Baby Shower

I had a wonderful baby shower in June. Was so much fun and I have to say unexpected. When I found out I was having another girl, I just figured I wouldn't have another one. Then my wonderful friends who I work with said they wanted to give me one. It was so special and relaxing. We even played a couple of games and I am so not a baby shower game person but they were actually fun. Got a lot of wonderful presents. I think every one gave me hangers because Target never showed them as bought. It started to become the running joke and I think I may actually have to take a couple back. Kelly and Bobbie did so wonderful with everything, they used my baby bedding theme for the invitations, the cake and the decorations.

This was the cake, isn't is the cutest cake you have ever seen.

My mom and Cassie

Cassie and I, she loved every minutes of the shower and was so excited.

My cousin Callie adding clothes pens to her shirt, she won for the most clothes pens.

I have a ton of pics with me opening gifts but won't bore you with them.

Bobbie, me and Kelly, they were so nice to give me this shower.

My family that came down for the shower.

The shower was a blast and I am so thankful to have wonderful friends and family who came and gave gifts for the baby. 

Wow long time no post

Okay I have not posted since I had Miss Veronica Lynn. When the doctor said I could have her any day he was right. I went into labor on Friday afternoon, July 8th and had her Saturday morning, July 9th around 10:30am. It was a very long night with the slowest labor ever. I was finally at a 5 at 6:00am when the doctor decided to give me drugs to move it along. Finally was at a 10 around 9:00am and she came into the world at 10:38am. Here she is with her daddy.

You don't want to know what is in her hair to keep that bow in, we washed it out very soon after she came to our room.

Cassie loved holding Ronni.

We only had to stay in the hospital 24 hours and man was I pushing for them to get us out.  We literally had an admin and two nurses in there getting paperwork ready for us to leave.  I was so ready to get home and Cassie was thrilled we were bringing Ronni home.  Here is a cute pic of Cassie and Ronni together.

Sorry pictures is so dark, but isn't it cute.

 My Nana came over Monday and got to hold her.  She is in her 70's and now has 7 great-grandchildren.  She loves then all and has see all of them right after they were born.

Yes Ronni sleeps a lot.

When Ronni was 2 weeks, my mom wanted to take pictures of the girls together.  She has been taking photography classes and loves practicing on her grand kids.  I thought she did a great job. 

We got so lucky in getting this one!

I love this picture.

Aren't my girls beautiful!

Nearly there

So I went to the doctor last Tuesday and he said I could have the baby at any time. Well it is now the next Tuesday and I still have not had the baby. I know it is in God's timing but I am so impatient to meet her. Both Charles and I keep poking at my stomach saying you can come out now, we are ready. Speaking of ready, we have the room done!! Here are the final pics.

I can't believe I married such a talented person. Charles designed this whole room, I was just going to paint it green. It turned out so cute.

I am still trying to decide on curtains. Since she will be sleeping in our room in her bassinet for a little bit, I have some time.

My glider is going to go right here. It will get here just about the time she is born. It will probably come while we are in the hospital.

I don't have a dresser in here because there wasn't enough room for the glider and a dresser, plus I don't need one right now so once I don't need the glider in the room anymore, then we will get a dresser. I can't wait to bring her home!! So this should be my last pregnant post, next one should be of Little Miss!!

Little Miss' Room

We finally got the baby room painted! Charles did a wonderful job and I felt so bad about not being able to help at all with the painting. I did help with bringing him ice tea and getting him tools if he needed them. I also entertained Cassie and the dog so they didn't get into his way. He started on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend and we finished Monday morning. Here are the pictures I took. There isn't any furniture in the room yet because we need to steam clean the carpets.

We chalked all the lines of where all the different color paints would be.

We did 4 different colors in the room. Pink on top, green on bottom with a chair rail between them and in the square is an off white color with brown giraffe spots.

Here is Charles painting the pink. Real men paint their daughter's room pink.

Here is the green we painted the bottom of the room.

Here is the pink and green with the chair rail between.

Here is the finished wall with the giraffe spots on it. Charles did those free hand.

I think he did a wonderful job and I can't wait till we add the furniture to the room and it is finished!! Now I just need to figure out curtains.

Cassie's Ballet Recital

Cassie does ballet at her school that she goes to. It isn't very expensive, she has a ton of fun and we don't have to go to practices at night because it is done during school hours. I love it and so does Cassie. Here are some pictures from the night. My mom has a ton more that she took with her really nice camera but who knows when I will get those.

Isn't she the cutest kid you have ever seen!!

