General Update and Week 22...

I feel bad that we aren't posting more on the blog. It just seems like not that much tremendously exciting is going on. We've been continuing to work on Quinn's room and are close to being done except some touch up on the chair rail and some caulking. We touched up the paint last weekend. Our next project, which I think we will kick off this weekend, is to sand down the furniture we plan to use to paint it white. It's kind of funky, 70's looking stuff that I'm not that wild about (sorry, Turner!), but I'm hoping that painted a solid color instead of a the wood grain and with the addition of some funky drawer pulls, it will look totally different.
After that, we still will need to run additional power in his room (there's only 1 outlet right now!!!) and then get cracking on the former office/guest room to-be. We're trying to find a futon that will work in that space as it just isn't big enough to accomodate a Queen sized bed or even a normal full without taking up way too much space. Don't worry, for those of you who actually stay with us, we plan to get a nice mattress so it really shouldn't be too bad at all. I think it may be hormones, but I feel a real push to get all of this done. I know the further into the pregnancy I get I will wind up more tired, and a little larger (and therefore less mobile) so I want to get as much done as possible asap. It just seems like there is so much to do.
Other than all of that, everything has been going well. I'm working on cutting out some quilt pieces from some of my dad's old shirts so that my friend Nichole can help me (read: take charge as I know nothing about doing it) make a baby quilt for Quinn. I also really want to paint something for his wall...I have this idea that I really like, but I don't know if I'll get it done so I won't tell you about it yet. I am starting to sound crazy and slightly over-motivated, eh? The tragic bit is, that when I get home, I'm just so tired I don't actually get much of it done. Oh well...I AM growing a baby afterall!
And now, for Week 22:

(Can I just mention that I LOVE me some spaghetti squash! I know that it's a little random to share when it is Quinn's veggie of the week, but it is one of my absolute favorites. I introduced Turner to it just recently and he likes it as well. Sorry, leave it to me to bring it all back to eating :-) ...Ok, back to it:
At 11 inches (the length of a spaghetti squash) and almost 1 pound, your baby is starting to look like a miniature newborn. His lips, eyelids, and eyebrows are becoming more distinct, and he's even developing tiny tooth buds beneath his gums. His eyes have formed, but his irises (the colored part of the eye) still lack pigment. If you could see inside your womb, you'd be able to spot the fine hair (lanugo) that covers his body and the deep wrinkles on his skin, which he'll sport until he adds a padding of fat to fill them in. Inside his belly, his pancreas — essential for the production of some important hormones — is developing steadily.

Week 21 Update

So, the offical Week 21 Update:

Your baby now weighs about three-quarters of a pound and is approximately 10 1/2 inches long — the length of a carrot. You may soon feel like she's practicing martial arts as her initial fluttering movements turn into full-fledged kicks and nudges. You may also discover a pattern to her activity as you get to know her better. In other developments, your baby's eyebrows and lids are present now, and if you're having a girl, her vagina has begun to form as well.

As for actual news from us....hmmm... Not too much going on, really. We registered last weekend (at Babies R Us and Target) and thought we THOUGHT we knew what we were doing going into registering, in the end, it was a little on the overwhelming side. It seems that even with people we know who are raising happy, great kids, there are some differences as to what people found to be essential and things like that. One thing we have definitely learned is when you register you should take a mom with you as she'll have a lot better ideas as to what makes the most sense.
Otherwise, not too much going on. Hanging with friends, chilling at home with friends and with the dogs. The boys are both doing well (knock on wood). They had a bath this week which wasn't popular, but they smell much better :-)
This weekend, we hope to get more work done on Quinn's room. And we got in the rocker glider (with Rob's help moving it) last night which we're really happy with. I'll try to get some pix of that. We still need to touch up paint and Turner is going to caulk the chair rail and such. Then we'll move on to sanding and refinishing the furniture. There's always something to be done, it seems!
Hope all have had a good week and hope you enjoy a good weekend!
Love to all,
Jessica

Other ultrasound info...& Week 20 Update

Hey.

