Baby Boy update

So I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago that baby brain had set in and I had been experiencing some word retrieval problems. Well there was a little more to the story. It was two weeks ago when this occured, along with blurred vision and headaches. I had also started to notice some tingling and swelling in my hands, but wrote it all off as the end stages of pregnancy...or a stroke, which is why I told Arch and my mom all my symptoms so they could relay them to the doctor later that night if the need arose. Anyway, I got home, showered and went to bed and felt better the next day. So I wrote it off and didn't even talk about it with the doctor last week...but today the same symptoms started again leading me to do a little research and I thought I may be showing signs of preeclampsia. I had a doctor's assistant check my blood pressure and it was normal but I just didn't feel right. Since I could feel Baby Boy moving around and I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for tomorrow I gave thought to going home early, but not to calling my doctor's office...then my doctor's office called me to reschedule my appointment so I shared my symptoms with them. The doctor on call told me to head to the hospital and she would see me there. They monitored my blood pressure and Baby's heart beat for about 2 hours and along with some blood work gave me a clean bill of health. The doctor on call checked out my progress and the good news is I'm 2cm dilated and 50% effaced...but the bad news is I walked around 2cm dilated for weeks with Ruth Ann only to schedule an induction. Dr. Mullins told me I'm favorable for induction and had I been 39 or 40 weeks she would have induced me tonight...but alas, no new tax deduction for our family this year. I realize what I'm going to say next sounds crazy, but being in the hospital made me realize I'm having a baby! It's all been talk and preparation up until now,but sitting in the hospital bed, hooked up to monitors, listening to his heart beat made it very much a reality that Baby Boy will be joining us very soon. I'm hoping we'll pick an induction date at my appointment on Thursday. I really want to try to work until mid-January so I'm thinking January 17th...but we'll see!

Christmas 2010

We started our Christmas celebration with Arch's family on Christmas Eve morning with a breakfast of waffles and sausage. Ruth Ann is a big fan of a carbohydrate, so she helped herself to not 1, but 2 waffles...resulting a fabulous mid-morning nap, Merry Christmas to me! After breakfast we exchanged gifts and then headed home to rest up before heading to church at 4:30pm for a new service geared for children. There was a live nativity outside which was a hit with Ruth Ann...she loved all of it...except for the wise men. I'm not sure why her stranger danger alarm was triggered by the 3 wise men, but days later she is still telling me that she doesn't like the wise men and she wants to know where they are. If she asks, I've told her they dropped off their gifts for Baby Jesus and have gone back home to the East where they came from. This seems to make her happy, but if she asks you once, she'll ask you a hundred more times. The service was 100% kid oriented, which is a nice change for both parents and the children. No one was forced to be quiet & you could keep your child in the service with you without fear of on ugly look in your direction if your child spoke out during a quiet moment in the service...we'll be attending this service for many more years to come! Then we headed to my parents house for chili and cornbread. Even though I knew my pregnancy induced reflux would be raging after this meal, I still enjoyed every last delicious bite...it was worth the reflux.

Ada and Ruth Ann played for a little while, and decorated cookies with Grammy...and also helped themselves to frosting...













Then we headed home to get ready for Santa. We brought home some of the cookies to leave out for Santa and what may have been one of the largest carrots I've ever seen for Rudolph.



Here are Ruth Ann's gifts from Santa before...



And after...



I'm told Santa had given thought to leaving Ruth Ann a new baby doll to go along with her new baby accessories, but when he looked around and saw all the babies we already had, he decided to let the our current baby dolls use the new toys and maybe next year he will leave a new baby doll for Ruth Ann.



Days later I'm still cleaning up toys...but that's what Christmas is like for parents, right?? Ruth Ann walked in the living room yesterday and said "Where are my presents?" in her very dramatic way...Arch told her to just look around...they are everywhere! Sadly, I was forced to grow up a little this Christmas. Santa stopped leaving big ticket items under the tree for me years ago, but a stocking was always filled with goodies for me on Christmas morning....this year there was no stocking. Although I had received word from the elf responsible for my stocking weeks ago there would be no stockings this year, I still felt a little sting from loosing what has been my favorite Christmas tradition & the only tradition that still made me feel a little bit of the child-like excitement of Christmas morning. If you know me in person you know I hate change...I'm still often heard saying at my 32 years of age "When I grow up...". I know it's my turn to be the grown up at Christmas...but this role is still very new to me and it doesn't mean I have to like these new changes just yet.



These bedroom shoes have been a big hit with Ruth Ann. The only time she has taken them off has been to go to bed and even then there are tears involved. Only with the promise that she can put them on when she gets up in the morning will she let you take them off of her feet. And this girl has a long memory because it's the first thing she grabs when she wakes up in the morning.



What makes me laugh about this next picture is the chocolate ring around Ruth Ann's mouth. My Grandpa (my mom's dad) had the biggest sweet tooth of anyone I've ever known. My grandparents always had sweets in their house and you never got up from their supper table until you had dessert. Every year for Christmas we would give my Grandpa a Whitman's chocolate sampler. I'm carring on the tradition...my dad loves chocolate covered cherries and I bought my mom a box of milk chocolates...guess who helped each open their box of candy???



