So Much More

I was working on a little project to have framed for myself, and it came out so cute! These are the words to the song Brian wrote for me. He said I could put this on the blog just not his singing it. The pictures that surround the collage walk us through every stage of our journey since December. The next time we see Breck, it will be in real life! Remember - click on the image to make it bigger.

Breck in 3-D and 4-D!

I can't decide which is cuter - the pics or the video! So, here's our favorite picks from both. (If you click on the picture collage, it will open it larger on your screen.) The only problem with today's appointment was that seeing him in real life like this makes it impossible to wait to meet him any longer. We're both ready to meet this wonderful little boy! And don't you just love his little pouty face? He definitely has my nose and Brian's lips. And check out those cute little cheeks! Even his arm is all cute and chubby. Notice how he is quite the contortionist. The sono tech had to keep buzzing my stomach with this little device to try and get him to move his arms and legs out of the way. I guess Breck was feeling shy because he kept wrapping them right back in front of his face. Check out the last picture - his little foot is on his forehead. Now that is quite a limber little fellow. And you can see in the video that he keeps yawning and sticking his tongue out. At one point he was trying to lick something but it was hard to tell if it was his foot as it passed by or what. Silly little boy!

Not My Idea of Vacation

So, I should be walking along the beach even now, enjoying the sound of waves crashing around me...but no! It was an ambitious plan, I'll give you that, but I truly thought Breck and I had turned a corner and could handle it. The plan was to leave last Friday and drive the 3 hours to OKC. We would spend a relaxing day Saturday with friends and family at the shower and then come home early afternoon Sunday. This would give us the afternoon to unpack baby stuff and then get ready for vacation. Monday morning, we were supposed to leave out by 10 a.m., taking our time to make it to San Antonio by evening. We even planned to stop at the outlet malls of San Marcos and enjoy our afternoon. Tuesday, we would wake up early and drive the rest of the way to South Padre where we would spend the week doing absolutely nothing! That was the plan... Unfortunately, the luxurious accommodations we paid for in San Antonio, we barely saw at all. Instead, we spent the night in the nearest hospital that took our insurance - and believe me, nice was not how I would describe it! Basically, it boiled down to this: We got home Sunday and since I still felt great, we worked in the nursery to put the stenciling on the wall, the new bedding on the crib and unpack all the gifts. By 8 p.m. though I was beyond exhausted (even after a 2 hour nap) and food started to become my enemy. Let's just say every thirty minutes for the next 12 hours, I lost all semblance of nutrition that my body had accumulated over the last few days. When Brian woke, he saw I was still miserable so he went about doing things around the house and packing us while I finally slept. By noon, I felt good enough to think I was on the downhill side of whatever had come upon me so violently. We got in the car and I slept. By the time we got to San Marcos, I was still exhausted beyond belief. I made it through maybe 3 stores before just not caring about moving from the car anymore. We got to San Antonio, and Brian tried to get me to eat some food. It didn't take long before I felt sicker than I had the evening before. And what worried me most was that I was having rhythmic spasms. My doctor had cautioned me against getting dehydrated because that can bring on pre-term labor, so I started to freak out that that was exactly what was happening. Hours later, the hospital admitted me to the maternity ward for extreme dehydration and a bladder infection. They said the infection, coupled with sitting straight up in a car for so many hours the past few days was causing my bladder to become inflamed and enlarged, accounting for the pressure being placed on my uterus, causing it to spasm. Thirteen hours of iv meds later, I begged them to discharge me so we could just go home. I was so sad that we had to cancel our vacation, but we were both so very grateful that everything with Breck was ok. We definitely did not want to deliver him at 28 weeks in San Antonio! So after getting home and seeing my own doctor, I have been placed on more antibiotics and strict instructions to take it easy my remaining 11 weeks. No prolonged periods of time outside in the heat and tons of fluids. She also mentioned that the weekend cost me four pounds so I needed to get back to eating for the boy. Brian had his concerns from the moment I begged him to book this trip, so I let him get out of his system the "I told you so" and then agreed to listen to him as he fusses at me to eat, drink, rest, etc. for what I see as the foreseeable future of my summer! It's good to have someone love you enough to do that! At least that is my focus as I roll my eyes at the fiftieth reminder to drink more water! So Breck and I have had a long talk. We now have an understanding that no more excitement OR medical bills need to occur before August. After the first week of August, the boy is welcome to make his appearance any time he likes...but not a moment before! (The summersaults he is doing right now as I type this better be his agreement, not his mocking of the agreement!)

Baby Shower Blessings

We had such a wonderful baby shower with friends and family in OKC over the weekend. I am truly overwhelmed with the outpouring of love for my family from so many. And to hear over and over again how many people have been praying for us since way before Breck was on his way is so humbling. We are truly blessed beyond belief. I know so many people worked so hard to put the perfect day together for us - just check out the table of all my favorite food! I truly thank God that I passed my second glucose test because it was all delicious!! So - to my hostesses (pictured left to right around me at the table of goodies), Brittany, Brenda, Mom Boydstun, Carol, Kristie and my own mom, thank you so much! And check out the adorable diaper cake - definitely the biggest one I've ever seen. My mom's friend put that together. It was crazy to see all of the things on it and then when we took it apart, it had a TON of diapers!

I think we have a situation here! People are definitely in spoil mode with Breck and he isn't even here yet! Can you guess what Brian's favorite present was? It already has a prime spot in our movie room.

Check it out - I have known and loved these girls forever! It is funny to me that not only did we grow up together, but all of us strictly have boys! I am so glad they got to come - some I haven't seen in forever.

