The story of maternity pics

I just got the AMAZING pictures from our maternity session and posted some to facebook so I thought I would back up and retell that story. My too sweet sister and brother-in-law (Kimber and Jeff) got us a session with a photographer for Christmas. Laura Squire is Kimber's good friend and photographer extraordinaire. Check her out at http://laurasquirephotography.com/. She's actually based out of Dallas but has family in the area so we met up on Mother's Day weekend. Here are a few of the photos!

We did an early morning photo shoot in Castroville and then headed back to SA. Jim had intentions of going into work... he had already had a long, stressful week, full of late nights at the office. 5 minutes from our house we got rear-ended on the highway. Poor Jim's truck, and we're still dealing with insurance. The impact really wasn't that bad but immediately I wanted to cry because I knew we would need to go to the hospital and get checked out to make sure everything was ok with the baby. and we all know how well my last hospital stay went over with me. Long story short, we went to the hospital and got monitored for a few hours. Since we were there and the accident was someone else's fault I told the nurse we should do a sonogram to make sure everything was ok ;) she thought I was joking, darn!

The moral of this whole story hit me later that day. Both times I had gone to the hospital thus far in this pregnancy it was after one or both of us had had a very taxing week and were doing too much with work and not enough for our family. I asked Jim Cody if he thought maybe this was God's dramatic way of getting our attention and reminding us what really matters. We agreed it was.... and that we'd prefer not to have to go back to the hospital until we get to come home with our sweet girl.

Taytum's Room

I've been wanting to post pictures of Taytum's room and haven't had the chance. Really, I'm just avoiding doing my last grad school assignment that's due tomorrow. I'm so pleased with how well the room turned out!!!!

The rocking chair was Jim's when he was a baby. His dad made it and carved "Welch" into the top. The picture behind the rocking chair is special to us because it was painted by Jim's grandmother, Sandra Warnke. Their family is so unbelievably talented! I found the curtains on amazon and the lamp at Hobby Lobby. We already had the little shelf, I just had to find a new home for the books we had on it and add the baskets. 

The rug is from Home Depot. My mom and dad got us the crib. The crib skirt is left over burlap from our wedding. That project was way more involved than I had anticipated, thank goodness for my mom's help. I think my back is still hurting from that day. My aunt had found the big W and I found the other letters, which are burlap in the center, at Hobby Lobby. The mobile is an idea I stole from pinterest. I did not want bumpers on the crib because I'm terrified of her suffocating for the sake of a cuteness. We do have a cow print blanket coming from Mamaw that will accent the room as well (but it prob won't get used until she's older).

This wall was the biggest project. We already had the long mirror with the dark stain. I just bought new handles for it. I looped ribbon around the handles for a place to hang all Taytum's bows. I'm sure that will only last until she learns to pull on things. My mom had the white mirror and the hook on the right. I found the other mirrors at Hobby Lobby. Have I mentioned that everything from Hobby Lobby was half off? I really did try and decorate on a budget!!! 

 

Well, except for the dresser (there's the before and after pictures above). The intention was to save money by getting a dresser on craiglist and having Jim refinish it. That's sort of what happened except for the saving money part. BUT it's now an original! I knew Jim was not a fan of stripping all the old stain off and he kept asking me if I wanted to change it more and sending me pictures from Pinterest. I could tell he wanted to put more of his personal creative stamp on it. Putting his own creative touch on it also required him to buy more tools, go figure. So he ended up replacing the top and we made it curvy (not sure if you can tell from the picture). He re-stained the drawers and put new hardware on the inside to make them slide better. and I found new pulls at Home Depot and Hobby Lobby. Did I also mention both stores are within a mile of our house. Possibly not a good thing. 

And now the room sits and waits for Taytum Belle to make her appearance... she still has more baking to do though!

It's a great day!

So some great things have happened!

1) Went back to see my doctor today. She seems pleased with all the test results and it's been a very uneventful week on bed rest so she's releasing me back to normal activity! I'm so relieved! However, I will admit that I did need the rest. She DID say that I could resume running but I'm going to lay off of that for awhile (if not all together). After last weeks scare I'm totally satisfied with just being able to walk and swim. Thankfully a lot of my job is writing reports which I can, have been, and will continue to do mostly from home. Especially on days where I have class at night, too.

