Stretch It Out

The neck stretches that we've been doing with Carter for the last week have helped out tremendously. He is already straightening up his head and I was even able to lay him down tonight with his head facing the other direction for once! I was kinda worried that he'd be stuck like this for a while, but it's looking like a speedy recovery. He was also having a serious problem with spitting up, but I switched him to Enfimil A.R. formula and his spitting up has gotten a lot less.

We got a jogging stroller from daddy for Christmas, so now it's time for mommy to get back in shape. So far I've gone on two walks with it. I'm not quite up to the jogging yet, but have been doing some serious power walking. It helps that I live in Tennessee and there is nothing but hills in my neighborhood, so I should be forming buns of steel soon.

Anyway, I'm making this quick because Carter man just went to bed (11:30) and I'm headed that way right now. Later.

Birth Trauma

Birth trauma has defined Carter's life ever since...well...birth. As you may already know, due to Carter's large size ( 9 lbs. 6 oz. ) his collar bone was broken as he was making his way into this world. As tramatizing as that was for me, he finally got better and I thought he could finally be a normal baby. Well I was wrong. I had noticed that he always slept with his head turned to the same side and when he was in his swing or car seat it was the same way. He was starting to develop a flat spot on the one side of his head, so I told the doctor about it at his 1 month check up today. He looked at him and determined he had Torticollis. This is a condition that is caused by the over tightening of his neck muscle and it pulls his head to one side. This was also a result of birth trauma. The doctor said it could be fixed by stretching his head to the opposite side everytime we change his diaper, but if that doesn't fix it then physical therapy may be necessary.

I'm usually not one to get too worked up about things like this, but it's really starting to wear on me. I just want my baby to be healthy and happy and I feel like he's been suffering his entire life so far. I just hope that the neck stretches will correct this problem, because I really don't want to have my newborn in physical therapy. He's already been through so much.

All I have to say about this situation is that if I know I'm going to have a large baby next time, I'm going to have a C-section. I'd rather have my belly cut open then have my baby injured. But we have to deal with what we were dealt right now and all I can do is pray for a speedy recovery. I just gotta have faith that God will take care of this child and he'll be okay eventually.

Fatsy Patsy

So ever since Carter came home from the hospital our dogs haven't gotten quite the same kind of attention that they used to get. Let's face it, they went from being our "babies" that got pushed around in strollers for entertainment to being just our dogs. So in their depression I have noticed that they had been eating a lot more than usual; especially Patsy. They went from sharing 2 1/2 scoops of food a day to eating about 4 -5 scoops of food a day. They would scarf the first 2 1/2 scoops down in the morning and then at night they would sit by the bowl and beg for more. How could I turn them down?

Well, I walked into my bedroom the other night to see Patsy laying on my nice pillows from my bed and I noticed that she looked a lot fatter than usual. She's a very tiny Pug and only weighed 14 lbs the last time she was at the Vet. This is very tiny compared to my first Pug, Otis, who weighed 32 lbs. Since I thought she looked bigger than usual, I decided to put her on our scale. It's a cheap scale and may not be that accurate, but none the less it said she weighed around 19 or 20 lbs!!!! Holy cow, dog! How did you gain 5 lbs?! Now that I pay more attention, she does look like a swollen sausage. I wish it wasn't so cold or I would take her on a walk, but I can't take the baby out in this.

So for now, she will be going by the alias Fatsy Patsy. So fitting.

Strong Baby

Carter seems to be pretty strong for a 3 week old. I don't know, you be the judge.

Carter on Camera

Here's a little clip of our baby in action.

Labor Pains

Warning: This blog will describe my labor in detail and unless you want to hear about fluids and cervixes, you may want to close it out right now.

I checked into the hospital on Wednesday, Nov. 18 at 8:00 p.m. After getting me hooked up to an IV, blood pressure cuff, and 2 belly monitors, the nurse slipped a small pill into my vagina to help ripen my cervix. I must admit this pill felt like a football, but I'm sure it was much smaller. At that point I was 1 cm dialated and 70% effaced. She said she would be back in 4 hours to insert another pill and that I should try and get some sleep. What a joke! First off, as if the monitors on my belly weren't uncomfortable enough, the blood pressure cuff would squeeze my harm very tightly once every hour. Needless to say, 4 hours went by and I got no sleep at all. She inserted the 2nd pill at about 1 a.m. and at that point I was 2 cm dialated and 80% effaced. I once again tried to get some shut eye, but had no luck. At 2 a.m. my contractions started. I was watching the monitor and they were peaking out at the very top and I was astonished that they didn't hurt that bad. I could feel that my uterus was getting extremely tight, but the pain just wasn't that bad. I couldn't figure it out. Then at 3:00 a.m. I decided to call my mom, because I needed someone there that could understand what I was going through. I think she got there at about 4:30 a.m., just in time for my water to break at 4:45 a.m. I was attempting to get out of bed and move around a little bit before the pain got too bad and as I was doing that the flood gates burst. The doctor told me I had a lot of fluid in there and she wasn't lying. To my surprise the nurse acted a little upset about me messing up part of the bed as if something like this had never happened before.

Once my water broke I decided to get back in bed. At that point the nurse asked me if I wanted to get in line for my epidural, because the guy was there to do it and he had 2 ladies in front of me. I didn't really want to do it that early, but decided to get in line while I had the chance. Good thing I did. After my water broke, the pain set in. My contractions were only about half as strong as they were in the beginning but they hurt about 4 times as bad. You can never begin to understand the pain that goes along with labor contractions until you experience them. I've experienced a lot of pain in my life, but this was by far the worst. None of my menstrual cramps, broken bones, or tattoos could ever match the pain I felt with these contractions. Keep in mind I've had to take heavy pain killers for my cramps, I have a very large tattoo on my back (along with two other tattoos), and I've broken two fingers and my tailbone. This was a new kind of pain and that epidural couldn't come soon enough.

At about 6:00 or 6:30 a.m. I got my epidural and I was about 3 cms dialated if I remember correctly. I hated the guy that gave it to me because he was a major jerk and was yelling at me because my muscle would spasm when he put the needle in my back. I couldn't help it!! I had no control over what my muscle decided to do. He also told my husband how he was glad Notre Dame was doing poorly because he didn't like big colleges like that. Ass! Once he got the epidural set he asked me to tell him if I tasted metal in my mouth or had ringing in my ears. I was praying neither of these things would happen, but after a few seconds I could feel my heart rate jump through the roof and I heard it pounding in my ears. I hesitated to tell him, but thought I'd better go ahead because I didn't know what was going on. He then said in an angry tone that he was going to have to start all over because he had his a blood vessel. *Keep in mind this guy was very pessimistic and kept telling me the entire time how it may not work and he doesn't garauntee anything*. He started over and explained that he basically had no idea where he was placing it because he couldn't see inside my spine. The second time around I heard nothing and tasted nothing, so it seemed as though he had placed it correctly this time. I got back in bed and in about 15 to 20 mins my legs went numb. This made me very happy, but at the same time was a little unnerving. The epidural was so heavy that I couldn't move or control my left leg at all. It kept wanting to slip off the side of the bed and I couldn't do anything about it. Kinda weird.

The nurse checked me once again and I was at 4 cms. It was at this point that I finally felt like I could get some rest. Brett's mom and my dad were called and they both were planning on arriving at the hospital at about 11:00 or maybe a little later. At some point my epidural began to wear off on the left side and I was feeling some pretty terrible pain once again. I told the nurse and she hit the red button to give me a second dose and that seemed to make all the pain go away. I had a little more feeling in my legs this time around which I felt much better about.

Once 10:30 rolled around the nurse checked me again and I was at 9 1/2 cms. She couldn't believe I was already so far along and it was going to be time to push. She made a call to the doctor and began to get everything ready to get this baby out. My mom got on the phone with my dad, who was still at work, and told him to hurry up because the baby was on the way. At about 11:00 am or so the doctor checked me and said the baby had already moved down through the birth canal and his head was knocking at the door. She said my body had already done the hardest part and that all I had to do was finish pushing him out. So I began pushing and was making a little progress with every push. To make a long story a little shorter, they turned off my epidural so I could feel my contractions, the doctor gave me a shot of numbing agent towards the end so I couldn't feel the burning sensation down there, then she gave me a 2nd degree episiotomy, and Carter Joseph Mitchell entered this world at 11:45 a.m. on November 19, 2009. As he was making his grand entrance about 10 gallons of amniotic fluid shot across the room. It was like Niagra Falls in there. I felt a ton lighter, but they needed a mop to clean it up. Due to Carter's large size the doctor and another nurse had to tug on him pretty hard to get his shoulders out and he ended up with a broken collar bone. Poor baby. He weighed in at 9 lbs. 6 oz. and was 21 in. long.