So Christmas came and went...but we had one more surprise left for the day after Christmas...SNOW!! Arch and I were watching Fox News saturday morning and learned from the weather girl that to qualify as a "White Christmas" there must be at least 1 inch of accumulation...what?? Who sat around establishing rules for a White Christmas? We had well over an inch at our house, but I'm sure since it all fell on December 26th it wouldn't qualify as a White Christmas either...but guess what, we live in the South and snow on the weekend of Christmas constitutes a White Christmas in my book...I'll be establishing my own set of official rules at a later date!

















Arch kept throwing snowballs at Ruth Ann...eventually she started throwing some back...



Whenever my mom has plans of stopping by our house I always say to Ruth Ann "Guess who's coming to our house?" and she's caught on to this game and replies "Grammy"...but not this weekend. On Sunday my mom was coming by so I asked Ruth Ann the usual question but this time her reply was "Santa"...nope, sorry, Santa's on vacation now and won't be back for a whole year. A year that I expect will fly by at our house, but a year none the less!

Birthday Party's, Gift Exchange and Multiple Santa Visits

So this is what happens when I roll into my 8th-ish month of pregnancy...I go to work, come home, take a shower and go to bed...usually all tasks are completed by 8:30ish. My friend Auralee called the other night at 9pm and thought when I didn't answer the phone I must have been chatting with someone else...nope, I was asleep. Pregnancy + toddler has been an overwhelming experience at times, but thanks to help from a helpful husband I'm nearing the end of this journey still in my right mind...sometimes. Baby brain has set in during resent weeks, which is frightening for me because I'm usually fairly sharp and pretty good with words, but lately I'm having word retrieval issues leaving me to often look like a fool...oh, well. It was a temporary problem when I had Ruth Ann and hopefully it will only be temporary with Baby Boy. Anyway, that's the reason I've been away, so I'll give you a brief update on what's been going on in our world...

Ruth Ann's Birthday Party



We celebrated the big 0-2 with some friends at The Little Gym in Lexington. I had some reservations about the cost of a party at home vs. a local business, but I sew with the owner of the Little Gym franchise in our area so I thought I'd give it a try this year. I think I'm sold on how easy it is for parents to have a party outside of the house. Last year I ran myself ragged getting ready for Ruth Ann's party...this year the person planning the party called and asked I arrive no earlier than 10 minutes before the party started...SOLD! They took care of everything...decorations, play time, invites...it was fabulous and the kids had fun too...



This is just a small sampling of the sass I'm living with these days...















And then it was time to head out to eat...





I've said it before, dessert eating is a strength Ruth Ann gets from both sides of her gene pool...



Yum, delicious...



Multiple Santa Visits

Last year I had a terrible experience with a mall Santa so Ruth Ann visited 2 different Santa Clauses last year. This year we've already visited 2 and there are plans to visit a 3rd...I'm snobby about the quality of my Santa's...I want one with a real beard for Ruth Ann's keepsake Santa pictures. I'm lucky to have a child who isn't afraid of much and so far Santa Claus is okay in her book...otherwise all these Santa visits could be traumatic. Anyway, my niece, Madison, is on a local cheer leading squad and they sold tickets to a pancake breakfast and to see Santa. To support her squad we all headed to Applebee's to dine with Santa.



Then the next night we headed to the Clark's neighborhood for a hay ride and to visit the 2nd Santa...



This was by far the coldest night we've had this year...we were a bunch of cold McCarty's...



But we were with good friends and had a really fun time!





But seriously, this Southern Belle was not made for temps in the teens, so Ruth Ann was ready to head inside...



All the moms tried to get a group shot of the kids and Brantley's turned out pretty good, but all of mine looked mostly like this...



Since it's hard for me to move around much I really haven't been putting forth my usual effort to get a good picture...oh well, give me a month or two and I'll get back into my groove.

Gift Exchange

We got together with our Supper Club friends this past week for a monthly dinner and to swap presents with the kids and moms.



FYI...if you're reading this and you're name is Auralee, Sally or Brantley, you may get teary eyed when you see this next picture...

Here are the same children 1 year ago...



I can't believe how much this group as changed...or that there were no new additions this year...that's a first in 3 years for this group...but with the addition of Baby Boy and possibly 2 other babies that may be here by next Christmas this group will look much different next year.

We took a group picture of the moms too, but I don't really like how I look in my pictures...which had nothing to do with the person taking the picture and everything to do with the look of exhaustion written all over my face, but thanks for trying Justin. By the time we left it was close to 9pm, which as I said previously exceeded my bedtime and it showed on my face.

That's pretty much it...I promise not to fall too far behind before Baby Boy gets here. The stork is circling the house...I'm 36 weeks today and feeling every single day of it! Baby Boy is rapidly running out of room and trying his best to punch a hole in my abdomen to make his exit. The nursery should get painted this week and furniture should be picked up shortly there after. Then he's welcome to make his entrance...if he arrives before then he may be sleeping in a drawer somewhere since his room is no where near completion!

