A few updates

I went to the doctor this morning.  Everything still looks good.  Avery has dropped, but no progress other than that.  I'll go back to the doctor again on Wednesday.

Luckily, Melissa blogged about Christmas and posted some pictures since I didn't think to take any.  Click here to check it out.

I tried sleeping in the recliner in Avery's nursery for a while last night - just trying to find somewhere comfortable.  Shelby doesn't like to leave my side at night, so she came in the nursery with me.  She kept trying to move the Cabbage Patch dolls from Avery's Pottery Barn chair so that she could get into it.  I can't say that I blame her - it's about the same size as a dog bed.  I kept telling her "no" and finally decided just to move the dolls so she didn't get them slobbery.  I woke up to this...

Since I have a feeling that she's not going to want to leave Avery's side, I guess we might need to get a dog bed for Avery's nursery so Shelby doesn't take over her chair.  I wonder if PBK makes dog beds to match their chairs? :)

36 Weeks...+2 days

I don't know how I let this week slip away from me without my update on Monday.  I have been so confused about the days of the week and we had the family over on Monday, so I just have't thought about blogging...oops!

Pregnancy Highlights

How far along:  36 weeks and 2 days. 3 weeks and 5 days until my due date and 5 days until she's considered full term.  

Size of baby:  6 lbs and 22 inches long - about the size of a watermelon  

New developments:  She's fully developed and practicing breathing, sucking on her thumb and blinking.

Gender:  Girl!  Avery Anne Johnson

Maternity Clothes:  All maternity.  I pretty much live in leggings these days (when possible).  They are one of the few things that are still comfortable.

Movement: Lots of movement!  Her movements are sometimes so extreme that my whole belly jerks.  She also has hiccups at least once per day.

Sleep:  The lack of sleep has probably been one of the hardest parts.  I have always been a good sleeper, but my hips and back just hurt too much to get comfortable.  I move from the bed to the couch to the recliner almost every night just trying to find some relief.

Symptoms:  Tired, some Braxton Hicks contractions, and back pain when I've been doing too much.

Cravings: Not anything specific, but I've been putting a good size dent in the Christmas leftovers :)

What I Miss: Everything is such a big effort these days.  I'm ready to have my body back, but Avery can stay in as long as she needs to.  

Best Moment this Week:  

We had the whole crew over to our house for Christmas on Christmas Eve.  It was a lot of work and Adam and I were pretty exhausted afterwards, but we had a really nice time.  Adam did a great job cooking and it was great to spend some time with the family since we didn't get to see them on Thanksgiving.  We opened presents, ate until we were stuffed and visited.  Somehow, I didn't take a single picture.  Hopefully Melissa and Mom got some good pictures and I can link to their blogs.  

On Christmas morning we headed to the Pitts for our traditional Christmas morning breakfast - breakfast casserole and butterscotch rolls.  They were fabulous!  Adam and I spent Christmas Day relaxing and recovering.

I head to the doctor tomorrow for my first check to see if I'm dilated, effaced, etc.  I can't believe I'm already at the point in this pregnancy that I am starting weekly doctor's visits.  Wish me luck!!

Happy Birthday, Vixen!

The Big Bear turned 13 years old today!  We celebrated with a rib bone :). I still remember the first time I saw Big Bear.  We just happened to be at the Twyfords house for a Christmas party on the night she was born, so I got to see her when she was only a few minutes old.

I was so excited to wake up that Christmas morning to a dog crate and a note from Santa that I could pick out one of the Twyford's puppies. 

She has been a wonderful companion for these 13 years!  I look forward to having many more memories with her.

We love you, Big Bear!!

35 Weeks

Wow - I'm huge!!!

Pregnancy Highlights

How far along:  35 weeks.  5 weeks until my due date and 2 weeks until she's considered full term.  It is flying by!

Size of baby:  5.5 lbs and 20 inches long.  She's continuing to fatten up.  

