Olivia J came to see us early, 2/04/09

Olivia surprised us by coming a little early.....I'll write up her birth story soon. Zalebaby took this photo when she was a day old.

4 weeks to go!

I'm counting down.....4 weeks to go and I'm not sure I can stand it. Not that I'm impatience or anything........

My girlfriends threw me a lovely baby shower last Saturday. a bunch of them went in together and got me the glider and ottoman I wanted. I was shocked and tickled pink! Dodie and her man Ewan got my the high chair I wanted. I'm so over the moon about it all.

The diaper cake was made by Shelby, who helped Lyra express her wild side (for all that she is 20 days old)Megan got her share of cuddling in......Not that I blame her!

And here is Mommy with the baby!
Chele came and she made the yummiest artichoke dip as well as bringing me the cutiest outfit.
The Sweater didn't come from the shower, one of my blogger friends, Maggie Grace Creates made it for Olivia, as well as that receiving blanket and a beautiful scarf (that I'm wearing today and didn't make it in the picture...Sorry!)

Week 34--Who needs sleep?

Star-Gazer Lilies, my favorite flower. I kinda like the above picture as I don't look as big as I am. In the below picture, I'm much more true to size. My belly measures at 46 inches. Considering my waist is usually a 29.......

I'm waddling all the time now and I only have one pair of shoes that fit. Thank you, water retention.

I still can't sleep. I'm starting to dread bedtime. I doesn't bother me on the weekends when I can just take a nap when I need to, but trying to get enough sleep to function at work, that just makes bedtime suck. I'm sleepy, but I can't get comfortable in the bed, rolling my big belly over is a big production number and it hurts. It's an endless cycle, I roll over because the hip I'm laying on hurts, which hurts my belly while rolling over (and wakes the bean) and I lay on the other side until that hip hurts, or I need a drink or I have to go to the bathroom (which usually happens after I roll over and Bean starts kicking) Arrgh! I am cranky and oh-so-tired.

Who needs sleep?

When my belly button pops out, am I done?

Not that it has, but I'm really close to having an outie belly button. I'm still doing good with stretch marks, that is I don't have any yet. I do, however, know where I'm going to get them, as I have 4 red dots on the outside of each hip and 1 red dot at the corner of my appendectomy scar. So, I figure in the next 6 weeks I'll get to see some stretch marks. Oh Joy.

Week 31 picture

I get bigger and bigger every day. I'm in week 32 now, and the picture above was from last week. I went to the Dr. yesterday and everything is going well. I am happy I haven't gained any weight this month. Total weight gain.....21 lbs so far with 8 weeks to go. Go Bean, eat the extra fat I've been carrying. Let me tell you, I have not been starving myself by any means. I've been appalled by how much I have eaten over the holidays, it just I can't eat a lot at one sitting, so I've been grazing on fruit and chocolate....evidently the small (but many) portions have kicked my metabolism into gear. (yes, I do work the protein and veggies in, but I crave chocolate and fruit)

My girlfriend A had her baby shortly before 8pm last night. Those are the only details I have....I haven't heard back from either of them yet. Her hubby called me at 5:30 to come sit with E until her Uncle got there. Unfortunately, I was at the wall-mart by my work, so I called Zalebaby and he ran over to watch E. He pulled up, the hubby (on the porch) hugged E, jumped in the car (A was waiting in the car) and they left. At 7:57 we got a text picture of Lyra. I can't wait to see her!

Sleep.....must have sleep....

I thought that sleep deprivation started after the baby got here. No such luck on my part. Since Christmas I've been getting 2-4 hours of sleep at a time. It wasn't so bad to deal with while I was off work, but now that I'm back, it's killing me.

I go to bed at a reasonable hour, I'm using pillows like the books tell me to, but it's not working. I sleep for a few hours, then my hips ache so bad I have to get up and walk around for a bit, then I can lay down and sleep for a little while.....then I repeat until it's time to get ready for work. I'm not happy about this new development. Falling asleep at my desk is not a good way to promote job security.......

Any how, now that I'm done B!tching, I wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year! Be safe and have fun. Someone please have too much Champagne for me.

That was foolish.....

