Happy Thanksgiving from Boise!

I am so grateful for so many things in my life right now. We have had a blast so far here in Idaho. I tried to get in on some Toys R Us doorbusters at midnight last night and nearly lost a limb, those people are CRAZY! I walked out empty handed :(

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Quote of the Day:

While cupcakes are baking in the oven Cody says,

"Mom can you turn the light on so I can smell them??!"

25 weeks

I think my biggest thing this week is that I realized how helpful it is to have friends who understand what you are going through. When I was pregnant with Cody, we moved back to Idaho when I was 4 months pregnant, we lived with my parents and went to the Spanish Branch of our church... so basically only the youth spoke English. I had some friends, but not people that I talked to daily or saw very often. My cousin was due 2 weeks before me with her daughter but we weren't very close yet...

So... I am so grateful that this time around I have friends who are also pregnant and have similar concerns that I can talk to and discuss things that I worry about.

When I was pregnant with Cody I worried mainly about whether or not it would be a boy or girl, until about a week before the gender ultrasound... then I was worried about all the typical stuff, one head, one heart, 10 fingers, 10 toes and mostly whether or not I was ACTUALLY going to be able to take care of another human being. I think I was in denial a lot of the time I was pregnant with him. Even after he was born I struggled to accept the fact that I was actually a mom, there were days when I felt like I was just going through the motions and one day I would wake up and things would be back to normal. Instead, one day I woke up and accepted that this was my new normal.

This time around, I have a whole new set of concerns. Cody is alive and healthy so I feel confident in my ability to take care of a newborn once he is here. The anxiety that I am getting this time is more of a, "what if something happens to the baby before he's born?" The stuff I can't control. I know people who have miscarried, and they are stronger people than I will ever be. I also know people who carried children full term for the baby to pass after only hours. I can't even imagine that heart break.

Cody is hilarious with the baby already. Even though my tummy isn't really big yet, he has recently started asking if he can snuggle his baby brother or give him kisses. It makes my day.

and he continues to point out every time he sees a Dr. of any sort or a baby that that is like his baby brother.

He also tells me that when his baby brother gets big enough, and the Dr takes him out of my tummy that he is going to take good care of him and share his toys with him.

I am SO excited for Thanksgiving!!!

It's time... we are going private

I have tossed around making my blog private for about a year. I used to think private blogs were dumb... but then I started seeing how easy it is for ANYONE to access mine and I won't lie that the article in the Ensign helped make up my mind on the issue. I don't do a good job of blogging about my religion or sharing quotes or talks that inspire me, which I intend to do a better job with and the idea of random people seeing my families details makes me nervous. So... cutting to the point... leave me your email in a comment or email it to me at amanda.henneman@gmail.com and I will add you to the list. It will probably be two weeks or so before I make the switch just to give people time to get their emails in.

I feel like I need to apologize for making the switch, but I started my blog as a way for family members who we don't get to see very often to be able to stay in touch with us... and now that we are living in Utah, 6 hours away from almost ALL of our family I like to be able to put up details about what we are doing and pictures of Cody. So, instead of apologizing I am going to say Thank You for being patient with the change. I know its a hassle to have to sign in everytime you want to view a private blog. Hopefully it will be worth your time when we have our new little guy here to post pictures of too.

He is my child

The older Cody gets the more we see us in him.

Not just his physical appearances. He has adapted things from both Chris and I that he has never actually seen us do. For instance, if Cody wakes up in the morning and comes into our bed, the first thing he does is stick his FREEZING COLD toes in between the legs of who ever he snuggles up to or if his toes are cold he will rub his feet up and down my leg to warm them up.

I used to do that to my brother. It drove him CRAZY when I would do that.

My favorite, that I thought I had already posted, was a few weeks ago when I was laying down with him to take a nap and he sat up when I thought he was asleep and said, "Turn my pillow over. Its hot!"