New developments:  She's pretty much fully developed at this point, she's just gaining weight.

Gender:  Girl!  Avery Anne Johnson

Maternity Clothes:  All maternity. Some of my maternity stuff is getting too small, but I'm resisting buying anything new.

Movement: I get lots of pokes and prods throughout the day.

Sleep:  I guess I'll just look forward to getting a good nights sleep again here in a few years.

Symptoms:  The skin on my stomach is really starting to get sore.  I don't think it can stretch any more!

Cravings: Still craving the iced animal cookies in the pink bag.  In fact...I'm eating some as I type this post :)

What I Miss: Being able to sit like a lady.  My belly is so big that I have to sit with my legs spread out so it has room.  

Best Moment this Week:  Got some more things checked off my to do list this week.  Adam and I also had a lovely "date night" on Saturday.  We ate at Table Mesa on the Bentonville square, walked around through the Christmas lights and got some ice cream at the Spark Cafe.  

It actually was a pretty sad week here at Big Bear and the Betis Ranch.  On Friday night, when I went to go gather the eggs and tuck in my chickens, I discovered that something had gotten into their coop.  At first I thought they had just gotten out because the gate to their run was open, then I saw one of my beautiful girls dead in the yard.  I was pretty hysterical and I'm sure Adam didn't know what to think as I was walking back to the house sobbing.  As soon as I could get out that it was my chickens, he went to go look for the others.  He looked that night and then again the next morning and still didn't find the other girls.  We discovered that it was a dog that got into the run.  We aren't sure if it killed the other girls or if they just ran away because they were scared.  I'm keeping the gate open and checking to coop every night just in case they come back.  They have been so much fun to have.  It's relaxing to walk out there every day to check on them and gather the eggs.  I'm sure we will get more if they don't come back, but I'm still holding out hope!

34 Weeks...+1 day

Pregnancy Highlights

How far along:  34 weeks and 1 day.  I completely forgot about my post yesterday until after I had already put on my pjs - oops!  6 weeks until my due date and 3 weeks until she's considered full term.

Size of baby:  5 lbs and 18 inches long.  She is really starting to fatten up and her skin is smoothing out.

New developments:  She can recognize and react to simple songs.

Gender:  Girl!  Avery Anne Johnson

Maternity Clothes:  All maternity. Some of my maternity stuff is getting too small, but I'm resisting buying anything new.

Movement: She's a mover and a shaker!

Sleep:  I guess I'll just look forward to getting a good nights sleep again here in a few years.

Symptoms:  Having some Braxton Hicks contractions.  Ravenously hungry!  Also have lovely red-rimmed eyes from my lack of sleep.  Luckily the cankles have not made another appearance.

Cravings: Iced animal cookies - the kind in the pink bag.

What I Miss: Just being able to get comfy

Best Moment this Week:  We had another great doctor's visit on Monday.  Blood pressure was great, weight gain was perfect, Avery's heartrate was right where it needed to be, and I am measuring 34 1/2 weeks.  My next appointment is on 12/27 and I will start going every week.

We also got a lot accomplished this weekend.  Still lots to do, but I feel better that we at least got several things done.  Hopefully I can post final pics of the nursery next week.

What I'm looking forward to: Marking more things off my "To Do" list.  This nesting stuff is stressful!

Baby Avery was Showered

Our teams at work gave us a baby shower yesterday.  They did a very nice job and we had a great time!  We are now well stocked for Avery's arrival.  The cake was done by a lady on Adam's team - so cute!  As you can tell by the pic of all the goodies in the nursery, we've got some organizing to do this weekend:)

33 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights

How far along:  33 weeks.  7 weeks until my due date and 4 weeks until she's considered full term.

Size of baby:  4.2 to 5.8 lbs and 17.2 to 18.7 inches long.  She could grow up to 1 inch this week.

