Heelllooo Belly! (Goodbye feet)

21 weeks 1 day
HELLO Belly! Have I grown or what? I feel huge. Yes I do know it will get much bigger. I do not know how I will find room for the next 19 weeks. I'll manage somehow! I am definitely getting the double take at work now. For the longest time I was able to hide behind my apron and not say anything about it if I didn't feel like it. Now people are noticing something is different. I had a customer tell me that she could tell I was pregnant the last time she came in (I was maybe 9-10 weeks along at the time) because of my walk. Then I had another customer say I had the "pregnant butt." Here comes the onslaught of unwarranted comments, huh?

This is my most recent conglomeration of fabrics I think I want to use for Jonah's bedding. We are sticking with the cowboy theme as you can see from the cow print and the stamped leather material. The other stuff I just liked. So we'll see if this all makes it into the final product.
This is my find from the Clothesline Fair in Prairie Grove. They always have this booth that stamps names on the western leather belts. Now don't think I will be dressing my son in hickwear often, but I think the belt will be cute worn now and then or on display in his room.

Look how tiny the smallest belt is! I figured I can get one for him every year or as he needs a bigger size. I think that would be a cute keepsake for me. He's a boy, he won't care, but someday maybe his wife would think its cute to see them.

Old Navy is having a baby sale! 40% off! Woohoo! I found a few cute items. I never know if I should focus on the baby size for the season or the next year. I know people like to buy little stuff for the baby shower, so maybe I should focus on bigger baby clothes. But heaven knows I will be shopping for the boy after he's born too. I mean I won't do it all now and quit! Please!

I loaded this pic the right way, but for some reason it wanted to be sideways. Oops! I thought the monkey was super cute and the onesie in the middle is a tiny monkey print. Cute! I think it will be cozy for a winter baby. I wonder about shoes too...I mean do infants wear shoes often? I mean a lot of their cuddly stuff has feet in it. I guess I can get a pair or two. Its not like they're extremely expensive!

Jonah has been a bucking bronco in there. I definitely can tell that he moves more after I eat and especially when I've eaten something with some sugar in it. Jeremy has felt him a couple times now and he's as amazed as I am. Honestly I know there's a baby in there, but I cannot comprehend it. A complete human! Praise God that we get to experience this. I mean He could have just as easily had us hatch our babies like birds. Weird thought, huh?

My family members with needs for prayer of healing are getting better, but please continue to mention them in your prayers. Also a customer of mine, who has the neatest family of 9 biological and adopted children, has taken their youngest to Arkansas Children's Hospital for surgery today. She is around 15 months old and went thru a very long surgery for a disorder that is very rare. What a doll she is! Pray for a quick recovery for her.

Decisions Decisions!

Thank goodness I have my friends Kristen and Natalie coming up for our annual Girl's Weekend! How would I register for this baby without them? I am clueless! I've been checking out strollers and travel systems, but have no idea what I will like. On one hand I would like a jogger stroller with the carseat that clicks in. In my mind that would be the ideal, because you have your everyday stroller and your jogger. You can lock the front wheel in place or let it swivel depending on your terrain. Very cool. Only problem is there are few companies who offer one of these jogger/carseat combos. One of them is extremely expensive--the stroller itself is almost $400 and then you buy the attachment that lets you put the infant carseat in for $50, then you have to separately buy a Graco carseat. YIKES! Too much monies! The other company I have seen is Baby Trends at Target. They have the whole jogger/carseat combo offered together for less than $200. Hmmmm...it good some good reviews on Amazon and some not so good. Here's a pic from Target:

Ok, it doesn't have the infant seat clicked in in the pic, but you get the idea. OR do I want a regular Graco travel system and carseat for everyday, then a separate jogger stroller. They aren't that expensive for just the jogger, but the youngest you can use it is around 6 months. BUT my baby won't be born until January, so it will be close to that until I can use a jogger anyway. As crazy as I am, I will not drag my itty bitty baby outside in the winter. Or the extreme heat.

Also to compound this stroller insanity...I have no idea what to pick for a crib! I don't want to cheapest one OR the most expensive one. So you girls with experience, give me some advice! Ok, so I know these aren't real worries. Just the things rattling around in my head lately. On that note, I have some good friends and family with prayer requests concerning their health. Please mention them in your prayers if you think about it. I have at least 4 on my mind right now. Thanks!

How Crazy Am I?

