#46, #74, #93, and #98 - CHECK!

I think it’s time I check these off now.  So number 46 on my list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days was to get a new coffee table and end tables for our living room.  We actually bought these in the past few weeks and had them at our old house but since we recently moved, I figured I wait until we had them in the new house to cross off the list.  We bought them at the Mazer’s Furniture close-out sale.  We also bought the couches from there that you see in the picture below.  We racked up on that sale!!!

Number 74 on the list was to purchase a new dining room table and chairs.  Again this is something we bought from Mazer’s and bought it before we moved in, but waited until we moved to put it together.  Props to my girl Tiffany Lobdell for manually putting together each of the chairs in the dining room.  She’s my hero.

Notice how the rug and wall  painting pretty much match exactly???  Total coincidence.  We got the rug from Lowe’s and the painting I actually purchased after returning a few unneeded items from our wedding registry back in 2009.  We still have some décor to put on the dining room table but the house isn’t finished yet, so don’t judge yet please!

Number 93 on the list was to get hardwood floors for the living room.  We never did this in the old house but we picked out the hardwoods for this new house.  See the two pictures above for hardwoods color.

Finally, number 98 was to watch every episode of Andy Griffith.  Mission accomplished.  I rented my final season on Netflix and finished it last week.  Classic series. 

We’re still unpacking and adjusting…moving sucks and takes forever!  We had tremendous help from our friends the Lobdell’s as well as Wade Trimm, Justin Yarbrough and Aeron Gault.  We couldn’t have gotten so much done without their help!  Once things are set up and in order, I’ll take pics of the whole house and post them on here, but that may take some time.  I move slow pregnant.

Speaking of pregnant, a friend of mine asked in a comment on an earlier post if I had registered yet.  Yes, I am registered at both Buy Buy Baby and Babies R’ Us.  My sister, Lindsey, came to Birmingham a while back and went with me because I truly had no idea what I needed and what I didn’t.  It took 6 hours for us to have lunch and register at both of these places.  It was exhausting!  But I know a lot about raising babies now…I think…

We also had a fun little experience last night.  I’m 23 weeks pregnant today.  I just started feeling kicks a couple of weeks ago because the placenta was in front of my uterus and when Carter kicked, he was kicking the placenta, therefore I couldn’t feel it for a while.  It was cool to be able to feel it, but I knew Justin couldn’t so I never had him put his hand on my stomach to see if he could feel it.  Last night we were sitting on our back porch and Carter was going CRAZY.  So I said to Justin “I wonder if you’d be able to feel this yet”.  He put his hand on my stomach and Carter made a pretty big kick and Justin said “I felt that!” and then Carter kicked again and Justin said “and that!”.  I never told him it was a kick, he felt it on his own and said it, no prompting needed.  I couldn't stop smiling…I was so glad Justin was finally able to feel him.  I know it’s hard to understand, but Justin feeling him was one of  those milestones that to me, made this pregnancy more real than it already was.  It was so awesome!

So now I officially only have 29 things left on my 101 list.  I’m certain that most of them will roll into a new 101 list, but hopefully I can check some more off before the deadline in February 2012.

My Big Fat Belly - 22 Weeks

How far along: 22 Weeks, 1 Day

Symptoms: Allow me to count them out for you:

