Gratitude........

I do an online gratitude list with a group of women on a daily basis. It is an awesome way to always remember the big and little things that God blesses us with each day. It is often too easy to think about the things that are going wrong or things to complain about but amazingly life seems so much better when you think about things to be grateful for or for which we are blessed. I was thinking today about the many things that I could complain about and then I was reminded to go back to gratitude. I always thought that I would love being pregnant. Now don't get me wrong, I don't hate being pregnant but it is definitely different than what I expected. I imagine some of this has to do with the things that they don't tell you about pregnancy, as well as the fact that it was difficult to get here and the fact that we have had a few bumps since. I have found myself getting caught up in things to complain about over the last couple weeks ......the contractions, the weight gain (aka nothing fitting normal), swollen ankles, shortness of breath, aching ribs, aching body, etc. It is always about that time that I get a love tap from inside reminding me of our little miracle from God - Alivia Miyoko. I then am renewed with this overwhelming feeling of gratitude. In less than 90 day we will get to meet our beautiful daughter that we have been so graciously blessed. With this we are beyond blessed.
So in thinking about all of this I want to share my gratitude list with all of you.

Today, I thank God for..........
* a new day
* a thriving, healthy baby girl on the way
* baby kicks - no matter how much my ribs hurt
* the ability to be pregnant and carry Alivia
* the road that brought us to today
* the many challenges we have overcome
* a hard working, loving, dedicated, amazing husband
* a strong, healthy marriage
* the support of family and friends
* continuing to bless our lives each and every day
* my Faith and the strength it continues to build
* Your amazing Will and amazing Grace

"Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks:for this is the will of God."
1. Thessalonians 5.16-18

27 weeks and counting.........

We had our normal doctor's appointment today. This lovely appointment included the glucose test. I was a little nervous about the liquid that I had to drink prior to the appointment. I was told it would task like flat orange soda. I like orange soda so in that case I would be good but you never know with things like that if it will truly taste as they say or a really bad version of what they compare it to. Well it wasn't bad at all. I was really good about the other sugars I took in today in hopes that I would only have to do the 1-hour test and not the 3-hour test. I love when Livi is active. I actually catch myself laughing when she moves a lot because it looks as though there are many aliens moving around in my belly. So what do you get when you give a pregnant woman a cup of pure sugar..........many many aliens in the belly. Livi went haywire. She was all over the place and I couldn't help but laugh at how weird my belly looked. According to the doctor, she has moved up slightly since the last appointment, which I could have told him since my right rib has been taking a pretty good beating for the past week. He describes the kicks as taps of the toes but my ribs beg to differ. I am amazed at how much punch someone so small can pack. Her movements have gotten bigger as well. There have been occasions where she has completely stopped me in my tracks. They also hooked me up to the monitor again to see if the contractions had changed. We are doing much better there as well. Basically, I am experiencing irritable contractions, which he thinks are more likely Braxton Hicks. More than likely I will experience them for the rest of my pregnancy but they shouldn't cause any trouble. He also gave me the green light to play golf. Most of you know how much I love to play and the thought of not playing was really annoying. The only restriction is that I use a cart rather than walk. So overall the appointment was a great one!! Now we just have to wait to see if I passed the test. Keep your fingers crossed.

Some notes from Week 27...........
Cravings.........Juice Stop or at least my homemade version of it, Raspberry Yogurt, Crushed Ice
Aversions............can't think of too many things
How I feel...........like a little round pregnant lady with sore ribs but filled with so much love for this amazing little girl, my daughter!!
Interesting fact.............we are within 90 days of meeting our little Miss Alivia Miyoko
Next Appointment.........May 19, 2009 at 30 weeks

Maternity Pics!!

I am so excited about this post. We signed up to take part in Kelly Highby's "Baby Plan". This is an awesome way to document our journey to Alivia's arrival and through her first year. We will have 4 sessions in about a year. We have chosen to take maternity pictures, newborn pictures, 6 month pictures, and one year pictures. We took the first set, the maternity pictures, when we were back in Sidney. I have been waiting for the email to come from Kelly, letting us know that our proofs were ready. Well, I got the email today!! Our proofs are online, on her blog, and on Facebook.

So since we are sharing I feel it somewhat necessary to put a warning on this post. I only feel it necessary because I know there are a few followers that they may think that maternity pictures are little different (including my mom).

YOU WILL SEE MY BARE PREGNANT BELLY!!

