The Marsh Family

The Marsh Family

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Last Week

Nothing much has been going on lately. Monday was nothing. Tuesday I had a pleasant surprise - no school!! It stormed Monday night and Tuesday morning and Ft. Leavenworth had no power. It was nice to be able to hang out at home and get some misc. stuff done. The worst part about it was that by the time I got the call I had already worked out, eaten breakfast, showered and was dressed. Oh well! I had a doctor's appointment with my glucose screening on Wednesday and was surprised by the results. I couldn't have sugar starting Monday night so I went from Monday night until Wednesday with no sugar. Wednesday morning I ate a very light breakfast (had to have my protein or I would feel like garbage!) and headed to the Dr. I had to drink 8 oz. of this nasty glucose solution. I got it down and kept it down (yahoo!) and then I had my appointment with Dr. Liu. He started talking about my weight which didn't surprise me but it did bother me. I've been worried that I was gaining too much this whole time but nothing was ever said. I was pretty bummed by this point already. About 30 minutes later they checked my iron level and blood sugar. Now if you know me you know I have hypoglycemia so my sugar level is usually low after drinking or eating something sugary. My iron level came back fine and I was bragging to my husband saying, "See Courty! I passed my test!" Which is when the nurse said, "Not your glucose test!" WHAT?!?! Passing is below 140 and mine was 146!!! Never have I gone high like that during a screening. Now I have to go on April 9th at 7:00 am to drink more glucose yucky stuff and then sit for 3 hours instead of 1 hour and have blood drawn every hour. For this one I have to fast after 10:00 pm which is no big deal - I'll just go to bed. Then I have to be at the office in KC at 7 am to check in and drink the crap at 7:30. I'll be home by 11:00 or so, depending on the results I would say. My friend, Sam, is going to take me so Courtney doesn't have to take off work. She'll take me home and I'll probably go to bed because that's what I do after blood sugar issues. We're supposed to leave that afternoon to go to Texas to see the Dills and their new addition....if she comes!! We now know she is over 8 lbs. but she's apparently not ready to come out yet! We'll see how things go before we make our final decision about going down there. We would LOVE to drive down there but we'll see how Kate feels and how things go with Hattie's birth. One more week of school and then SPRING BREAK!!! Finally! I didn't think it would ever get here! I'll keep you updated on how things go with my screening. If I fail again it means gestational diabetes but if I pass it means the first one was a fluke. We'll see!

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Baby Shower, Birthing Class and a Nursery

We have had quite an eventful last few weeks. Today is the first Saturday in 5 weeks where we haven't had something to do so I thought it would be a good time to update! We are finished with wrestling of all kinds as you know but now baseball has started. Thank goodness we won't have games or tournaments on the weekends so we should be able to get other things done.

Last weekend was my first baby shower!! The shower was on Saturday but that's not when the excitement began... On Friday Courtney went to Minneapolis to help Dad out because they finally sold their house (yahoo!!). Mom came to stay with me that night so we could go pick Joy up at the airport on Saturday morning before driving to Minneapolis. We ate dinner, went shopping and watched a movie before heading to bed. I decided to take a bath and that's what I was doing at about 10:00 when the doorbell rang - twice - not your normal ring but a crazy ring. I put on my robe and Mom came out of her bedroom and we were yelling, "Who is it?" We could hear a woman talking frantically and I thought it was Amanda. I was nervous that something had happened to Jim at work so I flew down the stairs and opened the door. It wasn't Amanda. It was a woman and her daughter freaking out asking if we had dogs and if they could come in. After a few seconds we let them in because she started screaming that her boyfriend had just beaten her up! She was on the phone with 911 by this time and now her daughter was in the door hugging me. Now her boyfriend's pit bull was at our door! I called Jim because I was freaked out and didn't want to wait for the cops to come in case her boyfriend showed up. After an hour the cops had come and gone to arrest the boyfriend and the EMTs showed up to take them to the hospital to get checked out. I've never been so happy to get rid of company in my life! We were actually be able to get some sleep and then got up the next morning to go get Joy. While we were both showering the doorbell rang its crazy ring again!! By the time we could get to the door whoever was there was gone - thank goodness!

We drove the airport and got Joy about 11:00 and then drove to Minneapolis. We got there about 2:30 and the shower was to start at 4:00. By the time Joy & I got there there were lots of people there. There was a Peanuts sign on the door welcoming everyone to the party and then a big Snoopy with a sign saying, "Kisses for the baby!!" at the door into the cafeteria. So cute! The Snoopy & sign are going up on the wall in the nursery because it's too cute and my Grandma Butler made it! Inside were 2 tables put together filled with gifts for our boy. He is so spoiled already!! I don't have pictures from the shower because my camera was accidentally left in the car :( but my Mom videotaped it and I know other people took pictures. I will get them up later. Baby Boy got lots of cute clothes from newborn to 12 months, blankets, diapers, the stroller, monitors, frames, etc... We also played a game where we had to add coins to a HUGE piggy bank that Nicole decorated with Snoopy. My Dad and I counted the money afterwards and he had $28.00 in coins - I know he's up to over $30 now because I've added more change this week. We put everything in the back of Dad's suburban and it was packed! On Sunday we all drove to Leavenworth and unloaded everything. We ended up going through everything again to make sure it was all written down and to organize it into some boxes for storing. We ended up with 1 big box filled with clothes, 1 filled with diapers, etc. and lots of stuff had to go into the closet because it was already in boxes. Luckily my Dad was here to help Courtney get everything from our purple bedroom unloaded because Courtney was off for Spring Break this last week and he was going to work on the nursery!

