Juli & Co.

I was laying in bed Saturday morning, literally I had just woke up. I don't think I had even opened my eyes yet. I started thinking about the day and what we could do that would be fun for the family. BEACH! Yes, the beach! So I popped up, told Nick about my big idea, and then suddenly we were making a grocery list of supplies, packing the truck, and throwing on swimsuits! I love days like this! And anyone who knows me and Nick, knows that we just aren't the best planners. We get these crazy ideas last minute and just run with it. And somehow it makes it more exciting, more special, and just more fun!

So we made it to the beach just before lunch and the kids took off running into the ocean! Olivia was too little to remember the last time we went to the beach, so this was all new for her. She loved the sand and the water. But, she said she loved the sand more. Luke loved boogie boarding in the surf and, of course, little Mr. Personality found a few little friends to play with and build sand castles. Nick and I relaxed on the beach and soaked up the sun and just enjoyed watching the kids play. It was such a nice way to spend our last weekend before baby #3 arrives.

Oh and this was pretty funny...at one point Nick dug out these tiny little clams or snails or something that lives just under the sand at the shoreline. He wanted to show the kids how they come out of their shells and then dig themselves back under the sand. So first Nick shows me and, of course the little boogers immediately open up and dig back down. It was actually pretty cool. So, then he calls the kids over and is like "watch this!". So they are waiting, watching, staring for several seconds and nothing. The clams just sit there. The kids lose interest and run off. As soon as they leave the clams start digging under! So Nick and I yell for the kids to come back over. I heard Luke tell his new little buddies, "hang on, guys...I have to go see my dad do this boring magic trick..." Ha! Nick and I felt so uncool for the first time as parents! And then wouldn't you know, as soon as Luke is standing there watching, again, the little clams do nothing, nada. They just sit there. Luke looks at us like we are crazy and then runs back to his friends. He must have thought we were the biggest nerds. :)

Here are just a few pics I snapped in a hurry...I was scared to bring my camera out for long because of all the sand and sea water. I did get some cute video though that I'll try to post later.

Today, my sweet baby girl is officially three years old. Where has the time gone, seriously? It seems like she was just born and now she's this independent little big girl who loves "whip gloss" and princess and baby dolls. She has such a kind, nurturing heart and loves to take care of me and Bubba and Daddy and her baby dolls. She cannot wait to be a big sister and tells me daily how she is going to change the baby's diaper, feed the baby, sing songs to the baby, and teach the baby all kinds of things. She loves to lift up my shirt and kiss and hug on my belly and is constantly asking "how's your baby doin'?" and "is your baby sleepin'?" or "your baby like that?".

She also loves her Bubba. It's funny because when she's mad at Luke she calls him Bubba, but when she's trying to be sweet she calls him Bub or Bubby. And she loves her Bubba so much that just about every other day she wakes up and tells me that she's a boy and wants to wear boy clothes. I let her a few times when we were staying at home, but now it seems to be a more frequent occurrence. She tries her best to be a "boy" so Bubba will play with her, but her girly ways always come out. Luke will try to trick her by asking her questions like "do you like pink?" and then when she forgets the correct boy answer and says "yes", he'll say "see, you are a girl!". And then, of course, she comes crying to me saying that Bubba told her she "not boy". Ha! Such is the life of a little sister...

Some other things I love about Olivia at this age...

She loves to read books, play dress up, and dance (especially when she thinks no one is looking). She likes her room to be clean and will even hang her own clothes up in the closet. She loves to carry a purse and fill it with things like lip gloss, extra undies, and Barbies. One of her favorite songs is "Jesus Loves Me". She knows all the words and constantly asks me to turn it on in the car. She loves to help me set the table at dinner and put the dishes away. She loves bubble baths and playing tea party. She can still be shy at times but is becoming more and more independent and confident every day. She loves babies. If she sees one anywhere she begs me to go with her to say hi. She loves to touch their little feet and tickle them under the chin. She can be quite sassy at times and has learned how to push Lukey's buttons. She tells him that she's older than him and that he's the baby and it makes him crazy. If you ask her what she wants to do that day, 100% of the time she will say, "go to park". She is still upset that Daddy forgot to pack her pink walls from our old house. She loves going to the "nail shop" and says that she's a big mommy. She rubs my back when I lay down in bed with her and will stroke my cheek and ask me over and over "you comfy, mommy?...you all tucked in?". She still loves me to sing the Sunshine Song.

This little girl has brought so much joy and love into our family and watching her grow into a little big girl has been one of the greatest blessings of my life. She is such a loving sister with an incredibly tender, nurturing heart. I am so excited to watch her grow into her new role as big sister.