Ok I was tagged like 3 weeks ago by Jenna- a preggy buddy and have been meaning to answer it. Since my computer is dead :( I have been having to go to my mom's to use hers. My Iphone lets me read everyone else's blogs, comment on them sometimes, but I cannot post any. :( So I am sooooo slow to updating lately. I am gonna start saving for a new computer yesterday!

Tag, You're It!
Here are the rules:
Link to the person who tagged you. Mention the rules on your blog. Tell about six unspectacular quirks of yours. Tag six fellow bloggers by linking them. Leave a comment on each of the six blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.
1.) I have to kiss my dog on the nose every day before I leave for work. I also ALWAYS tell her to be a good girl and that I love her. Strange? yes, but I feel as though if I don't, something bad will happen to her and she wouldn't know I loved her!
2.) Many people have said this, but I am not a phone talker. I can carry on a long conversation with my best friend, Natalie, but I've known her for how many years? A bazillion. I am just uncomfortable on the phone! I feel like I am bothering people and what if I don't have much to say? Nat, remember when you used to call businesses to sell ads for yearbook for me?
3.) I find myself talking customers out of sales at work all the time. I can admit this, because I own the business. I just can't stand the thought of someone buying a product I've recommended and they end up hating it.
4.) I have a lot of anxiety talking to people I don't know, but guess what? I decided to be a hairstylist! I deal with people everyday and its good for me. I think I'm pretty good at hiding my anxiety.
5.) I don't really care for chocolate. I like it in something, but if the dessert is just chocolate...no thanks...ok maybe if I have a big glass of milk.
6.) I am obsessive about one thing. The sheets on my bed. Ask my bffs or my hubby. I've been this way since middle school. I have to have my sheets tightly tucked in at the bottom and no slack in them. They must be pulled tight over my feet at all times. I make my bed before I get in it.

I just made myself sound like a total NUT! Oh well, hopefully you love me anyway!

I tag:
Natalie
Kristen
Catherine

Vacation, my belly, and baby boy clothes!

Back to the real world…and I’m not sure I’m ready. Am I the only one who feels like they need a vacation after their vacation? And sometimes its harder going back to work when you’ve been off for a week than just any ole weekend. Jeremy and I on the beach around dusk.

We had a really good time in Florida last week. My in-laws took me and Jeremy, his sister, Kara and her boyfriend, Shelby, and their brother Andrew and his girlfriend, Kara. There were 8 of us all together. J’s parents had rented us a beach house right on the water outside of Destin. Even though weather reports showed Hurricane Fay was headed straight for us, we didn’t even get a drop of rain. We had blue skies the whole time.

My round belly got a nice tan. I got some relaxing afternoons reading and laying out by the waves. I still got to run/walk almost every morning. It was actually nice to go to bed pretty early and wake up early to exercise and have a tiny bit of coffee. I also liked not having to put on much make up or fix my hair because I was gonna be at the beach all day. We ate sandwiches for lunch and cooked most of our dinners. We went out to eat twice and then I enjoyed having a reason to dress up and eat with everyone. Here’s a pic of J and I out to dinner.
Boy oh boy, I hope this baby is a boy! I say that because:
1. Our cousin, Catherine, her sister was told several times she was having a boy and just found out that he’s a SHE! Read about it here.
2. I bought lots of boy stuff at the outlet malls in Destin!
I had been planning this shopping trip since I knew we were preggars and since I found out lil peanut’s gender. I knew there were some good outlets in Destin. They are great for baby clothes! I shopped from about 10 am to 4ish pm one afternoon and even shopped some more a few days later. I outshopped the 2 Karas. (My sis-in-law and my bro-in-law’s girlfriend both are named Kara.) I found my main purchases came from the Carter’s outlet (they have the cutest little infant clothes). I liked Osh Kosh, Baby Gap, and Children’s Place (usually CP isn’t my favorite, but they had some cute stuff and good deals). J’s mom was so kind to humor me and go along for the baby shopping ride. It was the first real time I got to shop for him. I quit going thru the baby section and even avoided kid’s stores for the two years we were trying for this babe. So it was rather strange and exciting to get to do it for myself and not just someone else’s baby shower. J and I even went to Build A Bear and built a stuffed dog for Jonah. He had a cowboy hat and boots on. So cute.

We've got a swimsuit all ready for Grandma Woody's pool next summer!

My little Gap baby!

