Last day of November...

I had my 30 week Dr's appointment today and wanted to provide you with the stats. I lost 1 lb. since my last appointment, which was surprising to me seeing as how I just got back from Thanksgiving vacation. I was aiming to either maintain or only gain 1 lb, but I'll take the 1 loss also. My doctor was pretty impressed. Haha! My bp was 116/66 and I got the results from my glucose and anemia test and both were normal. Glucose was 107, she didn't tell me the number on the other test. Today Ryan's heartbeat was 153bpm. I thought it was funny that while I had to lay on my back he was making funny bumps and waves across my tummy as the Doctor did the doppler and then measured my tummy. He really looks like he's trying to break out of my tummy when he does that and I find it rather amusing and typically talk to him while he's moving around a lot. Dr. said I was measuring right about at 29.5 cm which correlates to about 30 weeks and right on track. Everything else seems to be going just fine and I'll have another appointment again in two weeks.

This weekend I have my first baby shower and I am SOOOO excited!! My friends Mara, Melissa, Mariann & Lauren are throwing it for me on Saturday. I can't wait to see some good friends that I haven't seen in awhile and celebrate the upcoming arrival of our precious son. Also, we ordered the nursery furniture before Thanksgiving and got a call on Saturday to let us know that it has arrived. Now we just have to find someone with a truck willing to let us borrow it to haul the two large pieces home from the store. I can't wait to get everything set up in the room and feel more organized and prepared for his arrival.

This week I also plan to put out my Christmas decorations and set up our Christmas tree, which I am so excited about!! It is the first year to decorate our new house so I've been trying to think about how and where I will put up all the decorations I already have and what else I might need to buy. ;) I'm also hoping that Mike and I can decorate the outside of the house this year since we never did lights in San Antonio since we always traveled home to be with family for the holidays. Now that we are all here in town I think it's time for LIGHTS! :) I am nearly finished with my Christmas shopping, but still have a handful of things to pick up. I will hopefully start wrapping gifts this week as well (depending on how busy the week is).

Last, but definitely not least, the Frogs celebrated their final victory of the regular football season with an perfect season. We will anxiously be awaiting the BCS bowl announcements on December 6th to find out where we are going. I am personally hoping for the Sugar Bowl vs. Alabama which would be awesome. Other projections from news-people says the Orange Bowl vs. Georgia Tech or Boise State. It wouldn't make much sense for us to play Boise since we played them in a bowl last year and haven't lost since we beat them. I think my Dad was hoping for Tostitos Fiesta bowl, but looks like that may not happen due to order of picking or something... there's so many things to consider with these BCS predictions. Another great game would be us versus Texas this year, but obviously at this point it looks like they will be going to the National Championship game probably vs. Florida (even after a pretty poor performance against the Aggies this past week.) Well, I guess that's all from me for now. Have a great week everyone! :)

~Emily

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

It is hard to believe, but Thanksgiving is now just a few days away! I am so excited for a nice relaxing break from work as well as some very yummy food!! This year we will be spending Thanksgiving with the Roberts' side of the family in Ruidoso, NM. Mike and I both have to work on Monday, but then we will be off for the rest of the week. Yippee!!

Also, this past week we finished up our baby care and CPR classes at the hospital. They were pretty thorough and I think we both took some new information from them. I think by taking the classes it will help us both have more confidence when Ryan arrives. Obviously once he is here will be the greatest learning experience since every baby is different, but at least we have ideas and tools to use to care for him properly.

Last night we went and ordered our nursery furniture. We purchased the crib, toddler railings, and converter kit (since it is a lifetime crib) and Mom and Dad bought the dresser/changer combo as a gift to us. The crib was actually in stock, but was so big we had no way of getting it home so we will wait until the other stuff comes in the week after Thanksgiving and find some one's truck to borrow and haul it all home. :) I had been impatiently waiting for some great deal to come along so that we could purchase our furniture before the holidays and was getting very worried that they might not have a deal as good as the one that we missed in September. However, Wednesday I discovered that Babies R Us was having a Member Rewards weekend Fri-Sun and had some great 20% off coupons for furniture as well as many of the larger (more expensive items). We decided to wait on that stuff since we still have two or three showers ahead of us. I'm sure each month there will be new deals and coupons. The key is to make sure you never buy anything there at full price because they always seem to have SOMETHING on sale (and I like to get the best deal possible). We have just started week 29 and really no changes for me other than the growing, moving, squirming baby. He is particularly active these days which has allowed more people to get to feel him during the day, which is fun.

