The Story on Morning Glory

Jeff and I just got back from our summer-ly vacation, and what a wonderful trip! Usually we make a yearly trip down to Mexico to hang out with the locals...not really. We always go to a resort (hopefully all inclusive, because who can beat that?) and sit by the pool/beach for a few days, killing off our skin and brain cells, as we tan and catch up on our margarita drinking. Well, with me being prego, and the craziness that seems to be going on in Mexico these days, we decided that the possibility of delivering early at a Mexican hospital didn't sound too appealing and we should stay in the states. And really, what's the point of going all inclusive if there are no margaritas to be had? For me, anyway...

I'd heard the term "babymoon" on one of the prego websites, and when Jeff was looking up places to go with a pool (that was my one requirement...I might have to sacrifice the margaritas, but there is no sacrificing the pool!), I said he should look up "Babymoons". Not one to question my random google requests, he typed it on in and sure enough, there were babymoon packages all over! We opted to head out to Phoenix. You know, to beat the Texas heat. :) The resort looked nice, the pool looked good and really, that's all I cared about, so off we go!

We got to the airport, loaded the luggage, and we were ready to go! Just enough time in the terminal to pick up some pretzel sticks (the yummy baked kind that you get at the mall...I could eat them forever) and we were on the plane and headed to Phoenix! The flight was good, yadda, yadda, we're in Phoenix! Our luggage was actually already on the belt when we walked to baggage claim, so it seemed like we would be out and at the pool in no time! We picked up our bags and headed to the car rental terminal. And that's when the smoothness ground to a screeching halt.

We're walking through the car rental terminal past Hertz, Enterprise, Budget...there's no line at any of them! That looked like a good sign! We rented our car through Alamo, so we keep on walking around the bend and there's Alamo...with about a million people in line to check in and about a million and a half people waiting to be told that their car was ready. Slight exaggeration, but seriously. There were lots of people there! We finally make it to the front of the line and the dude says that we'll be getting our Ford Focus when our name is called. Isn't the Ford Focus the most typical compact rental car? It seems that you'd have to try NOT to get one! I even said to Jeff as we were waiting in line, "I bet we get a Ford Focus." Anyways, after forever, Jeff's name is called out and we're off to find the car...which ends up being some kind of Pontiac, 2 door, sporty thing. No questions asked, we jumped in and were off!

Our room wasn't quite ready when we got there, and since the pretzel sticks at DFW were the last thing to enter this prego stomach, needless to say, I needed some food and fast! We sat at the pool bar and had what I remember as an AMAZING hamburger and took in the sites. The place was really pretty! Lots of Arizona type landscaping, nice pool (yes!) and in no time at all, our room was ready.

Here's the Arizona landscaping outside our room. I had to get used to "the beauty of it". At first it struck me as kinda ugly...

First thing we do when we get checked in is of course, head to the pool! The place has 2 pools, an adult pool and a family pool. We headed to the adult pool to see what that was all about. It seemed that this being the last trip where we could actually go to an adult pool meant that we should go to the adult pool. It was kinda random, lots of old people sitting on chairs under umbrellas, not talking. And not one single person in the pool! It was a little bit weird, but we got over it and had a nice evening hanging at the pool. And there were hundreds of rabbits in the grass area by the pool! They were so cute! They made you just want to hug them! Sadly, I forgot to get a pic of them.

The babymoon package was amazing. One night, they brought make-your-own-ice-cream-Sunday fixings to the room! Does it get any better? Ignore my chubby prego thighs and check out that spread! Fudge, caramel, M&M's, pecans, whip cream, and our very own pint of Hagan Das!

The next night was sparkling apple cider and chocolate covered strawberries! Um, yum.

The package also included room service breakfast every morning, which was so fun! I don't know if I'd ever actually ordered anything from room service! It was so great. It also included a couples massage...which was nothing like in the movies. Not on the beach, and I think Jeff was asleep as soon as his head hit the massage pillow. As for prego here, I'd heard that when you go for a pregnancy massage, they have pillows setup so that you can actually lay on your stomach! Sweet! I am (or was) a big stomach sleeper and was really looking forward to that. But alas, there was no such thing here. I just rolled from one side to the other. Sad, really.

