18 weeks and counting.............

I had another appointment a few days ago and again....all is well. I'm feeling great as I have been all along and baby's heart rate was in the 140's and I gained 2 more pounds according to their scale. On my scale I'm up about 10-11 from when I found out I was pregnant so I don't think that that's too bad. I've been feeling the baby on and off a little more now too. Sometimes I go the whole day not really feeling anything and other days I feel him/her several times. I've had a few faint but noticeable kicks but nothing that has jolted me just yet but I'm looking forward to it. I know everyone says that by the time I reach the last trimester I'm going to want the little bugger to stop kicking me but I just can't believe that I could ever get tired of it. I guess we'll find out won't we?!?!?! We're FINALLY going to get to find out if we can start saying he or she soon....I can't wait! For whatever reason most people are saying it's a boy so we'll finally be able to solve the mystery. Just 11 more days to go!

More news on the house too, we ran into a bit of a snag. It was brought to our attention by our realtor that there may be a problem w/ the septic system. It appears as though the new driveway that was put in front of our house that takes the owners to their new house they are building on the land could have partially been built over the leach field. Those of you that have private septic systems know that you ideally you should be as far away from driveways or anywhere where any type of vehicle would need to drive over it. Keep in mind as well that there has been many construction vehicles passing over the whole system for months now so we were expecting to see the worst at the septic inspection a few weeks ago. We did the septic inspection first and the owners of the house paid for it and it turns out that other than a few dips in the pipes the system appears to be in pretty good condition and should be contained within a patch of grass (it will be grass eventually) that shouldn't need to be driven over anymore. Is it still a concern driving near it and having had it been driven over on numerous occasions.....absolutely! So, we asked that they have the soil tested in the back and move the whole septic system to the rear of the house. They agreed to pay for a site analyst to test the soil. At this point in time we have yet to put any money into this however in my heart WE WERE BUYING THIS HOUSE ONE WAY OR ANOTHER! :-) So, last Tuesday we went to the house and met w/ the buyers and their 2 1/2 year old adorable little girl. They were very nice and just wanted to work w/ us to get into the house. They said they simply can't afford to replace the whole leach field but said that they would do anything they could to make us feel better about where it is now since it turns out that the soil in the rear of the house was less than ideal for a leach field and the leach field where it was was better than ideal soil....go figure! So, we came to the agreement that another distribution box and chamber were to be designed and installed at the sellers expense and the cement covers would be replaced since they were cracked. There are some other little things that go along w/ doing like like pumping the tank, replacing one of the already existing chambers that has a dip in it and adding some more soil over the top of the tank. They have verbally accepted to pay for all of that to be done....YAY!!!!! We have yet to see the signed contract on that but I imagine that we'll be getting that today but won't celebrate too much until we see them sign it. Oh, and through all of this there was an angry neighbor writing letters to the city disputing the owners building that road near their land (and their horse pen) so that was another deterant because we didn't want to get involved in any disputes and technically didn't have to since it wasn't our land but should our "not the best" leach field fail it would end up all over this neighbors front yard and then it WOULD become our problem! We're told by the couple at our site inspection that they have made amends and all is good. They graded the road a little differently so should our system fail it no longer will end up in their front yard AND the owners narrowed the road giving them 5 more feet of land (the way it should have been w/ to begin with). So, all is good for now! I know more about private septic systems then I EVERY thought I would by the way!! :-) We have the rest of the inspection tomorrow morning (general building, water, radon) so we're keeping our fingers crossed that there are no more hurdles to have to jump and we can move forward w/ our close date of July 20th. Oh, did I mention that I LOVE this house! Stay tuned.........

Baby moved!!!! (and hopefully us soon too!)

The anticipation of finally feeling the baby was killing me and up until today I thought maybe I could feel this or that but wasn't 100% certain that it was the baby but today.....I felt the little bugger move w/ all certainty that it was the baby this time. I was sitting at my desk at work and I sneezed (like I do so much these days) and immediately after the sneeze I felt as though the baby did a flip turn or something. It wasn't a kick but it was distinctive movement....it was the best feeling ever! In my last post I promised that I would put up another picture of myself so here it is.......

as you can see f/ the sign I am 16 weeks and 4 days and there isn't much of a difference yet. I have a little belly starting to pop but nothing drastic yet. I'm sure the next picture I post will be a different story.

