17 Weeks

Well, here I am at 17 weeks pregnant:

After taking this picture, Steven said that I didn't look pregnant in it, so I stuck it out a bit in the next one to get a real "belly" shot:

Morning sickness for me seems to stick around for a while. The days are getting better, but I still feel all sick every night.

I've started to feel the baby move, which I'm super excited about. This is when I started to feel Aubrey move, but since I have an anterior placenta this time, the doctor warned me it might be a while. That is one of the few parts about pregnancy that I love.

We had another ultrasound that also was pretty sure that we are having another little GIRL!! If in any future ultrasounds it looks otherwise, I"ll update, but for now it is looking like Aubrey is going to be a big sister to a little sister. I'm thrilled. I think they will be good friends, I'm good at the whole girl thing, and all those clothes I bought that Steven rolled his eyes at will get some more use!

I was supposed to start progesterone shots this last week to help prevent another premature birth, but that did not happen. I'm definitely not normally the type to be political, but the American health care system is just terrible! A lot of time I wish I was still in Canada.

Basically, a drug company, Makena, took a shot that has been around for 50 years to help with premature birth, got approval to patent it from the FDA, and turned that shot from $20 a shot to $1500! So... approximately $30,000 for treatment. Here is a link if anybody is interested in reading about it (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/WomensHealth/price-preventing-premature-births-skyrockets-drug/story?id=13104588&page=3#.UDGrfZ6-x5Q).

So, I have already spent hours on the phone dealing with my insurance company, and the doctors to try and get this drug covered since it is one of the best shots I have at going full-term. The crazy thing is that the insurance we have through LinkedIn is about as good as you can get, so I can't even imagine the trouble that other women in my situation must be going through.

You can start treatment between 16 and 20 weeks, so we would appreciate any prayers that things get sorted out quickly before it is too late. I'm trying to just trust that everything will work out, but this situation definitely is hard.

Well... enough of my rant. I'm so excited for this little girl to join our family. Being a mother is worth all the pain and heartache it takes to get them here!

Utah- Peterson's

After we spent a few days with Steven's family, my parents picked us up and it was time to spend a week with my family! Except Trent : ( He better have rocked all his summer semester finals to miss spending a week with us!

The first day together we had a Klein family dinner and I got to visit with so many aunts/uncles/cousins that I haven't seen in a long time. The Klein's are my family on my mom's side. Aubrey got a real nice scrape on her head because she was trying to entertain everybody and fell down a stair. That girl is such a ham.

Our little dare devil also had a lot of fun riding on quads (I know... super dangerous. We went slow). She would walk to the garage and ask, "ride? ride?" multiple times a day.

We had a lot of fun at Seven Peaks. Being pregnant, the extent of my fun was the lazy river and chasing Aubrey, but it all LOOKED like a ton of fun. And honestly, Steven and my mom did most of the chasing, so I guess I was just lazy.

Since Aubrey normally is such a daredevil, I was sad that this is what she thought of the Alpine Slide. I guess we shouldn't have pretended she was 2 so she could ride? Maybe next time. 

Little Zach was so sweet and tolerated Aubrey's many hugs and kisses well. 

And... we even managed to get a somewhat normal shot of our little family. Maybe we will have more luck getting a good picture when we are a family of four. I'm finally starting to get a little bump, so I will take some pictures of that soon. 

Thanks for the great time family! I have said it before, but I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful family that all loves spending time together. 

Live Hangout- Footes

We have spent the past couple of weeks in Utah with our families. Yes, BOTH families and it was great. We spent the first part of the trip with the Foote's at the "Live Hangout." On Google +, Steven's family often does video hangout's and so the trip was dubbed the "Live Hangout." Also, family reunion sounds boring :)

Thanks Tyler (TemplesByTyler.com) for all the pictures! If you notice the quality is amazing that is because I am definitely not the one behind the camera.

Aubrey had a great time playing with her cousins. It was fun to see them all together. The Foote family is growing like crazy, with two new babies and two others on the way.