New developments:  She's coordinating breathing with sucking and swallowing.  Her bones are also hardening.

Gender:  Girl!  Avery Anne Johnson

Maternity Clothes:  All maternity.  I was dressed really casually today because I had an all day strategy meeting with my direct reports.  We decided to all dress comfy since we weren't going to be in the office.  Leggings are my favorite pants these days.

Movement:  She moves all over the place and they are very obvious!  You can see my belly move and it even gets bigger on whichever side she is hanging out on.

Sleep:  I guess I'll just look forward to getting a good nights sleep again here in a few years.

Symptoms:  I had my first experience with cankles...ahh!!!!  We had the Jr. League Tour of Homes yesterday and after being on my feet from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., my feet and ankles were definitely swollen.  I guess I'm lucky that I haven't had that problem until now.

Cravings: Cuties.  Even though they give me heartburn, Adam brings me one every morning and it is so yum!

What I Miss: When I could sit down without my belly touching my legs.  It kinda grosses me out.

Best Moment this Week:  I was really glad that I was able to be done with the Tour of Homes. It was a great experience and was a good committee to be on, but I'm glad that I'm finished with committee meetings and all the prep work. 

We also got our tree decorated this weekend and I got to spend some good quality time with the Pitts crew on Saturday afternoon.  The boys crack me up with their reaction to my belly and Avery.

I included a couple of pictures of our Christmas tree.  Shelby is fascinated!  We had to move the lower ornaments because she kept bumping them with her nose and it was making us nervous.  I also had big plans to add netting or burlap to the tree this year, but we decided that we were just lucky to get it decorated since I was 33 weeks pregnant. :)

What I'm looking forward to: My work shower on Thursday afternoon.

Maternity Photos

My maternity photos arrived!  Meredith Curtis did a great job - I highly recommend her.  Here's a few of my favorites.

32 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights

How far along:  32 weeks.  8 weeks until my due date and 5 weeks until she's considered full term.

Size of baby:  2.5 to 3.8 lbs and 15.2 to 16.7 inches long

New developments:  She's plumping up feeling more cramped and so are my internal organs!

Gender:  Girl!  Avery Anne Johnson

Maternity Clothes:  All maternity.  Some of those are even starting to get a little small

Movement:  She's definitely a wiggle worm.  Adam probably thinks I'm crazy because I'm fascinated with just sitting there watching my belly move :)

Sleep:  This is a touchy subject here lately.  Lets just say that I know what shows are on at 3 am and have tons of stuff pinned on Pinterest.

Symptoms:  Just uncomfortable.  My belly is getting so big that it hurts to stand for too long or sit for too long, so I do lots of moving around

Cravings: I've been eating lots of leftover pumpkin pie from Thanksgiving - yummy!

What I Miss: Being able to easily put on pants, socks and shoes.  These things seem like such a chore these days!

Best Moment this Week:  We had a nice Thanksgiving at home and I got to have some family time this weekend.  We started putting out Christmas decorations and I was able to do some sewing that I needed to get finished.

I had another doctor's appointment today.  He said everything still looks great!  He also checked and she's in the head down position.  Let's hope she stays that way.

What I'm looking forward to: Finishing up our Christmas decorations and hopefully finishing some of those baby things I pinned on Pinterest.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year Thanksgiving was a little different than normal.  We usually spend the day in Arkadelphia with the whole family, but since it's too far to travel this close to Avery's arrival, Adam and I had a quiet Thanksgiving at home.

We ended up having a great day! I had planned to dress cute for the day, but after about 30 minutes in my "cute" clothes I switched to comfy housepants and a t-shirt.  I decided I could deal with looking casual in pics in exchange for comfort!  We spent the day cooking, hanging out with the dogs, watching football, and putting up our Christmas village. 

I did my best to document some of the day, but it's hard to get pics since it was just the two of us.  Adam cooked a wonderful meal of turkey, stuffing, and green bean casserole.  I made the pumpkin pie (and will probably eat the entire thing myself :)).  The girls had rib bones and turkey giblets. 