I laughed out loud. I can't tell you how many times I watched my brother turn his pillow over to sleep on the cold side. Or steal my pillow to use my cold side. So now, he hates sleeping on anything but a cold pillow.

What are the chances...

that the Dr. missed a baby during the ultrasound?

I know they are very slim, like impossible but every night when I lay down it feels like there are 2 of them and that they are boxing each other inside my belly. It is starting to become uncomfortable. Not necessarily painful but I can't sleep through it anymore which probably explains why I am waking up more and more grumpy every day.

24 weeks

Doesn't that mean 6 months? I never have fully understood that. Cause if I am 6 months pregnant today then I will be pregnant for 10 months. So I have been telling people that I am 5 months for a while now. I think it will make me feel better towards the end. And then I don't have to hear the, "Oh my gosh, you don't even look pregnant" stuff anymore.

I think I just want someone to finally ask, "Hey when are you due." Then I will know I don't look fat, I look pregnant. Cause lets be honest, if I don't look pregnant right now you know people are thinking I should lay off the Halloween candy. (well it probably is time for that too, but I am going to run with the, "I'm pregnant" excuse for a couple more weeks)

My belly is growing, but because of my height and I'm assuming the way I carry babies, it is still hidden pretty well. In my update last week I wrote that I am excited about being pregnant during the winter to be able to wear lots of layers to hide the belly... I hope I didn't offend anyone, I didn't mean the big belly I meant this awkward stage where it looks more like a food baby.

I am still playing volleyball once a week and to my surprise it has actually been comfortable still. The only thing that bothers me is for a couple days after I have very uncomfortable round ligament pain . I got this with Cody too starting at about 6 months where when I would try to walk on a treadmill I felt like he was going to fall out. :)

Cody is so excited to meet his baby brother. He will talk to him now. He says, "Hi Cade, I'm your big brudder Cody." and he will wiggle my tummy hoping to wake him up. Every time he sees a little baby in magazines or on t.v. he will make sure to point out to Chris and I that that is what his baby brudder in mommy's tummy will look like but that he has to get bigger first before the Dr. will take him out.

I don't have a belly picture still but here are a couple taken last night while we were all snuggling in Mom and Dad's bed.

update

Just a little update on Cody's teeth. These were actually taken on Friday night so a good 36 hours after the work was done.

and if you look closely you can see Cody's new tear drop tattoo under is left eye.

He wrote on his arm with marker and then fell asleep on his arm. Again these pictures are from Friday and it is still there. It only seems to get darker and I can't get it off!the Dentist said that his gums will grow back around his front tooth. The gums are so high because they had to cut into them to sand the two teeth apart that were fused together. There is almost no hole left now where the extra tooth was.

This is what we spent most of Friday and part of Saturday doing... laying around watching movies. Chris's itunes account has all the Cody movies on it so we watched them on the laptop in bed. I LOVE snuggly Cody.

and just so all the grandparents don't think I am turning him into a total mush brain--- we also got in some educational down time.

In this particular picture he was tracing the squares.

And the highlight of Cody's weekend was.... Saturday morning when Uncle Chip showed up with a HUGE donut for him. He has had a fairly restricted diet. Lots of soft food, or everything was broken into bite size pieces so we just let him go for it on the donut.

So Thanks Taylors for making Cody's day!

okay I'll be honest. I let him take one bite so I could take a cute picture and then I cut it up for him. I was too nervous.

and I had to throw this last one in. This is what he is currently doing. Sleeping in his "mickey mouse clubhouse"

*** and yes I do dress my child. He just insists on taking his clothes off.*****

How Comforting... NOT!

I was born and raised in small town Idaho. Every house I lived in growing up had either a Caldwell or Middleton address. My mom used to check the sex offender registry fairly regularly, to me it wasn't a big deal but once I had a child of my own I started checking to see what was around us. The house Chris and I built was in "the country" but not like middle of no where. When I searched the Idaho sex offender registry it pulled up 25 registered sex offenders in my zip code. Two of which I graduated from high school with but there are only 12 within 2 miles of our house and the nearest is about a mile away. When I looked on the Utah registry today I was shocked to find that there are 25 registered sex offenders living within 2 miles of our house and 9 within 2 miles... the worst part... 2 in my subdivision! Fortunately they are on the opposite side of the subdivision and not next door, but still.

