Going Back

I am scheduled to go back to work bright and early Monday morning. I cannot believe how quickly the last three months have gone by, to say I am sad is putting it lightly.

I have loved loved loved being a part of every moment of Liam's life so far. I have loved pretending to be a housewife. It's been so nice to cook and bake and get laundry done throughout the day instead of a mad dash in the evenings.

That being said, I am blessed to go back to a job that I love, a job that I am (hopefully still) good at. I am anxious about transitioning back into a forty hour work week, especially one that starts with my alarm going off at 4am most days. I know I will have to give myself some grace and pray for it from my peers and employees as my company has changed several things in the three months I have been on leave. My store itself has at least two new team members that I have yet to work with! I have a lot of adapting to do and a lot of remembering as well. I currently can't remember any of my sixteen different passwords or codes to safes and alarms. I am also nervous about trying to arrange my work day around my pumping needs as it is in Liam's best interest to remain on a breast milk diet. I am hopeful that I will be able to find a balance quickly and that my team won't resent the time I will have to spend off the floor to pump. I am grateful that my boss in on my side and has given me several resources to make this easier on myself.

I am so thankful that Ryan will be staying home with Liam. It would break my heart even more to have to drop him off in the arms of a stranger at day care. He will be in good hands. I know that they will have a lot of fun and hopefully Ryan will be able to get some studying done during nap times.

Thankfully, my schedule grants me the opportunity to be home by 2 pm most days. That gives me a lot of time to still love on my little man. Hopefully, I can dwell on that and not on the fact that in twelve months time I will have spent 84 days at work and away from Liam. Can you tell I'm trying to psych myself up for this? :)

Please pray for me and our little family as we make this huge transition. Pray that I will have grace to do my job without crying all day. Pray that Liam bird will be good for his daddy and take his bottles. Pray that Ryan will have patience and will use his time wisely to study when he can. And, if you are one of my customers, or one of my employees, please be patient and kind as I make my way back to the land of the working woman. I promise I will try my best!

Brother, Gus

(the day we brought Liam home)

I realize that I haven't written about Gus' transition into being a big brother, of course he loves him! Yay! I don't know why I ever worried. From the moment we brought Liam home, Gus has been a wonderful and protective big brother. He is very concerned with Liam's happiness and curious about everything that relates to him. If Liam cries, you can guarantee that Gus will either be in the middle of you trying to console him, or he will come and get you to make sure you realize the baby is crying. When our families were visiting Gus was protective of Liam and seemed to worry that not everyone knew what they were doing with the baby, he would hover near the rocking chair and constantly try to lick Liam's head to reassure him that he was near.

(Gus loves "checking" on Liam while he is asleep in his pack & play or taking a bath)

All this being said, we haven't gone through this transition without a few issues. Mainly, Gus looooves Liam's diapers. We keep a small trash can in our laundry room for dirty diapers and Gus goes in there the second the laundry room door is opened to sniff the trash can. On at least two occasions, Gus has successfully gotten diapers out of the trash can and shredded/consumed them before we discovered his naughtiness. Let me tell you, gross. The only success we have with keeping him out of the diapers is to keep him out of the laundry room, which really shouldn't be that hard, but we frequently leave the door open. The other day as I was doing laundry, I walked back into the laundry room to find the top of the trash can stuck around Gus' neck! I really wish I had taken a picture!

Another thing that Gus loves is anything that Liam has spit up on. Gross, I know. We have to make sure not to leave burp rags or bibs lying around because Gus is bound to steal them and lick them to death. He really loves it when Liam spits up on the floor, but honestly, I don't mind him cleaning that up for me. :)

The most recent issue we have had is that Gus doesn't seem to understand that Liam's toys are not his own. We have started trying to introduce a few things to Liam like a rattle, music player, and the stuffed musical glow thingy in the previous post. Anytime we start to try to engage Liam with one of these items Gus goes crazy. He begs for the toy, he sits patiently like a good boy, he waits and waits for us to give it to him...and we don't. I feel awful because I know he must be so confused. For the last two years any toy that we brought into our home was for him, and the baby toys do resemble a lot of his own toys. I sat the stuffed toy on the changing table the other day for Liam to watch while I changed his diaper. I came back into the room later and saw the tail of the toy sticking out from under the bed! We have no idea how to teach Gus that these are Liam's toys, so if anyone has any ideas or suggestions I would love to hear them!

