and baby makes 3...

bye bye blogger

2010-09-20T22:15:00.002-05:00

well, I'm finally admitting to myself that I am not an avid blogger. I want to be, I haven't been putting as much on fbook and I want to share things, but I get on here and the edit box is tiny and its hard to put up a lot of pictures at once and there's so much blank space and I rarely have much to say.

So I switched! Tumblr seems more my style. Short, simple, to the point.

http://jmeo.tumblr.com/

so bookmark it, add it to your google reader, whatever. I promise promise promise to be better about blogging.

this one will stay here so I can look back at myself during my pregnancy with Garrett. And cringe. Did I really take all those pics with my belly hanging out? lol. Will I do it again this time? Maybe. We'll see...

April/ 8 months

2010-08-05T10:32:00.004-05:00

the beginning of April brought Easter!

more lazy outside days

playing football

the best aunts

strip-teases
(yes, he did that on his own!)

hockey playoffs!

an awesome tunnel to crawl through

first time "swimming" on his splash pad

and his first bike ride!

March/ 7 months

2010-08-05T09:34:00.005-05:00

So here's what we missed from March...

Jen is on a Houston Rodeo committee, so one day that she was working, we took Garrett to his first Rodeo!

he LOVED the petting zoo!

Goats

so excited!

so tired :)

we spent a LOT of time outside

St Patty's day

with Uncle Kyle and Aunt Jen

rolling rolling rolling

first balloon!

first time at Lupe. In one week the kid ate fajitas from Lupe Tortilla, Cyclone Anayas and Chuys. We should have started him on the cheap stuff lol

me and Jen at the rodeo to see...

AWESOME concert, so much fun!

he learned to fly!

you know whats emabarrassing?

2010-08-01T09:19:00.002-05:00

When you finally get to go and get a haircut, but as they are washing your hair you remember that you went swimming yesterday. With a hat on. And didn't comb your hair afterwards. Or wash your hair that night. Oops.

And then the lady cutting my hair was combing it out and her comb snapped in half. Embarrassing.

Feb 2010 (6 months)

2010-07-27T20:42:00.009-05:00

ok, so here's what was going on in Feb, when G turned 6 months!

6 month pic

we started cereal!

he liked it a lot

but not as much as he liked the sweet potatoes a few days later!

he started sitting up on his own, the day after he turned 6 months

my grandparents came in from Michigan and got to meet their first great-grandchild :)

Love this pic, about to go check the mail on a crazy cold day, he was even wearing his mittens

then my aunt and cousins came to Texas too, and we all went to Kemah

cousins

me and Jen as Garrett went down his first slide!

we got him a swing, which he LOVES

I got an ergo carrier with my birthday money :)

first time swinging at the park

watching my cousins play video games

this is the onesie I gave Brandt when I told him I was pregnant

discovered Daddy's Aggie ring

yum!

For my 30th birthday we decided to go skydiving! G's even in his plane pj's for me :) (we did get him dressed later, we just got there really early)
We waited around for 4 hours and then had to leave, the weather wouldn't clear up enough for us to jump :(

here's a during pic! It was awesome!!!

So we came back the next weekend! Jen and Kyle after their jump

Me and Brandt after the jump

lets see if I can recommit to blogging

2010-07-26T21:50:00.006-05:00

nope, your eyes are not deceiving you... I'm really posting again! I can't believe it says my last post was Jan 28th! Starting after Christmas, our internet would crap out for hours at a time, and since I couldn't read blogs, I rarely was in the mood to post. Then we switched providers, but had crappy hardware, so it wouldn't load pics, videos, or blogs. I couldn't even access Blogger w/o everything crashing. But now we are fixed, and have been for months, but I just didn't get back into blogging...

So... lets catch up! I'll do that slowly through the next week or so. Here's what's up now!

Me: We decided that I will be a stay at home mom for good! The original plan was to go back to work once Garrett was a year old, and although I was ok with that, I was d-r-e-a-d-i-n-g it! Although its tough on us, and at times stressful for Brandt to know that he is the sole provider for his family, we love the arrangement!
And I wouldn't put this on fbook, but this is my blog, and if I can't brag about myself here, where can I? I am maintaining 23 pounds BELOW my pre-preg weight! The other day it dipped to 26 pounds, but its def not consistent. I am so excited, I know my hard work is paying off! Mainly, I'm just trying to be active. We bike ride, go for a walk every day, sometimes run, and exercise.

Garrett! (Since yall are all here to read about him, not me lol) He will be a year old in like a week and a half. Wow... so we started purees (like jarred baby food) at 6 months. But I am proud to say he's only had jarred food once, I made alllll his food, and had a blast doing it! In fact, I was pretty bummed once he stopped eating them. Around 8-9 months we started with fingers foods and he took to it really quickly. By the middle of 9 months, no more purees! Our goal was to have him eat what we are eating, and in turn, we are eating better because of it. The only thing he hasn't tried of ours is pizza. Oh, and sweets. We are waiting for his birthday party smash cake for him to sample sugar and sweets! Right now fruit is his favorite, he just shovels it in his mouth. My whole family are big fruit eaters so I hope this sticks.

At 11 months we ditched the bottles, we'd been giving him his milk in cups inconsistantly for months, so it was a pretty easy switch. I was standing in Target staring at the bottle liners, and I was like, nope, I am tired of buying these! And speaking of milk, I pumped for 8 months! We had to supplement a bottle every few days starting at 6 months until I was only pumping a bottle a day so I decided to officially quit. My goal was to pump for 4 months (to cover the cost of the pump) so I was satisfied with 8 months :)

he started crawling on April 14th, so thats ummm 8 months. And 2 weeks later he started pulling up! A little after 10 months he started going from sitting to standing on his own, and now he walks all over with his walking toy or if you hold his hands. We've seen a lot of progress, before 11 months, he wasn't bending his legs when he walked, but now he is. And he goes all over from one piece of furniture to the next. He has a toy our neighbors let us borrow that he pushes and walks behind, and he is all over the place, unless he gets stuck on something. This past week he has taken a step on his own a few times, but we aren't counting it as his first step since he falls right away. Maybe he'll be walking by his birthday!

Oh his birthday, I am soooo excited for it! We have almost all the decorations done. I finished his onesie today that he will be wearing. Its nothing big or extravagant, we are having family and a few friends over to my in-laws.

I don't have any official stats, but I will in 2 weeks from his one year checkup! Based on our bathroom scale, he is just around 20 pounds! Last month we started wearing the 10 month clothes. And he's still firmly in the size 3 diapers, although I've been buying 4's when I stock up. We still use the carrier from the travel system for his carseat, but we'll prob install the convertible seat soon. (Rear facing!! Even if its legal, its way too risky to have little ones forward facing!)

Ok, I think thats enough for now! So here is what you have been waiting for:

11 month pics, standing outside

me and G, not the best pic, but I won't post anything older than this month yet!

happy standing man :)

new fave game, share dinner with the dogs!

yay milk in a cup!

cloth diapers

2010-01-28T18:32:00.005-06:00

I've been asked to share our adventures with cloth diapers, so here goes!

When I was pregnant I was interested in cloth diapers, but we weren't sure if thats the route that we wanted to take or not. There are reasons not to, its different, therefore scary, its messy, its not the norm... plus its just more work. And you have to handle poop.

We got so many diapers from showers and my in-laws that there was no point in not using them. We are getting to the point now though that we are having to buy diapers. Its roughly $70 a month for G's diapers, and once I realized that, I knew it was time to try out the cloth diapers.

They came in today, so I'll post our adventures with them. We only have 4-ish diapers, so we aren't fully converted, mainly just trying to see which brand/styles we like best. They have to be washed several times before being used, so they are currently being washed again. And again.

There were three brands that I wanted to try:
Softbums (good for chunky legged babies)
bumGenius (brand that everyone I know uses)
Fuzzibunz (the one I haven't bought yet)

at the moment the Softbums are our favorites, at least before use. They are two-in-ones... they have a waterproof cover and each one comes with 3 snap in inserts, along with a soaker. So when we change him, the cover is still fine, we just snap in a new insert.

I'll let you know how it goes once we get them on the kiddo!

I'm a little behind, here's Christmas!

2010-01-22T09:15:00.003-06:00

I hadn't been posting b/c I was waiting on the time to get this one posted. Here are our Christmas pics... so this will be long!

playing in his bumbo on Jen's counter while Mom, Jen & I have our Christmas cookie making party

playing with an ornament in his cute Christmas onesie from Aunt Cheryl!

another shot of the onesie :)

Christmas Eve Eve - dinner and Christmas lights

at Buca. This is my fave pic ever of the two of them!

their side of the table

Bartzes!

Jen (in her cute boots!) walking around the Christmas light place with G

after looking at lights

Christmas Eve party at Gary & Rhonda's. For some reason I didn't take any other pics!

Now Christmas morning:

Christmas morning! Opening his present. Although it was more to shove the tissue paper in his mouth than it was to see what was inside :)

more presents with Daddy

He got a Sophie! his favorite thing to chew on! Well, second to his fingers

not sure about this puppy, it knows his name!

opening gifts wears out a baby!

his Christmas PJ's

from here we crashed the Barron's Christmas breakfast that was at Jen & Kyles. But I didn't bring my camera in.

Then we headed to B's grandparent's house

playing with Papa

all the guys playing with the little man

5 generations!
There is another picture somewhere of 5 generations where Brandt is the baby! I hope it turns up

all the guys

playing with Mimi & Papa

then we were off to my parent's house!
(with a pit stop at Mimi & Papa's for a nap. I may have taken one with him lol)

the best present: dinosaur ball pit from Jen & Kyle!

playing with the dinosaur :)

balls!

can you find the baby??

ball pit

happy baby!

hope yall had a wonderful Christmas!

2010-01-22T09:13:00.003-06:00

I saw this today and thought I'd share. I refer to B all the time as a superhero, but I know he never feels that way himself.

Matthew 5:9 "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God."

Teef!

2010-01-21T17:08:00.001-06:00

our Christmas card

2009-12-24T12:14:00.001-06:00

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas survey

2009-12-22T21:47:00.002-06:00

also stolen from the lovely Emily

once again, if you are reading this, you are tagged! Do it! NOW!

What is your religion? Christian. As far as denomination, that's up in the air. Raised Catholic, sort of unofficially switched to Baptist while we were dating, but we are really interested in Methodist. I could care less what I am labeled, that means nothing to me, I just want to find a good church family and a preacher that speaks to me. You know what I mean :) B's schedule makes it hard to try out churches, but we are working on it.

How do you celebrate Christmas? Christmas Eve get together/white elephant/food/games at B's parents, but my whole family comes too. Then gifts with his fam after everyone leaves. Christmas morning with the 3 of us, lunch at one set of B's grandparents with his whole fam, then dinner at my parents. Thank goodness his whole fam live on the same street, less than 5 miles from my parents!

Favorite Christmas hymn? We 3 Kings, O Holy Night

Favorite Christmas song? Carol of the Bells

Absolute favorite thing about Christmas? family, giving, relaxing wiht everyone, happiness, joy of the time of year. and lights!

Did you get your Christmas shopping done early this year? I had my gifts wrapped before our tree was up.

Favorite Christmas food? cookies. Hazel's chocolate pie. Jennifer's "MyPotatas!".
(honestly, they are too sour cream-y, I just added that to make you feel special)

Did you do anything charitable for Christmas? just some donations, which I am scrimping on this year since I'm not working. I would love to start up a new tradition so that Garrett can see and eventually participate.

What does your Christmas tree topper look like? its a star, gold with white lights

Eggnog or hot chocolate? I strongly dislike eggs. And milk. hot chocolate all the way!

