Much Needed update:

I have so many things to update you on. I am sorry it is late for all you addicted readers.

Baby Case - Case is now almost 36 weeks old. He is as healthy as a worm and head down ready to come face the world. I can feel his movements constantly and what I thought was a head was his cute little toosh. He is extremely active except sundays. He must be just like his father. His room is slowly getting there. We still have much to do. I will update you with pictures soon.

As for me - I am growing by the minute. Nothing fits but stretchy pants, I am full of fluid that makes my legs and face swell like a giant toad. My bladder is the size of a needle stick and it never is cool enough for me. The back pain is terrible and Brandon says I sleep like im rising up from my coffin. My work is throwing me a baby shower tomorrow and I am excited to start gathering things that I actually need. Last night, Brandon and I sorted through his bags and I put his first three bottles in the cabinet and two passies in our kitchen drawer. It was like "wow" in a few weeks this is all going to be so real. Then on saturday, my family/friend shower will be held at Seven Mile Ranch and I am super excited to see my family. They will be in shock to see how much I have grown. I am super anxious I just dont think I am going to make it until August 29th. My co-workers are taking bets, and one girl says she bets I go next week. I hope not quite next week but soon after.

As for Brandon - Brandon is still going strong at his job. He also enjoys his free time so he can spend it with his second girlfriend Mikey working on their trucks, which helps me with my studying time. Incase you didn't know Brandon and I got a house. It is in troup, it is super cute and fits us perfect. (ill post pics) If I could finish decorating it the way I want it for free it would be even better. Every day I am off, I take a trip to Ross, Marshall, and Hobby Lobby! Brandon says our table runner looks like a bunch of ramen noodles. He has no appreciation for good taste. He has given up on helping pick out anything because we always disagree. He's never known so many of his choices to be "out of stock" but for some reason they always are ;) He is a great help suprisingly around the house. Sometimes I don't even have to ask. I came home the other day and he was so excited to tell me he had cleaned out the bathtub without me telling him to :) it was cute! I on the other hand might have some decor skills, but my thumb is no greener than an orange.

Other updates: I am now on a weekly recheck with my doctor. She says no dilation yet, but she can tell it will be soon because of how soft something is, I dont understand all that. I am already pre-registered at ETMC for a private room and have my birth plan written up. Its a neat idea. Babycenter.com supplys you with a questionaire to fill out and submit to your doc upon arrival.

Look for pictures, I sware I will have them up by this weekend.

doctor appt and more updates..

Well for starters, im sure the doctor and all her nurses are worn out from me. I guess with my first pregnancy, im not used to everything so I call constantly to make sure things are normal when they should be. This past week has been miserable. I have finally entered my third trimester, I am close to 29 weeks, and I feel so much worse than my first trimester ever made me feel. I have been extremely nauseated and a few days ago was unable to hold anything down. I even had to go to my doctor to make sure I was not dehydrated and all of my tests were fine.
I was seen again today for my gestational diabetes testing (which will find out the results in w week) and check to make sure my placenta was well out of the way for me to deliver Case naturally. This was a problem last month but thankfully it has moved completely out of the way so no c-section!!!! :) He is still a chunky but. He was 3.15 pounds hahaha and normal around this time is 2.5 pounds. But im glad he is healthy. If he continues to grow this way he will be a little over 8 pounds. Im not worried though, im ready!!! He looked beautiful up on the screen!!!! My mommy came with me (happy b-day mom) and brandon's mom Tammy (granna) came along to see and make sure everything was good! Brandon will be at the next one, im making him save his vacation days so he can take off with me when Case comes. Because I am already almost 30 weeks my doctor has decided no traveling more than 60-90 miles because of swelling and increase in early pregnancy :( But I would rather be sure he is well ready rather than causing him to come sometime when he is not ready! We are still expecting him sometime late August, which means anywhere within the next 10 weeks. YIKES!! not really! im not nervous at all suprisngly! I was way more nervous about a c section than anything... I mean I know its gonna hurt like * for about 10 hours, and then pain and tenderness for the next 8 weeks, but ill be side tracked with my beautiful little boy it wont even matter! :) just no, there will be no more children for me! one is plenty! :) Im looking forward to my baby shower in august 1st. Yes we still havent sent out invites but be looking for them sometime first of july. Thanks, again for everyone keeping up!!!