Here we are, enjoying our beverage of choice for the trip.

Me = Water. (exciting, I know) Jeff = Margarita. (jealous)

We ate a lot of good food, from fancy steak houses to hole in the wall Mexican, and I can't leave out the fab burger and fries at the pool! Don't think the first day was the only day I tasted that one! Yum! I've decided that burgers are the thing I can't live with out these days. I could eat one twice a day!

Our last night, we sat out on the patio of the hotel and ate dinner outside. They have a bag pipe player guy who comes out a few nights a week and plays at sunset, which was really neat to watch. Even more fun to watch the golfers not quite know what to do with a guy in a skirt walking around the golf course! The sunset was beautiful and it was a great evening.

It was wonderful to just be together, rest, watch baby Jack kick like a banshee, and laugh. I loved it! I'm sure it will be the last trip just the 2 of us will take for a while. And I'm so thankful that we got to do it!

I have a love hate relationship...with the neti pot. Some of you might not even know what the neti pot is...and I didn't until Sunday. See, when you're prego, if you have a cold, you pretty much better just hunker down and take a few days off work, because you can't take any medicine. While I do see it as a pretty good chance for my body to prove that it still works and can heal itself the way God made it, (as if being prego isn't enough) it's pretty much miserable. Oh, you can take Tylenol (and let me just remind you that there's a reason you start taking Advil once you're over the age of 12) and Mucinex...but really? They don't work. They might ease the pain/agony for a minute, but you're pretty much on your own!

Now, I understand my body has more important things to do right now besides kick this cold to the curb, growing an alien human and all. But that doesn't make it any easier to take the constant runny nose, stuffed up head, and soar throat! I mean, I'm not Wonder Woman, I'm just prego!

One of my friends who has a 1 year old told me last fall when I was suffering with a cold that I should try the neti pot. Before I go any further and to help you understand why I said, "Heck no!", you need to understand what a Neti Pot is.

The neti pot originated in India, which helps me understand why it looks like a foreign tea pot. It's a small tea pot looking thing. You fill it with saline solution and...................you stick it up your nose. Remember when that weird kid in school would sniff a spaghetti noodle up one nostril and make it come out the other? Well, that's basically what you do with the neti pot. You stick the end of the tea pot up one nostril, tilt your head, and allow the saline to come out the other nostril. Um, no thank you! EEW!!!!! Sure, it's supposed to clean your sinuses out, but that's disgusting. I'll just sniff night and day. Thank you!

Here's a disturbing picture of what it would look like if you were lying in a sink while someone is using their neti pot right above you. That's gross. And how much did this woman get paid to have this picture taken? Not enough.

So, that was the fall. This is now. I felt horrible on Sunday so Jeff went to church without me. He was talking to our friends who brought up the neti pot again. Before Jeff came home from church, he stopped at Walgreens to pick me up my very own plastic, heather gray, Walgreens stamped neti pot. Using it the first time was as awful as I thought it would be. It feels like you got in the ocean and sniffed up as much salt water as you could, and then snorted it all out. So gross.

I hung something on the wall! Hooray! I love these letters.

Ok, and yes, that is a crib sheet and blanket, washed and ready, like the Jack is here and ready for a nap! I couldn't resist! I never should have gotten the baby detergent...I've washed too many things already. Everyone says, "Don't wash things! He might not fit into the and then you can take them back." That's so not what I'm doing. I want to wash it all! Even the 12-18 month stuff! I can't help it!

But I digress. Back to progress. I hung the blinds...I don't normally really like blinds, but they seem to be a necessary evil here.

I finished the dresser, and I love it! I found this dresser/changing table at a consignment sale for like $100, which is amazing. It was stained with a cherry finish and looked like it had been pretty well used. So I sanded it and painted it, and it was pretty much ready to go! The drawers have a glass front, which I love, but didn't really love it when I started putting stuff in the drawers and you could see everything in them! I'm not an organized drawer kind of person...so today, I used some of the fabric remnants from the bedding and hot glued them behind the glass...I think I like it!

