It's been 5 years

I can't believe that John and I have been married 5 years today. It has gone by SO fast. Its funny, we see each other every night and every minute on the weekends and yet we still feel like we never get to spend time together. I hope this is how we always feel. We never get tired of being with each other. We don't usually do much for our Anniversary except go to a nice restaurant at a place one of us has been wanting to try. We decided that since our Anniversary is on a Friday and we are always so tired after a week of work that we would celebrate tomorrow. So tomorrow, we are going to see Million Dollar Quartet. It is a 90 minute production. I've heard great things about it so it should be really good.
I had my 28 week checkup today. Everything is going well. The babies heartbeat was in the 140s. I asked my Ob if I was HUGE because I must have been asked 6 times this week by random strangers if I was having twins. She said I am measuring a little bigger than normal but nothing to be concerned about. We didn't have a sonogram, so its hard for them to really tell without looking at the baby. I have gained 30 lbs, which is a little on the high side so I need to watch what I eat a little more. I go back in 2 weeks for my 30 week apt. I'm in my third trimester now so I go every 2 weeks and then after 34 weeks I go every week.

28 Weeks

Baby's now the size of an eggplant!
Baby's lungs are mature enough that, if born right now, he has a pretty good chance of surviving (with help from medical technology). His skin is still pretty wrinkly (one byproduct of living in amniotic fluid) but will smoothen as fat continues to deposit.

Let your spouse put an ear to your belly -- he might be able to pick up baby's heartbeat (no stethoscope required). Inside the womb, the formation of tiny capillaries is giving baby a healthy pink glow. Baby's also soaking up your antibodies, getting the immune system ready for life outside the womb. Eyes are forming, and baby will soon perfect the blink -- perfect for batting those freshly grown lashes.

Update on the TX Job

John has now completed two interviews within corporate. These two interviews were pre-interviews to determine if they thought he was qualified for the job or not. He is moving on to interview with who would be his direct manager in Dallas. We don't know yet when the next interview will be and whether or not it will be in person or over the phone. When I know more I will update everyone. We just ask everyone to pray for us and if this is the job John is supposed to get then he will get it.

Baby Shower at Church

I had my baby shower at church yesterday. It was a safari animal theme and the room was decorated so cute!! Ashley made palm trees out of diapers and put stuffed animals all over the room. Ashley also made a wonderful cake. She is so talented and creative. She just comes up with these cake ideas and makes them herself. Tamra and Nancy also helped with the shower. Here are some pictures:

Texas quilt that Catherine made
playing the guess the chocolate in the diaper game
cake Ashley made
palm trees out of diapers
All the food we had

Busy Saturday

Our house has been in a state of upheaval. We have been trying everything under the sun to make the wardrobe stop stinking, so in the time being all of our blankets and sheets have been in the floor of our one and only living room. Also when we got home from TX we took everything out of the boxes that we got at the baby shower and had it all over the floor in Austin's room. We have stuff everywhere it doesn't belong. I couldn't take it anymore so today we got to work. John and I (well I folded and John walked up and down the stairs) did laundry. We started washing a bunch of the sheets, towels, blankets,... for Austin. Then once everything was clean we didn't have any place to put it so I broke down and we are going to use the wardrobe anyway. We put ground coffee in it a couple days ago, and again every thing helps a little but it isn't where I want it yet. So we filled the wardrobe with stuff and we are keeping the door open for now.
Then we had to make a trip to home depot because after the a/c repairman told us our a/c works fine we decided maybe the problem is our windows. John is installing vertical blinds on the windows that face the west as we speak. I sure hope they stay up over night. John isn't exactly the most handy person I know.
We also got some baskets to keep Austin's first aid stuff and bath stuff in under the sink. We have lots of storage under the sink, but if we don't put things in baskets everything falls over.
We still have TONS of work, but at least we are making progress.
I have my Chicago baby shower tomorrow, so at least we made room on the floor of Austin's room to put the stuff we get.
We are also searching Craigslist for a graco pack n play and a rocking chair. We haven't been successful yet, but we still have time. I'm so ready to get Austin's room set up and Erin and Ross are coming July 8th. That at least gives us a deadline of when we need to have most of the stuff put away. Our condo is tight as it is without adding 3 more people.

Erin, Ross, Drue, and Leila

When we were in Dallas last weekend, Erin and Ross spent the night at my parent's house with their two kids. Leila is just over 2 and Drue is 2.5 months. We had such a good time. Here are some pictures.

Baby Showers in Dallas

This past weekend John and I were in Dallas. We flew home last Thursday and came back on Monday. My sisters and my mom threw Austin and I a shower on Saturday at Jan Barnes's house. She has such a beautiful house and it is great for parties. There were so many people who came and I was so happy to see everyone.
On Sunday John's Mom and sister threw Austin and I a shower. Deana made me a Mum that I wore to the shower and we will put in Austin's room. The shower was so much fun!
After both showers Mom, Kerri, Robby (Kerri's boy friend) and I went through all the gifts and put them in empty suitcases and boxes to mail back to Chicago. We ended up mailing two big suitcases and two big boxes.
On Monday my Aunt Linda (who works for FedEx), Mom and I went to FedEx to mail all 4 things. We mailed all 120 lbs of baby stuff via FedEx Ground. Last night when I came home all 4 boxes were delivered right in front of my door step (on the 4th floor)!! I was so excited. John and I unpacked everything and put it in piles on the floor so we can get an accurate count of what we have and what we still need. I have one more shower this weekend in Chicago and then we will start buying things our self.
Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Me and the Mum
Austin's cake at the Tarver shower
Brandy, Me, Aunt Linda, Kerri
My cousin Melissa made this for Austin's room
Aunt Carol, Mom, Brandy, Kerri, TooToo, Me, and Aunt Jeanne
Austin's cake at the Dahir's shower
Brandy and I
Brandy, Kerri and I
I'm getting big!

