No Internet :(

We have been without internet this past week and I haven't been able to post pictures from my family's visit or the baby shower my church had for me. I am typing a quick post from work, shhh don't tell again. Kyle has been in Washington, D.C. for the past 2 days and he just got back this morning. He went up there for DO Day on the Hill, the same thing he went to last year where he got to listen to different doctors and med students talk to Senators about DO's. I hope now that he's back he can figure out our whole internet problem. Bailey was very protective while Kyle was gone and would bark and growl all night thinking she was my little watch dog. Well she wouldn't shut up so I got very little sleep the past 2 nights. I'm glad Kyle's back and maybe Bailey can take a chill pill and let me get some sleep.

Exciting news, the bedding came in and it looks just like the picture from the internet. I LOVE IT!! I can't wait to decorate Aubrey's room. I'm also excited about a shower my great friend Colleen is having for Alarie and I. I can't wait to see my DCOM friends that moved away last year for rotations. I'm excited to see Cat and Sheila and her adorable little girl Kai! I hope to have the internet fixed tonight or tomorrow and I'll be sure to add some pictures from both showers, because let's just say I've gotten huge!!! Haha, at least that's how I feel some times. She's already at least 4 pounds and will put on 1/2 a pound a week for the next about 5-6 weeks. She's also starting to run out of room because she doesn't move around as much as she used to. Well I better get back to teaching the future of America, my class is about to come in.

I can't leave you pictureless so here is a picture of my friend Alarie and the tie onesie that I made for her little boy. I will be making plenty more of these for Aubrey's little boyfriend.

31 Weeks

I can't believe that there are only 9 weeks or less until we meet our little shrimp. That's what she looked like at the beginning. We had an ultra sound a few weeks ago, but I get e-mails with pictures of what babies look like each week. I was amazed this week because it actually looks like a little human inside of there. No longer are the days where she looks like a sea creature or an alien. Sorry if the first is a little graphic, I know it's just a drawing but still it's the full details. I was just excited about this picture because as of right now Aubrey is head down just like this picture. Yay, she knows the way out! Maybe she doesn't have as much Bartosiak Polish blood in her because I was totally backwards and butt first when I was born.

Mom & Dad Visit

I'm so excited, my mom and dad are coming to visit for the weekend. They are visiting my sister up in Indiana and they are leaving today and should be here by the time I'm done with school. I absolutely love when they come to visit, it's so much fun just to hang out. The downside of living far away is obviously being so far away from family. The upside (yes, I'm optimistic these days and there is an upside) is that when family does come to visit it's like a big sleepover. I've talked with my mom about this several times. If we lived in St. Louis then we would go visit family and then just head back to our house at the end of the night. Butttt since we live far away, any time we have visitors or we go visit family we get to have a big sleepover. My mom and I definitely do some things we wouldn't do if I lived closer to her. We've watched Greys Anatomy, while eating popcorn in my bed. We've made breakfast in bed. We've gone on weekend long sewing extravagenzas. So there are a lot of neat things about living far away and having visitors come. We've definitely been lucky enough to have enough room for family visits, next year will get a little interesting. Thankfully we'll have the Fisher hotel just a few feet away, haha. Colleen has said our family can come stay in their extra bedroom if we need to when the baby comes. Anyway, so I have turned my thinking around about living down here in East Tennessee, there definitely has been a lot of good come out of it. I stole some pictures from my sister's facebook, but here are pictures from when my family went to the Cardinals game last week. Kyle and I were soooo jealous that we didn't get to go.


Oh, and Kyle and his buddies are playing in a golf tournament tomorrow (we're praying for no rain). My dad has decided to be their caddy and to take care of the gophers for them. He said that he as an outfit all ready to go for tomorrow, so I can't imagine what he brought with him to wear. It should be interesting, I'll definitely take some pictures. This is what I imagine though when I heard the guys were getting a team together for the golf tournament. Do you see the similarity???

Nursery Part 3

Well we have a place the nursery will be, but that room still won't be finished for another month or so. Plus, we won't be moving until the second week of June anyway. I did however order Aubrey's bedding tonight so this is a picture of what the nursery bedding will at least look like.

