Doctor and Big Sister Bailey

My appt. this morning went well. Mike went with me, and we asked lots of questions. I am 1cm dilated and haven't "thinned out." Dr. S said it appears Trent is right on schedule. Mike asked about inducing if Trent decides not to come by Jan. 18th, and Dr. S said he would be open to inducing a few days before the due date if I continue to progress. Mike loved this answer, because he's always been nervous about working 45-50 minutes away from home. I was actually happy to hear that it appears we have a few more weeks. Lillian should be here soon, and I want to meet her! I also have a few little things I need to buy for Trent, and I haven't finished packing my hospital bag. And last but not least, I'm taking a photography class on Saturday, and I'm super excited about it {Mike gave me a camera for Christmas, and I want to learn how to use it!}

Here are a couple of pictures I took of sweet Bailey, as I tried to learn my camera...

Bailey and I sat outside on Saturday afternoon. I wore a sleeveless shirt and shorts. Isn't that crazy? I was hoping to get a little color before Trent arrives, but I just got hot and sweaty.
Isn't she going to be a sweet big sister? I can't stop hugging her after seeing the movie "Marley and Me."

We are attending a Murder Mystery Dinner on New Years Eve. It should be fun and very interesting. I'm supposed to be a "saloon girl," and needless to say I don't have anything to wear that fits the role. Mike is a card-playing cowboy, so he's pumped.

Happy New Year!!

Christmas Recap

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! Our Christmas actually started last weekend in Opp with Mike's family. We had so much fun, but for some reason I only took pictures of Hannah (our niece) and Bailey. Here are some of my favorites...Hannah checking her baby's blood pressure
This could not be comfortable, but she seemed fine!
And finally, here is the gift Mike was so excited about. Yes, it's a leg lamp ornament {from "A Christmas Story."} His dad and brothers loved them!

We spent Christmas Eve in Opelika with the Miller family. Mike went hunting for the first time. He didn't see anything, but he and Travis had fun together. We went to the lake with my mom's side of the family for Christmas brunch. We ate way too much but enjoyed spending time with family.

Tracy, Christy and me on Christmas Day

Mike, mom, dad and I went to see "Marley and Me" last night. Oh my goodness! It was a great movie, but pregnancy hormones combined with the fact that we have Bailey and a little boy on the way resulted in lots of tears for me! Has anybody seen it?

I haven't taken down our Christmas decorations {although I did manage to change the blog layout already, haha} but it shouldn't take long since we opted out of a tree this year. I have my 37-week doctor appt. on Monday. You'd think Trent was already here based on the number of Christmas presents he received:)

One month from today

Trent's due date is January 18th- one month from today! Yipee! I must admit that I'm becoming uncomfortable, and nobody told Trent that he's supposed to be curled up in there {I mean, don't all of the pictures show babies curled up? I think ours is trying to swim!}

I go to the doctor Monday for my first "check." Mike thinks Trent will come a little early; his guess is 10 days early, Jan. 8th. I'm going to put a survey on the side of the page. Let me know what you think. I'll try to give you a little information, so you can make an educated guess... he was head-down at 32 weeks. I've been having braxton hicks contractions for months, but they are not painful. My sister and I were both late. Mike was early, but he was also a twin. I've always measured a week or two ahead, but I'm not sure how much I trust that tape measure method.

Some of my college friends hosted a shower for Trent last weekend in Birmingham. It was so much fun! I wish we all lived in the same town. Here's a picture from the shower {of course we didn't remember to take one until after lots of people left- sorry girls!}

We are heading to Opp this weekend to celebrate Christmas with Mike's family. Mike is super excited about gifts he got for his dad and brothers. I'll post pictures of them after this weekend. I was a little concerned about the possibility of going into labor in Opp, but Dr. Saucer said even if I did go into labor, {which is unlikely} we should have plenty of time to make it back to Montgomery.

Tomorrow is my last day of work until April!! I'm taking vacation next week, and my maternity leave begins on Dec. 27th. I have a huge list of things to do that I've been putting off until I finished work, so I guess now it's time to get started.

Thanks for all of the advice on gifts! Mike emailed me quickly after seeing the blog and said that our child was more than he could ever ask for and not to think about getting him anything else {right answer, sweetie!} And I will probably send a family member out for some kind of treat for my nurses, as I'm sure we'll all appreciate something fun like Krispy Kreme donuts:)

Have a great weekend!

Who gets gifts?

