Baby Rock the 3rd's 3-D Debut

Well, we still don't have a name for this little guy. And for those of you who are desperate to know, we will probably be keeping you guessing until he is born. Gotta have some surprises! Sean was so sweet and for Mother's Day, this was my gift--to see our little man in 3-D! We've had the opportunity and privilege of being able to do this with Abby and Jaxon and we couldn't NOT do it with this last one. So, we took Abby and Jaxon with us and our whole family had the opportunity to meet our little guy. It was a lot of fun for us, however, the baby wasn't overly cooperative so we weren't able to get fantastic pictures but we were able to see him nonetheless. He definitely is a Rock! He has a head of hair (which I didn't have until I was almost a year old) and he has the Rock nose. It's amazing to me how seeing him in utero makes it almost surreal. I am getting so excited to meet him! This video is of his hands and feet all wrapped around his head.

This video is of his face (it starts upside down and then flips over) and of his hand waving.

In this video, you can see his face pretty well and the white thing in front of his face that he is playing with is the umbilical cord.

Baby Rock the 3rd is a..........................

So, here's our little guy! We found out a couple of weeks ago that we are expecting another little boy and we are so excited that he is healthy, strong and finally not making me so sick!

Jaxon was able to come to the ultrasound with us and the u/s tech was awesome! She made sure to point out all of the parts and Jaxon was absolutely fascinated by it. She even gave him his own little picture that he has carried around and makes sure to tell people that he is going to have a little brother.

The kids have been great throughout this whole pregnancy. They have been so sweet and understanding when I've been really sick and they've even helped me when I've had some really bad low blood sugars. It's amazing to me that they know what to do when mom needs some help. I couldn't ask for better kids!

We've been really swamped this past month with Abby and Jaxon's birthdays and gearing up for Valentine's day. We've also had some amazing success in the potty training department with both of the kids. Abby is now sleeping through the night and not having accidents and Jaxon is fully potty trained during the day and is trying to catch up to Abby where the night time is concerned. They are so helpful and supportive of one another. I love to watch them encourage each other!

Sean is doing amazing at work. He has received a lot of praise from his bosses about the work that he does. In turn, they are continually passing on more responsibilities to him and he is doing an amazing job. We feel so blessed to have a job and one that is constantly providing Sean with a challenge--there's never a dull moment!

Hopefully, I won't go so long between posts. We'll see!

Just a Little Scare

So, now that we've let everyone know that we are expecting, let me give you a little update as to what has been happening to us since we decided to embark on this little adventure we call pregnancy. We all know the history of how we were stationed with the Coast Guard in Puerto Rico and there was not adequate medical care to handle my diabetes and a pregnancy there so I was shipped off to my parents home for both pregnancies while Sean stayed in Puerto Rico, visiting when he could. This was not optimal but it made it possible for us to have two beautiful, healthy babies which was what we were after. This time around, we figured that since we were stateside, it would be smooth sailing and that especially since we were back East, it would be really easy to find an OB and an Endocrinologist (diabetic doc) who we felt comfortable and confident in like we did there in Utah. But, oh no. This has not been the case! After a very frustrating, emotional first 10 weeks of me being emotionally battered (okay, that might seem a little drastic) because of my choice to have a (GASP!!!!) third child, we decided that we were going to look elsewhere for an OB who used modern technology and who didn't use archaic ideas of how to treat a diabetic pregnancy that were from 20 years ago. After much searching (and lots of praying for me to humble myself and realize that I can't have the perfect team like I did there in Utah) we were able to get into an OB yesterday whom I love! He is so laid back and figures that his specialty is delivering babies and not diabetes and that is why I was employing an endo to help me in this journey. We were so pleased with his happy personality and willingness to listen to me and that he realized that I really did know a thing or two about being a pregnant diabetic. So, we go into the exam room and he wants to check the heartbeat using a doppler that allows us to hear it. Well, after about 5 minutes, he couldn't find the heartbeat. Let me tell you, he searched hard, going all over my belly and while doing that, he was quietly reassuring me that this happened all the time but I could see the look of concern start to come over his face. I was beginning to cry and feel like I had failed and a million thoughts started racing through my mind about how at the beginning of the pregnancy, I had told Heavenly Father that I couldn't do this again and to please take the baby back. How selfish could I have been! Out of sheer frustration with the doctor situation and my irritation at trying to figure out how I was going to logistically get to all those appointments that were being scheduled and take care of Abby and Jaxon at the same time, I had pleaded with the Lord to please just allow me to miscarry. As I think about it now, I am shocked that I could have had those thoughts. But as I was laying there on that table, crying because what I had asked for was potentially happening, I was devastated and angry at myself. As the doctor left the room to go and get the ultrasound machine, my sweet husband leaned over and took my hand and whispered that it was all going to be okay, that the Lord may have just needed us to get pregnant so this sweet little spirit could gain its body and that was all it needed--nothing more. It is so hard when you know that this is the Plan--it doesn't make it any easier. But to have my husband remind me of that and know that he was just as scared as I was, it made it easier to cope with the potential outcome of the ultrasound. The doctor came in and started the ultrasound and to our surprise and relief, there was our sweet little baby, waving to us with a very strong heartbeat. It had been hiding behind the placenta which was in an anterior (frontal) position which made it so we couldn't find the heartbeat. We couldn't find out the sex of the baby but to see it there and know that it was just fine, it made us both very grateful for the knowledge that we have of the Plan of Salvation and that no matter what happens during this pregnancy, we will be grateful for the opportunity that we've been given to help this little spirit accomplish whatever it's mission on this Earth is.

