What's New

I've been busy trying to catch up from our beach vacation at work and at home, so below are a few updates...

February 12, 2012 - Our baby's due date!  Dave and I went to my doctor (Dr. Christine from St. Vincent's who delivered Lawson) for the first time last week, and we saw our baby for the first time!  I was 9.5 weeks, so we heard (one) really strong heartbeat.  I had been feeling so very different from when I was pregnant with Lawson that I really thought it was possible I may have twins!  Dave and I were both so urgently interested to see if we had a multiple that we forgot to ask about the heart rate!

All Day Sickness - Isn't it funny when you first find out you're expecting you don't feel ANY different at all, and then all the sudden it hits you?  With Lawson, I was pretty nauseated from about weeks 9-12.  With this baby, I started being nauseous at week 6.  Fortunately (and unfortunately,) my worst week was when I was on vacation at the beach during week 7.  If I didn't have food on my stomach throughout the whole day (and even at 3am), I would feel sick.  It sounds like an easy thing to do, eating all day, but when you're working or trying to enjoy a day a the beach, it's actually not so easy.  Fortunately, I've started to feel much better lately with the nausea.  Lately, I've been having mild headaches though - I hear from my babycenter newsletter that this is pretty common though from all the surging hormones.  The other big thing that is different from Lawson is my skin.  I'm so oily these days and breakouts are regular.  So...I've been saying for a while that I feel so different that I think it's a GIRL.  We'll see...

Finding Out - the first time around, we bucked the trend and decided to not find out if we were having a boy or a girl.  I'm glad we had that experience and Dave got to have the classic moment of going into the waiting room to announce "It's a BOY!"  However, there was no question this time for me, we are finding out in advance!  I now know what it's like to have a newborn in the house and any details we can knock out in advance is our goal!  I'm 11 weeks today, so we should be able to find out in about 7 more weeks in mid-September.  Even though we'll be finding out early, I want the news to be a memorable celebration with my family, and not just a text message with the news, so I'm thinking about how I want to do that.  I'm thinking I'll have the ultrasound tech write it on a card that we'll all open together (but soon, not like at Christmas or anything!)

Wanting a Boy or Girl - I'll be happy either way - seriously!  Considering the age difference with Lawson, which will be almost 5 years, I think he would have a stronger relationship with a brother when they are older.  Of course, we would be thrilled with a little girl too.  I've got a dress or two I've been hanging onto just in case!  Lawson is so excited about having a baby in the house, I don't think he really understands or cares about it being a brother or sister.  We just pray for healthy!

Last Hoorah - God may have different plans, but I'm anticipating this will be all the children we have, so I'm trying to enjoy this pregnancy - which is easier to do now that I'm not nauseous all the time!  If we find out we're having a girl, as I suspect, we'll be giving away most of Lawson's baby clothes and the new baby's clothes once he/she grows out of them.  We've been stockpiling Lawson's clothes in closets around the house, so it'll be nice to know what to do with them. 

Names -  I  have NO gut feeling or wishes on names this time around.  Nothing.  I think we'll wait to narrow our choices to either boy or girl names and then really start trying to figure it out.  The only things that comes to mind is Sarah.  This is simply because I like the way my Dad says SAY-RAH.  The other name that I tossed out to Dave, as a middle name, is Frances.  My Mom and Dad always give us kids a book for Christmas, and one year we got a book called "Great Joy."  It's one of my favorite books to read to Lawson, and the main character is a little girl during WWII named Frances.  Sarah Frances Long?  Lawson suggested the other day we should name our baby Courtney. : )

Lawson News - Last year, Lawson started the summer very afraid of the water. He really didn't even like to play in the pool, but suddenly one day at MeMe and Pop's pool, he just got over it and has been a waterbug ever since - WITH his lifejacket on.  Much to my satisfaction, he would not even considering playing in the water without it.  We tried him at swim lessons late last summer, but he wasn't ready and it was pretty much a disaster.  One day early this summer, I took him to the Y to swim and an older kid (maybe 6?) from our church was there and swimming without a lifejacket or swimmies.  Lawson took one look at him and said, "I was to swim without my lifejacket!"  I was so shocked, but I went with it and let him take it off.  And much to my surprise, he pretty much just started swimming right then!  He was able to swim about a 3-4 feet to me all by himself.  We have him in private swim lessons now, and he's doing great!  The Y keeps a bubble over the pool in the winter, so I'm hoping he'll be a strong swimmer by next summer. 

On a different note, Lawson has been in a weird sleep cycle lately.  Dave and Lawson usually swim at the Y 2-3 times a week after his MDO program, and Lawson has been falling asleep on the way home.  He tends to sleep 2-3 hours in the afternoon, which is nice, but lately he's been waking up at night between 1-2am with bad dreams usually about ghosts.  We feel so sorry for him because we know he's really scared.  I was working from home all last week and every single night he woke up crying and got in our bed.  I was so frustrated by Monday that I was actually looking forward to sleeping in a hotel by myself that night!  We're trying to limit his naps now and also what he watches on television - by that I mean no "regular" Disney or Nick.  Just Disney Jr. or Nick Jr.  Even on Disney Jr. we've cut out Phineas and Ferb - it tends to have some ghost-type images.  Yesterday he didn't have a nap and after having fitful sleep every 20 minutes for the first three hours, he finally slept all night.  Yea!

Loving Nick Saban - Did you read in the paper today about the passionate Bama fan who came to the SEC Football Media Days wearing an "I HATE AUBURN" t-shirt?  He's shown in a picture grinning ear to ear looking proud to have his picture taken.  Then, apparently later, Coach Saban was asked what he would tell someone wearing that shirt, and Coach said, "I would tell him it's not personal, that it really isn't personal.  That is not really the way that we should respect the opponents that we have."  Coach Saban is such a class act.  I love that guy!!  The kid later said, "I felt this big when I heard he said that.  It's like I went to church and God told me he didn't approve."  Roll Tide!!  Can't wait for football season!!