July 2007 so far...

Well, we are fresh back from our first successful vacation with Reid!!! The first week of July we flew up to Maine to visit Erik's family. I have to admit I was really nervous about flying with Reid. I read everything I could find online about flying with a toddler and what to bring on the plane. After all the preparation, it seems that Reid was made to travel:) He did wonderfully!! The only times he got disgruntled were right at the end of the longest flights. This picture to the left is of Reid and Erik in the airport.

We flew into Portland, ME and rented a lovely 2008 Ford Escape. We were pleasantly surprised about how cool it was when we arrived. The entire week it was in the 60's and 70's. A lovely change from the oppressive heat and humidity of Florida. We met up with Erik's mother and step-father Alex, as well as Erik's brother Bryan and his wife Stephanie. The hotel where we stayed was about 2 minutes away from Erik's grandparents house, so we got to visit with them too, and they got to meet Reid for the first time. The picture below is the view from our hotel room and also the lake where Erik and I got engaged.

The trip was very relaxing. Most of our time was spent on the porch of our hotel room enjoying the beautiful view and either reading or chatting with Susan and Alex who were nextdoor to us. Reid also surprised us by sleeping wonderfully!! He slept through the night all 4 nights we were there and took 2 naps in the day time. The town where we visited is called Boothbay Harbor. It is the most picturesque little New England fishing town you have ever seen. For those who don't know this is also where Erik proposed to me, so it is special to us for that reason as well. We had lovely time eating the wonderful Maine food in the quaintest restaurants. We also had a great time visiting with our family since we don't get to see most of them very often. Below are pictures of our day in the town of Boothbay Harbor.

Above is Reid and his Uncle Bryan.

All in all it was a success, and it ended too soon, but I had to get back for work on the weekend. Our trip home was interesting. We had only a 35 minute layover in Atlanta to catch our plane back to Jacksonville. That was stressful. Erik was such a gentleman by not wanting to step over the lady he was next to on the first flight, that his bladder was beyond full and he was really hurting as we ran through the Atlanta airport and he had to stop to use the restroom while I waited super antsy for him to get back. We were the last people on the plane and unfortunately our luggage didn't make it on our plane. It was quite an exciting time for us, but ended fine:) Better to not have your luggage when you are already going home then when you are enroute to your destination. I did learn 2 valuable lessons. The first is to always pay attention to how long your layover is. The second was the mistake I made to try cheaper diapers while traveling. We had pretty significant leaks on both the trip there and back, luckily I did follow advice to bring extra clothes for Reid in our carry on luggage.

The monday after we got home, I had my second doctors appointment. This was the fun one with the exam:) I tried to talk her out of it since I just had my annual in April, but it didn't work. She tried to hear the baby's heartbeat with the doppler first, but didn't hear it. I didn't panic though. She did the exam, then we went next door to the room where the ultrasound machine was. She turned it on and there was our little baby, wiggling around and healthy. It was fun to see and needless to say a bit of a relief. This doctor has recently joined my doctor and her midwife and she is awesome. I have worked with her a bit, and liked her then too, but she was really easy to be around and very cheerful. I am feeling very good about my decision to see these ladies this time around. Since I won't be able to have this baby at home this time, these women are a great alternative and I feel fortunate they are in my city and are there so I don't have to sign myself up for a c-section. I am really hoping I can have a vaginal delivery this time. If for no other reason then logistical. I do not want to be recovering from major surgery and having to take care of a 2 year-old and a new baby. Yikes!!!