It's been 12 days and we're adjusting to life with this new baby in it. I find the biggest struggle we have is getting his pacifier to stay in his mouth. Really, I've debated putting tape on it to keep it in. He fusses to have it, but then spits it out every 30 seconds. This has led to 2 sleepless nights, but the rest have been good. I didn't have any luck getting him to nurse, but have been able to pump and feed him with the bottle. It may be double the work, but it's totally worth it. He's the best early Christmas present God could have ever given me. Me and his daddy love him sooooooooo much. We look forward to watching him grow up and raising him in the ways of the Lord.

Within Reach

The arrival of my baby boy is finally within reach. I went to my OB appointment this afternoon and she scheduled me for an induction on Thursday morning. I have to go into the hospital tomorrow night at 8, so they can start medicating my cervix and about 8 hours after that, they'll start me on the Petocin. Not that I'm real excited about being induced, because I've heard it's a harder labor, but I am very excited to meet this little boy. I'm also excited to get this watermelon out of my belly.

Today I was 1cm dialated and 70% effaced, so she was also able to scrape my membranes in hopes to kick start labor on it's own. All I know now is that after that little experience, I know I am way too big of a wuss for natural labor. Bring on the epidural!!! Anyway, I'm hurting a lot in my lower back tonight, so I don't know if that means anything or not. Maybe I'll end up going in tonight. Who knows? All I do know is that my little guy will be here within a couple days!! I guess this means no New Moon for me. Maybe when he's a month old I'll leave him with my mom for a couple hours so I can still catch that movie while it's in the theater. But I'll definitely take a baby over a movie anyday.

So here's to given birth! Should be quite the experience. I'll let ya'll know when he's here.

Tears work

So I have to update the status of my work situation, because it's easy to bitch but sometimes I forget to comment on the positive things. After having a very "pregnant" day the other day and getting really upset about my "boss" making suggestions about my maternity leave again, I lost it and called my mom while crying to ask for her help. Well she had a talk with the boss and the next day he called me into his office to apologize for putting pressure on me about my time off. He just explained that he's gonna miss me while I'm gone because I've become such a good salesperson. Nothing like a good compliment to make all my hormonal moodiness fade away. He agreed to leave me alone about it and he's now being very flexible with my schedule during my last week or so of work. For instance, today I felt like I got run over by a freight train (I came down with an even worse cold than I've had for the last month) and he let me go home after just a couple hours of work. It might have something to do with my non-stop coughing and nose blowing. Or maybe the fact that I sound like Pee Wee Herman when I'm on the phone with customers. Either way, I'm at home now trying to rest up before this baby comes and that makes me very happy.

Speaking of coughing...I managed to cough my mucus plug out. Hopefully the baby is soon to follow.


P.S. For those of you who haven't caught on yet, my "boss" is also my dad. Gotta love him!!

So Close I Can Taste It

38 1/2 weeks

Well I'm at 38 1/2 weeks right now and my due date/induction date are so close I can almost taste them. I still have to wait until Tuesday to meet with the Dr. to schedule my induction, but her nurse did call me back and tell me she's not on-call again until the 23rd and that's most likely when she'll induce me. My due date is on the 24th. So if I don't go into labor before then (and I doubt I will) I'm most likely looking at only 10 more days of being pregnant. I can not believe I'm already to this point. It seems like just yesterday I found out I was pregnant and now the baby will be here any day. I will definitely have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Another good thing is that if I induce on the 23rd, I can still see New Moon before I have the baby. Woo hoo!!

Control Freak

For those of you who know me well and even for those that don't know me very well, but read my blog on a regular basis, probably know that I'm a control freak. Yes, that's right, I have no problem admitting it because I have no intention on changing it either. I try to control every aspect of my life and want to plan every last event no matter how unpredictable the event. This of course includes the birth of my child. You have no idea how crazy it drives a control freak like myself to not know when my child is going to be born and be able to plan accordingly. Even worse, is that my baby is due 2 days before Thanksgiving, so the thought of not knowing how to plan my holiday has been driving me nuts. BUT, I've managed to find a way to control even the most unpredictable of events.

Back in September when I took my child birthing class that was offered by my hospital, the labor nurse teaching the class gave us all a golden nugget of information. She let us all know that our hospital allows women to induce at 39 weeks if necessary. At first I wasn't that interested in doing that, but as I got larger and more uncomfortable I began thinking more seriously about inducing early. I had mentioned it to a few of the doctors I was seeing in my practice, but my suggestions kept getting shot down. Well finally at my last appointment the Dr. I saw told me I was measuring big and she wanted to get an ultrasound. Well when the ultrasound estimated my baby at already being 8lbs. 3oz., I was determined to induce early. So as I was on my way out of the office, I grabbed my nurse and asked her about inducing early because of the size of the baby. She said she'd talk to my Dr. and get back to me later that evening.

At around 5:30 last night, I got a call from my nurse letting me know that she had discussed my ultrasound with my Dr. and my Dr. had decided that when I come in on Tuesday she would schedule me for an induction. It would have to be on a day that she was on call, but she said my Dr. was on call that Thursday. So I was super excited. But then she mentioned Nov. 12 being the date that my Dr. was on call and due to all my excitement I didn't realize until I hung up that she was looking at the wrong week. So now I'm not sure when my Dr. is on call next week, but I will soon find out. Either way, she indicated without being able to tell me 100% for sure, that I would be induced next week. I just about went through the roof with excitement!!!!! Seriously, did I really get my way once again? Most women have to wait at least a week after their due date to be induced and I'm getting to induce several days before my due date. I guess my gross weight gain has paid off after all and has given me a big enough baby that they want to get him out of there.

So now let's just pray that my Dr. doesn't change her mind when I go into see her on Tuesday. God knows I have little patience and won't be able to handle waiting much longer. Here's to being a control freak even in an uncontrollable situation!

Future Linebacker

I went in for my ultrasound this morning to see how big this little boy is getting and boy did I get a surprise. Well, actually I wasn't that surprised considering how huge I'm getting. The technician gave me a current estimated weight of 8lbs. 3oz. I almost hit the floor. No, just kidding, I was actually happy about this because maybe it will encourage my Dr. to let me induce on the 20th. I'm praying so hard!!!! I really don't want to wait another 2 to 3 weeks for him to arrive, because he could be 10lbs by then. I have absolutely no desire to give birth to something that large.

I was hoping to get a really good look at this baby since the last time he was so small I couldn't tell much, but this time he was too big to see much. I did get to see the cute little foot that is always kicking me in the side and one of his eyes, because the other one is facing my back. But the best thing of all was seeing all that hair on his head!! Yep, they could identify hair on his little dome and I was very pleased. Now I know all the heartburn was worth it.

My question is, do newborns this big actually fit into the newborn size clothes? I know the tags always say 5 - 8 lbs, but I was wondering how accurate that is. He's got some pretty cute newborn outfits that I would hate for him to miss out on.

Anyway, I will keep everyone updated on my little linebacker. Hopefully it won't be much longer!

Walking Zombie

A zombie...that's what I've become in the last week or so. I think I'm getting a total of 30 mins of sleep at night and it's beginning to wear on me a bit. This wouldn't be so bad, but I'm still working full time and will be doing so until I go to the hospital and have this child. I don't mind working, because it's better than sitting at home all day with nothing to do, but some sympathy about my situation would be nice! My "boss" doesn't seem to understand the whole maternity leave thing. I can't count all the times over the last month or so that I've been asked to come back before Carter is 6 weeks old. I'm already working up to my due date, what more do you want?! Also my remarks about most women quiting a couple weeks before their due date or taking off more than 6 weeks once their baby is born are bashed as if I'm making it up! So the latest suggestion was that I take 2 of my 6 weeks off before the baby is born. If you do the math, that means going back to work when Carter is 4 weeks old. So needless to say, I am running on no sleep and I totally lost it after that remark. I don't think I'm asking for anything extraordinary by expecting some flexibility in my schedule these last couple of weeks and wanting to stay home for 6 weeks after the baby is born. But I want to know what other moms have done. Because all the ones that I have talked to have left work a couple weeks early or have taken a little longer than 6 weeks off after their child was born. So moms out there, what did you do?

