Baby Carr Makes a First Appearance

Side view of head and tummy

Love this where we can see the arm, elbow, and hand



We had this ultrasound done this morning. I have to admit I was a little nervous just hoping everything would look the way it should. The doctor said everything looked great for the gestational age and our due date was around Oct.1(which is what we thought), so I'm between 13 and 14 weeks now. The baby is about 4 inches long from head to rump. :) The heartbeat today was at 149 bpm. They weren't able to tell the gender yet, so we'll have to wait another 6 wks. on that. Tyson still thinks it's a girl, but I'm 50/50 at this point. They gave us about 10 pics but these were the most clear. We're SO excited. This has taken it to a new level for me, and by the way thanks to those of you who have been praying for me about the nausea. I'm feeling MUCH better these days. My energy level is returning and the nausea is just about gone. Yea!!

Our Office/Reading Room

This is our third bedroom we made into an office/reading corner. It started out with yucky carpet and this patchy dark blue. We ripped up the carpet and found beautiful cherry floors. We had them refinished and changed the paint color. We also added a ceiling fan.

Just Couldn't Pass This Up

I saw this yesterday and had to grab it. I thought it would work for a boy or a girl. So cute!!!

Our Cozy Cottage

One thing I wanted to post is updates we've done to the house. I think I'll share a little at a time. One of our favorites is the front door. As you can see I've put a few Before, During, and After shots. Tyson is really proud of it b/c he did most of the work himself and had never done something like this before. We bought the door bald at Lowe's and had a man from the hardware store down the street install it. Then Tyson and I picked the stain. We actually mixed three different colors. He stained it and and put several coats of polyurethane. Anyway, we loved the way it turned out.

Coupon Chaos

Okay, so I'm trying to get better at this coupon clipping thing. I'm finding out there's a whole coupon culture out there and a bunch of strategies. I've gone as far as ordering the Sunday paper and getting the above binder prepared. Dad, don't laugh!! Those are actually baseball card holder sheets. If you're tempted to try this, you can only find them at office supply stores like Staples or Office Max. I spent a couple of hours getting them organized this afternoon. The sad fact is in a couple of weeks my coupons will once again look like the stack on the left. I'm having a hard time w/ the "maintenance" aspect of this. One of the tricks I'm learning is to wait for some of the grocery stores to have triple coupon day. They will triple coupons up to $1. If the item is on sale and they triple the coupon that's when this can get exciting. The other tidbit I've learned is to stock pile things you use all the time when these specials happen. I'm getting this info. from one website called, A Full Cup. Here's my little testimony from today...KMart is doubling coupons this week up to $2. This is a good time to go w/ for all those expensive hygiene items. Most of those coupons are $1-$2 off, etc. Well, I'm sure there are some people who can do better, but I saved 40 bucks! I got $120 worth of items for $80. Woohoo! If you plan to come visit us anytime soon, don't worry about toothpaste or toilet paper. We've got enough to last until our kid goes to college. Some of the highlights of the trip were the fact that they actually paid me 19 cents for three packs of gum and I walked away with some bodywash for free. Oh yea, and I even snagged a pack of diapers!

160 Beats per Minute - Boy or Girl? What do You Think?

Friday was our most exciting day yet thus far in the pregnancy.  We had our first official prenatal appointment at the birthing center.  We really love the personal attention and family like feeling there.  We brought our camera along to document the visit.  Theresa is our nurse who will always take my weight (oops, I've gained 10 lbs.), blood pressure, etc.  She's very sweet and friendly.  Felicia is the front desk receptionist, and Allison was our nurse midwife (we forgot to get her picture.)  She took about two hours w/ us answering all of our questions and asking us tons of questions as well.  They gave us a book and folder full of info.  She prescribed me some special prenatal vitamins that are supposed to be more gentle on the stomach.  We'll see... 

