30 Weeks!!

I am in the third trimester now, and still feeling pretty good most of the time! It has gone by kind of fast-at least at times, haha! I am now at the point where I go to the doctor every 2 weeks, so it's feeling especially close to the time we will get to meet our little girl. My due date is 10 weeks away.

We decided to take some pictures yesterday, on Father's Day, since we hadn't done very many lately. Audrey has finally popped out enough to where I'm showing more-even strangers can usually tell that I'm pregnant now, though not always, haha! I have of course noticed a difference for a long time, but it's really been in the last few weeks that it's become more noticeable. Here are a few of my favorite ones that we took. Landon is such a good photographer!

In other preggie news, Landon and I have completed our childbirth classes! We took one that met once a week for 5 weeks, and got to take a tour of the hospital-which is very nice, by the way. We also did our baby registry several weeks back, after trying to do as much research as possible to make sure of what we would need! It was fun, but you need more than you realize and there are so many options for strollers, carseats, monitors, bottles, diapers and EVERYTHING. I feel that we are mostly prepared though, and we have a great support team around us!

As for Little Miss herself, she is a very active little girl! I just began noticing her hiccups the last few weeks and they always make me smile! Sometimes they last for a half hour or so and it makes me feel kind of sorry for her, but I've heard hiccups are a good sign because it means she's practicing her breathing movements in there. I have really felt an increase in her movements the last few weeks too; especially at night and when I'm laying down. She still has never woken me up with all her squirming though; but if-I mean when, haha-I have to get up for the restroom, she's just kicking away when I lay down again so I wonder if she keeps it up most of the night and I just sleep through it!

As for Audrey's room, it is mostly finished, and I will at some point add pics here! I need to take a few more but keep forgetting. We are planning a few more things to hang on the walls, including a few photos and cross stitched items that need framed. I'm making her a birth sampler that I'm really excited about; my mom made one for me and I always wanted to make sure that I did one for any of my kids too.

I guess that is all the updates for now-we are doing very well and all our doctor visits are going great! To end I thought I would share some "preggie-isms".

You know you are pregnant when:

*you're watching an action movie of your husband's choosing (which did turn out to be a good one btw) and you cry when the lead character's dog gets hurt defending his master, then said dog ends up being fine but still limps along holding his little paw up


*you inadvertently make some kind of grunting noise nearly every time you get up from sitting or laying down


*you cry out of frustration more often than necessary. Sad but true; I cried the other day because Landon was on the phone with me telling me where something was and I couldn't find it even though it was right where he said it was and I had looked there. It was just one of those "oh, I should have seen that" type of moments, but I felt so dumb it made me cry. I kind of think it's funny now though!


*you're REALLY hungry a lot of the time, but can't find anything that sounds good to eat! Then when you think something will be good, it isn't. Or you really want a certain thing and almost cry if you can't get it (i.e. the place that serves it is too busy or closed, or your very understanding husband is so sick of the place that he doesn't want to eat there with you again-Chick-fil-A, anyone? haha)


*you're REALLY hungry and you do get something that tastes amazing, but get full after barely eating half (has happened more to me in the last couple of months than in the beginning), then you're hungry in an hour or two


*you get random foot and/or leg cramps


*your husband who is usually more hot natured than you are needs more covers at night than you do

*you sometimes have to pee again after having just peed 5 minutes before, haha

*you have to check your belly after eating to make sure you brushed all the crumbs off; you can't get as close to your food now!


*you cry whenever a tv or movie character has a baby (I kind of already did that prior to pregnancy, but it's worse now!)


These are just some little "isms" that have happened to me-I'm not complaining because I've truly enjoyed this time and I love being pregnant! I honestly have had it pretty easy and really only have a couple of discomforts that bother me more since I'm further along. It is all worth it to be able to meet our little Audrey soon! I am honestly more excited than I can describe and I can't wait to see what my daughter looks like. She is already a blessing and I just can't wait for her to get here!

Memory Book

Audrey has her very own baby book now! I always LOVED looking at the one my mama filled out for me, and couldn't wait to get one for my own little one. I am a pretty sentimental person so I'm excited that we will have this for our daughter to enjoy as she grows up!

