32 Weeks and Happy Holidays!

As you can all see, the baby had a huge growth spurt in the last month. I went from kind of showing to there is no question that there is a baby in there! I am often met in public with questions, "when is the baby due", "is it a boy or girl", and the random strangers touching my stomach. My 8 month appointment went well. The baby measured just right, the doctor tried to feel if the head was down, but wasn't quite able to tell yet. Now we start going every two weeks to see the doctor. The baby continues to practice gymnastics in my stomach every day, or as Mike says, gets his or her cycling legs ready. (: Mike continues to talk to the baby everyday and is ready to get to have some of caretaking on his shoulders. He just said to the baby last night, "I am tired of you being in mommy's stomach, I want to hold you!" He often puts his head on my stomach in hopes of being kicked in the head. It is amazing to have a partner that is so excited to be a dad, it has been the most amazing experience for us as a couple.

We continue to get things ready to bring the baby home. The room is finally starting to look like a baby's room with a crib, dresser, etc. Perhaps one of the coolest and most sentimental items in the baby's room is the rocking chair that my parents used to rock my sister and I. My dad recently gave it to me and I have already sat in it thinking how amazing it is that I will be rocking my own baby in it soon. The emotions Mike and I are both going through in anticipating the birth of our first child are amazing. We can't believe the amount of love we already have for this little one, and we think daily of how amazing it is going to be when the baby is born. We feel so incredibly blessed and can't believe our little one will be here in just two months.

On a different note, we want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and the happiest of New Years. We approach 2007 knowing for a fact that it will change our lives forever with the birth of our child and look forward to all that will accompany that. We look back at 2006 with wonderful memories, we celebrated our first anniversary as husband and wife, we celebrated our second year in our home with lots of improvements continuing to be made, we both were healthy and employed and we are surrounded by the most amazing friends and family. We pray that each and every one of our family and friends is blessed in the coming year and we continue to be incredibly grateful for all of you.

All our love,
Mike and Jill

Comments...

So, for the longest time our blog only allowed those with a blogger account to leave a comment. I didn't realize that we could change this. However, now I have realized and was able to change it so anyone can leave a comment. Several of our friends had emailed us saying how much they wished they could leave a comment, but didn't want to have to sign up for a blogger account to do so, now you can!!!! Just thought I would let everyone know!

Oh Christmas Tree....

So, we have managed to get our christmas tree up and decorated, it is really pretty and we are really enjoying looking at it each night. We don't have too much to report right now. I am really sick and have been for about a week now, it is getting really old. I finally went to the walk in clinic on saturday and have bronchitis so hopefully the antibiotics will kick in soon that they gave me, until then I am definately tired of coughing! Feeling this bad has definately affected my ability to get anything done, we have had plans to go shopping for a dresser for the baby, but haven't been able to do that and Christmas shopping was supposed to be finished this past weekend, but that didn't happen either. So, for now, I am resting lots and hoping each night that when I wake up the next day I will finally feel better. I can't believe that there is only two weeks until christmas!!!

Nesting already?!?!

So, everyone talks about the nesting that you do when it is close to the time of delivery, but I think since I am a beyond anal person to begin with, my nesting/anxiety is starting early! At work, I have been doing paperwork that needs to be turned into court when I am gone already so that the workers that are watching my cases while I am gone don't have to worry about it. Then at home, I made Mike go through stuff with me last night in the spare bedroom that needs to go to goodwill. Mike keeps asking if we are having the baby soon since I am trying so hard to get things in order. I think that since I can't control anything about when this baby will come (and that is hard for me!) that I have to control the things that I can in my life right now, like getting things in order for when the baby does come. So, I guess for now, the endless lists of things to do will continue...

28 Weeks

I can't believe another month has passed and it was time to take the 7 month picture! How time flies. It is crazy to us that we only have two and a half months before this baby will be here! So much to do, so little time!!! Anyway, things are well, I am starting to get uncomfortable at times and my feet seem to hurt all the time, but I am not complaining. It will all be worth it in the end! We celebrated thanksgiving this past thursday and both feel exceptionally thankful for all the of the blessings we have. We are thankful for each other, our home, our friends and family and our little baby. We thank each and every one of you for being a part of our lives. We love you all.

Owwww....

