Surprise!!!

So after a good appointment at the doctor yesterday (the ultrasound went well...he's still stable and a growing boy weighing in about 5lbs12oz) my first graders (and awesome room moms) surprised me with a baby shower at school today. Today was my last day of teaching and the kids were so excited to do this for me (so excited they had a hard time keeping the secret.lol.). It was chaos of course but they were so sweet to do this. I will really miss them next year.

We played the "estimation string belly" game where they guess how long of a string will go around my belly. Believe it or not the winner was right on! What luck! 

Way to go Lane! (Funny thing is that he is the room mom's little boy. You'd think they rigged it but there is no way to do that! haha)

Opening adorable baby presents.

Needless to say after 3 kids had already brought in cupcakes and cookie cake for their birthdays that fall over the summer....we had more cupcakes. But isn't it cute? It's like a cake made of cupcakes! :)

This is my favorite pic I think. It is a perfect portrayal of how my days feel everyday! I have 15 children! You try getting them to pose for a picture! haha.

Okay that's better. Lots of fun. Happy Summer everyone!

Baby Bump - 36weeks

Yep! Time is goin' by and we are now 2 weeks away from my cesarian date! If all goes according to plan, baby's birthday (May 26th) is just around the corner! I'm so excited but suddenly experiencing anxiety and fear like I haven't had since we first found out about his spina bifida. I find myself talking David's ear off with "I wonder if he'll sleep good?" "How big will he be?" "Will he eat good?"....things I cannot know now or control...worries that are completely unnecessary and cannot be helped by worrying about them but seem pretty common from mother's I've talked to. :) And of course there are worries specific to our baby: "Will I be able to nurse him after him being away from me for several days?" "How long will we have him before they take him to Scottish Rite for surgery" "How will my heart not break in two without him for the days I have to stay in recovery?" "How long till I can hold my little boy". So needless to say, these days are full of joy and anticipation mixed with a bittersweet realization of what is to come. People keep asking me if I'm ready? Such a loaded question for me right now. A huge happy "Yes" and yet a resounding frightened "No." I've heard it is so much easier (from the moms I've met whose babies have SB) once your baby is here. So until he is here, I pray that they are right, and I pray for my little angel's healing and safety once again.

The Nursery and Another Baby Shower! :)

Baby's Room!!!

We finally finished the nursery and I can't wait for our finishing touch to make it complete - our little boy. :) 4 weeks from today is the day we get to meet our little doodlebug for the first time. We showed off his room today at our second baby shower hosted by my girlfriends from school - Thanks Kristin and Lindzey! In the words of Linda "you rock!" haha.

Adorable invitations and yummy food!

Gifts and Games!! Be kind ladies...

It was great to see my favorite Cheatham Hill Elementary ladies there today as well as...

...my good friend Kacee from Kennesaw Elem.

The cake was adorable! One of my absolute favorites! 2 great cakes in a row! A friend of Kristin did it and it was as delicious as it was beautiful.

Cutting the Cake for a Happily Ever After Ending!

First Baby Shower

What a wonderful church family and friends we have! I cannot believe how many people were there! How blessed we are to have such people in our lives - the shower was truly an outpouring of love and generosity. The cake was adorable and delicious. I don't have a picture yet but I'm getting one. Now I've got to reorganize and go through all of baby's presents that are stuffed into the guest room! lol. Not a bad problem to have of course. What a day!

Cutest baby socks! They're so tiny!

Shopping cart cover. Yay!

My favorite diaper bag ever from Nina and Papi! Cute guitar onesie from Aunt Kayleigh!

Pink baby gap dress shirt! Daddy will love him in this. :)

So true! This says it all.

More adorable clothes!

Michelle and Katie: The official photographers of the shower and clothing fairies for baby. :)

Aunt Kelly! Thanks for writing down all that stuff so I can get started on thank you notes asap!