The Pulpotomy

Aka... The baby root canal.

I know that my last post said that Cody's dental work was going to done on Friday, well... apparently the 5th is today and not tomorrow. I learned that yesterday when they called to solidify his appt. It was probably better. One less day to worry about it. I also thought I would start out with a cute picture so this isn't totally depressing.

I took a "before" picture this morning since I realized I didn't have any close ups of his double tooth. So now you can see the difference.

BEFORE

I will try to not make this a long winded story but it was quite an event. I took asked my sister in law Marissa to come with me and I am SO grateful she woke up at 6 a.m. to be there with me. The pediodontist I took Cody to is in Riverton and his appt was at 8:00 so we had leave my house by 7. Cody wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything after midnight which was fairly easy.

When we got to the Dr. office, I filled out paperwork and then we waited til about 8:45. Cody played with the toys they had set up while Marissa and I tried not to fall asleep to the toy train buzzing around the track above us. We agreed that it sounded like ocean waves... very soothing.

The anethesiologist and the Dentist came out to talk to us about the medications and let us know what to expect. They were going to give him a shot in his thigh that would make him basically fall asleep. She said it is actually both a stimulant and a sedative. So his eyes would stay open and he would either go completely limp of stiffen up, all kids react differently to it. Then they would take him back and start the I.V. and the dental work. After we asked a few questions they took us back to a room where I help Cody on my lap so they could give him the shot in his thigh. He handled the shot pretty well only crying briefly and within about a minute he was quiet and just staring straight in front of him. Marissa and I laughed really hard as he was slowly going under until I rolled him over to cradle him and he looked at me with glazed over eyes and a completely limp body. I panicked! I asked Marissa to go get the anethesiologist because for a split second I though maybe something was wrong. What if he was allergic to it and stopped breathing. I will never forget that look on his face. I was relieved when they came in and said that this was exactly how he was supposed to respond and that it is always hard on the Moms. I was in tears at this point. They assured me that he wouldn't remember anything from that point on. I handed him over and Marissa and I went and sat in the lobby where she helped me calm down and kept me distracted from thinking about it. I SERIOUSLY don't think I could have done it without her there. After about 45 minutes the came and got us and let us go back into the dimly lit room we started in and they brought Cody in and laid him on a poof pillow and hooked him back up the monitors. They covered him with a blanket and said that it could
take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour for him to wake up. I was prepared for it to take a while since he was awake early, but he started waking up within a few minutes. I called Chris to let him know how it went and Cody started trying to open his eyes when he heard me talking.

His body was still very limp and he wasn't able to hold his head up for about 15 minutes and even then it was like a little baby, it would flop forward if he wasn't paying attention. For about an hour he struggled holding his head up all the time.

They gave him a popsicle and some juice and then let us go home when they thought we was responsive enough. He was still talking pretty slow and saying some goofy things, but he was coming out of it really well.

a couple funny things he said while waking up:

"Is the Dr. going to take my baby brother out now?"

"I'm a big boy" but sound more like "I'm bi bo" his mouth was still numb.

While watching the movie they had playing the t.v. in the room he said,

"Look, a gorilla" and there was no gorilla, he either meant the hamster or a guy with big hair.

While eating his popsicle, "I...loovvee...tthe....DDDooctooor. I..... lllove the Dennnntiiist." very slow and slurred.

"I'm done. Lets go home"

Coming out of it.