We had a great week in Destin and headed back early Saturday morning just as Fay was beginning to cause a little bit of wind and rain. We drove out of that within a hour. So we were so lucky and have absolutely no complaints about a great week. My hubby got to go deep sea fishing, golfing and play in the sand (yes, watching those boys play on the beach really clued me into what having a baby boy will be like). I got to shop, read, relax, sleep, exercise, and lay out. So thank you Clay and Barbara for taking us all for a wonderful week! You guys were so gracious and we had a great time getting to hang out with the whole family. Here’s a really good pic of them I snagged on our last night of eating out.

I will not officially be back in the real world until Tuesday when I go back to work. For now, my Monday will be spent cleaning up my disaster of a house and trying to get us back in working order. I gotta buy groceries and all that fun stuff.

Wow! Look at that belly! 18 weeks 4 days!

Take a blurry look at my tan! ha!

I have my next drs appt Tuesday for my ‘big’ ultrasound. Since I already know the gender it’s not quite as exciting as it could be, but now I’m just praying that what we’ve been told twice is correct. If not, no big deal. We’ll figure it out, I mean seriously, waaayyyy worse things could happen. I’m just praying for an everything-looks-great report. I guess I had been kinda worrying that he wasn’t moving around in there. I don’t think I realize that what I feel is movement sometimes. I’ll be laying still and not paying attention and something will twinge and kinda roll bubbly around in the low parts of my abdomen and I won’t even realize that could be it until its over. Then it won’t happen again for another day or so. During the first u/s I had at 15 weeks 2 days, she said he was foot-down breach and was kicking! I feel that sometimes because it’s a very specific pressure that you don’t usually feel until your baby is heavy and my peanut is too young to be that heavy. I was born feet first! Not rump first breach, but toes first breach. I don’t think they let you do that anymore. Its my understanding that in that case you usually get a C-section. Is that right?

My puppy (on the right) and her buddy, Rusty, are sad to have to say goodbye until J and I have to go out out of town again. They love to play!

Happy Birthday, Laura!

SOMEONE in my family is having a birthday today! Its my big sis, Laura! Happy birthday to the greatest big sis ever!
That's her at Christmas with her boyfriend, Sam. Look at her pretty, pretty daughters!
Keely is on the left and Katy is on the right. That is a pic of them at what seems to be one of our favorite dining places, Olive Garden. It seems like we always end up there when they come into town. Here is a pic of Laura's goofy dog, Boo.

He loves Jeremy and always wants to cuddle up with him or have his attention. Maybe its because Jeremy is pretty easy going and lets him sit on his back.

Thanks Laura for letting us stay with you this weekend! We are most appreciative and had fun hanging out with you that morning. Oh and thanks for the clothes too! I also will have to find a way to watch Split Ends! Iloved it and Ilove you!

I was also very lucky because this weekend I saw my best friend, Natalie, and she gave me some great boy baby clothes. She also gave me a bouncy seat. That's pretty cool, because there are some things you want new and some things you would love to borrow. Those are two things I am happy to get from a friend. She's had two babies, so she knows what I'll like and won't like. I cannot wait until she and my other close friend, Kristen, come up for our annual girls weekend around the end of this month and help me register! Kristen has two kids also, so I will get a wealth of information from them. Can I rant a little? Why do we not have a Babies R Us? I went into the new one in Little Rock this weekend and would love to be able to do our crib shopping and carseat shopping there. We just don't have that many options up here to buy those big ticket items. I guess the closest is Tulsa, but you really can't register for anything from here, because realistically, who will go online and buy your shower gifts? Not many people in my experience.

So do tell, ladies, what is one thing you got for your baby that you couldn't live without? What item was the biggest annoyance/disappointment/waste of money? I would love to get your input, so I don't end up with a bunch of gimmicky things that I won't realistically use.

Weekend Update- a little early

I'm just sitting in my mother's garage watching people pick out their yard sale finds. We haven't done too bad. I think we've made enough to pay for a tank or two of gas to Florida. We will be leaving for Destin the 16th with Jeremy's family. His mom and dad have so graciously rented a house for all 8 of us to fit in comfortably. I can't wait to show you guys pictures! I am looking forward to being a beach bum and doing some serious shopping for Jonah.

