i got dressed today in something other than a big tshirt and sweatpants so i thought i would take another belly photo.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Pregnancy
My favorite things about being pregnant:
1. Feeling this little guy move around. From flutters in the beginning, progressing to jabs, to full out kung fu kicks, to now, what I imagine as frustrated pushing due to overcrowding. While the actual sensation isn't always pleasant--hurts sometimes and other times just feels like an alien-- it is just so neat to think that i will soon get to look at and kiss and hold (in my arms) this little thing i have been feeling for several months now.
2. I always have an excuse to take a nap.
3. The unsolicited advice you receive from anyone and everyone. Whether it is helpful or not, it is nearly always entertaining.
4. Even on days when you feel like crap and look like you got hit by a truck, someone will still tell you that you look cute. There are a few people out there that think all pregnant women are cute--no matter what--and thankfully on the days I felt and looked my worst, I would run into one of those people.
5. Listening to Andy talk to the baby. I may have written about this earlier somewhere, but we read that babies in the womb can hear lower pitched voices better than higher pitched ones. Since we read that, Andy has always spoken to Eli in a really low, James Earl Jones/Barry White-esque voice, usually saying "Hello, Baby." It never fails to make me laugh.
6. Being pregnant at the same time as some wonderful friends (and family)! It has made the experience so much fun and so memorable!
My not-so-favorite things about being pregnant:
1. What the heck is going on with my skin? Did I morph into a 14 year old boy somewhere along the way?
2. I don't really think of myself as a vain person, but we have been trained to think of slender and thin as the picture of a healthy body. Through pregnancy, your body does crazy weird things and stretches/expands in freakish ways NO MATTER WHAT you do. no matter how healthy you eat or how active you are, your body is still going to grow and expand and that is what is HEALTHY and that is what it is supposed to do. It isn't that I am upset that my body changed....it is just the feeling of trying to reconcile all of that in my brain. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone else, but it makes sense in my head :)
3. The unsolicited advice. While this was also one of my favorite things about pregnancy, there were the occasional well-meaning women (mostly women, though not always) who would say rude things, or just plain ol' stupid things to me. I wish I had kept track of all the little words of wisdom I received, but sadly, I have been a very poor record keeper through this pregnancy. The baby book is totally blank and the pregnancy journal I got (for free) is also completely empty.
4. Heartburn.
5. Not being able to sleep on my back. I have not been a tummy sleeper for many many years, thankfully, but I do like to alternate between side sleeping and back sleeping. Because they discourage lying flat on your back after a certain point in pregnancy, that means no more back sleeping. So sad.
6. Bedrest. Ugh.
Just thought that would be fun, and a respectable beginning to the "record keeping" I aspire to during Eli's first years. Feel free to share your favorite and least favorite pregnancy memories with me!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Old pics--just for fun
This is my mom at about 6 months pregnant with me.
Family pic 1982
Baby Laura
Baby Laura being fed formula by Uncle Rick. Thanks Mom, I could have been a genius if you had breastfed.. :) 
Mike gazing lovingly at the best little sister in the whole world
Mom, Mike and baby LauraSaturday, May 23, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
33 weeks
We have made it to 33 weeks (and one day!) and baby is still hanging in there. Not many contractions and otherwise doing well. Just hanging out. I have written thank you notes from baby shower, organized all my addresses, sent out change of address notices, read 3 books, watched endless hours of tv/movies. my plans for the days ahead....organize recipes, take ethics course required for PT continuing education, watch more tv/movies, read more books, and hold this baby in a little longer. 
this is the sonogram pic from 18-19 weeks. they did a sonogram while i was at the hospital, but we couldnt see his face because his head was already too low. so this will have to do for now. isnt he cute?
Sunday, May 17, 2009
New house: pre-furniture
Welcome!
Entry hall, looking at the front door. Hallway to nursery and guest room is the archway to the right of the front door. Coat closet on the left. Exciting stuff...
Living room. Entry hall is the arch on the left.
Looking out the windows of the living room onto the covered patio.
Looking into kitchen from living room.
Breakfast "nook"
back door onto covered patio
Kitchen
Looking from living room into mudroom. small bench on the right (see next pic). utility room is the door in front. Door on the left goes out to the garage.
small utility room.
small utility room.
