Mini update

It's been a couple weeks since I've gotten around to a new post. Just been busy, I guess.

Can I just say that I'm thoroughly enjoying this weather??? Waking up (or getting off work) to temperatures in the 50s-60s... Highs during the day only reaching 80... Ahhhh, fall. We cleaned our apartment Tuesday, and it is so refreshing to have a clean house. And, yes, I've lit my Fall Harvest candles in 85% of the rooms here. The A/C is off, the windows are open. The pumpkin decorations are out, the scarecrows have taken their roosts on the shelf. It is a joy to be here. :)

My brother Josh, joined us for dinner last night. We made the delicious Tortilla Soup that we made a few weeks ago. It was a nice time.

We also had our 24 week check up yesterday!! At this appointment, I had to do my glucose tolerance test, to check for gestational diabetes. I had to gulp down a very sweet, thick, cold, NOT-DESIRABLE cup of orange syrup-y stuff. Reminded me of the syrup they must use to make orange Fanta or Sunkist...just the syrup. Yuck.. anyways. I drank it and had to wait an hour to have my blood drawn. I have yet to get the results of the test. If my blood sugar was over 140, I'll have to go back for a fasting glucose test, and do it all over again, for 3 hours, and have 3 blood draws done. :( I'm really hoping it was less than 140. During our hour wait, we met with our doctor. My blood pressure is still good, 100/70. Weight is...well..creeping on up.. ;) but still on track. Cohen is measuring 25 weeks and we were 24 weeks, 4 days. So, he's doing great. His heart sounded good. We need to start looking for a childbirth education class. It is just a hassle to go up to Parkland on my days off, so we're looking around town. Anyone know of a good one, let me know!

Here is my 24 week belly picture:

He's as big as an eggplant now! 9 inches, 1.7 pounds!

He can no longer be hidden.. but I certainly don't want to hide him!

After scouring the Baby Bargains book to find the best rated baby items and also the best bang for our buck, we've ordered our crib and bedding. The bedding should be here later today, and the crib tomorrow! I'm so excited to start putting Cohen's nursery together! Pictures will follow. :)

My cousins, Jordan and Roland, found out they're having a girl! I'm so excited for them and can't wait to have a new little girl in our family!

Well, I was only up at 6 am because Cohen was kicking around and Daddy was snoring [loudly] despite my repeated attempts to push him to his stomach. :-/  I think I'll try to nap on the couch for a few hours. By the way, it's 58 degrees outside. :) :) :)

Our Baby's Name

We finally decided on our son's name... :)  Well, we decided a couple weeks ago, but I wanted to get his "letters" for his nursery done first. It is the trend these days to hang cutesy letters above the baby crib in the nursery. I like this trend, but I didn't want your basic, run-of-the-mill painted letters in monogram style above his crib.

So I thought of my own way of doing them. Here are the pictures of the letters, as well as our baby boy's name. :)

Cohen

Alexander

Miranda

Very exciting! This is the wall his crib will go on... when we finally get one. :)

We made the letters by printing a template off our computer and tracing it onto photo matting board. Then we cut out the letters. I put a layer of quilting batting on next, to give depth. Finally we covered the matting and batting (hehe!) with brown microsuede. We made the names with simple scrapbooking stickers. The colors are a little deceiving in these photos.. I took one that has a flash glare on it, but it is a pretty good representation of the true colors. They match the bedding we've picked out.. which, I suppose we'll reveal later. :)

And his ears must be burning today, since we've been focusing on and saying his name for a few hours now, because he's been kicking up a storm inside! I was laying down and we were actually watching the kicks on the outside of my tummy. :) It was wonderful.

Banana Caramel Pie

Boy, have we been busy! Is busy the right word? I just know that I've been working a lot this past week and Hector has jumped right back into Young Life, full swing.

