Archive for December, 2009

No baby yet, but I think it's getting close…I have had some pretty convincing contractions today, although they are not regular. I have actually started packing a bag! I thought you might like to see a picture of the cradle, which is ready to hold a sleeping baby:

Before Eliza was born, I started looking for bedding for the cradle, but couldn't find any that I liked. (We didn't have the cradle when James was born; he slept in a pack-and-play for his first 6 months while we were living with my parents.) I finally decided that I would just make my own bedding. I found the perfect stars-and-moons fabric and went to work making a bumper pad and sheets. I appliqued 16 stars and moons around the outside of the bumper pad and added piping at the top. It was a crazy sewing project that I designed myself, and it turned out to be a lot of hard work, but I was very pleased with the results. I even made a mobile to match! I vowed never to take on a project like that again, though! I bought a pink knit blanket with stars on it for Eliza, which added the perfect amount of girliness to the white-and-tan bedding. Here she is enjoying my handiwork right after we brought her home from the hospital:

For this baby, I needed something to make the cradle more boyish. I found the soft blue and brown star blanket at Target, and it works perfectly! I love the colors, and I was so glad to find something with stars. I like it when things come together…it satisfies something inside of me. :)

Well, we are in the waiting game now! There's only one week left until my due date, so we should have a baby within the next couple of weeks. It still hasn't quite sunk in yet that there will be a new baby in the house…I guess it will once we come home from the hospital! We still have stuff to do (I still need to pack for the hospital, and clean this place up a bit!), but all the critical stuff is in place- car seat, cradle, clean clothes. Oops, I guess we should buy some diapers! :)

We made it through Christmas. In fact, we finished our Christmas shopping today, and will probably wrap most of the presents tonight. We haven't actually seen anyone to give presents to except for our kids, since we stayed home this year. We'll celebrate Christmas with my family sometime early this week (they have been in Memphis with my extended family), then we'll see my Memphis relatives in the next few weeks when we go to show off a baby! It felt really strange to not go anywhere for Christmas, but we were afraid to stray too far from home, just in case I went into labor. Christmas morning was fun with the kids enjoying Santa Claus presents, and then we let them open presents from us. But the rest of the day just felt really odd. Even the day after Christmas was just a weird day of staying at home, and I'm sure my strange hormonal state was not helping. Last night things started looking up, though, and today was a good day of going to church, eating out, and visiting with Jay's grandmother, Mimi, in the nursing home. I'm glad my family is returning home tonight…I think it will help to know they are back in town!

I have been having a few contractions off-and-on, but nothing really serious yet. I go see the doctor Wednesday, so we'll see how things are looking then. Right now, we are just enjoying the break from school and work! I do like having my family home with me, even if it does mean I don't get my regular time alone. It's probably why I can't seem to get much accomplished!

I love this time of year, but, oh, is it ever busy! I think things will slow down by Christmas Eve, and until then, I just hope I don't throw myself into labor! :) (Don't worry, I'm not planning on doing too much, just enough!) This week has been crazy with practices for our church's Christmas special, which is being held this weekend. Wednesday afternoon I had a doctor appointment, and everything looks great. The baby is in the head-down position, which I was relieved to hear! Wednesday night the kids got to go caroling with AWANA (I had to miss it because of practice, but I'm sure it was fun!) Yesterday I was finally able to finish putting together treats for all of James' and Eliza's classes, and wrap teacher gifts. I also went through some boxes of baby clothes so that I can hopefully start washing some things for our new baby soon!

Today was a fun day for James' class as they had "Storyland Day". Each grade had decorated their hallway with a Christmas story, and the kids got to wear pajamas and rotate around the school to hear each different story. I walked around with James' class for a little while, then left and headed over to Eliza's school to help out with her Christmas party. It was a fun morning, but exhausting!

Tonight my family is coming over for some chili and just to hang out. Adrienne and Jon are going out of town in the morning, and we won't be able to see the family all together again until after Christmas, since they are all headed to Memphis and we have decided to stay home. (I guess it has something to with being scared I might go into labor while we're there.) So we invited them all over here tonight, and I am supposed to be cooking and cleaning right now, but I'm taking a little break first. They probably won't mind if the house doesn't look exactly perfect!

Jay has been extremely busy finishing up a big project at work this week, so we haven't seen much of him lately. Today is supposed to be his last day of work for a while, so hopefully we will be seeing a lot more of him! He will be working from home some, I'm sure, but he doesn't officially have to go back to work until a few weeks after the baby is born. He could really use the break, and we are looking forward to spending some time with Daddy!

Saturday Eliza has a birthday party to attend, and then we have our Christmas special Saturday night. Sunday morning is church (as usual), then that evening is the second showing of our Christmas special. I will be singing in the choir, and James is also singing a song with the children's choir. We would love to have you come watch if you are in the area! It's at Parkway Place Baptist Church at 6:00PM both nights.

