37 weeks, tomorrow :)

Well, my Dr. appt was yesterday. Things are going good. There isn't much to report. She did check to see if I was dilated. I'm about at a 1 and I'm 50% thinned out (for those of you that knows what that means...) Also, tomorrow marks 37 weeks! That means Vance will no longer be considered premature if he is born from here on out. YAY!

The good news is, I found my camera! It was in the nursery, go figure. Chris and I put the bouncer together for Vance. To be more specific, Chris put it together and I watched. hahaha But I had the camera with me and laid it down in a pile of blankets and it "disappeared".

25 days to go!

Well, the camera must have legs. It's missing again. I have plenty to update on though. It's been a busy week. I had a sonogram appt last Monday. The baby looks good and healthy. He was about 6 1/2 pounds. The Dr. told me to plan on him gaining about 1/2 pound every week until he's born. Now of course, this is all an estimate. But we are looking at having a 8-9 pound baby at 40 weeks. It was fun to see how much he's changed since our first sonogram. We were given a few sonogram printouts. He's so much bigger in these pics. Only his head fits on the screen, when before it was his whole body, lol. I have another appt this Thursday. Nothing special going on, they are going to do a strep test. They will, of course, measure me again to see how thing are progressing. This Saturday is a big day for us! Vance will be considered "full term". I'm not expecting anything, but if he's born early, he should have any health issues. YAY!

We had a big ice storm hit St. Joe last week. We didn't loose power at the house till about noon on Tuesday. We got it back on Thursday night. Thanks so much to Chris's Grandma, Grace, we had a warm roof over our heads. Power stayed on at the shop. But I wasn't able to work all week. There were so many power outages around town, I didn't have any appointments. Chris and I worked Saturday and only had 4 dogs show up. It made for a very short day at the shop.

Sunday, Chris and I had maternity pictures taken. I like what we ordered. I was a bit nervous about having pictures taken. But, I wanted to make sure I had something to remember all this by. I've taken my own belly pictures along the way, but these look much better, lol. The photographer said we should have the pics back by Christmas. I'll post them as soon as I get them.

Today I am back at the shop working full day, with a very full week ahead of me. I only have 12 days left of work left. Christmas is a week from today. I'm not ready at all. I haven't done any shopping. My evenings consist of me laying down or relaxing in the recliner. I am so tired by the time I get home form work, I don't feel like shopping much. I've had a hard time controlling my heartburn. I am going to ask about it this Thursday when I go to the Dr. If I had anything negative to say about this pregnancy, I'd say it was the heartburn. That about the only thing I have struggled with. It's been a wonderful pregnancy. I've had fun with all the little (and big) changes. I'm so excited about being a parent. I can't wait!

35 weeks!!

We had a slight scare yesterday. I had to leave work early and go to the hospital. I wasn't feeling very much movement from the baby. They wanted me to come in to be monitored for a while. I haven't been feeling very well the last couple days anyways. After about 25 minutes on the monitor, they sent us home. Everything is fine. They asked me to come in after eating lunch. Apparently after eating, the baby is much more active. And he was. But I am much more aware of how often he's moving. I need to make sure he is moving at least 10 times within a 2 hour period.

Everything else has been going pretty good. Work is starting to take a toll on me. I fine myself having to sit more often. Lets hope I can hold out till the 5th. Only 18 days of work left! Say a prayer for me. ;)


I'll leave you with a nice FAT picture of myself, taken this morning.

The goose is getting fat?

We've been busy this last week, with Thanksgiving and all. I had a Dr. appt last Wed. Everything is still going well. My belly is measuring a little bit big. They don't want to assume anything so we have a sonogram coming up at my next appt. They want to see how big he is. Either he's going to be a big baby, or I've just got some extra fluid around in there. Dec. 10th is the date for all that. I'll be sure to keep you posted.

I'm now wearing Chris's t-shirts. Most of mine don't fit. I can wear maternity clothes outside of work. I don't want to wear them to work, they'd just get ruined. And there's no need to keep buying clothes this late in my pregnancy, lol. Especially casual clothes just for work. Chris thinks it's funny, but I don't think he minds.

We went Friday, after Thanksgiving, to get the Christmas tree. Penny and Justin came along too. It was a very cold day. The 'hay ride' down to the trees was pretty chilly. There was a good breeze the whole time we were out. But we got our tree! Chris and I decorated it Saturday after we got off work. We also managed to get the house lights up. Thanks to my mom, we had plenty of white light to hang. It looks pretty darn good, if you ask me.

