Two's Company, and the third brings a CROWD!

Lily is SIX WEEKS OLD today! To say that life has been a little crazy the past few weeks would be a tremendous understatement. I never would have dreamed that it would take me over a month to post more than one set of pictures of her on the blog! For those of you who do have babies- stop laughing. You understand. You've been there. Days are filled with feedings, diaper changings, spit-up, consequent outfit changes, breast pumping, bottle washing, baby rocking, etc. until the baby finally goes to sleep for the night (ahem, a few consecutive hours at some point in the wee hours of the morning) And then you start over again the next day. The advice everyone gives you is "Sleep while the baby sleeps"- riiiight. When exactly do you want me to wash her bottles, her clothes, my clothes, mySELF, and somehow keep the house somewhat tidy for visitors? Uh-huh! That's what I thought.
Speaking of visitors- we have had lots of wonderful visits of friends and family since Lily was born! We have also been blessed with lots of kind people bringing us food! Thank you to Jacqueline who so thoughtfully set up a meal schedule online for us- I can't tell you how nice it was to not have to worry about dinner most nights with all of the aforementioned chaos.
I have also started back at work. Not full-time mind you. I am only working a few hours a day a few days a week to start. I am so blessed to have the flexibility to spend time with her and still get work in too. Alot of work I can do from home too, which is nice. Enough about ME! More about Lily!
She is a WONDERFUL baby. She is so sweet and LOVES to snuggle! She is quite a people-person and loves to be held. She is starting to notice things and people, which is a wonder to witness. She LOVES a bath but hates when it is over. She is eating every 3 hours (on the DOT) and growing well. Her first well-baby visit with her pediatrician was last Friday. She weighed 8 lbs. 14 oz.(50th percentile) and is 20.5 inches long (which is the same as she measured at birth, and is 25th percentile). She is also (fingers-crossed) starting to sleep a little better and a little longer at night.
Here are a few pictures from some of Lily's visitors...

Jacqueline, Baby William, and Candice came to visit Lily and bring us dinner one day! We swapped babies for this picture. We had fun introducing them! William & Lily were due the same day, but William beat her here! He was born Jan. 12th- 5 weeks and 4 days before Lily. It was fun to see them both!Our friends Neal & Lauren came to visit from Montgomery too! (Ok, so we pretty much forced Neal to hold her for the photo.)Of course, Haley and Isabella. Ginger, Kenlie, and Maddie came to surprise us too! I could just cry that we didn't take any pictures while they were here!Of course GRANDPARENTS on many occasions, but I guess they don't technically count as visitors... Above are her Nanna and Poppy (my parents) and below are her Gigi and Papa (John's parents)Lily has TWO uncles- Danny, my brother and Sam, John's brother. Below are Danny and his girlfriend, Annette visiting Lily.

Oh, Uncle Sam! You've been waiting a VERY long time for that title! :)

Lily's Great-Grandmother, Mimi (my dad's mother) came to visit in the hospital.

Our friends, Seth and Elizabeth visiting at the hospital. We sure wish they would give Lily a little friend!

My cousin Evan and her ADORABLE baby York came to visit us for lunch at Chappy's. We had a great time!

York wanted to touch her SO BADLY!

Meet NaNaw, Lily's other Great-Grandmother (she actually has 3!) She came all the way from Hope, Arkansas to meet her! We will be celebrating NaNaw's 90th birthday next month!

All of the Arkansas visitors and Sherry (Gigi). NaNaw & Gigi standing behind John's Aunt Debbe who drove NaNaw and cousin Elizabeth who is in Vet school at LSU. We are so glad Elizabeth was able to drive up and meet Lily too!That's all for now, folks. The next post will be more pictures of LILY!

4D Ultrasound Pictures

After the first 4D ultrsound last week was a COMPLETE and total failure, we went again today for another attempt at a decent shot of her face. I scheduled this appointment for 4 in the afternoon which is typically her unofficial in-utero "playtime," and to make her even more hyper I downed a Cherry Coke and a Snickers beforehand. Despite my efforts, I was left with little more than a massive post-sugar high headache and I am quite honestly not looking forward to staying up until the wee hours of the morning paying for the caffeine overload. But I guess I am subconsciously teaching myself a lesson in sacrifice. Ha! (Tylenol PM is sounding like a really good idea tonight...)
We were able to get a few pics from the side at first, but as soon as little girl figured out that we were spying on her again she got shy and turned around to the back again, to the same position she was in last week with her face buried in my back. Perfect, she is already exhibiting defiant behavior. Enjoy!

Maybe just wishful thinking on my part, but her eyes look like they are open in this picture. Also, LOVE the pursed lips and puffy cheeks in this one. The first of many hilarious faces to come one day, I'm sure!

Hands up, hiding her face- AGAIN!

Anyway, that's about it. We are getting closer to being finished with the nursery, except for final touches. Sherry has finished all of the bedding and major sewing projects, which turned out beautifully! Stay tuned for pics of that too!

Fruit of the Womb

When I found out I was pregnant, the first thing I did was sign up on every baby site known to man: BabyCenter.com, PregnancyWeekly.com, theBump.com, etc. What I loved the most was them sending me weekly emails telling me the size of the baby, and most of the size comparisons were fruits. So I decided to make it fun and take pictures of the growing "bump" with the coinciding fruit of the week to give my friends, fellow bloggers and facebookers alike, an idea of the size of the baby... why not? I wish I'd started earlier, around the 4th of July with a blueberry, but this will have to do. So here we go.