Even though we missed the rest of the family, Adam did a great job of making it feel like a real Thanksgiving.  We even attempted to watch White Christmas before both falling asleep.  I can't wait until Christmas so we can have the whole crew over for more good food and fun!

Alien Baby

Avery has been super active today!  I'll be sitting in a meeting and see movement out of the corner of my eye...it's her moving around in my stomach.  It looks a little like I have an alien in there :)

31 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along:  31 Weeks.  9 weeks until my due date, 6 weeks until she is considered full term!

Size of Baby:  2.5 - 3.8 lb and about 15.2 - 16.7 inches.

New Developments:  She's going through major brain and nerve development.  All 5 of her senses are in working order.

Gender:  Girl!  Avery Anne Johnson

Maternity Clothes:  All maternity

Movement: She hangs out on my right side and likes to kick my left side.  She's very active at certain times throughout the day.  I actually like the schedule she is on now – maybe she'll keep it when she comes out!

Sleep: I basically just take naps throughout the night.  Between the discomfort, all the work it takes to roll over, bathroom breaks, and heartburn, I can't sleep for very many hours in a row.  On a related note…we learned in childbirth class that most women's water breaks while they are sleeping. To keep Adam from trying to get me to sleep on puppy pads, we bought a water proof mattress cover, just in case! :)

Symptoms:  Tired and ready to meet our baby girl!

Cravings: Pumpkin Pie.  I'm going to make one using mom's recipe for Thanksgiving

What I Miss: I've noticed that it takes me much longer to get my clothes on in the morning.  I miss being able to just slip things on – this big ol' belly makes everything a little more difficult.

Best Moment this Week:  We finished our childbirth classes on Saturday and I got to take 2 naps this weekend!  It was very relaxing and much needed.  I also did some online shopping and ordered several things that we needed.  It's so nice to not have to go try to find stuff in a store – you just click a button and it's delivered to your front door.  Adam gave me an early Christmas present last night..a new Samsung Galaxy Note tablet.  I love it!!! It can do split screens so you can have the internet open on ½ of the tablet and another app open on the other ½ - super cool!

What I'm looking forward to: Yummy Thanksgiving food.  We are going to miss getting to go to Arkadelphia and be with the rest of the family, but Adam has a full meal planned for us including fried stuffing on a stick! J  We plan to start decorating for Christmas too, which is always so much fun.

What I'm anxious about:  I visited another daycare this morning.  Adam wasn't able to go with me because he had a meeting.  I don't know how we are ever going to find something that works for us.  I have liked both centers, but not for infants.  I just don't feel like they get enough attention and loving and Adam agrees.  I'm fine with the 12 mo and up classes, but can't stand the infant classes.  I have cried after both centers we visited :( What's even worse is that all the good places have waiting lists and we can't even be guaranteed that we can get in by August (which is when Avery would start).  How in the world are we going to figure this out?  This is way more stressful than any other part of this whole experience!

30 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along:  30 Weeks.  10 weeks until my due date, 7 weeks until she is considered full term!

Size of Baby:  2.5 - 3.8 lb and about 15.2 - 16.7 inches.  

New Developments:  Her skin is getting smoother.   She's also strong enough to grasp a finger

Gender:  Girl!  Avery Anne Johnson

Maternity Clothes:  All maternity

Movement: She's really active!  The other day she was kicking so hard that my whole body was moving :)

Sleep: I've learned that I can get some sleep and relief from my heartburn by sleeping on the couch, so that's where I usually start out.

Symptoms:  General discomfort and heartburn

Cravings: Instant Maple & Brown Sugar Oatmeal

What I Miss: Being able to easily shave my legs.  