How were your Santa gifts left when you were a kid? we each had our own santa paper, a few of the gifts (maybe all of them?) had tags so we knew who's paper was who's. Santa was a messy writer, sort of like when my mom writes with her left hand...

Which kind of lights do you prefer for Christmas? colored C9's or white on the house. our yard is all in colored this year, it rained too much to get on the roof. Our tree has both white and colored lights. I prefered white until we got the colored on there, now I gotta say I like the mix. We are slowing buying LED's so we can eventually use those.

Mistletoe? I used to buy it every year, but I didn't this year.

To give or to receive? I love shopping for other people! Ok, I'll be honest. I just love shopping period.

Do you like candy canes? I do. But I'll just buy a few of the tiny ones b/c we never eat them, just use them in hot chocolate.

all about me!

2009-12-22T21:33:00.002-06:00

I stole this from Emily, I thought it was fun:

Ok, so if you're reading this...consider yourself "tagged".

Did you go to college? Where did you go? Graduation year? Major?
I started out at San Jac. I wasn't really motivated, so staying at my parent's for a few extra years was prob a good bet. I got an associates in computer programming. Then I moved to San Marcos to go to Southwest Texas State University, although it got changed to Texas State while I was there. I started out with the programming stuff, and was majoring in math. But then I decided that although I was good at programming, it was WAY too boring and I needed something more. So I switched to art. I would have rather done photography since I had been taking photog classes, but they didn't offer a minor in it. (I was pretty much done with my math major by then) so I just went with art & design as my minor. Long story. Long college career, come to think of it. I was in school a L O N G time.

Do you have kids? Are you planning on having kids? How many?
yes! But you know that. My Baby G. As far as how many... 2 for sure, up to 4. It changes. We would love to have 4 kids, but the logistics (money, house size, etc) get us (ahem, B) sidetracked. God knows what is the best for our family. I'll leave it at that.

What do you do for a living?
I work for my in-laws in their office. It has been a major blessing though, I get to stay home for a year with my little man. Now thats a nice maternity leave. (unpaid, this isn't Canada!)

Do you have any pets?
2 beagles and a kitty. Nevaeh is 5 1/2, B got her for me for our first dating anniversary. Madi will be 3 in two weeks, B surprised me with her not long after we got married. And Niko! B is allergic to cats, I grew up with them, but figured I would never be able to have another. But right before we bought our house, we decided to add a kitty to our family. He just turned 2. We got him from the SPCA and I would love to have nothing but rescue pets for the rest of my life.

a milestone?

2009-12-16T16:39:00.003-06:00

we have discovered that baby gear is all about safety. Everything has buckles and straps... from high chairs to changing pads, to swings. I'm sort of surprised that there isn't one in the crib. Now, of course, we use them in the stroller and carseat, but the swing, meh, we sort of haven't bothered with.

For a few days now, Garrett has discovered that he can scoot by putting his hands behind his head and pushing, sort of like crab walking. And today, he tried it in his swing. Which was cute. Until he started scooting out of the swing!

So now, we no longer have to wonder when we need to start buckling him into his swing!

Garrett meets Santa!

2009-12-15T15:39:00.000-06:00

one year ago

2009-12-15T15:24:00.003-06:00

technically, a year ago last Saturday:

so we were talking on Saturday... last year on that day we were just finding out we were pregnant, and now we have a 4 month old. I remember it was the night before our Christmas party, we had to go to Walmart to get paper plates, so we picked up a second pregnancy test too, just to "make sure"

The next morning I had planned to meet my mom at Specs to get a few things for the party, it was odd looking at all the stuff that I knew I wasn't going to be able to drink lol.

And as luck would have it, once everyone was over that night, Kyle and Katie were going through my camera and saw the above pics... although Katie still denies that she knew what the pictures were of. Kyle knew though, and was silently pleading for me to tell Jen that night so he wouldn't have to keep it a secret. Luckily for him, I did :)

teddy bear baby

2009-12-10T11:51:00.001-06:00

dont you just want to hug him?!

4 months old!

2009-12-07T13:06:00.003-06:00

yesterday my little man turned 4 months old!

in the past month he has found his hands, decided that his hands are the tastiest thing ever (not that he has alot to compare them too, so I'm hoping this shoving-of-the-hands-into-the-mouth phase will end before kindergarten), sits well in his high chair and his bumbo, found his feet, rolled over, and played in the snow! No wonder he sleeps alot! Speaking of sleeping, for close to two months now, he's been sleeping through the night. And I mean sleeping. Like 10-12 hrs a night, no waking up. Some nights he will wake up 3 hrs after he last ate and sort of stir, but thats about it. Yesterday he was getting me worried, b/c he slept over 13 hrs (it had been 14 hrs since he last ate)... I was getting ready to wake him up when he started to wake up on his own.

Stats from the dr:
weight- 14lbs 15oz (just under the 50th percentile)
head- 16 5/8 in (also just under the 50th)
length/height- 24 1/2 in (just under the 25th)

I <3 my shorty
(ha, both of them!)

she recommended starting on rice cereal between 5 and 6 months, so he's sticking with the milk only for now, not that he's complaining.

She also told me that Texas Women's Hospital has a program where they accept donated breast milk and pasteurize it and use it for the preemies. This has me really excited, knowing that my excessive pumping will do even more good than just for my little man. At last count we had over 400 oz in the freezer, we are literally running out of room for our food :(

Ok, time to get back to decorating the tree... turns out that even if it looks good with the lights on, once I turned them off, I found out that I clumped the ornaments in small groups all over the tree. Hmm. So here's a tip if you haven't decorated your tree yet, don't do it with the Christmas lights on!

SNOW!

2009-12-04T14:17:00.002-06:00

For the second year in a row, it snowed!!!

All bundled up, it had just started to snow

Brandt & his little man
that blue hat is one that Brandt and Luke both wore when they were babies!

little heavier at this point

yay snow!

its been a long time

2009-12-03T10:09:00.002-06:00

I have a good excuse.
well, two of them.

One: I have the world's cutest baby, and spend majority of my day playing with him, changing diapers, and just hanging around with him. He is amazing, and I wouldn't have life any other way.

Two: I have inherited my mom's old sewing machine. I'm not good yet, but I am learning! Free time tends to be spent making things :)

it says my last post was Oct 12th, so I have some catching up to do.

For now: here is a passed out baby who apparently played too hard. He's still snoozing behind me, so maybe I will get something else posted

to pass the time till I post a real post

2009-10-12T15:54:00.002-05:00

I have so much to post, tons of pics... I just have to sit down and do it!

For now... we are using the sling for the first time, this is also the first time using this webcam on here!

8 weeks old!

2009-10-02T13:07:00.002-05:00

Sorry Aunt Jen, I think he's outgrown his inchworm!

Garrett's first bath!

2009-09-28T11:42:00.003-05:00

it took forever, but Baby G's umbilical cord finally fell off at 6 weeks. So he got his first bath, and he LOVED it!

It was so much fun giving him a bath! He cooed and babbled the whole time, the most we've ever heard him "talk." And did you see those curls! They only show up when his hair is wet :) And as soon as he got in his comfy pj's he passed out. I guess getting a bath is hard work.

6 weeks old (better late than never!)

2009-09-27T23:05:00.000-05:00

these pics were taken on the 17th

it was a little harder to get a good pic of him this time, he's getting squirmier!

he's getting so big! This was his last day in his newborn-sized clothes

5 weeks

2009-09-11T11:39:00.005-05:00

yesterday my little man turned 5 weeks!

these are my fave pics:

its not the best picture, but it was a cute moment. I was sitting on the bed with Garrett while Brandt was getting ready for work, and Madi came and sat with us

Monday we went to Brandt's parent's house, and brought the dogs. They have been bumped from the back seat to the hatch now that Garrett is here. This is Nev pouting...

lets see, milestones this week?
Well, last night he slept in his crib instead of our room!

he did great. Honestly, I can't say he even noticed that he was in a different room and bed :)

I never posted this b/c I got busy...

2009-09-11T04:15:00.003-05:00

but... we got this awesome gift the day before Garrett made his debut!

Erin, my (formerly) pregnant friend made it for us! We had nothing personalized since no one knew if we were having a Garrett or a Jacquelynn. It is super cute and matches the room perfectly!

and she has never seen his bedding in person! She's just that good.

It came in on Wed, and I immediatly hung it up on the door. I was supposed to take pictures for her then, but decided to wait till Thurs. And then I went into labor... I guess Garrett was just waiting on his sign :)

homemade gifts rock!

2009-09-11T04:03:00.002-05:00

We got the most amazing quilt in the mail yesterday! Our friend Mary made it for Garrett, and it is beautiful!

its even beagle-approved

here's a close up. She used 2 different cop fabrics, and all these bright colors, LOVE IT!

thank you Mary!

1 month old!

2009-09-06T22:23:00.003-05:00

Sunday, my little man turned a month old!

I can't believe its been a month already! eek!

4 weeks old

2009-09-03T22:42:00.000-05:00

(this post is from Thursday, Sept 3)
Garrett turned 4 weeks!

that looks like 22 to me!
2 weeks ago he was 20 inches,
of course, the dr is a bit more accurate

and for anyone that knows Brandt, you know he LOVES Batman. So I couldn't pass up this shirt when I found it, even though it is 18 months... we'll save it for him.
He looks like he likes is!

Milestones (if you want to call them that) this week:
he's holding his head up a ton! His great grandma (Nana) swears he's the strongest baby she's ever held, but she could be impartial.
he moved up a diaper size! No more newborn size
But he's still in newborn clothes. His dresser is overflowing with 0-3 month sized stuff, so I can't wait to get to those (and the overalls!)

and for my fave pic of the week:

tummy time!
This always gives us the funniest pictures! I'll prob make a tummy time post (eventually, at the rate I'm going!)

Letter to a new mom

2009-08-30T22:02:00.002-05:00

I stole this off of a blog that I read
She has really cute ideas, so check out her blog sometime
Thrifty Decor Chick

Open letter to a new Momma

Today we celebrated the upcoming birth of a new baby boy. The mom-to-be is one of my last friends to have their first child, and there is something so incredibly special about that. Something so special you just don't get when you are pregnant with that first baby. You wonder why everyone has constant big goofy smiles, fluffing all over you and can't keep your hands off your belly. :)

And then you have that baby. And you know.

So Momma B., this is what I hope you remember over the next few weeks:

For at least the new two years, probably more, you will have very little control over your life. It starts with labor -- you can't plan it (I know, it killed me too!), you can't tell that little one how or when to come, and you can't control how the labor will go. All you can do is relax, let go, breathe, and realize you have to give it up to the people that know best...the nurses, your doctor, God.

After the baby is here, you will have zero control over your life because that itty bitty patootie will rule. your. world. You will feel exhaustion like you've never known. You will want to give your right arm for a few straight hours of sleep. You will have to plan to leave the house well ahead of time. And when you do leave the house, it will be 30 minutes later than you had planned.

Speaking of sleep, even the best sleepers (ours slept through at FIVE weeks) will drive you absolutely mad at times. They will sleep three hours at a time for a few nights...sleep for six one night...you will get on your knees thanking God...and then that next night they will will wake up every two. It is a bit maddening. There are also nights when they just don't want to sleep, thank you very much. They would rather just lay there staring at you, thank you again.

Because of this, there may be times you will look at your child at 3 a.m., begging him to PLEASE JUST GO TO SLEEP. You may not even like him much at those moments. YES -- I said it, there are times you just are not nuts about them for being itty bitty and helpless and ruling your world (at 3 a.m. nonetheless).

