Baby Bump

I haven't been very good about taking pics of my GROWING bump, but here are the few I have taken.

 

16 weeks

This is when I first started "showing"

 

27 weeks

 

29 weeks

This is such a cute sized bump :)

 

36 weeks

Don't you just LOVE my slippers! ;)

 

A close up at 36 weeks

This size bump is just HUGE!! :)

 

I am now currently 37 weeks! WAHOOOOO!!! I will post some more pics probably around 38 or 40 weeks! Hopefully by 40 weeks I have pics of my beautiful baby to post! Fingers crossed!! :)

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

That's what MY little GIRL is made of!!

Yesterday, I had my 20 week ultrasound and not only did I get to see my precious little one now that she looks like a baby and not a jelly bean, but we also found that the baby is a she!!

This really came as a complete shock to me and most of my family, along with the in-laws.  We all figured it was a boy.  This assumption was partly due to the fact that Rusty's sister has 2 boys and Rusty's brother had 3 boys before he had a girl.  So boys just seem to run in the family, especially for the first born.  But we broke the mold and we couldn't be happier about it!! Rusty said he had a gut feeling it was girl even though he wanted a boy, but he doesn't seem to be too disappointed that it's a girl.  I think this little one is going to have her Daddy wrapped around her finger faster than you can blink!

We also discovered yesterday that this little girl is a WIGGLE WORM!!! They had me go to the bathroom 3 different times, so that the baby would move and the tech could see what needed seeing.  When it came time to take picutres my little bean was a bit bashful! First, she had her hands in front of her face, then she had her foot up there!!! Little stinker!! But we did manage to get a few good shots of her.  Here they are:

Here is my precious baby girl. 

Isn't that a good profile? :)

Here's a close up of the little munchkin.

My flexible little monkey!!

Can you see how she has folded herself in half and is staring at her foot?

So that is our exciting news!! After going through all of the heartbreak of waiting seeing my precious angel has filled my heart and humbled my soul.  I feel so very honored to be her mother.  I can't wait to see my baby girl!! I love her so much already!!!! :)

Baby FINALLY on board!

It has been a long journey to parenthood, but it looks like we are FINALLY on our way!! Here's the story:

Never in my life have I had a "regular" cycle, so getting preggers has been tough.  So for the last year I decided to just try and loose weight and then worry about the baby thing.  Over the course of that year I lost 30pounds.  Then, a miracle happened, for two months in a row I had the SAME cycle length!!! Wahoooooo!!  Because of this Rusty and I knew that pregnancy was a possibility, but experience has taught us not to get our hopes up.  On January 28th I decided to take a preg test just to make sure because I wanted to do some heavy lifting that day.  Much to my shock and surprise it came out POSITIVE!!!!!! Wanting to do it right this time I came up with a "cute" way to tell Rusty.  This is how I told him:

Rusty bought this onsie off of ebay when we very first starting

trying for a baby almost 3 1/2 years ago.

After that I made an appointment to see my doctor because given my history I wanted to get a quick jump on things.  My appointment rolled around a week later and at this point I wasn't sure if I was 5 or 6 weeks along (because of my cycle length).  I told the doctor that my progesterone (the hormone that keeps you pregnant in the first trimester) had been low in the past so I was a little worried about it.  He casually dismissed me and didn't run ANY labs!! I know, CRAZY right?!  He did however do an ultrasound at which he measured me as being 6 weeks along.  Unfortunately, he couldn't find a heartbeat.  I was DEVESTATED!! The doctor then proceeded to tell me to come back in a week, but not to expect anything because he didn't see a viable pregnancy and so I should go home and wait to misscarry!! What a jerk!!

After LOTS of tears and conversations with people I love I decided to get a second opinion.  I cancelled my appointment with Dr. Jerkface and made one with a FEMALE infertility specialist.  While waiting for this next apoointment to arrive a week later I found myself beginning to experience "morning sickness" (or all day sickness in my case).  The thought then occurred to me, "Why would I be getting sick, if I was loosing this baby?"  This was reassuring, but at the same time I have trained myself not to get my hopes up. 

