Babies, Babies Everywhere!

I really want another baby. Heck, I always want babies. Lucky for me (since we are not pregnant and not planning on being anytime soon), other people have had or will soon have a baby for me to hold and cuddle. Much to my husband's dismay, holding other babies does not squelch my baby fever - it just feeds into it. However, I know that now is not the right time. So...


Congratulations to my cousin, Shanna, who had a little boy on July 21st. Jackson is so adorable. There were some scary moments in the delivery, but baby and mom are okay so that is such a blessing. He was only an ounce bigger than my little monkey and holding him makes me miss my tiny newborn. I got to spend a couple of days at Shanna's trying to help her out. She wouldn't go take a nap while I watched the kids, but she did get a few other things done. Most of all, it was nice to visit with her and spend a couple of relaxing days hanging out.


Congratulations to my sister-in-law who finally had her baby boys on August 6th. Jen and Jeff spent a looooooong time (and a lot of money) to get those boys here. We are grateful that Jeff is healthy and Jen made it through her pregnancy. The boys are so tiny and had a couple of problems, but went home at six days old. I am so excited to be their Friday sitter when Jen goes back to work.


I have so many other friends and family who are pregnant. Let's see if I can remember them all: Jess & Austin, JuliAnn & Jumbo, Linda & David, Becky & Mike, Chelsea & Jordan, Janae & Tyler, Kelly (from Bunco) & her husband (sorry, I forgot his name)... Yeah. Hopefully I didn't miss anyone.


I have been trying to get back into scrapbooking. I have a few projects in the works. My most recent finished project was a book Lindsay and I made for our parents for Mother's and Father's Day. It was fun and they loved it. I can't divulge some of my projects right now, but I will when they're finished. Lindsay and I have decided that we will have an SSS (Sister Scrapbooking Session) once a month. Kaeli is our adopted sister if our schedules allow us all to "get together" on our computers and gmail and talk and scrapbook together.


Hazel is just as cute as ever. She is also busy, busy, busy! She has started giving us dirty looks sometimes. We just laugh cuz it's funny. She loves her grandparents and we are so lucky to have all of them here in Vegas. It's always great when my parents stop by and Hazel just wants them. It gives me a chance to do a few things without being interrupted. Usually we just have her help us do whatever we're doing (vacuuming, taking out the trash, picking up toys or shoes, etc), but it takes three times as long. She's still a happy little snot and she's making lots of friends at church.


Brody is excited to be the Priest Advisor in Young Mens. We had dinner with all of the YM leaders and their wives on Friday and it was great getting to know people. Brody wants to take his truck and go camping! He is very anxious to get the campouts started.


As for me, I still haven't started all of the projects I had hoped to finish before school started again. Where the heck did the summer go?? We have had fun. Lots of swimming and tv and hanging out with our families. And lots of work around the house! Somehow I have to continue to get all of these things done while starting up at the middle school accompanying for the choirs. But I have a super cute, helpful husband at my house to help me and put up with me, so I am definitely one lucky girl.


It is a few hours past my bedtime and the fact that I haven't been taking advantage of Hazel not only sleeping through the night, but sleeping in quite late into the morning is really quite puzzling to me. Oh, well. I can now cross the last important thing off my list for the week and get ready to tackle my new list!


Good night.

It's a Girl!

Hazel Rebekah Broderdorf
June 19, 2009
8:36 am

6 pounds, 2 ounces
19 1/2 inches

Pretty much perfect

First family picture

The definition of trim is NOT shave...

Brody and I have two beautiful dogs. Well, not anymore. We are not happy with our recent visit to the Petsmart groomers and have no intention of going there again. Below you will see a nice portrait of our dogs taken one day after Emmitt went in to get groomed at the beginning of May. The guy did a pretty good job. Emmitt is a handsome border collie/Australian shepherd mix who is very vain and knows he looks good. We always get compliments on how beautiful he is and how soft is long coat of fur is. He'll prance around with his nose in the air (the little snob) because he thinks he's pretty hot. Bostyn, of course, is cute as a button, but all we have to do is throw her in the bathtub at home and she's in heaven.


