Two Tales of Taryn!

So Taryn was particularly funny this past Sunday morning! She has decided that she loves showering, even more than baths! So when I hopped in the shower before church, she just had to join me! I've learned my lesson with Taryn and cleaning up the floor, so I told Taryn to go get a diaper out of her bedroom. She stayed in the bathroom, so I just watched her for a minute as I was brushing my hair and getting ready. She went straight to the cupboard under Steve's sink, pulled out the bag of maxi pads, got one out and unwrapped it! She then proceeded to try to diaper herself with it! She looked so puzzled when it just fell to the floor when she let go of it. She picked it up and tried again at least three times. After laughing hysterically in my closet, I finally slipped off to her bedroom to collect a diaper, dress, tights and shoes!

While putting on my makeup I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Taryn was attempting to put on Byron's underwear. Over her tights and dress shoes! I had the thought, "Ewww, I think those are Byron's dirty underwear that he took off when he took his bath. I should really take those away from her!" Alas, time won out! I was in a hurry, I was singing in the choir for ward conference and had a practice 30 minutes before church started! Beauty above all else I say! Besides, she wasn't having any luck getting those whitey tighteys over her shoes anyway!

I told Steve to load the kids up in the car while I grabbed a couple food items for the diaper bag (a necessity to get through 1:00 sacrament meeting, as anyone knows!) When I walk up to the truck I hear Steve say, "well this is very interesting! I'm glad I saw these now, and the nursery teachers didn't find them later!" Of course I had to look into the backseat for confirmation, but sure enough there were Byron's whitey tighteys around the middle of Taryn's thighs being held firmly in place by her very own tights! That is, until daddy so timely noticed them while buckling her in to her car seat and removed them! We just looked at each other and cracked up! Apparently Taryn has developed dressing skills I didn't know that she had on Saturday! I've always known she was that persistent! Maybe next time 'appropriate outerwear' will fall into my 'beauty' category, and therefore be bumped up into the 'important: demands your immediate attention!' category. In the meantime laugh with me at the hilarity that is raising children! Taryn in particular this time!

Just Wondering . . .

Why the little baby counter I got on the side counts the time that has passed in weeks, and the time to go in days!!! Does this seem unfair to anyone else? I would like it to say, "MORE THAN HALF WAY THERE! WAY TO GO!" or "144 days down, only 19 weeks 3 days to go!' That sounds so much more impressive, doesn't it! Loves!

The Great News!

The GREAT news is . . . (drumroll please)

We are having a baby . . . 

GIRL!!!

Can you believe it? I have to admit I was a little surprised myself! So was Steve! Apparently if I have strong feelings that we are having a child of one sex, I should go against my gut instinct and tell everyone I think it is the opposite! I was sure Byron was a girl, and sure my girls were boys! Go figure! 

This pregnancy has felt much more like my pregnancy with Byron than my pregnancy with Taryn! The nausea, but no throwing up, break-outs--I'm talking Pizza Face here! (When I got pregnant with Byron I was pretty sure that whoever said pregnant women glowed was full of shiiiicken, I mean chicken! We curse animals around our house instead of four letter words, mostly cows and chickens. Try it--it is fun, breaks up the tension a bit because saying "what the cow?" or "holy chicken!" is funny!) 

I have gotten a strange side effect during each of my pregnancies too. When I was pregnant with Byron the hair on my legs stopped growing in patches and really slowed down. A beautiful thing for the shaving American woman! While pregnant with Taryn the grease producing glands on my gourd slowed down significantly, allowing me to go 4-5 days without washing my hair if I wished! Both awesome side-effects. I haven't figured out what estrogen induced side effect it will be for this little girl though, since neither of the afore mentioned side effects has returned! I would prefer the hair one this time, since she is due in June and I won't shave as much until summer anyway!

So there you have it folks! We are having a girl, and more information on my pregnancies than you ever wanted! Awesome!

Ok, everyone wants to know . . . what does Byron think about this??? Well, as I was showing him and Steve the first 8 of the 9 pictures I brought home I snuck in a couple, "here is her hand. This is a picture of her face, can you see her mouth open in this one?" Byron caught on, "did you say this baby is a girl?" I showed him the crotch shot at the end and said, "yes, this baby is a little sister."

"But I said this baby was a brother. I want it to be a boy."

"Do you see anything between her legs?"

"No."

"That makes her a girl."

Big sigh!!! "Ohhh."

Dad asked him, "are you okay?"

