A Busy Weekend

These pictures pretty much sum up our weekend ~ Alli being quite the little helper around the house and yard. Here, she was "helping" Daddy design our new vegetable garden. It wasn't long before she was bored with this and was off to play on her slide, swings and tricycle ;-) I spent my time sitting in a lounge chair supervising ~ Garrett was thrilled. We also had the chance to see our nephew Kyle play in a Little League game, which was fun.

I'm still on modified bed rest. I had another OB appointment yesterday and was actually given permission to take Alli for a short walk around the neighborhood!!! As soon as she awoke from her nap, she saw some of her buddies walking down the street and excitedly exclaimed "Mommy, friends outside, I wanna play" she kept saying "friends, friends" while I got her changed. Since I had the okay, we took our walk and found her friends playing in their yard. She happily joined in the fun of playing on the slide and swings :) It was very cute! When it was time to go back home for dinner, she was done with walking so guess who got to carry her??? That wreaked havoc on my body. I won't go into details but let's just say, today I am back on stricter bed rest ~ keeping legs elevated and me off my feet :( So much for flying again anytime soon. Good news is that yesterday's test came back negative so we have some relief in knowing that it is unlikely I will deliver within the next two weeks ~ woo hoo!!! Keep growing little guy. We'll keep you posted.

Another Small Scare

Tuesday evening, I just really wasn't feeling that great. I was taking it easy but the contractions and pressure were just getting worse so I finally called the doc who advised me to stay off my feet completely and call again in the morning. Wednesday wasn't much better but I spent the entire morning working on the lap top from my bed, got up only to use the bathroom. By the afternoon, the contractions were getting worse and I had to go back in for monitoring and another ultrasound. Fortunately, the little Muffin is just fine (and definitely still a BOY) and the contractions, while strong, are not doing anything yet, which is a great thing!!! However, I'm still at high risk for pre-term labor so I am now on stricter bed rest, which I am actually doing my best to follow. I'm going completely stir crazy but will do whatever is necessary to make sure this Muffin arrives safely :)

I just have to say how fortunate I feel. First, to be near our families has been such a blessing as they have all really been going above and beyond for us. Second, our neighbors are without a doubt the nicest group of people and we feel so blessed to have moved here. Finally, the people I work with have been so supportive, I truly could not ask to work with better people. I was trying so hard to complete a brief for one of the partners yesterday but finally had to throw in the towel when it became obvious that another doctor visit was necessary. Fortunately, I had almost completed every section and not much work remained but the partner did not care about that at all, just whether the baby and I were okay. Wow!

Thank you all for your support and assistance right now, it means the world to our family.

A Swift Kick & a Couple of Tosses :)

Yikes, it's only been a few days on bed rest and I have to say IT IS HARD!!! Who knew staying put could be so frustrating and exhausting?!?! Suddenly, I have the urge to be cleaning, organizing, gardening, pulling weeds, you name it and I want to do it. Oh well, we are all surviving. Muffin (a.k.a. the blue fish) seems to be doing well despite the contractions. He's much more of a mover and shaker than Alli was and even Garrett got to feel a nice swift kick last night :) I'm still crampy and uncomfortable but definitely notice a difference when I'm taking it easy versus moving around. Luckily, we have the most amazing family and the grandparents have been very helpful. My mom comes over regularly to play with Alli and take her to all of her activities ~ both Alli and I are so thankful for this! Garrett's wonderful mom has offered to help us with the cleaning of the house ~ woo hoo!!! I'm thrilled because I hate a messy house and Garrett is so happy to not have to spend all day working only to come home and have full Alli duty plus cooking and cleaning. He has been such a trooper but the brunt of this is really falling on him. I have such a wonderful husband and feel so fortunate to be his wife!
We actually had a warm, sunny weekend again so it was back to the beach at Treasure Island for tossing rocks. Okay, so I couldn't do much but sit but a great time was had by all as you can see from the pictures below . . .

So I'm not sure if Alli knows that I need a break or if she has just turned into a different child but she has decided in the past week to eat. This child is now trying new things and finishing whole meals!!! I realize this is not a big deal for many but for Alli, this is HUGE! We can actually reason a bit with her now (or bribe her, however you want to look at it!) Turns out, she really likes the Easter candy but she knows she can only have one piece IF she finishes her meal or snack. Suddenly, she is gobbling down anything we put in front of her to get to that candy. Who knew those little bite-sized pieces of candy could be so helpful :) Okay, so we realize that this is not the most conventional method but it's working for us right now and she's eating meat, veggies and fruit so we're going with it! It's hard to believe that it was only one year ago that she was nearly hospitalized and given a feeding tube. Luckily, Dr. Duro (GI specialist at Boston Children's Hospital) decided enough was enough and prescribed her the stimulant that got her back on the charts. We will forever be grateful to her.

Well, since the little one is down for a nap (well down in her crib singing right now) I need to get back to work. Thanks to all for the support and well wishes. Keep praying this little guy stays put for a couple more months. I go back in next Monday (hopefully not sooner!) for more tests and we'll keep you posted.

