"Just preggin' it up!"

So this weekend when I ran into Stearns, a buddy of mine, he asked what I've been up to. When I replied, "not much" he was quick to say, "Just preggin' it up, huh?!". God I love him!!

Well I am 20 weeks/5 months!! AKA.....1/2 WAY THERE!!!! It feels good. It feels REALLY good! I even went home and filled out my preadmission paperwork to the hospital that I randomly remembered I was supposed to do this week. That for some reason made things start to feel really real! I almost can't believe that in just a few months we will have a baby!!! It is crazy, amazing, unreal yet so real, scary & just plain exciting! I guess that would mean that I have mixed emotions. But whatever it is, I am ready! BRING IT ON BABY GIRL!

I am a bit frustrated this week with the baby's movement. I was feeling flutters fine for several weeks but as the placenta is growing I am feeling well, not much at all. The placenta is an "anterior placenta" meaning that it is growing on the front (my belly) side of the uterus. It acts as a pillow between the baby and me being able to feel the baby. So rather then her kicking my uterus wall she is kicking the placenta making it more difficult for me to be able to feel it. UGHHH! It is so frustrating because I want to feel left hooks and karate kicks! All the things I am reading say I should be able to tell if she is awake or asleep and what time of day is her "active" time. Yeah, not so much! Oh well. I know sooner of later she will be big enough to feel pillow or no pillow in the way!

Enough about me...........MY DAD IS CANCER FREE!!!!!!!!!! We went to Concord last Thursday for his surgery which he did really well with. He went home on Friday and I went and spent the day with him on Sunday. He is getting around really well considering! His Dr told us on Thursday when he had finished the surgery that it would be this Wednesday or Thursday before we would hear back from pathology on the results to see if he had gotten it all. They had to check the margins around the mass they removed to make sure they were clear of any cancer cells. Well, Dad got a surprise phone call last night personally from his Dr saying that he is cancer free!! He may have to do a round of chemo and radiation here soon but that is just to kill off any straggling cells and to make sure that it stays gone! He was on cloud nine when he called me last night and so was I! Once again, I am so proud of his attitude and determination! He did just what he said he was going to do....kick cancers ass! I just had no idea it would be in such a timely manner! Go Daddy!

Thanks again for all of your prayers and support! The power of prayer is truly amazing!

Lots of love,
Laine

Back to my roots....

Well not exactly what my roots are today but once upon a time they were this blonde! I got to go back to my blonde hair a few weeks ago and I feel so much better about myself! I was totally nervous the whole time and afterwards drove straight home to listen to the heartbeat on the doppler, like the crazy first time mother that I am already proving to be! I should have known it was fine with Dr Cousins telling me to, "Go dye your hair!!!" but I was still nervous for some reason. Anyway, so lets just all pretend that I am a natural blonde! Ok? Because I WILL be that 70 year old woman still dying my hair blonde!! :) And like I said, I am getting bigger by the day.....

This weekend we went to my cousin Elizabeth's high school graduation brunch in Winston and I thought when we got home we better capture a quick/rare glimpse of me showered, hair straightened, make-up on and with cute clothes on. That is a rarity these days! It is usually me laying around the house with one of Drew's undershirts and his big-ole PJ pants on.

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Here is the video I promised a while ago. We love hearing our little girls heart thumping away! This was about a month ago but its the cutest one we have.....

Let me preface this story by saying that Drew is very excited we are having a girl.....BUT he says that the moment we found out that it was a girl he knew what he was in for! He was right.....I have been SHOPPING like crazy. All "great deals" I tell him, but still. I bought 8 dresses for next summer that all have their own matching bloomers! AHHHH!!!! I have decided that it's my favorite thing in the world....Outfits with matching bloomers! I know what you are all thinking, "You are going to get so many clothes at your baby showers" but those are usually all newborn or 3-6 months outfits which will be winter clothes. What I am buying is 6-9 months things for next summer. The day after we found out I called my mom to tell her that I had been shopping and she told me that she had been shopping for herself but when she passed the infants section she put back what she had for herself and bought the baby clothes instead. :) As soon as I got off the phone with her I walked inside and had a message from my mother in-law saying that she had been shopping too!!!! Needless to say, we are not excited at all!

The Dr's have flip-flopped my dad's treatment. He is having surgery tomorrow!! He will then have chemo and radiation "if needed" later on. This is great news! Our hopes are that surgery goes as planned tomorrow and that he has a speedy recovery. Please keep him in your prayers!

Much Love,

Laine

Slips!!!!!

