The Countdown is on...

I had my 34 week appointment on Wednesday and we are getting closer and closer to the end. I haven't begun dilating yet, which I consider a good thing since I'm only 34 weeks! The ultrasound showed that Collier is positioned head down and weighs around 5lbs 6oz already so he might just be a big baby! Noah was 7lbs 4oz. and 21 1/2" long (at 38.1 weeks) so I'm guessing Collier will be a little bigger... maybe around 8lbs. Dr. Keith also scheduled my C-section during the appointment. At first he had it scheduled for October 25, which would put me at 38.6 weeks, however after leaving his office, I had a VERY uneasy feeling the rest of the day over it being scheduled before I was in my 39th week... even if it was by just 1 day. Having had to go through what we did with Noah's lungs being immature, I just didn't feel comfortable with choosing to have Collier arrive prior to 39 weeks. So I ended up calling his office and asking for a date later in that week so it's been changed to October 28th, which is 5 days prior to my due date and right before the weekend. I was afraid to schedule ON my due date with the chance of going into labor during the weekend, and running the risk that Dr. Keith may not be on call... something I don't want to chance since I'll have to have surgery. If it was a normal delivery, I wouldn't mind it, but surgery is a different story. So we've got an end in sight!

I'm SO SO eager to meet Collier and I've felt like this past week has dragged (or is it drug?) by. The entire pregnancy has flown by so quickly but time seems to have slowed down this week and I'm afraid that's how the remainder of this pregnancy will seem. However, I realized this morning, that I should use the last 5 weeks to enjoy my time with Noah, Jamie and the time that I get to myself! As excited as I am to get Collier here, along with that comes no sleep and not leaving the house very often, and being a food source for a baby that eats every few hours! I need to enjoy getting to sleep through the night (well, with the exception of getting up to use the restroom every few hours) and the ease of having a 3 year old who's already in a schedule and fairly easy to take care of. Plus I need to just use this time to spend as much quality time with Noah and Jamie as possible. So that's my plan for the remaining 4 weeks and 6 days... enjoy my time as a family of 3! On another note, the girls from mine and Jamie's couples' Sunday School class are having a shower for me on Sunday after church. I'm so excited and completely overwhelmed by their thoughtfulness! I didn't expect to get a shower (since this is the 2nd baby and another boy) however, it is completely appreciated!

I love September!

I LOVE September, always have. I enjoy the cooler weather and bringing out the fall clothes, the beginning of football season, and fall television starting up. And so far, this September hasn't disappointed. On Labor Day, we were invited to go out on the river with some friends, Kenny & Shana Winter and their two boys. This was Noah's first time on a boat so I wasn't sure what he would think of it... however, he LOVED it! In fact, he kept trying to stand up and look over the edge of the boat, down at the water. We spent the ENTIRE day out on the water and Noah only dozed off for about 30 minutes. Needless to say, when we finally headed home around 4:30, he was EXHAUSTED.

Last week's weather felt GREAT and I actually was able to wear jeans and not sweat my tail off... it was definitely the beginnings of fall! It was the first time since June that I've felt comfortable outside(temp-wise). Wednesday was my 32 week check up with Dr. Keith and everything's going along just fine. I'm now to the point where I'll see him every 2 weeks so he informed me that at the next appointment he'll do an ultrasound and check to see if I've begun dialating yet! WOW... wasn't expecting that so I'm glad he "warned" me. I'm extremely excited and ready for Collier's arrival. I've reached to point in this pregnancy where I'm uncomfortable and not sleeping great so I'm glad to see the end is in sight!

Another reason I LOVE September is because it's my birthday month! Friday, Sept. 10 was my 29th birthday and I really had a great day, however the celebrating has lasted several days and I've done the only thing a pregnant girl can do to celebrate something big, and that is EAT. :) I woke up on the day of my birthday to my favorite fast food breakfast item, Chick-fil-a Chicken Mini's waiting on me in the kitchen (and Jamie had stuck a birthday candle in the box!), as well as perfume (Dolce & Gabbana #3, which I had just run out of) and a gift certificate to the Marriott Spa for a massage and pedicure. Also, Jamie had arranged to have the house cleaned that morning, which is seriously, the BEST gift ever. Since Noah had therapy that morning, we didn't make lunch plans so Jamie brought home lunch from Dish. Once my mom got off of work, she stopped by with a cake from Sugarbaker's and we all had a slice. She took Noah home with her since he was spending the night with them that night, so that Jamie and I could go to the Melthing Pot in Huntsville for dinner. Lindsay and Derrick were supposed to join us, but she got sick, so they didn't get to come. Brett and Chenequa met us there and we all dined on a wonderful and very filling dinner of cheese fondue, an array of meats, and chocolate fondue. The Melting Pot is always such a fun experience but I've come to the conclusion that the cheese is my favorite part.

