My 1st Christmas!

Cami had a fabulous first Christmas.  It seemed to wear her out in a serious way, but that could also just have something to do with the little (as in gaining a pound over the course of a few days...) growth spurt she's been having.  I think she enjoyed having Mommy AND Daddy home for four days too!

Her first big outing was to her Great Granny's house for Christmas Eve where she got to meet and "play" (sleep in people's arms) with everyone.  She did great and everyone kept marveling at how she wasn't making a peep.  I tried to stay ahead of her hunger and watched for the slightest bit of hand chewing to get a bottle ready for her to eat....maybe I should have let everyone hear her if that bottle doesn't come fast enough for her wishes. :)

Christmas morning we woke up (ahem, were awoken) early and Cami "opened" her presents from Mommy and Daddy and from Grandma and Grandpa.  She slept through the entire thing, but we're confident that she'll enjoy the presents at some point....

After our first Christmas morning as a family, we fed Cami (full baby = happy baby), dressed her in her Christmas best, and loaded her and her 8,000 required items for travel into the truck to head to Gigi's and Papa D's.  She once again did a great job hanging out during Christmas dinner and present opening time, and even got in about 20 minutes of tummy time on her brand new baby sized Auburn blanket.  We had a great afternoon, and she was only a little cranky when we got home past her normal bedtime.

Um, ignore my hair in that last picture...

Yesterday she was still exhausted from all her adventures and slept her way through most of the morning.  But, around 2 or so she woke up and played most of the afternoon (stared at the ceiling?).  She got to Skype with her cousins, and hear her sweet cousin Hallie say "Love you Cami!"  Ella, Hallie, and Cami get to meet in April and it is going to be some amazing craziness at our house for that week! 

On a side note, even though I'm so excited as she grows and can do more and more, I was a little sad to retire ALL her newborn onesies over the weekend.  She is fully into her 3 month clothes (her 0-3s are still okay since they were bigger than the NB ones) and I was also a little teary to put away her "My 1st Christmas" clothes.  Do they make My 1st New Year's/Valentine's Day/St. Patrick's Day clothes?  Probably not.  :)

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Education, Part 2

More things I have learned:
Cami doesn't have to be stripped down anymore to finish a bottle.  In fact, oftentimes we'll have to make her another ounce after she's finished an entire bottle.
Cami had her first bath and went back and forth between calmness and freaking out. 
Cami will put her hands on her cheek while she eats like it's very serious business.
I think she knows that my phone has a camera on it and that it's trying to take pictures of her; she'll stick her hand up in front of the lens for the majority of the photos (unless she's asleep).
I knew babies grew fast, but this is kind of ridiculous.
When she's really hungry, she'll spit her pacifier out and can get a pretty good range on that thing.
If her paci falls out when she wants it, and it falls on her chest, she can lean her head down and suck it back up into her mouth.
Tummy time is going much better.  Cami will lift her head up and fell asleep during it the other day and napped for over an hour.  Then, she flipped out when she woke up and realized she couldn't really move.
Cami tries to eat her bib when I'm trying to get it on her when she's hungry. 
Do you notice that most of these revolve around food?

 At some point we're going to have to teach her not to stick her tongue out at us..... :)

I'm Silly!!!

Some of Cami's silly times:

When I fall asleep, there isn't much that bothers me.....

 

I hate being cold, so my sponge bath is only okay at the end when I'm all wrapped up and have my paci back in my mouth....

And sometimes tummy time is just really tough.  But I can already lift my head all the way up and hold it there for a few seconds!!!

Prayers

My friend Natalie gave me a link to this family's blog, and I felt compelled to share it on ours.  

http://www.smoterfamily.blogspot.com/

The Smoters are in need of some prayers as they are in the midst of finding out if their son has a chromosome abnormality.  In reading their blog and seeing words that are so similar to what I put on ours last year for Bailey, it just took me right back to what it felt like to hear that information for the first time.  It sounds like they will be cared for at Texas Children's, which was the best place we could be with Bailey.  Please think of them and show them some love on their blog; they need it right now.

