Pregnancy Observations, for the Lighthearted

As of late, with my body slowly morphing before my eyes, I have been reflective on some of the funnier and surprising happenings that go along with pregnancy. Not only am I noticing them in myself, but also with other people as well. Here's a short list:

• My belly button has a new home...OUT! WAY out there (as with the rest of my mid-section). Lovin' it! I would post a picture, but some might find it disturbing. HA!
• It is getting more difficult to conduct activities that require me to bend over (e.g., paint my toenails, tie my shoes, help patients get up/down, feed/wash the dogs, etc.) with my ever-expanding belly acting as a barrier between me and the object(s) within my reach. I guess this means that I'm going to have to invest in some pedicures and pet grooming in the next several months :)
• Some of my friends/family members/co-workers think I should be refraining from physical exercise (e.g., volleyball, climbing a step-ladder, lifting boxes, etc.) because of the"condition" I'm in. People, pregnant women can still walk/run (if they want)/move just as we did before...it just may take us a little longer to get there and we may be a little out of breath! I know, I know...I need to be cautious, but I don't want to be lazy! But at least I get out of picking up heavier things, so Brett has taken over the chore of getting our 40-50 lb. dog food bags lately.
• Persons feel compelled to touch pregnant women's bellies...I've heard this for quite some time, but I could not believe that random strangers would actually do this. Now I can say that this is very true. Of course, I don't mind the attention, just not when I don't know the person that well!
• Oh, and I think this even more now than EVER before...swimwear is overrated! I think I will stick with muu-muu's this summer thank you very much! Oh, and I'm diggin' the maternity duds (no zippers is ingenious)!

Of course, with all these amusing observations, there are some serious ones, too (not too serious, don't get worried)...

• Baby bedding is expensive! If you compare it yard for yard, cute animal print by print, it costs so much more than other bedding (even at 20% off)! But, it is cute, and that's justification enough I guess.
• Registering for a baby is somewhat of a daunting task...there are SOOO many items and "necessities" that we found to be unnecessary and somewhat hilarious, too (the "Pee-pee Teepee" and the "Hooter Hider" for instance). Don't get me wrong, it was a lot of fun picking out the big and small items, and it made us even more excited for our little guy to get here! But, as we walked from aisle to aisle at both stores, we kept asking ourselves two questions: "Our parents didn't have this stuff for us growing up, and we turned out okay. Right?" AND "Where on earth are we going to put all of this stuff?!"

And then there are the oh-so wonderful things that I've really enjoyed about being pregnant :)

• Buying baby items for Jameston and preparing his room
• Seeing Brett excited and so involved in getting ready for our little guy. I know he is going to make a great dad!
• Eating whenever, whatever I want (the recent faves are Italian food (I'm still on the cheese kick), ice cream, and the very random tootsie rolls (who would've thought)
• Sonograms are the best invention ever!
• Oh, and people are very courteous once they see you are preggers. Strangers give kind smiles, open doors, start up conversations and ask questions like they've known you forever. It's a wonderful world!
• Feeling your baby move is the COOLEST, most awesome feeling in the world! Knowing that he's thriving and kicking (and grooving to music...we've been to some great concerts lately) is so incredible! Words can't describe it well enough...

To celebrate my "Ode to Pregnancy" post, here is a pic of me at 26 weeks:

As mentioned earlier, my belly has really popped over the last month or so. I have gained about 20 pounds so far, and we still have a little over 12 weeks to go. Goodness--I think we may have a big boy on our hands!

Oh, and the nursery is getting closer and closer to completion. Brett has painted the walls, chair rail, base boards, etc., we replaced the door handles/stoppers and wall plates, and he put together the crib and dresser last weekend. It's taking shape, and I love it! I'll be sure to post pics as soon as it's all done.

Passin' on the savings

To those of you who follow our blog, I wanted to let you know about a great deal on makeup that a friend recently blogged about (shout out to Kimberlee). I usually don't look into these things, but I had to (makeup isn't cheap)! I just placed an order this morning, and it is legit.

Nordstrom is renaming their makeup line, so they are selling a lot of goodies online for as little as $1. One particular line called EyesLipsFace (e.l.f.) is being repackaged, so their current products are selling for super-duper cheap on their website: http://www.eyeslipsface.com/shop.asp.

