There's a baby in there!

Went to the doctor today...It's official...There's a baby in there! It was a bit surreal starting the process all over again at the doctor's office. I've been walking around in this blissful "oh, yeah, I'm having a baby, what's new?" daze for the past few months and it suddenly hit me as I was walking back from the reception desk to go pee in a cup: I'm having a baby! Holy cow! I mean, seriously...this isn't just a food baby we're talking about. Wow. That's heavy.

So, I got that over with.

Now I have to go back to the blood lab tomorrow to have approximately 26 vials of blood drawn. My doctor is nothing if not thorough. (and not in the Big Lebowski way) I was supposed to have the blood sucked out of me directly after my appointment today, but Johnny McBythebook in his self righteous labcoat told me I needed to fast for 10-12 hours before having blood drawn for a cholesterol test. Apparently I'm not as verbally quick-witted as I used to be, because I should have told him that a starving, hypoglycemic pregnant woman who had just been drained severly of essential bodily fluids would tell him exactly where to stick his...you get the point. I don't like Johnny. And I'm not fasting. (see, I'm crabby just thinking about not eating...what is WRONG with these people?!?!)

I'll leave you with an observation John made today. We were in the exam room talking with the doctor about any problems I had had so far in the pregnancy and I noted that it was mostly just fatigue. (Trust me, John has heard about the fatigue) He gets a little smirk on his face and laughingly notes that he cannot understand how I have no problem with the thought of med-free childbirth, but if I get tired or hungry, the world must pay. And it's true: the big stuff is not so big to me...I would rather go through the pain of childbirth than starve for 12 hours.

Now get me a cupcake.

Norbert is 13 weeks old, the size of a peach, due on January 24th, has the cutest, swishy heartbeat I've ever heard and is not making mama tired or hungry at the moment. The world is in order.

After this I'm going to take a nap in the shower

So, I realize that I've dropped the ball lately on blogging and, trust me, it's not for lack of things going on in the Schweighardt house. The 4th of July came and went in a blur of hot dogs and fireworks, (I had some witty lines about how my Husband is really Clark W. Griswold to blog about, but I digress.) I just hosted my first Bunco night last night and now I'm gearing up for the Gamelin Family invasion, Audrey's 1st Birthday Party and her first camping trip to Rainier shortly after. I'm exhausted just writing about it. Add trying to wean Audrey from the bottle and the never-ending efforts in sleep training and you've got a full schedule that only occasionally makes way for a shower or nap. It's glorious and I wouldn't have it any other way...maybe with more showering and napping, but you can't have everything.

Anyway, I guess this is just a post to let you know that I'm actually alive and very very busy. I go to the doctor (for Norbert) next Monday, so I'll definitely post after that. In the mean time, I've downloaded a few more pictures and here is another video for your viewing entertainment:

By Popular Demand

Audrey is practicing walking with her walker! Ignore my weird excited laughter...

The Price of Entertainment

Altoids tin + change = hours of entertainment

When to Say When: What the heck does "family planning" mean, anyway?

This post is a bit out of character for the tone of this blog, but I felt the inspiration to write it and the compulsion to actually post it. I understand if some of you don't agree with me and I salute you if you can stick with it to the end.

I know that this is not the actual time in my life to be asking the question of when to stop having children, but I stumbled upon a Blog Post this morning that caused some serious insight on my part. I'm sure most couples at some point have the talk about how many children they'd like to have, what gender, how far apart and what age they'd like to be when they have said children. I think John and I have been talking about this since we had been dating for a month. But, always in our conversations, has been an open acknowledgment that God plays the largest part in our role as parents--we may know what we want, but he knows what we need. In our lives, we've been fortunate that these two opinions seem to have intersected for the most part.

We've been blessed with an easy pregnancy, Audrey's uneventful birth and a beautifully rambunctious child. This time around, we would have liked to have been pregnant sooner (I'm nuts, right?) I actually would have welcomed a pregnancy when Audrey was only months old, but my (for once) sane husband convinced me that it would not have been a stellar idea. That being said, I feel incredibly blessed to be pregnant again so soon. Once we started talking about having kids again, I tried to prepare myself for a long haul, knowing so many women struggling to get pregnant and a lot of mothers who experienced secondary infertility. I felt that thinking the second would be just as easy as the first would be hubris on my part. Luckily, God has chosen for our first two children to be close siblings and I just pray that this baby will be as safe and healthy as Audrey was.

Now, back to my original point: When to say when? I don't think Norbert is my last child by any means, but I think it's important to remember that God brings children into our lives in so many ways. I have an older "brother" who came to us as Joe's best friend and, subsequently, a sister-in-law and nephew who I cannot imagine not being a part of our family. Shawn and Angela found two of their children in Liberia; countless others are blessed by adoption, surrogacy and in vitro procedures.

