Well I am now considered “full-term” and my doctor says Baby can come anytime. It’s kind of relief knowing that I don’t have to worry about pre-term labor at this point.

Apparently, our baby girl is in the head-down position and already low in the pelvis (which is good news). I’ve still been feeling pretty good with the exception of some back pain and the lack of sleep (since it’s difficult to find any comfortable sleeping positions). If you have any advice or tips on getting sleep while nine months pregnant… please let me know!

But back to the topic of this post, I want to thank my dear friends Jamie Deason, Sandra Kirk, and Amanda Manatt for throwing me such a wonderful baby shower!!! We had great food, great company, and of course… the cutest little baby gifts. I was also so excited to have my mom, Lelia, here from South Dakota for the shower. It was so much fun! I am so blessed to have such wonderful people in my life… and in the life of my sweet baby girl.

Here are some pictures from the shower. Enjoy!

What a cake!

The best friends a girl could have!

Me and my mom... isn't she cute?!

Our baby girl will be ready for her first Razorback game! (Thanks Melinda!)

Hi again!

Well, I am about to start my 35^th week of pregnancy! It’s really hard to believe, it’s gone by so fast. But we are so excited and feeling more ready as we get closer.

So I am now in process of getting everything ready for the big day. My question to all of you mothers and fathers out there is… what should we pack in our hospital bag? I’ve got several checklists but I want to hear from those who have been there and get some real advice about what we may or may not need.

So send me your suggestions!

We also will be putting our car seat base into our car (just in case). Wish us luck on that!

By the way, I still hope to get some pictures of our nursery posted here… just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

Thanks for checking in!!!

Here she is!!! My husband and I recently went to Baby Views in Little Rock and got a 4-D ultrasound. It was really cool! We got to see the baby’s face pretty clearly as you can see in these pictures. She’s got chubby cheeks, a round face, and plump lips. And everything we saw showed good signs of a happy and healthy baby. She was sleeping most of the time so we didn’t get to see a lot of movement but it was still so much fun to see her so clearly. She now weighs about 4 ½ pounds. So if my due date (October 25) is correct, she’s going to be a big baby!  My first due date was October 17^th, so that may actually be closer… but of course, we’ll just have to wait and see!

I’m curious to know how similar she’ll look once she’s born. If you’ve had one of these done, tell me about it. And what you thought of it after the baby was born.

Thanks for checking in!!!

Hi again!

If any of you tuned in last Tuesday morning for our monthly Good Morning Arkansas segment, you know that there wasn’t one. Due to some scheduling conflicts we had to move it to this coming Tuesday (August 12th). We’re going to have Buffy Benthall, a registered nurse from Baptist Hospital, on the show to answer some questions about a wide variety of topics.

As for me, I’m really starting to feel pregnant! I am now almost 29 weeks along and so excited to be in the third trimester! It is so much fun being able to really feel the baby move. What an awesome thing to experience! Sometimes it feels like she’s doing gymnastics or kickboxing but it’s still always a reassuring feeling. And to follow up on an earlier post, baby and I passed the gestational diabetes test with flying colors (yeah!). (I actually thought the orange flavored juice wasn’t too bad. Getting it all down in five minutes was the tough part.) I am, however, a little on the anemic side so I am now taking iron supplements. Otherwise, everything looked great on the ultrasound!

My husband and I are busy getting the nursery ready! We already have so much baby stuff! It’s so much fun to sort through and organize! I’ll try to post some pictures of it all when it’s finished.

Thanks again for checking in and thanks for all the support and well-wishes!!!

Wow! Time is really flying by fast (especially now that I’m feeling so good)! I have always heard of the 2^nd trimester being the best part and it sure is for me. I’m no longer sick and I’m not big enough to be really uncomfortable.

I again want to thank all of you that have read and/or commented on this blog. The subject of infertility is not often discussed openly. Many people feel there is something “wrong” with them or they feel ashamed. It is so nice to know that so many of you have been there or are going through it. I wish all of you the very best and thank you for all of your kind words and well-wishes.