When you go to check out, you can enter coupon code"CAROLINA" and save an additional $7.50 if you order over $15 worth of products (those savings pay for shipping :) OR you can get a free makeup kit (worth $15 I think) if you enter the coupon code FREEMINI instead.

WHAT A DEAL!

Dog days of summer...

Here is a little film roll of their loungin': 

Marlie on the floor

Although it's not officially the summer season yet, it felt like it a couple of weeks ago when our AC was out! In honor of the title, I thought I would post some of the latest pics we have of our canines.

Boomer getting the special treatment with Brett on the couch 

(before AC went kaput)

We think the dogs know something is up (i.e., baby on the way) because they have been acting differently lately. Marlie has been going into the room that will be Jameston's nursery to scope it out a lot more recently. We currently just have little odds and ends in there, and we've noticed that she definitely wants to be in the know.

Marlie gets jealous and wants up on the couch, too!

Also, Boomer has been vying for more attention lately. Maybe it's because he is tired of Marlie butting in and trying to steal his spotlight! He is definitely more attached than he has been. So sweet!

Making themselves comfortable (we have recently broke them of their habit

of jumping up on the couch, in preparation for baby)

Boomer and Marlie may be realizing that they will be "taking a back seat" when our little boy gets here, so they are trying to soak up all the attention they can right now.

Poor guy gets ousted and makes his bed on the floor/bookshelf. 

Is that really comfy, Boomer?!

Family Time

Last weekend we went up to Oklahoma to visit Brett's younger brother, Jared, and his wife, Bryn. They are expecting a girl in July, and we were so excited to be able to make the trek to get to see their new home and to shower them with gifts.

Also there were Brett's mom, his two other siblings, and our two nieces. Altough we wish we could have stayed longer, we had a fun trip!

The Winters Crew: Kayla, Brett, Mom, Jared, and Cade

The girls: Riley, Kayla, Jessica, Bryn, and Me

Aunt Bryn and Ruby

Bellies: Bryn 33 weeks and me at 25 weeks:)

Jared and Bryn, we can't wait to meet your baby girl!

24

weeks...wow, time seems to be flying by. Of course, I might not feeling these same sentiments when my third trimester and 100+ degree heat coincide. It's really hard to believe we're six months along already, and that our little guy is growing so much (one of my books says he's the size of a half-gallon of milk. Really?). What I find even more incredible and hard to wrap my mind around is that in less than 16 weeks he'll be here! Whoa, we have lots of preparing to do!

My growin' belly: our little fella is sure moving around a lot lately!

It's so cool to feel him kick, twist, etc...we may have a little boxer or soccer player on our hands :)

We bought Jameston's crib and dresser, his bedding (it's called "Monkey Bars" by Carter's...love it!), and paint for the nursery this past weekend. We are painting an armoire and cedar chest that we currently have to match the furniture pieces. I plan on finding some artwork or wall decals of my own (I didn't break down and get the ones from the bedding set!). I feel like we are a little closer to gettin' ready for his arrival in September.I say that because I kinda had a mini panic attack last week. In the midst of what seems like the hundreds of renovations taking place in every other room throughout our house, I was worried we would barely finish those up in time to get started on our baby boy's room.

But I have the best husband in the world!! He knows me all too well and sensed my worrying. We hunkered down and got a lot done throughout the house (and for the nursery) this past weekend. Now, all we need to do is paint, assemble furniture, wash and put away our son's already quickly-growing wardrobe (thanks, Jessica, for the hand-me-downs!), and the list could go on and on.

In other house news, Brett is getting the master bathroom closer to completion. He tiled the shower (again, like the guest shower, I think he did an AWESOME job), and he is putting wood floors in our closet. We repainted the walk-in closet to make it "pop" a little more (it was a drab ivory-yellowish color, ugh!) for when we add the saloon doors to the entrance. You know, renovating has been fun, but it has literally consumed every free weekend we have had. We are ready to sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labor (before I go into labor!).

Are you kidding?!

Or this post could be aptly named "Hot air, cold water." We have been inundated with home repairs the last couple of weeks, and not just little repairs...very BIG repairs.