We had our second birthing class last night. We practiced lots of different breathing techniques and learned about back labor. I am counting on Mike to remember this stuff because I have this feeling that in the pain of labor, which breathing I am supposed to do when may fall to the wayside in my head. We watched a video of an actual birth which was quite emotional to watch. Of course, sappy me, ends up crying when the baby is born because I have these intense emotions over the fact that we are going to go through this and have a little one of our own in such a short time. The very thought of the life growing inside me blows my mind and I can barely wrap my hands around it at times. Then we took a tour of the birthing center and saw the rooms that we will use. While we were standing in the hall they were rolling a just born infant into the nursery and again I got all emotional at just the thought that we are going to have one of those in less than three months. It is so darn exciting!!!

I had my 7 month doctor appointment this morning which was quite eventful. In addition to the normal things that happen at every appointment such as hearing the heartbeat, which never gets old, I had to do the gestational diabetes test and get the Rhogam shot. So, in case you didn't already know, I HATE shots and have been dreading this shot since the beginning of my pregnancy when I found out I had to have it at 28 weeks. Well, it didn't disappoint me too much, it did hurt, but maybe not as bad as I thought it would. I didn't realize that I was going to have to get the shot in my hip, that was not exciting. Anyway, it is over and I am sure after going through childbirth I will think that getting that shot is something quite pleasant. After that I had to go get three vials of blood taken for the diabetes test and some other tests that they do. When I left I was done with being poked and proded for today!

Calm...

So, I have no exciting pictures from the weekend to post, in fact, I haven't for a few weeks now. The best part about that is because the past few weeks we have fallen into a rather relaxing life filled with next to no plans and frankly enjoying that. Summer and fall are always so busy for us, the months seem to fly in the flash of a moment and suddenly winter is here. We suspect that perhaps the coming years will start to calm a little because we will not have only ourselves to think of. We are enjoying this next phase of our life, the phase where we can't remember the last time we were out till bar time and an exciting friday night is watching a movie and being in bed for the 10 o'clock news. I guarantee you, not that many years back we would have looked at our current life and thought "those people are boring". Oh, how life changes, it is amazing. Sometimes it feels like college was a minute ago, it is almost impossible to believe that it has been 8 years. Sometimes I'll be up reading a book at 7:30 on a saturday morning thinking, "there was a day where I would have been sleeping for at least 3-4 more hours". Now sleeping till 9am is sleeping in. Even that will soon change with a little one that will allow us much less sleep, we assume, than we are currently enjoying. So, this is my current reflection for the moment, life is good, very very good.

He He He He who... or birthing class #1

So, last night we had our first birthing class. We showed up with our pillow and blanket in hand ready to learn all the tricks of having this baby. It was only week #1 of 6, but it was quite interesting. We learned all about the different stages of labor, some relaxation techniques, and how much this is going to hurt. Mike and I agreed that it was very informative. We were only slightly embarrassed when we had to try out some of the techniques to "calm" me in the beginning stages of labor when the pain is just beginning. We had to try the slow dancing technique for a whole song that the "teacher" played. It was going well until half way through she said "Okay ladies, now lean into your husband" and Mike and I quickly realized that that works best when the husband is taller than the wife. It was quite humorous. All in all it was painless and it was actually pretty fun for the two of us to be doing together. We were even a little emotional driving there thinking that sometime in about three months we'll be driving there about to meet our little son or daughter. We simply cannot wait, we just love this little one so much already and we haven't even met him or her.

Baby or Cat?

Apparently Powder is a little confused about who or what goes in the baby carrier. We have it sitting in the den at the moment and Powder has decided it is a quite comfortable sleeping spot. Boy is she in for a rude awakening when the baby comes and the world doesn't revolve around her!

24 weeks

Wow, 6 months already! That feels like a long time that bean has been growing! Only 3 and a half months to go, we can't believe it! The carpeting is being installed today in the baby's room so it will be great to see what it looks like when it is all done! Mike's mom bought us our stroller and car seat last week and Mike put it together. It is starting to feel so real with all this baby stuff around! It will be so cool to actually have the baby to put in all the stuff soon!!!

