Baby Gear here we come!

First of all we are now registered at Babies-R-Us. The website is Babiesrus.com and our registry is #70108438 - or you can pull it up by our names and Thornton, CO. For those of you who must ship things to us, we found a little short cut. If you pick what you want on our registery, then call the Westminster store at 303-650-2229, X3, and place your order (with our registry number) and tell them to call us for pick up - you don't have to pay shipping and handling. You will however have to pay our high (8%) Colorado sales tax.

Above we have Jason with our new travel system from Grandma Wanda. It includes the infant carrier, two bases and the stroller. The stoller goes up to about 5 years old! I have also included a photo of the adorable bassinet passed on to us from Kayce, with the handmade afghan from my parents and the bear I made myself for our little boy. This will reside in our room!

Baby boy got several Christmas gifts including: a Bumbo seat and onsie from Auntie Mary in Chicago, books from Auntie Alexa in Columbia, bottle and blanket from Auntie Sherry in Columbia, Pat the Bunny book and stuffed animal from President Bette, onsie jumper from Auntie Karen in Columbia, several outfits from Me-Ma & Pa-Pa Mole, several more outfits as well as Carolina and Clemson bib, bottle and paci's from Grandma & Granddaddy Holbert. We now also have Jason's homemade baby blanket made by his great-Aunt Georganna.

So as you can see our home is starting to look like we are actually going to have a baby around soon!

Christmas & New Year's!

This Christmas Jason and I stayed in Colorado. For Christmas Eve we went to our church's candle light service which was standing room only! From there we had our semi-traditional steak dinner. It snowed all night and Christmas morning we had quite a cover with it coming down for 4-8 inches more that day. We actually broke the Christmas Day record for snow in Colorado.

We invited our friends Chris and Susan to join us for Christmas lunch and they invited a couple with a 2 year old son and one on the way and a man that his wife and child were away for the holidays. The two men were the pastors of their church. Within 10 minutes of their arrival and minutes of my warning that Sidney was not kid friendly.....Sidney got their 2 year old on the lip. It did not break the skin and was just a scratch and according to the other Susan the child went to Sid's food bowl while he was eating.....but none of this made the situation any less humiliating and embarrassing. We were just so thankful that they little boy was not actually hurt - but just scared. So that incident was a bit hard to get over! Then Jason and I got to spend the afternoon and evening together just enjoying the snow and warmth of inside.

Between Christmas and New Year's we had more snow so Jason got to come home early. Since I'm off through January 3rd it was nice to have him home during some of my holiday. We were also able to meet Emily, Correy & 8 month old Ella for dinner. We had such a great time that we are going to try to be better about getting together with friends and have a dinner date planned with Lindsay and Ryan for after the new year.

New Year's Eve was spent watching Clemson in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Wanda & Jim were there live so we had fun looking for them on TV. We rang in the New Year as the last one before baby boy gets here in May and celebrated with sparkling cider!

Speaking of baby boy he moves every day now and Jason and a girlfriend Emily have even been able to feel him. My girth is getting bigger and bigger and it seems like I am going to be all belly. Baby boy also got several Christmas gifts and clothes and items from the grandmothers since Christmas. The rate things are going we won't have to worry about buying clothes for a while.

New Year's Day we had our home group over for a potluck. Being southern, Jason and I provided the black-eyed peas (and rice) and collard green (with cornbread) for our pennies and dollars for the new year.

Picture in blue was taken New Year's Eve - and I had to use the one where the ferocious Sid Vicious got in it! He said, "be afraid....be very afraid...rooow." The other two are New Year's Day.

It's a boy!!!

We found out Friday, December 21st, that we are having a healthy baby boy. This was a big surprise to most of our family and friends that thought we were having a girl. We were able to see our 12 ounce, long-legged baby boy in all his glory.
We also got the results from our triple screen and everything came out negative - which is great.
We are now registered at Babies-R-Us. That was a sight. Jason and I are so clueless that another couple told a sales person that we looked like we needed help. We muddled through a lot of the big things and our friend Lindsay will go back with me to finalize the smaller items.
So we have enjoyed the Christmas season knowing that we will have a little boy to celebrate with us next year!

