Great Grandfather Mathews

Well I don't quite know what to say today for once. The main idea of this post is that my grandfather, Frank Mathews, passed away yesterday on January 28th with his family in Tucson Arizona. I wanted a chance to say the things that have been on my mind over the past few months and I feel that this is as good of a venue as any since this blog is partly entertainment for you and partly a diary for me. Baby Fisch won't ever get to know their great grandfather. It makes me sad because this kid is the only great grandkid on the Mathews side. I really think Frank would have enjoyed getting to know this baby, even from a distance. I had never gotten a chance to spend a lot of time with him growing up, but he always remembered my birthday and holidays. He'd send hand written notes to let me know I meant something to him. He certainly didn't have to. How many of us have family that don't acknowledge us anymore? The last time that I saw him was when Josh and I got married. He was quiet (as Mathews men tend to be) and probably felt a little out of place in Pittsburgh. But he was there. For me and my dad. He could have said he was too old or too tired to travel, but he didn't. I will always remember that. I'll remember how he took my dad and I horseback riding in the desert when we visited years ago. And I'll remember how he took that time to give me MY great grandmother's wedding ring. That was the first heirloom that anyone ever gave me. I was 12 years old yet I knew how special that moment was for both me and my grandfather. Even though our time together was sporadic at best, I know that I'm a Mathews through and through. My dad wouldn't be who he is without Frank and in turn, neither would I. I most recently learned that my love of wildflowers and margaritas has been passed down over the past few generations of Mathews men and women :) I'll end by saying that I was really hoping to rekindle a closer relationship with my grandfather and that Baby Fisch would be that bridge. However, now that doesn't seem to be how it's going to work out. And that's ok. He or she will still have their Granpa Jeff to tell them the stories about when he was growing up in Illinois with his dad and brother. Those are the events that made my dad who he is today and I wouldn't trade him for anything. We all have good memories and bad memories of those around us. It's up to us to decide what we want to remember when someone is gone. I'm choosing to remember the good. And I'm choosing to make sure that Baby Fisch will know what family is and how we only ever get one. And that it's the most precious gift our ancestors have ever given us. Rest peacefully Grandfather Frank. And help keep an eye out for your great grandbaby please!

Wanna Play a Game?

So a friend of mine showed me this web page and it looked like fun! I set up an online pool for when Baby Fisch will make his/her grand entrance. You get points if you guess the gender, date, time, length and weight correctly. The one with the most points wins! It'll be up until we get much closer to the due date so check it out!

All Hail Alexander Fleming

No, that's not what we're naming our child, and no we don't even know if it's a boy. Read on...Well, after about 3 weeks, I have finally found relief from the cold/sinus infection from H-E-doublehockeysticks. I was able to hold out until my regular OB check up last week and she prescribed me a lovely course of amoxicillin. Now I know Fleming didn't invent that paricular antibiotic, but he certainly paved the way. God bless him and the pharmacologists of the world is all I can say! Now I can only hope that that was my one big sickness and the rest will be smooth sailing until I'm allowed to take Nyquil again!
In other news, we are busy busy busy trying to purge the house of all of the unsed crap we've accumulated in the past few years. We're trying to turn a guest room into a nursery, a cold basement into a family room and the pink and green flowery kitchen into something we can all be proud of. I'll be sure to post pictures as projects are completed, but for right now, the camera can't be located in the piles of stuff that we have around the house! Also through all of this, we managed to complete our baby registry. Normally, I'm not one to be picky about receiving gifts. I'm just so grateful to have you all in my life, gifts are just icing on the cake! But I know that this baby will be spoiled rotten (it's inevitable with Aunt Jan alone), so we may as well get what we need. We decided to keep things simple and do our whole registry at Babies R Us. The selection is good and they give us free gifts here and there. Not too shabby. I went back to make a few minor adjustments to the registry online today and saw (not that I could help it-it was just there!) that some of you had already begun buying for Baby Fisch! You guys are too much! All I can say is, Thank you for already loving this little baby before you have ever even met him or her! Josh and I are so lucky to end up with such an amazing network of friends and family. Baby Fisch is going to love it too!

Halfway There!