My friend

So, my friend Anna Brown from Atlanta has started her own design company that is over the web. So, even though she is in Atlanta, she does everything by email so you can easily access proofs of what she will do for you, etc. She can do Christmas cards, wedding and baby announcements, invitations, programs, photography and much, much more. Please check out her website, www.annabrowndesigns.com, to see some of what she has done and for information on pricing and how it works. It is really beautiful stuff and the pricing is very reasonable. You can also email her with any questions at anna@annabrowndesigns.com. Enjoy!

Go Pack!

Well, we were fortunate enough to witness a winning game of the Packers this season. We went to the game today with Lindsay and her boyfriend, Todd, and it was much fun. Bean got to experience he/she's first game and the only time that it will be free for him or her to go! Perhaps our favorite part was watching Brett Favre run a touchdown in and then proceed to Lambeau Leap for the first time ever, it was great to see him having fun again.

Baby bedding

A lot of people have been asking me what we are doing for baby bedding. I found this picture on the internet of the bedding we registered for. We just love it, the turtles are so cute and it matches the room great!

Registering

So Mike and I both had some time off of work yesterday and decided to dedicate most of that time to accomplishing some baby tasks. Our first stop was to Target to finish the registry that I had gotten us started on. I thought that we would be there about 45 minutes picking out things such as pack and plays and exersaucers, but was I mistaken. It seems as though Mike has a lot of interest in making sure that each and every item is perfect for our first child. It was very cute to see him look intensely into each item to make sure that it made the most sense to register for. He wanted to make sure that our child would benefit developmentally and educationally from anything that it could. So, after a couple hours of debating which high chair would be best or which playmat has the most bells and whistles, we finished our registry. The next stop was USA Baby to register for our bedding and look at cribs. They were having a sale so we wanted to see if we could find anything to our liking. I was secretly praying we would come home with one so I could check another thing off of my list of things to purchase prior to the baby's arrival. So, we start off by registering for the bedding and again I am surprised to see how much Mike has invested in this process. He decides that he can't simply live without the mobile for the bedding set, because "it's just so cute Jill!" It was simply adorable. Anyway, then we were on to the crib selection. Luckily we were both pretty much on the same page and had it narrowed down to two pretty quickly. After several laps back and forth between the two of them, we picked one. We bought it and brought it home and we love it. We are so excited. I am especially excited because I am just so happy to have accomplished so much!!!

One year

Okay, so this isn't the best picture. We don't have a scanner and our pictures from our wedding aren't digital. So this is my attempt at taking a digital picture of a framed picture. If nothing else, you get the idea. (:

It has been one year today since Mike and I said I do. We woke up this morning and couldn't believe that a year had passed since we were married, sometimes it feels like yesterday, sometimes it feels like a lifetime ago. So much has happened in that year. We have continued to grow closer, our love has grown deeper, we've laughed, we've cried, and we've been there each and every day for each other.

We were talking about our favorite moments of the past year as a married couple. Our two favorites were the amazing honeymoon we had and the moment we found out we were going to have a baby. In just a year we've become a married couple and now we are going to become parents, it is the most amazing feeling ever. We both said that we literally could not be more blessed in our lives, we are very thankful each and every day for the wonderful life we have and for how lucky we are. We look forward to many many many more years celebrating our marriage.

We also talked today of the friends we met, Josh and Anna, a year ago when we arrived in Antigua. They also are married one year today and we wish them the happiest of anniversaries. Thank you for the friendship we gained and the year of a long distance friendship, we love you.

So, to all of our friends, thank you to you too for continuing to stand beside us, support us and love us, we are eternally grateful to you all.

The Dump

So, yesterday, Saturday, I am trying to get things done around the house. I am all proud of myself because I am going to attempt to go and find the city dump and get rid of the three bags of yard waste that have been sitting in the garage since I cut them down about two or three weeks ago. So there I am, I have found the dump and am rather proud of myself. I get out the bags and realize that I have to open them up and dump them out onto "the pile" of yard waste because you can't just throw the garbage bags on it. So, I tear open the first bag and realize that leaving that stuff tied up in a trash bag in the garage wasn't the best idea. Bean apparently agreed because I immediately started gagging. That is my new pregnancy issue, a terrible gag reflex. So, I am on to bag number two and bean says, enough of this, and there I go, throwing up at the dump in between two other Port Washington residents who are trying to innocently dump their yard waste. How embarrasing! Anyway, I was telling this story to my friend Becky last night and she told me that I must blog it because it was hilarious. Hope you all enjoy!!!

