Feeling more like herself

Yesterday, finally, Reagan felt comfortable enough to hobble and hop on her three legs. This was a major relief to us. She's pretty fast on her little three legs until she gets tired, at which point she cries to be held. :) This morning she even wanted to chase a bunny but I had to hold her back - I don't want her feeling toooo confident!! We're taking her in for surgery in the next few minutes, so we'll let you know how it goes. Our vet has been amazing. We are so thankful for her!

Our poor dog

So sad! While out on our evening walk last night, Reagan was bitten badly by a Rottweiler! We were walking in a neighborhood next to ours, and we (Reagan and I - Ben was not with us) had stopped to talk to some neighbors in front of a house. The owners of the house (not the people I was talking to) had their door open. People seemed to be kinda going in and out of their house - grown kids I think. Anyway, all of a sudden their giant dog flew out and targeted Reagan. He got her quickly and grabbed her front left leg and bit her. It was horrifying, particularly because it happened SO fast and truly without warning. We went to the ER last night and learned that the bone in her front left leg is completley broken. It looks like a broken twig whose pieces have been set a couple centimeters apart. Truly scary! She's in this giant cast now and she's on two pain medicines and an anti-inflammatory and an antibiotic. I think she's pretty uncomfortable but she's not squealing or anything. Hopefully we'll get her into surgery on Monday. She is one sad little thing and it was a loooong night - mostly because I kept replaying the entire incident in my head. We are thankful, however, because this could have been 100 times worse. I think we were lucky. And, timing-wise, this happened at a good time. I'm off all next week for Spring Break so I'll have time to take her to the vet and to monitor her. Here's a picture of the poor little thing last night...

Only in Texas

This has been the strangest week ever of Texas weather.  Monday night it snowed overnight and actually STUCK to the ground (despite the fact that it had been about 70 degrees on Sunday) and then Tuesday and Wednesday were nice days (Wednesday reaching 68) and then today, Thursday, it's been snowing!! A LOT! Since before 11 it has been alternating snow/ice/rain and now it's just snow flying down. It's so funny. Only in Texas. 

On another note, I managed to make my 4:00 p.m. doctor appointment today and all went well. We couldn't find her for a little bit (panic) but we did; she was hiding under my belly button. She is still head up so we're going to do a sonogram in two weeks to see if she's decided to flip. My doctor said that at 37 weeks, if she hasn't flipped, then we'll have a "chat" to talk about what we're going to do with this baby. I feel like she still has some time to turn herself in the right direction... :)


Our snowy house... taken this afternoon!

Many thanks!

Thanks to Tracey, Laura, Sherry, and Jenny for a beautiful shower today!! It was wonderful to spend time with all of you. The decorations were perfect and the food was delicious. I'm still trying to keep myself from devouring all the food you sent home with me!

Thanks to those friends who traveled into town for the shower: Sherry, Kate, Sarah, and Leslie. That truly meant so much to me and it was great to see all of you and catch up a little bit.

And finally, thanks to everyone who came and showered Baby Lainey with love and sweet gifts. I am grateful to all of you. :) I am one lucky mom-to-be (still looks weird typing that!) and she is one lucky (and quite fashionable, I must say) baby.

I didn't get any pictures this time except for one hostess picture, but if I get any I will post them! It was a great day overall and despite our dreary morning, the weather turned out to be quite beautiful. I am READY for warm weather - I can't wait.

Growing!! 32 1/2 weeks

OK, here are some belly pictures!! I am GROWING!! I know that is what I am supposed to be doing, but it always looks bigger on camera than in real life, right? :) Hello, baby Lainey! 



A close up...

Update - almost 32 weeks!

It's hard to believe that we will meet this baby girl in less than two months!! I've started to get a bit nervous...okay, really nervous. There's just so much to learn!! We've finished our 7 childbirth classes (including infant CPR) and Ben made them pretty enjoyable. You can probably picture us. Abby: serious, quiet, paying attention, maybe doing some doodling. Ben: listening but also looking at his Blackberry...maybe sending a text or two...shying away from any crazy things on videos...and making me and the people behind us giggle. I felt like I was in high school again - I was scared that I was going to get in trouble! :) I am so glad he was there for moral support, and chances are he'll remember more of the stuff we learned than me! He's good like that.

