18 weeks 5 days update

I went to the OB today for my monthly pre-natal exam. It was nothing exciting - just the regular stuff: Weight (total of 7 lbs gained so far), BP (today it was 130/80 which is a little high for me but nothing to be concerned about), pee in a cup (all good!) and then listening the baby's heartbeat.

Dr. Wamhoff came in and we chatted for a few mins. She asked how things were going and if I had any concerns (which I said I didn't). She started to examine my belly and she made a comment about how high up my uterus seemed to be (near my belly button). I told her that I felt like this time around I was getting bigger sooner than I did with Jacob. I think the first time around it took me a lot longer to really "show". This time, I am feeling like my stomach is getting much rounder (even with the extra padding that I have there! haha).

Jacob was being unusually hyper during the appointment (at the last appointment, Dr. Wamhoff complimented me on how well behaved Jacob was and today he was not good!). He was all over the exam room while we were trying to talk and he literally climbed the wall to get on a little ledge near the windows while we were trying to listen to the doppler. He was also being very loud so I kept having to ask him to be quiet so that the doctor could hear the baby's heartbeat.

She started off by placing the doppler towards the bottom of my belly (where most babies are normally) but she couldn't get anything. Then, after about a minute of searching she found something, but it ended up being my heartbeat instead of the baby's! She told me not to worry and that she was going to find it. Then she said, "And if I don't find it, we will go do an ultrasound". I was honestly getting a little scared. About another minute later, she was running the doppler up higher (near my belly button) when she finally said "There it is". I asked her if she was sure because I couldn't really hear it and she said that she was 100% sure. Then, I asked her what the rate was and she listened a bit more and said it was in the 150s. Needless to say, I was relieved and happy to hear that things seem to be progressing as they should be.

So far, this pregnancy hasn't really been that bad in the way of symptoms. The most annoying things are the heartburn and the increased gag reflex. The heartburn seems to creep up on me at the strangest times - sometimes hours after I have eaten. It really doesn't seem to have anything to do with what I eat - I can eat spicy or really acidic foods and be fine, but then sometimes bland foods cause pain. My sister, Karen, gave me some Papaya Enzyme tablets that helped her when she was pregnant. They seem to be milder than Tums (and taste better too!) so I am popping them whenever the heartburn strikes!

The gag reflex is something that I experienced with my first pregnancy also. I am not sure what causes it but there have been many times in the recent past when I have gagged (and sometimes vomited) while I was brushing my teeth. I try to not brush too long or keep too much toothpaste/saliva in my mouth before I spit it out and that will sometimes help. It is just strange how sometimes it happens and other times it doesn't.

Right now, I am also dealing with some pain in my right shoulder whenever I lift my arm too high or reach across my body. I don't think it is pregnancy related but it is quite painful and annoying. I saw my PCP on Monday and she said that it was just a pulled muscle. She gave me some suggestions on exercises to do and said that heat and Tylenol would help. So far, nothing is really working, but I am not really able to rest it so I will have to wait and see how things progress. The doctor said I could go to PT if it doesn't get better, but I am going to hold off on that for now.

Other than that, I am feeling pretty good and actually cannot believe that I am almost halfway through this pregnancy. Just like the first time around with Jacob, I feel like the first few weeks seem to drag, but then once I hit the second trimester, time seems to fly by. We have our mid-point ultrasound scheduled for April 12th and I can't wait to find out if we are having a boy or a girl!

PA trip to visit old friends

Two weeks ago, we packed up the car and headed north to PA to visit Keith's family and friends. We hadn't been up there since Thanksgiving and we were all looking forward to the visit. Thankfully, since we are able to bring less stuff now, we were able to take Keith's car instead of my gas-guzzling Jeep. There is certainly not as much room in the Sonata, but we made it work. As you can see Jacob was happy sitting in the back seat eating a bagel with cream cheese as we headed out of town.
We left on Thursday morning around 8:30am (only 30 minutes later than we had hoped, which is pretty good for us!). We drove to Somerset to pick up Keith's mom and then onto Eighty-Four, PA to stay with Keith's cousin, Dave and his wife, Roxann. They have a beautiful (and very spacious) home that they moved into a few years ago and we had never seen it. In November, we had talked about us coming to visit sometime so when we planned this trip we asked if it would be OK for us to stay with them for part of it. We had planned to meet up with two of Keith's friends from college on Friday and Eighty-Four is closer than Somerset to where we were meeting them.

