It's a BOY!!!

Riley Maxwell Turpen

Born September 12,2008 @ 8:04 PM

4 lbs. 11.8 oz. & 17 1/2" long

We were blessed 4 weeks early with Riley who was healthy enough not to have to go to the NICU. After 2 days of labor I had to have an emergency C-section due to a large drop in Riley's heart rate. However, Riley is happy and healthy and continuing to grow and thrive. We are so very happy to finally have him in our arms!

Wonderful Hubby!

Don't tell Mark I put this picture on here!

I think if any of his buddies saw this he would be mortified. Oh well! I thought it was cute and such a special thing for him to do. It's not easy to have a pregnant wife, working every day in Seattle on the house all the while living with your in-laws!

Love you baby, you're the best!!!!

33.5 weeks

Here is what I look like as of August 26th. I only have a few more weeks to make it to 40. I sure am hoping to make it full term since we are not yet back in our own home. My parents have been putting up with Mark, Tucker and I for 4 months now! Yikes! I don't know what we would do without their gracious hospitality. What was supposed to only be 4 weeks has stretched out a bit further:) Thank you for family!!!!

At this point in the picture, I was only 4 days out of the hospital. I had a short 2 night visit the week prior due to my amniotic fluid being dangerously low. I went in for a simple ultrasound and ended up getting admitted an hour later to Swedish Hospital in Seattle. Not fun, but something that had to be done. The doctor said that if I were at 36 weeks they would have induced me with that fluid level. Luckily, I was able to get the fluid up enough in 2 days to go home Friday the 22nd. By Monday the 25th, an ultrasound determined my levels went up even more. However, the doctor has restricted me to 1/2 days at work and moderate bed rest. It is not my ideal situation but I am getting through it to keep this baby in for as long as I can. My job right now is to nurture this baby inside me to be strong and healthy.

We are getting very excited to meet our little one!!!

26.5 weeks

Here I am in my 26th week, this picture was taken on July 7th. Look how round my face is! Yikes! Maybe I should lay off the sweet stuff!!!

The week prior, I had my monthly Dr. visit and everything is going fine. I had another ultrasound and my amniotic fluid level has not decreased. Although, it has also not increased. I am still at 10.4 which is the low end of normal (10-20 is the range). But the doctor is still giving me the green light to work and exercise as normal. I also had my glucose screening test for gestational diabetes and the results were all good. Yeah! I don't know what I would have been able to do if I was not able to have my nightly dose of ice cream!!!

The 2nd trimester has been relatively smooth and comfortable. I am still able to get my treadmill walks in during my lunch break which is a good stress reliever. Yes, that's right, I have a bit of stress. Although the pregnancy is going well, there are a lot of other things going on. The house is still not at a point we can live in so we are still at my parents house. I am so grateful for them putting up with us and Tucker. They have been very gracious and we appreciate it so very much. We want to get out of their hair just as much as they want us too also! Only a few more weeks though, I hope! No, really, we are past the halfway point with the house so there is some relief in that.

Happy 4th of July!

We spent our 4th of July at Mark's parents cabin on the lake. We were joined there by Mark's parents and brother Dave with his wife and girls. We also enjoyed the company of Mitch, Erin and Drew and then Dean, Lucy and Gabriella. Needless to say, there was hardly a quiet moment.
The weather could have been better but at least it only rained 1 out of the 4 days we were there.

The picture of me here is at the cabin that weekend and I was feeling very huge. Can't you tell by the look on my face? At this point, Mark was definitely getting the fact that I am pregnant! Yep, that's right, I REALLY AM PREGNANT! :) For so many months prior to this point, you don't really look as pregnant as you feel. It's especially hard for men to make the connection until it's sticking out right in front of their face! Which my belly is now!!!!

We can't wait to meet you!

I had another ultrasound this week, yes, my 2nd one in less than 2 weeks. There were 2 reasons for this ultrasound. First, the baby was not in a good position to get all the pictures they wanted. Second, my amniotic fluid was on the low end of normal so they wanted to check that again.

The baby is still looking healthy and developing right on schedule. However, my fluid did not increase but also did not decrease. The range to be in is 10-20 and I am at a 10. I haven't heard from my Doctor yet about the results so I am assuming she is not worried yet. Worst case scenario is that I would have to be put on bed rest for a little while.

