He has arrived!!!!

This blog is going to be short on text, but I wanted to get pictures up for friends and family before I get beat up. Trust me...I have been receiving numerous threatening calls and text messages : )

Here are the stats... Jacob Warren Van Ness was born Tuesday morning at 10:03 am. He was 7 lbs 12 oz and was 19 in long. We were discharged from the hospital on Friday morning and have been getting adjusted to home life. We are all doing great! Thank you all so much for your well wishes, flowers, and gifts!!

I am uploading pictures from before, during, and after Jacob was born. I am also including pictures of his arrival home and his first bath. The last pictures are of the AMAZING celebration dinner Justin made for me last night. It was so great I had to take a picture…shrimp cocktail, filet mignon, scallops, baked potatoes, mushrooms, salad, wine, and chocolate truffle cheesecake. I love my husband : D Anywho...enjoy the pics and I will write more soon.

All our love-
Heather, Justin, & Jacob

It's the FINAL COUNTDOWN...da na na na

ok...so as evidenced by the title Justin and I are blogging jointly this week : D We have been busy bees the last couple weeks. Last week after work one night, Justin put together our stroller so we included a couple pics for you all. You can clearly see the progression of before, during, and after, and Daddy was so proud of his final masterpiece.

The belly continues to expand and Baby Van Ness' kicks and movements are getting stronger and stronger. The one piece of advice that I keep getting is to get my sleep in while I can, but that is one of the things that I am finding most difficult these days. However, all in all it has truly been an easy and healthy pregnancy, and for that we are both very thankful. As of my last doctor visit I have gained a total of 44 POUNDS...hmmmm. What is the likelihood, I ask, that we will deliver a 40 pound child? I know, I know.

So last night Justin and I went up to Green Valley Ranch Casino to see Steel Panther. As they say, the Greatest Heavy Metal Band...in Henderson : D It was sooooo funny!!! What was even funnier were some of the reactions to my big ol' belly. Unfortunately, I also had my first belly rub by a random stranger. I was so bummed...I made it all the way to my 9th month before a crazy got ahold of me. It was "Toga Night" at the casino and Justin whispered to me, "You should have asked her if you could rub her belly." Sooooo funny!!!!! We took some pictures so that the baby has evidence of his first concert!

Clearly, the baby has Justin's musical interests as he started moving and kicking (or as Justin said...rocking out) to Def Leppard's "Rock of Ages." We had a great time and amidst all of the work and school craziness, we were so happy to spend a weekend night together.

Well, that's about all for now. We are planning on finishing up the baby's room this week, so I hope to include new pics of his room on our next post. Take care and talk to you soon : )

-All our love

Heather, Justin, and Baby Van Ness

The Countdown is On : D

Ok, so my goal of posting once a week totally failed : ( I will try to catch everyone up on how things have been going. The second week of September I went to Puerto Rico for work. Let me tell you how UNFUN eight hours on a plane is when you are 7 months pregnant!!!! Needless to say, the baby and I arrived back in Vegas safe and sound after about a week of working. The third week of September I started my new job at the Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders at UNLV. I am finally starting to get in the swing of things there (...and of course then I will go on maternity leave!).


The last two weeks have been interesting...I have been getting bigger by the hour it seems. I have officially started the pregnant waddle and I am becoming more and more uncomfortable.


On the bright side, the baby's room is coming together and he is moving around like crazy. I can feel him getting bigger and stronger. Although my ribs are not happy about that, I couldn't be more pleased. Justin and I will have the tour and will register at our hospital next weekend. I have heard nothing but AMAZING things about the hospital we are planning on going to, so that certainly helps!!


So I am wrapping up week 35 and the countdown is seriously on!!! This week Justin and I went with two other couples to the Excaliber to see The Tournament of Kings. The pictures I have included are from that evening and you can no doubt see the progress of the pregnancy.

The other is of our oldest boy, Jackson. For whatever reason he LOVES sleeping in the baby's room. He is going to keep the baby safe and sound : D That's all for now...be well and I will post again soon!

...Never a dull moment!!!!

Hello again! Well, we made it through another week : ) Baby Van Ness has been very active over the last week. He is continually stretching, kicking, and moving about. It is very odd (to say the least) to know that there is another human being moving about in your body, but alas there is! So, bad news for me regarding the pain in the side. I have been taking the medication the doctor gave me for my gall bladder and there has been no change in the pain. Essentially that rules out the gall bladder and simply means that it is likely my abdominal muscles pulling away from my rib and there is nothing we can do. I also had the pleasure of experiencing my first charlie horse this morning. Much to Justin's dismay, I woke up screaming from the pain. Of course, Justin thought I was in labor and was less than enthused to find it was "only" a charlie horse. He did, however, do his fatherly/husbandly duty and rubbed my leg until it went away. Hopefully, that will be the last of those...is that wishful thinking ?!?!?!