Making it Official

Well, since I'm starting to show, I guess that it is time for us to make it official and announce that we are expecting Baby Rock the 3rd! I'm 16 1/2 weeks along and we wanted to wait until after Christmas to start telling people because we were using the announcement as our Christmas gift to our family and didn't want to spoil the surprise. We are so excited for this new baby! Abby and Jaxon have been so cute about it. Abby tells everyone that we are having a baby sister for her (which, we don't know the sex of the baby yet so she's confusing everyone by saying this). Jaxon then will argue by telling people that we are having a baby brother for him (and I just want to clarify that we are NOT having twins!) so they are very excited about having a baby around. Jaxon has been very cute in the morning when he comes in at the crack of dawn, crawls into bed with me and puts his head on my belly and tells the baby to "be nice to Mommy." I've been really sick with morning sickness and it hasn't abated yet so this is so sweet for me to hear him coaching the baby already! We hope that everyone has a wonderful 2009 and we are certainly looking forward to all that is coming our way for the Rock family!

Making Our Own Snow

Well, thanks to Grandpa Rock, we were able to make our own snow in our house for the kids to play in! Two HUGE boxes arrived this past weekend and they were stuffed with the styrofoam peanuts. What are you supposed to do with mounds of them at your disposal? You make snow in your living room! The kids played for HOURS! They were sad that they couldn't make snowmen but they had a lot of fun making snow angels and throwing it at each other. We just wanted to tell Grandpa THANK YOU!!!

Now, if I could just figure out a way to clean up all of the little tiny pieces that are now all over my house............

Making Snow Angels

New York City, Here We Come--Almost!

This past weekend for my birthday, my sweet husband took us up to New York City--almost. We stayed in a hotel on the New Jersey side (the kids LOVE to go to the hotel--they would live there if they could!) and while we were on our way up there, it began to snow. We've had flurries here where we live but so far, nothing has stuck to the ground. We were all pretty excited about the white stuff, especially since we had packed all of the winter gear to take with us.

Sean took us to Panda Express for dinner at my request. He is so wonderful! We had to navigate almost 10 miles out of the way to find this place but it is what I've been craving and we don't have one ANYWHERE close by. We hung out at the mall, did a little shopping and then headed back to the hotel since that was all we were hearing from the kids--"Can we go back to the hotel, pleeeaaassseee????" The kids got ready for bed and snuggled in to watch a movie while Sean and I tried to figure out what buses we were supposed to take into the city.

Well, the next morning, we wake up to bitter, and I mean BITTER, cold weather with lots of wind and we both looked at each other like, "Are we back in Chicago?" After checking out the weather reports, we made the sad decision that we shouldn't even try to go to the city because we would probably get there and have to turn around and come right back due to our children's lack of tolerance for cold, windy weather. I was bummed but hey, what's a mom to do?

Well, I'm so glad we came prepared with our winter clothes because that is what we did--we got the kids all bundled up and we took them out to the back parking lot where they had piled snow up from plowing and we let the kids loose. It was so fun to watch them play with each other and then they started a snowball fight with Sean. Jaxon is one to watch out for! He's very sneaky and was having a ball throwing snow at Abby and hunting down his dad. After almost an hour, I was totally frozen and insisted that my little popsicles head back inside. We got them warmed up with a hot bath and then we loaded up and headed to the biggest Toys R Us store I've ever seen! The kids went crazy and so did Sean and I as we tried to navigate around all of the insane people there. I need to make a note to self to NEVER shop on the Saturday before Christmas at a toy store! We had a lot of fun and finally were able to convince the kids that we needed to head home. They were so tired that they both fell asleep in the car. The picture was priceless!

A Very Grateful Thanksgiving

This year we didn't have any family around to either go and visit or to visit us (which made it so I didn't have any desire to do my annual Black Friday Shopping trip, but I digress!) but we had the opportunity to have Sean's boss and his wife come over to our home for a combined effort Thanksgiving dinner. It turned out wonderful! It is a tradition in the Erickson family to have Granny's rolls at Thanksgiving dinner. Every year, my mom would re-create Granny's rolls and now the responsibility has been taken over by my younger sister, Jennie (who makes a mean roll!). Since we haven't been able to make it back to Utah to my parents house the past two years, I have tried to carry on the tradition with some pretty tragic results. Last year, it was my first time cooking with a gas stove and I had no idea the damage a stove like that could do to rising dough. Because I was running short on time, I thought I could speed up the rising process by setting the dough on the back burner while the stove was on and cooking the turkey. Instead of the dough rising, it got cooked! I didn't realize that there was a vent right there by the burner that allowed the heat from the oven to vent. Duh! We had a massive cooked ball of dough that was not able to be made into rolls. It was very interesting to look at but I was mortified that I had ruined the rolls! My poor niece, Hilary, who was visiting us, had never seen something like that before in her life! This year, since we had Sean's boss and his wife here, I was praying that the rolls would turn out and we wouldn't have a catastrophe like last year on our hands. I am proud to say that the rolls turned out beautiful and they tasted fantastic! Sean's boss was so impressed, he took a picture with his camera phone so he could remember them! (Actually, he took the picture so he could send it to me for the blog.) Here they are! We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. We are so grateful for all that we have been blessed with this year and look forward to the next year!