Here are the links -

This link is to Kelly's blog. It has a few of our photos and short story about our session that is quite humorous.
http://kellyhighby.typepad.com/kelly_highby_photography_/2009/04/and-baby-makes-three.html

This link is to her website. If you click on the "Client" tab using the password is sabrinaa you can view the entire collection. This link will work until May 5th at which time it will expire.
http://www.kellyhighbyphotography.com/

Hope you enjoy!! Kelly did such an amazing job I can't wait to see what she has in store for us when Livi arrives!!

Weekends in Review.......

I have to share a little fun time that we had over the last couple weekends. Two weekends ago we went to my home town to have maternity pictures taken and attend a shower in my/Livi’s honor. We borrowed my in-laws van so that 4 adults, one baby, and two dogs could travel 5 hours comfortably. Tom, the dogs, Beth, Randy, Ethan and I all made the trip back together. We all hadn’t been back since my mom’s 60th birthday party in October of 2006. It was fun to all be together again. The maternity pictures with Kelly Highby were so much fun, not exactly what Tom had in mind but we still had a great time. We made a short appearance at my mom’s school and then it was time for dinner at Dude’s. This is my absolute favorite steak house. It is a dive that has been there for as long as I can remember. It has the absolute best prime rib!! I/we over-indulged but it was well worth it. The shower on Saturday was fabulous. It was great to see many friends and family that I hadn’t seen in quite some time. We received many wonderful and generous gifts. Livi is already so very spoiled. We stayed in on Saturday night and set my mom’s new laptop and signed her up on Skype so that she can see her grandkids any time. For now this will work but we keep hinting that we would love for her to be around here (a battle that we are really loosing). All in all it was a wonderful weekend with my family.

Our First Baby Shower

Bath time with Ethan

This last weekend Tom and I had a super fun little house guest!! My niece Ayla spent Friday night and Saturday with us. We packed in a bunch of fun things to do. She is 2 1/2 and such a joy. Jamie dropped her off at my office on Friday and the fun began. We stopped at Target on the way home where she negotiated for two my little ponies and paint. Well the paint was planned. After target we went to dinner with Uncle Tommy, painted big pictures, went to Coldstone, took a bath, and watched Bolt all before bedtime. I was mistaken to think that since she went to bed a little later than normal that she would sleep in a little on Saturday but man was I wrong. 6 am I hear the cutest little voice say "Good Morning Bean Bean, I love you!". It was so sweet but 6 am Saturday, seriously. I think she is preparing us! I managed to get her to go back to sleep for a little while but we were up and moving by 8ish to continue with the rest of our plans. We prepared our "picnic", ran to Old Navy, came home for our indoor picnic (the weather didn't cooperate), took Uncle Tom and Uncle Grant Gatorade, and then we were off to the pool!! We swam for about an hour and then it was time to go home for nap time. All I have to say is "thank goodness for 10 minute breaks". If it wasn't for the break I don't know if I would have been able to get Ayla out of the pool. Again, all in all it was a great weekend!!

Our Indoor Picnic

Follow Up.......better late than never

Following up from the last post, I called my doctor Friday the 10th to set my follow up appointment. They gave me strict instructions that I was to take it really easy until I got back in to meet with Dr. K. I was basically allowed to go to work and hang out at home. They didn't want me exercising, shopping, doing housework, walking the dogs, etc. I went to work Friday morning but worked from home in the afternoon and by Saturday afternoon I was stir crazy. I am not sure how women handle being on bed rest for long periods of time. I have a new found respect for my sister-in-law and the amount of time she was on bed rest with Ayla. My follow up appointment was Tuesday morning. They put me back on the monitor which showed that I was still having contractions however they were shorter and more sporadic. Dr. K re-ran the test that we had done the previous week to make sure there was no change and did an ultrasound (but no new pictures). The test once again came back negative and the ultrasound reinforced that there were no changes in my cervix however it did reveal the cause of my “irritation” contractions….Miss Livi has decided that she is ready to enter into this world. She is head down causing lots of pressure. Dr. K is hoping that as she gets bigger that she will have to move up so that she has more room but until then he suggested I do some yoga poses or stand on my head (JK - at least for the standing on my head). Then he proceeded to tell me that he was no longer restricting my activity but asking that I be aware of how I am feeling and not push it. So all in all good news!!

What contractions?????