Tyson was awesome!  He was right there the whole time asking questions right along w/ me and just taking in every moment.  The best part of the visit was when Allison put the doppler on my abdomen and found the baby's heartbeat.  At first it just sounded like a bunch of sloshing around and then all of a sudden we heard the heartbeat come in loud, clear, strong, and fast!  She said it was between 160-170 bpm.  She said it was on the high end of normal.  I promise I'm not drinking coffee these days. :)  Tears imediately started rolling down my cheeks as soon as I heard it.  I could have listened to it all day.  What an awesome feeling.  Tyson watched my face the whole time.  He said the joy for him was watching me and the expressions I was making.

I'm about 11 weeks and 4 days now.  The official due date is October 1st.  I'll be going back every four weeks for now.  Hearing the heartbeat really brought a new excitement for me.  Up to this point I've just been trying to survive the day (and night) w/out throwing up and waking up each morning hoping I have at least one pair of pants left that still fit... 

The Baby Journey Continues

To bring you up to speed.  We have decided on the Womens Birth and Wellness Center.  They make you come to an orientation and tour before scheduling your first appointment. I guess they want you to know exactly what you're signing up for.  I've been researching and thinking for a long time what type of birth experience I would want.  I have several friends who have had natural births w/ midwives and knew this was the route I would like to take.  However, I realized Tyson was just as much apart of this process and wanted to make the decision that both of us would agree on and feel comfortable with.  Going to the orientation, I wasn't sure what he was going to come away thinking.  I didn't know if he'd think these people were a bunch of hippie freaks or what.  To my pleasant surprise, he LOVED it. I mean he got so excited.  We watched two videos and the owner of the practice shared the philosophy of the birthing center and anwered all kinds of questions from the group.  We were given a tour of the center and were able to see the birthing suites and accomodations.  We know that this is not for everyone, but for us it just fits.  We both felt peace in our hearts that this is for us.  We're planning to use the Bradley Method for natural child birth.  We will take a 12 week course offered by a local couple here.  One of the exciting things about this is we will have the chance to bond w/ several other couples who will be having babies near the same time as us.  We're looking forward to it... :)  

By the way, did I mention I've been nauseated almost around the clock for 7 weeks straight.  Lord, give me grace!

Baby Carr is on the Way...

January 19th is when we found out that we were expecting this bundle of joy.  In the three days leading up to this day we had two friends ask us if I was pregnant.  Our friend, Neelam, called and asked me if I was pregnant b/c she had a dream the night before that  I gave birth to a baby boy. She said the dream was so real and so happy she had to call and ask.  At that point, I knew it was possible but really hadn't felt any different and doubted I was.  I told her I didn't think so but we'd let her know.  The next evening at our fellowship gathering another friend asked the same question and said the moment she saw me the thought popped in her head that  I was pregnant.  At that point Tyson and I looked at each other.  Two people in two days had come to us.....Hmm....Way cool that the Lord, out of his kindness would give these signs to us.  The clincher was when I woke up the same night drenched with sweat.  I mean drenched!  Had to get up and change clothes, pillow case and lay a towel on the sheets.  BAZAAR! This had never happened to me in my life.  I jumped up the next morning and Googled "Is night sweating a sign of pregnancy?" Sure enough all these message boards pop up w/ women claiming this was uncommon but very much a sign of pregnancy.  As I hollered for Tyson he read the screen and then took my hot cup of coffee and poured it down the kitchen sink.  One dream, one impression, and a night sweat...we knew a pregnancy test was warranted.  Tyson was off (Thank you MLK) so he volunteered to go to Target and pick up a test.  As soon as I got home from work that afternoon Tyson told me he got the "First Responder."  aka First Response preg. test.  Well, w/in about 5 seconds not one but two pink lines came a poppin up on that thing.  Surreal is all I can say. It felt like time stood still for a moment.  We were just filled w/ sheer joy and excitement. Beside ourselves! I had previously thought of all kinds of cute and clever ways we could tell the family.  All of that went out the window.  We couldn't contain ourselves for a minute.  Before we knew it we were on the phone making our calls.  All of the grandparents, aunts, and uncles were ecstatic of course.    I don't think I slept a wink that night and then it snowed, so we had two days to sit by the fire and revel in our excitement. What a gift that was.