One of our favorite things to do is to "try out" the baby things with Vincent. He's been in the carseat, in the bed, in the swing...and in the bumpo! I promise, he likes it more than he's letting on! :)

As baby Jack grows along just as he should, we found out this weekend some very close friends of ours 20 week sonogram didn't go well. Her Dr said the baby isn't developing correctly. There is fluid around the heart and the baby also has a chromosomal disorder. The brain isn't as developed as it should be. They told her that 90% of the time, a baby with all of these conditions would have miscarried in the first trimester. If the baby is carried to term, it will likely live 1-2 days. Or it could die before then and miscarry.

How does one handle that? Other than to cry out to the Lord, asking why? And just cry a lot. It's in these times that it becomes perfectly clear that we are not in control. Of anything. As I've gone through my own pregnancy with all of the crazy things that happen, I tell everyone, it's definitely God reminding me that I am not in control of anything that has to do with this child. I "know" that this child is His, but do I really know that? I don't and I know I don't.

I had an early miscarriage in November, and even in that, as early as it was and as hard as it was, I knew God was reminding me that I am not in control of this pregnancy and will not be in control of this child. It's just a shocking reminder of how fragile we are.

We know that the Lord wants good things for us. But it's beyond hard to reconcile that with the eventual loss of a child. Miscarriages are so common...knowing that doesn't help. Knowing others have been there before you doesn't help. Even knowing that the Lord will use this one day to help her minister to others doesn't help. Nothing helps. Only looking beyond, to the Lord, relying on Him for your every breath, every thought, every feeling, seems to make even the tiniest difference.

Jeff and I went through a very difficult time in our early marriage. Not too similar, but really, most tragic things are somewhat the same. Surprising, devastating, life changing. I remember needing the Lord's strength for absolutely everything. Even to allow people to reach out to me.

And as many of us go through tragic things, it would seem that we would know how to react to others who are in these terrible times. But we don't. At least I don't. Don't know what to say, don't know what to do...don't want to impose...I can come up with numerous excuses to do nothing, because it's hard. It's not from the Lord, the one who quickly comes to our rescue.

So please pray for my friend. For wisdom and courage. And for me to be a good friend to her.

So we had a prego appointment on Monday, which is always fun! Well, except for all of the time spent waiting for my name to get called...

In my Dr's office, the vault-like door back to the patient rooms could REALLY use some WD40. It squeaks like a mother! So, each time the door creaks open, even before the nurse pops out to call a name, all the heads in the waiting room do a turn worthy of a whiplash, to see if the nurse is their nurse, and then if it is, the heart quickens, hoping it's your name they'll call! And if it actually IS your nurse and it's not your name, you better just hope you've brought your lunch and dinner because it seems likely that your baby will be on it's way out before your name will be the chosen one!

Anyway, Monday I had my glucose tolerance test to make sure I wasn't in trouble and dealing with gestational diabetes. Basically, in the non medical terms my Dr used to explain to me what GD is, it's something that pregnant woman can experience in the last tri mester where your blood is not reacting correctly to sugar. So on the way to the Dr, I had to drink this nasty orange sugar drink...I will almost liken it to the orange drink they have at Mc Donalds. Pretty disgusting.

All of that means I had to have my blood drawn. Eew. I actually felt pretty lucky, truth be told, because your blood HAS to be drawn with in 1 hour of drinking the drink. So I drank it 30 minutes before my appointment, hoping to beat the squeaky door system. And believe it or not, they actually called my name 30 minutes after I got there! Amazing!!!! It was like the light of heaven was shining down on me! Until I got back to the blood room...I sat down in the blood drawing chair and braced myself. I hate getting my blood drawn. I'm not as bad as some but I don't enjoy it at all. I can't look at it. It's my body's life, squirting into a tube! Gross! Well, they try the left arm first. Poke around a bit...can't get the vein. Eew. So, take that needle out, put a cotton ball and some tape on it, and try the other one. Ok, so that one works, 3 tubes of blood, yadda yadda, I'm walking back into the waiting room with a cotton ball and tape on both elbow pits! I look like I've walked into the back to shoot up!

