Ok, I have to rant a little bit.

Jordan and I are making our way back home.  We're in South Dakota at the moment and we were having a little bit of trouble finding a hotel around the area. Why you may ask? Because of Bikers. Yes, Bikers. They are everywhere around here. Westbound. Eastbound. Northbound. And I'm sure as we are making our way south to KC, they will be there too.

You might be sitting here asking why there are so many bikers on the road. One word. STURGIS!!! It's this big biker convention that takes place every year in Sturgis, SD. Bikers come from all over and take over hotels, motels, inns, bars, historic sites in the Rapid City, SD area. It's crazy. We called every hotel in Mitchell, SD and then on to Sioux Falls, SD, and we wound up having to go an HOUR out of way to find a hotel where bikers haven't invaded.

I am so sick of bikers right now. Jordan was talking about how he felt taken advantage of when trying to get a room at a hotel in Mitchell that actually had a vacancy, but they wanted $110 for the room. You know they boosted up their rates for this weekend, and it just makes me upset to think that they are allowed to do such things. Supply and demand sucks right now.

While we were in Deadwood, the hotel that we were staying at only had 2 rooms available when we checked in, and of course, you have to grab a room if it's available. Otherwise, we would have had to stay at the Bullock Hotel, which they say is haunted, and even THAT hotel could have been booked solid for the weekend.

So, here we are in a little podunk town in South Dakota called De Smet that only has a Dairy Queen and a Subway for people to eat at that isn't a Country Club. Don't get me wrong, it's a cute little town and we plan to do some sight seeing since Laura Ingells Wilder's homestead is here, but c'mon!!! We shouldn't have had to drive an hour north of I-90 to find a single room because of bikers. The owner of the hotel said that even this route, bikers come through since it is a straight shot into the Sturgis area and that for the next 2 weeks, THIS hotel will be booked.

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Today, Jordan and I ended our Deadwood stay by going to Mt. Moriah Cemetery where Wild Bill Hickock, Calamity Jane and Seth Bullock are laid to rest. It is on this huge hill above the town and it was really nice, but boy can I tell you that I am completely out of shape. Because it is on a hill, the cemetery has all kind of slopes. I was worn out after getting up the first hill!! Then, Jordan and I got this insane idea of going up a slope that is 750 feet above the cemetery where Bullock is. HOLY COW!!!  I thought I was going to literally collapse my leg muscles were so tired. I did make it though, and I'm so glad that Jordan pushed me to go on with it because I actually feel like I accomplished something today. I was winded, and I was tired, but I prevailed. WOO!! I'm going to make a T-shirt that says:

I survived the 750 foot climb to Seth Bullock's gravesite, and I was pregnant!! 

Let me tell you, this was a STEEP climb, so I'm not being a wimp here.

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Yesterday, Jordan and I went to the Bullock hotel which is said to be haunted by Seth Bullock himself. We took a lot of pictures of the areas that were said to be haunted, including a mirror. We're not sure if we actually captured anything or not, but we have to look at the pictures again that we took from this morning. We did capture an "orb" in one of the rooms that is said to be a ghostly energy. We'll post pictures when we get back home.

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It's almost 11 and we have a big day tomorrow. Going to tour Laura Ingells homestead and start the final leg of our drive home to KC. We thought we might get in tomorrow, but it might be Sunday instead. Just don't know yet.

Have a good night everyone!!

Today's Baby Forecast: Muscle cramps 

Jordan and I are making our way home and we are now in Deadwood, SD. We got in yesterday at around 3pm and decided to just check out the historic old town in order to find things to do today. We found a few places and we decided to have an early dinner because we were just tired from the festival, the pre-vacation, and all the driving.

We ate at a place called Big Al's Steakhouse. I ate Prime Rib for the first time in 3 years and it was EXCELLENT. I ate all but 4 bites of it. So, I was pretty pleased with myself. At the end of the meal, I was beginning to feel pretty bloaty and full and I was beginning to feel miserable, so we came back to our hotel room.