Just thought I'd give you some more info as in all of the excitement of Quinn being a boy, I forgot to tell you other info we got. Everything with him is perfect and exactly as it should be. Right now he's a little squished in my uterus, which means I should be getting bigger so he has a little more room to move. They also caught on the ultrasound that my placenta is lower than normal so that is blocking Quinn's escape route (more info than you wanted, right?). This would be a big deal if I were having him naturally, but isn't such a big thing since I'm having a C-section. The great thing about it is that we'll get another ultrasound at 36 weeks in 3D just to check on it. YAY! We LOVE to see him.

Now, for our Week 20 Update:

Your baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. He's also around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom and about 10 inches from head to heel — the length of a banana. (For the first 20 weeks, when a baby's legs are curled up against his torso and hard to measure, measurements are taken from the top of his head to his bottom — the "crown to rump" measurement. After 20 weeks, he's measured from head to toe.)He's swallowing more these days, which is good practice for his digestive system. He's also producing meconium, a black, sticky by-product of digestion. This gooey substance will accumulate in his bowels, and you'll see it in his first soiled diaper (some babies pass meconium in the womb or during delivery).

Quinn's first Pix

Ok, so it's not actually his first pictures, but it's the first pictures that we knew were of him!!

We'll try to get on here later and make some notes, but here you go!!

This was our second ultrasound and the second time we've gotten one of these cards. He's not actually a member of an 80's boy band :-)

Another full body shot...

This one was the 3D Ultrasound. Apparently, you can see a lot better when it's bigger. Quinn seemed to think this was a fun time to hide.



















On the one below, you can see the heart (I circled it!!). We saw all 4 chambers and everthing was good. We got to hear the heart beat and his pulse was 150 bpm.















For proof that al of the limbs are there, I included this hand...















...and foot.

Quick update...It's a.....

BOY!!!
And we're planning (thus far) to name him Quinn Lewis Turner.
He's perfectly proportioned, very cute, clearly very smart and a little chubby for a 1 lb baby :-) Apparently he's not going hungry! We have lots of pix (including a 3D one) as well as a video (thanks to our awesome ultrasound tech, Nancy) and Turner will post them asap as I let him take them to work. However, he's off with his boss and co-workers at a Batman premier (hard job, eh?) so it will be awhile.
Love to all,
Jessica

Preggoriffic!

So I'm just posting this as it is funny. I put on this dress (of Kari's) this morning and really thought I didn't look very pregnant... However, in court, several people asked me about it and at some point, I was in the elevator and saw a side view of myself and realized, I really do look pregnant in this... I told Nichole my story (I was tired this morning when I thought I didn't look preggo) so she took my picture to show everyone how un-pregnant I look :-)

The actual reunion....and the rest of the story

So now, more explanation to go along with all of the pictures. Turner and I took a trip to Central Illinois to attend my mom's 45th high school reunion with her in Mattoon, IL. Maybe an odd vacation, but I really wanted to see Mattoon again (the town my mom grew up in and where my Grandma Georgia lived), I wanted to share Mattoon with Turner, and I wanted Turner to meet some of my mom's friends from high school, in particular, Susan and Linda as growing up, I spent some quality time with them. Alas, Linda didn't make it from California, but Susan lives in Mattoon so she couldn't escape me!
We went to Carbondale on Wednesday to visit my Aunt Sheryl, Uncle Bill and Sadie. It made more a much shorter trip on Thursday and was a great excuse to spend a little time with them. After a delicious breakfast courtesy of Uncle Bill, we hit the road. We kind of piddled a bit and stopped in Lebabnon, Illinois where there are a bunch of antique shops en route to Jacksonville.
After picking up my mom, we headed to Mattoon. Once there, we met Susie for dinner at Cody's. My mom was staying at Susan's and Turner and I had a hotel room nearby.
Friday we met Larry (Susan's husband) for lunch at Villa Pizza (there are pix of lots of this below) and then hit the mall. I got a few great deals on a couple of maternity shirts and a dress and mom found some cute outfits for the reunion. And Susie managed to sneak away and buy some super-cute Peanut attire. After a nap, it was time for the mingler at the American Legion.