On another, less annoyed note, I had my 38 week check up today. I'm still not dilating or thinning, but my belly is measuring a couple of weeks ahead. So the doctor scheduled me for an ultrasound tomorrow to see how big this baby is getting. I'm hoping he's big enough that they suggest inducing me early. I just don't see the point in doing it if that wasn't their intention. But I won't be seeing the Dr. to discuss it until next Tuesday anyway.

Anyway, I'm going to try and scrape up my remaining sanity off the floor and do something productive now. I'll keep ya'll updated on what I find out from the ultrasound. Later!

Warning: Girl Stuff

If you're a guy and you still chose to open up this blog and read it, don't say I didn't warn you first.

I went for my 37 week check up yesterday and was hoping and praying the Dr. would say I was 100% effaced and 4 cms dialated and would send me over to the hospital. But, that didn't happen. Instead I got the news that no pregnant lady this close to her due date wants to hear. "You haven't changed a whole lot from last week." There was absolutely no dialating going on, but she did tell me my cervix was beginning to soften. I'm not sure if that's very significant, but at least it's some progress. I guess this still doesn't surprise me a whole lot, because I've only had a handful of contractions, but it's still disappointing. I really don't want to go into labor right now, but I would like to know that I was making some progress and if my baby came by the 20th, I'd be very happy. My Dr. got called into a delivery yesterday, so I didn't get to see her and had to ask her nurse about possibly inducing early. My hospital allows women to induce at 39 weeks, but all the doctors at the place I go to seem to be against it. I keep throwing dates out there and they keep getting shot down. My nurse said we could talk about it with Dr. Moss if everything seems to be progessing well by then. Once again, not what I wanted to hear. What I wanted her to say is "Sure! What date would you like for us to schedule you for? Do you have any special requests? Would you like a mint on your pillow when you arrive?" I did throw Nov. 20th out there for suggestion and she just said, "well we'd like for it to be a day that we're gonna be there to get you started." At this point I wanted to throw myself on the floor and say "No! It's my body and my baby and I want to deliver him when I'm ready!! He's big enough already! Come on lady, look at me!" But I acted like a coward once again and just said, "okay".

When the nurse practioner came into check me, I excessively complained about my back pain like it was the worst thing in the world, once again hoping she'd say, "Well that's not gonna work, we better just go ahead and get that baby out of there then." But instead she told me to take Tylenol (as if that works for any kind of pain) and if the pain continues or gets worse to let them know. I wanted to say, "And if the pain does get worse, what are you gonna actually do about it? Because I'm telling you right now that it makes me sick at my stomach at times because it hurts so bad and you're not doing anything about it." But once again I just said, "okay."

So now I will continue to impatiently wait for some kind of progress or for this baby to decide to just show up. Let's cross our fingers and hope it's not much longer.

21 days

That's all I have left...21 days. At least that's all I have until my due date and I'm not even considering the thought that I would go past my due date. Actually, that's because I'm seriously considering inducing on the 20th. My hospital is fantastic enough to allow women to induce at any point after 39 weeks, so why not take advantage of that? I've discussed it with Brett and I think I've got him on the same page. Even though he is scheduled to take his vacation starting the 30th, if I induce on Friday the 20th he can just take some unpaid leave under the Family Medical Leave law and ride it out until Thanksgiving in which he gets paid holiday time. So it would give him a couple weeks off, some paid, some not and since we already filed his family medical leave paperwork with his company, they can't tell him no.

Anyhow, just please pray that my Dr. doesn't try and talk me out of inducing on the 20th. Even though they say you can do it, I know that they like to talk you out of everything you want to do most times. So I will try and be firm about it, because I really don't want to be pregnant any longer than I have to be. It's been an amazing journey, but let's face it, pregnancy is not fun and it really gets hard during the last month. In fact I find my attitude turning from "I can't wait to meet my baby" to "I can't wait until I'm not pregnant anymore!" I know it will all be worth it in the end, but when you're in constant discomfort, it's sometimes hard to remember why you're going through what you are.

On a more positive note, I did start having some contractions yesterday afternoon (I think). It's hard to determine what a contraction feels like when you've never experienced them before, but I think I was having them. Over the course of the last few days I've been having some pretty bad back pain along with some cramping that feels like period cramps. I didn't think the cramps were contractions, until yesterday. I could feel a cramp coming on and then my stomach would feel a bit tighter and then it would ease up after a minute or so. I think the contractions (if that's what they were) were so weak, that it was hard for me to determine for sure that's what was going on. I had several of them in a row, a few minutes apart, but then they went away after I drank some water and laid down. I wasn't expecting to be rushing to the hospital last night, but I'm at least hoping for some progress in my dilation when the Dr. checks me tomorrow. Cross your fingers!!!

Belly/Doggie Seat

My dog, Bentley has made himself comfortable a couple of times on top of my belly. He doesn't seem to understand he's sitting on my baby, he just thinks I grew him a comfy seat. Good thing he's not very heavy.

Patsy decided she wanted in the picture.

Swine Flu

Well I contacted the Rutherford County Health Dept. about getting the H1N1 vaccine and even though they were telling the public they were all out, they had a few doses stashed away and they said I could come down and get one. I have had my doubts about getting the vaccine and would rather not have to deal with this kind of thing during my 1st pregnancy, but I decided the right decision for myself and my baby was to get the vaccine. I think the chance of getting anything bad from the vaccine is a lot less risky than if I were to actually come down with the H1N1 flu. I don't want to think about the possibility of getting sick and then going into labor or having to have a C-Section. So we'll see if I suffer any side affects, but I'm not too worried about it. If anything, I may have caught a disease from all the nasty people in the health dept. waiting room. Gross! I hate that place! Now, I just need to have my husband vaccinated so he doesn't get sick and pass it to the baby once he's here.

He's Dropping

I went to my OB appointment yesterday and found out that I am not dialated at all (no surprise), but as I had guessed Carter's head is bumped right against my cervix and that baby is riding low. If you don't believe me, just look at these two pictures taken just a week apart:

35 weeks

36 weeks

I think it's fair to say he's dropped a bit. Hopefully this will mean I'll have a quick and easy delivery. HAHAHAHA!

Coughing and Pre Term Labor

Is it possible for coughing to lead to pre-term labor? Because if it is, this kid is going to pop out of me any second. I've hit the 36 week mark today and I'm sicker than a dog. Well maybe not that sick, but I've got a pretty nasty cold-bug-thing going on. I have coughed so much in the last couple days I'm surprised this kid hasn't gotten tired of it and made his exit. Needless to say, being 8 months pregnant (or 9 depending on how you look at it) and having a cold is not fun! My joints were already starting to get achy from carrying my big butt around, but now they're really achy. On top of it all, I'm not sleeping well at all and I wake up about 8 - 10 times a night, so my body refuses to heal itself. I start my weekly OB appointments today, so I'm hoping they just tell me I'm already dialating and this baby will be here in a week or two. That'd be nice! I also wouldn't mind putting an end to the weight gain, so delivering early has another bonus.

Anyway, with that aside; I can't believe I will be a mommy in 4 weeks (give or take a few days)!!! That's just an amazing thing to take in. It seems like it was just yesterday that I read the positive sign on the pregnancy test and now my baby is almost here. As miserable as pregnancy is, it has flown by. I think the first trimester goes by fast, because you're usually half way through it before you even realize you're pregnant and the second trimester flies by, because it's so easy. The third trimester is where time begins to slow down a bit. Even then, it seems like I just hit the 28 week mark and now I'm already to 36 weeks. The car seats are in both cars and our hospital bags are packed. I have like 3 outfits packed for Carter even though I know he'll probably only wear one of them, but I couldn't help myself. I think I have everything I will need, but if anyone out there has some advice as to what to bring, please let me know. Thanks!

The Countdown Begins

So today marks 35 weeks into my pregnancy, which means I only have 5 weeks left until my due date. I can't believe how fast this pregnancy has gone by and the fact that I'll be a mommy in 5 weeks!!! (Give or take a few days) I'm really really excited about becoming a mom, but also still feel so unprepared. Everytime I say that I've got everything I need, I think of something else I've forgotten to pick up. For instance, I have a few pacifiers, but I do not have a single newborn pacifier. I think the ones that I do have are for 2 & 3+ months. Lord knows I am not going 2 months without putting a pacifier in that child's mouth.

I did finally purchase a little swing for Carter's sanity and mine. I've been reading "The Happiest Baby On The Block," and according to Dr. Karp "swinging" is a crutial part of the 5 S's that will make your baby happy. I still need to get some kind of noise machine that replicates the mother's womb and I've found a couple stuffed animals that do that, but I just haven't made a decision on which one to get yet.

