Baby showers and great friends

Well, another very fun, but very busy weekend has passed. Yesterday, I helped hostess a baby shower for my friend Sally. We all had such a great time seeing each other, and the shower turned out beautiful! This picture is of Sally (front right) and all the hostesses.








Afterwards, I ate dinner with some of my great Auburn friends whom I haven't seen in maybe 4-5 years. We had so much fun catching up with each other. They're all way ahead of me in the children department, though! Anna and Brooke have 3 beautiful children each and Paige has 2 and is expecting her third now! How things have changed since our single Auburn days! It was wonderful to see everyone.



And here's a better tummy picture for you. I'm between 29 and 30 weeks right now. I have 10-11 weeks to go, but so far I'm really enjoying being pregnant. I'm going to miss feeling little Isabella moving around. It's just the most amazing feeling. I only wish I could describe it, but it makes me feel closer to her and closer to God. What a miracle and a blessing she is.

Latest updates

So, I haven't been very good about keeping this blog up-to-date. We've had a very busy couple of weeks. John is getting ready for exams, which start April 25, so he's been at the library a lot lately. In the meantime, I'm trying to keep myself occupied so that I'm not distracting him if he does happen to be home or not whining about the fact that he's not home and therefore not hanging out with me. So, I've been scheduling myself with lots of little projects or friends to hang out with.

The latest pregnancy update is that I don't have gestational diabetes!! Some of you probably have no idea how stressed I was about the possibility of this diagnosis. The doctors would have to put me on a very restrictive low sugar diet, which in itself is extremely difficult for me, but add to that all the other pregnancy related diet restrictions and I felt like I wouldn't be able to eat anything fun at all. So, I'm very relieved to inform you all that I am allowed to have sugar!! Otherwise, everything is going according to schedule. Little Izzy is growing and moving all the time. Her heart rate continues to be a perfect 140 bpm (should be between 120-160 bpm.) That's my girl! John's reading her bedtime stories when he gets to take a break from studying, and we're just enjoying our last few months of good rest.

The picture I'm posting is the chair we ordered for our nursery. The room color has yet to be officially decided, but it'll be some shade of blue. Yes, I realize that I'm breaking the rules for a little girl room, but that's my favorite color and I'm a girl, so I'm doing it. This is actually the color and the fabric for the chair also, but you may not be able to see the fabric very well. For those of you that come to see our nursery in person, I'll let you test the chair, because it's quite comfortable and John approved it for his height as well.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! I've been very bad about updating this blog lately. It's just been very busy. This past weekend, I went with my good friends Sally and Jami on a hunt for the perfect rocker/glider for my nursery, only to learn I have a lot of research ahead of me! John's only requirement is for a rocker tall enough for his head to have a resting place, which is actually harder than it sounds to find. Well, then you have my requirements for appearance, cushion and wood colors and that sort of thing. So, the search continues.

As most of you know, today is Easter Sunday, and we celebrated our Lord's resurrection with the rest of our family. I'm including my latest pregnancy shot at 25-26 weeks. (In just a few more days, I'll be 6 months pregnant. It's very hard to believe.) I love you all! I hope you had a happy Easter!

5 Months and counting

Well, as of Thursday I'm officially 5 months pregnant. I can't believe this is all going by so quickly. Of course, as friends have told me it feels like things really slow down as you get closer. Isabella's moving a lot now and it can be a little distracting while I'm trying to treat patients. I'll be sitting there asking this new patient questions about what's wrong with her shoulder and little Izzy will be kicking and moving all around or I'll be trying to fall asleep and she'll choose just that moment to decide to wake up and start moving. She's definitely getting stronger. John got to feel her last weekend for the first time. He's been a little jealous that he doesn't know what if feels like, and at first I felt a little sad for him. Then, I remembered... he doesn't have to gain all this weight or be uncomfortable or actually give birth, and all those sympathetic feelings disappear. The other development of the week is that I've finally decided it's time to give up my "regular" work pants. They're starting to get tighter and less comfortable so it's time to switch over. It makes me a little sad to leave them behind, but I think it'll feel a lot better when I do. (Just a sidenote, but I switched to maternity jeans a little while back. My work pants were much looser to start with.) Next week will mark the true maternity wear beginning. Otherwise, nothing too eventful has happened. I don't have any new symptoms. I go through periods where I'll be really tired or really hungry and then periods where I feel pretty normal. It's been a really fun and exciting experience so far. We can't wait to meet this little girl!

