Baby Preparations

Boo, Sweet Pea & I spent an afternoon lately working in Baby's room. Mainly on her clothes & such. As you can see this was before my new doo. And yes, I know I look quite tired. All part of life lately.

A couple of the outfits we found for $1 each at the consignment sale.

I've missed little sweet dresses!


Organizing the changing table.

I found these baskets at the Dollar Tree. They have little butterflies on them. I used my trusty labeler to make them more organized. So far I have one for diapers, one for cloth wipes, one for hair doo-dads & one little socks. On the bottom shelf I have a bin full of cloth diapers my sweet friend Julie gave me (thank you!). I also have a bin that I am dubbing my "Bathtime Bin". It has bath towels, baby washcloths, shampoo, baby wash & a bathing mitt inside.

This is the adorable crib bedding we bought at one of the consignment sales we went to. It is perfect & just what I wanted! I love the various colors.

Laura Ashley for a steal!

(Not that I really care about brand names.......it just thrills me that I was able to get it for so little $. )

It came with a diaper bin too. And a mobile too! Sweet!

Another Milestone!

WE HAVE REACHED 37 WEEKS BOYS & GIRLS!

Today is my weekly appointment with my doctor & more preparations for Baby. We even have an adorable coming home outfit. Yay!

A Little Scare

We had our BPP, BiophysicalProfile, today and had a little scare. One of the things that is measured is the breathing movement. If it meets certain criteria than baby receives 2 points for "passing". If not, then no points. We found out our Baby received 0 points. As a result we ended up doing a regular non-stress test (NST) afterward. This is the same test I have had the past 3 weeks and Baby has scored excellent on. Though my BP was elevated somewhat & the Baby did a little less movement than usual we still passed. It didn't hit me until I got home how worried I really was. Here is why:

Though I know that our doctor is a cautious one I couldn't help but think of what can happen when we aren't in the care of the doctor or hooked up to a helpful machine. I think the thing that unsettled me the most, and later on found out it did the same to Dave, was the silence of the ultrasound tech. Though I tried to ask questions it was clear she wasn't going to chat. She just silently looked and recorded data. A few times she shook my stomach I guess trying to get Baby to move. A couple other times she "buzzed" my tummy with this vibrating thing again I'm guessing trying to get Baby to move. Of course it made my mind race wondering if something was wrong with movement, breathing and or the heart rate. Not knowing is concerning at best. The worst was that it brought back a rush of memories to when we lost Rose Marie. The grave silence of the tech, the stillness & quiet in the room, the lack of seeing things on the monitor, etc. Though I tried to block them out the memories were all back again just like they happened yesterday. Dave felt the same though I didn't find out until later. Here what we thought was going to be a fun last peek at our Baby before birth turned into a tense, silent event where you could cut the tension with a knife.

In the midst of my silent tears this afternoon I reached out to 2 groups of friends for prayer. Both were amazing in their support and prayers. One lady from our new homeschool group wrote an email to me. She is a Labor & Delivery nurse. She understood and validated my feelings while at the same time explaining things to me in detail. I'm telling you she was the answer to my prayers for peace of mind. She let me know that though the lack of points for breathing can indicate distress for Baby the movements shown on the NST is the most important of the two. And on the NST today Baby did well. That was a huge reassurance. I thank God for this gift and this woman who was willing to share her knowledge with me. It was like a giant hug from God.

Things are much better here tonight. I am keeping a very close eye on my kick counts & Dave and I had a sweet prayer time tonight. I am still quite emotional but there is peace. I thank all of you who reached out to me today. Your support, caring & love show us that we are so very blessed. As of right now I will be monitoring those kicks, taking it easy & waiting for my weekly appointment. This time it is March 17th. I'll be sure to update when we have more news. In the meantime keep those prayers coming. We deeply treasure them and deeply treasure all of you.

More Baby News

For those of you traveling this road with us........

I went in for my weekly NST & BP check on Thursday. Another fantastic report! Baby is doing well. So well in fact that Baby was really making the nurse, in her words, "work for my money". LOL! At first when I relaxed back in the armchair Baby had a big ol' bump (Arm? Leg? Butt?) sticking out of the top of my tummy making it rather lopsided. It was quite comical and I wish I had my camera along. Because of this lump/bump the straps didn't fit quite right and therefore the monitor couldn't pick up the heartbeat as well as it needed to. We did a little poking & prodding but Baby refused to budge. Finally Tammy, my nurse had me lie partway on my left side with a pillow propping me up. That did the trick and soon we heard that amazing, precious galloping sound of the heartbeat. Tammy left the room to tend to other duties & Elvis and I were alone to chat & hang out. Baby kept at the antics. In fact he/she was so wiggly at several points he/she knocked himself/herself off the monitor. I laughed every time this happened as it made me wonder if this was a peek at Baby's personality. At one point Baby kicked so hard that when he/she came back on the monitor it read 195 as the heart rate! Wow! Usually it is between the 150-165 range. I teased Elvis that his new sibling was going to be just as wiggly & active as he is. He liked this idea a lot and laughed along with me.