Aubrey and David are definitely at the difficult toddler phase... sometimes we had to be creative to keep them contained.

We went on a hike, visited Temple Square and the Church History Museum, ate a ton of food, visited parks, watched the Olympics, and had a great time hanging out all together.

We even managed to snap a shot with the whole family together after Jeremy and Kedra blessed their new baby, William:

Utah is beautiful. I loved being around the mountains and gorgeous scenery again.

Although, I did get really excited when the pilot on our flight today announced that we were arriving to a balmy 76 degress in San Jose. I forgot how stinking hot Utah is in the summer. I have become such a baby when the weather is outside of my 70-85 degree comfort zone.

We will soon be...

a family of four! 

We are super excited that baby #2 is on the way. I am due in January... exactly 2 years to the day from Aubrey's due date. Pretty crazy!

I'm almost hitting the 13 week mark of the second trimester, and I'm really hoping the morning (or really all-day) sickness is on the way out. It has been a rough couple of months.

Since Aubrey was born premature, I'm being watched very closely this pregnancy. I have my regular OBGYN that I do all appointments, ultrasounds, and lab work with. And then, I also have a team of MFM (Maternal Fetal Medicine) specialists that I see. I will have extra ultrasounds every 2 weeks, and I have to get progesterone shots every week from 16-36 weeks. I can either go to the nurse for those or have Steven give them. I'm still undecided, especially since when I asked Steven he said, "sure! I'm not afraid of GIVING shots." Gee, thanks :)

I'm honestly not super confident that I will go full-term because of the likelihood of what happened with Aubrey happening again... but I am confident that I am getting the best care possible. My doctors are all pretty darn smart and amazing. However, it is times like this when I definitely wish I had family around to help watch Aubrey for all these appointments!

The one really good part about being high-risk is that I get to see lots and lots of my baby. I had an ultrasound today and the doctor was already pretty sure on the gender. Since it is so early, I won't share, but we are pretty excited.

So.. all that medical stuff aside, we are so excited, blessed, and grateful that we have a new little set of "feet" joining our Foote family!

Berries

We went berry picking again. This time out at Webb Ranch in Palo Alto. Boysenberries and ollalieberries were the pickings of choice.

We had a great time. You pay $3 per person admission, but get to eat as many berries as you want while picking! We definitely took advantage.

Aubrey was very funny. She would carefully choose a berry, pick it, and then either shove it in her mouth as fast as possible or run over to the basket as fast as possible. You could tell she felt very important that we trusted her with the task.

She also thought riding in the backpack was super fun. 

And... this last picture is actually from the 4th of July. It has nothing to do with berry picking, but makes me smile every time I look at it. The wilder the better with this little girl. 

Nursery

Today was Aubrey's first Sunday in our ward's nursery at church. Here she is all dressed-up and ready to go. Thanks Grandma Peterson for the adorable dress!

I guess I shouldn't be surprised at this because it is so her personality, but she ran right into the room of toys and never looked back. *sniff, sniff* Isn't she supposed to cry and demand that I stay with her? I guess not this little bundle of energy.

When we picked her up, she was sitting at the table with her feet up, orange snack all over her face, and proudly displaying the picture she had "colored."

Church was so different without having to chase her up and down the halls. Sunday's just got way more relaxing.

I'm proud of my big girl!

Better than Disneyland

We have spent the past week in Canada with my family.  Other than the plane rides (which were terrible. Just picture an 18-month-old yelling "NO!" "OUT!" for a few hours...), we have had a great time.

Aubrey thinks that her grandparents' house is better than Disneyland...

And, despite all the pictures of Aubrey... I was there too! We sure missed Steven though. He had to stay home and work. boo.

The best part was seeing Aubrey with her cute little cousin Zachary and her grandparents. We are lucky to have such great family.

Aubrey especially loved to give lots of hugs and kisses to the "baby." What? I still think of her as the baby. I can't believe she is growing up so fast.

Now, it is time to go home and back to work. It's a good thing I have such a good helper.