Speaking of Jonah, that is what we've decided to name our boy, provided he is a boy. Jeremy had really liked that name for some time, but I wasn't sure I was sold on it. I thought it over for a while. I tried to think up something else to no avail. So the other night I was reading in Matthew and twice in the chapter I was reading, it mentioned the prophet Jonah. I thought that was a little odd because the story of Jonah wasn't mentioned in many other places in the Bible to my knowledge. I thought, ok that felt like a sign. Then I started to read the book of Jonah again. In the beginning it said the name Jonah meant 'dove,' which is a sign of peace and purity. It can also mean 'silliness'. If any of you know my husband, the chances of us having a silly child is a pretty good one. So the name just seemed like a fit. So Jonah it is.

I had my second ultrasound last Tuesday. It never gets old seeing my lil alien baby. We got our second confirmation that it is a boy. We got a great detailed picture of his boy parts. If its not a boy, we got some 'splaining to do. My official 19 week ultrasound is August 26th. That's when we'll know if he's healthy and continuing to grow like he should.

So I bought a diaper bag at Bella's in Springdale. They have the cutest gift items and baby things. Here's a pic.

Its that vinyl-like material on the outside. I have a hard time keeping things clean, so the abilty to wipe off stuff was a plus. I didn't think it looked too girly. I mean I am a girl, but my child isn't. I plan on getting his name embroidered on it, but at the time I wasn't sure of his name. Here's another view:

Ok yes I am sold on the add ons! The bottle cooler, the little bag, and the changing pad. It also has lots of pockets. That's a total plus for me!

Now Jeremy and I will be on our way to Hot Springs to go to a wedding. We've had a super busy weekend and its not about to slow down anytime soon!

Also I wanted to say congrats to my blog-friend/real life customer, Jen. She had her baby a couple days ago! She is so cute and has so much hair! She was induced and had her baby in 4 hours! Gives me hope! Go wish her baby a belated Happy Birthday!

YARD SALE

Yard sale Friday August 8th and Saturday August 9th. Starts at 7 am. We have furniture, glassware, home decor, clothing and more. There are multiple families involved. It will be at 307 Hindman in Prairie Grove in the Prairie Meadows subdivision.

Now We're Even!

We have an even number of each gender in our house these days. How's that, you ask? Well there's me, my hubby Jeremy, my female dog Riley, and........a baby boy growing in my belly! Can you believe it? Let me backtrack and tell you the whole story, because, well, that's what a blog is for. I can ramble on as much as I like...to a certain extent!

Previously I had mentioned that Jeremy's cousin David had heard on KLRC about a place in Siloam Springs that is needed preggy models to practice ultrasounds on. He told my husband, who forgot the tell me, but luckily David's wife Catherine, mentioned it to me at her haircut a few weeks ago. So I checked it out. I had posted about this previously.

Tuesday, I had just had my 15 week appointment with the OB and of course it was a quick how-are-you-doing appointment. We listened to the heartbeat again (which has consistently been 150 bpm since 10 weeks). I turned down the AFP testing and went on my merry way.

Friday we were lucky enough to get an appointment in Siloam Springs. My husband didn't go to my OB appt since we knew it would be a quickie and opted to go to the Siloam Springs appt. (Fortunately we live about 15 minutes from Siloam). It was the neatest thing ever. They had a ultrasound tech who was teaching other nurses how to properly do them. So there were 3 women learning and the tech. So all three women took their turn looking around and identifying body parts and getting the heart rate and head size, etc. It was the coolest thing to me to get to see this baby! I could pick out arms, legs, the spine, its little mouth opening and closing, its arms and legs moving around. I was amazed. While the three ladies were doing their job, the tech was making suggestions on how to optimize the picture and really just complimenting how great of a job they were doing. (They were on the last day of their training). The tech announced that she would do the final scan and then let us know the sex! What? I had hoped that maybe they could venture a guess, but had no idea they would be able to tell me!

So the u/s tech took over and looked around and tried to get the baby to move out of the curled up position. Then she announced that it was a little boy! Jeremy was just silent, staring at the screen. I was amazed and just so happy. I think she felt so confident because while one of the first girls were scanning me, she had seen that he was a boy. Then that girl piped up that she thought she had seen it too. So she kept trying to get a hiney shot so she could really show us. She finally got that shot and we could see that he was a boy! She said she would be confident in buying blue and throwing away the receipts!

The coolest part of all of this was that they asked to pray for us after 45 minute session was over. I was really touched that they did that. I teared up then. I was just so surprised at how amazed I was to get to see so much of him. It really gave him a personality to me. I can plan, I can pick up good bargains in the proper colors...its real, he's really in there. I was still so scared that they wouldn't find anything in there. So here's some early pics of baby Woody

Skeletor baby! That's a front view of his face on the left and his little scrunched up body on the right.

