37 Weeks

Finally to 37 weeks! JT and I can both breathe a sigh of relief to make it to this point knowing that Baby Livezey can come anytime now and should be perfectly healthy on its own. I personally hope we hold out a little closer to 40 weeks just to give myself a little more time to prepare.

Everything is still going good with the pregnancy. I go back to the doctor this week and appointments are now weekly until Baby Livezey gets here. My only concern is some swelling in my feet and legs. It is a normal occurence, and my blood pressure is fine, so I'm not too worried about it. I just don't know how I can work my normal schedule with my feet doubling in size! I'm going to have to really sit back (literally) and let other people help out more. It makes me feel worthless to sit around and bark out orders, but I have got to do what is best for the baby. I don't want to quit working yet, because I would rather have the time off once baby gets here rather than just hanging out at home by myself now (although I could probably enjoy the quiet time).

JT put the car seat in my car today. I started packing my hospital bag - not so easy to pack for something that can happen tomorrow or 3 weeks from now. Bag packing is going to be a work in progress. I started washing baby clothes, swaddling blankets, etc. so that I can pack a couple things for Baby Livezey in the bag, and so there is plenty of stuff ready when we get home. JT is packing Maggie's bag too so she can be taken to Paw Pals and stay for a few days while we are at the hospital.

This weekend my dad and Grandmother came to stay before flying to Florida. What a wonderful visit we had! It was so great to spend some time with Grandmother since that only happens once every year or two. I really hope that I can get her back to Nashville when Baby Livezey gets here, or even better, maybe I can take Baby Livezey to Florida to see her and get to show Granddaddy too.

For now we are just in waiting mode. We are so excited for Baby Livezey to get here, and of course can't wait to see if we have little boy or little girl!

32 Weeks

I had my 32 week appointment today. We had an ultrasound to check on Baby's kidney again and to see how big Baby is. After a lot of thought, I decided to let my mom come to this ultrasound. She has not been invited previously because I honestly didn't trust her to close her eyes when she was told too. She promised she would behave and knew she would have to leave the room if she didn't. She did good! The ultrasound tech never really looked at gender this time anyway.

Kidney issue is not completely resolved but is improving. Yay! This will be followed-up on with a pediatrician after birth. Hopefully it will all be completely resolved by them.

Heart rate was stong at 139 which is the rate it has been for the past several weeks. I love watching it beat on the screen, and the tech actually turned on the sound so we could hear it. Very cool!

So, is Baby still big? Yep! 4 pounds and 14 ounces. Really??? How is it possible that I can have a 5 pound baby already? This is especially scary to me knowing that growth is about 1 pound a week starting at week 36. So my calcualtions lead me to the conclusion that this is going to be a giant baby! My doctor tried to calm me by saying it will most likely not get to 10 pounds based on the percentile ranges that she has. Probably more of the 8-9 pound range. I'm not complaining - I am thrilled that Baby is growing so healthy! I just can't believe it is so big already. Guess I better start getting my hand weights out and start working out my arms!

My favorite part of the ultrasound today...Baby Livezey has a head full of hair! I didn't have a strand of hair on head until I was almost 2 years old, so this is very exciting to me. It also explains my heartburn.

We are starting to make progress on the nursery. The crib was set up last week. I have ordered fabric for the bedding and hope to get it to my grandmother next week so she can make that for us. My chair came in. I love it! It rocks and swivels. I have been sitting in it and Maggie sits or lays down beside me. She has been very good with the transformation of the room. She is pretty calm in there which is what we were hoping for.



Coming up this weekend is our first baby shower hosted by my sweet friends. I can not wait to see everyone! JT's birthday is also this weekend, so there is going to be lots of fun going on around here!

31 Weeks

This weekend we attended Childbirth Education classes at Baptist Hospital. We weren't really sure what to expect, but it was so informative and helpful! We are no experts now, but I think we both feel a little more relaxed and will hopefully be less panicked when the day finally comes. The instructor was amazing! The first day we talked about labor, epidurals, and most importantly...when do you come to the hospital. I've always imaginged that it would be this insane rush to jump in the car and speed to the hospital as fast as possible. We learned that this is usually not necessary, so hopefully we will be calmer when the time comes. The second day we learned more about infant care which is what we really needed the most. Again, we are no experts now, but at least we know where to begin.

