Sunday, August 30, 2009
Marriage Survey!
1. When is your "engagement" anniversary? December 15, 2006
2. When is your "marriage" anniversary? December 15, 2007 :)
3. How long have you known your spouse? 5 years in March 2010.
4. How long did you date/court before you were engaged? Almost 2 years
5. Where did you meet your spouse for the first time? My sister's tiny Ferndale apartment.
6. What is your spouse's full name? Judd Patrick Davis
7. Do you have any children? She's in the belly as we speak! (But she's welcome to make her exit any time now!)
8. How many - boys/girls? 1 girl
9. Do you have any house pets? Yep. Oakley! Judd loves him so much. ;)
10. Do you own a house or rent? Um, neither - technically. Owned by the farm.
11. Do you live in the country or town/city? In town for right now.
12. What is one of your favorite activities together? Watching our tv shows together, playing games, playing cards, taking our dogs walking when it's nice out, riding.
13. Do you have a favorite vacation spot? We've only been on one vacation since we got married. I'll let you know in a few years after we've gone to a few more places!
14. When did you first kiss? March 10, 2005
15. What church do you attend? Church of Christ - BOTH of us!
16. Did you get married in a church? Where? Yes! My hometown church in Senatobia. It was beautiful!
17. What town is your current address at? Cleveland.
18. Do you work or stay at home? I stay at home. He works.
19. Where did you go on your honeymoon? Cancun! It was a wedding gift from his parents. It was beautiful there.
20. What was the funniest gift you gave when dating? Funniest gift I gave? Hm. I can't really think of anything funny I gave him. I was too poor to be buying gifts just to be funny! BUT - on the other hand - my entire family gets a really good laugh out of our 2nd Valentine's Day. He overheard me telling someone I needed a hole punch for class. Judd, being the practical person he is, went to Walmart to get me a hole punch for Valentine's Day. Unfortunately, they were out. So he bought me a stapler. Yes. A stapler. For Valentine's Day. He'll NEVER live that one down.
21. How long have you been together? 5 years in March.
22. How long did you know each other before you started dating? About a week? Ha! We met each other TO date!
23. Who asked who out? He asked me out. :) He called my sister to get my phone number!
24. How old are each of you? He's 24, I'm 23.
25. Where do you each work or go to school? He's a farmer with his dad. They have about 8,000 acres of soybeans and rice. I'm going to be a stay at home Mommy soon!
26. Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple? His long work hours. It gets very lonely when your husband leaves at 5:30am and gets home at 9:00pm. Especially since he works Saturdays and Sundays in between church. This time of year is difficult...to say the least.
27. Did you go to the same school? No. I went to EMCC, he went to MSU.
28. Are you from the same home town? Nope!
29. Who is smarter? Depends on what subject!
30. Who is more sensitive? Um, no doubt about it. ME! And not just because I'm pregnant!
31. Where do you eat out most as a couple? Ha! La Cabana! Ha!
32. Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? I guess Cancun!
33. Who has the craziest exes? He technically doesn't have any exes, so me. But I wouldn't really say I have all that many "crazy" exes.
34. Who has the worst temper? Me. Judd doesn't really have a temper.
35. Who does the cooking? Cooking? What's that? When we actually cook, I do it.
36. Who is more social? Hmm, Judd I guess. He can get along with anybody! I'm a social person but I've gotten MORE shy in the last few years. It really makes no sense at all.
37. Who is the neat-freak? I definitely like things cleaner than he does. But we both have our "particulars" that we like clean.
38. Who is more stubborn? We're both pretty stubborn. Most people don't get to see Judd's stubborn side though. He hides it well!
39. Who hogs the bed? Nowadays, ME - but he hogs it too!
40. Who wakes up earlier? Judd, obviously!
41. Where was your first date? Well, he came to Audra & Andrew's apartment and we played cards and hung out - then the next day we went to an MSU basketball game and out to dinner. It was a fun weekend!
43. Do you get flowers often? He's gotten pretty good about bringing them home on random occasions. I like those times the best.
44. How do you spend the holidays? Well if we're talking about Christmas, we spend it with our families. We travel back and forth. Family is what it's all about!
45. Who is more jealous? We really aren't jealous people.
46. How long did it take to get serious? Well, I moved to be with him in Starkville 9 months after we started dating. I pretty much moved there for him. I'd say that's when we ACTUALLY became serious.
47. Who eats more? HIM! Even when I'm pregnant. Ha!
48. Who does the laundry? He'll occasionally throw his work clothes in the washer, but for the most part - I do.
49. Who’s better with the computer? Me! Sometimes I can't stand to see him type because it's so slow. And it bugs me to watch him try to do something because he's too stubborn to let me have the computer - even though I could do it 15 times quicker!
50. Where do you see the two of you in ten years? Good one. Probably with 3-4 kids - living in the country, Judd farming. Oh my goodness - I'll have a 10 year old child. That's WAY too much to soak in.
That was fun! Copy and paste if you want to play!
Saturday, August 29, 2009
37 Weeks! Full Term!
Friday, August 28, 2009
Still Waiting!
I'm so ready to meet her. Some days I'm way more anxious than others - but in general, I'm ready. As ready as I'm going to get, I guess. I WILL miss these little movements in my belly. I love trying to distinguish which body part that is sticking out. Judd finds it very odd now and doesn't really want to touch it when she does that! So it's kinda become our little thing together. Soon I'll have to share it with other people. Soon I'll be getting up in the middle of the night to feed her and change her and rock her. Soon I'll be even more sleep deprived than I am right now. But that's okay. Those are moments you don't get back. Those are moments you look back on wish you'd cherished a little more. Those are moments when their little independent hands don't push you back and say, "No Mommy, I do it." So I'm going to do my very best to cherish those moments!
