Excited!!

I have a big week this week and so much excitement, I can't even tell you!!  I am officially 32 weeks pregnant this week, 8 months pregnant!  When I was telling my mom this she said that couldn't be right because I have more than 4 weeks left of pregnancy.  Well, this is just a mean trick....you're really pregnant for 10 months not 9 people!  I thought I could blame it on Obama, but I heard this before he was President!  So, only 8 weeks to go, how weird/scary is that?  It is VERY exciting but the reality is pretty overwhelming, I still don't think I've come to terms with all the changes.  I know the changes are wonderful changes but it's going to be an adjustment.  An adjustment that I have prayed for and God has prepared me for but an adjustment none the less.  I can't wait to see Nolan and just hold him!

Last week we went back to the high risk dr's and saw the best dr. yet!  He was funny, intelligent and related well to us.  Obviously, I want a dr that is knowledgeable about what is going on with our baby but "bedside manner" is huge to me and this man had it all!  Basically, he said Nolan looked great and he didn't have any major concerns!  Awesome!  Nolan is weighing in at 3 lbs and 10 oz, growing like crazy!  He said if I wanted to continue to see him I could, but he was fine to release me to Dr. Newman that he has worked with her a lot and had full confidence in her.  I have no problem finishing out with Dr. Newman.  The only catch is that he said I will have to come in 2x per week until the end of the pregnancy to have a stress test done on Nolan just as a precaution.  Some babies with the 2 vessel cord decline in the final weeks so he wants to be sure we keep a close eye on him.  Again, he has no worries or concerns with Nolan specifically, just being cautious.  I am fine with cautious, it is going to pose a dilema with work because my school is a good 45 minute drive from the Dr's office but thankfully I work with great people and they will work with me however I need them to.  I am very fortunate!

My mom comes on Thursday and I can hardly wait! When I saw her at Christmas I was showing some but not really feeling Nolan move and she definitely couldn't feel him move.  I told her the other day I can't wait for her just to sit next to me and feel him moving!  We have a deal that the weekend will be titled:  ANAW!!  It stands for All Nolan All Weekend!! I told her to get ready, it's baby mode time!  Of course, she is just as excited as I am!  I will report about all of the events after the weekend wraps up! 

What is going to keep me from sleeping tonight is the outcome of our Maternity Pics that my awesome friend Holly finished and posted today!  They are SO AMAZING!  I just love them and can't quit looking at them!  A while back I had asked Holly to do the pics and she graciously agreed and I had mentioned I would love to have them taken on the Lee University campus since that's where "it all began."  I am so thrilled and just honored that Holly took the time to give us an amazing memory!  Thank you Holly, you're the best!!  (Click on her link to go directly to her blog to check out the pictures!)

Seriously.

Looking like a fool with your:

• dog in the chair
• retainers on the sink (x2 since we both listen to our orthodontist)
• dirty dishes in the kitchen
• bra in the bathroom
• carpets not vacumned
• stinky trash in the kitchen

Yep, this would sum up the house showing we had this week!!  I got a text at work at 2:07 that someone wanted to see our house between 2:30-3:30 that day.  I called the realtor's office freaking out because Ross was at home and I knew I left the house in NO shape for people to be viewing it.  I explained our situation to our realtor and she called the showing agent and of course "this is the only time they can come."  So, they come.  To my embarassment.  Really.

A few things to note:  Yes, I know we have a lock box on our door which lends our house to showings whenever.  It was POURING down rain all day, I just knew when I left the house no one in their right mind would be out looking at houses on a day like this one!  I worked until 6:30 the 2 nights before and the night before we went to an FCA banquet and I didn't get home until 9 because I went straight from work to the banquet.  I was exhausted and barely threw myself into bed the night before only to get up and do it all again the next day.  Have I given enough excuses why I should be ok with the list of mortifying things?

Gray and I pretty much know we sealed our fate on this one.  We haven't heard anything back (which isn't totally shocking or an indicator either way).  All I could do was laugh as I walked through the house and saw all that we had left out and not done.  On the other hand, every other showing we have busted our tails to have the perfect "no one really lives here house" and have seen no fruit from that.  I guess we showed them!  For real though, lesson learned....I will be putting my unmentionables away every morning before I leave for work! :)

Nolan's Room

We picked up Nolan's bed on Friday and Gray set it up for me on Saturday while I was working.  We had to work this Saturday as a snow day make up day.  Gray decided to take the day off and he got a lot accomplished around the house - cleaning and setting up Nolan's bed!  We had debated on setting up the crib since our house is for sale. But, we've decided to embrace it and enjoy the time we have to plan for Nolan instead of holding ourselves back in fear of someone coming to look at our house and not liking it because a baby's room is set up instead of the room being staged a certain way!  Gray had to move all the stuff from one bedroom to another, but by the time I got home everything was set up, floors were vacumned...it was great!

