Meet Cameron

Meet Cameron Foster, she was born early Wednesday morning to our friend Maria and our neighbor Adam. She came in at 8lbs 12 ounces and full of cuteness. I love her already and she is not even mine. I can't to see what I think about my own.

Andrea is feeling much better. The Shingles are about gone. They are a miserable ailment. I would not wish them on a liberal Democrat. Now that they are gone she is feeling pretty good for being 6 months pregnant. She is getting pretty big but only belly so far. It is making it difficult to sleep. The girls are not helping as they have started a nightly, what Andrea calls the 2-4am dance party. She has become an expert at the Nick at Night schedule on TV. No sleep is no fun but as my father says often "enjoy the process". That is what we are trying to do. The girls are very active and Andrea feels them moving alot. I can feel them now also and for the first time this week we were able to see her belly move on its own.

We have decided on first names for the girls. They are Reagan and Riley. The middle names are still under discussion. When we were at Disney last week we had shirts made with their names on them. Can't wait to see them in them.

Andrea is going to Columbus for a day to see her brother and his family and I am going to finish working on the babies room. If you are looking to get some churchin in this weekend my brother will be speaking at Northway Christian Community in Wexford Saturday at 6pm and Sunday at 9am and 11am. He had a double lung transplant last year and will be talking about what he and his family went through. Check it out if you get a chance. www.northway.org for further information. That's all for now. Have a great weekend.

Week in Orlando

We have spent the last 4 days between the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Sea World. Andrea has held up great. The Shingles are about gone, she has been walking around in 90 degree heat every day with no complaints. She isn't running the parks like she used to but she has kept up well. We did our traditional trips to Old Town and Downtown Disney. We were going to stay here in Orlando until tomorrow but I think we will head back to Charleston early to see Kyleigh play soccer Saturday. We will then go to a Charleston Flea Market that Andrea likes and we are driving home with my brother on Sunday. The girls have been pretty active. Yesterday they were quiet and sleeping and I started talking to them, they immediately started kicking and getting rowdy. Andrea swears they were responding to me but I can't be sure. I tried later and no response. I even offered to buy them a car when they turned 16 for one kick to mommas belly but there were no takers. They must be getting stronger and bigger because occasionally Andrea will get kicked so hard that she gets startled and yells. That's always funny when we are in a crowded area. Her belly is getting impressive looking. I can't imagine how it will be in another 2 months. We are going to Downtown Disney today before we leave so I can buy 2 shirts with the babies names on them. Only one problem with that. Andrea has not committed to the names yet. She was given clear instructions that she had to decide before we leave Florida. We will have to see what happens.

Weekend in the low country

We got to my parents house Friday about 9pm and settled in. They have queen beds so we got our own rooms. Not enough room for me and a preggopotamus in the same non king bed these days. Saturday morning dad dropped off Andrea with Natalie and Kyleigh and I helped my mom set up for a small surprise baby shower that kicked off at noon. When dad got back the boys went for a ride down the inter coastal through Charleston Harbor and met my brother at some restaurant. The girls had their shower and we all met later that day for dinner. We went to a nice seafood place on the water with Ron and Sandy Willis and had a great time. Sunday morning we met Jason, Nat and Ky for breakfast and we were off to Orlando. We borrowed one of my parents cars and headed 6 1/2 hours south. We got to our hotel at about 7pm and settled in for a swim. Good news here, the room has a king bed so Andrea does not have to sleep on the floor.

Traveling on September 11th.