So I though you all would also enjoy a little Labor Day tale that lended itself to the title of this blog : ) Justin got off work from the shop early on Monday, and we had also had freakishly nice weather...it was the first day the temperature had dipped into the double digits!!!! Justin and I decided to take full advantage of the opportunity and take the dogs to te park up the street from the house. This was mistake number 1. We barely made it to the park before Syrus collapsed from sheer exhaustion. As many of you know, he is not necessarily a specimen of phsyical prowess ; ) Both Jackson and Syrus were panting, so I decided to get out the bowl and water that I brought for our "journey." Long story short, apparently Syrus decided that it was his water and attacked Jackson. So, we spent our Labor Day in the emergency vet while Jackson received stitches from Syrus' display of aggression. So we wondered, will we ever the opportunity to have a relaxing day of fun or will there always be "something" : ) I have included some pictures for your enjoyment. The first two are prior to the event - the third is at the vet.

Until next week!!!!

Week 28 and change : )

hello again! Well, I had an appointment with my doctor today. This was my last monthly appointment and we will now be visiting the doctor every 2 weeks...YIKES!!!! I now weigh 151 lbs. For those of you that are counting, I have officially gained 28 lbs so far. Justin keeps telling me to relax, but I am finding that a little difficult.

Well, the pain, in what I have affectionately termed, my "upper right ribular area" was my primary concern for this visit with the doctor. It has been hurting pretty badly for the past 2 weeks : ( Anywho, the doctor says it is either my gall bladder or it is pain resulting from my abdominal muscles pulling away from my ribs...nice huh??? He gave me a prescription and said to take the meds for a week...if the pain subsides then it is my gall bladder. If the pain does not subside, it is the muscle-rib thing and there is really nothing they can do : ( I am pretty bummed because other than that I feel pretty good, and I really don't want to spend the rest of this pregnancy in that kind of pain. I will keep you posted!

Things are slowly coming together here. I just got a job offer today that I am pretty excited about and I started classes this week. It is still pretty hot, ok VERY hot, here. As I was driving past a drug store today, the sign said it was 111 degrees. I will be soooooo happy once it dips back into the double digits. Justin is doing well...just working his butt off as usual! He loves the shop, and is working there 5 days a week and is working nights at a club 4 nights a week. He works too hard and sleeps too little, but I can't convince him to slow down.

I hope this finds you all well! Until next week...

End of week 27...another week down : )

...against my better judgement I am posting a pregnancy picture! I had no idea how big I was until I saw this. You know how in your mind's eye you think you look one way and then you see a picture or catch a reflection of yourself in a store window and you wonder..."Who is that?" I mean I knew I was getting bigger, but this is beginning to get humorous!

The baby is still refusing to let his Daddy feel him kick. He can be going to town, but as soon as Justin puts his hand on my belly the baby freezes. I think Justin is beginning to think this is all some big hoax and there is really no baby in there at all : ) He did see him move though. Yesterday we went up to Justin's shop and the baby was moving around. I told Justin to watch my belly and sure enough he moved positions and Justin was able to watch my belly move.

The back pains have officially kicked in. I am getting a weird cramp of sorts in my right middle back. It feels almost like a pulled muscle, but not. I am assuming that it's from my body and posture changing...but what do I know?????

Random note, but in our shopping for baby clothes Justin and I have begun to wonder where all the normal baby clothes are hiding? We went looking for little white socks for the baby and COULD NOT find them. We didn't think that this was a ridiculous request or pursuit, but alas we were confronted with fuzzy crazy colored socks in abundance and no normal socks in sight. And one last observation/irritation, do baby clothes makers assume that all little boys like sports and trucks????? Everything we find has trucks, cars, hammers, and various sporting equipment on it. I know he will only be an infant while wearing this gear, but this is really a lot of pressure to thrust upon such a small human ; ) Until next week...

It's a boy!!!

Okay, so I wanted to find a way to update friends and family on the progress of the pregnancy as well as the goings on of the family as a whole...so a blog it is : )

Well, as most of you know, we found out that we are having a little boy right before we left Kentucky. We are so excited and the clothes purchasing began immediately after we found out! Our little boy was about 22 weeks at the time that this ultrasound was done, and I just can't believe that this little person is growing in my belly. Clearly something is in there by the sheer enormity of the thing, but I just didn't expect that. I was so happy as that was the first appointment that Justin could attend. It just could not have been more perfect!

The day after our appointment we headed off to Las Vegas. The trip was long, miserable, and crazy, but we made it safe and sound. About a week and a half after we made it, the moving truck arrived. At this point we have unpacked pretty much everything, but we are still trying to get settled.

I had my first visit with the new doctor this week (my 26 week appointment). The new doctor is great and I am excited he will be delivering our baby. We are in the process of getting the nursery together...it is way more difficult than I ever imagined! We managed to pick out a bedding set...FINALLY so hopefully that will kickstart the process : )

That's all for now. I hope to post more pictures of the house, the nursery, and my ever expanding belly in the near future. My goal is to update this weekly...we shall see ; )