Baby Girl

We found out a few weeks ago that our little Speck is a girl, who we are naming Audrey Elizabeth!! We couldn't be more thrilled and now I'm even more excited to get things ready for her since we are certain it's a girl-which I felt all along! The day of our appointment to find out her gender was one of the longest ever. It took me forever to sleep the night before, and I could hardly eat the day of because I was so excited! Of course the time eventually passed, and my heart thump-thumped in anticipation as we got closer and closer to leaving the house. I wanted to make sure she was good and awake so hubby and I stopped by Sonic to get me a Dr. Pepper before our appointment!

And finally it was time! We really didn't have to wait long once we got to the office, and my tummy was just in a big excited knot. The ultrasound tech-a very nice and informative woman-asked if we wanted to know the sex, to which I almost shouted "YES!" Little one was very cooperative and let us see right away what was needed to determine that she is indeed a little girl! I cried I was so happy and excited! Then we got to just look at her while the tech measured everything on her little body. Landon used his iPhone to take some video (they gave us pics but weren't able to do video) of her, and we got several very cute pictures of her! Here are a few of them:

 

I'm sure every mother-to-be thinks this when speaking of their own children, but I really think that our little girl takes a very pretty picture already! I love this little profile shot of her precious face and I can't wait to meet her in person! She already has the most adorable little nub of a nose and just thinking about being able to kiss it makes me melt. I love her so much already!

                                          
Another pic of baby girl with her legs up in the air! Almost the whole time we got to see her she had her legs up. I love, love her teeny toes right above her little face!

And here are those tiny feet that I can't wait to see-I love sweet little baby feet! I know it's very hard to tell until we get to see her for real, but I'm hoping she has her daddy's toes-they look like they will be long feet like his!

The tech and doctor said that Audrey is perfect! She weighed 12 ounces and was about the length of a Barbie doll. My due date is still exactly the same, August 27th. We are very happy and healthy and everything is going wonderfully. I did find out at this appointment that my blood type is a negative one (which I didn't have any idea about, even though I've had blood work done several times in the last year regarding my surgery), so I will need to get the rH shot when I'm 28 weeks pregnant. No biggie-I don't particularly like shots, but it's routine and lots of women have this issue.

Anyway, we have since painted Audrey's room and we had a wonderful Easter last week with my family. I'm going to attempt to do posts with pics later!

EIGHT YEARS!!

 

On March 1, 2003 I married my best friend. I can't believe it has already been 8 years since our wedding day! These have been the best, happiest and hardest years of my life. In some ways, I don't think we have changed at all; other than the fact that we both look about 16 years old in this picture! 

We have had some ups and downs, times that have been extremely challenging and times that seemed like we didn't have to put any work into our relationship. There have been many times that have tested our faith in God's will and promise to always provide for us and show us where we need to be. We have endured heartbreaking experiences that have brought us closer together and built up our faith, and we have really become "grown ups"! All in all, I would do it all again and again. Landon is a wonderful and caring husband who takes great care of me, and I know he is going to be just as wonderful as a Daddy.

Here's a couple more pics from our special day. I have lots more good ones that our awesome photographer took, but I don't think I'm allowed to post them here; so these were all taken by a family member, probably my brother because he definitely had the best digital camera at the time!

This is one of my favorite pictures of the wedding party! We have it framed on our mantle, and I just love looking at it. There are so many great memories from this day. In my mind, it was perfect.

  I just had to put this one in of precious little tiny Kathryn as my flower girl. It was so cute that she had to put her coat back on because she got cold! She was the best flower girl! She wanted her hair done just like mine-oh my gosh, so adorable!

Thank you, Lord, for the blessing of marriage! I look forward to what our future holds and seeing our family grow. :)

The Reading List of a Pregnant Lady

Ok, so the Harry Potter and Twilight books are kind of in there as a joke as they have been overlooked a bit since we found out about Speck. I am *technically* reading them right now, though baby books have greatly taken precedence!

I purchased a few of these, and kind friends have lent me the rest. I've heard you shouldn't read too many preggie books because you don't want to get information overload-but these are all different enough styles that I'm really enjoying every one. I'm rather an expert at reading several books at once, though it's usually fiction; just a rare bookworm-ish talent, I guess. :)