Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a great Easter! Ours was great and full of family time. Yall would have been very proud of me, I went out Friday night and stayed out until 12 am! I know this doesn't sound like much of a feat but it is huge for me :)

Sunday we went to the early service for church and were so happy that Chip, Leslie, and baby Vaughan joined us! Vaughan was such a riot, he LOVED the singing and sang along (well maybe not along but sang). Apparently he and his sister, Cooper, sing together a lot. I find this hysterical because Chip and Leslie are not singers, makes me wonder what kind of odd traits our baby will have. Since I will probably have a boy I have decided it is a good thing that Vaughan is such a big man. They will be a year apart in school and knowing my luck he will want to do dance or the play instead of sports. He will need Vaughan to keep the other kids from beating him up.

Here are two pictures of Vaughan from lunch on Easter. He is the happiest man, especially if you give him a spoon and some puffs.

Here is my obligatory belly shot at 17 weeks. John says it isn't any good because I was wearing black and you can't see the bump....I think you can see it just fine! That baby is getting big!

I am finally starting to get less weird about food, yay! so I don't have to resort to eating cereal, thin crust pizza or mac and cheese every meal. But I have noticed I am having a VERY hard time working my wig...it is getting curlier (well probably more wavy) and more unruly everyday and I am not quite sure what to do with it. I go to the hairdresser tomorrow so I will see what she thinks. All I know is it is NOT cute!

Please Pray!

Please pray for my friends Meade and Mary Elizabeth and their sweet little boy, John. John looked like he was getting better but is now having multiple seizures again. Please pray for his complete healing and for knowledge for the doctors and nurses at CHKD treating him. Pray for peace for Meade and Mary Elizabeth during this very dark time. You can follow their story at: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/stonetwins

Baby's Still There!

Today I had my 16 week check up (that's 4 months for you non-pregnant people). Not much exciting to report. I got to hear the baby's heartbeat again, which is always reassuring, and the doctor said that the baby sounded really happy in there, so that is good too. The next visit is the really exciting one. At 20 weeks (5 months) I have a really in depth ultrasound, so I am very anxious to see the baby again and can't wait to see how big she is. Usually at the 20 week check up you find out what you are having. At first I thought I would definitely want to know but now I have decided not to find out. I mean, I really don't care one way or the other, I thought I would but I just don't. And I have a handful of family members who DID NOT want me to find out. John is laid back, and doesn't care one way or the other. Since we all know I am destined to have 5 crazy boys, most of the stuff I have been getting has been gender neutral or pushing towards boy. I figure I can always toss in a pink blanket if I need to.

Exciting news: I think I have been feeling the baby moving lately. Not very often, but every once in a while I feel a little tickle and I think that might be the baby moving around. Very neat stuff.

The Liberty Bell Monster

Like all mothers I think my baby, currently a 73 lb black lab mix monster named Libbie, is beautiful. She is very soft, one of her un-lab like qualities, and loves to snuggle. We got Libbie at an adoption drive in Alexandria a week after our honeymoon. She was very malnourished and had Lyme disease and heartworms, but she seemed very sweet and I instantly fell in love. Her name when we got her was Liberty, hence why we call her Liberty Bell, but we thought that wasn't a very feminine name so we call her Libbie. She is VERY high energy and loves people and loves to lick them. Libbie only has two main flaws: 1) she is very scared of thunderstorms and will bark and jump around all night during one and 2) she thinks that all small dogs are squirrels and she would really like to eat them. They are both problematic in their own way because if there is a thunderstorm, like there are most of spring and summer, we get very little sleep and when we take her for walks it is all we can do to keep her on the leash.

I have been learning about preparing your dog for a new baby. While I am concerned about the barking, I am not concerned that Libbie will try to eat or harm the baby in any way. We have been lucky because she has been exposed to my niece and nephew many times at many ages. She seems very interested in them and really likes to lick their faces. I have been working on making sure that she is gentle when she takes food from my hands, unlike John's parents dogs which bite your fingers, and I always mess with her when she is eating. John was bitten by the family dog when he was little and I wanted to make sure Libbie wouldn't act the same. The only thing I really think we need to watch is she did try to roll over the baby once when I had it on the bed...strange dog!

I think for a mix-breed dog she is very pretty and photogenic! I just got a new lens for my birthday so I am sure you will be seeing more of her :)

Boy or Girl?

About a month ago I had a dream about the decor for the nursery and decided that I really want to have a white on white nursery with green accents. This way I can go ahead and start decorating and not worry whether we are having a boy or a girl. With my luck, I know that I will have 5 smelly boys back to back and no hope of decorating in my favorite color, pink. I love all shades of pink, they really are so pretty, and what I love the most about it is all pinks match each other. You can't say the same for other colors. I have taken to calling the baby, who is now the size of a navel orange, she, and will probably continue to do so until they show me otherwise. This is not to say that I don't love little boys just as much. My nephew, Vaughanie, is my favorite little munchkin and he has the sweetest temperament. If I could guarantee that I would have a Vaughan I would be a happy camper...it's having a Cliff that makes me nervous...the baby is already exhibiting Cliff like attributes by eating me out of house and home.

Vaughanie Vaughan

Out of Hiding

So as of yesterday I am 15 weeks pregant. My tummy started sticking out at about 10 weeks which made many people think that maybe I was having twins or had my dates wrong...Lucky for me, I just showed early. I think today the tummy is starting to look more pregnant and less beer and donuts.

This weekend I decided to finally clean out my closets and start hanging up the maternity clothes. I am so fortunate that Leslie has shared all of these great things with me! Maternity clothes are so expensive, which I find weird because most of them feel very cheap. I am also not a fan of the way the size them. As if you don't already feel bad enough gaining a pound every other day, they size their stuff very small. I tried on a cute pregnancy t-shirt the other day, that said one size fits all...and it was WAY too small. The sales lady let me know that they also carry size voluptuous...Joy.

There is really a baby in there!

Last Wednesday John, my mom and I all headed back to the doctor for my 12 week checkup and first ultrasound. Despite what the books will tell you, at our first check up all they did was a urine test, blood test and pelvic exam so we were just hoping there was really something in there! Seeing the ultrasound for the first time was the most exciting thing I have seen. Everyone had said you really dont know what you are looking at and John's dad went as far as to say that John looked like scrambled eggs during his ultrasound. This could not have been further from our experience...the second they put wand on my stomach a baby popped up on the screen! During the whole process I was laughing because it was so funny to think there was really this little person moving around in there. After the ultrasound we had the doppler with Dr. Puritz and the heartbeat was so loud and strong! So I just wanted to report that so far all is well with Baby Watson. I have my next appointment in 3 weeks but I don't think we get to do anything exciting. I am including some pictures of the ultrasound, I have to say I was disappointed because none of the pictures were as good as what we saw :)

Here is a profile view...head is this way -->

John thinks the baby has already has a potbelly...like mother like child I guess!

Cute little butt and legs...look at those feet!