Picture day and car seats.

We've got more and more going on lately. In fact, I'm going to have to break this down into two blogs, just to get everything in. First things first, I had a doctor's appointment on Thursday. From here on out, I'll have weekly visits. They drew blood for what felt like the 1000th time, and did the staph test. Here's a breakdown of what we're looking at:
Blood pressure: 120/63 Thankfully, no problems there.
Dialated: 0 cm
Effacement: Didn't say.
Miller's position: From what Dr. LaBarre could tell, he feels like he's in the head down position, but he feels like he's sitting in a diagonal position to me.
Weight: No way Jose!

Dr. LaBarre says that I'll start dilating as Miller drops. It feels like I've been carrying him low the whole pregnancy, so it's hard for me to believe he's going to drop lower. I'm sure I'll understand as we get closer to the due date though.

The fifth was Friday, which is our normal picture day. It's hard to believe this could be the last time I take a picture on the fifth. Miller could be here for July 5th, but I'm guessing not. Here's my picture from May 5th, where I was 31 weeks 2 days. Remember, I had a cold here, so that's why I'm looking so rough.

Here's my picture form June 5th. I'm 35 weeks 5 days, and I definitely feel like I'm looking big here. And I thought I looked big in the May picture!

I'm still feeling relatively good, just slowing down a lot. I find myself waking up at night to roll over because of the extra weight. Thankfully, I'm not overly uncomfortable, and I'm able to fall asleep again relatively quickly. I did get a migraine today, which is worrisome, to say the least. I thought I had those buggers under control, since it's been over a year since my last one. Hopefully, I've just been overdoing it a little bit lately, and if I slow down, it won't be an issue. I am grateful that it wasn't a bad one since I'm not able to take my normal pain medicine, but I haven't been able to do everything that I wanted to get done today. So, prayers would be appreciated. I can't imagine being in the same situation I was in about two years ago when my migraines were just out of control, especially at the end of my pregnancy or with a newborn.

Finally, here's a picture of John putting the car seat base in the car. We got it last week, and once we got it put together, John decided we could just go ahead and get it in the car. Better safe than sorry, I guess. Maybe I should get my bag packed for the hospital though...

We had our last baby shower yesterday, so my goal is to get another blog posted this evening all about that. It just depends on how this headache goes.

Oh my goodness!

We've had so much going on the past week, and we've got even more coming up in the next week. So, hopefully, I'll be able to keep up with the postings. On Friday, I had my work baby shower. Here's a few pictures from the day.

This is the cute Texas A&M cake that Casandra made. It was lemon and blackberry, so that appeased the LSU fans. :-)
In case you were, unaware, "It's a boy."

Here's a picture of Corina and me. Corina is the other pregnant chick in the DNA section. She's still in her first trimester though.

Here's a picture of Adriana and I. She made a scrapbook for Miller of all the biggest events in sports history while I've been pregnant with him. She made me pose for the picture with the A&M/Texas score from last November. No wonder my smile isn't that big...

Here's a picture of my gift table. The basket in the front is from the DNA section. Also, the gift not pictured here is the biggest gift. Everyone at work went together to get us our travel system. That is a huge weight off our shoulders, to know that it has been purchased, and is now on it's way to our house.

Friday afternoon, two of my close friends came into town for the baby shower I had the next day. Kellie and her six month old, SJ, flew in from Maryland. Lacey and her four year old, Mallory drove up from Baton Rouge. It was so super-nice of them to make a special trip just for my baby shower, and it was great to see those girls again.

Saturday, one of my oldest friends, Amy threw me a baby shower with her mom, Jan, at Jan's house. It was simply awesome. The theme was elephants, and I like to joke that when Amy picks a theme, you can "Where's Waldo", or in this case "Where's the elephants" because there are always so many of the little guys tucked away in different places. For example, besides just decorations, they had elephants in the bathroom, an elephant beanie baby on a side table, and the outfits they gave us all had elephants. It was just the cutest thing in the world!

Here's a picture of the gifts...this is just the gifts that were there when we got to the shower, which was a good 15 minutes before it started.

This is the cake. It was so cute, and SO GOOD! Amy was a sneak and printed off pictures from my blog to add to the decorations.

This is a picture of the diaper cake that Amy created. It was absolutely amazing. It looked professional!

Here's another one of their decorations they had set up. Again, too cute!

Here's a picture of my mom, me, Amy, and Mrs. Jan. This picture cracks me up because you can totally pick out the mother/daughter pairs just by looking at our eyes.

