R & T + 1

Hello everyone, quick update here.

Had an appointment with Dr. Shawhatever yesterday. Tiff is doing fine. Tiffany ended up taking the approach to the glucose test results that no news = good news. Well, come to find out, the lab never even sent over the results and no one from the office ever bothered to check. So, even if it had come back high, no one would have even known. Unbelievable. But she's fine and doesn't have the gestational diabetes.

We did a lot more updating on our registries at Target and Babies R Us. We still probably haven't registered for everything we need, but we're getting there.

We started on the nursery. The first order of business was getting the dogs' crates out of there, so we had to put them in our room. In order to do that, we had to completely rearrange our room, so we spent most of the day Saturday doing that. Sunday we worked on the den a little bit, but it's still not done. I have found a home for the futon, but I still need to get rid of the desk we have. Anyone want it? My mom says the crib is in, so this weekend hopefully we will probably go get that and use her truck to get rid of the other stuff.

Hope everyone out there is doing well.

Hello everyone and sorry it's been so long between posts. Tiffany and I have been pretty crazy busy. Things are moving so quickly and slowly at the same time. As most of you who read this know, there have been some pretty crazy things going on. So basically we're just trying to stay calm and focus on getting things ready for Gemma when she gets here.

We had our first childbirth class last night. Tiff and I both did not want to go, but it wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be. It was kind of a brief overview of the whole thing. We watched a video that was, from what everyone was saying, much like the "Baby Story" things on TLC. I started to freak out internally as I was watching the whole thing and got really nervous. I'm not really sure why.

Tiffany had a gestational diabetes test last Monday and the *try to be nice, Ryan* wonderful staff at the doctor's office still hasn't gotten back to her with the results, after they said they would have it on Tuesday. LAST Tuesday. As in 9 days ago. Tiffany called them that day and they said they were busy and wouldn't have it until the next day (which was LAST Wednesday) and they would call her. No call. Thursday comes. No call. Friday comes. No call. Office closed Saturday and Sunday. Monday comes. No call. Tuesday comes. No call. Wednesday comes. No call. Today comes, and unless she has just forgotten to tell me, no call so far. In fact I'm in the middle of texting her to find out and if not I'm going to make her call them today and not only ask what the results are, but also why in God's name they never called us. If she doesn't call, I'm going to. Neither she nor they want that to happen.

On a lighter note, we should have our travel system delivered today. That's a huge weight off of Tiff's shoulders because she was worried that since we did a pre-order type deal online that they were just going to take our money and we would never get it. Also, my wonderful mother bought our crib online Tuesday night. Not sure when we should have that, but that means that this weekend we absolutely no-choice HAVE to clean out the den/nursery. It's a nightmare. The crib is being delivered to my mom's house, so (she doesn't know this and probably won't until she reads this) I think when she brings us the crib on her truck, we'll go ahead and use her truck to get rid of the futon and the desk. Anyone need either of these? We're not sure what we're going to do with them.

In baby shower news, the *TENTATIVE* date is August 1st. Invitations should be going out within the next week or so provided we actually get the addresses together for my mom and Stefanie. It will be a co-ed shower (if I have to be there, other guys do too), but if you can't come or just really don't want to, don't feel obligated, especially the out-of-towners. We're going to do another party type deal after Gemma gets here specifically for people who couldn't make it to the shower/out-of-towners. By the way, we are registered at Babies R Us and Target, but both registries need some updating pretty badly. So we'll get to doing that soon. We're trying to do the price-shopping for you, so we register the things at the places where they're going to be the cheapest.

This is probably too long and I doubt a lot of you are actually reading this far, so I'll end it here. Love you all. Gemma Rose Countdown is at 78 days.




HOLY CRAP.

Actually, no more games or jokes:

Gemma Rose Schwimmer.

In other news, I (Ryan) will be going to camp next week and will most likely post updates about that on my blog: http://xenorye.blogspot.com

Does anyone read this? I'm thinking about just not posting here anymore.

**Edit: I THINK I FIGURED OUT THE COMMENTS ISSUE: When you go to post a comment, there are actually TWO links that say "Post a comment." Click on the one CLOSEST TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE!**

Hello everyone. Things are going pretty well in R&T+1 land. Tiffany has an appointment Monday, so we should find out if there's anything new with our due date since the ultrasound was done. We'll also be going over the ultrasound itself, so that should be exciting.


