Tuesday, January 10, 2012

is it today?

The past few days, I've wakened every morning wondering if today is "the big day." According to the calendar, we are t minus 10 days until due date. I am aware that lots of babies come before their due date, but there are also babies that come after their due date too. 

At my last doctor's appt, I was around 70-80% effaced and 1-2 cm dilated. I have another ultrasound, fetal monitoring and vaginal check tomorrow afternoon, and I'm interested to see if little Eden is any closer to making her appearance. I think R is getting more nervous as time quickly approaches. He texts me every morning and asks how things are going...which I find hilarious since I am up with him every morning and see him off when he leaves for work. No one seems to believe me when I say that I will be more than happy to let them know when something is actually happening. 

Last night, I started feeling kinda weird, and wasn't sure if I was going to start having consistent contractions or not. Apparently it was just an upset stomach for a little while! Eden is still moving around and kicking me in the ribs. I can honestly say that is one part of pregnancy that I will not miss. The right side of my ribs may never be the same again :)

 Since I have this wonderful gluten free and dairy free diet, I decided it would be in my best interest to make some food ahead and freeze it. Mind you, our freezer is not large and although we have a freezer in our guest house, it's filled with Randy's last grouper catch.
I made the lists today of what I've frozen, and we have dinner food/meat to last us at least a full week, and breakfast food for at least a week. I figure I'll just keep making some extra bkfast stuff every day or two before our little girl comes. That will take much of the stress out of our morning routine!

 Until Eden decides to make her appearance, I'm carrying on as usual. Cleaning, going to the gym, sorting through things in the house, and trying to keep things in order. It's life as usual here in the Whitehead house

Thursday, December 29, 2011

How it flew by take 2..

For some reason my blog page kept messing up, so here we are with a second one.
In March, we dug up the front and back yard, and I mean we dug nice, big trenches in it..lol! My poor husband had to put in the sprinkler system and we had to make sure it was running properly before we could sod our yard. We picked May as our target for sod, and knew the sprinkler system installation would take some time.
Look at those beautiful trenches!

After we completed the sprinkler system, we knew we needed to work on the landscaping of the yard. We recruited my mom, aka the flower lady, to come down and help us me. Randy kinda punted on the flower planting; which was ok with me. Thankfully my mom is super tough, as there's no way I could have done it all by myself in 3 days!!
Prettier patio with the addition of flowers!

G
Front garden



Back in February, I told Randy that I needed to go on a vacation. I'm not a presents kinda girl, but I do love traveling/vacations. We debated on what we wanted to do..without spending a ton of money, so we decided a cruise would be our best bet..especially since neither of us had been on one. We took a 7 night cruise with Royal Caribbean to Haiti, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. We snorkeled in Cayman and Cozumel and enjoyed relaxing on the ship when we weren't docked.

First formal night at dinner

Snorkeling in Cozumel....gorgeous water
We came home on Mother's Day, and it was just a few days later, on May 11th that we received news of a wonderful gift from the Lord...I AM PREGNANT! We had our first ultrasound on May 31st, and by then, the blessing of 1st trimester nausea had already settled in for a long trimester nap.
Our first glance at the newest little Whitehead!
The end of May brought on the sod. May 20th, a huge truck pulled up loaded with our Zoysia grass, and man was it exciting. I know this sounds dorky, but I actually got teary eyed once it all started coming together. It is amazing how much difference some sod makes in your back and front yards.

The summer months brought lots of guests our way. Randy's parents, my aunt and cousins, another cousin and wife, my mom, and my brother and a friend took us through the majority of the summer months. By the time summer was nearing a close, the 1st trimester nausea was ending (thank the Lord), and I was starting to feel halfway normal again. The last weekend of July, I drove to Atlanta for a weekend fitness conference and then spent a few days with family in Augusta. While I was gone, Randy and another guy spent a whole Saturday removing our old back door and frame and replacing it with a new one. This had to be complete before we put in our new flooring.
Yep, we removed the carpet from the 3 bedrooms and replaced it with laminate. The project began a little sooner than Randy wanted but I was in a rush b/c our little baby was on the way and I didn't want to be helping him towards the end of my pregnancy.