So here we are at 20 weeks! I can't believe it! The past 4 and a half months have really flown by. Other than the remnants of that darn cold, I'm feeling great! Here's the lastest picture of me and Baby Fisch. The kid looks good in stripes huh? I'm still able to squeeze into my favorite pair of jeans with the help of the Bella Band-an amazing little piece of spandex that holds up your pre-preggy pants with the buttons undone. I'm just not ready for maternity jeans yet...they're not the most flattering things ever! I am so glad that I don't have to look nice for work. Sweatpants have been my best friends for the drive until I can get into my uniform at the Zoo! So comfy! You'll be happy to know that I have been able to feel the baby on a few occasions so far. The first actual 'kick' was on Christmas Eve when I was feeding the squirrel monkeys. It was definitely a baby-no mistaking it! Apparently, my placenta is located in the front (they can also be in the back) so for me, it acts as an extra layer of padding making it more difficult to feel smaller movements. Every once in a while though, that little Fisch gives it all he or she has and lets me know they're in there! It's a pretty cool feeling. I can't wait until Josh will be able to feel it. Every night he puts his hand on my belly while he falls asleep waiting to feel something. It's super adorable. He's so excited to be a dad! We've begun trying to navigate the world of baby furniture, gear and supplies. I found a great book called Baby Bargains that's been really helpful in giving ratings on different brands and what you really need versus what Babies R Us wants you to THINK that you need. We plan to register in the next few weeks! I also signed us up for childbirth classes at the hospital. I am also going to try and get into a class at the Wilmington Birth Center called 'Planning a Natural Birth in a Hospital Setting'. It's supposed to tell you how to attempt a natural childbirth experience while being hooked up to monitors and all that crap. I have not completely abandoned the epidural option because I obviously have no idea with labor is like, but I'd like to at least try the natural route. I'll get back to you in about 20 weeks with the outcome!

Super Cool Videos!

These are the video clips, also taken today on January 4th at 19 weeks. The first one is just funny because the baby is fighting with the umbilical cord. He/she is obviously very annoyed with it floating in front of their face! We can't wait to annoy our kid ourselves!!! The next one is the action shot of the thumbs up morphing into the wink and gun (The Fonz if you will).

19 Week Ultrasound Pictures!

We had another Research Study appointment today. I have to admit that I was really eager to see that our baby was ok after the trauma of my illness last week. It's amazing how safe and sound he/she is in there even though I felt like death. The heartbeat was 143 beats per minute. The normal range is anywhere from 120 to 180. This was the lowest our little fish has been but obviously still well within range! They took some more measurements of the brain and stomach and limbs. All seemed to be in good working order! What's nice about the study is that they send all of our measurements to the research doctor for the project, but if the doctor notices something is amiss, they will notify us and our OB for follow up testing. It's a nice extra insurance policy that they will catch something quickly that may have been missed if we weren't getting all of these extra scans. The following pictures and video are pretty fun. In one we have a little foot, another is the right arm and hand (thumb is down). The 4D ones are great! There's a definite 'thumbs up' and 'wink and gun' as Josh calls it. Many of you are probably wondering if we know if it's a girl or a boy. Well, we certainly could have found out if we wanted to, but we're trying to hold out(at my request-Josh would have known 3 months ago if he could). The tech did a great job of not giving us any closeup crotch shots to take home. Although when Josh realized that she knew immediately what were were having and he didn't, he was quite annoyed!

Sick sick sick.

So I am slowly recovering from the most awful cold I have ever encountered. Marilyn: I too blame Nancy. :) We all know that mommies-to-be are very limited on what drugs are safe to take for a cold. Tylenol and Sudafed are pretty much it. And they suck. What they don't tell about pregnancy colds is that you are already stuffed up and swollen to begin with just from being pregnant. THEN your body tries to make even more snot to stuff in your sinuses. Thus making Tylenol and Sudafed suck even MORE. Josh can tell you all about how I was awake crying at 2 AM on December 30th from a sore throat that kept waking me up every 45 minutes or so. Hot water with lemon and honey was the only relief. Luckily, since the Zoo is closed New Year's Eve and Day, I only had to work for a few hours on Thursday and Friday (and Kristen-bless her little heart-cleaned the colobus for me so I could get home!) Overall I lost 3 full nights of sleep and had to miss a full day of work (sorry guys, but it was better for all of us. trust me). My own snarfing was literally keeping me awake. Somehow, Josh stuck by me in bed. He was probably sneaking the Nyquil I could only dream of. Here we are a week later and besides the hacking cough (think tuberculosis style here) and remaining stuffiness, I'm on the mend. Ladies who are pregnant or thinking about it...GET YOUR FLU SHOTS. I can completely understand why preggie ladies end up in the hospital if they get the flu. Thank the Lord this was 'only' a cold.