"The Plan"

Today I met with a perinatologist to hear what "The Plan" is for monitoring for this pregnancy. Drum-roll please.......
+ Level II Ultrasounds (45+ minute 4D ultrasounds) at 19 and 28 weeks
+ Screening for Gestational Diabetes starting at 20 weeks (same as it was with Ty)
+ Weekly Biophysical profiles and Non-Stress Tests (ultrasound to monitor breathing movements of baby, bloodflow through umbilical cord, amniotic fluid levels & more along with fetal heart rate monitoring) starting at 28 weeks through delivery
+ Amniocentesis (testing of amniotic fluid) starting at 36 weeks to test for fetal/baby's lung maturity. Once lungs are mature I will be induced.

SO, basically this means that the remainder of my 2nd trimester will be treated relatively the same as a "normal" pregnancy would be (except for the 20ish week ultrasound being a level II instead of level I) and then a SUPER busy 3rd trimester. I got 2 more ultrasound photos/images today, but Baby was SO active that they are a bit blurry. HA! He/She looks to have the activity level of his/her older siblings (at least the activity level they had in the womb).

Off to rest. T was up with nightmares much of the night so I didn't sleep much and when I did it wasn't good sleep. OH, and feeling horribly nauseaus and even puking today hasn't helped. Love to all!!!
~j

An Afternoon at the "Cool"

The cool? What? OH - you don't understand Tegan lingo? Well, the "cool" is known by most as the "pool". How's that? :) Enjoy!

Love to all!

~jenn

Breathe

That is what I have had to tell myself to do a lot lately... at least more than any mom should have to do. I'll start off with the most dramatic story since I'm sure my brief post yesterday sparked the interest of those that have not already heard what happened.

On Tuesday evening Tegan went outside... I knew this and I thought Brendan knew this but he thought Tegan had decided to stay inside with me. SO, we each thought Tegan was with the other parent. About 15 minutes later Brendan walked into the house and asked where Tegan was - I said "isn't he with you?" and Brendan says, "I thought he stayed with you. He's not with me." Immediately we started searching. Tegan wasn't in the house, or our yard or our neighbors yards or on our street.

Brendan hopped on his bike and started searching our block, even going the 4 blocks to the park. After 5 min or so I decided to call 911. The operator/dispatcher I spoke with was wonderful and assured me that the police were on their way and that I needed to stay at my house in case he came home. I then called my mom and asked her to pray and after hanging up I did just that myself, and continued to do so as I continued to search.

Our neighbors then heard me yelling Tegan's name so they came out and started searching the patch of woods behind our house that leads to a creek (my fear was we'd find him face down in the creek). Brendan soon returned and searched the house again and my level of panic continued to rise as we still couldn't find Tegan. He then left on his bike for another round of searching the block and park.

Approx. 5 min after the 911 call a police officer arrived and told me that she just received a call that Tegan had been found. Shaking and in tears I jumped into the squad car and we slowly made our way down an adjacent street trying to find the address of where Tegan was apparently located. Nearly half a mile away we encounter a small group of people (including recently arrived Brendan) surrounding Tegan. What is my child sitting on? HIS BIKE! When we asked Tegan what he did wrong he replied with, "I don't have my helmet. It was stuck and I couldn't get it on."

Yes, turns out my little man wanted to go to the park. So he tried to put on his helmet, was unsuccessful and decided to go anyways. Once he was at the park (who knows how long he was there for) 2 adolescent boys saw him by himself, "corralled him" (as they put it) and then started down the sidewalk (in the opposite direction of our house) looking for an adult. Once they found one, the adult called the police and because Tegan's name was on his race number on his bike (from last week's Buck Hill kids' race) they got immediate confirmation that he was the 2-year old white male with light brown hair wearing dark brown shorts and a light blue shirt that had been reported missing.

OH-MY-GOSH! Needless to say we had a long talk with Tegan who still has no clue how seriously dangerous and wrong his excursion was. Oh, and the bike now hangs 6 feet off the ground in the garage. If you ask Tegan why it's hanging up he'll explain to you it's because he was naughty and went to the park all by himself... then he'll smile. UGH!

I'm still rattled (2 days later). It took me several hours after the incident to finally stop crying and another 24 hours or so for the adrenaline rush to ease up enough for me to eat much more than pasta or crackers. Praise God that Tegan turned up safe and sound, but I'm sure you can imagine all of the horrific scenarios that were speeding through my mind while we were searching for him.

The moral of this true story: Always accompany your child to wherever he/she is going to meet whoever he/she is going to be with. Never assume anything.

