Bed Rest

I had my weekly check-up on Tuesday afternoon. My blood pressure was up pretty high so they ran some extra lab work and put me on bed rest. I talked to them yesterday and they said that my most of my lab work came back normal so now they are just waiting on one more result. I have instructions to go to Labor & Delivery if my blood pressure rises above 150 or 95, I have headaches that aren't relived by Tylenol, or I start having problems with my vision. I have another appointment on Monday morning so until then I'm just sitting at home with my feet up trying to rest and not stress myself out.

Belly Pics!

These are a few of my favorite pictures from our session a few weeks ago. I can't wait until Taylor gets here so that we can have some pictures made of him too. Let me know what you think!

And last but not least, my VERY VERY FAVORITE!!

Catching up ...

Here are the pictures of the finished nursery. Now the ONLY thing that we are missing is our little bundle of joy. I am getting so anxious to finally meet him and see for myself that he is 100% healthy. I also can't wait to see who he looks like and who he acts like. According to my due date, we are less than a month away from meeting him! I am expecting him to be here early so we'll see who's right.

Also, he FINALLY has a name. It took us a long time agree on anything because Bryan likes to be a little silly and likes to push my buttons. I knew that he would eventually give in and let me have the name that I wanted but I honestly didn't expect him to cave until delivery. All it took was a lot of ladies from church giving him a hard time and 3 rounds of voting before we came to this conclusion.

Taylor Cole

This name means a lot to me personally and I feel like names with meaning are the best. Taylor is my grandmother's maiden name. My great-grandmother was a wonderful and spunky woman whom I miss dearly. She passed away when I was 12 but I still think about her all of the time. After talking to my grandma about his name she told me that she kinda always wished she had named my dad Taylor instead of Terry. I feel a little bad for him that she never liked his name but that means that this has even more special meaning. Cole is the maiden name of my very best friend who also happens to be the person that set Bryan and I up on our first date. We told her when we got married that we owed her everything so we promised to name our firstborn after her. It also happens that her dad was the person who officiated our wedding so the entire Cole family means a lot to both Bryan and I. I couldn't think of a more perfect name for someone who already means so much to so many people.

I will post some of my belly pics when I get them, we had a great time and Teresa was wonderful as always!!

Nursery

It's a BOY!!!

After a lengthy ultrasound today we were finally told that we are having a boy! He is curled up and facing my back with his legs crossed and knees tucked up under him so he was being stubborn (he must take after his dad already!). He refused to move around even after they made me lay on my side for 15 min to see if it would help. He looked pretty comfortable there so I don't really blame him for not moving around too much. The doctor said that everything looked good and i don't have to go back to the specialist again unless something goes wrong. He did say that the reason I'm not feeling any movements is because the placenta is located on the front of the uterus and acting as a sort of cushion. I will eventually be able to feel the movements but he said that it will never be strong feelings. I will post pictures later but I'm supposed to be working right now!

If you have any suggestions for boys names PLEASE let us know!

Vacation!

If all goes as planned, Bryan and I will be leaving in the morning for San Antonio. The annual conference for Athletic Trainers is located there this year and I'm really excited to go back. I've been twice but never had the time to see the attractions and really enjoy it so this will be the year. Bryan has never been so he's looking forward to it.

I'm finally feeling better the past couple days so hopefully that continues while we're on vacation. One month from today we will be having the second ultrasound which will hopefully determine gender if the kiddo cooperates. I am really ready to find out so that we can settle on a name and get the nursery done. If anyone has suggestions for boy names they would be greatly appreciated!

God bless!

Heart Beat

Yesterday was my appointment with the doctor and everything went well. I was able to hear the heartbeat and it was a strong 160 beats a minute. I have been feeling sick the past several days so she was a little concerned that I might have a virus. I was running a temperature of 100.4 which is considerably higher than my normal 97.4. My blood pressure has also been elevated due to the intense pain of the headache and the fever but it was down today when I checked it. The doctor also prescribed some pain killers for the headache that have been working pretty well, I just don't want to take any more of them than I absolutely have to since they are narcotics and I'm not entirely convinced that it's safe for the baby.

Please keep us in your prayers that I can get over this quickly and get back to work. God bless!

12 weeks!

As of last Thursday I am into week 12. For most people this would mean an end to morning sickness, evidently I'm not most people. Other than the constant nausea and extreme fatigue I'm feeling okay. I've stopped losing weight and am now just holding steady. I have another doctor's appointment on Wednesday so hopefully we will be able to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time. Currently the baby is about the size of a plum. It just seems so unreal to think about the fact that there is a tiny little person inside of me. I can't wait to find out if it's a boy or girl but we've got another 8 weeks before that happens. If I am able to record the heartbeat on Wednesday I will post it on here.

God Bless!

Baby's First Photo

Today we had the first ultrasound. It was absolutely amazing to see the baby and watch the heart beat. The heart rate was about 158 beats per minute which is about double my heart rate. Sometimes I still can't believe that it's actually happening. Due to the measured size of the baby (1.49 cm) they have moved up my due date by 5 days which I fully expected. I told Bryan weeks ago that I thought the date was wrong and it should be December 3rd. I was right! Here's the photo that they sent us home with. Right now it looks pretty much like a big blob but I promise that it's a baby. Bryan was also thrilled to see that there is only one of them in there!

Storks and Chinese fortunes!

For those of you who don't know yet, we are going to have a baby!! My expected due date is December 8th. This is the photo of the stork that was in our backyard the day after we found out that I was pregnant. I also had a fortune in my cookie about a week before I took the test that read, "Your efforts are budding - Results will appear soon!" How's that for coincidence?!?