She is patiently waiting for the recital to start. She was so good about standing still and waiting until the teacher was ready.

I had to add this picture because of her face. They were waiting in line to show their jumps.

This will be her last ballet class for awhile because we are going to sign her up for soccer in the fall. She has said she wants to play and I told her that she had to choose between soccer and ballet and she said soccer. She has done ballet for 2 years so I guess she is ready for a change. Charles can't wait till she is in soccer because he said that was his favorite sport. We will see how well she does.

No Drugs Childbirth - Update

I have no idea why this idea came into my mind. I was just sitting at work when the thought popped in my mind, I wonder if I could do an epidural free birth. I can't say a completely drug free birth because the doctor may have to induce me again if the baby quits growing like Cassie did. I would love to actually be able to go into labor this time but it just depends on my thyroid. My thyroid has actually been really good this time, only once have we had to increase my dosage of meds. Could I actually give birth with no epidural? I already said I wasn't going to take the other drugs that they said would help last time because they did not help at all. I did get an epidural last time when I got to a 5 and I felt no pain but then I had to sit in bed for awhile after I gave birth waiting for the drugs to wear off so I could start walking around again. I have a very good friend who was unable to get an epidural because by the time she got to the hospital she was already at an 8. She said it hurt a lot but it was nice to be able to get up right after she gave birth.

I actually told Charles I wouldn't mind giving birth at home if I wasn't afraid that something would go wrong during birth or that the baby wouldn't need special care after. I hated staying at the hospital after I gave birth. I got no sleep and it wasn't even Cassie's fault, it was the nurses who constantly came in. I guess I will just see how long I can tolerate the pain this time, of course I may decide that I need the epidural and then they tell me that sorry, you are too far along now. Well things to think about before the big day gets here.

Last Friday we went in for our 30 week sonogram and she is looking good. She weighs 3lbs 8oz right now and has her head right where it needs to be for when I deliver. I can't believe I still have 9 weeks left. Charles said he was going to start working on the room this weekend but I will believe it when I see it. We have the bedding with us to take to the paint store to start figuring out the paint colors. Charles has this really cool design in his mind that he wants to paint so we will see how it turns out. I know it will look cool because he designed Cassie's room and it is exactly how he wanted it to turn out. I wish I was as creative as he is. I hope the girls get his creativity from him.


Update-Okay I got the drugs but in my defense, I had back labor, REALLY bad!  Was worse than Cassie's birth.  I took the drugs at 4 cm and don't regret it.  Well except when I got the bill, they should show you the bill first.

Third Trimester

I am on the home stretch and boy am I ready and we still have 76 days to go. I always laughed at women who didn't like to be pregnant because I never understood the problem because my first pregnancy was a breeze. This one has not been a breeze and I am so ready to hold her in my arms because that means I am not pregnant! Oh my back, it hurts all the time. Poor Charles has to listen to me grip all the time and I don't even care.

We got a new puppy, a Great Dane. Yes I know, what in the world were we thinking but in our defense we had already decided and put the deposit down for the puppy before we found out about Little Miss (I will announce her name after she is born :-).
Isn't he the cutest thing. He is actually a pretty good puppy. He is 11 weeks old right now so he should be well trained by the time the baby gets here.

We still haven't gotten the room done, Charles said he would have it done by June 18th, which is the day of my baby shower so I am leaving him alone about it and not nagging him. We are going to go register for stuff this weekend and go pick up some items I let people borrow. It is getting close and I wants everything ready by July 1st because I don't have any idea when she will get here and I don't want to feel rushed.

YAY!!!

Charles and I went to the doctor on April 20th to have another sonogram and this time my placenta finally did move up. The doctor said that my placenta had to be 2 inches above my uterus for him to let me have natural childbirth and when he measured it this time my placenta was 4 to 5 inches above my uterus. Both Charles and I are so relived. I had no idea Charles was worried about it until he told me after our appointment. He told me there was no reason to tell me because I was worried enough. I am so glad I can do natural childbirth again with our second baby. Having Cassie was not that hard and I felt fine afterwords and I would like to try again with Little Miss.

On another note, I don't know if I can make it to July. I am so miserable right now. I am carrying so low with this child than I did with Cassie. Oh and I can't breath, like at all. I even went to the doctor to make sure that the baby was getting enough oxygen because my lungs hurt from trying to breath. The doctor said that we were both getting enough oxygen and that this was perfectly normal. Not being able to breath is not normal. I am just uncomfortable and I was not uncomfortable with my first pregnancy and Charles said I just got lucky with Cassie. I loved being pregnant the first time and I can say with all honesty that I do not love being pregnant this time. I still love the fact that I am growing a new life and I can't wait to meet her and start raising her and loving on her. I was patting my stomach this afternoon and I told her that I can't wait to pat her cute little butt.

