It's the final countdown!

Well, it's almost time. First of all, let me apologize for not posting in almost two months. I had no idea it had been so long. I know, that's terrible. So much has happened. Let me see if I can give you the rundown. :) Just a warning. I would love to post pics of all this, but we just got our new laptop in, and that's what I'm typing on. Pics will have to come sometime in the future, as the external hard drive with the images is upstairs, and I'm limiting my trips up and down the stairs these days. ;)

We are so blessed with wonderful friends and family and coworkers (also friends, of course). :) We were given four showers, and we've just been overwhelmed by the generosity of those in our lives. Our first shower was thrown by the fabulous women with whom we attend church in Cy-Fair. We had a great time, with wonderful food, and happy decor. One of Jeremy's aunts (Jill) and two cousins (Amanda ad Maria, well, she's married to his cousin) came to that shower. We were both so touched that they were there. I've never had much extended family close enough to be at stuff like that, so it really meant a lot. Jill and Maria even came from San Antonio! The hostesses did a lovely job, and it was so memorable for me!

Next was the shower in the Kingwood/Humble area. It was thrown for us by Angela (who we realized at the shower I've known for 20 years, even though I tried arguing I wasn't old enough to have 20-year friends), Melissa (my good friend and pledge master from my APO days), and Dawn (who is one of my great friends from church at Humble). They threw a carnival/amusement park-themed shower to go with the nursery, and we had a great time. Several of the friends we have at the church at Humble came, as well as friends from high school, old work friends, and others came. It was a bit of a mish-mash of people, but it was great fun. Aunt Amy was able to come in from McKinney for that one, and I was so honored to have her there!

Here a little more recently, the ladies at my office and Jeremy's team at school threw showers for us. We were so touched by both. It was really fun for each of us to kick back with those we usually have to do serious stuff with and celebrate the upcoming arrival of our Corinne!

We had a great Thanksgiving with the Effingers this year. It was just us five at Kenny and Lynn's house, and it was relaxing and very enjoyable! On Friday after Thanksgiving, we were able to go over to Josh and Amanda's house (Jeremy's cousin and her husband) to enjoy some time with the extended Effinger clan, well, the Darter branch anyway. This is the first time I've been able to meet Ashley and her family (one of Jeremy's cousins), and really the first time I've been able to just sit and visit with the rest. :) It's always been an "event" when I've seen them. We really enjoyed that day of just hanging out, too.

We've been very busy getting everything ready to bring Corinne home. Thankfully, I have the best husband in the world. He's been so helpful and really done anything I've asked and much, much more. He helped me get all the Christmas decorations up. Both trees are up, and the few other items we have are all scattered around. I've got all of Jeremy and Corinne's presents wrapped and under the tree, and he wrapped mine that have come in today. Now just need to wrap the rest of the family's gifts. I'm hoping to get all those finished tonight and tomorrow. The house is fairly well organized for our return from the hospital. Will be doing a little more laundry tomorrow and doing final preparations.

We go in to the hospital tomorrow night (Sunday, December 5) at 7 pm to begin the induction process. Monday is my due date, and Corinne's made no signs of dropping, and I'm not showing any signs of labor. She's already a big girl, and my doc decided it would be best to induce, and I'm all for it! :) The process will begin slowly tomorrow night, but nothing will happen until Monday. Hopefully, the medications they give me to begin labor will be enough to convince this little girl to get on down there so we won't have to have a c-section. It is a possibility, though. We would appreciate everyone's prayers especially over the next few days!

I know I've not kept you update on Corinne's status lately, so here's the latest. In the ultrasound pictured below, she was estimated at 7 pounds, 5 ounces. This was about 2 1/2 weeks ago. One week ago, she was estimated at 8 pounds, 7 ounces. She's definitely going to be a good-sized little girl. :) In the pictures below, she is looking right at you in the first (lying on her back). If you tilt your head to the right, look for the two dark spots side-by-side. Those are her eyes, nose and mouth right below. In the second, she's still lying on her back, and you're looking at her profile. Look for the nose and pouty little lips. In the final one, the main item of note is her fat rolls. :) Yes, that's right. You can see her fat rolls in an ultrasound. :) In my ultrasound last week, the tech told me she had a lot of hair, too.

Enjoy! We're about to have one of our dreams come true, and we hope you do, too! Love you all, and we'll see you on the other side. ;)

Almost there!

Well, I finally took some update pictures of the nursery. I have a couple more things coming for the room, but it's almost complete! Several people have asked for pics, so here they are! :)

Sorry - I know I'm not the best at posting pics. :) Enjoy, and take one step today toward living your dream. :)

And this is when we freak out.

