Cantrell Family Visit

This past weekend my parents and sister drove out to Wisconsin for a short visit.  When they arrived, the back of the Pilot was filled with baby gifts from the WV baby shower.  It was fun to go through everything again and put things away.  Watching the babies room transform has taken my excitement for baby to the next level.

The evening my family arrived, we went to Ryan's softball game.  The Argus team was playing for the league championship....and they were victorious!  It was an exciting game and we had a great crowd there to cheer them on. The guys worked really well together this season and they deserved the big win.  When I told the Argus bar owner Gwen that we had won, she started singing "We are the champions" in the bar.  Hopefully the fall softball season will be as much fun as the summer season.

The Argus Softball Team 2010

Keeping with the ball theme, we took my family to the Mallard's baseball game for bacon appreciation night.  Although we didn't end up eating any bacon, we had a fun time watching the Mallard's shut out the Eau Claire team.  

Cheering on the Mallards

The rest of the weekend was mainly filled with shopping adventures.  We went to the Madison farmer's market and walked around on State St.  We also went to the butterfly exhibit at Olbrich Gardens. 

My parents purchased me a new camera for my birthday!  I'm sure there will be a visible improvement in upcoming pictures. Here are a couple of pics I took with the new camera at dinner the last night the fam was here.

Ryan, Mom, and I at Babe's

Dad and Kasey at Babe's

Overall, we had a great visit with my parents and Kasey.  It's hard to believe that the next time they come, the baby will be here!  Only 12 weeks to go!

27 Week Pregnancy Update

It feels as though my pregnancy has taken a major change over the past week.  My belly is getting huge and I'm starting to get uncomfortable.  Everyone asks if I am due soon and although I smile and say no...I feel like screaming at them that I have 3 months to go!  One lady informed me that my legs don't look pregnant...I just smiled and kept all my sarcastic remarks to myself :)

There have been some developments over the past week.  During week 26 I took my 1 hour glucose test and had blood drawn to check my hemoglobin levels. The nurse called the next day (always a bad sign) and said that I had failed my glucose and that I was anemic.  To address the anemia, I had to start taking iron supplements.  Since I failed the glucose test, I had to take another one where they draw your blood over a period of 3 hours.

For 3 days I had to incorporate 16 oz of orange juice and a cup or rice/noodles into my diet. Then on Monday I had to go in for the glucose challenge.  If you are not familiar with this test, here is how it works.  You can't eat or drink anything the morning of the test.  When you arrive they draw blood to get your fasting sugar levels.  Then you have 5 minutes to drink this orange flavored glucose drink that is super sweet and a little gross.  Afterwards they draw your blood at 1 hr, 2 hrs, and 3 hrs. The main downfall is you can't eat or drink anything and you aren't allowed to leave.  On another note, the glucose makes the baby go crazy and I'm pretty sure he was practicing for a future world cup event.

On Tuesday morning the nurse called to tell me I have gestational diabetes.  I was really upset and cried several times throughout the day.  I knew it wasn't a big deal but since I work so hard to protect my little baby, these bumps in the road feel like I'm failing myself and the baby.

This morning I had a dr. appt and the doctor reassured me that I shouldn't be stressed out about the situation.  I am now scheduled  for a diabetes/nutrition education class in a couple of weeks and will have to follow a strict diet and check my blood sugar all the time.  The doctor was willing to let me stop the iron supplements as long as I promise to incorporate iron foods into my diet and I have to switch to a different daily vitamin.

The one upside of the diabetes is that they will be doing at least one extra ultrasound to make sure the baby isn't getting too big.

Other than the sugar issues, the pregnancy is going pretty well.  I'm excited for the third trimester to begin and can't wait to meet my little man!

WV Baby Shower

The weekend of July 24th I flew to WV for my first baby shower hosted by my sister Kasey and BFF Brandi.  It was a wonderful shower with a huge turnout.  My sister Carrie made me a cool diaper cake complete with a giant frog on top.  She even sutured the rubber duck onto it using her surgery skills!  Kasey made fun cupcakes in the shape of rattles and filled the table with lots of fun food.

For favors, Brandi ordered custom chocolate bars with cute wrappers on them (I need to take a new picture of one to post).  They even had a cute little message from the baby on the back.  My mom also decorated flower pots and planted flowers in them for everyone to take home.

We started off the shower with a couple of games.  First we measured my belly using toilet paper.  It was 10 squares around.  

Then everyone made playdoh babies and I got to choose my favorite.  My first choice was Brandi's and my second choice was my friend Tricia's. 

After the games, we had food and I began to open all the great gifts for the baby.  We received so many presents that my dad is boxing them all up and driving them here on Thursday.  

The gift that made me cry was a blanket my grandma cross-stitched for the baby.  I knew she had started making it before I was pregnant and stayed up late the night before to put on the finishing touches.  Of course no one there was surprised that I cried!

I cannot thank everyone enough for attending the shower and sending me gifts.  It's nice to see the excitement everyone shares with me when it comes to this baby boy.  He is going to be spoiled rotten and I can't wait.  

Needless to say, the shower was a great success and I am getting very excited for my Wisconsin baby shower!  

