Wall-E

Jonathon and I were feeling brave and adventurous Sunday afternoon and took Olivia to the movie theater for the first time. We took her to see Wall-E and she loved it. She behaved better than I expected, but we left with about 10 minutes to go because she had enough. Actually, if there weren't two people sitting in front of us, we would have stayed and let her stomp on the floor and walk, but it didn't work out. I think her favorite part was eating the popcorn, which was also a first, and drinking Mommy and Daddy's "juice", which is Coke (don't worry, she only had a couple of sips and only after she drank all of her milk). Jonathon and I love how she says Wall-E...it is the cutest thing I think I have ever heard (well, except for when she says Momma and Daddy, nothing beats those two words).

We are all doing well. Jonathon is no longer working 24/7, literally he has worked every day (including Saturdays and Sundays) for the past month. This is the first weekend since the 4th of July that he will be home the whole weekend. I am so excited because that means my yard will get mowed. Now, don't get me wrong, it is flippin' hot here in Texas and my grass is pretty much dead, but somehow the weeds are green and growing like crazy, despite the lack of rain.

This weekend is Olivia's Pool Party. I have everything except for the cake, a slight oversight on my part. No, actually, as long as I give my local bakery 48 hours notice, they can have it ready in time, which means I have to place the order by Thursday.

The pregnancy is going great still. Emma is a kicker. She especially loves to start when I am starting to wind down for the evening and trying to relax. The kicks have been getting harder and harder and sometimes she will kick me hard and it takes me by surprise and makes me jump. I have been experiencing Round Ligament Pains in my belly. Here is what I found from emedicinehealth.com:

Round ligament pain refers to a type of pelvic pain caused by stretching of the round ligaments. This occurs more commonly on the right side of the pelvis.

* Your uterus is normally the size of a pear. Thick ligaments, one of which is called the round ligament, hold your uterus in suspension within your abdomen. As the uterus grows in size and weight, these ligaments become very long and thin, stressing and tensing like rubber bands.

* The ligaments pull and tug on nearby nerve fibers and sensitive structures, causing pain. The severity of pain can worry you. Although round ligament pain is uncomfortable, it is also very normal.

o A ligament spasm, an involuntary contraction or cramp, usually triggers a sharp pain. These spasms are found more frequently on the right side than the left because of the normal tendency of the uterus to turn to the right.

o You might awaken at night with pain after having suddenly rolled over in your sleep.

o The pain may also be brought on by exercise.

Fortunately, this doesn't happen frequently, but at least 2-3 times a week. Sometimes, especially when it catches me off guard, it takes my breath away. I had one at work yesterday and the guys in my office started freaking out and thought I was going into labor. I work with some great guys, but trust me, if I go into labor at work, they are the last 3 guys in Dallas I would want to help me out. Like I said, they are great, but if it were to happen, they would be like the 3 Stooges and I don't want to take that chance (don't worry, I have already told them this so it isn't like I am saying stuff behind their backs, and they agree).

Check for a post this weekend with pictures from Olivia's pool party; it will be a blast and wish all of you out-of-towners could be here :(

Happy 2nd Birthday, Olivia!

Can you believe it? Our baby is 2 years old today! Where has the time gone? It is just flying by way too quickly.
As for the actual day, which is today, we aren't planning on doing too much. We just got back from gymnastics, she can do a forward roll all by herself, and the pool, she loves to go down the water slide. Now, she is taking a much needed nap. Tonight, we will probably just keep it low key and take her out for ice cream. Next Saturday, August 2nd, we are having her birthday party with friends and family. We rented a Partybrella at the local pool and will have finger foods, cake, present opening and of course, lots of swimming.

It's a ...

Today, as most of you know, I had my 20-week Ultrasound and Checkup. The Ultrasound took a little longer than expected, due to baby being very active and not cooperating for pictures. However, everything looks great and I do not have Placenta Previa! Whoo-hoo! This was my major concern; this is what I had with Olivia and caused me to deliver early. Everything looked and sounded great, although at my next appointment I have to go in for another Ultrasound and try to look at baby's face. The Technician was able to look at baby's lips, but nothing else. They want to be able to say they looked at everything and time was slipping away so we opted to look at the face next time. I am telling you, this baby was like a Mexican Jumping Bean...it was everywhere!

I have finally started to feel baby move and kick, and Jonathon has too. Olivia was a mover and shaker during the day where as this baby is a night owl. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come. I need a good sleeper!

