31 weeks (a day late)

OK... Blogger must be back up and running so I'm going to continue with my post.

I AM

31 weeks

PREGNANCY HIGHLIGHTS:

How Far Along: 31 weeks

Size of baby: The website I googled said baby boy is currently the size of 4 oranges. He is also weighing in around 3.3 pounds and is OVER 16 inches long!

 Total Weight Gain/Loss: 11 pounds!!! I can't express how content I am with the weight gain in this pregnancy. I gained SO much when I was pregnant with Tuff and I was really dreading putting all that weight back on. Hopefully, I can stay within 20 pounds. We'll see.

Maternity Clothes: Almost everything is maternity except a few things.

Gender: It's a BOY!!! Gunner Blake.

Movement: All day, all night, my friends!

What I miss: SLEEEEEEEEP. I'm so sleep deprived.

Cravings: Just food. I'm eating more and more as the days go by.

Symptoms: A few contractions here and there, pain and swelling in places I don't want it.... and sleep deprivation.

Best Moment this week: My check up Friday, the Dr. was much more encouraging this time. Also getting the rest of Gunner's fabric for his bedding picked out. :)

Hope you're all having a wonderful Wednesday!

Delay

I will post pregnancy highlights tomorrow. Since my mom is out of town with my Granny, I couldn't do my regular picture this morning. I will have to have Jordan take it tonight when I get home from work.

Update on my Granny: She came out of the surgery doing wonderfully. The doctor says if she continues to do wonderfully, she may get to go home tonight. If not tonight, first thing tomorrow morning! Thank you for all your prayers!!!! Now we're praying for a smooooth recovery. :)

Happy Tuesday!

Father's Day Weekend

First of all, I'd like to say thanks for everyone's prayers on Friday! My doctor's appointment went wonderfully. My Dr. was very nice and attentive this time. She answered all my questions and made me feel good about any concerns I had. Thank GOD! I was extra stressed last week about that appointment so I'm very thankful it went well. Baby Gunner is looking good. He's right on track. I've only gained 11 pounds. She said she didn't see any need for c-section so as of now, we will be having a regular delivery unless something comes up between now and then. Also, my Granny is scheduled for surgery this morning. She's got a pretty good suport group (from what I hear) and she's a little nervous. So if ya'll don't mind keeping her in your prayers, that'd be great! Praying for a smooth surgery with no complications and a speedy recovery!

Back to our weekend...

Daddy and Baby boy met me in town Friday afternoon for my doctor's appointment. After my appointment we ran a few errands and had some dinner at Cheddar's. I had been wanting it for a few weeks and wasn't disappointed when I finally got it. I had the fried shrimp and it was D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S! :)

Saturday morning we got up early and prepared a BIG Father's Day breakfast at my house for my dad since he had to work 2nd shift all weekend. Breakfast included cinnamon rolls, cinnamon crumb muffins, scrambled eggs, bacon and biscuit & gravy! YUM. I didn't take any pictures with my camera but my sister got a few...

Me & Hubby

everyone chowing down

For some reason, the boys just couldn't share this particular morning.

Hanging out on the porch during a rain storm.

We didn't get a picture of Dad and all his girls because since it was so early, everyone came in their pj's (including dad) except my sister April. And that's only because they had plans to head somewhere else after leaving my house. The picture above is the best we got. Even my little Tuff is still in his pj's. Ha!

Anyways, I'd write this big long post about my daddy but I'm just going to copy and paste what my sister said on her facebook/blog because I loved it so much. When I read it, I knew it came from my heart just as much as hers...

" To my Daddy on Father's Day: You set the bar high, being the kind of father every daughter dreams of, from painting OUR fingernails AND YOURS, to giving us airplane spins, getting us a card and candy for every Holiday (like even the little ones, St.Patricks Day) to taking us everywhere and giving us most everything we needed and most times wanted...and you have always been there for us as we've gotten older loving us well, listening to us, and now loving our kids so well! Not to mention all the times you pretended like we were out of gas in the middle of the road, wore clothes with holes in them (on purpose) to drop us off places, and ran through the mall kicking our bottoms form behind and running down the aisle kicking your bum as you ran as fast as you could while we stood back embarrassed! You are the wonderful mix of a fun-loving father! I love you Dad! "

She said it ALL in that small paragraph!!! I LOVE YOU DAD!!! Hope you had a wonderful Father's Day!