We went to bed and fell asleep at around 9:30 or so after watching reruns of Criss Angel: Mindfreak. I woke up at about 1145 feeling really bad and made my way to the bathroom. I was feeling terrible and I knew I was moments away from worshipping the toilet God. And, I did. A LOT!! It wasn't just a little spew, it was full on wretching and splattering. I wound up staying in the bathroom for like 45 minutes trying to clean out my sinuses, my throat, my mouth, etc. I came to bed around 1230 after brushing my teeth and slept like a baby until about 8:30. Caleb usually wakes me up if I happen to be laying on my back, and when I was awake enough to realize that, I got a little concerned. I rolled over to my side and soon thereafter, Caleb gave me several hard kicks. I'm not talking taps like before, I mean full on kickboxing. I felt better after that.

For the rest of the day I was feeling kind of icky, but as the day wore on I began to feel better. Tonight for dinner I just had a light meal: Salad, ambrosia, rice and a bowl of fruit. I'm feeling ok so far, but we'll see how the night goes.

I haven't had the much time to blog, so I'm a little late on the 26 week Weekly baby report and my 26 week belly pic, so I'll skip that pic and just do the 27 week one next week.

Monday marks the day that I will begin my third trimester. I will officially be in my 7th month and realize that I only have about two and a half months left. I'm completely nervous and scared because the time is getting so close. But I'll write about that another day. I've gone on long enough.

Nighty Night Everyone

Weekly Baby Forecast: Your baby now weighs a little under 2 pounds and measures about 14 inches, from head to heel. The nerve pathways in his ears are developing, which means his response to sounds is growing more consistent. His lungs are developing now, too, as he continues to take small breaths of amniotic fluid — good practice for when he's born and takes that first breath of air. If you're having a boy, his testicles are beginning to descend into his scrotum — a trip that will take about two to three days.

Today, the kick off to the festival began. It went pretty smoothly and all was well.

My left ankle still hurts a bit and when we got home before leaving for the dinner before the movie night, I propped up my foot so that it wouldn't be so bad when we got home tonight.

Tonight a wore a really cute outfit: A black and white skirt with a black and white top that really accented by pregnancy. For shoes I wore black flip flops. Well, at the end of intermission tonight, I noticed that my foot was HUGE!! We planned on leaving at intermission anyway, and it probably was a good thing.

An updated pic:

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Caleb really has been active today. This morning, I started off in our jet jacuzzi in our room and I'm not sure he really liked that. My stomach was vibrating and about every 30 second or so, he'd give me a good lower kick. The water wasn't hot, actually it was lukewarm, but I'm not sure he liked the vibration. Ever since then, he's been doing a lot of lower kicking, and of course the one thing he likes to hit at the moment is my bladder.

I really like feeling him kick. When he's not as active on some days I miss it. You'd think that one would want it to stop at times, but I don't. It's a feeling that I like simply because I know things are ok with him.

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I'm off to bed now. We have another big day to get through and I need to make sure that I get through it with my foot.

Good night everyone!!

Today's Baby Forecast: Tired and Achey 

This trip has been an interesting one so far. Before we left it just seemed like everything was going wrong, and that it wasn't meant for us to go. Once we got on the road, it got better, but things weren't happening the way that they were supposed to. Finally, it has calmed down, up until yesterday.

Yesterday, we got into North Bend and went to the Edgewick Inn to meet some friends. About a half hour later, I needed to go to the car for something and when I came around the car, I saw a dog. I went over towards the owner and asked if I could touch his puppy, and then the next thing I know, right as the word puppy came out of my mouth, I lost my footing in a ditch, heard a pop and I came crashing down in the grass. Needless to say I said a choice word, cried and realized that I did something pretty bad to my ankle. The one that I hurt was my left one, which was already weak to begin with due to an old injury that I sustained when I was around 5-7 years old. I didn't break it that I know of, in terms of a hairline fracture.  At the moment, I think it's a sprain, but I'll keep a watch on it and make sure that it heals, and if not, I'll have it x-rayed.

