Canada Trip

Aaron, Wyatt, and I went to Canada this year with my parents, my sister's family, and the Rittgers clan (Larry, Suzy, Tim, Emma, and baby Judah, and Harold Munson). We had a very good week of fishing, eating, and watching Wyatt change and continue to grow! Here are some of the pictures from the trip...

Aaron made a decal for the back of the boat - Big Blue!

It rained most days while we were there, and I saw four rainbows! Here is one of them.

Wyatt slept in a travel bassinet on the trip - he is so sweet when he is sleeping! :)

Here is Dad with one of many Walleyes that we caught and ate for lunch! Now that is fresh fish!

Wyatt and I didn't fish, but we did hang out in the boat with the fishermen/women.

Mom took a break from fishing to hold Wyatt... I don't think she missed fishing! :)

Here is Aaron fishing off the back of the boat. He spent most of the time fishing on the front of the boat, but he had an unfortunate incident... I'll let him tell you about it, or Mom will! :) You can see the dark clouds in the picture - lots and lots of clouds on this trip!

Wyatt slept in his carseat on the way to and from Canada. Here he is decked out in his Hawkeye gear from Grandma and Grandpa Brummer!

And here is my sweetie - he is exactly one month old in this picture! He has changed a lot in this first month. My favorite thing that he is now doing is smiling at me! He has also rolled multiple times from lying on his tummy to his back. And, he has also had a 6 hour stretch of sleep one night (Mommy is still waiting for another!) and many nights does a 5 hour stretch.

More pictures...

I'm sure Chewie and Reuben are feeling a little overlooked lately by Mommy... but at least they have each other! :)

Wyatt is really looking at things more intently. He doesn't like to swing really, but he likes to look at the stuff hanging above it.

Daddy and Wyatt - look at that strong neck!

Mommy appreciates a little break when Daddy gets home!

Wyatt is two weeks old today!

This is one of the ways I've been able to get stuff done - I went for a walk today (well, two walks - first with Chewie, then with Reuben) and when I got home I didn't even bother to take Wyatt out of the sling before I put him in the bouncy seat! This way he stays awake for about an hour after he eats and then sleeps for about an hour before he eats again.

Today was a big milestone for me - it was the first day I took a shower with no one around to watch Wyatt! He sat in his bouncy seat in the bathroom and of course started to fuss as soon as I got in the shower. But I think he is really starting to recognize my voice because he quieted down when I started talking to him.

The cloth diapers are going well so far - no leaks! He did however wet his onesie when I was changing him this morning... I just have bad timing! :) I think I'll wash the first load of dirty diapers this afternoon - we'll see how the dirty stains come out!

Cloth diapers!

Tonight we are trying out the cloth diapers - I put on a prefold diaper in a diaper cover first, and he had a messy/wet diaper with no leaks. Then I put on this BumGenius 3.0 diaper, so we will see how this one works. They are so puffy compared to disposable diapers - they make his heiny look so big! :) But I'm excited to see how they work!

Anyway, tonight Wyatt has been pretty fussy. I'm not sure what the deal is, but he may have an upset tummy. He is only happy when he is in the sling - that's where he is right now, asleep! It's kind of funny that even if I'm holding him in my arms he's still not as happy as when he's in the sling. I think it's like swaddling on steroids. :) I can't complain though, because he is sleeping and not fussing now. I just hope it doesn't mean he won't sleep tonight!

Wyatt's first trip to church and Cedar Falls

Mommy, Daddy, and Wyatt went to church on Sunday for the first time as a family. Of course we were almost ten minutes late, but that's not bad considering Mommy tends to run late on Sundays anyway! :) Here is Wyatt in his Sunday outfit - what a big boy!


After church we headed up to Cedar Falls to see some of Mommy's side of the family.





And what post would be complete without more pictures of the little boy himself??? :)


And of course a series of pictures of Wyatt going from happy to mad to happy again... :)

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Today is Aaron's 25th birthday! Happy birthday honey! We were going to head up to Cedar Falls yesterday, but the power has been out at my parent's since Thursday night. So, today we did the usual Lou Henri's breakfast - it's amazing how the noise in the restaurant puts Wyatt to sleep!

Right now we are hanging out at home - Wyatt is very alert and he is fascinated with the elephants hanging above his bouncy seat. I'm thinking we need to get him a little activity mat he can lay on that has stuff to look at. Anyway, hopefully the power will come on at my parent's house today so we can head up there tonight!

Daddy went back to work today...

Today Aaron started back to work - luckily he did not have to go in to work until 10 this morning, so he was able to watch Wyatt so I could shower! Wyatt and I had a good day - lucky for me he likes to be in the sling and the bouncy seat. Here's to hoping for a good night!

