It's Always Something

So, about a month ago, I got a call from Parker's preschool, letting me know that one of the kids there had Fifth Disease or Parvovirus B19.  This is also know as the "slapped cheek" virus.  It is generally a pretty harmless disease that children get.  It usually begins with a low grade fever and mild cold symptoms, followed by a rash on their face, that may spread down their arms and legs.  By the time the rash shows up, you are no longer contagious and you probably didn't realize your child even had the disease before the rash shows up.  Anyways, it usually isn't a big deal to get it, unless you are pregnant.  So, lucky me, I had to go get a blood test to see if I had immunity to it or if I had recently been infected or neither.  A week later I got my results back, I hadn't been infected, but they wanted me to repeat the blood test a couple weeks later when I came in for my regular scheduled Dr's appointment.  I thought I was in the clear, my test was negative and Parker didn't seem to be showing any signs of the disease and neither did I.  Or if I was showing signs, I just assumed it was pregnancy related.  I did have some joint pain in my hands (which can be a sign in adults), but I assumed I was showing signs of carpal tunnel syndrome, which was something I developed at the end of my pregnancy with Parker.  By the way the carpal tunnel went away after Parker was born.  And I did have a couple days when I was extra tired, but again I was just thought it was because I was pregnant.

I was pretty surprised when my Dr called me a few days after my appointment and told me that I had been infected and that I would need to go in for weekly ultrasounds (with the high risk OB Dr.) until the baby was born.  When someone gets infected who is pregnant, there is a small chance there could be problems with the baby.  The chances of problems decrease after 20 weeks.  During the ultrasounds they are looking for excessive amniotic fluid, if the placenta looks larger than it should or swollen and the baby's blood flow to check for signs of anemia.

So far I've had two ultrasounds and they have both looked good.  I will start seeing the High Risk OB Dr next week.  He's been on vacation, that's why I haven't seen him yet.  I'm hoping he will tell me he won't have to see me every week.  Weekly ultrasounds sound very expensive.  We do have insurance, but it doesn't cover everything.  The number one priority is the baby and making sure he is healthy.  On the plus side, I will get a little sneak peak at the little guy every week.

If you have kids and are planning on having more, I recommend exposing yourself to the disease (if you get the opportunity) before getting pregnant.  Once a person has been infected they generally develop an immunity and won't become infected again.

My little alien baby
A face only a mother could love
Eyes, nose and mouth
(I wish the ultrasound tech would have given me a cute profile picture)

Now, for some good news...I had my glucose screening at my last Dr's appointment to check for gestational diabetes and I passed that.  Those sugary drinks you have to drink before getting your blood drawn are gross!  One less thing to worry about.

11 more weeks and 1 day to go!  But who's counting :)

Cheers to healthy babies!

Happy Champagne Thursday!

More information about Fifth Disease during pregnancy can be found here.

Landscaping Project

Back in May and the beginning of June, we did a little landscaping in our front yard.  Yes, I'm just now getting around to blogging about it.  There was an area below our porch that was open and it didn't look very nice.  We needed to get the area covered up.  After a lot of thinking and going back and forth with different ideas, we chose to add siding to the area that was open and to plant some shrubs and flowers.

Before
Sorry for the bad picture

We had an area approximately 4 feet by 20 feet to work with.  The area was originally covered with small rocks, so the first step was removing those and then we added some edging between the soon to be planted area and our grass.  Then the husband and our good friend, Matt, worked on putting up the siding.  Luckily, we didn't have to paint the siding, it was a pretty close match to what we already have.  (And sorry, I don't have any progress pictures of getting the siding up.  I'll blame morning sickness.)

We were able to borrow a friends truck to pick up all of our supplies and get load of compost.  Thanks Jacqueline and Travis!

The next step, was adding a new sprinkler head to the area.  I don't know all the steps, but it was fairly easy, since we were able to add on to an existing sprinkler head.  After that, we mixed in the compost with the dirt that was already there and then started planting.

Prepping for the siding

Sprinkler Head

Compost

The three main shrubs in the back are Dwarf Burning Bushes.  They are suppose to turn a red color in the fall.  We planted a couple purple Roman Candles, a Dusseldorf Pride Sea Pink, a Electric Pink Cordyline (the maroon plant in the bottom left corner), a Lupine and some Creeping Thyme.  All of which are perennials, so hopefully, they will survive and come back every year.  I also planted a few annuals to fill up the space.  After everything was planted we covered the ground with rubber mulch.  It was more expensive, but it isn't suppose to fade and its suppose to last a lot longer than regular mulch.  We also added a few rocks that we picked up from Flathead Lake, when we were there over Memorial Weekend.

Dusseldorf Pride Sea Pink

Dense Magenta Flowers

Mounding Perennial

Royal Candles

Spikes of Violet-Blue Flowers

Upright Perennial

Chris raked our left over compost into our yard and it really helped green it up.

It looks so much better than it did before.  I'm really glad we enclosed the area with the siding and added some color to the front of our house.

Cheers!

Nursery Progress: Part 1

With another baby due to arrive in approximately 3 months from today, I thought it was time to start working on HIS room.  For those of you who don't know, we are expecting another boy!  We are super excited and anxiously awaiting his arrival.

To begin with, I cleared out the room, covered the floor and light fixture in plastic, removed the outlet covers, removed the blinds and curtain rod, and taped around the windows, trim and doors.  By the way, I dislike prepping a room to paint, it takes way too long.  The walls and the ceiling were both beige, so I decided to use my paint sprayer to prime the rooms and then continued to use the paint sprayer to paint the ceiling white.  Then I chose a bright blue to paint the walls, specifically Olympic paint in Blue Dart.  The Olympic brand of paint, from Lowes, is awesome with low odor and zero VOC's, especially when you are painting during your pregnancy.

I really like the way it turned out and love the color with the white trim and doors.

Before

Blue Dart

After

Now, I just need to find a home for everything that was previously stored in the room, oh and finish decorating his room and getting everything cleaned and organized.  Luckily, we have pretty much everything we need for this little guy, since he's coming almost exactly three years from when his big brother, Parker, was born.  Stay tuned for more nursery projects and updates.

Happy Champagne Thursday!

Cheers!

Pinning Away

My new favorite obsession is Pinterest, I've been enjoying Pinterest for the last few months.  Most of you bloggers out there have heard of it, but I know a few of my friends and family haven't heard of it and I needed to share.  Pinterest is like a giant inspiration board. 


"Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests."  You can get so many ideas for your everything in your life, your home, party ideas, outfits, recipes, holidays, photography ideas, the list goes on and on.  Plus, you can follow your friends and see what they are pinning.

If you are not on Pinterest and would like to try it out, go to their website and request an invite.  If you are already on Pinterest, you can find my pins here.


Happy Pinning!


Happy Champagne Thursday!


Cheers!