History of Baby Bump Pics

Let's see how far I have come...

5 weeks

6 weeks

8 weeks

10 weeks

15 weeks

15 weeks

17 weeks

19 weeks (and my 30th Bday pic)

20 weeks

22 weeks

22 weeks (again...but you can see the belly a little better here). Looks like I "popped" around this time period.

24 weeks

26 weeks

28 weeks. Wow, what a difference from 26 and 28 weeks. The belly is REALLY official. :-)

29 weeks

30 weeks

31 weeks

32 weeks

34 weeks

34 weeks

35 weeks

36 weeks

39 weeks

40 weeks

 

 

 Looks like we're ready to roll!

Update

I had my 40 week appointment on Monday and it looks like we will be meeting little Miss Jackson this Wednesday, September 29th (which is my actual due date). 

We will keep everyone updated with pics and texts!
Thank you for your support and love.
B&M

Baby Girl's Nursery

Baby Girl's Nursery is complete (or at least VERY close) and we're definitely pleased with how it turned out. To us, it's feminine yet not over the top.  "Earthy Classy" as Mike would say. :-) I'm in love with how it turned out.  Here are some pics.

This is the view when you first walk in the room. Happy yellow walls. And Mikey put the curtain rod up...used his table saw. Yeah, he's tough like that. :-)

This is the rocking chair my parents used to rock me when I was a baby. My Dad gave it back to me, thanks Dad! And check out this awesome lamp...Hope made it!!! Isn't it fabulous? I love it.

Mike picked out this girly fan for her room, it's fun! She also has plenty of closet space for clothes and toys.

Love this part. Here is the crib, dresser, bedding and wall decoration. The dresser was one I have had for years that we (me, Mike and mom) "fixed up". More to come on the crib, bedding and wall decoration.

A little reading nook for Baby Girl...complete with chair.

The crib! Love it! It's a 4 in 1 crib which means it will transition as Baby Girl grows from a crib to two different toddler styles to a full size bed. Awesome! Thank you Mom and Mark for the crib and changing table! You can also see the bedding here. I LOVE it. Yellow, Orange, Green and White...LOVE. And yellow gingham crib skirt. Thank you Steph for the bedding! And finally, do you see the little Monkey sticking his head out? Aunt Meg made it for Baby Girl!!  Thanks Meg!!

Take a look at the tree we painted? Aren't we talented? Just Kidding!! This is a decal from etsy. I love it!! Mom helped me put it up...it takes quite a bit of time (and patience) to put up but SO worth it. Love it!

Here is the changing table/dresser...it's awesome! I also used a decal for the "You are my Sunshine" wall decoration and put up one of my favorite suns. You all know how much I love suns and no doubt that Baby Girl will be my "Sunshine".

Another view of room.

So there you have it, Baby Girl's nursery. Thank you to everyone who helped us put it together.

Now all we need is a Baby Girl to use it...

Due in 3 days...

New Landscaping!

It's finally here! No, not our little girl, our landscaping! (Baby Girl is still loving her time in mommy's tummy.)

As many of you have heard us talk about (let's not sugar coat it, COMPLAIN about), the landscaping at our house when we purchased it was a little less than desirable. Wait, I said I wouldn't sugar coat it, it was AWFUL. I think it was very nice at one time but it just hadn't been maintained in MANY years and was so overgrown that it was beyond repair.  There was somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 holly bushes around our house and most were very large and overgrown. Here is a pic when we purchased the house.

A little holly crazy. Again, I'm sure nice at one time, but not anymore.

So we needed to fix this situation. My hubby, being the "can do" that he is, worked with one other guy to remove practically ALL of the overgrown bushes/shrubbery. It was a HARD job. I helped by gathering the brush once it was out of the ground and putting it either in bags or on a pile for a truck to pick up. The removal was definitely SO hard, but really saved us a lot of dough...gotta love that!  Mike also treated for weeds numerous times. So that left us with this:

As you can see, an improvement. However, it was basically bare and dirt (besides some hostas, three holly bushes, a Japanese maple and my flower pots).

So after lots of back and forth, we bit the bullet and hired a local company to help us plan our landscaping.  This past Friday it actually happened...we got NEW LANDSCAPING! Here are some pics!

We are very happy and feel so much more comfortable having people over.
Also, notice the pics of Mikey using his new power washer...that thing is like magic! He's used it on our entire front porch and back walkway. Thank you Mike! And doesn't he look cute doing it? :-)

Happy Anniversary!!

Happy 3 Year Anniversary to us!!

On September 22, 2007 I married the most amazing man. We have so much fun together and I feel incredibly lucky to share my life with him. Here are a few pics of some fun we've had together set to two songs that seem to capture us.

Happy Anniversary Mikey, I love you more than you know.
b

New Bump Pic

I realize I haven't updated a bump pic in awhile so I took one with my phone this morning...I was 38wk 6 days so we should basically call it 39 weeks.

I went to the doctor yesterday and all was well...which is nice to hear from the "experience" of last week. Baby Girl's heart rate was in the 140's which was totally normal, yay!  I'm still at 1 cm, 50% effaced though so no progress from the week before...even in the face of those contractions last week. Oh well, 1 cm is still 1 cm and I'll take it. :-) However, I may start trying out some of the "old wives tales" this coming week to see if I can help with the dilation a little. Should be fun!

VT Tailgating!

It was a fun Saturday of Hokie Football!!