And then that moment passes, and in the middle of the night, you will look at your baby's sweet eyes in the dark, rub his tiny head and you may just cry because you are so incredibly blessed to have this child. To be rocking this child at 3 a.m. You will realize there is no place you would rather be, ever.

You will be overwhelmed at how people love your baby. Yes, you know your friends love you. But you will realize you didn't have a clue how much they love you until you see the way they love your child. You will realize how much you mean to the people around you, because of the way they love your baby. It will overwhelm you, the love you will feel in those first weeks.

A few weeks after that sweet bubby is born, you will start needing a little somethin'. Just a little -- a little something in return for all that feeding, loving, feeding, smooching. And then. THEN, your child will smile at you. YOUR CHILD. He will smile at you like you are the sun and the moon and the stars and it will be one of the best moments of your entire life.

You will spend the rest of your days trying to get your child to smile at you like that again.

One of the biggest changes I noticed after our son was born was the new "weight" of being a Mom. It's the best way I can explain it. It's like the weight of the world is on your shoulders, in a good way. You now have a life to look after, and that is a really big deal. Sometimes that weight is really noticeable. You will feel it all the time -- but mostly when you leave the baby with Daddy for an hour. Or with Grandma for an evening so you can go out with friends.

From the day that baby is born, you are ALWAYS, ALWAYS thinking about them, worrying about them, wondering about them. You may not realize it, but it's always there. That weight lessens as they get older, but it's only because you get used to it. You are now a Mommy, and that comes with so much wonderful responsibility.

Your life is about to change for the better. You will never be the same. You will come back and read this a few months from now and have a whole new appreciation for these words. And when someone you love has their first baby, you will try to express to them the crazy, indescribable love they are about to feel, and you won't be able to put it into words for them either.

You are about to meet the love of your life, and I am so happy for you.

3 weeks old!

2009-08-27T17:45:00.005-05:00

My little man is 3 weeks old!

And this is hands down my fave pic of the week!

Due date!

2009-08-24T13:18:00.002-05:00

yesterday was my due date, and Garrett was 17 days old! We took up Brandt's parent's offer to babysit, and got to go out to dinner and a movie (Inglorious Basterds... good!)

here's our family pic :)

and on a side note, Saturday I was packing up maternity clothes and tried on a pair of my pre-pregnancy jeans. And they fit! YAY! A little snug, so I will leave out some of my maternity stuff, but I'm happy to know I'm on my way!

Garrett meets Mama Hazel

2009-08-24T12:59:00.002-05:00

Saturday Garrett met his Great-Great-Grandmother!

How incredibly lucky is our little man? I only have one set of grandparents, and he is blessed with 2 sets, 3 sets of great grandparents, a great-great grandmother, and a great-great grandfather!

2 week pic

2009-08-24T12:26:00.002-05:00

better late than never!
Here's Garrett's 2 week pic:

and on Friday, he had his 2 week checkup

birth: 2 weeks:
weight: 7lbs 9oz 8lbs 5oz
length: 18 3/4 in 20 1/4 in

did I mention I <3 my in-laws?

2009-08-20T21:38:00.002-05:00

It has come to my attention that I didn't include a picture of them in my 2 week update. Maybe b/c my beautiful mother in law doesn't like her picture taken? I don't have one of the two of them with Garrett, but I do have these :)

They love Garrett so very much, and I know he loves them too!
And my parents rock too... we love them too!

2 weeks old!

2009-08-20T17:45:00.005-05:00

I'm trying to get back in the habit of writing on here more, especially since I know everyone wants to see more baby pictures!

Today, Garrett is two weeks old. So here are my favorite pics from the past 2 weeks :)

right after he was born

little man

with Aunt Jen

late night in the hospital

right after we got home

second pic at home

still a few years away from this

proud grandparents

my fave pic of us

snuggling with me

first time in his swing!

bright eyes

Uncle Luke

I have a tongue!

sleeping like a big man

with his hard working daddy

we dont watch much tv. we tend to stare at him :)

cuddling with me again

nap time with daddy

staring contest

I know its alot, but hey, he's my baby, and this is my blog :)

slings...

2009-08-20T09:24:00.005-05:00

my sister got me an awesome sling at my shower, and i finally learned how to use it! but i think garrett is just too little for it :(

so yesterday, i went and got a different one, one that he can lay down in.

but he looks a little smushed, you think?

is this how he is supposed to be?? he fell asleep instantly and slept for over an hour. i kept telling myself, its roomier than where he was two weeks ago!

walk in the park

2009-08-20T09:08:00.002-05:00

last friday we decided to take the little man to the park! we went walking while brandt went running. it wasn't his first outing... we went to the dr on monday and to target on wednesday already :)

already asleep right after we get out of the car. great for when we were at target, but we wouldn't have minded him being awake for the ride.

buffalo?! at the park? brandt knew they were there, but i was surprised!

buffalo. the light one there is a baby! he (?) was cute!

garrett with the buffalo. of course, he didn't know...

picture while walking/sleeping

that carseat was hot! here he is cooling off in the ac while we were waiting on brandt to finish up lol

that was fun! and since walking is about the only thing i can do for exercise, i'm sure we will be going back often. hopefully with the dogs!

Its a boy!

2009-08-13T10:28:00.003-05:00

I've been a bad blogger... but I have an excuse! I've been busy with my adorable son!

People keep asking, so here's my birth story. Don't worry, its watered down, so no blood and gore and gross stuff. Just happy, fuzzy, babies-are-a-joy type stuff :)

Wed night/Thurs am I woke up at 12:40 with a contraction. I had been having cramps and stuff and was so worried I wouldn't know the difference, but somehow I did. So I fell back asleep, and kept waking up with them. They were about 15 to 20 minutes apart, so I didn't wake Brandt up. About 4 though, I did, and told him I was going to take a shower. My aunt had told me that was a good way to find out if they were real contractions or not, if they weren't, a hot shower would stop them. He was up impatiently waiting for me to get done, and we sorta ate breakfast and about 6 started timing them, but they felt different, once again. Right away they were about 5 minutes apart, a minute or so long. This varied of course, some were 3 minutes apart, some 8. But they got more regular. We went for a walk around the block too, b/c we read that they should be consistent regardless of activity.

About 9 (so 3 hrs of timing) we decided to just go. By this point we had loaded up the car seat, gotten all our stuff together, and were ready. We had bags packed, but then a list of things to add, like laptop, phone chargers, etc. So we just decided to go up there and risk getting sent home. But I was starting to be in pain when they would come, so we figured we had held off long enough.

So we got up there and walked up to the nurse's station and I felt like an idiot, "hi, I think I'm in labor!" They put us in a labor & delivery room. The nurse was super concerned though since we were still 2 1/2 weeks early. They put the monitors on my belly and she was like, you are def in labor! She called my Dr a few times, but she really felt strongly that I shouldn't be having him already. I was still only 2cm dilated, and my dr wanted to start me on pitocin to get things going. Nurse, on the other hand, handed me a big jug of water and told us to go walk and we would hopefully chase the contractions away. That was depressing, if he was ready to be born, we wanted to do it! Not go home!
But after the walk, they were getting stronger, so they went ahead and put in an iv for the pitocin. It wasn't till then that we got to call our family, they suggested us waiting to find out for sure if they were going to keep me or not. I guess this was around noon. Then the nurse acknowledged that things were moving along pretty quick, and that I would be having this baby before her shift ended! As against the early birth as she was, she was a great nurse, we really liked her. She also had them give me some demerol to dull the pain until I could get the epidural.

*from here on out everything blurred together and stuff, so I hope it all makes sense*

So I guess it was around 1 or so, maybe closer to 2, the demerol made me feel soooo tired and way woozie. I know I was slurring my words, but no pain! It was just to tide me over till the anesthesiologist could come in. They told Brandt I would be out for at least 2 hours, so he should go get some lunch. He went down to the cafeteria and swears he was only gone 15 minutes, and when he got back I was already 7cm and writhing in pain! I had about 3 contractions that made me (somehow, I didn't think it was possible) curl up into a ball and I couldn't even open my eyes! Then I got the epi and all was well. No clue what time this was. It was good though, she said I had the "perfect epidural" b/c I could move my legs and wiggle my toes, everything, But I was for sure having contractions like crazy, according to the monitors! My Dr also broke my water then, but I couldn't feel anything or tell that anything happened.

My parents came in, his did too, and I think my sis was there. Brandt said something about getting some rest, and everyone just stood there and were like, Ok. Uhhh no, that was your cue to leave people! Then I said I was nauseous and they handed me a bucket thing and I started the throw up. Thankfully, that got everyone out of the room. I hadn't eaten anything in forever, but they said it was from the meds. The nurse said something about the 8cm sickness, not sure what that was about. So they checked me and were like, its time to push!

The bed was a "break away bed" so the end of it dropped down or came off or something. My dr was like, Ok, are you ready? And then told Brandt (Mr not going past my elbow) to grab my leg and hold my ankle. The nurse was on the other side, and poor Brandt could see everything haha.

I started pushing at 4:05 they said, and he was born at 5:24. So not much more than an hour. I could feel the contractions towards the end, but it wasn't too bad. But no way I could have done it without the epi!!!

When he was born, the Dr held him up and said, "ok mom, what do we have?" so I got to say "its a boy!"

Garrett sounded like he was congested, they ended up taking him pretty soon to the nursery. He wasn't warm enough and he had mucus built up in his airway or something. He's fine though, we just had to wait longer than we had liked to see him. I think it was almost 9:30 before they brought him to our room. I got moved close to 7 or so, maybe 8, to a postpartum room, thats where the family was waiting (with Chick fil a!)

Thats pretty much it! Here's the first pic of our little man :)
(he's gonna hate this pic when he's older)

(i love the flat ponytail in this one lol)

This is my all time fave

my last dr's appt!!

2009-08-04T20:54:00.002-05:00

This morning was my last appointment! yay!

I got there, and they take my blood pressure right away. The nurse told me that it was high, which is really odd for me, its normally on the low side of normal. But no worries, they would double check it at the end of my appt. I was standing when they took it, so I thought maybe that had something to do with it?

Then the doctor comes in, and she mentioned it being high, and said she wants to use it as an excuse to move the induction date up.

*side note*
My doctor in convinced that we are having a big baby, and she wants me to be able to deliver it normally, but she think I will end up needing a c-section. Either way, she will let me try and labor first. So the longer we wait, the bigger the baby gets, the higher my chances of a c-section are. But inductions seem to be frowned upon, at least when they are just a convenience, not for a medical reason (baby is in trouble, mom is in trouble, etc) so she couldn't schedule one for more than a week before my due date.

So the rest of the appt goes well, things are pretty much the same as last week (dilation, effacement, etc) but a little "roomier" she said. So then we take the bp again, and its lower, but she wants to send me to the hospital to have it monitored.

I have never been in a hospital before :( I mean, I've visited people, but I've never been admitted or sat on a bed, etc. So I have a mini freak out session on the way to the car, but was over it by the time I got in. The doctor didn't think I would have to stay, just be there till my bp went down.

So off to the hospital we go (thank goodness Brandt has these new days off!) and I am put in a room (not a labor & delivery room) and they put the monitors on my belly to keep track of the baby's heart beat and mine, as well as the bp cuff, that goes off every 10 minutes.

After a little over 2 hours of this (man that bed was uncomfortable! and I now know to bring my own comfy pillow!) the nurse brought in my discharge papers and told us we could go! Labs all came back normal, and my bp was normal the entire time. It all just seemed so odd, but whatever. Doctor knows best, right?

