Ultrasound

I have so much to post from our busy-but-fabulous weekend but I couldn't wait another moment to post these!

Today we had our 20 week ultrasound for Baby Cinco.  Our tech got great pictures of our little guy/gal!  Here's a shot of Cinco's face. 

Cinco is measuring a little bigger than average.  Instead of 20 weeks and 1 day, Cinco is measuring in at 20 weeks and 5 days.  He or she is also weighing in at 14 ounces {a little bigger than the 10 ounce average}.  Nothing so outrageous that our due date will be changing but my chunky babies always make me smile!
Here's a profile shot.  The tech made the comment that Cinco is really curled up in there.  :)  Apparently the fuzzy spot in front of it's nose is a foot!  Talk about a limber little thing!

The typical spinal shot they give you.  The kids love this one.  They think it looks like a dinosaur!

I thought this was a unique angle.  I'm pretty sure we've never had one of these.  I told the kids that it's like someone taking a picture of their back/head while they were doing a somersault.  They pretended to get it.  ;)

So all in all, everything is looking good so far!  The best we can tell, we have a healthy baby boy or girl coming sometime at the end of January/beginning of February.  Praise the Lord!

Baby Cinco - 19 Weeks

Baby Cinco @ 19 weeks.  I can't believe this pregnancy is half over already {since our babies are usually a week early with c-sections}!  Of course, the best is yet to come.  Cinco is moving during the day but I know as he/she gets bigger I'll just feel it that much more and that's my favorite part - at least until they're born!  This has been such an amazingly easy pregnancy up to this point for us...what are the chances that Cinco will be a just as easy going baby??  Could we be that lucky?  Only time will tell!

Jason and I also had a great talk last night {that happens a lot after Catholic Moms meetings!}.  I suggested we hold off on Eli's carpet {that I was very set on replacing before moving him back into his room since it has splashes of paint on it} and wait until Spring break to replace it.  Jason has just taken on another obligation that he will start next week and with everything else he has to do before Christmas {the girls' bed has to be finished and there are Christmas gifts to be made}, I just figured the carpet should wait.  Call it nesting or whatever you want but I want these kids settled in before Baby Cinco gets here!  I'm pretty done with kids sleeping in my living room!  They've done great with it but it really puts a crimp in our evenings - no TV, no lights on in the living room, can't really put things away, etc.
So, me being a nerd, what do I do?  I moved Eli's furniture back into his room this morning and got the living room back in order, while watching the girls and Wyatt.  It probably wasn't the smartest thing I've done.  :)  I could tell by lunch time I had overdone it {I have never had that feeling!} but by then it was too late!  I was exhausted, my back was sore, and there wasn't time to just sit.  Even Jason was a little annoyed with me when he got home and was able to see what all I had done and I don't think that has ever happened!  So, oops.  I'll try to quit while I'm ahead in the future!
Eli was excited to sleep in his room tonight.  It's not "done" but I will post pictures of it sometime in the near future {progress is progress!}.  He's very pumped about the paint job his daddy did and the Spiderman stick-ups he got for his birthday back in March.  His bedspread really pops and I can only imagine how cool it will be once the Spiderman curtains are up!
Happy Wednesday everyone!

Baby Cinco - 16 Weeks

There is nothing new to report for the week.  I'm just trying to keep up on the bump documenting for Baby Cinco's scrapbook.  ;)  I still think Cinco is looking a little more like lunch than a baby, but we're getting there.
How far along: 16 weeks
Total Weight Gain/Loss:  I've never been one to keep track {or really care}.  I think I did with G's {?} pregnancy but I have a tendency not to worry about this - pregnant or not.
Maternity clothes:  Not yet - but I have discovered the Bella Band, which I'm loving.  It does away with my need for a belt as the bump has started pushing my jeans down a bit.
Sleep:  Is never great but that has more to do with Izzy and G coming into bed at night.  I do have to run to the WC occasionally but, again, as often as I'm up in the night anyway it doesn't really bother me.
Best moment this week:  Going to our niece/goddaughter's 1st birthday party.  She's such a doll!
Movement:  Actually, I think so.  :)  It happened twice while I was sitting down for a time, but I haven't felt it again.  I'm excited to feel it more frequently.  That's my favorite part.
Food cravings/aversions:  Not much.  Usually {as in, with the last 4} the smell of cooking hamburger bothers me but it hasn't been bad this time.
What I miss:  The occasional alcoholic beverage.  :) 
What I'm looking forward to:  More movement from Cinco and getting to see him/her again at the 20 week ultrasound.

First Purchase for Baby Cinco

I don't usually by a lot of new stuff for the "new" baby of the family - just because we have so much stuff already it seems a waste not to use it.  I bought some cute little Chiefs onsies though this week and I'm definitely going to be getting Baby Cinco some FHSU outfits as well!  {If Baby Cinco is a girl we'll just put a pretty bow or tutu with it!}  We're 16 weeks tomorrow.

