She Responds!

One morning, David and I were talking in our bedroom, when his alarm started blaring obnoxious music (he usually has it on the buzzer setting so we don't know what happened). When it went off, it startled Riley, too. As soon as the music started, she jumped. David and I thought it was so neat that she responded to something she heard. I know we won't fully understand a parent's love until she's born, but it is amazing how much we love her already!

Lessons We Learned

Just a few things that I learned while driving home yesterday.

1. My husband has traffic-induced psychosis (which he called "psychola"). He goes crazy while stuck in heavy traffic! He was singing, using phony accents, and doing other random things to pass the time. Cute? For a few minutes.
2. Gas station restrooms are extra-disgusting on heavy travel days. All I have to say is nasty! Being pregnant, they're virtually unavoidable.
3. Whenever you fall asleep, the cell phone will ring.
4. While bored, two people can eat ridiculous amounts of delicious junk food, especially when the "junk" is homemade by my mother-in-law.
5. Vehicles from Illinois and Indiana don't get washed during the winter. We did not see one clean car from either state.
6. David & I can sing bits and pieces of many, many hymns but we rarely get through an entire piece without mixing up verses or forgetting one entirely. We definitely need to pack a hymnbook from now on.

All in all, we had a great trip. It was good to see David's family, especially the kids. It's amazing how fast they grow. We both appreciate how his sisters make an effort to have their kids know us. We definitely want to do the same when Riley is here!

It Could be Worse...

According to thebump.com, the worst baby names of 2009 are as follows:

• Sparrow James Midnight
• Heavenly Joy... this is taking the biblical name thing to a new level. I have heard worse. Glory of God!
• Atlas Heche
• Mars Merkaba... bad for a boy. TERRIBLE for a little girl!
• Bandit Lee... again, it wouldn't be a good thing for a kid to live up to this name, especially not a little girl.
• Petal Blossom Rainbow... the Bump summed this one up well... it sounds like one of the "My Little Ponies"
• Gunner Flowers... at least they "manlied" it up a little bit with Gunner!

Next time someone tells us that Riley Grace isn't an appropriate name for a little girl, I'm going to pull out this list.

Just one last note: Just a little piece of advice from a pregnant woman. When you ask an expectant mother the baby's name, don't give your opinion unless you like it. She probably doesn't care what you think. If she's telling people the name that's been chosen, I doubt she's looking for an alternative.

Alabama 2009

My husband has a beard & it feels weird :)

we can't wait until Riley's in the picture next year!

24 week Stats

How far along? 24 weeks, 4 days

Total weight gain: 11 lbs (it was actually 6 lbs as opposed to five at the last appointment). I had a little bit of a "AHH" moment at the doctor's office today, but she said all is fine and I'm still a little bit behind where I should be. I asked her please not to tell me that anymore! She did mention that it's not unusual to have a couple weeks where the numbers jump more than they usually do.

Maternity clothes? Yep. We're going to AL next week and I'm wondering what I'm going to wear in cold weather!

Sleep: last night, not so well. I'm hoping it's not a new trend! It probably has something to do with the fact that I was up about 6 times to use the bathroom. I'm trying to up my water intake and that really cuts into the sleep.

Best moment this week:Hearing Riley's heartbeat today. It's always a great sound. It's amazing how much louder it gets each time.

Gender: Riley Grace is still a girl! :) Although the common joke is that if she's born on April 1st (I'm due the third), our baby will probably be a boy since it's April Fool's Day!

Belly Button: in or out? Still in. I'm afraid its days are numbered.

What I miss: Sleeping on my stomach.

What I am looking forward to: Having the flooring done on the 4-6th of January; going to AL next week; and the Bible Conference!

Weekly Wisdom: Drinking tons of water during the day may help Braxton Hicks but it doesn't help sleep!

Milestones: We decided on quite a bit of our "gear" today (stroller, pack-n-play, etc.).

Just Another We'll Never Post

Some of you might remember my first post on this topic (probably not, but I can hope, right?). Those conversations that David and I have had for the past few years saying, "Our kids won't do..." or "We'll never do that to our kids..."

Well, another made it to the list last night. While at the Debary Christmas parade, we saw this young chid running around against his mother's wishes. After a couple failed attempts to get the child to obey, she said, "You'd better come here, Santa's watching!" Are you kidding me? As if it isn't bad enough that she's lying to the child (I'm assuming it's hers, but I guess I don't know that for sure) about Santa's existence, she's going to lie to the child about his watching the kid's every move? Come on! When that kid lies about where s/he was as a teenager, she shouldn't be surprised if the comeback is something like, "Well, you told me there was a Santa, so now we're even." (That came from Bro. James).

What gets me is this: Christians lie about Santa to their children! I got a subscription to Parents magazine not too long ago and even that magazine says that parents shouldn't even tell "white lies" to their kids! Eventually, it's always going to come back to "bite them in the butt." Yet how many parents tell their kids about Jolly Old St. Nick?

So, for the "we're never list" it's this: Lie to our kids! Even little white ones (with God's help). Not that we ever planned on it, we just never felt the need to discuss it.