Other than the last few things I still need to get, I guess I am as prepared for this little guy's arrival as I can be. I even put the carseat in Brett's truck already. I hung a little toy from each of the 2 carseats we have, but after thinking about that for a minute, I may just remove them. I don't think a fresh newborn is going to care anything about his little jitter pal, seeing how he's been in a dark whole for the past 9 months. It might actually upset him.

As far as having fears that I won't be a good mom or Brett won't be a good dad, I don't have any of those. I know I won't do everything perfect and I'll make a lot of mistakes, but that's just part of life. I really feel like Brett is embracing the fact that he's going to be a father and head of the household and is really stepping it up big time. Over the last few months his faith in God has grown stronger than I've ever seen it. For a long time I felt he just went along with what I believed because I had the more dominate personality and he just did what made me happy. Lately he has become so passionate and outspoken about his faith and what he believes in, he puts me to shame. He even bought an Ann Coulter book and loves sounding off about it and politics. I thought I was pretty bold about my conservative views, but he's really getting bold about it. But I just say all of this, because I am so impressed that he has chosen to stand strongly for what he believes in and has chosen a path for his family. I have no doubt that he's going to be a great dad.

So here we go. The countdown is on and I couldn't be any more excited about it. I just hope the next 5 weeks fly by rather than drag on.

1 year down, 74 more to go

Well, we made it!! Brett and I celebrated our 1st year of marriage on Sunday and I must say I can't believe how the time has flown by. We have been together for almost 6 years now and I have to say that the first year of marriage is the one year that flew by the fastest. We've had our fair share of bumps in the road along the way, but this past year has been amazing. We've never gotten along as well as we have since we got married. I have to say, we've accomplished a lot since last October and we've done a lot more growing up.



We had plans to hit up a pumpkin patch on Saturday, so we made our way to Walter Hill, TN (which is just a few minutes from our house) and found the smallest, most pathetic excuse for a pumpkin patch I've ever seen. They had awesome pumpkins though! But they didn't except debit cards and we didn't have cash, so they directed us to where we could find an ATM. We stopped at a little country store and when I say country, I mean COUNTRY! I thought we were in an episode of the Andy Griffith show. We stepped in and there were 2 old men sitting in the corner to the left of the door and there was another old man behind the cash register to the right of the door. We asked them if they had an ATM (I was embarrassed to even ask the question) and the guy says, "a what?!" An ATM, you know the machine that dispenses cash. He then told us to go down to Smokies and they've got one, but wasn't sure if it would have anything in it. So we ventured down to Smokies and sure enough they had an ATM, but there was no money in it. Go figure. Traveling to some of these little towns is like stepping back in to 1945. Not something I'm used to due to growing up in northern Indiana. So needless to say, we didn't get any pumpkins.

So Sunday, we went to church and then we were going ring shopping to buy me a replacement engagement band. My grandfather had sold us the stone for my engagement ring when we got engaged and we bought a band for it here in town. Well the band which was supposed to be white gold, turned yellow a month after we got it and the head didn't fit the stone, so they cut it down and in the process mangled it. Well we didn't have any luck finding a band or a jeweler that wanted to work on my ring, so we went baby shopping instead. We got a swing, pacifiers, bottle nipples, newborn chew toys, and some last minute items that we still needed. As Brett was unloading the stuff out of the cart onto the register, I had to laugh as he grabbed my nursing pads and just stared at them in confusion. He was a little embarrassed once he realized what he had been staring at for several moments. So now I can officially say, "we are set". I think. At this point in time I can not imagine anything else that we "need" for this baby. If he comes tonight, I am completely prepared for his arrival. I even have his diaper bag packed. So I will sit back and impatiently wait for his arrival in 6 weeks, give or take a day or two.

Anyway, we ended our night with a nice dinner at Red Lobster. My parents loaded us up with gift cards to Red Lobster, PF Changs, and Cold Stone, but we chose Red Lobster for dinner last night, because it was the closest to us. It was very nice. We also ate some of our cake top from the wedding earlier in the afternoon and I must say, it was better the first time around. I can't quite describe the flavor of a year old, frozen cake, but 'plastic' would probably be the best label for it. So here's to 1 year down and 74 more to go! Cheers!

Is growing more even possible?

I am amazed every week by the fact that I'm not done growing yet. Believe it or not this is me at 33 weeks and I still have 7 weeks to GROW. To say my eating habits have been not the best since I got pregnant would be an understatement. When you continue to gain weight regardless of what you do, it's hard to pass on the french fries and ice cream. This is what gaining 35lbs thus far looks like. Ain't it pretty?
P.S. My tummy is a little red do to the extreme scratching I did right before this pic was taken. Brett told me to stop before I started bleeding; but I think I'd rather bleed than itch this bad.

Oxymoron

Isn't it kind of an oxymoron to drive onto a semi-truck sales lot in a Smart car? Yeah, I thought so too.

32 weeks

You wouldn't think much changes in a week, but I swear my belly is getting larger and larger by the second. When I took this picture I thought the weight of my belly was going to pull me over. I'm def. going to make an investment in a belly bra/belt or whatever those things are called. I find myself constantly holding the bottom of my stomach in order to give it some support so it's not pulling on my back so much. It doesn't seem to help much.

I find it very upsetting that when I drop something on the floor I can't really bend down and get it anymore. I pretty much have to sit on the floor or put one knee down in order to get low enough to scoop something up. Pathetic, I know. As we speak there is some trash on the floor under my desk that missed the trash can that I haven't bothered to maneuver myself down to pick up yet. Don't judge.

I Think Someone's A Little Excited

To say that my mom is a little excited for her grandson to show up might be a slight understand. If it could be put into words how excited I think she is, it would go a little something like this: Yes! Yippie! Horray! Super! Can't Wait! Hurry up November and get here already!!!!! That's just my guess though. But I that's an educated guess based on the following information; this child has already received from my parents the following items:

• Crib
• Mattress
• Pooh and all his stuffed animal friends
• A Harley Davidson wardrobe
• A MTSU outfit
• A John Deere outfit and socks
• A Loveless Cafe outfit
• Some diapers
• Diaper Genie
• 4 wheeler
• Changing table pad & cover
• Health and Grooming Kit
• Christmas PJs (purchased but still a secret)
• 2 Christmas outfits
• Socks that will go with the Christmas outfits
• Really adorable blanket

And I'm sure I'm leaving stuff out, but that's all that my little brain can remember for right now. The gifts are starting to become more frequent and I think that's my mom's way of expressing her excitement, which in turn gives me a really warm fuzzy excited feeling. It's not the gifts that I like so much (don't get me wrong, those are nice too), but what really makes me happy is the support I'm getting from my parents. Seeing them so excited really makes me feel good. It makes me feel like I'm really doing the right thing here. I can't say the support from the other side of the family has been the same, which is disappointing, but having my parents pour so much love into this child already makes up for any lack of support on anybody else's part. I thought I was a spoiled child, but I have a feeling Carter is going to be waaaaaaaay more spoiled than I ever thought about being. Nana Clark says she has even gotten him a Christmas present already!! Man, she's way ahead of me. By the way, what do you get a newborn for Christmas? He'll be roughly a month old by then.

Anyway...it's tough to keep telling myself we have 8 more weeks, buuuuuut...WE HAVE 8 MORE WEEKS PEOPLE!!!!

31 1/2 down, 8 1/2 to go.

Okay so on Tuesday I reached 31 weeks and up until then I had been feeling great. I was actually thinking I was getting pretty lucky by not suffering too badly with back pain, pelvic pressure, or ansomnia. Well that has all changed this week. Well most of it has. I have reached a point where I don't know how my stomach could stretch anymore to make room for this kid to grow for another 2 months. I'm ready to give birth now!!! The last two days (especially today) have been horrific. My back hurts sooooooooooo bad! I mean, I'm pretty tough when it comes to pain, but this is such a nagging pain it makes me want to flop down on the floor and cry. I have a non-stop pinch in the upper left side of my back and nothing I do will make it go away. It's days like today that I wish I could take my maternity leave now. I can't even make myself sound happy over the phone to customers when I hurt so bad. Isn't there anything I can do to stop the pain?!

Anyway, this may be the reason why my back hurts. Look at that belly!!!

