News from the Baby Front:

we're still anxiously awaiting peanut's arrival! it's a crazy, weird, nervous, exciting feeling to think that at any moment our lives will change forever. we'll wake up one morning and it'll be just regular old carie and chris and we could go to bed that night momma and daddy to a beautiful little blessing from God.

peanut and i went to the doctor yesterday afternoon and things are still progressing really well. we're up to 1.5 cm and 70% effaced. she says she has no reason to think he won't come on his own, but she prefers that babies not go more than a week past their due date...so today we were scheduled for an induction after his due date just in case he keeps us waiting. we could even schedule an induction as soon as this weekend, but i'd much prefer to see if he'll come on his own, so the nurse scheduled the induction for the 11th. i really really hope he comes before then because i just don't think i can wait that long to see my little guy!

mimi is in town right now helping with some cleaning around the house so peanut will have a nice clean house to come home from the hospital to. she's really gone all out! behind the tv, on top of the fan.... it's really been a blessing to have her help since my back won't really let me do the serious cleaning anymore. i just hope her back won't hurt her after all this hard work!

please remember to keep us in your prayers :)

Moving Right Along:

peanut and i had our check-up yesterday with our doctor and everything is moving right along as it should :) yay! the doctor said we are making good progress for a first baby. hopefully that means he'll show up right on time...but you never know! i am 1 cm dilated and had progressed to 50% effacement and peanut's heartbeat was about 140 :) she said effacement will occur before more dilation, so this was a good sign. he's definitely facing the right direction and moving a lot just like he should! i'm already a proud momma!

i have to admit i'm getting a little antsy now...the nursery is basically done, his clothes are washed, our hospital bags are packed and his carseat is even installed! i still want him to hold out for 2 more weeks, though, i just need to come up with a project to keep me occupied through the home stretch! maybe i'll tackle another sewing project...that would be fun :)

next week is my last week at work for a while. i'm planning to take a few vacation days before his due date to stock-pile some sleep and tidy-up the house for guests. i'm so excited to have some time off...but wonder if i'll drive chris crazy! i know it would be good for me to rest my feet and back, though, so maybe it'll be a good time to catch up on some reading and chick flicks :) i bet tilly will be glad i'm staying home with her. i'll have to get in some bonding time with fuzzy-booty before she's no longer an only child!

thanks for keeping us in your prayers! i'll keep you posted!

worth the wait:

one of the things chris and i really love to do is travel internationally. my love for travel started in high school when i went to new zealand and australia and i have craved learning about other cultures, languages and seeing exciting new places and meeting new people ever since. my schmoopy actually got to live in places like saudi arabia, spain and england before we met in high school! since we've been together we've gotten to go to south africa, swaziland, australia, puerto rico and kuwait together. i've been lucky that "uncle smith & his nephew" (aka smith & nephew) have sent me out of the good ol' u-s-of-a to do business in england, amsterdam, barcelona, and australia. now that we're preggo i hate to admit that we are missing trips to hawaii, vancouver, spain and as of a wedding invite yesterday...india! okay...so we probably couldn't have gone to india anyways....but i'm using this as an excuse to get our booties (and baby booties) in gear to hopefully have an adventure together soon!

as much as we love travel...we are a thousand times happier to stay right here in memphis and welcome our little peanut into the world!! i'm just saying he'd better be ready to rack up some frequent flyer miles :)

Still Preggo!

peanut and i are still hanging in there for these last couple weeks! as of saturday we were 37 weeks, so the little guy could arrive just any time now and not be considered premature. we had our checkup with the doctor last week and she said things were going really well. we're just the right size, his heartbeat was 150 and we're starting to get ready for him to make his appearance :) i told my doctor that i was starting to have some crampiness and lower back pain that comes and goes more frequently, and she said "great! wonderful!". i'm thinking, i guess so if you're not the one going through it!! but, she said it just means things are moving along, so that makes me happy that it's not for nothing :)

our little one has settled into his favorite position now, i guess, since i get a little foot (or at least i think it's a foot) that travels around the right side of my tummy several times a day. it makes me smile and giggle everytime i see that little bump pop out and move around! i can't wait to see our little peanut but i'm still hoping he holds out for his due date...we'll see if we make it that long!

