Follow Up

So, I have to wait until Monday to get the results of my glucose test. But it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I've heard all sorts of things about the drink you have to take, but it wasn't that bad. The only bad part was that it was orange flavored, and I don't like orange flavoring (bad for a Clemson fan, but I can't change my taste buds). So far, everything looks good and the doctor is happy with the way things are going.

Last night we went to a funeral home visitation for a family member on the Chavis side of the family. The thing about the Chavis side of the family is that my father-in-law was an only child, so he only has extended family, not siblings. But the extended family is huge! Anyway, this was the first time they had seen us in about two years and the first they had heard that we were going to have a baby. It also gave me a chance to see just how strong the Chavis genes were. Even though they are not siblings, Joe looks just like his cousins (with way more gray hair, he had a very stressful job as a firefighter). They all have the same exact nose! And Shawn looks just like his dad with a different nose and ears. So we heard a lot of people commenting on how much like his dad he looks from people that hadn't seen him in ages. The other interesting thing was to see just how much they look like Native Americans you see on tv on reservations and stuff like that. One of the women has pretty long hair and the first time I saw her I told Shawn she looked like she would fit right in on a reservation somewhere. Every single one of them has (or had) dark black hair and very tan skin. Now their children are even more diverse than Shawn and his sisters were. One of them even had blond hair. So, that gives me hope of actually having a baby that doesn't look like a clone of Shawn's nieces and nephews. Shawn is personally hoping for at least blue eyes, if not blue eyes and blond hair. I just hope that our poor baby isn't lily white like me and burns after being outside for more than 15 minutes. We shall see.

Cloth Diapers and Updates

My friend Beth wrote about cloth diapers and I thought it was a great idea (http://lifeonthespacecoast.blogspot.com/2009/08/cloth-is-success.html). When you think about it, it comes out to be cheaper, they cause less diaper rash, and they are easy to use. I have them on my regisrty at Target and am hoping to at least get enough gift cards to Target to buy a good enough supply to use them with Georgia. I already have 6 that my mom bought for me a few months ago.

The kind I registered for (http://www.bumgenius.com/one-size.php) is the same as what Beth uses and I am looking forward to using them. They have snap adjustments so that they can grow with your baby. They come with two inserts so that you can use two if you have a heavy wetter. And they are really soft, nothing to poke or irritate a baby at all. I did a good bit of research and looked at user comments on Target's website and on Amazon's website. Everyone seems to agree that these are easy to use and there is relatively no leaking involved.

When Georgia gets here I'll have to post pics of her in her diapers.

Meanwhile, we have a pack and play and a diaper bag. My mom is really excited and keeps buying stuff for us. Mainly she is getting the pricier stuff we registered for because she doesn't think anyone will get those items. The pack and play is mainly so that I don't have to go up and down the stairs after I give birth to take care of a baby. It seems that it is frowned upon, at least at first. Of course, in the off chance that we win the lottery and can actually go on a vacation somewhere, we have a pack and play to take with us. Oh, by the way, we are registered at Target and at Baby Depot at Burlington.

In other news, you can now see my tummy move when Georgia gets good and active (mainly at night). It is really strange. Shawn is fascinated by it and still can't believe that she is big enough to make my tummy move. In addition, our next doctor's appointment is tomorrow and I have my glucose test. I'm a little nervous about it, but hopefully I pass the first time around and don't have to go back for another one (that lasts three hours!).

I don't know why, but lately I have been paranoid that the sonographer actually got things wrong and we're not having a girl. We already have pink and lavendar stuff, so that may add to the anxiety. The picture seems pretty darn clear to me, but there is no accounting for expectant mother anxiety.

I'll update tomorrow to give my test results.