So contractions........This weekend I thought I was starting to have Braxton Hicks contractions aka "practice contractions". They are nothing to be too concerned about and actually very common. They can begin as early as the second trimester, however they are most common in the third trimester. Monday I called the doctor's office and they told not to be concerned unless I was having 4 or more in an hour. Fast forward to Wednesday. I was a little more uncomfortable than I had been so I was walking a little slower and having to sit a little more often. At lunch I went to the mall for a couple of errands and get lunch. I found that the more I walked the more uncomfortable I became. Following the instructions of my doctor I made note of how often I was feeling the Braxton Hicks contractions. I went back to work and continued with my work day until about 4:15 at which time uncomfortable enough to call it a day. My belly was still pretty tight when I went to bed. I was hoping I would wake up today feeling much better. I did feel a little better this morning but still not completely ok so I called the doctor again early this afternoon to see if they had any recommendations as to how to relieve some of my discomfort. I was expecting things like - hydrate, take a warm bath, put your feet up, etc. Instead I was asked to come in to be monitored. So off to the doctor's office I went. I was a little concerned that they wanted me to come in and a little skeptical that they were going to see anything since the only time I felt them was when I was walking. I titled this post "What contractions?" because evidently I was having contractions about every 2-3 minutes but I wasn't feeling most of them. When the nurse said I was having them I could sometimes feel my belly becoming a little tighter but nothing that hurt. I always thought that contractions would hurt. These were just slightly uncomfortable. My doc is on vacation so his partner sent me to be admitted to Bergan Mercy Hospital (where I will be delivering just not anytime soon) for monitoring and tests. They hooked me up to another monitor and observed my contractions for about an hour at which time they had the resident OB do an exam and tests. The exam gave no indication that I was in pre-term labor which was a relief. There are pre-term contractions and pre-term labor contractions. If the contraction affect the cervix then they are considered pre-term labor contraction. My were not affecting the cervix meaning that there was no sign of pre-term labor just pre-term contractions. The test they did was also to indicate pre-term labor which would return positive if I was in fact in pre-term labor or negative if I wasn't. We are in the clear - the test came back negative so they sent me home!! I have to continue to be aware of the contractions and follow up with my doctor next week but at this point we are still planning to meet Miss Livi in July!!

I'm gonna be a dad!!

Tom here, for those of you who follow I am going to be a father of a beautiful little girl in the near future. This is quite a bit to digest when I really start to think about it but I do believe none of this will really become real until I hold Alivia for the first time. To be completely honest my life has not physically changed like Sabrina's has but mentally my mind will race on a daily basis in regards to the fact that Sabrina and I will soon be responsible for another human being. There are thoughts of excitement, fear, curiosity, worry and many more. Where on the other hand Sabrina is going through much more than I could even imagine. On any given day she will experience anything from nausea, cramps, sore_______ (depends on the day), heartburn, discomfort of ______ (depends on the day), shoes and rings that do fit one day and not the next and the list goes on. She is handling all these foreign feelings as well as anyone could. I feel for sorry for her but I know this is what we've wanted for a long time and we both know that this will be all well worth it once Alivia is brought into this world. Unlike Sabrina, I don't have any bizarre cravings to tell you all about but it is sort of strange to live with someone who may obsess over a pickle one day and want absolutely nothing to do with one the next day, I guess I try to go with the flow and take it all in. This is all I have for now, talk to you soon.

It's been a while.....catching up from Week 20

So I/we seem to have fallen behind on our weekly blogging. So here goes some catch-up!!

We have both been extremely busy with many different things. Tom is just about in full swing for the landscaping season. It appears that it will be a busy one. I have been busy with both work and my side business. In the Daly work world, we just sent out the drawings for bid for the hospital that I have been designing in Fairfax Missouri. As for DBS - I just finished some birthday invitations, a baby shower invite, thank you notes, and wedding invites for a wedding in June. I am so excited about the wedding I have been designing for because I have a hand in many different parts of the wedding as a whole. I have also been busy with odds and ends getting ready for Alivia to make her appearance. I know I have plenty of time but most of you know that I am very type A. I have been on a hunt for hot pink accents to add to the overall image that I have for the room. Livi's bedding came last week so her nursery has really taken shape. Her wardrobe is also starting to take shape. She is already spoiled by our family and friends. I have received some really fun little outfits. Not to mention a few things that I have purchased. Beth came down a couple weekends ago to hit up a kid's sale that happens at our church twice a year. I always seem to find great clothes that are new or barely worn for my niece and nephew. It was soooooo fun to shop for our little one this year instead. I also found some maternity clothes for me which was a true bonus. We are finished registering and excited to start getting things that we put on the registry. Now all I have to do is keep from purchasing things on our list myself. Here are a few pictures of the prep...........

There are still a few things that I am hoping to find to add to the nursery but overall here it is.

Just a few of the fun little outfits that Miss Livi will be wearing when she gets here!!

