Raccoons

He feeds them milk using a dropper.

Anyone that knows Morgan, knows that he loves animals. Well the past week we have had 2 new pets - 2 little raccoons. About a week ago, we were walking down our driveway to take out the trash when we saw two little raccoons on the grass. Morgan, squats down & puts his hand out to try to get them to come to him. And they did, and then they started doing that awful hiss noise raccoons always do. So right away, Morgan decides "We're gonna catch these raccoons." And he did. He caught just one that night. We came to find out that the raccoon had a broken arm & a wound on that same arm. Morgan has been feeding the raccoon, as well as, putting neosporin on the raccoon's arm. A couple of nights ago, he found the other raccoon out by the pool & caught it. So now we have 2 little raccoon pets that Morgan is determined to keep... Hmmm.... He feeds the raccoons, takes them outside to play, takes them to swim in the pool, and even has given them baths.

IT'S A GIRL!!!

This one shows baby's blood flow.

This is the perfect picture that shows our little baby curled up in a ball, sitting with her legs crossed. She liked this perfect little nook in my uterus & we almost didn't get to find out the gender...

Her heart rate today was 152.

And what a little naughty girl she is :) Like I said, we almost didn't get to find out the gender. The woman doing the ultrasound showed us how she was all balled up (she's already taking on the family name) and sitting with her legs crossed in a little nook right next to my bladder. It was fun to hear the heartbeat and see her pretty little face, but once she told us she didn't know if we could figure out the gender, we got really worried. I tried a couple of things to start, changing positions and turning on my side...nothing. Baby was very comfortable where she was and she was sleeping. So then I got up and did some jumping jacks, jumped around a bit & pushed on my tummy a little. When I laid down again, baby had moved and her legs were uncrossed. I'm looking at the screen but don't really know what I'm looking at, and then the woman says, "It's a girl." Of course Morgan says, "Yeah, we already knew it was a girl." And I clarify by saying he's been saying the baby is a girl ever since we knew we were pregnant. Good thing she looked for the gender right away because within minutes, our little girl had already moved back into her comfortable little nook, balled up with her legs crossed again....

FYI: she is head up, but that's alright because we've got time for her to move around more & decide to be head down later. The placenta is located at the fundus (top of the uterus) & we want it to stay there :) looking good little baby girl!

Boy or Girl?

Alright, so the ultrasound is now scheduled for Wednesday, June 29th. Time to take your guesses! What do you think? Boy or girl?

Baby Bump

My friend Jessica took some pics for me while we were crocheting. Thanks Jess! Here's my Baby bump at 17 1/2 wks :D

oh how i love little baby kicks

So there have been a few different times over the past few weeks where I swear I felt the baby move. Of course I am always second guessing myself. Did I really just feel that? Was that really the baby? Well when I signed up to take the NCLEX sooner all I was doing - besides eating, sleeping, and going to the bathroom - was studying. On Tuesday, I had a NCLEX review book resting on my stomach as I went through question after question, when all of the sudden I felt a little kick. No way. That couldn't have been the baby. I didn't move the book and not too long after, it happened again. After a 3rd time, I moved the book and started gently pressing on my stomach & felt the baby move a couple different times. A couple hours later when Morgan got home, I tried to have him feel for the baby, but we didn't feel any movement. That night, as I was laying in my bed studying, the baby was moving again! I yelled for Morgan to come in the room & he was able to feel the baby kick a couple of different times. It was so fun! Morgan's reaction was so funny! It's beginning to feel more and more real :D

NCLEX. I'M A RN!!!

So yesterday I took the NCLEX. No I was not always planning on taking the NCLEX June 15th. Originally I signed up for June 21st (and that was the soonest I could sign up). On Monday, as I kept checking back to see if any earlier spots opened up, June 15th in Miami opened up. As soon as I signed up for the new date, I was nervous. Wow. 2 days. That's all I have left to study. I studied hard nonstop until I took my exam. I'm so glad I didn't wait any longer to take that exam. Don't think I could have been any more prepared. So the NCLEX is a computer adaptive test, where it gives you questions depending on how you answer other questions. You can get as little as 75 questions (minimum) or up to 265 questions (maximum). I had 75 questions! So happy! And for those of you that know me & my test taking skills - I like to be the first one done. Mission accomplished :D

Chelsey Ball, RN, BSN

Is this really called hail??

Most of the ones that came on our porch were this size.

So today my brother called me to tell me about his hot date this week :D We don't get good service in our house, so I always go out on the porch to make or take phone calls. As we were talking, it started getting really stormy. Kind of surprising since we had left church just an hour before & it was sunny & VERY HOTTT. Our car was steaming & the a/c didn't really feel like it had kicked in until we home (20 minutes later). Well, I start hearing some thunder & it's getting windy when all of the sudden a chunk of ice comes flying across the porch. Within seconds, HUGE chunks of ice are falling from the sky. Morgan comes out right away, grabs his keys & moves the car. The ice chunks were so loud with anything they hit. It was crazy. It was Morgan's idea to wear the helmet - I think it adds to the dramatic effect. Seriously though, I'm glad I wore it because a bunch hit my helmet as I went out to get some of the ice chunks & they were coming down really hard!

p.s. do you see that stomach? well you may not see it but there is a little baby bump....

The new development of the week is my little baby bump. Funny because you actually only notice it if I'm wearing a skinny t-shirt. Most people can't tell I'm pregnant though. Actually, this week I went to Motherhood Maternity & the woman working there came to help me. She asked me if I was shopping for a friend. I told her I was shopping for myself. She kind of got a funny face but said, "Congratulations! How far along are you?" I told her 16 1/2 weeks. Then she got the funny face again...

Well the truth is that I have just come back up to my pre-pregnancy weight, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that people find it hard to believe that I'm pregnant. It did make me laugh later :D

This week Morgan and I went up to Naples for the day & hung out with Dan & Audrey. It was a lot of fun & I finally felt like I was truly on vacation. They were the perfect tour guides & showed us around the HUGE city of Naples :) We got to see downtown, the mansions, and then hit up the beach. We saw dolphins at the pier - they were eating all the fishes off people's fishing poles. We saw another dolphin closer to shore & Morgan tried to chase it :D Fun to watch! That night we walked around downtown & got some delicious ice cream - Naples Mud! Yummm! My new favorite! Thanks Dan & Audrey for a wonderful day!

I have been keeping busy studying for the NCLEX, which I take on June 21st & reupholstering my baby rocking chair. Morgan just finished up his 2 week break & now is officially a 4th year dental student!!! woot! Well, he's been a 4th year since May, but now he gets to start wearing the 4th year color of scrubs - surgical green :)

Belated Birthday

So this year, I was sick on my birthday. Not a big surprise when I had been sick for months. Today, we decided to celebrate some of my birthday by going to Cheesecake Factory. My parents sent me a giftcard for my birthday. Yumm! We love getting their factory burrito grande. We shared it & it was perfect. We got a black tuxedo cheesecake to go and headed over the Sawgrass Cinemas since we had a gift card. We saw the new Xmen movie & ate the cheesecake during the movie (don't worry - we were extra sneaky). Then we did some shopping with a giftcard I got from my mother in law. (The pics are us posing with Green Lantern = totally unrelated to our day besides the fact that it was the perfect backdrop for a pic at the movie theatre :D)

What a perfect date and it didn't cost us a dime!