So I'm tired just from posting this... so you'll have to wait until tomorrow for pics.
Love to all!
~j

Apology

I know I said I'd update today, but we had a rough evening yesterday - let's just say it involved Tegan, his bike, parental miscommunication and 911... everyone is safe and fine but I was pretty shaken up and needed today to just do nothing. More tomorrow...
~j

Tomorrow, I promise

As usual, it's been way too long since I last posted. I've got quite a few pics to upload from all our adventures over the last few weeks, so I'll be doing that tomorrow since it's Tegan's daycare day... but here's a sneak peak (well, read) as to what's to come:
1) Breezy Point Family Vacation
2) Veally (like really and very) Loud
3) Rapid (pronounced rap-ee-d)
4) Code Yellow
5) 1/10,000
6) 160
7) Glubs & shobels
8) 7 seconds+
9) Home grown tomatoes
10) Veggie vs. Quick
11) Lugs
13) T.O. (not the football player)
14) Aquaphor
15) I don't like that

Did I get your gears goin? Your brian gears that is... I'll let that work on ya for 24 hours. Until then...
Love to all
~j

You Can Stop Whispering About My Belly

Yes, we are expecting our 3rd little bundle (I'm currently 11 1/2 weeks along). Baby Moore #3 has a pretty special due date - January 26, 2010:the 1 year anniversary of Ty's heavenly birthday. And we're OK with that, for several reasons. 1) what an amazing way to celebrate life?! 2) Baby's lung maturity will begin being tested at 37 weeks gestation and as soon as they are deemed mature I can be induced... so (assuming all continues to go well) Baby will more likely be born in early-mid January. Based on today's ultrasound all seems to look good. Heart rate is at 153bpm, he/she has 2 arms and 2 legs (even though they aren't really visible in this image), and he/she also has a nasal bone. What's the significance of the nasal bone you ask? Apparently it is often absent in children/babies with Downs Syndrome (at least at this point) based on what the US tech explained to me so that was comforting to know. Another comfort (even though physically it's not comforting) is that I've been feeling pretty darn sick - which is a good indicator that all is well with Baby.

Hope this finds all happy and healthy. Please add our new bundle to your prayers and that he/she continues to grow and develop properly and that this pregnancy will end with the fabulous miracle of us having a healthy baby in our arms in January. Thank you in advance!

Love to all!
~jenn

I'm On Vacation...

So I'm not updating as much as maybe I should, sorry, but I am on summer vacation here.

Last week Brendan had his yearly summer furlough so we took a short trip over to the Wisconsin Dells and Tegan got to experience his first indoor water park. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate so he only experienced the indoor water park and not the indoor and outdoor water parks... another time. Regardless, he was none-the-wiser and had a truly wonderful time :) I was a bit tired (having T 24 hours a day, 6 days a week does that to me - it's 6 not 7 because he does still go to daycare 1 day each week) so I mostly sat by the pool and enjoyed watching Brendan and T have a fabulous time, but T and I did some slides and lazy river rides together, too. One of Tegan's favorite features of the resort we went to (The Polynesian) was that there was/is a "big, big bridge" that went over the lazy "rviver" (his pronunciation, not mine). He's really into bridges and stuff so he spent a good amount of time on that thing with Mommy AND Daddy. Hahaha!

While in the Dells we also go to ride on a 1/4 sized steam engine! It involved a 45 min train ride and we even got to go over a "big, big bridge" on that, too! Tegan was in HEAVEN. It was SO cute. I'm not sure which part of the trip was his favorite - the water park or riding on the choo-choo. I do know that when the conductor announced "All aboard!" Tegan's face lit up like I'm not sure I've ever seen. It was the sweetest expression of innocent excitement!

After 2 days in the Dells we returned for a day and then it was off to the Des Moines, IA area to visit Brendan's extended family (his mom's side). After thinking back, we realized it had been 2 years since we'd seen most of that part of the family, so we were well overdue. Tegan had a great time teasing and being teased by Brendan's cousins (most in their teens and 2o's now) and of course seeing Grrrama (he really enunciates the 'r') Moore. Needless to say he didn't need or want much to do with Mommy or Daddy for the weekend. OH - Tegan also got to experience his first 4th of July parade complete with a military helicopter fly-over. In Tegan's words "Very, very LOUD, Mommy. Very windy!" I think, though, that the excitement of the helicopter was enough to cancel out loudness (he's very sensitive and alert to all sounds around him right now). The firetrucks and Harleys were another story -those were much too loud to enjoy, the poor guy was shaking like a leaf each time a motorcycle would rev it's engine or a firetruck would beep it's horn/sound it's siren when directly in front of us. Did I mention the "best" part of the parade (in Tegan's eyes at least) was the candy. OH BOY! Did that kid get sugared up!!! After 2 Laffy Taffys, 2 tootsie rolls, a mini-sucker, 1/2 a beef stick and who knows what else we put our foot down and insisted people (a-hem, Grandma) stop giving him candy when we weren't looking. He was pretty upset, but we redirected his attention to a police car or something coming in the parade.

OK - I think that's about it for now - OH, except for one thing. Tegan's latest saying. Usually you hear of kids asking the ever-famous "Why?" question. Well, Tegan isn't to that one yet, but he is to "What's that?" to every - single - thing - he - sees, even if it's something he already knows what it is. It's cute for about 1 minute, but after that it begins to be frustrating, ha!

Hope all's well with everyone and that you are all enjoying a wonderful and relaxing summer (even if you do have to work, unlike me - hehehe).

Love to all!

~j