I had found this bedding a long time ago when we first found out I was pregnant. I had been looking at boy bedding and girl bedding and had narrowed down to this one. Well once we found out it was a girl, I went online to add it to our registry and what do you know it's out of stock at Babies R Us and Walmart. I had finally decided on another bedding that I didn't like as much as this one. Then, just recently my mom and I decided we were going to make the bedding. Well I got online at school today, while watching two boys in my class that were reading silently because they got in trouble for fighting (I know browsing the internet at work, nice, huh?....don't tell me you don't do it). Annnnnd I found the bedding back in stock at Babies R Us. I did my trick to make sure there were more than one because I have waited to order stuff online and then when I go back online it's gone. So I added 20 of the bedding to my cart and it accepted it so I knew I had time to at least think about it. I came home and ordered it tonight (with 4 gift cards- Thank you friends and family). I can't wait to move and set up Aubrey's nursery! Now for the crib to put the bedding in. Oh, and I'm 31 weeks today, woo hoo...only 9 weeks until we get to meet our little girl!

Picking a Birthday....

Having a baby is sooo different than when my mom did it. There's a billion choices of strollers, car seats, high chairs. Before Babies R Us (which can honestly be the devil, there's soooo many choices, styles, colors, blah, blah, blah). Going in that store when you're trying or excited about babies is a whole different story than when you go in there and are pregnant, can you say overwhelming. The rules they have for during pregnancy my mom hadn't even heard of before my sister was pregnant. No deli meat, no hot dogs, no certain kinds of cheeses. Well now there's another difference, picking your delivery date.

I went to the doctor again yesterday, but just for a normal 2 week visit. They said everything looks good still, I'm measuring right on track and Aubrey's heart rate was 141 which is good. It's supposed to be between 120-160 so I think I have a calm little girl, but we'll see. The nurse practitioner asked me if we'd discussed induction dates yet, and we haven't so I said no. Well we will be living about an hour and half away from the hospital, where as that would probably make me have a meltdown before, I'm actually pretty ok with it. Kyle has somehow made me a lot more laid back and not a spas. Our plan is to go into labor naturally and to not have an epidural....now that is just what that is....a plan. I am fully aware that things could go completely, completely different. She could be breech (which right now she's not, thank the Lord) and we'd do a c section. She could come late and therefore we'd be induced. Anyway she started giving me dates that we could possibly be induced. Our doctor induces on Tuesday and Thursday so if we're induced she will then most likely have a Tuesday or Thursday birthday this year. It felt like we were discussing possible hair appointments, she said well we can do the 17th, but we could also do the 22nd or 24th. I basically told her we need a baby here by the 28th, which is when Kyle starts his rotations and our lives will get a lot more busy. I felt like I was discussing "ordering" our baby.

Kyle and I are still discussing the options, but the one that makes the most sense right now is to set it for the 24th (her due date anyway) and then hope that I can go into labor on my own before then. As soon as we get moved on the 12th and unpacked, Kyle is going to start all the manipulations he knows to try and induce labor naturally. We're really just trying to throw everything in at once in June. Anybody want to hang out in June, I might have 1 free day. So as soon as we're unpacked we're doing EVERYTHING possible to get this baby out so that Kyle can get all the time in with his little girl before he starts rotations. We've already discussed walking like crazy, spicy food, standing on my head (haha, just kidding), but everything will be tried except that crazy castor oil....no thank you. Well that's our plan, but again Aubrey may wind up having a plan of her own. I guess we'll just have to wait and see, she may have already picked out her own birthday for all we know.

Only in Tennessee

Really?!?!? Who would do this to their kid? We're thinking instead of Aubrey maybe this or Jim Beam. As a teacher, I would crack up if I had a Jack Daniels on my class roster. OH, East Tennessee.

Another Look at our Little Girl

Earlier this week, we had an interesting day. I had been on my feet all morning helping with a cookout for our school and of course I don't slow down ever which isn't a huge problem, but I need to start taking it a little easier. Well when I went in from the cookout I had a few small clots of blood when I went to the bathroom (Sorry if it's too much info.) Well I called my doctor just to be sure and they wanted me to come in to make sure everything was fine, although I wasn't having any cramps. My back was hurting but again on my feet all morning I think had something to do with that. Unfortunately Kyle had a sim lab, which is where he has a pretend scenario with their patient robots. This was a big deal and he wasn't going to be able to get out of it that easy and plus I felt everything was going to be fine so I was able to get my friend Alarie who is also pregnant to make the drive down to Knoxville with me. Thanks so much Alarie!!!

