Happy Father's Day Wormie!!!

Today we celebrated Jeremy's 1st "soon-to-be" Father's Day... It was a pretty quiet day because I'm confined to the couch...

We got up and he made me & Baby Anniston breakfast, then we gave him his Father's Days gifts...

A monogrammed apron from me... and a "I love Daddy" onesie from Baby Anniston...

Happy Anniversary Wormie!!!

Jeremy and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary this week!! We haven't been able to really go out and celebrate because I was in the hospital but at least we were able to be together!

The more time we spend together, the more my love grows for him! I feel so blessed that we have each other! I have never met a more giving, thoughtful, and honorable man in my life! He makes me feel like the luckiest girl in the world to be married to him! He continues to amaze me each day and I cannot wait to continue growing old with him and building our family!

Here are some pictures of our BIG day... It seems like just yesterday... :)

Photo credit: Brooke Hamilton Photography

My first trip to the hospital...

Ok... so to say the past week has been a whirlwind is still a little bit of an understatement!...

As most of you know, I have been in the hospital for the past few days... Here's how it all went down & a little summary of my very first hospital stay...

Thursday- It all started with my regular 2 week check-up with my OB... He always checks my cervix at every visit, but this time he felt that it was getting shorter (which is a sign of preterm labor) so he asked me to come in the next day for an ultrasound just to confirm what he thought he felt.

Friday- I go in for my ultrasound and it confirms that it has indeed gotten 11mm shorter in 2 weeks so he decides to admit me into the hospital for further monitoring since I have also been having cramps. Sweet Wormie was not at this appointment with me because he had a meeting so my doctor told me I should go pick Jeremy up and come straight back to the hospital and go in through the labor and delivery entrance and they would be waiting for me... We get checked in to the Antepartum area and get settled in a room and all the fun begins... *Side note- they have different sections in the Labor & delivery unit. Antepartum is for high risk pregnancies, but it's not constant monitoring like other areas of Labor & Delivery*

They hook me up to a contraction monitor and baby heart rate monitor (which are 2 stethoscope looking things connected to a computer screen and held in place by 2 thick bands that go around my waist). Once on the monitor, it shows that I was having several contractions (which I hadn't been feeling) so they start an IV of fluids & amoxicillin and give me meds to try to stop the contractions. They also decide to start a round of steroid injections to help speed up Baby Anniston's lung development in case she comes early.

Let me just say, the steroid shot was unbelievable painful!!!! Getting shots & stuck with needles does not really terrify me- I don't like getting my blood drawn, but other than that I'm usually ok with them if I just look away... The nurse warned me that the needle was really big & long and that it was going to burn once she injected me, but I was not prepared for how bad it was really going to be! The shot had to go in my bottom, so I rolled over to my side & Sweet Wormie held my hand. While she was giving me the shot, it felt like it lasted forever! I ended up squeezing Wormie's hand so hard!... I even think I bit it because I needed to bite down on something for the pain! By the end of it, I had tears rolling down my face! :( But the shot really helps Baby Anniston and that's what I had to be focused on. The nurse said that basically all of the steroids go directly to the baby and it can help to develop Baby Anniston's lungs in 3 days that would normally take 3 weeks to do!

Saturday- This day was kinda quiet for the most part... They just continued to monitor me off and on throughout the day and kept me hooked up to the IV... I got another steroid shot later in the day and the nurses let Sweet Wormie take me on a wheelchair ride for 30 minutes! :) We went to the nursery to see all the little babies that were just born and out to the serenity garden...

At this point in our hospital stay, I wasn't too miserable yet... I was thinking we would maybe be able to get sent home on Monday... Plus, there was a pretty decent room service menu I could order from 3x a day and the nurses let us have free rein to their ice cream & Popsicle fridge... Little did we know, this was just the beginning!...

Sunday- Early Sunday morning I think is when things started to go down hill a little... I got hooked up to my monitors early that morning after breakfast... the original plan for this day was to transition me to new meds I would be able to take at home for my contractions and put me on bedrest at home, but that morning while they were monitoring me was the first time they noticed Baby Anniston's heart rate drop a little & I was still having contractions. She bounced back pretty quickly, but they were concerned enough to put me back on the monitors more throughout the day.

During lunch, the monitors show Baby Anniston's heart rate dropping again so 2 nurses come running in my room. They said I had to move to Labor & Delivery and start a magnesium IV treatment ASAP... everything was happening so quickly... in no time, I was moved to an L & D room and getting all kinds of monitors and wires hooked up to me.

