Nursery

Brad and I did a bunch of work to baby girl's nursery this weekend. We bought a beautiful crib from my friend Jeannie, and decorated with gifts from my friend Kristi. It's the Dwell Studio for Target Circles Collection, if you're wondering, and we love it!!!!! Brad built the crib and helped a bunch, so he got to take a Zelda break while I took pictures.

Pictures of the attack

This is where the dog actually tried to bite me.

This is my shin a couple hours after it happened.

This is my foot after the caustic blood from te internal bleeding in my shin started pooling in my foot.

Occupational Hazard

I'm so sorry I haven't been very bloggy lately. I've been busy, you see.

I was attacked by a vicious dog while conducting a home visit.

Yep, you read that right! Amanda, lover of all dogs was dealt a cruel slice of irony when she arrived to visit some of her foster kids and a very strong, very angry dog came barreling through the front door, and slammed me onto the ground. As I tried to protect my head, the dog got hold of my elbow and tried his best to rip off my arm.

Before you start to worry, the baby is fine. I went to Dr. Morse the next morning and we listened to her little heart. None of my wounds were deep enough to need stitches or anything, and I didn't need a tetanus shot or antibiotics. All was well, I was just really sore. And ten days later I still am.

It happened on Monday, May 12 and I had to go back to the doctor on Friday because my right foot started turning really black and swelling like crazy. It's probably not broken (we can't do an x-ray to find out for sure), but it sure does hurt. My doctor sent me for a Doppler to check to make sure I didn't have any blood clots, and it was normal. I hoped I would get an accurate forecast from my Doppler experience, but no luck.

As of right now, I'm just hobbling around waiting for it to feel better. Yesterday it felt pretty good, but today I'm back to sore. The pictures really tell the story better than anything, but they're not for the queasy. View at your own risk!

In other news, baby A. is kicking like crazy. She's kicked hard enough last night that Brad could actually feel it. AWESOME!!!

Plus, I asked some of my friends to help me look for this bedding set I wanted to buy for her room, but couldn't find in Columbia, and they came through with flying colors! MY FRIENDS ROCK!!! This kid is going to have a super cute room!

In other baby news, Ethan's other baby sister arrived this week. I don't know any details, but apparently everyone is doing well and I'm sure Ethan is already a GREAT big brother. Poor guy-two baby sisters in a six month period. He won't know what hit him!

So, other than really scary dog attacks, we're doing well. I'll try to be more communicative next week, especially if anything exciting happens.

Kitten or puppy?

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know we said we'd wait until Mother's day to tell, but my mom got her gift today, and once the cat was out of the bag, there was no stopping us! The ball is seriously rolling now. We've picked colors for the nursery and are registering for fun/necessary baby stuff. Our mom's have been chomping at the bit to get shopping and now it's go time!!!!!!!
We haven't landed on a name yet, but chances are it will be Carmen something after my Nanny. We'll keep you posted. Keep us in your prayers as I try to continue cooking up a healthy baby girl!

And the winner is?

Yes, we know what it is, and no, we're not telling! Not until this weekend anyway. The gender of baby Atkins will be revealed on Mom's Day this Sunday. I will tell you that it is healthy, weighs 13.5 oz., and is in the 51st percentile size wise. This kind of info. is always important to parents. According to growth, our due date is September 19, so all of you who were counting on the 20th may want to adjust your schedules. Mom, we may get this pushed up to the 17th so you get a huge birthday present yet!

More on Sunday! Couldn't you just die of suspense?!!

Ohhhhh, we're halfway there....

Ohhhhhh! Livin' on a prayer. That's all. I just wanted to quote Bon Jovi at this, the halfway mark, of my pregnancy. Nothing new to report.

In the beginning

Let's just get this out of the way and, hopefully, never discuss it again. I had the first trimester from hell. It may have been the worst 12 weeks of my life, but it actually started very pleasantly.

Right around Christmas time, I decided that hopin' and wishin' just weren't getting me pregnant and we needed some scientific planning. My doctor gave me some down and dirty advice and we were off! Now, I've always had this fear that, because I love kids so much, there would be this huge cosmic joke and I wouldn't be able to have any of my own. Seriously, I worried about this! We knew Brad could reproduce, but my abilities were a mystery.

SO, the morning of Wednesday, January 16th I woke up just feeling different. I decided it was time to pee on a stick. A normal ritual in our household is for me to be on the toilet, while Brad does something else in the bathroom. This particular morning, it was Brad in the shower, Amanda on the pot. Brad was making fun of me for wanting to pee on a stick saying it was too early and I was wasting a perfectly good pee stick. He then went on to give me some thrilling information he had learned about the Mason's in a show he had DVR'd the night before. I stopped him mid-factoid by thrusting the plus sign-boasting stick into his shower. Silence. We were both in shock. That lasted about 16 seconds.

Ok, now Brad and I had always said that when we got pregnant we'd wait the twelve weeks before telling anyone. I'm proud to say we managed to wait about three minutes. I immediately called a left an URGENT message for Mom to call me as Brad hurriedly got dressed so we could run over to his Mom's. My mom called me back almost immediately and I asked her "Have you decided what you want your grand kids to call you?" She was thrilled. Duh. My dad got called on the way to Rene's. His response was the typical low-key, "Well, that's just great. Just great." Exactly what I would expect. We found Rene sitting on her back porch, drinking coffee, and watching the dogs poop. Brad simply handed her the stick. Too bad it was still a little drippy. She didn't mind. She just wanted to know how long she had to wait. From there, word spread throughout the family and friends. I, of course, sent a mass email as I am wont to do. Love to communicate, hate to make phone calls.

So that's how it all began. Happy, happy day! I was four weeks pregnant and on cloud nine, possible even ten. If I'd just waited another 48 hours or so, I wouldn't have needed to pee on a stick to know. That's when the Morning Sickness hit.

There are no words to describe the horror that was my fight with food those first twelve weeks. I ended up losing fifteen pounds before all was said and done, and have just now managed to gain it back! I'm telling you, I would have been a hell of a bulimic. At one point, I dropped nine pounds in four days. Brad would come home from work and find me laying on the bathroom floor because I was just too tired to run from the couch or the bed to the bathroom one more time. In hind sight, Brad was pretty funny during all of this. At one point, he attempted to help by handing my a paper towel as I yakked violently. I'm not sure where he was going with it, but he was trying to help. Mostly, he just stayed out of my way, which was a good call. He obediently ran to the grocery store when I thought I had identified something that might stay down. I was usually wrong.
I'd like to list, for the record, all of the things that didn't work.
*Sea bands (those wrist band thingies)
*Ginger, ginger ale, ginger supplements, ginger snaps
*Gatorade
*Saltines
*Taking my vitamins at night
*B12 supplements
*Unisom
*Not eating meals and drinking at the same time

I want to list "vigorous prayer", but it may have led me to my final solution: Zofram. Known to me as my miracle pill. Too bad I didn't get it until week 11! It's a drug used to help chemotherapy patients with nausea and it's been a Godsend! I don't have to take it all the time now like I did at first, but I still need it every couple of days. I may just be one of those lucky moms who is sick the entire way through. Lucky, lucky, lucky...

Tomorrow I will be officially halfway through my pregnancy, and the memories of those first weeks are completely overshadowed by my excitement about what is to come. In 72 hours, we will know if we've got a boy or a girl (or kitten or puppy as Brad puts it). Bottom line: morning sickness SUCKED and was completely worth it.

More later, and thanks for voting is my girl v. boy poll. My dad pointed out that the outcome of the poll may not actually have any bearing on the sex of the child. He may be right......