So, using the December 6 due date, we have less than 60 days until due date. How is that possible? I feel as though this must be the time that mommies-to-be (or at least first time mommies-to-be) completely freak out. :) This week has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster, for many reasons, but I feel like I'm panicking a bit. I keep telling myself that if she comes today, we have the room ready (even though she won't really be sleeping in there initially), and we could always go buy our car seat. We're going to be fine. Then I think of things like this:

I have no idea what I should even pack in a bag for the hospital. How can I be a mom when I don't even know what I need to take care of MYSELF (and my husband) in the hospital (much less what we need to take for the baby)? So, this week I printed about 4 checklists I found online and realized there are things I never would have thought of to bring with me. Like a nursing bra. I don't think I would have thought about even buying one until we got out of the hospital. Hehe. I'm so prepared.

I have to have the air vents cleaned out. Yes, I've decided that a baby can't come home to our house until the air vents are cleaned. I don't know why I've decided this. I think it's probably just a good thing to do occasionally. But it's become this weird kind of obsession. I know, though, that I'll either have to schedule the appointment on a Friday afternoon or wait until after Thanksgiving when I'm off for a few days before baby (hopefully). And really I'd like to have all the blinds replaced before baby, too, but I don't see that happening. :)

I haven't organized Baby E's closet! I hate disorganized closets. We've been just collecting gifts and clothes given to us by friends in the closet with no rhyme or reason. Logic tells me that I should wait until after showers to wash and sort and organize and hang (or fold) clothes. However, when I walk in the room, I think, "Wow - this is looking super cute, but I know behind those doors is a bunch of stuff I haven't organized!" Thankfully, my fabulous friend Amy offered last night to come over after my first shower and help me with some of that.

When am I going to decorate for Christmas? We can't not have the house decorated for her first Christmas. I know I can get it done. I will just need Jeremy to put the pieces of the tree together, then I think I can probably do the rest. The problem is, I have no idea when I'm going to do that. Sometime in November, I guess.

I have so much to do! Yet, I don't feel like I know what it is. Is that weird? :) With getting the nursery ready, at least I knew what needed to be done: furniture, painting, bedding, etc. I know decorating. I don't know raising a baby!

In all honesty, though, we are very excited. I just feel a few of the panic notions every now and then. :) So, if I'm around you and act crazy, it's because I am and probably because I have a million things running through my mind, most of which are irrational. I apologize in advance. ;) In the meantime, we're just here...living this crazy dream! Love you!

Can't Help "Fall"-ing in Love...

Okay, so Elvis is pretty much my all-time fave. :) But the title is a little more than the title of my favorite song by him....It's Fall, y'all!

I'm so excited about fall and holidays this year, and I kinda surprised by that. I've been ready for fall since my hair was dyed to a more fall-appropriate color, and now it finally here! I love so much about fall: new hair color, boots, cooler weather, different colors around us, anticipation of holidays, sweaters, etc. (By the way, I do realize that I only get to enjoy some of those here in Houston, and even less of them, like boots, this year being quite preggo.) :-D This year, though, I just feel completely different about the season. I know that it's the season where many things around us start dying or looking more drab in preparation for the winter, but I just feel like it is the beginning of so many exciting things for us! I'm even really excited about the holidays. When we figured out the timing of the arrival of Baby E, I was afraid I would just dread the holidays. However, I'm getting shopping done early, and I'm excited about everything this fall and winter - even Halloween! I've even been looking around for fun decor stuff - even for Halloween! Maybe that's a mommy instinct? To make everything fun around the house for holidays (because I typically couldn't care less what my house looks like at Halloween, especially)? :)



As usual, our fall weekends are jam-packed (we just figured out last night that the next weekend that neither of us have plans or have plans together is pretty much the weekend after Thanksgiving, which will hopefully be the weekend before Baby E arrives and gives us constant "plans"). :) That's okay, though. We're excited about all the fun stuff coming up. I'm trying to not over-book us, but that is really hard these days. :)

We got to visit Gamp and Granny in Amarillo last weekend, and they were fabulous hosts, as always. We got to show Jeremy Palo Duro Canyon (and I hadn't been in years), enjoy some of Granny's yummy food (as always) and got a lot of visiting in. It was such a great trip although way too short. We're headed to Phoenix in October for my friend Susan's wedding. It promises to be a somewhat difficult trip, just due to the size I will probably be by then, but it will be short, and I have a holiday to recover before having to go back to work, so that's good. :) Jeremy will go to the annual Texas A&M lacrosse tournament he's been to (either playing or as a spectator) for the last 11 years, I think, in mid-November. I decided to sit this one out, since I couldn't really come up with any way for me to be comfortable on that trip. :) Looking forward to being able to take the little one next year, though. :) And we've got all crazy events around here in between!

