A Letter to Baby Page on our 1 Year Anniversary

Dear Baby Page,

One year ago today your father and I said our marriage vows to each other on a beautifully hot Texas day. I can't believe it's already been a year. Last night at dinner your father, who is usually not overly sentimental, gave me a sweet card with a letter inside. While reading the letter I brushed away the tears from my eyes (hoping not to mess up my awesome eye makeup job) and I felt you start to kick around in my tummy as if to say "Yeah yeah, you guys got married one time.. but now it's all about ME!". Well BP... you are 100% right about that. Today I am 22 weeks pregnant with you and I don't think it's possible for us to love you more. Over the past year your father and I have had a blast together. We spent Christmas in New York City, Honeymooned in Hawaii and have taken many weekends away to enjoy each others' company. The best time we've spent together though has been preparing for you. The day we found out we were pregnant with you we were both in shock. Sure we knew we would have kids some day and we were hoping and praying it would be soon, but there's nothing in this world that can prepare someone for a positive pregnancy test. So many questions, exciting thoughts, fears, and an immeasurable amount of love was felt the week after we found out we were going to be your parents. Feelings that happily continue to flood our lives each and every day. We talk about you constantly. How we want to raise you, what we want to teach you, who we want you to be, and of course how we want to make you feel safe and loved always. We can't wait to meet you and show you how much you are loved. Until then, you'll have to settle for tons of belly rubs (hope you can feel those) and your mom's terrible voice singing random songs in the shower and car. We love you so much.

Mom (& Dad)

P.S. - In order to gross you out someday I have included this picture of your father and I kissing on our wedding day. Hahahahaha take that!

Week 21

Week 21:

Pregnancy Stats:

How Far Along: 21 weeks (almost 22!)

Size of baby: Baby Page is the size of a barbie doll?!

Total Weight Gain: I have been packing on the pounds! I started out around 121 and I'm up to 135 now! Eek!!

Gender: Taking guesses!

Movement: Currently moving as I'm writing this blog and waiting to Skype with Jennifer! Thank God he/she has been active today because yesterday I didn't feel much and started to get worried.

Sleep: Dreams are getting better and so is my sleep now that I am back at work. I still usually get up around 2-3 times a night to pee though. :(

What I miss: Still raw sushi... oh and Medium Rare steak.

Cravings: Chocolate milk of course and now I'm on a Subway kick. Today I craved a Big Red (Hadn't had one of those since Junior High) so I stopped and got a Big Red Icee.

Symptoms: Feeling like a million bucks since work started back - hopefully it will stay that way. Have had some upset stomach and a little heartburn.

Maternity Clothes: My AWESOME 3rd grade team gave me a toooooon of maternity clothes. Have I mentioned how awesome they are? I can't wait to wear them all! There's a olive green dress that I am especially excited to wear this weekend when we go out for our anniversary dinner.


Best Moment this week: Honestly... going back to work. I wasn't looking forward to it because I love my time off, but it is what I needed. I need to be around people, I need to have a purpose. I am SOOO thankful to have such a great group of ladies to work with. My 3rd grade team is so amazing.

Other best moment this week: The baby balling up on one side of my stomach. It was so cool getting to see AND feel the baby.

20 Week Appointment

After a day of working in my classroom and doing a quick training on our gradebook system I rushed over to St. Luke's Med Center for my 20 week appointment with Dr. DenHartog. It felt weird sitting in the waiting room after I did my normal pee-in-a-cup routine (something you have to do EVERY single time you go for a check up) without Casey. You see, my wonderful husband has busted his butt to be at every single appointment up until now and with vacation time running low and us trying to save up he just couldn't ask off this time. :(

So I was sitting there reading some baby magazines when I saw a guy come in (a rather handsome one too) out of the corner of my eye and low and behold it was Casey! He had his work laptop in hand so he could work but still be at the appointment as we got our results from the anatomy scan we had last week. I was SO overjoyed and relieved that he could make it. I had been nervous about this appointment all week. Can you imagine getting bad news about your baby and not having your spouse there? Luckily there was NO bad news, in fact my wonderful doctor came in doing a ZTA cheer (she was a Zeta at UT- can you believe it??) as a joke because I just found out through her blog that we were both ZTAs and she was as excited as I was! So here's more info about Baby Page:

Weight: About 10-12 oz (getting close to a pound - wow!) (50th percentile)

Heartbeat: 150BPM

Overall: 50th percentile!!! Dr. D said everything looks great and the baby is doing great! Such a relief!

