Aches and Pains

I have been so very fortunate and thankful that during this pregnancy I have had no complications!! I won't say nothing will happen, but so far, so good! I haven't been as good about walking/stretching/exercising as I should have been and Lucas has been getting on to me about that (in a nice, supportive manner, of course! haha).

Here I am at 36w3d and I am just waiting on Brock Michael Landreth to make his appearance. My hips have gotten progressively more and more stiff, sore and uncomfortable (partially due to my slack of exercising throughout my pregnancy, I know!). In the past couple of weeks, I have developed what I didn't even know was possible- pregnancy carpal tunnel!! Who would have thought that you could even GET carpal tunnel while you were pregnant?? Anyway, I guess my wrists are a bit swollen which is causing it to put pressure on my nerves and making my fingers go numb. ugh! It's not necessarily PAINFUL, but it is very uncomfortable and annoying. This too shall pass....

Other than my hips hurting and 2 of my fingers on each hand going numb, I feel great! Sleeping at night is not the easiest task, but it'll work until this baby comes! We are so looking forward to Brock joining our family and having such a wonderful blessing in our lives! Can't wait to meet him...

Soon and Very Soon...
Jessica.

Hiccups

Last Thursday, August 26th, while Lucas was studying, I was laying on the couch watching some TV and trying to relax so my huge stomach would stop hurting. While I was laying there, I began to feel Brock moving a little and then he started kicking (well, what I thought was kicking). After a minute or so, I realized that this "kicking" was very consistent and had a rhythmic beat to it. I began to pay more close attention and realized that Brock had the HICCUPS! This was the first time I had felt him hiccuping, so I said, "Lucas, Brock is hiccuping!" Lucas came over to feel and was also able to see my abdomen "jumping" with each hiccup. What a cool feeling! At 34 weeks, I finally felt my son hiccup. What causes babies in the womb to hiccup anyway??

I am 35 weeks now and I have a doctor's appointment on Wednesday. They will do a test to see if I have Group B Strep...all that means is that if I have this specific bacteria (which they SAY is normal for 1 out of 3 women to have), they will give me an IV antibiotic when I go into labor so Brock won't get sick when he is delivered. After this appointment, I will start going every week to check my progress! It's getting so close...almost have everything ready! :)

....I promise, I will post pictures of the nursery soon! AH! I need to get it finished this week. :)

Until then,
Jessica.

Family Baby Shower

I guess posting this a week late isn't too bad, eh?! :) THANK YOU so much to everyone who came to my baby shower...it was SO wonderful to see so many family members and friends that I haven't seen in a while. I definitely need to do better about visiting, for sure!

Here is a link to the pictures from the shower. I know...there are alot of VERY STRANGE looks on my face in most of the pictures. What can I say, I'm expressionate! LOL. (let's blame it on the photographer! jk.) Thank you, Janet, for taking so many pictures to help us capture the shower! You are wonderful and I love you!!

Here is a photo of me with [most of] the Harvey family! They were such wonderful hostesses and I can't thank them enough for all of the work they put into the shower. I love you!

Here's the link to the rest of the pictures from the shower: https://cid-58ac0661e93485ae.photos.live.com/play.aspx/Album1?Bsrc=Photomail&Bpub=SDX.Photos&sa=843901023

Family Baby Shower

This past weekend, Lucas and I went home to Lady Lake, FL to see family, friends and to have my very first baby shower! No, Lucas didn't go to the shower, but he's such a wonderful husband and came by afterwards to help load everything up!! If there's one thing I constantly notice and appreciate about my husband is that he is ALWAYS willing to jump in and do something without being asked to do it. He'll do laundry, fold clothes, take out the trash, load stuff in a vehicle, pack the suitcase, etc...and the list goes ON and ON! He's amazing...

I digress. :) THANK YOU so much to my Aunt Daphine and her wonderful daughters for hosting the shower! It was so beautiful and I had such a wonderful time seeing everyone. We were SO blessed by all of the gifts. Brock has such a wonderful extended family and I know he will be so thankful too (we'll make sure he is! hehe). Thank you to those of you who came from far away just to celebrate our little man with us. It means SSOO much to us to have you in our life!

I don't have the pictures yet from the shower, but I know my mom and sister will email them to me so I can put some on the blog for everyone to see, right? ;)

Pictures of Brock's room to come soon....one more coat of stain on the dresser and then it will be ready to move into his room! It's almost there.

