some new belly pics to post on the blog. This is another story that will have to be saved for later....

Here's one of the 20+ pics we attempted to take (seriously). Hope you enjoy!

Welcome to Week 18!

I received my weekly email update to find out what produce item my baby was most like today and it was....can anyone guess??  A green pepper!  Our little squirt is (most likely) weighing in at a hefty 7 ounces and his or her height is a whopping 5.5 inches.  Pretty exciting stuff since I can remember not that long ago when Baby E was just the size of a grape.  :)

So my last doctor's visit went great.  I always try and see one of their Nurse Practitioners, Linda Lindquist, and she's the best.  My friend Becca is pregnant also (and due in a couple weeks!) and goes to the same clinic I do and also shares my love for Linda.  As you all know my mom came w/ me to the appointment and it was fun to have her there.  Like Becca says "Linda likes when you bring people!".  

So Linda let us hear the baby's heartbeat which was 160 beats per minute.  Still seems so high to me but I guess it's normal and nothing to worry about.  I guess little Baby E has already inherited it's Mama's good hearing because he/she would move away from the little machine Linda used to hear the heartbeat.  Supposedly it gives out a noise that the baby doesn't like.  So we'd hear the heartbeat nice and loud and strong "thump thump thump" and then it'd just fade away so Linda would try and follow it.  She'd find it again "thump thump thump" and then just like that little Baby E would be gone again.  (If Baby E had inherited his/her dad's hearing he/she wouldn't have even noticed the sound since Dad is only 28 but could probably use a hearing aid since he needs to have the tv at max volume at all times.  Or if the sound the machine gives off sounds anything like my voice little Baby E would've been able to just tune it out since that's what his/her dad usually does--especially when ESPN is on.)

Well, more later...I should really get back to studying since I've been putting it off for several days now.  We'll try and get more belly pics up in the next couple of weeks.  Hope everyone is doing well! 

Hello Belly!

The belly pics are here! I swear it doesn't look as big as it feels---sometimes I already feel enormous and I'm only in my fourth month! I can't even imagine how I'll feel in the months to come...

Baby belly pics coming soon!

So I am still w/out baby belly pics! Sometimes I think Mike just thinks I'm getting really chubby and looks at me like I'm losing my mind when I tell him "look at my baby belly today!". Maybe that's why he's not jumping at the chance to take a profile pic of me and my growing waistline?? I can see the difference though and yes, it does just look like a chubby belly right now, but I know there's a little mini-me & Mike in there so my hope is someday soon I do look pregnant and not just like I have a beer gut!

So this is my blog entry to say sorry we don't have belly pics yet for all of you out there that have been asking for one. I promise I will try and get one soon--whether or not Mike believes these extra inches around my middle are from Baby E or just from my love for McDonald's cheeseburgers. ;)

Other than that there hasn't been much pregnancy action around the Engelhaupt household these days. I'm getting back to normal and not feeling as nauseous and exhausted as I did during the months of November and December. This past Saturday I only slept in until 9:30am. Mike was impressed that I only needed a little over 9 hours of sleep that night and not the 10-12 that I was banking on an average night for the past couple months.

Friday is my 2nd "official" doctor's appointment. Mike won't be able to go so my mom will be joining me. I'm glad she'll be there since a part of me still is wondering "Am I really having a baby?". It'll be exciting for Grandma Kruse to hear the baby's heartbeat. I'm sure some tears of joy will be shed and Mike will be glad he wasn't there to "deal w/ it". ;) During our first visit on January 2nd the baby's heartbeat was an astonishing 152 beats per minute--wow!! I'm wondering what it will be this time...

Back to the beginning

Since this is our first blog we'll see how this idea pans out... Our goal is to keep our family and friends updated on how my pregnancy is going but w/ both of us having super busy schedules we'll see if we can actually do a decent job of blogging and keeping everyone updated. This would mean that on Mike's down time he may have to put off the online poker for just a little bit and during my down time I'd actually have to turn the tv off (or at least try not to pay attention to it) and give you all the updates on the latest and greatest....our little baby E.

So to get you all up to speed....we found out we were pregnant on the morning of November 2nd. Mike didn't know I had decided to take the test a couple days early so it was fun to surprise him w/ "I'm pregnant!" and his reply "How do you even know that?". We were able to wait all of about 2 hours before we called Grandma-to-be and Grandpa-to-be Engelhaupt to share our good news. It also took Grandma-to-be only about a minute and a half to guess why we were calling on speaker phone and asking to talk to her and Pat at the same time. After she guessed the big surprise and called Pat in from mowing the lawn we were able to let him in on the secret too. We hung up and had to laugh because we knew Pat was probably back out on his John Deere smoking a cigar w/ a big smile on his face thinking about the next Engelhaupt generation that was on its way.

Fast forward a couple hours later and we arrived at the Kruse house w/ presents in tow. They couldn't figure out why all 3 of them would get presents from us at the same time out of the blue but I still think Sadie picked up on it right away. (She's my bff and knows me better than I know myself on most days so I'm sure she knew what our little gifts were all about.) Grandma-to-be and Grandpa-te-be Kruse opened up their matching baby onesies that announced "My Grandma rides a Harley" and "My Grandpa rides a Harley" and their responses could have been easily predicted....my mom teared up and my dad gave us a big thumbs up (which he saves for only the greatest of things such as Toby Keith's concert, a great catch by a teammate on the softball field, or the announcement of his first grandbaby). My mom went towards Mike for a hug w/ tears still welling up in her eyes and his response was something along the lines of "I don't want to deal w/ this. Go see Cody." Oh....the love and understanding of a son-in-law is something else isn't it? Auntie Sadie also produced a small onesie from her gift bag that announced "I love my aunt and all her tattoos". It was actually a print-out of the one that I still need to order...

Anyways, all in all it was a wonderful, loving, exciting, and emotional day for the Kruse and Engelhaupt family that I love to share w/ others. Hope you enjoyed my very first blog ever....wish me luck that there will be more! :)