Starting Baby Burks's Room

I know, I know I haven't posted in a long time, but we have been pretty busy and have been able to relax knowing that everything is safe with the baby!

Three weekends ago, we decided to clean out the storage room in the basement. We realized that we needed somewhere for everything from the baby's room to go since it had been set up as a guest room complete with queen size bed, dresser, and nightstand. Devin and I got motivated (he was way more motivated than me on this particular Saturday to clean, which is pretty unusual!). Once we decided to clean the basement we got to work and we knocked the whole thing out in about an hour which is impressive. I still can't believe that we did as well as we did! We decided to get rid of alot of things. If anyone knows anyone looking for young adult books or English education books we have two tubs full that we are looking to donate somewhere. Let us know if you want them you are more than welcome to have them! I hate getting rid of books, but I am not a person to read something twice! I wish that we would have taken before and after pictures of the basement because I still don't believe that we accomplished everything we did!

Two weekends ago, we got to clean out the baby's room which I had been wanting to do so bad! That Friday I spent the entire day in their cleaning out all of the small stuff that I can. The dresser and closet were loaded with things I could deal with, such as extra blankets/pillows, board games, and stuff from college. I managed to get the room empty of little stuff and set it all by the stairs with labels as to where it was going in the basement. Then that Saturday, Mike, Grandma Burks, LeeAnn, Brittany and Jason, and our friends Brett and Jessica came over to help move everything downstairs. They were even more efficient that Devin and I the weekend before. Everyone came over at 11 and I would say by 11:30-11:45 everything was downstairs, including all the furniture! I was astounded at how fast they were! While I was finishing up making lunch Devin decided to take advantage of the help while we had it and moved around the basement. Mike and Stacy got Devin a weight bench for Christmas and it was kinda just sitting in the middle of the basement. So, we now clearly have a "workout area". It is pretty awesome if I say so myself. I did remember to take before pictures of the conversion from guest bedroom to baby room so here they are!


After everyone left Devin really wanted to put together the baby furniture. I wasn't sure if this was the best idea because we still have to paint, but Devin and Mike convinced me it was okay and since they are going to be the ones painting I said okay. I was also anxious to see the furniture. They built the crib and changing table, we still have to build the dresser, but I have to move my sewing stuff out of the room first!


These pictures don't really do it justice! The furniture is a dark dark brown wood and I love it! We now have to get a mattress, but are clueless on how to pick one out. Does anyone have suggestions?

Finally, a post wouldn't be complete without mentioning Mocha! When I was cleaning the room out I kept tripping over her. There wasn't much room in the guest room to begin with and then when I started pulling stuff out, I was running into her constantly and I knew one of us would get hurt, so I allowed her to get on the bed. She had fun modeling some items I found! Oh, and hte cat and a ball playing in the dresser! The baby's room may be her favorite room now. We gave her a bone on Superbowl Sunday and she ran around looking to bury it for a bit and then went and laid in the baby's room and ate it. Now she goes in there all the time just to hang out!


Thanks for checking in and sorry I had not updated in a while! I hope to make up for it by posting tomorrow too and I promise it will be an exciting one, well exciting for me anyways!

The baby is just chillin...

Today we had our appointment with the specialist at OSF and got another sono! The results are good! The doctor said that the spine, brain, and heart all look good, so now I can hopefully rest a little more! It is really such a relief.

I went to the OSF Maternal/Fetal Diagnostic Center and it was really cool. They probably had 5 to 6 rooms all with sono machines and people doing sonos. Everyone there was really nice too, so that was a huge plus. Our appointment was at 9:30 and of course I had a whole stack of paperwork to fill out! On the top of one of the sheets it said reason for referral and they had it filled in with 'complicated pregnancy'. I was a little thrown and freaked out at seeing this on a piece of paper! They had us go in a little room to answer family history questions, which were all the same as what my doctor had asked and sent to them so she had all the answers, but apparently wanted to verify them. When she was done asking questions and going over information she asked if I had to use the bathroom. I thought she was just being rude, of course I had to pee, my doctor had told me I would need to drink at least 32 oz. of water before the sono! Well, as it turns out I needed an empty bladder, so I got to go to the bathroom much earlier than expected which was nice.