By the beginning of September, I was 20 weeks pregnant and we went for our next ultrasound. They tried to determine the gender, but were unable to give us conclusive evidence...we walked away with, " We think it's a girl." We had heard that you should take a babymoon before the baby is born, so R and I decided to take a trip to Hawaii. We were fortunate to use sky miles for our tickets, and we stayed with a friend who lived in Kailua on the island of Oahu. We went to Hawaii without a big agenda..we just wanted to relax and enjoy our last vacation with just the two of us (for a while at least).
Someone loves the thumb!

When in Hawaii, one must eat shave ice

At the Dole plantation
At the end of September, we returned for another ultrasound..this time we received this news:
It's a girl!
Yep, we have a little girl on the way. Of course, I was thrilled, and Randy has definitely warmed up to the idea of having a little girl. We named her Eden Joy, and can't wait until we get to see her in person.
We spent the month of October working on the laminate flooring, and in November we drove to Augusta for my first baby shower and my grandma's 80th birthday party. It was awesome getting to see family members from out of town, and having so many of us together all at one time. The very next week we drove to Mobile for Thanksgiving, where Randy and I took advantage of Black Friday to spend $300 on diapers from Babies R'Us..yikes! Hopefully they will last us a few weeks..lol

December came pretty fast, and I had to get Eden's room ready for her arrival. We've decided to put her in the pack n play in our room for a few weeks, and then we'll probably transition to the crib in her room. R's birthday was the 8th, and I had a baby shower on the 9th and the 10th. B/c it's too hard for me to travel now (my back hurts after about 4 minutes in any vehicle), my mom and youngest brother came down for Cmas.
Enjoying the nice weather

With my little brother
Randy's parents are coming over today to celebrate a late Cmas and so R and his dad can go fishing.
As I type this, I am 22 days from my due date with Eden. Yep, this year has flown by. Soon, our little girl will be here, and our lives will be forever changed. It's scary, yet exciting at the same time. My sister in law Haley is due in 3 days with my nephew James, and our other sister in law Morgan is due to have a C section with our other nephew on March 20th. My cousin Lydia is also pregnant with a little girl and she's due on Feb. 15th. My cousin Amanda got engaged on Cmas Day, so we are also expecting to attend a wedding at the end of 2012. We have a lot to look forward to, and are certain that God's hand is in all of this. Thank you Lord for your blessings..some in disguise and others not so much.

How it flew by..

It just occurred to me th at it's the end of the year. Geez, where did the time go? It's always good to reflect upon the past year and think about experiences, heartaches, hurts, God moments and blessings. I ended the sentence with blessings b/c I am much more prone to remember the others first.

Randy and I began 2011 by building a brick patio behind our house. Let me just say that it was quite a project...a project that was constructed during one of the coldest months of the year..even down here at the beach. It was very frustrating, and turned out to be much more expensive than we planned, but we love it now.

Here we go!

The finished product! yay
 After the completion of our patio, we had to build a brick walkway throughout the entire backyard which would connect the back house (guest house) to our house and the fence. (Keep in mind our backyard was a bunch of dirt). This took much longer than the patio.
In February we celebrated our 1st anniversary with an evening get away to a bed and breakfast about an hour from our house. We spent the night on Valentines Day, and oddly enough, most restaurants were closed in the town we stayed in b/c it was a Sunday night!! After much frustration, we bought a pizza from Hunt Brothers' (located in the Piggly Wiggly grocery store), and ate chocolate and some pita chips we also purchased. We completed the night by watching Sleepless in Seattle on our laptop since the B&B didn't have a tv or dvd player! It was an evening to remember.
Pathway btwn the houses before the construction


Pathway after construction

Riding bikes at the state park for our anniversary          
In February, I was also diagnosed with Crohn's Disease. This was quite a shock since no one else in my family has this problem with their small intestine. After a few weeks of keeping a food diary, I realized that I was lactose intolerant. I also stopped eating foods with gluten and most starches. I also had to give up vegetables such as cauliflower and brussel sprouts. It's been quite a challenge to change my our food lifestyle. I began making breakfast with almond meal, and lunches and dinners without any dairy products. 10 months later, it's still challenging for me, as I was a cheese lover! B/c of the tests I took to diagnose the Chrohn's, I ended up losing 4 pounds..which is a lot for someone who hardly weighs anything to begin with. Packing on the pounds is not something that I can easily do, and it's been quite a battle.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       In March we continued working on our brick pathway, and finally completed it towards the end of April. I can't tell you what a relief it was! It told Randy I never want to do brick work again!! I forgot to mention that we had to put sprinklers in our front and backyard to prepare for the sod that was coming in May. Here's a pic of what our backyard looked like at one time!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                











Friday, December 23, 2011

time is tickin' away

Today we have reached 36 weeks. I can't believe how fast this pregnancy has flown by. Of course the first trimester nausea and fatigue seemed like they would never end, and now we've reached the final stretch. 

