Glucose Test & Recent Fun

Wow, I can't believe it's already the last day of September! Even though I'm sad to see summer go, I absolutely love this time of year. Especially with me being pregnant I'm looking forward to the cooler temperatures. :)

Today I saw my OB for my glucose test and it wasn't that bad. I'm one of those people that wakes up starving every morning so for me to have to wait until almost 10am to eat I thought I might die. But it wasn't bad at all and the fruit punch drink wasn't too terribly bad. The good news is that although I have been swelling some, I had no protein in my urine, no glucose in my urine, blood pressure was fine, and well we just won't talk about my weight gain (eek!). Dr. Cimino was very happy with my results and my glucose test should be fine. He said they would call me in the next couple of days if I failed it. Now for the good part. I get to start my 2 week visits! He said "normal" women wouldn't start them yet but he wants to keep an eye on me so I'm super happy to go in every 2 weeks. We will probably do another u/s at some point but he wasn't sure when just yet. Hudson was great and had a heartbeat of 150. He was all over the place and even kicked the dopplar straight on at the end. It was so funny! It actually made me jump he kicked so hard. I love when that happens. :) So for now I'm taking it easy until October 13th which is my next appointment.

Other exciting news...we finally got a front loader washer & dryer with steam yesterday! I <3 washing clothes! I've been talking about getting one for months now but with so many to choose from and they are rather expensive it just gave me so much anxiety thinking about it. I had made my mind up that we were going with a Samsung but then Bob Wallace had a great sale on Whirlpool that I just couldn't pass up so that's what we got. So far it is awesome. I was a little disappointed yesterday b/c the first time I went to use it one of the numbers on the display bar has a light out. I was a little bummed b/c after spending so much money you expect everything to be perfect but anywho, they are ordering a new display piece and we'll get it fixed. I do have to say it is so much more quiet than our old school set and I love that!

Also, Emma is now fully potty trained (except at night) & it is AWESOME! She's been trained since last Wednesday and she now goes all by herself as long as the stool is in place. Yesterday she started telling me to go stand in the kitchen b/c she wanted to do it all by herself. I like to stand right there with her though b/c I'm afraid she's going to fall or something. George and I are so proud of her and it is just another part of her growing up. :(

Since I haven't posted pictures in awhile I took a couple tonight of her riding her tricycle. She is now the master pedal pusher and can even steer in the right direction!


Love this face! And you can see her mega long eye lashes. We still get oohs and aahs over those babies everywhere we go! It cracks me up.


And last but not least our newest family member. I think I'll name them Sally & Susie. We are quickly becoming best friends. :)

What A Big Day!

Today has been a day that I've dreaded for a long time. For the first couple of years after Emma was born I thought that I could never go through pregnancy again b/c I was so scared of what might happen. After almost losing Emma it's so hard to think about putting another baby at risk and of course, myself. Then the 2 year mark hit and I was itching for a baby. :) Once I got pregnant though all of the stress started and as the weeks went on I dreaded the thought of how my body was going to react to this pregnancy. After all, my body had already rejected Emma and I had 2 early miscarriages so what would make this pregnancy different? All I could do was have hope and be positive.

So now I'm at the day-26 weeks 5 days-which is when Emma was born. My doctor said he would be so happy if I could even make it 4 weeks longer than I did with Emma and I'm determined to make it to at least 36 weeks. It is still really scary and being at this point I find myself really overwhelmed at times with the thought of giving birth again. Emma's birth was all so scary and hard especially looking back on it. At the time I did what had to be done and somehow was super positive about all of it but now it freaks me out. With Emma I had 3 months to recover from my c-section and get the best sleep of my life while she was in the NICU but this time I hope to walk out the door with a newborn and a toddler...what am I gonna do? I was in so much pain after Emma and I'm terrified of how it's all going to work. I know I'll be okay but it just gets so overwhelming. But then I think that if I could handle Emma and her oxygen for 6 months then surely I can handle a "normal" baby.

Anyways, enough with the rambling. :) I'm so excited to have made it this far with no complications and I look forward to the day that I get to walk out the hospital doors in a wheelchair holding my baby boy. It'll be a super sweet day!

My sweet princess blessed me with such a wonderful day and we played so hard. She's gone potty about 8 times today and not had one single accident. How awesome is that?! Love the princess!

If All The Raindrops Were Lemon Drops & Gumdrops...

Baby Love

I mentioned yesterday that Emma has been fascinated with her "new" babies even though they are not new at all. Every couple of weeks she rediscovers them and thinks they are new. :) So she spent all day and night playing with them and they even slept beside her in the bed. She was so excited about them it took her forever to go to sleep. I had to keep threatening to take them out of the room b/c she was so wound up about them. What a character!

