A Look Back...

Just thought it would be fun to put all of these belly pictures together so I could see how far we've come in just a short time!

14 Weeks

24 Weeks

34 Weeks

37 weeks

We had our 37 week checkup today and everything went great. The Dr. said I'm still just 1cm dilated but she thought that the baby had dropped some since last week. She also estimated how much our little gal weighs but first she asked how much Ryan and I thought she would weigh at birth...Ryan's thinking 9 lbs 5 oz (holy cow-- I hope he's wrong!) and I guessed 7 lbs 5 oz. He said for my sake he hopes I'm right and so do I!!! The Dr. said she thinks the baby is around 6.5 lbs right now so if she makes it to the due date, October 15th, she'd be around 8 lbs. I guess we'll find out here in just a few weeks!! We can't wait to meet our little girl! We are still working on a name and I would love to say that we're a little closer but really we're not. We've got a few in mind but there's just not one that both of us are crazy about so the search goes on. Feel free to give us some suggestions if you'd like!

4 Weeks to Go!!

Wow~ I can't believe how fast my pregnancy has flown by! It seems like yesterday when we found out we were expecting. We thought October would never get here and now we have less than 4 weeks until her due date....and that's if she doesn't decide to come early!! We had our 36 week appointment today and everything is still looking good. The Dr. said that she's turned head down and that I'm 1 cm dilated so things are slowly but surely progressing. For the most part I think we're ready...or as ready as we'll ever be besides not having a name but we've waited this long so why should we be in a hurry, right?

Today Ryan had a meeting in Nashville with some of his peers and they had a surprise baby shower for him. He had no idea they were planning anything so it kind of caught him off guard but he was pleasantly surprised. I asked him if he enjoyed opening all the gifts and he said he kind of wished that I had been there because he felt awkward but I'm glad he got all the attention for probably the first time in 9 months!! He deserved it! He enjoyed showing me all of the gifts when we got home. They also got him a D.A.D.D. T-shirt...it stands for Dads Against Daughters Dating. I thought it was too cute because the day we found out we were having a girl one of the first things he said was, "She's not dating til she's at least 30!" I'll have to take a picture of the shirt and post it.

Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers for my shingles. They are completely healed and really only bothered me for a couple of days. I'm convinced that I had a very mild case and I'm so thankful that that's all I've had to deal with throughout my pregnancy. I've been so blessed with such an easy and uneventful one and I know not all women are that lucky! Now if the labor and delivery will go as smoothly then I'll be set!! I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Thanks for checking in on us....hope you all have a great weekend!

34 week Belly & Nursery Pics!

Belly Pictures at 34 Weeks! We're running out of room....

Side shot

From the front...my belly button is officially flat!

Hope you enjoy the pictures...it's still a work in progress! I've still got to get some things up on the walls but a lot of that hinges on what we name our little gal and well she's still "baby girl" so I might not get that done until after she's here!

We are really pleased with the way the nursery looks so far. Ryan and his dad, Steve, put a lot of hard work into getting the white wainscoting up around the bottom and we couldn't be happier with the deal we got on our used furniture....it's like brand new!

Her little closet is already full of clothes!

She'll be all set to cheer on the Vols with her Daddy!

34 Weeks and Shingles....

Yesterday afternoon I had my 34 week Dr. appointment and baby girl is doing well and getting big but I had some unexpected news. On Monday I noticed that I had some red bumps under my right arm that looked almost like hives or some kind of rash. I also had what looked like a ring of them in between my shoulder blades on my back which I thought might be ring worm...boy was I wrong! As the week has progressed the ones under my arm started to blister and scab...yeah I know gross huh?! Ryan & I both thought that I had gotten poison ivy from him on Saturday; he was in the woods putting up deer stands with his dad. I knew I had my appointment yesterday afternoon so I just thought if it wasn't any better I could ask my Dr. to see what she recommended especially since I didn't know what was safe to put on it. I showed it to her and told her what Ryan and I suspected. She asked if it was painful at all and I told her that it had been hurting some. She said she thought it looked like shingles which really caught me off guard. Thankfully there is a dermatologist office right next to hers so she called him to see if he might be able to fit me in. About 15 minutes later he showed up at her office to look at my funky rash which was super nice of him. He thought it was shingles too and told me the only way to know for sure is to do a scrape test and send it to the lab, so off to his office I went to get tested. After filling out paper work I was expecting to have to wait a while but they got me right in and were really nice. A nurse called this morning to let me know that the test came back positive for shingles. So for the next week I will faithfully take my Valtrex (shingles is a form of the herpes virus) and hope and pray that it clears up. Thankfully it will have no effect on the baby which was my main concern. I just hope that it doesn't get worse...right now it doesn't feel great but the pain is tolerable. If you would please keep me in your prayers I would really appreciate it! I'll keep you updated and I'm still planning on getting some pictures up this weekend so stay tuned....

Fun Weekend

Our 3 day weekend has flown by but we've enjoyed every second of it! Ryan had a training in Chattanooga all last week and got back in on Friday afternoon. It was so good to see him and have him back home. Saturday we spent the day over in Paris visiting Ryan's grandparents. It's always good to see them and spend some time with them. Of course they're getting excited to meet this little girl of ours too! Sunday the church where we attend hosted a baby shower for us. Patsy and Callie were able to come in for the weekend for it and Margaret (Ryan's grandmother) felt up to making the trip so she got to be there too! The shower was so nice and we received lots of very nice things for our little girl. My mom and dad surprised me and sent a gift for me to open since they couldn't make it....my dad picked out a matching bracelet, necklace and earring pearl set that is just precious. I know it will look beautiful on her! Today Steve and Patsy took us out to eat for lunch before they left town and when we got back Ryan and I both crashed! We took a nice long much needed 2 hour nap. It was wonderful....I just wish I could take one everyday! Tonight we had some friends over for the UT game. It's a good thing we took that nap since the Vols just went into over time! Go VOLS! Hopefully they'll pull it out!

Here are some pictures from the shower:

The wonderful hostestess: Carrie, Sarah Glenn, me and Katie

Yummy cake!

Getting ready to open all the gifts

The pearl set from my parents

All the Blount women: Margaret, Patsy, Callie and me

Katie got me the cutest diaper bag and a gift certificate to get it embroidered when ever we come up with a name.....no we still don't have one!

Hope you all have a great week! I'm going to try to get some belly and nursery pics up soon so be on the look out!