The City

So....Did you watch the premier of The City last night?

I admit it...I am hooked on The Hills. Sad, I know. It's my guilty pleasure I guess. Though to be honest, 1/2 of the show isn't even words, it's just blank stares!

Anyway, I had mixed feelings about The City but of course I tuned in. Whitney was never that huge of a character on The Hills so I really didn't know what to expect of her. It seemed like the show was filled with more blank stares than The Hills...blank stares and every two seconds we got to hear Olivia ask where Jay was. Olivia...She really got on my nerves. Very, very fake. Not to be judgemental about it, but I it really got on my nerves that every two seconds she was saying how she is having this party, or she personally knows this person or whatever.

Back to Whitney....I'm not sure how much substance she has. She seems like a nice person but I just don't know why I should continue to watch the show - if it is because Olivia is going to cause drama then count me out.

So did you watch? What did you think?

FULL TERM!

Today we are 37 weeks pregnant, aka FULL TERM!

We had a scare the other night - I thought I was in labor. I woke up at 2am with contractions that were 2 min's apart! I decided to get up and walk around and also get a big glass of water. Over the next hour and a half they slowed down and eventually stopped. I am still getting some strong ones but they are very unpredictable.

Kathy, my step MIL, was released from the hospital on Christmas Eve and was so happy to finally be headed home! Unfortunately, that same day, a very, very close family friend (our families were friends when we all lived in CA and then we all ended up moving here) had a stroke. She is still in the hospital and today she is having a pace maker put in. I really want to go up there and visit with the family but Chris and Mom have banned me (they are afraid I will catch something).

We had a really bad storm this morning which totally wrecked my plans of heading to Panera for a hot chocolate and a chocolate pastry. I may have to go do that tonight! We ended up leaving this afternoon to run some errands and then went to PF Changs, where there seemed to be a pregnant people convention going on. I think 75% of the women in there were pregnant!

Chris had an interesting thought today - he thinks that Dr. S might be headed to the Texas Tech game (Cotton Bowl, I think). Now I am panicking. He said he would be on vacation (hence, my next appt isn't until the 5th) but I never thought he meant he might actually be going somewhere. But he attended Texas Tech and is a die hard fan, and now I am totally freaking out that he might be in Texas and what if I go into labor?! I am having lots of irrational fears lately. I think it's hormone related. I know perfectly well that one of his partners can deliver Brayden but I want him!!!

Only 16 days to go (or less!) until we meet our little man!

My famous doctors

Did anyone watch this last night?
I did - but mainly because I was looking for people I know. Ha! Michelle goes to my Dr's office and her doctor, Dr. Sarver, is my doctor's wife! When they showed Michelle getting her c-sec, my doctor was the realllllllly tall guy who was in there assisting his wife. Oh and the nurse in the white coat at the doctors office is Tamela. She is so sweet too!

Anyway, it's a very odd feeling to see people you know (I just saw Dr. S yesterday) and places you go on TV. It's been a looooong time since I've had that experience. Growing up in the Bay Area, I would see places we went to on tv all the time...and my dad was on commercials there for the company he worked for. But that was years and years ago.

Somehow I missed that I posted my 100th post awhile ago...opps. I noticed that this morning. I guess when I log in I just don't pay that much attention to what I'm doing!

I wanted to give an update on Kathy - she is still in the hospital. She was finally allowed Jello late last night (she hasn't eaten since Friday) and if all goes well she could possibly be released tomorrow. Thank you for your prayers!

Only 20 days left in my countdown to Brayden!

Our weekend ... and it's not even half over!

Last night Chris' dad, step mom, step sister and brother came into town to celebrate Christmas. The plan was we would open presents Friday night and then on Saturday I would cook a Christmas dinner and then they would head home.

Friday night we opened presents, watched Elf and then headed to bed. I knew something wasn't right but I didn't know that Kathy, my step MIL was upstairs not feeling well. At 7am on Saturday morning Chris' dad came downstairs to tell me he needed to take her to the ER. Around 10am he called us (we kept the kids at home) and said that Kathy needed emergency surgery and that the surgeon was on his way to the hospital.

Chris took Shay, Kathy's daughter to the hospital while Jayce (Chris' brother) stayed with me since I am not supposed to go to the hospital (and end up sick myself). Anyway, I am totally exhausted from having been up most of the night anyway, and I hope this is making sense. Basically, at this point, Kathy has now had the surgery and is in a hospital room. She will remain there for 3-5 days depending on how fast she recovers.