Fortunately, Dallas has been blessed with rain and cooler temperatures this Spring, so we did not break down and turn the air conditioner on until the middle of April or so (we are pretty stingy when it comes to energy bills, so this was after we had the heat off since the beginning of March). Well, we found out at that time that our AC system was only blowing out hot air. Ever since we moved into our house about two-and-a-half years ago, we have had problems with the heating and air. Our home warranty plan (Home Warranty of America, we highly recommend going with someone else!) repeatedly just filled the system with freon, and they said it was a condenser/or compressor (can't remember which one now) problem. And that was the extent of the repairs because "they could not guarantee that we had a functioning system when we bought the house." Yep...even a home inspection doesn't stand for much these days.

So, low and behold, when we got someone else to take a look at it this month, they said we needed to replace the entire system, furnace and all. Phew! Were not prepared for that bombshell (or very willing to cough up the money...we thought a European vacation or paying down our mortgage sounded nice :) After a couple of weeks sleeping with the windows open (thank goodness for cooler temps at night), we bit the bullet and had the work done. Alas! I sit here two days later in a much cooler house. This pregnant woman is very happy, although begrudgingly (due to the cost), but happy nevertheless that she doesn't have to sweat it out during the summer heat!

And this morning, what else do we find out?! That our hot water heater was acting up! Not kidding. I guess it's like they say, when it rains it pours. I will be sure to keep y'all posted on the latest of our fun home-ownership frontiers...

Muchas festividades

The last few weekends have been chock-full with lots of traveling but loads of fun! Two weekends ago I flew to Las Vegas on a Thursday night and had a three-day weekend with three of my girlfriends from high school. I had never been to Vegas before, so as you can imagine (for those of you who have been) there was lots of sightseeing/people-watching in store for me! The weather was really nice the entire time we were there, so we were thankful for that.

We went to an outlet mall the first day, and I bought a couple of fun things for me. But my most exciting buys were for little Jameston! Brett gave me gift cards to The Children's Place for my birthday in April, and I found two cute sets of slacks and long-sleeve, button-up shirts. One set is for 3-6 months, and the other is for 6-9 months. Oh so cute!

Here's a pic of the little outfits and shoes (and my first Coach purse :)

that I texted Brett while we were there

The dancing fountains at the Bellagio, a must-see while you are in Vegas!

On Friday night, we went out to eat at the fancy steakhouse Stack. Although a bit overpriced (I guess it comes with the territory), the food was pretty good. Afterwards, the gals wanted to hit up a club and go out "Vegas-style" so we headed to Jet, one of the newer clubs in town. Luckily it was at our hotel the Mirage, because I did not last long! I tried to stay up late, but my body would not let me. It was still fun to experience it!

Clarisse, mwah, Sami, and Jessica

On Saturday we went sight-seeing and walked all along the Vegas strip. I would have to say that the Bellagio Hotel was by far my favorite because of the gardens, blown glass ceilings, chocolate fountains, etc., etc.

21 weeks-Thanks, Jess!

Sami, thank you so much for being our guide...we could not have seen as much as we did without you! Here is a pic of her little cutie-pie daughter, Annalise. She's a doll, isn't she?!

That night we headed to the Dave Matthews Band and Jason Mraz concert at MGM Grand. It was awesome. They played for forever!! It was such a fun weekend filled with friends, great food (and buffets, yum), music, and shopping! We have been talking about taking a trip like this for several years now, so it was nice to finally succeed. I would consider this my last hurrah or girls weekend for awhile with parenthood quickly approaching :) Our upcoming hurrah will outdo any other trip or vacation possible!

Brett stayed home that weekend to demolish and rebuild our master bathroom (progress and pictures will be posted later). He figured it would be the best time, so that I would not be around all the sawdust and fumes. What a great husband I have! This a pic from our stay at the Driskill Hotel in Austin this past weekend

Last weekend was one of the busiest we've had in awhile, but it was so worth it. Friday night we saw one of Brett's and my all-time favorite musicians, James Taylor, at Fair Park in Dallas. It was such a fun date-night, and we really enjoyed the show. Mr. Taylor has been on our "Must- See Musicians" list since we have known each other, so I am glad we got to go!

He played about 20-25 songs, a lot of which were his older hits. What a concert!

And Saturday morning we drove to Austin and met up with Brett's parents for lunch before we headed to John and Wendy's wedding. The ceremony was beautiful, and the reception was a blast! We had a great time seeing old faces and friends from Wichita Falls at the festivities, complete with a mariachi band, a photo booth for scrapbook pages, awesome toasts, and great food (of course :) Congrats Mr. and Mrs. John Cluley!

