Hiccups

I haven't blogged in a little while - life has definitely been busy lately! This past weekend Aaron and I went back to Cedar Falls to celebrate Easter with my family. It was a good time to catch up with everyone - it's crazy how fast the nieces and nephews grow!
This week will be fairly busy for me school-wise - tomorrow night I have to be the lab monitor, so I will most likely be at the school until 11pm. Yuck! I only have tomorrow night and one night in May left, and then I'm done with lab monitor duty. I doubled-up in April because I figured I wouldn't want to be up that late in June! Tomorrow will be a pretty busy day for me in the clinic too, so we will see how it all goes. I will be a very tired girl at the end of the day!
Anyway, today I felt baby boy Brummer have hiccups for the first time. I was sitting in the dental school lobby waiting for Aaron to pick me up, and I felt him sort of jump every other second for about a minute. Normally when he kicks or moves around he will move a few times, then rest, then move some more, so this was different. It was exciting for me - kind of silly, I know - but I'm just getting so ready for him to be out here and not in there!
Well, hope you are all having a good week!

28 weeks

Finally in the third trimester! Some of my prego books say the third trimester starts as early as the 25th week - most agree that by 28 weeks I'm definitely in the third trimester. Crazy, isn't it? Time flies... Little baby boy Brummer probably weighs somewhere around 2-2.5 pounds and is 15 inches long now. I had my 28 week appointment on Friday, and I had my glucola test and Rhogam (sp?) shot that day. Hopefully my glucola test will have a good result, although I would understand if my blood sugar was high because I did drink a Decaf Skinny Mocha Frappe right before my appointment. I asked the barista if he could make it sugar free and he said no... At least I asked, right? :) Just about every time I go to the hospital for my appointment, I stop at the Java House for a treat - it's kind of my celebration for making it to the next milestone of this pregnancy! So why break tradition just for a glucola test??? :) I had a different nurse at this last appointment, and she lectured me about having the frappe right before the glucose test - if they cared about what I ate or drank before the test, they should tell me to fast for a couple hours! She was just plain grumpy though - I'm glad that I usually have Tuesday morning appointments because my experience with those nurses so far has only been good.
Well, I really need to tidy up the house a bit and get some laundry done. Hope you all have a good week!

Today's Crusade...

I have to say I'm not surprised by all of the reactions on Facebook to the Iowa Supreme Court ruling that will allow same-sex couples to marry. I have seen Facebook statuses ranging from "Way to go Iowa" to "So glad I moved out of Iowa" or "Disappointed in Iowa"... Hmm... I guess this post is more in response to those who are in the "So glad I moved out of Iowa" camp.
I feel like many Christians today are on a modern-day crusade when it comes to what is the law in America. Many Christians are raised believing that America is a Christian nation and our laws should mirror Christian morals. It's almost ironic that many Christians want to make it so that all of America has to live under laws that they decide are the moral authority, when the founders of America stood for freedom of religion and separation of church and state. I think the founders realized that when you try to regulate religion through the state, you create the Crusades all over again - trying to force everyone into your belief system because this is "God's will." When did it become the Christian's job to tell everyone else how they have to live?
Really, the reaction to the legalization of same-sex marriage by Christians scares me. How high and mighty are we, that we would have the audacity to cry when we don't get our way about a legal issue? Is this really a moral issue? Really? As a Christian, I do not feel threatened by the legalization of same-sex marriage by the state. Personally, I don't need the state to sanction my marriage - I know that the committment between me and my husband IS a marriage in God's eyes. That's all I need to know. Whether or not another couple's committment is a marriage in God's eyes really isn't a concern of mine.
I challenge Christians who are so out-spoken about their disapproval of legalized same-sex marriage to get out of their bubble and rethink this issue. What is it about legalizing same-sex marriage that bothers you - that someone will do something that you don't approve of? That this is one more step down a "slippery slope" toward the moral decay of America? Oh dear.
Maybe I should care more about this issue, but I am having a hard time finding a reason to be upset.

The diapers are here!!!

I'm super excited! The cloth diapers that we ordered arrived today, and they are super cute! We ordered two different types - newborn size prefolds and diaper covers, and then one-size pocket diapers (like the one in the picture). We have enough of the newborn size for doing cloth diapers full time, but we will probably have to buy more of the pocket diapers (they adjust to fit the baby as he grows so you don't have to buy multiple sizes) down the road if we want to use that type exclusively. We registered for the pocket diapers at Target, though, so we may get some more of those that way... Either way, we are covered for the first month! :) We also ordered a diaper pail, cloth diaper wipes, "bottom cleaner" spray (you spray that on and use the cloth diaper wipes instead of the disposable wipes), a few extra inserts for the pocket diapers, a large diaper tote bag for the diaper pail, a small diaper tote bag for the dirties when we are out and about, and some additive-free detergent to wash the diapers in. It was quite a full box! It's just nice to get all of the details taken care of, so we can start cloth diapers right away after Baby Boy Brummer is born.

