We had our second ultrasound on April 15 ---and the technician and doctor this time said they were 99 percent sure it’s a girl. It was amazing to see how much she had developed and how the technology enabled us to see so many of her organs (the chambers of her heart, her kidneys, her brain, etc.)
We were able to get a clear shot of her “girl parts” before she crossed her legs like a lady and felt that we were invading her privacy. :-) She might be shy or hate to have her photo taken, as she also had her hands in front of her face.
We think we’ve got a name for her, but we are keeping it a secret until she is born so don’t try to get it out of us! I’m also a tiny bit scared that she will come out and we will get a look at her and realize that the name we’ve picked out is not her name after all. I guess we’ll know when she gets here, but we do love the name we have right now and we love her so much already. We can’t wait for her to get here!
I can feel her kicking regularly, a good sign as the doctor told us as long as we are feeling at least one movement a day at this point, that her movement is normal. She was found to be a bit on the small side –in the 34th percentile for weight. But the doctors also told us not to worry too much about that ---part of it could be tied to my weight loss and sickness during the first trimester and that as long as I continue to gain weight throughout the pregnancy, she may likely catch up and be a cute, plump little thing when she enters the world.
As the construction continues at our house, we are anxiously awaiting the chance to put her room together. We’ve got the walls painted green and bought her crib bedding (pink with daisies on) earlier this week. We’re going for a green/pink/yellow motif and plan to buy her a white crib and dresser. Joe’s cousin Thea sent us an early baby gift –a changing pad, changing pad covers and boppy –so with a few more things laying around it is starting to really look like we have a baby coming. We’ve found some good deals on Craigslist, the latest being a white rocking chair for her bedroom. It needs a good cleaning and some paint touch ups, but outside of that, it was a total steal! We are having the rocking chair cushions recovered in a pink that matches her crib bedding, so the room should be tied together when she gets here.
One of my favorite things we have in her room is a dollhouse my dad made me when I was little. He and my mom brought it out here when they drove out to Utah to deliver our wedding gifts two years ago. Joe and I tucked it away in our crawl space/storage area, but have it out now and cleaned up. It is so cute in her room and I loved playing with it SO MUCH! I think she will love it too.
One of Joe’s favorite things we have in her room is the new pink soccer ball he picked up for her at the soccer store! It is pretty cute. I am sure she will be kicking it around in no time.
Our next doctor’s appointment is on May 3rd, when I will be about 23 weeks.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Trip home and Utah flood
I was able to travel “home” to Fargo-Moorhead for my grandma’s funeral/celebration of life. I took the photo we got from the ultrasound and hopped on a plane to spend a few days with family.
It was nice to share memories and to see so many of my cousins that I don’t often get to see since moving out west. I also got to see my grandpa and grandma Rogers, who we plan to visit again at their lake cabin in Minnesota or at their apartment in Ulen sometime during the first week of June! It is exciting to know that the baby will probably get to meet her great grandparents over Thanksgiving this year if everything works out.
Since my mom and dad had only recently shared our baby news (I had wanted to wait until 12 weeks before going officially public, even though it turned out I was more like 16), it was also a nice chance to share in the excitement about the baby with those in Minnesota. I got to visit with family members and swapped pregnancy stories. One of my mom’s sweet friends also dropped off our first official present for Baby Whetham. It was so fun to open that little newborn-size sleeper and imagine how tiny she will be wearing it!
I continued to be sick some during the trip (my mom worriedly knocked on the bathroom door the first night I got there, hearing the aftermath of eating two pieces of plain toast). But I had a couple “good” days mixed in which made me feel like I was reaching the end of the long sickness bout.
I brought in cupcakes to work right before I left for Minnesota. My co-workers were not surprised by the news –nosy reporters are good at figuring these things out. The big clue was that I quit going to bar outings a couple months back. But my co-workers have been so kind –one gave us her Pack-N-Play that her children have outgrown and a high chair. Others have brought hand-me-down clothing which we will definitely use. We are so grateful!
