21 Weeks and Ethan's First Dentist Appointment!

Right now I feel that the best things about being pregnant are:
1) I get to take the baby with me wherever I go and hold him close at all times.  I never have to worry about leaving him or missing something that he's doing.  I get to take him with me to work every day!  I get to talk to him in the car and sing him songs when its just the two of us. 
2) Feeling him kick.  I love feeling him move around and kick every day.  He is pretty much an on schedule baby.  He kicks like crazy around 7am every morning ~ could be my coffee ~ and he kicks like crazy around 9pm every night.  He also kicks through the day.  Often when Ethan is sitting on my lap or next to me and I am reading him a book, baby Carter starts kicking around to let us know that he is listening too. 

Here we are at 21 weeks pregnant.  Just 19 more weeks to go!

And... here is Ethan at his first dentist appointment!  I really thought this was going to be an adventure full of screaming, kicking, and a scared little boy trying to climb out of the chair.  Much to my surprise it was completely opposite!  The dental assistant was amazing and did a great job with Ethan.  She should seriously get an aware for being a toddler whisperer or something!  She was so calm and relaxed and knew exactly what to do to get Ethan to stay calm and enjoy his cleaning.  She played a couple short movies for him with animals going to the dentist and brushing their teeth.  Then she showed him the tools that she uses.  Ethan's favorite was the water pick that squirts water into his mouth and the "Mr Thirsty" that sucks the water out.  Ethan was giggling and enjoying having water squirted into his mouth and letting Mr Thirsty suck the water out.  She asked a couple times to tickle his teeth with the tooth polisher but Ethan was unsure of that tool.  He just wanted more water from the water pick.  We finally told him no more water until he let her tickle his teeth.  He looked and her and with a sigh he said... "okay... fine...".  So she tickled his teeth and he giggled and enjoyed it and couldn't wait for the water pick and Mr Thirsty to rinse his mouth out again.  It was an extremely wonderful experience!  When we left Ethan looked at me and said, "I like her, she is my favorite lady".

 Ethan is sitting in the chair watching a video of puppies going to the dentist.

 Now he is watching monkey's brushing their teeth.

 This time it's my little monkey's turn to get his teeth cleaned. 

Great job little man!

Cory's Surprise 30th Birthday Party!

I did it!  I pulled off a surprise party for Cory without him suspecting a single thing!  PHEW!  I had been planning this party for two months, made hand-made invitations with help from a couple friends, and sent them out to close friends and family.  We had a lot of people show up for his party.  The evening was a hit!  Cory couldn't believe that I had planned this for two months and never gave him a single sign!  He is hard to surprise so I am pretty proud of myself! 

Carter's Ultra Sound Pictures from 18 weeks

I am finally getting around to posting the ultra sound pictures from our 18 week visit.  This is the day that we found out we are having a baby BOY!  We have since picked out a name for him, Carter Oliver Bartlett. 

He is looking at us in this picture.  Body on left and face on right.  You can see his legs in this picture. 

 Side profile.

 Side profile with right arm on top.

 Another side profile with better view of arm.

 He is looking at us in this picture.

 Aww, look at his tiny feet!

Happy 30th Birthday Cory!

Happy 30th birthday honey!  I love you more and more every day!  I thought you were pretty great when we first started dating over 8 years ago and think you are even more wonderful now.  When we had our issues over the years I would turn to my mom for advice and she would tell me time and time again "He'll be better when he's 30".  We've joked about this for years, but now... the pressure is on.  

Love you tons! XOXOXOXOXO  ;-)

Sick Little Ethan

Our little man has been sick for most of the winter.  In December he started with a head cold that just didn't want to go away.  It never turned in to a fever so I just kept treating it as a cold.  Finally in early January I took him to the doctor.  The doc started Ethan on meds for a sinus infection.  About 11 days in to the 14 days of meds... Ethan got the stomach bug and wasn't able to finish the last couple days of meds.  Mid January I took Ethan back to the doctor and let them know his nasty germ bug was back.  They looked him over, tried a breathing treatment in the office for his wheezing, and did a chest x-ray.  Everything came back clear and the doctor said it was just a virus.  We gave Ethan benedryl to help with the nasal drainage and within a week he seemed to be better.  Then this past weekend the runny nose and coughing started again.  This time his coughing is the worst.  On Monday Cory took him to the doctor and they did a sinus x-ray and started him on flovent inhaler twice a day.  The flovent inhaler opens up his sinuses and lets them drain... and boy oh boy do they drain!  Ethan has a terribly runny nose, a cough that keeps him awake during nap time and most of the night, puffy looking eyes, and the need for constant snuggles. 

Last night Ethan started the night by sleeping on our bathroom floor because he loves the sound of the shower running and the steam.  I sat with him for a while and then Cory joined him.  After that we moved him to a recliner in our room with Cory so Ethan could sit up while sleeping.  This worked on and off until 12:30am when Ethan woke up coughing and crying for mommy.  I brought him some juice and got him to calm down and snuggled him in bed by me.  Around 1am he fell asleep.  He woke up around 4am coughing and crying for more juice.  Then he fell back asleep until 6:30am. 

