The view from here...

This is my view now-a-days. The swollen feet and belly really complete the picture, don't ya think? Oh, and notice the left side of the belly poking out more than the right side. No, the picture wasn't taken at an odd angle. That's really how the little boy is hanging out most of the time. I have yet to figure out exactly what it is that makes it stick out so much further. The picture is another painful reminder that this baby still has not arrived. Spring break is now over and I'll return to school on Monday, unless he decides to let us meet him tonight or tomorrow...but somehow I kind of doubt that happening! I think he's awfully comfy in there and has absolutely no desire to become an outside baby anytime soon.

Note that the left side of the belly still sticks out more than the right side...Crazy kid!


I've had an incredibly productive spring break and the dogs have really enjoyed me being home! I cleaned the whole house, did every single bit of laundry, got all the last little baby things that we'll be needing once we get home with Will, gone grocery shopping, baked cookies, and started cooking/freezing meals for us to have once Will comes home. The only thing I haven't done? Write lesson plans. The only thing that really NEEDED to be done? The lesson plans. So guess what I'll be doing tonight and tomorrow? Yup. Writing lesson plans. I'm not sure why I'm putting it off so much - it's really not that bad. And maybe once I write them, Will will realize that his mommy is fully prepared for him to come and he'll decide to arrive on his own...we'll see! Here are a few pictures of the cute cookies I made...they were lots of fun and are quickly disappearing!

Last night Will certainly decided to tease us. I took the dogs for a walk before Greg and I went to see Watchmen (very different movie, by the way). I started having contractions that were 5 minutes apart. By the time we finished dinner, they were 6 minutes apart. Then they moved to 10 minutes apart, then 30 minutes apart, and then they stopped about 3/4 of the way through the movie. I was just a tad disappointed! I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to actually believe I'm in labor whenever I actually go into labor. SO many false alarms!

Oh, send some prayers our way tomorrow around 1:00! We've been trying to sell the truck so we can get a more baby friendly vehicle. We haven't had a ton of bites and those that we have had haven't been anything we're interested in. Today, Greg got a call from someone in New Braunfels who is looking to buy a car for his son. He's going to drive up to Austin tomorrow and look at the truck and another car. Say a prayer, cross your fingers, or whatever that he'll love our truck and will buy it!

10 days left...I think I'm changing my vote in the poll to after April 1. That way I won't be disappointed ;)

The Nursery is Finished!

Greg and I finished the nursery this weekend and I am in love with it! I could sit in there all day and look at all the cute things. I love that we got such a great deal on everything and that it is so totally "us."

Standing in the doorway, looking into the room. The scrapbook paper will eventually be replaced with newborn pictures.

View of the room from the doorway. Our good friend Veronica made the amazing canvas and curtains for us!

Crib, mobile from my parents, and the canvas. I love the elephants!

Comfy rocker, bookcase, and the awesome curtains. We eventually want to get sheers to go behind the valence in the window, but that might not happen for awhile ;)

Dresser, changing pad, and the wall letters. I love this part of the room! I bought the circles and letters online and then decopauged scrapbook paper on top of them. It took Greg and I awhile to get them just right, but I'm so proud of the way it turned out.

Close up of the letters :) Love 'em!

Close up of the mobile...I think this is one of my favorite parts of the nursery. It plays a sweet lullaby and I'm sure Will is going to love watching it.

Close up of the bedding. The green parts are all corduroy and the white elephant is a fuzzy microfiber material. I love all the textures!

The newborn and 0-3 months side of the closet. You can see our carseat poking out, the elephant boppy from Target, and all the precious little clothes in there!

In other news, I'll be 37 weeks along tomorrow...officially full term! Yay! :) I had a doctor's appointment today and Will's heartrate was strong in the 130s. He is still definitely head down and I'm still feeling a ton of pressure down low. Dr. Hancock said it could be any time now and to be prepared...we'll see when it actually happens! I really have no idea. Sometimes it seems like it could be happening and other times I feel like he'll never arrive. Either way, it's going to be coming up within the next three weeks! I got all the laundry done this weekend and we packed our hospital bags. It's very weird to think that the two of us will go to the hospital and we'll come home with three. Very surreal and exciting at the same time. I have some amazing friends who are all planning to come visit us in the hospital and are wanting to come help out after he arrives. I feel so blessed to have such a supportive husband, family, and friends!