On a more positive note, I've gone from seeing my Dr. once a month to every two weeks, which in my mind will only make the time fly by faster. I also met with a Peditrician yesterday and really liked how thoughtful him and his staff were. I was 45 mins early to my consultation and they brought me back into a room to see me early because they didn't want me sitting in the waiting room with a bunch of sick kids. How many times does that happen? Usually you get to see the Dr. after your appointment time and never before. I liked him a lot and he said he would be flexible about how I wanted my child treated with such things as vaccines. If I wanted to do a different vaccine schedule, he's okay with that.

Oh and my plan of inducing on a Saturday morning got shot down, because the hospital won't induce on the weekends. So I asked about the Friday after Thanksgiving and they said no to that as well, because they still consider that the holiday. So I am planning on going to this local Italian restaurant on Friday Nov. 27 and having all I can eat of the Eggplant Parmesan that is known to make women go into labor. That is if I haven't already gone into labor by that point. I had being so out of control!

Free Books From Dolly

My mom took me to lunch today and we had a really great waitress that filled me in on something awesome. She asked if I had started signing up for free baby stuff yet and I said no. That's when she told me about Dolly Parton's Imagination Library and how you can sign your child up to receive a free book every month until they're 5 years old. So as soon as I got back to the office, I got on the website www.imaginationlibrary.com and looked over it for a few minutes. I guess your city or county has to have a local sponsor in order for you to be able to participate, but luckily Murfreesboro did!! I took the waitress's advice and entered a false birthdate for Carter to make it seem like he was already born. I'm not sure if it matters, but I didn't want to miss out just because he's not here yet. But anyway, it was super simple and I just had to give them my name, address, Carter's name and birthdate, and email address and then hit submit. They sent me an email saying my info. was being reviewed and then about 1 or 2 hours later I got another email that said we had been approved and Carter would receive his first book in about 6 to 9 weeks and then every month after that until he's 5!!!

So I would definitely recommend anyone with a child under 5 or those expecting mommas to check this website out. I don't know how vast this program is and seeing how I live in Dolly's home state, I may have just gotten lucky...but it's worth a shot!! You don't even have to give your phone number. That's 12 books a year you don't have to pay for yourself.

Distracting myself from the heartburn.

Well I've just spent the last day and a half at a truck dealer forum that was hosted by Truck Paper, the nation's largest heavy duty truck advertiser. It was interesting to say the least. First off, there were a handful of women there amongst probably 150 or more men. Then I stuck out like a sore thumb, because I was the only woman under 30 and I was definitely the only pregnant one. I felt awkward. But, it was a good experience to be able to meet dealers from all over the country (most of which my dad already knows). They served great food and the finest booze (all for free, but I couldn't partake for obvious reasons). I got up at 5:30 this morning so I could leave my house a little before 7, hoping to make it there by 7:45 to 8:00, but that didn't go according to plan. It was raining and that means people like to drive 20 mph on the highway, so it took me an hour and a half to make it from my house to Nashville. I was late to the first discussion and missed breakfast. Oh well, at least I got lunch.

But now I feel like someone slammed me into a brick wall. It's funny I feel that way considering I didn't join the people that went out partying until 2 a.m. Maybe it's the fact that I got up at 5:30, but I usually get up before 6 anyway, so that shouldn't matter. It has also been a constant down pour for the last couple of days, so maybe that's making me feel bad. Or it could be the ever growing human that is taking up so much room in my belly. Does it sound weird when I say it like that? Yeah...that's what I thought. Anyway...if I can just make it through the next couple of months without getting the swine flu or something, I'll be extremely happy.

On a really positive note...lately, every person that I have told I'm 7 months pregnant to, has told me "wow, you really don't look that big at all!" Thank you, you just made my year, but you don't have to lie to me. No, seriously, at least 3 people said that to me at the forum and I couldn't believe it. I wanted to ask them how many pregnant ladies they've been hanging around because I've already gained 30 lbs and I'm not done yet!! But I'll take the compliment anyway. It makes up for my husband making me feel like a whale. It's not his fault, he's just not good at lying. Anyway, that's enough of my rambling for today. I'll finish with a few questions because I like comments.

To the pregnant ladies out there or moms with babies or toddlers...

What is/was your worst pregnancy symptom and how did you deal with it?

I'd have to say mine is the heartburn. If I have an esophagus left after this, I'll be surprised.

I Was Right

My assumption that my belly itching like crazy meant that those horrid little stretch marks would show their face pretty soon was in fact rather accurate. I don't know if the two are related, but I have noticed the 3 tiniest little purple marks on my lower belly and I assume they are the beginning of what will soon be zebra stripes. Plus I could feel a little groove when I ran my finger over them and that just made my fears even more real. In the back of my mind I was thinking I may be one of those lucky girls that doesn't get stretch marks, but considering my size...I didn't really think that was going to be possible. So now we'll just wait and see how bad they get. At least I made it to nearly 30 weeks before they showed up. I will consider myself lucky for that.

On a positive note, I went through my child birthing class this weekend and got lots of great information. The best little piece of info. I was given, was that my hospital will induce women at their request as soon as they hit 39 weeks!! Of course this is great, because I am obsessed with having everything planned. But I have pretty much decided to not induce until the Saturday morning after Thanksgiving (that's if the kid hasn't showed up on his own already, because my due date is Tuesday, the 24th). This would mean we had to check in Friday night and spend the night before they started to induce me the following morning. One thing that does bother me is that once you have the baby, they want to keep you another 48 hrs on top of it. 48 hours!! I'm going to try my hardest to get myself out of that one. This would mean spending at least 3 nights in a hospital bed and I'm not digging on that. But I'm just really excited about everything now. I know it's over two months away, but I'm hoping the time will fly by.

Until then...I'll be inpatiently waiting.

Belly Itch

My belly itches!!! I mean really really itches!! And I can't seem to find any relief. I'm guessing this has something to do with my skin stretching beyond what it should. Does this mean those horrible little monsters will be showing up soon? So far I've resorted to pulling up my shirt at work and scrathing my belly with a pen. Is that wrong?

Getting Closer

So it's Sept. 10, which means several things. Brett and I are a month and a day away from celebrating our 1st wedding anniversary, it's on Oct. 11. I can't believe it's been almost a year already! Where has the time gone? I still remember the amazing celebration like it was yesterday. Don't tell him this (and I should be safe by posting this because he doesn't get online), but I'm going to buy him a PS3 for his anniversary gift. I'm usually not that generous, but he has been begging for one and I've been shooting him down for so long, it's about time I just give in. Plus is has a built in Blue Ray dvd player and I would really like one of those. Shhhh...

September also means it is officially fall in my mind and if you don't agree, that's okay because Starbucks does and they have started carrying their Pumpkin Spice Latte once again. I had my first one of the season yesterday and it was thoroughly enjoyable. But it's not an everyday thing, because they sure do pack in the calories in a single cup of that stuff. I have also started setting up a few fall decorations around the inside and outside of my house and plan on going nuts with it this year. Thank goodness for Old Time Pottery and their super cheap decorations! If you don't have one of these stores in your hometown, I'm very sorry because it is second only to Heaven. It's a HUGE warehouse packed full of every home decor item you could ever imagine and for super super cheap. They also have really cheap dishes and cookware and I love it! For instance I bought a really nice white serving dish (perfect for big meals) for like $3. Awesome! So you can only imagine the great fall decorations they have to offer.

But most of all, September means our baby will be here in just over 2 months!! I can not wait! Not only because my back hurts and tummy itches more and more with every inch it gets stretched out, but I can't wait to hold the little guy for the first time. I just can't even imagine how that's going to feel. Also my due date couldn't be set at a better time, because that means my 6 weeks of maternity leave will cover the entire holiday season! Sweeeeeeeeet! I don't think I've had 6 weeks off work since I started working at the age of 15....crazy I know, so I'm really looking forward to it. But I also know babies are a lot of work and the time will surely fly by without feeling like much of a break.

Today I'm going for my 29 week checkup and I will now start seeing the Dr. every 2 weeks. I'm excited about this, because I think it will make the time fly by, but it'll be hard on my work schedule. They never seem to have early morning or late afternoon appointments available and I end up going in the middle of the day. This wouldn't be so bad, except that it has already interrupted 2 truck deliveries for me and Tom has been left finishing up my deals. Thank goodness my boss/dad is very patient with me and my crazy appointments. I can't say the same for Brett's boss. The same guy who barely let Brett off work to go to our first ultrasound is not giving him Saturday off to allow him to go to Lamaze class with me. Yep, that's right, he works for the devil himself. So my mom will be filling in. Now we're trying desparately to make it so Brett is able to take his weeks paid vacation when the baby comes, but his boss won't say yes or no about it. Just that, they need an exact date to make a decision. Ummmm...hello stupid, babies don't come on a precise schedule! Grrr....anyway I didn't mean to get on that subject.