After everyone left, Jordan, Tuff and I enjoyed a LONG nap before getting up, getting ready and heading to town for some more fabric for Gunner's bedding, groceries and a bite to eat. We didn't get out the door until about 4 and since we never had lunch, we decided to have something quick. After some Taco Bell (and pizza for baby boy) we headed to Joann's to get the rest of Gunner's fabric. I am SO relieved we have that all taken care of. And I'm pretty pleased with the rest of the fabric we chose. After leaving Joann's we stopped by Party City to pick up a few things for Baby Boy's 2nd birthday party to match his Curious George theme. They had lots of cute stuff. And.... now that I've mailed out his CUTSIE invites, I can share them with everyone here.

[blocked out address & phone # info for privacy reasons]

HOW stinkin CUTE is that?

I ordered them from a lady on Etsy. She was GREAT to work with. She made sure everything was perfect and exactly the way I wanted it before sending the final product. Of course once she did send it, it was prefect. You can check out her shop here. I absolutely LOVE Etsy. If you're reading this and you haven't shopped there before, you HAVE to stop by and look when you have time.

After groceries, we headed home and relaxed for the remainder of the night. We rented a movie.

It was pretty good. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting starring Vince Vaughn & Kevin James. I guess I thought it would be more comical and it was more on the serious side. But still worth a watch. Sweet little baby boy tried his hardest to "hang" with mommy and daddy but ended up falling asleep on the floor infront of the t.v. (which NEVER happens)

Sunday morning we woke up and greeted Daddy with his Father's Day cards and another big breakfast. Since Jordan works 3rd shift, he doesn't like to do much of anything other than relax on Sunday's so we spent the day doing just that with him. One of our errands on Friday afternoon involved getting some flowers/plants/trees from Home Depot for the yard. Sunday morning before it got too hot, Jordan planted everything while I worked on a game for Tuff's birthday party. What's the game you ask? Any guesses by looking at the poster that I free handed drew all by myself?

If you guessed "Pin the candle on the Cake," you guessed right!!! :) I got this idea from a friend at work who knew someone who did this for a Curious George themed birthday party. I had her send me the picture...

I printed it out and free handed it onto a poster board. My mokey is a little fatter and my cake turned out a little bigger but I think it still turned out great!!! Can't wait to see the kiddos playing it at Tuff's birthday party.

And the yard, well Jordan did a pretty good job his self. I always LOVE the way he can make our yard look this time of year. Or any year. He has a green thumb, that's for sure! We added some flowers to the flower bed, 2 trees in the yard (one sycamore and one pine) and 2 ferns on the front porch!

We chose these little orange flowers... I think Jordan secretly wanted them because they are UT orange colors ;) Last year we did red flowers in the same spot.

Sycamore

Pine

I'm MOST excited about these trees. I LOVE trees in a yard and there wasn't a single tree in our yard when we bought this house. And even though we probably won't be living here when they get reaaallly big, it'll still be nice to watch them grow from now until then.

Ferns.

Hopefully, we can keep them alive. I think ferns are so hard to keep alive. Guess we'll see.

And...

Tuff enjoyed spending a little time outside while we were checking out all of Daddy's gardening skills.

Checking out the new trees

LOVE his stinkin cute face here.

And a pose!!!

And now it's time to gear up for another long week.

Hope you all had a wonderful Father's Day weekend!!!!

Prayer Requests

I have a few things bothering me today that I could really use some prayers for....

1. The cat scan my Granny had yesterday did confirm the 90% blockage in her left artery so she will be having surgery on Monday. The risks of this surgery are very scary but the Dr. seems to think she'll pull through without a problem since she's so healthy otherwise. PRAYING everything goes as smoothly as the Dr. thinks. Also, my mom is leaving tomorrow morning to go down and be with her during the surgery and for a few days following while she's recovering. Please pray for her safe travels as well. She will be making a 9 hour trip, alone!

2. I have a dreaded doctor's appointment this afternoon at 3:30 with my regular doctor. You know, the one who isn't very comforting when it comes to my questions/concerns. I'm praying she's having a good day and she's in a good mood (maybe because it's Friday) because I have A LOT of questions/concerns on my list for this appointment. PLEASE say a prayer for me because I have so much anxiety when I go in to see her. The worst part is, I've only seen her TWICE this whole pregnancy and both times she'd made me feel about a foot tall after asking questions. With me going into my 31st week of pregnancy and with the week I've had, I'm not so sure it's going to go over too well today if she acts like that again. :-/ I guess we'll have to see. But until then, I could use your prayers.

3. I have a HUGE unspoken request that's been reeeeallly bothering me the past few days that I'm hoping to find answers to SOON.

Thanks for reading and thanks for your prayers!!!!

Now.... Let the weekend begin!!!!! I hope you all have a wonderful relaxing weekend. And don't forget to squeeze your Father's/Husbands a little tighter this weekend. I know I plan too!!!!