This is what Emmitt looks like now...


He is heartbroken and his dad is furious. Brody and I might get into fights now and again, but I know I've never made him this mad. I am certainly glad I am not the one who pissed him off in this situation or I wouldn't have gone home for a few days. They butchered our beautiful dog and made him look like a sick, mangy stray who has gotten in one too many fights. Emmitt's entire demeanor has changed. He hid under the piano the first night he was home and wouldn't even play with his favorite puppet toy he usually goes ballistic for. I miss his beautiful mane most of all.

I wrote a very detailed letter explaining what had happened and printed out a lot of before and after pictures and took into Petsmart. Long story short: they refunded our money (which we were also overcharged by a lot and without so much as a phone call asking our permission), but the store manager tried to blame my instructions as part of the problem in the same breath that she said her groomers didn't handle the situation right. When I said "general trim," I did not give the idiot groomer permission to shave five inches of long, silky hair off of our dog.

Girls: How would you feel if you went in for a trim of your nice long hair and they cut your hair up above your ears? And left patches of long parts and other patches of shaved sections? NOT HAPPY, I tell you!

The next step is the regional manager of Petsmart. This happened on Tuesday. It's Thursday and we're still upset, especially since the store manager handled it the way she did. The Petsmart grooming salon has lost our business as well as some of our friends' business. They better hope Emmitt's shiny coat grows back. Time will tell. But we want the regional manager to know how poorly the situation was handled and Brody wants nothing more than to have the groomer fired.

On a happier note, at least we're going to have a baby soon! That'll pretty much be awesome.

Hitting the Halfway Mark!

We've made it halfway! Woot woot!

I was 20 weeks today and had the BIG ultrasound appointment. Even though I told Brody I was going to keep it a secret from everyone, including him, I didn't want him to miss out on such a big occasion so I told him when it was so he could come with me. I'm glad he was there; after all, he IS my baby's daddy, no matter how many times he tells people we don't know who the father is.

We have a lot of awesome pictures of our little alien baby, but it is late and I will have to scan and post them another day. We also were able to take video of the first part of the ultrasound, which I will also post later.

My favorite thing was seeing how much the baby was moving and watching him (for all intents and purposes, I will refer to the baby as "he" rather than "it" because Brody is hoping for a boy, but we did NOT find out what it was) yawn and stick his tongue out at us. That was pretty much awesome. I know he's part of my side of the family if he stuck his tongue out at the camera! Haha.

The technician was nice enough to do a gender check (while Brody and I closed our eyes) and took a picture, which she then sealed up in an envelope just so we could have it. I asked Brody if he was secretly mad at me for not wanting to find out and he said yes, so it's really not much of a secret anymore. I know his family is mad at me as well. My family doesn't care. I think my parents are just glad they are still getting more grandkids! I am just excited for more motivation to get this kid out of me when the time comes. I told my sister I would have to think back to this day when I was having contractions and remember how excited I was to see our baby's cute little nose in a profile. You'll get to see it soon enough, but for now, it is time for bed.

I love my baby.

And my baby's daddy.

More updates...

Wow. Two days in a row. Can you believe it? I almost can't.

Today was the first day in a long time that I was going to be able to fall asleep after kissing my husband goodbye at 4:30 in the morning. Lately I have been wide awake after that kiss and lie in bed wishing I could go to sleep. Then, around 6:00 or so, I crash and sleep in until 8:00 and end up not getting much done. I was fading back into my slumber when the bedroom door opened and Brody told me his ipod was stolen out of the truck. SUCKY! He figures he must have scared whoever it was away by starting the truck from inside because they didn't get much more than a few things. There was a lot of time and money put into that ipod, though, so he is not a happy camper...