When I got back from Minnesota, there were a couple quiet days to catch up before we found ourselves dealing with a total disaster. (Which came the same day Chris, Nicolle and Lucas arrived in town to visit us from Columbus. Some hosts we turned out being; luckily they understood).
I left for work one morning and shortly after 1 p.m. got a frantic call from Joe that our house had flooded. I went home and joined Joe to deal with the start of our nightmare. A valve had come loose on our upstairs sink causing a pipe to burst, and shooting out anywhere from 2 to 4 gallons a minute. The majority of the house was drenched, and disaster cleanup crews from our insurance company came over and immediately started tearing everything up. They took out all of our flooring, several of our walls, and boarded up many of our furnishings and possessions with plastic. We have about $15,000 to $20,000 worth of damage.
While we’re grateful for good homeowner’s insurance that will cover the majority of the cost, the remodel continues to wear on us. We’ve got walls again and painting has been completed (the one bonus: We painted the baby’s room a nice green, so I guess the total disaster at least got the baby’s room done faster). But we are still waiting on flooring…and the day we get to unpack and quit living in piles of dust.
It was nice to share memories and to see so many of my cousins that I don’t often get to see since moving out west. I also got to see my grandpa and grandma Rogers, who we plan to visit again at their lake cabin in Minnesota or at their apartment in Ulen sometime during the first week of June! It is exciting to know that the baby will probably get to meet her great grandparents over Thanksgiving this year if everything works out.
Since my mom and dad had only recently shared our baby news (I had wanted to wait until 12 weeks before going officially public, even though it turned out I was more like 16), it was also a nice chance to share in the excitement about the baby with those in Minnesota. I got to visit with family members and swapped pregnancy stories. One of my mom’s sweet friends also dropped off our first official present for Baby Whetham. It was so fun to open that little newborn-size sleeper and imagine how tiny she will be wearing it!
I continued to be sick some during the trip (my mom worriedly knocked on the bathroom door the first night I got there, hearing the aftermath of eating two pieces of plain toast). But I had a couple “good” days mixed in which made me feel like I was reaching the end of the long sickness bout.
I brought in cupcakes to work right before I left for Minnesota. My co-workers were not surprised by the news –nosy reporters are good at figuring these things out. The big clue was that I quit going to bar outings a couple months back. But my co-workers have been so kind –one gave us her Pack-N-Play that her children have outgrown and a high chair. Others have brought hand-me-down clothing which we will definitely use. We are so grateful!
When I got back from Minnesota, there were a couple quiet days to catch up before we found ourselves dealing with a total disaster. (Which came the same day Chris, Nicolle and Lucas arrived in town to visit us from Columbus. Some hosts we turned out being; luckily they understood).
I left for work one morning and shortly after 1 p.m. got a frantic call from Joe that our house had flooded. I went home and joined Joe to deal with the start of our nightmare. A valve had come loose on our upstairs sink causing a pipe to burst, and shooting out anywhere from 2 to 4 gallons a minute. The majority of the house was drenched, and disaster cleanup crews from our insurance company came over and immediately started tearing everything up. They took out all of our flooring, several of our walls, and boarded up many of our furnishings and possessions with plastic. We have about $15,000 to $20,000 worth of damage.
While we’re grateful for good homeowner’s insurance that will cover the majority of the cost, the remodel continues to wear on us. We’ve got walls again and painting has been completed (the one bonus: We painted the baby’s room a nice green, so I guess the total disaster at least got the baby’s room done faster). But we are still waiting on flooring…and the day we get to unpack and quit living in piles of dust.
It's a girl!
We underwent our ultrasound two days after Dr. Kinghorn saw us at our 12 week appointment and decided our due date was off by a bit or that we were having twins.
We did the ultrasound and found out there is one baby –and she is likely a girl!
Joe asked the technician how sure she was about the predicition of the sex and she said she was about 85 percent sure. We then got to see some of the baby’s organs so far. The doctor who came in to check me out said everything looked fine and pushed the due date up by a month to August 29.
That means Baby Whetham shares the same due date as her cousin, who is due to arrive in Columbus, Ohio to my brother Chris and his wife Nicolle. It will be great to have two cousins so close in age.
