Good Bye 2006 and HELLO 2007!!!

Happy New Year 2007! Hope you had a wonderful new year so far! Other than a small fireworks display in our front yard (not literally..just right in front of the house in the street), it was a quiet one around our house. And were very happy to have it that way!

Excited to realize that this is the year Anna Kate will be born!!! Only 7 more weeks before the due date, and most likely 5 before her arrival! We can't wait to meet her!

Other projects around the house

Other projects going on around the house. Mike has been working SO HARD to get all of this done. I just wish I could help him more. He as been a regular "Tim the Tool Man" around the house this holiday!

The plantation blinds are finished (thank you, Ryan, for the Home Depot card....you can see your gift hanging in the Master Bedroom :) .....), hung hardware in the master bedroom for the curtains, attached new hardware in the kitchen and bathrooms. It's coming together!

It's almost done!

Anna Kate's Room.....

I gotten in trouble for not posting any nursery pictures, so NOW I have finally done so!! We haven't finalized what's going on the wall by her crib and I didn't show the dresser...it is *a mess* I threw everything that was on her changing table and in her crib on the dresser so I could get a few shots :). I promise the room will be done before she gets here....I hope.

I need to get a close of up the Pooh ABC Sampler that is over the changing table. My mom made that for my brother Michael 30 years ago and I couldn't wait to hang it in my nursery. I wanted to keep this pooh theme--so I could use the cross stitch that my mom made. She had it rematted in pink and greens recently so I could use it. THANK YOU, Momma!

The "Anna Kate" canvas was made by my sister Maureen. She is so crafty! She also made the diaper cake for my Birmingham shower. The colors are a perfect match for her room!

It's almost Christmastime!!

Well, I promised some pictures, and yes, they are coming! I'm a bit slow,but as they say, better late than never.

Mike went with me to my OB appointment today. I swear, when he goes with me, I always have to wait. Usually they will call me back almost immediately and less than a 10 wait from the time the nurse does the vitals before Dr. B walks in. UNLESS Mike is with me. Then it's always a wait!!! It took them 20 minutes before they called me back, and a small wait for Dr. B. I don't mind. The way I look at it, when it's my turn, I will end up making a few other women wait for their appointments in February. It's just how it goes :).

Speaking of the appointment, all is well with Anna Kate. She continues to grow like a weed and measuring ahead of schedule. She would not stay put when the nurse did the doppler to listen to hear heartbeat (strong heartbeat~ around 145) or when Dr. B was measuring my belly. As of Saturday, I'm 32 weeks along, but she is measuring 35-36. Dr. B still thinks we are on tap for a c-section, and that Feb 7-8 is our target. He got a great giggle when I told him of the tradition of the February birthdays....8-9-10. He said he'll make sure Anna Kate is on the 7th, so she's the first in line :). So, mark your calendars for that first full week of February....looks like Anna Kate will make her grand debut!

This evening, Mike and I are heading to Tampa to pick up our crib & mattress :). The "Jackson" Santa is giving us the crib...and we found the LAST CRIB in stock and so we are getting it now. Otherwise we would have to wait for 10-14 days before in comes in stock from being order. This way I can take some pictures THIS weekend of Mike putting---hmm, trying to put, the crib together. We are using our Christmas vacation time to finish her room and finish other projects around the house. I should get some great shots this weekend.

Yeah! More baby things arriving at the house!

For some reason, these past two weeks have been very difficult. Not sure why. I have been weepy and overly emotional than usual (then again, I am not typically like this!!) I don't cry at commericals, but found myself tearing up at the silliest of things. I even cried watching Las Vegas last week, one of our favorite shows. Las Vegas? Are you kidding? Even Mike commented that I have cried more in the past two weeks that he has *ever* seen me. These daggum hormones!!!!

Well, with it being a Wednesday, it feels more like a Friday....the week is JUST DRAGGING!!! I am working through Friday at lunch, so I just hoping I can make it for a few more days. To make it worse, the same developer who did our house decided to relocate another historic home two lots over that ours.....AT 3AM IN THE MORNING!!!! Mike heard the trucks rolling down at 3, but the actual unloading part woke me up at 4am. It's not everyday you see a house being moved, but come on! I gotta sleep!! The floodlights the moving crew set up to light up their work area just shown straight into our bedroom and the beeping sounds of trucks back up didn't help, either. Oh well. Finally they finished up around 6am.

To make the day better, I realized that we are finally getting our camera from Jackson that we forgot during the wedding. Mama is sending it with their Christmas gift...right now I am more excited about the camera...I can finally download pictures and finish unloading my ebay junk that is doing quite well right. So hopefully later this evening I can post those pictures of the surprise baby shower in Birmingham.

THEN to make it even better, my cousin Catherine calls to tell me that the swing the shower hostesses gave to us is IN STOCK and ready for us to pick up!! YEAH!! Talk about my day turning around! Mike is coming back from Sarasota this evening, and will stop and pick it up. I can't wait to take pictures of us, err, Mike putting this together. Gives me something else to post this evening :).

