Quick post

No pictures to add to this one, sorry. Maybe once Amy gets the wedding pictures done, I'll steal some more from her. :-) Maybe I should give her a plug, since I've already posted so many of her pictures on here. Her website is http://www.amycasas.com, and I highly recommend browsing the galaries. You never know where my glowing face will turn up! I absolutely cannot wait until she does my maternity pictures. Well, her husband will have to do some of them since we are doing a bunch together as well. It's so much fun to have a close friend pregnant at the same time.

The real reason for the post - I'm so happy and excited to say that yesterday John got to both see and feel Miller kick for the first time. We were sitting on the couch, and I had my legs propped up on John's, leaning against the armrest. Miller must have been in quite the uncomfortable spot because he was sitting right against my spine. I felt him kicking, and I glanced down and realized that I could actually see my stomach move with his kick. When I pointed it out to John, he just got this amazed look on his face. Of course, as soon as he put his hand on it to feel the kick, the little booger stopped kicking. He always kicks a little more as I'm laying down to sleep, so I thought I'd let John try again then. I was laying on my back, again making him sit on my spine. He started kicking, and John wasn't feeling anything. I was just about to give up for the night when John said, "I felt that one!" It made me really excited that he was finally able to feel and see something. It's got to be so strange to see my body changing, but having none of the changes himself. The kicks still look and feel like little twitches to him, but I can definitely feel them getting stronger. I'm sure once the kicks are stronger, John will really enjoy it. I thought I'd let everybody know since John's been so good at posting blogs lately. ;-)

Have a great week everyone, and Happy Lundi Gras!

Valentine's Day

I mentioned before that John's sister Elizabeth got married on Valentine's Day. Well, it's definitely good to know the photographer (my friend Amy C.). She e-mailed me some more pictures today, so I'm sharing them with you guys!

Here's John and Jessie (Amy's husband). I swear my husband is just the most photogenic person I know. Who could deny that cute face?

Here's a picture of John and I dancing together. I do have to say this is the whitest I have ever been in any wedding I've been in.

I just love John's expression in this picture.

So, there you go, a few more pictures. Miller's been kicking a lot tonight. Maybe it's that I just sat down for the first time, and he's waking up to let me know how much he enjoyed dinner. Aww, already liking his mom's cooking. John and I went ahead and bought crib sheets, so we can have them in order to pick the paint colors for the room. Here's the link to the bed sheets we found and ordered, http://www.kidsarefanstoo.com/nagcrbewhba.html. So, after John and I looked around the site for a while, we just couldn't help but order the mobile http://www.kidsarefanstoo.com/teagcrmo.html. I think it's just the cutest thing in the world, and it plays the Aggie Way Hymn.

OK, off to research baby stuff.

Phew, what a weekend!

The past few days have flown by. John and I left work at noon on Friday, so we could make the drive and be there in time for the rehearsal. The rehearsal went by easily enough, and John was able to get in some quality 42 time with his friends and family. I, on the other hand, went to bed not too long after we got back to John's Mom's house. John woke me up at some point in the night to tell me the bathroom wasn't working, so there was only one working toilet in the house. Poor Chris, she had a full house, and one toilet. Needless to say it was an interesting time. The next morning, Tess and I had hair appointments starting at ten, and it seemed like the day flew by after that. Next thing I knew, the wedding was starting. It was a beautiful ceremony, full of moments that will always be unique to Elizabeth and Jason's wedding. Everyone seemed to have a good time at the reception, and I even got to dance with my handsome husband a few times. My good friend Amy was the photographer for the wedding. Like I told John, it's good to know the photographer. I'm pretty sure she made sure to get some cute pictures of John and I. She e-mailed me today with the picture that her husband took of the two of us at the reception.

We ended up spending the wedding night at Amy's parents' house. The next morning, my friend Adriene and her husband drove into Austin to meet us for an early lunch. I haven't gotten to spend any time with them since their wedding in August, so it was nice to visit. After that, we had to hit the road back to Bossier City for my dad's birthday dinner. After such a busy weekend, it was nice to have the day off yesterday. Miller has been kicking like crazy the past couple of days. I'm not sure if he's getting back at me for all the action during the weekend, or the kicks are just getting more powerful. I'm sure it won't be too much longer until John's able to feel the kicks. I feel like if I can lay in a certain position and he kicks hard enough, John will be able to feel it. I think Miller knows the plan though because whenever I want him to kick, he stops moving around. I think he does it on purpose.

It's a Boy!

I wanted to post on My Turn Day, to let everybody know what John and I decided to do for February 10th, but this week has just been too crazy. I recently got an e-mail from one of the girls I work with. Her mom is a bus driver, and one of the boys on her route lives in an apartment that recently burned. His mom, sister, and he have basically lost everything. We've decided for My Turn Day we will do what we can to help out this family. I love the idea of My Turn Day, and hope to continue this tradition every year. Hopefully, we'll be able to get our friends and family involved in the tradition as well.

On to our newest and most exciting news. John and I went in for the ultrasound today. I had scheduled it for first thing in the morning because there was just no way we could wait all day. As it was, we barely slept last night. My doctor was actually delivering a baby, so he was a little late. It was so hard for us to try to sit there patiently, but we somehow made it. I told the doctor, we'd had a pep talk with the baby this morning to make sure he was in the right position. As soon as he started the ultrasound though, he told me we should have had a longer talk because the baby was in the breech position. He did measurements, and checked all of the organs, and everything looked fine. Then, he started trying to determine the sex. Well, it's a good thing he moves around so much because we were able to get the "money shot."

