Maverick turns ONE!

Today is Maverick's 1st birthday! I can't believe it. He's gotten so big and yet acts just like the puppy dog I've known since we brought him home crying that day in March :)

He has been SO good for me. Bryan & I joke about him being my therapist ... except it's pretty true. I don't want him growing up too fast - just like I'm sure I'll feel about the baby.
He's sweet, goofy, smart, loving. He knows how to make his Momma feel special by bringing her his favorite toy, or by making her feel better by putting his head in her lap or on her shoulder. I love this little furball. And all of his wiggles and grunts.

I think God knew exactly what he was doing as we picked this little man out.
Thanks for being awesome, Maverick!
We love you buddy!

healthy baby girl, sick puppy dog

Today was full of ups and downs :) The ups definitely outweighed the bummers though!

School was great, as it has been this entire semester so far. I'm much more prepared and organized, and I'm doing all of my own lesson plans and assessments, which means my students are really learning a lot, and I'm doing a better job teaching - always a good thing! Recently my supervisor has also mentioned how pleased she has been with my work too, and how happy she's been with my teaching which makes me VERY happy! After last year, this is such a lovely and welcome change. Last semester was good, but this semester is even better. Here's to hoping it stays that way!

And then I had my monthly midwife appointment - everything looks great with me. Following the appointment with the midwife, I had baby's anatomy scan! My parents, and Bryan were all able to be there for it too, which was really awesome. This is a scan done on almost all pregnancies these days to check the heart, lungs, bone growth, skull development, etc. She looked great on all accounts - lots of hand/foot movement, we even saw her sucking/swallowing amniotic fluid which was SO COOL! Her heartbeat was right around 140, strong and steady. They double-checked the sex for us - as the ultrasound technician said, "she's still a rose - I don't see a thorn" :) good thing ... or we would have some little girl clothes to exchange :/

She weighed in at 15 ounces - one ounce shy of an entire POUND! No wonder I've been so hungry - she was only 8 ounces the week before Christmas, so she's nearly doubled in weight in less than a month. That's a serious growth spurt. Between her weight, and all the other measurements of her femur, abdomen, and head, her new due date is looking somewhere between May 22 and May 28th. {Dad is of course rooting for May 25 :) - wouldn't that be fun?!}

Although slightly on the small side (who is surprised???), she's looking close to average and healthy, praise God! Mommy's doing well too - thank you, Lord. And I've made it to the chiropractor every single day this week - and almost every single day last week to work on the 3 pinched nerves. 2 of them are doing much better, and he's going to continue to work on the sciatic (sp?) nerve, which hopefully won't take too much longer to fix. Plus it helps with some of the other aches in my back, hips and neck. Apparently these are common complaints of carrying around a child :)

We were given a few pictures of sonogram to take home, and Bryan will scan those in at work tomorrow so I can post them here!

Unfortunately, between school, the midwife, and the chiropractor, I didn't make it home until 4:30 (I'm usually home by 3:30). I didn't think an extra hour would be too much for the puppies, but I felt bad about it. When I got home, though, I realized what a rough day one of the puppies had ... :(

Maverick clearly had an upset stomach, and pooped all over his kennel - which unfortunately also included the walls and carpet nearby. It was of course also all over his bedding and him. His cheek fur was really wet, which happens when he cries a lot - which I would too if I had an upset stomach, couldn't go to the bathroom and was stuck going in my kennel where I had to lay down on all of it. Poor puppy!! I felt horrible. I let him out, calmed him down, got him cleaned up and then got started on cleaning the kennel, the bedding, the walls, and the carpet. Yuck. Bless his heart.

I couldn't help but think of my sonogram earlier ... she looks so adorable and sweet in there, but you KNOW she's going to be all of those things PLUS a mess when she comes out :) This won't be the first round of poop all over the place I'll be cleaning up, I'm sure. Bring it on little girl (and little puppies) - I'll love you anyway :) Even if I WOULD prefer all of that mess stay in the grass or in a diaper.

Sorry about the long post!! I guess I just kept going.

One last thing: I keep remembering our second favorite name, Hannah Marie, and wondering if we should switch to that? AH! I'm beginning to think this child should just remain nameless forever since I'm horrible at committing to something this permanent. Please be warned - the name could continue to change up to and including the day she's born. Then again, maybe we'll come in a full circle and back to sweet Rory Elizabeth she'll be! Haha.

Photographer!!

I'm so stinking excited!! I've been searching high and low all over Houston for the perfect photographer - creative, fun, easy to work with, and affordable - and hadn't found one that quite fit the bill until yesterday when (thanks to recommendations) I stumbled across TWO photographers that would be perfect.

After a little more research and phone interviews, we will be using Shannon Morton - the daughter-in-law of a family friend of ours! She was so sweet, and excited about the ideas I had, and clearly has a heart for children and families.

We're going to be taking Maternity pictures (Bryan included :) sometime early to mid April - we're going to check on Bryan's work schedule before we set a firm date. We'll do half of the pictures in Kyle Field & half outside in a more traditional setting (think field, old timey house, something like that). Depending on how that goes, we may also ask her to take the newborn pictures.