We were in a little bit of a rush because of the MU/KU game that night. But it was all worth it. We got to Jamie and JP's house about 6:59 and the game started at 7. It was a family event. Even Hannah watched it with us. What a great game! MU won! (of course) ;)

Sunday morning Chris left for KC. He and JP went to the Chiefs game against the Raiders. That game didn't go as well as the MU/KU game. Unfortunately KC lost. I think Chris had a good time anyways. He didn't get home till almost 7 that night. It was a very busy weekend for both of us.

All kinds of new stuff!

So we got the new nursery furniture last night. Chuck came over and helped Chris put it together. Cara came by later. She and I helped. With help from Chris's family, we were able to afford the new furniture, THANK YOU! We got a dresser/changer, an armoire, and a crib. Chris and his dad put the crib and changer together. Cara and I tackled the armoire. Overall, it took us about 2 hours to finish. It looks sooo nice in the nursery. I'm really excited about it. I have some pictures of last night. I was the one holding the camera, so I don't have any pics of Cara and I, oops. ;)
When Chris and Chuck got done with the Crib, they didn't realize it wouldn't fit through the door. They had to take it back apart and reassemble it in the nursery. Luckily it was just the crib that didn't fit. It was a pretty easy fix.
Chris and I bought the bedding for the new crib last week and I was finally able to decorate with it. I really like the red and blue theme we went with. It looks so nice.

I was shopping the other day and finally found the outfit we'll take Vance home in. Chris doesn't like dress clothes. But he didn't mind this one too bad. It was exciting to find dress clothes in 'newborn' size. It's been really hard to find anything smaller then 0-3. But don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed shopping.

30 weeks, 3 days

I had my Dr. appt yesterday. Things went well. She put me on Zantac. I've been having pretty bad heartburn the last few weeks. Hopefully this will make a difference. She's pretty sure Vance has turned head down. She felt around and it seems that way at least. I've gained a little too much weight this last month. She wants me to only gain 1 pound per week and I am gaining about 1 1/2. So I am going shopping today for some healthier food. No more McDonald's for me. HA!

My mom came down to the shop yesterday and helped me rearrange the kennels to make room for the crib. I think it's going to work out pretty well. I wanted to put him where there won't be as much loose hair. We're looking into buying a canopy to go over the crib too. After getting the kennels moved around, I went to Michael's Craft store and bought letters to the wall. We spray painted the letters blue. I think they look nice. When it gets closer to my due date, we'll move the crib down to the shop and finish the "baby corner". My belly continues to grow. I am noticing the sweat pants I've been able to wear are getting tighter. I may have to go shopping yet again. :)

October Madness

October has been a busy month for us. Last weekend we were up in Maryville for homecoming. We had a good time. We spent time with Mike and Gina Davis. Gina is also pregnant, and we were able to blab a little on the subject. I didn't get any pictures of our trip to Maryville. We stayed most the day on Saturday. We watched the parade in the morning and then went back to the Davis's for some food and TV.
Last night was Halloween. We spent the evening over at Penny's in-laws. They live on a very busy street. Penny and I spent most the night outside on the porch. It was fun watching all the little kids come up to the door for trick or treating. My mom, Penny and I all "dressed up" for the occasion. Penny was a bunny, I was a cat and mom was a mouse. Vance also had a costume on, lol. I had a shirt made with a pumpkin on the belly. It was pretty cute. I can't wait till next year when we can really dress Vance up. I'm looking forward to all the fun things we'll be able to do with him.
This week marks my 30th week of pregnancy. Things are still going well. I've been feeling some contractions here and there. Nothing out of the ordinary. I go back to the Dr. on Monday. They will then put me on a 2 week appt schedule. Only 70 days to go! We're still getting the nursery together. We've decided to move the crib and changing table we have to the shop and buy a new matching set for the house. We've picked out a set from K Mart. It had a changing table/dresser combo. We are also planning on getting an armoire. At this point we need all the storage space we can get. I bought the rocking chair for the nursery the other day. Chris and I have been eyeballing this St. Louis Cardinals rocking chair from TJ Maxx. When I went to see if they still had it, it was on clearance. YAY! We are still looking for some bedding to match the Cardinals theme. I've found some red and blue stuff at Babies R Us. I hope to make a trip there next week or so.

October 15th, what a big day!

My baby shower was last night. I had such a wonderful time! We had a great turn out. I think there was around 20 people there. The cake was delicious. I wasn't able to have any till I got home. My stomach was in knots at the shower. I barely drank any punch. We played a word scramble game. I wasn't any good at it. Penny had to give me a few hints. Penny also had the women write on onesies. They were suppose to write messages to the baby or to the parents. They turned out cute. Cara wrote one saying, "Don't Shake Me" and Jamie's said "Don't mind the smell, I get it from my dad". We'll have to make sure we get a picture of Vance in his personalized onesies.

