laus – Page 19 – MiniMarr

Change in Plans …

This is by far the hardest post we’ve had to write, but we learned some sad news last week and felt it was time to share with all of you … our precious little baby has Trisomy 18.

Trisomy 18 is a chromosomal abnormality/genetic defect – essentially a fluke – second only in occurrence to Downs Syndrome. Sadly, Trisomy 18 is considered “incompatible with life”. Most babies die before birth, and the few who do make it typically live just a few minutes, hours or days. A very small number of babies (<10%) live at least one year.

At this point, we don’t know what the future holds for MiniMarr, but are planning to carry this little baby as long as he/she will allow us to. We know the outlook is grim, but we’re holding on to hope and praying that God will guide us. We are so sad to know that our little baby won’t have the life we dreamed of, but we still love him/her very much and just ask for your love and support.

Despite the incredible loss we’re experiencing, we know how lucky we are to have such amazing family and friends and we are beyond grateful for them. We especially want to thank our parents and sisters for being such an immense support to us over the last week. We know how much they are hurting too, but they’ve been so strong for us and we truly would not have survived without them.

If you’re interested in more information, the Trisomy 18 Foundation is an excellent reference.

Love,
Pat and Laurie

Waterfront Property

When it rains as heavily/consistently as it did the last couple of days, we have the unfortunate problem of flooding. Not our basement (thank goodness!) but our neighborhood. We live at the bottom of a small hill, on the corner of two streets. Both sides completely flood, so we’re essentially stuck at our house when it’s really bad. A few cars almost always get stuck in the water, which results in the street being blocked off at both ends, and cops at either end to make sure no one tries to pass through. Luckily, Pat and I have two driveways, so can usually manage to get both our cars in one or other, depending on where the flooding is worse. Here are a few pictures of our luxurious waterfront property:

Bailey is petrified of the water. She apparently thinks it poses some sort of imminent danger and therefore won’t leave the yard when the water is there, which is actually quite convenient. Generally, we do not let her outside without a leash (she has a tendancy to want to run away and explore other parts of the neighborhood). When the water is there though, we can stand on the deck, she’ll run out back and do her business as fast as possible, while fearfully looking at the water like it might eat her. She’s very tough. Last night, Pat and I met up with some friends for dinner. When we got home, it was late so Pat quickly took Miss B outside – off her leash. Unfortunately, it was pitch dark outside and Bailey didn’t remember that the water was there and apparently couldn’t see it. (For those of you that know B, you know nothing she does is slow. Everything, whether it be eating, drinking or running down the stairs, is done at warp speed). In her typical spastic manner, she tried to run away and was quite surprised when she landed in the ice cold water! She has never swam before, but after sputtering around for little bit, she quickly learned! She was one wet, cold dog, but Pat and I could not stop laughing. She just had this stunned look on her face … it was priceless. Hopefully it means that she’ll become quite the swimmer this summer down the Cape and in Maine!

After drying out overnight, B had a photo shoot today for her 2008 Christmas card, it was very exciting and we got a few great shots … we’ll keep you in suspense until they’re mailed out!

In baby news, I had another appointment this week (17 weeks) and everything looks good! MM’s heart was ticking away at 155 beats/minute. I asked my MD about the theory that boys have heartbeats less than 150 and girls have heartbeats greater than 150, and he said there was absolutely no truth to it, so I still have no inclination whether it’s a little boy or a little girl in there, but I suppose we’ll know soon enough! May will be here before we know it … and, we have an ultrasound scheduled for the first week in January, so will get to take another peek at our little peanut – we can’t wait!!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Stay warm 🙂

Sleeping Beauty

For the record, Bailey is generally not allowed on the couch. But if this blanket goes anywhere near the couch, she knows it’s hers and that it is okay to jump up. It cracks us both up! And clearly in this picture she is not pleased that I disturbed her!

In baby news, MiniMarr is 16 weeks along, and about the size of an avocado – which of course means that Pat asks how the guacamole is every time he sees me 🙂 So far the guacamole is excellent! All my friends tell me I should start feeling him/her move in the next few weeks, which I am pretty excited about!