Other than that, all is well. I'm battling a sinus infection that will not go away. UGH. Thankfully I don't feel that badly but sleeping is challenging (not to mention that the growing belly is making things more difficult in that department, anyway) and my throat just hurts a lot. We went to the doctor on Wednesday and all is fine with the baby. I started to ask some questions - when will she turn, how does the doctor feel about inducing, etc. I got some answers but I also realize that we still have 8 weeks to go. I'm sure I'll have more questions for her next time!

School is also going well...just moving along. We have Spring Break the week of March 17; I think that after that, things will FLY by. I have a wonderful sub taking care of my class while I'm out. I think she'll do a great job with the little ones.

Well, that's about it for now...I'll post belly pictures sometime soon. Maybe when I start feeling more like myself again after finally getting rid of this sinus infection! :)

Second Shower!

Today I had my second shower hosted by my cousins Kate and Anne and my Aunt Nancy. It was a fun day with family and friends - thank you all so much!! I loved seeing everyone today. Thank you, also, to those friends and family members who made the trip to Dallas. It was great to see you! Here are a few pictures from the event and a family dinner afterwards.

And here are a couple shots of the bedding! Hard to see in the first one...but you can see the fabrics better in the second picture.

First Shower!

This weekend was so fun. I had my first shower hosted by my dear friends from college: Ann, Anne, Caroline, and Nicole. It was a beautiful shower and I am thankful for the opportunity I had to catch up with some good friends. Thank you, everyone, for coming! It was great to see you! Here are a few pictures from the event.

Yes...that's the name!! We're planning on naming the little one "Lainey". We think her full first name will be Elaine (not totally sure), but we're planning on calling her Lainey. We don't have a middle name. That will come at the 11th hour, I'm sure.

26 1/2 weeks

Here we are!!

Doctor Appointment

All is well with baby Harris and with us, too. :) We had an appt. today and everything is going well. I'm measuring fine, all looks well, etc. Nothing really new to report from our end of things. We're both trying to get back in the swing of things with work and I officially made a countdown of work days until the baby's born. It still seems like a lot! I think I'm getting very anxious and excited. After our Dr. appt. on Feb. 4th, we start going to the doctor every two weeks!! Now that's crazy. We start our childbirth preparation classes tonight. Ben is not the most excited person in the world about doing this, but he's being supportive. :) I am also about to start the process of looking for a chair for the nursery; that's the one major thing we're lacking. Our bedding is almost finished and it looks beautiful!! Ben's co-worker Christa is making it for us - she's very, very talented! Everything's coming together...and it's becoming quite real!

So that's about it. More soon!

Colorado Pictures

We've had a very nice time in Colorado thus far. Here are a few pictures from the last few days! :) It's very, very pretty but very, very cold. We've been able to relax quite a bit and the boys have gone skiing a couple times. It's been a great vacation so far!

A pretty, snow-filled valley

My dad, my mom, me, Ben, and Matt at Keyah Grande Lodge

Ben getting tackled by Lucy, my parents' dog

Making a snow angel!

A pretty barn

Reagan wanting to be held because the snow is cold on her paws!

Our White Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all! So...we started Christmas Day at Mary and Allyn's house - here's a brief glimpse into what Christmas morning was like. This picture says it all - a very busy group of excited children with adults trying to keep up with them. Next year, cousin number 6 will be included in this mix...! :) The kids had a great time, and we enjoyed the couple hours we were able to spend with everybody. Thank you to everyone!