27 weeks picture

The bump just keeps on getting bigger...

27 weeks...

and some weird, yucky weather today! I think this weekend has brought a lot of snowy/sleety weather to most of the midwest - we haven't had too much accumulate yet, but the ground is just about all white again. This is not good news for me - I can barely fit in my winter coat! I need April to stay in the 50's and 60's! Most of my non-maternity shirts are completely unwearable now - unless they are longer than normal and fairly loose and stretchy. There's another girl in my class who is pregnant and due a few weeks after I am - according to some of my classmates I am carrying our baby "low" and she is carrying "high" and therefore she must be having a girl! She and her husband have decided to wait to find out the sex of the baby - to each their own!
This past week was fairly eventful for me at school because I finished my first root canal on a patient (don't tell her it was my first root canal! :) ). I also sent out two cases to the lab - one to finalize a partial denture and the other to set up teeth for upper and lower dentures - hurray! It's exciting to be close to finished with two cases!
Anyway, it's been a really low-key day for me. I've really needed to just relax and catch my breath...
Hope you all are safe and warm!

Baby furniture is here!!!

Aaron picked up the nursery furniture, and put two of the pieces together! He put the crib together and the changer/dresser. Here they are...


Way to go honey! :)

Las Vegas!

Aaron and I went to Las Vegas with my parents this last weekend - we had a lot of fun while we were there! On Friday we all got massages at the spa - I got a prenatal massage where I got to lay on a special foam thing with a cutout for my belly. It was amazing to lay on my stomach - I haven't done that for months!!! We were outside for most of Friday, so I did get a little sunburned. Oops. :) Saturday was pretty relaxed as well - we went on a tour of the Marriott Grand Chateau on the strip in Las Vegas. We had dinner at the restaurant at our resort, and it was really good - a really good deal too! $20.09 for a three course dinner! I forgot to take my camera on the trip, so I only have this picture that I stole from my mom. :) At least you get a straight on shot of me for once! :)

Well, it's back to reality tomorrow. I had today off from school because the seniors are taking their boards - it was nice because we didn't get home until late last night! Tomorrow we have classes but no clinic, then Wednesday it's back to normal. Hurray for a short week!

BRRR!!!

The last few nights it's been such nice weather that we've been sleeping with the bedroom windows open. I guess I forgot that they were open all the time, because this morning I woke up and it was very chilly in our bedroom! I went downstairs and the thermostat said 59 degrees!! It's a good thing we have the heat turned off, otherwise it would have been running all night. :) I closed the windows, so now hopefully the morning sun will warm the house up again!
Anyway, the last few days I have been cleaning the house and organizing the guest room/soon-to-be baby room. The guest room was no small task, as we have let three years of stuff accumulate there. It's kind of the catch-all room - if I don't know what to do with it, I put it there! So I cleaned it out and got rid of all of the stuff I don't know why we were saving. It's a good feeling. :) We ordered our nursery furniture this week, so maybe by next week it will be here! I am very excited to get it all put together and up in the guest room to see how it will all look!
Tonight Aaron and I are headed to Las Vegas with my parents - we're staying at the JW Marriott resort of course :) - and we'll be there until Sunday. I think it will be a nice weekend getaway - Aaron has been working so much and I have been so busy with school it will be nice to see him for more than a couple hours each day! I am actually pretty much packed already, which is so unusual for me. :) We are packing in our carry-ons so we don't have to check any luggage, and therefore don't have to wait for baggage claim when we get to Las Vegas! (my backpack is stuffed... but it fits! :) ) Anyway, hope you all have a great weekend!

25 weeks picture... a little late :)

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Last night Aaron and I decided we wanted a snack, and so I thought of the different cookies I could make. Aaron requested oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, which I haven't made before, so I found this recipe on allrecipes.com, with a few modifications. I think they turned out really great!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
*** Cream all of these together ***

1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
*** Add these together ***

2 cups of rolled oats
2 cups of chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate, but the recipe calls for semi-sweet)
*** Mix these in by hand ***

I use the "Trunnell cookie scoop" which looks like a little ice cream scooper, but the recipe just says drop the dough on the pan by Tablespoons... Bake at 350 degrees for about 10-12 minutes, depending on how crunchy you want them. I think these are actually better just a little darker - then they are crunchy and chewy!
Aaron gives these two thumbs up!