JT has been super-busy getting the room ready for the nursery. He had to give up his office so that the nursery would be downstairs with our bedroom. He has been a very good sport throughout this transistion - he loved his office, and he'll get it back someday. Throughout the week he has moved furniture out of there and Saturday night we finally had a completely empty room. JT put the crib together, so now I am inspired enough to actually make some decisions about the bedding. I ordered my chair last week which should come in a couple of weeks, and I will try to get a dresser in the next couple of weeks too. All that will be left will be decor, which will probably be put off until Baby Livezey gets here - the final decision of pink or blue.

Maggie loved the empty room. She was rolling around in the floor and playing.

Helping me unpack the box. (She is chewing on styrofoam, not the crib pieces.)

Confusion...

Finished product! Maggie thinks this is the strangest looking kennel she has ever seen!

We have a lot of Baby Livezey's stuff in the room now. It is all in boxes or bags, but Maggie can see it and she is very curious! I want her to be exposed to all of it now, because she needs to know that it is NOT hers. Especially the stuffed animals - she likes to grab them and run off with them. I think she finally understands that they are not hers now because she doesn't try to destroy them anymore. It seems to be more of a game to her to get it from the bag and see how long it takes for me to notice. She is more willing to drop them now when I tell her to.

It was a great weekend! I can't believe there are only about 9 more weeks to go! Next week I'll have another ultrasound and get to see Baby Livezey again. I can't wait!

27 weeks

My weekly pregnancy book refers to this as the "beginning of the thrid trimester". But I like to call it the "beginning of the end", as in the final chapter of this pregnancy and end of life as we know it. That is not a bad thing - I'm very excited about April! I just can not believe how fast this has all gone by. Where did the past 6 months go? And why am I so unprepared? Here is an updated picture of me and my big belly!

We have our car seat (thanks Mom!) and stroller. And we just got our crib last week (thanks Nancy!). Those seem like some essential items, so I am glad they are here in the house. We have several books, blankets, a t-shirt, and even a Boppy. Everything is in a closet upstairs right now because I haven't wanted to move the office yet. We decided that the room we now use as an office will become the nursery. It is downstairs with our bedroom, so this way I won't have to worry about going up and down stairs all the time.

My biggest dilema right now is the nursery bedding. Being that JT and I are so indecisive, this has just been an impossible task (JT really didn't care about this anyway and left it up to me). From the beginning I said the primary color would be light blue and we could add pink or blue and green later on. After seeing hundreds of light blue patterns, I changed my mind. Next color choice was green. My favorite green pattern was pictured with pink bows and trim and was the cutest thing ever! But I just couldn't picture it with blue replacing the green. So I asked my brother to photoshop it for me and change the pink to blue (which he did, thanks Brandon!), and I realized that this particular pattern was just too girly. I called my mom and told her I couldn't take it anymore, and I was just going to go with white, in which she repsonded "Just call the doctor and find out what the baby is". No such luck mom - I'm not giving in that easily. I asked JT to look at fabric on in the internet for 5 minutes with me, and it took him about 30 seconds to pick something. I should have asked him from the beginning! So, the color choice today is going to be a grey/mocha color and we can accent with pink of blue from there. I ordered some swatches that will hopefully come in this week so I can have a final plan for this room.

Our other big baby preparation is getting Maggie ready for baby. I let her check out the car seat and stroller. We walked around the house with it, and she did good just walking beside it. Since she thinks everything in this house is hers, we have caught her with one of Baby Livezey's stuffed animals a couple of times. I am trying to enforce "NO" as much as possible now so that this doesn't become a big problem later on. We had a big first step last night...Maggie got to meet Max and Grant (now 2 months old). And lucky for us, she didn't try to to eat them! She just sniffed them and gave them a lick. Thanks Lauren and Robby for being brave enough to use you children as Maggie's test subjects!

Happy New Year!