My friend Heidi and I were talking this morning, and she asked me about two things I'd never heard of regarding gift-giving when babies are born. I've heard of the "push present" and have some pretty fun ideas, which I will share with Mike soon:) However, does Daddy get a present when the baby is born too? Heidi said some of her friends have bought their husbands gifts as well. I understand that our husbands have been great to put up with support us during pregnancy, but I've never thought about buying Mike a gift. I'm not opposed to it; I've just never heard of it. I don't want Mike to miss out in any of the new daddy fun. Did any of you moms buy your husbands gifts when you had babies?

On to the next gift question... what about hospital nurses? Heidi said a girl in her birthing class asked the nurse what gifts they prefer, and the nurse recommended bringing food. I never really thought about buying anything for the nurses; but again, I'm not opposed to sending Mike or my mom out for snacks to show a great nurse how much I appreciate her help. Has anyone heard of nurse gifts?

Trent is due in 36 days!! I will be 35 weeks pregnant tomorrow. I only have 5 more days of work before I will be off for Christmas vacation then maternity leave. Here is a picture of my large belly taken this week...

Am I really going to keep getting bigger for 5 more weeks?

Coming along

Here are the nursery pictures I promised. The window treatments are not up yet, and I'm going to frame the pretty name print you see in one of the pictures; but, we've come a long way. Special thanks to my mom and sister, who came over and helped me organize everything. I thought it was cute to have everything sitting out, but Tracy informed me that we have drawers and cabinets in furniture for a reason:)

About half of these clothes came from a friend of mine that has great taste and two boys:)

The worst thing about his room is getting to it... up these stairs...

And our room is downstairs. Maybe the stairs will help me lose the pregnancy weight {trying to stay positive here.}

Since we obviously can't put him up there as soon as he comes home, he will be here for a while...

I really need to move the ironing board; I can't don't iron. The dryer gets out most wrinkles:)

This is a sitting area off of our bedroom. Bailey's pillow is on the other side of this room. She said she'd share; we'll see what happens when Trent starts crying in the middle of the night. B has been sleeping through the night for 4 years, so she probably won't like the noise her little brother makes.

My 34-week appt. went well yesterday. Trent is already head-down {he'd actually already turned at my 32-week appt; does this mean he's more likely to have a cone head?} He still gets the hiccups 2-3 times a day, and they are now strong enough to wake me up {I realized this at 4:30 this morning when the little man started hiccuping.}


This post is getting crazy long, but I have one more story. I went to Starbucks today and ordered a grande caramel frappuccino light {my all-time favorite, and since I sweat all of the time now, I can drink cold drinks in cold weather.} I pull up to the window, and the sweet employee asks, "Oh, did you say decaf too?" I politely respond, "No ma'am." I wanted to tell her that I've checked the website and know that my drink contains 90 mg of caffeine, and that they say not to have more than 250-300 mg/day when you're pregnant. I also wanted to tell her that it was my one caffeinated drink of the day. But the hormones weren't raging today, so I didn't get defensive. The drink was fabulous, and I don't think Trent even noticed the caffeine:)

Catching Up

First, thank you all so much for your prayers while Mike was in the hospital! We had a crazy week, but we're thankful he is home and recovering well.

I have several things to blog about, and I should probably write multiple posts. However, none of these topics are really worthy of their own post, so I'm combining them:)

In case you haven't been to Piccadilly recently, it's now "all you can eat" instead of "pay per item." I've never really liked Piccadilly, but my parents love it! They convinced me to go with them by telling me I could try as many items as I liked without feeling guilty if I didn't eat everything. I definitely tried a lot of things {so many that my whole head couldn't fit in the picture with all of the food.} I also got a free "belly rub" from one of the employees, but we didn't capture it on film.

The big piece of meat is fried chicken, and it was great! The pumpkin pie, however, was not a winner.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we didn't put our Christmas tree up this year. However, we did pull out a few decorations {thanks to my mom and sister} and even found a place for the presents.

We recently purchased gas logs, {for three years we had an empty fireplace} so we've been enjoying lots of fires. Thank goodness the gas bill wasn't high, or my sweet husband would have started limiting the fires. This is what I saw when I walked into the den after putting up laundry last night...

Her daddy moved her pillow in front of the fire so she could stay warm. She was sleeping within minutes after this picture.

Now that I'm finished writing thank-you notes, I've given myself permission to read books again. I'm waiting on the 3rd Karen Kingsbury series to arrive, {I won it on Ebay last night} but I bought this book today at Target. I wonder if it will live up to all of the hype. Has anyone read it?
And last but not least, I am 34 weeks pregnant today! I am going to the doctor tomorrow, so my next post will be a "Trent update," complete with nursery pictures.