This is a pic of baby face down and you can see his spine.

Another face down shot. His leg is folded up under him. You can see his ribs and his spine and the amniotic fluid he's been swallowing in his belly. Pretty cool. Can you believe he's the size of an apple or so?

Did I buy anything yet? Yes of course I did. I just bought a few things...I still feel strange buying baby stuff. There was a time in my life I never thought I would be doing that for myself. But they're nothing fancy or embroidered (we haven't decided for sure on a name yet), but still cute.

Perfect for a January baby. Snuggly and cute.Aunt Laura bought these items. She had bought me the little pants before she knew gender...and she's very good with her intuitions. (Apparently EVERYONE else is too. Everyone told me they thought it was a boy. No one told me girl.) Then she bought me these onesies and shirts to match the pants.

So unless I get another ultrasound that tells me differently, I'm going with boy! (I am actually blessed to get another ultrasound tomorrow as a favor and we'll see what they say!) So get ready to see pics of our cowboy room for baby boy Woody.

Eating out (lots), fabric shopping, and my big ole white belly

We had a great weekend. I worked late on Friday and Jeremy met me in town for dinner. We went to Noodles and ran into our friends Dean and Lyndsey and their baby, Hudson. So we all ate together. Food was great and we had a good time catching up with them. Hudson led Jeremy around the parking lot by the finger for about 15 minutes. It was so cute!

Saturday I worked a long day, hit the trail across the street from the salon for a walk/run, and then got a pedicure! It was great. Then I decided I was done for the day and went home to veg on the couch with the new people magazine and a movie on TV. Jeremy and his friend James had been working on James' new house most of the day and they wanted to go out for dinner. I was too pooped to go with them. So they had a boy's night since James' wife was out of town and I was asleep by 8:30!

Sunday we went to church and then met our friends Will and Krissi and their daughter, Presley and our other friends Matt and Mindy and their boys, Maddox and Mason. Jeremy and I then headed out to shop some for our vacation in Florida that's coming up in a few weeks. We got home in enough time to take a nap before it was time to head back to church that evening.

Monday my mom and I headed out to run errands together. We looked at the cribs at Kids Furniture and checked out some fabric for baby bedding at Fabric Gallery. They have the most beautiful things to pick from. I could not narrow my choices down at all! Here's just a few of the many things I loved!

Much cuter in person, but different than all the pink and chocolate you see these days for a girl. That orange was a little pinker in real life.

The red looking fabric is actually more of a fuschia pink. I loved all the back and white patterns. There was also some black chenille and white chenille that would look great with both.

Here's my most recent belly pic! I am 14 weeks 5 days in this pic.

These are my trusty maternity workout shorts that I think I will wear for the rest of my life. So comfortable! Anyway peanut is growing! I go to the doc tomorrow and I think I'll get to schedule my big ultrasound!

Help!

We had heard a baby furniture store in Rogers was having a liquidation floor model clearance. So Jeremy and I, along with his mom and dad, ventured into Rogers to check it out. Yes, it probably is too early to be thinking about nursery furniture, but with a sale, I didn't want to miss out!

Boy did we have lots to learn about furniture. I had heard a lot of advice on whether to get a convertible crib or not. So many people had said they never used it as a toddler bed or a full sized bed. I have this gut feeling that I will use it! I know that may be naive, but I really am considering it. They say you'll use it for the next baby and won't get toddler bed usage out of it. Yes, we may use it on baby number two, but we have a unique situation. We may not get a baby number two. This may be the only chance I have. And maybe not, you never know what God has planned, I could conceive easily the second time, or have luck using frozen emrbryos, or adopt. I have NO idea what my future holds. So I can't really plan like a lot of other moms can. I can say that I would probably use the full size bed headboard because I plan on buying a dresser that matches and just plop a changing pad on top for a changing table. That way I already have matching furniture for the future full sized bed! Besides, its almost impossible to find a nonconvertible crib these days. So please let me in on any information about this! Let me know if there's something I haven't thought about!

Here's the cribs we're looking at. Let me know which one is your favorite!

Crib 1: You can't really see some of the details with this picture...I took them all with my Iphone, but I love the knob footings.

Crib 2: Yes we like dark wood!

