Hattley's Journey



Well...it's official! It's a girl! We are naming her Hattley (Sage/Sloan/?) Bryant!!! I like Sage...Russ likes Sloan. So you are more than welcome to give your input at the end of the blog.

 I just knew we were gonna find out together with everyone at our gender reveal party but that didn't work out as planned since I am such an anxious goober and had to find out sooner than everyone else. I ended up finding out at work from the ultrasound tech one week early. That day I ate lunch with Russ and shared the exciting news. I bought a pink knit bunny ear hat and a pink singing sock monkey giraffe we call Maggi. We had an awesome gender reveal party with family and friends. It ended up also being a surprise 30th birthday for Russ!

Thanks to Shelby Ramsey for the decorations! We also had my favorite craving... a mashed potatoe bar. And Russ' fav...seafood gumbo!

The journal/fabric wall.

 

We have gotten in a routine of playing Maggie just about every night and read her pretty much the same books every night. She loves it as I feel her kick and settle down to get ready for bed. I started feeling her move at the end of 16 weeks. I really didn't think it was her but after 2 nights of eating pumpkin spice ice cream and feeling weird "gas type" feelings in my lower belly I thought it was her. Then at 19 weeks I found out that I have a posterior placenta, which means that I'll feel her sooner than other women feel their babies with an anterior placenta. So we had a great  Russ has started feeling her move over the past month. He loves it when she kicks back after he talks to her.

We started a couple of nursery projects...one being the shutter wall project that Russ wanted to kill me afterwards. But he has even admitted that he likes it a lot. I am in love with her room! At first I was so scared about having a girl because all I could think of was "pink, bratt, cheerleader, attitude, blah blah blah." But now I am absolutely thrilled it's a girl and I have actually grown somewhat fond of pink...which is my least favorite color...well it's between pink and purple as colors that used to make me wanna throw up for no reason. Anyway, I have embraced a more subtle/soft pink. I can not wait to put Hattley in soft pink smock dresses! Seriously!!!

Beginning the shutter wall!

All up and primed

Finished product...white, tan and vintage gold glaze

 

 

Then the light fixture project....before...old hen egg basket

After...

 I can not wait to meet this little sweetheart. Russ is already being protective over this sweet girl. He keeps asking her to come out so we can see her...then I remind him she is not ready and I really don't want her visiting my work! We are getting excited about the holidays and I have enjoyed eating the goodies at work without feeling guilty this year like I have in the past. I have taken over all of Russ' large T-shirt bc they are so much more comfortable than my mediums. I've already gained 22 pounds at 25 weeks and I'm ok with that for now...hoping that number doesn't get too much higher. We ended up registering this weekend...it was emotional and crazy! No one tells you how emotional you get when you become pregnant...or maybe I just didn't really listen when women told me that part and just thought they were cry babies? But...I am sooo stinking moody and sensitive...God Bless Russ for sticking with me after all of this.

At Babies R Us registering. Russ was such as sport!

 I am hoping that part will go away and so will the many pee breaks in the middle of the night. I would much rather be waking up to a crying hungry baby than me crying bc I got no sleep from peeing all night. Here are some of the most recent pics over the past 25 weeks. Enjoy!

10 weeks

15 weeks

20 weeks

25 weeks

 

Let the Blogging Begin~

So blogging life beginsss... I feel strange about all of this. Like I'm not old enough to be married to a fun guy, own a spacious house and a condo, be out of college, have a doctorate, have a job/my own business, and most of all....be expecting a baby! (and started a blog too). All of these changes are fun, exciting and makes me feel OLD. So let me catch ya up on the past, present and our exciting future.

Most of you know that Russ and I met 10 years ago this exact weekend...MSU Homecoming 2002 at the Delta Gamma/Sigma Chi homecoming float. Thanks to my college girls for encouraging me to paint black cow spots on "the tall curly headed hot pledge's" face for the "Got Bells" homecoming float theme. He in return painted an EX on my leg...see the pic. That was the first of many flirting sessions. That same weekend we had different dates (mine was his big brother in Sigma Chi) to homecoming but ended up hanging out with each other all night.

So with 5 1/2 years of dating and engagement through crazy college fun, long distance (Memphis to State and Memphis to all the states he traveled for the National Republican Campaign) and then boring/stressed out times of PT school studying and the end of Russ' 5 year college run...we finally settled down and made if official 6.7.08! So our plan was to wait 5 years before we started thinking of the old married life..."starting a family."

Well... I guess being a PT in the NICU didn't help the 5 year plan because I got and still get to love on sweet babies all day. The problem is...those aren't mine and I am not responsible for those as Russ calls babies..."critters." (b/c of the noises they make). As I rocked those sweet babies, I dreamed of what ours would look, act and be like. Kinda like when you were little and played dress up and dreamed of what your husband was gonna look like. Well that was the feeling I was having about 2 years into our marriage. With Russ still in law school, I figured our best bet was just to wait on the 5 year plan. Then about 1 year ago I specifically remember seeing a 13 year old boy in Target with hearing aids, glasses and had CP walking with a gait deviation (I obviously assessed) calling for his mom. I saw his mom...who looked like his grandmother. So my first reaction when I got home was to cry and tell Russ I was soooo ready to start talking and thinking about babies b/c I could not help but feel like that might be me in Target with my kid if we waited any longer! So after holding the sweet babies and beginning to feel old...I had to make my plea to Russ that we were ready!

So for about a 10 ish months we would agree we were ready and then the next month we freak out and say we weren't ready. So with our wishy-washy thoughts and thinking we were in control...God taught us a pretty sweet lesson and made the decision for us...to BE OLD AND START A FAMILY!

Well, we really didn't expect the fun suprise of a postive preg test. After a short run at the gym, I grabbed a Pappa Murphy's Pizza, came home put it in the oven, went to pack for our fun Knoxville trip to go whitewater rafting trip and Dollywood trip. I figured I'd take a test just to make sure I could ride all the rollercoasters...ha! Well...to my suprise my life changed in about 30 seconds. I seriously felt my life flash before my eyes. Weird...I know but all the things I mentioned above were vivid thoughts I thought of immediately after I saw 2 lines on that test. Then Russ came home...looked at the test and said he thought it was a false positive. So I took 2 more tests...all positive. So Russ' next reaction was ..."I'm going to mow the grass." And so he went to mow the grass at 7:30ish pm on a July night and I cut the pizza.

Yep...the first USG was 8 wks and the second was at my work at 12 wks...that sums it up...most people tell us this is when life just begins! Let's hope so!!!