Back to Texas

John and I have been struggling with wanting to move back to TX since we moved away almost 5 years ago. We love it in Chicago but we are not winter people and I'm getting concerned with the 4 flights of stairs to our condo with a baby. Its already getting harder and harder as I get bigger and further along in my pregnancy. John really wants to stay with his company so we decided to just wait for a job to open with Hospira.
Last Tuesday John came home from work and told me that a sales job had posted with Hospira and the territory would be Dallas, Fort Worth, and NW Texas. The funny thing is when we heard about it both of us thought we would be happier. It was weird we were almost scared to even apply for it because of all the roots we have in Chicago and the fact that the baby is coming at the end of the summer.
John finally decided that he would talk to his boss before we did anything. John has only been at his job since last August and we didn't want to go behind his back and apply for something. John has a lot of respect for his boss and just wanted to see what his boss thought. His boss basically said that we have to do what is right for our family. John and I felt that we had to at least give it a try. I told him one of the reason we might be wavering is because it is summer in Chicago now. Had this job opportunity opened in the middle of winter I think we would have jumped at the chance.
So on Saturday John submitted his resume. Yesterday he got a generic email from HR at Hospira saying thanks for you interest but no thanks. We were shocked! I thought he would at least get an interview. Well John went and talked to his boss, who found out that there is a Hospira policy where they won't accept your application if you have been at your current job less than a year. John is going to try to meet with the HR person today, but I'm not sure how it will go. We have been praying that God show us when is the right time for us to move back. Its never easy to move you family all the way across the country but it sure seems like this isn't the opportunity for him. John is still going to try to pursue this opportunity, but I'm not expecting much. We have always said we would move back and I just can't imagine staying here forever, but in the grand scheme of things 5 years isn't that long. We will just have to be patient and see what God has in store for us.

You're Pregnant

So John and I were sitting on the couch talking last night. One of his favorite sayings is to say to me "You're Pretty". You think this is nice but he usually says it after I have said or done something stupid! Haha. Anyway I stood up to go into the other room. John had a really weird look on his face and then said "You're Pregnant". It was like it just hit him! Haha it was so funny because I thought he as going to say "You're Pretty" so it threw me. He is such a goob!

Quilt

My friend Catherine came over yesterday so I could show her how to make a Rag quilt for her baby like I made for Austin. We had a good time. She cut out all the material before she came over and in about 6 hours, we stopped twice to eat, she had the quilt completely done! It was her first time to make a quilt, she had only crocheted blankets up to this point. Catherine and her husband, Steve, are choosing not to know the sex of their baby. She chose very neutral colors, red, green, yellow, and brown. The quilt turned out great and she doesn't have much sewing experience. I'm so glad I was able to help her.
Her husband came over too and we ate pizza from Millwood, right down the street from our house. It was pretty good. I haven't had pizza in weeks and it hit the spot!

Texas Knitted Blanket

OMG!! Look what I found! Its a knitted blanket with a TX in the middle. I HAVE to make this for Austin!

http://www.knittingknonsense.com/texascloth.html

Cloth Diapers

My mom came to Chicago on Thursday for a weekend conference. We were able to hang out on Thursday afternoon and a lot of yesterday. She will come back to our house Sunday night. While she was here she mentioned that she wanted to buy me some cloth diapers for part of my baby shower gift. I thought, how hard can that be? Then she said she has done some research and there are 25 different brands. I thought she was exaggerating... she WASN'T!! OMG there are so many different kinds and different styles out there. I've been researching them so I can tell her which ones I want on Sunday when she comes back. I found a woman who is a mom and has reviewed 20 or so different kinds of cloth diapers on you tube. I watched every review and think I am able to narrow it down. The hard part is they have some with snaps and some with Velcro. I thought Velcro would be easier to put on a baby until I read the reviews. The Velcro will wear out and then you can't use the diaper anymore. They have diapers that are all in one and will grown with the baby, diapers that have disposable liners, diapers that are a diaper and then have a separate cover... its really crazy. I'm so surprised by how many choices there are. I think I have decided to use the Gro Via snap and Bummis diaper system for during the day and the TinyTush Elite Pocket Diaper with snaps for at night.
Does anyone have any suggestions???

25 Weeks

Baby's now the size of an eggplant!
That oh-so-handy sense of equilibrium is kicking in, and baby's learning to distinguish right side up from upside down.


I'm officially in month 6 of my pregnancy. Austin has started to kick a lot and just last week John could feel it too! Its pretty neat. John is always putting his ear up to my belly to see if he can hear Austin moving around in there. I think its starting to seem more real to John. Its hard because from the beginning I felt different, but until the husband can feel the baby kick and see the belly get bigger there isn't really any true evidence that his life will change.
I think John gets more excited every day that we are having a boy. We have had birthday parties for our friend's kids the last two weekends. The first was for a 2 year old boy and last weekend was for a 1 year old boy. John plays with the kids and they seem to like him! Its the under 1 year olds that we have to worry about, they tend to scream if John holds them and I'm not much better. The only thing we can figure out is he is so tall when he holds them they get scared.
We still haven't had to change any diapers, but we will have lots of practice soon! We are getting very excited and have started getting the room ready for Austin's things. Our series of baby showers will be starting soon, so I think we got the room ready just in time!