Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Notes of an Insomniac

Apparently, my internal clock is way off nowadays. I got so tired around 9:00 p.m. I probably should've made myself stay up, but I couldn't keep my eyes open, so I went to sleep. Then I woke up around midnight and have been wide awake ever since. I guess it's just my body preparing me for little sleep with baby around? I figured I might as well be productive and write a blog post if I'm going to be awake at this hour.

As an update, I had my most recent doctor's appointment yesterday. Graham is still breech, but he is moving well and looking healthy and I am
so happy about that. I have a c-section scheduled for next Thursday, but my doctor said yesterday that she doesn't think I will make it 'til then. She also guessed that he was 21-22 inches long and at least 8 lbs.! I know these guesses can be way off, but it will be interesting to see how close she is. I am so very excited to meet him. I can't believe it will probably be only one week until I meet my son!!!

On another note, we are mostly done decorating the nursery (as done as we're probably going to be until after he gets here). The wall decals we had did not stick to the wall due to it's texture, so the walls are kind of bare and we're on the lookout for wall art that go with the colors/theme of the room. So far, I've looked at Target (target.com) and Hobby Lobby and have been unable to find anything. Let me know if you know of/see anything! Here are some pictures:







Now, wish me luck getting back to sleep at some point tonight!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Life Changes

This has been quite a busy weekend so far, because I've had the honor of being invited to share in special moments in friends' lives.

Yesterday, I went to a Sip n' See to meet Jake, the 3 1/2 week old baby boy of my friend, Kelli. He was precious! I got to hold him for quite a while. He was quite laid back! She said he wasn't always like that, but what newborn is? It was good to see him, but it was also good to see her. She looked amazing (as she always does) and had wise, kind and encouraging words that were good to hear from such a new mom. I was thankful for being invited to share in this special change in her life.

After that, Dustin and I watched the first 1/2 of the Arkansas-Ole Miss game. Talk about high blood pressure! He has banned me from watching any more Razorback games until Graham is here, because I've been having high blood pressure at recent doctor appointments anyway. So let's hope Graham comes before next Saturday (otherwise, I'm probably going to have to sneak away and watch the Vanderbilt game secretively).

Then, we went to the wedding of another friend of mine, Suzanna Taylor (now Reed). I, again, felt honored to be invited to their special day. I am so very happy for Suzanna finding her groom (now husband)! The ceremony was simple, short, and elegant. You could feel the love in the room. The music for the ceremony was mostly, if not all, worship music. I thought it was a neat idea; that this newly married couple placed the emphasis not on themselves, as it would be easy to do in your own wedding, but on God. Afterwards, they had bottled sodas, cake and other goodies. I LOVED the white cake with key lime filling and cream cheese icing. Talk about yum! Here are some pictures I took at the wedding (not the best quality but you get the idea):

The bride making her entrance.


I thought her dress was beautiful!


Their first kiss as a married couple!

You'd think after all this fun our Saturday was over. Not so! We went to Car Wars up at Pinnacle Hills and looked at cars. We even test drove one (just because Dustin is looking into buying that particular year/make/model but wanted to drive it first). Then we went to Sam's in Rogers and picked up some groceries. After that, we went to Mellow Mushroom and ate dinner with Dustin's parents.

Let's just say no one had to rock me to sleep last night!

Today, I plan to work on finishing up Graham's nursery so I can take pictures and share them with you all. I'm 38 weeks today, so not much longer until I get to meet my son! I go through different emotions every day (let's be honest here... every other hour or so). Most of the time, I'm in somewhat of a denial that he's coming so soon. Other times, I get so excited thinking about meeting him! And every once in a while, I have a small panic/"freak-out" moment that we will have a little person, a life, that we're responsible for in a very short time. I assume all these emotions (and more) are normal to feel at this point.

Continued prayers for my blood pressure and little Graham turning so he's no longer breech (and just for our overall health) would be greatly appreciated.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Baby Update (and Maternity Pics!)

Just to update you all on baby Graham, we found out this past Wednesday that he'd turned breech; I also had high blood pressure at the Wednesday appointment. We attempted an external version to try to get Graham turned head down at the hospital on Friday; we also did tests to make sure I didn't have preeclampsia.

So we went in Friday, I got hooked up to monitors, so they could make sure Graham and I were doing well and not in distress. They monitored us for 1 hour before doing anything. They stuck me with a bunch of needles to take blood for some of those tests I mentioned above. They put in an IV just in case the procedure caused contractions to start or caused distress to me or Graham. They gave me some medicine to relax my uterus so contractions would stop and they could manipulate it more easily. The medicine automatically made me pretty dizzy and everything was spinning; I was pretty loopy.

They brought in an ultrasound machine so they could see where Graham was to help them during the procedure. They put a lot of gel on my belly (they'd already checked to make sure he was still breech before they put the IV in) and got to work. My doctor pushed and pulled and manipulated as much as she could but Graham just didn't want to budge. In fact, he is completely the left side of my belly and has his arms and legs out straight so he's wedged in there pretty good! The doctor mentioned several times that Graham looks like he's long; not sure which of us he got that from, but interesting to hear! We'll see if that's true soon enough. After the procedure, they monitored me and Graham for another 2 hours to make sure we were okay and labor hadn't been kick-started.

I must say it was painful and I'm even more sore today than I was yesterday. So Graham is part of the special 3% of babies that are breech at full-term. I have heard again and again from different people that babies can turn really late in a pregnancy or even during labor, so I know it's possible that he still might turn and I hope that's the case. But we're preparing for what's to come either way. It's a little strange to have gone through all that in the hospital and only have this soreness to show from it; makes me even more ready for him to be here!

The good news is that Graham looked "awesome" the entire time according to my doctor and the nurses. Also, I passed all the blood pressure tests, so no preeclampsia for me! Continued prayers for both of us would be very much appreciated. Thank you all for all the love and support you've shown me through this.

On a brighter note, I don't have all of them yet, but here are a few maternity pictures our friend, Yesie, took for us:








Sunday, October 2, 2011

Baby Shower (Again)!

Yup, the baby showers just keep coming! Yesterday, I helped throw a baby shower for my friend, Mandy. She is expecting baby Caleb 12 days after my due date (my due date = 11/6). My other friend, Nicole, did the bulk of the work for the shower. She said it was the first baby shower she'd thrown and, I must say, she did a marvelous job! Instead of games, there were onesie and diaper decorating stations. Here are some pictures from the event:


Mom-to-be, Mandy in the middle and Nicole on the left.


Mandy opening presents.


Cute cupcakes spelling Caleb's name out.


Yummy food!


Caleb's name was spelled out on the food table.

The theme was bowties. : )


Onesie and diaper decorating!


Punch I made with cute floating ducks.


More decorations.

Pretty cute, huh? It was a classy, cute baby shower and I was happy to be a part of it. It was also very fun to see some of our mutual friends that I hadn't seen in a while (shout-out to Nicole, Erin, Holly, and Mindi)!