Here are some pictures of his crib.  The only decoration that I have, my Aunt Rebecca gave me when we saw her in December and it matches PERFECTLY with Nolan's stuff!  Thank you Aunt Rebecca!! I'm hoping to play up the navy, red, and green from Nolan's bedding.  I just love the sail boats even more now seeing it set up on the crib!  We have a few technical difficulties to work out with the bumper on the crib because we have the mattress raised as high as it will go right now. 

The t-shirt and pants are my usual Sunday afternoon outfit!  At first, Gray didn't mind me wearing his shirts.  Today he commented that he was surprised that I would wear his stuff and not be embarassed.  Apparently, I'm too cheap to care about my pride because this is totally what I wore to Wal-Mart this afternoon.  I have tried not to buy a lot of maternity clothes because I am a cheapskate and there just really isn't a lot of cute stuff out (In my opinion).  I have borrowed some clothes from several friends which has saved me SO MUCH!  Thank you girls!

29 Weeks!

This has been a long week!  It has flown by, but a week with a lot packed in to a few days!  We started out our week in Nashville. We stayed with Gray's old roommates parents, The Thomas'.  They are wonderful!  We arrived to an awesome meal and just had a great time laughing with them and sharing our lives with them since it has been so long since we have seen them.  They have been married 30+ years and they are just the sweetest husband and wife, I'm thankful the Lord has placed them in our lives to witness and learn from!

Work (for me) has been hectic and will probably continue to until Nolan comes.  I really do love my job so it doesn't bother me, just makes for some longer days.  I am really thankful to work with great people (Gray included) so at least we have fun and laugh a lot while we're there! 

Today, we went to see Dr. Newman.  I had my glucose test (which was rescheduled from an earlier time) and we had an ultrasound and saw Dr. Newman.  I am really hoping I pass my glucose test this time, drinking that little drink was bad I don't want to do that again!  During the ultrasound, the tech asked us if we wanted a disc of the ultrasound.  I've seen that you can buy the disc for $5 and I've never inquired about it or been offered.  Well, when the girl brought it up I just said, "No, that's ok....we'll get pictures."  Gray was like, "Wait a second, we want one!"  I looked at him with the "we really don't need one" look and he looked back to the girl and said, "well, if she doesn't want it I'll buy it!"  Don't we share a checking account here?!  I did think the disc was just the still shots we normally get but she said it's the footage of her actually doing the ultrasound.  Well, she got started and this was probably our worst ultrasound yet!  Nolan did not move at all, he was so balled up you couldn't really get a good shot of him.  We just had to laugh, I'm glad Gray told her to do the disc because if we'd of said no and the ultrasound was good I would've been mad at myself.  At the same time, it's safe to say Nolan made a sport out of Gray!  This may come back to get Nolan later, but for today we were just so excited to see our little guy that we just laughed and our luck in the situation!

Nolan weighed 2 pounds, 13 ounces today!  His legs were up by his face.  We asked the tech about his legs (are they still measuring short?) and she said technically they are measuring average but it was hard for her to say from today since he was so bunched up and never moved!  I got to ask Dr. Newman some questions about delivery which was exciting!  I've been reading some online (which as I've already concluded is NEVER a good idea....) and I was wondering if I needed to have a birth plan.  She said that she thinks in this region that's just not something a lot of people do, you can plan all you want but you just never know how your birth will go.  I'm sure at some point there will be some big things we will have to say "yes or no" to, but for the most part I'm just going to follow her lead.  I trust her and know she has my best interest in mind so I'm not going to sweat the details too much.  Which works wonderfully with my personality since I'm a more "go with the flow" kind of person anyway when it comes to making decisions.  :)  For once, I think my procrastination and inability to make decisions is going to pay off!!

Here's my picture from this week, this is me pretty exhausted but heading to Nashville in something that looked as comfortable as possible!

E.F.M.

Today my dad, Edward Francis McAllister would have turned 61.  61 is not that old.  I miss my dad a lot but I've really thought about him a lot today and missed him!  Since I went away to college (and after) when I would send my dad a card or something I would address it to Edward Francis McAllister.  He really didn't like the name Francis which is kind of why I did it.  :)  He would often call me by my full name as well.  It's the simple things that I really miss! 

Throughout my pregnancy I have missed him so much, it's sad to know that Nolan will never know my dad.  I know that both of my parents were eager to be grandparents, but my dad made it a point to ask me just about every time I saw him (after I got married) when I thought we would have kids.  He asked me specific questions about us waiting to have kids, would I stay home or try to work....looking back now I'm glad we had those conversations!  He would be so proud and excited I know!  

Early on I told Gray that if we had a boy I would like to use the middle name Edward in honor of my dad.  So, Nolan's name is Nolan Edward.  I hope to share lots of pictures and stories of my dad with Nolan Edward one day!