"No, I am a little sad!"

I'm a mean mom, and I made him tell his Baker cousins what we were having. In a monotone voice, just above a whisper he said, "I'm having a sister." (Little sigh.) Didn't say goodbye,  I love you, nothing. Just handed me back the phone and went upstairs. They thought that was kind of funny!

We decided to go out to dinner to celebrate! Byron picked In-N-Out for dinner, so we got to hang out with Aunt Brittany since she was working last night! Then I picked Dairy Queen for dessert--what pregnant woman doesn't want a cherry dipped cone? Ahhhh, delicious! (Thanks Jenna for reminding me how amazing those are!) Then we went to our favorite little spot by the airport to watch the airplanes land! Just when we had given up 9 planes lined up to land! Always a fun family night!

On the way home I asked Byron if he was excited about having a baby sister. He replied, "Yes, but still just a little bit sad!"

"Well you have to help us come up with a name for this baby girl." (A boy's name was in the bag--girl? We've got nothing! That we agree on anyway!) Byron got a bit more enthusiastic at the idea of naming his baby sister. 

"I know!" He shouts, "we can name her Cord!"

I grinned at him and asked, "isn't a cord what you use to plug in the vacuum or the toaster?"

He stuck to his guns and said, "I think Cord is a beautiful name too!"

We'll keep you posted on his other creative ideas. He was sure we should name his little brother Byron Gratteau Bradley. That would be different from his name because the middle name came after the last name! He is pretty funny that one!

So that was our Great News!!! Now if you would like the news scroll down.

P.S. So I finished this post yesterday and thought I would add a couple of the ultrasound pictures, like the cute one with her mouth open! Alas, I'm having scanning issues! So here it is anyway. Besides, she doesn't really want a crotch shot on here forever! She told me herself--modest already! What can I say? 

P.P.S. Byron still wants to name her Cord today, although he is considering Zelda as an option now too! Then we could name the brother who is coming next Link (you guessed it. . . just like on his and daddy's video game!)

The News!

So I've started receiving a few emails and facebook messages of concerned folks wondering what has happened to me? Sorry for the extended absence! I'm doing very well, and as you saw above so is the baby! Now to update you here is what you missed!

The Wednesday after Thanksgiving Dr. Roberts office called. I had done lab work the week before and my results had come in. They had me come down to the office that day! Never a great sign. One of the things they tested for was Factor V Leiden, a clotting issue that my Grandma Bev discovered she had last year. They informed her that it was hereditary and can cause problems with pregnancy so all her daughters and granddaughters should get tested. Well I'm positive for it. Because you already clot more when you are pregnant (to help with the not bleeding to death during childbirth), having factor v just compounds the clotting and can cause me to throw a clot or cause a clot to form in the placenta or umbilical cord, resulting in miscarriage. The solution to this is to do heparin (a blood thinner) injections twice a day. I've gotten to the point where I prefer to give them to myself, although Steve is always willing when I need him to. The injections are given in an insulin syringe with a very tiny needle. In the moments, at the beginning ,when I felt bad for myself I just thought of my dear friend who has diabetes and the fact that he gives himself 6+ shots a day! Two--piece of cake!

The rest of the time between then and now looked something like this:

1 week researching Factor V Leiden

1 week spent finding out that my insurance wouldn't cover enough of the Lovenox (the better, newer option to heparin) for me to use it, then research heparin (because of a recall of contaminated heparin from China), finally to fill my prescription at one of the two pharmacies in town who still had it!

1 week to help help install and paint baseboards! They are gorgeous, my brother-in-law Todd is my current BFF!

Shop for Christmas and get ready to have Steve's parents visit us!

Taryn and Grandma!

Taryn and grandpa!

Christmas festivities!

New Year's Festivities!

1-2 weeks to recover from said festivities!

Do more clotting blood work--aka thrombophilia panel (they took 34 little vials of blood!!)

1 weekend to recover from said blood work!

1 week to catch up on reading all my favorite blogs!

(Is that the right amount of weeks yet?)

1 week to vacuum/mop my floor! (Just in case I need another week, and sadly it's true, although I think I get other stuff done too! I'm just happy to clean my own floor, thanks to the amazing vacuum mop my mom helped me locate, so I can clean the floor and still follow doctor's orders to 'not over-do it!') Does it take anyone else 1 week to clean their floor?

Now I'm finally posting again! And it is good to be back. Maybe, just maybe this trend can hold up and I'll even post some pictures! Who knows!