My sister in law, Haley, is due to give birth to my nephew James next Saturday. We thought he was going to come a week or two ago, but he's still in the womb. His daddy, my brother, wants him to come on a Saturday so he doesn't have to find anyone to work at his gym the next day. I find that quite hilarious, but you can't fault him for hoping. 


As of today, I weigh about 118 pounds. I weighed on Wednesday and was 119, but apparently my weight changes all the time. Honestly, I'm quite pleased that I've gained this much, and have a couple weeks left to gain more. 


Most women who see me like to comment on how small they think I am. I guess they think all pregnant women look huge. I was in JC Penney last week, and the lady that checked me out wanted to know when I was due b/c I was so big! lol.. I was a little surprised at her comment after she told me she gained 55 pounds with her child and I had told her I've gained 17 or 18. 


Apparently Eden puts quite a strain on my back as I can't sit or lay down without major middle back pain. In fact, it's getting worse at night now as I'm tossing and turning about every 45 minute to an hour. I know this b/c I look at the clock each time..ugh! I wish I could sleep standing up as it doesn't bother my back at all!


Because we're only a few weeks away from Eden's arrival and I can't sit in the car for more than like 2 minutes without hurting, my mom and youngest brother are coming down today for Christmas. In fact, they should be here pretty soon. Of course, it's been rainy this week, and now it's turning cold..not much of a beachy weather greeting, but it will have to do. 


I'm past my snack time, and Eden is letting me know. Randy bought us 2 boxes of SEES chocolates and a container of Toffee-ettes. They arrived in the mail today with the package saying Merry Christmas to Alicia Whitehead from Randy Whitehead. My husband is quite intelligent. He bought what he says is a Cmas present for me, but he will certainly benefit from...believe me as he already had a chocolate when they arrived :)


I hope everyone has a relaxed and enjoyable Christmas. I'm looking forward to spending it here at home with my family.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Musings of a procrastinating pregnant lady

I don't know about other pregnant ladies, but it sure it tempting to want to buy things for your baby! We have multiple consignment stores here in PC, and sometimes I have to tell myself, "Do not stop..keep driving." 

Growing up, I loved reading books (and still do), and I feel that it's important to instill that in your children; especially when you're married to a man who would rather do most anything than sit down and read a book! This past Saturday morning, Randy and I decided to visit a few "yard sales" in search of a white dresser for Eden's room. Our search kept us moving further and further down Back Beach Road, and ultimately led us to Destin. We decided to stop in every consignment store/antique store and Goodwill type store we passed by just to make things interesting. It really was fun!

While we never found a dresser we wanted to purchase, we spent a lot of time looking at books. I purchased a few books for Eden, and I'm sure I'll always be more excited about them than she is..lol. Here are 3 of my finds from this past weekend:




Eden's book collection is growing!


Randy really enjoys yard sales. He loves looking for fishing gear and tools, and of course now I like looking for cheap baby stuff. We have gotten really lucky with 2 of the yard sales we have visited and purchased some super cheap, but really nice clothes for Eden. I took a few pics of a couple of the outfits that I've bought for her. My youngest brother, Brad, was very concerned that all  her clothes will be pink. I assured him that we are also buying red, yellow, green, brown, orange, and purple too! (There's so much in pink for girls!)




See, not everything is pink! 
 





















Health wise, things are going pretty well. On Halloween, I told Randy that I was having some pain in my middle back and also in my right side. We were a little concerned that it might be a kidney problem, but decided to wait it out during the night to see if it progressively became worse. Thankfully, when I woke up the next morning it was gone, and we avoided a trip to the ER! I called the nurse just to be on the safe side, and she said if I didn't have any other symptoms like fever, etc, then it was probably my ligaments stretching.