Nighttime Progress

Last night we had a glimmer of hope.  Cami went to bed around 7:45pm after eating at 7:30.  She had a pretty big day at the doctor's office (diaper on/off about four times, which she hates, PKU heel stick, which she hates [of course], poked and prodded while her onesie was off so she was cold, which she hates), so she went down pretty easily.  Poor little doodlebug was tired.  She slept ALL THE WAY until 11:30pm.  James fed her then and she chowed down like we've never fed her in her life.  When we've had a long stretch like that before (never that long though), it seems she wakes up every hour and a half to two hours to make up for it.  But, she slept ALL THE WAY until 2:45 (ok, confession....she was perhaps not asleep, but not fussing loudly until that time).  We had TWO long stretches of sleep.  She also drank 4 oz. for the first time last night.  She was ready to eat at 4:45 and 6:45 after that, but I feel like there is light at the end of the tunnel.  Maybe, just maybe, she'll start sleeping a wee bit longer on a regular basis.

Education

What I have learned over the past few days:

While I don't function well, I can get a remarkable amount done on very little sleep.

Cami loves to snuggle and be held.

Cami hates to be cold.

Cami loves to make funny faces and is already working on her smile.

Cami hates being changed because it makes her cold.

Cami has to eat in only her diaper or she snuggles up so much that she falls asleep mid-feeding.

Cami loves her swing, but the verdict is still out on tummy time.

Cami likes to straighten her legs and do flutter kicks when she's on her back.

I already knew this, but James is AMAZING.

I already knew this too, but I love my family.

Cami's Birthday - 11.29.11

It has taken a little while to get this updated, b/c we are TIRED.  Tired in a way that I've never been tired before.  But, Cami is being so, so cute and adorable that I can't complain.  Here's her birthday story:

We were supposed to head to the hospital at 6:30am on Tuesday morning, but at 4:15am I got a call that between scheduled c-sections and inductions and all the women that randomly went into labor Monday night, there wasn't any room for me.  They asked me to call back at 8:30.  So, needless to say, I didn't go back to sleep and it was a long wait until 8:30.  I called back and they said, nope, still no room, call back around ten.  At ten, they asked me to call back at noon.  Finally, at noon they asked us how fast we could get to the hospital, and if we could get there before one, we would get things started.  We got our stuff in the car and headed off to St. Luke's.

When I arrived, they were still shifting around moms that had already delivered, so I started in L&D triage.  My (awesome) doctor came in to break my water (and checked me....there was absolutely NO progress since my doctor's appointment the week before so I was glad I was being induced), and then we sat around to wait for a bit.  We were texting with friends and family while Cami's greeting part (i.e. grandparents) gathered in the waiting room.  They moved us to a room around 4 and started my Pitocin at 4:30pm.  I made a little progress, got an epidural, and then almost passed out.  Yep.  Almost passed out.  My epidural made my blood pressure drop in a serious way so I got a little epinephrine shot and we were back in business.

I got checked around 8:30 and I was fully dilated.  My nurse told me not to push (um, ok) and paged my doctor.  My doctor showed up about fifteen minutes later and started cracking me up (she really is AWESOME) which totally relaxed me and made me less nervous.  James was right by my head and kept telling me how awesome I was doing and a few pushes through two contractions later Cameron Elizabeth Galloway was born at 8:54pm.

They handed her straight to me so I could see her and give her a little cuddle, but then took her over to the warmer b/c she had a lot of fluid in her airway.  James followed her over and kept smiling the biggest proud daddy smile ever and watched her while she got her big "I'm here" cry going.  I just couldn't stop staring.  Once they got me all taken care of and Cami warm, they brought her back to me and she nursed like a pro right away and then we brought everyone in to meet her. 

Cami immediately had everyone wrapped around her little finger and she made her little faces.  Everyone watched as she got her first bath (she LOVED getting her hair washed in the warm water, go figure) and then we got her dressed and swaddled.  She was so good the first night, but I barely slept at all because I just kept watching her and listening to all her little noises.  She had so many visitors her first full day and everyone got to show her some love.  Night two was fairly rough; Cami was so congested we were worried about her (apparently a lot of babies are super congested when they're born, but it sounded like she couldn't breathe to us) so they checked her out in the nursery (I burst into tears as they took her out of the room) to make sure she was getting enough oxygen.  She was (phew), but then our nurse told us that she would keep Cami in the nursery for a bit so we could get some sleep.  I had only gotten about two hours in the prior 36 so I was game for the suggestion (even though I teared up again when she left), and James and I got five glorious hours of sleep. 

