Baby update...

Ok, it's been a super long time since I updated this! I am now 36 weeks and 2 days along. I had a Dr's appointment on Friday and I am 1-2 cm dilated, progress from last week, which was nothing, and Benjamin is head down, the way he is supposed to be. I am planning that it is going to be a little while longer, but who knows. Most bets are that Benjamin will be joining us before school is out for the year (May 27). Alan was 13 days early and I was 2 weeks late. Really it's completely up in the air.

This past Wednesday I had really bad Braxton-Hicks contractions and that is what the Dr said helped to move things along. If I keep having them, I would guess that it could be relatively soon. I do hope he stays in until at least 37 weeks though!

Lots of happenings with the family as well right now. Meagan is now officially graduated from the University of Maine as an RN, well she has to pass the NCLEX, then she will be an RN. I will be officially graduated as of next Saturday, major in Business Administration, minor in Accounting. I'm just grateful I decided not to walk, I don't think it would be a fun drive or fun to sit through the ceremony. I'm happy getting my diploma in the mail.

Also, Alan and I have officially paid off our car in a year and a half! We will have the title to the car in a few short days and thankfully will not have car payments during college. Speaking of college. We are moving to Maine on July 25 to start Alan at the University of Maine to get his Masters of Music in Instrumental Conducting. So exciting! After two years is up, we have absolutely no idea where we will be going, basically wherever there is a job!

I guess that's all, I will try to figure out how to post pictures to the blog by the time that Benjamin comes so I can put a few up here. Take care all and enjoy the warm spring days.

Love,

The Clark Family

Gotta love sickness this time of year...

Well, children at our school are being sent home or staying home in large quantities due to illness of some form or another. We've had the stomach flu, respiratory flu, and colds. I think that covers it all. Week before last I had the stomach flu and then right after got food poisoning. I wouldn't suggest eating mayo after the expiration date, particularly after 4 months. During all this time Alan had a cold and I'm sure as my immune system was down, I caught it, and boy did I catch it! I currently have laryngitis and haven't been able to talk for 3 days, well just above a whisper, but mainly I have to whisper. This has been quite the difficult feat for working with students, but they have gotten a bit quieter to listen to me when I have to whisper.

Other than that, things are going great. We are almost 28 weeks along, hard to believe, only 12 weeks or so left after that! In 2 1/2 weeks we have a 10 day vacation, part of which Alan will be spending in Maine (without me, unfortunately). He'll be visiting Dr. Wieck, the professor at UMaine who will be Alan's teacher. He has been accepted to UMaine and will hopefully find out about the teaching assistant position while he's out there, or shortly thereafter. For those of you that don't know, we are rather dependent on the TA position for us to actually move out to Maine. I'll be staying with Betsy and Patrick during the time he is gone, which will be fun and I am grateful to have someplace to stay. Before he leaves for Maine, we get two nights paid for by the school at a hotel because of Alan's conference so I get to mooch and have a nice little getaway. There is a heated indoor pool and provided I can find a bathing suit to fit my tummy, I will be all set! Hope everyone is doing well. Take care.

Love,

The Clark Family

Benjamin the kicker...

I can now feel Benjamin kicking and moving around at all hours of the day and night. He no longer waits to be active in the evening, he thrashes around at night and wakes me up or during tutoring sessions at the school (which can be quite distracting). I do have to say that it is fun, but a very strange feeling, it almost feels as if I am continuously having the breath knocked out of me. I think he is very close to my diaphragm as I am having a harder time breathing by the day. I can only imagine what things are going to be like at 30 or even 35 weeks! All in all, it's a really fun and exciting time. A friend of ours is scheduled to have her baby on Saturday (she is a week late) and that makes me super excited because we just can't wait. We are however enjoying the time we have to ourselves and sleeping in most Saturdays until 10 or 11! That won't last long I know...

Anyway, hope everyone is doing well. Take care of yourself, especially if you are in an area getting tons of snow right now.

With love,

The Clark Family

Baby boy Benjamin

This past Monday Alan and I went in to the Dr's office for the long awaited ultrasound. I had an ultrasound very early on in the pregnancy, but the baby looked like a little bean at that point, no features were developed yet, etc. This time we knew it would be fun and amazing seeing our little child on the screen! We had a very nice lady as the radiology technician and she took an hour with us doing all sorts of things on the ultrasound. She explained everything, showed us all the little ones lungs, diaphragm, heart chambers, etc. We really enjoyed it. I have to say it was quite funny though when we could first see the picture on the monitor, our little one was trying to shove his little fist into his mouth. It really was quite adorable. As she went along showing us all different kinds of angles of the baby and such, I happened to see something. My first thought was, I think it's a boy. Of course, now I'm curious. We hadn't said anything to her either way about wanting to know. Alan and I had decided that if we could figure it out we would be fine knowing, but otherwise, didn't want to be told. Once I saw that I needed to know if I was going crazy or if she now knew whether it was a boy or girl. I asked if she knew the sex of the baby yet. She said she definitely did. I looked over at Alan and through the rest of the ultrasound he convinced me it was fine to ask, especially since we both suspected and were very curious at this point. At the very end we did ask and she said it is definitely a little boy. We are both very excited. We can now call him little Benjamin Dale. We are waiting on the personality of the little guy to see whether we go with BJ or Ben as a nickname.

