Say Cheese!!!

My front teeth actually touch my bottom teeth for the first time over 15 years!!!

For those of you who don't know, I was hit by 2 cars when I was 8. Overall, I was relatively unharmed. A few cuts and scrapes but no broken bones or any other major injuries. The docotors x-rayed everything else, but not my jaw. Turns out that the impact flatted one of the joints in my jaw and may have caused a hairline fracture in my upper jaw. The fracture made it so that when the rest of my mouth grew, my upper jaw didn't grow as much. Over the years this caused my jaw to become crooked. The upper jaw was too small to fit in with the lower jaw so it adjusted itself to the side. My square joint turned into TMJ and began clicking and becoming painful. I have just delt with it over the years, but at the beginning of 2008 the pain became constant so I consulted a TMJ specialist.

Turns out I got the right guy, he is a one stop shop for EVERYTHING. He is also one of the few doctors willing to treat bites like mine without surgery. I began seeing him in February and he sent my impressions to an orthodontic lab to create an "appliance" for my upper bite. The "appliance" has two screws that I tightened twice a week to push out the bones in my upper jaw. It also had springs and a front bar that straightened out my crooked teeth at the same time. After wearing the first appliance day and night for 4 months they made a lower retainer to wear at night time too, so now I am the 30 yr old brace face :) I have had both upper and lower for another 3 months, and I thought they were doing a good job. My upper jaw had made a lot of improvement, but it was to the point where my molars in the back were touching, but nothing else was. It made it very difficult to chew even soft things.

On Monday I had a check-up and I recieved a new upper "appliance". This one was designed very similar to the first, but is working on different teeth and parts of the jaw. I have had this new retainer for 3 days and I can touch my front teeth together!!!! This is VERY exciting for me. I still have to turn the screws twice a week to move the teeth to where they are supposed to be, and I still have another 3 to 4 months, but we are in the final stretch. I can tell such a big difference in pictures. My chin is almost in-line with the rest of my face!!! I will end up with a retainer to wear at night for the rest of my life, but it will be well worth it.

As far as the rest of the Doctors one-stop shop, he also deals with stress issues and sleep disorders (he feels healing should deal with the body as a whole and not just specific issues), and at my last visit I walked out with not only a new retainer, but a referral to physical therapist for my back and a lead on a job in Scottsdale in case Matt and I relocate there in the future.

I knew this guy was going to be good when I first saw his degree hanging on the wall from the University of Wisconsin - Madison :)

That's my baby!!!!

Isn't that adorable??? If you didn't figure it out, we had our 4D ultrasound today. We still don't know where the 4th D comes from, but it was amazing. Take a look at that angel. I am in LOVE with that sweet face. We got some amazing pictures, and watching it live was great. The baby is very active so we could see the baby move it's hands, turn it's whole body, open it's mouth and swallow amniotic fluid. You can see the eyes, the brow, the little nose, and the chubby little cheeks. The sweet little lips that would pucker and even give a little smile. The one thing we did NOT see, is if it is a boy or a girl. My Mom was there and she tried to get the tech to sneak a peak and confess to her. The tech declined and had us all look away while he figured out the position of the baby. He then kept the wand on the upper torso so we got face and arm shots, no feet or butt. We also have a DVD of the ultrasound so we can watch it over and over again.

We are now in our 27th week, and exactly 3 calendar months from our due date. I am so excited, I cannot wait to have my little one in the real world with me.

With more good news, Matt had a meeting with his boss on Friday. Matt has been covering the IT manager position since the end of July. Matt had asked to be considered for the position, and his boss agrees. His only hesitation is Matt's lack of supervisory experiance so Matt is now the interim IT Manager on a 90 trial basis. After the 90 days they will re-evaluate the situation and Matt will be the official IT Manager. He is pretty pleased, and this will be great for his career.

The rest of our weekend is action packed with dinner in Casa Grande with an old friend and her family, dog-training in the morning with Football to follow, and 2 birthday parties for kids who are both turning 8 years old. In between I will attempt to complete some homework, clean my house, and go grocery shopping. Wish me luck :) Hope you all have a great weekend too!

99 bottles of milk on the wall...

Week 26 stats: My weight: 162 Weight gain: Still at 18 lbs Baby's Weight: About 2 lbs Baby's Length: 14 inches Our mile mark for this week was hitting the double digits in the count down. We now have less than 100 days to go until our baby is here. I go through fazes of how long 3 more months is, and then 5 minutes later trying to list all the things that we need to do and how little time we have to do it. Also, our calendar is filling up so the time is going to fly by. Next week is our 3-D ultrasound. I am so excited to see the baby again. This time we will even be able to see the baby's eyes if they are open, the fat little cheeks, and maybe even tell who the baby is starting to look like. My friend Megan's 3-D ultrasound shows that it looks like her daughter Ava is going to have Megan's nose (www.zmsingleton.blogspot.com). Two weeks later we have the first baby shower, our anniversary is the following week, and then another baby shower after that. Add school into the mix and things are going to start getting a little crazy, a fun crazy. The baby is doing very well. Last week I started feeling some more aches and pains, and the baby was moving so much it didn't feel like there was enough room. Turns out, the baby just decided to move into the front of my belly so that I could have my curves back. No more looking like a cereal box from the back!!! I have tried to take pictures, but they just don't turn out very well. I am not very photogenic!! Along with moving to the front of my belly, the baby has found a favorite place to curl up on my left side. There have been a few times that the baby curls up so that 1, it feels really wierd for me, and 2, you can see right where the baby is. There is just a lump on the side of my belly that keeps moving. The baby likes the left side even when I'm laying on my right side so things can get a little lopsided. It will be interesting to see what the baby likes out of the womb and compare it to what it was doing inside by belly. The baby doesn't really have a schdule of when it is awake more than others, and I haven't felt a difference in movement between the foods I eat. The baby is pretty active for most of the day so I feel it a lot. I can also eat spicy, sweet, or any type of meal and not feel if there is an effect on the baby. Hopefully that means the baby is taking after me and is not a picky eater like it's Dad. Talking about Matt, he is still working in Pheonix pretty much every day. Last Thursday he didn't even make it home at all. He will also be traveling to Las Vegas in a couple of weeks for a conference. We are hoping all of this extra work is going to be paying off soon. The CFO, who supervises all Admin staff (IT, HR, Accounting), interviewed 2 people this week for the IT manager position. Matt has sent him an e-mail a few weeks ago asking to be considered for the position but had never heard anything back. On Friday, the CFO told Matt he had "overlooked" Matt's e-mail and had just come across it. He asked Matt to write up a list of what he does and Hunter and to meet with him on Monday to discuss the options tht Matt had suggested to allow him to be the IT manager while remaining in Tucson. Matt thinks that the CFO had interviewed the other guys to see what was out there and hopefully has decided that Matt is the best candidate for the job. Matt would really like the job, so I hope it works out for him. I am a little hesitant becasue I am already sick of being alone so much. Even when Matt gets home around 6 (which is once every 2 weeks), it is a little late for me since I go to bed around 8:30 - 9. I am also worried on how his traveling to Phoenix every day is going to work in December when I am ready to pop, or after the baby is born if I need help. Matt doesn't think that far into the future and just says "It will all work out". I wish I could be that relaxed about it. I guess that is it for now. I will try to get a picture soon. Hope everyone is well and is enjoying the first week of football!!