Well, I wish I could post pictures from our Ultrasound, but we do not have a scanner. So, if you would like to find out the sex of the baby just scroll down and look at our homemade pictures.





Emma Claire Simmons should make her debut on December 4, 2008. Currently she weighs 12 ounces and her heart beat is 160 Beats Per Minute. Like I said earlier, the Technician said everything looks awesome, and that is what is most important to us. My doctor said that since everything looks great, I should have a pretty smooth pregnancy.

I have finally started gaining weight, but I will not mention numbers. My blood pressure is really good, actually, a little low in my opinion. I am experiencing a lot of heart burn lately and the Tums are sitting on my night table next to the bed, since it seems to hit me right before going to sleep. Other than the heart burn, I am doing really well and enjoying this pregnancy. I have to say my favorite thing so far about being pregnant is watching Olivia rub my belly, say, "baby", and then kiss my belly. I also get tickled when she goes up to Jonathon's belly, rubs it and says, "baby"...too cute. She even rubs her own belly and says, "baby". We tell her that only Mommy has a baby in her belly, but I don't think she quite grasps that concept yet.

So, we just ask that you all pray for this pregnancy to be smooth sailing and complication-free. We also ask that you pray for Emma to be strong and healthy on delivery day and pray for Olivia to handle the transition from Only Child to Big Sister smoothly.

We are very excited to add Emma Claire to our family and can't wait to meet her!

Photos galore from this weekend

We hope you all had a good 4th of July weekend; we did. For my birthday present, Jonathon painted my master bedroom and bathroom all weekend, and as soon as we have everything back in order, I will take pictures. We went to a parade on Friday and Jonathon was in charge of pictures since I sat on the curb with Olivia. He managed to get a picture of everything else but Olivia. She did wonderfully. The kids threw out all kinds of candy and she loved picking them up. She was very friendly and gave a sucker to a little boy who was sitting in his stroller sucking on his sucker. He was so pleased with Olivia's gesture, he gave her his half-eaten sucker as a token of his gratitude, and she accepted it graciously; too cute! Of course, we immediately took it out of her hands and gave it back to the little boy, but we all got a little chuckle. We went and watched fireworks and I was a little worried about how she would react to them, but she loved them. After every one would explode, she would wave her arm and say bye to each one.
I had plans to take Olivia swimming over the weekend to get her out of the house while Jonathon was painting and to do something fun outside, because everyone knows, it is too hot to play outside in Texas if you are not playing in water, but she got Swimmer's Ear Tuesday night so we couldn't go. I was bummed, but relieved at the same time.
We pretty much just hung around the house the rest of the weekend and it was nice.
I found out today that my doctor had to reschedule my 20 week checkup and Sonogram since he will be out of town the day I scheduled mine. So, instead of finding out the sex of the baby on the 24th, it is now the 21st...no complaints here.
The pictures are from Thursday night's gym class. She has such a blast and enjoys every second she is there. She is really starting to break out of her shell and growing up, sniff...sniff. Beforehand, she had a shake from Sonic. Boy, does that girl love her Sonic milkshakes; she loves anything sweet, chocolate or ice cream related. I also threw in a picture of her playing with her American flag scarf before the fireworks.

16 Week Belly Shots

So, today we are officially 16 weeks pregnant. We were really horrible with Olivia and only took a few belly photos, but I was supposed to have maternity photos professionally taken at 36 weeks, but as most of you know, I never made it. So, we decided with this pregnancy, we are going to do the belly shots. Even though we do not have that many belly shots with Olivia, she does have a lot of Ultrasound Photos, so that should make up for the lack of photos, right?

And, without further ado, here are the belly shots:





On a side note, Olivia and I attended a free gymnastics class at The Little Gym today and she had such a blast, I signed her up. Jonathon is going to go with us every Thursday morning, so he can be the one to help assist her and I can take the photos. Today, he was unable to do so because he was extremely busy at work, but he will be there next week. As many of you know, Olivia is rather shy and takes a while to warm up to people and to activities, but today, she was the ring leader. When the instructor would show us a move she wanted us to help the kids with, she used Olivia as her example and she loved it. The great thing about The Little Gym is that even though we are signed up for the 10 a.m. Thursday Beast Class, we can really go any time, and all of the scheduled Beast classes work within my work schedule...awesome! So, next Thursday Jonathon will be with us and I will be able to take some pictures, so look for those next week.