20 Weeks

The halfway mark! We can't believe it, here we are, halfway to the baby being born. I still feel like a complete idiot taking these side view pictures, but I think our child will someday appreciate them and maybe even I will after the baby is born! Not much is new since the post about the ultrasound, we look at the pictures a couple times a day and are still shocked that that little person is in my stomach! The baby is moving lots and that is still my favorite part. We started to look at bedding for the crib and found a couple that we like. We are going to bring a paint sample to put next to them and see what works best. Mike is painting the baby's room today and that is very exciting. Other than that, it's the same ole same ole!

Our baby!

We had our ultrasound appointment today for the halfway mark. It was seriously the coolest thing we have ever experienced. Seeing that baby was amazing. We got to literally see every organ, each hand and foot. The heart beating, the brain. It was awesome. We attached some pictures for you all to see. The first one is a profile shot and the second is a picture of the spine which is really neat. The baby helped us out, when we told the tech that we didn't want to know if it was a boy or a girl she told us that was a good thing because there was no way that she could have told us, those legs were closed up tight! The tech said that everything is measuring exactly perfect, everything that needs to be there is there and the baby looks just like it should. It is just an amazing relief hearing that.

Lake Geneva

This past weekend we went to Lake Geneva with my dad and step mom and sister. It was a nice relaxing trip. We took a boat tour, read, ate and relaxed. It was really nice. I meant to post some pictures, but since I left our camera at home, I have none to post!!! Other than that, not too much is new. Bean moves at some point every day and I look so forward to that each time. It is definately the best part of the pregnancy. It is just beyond words how cool it is to feel the baby moving. On our way home from Lake Geneva on Sunday we stopped at Babies R Us to begin the process of picking out a crib. We were totally overwhelmed. There are so many! We decided to think some more about it and revisit that topic another day. The most exciting part of that trip was that we found a stroller that has an adjustable handle that is super high! Finally, they make something that will fit me! I was really worried about the fact that all of the strollers are too low for me, but this one is perfect. It took all the decision making out of it, there is only one that does it and it is in one color. Decision made! Next week we have our ultrasound, we can't wait to see the little one!!!

Bean kicked!

Okay, so I am sitting at my desk right now, dealing with a hundred different job related issues and all of the sudden I feel this unmistakable, fleeting movement in my stomach. I can't believe it, I think the baby just kicked me for the first time that I could feel. It was the coolest feeling ever. Although it went quickly and of course now I feel nothing even though I keep staring at my stomach hoping for more! (: Anyway, just had to share that!!!!

16 Weeks!

Okay, although I am not so fond of the pictures of myself staring at the camera, it really is much more fun to have a visual! So, here we are, me and bean, at 16 weeks and 4 days! I just got home from the doctor, it was a good visit. I got to hear the heartbeat beating strong. It was so different from the last visit 4 weeks ago. At that visit it felt like it took her forever to find the heartbeat and then once she did we only got to hear it for a short time before she lost it. This time, the minute she put the little doppler thing on my stomach we heard it beating strong. It was awesome. She said that it sounds perfect. She showed me on my stomach right where the baby is and that was cool too. Other than that, not too much exciting happened. I got to schedule our ultrasound, that will be in three weeks. We can't wait for that! Outside of that she said that everything looks great! We can't believe that we are over 4 months along already, time just flies!!!

29 Years...

The picture is of the gorgeous flowers that my wonderful husband gave me for my birthday on Monday. They were very sweet and it was a great birthday. We went out to dinner on Sunday night and Monday night I went out to dinner with some girlfriends and Lindsay, my sister. My favorite part was the card that Mike gave me from the baby with the cutest note inside, from the baby of course. I started crying, of course. (: It is so crazy to think next year on my birthday I'll be a mom!

The Bean

So, I have this little calendar on my desk that is essentially a calendar of this pregnancy. It is a message from the baby everyday of what is going on with him/her. Some of the posts are just so amazing to me. Here is today's, "If you could touch my lips, I would begin to suck your finger." I just can't believe what is happening in my stomach, it never ceases to amaze me everyday. It's so crazy to think that the baby would begin to suck my finger if I touched its lips, how cool is that. I just can't wait to meet this little one...

Up North...