Until then...

Jessica.

Single Digits

We're in the single digits now.....only 9 weeks to go! Lucas had the day off today and we spent part of the day painting Brock's room! I will post pictures when his room is complete! I got to see the crib bedding (in progress) when my parents came to visit last weekend. I love it!!! Here is a sneak peak:

Until next time....

Lucas, Jessica and Brock

28 weeks- ultrasound

As I posted last time.....Dr. D wanted me to go for another ultrasound to get a picture of Brock's aorta. She said it was nothing to worry about and that she doesn't forsee anything wrong, but she did want to have it on file. So, on Tuesday, my Mother-in-Law and I went to Jacksonville for the ultrasound. We had such a wonderful day (aside from the 1 hr 15 min wait we had before they called us back....)! What good does it do to make an appointment if you have to wait so long after your appointment time before you get to back "behind closed doors"? Anyway, I digress.

Brock is doing so well! He is weighing in at 2 lb 10 oz!! That is 6 oz above the "estimated weight" that was told to me on Saturday (my weekly update). The ultrasound tech said he's weighing in the 48%, so...right on target!!! Here is the link to the video of the ultrasound for your viewing pleasure: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u38uK_xEKu

Only 11 weeks to go!!!! (as of this coming Saturday!)

Jessica.

June 23- Doctor's Appointment

I successfully convinced my mom to come to Georgia for a couple of days! I felt like it was such a huge accomplishment that I rearranged my doctor's appointment so that she and Karah would be able to go and if nothing else, hear Brock's heartbeat through the monitor. When we got into the room, we saw Dr. D and before she started doing what she does, I said "what is the liklihood that you'd do an ultrasound today since my mom is visiting from FL?" She smiled and said "we can take a quick peek!" I was so thrilled....

So, after we heard his heart beating through the monitor, she turned on the ultrasound machine and we got to see him moving around, sucking his mouth (not his thumb, thankfully!) and got to witness the very strange position that my little man had twisted himself into! :)

She did print one picture for us of his face, head on- I'll post it later when I've taken a picture of it and uploaded it to my computer. I know my mom and Karah were so thrilled to see the newest member of our family and I was thrilled that I could share that moment with them.

Dr. D said that when I went for my 19 week ultrasound in Jacksonville, that the tech wasn't able to get a picture of his heart because of the position that he was in. She said it's a common thing to not get, but she's picky about getting pictures of all vital parts, so she wants to send me back to have another ultrasound!! She doesn't anticipate anything wrong, but I'm excited about getting to see our precious baby again before he's born. My ultrasound is scheduled for July 14th at 9:45 am!!

Will post more later.

Jessica

Week 25 News

This week I'm 25 weeks pregnant with my little man! I can't believe I only have 15 weeks to go before his due date....I couldn't be mor excited! Although my focus right now is on my school classes, I only have 5.5 more weeks of those until I'll be finished for the Summer and will have about 2 months to relax before the baby makes it into the world!

My weekly update says that the baby weighs about as much as a rutabaga.....who even knows what that is?? Apparently that's about 1.5 pounds. I've learned from these updates (and compared with the measurements/weight of the baby when we had our ultrasound at 19 weeks) that our baby measures and weighs a bit more than this "average", so I imagine he probably weighs closer to the 2 pound marker now. He is about 13 inches long too according to that same estimation.

If you saw my last post, you'll see that this week Lucas was able to feel the baby!! We are so excited that Lucas can take part in enjoying our son now too!!

Other big news this week- Baby Landreth has a name!! Before we knew that the baby was a boy, we had narrowed down our name preferences for a boy, but were still undecided about a name if it were to be a girl. God knew what He was doing because we didn't want to make that decision. :) Since we had narrowed it down, I told Lucas that he should make the final decision. The baby was either going to have Lucas' middle name or not, but since it wasn't my name, I didn't want to give an opinion either way. So, Lucas took some time (alot of time!) to think about it and decided that we would tell our parents on Father's Day what Baby Landreth's name will be. Our little man's name will be Brock Michael Landreth!! We are so thrilled that he will share a middle name with his daddy and Gpa Landreth (they haven't decided what they want to be called yet- hint, hint!). I can't wait to meet my handsome son! :)

Flick or foot?