Around 11:30 a.m., Ben, Reagan, and I hopped in the car to drive to Colorado to see my parents and brother. We planned to stay the night in Santa Fe and then drive the 3 hours to Pagosa Springs the following morning. Around 7:00 p.m., we weren't so sure we would be able to stick with that plan. Just outside of Santa Rosa, NM, we encountered some wintery weather. The snow came down QUICKLY. We were stuck, solidly, for about 2 hours with 100 of our closest friends on I-40. Believe me, I was panicking. Ben was handling it fine. The man in front of us told us that a semi had tried to climb the hill but kept slipping down...so most likely, we were all going to spend the night on the road until things got cleared. "But don't worry," he had said, "this will blow over by about 5:00 tomorrow morning." What?!?! That did not sit well with me! It was so dark and snowy and I was worried about our dog and my already-slightly-uncomfortable-pregnant-self and just wasn't in the mood to stay on I-40 for 10 hours or however long it was going to be. Here are a couple of pictures we snapped from the car...looks like fun, right? :) However, we can say that we did experience a white Christmas!!

Thankfully, around 9:00 p.m., we started moving. Bless those New Mexico highway rescue workers!! We were able to slowly but surely (after making a rather challenging stop to get some water and snacks...just in case) make our way to the Best Western in Santa Fe, NM, and we finally caught a few z's. We woke up and happily drove the 3 hours it takes to get to Pagosa, so now, we're here! I'll post more pictures from our trip, but here's a picture of the snow and the sun! It's beautiful and sunny and freezing - when we drove in, it was about 11 degrees. The sun helps, though. Ben and my brother plan to ski/snowboard a few days (unfortunately, I am excluded from those activities this year) and overall, we plan to just relax and enjoy the holidays. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

A happy sight at the end of our drive! We hope to have better weather for the return trip... :)

Can you find the dog in this picture?

Sorry - couldn't help myself. I don't have any new baby news to post...just a funny picture of Reagan. We found her happily surrounded by her toys in her bed last night and it just made us laugh! The top picture - how we found her. Bottom picture - after some of my creative styling...

The growing belly...

Here we are at 21 weeks!

Picture of the Baby Girl!!!

Here's the sonogram picture from yesterday.  This obviously isn't the money shot revealing her gender, but Dad's already getting a little overprotective.  She was moving around quite a bit, so it was tough to get a good view of her profile.  Hopefully she looks like her mom.  As you can tell, this is her father's first attempt at posting here.

PINK, PINK, PINK...

Baby Harris is a GIRL! Our little one is a GIRL! We are still in shock. Truly! We kept asking the sonographer if she could check again. But it's a GIRL! More importantly, however, everything measures and checks out just fine. She's about 13 oz., 8-1/2 inches long, and wiggly. We're still measuring "on schedule" so no change on the due date or anything. We'll post a sono picture as soon as we can scan it in! :)

Furniture

Remember when I said that the furniture wasn't due in until mid-January? Well, it decided to arrive early! We moved all our things out of that room to other spots in the house, and on Thursday we received our pretty new baby furniture. It fits in the room pretty snugly (baby furniture is awfully big). I'm posting a couple of pictures.

In other news, we find out Monday afternoon whether the baby is a boy or a girl - very exciting! Definitely something to look forward to on Monday. Unfortunately, this week has been a bumpy one. I've been sick and can't seem to kick it. I hope that I'm better by Monday...I want to go back to work and feel like my(pregnant)self again. :)

What a feeling!

I think I felt the baby move! It was so exciting for me! It must be all the yummy food I ate yesterday. The baby must be saying "thanks". And now I know why it's so hard to describe the feeling. It was like a small something was bumping up against me - it happened 2 or 3 times within a few minutes. Very fun! Anyway - wanted to share that with you all. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Baby Room: "Before"

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! So, these are some "before" pictures of the baby's room. Right now, you can see it is a storage area for various things (and our Christmas decor). We plan to get the room painted sometime in December (along with most of the house) and then hopefully the furniture will arrive mid-January. I think it'll be neat to see how the room transforms!

I am happy to have a few days away from work. Ben has a few days off as well, so that's good. We have plans to celebrate with both of our families and then get a few things done around here. Enjoy your holidays!