Saturday morning, I cashed in my gift certificate and had a massage and a much-needed pedicure and spent the rest of the afternoon shopping with my mom to get some things for Collier and to get maternity/hospital pajamas for me. We found an outfit for Collier to wear home from the hospital, as well as a couple of outfits he can wear to church. That evening, we celebrated my birthday, again, at my parent's house with my parents, Lindsay, and Derrick. Mom and Dad cooked a meal of my choice, Eggplant Parmesan and fettucini alfredo with salad, bread, etc, and we watched the Bama game with them. The eggplant was DELICIOUS... better than Ricatoni's or Olive Garden.

Monday evening, I went to dinner with my girlfriends, Chenequa, Amanda, Melissa, and Kellie, for another birthday celebration. I had originally chosen Sweet Magnolia, but they were closed on Monday, so we went to Red Lobster instead. I had a great time chatting with the girls and enjoying their company. We were definitely the loudest table in the restaurant and one of the very last to leave. Ooops!

The final celebration will take place Thursday night with Jamie's family, as we celebrate mine, Chris, and Wes' birthdays. The boys birthday's are on Sept. 6 so we always do a joint celebration!

All in all, I've had a GREAT 29th birthday with lots of great food and sweet family and friends to celebrate it with. I look forward to ALL that my 29th year has in store for me, and to be honest, it doesn't bother me a bit that this is my last year in my 20's. I'm just enjoying this time and where I am in my life.

If You Really Knew Me

Summer tv is terrible! There is absolutely nothing worth watching during the summer months and Jamie and I both LONG for September when all of our favorite shows start back up. During the tv lull, I've tuned in to alot of MTV.. I know I know, but what can I say, it's a late night guilty pleasure! Majority of their shows are junk (umm, Jersey Shore) but I've come across one, "If You Really Knew Me" that I've watched a couple of times. It comes on at 10pm on Tuesdays. Can I say, WOW! This show visits different high schools throughout the country that deal with discriminations, stereotypes, and cliques (ummm, isn't that just about every high school, college, and even work place?) They bring in a couple of counselors or team leaders for a "Challenge Day" and place the kids into random groups and encourage them to each open up about their family life, the hardships they've dealt with in the past, pressures they feel... basically things that have molded them into what and who they are. The counselors break down the barriers that are set up because of the differences among each of the students, whether it be from race, gender, sexual preference, interests, extracurricular activity (whether you're a cheerleader, jock, popular, band member, outsider, etc.) It opens up these kids hearts to reach out to others outside of his/her social circle because you never really know what someone is dealing with or has dealt with in their past. It really is a powerful show and it honestly does make one examine themself, as well as their heart. It encourages compassion and acceptance to each and everyone... talk about a positive, feel-good show! And yes, it is airing on MTV! How much easier high school would have been if something like this would have taken place during my 4 years there!

I better get used to this...

We had an appointment with Noah's new neurologist yesterday, Dr. Mathison. Our original neuro, Dr. Valero, left Children's a year ago and back in February, we saw the neurologist that was taking over Valero's patients. To be honest, she didn't seem to have a clue what she was talking about, so I asked around, heard good things about Dr. Mathison, and got Noah in with him. We really like him and he was very informative and knowledgeable. He was more definite about things... with Dr. Valero, he was always saying things like, "we'll have to wait and see" or "I'm not sure" or "only time will tell..." however, Dr. Mathison was more factual. He told us that only 1 out of every 6 patients that have a developmental delay will get an actual diagnosis as to WHAT caused the delayed. He also explained several other things to us regarding Noah's past MRI (things that I didn't understand when Dr. Valero explained them). Of course, we still don't have a diagnosis and there's a good chance we may never get one. However, he said it was his gut instinct that it was something genetic with Noah. As of now, the genetic tests that have been performed haven't revealed any answers (everything's come back normal) but in a few years, so many new tests will be available. Needless to say, it was a good appointment and I feel good about him taking over as Noah's neurologist. He DID say that the chance of whatever it is causing Noah's delay showing up in Collier's genome is around 1 - 25% but much closer to 1%. So please pray that that doesn't happen and that Collier is 100% healthy.