I have already bought two of the cutest onesies. One is a pink onesie that says Little Sister and I got the matching t-shirt for Cassie that says Big Sister. I can't wait to take pictures of them together. The other one is pink with gray trim and it says "I still live at home." I can't wait to hold her. That is the only thing making this bearable. We go back in 3 weeks to have another sonogram, which is a normal 30 week sonogram, to check the babies weight and progress. It should be smooth sailing till July!

24 weeks

Went back to the doctor on Friday, April 1st for another sonogram. My placenta is still looking low so we go back on April 20th to do a vaginal sonogram to see just how low it is. The doctor still doesn't seem too worried but I am. I really don't want to have a c-section. I want to get up after I have the baby and take a shower and eat Chick-fil-a and not hurt. If my placenta is 2 inches above my uterus then I can go ahead with natural birth. I know I am carrying Little Miss really low this time. Also at this next appointment I will have to do the glucose test to see if I have diabetes. I told Charles he didn't have to stay for that but he said he didn't get to go to many of my doctor appointments with Cassie and he now has a job where he can be there. Of course after he sits there for an hour with me, he may change his mind.

It has been cool to get to see Little Miss (my nickname for her) so many times. Sonograms have changed so much in the last 4 years. This time, Charles and I were able to see that we were having a girl even before the sono tech told us. There is just so much more detail.

Here is a picture of the 3D that she showed us. She has my profile which Charles is not thrilled about but I guess my no chin profile is more genetic. This picture freaked my dad out. He said maybe technology is getting too advanced that we can see this much detail.

I can't wait to meet her. We have 105 days to go!!

And Intelligender test is.......

Wrong! We are having a baby girl contrary to what the Intelligender test said we were having. I have to say I was slightly disappointed when we first saw the sonogram but I am okay now. Cassie is thrilled to have a sister and Charles and I are already use to a girl. I think I was disappointed for Charles and Charles was disappointed because he knew I wanted a boy. After we talked and realized we were disappointed for the other, we were both okay. We are just happy that little miss is healthy. She is right on schedule weight wise, she is healthy and due date still shows July 19th. We hope to have a name by then.


The sonogram did show that my placenta is laying a little too low. The doctor thinks it will correct itself as my uterus grows but we have to go back for another sonogram in 4 weeks to check to see if it is indeed doing that. If it does not correct itself, then I will have to have a c-section. So I am praying hard that my placenta moves to where it should be because I would really like to have a vaginal birth. So I guess another update on April 1st.

Blood Test

Went to the doctor last Wednesday for blood work. We did what is called a Quad Screening to test the percentage that the baby could have Down Syndrome. Since my brother has it, I have a slightly higher risk at having a baby with Downs. They told me it would be a week before the test results came back. Now I really have not been worrying about this. The doctor wanted me to go to a high risk OB to have all these test, but those are very expensive and Downs is not life threatening nor if I was having a Downs baby would I terminate the pregnancy. Well the nurse called me on Friday and said the chances of us having a Downs baby was very low. While I was not worried, I am happy that the baby is healthy, which is what every parent wants.

We go in on Friday, March 4th to see what the sex of the baby is. Will update then!

Thyroid

Went to the doctor today for blood work and routine checkup. I have to go in for blood work more than most pregnant women because I have hypothyroidism. This means my body does not make enough thyroid. As long as it is under control then everything is wonderful but pregnancy make my thyroid go crazy. When I was pregnant with Cassie, they wouldn't even give me a prescription because they were having to change the dosage so much. With this one, I have gone 17 weeks without having to change the dosage but that ended today. They had to up the dosage. I was so hoping I could go this whole pregnancy without having to change my dosage but I guess no luck. I had to deliver Cassie 2 weeks early because my thyroid caused her to quit growing, I was hoping it didn't happen with this baby. I don't know why I am so down about it, I guess I was hoping my thyroid would not get in the way like it did last year. I am still praying I can go full term and not have to be induced. I would like to see what going into labor feels like.

On another note, March 4th is when we find out if we are having a boy or a girl!!

