Baby Bump and Bedding

I've been meaning to post baby bump pictures for a while now. For some reason I only seem to remember to get pictures in the morning, so my tummy doesn't look nearly as big as it does after eating a big meal. Most of you know what a miserable time I have had with my pregnancies -- mostly from the nausea and morning sickness (more like all-day sickness). With this baby I began to feel SO much better around 19-20 weeks, which is right around the time I finally started showing and actually looking pregnant. I feel like I've grown the most in the past couple weeks alone. I'm starting to make moaning noises when I try to get up off the couch, and it's definitely getting harder to walk up the stairs without getting completely winded and needing a rest! I'm at 25 weeks and have gained 7 pounds total. We have another sonogram next week so we'll be anxious to see how this baby girl is growing!

Here I am at 23 weeks.

And here's a shot this morning at 25 weeks.

I have been on a tear lately trying to get things settled for baby girl's arrival. The other day at dinner I was frantically naming off all the things on my mental list to Jeff that we need to take care of... move Connor out of the nursery to his big boy bed in Kevin's room, find a big boy bed with boy bedding, buy some new girl-themed crib bedding, buy a new vehicle that will seat 4 adults and 2 car seats (bye-bye Ford Explorer, hello Mommy-mobile), get a new baby monitor, buy a double stroller, and on and on. As I rattled on Jeff just started to smile at me. He then added, "sticks, leaves, twigs... You're just nesting!" And wouldn't you know, he's right!

I don't remember ever going through the "nesting" phase when I was pregnant with Connor. I was so distracted by getting married, finishing graduate school, and working full-time that I just didn't make time for it. Jeff is the one who ended up painting the nursery, installing the furniture, and hanging pictures.

So I guess I'm making up for lost nesting time. I used my birthday money to buy the double stroller (major sale - yay!) and I just today bought a new-in-box video monitor for half price (LOVE CraigsList!) My next order of business is moving Connor into a big boy bed that we have yet to purchase. I've been looking for him a used twin bed and can't find what I like yet. In the meantime, I wanted to find the perfect crib bedding for this new baby girl, but being lazy and exhausted all the time, I refuse to repaint the existing nursery. It's currently a cheery pastel yellow color, the crib is cherry wood, and the dresser is a bright sage green with yellow knobs. After much searching, I finally found the bedding below -- it's a perfect match with NO repainting!
Most of my friends know that I'm not much into girly and frilly things, so I thought this bedding was perfect -- not the pastel pink color that I've never liked but still enough touches to make it sweet for a little girl. I plan to find some matching wall letters in the baby's name and I'm also hoping to talk Jeff into hanging some existing white shelves that we have lying around. But that'll probably be the extent of my changes to transform the nursery.

Reading Material

Just because this picture is priceless, I thought I'd post it. And no, we didn't pose Connor for this potty shot! He has lately begun imitating his Daddy and thinks he has to have reading material for occasions like potty time and dinner time. Overall Connor is doing really well with going #1 (only when we remember to stop and take him to the potty), but he REFUSES to try to go #2 on the potty and much prefers doing his business in a diaper or pull-up. Sometimes I think I'll be changing his diapers when he's 10!

Zoo Trip

Last weekend my parents visited us in Houston and we had a great time. The primary reason for their trip was to celebrate my birthday. (Thanks, Mom and Dad!!!) But we took advantage of the time together to visit the Houston Zoo with Connor. It was a really nice day and we had a blast. Below are pics from the day. I'm not sure why I didn't take more pictures. Our favorite part was the elephants -- we saw them getting their baths and even doing some circus-like tricks.

Connor and MeMe with the giraffe in the background.

Here's one with Connor and me. You can barely see the giraffe's neck behind us.

This is as close as Connor would get to the goats in the petting zoo. He was NOT happy about getting his picture with them, as if you can't tell.

After the zoo, we rode the Hermann Park Train. It's not affiliated with the zoo but it's right next door. We had to wait in line for about 30 minutes for some reason, but it was a really neat train ride around the Hermann Park area. You can see some of the Medical Center and the Metro light rail train zooming by. They've also added lots of neat play areas for the kiddos that we plan to go back and visit.

MeMe, Grand Daddy, and Connor on the train. Notice Connor's new "picture face" in all of these shots!

Here's one of me and Connor by the train engine.

Here's a really cute one with Grand Daddy.

And finally, the trip home. It didn't take long before Connor was out!

Baby Girl Update

We had our 22 week ultrasound scan today. It's been 4 weeks since our last ultrasound, and the goal for today was to make sure the baby is growing proportionally due to the abnormalities the doctors found in our last scan. Although she seems to be developing well, the doctor did find another abnormality today that they are a bit concerned about. According to most of her measurements (brain, head, arms, overall size, etc.) she is measuring between 21-22 weeks. I am 22 1/2 weeks so those measurements, although a little small, are still within normal range. However, her femur bone length (thigh/leg bones) is only measuring 19 weeks. In many cases this is considered a marker for Downs Syndrome. Right now she measures in the 6th percentile for femur length, and usually Downs babies fall within the 5th percentile or below.

So now we have 3 markers for Downs: the abnormal blood test, the 2-vessel cord, and the small femur bone length. The doctor encouraged us to get an amniocentesis so that we could know for sure, but I had already made up my mind that I'm not willing to take that risk. On the bright side, there weren't any other indications or abnormalities. The doctor said that a short humorous bone (arm/shoulder) is a much stronger indication of Downs than the short femur, and a combination of a short humorous AND femur is almost a definitive sign. In our case, the baby's humerous measures well within normal range, but of course this could change as she continues to grow.