Here's a picture of Kellie, Mallory, and Lacey. Kellie's in-laws drove over from Vidalia to spend time with SJ, so Kellie got to have a break for the day.

Here's our dining room after the two showers. The whole room was completely covered. I'm slowly getting it all sorted and put away, but I'm sure it's just going to look like this after our shower this weekend. :-) I'm totally OK with that, of course.

Here's John putting together the bouncer.

Lexi was helping out. She's decided that she definitely likes the baby toys that are showing up around the house. She tries to sneak off with rattles and any stuffed animal she can get out of Miller's toy box. She kept stealing SJ's rattle this weekend. Oh the adjustments she is going to have to make.

Finally, John has started back to school this semester. He's only taking six hours this summer, but it's an 8-week semester, and he actually has to go up to school two nights a week. Monday and Wednesdays he'll be on campus from 6:30 - 9:30. Thankfully, he's already talked to his teacher, and it shouldn't be a problem for John to miss class, if he needs to, when the baby is born. John has done such a great job. Since going back to school, he's managed to get a 4.0 every semester, even last semester, when he was working full-time, and taking 15 hours of classwork. He's definitely a trooper, and I'm so stinking proud of him.

We're coming up on the fifth, which means I'll be taking my monthly picture. It's so strange to think that it could be our last one to take on the fifth. It's all up to Miller, of course, but the last ultrasound appointment gave us a due date of July 4th. So, our next picture on the fifth, may just be me with a newborn. Crazy!

By the way, on Deadliest Warrior tonight, the IRA beat the Taliban. Can't we just recruit those guys to help us out in Afghanistan?

My best friend...

Today is John's and my third anniversary. Three years ago, at this moment, I was walking down the aisle to marry my best friend. A lot has changed in the past three years, and the biggest change will happen within the next two months. I just feel so lucky to be married to a man who will sit on the couch and laugh with me, just because I'm acting goofy. Or, will tell me that I haven't been hormonal at all, and that the pregnancy hasn't been difficult for him at all, when I know that's probably stretching it. Or, will go to bed with me at the same time, even when he likes to stay up late, just because he knows I like to fall asleep with him next to me. So, knowing how great a job he's done as a husband, I can't wait to see the wonderful Daddy that he will make.

Here's a couple of pictures of John and I from three years ago.

Here's a more recent picture of our family.

So, happy anniversary to my husband. It's been a great three years.

I'm so behind....

I've been meaning to post for so long now, but we've just been so busy. We finished up our birthing classes, which we were both grateful for. We also had a feeding class, which I think John found rather eye-opening. Although we did get annoyed by the teacher, we got so much valuable information, and I think we're both a little concerned about those first couple of weeks home with Miller.

As I had mentioned previously, I had my first shower at my mom's work. I finally got the pictures off my mom's camera, once again, we've all been so busy. Here's a shot of the table, gifts, and the flowers they had for me. Also, there's adorable "baby" confetti on the table. Too sweet!




Here's a shot of some of the ladies who threw the shower, as well as the food spread. You can't tell by the pictures, but everything was so coordinated. The plates and napkins were blue with pale green lines, and even the Petit Fours had the blue and green lines on them. (The Petit Fours were so tasty, by the way, that John finished them off the very night I brought them home.)

Here's a shot of the other ladies from Mom's work, as well as one of the gifts I got. How sweet is that, "I love Mom"?

Here's a little outfit, just for my little Fourth of July baby. I think the overalls are just adorable!

Last weekend, I went to a friend of mine's shower, Ashley. She's due a week and a half after me, and she's having a little girl. It's definitely strange seeing so much pink when I'm already used to blue. :-) Here's a picture of Amy and I as we were about to go into the shower. Just as a reference, I'm 32 weeks, 6 days here.

I'm happy to say that our house is finally filling up with furniture...thanks to Mimi and Paw-paw. They've gone on a whirlwind lately. First, the decided that they didn't want their recliners anymore, so they purchased new ones. John and I were lucky enough to inherit their old ones. Then, they've also decided they needed a new kitchen table, which would be better for card playing, so, again, John and I are lucky enough to inherit their old table. I think we've just about doubled the seating in our house this week.

It was nice to have a long weekend this weekend, even if we did miss our yearly crawfish boil, since we'd done it early this year. Saturday, John's mom and sister came over from Texas. This was their first time to see our house, and they wanted a chance to see it before Miller got here. We had such a great visit! We took them to Cheesecake Bistro for dinner and a trip to the Boardwalk. The weather wasn't the best, but I think they enjoyed themselves. Then, we brought them back to the house for some Wii games. Here's a picture of Chris boxing on the Wii Fit.