Crib 3: I really love this one, but I believe it is the hardest to get (4-6 month delivery time) and you have to pay for the extras. This one's not a clearanced one...actually only one of these are.

Crib 4 : I also love this one. It is much easier to get, I believe they had it in stock or the delivery time was very short. And since we don't know what we're having yet, its very gender neutral...don't you think?

Crib 5: Also gender neutral and easy to get ahold of.

Crib 6: This is the clearanced one. It is really growing on me. I wasn't sure how much I'd like the black...but I do. It could be gone by now for all I know, but it has a dresser that matches it.

All the cribs that I have shown have matching furniture that I really like also. I wouldn't be disappointed with any of them, I know, but I usually need some help narrowing things down! So vote on your favorites! I really would appreciate it!

A pic of your baby!

Here's some info for you preggies out there. J's cousin, David, called Jeremy to tell him about an ad he heard on KLRC about free ultrasounds. Jeremy forgot to tell me about it and David's wife, Catherine told me about it when she came in to get her hair cut.

So here's the deal. Basically a clinic in Siloam Springs is teaching techs how to do ultrasounds. They are looking for pregnant women between 7 and 20 weeks to practice ultrasounds on. The next set of dates they are taking appoinments for is July 30- Aug 1st, I believe. So here's the number to see if you can get an appointment if you live in Northwest Arkansas. 479-549-3322 The name of the place is New Beginnings. I had them give me directions because I am not very familiar with Siloam Springs.

Let me know if you try it out!

Belly Shots!

I had the big heartbeat appointment July 1. I was so scared and ready to hear that fast little heartbeat. Jeremy went with me. I had been warned by so many people that there's a chance they won't be able to hear it because I was only 10w6d. Well when she put that doppler up to my belly, bam! It was right there. Beating away. About 150 bpm the doc said. I was SO relieved. So excited and in so much disbelief! There is a living being inside me. How weird, strange, and very cool is that?

I have been taking belly shots as time goes by. By no means have I been that organized to do it every week on the same day like I wanted to. But here they are. Yes, you are looking at my bare belly, sorry for the oogy skin pics. Yes I am showing...if you know me, I am. I can hide it at work because I wear an apron all day, but at church...not so much. No denying. I feel like maybe its too early to show this much? I don't know I've never been pregnant before. What can you do? Suck it in? No, that doesn't work. So here are the shots!

4 weeks 2 days. I felt so puffy and bloated at the time. What I would give to still be able to stuff myself into those pants now.

7 weeks 4 days. I forgot which way I faced for the previous picture. oops!
9 weeks 5 days. Yes I had been working out. That's a rough picture!
10 weeks 6 days. Late picture taken after a busy night working Vacation Bible School. I think I'm bigger now that I'm almost 12 weeks. Were you girls this big this early with your babies?

My belated birthday dinner

Last weekend my sis and her two girls came up from Bryant for about a day or so. We were gonna have a big birthday dinner for me. The original plan was to do it around my birthday back in April but it was too busy for all of us and Jeremy and I were back and forth to LR so much, so it didn't really happen then. So we planned it for last Friday night. My bro and his g/f Kelly, Laura and Katy and Keely, me and J, and mom had a big dinner complete with one of my favorties: Chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas, green beans, brown beans, cornbread, and rolls. Then for dessert Darren made a New York style Cheesecake and mom made her famous ice cream cake. (Jeremy said the funniest thing about the ice cream cake. He asked me how my mom baked the cake without the ice cream melting. I looked at him funny and said, "Really?" As in- are you really seriously asking me that? His knee jerk reaction was, "No" even though he still didn't know quite how it worked.)

This is a pic of my sis, Laura and me before dinner. Yes I'm taller than her. She hates it. :)

The next day I had a wedding to do hair for. It was for a relative of a friend. We were also invited to the wedding. It was so beautiful. The bride was absolutely beautiful and they had Marketplace cater the wedding. Yum! The wedding cake was so pretty and actually tasted really great. You know how pretty cakes usually don't taste that good? Well this one did.

Sunday morning Jeremy and I had cinnamon rolls in bed. (A huge treat for both of us, because usually I will NOT buy such unhealthy things.) It was Father's Day so, peanut and I gave J a card. We went to church and grabbed some lunch with our friends, Matt and Mindy and their two boys. They suggested Ruby Tuesday because it was close and we'd get the food started fast with their salad bar. They were saying how cranky the boys can get when they are hungry and I was thinking how cranky I can get lately about the same thing. I had a avocado and cheese quesadilla. It was simple but really good. J and I then went home to recover from a super busy week. We held the couch down for a couple hours. So nice after a hectic week!