I never really updated more than "it's a girl," so about the ultrasound pics... they were pretty cool. The whole ultrasound thing still freaks me out a little bit. Not as bad as the 3D ones, which we may end up getting later, but still... Anywho, I loved the profile shots they got, and I love the one of little [insert name here]'s foot. By the way, for those that have asked, the ultrasound tech saw girl parts, not just the lack of boy parts, to determine it was a girl. Or, at least, she saw three little white lines that are supposed to be girl parts... who knows what that's about...


I know that the comments are messed up yet again and I may have to make the site ugly to get them to work, but I'm working on it. Thanks for everyone's support and unwanted advice. (Just kidding...) Oh, we've made our first big purchase. There was a deal on these travel systems that included a free ($80) car seat base, so we jumped on it. It's actually different colors of the same one that Randy and Lindsey have. Here is a picture:

Anyways, hope this update finds everyone well. Sorry again about the comments, keep trying!

It's a GIRL!

-Ryan J. Schwimmer
--sent via mobile

Testing email blog updating so I can do it from my iPhone tomorrow.

-Ryan J. Schwimmer
--sent via mobile

Hello everyone. Tiffany and I are about to burst with Antici....... (see title) to find out what this little alien is tomorrow. It's a big day and both of us are very much looking forward to it. I will post on here as soon as I find out, although I'm sure I'll be calling everyone who reads this anyways to let you know.

Tiffany has been feeling the baby moving around a lot lately. I haven't felt it yet, but I imagine it's not making enough of an impact to feel on the belly yet.

That's pretty much all that is up with us for now. Again, I'll update this and make phone calls tomorrow when we find out.

Doc visit today.

Heart rate 156.

Tiffany has lost 1 pound since becoming pregnant.

Everything is fine.

Ultrasound on the 21st.

Next visit May 4th, which will be 20 weeks (halfway).

That is all.

Hey everyone, hope this blog post finds you well. Tiff and I will be going to the doctor's office tomorrow (or, if we want to get technical, later today, but I haven't been to sleep yet so it's still Sunday to me) for a routine check-up. If we don't hear anything different than we normally do I'll let everyone know. Tiffany is 16 weeks along now, which means that we're entering the area where she may be able to feel the baby move soon. She's really feeling much better lately as far as being sick and stuff. Of course, her body is changing and she really can't stand that.

Anyways, we've been discussing names, and contrary to what I said before I'd like to share some of them with you. We like the idea of having a fairly unique name, and we were also toying with the idea of naming the kid after us in some way. In case you're not aware, my full name is Ryan Joseph Schwimmer and her's is Tiffany Dawn (Grose) Schwimmer.

If it's a boy, Dawnald Joseph Schwimmer (after Tiffany's middle name).
If it's a girl, Ryanuh _____ Schwimmer (after my first name).
also, Boy - Joe Cool Schwimmer

Some others:

Girl - Shawna Nah Schwimmer.
Boy - Owen Sixteen Schwimmer (after the recent 0-16 Detroit Lions).
Girl - Even Better Schwimmer (and we'd call her Eve for short).
And of course, the ever popular Olympic Schwimmer. (We're also toying with Real-Fast Schwimmer or Freestyle Schwimmer. Maybe even Michael Phelps isareallygood Schwimmer.)

So, what do you guys think?

Hit the comments link below and let us know. In the snow. I'll stop rhyming now, I mean it. (Anybody want a peanut?)

Hello everyone, just wanted to shout a quick update with what's going on. Last Friday, Tiffany reached the end of the first trimester! I have to admit, both of us were pretty skeptical about her nausea and stuff going away after the first trimester. I swear, though, that it seemed like magic that since last week Tiffany's been feeling much better. This is a good thing. Oh boy, are the hormones starting to kick in, though...

The animals have been nothing but trouble for the past few weeks. Who'd a thunk that Max would come out of this as the best-behaved one. Most things are going pretty well for us right now. We're still looking for a house/condo/not a-stupid-apartment-where-I-can't-play-my-Rock-Band-without-pissing-off-the-neighbors-and-I-have-to-take-the-stupid-dogs-multiple-times-a-day. So I guess pray for that to open up some opportunities.

Anyways, the main reason I wanted to update is that I realized I didn't tell everyone when something exciting was happening next. Our next appointment with Dr. Shallackalack is April 6. Just a routine check up then. April 21st is an ultrasound appointment, and we should be able to find out the sex of the baby at that time! We're both very excited and anxious to find out.

Tiffany has been teasing me recently about how I better not pass out during the birth. I don't think that will be a problem, because I'm not going anywhere near the nitty-gritty nastiness that will be going on. I'll be up there by her head hoping she doesn't punch me in the face (or at least that she doesn't punch me too hard). Besides, after reading about what is supposedly less nasty stuff (but still ridiculously nasty) in her little book, I don't think my stomach could handle it. I almost threw up just reading about stuff that happens post-birth. Just thinking about it now makes me want to puke. Blech.

