The Cutest Blog on the Block

Thursday, August 25, 2011

28 weeks aka 3rd Trimester!

Happy 7 months/28 weeks/kick-off of the final trimester to our sweet little girl :) Baby Emersyn is between 14-15 inches long and she weighs about 2 1/2 pounds. Her favorite things to do this week are kick the fire out of her mommy, and that's just alright :) Sleep and comfort are over-rated, anyways! We are SO excited to finally hit this last big mark, the next one we will be holding Emersyn! It seems like so many things we have been waiting on and looking forward to are finally here. Lance, myself, and my sweet mother are making our trip to Dothan on Monday for Lance to complete all of his checks for work, my first doctor's appointment with our new OB, and hopefully find a sweet little home.  I wrote down all of our events coming up at the end of August and through September, I only work one 5 day week!! I'm off most Mondays for doctor appointments (since we are going every 2 weeks now!), we have baby showers coming up that I am taking the next day off for, and just all kinds of excitement as we get ready for our sweet angel to arrive!
Lance and I are so excited to start this new chapter in our sweet little family's life. We are excited to see what Dothan holds and so anxious to have baby girl in our arms :) We are praying for a smooth transition and an easy decision as we try to find a place to live the next year or more. We really cannot believe how fast this pregnancy has gone by and how close we are to our due date- Emersyn has furniture, bedding, a travel system, enough clothes for her entire first year, and all the love in the world just waiting on her to get a little bigger and make her grand appearance. I can not wait to put her nursery together and just sit in our glider and wait on her to be here in my arms!
As far as mommy goes, I am officially a large person- a very large person. I feel enormous. My belly button literally doesn't have one more centimeter before it pops- so we are waiting, not so anxiously, on that to happen any day now. I don't sleep much and am very much looking forward to the move so I will have a recliner to sleep in when the left side of my body goes numb from not changing position all night because Miss Emersyn has a FIT if I roll over to my right side. Maximus sleeps right up against her every night and she kicks him all night long, I think he loves his sister! I have become much more snappy and vocal in the past couple of weeks. I noticed this at the gym the other day, I about had it with some meat-heads that kept thinking they could take over all the machines at one time and continued to get in my way- you don't get in a hasty pregnant lady's way! Raw meat has started to gross me out again, I can eat meat but I can't cook it or look at it without gagging. I stay pretty tired and say many silly things from the lack of brain function. Here is the "about to pop but still has 12 weeks to go" belly picture for the week.

Friday, August 19, 2011

27 weeks

We had another doctor's appointment yesterday morning to kick off a new week- Emersyn is doing great. She was flipping and moving and her heart rate was a high 150- you could tell she was exercising! Mommy, on the other hand, had a heart rate of about 1,000,000! It's been getting rough with baby girl getting bigger each day- the next 3 months will be interesting. My heart rate was up- higher than mine has ever been at rest, my bp was higher than it's ever been, and I have had the worst time trying to breathe! The doctor didn't seem concerned with heart rate or bp- they were both still normal or low for pregnancy, but like I said- higher than I like. He explained that the lack of breath was also normal, my diaphragm has about 1/6th of the area of expand that it had before a sweet little girl was taking up all the room in mommy's belly. He nicely said "You have no torso, and it's going to get worse, so just try and get comfortable." We have added an extra pillow under my head in the bed- next step is the recliner, I suppose. I have also given up on the idea of sleep. I haven't slept more than about 30 minutes at one time for the past week. The past 3 nights, I don't think I have slept more than an hour all together- cheer camps, youth camps, summer sleepover parties, and all-nighters from college have nothing on this exhaustion. I will be very relieved to get a couple hours at a time once our sweet girl gets here!
This morning was full of more surprises and feeling worse which led me BACK to the doctor's office. Blood pressure and pulse were up higher today than yesterday, and still no concern from the doctor. Emersyn gave a big kick when they went to get her heart rate which was 147 today :)  I, once again, tried to explain I am a marathoner and still teaching group fitness classes- I consider myself now in a hypertensive state. After today's visit, I have been very aggravated with the group of doctors I have been seeing and so much more anxious for our new doctor's appointment in Dothan on the 29th. I am convinced Lance is more of a qualified "doctor" to care for my pregnancy than some of the morons at the office I have been seeing.  Frustrating... but once again, perfect timing on God's end for an amazing nurse who got me an appointment sooner than I originally had planned in Dothan. I have my records from Auburn in hand and ready to move on!! Praying for a much better experience in 10 days :)
Although, this isn't the most fun I have ever experienced, I really don't mind as long as our sweet baby girl is healthy. Life changes so much when you realize the sweet miracle of such a precious baby growing inside of you. As long as Emersyn is growing and healthy, I can go without sleep or breathing for a few more weeks! And, sweet girl, is doing absolutely perfect!
No picture this week since I have been laid up in the bed trying to feel normal, but of course the belly is just a growing :)