Sooooo I have an induction scheduled for next Wed (Aug 12th) if nothing happens sooner. And now I know a little more of what to expect. And my dr is on call this weekend, so thats comforting, if the baby decides to come a little early!

And that's all I got!
Erin - bring your own pillow!!!

update!

2009-07-28T14:06:00.003-05:00

If you got my email, then this is pretty much the same thing, lol!
warning: I say things like dilated and cervix in this post. uncomfortable? then stop reading :)

I had a doctors appt this morning, this was to find out WHEN we were having a baby! Well, we left feeling just as confused as before we got there... still no real idea on when the baby will be here. She feels that the baby will be here soon on its own, in fact, she went over the reasons to head to the hospital and what to watch out for before we left today. And then she said "see ya next Tuesday, if not before!" as we were leaving.

Not that I feel that we will be having this baby this weekend or anything, but I guess it could happen! I am 36 weeks now, and today we found out that I am 1cm dilated and 80% effaced. And, when she was checking all that, she said "wow, the baby's head is right there, its really low!" So I guess the baby has dropped, I wasn't sure...

I'm not naive enough to think that now that I'm dilated, that it could be tonight or something. I've heard enough stories of people being dilated for weeks with no progress. But *fingers crossed* I hope I make progress!

While she was checking all that stuff, she said that she was also stripping my membranes. I've heard of this before, but never really knew what it meant. From what I understand, its sort of a way to bring on labor, although it doesn't in all people. Technically, its separating the amniotic sac from the cervix, which can trigger some hormones to start producing and lead to labor. It didn't hurt but it does cause cramps. Which are oh-so-fun. She told us to pay attention to them though, and make sure they don't turn into contractions. Never having had a real contraction, I'm not sure what to look for, but people keep telling me "oh, you'll know!"

So thats all I know for now! Can't wait to meet our baby!

PS: I just found out through spell check that I've been spelling "dilated" wrong. I've been saying, and spelling it "diAlated"
oops!

36 weeks

2009-07-24T10:33:00.002-05:00

as of yesterday (july 23), we only have 1 month left!
and as of today, i am 36 weeks.
so only 4 weeks left!

How far along? 36 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: i actually found this out. 24 lbs
Maternity clothes? of course
Stretch marks? nada
Sleep: super tired of sleeping on my side. i sleep ok, but not enough
Best moment this week: seeing the baby again and saw the lungs working!
Movement: lots of rolling around and around
Food cravings: i'm really into pasta at the moment.
Gender: i said girl last time, i'll go with boy
Labor Signs: no, but i've been having cramps and braxton hicks contractions
Belly Button in or out? innie
What I miss: having energy
What I am looking forward to: meeting our baby!
Weekly Wisdom: ask questions! people are usually more than willing to share their wisdom
Milestones: one month left, 4 weeks left, saw the lungs working. signed papers at the hospital

35w 3d ultrasound

2009-07-24T09:58:00.002-05:00

i appologize for not getting this posted sooner! its just been one of those weeks :)

ok, so last dr's appt, she mentioned that she was concerned about the baby's size and waiting till 40 weeks. i see her again on tues (28th) but she wanted me to have another u/s before then. so this past monday afternoon i went in to have that done.

brandt had worked late that morning and was sleeping, so i asked my mom to come! she hadn't ever seen an ultrasound before, so i thought it would be pretty cool for her to see her grandbaby.

i'd like to mention that i think the best u/s are from 20ish weeks, when you can see the whol baby at once. now, the baby is so big you only can see like one part of the baby at a time.

here's the face:

and another shot, mouth, cheeks and nose

look at those chubby cheeks! brandt is still concerned that we will have an obese baby, but i'm sure he or she will be fine. and then i found a picture on google of this baby with rolls on top of rolls, but i keep telling him that's not what our baby will look like. after all, we were both over 8 pounds when we were born!

as of monday, they were estimating that the baby weighed 7lbs 9oz! so now i can't wait till tues when we find out what the dr has to say!

OhMyGeeeeezzzzz

2009-07-17T14:24:00.002-05:00

earlier this week we all agreed that maybe the baby had started to drop! ummm no, apparently the baby just got waaaay huge-er.

pics in the red: july 10 (last fri)
pics in the blue: july 17 (today)

i didn't feel huge till i compared these! ahhhh!
(oddly enough, i didn't gain any weight between my last 2 appts)

tuesday i had a dr's appt. she measured my stomach, which is still measuring 3 weeks ahead. so, at 34 weeks, i was measuring 37. both the baby and my belly have been consistantly measuring 3 weeks ahead for awhile now, so i guess thats good. better than bouncing around, i would think.

dr said that she doesn't think i will make it to 40 weeks. so next week i go in for another ultrasound to see how big the baby is, then when i meet with her the following week, we will decide what to do. she made it sound like we may induce. however, the bigger the baby, the higher the odds of having a c-section.

as tempting as not having to push may be, i'm not crazy about the surgery thing. the extent of my medical history has consisted of 4 stitches in my big toe when i was 12. that's as bad as it's been. no broken bones, surgeries, hospitals, etc.

excuse me now while i go find some wood to knock on...

34 weeks today!

2009-07-10T14:46:00.004-05:00

click at the top of the page to give your guess on when the baby will be here! as well as if you think it will be a boy or a girl!

How far along? 34 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: ?
Maternity clothes? sick of them!
Stretch marks? keeping my fingers crossed
Sleep: varies. i tend to wake up earlier than i'd like
Best moment this week: finding out no gestational diabetes!
Movement: no more kicks, lots of rolling
Food cravings: i would love some chinese
Gender: i voted girl in our baby pool. did you vote yet? link is at the top!
Labor Signs: nope
Belly Button in or out? innie still
What I miss: normal clothes. fall stuff is coming out and its so cute!
What I am looking forward to: temps with highs in the 80's
Weekly Wisdom: pregnancy is most fun when you have pregnant friends!
Milestones: people are starting to tell me i look like i'm about to pop. thanks.

tagged!

2009-07-07T13:43:00.002-05:00

crystal tagged me! thanks, b/c i wanted to play too!

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To:

1. having this baby (duh)
2. being able to breath again
3. the weekend! any weekend, really
4. maternity leave
5. brandt getting some time off of work
6. and finishing his masters
7. finding out if the baby is a boy or a girl
8. wearing normal clothes

8 Things I Did Yesterday:

1. worked
2. watered my plants, so of course it rained. you're welcome
3. took a well deserved nap
4. watched a marathon of cake boss. we'd never seen it before
5. finished a book
6. made b's lunch
7. fed the cat, played with beagles
8. learned that i am not allowed to let my water break at work

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:

1. go on vacation
2. have a margarita
3. not work
4. sleep through the night
5. put on tennis shoes w/o almost killing myself
6. see friends more often. quit moving out of state!
7. have a quick, painless labor. (i'm wishing, right?)
8. win the lottery

8 Shows I enjoy:

1. grey's
2. how i met your mother
3. wipeout
4. scrubs
5. the office
6. mantracker
7.
8. dont watch much tv...

8 Friends I'm Tagging:

1. Angela
2. Colleen
3. Becky
4. Rebekah
5. Erin
6. Emily
7.
8. everyone else has already done it!

the room, as of now

2009-07-02T10:20:00.002-05:00

the room is painted and set up. not totally organized, but its getting there. here are the pics so far :)

night stand! the basket on the left is full of toys, and the dogs go for when they come into the room. it will be interesting trying to keep them from the baby's toys...

speaking of dogs... here's madi showing off the crib skirt

my tree, and the rocking chair

nev, with the changing table and hutch

the curtains and the cute ottomans from target, that matched perfectly!

drumroll please! here's the amazing bedding!
my mom made ALL of it, the curtains, rocking chair pads, ottoman cover, crib skirt, sheets, bumpers, and quilt. i. love. it.

close-up. there's also solid green and solid turq sheets. the ribbons on the side are for a hanging organizer that she made too, but i forgot to get a picture of it :(

THANK YOU MOM!

travel system is here!

2009-07-02T10:04:00.002-05:00

it actually came in to work on thursday, but i took off thursday and friday of last week, brandt and i took a little trip out to san antonio/new braunfels/san marcos. it was alot of fun! we went to the zoo, and my feet didn't swell at all! i was so excited!

anyways, luke (bro-in-law) brought it home from work with him friday, and brandt put it together on saturday. i love it! well, i am still not a fan of travel systems, but if i have to have one, this would be it! (blue is my fave color!)

stroller

carrier/infant carseat

together as a travel system

and my madi-pie, who sat there watching me take these pics :)

32w 4d ultrasound

2009-07-02T09:32:00.003-05:00

on tuesday i had another ultrasound! not my last though, i should be getting one more around 36 weeks. its not as exciting anymore, its harder to see things since the baby is getting so big!

profile view

waving hi!

the face!

the u/s tech said that our baby has chubby cheeks! you can kind of tell in that last pic. also, baby has a full head of hair. (i couldn't tell what she was pointing at, but i guess she knows her stuff) not that we didn't see that coming, just look at both me and brandt lol!

the head is measuring 6 days ahead, as has been pretty much the whole time. but the belly! that's measuring 3 WEEKS ahead! the tech was like, "this kid hasn't missed a meal!" wow... so we will be having a chubby baby! but chubby babies are cuter than skinny ones, right? they are estimating the baby to be 5 lbs already! brandt had a ton of questions... esp about the baby potentially coming early. they said they prob wouldn't change my due date, but if the baby stays on the same track, i will probably be induced early. so much for making it 40 weeks!

(my in-laws, who, of course, all moonlight as doctors, don't think i'll make it to the end of july! and my sister, Dr Barron OB is worried it will just be 2 weeks or so till the baby is here!
i'm just picking on them though, i love them!)

when i went in tues for my regular appt, the measured my belly with a tape measure, and i am measuring 35 weeks. 4 weeks ago, they were concerned that i had alot of amniotic fluid, but my levels are normal now. so they are concerned that i may have gestational diabetes, which causes the baby to grow quickly.

now, i already took a test for that, and i passed. the results were "questionable," whatever that means, but they weren't worried. but now, since the baby is so big, they wanted me to take the 3 hr test.

so yesterday, i missed yet more time at work, and got to go sit at the dr's office for 3 hrs and get my blood drawn 4 times! (one before i drank the glucose drink, and then once every hour of the test.) thankfully, there was an internet signal, and i had brought my laptop, so i played online for the 3 hrs.

the worst part though was that you have to fast. sometimes, i skip breakfast, so waiting till noon to eat wasn't a big deal. the no water part was the difficult part. but its sort of a mental thing, i *can't* have anything to eat or drink, so of course, i was starving and dying of thirst!

they reassured me that if the results come back the same way they did 6 weeks ago, that everything will be fine, and no gestational diabetes. if i do fail the test, i will have to change up my diet some... less sugar. so no white bread and sadly *sniff* no dr peppers! brandt's been very supportive though, and keeps reminding me that, worst case, it will be for just under 7 weeks that i will have to change up my diet.

i feel like i've spent more time at the doctor's this week than at work... with 2 appts and the diabetes test! but now everyone is up to date :)

32 weeks!

2009-07-02T09:27:00.002-05:00

ok i'm late posting this...
32 weeks was last friday, but i'm just now getting around to posting

How far along? 32 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: no total, but 4 lbs in the past 4 weeks. not bad!
Maternity clothes? yup yup yup
Stretch marks? so far so good!
Sleep: been sleeping great all of the sudden!
Best moment this week: getting the baby room all set up
Movement: all the time
Food cravings: nope, i'm so boring
Gender: sorta thinking girl. but that may be b/c the clothes are so stinking cute
Labor Signs: nope
Belly Button in or out? innie, but its getting flatter lol
What I miss: sleeping on my stomach
What I am looking forward to: an outside baby
Weekly Wisdom: dr's change their minds alot... ugh
Milestones: we pretty much have everything we need!

my tree!