This is a shot of my mom and I at the mingler on Friday night. There was lots of good food, a great birthday cake (as the Class of 1963 was turning 63 this year) and some oldies (I mean the music, not the people).
The next morning, Turner headed out early to play golf with Larry and I picked my mom up to put together flowers for the graves (My Grandma Georgia, Grandpa Pano, Uncle Johnny, Great Uncle Tony Steve and Great-grandma Ida are all buried in Mattoon). It toook longer than we thought it would and Turner ended up meeting up with us and we toured the train station and then he went with us to the graveyard.

Then we went around and took pictures of my grandma's house and Friendship Park. This is a shot of Turner and I in Friendship Park with the headless woman statue (as a side note, I think she lost her head when I was still a kid, so this isn't the work of a modern day vandal:-)
Then back to the hotel to clean up and off to the reunion. Turner was the official photographer which presented a number of problems as it was pouring rain and lightning and thundering and the class picture had been planned for outside on some stairs. After some improv, he managed to get some good shots and we edited over the rain drop on the lens (which you'll see in the picture below) with Class of 1963.

This is me, semi-hideously posing as the place holder for the Class of 1963. Alas, though we lined them all up on this stairwell, they wouldn't all fit, so we had to move them out into the rain.

The official Class of 1963 picture. However, as I mentioned above, the raindrop was edited out. Turner was perched on the back of the Tribute holding an umbrella in one hand and the camera in the other taking this picture. I ultimately stood below him as it was the only way to keep from getting completely soaked.

A final shot of us with my mom later in the evening. I'd like to say that I hope I didn't look this hideous all night. The rain had played a number with my hair and as for the rest of me, ugh, hopefully I didn't look this bad the whole time. Since we were the official photographers, we have way more pictures of the Class of 63 than we do of us, so I included this one just because.
All in all, save the LONG drive on Sunday, it was a good trip and I had a lot of fun.
Oh, and the Peanut travelled pretty well, all things considered.
Love to all and we'll update with the sex of the Peanut on Thursday!
We can't wait to find out!
Love,
J

The train station....

Now we move on to the train station portion of our Mattoon tour. The train station in Mattoon was always special to me as: a. It's a cool historical building, b. My Grandpa Pano (mom's dad) built bridges for the Illinois Central Railroad so he had a part in building the railroad itself and c. After his death, my Grandma Georgia had a free pass on the trains and the train just happened to run between Mattoon and Carbondale so I could visit Grandma Georgia and then she would take me on the train to Carbondale (for free) so I could visit my other grandparents. I'm pretty sure she ended up spending quit a bit though as I remember getting lots of snacks on the train.

This is a shot of my mom coming down the train station stairs. The station is in a bit of disrepair at this point, but there are plans to return it to it's former glory. The basic architecture is amazing, I think. My mom particuarly loves the curve at the bottom of the staircase.

And this is where you would wait for the trains. Again, keeping in mind that much of my time spent there was as a younger child, I always imagined that it was a lot like Grand Central Station. I'm guession that my perspective was a little off :-)

Turner found this picture as part of the rennovation. Its a shot of the dining room interior as it was originally. I don't know if they're going to re-do that as well, but it would be awesome if they did.

And here's a shot of outside the train station off of the tracks. This is where you would board and disembark the trains. Again, I get that maybe most people aren't that into train stations, but since I travelled through this one a lot and my grandfather had a hand in making it what it was, I wanted Turner to see it and was so glad we got a chance to go inside.

Some more Mattoon Pix...

So this is a picture of the brick sidewalk outside of my grandma's house. I had to get a picture of it as I can remember helping weed it in my childhood. Now, I have to admit, I'm not good at weeding as an adult, so I am guessing that as a child I didn't do great work either, but I do remember it fondly. As a side note, I don't think the people who live there now are good at weeding either.

This is the fountain at Friendship Park. There was a couple that was getting married there when we showed up to take our pictures, which was interesting in so much as when I was little, I always thought I'd get married at Friendship Park. It always seemed so peaceful and was so nicely landscaped, I always loved it there. And I'd go there with my grandma or parents or when I wanted time alone. I went there with my friends when they came along to visit my grandma and at least one time, I met some boys that we'd met playing tennis at Friendship Park with my friend Joyce when we were 12 or so...sneaky girls!

This is just a shot of my mom and Turner outside Cody restaurant where we ate on Thursday. My mom stayed with her friend Susan Miller and apparently, she has been to the restaurant so many times, Susie practically has the menu memorized. Either way, the food was great and we were glad to be there.