So, we just got back yesterday from some time up north. It was really fun. We had lots of relaxation and got to spend some time with good friends. Mike's best man from our wedding, also Mike, was in town with his wife, Jen, visiting family. We headed up to meet them for a few days and got to catch up. The boys enjoyed one of their favorite things to do together, water skiing and I read an entire book, one of my favorite things to do! We had good food, good conversation and an all around good time. Below are a bunch of pictures of our time "up north".

The boys

Okay, so I am so new at this, I don't know how to make this picture the right side up, sorry! Here's Mike getting ready to ski!

Mike doing one of his favorite things.

Here's another picture of Mike skiing, check out that spray!

Here's a picture of Mike fishing, he caught one 14" Northern while we were there!

12 Weeks!!!

We had our 12 week doctor appointment today, we are actually quite close to 13 weeks already, but that is just how our doctor appointments fall. We got to hear the heartbeat, it was so exciting!!! It is just amazing how it feels to feel some tangible connection to the baby like that. You know that you are pregnant, but at this stage before you are really showing and before you can feel the baby move, things like hearing the heartbeat just gives you this amazing sense of relief, like everything is okay in there! The doctor said that it sounds great so we were really excited. Other than that, not too much exciting to report in beans world! We can't believe that we are into the third month, we have so much to do before bean arrives into the world! Last night we bought a ceiling fan for the nursery, that was exciting. Now Mike just has to start painting and then we will have to have new carpet put into the room. We can't wait to do some of the fun stuff like look for bedding for the crib and pick out the furniture, that will be so fun!!! Well, that's all for now, love to all from the Schwenzen family!

Happy Birthday Mike!!!

Last night I had a surprise party for Mike. Although he pretty much figured out the surprise, he had no clue that his good friend Mike was flying in from New Jersey and his other good friend Matt was driving many hours to surprise him. That really surprised him! Everyone seemed to have a great time, especially Mike. He was so excited to have spent such a great time with all his friends. Thanks to all who made it!!!

Our bean is lucky

So, I found these pictures today when I was looking through our camera at old pictures. They are pictures of Mike with our friends, Eric and Anna's, son Gabe. We went camping with them in June. How lucky is our baby to have Mike as a daddy, when you look at these pictures you can just see how good he is going to be.

war

So, I am going to attempt to write this post without getting political at all. My purpose is for one reason. Last night I got a phone call from my friend Jyl who was so saddened. I didn't realize it, but the Cedarburg soldier that was killed in Iraq on Monday was one of her husband's good friends. They had just spend the 4th of July with him, 10 days before he was being sent to Iraq. He had only been in Iraq for three days and was on his first mission when he was killed. This is the first time this war has hit so close to home. I have always been incredibly saddened in hearing that one of our soldiers had lost his life fighting for us, but I had never really known anyone that had been killed. My mom called me yesterday morning to tell me that this had happened and told me that I had gone to daycare with this soldier long ago. I certainly don't remember him, but it was weird to think that at one point in my life I knew this person who had just died fighting for us. He was his parents only child. My heart hurts for my friends Jyl and Jeff who are grieving the loss of their friend and for everyone else that knew this man. Whether or not we agree with the war, our people are dying everyday so we can live the lives we live. I am going to do my best to never forget that and be thankful to them each and every day for the sacrifices they are making. I just hope they can all come home soon and safely.

friendship

So, I am straying from the typical post of what is going on with the baby today. I am going to attempt a post a little more "deep". Most of you reading this know the story of the couple we met on our honeymoon, Josh and Anna. If not, ask us sometime, it is an amazing story. Mike and I have been blessed in our lives to have amazing friends. There is no question about it, we would both tell you, our friends are the best you can ask for. We have always felt that way and always will. We thank God everyday for the amazing people that we have in our lives.

So, when we left for our honeymoon we never would have thought that we would add two more to the list of simply amazing people we have been blessed to cross paths with. We left for our honeymoon with the simple expectation of relaxation and some fun times together. Never would we have guessed that we would meet a couple that would change our lives. We ended up meeting Josh and Anna and spending most of our week with them. With them we had some amazing conversations about life, God, and spirituality. You see, we had no idea, but they were struggling with their life at home, in their community. They were trying to figure out how to be themselves and still fit into the expectation their community had for them. We talked frank, we told them our story of being essentially thrown out of the churches we had grown up in for one decision we had made. We talked of the pain that caused us and the faith we had always had that was in an instant questioned.