we had a pretty productive weekend around our household. chris is madly working on the back hallway and bathroom trying to wrap things up there...of course since he had to do mudding work - the house is now covered in a fine layer of dust! now i need to get to work cleaning everything! we also had a very yummy dinner with some friends on saturday night and played an almost never-ending game of settlers of catan. it had a happy ending, though, since the girl who had never played before whooped up on all the rest of us....beginner's luck!

here are a few pictures of the baby shower my coworkers had for us. they are so great!! honestly, chris and i are both very lucky to have such great jobs and to work with these people. they are so supportive, family-oriented, and generous.

check out jabob helping cut the cake! i think the guys really liked that because i hear he was very generous with his slices!

cute little onesie from jabob, trish and dakota...looks like the perfect size!

yay! presents!!

Around the Corner from Elvis:

yup, that's where i am today...i work just down the street and around the corner from graceland and all the elvis fans! today is the big ol' 30th anniversary of his death and tens of thousands of crazies...i mean fans....are scurrying around town with their cameras around their necks, their sideburns on their face, and their foreign accents. just tuesday i was in an unusually busy kroger and wondering exactly where i had landed, because it certainly didn't look like the memphis i know in there :)

"death week", as this week is so affectionately refered to here, is a fantastic week to be in memphis. everywhere i go i see elvis, every radio station i turn on plays elvis, and it just makes me laugh! so just keep your eyes peeled around town here, because i bet if elvis were still alive - this would be the perfect opportunity for him to come home for a visit because he wouldn't even need a disguise :)

Happy Birthday, Dad!

happy birthday, dad! i hope you have a fantastic day :) hey...you should celebrate still being nice and young this year, because next year you'll be a granddad!!

love,

carebear

Babyland, TN:

chris and i were so lucky to have a visit this past week from mama jeannie (aka...honey or jean-jean or whatever peanut decides she needs to be called)!! she came in from SC for almost a week after getting back into the country from kuwait just a few days before. it was so much fun to have her here and to talk all about the baby and show off all the fun things we've received from everyone. she also brought us a whole load of presents from her friends in kuwait and some folks in clemson!! jeannie was nice enough to offer to help with the curtains and changing pad cover for peanut's nursery while she was here. we gladly took her up on that offer and put her straight to work (well...after we had made up our minds on what would look the best!)...and she was non-stop sewing from saturday morning until we had to drag her away from the sewing machine to get her to the airport on sunday afternoon!

the nursery is not completely finished...but you would not believe the progress on the nursery that has been made in the past week thanks to jeannie, chris and all of our friends and family who have gotten peanut's nursery well-stocked! good thing, too, because we now have less than 4 weeks until his due date, so he really could show up just any time now! i totally should have done a before and after picture, but the before picture would have embarrassed me too much :)

here's a picture of how well-stocked peanut's closet is! he's going to be one fine-dressed little guy:

my mom and dad gave peanut this beautiful crib and his bedding i bought from a really sweet lady who runs polka tot designs:

here are the cute curtains jeannie sewed this weekend. they look even better in person against the aqua walls! schmoopy did a fantastic job painting the nursery (sorry it took so long to decide on a color, schmoop...but it's absolutely perfect!):

mom and dad also got peanut this cute changing table that will one day be flipped over to be used as a dresser...so clever. jeannie whipped out this changing pad cover to match his bedding and it's just so cute!