The sticker club! They were all being so good that we put stickers on them and Emma wanted to line up with them.


Laying down with her babies :)


And so far this morning we are having a wonderful potty experience! When we woke up this morning I asked her if she wanted to go and she said yes. So we hopped out of bed and went to the bathroom and it only took her 2 seconds to pee pee. She was so excited probably b/c I gave her 5 M&Ms but anyways, it worked. BTW, she did end up eating yogurt after her M&Ms and drinking milk. :)

Awesome Potty Day Today!

Well folks, today has been one awesome day for Emma on the potty. It's amazing what will put you in the best mood when you have a 2 year old! I'm seriously on cloud nine and hopefully tomorrow will be just as wonderful.

First off, Emma held her pee for approximately 12 hours today and didn't go potty until 12:30pm! I couldn't believe it. But thankfully when she did go pee pee it was in the potty! Yippee skippeeeee! Then about an hour later she went potty again! Then about 30 minutes after that she had a poopy accident but that was okay with me. We were on a great roll and I was determined to stay positive. Surprisingly around 4:30 we were about to leave to go have dinner at G's work so I wanted her to potty before we left and SHE DID! Oh my goodness can you believe it??? So...then we get home a little while ago and she goes potty for the 4th time today on her potty! (inserts screaming time here) I just can't believe it. It has taken a handful of M&Ms each time but hey she is her momma's girl. I just couldn't be happier right now. Now tomorrow is a different story but I'm going to be positive. :) So far this has been our best potty day and maybe, just maybe we are on a roll. Go Emma!

Okay here is the potty princess on our way to daddy's work. We had to take her blanket, Zoe, and Abby. She's been cracking me up today with her babies. We have the entire Sesame Street collection of plush dolls and all of the Disney plush characters. Well we've been carrying them ALL around today from room to room. It's so funny to see her try and pick them all up. There's probably 15 of those things. She would have taken them all with us to daddy's work if I would've let her. Silly girl!

Is My House Too Cold??

The past few days Emma has been wearing her winter hat and gloves in the house. She keeps talking about wearing them in the snow. Surely it's not that cold in our house! But then again, I am pregnant. :) Oh and check out her new fall outfit. I bought her some jeans and fall shirts back in the summer and I finally got around to washing them all over the weekend. I figured within another month she might need some long sleeves so we are ready!


She kept saying "mommy it is so bright!" talking about the camera flash.


As for the whole potty thing today has been not good. This girl can hold her pee pee for hours and I mean hours. Sometimes she will say she has to go and does and sometimes she will say she has to go, sit on the potty, hop down, and then go pee pee on the floor. That's the most frustrating thing b/c she knows good and well when she has to go. I just don't understand. Then she will laugh. AAAAAHHHH! Yes, it drives me bonkers. She is playing games with me I believe and raising my blood pressure. So far we are on day 5 of panties and I'm just not sure what to do. I don't want to go back to pull ups but how do I truly know if she's ready? Sometimes she loves to go and others she just refuses. Any advice? Just knowing she understands when she has to go makes me think I should keep pushing the potty but I'm sick and tired of smelling urine. This has got to be the hardest part of parenting so far. Anyone want to volunteer to come train her for me? I'll pay you. Seriously. :)

Potty Training Update

Well so far it isn't that bad! Yesterday we didn't have any success but only 2 accidents b/c she held it all day long. I woke up this morning not sure what to expect but having George home to help is much easier. Emma ended up going potty 3 times I believe and had 2 accidents. Once was while she was playing and dancing and then at bathtime. But she does know when she has to go b/c at one point she went to the potty and went all by herself without us in there! I was so shocked I had to fight back the tears. I want her potty trained so bad mainly b/c diapers are so expensive but she seems like such a big girl these days. Especially with this being my 26th week of this pregnancy it is really hitting me hard. But I'm excited thinking that we won't have to buy any diapers for a few months. Maybe with the money we will be saving I could buy a mini van with it! ha ha! So wish us luck over the next couple of days with the potty training. Hopefully tomorrow will be just as smoothe. :)

Gigi's Cupcakes!

I almost forgot that on Thursday I finally tried Gigi's cupcakes here in Huntsville! I had heard about them from another blog (where all my info comes from b/c I have no life) and just had to try them out. I waited over a week and finally had an excuse on Thursday to go to the hospital foundation and then hop on over to Gigi's.

WOW!