A traditional Mexican wedding dance...so cool!

We stayed at the fancy Driskill Hotel downtown (for little to nothing)

22 weeks, with my handsome hubby by my side.

We thought we'd change up the belly pics a little :)

Oh, and then on Sunday morning I trekked with two girlfriends from Tech to San Antonio to meet our friend (and recent grad-school grad) Kim for lunch. We had a nice lunch at a Mexican restaurant named Aldaco's, overlooking part of San Antonio. After a day full of rain on Saturday, we enjoyed the clear blue skies, company, and yummy food on the patio (and we got so wrapped up in the ambiance we forgot to get a picture :(

What a couple of weekends it has been!

And he will be named...

Jameston Winters. We have already picked out our little fella's first name, even though it will be over four months, if all goes as planned, until we meet him. I have been set on his name for some time now, and I joke with Brett that when I locked in the name Winters, all of my eligible baby names (I had a list) had to make the "does it go well with the last name Winters" cut! I think it goes great, but I may be partial :)

We have chosen this name for several reasons (if you want all the specifics, let me know), but the main reason is that he will be named after my grandfather, James Stewart. My Papa passed away when I was four-years-old, and even though I was young, I still remember sitting on his lap a majority of the time when we were visiting my grandparents. We were partial to each other, maybe because I am the oldest grandchild on my dad's side. He was a wonderful man, and we miss him greatly. I feel honored that our first child's namesake will be after my grandfather.

Of course, we could name him James, but I wanted to be all creative and come up with a unique version. So, I thought of all the other names out there that end in "ton" (Ashton, Peyton, Kingston, Colton, the list could go on). Also, I love names that can be abbreviated, so we can call him James for short. I foresee myself singing James Taylor's "Sweet Baby James" to him while rocking him to sleep...

Since I came up with the first name (and luckily Brett liked it), he will be deciding our little guy's middle name. Stay tuned for that!

50-Yard Line

Can't believe we are midway through the pregnancy! Here is the 20-week belly shot:

I swear my belly grew even more that day! Or the dress makes it look even more round :)

Over the last few weeks, I have started to feel our little guy move around. It's hard to describe the movements, which I know will become even stronger and more noticeable, but it so cool!

Brett snuck a snapshot in. This was taken the night before we had our sonogram. We were so excited!

Now that we know we're having a boy, I have the desire to talk in sports terms (hence the title :) So, here is a picture of our first official baby boy purchase (we were told by many that we needed to got out and buy something the day we found out our baby's gender):

Even though we are more football and basketball fans, I could not resist! It even has a little baseball on the booty.

How cute!

I saw these and had to get them to give to Brett. I could not help myself with the cute message and the dog bib underneath, since we have two dogs. With Brett, Boomer, and now baby boy Winters on the way, Marlie and I are officially outnumbered. But we don't mind a bit!

Team Pink or Blue? Drum roll please...

We had our much-anticipated 20-week sonogram today, and it was amazing! We found out that we will be welcoming a BABY BOY into the world this September (as long as he stays put 'til then :) The due date was again changed, but this time it was moved up a little, to September 21st. Maybe he'll arrive a little early on Aunt Kayla's birthday! Here are some sonogram pics of our little guy:

Here he is, with both hands up around his face. He looks like he's rubbing his eyes :) I know, buddy, the appointment was early, but here's your chance to show off! I had some decaf coffee this morning, and he sure was active for us (which made the sonogram a little tough for our doctor :)

The entire sonogram was breathtaking! I cried like a baby after seeing our baby boy! It was so neat to see such a tiny little miracle up close...all the systems of the body and how they are functioning. Human life is so remarkable! The last sonogram we had was when he was just 7 weeks (see previous post), and he sure has come a long way since then!

He was face down, and if you look closely, his knees are at the bottom right. He's already praying (or being bashful for the next gender-determining sonogram shot :)

Here is the money shot! It is was easier to make out at the appointment than it is from the picture, but the sonographer made a bold statement saying he's 99.99% sure it's a boy! Now I can call the little one moving around a "he" instead of an "it."

He was smushed up against my side (causing the blurred right eye and side of his body), but here is a great picture of his cute little face! Wow, amazing...

We feel so blessed and beyond excited, so please bear with us and our enthusiasm. Today was truly one of the best days of our lives. Now that we've found out that our first-born will be a boy, we can't wait to meet him!