2009-06-29T15:39:00.005-05:00

here's what i did yesterday!
its not 100% done, still needs some touch-ups

t-minus 2 months and counting

2009-06-24T10:56:00.005-05:00

thats right! yesterday was june 23rd, so that means the baby is due 2 months from yesterday! wow...

and now, welcome to my virtual baby shower!

i did bring my camera, but all i got was pics of the cakes lol, my mom brought hers, so all the pics of me and gifts ended up on her camera. so i'll just take things off the internet!

lamb swing from jen and my mom
the first time we set foot in BRU jen found this and has been demanding that i pick this for the baby. not only is it super cute, but i keep hearing from other moms that their baby's love it! so i added it, and she promptly bought it :)

convertable carseat from my MIL
funny story, she bought it, but the box was HUGE and wouldn't fit in her truck or through her back door. so she had to call me to come to target and pick it up from here, and then luke got it from me at work and brought it home to her a few days later.
you can't really tell, but the texture of the grey fabric is paisley, really cute! and it fits a kiddo up to 100 lbs, so i could have used it up until highschool. lol i think jen tried to fit into it in the store, but it doens't take hips into account lol

highchair from michigan family!
i loved this b/c its 4 in 1! the site explains it better than me: "The Graco Blossom 4-in-1 Seating System that converts from a highchair to an infant feeding booster to a toddler booster to a youth chair."

from kyle's mom, she will never let our baby forget that he or she is an aggie baby!
(btw, she made it all, well not the original onsie, but she did the embroidery, as well as the bib and the entire bear!)

and here's the back of the onsie. i'm going to request that she makes one in each size so we always have this one on hand :)

pack 'n play! this was from his aunt sheree. she didn't want to lug it to the shower, so it got shipped to the house, so i took pics to show her. i love the colors and especially the birdies on it!

on to the bedding! well, the bumpers were a bit too long, so my mom took them back home to shorten them. i should have them back this weekend? then there will be pics. so here's a sneak preview!

the baby quilt

bed skirt

the chair cushions and cover for the ottoman
its a glider ottoman, so by putting your feet up on that, it rocks the chair! genius! we found it at a garage sale, it was white with duckies on it. cute, but not matching. so she made the cute cover!

of course, there were more things that i got, diapers, bottles, clothes, blankets, blankets, blankets, and the cutest bath towels and wash cloths. but i figured this was enough for now :)

travel system ordered!

2009-06-22T15:51:00.002-05:00

blogger hasn't been wanting to let me make any posts, and now that i've got it figured out, its about time to go home from work. so i'll save the shower post for tomorrow!

brandt's grandparents wanted to get us something "big" for the baby, but his gma just had knee surgery, and his gpa hurt his leg, so they couldn't carry anything heavy, so they gave us money at the shower to pick something out!

luckily, we've been trying to figure out how we will get our travel system... we of course picked out an obscure color that no one seems to carry. so we couldn't register for it. but since we had the money from them, we could order from anywhere, and finally, last night i found someone that had it in stock!

here it is:
chicco cortina in manhattan
(navy & orange)

yay! and i was so excited that i found it and to get it ordered, i didn't read the stuff underneath the picture. apparently, with this model only, you got a free infant carrier!
wow! it was $50... so that was a cool surprise! after the order went through and i went back to look b/c i *thought* i saw the word FREE somewhere... so that was a pleasant surprise! i can't wait to get it all!

sorry, no pics :(

2009-06-19T21:46:00.002-05:00

well, the mural is all drawn!

surprisingly, it didn't take near as long as i thought... although jen had to come over to finish the top for me (i'm not allowed on ladders)

i tried several times with different settings and lighting to get a picture of it, but its too light on the wall. i guess yall will just have to wait till we start painting! as badly as i wanted to start tonight, i will have to wait... most of the paint is trapped in the cabinet that is blocked by things too heavy for me to move (b is working overtime, so he can't help)

oh well

pics soon, i promise!

its here! its here!

2009-06-18T09:28:00.003-05:00

so yesterday was furniture delivery day! and its gorgeous!

i couldn't really remember what all it was going to look like, we looked at so many sets that day. in fact, when i called to actually order it, the set i wanted was sold out. so this was the second choice, although it was the set we liked best (price played an issue in having it ranked second.)

the delivery people were supposed to be there between 10am and 1pm. no problem, yeah, they would wake brandt up, but it was his day off, so he doesn't normally sleep all day anyways.

here's the nightstand! i was shocked to see it, b/c i was under the impression that we ordered the small, 3-drawer dresser. i guess that's what happens when you order over the phone. but its cute, and more practical in the long run. i double checked with the paperwork, and yup, it says i ordered the nightstand. i'm ok with that though.

the crib! (different angles make the paint color look different. for example, the rug is totally not the same color as the wall, in person at least) it's a convertible crib, so when the baby is more of a toddler, we can take the front piece off, and lower the mattress, and its a kiddy day bed! theres a side rail too, to keep the kiddo from rolling out and onto the floor. and maybe to keep bealges out... we'll see. and then when the baby/kiddo outgrows the daybed, it converts into a full sized bed! the back and front pieces of the crib become the headboard/footboard (footboard... is that the right word?) and we have the rails to use for the sides of the bed. all we need to get is a mattress!

around 1pm i got a call from the delivery guys saying that they left us the wrong mattress. so they came and picked it up and swapped it out. ours was nicer, so i'm glad they caught that! (its double sided? one side is firm, for crib/baby, and the other is more comfy, for daybed/toddler. fancy, i know... this kid is spoiled already!) and of course, that meant waking brandt up again :(

and now this is the dresser/hutch/changing table!
the hutch actually didn't get loaded on the truck, so the guys had to make a third trip to our house. they said between 6 and 7pm. (which really ended up being 9:40! i didn't care, its not like we were going to use it all tonight, but the delivery guys wouldn't take any payment until we had it all. the warehouse is in stafford, so thats well over an hour drive.) its dark in the pic, but it has 3 dresser drawers, and small drawer on the right, and then a cabinet under that. the hutch actually has another shelf that goes in it, but you aren't supposed to have it in if you are using it as a changing table too. so for now, it will be put in the closet, with all the bed rails.

so next up is moving the rocking chair back into the room. (not hard, but its blocked into a corner in the other room, and i can't lift it) and then to paint my mural! yay!

the lowes paint guy said this was a happy color :)

2009-06-15T14:39:00.006-05:00

saturday was painting day! here's a before and after:

pouring paint

aunt jen and uncle kyle, our painting crew

us, with the first bit of paint on the wall

the smily face from aunt jen

puppies, once they realized they could hear/see us through the screen

hard at work. they actually did most of it

another after shot

madi decided to help
actually, she got into the paint trays that we set outside when we were done

we let the guys do the room while we worked on other projects. but no pics of that stuff just yet.
furniture comes wednesday! yay!

30 weeks!

2009-06-12T14:00:00.002-05:00

30 weeks down, that means only 10 to go!
its crazy to think that i'm already 3/4 of the way through...

as much as i do not love being pregnant, there are some things that i will miss. for example, elastic waist pants are great! no zippers or buttons... i dont think i will be giving those up too easily. also, never having to worry about sucking in! for pictures or when wearing a swimsuit before, i would try to appear as skinny as possible. now, it doesn't matter! no pressure! also, what will i look at online once the baby comes? i wont need to obsess over bottles or travel systems or cloth diapers vs disposables... of course, i prob won't have as much time to kill online at that point either.
most of all, i will miss feeling this little guy (girl?) moving around. its sort of cool to know that all i need to do is lay down or drink a dr pepper or something really cold, and *bam* dance party time!

here's this mornings pics... i like the front belly shot too, its funny to me how there are lines defining my bump, like its just stuck on, not a natural curve to my body. this may not make any sense to anyone other than me and brandt, since he hears me talking about my bump as i stare at it in the full lengh mirror. its just so weird, i can't help but stare!

How far along? 30 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: no clue anymore. dr doesnt want her patients to worry, doesn't talk about weight. less than 20 lb though, i know that
Maternity clothes? ha!
Stretch marks? nope, should i htank taryn and her gift of belly butter?
Sleep: can't sleep one night, the next night i will sleep awesomely. repeat.
Best moment this week: hearing that the furniture is in!
Movement: all the time
Food cravings: all of the sudden this week, eating way less than normal.
Gender: dont know, dont care
Labor Signs: naope
Belly Button in or out? still an innie *fingers crossed* that it stays that way
What I miss: mexican food, had to give it up
What I am looking forward to: my next shower!
Weekly Wisdom: dont wait too long to get stuff done! my 12 weeks to get the room ready turned into 6!
Milestones: lots of people feeling the baby

speaking of the baby room, we went and got paint last night!
here's the swatch card i made online with all our colors:

the top color is going to be the color of the whole room. its showing up dark on my computer, but that may just be this screen. its a tiffany/robin's egg blue.

then i plan on doing a fun little mural on the wall, using the other colors, matched from the bedding. well, and the brown, its not in the bedding. we lucked out too, b/c the only other color we needed to buy was the deep turquoise, the other colors we already have in the house somewhere.

so thats what i'll be doing tomorrow afternoon! i can't wait! i love painting anyways, plus its for the baby, so thats cool. when brandt wakes up, we will get started. my mom, his mom, and jen will all be there to help too. we will prob get the taping and stuff out of the way while he's sleeping though. thats my least favorite part.

oh, and here's a random observation, my right ankle is swollen! i hadn't had any swelling yet (phew) and it seems so odd that its only on one side. but after sitting here with my feet propped up on my desk for an hr or so, its almost gone. weird! its pretty comfortable though, and i'm sure i look quite professional, so i may sit like this more often :)

hooray!

2009-06-10T16:04:00.002-05:00

so i got a call yesterday afternoon saying that the baby furniture is in! that was fast! esp since they said it could be up to 12 weeks, and it only took 6, to the day!
so, they wanted to schedule delivery for thursday, but this weekend is when we are painting! but the guy was cool, he said they could hold it a week. so next wed, between 10am and 1pm, we will have baby furniture! i'm so excited!

shower #1

2009-06-10T14:14:00.002-05:00

shower #1 was thrown by my favorite sister!
we had it at their house, it was a couple's shower, complete with beer, fire (bbq) and cake. and steak. hey, we had to get the guys there somehow, right?

me and brandt (and baby!)

the table with the diaper cake, real cake and munchie foods! the blue things on the top rack in the middle are actually cake pops that jen made! they were delish, but unfortunatly, we didn't get a good pic of them.

a birdie that mom and jen made! they stayed up till midnight the weekend before making all these guys. i LOVE them!

make your own shish-kabobs!

jalapeno, all dressed up for the shower

brandt with his "daddy toolbelt" that jen made

mom-to-be and aunt jen

this was taken for my mom. my belly!

decorated banister

and her decorated chandalier!

it was so much fun and the baby got so much stuff!
click here for the rest of jen's pics
and here for melissa's!

happy belated birthday hub!

2009-06-05T14:42:00.003-05:00

last week was brandt's birthday!

(may 27th)

unfortunately, it was also the same day that we had to venture to college station for a funeral. the church was packed (i am guessing) because, even though we got there 30 minutes early, there were tons of people standing outside. we ended up stay outside too, there had to have been 200 of us out there. b-co (their corps outfit) had quite a turnout, and, even with the sad circumstances, it was great seeing people that we hadn't seen in a year. on the plus side, not being able to see/hear anything going on for the funeral made it not as depressing.