A Special Quilt

I'm working on a very special quilt for little Isabella. The church I have attended since I was little used to make these beautiful baby quilts with embroidered Bible scenes. I've always admired them, and told my mom a few years ago that I wanted her to make all the squares on my quilt whenever I had a baby. She said it'd take a little time to get it all done, but she would start early (before I was pregnant.) She passed away in November following a 2 year battle with breast cancer, and didn't get to complete the quilt. But she did know that little Isabella was on her way, and was very proud and excited. So, I picked up where she left off, and my aunt and I are working on it together to finish it before Isabella gets here.

It's actually been kind of fun and a little frustrating at times, but I'm enjoying the process. I'll be really excited to tell the stories to Isabella as we look at the beautiful quilt her grandmother, great aunt, and mom made for her.

This picture is of a completed quilt. And the one above is a picture is of my first completed square. And this last one is an action shot of the work in progress.

And we have a theme...

Another busy week is behind us, but the BIG accomplishment of the week is that I've picked out my baby's crib bedding AT LAST. What this really means is that I now have a baby theme and can do more SHOPPING!! So, here's the story. I've been looking for just the right bedding and theme for the room and have truly hunted and agonized over this important decision. Should we go with a very girly/pink room or something more generic that can be used a second time if we were to have a little boy. Oh, the choices... You can't pick colors for the room without a theme, as you all know. My friend, Sally, told me about this great website/store where they make custom bedding, with tons of fabrics I just loved. In fact, I was going to the store in Fairhope this coming weekend just to see what I should get, when I happened on the perfect bedding at Pottery Barn Kids. Of course, you'd know that I picked the bedding that was no longer available and isn't going to be made anymore. It just so happened to be the one John liked the best too. So, everything else I showed him to get an opinion, I got this comment instead, "I really like the Twinkle Little Star better." To which I would reply, "Me too, but it's not available anymore." Well, not being one to give up, I did an internet search for some other vendor selling something close to what we wanted. When that failed, I drove to the store and of course, didn't see the Twinkle Little Star pattern anywhere. Still not giving up, I asked the very tired salesperson if she could please check and see if they had it anywhere in the store. She said they probably didn't, but she'd ask someone in the stockroom. Well, you'll never believe it (but I guess this would be a terrible story if this weren't the case) but they did have it in stock and it was on SALE!! So, I got exactly what John and I really wanted, and at an extremely discounted price. I feel very accomplished today, and quite proud of my perseverance.

It's hard to see just how cute it is until you see it in person, but once we have a room together I'll post new pictures. Our little girl's crib is a dark cherry wood, but I think the room will probably be yellow, or maybe blue or green. As you can see, there are so many decisions to be made. This is only the beginning!

What a week...

It's been a pretty busy week for us. This week includes not only Valentine's Day, but John's birthday as well. We started his birthday week with bread pudding from Mimi on Saturday, then I made a special, "requested" dinner for John on Monday (not his birthday, but for the following reasons had to be celebrated that day.) Tuesday, I had dinner with Alissa and Cortney at a very special new restaurant in Homewood, Mama Goldberg's deli, an Auburn favorite recently opened by some good friends. Wednesday, John's birthday, John spent his evening at a dinner/interview for a firm he wants to intern with this summer, and of course, he opened gifts when he got home. We also had a surprise cake, made by my aunt Kathy, which was to-die-for. Thursday was V'day and I was surprised with beautiful red and pink tulips at work and taken to a very nice dinner at Open Door Cafe in Mountain Brook. Neither of us had ever been there, and we REALLY enjoyed the food and atmosphere. It's a very cute, laid back restaurant. We finished the busy week Friday night with a small gathering of friends for dinner, cake/ice cream, and a game of Scene It (one of John's birthday gifts) on the XBox 360. I have officially had my fill of all the sweets and chocolate I'm probably supposed to have this whole pregnancy. If I haven't gained 5 pounds this week, it's a miracle! So, we're spending our Saturday night watching a movie and laying around, which I must say makes me quite happy. It's time to rest up for the excitement of next week...