Door County-July 4th

Ryan and I decided to take a mini-vacation up to Door County Wisconsin to celebrate the 4th of July and visit with his mom (Deb) and step-dad (John) who have a house in Egg Harbor.  The drive is about 4 hours and we decided to take our time and enjoy the ride up.  First stop was Oshkosh where we went to the Motherhood Maternity outlet store.  This stop was a success as I found several t-shirts, jeans, and even a dress to purchase.  I even let Ryan stop at the GAP store :)  After the outlet mall, we headed on up to Green Bay and stopped at the Packer Pro shop.  We were really excited to buy some cute clothes for Baby Hagemeier.  Unfortunately, we were very disappointed at the selection.  The baby ended up getting some booties and a teddy bear.  So we left Lambeau field and headed on up to the Egg.

Our visit with Ryan's parents was very relaxing.  Our first night we went to an excellent restaurant called Cooper's Corner.  They had a store there that sold oils and vinegars.  I got an excellent pomegranate balsalmic vinegar that is perfect for bread dipping and making reductions.

Dinner at Cooper's Corner

The next morning Ryan and John went golfing while Deb and I got pedicures and shopped at some baby stores.  That evening we went down near the beach to watch the fireworks.  We were so close that we could actually watch them setting them off.  Although we enjoyed the fireworks, I'm not convinced that the family dog Hampton had a good time...too many booms for him!

Waiting on the fireworks

On Sunday July 4th we decided to watch the Egg Harbor Parade.  They had been advertising that the University of Wisconsin Band would be performing and we figured we might as well check it out.  We picked out our spots and watched the entire parade which lasted an hour and a half!  It was also extremely hot out and we all had to take showers when we got home.

Ryan and I watching the parade

Here are a few things that we saw in the Egg Harbor Parade...

Local Firetruck with Mascot

Camel

Lots of tractors

And finally...the UW marching band!

There were literally 20 kids from the band on the back of a truck.  We were so disappointed.  I just started laughing...we were so hot and sweaty and we had waited an hour and a half to see this!  Oh well!  We should have trusted our instincts that the band would not be performing in a 4th of July parade in Door County!

Once we were showered, we headed out to Fish Creek for some shopping and dinner.  We  also got our picture in the giant beach chair.  It was somewhat of a challenge for me to get in and out of the chair.  Apparently I showed off my underwear in the process!

The big chair

Me and Ryan at his mom's house in Egg Harbor

Ryan and his mom

Needless to say we had a nice visit and enjoyed getting away from Madison for a few days.  Next trip to Egg Harbor will be with Baby in tow!

Learn your vegetables

This week baby center informed me that my baby boy is now the size of a rutabaga.  After putting some thought into it, I realized that I have no idea what a rutabaga is!  Then I began to worry that I won't be able to teach my little man his vegetables.  After asking a couple of other people, I realized that there were several of us who are familiar with the word rutabaga, but can't visualize what the vegetable looks like.  So I have decided to share a few facts I have now learned about rutabaga.

Taken from How Stuff Works

Taken from Kevin Weeks "Seriously Good" Blog

Rutabaga facts:

1. also known as the yellow turnip or just generally a turnip
2. root vegetable that is a cross between a cabbage and a turnip
3. carved for halloween in Britain and Ireland
4. cooked in a variety of ways and often used in soups and casseroles

Now I feel that I can at least visualize what a rutabaga is and will be able to tell my son that he was once the size of this purplish-yellow root vegetable!

Halloween Baby

Last weekend we went to Green Lake where 3 of Ryan's brothers were camping and where Ryan's dad has a summer place.  We had a great time at the pool playing with our nieces and nephew.  While there were many great moments of the weekend, there is one particular one that makes me laugh whenever I think about.

Here is a conversation (paraphrased of course) that I had with my nephew Ethan.

Ethan: Are you having a halloween baby?
Stacy: Yes, he is due around halloween (I was very impressed that he knew this information).  Do you think we should dress the baby up in a costume?
Ethan: Yes
Stacy: What should we dress him up as?
Ethan: Christmas!
Stacy: (Laughing) Should we dress him up like a Christmas tree?
Ethan: No
Stacy: How about an elf?
Ethan: Yes (laughing)

After this conversation, I may have to buy a miniature Elf outfit in case the baby is born before Halloween.

Little kids say the funniest things. I can't wait to hear what my little boy will have to say in a few years!

Lions and Soccer Balls

The summer is flying by and we are starting to plan for our little man to arrive.  We have now registered and picked out a theme for the babies room.  We are going with a safari/sports theme.  Many of you may be surprised that the babies room will not be a tribute to the Brewer's gift shop!  Our bedding is really cute and has lions and giraffes and other safari animals playing with soccer balls, etc.  Below are some of the wall hangings (copied from Babies r us) that go with our crib bedding.  Now we just need to decide what color to paint the walls.

Along with our sports theme, Ryan's mom got the baby some really cute socks this past weekend at a shop in Door County.  My favorite pair are the baseball socks.

I'll post more about our trip to Door County and all the other activities we've been up to this summer later.  I still have to take pictures off the camera...a simple task that always seems to take longer than necessary!