'06 at pj's work

us under the century tree!
baby's first trip to aggieland?

anyone else loving the cop-'stach?
(it's gone now)

part of my gift to him, it included a matching AC-DC shirt for him. i couldn't resist after finding that onsie!

i made him this yummy cake
devil's food with peanut butter icing and then crumbled reeses cups on top. it was delish! and yes, from scratch, i don't think they sell pb icing.

from his dad. technically, its for work.
but in reality, does anyone really *need* a semi-automatic? but, how many people do you know that can bring tatical rifles to work?

all i can say is, burglers, beware. don't break into our house.
obviously, this was his favorite gift

29 weeks!

2009-06-05T14:38:00.003-05:00

in an attempt to make up for my lack of a 28 week post...

i had brandt take this of me... man i am getting big!

let me brag on a friend for a minute

2009-06-04T14:51:00.006-05:00

before i go posting shower pics, i want to plug a friend's business!

(click on the logo to go to her site)

lindsey is the wife of jim, one of brandt's buddies from the aggie band, and she is very talented! her mad skills, paired with jim's stellar cake delivery service provided the yumminess at the shower!

so super cute!
top layer was strawberry cake, bottom was yellow

i can't even write in dashes like that with a pen. and she did it in icing!

happy trees

so what's the cake based on? if you don't remember, here's something to refresh your memory...
its the invitation, but edible!
yes, she made those teeny tiny birds out of fondant! they even had itty beaks and eyes.

sorry about all the shine, its from the flash. if she puts up pics on her site, i'll swap these out.

great job lindsey! we all loved it!

*edit*
now it's my turn... the logo up there, with the cake coming out of a flower, those are my mad skills. i really should post more of my work...

sorry!

2009-06-04T14:43:00.002-05:00

i've been neglecting my blog lately. its been slow at work lately, so you would think i would have more time to play on here. actually though, it just means i've been at my desk less.

i missed my 28 week post :(

i had the stomach flu and couldn't even keep down water, so that friday i didn't do much other than sleep. but i will make it up by posting some pictures from my first baby shower!

i had a dr's appt on tues, and i got the results back from my gestational diabetes test. (for everyone who doesn't know, every pregnant person has to take the test, you get a very sugary drink and you have to drink it and then wait an hour, then they take your blood and test it to make sure your body processes sugar correctly. if it goes undiagnosed, it can cause complications farther along.) anyways, i passed! yay! so i can continue on with my love affair of dr. pepper.

don't judge me. its the only vice i am allowed to have.

however, the test did tell us that i am anemic. which, really, is no surprise b/c i was told that in high school too. so now i get to add iron supplements to my daily dose of pills. (up to 4!)
but i'll do what it takes to keep our baby healthy :)

next ultrasound will be on the 30th! so a few more weeks till we get to see our little one again!

houston, we have a face

2009-05-18T13:48:00.002-05:00

this morning was another ultrasound, and our baby's face is no longer just bones, we have a definite face! so exciting!

at the last u/s we got a face shot, but it was creepy. well, it was a skull! so it was fun this time to see lips, nose, etc. we even got to see him (this week, boy) open his mouth a few times. we saw his tiny bladder, his heart beating (140 bpm) and a few other things. but no money shot, we looked away when she did measurements of the legs :)

the head though, big! 7 cm already! based on the tech's measurements, he is a little big, i believe he's measuring 9 days ahead. at the last u/s it was just 3 days. so we may not be making it till aug 23rd!

26 weeks

2009-05-15T11:50:00.003-05:00

so depending on what schedule you go on, i'm officially in my third trimester!

(some say 26 weeks, some say 26w, 6d since that is what 40 weeks divided by 3 would be)

but i'll take it, yay 3rd tri! so that means i'm also starting my 7th month! wow, time is flying!

so now for the belly pics...

i'm posting both the bare belly and the covered-by-my-shirt ones... i'm sure at some point i will not feel like posting the bare belly ones anymore, but for now i am good. are they distrubing? b/c i can quit posting them now... i know the preggo belly isn't a thing of beauty to everyone. thoughts?

the dr gave me a new medicine, its a 24 hr pill, and it is a miracle worker! i am barely coughing now. thank you thank you thank you! certain foods (casa ole) still give me annoying i'm-about-to-pee-my-pants coughing fits, but overall, i am happy!

i noticed that i am feeling the most movements when i am driving. my theory is that it is b/c of the music! (i keep it loud) so we have busted out the giant headphones (think the ones for hearing tests in elemetary school) and put em on my belly. i'll keep you posted with the results!

How far along? 26 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: same as the appt 4 weeks ago. i feel bigger though!
Maternity clothes? permanently!
Stretch marks? not yet...
Sleep: good if i don't drink anything after 7pm lol
Best moment this week: playing music to the baby
Movement: a bunch. and you can see it too! creepy!
Food cravings: nope. and my appetite as dissapeared too
Gender: we took a poll, its a tie
Labor Signs: nada
Belly Button in or out? innie but its fading fast...
What I miss: having more than 2 prs of jeans to wear
What I am looking forward to: jen feeling the baby. she's dying
Weekly Wisdom: starbursts make me cough. i don't get it
Milestones: 3rd tri! double digits! seeing the baby move!

double digits!

2009-05-14T11:00:00.002-05:00

here's me on thurs... i didn't even realize that i was down to double digits!
99 days left!
wow!!!

i took it b/c i liked my shirt and had just dyed my hair to fix a botched highlighting job and wanted to see what it looked like in natural light as opposed to my bathroom. apparently there's some truth to that "pregnancy hormones mess with your hair" theory.

i'm gonna brag on my sis

2009-05-12T16:07:00.006-05:00

check out the supercute invites she made for my shower!

(scanner at work isn't the best, apparently. but trust me, its really cute!)

thank you Kohl's

2009-05-08T13:31:00.003-05:00

so i was browsing kohl's website looking at their baby stuff when i came across some of those letters that you hang on the wall, usually spelling out the baby's name.

pink ones for a girl:

blue ones for a boy:

but i guess if you don't know the sex you are having a:

pregnancy makes me miss...

2009-05-04T14:20:00.006-05:00

*disclaimer: i am sooooo happy that we are having a baby. please don't take this as complaining, i realize that we are blessed and we are very thankful. this is more of a joke post than anything*

1. i miss the motorcycle. i LOVE riding on it, maybe more than brandt. did i mention, i picked it out and made him go look at it?

2. i miss NOT coughing
i miss having a conversation where i'm not hacking up a lung every few minutes. or being able to sleep without coughing everytime i wake up. which happens alot. ask my wonderful husband who has on several occasions, gotten up to sleep on the couch.

3. i miss sleeping all night long
speaking of not sleeping all night... i swear i'm up 5 times. at least.

4. i miss holding my puppies!
they weigh a tad over 10 lbs...

5. oh, i miss going out!
not so much drinking, haven't missed that at all. but i do miss going out. i'm just too tired now!

but yeah, number 1 is def the bike.
BUT, i get to have a baby, so all is well :)

for katie:

2009-05-04T09:15:00.003-05:00

my friend is raising money for the Alzheimer's Association in memory of her grandfathers, help her out! just click the banner above!

bedding!

2009-05-01T16:03:00.000-05:00

another post that's been sitting in my drafts for almost 2 weeks... my bedding!

i couldn't decide on what to pick... everything seemed so overpriced. i wasn't crazy about a "theme" i wanted more of a pattern or certain colors to go off of. so i decided to ask my mom, who sews. she had made the bedding for my sister when she was born, so it was something she's done before.

here's the pattern that we picked:

but since we don't know the sex, we aren't going to do the flowers, just regular ties for the bumpers.

and here's the fabric! its actually a quilt from target in the regular bedding section. (should have been $40 but my target had it marked wrong at $20! score!)

and thanks to my camera, the dark blue looks like royal blue. its actually more of a dark teal. we also got the sheets in solid lime, solid turquoise (the dot color, not the background) and in the stripes.

i meant to take a picture of the bedding in progress when we were at my parent's last weekend, but of course i forgot. technically, its a shower gift though, so i won't see it all finished till june.

not that i have a crib to put it on yet! we did order the furniture though! i'm sure excited! we picked it out a few weeks ago (and by "we" i mean my mom and jen. what about brandt? in a baby store? in his defense, he would have gone, he just mentioned that i would have more fun with them) so now its ordered, but its unfortunately back ordered, so 10-12 weeks to get it in. which is anytime late june to early july. so we've got the time.
its the 2000 series from cocoon
pictured is "paprika" but we ordered it in "espresso"
and we didn't get the armoire thingie either.
the furniture is a gift from brandt's wonderful grandparents! so thank you!

and that means i need to get the room emptied and painted!

24 weeks!

2009-05-01T10:31:00.003-05:00

yay we made it to 24 weeks!
that means today is "viability day", although i think that is just something that people on my message board mark down as a milestone.

basically, if it is before 24 weeks and i were to go into labor or anything should happen, no effort is made to save the baby. after 24 weeks is when doctors will do everything within their means. (i'm not sure if this is based on insurance or medical stats or what.) but even if she were born today, that doesn't mean a 100% chance of survival. this baby still needs more time to cook!

so you stay put, sweet baby, and continue with your cute little kicks and we'll see you, hopefully, in a few more months!

How far along? 24 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: not sure, dr appt is tues
Maternity clothes? permanently!
Stretch marks? not yet but my stomach is getting bigger faster now
Sleep: i hate sleeping on my side :( but no more back or stomach
Best moment this week: ordering the crib
Movement: really consistently now
Food cravings: i guess i'm wierd, no
Gender: this week its girl
Labor Signs: nope
Belly Button in or out? innie but i can see the bottom! :(
What I miss: not coughing!
What I am looking forward to: maternity leave
Weekly Wisdom: coughing in public makes people think i have the swine flu
Milestones: 24 weeks, viability day!

stormy weather

2009-05-01T10:17:00.003-05:00

ok, so technically this is two weeks old, but i never finished typing it up to post it. so here it is now.

we've had some funky weather lately, 2 fridays ago, there was a nasty storm headed our way, specifically, my house. they let me leave work early so that i could make it home before the storm. that didn't work out as well as planned, but i was home before the really bad stuff hit.

here's my veiw driving down the beltway. this is at 4pm. and no, i didn't do a thing in photoshop. the sky was green!

and then it did it again on saturday! i was playing online and brandt was on the phone when we had this one crash of lightning and thunder, simultaneously. brandt even made a joke to his friend that he thought our driveway got struck by lightning.

then we started hearing firetrucks and all sorts of commotion. turns out he wasn't that far off, the house across the street got hit! the lightning hit a tree and bounced down to the house below, hitting the back of it, but somehow blowing out the bricks in the front!

fortunatly, no one lives there right now. so no one was hurt. unfortunatly, that meant the firefighters had to break down the door to get in (there was smoke coming out)

and nothing draws a neighborhood together quite like drama, so of course i was out there with my fellow neighbors watching the action. and in the process got to meet some other people that we've been meaning to introduce ourselves to. (they are the only people on the street our age, and they just had a baby! so we are glad to have finally met them!)

flu free

2009-05-01T09:24:00.002-05:00

last night we went out to a new restaurant, and all the tables were pretty close together. we were seated next to some fancy smancy "ladies who lunch" type people, and we could hear their whole conversation, so i know they could hear us.

pair that with my lovely coughing fits.
i was getting some pretty nasty looks throughout the evening.

i need a shirt that says "i have acid reflux, not the swine flu!"

bottomless stomach

2009-04-29T15:45:00.003-05:00

about once a week i have a bottomless stomach sort of day. it happens to be today this time! the rest of the week i eat 3 meals and maybe a snack. on bottomless stomach days i would say i more graze all day long :) thats between meals, of course.

my cough is for the most part gone! my ob recommended pepsid ac. i thought she was crazy. what does acid reflux have to do with coughing?! alot, apparently. i even had a friend email me and tell me that pepsid is what she took during her pregnancy. so once i started taking it correctly (umm, i should have read the box. taking it twice a day, morning and evening, does nothing. apparently you should take it 15-60 minutes before eating) i started to notice a difference within days! my regular dr explained it to me, claiming that since my stomach and guts are all squished, that the stomach acid can come back up without me noticing. so thank you doctors, and thank you becky!