Oh, and thanks for the sweet comments on my post yesterday. I am SO excited to get the bedding started. I can't wait to see the outcome.

Finally... moving along a little.

By this point in my pregnancy with Tuff, we had everything. We also had everything done. I thought I would be the same way with this pregnancy because me and Jordan are both on the same page when it comes to being prepared.... I was wrong. There have been alot of changes since I was pregnant with Tuff and being pregnant now. 1.) We have a (almost) 2 year old to keep up with at ALL times. By the time his lights go out for the night, mine are ready to go out too. Especially being pregnant. Which doesn't make much time for other things to get done. 2.) We had NO bills when I was pregnant with Tuff because we were still living with my in laws. Which made it alot easier to get things done when we had all the money we ever needed to buy everything that our sweet boy was going to need. Boy, how things change when you buy a house. Anyone who owns a house, knows what I'm talking about....

Anyways, after almost 2 months of finding out that our little strawberry was definitely a BOY, we have started working on ideas for his nursery. Now, I decided from the beginning of this pregnancy that I wanted customized bedding for this baby. No baby-ish "theme" like we did with Tuff. (Note: Had I of known anything about customized bedding when I was pregnant with Tuff, he would have never had a "theme" either.) Anyways, back to ideas. I started with a color scheme... I did NOT want blue. Maybe a little blue was ok, but I didn't want the main color to be blue. I wanted something different but still boy-ish. So I started with orange and then came up with the idea of orange and brown. Once I came up with those colors and ok'd it with the hubby, of course, I started googling. About a month ago, I ran across this retro looking pattern.

After showing it to my mom and getting her "ehhh" opinion, I decided to keep looking. But through all my mad searching, looking and googling, I kept coming back to THIS very pattern. Then I decided to take a little break.

Last week when I was doing my 29 week post, I started thinking to myself  "Wow, we don't have much time... we really need to get started." I knew from the beginning of my pregnancy that a friend of the family would be making Gunner's bedding so I called her up. When I told her we only had 11 weeks she agreed that we definitely needed to get started! Saturday morning I headed over to her house to talk about what we needed/how much we needed/etc. Monday morning at work, I started my searching process again. But once again, I still kept coming back to this particular pattern. I started searching through the websites of our local fabric stores and couldn't find anything like this or close to this. So, I called my sewing friend back up and told her my issue. She sent me to fabric.com and I found this pattern within 10 minutes. The best part is they ship within 48 hours, guaranteed. So... praying the hubby would like this pattern as much as I did, I ordered the amount we'd need! (Luckily, hubby liked it just as much) There are a few things about the bedding in the picture above that will be changed. Let me show you.

(click on the picture to enlarge and see my notes/arrows)

1. Quilt- We have some better ideas for the quilt. So the quilt in this picture, will not be used.
2. Bumper- SINCE this particular material is so expensive, I had to buy it at a local fabric store rather than getting it online. I couldn't find anyone who carried it in this burnt orange color. So, we will be using brown in place of the orange on the bumper.
3. There's something about this pattern that bothers me. Don't get me wrong, I think it's adorable, but I don't think it goes with the retro boxes in the material above it. So, once I get the material in that has the boxes on it, I will venture out to see what else I can find that will match it better. Whether it be just a plain color or another (more simple) pattern, I just don't know yet...

Sooo... What do ya'll think? Like I said earlier, my mom's first opinion was "ehhh" but yesterday she said she thinks she likes it. She said it was something that grows on you. The good news is, everyone else I've shown it to (my sister, sewing friend and hubby) all LOVE it!!! I'm super excited to see the outcome. Now, as soon as we get the fabric in, we will start working on matching it with paint. I have NO idea what I want to do as far as painting yet, but you all know it has to be something different. I don't want to just throw one color on all 4 walls. In Tuff's nursery, his main wall is green and all of the others are blue. But with Gunner's walls, I plan to do something a little more fun. We'll just have to see!

This post will be a "To be continued...." post!

Hope you're all having a wonderful week. Friday is just right around the corner! Can't wait to celebrate our wonderful father's and my wonderful hubby, of course.

One more thing, my Granny (mom's mom) is in the hospital waiting to have a cat scan done today. Yesterday, the doctor felt some tightening in her neck and said it didn't sound right so he sent her to have it looked at somewhere else and they told her she was in the 90th percentile of having a stoke or heart attack from possible blockage in her left artery. They admitted her to the hospital last night to keep an eye on her until she could have her scan. My granny is 70 years old and never had any health problems. She's also never been hospitalized other than having babies. I'm sure you can all imagine how scared/nervous she is. And if the scan shows & confirms the blockage, they will have to do surgery to put in a stint. Please keep her in your prayers. She definitely needs them!

