Noakes' Nest: Baby Shower!

Well I have been a Lady of Leisure for 2 weeks now. I have accomplished quite a lot in the last two weeks. The first couple of days flew by as I cleaned my house and hung out with friends and family in preparation for my baby shower. While most of this post will be gushing over how amazing my shower was I figured I should start with a pregnancy update.

Pregnancy Update

Today I am 33 weeks 5 days. We have been to the doctor three times since my last post and had our third and final trip before I deliver to the cardiologist. Caroline looks great! Last week she was 4 pounds 3 ounces! She has been head down for the last month and feet in my ribs for the past week. She has been kicking and moving around so much that my tummy and ribs are sore! From what they can tell she has a FULL head of hair (see picture below) which would explain my horrible acid reflex. Seriously, I get it from water! Every time we have gone in they have caught her practicing fetal breathing (basically practicing using her lungs which makes them stronger). She also keeps doing adorable things. Two weeks ago as the ultrasound technician showed us a 3D image of Caroline we watched as she snuggled up, gave a big yawn and stretch, and had a look on her face of complete happiness and peacefulness. My eyes teared up as I watched her do that. Pregnancy is so weird because the first half you don't feel anything except yuckiness. The second half you feel rolls and kicks but it is hard to connect those feelings with the fact that you will soon have a baby in your arms. Watching Caroline snuggle up and look so happy filled our hearts with joy and made us even more excited for her to get here! Phil's mom came with us this week to the doctor. Caroline was being shy at first, putting her hands in front of her face, but then she moved them so her Grandma could see her. We even saw her sucking on her hand! The doctor thinks that she possibly tried to stick her thumb up her nose too. Hmmmm we will have to work on that. It meant a lot to Phil and me that his mom was able to see Caroline. The other fabulous news was that the cardiologist saw nothing new on the echocardiogram. At our second appointment he thought he had seen a small increase in regurgitation between the ventricles and the atria. On Monday he saw NO increase. He also said that everything else looks like it has developed completely normally! It was great to have such a positive appointment with him.

A lot of people have asked me whether I can deliver naturally or will I have to have a c-section because of her heart defect. Right now the plan is to deliver naturally. They think her heart is strong enough to withstand a natural birth and everything should be fine. What my doctor and I have talked about is that we are taking no chances. If she flips and is no longer head down I will have a c-section. If during labor her heart rate drops or there seems to be stress on her at all, c-section. Basically I've told her I don't care what she does, just get this baby out of me alive and healthy. I really don't want to have a c-section but what is most important is Caroline. Her health trumps everything else.

31 weeks 3 days...look at her opening her mouth!

BIG yawn!
31 weeks 3 days

HAIR!!!
30 weeks 5 days

Baby Shower

My best friends from college Jaimie, Jackie, and Blair were amazing and hosted my BEAUTIFUL shower at my home over President's Day weekend. It was a long road for me to agreeing to have this shower.

After loosing Emily it was not easy to have stuff and a room ready for a baby and then having no baby. My wonderful neighbors/bunco friends had thrown me a shower a week or two before I lost her. My mom and I had gone out shopping and bought some adorable clothes. The room was painted and the furniture was on its way. Then we lost Emily. Now I had a drawer filled with clothes that I would never be able to dress Emily in. I had a few toys that she would never play with. I had a room that she would never sleep in. I had a heart that would always ache for her and arms that would never get to hold her again. That sucked. Two months later (her due date month) I also had a chair, a dresser, and a crib. That sucked even more. We put the dresser and chair in her room but left the crib in the box. There was many a day that Zach (our dog) would get rocked in the chair or read to or just snuggled with while I cried. Needless to say I didn't want any more stuff sitting around waiting for a baby to come along. When we found out in August that I was pregnant again I sat in the baby's room even more. I kept looking around and thinking, will we actually get to use this this time? During the hurricane in August we put together the crib. It was great but it was also sad. I had a hard time having it up. Then we went to Italy. I was able to get away from my fears and sadness and enjoy some quality time with Phil and experience an amazing adventure with him. When we came back the baby's room no longer made me feel sad. I was excited but still had nerves.

As the fall progressed Phil and I talked about it more and we decided that we could handle the baby shower. Neither of wanted to deal with having a house full of even more baby stuff that wouldn't get used but we knew we couldn't live like that. We were so excited for Caroline to get here and wanted to share that excitement with our family and friends. This was another Emily fear that I was overcoming. We lost Emily a week before my baby shower that my girlfriends were throwing last April. Now I was going to agree to it again and a small part of me feared that I was going to loose Caroline a week before this shower. I pushed those fears aside and called up my friends and told them I agreed to have a shower.

WOW what an amazing shower they threw. My dining room was turned into a onesie decorating room and my whole downstairs exploded with pink. Pink flowers, pink decorations, pink gifts, pink punch, pink wine, pink cupcakes...poor Phil. It was great to have Caroline's grandparents, old and new co-workers, Richmond friends, and close by family (Thank you Aunt Shelly, Danni, and Sarah from coming from the Hampton area!) all together celebrating. I was really excited and surprised when my cousin Melanie called a week before the shower to tell me that she and her husband Jeremy were going to drive out from Indiana for the shower! Melanie is about 5 months older than me and she has been like a second sister my whole life. She too is pregnant, about 6 weeks behind me. It was killing us that we weren't going to get a chance to see each other while we were both pregnant. Well with the nonexistent snow this winter Melanie and Jeremy were able to make the LOOONNNGGG drive from Indiana to Richmond. About 30 minutes before the shower we had another surprise, Phil's grandmother, Aunt Nancy, and Uncle Darrell showed up! We were so excited to have even more family there! All in all the shower was amazing. It went by too quickly. I wish I could have spent more time visiting with everyone. Thank you to everyone that came and helped us celebrate Caroline. Thank you to those who had a quick drive and those who had LONG drives. Thank you to everyone for the love and support. Thank you to Jaimie, Jackie, and Blair for putting together a beautiful baby shower that I will always treasure. Ya'll are amazing :)

Love my friends :)

hmmmm ladies...why do I have veggie cups in my cabinet?

My sister says that she loves all the pictures on my blog so here you go Kathleen...lots and lots of baby shower photos :) If anyone else attended and has photos from my shower I would love copies of them. Thanks!