Since I’m thinking about starting a new blog about the baby boy, I figure I need a new blog design, right? So, in that case, I’m entering my friend Danielle’s Easter blog makeover giveaway!!!
Her designs are SOOOO cute and I would love to have one! Go check it out!! 
Hmmm, not sure if I even remember how this whole blogging thing works! I’m actually posting (or attempting to post) this from my phone, so it will be short.
I have missed blogging! Luckily I have had something pretty awesome to occupy my time in the past 3 months. Speaking of, I can’t believe our sweet baby boy has been here for three whole months already!! I laugh now when I think back to before I had a baby and how I thought I was so busy all the time. Ha ha ha, if I only knew what was to come!
I don’t know if anyone even checks my blog anymore, but I’m tossing around the idea of scrapping this blog and starting a brand new one, all about our new life with a little one. No guarantees on how often I would get around to posting, but I figure it’s worth a shot. Humor me — if you are reading this and think I should go for it, leave me a comment and let me know! I need encouragement.
Ok, now to see if I can insert a picture…
So, tomorrow I will be 38 weeks into this pregnancy. For those of you not keeping count, that means that there are only 2 weeks left until my due date. WOW — the time has just flown by. I can remember like yesterday the morning that we found out we were pregnant. I can’t believe it’s been over 32 weeks already. While I’m really ready for the baby to be here, I think I will also miss being pregnant. I have had such a great pregnancy — no real problems at all. Sure, I’ve gained weight, swelled up, even gotten a few stretch marks, but my gosh, I’m GROWING A HUMAN INSIDE ME so I think that some slight body changes are to be expected!! I will say that I’m really looking forward to getting my body back into shape. I wasn’t in super shape before I got pregnant, but I really want to get there! Good luck trying to do that with a newborn, huh? Oh well, a girl can dream!
I just realized that I don’t think I ever shared the big news here that we decided on a name. There are some of you who read this who already know the name (from emails or conversations), but for those of you who don’t know, here it is. Drumroll please!!!! Our little baby boy will be named Luke Jackson. We actually came up with this name before we even found out that we were having a boy. It turned out well, in fact, because we couldn’t come up with any little girl names to save our lives!!! Ok, glad I got that out there — now I can start referring to him as Luke and not “the baby”!!
My last midwife appointment was this past Friday, Dec 12. This was the first time that we’d gotten to meet the 4th midwife in the practice, Nancy. Just like the other three, she was super sweet and spent so much one-on-one time with us. We took her a copy of our birth plan so that she could put it in our file. We went over everything with her and she thought that it all looked good. Pretty much everything that we specified in our plan is normal practice with these midwives, so that worked out really well. My appointments are now every week from here on out. Since we are having to work around Christmas and New Year’s, the appointments won’t always be exactly a week apart. My next appointment is this Thursday, Dec 18. Up until this point, they have not checked for dilation or effacement or anything yet. They told me that they like to wait until at least 38 or 39 weeks to start checking for those things. So, I’m anticipating that I’ll get checked on Thursday — I’m a little bit nervous about that since I really don’t know what to expect. Oh, also — the results of my Group B Strep test came back negative! That’s a GREAT thing, so now I won’t have to worry about dealing with being connected to an IV while in labor. I also failed to mention the most exciting part of my last appointment — the fact that I LOST 5 POUNDS. Granted, I’m sure it was mostly water weight as I was really swollen at the appointment before that, but bleh, whatever. Again, let’s humor the pregnant lady please.
Oh yes, let me talk about contractions for a little while now. I’ve been having lots and lots of Braxton Hicks contractions for probably the past 4 weeks or so. For those of you that don’t know, BH contractions aren’t painful and don’t mean that you are going into labor. More than anything they are just your uterus “practicing” for labor. All of a sudden I will feel my entire belly get really, really tight. I can tell that it’s not Luke just moving around because the entire thing is just as hard as a rock. At first I would notice it every single time it happened because it was such a unique feeling. These days, they seem to happen all the time throughout the day so I don’t notice them as much. Now, on Saturday night and Sunday morning, I had a totally different feeling in my stomach that I think might have been a real contraction. Since this is my first pregnancy, I don’t really know what to expect when it comes to contractions. I just sort of assumed they would feel like some strong cramping. Well, what I felt this weekend was definitely not cramping. It was a sharp pain on one side of my belly. It only lasted for about 5 seconds and happened about 3 times in a span of 5 minutes. I had that happen about 3 different times between about 9pm on Saturday and 5am on Sunday and then nothing else since then. Since they were so short and irregular and they stopped, I am thinking that it was just what they call “false labor.” I’ll be interested to tell the midwife about them on Thursday and see if she thinks they were really contractions or just my imagination!
OK, I think I’ve babbled on enough for tonight. Plus, my sweet hubby surprised me and brought me home a Peppermint Chocolate Chip Shake from Chick-fil-A that is just calling my name. I’m sure Luke will be bouncing around like crazy after I eat that! Be back soon with more updates!