21 Weeks

So, it has been a month since my last profile picture. In that time I have been to the doctor again and heard Georgia's heartbeat again. I also got my glucola for my next appointment when I'll have a glucose test. In even better news, Shawn has felt Georgia moving and is very excited about that. He didn't like to admit it, but he was jealous that I could feel her and he couldn't. Now he loves to keep his hand on my tummy to see if anything happens. She is moving around a lot more now, or at least I feel her a lot more. Also, she seems to not be a morning person, kinda like me. She moves around more in the afternoon and at night. So far, she isn't big enough to keep me awake at night with movements, so we'll have to see how that progresses.

In other, non-baby related news, flowers and plants are starting to look good. The irises have long since bloomed, but other things are happening now too.

This is an ornamental pepper plant we got at the plant sale the Botanical Garden has each year. I had seen them in the Botanical Garden before and had wanted some, so I was excited that they went on sale this year. They all started out yellow, but have slowly started changing colors.



Last year we made a bigger "garden" in the back yard for the veggies, but then the plants just didn't do anything. So, we went smaller this year with just one tomato plant. And to change things up we put it in a planter and stuck it in the front yard. It looks really good and already has lots of little tomatos on it.



Next, because I am a Tiger, I got tiger lilies a long time ago. They have spread and now I have several. They are really pretty and the only orange flower I have had so far. I planted some orange calla lillies, but they haven't bloomed yet, so we'll see how they do.



So, the end of May means the end of AWANAs at church. Since AWANAs will start shortly before my due date in the fall, I will not be returning for the forseeable future. Here is a picture of me and my sister-in-law after the awards ceremony.



Before going to church that night I took my profile picture for week 21. As you can see, I am bigger.



In other news, Shawn has looked around on the internet at various ultrasound pictures and has decided that Georgia is cuter than all the other babies he has seen. I never really thought that babies looked that different on ultrasound pictures until I saw a few more recently, and you can really tell a difference in some babies. But of course, I think that Georgia will be amazingly adorable. I can't wait to see what she will look like, and what color hair she will have. The funny thing is, Shawn and I look so different from each other there is no telling what our babies will look like. I mean really, I am pasty white with dark blond hair and blue eyes. He is really dark skinned with black hair and brown eyes. I'm just hoping that Georgia will be able to go outside for more than five minutes without getting sunburned. We shall see in the fall what she will look like.

Baby updates

First, this is my profile from a week and a half ago. At 17 weeks I hit the mark where sleeping had become a little harder. I get hotter at night and I have problems trying to get comfortable. As a result, I am skipping the few tv shows that I stayed up for past 10pm and am going to bed earlier. While it still takes a little while to get to sleep, actually being in bed earlier gives me more time to sleep.



Now, at 18 weeks, I went to have THE ultrasound. And it was great! Our baby was pretty cooperative for the most part. When the woman tried to get a closer look at the heart it took a long time cause the baby was being so wiggly. But other than that, the baby measured on target and looks healthy (no cleft palate, the tummy has closed around the cord, no thickening of the neck, the nasal bone was the right shape, and so on). The first thing I said when I got in the room was that we did want to know what the sex was. And the baby was a trooper and we got to find out almost right away!

This was the first thing we saw after the baby came into focus. Such a cute little profile.


Then, she went for the money shot and we found out we are having a little girl!



When she was done doing all her measuring and checking out all the things she needed to see, she went back to the profile. The baby kept putting both her hands to her face, and then one thumb got put in her mouth. So we have a thumb sucker already!



Now, before we even got pregnant we had started talking about names. By the time we went to the doctor's office for the first time we had names picked out for a girl and for a boy. I will wait until we have a boy to reveal that name, but the girl's name we picked out was Georgia Elise. Now, there is a long background for the girl's name. I have been thinking of baby names almost since I was in high school. Now, the boy name, Shawn threw out the window almost right away because the first name was so common in his family that he didn't want to use it. But the girl's first name has always been the same. It was my dad's grandmother's name. She was named Georgia Ann. I loved the name Georgia and thought it was so pretty. I have heard from people that thought it was a little old fashioned, but I figured it was better to be old fashioned than to have a trendy name that will be so common. We went through a long process of finding a middle name that sounded right with Georgia. For some reason I got stuck on the letter E (I thought that a name that started with E would sound good with Georgia). Then I found Elise, and it sounded perfect. It is a shortened form of Elizabeth, and it means consecrated to God. So it sounded pretty and the name had a nice meaning.