The un-swaddled boy

Wyatt spends a lot of time swaddled, so here he is getting ready for bed tonight. See how he progresses from mildly annoyed to mad... :)

Wyatt is one week old today!

Here is our little trooper - he is getting to know his carseat and stroller very well! It's hard to believe he's been here a week already - it's been the longest and shortest week of my life! :) Sometimes I look down and it hits me again that he's the little boy that we waited so long for - it's still a little surreal.

Anyway... hopefully he will soon learn to love to sleep at night! :)

Wyatt's first trip to the mall

Wyatt went to the mall today for the first time. He was a good sport - he rode in the stroller for a little while, then he tried out the snugli with Daddy. He zonked out right away in the snugli - he'll be a good shopper!

Well, hopefully Wyatt decides to sleep well tonight!

My beautiful boy...

Wyatt's first 4th of July

Here is Wyatt in his 4th of July outfit from my good friend Mary!

Also, Wyatt went to Lou Henri's for breakfast for the first time today - he gets to enjoy the pancakes a little later today. :)


Wyatt also had a weight check at the hospital today, and he is only about 7 ounces less than his birth weight. I'm sure he'll gain it all back soon! And his bilirubin check was good - very normal number so we don't have to deal with any jaundice stuff. Yay!

Today his Aunt Rachael and Uncle Justin came to visit all the way from California! He was very happy to meet them! :) I'll have to get some pictures from Aaron to post.

Well, we are getting used to each other more and more - life is good!

Wyatt is here!

So as you all know, Wyatt was born Tuesday morning at 1:40 am. He weighed 7 lb 2.3 oz and was 20.25 inches long (I'm sure his weight has dropped a little now with the 7+ dirty diapers! :) ). We are so happy that he is here now! Here is a little video of him just wiggling around and making faces - what newborns do best! :) Pardon the America's Got Talent noise in the background... Anyway, we will go home from the hospital tomorrow and start our new adventure with our little boy. Hopefully once we get home I will be more able to update the blog!

40 weeks + 1 day

Not the most original title to this blog entry. :) Today I did not go to school, but instead have been catching up on things I've wanted to get done. I've got pretty much all of my cleaning done, so now I just have some laundry to put away. Not much other news to report... this is a boring, short little post. Just letting you know I'm still here! :)

1 day left, and then the 4th trimester begins...

Today Aaron and I slept in very late and had breakfast/lunch at Lou Henri's (it's become our Saturday morning thing lately...). Then we went to a Matinee of Transformers - it's really long and not that great. Don't waste your money on seeing it in the theater. Then I had an emotional breakdown at home - poor Aaron - and I decided I needed to get away from Iowa City. So we went to Riverside to the casino and had dinner at Ruthie's - kind of a last hurrah I guess. It was nice to have a dinner alone at a fancy restaurant - I barely fit in the booth though which was pretty funny. We had a good night!

Tomorrow is our due date - I'm starting to have issues with calling one day THE day that the baby will be born. Aaron and I decided it should be a 4 week window instead - that would be a lot better for our mental health! :)

Anyway, the wait continues.

2 days...

I'm at school right now - I saw my denture patient this morning and fixed a few sore spots for him. Then Dr. Huber signed off on the case, and I got to turn in my book to show I've completed all of my requirements! This afternoon I'm going to check out of my operatory and turn in my keys. I have no sad feelings about being done with my third year - last year was kind of crazy around the time that our school year ended because the flood made us shut down the dental school! It was a little weird and sad to turn in our keys from the sim clinic - we spent at least two days a week for two years in our little groups of five students, so we were a little sad to see it end! The end of this year is not nearly as big of a transition as we will be continuing to work with patients next year. We will just be on a different floor of the dental school.

Anyway, this weekend my roommate from the first two years of undergrad will be back in town, so I'm looking forward to seeing her. And I still haven't finished cleaning the upstairs of our house (where did that nesting bug go? :) ) so that's on my agenda as well. Aaron doesn't work this Saturday - hurray! He has been working most Saturdays, so it will be a treat to get to be together for the weekend.

My sister-in-law wrote a cute note to our little boy on her blog - maybe this will motivate him to show up soon!

3 days...

And I'm all done with my tests! Hurray! Now I have all of my school requirements taken care of, and it's a very good feeling. This afternoon Aaron and I went to the Coral Ridge mall, and we did a good bit of walking. Even if the walking doesn't make the baby come tonight, it's still good for me to get the exercise. I'm starting to get used to the idea that the baby will not be arriving before his due date, and I think it's healthier for me to not be under pressure (or feeling under pressure) to have this baby by Sunday. So, I am just going to enjoy being pretty much done with school for a couple months!

