Long needed update!

   Well, a lot has gone on since my last update.  I guess with school getting started I have been very busy.  I will try to be short and sweet with my update.  We went to the doctor today for a check-up.  We had an ultrasound to check on little Dunkin.  According to their measurements, he weighs 5lbs 5oz.  This is a little small for a 35wk. baby, but Dr. Lacy actually thinks he is probably a little bigger.   He has moved so far down they had a really hard time getting a great head measurement.  They did say he probably won't be a huge baby.  I had dilated 1cm and was 70% efface.   Everything else looked great, and we will go back next week for another check.  The other new development is that I will switch from Lovenox to Heprin on Monday.  The Heprin is given more frequently and is able to be reversed if I was to go into labor.  We went ahead and set a date of Oct. 7th for induction in case Dunkin had not arrived yet, so that means we will for sure get to see our little Butterbean in 1 month or less!   We are getting really excited around here.  For those of you wondering, nesting is in full swing!  I got several projects finished yesterday on my day off work.

   
    I will do the rest of the update mainly with pictures.  We have had two baby showers in Birmingham over the past 2 weeks.  One was given by my college friends, and one was given by the Fab.  We are so blessed to have such wonderful, sweet friends!  I was overwhelmed by the generosity of our friends.   The pictures are from my 1st shower given by my college friends.   Unfortunately, I forgot my camera at the 2nd shower, so I am waiting on my friends to share their pictures with me!  Let me assure you that it was so sweet and pretty!
This picture is of my pretty flowers that Dunkin sent me at school last week.  It is amazing what the little Butterbean is able to do from inside the womb!

 This is a picture of what Daisy did on my vacation day...she enjoyed her new bed!  For those of you wondering, her bed is not too small.  She just enjoys laying part on the bed and part on the floor.  Silly Dog!

Butterbean's room update!

   I am so excited!!  Today I came home to the cutest curtains you have ever seen hanging in Dunkin's room.   I knew what they were going to kinda look like, but I had no idea how great they were going to look!  I have included some pictures of his room.  The chair still looks yellow for some reason, but it is actually green.   Also,
the bench and toy basket are going to be recovered.  I had to wait for the curtain lady to finish with his curtains, so I can use the left over from the topper to make the covers.  Other than some accessories that are missing, his room is pretty much complete!  Also, I have washed all his clothes that we have, so we are ready for him to arrive (well in a few of weeks).

    This last picture is a picture of the new shower curtain in Dunkin's/ guest bathroom!


Other than all the new developments in Dunkin's room, we don't have much to report.  We saw the dr last week.  Our OB group has you rotate in order to allow you to see each doctor in the group.   Last week, was the last doctor for us to see in the rotation.  The doctor we saw last week said everything looked great.  He said that Dunkin has moved into a good position for delivery, but he feels like he will not be coming anytime soon.  We will see Dr. Lacy again next week, so we will be excited to see how she thinks everything is going.  I will be switching to Heparin in about a month, so that will be our next step in the process.   One more piece of good news.  I have had some trouble with Dunkin and my sciatic nerve.  It still bothers me, but I am not having anywhere close to the pain I was having a couple of weeks ago!  I really noticed the difference tonight at Zumba.  I didn't feel like I looked so awkward!  

Dunkin 4D!

*This is a post from a few weeks ago that never got posted.  I had some technical difficulties with the video.  After many tries, I figured I would just go ahead and post it now. 

Last week, I went to Birmingham to see my mom's side of the family. My aunt and cousin were coming through on their way back from golf camp in Atlanta. On Thursday night, we all got together at my mom's brother's house to enjoy dinner together. It was so fun to see everyone. It has been a while since we have seen each other, so enjoyed catching up on trips and happenings for everyone. Even Lawson made it back from his summer internship in Virginia just in time to enjoy dinner with us. One funny story, Ashton couldn't make it due to being locked inside work. Apparently, they had changed the locks that day and when Ashton went to let himself out after closing up the store he was locked inside. He had to call the store owner and they had to get a locksmith to come let him out. Funny story for sure, but we did miss him at dinner!