Now on to other news...
This evening while I was finishing up dinner, Jamie was outside finishing up cutting the grass, and Noah was at the front door watching his daddy. I heard Noah fall down and cry out but then he was quiet so I assumed he was okay... well then he yelled out and was screaming crying. By the time I got to him, he was COVERED in blood. It was all over the floor, his clothes and all over his face. I couldn't tell where he was bleeding from, due to all the blood. I freaked out!! I grabbed a napkin to try and wipe some of it away to figure out where it was coming from, and thats when I saw that he had a gash on his forehead above his right eye. And the bleeding was not slowing down and it was swelling pretty big by this point. I took Noah and ran outside looking for Jamie. I'm sure my neighbors thought I was a nut, because I was screaming Jamie's name at the top of my lungs, trying for him to hear me over the leaf blower. Like I said, I was completely panicking. When Jamie saw us, he threw down the leaf blower and ran to us. We got Noah inside and applied pressure to try and stop the bleeding. It slowed up some and I was ready for us to take him to the ER. I grew up with a sister, where neither of us ever had stitches or any broken bones... we were pretty accident-free. Jamie, on the other hand, grew up with two brothers where this kind of thing was a regular occurance. He examined the cut and said he didn't think it needed stitches so once Noah calmed down, we cleaned him up and got a butterfly band-aid on it. After lots of hugs and kisses from me and Jamie and a couple of chewable Tylenol, Noah was fine and playing in the floor with his trucks. Unfortunately, I'm afraid this won't be the last of these kind of accidents since I'll be the mom of 2 boys! I just hope my nerves can handle it.

The cut actually looks pretty small in the pictures, but it was fairly wide (in my opinion). Small or not, this thing was bleeding profusely! Even Jamie admitted that it was alot of blood. And we're still not sure what he hit his head on! Like I said, he was at the front door, so the only thing I could think of was either the door handle or the door hinge because there wasn't anything else laying around for him to hit his head on.




(Please excuse the crazy hair)

I'm in love...

with my chubby little baby boy! Yesterday, Jamie, Noah and I headed south to B'ham for my final checkup with our Genetic OB, Dr. Biggio. He wanted to take one last look at Collier's skull to make sure it wasn't closing up prematurely and we got the A-Okay! Everything looks great and his head is perfectly round and big! Because of the craniosynostosis, Noah's head was long and skinny but not this baby. Praise the Lord! Craniosynostosis can be genetic so we are so happy that everything looks like it's going to be okay this time around. The reason I said his head was big is because it is measuring 3 weeks ahead of what its supposed to be and Collier is already a heavy weight at 3 lbs and 10oz... which puts him in the 78 percentile (the average is around 2 lbs 10oz for 29 weeks). I got several cute pictures of his chubby little face and we even got a shot of his headful of hair!

I also finished up the nursery this morning and I'm so happy with the way it turned out. I had been working on a shelf that I mentioned previously; I decided to paint it off-white and add and a stain to it to give it an antiqued look. I also received all of the other items I had ordered so I got them hung on the walls this morning. This morning, I was screwing in the light bulb to the lamp and turned the switch to cut it on. Well the lamp made a popping sound, but the light didn't come on so I turned it a couple more times, only to hear a huge POP sound, followed by smoke from the light switch AND the plug outlet! Scared me to death!!! I thought, "I've worked so hard on this nursery, and I'm about to burn it down!" I tried to yank the plug from the wall but the cord was really hot so I grabbed a towel and pulled it out...needless to say, the lamp no longer works and thankfully I didn't cause a fire. Guess I'll be returning that lamp...

Tonight, my best friends from college are all getting together to have a joint baby shower for me and Chenequa (who's exactly 5 weeks ahead of me with her 2nd baby girl). We're going to dinner and then coming back to my house to catch up. A few are going to stay the night at my house (Jamie and Noah are staying with my parents). I'm looking forward to us all getting together this evening to honor these two new babies into our ever expanding group! Among the 9 of us, there are a total of 13 kids (plus these 2 on the way). It seems every year, we add another child to the mix... since several of the girls are from out of town (from Nashville to Birmingham, and all the way to GERMANY) we try to get together several times a year for "girls weekend." For the past 3 1/2 years, we've been talking about taking a trip to NYC but it seems someone is ALWAYS pregnant or just had a baby! Maybe 2011 will be our year to make the trip! :)


...chubby cheeks...








...my craft projects {the shelf and canvas that i painted}...




...picture frames that found on etsy...