(also, if i forget to take it and the coughs sneak back up, i have figured out that taking it late does do some help too!)

oh, and i was injured! i mentioned before (i think) that i kept pulling muscles in my back while in the midst of my evil coughing fits. well, last wednesday here at work, i sort of did this semi-cough-throat-clearing noise and *pop* there it goes again. ughhhhh. so it was a little sore but nothing that a little tylenol couldn't help.
well at some point in the middle of that night, more specifically around 5am, i guess i rolled over or turned or did a backflip in my sleep and did something way worse to my back that i had earlier. i woke up with my whole back spasming and tensing up. and in pain. alot of pain. and i couldn't take a deep breath. i was more freaked out by not being able to breath than the pain, and after a few minutes was in tears b/c i couldn't figure out what to do. fortunately, brandt was off that night and home, although he was staying up all night. he actually heard me in the middle of my hyperventilating panic attack (ok, i may be exaggerating) and came in to see what was wrong. not that i could talk. and then there were beagles who had jumped up on the bed to comfort me. licking beagles. well, after he calmed me down and convinced me that i could in fact, breath, things got better.
i stayed home from work that day since sitting caused me pain. i spent the whole day laying on the couch, trying to find an ok position. my ob prescribed me some muscle relaxers, so i did do alot of sleeping. so i had a very unproductive 4 day weekend last week! it wasn't till yesterday that i started feeling normal again. thank goodness.

oh, and dr says i can't lift over 10 lbs for the rest of the pregnancy.
ten.pounds.
thats not much!
ughhhh

so, the baby! this week it's a girl! yay! don't get too excited though, b/c next week she will be a he! that's our solution, for now. better than constantly referring to the baby as "it." so we just alternate he/him and she/her weekly. it works. and hopefully the kid won't have any sort of issues...

i have been feeling the baby move since about week 17 or so, but i wasn't ever convinced that it was for sure the baby. (i'd rather be happily surprised than disappointed.) i made a comment on my 20 week post that i can't wait for brandt to be able to feel a kick! well, that came true the next day!!! i was laying down and he put his hand on my stomach and we waited a few minutes. i felt something, but, still not convinced that it was the baby, just waited, breath held, to see if anything was strong enough to be felt from "the outside." well, one was, i had been watching b's face, and whoa did his expression change!!! so i knew that i wasn't crazy, this was the baby, and he could feel it too!!! yay! i think i was more excited than him, but thats ok. now i am feeling "her" alot more consistently. it's pretty cool. and there's a list of people waiting for their turn to feel, but baby isn't cooperating. plus jen, i tend to see you mostly while we are shopping, and i think people would give us weird looks...

i swear i had more to talk about...

but since i am drawing a blank, i will end this blog post for now. and prob go browse through the kitchen here one last time before i head home...

aggie baby

2009-04-20T15:59:00.003-05:00

a few weeks ago when we were crib shopping/looking i came across these. my mom convinced me that i could find them cheaper online (and i did) and they came in today!

sooooo teeny tiny! we will be taking these to the hospital for the baby to wear. they are newborn sized, so we probably won't get much use out of them, but thats ok. that's not the point!

so stinking cute!

baby freebie

2009-04-20T15:49:00.003-05:00

for all the mommies and mommies to be!

free sample of Huggies Pure and Natural diapers
can't hurt, right?

22 weeks!

2009-04-17T13:12:00.003-05:00

wow, sometime this week i got a bump!
i think i have officially crossed over into the "yup, she's pregnant" phase.

i have to mention the jeans. i have been mainly in maternity jeans, but i still have 3 prs that fit. after wearing the (comfy) maternity jeans all week, they were dirty, so i was like, whatever, i'll just wear these. well, they may be fine for standing up, but once i've been sitting for any significant amount of time, ohmygees just kill me now! talk about uncomfortable! so once i get home, the remaining 3 prs of b4b jeans (before baby) will be going in a box, along with all the other clothes that i have tossed in there that are no longer appropriate/fitting since being pregnant.

ahh the b4b box... i decided to start it the other night when brandt was working overtime. i was tired of going through my closet every morning sorting through the clothes that i can't wear anymore. so i got the brilliant idea of trying them all on and seeing what still worked. (this was mainly tops, all i really have for bottoms are jeans) so after 30 minutes i was crying and upset b/c i have this belly and nothing fits and i'm fat and alone and sad and oh, did i mention hormonal?

*note: i know i'm not fat. i'm pregnant. and have only gained 8 lbs. i am doing great. theres just something pitiful about trying on too tight shirts in front of a full length mirror that just pushed me over the edge briefly.

so i pull my phone out of my pocket to call hub and have him tell me that he loves me and i'm indeed, not fat. of course, it slips out of my hand and hits the tile floor and the screen shatters.

so now i'm:
1) hormonaly crying like a baby
2) pretty peeved that i broke my phone. which won't turn on

thankfully i have a backup phone, and i got it activated. after i calmed down, of course. so all is well.

and brandt still loves me, and we both laughed at my meltdown.
but, i now have an easier time of getting dressed in the morning!
(and, my wardrobe, or lack thereof, looks pathetic. so i doubt brandt would mind if i picked up a few things...)

so have a laugh at my expense. i still am :)

now onto our regularly scheduled programming:

How far along? 22 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: 8lb gain
Maternity clothes? more often than not. see above
Stretch marks? nope. (thankyouGod)
Sleep: not enough! my cough hasn't helped
Best moment this week: brandt has felt the baby!
Movement: definatly! pretty often too
Food cravings: i would love a DQ dipped cone!
Gender: i'll go with boy this time
Labor Signs: please, keep labor far away
Belly Button in or out? innie, but not as deep anymore :(
What I miss: sleeping on my back! and my stomach.
What I am looking forward to: the summer!
Weekly Wisdom: just b/c something fits standing up, doesn't mean it will once you sit down
Milestones:def brandt feeling the baby kick!-

5 months!

2009-04-15T15:28:00.003-05:00

well from here on out, they quit showing my baby as the food of the week, its now the food of the month! and this month its a papaya! i'll have to check one out at the store, but from what i recall, they are pretty big!

i still can't believe i'm starting my 5th month.

wow...

so, here's the view from here:

i took that just now. (colleen, miss that carpet? lol)
and i may have pushed it out just a tad to make my belly a little rounder :) pretty soon i'm sure i will be sucking it in trying to make myself look smaller!

and here's my latest find, from this weekend:

its pretty hard to find cop stuff, but there's always a ton of firetrucks! so i was excited to see this! there was also a matching outfit, but it was very "boy" and since we don't know yet... i settled on the bib!

and happy belated Easter everyone!
we had plans, but ended up bailing, since it was an all day event that required an hour traveling each way, and brandt had a ton of school work to do.

have i mentioned that he is working on his masters? go babe! i'm so proud of him. working full time (and then some) and going to school and going to be a daddy. and still helping out around the house. and going to the gym. and helping cook dinner. and still making time to hang out with me. i wonder when he sleeps!

anyways, with all his reading to do (that was online, so not travel-friendly) we decided to stay at home. it was a bummer, since it was the first time there has been a holiday and we, or i rather, havne't spent any time with family. but i did get to attempt my first "holiday meal"!

we aren't big ham people, so i got a tiny one, yeah, it was pre-cooked and pre-sliced, but thats ok. i made it more festive with the fruit. plus the sides! it was pretty good too, i must say.

so i guess that's about it! happy tax day, and happy early bday karma!

update

2009-04-07T15:25:00.006-05:00

so now we are in our 21st week (20w, 4d)

and this week baby is about as long as: a banana!

i had a dr's appt this morning, and she said that the last ultrasound looked great, and all the bloodwork i had done a few weeks ago (quad screen) came back all negative/normal. so yay!

she also suggested trying pepsid ac for my cough, b/c it could be caused by acid reflux? sounds odd to me, since i haven't had any problems that i've noticed, but its been over 5 weeks, i'll try anything!

last night was the season opener for the astros!
i was going to wear something flowy (the word i used to use was frumpy, but now that that's what i am limited to, i say flowy) but after shopping with jen this weekend, she has been encouraging me to wear more fitted stuff. i will, once i have past that "is she or isn't she" stage... well, brandt thought it looked good too, so i wore my usual astros shirt, belly and all.
(i will take this moment to (brag) mention that i designed this shirt! when i worked at red oak, i had them print it for me!)

at home, i felt cute. but once we hit the parking lot i start bugging brandt, asking if i really looked pregnant or just a bit chubby. i realize at this point it was too late to change clothes, but still. he kept assuring me that i indeed did look pregnant. (i blame the hormones)

here's us:

rally cap. we thought maybe we had a chance there in the 9th. notsomuch

and i asked his buddy greg to get a pic of us with the field in the background. i meant a vertical one, so you could see my belly fat, i mean, bump. of course, guys don't get that sort of thing. so its just another picture, pretty much like the one above.
without the field behind us.
*sigh*
guys...

this is why jennifer is awesome.
she would have understood without me having to ask.

so here's a pic of me back at home:
(sorry it's not centered, i had the camera sitting on the counter with the self timer on. the centered one wasn't focused. so deal with it)

HALFWAY DAY!

2009-04-03T14:51:00.005-05:00

ladies and gentlemen, today i am 20 weeks into my pregnancy, which means i am halfway! so exciting!
when i look at this, i see a definite belly there,
but for some reason i feel like i'm not showing yet!

How far along? 20 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: no clue. jeans still fitting, but not comfortable
Maternity clothes? slowly switching over
Stretch marks? *crosses fingers* not yet
Sleep: not enough! my cough hasn't helped
Best moment this week: i think i can feel the baby!
Movement: i *think* so. its odd, but always in the same place
Food cravings: i like cheeseburgers alot
Gender: no clue, i'll say girl again
Labor Signs: not time yet
Belly Button in or out? innie
What I miss: sleeping all night w/o getting up to pee
What I am looking forward to: brandt being able to feel the baby
Weekly Wisdom: buy a house big enough to hold all your junk. or better yet, get rid of your junk before you buy a house!
Milestones: i had a stranger ask if i was pregnant! well, our regular waitress at casa ole, but still, she's sort of a stranger

ok, now a followup from yesterday. the stroller!

i love it. its really nice. but its b.i.g. it will be great for when i start running/jogging again. and for going for walks with the dogs, we don't stay on the sidewalks, we go out in a big grassy area. also, it will be great for the zoo and any sort of activity like that.

however, it is too big for the mall. it bums me out b/c i was hoping that this would be our go-to stroller, but not so much. it is agile and really easy to turn and move (at least empty) but it is more than likely too long and wide for shopping. but i could be wrong.

and lastly, here's brandt showing madi the stroller, and her checking it out!

my stroller is here!

