Californ-i-a

Our first morning in California began at 4AM when we were wide awake because it was 7 at home. I managed to sleep longer, and Mike got up to study for a while. Since we were awake so early, we took advantage of the morning by ordering room service and lounging around our luxurious accommodations for a while. It was a wonderful morning!!!

Breakfast for 2!Mike and the crazy coffee spread that came complimentary with our room.
Me and our amazing view of SoCal.

Pregnancy Woes

There are very few things I can complain about with my pregnancy. And, let me just say, I LOVE being pregnant! I have felt fabulous, apparently have "the glow," and am generally happy all of the time. The usual tiredness came and went in the first trimester. Since then, it's been smooth sailing.

But I have a few frustrations that as I sit here and try to digest my snack, I must share! I pretty much have to stand up half way through a meal to let it digest down before I can keep eating. So weird! It'll be really inconvenient when we're at some fancy dinner and I excuse myself to stand & digest. :)

The only other complaint I have is watching Mike prime and paint the nursery while I have to wait down the hall. The fumes were really strong, so there's no chance I will help, but it's difficult for me to let him do all the work!

That's all. I love this girl and being pregnant with her!!! Praise God for an easy pregnancy!

Baby Shower!

Our first baby shower was last weekend! The Sabelhauses and Johnsons were generous enough to throw a couples' shower for our Jones friends and a few others. It was wonderful!!! We were overwhelmed by the generosity of our friends and managed to make our house quickly look babified.

The big items we received were our crib mattress!, exersaucer, bouncy seat and baby monitors. We also were given tons of precious clothes, lotions, a framed poem for the nursery wall, a bumbo seat and more. The nursery is looking wonderfully girly!

What a fun day, and I just loved getting to share it with Mike and the other husbands!

(These are the pictures Jen was sweet enough to share with me. I'm still waiting on the ones from my mom's camera)

Sweet Valentine

If you didn't already know this, Mike hates Valentine's Day. My sweet husband who is affectionate, loving and thoughtful thinks it's ridiculous that Hallmark and the rest of the merchandising world plots to make husbands/boyfriends buy things on a particular day. Disclaimer: Last year, he did buy me a diamond cross necklace, but it wasn't ACTUALLY for Valentine's Day. That's just when he gave it to me. Anyways, we got up and made a yummy breakfast together like we love to do on Saturday mornings. Then he tells me there's a card on the mantle for me, so I run to get mine for him. Mine is fairly silly with some serious love in it. His is a handmade card that says this:

Just Because....

Valentine's Day sucks, you don't.

I died laughing. Such a creative mind! There was a little more to it, but that's the jist of it. So, Hallmark, don't even try to come up with another holiday to force him to celebrate! Who knows what else he'll come up with!

We also got to make dinner together. I love this photo, because it's our "new age" way of cooking. Pretty much any time we get creative with cooking, we look to Recipezaar.com. And our laptop becomes our cookbook. The recipes, and the feedback, are FANTASTIC on there!

Our dinner from scratch was delicious! Peppercorn something-or-other beef tenderloin, sun dried tomato risotto and an incredible chocolate sundae cake that may be my new favorite dessert! Topped it off with a bottle of Chianti wine for him and sparkling grape juice for me. We loved just being home together!

(p.s. latest recipe find on Recipezaar.com: Auntie Anne's soft pretzels. I made them last night, and they were wonderful)

War Wound

Dehydration + Small Veins = 3 tries for an IV and nasty bruising!

Please note the side of my wrist, too. No photo could capture the domestic-violence appearance of my arm. But this comes close.

28 weeks!