Anyways, it is great to be on Spring Break and sleep in. I'm a big fan of my bed!!! And the weather has been beautiful this week - Chewie and Reuben were outside a lot yesterday, and I bet they will be today as well!
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

24 week picture

So the belly is continuing to get bigger... I am pretty much in all maternity clothes now and then scrubs for school. Thank goodness I can wear scrubs to school otherwise I would have to buy alot more maternity clothes! Aaron is cringing thinking about this, because it can get a little dramatic shopping for maternity clothes. Tonight we went to the Motherhood store in the mall, and he stood outside of the dressing room, getting me different sizes and options, giving me thumbs up, or laughing outright at me. The laughing hurts a little. :) But he's mostly laughing at me grunting and groaning to get some of the clothes on, and me saying things like, "It looks like I'm wearing a tent." Or, "I think they took all of the leftover ugly fabric and decided to make maternity clothes out of it." (because really, have you seen some of the prints they use on maternity shirts and dresses? Seriously??? :) ) I should probably be more polite in the dressing room, but sometimes I just can't help myself. Tonight was fairly successful - I did try on every pair of black capri pants in the store, and I ended up with the first pair I tried on. :) They are actually cargo pants that roll up into capris, but I think they should work for spring.
Anyway, three days until Spring Break! I'm very excited to have some time off from school, and I think Aaron and I are going to try to conquer the guest room so we can get the baby room furniture. Exciting!
Hope you all have a good rest of the week!

24 weeks...

and another week closer to meeting Baby Brummer! It's crazy to think that there is a baby inside of me that could potentially survive at this point if he was born. I'm definitely wanting to keep him in there for quite a few more weeks though of course! I will try to post a 24 week picture tomorrow - I try to dress it up a little for church, so those are better pictures. :)
Anyway, as if I wasn't busy enough already I waited tables tonight at Redhead again. Some of the regular waiters/waitresses had some things come up, so Kim, the owner, called me to see if I could fill in. It's hard to turn down because the tips are pretty good, so I helped out tonight. And she made it worth my while - I got to have my favorite chicken sandwich, sweet potato fries, and chocolate cake! It was a good night! :) Our last table left around 9:15, so I still made it home at a decent hour. Aaron is still at work though, poor guy. He just called me and probably won't be home till 1:30 or 2am! At least he has Sunday and Monday off though!
It is pouring rain right now - it has been pretty drizzly all day! Maybe it's a sign that spring is on it's way??? I hope so! At least Spring Break is coming soon - I just have to make it through this week at school (which is going to be a doozy :) ) and then I have a week off! I can't wait!
Hope you all are well and dry!

23 weeks...

And I'm definitely starting to feel pregnant. It seems like in the past couple weeks I've really started to pop out, and with that comes some of the aches and pains of pregnancy! Sitting through lecture is not the most comfortable thing any more - even sleeping is not what it used to be! The other night I woke up on my back and I rolled to my side, then I got a huge cramp in my calf which NEVER happens to me. I'm wondering if it's a sciatic nerve thing or something like that. It's just weird to feel different again. I feel like I had a few good weeks there where I didn't feel sick but I didn't feel uncomfortable. I know I can't complain, because I'm only going to get bigger! I'm just surprised it's starting so soon!
Anyway, I went back to Target today, and they did have swim bottoms and more swimsuit options in the maternity section. So I tried some on and found one that is pretty good. They didn't have my size in the boy shorts that I liked, but they did have a swim bottom with a little skirt over the top of it. I bought the top and that bottom, but I ordered the right size of boy shorts online to see if those will fit. Either way - both are better than just a little bikini bottom because with the maternity tops being so long and flowing it doesn't look like you're wearing any bottoms at all unless they are shorts or a little skirt!
Well, time keeps on flying by... school is really keeping me busy lately. I've been doing lots of labwork lately, and I've had some long appointments doing procedures for the first time. I'm learning a ton, but it's exhausting! :) I think I'm going to go to bed early tonight! Have a good week everyone!

22 weeks!

Over halfway through this pregnancy- exciting! According to one of my baby books, Mr. Baby Brummer is 7 and a half inches from crown to rump and weighs approximately 12 ounces. However, I think he may be bigger than that, because at our ultrasound he was estimated to weigh 12 ounces (and that was two and a half weeks ago). I feel like he and I went through a growth spurt recently, but now I think it is slowing down again - thank goodness! I was getting a little frightened of the bathroom scale! :)
Today Aaron and I did some shopping at Coral Ridge - I thought it would be good to do some maternity shopping, maybe find a dress or something like that. I also wanted to look at some swimsuits because Aaron and I are going to Vegas for one of the weekends of Spring Break. Well, I think a man designed the maternity swimsuits because they were AWFUL!!!! I tried on two different suits - a black one and a brown one. The black one made me feel like Shamu, and I'm not even that huge yet! They were not a good look - a tent on top of teeny bottoms. Seriously, who makes little bikini bottoms for maternity swimsuits??? Lie to me - even if they are huge just label them a normal size! :) Needless to say, I did not purchase a swimsuit today. I wanted to try on a swimsuit at Target, but they only had the maternity swimsuit tops in. That's right - no swimsuit bottoms, just the tankini/tent tops! Why wouldn't they sell them together??? Well, I asked one of the salespeople, and he said that he thought they'd be getting them in soon. Seriously. I suppose I could try to buy regular swimsuit bottoms with the maternity top, but I'd like to think the maternity bottoms are designed a little differently!
Well, we did buy a really adorable little plaid jacket for Mr. Baby Brummer - it was on the sale rack at Target. I think it will be really cute for this fall! We also updated our Target registry - now that we know we're having a boy we picked out some bedding - fun stuff!
Anyway, hope you all have a great week!