2009-04-02T11:36:00.005-05:00

i never thought i would be so excited over a stroller!

i got the easywalker sky (<- thats a clickable link) ours is orange (!) and they dont have it in that color on the site anymore. i got it for more than half off since it was last years model. so don't think less of us b/c we have an '08 model. haha (who even knew that strollers have year models!) here it is in the box. man, thats orange...

here's the sun canopy.

i'm not sure if i want to open it and set it up at work. but i know i probably will.
for the record, i would have preferred the aqua or navy or even lime. but when i got my slow butt around to actually ordering, all that was left was orange and army green. and although brandt preferred the army green (the orange looked a little, umm, burnt orangeish, for our tastes) i decided to be bold and go with the orange. which worked out, its a bright pumpkin orange. you will never loose us in a crowd!

i lied

2009-03-31T15:19:00.004-05:00

heres my 18 weeks belly shot.
i stayed home from work that day b/c i had a pulled muscle in my back. so i didn't get much/any sleep the night before. and i'm in comfy clothes. and my hair is a mess. however, i did crop my slippers out of the picture.

and NOW you are caught up. promise.

the BIG ultrasound!

2009-03-31T14:57:00.005-05:00

its referred to as the "big one" for several reasons, most importantly to majority of people, it's when you find out the sex of the baby! also, they check for all of the chambers of the heart, take lots of measurements, and count all the fingers and toes!

so last tuesday, we got about a 30 minute long ultrasound with our rolly polly baby! as soon as the screen came up, the first thing we saw was the spine. creepy sounding, yeah, but it was SO COOL! it's amazing that you can see all the bones and stuff. the baby had its back to us for majority of the time... but did flip around while we were watching. it was hard to believe how active babies are already, the tech had a hard time getting the speed of the heart beat b/c of all the movement.

the baby is weighing in at 8 oz and is measuring a few days ahead. but my due date is still the same. (from what i understand, they don't change that unless you are off by a week or more.)

since we didn't find out the sex of the baby, our dr won't know either. so the secret is safe! i do feel a little bad, b/c brandt *really* wants to know. but he agreed to wait. even though i know he isn't the happiest with that, i did promise that for #2 we would find out.

and here are a few of the pics,
labeled for your viewing pleasure!

and i think that's about it, you are all now officially caught up!

catching up...

2009-03-31T14:48:00.004-05:00

this week baby is the size of a:

cantaloupe... starting to get big!!

and in the past 2 weeks, we've had:

a mango!

and a sweet potato!

i'm sorry

2009-03-31T08:44:00.002-05:00

i haven't updated in so long! i've been meaning to... i sort of took a hiatus from the internet. i all but abandoned my myspace and didn't even log into facebook for weeks at a time. i've had this nasty cough, but no other symptoms! i'm sure its sinus/allergy related, but, being pregnant, i am severly limited to what i can take. i've been to a regular dr and my ob, and nothing they reccomend helps. oh well. 2 pulled muscles later, i think it's finally subsiding. (its been a month!)

i'll be posting stuff soon!

dont get excited...

2009-03-10T15:01:00.001-05:00

i was worried that the new blog make-over would make people think that maybe we are having a girl! but no... don't read too much into the pink. i just liked the birds.

for the record, we are not finding out the sex of the baby. i like surprises :)

week 17

2009-03-10T13:39:00.004-05:00

we have an onion!

also, from WhatToExpect.com:

Your baby is almost certainly listening up by now. In fact, loud noises — the dog barking, the doorbell ringing — will actually startle your baby (and also get him or her used to such noises; for instance, fetuses who regularly hear a dog barking will become babies who sleep right through Fido's outbursts).

if you have met my Nevaeh, you will understand why this is such good news! she is a very loud and excited dog, and we've worried about how often she will wake up the baby once he/she is here! maybe the baby will be immune to my foghorn of a dog!

16weeks!

2009-03-06T13:57:00.003-06:00

How far along? 16 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: no clue, jeans still fit so im happy
Maternity clothes? just a few tops but they are still too big
Stretch marks? phew, no
Sleep: love to! but i get hot :(
Best moment this week: visiting some friends
Movement: still too soon
Food cravings: still just the aversions. mainly to mexican
Gender: i'll say girl, but i really have no strong feelings either way
Labor Signs: no thank you
Belly Button in or out? innie
What I miss: going places and doing things. i'm such a bum!
What I am looking forward to: setting up the nursery. but not clearing it out. ugh
Weekly Wisdom: taking your prenatals with orange juice makes your body absorb them faster, and you won't taste them. thank you MAW!
Milestones: gagging on a prenatal (gumball sized!) vitamin and having it come back up. bringing with it my dinner...

we are in week 16

2009-03-03T15:16:00.003-06:00

this week the baby is an avocado

and (this is pretty cool) my avocado can hear me now! no one else for the time being, but i'm sure that will happen soon enough! so i guess you can't call me crazy if i am walking around talking to myself, maybe my baby and i are having a deep conversation...

any graphic design nerds out there?

2009-02-26T08:59:00.003-06:00

i found this off another blog, its pretty fun! to me at least...

do you believe in signs?

2009-02-23T15:26:00.003-06:00

last night we went and ate at Pei Wei (yum!) with jen and kyle. if you haven't been there, they have their fortune cookies just sitting out by the drink machines, so you can kind of help yourself. we always grab one when we sit down and wait for our food (appetizer, no?) and then usually grab another when we leave. kyle got up and jen asked for a second cookie, so i said i would to. for the baby. of course. i think brandt is getting tired of that excuse, so i amended it, the cookie is for me. the fortune, for the baby.

so i open it, and heres whats staring me in the face:

and the fortune:

i showed them all the girl side, that was weird. then when i realized the fortune applied too, i had brandt read it. pretty creepy!!!

ps: we stopped and got lotto tickets with those numbers on the way home :)

i'm in week 15!

2009-02-23T10:20:00.002-06:00

so that means the baby is the size of a naval orange!

14 weeks!

2009-02-19T15:25:00.004-06:00

i finally look like i am having a baby!

that was this morning right before i went to work.
although i probably look like i ate too much at dinner...

also, i found this on another girl's blog, so i will do this every so often too!

How far along? 14 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: no idea, dr hasn't said
Maternity clothes? ive worn a top but it looked too big. also rocked some mat jeans the other day b/c i was doing laundry, but they are too big. so not really just yet
Stretch marks? nope! its a bit early though
Sleep: often. the napping phase has passed, but i still can't stay up as late as i used to
Best moment this week: umm i get off at work at noon today! not baby related, i know...
Movement: too soon
Food cravings: none yet. but i would love a dipped cone from DQ
Gender: no idea. everyone has a "feeling" but me, it seems
Labor Signs: not for a long time please *fingers crossed*
Belly Button in or out? in. lets keep it that way as long as possible
What I miss: energy
What I am looking forward to: looking pregnant instead of chubby
Weekly Wisdom: Don't be passively pregnant. This is your life for the next 9 months, so take charge of it. (this was the other girl's, i can't come up with anything better)
Milestones: for the first time ever i forgot to take my vitamin. not a good milestone :(

week 14!

2009-02-13T16:01:00.002-06:00

so as of today i'm 13 weeks (but in week 14)we have a lemon!

also, i had my second appointment this morning (with me dr, the second ultrasound was with a technician was was a screening for several genetic disorders)

i got to hear the heartbeat!
all the genetic tests came back negative!

she said everything looks healthy and normal.

take that friday the 13th!

spreading the news

2009-02-10T15:36:00.008-06:00

every year on Christmas eve, my in-laws have a small party/get-together, and my family comes too. so we figured that that would be the best/easiest/fairest way to tell everyone, get it done all at once! we knew we wanted to do it at Christmas, so this was perfect!

we waited till everyone was there and said that we wanted a group picture, b/c we don't have any other than weddings. so we got everyone all together and brandt set the timer. when it was counting down he said "everyone say 'jamie's pregnant!'"

so the plan was to have a photo with everyone's expressions

we got this:

in case you can't identify everyone, you have the moms and one grandmother (some of the main people we wanted reactions from!) are all hiding. and you can tell that our siblings all were in on it, although i'm not sure why jen is staring at kyle...

so after the picture, we just turned around and were waiting to be showered with hugs, tears, etc. any reaction really. and we got nothing. finally someone asked, are you serious?!

theyhad thought that brandt was joking, but then we got all our hugs and congrats, it was fun. although everyone was in shock for the rest of the night still!

*********************************

and then for my grandparents:

i made them this, and framed it and mailed it off to michigan!
(of course i forgot to take a pic)

we figured sine the other grandparents (great gparents?!) we finding out for Christmas, so should they! so i wrapped it up in Christmas paper and sent it overnight, just to be sure that it got there in time. so the plan was to have them open it Christmas afternoon when all my aunts/uncles/cousins were there. i was even going to ask someone to get a picture of them opening it.

but once she saw how much i had spent to overnight the package, she didn't even notice the wrapping paper, and opened it right away! now this is 2 days before my parents were going to find out, so i was sooooooo scared that my mom would find out! my aunt called all sorts of excited, but i couldn't get ahold of my grandparents to say "DONT TELL YET!!"

and of course, my mom called that afternoon. but fortunately our news stayed a secret. my aunt had pointed out that since it was wrapped in Christmas paper, it was probably supposed to be opened on Christmas.

so that was my stressful afternoon! every time i tried called my gparents or my aunt i had to go outside, since i work with my in-laws, and they didn't know yet. it was all pretty funny though.

and now everybody knows :)

hmmm

2009-02-09T15:07:00.003-06:00

so on friday i was going to post this:

a plum!

b/c as of friday, i am 12 weeks!
(although, today that means i'm 12w 3d)

but then jen and i figured out that although i am 12 weeks along, i am in my 13th week!
i have a peach!

also... i hopefully will be able to start with the belly pics soon. but i still look pretty much the same. although i did notice a slight difference yesterday! but it could have been that large milkshake from saturday settling in :(

11w 4d ultrasound

2009-02-03T13:40:00.004-06:00

the baby is waving! thats the hand up there by the face

katy says the baby is flipping us off in this pic :(

whoo hoo! the baby has legs! and teeth?

week by week/week 11

2009-01-30T14:47:00.005-06:00

so every friday i begin another week of my pregnancy. i found these online and thought they were pretty cool!

here's a rundown of where we've been:

poppy seed

apple seed

sweet pea

blueberry

raspberry

olive

prune (eww!)

and now, for this week!

a lime!

have a great weekend everyone!

by popular request, i'll post this on my blog :)

2009-01-29T15:58:00.004-06:00

2 weeks ago i found several crib bedding sets that i liked. so i was trying to show brandt. (his first response, "show me once you have narrowed it down."
ummm 4 is narrowed down, dear. there are thousands!

so he looked at them and after 10 seconds knocked two of them out. no big deal, i wasn't set on either one of the two.

forward to this week, i have 2 that i love
(see post below)

so that afternoon when i got home, i put both pictures side by side in a word document, and asked him what he preferred, the deer or the patterns.

he looked at them for a minute and then he goes,
"i don't like the white one. "

ummm huh? there is no "white" one.

so i asked him to be more specific, and he said,
"well, i like the wood one better."

then it kind of clicks.
"you are looking at the cribs!?"

and he said, "well, yeah. the price is $200,
what else would it be for?"

ha!

so i asked, "is that how you eliminated the first two?
based on the cribs?!"

ahhhhh!

really, i should have figured it out. when he was looking at the first batch, he pointed out that he didn't like the one set b/c the crib in the picture had a side removed (in order to show off the bedding better)
he was like, "we can't pick this one b/c the baby would fall out!"

ugh... guys!