When they brought Cami back to us in the morning, she had had all of her screening tests done, including her heel stick for jaundice.  Her "bili" levels were pretty high, so we had to put her through a pretty rough day.  She was a serious trooper though.  She had to be mostly naked under blue lights to work her bilirubin levels down.  And she had to wear goggles to cover her little eyes.  We could take her out to feed her and change her, but then immediately had to put her back under the lights.  We felt so bad every time we recovered her little eyes with the goggles!!  But, if we didn't put her right back under, that would only mean that she potentially would have to do the treatment even longer, so we tried to be really good about it.  Luckily, her bili levels dropped to low risk throughout the day and we were told we could go home and didn't have to stay another night. 

We brought Cami home and showed her her room and her crib and her changing table.  Then we set up the pack and play in our room.  After weeks of my big talk of her staying in her own room right from the start, we are having her sleep in our room.  We have the slight excuse of her jaundice and congestion and wanting to check on her, but really I'm just a wuss. 

We've had so much help from family the past few days that it's made the transition of having Cami home as easy as it could possibly be (even though we're still exhausted).  She is just a little cuddly, beautiful baby and we are so in love with her. 

Getting Even Closer.....

Well, Cami wasn't a Thanksgiving present.  But, she'll be here on Tuesday!  Woohoo!!!  At first we were going to go in tomorrow morning to be induced, but they had to move us back a day, so now we'll head to the hospital early Tuesday morning.  Please be praying for us that things go smoothly (that my epidural doesn't wear off....) and that Cami arrives safe, healthy, and happy.  Thanks!!!!!

Getting Closer....

Just a quick update for the week....I'm having contractions a little more often, but not enough to make us wonder if we should dash off to the hospital (just enough to make sure we're relatively close by).  James didn't get his wish that my water would break before Breaking Dawn and cause us to miss it.  I'm anticipating that she comes this week though...I said bye to my students on Friday (and got a few "where are you going?" questions...sigh).  Maybe she'll be a Thanksgiving present! :)

Almost There!!!

I am 37.5 weeks along.  And I am READY for Cami to get here.  Oh, I'm sure there's something we don't have that we'll figure out we need, and I'm probably not really ready to go without sleep for nights on end, but still, I'm READY.  As in, let's do this.  Today.


Cami doesn't seem to agree (hopefully this won't be a trend) because she seems all cozy and not ready to come along at a nice early, yet safe, date like 38 weeks (or today).  In the meantime, I am waddling through the day at school and going through food faster than a heavyweight boxer.  I'm hungry all the time, which in the past has gone along with a growth spurt from Cami.  Let's save the rest of these growth spurts until you are on the outside, my dear.

The good news is things do seem to be getting started, however slowly.  Last Tuesday I had a weekly checkup and was 2cm dilated and 25% effaced.  This was better than the week before where I was 1.5 and 0%.  But, I don't feel very many contractions, so I'm not super optimistic that this Tuesday will bring about a huge change.

We've had a TON of love shown to Cami in the past two weeks.  I've had showers with coworkers, friends and family and have been given so many beautiful things for our daughter.  Everyone has been so generous, we keep joking that she's going to be spoiled and never have to wear an outfit twice.  She'll be a pretty fashionable little baby.

This is just a sampling from a shower from my coworkers!

Cami also got to "attend" her first Texans game.  She wiggled and kicked her way through the day (which may have had something to do with the brownies at the tailgate...) and that was the one day I didn't want to go into labor, so it was nice that I didn't start having contractions in the middle of Reliant Park. 

Here's a little picture of our Halloween pumpkin as well.  I felt like a pumpkin on Halloween.....will I still feel like one for Thanksgiving? :)

By the way, two AWESOME pieces of news.....two of our friends have recently had their little ones and we are so excited for them.  Becky (see "Large and in Charge") had her little girl, Zellee (Cami's future BFF), this past Friday (11.11.11!!) and Natalie and James, our friends through TX Children's, had their little boy, Kaleb.  I can't wait for Cami to meet her friends! 