2011 is finally here. I don't why, but actually getting to this point makes me realize that Baby Livezey will be here before we know it. I can't say that we are having a baby "next year" anymore, because it is now "this year". Oh my goodness!

We had a wonderful Christmas with our families! And I even made it until midnight on new Year's Eve (actually it is probably more of an accomplishment that JT made it to midnight)! We are so thankful for all of our friends and family and the time we get to spend together.

2010 was a good year, but 2011 is going to be even better! There were plenty of good and bad things about 2010, but more good than bad, so I can't really complain. JT and I have never really made New Year's resolutions, and we don't really have any for this year except to take on parenthood and try to do the best we can.

Hope 2011 brings wonderful things to all of you!

24 Weeks

I had my 24 week appointment on Tuesday. I got to have another ultrasound to check on Baby's kidney, and I very much enjoyed seeing Baby again. The technician printed a lot of pictures for me, but they are not very clear so I can't scan any this time to post. It was very active and showed me that is going to be hyperactive and stubborn. Great combination!

The ultrasound revealed that this baby is huge! 1 pound and 13 ounces already!!! It was only 14 ounces 4 weeks ago. The doctor thinks this is funny because I am panicked about having a 10 pound baby! It is growing healthy so I really can't complain.

Heart rate was good and strong at 135. The kidney with the issue hasn't improved yet (but still no great concern), so we'll check again at 32 weeks. I really don't think the doctor is as interested in the kidney as she is about seeing how big this giant baby is as 32 weeks!

I'm still feeling great. Baby Livezey moves all night long! It is like clockwork now...I get in bed and start feeling it move around in about 2 minutes. When I wake up in the middle of the night, it is still moving. I like feeling the movement, but it is a little strange to watch my belly moving on its own. I don't notice the movement so much during the day, so I guess we'll have a night owl on our hands. At least it is on my kind of schedule - stay up late and sleep in the morning. JT probably won't adjust to that too well.

It's now a fun weekend to celebrate Christmas with some of our family! Wish we could be seeing all of our family! Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!!!!!

Maggie

Happy 2nd Birthday to Maggie!!!!!!

JT and I talked about getting a dog for years, and I'm pretty sure we always wanted it to be a chocolate lab. At some point we even named our future dog "Maggie" and would talk about her like she already existed. Unfortunately we are the kind of people that put things off until the "perfect time" to do something. When we first moved to Nashville we lived in a condo, so a dog was not an option. When we finally started looking for a house, one of the biggest deciding factors was if we could finally get Maggie (who still didn't exist at this point). We almost didn't buy our house because the back yard is a hill and we didn't think it was good enough for our future Maggie. The builder's agent (who must have thought we were crazy) actually had some work done to the yard to provide us more flat space in hopes that we might actually buy the house which was perfect in every other way besides the yard. So we bought the house - but then we still didn't think it was the "perfect time" to get Maggie because of our work schedules.

Several months later after my grandparents (Mama and Poppa) had gotten tired of hearing about us wanting Maggie, but knowing we would never actually get her, took action into their own hands and bought the perfect little puppy for us for our birthdays. I was ecstatic, but JT wasn't as excited. He called Poppa and thanked him for the offer, but said "What if we don't want her?", which is a question I remind him of quite often. Poppa said he would keep her if we didn't want her, but JT agreed to come check her out. It was love at first sight, and the rest is history.

Thank you Mama and Poppa for our sweet Maggie!


Maggie came home to us in February 2010. JT and his mom met my grandparents to pick her up and bring her back to Nashville. I was out of town and JT and Maggie picked me up at the airport. That little puppy was the most precious thing I'd ever seen! She instantly stole our hearts and immediately became more than a dog...she is our little girl!

Just got Maggie home. JT is discussing the rules of the house with her.

Long first night.


Maggie has been such a great part of our lives. She has taught us about unconditional love and helped us with some parenting skills. (On a side note, I don't think you should be allowed to have children unless you have successfully taken care of a pet.) We now know our strenghts and weaknesses as parents. JT can give her a look and barely speak her name and she basically punishes herself if she thinks she has disappointed him. Me on the other hand - I can yell, scream, jump and down, and she just looks at me like "I know you can't catch me". She is spoiled rotten and definitely knows how to play us.