As expected we are absorbing and digesting the newest findings. Since we've declined the amnio test, there is no way to know for sure whether our baby girl will have Downs until she arrives. Until then, we are thinking positively and praying for her health and development. In any case, we will love her unconditionally and can't wait to meet her. And as always, we appreciate your thoughts and prayers on this baby's behalf.

Below are the latest sonogram pictures to share with you. I'll give a description of each, although some of them are hard to see!

Here is her profile, nose pointed to top of picture.

Here is a cute picture of her legs. Her knees are off to left, bent with her feet dangling off the right of the picture.

Here is a shot of a hand - she has those 4 fingers spread wide apart.

Like last time, we have another picture as proof that she is a girl. This picture shows her little bottom towards the middle of the screen - nothing dangling in between those leg bones!

For those of you that are good at this stuff, here is a side-by-side shot of baby girl's profile (left) next to Connor's 20 week profile (right). We think their facial profiles are very similar!

Congrats, Collin!

Collin is currently a sophomore at Jersey Village High School (JVHS) and he is an active swimmer on the varsity swim team. The team is mostly seniors, and they've done such a great job that they actually had a shot to make the regionals this year. Unfortunately, on the eve of the regional qualifying swim meet one of the team's best swimmers flunked out of one of his classes, thus disqualifying him to compete in the 4-man relay event. Collin stepped up and swam in his place and to everyone's delight, he did awesome! His participation in the relay allowed the team to qualify for regionals.

At the regional preliminary meet, the swim team needed one of the top 8 race times in order to make it to the finals. Again, Collin stepped in and swam for the missing guy. They were so disappointed when they got 9th place...but then they learned that one of the top 8 teams was disqualified, so JVHS had officially made the finals!!

By the date of the regional finals, the flunked-out senior was back and able to compete again. So the 4-man relay competed in the finals without Collin, and the team just learned this weekend that they swam with a state-qualifying time! So, the JVHS swim team is headed to Austin later this month to compete in the state competition! Even though Collin will only get to attend as an alternate, he still gets to attend (and miss school - a big perk) and he can take great pride in the fact that his participation allowed the team to make it this far. We are so proud of him!


Here's a picture of the girls and guys on the JVHS swim team before the regionals.


Here's Collin and his teammates with their medals from the regional qualifying meet.

The Elmo Show

Connor and I were lucky to attend the Sesame Street Live show (the "Elmo Show" according to Connor) last weekend with Connor's best buddy, Benjamin, and Benjamin's mommy, Julie. I have to admit, it was FUN! The performance was much better than I expected. It was really neat because ALL of the Sesame Street characters were there. Our seats were great, so we were able to see all the characters up close and personal. I've shared some pictures below.

On a related note, Connor woke up this morning with wheezy breathing and a croupy cough, so I stayed at home with him to take him to the doctor (turns out the ear infections are officially back now that his ear tubes are falling out, and he has another case of croup, too. Yay, what fun!) Anyway, as soon as Connor woke up, he started telling me about how Elmo came to his room last night. I was a bit surprised, of course, so I asked him, "Oh, did you have a dream about Elmo?" He said, "Yes, and the big monster came to my room, too. He had Fruit Loops." At this point, I was positive he must be talking about a dream he had. He proceeded to explain to me that both Elmo and the monster (we never figured out who exactly the "monster" was) came to his room with Fruit Loops. According to Connor, he hid in his bed with his Barney book while Elmo and the monster were there. But he said they were both nice and he wasn't scared. Thank heavens for that!

Before the Elmo Show, we met up with Benjamin for a healthy Whataburger breakfast.


On our way to the show, Connor and Benjamin enjoyed riding together (thanks to Julie for the extra carseat!)


Connor and Mommy at the show. They sold these Elmo toys for $15 and we couldn't resist. But hey, at least I didn't give in for the $10 Elmo balloon (Yes, $10 for a regular balloon. And there were dozens of them lost in the rafters by the time the show was over!)


Connor and Benjamin both were mesmerized when the Sesame Street characters began coming on stage.


Here's a shot of one of the group songs. So cool to see the characters live!

Playtime with Benjamin and Timothy

For many months now, Connor has developed a wonderful friendship with his classmate, Benjamin, who attends the same downtown daycare. They have become so close that Connor now sometimes only refers to Benjamin as "my best friend" instead of his actual name! It's so sweet -- they always get SO excited to see each other at school. Benjamin's mom, Julie, and I have also become great friends, so we often take the opportunity to get the boys together on the weekends for playdates.

This past weekend, we visited Benjamin's house so the boys could play while the Mommies did a little shopping (Thanks to Benjamin's Daddy for keeping the boys occupied!) Benjamin's little brother, Timothy, was also around and had a blast playing with the older boys. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Benjamin and Connor -- many of our friends comment on how much alike they look with their fair hair and features. Julie and I have the hardest time getting pictures where both of them are smiling at the same time!


Here is Benjamin with his little brother Timothy. Timothy is just over a year old and is walking up a storm. I love this picture with both boys smiling big.


Watch out, Benjamin. It looks like your brother is becoming stiff competition for the "Best Friend" title. These next few pictures are so sweet -- Timothy and Connor loved wrestling and playing together.

So cute, the best friends show some affection.