Two more days before my next appointment. Hopefully I can get Dr. B to commit to a scheduled date for Anna Kate's debut. Keeping the fingers crossed!! I promise to post any updates!

Adding insult to Injury and other random thoughts

For about two weeks now, I have been dealing with pain in my right wrist. I thought I slept on it funny or pulled a muscle. Thinking time would make it better, it hasn't. It has gotten worse. Mike was tired of my saying something about it, so I finally broke down and went to have it checked out. Come to find out, I have tendonitis in my right wrist. Gee, great. Luckily the doctor said that I should be healed in 2 weeks as long as I ice my wrist daily, wear the beautiful and stylish thumb/wrist splint and take some tylenol to help with the swelling and inflammation. He did offer a cortizone shot, but you know me and needles...I don't think so! I would rather give these other options a try first before I get poked. The idea of a needle in my wrist isn't appealing. Then again, I am about to get a needle in back for an epidural in a few weeks! I guess we all have to pick our poison!

I haven't forgotten to update this blog with pictures from the Birmingham shower. As I posted, our camera didn't want to stay with us while in town for the wedding and waiting for the mailman to deliver the camera back to us. I'll also bug Maureen for her to send me what pictures she took during the party.

Mike and I attend a baby care class earlier this week. He is now officially able to change diapers, feed Anna Kate and hold her appropriately. I can't comment on the expertise just yet, but at least he knows how to :). We had alot of fun at the class, as it was a great refresher for me and my past babysitting days and an overwhelming experience for Mike. I think it really hit us for the first time that Anna Kate will be here before we know it. Although I'm officially 9 weeks away, it will be more like 6-7 weeks when I'm scheduled for the c-section. My next appt is Dec 22 and hopefully I can get Dr. B to commit to a date. You know me and my planning. This anticipated due date doesn't really work for me anyway. I'm a "need to know" kinda gal :).

Found the cutest socks today...

If you tell me I'm crazy to be stocking up this much for Anna Kate, you wouldn't be the first. I found on an online community/chat board with other pregnant women due in February. One of the posts today shared an website for the *cutest* socks, booties and tights for girls. It's www.trumpette.com OMG!! They look like either Mary Jane shoes or ballet slippers. TOO CUTE!! Ok, so I broke down and bought some on ebay with the extra money I got for selling other junk on ebay. They were half the price and half the shipping, and for me, free since I have some extra in my ebay seller's account :). I got the pastel Mary Janes. Anna Kate will be one well dressed baby!!

Healthy Eater-- Anna Kate won't be a little baby

Well, very good news! From my OB appointment and ultrasound this morning, Anna Kate is growing more like a 32-33 week baby (I'm 30 weeks now) and weighs a whopping 4 plus pounds now! Usually they are 3 - 3.5 lbs at this gestation age. Forget the 0-3 size, this one isn't going to be a little baby!! Mike claimed that he was a 13 lb baby, that's why Anna Kate is a big girl. I say babies that big make the news and two, I think he was a X lb and 13 oz baby. It has been confirmed he was big...just not THAT big. He was 9 lb 13 oz.

Dr. B also said that I will 1) likely go early 2) Definitely won't make it to our Feb 18 due date and 3) most likely I will go by c-section (not because she's too big...I just can't delivery naturally). He said the last day he will take me will be around Feb 8. We'll see if he'll take us on Feb 7 so we can extend our February birthday tradition by another consective day.

I asked if I could be scheduled for a c-section now, and Dr. B said it's too early to talk scheduling now, but would like to see where I am by the first week of January or so.

Everything looks to be normal and Dr. B is very pleased with this pregnancy. I go back on Dec 22. At least I got a few more ultrasound pictures from the visit! The countdown is on!!! Any bets on the actual due date?

Wonderful Weekend in Birmingham!

Mike and I got back late Sunday night after a wonderful weekend in Birmingham. My brother Ryan and his bride Kapi got married Saturday in a sweet ceremony and I had a surprise baby shower that morning! The invitations even said to wait until we left for Birmingham before ordering, since I check the online registries a bit. Ordering too soon would give something away. From my understanding, there were several moments that almost gave away the secret, but luckily I wasn't paying attention. Maureen, Catherine & Elizabeth did a beautiful job of decorating in pink and green with lots of sweet and tasty food!

The entire weekend was very quick--just wished we had some more time to visit with everybody. Before we knew it, we were back at the airport, heading back to Florida.

I have some shower pictures included...thank you Carolyn!! I hope to have a few more loaded soon, not just of the shower, but entire weekend. Somehow our camera just didn't want to stay with us this weekend. Anytime we need it, it was missing. The camera didn't even make the trip back to Florida....it stayed in my mom's car back to Mississippi :).

I'll post a lil bit more shortly, including more pictures of the shower, the beautiful gifts for Anna Kate and the wedding weekend festivities!


Maureen is so creative...she made the diaper cake, as well as the name plate for the nursery door. Photo to come...