A Sad Loss.

This has been a very hard week for us. Yesterday, we had to put our beloved dog Jack to sleep. He was 19 years old. He started losing his sight a few years ago, lost his hearing a few weeks ago, and this past weekend he could not even get himself up to go to the food dish. I got him from a rescue when I was 12, so I have had him half my life. He was a retired Champion show dog who needed a good home. He was a good boy, and we all miss him very much. I'm' too sad to type much more, so I posted a few pictures. Rest in peace Jack, you were a great friend.

Ch. Croix's Jack Be Nimble 01/02/90-04/22/09
We love you, Jack!

Jack Halloween 2008, checking out our pumpkin. We called this "Jack-in-lantern"

Me in 6th Grade with Basil and Jack.

Jack and Bella, November 2005.

Jack on the left in 2003.

The day we found out about the Ferglet!

We both wanted to write a little and share with you the day we found out we were pregnant. Hope you enjoy! :)

John's perspective:
I remember Maura wasn't feeling well for a while and I started to think that she might have been pregnant when we went on a weekend trip to Minneapolis. I noticed that she wanted to stop a lot to use the restroom on the five hour drive. My suspicions were confirmed one morning when I was getting ready for work and I heard my wife in the bathroom frantically calling my name. I went into the bathroom and Maura said, "I just took a pregnancy test and it's positive!" I gave her a really big hug and smiled really big and kissed her. Maura seemed very freaked out and buried her head in my chest. We had to go to work, and the rest of the day I couldn't keep my mind off of it. I wanted to tell everybody, but I didn't because we weren't sure that one positive test really meant she was pregnant. After work that day, we got a second test and Maura took it, and it was positive, too! We called the doctor and the nurse on the phone confirmed that two positive tests meant that we were going to have a baby. I felt really excited and really nervous and just knew that everything was going to be really different really soon. We didn't tell anybody until a few days later, and it was really exciting telling people that we have a baby on the way.

Maura's perspective:
When I found out I was pregnant, it was a total shock! John and I were in the final rehearsals for Lucky Stiff, and I was very busy with that and work. My period was 11 days late or so, and I figured it was because I was stressed out about memorizing my lines for the show. I had a pregnancy test at my home and saw it one morning after I woke up. I thought, well, I'm late, I should take the pregnancy test and see. I honestly didn't think it would be positive. Seconds after I took it, I saw two lines appear. My husband was just waking up, and I just started to say his name. He walked into the bathroom probably thinking the toilet had overflowed, and I showed him the test. He was more excited than I was!! I was totally freaked! :) He gave me the best hug I've ever had in my life. We went to work and I couldn't concentrate on anything all day. We only had an hour between work and rehearsal, and as soon as I got home from work I took a second test. It was positive, too, and I had a little meltdown. I just couldn't believe it. I remember telling John, "How can we have a baby?? I don't even know my lines!!" I was amazed with John and how calm he was with the whole thing. I always figured when I got pregnant I would be the calm one and John would lose it, but it was quite the opposite! It's not that I wasn't happy, I totally was, I was just so shocked I didn' t know how to react. It was very difficult to concentrate on the show, but I did. The best I could, at least! :)

Sickness!

Hello everyone! Maura here. We just got back from the doctor a few hours ago, and I am sick with a bad case of bronchitis and a sinus infection. ICK! I started to feel some congestion and a sore throat last Tuesday on John's birthday, and it was just downhill from there. The cough is driving me nuts! My chest is constantly sore, and I'm wheezing like crazy. I've had a low grade fever for 5 days. I was scared to take anything due to the Ferglet! Finally I called the doctor and we went today. She was very nice and gave me a prescription for an antibiotic and told me to take plain Robitussin. Hopefully that will help. I'm supposed to take it easy for a week because having moderate to severe bronchitis increases the risk of catching pneumonia, which is especially dangerous during pregnancy. We most definitely don't want that. Also, I lost over three pounds in the past week, and I am supposed to eat more. Normally that would not be a problem, but it's hard to eat when you're not hungry.

John is getting the sniffles as well and has a cough, but he has no fever and is feeling okay. John is being a wonderful husband and father to be. He is very kind and attentive (which is no surprise)! I am grateful for him on a daily basis. Last week I would cry very easily, due to pregnancy hormones and feeling so sick, and John got to the point where he would just come give me a hug. I think I cried once because I was almost out of pop. What a tragedy! :) I love John so much, and I know that he is going to be a wonderful dad. We are both so very excited to be parents! :) We are counting down to MAY 12th, when we find out if the Ferglet is a boy or a girl. Eee!

Finally, we are so happy that today there are signs of spring! It's close to 60 degrees here today (15.5 Celsius) and in North Dakota, that is shorts weather! We have opened all the windows in the house, and it is lovely. Now if the river would just go down!! Our beloved dog park is under water, so we can't take Bella and Luigi out to run safely. For now, they just look out the window excitedly with their paws on the sill. The river is expected to go down in a few weeks. We are grateful that the city of Grand Forks invested so wisely in a great flood protection system, because while Fargo and other ND communities have been evacuating and really stressing out, we have just been watching the river go up, relatively unconcerned.

I hope you all had a great Easter, quiet readers!

Another Doctor Appt... and Baby Wiggles!

Hello!