Dave and Roxann were awesome hosts - they bought the food that Jacob likes, Roxann is a wonderful cook who kept us very well fed, and they even put one of their two dogs in the kennel for the time we were there. Their dog, Dudley, is a mix of St. Bernard, Great Dane and some other things. Needless to say, he is quite big and a tad bit rough at times. Dave and Roxann were worried that he would be rough around Jacob so they decided to board him while were there.

Dave & Roxann's other dog, Otis, is so sweet and Jacob really warmed up to him quickly. He would say that he wanted to play with him or pet him, but then when Otis would come towards him, Jacob would shy away a little thinking that Otis might run him over. He also wanted to constantly pet their cat, who really didn't want to be bothered. He is just a natural lover of animals!

As you can see, Otis warmed up to Jacob too! One day, while Jacob was watching a movie on his portable DVD player, Otis jumped up on the air mattress and laid down next to him. It was pretty darn cute!


As I previously said, on Friday, we met Keith's friend Liz (who he knows from library school) for lunch. Then, we met his friend Kevin (who he knows from his undergraduate days) for dinner. I was worried about Jacob being in two restaurants for two meals in one day, but he did pretty well. Lunch was a bit more stressful than dinner because he wanted to get down from the table and was getting kind of tired by the end. Thankfully, he slept well between the two meetings and at dinner, he was content to sit at the table and play with the iPad while the three of us ate and talked.

On Saturday, Dave & Roxann hosted the rest of Keith's family so that we could all get together while we were visiting. His aunt Kay, uncle Barry, cousin Suzie and her husband, Tad all came over for lunch and together time. Jacob took a great nap after lunch which gave the adults time to visit. As is the case most of the time when we visit, the guys were all hanging out in one room (and this time, they were watching some comedy show and laughing hysterically) and we girls were in another room catching up and laughing. It is always great to gab with these fun ladies!

Once Jacob woke up from his nap, he got some Easter presents from Barry & Kay, including a puzzle. Tad, Suzie, and Kay all helped him put it together.

On Sunday afternoon, we left Eighty-Four and headed back to Somerset to spend the rest of the trip at my MIL's apartment. We were again meeting up with a friend of Keith's on Monday. Our meeting spot was closer to Somerset so it made sense to split up the trip and stay part of the time there.

I was nervous about Jacob sleeping well on this trip because this would be the first time we traveled without him in a pack-and-play. He was just getting too big for it and it wasn't very comfortable for him anymore. I purchased a child travel bed from One Step Ahead and was really excited (but also worried) about him sleeping in it. I bought this particular one because it is a mattress inside of a shell that has high sides. I was hoping this would keep him from rolling off, but I wasn't sure that he would like it since he has really only slept in something with higher sides (a crib or a pack-and-play).

He did remarkably well sleeping on it, except for the fact that there was a small leak that caused the mattress to partially deflate while he was sleeping. The first night he slept really well until he woke up about 6:30am on Friday morning and was clearly uncomfortable due to him being on a partially deflated mattress. We continued to add air to the mattress over the next few sleeps (nap on Friday, Friday night and nap on Saturday), but by Saturday afternoon we knew that he could not sleep on the mattress another night since it had completely deflated during his nap on Saturday. Thankfully, we had brought another twin size air mattress to use at Keith's mom's house so he was able to sleep on that Saturday night and for his nap on Sunday. He did roll off of the twin mattress once during the night on Saturday, but he got back up on it and slept pretty well the rest of the night.

When we got to Keith's mom's apartment on Sunday, we decided to have him sleep in her bed since he always sleeps in her room anyways. And, she has a day bed that has rails on three sides. We used pillows to "build up" the fourth side so that he wouldn't roll off and he slept great for the two nights & one nap that we were there.

Here he is getting stories read to him by Daddy after his bath on Sunday night.


Since Keith's mom lives in a one bedroom apartment on the 6th floor, there isn't much for Jacob to do. We often bring some toys along, but I worry every trip that he is going to get bored and go crazy with nothing to do. Thankfully, these days he is content looking at vidoes on Daddy's iPhone, coloring or playing games/reading books on the iPad and he did really well on this particular trip. It seems that a lot of things just keep getting easier and easier as he gets older!!

On Monday, we went to Seven Springs Mountain Resort and met up with one of Keith's oldest friends from childhood, JB. He and his wife and their son had flown up from Florida to visit JB's family. He and Keith grew up together and hadn't seen each other in over 20 years. They reconnected on Facebook and we planned this trip specifically so that we would be up there while they were visiting.