To the Anonymous

Apparently my words a few weeks ago made no impact on those who enjoy hiding behind the title "Anonymous". My message was pretty basic...if you try to post a comment on my blog as anonymous I will not post the comment and I basically think you're a giant coward. Thanks to some friendly advice from a friend and fellow blogger I have decided to no longer allow comments using the Anonymous title. Therefore Anonymous, you'll have to get out of the shadows and post a comment using your name...which I realize may be difficult for cowards, but it's the least you can do when you leave such ugly comments on my personal blog.

I believe in Auburn & LOVE IT!!

I've been waiting for this night to come for a long time. All of my USC friends who I talk to on a regular basis have been nothing but kind in the recent weeks since USC was crowned SEC East Champions...I wish the same could be said for my Facebook friends. I honestly should have taken a Facebook break but I just can't seem to break the habit. Oh the trash talk I've endured...but finally, the game is over, Auburn is victorious and hopefully the trash talking won't take a bitter turn...although I feel it already has. Rather than be obnoxious about our victory I would like to share the Auburn Creed with you. I have big plans for teaching Ruth Ann the words to this creed and sending it to Auburn in the hopes of getting a scholarship for the years 2026-2030. Until I have a video of Ruth Ann reciting the creed, let me share this with you...

THE AUBURN CREED

I believe that this is a practical world and that I can count only on what I earn. Therefore, I believe in work, hard work.

I believe in education, which gives me the knowledge to work wisely and trains my mind and my hands to work skillfully.

I believe in honesty and truthfulness, without which I cannot win the respect and confidence of my fellow men.

I believe in a sound mind, in a sound body and a spirit that is not afraid, and in clean sports that develop these qualities.

I believe in obedience to law because it protects the rights of all.

I believe in the human touch, which cultivates sympathy with my fellow men and mutual helpfulness and brings happiness for all.

I believe in my Country, because it is a land of freedom and because it is my own home, and that I can best serve that country by "doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with my God."

And because Auburn men and women believe in these things, I believe in Auburn and love it.
-George Petrie (1945)

Don't get me wrong, I love Auburn football, and I especially love an undefeated Auburn football team, but more than all of that...I just love Auburn. Cam Newton and a winning football team don't define what Auburn means to me.

USC friends, I think your team has great things in store and I'll be cheering on the Gamecocks with you (as long as they aren't playing Auburn)...but tonight it is with great pride I say WAR EAGLE!! I wish I could be in Glendale to see the Tigers play for the National Championship, but I don't think they let you fly at 38 weeks pregnant. If Baby Boy is born on the night of the championship game and if Auburn wins...the name Cam may move to the top of the list for baby names!

2 Year Old

Here are the first pictures of Ruth Ann as a 2 year old...

One with wild hair...which is usually what she looks like first thing in the morning...



And one where I've tamed that wild mane...



My brain tells me it's true but my heart still believes Ruth Ann just came home from the hospital yesterday. I can not believe how quickly the last 2 years have gone by! We are in the middle of birthday festivities...we celebrated with family last night and Ruth Ann's party is at Little Gym on Sunday afternoon. I had planned on having her party on Saturday at 5pm, but there's a little football game (the SEC Championship) being played and our family needs to be home to cheer the AUBURN TIGERS onto victory. Okay, Ruth Ann and I will be cheering for the AUBURN TIGERS while Arch pulls for his alma mater, the usc gamecocks. Once the game time was announced I promptly had Ruth Ann's party moved...also because most of our friends here also cheer for USC and will be in Atlanta at the game.

Anyway, we met my parents for dinner because my mom's birthday happens to be the day before Ruth Ann's. Here are the 2 birthday girls looking at the card my mom gave Ruth Ann...



Although I appreciated the wait staff bringing Ruth Ann's food out first, this meant she was well finished with her meal before ours arrived. She had grown tired of sitting in her high chair and was ready to strech her legs. After 10 minutes of her begging and my dad insisting I was being to hard on her...which is laughable if you know my dad...I decided to let her roam. The resturant was fairly empty and she seemed drawn to this corner...



I kinda felt like someone would walk up and tell me "No one puts baby in a corner." but she really didn't stay in any one place for too long and eventually she ended up back in the high chair...oh there were tears, but soon dessert arrived and a love for dessert runs strong in this child so eventually the tears stopped and we enjoyed our dessert together.

Then we headed back home to open a few presents. My mom bought her a dollhouse and my sister-in-law bought her the family to go with it...



She loves it! I wasn't sure how she would like it, but in the last few weeks she has really taken to the concept of pretending. My dad helped me assemble the house...which was very easy...and she started playing right away. We all got a good laugh at the grandparents in this family...



My mom has said this before and I agree...grandparents today don't look like they use to...these two could be great-grandparents!

Happy Birthday sweet girl! I've come to the conclusion I'm not going to be able to stop you from growing up but you're never going to be able to stop me from seeing you as my Baby Girl...which I intend on calling you well into your 30's!