Hello third trimester!!!!

I am finally in the home stretch of pregnancy! 11 more weeks until we get to meet our precious Mayleigh and I am beyond excited. We are in the midst of doing some "nesting". Cleaning the house and fixing up the nursery. All of the pieces are there, we just need to put them in place!

We were finally able to get a picture of Mayleigh's face, although it is still very blurry due to her face being so close to the placenta. She is doing well and growing right on schedule. According to my doctor, I am doing well also. I feel so blessed to have had such a great pregnancy so far!

I am looking forward to the next few weeks. Just about every weekend from now until December will be filled with baby showers and a maternity photo shoot by a friend. Time seems to be going so slow but so fast at the same time! Before I know it, it will be December and I will be preparing for this little girl to come in to the world!!!

I have officially popped

Okay maybe it's only me, but there is a DEFINITE difference between weeks 23 and 25. I can tell a lot when I sit down, sleep and even just walk that my belly is definitely growing.
So here I am at 26 weeks. I have started going to physical therapy twice a week now for my back pain and and a chiropractor once a week to help with my alignment. Between the two, we have discovered that my right hip is rotated forward and out of alignment which is why I have had this sharp pain in my right SI joint for the past 4 months. So I am hoping between regular adjustments and continuing my physical therapy to strengthen my lower back muscles I may finally find some relief and walk like a normal person again! I LOVE my chiropractors office because they have a house massage therapist who is AMAZING. I had the best massage today that I have ever had in my life. She was wonderful! The best part is that it is covered by my insurance, so I can get at least a little relief for a much smaller price than going to a spa or something.
Fall is in the air and I am LOVING it. The cooler weather is making being outside with the kids much easier and I am looking forward to start going for walks in the park without getting sick over the hot air!
Things to look forward to this fall....... leaves changing, awesome weather, homecoming, maternity photo shoot, baby showers and Thanksgiving!

Whoah, baby!

This is what I think of when Mayleigh is kicking me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72U-m7qAz0s

Belly shot at 23 weeks

My "baby finds" from my Asheville trip last weekend

I forgot to add this picture to my last post, some clothes dividers for her closet

Mayleigh is definitly getting stronger! I can feel her kicks more and more lately in all sorts of places. (She must be as restless as her mommy) We had our 24 week doctors appointment, her heart was strong and she is definitily growing bigger and I am definitly growing rounder! I read yesterday that my uterus should be about the size of a soccer ball by now. Which the doctor confirmed, it has grown 4 inches longer since my last appointment a month ago and now sits a good 4 inches above my belly button. No wonder I have gotten so much rounder in the last few weeks!

I am loving my growing belly and every little kick she gets me with, but I am NOT loving the lack of sleep or the back pain. My doctor is sending me to a physical therapist to try to help with my back which we are hoping will help with my sleep. We also talked about going to see a chiropractor.

Nursery Craftyness

Mayleigh Kate

(still not positive on the middle name, just trying it on for size)

An "M" for her door

A sweet little rocker that her mammaw found and I painted

Her dresser with hand painted knobs and polkadots on the sides

Recent purchases

A sweet ladybug dress from Aunt Courtney!


A little dress from B&B gifts. I'll have to get it monogramed once we decide on a middle name!

Knobs I decorated for Mayleigh's dresser

Yard sale items

Yard sale items

More yardsale items!

I went to a yardsale of a friends today and got 12 sweet outfits for $6!!! I can't wait to get Mayleigh's room in order! This weekends project is to paint her dresser and changing table! My next big purchase will be her crib and bedding!

Half Way There

I can't believe that we are half way through this pregnancy! Sometimes I feel like the time has flown by, while other times I feel like it has taken FOREVER just to get to this point!

We have decided to announce the name of our little girl despite not having her middle name picked out. Her name will be Mayleigh (pronounced May-Lee). I was worried about the spelling but I dilegently researched one night on the correct pronunciation of "Leigh" and it is infact "Lee". That said we LOVE her name.