UPDATE...

so...I have been slowly gathering a few things for Case's room and himself. Seeing as we are just now officially starting the house building process this week, we have a lot to do before he has "his own" room!!! But that is ok because that means more help while I am still at home :) He has been set on clothes for awhile now and even though we have no bed to put it on, he has his bedding. I registered this weekend at Babies R Us and you can also go online at JCPENNY because I registered for the rest of his bedding stuff. The registering was quite an experience. I thought Brandon would like to participate, and I ended up having to go back and UNDO some things I knew I didnt register for. He was put in charge of the "clicker" not a good idea. But he was fun!! I bought some picture frames that match his room and I bought his letters that I need to paint to hang up...Im super excited about that part! My mother and I are making the invitations which is a beating in itself, but they are pretty cute for our non artistic selves.
The new baby bump pics are up so everyone can stop yelling at me now. :)

Doctor visit 5/12/09

I had my regular monthly check up Tuesday to see how things were coming along in my pregnancy. So much has changed in the last month, and it has been awhile since I have updated. My doctor visit went great. I am growing normal and my baby is growing just as healthy as I had hoped for. It is hard for Brandon to come to every visit, so he only tries to make it to the ultrasound visits. Luckily I have a wonderful mother you voluntarily goes everytime. She measured my tummy finally and it looks as though I am a tad further along than I thought, not by much. We could expect him anytime around August the 15th until late August. Which means I am 6 months into my pregnancy. It has flown by so fast and I am so ready to meet my beautiful baby boy. On my next visit they will perform another ultrasound because my palcenta is not right where it should be and I might have to deliver C-section if it doesn't move. They said this is actually very normal and the farther along I get the placenta will likely move upward with my expanding belly and I could deliver "normally" which is what I am praying for.

We are now planning the baby shower. I have chosen to only have one big baby shower, because my family is soo big it is hard to get them together very often so I chose to have everyone, friends and both are families to come together. My mom and I are getting things together piece by piece. We met with the coordinater of 7 mile ranch and chose to have it on the Veranda which is really pretty. I have started picking up little things for the room like picture frames and some of the matching pieces of his bedding. Brandon and I are going tonight to register and hopefully find a crib set. I also picked up some letters to spell out HIS NAME for the wall.... YES we finally agreed on a name. We came up with it together and both agreed that we really really liked it. It was such an accomplishment and a milestone was reached deciding on this baby's name but thankfully it is all done with and we get giddy about everytime we call him that now because it sounds so real.... oh the name.....CASSEN JOE, and we will call him CASE. (sounds like suit case)

As for Case..... he is squirming around like a fish in a fish bowl. Somedays are way more active than others, but he can always tell when it is the weekend because on Friday for the past 3 weeks he wakes me up and plays all day and finally around 12 at night he settles down. Saturdays are just the same. But come Monday he is just like his Mother, doesnt want to move a muscle. He is precious, I know he is going to be super active. Chevy has already acknowledged that something fishy is going on and I think she is a little on edge. I hope she reacts well to him without any jealousy issues.

Everything is going well. Just sailing right along. I will try to update more often. Thanks everyone :)

4/14/09 doctor appt.