Feeding Baby

When I had Cassie 4 years ago, I said I was going to breastfeed her for as long as I possibly could. I was so sad when I only got to breastfeed for about 3 months. There was nothing wrong with my milk, the problem was finding a place at my job that I could pump. There was no good place. Plus I was so busy that my boss, who is a woman, made me feel bad about taking a break to pump. I thank God nearly everyday that I work someplace different and that I will be able to pump as long as I want to. I felt so guilty having to give up breastfeeding even though everyone told me not to. With this baby, I have my own office and a boss (who is a man) who will not make me feel guilty. Everything about this next baby will be different. I have a much better job, as does Charles (he was working nights when Cassie was born). No one will make me feel guilty for taking maternity leave (obviously my last job was a nightmare) and we also have our own house (when Cassie was born, we were living with Charles parents saving up for a house).

I can't wait till I have this next baby. Everything will be so much easier. Charles will be home every night to help me, I will only work 4 days a week and my work schedule will be from 8:30am-4:30am and it is the second baby so I already know how to take care of one. I am not saying I was not excited to have Cassie, I was super excited to have Cassie and she is still the light of my life, but I feel this baby will not be so stressful. With Cassie, I was by myself because Charles worked nights and the first 2 months, we lived with his parents and my work was horrendous and I hated going. I can't wait till we can find out the sex of the baby. That way Charles and I can really start fighting over names :-)

Nothing new

Nothing new has happened. I haven't been quite as sick to my stomach but still am constantly starving. Charles is amazed with the amount of food I eat now. We went to McAlister's last night and I got half a sandwich and a baked potato and was still hungry after. I weigh myself thinking I have gained 10 pounds but I have only gained 5. I am now in my 2nd trimester. Today I am wearing my skinny jeans for the last time until after the baby is born because even with the waist extender they are too small. I have plenty of winter maternity clothes from when I was pregnant with Cassie but only 3 short sleeve shirts for summer. Got on Ebay and will probably bid on some maternity clothes there. I am trying to save money so that we have plenty for baby stuff, like a crib and glider and clothes. I am glad we kept most of everything from Cassie and that I didn't buy gender specific stuff. Everyone was onto me for buying neutral stuff, but guess what, if we have a boy, I can use everything. I still have the bathtub, bouncer, car seat and stroller, changing table, bassinet, towels and washcloths, bottles and some other misc things. So we only need to get clothes, a crib and Charles said he would buy me a glider. I will borrow a swing from a friend and then I should be all set.

Oh the garage sale. We have got to have a garage sale to get rid of everything in the computer room since that will now be the baby's room. We can't even get into the garage right now because it is so stuffed. Man I wish it would get warm so we could get all this stuff sold. We have got to buy more shelving units for the garage so that we can get stuff out of the house to make room. We really didn't want to stay in this house but we both reluctantly feel it is best for us to just stay here for right now. We are just going to have to purge alot. I have already started with clothes. Man you should see all the t-shirts I own. We would love a bigger house but I just don't think it is in the plan right now. We just have to work with what we have.

My next doctor appointment is next week and then the next one will be when we find out what we are having, yeah!!!

Photo's of Cassie

This was Cassie at a bowling birthday party. All those girls trying to lift those bowling balls was so funny.

Cassie was Cinderella for Halloween. She loved this dress and wanted to even sleep in it. Charles picked it out for her, I was going to get a cheaper one and Charles said no and I am glad because she still wears it for dress up.

Cassie has loved ballet class. She has so much fun in it and still practices the moves at home. She is very mechanical in her moves and is not very artistic but I think with time she will learn.

So these pictures were taken with my iPhone and I didn't realize you could zoom in with the new iPhone so they are a little far off. I will know for the next time. Hopefully by the next recital I will find my digital camera.

I was going to post a video of the recital but after an hour of trying to upload, it wasn't worth it. Lets just say it was dang cute!

News

I am a pretty private person which is why I chose to start this blog. I can say things that I would never say in person. Like this news of my pregnancy. I haven't really said anything at work because I don't like the attention. I have told my boss and a couple of the girls and that is it because I hate attention brought on me. When Charles and I were having problems, the lady who leads our prayer time here at work pretty much made me tell because she wanted everyone to pray and while I did want everyone to pray because it worked, I hated putting myself out there. I am so much better at being in the background. So it struck me funny that someone at work asked me if I was having a baby because I was dumbfounded that they knew. I asked how they knew and they said well you put it on your blog. I was like someone reads my blog? Mostly I write this thing for myself. I don't ever expect people to read it. So while Charles has told everyone he knows and put it all over Facebook that we are having a baby, I have told my family and 3 other people. It isn't that I don't want people to know, it is that I don't want to stand up and make a big announcement in front of the world because then everyone is looking at me. I figure people will figure it out when I get big in just my stomach or that I have a tumor :-)