When we got there they got us straight in for an ultrasound and yes I said "us", Alarie and her little baby boy who's due a few days apart from Aubrey. I was nervous to make sure everything was ok but I was pretty confident it wasn't going to be anything. Kyle was really upset he couldn't be there with me, but said he was ready to come as soon as he got done if we were still there. The lady looked at everything. The placenta looked good, the fluid is good, and she looked healthy and great. She even checked to see if she had webbed toes (webbed toes runs in my family, my dad and nephew have a few toes webbed).


I was so happy to see her again and know that she's doing fine. She was also soooo much bigger than last time we'd seen her at 18 weeks. She weighs 3 pounds 6 ounces, which is awesome. I got to see her little feet and they are just where I thought they were. She has been shoving her feet up by my ribs, which feels great...not! She was head down for right now and Kyle said good, she knows which way is the exit. So everything with the ultrasound was fine.

The nurse practitioner checked everything else and noticed some spots on my cervix that could have bled and she said there wasn't anything to worry about. They are checking for any bacteria infection, and she said stay off my feet a little more. NOOOO!!!! That's hard for me to stop. When I got home Kyle was so relieved to see that everything was fine and he got to see the ultrasound on a DVD. He made me go to bed early which I hate being "lazy", but I know right now I might just have to do that sometimes for the sake of Aubrey. Sorry if this was too much information, but don't worry the birth story will be even better (haha, just kidding).

Letters to Aubrey Lynne

I saw this on another blog, Dear Baby , I read about how a mom wrote letters on her blog to her little girl Everly before she was born and still writes now the she's had her.

I am sitting here feeling you flip all around in my belly. I can't believe that I only have about 10 more weeks or less to enjoy this amazing feeling. It's just you and me girl sitting here relaxing (ok, you aren't relaxing much) but still it's an experience that just us two get to share. I'm so excited to meet you, see what you look like. Smell that good smelling baby head of yours. Count your little toes. See if you have daddy's eyes. See if you have my nose. Hold you in my arms instead of in my belly. There's just so many things I have to look forward to but for right now I'm enjoying it just being you and me. Of course, Dad loves to feel you move around and I wish he could feel you as often as I do. But, really it's just you and me all the time. When you get here I'm going to have to accept the fact that other people will want you too (bummer, I have to share you). Just know that I've loved having these 7 months so far just being us. I love you so much already even though I haven't even met you.

Love you more than chocolate,
Mom

P.S.- The other night dad said he could literally feel your little foot push out when I was sleeping. I felt it too because I woke up yelling, OW..OW..OW. I would appreciate if you didn't do that as much anymore, haha.

30 Weeks

Well only about 10 weeks left to go. I can't believe that we'll have our little girl here in about 2 1/2 months, crazy! The sad thing that I've noticed the last couple of weeks is that my belly button is getting more shallow and more shallow every day. I HATE outie belly buttons, they creap me out. Well Kyle isn't a big fan either and any time that I've sat up funny and my belly button has started to pop out, he's said ewwwwww, put it back in, put it back in. So we both aren't excited about the possibility of my belly button becoming an outie in the next few weeks. I've decided if Aubrey has an outie I'm going to do my best to push it back in, haha. When I was born one of top of my ear stuck out like Mr. Spock (weird, I know). Well my dad kept folding it over and over and it finally went back to a normal ear. So I think pushing Aubrey's outie back into an innie will be the same. I know, I know it will be a while before the umbilical cord will fall off and we'll find out if she has an innie or outie but if it's in outie it better watch out. Me vs. an outie, I think I'm going to win, we'll see.

When Kyle takes a picture for me he always seems to take like 10 pictures of Bailey, but gripes about taking a picture of me. When he's got my camera he's all about taking Bailey pictures. I think it will be the same with Aubrey, he'll be all about taking pictures of his little girl.

Zippers

Funny things that Alarie and I have thought about this week...

So I think I may forget how to zip my pants after I'm not pregnant anymore, considering I haven't had to for the past like 5 months. (Great thing about maternity pants, no zippers just lots and lots of elastic)

While in the car, Alarie said there's a lot of Uterus in the car. I then asked would more than one uterus be uteri?