Baby Cinco - 13 Weeks

13 weeks!  We have survived the first trimester with relative ease.  For the first time ever I have not suffered from morning sickness - not once.  The only complaints I have had have been some tiredness {which, frankly, could be just as easily contributed to our other four blessings as the fifth} and for the first time ever, my headaches have not gone away {I guess every baby must be different and Cinco is just being cooperative}.

I haven't gained any weight {yet} this go around and actually weighed less than normal at our first dr. apt.  I'm still enjoying my everyday clothes though there is getting to be a bit of a bump.

A couple other things in no particular order:  I'm looking forward to using cloth diapers from the get-go with Baby Cinco. 
We have another apt. this week {hopefully they'll find the heartbeat without any trouble this time!}.
No, we are not going to find out the gender of the baby {you know how we work by now}.  ;)
Sis and Eli keep looking at my stomach like something out of "Alien" is going to pop out of it at any second.
I'm not craving anything but I'm having trouble deciding what sounds good.
Sleep has pretty much been shot.  The dreams just keep coming.  Lots of bad ones {normal for me} but I had one really great one when I dreamed of my Grandpa Heinrich.
Cheers to the first trimester being behind us and our chance of miscarriage being dropped to near nil!

Announcement

I am AWFUL at keeping secrets - happy ones anyway - and I am just dying to shout to the world that Baby Stein #5 is in the oven. Sigh...it's so hard!!!! 
This is the "announcement" we plan to give our families. Not the greatest thing but I wanted to do something different than we have before {aka Grandma Stein we need more Vegetable Soup over here! And vegetable, not vegetable-beef. Jason always ruins my plan to be able to eat it during lent!}

The plan is to give my parents the photo on Father's Day - but we're going to try and wait to tell the Stein Family until the weekend of the Stein Family Reunion {which will be after our first doctor's appointment when we should hear a heart beat} and that's a whole other month away. As excited as I am to show the "new family photo" I'm just plain awful at waiting. :P I guess we'll see if I make it!

A Letter to You

Written March 4, 2015

Dear Samuel,
You will undoubtedly see the pristine white Creative Memory photo albums of your siblings one day.  They take great pride in pulling them from their place in the china hutch and flipping through the pages, reliving the first year of their life the only way they can.  Their birth, first days at home, first bath, their first trips, monthly updates on their growth and progress, their first steps...it's all captured in those pages with as much loving detail as I could muster.  You will see theirs and I can already picture your sweet upturned face as you look at me and ask "where is mine?".  I can show it to you.  I have it.  Beautiful, white, just like your brother and sisters', still wrapped in plastic and as new as the day your Grannie handed it to me.  We were pregnant with Elizabeth and she knew there would probably be another miracle to follow.  So she took a chance and bought two when the opportunity presented itself.  The albums were getting harder to find because they had been discontinued...but there will never be a picture of you in yours...
You see, I got complacent.  I have, slowly, started to trust in this thing called technology.  All the photos I had taken of you, from your birth until the day before your first birthday, were on my old laptop.  The laptop was feeling it's age though and starting to act up.  I was worried about losing our photos.  Funny, now.  Your daddy bought me an external hard drive to store our pictures on.  I was so happy to have them in a safe place at last!  The old laptop could die and all the photos would still be within a seconds reach.  I had used the external hard drive several times.  There is/was even a folder on it titled "Baby Cinco", the name we called you before you were born.  I had started going through each folder and saving the pictures I wanted for your scrapbook in that folder.  Belly pictures, getting your room ready, the day you were born, all your monthly photos, they were all in that folder, ready for me to send them off for printing.  I just hadn't printed them yet.
Then daddy went to look for a couple of pictures to print my blog for me like he does every year.  Can you guess?  The hard drive wouldn't work.  The computer didn't seem to believe it existed and then even when it would show up on the screen the hard drive would whir and nothing else would happen.  Daddy has tried everything he can think of - and he is good with computers.  He's asked another friend who is also good to no avail.  Daddy's next plan of action is to send it in to someone with recovery experience.  While daddy is still hopeful, there is a very real possibility those photos of you are lost to us.  Sort of.
There is still our Stein Family blog I keep.  It doesn't have everything, but it has a great deal of it.  Before you get old enough to point it out to me let me just tell you, yes, I know I could take those pictures from my blog and print them.  The problem is after I edit the photos I half-size them for the blog so they upload faster and don't take up as much memory on Picasa where they are stored.  Yes, I could print those but the quality would be lost and I, frankly, have become a spoiled photo snob.  I want the best.  I want sharp.  I want clear.  Especially for you, sweet boy. 
So it comes down to this.  I think this is the option I can live with.  It's not the same as having a photograph in hand but I can take the pictures from Picasa and put them in this blog for you without future lessening their quality.  I can tell you your story and daddy will help me publish it in a sturdy book for you.  It isn't the same.  It's reading from a Nook or Kindle.  The story is there but you miss the feel and smell of the pages, the sound of the paper rustling as you turn the next page.  Not the same.  Different.  Not as good, but maybe, maybe okay.
Without further ado, here is the story of our first year together.
We love you Samuel.
Mom