Julie Arnold told me she had never see so many gifts at one shower. I came home with a car full, literally. My trunk was completely full, my back seat was filled to the ceiling and the front passenger seat was full. It was kinda funny driving home, I had balloons blocking the back window. I had Chris help me unload the car. He couldn't believe how much stuff there was. After we got it all in the house, we put it all on the table and tried going through it. We just looked at what we got. I didn't even try to put anything in the nursery. I guess I'll be doing that tonight. :) We have a job ahead of us.

Yesterday I also had my doctors appt. Chris went with me this time. I knew they were going to draw blood and I also had to get a shot. I wanted to make I had someone to drive me home in case the blood and shots got to me. I was alright. They also did a sugar test on me. I passed. I'm not diabetic. Everything is measuring up right and I am gaining enough weight. Only 4 pounds in 1 month. They expect me to gain 1 pound per week. But if I keep this up, I'll end up weighing about 200lbs when the baby is born. AH! That's a scary number for me. :) Otherwise everything is still going well. The Dr. ask me about his movement and was glad to hear he is active. She thinks this is a good pregnancy. No complaints or concerns. They have me coming back in 3 weeks and then from then on I will be going every 2 weeks.

The Pumpkin Patch

Justin, Penny, Chris and I went to the Pumpkin Patch on Thursday. We all picked out our pumpkins. After leaving the orchard, we all went to our house for dinner and pumpkin carving. I have a few pictures of how they turned out. I cheated and used a stencil. Chris wanted more of a challenge but had a little bit of a problem with his. It ended up just being a big hole on one side and half a raccoon face on the other. We all had a great time.











Mine is the middle one, Chris's is on the right and Penny's is on the left. Justin wasn't done with his when the picture was taken.

I've also managed to get a new belly pic, for those of you watching me "grow". :)

It's about time!

I've been busy, I guess. I hadn't realized how long it's been since I've wrote. Work has kept me pretty busy. At least until this week. I've had a nice week so far. This last weekend was a blast. Chris and I took Saturday to go to the Northwest/Pitt State game at Arrowhead Stadium. Northwest won, but they went into overtime. It got pretty hot outside. I got quite a bit of sun on my face. I was worries that I may burn, but all is good and I'm looking pretty tan, lol. After the Northwest game, we went home and watched the Mizzou game on TV. Again, another win. Yay! Sunday came and we didn't do much. I was so tired from Saturday. I even fell asleep during the Chiefs game. They lost, so I guess it wasn't worth watching anyways.
Vance has been more and more active. Almost too active. There have been times I get crampy from him moving so much. I read that when I'm not active, the baby will be. And BOY! it's that right. Anytime I try to sit and relax, he gets going. I'm am still sleeping well. He seems to sleep when I do. Or at least he doesn't kick hard enough to wake me.
My next Dr. visit is Monday. It'll be a very long visit. They have a few tests they want to do. I am a bit nervous. No reason to be, I know. I just don't like sitting and doing nothing. I have a book I can take to read. Let's hope that passes the time. Monday evening is my baby shower. I'm excited about that! It's been a while since I've seen all my family in the same room together. It'll be a nice time. Yesterday I went shopping for my "shower outfit". I didn't find much. Everything makes my belly look huge. But I guess that could be because it's getting bigger by the day. Or at least I feel that way. Some of my clothes, mainly t-shirts, have gotten pretty tight. I'm gonna have to replace them soon.
So this week is my 27th week. Only 13 more weeks to go! That's only 90 days! I think I may miss being pregnant. I've had a good pregnancy so far. Chris said he's done waiting. He wants Vance to be here now. I think he is getting bored waiting. He doesn't have the daily changes like I do. Well I am going to stop boring you. I would leave you with a picture, but my camera doesn't have batteries. I will add one asap. I promise!

A Quicky

Just thought I would share my doctors visit with you. Everything is going really well. I have gained 20 lbs exactly, from my first Dr. appt to Tuesday. That right about where I should be. I'm okay with that. She took a measurement of my belly. It's at 23 inches. I guess it should measure the same amount of inch per how many weeks along I am. We heard the heartbeat again. It's still running in the 150's.
Next appt I have to take a gestational diabetes test. They have to draw blood and give me a shot. I am AB- blood type so there is all kinds of extra crap I have to do. Including 2 shots, one next month and one when the baby is born. Having rare blood sucks, lol. Not much else was discussed. I asked about prenatal classes. Chris and I will attend those when I am about 30 weeks along.
I think I've crossed my 6 month mark though. January isn't too far off! YAY!