As for where we are in this pregnancy.......
We had our monthly doctor's appointment this week. It was just a quick one but it was also very informative. I am definitely feeling and looking more pregnant by the day. I have now moved to the obviously pregnant stage no matter what I wear which is a much better place to be than the questionable additional weight category. I am almost at the point that I can't wear any of my pre-pregnancy clothes (even t-shirts) so needless to say I have done some shopping. When they say you will need a new wardrobe they truly mean everything. So here I am at the beginning of 23 weeks........

Some notes from Week 20-23...........
Cravings.........Salad, sweets, food in general
Aversions............nothing much but everything is still giving me heartburn
How I feel...........I am starting to get a little uncomfortable at times but enjoying all to good stuff
Interesting fact.............We can now see Livi kick and move. It is such a awesome thing to see. I was in a meeting at work the first time I saw it. Needless to say I wasn't able to pay much attention to the happenings of the meeting while I was watching my Livi!!
Next Appointment.........May 1, 2009 at 27 weeks- 1 hour Glucose test and last monthly appointment. We will move to every two weeks at that point.

Baby Pig??????

I received the funniest call the other day from my sister-in-law Jamie. As she was getting ready for the day, my niece Ayla was watching Nickelodeon. Jamie came back into the room where Ayla was watching TV and had this conversation:

Ayla – “Bean Bean Tommy Baby?”
Jamie – “Yes Bean Bean and Tommy are having a baby in the summer”
Ayla – “Baby Alivia?”
Jamie – “Yep Baby Alivia.”
Ayla – “Baby Pig?”
Jamie – “NO, Baby Baby!”
Ayla – “Oh???”

So where in the world did this idea come from? Olivia the Pig – the show on Nickelodeon that Ayla was watching. Good thing the show was still on or we may not have figured out the mystery!! Now all we have to do is convince Ayla that Baby Alivia will make baby sounds not piggy sounds.

Let us introduce.......

This week has been so much fun finding out that we are having a healthy girl!! It was so amazing the change in reality knowing the sex. I love that we no longer have an "it" but now have a she or her. So now that we know we are having a girl we would like to introduce her as Alivia Miyoko Ahern. Alivia (aka Livi) means Peace and Miyoko (pronounced Me-Yo- Ko) means Beautiful Child. It is some what of a tradition in my mom's side of the family to have Japanese middle names so we decided to continue this idea so that Alivia will know that part of her heritage. We had gone back and forth with the idea of keeping her name a secret but ultimately decided that we wanted our friends and family to know.

Tom's sister and I made a trip to Babies-R-Us on Tuesday night to update our registry with some girly additions. One of my finds while updating our registry was the lamp to the bedding I had been considering for the nursery. Well - it was a win! It works well with the color scheme that the room is painted so I ordered the rest of the bedding through Target and it should be arriving in the beginning of April. This weekend I finished up our Target registry, found curtains that match the bedding and then had one of my creative ideas that I am super excited to share. I follow a blog of this woman that paints personalized canvases and thought "I can do that". After thinking through it a little further I thought I would design them on the computer and then print them on canvas rather than paint them in the interest in time. So last night while the boys watched the UFC fight I designed a couple canvases for the nursery. I printed them and stretched them today so that Tom and I could hang them tonight!

the lamp that matches the bedding

the canvas above the cribthe canvas on the opposite wallthe poem reads -
You are the poem we dreamed of writing. The masterpiece we longed to paint. You are the shining start we reached for in our ever hopeful quest for life fulfilled. You are our child. Now with all things we are blessed.

Some notes from Week 19...........

Cravings.........Orange Juice, beets (very odd), salad

Aversions............not too much but everything seems to give me heartburn

How I feel...........so excited that we are having a girl and can't wait to meet her

Interesting fact.............The baby is moving non-stop and Tom and I have both been able to feel

Next Appointment.........March 31, 2009

Drumroll Please................

IT'S A GIRL!!!!


Our appointment went really well. All of her measurements are right on track. She currently weighs about 11 oz. and is in the 85 percentile. Because of her positioning she didn’t give us a very good profile view but we did get a straight on view of her face. We got to see her arms, legs, hands, and feet. Jimmy had to nudge her a little to get her to un-cross her legs which she did!! She is really active and constantly moving. It was great to see that what I was feeling was actually her moving. Last night Tom was able to feel a small movement as she kicked the heart Doppler. Such an amazing thing!! We are extremely thrilled that we are going to have a healthy baby Girl!! We are truly blessed. Now……to decide on her name!!

Happy Birthday Tom!!