On that note, glad you guys are reading and that the comments are finally working. Hope this blog finds everyone well. A few prayer requests to close:

House. A place to live, not the TV doctor--although that's a great show in case you don't watch it.
Patience. More for me than Tiff.
Health. I always pray for Tiffany first, then the baby, then myself, if you want to throw that in also ;-)

-Ryan J. Schwimmer

First of all, for those of you who were trying to leave comments (and bless you if you are because I love them), I have a temporary fix in place. It's a tad irritating, but it should work for now. When you want to leave a comment from the main blog page, click the link at the bottom of the post (if there are no previous comments, it will say "0 Comments"). From there, there should actually be TWO links that say "Post a Comment." Click on the one nearest the bottom of the page, and it should take you to an entirely different page to post a comment. Sorry about the trouble, let me know if you have any more.

Now that that's out of the way, I wanted to update everyone with what's going on. Tiffany just had an appointment with Dr. Shallywag or whatever this morning. Everything is great, in short. It was a very short visit. Tiffany had to pee in a cup for the umpteenth time. Then the doctor talked with her about how everything was. He said that there was definitely a bug going around earlier this week which explains the puking and feeling like poop. She also asked about her hip hurting, and he said that it's perfectly normal. Basically the hips are making room to be able to move apart to deliver the baby, and they should tighten back up again after the pregnancy.

No ultrasound today, but he did listen to the heartbeat. The little fart decided he was going to make things difficult (it is my child, after all), and moved around a lot. Just as Dr. Shanpop or whatever would find the heartbeat, it would swim away. After about four tries (and Tiffany having to push her jeans down way farther than she'd hoped), the little squirt finally stayed still long enough to discover that the heart rate was perfect at 158. And before some people jump to conclusions (looking at you Mrs. Claunch), know that the whole "heart-rate-determines-baby-gender" thing doesn't work this early.

Anyways, hijacking the blog for my own personal interests... I also had an appointment today, with Dr. Fisher. I'm down 10 pounds from where I was six months ago, which was down 12 pounds from 6 months or so before that. He said everything is perfectly fine with my thyroid and all that. Blood pressure was 120/74, which is perfect, so that medicine is working well.

Anyways, so that's what's going on with us. Hopefully comments work this time around. LEAVE ONE!

-Ryan J. Schwimmer

Well, it had been a little while since I last updated this blog, so I thought I would go ahead and let everyone know what has been going on. Tiffany is doing well. She's still very tired all the time, but (thank you, Jesus) no morning sickness or anything like that. We have another appointment on March 9th. We're not sure if they'll be doing another ultrasound or not. At her first appointment with Dr. Shalleleigh or whatever his name is, they told her they wouldn't do another one until like 18 weeks or something. However, I wouldn't be surprised if Tiffany tells them that they better see if it's a boy or a girl so she can start really planning things out before she has a complete tantrum. Hormone Dectector: On!

We went to the Friends of the Library Book Sale at the fairgrounds on Saturday and walked out with nothing but kids' books. We found a few old-timey Winnie the Pooh books that we got because Tiffany has one at home and we might as well get the collection. We also dabbled in the idea of doing the nursery in Winnie the Pooh stuff but we're not sure. She knows she wouldn't want to do it for a girl.

We really need to get to work on cleaning out our den. It's a pit in there and neither one of us seem to want to get it started. It's a pain. I'm still holding out hope that we won't have to worry about using the den too much because we'll have a house shortly after the baby gets here. Another thing we need to do is open a savings account and really buckle down and put some money in there so we can have money for a down payment and such. That's something neither of us is very good at.

Anyways, I'll update again when something else of note happens or after the doctor appointment with Dr. Shangor or whatever.

Hello again everyone. Today was Tiffany's first appointment with the OB/GYN (or, as I like to call it, the girlie doctor). She went to Dr. Shanbour (I think that's right, forgive me if I get it wrong later). Dr. Shannenbaum used to be my (Ryan's) mom's girlie doctor, and also delivered all three of my cousin Shari's kids. I actually had to work today. Tiffany's appointment was at 9:00. She's only eight weeks, so we didn't think they would do an ultrasound so early. Well, we were wrong apparently. Tiffany had said that she would ask them to do it later if they wanted to do one so I could be there also. But alas, I get a text message around 9:20 saying that they're going to do an ultrasound today and another one at 18 weeks.