Week 20: Ooohhhh We're Halfway There....

I still have this song in my head. All week long. Bon Jovi... over and over.



The good news is: WE ARE HALFWAY THROUGH THIS PREGNANCY!!!!

WHOO HOO!!!!!

Week 20:

Pregnancy Stats:

How Far Along: 20 weeks (and a couple of days)

Size of baby: Baby Page is the size of a banana!

Total Weight Gain: 8 lbs? I think? I'll find out exact weight gain at my dr. appointment tomorrow.

Gender: Still a mystery - I've felt like it was a boy all along, but now I'm starting to get a girl vibe.

Movement: All the time and it's more defined now. I can feel the baby moving around my abdomen. Baby is currently hanging out on the right side but hangs out low most of the time.

Sleep: Dreams have been a little better, but still very odd. I usually only have one nightmare a night (as opposed to 3-4) so that's been better.

What I miss: Raw sushi.

Cravings: Chocolate milk is still #1, but popsicles and mexican food are a close 2nd. I was on an Asian kick for a while, but that has subsided.

Symptoms: I've actually been feeling really great lately! Hiccups are still constant, but they usually don't last long.

Maternity Clothes: Bought a new pair of khakis yesterday and my sweet hubby told me I can go to Kohl's today and pick up a cute dress and pair of trouser jeans that I found yesterday!


Best Moment this week: Laying on the couch and Riley crawled up next to me, laid down, and put his paw up on my belly. I immediately started crying... it was the sweetest thing ever. He definitely knows something. He is usually a mama's boy, but has been especially clingy since the pregnancy. Sometimes he lays his head on my belly and I swear he can hear something. Love that puppy.

Birthday Luau

I forgot to blog about this so here I go!

The last weekend in July - 2 weekends ago:

Casey and I headed up to Longview early on Saturday morning to attend a birthday party for my wonderful Aunt Karen. For those of you who don't know who my Aunt Karen is, she is like my second mom and she is my cousin Jen's mother. Here are pics from the weekend:

My oldest friend Ashley came to the party to see me! We grew up together living on the same street for all of our childhood.
Riley being festive:
Chris, Rylan, Casey and Abby:


Me and my best friend/cousin Jen:

Week 19: Anatomy Scan

Sonograms might be my favorite part of this pregnancy so far. I absolutely LOVE getting to see our little baby kicking, punching, fidgeting, and rolling around inside my tummy. It's the cutest thing ever. Yesterday we had our mid pregnancy anatomy scan to determine if there are any issues with the baby that we should know about before the birth. Everything looked good to us, but we'll find out more next week at our doctor appointment when our doctor goes over all of the measurements that were taken. Hopefully everything is just perfect. :) Meanwhile, I've been feeling tons of kicks and started having some back pain that I think might be attributed to the baby being on a nerve. Hopefully it will get better soon. Here are some pics (Some are a little creepy) of our sweet Baby Page!

Foot

Front view of face/skull (turn your head to the right)

Body facing down with it's butt in the air and legs bent

Baby's hand

Pom Pom Craft

I am not the craftiest person, but today I tried something out. Tissue paper pom poms for the nursery. These are going over the glider (that we just purchased used on eBay for only $69!) to act as a mobile during nursing sessions. :) I found this craft on Martha Stewart's website and it was SOOOOO easy. It's also a great craft for decorations for a baby/bridal shower or summer party. On her website you can also make napkin rings out of these.

Supplies needed:

• Tissue Paper
• Scissors
• Floral Wire

1. Get 8-10 pieces of rectangular tissue paper and stack them neatly.

2. Begin folding and creasing the tissue paper in an accordion folder (about 1"-1.5" folds) all the way to the end.
3. Cut the ends into a point (or rounded if you want a more structured look)


4. Feel something weird behind you...realize that your dog has been watching over your shoulder creepily and quietly.

5. Wrap a 8"-10" long piece of floral wire around the middle of the strip of tissue paper and twist.
6. Pull around each end to form a circle fan type thing.

7. Very carefully start pulling each layer apart and fluffing them together.

8. Voila! I did 3 more after this and they turned out much better, but this is the general look of the poms.