I have a little less than 19 weeks left in the pregnancy and all is going well. It seems rather surreal at this point and I am getting so excited, especially as it means that when baby comes, school ends!!!!! I am really looking forward to being a stay at home mom and having time to spend with our children and having time to get stuff done around the house.

We are still waiting on Umaine to hear from the grad program, but remain confident that all is well on that front. Basically we'll just have to wait and see what is in store for us. Hope everyone is doing well. Miss you all.

Much love,

The Clark Family

Baby Appt #2 today...

Well, we had another appointment today. Little Baby Clark's heartbeat was again between 140-150. Staying steady. Everything seems fine and normal, I have another appointment on January 28th and the ultrasound is on the 18th! Yay! So excited to see Baby Clark.

In other news, my best friend is having a baby as well. We are both so excited! Ever since we were little we always wanted to have kids at the same time, so it'll be fun having our little ones grow up together. She has her first appointment on January 5. We are excited to hear how that goes.

The college application is now complete for Alan, we are just waiting on the status of the application to be accepted or rejected. As for my schooling, I only have English 2 left and then I will be officially done with school! So excited to get a degree, it's been a long time coming. I guess that's all for now.

Happy New Year everyone! This year will bring lots of excitement and new things for us.

Love,

The Clark Family

Blizzard!

Well, this was quite the interesting Christmas! We decided to drive to Betsy and Patrick's for Christmas on Wednesday instead of Thursday due to snow. Good thing we did. I have no idea how much snow we have had, however, there are snow drifts 5 ft high or higher around here. We woke up this morning with snow covered streets, sometimes up to my waist in height. The plows couldn't get here for awhile, they just started plowing a few hours ago. It's going to take a long time to dig out. We heard that the state plow couldn't get past Flasher which is 15 miles east of here.

As for Minot, they are in quite the predicament. If you are found in a vehicle driving the roads, you will get a ticket from the police. Laura just barely made it home last night from work with her 4 wheel drive vehicle and was only allowed home with the promise that she would be able to make it back to work today. She was picked up by a snowmobile sent by the hospital to go to work today. I kid you not, a snowmobile is the only way to get around Minot because the snow is about 3-4 feet deep on the roads. They have stopped all snow plows from traveling and they are all apparently parked at the fire stations. Thomas was also driven to work by a snowmobile today and his car is buried at work with 3-4 foot drifts and is hopefully going to work as he ran over a pillow drift and may have damaged the engine, poor guy! The really interesting story of the day was Dad and his escapades. He had to go into Wal-Mart for work last night at 9pm. He made it there but around 6am when he had to come home he got stuck and was able to dig himself out the first time, the second time was not successful and was pulled out and the third time he just abandoned the vehicle in the middle of an intersection! I am totally serious, it is in the middle of a main intersection, but since there is no travel, it should be alright. The police were called to make them aware of the situation and they were thankful to know. Dad had to walk until someone picked him up and then he had to walk a few blocks to their house, and let me tell you it is tough to walk in high snow!

Hannah and I went outside this morning to check out Main St which is only 2 blocks away and I almost couldn't make it there and back. I knew pregnancy has increased my asthma two fold but I didn't think to bring an inhaler as it is so new still. I thought I was going to pass right out from exhaustion. Thankfully we got home and I am no worse for wear, I am taking it easy and hopefully the baby is no worse for wear as well.

We had a wonderful Christmas with everyone. Our little one got lots of presents which was a nice surprise. My wonderful husband also bought me a maternity pillow, it is huge, it is a U shaped pillow and is the length of my body on both sides, I love it! Well, I guess that is all for now from the snowed in town of Carson, ND. I'm not sure when we will get home as it may be treacherous for a while now. Thankfully the Diehls are gracious and do not seem to be in any great hurry to rid of us. :-) Take care everyone and stay safe.

Lots of love,

The Clark Family

Baby's heartbeat

Hello all,

I have really been bad about updating this post. I wrote a post several days ago and then posted it and the page went blank, so I gave up for that time being. I had my first Dr's appt for the baby and it went really well. The Dr. said everything was good and the heartbeat was between 140-150 beats. A friend of ours said it is definitely a girl because of the heartbeat, he said he should know, he has 3 daughters. I guess he has a 50/50 chance of being right. Our next appointment is December 31. So exciting.

Christmas is coming right around the corner. What a wonderful time of year. Alan had both of his school concerts and they went really well. We'll be stopping in Minot on the 23rd into the 24th to exchange presents with Alan's family and then off to Aunt Betsy's in Carson.

As for school, I am completely done with one class and just have to finish up another one. Can't wait for it to be over. Then, only one more class to go and I'll have that piece of paper called a degree! Anyway, that's all for now. Hope everyone is doing well. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Love,

The Clark Family