Santa's Little Helper

No job is ever complete around the house until Rocky has helped. Whether he is attacking the tissue paper or chewing on the bags or wrapping paper he is never far away when work needs to be done.

Rocky shows no mercy to any item. As the box shows, it can't quite hold up his weight. For some reason this seems like the best seat in the house to the kitty.

Snow Day

Rocky, Matt Jr., and I had a snow day on Friday. This is how Rocky spent his entire day. He did not get off of the couch from 7am - 3:3opm. Some days I wish I was a cat, until I watch him clean his bottom.

Stats Update

Total weight gain: 17 lbs. (looks like I got a bit carried away at the Aupperle Christmas or maybe it's all the Christmas cookies I've been eating at school)
Gender: male
Heart Rate: 155 bpm
Blood pressure of Mommy: 108/60
Tummy measurement: 26 cm
Movement: constant pummeling, which I fight back from time to time with poking. It's really funny when he pushes back.
Room color: Still white because we're still trying to sell our house
Baby blankets: still no farther along since I began. I'm waiting till I finish all the Christmas presents to get going.
Happiness scale: 10 - I've been feeling really good and still only have to go to the bathroom once a night. All of this inclement weather has kept me home more evenings than originally planned. I can still see my toes and put on my shoes without help. I can still bend down without any problems. I can also still to 10 push-ups with extra weight to boot.

Today's Hooters Girl!

Here are the much awaited photos. Don't laugh too hard.

Mr. Wiggles

Okay, so I haven't gotten my belly photos up yet, but I honestly haven't had time. Between getting ready for our madrigal dinner, being away at a Thanksgiving basketball tournament all weekend and then not feeling all that well, not to mention the 5 different Christmas gifts I'm trying to make (hahaha, I'm a glutton for punishment) I just haven't had time to upload my photos.

Anyway, last night it was so weird. As I continue to be assaulted by Matt Jr. (I hope is no indication of his temperament once he's in the real world), last night I could watch the assault. It's so crazy to see my stomach moving. Even Matt could see it. One of the many joys of pregnancy (yeah, that's about the only one I've had so far). I can't wait until he gets a little bigger and won't be as free to move around. It's pretty wild when he's actively pummeling me on both sides. He really enjoys it when I eat. He usually reacts to different music things, I don't know if that's because he enjoys it, or because he dislikes it? Who knows.

I promise, the pictures are coming!

Mr. Wiggles

I've definitely started to notice Matt Jr. wiggling around: while I was waiting to get my haircut, and then when I was eating dinner on Thursday.  I know he's moving around more than that, but it's only when I sit still that I notice him.  That doesn't happen very often. 

Buy this house!!

 Check out our house on FSBO.  Please forward this to anyone you know in the housing market. Our Ad

It's a BOY!

It looks like baby has daddy's feet.

We just had a sonogram this morning and Matt is so excited becuase he's going to have a little hunting buddy. I'm just thinking that we really are going to need a bigger house. As long as it's a baby I'm happy.

The sonogram was so neat. He was really active when it started. He was almost a little too active because the tech couldn't get him to hold still for some of the measurements they were taking. At this point he is 7ounces, right about where he should be (1/2 lbs.). His heart beat is at 166. We saw fingers, toes, hands, feet, arms, legs, along with other things. We definitely got a clear shot that it is a boy. Although Matt claims he saw it before the tech pointed it out. He's not shy, let's put it at that. The tech said he had a full belly and his bladder was starting to fill up. We could see all the valves of the heart. Technology is amazing. Towards the end, he was starting to fall asleep the tech was trying to get some measurements on the spine, she could get them from one view, but not the other. She had me roll onto my side and she was poking at him a bit, but he would never roll over for her to see. It won't be that long before we'll get to see the real thing.

Relief

After about 9 weeks of nausea, I think it has come to an end.  I can finally get up in the morning without having to worry that I will be or feel sick.  Although I can't say it has completely stopped, because if I don't eat within an hour or so, I do start to feel bad.  Thank goodness I don't feel the urge to eat every hour in the morning.  Surprisingly I have also starting staying up until 10 without having to try.  Thank God for the second trimester.  