Ahhhh, Heaven

Mommywood

I'm reading Tori Spelling's Mommywood, I know, I know it's not great literature but for some reason I like Tori Spelling. I read her first book and now I'm loving reading this because it fits perfectly with what I'm going through. It's a quick read and I will probably have it finished by the end of the day where then I will probably start reading a book about labor or some other book. I've already read two books about labor and delivery to prepare myself, but I don't think any amount of reading will really prepare me or Kyle for it. It will just be the experience. Ok, back to the amazing words of Tori Spelling (laugh, laugh, I know)

I remembered how much I'd loved being pregnant. It calmed me. I felt safe and completely at ease. I loved the fact that I was completely responsible for protetcing and taking care of someone else. We were taking care of each other. I was never alone. -Tori Spelling, Mommywood

I loved this because this is how I feel. As I was outside on our porch swing reading (heaven, by the way!!!) Aubrey had the hiccups and it's always so amazing to think I'm NEVER alone. I love her so much already and I'm excited to meet her but for right now I'm just enjoying this amazing experience.

Aubrey's Cooking Show

Maybe Aubrey will have to have her own cooking show like this one. This is hilarious, I know it's long but it's too funny. And I'll let her cook like this, but I won't let her take them out of the oven.

29 Weeks, New Haircut, & New Condo

It's been a busy, busy week. Here's a picture of me at 29 weeks. I had this shirt before I was a pregnant and it looks much cuter with a pregnant belly in it. We had a doctor's appointment yesterday and everything is going great. I've gained 3 more pounds which was good because I was on the lower scale of weight gain. I have the chocolate I scarfed down Sunday after not having it for so long to thank for that. Her heartbeat was in the 140-150 range, she's a calm little girl. They also said we were still on track with the due date being June 24th. After the doctor's appointment we headed out to Cookeville to look at the condo that Colleen and I found on Saturday. Kyle really liked it and we're sending in the lease this week. I can't believe we found a place to live!!!! We will be living right next to our good friends which will be amazing too. They are brand new condos, not even finished yet so everything is new and clean. Brand new carpet for Aubrey to learn to crawl on. Brand new dishwasher!!!! Oh how I've missed my dishwasher this past year. The kitchen is awesome too, it has a nice stove with a glass top, beautiful cabinets and counter tops, and it's open to the living room which I love. Ok, here are the pictures of our new place!
The front

Still needs a driveway and grass.

Large living room, open to the kitchen.

Kitchen, I can't wait to do dishes there!!! I mean load and empty the dishwasher :)

Aubrey's Nursery!!

Second Bathroom

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom

The back deck that is open to each of the kitchen doors, I can see running over and borrowing an egg or something from Colleen and Alarie. I'm so excited!!!


Told you it was a busy week. Kyle even got a haircut and inducted into Sigma Sigma Phi which is an honor society. He looked pretty good in his suit. I also got a picture of the guys, but even when they are trying to be serious they still look like the three stooges. Haha, Chuck you're even on the blog now!!

The girls

Funny story about Kyle's hair, it got really, really, really long. One of my 5th graders told me she saw Kyle at school (her mom works up at DCOM) and she said he looked different. I asked why and she said well he had hair all over his face, he had a beard, a mustache, and really long hair. When Kyle has a big test it seems like the grooming kind of comes to a halt so it was funny for a 5th grader to even notice this. Well now he looks like this....

instead of this...

Go Cards!

Today was the opening day of baseball and I broke out my red to root on the St. Louis Cardinals. I even put a picture of Busch Stadium on my computer/smartboard and explained to my classes why today was such a great day. Aubrey is bound to be a Cardinals fan too because she already has several Cards outfits. I can't wait to take her to her first game. I think Kyle said they are playing in Atlanta sometime in August or so, maybe we'll make it to that one. Here is a picture of her Cardinals bib and a pink Louisville Slugger hat that one of my students got for me today. This student is big into baseball and we discuss baseball all the time. His dad has done lectures for Kyle's school before and he asked us to be in a fantasy baseball league with him, his wife, his son and some of his son's teammates. I have never done a draft so I had Kyle set up my team for me and I thought he was kidding when he said my team's name was Winnie the Pujols, I told him to make it Mrs. Pujols, but I guess the other one was funnnier. When I logged into look at my team I was Winnie the Pujols and I was stuck with that name because it was after the draft, thanks a lot Kyle. It should be fun though to have a little competition with Kyle and with this 6th grader. Here's the other Cardinals fan that we have in our house. Poor Bailey.