I missed my company party on Saturday. All because I did too much and didn't drink enough. I got up early and finished a sewing job (I had a banana and some chocolate milk) then I delivered the sewing, helped install the new sheers, got a massage, met a girlfriend at a local baby store, went to lunch (at 2:30---that should have raised some warning bells) Lunch was great! Fried pickles, tomato soup and a grilled cheese (I had 1 1/2 glasses of water). Then I ran some more errands, winding up at the Library (about 4:00ish), where after picking up a book off the bottom shelf, I came within a heartbeat of passing out. I'm talking tunnel vision, breaking out in the sweats and sick to my stomach. I had to sit down for 15 minutes before I could collect myself to go home. Not a good thing.

When I got myself out of the library and made it home (I skipped the rest of my errands) I drank a big glass of water and went to lay down for a while. I was hoping it would stop the queasy cramping feeling in my tummy. I promptly fell asleep and Zalebaby let me sleep until I woke up on my own. Which was 7pm. My work's Christmas party started at 6 and they were serving dinner at 7. So no party for me. Which is a good thing. I know Zalebaby didn't want to go and I felt better after my nap, but I really wasn't up to being out and about again. I didn't leave the house on Sunday. I learned my lesson. I must get more to drink if I'm going to run around like that again.

Week 28

Here I am in all my after yoga splendor. Boy am I getting big. I'm so ready to be done with the pregnancy part. I'm starting to get awkward and I'm having weird stretchy pains around my belly. Kinda like cramps but they are very light and take place just under my boobs and slide down the sides of my belly. They are nowhere near where normal cramps would be. I'll have to ask the Dr. about it when I see him on Friday.

I've got 2 more Christmas presents to make, then I'm done. Yay. Not that I've taken pictures of anything I've done so far.....

November's update

Ok, so I've been procrastinating on writing about the latest events in my life. Mostly due to depression and Christmas present rush. Now that I am done with most of the presents that need to be finished by Saturday and I've caught up with my blog role (yes, I'd rather read about everyone else than post my own stuff) I'm going to sit here and write.

Lets start off in the middle of November. One of my best friends from college flew down from Ohio for a long weekend. She came to see me and to help me organize Bean's room, which is currently the guest bedroom. It was so great to see her, J is a mother of 2 boys that she home schools. I have the utmost respect for her and for all that she and I are the same age, I want to be her when I grow up. I've always thought of her as my "Anne of Green Gables" kindred spirit. She helped me move my bookshelves out of Bean's room and into the formal living room (they actually match the dining room table) where they look great. The she lugged all the baby crap that was in the formal living room upstairs to Bean's room and hid it in the closet that we emptied of all the camping gear and sporting crap (moved to shelves in the garage-Zalebaby wasn't happy about having his golfing stuff in the garage)

We also went shopping. I registered for baby stuff at Target (Target gave me a $20 gift card for registering, thank you Target) She steered me thru the stuff you must have and the stuff that is a waste of money. It was soo much fun and much too short of a visit.

For the Thanksgiving Holiday, Zalebaby and I went to my Mother's house. We left Wednesday morning after dropping the pooches off with Zalebaby's cousin Chel. Thank you so much for watching them, it made the drive so much easier. The drive up went really well. It took us about 10 hours, even with all the pee-breaks. The ride home was so bad Zalebaby is refusing to go north for the Holidays ever again. It took us 13 hours on Sunday to get back and we even left my Mom's a 4 am. We'll go north for the Holidays again, but we're going to a extra day off of work rather than try to travel on peak days.

We went up to my Uncle Ron's for Thanksgiving day. That's been a family tradition for as long as I can remember. Not that I've made it there for Thanksgiving in years....the last time I made that trip was in 2003 I believe. My sister Jill was preggers with Ty, who is the first grandbaby.

That's the only problem with living in Georgia. Pennsylvania is so far away.

Ty and Ronald's new baby Sophia.

Anyway, Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. I got to see the new baby (my cousin Ronald's first) and see how much the other kids have grown since last Christmas, eat more food that I should (Jill made these awesome pumpkin chocolate chip cookies) and visit with everyone. Uncle Ron introduced Dale to Skype (we talked to my sister Katie in Germany) I'd been trying to get him on it since Katie moved to Germany in August, but he couldn't be persuaded to try it. Well, it got him all fired up about it. On black Friday, Mom and I went to Babies-R-Us and we picked out a crib and dresser for Bean and she bought it for me (thanks Mom!) They just called me today and let me know I can pick them up, here in Atlanta. Yay! Now to find a friend with a truck.