Keith used to work at the Resort. He was a night desk clerk there while he was in grad school and was also taking care of this ill grandmother (who raised him). From the stories I have heard, it was a very busy (and often stressful and tiring) time in his life, but he has a lot of great memories of the Resort. I had been there once (before we were married) and it was fun to return and bring Jacob with us this time.

Even though the temperature was very mild (in the 60s) while we were there, they had plenty of man-made snow to play in.

Here is a picture of Jacob and me with JB, his wife, Lori, their son, Thomas and JB's sister, Mary Ellen. Mary Ellen lives in Western PA but since the others live in Florida, Thomas was loving the snow! He had only seen snow once before in his seven years of life!

It was quite amusing to see people skiing and to make snowballs while I was in a short-sleeved shirt! I am sure that is something that I have never done before!


Jacob was not interested in standing still for a family photo. This one was the best of the bunch!

Seven Springs has a game room (similar to something like Chuck E Cheese where you play with tokens and win tickets) with a lot of fun games. After a delicious lunch, we spent about an hour there enjoying ourselves with the games!





On Monday night, we spent more time with Keith's mom and then we left to head back home on Tuesday morning. The car ride home was not very pleasant for me. I am not sure if it was being pregnant and being in the car so long or that I was having to turn around to help Jacob numerous times or a combination of both. I was nauseous for most of the trip and was glad when we finally pulled into the driveway.

It was certainly a busy trip but it was nice to be able to see so many friends and family members. We are blessed that Jacob is so adaptable when we are traveling. I always get worried that the car ride and the sleeping arrangements are going to be troublesome, but somehow, they always seem to work out fine.

New playset

I have been hoping to get Jacob a bigger playset for some time now. We have a smaller Little Tikes one that he loves to swing on, but he is just getting too big for it. Plus, I wanted something that his cousins or friends could also enjoy when they come over to play. I was hoping to get a wooden playset that he could use now and also "grow into" but I know that wooden sets can be quite expensive.

I have been looking on Craigslist on and off for about a year and in November, I came across a post that was offering a wooden playset for $150. I figured it must be not that nice and probably falling apart for that price, but we were pleasantly surprised when we went to see it. It is certainly not new - probably about 15 years old - but it is in really good shape. The owner was even nice enough to take it apart for us so that we just had to pick it up and then put it back together.

In December, Keith and our wonderfully helpful neighbors (who have a large pickup truck) went to pick it up. They put it in our garage and there it sat for the past three months.

It really didn't take up that much space, but it was enough that we could only park one car in the garage at a time. Thankfully, this winter was not that bad so we didn't have to scrape ice or brush off much snow from the car in the driveway.

Our weekends are usually pretty busy, so when we had an open one, Keith coordinated with our brother-in-law, Shaun and his friend, Rich to get the playset put up. Shaun showed up around 8am on Saturday and they immediately went to work. Shaun purchased and put together a MUCH bigger playset for his boys so he had some experience with this sort of thing. We were very happy to have his expertise!

Because our back yard is on a slight slope, they had to dig a trench of sorts and fill it in with gravel so that the playset would be on even ground.

I ended up having to go to the local hardware store to get more gravel. And, then they used some of the stone that was left in our yard last year when we got our driveway paved. Keith and Shaun would scoop up the stone and Rich would tamp it down. They definitely had a good system!

Keith also had to go back out to the Builders Supply store (which is thankfully only about a mile from our house) to get some bolts. Other than that, they worked non-stop and didn't have much trouble.

While the guys worked hard, Jacob had fun playing in the sandbox

and helping Mommy water some new plants. As you can see, it was a pretty warm day (almost 80 degrees in March!) so he went shirtless for awhile.

After about five hours, the playset was finished. There are still a few things that need to be done, including anchoring it to the ground. But, for the most part, it is ready to be played on...

and Jacob couldn't wait to try it out. We were playing inside after he ate lunch and he wanted to be in only a diaper. When I told him that he could go outside and play on his new playset, he didn't want to put any clothes on. So.....here he is enjoying his new playset....in March....in just a diaper. Gotta love Virginia weather!!

Yesterday, after church while Jacob was swinging, he said "I am so glad Daddy and Uncle Shaun and Mr. Rich put my new playset together. I love it." I told him, "Me too buddy. Me too!"

We're having another baby!

I am pretty sure that anyone who is reading this blog (if anyone is still reading...) already knows about our exciting news. These days, the information I disseminate pretty much goes out via Facebook (except for letting my immediate family know first, of course). Most of my family and close friends all use the Social Network and since I currently have 649 friends, what better way to let people know what is going on. There are a few people, however, including my brother (who left FB years ago and never got back on that train!) and both of my sisters (who have recently removed themselves from FB) who do not get their information that way. I do agree that blogging allows you the freedom to write more, include pictures and be able to look back on the posts years from now. So here goes...

