April Updates

Pregnancy

We're hitting the home stretch! I'm definitely feeling large and uncomfortable.  Lots of reflux and baby feet in my ribs.  Baby boy has lots of hiccups, which is definitely a weird feeling - a rhythmic jumping of my belly.

33 weeks

35 weeks

I was at bi-weekly appointments (up to 36 weeks).  I lost more of my plug so at 33 weeks, I got steroid injections just as a precaution to help speed along lung delivery.  I think this might be why I'm feeling the hiccups so much, it seems to have picked up after those shots.  Oh man, did those things hurt!  After the first one, I basically waddled out of there.  Since I had lost my plug, I had to stop doing activity until 34 weeks as another added precaution.  I made it to my 34 week appointment, everything measured well, the cervix still looked good so I got the okay for light exercise.  I immediately did a 20 minute peloton bike workout and was slightly crampy the rest of the day.  Decided it's just better to not work out until after baby gets here.

We also had a false alarm around 35ish weeks.  I had felt slightly light headed all day and my ears felt like they wanted to pop.  My lips started to get sort of tingly, so I called the office (of course, I always choose right at the end of the day) and they said to take my blood pressure and if it was high to call again.  Because of COVID, there was no where that had a blood pressure machine to use.  Luckily, our neighbor had one I could borrow.  My BP is normally around 100/60 but when I took it over a half hour period I had readings of: 146/91, 152/88, and 153/91.  They wanted me to come in to monitor, so we grabbed Hailey and dropped her off with a daycare friend until Dan and Sheri could come get her and headed down to Richfield.  When we got there, it was still high for me (137/84) but not as high as at home.  Over the next couple of hours, they did lab work and took urine and monitored my BP.  It finally came down to about normal and we were discharged.  I have to go in a couple of times a week now for the next couple of weeks to get it checked as another precaution but when I got up the next morning and used the home monitor, it was back to 115/65, so hopefully that was just a weird fluke.

Hailey loved her unexpected play date while we went down to the hospital

I have the nursery semi- ready to go.  I picked up a Snoo for baby boy (fingers crossed for a little extra sleep!).  We have all the other big stuff from Hailey and I got a used double BOB running stroller from a running friend.  We need a few little things like a changing pad for the changing table and another diaper genie, but other than that I think we are set.  I have some final sorting and folding of clothes to finish up.  I bought a cute little wooden sign with Baby Boy's name on it, excited to hang that up when he gets here!

Hailey

Hailey has been loving the nicer weather (and doesn't seem to mind the not as nice weather so much!).  We've been to the park now many times, one time spending 2 hours there after swimming lessons while Joel played pickleball.

2 hours at the park!

Since it's been so nice, we've had multiple play dates.  Quite a few have been with the neighbor - they had so much fun trying to pick up Joel's sandbag.  We also went to the park with them one days and then just let them run around in the front yard. 

We also were able to get to the park with Hailey's daycare friend, one of Joel's college friend and his kids, and Hailey's friend from the Amma group.  She isn't the most social child in those situations, but she sure loves going down the slide, swinging, and throwing wood chips.  Daddy taught her how to swing on the big kid's swing like superman and she definitely enjoyed that!  Hailey also got to play with Daddy at the park while I took a former coworker's son's 2-year-old pictures.  He also got to chase her around at a Ragnar friend's going away get together at a park in Minneapolis.

Helping make pancakes for breakfast

We went and cheered on the Northstar 10k after a delicious breakfast at Longfellow Grill - Hailey loved running around and her ride in the wagon

One of the most fun things with Hailey this month was taking her to the Minnesota Zoo with an Amma friend and her kids.  Hailey LOVED the fish.  She was just so fascinated with all of it.  I took a Tuesday morning off and drove down with her.  We spent about an hour and a half walking around and looking at the animals.  Unfortunately, it was cold and drizzly out, but they had more than enough stuff to look at indoors.  After the zoo, we stopped at Noodles and Company and had lunch before I dropped her off at daycare for the afternoon.  I hope we can get back there with Joel, it was so much fun.

Highlights of Hailey from the month:

• She's loving throwing everything away in the garbage can in the kitchen and closing the drawer (and any other door/drawer you might have open)
• She loves getting chapstick put on, she even does the lip rub after it goes on (most of the time, I just use the closed chapstick and don't put anything on her.. she doesn't seem to notice)
• She had a wonderful night of partying from 11:30pm to 3:30am - thankfully it was just the one night.  I tried everything, rocking her, getting in the crib with her laying on the floor with her - she just really wanted to play and be awake
• When we pick her up from daycare, it's the best feeling since we can go to their daycare door now, she runs over with a giant smile on her face waving at us!  Her new favorite thing is once we leave, she runs as fast as her little legs will take her over to the window/door to her classroom and bangs on the window and says bye to her classmates
• She's been having fun in the mornings having Joel crawl into her crib with her and playing in the crib
• She's learning new words! She says buh bye, Grandma, Grandpa, Tucker, and Katie really well now and has recently learned the word no.  She doesn't quite understand what no means, but she sure enjoys saying it to everything even when she doesn't mean no
• Hailey has been enjoying trying to put her own socks on in the mornings, she's getting close!