After going to bed pretty late last night, I was exhausted this morning when the friendly alarm sounded for me to get up for work (dreaded event of the day). I layed there for a few minutes and then grudgingly got up, took a shower and started to get ready. As my daily routine unfolded, I got back in bed to wake Lucas up to get ready and as I was laying there very still in the bed, I started feeling a bit of movement in my abdomen. Since Lucas wasn't quite awake yet, I whispered "do you want to feel the baby move?" He has been trying to hard to feel him move, but it just hadn't happened yet! So, Lucas put his hand on my stomach and I layed very still. I felt him move a couple of times and I would ask Lucas if he felt it and he'd say 'no'. Then the baby did something (not sure what it was)...maybe a kick, a punch or a harsh movement...? Whatever it was, Lucas felt it!! I was so excited that he was FINALLY able to feel the baby move inside of me. He got to feel him a couple more times before he stopped moving for the time... What a wonderful day event to start off my day!

Week 23-update

Well, week 23 is almost over, but I thought I'd post about something the things going on lately. According to www.babycenter.com, the baby is around 11 inches long and weighs in at a little over 1 pound. I believe that he is bigger than that because when we found out that "it" was indeed a HE, he was 11 ounches...that was 4 weeks ago! Anyway, he's getting big and strong.

The highlight of the last week and a half is that I can now feel him moving a little bit. It feels like something is flicking me from the inside of my uterus....not so much the "flutter" that everyone has always told me it would feel like, but as my midwife described it....more of that of gas bubbles! :)

I am loving being pregnant....haven't been sick and have only gained around 10-11 pounds, which to me is awesome, but we'll see what happens from here on out. "They" (whoever that is) say that after 20 weeks that I'd gain a pound a week and that hasn't proved to be true, so maybe the rest of the pregnancy will go as unpredicted as the rest has and I'll stay within my 15-20 pounds range. Let's keep those prayers going! hehe.

I don't have any new pictures to post, but I'll try to get some taken for an update next week. 24 weeks tomorrow (Saturday, June 12th).

Until next time....

...and so it is decided!

It has been a while since I posted any information about the pregnancy and how things are going! Since I found out I was pregnant in January, it has been NONE STOP! Driving to Savannah 2 nights a week for class, working fulltime and being pregnant (in the first trimester, too!) has been very draining and all I want to do is SLEEP! I'm exhausted, but through the Lord's mercy, it has gotten much better.

After Lucas and I started looking about baby items and deciding what 'things' we were going to need, we realized how many items were NOT gender-neutral. I started to get more stressed about not finding out, but Lucas was pretty set on not finding out the gender of our child in utero. I was really going back and forth about finding out and not finding out...and after everyone (and I do mean everyone) gave me their opinion about what we should do, I was leaning more towards finding out the gender. Lucas still wasn't convinced! I don't think it was until we were looking at pacifiers at Target and I said, "Lucas, would you like pink/yellow or blue/green?" that he realized that it was getting increasingly more difficult to remain gender-neutral if he wanted his wife to minimize her stress level and to be "prepared" for the baby.

On May 11th, we were scheduled to have our ultrasound in Jacksonville (thank you, BCBS!) and would be the first (and maybe only) opportunity for us to find out the gender of our baby. When the ultrasound technician asked us if we knew what we were having, I answered 'no'. She didn't ask if we wanted to know, but I waited a minute to see if Lucas was going to say anything and he didn't.... and so it was decided! :)

We're having a BOY!! We haven't decided on a name yet, but hopefully that will be coming soon! The actual ultrasound pictures are better, but here are some pictures of our little guy.

Welcome to our family blog! We are hoping to be able to share stories and memories with family and friends who don't live close by and to be able to read stories, ideas, suggestions and get advice from those whom we aren't able to talk to very often. We hope you'll visit often and learn and grow with us and our family!


We are expecting our first baby!! Our bundle of joy should be arriving sometime around 10.02.10 and we couldn't feel more blessed! The Lord has a plan for our family and we are thrilled that He chose us to be parents, even if we are nervous and have no clue what we're doing. :)



Here is the newest picture of our little bean.

We are not planning to find out what the gender of the baby is, so this will be an adventure! We do have some baby names on "radar", but we haven't nailed it down quite yet. I guess we have a little while to decide (6 months to be more precise) since we aren't finding out! :)

Keep us in your prayers!

Landreth family of 3 :)