Tired & Huge

Cami is growing a lot.  I know this because I'm always tired.  And huge.  That's pretty much it.
Ok, not really.  We had a good doctor's appointment this week.  I've been told to do kick counts, which isn't so bad because Cami is such a wiggle worm it usually only takes me about three minutes to get to 10 kicks when she's active.  But, my BP was up a little bit.  I'm not worried because it's been normal every day since I was at the doctor, so, other than getting some puffy ankles, things are looking good.  I have one more two week appointment and then I'm on weekly appointments after that.  I'm ready for Miss Cami to make her appearance, so as soon as it's safe for her, I'll be in "Bring on Labor" mode. 

Herman Cain in America's Hometown

32 Weeks brought an exciting event to The Woodlands.  Herman Cain, one of my favorite potential presidential candidates, came to our local Barnes and Noble for a book signing.  The Woodlands (which deemed itself long ago America's Hometown....a bit cocky, but we'll go with it) is a little bio-dome devoted to a general love of capitalism, so I thought it was a good selection for him to make his presence known to Houston.  James and I both got to shake his hand, and I let him know that we love his 999 plan (look it up if you haven't already).  I, of course, wanted to get a photo with him, but there were so many people waiting to get their books signed, they were moving the line a tad too fast for that.  So, I had to settle for a pic of me (looking a little rough at the end of the day) with him in the background (red tie).  Maybe we'll get to tell Cami she was there when Mommy and Daddy shook hands with the President of the United States. 

Other "exciting" news of the week - my wedding rings still fit.  This was the week when I had to forgo my rings with Bailey, so it's nice that I can still put them on.  I've had a few more contractions here and there, but nothing to signify early labor (although my two weeks of "certainty" are up).  I have a doctor's appointment Tuesday, so we'll see if Cami has any surprises in store....

It's Fall!!!

Well, fall for Houston, which means that it's sort of cool in the morning and mid to high 80s in the afternoon.  After months of 100+ temps and our epic drought that continues, I'll take at least the cooler weather (although we could still use some serious rain).  We had a chance to get outside and enjoy the great weather this weekend, and I have officially decorated with my fall wreath and a pumpkin on the porch.

I took a preterm labor test this week at the doctor's (you might notice that my bump has dropped), but the test came back negative, so for at least the next two weeks, Cami won't make her arrival.  She's now head down and in position, so she's ready, but I'm still hoping she hears me each time I mention that maybe the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving would be a great birthday.  Although, then I miss out on the sales.....

"Wow, you must be about to pop!"

Um, no, actually I'm not.  I seem to be eliciting this phrase or variations of it from random strangers or acquaintances that I haven't seen in awhile.  For some reason, the cashiers at the grocery store especially seem compelled to say something.  Maybe I look like I want to carry on a conversation at the end of the work day when I'm running errands, but, odds are, I don't.  I'm a little bit crabby, most likely tired, and almost certainly trying to hurry home because I'm hungry.  So there.

I'm being a little dramatic....it's really not THAT often people have been saying this to me, and, really, my stomach is big because Cami's healthy and getting bigger, which is awesome.  We can't wait to meet her and 10 weeks seems like a lo-ong time to go still!!  

This week would be Bailey's first birthday.  It's still crazy the journey we've been on in the last couple years, and we still are so thankful for having had Bailey, even for such a short time.  Cami is a constant reminder of the fact that God has a plan; if Bailey had been healthy, we probably wouldn't be preparing for Cami's arrival right now.  We are so blessed by both of our girls. 

Chubby Cheeks!!

We had our 28 week ultrasound yesterday (although, it was actually a day before I'm technically 29 weeks).  It was just a quick growth scan to check and see how she's growing.  We knew from our impromptu 26 week ultrasound that she was on track at that point.  She's grown quite a bit in three weeks.  At 26 weeks she was about two pounds; now they're estimating she's 3.2 pounds (which puts her about a week ahead of the game).  For those keeping track, Bailey was 4.2 lbs when she was born.  Something tells me this delivery may not be as easy.