Babies ‘R Us

As Pat mentioned earlier, several of our friends have recently had babies. Two more babies were born this weekend, so I figured I’d officially welcome them all to the world …

Billy and Erika started things off on October 18, with Emily Margaret. Miss Emily made her parents wait to meet her and was almost two weeks late … the proud new parents say it was all worth it though! We met Emily the day she was born and it’s hard to believe she is over a month old already!!

Debbie, Mike and big brother Ruairi welcomed Tiernan Jude on November 8. Tiernan also made his parents wait, and was a week late arriving to the world! Ruairi was born in London, so it was fun celebrating with little Tiernan born in the good ol’ USA! He is adorable, and looks just like his brother!

Sarah and Andrew next welcomed Miss Abigail Katherine to the world on November 11. Abby was a bit kinder to her parents and only a few days late! We were lucky enough to meet Abby when she was just a few days old, and can’t wait to see her again next weekend!

Michael and Kristen welcomed Lucas Michael to the world on November 28, three days ahead of schedule! Luke and his parents live in Ohio, so we won’t meet him for awhile, but can’t wait until we do – he is such a cutie!

And Jodie and Ricky just welcomed the adorable Miss Sadie Brooks to the world early this morning! Sadie was due December 9. So she arrived 10 days early, much to her parents delight!! I can’t wait to meet her this weekend!!

Next up are Amanda and Nick, set to welcome Miss Antonia Maya into the world on/around January 8!

Congratulations again to all of our friends! We’re so excited for everyone, and are so lucky MiniMarr will have so many of his/her own friends to grow up with!! We’ve got 4 girls and 2 boys already, I wonder what MM will be?! Will things even off and we’ll have a boy? Or will all the boys be outnumbered? And will he/she be late? Or early? It’s hard to believe we have less than 6 months to find out!

Weekends …

I love weekends … they are so relaxing and it’s so nice to spend quality time with the family. I had to work Friday night, so slept during the day on Saturday, but after I woke up, Pat and I just hung out and relaxed. It was wonderful. We had no agenda, and ended up going to dinner and a movie – an actual date! We saw the new Bond movie (wasn’t that good) but had such a nice time anyway. Sunday we woke up, had breakfast hung out, watched the Pats win and gave Bailey the most thorough grooming of her life. She was bathed, brushed, furminated and all her long fur was trimmed. She looks a little choppy, but hey, we’re not professionals! She smells clean, and looks great! The bath totally wore her out, and she slept most of the rest of the afternoon, it was pretty funny. Last night, we headed up to dinner at my parents house, where B played with Mags and tuckered herself out even more – gotta love it! She is such a well behaved dog when she’s tired/sleeping 🙂 When we got home, we discovered that we could use Netflix on Pat’s XBOX, which might be the coolest thing ever. All you do is set up your queue and then turn on XBOX and the movies will play right on your TV. It was so awesome! We watched several Law and Order episodes before heading off to bed. Technology is great, but my techie husband is even better, because I would have had NO idea that was even possible!

In baby news, the human nugget is 15 weeks today! Every website tells you something different, but we like babycenter.com because everything relates to food … this week, “the baby measures about 4 inches long, crown to rump, and weighs in at about 2 1/2 ounces (about the size of an apple)” It’s amazing how much he/she is growing each week! To think I have a little apple swimming around inside of me is just crazy, but so amazing. I don’t think we have another ultrasound until 20 weeks, so it will be even more amazing to see how much he/she will grow between now and then! The 20 week ultrasound is also the “big reveal” to find out if we’re having a boy or a girl, but as most of you know, we don’t want to find out! There aren’t many true surprises in life, so we’re going to wait until that moment in the delivery room when they tell us “It’s a …!” Lucky for us, we know it’s only one of two things – at least we hope anyway 😉

Hope everyone has a good (short) week … Happy Thanksgiving!

2nd Trimester!