We did the ultrasound and found out there is one baby –and she is likely a girl!
Joe asked the technician how sure she was about the predicition of the sex and she said she was about 85 percent sure. We then got to see some of the baby’s organs so far. The doctor who came in to check me out said everything looked fine and pushed the due date up by a month to August 29.
That means Baby Whetham shares the same due date as her cousin, who is due to arrive in Columbus, Ohio to my brother Chris and his wife Nicolle. It will be great to have two cousins so close in age.
Changes
Wow, it has been so long since I’ve updated the blog. We’ve had so many things happen so I will try to catch up in a few separate entries.
We had what was to be our 12 week appointment on March 8. We arrived at the OB office and met with Dr. Kinghorn, who examined me and quickly came to the conclusion that “I think you’re a little further along that 12 weeks.” I wasn’t surprised about this and had sort of suspected that might be the case. She ordered us to have an ultrasound two days later to get a better idea of what the due date would be –and to see whether or not we might have been having twins.
The best part of the appointment was when Dr.Kinghorn used the handheld doppler sonogram that allowed us to hear the baby’s heartbeat for the first time (another reason why she was sure we were further along … hearing a heartbeat as strong as it was is unusual for as early as I was supposed to be). It was so cool to hear the baby’s little hear t beating so strongly at about 160. Joe was a little concerned about whether it should be so fast, but she assured us the baby was in normal range.
After we left the doctor’s office, I called my dad to let him know the good news ---and the at the time crazy possiblity that there could have been two babies! Our good news was met with some sad news, when he told me that my grandma, Elnor Johnson, had passed away just a short while earlier.
There was something oddly comforting to me to know that my grandma left the earth just as our baby was getting ready to enter it, letting us hear its heartbeat for the first time. While I’m sad grandma won’t get to meet the baby, I’m more grateful to have had nearly 30 years with such a special lady in my life.
I’ve been thinking about all the great things grandma taught me over the years and her personal attributes that I could attempt to bring into my own role as a mother. My memories of her and my grandpa are immeasurable, even though my grandpa has been gone since I was 16. But I loved going to their house in Hawley when I was younger; it was such a neat place to escape to and I could count on being thoroughly spoiled during every visit.
My grandma was a wonderful cook, the best I’ve ever known besides my own mom, of couse. Holidays there were full of good food and good conversation. She made the best homemade bread –when I would go to her house, I would simply ask to have a slice of bread. No butter, no jam, no anything. My grandpa always thought that was kind of weird and tried to get me to at least put a little peanut butter on it. But to me, her fresh sliced bread was better than any cookie or cupcake she would offer. She made it from scratch, from a recipe engrained in her head that she did not have written down (I wrote it down myself one time, and still have the recipe tucked away in what looks to be about my 5th-grade handwriting).
There were always homemade baked goods (I can’t ever remember visiting Hawley without seeing my grandpa at the kitchen table dunking one of my grandma’s sugar cookies into a cup of tea). And I used to love to wander through her enormous garden, particularly her raspberry bushes, which were giant in the summertime and always had plenty of berries to pick off the branches.
Each summer, I got to stay with my grandpa and grandma for a few days and they hosted a special “Melinda Day.” It usually started out with my grandma making pancakes, then we’d take a trip to K-Mart where they’d let me pick out a new Barbie, we’d go back to their place and I’d play UNO with my grandpa and then I’d help my grandma bake or cook dinner. It was so much fun and something I looked forward to every year. Their neighbors, who are still my good friends today, Tabitha and Tiffany, would also come over to play and we would put on plays for my grandparents. They were always good sports and got into the spirit of things; we have photos of grandma dressed up with us and grandpa letting us use a curling iron on his hair!