Here's a picture of during college when I got to meet Albert Pujols and my favorite Yadier Molina!! YADI!

Kyle had told me Molina was injured and not going to play so last night I benched him on my fantasy team and picked up another catcher, too bad he did play and he got some points. Looks like I need to start watching my own team, I think Kyle might just be trying to win. Well wish we were closer so we could go to a bunch of games, but for now we'll just have to live with watching updates on ESPN and mlb.com. Oh and I had the game up on the internet today and watched the updates while teaching history, is that bad? I mean the Cardinals are pretty much history, right? They beat the Reds by the way 11-6 and Pujols had 2 homeruns. Not a bad start to the season!

Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter spent with going to church, having our good friends Chuck & Colleen and Michael, Alarie, & Aidan over. We definitely missed our family a ton, but we're blessed to have friends to spend important holidays together when we can't make it home. Kyle has a big test tomorrow so the guys were studying when they weren't eating. Here's a picture with all of the guys with their books on their laps and it looks like Kyle is telling them something very important, but pretty sure it was just about baseball.

Me and the girls (Colleen and Alarie)

Easter Eggs grouped by family names, thank you Colleen for even organizing the eggs.


Ok, so here's the play by play on what happened. Alarie and I broke the wishbone to see who would deliver first. Alarie's due date is June 29th and mine is June 24th, but I have a feeling we will have an Ornburn baby here before a Toti baby. I like to be fashionably late sometimes, so I have a feeling that's what her plan is.

So here is Alarie showing me proper "breaking wishbone" etiquette. She told me you had to hold it with your pinky finger, who knew.

Then it started to break in her favor and I wanted it bad, I don't want Aubrey to come too late.

Then I decided if I just take the whole wishbone then I definitely win, right?

Well she wound up with the bigger wishbone and she has the bigger baby right now anyway, so we just might be second in line at the hospital.


However, I did enjoy something I've been missing for a while. Apple pie, strawberry cupcake, or chocolate brownie......hmmmm let me think. DUHHH Chocolate!!!! Oh how I have missed chocolate during Lent. I made it with only 2 days of chocolate which were my baby shower days and I think Jesus understood that one. I'm glad I made the brownies, just in case no one brought chocolate!!!

It's exciting to know we will have a 10 month old little girl with us for Easter next year! Yay!!!

Nursery???

After looking at about 15-20 places the past two days in Crossville and Cookeville. We found a very promising brand new condo that actually has 2 other condos right next door for our good friends Chuck & Colleen and Michael & Alarie. They aren't finished obviously and they will be done by June so it works out perfect. I'll post more pictures later, but so far we love it!

Like Father, Like Daughter

I know the saying is usually like father, like son but since Kyle didn't get his boy like he wanted he's determined on making this girl a sports loving, golf playing, fishwerwoman. My grandma searched all over the place for a fishing pole and golf set for Kyle and Aubrey when I was home for spring break. She wasn't able to find a fishing pole but she did find a set of clubs for Kyle, ok really for Aubrey since they are plastic. He's excited to teacher her how to play golf.

Another fun present we got from our shower was something that I see in Kyle's hands 24/7. Kyle's computer is out alllll of the time for studying and "other" activities (i.e. ESPN and silly mind game websites). Anyway Aubrey now has her own pink laptop, which is perfect so now Kyle and Aubrey can both play on their computers.

I am headed to Crossville and Cookeville to look for places tomorrow. Unfortunately Kyle has to stay and study so I'll be taking lots and lots of pictures. I will be meeting my friend Colleen in Cookeville, because she has a seminar in Nashville and we are going to be looking at some really promising places on Saturday. We get a fun girls night in Cookeville though tomorrow, so I'm definitely looking forward to that. I'll post pictures if we find anything that we fall in love with. I'm crossing my fingers, one of these 40 places I've called is the "perfect" place.