Monday marked the beginning of my 14th week of pregnancy, the official start of the second trimester – it seems like such a long time ago that we found out we were pregnant, yet it still feels so new and exciting! It’s a relief to be in the second trimester, because the risk of miscarriage decreases significantly … and I finally told my boss at work, which means the cat is officially out of the bag. Now at least everyone will know that there is a reason I walk around with a goofy grin on my face all day! According to babycenter.com, this week MM can “squint, frown, grimace, pee, and possibly suck his thumb! Thanks to brain impulses, his facial muscles are getting a workout as his tiny features form one expression after another. He now measures 3 1/2 inches — about the size of a lemon — and he weighs 1 1/2 ounces.” Crazy huh?

We can’t wait to see everyone on Thanksgiving!!

Horse poop and Heartbeats

I learned something very disturbing about our precious Bailey last night. Pat and I stayed at my parents house on Saturday night. We had a birthday party for Andrea (happy birthday Andrea!) and then I had a baby shower in the morning and Pat was heading to the Cape to help his dad paint, so it made sense to just stay in Canton rather than drive to back to RI. Anyway, while I was at the baby shower yesterday afternoon, my parents took B and Maggie to the golf course, something they always do. Apparently, this time, Bailey decided that it was a good idea to eat fresh horse poop. My mom said she was literally tossing it in the air and catching it. When my parents caught up to her to tell her “NO“, she ran away, eating the poop all the while. I can’t quite look at her the same and I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to … gross.

In human baby news, today marks the beginning of our 13th week of pregancy! YEAH!! We had an ultrasound this afternoon, and saw our little shrimp – the size of the baby, according to babycenter.com 🙂 It was so awesome, both Pat and I were totally enthralled. The baby is already so much bigger than our last ultrasound 5 weeks ago; it actually looks like a baby! It was all curled up in a corner, so the ultrasound tech got it to move, and we saw it squirm all over the place. It was totally amazing, and neither one of us expected to be able to see so much! We saw the profile of it’s face, and we saw arms and legs. It even waved at us at one point, haha. We also got to hear the heartbeat, which was incredible. It’s beating strong at 162 and everything is “right on track” according to the doctor. I feel so relieved and am so excited to finally be able to start telling our family and friends the good news!! I know we waited a long time to share with everyone, but it just felt right for us, and now I can’t wait for everyone to know!!

P.S. Pictures of the ultrasound will be posted later this week!

EDIT: Here’s just one of the ultrasound shots. We’ll post more later once they’re all scanned in…

Now That's a Mini Marr! — Now That's A Mini Marr!

The day we found out!

Tomorrow marks the beginning of our 13th week of pregnancy, so I figured I’d share the story of how Pat and I found out we were indeed pregnant! This is what I wrote the day we found out, Monday, September 15:

Wow! At 1:09 this afternoon I found out some information that will most certainly change the rest of my life. Pat and I are having a baby!! I went to the doctor’s this morning and had a blood test that came back positive. It’s crazy. My period was 10 days late and we haven’t really been doing anything to prevent getting pregnant, but wow! I was so excited/hopeful/nervous that I would be, but there were also so many reasons that I could have just been late – I’ve been working a lot of nights, I traveled cross country – one of the flights being a red-eye and it just didn’t seem possible that I really could be pregnant. Well, I was wrong! I had been feeling tired, but again, could have been a function of working nights. I also was very queasy all weekend, to the point where Pat made breakfast Saturday morning and I had to leave the room because the smell of his delicious looking dropped-egg-on-toast made me gag. I was scared to believe I could be pregnant, because I had taken two home pregnancy tests, and both were negative. About two months ago, I was sick with a sinus infection and paid a visit to my primary care. Apparently they scheduled a follow up visit for this morning, which I knew nothing about until they called on Friday and left me a message. By the time I got the message, it was too late to call and cancel the appointment (they charge you if cancel less than 24 hours before the scheduled appointment). So, I worked last night and headed straight to the appointment. The NP was awesome, I think she was almost as excited as I was – most of the patients in the office are elderly, so I think it was fun for her! She ordered the blood work stat, and two hours later, she called and left me a message saying that she had good news and I should call her back. I was sleeping and called her back at 1:09 this afternoon. That’s when I got the good news!! According to Naegle’s rule, mini marr is due to arrive on May 18!! Telling Pat was awesome. I couldn’t do it on the phone, so I waited until he got home from work. We were in the office saying hello, he gave me a big hug and squeeze and I said be careful, you don’t want to hurt the baby. He just looked at me, like yeah right. And then I started crying, so he knew it was real! It still doesn’t feel real and we just kinda kept looking at each other like, seriously? We’re having a baby? But we are!