This is Susie and her husband Larry at Villa pizza. It's a really tasty local spot that has a pizza buffet. They also have an amazing salad bar. Larry met us for lunch on Friday before we hit the mall for some Elder Berman sales. (I've never been to Mattoon when Susie hasn't said there are sales at Elder Berman!!!)

Trip Pictures....Memory lane...

So this is a picture of my grandparents house in Carbondale. I made Turner drive by it so that I could take pictures, and he thought I was a psycho as the Highway Department now owns it and he's pretty sure they are putting me on a terrorist watch list :-) Either way, this is the place I had most of my Christmas' growing up and where I did laundry in college and where I went in college when I was sick and wanted to be taken care of (and a million other things) so I took some pictures of it...

And then on to Mattoon, where my mom and I crept around taking pictures of my Grandma Georgia's house. It looks pretty good, all things considered, as the house next door that was owned by these people named the Browns who always kept it immaculate is in a state of disrepair. I'm glad that whoever is living in Grandma Georgia's house is taking good care of it.

Granted, they do park a lot of cars in front and that makes it hard to (creepily) take pictures that aren't filled with cars. You can see some of the top of the transom windows on the front porch that I always loved in my grandma's house.

Then we went down the alley so we could see the backyard. The garage is still standing, which is pretty impressive as it was old when I was a kid. It had a dirt floor and come to think of it, may have been the only dirt floored garage I ever knew. Her shed is still there, too, which is great as I have lots of happy memories in it. As a kid, I can remember one summer when my cousin Sarah and I made a "club" that we "convinced" my cousing (her sister) Wendy to join. Wendy was in her late teens or so and had had a leg surgery so she was in a cast, but she spent a great deal of time hanging out with us in our very hot, very dark "clubhouse".

This last shot is of Friendship Park. It's a park that is about 2 blocks from my Grandma's house. I used to be allowed to walk there by myself (it is one of the first places I can remember being allowed to walk to by myself. The land for the park was donated when an old house burnt down and in the beginning, the park was built around the basement of the old house. You used be able to go down the original basement stairs, but at some point in my childhood, they filled it in. You can still see the structure of the old house in the design of that part of the garden, though.

Week 19 Update

So here is the offical week 19 update...

Your baby's sensory development is exploding! Her brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. Some research suggests that she may be able to hear your voice now, so don't be shy about reading aloud, taking to her, or singing a happy tune if the mood strikes you.Your baby weighs about 8 1/2 ounces and measures 6 inches, head to bottom —about the size of a large heirloom tomato. Her arms and legs are in the right proportions to each other and the rest of her body now. Her kidneys continue to make urine and the hair on her scalp is sprouting. A waxy protective coating called the vernix caseosa is forming on her skin to prevent it from pickling in the amniotic fluid.

So the Peanut is a Tomato.... Too bad she/he is a few weeks away from the East Nashville Tomato Festival as that would be timely.

http://www.tomatoartfest.com/

Meanwhile, we're in Mattoon, IL accompanying my mom her high school renion. (Her 45th!) It's actually the year that most of the Class of 1963 turns 63 years old-pretty impressive! That said, it may seem a bit odd that we're attending, but I'm getting a chance to catch up with a few of my moms friends who I spent lots of time with growing up which is great. And Turner's getting to meet them all and see the town my mom grew up in and where my grandma lived, my fave parks, etc. Granted, so far he's mostly gotten to see me, my mom an Susie Miller shop at Elder Berman, but I'm sure we'll get to the sights soon.

More later.

Meanwhile, love to all,

Jessica

Out of Town...

Hey, all!
Just so you know, Turner and I are headed out of town tonight so I may not post the week 19 update right on time. We're going to Carbondale tonight to visit with Aunt Sheryl, Uncle Bill and Sadie and then tomorrow we're heading on to Jacksonville to pick up my mom to go to her high school reunion in Mattoon. It may sound a little weird, but I've spent some quality time around some of my mom's high school classmates and am looking forward to seeing them. Plus, Turner will get to see the town my mom grew up in and where my Grandma Georgia lived, so I'm glad he'll get to share in that.
That said, love to all and will post asap!
Jessica

Poll Reset and Re-opened

By popular demand, the baby name polls have been reopened. Several people complained that their votes were mis-attributed, so please check to make sure that you have the right name selected before you click 'Vote'.