Brady, Mom and Ty

After we picked out the nursery furniture, mom and I wandered down to Circuit City to see if they still had any of the web cams that were on sale. We lucked out and found the last 1. It was a HD web cam on sale for $9.95. Woot! Mom paid $59.95 for it and got a $50.00 mail-in-rebate. Thanks Mom! I was planing on getting it for myself, but she wouldn't let me, so as soon as we got home, I went on line and submitted the rebate for her, so she should be getting her rebate check any day now. Friday night was spent at Jill's eating Stromboli and playing with the kids.

Mom, Mom's sister-Aunt Gerry and me (Week 26)

On Saturday, I thought I was going to brunch with one of my cousins, it turned out that Mom and Jill threw me a surprise baby shower. I was truly surprised. It was so great to see my aunts and older cousin (and some of the younger ones!) I usually see them and their families Christmas day at our family Church dinner, but its so chaotic and I don't get to spend anytime with them. The shower was great, I got to visit with everyone, play some games (which I lost, badly) and I enjoyed myself to no end. The shower had a great theme. Instead of giving a card with their name on it to identify the gift giver, they were asked to give a favorite children's book and write a note to Bean. I came back with a large stack of fun baby books and a lot of gift cards, since everyone wanted to make sure they didn't over pack my car.

I'm alive.....

Truly I am! I've been waiting on the hubby to fix some pictures so I can tell you all about our Thanksgiving trip. So I'll get to that on Monday.

Good News----I past my glucose test on the first try. No gestational diabetes's for me. I did get a lecture from the Doc about portion control.....I've put on 21 pounds so far. Sigh. I thought I was doing well, I'm at the end of week 27. Oh well. It is nothing I'm going to stress over.

2008 Chomp and Stomp

The Cabbage Town Chili Festival was huge this year. Lots of chili was consumed, as well as Sweetwater Beer (yes, over the course of the day I consumed 2/3 a glass of beer......you've got to wash all those chili samples down with beer)

The kids had fun dancing to the bluegrass music and the must have been 50 different craft vendors. If I would have had any extra money, I would have come home with the best onesies for the bean.

Zalebaby is in the blue and he is incapable of letting anyone get a nice picture of him.

Bonus Pictures: 24 Weeks......Please notice the chili stains around my belly-button. The shirt was a present from my friend Heat.

22 weeks

22 Weeks and counting. I'm getting bigger and bigger. That blur at the bottom of the picture is Tata, or Mr. Potato Head, Zalebaby is responsible for that name. Not me.

GA Apple Festival

We, Zalebaby, myself and his cousin Chele and her family went to the GA Apple Festival in Ellijay last Saturday. It was about an hour and a half drive to get there. It was a beautiful day for a drive in the mountains.

The kids had a blast. They climbed the rockwall and jumped on the trampolieens. Neither one was brave enough to ride the mechanical bull. Watching everyone else ride it was a hoot.

We walked around and looked at all the crafts and nibbled on faire food....it being the apple festival, we had apple dumplings with ice cream and apple fritters. I bought a peck of apples and on Sunday I made crock-pot applesause. It was super easy. Peal, slice and core apples, toss them in the crock-pot with 1/4 cup of water, 1/4 cup of sugar and what ever spices you'd like in applesaue. I used cinninman, clove and allspice. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, mash if nessary, taste for sweetness, chill. Yummy!

Sorry for the blurry picture!

Must learn photoshop

Here I am at 21 weeks, 2 days. I really must learn how to photo shop.....I've never seen that under-arm waddle before. Bean is moving all the time now and I'm starting to pinch when I reach for something below me while I'm sitting. I usually feel a movement after I do that, so I'm sure she giving a kick for squishing her.

Zalebaby is being so cute, he's started blowing raspberries on my belly every chance he gets. Makes me teary-eyed. He's also starting making plans for her, like teaching her to play golf, so he has a golf partner.

I got a present this weekend!

Too Cute! Thank you so much Mary Ann! Not only did I get these pretty washcloths, I felt the baby move. It felt like a goldfish bumping on the glass of the bowl looking for food. weird image, I know, but thats the best way I can describe it. So very weird and exciting.

growing...

Boy do I need to clean that mirror!...... but I'm growing, I had to take out my belly ring! I can still wear a few of my normal clothes, but I'm finding maternity wear much more comfortable, even if I have to roll all the waistbands. I've been assured I'll grow into into them.