PS--I know my belly is really white compared to the rest of my body and after seeing these photos, I will be correcting that soon :)

I know you've missed me!

I know, I know, it has been a while since my last post; I apologize and hopefully it will not happen again, but no guarantees.
Let's see, what has been going on. Jonathon has been working a ton, and by a ton, I mean going in early, staying late, working from home at night and on the weekends. I can't wait for the company to move and be finished. He has been such a Rock Star while working for his new company and he loves it, so I guess that is pretty cool in and of itself.
Olivia and I have been enjoying the warm weather lately. A couple of weeks ago we bought her a $5 pool and she loves it. We have also had the opportunity to go to a couple of our friends' houses who have pools, and she loves swimming. She doesn't quite understand she isn't big enough to swim by herself, but she still has a great time.
I have started planning her second birthday party, can you believe she will be two in just a month, and we are having the party at the local pool. I decided that our house isn't big enough to host all of our family and friends inside, and I do not want to deal with several two year olds fighting over toys (did that recently and Olivia didn't handle it very well), and figured there is nothing better to do on a hot summer day than go to the pool and have cake, too. So, we have already booked the Partybrella now I have to make the invitations, order the cake, get some finger foods and drinks, and make the party favors. So much to do, so little time.
What else? Oh, Jonathon and I have agreed on a girls name, finally. We find out at the end of July what we are having, and we are so excited. I have heard we are having both sexes, and usually I can figure out what other people are having, but I cannot figure this one out. I have a feeling, but I am not going to say it out loud, for the fear that I have terrible mother's instinct, but we will be happy with either a boy or girl; we just want a happy and healthy baby.
Everything is going much better on the pregnancy front. I am finally starting to feel good. For those of you who do not know, I have been struggling with staying healthy so far with this pregnancy. When I first found out I was pregnant, I had Strep Throat, then I hit my knee in Florida and a condition called Erythema Nodosum flared up (I hit a balloon pocket in my knee just right and because I had Strep Throat, those two factors caused this thing to flare up...I still have a small case of it left, but it is much better. My knee and lower left leg had these huge, goose egg, painful bruises all over them and it took weeks for them to go away and it was swollen, red, and heat radiated from them. Fun? I think not.) Then, at the beginning of June, a Cold hit our house. I got it first, then Jonathon and then Olivia. Of course I was the first to get hit and the last to get better. Since I am pregnant, I am too scared to take anything, so I just suffered through. I did go to the doctor though because my throat hurt so bad I thought I had Strep Throat again, but alas, I failed the test. She said my throat was just irritated and raw from the sinus drainage. So, now that I am over my Cold, I feel fabulous. I have started eating a lot more, which is good because since I found out I was pregnant, I have lost about 15 pounds.
What else? Oh, this Thursday, Olivia and I are going to a free trial gymnastics class at The Little Gym. Lately, she has been putting her head on the floor and it looks like she is going to do a somersault, but she doesn't kick her feet off the ground. She has also been hopping around the house like she is a frog so we thought it was time to get her into a gymnastics class. I hope she really likes it. We think she will after a couple of sessions, so we will see.
I have a doctor's appointment this Thursday. It is just a routine checkup. At the last appointment, we were able to hear the heart beat through the Ultrasound machine, so I hope he puts the doppler on my belly and we are able to hear it. I wasn't able to see my doctor at my last appointment because he had to fly out to Denver the morning of my appointment to run in a marathon.
Jonathon took some pictures of his garden earlier this afternoon and while downloading the pictures, we found some we had forgotten about. They are from our trip to the Dallas Zoo and swimming.

Names, names, names

So, now that we are thirteen weeks pregnant, and seven weeks away from finding out the sex of the baby, we are really starting to think about baby names. We have already agreed on a boy name, which if the baby is a boy, I will reveal, but we cannot, I mean CANNOT agree on a girl name. Jonathon hates every name I come up with and I hate every name he comes up with. I really appreciate him thinking about names and helping out, but I wish he would come up with one we both love, and vice versa.
With this said, I am challenging you, blogger friends, to help us come up with a girl name. Some guidelines:

1. We do not like trendy names
2. But, we do not like too traditional names
3. We would like to keep the spelling normal, nothing too funky
4. We appreciate any and all suggestions, but please do not be hurt if we do not choose your name

So, bring on the names, friends. I am very excited to see what you all come up with :)

PS--I got a call from my nurse and she said everything came back normal from the Down Syndrome testing...yay!