Favorite Things Giveaway!!

Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year! If Alex would let me, the tree would already be up. :) I have so many favorite things and I would love to share them with YOU! Last year I put together a big basket to give away. This year I want to do several different giveaways, so that more of you can enjoy some of my favorites!

One of my favorite things about Christmas is the music. I have to admit, I've already been listening to Christmas music in my car. Since September actually. (HA!) There is just something about Christmas music that puts me in an immediate good mood. LOVE IT!!

So for my first giveaway, I want to share two of my favorite Christmas cds. I have so many cds that I listen to over the holidays, but these two are classics and I love 'em!





So if you would like to add these two Christmas cds to your collection, simply leave me a comment telling me your favorite Christmas song or cd!

For extra entries:
Let me know that you're a follower of this blog.
Post about this giveaway on your blog.

Please leave each entry in a separate comment.

If you don't have a blog, please make sure that you leave an email address, so that I can get in touch with you.

***All entries must be received by Saturday, October 10th at midnight.

Good luck!!

33 weeks and counting...

I'm not even going to tell you what my husband was saying while taking this pic. He was totally making me laugh. I WILL tell you that I'm 33 weeks and counting the days until November! :)


Here's what little miss is up to this week!

This week A weighs a little over 4 pounds (like a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. She's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and her skeleton is hardening. I'm relieved to know that A no longer looks like an alien. (LOL)

Fall is officially here and I'm lovin' it! My parents were in town for a couple of days. They had to leave Saturday afternoon, but before they left my Mom put out my fall decor. I'm still experiencing some serious swollen feet/legs when I'm up for more than a few hours at a time. We had been out for a while and the feet were feeling it. She brought me back to the house to lay down while she decorated. Thank you, Momma!! I'm going to post pics of my fall decor soon. :)

My little niece, K turned 1 on Saturday! I remember that day like it was yesterday. On the day she was born, I was struggling to hang on to hope. The pic below is our first picture together...she was just hours old. I had just gone through a 2nd cycle and was on bed rest. I remember going to the hospital, holding her in my arms, and the tears started falling. I remember my family just giving me that moment with her. It was a happy day, but at the same time, very hard for me. I wanted so badly to be holding my own baby. Just a week later, I found out that I was not pregnant. It seems like my cycles always fell around the birth of a niece/nephew. I know now that God was in that. He was in every little detail and was doing a work in my heart with each failed cycle. I had no idea that in just a year, I would be weeks away from having my own baby girl. The waiting was hard. But I still wouldn't change a thing about our 3 year journey up to this point. His timing is perfect. He brought me to a place of finding joy in my infertility. A place of thankfulness. And then He blessed us with our miracle baby.


K shares a birthday with my Grandma Mc, so they had a joint party. It was a gorgeous day...perfect weather to be outside. By the time of the party, I had been up for a long time. My Uncle snapped the pic of me with my eyes closed...I could have totally fallen asleep there on my Daddy's shoulder. That was around the end of the party...I promise I didn't sleep through the entire thing!! :)



I hope you guys have a great week!

OH....I will be posting the 1st giveaway for my favorite Christmas things, this week! You won't want to miss it!

Love,

Labor & Delivery...

Last night was a LONG ONE. I had a lot of errands to run and was on my feet most of the day. I should know better by now. Whenever I spend a lot of time on my feet, I pay for it. Around 5pm, I started having really bad cramps, terrible back ache and finding it hard to catch my breath. This was all while sitting on the couch with my feet up. Fast-forward to 10pm and the cramps hadn't let up. Alex is out of town on business all week, so I was trying to figure out what to do. I'm not one of those patients that calls about everything. For some reason, I feel bad for bothering the doctor (especially late at night). My sister came over and took my blood pressure. It was 154-110. I think it was up and down all day while running errands. My head would start hurting and I would get flushed, but it would eventually go away so I ignored it. Once she checked my bp, we called the doctor on call. He wanted me to go to L&D to get checked. While there, I continued to cramp and have shortness of breath. They said the cramping was "irritability" (contractions that are less than 40 seconds). The shortness of breath is from her growing and me running out of room. Just something I'm going to have to get used to - because she's not going to stop growing. :) The back pain is from the weight gain...I'm just not used to carrying this much extra weight. My bp eventually came down. My uterus is closed and I am thinning very little. We left the hospital and got home close to 2am this morning. They gave me an ambien before leaving the hospital, so that I could get a good nights sleep. AND BOY DID I! I slept until after noon. I think A slept really well too. She didn't kick all night. She actually didn't start kicking until late this afternoon. No worries though, she's making up for lost time at this very moment. :)