We had our second prenatal appointment today, and all went well. It was a much faster appointment than the first one! We went over my lab results from last time (everything is perfect), checked my heart rate and blood pressure (again, right on target), and talked about something called a maternal serum screening. It is an optional test to see if the baby has spinal cord issues or Down Syndrome by checking the level of a certain hormone. If something shows up on the screening, then an amniocentesis is performed, which is a potentially risky procedure where they take cells from the fluid around the baby. We opted to not take the maternal serum screening because the chances of our child having Down Syndrome are slim. Also, if the baby were to have it, we would not choose to terminate the pregnancy. We are excited to welcome whoever is growing inside me, no matter who they are! :) Finally, the doctor answered some silly questions that we had, and we got to hear the baby's heartbeat again! Today the sound was really scratchy at first, and Dr. Setnes Hoefs told us that scratchy noise was our little one wiggling around in there (or as John calls it, the baby was doing the "no-pants dance"). The heartbeat was the same as it was last time, 150 beats per minute. That is right in the normal range, so we are happy parents-to-be. Everything is going as well as it can so far (knock on wood)!!

Speaking of the no-pants dance, I am pretty sure I felt the baby move on April 1st. Hopefully it wasn't an April Fools! :) John and I were lying in bed with the puppies watching TV, and I felt what I thought at first was gas. Just like little bubbles low in my belly. I stopped thinking it was gas when it went on for over 10 minutes, and I wasn't gassy at all. I asked the doctor if it could have possibly been the baby, and she said it probably was! We were both excited. :) It is starting to seem real. I am starting to get a bit more of a belly, which is kind of exciting too. I will post pics in the next week or so. I've only gained just under 8 pounds so far, which they said is right on track.

The food aversions are getting better, but I'm still not the biggest fan of garlic or meat smells right now. Along with my love of limes, I have begun to crave watermelon. The other night, I had half a watermelon for dinner!! I did makeup for Red River High School's production of South Pacific this past week, and one of the kids asked me why I was eating so much watermelon. I said it was my dinner! I also told him that your definition of dinner changes a lot when you're pregnant. :) I've been drinking chocolate milk like it's going out of style, which is very good for the wee one. I haven't had any nausea to speak of anymore, which is lovely. However, last week brought on the lovely pregnancy heartburn. Ugh. I was relieved to hear from my doc today that I can take antacids to relieve that pain. I've also had a really sore back this week, which the doc said can be relieved by massage (John was happy to hear that, I bet!). Other than that, it's going really well.

Well, that's it for this week! John turns 24 tomorrow, so we are gearing up for his birthday. We both have the day off, which is great.

Hope you all are well!

Maura & John

Welcome to our new blog!

Hello friends and family! As you all know by now, John and I are expecting our first little one. We are excited and nervous and a little scared! :) I think that's pretty normal. We decided to start a baby blog so that you could all check up and see how everything is going, since we have family and friends all over the United States and some wonderful family across the pond in Scotland!

So far, it's going pretty well! I am 13 weeks pregnant right now. Hello, second trimester! Our estimated due date is October 1st. I am pretty sure I'm carrying a boy. It's a feeling I've had for over a month now, and the midwife guessed that too when we all heard the heartbeat at our first prenatal appointment two weeks ago. We don't officially find out for a while now, but that's my guess. Both my mom my Aunt Kathy had dreams that we were having a little boy, too. John and I have lots of names in mind! We're pretty sure we have the first name decided, we just can't find a middle name we're in love with yet. And no, we're not telling the name until the wee one is born! Sorry, we realize that it is a tease to tell you we have a first name and then not give it up... you'll just have to stay tuned. ;)

The pregnancy has been pretty easy on me, so far. I didn't really get morning sickness, just a little pukey at the Firehall Theatre during our run of "Lucky Stiff", and I was pretty sick when brushing my teeth with mint toothpaste. That subsided when the staff at my friendly food co-op suggested a ginger toothpaste. Ginger has been a great friend of mine in the past couple months when I've felt nauseated. Ginger ale, ginger tea, and ginger candies. I haven't had any really wacky cravings yet, but I do crave lime all the time. We've now scoped out all the restaurants in Grand Forks to find the best lime drinks (virgin, of course!), lime desserts, entrees with lime in it, any lime. I've even gone so far as to carry a squeezy bottle of lime juice in my purse so that I can put it in whatever I want. The other weird food thing is that I absolutely cannot STAND garlic right now. That is odd, because on a usual basis I love garlic! I use pulverized garlic on my food just like salt and pepper when I'm not pregnant, so this sudden aversion has taken a while for both John and I to get used to. Other than that, I am the queen of napping. I nap all the time! I'm afraid that I have spent more time in my bed than anywhere else in the last couple months. John has been great about taking care of Bella, Jack, and Luigi so that I can rest.

And now, some words from John!

Now the daddy footnote. Maura and I are very excited for our new addition. It was a wonderful surprise for the both of us (and the future grandparents!) We had our first prenatal appointment on March 11th. Both the nurse and midwife were very excited for the both of us. You could tell they really liked babies. We received a book to read and a list of classes that we can take. Maura and I must have looked nervous because the midwife was very reassuring. Overall it was a pleasant experience. It was especially relieving to hear the heartbeat. It was verification that we are indeed having a baby and that were are not both crazy.

That's about all for now! We're trying to not worry about the flood in the Red River Valley right now. Hopefully everything will be okay!

Love to all of you!

Maura & John