24 weeks

Not much has changed within the last week. I was having some fun with the baby and the remote yesterday. I was laying bed watching TV and be kept moving around. So I laid the remote on my belly and watched it bounce all around. I did it again when Chris got home, to show him. He just thinks I'm crazy, lol.

I have my Dr. Appt today at 3:30. I am going to try and work a full day then run home and get ready for the appt. I don't like going to the Dr. on a Tuesday. Until now, they have scheduled them on Mondays, that works out much better. This makes to be a very crazy day.

Chris and I went to the south side fall festival this weekend. We had a very good time. The weather was perfect. We were able to walk from our house. It was a very relaxing day. Saturday night we had a birthday party for Chris. We had friends and family over for a cook-out. We had a wonderful turnout. Chris had the fire pit going and most of us stayed outside. I had a spider-man themed party for him. He even got a spider-man cake. I think he liked it.

Everything else is going well. I played softball again this last Sunday. I purposely wore jeans so that I wouldn't play. 2 of the girls on the team didn't show and they HAD to have at least one more girl player or they would have to forfeit. So I agreed to play. It went well. I was able to run and participate without any accidents. I had a good time.

I decided to show my actual belly in this picture. I'm not getting too big, am I? ;)

A place to call Home!

Well we are all moved in! We did tons of yard work on Saturday. The pictures below were taken before we got it all done, so it looks kinda trashy. Chris did all the mowing, bless his heart. I had the task of raking the trash area. The people that lived here before we did, didn't take care of it. There was trash everywhere. Plus, once you add our moving boxes and other trash to the picture, you can imagine what it looked like. We got it all cleaned up and bagged up and the trash company took it all Monday morning, YAY!

We also got to meet the neighbors across the alley. While we were outside cleaning, they came home. So I went next door and introduced myself. They are very nice people. They have an 18 month old little girl and a 1 week old girl. Sounds like Vance will have someone his age to grow up with.

I am absolutely loving the new house. We have plenty of room. Everything has a place and there's no clutter. The pictures I took of the inside were from this morning. My camera was in the car and it was cold. So the viewfinder was a bit blurry. I think you can get the idea of it though, ;) I don't have a picture of our bedroom. The cable guy is coming this morning and Chris had the TV pulled out. I'll get one on here eventually. Yesterday I worked on the nursery and got the curtains hung. Everything is where I want it for now. We're looking at getting a dresser. So once I get that in there, I might rearrange a little.

This is the back of the house. Like I said, still kinda messy.

Chris, working so hard on the yard...

The front of the house.

The side view

Living Room

Dinning room

Kitchen

And the Nursery

22 weeks 5 days

Well here's an updated picture for you all. I'm only about 3 weeks from my 3rd trimester. YAY! January is going to be here before you know it! I've definitely had more energy lately. I've been working full days at work and still having energy to do things at home. We've got everything moved in and settled at the new house. I hope to have pictures and updates on that soon. Chris and I are going home today and gonna work in the yard. Maybe then it will be picture worthy, lol.

Vance has been more and more active everyday. I now can feel him as I walk around. I hope all this movement means he's turning around and settling into place. At our sonogram, we was breach. But there's plenty on time for him to turn.

Whoo! That IS a baby in there!

For the last few days, Vance has been very "mobile". Most of the time he only moves around when I am sitting still or laying down. Actually, as I sit here and type this, he is kicking around. There are times I wonder if he has the hick-ups. It's an awesome feeling to feel him move around. Chris was laying next to me last night and I asked him to lay his hand on my tummy. He hadn't felt anything yet. I was determined that he would if he'd just be patient. Sure enough! One big kick (or something) and Chris felt it. It was a neat experience.

My weekend was full of activity. I ended up playing softball with Chris's team on Sunday. I had a great time. I love running and being active. It felt great! Until I fell. Twice. I was running the bases and my feet got out from underneath me, and boom, I was in the dirt. No worries, I wasn't hurt. Vance wasn't hurt. I scraped my knee up a little, that's all. It's been a bit stiff to walk on. But on the bright side, It's kept me from sleeping on my stomach. For those of you that don't know. That's been an issue for me. I am a horrible stomach sleeper. And it's not a good position to sleep in when you are pregnant. So since my knee is skinned up, I've been sleeping on my side. YAY!