WE ARE HAVING A BABY!! Yes, we are finally able to say that Baby #2 is on the way and due to arrive on August 24th. I have honestly been thinking about having another child since Jacob was about a year old. For me, having siblings is something that I love so much about my life. I definitely wanted to give that to Jacob if it was at all possible. Keith feels the same way and, since he is an only child, he may even feel stronger about it than I do! He just said to me last night, so are we stopping at two kids or going to try for three? I was like, What? Let's get through this one first and then we can figure out IF a third is in the plans!!!

This baby is definitely something that we have prayed about and hoped for and when we found out that I was pregnant it was really a surprise. It has been no secret to anyone close to us that we have been trying to get pregnant since we found out that we were not going on Semester at Sea...that is a completely different story that I never did blog about...basically, we were supposed to be going on SAS - a trip around the world on a ship - right NOW (Jan-April 2012). We had planned for it for almost two years and then we had to back out last July due to Keith's mom's health situation. Since her health has been so up and down lately with the cancer and related surgeries/procedures, Keith did not feel comfortable being unavailable and unable to help her for four months. Looking back now, it was the best (but hardest) decision that we could have made. And, thankfully the SAS staff were super supportive and understanding and we will hopefully be able to go on another voyage when the time is right for us.

OK, so back to the baby stuff. When we decided that we weren't going on SAS, we figured a positive outcome of it would be that we would be able to start trying for another child. As many know, conceiving for us was not easy with Jacob and I figured it would be the same with this child. I tried not to get too overly obsessed like I was the first time, just praying and hoping that God would allow us to get pregnant when the timing was right. I had an appointment with our fertility doc in August to get back on the low-dose of Clomid that I was on when I conceived Jacob. We started actively trying in September and then in mid-October, my body got all out of whack with unexplained bleeding. My doctor was unsure what was happening so he decided to put me on birth control pills for one month to get my body back to normal. We were allowed to try again in November and I could have sworn in early December that I was pregnant. I even remember telling Keith that my breasts were really sore and I just had "a feeling" that I might be pregnant. But....on the 10th of December, I started bleeding and had a regular period (or so I thought!). It was hard emotionally for me and I even had a minor meltdown to Keith. My MIL was visiting us at the time so it was hard to keep a happy face around her and Jacob while feeling very disappointed inside. I remember thinking at the time, we are never going to get pregnant! (Yes, we had only been trying for a few months. And, yes, I did realize it may be hard to conceive. But, still for someone who REALLY wanted another baby, this was all I could think at this point! I agree that it was pretty irrational but at the time, it didn't seem like that to me!)

Well, we had decided that we weren't going to "actively try" in December due to the crazy holiday schedule and traveling. I figured, we would just wait and see what happened in January once the craziness of the holidays settled. Even so, I took the Clomid in December just to keep my body on track. Once January came, I waited for my period to start and low and behold it never started. I have never been one to go over 30 days between cycles, so when I counted and realized that it had been 31 days, I was wondering, Could I be pregnant? I surely figured that wasn't that case, but I decided to take a pregnancy test anyway and low and behold....it came back positive!! Of course, I didn't believe it so I went to CVS and bought another test (one of the really expensive ones because surely those are super accurate!) just to be sure. And, yes, it came back positive too! I was definitely shocked, a bit confused, but defintitely excited!!

I called the doctor the next day and they had me come in and have a blood test that confirmed I was indeed pregnant. Then, we went back in a few days later and had an ultrasound. We were able to see our sweet little bean's heart beating and the scan told us that I was approximately 8 weeks pregnant.

We were really excited and, even though I was only 8 weeks along, I wanted to share it with my immediate family the next weekend at my nephew's birthday party. There wasn't going to be another time that we were all going to be together anytime soon so I thought it was a good time to share. I certainly didn't want to overshadow the birthday party so we waited until the very end when it was just my parents and siblings left at the party. I had written on a piece of paper and put it in an envelope and told Jacob to give it to my mom. The paper said "Are you ready for Grandbaby #7? We hope so...because Baby Weimer will be here in August!" and it had a picture of the ultrasound. I was able to capture a picture of my mom's awesome reaction when she read it. Does she look just a little shocked and excited?!

We are all very excited and can't wait to see what the next weeks have in store for us!