• My back is killing me.  I bought a full length maternity pillow that helps,  but doesn’t cure it.  I still wake up with pain in my mid-upper back, which is unusual because most back pain in pregnancy comes from the lower back from the weight of the belly.  So I honestly have no idea what’s wrong with me.  In an attempt to mitigate, I bought that maternity pillow along with a back pillow for my desk chair at work.  I’ve started using a heating pad frequently as well as taking hot baths. 
• I’m out of breath all the time.  I went online to figure this out and found that around 20 weeks, the uterus has gotten so big that it literally rearranged my organs, and it’s very common that the baby lays on the lungs, causing mom to feel out of breath all the time.  That explains it then.  I literally wake up in the middle of the night out of breath and stay that way most of the day.  It’s miserable.
• I’m getting very lightheaded these days.  If I stand up too quickly or just turn too quickly to one side, I will get this feeling.  I’m not sure what this means.  I’ve read that it’s common, I just don’t know what I can do to help it.  I could be getting anemic, but my doc put me on iron pills almost two months ago because my iron was already dropping (iron deficiencies run in my family when it comes to pregnancy) but at  my 18 week appointment she said it actually went up some.  So confused.
• I can’t bend over anymore without feeling like I’m 105 years old and it takes much longer than it should to get in and out of my car.
• Overall unhappiness.   Please don’t take this the wrong way.  I am VERY excited about having a sweet little baby soon, but between all the items listed above topped by the fact that every time I look in the mirror I see that I have grown to the equivalent of an average size refrigerator, it’s upsetting.  I don’t see how some women LOVE being pregnant.  I’m not a fan.  But I do count my blessings.  I know lots of women would go through all this and never have a frown on their face about it because they want to be pregnant that badly and for whatever reason, can’t be.  I am blessed and trust me, I thank God for Carter everyday.

Maternity Clothes: They’re my best friend.  I have decided that as far as pants go, the half panel sucks.  I want full panel.  The only pair of maternity pants I have for work are all half panel and that stupid elastic band going through the middle of my belly is annoying.  Next time I have to buy full panel.  However I am still able to wear some pre-maternity work pants with the belly band still, they’re just not my first choice because they’re not as comfy.  Also, the belly button is on its way out.  I’m the only one that I would assume could tell a difference right now but there’s definitely a difference.  Babycenter says this week is when some women’s belly button start to pop out.  I’m giving mine another 2-3 weeks before that happens, but it’s definitely on the way.

Weight Gain: At 20 weeks I was up to 11 pounds.  At 21 weeks I gained almost a pound, but then lost it that same week.  I was a little shocked by that.  I’ve been told by almost all pregnant people I know that the 2nd trimester is where the weight packs on big-time because it’s the baby’s biggest growth spurt period.  I thought I was doing great because between week 14 and week 21, I was averaging at a little less than a pound a week (doc told me to gain a pound a week).  Then came week 22.  I literally gained a pound and a half this week.  I have no idea how that happened.  It’s not the eating….on average, a pregnant women should take in the normal calorie intake (2,000 a day) plus a small amount for the baby (150-200).  Not even kidding, I’ve been lucky to get 1,900 a day.  For real.  I feel like my stomach is so big that even when I eat a relatively small meal, I’m full because there’s just not much room anymore (and yes, I know I have a ways to go and my stomach is only going to get bigger).  So how on earth did I gain a pound and a half when I can barely eat 2,000 calories?!?!?  So confused.  At 22 weeks, I’m up to 12 1/2 pounds.  Luckily, numerous people have told me that it’s all belly and that I haven’t gained weight anywhere else.  I hope they’re right and not just being nice…

Baby Size: At the beginning of week 22, Carter is the size of a papaya!  Even though the picture says 12.7-20.8 oz. for weight, Carter is most likely towards the higher end of that range if he’s still measuring big like he was at my 18 week appointment.

Movement:  ALL THE TIME.  I finally was able to feel Carter’s kicks towards the beginning of week 21.  My doc told me that since my placenta was in the front, it would be a while before I was able to feel him kick.  Most women can feel kicks anywhere between 16-18 weeks.  I was unfortunate to not be able to feel it until much later than that, but I am loving it now.  I’m still trying to figure out a pattern though.  At first, he usually was most active between 8-9am and then again right before I go to bed, but just when I thought that was the pattern, he threw me off and stopped doing it then and started doing it mid-day.  The downside of feeling kicks is that you get worried when you don’t feel them.  I have to remind myself that he sleeps about 17-20 hours a day and I won’t feel him most of the day and that it’s completely normal.  Still hard to take in though.

