Happy Halloween!

Drake's 2nd Halloween didn't go quite like I planned.

On Friday, when we went to pick Drake up from daycare Alicia was taking his temperature. Then, I heard him cough. It sounded just like croup. We went to get a desperately needed haircut and then went to the doctor for their walk-in time. Diagnosis - croup! Thank goodness it just started, and he didn't have stridor. We went straight home, and he hasn't left since.

The cough is finally sounding better and the fever finally broke today, but he still isn't sleeping great. We've been running the humidifier in his room and giving him Tylenol 24/7 hoping it will go away SOON!

We had Papa Murphy's Jack-o-Lantern pizza for dinner...

And then, Drake got in his costume and we walked outside for a little while (doctor said the cool air is good for croup). 

Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween!!

The Great Grocery Challenge

 

Walgreens: OOP $13.44, Saved $11.20!

Target: OOP $7.37, Saved $10.76!

Meijer: OOP $31.65, Saved $29.48!

Weekly Totals: OOP $52.46, Saved $51.44! (50% savings!)

Fall Birthdays

This weekend we celebrated the birthdays of my brother, sister-in-law, nephew, and brother-in-law. It was a nice to get together and also a beautiful weekend for my nephew's football game!

 

 His team finished their season 6-1! Way to go, Mitch!!

 Happy 12th birthday!

We also celebrated my parent's 35th wedding anniversary!!

Then, we attempted to get a picture of all four grandkids together...let's just say it was quite a challenge. It might have been a little better if Drake had a nap, but I doubt it. ;-) (And, yes, he needs a haircut...desperately.) 

The Great Grocery Challenge

 

Meijer: OOP $80.96, Saved $39.58!

I also used a $35 rebate card so my OOP was actually $45.96. :-) And, I had to pick up some big ticket items - dog food, beer for the hubby, fiber supplements (thank you pregnancy), and batteries.

Ultrasound

Today was the day I had been waiting for!! I was doing pretty well until about an hour before my appointment when I just got so nervous. My heart was practically beating out of my chest...so much so that the girl who took my blood pressure said she could hear my heart beating!

My doctor didn't waste any time getting to the ultrasound.

We saw baby right away and then saw the little heart beating away!

The heartrate was 167bpm and baby measured 8 weeks 1 day (closer to my original thought compared to 2 weeks ago when we were at the ER). The official due date is May 28, 2012!

 8 weeks 

This shirt is just like the one I wore for my belly pictures with Drake except in black. :-)

Can you tell they are pretty happy, too?

The Great Grocery Challenge

 

Target: OOP $4.77, Saved $8.00!

Walgreens: OOP $7.28, Saved $3.50!

Meijer: OOP $32.12, Saved $39.88!


Weekly Totals: OOP $44.17, Saved $51.38! (54% savings!)

The Great Grocery Challenge

 

Meijer: OOP $49.58, Saved $19.87

Not a great week, but hey...I did some shopping and still saved some money. :-)

ER Visit

I will start this off by saying that I have never been to the ER (well, except when I was ready to deliver Drake), and I have a pretty high pain tolerance. But, about 2am on Monday morning, I woke up with the most severe abdominal pain. It was so bad that I crawled down the stairs when we decided we were heading to the hospital. We got to the emergency room about 2:30am and they took some vitals, bloodwork, did a pelvic exam and finally an ultrasound. Then, we waited...and waited...and waited. They finally came in about 6:30 with the results. My hcg level was 15,009 (doubling time of 51 hours from our draw last Monday) and the ultrasound showed a gestational sac measuring 5 weeks 2 days. Based on my LMP, I was 6 weeks 2 days, but I know this is pretty common.

I went home with instructions for bedrest until I could follow up with my doctor. At my follow up visit to my doctor yesterday afternoon, we just talked about what happened. I was hoping she would schedule an ultrasound for next week, but she wanted to wait two more weeks when I already have an appointment scheduled. So, wait I will... and try to be patient and think positive. :-)

Bloodwork

So, after getting a positive home pregnancy test, I called my doctor's office first thing on Tuesday (9/20) morning. I went in for a blood test and my hcg was at 74.5 and progesterone was 19.9! We are definitely pregnant!!

I had a second beta on Thursday (9/22) and my hcg more than doubled to 246 (doubling time of 25 hours)! However, my progesterone dipped to 17.7 so I started taking prometrium twice a day until 10-12 weeks. They wanted to watch me a little more closely with our history so they scheduled two more betas.

My third beta was on Saturday, the 24th (officially 5 weeks!). My hcg was 703.9 (doubling time of 32 hours) and progesterone was 24.6!

Our final beta was on Monday (the 26th). My hcg was 1692 (doubling time of 39 hours) and progesterone was 23.8!

Even though my levels started off on the low side, I feel really good. The fact that it more than doubled each time makes me think pretty positive, but we don't have an ultrasound until October18th. I'm going to try to keep busy so that time goes by quickly. lol!!

We're just over 6 weeks along and my ultrasound is two weeks away.We are so excited, but I am definitely cautious. With everything that we have been through, I won't believe it until I see this little one's heart beating on the monitor.

The Great Grocery Challenge

 

Walgreen's: OOP $1.05, Saved $6.00!

I haven't been very impressed with Walgreen's deals the last couple of weeks, but I had some RRs to burn...so I bought ice cream! :-)

Meijer: OOP $19.92, Saved $11.48!

CVS: OOP $34.37, Saved $35.53!

This was a pretty unusual CVS trip, but I had some ECBs to use. I picked up diapers and left with more ECBs.

Weekly Totals: OOP $55.34, Saved $53.01! (49% savings)