An additional perk to attending the family dinner is that my mom convinced my uncle to let us come for a 4D ultrasound. It was so fun to see the Butterbean in 4D! Unfortunately, he was only a little cooperative. In order for it to work, you have to have a certain amount of fluid around the place you want a picture. Dunkin had decided that it was finally time for him to turn around and be head down in my belly. This is something that we want him to do, but it would have been helpful if he had waited until this week to make his flip! Being head down was not the main problem. The main problem is that Dunkin had his face pressed up against the uterus wall. There is not so much fluid in this spot! We did get a few good pictures in 4D, and we got to see him moving around in the 2D as well.  Below is the video of Dunkin.  It goes back and forth between 4D and 2D.

*Unfortunately, the video would not load.  Oh well!

     The other exciting thing that we did last week was pick up our furniture for Dunkin's room.  The room was painted the week before, so I was anxious to get our furniture into the room.  Our sweet friends Bain, Kellie, and baby Ross came to help us put it all together.  It is so fun to finally have a room that looks like a baby is coming to live in it!  Below are some picture from his room.  In these pictures, it is only his new furniture.  There are some pieces that we haven't moved back into the room yet.  Also, none of the accessories are in the pictures.    Oh and the chair kind of looks yellow in the picture.  It is actually a really pretty green color.  I love my new furniture!  I cant wait for Dunkin to get to use his room!

Wedding Fun and a little ER trip!

     Well, let's just say Tuesday proved to be quite the day!  This past weekend we went to Arkansas because Clint was in a wedding for our friends David and Erin.  Erin is from Blytheville, AK, so we got to go visit a place that neither of us had ever visited.   The wedding was beautiful.  Erin and Dave did a great job making the wedding special for both of them.  It was a great representation of both of them.  Here is a picture of us with the sweet couple.  (Please note my every growing belly!)

Of course we had to make our trip beneficial for Dunkin too, so we made stops at the Pottery Barn outlet and Books-a-Million on our trip as well.   Unfortunately for Dunkin, the Pottery Barn outlet was stocked full of girls toys so that trip didnt really benefit him too much!  Books-a-Million turned out to be a much better stop for the Butterbean.    They are having a HUGE sale, so Dunkin got A LOT of books for his collection!!!  If you love books (kids or adults), you need to visit your local Books-a-Million.   This sale is AWESOME!  
      Now for the ER trip.   I have been having some very localized back pain.  It started out mild, so I just figured it was either from riding in the car (I had been to Bham for the 4th and then traveled again to the wedding) or just being pregnant.  Well, Monday afternoon it really started to get bad.  By Monday night, I was having a lot of pain especially when I walked.  Monday night, I could not sleep at all.  Also, I started having a shooting, burning pain down my left leg.  This is the leg where I had my blood clot.  Until this point, the back pain did not affect my left side at all.  I ended up getting into the bathtub during the night because I was so uncomfortable.   So, on Tuesday morning I called my doctor to let her know what was going on with me.   My mom and I both felt like it was most likely my Sciatic Nerve, but due to my past experiences we felt like my doctor should know about this new little issue and I should probably have it checked.  Well, my doctor called and told me to go to the ER so they could check for another clot.  She was somewhat concerned with the shooting pain down my left leg.   I called Clint and got him to meet me at the hospital.   Thus began our long day in the ER!   I would like to mention that when I signed into the ER there was one other person in the waiting area.  This person was actually waiting on someone that was already being seen.   While we were there we learned three important things...1. Everyone in Columbus must take an ambulance to the hospital(one person came in by ambulance for congestion!)  2. If the fire alarm goes off while you are in the ER, you just stay there and about 30 min later someone will come and count to see how many people could possibly be left to burn in the fire.  Oh and the fire alarm will continue to go off the whole time this is happening!   3. If you're pregnant and you go in at 9:50am, you should pack a sack lunch and ask for a catheter because they are not going to feed you or ask if you need to go to the bathroom the whole time you are there!  Finally, at about 2:45, we were given the go ahead to leave the ER.   The good news is there is no blood clot!   Yesterday, we went for a regular check-up.  They checked to make sure that Dunkin was still planning to hang out for a while.  It looks like he is very comfortable and plans to stay in my belly at least for a while longer!   The bad news is that one of two things is happening.  One, Dunkin or something is pressing on my sciatic nerve or two, my scoliosis is being exaggerated because of the pregnancy and causing the low back pain.  Most likely, it is my sciatic nerve.  Unfortunately, the cure is delivery.  So, I guess I will just have to deal for a while.  I have been trying to convince Dunkin to move over a little, but so far this method have been unsuccessful!    Right now, it is not so bad because I can just lie down when my back gets bad, but I do worry a little about going back to school.   It seems to be worse the more moving around I have to do.    The other reports from the doctor are Dunkin's HR was 154 and I am measuring where I am supposed to be for 27 1/2 weeks.  Everything seems to be good!
      I will leave you with a little picture of how much Daisy is loving summer!   This is how she likes to spend her summer.