Her namesakes include a few people in our family! Travis' grandmother's name was Mae Lee, my grandmothers maiden name was May and my other grandmother's name was Anna May and my fathers middle name is Lee. Besides her name being tied to many people in our family, we simply just love the name. It feels RIGHT and I love saying it outloud and referring to her by her name instead of "baby".

As for middle names, we are still deciding. Travis' pick is Kate, which I love, but I also love Anna. We have alot of Ann's and Anna's in my family too so it would definitly fit! Now it is just a matter of choosing!

I am feeling great lately and much more comfortable than I was in my first trimester. I definitly have my appetite back and am LOVING food. I am having lots of back pain but nothing my new snoogle pillow and some tylenol won't ease. I think I may be in the market for a back brace if it continues to get worse though.

I can't wait to get started on Mayleigh's nursery, but first I have to go buy some things. I LOVE buying pink stuff, it's so much fun!

Oh, and my belly seems to be growing every day! I'm sure it will get old when I'm too big to even stand up, but for now I am definitly enjoying my new round belly (especially when I can feel her moving around in it)!!!

Sweet little baby girl

My intuition was RIGHT! We are expecting a little girl. Our ultrasound was amazing. We spent a good hour looking at our little girl and were able to see that she is healthy and growing!

The lady who did the ultrasound was wonderful, she explained everything that we were seeing. We were able to see some organs, the different parts of the heart, the brain, umbilical chord each of her limbs, face and abdomen. Everything looked good, and the best part was getting to see that she was is a girl! I loved seeing her sweet little face too. We were able to zoom into the face to see her little lips and she was opening and closing her mouth as if she were swallowing or yawning. It was so amazing. Today I felt her moving around alot. I have felt her before but it was so small and quick that it was hard to tell it was her, but today she was moving around for a good 15 minutes! What an awesome feeling!

We are still deciding on names but I am pretty sure we have the perfect name for our little girl picked out. I can't wait to announce it! I have told a few people and have gotten some good reactions as well as some rude reactions, but hey you can't please everyone. This name is perfect for our little one and makes me smile every time I say it. I can't wait to meet her!

I also can't wait for this weekend! Not only is it my birthday weekend, I also get to go home to Kentucky for my cousins wedding! I love weddings and from the details I have heard about it, her wedding sounds like it is going to be FABULOUS!

Oh and that Snoogle I was wanting.....totally got it for my birthday and I can't WAIT to sleep on it tonight (I convinced Travis to let me use it even though I still have 2 days before my birthday!)

Overdue updates

First of all, this looks amazing and I must have one. I'm officially not allowed to sleep on my back OR my stomach now. Something about cutting off blood to the heart if you sleep on your back and squashing the baby if you sleep on your belly. Unfortunatly, it hurts my back to sleep on my side. Again, I have GOT to get this pillow! I think this will be the first purchase I make with my next paycheck!

That being said...I feel great! Second trimester has definitly been a honeymoon period. Despite my growing belly, I have a little more energy, I'm finally hungry without the sick feeling and I'm anticipating feeling that first flutter! I thought I may have felt one yesterday, but wasn't quite sure.

I just spent a week in Ohio and Kentucky with my family; a much need vaction with lots of TLC from my momma :-) Oh, dear! I think I just felt a fluttler. Woohoo! Anyhow, we had a fantastic time. Watched the yankees play the indians, ate a LOT of yummy food, satisfied many of my soul food cravings and got to see my extended family in KY. We celebrated 3 birthdays at my aunts house and had a lovely bridal luncheon for my cousin Anne Bennet. I was so sad to leave, but I will be traveling back to KY at the end of next week for ABC's wedding!!!

In other news, I got my first pair of maternity pants last week and boy do I LOVE them! So comfortable. I feel like my belly is growing every day!

Every Wednesday feels like a giant milestone in my pregnancy. I am 18 weeks today and I can not WAIT for next wednesday because we will have our ultrasound to *hopefully* find out what the sex of the baby is! We've got our girls name picked out, now if only we could settle on a boys name!