Let's see... I worked last Monday and Tuesday, then Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then crazily picked up a fourth shift on Monday. In the NNICU, we have really busy summers.. Not sure why, but babies tend to be born sicker and earlier in the summer time. All those babies conceived in the cold winter months...that, plus often little-to-no prenatal care--just tend to be born too early in the summer months. (And as this is my first year and summer in the NNICU, this is hearsay, not experience I'm writing about.) However, this summer we have been particularly slow... Having around 60 babies at any given time. Well, summer came late for us this year. Within the last few weeks, our baby population has grown well into the 90s. This leaves our unit short on nurses every night...which leaves us nurses opportunities to pick up extra shifts, above our commitment. That said, four shifts in a row darn near killed me. I'm assuming it's because I'm pregnant and very tired all the time, because I asked some nurse friends before I signed up for it.. They all said, "Oh, yeah, the fourth night is just like whatever."

So, I've had two glorious nights off and I'm going back in tonight, then off for three. :)

Signing up for that fourth shift on Monday resulted in me missing the first night of Club with Young Life here. I was really excited to go... Young Life is Hector's life--I really wanted to see him in his element. And we're new here this year, so I'm excited to see him grow with the other leaders and mostly, the kids here. I know God has something wonderful in store for him here.

We needed to cook some good food and hang out together, so we decided on Chicken Tortilla Soup. I didn't take pictures of the making of this meal, but it was incredibly easy and 10x as delicious. From start to finish it took about 1 hour. So worth it! Try it, I'm serious! Chicken Tortilla Soup

Earlier in the day, we crafted Hector's favorite dessert - Banana Caramel Pie. I don't remember, but I believe this is a Pampered Chef recipe from my Mom.

Here are the ingredients:
1 deep dish pie crust in foil pan (usually Pillsbury, in your grocer's freezer)
*24 caramel candies, unwrapped
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk, divided
1/2 cup chopped pecans, divided
2 medium bananas
1 package (5.1 oz) vanilla instant pudding
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 package (8 oz) cool whip

*May substitute a jar of caramel topping for the caramel candies.

Bake the pie crust according to the instructions on the package (around 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes). Make sure you prick the dough with a fork before baking.

Place caramel and 2 T milk in a microwavable dish. Microwave covered on high for 1.5-2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds until candies are smoothly melted. Pour the caramel over the crust, save 2 T for drizzling on top later.

Set aside 2 T of pecans, sprinkle the rest over the caramel. Slice 1 1/2 bananas and arrange over pecans. (Refrigerate the remaining banana to garnish with later.)

Combine the remaining 1 cup of milk, pudding mix and lemon juice in a bowl. Whisk until smooth. Fold in half of the cool whip.

Spread over the bananas, pecans and caramel. Dollop or spread the rest of the cool whip on top of pudding mixture. Refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving.

Just before serving, slice the remaining banana and arrange on top. Drizzle with caramel and sprinkle with pecans. Taa-daaaa!

Perfection, every time!

So, it was a perfect Date Night for us last night. :) We topped it all off with laying very still on the couch and feeling the baby move. It's such a wonderful feeling! I'm so glad Hector can feel him kicking too... I think it makes it all the more real for him. :) I feel our son moving a lot nowadays. Especially early in the morning, when I'm still and quiet. I love it! Tomorrow, we'll be 23 weeks. Can you believe it? I can't... I swear we just found out yesterday.

I had a really cute idea for his initials to hang in his nursery... So we bought the stuff yesterday. We've already had to totally change it once.. because I didn't think it all the way through. But, I think it is still going to be super cute. I'll post pictures as soon as it's finished!

You're still the one...

We had our second anatomy scan this week, on Tuesday. Their intent was to get a better view of our boy's heart. The same lady who did the other one 4 weeks ago, did this one. But our defiant little boy was still faced inward, with his back on the outer edge! This time his head was downward and his feet were up top. He was laying right in the middle, just up and down-backwards. :) She showed us again that he's a boy, and said, "Well, I can't get him to turn. I'll get the other doctor." And with that, she left us alone. We were a little nervous that she had asked for a second opinion, I feel like that's never a good sign. But I trust that it really was to see if someone else could view the heart better and that they would surely tell us if anything were wrong. Right? sighh....