Barely able to hold his head up at this point

We went and met Chris for lunch since he has to be at work really late tonight. When we first got there and were waiting for Chris I asked Cody if he needed to go potty, he said yes so we went to the bathroom. I was still having to hold him up since he couldn't stay standing on his own, and when he tried to go he was so frustrated that nothing would come out. So when it was my turn I had to set him down on his knees on the floor so he wouldn't fall over. He didn't like that and kept trying to stand up... He would get so frustrated. He kept rocking over and couldn't seem to be able to stand up.

This picture just breaks my heart though. He was so tired but wouldn't leave Chris. He just sat and snuggled the whole time.

And then on the way home we made everything better with an ice cream cone.

And here is the finished product.... he loves showing off his new tooth. Just a reminder, they had to sand between the two teeth because they were fused together just above the gum line which explains the hole in his gums, then they extrated the outside extra tooth, performed the pulpotomy on the remaining tooth and filled it.

and a real close up.

I think it looks great. I wasn't sure how the tooth would look in the end but I am happy with it. The Dentist said that his teeth will naturally slide back together so that gap wont be there in a few months and his gums will heal and fill back in on its own.

So, heres to a week of yogurt, pudding, applesauce, juice, popsicles and pasta.

In other news,

Cody goes in for his dental procedure on Friday. I am a ball of nerves. I am taking my sister-in law Marissa with me for support. I just don't want to be curled in a ball in the corner of the room crying as I think about what they are doing to my little boy. So, hopefully she will be able to keep me stable. Not only did Chris refuse to go with me, I don't think I would want him there anyway. He would just make me more nervous.

We are looking forward to a great November. 10 days in Boise with family and great food. It just doesn't get any better. Bring on the Holidays!!!

23 weeks

23 Weeks

I love that this part goes so quickly. It seems like I am posting a weekly update every 4 days or so. Chris told me the other day when I had a tight shirt on that he could tell I was pregnant for the first time so we are at least making progress. The best part about being pregnant during the winter though is that I get to wear lots of layers to cover it. :)

We do have a couple names that we are tossing around. I am not one to wait to meet the baby to choose a name. With Cody it was a guarantee that if he was a boy he would be Cody. No questions. And with this second baby, I think it is important to pick a name so that it is easier for Cody. He was in denial for a few days that he would be getting a baby brother. He insisted that it would be a baby sister but he is coming around. We told Cody both names that we like for his brother and waited to see which one he held onto. Now whenever you ask him what his baby brothers name is, he will tell you. Its Cade. Cade Michael Henneman

I have a hard time picking middle names. Cody's was easy. Christopher. But other than that I don't really know, so I just pick something that goes well with the name and I like using family names. Its just luck of the draw that my in-laws all have really great names. Michael is also Chris's brothers name. So technically, we are naming him after Uncle Mikey.

Everything else is going great. Can't complain. Just typical pregnancy stuff.

In case you wanted to know...

I went couponing today :)

Not very often do I have the BIG savings trips, but today I did and I was so proud of myself when I figured up what I saved. Here is my list.

No pictures, that last one was way too much work.

38 (32 oz.) gatorade reg price $1.10 coupon price $.49 total $20.24 savings = $24.78

15 cans hormel chili reg price $1.29 coupon price $.12 total $1.92 savings = $ 18.69

2 box Tylenol 24 ct reg price $5.29 coupon price $1.50 total $3.20 savings = $8.07

2 box Tylenol 24 ct reg price $4.39 coupon price $1.50 total $3.20 savings = $6.15

6 feminine product 22 ct. reg price $3.19 coupon price $1.00 total $6.39 savings = $13.99

2 Quilted northern bath tissue(12 double rolls) reg price $9.99 coupon price $4.49 total $9.56 savings= $11.77

10 lean cuisine reg price $2.75 coupon price $1.49 total $14.80 savings= $14.48

4 box Quaker granola bars reg price $2.49 coupon price $1.12 total $4.77 savings= $5.84

2 box 10 ct swiss miss reg price $2.49 coupon price $.49 total $1.04 savings= $4.26

Total spent $65.12 Total Saved $108.03

All in a days work :)