What I’m Looking Forward To: My 22 week doctor appointment is on Friday (I like to make my appointments at the end of the week that it’s for instead of the beginning) and I plan to ask about all of my symptoms to see if there’s any relief that I haven’t thought of yet.  We’re also moving into our house this weekend.  No worries, I won’t be doing any lifting at all.  A lot of our friends are coming by at different times throughout the weekend to help so I pretty  much will just be unpacking some boxes and moving clothes and other light things.  I’m really looking forward to doing his nursery now that we’re moving in and he has a room!!  Nursery updates to come soon!

Bump Pic for the Week:

 

See?!?!?  Average size refrigerator….

The Twins Are Here!!!

The twins have finally arrived!  Long story short, my sister-in-law, Jennifer, was admitted to the hospital on Thursday because her urine was showing too much protein and her blood pressure was getting too high.  They decided to keep her at the hospital until the babies were born.  Jen is only 34 weeks right now, but for twins, that’s a good time to be born.  She thought she’d have to be in the hospital for a little over two weeks because as of Thursday, babies were showing no sign of coming anytime soon.  The doctors said that they would take the babies on August 30th if they hadn’t come before then.

But then this morning, Jen’s blood pressure skyrocketed so they decided to take the babies today.  Justin had to wake up around 5:30 because he was traveling to Bend, Oregon today with his dad for work.  Justin and Gordon had both gone through security at the airport when they got the call that the babies were coming today.  They ended up leaving the airport and Gordon headed straight to the hospital while Justin came back to our house to get me.  I was still asleep at this time.  I was woken up by our house phone ringing three times in a row.  I figured something was up.  I missed it the third time but then saw my cell phone and had 4 missed calls and two voicemails, all before 7am.  So I kinda knew babies were coming and got up and immediately got ready.  I’ve never gotten ready that fast.  Ever.  This is the SECOND time I have woken up to news of babies.  Cooper started coming in the middle of the night too and I had even more missed calls/voicemails/texts then.

It’s been a long day, Justin and I got to the hospital around 8am and just got home around 5pm.  I am SO exhausted.  Babies were born at UAB and boy are they secure about their babies.  We had to take a picture and wear a badge based on what wing Jenn was in.  First she was in the pre-labor rooms, then she went to labor and delivery, then to recovery then to her final post-partum room.  That’s a lot of moving!  The annoying part was that since they kept moving Jenn, we had to get new badges before we could see her after the surgery.  There was literally 10 of us that had to go all the way back to the lobby to get a new badge before we could see Jenn or the babies.  So annoying.  But I guess I understand.  Ok now for the good stuff….the pictures :)

This is  everyone in Jenn’s room waiting on her to come back from recovery.  She had a C-Section and couldn’t leave the recovery room until she was able to move both of her legs, so we were just waiting on her arrival to greet the new momma!  This is Debbie and Gordon (the new grandparents), JoAnne and Russell (the great grandparents) and our pastor at St. Mark, Steve West.

This is me and Stacey, Jenn’s bff.

Sweet little Cynthia Ann….born first at 4lbs, 14oz, 17 3/4 inches

Auntie M holding little Cynthia.  We figured out that Cynthia only gets upset when she’s being moved.  She cried when Aeron picked her up from the table, but then was fine.  She cried when I took her from Aeron, but then she was fine, and then she cried again when the nurse took her from me to put back on the table.   I can’t wait till I feel like she’s a little less fragile!!

    

Daddy holding Celia Grace, 3lbs, 7oz, born second, 14 1/4 inches.  Y’all, no pictures can explain this.  Her body is TINY.  Her sweet little head is no bigger than my palm, maybe even smaller.  But little girl had her eyes wide open looking at her surroundings and everyone that was holding her.  She never cried either.  Sweet sweet little girl.

Celia sucking her thumb

Cynthia

Uncle Justin is holding a 4x6 picture next to Cynthia to give you an idea of how little bitty she is

That’s one happy Nana!!