On the football front- You might notice that the majority of my posts from November seem to have purple pictures... hmmm... shows what our weekends currently consist of. :) TCU Frogs had another amazing win last weekend and I have uploaded a few photos from the longest day EVER. It began by waking up at 6am on a Saturday to get ready and head to ESPN College Gameday. We got there about 7:45am and stayed on campus until 11:30am. We then went to Fuzzy's tacos to grab a bite for lunch, followed by hanging out at Matt and Vivian's home to watch the DVR'd replay of College Gameday. I had a hair appointment at 2pm that afternoon and got 4 inches cut off my hair and re-layered all around. I felt my hair was simply getting too long and was in my way pretty often. I think it needed the nice new "do". It came out a little shorter than I had anticipated, but I know it grows fast and this was the last time I was probably going to get to cut it before Ryan's arrival. It is hopefully just out of reach for his cute little fingers to grab. At 4pm we headed over to the tailgates and then we were in the stadium a little before 5pm for a 6:30pm game time. The game ended around 10:30pm and we visited with a few friends then started the drive home and stopped at Whataburger in Arlington around midnight for a late dinner. Therefore, we didn't actually get to bed until around 1:30am Sunday morning- thus making it the LONGEST DAY EVER! (especially for me!) Today TCU plays at Wyoming at 1pm and we anticipate another big win. GO FROGS! :)

Well, I suppose I should wrap it up. We hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving week. We are thankful for many blessings that God has provided, but especially our family and friends who we love so very much. Until next week...

~Emily

Mike and Emily at the end of the Victory!

Maggie, Phil, Emily & Mike enjoying the game

Mike, James, Paul, & John at Gameday

Vivian and Emily at Gameday (pre-haircut)
Mike & Emily with some of the signs (the one I'm holding got confiscated)

James and Mike with their signs (James' sign also got taken up by ESPN)

Today's Dr. visit

I had a good Dr's visit today and thought I'd provide the details via blog so I don't have to repeat it several times for everyone. Just finishing up week 27, which is hard to believe. Week 28 starts tomorrow I believe. I got to experience the lovely glucose test today, which really wasn't too bad. It was just like a sugary orange drink. They had kept it very cold in a fridge which made it pretty easy to drink. For some reason I expected a thick drink, but it was just like a kool-aid or orange soda without carbonation. I did feel a little icky/dizzy right afterwards because there was quite a bit to drink, but my stomach was empty and was probably getting a sugar high so hopefully that isn't a bad sign. I felt better within 5 minutes. I imagine I will find out the results at my next appointment which is in two weeks. (Nov. 30th)

Also, I had a nice surprise jump in weight this visit... up 8 lbs!! YIKES! The Dr. didn't seem too concerned because she said there is a lot of fluctuation and growth around this time. She said what is important to her is my overall weight gain which she has recorded at 18 lbs, but by my calc it should be 19 lbs (but we can certainly go with hers!!!). So, since we're already about to the 3rd trimester I think that should be okay. I think I've been eating pretty well, but could certainly up my veggie intake and I could attribute a pound or so to some Halloween candy that I did enjoy a week or two ago. Mike and I are going to have to get better about our evening walks. It is especially difficult now that we get home when it is dark and still have to eat supper first. Perhaps we will have to depend on some Wii exercise?? Ha! :) Other than that, baby's heart rate was 154 bpm and he even kicked her right on the Doppler towards the end, which I thought was funny. She asked me about his movement and how I've been feeling which has been great on both accounts. He loves to kick and squirm throughout the day and even more in the evenings and I enjoy the little (although sometimes very big!) movements. My BP was 122/74 which is also normal.

Prepared childbirth class was great on Saturday and we learned a lot of techniques and ideas to help come delivery time. I also think a lot of great information was shared to help us feel more educated about the whole labor process and what to expect, etc. We got a tour of the Labor and Delivery facility and the run-down on where/when to check in come "GO" time. I know it's still a little early, but it is nice to have this out of the way especially since there are limited classes and with all the holidays coming up soon. We also have our second of four Babycare/CPR classes tonight. I'll give a brief blog with the run-down of all the topics and things that are discussed once it's all finished. Mike enjoyed practicing swaddling our "baby" in class on Tuesday and practicing 'tummy time' which was really cute to watch. I can't wait to see him in action with Baby Ryan! Well, I suppose that's all for now.