The quest for pants

I have always had a difficult time finding pants.  The typical problem is that they usually gap in the back regardless of whether I am bending over or not.  The only reason I can think of for why pants would do that is because I do not have a large enough belly to take up that waste band space.  Length is always a problem, no matter what brand, style, or fit they are.  Thank god I can sew.  Although I have taken numerous pairs to the AC ladies in Fairbury.  

Finding maternity pants has turned into an entirely new quest.  First of all, I know that at some point in time my belly will fill out that top band, as hard as that is to believe now.  The problem has to do with the hip and thigh area of the pants.  How in the heck are these crazy pants supposed to fit there?  I have been told (along with every other thing that I should and should not do) that I will need or like extra room there eventually.  But how much?  I just have a hard time spending my hard earned money on a pair of pants that looks like Ashlyn in her diaper.  I just cannot do it! What am I supposed to do now?  Most of my shirts are not long enough to cover the fact that my pants are not buttoned and somewhat unzipped.  At least if I wear a skirt, I can just pull the waist up higher to make it work.  

So far finding clothes has been the hardest problem.  I thought picking out furniture might be difficult, but that task was not so bad.  You can check it out here.  I am sure that there will be many more difficult decisions that will need to be made, so I am just going to take it all one day at a time.

Belly Blog

Well today on my plate, I had two eggs, over easy with a piece of toast and OJ.  For my morning snack, I had the other half of a banana muffin from yesterday, then I had a slice of bread with peanut butter.   For lunch I had left over olive garden (a little bit of fettuccini alfredo and ravioli di'portabello).  Surprisingly enough I was pretty full until about 4.  Then I had an apple and some trail mix (with peanuts, raisins, and m&m's).  For dinner, I had taco bell: a cheesy gordita crunch and soft shell taco supreme.  Not quite the dinner of champions, but it sure did taste good.

Ode to Eating

My first 14 weeks of pregnancy have been nothing but bliss.  Ha!  Not even close.  They have been nothing but nausea, sleepiness, and eating.  As Matt and I were eating dinner this evening, (at 5pm) he made the comment "since when did you become a senior citizen?"  I can not help that I have to eat dinner at 5pm or that I fall asleep at 8pm on the couch and then migrate to bed at 9:30.  At this point those things do not bother me, they are only the facts of my life.  Unless you have been pregnant, and even then you might not understand, you can not quite understand my strong desires to eat.  How often do you have the feeling of "I need to eat NOW or I'm going to puke" or "I need to eat NOW or I'm going to pass out!"  It probably does not help my situation that I have very little excess body fat, so when my gas tank needs refilled, time is of the essence.  Eating is no longer confined to 3 episodes a day.  My eating schedule is as follows: breakfast, 8am morning snack, 9:45 morning snack, 11:30 lunch, 3 o'clock snack, dinner (between 5 and 6pm) and usually a before bed snack.  On the occasion that I wake up at night (how about every night around 1:30 if I drank something after 8pm or 3:30 if I did not) I might have a late night snack.   From my pregnancy experience so far, here are my words of wisdom.  

• Always have food on hand, no matter where, or what time
• Never brush your tongue; although it helps fight bad breath, now it is not a good idea.  Do not ask why.
• It is never too early to go to bed, and there is no wrong time to take a nap

I would have to say that it has been worth it, to hear the amazing "wub, wub, wub" of the baby.

Ashlyn Ryann Welborn

Becoming an Aunt was definitley the highlight of my summer!

Peter Pan

Me, Lauren and Steven Matt and I My buddy Parker!

This is what consumed most of my time this past summer!

I'm going, going, back, back to Cali, Cali!

At the beginning of the summer I went to California with my Dad and Norma. Here are some shots from our trip.

I'm on the aircraft carrier in the bay. Man is that an awesome hat!
Norma and Dad
This is Morgen, whom I think is about the only Schroen I look like.
Morgen, Aunt Donna, Myself, and Becky
This is quite an interesting picture. I'm definitely driving our rental Mustang Convertible, and there are definitly 4 people in the back seat, two of which you cannot see. Don't tell.

I finally got it!

Yeah, so I finally took the time to figure out how to use this. I can't say that I am completely competent yet. I thought I had just previously added a picture, but somehow it disappeared when I went to add another. Anyway, I'm really bad at taking pictures, so these are about our most recent photos from Vegas.



Anyone for a damn tour?

Growing Belly!

Here I am at 6.5 weeks. Anything that sticks out, is only becuase I ate too much at this point.