Here's my 37 week tummy picture...I'm feeling very large (and have very swollen feet), but I know it'll all be worth it once he's here :)

36 Weeks

I'm 36 weeks pregnant! Next week I will be considered full term and they will no longer take any measures to stop labor. Everything is coming SO fast!

I had an appointment today and I found out that I've made lots of progress! Hooray! Will is head down and fully engaged (aka in the correct position for a normal delivery). I'm 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced. This is great news! She did say that this doesn't necessarily mean anything - you can be dilated for weeks without having anything happening. But it does give me hope that Will will decide to move out on or before his due date. Here's to hoping! :)

In other pregnancy news, I no longer have ankles. I go from foot to calf. And my calves are barely smaller than my knees. The dreaded swelling has hit and let me tell you...it is NOT fun! Thank goodness it's just swelling though. Swelling can be a sign of pre-eclampsia, which is a very serious condition in pregnancy. My blood pressure is completely normal though (122/60) and averaging on the low side of normal. So my doctor really isn't worried about pre-eclampsia, but we'll keep an eye on it.

Two of my friends threw me a baby shower this past weekend and it was SO much fun! :) We got our carseat/stroller and pack 'n play, which we were extremely thankful for! We're also all set on bottles, clothes, blankets, bath stuff, and diapers for those first few weeks. On Sunday, Greg and I went to Target and Babies 'R Us and bought a few more things that we'd be needing in the first month or so. My friend Veronica is an amazing interior desinger and she painted a canvas that matches our bedding and made curtains for us. The nursery is almost completed and it looks awesome! I'll post pictures of it after we get stuff hung up.

Not much new on the baby development front. He weighs about 6 pounds and is losing the fuzzy hair that's been protecting his skin for the past 36 weeks. His lungs will continue to mature, but they're really almost there. The position he's in (head down) is likely to be the postion he stays in for birth...yay Will! :)

And now for my 36ish week tummy picture...this was actually taken before my shower, so I'm just a few days shy of 36 weeks. I don't think I changed that much though!

Only 4 weeks left!!

34 Weeks

Yesterday marked 34 weeks in my pregnancy...6 left to go before my due date and only 3 until he's considered full term...a little bit scary!!

I "celebrated" being 34 weeks along by heading into Labor and Delivery because baby Will decided that he wanted to scare his mommy by not being very active all day. I have to do these things called "Kick Counts" each day to make sure he's doing okay in there. Basically I pick anytime and count the movements I feel. I should be able to feel 10 in an hour. If I don't, I'm supposed to drink some caffeine, eat some sugar, and then try again for another hour. If I still haven't felt 10 by then, I'm supposed to call the nurse's line to see what to do. Well, I woke up at 3:30am (after being to the bathroom a grand total of FOUR times during the night!) and realized that I really hadn't felt him move at all during the night (which is pretty unusual). So of course I started paying attention to it (and worrying a little bit!) and was up until my alarm went off poking my belly and trying to get him to move. He did move a bit...but not as much as normal!

So I decided not to panic and got ready for school. He continued his not-really-moving thing all day, so at 2:00 on my planning period I called the nurse's line. They wanted me to come in to Labor and Delivery immediately, so I got someone to cover my class for the last 10 minutes of the day and drove over to Scott and White. They hooked me up to the monitors and Will's heart rate looked great...mine on the other hand was not so great! It was in the 140s and my blood pressure was a little bit high. They waited and took it again - same story. They kept me on the monitors for 30 minutes and my heart rate never really went down...at points, MY heart rate was faster than his! The on-call doctor came in and said that they were going to draw some blood to test me for anemia. Apparently anemia can cause your heart rate to go up because you have less hemoglobin in your blood. Hemoglobin attaches to your the oxygen, so your heart has to work twice as hard to get your blood oxygenated - hence the high heart rate. The tests came back showing that I am anemic so it's something we're going to have to watch.