Monday things should slow down a little bit, but we do have a preschool pajama party at the church that night. Tuesday is James' last day of school, and I am planning on helping out with his Christmas party that afternoon. I have another doctor appointment Wednesday morning, and Thursday is Christmas Eve! Somewhere in there, we have to finish shopping (we're almost done!) and wrap presents (I haven't started). We are also trying to get ready for baby, who will be here in just a couple of weeks! I know it will all get done, but it's going to be crazy for a while!

I took some pictures today of my Christmas decorations. I am not through decorating (the tree still has only lights! And my kitchen table must be unearthed from its pile of junk before I can think about decorating it!), but I wanted to put up some pictures anyway. Enjoy the tour!

Our fireplace, complete with a set of 12-Days-of-Christmas glasses and new stockings with the kids' names on them!

My Willow Tree Nativity, which Jay has been adding new pieces to every year until we finished the set. I love it!

The Little People nativity, which I like to play with as much as the kids do!

I made this wreath for our first Christmas together.

We added this garland across the entryway a few years ago, and it really adds to the Christmas feeling in our house. Someday I want to put mistletoe in the middle under the bow, but we just haven't done it yet!

This is the best shot I could get of the tree in the bright daylight, and as you can see, it is bare except for lights (and lots of them…I had to make 2 trips to Walmart to finish it!)

It's mid-December, and I've got up most of my Christmas decorations! It's a miracle! :)

I thought you might enjoy seeing some pictures from our last few weeks, including our Thanksgiving travels:

We got to keep Jay's cousin's girls for a little while the Monday before Thanksgiving. The kids had a lot of fun playing together!

We walked all around Mammaw Barrett's property with Jill, Robbie, and Hannah before eating a big Thanksgiving lunch.

James and Eliza had so much fun running around the yard at Mammaw Barrett's.

Cousin Hannah at Mammaw's house…she is getting so big!

Eating at Cock of the Walk in Nashville with Joseph and Nicole and the rest of the fam! We were missing Benjamin and Bridget, though. :(

We enjoyed looking around the Opryland Hotel in Nashville. It was very impressive!

One of the many lavishly decorated rooms at the Opryland Hotel.

Group pic in the Opryland Hotel lobby.

Parkers at the Opryland Hotel!

Opryland Hotel nativity.

I had Jay take some pictures of my pregnant belly the other day, and this one was my favorite:

I can't believe it's been a week since my last post. Time is certainly flying by! I had a doctor appointment today, and everything is looking great! I found out that I am dilated to about one centimeter. (Is that too much information? If so, sorry!) The doctor said all that means is that the baby's not coming today. I told him that's good news, because I'm not quite ready! I have a feeling he will stay in there until the due date, unless we decide to be induced or something else happens. I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

We had a great weekend with lots of festive activities! Saturday was the Little Rock Christmas parade, which we have attended every year with my family since James was born. It was very cold this year, but we still had fun. The kids mostly enjoy scrambling for the candy that they throw! But they also like to dance to the beat of the drummers in the high school bands. Here is a picture of the kids watching the parade with my sister Adrienne:

Sunday evening our church had a "Soup and Song" fellowship, where we ate yummy soup and then sang Christmas songs together. It was so much fun! The kids even got to go up to the front and help lead a couple of songs. They did a great job, as singing is one thing they really love to do! It was a really neat time of just being with other people who enjoy eating and singing as much as we do. I wish we had things like that more often!

We are counting down to d-day (due date day): 26 days! I should be counting down to Christmas…I still have some presents to buy. We finally got our tree up, but it will be a few more days I'm afraid before we get around to decorating it. Oh, well, we are doing better time-wise than most other years! I hope you are having a blessed Christmas season!

Well, I am looking pretty round lately, which is a good thing, I guess! James came in a couple weeks ago when I had my shirt pulled up over my belly, admiring it's size. He looked at it and exclaimed, "Wow, Mom! You sure are…" (He paused for a moment, realizing what he was about to say, then continued.) "That's a fat baby!" It is getting harder and harder to tie my shoes, and anything else that requires bending over! Cooking on the stove last night, I had to consciously remember to back up because my belly kept getting too warm. Even as big as I am, I still have trouble remembering sometimes that I have a belly to work around! Like the other night when I saw something that Jay had dropped behind the bed. I was sitting on the bed, so I decided I would get it for him. I flopped down on my stomach to reach down, forgetting for a second that my belly stuck out a lot further than the rest of me. Even on the soft bed, it was an uncomfortable feeling! Jay thinks it's funny. I guess it is a little humorous. :)

I have been having painless contractions quite frequently now. I don't remember really having them with the other two, but they are definitely there with this one! My belly gets really hard (it is already really tight!), but at least they are not painful. We are in the home stretch now…one month until my due date! I love being pregnant, but I am looking forward to being skinny again. And meeting our baby, of course! Ready or not, he will be here soon!