Here's a picture of Tess, Chris, and John outside our house.

Here's a picture of Tess, me, and Chris. Notice that my legs are not seen in the picture...I've still got a pretty good dose of Poison Ivy on my legs. Two weeks now...stupid poison ivy. I'm 34 weeks in this picture.

On Sunday, we did some more shopping with Tess and Chris before they left to go back home. Afterwards, John and I went to Best Buy. We had decided that we were going to get a camera for each other for our anniversary gift. So, we were able to get that. Sunday evening we went to Mimi and Paw-paw's for dinner and card playing. Of course my office was closed for Memorial Day, but I was so happy when John's office also decided to close for Memorial Day. We had a great day together. We started off by sleeping late. Even Lexi slept until 9 o'clock, and we rarely, RARELY do that. Then, we headed back to the Boardwalk, where John and I saw the new Wolverine movie, which we both enjoyed. Afterwards, we had a little bit of shopping to do. Then, Mom cooked dinner for all of us, and we played Chicken Foot for a while. All in all, it was a really nice relaxing day, and I'm so happy to have the shortened work week.

Things are still moving pretty fast this week. I've got my next shower on Friday, which is my work shower. Then, two friends of mine are coming in town for my baby shower the next day. So, I'm sure there will be more pictures to come, especially now that we have a new camera.

Pictures...

I had my first baby shower this evening. It was thrown by my mom's co-worker's. It was such a nice thing for them to do for us, and I was just blown away by the gesture. Mom snapped some pictures on her camera, but I haven't gotten them yet, so those will have to wait until the next post.

So, here's all the pictures I've been holding out on. There will probably be more as I get them from Amy C. First off, here's my picture from last month, April 5th. I was 27 weeks pregnant here.

Here's my picture from May 5. I'm 31 weeks and 2 days, and feeling really crappy from my cold. Just ignore that. Otherwise, I'm still feeling pretty good.

Here's some pictures from our "Memorial Day" celebration. Will got cut out of this picture, but he's on the far left, next to John. That's me walking in the middle, and Jessie is to my right. Amy's leaning against the counter. Austin, and his girlfriend Rachel, are on the far right. Thanks Eddie, for letting me steal the picture!

I stole this picture from Will. This is the area my dad built to cover his RV. It works well to hold the crawfish table pretty well, don't you think?

This is another one of Will's pictures. John, Drew, Eddie, and Jessie, playing 42. The stayed up until 1 in the morning both nights, getting in as much playing as possible. Isn't it cute how John and Eddie are both scratching their heads?

Here are some of the maternity pictures that Amy took. I love them. You can check out her site at www.amycasas.com.

Finally, here are pictures of my new flowers. First, here's my rose tree and rose bushes. I was going to take some more, close up shots of the roses themselves, but the batteries in my camera died. I'm glad to have something along this side of the house. It just looked so bare before.

The next two pictures are my flower beds in the front of the house. You can see some of the Gerber daisies my mom planted for me, as well as the lilies I was so excited showed up.

Happy Early Memorial Day!

I am so behind on posting, and I originally wrote this post over a week ago, but I just haven't had time to finish it. John and I have been really busy with birthing classes, and I've had a cold and just haven't quite felt up to par. We did take pictures on the 5th, which I look glorious in because of the cold, and I'll get those posted ASAP. Here's my draft that's been sitting here forever waiting to be posted:

John and I have made a little tradition out of Memorial Day. It started with our wedding, which was Memorial Day weekend in 2006. We had such a good time with the rehearsal dinner crawfish dinner, that we decided to do it again the next year. We still lived in Baton Rouge at the time, so we would stay with my parents, and our friends Jessie and Amy, with their son McKade, stayed at Mimi and Paw-paw's. After that, it's just become a family tradition. Jessie, Amy, and McKade are pretty much expected to be in Bossier City, Louisiana for Memorial Day weekend. Last year, John and I were still living with Mom and Dad, but the tradition was growing, all the same. Jessie, Amy, and McKade stayed with Mimi and Paw-paw again, and a few more of John's friends had joined the crowd. This year we had to switch it up. Because Amy's due date is June 17th, and mine is July 6th, we decided to go ahead and have "Memorial Day" a little early. So, Friday evening, Jessie, Amy, McKade, Will, Eddie, and Drew all arrived at our house. We grilled hamburgers, and Austin came over with his new girlfriend. Poor thing, this was her first time to meet our family, and what an introduction! The guys say she was quiet, I maintain that she just couldn't get a word in with all the chatter they were making. Several times during the evening they had us pregnant ladies laughing so hard that we were bending over, holding on to our bellies. They played 42, drank some near beer that Eddie and Drew made, and just had a good time. The next day Amy took my maternity pictures, and we spent the rest of the day hanging out at my parents' house, boiled crawfish, and just continued the merriment. I have to say that the guys did a great job this weekend. They actually acted like adults part of the time. :-)

Continue with new post:
Hopefully, I'll be able to post pictures soon. I'm a slacker, and never use my camera because I hate it, so I have to steal from other people. I think Amy will send her Memorial Day pictures with my maternity ones, so everyone will just have to stay tuned for those.