8 week checkup

I went in June 10th for our 8 week appt. I just spoke to them about our finances and insurance coverage and saw the nurse. She asked me the customary 1 million questions, then sent me downstairs to the lab. I have gotten to know that place quite well. Anyway, they took tons of blood. I didn't think they were gonna leave me any.

It turns out that since the baby is due January 20, 2009...guess what? We get to pay another deductible! Our deductible is quite high because we pay for private insurance. So luckily God has blessed us with paying off my car this month and that will allow us to apply that money to pay for this baby! My car is not fancy or anything exciting but it is safe and plenty roomy for a carseat. So I am praying that it will last another 2 years.

For me, everything is going well as far as I can tell. I have gained 3 lbs. I have been eating well! I am not sick unless I forget to eat. Sometimes I get worried that something could be wrong and I don't even know it. Then I remember how tired I am and how I am STARVING every 2 hours. Those symptoms do reassure me some.

The starving thing is so strange. I'm sure that other women can attest to this, but you just don't know what starving is until you've got a little peanut in your belly demanding to eat. I'm convinced that it is God's way of getting me used to how often I'm gonna have to feed this baby and how desperate he/she will feel when hunger strikes. Usually I can eat something small for breakfast, then have a Lean Cuisine for lunch then maybe a snack around 4, then dinner at whatever time we get around to it. Not anymore! Breakfast must happen right when I get up, then a snack around 9 or 10. Then lunch at 11:30 or 12. Then some fruit or something at 2, then again at 4, then dinner no later than 6. For some reason I don't really get hungry again after dinner. Boy and some foods disgust me. Meat, chicken in particular...ew. For a couple days when my husband even mentioned cheetos to me I wanted to hurl. I had an early early preggy craving for cheetos and ranch dressing and now the the thought of them both makes my stomach churn.

So the next stop is 11 weeks. I have an appointment July 1st. We will hopefully hear the heartbeat. I am anxious to hear that little fast beating heart. For the first trimester, because of my trouble conceiving, I am not to exercise much. I can walk. So I have been doing that, but maybe when I hit the 2nd tri then maybe I can step it up a little or do something different. We'll see. For now, I'm just trying to squeeze into my clothes. No fun, but part of the game.

There is a heartbeat!

Notice I said "a heartbeat." That's because there's one little baby in there. We went to the doc May 28th (I know, its been forever since I've updated...sorry!). Jeremy came with me and we held our breath as Dr Bailey did the 6 week ultrasound. He told us that there was one baby in there and showed us the little blip on the screen that was our baby's heartbeat! He said it probably had started beating the day before! We couldn't believe it! We were so excited to have proof that there's something in there!

My Fertility clinic called me later that day to tell me to stop taking the progesterone shots. I was happy to quit those! Being woken up at 5:30 am to have a huge needle stuck in your hip did not make for a cheery girl. I am still on a different form of progesterone at least until my 11 week appt. That's totally fine with me. They also told me that I was released from the fertility clinic and I was a regular patient. Me? Regular? What a nice thing to hear.

Shortly after my drs appt I headed to Orange Beach, AL with my best friend Natalie, her two kids, her sister, her two kids, and their mom. It was a really pretty place. We had great weather, good food, good shopping and a beautiful beach. We had fun one night looking for crabs on the beach with the kids. Natalie and I wanted to catch a big one so bad, but we were both so feaked out by it, that everytime we tried to get him in our net, we both would scream like little girls! So funny! The kids would run away while we just screamed and laughed. I wish we had that on video tape! Poor Natalie woke up one night with a horrible earache. She had to go to the walk-in clinic and they gave her all kinds of medicine to make her feel better, but it was a good day and a half until she felt partway human again. She is still fighting that ear infection. I pray that I never have to deal with one of those.

Lately I've just been working and trying to keep my house together! My husband so kindly cleaned our house from top to bottom while I was on vacation. He kept telling me on the phone that he had just taken it easy because he was so tired from work. He's been working M-Sat and clocking around 60 hrs a week. He had NOT been taking it easy. He cleaned out our closet and garage. He picked up and cleaned our bedroom and bathroom, dusted, vacuumed, everything! What a wonderful thing to come home from a trip to. He can be a real sweetie.