Since Mike is teaching a course at VT on Saturday mornings this fall (yes...professor!), Cathy and Gabe so generously offered to let me ride with them to the their tailgate so that I didn't have to walk. (OH THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!) It's amazing how differently I feel about walking now compared to a couple days ago before the whole hospital/contractions/fever fiasco.

Anyways, we had a great time tailgating (thank you for organizing, Cathy!) and hanging out with friends. I spent quite a bit of time in sitting in the shade under the tent, but still got my tailgate on! :-) And yes, your eyes aren't deceiving you, that IS Holly!! She made the trip from Jacksonville to be at the game...woohoo!!!! <3

Here's a pic of some of the VT girls. Yes, there are SIX lady Hokies in this picture! :-)

Here is Cathy and her son Gordon (15 months). He's adorable and so good natured...love those cheeks.

And here are the Overbays: Hope, Jim, Garrett (Hope is holding Garrett), and Walker (Jim is holding Walker). They are SUCH good boys and the cutest little flirts. Love.

I felt great at the game and was 38 1/2 weeks pregnant. Mike left a little early to get the car so I wouldn't have to walk...what a hubs!
Go Hokies!!
ps. Mike and I were in the shade the entire game...SO WONDERFUL!

38 weeks and keepings things "interesting"

It's been a week full of excitement, pretty sure I don't want this type of excitement again though. So here's the story...

I woke up around 3am on Wednesday morning (Tuesday night to me!) feeling uncomfortable. I laid in bed and tried to go back to sleep for about an hour or so and then at 4am got up so I wouldn't wake up Mike.  I indulged in my DVR and watched my guilty pleasure shows for almost 2 hours while my back and lower stomach continued to cause me pain. I just could NOT get comfortable. It really started to turn from being annoying to hurting. I finally woke Mike up a little before 6am...guess I just wanted a little sympathy. He rubbed my back and fell back to sleep. Then at 6:15am I sent Mark a text to call me if he was up and got this (thought he might be working). He called me RIGHT back and I told him about my pains and that they were really starting to hurt. He suggested I go in and get checked.

If you can believe this, Ms. Let's Plan Everything had not packed a bag for the hospital yet. And to top it off, the stuff I wanted to bring was dirty. ugh. So I started a load of laundry at 6:30am, Mike woke up and we talked about me calling the doctor's office at 8am. I was hoping that going to the bathroom might have helped reduce the pain and I wouldn't need to go (yes this is TMI (too much information), but you are on MY blog so oh well. :-)).

I drawing this story WAY out longer than it needs to be, let me get to the point. I was not feeling better and the nurse at my OBs office told me to go to the hospital to be monitored.

We arrived around 8:30am(ish). As soon as I was hooked up to the monitor it was clear I was having contractions and that the baby's heart rate was higher than the "normal" range. Then the nurse took my temp...101.9. ummm, holy crap!!!!! My normal temp is usually in the high 96 to 97 range so 101, almost 102 was a significant fever for me.

I'll save you from the not so fun details but let's just say I had everything tested under the sun to try to figure out what was causing the fever. And I do mean everything. It actually took 4 times just to get the IV in...not the most fun experience.  Net/Net, the doctor's could never figure out what was causing the fever...it was probably a virus of some sort. By the end of the night they decided I was spending the night to be monitored. The problem was that the high temperature was causing baby girl's heart rate to be entirely too high and for me to have contractions. At one point my contractions were 2-4 minutes apart. BUT, my cervix was checked three times and I was never dilated beyond the 1 cm I was on Tuesday when I was at my regularly scheduled appointment. I think that if I had started to dilate, they would have determined that Baby Girl was coming.

Mom was in Morgantown and came back to be with me. Even though we were fine, it was really nice to see her and know that my momma was there. I guess you don't grow out of that.

At around 10:30pm I was woke up for (more) tests and realized that I was soaking wet, especially my head. YES!!! I knew what this meant, my fever had broken!!!! Finally!!!!!!! Woohoo!!! Once this happened Baby Girl's heart rate went back to the "normal" range and my contractions practically stopped. YES!! I had 3 bags of fluid and 3 small bags of an antibiotic in my IV plus a Tylenol. I was released around noon after seeing both of my OBs again. Mikey slept on the uncomfortable pull out couch. Daddy duty.

So all in all, I'm fine now and we definitely don't need that maternity ward tour anymore, we've got it. One thing is for sure though, I don't feel the same as I did before this "episode". Before this, I really felt awesome; energy level was up, no problem walking long distances, etc. After, I am wiped before I even get started! And walking, oh walking. I am definitely that pregnant lady walking like I am about to drop a baby at any moment. I just don't have the energy.  But overall I can't complain, it's been a wonderful pregnancy so far so I can take two or so weeks of the uncomfortable stage.

Wow, this is a LONG post and boring since I don't have any pics to share. I'll do better, I know I owe a belly shot. (along with nursery pics, shower pics, etc.)

Thanks for all of the well wishes...won't be long now before Baby Girl is here!!

Dear Tums,

I love you.
Brooke

Go Hokies!

The Hokies season opener is tonight...woohoo!!! Go Hokies!  It would have been a LOT of fun to go to the game (against Boise State at FedEx field in DC...well Maryland, but whatever) but it just didn't make a lot of sense this year since I'm two days away from 37 weeks (technically full term...holy moly!).  I tried to get Mikey to still go but he decided not to. What a hubs. :)

Here is a pic from today...we'll call this my 36 wk bump pic although I'm closer to 37 than 36 weeks. AND, I have on a VT shirt to show my Hokie Pride! It still fits...kinda. Thank you stretchy material manufacturers everywhere. :-)