I'm still sort of sad that I wasn't able to push my body to stay in running shape like I had planned but I'm doing much better. I feel like I was so easy going with the birth plan (I'm not going to freak if I have to have a C-section) and with breast feeding (we will just take it day by day)... but I wasn't prepared for this bed rest stuff. Tondre's weren't made for resting. well, naps yes, we are totally nap takers but not prolonged rest. I've been praying about it and asking for patience (another thing Tondre's don't have) and I'm feeling more at peace. I've been hard core running for about 5 years now.... maybe a good 3 months rest will be just what I need to recharge. My ultimate goal (and now it's in "type" so I have to stick to it) is to run the Rock and Roll half in December... no matter how slow I am! If that turns out to be impossible there's another race in Austin in January. I have no doubt that many will think I'm crazy but this is a goal I want to accomplish!

2) I was offered an internship position! This is a huge relief as well! I will be heading back to Northside for the 2014-2015 school year as an LSSP Intern! I won't find out what campus I'll be on until this summer or right before school starts. I'm hoping I don't have to drive all the way across town but we will deal with whatever we're given. This has the potential to lead to a real big girl job once I graduate so that's a big deal, too. cheers!

Thank you all for your concern and prayers! They mean more to us than you can imagine! Please continue to pray for an uneventful pregnancy and a healthy baby Taytum! I'll update soon about the babies room and all the great projects my wonderful husband has been working on. Here's a 27 week belly picture of me and my nephew. He says his belly is growing, too.

3rd Trimester off to a rough start

I've wanted to start a blog for a very long time and there's no time like the present when I'm stuck in the hospital to do so. I really wanted to focus on staying active and healthy throughout my pregnancy and continue it from there but as I start my 3rd trimester from a hospital bed I don't know how possible that's going to be :( Which if you know me well this really bums me out! I say 3rd trimester but I guess that depends on who you talk to... I'm 27 weeks today! some places I've seen say that's 3rd trimester... others say not until the 28th week. I'm going with 27. I've been in the hospital since Monday morning and it's now Wednesday morning, talk about things happening that I didn't see coming.

So how did this all happen? I'll try to stay on the less graphic side but essentially I started bleeding Sunday but it slowed and then stopped. Called the on call doctor and he didn't seem worried but by Monday morning I had freaked myself out enough that I thought I should at least call my real doctor and check. Of course they wanted me to come in. Just to be safe the sent me to OB Triage for monitoring. I thought this would only take a couple of hours, everything would be fine, and I could go home, and finish the report I had been working on when I ran out of the house for this last minute appointment. also meaning... I had NOTHING to do besides play on my iphone the whole day. oh and listen to the women around me who were REALLY in labor wince/ shout in pain.

While I'm getting monitored the nurse says, "hum, did you know you were having contractions?" huh? no! I don't feel anything but normal baby movement! I don't even know what a contraction even feels like but I assumed it was obvious and accompanied by pain. So then I get to start an IV for possible dehydration causing the contractions (which are small). They would slow down and it would look like I was going to go home and then they would start again. I can't blame Taytum because she's looking great through all this. I'm feeling very betrayed by my body that I generally take very good care of. Contractions don't stop so I "get" to stay the night. Poor Jim Cody has been great through all this, going back and fourth to work and sleeping on the tiny hospital couch that I can only imagine is not very comfortable.

Day 2 my mom came to hang out with me. I did get 2 sonograms out of this whole deal and get to see my sweet girl some more so there's the silver lining. She's 2 pounds, 5 ounces right now (give or take 5 ounces). In the last month she's gone from 48th percentile to 66th! way to grow baby! The nurse says she moves a lot and more than a normal 27 week-er. This obviously means she's a genius! or a runner? hopefully both! She's also had a series of steroid shots to boost development of her lungs just in case I am in pre-term labor or headed that way. bottom line, she looks good, I look fine... just these darned contractions won't completely stop. again... I. Can't. Even. Feel. Them! So they kept me another night just because I'm only 27 weeks and it would make them feel better rather than sending me home and hoping for the best.

So please... say a little prayer that we get to go home today. I'm going nuts! being attached to machines on both sides of my body is taking a tole. I'm also constantly worried about what I'm missing for school/ work. I loved my job before but man have they ever been supportive through this! The doctors have said nothing about bed rest or serious restrictions at this point so lets hope then don't. I'm sure they are going to want to restrict my working out though which is a serious bummer for me and I still (hopefully) have a long way to go in this pregnancy.

* disclaimer- I CAN'T spell! It's a downfall. I use spell check but realize that doesn't catch everything... so don't let yourself get distracted by that. hopefully future posts will be shorter!