Then we told them the story of Janis, our pastor. We told them about how our tears were instantly erased when we met him and started attending his church. We never realized that we would feel so at home and welcome at a church. We had no idea that we would be able to have in depth conversations with our pastor and that he would listen and encourage us to keep digging. Neither of us would have guessed that we would miss church when we couldn't attend a Sunday, we had never experienced that feeling. We have never felt so at home in a church in all of our lives.

I digress though, when we returned from our honeymoon, we kept in touch with our newfound friends. We were introuduced by them to the blogging world. Their blogs told their story, their story of what they were going through and the journey that they were on and how much our friendship had impacted them. Josh has actually been blogging the last two days about this and you can check it out here: http://www.iamjoshbrown.com/blog/ His posts are extremely thought provoking, I would encourage anyone to read them.

So, to Josh and Anna, know that you two have affected us also. We are inspired by your story and your journey. You have allowed us to have many conversations with each other that have made us grow as a couple. We thank God for your friendship and look forward to many years of trips to each other's "worlds".

And to all of our other friends reading, those who have been with us for the long term, we love you with our whole hearts and thank God we have you. Thank you for defining who we are as people.

Week 10

We can't believe that we are almost done with the 3rd month of pregnancy. This move towards the second trimester is being met happily by myself as I am beginning to finally not feel like I am going to die everyday all day long from sickness! (: I have started to feel exceptionally better, not perfect, but the change is amazing! Just the ability to eat a little healthier, not have to eat every single hour and to not have to spend all of my precious free time on the couch or in bed feeling sick is wonderful. I am still having an aversion to chicken most days, but I have been able to stomach it a few times! We continue to attempt to think of a boys name that we both agree on, but the girls name is set. Neither name will be shared with anyone, just to add to the surprise! Other than that, not much is new in Bean's world. Outside of becoming a little person each and every day that is!

Babies, babies, babies...

So, we had our good friends Joe and Melissa over for dinner last night, as usual we had a great time together. They also are having a baby due October 1st. We are both holding out the dream that our kids will fall in love and get married of course! (: It was a great night with great food and great company. Here's a picture of Joe and Melissa that we took last night!

Our friend from Atlanta's brother's big dream....

So our friend Josh from Atlanta's brother needs our help! I don't know who reads my blog but if you happen to come across this please vote. I'm copying and pasting s an e-mail from this morning. It explains it better than I could. It only takes a minute at the most!

Hello, my faithful friends. Josh's little brother Blake has been involved in a contest over the past few weeks to become the new morning co-host of an Alabama country radio station, Kicks 104.1. The competition is called the sidekick search and he was on the radio a week ago today. Voting is American Idol-style, with the most popular contestants staying in the competition. Voting is online and I beg and plead for you to vote for him, it would help him out so much. Here's the link ... http://kicks1041.com/side_kick_search.shtml.


Scroll down to the bottom of the page, click to vote, and select Blake Brown, then press vote. I appreciate all of your help so much. This is the kind of opportunity he's always dreamed of.

The bean

So, we now affectionately refer to the baby as the bean, just made it a little more fun for us. We have crossed over into the 9 week mark and I am still feeling pretty nausious all day every day, but it does come and go and to be honest I have pretty much gotten used to it! It is going to be amazing to return to feeling great every day! Most of you know now that we are pregnant, but in case you missed any of the details, our due date is February 18th and we will not be finding out what we are having. We have had one doctor appointment and an ultrasound and have seen the little one with its heart beating strong. I have already started to gain weight due to the fact that I pretty much have to eat all day long in order to keep the sickness away, but that is okay. The doctor said I need to do what I need to do to get through this time so I am just taking it day by day!

Because of our friends...

So, we are going to attempt to join the world of blogging! Since no one knows of this where we are from really, it may just end up being for our dear friends Josh and Anna, but that will be worth it. After spending a fantastic weekend with them, we realized that we need to keep them more up to date on our lives especially with the bean on the way!!! So, we will use this opportunity to write what is going on in our lives, what we are thinking and to chart our journey to parenthood! Who knows, maybe this will be the beginning of a blogging revolution within our "wisconsin friends" too! Hopefully for those of you who don't live close to us, this will be a way for you to know what is going on with us on a regular basis!