Den
master bedroom. my favorite thing about this house is all the windows...big big windows! I am sure i will dislike them when it comes time to clean them all....
doors into master bath. andy is standing in the closet. the other door is to the "water closet" or potty closet.
master bath with TALL vanity.
bathtub that i can't use until after the baby :( dr's orders.
shower
this photo doesnt do it justice. this is my 2nd favorite thing about this house. BIG master closet. lots of room for lots of shoes!
guest room. love the windows.
guest/hall/2nd bathroom
Nursery
garage
so i know that lots of these photos dont really show you anything about the room. it is hard to photograph an empty room. once the house is slightly more organized i will take new photos, but this gives you a general idea. come visit!
bathtub that i can't use until after the baby :( dr's orders. shower this photo doesnt do it justice. this is my 2nd favorite thing about this house. BIG master closet. lots of room for lots of shoes!
guest room. love the windows. guest/hall/2nd bathroom
Nurserygarage so i know that lots of these photos dont really show you anything about the room. it is hard to photograph an empty room. once the house is slightly more organized i will take new photos, but this gives you a general idea. come visit! Sunday, May 10, 2009
Things don't always go as planned...(warning: very LONG post)
The last few weeks have felt like a crazy blur. I will attempt to recap all the happenings, but I am bound to miss some things. Weekends in April were filled up with baby showers for friends, packing our stuff and getting out of the house so our realtor could hold open houses--Still no luck selling the house, by the way.
near the end of April I went with the girls from work to a "night of indulgence" at a local salon. It was lots of fun though some of the treatments left a lot to be desired for us. Basically you go to 5 different "stations", each lasting maybe 10-15 minutes: 1. facial, 2. foot massage, 3. paraffin wax and hand massage, 4. scalp massage and hair shampoo, 5. back massage. All of mine were great, except the back massage. It was just maybe a 10 minute massage in a massage chair, but the guy that did my massage had a runny nose so he was sniffling the whole time and occasionally one of his hands would break contact with my back for about 5 seconds and I can only imagine that it was so it could make contact with his snotty nose, then return to my back. It made it a little difficult to really relax and enjoy the massage. The girls used that night as a baby shower for me as well, so holly made her delicious chocolate cake and they all chipped in and bought us our pack n' play. woohoo!
The next week was crazy. I had a doctor's appt on Tuesday and everything was going great. No contractions, no aches, no problems. The doctor said I was doing great---measuring right on, weight gain looked good, no other problems with bloodwork or urine. After that Andy and I went to our closing to sign the paperwork on our new house. We officially became the proud owners of 2 homes. (this was NOT the timing I was hoping for.)
When I woke up Wednesday I was having some discomfort and I just blamed it on being pregnant and the baby getting bigger. My mom and grandma came to OKC Wednesday night to help the next few days with painting the nursery, packing, etc. so we went to Lowes to pick out paint. Thursday morning I woke up feeling a little better but still uncomfortable with a little bit of a backache. I called the doctors office and spoke to the nurse (Dr. was out of town). She said she thought I might have a urinary tract infection and had me come in to give her a urine specimen and gave me a rx for antibiotics to take over the weekend. Andy and I ran some errands Thursday, bought a new refrigerator, got all our blinds cut for the new house, etc. My mom, grandma and aunt were at our new house painting the nursery (which turned out GREAT!--I will post pictures later). When we finally sat down that evening I realized that my back pain was coming and going at regular intervals (about 20 seconds at a time, every 7-8 minutes.) Since I have never been pregnant before and really have no idea what I am doing :) I just assumed I had been up and around too much and figured if I drank plenty of water and got some rest things would settle down. I did call the answering service that evening and spoke to the doctor on call who suggested drinking water, relaxing and then going to the hospital if the pain didnt stop. It was late at that point so I showered and went to bed. I was able to fall asleep and stay asleep without any problems.
I woke up Friday morning and realized the pain in my back had gotten more intense but was still coming on every 7 minutes. I got up and used the restroom and (sorry if too much info for you) realized that I was bleeding. PANIC.....I woke andy up and as he was getting dressed I called the doctor. Spoke to the nurse---doctor out of town, remember--and she sent me to the hospital. Got to Mercy around 9am. hooked up to monitor for fetal heartbeat and to monitor contractions. Baby's heartbeat was great, praise the Lord! I was able to relax a little at that point. I was having contractions every 6 minutes now. They checked me out and found that I was in preterm labor--I was just shy of 31 weeks at that point. I was between 70-90% effaced and between 1 and 2 cm dilated. They gave me a shot of Terbutaline to stop the contractions and admitted me to the hospital. I stayed from Friday morning to Sunday evening. My contractions stopped Friday afternoon after taking terbutaline orally every 6 hours and I was given 2 injections of corticosteroids to help the baby's lungs develop more quickly, in case he decided he really wanted to come early. I was discharged Sunday evening after another exam showing no change in effacement or dilation since Friday and was given orders to stay on strict bedrest only getting up to use the restroom and to take a 5 minute shower each day.
