An apple a day ain't working....

Another Monday...
Rob is coming home from his weekend trip to London today. I swear, sometimes it's all I can do to keep that guy inside the United States! We've gone as long as 7 months without seeing eachother but for some reason, this was the longest 4 days ever! I think I'm getting spoiled having him around all the time.
This weekend landed me in the ER again. (That would be the third time). Laura and I were shopping at Home Depot and I started feeling what I could only guess were contractions. All the horrors of having Rockstar at 22 weeks came flooding to me and the next thing you know, we were off to get help. After being strapped to various microphones and sonogram devices, the doctors confirmed that I was indeed having contractions and gave me a shot in the arm (???) that stopped them (and hurt like a mother). Apparently, on my laundry list of super fun stuff that's happened since we got pregnant, I can add "Irritable Uterus Syndrome". They said as long as nothing else changes - it's okay to have contractions. How am I supposed to know if "anything else is changing" when it took a specialist, a doctor and a nurse - whose sarcasm rivals my own - (and I quote "Being able to change so fast is what got you here in the first place, huh?") to figure out I'm okay.
Yeah.
Anyway, everything is cool now. We Townleys just have a knack for keeping eachother on our toes. When Rob called from London I was in the middle of all the tests. It must be a great thing to call your pregnant wife from a different country and her first words are "Okay, don't freak out, but..."

Lilyanna Barnett is Here!

The baby madness continues! Diane and Jason added a beautiful daughter to their family on Thursday. 8lbs 7oz, everyone's healthy and feeling good. :-) Congratulations you guys!!!

I think our next "at bat" will be coming from the Shippy's- but not for a few more weeks. Stay tuned, it's gonna get crazy.

A scary story- just in time for Halloween

Well in the midst of all our friends delivering/on the verge of delivering (Di!) it appears that Rockstar has been getting jealous of all the "displaced" attention.

About a month ago I had a "quad screen" (routine blood test which tests for chromosome-based diseases in your baby). Well, the results came back and they were not good. Rob and I were horrified to find that Rockstar tested High-Risk for Down's Syndrome. According to the test, there was a 1 in 22 chance that she had Downs. Not knowing what to do next, we followed the hospital's advice and met with a genetics counselor (big, freaking waste of time by the way) who did nothing more than try to convince me that Rockstar was the ONE in 22 and we'd be bringing home a Down's baby. Oh, and she must have mentioned at least three times that we can choose to "end the pregnancy" if we'd like. (That would be a resounding HELL NO).

After discussing all options, we decided to have a sonogram done where they would measure everything about Rockstar and determine from that if her risk was greater or less based on the results. Everything looked great (praise the Lord) and that's the day we found out we were having a girl (also happy news!). But the hospital, ever the "Bad News Bears" told us that just because she looked healthy, didn't mean she was. And Down's babys pass the "sonogram" test all the time. (So why did we bother?) At this point, the stress was too much. Does she have it? Doesn't she have it? We just needed to know. So we had the amnio test done. (Big, scary needle in the belly). haha, I say "We" but they definitely didn't stick Rob. Although he sat with me and held my hand and tried to say usefull things like "It's only like 5 inches long, you broke your nose and handled it- you can do this". (I told him to skip that 'helpful' phrase when we're in delivery).

Anyway, the amnio test can take up to 14 days for results- which of course it did. But we just got them back and found out that not only is ROCKSTAR HEALTHY, she was never at risk for Downs. Apparently the quad screen has a very high false positive rate (ladies remember that when you get pregnant. It's a stupid test- and it's OPTIONAL.) Aside from being pissed that the hospital scared us so badly, we're increadibly thankful that God's protecting our little girl! - And maybe a little smarter that hospitals are ultimitaley there to make money off of our insurance.

Quad Screen - $120
Genetics Counselor - $380 (for ONE hour)
Amnio - $800
Finding out your baby girl is healthy - PRICELESS

Welcome Chase Harper!!!

Okay I have 12 pregnant friends so you can expect more posts like this one... Wait, make that 11 pregnant friends!
Chase Harper entered the world today at 9:40am at 6lbs, 7ozs. Everyone is doing great- you can read all about it here. Or just drool over this pic...

Congrats Jess and Adam!!!