30 WEEKS!!!!!!

I am beyond THRILLED to be titling this weeks "pregnancy post" as 30 WEEKS!!!!!!! Ya'll don't even know how ready I am to meet this sweet baby boy. And with only 10, possibly 8-10 weeks left, I'm getting more and more ready by the day! :)

30 Weeks!

PREGNANCY HIGHLIGHTS:

How Far Along: 30 weeks

Size of baby: The website I googled said baby boy is currently the size of a head of cabbage. He is also weighing in around 3 pounds and is almost 16 inches long!

 

 Total Weight Gain/Loss: Last appointment said 9 lbs. I will know an accurate total after my appt on Friday.

Maternity Clothes: Almost everything is maternity except a few things. But my "few things" are starting to dwindle and FAST.

Gender: It's a BOY!!! Gunner Blake.

Movement: All he does is move! I keep telling Jordan I hope he's calmer when he comes out of there.

What I miss: Sleep and being able to bend over. Ha.

Cravings: My sweet tooth is getting worse.

Symptoms: Definitely starting to feel the braxton hicks contractions more and more. Also having pain in my right leg if I'm on my feet too much. And.... let the heartburn BEGIN! :(

Best Moment this week: Looking foward to my doctor's appointment on Friday to check in on our little man! We've also been looking at fabrics for baby boy's bedding. We plan to pick it out and buy it this weekend. A friend of the family is custom making his bedding for us. I'm SO excited to get this started. Once we get our fabric bought, we can start the painting process as well. So far we are thinking of using the colors orange and brown. Well, those will be the main colors. Maybe a few other mixed in. I should be able to update you all more on that next week. :)

 

And for a little extra fun this week... here is the comparison of my 2 pregnancies at 30 weeks.

I think I look fuller with Gunner but it's hard to tell since I'm bare-belly in the pic with Tuff.

Also, I had to flip the picture of me with Tuff since I was standing in the opposite direction...

We still haven't had too much going on. Our weekend was pretty low key again. We did take Tuff to the carnival in our hometown this weekend and had to leave a little disappointed because he was about 2 inches shy to ride anything!!! But, we did enjoy some really fattening fair food before we headed home. :) I have been working pretty hard on Tuff's birthday party details the past few days. I think I told ya'll we changed the theme last minute because Tuff just wasnt into Blue's Clue's much anymore. He still watches it here and there but it's nothing like it was a month or so ago. I love his new theme (Curious George) because there is so much more colors to work with. I have also been working on lots of DIY projects! Which makes things alot cheaper. I'm all about DIY if it means saving a little. I will be sending out his invitations sometime before the end of the week so I'll be sure and post it after they get mailed out. I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise! :)

Here is a few shots of baby boy from a photo shoot we took with his monkey. I was trying to get a good one with the monkey for his invite.... This is how that turned out....

Haha. Needless to say, we didn't use a picture with the monkey. This is only 4 pictures but I took about 50 in a 5 minute span trying to get a good one. I finally ended up taking him outside and getting this one...

Which ended up pretty good. But I still decided to use a different one.

Sure do LOVE our sweet little bundle of sweetness!!! Speaking of our little sweetness, he is officially 23 MONTHS old today! :( We are exactly one month from having a 2 year old. I'm still amazed at how fast the time has gone by. I remember this day...

Like it was YESTERDAY, ya'll!!!!

I keep telling Jordan our baby boy is no longer a baby. Poor Jordan, he refuses to except that. And deep, deep down, I don't want to except it either. He will ALWAYS be our baby, even when he's grown. We love you so much Lucas Tuff!!!! And we are SO proud of you, every day! Mommy and Daddy have NO doubt you'll be the best big brother ever!!!! Here is a pic I took of our big boy last night!

Definitely not a baby anymore :(

Ok, so my friend Lana sent me a picture this morning that she found as she was going through her old photos. I COULD NOT believe how young my dad looked. I even had to take a double (maybe even triple) look at it just to make sure it was my dad and not some older boy I had been smitten over when I was young. Hahahaha. Jk. But just wait... you'll all see what I mean. Take a look for yourselves....

Then...

And here we are now...

Amazing what getting old does to you, huh dad? Hehe. I'll always love you!!! No matter how old you get. That's the best part, right?

HAPPY TUESDAY YA'LL!!!!!