So far I have had a lot of "morning" sickness that seems to last 24 hours a day. Other than being really tired, I'm doing okay. We are both so excited and can't wait for all of the monumental events that come with being pregnant. Right now we are just waiting to hear back from the doctor about my bloodwork. Since I have thyroid problems I will be seeing a specialist a couple times throughout my pregnancy but how soon I see him will depend on the lab work. I called my Lyme Disease specialist last week to see if there were any major concerns and his nurse said that as long as I stayed symptom free that we were in the clear. That is such a huge relief so right now I'm trying to keep my stress as low as possible and get as much rest as I can.

Keep all 3 of us in your prayers!! God bless!

New adventures!

After much consideration I have decided to become a consultant for The Pampered Chef. I am extremely excited about the opportunities that this may bring. Cooking is one of my favorite things to do and I will enjoy being able to share that with other people. I need to book several parties pretty soon so if you'd like to help out I would love that! If you don't live around here but would like to have a catalog party that would be great too. Just let me know!

My silly husband!

Bryan's tests came back perfect so he's back to living his normal and crazy life. Here's what he's been up to lately.

This is going to be our new mailbox holder for the entire street. As you can see, it's HUGE! 9ft across and after it's buried several feet deep, about 4ft high.

This is his new toy/lawnmower. I think that he's more excited about just having it than he is about how well it will function as a lawnmower.

This is the pile of trees and limbs left over from past ice storms that had never been cleaned up. He's been working on this for about a month now. We will be having a massive bonfire when the weather gets a little better.

This is the ridiculously large tree that he decided to add today.

He actually called me to come outside and take these pictures because he was so excited about how large this tree was. He almost knocked down another tree in the process of getting this one across the field and onto the pile.

A-Okay!

Bryan went back to the doctor this morning and they ran some more blood tests today just to make sure that everything was perfectly fine. The doctor seemed to think that he would be perfectly fine and that the anemia was just a fluke and a small by-product of the stomach bug that he had. Hopefully we will have these test results by tomorrow. Thanks for all of the concern and questions!

Sickness

Bryan was sick most of last week. Just when it seemed like he was getting better be got a lot worse. We spent about 7 hours in urgent care yesterday and it was not fun. He was pretty dehydrated and since he tenses up when needles are mentioned, it took SIX tries before they were able to get an IV started to give him fluids. He was dehydrated enough that they couldn't even get enough blood to run tests until after the first bag of fluids was in him. They ran a bunch of tests and didn't really find out much. His blood tests did show that he was anemic and since he had been throwing up a little bit of blood and having blood in the diarrhea it was a concern. He didn't have food poisoning but they weren't really able to tell us much else. There are a few possibilities: it could be just the stomach bug that has been going around a lot lately or he could have some form of an intestinal disease. Due to the anemia and blood in the vomit and stools this was a major concern. He is taking antibiotics and after he finishes them he has to go back in for more blood work to see if he's still anemic. If not, then more than likely this was just a virus, although a bad one. He's feeling better today and hasn't thrown up in more than 24 hours. He has started eating again and has been able to keep everything down. I'm trying to get him to drink more water but it's a difficult task.

Thankfully I have not caught whatever this bug might be yet so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'm washing my hands a ton and drinking lots of fluids so help ward it off. Maybe it will work!

Please just keep us both in your prayers and I'll update after our follow-up appointment in a couple weeks.

Pictures: Round 3

Here are the final pictures. This is our master bedroom and bathroom.

Pictures: Round 2

I apologize for not getting these on here sooner. The only picture that I still don't seem to have is of the master bedroom. I'll work on getting that done tomorrow on my day off. These are obviously the pictures of our kitchen and living room. Let me know what you think. I'm still trying to decide about painting the living room.

To My Valentine!

I know that I missed it by a couple days but I just wanted to express how much I love my wonderful husband. I have had the most amazing year of my life and I am so grateful to have Bryan in my life. He has made me happier than I ever thought possible and we have so much fun together. My life is full and complete.

To Bryan - You are the most amazing person in my world and I am so blessed to have you by my side every day. Thank you for always taking care of me and loving me regardless how difficult it might be some days. I can't wait for the next year to see how much more we can grow and change together. You are my soul mate and I am glad that after all these years we are finally together where we are supposed to be. I promise to never take you for granted and to love you forever and for always, to infinity and beyond!

Pictures: Round 1

I'm going to post the pictures that I do have. I promise that I'm going to clean the house and take pictures this weekend. This is obviously the front of the house. We have had a lot of rain lately so there is a pretty large mud puddle. You can see the pond in the back. Sadly, the ducks weren't there today when I took the picture. There is also a picture of our guest bedroom, 2nd bathroom, and hallway.

Water and Wildlife

We've had a lot of rain the past few days so our pond is filling up. It's so full in fact that it's draining out of the spillway in the back of the property. While I was home today I heard what I thought was a duck. I went out to look and sure enough there were 2 ducks on the pond. I hope that they stay even after all the rain is gone. We've also seen several deer around the yard and one rabbit. I really enjoy being back in nature and being able to see God's amazing creation.

Pictures will be posted this weekend!

Coming Soon!!

As soon as I can find my camera and charge the batteries I will take some pictures of our new home and get them posted. At this point we are completely unpacked and living comfortably. It has been so nice to be in our home and know that it's completely ours. Looking out the everyday over the pond and taking it all in has been so peaceful. The pond has been frozen over a lot lately with the temperatures and the ice/snow. I would love to walk out on it but I'm not that brave, or that stupid.

Check back soon!