Rising (TOO) Early

Unfortunately, I woke up at 4:30 this morning, so I've been reading and trying to get back to sleep for close to 3 hours now! Well, that's not entirely true. I gave up about an hour and a half ago, and I've been playing online, looking at photos of newborns because I'm taking pictures of my friend's newborn this afternoon. I'm really excited, but it's been quite a while since I've done newborn pictures, and I'm very, very, very nervous about it!!

I also decided to give the old blog a new look, and what better style to sport than a sweet Valentine's Day theme? I thought this one was pretty cute.

In pregnancy news, the main thing that is bugging me right now is that I'm not sleeping very well. I'm also having crazy dreams, and I think it's related. Not sleeping deeply and waking often makes me remember the dreams more vividly! It's truly annoying because they are crazy and some of them are not very enjoyable to say the least. Also, on a positive note, I have my next OB appointment this week on Thursday (my birthday!) and I'm pretty sure I'll get to schedule our big ultrasound. I'm looking forward to having an actual date to, uh, look forward to! Yeah, yeah, I know I'm a crazy planner. We just can't wait to find out if we're having a boy or a girl!

Well, I'm off to see if Brad might be close to waking. :)

Vacation Time!

I am so excited! We are planning a little family vacation to Florida at the end of April! I have really been wanting to go on a family vacation before the baby comes, while it's still just the three of us, and I loved the idea of a beach vacation. Well, we finally decided that we could do just that in April and visit our friends Mark & Becky and their son Carter - and let the boys enjoy the NFL Draft together - all at the same time! So we're flying down for kind of an extra-long weekend. I can't wait! I'm so excited to get some great pics of Miss Nat at the beach!

I can't wait for warm weather in general! This winter has really gotten to me like no other before has. Come on Spring!!

Sweet Natalie

Last night, we went out to dinner with our friends Bill & Katie and their daughter Brooke. We all got cheesecake for dessert, and I was sharing my half with Natalie, who was sitting on my lap. At one point, I got a bite for myself, and I realized that Natalie had opened her mouth wide and was following the fork all the way up to my mouth, thinking it was her bite. Katie noticed too, and we both started laughing. I was laughing so hard that tears were coming out of my eyes, and Natalie didn't understand. She started looking at me very intently, then she'd lay her head on my shoulder and give me a hug. I had to tell her numerous times that I was really ok, I was just laughing, and she just kept trying to comfort me. It was so sweet, but I felt bad!

Nice Tan, Nat!

How can you look at this face and not smile? I don't know if you can totally tell in the picture, but her face is really orange from thoroughly enjoying leftovers of Nonny's baked spaghetti (this pic is from Monday night). It looked like she had a bad fake tan that just covered part of her face and didn't match her neck or anything. She didn't care - she was eating yummy spaghetti!

RSV Check-Up

Great news! Natalie is officially off the nebulizer, and has a clean bill of health! She still coughs every so often during the day, but the doctor says her chest sounds - and I quote - wonderful! YAYYAYAY!!! She also said that her ears look soooo much better, and there is no infection there, but there's still a little fluid. Apparently that's to be expected, and the amount of drainage she has in her nose/sinuses already will determine how long it takes her little body to absorb/get rid of the rest of the fluid in her ears.

The doctor did say that there is a good chance that this winter and possibly next winter, Natalie may have wheezing again even with just a cold. That would mean back to the breathing treatments. However, it is greatly in her favor that we don't have asthma on either side of our families. Praise the Lord for that! We are continuing the zyrtec for her and hoping that takes care of a lot of the "colds" that she was having. Hopefully it will help keep her immune system nice and strong!

Big News!!!

OK I know you can barely read Natalie's shirt in this picture, but it says "this little chick is gonna be a big sister!" Yes, the Billheimer family is going to be adding another member this July! I am 13 weeks today, and I think I'm finally moving past the extreme fatigue and crazy food aversions, praise the Lord! Although this terrible cold that I have has not been an easy one to get through since there's not much I can actually take to make things more comfortable. Things are going very well in general though! Now we're just trying to prepare for our new little one! We can't wait to find out what we're having. We should be able to find out sometime in late February. I'm hoping I get to schedule the big ultrasound at my next appointment, which is on my birthday Jan. 29! So maybe in a few weeks I'll have an actual date for that ultrasound.

Six by Ten

Saturday I started a project called "Ten by Ten" where you take ten pictures on the 10th of each month, taking one picture every hour on the hour for ten hours, just to kind of chronicle your day. I kept my 50 1.8 lens on the camera because I love what it can do, but I'm still getting used to it, so these are not the greatest pictures. Also, due to illness and stuff, I only got 6 pictures in. But hey, I tried! And here are the results:

9:00 am: Natalie sliding down her slide - her big Christmas gift from Mommy & Daddy. Right after she slid down, she patted me on the chest and said, "Mama." She really doesn't call me anything usually, so this was really touching to me!
10:00 am: Naptime for Miss Nat! She normally doesn't take a morning nap, but she's had a lot of them recently since she's been sick.

11:00 am: Things that are keeping my family going this past week. :( With the obvious exclusion of the vaporizer (aka the Star of the Show), which was running in Nat's room during her nap.

12:00 pm: Breathing treatment #2 for Natalie. Doesn't it just break your heart? I am soooooooo thankful that this is just something we have to do for a week or so, not for the rest of her life. My heart goes out to all the mommies who have to do this with their kiddos every day.

1:00 pm: Natalie absconds with my lens cap. She's decided she knows where it goes on the camera, and SHE (and ONLY SHE) wants to put it back on. The problem is, it's a little tricky - you have to squeeze 2 little parts on each side and fit it into the lens. She's basically not capable of doing that at 16 months. Some grown-ups might not be. ;) But it frustrates her to no end.

2:00 pm: Snack time! Natalie was just talking away, eating animal crackers. She did the sign to let us know she wanted to eat, but then wasn't very interested in the crackers. We've decided that she's using this sign not to ask for food, but to say "pretty please" on top of her regular sign for "please." Sigh. It would be nice if she used it correctly!

Well, that's the end of our day, January 10, 2009, at least our day in pictures. Maybe February will go better!

Oh, and speaking of the 10th, Happy Birthday Miss Kara! Hope you had a fun 3rd birthday party!