Sidenote: Thanks to Jess for her hard work this morning on getting all of this updated from the weekend. Yesterday was a long and hard-working day (again, many thanks to Craig, Kari, and Corbin!), but it was amazing to see the difference at the end of the day.

More Pictures

So I was annoyed that I couldn't put in all the pix I wanted so I had to do another post. First, here are Kari and I right before getting ready to paint. I thought everyone would want a close up of my new look. Look how brave Kari is, standing next to me!

And a little bit of Turner painting. Although the guys did the bulk of their work outside, building shelves for the shed, unloading the basement into the shed and painting and cutting crown molding and chair rail, if they hadn't stepped in and painted when I got loopy, poor Kari might still be painting so I have to give them credit, too.
And a little more of them doing their trim work.

And finally, our most patient helper award most definitively goes to Corbin! He had lunch with us, tolerated four roaming dogs, watched Elmo more than once so we got to keep painting, had several nonsensical conversations with me about dinosaurs, and even had the good attitude and energy to dance when silly Auntie Pretty (me) tried to find him something to watch on tv and ended up putting on some weird teenage American Bandstand type thing.

He then ate dinner with us, took a bath at our house-with only one measly ducky toy for the tub, and ultimately fell asleep. (Granted that was challenging as the air gun nailing thing was VERY loud). In truth, I think he made it through with a better attitude than I did.

Major thanks to Craig, Kari and Corbin!

And hope everyone enjoyed the progress,

Love, J

Weekend (Some productivity at last....)

Well, I can't say our entire weekend was productive, though it was all fun. However, we did end up making a LOT of progress (as you'll see....). Friday we ran errands including to our brand new Home Depot to get paint for the baby's room. We're so excited as there is a new HD right down the street from us (maybe 2-3 minutes away) which is great as anyone who is like us knows that sometimes when you start a project, you get half way there and realize you need to run out and get something else... Now we can! We're very happy as the new paint department person is sooo nice which is WAY more than we can say for the lady at the old Home Depot. We spent the rest of Friday making apple pie and pasta salad and then headed over to Sarah and Kevin's for food and fireworks around 4. Sarah's parents were in town from ATL and we were so excited to see them (especially considering they brought tons of amazing food-brisket, pulled pork, sausage-plus Dave's home-made brew). Sarah's friends Torry and Toni came over, too. All in all, a great Fourth!
Saturday, we spent a lot of time catching up on sleep. Not sure what that was about, other than our schedules had been a little thrown off with dog sitting and such, but we got up, ate breakfast, watched tv and then took a 2+ hour nap. Winners! However, when we did get up that afternoon, we got down to business and did all the laundry we needed to (we're leaving town on Wednesday) and then cleaned out all the drawers in the baby's room. Which was something along the line of 14 drawers. We also put the Queen mattress on Craigslist as we're planning to switch to a futon in the guest room to save space. Then, Sat night, we ran some errands...
Which brings us to our major work. While running errands, we got a call from Craig and Kari (two of our good friends). We've been counting on Craig's expertise for things like chair rail, crown molding and assistance building a cabinet in the kitchen as I'm not sure there is a home improvement project Craig hasn't done. Well, they'd looked at their schedules and realized if we didn't get cracking, we were quickly going to run out of time this summer. So we planned for them to come over Sunday.
In a bizarre twist, not only did they come over, but they brought a bunch of food so we had a nice lunch before we got to work. The guys ran to Home Depot to get supplies to build shelves in the shed (important as it clears space in the basement for my crafting stuff which had to relocate from the baby's room...) and Kari and I began to contemplate our painting... Just in case you need a reminder, here is the "Before" shot of the guest room...
So we got down to business.... I'm not sure how many of you know that I've been struggling with the fact that I'm not supposed to paint while preggo because of the fumes. Well, Kari had been in the same predicament when she was pregnant as she and Craig had just moved into a new house and were remodeling, so she got this fancy, schmancy mask.... It's a bit hot at first, but you get used to it and moreover, it keeps you from breathing in the fumes. Plus, you get this awesome deep breathing sound and kind of have a Darth Vader thing going.....