~Love, Emily

Busy November...

So, I haven't been as good about keeping up with my blog lately. Mostly because we haven't had a whole lot of down time and when I do get home from work I typically want to do anything BUT get on a computer. Since it is the weekend I thought I would take the opportunity to provide a little update and a few new photos for your viewing pleasure. :)

Two great TCU victories since my last post. The first was our Homecoming game vs. UNLV 41-0. It was a pretty big blow-out, but we enjoyed the show from the frogs and were there from kickoff till the singing of the Alma-Mater "Hail all Hail, TCU!" I loved getting to see several good friends that I don't see on a regular basis and at the end of my post you'll see just a few pictures that I got around to taking at the game. You might even notice in some of them the growing baby belly. :) Secondly, today TCU beat San Diego State 55-12. It was an away game so we watched from home on Versus. Two other highly ranked teams lost today as well as a close game by another top ranked team, so it made for a fun college football game day. Frogs are currently #6 in the BCS & #4 in the Coach's poll, but we hope to see a jump when the polls are updated tomorrow evening. :)

Update on the growing Baby Ryan... We just started week 27, which my book had said was the start of the 3rd trimester, but from our Childbirth class today I learned that is actually week 29, so still a little more time in the 2nd trimester. I am still feeling great and especially enjoying all the crazy movements lately. Our little guy is certainly an active one. I've been trying to figure out what body parts I am feeling, but can only seem to distinguish between a knee/foot/elbow and a head/bottom. One is pretty sharp and hits hard, the other seems to roll around and sometimes goes high in the air and makes my tummy lopsided. It's pretty fascinating to watch the wavelike movements and punches and just reminds me of what a miracle a growing child is. Our Childbirth class was today and was extremely informative to say the least. I think we both learned a lot and got some great tips on laboring positions and breathing techniques. I think I will find all of the information useful as I am interested in having labor as natural as possible. Obviously, since this will be my first time to go through labor I don't know what to expect from my body or how I will handle the pains. However, I do have confidence in myself and believe that the nurse gave us some great techniques to get us through and I know there are other options available that I feel a little more comfortable about in case I need them. Mike is going to be a great support coach and is already very involved in learning how to help me be comfortable and healthy through the remainder of the pregnancy. It is hard to believe that we will be full term in only 10 weeks! There is still a lot that needs to happen before then.

As far as the nursery is concerned, we have the bedding and baby mattress, but no furniture or paint on the walls just yet. I am hopeful for a big Babies R Us furniture sale soon so that we can order our furniture. (Or at least a coupon...) I am also hoping that we can decide on something and get the painting of the nursery out of the way the weekend of the 21st (before Thanksgiving). If it doesn't happen that weekend then it will have to wait until December. This week we have 2 of our 4 BabyCare/CPR classes on Tuesday and Thursday. I'm feeling really good about getting these classes out of the way a little bit early since December there weren't any offered, plus with the holidays I know it will be very busy. I also didn't want to wait until the mid-January one and feel unprepared, especially if we deliver early.

Yesterday we joined the Campbell family for a Military Honors Memorial Service for Mike's grandpa Campbell. He passed away quite awhile ago, but had been cremated and not yet been given a military burial. His wife joined him in 2003 and their remains were both placed at the DFW National Cemetery on Friday. The four Campbell sons received an American flag honoring his service to our country in the US Navy and a fly-over was also arranged. It was a very special service for the family and I know it especially meant a lot to the four sons who knew him the best. I am always inspired by the honor and significance that is given to those who have served our country, especially in death. Speaking of which, Happy Veteran's Day to all those retired military service people that might be reading this blog. After the service, the whole family came back to our house for dinner and it was nice to visit with some family members that we don't see very often. Everyone headed home around 7pm and Matt & Vivian stayed to visit with us for awhile which was a lot of fun.

Well, I suppose this post is probably long enough and you are tired of reading. Hopefully I will do a better job and update it again soon. (Odds are I've already forgotten something) I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the weekend and enjoy the pictures below! :)

~Emily

Mike and Mimi at the Homecoming game
Jenny and me at TCU Homecoming

Mom and Dad enjoying the TCU Homecoming game

Mike and me at the TCU Frog 5 tailgate pre-game

Sarah Swann and me at the Frog 5 tailgate

Me and Laura after enjoying some tasty Uncle Julio's fajitas!!