So the other woman comes in... she was very nice and liked to explain exactly what we were viewing on the monitor. She gave us some pictures:

Here he is looking at us!!

His little foot and leg bones! Love this one!

Yep, Mom, still a boy! The little plus sign indicates his boy parts :)

Oh my goodness, I love this little boy so much!

After she took all the measurements again, she told us he weighed 485 grams, or 1 pound, 1 ounce! So tiny! She told us that she saw nothing to cause concern, (but added that this, of course, doesn't promise perfection) and that he's growing great. Of course, her saying there was nothing to cause concern concerned me.. I'm just nervous, I want him to be perfectly healthy. All I can do is turn it all over to God and trust that he's crafting this baby into the little boy he's supposed to be!

Oh, and he's the size of a spaghetti squash now! :)

Labor Day Fun!

We planned a day to have a cookout with our Community Group... Labor Day!

It was an exciting plan, involving us, the Coles, the Allens and the Brannens. The Rays and Dunns were tied up with family gatherings.

Our afternoon started at the Brannens complex with pool time/sand volleyball. The boys played volleyball (it was HOT!) and Callie, Ashley and I took Maggie to the shaded pool area. I'm not sure how, but I left my camera upstairs in their apartment.. :( You know how I hate blogs without pictures.. :( Oh well, I retrieve it later.

We tried to dip Miss Maggie's toes in the water and she just screamed! She wasn't having it that day. It was great catching up, just us girls. Then Mags got hot, so we went into the apartment to wait for the boys to finish up. After they came in, we loaded up and went to the Cole's house, to start the cookout.

About 4 minutes after putting the bratwursts on the grill, the boys discovered the propane tank was empty. Tyler called the neighbors, but nobody had any, so he and Hector ran to the gas station. 

Back in business!

Ashley and Cory preparing the burger veggies.

Hector and Cory playing some Wii Frisbee Golf!

Maggie chews all the time!

Loves her toys :)

After our delicious brats and burgers (and after an emergent trip to get burger buns) we played some Cranium!

(Drawing with my eyes closed!)

HAHA! Tyler was the puppeteer, David the puppet.. He was acting out "Slow Motion"... which my hubby guessed :)

Coincidentally, Hector had to draw with his eyes closed too!

Overall, a very fun night! A nice break in between nights of work.

Hormones make us think alike??

We finally got a chance to meet up with my cousins, Jordan and Roland. We moved further North and they moved further South... so, we're about 15 minutes from each other now! But they're both teachers and I work nights..blah, blah, blah... life gets in the way.

Anyways, perhaps you remember me saying that they are happily expecting their first baby, too. The day we met up, she was about 13.5 weeks and I was 21 weeks. It's so fun to compare pregnancies... we're a lot alike! She was never really sick and neither was I! It must be our Haddix genes. :)

We met up at Taco Diner for some wonderful tacos. Ooohh... I love me some tacos de brisket. After catching up and filling up, I said, "Well, we got you a little baby gift..." At the same time Jordan said, "We got you guys a little something for baby..." We laughed at the coincidence and I reached for our gift first (stashed, unwrapped in my purse). I handed over the little Dallas Cowboys onesie we'd gotten for their baby (we don't know if it's boy or girl yet...) with matching socks. They looked at each other and laughed. "You won't believe this..." Jordan said, and reached for the gift in her purse, also unwrapped. It was a set of three little Dallas Cowboys onesies!! How ironic! We got theirs in 12 month size, since their baby is due in March, after football season and they got us 0-3 month size. I just thought.. Wow.. This is so cool! Let's just hope the Cowboys make it to the Super Bowl this season, since it's being hosted at the Cowboys stadium.