I picked up some bug at the hospital though (or possibly at school - who knows!) and I feel totally yucky. I think there should be a law that you shouldn't have to be pregnant and sick at the same time because it's not fun!! I have a horrible cough and have felt feverish all day (although I haven't actually registered a fever). I'm going to the doctor tomorrow though, and I'm going to talk with her about it and see if there's anything I can do for the awful cough. I'm looking forward to resting at home tomorrow since I took the whole day off, though!

Will weighs around 5 1/2 pounds this week and is continuing to grow and develop. His lungs are maturing and will continue to do so over the next few weeks. His hiccuping is a result of learning to breathe by taking in amniotic fluid. I'd say he's getting in lots of practicing since he's doing lots and lots of hiccuping! :)

Here's my 34 week belly picture. I was wearing the same outfit as my 28 week picture, so I decided to do a little comparison. In the words of my mom, I'm huge ;) Will has done quite a bit of growing in the past 6 weeks!

32 weeks

I know I say this all the time, but time is flying by so fast. I'm sure it's because I'm working and days at school go by so fast because I'm so busy. And then by the time I get home, I'm exhausted and totally ready to go to bed. But I still can't believe that I'm 32 weeks along (or that it's nearly Wednesday!)

Not too much different happening in there this week. Will is still gaining weight (they say he should weigh about 3.75 pounds right now) and his lungs are still maturing. He's got fingernails, toenails, and hair (possibly!). He's a very active baby too! Yesterday at school, I was feeling a lot of pressure on the left side of my stomach...I looked down and the left side was sticking out a good 4 inches further than the right side. I nearly started laughing out loud! He was head down at the last ultrasound appointment, but I have a feeling that all that moving and flipping and pushing yesterday had to do with him flipping into a breech position. My suspicion comes from the fact that I can breathe again and it doesn't feel like I have feet in my ribs any longer. Oh well - he still has a few more weeks to flip back over before he gets too big.

Here is my 32 week tummy picture. I feel huge, but I still get comments on how "tiny" I look and how people can't believe I'm 8 months pregnant. My bellybutton still hasn't completely popped out yet...I'm hoping it stays that way!

30 Weeks!

Sorry for the lack of updates this week...it's been a rather crazy/hectic week! I took (and passed!) my certification exam on Tuesday and then there was some 'drama' that went on at work for the rest of the week. Luckily, all that was taken care of and hopefully this week will be much, much less stressful.

Tomorrow I'll be 30 weeks pregnant! For some reason that seems like a really big milestone...I guess probably because 3/4 of my pregnancy is over. Time is flying by - it seems like yesterday that we were having our 20 week ultrasound to find out if Will is a girl or a boy! This week, he weighs about 3 pounds and about 16 inches long. His eyesight is improving, but it's still pretty bad. When he's born, he'll have 20/400 vision...meaning he can see at 20 feet what most people can see at 400! That's worse than both mommy and daddy's vision combined! Luckily, though, that won't last and it'll improve as he gets older and his eyes get stronger.

He definitely likes music! We had staff development at school on Friday and they played some loud music while everyone was gathering together. Will thought it was time to party and promptly started drumming on my insides! He did the same thing at church on Sunday morning...who knows, we may have a little musician on our hands. :) He also has quite the little attitude. He definitely does not like any type of pressure at all. When I'm getting ready in the morning, I lean over the counter to get close to the mirror to put on eyeliner and mascara. The edge of the counter presses against my belly. Will goes absolutely crazy punching or kicking at the counter until I stand back up. He definitely likes having his space.

This afternoon I have a doctor's appointment with another one of the OB/GYNs at the clinic. I'm on a rotation for the next several weeks to meet all of them, in case my doctor isn't available when I go into labor. Tomorrow is our ultrasound to see how Will's kidney is doing. I've actually been doing really well with not worrying about it. God has given me lots of things to keep my mind occupied ;) Please continue to pray for him before tomorrow, though!