Oh we also took the first belly picture. I feel like I am huge, but comparitively I am not much different then I was with Reid at this stage. I think I just got to this stage sooner than with Reid. I am also having a harder time with this baby. I had a couple of really rough weeks where my stomach was just in upheival. I have still managed to avoid the vomiting, so that is a plus. Now at 13 weeks I am just waiting for the bad stomach feelings to go away. I feel the worst at night and it is a mixture of heartburn and nausea- not fun. In addition my breasts are a lot more sore. I remember with Reid being surprised that they weren't more sore. Reid and I are still nursing true to my goal of 2 years, however, MAN it hurts for him to nurse. We have cut back on the amount of nursing we are doing. Usually just before bed time at night and before his nap. The nap time session has decreased to just 1 side though and is usually short. What I have read says that your milk decreases at 4 months, which is about now, so I will be interested to see what he does. I can't predict what will happen. I am still not to the point where I will tell him no if he asks, but I am not suggesting it anymore. I am actually surprised he hasn't weaned yet anyway. I think I am about ready to be done, although when I truly think about being done it makes me sad that my little boy is growing up and is needing me less.

I have my next doctors appointment on August 6th. I hope that we will then make an appointment for the big ultrasound where we will hopefully find out what the sex of this baby is. For what it's worth I really feel like this baby is a girl. I think it will be awesome to have another boy. It would simplify things a lot. It would be fun to have 1 of each as well though. I am just happy that I am able to be pregnant and truly want a healthy baby regardless of the sex.

Those are all of my deep thoughts for now;) I hope everyone is doing very well.

Love,

Jenny, Erik, Reid, and Jelly Bean

April-June 2007

We have had quite the exicting quarter here at the Hirsch household.

April started pretty normally. I turned 29 and my 2 best friends from Tampa came up to join us in a celebration. It was lots of fun, we ate good food and enjoyed each other's company. Unfortunately the following week, we got some really sad news, that my best friend- Megan's father had died unexpectedly at a young age and in great health. So we were all brought together sooner than we had planned. I was miraculously given the day off of work, so I was able to go to the service, which was very nice, but very sad. Jeff was a quirky kind of guy with a generous and kind spirit, he was a great father and grandfather and he will be missed immensly.

May brought some exciting news to us. We found out the day after mother's day that we are expecting our second child:) It was quite exciting and funny since it took us 14 months altogether to get pregnant with Reid. With this one we were in our first month of "if it happens, it happens" mode, so it was quite humerous that it did indeed happen. I had talked to Megan and told her we were in "if it happens it happens" mode, when I called to request some condoms for decorations for my sisters bachelorette party (she works for Planned Parenthood). She told me she sent some extra presents a.k.a. pregnancy tests. I was at work on mothers day and had floated to the nursery that day. I was sitting there thinking how I felt similar to how I felt when I was pregnant with Reid, that is I felt a bit queezy unless I wasn't eating. I also noticed my breasts were a bit sore. I thought these symptoms were slightly out of the ordinary, but not compelling enough for me to actually think I was pregnant. I was expecting my period on Wednesday or Thursday of the following week. Monday as soon as the mail came, the package from Megan arrived, Reid was napping so I went straight to the bathroom and peed. What happened in about 2 minutes was there was a very faint second line. I wasn't even surprised, I just laughed. I had bought Reid 2 shirts about a week before, since I figured at any rate we would get pregnant some time. My favorite one says "I have a secret" on the front, and on the back it says "I'm going to be a big brother". So I put that shirt on Reid before Erik came home. Of course my husband, like many other men, is not very observant, so after 30 minutes I gave him a hint and told him to check out Reid's new shirt. It was funny watching him read it. He said in response "do you know something I don't?" to which I replied yes;). He then said "Wow!! That didn't take long", I am sure much to his dismay;) He is genuinely excited about our new addition.