Modified bed rest

Yep, this little guy is being a stinker so I am now at a risk of preterm labor and as of yesterday afternoon am on modified bed rest. According to my doctor, I can get up to attend to my basic needs but for the most part need to hunker down and stay put. Any suggestions on how to do that with a very busy little toddler???? We are concerned but just have a feeling that everything will be fine and are hoping this guy stays put until 39 weeks when he is scheduled to arrive via c-section. The doctors are hoping to keep him in until at least 32 weeks ~ we are currently at 25 weeks. Never a dull moment with our kiddos! In all seriousness, prayers are much appreciated right now and we will keep you posted . . .

A Busy Easter Weekend

What a busy weekend we've had! Garrett had Friday off work so he was able to play "Easter Bunny" for our neighborhood playgroup. Alli and her buddies had a lot of fun searching for eggs. We wore her out and she took a great nap when we got home, which was a huge help as Garrett and I had decided it was time to paint our garage and reorganize. I naively thought it would be a quick and easy task. Garrett correctly thought I was nuts! It took all Friday afternoon and evening to get it painted and we were using my brother Tony's commercial grade paint sprayer (thank you Tony!!!!!!). Thank goodness we had the sprayer or we would never have gotten it done. Turns out we had a lot of boxes we never got around to unpacking when we moved ~ oops! Some of it, was brought in the house so we could figure out what to do with it, other stuff was added to the junk pile (which my other wonderful brother, Danny, kindly helped us take to the local dump ~ I have the BEST big brothers!). The remainder was neatly (sort of) organized back against one wall in the garage. Once we finish repainting Alli's new dresser, we will actually be able to get both cars back in the garage. It is fairly amusing that we have a four car garage that currently only fits one car :) We turned one spot into our exercise room (and storage) and another into Garrett's work room for his tools and work bench. Right now, Garrett's spot is taken up with Alli's dresser. Guess we need to get moving on that huh???

Here's a shot of our messy garage in the middle of our work and one of Alli "helping" us . . .

I definitely overdid it on Friday with moving stuff around and threw my back all out of whack. Fortunately, my wonderful mom came over to entertain Alli while Garrett finished up in the garage and I laid on the couch. I was much more careful on Saturday when we were organizing the garage!

Sunday was surprisingly relaxing. We woke up early to get ready for church, where we had a great time at breakfast and greeting before the service. It was a very rainy day so we spent the afternoon playing inside before going to our neighbor's for Easter dinner. Alli's whole playgroup was there for a yummy potluck dinner. Luckily, the little ones all played well together and let the adults have some time to chat. What a wonderful day!

Here's a shot of the whole family at Church, Alli was looking towards her Adventures in God's Kingdom room :)

I was supposed to fly back to Boston last night, was packed, checked in for my flight and ready to go but all afternoon and evening I had been feeling very crampy and just not right so we called the OB who had us go straight to Labor and Delivery. This was a very scary experience as it is not somewhere you want to be at our stage! I was hooked up to tons of monitors and had some tests run to make sure it wasn't preterm labor. Fortunately, everything looks good but I still don't feel like myself so I'm taking it easy today and working from home (still waiting for a follow up call from my doc to let me know what I need to do or not do). I have to say that I work with the most amazing people who are concerned about me and our baby, not just the work ~ I am so lucky!

For all those who have been asking, here's a shot of my belly from Easter (the dress makes me look bigger than I am as the little guy is measuring small) . . .

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter!

Time for a change

Well, it's been awhile since we've posted a Fisher Family update so we decided to make a change. As much as we have enjoyed our MSN site, we made the decision to switch over here. Hope you enjoy the new blog!

As you can see from the picture of Miss Alli, we finally had some beautiful, warm, sunny weather in WA last weekend and we were so excited we headed straight for the beach! It was definitely not warm enough to hop in the water but we had a great time tossing rocks on the beach. This was the first time Alli really got into playing at the beach and was so bummed when we had to leave. She was so excited by the rocks and shells that she could not nap. After lunch, which she actually ate, we put her down for her nap and listened to her play for a good hour before we decided it was a lost cause. As soon as we opened the door she asked for "more beach" ~ too cute! Being the very "cool" parents that we are (hey, she's two so she probably still agrees with this statement!) we went right back down to the beach.

Here's a slide show of our little princess enjoying the sun . .

We finally decided to head home around 4:30, figuring that she really needed some sleep. Sure enough, she zonked in the car and slept until almost 6.

When she woke up, it was back outside to play in the sun. She had a great time riding around the patio in her little car (think Flintstone's style!) and going on her slide. I think she was as ready for warm weather as we were! Sadly, that night G and Alli had to take me to the airport to head back to Boston for work. It's tough, I love my job, my firm and everyone I work with but getting on that plane Sunday nights is so tough. I do pretty well once I'm here but I sure do miss my family!

Work has been very busy for both of us lately and I think we could both use a vacation, or at least some more beautiful weekends ;-) I think we will have to settle for the weekends as it is not likely a vacation is going to happen anytime in the near future given that we are both saving time for when the 'lil blue fish arrives. On that front, we are 24 weeks along now and so far things are going great. For all those who have been asking about names, we can honestly say, we have no clue. Hopefully we come up with a name before the little guy arrives!

Well that's about all on our end. We are looking forward to Easter this weekend and Alli is excited for the egg hunts. May you all have a wonderful week with your families!