here is the chair that chris was rocked in as a baby...but it has undergone an extreme makeover with the black painted arms and lime green re-upholstry. thanks to mama jeannie and daddy-o steve for paying to have it recovered. how fun that your little boy you rocked in this chair will be rocking his little boy in the same chair! we also added a few shelves for peanut's books and pictures. they still have plenty of room for us to add some things to them. i love the little wooden monkey aunt sara gave him and the noah's ark from guatamala that kristen, ben, and isabella gave him and all the cute books that i just can't wait to read to him:

jeannie also made the cutest quilt ever!! i had no idea she was so talented! i think she's really started something and everyone is going to want one, now...though i doubt they could be as cute as the one she made for peanut:

there are many more stories to come in these last few weeks of the pregnancy...keep us all in your prayers as we get ready for this exciting event. my first of the weekly doctor's appointments starts thursday and i'm not too thrilled about that...but i guess it'll be nice to know if things are progressing :) i'm feeling pretty good so far, let's hope that holds out!

Babies Everywhere!!

well, my preggo buddy is no longer preggo!! trish and jacob had their beautiful baby GIRL (and baby alley's future girlfriend) on sunday. she's just absolutely beautiful and just melts my heart to get to see her and hold her...i can't even imagine how in love with her they are!!

trish and jabob - i have no idea how you two could stand the suspense of not knowing if you were going to be taking a baby boy or girl home from the hospital, but that sure was fun :) i hope you know how excited we are for you! we are constantly praying for you and dakota and just love that we get to share in your joy of her arrival :)

mom, dad, and baby all looked wonderful yesterday and i'm so impressed with trish saying how her labor went so well. let's pray mine goes smoothly too...and yes, i'll be asking for those meds STAT!

i just can't wait for our little peanut to come now so the four of us can all hang out and do fun mommy-baby stuff together while the mommies take a break from work. just a few more weeks! oh my goodness i think i might burst because i'm so excited...or maybe it's because of my giant belly!

Showers of Baby Presents in Decatur:

i wanted to share a few pictures from our baby shower in decatur. lots of fun with family and good food and talking about babies :) what an awesome time!
mmm...yummy cakes!lots of fincher and bowling family members came over to decatur just to show us and peanut how much they love us :)the excited parents to be and their pile of loot to open! weiling was more than happy to assist with the present opening....
and so was tilly!!
well, all the baby showers are over now, my maternity clothes are looking pretty worn and once the nursery is done we'll just be sitting here waiting for our little guy :) i can't wait!

My Goodness...It's August!

holy schamoly! where has the time gone?? tomorrow i go for my 34 week (almost 35 week) check up with my doctor. i'm beginning to feel like i see her more than i get to see most of my good friends! september 8th is not feeling so far away anymore :) just a few more weeks (plus or minus) before out little peanut makes his grand entrance into the world!

so much is going on right now, which is wonderful! on friday my coworkers had a shower for us with some yummy cake and ice cream. i work with such amazing people! it's been a real blessing to get to work with these folks for the past 5 years...wow....5 years! over the weekend we went to a baby shower in decatur with all of my mom and dad's family. such a great time...i'll post pictures soon. we also got some swimmy time in and mom treated me to a facial as a graduation present. (that was really so nice and relaxing...wish i could do that every sunday before i have to go back to work!) this week, chris is busy in the nursery fixing the window and painting. we're hoping to have it painted by this weekend so we can move in all the baby stuff! mama jeannie is coming to see us on tuesday :) we haven't seen her since christmas and chris, peanut and i are so excited she's going to get to spend some time with us while we're still preggo. she'll get to see peanut wiggling around in there and feel his hiccups he gets about 2-3 times a day :)

after these last two showers our house is starting to look like a mini-BabiesRUs store! the bedding and exchanges i need to make are in the living room -- the bouncy seat and play gym are in the office -- the guest room is piled with blankets, baby clothes, hooded towels, toys, stuffed animals, etc. -- the high chair and swing are in the den -- the pack-n-play and jogging stroller are in the coat closet -- the changing table, bath tub, diaper genie, stoller and carseat are in our bedroom -- only the crib is in the nursery and it's covered with a drop cloth :) craziness!