Chris' family will continue to stay with us. I've already had one very sweet lady from church offer to make us dinner for Monday night (I can't believe how nice people are...seriously it about made me cry) and I think I've got everything else covered. My mom is really helping out too. I just feel so useless, but I am doing the best I can (useless because I'm exhausted and I keep having contractions and having to sit down which is frustrating me).

Please keep us in your prayers. Right now it looks like her surgery was successful but there is a chance that it wasn't - they will continue to monitor her. I'll update soon.

Christmas Decor 08

I'm a little sad today because I should be leaving for our annual Mission Trip, but I'm not (doctors orders). Every year I work with a ministry that puts on a full Christmas holiday extravaganza for some very, very needy children. When I say very needy I mean it - they live in the poorest county in our country. I've gone every year for the last 6 years and last year, Chris and I were Mr. and Mrs. Claus (and no, I am NOT posting a picture!).

Anyway, the last couple of years my mom and I do all of the planning, shopping and buying of the Christmas presents. This year was a small year - we only had about 135 children. It's a ton of work and I love every single second of it, but my favorite part is being there with them and seeing their faces. They know us all by name and they look forward to our visits (Christmas, Easter and Summer Camp). So my parents and the people we work with every year headed down this morning and I am just feeling a little sad that I am not with them. But there are not any decent hospitals around so my doctor wouldn't let me go.

Therefore, I am consoling my sad self with showing you my Christmas decorations!

So...welcome to my home! It only has about 1/5 of my decorations up but I think you can understand why!

The wreath I made for our door:


A few decorations in the entryway:


He guards the stairs:

My mantel:

The whole fireplace:

Our pitifully decorated tree...we couldn't find the angel or the ribbon...

Snowman on the bar and my candle that smells like a real tree...yummmm:

My lone decoration for the table...usually I set the whole thing for Christmas:

Our entertainment center...that's the manger on the top:

Hall Bath (that candle tree is gold not white):

Towels on the double ovens:

Brayden's first ornament that I had made on our last trip to Tahoe:

So that's it for now with the decoration pics.

I have a HUGE PRAISE that I want to report. The family friend that I had asked for prayer for (she was given a 4/5 chance of having breast cancer) does NOT have cancer! I'm obviously soooo thrilled! Thank you for your prayers!

And one last unrelated to Christmas topic...I just want to say I am pretty sure I married the best guy ever. On Saturday I turned 35 weeks which = 9 months pregnant (don't ask me how they figure that, I just go by what my Dr says) and I woke up to a card from him.

It was pretty special for several reasons...One, how many guys do you know who would remember and plan ahead for such an occasion, Two, They don't make "Yay, you're 9 months pregnant" cards so he had to get creative and Three what he wrote was so special. I know he would get embarrassed if I posted it so I won't but let me just say, I am one lucky lady.

Carseat: Check!

Our carseat is officially installed!

And my good sport of a husband let me take a thousand pictures while he installed it!

(Oh, this is way off topic, but I am not a fan of wearing navy and black together but I didn't say a word since Dallas was playing and I knew there was no way I was going to get him to switch hats for my pictures...)

Almost done...

Complete!
I think he put the whole thing in, including the mirror in like, 10 minutes. I really think he set some sort of record. But that's Chris for you, he is incredibly handy.

Brayden's diaper bag is packed - with the exception of his coming home outfit which I am going to (hopefully) wash tonight. My bag has one item in it...I really need to work on that. Oh, and please tell me I am not the only one to take an actual rollerboard suitcase to the hossy! Chris looked at me like I had lost it when I asked him to bring it downstairs, but he seriously doesn't understand my need for makeup and hair products. I have my whole excel spreadsheet checklist typed out so I know what all I need but I just haven't shoved it in the suitcase yet.

Tonight I hope to finally take pics of my house decorations. We'll see. We both hate fluffing the tree and we keep waiting for the other one to do it so I am going to see if I can get him to just help me and then it will go twice as fast.

OK, last thing - I am still undecided on making my blog private. I think I am going to leave it public because I didn't realize you could only add 100 readers if it were private (thanks for the tip Kelly).

Oh and how could I forget....Only 28 days until my induction! WOOHOO!

Um Wow.

OK so I seriously had NO CLUE so many people read my blog! Now I am totally second guessing myself on whether or not to just leave it public? I'm so confused. So help me out if you will - if you have a private blog what are the benefits in your eyes? I was just thinking that once Brayden comes I might not want to have his pics and info out there where anyone can happen upon it. But you all seem like such nice people so maybe I have nothing to worry about! =)

Also - if you are one of the commenter's that have a private blog please email me at wife2chris@yahoo.com - I would love to read your blogs!