The only picture I'll leave you with today, it one of my pretty pretty knee.

5 months

Monday marked my 20 week/5 month goal. I'm half way there. So even though I am 5 months I still have 5 more to go! I can only pray that I am blessed with another 5 months of sick-free pregnancy. I have done quite well with all this. Things are still very new to me and I feel 'weird' at times but overall I have been happy and healthy. My Dr. appt showed that I've gained 15 pounds since May. I'm hoping for only another 10-15 at the very most. If I gain 30 pounds total, that puts me at 190 lbs. That to me is a bit scary. I try not to think about it too much. I know that as long as it is good pounds and not fat pounds, both Vance and I should be fine, lol. So anyways... here is my '20 weeks' picture!

It's a....

BOY!!!!

Chris and I are having a boy! There's no question. We've finally decided on a name too, Vance Keaton Beaty. We're both very excited. This was Chris's dream come true, lol. Below are some pictures of the sonogram. We don't have a very good head shot but there is a VERY good picture of his 'boy parts'. Tee Hee!

Finally, an update!

It's been a busy 3 weeks. First of all, I lost my camera. Luckily today I found it. So I will try and get everything in and include a picture.

First news on the baby, we have a date for the sonogram. Chris and I, hopefully, will find out if it's a girl or boy on Aug 20th. YAY! We're both real excited. I'm pretty anxious. Everything else is going well. I've been feeling much better. I've had a lot more energy. I even went for a short jog on Sunday morning. Luckily I brought Sage (one of our dogs) with me and she slowed me down. I tend to push myself sometimes too hard. During pregnancy, that isn't something you should do. But this was a healthy run.

On a side note, for those of you that don't know, we are going to loose Sage soon. Sage has Lymphoma. They've given her about 3 months to live. But as of this week, we're pretty sure we don't have that much. She has tumors on her throat and they are growing quickly. She is still eating well. We will try to keep her comfortable for as long as possible.

So anyways, something happier... CHRIS AND I ARE MOVING! We've found a 2 bedroom house for rent. It's about 10 blocks from my grooming shop, so it's very convenient. We get to move in Sept 1st. I'm so excited about this house. We'll finally have the room for the baby we need. We've had a hard time finding a house because of our dogs. But we are allowed to have them at this new house. And with is being so close to the shop, we can probably keep a few there when needed. This has truley been an answer to prayer.

So! On with the pregnancy. ( I told you there's been a lot going on) I'm now in my 18th week. All the books say that he/she's about 5 1/2 inches long, "about the size of a large onion". I still haven't felt any movement. But I know it's coming. Here's my 18 week picture.

New Belly Pic

There's not much to update one. Things are going well. I'm feeling pretty good. I'm pretty tired today. But I guess that's something I have to learn to deal with. As of today, I'm 14 Weeks, 5 days pregnant and my belly is starting to show it. Ta Da!

A whole new room

Chris and I painted the bedroom this weekend. It was an experience! I went to wal-mart and chose a nice cheery yellow color. I bought 2 gallons of it and went home. We moved all the furniture out of the room and got to work. I painted the first wall... I didn't like it. So then I painted the other 2 walls... hated it. Chris and I looked at the room and realized it looked like a giant banana blew up. It was awful! I didn't want to do anymore to the room. At this point I was very upset and almost in tears. It was getting late so we moved the mattress back into the bedroom and I went to sleep.

The next morning, Chris and I went to wal-mart for some idea's of how we could fix the giant banana in the bedroom. Neither of of knew exactly what to do. We did buy some white to outline the trim. After getting home with the white I went to work on the baseboards and window frames. Chris, being the wonderful man he is, ran an "errand". (not telling me where he was going) When we came back he came in with this yellow note card. He asked me if I liked the color. I did, it was a much lighter yellow then what was on the wall. Then he said that since I liked it, there was a gallon of it in the living room for me. YAY! I gave him a great big hug. He deserved it. So then we went to work and repainted the room. It turned out really nice. I am very happy with it.

Baby Stuff

Okay, so I went 'shopping' yesterday. I found a changing table at a garage sale. And Chris and I also went and picked up a crib. We rearranged the house a little bit and made room for the new stuff. Today I am going out to buy paint. I have the weekend off and I plan to get the bedroom painted. It's all coming together. The crib and changing table look so funny in our house. I think it's making it seem more real to Chris. I have some pictures of the bedroom. I'll take more pictures this weekend when I get the room painted. For now, it's still a little dull. We are painting the room yellow for now and will add more colors when we find out the sex of the baby. Now all I need now is crib bedding. *wink wink*