Couldn't Resist...

I ordered the baby bedding this evening -- Brandon said I could. I love it! My best friend, Emily, sent the link to this bedding a couple of weeks ago, and it has been on my mind ever since. I had told her I was having trouble finding bedding that had the colors I wanted. I wanted a mix of a wide range of colors, and she saw this while Christmas shopping. It is sold by The Land of Nod. I am so happy. Now, I have to find the furniture. Thank you, Emily. I didn't order everything -- just the necessities for now. It is supposed to be in Huntsville by Christmas, so I guess Miles Connor (that's our baby boy name) will get to open it for Christmas.

Room View

Quilt Close-up
Quilt, Bumper, and Sheets Close-up

20 Weeks and Counting...

Here's what my belly looked like last Thursday -- pretty substantial, huh? It's hard to believe that I am only half way. Some days my belly is bigger than others. I think this was a big day. As of last Thursday, my waist has increased by 3 and 3/4 inches. This week it is measuring slightly smaller. I didn't make time last week to post this like I wanted to. Everything has been so hectic this year.

It's a Boy!!!!

Here is our little boy!!! He covered his face for most of the shots. He weighs approximately 13 ounces now. He is about 7 inches from head to rump. His heart rate was 140 beats per minute. The doctor said everything looks perfect. The baby was moving around a lot. At one point, his hand was trying to grab his feet and then the next second his hands were on his face. The doctors says that everything looks great on my side also. The doctor has recorded that I have gained 12 pounds -- but it is really more like 14 pounds since he didn't know my pre-pregnancy weight -- I gained a couple of pounds by my first visit.


For yall, who want to see if you can tell if its a boy -- look at the photos below. Brandon and the technician were so confident that it was a boy. I was looking at the screen thinking "if yall say so". To me, its like seeing Abraham Lincoln in the clouds.

We thought it was going the be a girl the whole time, but we were happy when we found out it was a boy. I think I was happy to be surprised because now it is all new again. I have to re imagine everything. All my pinks turn into blues and greens. We can hardly wait to meet him!

Bad Luck...

Well, Brandon and I seem to be in the trough of the sine wave of life right now. Before anyone gets worried, it has nothing to do with the baby. Brandon actually felt the baby kick last night for the first time. However, we have had the worse luck in traveling and with our cars.

It started with Brandon hitting a 6-point buck last Wednesday night while traveling for work. Brandon and a co-worker were stuck in the middle of nowhere (across the Georgia line) with no way to get back or to their destination. Luckily, the tow truck could carry two passengers. They got home at 10:00 pm only to have to leave the next morning at 5:00 a.m. in my car to get to their meeting in time. They didn't get home until Friday night from their trip. In the mean time, I was driving my old truck with NO HEAT that needed new windshield wipers, an oil change, and air in the tires. By the way, on my way to work, it rained. When I took the truck to the service station to get windshield wipers, oil change, and air in the tires, all the tires were at 15 psi instead of 32 and it was still raining and freezing. I stayed at work too long that evening getting ready for a meeting I had in Florida on Friday and the windshield froze up on the truck with no way to defrost it. My in-laws had to bring me their vehicle to ride home in, so I finally got home at 9 that evening. I was suppose to travel to Florida on Friday morning, so I had to get a rental car. To top it off, on my way back to Huntsville on Saturday morning, I get a ticket on the interstate. On my way in to work on Monday morning, the fan on my car starts making an horrible noise, so I can't run the heat. Since Brandon is now using my old truck, he doesn't have heat either.

Bottom line for Brandon is his car isn't running right now. We haven't found out the extent of the damage yet because his travel and work has kept him so busy the car just now got in to be assessed. It sat in front of our house from Wednesday night until today. The insurance company won't pay for the tow from Georgia that was $5 a mile, and come to find out, we declined the rental car option on his auto insurance policy -- so he is stuck with the truck with no heat. And he is now off again to Washington DC this evening for work.