Nana holding Celia and Auntie M holding Cynthia.

You may have noticed both of their names start with “C”.  I absolutely love this.  That means we’ll have three C’s when Carter comes.  I am so excited about pictures that are captioned with “Celia, Cynthia and Carter”.  LOVE IT!  Prayers for Jenn and the babies though.  Jenn will probably be in the hospital until Wednesday or Thursday.  The babies have to be 5lbs before they’re able to leave, so poor Celia has a bit to go, but Cynthia’s close.  Both babies have shown interest in sucking on things so hopefully that means they’ll take food easily.  The more food they eat the quicker they put on weight and the quicker they’ll leave the NICU.

My Big Fat Belly - 20 Weeks

I know I know…I’m a day early.  I don’t turn 20 weeks until tomorrow.  I figure it’s okay since I was half a week late on week 18 and didn’t even post on week 19.  So here’s what’s going on at 20 weeks:

How far along: 20 Weeks - HALFWAY PEOPLE!!!

Symptoms:  Sleep is beginning to become an issue as well as headaches.  I’m getting headaches more and more frequently now and usually they’re cured by popping some Tylenol, but every now and again, a really ugly one rears it’s head and causes me to be out of commission for the day.  As far as sleep goes…it’s hit and miss.  Most days, I’ve gotten to where my body seems to be requiring more sleep than I have time to provide.  This is rather unusual for this time in pregnancy, I’m supposed to have a good amount of energy during the second trimester, which I did, but it’s dwindling down quickly.  I had to call in to work on Friday, and I never do that,  because I just couldn’t function.  I woke up at 7am to email people at work to let them know that I wasn’t coming in and then went back to sleep.  I didn’t wake up until 11:30 that afternoon.  I NEVER do that.  In the past several weeks, I’ve gotten to where if I don’t get a good 9+ hours, I really can barely get up.  My sister told me to talk to my doctor because that’s really not normal and she’s afraid I may be getting anemic.  I’ll probably call if it doesn’t get better this week.

Maternity Clothes: I’m almost to where I can’t even wear my pre-preggo pants with the belly band because my belly is increasing in size the buttons/zippers/clips on my pants dig into my stomach (since I can’t button/zip/clip them anymore) and it’s pretty painful at times.  I’ve ordered a few pairs of maternity workpants from Old Navy and waiting on them to come in and will probably rotate those pants with a few dresses for the next 20 weeks.  So if you see me where the same thing multiple times, think about how expensive it is to literally have to buy an entire new wardrobe when it will only be used for a short period of time. 

Weight Gain:  At 18 weeks, 4 days, I was at 10 pounds and at 20 weeks I’m up to 11.  I’m doing pretty good on the gradual weight gain lately.  I’m supposed to be gaining a pound a week and I’ve gained 3 1/2 in the past 4 weeks, so on average a little less than a pound a week, which is fine by me.  Even though the goal is 25-35 pounds, I’d really like to not gain more than 30 during the whole pregnancy.  I think my gradual gain is attributed to the fact that I’ve started running again.  I don’t do it often, probably 3 times a week and 4 on special weeks, but it’s better than nothing.  I usually run around our neighborhood towards the end of the day when it’s not as hot.  It’s about a mile and a half all the way around and sometimes I’m able to run most of it and only walk once or twice, but other times I end up doing more walking than running because of Carter’s position in my stomach.  The belly bounces up and down on my bladder and it’s hard to keep running when you feel like you’re about to pee your pants.  I usually do a lot of walking on the days of the week that I don’t run.

Sleep:  See above

Cravings/Aversions:  Haven’t noticed any.  Chocolate milk is still my saving grace on those nights that I can’t sleep and I wake up at 3am to pee. 

Baby Size:  At the beginning of week 20, sweet little Carter is the size of a cantaloupe!  WOW!!  Even though the picture says 10.6 oz for weight, Carter is weighing in at more than that.  My appointment on July 29th measured him at weighing 11 oz, so he may be closer to 11.5 or even 12 now.  We’ll see soon.

