Emma is Being Difficult

This pregnancy is proving to be all around more difficult that Cooper's. Not only does she not cooperate during ultrasounds, now she's trying to scare Mommy to death too.

Thursday night I started having contractions. This went on for about 2 hours when I finally decided it was time to go to the hospital. (I talked to the nurse on call after it had been going on for an hour and she told me a few more things to try and stop them before I went.) About halfway to the hospital, they stopped. So I came home. So sense paying an ER visit for no reason. But I did call my doctor the next day to see if she wanted to see me, and she did.

Friday afternoon I went to the OB's office. She said asked about the frequency of the contractions and movement of the baby (No problems with movement. She's a wiggle worm like her brother, although not quite as much). Then she said that there were 2 tests she'd like to do that would give us a better idea of what's happening, measure my cervical length on ultrasound and do a fetal fibronectin test (from here on out referred to as fFN). My cervical length ended up being shorter than they'd like. It was 2.8 cm when they'd like it to be over 3 cm. Because of this she put me on modified bedrest over the weekend. The fFN test took a little while to get the results. But I was having contractions Friday night and had to call the nurse on call. She had the report and told me it had been negative (a good sign). We also saw during the ultrasound that Emma is still breech. That means if I do have to deliver, it will be a c-section unless she decides to flip.

So for now I am still on bedrest. I've been having contractions off and on all weekend, but nothing bad. They've stayed pretty far apart and are very mild. I go back to the doctor next week to check my cervical length again and that will probably decide what comes next. If you want more frequent updates (or want to hear how bored I am) you can follow me on Twitter. I'll try not to whine too much ;)

Yo' Drops and Ecomom Review & Giveaway!!

A couple weeks ago I was sent Yo'Drops by Revolution Foods to review from Ecomom. Mommy and Cooper both love them! Cooper loves them because they taste so good! (Yep, I tried them, too!) They are tangy like yogurt but crunchy like crackers! Sounds weird but it really is a great combo. I love them because they are relatively mess-free and super convenient. Also? They are made with REAL ingredients! I can pronounce everything on the ingredient list! If you've looked at the ingredients in any of your child's snacks recently you know how rare that is.

At night, Cooper gets to watch cartoons before bed, and Mommy gets some computer time. He usually asks for a snack around this time. Most of the time he eats his snack before we head to the bed but the other night he asked while we were already in bed.

The Yo'Drops had just come that day so I thought why not try them. He can't make a terrible mess with these, right? Wrong. Within 5 minutes they were poured out on my bed. Really it wasn't heard to clean up though, and he loved them. I'm sold :)

Want to try some yourself? They retail at Ecomom for $3.99 or...

You could win a $15 gift certificate to ecomom.com right here!!

Mandatory Entry

*Follow Cooper's Mommy on GFC and then go visit ecomom.com and let me know what you'd like to try!

Extra Entries

*Like Ecomom on Facebook and thank them for the giveaway

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*Sign up for the Ecomom Daily Deal Newletter

*Blog about this giveaway (3 entries)

Please leave a separate comment for each entry! This giveaway will end at midnight EST on July 18th and I will announce the winner the next day! Please leave your email address in your mandatory entry so I can contact you if you win!

I was not compensated to do this review. I received product to form my opinion and only product. These opinions are my own and honest.

And Baby Number 2 is....

...a baby GIRL!!

And this baby girl is a very uncooperative little girl already! She let us see that she is a girl, but wouldn't be still long enough to actually get the picture of her lady parts. Maybe this is a good thing though.... ;)

She also wouldn't let us get any of the cute profile shots. Only these creepy, alien-baby face shots. She sure is a cute little alien though!

But since she was so uncooperative, we get to go back in a few weeks for another ultrasound! The sonographer got all the pictures she needed expect some of her mouth and nose (to check for cleft lip and palate). So we go back in a few weeks to check that. And we get to see her again. Maybe this baby girl is smarter than I thought! :)

Making a Black & White Photo with a Little Color in Photoshop Elements

This tutorial is for @theleakysippy, but maybe others will find it useful too!
As a disclaimer, I don't claim to be an expert and there is probably a better way to do this, but this is fairly easy for me :)

First, here is my picture open in Photoshop Elements 8. I do any cropping, color, and lighting adjustments now.

Then I select the part I want to keep colored with the quick selection tool. (see the red arrow) It helps me to use the Refine Edges tool at the top right above the picture. It helps you see exactly what you have selected and smooth out the edges.

After you are happy with your selection, click Select (at the red arrow) and then Inverse (sorry it wouldn't let me do a screen shot with the menu open) This selects everything you don't have selected, or the part that will be black & white.

After you have the inverse selected, click Enhance (red arrow) and then Convert to Black & White

After that just push Ctrl + D to deselect everything and you're done!