Going Private

Jenna's Journey is going to go private! If you'd like to keep reading my blog - and I hope you do - please leave me a comment on this post with:

Your First Name
Your Email Address
Your Blog Address

(The email address is really important - that way Blogger can send you permission to read my blog once it's private!)

Dr Appt and a Christmas Update

Today I had my 34/35 week doctor appointment. I would be going weekly but my doctor is on vacation so my next appt is 12-22 and then again on 1-5. I was hoping to move my induction date but after talking to my doctor we will leave it as is. He feels confident that I won't have Brayden on the 12th but rather the 13th so he would not be born on my FIL's birthday. Oh and I asked him if he thought there was any chance I would naturally go early and he said he doubted it. I'm still holding out hope that he might be ready to come early!

When I walked in my nurse, M, said "Wow! You have dropped!" I told her that Chris had said the same thing and now when I go to sit I have to lift Brayden up! When Dr. S walked in he said "Wow!" and I cut him off and said "I've dropped" and he said "Yes, but I was going to say you are showing!" I called him a suckup (he has a great sense of humor) and told him I've been showing for weeks now. He insisted that I've been very small the whole time...haha. I think he was just being nice!

Anyway, Brayden was moving around the whole time and begging me for a Starbucks...I told him no, since I had one last night...and because it was 27 degrees outside and I didn't feel like sitting in line and rolling down my window.

Now on to Christmas...

Chris brought down about 1/4 of my decorations and put them up. We have our manger out, and our mantle is decorated (except I can't find my stocking holders...) and the tree is downstairs but has yet to come out of the box. Our wreath is now on our door which makes me very happy. Once everything is done I'll take and post pictures. We'll be celebrating Christmas with Chris' dad, stepmom, half brother and step sister next weekend (the 20th I think) so I need to work on the menu. I'm tired just thinking about it!

I'm also working on a list of meals to make and freeze for before Brayden comes...if you have any suggestions or easy recipes let me know! I can't wait to make Jennifer's chili!

Oh and here's another coupon code for you...

Restoration Hardware Baby and Child rarely offers them, but I just got a coupon code for 20% of your purchase (including items on sale) for the dates of 12-12 through 12-15:

F2BC801

Oh one more thing - If you've seen the Macy's commercial (Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus) and wondered what it was about here's an interesting article: http://www.newseum.org/yesvirginia/

Only 33 more days to go!

All About Brayden

So todays post is entirely dedicated to Brayden...including some random facts:

-He apparently loves chocolate (like his momma). He goes nuts every time I eat it...Chris says he's either loving it or having an allergic reaction...I'll go with loving it!

- Every single night, at 9pm we have a kick fest, aka let's try to break out of here party. This lasts exactly one hour and then he goes back to sleep. I could seriously set my clock by it.

- He either loooooves his daddy or he's scared to death of him. Every time Chris goes to feel him move (usually during aforementioned kick fest) he freezes. The moment he takes his hand away kicking resumes. He does this only with Chris. Chris likes to say that he has the "calming touch," something I plan on using to my advantage during 3am feedings...

Anyway, over the last week or so Brayden has dropped and now when I sit I have to lift him up so that I can cross my legs. Very attractive. Oh and if he's continued to grow at the rate he was growing during those three ultrasounds I had over a three week period he is now well over 5lbs..probably towards the 5.5 lb mark. That's bigger than my brother was when he was born and almost as big as I was! Um, Wow!

My next doctor appt is this Weds and I am going to see about moving my induction date. Long story short, Chris knows that I've always wished that I didn't have to share my birthday with my brother (we're not twins, we were born on the same day 7 years apart) and our induction date is the day of his dad's birthday. Well, I didn't want to say anything but Chris asked me last night if I would want to talk to Dr. Smith about changing it so that we don't run the risk of having Brayden on his dad's birthday. I thought it was so sweet of him to think of that - because again, I wouldn't have said anything because I wouldn't want him or his dad to take it the wrong way.
So we might have a new due date!

But if not...We only have 35 days to go!

I think I mentioned the other day that it had been a few weeks since I'd gotten sick...apparently I should have kept that to myself. We went to see the Youth at our church do a Christmas production and I had to leave half way through (and of course I wasn't carrying any of my Zofran with me). As I was leaving two sweet girls (one that I used to teach) came running up the aisle to see where I was going! I felt so bad leaving! I can't believe the girls I taught are graduating this year! Wow, I feel old sometimes!