I went to the doctor last Tuesday and had an ultrasound. Everything looks great, and she's still a girl! (The ultrasound tech asked if I didn't believe her the first time when I asked her to just check again, since we were doing an ultrasound. I let her know that I just wanted to be mentally prepared for the right thing. :)) However, it was the first appointment I weighed any differently from all my other appointments. I had gained 5 pounds in two weeks!!! I was freaking out a bit, but the doc wasn't worried, especially since I'm in my third trimester and hadn't gained any weight at all. :) Since then, I continue to weigh and think I may have taken off a pound or two, or, at the very least, not gained any more. I go back on Tuesday. I'm including the ultrasound pic, even though you can't tell a whole lot from this one. She was facing down, so we didn't get to see her profile or anything fun like that. There's a pretty good shot of her spine and foot, though. :)

In the nursery, we're getting close to finished, as far as decor is concerned, I think. We got a valance hung this week, and I'm hoping to get the mobile and the pictures for the wall put up this weekend. I still need to order the big lighted carousel letter for the wall. I will do that soon. :) I'll try to take some pics this weekend to get up on the post next week. I'm loving it! Once the decor stuff is finished, I can work on organizing the things in the closet (mostly clothes).

I'm getting more and more excited, but I feel a little differently about the whole situation lately. Before I was just excited that we were having a baby. These last couple of weeks, I feel much more of a bond with our little baby girl, though. I really do think I'm "fall"-ing in love with her. :) I love to feel her movements, even as spastic as they might be. I can't wait to meet her. I know she will be such a joy in our lives. I may even be most excited about seeing Jeremy hold her for the first time. He is so excited, and sometimes I just wish he could know what it feels like to feel her inside. It's definitely going to be a happy day. :)

I will close with a request for prayers. Jeremy and I have had to make some very difficult decisions lately, and we pray constantly that they are the right ones. Please pray for us and for our families, as we know that the results of those decisions won't always be easy to deal with. Thanks for everyone's support. We love you all.

By the way, feel free to leave comments on any blog post! :) Until next time, hope you're "fall"-ing in love with something or someone and living the dream! Love you!

The Old Man is 30! ;)

Well, Jeremy's birthday was last Friday, and we had a great weekend celebrating. Friday I picked up his Double Doozie cookie cake. If you've never had one, it's basically two cookie cakes stacked with a layer of icing between. They are absolutely ridiculous, but he's always wanted one, so I splurged. :) That night we celebrated with Mom, Alyssa, and the boys. We had a great time!

Saturday, I surprised Jeremy by taking him to Galveston to visit Moody Gardens and have lunch. My energy level is waning a bit these days, so that's pretty much all I was up for, but we had a great time. Got to see some great animals and pretty landscaping. We went to a place called The Spot for lunch, and it rocked! We ordered Shrimp kisses (shrimp with pepper jack cheese, wrapped in bacon and fried) as an appetizer, and we each ordered a burger. Jeremy's was some kind of hickory burger, and mine was called the Zach. It was a burger with cheddar cheese, chili, and Fritos. I know - sounds weird, but it was AWESOME! We had a really great time just spending the day together. We stopped at IKEA on the way home to get a bookcase for the nursery that I'd spotted online, and that was insane - certainly enough to knock me out the rest of the day, so we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening watching movies and some TV.

Then we got to celebrate with Kenny, Lynn, Tracy, and Lynn's niece and nephew on Sunday (still eating the cookie cake). :) And had a great time staying up late with some friends after pizza and games Sunday night after services, since we had Monday off. Monday was a great day. We didn't leave the house, and I got a lot done but got to relax some, too.

We've got quite a crazy schedule coming up. Next week my friend Erika will be in town, so I think I'm going to spend the day with her on Thursday, and she'll spend the night Thursday night. We leave Friday to go up to Amarillo to visit Gamp and Granny. Hopefully, the flight won't abuse my poor swollen feet too badly. :) The rest of the month is booked up with various events around here. We've got Slade's birthday the first weekend in October, and we head to Phoenix for my friend Susan's wedding the following weekend. Looking forward to all the fun things we have planned - just hope this baby cooperates. :)

I've got a doctor's appointment on Tuesday, so I'll keep everyone posted!

On a sad note, we lost a very dear friend last night. Mickey Suttle passed away yesterday about 5 pm. He is a wonderful Christian man, and he will be missed by many. He was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer in June. Please remember the Suttle and Fontenot families in your prayers during this time of grief. Mickey's gone from this earth, but he will now be freed from earthly suffering and will go on to live his eternal dream. What's your eternal dream, and are you living in a way that you will be blessed with it?

25 weeks or is it 26?