Happy Birthday, Olivia Kate! We love you more than words could ever say!

We celebrated Olivia's 3rd birthday a little early this year just to be on the safe side. I didn't want to take a chance that this baby might decide to come on her actual birthday. And, it allowed our family to be able to drive up for the day to celebrate with us.

We did a princess party at home in the backyard. We grilled hot dogs, played on the new play gym and water slide, and enjoyed hanging out with our new friends here in The Woodlands and our families. Olivia broke down and started crying when the princess castle pinata finally broke open and spilled candy onto the ground. I thought she was upset because everyone was grabbing the candy, but when she finally stopped crying enough to tell me what was wrong, she said she was sad because they broke her castle. Poor baby...

It was definitely hot outside, especially for this 9 month preggo, but the party was a success. Olivia had such a fun day and felt so special that so many friends came to celebrate with her. We surprised her with a new princess big girl bike after the party and she was able to spend the rest of the day playing with all of her cousins. She ended up passing out in my arms outside in the backyard that evening. She partied hard ;)

Here is a picture of the cake that I made for her...she thought it was pretty special with all the princesses and the big castle on top.



She started the day off right with a birthday donut...



Sweet cousins...



Sparkly princess cupcakes...



Princess plates...



The birthday girl...



And the rest of the pics can be seen here on our shutterfly share site :)

Click here to view these pictures larger

I had another sonogram yesterday to check the size and position of the baby. It was so amazing to see this big, squished-up baby kicking and stretching inside my tummy. I mean, it's no surprise to me that there is a baby inside there, but it just made it so much more real. We were able to see a pretty clear 3d image of the baby's sweet little face and it was just incredible. I'm totally in love...again. It's amazing to me how much love a mom can have for her kids. And, how that love is just endless and grows with each child. I remember being so worried after Luke was born that I would never be able to love another child as much as I love him. But the moment I held my sweet, precious baby girl I knew I had nothing to worry about. The love I felt for her was so powerful and so instant. And, now, for a third time, I felt it. An overwhelming, crazy ton of love for this third little baby.

So everything with the sonogram went great...the baby measured approximately 6 pounds, 3 ounces and was right on track with my due date. So if the baby gains the expected half pound a week from now until delivery, he/she will probably be around 7 pounds or a little over and that would be exactly like my other two. Luke was 7 pounds, 5 ounces and was born at 38 weeks, 4 days. Olivia was 7 pounds, 14 ounces and was born at 39 weeks, 6 days. My c-section for this baby is scheduled for 37 weeks, 6 days so right at 7 pounds would be a pretty good guess at birth weight.

The sono lady also said that she saw lots of hair on the baby's head. She said she couldn't tell how long it was but that it looked "pretty fuzzy". We also got to see the baby stretch his/her head all the way back and arch his/her back while simultaneously stretching his/her legs as far out as possible. This would explain my sore ribs and inability to walk without waddling.

I was able to get a short DVD of the sonogram showing the baby's movements and the 3d images of the face, but for some reason I cannot upload it to my mac. I've been trying for two days to get it figured out and at this point I've given up. So, instead, this crappy pic I snapped with my cell phone of one of the printed pics will have to do.

So what do you think? Does this look like the face of a girl or a boy? And, who does he/she look like?

Just a few pics of what we've been up to...lots of playing in the backyard on the new play set and a little bit of after dinner fishing, or in Sissy's case, mud pie making.

This pregnancy has been pretty uneventful...that is, until this past Friday. As you can see from my last post, I took the kids blackberry picking and then spent the rest of the day running errands, going to Free Birds for lunch, and then a little more afternoon cousin playtime. I felt fine. Perfectly normal all day.

Then, about 6:30 that evening, literally right after I finished the last blog post, it hit me. I got terrible chills and couldn't stop shivering and my teeth were chattering. And then, my back began to hurt so bad I could hardly walk. I tried taking a bath to see if that would help, which it didn't. I was still freezing! I laid down on the couch and just kept feeling worse and worse. Once I realized I hadn't felt the baby move in about an hour or so, I told Nick to call L&D. They said to come on in. So we loaded up the fam, I threw on a pair of tennis shoes with my pajama pants and one of Nick's old t-shirts (I was looking pretty hot) and headed to the hospital.

The kids were already hungry and cranky so I just told Nick to drop me off and take the kids to eat. I thought, if anything, they'll check the baby, tell me he/she is fine, give me some Tylenol and maybe an antibiotic and then I'd call Nick to pick me up. Ummm...yeah.