At the doc's yesterday and I weighed in at 153lbs. Last month I was 145. I need to cut back on the Reese's peanut butter cups.

Vacation pictures

Zalebaby and I went on a little Anniversary/Babymoon Vacation last weekend. We left Thursday and came back Sunday. Not nearly long enough, but I'm saving vacation days for Thanksgiving. I'll be a little too pregnant to travel the 13 hours home for Christmas, so I promised Mom I'd come home for Thanksgiving instead.

We took a trip to Orlando to go to SeaWorld. I really liked the hotel we stayed in. The International Plaza Resort. It was very nice for the price, plus I mentioned it was our Anniversary and we were surprised our 2nd night there with a fruit plate and chocolates.

We walked to SeaWorld, about a 10 minute walk and we walked to Aquatica, which is SeaWorld's new water park. That was more of a hike, 15-20 minutes, mostly because you had to walk a long wind-y entrance road, with no sidewalks, which sucked, but how many people stay in hotels that are that close? I think ours was the only one you could do that from.

My favorite picture:

Don't you want to eat him up?

On Friday, we did SeaWorld. Neither Zalebaby nor I had been there since we were little, so we were really looking forward to it. It didn't disappoint. I thought SeaWorld would be great to go see, since it isn't about rides (I love roller coasters!) The shows were a lot of fun, but I was dissapointed with the Shamu- I believe show. It was a little cheesey and the animals didn't do much. There was more hoop-la than action.

Friday night we went to Universal Studio's Halloween Horror's Opening night. I was exhausted from all the walking durning the day, so I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as Zalebaby did, but it was worth going to. It's too bad I'm preggers, 'cause they had the new Simpson's roller coaster open. Sigh. At lease Zalebaby didn't leave me to go for a spin, although it would have been nice to sit down while he was on it. My hips were killing me from all the walking and standing.

Saturday at Aquatica was a lot of fun. We slept in and got there around noon. There was only 1 ride I couldn't ride on, which was a stomach down racing ride. Normally, I would have loved that ride, but with Bean it wasn't do-able. My favorite attraction was Roa's Rapids, which is based on the lazy river idea, but with life vest instead of inner tubes and it has a faster current. It was lots of fun to drift around. I really over did it on Friday, so floating around on Saturday was the best.

Sunday, we went back to SeaWorld and saw the shows and exhibits we missed on Friday. I loved the dolphin and whale show, it made up for the Shamu show. We also spent almost an hour watching the seals play. Then we walked back to the hotel and drove home.

Mom Came to Visit

Mom came to visit on Friday, she flew in around 4:30 and I dropped her off at the airport at 8am Monday morning. It was a quick but lovely visit.

When she came, she checked a bag and brought a carry on. She filled her suitcase with 48lbs of maternity clothes for me from my sisters. She's got more winter clothes waiting for me when I go up to see her for Thanksgiving. She was too funny with the weighing of the suitcase to make sure she didn't go over the 50 lbs limit.

I've settled on what we are going to do for the baby's room while she was here. I've been racking my brains, trying to figure out how to combine my sewing room and the guest room to free up the sewing room for the baby. Mom talked me into putting the baby into the guest room and leaving my sewing room as-is. She assured me that I'll want to have a bed in the room with the baby. Then we went to a daycare consignment sale with my friend A, who is a month ahead of me with her 2nd child. I found a comforter, bumper, diaper hanger and lamp shade that complement the bedspread on the guest bed, for $15. Sold! I have some wonderful fabric that goes with the set to make a dust ruffle for the crib. Here is the set:

I've also decided to go with a "Once Upon A Time" theme for Bean, leaning more toward Mother Goose than Disney.

What Year Do You Belong In?

You Belong in 1954

You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in!

What Year Do You Belong In?

Pink it is!

Woot! I'm having a little girl baby. Now I get to make all kinds of fun girly clothes. At least while she's small enough to let me dress her. She'll probably turn out to be a tomboy and never want to wear dresses. Still, I'm going to have fun while she'll let me.

The first shot of Bean at the Dr's was bottom up. The teck no sooner put the wand on my belly then we got to see she's a girl. I saw butt cheeks and 2 thighs, the teck said look, it's a girl! and she highlighted the in-between parts to show us her girly bits. The exam was the coolest. We got to see all of her, all the bones, her heart beating-all four chambers of it, her kidneys and stomach. She even looked at the wand, which made her look like an alien. It was the neatest thing.