Babies, babies, babies....

Don't worry, we didn't have our baby. (: This is a picture of our friends, Eric and Anna's, new little one. Rowan is his name and he was born on 1/11/2007. For those of you who might have met them, Eric and Anna, are friends of Jill's from college. This is a picture that they emailed us. Since they live in Appleton we weren't able to meet him yet, but hope to sometime in the near future!

This weekend was filled with births! We learned of Rowan's arrival on Friday and Saturday morning our friends, Marc and Christina, had their baby. They also had a boy and named him Monroe. Mike and I could have kicked ourselves, when we went to visit Monroe we forgot our camera so I'll have to get his picture up sometime in the future. We were honored when we went to visit little Monroe and his parents asked if Mike and I would be his godparents. We gladly accepted and instantly felt the need to protect the little one. He is quite cute with a full head of dark hair.

So, we congratulate our friends on their new little miracles and are now even more excited for the arrival of our little one. It was quite surreal to us when we went to visit Marc and Christina, they delivered at the same hospital that we will. We were both amazed to think that anytime in the next month we will be in the exact same place, but this time, it will be our baby that will have arrived!!!

34 weeks and a broken rib

So, I hate to complain, because honestly, both Mike and I couldn't be more excited about the baby that is about to come into our world. But, at the same time, the baby couldn't arrive soon enough. The last few weeks have been rough. It started with bronchitis which was not fun to deal with, but that was nothing compared to the most recent issue. I have a broken rib. Yep, you read it right, a broken rib. The doctor's theory is that I injured it while coughing like crazy when I was sick and then the baby went ahead and finished it off last week. I can not even describe the pain. It was literally unbearable at times. I was off of work for 4 days and was barely able to breathe or move. It has much improved now allowing me to return to work, but I am having a really hard time sleeping at night becuase it hurts the most when I lay down so I have to try to sleep propped up and that usually doesn't work so hot. That on top of the fact that I have a difficult enough time right now getting around with the baby getting so big and it is not the most fun time for me. I will definately be ready to have this baby when the time comes. That and the fact that Mike and I are just dying to meet this little one, see what it looks like and begin the next stage, parenting.

Happy New Year!!!

Well our new year was probably not exciting by most people's standards. It involved eating pizza, watching the Packers, playing yahtzee and Jill in bed before midnight even struck. For us, it was just fine. In fact, we loved it. We are cherishing our time together before the 3rd Schwenzen in our house arrives and right now just being together, the 2 of us, suits us perfectly. We talked a lot about what an amazing year 2007 will be for us, with obviously the most exciting part being the birth of bean, but what is more, is that this year marks a change for us. We will become different people. We will no longer just have to be concerned with the two of us, we will have someone completely dependent upon us. It is a welcome change for us and one we are ready to tackle. We said goodbye to 2006 and welcomed 2007 with much anticipation. We remembered many fun times of 2006, our first anniversary as a married couple, vacations to see our friends Mike and Jen and Josh and Anna, more work done to the house, lots of time spent with family and friends, and much much more. We again feel blessed with our lives, are incredibly happy to have each other and the people that surround us, and wish for everyone to have what we have, contentment. So, with that said, Happy New Year all, and bring on 2007!!!

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!