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July!!  We are so grateful for all of those who have served our country to protect our freedom!

Camping, zumba, and a little bump update

     We had a really fun weekend this past weekend.  Clint and I have both been blessed to have lots of great friends that we made in high school.  This past weekend, we went with several of Clint's high school friends and their wives to camp on the Tombigbee River in Pickensville, AL.  I know what yall are thinking...Why would a pregnant girl go camping?   Well lets just say we camped in style.  The West family RV and camper.  Basically, we stayed in the Ritz Carlton of camping situations.   Here is a picture of our setup.

On Friday night, we at dinner at a little restaurant close to the camp site and then got our "campsite" all set up.   We spent the rest of the evening just hanging out.  On a side note, I need to mention that one of the wives was a true trooper during the weekend.  Becky had her wisdom teeth taken out on Friday morning and then she and Jimmy drove from Atlanta to join us.  True dedication!   On Saturday, we had a yummy camp breakfast, spent the day on the boat, grilled hamburgers, made homemade ice cream, and cooked smore's.    Sunday, Stacie and Rob were kind enough to make Beignets for breakfast.   We hung out some more and then headed back to Columbus.  It sounds like all we did was eat, but I promise we really did get a lot of quality hangout time!  Thanks so much to Stacie and Rob for providing us with such a wonderful camping experience!
      Another activity that Dunkin and I have been enjoying is Zumba.   I highly recommend it for anyone wanting a fun workout.  I think that it is offered at most Y's.   It is a latin dance cardio workout.  I had started going right before I got pregnant, and the doctor says I can still go, so I do!    I just do it a little slower pace.  Anyways, if you ask me everyone should give it a try.  It is so fun!
     Finally, a little bump update.  The Butterbean is growing and growing.  Today, we got him some headphones so that he could listen to a little music.   He seems to enjoy his musical entertainment!  Tomorrow, we head back to the doctor.  We are going to have another ultrasound to make sure that Dunkin is growing just like he is supposed to for a little 25 week baby.  We like to think of it is a little perk of having a "high risk" pregnancy.  For your viewing pleasure, I have put a picture we took tonight of my belly.  I know there are some of you who have been wanting to see this picture!  We will update tomorrow with a new picture of Dunkin!

The Little Things

    I love my job!  I teach Kindergarten and 1st grade students with special needs.  Each day, I get to work with kids that each have unique, individual outlooks on life.   There are definitely days that are more difficult than others.   There are times that my job can be frustrating.  Sometimes, my kids and I go a really long time without seeing any progress.   We work and work with very little to show for our efforts.   There are times that a child's inability to control their behavior or difficult home situation breaks your heart.   Then there are days like today, days when God reminds me exactly why he has called me to my job.   Today was Awards Day at school.    During Awards days, our school recognizes students for their outstanding academic progress.    One of the jobs assigned to a student is saying the Pledge of Allegiance.    A couple weeks ago a teacher approached me about having one of my students say the pledge.  I immediately said "yes, lets give it a try!"   I am all for providing my students with opportunities to shine!  The student we picked for the job is a little boy who will warm your heart.   When he first came to our school, he had a difficult time behaving and participating in school activities.   He has come so far this year!  Just the fact that he was able to stand in front of the audience and say the Pledge was a huge accomplishment for this child, but not only did he do a great job saying the pledge, he walked up when they called his name and then returned to his seat when he finished.  Plus, he did all this with a smile on his face and an obvious sense of pride in what he had done!  In addition to my friend saying the pledge, I got to watch all my other friends receive well deserved awards!   The smiles on their faces warmed my heart.  Each and every one of them was so proud of themselves, and I could not be prouder of the work they have done this year!   I am so grateful to my kids for providing me with the little things that make me smile!   I will miss them this summer, but I know they will enjoy their break.