Life

April has been a busy month.  We celebrated Easter with the whole Cassens Crew.  Joel and I did an "Easter Egg Hunt" with Hailey in the morning (Joel put ball pit balls in the front yard).  She had so much fun.  We only put a few out at first but she was having so much fun that Joel just kept taking them and throwing them again for her to "find".  

After our Easter Egg Hunt, we drove down to Prior Lake for Easter Brunch.  It was so delicious!  Everyone was there, it was good to see everyone.

We had a few dinners out.  We met Tucker and Cassie at Pezzo Pizza on a Friday night and it was so good to see them! They also took us out for dinner for my birthday at Granite City. Hailey had so much fun with them!!

 

The Cassens Crew is almost fully vaccinated.  I got my second shot at the beginning of the month.  Dan got the J&J shot at the beginning of the month.  Joel, Jordan and Leah all got their first shots at the beginning of the month and will have their second by the end of the month.  Katie gets her first shot at the end of the month.  Hopefully everyone has minimal or no side effects!

We got another visit from the neighbor kid.  This time was very stressful for me since Dakota was outside in the backyard.  I was downstairs taking apart our treadmill (I sold it to make room for the Peloton!) and heard some noise in the backyard and looked out the window and saw him.  I sprinted upstairs and got Dakota inside before he noticed the kid and then ran over to the neighbor's house to let them know the kid was at our house.  I ended up calling non-emergency just to talk to them to see if there's something I could do since the kid is climbing our fence and I don't want Dakota to do anything.. They said there's really nothing that we can do except keep our windows and doors unlocked at all time and if Dakota is outside then we need to be out there with him.... we haven't had any visits in a few weeks, so hopefully that will stay that way.

Work has been very busy.  We have design freeze at the end of the month so there's been a lot to get done and so much stuff popping up at the last minute. It's been really fun to work on, but definitely a lot to do.  I also got to support another animal study with physicians this month (the day after my second shot).  Those are such long days but this one went so smoothly compared to last month's! 

Joel's boss has been gone a few weeks now and it definitely seems to be less stressful for him.  He's been doing his workouts throughout the day instead of all at once.  He's also been able to play pickleball about once a week and has gotten out for Frisbee Golf with friends.

I'm impatiently waiting for our Peloton Tread+ to get here.  It was supposed to be here on my birthday but due to "civil unrest in the area" it got pushed back to May 6th.  (There has been another police shooting of an unarmed black man (teenager) in Brooklyn Park that happened right at the end of the Chauvin trial.  The Chauvin Trial also returned all 3 guilty verdicts for the charges against him with only about a day of jury deliberation.)  The Tread+ has also been in the news recently due to an investigation of injuries that sparked after a child was killed. Absolutely tragic.  I am going to put a hook up on the wall right behind the treadmill so that I can hang the safety key every time it's not in use.  I think it would also be a good idea to put the baby gate thing up around the treadmill as an added precaution even though I don't plan to have Hailey (or baby boy when he is mobile) near the equipment when in use.  Peloton is also adding a code to the software that needs to be entered to start the treadmill up to hopefully prevent other accidents.

My birthday was really amazing.  I got pretty flowers from Margaret. Joel made me breakfast, I got my chantilly cake and we went to Thai food with Hailey.  She was soooo noisey but in such a good mood.  We did walk around with her quite a bit outside during dinner to try not to bug the other people that were there (even though it was only a couple of other people).  We also got to go to dinner with Dan and Sherri at Pezzo that weekend.  It was so fun!  I also went to Crisp & Green with a few coworkers that week and it was even nice enough to sit outside.

Dan and Sheri accepted an offer on their house! Definitely a relief.  Their house is looking so amazing.  It looks so different every time we go.  They will hopefully will be able to move the end of June.  We went with Dan and Sheri and Joel's uncle and cousin to look at the house and then grabbed lunch at Applebee's.  It ended up being a pretty late nap for Hailey, but it was kind of funny driving her back home.  She was so tired and wanting to sleep in the carseat that she just scowled at us.

Overall, it was a busy and fun month! And the last month as a family of three! Can't wait to see what May has to bring.