Nursery

So, I forgot to take "real" before pictures of when the nursery was a workout room. So imagine the room filled with a big weight bench, weight stand, and a heavy bag with stand (for all you non-fighters out there that is a 70 pound punching bag). For the record, Shawn misses his workout equipment. We didn't have any other spare room to put them in, so the weights went to his cousin's house (they bought the set together many years ago). The punching bag and stand are to be relocated to my mom's house unless we can find someone to buy it from us.

The before pictures are basically just white walls.



Without the windows covered it is hard to tell what paint color that is, but we painted the walls a light beige color and the trim is a chocolate.



After painting, Shawn and our friend George installed dropped down crown molding and behind the crown we put in rope lighting.



Then we finally put the crib in. Once it was all together we put the bumper pads and the bed skirt and sheet on. The theme is woodland creatures.



This is the quilt. The set has a deer, a fox, a bear, a bunny, owls, trees, and a hedgehog (or porcupine, we can't tell which).



Then, we got wall stickers that matched the crib set and put them around the closet.



And over the crib. We also have a little cross over the crib that has a little poem on it.



Then we put the curtains and valances up.



Finally we got the lights behind the crown hooked up so you can see what it will look like.



We are still working on arranging the other furniture in a workable manner. Plus, we are looking for a small bookshelf. When everything is finalized I will put up more pictures.

14 Weeks

So, I started taking profile pictures with the intent to do so every month, but after 8 weeks I forgot to do so at 12 weeks. But I did last weekend for 13 weeks. The funny thing is, I had gained most of the weight that I have gained by the time I took the 8 week picture. Mostly I think I gained that weight from eating lots of little snacks to keep from being nauseous. But the good thing is that I have only gained about 4 or 5 pounds so far.

Here is 8 weeks. The main reason I look big here is that my belt buckle is poking out from the rest of my clothes.



In between pictures I had a birthday (30!). For my birthday my brother didn't buy anything for me, he bought something for the baby. It was Clemson stuff, a little shirt with a matching bib and a banner that I am going to hang outside the door of the baby's room.



This is the shirt under the bib.



And finally, my profile from last weekend. Even though I am essentially the same weight in these two pictures, my body is all shifting around and my belly is poking out way more now. I guess I officially look pregnant! By the way, that is the baby's room. We have started painting. I'll have another post when it is finished.

New Addition

So, we've been trying to get pregnant for about 8 months. On Christmas day I had my last period! We took a test on January 24 and it was positive. We couldn't believe it. I thought the whole time while I was waiting to take it that it would come back negative, but it didn't! That day we told our parents and our siblings. We asked them to not tell anyone until after our first appointment. We went to the doctor on Wednesday and had our first ultrasound. You can see a tiny little peanut shaped baby. We even got to see it's little heart fluttering and hear it's heartbeat. That was about the coolest part of the day. Then we took the picture and showed it off to our parents and let them tell everyone else. I got on facebook that day and sent out a message to our family members that are on there and told them. Then today I put up the picture and spread the news to everyone else on facebook. Below is the picture of our tiny baby.



I already have 4 other appointments scheduled with the doctor. Our ultrasound for finding out the baby's sex is on May 3, for all of you out there wanting to know. As of today I am 8 weeks pregnant and the baby is due on October 1.

So far, I feel tired a lot, and up until last week I felt fine. But then the nauseau hit and I have been trying to find foods that I can eat that will not make me gag. Fortunately I have only felt nuaseau, so that is good.

Stay tuned for more posts on little baby C.