Finally the day of my appointment rolled around.  We went into the ultrasound first (this time with an actual ultrasound tech that knows what she is doing!).  She first did an abdominal and couldn't find anything, so she had me go to the bathroom and come back for a vaginal ultrasound.  In the meantime, Rusty appraised her of our situation and what the previous doctor had told us.  About 2 seconds into the ultrasound she found a HEARTBEAT!!! YAY!!!!!!! We then all agreed that the previous doctor was in fact a jerk! It turns out that when he measured me I was really only 5 weeks along (which you shouldn't be able to see a heartbeat at 5 weeks), but he measured me wrong, and falsely diagnosed my baby as dead! Here's our little peanut at 6 weeks with a strong heat rate of 114:

Can you see my little jelly bean baby? :)

I then saw the doctor and they ran SEVERAL different labs on me that are standard proceedure and also ran my progesterone for my sanity.  It turns out I was right! My progesterone was low, so now I am on a progesterone supplement.  They have been so good to me at my new doctor's office, allowing me to come in as often as I want to check on my little peanut and have been so good about calling me and wanting me to call them so that we are all in the loop.  Man, I wish I had switched doctors ages ago!! I am so glad that Rusty and I followed the prompting to switch doctors because our little doodle bug might not still be here if we hadn't. 

I am now just over 9 weeks along and still sicker than a dog! But I just keep telling myself that it will all be worth it in the end!  I just had another ultrasound between 8 and 9 weeks and the doodle bug is growing nicely and now has a heart rate of 185!

The baby is on the left hand side and the dark spot is his/her brain.

Just below that on the left you can see a little arm starting to form.

Pretty exciting!! :)

It has been a long and stressful journey, but so far it looks as if I will be able to deliver a healthy little Tuckett around October 7th!! The Lord has kept his promise to us that we will be parents.  It's been a long journey, but one I wouldn't trade for anything!!! :)

Showing Rusty the Ocean

For Christmas we were able to go to Arizona to spend time with my family.  It was HEAVEN!! We were able to spend a WHOLE week there, which was EXACTLY what the doctor ordered ;)

Growing up in Yuma, we frequently took day trips over to San Diego, played in the ocean and did some shopping.  So it never occured to me that some people have NEVER seen the ocean!! Well, my hubby WAS one of those.  The last time he saw the ocean, he was 9 months old and his family went to the beach in Oregon.  Being so close to the ocean in Yuma, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to show Rusty the Ocean.

These are some pics from our adventures in San Diego.

The Shore. Rusty was so funny, he was pressing his foot in the sand and it would turn a lighter color then he would lift his foot, all the water would ruch back and the sand would look like jello.  He had never seen this before and was quite mesmorized. It was awesome :)

Me and my honey at the ocean.  Yes, we are BOTH wearing cowboy boots and jeans.

We are SO from Idaho :) Gotta love it!!

I have ALWAYS wanted to write my and my sweetheart's names in the sand, but I've never had another name to write.  Now I do and I couldn't think of a more perfect name attached to a better man! :)

Me and my littlest sister Dee :)

Me, Dee, and my other sister Kate.

Unfortunately, we were missing one sister, Heather. She had to work :(

Kate and her fiance Bradley.

It was fun to get to know him better.

Can't wait to make him a permanent member of the fam!

After the beach, what did we do? SHOPPING of course!! :)  So we went into the mall, which had a Walmart in it! Crazy right?! Well it gets CRAZIER!! This Walmart was two-story and had an ESCALATOR in it!!!!! NUTS! I felt like a major country girl and HAD to take a pic! :)

There is an up and down escalator, but the crazy part is in the middle.

In between the "people" escalators is a CART ESCALATOR!!

 How AWESOME is that?!



Christmas in the Classroom

I LOVE being a teacher at Christmastime.  We have SO much FUN!!! Here are some pics of the kids after playing a "reindeer" game.  The teams had to blow up their balloons, stuff them into a pair of pantyhose, put them on a teammates head and then all sing "Rudolf, the Red-nosed Reindeer."  WAY TOO MUCH FUN!!! And absolutely HILARIOUS!! Take a look :) You sure can tell their personalities :)

Five Years of Fabulousness!!

Five years ago on November 24, 2006 I was married and sealed to the love of my life, Mr. Rusty James Tuckett.  As I look back over the last five years I see good times, tough times, "I love you" times, and "I want to kill you" times, but mostly I see lots and lots of love and growth together as a couple.