All in all, I think we have had a pretty easy time bringing a baby into our dog's life. While I was pregnant everyone had a story for me of how they knew about someone who had to give their dog away after they had a baby, so I was truly worried. But, I think we have worked really hard to make sure that didn't have to happen. Gus still gets a ton of attention from us and we try to trust him to be near Liam so he hasn't been jealous. Hopefully as Liam is in the floor more and more things continue to go well! We love our babies, both fur and human!

Wordless Wednesday

(smiley baby in the middle of the night, love)

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Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We are so blessed, and so thankful for our healthy little giggling dribbling baby boy.



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Wordless Wednesday

Tree made entirely of poinsettias at Opryland Hotel.

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Christmas Cold

Liam and I both have a cold. Boo! Little boy is usually a good sleeper and very cheerful but we had a long fussy night Sunday complete with congestion, coughing, and watery eyes. So I took Liam to the doctor yesterday to make sure it wasn't an ear infection or RSV. Good news is that it's just a cold. The other good news is that he only woke up once last night between 8pm and 6am! The bad news is that I woke up feeling yucky this morning.

I had a few errands to run today but decided to stay snuggled up on the couch with my little man instead.

My sweet husby picked up a lemon on his way home from work so I could make hot toddys.

Here's my recipe...
Juice of 1/4 lemon
1/2 Tbs honey
1 Tbs whiskey
6 oz boiling water
Stir everything together, increase or decrease ingredients to taste. Pretty easy!




I know it's probably all in my head, but I really did feel a little better after I had one. They are very soothing on the throat.

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Wordless Wednesday

Liam bird slept through meeting Santa for the first time, typical.

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That's So Nashville.

Monday night Ryan's band, The Atlas, had a show here in Nashville that I really wanted to attend.



Now, most parents would probably never consider taking their infant to a concert but we figured the earlier we exposed him to it, the better. So, we got some little baby ear plugs and I wrapped on the Moby and we rocked out.

In typical Liam fashion, the bird slept through the entire show snuggled up close to me. It's "so Nashville" for people to stand unimpressed with their arms crossed at shows. They are either too cool to be impressed, or they think they're better than the band. Needless to say, the sleeping babe fit right in.

It was a great show in every way and I was thrilled for Liam to get to subconciously be there.


*go to www.theatlasmusic.com to download some FREE and wonderful Christmas tunes




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Wordless Wednesday

By far our best present under the tree this year.


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TWO Months Old!

Dear Liam,
Alright! Enough already! How are you already two months old? I seriously cannot believe that I have been your mommy for eight whole weeks! You are such a joy and I have delighted in staying home and loving on you.

At your two month appointment, which was two weeks ago, you weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces and were 20.5 inches long. We weighed you at home the other day and you were right at 9 pounds! You are growing like a weed! You are still wearing newborn sized clothes and diapers and are starting to fill them out a lot better.

You are really starting to become more alert. You love to sit in your bouncy seat and stare up at the ceiling fan. You are still sleeping a lot, two or three big naps during the day and then sleeping all night except to eat two or three times. You love being swaddled while you sleep and we have found that the Halo Sleepsack has been one of our favorite items for you (I should do a product review...).

It's a blessing to be your mommy. Even when you spit up or go potty on me, I wouldn't change it for the world. I love getting to see your sweet personality start to show and snuggling you is truly one of the best things about my life.

Forever and ever,
Mama

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The meal.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, it's all food and family and no obligations. My favorite tradition is watching all of the Thanksgiving Friends episodes, so much fun!

This was my 5th year to make the meal, and I think it was my best yet! I did have some much needed help from my lovely friends, Kirsten and April.