Eden's newest favorite place to kick me is in the ribs on the right side of my body, and I guess I'll be living with sore ribs for the next 9-11 weeks. Time has really flown by, and the past few days it has overwhelmed me that very shortly our little girl is going to be here! 
Randy has been very supportive, and we've been spending some good, quality time together before E arrives. We're lucky we live .25 miles from the beach, and we've been taking pre-sunset walks as often as we can. The sand and water are cold, but it's quite peaceful now that tourist season has died down.
There's much more that I want to write about, but I think I'll save that for another blog :)

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

coming along..

I honestly feel a little bit sorry for Randy. I feel like all I probably ever talk about is something related to a baby or baby product. Maybe I'll surprise him one day and randomly start a conversation about the best fishing spots or how the stock market is doing.

I'll be 27 weeks on Friday, and I go next Wednesday for the dreaded glucose test. I'm praying that Eden and I pass with flying colors, and we can continue on to the next phase of pregnancy. This Friday marks the last day of our birthing classes. I was worried that Randy would hate spending 6 Fridays of his life sitting in a 2 hour class, but he really has enjoyed it and we're both a little sad to see it end ***yes, R told me he has enjoyed learning and attending the classes***.  Although this whole having a baby thing still seems a bit overwhelming, at least we feel a bit more prepared having been through the classes.

At my 24 week ultrasound, I was diagnosed with placenta previa, which means my placenta is growing right in front of the birth canal and at the present state would not allow the baby to pass through. I am not sure when they will do another ultrasound to check the placenta, but one of our latest prayer requests is that the placenta would move to another location as my uterus continues to grow and expand.

Last week, R traveled to California for a training, and I was most unfortunate to come down the the stomach flu. Thankfully it only lasted 24 hours, but this gal still lost 3 pounds! It's quite infuriating as I have really worked to put on weight, but I am confident that the Lord is protecting our little girl and she will gain weight like she needs to. R left for another work trip on Monday morning, but this time I'm feeling ok!

I think I've finally completed my baby registries. I've tried to only register for things that I think I need, and just a few wants. I don't need a whole bunch of baby stuff laying around here collecting dust and not being used. It's still difficult to plan for what our little girl will need, and but if we run out of things or need something, Target is only 1.5 miles down the road :)

One more month and I'll have my first baby shower, and last long road trip during pregnancy. We're going to Augusta for a few days to celebrate my grandma's 80th birthday, and I am looking forward to seeing family since we won't be there for Thanksgiving or Christmas this year.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Rainy days make me sleepy...

This post has nothing to do with the fact that's it's been raining for a few hours.  I just realized that I could definitely take a nap right now, but then I would never get this blog out.

As I type this, I'm getting kicked in the stomach..well, in the uterus. Baby Whitehead likes to kick me, punch me, move around, and do whatever the heck babies do in there, and I am so glad that she does. Somehow, it makes me less paranoid to know that the baby is active.

It's been a full few days around here. R's parents came this past weekend and R and his dad caught a few huge red grouper fish...needless to say he was pumped.
 I wasn't as pumped b/c not only am I not a big grouper fan, I certainly don't like the idea of having to cut and clean raw fish. And no, I would not have made it during the pioneer days..God knew what he was doing when he created me in 1978.  Thankfully, R's mom took on the task of cleaning and cutting the fish once R took the meat from the fish carcass. This whole process took about 2 hours! Let's just say that I tried to be a trooper, but towards the end, I had to sit down and take a rest from looking at and smelling raw fish. 

*Note* When pregnant, do not subject oneself to this type of activity

We are finally working on flooring in the last bedroom, which happens to be our bedroom. Baby W's crib and mattress arrived last week, but we can't put it together until the flooring is complete. Why? B/c R and I had to move our bed into the baby's room until we are finished and there isn't room to construct a crib. Sigh..I can wait another week or so :)

We received our Graco stroller and baby hamper in the mail yesterday, and are now waiting on our Graco Snugride 35 to arrive. Today, I scored with finding a FP Rainforest baby swing on craigslist for a great price, which makes up for the swing that someone basically stole from us a few weeks ago at the consignment sale..in fact, this swing was even $10 cheaper! Yay!

L ooks like plans are getting underway for little baby's showers. I am looking forward to receiving some new, cute things, and to seeing people I don't get to see too often.  We have another ultrasound on Friday afternoon, and are looking forward to seeing more pics of our little one. I will be 24 weeks on Friday, and can't believe it's only 1 more month until the 3rd trimester begins! yikes..