Bottom line for me is I am waiting to get Brandon's car fixed before I put my car in the shop because we are running out of vehicles. So, I am stuck with no heat until his car gets fixed. And I am just now getting ready to leave work (8:00 p.m.)

With all that has happened, we have made no progress on Christmas shopping. We atleast bought a tree this weekend after I drove back from Florida. Brandon mostly decorated it by himself because I slept almost all day on Sunday.

All and all, at least we are healthy and the baby seems to be doing good.

By the way, there is probably a thousand typos in this post but I don't feel like proofreading it. Sorry if it doesn't make sense.

Lettie tagged me...

Here is my fourth picture from my fourth file folder. I was happy to see that the fourth photo was a photo of both Brandon and I.

This is a photo of Brandon and me on our Beaver Creek Skiing Trip in January of 2006. We were engaged at that point. He had asked me to marry him on Dec 3 of 2005.

The funny thing about this trip is that Brandon had to ask me to go when we first started dating with the hopes that we would be dating by the time the trip rolled around. This trip was with the Huntsville Ski Club and they arrange the trips months in advance. I wonder if this trip influenced Brandon to keep me since we were already bound by a ski trip.

We had a great time on this trip. Brandon is a lot better snow boarder than I am even though we have about the same amount of experience. Brandon has his "Evil Brandon" chin that he grows when on vacation.

He was also my hero on this trip. On one of the back bowls of Beaver Creek while on a lift, my snowboard got caught on some snow several feet from the jump on point and it drug me out of the seat with Brandon and the seat went over me. Brandon jumped out to the lift which was several feet off the ground by the time they got the lift stopped to come and get me. I was fine but once he got to me I buried my head in his coat and started bawling. The bad thing is when you are on the back side of the mountain you really have no choice but to get right back on the 1970's model lift that just kicked your butt (which barely holds two people and is going three times as fast as the ones on the front side of the mountain). So, Brandon and I attempted the same lift again about three minutes after the first experience. This time with me on the other side. I made it that time but started crying again on the way up just by thinking out the first time. I don't think I will ever go to a back bowl again, but I knew that Brandon was a keeper if he could put up with that.

Well, I guess this tag stops with me because I just started blogging and only know Lettie and Ellie who have already been tagged.

5 Months to go...

Sorry, it has been awhile. I got back from travel and immediately got a cold, but I am finally feeling better. I think I caught that cold that everyone has been getting that lasts for awhile. I still have a cough, but at least I feel like I can breathe now.

I am now 18 weeks and 3 days. I have gained about 11-12 lbs so far. My belly has definitely increased in size. When I got back from travel, everyone said it looked like I popped while I was gone. This past work trip is supposed to be my last long trip from here on out. The other trips are supposed to be 1 or 2 day trips. I am happy to be home. Now, I need to get ready for the holidays and the baby. We will find out December 15th whether we are having a girl or a boy. We are so excited about the ultrasound and finding out. It has been awhile since we have seen our little one . I am feeling slight movements of the baby, but they don't last long. I have been told the movements will probably be more reliable when I am about 6 months long.

We had a great Thanksgiving. We had Brandon's family Thanksgiving early on the Sunday before. We traveled to Houston on Thanksgiving day to celebrate with my family. We stayed in Houston through Saturday and visited with a few of my long time friends and their children.

We will be putting up our Christmas tree this week. We were going to go pick out our tree today, but it was sprinkling. Hopefully, we will pick it up after work on Monday. I am excited to see what the tree will look like this year. We always try to get the biggest one that will fit in our house. We are talking about getting an artificial one after the baby gets here so we don't have to deal with the mess.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday and good luck getting ready for Christmas!

Trip to Fort Payne and Little River Canyon

Brandon and I went to Fort Payne a couple of weekends ago furniture shopping. We finally found some stools to go with our kitchen bar. We stopped by Little River Canyon and took a few photos. I couldn't resist putting some of the photos on our blog since we had such a great time. The trees are so gorgeous right now. I hope we take the camera out this weekend before the leaves totally fall off the trees.

and the Belly grows bigger...