Besides discovering her weight, we got to watch her for a bit and she put on a little show for us.  She turned her face right towards the "camera" and then stuck out her tongue at us and gave us a big yawn.  It was pretty cute.  When the ultrasound tech came back to her face later, she seemed to look like she was chewing, which made me wonder if she picked up my habit of chewing on my cheek I had (had?) when I was little (Becky, stop laughing).

Here's a picture of her chubby little cheeks:

She also now has a name!  It took awhile, but inspiration struck us one morning and her entire name came together pretty quickly.  She will be Cameron Elizabeth Galloway, but we have yet to decide on her nickname.  She'll probably go by Cami or Cami Beth (unless she's in trouble, then it's the full deal, but that will never happen...right?), but we can't decide between the two.  I'm sure we'll figure it out at some point.... :)

A Full Week of School.....

....and no swollen ankles!!!  AND no hospital trips!  Yahoo for success.  Granted, I spend the majority of the day sitting down, and have given more than one powerpoint guided talk to the kids from a chair in the back of the classroom with my feet propped up on another chair.  Peppy, engaging teacher?  Perhaps not.  But, my kids this year are REALLY sweet (to the point that I'm wondering when something crazy is going to happen) and are being really helpful.  I haven't even needed to yell once.  Maybe slightly raise my voice (which, I'll be honest, I kind of like it when the kids say I'm scary when I'm mad...it means they're getting the point), but that's it. 

I had a follow up with my doctor on Tuesday....Baby G's HR sounded great and her kicks keep getting stronger and stronger.  All of last week my abs felt like they were trying to detach from my body with stretching so much, and then on Friday...poof, I think they gave up, because I was suddenly much more comfortable.  James thinks even though I'm not as heavy (yet) as I was with Bailey, my stomach is already almost as big, hence why I'm feeling so much stretching.  Hopefully the six pack I had before I was pregnant will return (haha).  In two weeks we have a growth scan ultrasound, and I'm glad I'll get to actually see the pictures, because I couldn't see the screen when they had to do an ultrasound at the hospital last week.

We've been putting stuff together too, and have almost everything ready for her to actually arrive.  I wanted to get this done WAY ahead of time in case a) I deliver early again (hopefully not) and b) because I'm insane and trying to work on a thesis and finish grad school.  I'll be defending my thesis about a week and a half before my due date.  Hahahahahaha.  That'll be interesting.

Since college football has started again we decided to be festive and take a photo in front of our AU sign.  If every game this season is like our first one, Auburn football might be enough stress for me to go into labor early.  Here's me and Baby G at 27 weeks....

I didn't want James to feel left out so I took a picture of him too.  I think he might be mocking me.....

Enjoy college football, everyone!  Thanks for continued prayers for us and for Baby G (who actually does have a name now by the way.....stay tuned). :)

Yikes!

We had an eventful day with Baby G today.  I am right at 26 weeks, and went to the third day of school excited about the fun little lab I was doing with my students (who seem REALLY great this year).  Everything seemed normal.  Then, after hearing a couple times "class was so fun today!", I was walking down the hallway and  - bam -  felt like my water broke.  Ummmm.....that's not supposed to happen yet.  So I pulled my co-workers into the workroom and explained the situation, and within about 10 minutes I had called my doctor's office and was off to St. Luke's labor and delivery per the nurse's instructions.  And, oh yeah, I was freaking out.  This is the second time I have been surprised by the phrase "you need to go to labor and delivery now."  When I am 37-40 weeks pregnant and someone says this to me, I will be fine with it, but right now it's not what I want to hear. 

They quickly got me checked in over at St. Luke's and immediately got me strapped in with a HR monitor for Baby G.  I was SO happy to hear that little heart beat (since I had no idea what was going on).  After a few more checks, they said my amniotic fluid levels were fine, my cervix is all closed up as it should be and everything was good.  My water didn't break (I won't get graphic), this can just happen sometimes (chalk it up to some of the really strange things that happen during pregnancy).  While checking my fluid levels, Baby G was checked out too via ultrasound and she's right on track for 26 weeks and doing great.   We also got further confirmation that she is, in fact, a little girl (since she was moving so much at the 20 week ultrasound I wondered).  So, things were looking up, we were happy that our little girl was doing so well and not in any danger.  After the ultrasound they strapped me back up to the HR monitor and contraction belt to monitor for a bit, and the nurse curiously asked me if I felt any cramping.  Hmm....nope.  She left and I looked over at the monitor and noticed this rather frequent rise and fall on the monitor.  Well, then I felt it.  I watched the little line rise on the monitor and felt a little squeeze right in time with it.  Contractions??  What???  The nurse came back after about ten minutes and told me I was having contractions (yes, we know), but luckily a quick little shot of medicine can calm those down at this stage.  After the shot (which apparently makes you jittery), everything stabilized as it should and we were able to be discharged with instructions for rest and water and when to call if all this madness happens again.  I laughed to James that the shot didn't make me jittery and then laughed at myself when I tried to sign my name on my discharge instruction forms.  My signature looked like a sixth grader's because I couldn't hold the pen still! 