So once we got home, we went right to work putting the last bits of the nursery together. Check out the baby bedding. It looks perfect! My mom lovingly did a custom job for me since my colors are too cool for stores to carry! :)

Brian's cousins own a custom lettering business. (Check out their site for more: http://bellarosesigns.com) They do sweet plaques as well as stick-on wall stenciling. And let me tell you, it is exactly what I envisioned for the room. It is so perfect. Brian and I wanted so badly to communicate to Breck (and all who visit), that he is such a special child born out of faith alone. I love it that his room can speak those words of encouragement and faith to him daily.

Ok, so I started to spread everything out on the nursery floor so I could take it all in and organize before putting it away. Not only would it not fit into the frame of the picture, it wouldn't all fit into the room. Seriously - thank you for showering us with so much love. Oh and the tons of gift cards we got allowed us to go shopping when we got back and buy some badly needly necessities like bottles! We also got our sweet little swing - I'm really excited about it! And notice all the clothes and toys from the center to the right of the picture? Just when I thought I could not possibly get anything else home (especially since you can't see the jumping activity center, high chair, booster car seat and football chair that couldn't possibly fit in this room), Brittany, Breck's aunt who organized the entire shower, opened up the biggest toy closet I have ever seen. Seriously, her son Wake has a huge room and closet just for all his toys. Well, Brittany, and more importantly Wake - whose permission to borrow these items was important to secure - unleashed a ridiculous amount of toys and clothes that he had already outgrown. And that was stopping with the six months old bin! I really don't think Breck will ever have to worry about something cute to wear - his Aunt Brittany whose stubborn streak is a mile wide! refuses to listen to reason when it comes to not spoiling her nephew (or as her son refers to Breck, his brother, not his cousin). Brittany - I cannot begin to tell you thanks enough for not only so many sweet gifts (and way too much of them too!) but for all the prayers and tears I know you have shared along the way to get us to a day we could celebrate the upcoming arrival of our own little boy. It truly touches my heart how much you love us.

I am bummed. We went to the doc yesterday for our normal check-up and though my blood pressure is low (it usually is) and my weight gain is right on target, I failed my glucose test. So the regular test which is a syrupy sweet drink that you have to chug down and then have your blood drawn exactly one hour later, will now become a 3-hour ordeal. I am hoping they can get me in Thursday since we are on vacation soon. I have to fast, go in for three hours in which they will draw my blood four times and make me drink twice as much of that gross drink. Let's just say that I have spent today reaping the results of the small drink yesterday coupled with the blood draw (3 huge vials). I am fearful of the aftereffects Thursday, especially with us having plans Friday. And if I fail this one then they determine me to have gestational diabetes. I don't know what all that will entail, but I do know they put you on a strict eating plan and monitor the baby closely because the baby tends to get too big too quickly. I'm trying not to worry too much since I know MANY people who failed their first glucose test only to find nothing to be concerned with on their second. So, I will save the freak out for Friday when I hear back from the doc. And I pray that all is good not only for the health of Breck but there's lots of fantastic things sure to be on the menu at my shower Saturday. I would like to be able to actually enjoy them all! :)

Other than that, all is great with Breck. You can tell he is getting bigger. His heartbeat just sounded so much stronger yesterday. And the boy moves around like he is hyped up on Mountain Dew! Well...yesterday he kind of was... But seriously, we are having debates about whether this child will ever sleep when he comes out because he is so active inside. And you have to love an appointment that starts with the nurse coming in saying, "You're not having contractions, are you?" It seems with the warmer weather hitting, two patients yesterday alone went into pre-term labor due to dehydration. The nurse then fussed at me about being sure to drink twice as much water and stay inside as much as possible. I told her I happily would but I hoped she realized that we would be at the beach next week. (She was a different nurse than the one we had cleared the vacation with in the first place.) So I guess I'll be hitting the library to stock up on good books for the heat of the day indoors and just enjoy sunrise (Breck wakes at 5 every morning any way) and evening activities outdoors. I don't care - I am just dying to get away for a few days!

All great days have cake! Isn't this one just about too cute to eat? I think we have definitely found a bakery to make all Breck's birthday cakes! And it was the most delicious 3-layer chocolate cake I've ever had. The fact that there are still leftovers of it in my fridge makes it even better! My school threw me a baby shower this past week. It was so much fun! They even have a cute little stork they bring out for it (pictured below) with an interchangeable boy/girl bundle. Everyone was so sweet and we got some cute things for Breck and gift cards to buy more! Brian's Science Department also put together a really sweet gift basket with tons of items we adore. I really love the Radio Flyer wagon my team got us though. It just warms my heart to think of all the fun excursions we will take Breck on in it! I can't wait.

It was an eventful week with school wrapping up and graduations galore. One of my favorite students graduated this week from Duncanville High School. I can't even begin to describe how proud I am of her. She has turned into such an amazing young woman. I know her future is bright and limitless!

And we had fun reclaiming an old tradition. We stumbled upon the weekly jazz concert the Dallas Museum of Art hosts for a month in the spring. We thought we had missed our chance because it used to take place in April but this year they are going with the month of June. It was such a perfect night to sit under the stars and listen to great music while just hanging out together. And Breck loves jazz. Seriously - when they took a 15-minute intermission so did he, but when they returned to playing, so did he!

We return to the doctor Monday for the really fun appointment - ha ha. I take the dreadful glucose test then. Hoping all checks out for that! Then a busy week ahead. Yes, I know it's summer, but I don't think we have discovered the meaning of the word relax! That is most definitely on the agenda for the following week though. And thankfully I won't be doing it in the boot! Yesterday was my last official day in it (and believe me I was ready to take it off the second I hit the door). I celebrated this morning with a designer pedicure. The foot is still sore, and I have to take it slow but anything is better than the boot!