Here's a pic:

 

The pic on the left is a frontal view. You can see the nice bump on the left hand side and the swelling of both sides of the ankle. The pic on the right is a side view of my ankle. This one you can see the bruising and the swelling. 

The good news is that I landed on my knees then went to my side, rather than landing solely on my stomach, so Caleb is alright. In fact, he's been moving a lot today, so that is a good sign.  And you guessed it, it's been right on my bladder. Little stinker.

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I'm a bit tired today. I woke up earlier than I wanted to, and I couldn't get back to sleep. Mostly because I had to pee forever and a day. Because of me waking up early, I'm dog tired now, and it's only going to get worse the next few days because we are going to be really busy.

Not sure if I will be blogging as much the next few days which is why I'm writing so much now beforehand. We'll see how it all goes.

Love and hugs to you all

Today's Baby Forecast: Tired 

All day I've been kicked by Caleb in the bladder. Good Lord, i think i had to pee every hour it seemed like. At times I would try to hold it, but sometimes, it just wouldn't work. Good news is, I never had to change clothes. He's done nothing by kick or punch my bladder all day. Needless to say, he's been very active today.

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Had a good day today. We went to the aquarium and then to the Science Fiction Museum. Both were very interesting. Again, we'll post pictures once we get back.

Tomorrow we make our trek to North Bend where we will then go immediately to pick up our co-organizers and head over to Poulsbo, WA where the Kiana Lodge is. Then it's festival showdown where the hectic stress begins. I'm looking forward to this being finally over.

Todays' Baby Forecast: Tired

Today was a good day in the driving department. I made it through the day without too much swelling. They actually appear to be normal. Yay!!

My belly sure is getting big. I was shaving this evening and I can hardly bend over like I used to in order to shave my legs. It seemed to take forever tonight to do it.

Caleb has been kicking my bladder all day. I have needed to use the restroom most of today, but I force myself to hold it.

Today's Baby Forecast: Exhausted (from the trip)

The past two days have been really bad in terms of swelling. Last night, I noticed for the first time that my feet swelled up to the point where they looked like both were sprained. I thought overnight, the swelling would go down, but it really didn't. It was better, but still pretty fat looking. So, I decided that I would not drive today and just keep my feet propped up on the dashboard. That worked like a charm. The swelling went down to where it almost looked normal.

So, I decided that I would help Jordan drive. Big mistake.

Only two hours of driving, I looked down and my feet were worse than they were last night. So much so, that it was pitted. Pitted means that there will be indentations made in the edema made from either a finger, or other object that is pressed against the skin. It was pretty gross. It was so bad that when we got out of the car to see an old prison, it hurt to walk. I've done nothing but waddle every since.

Now, I'm sitting here in our Super 8 motel in Missoula, MT with my feet propped up, hoping that they will go down by tomorrow.

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We had a good day today. We started our day leaving Hardin, MT and went to Little Big Horn (Custer's Last Stand). It was really a nice national monument. It was ominous and sad all at the same time and it really puts into perspective what they all must have gone through. Again, we have pictures, but I'll post them in our album when we get home.

Next, we drove most of the day until we got to Deer Lodge where the old prison is that I talked about earlier above. That was really neat to see. Some of those cells were so small that it made me claustrophobic, and I was standing outside!! I wish our prison system would go back the way that it was back then. They had very little back then, and now prison is just glorified.

After that, we drove awhile and wound up being in a big traffic jam for about an hour. Turned out it was a head-on collision involving a pick up and a truch carrying a hook on camper. It was bad. Both cars/camper rolled over and the camper was just demolished. If anyone survived that, I'd be surprised.

We were hoping to be further along today then where we got, but it wound up being ok. We stopped a little earlier and hopefully we can just rest up for a bit before another big drive. We're going to try to make it to Mt. St. Helen's tomorrow. Not sure if we are actually going to go in the park, but for sure we'll see it either Monday or Tuesday

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In honor of me being 25 weeks today, here's a belly pic as well as a pic of my poor, poor feet.