The herps have improved enough that with some pharmacological help we were able to head out for a bit of a vacation. We left da burgh Friday afternoon and went to Charleston SC via Atlanta. Our first flight we sat with an army lawyer guy. It was interesting to fly with an Army officer on September 11th. We enjoyed speaking with him and plan on hooking up with him and his family in the burgh. It was great to see the response people had to the uniform especially on 9/11. Many people thanked him and the attendant even offered to buy him a drink. He was a bigger guy so my poor pregnant wife sitting between us was very protected if there was an incident. I am fairly confident that if anyone was committed to meeting Allah and a bunch of virgins we would have made that happen with no damage to the plane or buildings on the ground. He is a lawyer in the burgh also. If anyone needs an attorney that likes attorney jokes, check him out at http://www.trautmanlaw.com/. We made it to Atlanta just in time to make our connecting flight. We sat with a closed eye quiet talker on that leg of the trip. That would be fine in most circumstances but he was the father of twins so I had lots of questions. I love asking complete strangers about breast feeding and nipple covers. We chatted with him for about 30 of the 40 minutes we were in flight. We got to Charleston alive and well. We were picked up by my father and off to the house to crash for the night. Next time I blog I will tell ya about the weekend in South Carolina. Goodnight Arlene.

5am can't sleep random thoughts

* Andrea has been feeling the babies move for over a month. I felt them for the first time yesterday. I will be spending the next few months following Andrea around with my hand on her belly.

* The shingles have improved everywhere significantly except the "mipple". I still live with a nudist.

* The odd food cravings continue on a smaller but sometimes more disgusting scale. I have recently been sent out often for iced mocha coffee's and yesterday she ate an asiago bagel with cream cheese and Quaker Steak medium buffalo wing sauce and a pickle on the side.

* I showed up for a Dr's appointment yesterday on time and waited 45 minutes to be seen. When I finally was seen my blood pressure was still 124/82. Not bad for the rage that I was feeling at the time.

* While at the Dr. I got another Percoset prescription for the wife. I am a pusher!

* It still hurts for Andrea to wear a shirt or bra so last night she pulled one out while driving home on 228. It was after dark so she thought she was fine. It wasn't dark enough or the guy in the Jeep has very good vision.

* I think we are headed for Charleston, SC to see my family this weekend and will not be back for a week. Time for the braless big hootered pregosaurus to get out of the house for a little vacation.

Shingles update

These Shingles are like the Energizer Bunny. They just keep going and going and going. The ones on the back are significantly better, the ones on her chest are a bit slower in healing and the "mipple" is still very painful. So much so that she is still living the life of a nudist. I am looking into if there are any nudist colonies in the Pittsburgh area just so I can get her out of the house. Awhile back I would have been totally content with my wife living topless all the time. 5 1/2 months pregnant with the Herps, maybe not so much. It has been hard for me to see her so uncomfortable but I have been doing everything I can for her. I know it will all be worth it as I saw 9 month old twins on the way into church this morning. I stopped the father to talk to him. It was 9am and he already looked tired. He told me as nicely as possible that the first few months were rough. I told him we were doing everything we could to get ready and he said you can never be ready. The twins were born last year on December 31st. That is the day we are due also. I am sure it will be late November to early December though.

Two heads are better than one.

Alot has happened this week. I will start with Andrea's Shingles. The patches on her chest and back are getting a bit better. There is a new issue though. A part of her is very painful. I don't want to say where cause it is a bit private but it rhymes with "mipple". She got through her Valtrex prescription and is on Prednisone now. Today her Dr. gave her a prescription for Lidocaine to put directly on her "mipple". It has been so painful that she has been working at home without a shirt on. I now live with a nudist. She was worried that the Lidocaine would hurt or burn so I jokingly said I would put it on my nipples to show her it did not hurt. Unfortunately for me, she took me up on my offer. I put the numbing medicine on to prove it would not hurt and she proceeded to flick my nipple repeatedly and giggle. What I won't do for love. We had an ultrasound today and all was well. The girls were very active and all measurements, heart rates, etc were good. Baby "B" did not have an echogenic bowel anymore but this is not a big deal. It is nice to see it gone but the genetic counselor and Dr's said that even if it was gone the chance for Cystic Fibrosis was still there. We did meet with the mother of Andrea's cousin that has CF and they are working on getting the specific gene mutations that may be on Andrea's side of the family. If we can get this info and the mutations he has are the ones that Andrea was tested for then we should just about be able to rule out CF. They were checking with WVU to see if the information was available. They have been very kind and helpful. We go back for another visit to the Dr. in a few weeks. For now we continue to wait for any info from WVU and try to get through the Shingles.