Grandma’s personality changed as her Alzheimer’s progressed following a move to Moorhead and my grandfather’s death. But she always remained gracious and happy to see me and all of her family, even if it meant asking us the same question more than a few times. ;-) It was hard to gradually say goodbye, as she lost her ability to remember her grandchildren and old friends in recent years, although she still knew her own children going into her final year. During some of these visits, particularly in the two years when I moved back to Fargo-Moorhead after college and met Joe, it gave me a chance to listen to her speak about her life as if I didn’t know anything about it. This was always interesting. She would tell me stories about how she met her husband Ray, how she used to live on the farm in Jackson, and stories from when her children were little. She lived a life that was hard at times, but happy overall, and it was nice to hear her recount her journey during some of the visits in the past few years when –depending on the day -- I had become a stranger. She would always ask me, “Now what do you do?” And I would tell her over and over, seeing how she genuinely seemed so happy to be getting to know me as a new friend –even though she had just forgotten that day that I was the grandaughter she knew so well.
Along with memories of grandma and grandpa, I have a few things already in the baby’s room that they gave me. One is a little ballerina jewelry box that I’m so glad I held on to. Another will be a quilt that my grandma made (she was a skilled seamstress –another thing I used to love to do at her house was to look through her sewing drawers and admire all the scraps of fabric). I also have a few children’s books that they gave to me with inscriptions written in them. It will be nice to share these momentos with the baby, who is blessed with a great grandpa and great grandma who will be watching out from above.
Here is a bit more about my grandma:
Elnor H. Johnson
Elnor Johnson, 91, of Moorhead, MN, died March 8, 2010, at Eventide Lutheran Home in Moorhead.
Elnor Henrietta Becker was born Sept. 12, 1918, in Mahnomen, MN, to Ella and William Becker. She was baptized on Sept. 23, 1918, and confirmed on April 9, 1933, at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Mahnomen. She graduated from Mahnomen High School in 1936. Elnor married Raymond Henry Johnson in Mahnomen on June 6, 1937. They lived in Jackson, MN, Estherville, IA, and Mankato, MN, before returning to Mahnomen in 1958.
Elnor raised five children and worked in retail and at Multi-County Nursing Service. Upon her retirement Elnor and Ray moved to Hawley, MN, and eventually settled in Moorhead.
Elnor was kind, gracious, gentle and strong. She loved spending time with her husband, children and grandchildren, as well as many other relatives and friends over the years. She grew beautiful flowers and vegetables in her gardens and preserved the “fruits of her labor”. She was known for her superb cooking and baking skills. Countless guests enjoyed her freshly baked homemade bread and coffee cakes. Elnor was a gifted seamstress who made clothes for her family when they were young and turned into a talented quilter in later years. Elnor was a member of Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Moorhead. She previously attended Hawley Lutheran Church and Bethlehem Lutheran Church.
Elnor was an active participant in church and community activities. She attended Birthday Club, Homemaker’s Group, Book Club, Ladies Aid and various church circles and Bible study groups. She liked being a part of bowling leagues, and after moving to Moorhead, regularly volunteered at the Moorhead Thrift Shop.
Elnor is survived by three daughters, Kathleen (Lamont) Hamre of Clive, IA, Judith (David) Workin of Fargo, ND, and Susan (Jerry) Rogers of Moorhead; and a son, Kent (Cindi) Johnson of Sioux Falls, SD. She leaves 11 grandchildren, William (Gwen) Wellner of Andover, MN, Mark Wellner of Mankato, MN, Jill (Duane) Hanley of Lino Lakes, MN, Jeffrey (Carmella) Hamre of Clarksville, TN, Michael Hamre of West Des Moines, IA, Lisa Workin of Eagan, MN, Michelle Workin (Jon Drucker) of Eagan, Christopher (Nicolle) Rogers of Columbus, OH, Melinda (Joseph) Whetham of Salt Lake City, UT, and Elizabeth (Jason) Stelter and Gretchen Johnson, of Sioux Falls, SD. Elnor is also survived by eleven great-grandchildren and one great-great granddaughter.
She was preceded in death by her parents; husband; daughter, Sylvia Rae Wellner; son-in-law, William Wellner; brothers, Merlin Becker and Lloyd “Dick” Becker; and sisters, Esther Becker Schauland and Norma Becker Maus.
Elnor’s family wishes to thank Dr. Emil Steinke and everyone involved in her care at the Eventide campus over the years and especially in the past few months. We appreciate the care and kindness you have given to our mother and grandmother.