Weekly Baby Forecast: Head to heels, your baby now measures about 13 1/2 inches. His weight — a pound and a half — doesn't sound like much, but he's beginning to exchange his long, lean look for some baby fat. As he does, his wrinkled skin will begin to smooth out and he'll start to look more and more like a newborn. His hair is probably recognizable now (in color and texture), although both may change after he's born.

We are now in Hardin, Montana where we sit in a hotel trying to go to sleep. Caleb is pretty active tonight, so I got Jordan to put his hand on my belly and sure enough, Caleb did a kick and Jordan felt him for the first time since quickening began. He didn't really say much, so not sure what he thinks about it at all.

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We are Day 2 of our vacation. We went to the badlands today and spent a good few hours there. It was WONDERFUL. We got to see the canyons and prairies. It is simply a great wonder. They say that it's very much like what the moon is like. Jordan and I did some hiking around the canyons, but stayed near the trail so we could get back easily. We have some pictures but we'll post them when we get back in 2 weeks. Took some excellent photos of the wildlife: bison, prairie dogs, and big horn sheep. We got some really good close-up shots that are just phenomenal.

Tomorrow we will be going to Little Big Horn (Custer's Last Stand), and from there, we will go through the rest of Montana, Idaho and probably stop in Spokane WA.

It's been a fun trip so far, although tonight, my ankles look like I sprained the both of them. They are so swollen, it's pitiful. I guess I didn't walk and stretch enough. Tomorrow, I will have to prop them up in the car so as not to have this problem again. They tingle, but they don't hurt, so that's good.

Today's Baby Forecast: Tired and Swollen 

For the past SEVEN days I have been talking with Capital One about getting my credit card sent to me to have it here by today at the very latest. Well, today has come and gone in terms of mail and did I get it!!! NO!!!! I have been talking with reps for the past two days complaining and it seems like it's just going in one ear and out the freakin' other. Supposively, I will have it at the Salish Lodge by next Thursday, but I'm not holding my breath. The reason I'm having them send a card is because accidentally the new card was shredded rather than the old one.

So what does this mean? Means we probably won't be having a 2 week vacation.  Everything that I was even thinking for this vacation is probably going to go right out the window in terms of sight seeing and so forth.

Maybe Jordan has something up his sleeve that I don't know about, but as of right now, it's looking pretty bleak. So much for our last twosome vacation.

It's just been a real crappy two days for me. Nothing is going the way that it is supposed to at all. And it's really beginning to depress me. I was looking forward to having a nice vacation without any worries and it's all turning to CRAP!!!

I'm just hoping that Jordan has a backup plan because I need some cheering up at this point. 

After the major mess up of yesterday, I got to see Dr. Magee today. The appointment itself probably lasted about 5 minutes if that, but we got some stuff accomplished.

We talked about my weight gain, which I've only gained 17 pounds since pre-pregnancy, and he said I'm right on target and most of that is baby stuff anyway like water retention, breast enlargement, amniotic fluid, baby, swelling, etc. So, I feel pretty good. so far, I'm all baby, so the weight should come off pretty easily.

We listed to Caleb's HB again and it was a strong and louder 150bpm.

He measured my uterus and it is just above my belly button, which I have to say is beginning to shallow out. Everything seems to be on track.

Caleb is definitely kicking more and it is stronger now tot he point where I can put my hand on my belly and feel the kick.

Dr. Magee pointed out today that my next appointment is going to be a longer one. I have to take a glucose test which tests for gestational diabetes then I have to take the RHOgam shot since I'm RH negative.

Joy!! I'll be a pin cushion next month.

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I got the following baby gifts from a co-worker, Ellen. She's a nurse that I work with in the adult ICU. She handmade the blanket which is of different sports shoes, 5 pack of onsees up to 12 months, and a book called, " Love You Forever".

THANKS ELLEN!!!

 
Today's Baby Forecast: Energetic