Thursday, August 11, 2011

26 weeks and BIG NEWS

We are moving right along, knocking out another week and getting one week closer to having our angel in our arms :) It's been a very exciting week! First, we had Emersyn's 4D ultrasound which we had to split into 2 appointments because sweet girl wanted to be shy and modest on our first attempt. For attempt #2, she couldn't resist all of the sugar and caffeine mommy had given her and girlfriend was loving the camera! I know we are a little partial, but her daddy and myself think Emy is absolutely beautiful and perfect! We are so in love with her sweet face and find ourselves just staring at her pictures and completely amazed at the little blessing she already is to us. Here are some of our favorite shots of our baby girl:

Is that the face of an angel or what? This is my favorite with those sweet puckered lips :)



This is her favorite position :) You would think she has NO room!

Lance and I keep arguing over who she looks like :) She has Lance's LONG legs and my big nose! She is perfect! We love you, Emersyn!! Here is her mommy's belly this week (I'm guessing those mile long legs are the reason for the enormity!) :


So, what is the BIG NEWS all about?? Well, let's back up a bit. I have to share the whole story so you can see how amazing God has worked through this situation and how he has blessed our little family. I've mentioned it on here before, but Lance and I have been praying very hard for guidance in his job situation. Lance graduated with his PhD this past weekend and finding a job has definitely been a chore. We have turned offers down because they weren't right, I have prayed Lance would hate certain interviews, we thought we would have to go to Wisconsin at one point, we have laughed, and we have shed many tears. Some days it has been REALLY hard but we have stood by our faith and known through this all God would provide. Emersyn changed our entire outlook on the job search. We gave up the adventure of it and started focusing on being close to family, insurance, and a good hospital for delivery. Nothing was working out, absolutely nothing. Every time we were completely out of options, something always came up that gave us a glimpse of hope. We went from having maybe 10 possibilities to zero in the matter of a couple of weeks. Lance was over-qualified for every position he applied for because the ones he would be qualified for were canceling job openings due to funding issues. I had many panic attacks and breakdowns, but thankfully we had each other and our faith. Over a month ago, Lance got a notification that he had been selected to interview at a nuclear facility in Dothan, AL. He went on the interview, wasn't crazy about it, and 2-3 weeks had passed and we heard nothing. We assumed he wasn't considered further. Last week, before graduation, a lady in human resources contacted him with an offer. It was lower than we expected, so Lance counter offered and they weren't budging much. We didn't know what to do, but neither of us felt "right" about accepting it. In the meantime, one of his main professors had added him on as a post-doc student which worked wonderfully because it gave Lance income and more experience. Lance turned the nuclear offer down and we held our breaths and prayed something would come along, preferably before Emersyn arrived. I started crunching numbers and time for insurance to stay covered through my delivery and post-partum recovery with baby girl because I do not have much leave to take from work. Insurance was turning into a mess and I was almost to the point of tears, especially considering I was going to have to return to work with a new baby which is something I have been trying my hardest to avoid- I just want to be a mom! I spent so many hours in prayer with tears rolling down my face because I just wanted to be able to stay at home and be a mom to our sweet new baby. It's all I have ever wanted to be, and it seemed so impossible! Well, this past Tuesday morning I had been on phone call after phone call with insurance companies and very little hope when I got a message from Lance that the HR lady from the nuclear plant had left him a message and wanted him to contact her asap. My heart sunk. I wanted to throw up. I had no idea what was about to happen, but I was also overcome with peace. Lance quickly sent me another message saying they had offered once again- this is after he had turned them down and walked away. This offer included bonuses which put the pay at an amount we could consider and live off of. Lance asked what I thought about it, I asked how he felt, and we agreed we didn't think we should pass this one up. We later found out, the second he starts work for the company me and my belly would be covered under his insurance plan! What I left out earlier is that Dothan has a fantastic hospital with a natural birth friendly approach to delivery- I had really fallen in love with this place when I was researching before the initial interview!  So, Lance accepted and we are headed to Dothan in the next couple of months! We are praying now a living situation will work itself out, and after watching God provide through this all, we have no doubts! We have found one location we really like, we hope we can correlate Lance's start date with the time it becomes available. The greatest part is that Lance, Emersyn, and I will all be together, she will have a nursery that I can sit in and wait for her to arrival, and I can hold my sweet baby girl every single day and not put her down if I never want to because she and her daddy will be my new job- and to me, that is perfection! We are very excited for this new chapter in our lives. I have found an OB group I want to use for the rest of our prenatal care and delivery, a sweet friend at work recommended a pediatrician today, I've been researching local gyms, and the beach is 90 minutes away :) Thank you, Lord, you are good!  I wouldn't take back the last 8-9 months for anything because it has been a battle that would either strengthen mine and Lance's marriage or leave it in ruins. It has brought us closer together than I knew was possible and I have fallen more in love with the man he has been through this than I thought I ever could. I am thankful for his determination and his priorities. I don't know what I did to deserve Lance or Emersyn but I am so grateful for their blessings in my life :)