On a lighter note, no stretch marks yet!! I guess the longer my tummy can hold out, the better off I am. I'm not expecting to not get any, just thankful that they haven't showed up yet. **knock on wood** Maybe it's luck or maybe the belly butter is actually working. Who knows?

Something Similar To Fat Man In A Little Coat

You remember "fat man in a little coat" or whatever it was that Chris Farley said in the movie? Well the picture below is very similar in that sense, except it's fat girl on a little 4 wheeler. If you ever want to feel huge, sit on a baby 4 wheeler and it's bound to fulfill your needs. This is the 4 wheeler Grandpa Clark bought for his yet-to-be-born grandson, Carter. I'm taking opinions/guesses on how old the child might have to be before he can ride this. I was hoping 3 or 4, but now I'm not so sure of that. Any guesses?

Persistance Pays Off

When I made the decision to make a fuss about our neighbors and their zoo a little while back, I knew that I was going to have to make a big enough fuss to actually get something done or we were just going to tick our neighbors off and have to live with them. So I exhausted every last option to get the animals or the people themselves removed and when all hope seemed lost, I drove by their house yesterday to see 2 moving trucks in front of their house. Yes, that's right folks, their landlord evicted them and they were moving out!!! I know it probably sounds bad to be happy about getting a family evicted, but you would just have to know these people to understand. They have been so horrible to live behind ever since we moved in. And the last couple of weeks the woman that lives there has been flicking Brett off and cussing him out everytime he drives by. Not pleasant. The property owner told us about a month ago that he told them to get rid of their animals and start taking care of things (such as the green pool), but nothing had changed. In the last couple of days their pool had turned a new shade of green and I was just waiting to see what happened. Well I was very delighted to see that they were leaving.

So now Carter can play in our backyard (once he's actually born) and we don't have to worry about the neighbors screaming and cussing all the time. Praise Jesus for that one!!!

C.J.'s Nursery

Sorry about the very monotone voice (which is not far from normal); it was a long day, my tummy was sore and I was tired. But here is your first look at the almost complete nursery. Enjoy!

Belly Weeks 25 - 28

Here is evidence of my explosive progress as I enter my third trimester today. The thought of my stomach having 12 more weeks to expand even more makes me cringe.

25 Weeks

26 Weeks27 Weeks28 Weeks

Baby Stuff

So I got a shipment from Target today containing all the baby goodies I ordered last Thursday. It contained C.J.'s high chair, pack 'n play, Pooh bedding, Pooh wall decor, and my bobby cover. I think that's it. Doesn't sound like much, but it adds up quickly. We just purchased his travel system about a week ago too, so he's almost set. Sorta...we still have to buy the changing table, changing table pad, a swing and/or bouncer, jogging stroller, diaper genie, a few more toys, diapers, bath stuff and lotions, and nick nack stuff like a thermometer and baby grooming kit. But I didn't have the guts to put that all on one bill. Maybe next week...

Thank goodness my parents bought us the crib and mattress and my grandma Phyl bought us the glider/rocker!!!

So tonight I will go home and make Brett some quick spaghetti with jar sauce instead of homemade and then it's off to the nursery to set up this kid's room the right way. Pictures coming soon!

New Toys

I don't think I mentioned the fact that I sold Brett's car this past weekend, so we were free to buy something different. Of course I was going to take advantage of one of the biggest perks of working for an auto dealer and that is the fact that I can shop at the dealer only car auction. Which in turn means....saving thousands of dollars on a vehicle. So my dad took me up to the Manheim auction and we got to pick and choose from the almost 2,000 cars they had running yesterday. Of course, Brett and I had already decided on a 06-07 Chevy Trailblazer, so I just had to narrow our choices down once we got up there. Well 3 of my top choices were pulled out of the auction, but my very top choice was still there. We waited patiently for it to run through one of the lanes and I was ready to bid on it. Unfortunately it went well over wholesale value within seconds and I didn't bother submitting a single bid. Disappointing, yes, but there was an '06 right behind it that I hadn't had a chance to really look at it. It had a few more miles but had the leather package and everything we were looking for. The bids started so low on it, I just found myself raising my hand for it. I was a little nervous about bidding on something I hadn't looked over real well, but I couldn't help it because it was going so cheap. Well long story short, I won the bid and bought the truck for about $1,000 or so under wholesale and several thousand under retail. Woo hoo!!! It turns out the truck was really nice too. Best thing of all is that we came out $2,000 ahead from selling Brett's car to buying this Trailblazer. So here is what we got (stock photo of course, not actual vehicle).Oh and let me not forget to mention that my dad made a couple purchases as well. He bought a golf cart to ride around on at his farm, because he didn't have enough toys. No, the 4 wheelers, dirt bikes, Harleys, side-by-side, boat, and John-Deere tractor would not be complete without a golf cart. Now don't assume it has no use around the farm, of course my parents need something to drive down the 1/4 mile long driveway to the mailbox.

So if you think that's bad, get a load of this. Grandpa bought his yet-to-be-born grandson, Carter, a brand new 4 wheeler!! No, I don't think that's silly because I plan on putting him on it at about age 3. Plus it was only a few hundred dollars, so it was a pretty good deal. I will be sure to post pictures of it as soon as I get some. If it helps build a mental image, no one over 145lbs is supposed to ride on it. I broke that rule once we got it back to my parents' house. My dad told me to "punch it" and I had to remind him that I was "punching it", but I'm also almost 7 months pregnant and over the weight limit. All I have to say is, this little boy is already spoiled rotten and he's not even here yet. Geez....

Baby Shower

So as I promised yesterday, I will resume the topic of my baby shower. Moving on from stolen trucks to cute, adorable baby stuff.

My mom was gracious enough to throw me a baby shower this past Saturday and I must say it was a delight. I didn't have a bridal shower and I've never been to a baby shower, so I really didn't know what to expect. I was just a little nervous about sitting in front of everyone and opening gifts; but it turns out it wasn't that awkward afterall. My mom hosted it at her house and she did a really great job of planning fun games and great food. She even got me a Baby Einstein cake from Publix which was sooooooo delicious!! My friend, Christine, also made a really cute blue and white cake that said "It's a Boy" on it and I loved it as well. Here is a little snapshot of me and the cakes.

Once everyone got there, we started in on some games. The first game we started was the pacifier game that went on throughout the whole shower. Everyone got a pacifier and whoever crossed their arms or legs, got theirs taken away and given to the person that called them out on it. I tried to hold out, but I was wearing a dress and trying to hold my legs together with this big ol' belly just got painful so I gave up and Christine got my pacifier. She ended up winning that game and got a nice bottle of wine as a prize.

We also played the Ultrasound game. This is where you pass around various ultrasound pictures and try to identify what body part is in the image. I ended up getting 10 out of 12 correct and won the game. I was pretty surprised, because some of the images are really hard to tell what they are. But they looked a lot like the ones I have of Carter, so I had an advantage I think. We then played a baby trivia game, which I didn't participate a whole lot in because Brett's mom was standing right next to me with the answer cards where I could see them and I thought it would be unfair of me to answer many of the questions. Natalie won that game, of course. She has an 18 month old afterall. Did you know the average newborn goes through 7,500 diapers in the first year? Crazy!!!

Then after the games were done, it was on to gifts. Just so you know, I didn't read the card out loud. Instead I said who the gift was from and then passed them around for everyone to see. I got some cute stuff and now I have to better organize Carter's closet to fit everything. This boy has enough clothes to last him a year without ever wearing anything twice. And he has 3 of the same exact ND outfit with slight differences. I bought him a 3-6 mos size of the outfit, Sarah (Brett's sister) gave us the same one that was 6-9mos and then our great friends Gary and Kasey gave us the same outfit but in Blue and Green instead of Blue and Gold like we already had. Needless to say, Brett is thrilled!! He can't wait to dress his little guy up and turn him into a Domer. Anyway, here are some pics from the gift opening.

And this one is for my grandma. What's better than pregnant ladies and tomato plants?

What A Day!!

Well I was going to get on here and blog about the baby shower my mom threw me on Saturday, but something a little more interesting has come up in the meantime. I promise though, I will return to the baby shower topic.