The magnesium treatment was BRUTAL!!! First, they have to pump it into your system really fast for 30 minutes and then they turn it down. When the mag is in your system, it makes you EXTREMELY HOT!!! We had the a/c in my room turned down to 55 degrees and I had a huge bucket of washcloths soaking in ice water that they were putting all over my body and changing out every 5 minutes or so!... The mag also makes it hard to breath so I had to really concentrate on breathing...

This is me on mag...

While I was on the mag, I was hooked up to soooo many wires and contraptions!! They kept a blood pressure cuff on me that was programmed to take my BP every hour, the baby heart rate monitor & contraction monitor around my waist, an IV, plus 3 other wires stuck to my chest to measure my heart rate & breathing, and another wire thing stuck to my finger! I was freaking out!! I don't even like wearing necklaces or having my sheets tucked in the bed because I have a slight issue with being restricted & claustrophobia so I was dying!!... On top of all that, I had to use a bed pan because I couldn't even walk to the bathroom!! :(... that was definitely an awkward experience!

Monday- I was on the mag for about 10 hours and they had to take me off because I was having a really hard time breathing, having chest pains, & was throwing up! So I spent most of Monday recovering from the side effects... While on it, your not allowed to eat or drink anything!- not even water! I was only allowed to have ice chips, but when I started throwing up, the nurse took my ice chips away :( ... so when I was finally allowed to eat on Monday afternoon, Sweet Wormie got me a smoothie & plate of fries from the cafeteria...

The rest of my time in the hospital is really kind of a blur?!?!... It was a lot more monitoring, meds, no sleeping, oxygen masks, IVs, no showering allowed, hospital food, & bed rest... Somewhere along the line they hooked me up to these fancy booties that filled up with air every few minutes to help stimulate the blood flow in my legs so I wouldn't get blood clots... add that to the 20 other contraptions & wires I was hooked up to all day long... When I was finally allowed to walk to the bathroom, unhooking & rehooking me from all my wires was such an ordeal!

Wednesday- This was mine & Jeremy's 3 year wedding anniversary!... They FINALLY let me take a shower (Praise the Lord!!) and for dinner he went to pick up Outback for us!!... :)

Thursday- I was discharged and sent home on bedrest!! {Hallelujah!!}... and that is where I am now... I am only allowed to get up to use the bathroom & walk to the kitchen to get a quick bite to eat... I also have meds to take at home to keep the contractions in check...

I have a f/up doctor's appointment on Wed so I hope to know more then about how long they will have me on bedrest...

P.S. Thank you everyone for your thoughts, prayers, texts, visits, flowers, and support!! The out-pouring of love we got from our family, friends, & church was really comforting during this time!

I think Martha Stewart is taking over my body...

OK... so I am SUPER-DUPER EXCITED!!!!... I've decided I am going to try to crochet Little Baby Anniston a blanket!


I have been wanting to try to do this from the beginning of my pregnancy, but just kept putting it off... My mom taught me how to crochet a long time ago in middle school, but its been so long that I forgot already... so I bought myself a little "teach yourself crochet" kit and some really pretty yarn to get started! :)



This may turn out to be a dissaster and all Little Anniston will end up with is a sorry excuse for a pot-holder or something... OR this may be the beginning of one of my new "stay-at-home mom hobbies"!!!... :) and soon everyone will get crocheted gifts from me! {wouldn't that just be delightful!!!} :)



Other "stay-at-home mom hobbies" on my to do list include planting a veggie garden & making my own baby food!!!... I CAN'T WAIT! :) ...

So the veggie garden will have to wait til next spring/summer before it will be planted because...


#1. I will not be going outside to dig in the ground & water the plants in 90 degree weather while I am 7 months pregnant... and


#2. I still have to convince Sweet Wormie into letting me have a garden! - and that might take a while to talk him into that idea :)... My track record for all things green & living has been a little tarnished in the past couple years because every year I talk Jeremy into spending a whole bunch of money on flowers & herbs and he's the one that ends up planting & watering them... and they eventually die anyway, so he's got me figured out by now and won't let me get anymore plants :( ... {this is also why he won't get me a dog, but that's another story}... it's all about baby steps right?!

I have day dreams about me & Little Anniston going out to the garden with our matching gardening aprons, gardening boots, & hats to pick fresh produce from the backyard...{Aaahhh, what sweet dreams they are!}... and yes, in my dreams I have a gardening apron on- of course! :) ... something very "Bre VanDecamp" from Desperate Housewives, with the matching gardening gloves too!! That's one of the best parts to having a garden isn't it~ to wear the outfit?! - I'm a believer that there's a perfect apron for every household occasion! :) {Wow! I think I just wrote a jinlge!} :)

As for the baby food making, there is this FABULOUS appliance at Williams Sonoma called the Beaba Babycook...