Here's what I'm looking like at 30 weeks pregnant:


And here's what Will is looking like! I found this awesome picture online of a 30 week old baby boy in the womb...looks like it's a little crammed in there!


I'll update tomorrow after the ultrasound :) Have a great Martin Luther King day!

28 Weeks

Today I am 28 weeks pregnant! Will is the size of an eggplant now and weighs about 2.2 pounds. For some reason his weight gain and my weight gain don't exactly match up ;) That's alright - I'm still well within my weight gain limits! He also has the ability to open his eyes and look around. He's beginning to blink, although right now it's pretty jerky and involuntary. He'll keep practicing and perfect this over the next few weeks. He also now has eyelashes...I wonder what they look like and how long/what color they are!

His movements have really started to feel different. They're much more frequent and much stronger! I used to not feel movements during the day when I was busy and moving around a lot. It was only when I laid down at night that I'd really start to feel him wiggling around. But lately his kicks have been a little distracting while I'm teaching! One of my students asked me today if my "belly was jumping" yet. She said she got to see her mom's "belly jump" all the time last year when she was pregnant. Her terminology made me laugh!

I really wasn't looking forward to giving up my relaxing time at home to go back to school, but the past two days have been great. I really love my students and I'm actually really enjoying teaching math! There have been a few hiccups with me actually getting hired as a "teacher" at Robertson (right now they have me down as a long-term sub). I have to go take another certification test (my generalist exam) on the 13th and then I'll be able to go in and sign my contract and paperwork. It's frustrating, but I know it's for the best. After I take that, I'll be certified to teach ANY subject in grades 4 - 8, which will be beneficial in the future!

Here's my tummy picture for 28 weeks (taken a few days ago) as well as a picture of Greg and I from New Year's Eve...we had so much trouble getting a decent picture! It was actually pretty funny :)

Third Trimester!

Tomorrow marks the beginning of my third trimester...only 13 weeks until we get to meet Will! I could not be more excited. I'm starting to get slightly uncomfortable - my stomach feels like it's stretched to its max (which I know is far from the truth!) and my back gets achy if I sit or stand for a long time. Plus Will has decided to stick his feet under the ribs on my right side and kick...hard! Not so pleasant for mommy! But aside from all the uncomfortable parts, it's fun getting bigger! Strangers have been asking me when I'm due and an HEB employee nearly knocked me over to keep me from picking up a case of water. And I really do enjoy feeling Will moving around nearly constantly...his movements are becoming much more defined and much more noticeable!

He also officially has the most ornaments of any unborn baby ever ;) My parents got him one, Greg's parents got him one, both of my grandparents got him one, and my aunt got him one. Greg says we're going to have to get a bigger tree next year to fit all of them...I agree ;) Speaking of Christmas trees, here is a really horrible picture of our Christmas tree from this year. I took some with the nice camera, but I don't feel like searching through the memory cards to find it right now!


I can't believe it's almost 2009! Time is flying by so fast. My weekly baby email said that Will weighs about 2 pounds this week and is about the size of a head of cauliflower. His lungs are developing and maturing a lot and if he were born now they would be able to function fairly well (with lots of medical help). He's also started opening and closing his eyes...not much to see in there, I'm sure! I can't wait to see what color they are :) Here's a tummy picture for this week, plus a few other fun ones!

Sammy trying out the sling that one of my mom's friends generously gave us...She approved!

Greg and the girls...Riley is showing just how fond of having her picture taken she was!

I hope everyone has a safe New Year's Eve and a wonderful start to 2009!!

23 weeks

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We sure did. Lots of time with family and great food! On Friday, I braved the crowds and did some Christmas shopping. I got quite a few things accomplished (although I still have to shop for Greg - he's so hard to shop for!) and found some bargains on maternity clothes and baby clothes for Will...he's growing quite the wardrobe of sweet little boy clothes!