This morning as I was flying off the exit ramp of I-24 right by my work, I turned my head to the right and noticed cop cars sitting outside our truck lot with their lights on. At first I just thought someone had been pulled over, but I noticed our gate was still closed and Tom was parked outside of it. This was strange and I almost didn't want to ask what was going on. Well I parked in the middle lane in front of the lot and turned on my 4 ways and got out to ask what was going on. That's when Tom turned around and told me when he got there this morning, that he couldn't get his key in the lock (because someone had changed it) and that our 2006 Pete 379EXHD flattop was gone. I said "WHAT?!?!" Inside my head I was really saying, "What the @&%*?! Who the !@#$? How the *$&#?!...oh @#$%!" But good thing I have some self control and didn't let any of that nasty language flow out of my mouth. I then got back in my car and drove it to the business next door and parked it and walked back. The CSI lady was dusting for finger prints, but had no luck of finding any. She also took pictures of the tire tracks in the gravel, but that's not gonna do much, considering we have trucks in and out of our place all day long.

After the initial shock wore off, I figured I'd better post a stolen truck listing on our advertisers website ASAP if we wanted any chance of getting it back. We racked our brains to think of any suspects that may want to take this truck, but we couldn't think of any. Not that it's not a desirable truck, it's just that we couldn't think of any suspicious characters that have called on it or come by and looked at it. I've said a prayer about it and I just asked God to help us find this truck in one piece and find the people that are responsible for stealing it. More than anything, I just want to see somebody do some time for this crime.

Now, you would think a semi truck would be a pretty hard vehicle to steal, but i guess it's really not for someone that knows what they're doing. These people cut our gate lock, came and hot wired the truck, and drove out with it and replaced the gate lock with a new one. Had they left the gate open, we may have been aware of it sooner, but no one is going to suspect anything with the gate closed back up. Since this is a family business, my parents are the ones that have to take this loss and it just makes it even more bitter tasting. It was a $75,000 truck and now it's nothing but lost profit and increased insurance expense. Not to mention the huge deductible to make a claim on it. If someone had stolen this truck for a trailer load that was attached to it, they probably would have dumped the truck somewhere nearby, but since this was just a tractor sitting for sale, the chances are they're gonna hide it good and we'll never see it again.

Anyway, here's a pic for your curiosity. Can you imagine stealing one of these?

This is Starting to Hurt

So as I draw nearer to the third trimester of my pregnancy (I'm at 26 weeks today), I'm starting to feel the aches and pains that one usually associates with the third trimester. While I look back at the last 26 weeks and think about how fast it has flown by, I am also beginning to wonder how I am going to be able to handle another 14. Sleeping is beginning to get a little more uncomfortable as well as sitting, walking, standing, etc. One may think that the most comfortable sleeping position would be on your back, but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. I feel like my uterus is weighing down on everything else and I have to roll to my side to get some relief. I try to tuck a pillow between my legs and underneath my belly, but that has seemed to become bothersome recently as well. I have never been a stomach sleeper, but all of a sudden I have the urge to roll over on my belly and sleep, which we all know is a big no no. So what should I do? I mean I have 3 more months of this and I know it's only going to get worse. At my last checkup I had only gained 1 lb. in a 4 week duration, but the last two visits before that were horrible as far as the scale is concerned. So now I'm wishing I hadn't gained so much weight so fast, because I don't think that's helping my situation any. Everything is just beginning to ache!!! And let's not even talk about my poor little feet. I'll have to make it up to them once this baby arrives.

Anywho...I took my glucose tolerance test last week and passed it with flying colors! Score! Now I don't have to go back for the 3 hours test. I also asked my doctor about her thoughts on epidurals and she made it pretty obvious to me that she was a fan. She had one with all 3 of her children, so that was re-assuring to know. She also mentioned the words "larger tearing" with natural births and I just knew what I was going to do. I'll go as far along as possible naturally, but when it comes to the point that I'm nearly passing out from pain, I'll be getting myself an epidural.

My baby shower is this Saturday and I'm really looking forward to it. Some of my neighbor ladies and other friends of mine will be there, so it should be lots of fun. I'm just nervous about the whole idea of sitting in front of everyone and opening presents. How awkward. My question to the ladies that have been through baby showers before is, do I have to read each and every card out loud?

Okay, well I know this blog is pretty boring, but that's my life lately. The most entertainment I've had in a while is from reading the book "Twilight". I'm sure you've all heard of the movie. I saw the movie and liked it so much that I decided to read the 500 page book. If you know anything about me, you know that I'm not a reader, but this book is excellent! I'm about 250 pages in and it hasn't gotten boring yet. I'm definitely going to read the other 3 books and I recommend you read them too. Anyway, I'll catch ya later! Have a good one.

Why I like the Irish

The kick off to Notre Dame football is just about a month away and as much as I don't really care for that school, I'm looking forward to the football season. Why, you ask. Because it means several things. First and for most, it means there will be a solid 3 to 4 hours each Saturday in which my husband will be stuck to the television and I have a great excuse to not do any work around the house or the yard. Lately we both have been refusing to relax on our weekends and we always seem to spend the entire weekend cleaning the house or doing some type of yard work. It stinks!! Of course, I will still have to work every other Saturday and he will too, but it gives us a little relax time on the weekends we don't work.

Second, once September rolls around that means it's fall and November 24 will be right around the corner. I don't think I have ever wanted a summer to go by so fast as I have this summer. I can not wait for a little cooler weather and for this baby boy to show his face. When I mention the fact that the ND football season will probably be over by the time our baby arrives, Brett gets upset because I'm cutting out their chances at a bowl game.

Like previously stated in another blog, I purchased a really cute ND creeper set for Carter and I can't wait to dress him in it. As cute as I think that will be, I just hope Brett's family doesn't drown my child in ND apparel. An outfit or two is okay, but they will be sadly disappointed if they buy him loads and loads of ND stuff, because he won't be wearing it. How do you tell your in-laws to refrain from waisting there money on tons of ND clothing? I'll make Brett do it! But I won't feel too bad if they buy it and I don't dress him in it all the time, because when Natalie (my sis-in-law) had her baby boy, her family drowned him in ND stuff and I don't think I ever saw him wear a single outfit. Natalie and her husband Craig aren't big fans of ND either and probably found it unneccessary to dress Leland in all the apparel.

Anyway, I know it doesn't sound like it, but I really am looking forward to the football season. Last year was a blast because we watched every game with our apartment neighbors, Gary and Kasey, while munching down on some pretty tasty treats that Kasey and I would whip up. We have a bigger TV this year and a cool bonus room, so I'm hoping they'll come back to watch with us again this year. I just wish some of our new neighbors were into ND football so Brett had a guy to watch it with all the time. Anyway I'll wrap this up by saying, Let's Go Irish!!!! I don't like my husband's attitude when you lose, so please win every game!

Baby Wanted

Brett and I are in serious need of a child. Carter needs to hurry up and get here, before our dogs lose all patience with us.

Car for sale

So this car is for sale if anybody wants to buy it. Brett bought this lovely 2006 Honda Accord Coupe a few years ago and it has now become impractical for us. As you may notice, it's a 2 door which in turn means, not very easy to get a baby in and out of the back seat. We aren't looking to upgrade, down grade, just looking to even grade if that's a term. We just need two more doors!!! The great thing about our situation is that with my dad being a vehicle dealer, I have access to the dealer auctions in the area. Manheim is a huge car auction here in Nashville and has a great Nissan auction just about every Wednesday. So our hope is that we can sell this car quickly and get over to the auction and buy something like a 2006 Nissan Maxima with 4 doors!! I have listed Brett's car on Craigslist and am hoping I have the same luck I did when I sold my motorcycle. I sold my bike rather quickly and got every penny I was asking for it. The advantage we do have is that his car only has 29,000 miles on it, because he drives that beautiful looking truck you see in the background to and from work everyday. So cross your fingers folks, because we need a different car!!! Better yet, start praying because I don't believe crossing your fingers does anything. Prayer works much better!!! My lovely 2003 VW Jetta has 4 doors, but it also has 112,000 miles on it and is a stick shift (Brett's no good at driving stick). I love my car and it is super reliable and has never had any major problems, but I don't want that to be our main family car. So I guess now we'll sit back and wait for the first call and hopefully my great sales skills will get this thing gone!

Wow, my neck doesn't hurt anymore!

I celebrated my 24th birthday yesterday by cutting off my long blonde locks that I've had for the past 6 or 7 years. In high school I had really short hair and then by the time my junior year rolled around I realized how fat my face looked, so I started growing out my hair. I've had it at lengths almost to my waiste at some points, but yesterday morning it was to the middle of my back. Not only was my hair long, but it was also the thickest hair ever imaginable. If it gives you any indication of how much hair I had, the last couple of times I've gotten my hair colored/highlighted it has taken the professionals 3 to 4 hours to do it. Yep, that much hair!!