Progress Report

Okay all you picture nazis out there- I am going to get you off my back once and for all... Here are pictures from the last four months (July, Aug, Sept, Oct.) I swear, I woke up two days ago and that belly came out of nowhere. Crazy alien baby...

Ohhhhh, We're halfway there... OHHHH LIVIN' ON A PRAYER!

So today marks the "half way" point of Rockstar's stay at Hotel Danielle. (Hotel management is rejoicing). Don't give me that "bad mom" look. I'm already head over heels in love with our baby daughter - but I am a little tired of our daily ritual with the bucket. I've all but given up on the elusive "pregnant glow" that everyone else has so easily mastered and I haven't been able to get a full night's sleep since (what feels like) the beginning of time. Ahh, motherhood.
I've also acquired that 'pregnant brain' thing I hear so much about. This morning I just noticed I had the fire place on AND the air conditioner at the same time. Yeah. I hope my 'regular brain' returns soon after delivery or I will need supervision with our new-born.

Wave Hi for the Cameras

So yesterday Rob and I got the best anniversary present we could have asked for:

We found out we are HAVING A GIRL!

- Just for the record, we would have been just as happy with a boy, but for some reason we've 'known' it was a girl for months now.-
Of course we called all grandparents and Aunt Laura as soon as we got out of the hospital. Rockstar (who's name will actually be Anna Stuart) will be the first Townley girl born in something like 200 years, so Rob's mom was shocked. :-) My family produces girls like plants produce oxygen so the Kukichs were more like "Yep. Sounds about right". Needless to say, we're all pretty excited.
We had the longest sonogram ever because Rockstar was lying literally on her head like a little yoga queen and the sonographer couldn't get any of the measurements she needed. Rob didn't believe me when I told him he'd be in trouble if we had a girl (she's going to have him wrapped around her finger). That is, until I heard him tell Rockstar he'd buy her a car for her 16th birthday if she would just change positions so we could get some measurements.
Yeah. And it begins.
We got a TON of pictures, I'll post one as soon as we scan them in. We got the 3D ones too, which are cool... except that she's only 19 weeks along so those don't resemble a baby as much as, say, Skeletor. But she's OUR Skeletor! I can't wait to meet her!

TWO YEARS, my friends!

Today is our Two Year Anniversary! AND Rob is actually home for it. Have I mentioned Rob is home? Cause Rob is home. ;-)

This weekend we actually got out. I'm moving slow but moving, none the less! We went to a local corn maze with some friends and got lost...very, very lost. (As soon as I decide to locate the USB thingy I'll put our pics up.) But just so you know, corn mazes are no joke, guys. I thought it would be super easy...maps are for suckers...etc. Yeah....just wait for the media recording we have on this one. Either way, I'm sure we looked rather ridiculous... 7 of us total, 3 of us pregnant, and all of us a little on the "witty" side. Gooood times.

After we stumbled out of the maze, we all came home to play Trivial Pursuit and make sarcastic remarks to each other. 'Cause that's what good friends do. It was awesome.
The rest of the weekend was spend running a few errands, and making Rob's favorite dessert: baklava. (He can't just like something simple like brownies... no. My man demands time intensive sweets.) Eh, whatever. We had a good time trashing our kitchen with cups of flour, sugar, nuts, etc. And we kept joking "Hey, what time do you have to leave on Sunday? Oh that's right YOU DON'T"!
-'cause in case I didn't mention it, ROB IS HOME!

Home!

Just a quick note to say...Rob's home for good! No more North Carolina, no more going to Iraq, just a good old, boring desk job. Amen.

and yada yada yada...

Okay so it's officially October and the military still hasn't surprised us with a deployment to Iraq. I'm starting to think we might actually get a holiday season together. Crazy, huh?
(Pause while I have a small party in my head).
Jessica's baby shower was awesome - thanks for asking - I don't have pictures because I took all of them with HER camera, but when I get around to it I'll be sure to steal a few of her pictures so you can all see what a great friend I am. (I know. shameless).
In other news there really hasn't been much going on. I have discovered what it truly means to have a 'pregnancy craving' - and it is no joke. For some reason every night I have to have chips and salsa for dinner. You'd think after 9 straight nights in a row I'd be sick of it, but noooo. I actually think about it while I'm at work and my mouth waters. It's the strangest thing. But I suppose it's better than craving tablespoons of peanut butter... whatever.