On Wednesday, Greg and I found an awesome dresser off of Craigslist. We'd been looking for something that could double as a changing table and found a great, sturdy one that was selling for a great price. It's an ugly green color that I'm not too crazy about, so next weekend we're going to be spray painting it white. We got some brushed silver knobs for the dresser that will look great on it once it's painted! When we got there, the lady wouldn't budge on the price but she did throw in a changing table. We'll have to paint that white too, but Will's nursery is definitely coming together! We're still searching for a rocking chair...but everything we've found so far is about $200 more than we want to spend!

Yesterday we spent the day doing some Christmas shopping and then put up our tree. It looks awesome and it's so exciting to have all our decorations up. I love Christmas time :) We also found some icicle lights in the attic of our garage that Greg is going to put on the house next weekend. I'll put pictures of everything up later.

As you can see, it's been incredibly busy around here! I graduate in three weeks (hooray!) and I'm trying to get all the last minute things tied up with my student teaching. I had a job interview last Tuesday that I should be hearing back from sometime this week...it would be an amazing opportunity and I'm really praying that it works out. Even if it doesn't, I know God will take care of us and that's all that matters.

I'm 23 weeks along this week...only one more week until his "viability date," or the day when he has a greater chance of surviving outside the womb than not. He's now weighing in at over a pound and is about the size of a large mango. He's able to hear talking and music from the outside and can even feel movement now when I sway from side to side! He gets so active at church when the music gets loud...it seems like he really enjoys it! I'm enjoying all his kicking and moving around too. He's getting so much stronger. Last night I could even see my belly moving from his kicks! I really can't believe how fast everything is going - we're going to be meeting him so soon, which is very exciting! Here's my 23ish weeks picture, taken tonight before church. I had many people commenting on how it looked like I'd "popped out" and was really starting to look pregnant. I'd say so!

He better be a kicker for a pro football team...

Will seems to be quite proud of his new-found ability to kick me right as I'm about to fall asleep. He then proceeds to wiggle around for awhile, making it impossible for his mommy to go to sleep. I'm hoping that all that kicking inside there is practice for when he becomes the kicker for a professional football team. Then he can repay me for lost sleep ;) He also enjoys wiggling around for me right after I get home from school. I usually have a little glass of orange juice and lay down on the couch for a few minutes. The orange juice really seems to get him going! It feels like pieces of popcorn popping all inside my tummy. It's very fun!

Our good friends Aaron and Veronica had their baby boy, Bryce, last night. We went to see them at the hospital tonight and it was so fun! It definitely made me want April to come fast - and I know it will be here before we know it! I know that before long, Bryce and Will are going to be causing chaos at church! It's really fun to have friends who are having kids around the same time we are - it will be neat to watch the boys grow up together.

Here's a 20 week belly picture. Will's getting bigger by the day :)

(On a side note: I hate the fact that my bellybutton is growing with my tummy. It is stretching and getting shallower, and I fear that soon it'll no longer be an innie. And I hate the fact that despite it being covered by TWO shirts in this picture, you can still see the indentation of it!)

Less than a week!

In less than a week, we will (hopefully) know if the peanut is a he or a she! I cannot wait...I usually am a pretty patient person. Heck, I can deal with sixth graders who throw binders and pencils at me and still be patient ;) But ever since I found out I was pregnant, I've wanted to know if our baby was a boy or a girl. I hate saying "it" all the time. And I want "it" to have a name! So I've been counting down the days until November 7th and hoping and praying that the peanut will be cooperative.