After all this fun (read:  me near tears with James repeating that everything was going to be fine), James and I were able to grab some lunch and I have been resting all afternoon (with time to write the blog). 

I will be in my rolling chair for the majority of the day tomorrow.  

Cute little foot at 26 weeks:

Here We Go....

The madness begins Tuesday.  Kids come back to school and it will be a daily grind straight through until Thanksgiving (we have Labor Day and a teacher workday before then...yikes!).  I have my comfy maternity clothes, compression hose (oh my goodness I'm going to be so HOT), and my new shoes ready to go.  Two good things about starting back (and no, neither is going to be a noble statement about how wonderful students are or influencing America's youth):  the time will go quickly because it will be very busy and college football starts.  We are within two weeks of Auburn's first game, and while I don't think the season is going to be quite as exciting as last season, it always makes for a fun Saturday.  War Eagle!

Large and In Charge

This week was pretty darn fun.  Which is good, because Monday starts a full week of work.  It truly started on Friday with inservice, but anyone can go to work for a day, right?  

Earlier in the week, my friend Hillary and I had an End-of-Summer layout day which caused some red shoulders, but was a wonderful way to spend a day before work started.  Friday started work, but we got a free Chick-Fil-A breakfast, a two and a half hour lunch break, and an ice cream party.  For a pregnant girl, there really isn't a much better way to go back to work.  Then Friday night, I saw The Help with my friend Lindsay (phenomenal, go read the book [because the book is always best] and then go see the movie, after you finish reading the blog, of course) and it lived up to every expectation I had for it.  THEN (oh yes, there's more fun) Saturday morning, I woke up early to go see my MTB (meant to be) friend Becky who happened to be a mere 3 hours away in Dallas (as opposed to 12 in Memphis).  She happens to be seven months pregnant to my six and we had a blast eating, sighing over how out of breath we get telling stories, eating, picking out matching outfits for our girls, eating cookies with frosting, watching movies, eating, taking pictures, shaking up our babies from laughing so hard, and taking pictures of us eating.  The pictures are only a sampling of our shenanigans.  Becky's husband Tucker was VERY patient as our photographer (thanks, Tucker).  Now to go to bed early to recover....typing has made me out of breath.

This is where the title of the blog came from.....(for me anyway, I don't speak for Becky).

Hmmm....is there something behind that tree?

Just us and our bumps (the inspiration for this came from an amazing pregnancy photo link)!

Matching outfits for the future friends!!!!

 

We're forcing them to meet already. :)  At least they didn't kick each other.

It should be noted that when I showed James ALL the pictures we took he said "Y'all aren't putting these on the internet where people can see them are you?"  Hence, the small selection.  :)

A Stomach Virus and a Beach Trip...All in One Week

I'm writing the blog because it's more fun than writing a paper.  Procrastination is an art.

Week 23 was a little crazy.  It started off with a lovely 24 hour stomach bug, which is not fun in the best of circumstances, but especially when you're already tired at six months pregnant.  It came at a bad time too because it hit Thursday, and Friday I was supposed to head down to Galveston for our cousin Jacqueline's bachelorette party.  I ended up giving myself an extra day to recover and midday Saturday was headed south to the coast.  I had a blast getting to celebrate Jacqueline and can't wait for her wedding!!

I start back to work on Friday, which will start the long haul until Thanksgiving break.  Usually I'm ready for the school year to get started by this time of the summer, but knowing now that teaching gets (a lot) more difficult the larger my bump gets makes me not quite as excited. 

