It's A…..

At our last doctor's appointment, they told me that it was safe to schedule our gender ultrasound/anatomy scan. I got a little light-headed when they told me because it finally sunk in how fast time is actually flying!

We decided to surprise our families and let them think we weren't finding out until February at our 20 week appointment. 

We scheduled our ultrasound for 8:30 am on January 12th.  We arrived early and I was a bundle of nerves. 

At our previous appointment, according to my original due date by our 8 week measurement,  I was only 16 weeks and some odd days along.  But according to my LMP, the office had me at 17 weeks and a few days, which is why we went ahead and scheduled our big ultrasound.   They are normally done at 18-20 weeks. 

As we went in for the ultrasound, the ultrasound tech brought up the fact that I wasn't quite 18 weeks and they normally did them from 18-20 weeks. I was fighting the urge to cry because I just knew she was going to tell me to wait another week to get the ultrasound, but then she made the decision to go ahead and do it that day anyways.

I basically held my breathe the whole time we were in the office. 

I didn't really care what gender our baby was, as long as it was healthy. 

EVEN THOUGH, I had been thinking since day 1 that this baby was a girl.

Thankfully, the anatomy scan looked great and our baby actually measured a little further along than everyone thought, at 18 weeks and 2 days. Our due date may actually be bumped up a week, which is totally fine by me! Arkansas summers are no joke!

Oh, yeah, and our baby is a BOY!!! :)

Marley is so excited about his little buddy that's on the way!

I was shocked and it actually took me a few minutes to let it sink in after she told us. 

We got to have lots of cute pictures and he looks absolutely perfect, and not to mention, his  little side profile is very cute :) :) :)

Now we just have to decide of on a name…..no pressure….. lol!

'Tis the Season,

Holly

Christmas in the Hospital

I worked the weekend before Christmas so I missed out on Christmas with my in-laws and Christmas with my Dad's side of the family. Thankfully, I had a few days off before Christmas so I was able to see some of my husband's family before they left town. 

I worked Christmas day along with the 27th and 28th, so my immediate family had our family Christmas on the 26th. 

I don't know what it is about this year, but the Christmas season didn't feel like Christmas.  The weather was rainy and warm/muggy, we didn't have any snow, and no one really seemed to be in the Christmas spirit. 

That whole week was a blur. 

As I said before, I worked Christmas day. Holidays in the hospital are hard. Even when you make your patient a cute little Christmas-y name sign to hang over their crib, or their parents bring up a precious outfit and want to take pictures, it's just not quite the same. 

What breaks my heart is when a patient, any patient, has no visitors on a holiday.  I saw it on Thanksgiving and I saw it on Christmas. It's HARD. 

Or when a parent gets unfavorable news about their baby. Or when a patient has a set-back. Or when there's a shift when the alarms never seem to stop ringing.

BUT, what brings absolute JOY to my heart is when a whole slew of family members come in shifts to visit the little one and bring gifts and "ooh and ahh" over a patient. When they dress up in their nicest outfits to take a family Christmas card picture, grandparents and all, in the hospital with their family members that are too sick to be home with them. 

Or when a precious little patient who has been at the hospital for months finally gets their feeding tube removed on Christmas day. 

Or when you get to discharge a patient HOME on Christmas morning and you almost cry when you walk them out to their care and watch them load up their little miracle in their car and drive away.

We even had "Santa" come by and take pictures with some of our patients and their parents. 

I'm getting teary just thinking about all it again.

I had a great day, all things considered. I usually do. I get to love on (mostly -ha!) sweet babies every day for my job. And pray over them. And wonder what they will grow up to do with their lives. I get to help new parents learn how to feed their babies for the first time. I get to teach a new parent how to change a diaper and see the excitement on their face when the doctor says things are improving and they can discuss discharge orders. 

(image credit: Google)

Tis the Season,
Holly

Lucky 13 & a Cold

I reached my 13 week of pregnancy mark on Dec. 13th, which was also my birthday. 

We had our church Christmas program the same day.

Oh, and also our Sunday school class Christmas party.

We had a full day, which, in all honesty, is fine with me. The "older" I get, the less I care about making my birthday a big to-do. I actually don't know if I've ever really wanted a huge fuss over my birthday. Probably because that's how my family has always treated birthdays.  They are special days, where you definitely feel loved, but it's no parade with fireworks. 

And I'm fine with that. 

Back to Sunday,

We had our Christmas program at church. The day before, my mom had bought us all tickets for The Living Christmas Tree at First Baptist in Little Rock.  It was fantastic and I'm glad that most of our family (minus Logan and Morgan- boo to finals!) was able to come and enjoy it together.  I teared up a couple times - it doesn't take much lately - but the choir was SO good. I am a sucker for the old Christmas classics.

We ate at Chuy's (my pick) after the show.  My dad was the only one that had never been there and I do believe that he enjoyed himself. ;)

My baby brother Clark had to go back to OBU after dinner because he had to study for finals coming up, and when he told me to have a happy birthday and that he'd see me soon, I had to quickly say goodbye because I almost lost it again in the parking lot. 

baby brother

These pregnancy hormones, YALL :| 

Oh, yeah….our Christmas program. 

I think it went well, despite my husband saying that a few of the songs were a little long (insert eye-roll here). We had several testimonies shared…they were tear-jerkers….and I'm not just saying that because I am hormonal, because even grown men in the church were wiping their eyes. 

I was a hot mess by the time the second service ended. A HOT MESS.

I'm sure the video will be attractive LOL!

That afternoon, we had our SS class Christmas party. It's always fun to get together with that group. The only "negative" thing is that our class has grown so much in the past few months, that is hard for me to remember everyones name and what they do and which kid belongs to which family.  I blame pregnancy brain… I think it's a real thing. But our party went well, we played dirty santa/white elephant, and ate some delicious food.

________________________________________________________________

Monday morning rolled around and I did not feel good, but I went to work anyway.

Monday evening came and I was miserable. 

I had "caught" a cold. 

Tuesday and Wednesday were not pretty days. I decided to call into work on Thursday because I felt like I did not need to go in sneezing and with a hacking cough when I have to work with sick babies. SOME people I work with don't care about that, because either they don't want to miss work or they simply can't afford to miss work. But it still irks me because I feel like everyone is just passing it from one person to the next.

But I digress…

As I'm typing this, it's Friday. I work Sat-Mon and so I am praying that I can just make it through the next three days without getting worse and hopefully all this sinus mess will finally go away. I am already feeling like I can almost breathe normally again, so here's to getting well!

I hope the {few} that read this are staying happy and healthy this week!

'Tis the Season,

Holly

12 weeks & a tiny heart beat!

December 10th was our 12 week appointment.

I've been a nervous wreck because ever since I woke up at the start of week 11, my symptoms have decreased significantly. Most people would be rejoicing, but this little momma-to-be is a worrier and so I have fretted a bit. 

We showed up to our morning appointment and I just knew my BP would be high because for about a week and a half, I had been worrying and praying that everything was okay.

It wasn't high, it was perfect!

Our doctor popped in and basically said this would be one of the quicker appointments and that she would be using a doppler ultrasound to listen for the heartbeat.

I held my breath and she searched for what seemed like several minutes, when in reality it was probably just a few seconds.

We heard that precious, tiny, strong heartbeat and I about lost it on the exam table. :')

this was right after we got to hear the heartbeat

I even got the hubs to take a video on his phone, just so I can listen to our baby's heartbeat whenever I want. Best decision ever.

Baby had a heart rate of 150 and it was nice and strong. I'm feeling better than I have in weeks!

We are very blessed!

'Tis the Season, 

Holly