Best Moment this Week:  We had our first childbirth class on Saturday and got to tour the hospital.  It was nice to know exactly what to be able to expect.  On Sunday we just hung out at the farm.  I had a nice nap, we put a closet rod in the nursery, I knitted and we played Yahtzee.  It was a fun and relaxing day!

I also had another doctor's appointment today.  It was the first of my every 2 week appointments.  The doc said everything still looks perfect.

What I'm looking forward to: We have our last childbirth class on Saturday and we will be learning how to take care of Avery when she gets home.  

Baby Betis

Several people have asked me if I'm worried about how our dogs are going to react to Avery.

I really am not too worried about them.  Big Bear (Vixen) is old enough that I don't know that she will even notice.  Shelby will likely just be very protective because of her herding instinct.  She'll also probably love it when Avery gets a little older and can play with her.

The only one I'm a little worried about is this girl.  Betis (Killa) is so spoiled  that I'm worried she's going to be even more needy once the baby gets her.  If she's wakes up in the middle of the night and her blanket has come off, she will cry until we wake up and cover her back up.  She'll likely just leave the room if Avery is annoying her (thats what she does with the Pitts boys), I'm just not sure we will be able to handle having Baby Betis and Baby Avery.

This is how I found her this morning when I was leaving for work.  She is not allowed on the couch and never tries to get up there.  She was so still that it took me a while to even find her so I could give her insulin shot. I think she was hoping I wouldn't see her and she could spend the day on the couch instead of outside in the cold :)

We are prepared!

We took our first class in our series of baby classes last night - Infant/Child CPR.  It was a great class! 

We learned basic CPR and how to handle choking for kids and babies.  Our instructor made it really simple and we got lots of practice because each couple had their own baby and child dummies. 

Don't be surprised if we give a mini crash course to anyone that babysits Avery!  :)

29 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along:  29 Weeks.  11 weeks until my due date, 8 weeks until she is considered full term!

Size of Baby:  2.5 - 3.8 lb and about 15.2 - 16.7 inches.  The size of an acorn squash

New Developments:  Her muscles and lungs are continuing to mature and her head is growing bigger to make room for her developing brain. 

Gender:  Girl!  Avery Anne Johnson

Maternity Clothes:  All maternity

Movement: She moves a lot.  She's decided that she likes to hang out on the right side of my stomach, so that side sticks out more and I can feel her back all along the side of my stomach.  Mom finally got to feel a kick yesterday evening while we were at the ER.  Check out mom's blog for the story about why we were in the ER.

Sleep:  Sleep?  Whats that?  I guess I actually did get a little sleep last night because I dreamed that Avery was born and she came out looking like Shelby (see the dog in the pic above).  It was wild!

Symptoms:  Just general discomfort.  Its uncomfortable to sit and uncomfortable to stand.  I did discover that the recliner helps a little.

Cravings: Nothing special.

What I Miss: Bending over to pick things up off the floor without groaning :)

Best Moment this Week:  We announced Avery's name and took maternity pics on Saturday.  I can't wait to see how they turned out.  I also went to the doc and passed my glucose screening.  Everything is still looking good.  I can't believe it's already time to start seeing the doctor every 2 weeks!  Where has the time gone???  This weekend was nice and relaxing with lots of good quality time with my hubby.

What I'm looking forward to: We have an Infant CPR class on Wednesday night and our first Birthing Class on Saturday.  I'm a little nervous and excited.  It's all starting to feel very real!  

We FINALLY Decided!

We finally picked a name for this precious baby girl that we will be meeting in just 11 short weeks.  Her name is....

Avery Anne Johnson

Here's a preview from my maternity pics that we took yesterday.  Adam took this pic with his phone and we texted it to the family to announce her name.  If you look closely, you will see that I misspelled her middle name...can you believe it?!  Chalk it up to pregnancy hormones, or me just being an idiot.  I'm hoping that this will be something we can look back at years from now and laugh :)  We'll make sure to get it correct on her birth certificate.  Let the monogramming begin!