Rusty and I have been through it all it seems like.  I think most couples would say this of their journys together.  As you all know Rusty and I have not been blessed with children yet, and this is often a difficult struggle for the both of us, but in so many ways it is a blessing.  We have been given a unique opportunity to develop our relationship and really get to know one another as a couple.  Plus, we can do pretty much whatever we want and not have to worry about babysitters :)

Beacuse of this "freedom" we have and because my hubby is AMAZING he took me to Destinations Inn, which is a hotel of themed suites.  We stayed in the Athens room.  It was WAY cool!! Here's come pics of the awesomeness!

 

The AMAZING tub that is bigger than 2 or 3 of mine at home!!

(A little scary getting in and out of though)

 

 

 

It was pretty fun!! ;) We had a WONDERFUL "getaway" only 45 miles from home, but hey we felt forever way and that's what counts!!

 

Here's to MANY more FABULOUS years to come!! :)

Oh the Random and CRAZY Happenings of September!

So lots of things transpired during the month of September. I just don't know where to begin . . . I guess I will start at . . . . The Beginning (Of course!) ;)

The month of September started out on a bit of a sad note. On Wednesday, August 31st my husband got a phone call saying that his Father was severely ill and in the hospital.  For those of you that don't the relationship between my husband and his Dad have been severed for about 3 years now, so it was a bit of a shock to receive the phone call.  The next day Rusty and Quin (the brother) went to see their Dad before he went into kidney surgery.  Luckily, the two boys were able to see their dad and my some amends.  Dennis (the dad) came out of surgery well.  The doctors drained 2 gallons of fluid off of a cist on his kidney and placed a stint in.  They were also hopeful about operating on his heart in a few days.  The next morning (Friday, September 2nd), Dennis wanted to get out of bed and so the nurse helped him into a chair.  Sometime in those ten minutes a blood clot released from his lungs, went into his weakened heart, and killed him.  My Father-in-law passed away on Friday, September 2nd around 11:00am.  Needless to say, not the best start to my month.

The middle of the month was pretty uneventful and FULL of preparations for the arrival of my mom at the end of the month.  During those crazy hours, upon hours, of cleaning my brother Mike and I decided we needed to move his things out of the spare room upstairs into the "tractor" room downstairs.  Well my basement is not completely finished and the concrete is well . . . COLD!!! So Mike asked to borrow some slippers :) This is what he got :)

Isn't he stylin' :)

So in order for Mike to move into the tractor room I had to clean the tractor room.  So I spent the day cleaning each, little, individual tractor. Oh yes, oh so much fun!! NOT! Do you think maybe it was a little dusty.

Just a wee bit dusty I think :)

Can you tell I hardly EVER go downstairs :)

So that was the middle of my CRAZY month! Now for the end where it got REALLY crazy . . . AGAIN!! :)  So my Mom came to visit and it was FABULOUS as always :)  HOWEVER, MICHAEL I guess didn't think it was eventful enough for him, so he wrecked his bronco into a small washed out raavine while off roading.  In the process he broke his elbow pretty severely and had to have surgery on it.  They put a plate and SEVEN pins in his arm and 19 staples to close him up (He had me count! What are sisters for? :).  Here is a pic of the gory goodness (Don't look if you have a weak stomach)

He looks like Frakenstein doesn't he?

So my mom, dad, and I got to spend a few days in the lovely Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center with a VERY onry, and in pain (hence the crabiness) patient. Oh joy! :)  But I did get to see my Dad for a few days. That's a bonus!! :)

Now to round out the month.  This technically happened in October, but it was all kinda smooched together and this point.  A visit from my mother would not be complete without two things:

First . . .

A trip to Stockman's Restaurant. Home of the All You Can Eat Steak!!

Yep, that's right, all you can eat of beefy goodness!!

(It's my hubby's FAV!!)

AND . . . 

SNOW!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Luckily it is all gone now and back to FALL weather.

As it SHOULD be!! :)

And that was my INSANE month of September!! Thank heavens it's now October!! :) Can't wait to see what this month brings :)

Going Private

I know this is kind of a pain for everyone, but I have decided to make my blog private.  I will change it to private on Friday, September 23rd.  So if you would still like to follow and read please send me your e-mail address so that I can send you an invite.

Send your request to: desertchick356@yahoo.com and tell me that you want an invite and I will make sure that you are on my list :)

Or you can just leave your e-mail address in a comment.  Whichever makes you feel more comfortable.

Thanks!! :)