While I was working all week Courtney spent every day working on our boy's nursery! It turned out so nice!! He did have a few setbacks but nothing too major. All we are missing now is a changing table, a dresser, a mattress, some decorating things and...oh yeah! A BABY!!! This could make the next 3 months go 1 of 2 ways: 1 - it could go fast because it's not that much time until he arrives; or 2 - it could go soooo slow because the nursery is done and now I'll have to see it every day! I hope it goes quickly! We are anxious for him to arrive!!

We also started our birthing classes this week! We will go to the hospital every Wednesday for the next 6 weeks from 7:15-9:15 to learn everything we ever wanted to know about pregnancy and giving birth. It wasn't too bad but I am hoping it gets better. All we did were introductions, watched a video of a comedian talking about his first child being born, took a break and then our husband's gave us massages and we left. Next week we're supposed to bring pillows and a blanket so maybe we'll get a massage and then take a nap!! All the husband's, of course, tried to act like they were being forced to be there. Whatever!!! I told mine he didn't have to go and he made the choice for himself. We'll see what happens this week - probably a yucky video that I don't want to watch!!

Let's see...what else happened?! Oh yeah - we got a NICE convertible crib for free!! One of the aides at my school had a crib from when her daughters were born that she wanted to get rid of so we took it. We actually got it thinking we'd keep it until we got the one we registered for or until we bought one. Well, it's nice enough we won't need to get another one! I am so happy! She has saved us lots of time, money and headaches!!

Here are a few pictures from our last week. Enjoy!









Sunday, March 08, 2009

A busy last several weeks.

Last weekend we made the long drive to Hays for State Wrestling. We had a good time with pretty good results. When you think that the last time a wrestler from PRHS placed was 10 years ago and the last champ we had was even longer than that - taking 3 and placing 1 is pretty good! Our 171 pounder got beat out Friday night, our 160 pounder made it to Saturday and lost his 2nd match in the round before placing. He lost by 1 point - heartbreaking! Our 215 pounder lost in semi-finals but took the long road back and got 3rd place. He deserved it. He's a good kid, he's a senior, he needed to place. So, in case you were wondering, our son will not have the middle name Jedi! Now will that stop the wrestlers or my husband from calling him that? I doubt it! He is destined to be called Jedi, even if it's not his name! This weekend we were in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to watch the Luther College wrestlers at the Division III National Championships. Our boy Allyn was wrestling and so was his cousin, Jason. They both lost in their first round on Friday am but won in the next that afternoon. Friday night Jason won to move on to Saturday and Allyn lost. Correction - Allyn got jipped! His match went in to overtime and the other guy ended up winning 4-3. The problem: he only earned 1 of those 4 points when Allyn cut him so he got an escape. The other 3 points were penalty points against Allyn which weren't exactly warranted. One of them probably was for locked hands but the other 2 were stalling on Allyn when they were both standing up doing the exact same thing. It was a really disappointing way for him to end his wrestling career. Had he won that match he would have been an All American and he wanted that really bad. We feel terrible for him but there's nothing we can do about it. It's just something he'll have to live with. We still don't think he did too shabby though - top 10 in the Nation's not bad!!! We stuck around for the first round on Saturday morning which Jason lost but he then came back and got 7th place. After watching that round Saturday we left and met some of Katie & Brent's friends that live in Cedar Rapids. We felt like we already knew them because we've heard so much about them. We met for lunch and had a really nice time. They all met in college in South Dakota and now Greg & Misty live in Cedar Rapids with their 2 kids. Those kids are so adorable and well behaved!! They are really nice people and hopefully we can see them again sometime. Can you believe Kate is due in like 4 weeks?! I think she'll go a little early which would be fine with me! That way we could meet Hattie when we travel to TX in April. If she's not here by then we might not go - we don't want to stress Kate out at all. I'll be 7 months along by then which also doesn't seem possible. Things are going well with the pregnancy so far. I feel him kicking every day which is fun. Courtney has felt him a few times but it's still not always strong enough. I'm pretty sure the boy will be a wrestler too - he kicks alot when we're watching wrestling matches! Here are a few pictures from our weekend. Have a great week and tune in next week sometime for pictures of my baby shower. My shower is next Saturday (the 14th) in Minneapolis. I can't wait! Courtney's going to Mpls. on Friday to help my dad out with a few things because my parents sold their house (finally!!). Mom is coming to spend the night here Friday night so we can pick up Joy at the airport Saturday morning and then we'll drive to Minneapolis. After next weekend our lives should slow down a little...just in time for baseball games! Wow is this school year zooming by!