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday. This time I met with another doctor in the practice who also happens to be my OB's son. My doc likes you to meet the other docs in the practice in case it's one of them that ends up delivering the baby. It's only the five doctors in the practice in the call group, so that's good. I did my glucose test. Hopefully, we won't get any worrisome results from that. My weight is the exact same it's been since the beginning at every single doctor's appointment. I joked that I thought something was wrong with their scales, but in reality, that's really good news. I haven't gained anything, yet, but I'm definitely showing. My blood pressure this time was lower than it has been in quite some time, even before I was pregnant, so that must mean all this exercise is paying off. :)

As of now, I still have the clear to fly to Amarillo in September to visit Granny and Gamp and Phoenix in October to go to Susan's wedding. I was relieved to hear that, so I went ahead and booked the Phoenix tickets. We already had Amarillo booked. Looking forward to both trips!

I also asked the doc about timing of due date, delivery, etc. I asked him about my due date because they'd changed it from December 6 to December 12 back when I had my first sonogram. However, every time they mention how far along I am, I can tell they're using the December 6 date. I asked him about this, and he said they'd probably more likely go on size than the actual date. However, he did say they do not like to allow women to go more than about a day past their due dates, as risks start to increase. What does that mean for me? This baby will be OUT before December 12, most likely, if not right around then. :) Yea! I was worried about it getting too late in the month, and this way, we should at least be able to enjoy the holidays all together and somewhat recovered from delivery!

I get to have another ultrasound in two weeks to check the location of my placenta. The last ultrasound showed it being too low. He said about 90% of the time, they move right on up to where they need to be, but we want to make sure. If it hasn't moved before delivery, I'll have to have a C-Section, so please keep us in your prayers! I'm really hoping to not have to have the C-section. I don't want to be cut on. :)

Not a ton going on in other news. I've been getting a few things here and there for the nursery. The lamp should be in today, and the mobile should be to me in the next few weeks. I guess I should start figuring out where I want the wall stuff. I also need to find a valance for the window.

That's about all the exciting news I have! I just wanted to keep everyone updated on the doc news. I'll try to get some pics of something here soon to liven things up a bit. :) Hope each of you is living your dream!

Already behind? :)

Okay, so it's the second week the blog has been in existence, and I'm already behind. I really meant to post earlier this week, but I let time get away from me.

On the baby front, all that's really going on this week is nursery progression. :) The glider was delivered on Tuesday, and it looks great in the nursery! We went with a very neutral color for it, since I didn't really want it to be the focal point, but when I ordered the bedding, I managed to remember to have a little accent pillow made for the glider, so it looks adorable! I ordered a fun lamp for the dresser. We found an orange one I love. I'm hoping it comes in next week, so I can continue putting things together. The only big things left I would like to get for in there is a little bookcase (we found a cute little red one on IKEA's website I think we might get - although that does mean having to GO to IKEA and navigate that crazy place) and the large carnival marquis letter that lights up for the wall. The rest is just little things.

Jeremy and I went to a consignment sale yesterday called "Penny Pinching Mamas". We found several cute clothing items. Mostly dresses, but also a couple of pairs of jeans and a cute pants outfit. Got some good deals! I was completely overwhelmed by the toys and stuff, so I mainly just stared blankly at those. hehe. :)

In other news, Jeremy's kids started school this week (he had to be back last week). He's got two large classes this year, so it may be challenging, but he's pretty excited to be back. I love going home in the afternoons and hearing the stories of the day. I constantly thank God that he ended up where he did with such a great admin team. He gets the support he feels he needs. Also, other big news - his school earned exemplary status last year! This is huge, particularly because he works at a Title I (lowest socio-economically) school. To earn exemplary status, you have to have a certain percentage passing. I don't know all the details, but the whole school has really been working hard at it for several years now. So exciting!

Other than that, not much happening. Still working on getting some things organized at the house. I've got a credenza on the way that will go in the living room to help organize games and free up upstairs closet space and perhaps to keep a few baby toys in. :) That will probably be here Monday, and we'll have to put it together. We're headed to a 50th anniversary party this weekend. WOW! Such an accomplishment. I look forward to that many years with Jeremy, if it's in God's plan. Jeremy's 30th birthday is coming up next Friday (I'm going to be married to an old man). ;) Following that, we have the rest of the late summer/fall family birthday onslaught. :) Kenny in September, Slade and Alyssa in October, Dad and Ronin in November. Keeps us busy!

Oh! One other thing! I did find out that I believe I'm going to be able to take off starting with Thanksgiving holidays through the month of January for the baby. I didn't realize I'd be able to be off that early, so that's a relief for me. I just have to work out the details now with the docs and insurance and HR people. Yea!

I think that's all I have for now. Hope everyone's having a great week, has a great weekend, and living his or her dream! Love you!