I am feeling very hopeful that I won't be on bed rest. I feel great and the baby is VERY active these days which is a good sign too!

Attack of the BELLY Monster!

My, oh, my! See how I have grown?

Here I am at 22 weeks. Every week is really pushing out that belly. The baby weighs about a pound now and will double it's size in the next 4 weeks!! That is a very rapid growth spurt compared to how long it's taken to get where it is so far.

Watch out MuuMuu, here I come!

Halfway House

As I have been promising, here are some pics of the remodel, finally. Last weekend we spent all of our free time at Lowe's or Home Depot. We purchased our master bath jetted tub and 2 toilets. Cool! We looked at lot's of other stuff we need but we have quite a few decisions to make yet. We are currently working on the kitchen layout/design. I say we need an island, Mark seems to disagree. Anyone want to chime in on this one? (Best bet would be to side with the hormonal pregnant lady at this point)

Putting all those decisions aside, we are so very excited for the finished product and every week brings new joy and vision for us. It's great to see it change everyday into what will be our new home for our new family. This is a very exciting and eventful time in our life and we are doing our best to not lose our minds! We are in the middle of 2 huge projects, the house and the baby on the way, which cannot be stopped. There is no procrastinating allowed here!

2nd Ultrasound

We are in love! Here is our little one at 21 weeks. Of course we questioned to find out the gender, but kept strong and did not find out. We were excited enough just to see the baby again!

All is going along great. The baby is about 10 inches long, give or take and right on schedule. We saw it's feet and hands, heart, legs, etc. It has such a cute profile and during the ultrasound moved it's mouth like it was sucking . Too cute!

Buddha Belly!

Here I am last night. I am currently at 20 weeks but will be 21 weeks tomorrow. Either way, I am getting bigger and I hope it actually looks more like a pregnant belly now. I can't believe I am halfway through my pregnancy. I still have a ways to go and GROW! Yikes! I can't imagine what I will look like in a month let alone 4 months! I have been doing my best, well maybe not MY BEST, to stay healthy. I could be eating less sweet stuff but I am getting my fruits and veggies. I have also been working out on my lunch breaks at work and getting in a walk or two on the weekend. It's better than not doing anything, right?

Thursday is our big ultrasound appointment. I can't believe that it's been 8 weeks since the last ultrasound. The baby has quadrupled in size since then. We are so excited to see our little one again! You gotta love technology these days, it's so awesome to be able to see the baby throughout the long pregnancy. We are still not planning on finding out the gender either.....I am going to do my best to resist the temptation AND the pressure to find out from Mark! He is so excited to be a daddy and eager to know what is in there. All in due time!!!!

Memorial Day Weekend

We went to Mark's parents cabin for the long weekend. It was so nice to have an extra day off! We had a good time just relaxing, eating a lot, jet skiing, roasting smore's and dock fishing. Mark's parents, his brother and his family were all at the cabin too. Tucker had an awesome time playing and swimming with our nieces, Emily & Elise. Tucker LOVES the water as you can see from him on the jet ski and the floaty island thing. He is still trying to recover from the weekend by sleeping A LOT since we got home. Oh, yeah, me too! I could have used just one more day off!

Our little soccer player!

Last Sunday I finally felt our little one kicking! As I was lying in bed on Sunday morning I could feel a weird jab in my lower abdomen. I pressed on the area and proceeded to get a few more jabs. At that point I knew I was not just feeling gas! This was our little one waking me up. So, I then had to wake up Mark and tell him and he was able to feel it too. It was too cool! We were so excited to finally know we have an active baby doing it's thing in there.

This week has been full of lots of flutters and jabs that I can notice so much more now. I especially feel movement after I have eaten. I heard that the baby sleeps at least 20 hours out of the day so I don't get movement all the time. But it's enough to still get excited about and it makes me smile every time I can feel it kicking. I don't know that I will be saying the exact same thing when I am 9 months pregnant. I am sure by that time I will have my share of all the kicking and rolling that will be waking me up at night. Either way, it's still a miracle and such a wonderful experience so far.

Coming soon!

I will post some pics of the remodel too. In all my free time! :)

18 weeks!

