Big Baby Byrge

So Josh and I have brief but very exciting news. This morning just after breakfast while watching the Today show........Baby Byrge made their "moving" debut. They moved for about three minutes and I could actually see the lower portion of my right abdomen move in sync with the baby. We also had a check up today that went very well. The baby's heart rate was 158 (perfectly normal) and mom's (my) blood pressure was down to normal with the help of the meds I have been on. We are thankful for every single normal milestone and can't wait to announce the baby's sex in four weeks. Ultrasound on May 14th!

Happy Easter!

Hello Everyone,


Although it was a dreary day around St. Louis....there is obvious cause for sunshine and celebration on a day like today. May the realness of the risen God be with all of you.





Here is another treat to add to your baskets from this morning!

Phase III...Raising the Roof

Hello all,
I hope this entry finds you warm....it's snowing here today with a high of 34. Who knew it was April? Things have been feverishly busy since the last post. Josh has been working overtime to finish all the electrical re-wiring around the house so that he could get the ceiling put up this weekend. As the help arrived on Sunday Josh was putting the finishing touches on the wiring to ready for the drywall. Thanks to 8 whole hours of help from our neighbor Tim, (he rules for several reasons....not the least of which he's a native Scotsman!!!) and three hours from our good buddy Luke.....the drywall on the ceiling is officially up. It was a mammoth milestone in this big project. My job all weekend consisted of ensuring everyone was fed.....and sitting on my rump. I often feel guilty about that until I remember that when at rest I am running a marathon cooking this baby! The even better news than the ceiling being up....that gave me the green light to really scrub the place down for the first time in weeks. Ahhhh, exhausting but yes...therapeutic indeed. Another milestone this week...Josh and I are entering week 16. Although I'm still very tired, things are good. We go next Thursday for our next check-up and are hopeful for a clean bill of health for everyone. My brother and Katie will find out in 2.5 weeks what they are having and everyone is anxiously awaiting. I will be heading home to Cincy at the end of June to celebrate a shower with her. I wanted to also ask for a favor in this blog. My good friend John is in an inpatient rehab unit recovering from a very large and devastating stroke. He needs all the positive thoughts and prayers you can muster. He is only 37 years old and has a long road ahead of him. The stroke was two weeks ago and he is still struggling to get his speech back and eat anything without aspirating. Please add him to your prayer lists and I will be updating about him periodically. Enjoy the latest pics of the nursery in progress.

Here is the last picture of the open space that will soon be the ceiling. Notice the exposed wires...that took Josh the better part of a week to square away. The first piece of drywall is in place and the rest are coming.

The guys finishing the first piece with this contraption that looked like it could torture someone! For $30 Josh said it made the job 100% easier....so glad!

The last piece of ceiling is in place and our neighbor Tim seems happy to be finished!! He's a great guy.

I never seem to have a problem expediting the clean up stage!

And of course Carson is always standing by to oversee things. He is constantly at the center of all the action.

The Nursery Phase #2

As the rain rolled out and the sun rolled in today, Josh and I were busy getting started on "gutting" the new nursery. It was a long but very productive day. We were able to pull up all the carpet and padding. I personally was the resident staple remover because it was light duty work. Geez there are a lot of staples in carpet padding.....who knew? We also pulled down all the crown moulding, window moulding, and baseboards. Sounds quick and easy but not so much . It requires a lot of grunt work which Josh does very well. In fact, he says there is something very therapeutic about breaking things. Josh then removed the framing for what was now the old closet. We are moving the closet to cut down on dead space in the room and installing sliding doors on the new closet to cut down on yet more wasted room. The plan tomorrow is to continue with scraping the old painted plaster off the walls and to demo the ceiling. Josh will demo the ceiling, I will be stuck doing the managing and the light duty clean up. Although, there are NINE NCAA games to choose from tomorrow, so I can't say I'm that devastated. Josh has really done an amazing job today and accomplished a lot. I have added some pics so you can get an idea of what is going on. After the old ceiling comes down tomorrow, new drywall will go up!

The wire in this picture is going up to the new office. It was inside what is now the old closet. It will have to be moved yet again once the new closet is installed. Pretty walls huh!?

This is inside the nursery looking into the dining room. It is facing what will be the new constructed closet. The brown stuff on the wall is what is under the stuff we are scraping off the walls. It is a very painful process, but will look great when we are finished.

This is looking at the window from the nursery door. It will be completely redone with new moulding. Again, more scraping on that wall as well.

And just in case we don't see the light at the end of the tunnel....this is what we are working toward. This is the first onesie we have received as a gift!!

New Office and other business

Okay, this update may be a little lengthy. Lots of business to discuss and exciting news on the baby front! I finished moving all the smaller last minute items into the office today and hung pictures and such. That means that the nursery to be is sitting empty minus the hutch from the desk that we can no longer use. Josh and I are going to look at fixtures for the nursery this weekend. We need to decide what type of ceiling fan and other materials we will need for this ginormous project. Josh also managed to get the new shelves up in the living room last night and they look fantastic!! The weather here today was beautiful and I also managed to spend some time outside that was very enjoyable. On the subject of beautiful things....I went for my 12 week prenatal visit today. That means that we have officially made it to the second trimester!!!! We are both hoping for more energy to come. All in all...things checked out wonderfully. All the pending lab work was negative for any "badness" and there was success in hearing the heartbeat. I have decided today that hearing the heartbeat of a healthy fetus makes the world a better place. The next visit will be in four weeks and we are hoping for some weight gain then! Well, this post was shorter than I expected and I hope you find it to be sweet. Enjoy the pictures.

This office is much more spacious that the last...that just mean more room to clean!

Josh picked out the wood for these shelves and stained them himself. He also picked out the hanging hardware for one of my Christmas gifts. He spent a lot of time on these and bought natural wood frames to contrast the stain. He did a wonderful job!

The Nursery Phase #1

Hello everyone!
Josh has been hard at work this weekend. Actually, he's done the grunt work and I have done my fair share as well. Josh started the first phase of the nursery renovation. He ran co-axial cable to the upstairs front room so that we could move the computer and office upstairs. Once the wire was ran and he replaced some outlets, it was time so start moving office "stuff" upstairs to the new office. It sounds really simple, until you are carrying load after load upstairs. Let's just say we both skipped the gym this weekend! We also had to condense the office closet into the large walk-in upstairs. This required more moving of "stuff" upstairs. Whew...I'm tired talking about it. Josh also finished the shelves that he has been working on and we are going to hang them later tonight!!! He has done a really great job this weekend multi-tasking and getting large projects knocked out. Pictures to come perhaps tomorrow. There will also be an update on appointment 3. We are hoping to hear the heartbeat for the first time! Phase 2 to be in the works soon as well. Stay tuned.

Eight Weeks

So we keep getting the question. Boy or Girl? What do you think you are going to have? In all honesty.....we don't have feelings one way or the other yet. It seems quite a while off, but in 8 weeks we should have ultrasound confirmation of the sex. In the mean time we have posted a poll for you to take your picks. Of course we will announce the winning vote after the ultrasound, but family and friends wanted a way to know concensus. Enjoy the voting!