Most of you who know me in real life know that I am a big time perfectionist. If I can’t do things perfectly, then I’d rather just not do them at all! However, as I’ve grown up some, I’ve realized that’s just no way to go through life. Alas, I’ve not kept that same thought with this blog. I’ve gotten behind on updating and instead of just coming back and picking back up, I just stay away longer and longer. I know, it sounds silly, right? It’s a BLOG! But, for some reason it makes sense in my mind. Anyway, seeing as how I only have about 3 weeks (give or take) left of this pregnancy, AND that I wanted to use this blog as a way of documenting said pregnancy, I am jumping back into this with everything I’ve got for these last few weeks.
I’m not going to try to go through the past 15 weeks in any great detail. I’m just gonna hit the high points (the ones I remember anyway) and take it from there.
OK, so last time I talked about the furniture we had ordered for the nursery. Since that time, it was delivered to the store, we picked it up, Tommy and our friend Steve put everything together, and it’s all situated in the nursery. And if you’re wondering, NO, I don’t have pics of the nursery to share yet. Remember what I mentioned earlier about the whole perfectionist thing? Well, my mom is the EXACT same way and since she has put a lot of time and effort into the whole nursery design and it’s not COMPLETELY finished yet, of course I can’t show pictures! Be patient though — it should be finished up VERY soon! And as soon as it is, you can be sure that I will be posting a LOT of pictures here. Trust me, it is SO cute!
Since that time I have also had 2 awesome baby showers! The first one was given to both Tommy and I at work by several of the ladies that he works with. Since we have both worked at the same company together for so many years, there’s a lot of people that know both of us. This was a really fun way to get everyone together and spend some time with them, while also celebrating this little baby that we are about to have. And OH MY GOODNESS, can I just say that we have the most generous co-workers EVER?!? We got almost all of our “big” items off of our registry at that shower and just couldn’t believe it. Here’s a few of the big things we got — glider/ottoman, stroller/carseat combo set, bassinette, and high chair. And then we got tons of cute clothes, books, blankets, toys, and other odds and end items.
The second shower that I had was at an adorable little tea room and was hosted by my best friend Michelle (with some help from my mom and sister-in-law). It was attended by my closest girlfriends and we all had such a good time — hanging out, chatting, and having a “high tea.” (Scones, muffins, little sandwiches and pastries — YUM!) Again, I was completely overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity and by the time that shower was over, we’d received nearly all of the items that we needed off of our registry. WOW! I know there were a lot of pictures taken at that shower, but I can’t seem to find the ones that I had from my camera. If I find them, I’ll come back and add them to this post!
OK, I have a lot more to tell from the last 15 weeks, but it’s getting late and I don’t want to overdo it tonight. I’ll be back soon to pick up where I left off! Oh, and I also updated the Preggo Pics page with the last 3 weeks worth of pics, so check ‘em out. I’m flippin HUGE!!!!
Yes, I know full well I have been away from this blog for WELL over a month. Bleh — I’m pregnant, give me a break!
Anyway, just wanted to put up a real quick post to let you know that I just updated my Preggo Pics page — so it is now caught up on pictures from weeks 27 till now (33 weeks). Remember if you don’t have the password (or have forgotten it), just send me a quick email.
I PROMISE I will be back soon to give a real update and not just some measly pictures!
Since I have been SOOO terrible with my weekly updates here, I decided that I was just going to combine weeks 20-26 into one, big, fat update and call it done. However, I was just digging through my purse earlier tonight and found a list of bullet points from weeks 20-21 that I had jotted down to blog about. So, even though it’s a little delinquent, I can at least hit the high points from those two weeks.
On Monday, August 18th, we started attending our Bradley classes. We are in the 12-week session with 3 other couples and have already learned SO much! (At this point, we’re halfway through the classes and I can’t believe how fast it has flown by!)
On Friday, August 22nd, we went shopping for baby furniture and accessories — specifically, a crib, a dresser, and bedding. After shopping at MULTIPLE stores, we finally found exactly what we were looking for at the last store. We knew that we wanted white furniture and wanted to be able to use it for this baby and any babies in our future. We weren’t as concerned about the functionality where it converts into a toddler bed and then into a full sized bed, but one of the things that was of utmost importance was that I needed a crib that had a drop-down side. You would be AMAZED at how hard that style of crib is to find. Since I’m rather on the short side, the drop-down side will come in super handy so I can just lean right over and put the baby in the crib. Otherwise, I’d probably have to have some sort of stepstool to actually reach into the crib and then I just don’t want to think of the potential for accidents with me getting on a stepstool while carrying a baby! ANYWAY, I will give credit where credit is due — Tommy was the one who actually found this crib and pointed it out to me. Shocking, right? Here it is:
And here is the matching dresser we also ordered:
Both pieces are made by Stanley Furniture and come from the Young America line that they have. The model is the Hampton Pointe Piano Key Antique White. I can’t wait to get the furniture in the nursery and start seeing it all come together! The store had to order both items, and they gave us a timeframe of 6-8 weeks for delivery. So, hopefully we’ll be getting a call from the store any day now, saying the furniture is in!
I don’t have a good picture right now of the bedding that we chose. It was actually the bedding that was in the floor model of the crib and once we saw how good it all looked together we just had to have it. It’s a custom bedding set, with blues, white, and yellows and a couple of little sailboats. It’s absolutely adorable — can’t wait to share pictures of it!