Herb & Butter Roasted Turkey Breast (unpictured: Gravy)



Herb Dressing and Cranberry Salad



Sweet Potato Gnocchi in Sage Brown Butter Sauce



Rolls!



Mashed Potatoes by Kirsten



Maple Thyme Acorn Squash by Kirsten



Green Bean Casserole by April



Pumpkin Pie by April



Dreamy Apple Pie (unpictured: Hard Sauce)



Pumpkin Trifle (no beef included)

It was a lovely, yummy day! I hope your Thanksgiving was delicious!


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I am thankful for...

...God; who loves me, blesses me, teaches me, forgives me, and calls me His own.
...my husby; his love, laughter, kisses, and snuggles.
...Liam bird; his life, health, and beauty.
...family; 7 healthy grandparents, 4 wonderful parents, 3 awesome sisters, 3 sweet brothers, 3 adorable nieces, and 3 charming nephews.
...my job.
...the ability to take 12 weeks off of work, and God's provision while I have been off.
...friends; old, new, near, far.
...good food, wine, and laughter.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!



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I promise we aren't bad parents.

It has recently dawned on us that when we take Liam out in public people think we are bad parents for taking our brand new baby out so soon.

However, they just assume that, since he is little, he is brand new. Someone asked me today, "how many days old is that baby," she was quite shocked with my answer of, "about 50."

Other people's reactions are so funny to us because we think Liam is so big and chubby since he started out so small. He looks like a newborn now that he is almost two months old! I know he will catch up soon, he has already grown so much!

(I should mention that we aren't taking him out a lot or to places with large crowds. And, he did not go anywhere except to the doctor's office until he was four weeks old.)

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Neither Can Live While the Other Survives

Last Thursday night, Liam got to go to his first movie! Yes, we took him to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. And, we took it one step further and dressed in costume for the event!




Ryan and I were Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy* and Liam was their house elf, Dobby.




The Dark Mark




Lazy little house elf.




Sisters, Narcissa and Bellatrix

*Please note that we aren't into the dark arts. We just figured that everyone would be dressed as Harry and Hermione. We were right.

We had so much fun dressing up and truly loved the movie. Liam did great, I only had to leave once for about a minute. Otherwise, he slept through the whole thing. I'm thinking we should go to more movies while he is still little enough to sleep through them!

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40 Weeks!

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 40 Weeks/Liam is 6 Weeks, 1 Day

Size of baby: 7 pounds, 20.5 Inches (give or take a little bit)

Total Weight Gain: 16 pounds gained; 21 pounds lost (I still look pregnant though)

Maternity Clothes: All of my regular clothes fit; they just fit differently.  My maternity clothes are big, but oh so comfortable.  So I'm still rocking the stretchy waist.  :)

Gender: BOY.

Movement: He wiggles just as much on the outside as he did while he was inside.
Sleep: He sleeps like a champ, but we have to wake him up to eat every three hours so we aren't getting much sleep!   

Symptoms: none!

Food Cravings/Aversions:  aversions have subsided, bring on the chocolate!

What I am looking forward to:  watching this beautiful baby grow!

One Month Old!

November 1, 2010

Happy One Month Birthday!  We are in awe at how quickly the past month has flown by!  You spent the first ten days of your life in the NICU at Baptist Hospital and then you officially moved into your house with Mommy & Daddy!

You are still sleeping the majority of the day, but in the past few days you have been staying awake really well in the afternoons.  We love seeing your little eyes open and you make the cutest facial expressions.

You eat every three hours at 3/6/9/12 am & pm.  You nurse for about 20 minutes or take a 2.5 ounce bottle of pumped milk.  You hate being burped and prefer to pass gas like a frat boy as opposed to burping like a baby.  Since you were premature your digestive system is still developing and you have some acid reflux issues.  Thankfully, the doctor gave us a prescription that has reduced your spit-up episodes and helped you gain some weight.  We wake you up for all of your night time feedings, you have been sleeping so well.  We have had one rough night where you had a gassy tummy but so far, so good on the sleeping realm (probably just jinxed that one).