YEAH!

Bar Harbor

Pat and I just returned from five glorious days in Bar Harbor, Maine. We kicked off the week taking a trip down memory lane and stayed at the hotel where we got married last year. It was pretty neat to be there one year later, and we had fun recapping our memories of the night … I still cannot believe it’s been a year! Who would have thought that one year later we’d be the proud parents of Miss B and the expectant parents of minimarr!

Tuesday morning we trekked up to Maine. The ride was just under 6 hours, but through pouring rain almost the whole time. Not fun. Pat did all the driving (he’s so good) and we were there safe and sound by dark. The inn was perfect so we settled in and then headed to dinner. The package we booked included three dinners at the Bar Harbor Inn which was incredible. Fancier than we anticipated (the book at our hotel said no jeans. Of course, we brought jeans only). We decided that since it was off season we’d risk it, and luckily it wasn’t a problem! Our only other option would have been to buy “dressy” clothes at Walmart. I’m glad it didn’t come to that!

Our main focus of the trip was to visit Acadia National Park. It was pretty amazing. We decided to do a self guided tour, so bought a CD and set out to explore the park. We managed to spend two days there, so I’m glad we didn’t pay for the two-hour tour! One of our favorite spots was called Bubble Rock. It’s basically a huge boulder left by a glacier thousands of years ago that balances on the edge of a mountain.

We decided it was worth hiking up to, and it definitely was! Here’s a picture of Pat pushing it off the mountain. Despite the fact that we were told it’s been there for thousands of years and never budged, I was convinced it would fall when Pat touched it, haha!

Luckily, it didn’t budge! Friday morning was set to be sunny, so we watched the sunrise on Cadillac Mountain. From October 7-March 20, it’s the first place in the United States to see the sunrise! We felt pretty special. It was cold watching it rise, but from the summit of Cadillac Mountain we could see fishing boats in the water, and figured they were way colder than we were!

We capped off our trip with some shopping in downtown Bar Harbor. It’s an adorable little town, with all sorts of boutiques and shops. A lot of places were closed for the season, but there was still a pretty good selection of stores open. Our favorite was Bark Harbor, where we bought some treats for our baby, who no doubt missed us terribly while we were gone 🙂

Saturday morning we headed home, with a stop at my parents to pick up Bailey and have dinner. Binkie came, and Kris was home for the weekend, so we had a great time. Lots of laughs (per usual) and just a nice relaxing family dinner! The poor dogs were tired, but still managed to get some scraps. On Saturday alone, B went to the park with my mom, for a run with my sister, and then to the golf course with my dad, Pat and I. Needless to say, she was exhausted. I have never seen her so tired in my life. It was awesome! Her new bed from LL Bean had come while we were gone (she ate the first one, but you gotta love LL Bean; we sent them the old one, and they shipped out a new one at no extra charge. You can’t beat it!), so we got that all ready for her, and she slept like a baby. It was pretty funny. All in all, it was a great week and we’ll both be sad to return to work on Wednesday!

One Year Later …

Well, today is our one year anniversary! It’s hard to believe that this time last year we were waiting with wedding day jitters for our big moment! I look back and wish we could do it all over again, it was such a great day! It’s been such an amazing year, and I truly cannot believe how fast it’s gone by. We were commenting that a year ago, Bailey wasn’t even part of our lives yet! I have no idea what we did without her, but she certainly made our first year of marriage fun and crazy!

The hotel where we got married offers a “complimentary” stay on your one year anniversary, so we’re going to take advantage of that and then head up to Bar Harbor, Maine for the rest of the week. Not quite the tropical paradise of our honeymoon in Playa Del Carmen, but we’re looking forward to some R&R and some quality time together! Sadly, no dogs allowed 🙁 Miss B will be spending the week with my parents and Maggie, her favorite friend. I’m sure they’ll have fun (the dogs anyway), but we’re going to miss the little nugget! I’ll leave you with some pictures of the big day!