Then, we were moved into a sono room and handed off to the sono tech. She was also really nice and was awesome about explaining what we were looking at. I seemed to be able to see things better than last week, but maybe thats just because I knew what to expect or it could be that the tech was pointing everything out. For example she pointed out the hand, all the way down to the thumb. The baby was not cooperating at all as far as the gender goes. It was facing the inside of my stomach so all we could see was its back and butt which isn't too bad because we were there mainly to look at the spine, so that was easy to see. This sono was waaaaaaaaaaaaay cooler than last weeks. The baby was much more active. It was always sitting Indian style or was busy kicking its legs like crazy. It was neat to see! At one point the baby stretched completely out and I felt it which confirms that what I have been feeling the past few weeks is movement. We got to hear and see the baby's heartbeat which was 152 beats per minute.

After the tech got all of her measurements done she went and got the doctor. The doctor (Yolanda Renfro) then came in and introduced herself and started to do the sono and look at the baby herself. She said "Man, your baby is just chilling in there using the placenta as a pillow!" which made Devin and I both crack up. She thought she may get the baby to roll over so she sent me to the bathroom again since the baby was pushing right on my bladder. She then looked again at the spine and all of the important things and told us what we wanted to hear everything looked great! She thought with the more room it might give us a glimpse as to if the baby is a he or she, but it definitely didn't so the baby is still an it! The nurse and the sono tech were still in the room and they were laughing that the baby was being so shy. This was such a minor detail to me at this point because I just wanted to know that the baby was healthy. The doctor said that our dates were right on and that the baby was measuring right where it should. It weighs 9 ounces and I don't think she told us how long the baby was and if she did I forgot!

Here are the two pictures that we got from the sono. They are both of the face which is what we got alot of last week too. I guess you take what you can get! The tech took 58 pictures to send to my regular doctor so I had my hopes up that we would get more than two! Also, while we were still waiting we saw a couple come out from a sono and they had a whole string of pictures.


This is of the face...the baby was kind of starting to roll over, but never made it all the way over. You can see an eye socket and the nose.

This is pretty much the same picture!

They wanted to see us again, just to make sure when the baby is bigger that everything is okay so we got back there on March 8th. If the baby is stubborn then I am hoping to convince Devin that we shouldn't find out, which I don't think I can convince him of, he really wants to know!

Thanks for checking in! Also thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers for us this past week and a half! It's been rough, but everything is looking up now!

Got my appointment...

Just thought I would let everyone know that I just got a call a little bit ago from the doctor's office letting me know that they have scheduled my appointment for February 3rd at 9:30. That is less than 6 days away, which is much quicker than I thought I was going to get in.

I also forgot to mention a few things yesterday in my post. Dr. Reinerston said my Down's results came back great the chances of the baby being born with Down's Syndrome are 1 in 10,000. Those are odds that I like! We also got to see the heartbeat on the sono yesterday and it was 148 beats per minute.

I will continue to keep everyone updated on what is going on!

First sono...

I know that in my last post I said I wasn't having a sono until February 17th, but I found out on Monday that my quad screening came back abnormal and they wanted me to come in as soon as possible for a sono. The part of the quad screening that was abnormal was the AFP (alpha-fetoprotein). In my case the AFP is high which can mean three things, more than one baby, the baby being further along than expected, or an open nueral tube defect. From the sono I had today we elminated the first two possibilites and the doctor thinks that everything is okay, but I have to see a high-risk specialist for a more detailed sono to be sure. He said anything that would be majorally wrong with the baby would have shown up today and now it would just be a minor problem, that could be fixed with surgrey, or no problems. Since my numbers came back high I am now considered a high-risk pregnancy because women with high numbers are more at risk for pre-term labor, pre-eclampsia, and a few other things. So, when I hit my third tri-mester I will be seeing the doctor alot more often and will be having more sonos and fetal non-stress tests done. At least we will be able to catch any problems early!