Gender:  Baby Won Ton is a sweet baby boy!!!  His name is Carter Gordon Morris, don’t know if I’ve put that on the blog yet or not, pretty sure I haven’t though.  His middle name comes from Justin’s dad, Gordon.  Justin’s dad is such an awesome person and a great father to Justin so we felt it appropriate to name our son after him.  We also wanted to name him that because Gordon started his own company years and years ago and Justin works for that company now and maybe one day  little Carter will work for the company as well.

What I’m Looking Forward To:  Figuring out what’s going on with my sleep issues.

Bump Pic for the Week:

So my picture taker, my sweet and patient husband, is out of town and can’t take my picture, therefore I will probably take the next several on my phone if I don’t have time to take it when he’s here on the weekend.  So excuse the fact that this picture is in a bathroom please.

The Big Reveal

On Sunday, July 31st, we had a gender reveal party for our family and closest friends to reveal the sex of little Won Ton.  They all thought we found out the sex at our appointment on Friday, we were the only ones, other than the baker, that knew we didn’t find out.  I wanted to wait until the party to share this information because I thought it would be funny to see the looks on people’s faces. 

Debbie’s was PRICELESS (MIL).  Right when we were about to cut the cake, Justin whispered over to her “you ready for the surprise?”.  She immediately went into over-thinking mode, assuming it could have been twins and we didn’t tell anyone.  Actually, when we announced that we had a surprise twist, that’s pretty much what everyone thought.  I had to quickly say that twins was NOT the surprise twist to calm everyone’s nerves, particularly our families.  I think my in-laws were relieved, since Justin’s sister is currently pregnant with twin girls due in September.  I think going from zero babies in the family to four in less than six months might be a little much for us to handle ;)

 

Our gender neutral cake!  My friend from high school, Jackie Marchant, was the baker.  Look her up on facebook if you need a cake made!  She lives in Trussville so we went to her house to pick up the cake before the party and it was REALLY hard not to poke a finger in it to see what the color of the inside was!

Mom and Dad…wow…that’s weird to say.

Our parents.  Justin’s parents on the left and my mom and step-dad on the right

 

For some reason, I was SO nervous to cut into the cake!  I knew it was a boy for 19 weeks now and was so scared that it may be a girl, not because I don’t want one, I do, especially after the boy so I can have one of both, but more because I had the gut feeling the entire pregnancy that it was a boy, even though everyone else thought it was a girl.  I would have hated to see my own motherly instinct not be right!

I loved seeing everyone’s faces when I cut into the cake and saw that it was a boy.  Everyone seemed so happy, even though most of them thought it was a girl ;)

BOY!

We were so excited!  Justin thought it was a girl the entire pregnancy up until Friday.  When he was looking at the screen at the ultrasound, he said he thought he saw a penis, but wasn’t sure.   So by Sunday, he was expecting it to be a boy.  I also thought I saw a penis at the ultrasound, but I wasn’t shocked because I thought it was a boy all along!

Anderson and Lydia.  You can tell what each of them thought it was by looking at their clothing.  I was afraid Lydia would be upset it was a boy because she has told her momma numerous times that it was a girl and has even got pretty defensive of her assumption.

   

We finally got to look at the ultrasound pictures too!  When we gave the baker the sealed envelope that the tech wrote “BOY” on, we also gave her a second sealed envelope with the ultrasound pictures and dvd so that we wouldn’t be tempted to cheat between Friday and Sunday.

My other sister, Jennifer, lives in Tampa, but we were able to skype with her so she could see that she was going to have another nephew!!  Jen actually had my nephew, Cooper, just a couple of weeks ago. 