So when I walked into the salon and told my hairstylist Tony, that I wanted to cut it off, he said, "Don't let the summer heat make you cut all your hair off!" I assured him, it wasn't the heat, it was the fact that I no longer did anything with it and therefore had no need to have it long anymore. I tried to tell him how short I wanted it, but he was nervous about cutting that much hair off, so he didn't go as short as I wanted. Right before he made the first big snip he asked me once again if I was sure. Yes!!!! I'm sure!! By the time it was all said and done, I think I had about 10 inches and 3 lbs of hair laying on the floor. He said he'd never seen that much hair on the floor while still having this much hair left on my head.

He cut it a little shorter in the back than it is in the front. And put lots of layers in it. So here is what the front looks like. You can't tell by the picture, but my neck feels so much better with 3 lbs less of hair on my head! lol.

23 weeks.

So I'm almost to the 6 month mark, if you consider a month 4 weeks long like most people. But I think OB doctors do the math a little different, considering you're pregnant for 40 weeks and that's supposed to be 9 months instead of 10. So anyway, here is my big belly at 23 weeks. Enjoy.
Does anyone know when stretch marks usually begin to show up? I haven't seen any signs of them yet, but I'm sure my stomach will grow another 3 feet before Nov. 24 and I just want to be prepared for that day when I will see tire tracks on my stomach. At this point I'm just praying and hoping my Mama Bee Belly Butter is actually working.

The News Clip

Okay this is the best I can do. I'm media challenged and don't know how to get the actual video on here, so here is the link to watch it. Enjoy.

http://www.wsmv.com/video/20154012/

We're Semi-Famous

Well Brett and I finally took our story and complaints about our wild animal owning neighbors to Channel 4 News in Nashville and were successful in doing one thing at least. We really really ticked off our neighbors. But only the ones that own the crazy animals and maybe one lady that forgot to put a bra on before appearing on TV. I'm trying to figure out how to get the video clip on here, but they haven't posted it on the news website and the one that is on Facebook I can't get, because my sister-in-law posted it.

But here is how everything went down. The reporter and camera man showed up at our house and then we went in the backyard to do the interview. As we were getting ready to shoot it, all of our friendly neighbors showed up to watch. They wired me up with a mic and we were ready to start being interviewed. I started the interview and Brett interjected here and there. I think they talked to us for about 15 minutes or so. Then they wrapped it up and just wanted to get a few more shots around the yard and of my belly. Yes, that's right, they put the camera on the tri-pod and shot a video of my belly. Too bad no on told me I had a huge piece of lint on my black shirt! Or that I was slouching during the interview.

Anyway, as they were wrapping things up our crazy neighbor lady started screaming and cussing about us being perverts and we need to put the camera away before she calls the cops. I was thinking to myself, "Go ahead and call them, I'd love to put this on record in case you nutcases try to pull anything." Then the reporter said he was going to go over to their house and try to get their side of the story. I just told him, "If you think that lady was friendly, just wait until you meet her husband." And I rolled my eyes. When it was all said and done and we were through talking to all of our lovely neighbors, we went inside to get some dinner. As I was passing the front window I noticed a police car sitting out front. Yep, they really did call the cops. Which I had no problem with at all, seeing as we didn't do anything wrong.

The cop asked us what was going on and we explained to him the mess. He even said his grandparents live down the street and they knew there was a goat in the neighborhood, because they could hear it at night. Then he told us that our neighbors are seeking a lawyer to sue us for harassment. I almost had to stop myself from laughing at that point. But wait...it gets better. Then he proceeded to explain that they were calling us peeping Toms and that we stare out our windows all the time at their children. Are you kidding me?! Brett works about 12 hours everyday and I work 9, so when do we have time to stare at their children. They told the cop that we know their children's behavior patterns and all this and that. Seriously, could you people get any crazier? Nope, I don't think so.

Anyway, I was completely disappointed in the news story, because it didn't convey the message I was trying to get across. It basically made us just look like we were complaining about the wild animals for the sake of complaining. They cut out the part of me explaining how the goat charged through our fence, destroyed part of my garden, and destroyed other things in our yard. Nope, we just looked like complainers. But now my next step is to find out who the property owner is and try to get these people evicted. Having a rental property in the neighborhood already hurts property values, but when you have people like this renting a house, it hurts them even more. I am committed to having the animals or even the people kicked out of the neighborhood and I won't stop until it gets done.

I hope these idiots do try and sue us, because then I won't feel bad about counter-suing for defamation of character and property damage. Fools!

whoa...now that's impressive

No wonder this kid can kick so hard, get a load of that belly! This is me at 22 weeks; which means I still have 18 weeks to go. Scary! And don't mind the fact that I look like total crap in all the photos I take. I usually have Brett snap them right before bedtime when the makeup is off, my hair is pulled down from being in a rat's nest on top of my head all day, and I'm in my PJs.

Oh yeah, I know I said you'd get no more bare belly photos, but I lied. I figured I take advantage of the stretch mark free tummy while I can. We all know that probably won't last much longer, because I will soon be an elephant. Yippie!

And this right here is just for your enjoyment. This is the reason I feel like by November I'll be taking care of two children.

My Little Monster

Yes, that's right, I called him a monster. I can do that now and not feel bad about it, because he's a boy and I'm sure if he's anything like his daddy, he'll be a little monster that destroys my clean house. Anyway, the reason for this blog is to let everyone in on another milestone we reached the other day (I know there is like a million throughout pregnancy, but if you've been there, you understand). I was laying in bed Friday night and Carter must have been flopping around pretty good, because I had my hands resting on my belly and for the first time ever I felt his kicking from the outside instead of just the inside. I immediately told Brett to come over and see if he could feel it for himself. I was hoping the little boy wouldn't get shy and stop doing it and he didn't. When Brett first put his hand on my belly he was pressing down really hard and I reassured him he didn't have to press that hard to feel the baby. So he lightened up a little bit and in a matter of seconds he felt our little boy kick for the first time. It was a pretty magical moment and I wish I had a camera to capture the look on his face. I'm not sure he really believed it was the baby at first, but after a couple more good kicks he finally believed it was Carter.

Then last night as we were both laying in bed, he started to kick again. This time it was even harder and it actually moved our hands a little bit when he did it. Weighing in at only about 1 lb., I'm actually surprised he can kick that hard. This could mean great things like he'll have a really heavy foot for NASCAR racing like my dad hopes or it could mean that he's already got way too much Clark obnoxious blood in him. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

I do know one thing though, if his daddy has his way this boy will grow up to be an avid Notre Dame football fan. So as a little surprise to Brett last night, I made him close his eyes while I laid something out on the kitchen table. When he opened them back up there was a little 3 piece Adidas Notre Dame creeper set. It came with a Onesie that was made out of the Jersey material, a bib, and booties. Now, I'm no big ND fan myself (and even less of one after their recent graduation ceremony), but I know Brett loves their football team and I just knew that would put a smile on his face. I was right! He can't wait to prop his little buddy next to him on the couch and kick back and have a couple bottles and watch the game. Like I've said many times before, November can't get here fast enough!!!

Update on the Goat People

Okay, so I sent an email to the Mayor of Murfreesboro and copied it to the Vice Mayor and every single council member. I also emailed the 3 major news stations in Nashville. And boy did I ever get a response. So far I've heard back from 1 council member, 1 news producer, 3 codes inspectors, and the Vice Mayor. I think I have a slight chance of getting something done here. Two codes inspectors are going over to my house today to peek through the fence into my neighbors backyard to witness any violations. I hope they see the 6 dogs I saw yesterday, along with the goat, african servals, and the swamp/pool. Oh and let's hope they drive by the large tow truck these people park in front of their house.

The Codes guy I talked to on Saturday sounded very hopeful about getting something done, but the guy I talked to this morning seemed more like a straight from the book kind of guy. He wasn't really sure there was anything in the "books" about people having wild animals. But the Vice Mayor said he would check to see if there was an ordinance against people owning wild animals within city limits and if there wasn't, he was going to try and write up an ordinance against it.

Now I'm wishing Brett wouldn't have straightened out the chicken wire around my garden or screwed the fence back together. But at least they'll still see the board that is broken in half.

So we'll see what happens after a little while. I'm prepared to take on any retaliation from my neighbors if they get their animals taken away. Would it be too much to sit on my back deck with my shotgun in my lap? Just asking...