First we did the bottom brown, and then we did the top green. I was a little worried about the green, but I'm so happy with the way it came out. I think the dark brown really balances it out somehow. I made it through most of the painting, but at some point, Turner and Craig came in and Kari and they decided that I didn't make as much sense as I used to so I was sent out of the baby's room and got to hang out with Corbin and watch Elmo ("Melmo") and a fascinating movie about dinosaurs. Did you know that there's a dinosaur fairy that you can call and have turn you into a dinosaur? Uh-huh. Good stuff! Oh, and Corbin and I ordered pizza. A dynamic team!
Then, Craig and Turner got to work on the chair rail and crown molding that they'd painted in the yard while working on the shelving in the shed. No pix of the shed right now as I was way more focused on the baby room...

So they measured and measured and cut and cut. And in the end, we wound up with...

An almost finished room! We do need to touch up the green and caulk the chair rail and crown molding but considering that yesterday morning we didn't have anything done, I'm kind of amazed with us and with Craig and Kari! The room looks amazing (at least we love it) and I can't get over what a difference the chair rail and crown molding make.
And Kari who is a WAY less sloppy painter than I am (though she maintains she is not) did all the detail work that I would have completely messed up (though, I did still manage a few splatters onto the baseboard). If any of you have been desperate to paint, don't worry, there's still more to do, but I was starting to feel a bit bonkers about not having made a dent and this all came together amazingly!
And, Bernie is MUCH closer to having a room!

Happy 4th of July and Week 18 Update!!

Wow, I'm sort of amazed to be at week 18. Somehow, week 17 didn't seem like a lot, but week 18 does! (Or, maybe the hormones are making me crazy....) Either way, we're getting there.

In terms of the 18th week, here's the update:

Head to rump, your baby is about 5 1/2 inches long (about the length of a bell pepper) and he weighs almost 7 ounces. He's busy flexing his arms and legs — movements that you'll start noticing more and more in the weeks ahead. His blood vessels are visible through his thin skin, and his ears are now in their final position, although they're still standing out from his head a bit. A protective covering of myelin is beginning to form around his nerves, a process that will continue for a year after he's born. If you're having a girl, her uterus and fallopian tubes are formed and in place. If you're having a boy, his genitals are noticeable now, but he may hide them from you during an ultrasound.

We're still really excited about the ultrasound to determine gender on the 17th, but it still feels very far away.

Pregnancy wise, nothing is too different. I'm starting to show more and more and I swear there was one day this week when my belly just kind of popped out so that I couldn't suck it in anymore. Guess Bernie was looking for more space :-) I'm wearing more and more maternity clothes, which are super comfy and really not bad looking (I'm trying to decide if Joelle and Kari will notice if I keep some of my favorites when I return their clothes :-) I do feel a little slower on my feet these days, but it's kind of hot during the day, so that may be part of it. Oh, and I've gotten a little food picky. Not so much that I'm sick to my stomach, but that I don't want to eat certain things at certain times. Like basically, if it doesn't appeal to me, don't try to get me to eat it.... Turner's having lots of fun, I'm sure!

As for us, this has been kind of a busy 4 day week. We are now dog-sitting Callie (Nichole's dog) and Deja (Pete's Corgi). All in all, they are doing really well with the two boys. Deja is a little older so tends to be a bit crankier with Garcia who gets on her nerves, but he's a good natured (annoying) guy so he takes it in stride.

We've got a number of plans this weekend, including barbecuing with Rob and Becky tonight, watching fireworks with Sarah and Kevin tomorrow (they have a condo that overlooks downtown so it's a great place to watch the fireworks, but avoid the crazy that is downtown on the 4th of July), going to another cookout on Saturday at Stephen's. We also might hang with Craig and Kari. Aside from all that, we need to get cracking on painting the baby's room and shifting things from the office upstairs, etc.

That said, right now, I'm at juvenile covering it for the 4th of July holiday. I'll be here til about 8:30 assuming that we don't get a detention case last minute (fingers crossed!) I hope so as I want to get to Becky and Rob's for chicken burgers!

Well, should get back to going through my criminal court cases, but thought I'd check in.

Love to all and

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!

Jessica