Other random news - Aaron replaced our ceiling fan in the bedroom. The old one was very dated and it was very noisy. He got the new one on sale at Menards, and it really updates our bedroom. Maybe it's a good thing the baby's not here yet - then we can get our home improvement projects done! :)

The new carpet

Here is the new carpet... I really like it. It is so soft to walk on! I think we have vacuumed it every day this week! :) The old carpet never got that much love - it's hard to want to vacuum something every day that will look yucky no matter what. Anyway, I didn't have any patients scheduled today so I have had a fair amount of time to be home. Now the downstairs is actually tidied up and CLEAN! It's a wonderful feeling. :) Tomorrow I plan on cleaning the upstairs...

Sunglasses....

So I found myself very happy that it was sunny today so that I had an excuse to wear sunglasses on the way to the bus stop. There are several people who ride the same bus as me, and there is a particularly chatty woman who lives in an apartment across the street from me. You can ask my mom - I have never been a chatty person in the morning, and to add to that, I am just not in the mood lately to answer questions about this pregnancy. And, I am sick of strangers asking personal questions and asking how I'm feeling. So, I was happy to wear sunglasses and to purposefully walk slowly to the bus stop this morning so the chatty woman couldn't talk with me (at least not for very long). I know, I'm a terrible person. :) She still managed to ask me on the bus how I was feeling, and I told her I was fine. Then I buried my head in a newspaper.

I'd like to add yet another story to the "Strangers say the weirdest things to pregnant women" archive. Today I was in one of the waiting rooms at the dental school, and a female patient who works with one of my classmates asked me when I was going to have the baby. I told her that I'm due in four days, but that the baby will decide whenever he wants to come. She replied, "You should mix orange juice and castor oil and drink it. That'll make him come! It works!" Nice. I think I'll pass on the castor oil. I'm not that desperate yet.

Anyway, I am scheduled to take my last test tomorrow at 1pm - originally I was scheduled for the Friday group, but I talked to the instructor and she said it would be okay for me to take it with the Thursday group. I know it's only a day different, but at this stage of the game one day can make a big difference! After that test I will have no motivation to be at school, so I am very tempted to inform my instructors that after Friday I will be starting my maternity leave!

Okay, I am at school right now (I'm not scheduled with any patients today) so I need to finish a few reports for one of my rotations. Think labor thoughts for me! Yes, even you Kate!

5 days???

I finished three finals today - hurray! Now I have one tomorrow morning at 8 am, and I'm hoping to take the other on Thursday. (although I would like to have the baby on Thursday as that is the day Aaron picked for the baby pool! :) And, Mom would get out of her house cleaning... :) ) Anyway, my brain is a little fried, so I think I will hold off on studying for the next test for a couple hours.

I had my 39 week appointment this morning, and I'm pretty much on schedule. I measured at 39.5 weeks, so that's about right. My doctor said most babies come between the 39th and 40th weeks, so that's any time now!!! I had to schedule a 40 week appointment for next week, but I'm really hoping I get to cancel it.
Anyway, thanks for all of the labor thoughts - except Kate. I'm sort of okay with the 26th, but for selfish reasons I think the 25th would be better (that's the day Aaron picked)! :) However, I'll probably have the baby tomorrow since Tyler picked that day and he has already won the baby pool twice. Figures. :)

6 days left... ???

We are under a week to our due date... which makes me start to wonder if I'm going to be overdue! I really hope not, but I'm really starting to learn that I have no control in this situation!
Tonight I had to do some major studying as I am taking three of my finals tomorrow! I also have another final scheduled for Wednesday morning- I guess if I'm busy studying I'm not thinking about how much I just want to have this baby! Okay, that's not true - I definitely get distracted by contractions that start and stop... :)
Tonight Aaron and I went for a long walk with the dogs - I like to think that the walking is helping... :) Since it was so hot today we waited until the sun went down - it was still hot though!

Other random big news - we got new carpet today! Our living room carpet was original to the house and was old and icky. We have been meaning to update the flooring in the main floor, but it was hard to decide what to do. We went with linoleum tile in the kitchen (it looks like ceramic tile but is a lot easier to put down!) and carpet in the living room and up the stairs. I really like how the carpet turned out - it makes our house feel so much newer! And, I think it will be very baby friendly. Way to go Aaron! He spent his day off clearing out the living room furniture and putting it back after the carpet went down. He even vacuumed before he moved the furniture back in! He also re-arranged the living room, and I really like it. I'll have to post some pictures once I get it tidied up. :)

Well... think labor thoughts for me!

39 weeks... and we are twiddling our thumbs!

We are officially one week from our due date - can you believe it??? Time flies! I have a feeling that this may be one of the slowest weeks of my life! I am getting a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions lately, and they can be a little frustrating because they start to come regularly, but as soon as I change positions they go away! But, I will take it as a good sign that I am at least having "practice" contractions pretty much every day.