There's a lot more I would love to write and share about my dad but it just seems too raw today.  Simply stated, I just miss him! 

Valentine's Day

This year our Valentine's plans were to go eat at Holly's moms house for dinner with Holly and her husband Eric.  Dianne (Holly's mom) is in close competition with Paula Dean so when she offered to make the guys salmon patties and Holly and I chicken fingers we took her up on the offer!  We have been married 6 1/2 years we are no fools to pass on an amazing meal (and the price was right)!  The only bummer is that Eric got sick on Valentine's so we didn't end up going.  The smart thing would've been to stay home, make dinner...any other Monday night.  Do the Ange's do the smart thing?  NO! 

Monday afternoon Gray came by my office and I was telling him about Eric being sick and someone in my office had just been talking about Outback.  We decided if we went early, we should be able to get in quickly and eat! We were in a rush to go so I didn't take any pictures of us.  Not cool.  We went to Outback only waited 20 minutes (Gray did call ahead) and had a great dinner!  It was nice to go out and we really enjoyed the time together!  Gray surprised me with a small gift, a gift card to Burger King!!  My man knows my craving right now and a plain, chicken sandwich from BK is at the top of that list!  I hadn't been to BK in years before now and not that I go all the time now (if only one was closer to where we lived....) but it always sounds amazing!  I have to believe that Nolan is going to take after his cousin Hunter and LOVE Burger King! 

After Outback, we went to Babies R Us and got Nolan's Valentine's present....we ordered his crib!  We have been looking for a while and found one we liked (while utilizing a 25% off offer) so we got a decent deal on a nice crib that better last us a while!  It won't come in for a little while but I'm excited to have that decision out of the way, Happy Valentine's Nolan! 

I did take a picture of myself in the mirror (while waiting for Gray to get home before Outback).  I mainly took it because my brother Eric has been asking me to send him a picture so I wanted one to send him.  Now, this is my only picture to document Valentine's Day so I have to share.  I swore I would never be like the teenage kids at school and do the old mirror picture then post online (at least I'm not putting it on facebook, saving some dignity here)! 

 

3rd Trimester!!

I am WAY behind in posting, I apologize to all 5 of my faithful readers!  :)

I'm going to just to a big swoop and get myself caught up on this pregnancy bit....I am now 28 weeks!  3rd TRIMESTER BABY!!  I am so excited to say that, I can't really believe it myself!!  So much crazy stuff has been going on, my body has finally started to show "signs" of Nolan inside and awkwardness in certain things.  Dr. Newman told me that my body is not my own while I'm pregnant and I'm now starting to believe everything she says and means by that!  I keep telling Gray, I can't believe I still have ____ days left to go (fill in depending on the time of course).  I know it will go by fast now, but May seems like forever away!  Gray and I have started talking to Nolan more and it's kind of fun, everytime I eat I feel him going crazy.  I lifted a box of test books the other day (knowing that was not a good idea but I was the only one around and needed to get it done...).  Afterwards, I got so worried.  I was driving and just pleaded with Nolan to please move so I knew everything was ok!  Granted, I know me lifting 1 heavy box isn't truly going to hurt him.  I just scared myself and needed him to reassure me!  Gray was asking me to do something not too long ago (can't remember what it was) and I said, "no, but I'll make you a deal....you can hold Nolan for the first hour he is born!!"  I am already wagering my son out to get things I want!  Wrong?  Probably!  (side note:  I don't think that deal will really hold up, I just said it thinking I might be too tired after labor to care if Gray holds him for an hour!) 

With my eating habits, I am officially OUT OF CONTROL!  I think it's because when I go to the dr. she comments on my weight and how great I'm doing so I feel the need to then indulge in my every craving!  I went to the grocery store this weekend and came home with:

• Entemann's donuts - variety pack (Publix had the BOGO, it was calling me!!)
• Cake Mix
• Hot fudge sauce (to go with the ice cream already at home)
• Oatmeal cookie mix (add in the chocolate chips already at home)
• Caffeine free Coke (I am trying to limit my cafeine intake as much as possible 

On the way home, I ate 2 of the donuts out of the box! I didn't want anyone to see what I was doing in the parking lot of Publix so I was thankful when the girl did not offer to help me with my groceries!  I didn't know how I was going to slip the donuts in my purse with her standing over me!  Needless to say, I am OUT OF CONTROL!   I just feel the need to bake and eat a lot!  The blogging world has not helped this food addiction since I have found some great recipes on peoples blogs.  Why is it I can read a craft blog and never do that craft but I see the food blog and feel the impulse to buy the ingredients and cook immediately?!  Kind of annoying really!

Here is my picture from week 26 (almost 27). Nolan and I are growing rapidly!  :)