A favorite story of mine is of my maternal Grandmother (Pfaff), who never thought she would have children. She was in her thirties when my Grandfather was widowed with two girls and they were married six months later. She thought that this was how God had given her children. She told my mother that even though she thought she couldn't have children because of her age, she prayed to have a little boy: my Uncle Bill...and then she prayed to just have one more girl: my mother. Those three sisters have one of the most beautiful bonds I've ever been witness to and they were all given to a woman who thought she would have no children.

The moral of the story as I take it? God says when...and how...and how long. Who else could mastermind such beautiful bonds of family and friendship?

This is Getting Ridiculous

I've found myself stuck with writer's block in the middle of the blogsphere and I need to pee...metaphorically. It's been so crazy around here and I've been meaning to write about a million different things, but I don't have the time/energy/brain power to get it done. So, here is the abridged version:

Jessica and Matt came to visit us. You already knew this. What you didn't know is that it was awesome, even though I was an incredibly sleepy hostess. Matt made us lots of good food (By the way, best idea ever to con your guests into cooking dinner), we lounged by the pool and then they took the train back to Portland through the Gorge. Jessica and Matt did not get to go to Voodoo Donuts, much less get married there. I guess that's what happens when you actually send out save the dates--you can't just pull the rug out from under 250 people and get hitched in a doughnut joint.

Audrey is now 11 months old! How did that happen? I didn't even make baked goods! Bad Mom. Audrey is starting to think about walking, but knowing this kid, it'll take a while for her to decide she actually wants to do it. She still has eight teeth and is eating finger foods like a little piggie. We've also recently decided that she can speak, it's just in French. Anyone with an insider tip on a cheap translator, let me know.

Audrey and I went Cherry picking Friday at an orchard in Benton City (Beautiful! And don't let anyone tell you otherwise.) We now have two shopping bags full of cherries. They're calling me to make them into Jam and Pies. yummmmm

The Cool Desert Nights Car Show started last night with a parade of cars. It was so nice to be around that many real engines and actually smell some good old fashioned exhaust. There were two Goats: one plum '66 and a cherry apple red '67. Next year I'm at least entering the Riv in the parade...but only if John comes with me.

Today was CRAZY. Audrey was awake for two hours last night and John threw out his back at the parade. This means we were both sleep deprived zombies all day and we decided to have an impromptu pool party with the Mullers. It was a ton of fun, but I'm beat!

Tomorrow is my birthday. I'm not saying that to get well wishes, more just to remind myself because I keep forgetting. I'm going to be 24. I'm also writing that to remind myself because I so often just assume I'm 31 like John. It should be an interesting day. Hopefully I don't have to actually do anything. Likely? nope. I'll keep you posted.

Norbert is still 10 weeks old, the size of a kumquat and is now sucking the juices out of Mommy's brain.

In Which Jessica and Matt venture to the Northwest and I Pee in the Woods

It has taken me a while to get around to writing this post...yet again because I just don't think I can do the story justice. It's an epic tale that begins innocently with my best friend from High School, Jessica, and her fiance, Matt, planning a trip to come see the Schweighardt clan.

Times being what they are and air fare being ridiculously expensive, Jessica found some decent tickets into Portland and decided to jump on the deal. I hadn't been to Portland in over a year and have subsequently been craving some good quality sushi, so I bribed my friend Jackie to take the 3 1/2 hour drive with me to Portland with the promise of a delicious sushi meal before we picked Jess and Matt up from the airport.

We left with plenty of time to spare and perhaps it was an unacknowledged sense of foreboding in the air, but Jackie and I started swapping stories of bad luck we've had on road trips. Let me warn you: This will ALWAYS produce a jinx...save the horror stories for when you get home or at the very least, knock on wood. Consider yourself warned.

So, it should come as no surprise that traffic came to a complete stop fifty miles from the Portland airport...in the middle of nowhere. (If you're wondering where nowhere is, it's somewhere between Hood River and Wyeth, OR.) Luckily, Nowhere is at least blessed with a dense forest, because you just can't stop a pregnant lady for 4 hours with no indoor plumbing in sight and expect her to be fine. So, after scowling at every man who decided to relieve himself on the edge of the forest...in view of everyone...just flaunting that the lack of a restroom is no hindrance to the male call of nature, Jackie and I crossed two railroad tracks, scaled a steep hill, grabbing onto pine tree branches as anchors along the way and finally found a suitable place to relieve ourselves. I think this is another way God punished women...seriously, Eve? Did you HAVE to eat the fruit? I mean, did you never think you would be stranded on the side of the road and need to pee? Gah! Women!

Anyway, there's nothing quite like being forced to pee in the woods to create a bond between two people. Once the traffic started moving again and we got over the fact that a flaming hay wagon had delayed us for over four hours, Jackie and I celebrated by rocking out to Bohemian Rhapsody. What can I say, it's an elixir. We even made it to the airport just as Matt and Jess got their bags. Divine intervention really is strange sometimes; maybe God doesn't want me to have sushi.

...the actual story of Jessica and Matt's visit with us will be continued in the next post...unless you want to wait another week for me to get around to finishing this one.

Norbert is almost 10 weeks old and the size of a kumquat. He's still making mama sleepy and now a picky eater...but she's still not technically complaining.