Showered

Last week Joey and I were super blessed when our church family had a shower for us.  Joey's family made it really really special with lots of details.  We had so much fun at the shower, Mandy (Joey's sister) had a fun game where she asked Joey questions about the baby and then asked me and tried to see if we got the answers the same, it was hilarious! Then I opened presents, and it felt like I was opening them forever, we were so blessed!  When I got home and Joey looked out over the sea of pink, he said, "I'm worried...what if it's a boy!"

 The black squiggles on the left are a wisdom tree.  People wrote out wisdom or blessings for raising children.  We got some funny ones such as, don't play with her too rough after she eats, she will throw up on you!  (I think that was for Joey!)

                                   There was all kinds of food and the punch was wonderful!!!

 This cake was amazing!  Someone from Mandy's work made it and I took the rest of it home, it didn't stay around long!

 Me and my extra mom!  She made me the baby corsage I am wearing, it has baby socks, ribbons and even some little blingly things that are the same thing I used on some of my wedding decorations!

         This is me giving my little thank you speech, for some reason I got nervous!

                   Look my belly is about to knock over Sister Verdie!!!

Like I said, we were super blessed!  I have baby stuff EVERYWHERE as Joey is working diligently to get the baby's room ready.  I am having to pack some of it up though because I have to have the extra room ready for my family for when they come!  So much to do and the hardest part is I have no idea how much time I have!  I could still have 4 weeks, or I could go into labor tomorrow!

On Your Mark...

Joey and I went to the Dr. this week, we will start going every week until our little bundle arrives!  This Dr. appt brought so much peace to me this week.  We were able to talk specifics about the labor and delivery of this baby and I know that my Dr. and I are on the same page and she is going to help me to have the experience that I desire.  I'll explain all that more some other time.  She also checked me and I am 1 cm dilated!!!  so I"m 10% there as I look at it!  That doesn't really mean much at this point, I could stay at 1 for weeks, but it does means that things are headed in that direction and it won't be too long until a baby is in our arms! 

When she came in she asked me if I felt like I couldn't get any bigger, I told her, "I feel like I HAVE to if she is going to grow anymore, then I better too, cause we are running out of room!"  She said when I get to 39 weeks she would induce me if I want and I told her I absolutely do not want to be induced except for a medical emergency.  She said she is fine with that as long as I understand that it could mean that I go over my due date.  I told her I was fine with that and she said she is fine with that as well.  She said she thought the baby would be on the smaller side anyway so that was fine.  That was a huge relief for me because I was feeling like the baby was huge already!  I guess since this is my first pregnancy I have no idea what is normal, but I can feel her on my bladder and in my ribs and on my sides at the same time so I figured she must be huge!  I had worked up in my head that i was having a 9 1/2 lb baby by the time this over!   But hopefully that is not the case!  Somewhere around 7 would be very nice! 

This was a big week for me also because I had two baby showers.  One from my friends at work and one from the church family.  This little girl is spoiled already!  I have LOTS of pictures of both to show you, however, we have no internet as I am writing this.  We had an ice storm the last few days and have had power outages and the internet has been down.  I just wanted to write something while I had a few minutes that I could post when it came back on.  So come back soon!

One Month!!!!

What?!?!?!  How is it possible that my due date is one month from today?!  Where did the time go?  When I was in the early weeks of pregnancy and quite sick I didn't think this time would ever get here, and yet it is so fast approaching.  Now of course February 8 is just an estimate, she could come earlier or later, but still we are looking at around a month!  I switch between nervousness and excitement!  What I have prayed for so long is finally happening and yet now that it is here I don't know what to do!  It's kind of like right before I got married.  I wanted to be married for so long and it was days before my wedding when I began to freak out a little, I realized I had never been a wife and was scared that I wouldn't know what to do and that I might be a bad wife.  I have no idea how to be a mom, this is all new to me and sometimes I am scared I might not be good at it! But then I remember something, I am not alone.  Of course I have Joey and we are in this together, but more important than that, the Lord is with us.  Just as He led me through His Word to know what a godly wife looks like, He will lead us both into how to be godly parents as we seek Him first.  It is nice to know we don't have to look to this world or to other people (though we do have several godly parents that we gleam from their years of experience of raising children)  but we just lift our eyes up and seek God's way of doing things. 

