Just Us Three

Well, my beautiful baby girl arrived on Monday, August 29th! I couldn't be more thrilled and have a series of posts planned to tell my birth story. 

Tonight is the first night that Landon and I will be here alone with Audrey as a family of three! I've had the wonderful help of my mom since we got home on Wednesday, but now it will be just us until Landon goes back to work on the 13th. (My mom will then come for another week just to help me ease into things getting back to normal slowly.)

So tonight I've been thinking back on my pregnancy; actually I've been thinking about it since Audrey was born. I can't believe my daughter is finally here and has been for a week already! It did seem like I was pregnant with her for quite a while (it was 40 weeks, which is technically 10 months) so it's still very surreal that she is in my arms instead of in my belly anymore. I really miss her being inside me!! It might seem silly, but I just loved feeling her every little jab and poke and she was always right under my heart and with me everywhere I went. It just feels like a huge adjustment to not have a pregnant belly anymore. I really do miss pregnancy, even with the indigestion, leg cramps and having difficulty sleeping or bending down. 

I had a wonderful pregnancy and absolutely LOVED it! I loved my belly and taking pictures of myself pregnant. I loved resting my hands there and feeling sweet Audrey moving all over! I loved it when Landon would touch my tummy and laugh at what she was doing in there! I loved all our doctor visits, and Dr. C. is the best. It just seems strange to not need to go back so often now.

I do feel a little better writing this out-I felt quite emotional over it earlier. (I cry easier now than I did when I was pregnant, I think!) When we're ready, I will thoroughly enjoy being pregnant again, but I'm not ready for another baby any time soon because I want to soak up my little girl that I've been waiting so long for!! She truly is an incredible miracle and everything I hoped and prayed for-plus so much more. I can't believe how much I love her and want to protect her. 

Oh Jesus, You are so good!! Thank you for blessing me and Landon with this amazing gift of a child, a precious little girl that you allowed us to create in love. I continue to pray for guidance as we care for her and raise her up to be a God lover.

She really is amazing. My heart overflows with gratitude, love and peace.

Power Outage

I really can't remember the last time the power went out at my house for more than a few minutes at a time. Today there has been some bad storming and it's been about 45 minutes of me sitting in the dark with my little scented candles. I don't have any plain old candles, so it smells rather Christmasy and flowery at the same time (not too bad, actually)!

Some protector Giselle has been-she kept going in empty rooms and just standing there looking freaked until I made her come in the living room with me! I always say I wish she wasn't such a wimp about thunder; it seems the big dogs are the worst and act like the biggest babies!

Oh well, maybe it won't last much longer. The rain and lightening have stopped, but there's still some thunder hanging around. I just hope I can still make our dinner later!

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!