My doctor, Dr. B., came in afterward to see how we were doing. After checking out the reading she declared that Baby is doing excellent. My BP was also down again for the 3rd week in a row. My weight is also holding steady & I am still measuring 3-4 weeks ahead. Dr. B. said to me and I quote, "Keep doing whatever you are doing because it's working." That was music to my ears. I felt like I had earned an A+ & gold star all in one. It made all this being off my feet worthwhile to hear the report that Baby is doing well & I am making it safer for her giving her time to grow. I applaud my husband & kids too who have been stepping up while I am down. They are fantastic!

On our way home from the doctors I decided to celebrate with a little treat. At first I was going to get something for only Elvis & I but then thought better of it. I knew he would tell the other 3 and then there would be mutiny. Especially from my child with the obsessive sweet tooth.....Mr. Candy Man. So on second thought I decided instead of a coveted vanilla shake from Burger King we would stop at the bread store. Truth be told it was better on my wallet too since it is a discount bread store. Love those! We picked up a box of chocolate Zingers and I swear Elvis hugged them all the way home. He was a happy, happy boy!

I have an ultrasound scheduled for Tuesday with a follow up with Dr. B. I pray we'll bring you another glowing report! I am beyond excited to see our Little One again.

Oh, and we're going baby shopping tomorrow! A consignment shop or two are having their spring sales. I am ready to find some bargains and pray we do so. To my surprise when I asked Dave if he wanted to come he said yes. Yay! I know he won't be as thrilled as I to shop but it means the world to me that he is going and WANTS to go. =)

Changes

I hope you understand as I journal a bit....................


When I look back at the past few months so much has happened! It struck me just yesterday how this pregnancy has flown by so far. The first couple of months were slow as I was quite sick, afraid of miscarriage and struggling with some broken relationships..............but from then on "Whoosh!" it has flown. I am now past the halfway point and enjoying my 3rd trimester. I am definitely in the waddling stage of things & have quite the tummy. I was laughing at myself Sunday night as I tried in vain to keep up with the gentleman at church who was leading us down the hallway to the dinner. He was going at a fast clip and I tried to keep up but my body just couldn't do it. LOL! Thankfully Sweet Pea stayed behind with me to make sure I didn't get lost.

Some other things I've noticed are that I'm filling up really fast, I can't stand very long at all, I am extremely tired, everything gives me heartburn, I'm still getting sick most mornings, I have to change positions often to be comfortable & I am huge! Today while I was cutting the boys hair I was again reminded of how little time I can spend on my feet. I only made it through Elvis' haircut & then halfway through Bugsy's before I absolutely had to sit down. The best is that Baby's movements are getting stronger. Lately I swear it's by the day. There are times I swear this Baby is determined to find a way OUT! The thumps & kicking are quite hard now and sometimes will even make me gasp out loud. I wouldn't say that they always hurt but they are certainly noticed & cause reaction. I do love being pregnant. It is such a treasured time.

Dave & I finally had some time this past Sunday to sit down and contemplate names. We haven't settled on one yet - heck we don't even have a top 5! Lol! - but we have a long list of possibilities. And we've even agreed on some of them. Hee, hee!

We're still working on clearing out the nursery. It has been a storage room since we moved in but as the clock ticks down we need to get organized. It's slow going as Dave has been working late every night on a new project at work & I can't lift or even push the boxes around. (Pelvis pain) Monday night we worked together & the girls joined us. This worked great as I could sort items & shelve things and the girls could put things away in different parts of the house. There is no closet in the Baby's room so we are figuring out ways to store items more neatly than usual. For the few clothes that need to be hung I think we will use part of the boys' closet or part of ours. I can hardly wait to get to the point where we can set everything up and decorate. What fun that will be!

Can you believe we only have a little over 2.5 months left until we meet this Little One? That stuns me every time I think of it! And I absolutely LOVE reading the weekly updates of how our sweet baby is growing & developing. It never ceases to amaze me what a miracle this truly is. Thank you, Lord.