As of last week you are up to 6 pounds 1 ounce!  That's 12 ounces up from your birth weight and 1 pound 4 ounces more than when we brought you home!  Your little cheeks are starting to fill out, yay!  You are still wearing some preemie clothes but they are a bit short through the leg.  Newborn sizes fit better through the length but swallow your little waist, you will grow into them soon!  I am proud that you have done so well gaining weight and will be thankful when we have the go ahead to stretch out your night time feedings.

Your Daddy and I are big time nick namers and rarely call each other by our first names.  We have followed suit with you and only call you Liam if followed by Bird.  We also call you Littleface, Wiggle Worm, Wigs, Buddy Boy, Little Man, Baby Bird, and Birdy Boy.

We are terribly in love with you Littleface.  You have already blessed our lives so much and are teaching us a little more every day.  Everyone that meets you thinks you are just the sweetest, cutest, littlest baby and we couldn't agree more.  We thank the Lord for you every night and pray that we can be great parents for you!

Love you forever,
Mama

Liam Update

Littleface got to come home on Sunday!

He has done nothing but eat and sleep since he got home.

We went to the pediatrician (gross germy & running 2 hours behing late) yesterday and Liam is doing great!  He has gained some weight back!

Since he is so small, and we are trying to fatten him up, I am only nursing him three of his eight feedings.  The other five are all breast milk in a bottle so we can monitor how much he is eating.  This means that I have to feed him and then pump (read: exhausted).

Ryan continues to be the best husband/father in all the land.  He has been getting up in the night to feed Liam so that I can just pump and we all only have to be awake for thirty minutes instead of an hour.  He has also sacrificed a lot of his study time to take care of me and Liam and I am so thankful that he is willing to do that for his family.

I had a follow up appointment with my doctor today to check my incision and it is healing wonderfully.  I am so thankful that my scar will be small and may even go away completely, my doctor did a great job.  I have to go back in four weeks for another check.  When I was putting the date into my phone I realized that it would still be before Liam's due date.  So strange.

I am exhausted, but have not been very good at napping.  I think I am just now starting to "nest."  Every time it's a good time for a nap I decide it's a better time to do a load of laundry or deep clean the bathroom sink.  I'm working on letting it go.  :)

What's in a Name?

I have always loved to know the origin and meaning of names.  I think that what your name means can have a strong influence on your life.  Ryan and I chose the name, Liam David for our son for a number of reasons.

Liam=Irish nickname for William, meaning strong-willed warrior & protector

David=Beloved

I am obsessed with Ireland.  I spent a summer there in college and am still moved to tears when I think about my time there.  It was also important to us that his first name be only four letters since our last name is only four letters (I like how it looks written out better, I am weird).  David is Ryan's middle name and it is a Hawk family tradition that the father passes his middle name onto his firstborn son.  We chose this as our "boy" name probably three years ago and once we found out we were pregnant we talked about a few others, but always came back to this and we love it for our little guy!  

I love that it means protector and that he is our firstborn, he can protect our other children.  Maybe he will go on to protect others or our country.  I also love the strong-willed warrior part.  If you know me or Ryan at all, you know that there really wasn't a chance that our child would not be strong-willed.  But, the warrior implication truly plays into his birth.  He was, and is, still fighting to grow and develop.  He has come a long way, but it's been a lot of work for his little body.  He is already a little warrior.  And we love him so much!

Liam's Birth Story

Wednesday, September 29th, I experienced some spotting.  I called my doctor and was advised to go to the hospital for monitoring.  I did not want to do this at all because I was sure that it was nothing and did not want to spend a lot of money only to be told that it was nothing.  My doctor agreed to let me wait until my already scheduled OB appointment on Thursday and I put myself on bed rest for the remainder of the day.