Baby is Beautiful

We had our 32week perinatologist doctor's appointment today. Praise God it went very well! The doctor is consistently pleased at how stable our little boy is. Our baby's strong movements continue to be a good sign and he is growing beautifully now at an estimated 4lbs3oz. :) They continue to say he is "right on track" and it is so wonderful to see him on the ultrasound. Today the ultrasound technician even pointed out how much hair he has! :) It was really cute - she kept saying "all the girls in the nursery will be jealous." haha. She measured it at almost an inch! I cannot wait! We saw his little face and arms and legs and feet and everything looked perfect. Though we couldn't get a picture (he had his hands and even a little foot up in front of his face most of the time! silly boy.) I was able to see him so clearly for a minute that it was amazing. There is a lot that cannot be known or seen of course. So much will be waiting to see what he is capable of as he grows. But we are SO thankful that what the doctor can see now looks as good as it possibly can it sounds like. The doctor even went as far as to say "everything looks so good...it's a little spooky"... he was smiling so I guess he meant that as a good thing. We don't find it "spooky" at all, unless he is referring to the Holy Ghost. :) God has been so good to us and we feel His hand and blessings on our little one every day. Thank you all so much for your prayers and encouragement. We feel positive so much of the time but that doesn't mean we are immune to times of worry, sadness and fear. It sometimes feels like a daily effort to keep the faith and trust in The One we know will bring us though. But that is exactly what we need to do and MUST do and your love and support make God's love stronger in our hearts.

Please continue to pray for...

God's wisdom, peace and comfort to reign in our hearts.

That we will be able to balance our ever shifting emotions and count our blessings in times of heartache.

That our precious baby will continue to grow and heal under God's protection and come into this world without complication.

That God will continue to guide and steady the hands and minds of the many doctors and nurses we will be trusting our baby with.

Thank you again so much. We will keep you posted! Have a great evening...we are. ;)

Easter! Baby Bump - 32 weeks

We had a great spring break and a lovely Easter Sunday. The family got together for a delicious lunch at my Aunt Lisa's and minus the traditional egg hunt it was just like always. Maybe there'll be some kids around next year and we'll bring back the egg hunting party. :) I know one baby who will see his first Easter egg next year....can you spot him in these photos?

Aunt Kelly and Uncle Nate love Baby

Baby and I love Daddy. :)

Even though he's such a goofball.

Can you tell we're a bit possessive of our little boy already? lol.

Aunt Kelly, Nina and Mommy 

Happy Easter Aunt Kayleigh!!

Our Spontaneous Hospital Tour

So after scheduling a hospital tour with both Kennestone (where I'll deliver) and Scottish Rite (where baby will go afterward) we unexpectedly ended up at Labor and Delivery at Kennestone Hospital yesterday. Don't worry! No baby yet. :) In fact baby had nothing to do with it and was probably oblivious to the whole thing cause he just kept swimming around like normal. lol. It was all mommy and believe me that was actually a relief. But of course whenever mommy is having problems, doctor wants to make sure to fix them so baby doesn't have to feel anything later on. I started having some pains in my right side around 10:30 yesterday morning at school and, to explain the progression of the pain, by 12:00 I was laying down on the floor of my classroom on a couple of bean bag chairs! Yes the kids thought I had lost my mind and looked at me with smiling wary faces as I graded papers from the floor. By 2:00 the pain was even worse so I called my doctor and she wanted me to come in. I was pretty certain baby was fine (I could feel him kicking all around) but I was glad to get checked out anyway. After checking baby's heartbeat and confirming it was not likely related to baby (not labor pains) I was sent to Labor and Delivery to check out everything from gall bladder, kidneys, pancreas, appendix etc. My blood pressure was up and I was running a fever (both probably due to the pain I'd been in for 6 hours) so they hooked me up, tested blood, did ultrasounds of the area and make me more uncomfortable. lol. Good news - 4 hours and 2 IVs later we were free to go. The doctor said everything checked out fine. The pain had gone by this point and I was actually hungry again (all I'd had was a bagel and a little egg salad at 1:00).  Diagnosis? Thankfully (though rather anti-climatic) the doc thinks it was just some trapped air in a really bad spot. I've been given specific eating instructions to help avoid the situation again. Apparently this is not uncommon in pregnancy and can mimic labor pains it can be so bad. Glad it was not something serious this time. :) She also discovered in the bloodwork that my protein is low (and iron...found that out last week) so I'm supposed to eat an egg a day and I'm on iron supplements. Doc says baby is doing a beautiful job of "being a little parasite." haha. Good baby. So my mom, David, baby and I left the hospital tired, thankful and hoping to not visit again until it's BABY TIME! Phew!