The following week was my little sisters wedding. It was a lot of fun. The bachelorette party turned out very nice. We went to the Conch House in St. Augustine and the girls got a really nice hotel room there and had a night of mild debatchery. The weekend of the wedding, my mother and Mark had rented a beautiful house near the beach. It turned out there was enough room for us too, so we stayed with them which was a lot of fun and a wonderful impromptu vacation. The wedding was beautiful, lots of tears were shed both of happiness and sadness because we had gotten so used to Carrie living close that we were sad to see her moving to Georgia. Since I was in the wedding, Erik had to deal with the whirlwind that is Reid both during the ceremony and while we had pictures done. After they announced the wedding party for the reception, I was able to get back to Erik and Reid. Reid was in bad shape. He was crying and wanted me, so I held him while I ate. He ate a little bit with me. We thought he was acting a bit weird, but we were in a weird situation. We had been sleeping in a strange place for a couple of days, he hadn't slept very well. There were lots of people at the wedding etc. He was a lump the entire night and not crying except when I had to have Erik take him because I had to do my toast, he was not happy about that. Anyway, we went back to the condo after the wedding, and Reid and I fell asleep in our bed. He slept okay but would occasionally wimper at night. When we woke up the next morning, we finally figured out what the problem was. He seemed in pretty good spirits but he wasn't moving his right arm at all. It was just hanging there. I felt it, nothing felt broken or swollen, I was able to move his arm- although he didn't appreciate that. We decided we needed to take him to the ER as it was Memorial day and our doctor wasn't in the office. We got there and got right into a room, then waited for a bit. The doctor came in and talked to us and was wonderful with Reid- although he knew something was up and immdiately started crying when the doctor started examining him. Before I knew what happened, the doc. said Reid should be feeling better I just fixed his arm. He explained to us how it is called "nursemaid's elbow" and how it is pretty common. Basically one of the bones of Reid's forearm became dislocated from his elbow. Sure enough, he was perfectly normal and using his arm again within about 2 minutes. Erik thinks that when Reid was playing at the wedding and he was holding his hand, when Reid fell, Erik tried to keep him from falling by pulling on his hand, which we have done a million times before. We learned a valuable lesson though, we don't swing Reid from his arms anymore, and now I have a quick decision to make when I am holding his hand and he falls- save his knees or his elbow. Below is a picture of Reid in his sad state in his little hospital gown- note the limp right arm.

I had my first doctors appointment on June 11th. The big excitement was we got to see the "baby" on ultrasound. Of course it didn't look like a baby, but we did see a heartbeat, which was reassuring and confirmed that there was something in there and it wasn't a fluke. That month to celebrate my dad's 55th birthday, Reid and I joined my Dad, Pam, and the boys at Sea World. This was our first theme park situation for Reid, and I didn't have Erik with me. Reid did really well on the drive down there, and enjoyed Sea World. Our problem with him now is that he loves to get out and run around, which is hard to do in a crowded place. All was well until the massive thunderstorm hit in the early afternoon. It was pretty impressive with lightning, thunder, and lots of wind. We were luckily under a cover, although not protected from the rain when a gust of wind would hit. Reid even took a bit of a nap during that time. The rain finally died down a bit after what seemed like forever, but was probably 45 minutes or so. We were going to try to catch a show. I parked my stroller and we got into the arena. Reid was not happy- he was tired and cranky. Then the storm started up again. At some point I had the realization that in my stroller out in the massive thunderstorm was my cell phone AND my digital camera- Oh bother. During the nightmarish second storm, Reid was a mess, the windy rain was getting us all soaked, and I was concerned about my soaking wet stroller and electronics it held- NOT FUN!! When the second storm finally died down, we got out and my Dad went to get the stroller. It was not pretty. My cell phone was in the basket in about 2 inches of water, and the camera was in the compartment by the cup holders also sitting in water. It was very sad. Needless to say I was ready to go home:) Pam let me take her cell phone home, in case I had an emergency. Of course to add insult to injury we hit Orlando traffic coming home. The morning was very nice, the afternoon was not so nice. Hopefully, I am not scared of themeparks for the rest of my life:)

Above is baby number two (the blob between the two crosses).


Luckily on my weekend off, Erik's company had their annual picnic. It was at hugenot park and was very nice. Reid enjoyed being in the outdoors, and it was actually not too hot. We got some cute pictures of him chasing seagulls:)

Erik officially started his CPA review classes. The way it should work is for Erik to take the review for 1 section and then the test. Well 3 and a half months after Erik sent all of his information to the State of Florida, and 2 sections into the review course, he has not gotten the authorization to test yet. We have been frustrated by this, but I guess not surprised as nothing ever seems efficient at the state level. We are still aiming for him completing the CPA exam pre-baby #2. We shall see if that comes to pass.