I am 15 weeks and 1 day today. I went to the doctor today. I pushed my doctor's appointment before my two week travel instead of after because Brandon and I couldn't bare the thought of having to wait an extra week for the ultrasound. We can't wait to find out whether we are having a little girl or little boy.

The doctor said everything looked great at the appointment. I have gained 6 pounds since my first appointment at 8 weeks. The nurse had a little trouble picking up the heart beat this time. She moved the sensor from one side to the other -- which made Brandon and I nervous. But once she picked it up on doppler, you could hear the baby moving around. The heart was beating 146 beats per minute.

I can't wait to start feeling the baby move. The nurse said for the next appointment I will need to wake the baby up so they will be able to tell its sex -- so the baby won't have it's legs folded. She said especially if the baby sleeps in the morning. I just look at her and thought thats weird how can I possibly know if the baby sleeps in the morning. The appointment is 5 weeks away. It doesn't seem possible that I will know the baby's sleeping pattern by then- especially since I haven't even felt anything yet. The nurse told me to get some caffeine or sugar to make sure the baby is awake. Brandon and I both thought that was odd.

I am traveling to Arizona and Nevada for the next two weeks so I am hoping that goes okay. This will be my last live fire for awhile. I am the most worried about eating and drinking because it is hard to eat healthy on the range. For the second week, the tests will be conducted at night, and I am fairly brain dead after 8:00 now a days. The good thing about the trip is that Brandon may get to visit me in Las Vegas on the weekend of the 15th.

About being brain dead, I definitely have pregnancy brain. Its like I am in a dream as far as my reactions -- I am so slow mentally. I don't seem to get any jokes and I am constantly making Brandon laugh with my off handed remarks that don't make any sense or when I fess up to him about forgetting to do something and then I realize as I am apologizing that I did do it I just don't recall doing it.

Oh well, I hope everyone has a great two weeks. I probably won't blog until I get back November 23rd.

The Second Trimester is Here!

This past Thursday marked the beginning of my second trimester. The resources say the baby is the size of a clenched fist. I have gained 5.2 lbs so far. My lower back is starting to hurt slightly from my pelvis spreading -- or so I am told. I just thought my lower back was hurting temporarily, as it sometimes does, but then after a couple days, Brandon and I read in the daily journal that it was due to stress on the lower back from the pelvis moving. The discomfort comes and goes. I have noticed my belly more. When reaching for something, I get this weird "you shouldn't do that" feeling on the sides of my abdomen -- especially when reaching for something in the back seat of the car.

We took photos last night of my profile, but I was tired and grumpy in addition to being unable to hold a naturally happy look for the camera, so this photo was the best of them (probably best out of 25 -- poor Brandon). I was actually shocked at how big my belly looked. I thought it was just me that could see it and that I needed to provide hand gestures to indicate the location of the bulge or the person I was talking to wouldn't understand where they should be looking -- man, self image is so delusional and disorienting.

12 Weeks and Counting

I went to the doctor yesterday. Everything thing is still looking good. I had gained two pounds since my last appointment. All tests looked good.The nurse had no trouble picking up the sound of the baby's heart beat with doppler. The heart beat was 154 beats per minute. Due to travel with work, my next appointment is postponed until I am beginning my 18th week.

My belly is definitely starting to show -- a button popped off my pants yesterday. The doctor made hand gestures indicating 1) how big my uterus was -- it appeared to be the size of two grapefruits side by side and 2) how big the baby was -- it appeared to be the size of a medium egg.

My mom and dad spent the night with us last night and brought maternity clothes that my cousin Lauren is letting me borrow. Ellie Dudly sent me her maternity clothes last week. They both are helping us out a lot by letting me borrow them -- it will save us a lot of money and we really appreciate it.