We had a great ultrasound yesterday! Even bigger and better then we had anticipated because Dr. Cousins slipped and told us what we are having! We had the ultrasound tech "go there" to see what we were having without us looking or knowing and put the pictures in a sealed envelope. We had been on the fence about finding out for the last few days and wanted to do it on our own if we were to find out at all...and it certainly wasn't going to be yesterday! We were so excited with our cute little envelope after the ultrasound waiting on "Cous" to call us into her office. She finally said her famous line, "Come on team!" as she blew through the hallway. Mom, Drew & myself headed on in. She was surprised that we were not going to find out the sex right off and made fun of me saying, "The girl that goes out and rents a damn baby doppler isn't finding out??!!!!". Anyway, we sit down and she turns her computer screen towards us as she sits her laptop on her desk and starts to go through the ultrasound pictures. At this point she thought that the sex was noted only in the ultrasound techs write up and not in the pictures. We shortly found out as she was scrolling through the pictures that she was wrong. All the sudden she clicks to the next picture and all we see is, "ITS A GIRL!!!" typed on the picture! Mom and I look at each other and start screaming and then I look at Drew and, poor thing, he had no clue what was going on. I said, "Did you see that?" and he looked over at the screen and immediately saw what I was talking about. Poor Dr. Cousins felt horrible! She sat with her head in her hands the rest of the appointment. We are really excited but still in shock that we know!

The baby's heart rate was at 158 and SHE now weighs 8oz! All the anatomy looked great. We saw the four chambers in HER heart, HER kidneys, stomach, bladder, all the bones in HER legs, arms, hands, feet, HER brain and that sweet little profile picture that gets me every time! SHE would not be still so I'm sure she is going to be a wild one like someone we know! :) Here are some pictures from yesterday:

I love those little lips and that little nose! I cant wait to "sugar" all over them as my Gran would say!

These shots are always freaky to Drew & me but I do love how SHE is posing with that hand up under her chin! I should have known it was a girl right then!

There is a glare on this one but this is one of the ones that shows HER girly parts. One leg is straight out and one is bent up over Her body but there is her girly area right there in front of the cursor. Can you tell I am a bit excited with all of the "SHE's" and "HER's"???

My Dad's CT scan results showed that the cancer is centrally located in the area around the mass! That's GREAT news! The only bad news is that there is one other spot showing up in his bile duct that he is going to have to get checked out. They do not know if it is a cancerous mass, a benign mass or a totally different problem with the way the bile duct is functioning so he will be having and MRI on that area to see what is going on. He will meet with his new surgeon this Thursday to plan out the next step. He has a great attitude about it and that makes all the difference in the world. I am very proud of him! Thank you to everyone for your continued support and prayers!

Love to all,
Laine

What a week....

I wrote this last week but didnt have the time to post it....

We have had several ups and downs this week. My dad (Dave) was diagnosed with colon cancer last week. It was a really big shock at first but now that it has all set in I am taking it ok. He has a great attitude about it all which helps me to stay positive. Our new motto is to "kick cancers ass". I informed him that it was something we can do together, and that we will! He knows he has a lot to live for with his first grandchild on the way. Lord knows Drew will not be the one to teach him/her to fish, hunt, drive a boat, water ski, shoot guns, etc. Dad says regardless of it its a boy or girl they will be learning all those things. I sure did! :) We went for his CT scan yesterday and he will get the results in the few few days as to if/where it has spread and what stage it is in. It looks like the plan will be to do chemo and radiation, to kill cancer cells in the area and to possibly shrink the mass some, then to have surgery to remove the mass. Not that he will ever get on my grandmothers computer and read this but...I love you daddy and you mean the entire world to me!



On a lighter note, I can feel Baby Rendy moving inside of me!!!! I was feeling random flutters like every other day only when I was laying still for a while but now I have felt it everyday for 5 days...like several times a day! It is still really light flutters but I am definitely feeling it! I am so ready for some kicks and jabs even though my Mom says, "No you aren't!". I know it will get a bit painful by the end but I can already say feeling that miracle we have created inside of me move is the BEST feeling in the world! If I have to say what it feels like it would be something like a fish swimming inside of a fish bowl that you swallowed into your lower belly. But since that sounds so bizarre I will just say "flutters, tickles, blah, blah, blah" like I read everywhere. Lets be real though for one second.....It feels like a little baby growing and moving inside of you! Hands down, the coolest thing in the world!



We are going to the doctor on Tuesday for our "big" ultrasound. It's the one where most people find out the sex but we will not be doing that. It is still a big ultrasound though because they measure everything about the baby and we get to see how much he/she has grown since our 12 week ultrasound. Anytime we get to see the baby is pretty "big" for us. My Mommy is going to come with us to the appointment too. I thought it would be pretty cool and special to include her on an ultrasound visit. She is not excited at all.....She calls me everyday to say, "Now the appointment is Tuesday the 9th at 9:00, right?". "YES, MOM!", I say. She keeps "checking her daytimer" to make sure it is in there. I know it must be bolded with highlighter all over it by now. The woman is crazy.....crazy excited about the 1st grandchild!



I am growing leaps and bounds everyday it seems. Thank the Lord for Maya!! She gave me two Rubbermaid bins full of maternity clothes! I am still sorting them and putting them away a week later. I actually filled the bins up with clothes a cant wear anymore and Drew put them in the attic. I am rather determined get back into every single one of those cute tops and jeans! (Maya, I know I told you that I would give you the bins back but I will have to just buy you some new ones)

Much Love,

Laine