I call her and ask if she is going to ask them to do it later and she said something or other (I don't really remember), all I know is that I knew she was going to chicken out and not say anything about waiting to do it until I could be there, so I decided I had better hurry my butt up and get there. I left work at 9:30 and got to Mercy by about 9:42. Word.

So, I get there, and I'm sure my mother-in-law was quite confused seeing me walk into the waiting room and ask the receptionist where Tiffany was. But anyways, I got there just in time for the good weird stuff.

[Insert stories about what happens at the girlie doctor here; Tiffany doesn't want me going into detail. I don't blame her.]

Anywho, so eventually the nurse asks if Tiffany wants her mom to see the ultrasound as well, so we all three go into the ultrasound room. Now, if you're wondering where the title of this blog post comes from, it's here: The ultrasound monitor's screensaver was a dolphin with little ultrasonic waves coming out of it. Like so: --- ><> ))) --- So, I say, "Hey honey, they're going to look at the dolphin in your belly." Because it's what I do. I'm a funny guy.

Because it's so early, the type of ultrasound they did was [Tiffany doesn't want me putting this in here either... you see where I'm going with this?] Anyways, I'll post the pictures from the ultrasound below. Not like, of her getting it, because she would totally not be cool with that, but of what was on the monitor. Not the dolphin. Moving on... The baby's heart rate was 180, which is textbook at this time, so that's good. There's really no other way to describe it than a blob with a tail. My dad asked me if it was cool to see it and if I got a weird feeling in my stomach and stuff (dread?). I didn't, really, because ... well ... it's a blob with a tail. They're going to do another ultrasound in about 10 weeks (her next checkup appointment is in 4), and it'll look "more like a baby then." Thank you, ultrasound tech.

Without further adieu, here are the pictures:

Hello peoples. First of all, Tiffany is fine. She's very tired so she's already asleep in the other room as I play video games in the living room. Josh is on the phone with Sheila right now so Gears of War 2 is paused. Anyways... Our animals have been so annoying lately. I think they know something's up and are getting jealous. That's the "annoying hounds" part of the title of this post. The "buzzing sounds" refers to what I have dubiously titled "The Hormone Alarm," which involves me making an alarm sound and putting my hands up like a cat holding out its claws. It will probably get me in trouble at some point, but it's so darn funny I just don't care.

Tiffany has an appointment with the girly doctor Monday. Dr. Fisher originally told us to make an appointment with one around the first of March, but they went ahead and gave her the appointment. This is one that I'll be skipping out on. I have to work anyways, but I believe Tiff's mom will be going with her. It's too early to have an ultrasound done or anything like that though so I won't be missing anything. Not too much else going on right now, really. Sorry for the short update. Leave a comment if you'd like. Hope all is well.

-Ryan J. Schwimmer

If you're here, you most likely are already aware that Tiffany and I are going to be parent to what could only be the coolest kid of all time besides ourselves. Anyways, I'm going to start giving out this blog address to people and everything. Either Tiffany or myself will be updating this blog throughout the pregnancy and probably after the birth of our first child. Don't take that as a hint we want more, by the way... that's probably not going to happen. But anyways, look below for a couple posts I've made so far detailing when we found out and after our visit to the doctor yesterday.

Tiffany and I just got back from seeing Dr. Fisher. We had a good little meeting with him. Tiffany peed in a cup and they did another test and it was indeed positive. Dr. Fisher's great. We talked with him for a while about what to expect a little bit and what we needed to do now. We'll be making an appointment with an OB doctor around the end of February. Tiffany is going to spread the news to people at work tomorrow (if she even has to work tomorrow) and ask if anyone has any recommendations and things like that.

Tiffany finally got excited after the doctor. I think she was really holding off her emotions (both good and bad) until now. She's a little scared now because it's finally hitting her. I'm a little scared too, because it's just such a huge thing and we want to make sure we're ready and all that. She also started freaking out a little because "we have so much to do and not very much time!" I reassured her and said "we have eight months or so, we'll be fine." "But Tina thought she had eight months or so and the baby was 7 weeks early," she said. I just told her to calm down, and think about it... everything worked out just fine for Tina, they have everything they need and they were well taken care of. Everything's going to be fine. She finally calmed down.

We went to CVS afterward and laughed as two separate people couldn't get out of the parking lot on the NW Expressway side because the parking lot was too icy. Funny stuff. Bought some prenatal vitamins for her. Dr. Fisher told us to get a vitamin that had 1 mg (1000 mcg) of Folic Acid, and we get there and we find out that almost all of the over-the-counter stuff only goes up to 800 mcg. Finally we found one with 975, now we'll have to get a prescription.