Thursday morning I had my 34 week check up (a few days early).  I was still spotting a little bit and my normally low blood pressure was slightly elevated.  My doctor checked my cervix, which was closed, and decided to send me to the hospital for monitoring for a few hours and to get a complete ultrasound just to be safe.  When we got to the hospital at noon my water broke, only I decided that maybe it was just extra fluid from my doctor checking me.  It wasn't a lot of "water" at all.  I checked in to the hospital and was hooked up to monitors to check for contractions, watch the baby's heart beat, and monitor my blood pressure.  The nurse watching me joked around that my blood pressure was not impressing her and I would probably leave in an hour.  Then I had a contraction and the baby's heart rate plummeted.  Before we knew what was happening, that same nurse was shouting for help and pushing my bed at a full sprint to the labor and delivery wing.  They told us that if the baby's heart beat didn't come up I was having a baby right then!  After the contraction the heart beat went back to normal.  They started me on IV fluids and checked my cervix again, still closed, good.  They continued monitoring me and everything looked normal.  


At 4:00 pm I went for an ultrasound where we saw that the baby looked perfectly fine and was measuring great.  We let the tech know that we didn't know the sex of the baby and she had us look away a few times but we were excited to see our sweet baby again on the big screen.  When I got back to my room and stood up to get in bed I had some fluid trickle down my leg.  Oh yeah, I remembered that maybe my water had broken.  I decided to tell the nurse and they did a test to see if my water had broken.  Then there was a shift change and new nurse came in and starting hanging antibiotics for my IV.  I asked her why I needed antibiotics and she replied, "oh your water did break, you're staying here until you have a baby."  Up until this point I truly thought that we would be going home soon and I would be opening the store on Friday like normal.  I hadn't packed a bag or told Gus goodbye.  I was in denial.  


The nurse came in and gave me an oral medication to stop contractions and a steriod shot in the booty to help develop the baby's lungs.  She explained that the plan was to give me the first shot and wait 24 hours to give me the next steriod shot. After another 24 hours of the shot working they would induce labor and deliver the baby.  So, by Saturday or Sunday we would be parents.  I just kept thinking about how this is not what I wanted at all.  I wanted to deliver this baby naturally.  I wanted to do the majority of my labor at home so that I could be free to do what I wanted.  In my birth plan, that was written only in my mind, I planned to ask to only be monitored for 15 minutes of every hour so that I could walk around and labor on a birthing ball.  I planned to be calm and to work with my contractions.  I was quickly realizing that my plans were out the window.  It was mandatory that I be on monitors 100% of the time.  I could not get up to go to the bathroom let alone walk around.  If I moved from one side to the other I had to call the nurse so that she could adjust the monitors. I was very important to keep still so that the baby's heart rate was visible at all times.  


The oral medication worked for a few hours and then I started having contractions again.  They were all really low in my pelvis and in my back.  I was very uncomfortable trying to stay still during the contractions.  My contractions were reading as "mild" on the monitor but they were lasting for 4-8 minutes (the nurse said she had never seen early labor contractions last that long without pitocin) and the baby's heart rate was still periodically dropping.  They decided to give me a shot of something that was supposed to stop the contractions.  It worked for a few hours.  They gave me another shot.  It worked for a few hours.  

(sweet husby rubbing my feet)

All this time Ryan was doing an amazing job of helping me.  He rubbed my back and held my hand.  He told me stories reminding me of how we fell in love.  He talked about the mountains and tried to distract me.  He encouraged continually.  Which just made me frustrated, I did not feel like I was doing a good job at all.  I felt like a wuss.  Later, I realized that had I been allowed to labor like I wanted to and if I was supposed to be trying to have a baby, instead of trying to get my contractions to stop, I would have handled the pain a lot better.  I am so thankful that Ryan was with me through it all, he was my rock.  


At 4:00 am on Friday, October 1st, the nurse came in and gave me the second round of steriods 12 hours early.  She said that they didn't think the baby could take the contractions much longer.  They were sure that the baby would not tolerate pitocin since it was not tolerating my "mild" contractions.  She gave me one more shot of the stuff that was supposed to stop my contractions and said that my doctor would be in to see me in a few hours.  It was at this point that I knew they would be doing a c-section.  And I knew that it was the best thing for the baby.  The very last thing that I wanted was to deliver my baby this way, but I was confident that my doctor wouldn't do it if she did not think it absolutely necessary.  And that's pretty much exactly what she said when she came to talk to us at 7:45 am.  