Baby's room: view one (storage for the Christmas decor)

Baby's room: view two (stuff we moved so we could decorate for Christmas!)

Baby's room: view three (view of the closet door)

And, here's our tree. :) So fun to have it up!

Update, 17 1/2 weeks

So...nothing really new to report! I have crossed off three things on my "to do before baby list".

1. We ordered the furniture! :) It's chocolate-colored and we purchased a nightstand, crib, and a dresser and hutch combo. It took us a long time to find this furniture - I had no idea I'd be so picky.
2. I called the pediatrician we'd like to use and thankfully, he's still accepting new patients! He's the same pediatrician that the baby's (future) cousins use AND the same one that Ben went to as a child. So that's good!
3. I signed us up for some classes at the hospital. 14 hours worth of baby preparation. :) The classes start in January and continue through mid-February.

So yay! We've done some things. Until we find out if the baby's a boy or girl, we probably won't do much else. After that, we'll start looking at bedding and fabric for a chair and paint colors. I think that after the holidays we'll really see things start to speed up!

Overall, we've been doing well - staying busy with the baby prep. and then life in general. I've been feeling well, also - just waiting to feel the baby move! I'm really looking forward to that.

Until next time, take care!

First Baby Dream

So...I had my first baby dream on Saturday night! I woke up Sunday morning and was happy that I finally had one. I hear of friends having dreams about their babies and I had only dreamed about baby furniture so I was very excited to have had my first "baby" dream...until I started thinking about it and realizing what it was that I had actually dreamed about. In the dream, we had twins. A boy and a girl. And we hadn't purchased anything! We had to get cribs and everything. But for some reason, that part wasn't bothering me (now you know it was a dream...haha). However, at one point Ben walked into the room where I was and he was carrying the two babies, one on each arm. And.........they were puppies. Baby poodles. So what do you think that means? :)

So in reality, I'm sad that I haven't actually had a dream involving a real baby yet. I know it'll come soon enough...

Congratulations, Ben!

We attended a Grand Opening/Dedication tonight for the Tom Muehlenbeck Center in Plano. If you look very closely, you can see Ben's name on the plaque! He's part of the Parks and Rec Board for Plano. :) Go Ben! You can kiinnnda see - well, from this angle at least - a baby belly bump on me! It's the first time I've noticed it in a picture - quite exciting!

Halloween

A happy group of trick-or-treaters! Mary and Allyn (Ben's parents) are such good sports - dressing up and everything! Next year, there'll be one more added to this group - hard to imagine! :)

As many of you know, this is my current little one, Reagan. I couldn't resist posting this picture of her from Halloween. She's a lobster. And obviously not happy about it. She only stayed in the costume for a picture or two then I took it off of her. I know she was relieved, although it took her a little bit of time to get over her embarassment.

Doctor Visit

All went well today with our 15 week checkup. We heard a strong heartbeat and all looks well. We will find out if the baby is a boy or a girl on the 3rd of December. Five weeks away. Can't come soon enough! Ben was hoping we'd be able to find out sooner than that, but unfortunately, we cannot. I'm ready for my energy to return, although I've heard that sometimes it takes a while...we'll see. I just keep waiting for it to "bounce back". I'm pretty good until about 8:00 and then I crash! But, as many of you know, 8:00 is not too drastic a change from my pre-pregnancy bedtime. Haha. :) Other than that, all is well. :)

Pregnant and Counting Down

7 weeks, 4 days

12 weeks, 2 days

Hello everyone! Ben and I think this blog will be a good way to reach out to our friends and family and keep you all updated about my pregnancy and the baby's progress. I have observed several friends do this, and I can only hope to be as committed to our blog as they are to their blogs! After the baby is born, our hope is to continue to keep you updated on the little one. :) We're very excited and are looking forward to the arrival of him/her (and yes, we're finding out - hopefully in about a month or so). Ben and I both think it's going to be a boy - in other words, we'll be shocked if it's a girl. Reagan has no comment. :)