More news.....we had an inspection on the house we put a deposit on and it's a good thing we did the inspection because we found a few problems that we really just didn't want to deal with and it really made us take a closer look at the place and realize what we were getting ourselves into for the price they were asking. So, we are out over $700 for the cost of the inspection which included radon/water testing/sewer but we are better off having spent that money and be saved the huge headache of a house that we were doomed in. To be brief all I'll say is carpenter ants, mold and the owners were not clean people at all therefore they kept up with nothing the whole 3 years they lived there and aged a 10 year old house to look like a 40 year old house. Oh, and we learned something.....on the inspection we're scheduling next week we're going to do the general inspection first then the radon/water/sewer after so we're not out all that money if something comes up in the general inspection. Did you catch that? Yup....next inspection! The very same time we were signing off on that house we were looking at another house in Saco and after a few counter offers we're signing the papers tonight! I can't believe it! We've been looking for a year and a half and in 2 weeks we've signed papers on 2 houses! We are absolutely in love with this house too. It is 17 years old but has been very well cared for, is very clean and all newly painted on the inside so literally all we have to do is move in. Is everything exactly the way I'd want my ideal house? No, but it's pretty darn close and good enough for several years to come and eventually we can change it little by little by little. It's in Saco which is exactly where we wanted to be, on a perfect dead end....at the end and it's on a perfect one acre. Did I mention it was perfect?? :-) It's got an over sized 3 car garage (3rd on the side) w/ all kinds of storage above. Oh, and to boot there's only a bit of shrubbery in front of the house surrounded by nice crushed white rock. If you remember f/ the last post the other house was overwhelmed w/ plant life and for those of you who know me well, I'm not much of a green thumb! I might be some day but it's something I'll have to grow into, not get thrown into!! Here's a picture of our perfect house.......

isn't it great?!?!?! I'm just really really hoping that the inspection goes well because we really did agree on a price above and beyond what we wanted to spend but we do think it was worth it as long as everything checks out ok. Wish us luck and WHEN everything checks out ok our close date is set for July 20th!

I'm anxiously awaiting more movement f/ the little bambino and I'm sure as I progress I will post more frequently. Oh, and did I mention that if it's a girl I don't even need to paint the baby room in the new house?? They have an infant girl and her room is painted a pretty purple.....BONUS!! :-)

Monthly appointment and other news

This months appointment was pretty uneventful although the weight gain has begun! That's right, up until about 3 weeks ago I managed to not gain weight yet but the last 3 weeks have caught up with me and I've put on about 7 pounds and now I'm officially started to outgrow my clothing. At this appointment I met with a different Doctor than the one I chose but they recommend you do that since your chances of actually having your Doctor of choice deliver your baby are 1 in 4 since there are 4 Doctors at the practice. There's also a part time mid wife that apparently everyone loves but unless I can time the birth of the baby between the hours of 9-5 Mon, Tuesday or Wednesday there's no way to get her. So it looks like I get who I get to deliver the baby but so far both Doc's I've met are pretty nice so I'm not too worried. The baby's heartbeat was not hard to find and took her all of 15 seconds to locate it......150 bpm, pretty consistent with a few weeks ago when I went for the ultrasound. It still amazes me to hear it and I imagine it will right through the whole pregnancy!! :-) My next appointment is scheduled for June 27th and the ultrasound to determine the sex of my little alien is July 10th. Ryan's Mom Julie is coming to that appointment....she's so excited!! I have yet to feel the baby move but I anxiously await the first time baby gives me a swift kick. I've felt a few things but nothing that tells me that without a doubt it was the baby. I will definitely post as soon as I feel something which I imagine shouldn't be too long now (I hope!). At my ultrasound a few weeks ago the baby was 2 3/4" long and based off of charts on babycenter.com the baby should now be about 4 inches long and about 2 1/2 ounces. I know I haven't posted another picture of myself growing but honestly there isn't a lot more to see just yet. I feel all my cloths getting tighter but it wouldn't show much on a picture. I'll post a picture soon though :-)

There is more news, we finally bought a house! After a year and a half of looking we've finally took the plunge and signed on a house in Saco. We actually went to see this house a few months ago and at the time the owners were on an extended vacation and obviously DID NOT clean before they left! The house was really kinda gross but structurally it seems good so we made a low ball offer and they counter offered thousands away from our offer so we dropped the idea of buying that one. Then a few weeks ago I mentioned to Ryan that we should take another look at it and we did and decided it was probably worth about what they were asking for it since it is in Saco, on a dead end w/ only 2 other houses AND it comes with 2 acres of land. The house needs a little bit of work and a lot of paint but once we do what we want to it it should be pretty nice! We intend on hiring out for most of what needs to be done because with baby on the way it will just be too hard for me to do too much and Ryan is limiting his vacation time for when the baby comes. We're going to throw a good chunk of change into it right off and make it our own. Oh, it also has an over sized 2 car garage w/ a carport. Pending all inspections the closing date is July 13th.....I can't wait! Stay tuned :-)