When Dr. Haney came to talk to us it was still fairly dim in my room.  She speaks very quietly and is very patient.  She answered all of our questions and then left to prep for the surgery.  At this point I was still calm and confident.  After she left, four or five people came in the room and flipped on every light.  They all started talking to each other, reviewing my chart, asking questions.  There was a shift change and I didn't know my new nurse at all.  I starting to have a really painful contraction in the midst of all of the chaos and that's when I had my flip out session.  I was scared and nervous and tired and ready for it to all be over so I cried and threw a little fit.  Ryan was so surprised that I lost it completely that he thought I was possessed.  :)  Once I maintained my composure I had to sign a lot of forms saying that I knew the risks of the surgery and the spinal block.  I answered the anesthesiologists questions.  I demanded that they not give me morphine afterwards (it makes me crazy).  Ryan and I prayed, he suited up in surgery garb and they wheeled me back to surgery.

(cute Papa dressed out for surgery)

Ryan had to stay outside while they administered my spinal block.  This was super hard for me and I cried again, they make you get into a very awkward position that I still don't know how I managed to do while pregnant and contracting.  You have to be perfectly still for 15 seconds or you could become paralyzed.  The second the block was in I felt amazing though.  I had been in labor for 20 hours at this point and the numbness was a nice relief, I won't lie.  They brought Ryan in and he sat to the left of my head and held my hand and prayed.  The neonatalogists and nurses were in the room lining the walls waiting to work on the baby.  They started the surgery and I couldn't feel anything but I knew they were tugging and pulling at me.  I kept trying to see a reflection of what they were doing in the big lights but I never could see anything.  At one point my doctor said that the baby's head was was really stuck in my pelvis (I had been complaining of extreme pelvic pressure for almost a month so I was not surprised).  They pulled the baby out crying and starting working on it without telling us if it was a boy or a girl.  We asked and they told us it was a BOY!  LIAM was here!  Ryan got up to go see him and then they wrapped him up really quickly and let me hold him for a second before taking him to the NICU.  Ryan followed them to document the weigh in and find out how he was as I got put back together.  

(Little Liam getting weighed in.  The red mark on his head is from where he was wedged in my pelvis)

We are so thankful that our little man is here and that he is doing so well for being born at only 33 weeks 6 days gestation.  We will never know the real reason why his heart rate kept bottoming out.  It could have been a cord issue or it could have been stress due to the way he was positioned.  We are blessed beyond measure and so thankful that the Lord's plans for us prevailed.  I may have had a lot of my own plans, but in the end I am confident that the God that knew Liam before he was ever in my womb knew what was best for our family.  

(at 8:45 am on October 1, 2010, Liam David made us a family)

thoughts on not being pregnant anymore...

• I have had more pregnant dreams since I delivered Liam than I did the entire time I was pregnant.
• When I look down, I am surprised to see my feet.
• I made it through the hottest summer of my life while pregnant without an ounce of swelling.  Now my ankles are the size of softballs.  Thanks a lot IV drugs.
• My hair looked like crap while I was pregnant, I like it a lot more now.  But it could still use a trim and some blonde.
• When I look in the mirror I feel like I am scrawny without my pregger belly.  I miss it.
• I would have no shame about wearing my maternity jeans.  Too bad they are all low-rise and hit me right on my c-section incision.  I have three pairs of appropriate lounge pants.  Get used to them.
• I have a lot of nesting energy but am not allowed to do a whole lot.  This is frustrating.  

Introducing...

Liam David Hawk

 (first photo)

Liam arrived 6 weeks early at 8:45 am on October 1, 2010, via emergency caesarean section.  He weighed 5 pounds and 5 ounces and was 19.5 inches long.  He is still in the NICU, but we are hopeful that he will come home by the end of this week.  We are truly in love with this little boy and so very excited that he is here already!  

Stay tuned, birth story and more to come...