Here's a profile shot. I think he kind of looks like the joker, but I haven't mentioned that to John.

Here's the shot that made John say, "That's my boy"!

My mom had to run out during lunch to buy her grandson his first gift as a boy. She got him a onesie, socks, burp rags, and a bib. John was able to move out the rest of the big furniture from the baby's room, so when we got back home this evening, we just kind of stared at all the baby stuff that's already in his closet. Now, we can't wait to start decorating in the Texas A&M room. We've decided to name him Miller Louis. Miller, like Mimi and Paw-paw's last name, and Louis after John's dad. I think it's just a perfect name, but I'm a little biased.

OK, I've got so much to do because we leave for Rockdale for Elizabeth's wedding tomorrow. I hope everyone has a happy Valentine's Day! I know this will be a special one for John and I.

Holy round ligament pain, Batman!

Well, I thought I'd start off by posting the monthly picture of my baby bump. It kind of makes me laugh because there isn't much difference. The girls at work tell me I'm not really pregnant, I just don't want to admit I'm putting on weight. For comparison, I put last month's picture up too.

This picture was taken on January 5th. I was 14 weeks 1 day.

Here's my picture from February 5, and I'm 18 weeks 4 days.

Even though my belly doesn't look like it's growing very much, I can definitely notice a change in day-to-day life. I'm having to ease up and ease down now. I can't really jump out of bed because I'll feel what I can only guess is round ligament pain. It's not actually a pain, but feels more like my insides are shifting and falling into place. It feels weird more than anything else. Also, I'm losing flexiblity. I had to try two or three times to flush the toilet at work. John got a laugh out of this story, but I refuse to touch the handle with my hand, so instead I always use my foot. Well, as of Friday, it's starting to get more difficult to get my leg up there. I might have to eventually find another way to flush the toilet.

We've got a big week ahead of us. We find out the baby's sex on Thursday. We drive to Rockdale on Friday for Elizabeth's rehearsal dinner, and the wedding is on Saturday.

John and I spent a lot of time and energy on the baby's room today, and, if we work on it today, it should be pretty much emptied out. I'll be sure to take some "before" pictures after it's all cleaned out. We're hoping to start painting the last weekend in February. I'm so excited for the next week!

Combination of pregnancy and natural evolution

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday with my favorite doctor, my neurologist, Dr. Elliot. She's a great doctor, and always makes me feel like I'm her only patient. So, we were discussing my migraines (which I have been free of for about a year now), and how to handle one should I get one while still pregnant. We were just kind of chit-chatting, and she asked me if I had any morning sickness. This is the cool part, she told me that she had read a paper that attributed morning sickness in the first trimester as a trait that had evolved in earlier days. Because food storage was obviously lacking, morning sickness and food aversion would keep women from ingesting and digesting food that would harm the baby while developing in the crucial first few months. I thought that was pretty interesting information, just wanted to pass along.

A friend from work brought me a book to read yesterday, "Chicken Soup For the Expectant Mother's Soul." I have a ton of the Chicken Soup books, which she didn't know, but she knew I liked to read, so when she saw the book she thought I'd enjoy it. I am enjoying it so much. I love the Chicken Soup for the Soul books, and having one especially for expectant mother's really tugs on my heartstrings. I recommend it for any expectant mother you might know.

I guess that's about it. After posting yesterday, I don't have that much to say today. So, I'll see if I can't come up with something longer with my next post!

Good news

Things are moving along in the Vrana household. John and I dove into the former office/future nursery attempting to get it as ready as possible. We're moving out more and more and trashing more and more. We've still got the old desk to take apart and throw away...it's well on it's way to falling apart, an old recliner of my parents, and a couple of bookshelves that have to be moved, a full-length mirror, not to mention the few boxes of stuff that we don't know what to do with. John made several trips into the attic and moved my wreaths into the closet in the guest room. I worked on re-arranging the guest room closet, figuring out what could go in the attic instead, and making room for things from the nursery closet. We're slowly getting there. It's my goal to finish up this weekend, so that by the time we find out the sex in a week and a half, we'll be ready to start decorating. I'll be sure to post before and after pictures, once everything has been moved out and we've got a fresh start.

My doctor's office called today and cracked me up. They called the office number, and as soon as I picked up, the nurse almost whispered to me, "Did they just say crime lab?" I couldn't help but laugh. She started quizzing me on what I did, and then after a few minutes she let me know that my AFP test results came back just fine. I was glad to hear it. The test is for chromosomal abnormalities. True, there is a family history of these type of diseases in either John's or my families, but there's always a chance. I wasn't really concerned, but it was nice to know the test results all the same.

Here's a random baby kick story. I was sitting sideways on the couch, with my knees bent in front of me, so my spine was resting directly right against the arm rest. All the sudden I felt a little tapping on my spine. It felt kind of strange, and it's definitely the first time I've felt the baby against my spine...strange.

I hope everybody enjoyed the Super Bowl as much as John and I did. It was a great game to watch, even if you just spent the night at home watching it with your significant other, like John and I did. We were working too hard on the nursery, so we decided to forego the Super Bowl party in order to get stuff done at home.

Eleven days!!!!