Those babies are good! The girls were so so nice when we walked in and I was in heaven. One of the girls asked me if I wanted a list or if she could go over the different cupcakes with me and I had to tell her "no, I've already done my research!" She laughed at me. I ended up with 2-one with nothing but chocolate and a wedding cake cupcake. Deeeelicious! I just hate to know how many calories are in one of those sweet things! :)

I actually came home and ate the chocolate one all by myself. Emma had stressed me out with a crazy bad temper tantrum in public and when I get stressed, I EAT! I even had horrible heartburn but I was determined to enjoy my cupcake while she was napping. I shared the wedding cake one with G and Emma after dinner that night and G thought it had too much icing. You definitely have to eat them with a fork. I was very pleased with the taste and will be going back for more BUT not all the time. For one, it is all the way across town and two, those have got to be bad for me. :) Maybe after I pass my glucose test I can have another one...

If you haven't checked them out you should all head over there b/c they come in cute little boxes too. They are near the hospital on Whitesburg near the Steak Out. You won't be disappointed!

Yummy! (Link to Recipes)

So today on one of my favorite blogs everyone is sharing a recipe. I don't know about ya'll but I am always looking for something new to cook. The easier the better! I seem to always do the same things-grilled chicken, roast, cereal!, taco soup in the fall, etc. Weeeeeell, thanks to today's post over at Kelly's Korner I have lots of new yummy recipes to choose from! I just had to share. So hop on over there and check out what people are making. I'm already making a casserole for tonight that I've been dying to make but I've got lots of chicken breast in the freezer just waiting for next weeks meals. :)

In other news, I am now at 26 weeks!!! Can you believe it? In case you don't know Emma was born at 26 weeks and even though she is growing like a weed and healthy, it is still such a hard week for me. I've been looking forward to/dreading this week my whole pregnancy and now it is here. It's all I can seem to think about right now and at times it gets me all emotional and I do the ugly cry. :) But as of right now this pregnancy is going great and there is no reason I can't make it to 38 wks and get big & plump. :) I go back to the doctor in 1.5 weeks and I'm thinking about asking for an ultrasound just so I can check on Mr. Hudson and make sure he isn't partying too hard in my tummy. Sometimes with all of his crazy kicking I think he's having too much fun in there. Last week I started noticing when he kicks really hard that my whole belly moves! I LOVE IT! I could sit and stare at my belly for hours. Oh and according to the baby websites Hudson should be somewhere around 2 lbs now. With Emma only being 1 lb it just blows me away to think he's already 2 lbs! I keep saying I going for a 10 lber this time!

Sorry no pics right now. Emma and I actually went home to TN Sunday through Wednesday and even though I took my camera we did not take one picture! Maybe this weekend I'll get some new ones. This weekend is actually one of our 1st weekends in a long time that we have absolutely nothing to do. It feels good! So in honor of it today Emma is in her big girl Zoe panties and we are attempting the whole potty training thing again. At least Daddy will be home tomorrow & Sunday to help. Wish us luck!

Sesame Street Live!

Last night was our night out to see Elmo and all of his friends. We had great seats in the 2nd row on the floor! Lots of the characters would come out and interact with the kids and Emma liked that. She did great throughout the show until the very end. Zoe (who is her fav!) was coming out into the crowd and dancing with the kids in front of us. Well Emma thought it was her turn to go play with Zoe and got really upset when she couldn't go up to her and say hi/play. It was rather pitiful! I think she remembers at Disney/Universal that we got to go up to the characters and hug them and take a picture so she didn't understand that we couldn't do that last night. Although other kids did run up to them we didn't let Emma so she ended up and threw a major fit. She cried as we walked out of the Von Braun and George was carrying her. She then started screaming crying saying she wanted her mommy but I couldn't carry her all the way to the car. So I tried my best to ignore her while George wrestled her and of course we felt like everyone was staring at us. :) When we got to the car G said he was never going to another Sesame Street show until Emma was 18. :) Emma calmed down for a few minutes and then she was so tired that she cried for Mommy while halfway asleep in her carseat for most of the ride home. Poor thing needed mommy to hold her and put her to bed. But we still had fun! We managed to get through the show without having to buy any balloons or cotton candy so that was awesome. She never even asked for it.

Daddy and Emma before the show.


Mommy and Emma


Emma's favorite Zoe!


Zoe and the little girl in front of us were dancing. So cute!

"Mommy, I'm Stuck in the Basket!"

Silly, silly girl! I was on the phone with a friend and all of a sudden Emma said "mommy, I'm stuck in the basket" and I had no clue what she was talking about. I ran to her room and found her like this. Of course I had to take a picture! :)

Hump Day!

Well folks, today is 9/9/09! We've got an exciting day planned that started at around 5am this morning. UGH! Miss Emma decided she was too excited to sleep so I'm looking forward to a nice nap hopefully around lunch time today. We have to get rested up because tonight we are taking Emma to see Sesame Street Live! I bought our tickets like 3 months ago and I thought the day would never come. We took her back at Christmas to see it in Nashville and she loved it so I know tonight will be so much fun for her.