I am so, so thankful to have found someone. Another item checked off my list! Especially since my belly is growing :)

20 weeks

Well, I still haven't been very good with the blog lately. I've been doing 4 lesson plan preps from scratch, teaching, grading, baby planning, house work, dog walking, you name it ... I'm sure I'm only going to get busier, but these days I can't wait to go to bed at some fabulous hour like 8pm :) Or earlier if I can manage it!

This belly shot was taken at 20 weeks, 0 days on Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Precious baby girl,

I've officially been carrying you around with me for TWENTY weeks! We are halfway there to meeting you and introducing you to our world on the outside. A world with mommies, daddies, grandparents, friends, puppies, and sooo many cute clothes. Yesterday (Friday, January 13) for the very first time, your Daddy felt you kick! Who says Friday the 13ths are bad luck? He was so incredibly excited. We just laid there grinning at each other for long minutes. You are so loved already! I've been feeling you move around for about a week and a half now, and it's so much fun that Daddy can now feel it too.

We get to see you again on Wednesday! It's time for your anatomy scan which is our way of checking your little heart, lungs, digestive system, and other things to make sure everything is developing properly. If it's not, we'll have doctor's standing by to help you out when you're born, and if everything's perfect (as I'm sure it is) then we just get a chance to watch you wiggle for half an hour - sounds like a win-win situation to us!

You seem to really love to be active as soon as I start to eat, but the rest of the time I guess you're pretty sleepy because you don't move around too much then. I've been singing Disney songs to you in the shower and in the car, and Nona gave me some books to read to you while you're growing in my tummy. I've been reading them, and can't wait to see if you recognize the stories later on.

Oh - and if it's you that's actually wanting all the Sour Patch Kids, and not me - take it easy :) Mommy's done well with keeping the weight gain to a minimum, and you don't want to come out craving sugar highs!!! Frozen yogurt, though, I will never say no to :)

Love you so much!!
Hugs from the outside!
Mommy

I forgot: ~Happy New Year~

I forgot in my last post - HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I should have added in my previous post that on New Year's Eve we stopped by our street block's party briefly to hang out with everyone, watch the kiddos with their sparklers, and enjoy the feeling of community we have with our neighbors.

2011 was lovely, and I have a feeling 2012 is going to be pretty action packed.

And for those (*Cough* MOM) that required me to eat black eyed peas every year growing up for good luck (GROSS), I definitely didn't this year!! (This is me inserting my independence or something, haha.)
But I have a feeling we're going to be very blessed anyway! :)
(Love you, Mom :)

Update + Weekend Doings

So Saturday was crazy (see previous post), but as of today (Monday) the bleeding has completely ceased and zero contractions are occurring. I still have minor cramping, but nothing out of the ordinary. Thank you Lord! Baby'n'I are doing just fine :) Thank you so incredibly much for the prayers we know were going up for all of us.

(This also means I can go to the gym again tomorrow - thank goodness!)

Since I wasn't supposed to do much this weekend, we kept things pretty low key.

Sunday my parents invited us to go see the Texans vs. the Titans game, which was a pretty big game, especially for the Titans who are fighting for a place in the playoffs. The Texans are thankfully already guaranteed a spot in the playoffs because they lost by one point in the last teensy moments of the game. We were able to sit up in the luxury of the Anadarko suite, watch the game, eat some deeelicious food, have an endless water supply and a nearby *clean* restroom - an AWESOME way to attend a football game :)

That afternoon we arrived at home and I immediately took a nap while Bryan played with the dogs and even helped wash dishes! (Brownie points to the fella.)

Around 6pm Collin & Laura came over, we ordered pizza and played a new board game: Fact or Crap. I really thought I'd lose desperately because I have almost ZERO useless information stored in my brain, whereas Collin & Bryan and FULL of it. However, I held my own until the very end and Collin just managed to pull ahead of me - doh! I do love to win :) But at least I came in 2nd instead of dead last! It was fun - mostly just a lucky guessing game. It was so wonderful to spend time with our friends. Plus, they gave us an ADORABLE baby girl bow - oh my goodness it's cute, and a sweet ornament of a pregnant woman with a place to put our due date for the Christmas tree. Thank you again, guys! It'll be on our tree next Christmas - probably right next to a "Baby's 1st Christmas" ornament :)

Today Bryan and I had one last day off together. We have LOVED getting to spend so much time in each other's company. You never know how almost 3 straight weeks of each other - including close to 50 hours in the car - will go, and it was just wonderful. I think we were really savoring all of the time we got to just talk and hang out before we have the little one here. I'm really bummed that he's headed back to work tomorrow, but I so appreciate how hard he works for our family. I'll be headed back to work on Thursday, too, so it won't seem as lonely at home for very long :)

Taking advantage of a week day off together, we made a bed-and-bedroom shopping plan. We hit up Rooms-to-Go, Mattress Firm, Star Furniture, Saltgrass (tortilla soup!! yumm), Mattress Firm AGAIN, Rooms-to-Go AGAIN, Mattress Firm AGAIN, and Rooms-to-Go one last time .... oh my word I was exhausted. We may have overdone a little bit, but we have a new mattress and a bedroom set being delivered to our house on Wednesday!! I'll take pictures as soon as it's here. Very exciting!!

Now we're watching some football and loving on the puppies. It was a good weekend despite the "taking it easy" mandate!