Slacker

I know I've been slacking a little when it comes to posting but we haven't really had a lot going on. I didn't post about our weekend because we did absolutely nothing but lounge in the pool at my mother in laws ALL weekend. :) I'm trying to soak up what little bit of time I have left with one child! In about 10 weeks or so, it's all going to change. I haven't even gotten out my camera in the past week to 2 weeks because it's been so low key. I did snap a picture of Tuff lounging in his chair yesterday watching cartoons.

This picture pretty much sums up just how low key we have been. Diaper'd bottom, tshirt, paci, blankie, laid back and complete with a little cartoon-age. :)

I wasn't feeling my best yesterday so I took the day off and spent it lounging with my baby boy. We should have both been well rested this morning when we got up. Let's just say Tuff was well rested. I know I've mentioned in previous posts that I don't sleep good but I have better nights. Now that I'm about to hit my 30 week mark, I think I'm about to start experiencing more of my worse nights. Boo. The good thing is we only have 10 weeks to go. And hoping for 8 or 9. Haha.

I have had a few things on my mind lately and the closer we get to seeing Gunner's sweet face, the more I am starting to worry. For those of you who don't know, my labor and delivery with Tuff wasn't the easiest. Tuff was "face up" which made for a very difficult and long delivery. Approximately 4 hours of pushing and the epidural wearing off twice in between those 4 hours. On my last push they already had the OR booked for a possible c-section. My doctor had to use the suction cup on his sweet little head and she told me "this is the last push, if he doesn't come out, we'll have to do a c-section!" Luckily with my determination to push his little butt out of there and the help of that suction cup, Lucas Tuff came right out into the world. I have never been SO relieved in my entire life! I thought it was finally over.... but I was wrong. We got to come home on a Thursday morning and a couple days later I was more swollen than I was when I left the hospital to come home. I was also having really bad headaches. My sister in law decided to check by blood pressure and it was 190/110. We immediately called my Dr.'s office and they told me to come right in. Once I got there, I was re-hospitalized and diagnosed with postpartum preeclampsia. For any of you who don't know what this is, you can read up a little on it here. A couple hours after being there I was given a full explanation of this diagnosis and what I would have to do to get rid of it. Originally, I was supposed to be given some meds for 24 hours which would make my BP go down and after a little while of monitoring without the meds, I would get to go home. Well 24 hours turned into 3 days because my BP just wasn't wanting to go down. On the 4th day of being back in the hospital, I finally got to go back home to be with my baby boy! I've always said my Labor was hard but the postpartum preeclampsia was harder. Harder because I had a brand new baby at home that I was missing out on. He was there alot while I was re-hospitalized, but it just wasnt the same as being home with him........

Here's where my concerns come in with baby Gunner.... Since I had the postpartum preeclampsia with my first pregnancy my risks are high with this pregnancy. Also, since my BP never really regulated after having Tuff, I had to be on BP meds up until this pregnancy which puts me at an even HIGHER risk. I'm afraid of this disease caused by pregnancy only! I know my chances of not getting it, aren't great but I'm really praying GOD will let me slide this time! And if I do get it, I'm praying it comes BEFORE Gunner arrives so we can get him here safely and I can be at home with my 2 babies after the delivery.

My other concern is him being "face up" like Tuff was. I've been searching alot about this online and it seems alot of women who have one face up, have them all face up. I asked the doctor about the possibility last Friday and she said it just depended. She said alot of babies start out face up but they can turn them by the time they actually come out. Unfortunitely, they tried the whole 4 hours I was pushing with Tuff and he still came out face up. In alot of other cases, I have heard that they could rotate the baby in time. She also said some women's pelvic bones are positioned differently causing the baby to be face up because that's the only way the baby can lie in there. When she said that, I knew I was doomed. Years ago during my first annual pap smear, the doctor told me mine was positioned different than usually. (To be exact, she said "up and to the left" not sure why I've always remembered that, but I have) Soooo..... I'm most concerned about this. Only because I've heard horror stories about babies being stuck in the canal for so long and having to be pushed back up to get them out via c-section and then the babies not surviving or having issues. Every since I've heard this, I've been terrified. So what now you ask? I'm not sure. Jordan and I have talked about this alot and we have plans to talk everything through with my doctor next Friday. We are both wondering if scheduling a c-section might be best for baby Gunner. C-section is definitely not what I want. But, what I do want is what's best for baby Gunner and for me. So, if you all don't mind, please say a prayer for us as we try to decide what's best for baby Gunner. We'd really appreciate it!

As for now, baby Gunner is restling around in there wanting some lunch. So I'm headed to meet Aunt April for lunch!!!

Hope you're all having a wonderful Thursday!!!!