In other news Gabby has been here since Monday and she's going back home to TN today. :( We've really enjoyed her company the past couple of days and Emma will be so sad when she leaves.

I will definitely have pics from Sesame Street to share tomorrow. We have floor seats this time so I'm pumped! :)

Now for a few pics from last night...Mrs. Tracy and Barbra found this cute ladybug costume at Cracker Barrel the other day for Emma. She's been having fun playing with her bug headband and magic wand. Thought this was too cute not to share!






Check back tomorrow for Sesame pictures. Emma is so ready to "play" with Elmo and Zoe!

Ashli and BJ's Wedding!

Well Ashli and BJ are on a plane to Mexico for the next 10 days! I wish I was in their suitcase!

The wedding was absolutely beautiful on Lake Guntersville and we all had such a wonderful time. At first I was a little worried yesterday b/c it rained ALL day long but as soon as we got to the Lodge it magically stopped raining. :) We couldn't have asked for better weather.

Remember how I was so worried about Emma having a terrible 2 meltdown or possibly even WWIII?? Well I was worried for NO reason! Emma was an absolute doll for both the rehearsal dinner and for the wedding! George and I were so ecstatic that she behaved so well and had no terrible 2 meltdowns. It was truly a miracle! For those of you with 2 year olds you know what I mean. There were over 100 people at the wedding and she was just so charming and sweet. We had so many compliments on how cute and great she was so I was one happy momma!

Now on to the pics!

Right before the ceremony Emma was cheesing it up!


We had lollipops and M&Ms on hand to keep her happy! (Oh and for future reference don't use M&Ms! Next time I will load up on Smartie candy!)


Up close and personal!


The cutest flower girl I've ever seen walking down the aisle. She only threw a couple of flowers b/c they had rose petals all down the aisle. Emma being the dainty princess that she is didn't want to walk on the rose petals! So she stepped over to the side and walked in the grassy part. It was too cute!


Keep on going Emma! I'm so proud of her! Such a proud mommy.


Both flower girls, Marin and Emma with the Matron of Honor Tiffany. Emma stood up there for a few minutes and then made her way back to Mommy and Daddy.


Father of the Bride and Ashli! Wasn't she beautiful?


Announcing Mr. and Mrs. Jennings! LOVE them both soooo much!


After the ceremony we did pictures with the photographer and then it was time for BBQ, cake, and punch! It was so nice and relaxing and we got to see lots of friends from college. Emma just played around and talked to everyone! She did make a BFF at the rehearsal dinner the night before. Her name was Ava and they are the same age. They had such a blast together and it just made the night so fun! They played so hard and jumped liked crazy. They kept hugging each other and Ava kept saying "Emma is my friend and I really like her!" Isn't that sweet? Too bad they live in Atlanta b/c we really hope to play with them again.

I ended up changing Emma's clothes during the reception and I'm glad I did. Look how dirty she is! She's got dirt/food all over her chin and her clothes are nasty. She took a fall at one point and her right pant leg is covered in mud. But she was still super cute! :)


Congrats to Ashli and BJ! Thanks for letting us be a part of your special day!

Sweetness!

Daddy & Emma spent a few minutes playing outside today and Emma was being extra cheesy for some shots. We are so excited that Daddy is home for 3 days! Lots of playtime!



Don't you just love her??? I sure do!


Happy Labor Day weekend! We've got Ashli & Brandon's wedding rehearsal tonight at Lake Guntersville and then the big DAY is tomorrow! I'm so excited for our friends and I can't wait to share some pics from the festivities. :)

Flower Girl In Action...

Emma's Rehearsal

With Emma's big flower girl debut approaching we thought we better let her practice. However, she does not do too well with crowds so I will also have M&M's and Zoe waiting for her at the end of the aisle. :) Can you tell this mommy is super nervous? I will probably be so sick to my stomach this weekend! Anyways, here's a few pics of her practicing and she is so cute as always.


"Yippeeeee!"




"All riiiiight!"

The Next Picasso?

So I've been working on painting Hudson a picture with his name on it for his room. I have nothing hanging on the walls yet and I'm just dying to get stuff up there! While Emma was in the NICU George and I painted her name letters and it is just so much fun to do something creative for the kids. Emma was just all anxious while I was painting today and wanted to help so I got out her finger paints. I think she could paint all day!

Hudson's picture (almost done) and Emma being creative!


She was concentrating so hard!


Hope everyone is having a wonderful week! I can't believe tomorrow is Thursday. Where has the week gone? But at least my hair appointment is tomorrow and then we are getting close to the wedding! :)