Now, we were scheduled to move into our new house on Saturday. Uhaul was rented and friends had been recruited to help, but our plan was basically busted since I couldnt be involved at all and Andy wanted to be at the hospital with me to talk with the doctor. Let me just say...we have been blessed with the most AMAZING friends and family. They stepped up and moved us in without us being there. Andy was able to help out a little here and there, but my mom and grandma, Justin, Kelli, Marcus, Matt, Daniel, Dane, Bum, Kylie, Jon-Michael are life-savers and I cant even begin to tell them how grateful I am for their help!! (sorry if i forgot anyone!) We were moved in by the time I was discharged on Sunday and I was able to come home to a surprisingly organized new home. My mom hung around a few days to help cook, unpack, organize, etc which was a great help! Friends and church family have brought us great food and I have gotten lots of encouraging messages, emails, visits and phone calls as well. What have I learned through this so far?......1. God is good. He has provided. While I do not always understand His timing, He is in control and I can trust Him. If our house had already been sold and we were on a deadline to move out, this would have been a disaster. As it is, we still have some excess furniture at the old house as well as nearly all of andy's garage stuff and his monte carlo. It has been much easier knowing that we have some time to organize what we already have here before we have a totally evacuate the other house. 2. We are blessed with wonderful, amazing, unbelievably great friends and family. Seriously. 3. I have the greatest husband in the world. He has been strong, comforting, kind, helpful and wonderful. He basically has to make my food, clean my dishes, refill my water, let the dogs out, let the dogs in, unpack, organize the house, PLUS go to work and he has done all of this without a single negative word. I couldn't have made it through this without him.
We don't really know what to expect now. This baby could theoretically come any day now, but we are happy knowing that contractions are basically stopped at this point (still taking med to keep them controlled). We are now at 32 weeks and we know that every day we make it means a bigger, stronger and healthier baby. I see my doctor on Tuesday and we will discuss the overall plan I guess. I am most likely on bed rest until delivery, which is difficult for me, but we will do what we have to do. We can't wait to meet this little guy and for you all to meet him too, but we are hoping we wont see him for another 5-6 weeks :) We appreciate all your prayers!
I will post some pictures of the new house (pre-furniture) this week and when I can talk andy into taking some pictures of the house with furniture in it I will get those posted too.
near the end of April I went with the girls from work to a "night of indulgence" at a local salon. It was lots of fun though some of the treatments left a lot to be desired for us. Basically you go to 5 different "stations", each lasting maybe 10-15 minutes: 1. facial, 2. foot massage, 3. paraffin wax and hand massage, 4. scalp massage and hair shampoo, 5. back massage. All of mine were great, except the back massage. It was just maybe a 10 minute massage in a massage chair, but the guy that did my massage had a runny nose so he was sniffling the whole time and occasionally one of his hands would break contact with my back for about 5 seconds and I can only imagine that it was so it could make contact with his snotty nose, then return to my back. It made it a little difficult to really relax and enjoy the massage. The girls used that night as a baby shower for me as well, so holly made her delicious chocolate cake and they all chipped in and bought us our pack n' play. woohoo!
The next week was crazy. I had a doctor's appt on Tuesday and everything was going great. No contractions, no aches, no problems. The doctor said I was doing great---measuring right on, weight gain looked good, no other problems with bloodwork or urine. After that Andy and I went to our closing to sign the paperwork on our new house. We officially became the proud owners of 2 homes. (this was NOT the timing I was hoping for.)
