What an interesting week this has been!  I guess when you’re planning a pregnancy and dreaming about that beautiful baby you don’t really consider how hectic life will be in the 9 months leading up to that bundle of joy.  I swear this entire week has been one huge stress fest all related to the medical aspects of pregnancy.

It all started a couple weeks ago when my rather important social security card and birth certificate both came up missing when I needed them.  I have kept all our important documents in the same spot for 5 years now, so when something goes missing out of that all important box I know something’s wrong.  I have my suspicions as to what happened to them, and I think I know exactly when they vanished, but I’m not going into that right now.

So even though I know they have disappeared inside this house somewhere I still freaked out because ya know that’s my social security card and my birth certificate!  I was always taught I should guard those two things with my life because they are more important than anything else in this world.

I’ve spent the last 2 weeks running around trying to replace both cards, and boy that has been a mess.  I’ve come to the conclusion that almost all of the state employees I dealt with are complete idiots who have no idea how to do their own jobs.  Half of them ran me around in circles sending me to offices that were in no way related to what I was actually trying to do.  I almost drove all the way to the state capitol to pick up my birth certificate before I discovered the health dept. employee who told me they don’t issue them anymore in any of the health departments was completely wrong.  I finally gave up and got my aunt who works in vital records in another health department to get me a copy.

Today consisted of working on the social security card issue.  After finally receiving my birth certificate I called the social security office a couple counties away to get a new card.  Apparently for a name change they will issue a card the same day in person, but for a replacement card you have to wait 10-14 days for them to mail you one.

I’ll have to head down there tomorrow to apply.  Now I just hope it doesn’t show up while we’re in D.C. because I really don’t trust something like that sitting in my mailbox that long.  My sis is supposed to check the mail, but that doesn’t mean she will, and things have been known to disappear out of our mailbox before.

I’m so happy with how awesome this weekend turned out. I think the benefit Saturday night was beyond what any of us imagined it could be. All the bands were great, and thanks to the beer truck (that was donated by a bunch of local bars) the Clemson students packed us out. We still don’t have a full count on the t-shirt sales, but there was over $8200 profit just from food and drink sales. We weren’t expecting to raise even half of that, so we all are extremely happy the benefit was so successful.

We were out so late Saturday night though that I slept away a good part of Sunday, and Hubby stayed curled up right beside me. The heat Saturday got to both of us, so we decided to take it easy Sunday. We went to see the adorable Baby JJ, then we had a cookout with the in-laws before we headed home and spent the rest of the evening playing Wii Monopoly.

Yeah we were pretty lazy, but I’m making up for it today. I’ve been in Spring cleaning mode, and I’ve spent a majority of the day going through closets tossing random boxes of junk that I haven’t opened in 3 or 4 years. It’s exhilarating, and I’m headed off to toss some more junk. I want it all out!

Now that Flickr is cooperating with my uploads I can show off my first ultrasound. I happily present baby’s first photos for both our little one and Baby JJ!

Here we have beautiful Baby JJ at around 2 hours old. I snapped this one as the nurse was rolling him out for his first bath, and he wasn’t too happy about it. I’ll share the others when I get them uploaded to my pc.

Thursday morning I could have never known how busy the day was going to be.  We were on the go almost all day.  Wednesday night I had a horrible time sleeping, tossing and turning, until I finally gave up at 4am and got out of bed.  I was just too excited to sleep knowing that Hubby’s best friend and his gf were headed to the hospital at 5:30am to induce her, and I was headed to the hospital at 8:45 am for my first ultrasound.

I was dressed and ready to go before Hubby stumbled out of bed at 6am.  By 7:15 we were at our favorite hole in the wall breakfast spot fueling up, and at 8 I was at the hospital filling out tons of paperwork.  I’m glad we got there so early because I barely got the paperwork filled out before they called me back.  At least this is the only time I’ll have to do that.  From now on I can pre-register over the phone or online so all I have to do is sign 2 papers when I get there.

Anywho, Hubby and I went in for the ultrasound, and I’m so glad he got to be there for the first one.  The tech will be mailing us a few more pictures because the printer was giving her trouble.  She was able to get it to print two photos, but both of them had chipped marks on them.

Hubby was proud that he was able to tell what was happening on screen without the tech having to explain, and I don’t think he was expecting to see so much movement so soon.  That little booger was punching and kicking and showing out for us…a typical Shuey baby!

I’m 9 weeks now, and my ultrasound due date is November 26.  I  promised a couple people I would scan my ultrasounds, so I’ll post them in a bit.  I’m having trouble getting them to upload right now.

After we finished with my ultrasound we went on upstairs to see JD and Dawn in labor and delivery.  Things were slowly coming along, but she was having some trouble.  Particularly the baby’s heart rate kept dropping to the 60s when she’d lay on her left side.  When we left the hospital at 11am I was expecting the doc to decide to go with a c-section.

We decided even though JD had asked Hubby to be around the hospital for him all day, he had plenty of family and friends in and out to deal with.  Hubby decided we’d stop by his parents to show the ultrasound to his mom, then he’d head back to work.  He was able to work 3 hours plus the 45 min commute each way, and I was so tired I finally decided it was time to pass out on the couch.  I’m seriously glad I did take a 3 hour nap because the day wasn’t even halfway finished.

When Hubby got home from work we had to make our rounds showing off the ultrasound photos to our parents and grandparents, plus it was my sister’s birthday so I had to make sure I spent some time with her.  She showed up right as I was starting to get hungry with 2 big pieces of birthday cake, so I used that to refuel a bit, then we headed off for real food and Hubby’s parents’ house.  We barely got to their house and pulled our Wendy’s out of the bag when Hubby got a text saying “It’s a boy!”

After 12 hours of labor with very little progression they took Dawn for a c-section, and out came a very beautiful baby Josh Jr. aka JJ.  We waited an hour for Dawn to come out of recovery, then we headed to the hospital.  On the way there we got a call to pick up the new mama’s dinner, and we finally made it to the hospital around 9:30pm.  I borrowed my mother-in-law’s nice Canon camera to take lots of pics, so I’ll have to copy those from her SD card this evening.  I did get a ton of pics, and I did snap one with my cell phone so I could show him off immediately.

By the time little JJ had his first bath, his first feeding, and finally got pulled away from the Grandma’s it was almost midnight.  Then I had the chance to snap my photos while Hubby pulled the new Daddy off for celebatory cigars.  Sitting there alone with new mama and baby I just kept thinking “this is me in 7 months.  Am I ready for this?”  It’s overwhelming, but I know I am.

Anywho, we finally got out of the hospital a little after midnight, and after the drive all the way home from Easley I fell into bed about 1:30am.  Man it was such a long day, but it was a perfect day full of babies!