Greg and I both think that "it" is actually a he...although the poll says otherwise! No reason why, really...it's just something I've thought since the beginning! I've played around with some Old Wives Tales just for fun...There is a Chinese Gender Predictor calendar...according to that we are having a girl. Another one says that if you prefer sleeping on your right side at night (I do), then you're having a boy. I've totally craved salty foods my entire pregnancy...I was pretty turned off by sweets in my first trimester, and if you know me well at all, you know that that is weird! I love my ice cream! According to the wives tale, craving salty foods means you're having a boy. Lately though, I've been craving grapefruit. Wives tale says that craving citrus fruits means you're having a girl. One last tale says that if the heartbeat is above 140 you're having a girl; if it's below 140, you're having a boy. The baby's heartbeat was 150 at the first appointment and in the upper-140s at the second. So if we go by that, "it" should be a she! It'll be very interesting to see which tales proved true for us :)

If forgetfulness was a predictor of gender, we'd know for sure by now. Yesterday marked the THIRD time in THREE weeks that I've locked my keys in my car! Poor Greg had to drive them to me at school before he went to work so I could get my stuff out of my car. How do you lock your keys in your car with all your things in it too, you ask? Well, it's easy. I left all my bags in the passenger seat, planning to go around to open the door and get them out that way. I put my keys in my purse and set my purse on the seat too. Then I pressed the unlock button on the door...however, for some reason, that didn't unlock all my doors. Perhaps I pressed the wrong direction? Anyway, I walked around to the other side and the door was locked...Needless to say, the driver's side door was shut and locked too. I think I need to start wearing a car key on a necklace or something!

I've been battling a nasty cold all week long. And it wouldn't be half as bad if I could take something (anything!) that would drain everything out of my head. But I can't...so instead I've been complaining and sniffling and coughing and complaining some more. I even had to stay home on Thursday from school. I was feeling a little bit better yesterday, but after a late Halloween night, it's back in full force :(

Here is a tummy picture from last week. It was taken at exactly 18 weeks. Sorry for the awkwardness of the picture...I was trying to hold the black shirt out of the way so you could actually see how big the peanut is getting! I'll have to take another (better one) this week.

Rough couple of days!

I know that God has a purpose when we go through valleys and that all of our time on Earth can't be spent on the mountain top, but I feel like it's been a long, hard struggle to get up the mountain for us!

First of all, I apparently hit something (without knowing it!) in our Mustang and came out to a gigantic oil leak. Basically every bit of oil that was in my car had leaked out onto the ground. We had to have it towed to Leif Johnson...and then, since it wasn't a manufacturer defect, we have to pay for all of it. And it's not cheap! We pick up the car tomorrow, and I'm seriously considering giving up driving...I mean, all the bad things in that car happen while I'm driving! Like the rock that cracked the windshield three days after we bought...Who was driving? Me! Or the time that the key wouldn't turn in the ignition and I was stranded at the apartment. Or the time that I was trying to fill up with gas and the gasoline came shooting back out all over me? Yep. Me driving. And then if we go back further in my driving history (before the Mustang) there was the incident in the Explorer where the passenger side mirror randomly shattered. I swear I'm a careful driver. Bad luck while driving just seems to follow me.

Then this morning, I had a scary moment where I thought I was going to pass out. I got really shakey, dizzy, and broke out in a cold sweat with a horrible headache. Since I've had moments of low blood sugar before I got pregnant, I thought that could've been what was causing everything. So I got my snack out of the fridge at school (crackers and a cheese stick) and ate that. Thirty minutes later I still felt horrible, so I went down to our school nurse's office. My blood pressure was on the "low side of normal" (101/70). She had me drink a juice box and then we took my blood sugar. Normal sugars range from 70-120...After eating crackers and drinking the juice, mine was only 84, which is pretty low for having sugar in my system. She had me drink another juice and we waited about 15 minutes and tested it again. It had gone up to 99...I felt a little bit better, but definitely not great! My doctor said to watch it and to mention it at my next appointment. Unfortunately, this puts me at a higher risk of having gestational diabetes - which I do not want to have! Although, if this is the only real complication I have with my pregnancy, I'll be glad. So many other things can go wrong and this is relatively minor.

It's really hard to stay positive when it seems like so many things are going wrong...but I'm trying so hard to trust in God and really put my faith in Him. I know he will provide for us and take care of us.

On a happy note, here's a tummy picture from last week. You can't really tell from this picture, but the little peanut is definitely growing! I'll try to take a better one this weekend.