Here's me at 28 weeks! She's growing quickly -- now about 14 inches long and weighing 2 pounds. She is quite the mover, too. In light of last week's excitements, her heartbeat has since been monitored four times. Every time, the doctor, nurse or tech is amazed at how quickly she escapes the monitoring device. Last week, I fell asleep on my back, which is a no-no. Mike let me lay there for a few minutes and apparently decided he'd see if babygirl was awake. She was, and she put on what he called "A lightning storm" for him for about 10 minute. Since then, our new favorite thing to do before falling asleep is spending about ten minutes with babygirl while she somersaults around in there. It's unbelievable how much she moves when I lay down!!!

We went to my parents' house Friday, and my dad wanted to feel his grandbaby move. I didn't have anything for him all night. So, just before we left, I laid down on the couch to see if we'd get some action. Sure enough, he got to feel her for quite a while. Something about being still and limiting her playground.... It's incredible!

More pictures of our first baby shower and the other fun happenings of late to come! We leave for Cali on Saturday for my big work event, the Winner's Circle!

95 days... Hello, 3rd trimester!

We only have 95 days to go. WE ONLY HAVE 95 DAYS TO GO! Kind of overwhelming when I think about all the things I'd like to do in the next 95 days, plus all of the things we already have planned. But it's all wonderful! I've still been feeling wonderful and getting bigger as the days pass.

I was in Vegas last week on our "official" 26 week picture day, so the 28 week photo will come on Monday!

My mom came to take me out to lunch Monday at work, and we had to stop by this precious baby boutique in Carmel. She found these adorable ruffled bottoms that babygirl must have. And I bought her a must-have headband that mom took home to see if she can figure out how to make more.

Then, I opened a gift that Tony and Joy bought for us to find this darling little outfit. I can just imagine showing babygirl off in this. I just adore things like this. Can't wait to dress her up!!!

Mike's wonderfully generous Aunt Deb works at Carter's and is pretty excited about her new niece. She has been buying things for us and just brought them by this weekend. Check out our new supply of bibs (including Mike's favorite that says "Let's do lunch, it's on me) and a few sweet outfits.

She also bought us a cute pink diaper bag, the softest bunny blanket ever and a sweet white eyelet comforter. I couldn't help but get giddy about using these things for babygirl. She's one blessed little thing!

p.s. We went to the doctor today for a follow up ultrasound to yesterday's happenings. We were able to see babygirl and how well she's doing. The doctor said she checked out fine, and I have no signs of preterm labor. She actually said that what happened yesterday was like my body giving them the finger. Translation: gesturing at labor, but it will not be happening any time soon. Ha!

We have new pictures of babygirl and will post those soon. I am taking it easy this weekend, but we are perfectly fine! Now, I just need to convince that of my General Manager so I can still go to California next weekend for the big event I've been planning all year for work.

Not My Average Wednesday

After anyone asks how I'm feeling, Mike tells them I'm a rockstar. I have felt great and thanked God regularly for that!

Today was a minor blip in that smooth ride, though. I started having strong stomach pains at work and couldn't stand it anymore so I decided to go home. Mike suggested I call the doctor to be sure it wasn't a concern. So I did, and they told me I should go to the hospital, which of course made me start crying from fear of the unknown. Mike was on the northside in a meeting, so my mom picked me up and took me in.

After getting set up, they monitored babygirl's heartbeat and my uterus for contractions. Turns out it was a combination of dehydration and having contractions that was causing my pain. They put me on a heavy IV to rehydrate plus Gatorade, gave me a shot to stop the contractions and checked to make sure I wasn't producing the protein that would cause preterm labor.

After five hours of being there, everything checked out okay and the pains went away. After praying all day, we are now praising God for it not being anything more serious!

One of the blessings out of this was that my mom got to feel babygirl spinning around in there for quite a while. As the nurse put it, for how far along we are, she's moving around "shockingly well." We also heard her heartbeat on the monitor (when she'd stay still long enough) for the entire 5 hours. My dad, Rachel, Abby and Mike's mom all got a call to hear the heartbeat, too. What a wonderful sound!

All is well. Babygirl is great, and I'm feeling much better! Just thought you'd want to know.