When I woke up Wednesday I was having some discomfort and I just blamed it on being pregnant and the baby getting bigger. My mom and grandma came to OKC Wednesday night to help the next few days with painting the nursery, packing, etc. so we went to Lowes to pick out paint. Thursday morning I woke up feeling a little better but still uncomfortable with a little bit of a backache. I called the doctors office and spoke to the nurse (Dr. was out of town). She said she thought I might have a urinary tract infection and had me come in to give her a urine specimen and gave me a rx for antibiotics to take over the weekend. Andy and I ran some errands Thursday, bought a new refrigerator, got all our blinds cut for the new house, etc. My mom, grandma and aunt were at our new house painting the nursery (which turned out GREAT!--I will post pictures later). When we finally sat down that evening I realized that my back pain was coming and going at regular intervals (about 20 seconds at a time, every 7-8 minutes.) Since I have never been pregnant before and really have no idea what I am doing :) I just assumed I had been up and around too much and figured if I drank plenty of water and got some rest things would settle down. I did call the answering service that evening and spoke to the doctor on call who suggested drinking water, relaxing and then going to the hospital if the pain didnt stop. It was late at that point so I showered and went to bed. I was able to fall asleep and stay asleep without any problems.
I woke up Friday morning and realized the pain in my back had gotten more intense but was still coming on every 7 minutes. I got up and used the restroom and (sorry if too much info for you) realized that I was bleeding. PANIC.....I woke andy up and as he was getting dressed I called the doctor. Spoke to the nurse---doctor out of town, remember--and she sent me to the hospital. Got to Mercy around 9am. hooked up to monitor for fetal heartbeat and to monitor contractions. Baby's heartbeat was great, praise the Lord! I was able to relax a little at that point. I was having contractions every 6 minutes now. They checked me out and found that I was in preterm labor--I was just shy of 31 weeks at that point. I was between 70-90% effaced and between 1 and 2 cm dilated. They gave me a shot of Terbutaline to stop the contractions and admitted me to the hospital. I stayed from Friday morning to Sunday evening. My contractions stopped Friday afternoon after taking terbutaline orally every 6 hours and I was given 2 injections of corticosteroids to help the baby's lungs develop more quickly, in case he decided he really wanted to come early. I was discharged Sunday evening after another exam showing no change in effacement or dilation since Friday and was given orders to stay on strict bedrest only getting up to use the restroom and to take a 5 minute shower each day.
Now, we were scheduled to move into our new house on Saturday. Uhaul was rented and friends had been recruited to help, but our plan was basically busted since I couldnt be involved at all and Andy wanted to be at the hospital with me to talk with the doctor. Let me just say...we have been blessed with the most AMAZING friends and family. They stepped up and moved us in without us being there. Andy was able to help out a little here and there, but my mom and grandma, Justin, Kelli, Marcus, Matt, Daniel, Dane, Bum, Kylie, Jon-Michael are life-savers and I cant even begin to tell them how grateful I am for their help!! (sorry if i forgot anyone!) We were moved in by the time I was discharged on Sunday and I was able to come home to a surprisingly organized new home. My mom hung around a few days to help cook, unpack, organize, etc which was a great help! Friends and church family have brought us great food and I have gotten lots of encouraging messages, emails, visits and phone calls as well. What have I learned through this so far?......1. God is good. He has provided. While I do not always understand His timing, He is in control and I can trust Him. If our house had already been sold and we were on a deadline to move out, this would have been a disaster. As it is, we still have some excess furniture at the old house as well as nearly all of andy's garage stuff and his monte carlo. It has been much easier knowing that we have some time to organize what we already have here before we have a totally evacuate the other house. 2. We are blessed with wonderful, amazing, unbelievably great friends and family. Seriously. 3. I have the greatest husband in the world. He has been strong, comforting, kind, helpful and wonderful. He basically has to make my food, clean my dishes, refill my water, let the dogs out, let the dogs in, unpack, organize the house, PLUS go to work and he has done all of this without a single negative word. I couldn't have made it through this without him.
We don't really know what to expect now. This baby could theoretically come any day now, but we are happy knowing that contractions are basically stopped at this point (still taking med to keep them controlled). We are now at 32 weeks and we know that every day we make it means a bigger, stronger and healthier baby. I see my doctor on Tuesday and we will discuss the overall plan I guess. I am most likely on bed rest until delivery, which is difficult for me, but we will do what we have to do. We can't wait to meet this little guy and for you all to meet him too, but we are hoping we wont see him for another 5-6 weeks :) We appreciate all your prayers!
I will post some pictures of the new house (pre-furniture) this week and when I can talk andy into taking some pictures of the house with furniture in it I will get those posted too.
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