We're really excited. And nervous. And scared. And happy. Nothing much has changed since we first found out except I'm not as stupified.

-Ryan J. Schwimmer

PS - Don't ask us about names. We're not telling you. If you ask, we're going to tell you we're naming the kid SirCashMoney Schwimmer. Live with it. Love you all! :)

Hello everyone, Ryan here.

So, last Wednesday (January 21, 2009), Tiffany revealed to me she was late. She said this to me in a text message. I replied, "Late for what?" This is my life. Fast forward about eight hours, and my life was forever drastically changed. We spent 20 dollars on an EPT 2-pack or something at CVS...tangent time. Is it weird that you have to pay so much money for something that ends up peed on? Then again, there are cheaper ones out there, but this isn't exactly the time to be cheap. Anywho, so we came home and Tiffany didn't need to pee. Whatever. So I texted Josh and wanted to know if he wanted to play some Gears of War 2. So I'm playing for about twenty minutes or so and I hear, "Ummmm... Ryan... I think... umm... yeah..." I then said into my Xbox Live headset "Hey Josh, sorry, gotta go."

The first test was positive. It took like thirty seconds supposedly for the positive thing to show up. I was pretty shell-shocked. Let me cut in here and explain something. This wasn't an accident. It wasn't entirely planned, but it wasn't an accident either. A few months back we decided to just put this in God's hands. Anywho. I was just shocked. It's such a big deal, and I knew that our entire lives were going to be changing quite a bit. And here's the thing also... I just found out that Tiffany was late that day. She had known for over a week. I know that's still not much time, but it's definitely a lot more time than about eight hours.

From comments that Tiffany made to me through the night, I guess I just had this glazed-over look across my face. Honestly, it wasn't a bad feeling at all, I was just in shock. Tiffany kinda was also. She didn't get very emotional or anything like that, she just didn't say much about it. So later on she took the other test, and just as quickly it came back positive also. I still couldn't believe it. Eventually Tiffany went to bed and I stayed up and decided to play Gears some more--and I was TERRIBLE. Obviously my mind was just in a different place or something. So yeah.

One thing we discussed is when to tell people. We had talked about it well before and discussed telling people immediately or waiting until after the first trimester (much like Ashlee Simpson and little dorky emo "can't-believe-he's-straight" guy from Fallout Boy), because most of the problems in pregnancy happen in the first trimester. Ultimately we decided to wait until we've been to the doctor.

Thursday, I made the appointment with Dr. Fisher. He's been my doctor since April, and --funny story here for people who don't know-- was the doctor who delivered my cousin, Jacob. Back then he was practicing in Tuttle, USA, and he still remembers my aunt and uncle from eleven or twelve years ago or whatever. I told Shawna, my boss, that I needed to be off for a few hours on Monday and asked if I could make up the time later in the week. Since Shawna is the awesomest, she let me do it. The only other people, at the time I'm writing this, that know, are Blake and Christian and Brandi Traina. I have sworn them to secrecy even from their own families (and especially our families), so don't be upset with them for not telling you sooner.

I told Blake because I just wanted to talk to someone about it, and he was very happy for us. That was a funny e-mail conversation. "Hey dude, I have something I want to tell you but you have to promise not to tell anyone--not your parents, not Josh, not Nathan, not Aaron, no one. Is that cool?" The first e-mail I got back from him was "Yeah, what's up?" Then, immediately afterward "You having a kid?" I just replied "Yes." So that was fun. Blake's a great friend to both of us. Then, I wanted to talk to someone who could tell me what I was in for and stuff, so I told Christian, who, when I asked him to not tell anyone, (supposedly) predicted what I was going to tell him correctly. So I talked with him for a little bit and he hasn't gotten back to me lately. Here's hoping he hasn't gone rogue and is telling everyone.

So anyways, our appointment with Dr. Fisher is tomorrow and we're excited. We've decided that we're going to tell our parents and my grandma by giving them Valentine's Day cards to "Grandma & Grandpa" and "Great Grandma." Not sure when exactly we're going to do it. I'm itching to tell people and Tiffany wants to wait until Valentine's Day. We're also trying not to overshadow anyone else's birthday (Nan's) or anything else going on in life (within two days of finding out about Tiffany being pregnant, we have found out about four or five people who have either died or have cancer and it's bad. Sucks).

Okay, so that's all for now.

(Quick wrapup for those of you who don't want to read the whole thing: Tiffany's pregnant. If our calculations, and the calculators we used are correct, the due date should be mid-to-late September, and the baby's first heartbeat would have been on Friday, January 23rd. Crazy!)

-Ryan J. Schwimmer