Saturday, August 6, 2011

25 weeks

Grab a snack and have a seat for this one! It's been an exciting week for baby Emersyn, her mommy, and her daddy! 
Part 1- 4D Ultrasound and Doctor's Appointment
This past Thursday, on our 25 week date, we had an appointment for a 4D ultrasound to see our sweet girl. My parents and brother were all in Auburn for the visit, we were so excited. As soon as the tech put the little wand to my belly and trying to get a good angle of our baby girl, she said "uh oh, someone is not cooperating today!" We pushed on her, I turned from side to side, her daddy talked to her. Little girl wasn't budging!! At first she was in a perfect "pike" position with her knees to her face and her hands in fists wrapped around the back of her legs :) After we aggravated her a little bit, she unfolded and put her hands over her face! What a little stinker. For a very few seconds she quit facing my spine and gave us a peek of her sweet face and we were able to get a few images of her precious face- she has my nose, and I'm actually convinced she looks just like me :) She has her daddy's 10 mile long legs and girlfriend has some feet on her as well! We have another appointment on Tuesday to see if we can get some better pictures. I'll post the pictures then- just a warning, she's beautiful :)
Since the ultrasound, we just sit around and stare at her sweet little pictures all day, it makes it seem even more real knowing what she looks like! We just love our girl so much!!
Friday I had a doctor's appointment and sugar test. Passed the glucose test with flying colors, my iron was great, Emersyn measured perfect, blood pressure was fantastic, and I'm getting huge! That's the jest of the appointment :) Doctor Smith said everything was perfect right on track of where we should be- now our appointments with him are every 2 weeks- Eek!! Slow down!!! 

We decided to change scenery, and get a shot of Emy in front of Samford Hall- she just LOVES Auburn :)
Part 2- Lance's PhD Graduation!
Yes, Lance graduated today (August 6th) as a doctor! We are so proud of him! This makes degree #4, and surely he is done now :) We had a wonderful time celebrating such a huge accomplishment for him, he has worked so hard and is so smart. 
One of our favorite jokes about Lance's doctorate came from my memaw. Soon after we met and introduced Lance to her, we told her he was working on his doctorate in engineering. She proceeded to tell all of her friends that I was marrying this boy and when he finishes school he can be a doctor or an engineer :) Sweet lady! Since then, Lance always jokes that he is a (medical) doctor, so for graduation we found him a stethoscope... he had fun with that! Hopefully it will be a fun story to tell Emy one day, and she will know what a mess her great grandmother was as well!
Lance, we are SO proud of you!!! Here are a few graduation pictures:





Part 3- Baby brother moves in!
Not only baby brother, but also baby brother's best friend- Lance and I gained two roommates- Luke and Taylor. We love them dearly,  and I love all the time we will get to catch up, however it's definitely not ideal with a baby on the way! Months ago when we started talking about the possibility, Lance and I were positive we would be out of Auburn by August- it's August and we have nothing! This would be a great reality show  (hint, hint) as I am sure we will have many interesting days ahead! And Taylor is a great photographer (we used his AWESOME camera for all of the graduation pictures) we love having him around :) Really, we love them both so much and are so excited they are in Auburn, we are just so ready to be out and done, though! But, seriously, just pray a job situation unfolds for the Haney's, we are trusting in God's plan and just trying to be as hopeful as we can that this will unfold before Emersyn arrives- yes, I have started having panic attacks, but I also have a lot of faith. Please, Lord, lead us in your path!