I had my first ultrasound with my doctor today. Even though I had already found out the sex of the baby, my doctor still wanted to check for several disorders, and make sure everything was in tact, including all four chambers of the heart. I was notified earlier that Dr. Boran, Melissa's doctor, also a doctor in the same clinic as my doctor, would be meeting with me today. Just incase Dr. Willis is unavailable to deliver Mr. baby boy then Dr. Boran or Dr. Cloada, another doctor in that clinic, will be able to deliver, so they allow me to meet with each doctor before hand to get to know them incase. I asked a few of my family to join in and a close friend to watch the ultrasound. All four chambers of the heart are fully in tact, kindeys, bladder, stomach, lips, nose,all the way down to toes are all there and perfectly growing :) that is the best feeling ever to know your baby, that you constantly worry about making sure he is ok, is responding really well and growing normally. All my family was excited to see everything maturing too, maybe even a little too much. He is in the 83 percentile of his age, meaning he is a tad overweight. I guess all those cinamon rolls are catching up :) After I met with the sonographer, I was notified Dr. Boran was running behind so I met with Dr. Cloada. I have to say, every single one of these doctors I would be completely happy with to deliver my boy.

I was mostly glad to know that it was for sure a boy, a big boy as a matter of fact. I have already began washing his clothes and the fear of knowing all those clothes not being returned scared me. :) Still no names yet. Well actually we are continuing the "joe" as his middle name since Brandon's family is alllllll joe, so technically it would be my call to pick the first name right? We both agree on a few but I have favorites and so does he. So we'll see. But im already calling him Cass, not Case, Cass, and I know he will give in, well because he's going to have to :)

Mr. Howell

Ok, this is pretty funny. I was on a website the other day and decided to create a picture of what the baby would look before it arrived. It's simple really, take a picture of Brandon and a picture of me upload them, and click transform and wal-la, a baby that might look both of you. So I wanted to share..... this is funny, can you see any resemblance. I can't.

IT'S A..........

Yesterday, March the 21st, was my appointment at Storkvision to confirm the sex of the little one. My parents, along with Meme and Dan, and Brandon's aunt and mom and little cousin Clyde (nicknames for Carter) joined in. We were all making bets before we even got to the place, and even though I continuosly told myself and everyone else, it was a girl, deep down, I knew the little booger was a boy, but I still had hopes. So we all went in and sat around the big TV as the lady began my ultrasound. She immediately announced the heartbeat was 171 bpm. I was like 171 oh yea it's a girl because that's one high heartbeat. I could already see the worry in Brandon's eyes and the plot to attack all the boys in the world to stay away from his daughter. I sware it wasnt two minutes after she told us the heartbeat, she stopped the monitor and pointed to the middle of the screen and said....."Oh, well.... and the word's "ITS A BOY" came across the screen. Ok, imagine this 12x12 room with 10 or so people in it, pitch black minus the tv color, and I sware the room lit up with light, it was Brandon's smile. He was so excited, and I was so thankful it was all there in tact. hehehe. My mother and his mother already knew we were going to have to take back all our cute girlie stuff.

He was so beautiful. His spine was perfectly formed, His heartbeat was there and normal, his feet were as big as mine and there in the middle of his legs as Clyde would put it were his little "mcnuggets," all ten toes, and while one beautiful hand waved to his family, the other was fisted up in his mouth. Yeap, the little booger was already sucking his thumb. It was the most amazing thing to see and it filled my heart with love. I don't know if I can wait five more months to see him but it gives me some time to shop.

Still no names have been decided on yet, but we will get there eventually. Thanks everyone for keeping up. We'll keep you posted.


IN OTHER NEWS.......

Brandon is still going strong at Motor Trike. I guess they rely on him so much because he comes home filthy dirty and exhausted. But we arent complaining.

I finished up my clinicals at the Digestive Health Specialists and the Lord is good, because they immediately asked me to join their team as a Medical Assistant. I love it. Working with patients is so fun and helpful and amusing all at once.

Still in nightclass. Will apply for the Radiology Tech job in April. Won't know anything til the latter part of the summer. Pray for me.

Brandon and I have decided to build our own home as soon as we find a reliable builder. We know we have to be done by August, and the stress of building a house is extremely overwhelming, but in the long run, it will be worth it. He already has his own land it Troup, so this is where the house will be. Im staying out of it now as much as possible, no more stress on me or the baby right now.!!!!!!