What ended up happening was not at all what I had expected. My high fever was causing the baby's heart rate to be accelerated, like in the 200's! And I was having contractions! They finally determined the cause was a severe kidney infection but now they had to stabilize the baby, stop the contractions, give me i/v fluids and antibiotics and admit me into the hospital! All I had with me was my wallet and cell phone!

So they checked me into my room and finally gave me some Tylenol to bring down the fever at around 11pm. I was miserable at this point and remember I could hardly keep my eyes open. Then it took 3 nurses and several failed attempts to finally get an i/v line started. They ended up having to do an a/c line in the crook of my arm. And let me just say, if you've never had an i/v placed there, it is awful! You cannot bend your arm or even move it much because it burns and could crimp the line. And they kept telling me that if I get a clot from moving around too much, they'll have to put in another one!

They pumped me with fluids and some super duper antibiotic for the next 36 hours or so. They also had to keep monitors on the baby for the first 12 hours or so which made it nearly impossible to sleep. At one point they had to give me a medication to stop the contractions. Thank goodness the baby seemed to be tolerating everything pretty well and his/her heart rate slowly came back down into the 130-150 range. I was so relieved!

I finally got to go home on Sunday morning and was so happy to see the kids and be able to rest in my own bed...and get that awful i/v out of my arm!

So, what a scare! I still can't believe that it all happened since it came on so fast and now I am back to feeling like my normal preggo self. But, I am definitely taking this as a huge reminder that I need to relax more and take it easy. Just 22 more days until we get to meet this precious baby and I want to make sure I do everything I can to keep him/her healthy and happy inside until then :)

I had a routine ob appointment today and everything went great. They did the strep B test, listened to the baby's heart, and all the normal stuff. I go every week now until delivery so my next appointment is Monday when they will do an ultrasound to check the position and size of the baby. I can't wait to see how big they estimate this baby to be. I'm guessing big!

That's it for this week!

We had such a fun day today picking blackberries and playing with cousins Kaitlyn, Andrew, and Brookie! We'll definitely be going back soon!

...until we meet our sweet baby boy or girl!  And to say I am ready would be a huge understatement!  I am so ready to meet, hold, kiss on, and snuggle this precious little baby who has been kicking me for the last 8-9 months!  And the kids are so ready too!  They keep talking to my belly, saying things like "Baby!  Come out already!  We're tired of waiting!"

So, I'm officially 34 weeks and 1 day today.  The c-section is scheduled for June 29th at 7am and I'll be 37 weeks, 6 days (according to the records).  I still feel pretty strongly that my due date is about two weeks off, so if I'm correct, I could actually be more like 39 weeks, 6 days on c-section day which would be exactly the same as Olivia.

We are pretty much ready for the baby, I just need to pack the hospital bag and do a little more organizing of the house.  And last night, my sweet friends from MOPs took me to dinner at my new favorite Mexican restaurant, Guadalajara, and showered me with diapers and wipes!  It was so nice to have some girl time and to celebrate this sweet little baby with my new friends!  It made The Woodlands feel a little more like home and I hope they know how much it meant to me :)

Of course, preggo brain over here, totally forgot my camera, otherwise I'd post some pictures.  Thankfully, Deana and Chelsea both remembered their cameras so hopefully I'll have a few pics to share soon!

In other news, Luke is FINALLY sleeping all night in his own bed!  I'm still in disbelief and find myself waking up several times a night expecting him to come running into our room.  I was so worried we'd still be battling this when he started Kindergarten and then with the new baby coming, I was pretty worried about how it was all going to work out.  But thank goodness, it has!  And, he is so much happier during the day.  And so is everyone else since we are all getting better sleep!

Sissy is almost potty trained....we are 100% with the pee-pee and about 50% with the poopy.  I'll take it.  It's been so nice to have a little break from changing diapers, especially since in just 26 short days we'll be starting all over again in that department.

And speaking of Sissy, we are just starting to plan her birthday party.  I'm thinking it's going to involve a waterslide and lots of popsicles and, of course, PINK.  That's all I've got so far, ha!

We are going to pick blackberries today so hopefully I'll get some cute pics of the kids to post on the blog.  I think I see a blackberry cobbler in our future!

Happy Friday, Everyone!

We spent Memorial Day Weekend in Dallas visiting with family and friends.  Sunday we went to a party back in our old neighborhood and it was so great to see our friends and catch up.  The rest of the weekend we spent hanging out with family at my mom's house, mostly swimming, shopping, and eating...my favorite things to do!

I hope everyone had a safe and fun Memorial Day Weekend :)