Back to Brayden...I washed his first load of laundry last night! I washed everything in Dreft which smells like babies to me, ha! I think he will be able to wear a new outfit everyday until he's 6 months old...spoiled doesn't even begin to cover it!

Brayden's Last Shower

Today was my final shower! It was held in our church parlor this morning. I am totally exhausted and we have a function at church to go to tonight so this is going to be a little short.

One of the gift tables:
The cutest diaper cake ever:

We are so blessed to have so many people who love us and have prayed for us over the years during our struggle to get pregnant. I am so thankful for all their support, love and prayers!

Brayden is going to be the best dressed little man - at least until he's one! He received so many cute gift today! It's great to see that they are making "cuter" boy clothes now...I don't think cuter is the right word, but hopefully you follow!

Last night was Chris' brothers 16th birthday and though we planned to be home by 9:30pm at the latest we got stuck in Van Buren until then so we didn't get home until closer to 11pm. I had to get up early for my shower and all I can think about now is a nap!

Oh, and today marks week 34...only 37 more days to go! WOO-HOO!

40 days and a new look

A new look for my blog that is!

A huge ol' thanks to Krysta for posting about Scrapblogs! Wow, that was a lot of fun! I made the header to go with my old background but then I didn't like them together so I've switched backgrounds and now I need a new header! But it's 12:30 and I haven't had lunch so it's going to have to wait! Check back in later!

And....drumroll please....drumroll....(you will totally get that if you've seen Christmas Vacation)

I have a maximum of 40 days left before I meet my little Brayden! Woo-Hoo! I know my ticker says more but that is because it's based off of my due date of Jan 18, not my induction date of Jan 12.

My extended family now knows of my plans to induce (frankly, I had no intention of telling them, not because I didn't want to but because I didn't want any comments...) and I've gotten my first email about the dangers of induction. I've decided to ignore it, and my mom said that if they write her she will handle it. You gotta love mom.

Awhile ago I asked for prayer for a friend who might be dealing with breast cancer. She met with the surgeon yesterday who reviewed her mammogram and he believes that it is a 4 out 5 chance that it will be cancer. She has a biopsy next week. If it is indeed cancer, then they've thankfully caught it early. I know that they would covet your prayers. A very special thank you goes out to all of those who've kept them in your prayers.

Chiro Appt and Bargain Shopping

I had my appointment today, and while I wish I could say that I feel great, I can't....not quite yet at least.

Basically, my sciatica (sp?) is really, really pinched. Dr. M said it was quite bad. I have to go back again Weds for another adjustment. He also told me to ice it for 10 mins every two hours. But I have faith that he will get it fixed...I've had horrible pinched nerves in my neck before and he's always been able to work it out. He said that because it's been hurting for so long it's just continued to get worse and worse so it will need some time.

On another note, we drove to Oklahoma City and back yesterday. I DO NOT recommend doing that at 33 weeks pregnant. We stopped once on the way down and once on the way back. Not fun. But it was my decision to go so I guess I deserved it! Chris got a new truck and we had to drive down there to pick it up.

I went to see my best friend today and I learned a ton from her. She had little Landon a few weeks ago and she made me this great basket full of things I can get a lot of use out of once we have Brayden!

Speaking of having Brayden....I could possibly have a baby this month! Oh my word! He would be early of course, and I'd rather be having him next month when he's closer to his due date, but still...I could have a baby this month! Wow, how crazy is that. In a lot of ways it still doesn't quite feel real. I woke up this morning and had to check my tummy to make sure it was still huge...I had a dream that this whole pregnancy was a dream! I think when you've waited for something for a long time it's just a surreal experience, if that makes sense.

For any online bargain shoppers, old navy has two coupon codes that you can use today...

ONEDAY will give you free shipping and SAVENOW will give you 20% off your purchase. I have one more gift to get Chris' 15 yr old stepsister and I know she really likes ON so I was coupon hunting!

Edited to add: I just placed my order...I got my SIL a faux fur lined hoodie and matching scarf which would normally come to over $40.00 before tax or shipping but because of the above codes, the total was $23.00!

Oh, and for anyone who loves shopping online, I wanted to share a great site with you for finding coupon codes: http://www.retailmenot.com/

So are you almost done with your shopping? I'm probably 75% done...not too bad for Dec 1!