The Visitation for Elnor will be on Thursday from 6 - 8 PM at Korsmo Funeral Service, Moorhead. The Funeral will be on Friday, March 12, 2010, at 11 AM in Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, Moorhead with Burial in Riverside Cemetery, Mahnomen, MN, at 3 PM.
We had what was to be our 12 week appointment on March 8. We arrived at the OB office and met with Dr. Kinghorn, who examined me and quickly came to the conclusion that “I think you’re a little further along that 12 weeks.” I wasn’t surprised about this and had sort of suspected that might be the case. She ordered us to have an ultrasound two days later to get a better idea of what the due date would be –and to see whether or not we might have been having twins.
The best part of the appointment was when Dr.Kinghorn used the handheld doppler sonogram that allowed us to hear the baby’s heartbeat for the first time (another reason why she was sure we were further along … hearing a heartbeat as strong as it was is unusual for as early as I was supposed to be). It was so cool to hear the baby’s little hear t beating so strongly at about 160. Joe was a little concerned about whether it should be so fast, but she assured us the baby was in normal range.
After we left the doctor’s office, I called my dad to let him know the good news ---and the at the time crazy possiblity that there could have been two babies! Our good news was met with some sad news, when he told me that my grandma, Elnor Johnson, had passed away just a short while earlier.
There was something oddly comforting to me to know that my grandma left the earth just as our baby was getting ready to enter it, letting us hear its heartbeat for the first time. While I’m sad grandma won’t get to meet the baby, I’m more grateful to have had nearly 30 years with such a special lady in my life.
I’ve been thinking about all the great things grandma taught me over the years and her personal attributes that I could attempt to bring into my own role as a mother. My memories of her and my grandpa are immeasurable, even though my grandpa has been gone since I was 16. But I loved going to their house in Hawley when I was younger; it was such a neat place to escape to and I could count on being thoroughly spoiled during every visit.
My grandma was a wonderful cook, the best I’ve ever known besides my own mom, of couse. Holidays there were full of good food and good conversation. She made the best homemade bread –when I would go to her house, I would simply ask to have a slice of bread. No butter, no jam, no anything. My grandpa always thought that was kind of weird and tried to get me to at least put a little peanut butter on it. But to me, her fresh sliced bread was better than any cookie or cupcake she would offer. She made it from scratch, from a recipe engrained in her head that she did not have written down (I wrote it down myself one time, and still have the recipe tucked away in what looks to be about my 5th-grade handwriting).
There were always homemade baked goods (I can’t ever remember visiting Hawley without seeing my grandpa at the kitchen table dunking one of my grandma’s sugar cookies into a cup of tea). And I used to love to wander through her enormous garden, particularly her raspberry bushes, which were giant in the summertime and always had plenty of berries to pick off the branches.
Each summer, I got to stay with my grandpa and grandma for a few days and they hosted a special “Melinda Day.” It usually started out with my grandma making pancakes, then we’d take a trip to K-Mart where they’d let me pick out a new Barbie, we’d go back to their place and I’d play UNO with my grandpa and then I’d help my grandma bake or cook dinner. It was so much fun and something I looked forward to every year. Their neighbors, who are still my good friends today, Tabitha and Tiffany, would also come over to play and we would put on plays for my grandparents. They were always good sports and got into the spirit of things; we have photos of grandma dressed up with us and grandpa letting us use a curling iron on his hair!
Grandma’s personality changed as her Alzheimer’s progressed following a move to Moorhead and my grandfather’s death. But she always remained gracious and happy to see me and all of her family, even if it meant asking us the same question more than a few times. ;-) It was hard to gradually say goodbye, as she lost her ability to remember her grandchildren and old friends in recent years, although she still knew her own children going into her final year. During some of these visits, particularly in the two years when I moved back to Fargo-Moorhead after college and met Joe, it gave me a chance to listen to her speak about her life as if I didn’t know anything about it. This was always interesting. She would tell me stories about how she met her husband Ray, how she used to live on the farm in Jackson, and stories from when her children were little. She lived a life that was hard at times, but happy overall, and it was nice to hear her recount her journey during some of the visits in the past few years when –depending on the day -- I had become a stranger. She would always ask me, “Now what do you do?” And I would tell her over and over, seeing how she genuinely seemed so happy to be getting to know me as a new friend –even though she had just forgotten that day that I was the grandaughter she knew so well.