Tossin & Turnin

Butterbean must know that something is up - or maybe it was that dose of NyQuil - but I am feeling more and more movement. At first I wasn't sure if it was the baby or not, but it's really become so frequent and in the same spots that I convinced it's the baby. Now Jason likes to lay his head in my lap and talk directly to my belly where the movement is occurring. This was sweet for about 5 seconds.....I'll leave it at that.
Starting Thursday I have been fighting a cold. The list from my doctor said I could take NyQuil - but I'm still paranoid so I only took a third of a dose two nights and suffered through it the rest of the time. I'm not taking anything during the day except for Vick's vapor rub, saline nose spray, cough drops, fluids and rest whenever I can get it. I go Friday for my big ultrasound so if I am still sick then I'll talk to my doctor about taking something.
So the holidays are really upon us and I only have 3 more days of work in 2007! We are booked Thursday through Saturday with double appointments on Friday and Saturday for holiday celebrations and then a quite week home for Christmas. I can't believe it's already here!

The Holidays Are Coming....

Jason and I have been as busy as ever this week and for the past few weekends. It seems like it was so much harder to get ready for Christmas this year - but we are close!

Yesterday I had an orthodonist appointment (braces come off next Tuesday) and an OBGYN appointment. The OB appointment was just a blood draw and a weigh-in - it looks like I am up to about 6 lbs of weight gain! Next week will be the big ultrasound appointment.

This past weekend we got snow and most of yesterday we got snow - so Jason had the day off from work! I however braved two interstates to make it in to work - I still don't like driving in the snow, but I am getting use to it. Looks like we are expecting snow again before the weekend.

Above you will see a photo of me at 17 weeks - and then some photos that did not make the cut for the Christmas card.

Enjoy!

What did I eat?!? Braxton-Hicks

So last night I experienced my first Braxton-Hicks contractions. They woke me up at 3:30am and all I could think was that I had a stomach ache and what did I eat that disagreed with me? Did I have to go to the bathroom? Then they eased off and I got relief......only to get another wave of pain. What was going on? So in my sleep daze this goes on for a few minutes before I think to look at the clock - they are coming about ever 3-4 minutes. The pain was so intense sometimes that it would make me nauseous and when I finally got up to empty my bladder to reduce the pressure I threw up! Thirty to 45 minutes have passed at this point and I get out my book with a comparison of Braxton-Hicks and the real thing. When I turned on the light I woke poor Jason up who proceeded to freak out when I told him I was having contractions but not to worry about it and go back to sleep. I started timing them and writing down when they started and ended. I was finally able to reassure him that instead of getting closer together they were getting further apart and he went back to sleep. Eventually they got milder and more wide spread that I was able to start drifting off in between them and finally I went completely back to sleep until morning. Things still feel crampy today - but I'm hoping that will wear off as the day progresses.

I had no idea they could come this early, but they can! Here I am waiting to feel a little flutter again or the baby start to move and kick....and I just jump ahead to the pain! Guess they will toughen me up for what is in store. All I can say is get a puke pan for labor & delivery!

Father Christmas threw up all over our house!

Now that I am starting week 17 the energy and the appetite have returned! This weekend we cleaned the house from top to bottom after the dogs' sickness and then started decorating. We put up 4 trees this year - ranging from 12 feet to 2 feet. The 12 footer was an after-Christmas power buy last year - so new this year. We are having to adjust our decorations for this obnoxiously large tree - so it will be a work in progress this season. I was prepared for the height, but not the girth. I am amazed each year at how much 'stuff' I have - but we finally have the house to spread it around!

Jason was amazed at how much larger my stomach looked this weekend than last - so now we are measuring 'the belly'. Last night I was at 36" at the largest point!

I also got an early Christmas present from Mom - a pregnancy body pillow - and sleep has been pretty wonderful since! I know that this will become even more important as I get bigger.

We'll be taking our Christmas card photos (in our home by a friend) on Wednesday - so if you are on the list look for them early next week.