Speaking of unhappy campers, I'm pretty sure that's what my sister is after being in labor since 9:00 Tuesday night! Poor thing must be exhausted. It's just after six now, so she's been in labor for over 57 hours. My mom got there yesterday and has been with her ever since. She went in to the hospital for the fourth time and finally got an epidural last night. Then I got a text that said, "I love epidurals! :o)" Around five this morning she got another one. Cooper has now missed our dad's birthday and is going to have his own. For everyone's sake, that baby just needs to get here NOW!

The last update is in response to some of the very quick comments that were posted from my post yesterday. I thought I made it clear how stubborn I was going to be on the whole finding out/not finding out the gender issue. I don't want to find out! I just wanted to know what everyone else thought. (Isn't that just what people want to hear? Tell me your opinion, but I'm going to do just what I want to do. Oh well. My family is used to that.)

I think Brody has finally accepted that we will find out if he have a son or a daughter when the baby joins us in this world. I haven't told anyone exactly when my next appointment is. Not even my husband. Not that I want him to miss the ultrasound - that's too exciting and he was there for the other two so it's not like I'm trying to keep him from experiences all the joys of the pregnancy (which is only fair since he's definitely dealth with the joys of pregnancy that are pretty much the complete opposite of joy). But I have some questions I need to ask about my appointment before I tell him.

So the verdict is no. We're not finding out. It's not like we have a lot of space for the baby anyway and he's barely gonna have a spot in the spare bedroom. If he's lucky. He doesn't get his own special baby room yet. Haha. (Saying HE is not a slip of the tongue - I just call the baby a he all the time, but we really don't know if it's got two legs or three yet.) We'll just be glad to finally have a little baby and I pray it doesn't take as long as it's taking my nephew to get here!

To Find Out or To Not Find Out - That is the Question

Okay, so I already know what I want - I want to wait until the baby is born to find out what it is. My husband, on the other hand, says he hates surprises (but he sure likes to surprise other people) and wants to know as soon as possible what we are having. I've always wanted a girl first, but we have a boy name picked out and haven't really been discussing a girl name since we don't agree, so I've kind of been hoping for a boy. Brody, being the man he is, wants a boy first to pass along his family name. It would also be fun to have a boy since my sister is having her boy, Cooper, next month.

So far I have had two dreams about the baby. One dream was at the doctor's office in the ultrasound and we accidentally found out it was a boy; the other was last night and I had twin girls, which was a surprise cuz we thought we were only having one baby. It was funny in the dream because I decided I would name one girl and Brody could name the other one, but he couldn't think of anything. I told Brody about the boy dream and he said we should find out, but I told him that we will just plan on a boy and be very surprised if it turns out to be a girl! Haha.

No one will change my mind and who knows if my husband will even read this post or any comments about this post to use against me in his argument, but I would like to know what everyone else thinks. I was in the room when my Kenzi was born and, after having two boys and trying not to get her heart set on a girl, Paula was so excited for the doctor to tell her it was a girl at last! That anticipation was so great and since I'm going to be doing all the work that day, I want to wait until that part of the hard work is over to find out the gender. Besides, Brody thinks that his place as the husband is in the waiting room, so if he doesn't know what we're having, that will give him a compelling reason to be in the room with me during labor. I think he knows he'll be in the doghouse if he isn't in there. I won' t be very happy with him cuz he's the only one I want in there besides the doctor and nurses.

So... what are your reasons for finding out or not finding out?

Oh, the joys of pregnancy

Anyone out there want to come clean my house for me? I really want to do it, but there doesn't seem to be an ounce of energy in my entire body. Well, except for that teeny, tiny part of me that is stealing it all. The blob, the lizard, whatever you want to call it. I thought I knew tired, but this is ridiculous!

I am just thankful that my husband is so patient and willing to help out with things. He really is the best. I hope I'm cooking a rough and tumble, manly baseball player for him, but I know he'll still love his cute little dancer if that's what it turns out to be.

Apparently I have a mild urinary tract infection, though I didn't have any symptoms and was surprised to hear that. I need to remind myself to drink more water. Anyway, I got a prescription for some antibiotics (which my dear husband went to fill and pick up - thanks, honey) and started taking them on Wednesday.