He is a tired little man and so are his parents.  We just want him to feel better and stop coughing.  Hopefully this nasty bug will go away and STAY AWAY soon.  :-( 

Snuggling with mommy on Tuesday

 Trying the inhaler for the first time on Monday

 Sleeping on the bathroom floor with Mousey

 Snuggling on the couch Wednesday morning

 Drinking some juice on Wednesday morning

20 Weeks / Half Way / 140 days down / 140 days to go!

I am now 20 weeks along in this pregnancy!  We've made it to the half way point and get to count down the days until baby Carter is in our arms!  Cory set up Carter's crib in Ethan's room, I've ordered matching bedding for the boys from Restoration Hardware, we've received our first gift for Carter from Melissa and her family... we're getting ready for his arrival! 

I am still feeling pretty well.  I have been gaining more weight lately which is not exciting to me, but for some reason I have been craving cookies and cake... Hoping I get my fill and get over this obsessive craving soon!  How about fruits... maybe I could crave those?!

Here is a picture of me at 20 weeks and 1 day.   

Here is one with a little better lighting.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  I hope you have a wonderful day filled with love!  We celebrated Valentine's Day this weekend as a couple and then as a family.  On Saturday night Cory and I had a date night.  We dropped the kids off at my mom's and went up to PF Chang's.  There was a 1 hour and 50 minute wait so we did some shopping at Mayfair, bought the kids some fun candy, bought some shirts for Ethan, ventured through Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware, and then walked back over to the restaurant.  They sat us within 5 minutes.  The food was amazing!  I would wait that long any time for their food!  I think Cory pretty much agreed.  We were planning to see a movie afterwards, but towards the end of dinner I got a migraine headache.  It was so terrible that I started getting hot then cold and my stomach started turning.  We had to leave and drive home to get the kids and end our date night early.  I went to bed and slept off the migraine.  Fortunately it did not return on Sunday! 

Sunday morning we went to church and bought some delicious treats from the youth group bake sale.  My mom was wonderful enough to make some treats with Mariah on Saturday night for the bake sale!  Thanks Grandma Sandy!!!  After church we went home and relaxed a while and visited with Grandma Linda.  Then Grandpa Karl and Grandma Kathy stopped over and showed us their pictures from their recent Jamaica trip.  After that we ran some errands as a family and ended up at Olive Garden for dinner.  While we were waiting we ran in to Scotty and Shannon and her mom Tammy and boyfriend Scott.  We decided to join them for dinner.  We had a really great time visiting with all of them.  Nice and surprising way to spend the evening. 

Monday morning Ethan woke up with a cough ~ again.  This poor child has been fighting a head cold since the beginning of December.  It just doesn't seem to go away and stay away.  :-(  Cory is home with him today and plans to take him back to the doctor around 9:45 this morning.  I hope they give him something to kick this bug out of him.  I hate hearing him cough and seeing him feel and look so sick.  HUGS to my little man. 

Another thing we did this weekend was contemplate on placing Rex, our lab, with a different family.  We love Rex dearly, but he is our high strung barker and is always spinning in circles, knocking Ethan over or bumping him in to walls.  I have a fear of what life will be like with two small kids, one teenager, and three dogs.  I thought that placing our hyper lab would be best.  We found a very interested family and prepared ourselves on Friday to say good bye to Rex.  It was the hardest thing we had done as a family and really made us second guess our decision.  We prayed for answers and Saturday morning we got them.  The family called and backed out and truly put us all at ease.  We realized that placing Rex was not best for our family.  We love him.  We love all three of our crazy dogs.. and soon to be all three of our crazy kids. :-)  Guess we are just one big crazy family and that is the way we need to stay.

19 Weeks

With everything going on this past week I almost forgot to write my 19 week post!  Baby BOY and I are doing really well.  Things seem to be going smoothly and my belly is definitely growing.  People are starting to notice that I am pregnant and come up to me and congratulate me.  I feel our little guy roll around and kick often.  Cory was actually able to feel the movement a couple days ago.  Ethan held his hand on my tummy and tried to feel too. 

I have worked my way up to a 9 pound gain.  It's a little more than I would like to have gained, but I have been loving cookies lately... :-)  Overall I am pretty satisfied with my weight gain.  I hope to only gain about 15 more... we'll see if I can make that happen. 

Here is a picture of myself and my baby BOY bump from yesterday morning. 

I also want to say thanks to those of you that have voted on a name for our little guy.  We are really torn between all 3 names.  We love Oliver because it's classic sounding and it's my grandpa's name.  We love Carter because it's trendy yet strong sounding.  Also, Ethan has Cory's middle name and if we pick Carter than we will come up with a "J" middle name so that Carter would have Cory's initials.  We love Owen... well... just because, no real reason, just love how it sounds.  It is really adorable listening to how well Ethan can pronounce Owen. 