Here are a few pictures from the sono today. She gave us four pictures, three of the face and one of the legs. I am awful at interpruting sono pictures. They made since while we were at the doctors and as soon as we got home we had to figure them out again. Hopefully, everyone else will be able to see what they say it was.

The three pictures above are of the face...as if the baby is looking at us. You can see the eyes, nose and mouth or so they said. It was much easier to see on the screen.

This picture is of the legs, which seems like a random thing to take a picture of but I will take it. It was too early to tell boy/girl and the cord was right in the way. She said she didn't see any boy parts, but that doesn't mean anything. She guessed 60/40 in favor of a girl. We should know after the sex after the in-depth sono.

Thank you for checking in! Time for a nap! I have had a hard time sleeping and now can feel like I can relax and breathe a little bit now that the doctor isn't concerned.

Another Appointment....

I had another appointment today and it went great! The baby's heartbeat was 140 beats per minute and last time it was 160. It has me confused because the old wives tale is anything over 140 is a girl and under 140 is a boy, so I guess its not true since they contradict each other. Plus, they are called old wives tales because they aren't true, but its fun to read them! Dr. Brinkman said she could feel the baby and everything looks good. I also had bloodwork done for a quad screening (I think). Devin was unable to go to this appointment because he had a meeting at work that his boss said he couldn't miss, the stupid meeting got cancelled at 9 which was 10 minutes before my appointment grrrrr! I had been telling him that he didn't need to go to the appointments but I kinda missed having him there. Hearing the heartbeat just makes it sooooo real! Because Devin didn't get to go I offered to my mom that she could go and she jumped on the chance and she loved hearing it. So, Stacy its your turn to go to an appointment the next time Devin can't make one, assuming that you want to go.

On Monday, I had a moment of panic. I was getting ready for work and realized that all of my jeans were in the dryer so I grabbed them and they wouldn't button. I currently have one pair of maternity jeans and they were in the washer (the tags said to was before wearing to get rid of the extra dye). I had no clue on what to wear to work. I finally settled on a hair tie, looping it around the button hole and over the button and a bella belly band that mom had got me. This morning I decided I didn't like walking around yesterday with my pants undone (no one could tell though) so I put on the maternity pants and they felt too big. So I went back to my hair tie and bella belly band combo it works great! If you see me in the near future don't pay attention to my jeans, because chances are they are either too small or too big!

Our next appointment is on February 17th and Devin says he marked it out on his calendar already. I will be having my sonogram. I think I am probably going to have to cave and find out the sex so we should know then, if the baby decides to cooperate.

Time for American Idol! Thanks for checking in!

Rough Luck

We, here at the Burks house have had a rough start to our week! We are just taking it in stride and laughing at ourselves because there is nothing else we can do! Here is the run down of our events.

To begin with when I was cooking dinner on Monday night Devin looked up at the ceiling and saw this...
It is a crappy picture, but it is a water spot that somewhat resembles an eyeball. Devin called his dad and they went up in the attic to see if they could find the cause. All they found was a pvc pipe but didn't see anything wrong with it. Mike advised me to call a plumber so that is what I did first thing Tuesday morning. Plumber came and said something about vents for the washer and sink/dishwasher and how the builder tried to tie two together and the joint wasn't good, or something along those lines. But he fixed it, so all is good. We are waiting for the spot to dry so we can cover it up and not have to look at the ugly water mark. The plumber came early enough that I was able to still go to work, so that was nice.

When I got to work I got word that our good friends' daughter was being admitted to the hospital. She is about 17 months old if I can do my math right so if everyone could say a prayer for her, we would appreciate it and so would they. They are hoping she will be released on Saturday, so we are crossing our fingers for that.

