www.BabyRaia.com

If we’ve been quiet around here it is because we have been doing so many things! If you haven’t noticed, we put up 3 new albums on the photo page – you must check them out from August, Evan’s Christening and Vacations of ’07.

That alone will show you how busy we were. On top of that we had the wedding of my brother Daniel to Amber on Saturday, September 1st. Weather was beautiful, they looked beautiful, it was a blessed day all around! So be on the lookout at the end of September for those photos 🙂
Now both brothers are married and those real big events are over & done.

Of course there will be more, lots of birthdays, a christening, a baby shower and of course the next real big event is the birth of our 2nd child… but that date is still to be determined. Which reminds me, we’re loving all the guesses on the baby pool and are excited seeing each new guess. So, if you haven’t voted yet please do so and read my last update for more info!

Speaking of the baby brewing inside… I hit the 3rd trimester today! WOW time is flying. A nice Charlie Horse cramp in the leg welcomed me into the third trimester this morning. It’s one of the pregnancy things that some girls get… I had a few with my 1st pregnancy and I guess I am going to have a few maybe in this one. All in all though I feel great and things are going wonderfully!

A not-so-fun event coming up is ME’s surgery on September 13th. It’s another sclerotherapy/injection surgery and we are praying for good results once again and minimal swelling & discomfort. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers as it is approaching.

So basically Mary Elizabeth has been having a blast this summer because she’s been
having lots of fun, playing with lots of kids and doing all sorts of
fun things. We haven’t had much time to sit down and work on some
things we want to do… like POTTY TRAINING, which she did tinkle in
the potty once recently (YAY for ME!!!) so we hit a first there, I think being home
more, maybe right after her next surgery will help in that dept.

That’s about it for now… 🙂

So what do you all think???

Andrew Scott Jr. or Natalie Grace, how much will the baby weigh, how long will the baby be, what date or time will the baby come?

Wanna play and answer?

Go check out my baby pool!
(Click Here or go to the main page)
Reminder: My due date is December 4th
(to help more, check out belly shots below and also the info below):

Myself (Jessica)- born on a Monday at 6:27am, 6 lbs 13 oz, 20 inches
(was LATE)
Andrew– born on a Saturday at 10:21pm, 7 lbs 8.5oz, 21 inches
(was ON TIME)
Mary Elizabeth– born on a Friday at 9:19am, 7 lbs 0oz, 19.25 inches (was 2 weeks EARLY – due to circumstances)

Anyway, had an appointment Tuesday and all went well. With some reprimanding to the belly, the sono tech was able to measure the rest of what she needed to. Everything is on target and the baby looks great…. still active as ever. Andy is feeling him/her at least once a day and I’m feeling him/her all day long! LOL.
Here’s our little cutie who kept rubbing its forehead and punching and kicking around in there during the ultrasound:

Meanwhile, my belly is getting bigger and bigger. Quite a difference from the last pregnancy as the stomach took a while to grow but they say it seems faster with the 2nd…. well I guess I’m proof of that. CLICK HERE for my current belly progression

And if you’re up for comparing- you can check out the last pregnancy’s belly progression by Clicking Here.

As for how I’m feeling, I really can’t complain. Pregnancy was easy on me last time around and is once again. Skipped out on morning sickness, don’t have any major pains or gripes. So I feel blessed about that. I hope it continues that way.
At my appointment – once again, we discussed the option of VBAC, and it will depend on a lot but hopefully things will line up so I get to try to skip out on the c-section this time. Hopefully the baby will be in the right position, not be too huge, everything will be ok with me and things like that. My dr didn’t do the c-section last time, so I now have the task of getting the op-report from the OB that did it. (It was done by a different OB because after 30 or 32 weeks I was sent down to see an OB from another hospital to have ME at a place with a more equipped ICU etc.). She just wants to make sure everything went ok that time, which I believe it had.

So that’s that. Hopefully a lot of you will participate in the baby pool. Should be fun to see who gets closest!

OK quick update:

Surgery: (Laser procedure on tongue) has been rescheduled for Thursday, August 16th. Thankfully the very kind surgical nurse was able to fit us in at a convenient time for us and still 4 weeks before the next procedure (Injections- September 13th).

Events: The reason we worried about the timing of surgery was because we will be away this weekend attending ME’s first and only cousin’s christening on Sunday (Evan) and also making a trip to the Aquarium near them on Saturday. Lots of fun with Daddy’s family.
Then during the week of the 20th we’ll be heading to Lake George for 3 days with Grandma & Grandpa Ray for a mini-vacation (that’s all there is time for). Going to take ME to Story Town in Great Escape and whatnot.
Of course right after all that we’ll be busy with Uncle Daniel’s wedding to Aunt Amber on September 1st. And everything leading up to it (dress fittings, rehearsal dinner and whatnot).

Pregnancy: Little one is still kicking away and getting stronger everyday. We get another peak at him/her on August 14th. Very exciting. Soon we will be posting a Baby Pool on the website – just for fun – so you can guess the weight, length, date of birth and yes, the sex too. Everyone’s already been claiming things so we’ll get them locked in and see who’s the good guess-er this time around! I’m rooting for this baby to come right after eating a good/big Turkey Dinner, we shall see!

So of course, as always, stay tuned…

In the midst of all the fun of the summertime… we get to go to doctor appointments (insert sarcastic YAY). 

Tomorrow marks 6 weeks since ME has had the injections/sclerotherapy surgery done. And we do see some results. Not everyone would notice, but we know her face well – her ever-changing yet adorable face that is… but ya know what we mean. They did an ultrasound at the appt we had today (she hated it, as she hates having food on her face when she eats, let alone ultrasound gel and a dr putting a wand on her face). She compared it to the ones she did the day she had surgery and some of the cysts injected are smaller or gone, some are a bit smaller but not enough etc. But the good thing is we DID see results. It could’ve been that she didn’t respond at all, but she did and that is GOOD NEWS so we’re thanking God for that. And even though recovery is rough, it’s better than cutting and ending up with scar tissue and regrowth etc. So this IS a good thing. She said with the size and severity of hers, we still may see more results in the next few weeks (sometimes it takes longer with bigger ones).
The best results were on the right side close to the chin area and the tongue (which I will address momentarily). There is what we call a "ball" in front of her ear. That’s a big one, and it did go down a little, but is obviously still there. We’ll see how far that goes down but it may need another round of injections. It is not uncommon to have to go for injections more than once. So while we were there, we scheduled her next surgery.

Thursday, September 13th. This was perfect for us, because it was after the summer events and her Uncle Daniel’s wedding in September etc. Then we have the rest of September to recover and de-swell from this surgery. At least we know what to expect. The only good thing is, she’s young and we’re doing as much as we can for her before she can even remember this stuff! If there is more sclerotherapy needing to be done after that, it will be held off until 2008 as I have the baby coming and then the holidays etc. And of course she will need time to recover and whatnot so there’s no time to do it before all that.

Wednesday, August 1st she had a previously scheduled Tongue reduction surgery. This was going to be a surgery in which they reduced the tongue in size by cutting. However, since the injections did well with the tongue, we’re going to go that route again for it. But we’re keeping this surgery date- because she does need lasering on the tongue. This is a procedure she’s had before. She bounces back within the same day, it’s not overnight… she does well etc. The lasering is done to the surface of the tongue to get rid of what they call the "vesicles" on her tongue… they look like red blistery/bubbles. These are common with her condition being in the tongue and all… plus her tongue is large causing her mouth to be open more than often and it dries out. So anyway, that surgery is all set.