The picture on the left is of the frame that our friend Jackie, the baker, gave us.  She found a “boy” picture frame and framed the paper that the tech wrote “boy” on.  Such a cute idea.  This will go in his nursery for sure!  The picture on the right is of a bib and cloth that my MIL bought for me.  She didn’t know it was a boy, so she bought a boy and girl present.  She ended up giving the girl present to Jen since she’s having twin girls.  Another one of my friends, Shelly, was so sure it was a girl that she bought some girl clothes.  She also gave those to my sister-in-law :)  Thanks for the thought though Shelly!  Only jeeps and Tonka trucks from now on :)

This is the sister-in-law that is having twins that I keep referring to.  I also went to high school with Jen and we were both on Hoover High’s dance team, but never at the same time.  She was graduating when I was a sophomore (Sophomore was the first year you could be on the Varsity team).

         

I must say though, this may have been my favorite part of the party.  This is Justin’s dad and he’s giving me a hug because we told him that our little boy’s middle name will be Gordon, which is his name.  He was totally not expecting it.  Justin and I decided that our boy’s middle name would be Gordon LONG before we ever got pregnant, but we never told him that.  I wanted it to be a surprise.  He was so happy!

If you’d like to see the big moment yourself, check out the video below that my brother-in-law filmed:

Ultrasound Photos and Video

On Friday, July 29th, we had the BIG ultrasound.  Our appointment was at 10am and we were even a few minutes late, but we waited in the waiting room for what seemed like forever!  One of the techs finally came and got us and brought us into the room and I told her immediately that we didn’t want to find out.  Even though our family and friends all thought we were finding out the sex, we decided not to.  First she showed us the screen of the baby and showed us all the body parts and told us everything looked great.  The heart rate was 145bpm and we got to hear that as well.  She eventually started trying to find the sex organs and our little guy gave her a hard time.  She kept shaking my belly pretty hard with the ultrasound wand trying to get him to move and he really just wouldn’t move.  He is in the breech position right now and at the time, the umbilical cord was between his legs, hiding the man goods so she couldn’t tell if it was a boy or girl for a good 15 minutes.  She made me turn on my side in hopes of making him drop in the uterus and thereby moving the cord, but that didn’t work either.  Thankfully, he eventually moved on his own and she was able to see the goods.

Like I said though, she didn’t tell us at the appointment what the sex was.  I had her write it on a piece of paper and seal it in an envelope.  She printed out all the ultrasound pictures and put those along with the DVD of the ultrasound in a separate envelope and sealed that one as well.  After the appointment, Justin and I went to lunch with my friend from high school who also baked our gender reveal cake and we handed her the envelopes.  So basically, our friend was the only person that knew the sex for two days.  That was so hard!!!  Anyway, after the ultrasound we went to our normal doctor appointment.  The doc shared with us that the baby was measuring ahead of schedule and the estimated due date is now December 20th.  They decided that since it’s only a seven day difference that they wouldn’t change the due date yet, but that if the baby was still measuring big later, they’d make the decision to change it.  Right now, the baby should have been between six and seven ounces and our baby was measuring at about eleven ounces, almost twice as much as he should weigh!!  Head and femur sizes are normal though.  So we may just have a big baby!

Here’s a few of the ultrasound pictures:

 

My son’s sweet face.  This is my favorite!

  

His arms are crossed and they’re covering his face.  He didn’t want us to see him…very modest.

His face from the front

 

A sweet kissable little foot

 

BOY!!

My favorite thing wasn’t even the pictures though.  It is seriously the coolest thing to see your baby move on the screen, especially at this time in the pregnancy when they move a lot.  So our doctors allow parents to bring in a blank DVD and they record the ultrasound.  So my favorite part is below:

I love my son more than words can express already :)

Won Ton Is…

If you’re on facebook and friends with me or Justin, you already know what our sweet little angel is, but just in case…

He’s a HE!!!  Just like momma thought!!  It’s interesting that the blog poll showed that everyone thought it was a boy because all of our family and friends thought it was a girl, including Justin, well he actually changed his mind on Friday at the ultrasound, I’ll go into detail on that in a different post when I have more time.  But for now, this is all I have time to share.  Our little Won Ton is a baby boy!!!