Sadness & Joy

This weekend has been a weekend filled with sadness and joy. My best friend lost her grand"father" this past week. He was the epitome of a caring man with a generous heart, a spirit that was never broken and had a love for his family that would leave anyone in awe.

I was blessed to know this man well, since I spent most of my childhood in their house. Mel and I spent countless hours in that house and there are so many memories there. I spent this weekend helping Mel and her family go through the house and search for those "things" you don't want to let go. The weekend brought us sadness, disbelief and joy. Sadness that the house is no longer the center of the family, disbelief that he is really gone, and joy as we re-discovered memories and spent time together in his memory. He would have loved that. Seeing all his children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and "adopted" grandchildren in the house talking about how their lives have been better for having this man in their lives.

I feel blessed to have known this man, and was able to visit with him at my wedding. He leaves behind an amazing legacy that we could all learn from. Though it was hard to leave the house, we have joy knowing that he lived his life to the fullest and he is now forever with his sweet bride in heaven.

We will miss you Bob!

Cautious.....

I have been meaning to blog for a while now........sorry for the delay! We had our 28 week appointment and sonogram this past Monday. We walked away with some good news and news that makes us a bit cautious. Let's start with the good news...........

My placenta has moved up and is in a good spot!
He looks healthy and is certainly growing.
My weight was good, as was my blood pressure.

The news that made us cautious......

He is measuring big! His head and abdomen are measuring 32 weeks and his femur is measuring 30 weeks. The OB didn't see any extra fluid, masses or tumors that would explain his size. So, to be safe she is sending us to a Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialist for a level 2 sono. We have this appointment on Monday, Oct 4th at 1:45pm. She said it could be a couple of things. Genetics play a factor in it, so he could just be big because of our genetics. Our family does have a history of bigger babies. I could have gestational diabetes, but my 1 hour glucose test came out normal. She doesn't think there is much else going on..........all his organs and his brain look healthy and well developed. Worst case scenario.......he continues to grow like a weed and we are induced early, or if he is too big we may have a c-section.

So, we are anxiously awaiting the level 2 sono........for peace of mind. Please keep us in your prayers. I will keep you all posted.

I don't want to forget......

Today while I was running errands, I was making a list of things in my head that I don't ever want to forget about this pregnancy. So I thought I would share!

1) How excited we felt when we saw the positive pregnancy test.....and how blessed we felt that it happened so fast for us!

2) How hard it was to keep the secret until we wanted to share the news.

3) How excited our family and friends were when we did decide to share the news.

4) The first OB appointment where we heard the heartbeat and saw the little "peanut".

5) The morning sickness that I thought would never end.....but secretly made me feel "secure" that the pregnancy was progressing.

6) The OB appointment when we found out it was a boy.......and sharing that moment with both sets of our parents.

7) Devlon and me in Babies R Us......pretending we knew what we were registering for and hoping we didn't forget anything too important.

8) Feeling the little man kick for the first time.....around 20ish weeks. I probably felt him sooner than that but didn't notice it.

9) Devlon feeling him kick for the first time......and his face/reaction.

10) Watching my husband read and sing to our baby......and how it melts my heart.

11) Getting the nursery together and picking out things to make it perfect for our son.

12) Thinking about how much our lives are going to change in the very near future!

13) Feeling the love from our family and friends who call to ask how I am feeling, bring us surprises for the baby and offer to help us get ready for the little man.

14) How loved this baby already is!

15) How difficult is has been (and continues to be) for us to decide on a name.

16) How nervous I have felt at every OB appointment and probably will be for the rest of the pregnancy!

Anyways, I am sure I could ramble on for hours. This pregnancy stuff is pretty amazing! I am blessed beyond words to be sharing this with Devlon..........who is going to be an amazing father. He talks all the time about how he can't wait to do this and that with his son. I can't wait to see him holding our little boy in his arms. This has been a dream come true for us.......and we feel amazed at this miracle growing inside me. Can't wait to share him with you guys when he makes his grand appearance!

Nursery progress

Devlon has been working so hard getting this nursery up and running. Last weekend he finished painting the blue on the bottom half of the wall. This weekend he cut the rough cedar and put on the chair rail AND painted the crib, dresser, and changing table. The crib and changing table are from when I was a baby (Josh & Bethany too!) and the dresser was Devlon's. It needed some TLC so he spent alot of time repairing, sanding and filling holes. He plans to use boat cleats for the handles.


Here you can see the division in the wall with the cedar chair rail.



A wider shot.......with some of the furniture in it. The crib isn't put together yet and we don't know exactly where everything is going just yet. The dresser is still drying so it needs to find a home. This is just a door shot, once there is more detail to look at I will take more pictures to post. And yes, you can see that the infamous boat seat finally has a home. Not sure where it will end up in the room, but it certainly goes with the theme.

Things yet to come....
1) Devlon is doing a rough cedar border with cattle brands to go around the top of the room. The cattle brands, though don't go with the fish theme, are important to him from his days at Rancho La Fe. He is branding the wood this weekend.

2) Getting the dresser assembled with handles and up to the room.

3) Deciding on a rocking chair or glider and purchasing that.

4) Finding the best place for everything to be in the room. One whole wall is taken up by closet doors, so we are only working with 3 walls.......and one wall has built-in bookshelves.

5) Pictures and decorative accessories. I am on the hunt for a new lamp shade for Devlon's old cork lamp.....which also fits with the room theme nicely.

6) New wood blinds for the window.

7) Of course, bedding and window treatments. The grandmothers have these 2 things under control.

I have my first shower on Tuesday at work. I am so excited. Once we got the crib in the room Devlon and I both looked at each other like....I guess this is for real! Ha! I have gotten alot of baby goodies so far, but it will be fun to open presents at a shower. More showers coming down the line in October. I am also on the hunt for a baby memory book. So many out there are either cheesy, non-functional or way frufru!

I am feeling good for the most part. Still wearing my rings, still with slight cankles at the end of a long day and still growing. I will take another belly shot at 28 weeks for you to see. We go back to the OB on Sept 24th so I will keep you posted! I will be 27 weeks tomorrow!

I guess we are prepared.........

Devlon and I spent all day Saturday in a childbirth class. I know it is early, but we had conflicts with the Oct and Nov dates. So I guess we are officially prepared to have a baby! Hah! There were a few things that made us laugh at inappropriate times and few things that we took away wanting to ask our OB about. But overall, it was informative!

Now we just sit back and wait. I would possibly like to take a breastfeeding class.......but I took several classes when I worked at Children's so I feel pretty knowledgeable about it. I have my work shower in a few weeks so that should be fun!

We go back to the OB Sept 24th for a sonogram to check his growth and my placenta placement. We also get to do the glucose test..........so say some prayers that everything looks good. Other than that, we are moving and grooving. Devlon is putting a 2nd coat of paint in the nursery this morning. We bought the cedar chair rail yesterday and that should go up this week. We are working on the furniture so hopefully most of it will come together in the next few weeks. I'll post pics soon!

Wisconsin Wedding Pics

James & Lesli, Me & Devlon at the reception

Us looking fine......ha!

James & Devlon with the groom acting silly

The boys.......they clean up nice!

All in all we had a great weekend! They said I do and are hitched. Yes, we ate cheese curds. The boys drank WI beer (lots). Fun times were had by all. We enjoyed being there with friends and shacked up with 6 adults in a hotel room. But hey, that makes for more fun stories and memories! We are glad to be home!