the dreaded test...

So, today was my DREADED glucose test!
I was also sad that it was going to be my first doc apt without my hubby. 


So, I arrive at the office and they give me my "drink"... I have heard that there are different flavors of this drink and that you could choose... well my office just hands me a red drink.  Tropical Punch- EW! I hate all things tropical punch... but really it wasn't that bad.  It tasted a LOT like tropical kook-aid with an extra pound of sugar in it.  It was cool but not cold and that was the worst part of it all.  I chugged that yuck and then an hour later had my blood drawn.  Should get the results tomorrow so I am praying that I don't have gestational diabetes!(thank you sugar water for the most horrible indigestion all day long today! ugh)


THEN...


I get a phone call from my hubby asking what I'm doing... (mind you he is at work 2 hours away... right!? WRONG...)
Apparently he decided to drive down to meet me for my Dr. apt that was at 2:15 today (yes, I had 2 different appointments today, don't ask. ha)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was soooooo excited I really couldn't contain myself. :) :) :) It was the BEST surprise!!


We had a nice lunch at firehouse subs, and then got a great report from the doc (who's --his--  name happens to be Raleigh-- awkard! ha) 
"your belly is measuring perfect!" yaaay!! I have been nervous about not gaining enough weight but I am doing great he says! wheph! He was so happy that my pregnancy has been so "normal" and great... lets hope it stays this way!!
We got to hear Raleigh Grace's heart beat also :) which was 156bpm-- again, perfect! yes!! It took the nurse a bit of effort to find it long enough to count-- after my sugar drink our baby girl was all over the place moving around-- K told her that we have a non-compliant baby and I assured the nurse she got it from her daddy ;) ... she is a mess already and I love her so so much!!


After our doc apt, we headed back to the condo where hubby so kindly set up our bed (its not completely finished... but the frame is there :) ) and then he had to head out.  I was SO thrilled to have some time with him today, our time this summer is so special because the hours are few.  He is such a blessing in my life!!

now I have a get-away place to crash ;)

picked up bedroom! yay!

I finally did a little work on "unpacking" the condo myself.  I got most of the kitchen things unpacked and on the shelves... and I also cleaned our room/ organized it some and put things in their place.  As my grandma told me this past weekend, "a place for everything and everything in its place!" ... this is my motto this year!


it might not look like much but I am making some progress...


here is the LACK of prgoress... I felt like since I never took full-on BEFORE pics, I would start now... seriously, you could not walk in the condo at first.  there is still a long way to go but so much has been done!  check it out :)

hall

kitchen mess... EW

other side of hall (no, we are not obsessed with Mike's- K got all the boxes from work- he worked for a beer distributor in TX)

living room

SOME of the unpacked boxes.. this is not all of them i promise :)

I finished out the night with a great meal at Logan's Roadhouse with my stepmom.  Great times!!


WONDERFUL DAY!!  :)


____________________


Update on last night-- we (my stepmom and I) headed up to the mountains again to see the bro, the hubs, and the fil! :) We went to a small town in VA, Galax and ate at a delicious BBQ resturant (sorry for the lack of photos)... we saw santa and mrs. clause there!
Then we spent the evening driving the Blue Ridge parkway... we DID take pics there which I will have to post later bc they are on K's camera (which he has with him)... We had a wonderful night!! :)

URGENT prayer request!!

Please, please, pray for baby James.

His parents have a very tough decision to make TONIGHT.  I can not imagine anything that they are feeling or going through and it just breaks my heart to read of the news.  

you can find their blog here: http://jamescamdensikes.blogspot.com/

From one Baylor Bear to another, I love ya'll and am praying diligently for you!!

27 weeks!

short and sweet because I'm tired and don't want to put off this post because its already late and its likely if I dont do it now it won't get posted till 28 weeks haha...
(before I forget I found this awesome birth plan check list on the bump.com find it here)

How far along? 27Weeks! 

(one more week until 7 months!)

(July 4- July 10)

Size of baby: Baby is the size of cauliflower... um okay?

This week, your baby weighs almost 2 pounds (like a head of cauliflower) and is about 14 1/2 inches long with her legs extended.

Here is what we have been up to this week:

Weight Gain: dunno... looking forward to dr. apt on Wednesday.

Maternity Clothes : finally purchased a few shirts at Target... LOVE them but still in desperate need for some shorts/capris... I just have a hard time spending 40dollars on some things I only see myself wearing for 2 months... not worth it so I wear the same shorts everyday. almost. ha

Sleep:eh.. its pretty good when the cat doesn't walk on me and wake me up. I miss being at my house and him sleeping in "his room" at night. I sure slept a ton better at my grandma's house where there was no cat and I was in a queen size bed with a feather bed. 

ah.may.zing!.

Best Moment of this week: enjoying the 4th at OIB, and being at the hospital when my sweet cousin was born (read more here), spending time with my family in the mountains :)

Movement: some days more than others but yes, always, and it is a constant reminder of how real this is, and how soon it will be when she is here!

oh, and she is filling up the space in there... i often feel her super low but also up under my ribs too! (haven't felt her kick my ribs but she is also way high at times too!)
 