In other news, I have begun to waddle!!!  Yep, I'm a waddling pregnant lady!  Not all the time, but when I get up from sitting or out of the bed, I waddle!  Things have begun to get a little, shall we say...crowded? tight? uncomfortable?  here at the end.  I have really tried hard not complain about pains and other issues.  It was really hard for me to deal with when we were trying to get pregnant and I would encounter a pregnant lady who only complained about how hard it was and how much she was hurting.  In the beginning when I would get sick I would try my best to thank God in the midst of throwing up, because being sick was a result of the baby growing inside of me that I had prayed so long for.  As she grows, there is less room for things that have always had plenty of room inside of me, like my lungs, or my stomach, or my bladder!  But soon and very soon, she will no longer be inside of me, but in our arms and we will be able to hold her and love her and cuddle her.  I know in a lot of ways I am going to miss this time of being pregnant and her inside of me.  It's still so neat to me that she is IN me and that I can feel her moving around and kicking, punching, twirling, jumping, I don't really know what she is doing in there, I just know she is active! 

So are we ready for her? well you take a look and tell me.....

This is her room!  Yep, one month to go and no walls or floor!  She really doesn't need a room right now, she will be with us in our room at night for quite some time.  But I didn't want to be under construction with a newborn so Joey is working very hard to get all this ready before she gets here.  But where did we put all the stuff we have been getting for her, well in the living room, which looks like this: 

We are in what Joey calls "chunk mode" we are chunking out a bunch of our stuff.  Throwing some away and giving away plenty as well.  We are trying to simplify our life because we simply have too much stuff.  I have really been trying to limit the amount of baby "stuff" we get too, but it's hard to know what you really need until she is here.  But I am daily chipping away at this chaotic mess and we are getting organized and I am getting EXCITED!!!

Ok I promise pictures are to come soon of me and my belly, which really aren't two different things, though my belly quite large!  I am having some baby showers and I will be sure someone will take some pictures, it's just hard to take pictures of yourself! 

I'm Not the Best Blogger...

So I am not that great at blogging, as you can tell!  It's been weeks since my last post and I said I was going to start a series on mine and Joey's relationship.  I still plan to do that, but just not today!  Sooooo much has been going on.  I thought I would have a vacation when I had a few days off of work, but this has been a very eventful "vacation" for sure! Some of Joey's cousins are in town and have been moving and we have been helping them, though I am really not all that helpful at this point in my pregnancy.  My family was supposed to come into town last week, but things got crazy with them and they didn't end up making it. My sister went through a tornado on Christmas day and had lots to deal with as a result of that and we were busy here with a funeral for one of the pastors at church.  And of course then there was all of the family gatherings for Christmas and the New Year and this weekend 2 of Joey's cousins have birthday parties so the activities are not stopping!

On a productive note, Joey has finished the storage room he was building on our back porch, which means we have just over a month to get the baby's room ready.  It's going to be a very tight squeeze, but I think we can do it!  Joey went into full on "nesting" mode last night when we got home and decided it was time to move everything out of the room so he would be able to start, so now everything is in my living room!  Which stresses me out just a bit, but I'm trying to handle the total disorganization as best I can.

I alternate between being excited and being totally freaked out that the baby is coming.  In so many ways it still doesn't seem real to me that I am even pregnant, though my body is VERY aware that it is sharing with two what is usually only occupied by one!  There is so much I want to do before she gets here and so much I feel like i need to do to prepare, but I know she is coming ready or not!  In the end everything will fall into place.  I'm treasuring these last few weeks I have with just me and Joey and at the same time anxiously anticipating the growth of our family. 

Sorry to those of you who have requested pictures, I just forget to take pictures all the time!  I'll try to do better!