Anyway, I got new glasses today! I actually got them from Sam's Club - they have really good prices on glasses and contacts (for example, a year's worth of contacts is $40 cheaper at Sam's Club than through Wal-mart!). I don't typically wear glasses during the day, but today I am making an exception. :) I thought it would be a good idea to get new glasses as my old ones are from high school! I figure I'm going to be awake at night more often and it will be nice to have a good pair of glasses. :) That, and I have this feeling that little boy Brummer is going to decide that he wants to make his entrance at night, so I don't want to be photographed in my old glasses!

Well, Happy Father's day to my dad and all of the other dad's out there! I was kind of hoping that Aaron's father's day present would be a little boy, but I guess he'll have to wait until next year!

Swimming!

Today after school, I was VERY warm (I think it got up to 90 degrees today!) and I've been dreaming of swimming, so Aaron indulged me and we went to the City Park pool! The water was a little chilly, but it felt good to cool off! It's so nice to float too...

Anyway, today I delivered two crowns and a bridge - this leaves me with just a set of dentures to deliver on Friday and then I am done with my Pros requirements! I also have all of my final exams lined up to be taken early next week - I figure if I go into labor before I can take them, I'll just take them at the regularly scheduled time. But, if I don't have the baby before early next week, it will take a lot of pressure off of me!
Lots of Braxton-Hicks lately, but nothing major...

Oh, the weird things people say to pregnant women...

Today is no exception... While at Sam's Club today, Aaron and I were trying out a couch (Okay, I was putting my feet up because I was tired of walking around!) and an older man and his wife walked by. The man shouted to Aaron, "I think that couch is big enough to get her pregnant again!" Now, I have no idea (and don't want to know) what that man meant by that, but more importantly, what possessed him to say something like that??? To a perfect stranger? Just bizarre! And then when we were at the hospital today for yet another OB appointment, we were getting off the elevator and this guy was about to get on - he made the weirdest, shocked face and stared/gawked at my belly. It was so odd - Aaron and I couldn't stop laughing about it, because he just had this look of surprise/horror/terror. For crying out loud, I'm pregnant, not a mutant! :) Strangers are starting to make me feel like a walking circus sideshow.

I also want to make a few shirts to wear. The first will say: "I'm due June 28th. I'm having a boy. We like the name Wyatt." I think I get asked my due date at least 5 times a day now by strangers.
The second shirt will say "Yes, I know I'm pregnant." That one is for the old guy at the dental school who shouted at me, "SOMEBODY's having a BABY!" Yes, I'm aware.

38 weeks... Wow!

Two weeks from today is our due date - it's wild to think about! So, our baby boy could be here tomorrow or four weeks from now! I'm really hoping for not four weeks from now - I think I will start walking until I'm exhausted starting on my due date! :) I'm started to have conflicting emotions now - I really want to finish up my schoolwork, but I REALLY want this baby here! After this week, I will be done with my clinical requirements, so if I can get through Friday I will be in really good shape.

Anyways, I really have to apologize to my unborn son for yet another Oreo Twister tonight. Even though Aaron and I walked to Dane's Dairy, I don't think a round trip of 3 blocks makes up for that much ice cream. :) On our walk there, I said to Aaron that in a few weeks we could be walking there with a stroller! Now that's weird to think about!

And... we are officially ready for this baby to get here because the car seat is properly installed in the car and the baby's hospital bag is in it! Our hospital bag is pretty much packed - I have to throw the toiletries in whenever it's time, but that's pretty much it. Soon, soon, soon!

Baby room pics!

Now we are ready for our baby boy to get here!

Baby shower!

Here are some pictures from the baby shower in Waterloo this past Sunday... I know it's taken me a little while to get them up here - it's been a crazy busy week so far! Tonight Aaron and I put the finishing touches on the baby room - he put up the curtain rod and hung the curtains, then he hung up the pictures and letters... I will have to post a picture of his room here soon! Baby Brummer's clothes and diapers are washed... the swing is put together... the cradle and crib have clean sheets... his hospital bag is packed... Now we are just waiting for his arrival! In the meantime, it wouldn't hurt if I packed my own bag! :) And I'd like to get the house cleaned really well before he comes... details. :) Last night I made lasagna and split it into two 9x9 pans - I cooked one and froze the other for after the baby is here. Every day if I can get a little bit more done then hopefully we will be well prepared when he decides it's time to make an appearance!

36 weeks and our 3 year anniversary!

Today Aaron and I have been married for three years! Hurray for us! :) I am very blessed to have such a wonderful husband and best friend! Tonight we went out to the Brown Bottle for dinner, then we went to City Park to take some pictures, and then we got ice cream at Dane's Dairy. A very good night! :)
Aaron got a new lens for our camera, so we went to the park to take some pictures. It's neat to have some good pictures of me in all of my hugeness! :) Here are a couple pictures - the rest are on Facebook.
Happy anniversary Aaron! I love you!