33 Weeks!

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 33 Weeks, 2 days

Size of baby: 19-22 inches, 4.9 pounds; pineapple

Total Weight Gain: 16 pounds

Maternity Clothes: Still wearing maternity clothes.  However I bought a dress, a tank , and a cardigan from old navy yesterday and none of it was maternity.  Granted, I can't button the cardigan yet, but it looks cute with the belly.  I'm refusing to buy more maternity clothes but it is finally getting cooler and all of my clothes that fit are tank tops!  I'm gonna have to get creative with layering.

Gender: It's either a boy or a girl.  Had a few boy guesses lately, still mostly girly guesses though.

Movement: Movement has slowed down a little due to baby running out of room but I still get punched and kicked often enough.  Legs are still wedged in my ribs so those kicks are really comfortable, let me tell you.
Sleep: It's a bit overrated right now.  Waking up often to change positions and pee.   

Symptoms: Heartburn, fatigue, backache, hip pain, pelvic pressure, braxton hicks.  If I wasn't pregnant I would complain that I feel like an old woman most of the time; but I think I really am just feeling pregnant.  :)

Food Cravings/Aversions:  I still haven't had a "gotta have it NOW" craving.  Eating a lot of cereal.  Still hitting up sonic for slushes/ice pretty much daily.

What I am looking forward to:  Still working on that To Do list...  

Kid's Sale Update

We made out like bandits at the kid's sale last weekend.  I was sooooo incredibly thankful to my sweet sister and nephew for going to the pre-sale for me and running around like crazy to get what I wanted.  By the time I made it to Arkansas they had pretty much already bought everything that I needed and then some.  We blew the $200 budget out of the water, but I feel confident that it was a good decision.

Glider & Ottoman--$25          
Infant Car seat, Jogging stroller, Snap 'n go stroller, 3 car bases--$150
Bumbo seat w/ tray--$20
Bouncy seat--$15
Baby Bath--$15
Crib Mattress (new)--$15
Changing Table--$20
Infantino Carrier--$10
2 Mattress pads--$4
12 Burp Cloths--$6
8 Receiving Blankets--$8
Johnny Jump-up--$10
Sleep positioner--$4
Head positioner for car seat--$4
Nursing cover--$8
Sling--$8
Snow suit--$4
8 gowns--$8
6 footy pajamas--$6
Coat--$5
Fleece car seat cover--$10
Total spent--$355
Estimated savings--$650


We also lucked out on a big sale at target and bought a crib that retailed for $250 for $120.  We are feeling so incredibly blessed right now!  I was such a strange feeling to leave for Arkansas with literally nothing for our baby besides a pack & play and to return with pretty much everything we need.  I love good deals!  I am just not good at weeding through everything.  Thankfully, my sister is good at weeding through and my nephew is super fast at darting through crowds of people to get the things she tells him to find!

Everything we bought at the sale was in wonderful condition.  The car seat, glider, and stroller got a good cleaning with my sister's Bissell before I brought it home and they look brand new!  We are getting more and more excited to meet our baby now that we feel a little more prepared for him/her!

32 Weeks!

(on our way to go out for our anniversary)

(32 weeks, 1 day)

  (for frame of reference)

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 32 Weeks, 2 days

Size of baby: 19 inches, 4.1 pounds; honeydew

Total Weight Gain: 15 pounds

Maternity Clothes: There's a baby the size of a honeydew in my belly.  I am wearing maternity clothes.  :)

Gender: It's either a boy or a girl.

Movement: Movement has slowed down a little due to baby running out of room but I still get punched and kicked often enough.  
Sleep: If I am not waking up to pee every few hours then my hips are in agony when I wake up.  I think I am up to three pillows for optimal comfort and that might be increasing soon...move over Ryan. 

Symptoms: Heartburn, fatigue, backache, hip pain, pelvic pressure, braxton hicks.

Food Cravings/Aversions:  Pretty much all I want is a slush from sonic or sonic ice.  I don't have a lot of room for food these days.  

What I am looking forward to:  Cooler weather.  Finishing baby's room.