I have wanted this thing even before I was pregnant! It does it all!!... its a steamer, blender, warmer, & defroster all in one!!! All you basically have to do is cut up the veggies!...


So watch out Martha Stewart, I'm coming up your rearview! >=)... before you know it, I'll be crafting handbags out of coconuts or something crazy like that!! ...

Nursery Update...

Hey all... Sorry it took so long for me to put up the latest pictures of the progress Wormie is making on Little Baby Anniston's room...

The walls are finally painted and the chair rail is up... I LOVE how the colors turned out!! I was a little concerned while he was painting that the taupe was going to be too light, but I think it's perfect & works so well with the pink!!! I know Anniston is going to love it!!...

Jeremy & his brother Chris also started on the built-in changing table/dresser/bookshelf this past Saturday. They worked on it for about 5 hours and have already gotten this far... pretty impressive... They are going to work on it some more this Saturday... They just need to put on the drawers, put together the top part, & paint it...

Also, the crib we ordered is in so Wormie will be going to pick that up soon and start putting that together! :) It's all starting to come together nicely!!...

Maternity pictures...

So I asked my super talented sister-in-law, Melissa, to take a few maternity shots of Jeremy and I a couple weeks ago... She is a stay-at-home mom that is thinking about starting a side photography business... I totally think she should go for it... :)

She's also gonna do our Birth Story for us! I'm so excited!

Here are a few of the ones she's taken so far... (P.S. I requested shots AWAY from my face cause apparently its as swollen as my ankles these days... :)

This was taken in her backyard... Melissa got Baby Anniston her 1st pair of pink ballerina shoes...

My working days are numbered...

Well I had an interesting day at work today...


Jeremy and I finally made the BIG decision that I was going to quit my job and be a stay-at-home mom when Baby Anniston arrives... and today was the day that I told my boss about our decision. I had no idea how hard it was going to be for me to walk away from my career or how scary it was going to be!

Ever since I wanted to have a children, I knew I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom... but when Jeremy and I finally got pregnant {it was a little sooner than we planned :) } ... I wrestled with my decision for months! I knew that's what we both still wanted for our sweet baby girl, but the decision was a lot harder than we thought it would be-for the both of us!

We went back and forth with our decision for a while because of so many different factors...
1. I have a really great job! I love my bank and really like the people I work with. Plus, at my age to have my position is not easy to do... I totally lucked out!
2. I just finished my Bachelor's degree in Business Management a few months ago, so the timing for me to put my career on hold for a few years was not ideal at this time.
3. On top of me just finishing my degree, I have my student loans that we need to start paying back right when Little Anniston arrives.
4. I am such a independent person & such a devoted worker... since I was 15 I have always had a job, sometimes two at a time, as well as gone to school!... so this is a HUGE change for me!
5. With the economy being the way it is now, its not the smartest time to walk away from a great job.
6. Even though we are very blessed to not have any credit card debt, we were still unsure what a comfortable amount of "left-over" money was going to be to get us through each month.
7. My mom is completely against me quiting!

But even with all of these things, we want the BEST that we can provide for our Sweet Little Anniston- and that BEST for her right now is to be with her mommy!!
When I went on a few tours of day care centers- no matter how nice they were, I kept finding myself thinking "No. I want her at home with her things! I want to be the one feeding her and changing her and playing with her everyday!"

So we are planning on me stopping work at the end of July... Baby Girl Anniston is due to arrive August 31st and now that we've gotten this part out of the way, I can truly say I am so excited for her to get here and for me to be nothing more than her mom & Jeremy's wife!

I know what a big change it is going to be living off one person's income (especially for a spoiled little girl like me- who has a little bit of a shopping habit) but I am willing to make sacrifices! ... REALLY!... Plus, with me not working, we are saving a lot of money on gas, eating out for lunch, dry cleaning, and my love of shopping at Ann Taylor & TJ Maxx for work clothes :)

So there you have it... in 8 short weeks the career I've worked so hard for will be on hold for now... but I know the new job I will be starting will be the MOST rewarding I'll ever have!!
So to end this post, I just want to say thank you to my sweet husband! Thank you for being so supportive of me and our growing family! I know you would have been behind either path we chose, but I am so happy about our decision and we are so blessed to have each other! I love you for everything you do for us and how hard you work to provide for our family! (P.S. - I promise to work real hard on staying within our budget! :)