Hello second trimester (officially)

14 weeks and I got a FREE ultrasound today! The pictures didn't turn out great because it wasn't a very good machine (and their main purpose was to train the nurse) so even though they were very nice and made me comfortable, they didn't take the greatest pictures. The pictures even got jammed in the machine so some of them have lines running through them. All in all, I felt very lucky to have the opportunity to see my baby again. I have my next doctors appointment at the end of the month where I hope to schedule my next ultrasound for early august. (I really hope to find out the sex of the baby before my birthday) I also took some short videos from the ultrasound which I will post shortly.

I love free stuff

Today I scheduled two different FREE ultrasound appoinments! The first one will be this friday at a new pregnancy center in town that were looking for volunteers for their new nurse to practice on. Maybe if I'm really lucky we'll be able to tell if it is a boy or a girl (depending on how good their machine is and if baby wants to cooperate). I can't wait. Then the OTHER FREE ultrasound I scheduled for October 11th when I am 29 weeks. It will be at the local community college who offers free 3-d ultrasounds for volunteers to train their students. I am really excited about that one becuase those things are expensive if you choose to do it on your own!

In other news, I will be 14 weeks tomorrow and I am feeling pretty good! I am planning on starting to work on the nursery soon seeing as how I will be getting some stuff for baby from family memebers. My mother in law told me she had found some great babythings and my cousin has some good hand me down baby gear from her little one. I can't wait to put it all together. I have been looking on different websites and trying to decide on where to register. There is so much cute stuff out there. I am still holding out until we know if it's going to be a boy or girl. Maybe if I cross my fingers and my toes I'll find out on friday. Trying not to get my hopes up though because I KNOW 14 weeks is way early to find out. But possible! haha

Another note, I am REALLY craving breakfast food. May have to make pancakes for dinner.

Rainbow Baby

I just found this "term" today for new pregnancies after a miscarriage, stillborn or loss of a child. The quote says it all. :-)

"Rainbow Babies" is the understanding that the beauty of a rainbow does not negate the ravages of the storm. When a rainbow appears, it doesn't mean the storm never happened or that the family is not still dealing with its aftermath. What it means is that something beautiful and full of light has appeared in the midst of the darkness and clouds. Storm clouds may still hover but the rainbow provides a counterbalance of color, energy and hope."

NOM NOM NOM

I have not stopped eating ALL day!

I guess it is a good sign that I am coming out of my first trimester and feeling better. But my goodness! I have been hungry and ready to eat all day! Which is a big difference from not wanting to eat ANYTHING for the last 3 months! I just ate half of a thin crust margarita pizza and I still want more. This is so weird. Now if only I could get some of my energy back! :-)

You know you're pregnant when...

Thought I would share some responses from a post on babycenter.com. Most of these comments are not mine. It made me laugh so hard after having such a hard day that I just needed to share. All of the comments are so true and FUNNY, especially because I can relate to so many of them!


There were over 2oo posts but these are my top 10 favorites:
You know you're pregnant when...
*"you're husband looks at you adoringly and you want to slap the crap out of him"
*"you're starving but the thought of any and all food makes you want to puke"
*"when you gas is so bad you start farting in your sleep and it wakes you up"
*"when you've trained yourself to pee before you puke to avoid simultaneous pee/puke action"
*"you really want your husband to cuddle with you but at the same time you wish he would just go to the next room and leave you alone"
*"you spontaneously combust into tears in your husbands arms because you havn't felt good for days, then scream at him for hugging you to hard"
*"you fall flat on your face on the hard bathroom floor becaues you were half asleep getting up to pee"
*"you would rather puke and get it over with than feel nausous all of the time"
*"the thought of eating anything makes you sick, even if you're starving"
*"you're husband can't do anything but laugh when you're a crying uncontrolably because he doesn't know what he can do to help you, and it's probably because you look totally rediculous balling over your pretzels going stale"

I wish I could post more, but there were so many to choose from! 12 weeks today! Next prenatal pointment next wendesday, I'll get to hear the heartbeat!