Our top three names with Ethan were: Ethan, Logan, and Braydon.  We chose Ethan because our good friends named their little boy Logan, and our other friends have kids that end in "don".  We didn't want all the kids to have names that sounded alike.  Plus, Ethan was always my top pick! :-)

Mariah

Mariah had a week to remember!  On Thursday I took her shopping and she got a new cell phone and a hot pink case with sparkly silver stars on it.  Then on Saturday I took her to get her hair done for the FIRST time at a salon since she was about 1 year old.  I had been doing her hair ever since, but decided it was time to teach her how to pamper herself.  She got some red and blond hilites and they look great!  On Monday morning she got her braces taken off!  Then Monday night was parents night and the girls performed and did an AMAZING job!  She's been all smiles all week. :-)

Baking under the dryer

Hmmm... yes she is my daughter...

getting her hair done, texting, and holding her Starbucks between her legs...

Before

After

The girls rocked out their cheerleading performance at parents night!  Way to go Mariah!
For some reason I cannot upload the video to my blog.  I put it on flickr and facebook. 
Click on a link below to view it.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=1848098848137&comments

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ckbartlett/5427685391/

It's a.....BOY!!!!!!! Oh boy oh boy oh boy!!!!!!

We are so excited!  Seriously couldn't be happier about having another baby boy!  Ethan and baby boy are going to be so close.  Ethan is thrilled to have a little brother to share his room and toys with.  Definitely an exciting time in the Bartlett home!  Now to officially come up with a name for baby boy... hmmm Carter, Oliver, Owen, Nolan.... so many great names to choose from!  Any suggestions?

I had a picture up earlier that showed off baby boy's gender.  I kept going back and forth about posting this publically on our blog and decided to remove the picture.  If this was a private blog I would have kept the picture up, but since anyone can search and view this blog I decided it was best to remove it.  I will have Cory scan in the profile ultrasound pictures this weekend and I'll post those for sharing.   

Love you tons already little guy!  

We told the kids by calling Mariah's cell phone.  Because of the school closings from the blizzard, the kids were home watching each other.  Mariah put her phone on speaker and said, "okay, so what are you having?", well... it's another BOY!  I believe at that point I heard Mariah say, really..., and Ethan said, mommy... I have to pee...!  Mariah was hoping for a girl so she could hand down all of her dolls, toys, and fashion sense, but I think she is quickly warming up to the idea of being the only "spoiled" girl and having two little brothers.  Ethan is extremely excited and gives me big hugs and kisses my belly often.  He is going to be a great big brother. 

Cory, well I think he is beside himself.  He was hoping for another boy and he definitely is getting his wish!  He is so proud.  I think he is glowing just as much as I am right now. 

Can't wait to meet you in about 21 more weeks little guy!  XOXOXOXOXO

Blizzard 2011

Wednesday, February 1, 2011

Wow! Crazy storm, strong winds, huge drifts, possible flooding for those by lake Michigan! Definitely a storm to remember. Everything is closed... Everything!  It took Cory and Scotty all day to plow our driveway and Scotty's.  Also, Cory managed to get the snowmobile stuck in our yard twice!  The first time Cory and Scotty pulled it out by hand... the second time Scotty used the snow blower to make a path across our front yard to the snowmobile. 

Here is what we saw when we looked out or bedroom door on Wednesday morning. 

When Ethan saw this he said "HOLY MACARONI TRAINS"... lol you said it little man!

This is one of my favorite pictures. 

It was taken from our kitchen door looking towards our bedroom door.

The snow drifts in front of the garage doors.

Look, we almost have an in-ground pool!

Ethan was helping daddy!

Can't even see the stairs leading up to the deck. 

Scotty snow blowing a path across our front yard to get to the buried snowmobile.

Thursday, February 2, 2011

Schools are still closed.  Many people were unable to dig themselves out, places have not been plowed, and the roads are still very messy.  We did venture out in the weather today though... it was the big ultrasound day!!  I also went to the salon to get my hair trimmed, then took the kids to a couple stores to get new snow gear for Mariah's field trip, and to Best Buy to get Mariah a new cell phone.  It was so nice having two snow days off in a row with the kids! 

Friday, February 3, 2011

Back in business!  Schools and businesses are open, streets are pretty much cleared, but plenty of cars are still in the ditches.  The report on the news this morning was that schools are open, but are optional.  If you are unable to send your child they will be excused.  Many people are still plowed in, some roads are single lanes, so much to still clean up. 

I got to work this morning and looked out my window and here is what I saw...

definitely a storm to remember!

18 Weeks and BIG DAY AHEAD!

Baby and I are 18 weeks today!  Feels like such a huge milestone.  Maybe because this is a big week for us.  In just TWO days we get to find out if baby is a BOY or GIRL!  We also get to peak at baby and make sure everything looks good.  Of course we are mainly praying for a healthy baby and knowing the gender is secondary.  Having one of each we really don't have a big preference on the gender, but according to Cory and Ethan the baby is a boy and according to Mariah and myself the baby is a girl.  We'll find out who is right in just a couple days! 

Here is a picture of baby and I at 18 weeks.