Rocking chair!

Aaron and I found a rocking chair with an ottoman on Craigslist for a reasonable price - the only downside was that it had pink and green striped cushions (not very boyish :) ). So, we still bought it and today I recovered it with a lot of elbow grease from my hubby! We did buy some new foam for the seat cushion - the back cushion was still good - so here is Aaron cutting the foam to size with yes, his chef's knife. :) It actually worked really well!

Here is the finished product! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out - I may refinish the wood on the chair at some point, but it is good for now.

Finally! Ultrasound pics!

Here is a view of our baby's back - you can see the spine and ribs and back of his head.

Here is a little foot... :)

This is my favorite picture! I love this profile view of our baby!

This is our little boy's face - frontal view. His mouth and nose are to the right of his eyes.

He must be a big boy already, because he was projected to weigh about 12 ounces at our ultrasound - all of my pregnancy books say at 20 weeks he should be closer to 7 or 8 ounces!

20 weeks left, and 20 weeks left!

I'm officially over halfway done with my pregnancy - whether or not that is the case, we'll see! I'm hoping to not go too far over my due date. :) And, I am also halfway done with my third year of dental school - on Monday I will start my last rotation which is 20 weeks long! You can do the math - with Spring Break in there, I'm due a week before I finish my third year. I'm hoping my instructors will be nice about it - I have to talk with them this week as we are getting oriented to our last block. It's kind of funny how the two milestones line up, though - halfway through pregnancy and halfway finished with third year rotations. I've enjoyed the first half of this year, and I feel like I've learned a ton. I've done a lot of things that seemed scary or intimidating the first few times, but now I'm am much more comfortable doing them. I remember the first time I had to do a filling on a little kid's tooth, and that was scary! Baby teeth are little! :) Now I am much more confident in my ability to diagnose what is needed and to do it! I'm hoping this will carry over into my last rotation - I will be doing crowns, bridges, dentures, possibly implants, root canals, and deep cleanings (scaling and root planing). Tomorrow I have orientation all day long for endo (root canals), and I have an entrance exam I have to pass before I can start clinic. I think possibly Tuesday or Wednesday I have a test for Pros (crowns, bridges, dentures) that will be much more difficult to study for just because there is so much more material!
Anyway, I need to get back to studying. Hope you all have a good week!

Baby Brummer is a boy!!!

We had our ultrasound this morning - exciting and scary at the same time! It probably took about 15 minutes - we got to see just about everything, from the baby's head, heart, arms, legs, fingers, toes, etc. Oh, and some important anatomy too! :) The ultrasound tech said she was 99% certain we are having a boy (she said she will never ever say 100%), and I would have to agree with her after seeing the ultrasound. We are very excited! I hate to admit it, but I did cry a little bit getting to see the baby today - it just makes it seem that much more real. According to the ultrasound, our baby weighs 12 oz. and his size is consistent with a 20 week 3 day baby. We are actually closer to 19 weeks 3 days, but according to the tech, being within a week is normal. So our due date is still June 28.
Anyway, I will try to post some of the ultrasound pictures soon...
Yay for blue!!!

Baby stuff...

I've been knitting some diaper covers for the baby lately - I have two done. The first one is cream colored - it's my prototype - and I think it's about 12 month size. I followed a pattern I found online for the first one, then I modified it for the second one, which is green. The green one is made of merino wool and is very soft! I think it is about 0-3 months.
(Side note: the baby is kicking so much right now! I think he/she knows how excited I am to see him/her tomorrow! Or, he/she really likes jambalaya- that's what we had for dinner tonight. I've got to eat all the spicy food now to get the baby used to it! :) )
Anyway, I'm knitting another cover right now - I'm about 2/3 done with it - and it is yellow. I think it will end up being closer to 3-6 months. I'm just excited to be able to knit something in a gender specific color soon!!! Pink or blue... we shall see!
Thanks for all of the votes on what we're having - Aaron is still holding out hope for twins, and I am praying desperately that that is not the case! :) I'm not sure what kind of ultrasound we'll have tomorrow, but I'm sure we'll get images of some kind. I'll try to post them tomorrow night!