Here is Jordan and Roland with the onesie we got them:

And here we are with the set they got us:

I'm pretty sure our little boy is going to be UBER cute in these. :) Especially when watching football with his daddy, uncle and Pop!

And we have a banana!!

So, our little 7 ounce, 11 inch baby boy is approximately the size of a banana now!

This was right after movies and popcorn.. I don't think I'm normally that big...

After group tonight, which went really well, Hector and I decided to catch a late show at North Park, since we were in the area. We went to see Avatar in 3D. I hadn't even seen the first one.. But it was good! I thought it was a sweet love story. 2 hours and 30 minutes of movie. And I only had to go to the restroom twice! :)

On our way to group it was drizzling/lightning/thundering, yet the sun was shining. I looked up and saw a magnificent rainbow! I thought, "How funny would that be if there was a double rainbow??" And sure enough, upon closer inspection, there was! I made Hector pull over immediately so I could take some pictures of it.

Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.. yup! All present and accounted for!





Hector and I haven't done that much shopping for the baby, but when we do, these are the types of deals we love:

We were just going into this store to look for bedding and saw this rack, beautifully marked "75% OFF LOWEST TICKETED PRICE" so of course we stopped by to thumb through it. And the "Our Price" listed above was a second sale price. Then, at the register they went 75% lower than that one! Months ago, full price, these 4 items would have cost about $94.00. ARE you kidding me?? And we got them for $10.83?? What a deal! This is the kind of shopping that makes me positively giddy!

Bienvenido Septiembre!

Translation: Welcome September!!

Whew... it's been a long summer. But I guess we really have until..what? September 22nd until fall? Three more weeks of >95 degree weather. Three more weeks of sweating in the car until 5 minutes down the road, when it's cooled off. Three more weeks of ridiculous energy bills. Three more weeks of peeling off all your sticky clothes the minute you walk in the door, only to put on the lightest cotton shorts and tank--the bare minimum. Three more weeks of refreshing pool nights. Three more weeks of cook out parties. Oh Texas, you do provide wonderful summers...just why must they be so hot and humid? Fall will mean leaves changing colors. Apple cinnamon candles in every room of our house. Chili on the stove. Pumpkins on the table. Cardigans--OH, how I love cardigans. (I can't wait to wear cardigans over my cute, pregnant belly!) Boots with blue jeans. Football games. It is my very favorite time of the year. And it is upon us. :)

--Baby update--
We had our monthly check up today. (Has it been a month?! Actually no, our doctor was going to be unavailable next week, so it has been 3 weeks.) Our sweet boy is growing just perfectly. He has a wonderful strong heart beat that just melts my heart when I hear it. It is consistently beating 150 beats per minute, even when I check it, here at home. Since the beginning of pregnancy I have gained 8 pounds. Not bad, right? Since I'm 21 weeks this Friday... My blood pressure was at it's lowest today--100/62. I'm perfectly fine with a lower pressure at this point, I've never heard of low pressures causing pre-term labor. And our boy just has to stay inside until at least 36-37 weeks. He just has to! Working in a NICU is probably the worst place to work while being pregnant. Everyday I see sick, sick babies and I think to myself, "How in the world are healthy babies even born anymore?"  With all that can go wrong? Oh, the miracle of life. I asked my doctor where I'd be having the baby, since there is one wing of Labor and Delivery I'd prefer to not be on.. And she assured me I'd be on East. Wonderful news to me. The rooms are bigger, private, and you labor in the same room you deliver in. So, this was a nice, reassuring check-up. We go back next Tuesday for the repeat sonogram. I just can't wait to see our little boy! I'm sure he'll be so much bigger. More later.

Well, tonight is going to be our first evening back with our Foundation group leaders, Tyler and Lisa. They've been vacationing in Florida for three months, so we literally haven't even seen them. It's going to be great to catch up. And talk about our plans for the fall.

Off to bed! (Better late than never, I say!) When we wake up, it's cleaning and laundry day, for sure!