On Cloud 9

We had an amazing ultrasound experience today. God is so good! We went in and waited for 45 minutes as we were asked to be there 30 minutes early & then they were running behind. Unfortunately we were only allowed 2 people back in the room with us so Dave took the boys for a walk to entertain them and I let the lucky girls come back in with me. I was sad Dave wasn't able to come in but we were able to get a video tape of part of the ultrasound and I am eagerly waiting his homecoming tonight so we can watch it together. Once we went back in the tech seemed a little strict. I was thinking that maybe this wasn't going to be as fun as I had thought but decided to just be nice & polite back to her. She wasn't rude, just not very happy. After a little bit she changed and she was so nice & chatty it was like talking to a different person. I guess she had a bad morning with some tough things going on. I felt badly for her. We had a great time chatting not only about Baby but about some other things as well. It was really neat. As we went through the u/s she told us everything she was doing and looking for. She assured me as we went along that things looked great. That was beyond wonderful to hear. She explained to the girls details of what we were seeing & answered all of their questions. Science /Anatomy lesson! LOL! The heart was the most fascinating of all. We saw it in detail, heard the precious beating & saw the blood flow. This was where it was actually in our favor that our u/s was later on in my pregnancy. Did you know that around 20 weeks the heart is the size of a quarter? Amazing! Something I learned today. We saw close ups of the kidneys, bladder, diaphragm, brain, and specific bones. Little feet kicked & little hands flexed open & shut. At one point we even saw Baby yawn. So sweet! God truly does knit us together in the womb. And what a miracle it is! At the end she was able to tell us the gender of our Little One. I could hardly wait to share the news with Dave! We were given 3 priceless photos to take home plus our video. I carried them out like they were made of gold.

Thank you to everyone that prayed today! It was all we had hoped for and more. What a fabulous memory to tuck away. A BIG thank you to those that were waiting for my phone calls & those that emailed wanting to know who this Little One is. Your squeals of delight & excited emails are treasures. I appreciate all of you that choose to continue to share in this wonderful, amazing experience with us. Love you all!

Graphics by http://home.att.net/~scorh/GraphicsBaby.html

Big Day Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is our ultrasound! I'm super excited, can you tell? Lol! We are hoping first to see that all is well with Baby. Please, God. Then hopefully if Baby cooperates we will find out who this Little One is! Boy or girl? I can hardly wait! Each of the kids have their votes in and Dave does as well. As for me I don't have any definite guess. I'm so bad at that. Lol. Now just so you know I'm not going to post the results of boy or girl here. I don't want to spoil it for anyone that wants to wait until B-Day. If you'd like to know feel free to email me and I'll be happy to share. All I ask is please don't spoil it for anyone that wants to stay surprised. Thanks!

10 hours 18 minutes to go!

Baby News!

I had my first appointment with my new OBGYN yesterday. What a relief to be seen again! It's been over 2 months and I was feeling uneasy not having medical care during that time. Of course if I had felt I absolutely needed to be seen I would have gone to the emergency room. Being back under a doctor's care is such a blessing.

My new doctor seems very nice & I felt comfortable with her. I especially liked the way she took time to speak to both Boo & Elvis asking them questions and really listening when they answered. (I had brought them with me & had Sweet Pea babysit Bugs at home.) She also made certain that I had an U/S (ultrasound) scheduled before I left the office. I guessed I missed my u/s that was supposed to happen in the 16th to 20th week and she wanted to make sure no more time was missed. Whew! I now have an appointment in Nashville for the end of the month. I am SUPER excited! I hope Baby will cooperate and we can find out boy or girl. Most of all I am anxious to see Baby for myself and hopefully hear that he/she is healthy and growing fine.

Last night I was looking through the journal the doctor's office gave me and could hardly believe we are in the 6th month already! Time is really flying by! Dave & I are eager to get working on the Baby's room soon. Lots of boxes to relocate!

Thank you to all of you who have been praying for Baby and joining in our excitement. It has meant the world to me to be able to share this miracle with you and our joy at his/her upcoming arrival. It's a little lonely some days having moved so far away from home & not really having anyone here yet. I'm thankful I have all of you to share with. And, Megan I'm especially thankful for you, Friend. You've been with me every step of the way matching my excitement with your own & encouraging me when I've felt so rotten I could barely get out of bed in the morning. I don't know what I would have done without you these past months. Thank you, Friend! {{{{{HUGS}}}}

Halfway There, Baby!

We hit the 20 week mark today! We're halfway there now! Wow!

Baby Bump

I have more posts to catch up on but I wanted to interrupt those to share my new little Baby Bump with you. It seems I've popped all of a sudden. =) I'm thankful Dave found my maternity clothes. Though I haven't gained any weight ---- ( Can you believe between dieting b/f getting pregnant & being sick during pregnancy & the move I've lost 17 lbs.?!?!?!?) --- I hate the feeling of anything touching me too tightly. Plus b/c of Baby Bump and actually losing weight my regular pants don't like to stay up anymore. Lol! I'm constantly having to hitch them up which I find a pain. I like my stretchy pants much better.
Anyways, enough gabbing..............here's Baby!

It looks like I'm carrying high like all my other sweet babies. I'm even feeling him/her moving!