Food cravings:  water! I am so thirsty... never mind that its so HOT here and HUMID. I'll eat pretty much anything. sweets are still my go to! Got some brownie mix at the grocery tonight and my grandma made me a DELISH pound cake a couple of days ago... OMG wow! :) MMM

What I miss: my hubs, and my kids from school. and my home.  
Symptoms: nothing in addition to what I posted last week. Its hard to bed over and that is not fun! oh and reaching foward for something when sitting-- I can't do it without grunting. that tummy is SO in the way! ha

Gender: LOVE my little Raleigh Grace!!

What I'm looking forward to: my doc apt on Wednesday... after all the mess I went through with the offices, I think my MIL finally got all the kinks worked out (thank you so so much!)!!! She is a NICU nurse and knows the gyno's so she had a word with them and with some talking they got it all worked out for me. such a blessing!

 Baby bump: 

at my grandparents cute log cabin! its so beautiful there!

(from Babycenter.com...)

How your baby's growing:
This week, your baby weighs almost 2 pounds (like a head of cauliflower) and is about 14 1/2 inches long with her legs extended. She's sleeping and waking at regular intervals, opening and closing her eyes, and perhaps even sucking her fingers. With more brain tissue developing, your baby's brain is very active now. While her lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning — with a lot of medical help — if she were to be born now. Chalk up any tiny rhythmic movements you may be feeling to a case of baby hiccups, which may be common from now on. Each episode usually lasts only a few moments, and they don't bother her, so just relax and enjoy the tickle.

How your life's changing:
The second trimester is drawing to a close, but as your body gears up for the final lap, you may start noticing some new symptoms. Along with an aching back, for example, you may find that your leg muscles cramp up now and then. They're carrying extra weight, after all, and your expanding uterus is putting pressure on the veins that return blood from your legs to your heart as well as on the nerves leading from your trunk to your legs. Unfortunately, the cramps may get worse as your pregnancy progresses. Leg cramps are more common at night but can also happen during the day. When a cramp strikes, stretching the calf muscle should give you some relief. Straighten your leg and then gently flex your toes back toward your shin. Walking for a few minutes or massaging your calf sometimes helps, too.

can't wait, baby!

Here is a dump of my iphone photos to reveal what I have been up to lately...


Little background... Wednesday morning I got a text saying my cousin had gone into labor with her first child... Wednesday afternoon I headed to the mountains where they live to be there! 


Wednesday night we had a baby! Baby Drew! He is the most precious little baby and I could just hold and stare at him all day long.  If I love that little one THAT much, I can not imagine how it will be with my own little girl! :) 


I am so ready, yet NOT prepared at all haha! Raleigh Grace, keep cookin girlie! :) 
I so enjoyed the time with my family (as always!) we really had a great visit and I can not wait to be able to go back soon for another visit! I also enjoyed helping grandma "Nonna" getting my cousin's house clean before they brought the baby home... made me wanna kick my butt into gear "nesting" in MY home!! There are soooo sooooo many boxes to be unpacked... ugh. not looking forward to that! In fact, I'm about to the point where I want to go and throw out everything haha well... everything that I dont NEED... which is basically everything that is there right now ha! anyways.... we shall see.


Now, for the fun part... pictures!!

baby Drew Parker 7lbs 7oz, 20 1/2 inches long. one hour old!

just a few hours after birth

my yummy dinner @ Panera! so delish!

baby Drew's grandma (my aunt) "Nonna's" dinner-- doesn't that salad look so yummy!?

gosh, just in AWE!

I'm so ready for Raleigh Grace :) (with my grandma, Drew's great-grandma!)

look at how itty bitty!

precious little toes

the beautiful flower my grandma picked for me to put in my bathroom :) :) :)

of course I have 9hundred and 99 more photos from the weekend but these are just a few! AHHHH makes me long for me to meet the little girl in my tummy! :)

The Name Game... Name Reveal!!! :)

 today... I am LOVING....


okay okay, so I  knooow that it has been a long time coming but I have promised all  you wonderful friends that I would share "her" name with you...

K & I had talked about names before we were even pregnant.   There were of course several names that I liked and had written down in a notebook for future reference and so we tossed several of them back and forth a few times.   Almost immediately, I had decided on a middle name that I looooved- and so did he... and then we tossed around several  first names as well that we again liked.  When we got to this one particular name we both loved it and it stuck.  So anytime we would talk about a future daughter, we would call her by name... (even though she didn't exist at the time)! So to say this name has been picked out for quite a while is a little of an understatement :).  I do love names that people chose based on their meanings but really, at first, we just went with something that we loved, something that sounded pretty, feminine and of course took us back to our southern roots... and it has great meaning too!). 

So here it is... the moment that you have all been waiting for... her name is:

So that is our little angel... Raleigh Grace ... wah-lah! :) 

(she will go by a double name :) )

(pronounced rah-lee- like the capitol of NC, and no, that is not why we named her that ha!)

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God" Ephesians 2:8