Along with memories of grandma and grandpa, I have a few things already in the baby’s room that they gave me. One is a little ballerina jewelry box that I’m so glad I held on to. Another will be a quilt that my grandma made (she was a skilled seamstress –another thing I used to love to do at her house was to look through her sewing drawers and admire all the scraps of fabric). I also have a few children’s books that they gave to me with inscriptions written in them. It will be nice to share these momentos with the baby, who is blessed with a great grandpa and great grandma who will be watching out from above.
Here is a bit more about my grandma:
Elnor H. Johnson
Elnor Johnson, 91, of Moorhead, MN, died March 8, 2010, at Eventide Lutheran Home in Moorhead.
Elnor Henrietta Becker was born Sept. 12, 1918, in Mahnomen, MN, to Ella and William Becker. She was baptized on Sept. 23, 1918, and confirmed on April 9, 1933, at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Mahnomen. She graduated from Mahnomen High School in 1936. Elnor married Raymond Henry Johnson in Mahnomen on June 6, 1937. They lived in Jackson, MN, Estherville, IA, and Mankato, MN, before returning to Mahnomen in 1958.
Elnor raised five children and worked in retail and at Multi-County Nursing Service. Upon her retirement Elnor and Ray moved to Hawley, MN, and eventually settled in Moorhead.
Elnor was kind, gracious, gentle and strong. She loved spending time with her husband, children and grandchildren, as well as many other relatives and friends over the years. She grew beautiful flowers and vegetables in her gardens and preserved the “fruits of her labor”. She was known for her superb cooking and baking skills. Countless guests enjoyed her freshly baked homemade bread and coffee cakes. Elnor was a gifted seamstress who made clothes for her family when they were young and turned into a talented quilter in later years. Elnor was a member of Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Moorhead. She previously attended Hawley Lutheran Church and Bethlehem Lutheran Church.
Elnor was an active participant in church and community activities. She attended Birthday Club, Homemaker’s Group, Book Club, Ladies Aid and various church circles and Bible study groups. She liked being a part of bowling leagues, and after moving to Moorhead, regularly volunteered at the Moorhead Thrift Shop.
Elnor is survived by three daughters, Kathleen (Lamont) Hamre of Clive, IA, Judith (David) Workin of Fargo, ND, and Susan (Jerry) Rogers of Moorhead; and a son, Kent (Cindi) Johnson of Sioux Falls, SD. She leaves 11 grandchildren, William (Gwen) Wellner of Andover, MN, Mark Wellner of Mankato, MN, Jill (Duane) Hanley of Lino Lakes, MN, Jeffrey (Carmella) Hamre of Clarksville, TN, Michael Hamre of West Des Moines, IA, Lisa Workin of Eagan, MN, Michelle Workin (Jon Drucker) of Eagan, Christopher (Nicolle) Rogers of Columbus, OH, Melinda (Joseph) Whetham of Salt Lake City, UT, and Elizabeth (Jason) Stelter and Gretchen Johnson, of Sioux Falls, SD. Elnor is also survived by eleven great-grandchildren and one great-great granddaughter.
She was preceded in death by her parents; husband; daughter, Sylvia Rae Wellner; son-in-law, William Wellner; brothers, Merlin Becker and Lloyd “Dick” Becker; and sisters, Esther Becker Schauland and Norma Becker Maus.
Elnor’s family wishes to thank Dr. Emil Steinke and everyone involved in her care at the Eventide campus over the years and especially in the past few months. We appreciate the care and kindness you have given to our mother and grandmother.
The Visitation for Elnor will be on Thursday from 6 - 8 PM at Korsmo Funeral Service, Moorhead. The Funeral will be on Friday, March 12, 2010, at 11 AM in Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, Moorhead with Burial in Riverside Cemetery, Mahnomen, MN, at 3 PM.
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