Here we are on Aug.5th, at 12 weeks, baby about the length of a lime! Cute, huh?
(Not ME, the LIME! :)
P.S. I had also just eaten an e-normous Birthday dinner at Mikata, which more aptly explains the "pooch" here.

At 13 weeks, the baby now the length of a peach.


And at 14 weeks, the baby is the length of a lemon.

Here we are at 15 weeks, baby is the length of a naval orange.
(Seems confusing to me too, but I'm trusting these pregnancy websites here)

This is me and baby at 16 weeks, where we just found out it was a GIRL! Oh, and she's an avocado.

I skipped a few weeks all the way to 21 weeks (I must've thought the fruits/veggies listed were either boring or ugly) and the baby is the length (and also hoping the weight with all I've put on) of a cantaloupe. Actually, she's just about a pound in this picture. :(

I will take more soon, at this point the websites give you fruits by the month, not the week. We are 25 weeks tomorrow! Our 4D ultrasound is scheduled for next Monday, which should be quite the event with both sets of grandparents joining us for the festivities (you got it, all SIX of us will be in poor Sheila's ultrasound room! Don't worry, I've apologized to her in advance.) Pictures will be posted soon after-- of the baby, not the grandparents. :) Until then!

Baby Registries

For all of you who have been asking, you will be pleased to know that we finally registered! Here's a link to the
Babies"R"Us - Baby Registry. A BIG THANKS to Haley who drove me to Columbus to help me figure out what I needed to register for! I would have been absolutely lost without her! Don't get me wrong, I was still COMPLETELY overwhelmed at ALL of the crazy contraptions and the massive amounts of GEAR that this little tiny girl is going to require!
We are also registered at Target, but I couldn't find a way to post it on our Blog. If you'd like to view it click this link http://www.target.com/registry/baby/portal and just search for us by name. And if you know me well, you will not be surprised to find out that I've taken the liberty of price-shopping and registering for said "gear" where the price was the best. Shocker, I know. AND you're welcome ;) Just kidding, of course. Thank you to all of you for your support! We are so excited and promise to post pics of the progress on the nursery soon!

Lily Style

We have finally decided on a few fabrics for Lily's Nursery... John's Mom is making all of the bedding and window treatments for her and we couldn't be more excited! She is so talented and has recently invested in a new monogramming sewing machine! Of two things we are certain, this little girl will have some really cute outfits and she will never forget how to spell her name. THANK YOU, SHERRY!

The pink Swiss dot fabric is going to be the inside of the bumper pad, as well as parts of other accent pieces like pillows, and part of a throw quilt.

This precious pink and green toile is going to be the outside of the bumper pad as well as the main part of the Roman shades, to be tied with pink ribbon.

This green gingham is going to be the top part of the Roman shades as well as the changing table organizer, to be trimmed in pink ribbon.

This plaid fabric, which is coincidentally called "Pink Lily Plaid" is going to be the dust ruffle and throw pillows.

All together now...
(pardon the quality, I am not good with the camera phone)

I can't wait to get the nursery started! I'm hoping tomorrow we can get the rest of her room cleared out, lately it has been a glorified storage room since we had the floors in the living room, hallway, and master bedroom redone. Now that we are slowly getting our house put back together, I'd love to get a start on her room. With the fabrics ordered, we can now choose a wall color and start working on the wainscoting. Our goal is to be finished with EVERYTHING in our home including the nursery by Christmas! I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but not holding my breath...

Here are pics of her furniture, minus the glider & ottoman... The dresser really does match the crib and changing table, the picture makes it look a little lighter for whatever reason. Also, the changing table is not tiny, it is in proportion to the other furniture, despite the scale of the picture.

Baby Gwin is a....

GIRL! We are so excited! I thought I knew for sure that it was going to be a boy, but since day one John has insisted that it was a girl. He was right! (For once, I actually don't mind saying it... "You were right, I was wrong." Write it down, I'll never say it again.)

Here are a few pictures of her at the 16 week ultrasound...

It's definitely a GIRL! And suffice it to say she already has quite the ATTITUDE! (Insert sarcastic comment here, such as "NO! Not your child!"or "She is related to you, ya know.") During the ultrasound, Sheila (ultrasonographer extraordinare) was trying to push little girl around to get a better view when all of a sudden, in response to the provocation, baby STOMPS HER FEET, then arches her back and ELBOWS me!

Here's a shot of how our little girl is positioned... UPSIDE DOWN and her head is ON MY BLADDER. Explains the 38924 trips to the potty each day. Well, at least it seems like that many.

OK, you have to use your imagination a little here, but this is a picture of her little face.

That's all for now.... More to come later. Have a great week everybody!

We have BIG NEWS!

John and I are having a BABY! Our due date is February 17, 2010~ which seems so far away, but I'm sure it'll be here before we know it! Our first ultrasound was Tuesday, July 21st. To say it was amazing to see the first pictures of our baby is a huge understatement! When the doctor pointed out the tiny head, hands, feet, and little flicker of a heartbeat we were speechless. (Maybe for the first time in my life, ha!) John says it looks like him. ;) We will find out in six weeks what the gender is. For the record, I think BOY, but John thinks GIRL. After we find out, which will actually be the week of our 3rd anniversary, (and also the week of the first Auburn home game) the loser has to take the winner out to the restaurant of choice. I better think of somewhere good...