Aunt Joy sent a cute little bathing suit this week, so I had to put it on here....hopefully Baby G will enjoy the pool and she'll look super cute while she's swimming around!

We also have the nursery pretty much finished up, and I'm so glad that I won't have to worry about it once school starts!  Here are some pics... 

It's a Girl (pretty sure everyone already knows this, though.....)!!!

Last week was a busy one, so we didn't have a chance to update the blog after informing my family that little Baby G is a girl.  If you haven't heard the news by now, you need to get on Facebook.  ;)  We had a wonderful, event-free 20 week ultrasound which we are SO (so, so, so) thankful for.  I badgered the ultrasound tech with questions while she showed us different organs and body parts (she was new to us, and didn't know our history), but she was very patient with me (maybe thought I was crazy, but patient).  James kept grinning at me because he thought the umbilical cord was something else, and thought he had the sex figured out before the tech told us, but it was in fact just the umbilical cord.  I think the tech was surprised that we took the whole "it's a girl" news without a ton of emotion, but I was so relieved at everything looking good that it did not matter to me in the slightest if she said boy or girl.  Of course, we're so excited to have another little girl, and can't wait to meet her and see her little personality start to show.  I haven't been allowing myself to go crazy buying new clothes, because we have so many outfits from my nieces and Bailey, but it's been fun to get a couple cute things here and there.  Now we have the huge task of picking a name....I'm not sure five months is enough time.  It's a slow process for us. 

The reason last week was so busy is because my entire family was in town visiting (see below).  It was fun to host Jack, Megan, Ella, and Hallie at our house and take them around The Woodlands to play, shop, and eat at all the great places we have so close to home!  I had to slightly modify my cake plan because I didn't have time to frost said cake prior to everyone getting to my house (procrastinator).  So, instead, I took Ella back into our room and gave her a little sign that said "It's a GIRL!" sent her out into the living room to share.  Then, we had pink frosted cake later that didn't have to be kept a surprise.

It's been a great couple weeks, and I'm still feeling good (although slightly dreading the return to school and thus standing on my feet all day), with the exception of just starting to feel heavy.  Ah well, it was going to happen at some point.

I'll add some pics from the week as soon as I have a chance to get them uploaded!!  Thanks for all the prayers! 

Back to the Blog

And we're back!  A lot of people have been asking me when we're going to start the blog back up, and I guess it's about time.  I'm nineteen weeks pregnant (yahoo!) and so far I have had a relatively easy time of things.  I did have a lot of morning sickness during the first trimester (and by morning sickness I mean all-day sickness), but that subsided earlier than it did with Bailey, which I was super pumped about.  Now I'm off work for the summer (favorite time of the year, other than when I'm off work for Christmas), and that's coincided nicely with the second trimester energy boost.  I spend my day laying out by the pool, reading (not always for fun....I'm in my 2nd year of grad school), and going to the gym for a "workout".  Awesome.

We have our big mid-point ultrasound on Wednesday of this coming week, so hopefully we'll get to find out if we're having a boy or a girl, but more than that, we'll get to find out if the baby is looking healthy.  I definitely went into this ultrasound with Bailey with a very breezy, yahoo for getting to see the baby again sort of attitude, only to have everything turned upside down (to put in mildly).  So, needless to say, I do NOT have a breezy attitude about this ultrasound.  I'm a little bit nervous (again, to put it mildly), but, lucky for me, James is pretty calm, which helps me stay calm (ish).  Everything so far has looked good, and we are hoping for some great results on Wednesday.  As always, prayers are appreciated!  :)

In the meantime, my mom has been suggesting baby names that are fit for a character on Days of Our Lives (sorry, Mom, it's true), and there is some slight disagreement going on with me forcing my family to wait five extra days to know if the baby is a boy or a girl.  I'm actually going to get to tell my parents, my aunt, my brother, my sister-in-law, and my nieces TOGETHER, IN PERSON what we're having.  This is usually done over the phone, so it's kind of a big deal to have everyone in Houston at the same time.  The disagreement comes from the fact that everyone else just wants to know and they're not too concerned with my big plans for the cake with the pink or blue icing.  Well, too bad.  I'm making a cake.  (And, Becks, it's going to be Funfetti!).