Today, I went to see Dr. Scott Davis at Arkansas Cardiology. I was diagnosed with right bundle branch block (RBBB) a couple of years ago and my OBGYN Dr. Pamela Wills wanted to be sure that that would not cause any problems with anesthesia or any other medications. Fortunately, Dr. Davis says RBBB is very minor and there shouldn’t be any problems. I will be getting an ultrasound on my heart next week just to be sure everything is in working order.

Later this week, I’ll be going in for the gestational diabetes test. I apparently have to be careful to not eat any sugar that morning and then drink a little bottle of juice that I’ve been given. Then exactly one hour later, they will take my blood. This particular appointment will be recorded by the Channel 7 Creative Services Department for our “Healthy Baby” segments sponsored by Baptist Health. I’m now the spokesperson for the segments and my own pregnancy will be followed in hopes of encouraging others to be sure they’re getting their pre-natal care that they need. So keep your eyes open for the new segments!

That’s all for now! Thanks for checking in!

Well, this is definitely a less-fun topic to discuss than all the previous ones but I think it’s an important topic none-the-less. If you were watching Channel 7 News Nightside on Thursday, July 10^th you saw the story I did on infertility. Well, that story had a lot of personal meaning because my husband and I were also patients at Arkansas Fertility Clinic. We had tried for about two years to have a baby and had gone through seven failed insemination procedures. In January, we decided to take a break before starting the In Vitro Fertilization process. And that’s when we got pregnant!!! It really was unbelievable. No drugs... no procedures. Even our doctor, Doctor Fransisco Batres, said we must have had a little help from above!

I wanted to share our story because I think it can give others hope. After being diagnosed with “medical infertility” it was so hard to remain hopeful but I’m so glad we did! 

Thanks for all your support!

Update:

Thanks so much for all the comments! It is so good to hear from others who have been in the same situation. I love hearing the successful adoption stories too. We actually strongly considered adoption (my husband was adopted) but the high price of private adoption agencies made us look for other options. So we attended an informative meeting by The CALL (Children of Arkansas Loved for a Lifetime) and had planned to pursue getting certified to become adoptive parents. But that was right around the time we found out we were pregnant! However that’s definitely something we may do someday. I just think it’s so important for people to know that there are many options out there for those who want to become parents.

Thanks for all the well-wishes and prayers… you all will be in my prayers as well!

Thanks so much for all the baby name ideas and suggestions! It’s so fun to read through them all. Keep ‘em coming!

I wanted to let you know that on Tuesday, July 1 (wow, I can’t believe it’s already July!) on Good Morning Arkansas (9am to 10am) we will be talking with Eloise Leffingwell of Pickles and Ice Cream about the top 10 things to have on a baby registry. I think this will be really good for me because I really don’t know what kinds of things we’ll need when we bring our baby home.

My mom and sisters will actually be throwing me my first baby shower during the fourth of July weekend. It’ll be in Yankton, South Dakota (my hometown) and I am so excited! I didn’t do a gift registry for this one because the baby shopping places are different than the ones here. But we’ll be doing one soon. So for all you parents out there, send me any advice you have about what to include (and not to include) on our baby gift registry.

Thanks so much!!

Hi all!

My husband and I are now sorting through baby names and I wanted to invite you all to join in on the fun. Send me any and all suggestions for our baby girl!

I also wanted to let you know that my morning sickness has finally passed! I guess it just took 20 weeks for me. It was a long couple of months but it is so nice to be feeling normal once again.

Thanks again for all the well-wishes! Looking forward to hearing your ideas!

A new segment will start airing tomorrow (Tuesday) on Good Morning Arkansas on Channel 7. It will air the first Tuesday of each month from now until the baby is born. Each month we will discuss a different topic relating to where I am in the pregnancy process. This month the topic will be morning sickness (which I’m still battling). We’ll be talking with Curtis Lowery, M.D., Director of the OB/GYN Department at UAMS. Hopefully he has some good advice for me!

Just wanted to let you know in case you wanted to tune in!