Right now, if I wear maternity pants they seem to slide down all day. I need to remember to keep trying to get the Bella Band Ellie suggested. Brandon and I went by Target this weekend to see if they sold them in the store since they had them on-line but no luck. Target had Bio Oil, though. In Fit Pregnancy magazine, it says it helps prevent stretch marks if started in the first trimester. Brandon is in awe of my weakness to advertising propagada.

11 Weeks Yesterday

Well, yesterday marked the end of my 11th week of pregnancy. I weighed 119.8 lbs today which means I have gained 4 pounds even so far. My appetite is slowing down. I am not as hungry, and it looks like my legs are slimming up a little. When a first found out I was pregnant, it seemed like I started putting on weight in my thighs almost immediately. My waist hasn't changed much yet. The pooch is still low enough that it has only increased my waist by an inch.

The baby is supposed to be the size of a large lime right now, and it skin is very sensitive to touch since the nerves in the skin are new and developing. It says the baby will move around whenever it comes in contact with anything -- although I won't be able to feel the movement for a while longer.

I had an emotional day yesterday. I probably cried 6 times yesterday over someone at the licensing department being rude/mean to me at lunch. Every time I thought of it I got upset. Poor Brandon didn't know how to console me because whenever he padded me on the back I got more upset. He bought me a chocolate-dipped, chocolate-chip cookie sandwich with cream icing in the middle that night to cheer me up which it did. The other good news is we paid off my car and got the title in our name. One less payment to make. Although, Brandon will probably have to handle all of the future title, tags, and car stuff in general after that experience.

Everything is Going Great -- Except for Tight Waistbands!

So far so good. I still haven't been sick at all. I feel great. If this little pooch wasn't getting bigger, I don't know if I would know that I was pregnant.

Sometimes, when I move my abdomen certain way, I feel a twinge of discomfort, but I assume that is normal.

My weight gain seems to have leveled out to approximately 4 pounds so far. Hopefully, it will stay close to that until the end of my first trimester. If it does, I'll be on schedule to gain approximately a pound a week until the end.

My clothes are definitely getting tighter. Right now, I am wearing a skirt which its waist is practically at my rib cage because thoughout the day I have shifted it up to keep it from cutting into by belly. The skirt started the day about a inch below my knee. Right now, it is at the middle of my knee. We will see where it ends up by 5:00.

Endless Possibilities

Well, I found a program online that creates photos of future potential babies based on photos of their parents called BabyMaker. I began with a photo of Brandon and I -- this photo was taken on my 31st birthday -- the day after we found out we were expecting. I ran the program 9 times and this is what it came up with. I don't know why it created more boys than girls, and I am a little concerned about lefty on the second row.

First Ultrasound at 8 weeks

Here are the Ultrasound photos at 8 weeks. On the second image, you can see the brain cavity. On both images, the head is on the right. The baby measured about 18 mm long at this time. Now, the baby should measured almost 1 inch long (25.4 mm) at 9 1/2 weeks.

We are a little over 9 weeks pregnant!

We went to our first doctor's appointment September 18th. The doctor said that everything looks great so far. The heart was beating 174 times per minute. We saw the baby's leg paddle move during the ultrasound. The technician said it looks like the baby came from the right ovary. I thought it was weird that they could tell. The due date is April 30th, 2009 -- which I think is pretty perfect.

My belly is getting slightly bigger. I have gained 4 pounds so far which I am slightly concerned about only because the books say 1-4 pounds for the entire first trimester. We will see how that turns out. It helped to go online and see other ladies' bellies at this stage -- some of them had pouches too. I haven't been sick, and I have been very hungry.

My next doctor's visit is October 15th. One good thing the doctor said is that I don't have to get undress again until the 7 month visit. I will have my next ultrasound at 20 weeks.

Currently, I am thinking bright colors for the nursery. I have always loved the bright colors you often find on toys, but so far, I haven't had luck finding anything I really like. I am looking for something with teal, and bright pinks, oranges, reds -- maybe some black and white mixed in.