I don't know if these pictures do me any justice! I feel alot bigger than I look in the picture. Maybe it's the angle of the shot but I really am starting to pooch out. I would not say popped out yet as I definitley don't look like that. It's more like I look like I just finished in 1st place of a pie eating contest!

I had a Dr. appt last week that went well. The baby and I seem to be progressing along normally. I heard the hearbeat which was around 130. The Dr. could hear that the baby was moving but I could not feel a thing. It's weird to think that you can't feel something that is over 5" long moving inside of you! I also got my test results back this week which tested for Down Syndrome and Spina Bifida, etc. I received great news that my odds are very low and the Dr. is not concerned about anything at this point. Yeah!

I did think that I finally thought I felt something last night. Of course, it could have been a rumbly tummy from the big dinner I had just eaten. It's still too hard to decipher the grumbles and bubbles down there yet. They say that you during your 1st pregnancy you won't feel the baby until about 18-22 weeks. So it could be anytime now, I hope!

Mark is doing well so far. Although, his focus right now has been with the house remodel. He has really been getting his hands dirty! His body is all beat up with scratches and bruises, which is not typical of Mark since his day job is sitting at a computer. I think he likes it right now though as he is having fun with the other guys on the jobsite. But I know he is happy this is not how he has to make a living in real life. I just don't think he was made to be a physical laborer, he's too much of a clean freak for that!

We are really looking forward to the 29th of this month. That is when we have our ultrasound and I will be in my 21st week then. We are super excited to see the baby and of course to make sure all is progressing normal. I will post those ultrasound pics to share with you all!

Mariner's Game

Look how tan Mark is! No fair! I look like a ghost next to him. Seriously though, he is so tan from working outside on the house! Not so jealous of that....

We went to our first Mariner's game of the year, and of coure, it was a loss. However, it was a nice break from the mess of the remodel and every day work life. Our friends Andy and Kristin also attended the game with us. We had a good time. I had to have the garlic fries as they are a MUST at the baseball game. And we had peanuts and beer, well, not me of course! It's one of those great opportunities for me to now be the designated driver. Fun!

We got lucky and had clear blue skies and sun that evening! That seems to be such a rarity these days in Seattle. The winter just does not want to let go and it's getting to almost be summetime! However, the night turned bitterly cold when the sun went down and my fingers and toes went numb. I definitely have a circulation problem during this pregnancy when the temperature drops. YIKES! It was a relief to make it to the car afterwards and turn on the heat and heated seats! I love the heated seat!!! I don't know that I could ever have a car again without them:)

16 weeks!

Here I am at 16 weeks along now. I still don't look pregnant in my normal clothes yet. However, at this point it is required to use rubberbands now to extend the waistline of my pre-pregnancy pants. I did not think I was going to be able to handle not having my pants buttoned but the extra inch or two really makes things more comfortable!

I still want to eat all the time, especially sweets! I was not a big candy or sweet eater previously to the pregnancy but things are different now. It's really weird that I don't feel I have control over what I want to eat. It's like my will power has just checked itself out for the next few months! Hopefully, I will not gain too much weight though throughout this eating frenzy!!! Wish me luck!

Bad Blogger!

I know folks, I am have not been updating the blog....We do have some current pics of me and the house remodel on the way though. It's hard to keep up with this sometimes when we are living out of boxes. Even Tucker is not being himself these days!

We can't wait for the house project to get further along. It won't be too long before the 2nd floor is up and we can get a better picture of the house.

Anyways, there will be another post in the next few days with some updated pictures! I swear! :)

Getting a belly....

Here is a fabulous picture of me on Sunday evening! Man, do I look PALE?!?! I am ready for some sunshine, NOW!

Here I am 14 weeks along and my belly is definitely starting to bulge out. Mostly I just feel and look like I have been eating too much lately! I hope in a few more weeks it will actually look like I am prego and not like I have just gained a few pounds:)

1st Ultrasound

On March 31st we got to see the baby for the 1st time! The week prior I was able to hear the heartbeat for the 1st time. Mark was out of town and could not share in that joy and we were both bummed about that. But, it was so awesome that he could make this appointment as it was such a memorable moment. It definitely made everything so "real" when you could actually see the baby. The baby was very active and had all the right parts; two legs, two arms, a big heart, brain and more. At 12 1/2 weeks and 2 1/2" from rump to crown, the little one is growing on schedule.