I went to see my doctor today. His main concern is my blood pressure. It was normal today, but continues to go up and down. Not sure what's up with that. He said our goal is to make it to 36 weeks and anything after that is just icing on the cake! He said that if my blood pressure continues to do this, I may not make it to 40 weeks. I definitely want her to stay in there for as long as she needs. He measured her and listened to her hear rate and everything looks/sounds good. He said she's probably 3 1/2-4lbs. She is head down at the moment. I'm scheduled to go back in two weeks. I've been instructed to stop catering and to do very little from here on out. I'm supposed to take at least 2 hours each day, lay on my left side, and put my feet up. He's hoping this will help with my swelling and the blood pressure issue. This will be the hardest thing for me to do. I still have plenty to do before she arrives. I just have to limit myself to how much I do each day. I drink over 2 liters of water every day. Not sure if that's a lot or not...think I should be drinking more??

7 more weeks and we get to meet our baby girl...I'm getting excited!

Love,

32 weeks and 2nd baby shower!

By now, A weighs 3.75 pounds (pick up a large jicama)and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in the uterus. She'll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb. She now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). Her skin is becoming soft and smooth as she plumps up in preparation for birth.

Yesterday was my 2nd baby shower. My S-I-L's threw me this shower and it was wonderful! It was mostly Alex's family, my sisters, and some of my girlfriends came as well. A received some cute outfits and toys! I received my first package of diapers as well...lots of fun stuff. :) Here are a few pics...

Me and my S-I-L's and some of our sweet family & friends...


How cute are these cupcakes (from one of my favorite cupcake shoppes) and cookies with her initial!? My S-I-L, Jen made the cookies! By the way, Jen is pregnant with her 3rd baby girl in February, so A will have another cousin very close in age...we're so excited! My M-I-L gave us this precious plate with ISamuel 1:27 on it. It's already sitting in her room...I love it.


Me and my sisters & nieces and some more of our sweet fam & friends...


Thank you to my S-I-L's for making this a very special day!! I love you girls!

On the pregnancy front...it's official. I'm swole-up. Seriously, my feet, hands, face, everything is swollen and hurts. I have officially gone up one shoe size...that alone is tragic. So many cute shoes in my closet and I can't wear them. I had my doctor's appointment last Wednesday. I gained 12 lbs in the last month. Yes, you read that correctly. That's a total of 31 lbs weight gain, so far. My bp was high, so I'm going back this week to have that checked again. I get to see my doctor this week....YAY!! I've been seeing all of the other docs for the past few months (my doc's office makes you do this, incase you go into labor and another doc is on call). All of the other OBs were super nice, but I'm ready to see my doctor again. I will start going every two weeks for the next month and then go to every week. This pregnancy has flown by. We're so close to meeting our baby girl! It's getting harder to sleep. I just can't get comfortable anymore. I'm like a roly-poly trying to get out of bed. I started having my first BH contractions today. It was like really bad, low cramps and my stomach got really tight...definitely had to sit down when they hit me. Only 8 more weeks to go! :)

The nursery is coming along. I have ordered the fabric for the chair and it will be shipped directly to the seamstress, so she can get started on that. I'm just praying it is finished in time. Other than the chair, I just need to buy/hang the drapes and get things on the walls. I know what I want, I just have to do it. My sis and I have a big catering job in October and then I'm going to have to stop helping with that. Being up on my feet for long periods of time is no longer possible.

The weeks are seriously flying by. LOTS TO DO before baby girl arrives!!

Love,