She is a creature of habit. You can set a clock by her telling you when it is time to eat. She loves routines and is out of sorts if we change it up. If I get up early and start getting ready, she knows I am going to work. In this case, she lays on my feet with a pitiful face. First thing she does EVERY morning is runs into my closet and grabs my tennis shoes hoping that she can convince me to take her on a walk. Even though she does this every day, it cracks me up every time!

A few of Maggie's favorite things:
1. Playing fectch - This dog is relentless! She could seriously play fetch 24/7.

2. Paw Pals - I never thought we'd be that type of dog owner, but we are - Maggie goes to daycare. That's right, doggy daycare. It is called Paw Pals and it may as well be Disneyworld. She goes crazy when you pull in to the parking lot and can not get away from me fast enough. It is especially sad when we are leaving her there for the weekend and I want is to love on her and say goodbye, but she runs through the door and never looks back. When we pick her up, she is exhausted. She gets a bath when she gets home and then sleeps for the next 24 hours. This is my favorite Maggie time, because she is cuddly and sweet.

3. Gram's house and the blue ball - When I take her to my mom's house (Gram) she runs to the toy basket and grabs her favorite toy, the blue squeaky ball, and then runs to the door and barks for Gram to announce her arrival. If they ever lose that blue ball, the world may come to an end. We have tried many times to get her to play with any of the other 10 toys in the basket, but she will have nothing to do with it.

4. Car rides - Maggie loves to ride in the car, and she gets so excited if you ask her "Wanna go?". Her favorite place to go is Crockett Park. She gets to play in the creek and if we can find a spot that has no one around, we let her loose and play fetch. She has a blast! Speaking of the creek, that brings me to her love of water.

5. Water - probably her most favorite thing in the world. Whether it be a puddle or a creek, she is going to get in it. Her love affair with water began during her first bath which JT gave her in the bathtub. She still jumps in the tub some days and sits there staring at the spout hoping I'll turn it on for her.

She loves a water hose and especially her pool! She isn't patient enough for us to fill up the pool, so she usually climbs in and just wants the water poured all over her. She has a blast at the creek at Crockett Park. I wish we could find a pond somehwere that she could play in because we would love to see her really swim.

6. Momma Karen - Karen lives across the street from us and is Maggie's hero! Without her, I don't know if having a dog would be possible. She is a dog-lover, actually we all want to be reincarnated as one of Karen's dogs. She has a older chocolate lab named Sugar that Maggie loves to play with. Karen comes and lets Maggie out and plays with her when I have to work. Maggie LOVES her and we appreciate her so much!

7. Uncle Jon-Jon - JT's brother Jon also tops Maggie's list of favorite people. He plays with her and buys her treats. When we are out of town he comes to stay with her if his job schedule allows. We love getting picture texts of them playing - Maggie is usually smiling because he is much more fun than us. Maggie always has a blast with him!

8. Bruiser - The indestructible and only toy Maggie has besides tennis balls. Bruiser got its name after she droppped it on our toes a couple of times. It is a big rubbery ball with protruding sides. She knows it by name and we can tell her to go find it and she will search the house until she gets it. One thing Maggie has taught us it that our kid will not be getting every toy ever made. Maggie would rather play with the empty paper towel roll, an ice cube, or a sock more than any toy ever bought. And if you get her something with a squeaker and stuffing, it will be destroyed upon contact.

9. Air vents - Maggie quickly discovered that when she is hot in the summer, she can lay down on the vent and cool off. She also knows that she can warm up in the winter. It is so funny to watch her because when she hears it come on, she slides down over it and smiles. It's her own little piece of heaven!



So as you can tell, we LOVE our dog! Is she spoiled? Absolutely - we wouldn't have it any other way. Everyone says that the dog becomes second best when the baby gets here, and I hope that is not true for us. Maggie is a member of our family, and I can't imagine pushing her aside. We don't know how she is around babies yet, but she loves kids. So I think they will be best friends in the future. After all, to earn Maggie's love requires very little - feed her, throw the ball, and turn on some water!