The last high point from weeks 20-21 was that I felt the baby move for the very first time!! At first, I wasn’t sure if that’s really what it was — but then when I started feeling the same type of feeling over and over, I was sure that it was him! Everyone kept telling me that it would feel like a little flutter, so that’s the kind of feeling that I kept waiting for. However, in my opinion, it didn’t feel like a flutter at all when it actually happened. It felt more like a twitch on the inside. Like you know — when your eye is twitching and you can’t make it stop. It felt EXACTLY like that, but way down deep in my belly. It is by far one of the coolest feelings I have ever felt!
Alright — my point when I started writing tonight was to get caught up to week 26, which is the week that I just finished. But, I somehow forgot that I tend to get wordy and this ended up taking much longer than I first anticipated. So, this is gonna be it for tonight, but I’ll try my hardest to get back on here tomorrow and get another update posted. Thanks for sticking with me, guys!
Since the Cowboys are making me crazy with their playing today, I decided I might as well make use of this time by updating my Preggo Pics page. Yeah, I’ve been a little delinquent in updating it, but it’s back up to date — COMPLETELY! Luckily, I’ve continued to take the pictures weekly, just hadn’t taken the time to put them up here.
So, those are all updated through week 26! I know I have MUCHO to blog about since it’s been over a month since my last post. I’ll start working on that right now!
Sorry for the extended absence from the blog. Our best friends Steve & Michelle experienced a terrible tragedy in their family early Saturday morning.
It has been a rough several days for their family and the days to come will continue to be hard. Please keep their entire family in your prayers.
Also, belly pics have not been forgotten, just delayed. We’ve still been taking them, I just need to edit them and post them — so check back later tonight.
Well, the “tomorrow” I mentioned in Friday’s post wasn’t quite accurate, but I’m finally getting around to posting the pictures from the big, exciting sonogram! Without further ado, here they are!
Pic 1 — The best profile shot we’ve seen to date!
Pic 2 — The one where we found out we were having a BOY!
Pic 3 –Another profile shot. At first it looked like he was trying to suck his thumb, but after further inspection it appers that he doesn’t have the whole hand/eyemouth coordination down quite yet. It looked more like he was hitting himself in the face!
Pic 4 — This might be my favorite picture of all. This was taken mere seconds after we saw his “boy parts” for the first time. The sonogram tech panned back up to his face and as soon as she did, he brought both of his little arms/hands up and put them in front of his face like he was embarassed! He’s apparently modest!
Pic 5 — His little feet and toes — hard to see in the picture, but it was very clear when we saw it up on the screen!
Pic 6 — Another shot verifying that it’s a boy. I can’t really tell from the photo, so I’m taking the sonogram tech’s word for it! Also in this pic is a good shot of the umbilical cord. It’s the 3 white lines in the upper right side of the pic. Apparently the cord has two arteries and a vein (what it’s supposed to have!) and they show up white in the picture.
That’s all the pictures that were taken during the sonogram, but we got to see a lot of other things up on the screen. We saw that the heart had 4 chambers and was beating strongly (150 beats per minute). We got to see both kidneys and the bladder. We got to see the spine and some other major bones. Interestingly enough, most all of the measurements that were taken correlated almost exactly with my due date. The one thing that measured further along (about 2 weeks further) was the length of the femur. So, who knows — maybe we’ll have a long-legged kid? I’m sure Tommy would be greatful for that since I come from a LONG line of shorties!
After we finished up with the sonogram, we headed over to the midwives office for my monthly checkup. All signs were good there too! Blood pressure was great and I had gained 3.5 lbs since my last monthly appointment. That makes a total of 6.5 lbs gained for the entire pregnancy so far. The midwife I saw that day, Sharon, had to do a double-take to make sure she was calculating it correctly! I told her not to worry. I’ve been exercising for the entire pregnancy, so that, coupled with the fact that I had a few extra pounds around before I got pregnant makes perfect sense. They don’t want me to gain more than 25-30 lbs by the time I am full-term, so I figure once I get into the 3rd trimester, that’s when the weight gain will really pick up. After we finished up with all of the appointments, my parents treated us to a scrumptious lunch. The perfect topping on a perfect day!
Other things that have transpired during Week 19:
And that’s about it for week 19 — it’s been a VERY exciting one so far! I can hardly believe that on Wednesday, I will entering my 20th week of pregnancy — the halfway point! WOW! Stay tuned!
Well, today was the day that we’d been waiting for since we found out we were pregnant! The big sonogram where we found out if it was a boy or a girl. If you follow my Twitters, then you’ve already seen the news — otherwise, here it is for the first time!
We are having a…
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BOY!!!
We couldn’t be happier or more excited! Everything looked great on the sonogram pics and we have a healthy baby boy who is just growing like a weed.
It has been a long day, filled with lots of time with our wonderful family. I’ve gotten all of the sonogram pics scanned in, but I’m too tired tonight to post them. I will definitely come back tomorrow and do an updated post with lots of pics and a full rundown of the day’s activities.
Thank you all for your prayers and well-wishes!
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