Sweet Comment from a Stranger

So as I've told you before, it's either feast or famine around this blog... right now things seem to be thriving. Two posts in one day used to be nothing, but now it's pretty much unheard of. I think I mentioned to you that the baby is stealing my creative juices. Perhaps today she decided to give them back for a little while.

On Thursday afternoons, a group from our church does a Good News Club at one of the local public schools. Well, today I had the task of picking up the kindergartners (yes, I spell-checked it...) and the first little girl I picked up said, while pointing at the belly, "You have a baby!" It was so cute. She was telling random people as we walked down the hall about my baby. This one lady was standing in the hallway laughing at her so I said something like, "I think everyone can tell." The lady smiled and said, "But you have the cutest figure ever!" Totally the right thing to say to a pregnant woman. With the proverbial hour glass shape long gone, I need to hear things like that from someone other than my husband and mother every now and then (they're just a tad biased).

I think she's my new best friend.

Nursery Wall Decor

I recently found the website Trading Phrases. It's a great company with hundreds of cute wall decals. The best part? They'll customize something for your wall.

Well, since the bedding that we went with for Riley's room has a little bit of an owl theme, we decided to put a Bible verse pertaining to wisdom on the wall (Please tell me that the wise old owl idea didn't just come from Winnie the Pooh!). Proverbs 9:7 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." It might not seem like an appropriate verse for a nursery wall, but we want our little girl to grow up fearing the Lord, so we decided to go with it.

Here's what the decal will look like (though the brown is much darker in real life):

I love the way it turned out and can't wait to order it and put it up!

T.M.I.

Besides the fact that I have a watermelon-shaped object preceding me wherever I go and I can feel a baby girl wriggling inside my “belly,” I really haven’t felt very pregnant for the past six-ish months (have I really forgotten the queasy mornings so quickly??). Regardless, I still don’t understand how there’s one episode, let alone multiple seasons, of the show “I Didn’t Know I was Pregnant.” Has anyone ever met a girl who carried a baby to term (or close) who didn’t know she was expecting? I think it’s absolutely crazy.

Anyways, today, I think I officially feel pregnant. I’m hoping it doesn’t last long. My back has hurt in random places all day, I’m passing gas like a fraternity guy (or my own brother, take your pick), and all I really feel like doing is taking a nap. To top it all off, I ate dinner no more than 25 minutes ago and I already feel hungry. Now it’s not like I ate a side salad and grapefruit… we’re talking about a full-sized meal here. Chicken casserole, rice, and green beans. Shouldn’t I be stuffed?

Just in case Riley ever reads this (don’t know that this blog will even exist by the time Riley Grace learns to read), I don’t mind going through these “symptoms” at all. I just want to have a record of what is happening in my body. As terrible as I am at keeping up with my blog, I’m actually much better at it than I ever have been with real journaling.

23 Week Stats

How far along? 23 weeks, 2 days

Total weight gain: 5 lbs. But in all honesty, I haven't been accurately weighed since my last appointment. Even if I did step on our scale regularly, who's to know how accurate it is. I'll update weight gain again after my appoinment on the 16th (which by the way is our 3rd anniversary!).

Maternity clothes? yep. You should have seen me ridiculously squeezed into a non-maternity outfit the other day... not.cute. Not planning on trying to pull that off again until April (unless I'm just hanging around the house... in such cases, I try to save what actually looks good for going out).

Sleep: besides the strange dreams, not bad! I had a dream that I was subbing for the school where I taught third grade and the new teacher quit that day... I was begging for my job back, but "just until the baby comes."

Best moment this week: Watching my stomach move. Riley apparently thinks she's going to be playing football later in life and has decided to start practicing early... I'm getting kicked as a type. I LOVE IT! It's so reassuring.

Movement: see above

Gender: GIRL (does this really need to be included each time I update?? Probably not, but just in case someone new stops by, I'll keep it.)

Belly Button in or out? Still in. Though it definitely looks different than before.

What I miss: Am I allowed to be totally honest and say my flat stomach?? I don't mind having a baby belly, but it is taking some getting used to.

What I am looking forward to: We're working on making some changes to our house (replacing some flooring, making our porch part of the house.); it will be very nice to have those things finished! I'm also looking forward to working on Riley's room some more.

Weekly Wisdom: Researching items for baby is more work than I could have ever imagined! There are mixed reviews on virtually everything! I'm just thankful for friends who have "been there, done that" when it comes to all the baby stuff... I find them very helpful!

Milestones: I started a baby registry at Babies R Us. I haven't finished it yet, but at least it's a start!

Monday's are my "work around the house" days, so I haven't had a shower yet... Perhaps after I shower and change I'll post a new belly pic. It's weird... I felt like I looked smaller this morning. Perhaps a picture to compare will prove me wrong.

One final note: Went to the cardiologist on Friday to see if pregnancy is putting any strains on my heart. Thankfully, everything checked out great. Unless there are other complications (not heart related), I'm fine for a vaginal delivery! I was really praying that due to my atrial fib I wasn't automatically going to have to have a c-section. The cardiologist did say that it's likely I'll go into a-fib during delivery. The thought of that really scares me. If you would, please join David and me in praying that doesn't happen.

Taco Bell Order

Christopher (my brother, for those who don't know) would appreciate these guys' ability to keep things "funky and fresh."  Pause music at the bottom of my blog before watching the video.