I threw up on Thursday. Gross. So far, I have prided myself on not having morning sickness in the form of vomiting. (Mine is more in the form of - I can't get out of bed in the morning and I feel like I've been hit by a truck.) But by yesterday, I just started to feel awful. Wednesday was rough, but Thursday was even worse. I went to my adult student's house for her lesson and she could tell I wasn't feeling too hot and gave me that "I know how you feel" look. I had started getting a little car sick on the drive over, which never happens when I'm the one in the driver's seat. She gave me some ice water and I started drinking it. Then it happened. A quick jaunt to the bathroom. Thankfully I felt much better afterwards.

One more test, though. I took the antibiotic last night with my dinner and thought things were fine. Fast forward to 12:30 in the morning and I am moaning in my sleep and curled up in a ball. It wasn't until I felt Brody's hand rubbing my back that I became fully aware of how horrible my stomach pains were. That little pill was ripping apart my insides. Not fun. Brody was nice enough to get me some crackers and a sprite and that (thankfully) settled my stomach down and helped me go back to sleep.

Side effects of the antibiotics: headaches, stomach pains, nausea. Check, check, and check. I'm calling my doctor today and seeing if there is something else I can take. I can't live on Sprite and saltines!

Baby Blob - Only one!

Wanna see our baby? It's just a blob, but a baby nonetheless! Here is our baby's first picture...

Brody's reaction to the doctor saying, "Good news. There's only one baby.": Fists in the air and triumphantly saying, "YES!" All the while with a huge smile on his face. What a cute daddy.

We got to see the little heart beating and hear the quick thumps. It's amazing that something this tiny can make me so tired and hormonal! It more real now cuz it seemed I was always telling myself in between mood swings and sore boobs that I am really pregnant. It was almost like I was convincing myself that it was true. Now we have a picture to prove it.

Brody had the day off so he got to come to the appointment with me. I got my official due date, which was exactly when I thought it was. June 25, 2009. So I punched my wonderful husband and told him to stop wishing me pregnant until the end of July. I'm 8 weeks along on Thursday and have my next appointment scheduled for December 10. We even got an estimate on how much our baby will cost for the doctor visits. The little sucker is already costing us money. But that's okay. We'll be glad for the new addition to our family.

Pregnancy Symptoms and Good Books

One of the best pregnancy symptoms I have experienced so far is sudden mood swings, which includes crying for no reason. Of course, the first sentence of my post was total sarcasm. I don't know who is more annoyed at this - me or Brody. As I was moving the bookshelf (including ALL the books) from our bedroom to the guest bedroom (aka Lindsay's room this coming weekend), I ran across a book I remember reading as a child on sleepovers at Grandma and Grandpa Little's house. I think the one I read was my dad's that he read as a child, but now I have my own. The book is entitled "CDB" by William Steig. It is full of letters, numbers and the occasional ampersand, but no actual words spelled out. If you read it out loud, the sentences make perfect sense! I took a break from moving all the books, sat on the floor and read it. The following one made me laugh as this very thing happened to us just last Sunday.
Poor Brody. My friend Kareoke Jen told me this means that some hormone is VERY present in my body, which in turn, means great things for the baby. I am definitely grateful I haven't had any morning sickness yet, so I suppose I'll just have to put up with the unwarranted tears. :o)

Baby Brody

Emmitt and Bostyn are proud to announce an addition to their family. Brody and Jen will be welcoming a baby into their happy home next year at the end of June! Jen is just over 5 weeks along and learning about all the wonderful pregnancy symptoms one by one as they slowly creep into her life, which, in turn, gives Brody the opportunity to experience them as well, bless his heart. We are all very excited and freaked out of our minds! But this new adventure will certainly be fun.

To celebrate our happy news, we went to our favorite restaurant last night and ate the delicious food at Capital Grille. We decided that we'd wait until we found out we were pregnant before we ate there again. We requested the same waiter who made our engagement night so enjoyable and he was nice enough to take our picture.