Starting to feel like myself again!

No major baby update for this post, but I would like to share that I am finally *starting* to feel like myself again. I am having many more good days than bad days. My appetites is slowely coming back for certain foods like fruits. (All I want lately are peaches and pears) and the nausea is, for the most part, almost all gone! The only thing that is still lingering is my moodiness. One of my students parents told me that I would have a girl because I've been so irritable haha. She said it was all of those "girl parts" developing that make your emotions go crazy. Not sure if there is any truth to that but I got a good laugh out of it!

I am so excited to have my next prenatal visit on the 30th because I will get to finally hear the heart beat and hopefully get my next ultrasound appointment set up to find out what the sex of the baby is! I'd really like to find out before my birthday :-) We have a couple of names picked out for either boy or girl so I'll be so excited to find out what it is to finally settle on a name! All I am going to say for now is the initials for a boy: CJM and for a girl: TAM

Am I EVER going to want to eat again?!?!

Pregnancy ailments to date:

Lost a total of 12 lbs. in the last month

Loss of appetite

Nausea

Teeny tiny bladder syndrome

Very very tired....like all the time

On the plus side, no vomiting!!! I feel pretty lucky to not have the vomiting and I'm knock'n on wood that it won't show up in the next few weeks as my 1st trimester comes to an end. The nausea sucks though, but I can typically keep it under control with small snacks.

The notes everyone has been leaving on facebook have been so sweet and I love each and every new one I recieve! We are so BLESSED to have so many amazing friend and family in our lives!

Time to spill the beans about our little bean!!!

We FINALLY got to tell everyone this weekend! First we told my parents and brother on Friday night when they got in to town. Then today we let my extended family know. Travis' family already knew when we told them at a cookout we had a couple of weeks ago. Everyone was so excited and I feel sooooo much better having told everyone. This was the hardest secret to keep!

Anyhow, week 9 is going pretty well! Still no appetite and a little nausea but not enough to keep me away from my mom's cooking! :-) I'll have my first big prenatal appointment on Wednesday then I guess he'll schedule my next ultrasound then.

We have a little bean!!!

We FINALLY got our first ultrasound today! I can't even begin to explain how excited I was when I saw the baby pop up on the screen! And seeing that little heart pumping was just absolutly amazing!

It's all so real now and I can not WAIT to tell everyone. Friday I'll get to tell my parents and brother so after that I'm pretty sure the cat will be outta the bag for good!

Blessed Again

I have this girl in my preschool classroom, Trenady, she's 4 years old and talks to her angels in heaven where here Daddy is. One day we were talking and I asked her "Trend, will you tell those Angels to please send Ms. Katie a little girl just like you?" She looked up at the sky, pointed her little finger and said "Angels!, Send Ms. Katie a baby in her belly just like me!!!"


Two weeks ago, I got to ask Trenady to thank her Angels for me :-)


So here I am..... pregnant!!!! We are excited beyond words about our new little baby.
I can't WAIT to tell my family (and share this blog with them). I have to wait THREE MORE WEEKS to even tell my mom! Being their first grandchild, I want it to be so special when I tell them! Anyhow, they are coming to visit in three weeks, so I have plenty of time to think of a special way to tell them the news! (I'll have my first ultrasound by then too!)


Understandably, I am still nervous because of my previous miscarriage; but I am trying to stay hopefull and positive. Everything seems to be going smoothly and on course. I am feeling good, just tired and a little sick but so so so so so so so so so happy!


So here it is, a blog for my friends and family to track how my pregnancy and beyond is going. Thanks for being here for me. Love you all :-)

Bitter Sweetness

"An Angel in the book of life wrote down my baby's birth,
Then whispered as she closed the book 'too beautiful for earth'"

We love our angel baby....February 2010