So Jeff and I wait some more...this time to see the Dr. So my hopes in beating the system didn't really work, just enough to get stuck 2 times and then wait some more. Finally, after about a million door squeaks and whiplash turns, I am the chosen one. We got to hear Jack's heartbeat, which is just amazing, and the Dr. said everything looks fine! Yay!

My blood tests results came back Tuesday and it seems that I am RH negative. Apparently that means baby Jack will be fine, but if we were to get pregnant again, my immune system might fight the baby! Isn't that sad? Doesn't lend itself to good parenting...so I'm headed back to the Dr today to get a Rohgam shot, which I have to get now and then again shortly after Jack arrives. They say this shot will make my immune system not freak out for the next baby.

So I head in this morning to get my shot. Good times. Surely one measly shot won't worthy much of a wait...

Ok, so I couldn't wait too long to post some pics of Jack's work in progress nursery...I just love it! I can't wait until it's finished.


Here is the fabric I'm going to make the bedding stuff out of. The Alexander Henry owl print is what inspired the whole room. I just LOVE it! All of the owls are so different and it lends itself to so many complimentary fabrics. Mom and I picked out the others to coordinate. I think we'll get started on making everything next week...that's kinda scary.






I made these to hang above his bed. Super easy and I think they'll look so cute! I glued yellow polka-dot ribbon on the back to hang them. For some reason, I haven't hung anything on the walls yet...I'm nervous...putting holes in a wall is quite a committment!


Love this IKEA bookshelf. We put it together a few weekends ago (ouch, my aching back...) and every day since then, I go in Jack's room and move things around in the cubes...really? Like he'll care that he has books in two cubbies right next to each other! The caterpillar on the top is one of my favorite things. Don't worry, it has the ABC's on it, one letter on each caterpillar section. Oh, and did I mention it's lower case on one side and upper case on the other? Genius! Because I'm sure he'll end up learning his ABC's from looking at a caterpillar on the top of his bookcase...






And another one of my favorite things...the cross stitch on the left was in Jeff's nursery and the one on the right (another way he's surely learn his ABC's!) was in mine. I still need to get Jeff's reframed so it can come comfortably from 1975 to retro 2009. But I love the idea of something from my nursery and something from his!



At first, I was freaking out because of the green of the walls. Apparently I'm super bad at picking out paint colors based on a 1 inch swatch of the color...who isn't! I mean do they really expect you to know from that? I'm getting used to it and I'm even kinda liking it!

Welcome to the beginning of our family blog! I guess we'll use this as a way to communicate about the joys and struggles of pregnancy, parenthood, and pretty much just life in general! Who knows what will end up on here...I can't wait to start posting pics of the nursery (work in progress, for sure) and eventually baby Jack!

A little background info on us, Jeff and I have been married a little over 2 years and are expecting our first in September. How exciting! The pregnancy road hasn't been too hard to far, no morning sickness to speak of, so anything else I would complain of would be flamed by those who suffered through their first 3 months! Although at this point, the backache and indigestion makes me want to do quite a bit of complaining...why can't I just eat some Mexican food without chasing it with a pack of Tums?

I was (until yesterday) a teacher, and had been for 8 years. In the past week, I've had my last day of school, cleaned out my room, and turned in my keys! Oh yea, and shed more than a few tears. Could have something to do with hormones...but I'm truly glad to be able to prep for and stay home with our little one for the next few years! And don't worry, although I was bawling on my way home from school yesterday, I pulled myself together long enough to pick up more than a few adorable outfits for the little man!

So welcome and enjoy your browsing on the Morning Glory blog! Hopefully there will be something to browse soon...

One more thing. The Story on Morning Glory...where does the name come from, you ask? Well, we live on Morning Glory Ave...not too much of a stretch, but kinda fun!