This past weekend was Mother's Day, and, even though I wasn't quite feeling myself, I still wanted to do something special for my mom. We had flowers delivered to her work on Friday, and she said they were the prettiest bouquet she's ever seen. Awww, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I wanted to make dinner for Mom, and Austin was able to pencil in some time for us on Saturday night, so Mimi, Paw-paw, Mom, Dad and Austin all came to our house for dinner. John grilled some steaks, I made this potato concoction with fresh dill and chives, and Austin put the salad together. Plus, I made one of my favorite desserts, which is basically a cobbler with almost every fruit you can think of and biscuits dipped in butter and cinnamon/sugar for the crust. So healthy and so yummy.

Mimi bought me three rose bushes and a rose tree, which John planted for me along the side of the house that was bare. Then, I bought some Gerber daisies, which my mom planted in our front flowerbeds. They look so bright and pretty! I spent Sunday morning weeding the flowerbed before Mom planted the flowers, and, it turns out, that isn't the easiest thing to do at 32 weeks pregnant. I got it done though, and our flowerbeds have never looked better! I'll try to snap some pictures tonight to post. Wow, I really need to update the pictures, huh? Plus, I'm sure everyone wants to see pictures of our A&M flag in the front yard.

Like I said, John and I have been taking birthing classes. It's been an eye-opening experience and very informative, but the teacher drives us crazy. It's rough getting home at 9:00 at night, when we haven't been home all day. Combine that with a teacher that talks to us as if we're kindergartners, who loves to take ten minute breaks every half hour, and John and I are just aggravated for most of the night. She did give us a DVD this past Monday that we watched last night. I think there's been more informative information on that DVD than we've gotten from class. We watched it for about an hour last night, but we had to turn it off in order to watch Deadliest Warrior. We've got our priorities!

I've got my first baby shower tomorrow, after work. I'm so excited! My mom's work is throwing the shower for me. I think that is just so sweet of them. The next month is just jam-packed with showers. It's hard to believe that in a month, Miller's room will probably be fully stocked.

OK, I'm going to finish this up. I'll try to post pictures soon. I hope everyone is having a good week!

Forget trimesters...we're three quarters of the way through folks!

Well, no pictures on this post, but I wanted to give everyone an update on what was going on lately. I'm officially thirty weeks now. Time is just flying by. According to thebump.com, Miller is the size of a squash. Here's the link Audra posted...I found it quite amusing, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwNi8dzj0S8.

This weekend John and I had our first class. We've got quite a few that we've signed up for in the upcoming weeks. This one was a tour of the hospital where I'll be delivering as well as basic information on what to expect. We got to see the Labor and Delivery room, which is pretty nice. It's even got a whirlpool tub and shower for John to take advantage of while I'm concentrating on having his child. :-) Can anyone tell me why, when you're in labor, you check in on the first floor, go to the third floor for labor and delivery, and then are transferred to the sixth floor for postpartum. Doesn't that seem like a bit much? Maybe it's just me.

I got the results back from the three-hour glucose test, and I passed. I'm not too surprised, but it's still good news. I'm starting to definitely feel more and more pregnant...I guess that's pretty strange to say considering I'm almost 7 months pregnant. I'm just noticing that I have to roll more, I can't just pop up. Also, when I do get up, sometimes things are shifting and popping for a few seconds. It's so strange. Miller's becoming an active little bugger. He likes to wait for nighttime, and then it's a "party in my womb." Don't get me wrong, he's moving a lot during the day too, but he really gets going at night. Mrs. Peggy says that means he's going to be born at night, and my mom says that means he's going to keep us up all night. In fact, as I'm writing this, he's jumping all over the place - I guess he wants to put his two cents in.

Finally, I've got some cool news to report. Austin spent the past weekend trying out to be a Louisiana Tech cheerleader. He's been practicing for this for months now, and I'm so happy to report that he made the team. I can't wait to post a picture of him in his uniform, but he says it's about a foot too long right now.