Nothing else happened on Tuesday, well nothing worth mentioning. Today we had a staff meeting at the shop so I had to get up early and when I got in my car, it wouldn't start. GRRRR! I was very frustrated. I had a flashback of when I was in college and my Volvo died on me and it was just because I was out of gas (thank you Eric for rescueing me), but it wasn't my fault because my gas gauge had broken and was showing that it was half full. But anyways, I decided to call my mom and had her give me a ride to work (working at the same place as your mom comes in handy!). I decided I would wait to call anyone until Devin could look at it, hoping it would magically start or would just be the battery. No luck. So, we called the dealership who directed me to call roadside assistance and they got someone to come tow it to the dealership. The two truck driver had no clue what it was either. Fortunately, my car is still under warranty so we are just hoping that whatever is wrong with it will be covered. The way our week has been going, it will be the one thing not covered by warranty!


There is my baby being towed away! Devin joked that we should post the pictures to facebook and see if anyone thought our car was being repoed.

I am sorry this has been such a downer of a post, but we are just finding our luck funny at this point. Plus, I know how much I love reading everyones blogs and I hope people enjoy mine, so I thought I would give everyone a little something!

In other, much happier news....we ordered our the furniture for the nursery on Sunday. We got a good deal from Babiesrus that I couldn't pass up. I really liked the furniture and if you bought the crib you got the changing table free. Also, I think I may have to cave and find out the sex of the baby because there really aren't many neutral items out there or I guess just not things that I like! My next appointment is on Tuesday so look for an update after then!

Happy New Year!

We have really enjoyed telling everyone that we are expecting! Everyone has been pretty surprised which has just added to the fun. When we announced it on facebook last week the responses we got were overwhelming and great! Devin and I both get facebook updates on our phone and they were going off constantly. It has been great to have so much support!

We are starting to look at baby furniture. I know that we still have plenty of time, but Devin starts softball the second weekend in April so I know after that we will only have Saturday's and weekday evenings to work on stuff and we won't want to! Hoping to make a trip to Babiesrus in Springfield soon to look in person and then I plan on searching the internet looking for the best deal. If anyone has suggestions on where else to look, please share! I know I also want to check out Baby Depot, but their online selection is kind of weak.

I will be 15 weeks tomorrow and am starting to notice things fitting differently. My brown belt is now uncomfortable, which I discovered the other day at work and today I bundled up to go play with Mocha in the snow while Devin cleared the driveway and it took us a good three minutes to get my coat zipped. I still have a ways until I visibly show to others, but I am not liking everything fitting differently!

I know everyone enjoys seeing pictures and videos so here are a few of the animals that we have taken over the past week or so.


We got Swarley a box for Christmas! Not really, but he played in the box from Devin's new computer for a few days!

He even found this twisty tie in the box and entertained himself for a while. He will find twisty ties, hair ties, and rubber bands anywhere and chase them for hours.


Kevin got to come over on New Years Eve to celebrate with his cousin Mocha. They were hilarious to watch and got along really well. Mocha had to keep her eye on Kevin all the time and tried to 'herd' him and make him go where she wanted him to. This picture isn't the most flattering of Kevin, but its hard to take pictures of two moving dogs!


This was taken when Mocha was starting to get tired and Kevin was on his 5th or 6th wind. I don't remember if Kevin pushed Mocha down, or if Mocha was trying to get Kevin to play, because she lays like this when she wants to play with Swarley.


Time to take a break!

Mocha of course loves the snow! We have countless pictures of her playing in it, but I thought this one was really cute! She plays with that ball all the time! Best toy investment for her we have ever made! She can't pop it and loves it!

Devin edited this video. Mocha and Kevin is from NYE and was taken when Kevin was getting gutsy towards Mocha. Mocha and Swarley is from New Years Day. Mike and Stacy came over to play cards so we made the table smaller and pushed the extra chairs to the side and the cat had some fun with them. We couldn't quit laughing at him. Mocha playing in the snow is from today. I took her out front while Devin was snowblowing and took her for a little walk and played with her in the snow. People out shoveling their driveways looked at me like I was crazy, she is a SNOW dog people! She had a blast in the drifts and was very obedient even though I am sure it doesn't look that way on the video. She wouldn't jump up there unless I said ok. She is worn out which will make for a peaceful night!

Thanks for checking in!