They call what I'm going through "false labor" but let me tell you something...there is NOTHING false about what's going on! I prefer the term "prodromal labor" simply because it doesn't imply what I'm going through isn't real. Ha! Sunday will be 2 weeks of this prodromal labor. It's simply exhausting. I keep reminding myself that this is probably just good practice for later. And everyone else loves to remind me of that as well. "She'll come when she's ready." Oh that's a tough sentence to hear when you wake up with cramps and "false" contractions all night long for weeks. I stopped timing contractions a week ago. One night, they were 3-4 minutes apart for over an hour. I was sure it was it. Of course, obviously, it wasn't it. As soon as we threw the bags in the car the contractions started spacing out. I was so disappointed. I reminded myself that if my baby needed extra cooking time, I'd give her as much time as she wanted. However, I had no idea that this prodromal labor would continue for yet another week with no end in sight yet! Ah well. Not much I can do about it. I walk a lot but my hips and pelvis have begun getting very angry with me when I walk for long stretches.
The house is clean. The dishes are done. The laundry is finished. The thank you cards are mailed. The only thing I really need to do is go buy some groceries so we don't come home to an empty fridge. We have no food - and it's time I make the dreaded trip to buy groceries and stock up. I'm full term, ya know! So Caroline, you can come whenever you're ready!!!
I've decided to list some things I couldn't have lived without during this pregnancy, so I'll remember for my next one (if this one doesn't kill me first!)
- Heating pad. This saved my back in 2nd tri and early 3rd tri. Surprisingly, my back feels way better now than it did back then!
- Tylenol PM. I can count how many times I've taken it on one hand, but those times helped me through some AWFUL back pain and allowed me to rest.
- Crackers. It hurt me to write that. "Eat a cracker" is a phrase I was SO tired of hearing by the end of 1st tri. But - it worked. When I wasn't feeling well, I would pull a cracker out of my purse and chow down. I instantly felt better!
- Stretchy pants. I'm not talking about maternity jeans. I'm talking, loose, stretchy gaucho type pants. They're the only pants that I wore in 1st tri and can still wear in the end of 3rd tri. Mine are from Old Navy and I *LOVE* them.
- Sonic Diet Cokes. Kiss my rear - they saved me. I had some really bad headaches in the beginning of 2nd tri and caffeine at least took the edge off of them. It was really just an added bonus if they were from Sonic because I could eat the ice afterwards. :)
- Big panties. Yes, so embarassing. Not gonna elaborate - I'm sure you can figure it out. Big girl panties...that's all I'm saying.
- Paper in my purse. I actually fanned myself in church with our checkbook the other day. Stupid me cleaned out my purse and left nothing to fan myself with. I fan myself everywhere I go because apparently, no one else likes their homes and buildings to be set to 66 degrees.
- Pregnancy books. I read every book I could get my hands on. I really like to educate myself and jump into whatever is going on. Pregnancy was no different. Since it was all so new to me, I constantly had questions. The more books I read, the better I felt about what was going on. I especially like the books that go week by week to tell you what's going on with you and the baby. I LOVED knowing what Caroline was doing each week.
- Flip flops. I couldn't put my foot into any other shoe right now if I HAD to. I started wearing my flip flops in April...I haven't seen any other kind of shoe on my foot since then. Ha!
- A sweet, patient husband. Last on the list, but first if these were in order. Seriously - you would have to be patient to put up with a pregnant woman. We pregnant women are a special breed. Your husband's love really shows when you're pregnant. I didn't really start getting raging hormonal and emotional until about 2 weeks ago (hmm, right around the time the prodromal labor began..strange) and Judd has been really patient with me. I've cried A LOT in the last 2 weeks. Sometimes, he'll say, "What's wrong? Why are you crying?" and through my sobs, all I can say is, "I don't know!" So he just sits and lets me cry. He tells me it's okay if I need to cry. Thank you, Judd - you have been so patient with me...especially the last 2 weeks. I'm so sorry I've been such a pain. Your wife will be back soon! I know you miss her...but just remember you're enduring this for a good cause!
So there you go. My top 10 "couldn't do without" list for pregnancy. I bet I could add things to it, but those were the first 10 to jump out at me.
Well, it's now 3:15am and the contractions have subsided long enough that I could probably fall asleep again. Of course. So if you actually made it all the way through the ramblings - God bless you. :)
I also want to thank my Mom & Dad and Audra & Andrew (and Drew!) for surprising me on my birthday and coming to visit. I can't believe you made a 4 hour round trip drive to see me. You have no idea how much it lifted my spirits! I needed that. I felt so special. :) It was so great to have y'all here - especially since Judd had to work all day. You just don't know how much I appreciated it. I love you all so much! (And DON'T WORRY - I will call you when it's time. I don't want you to miss Caroline's arrival any more than you do! So stop worrying!) :) You guys are the best.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Negative Nancy vs. Positive Polly
Negative Nancy came by my house this morning and we spoke for a while. She's to blame for my sorry attitude today. :)
Seriously - there are a lot of things about pregnancy that no one bothers to tell you until after the fact...when you can't do anything about it. No, I wouldn't change this for the world - but still...where were my friends who've had babies?! Pregnancy...especially towards the end...is disgusting. And if you've never been pregnant, I'm not posting the disgustingness on here for you! I had to find out for myself! Even the books don't do the disgustingness justice. My favorite book that I read was "The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy" by Vicki Iovine (I think it is spelled that way...) and her book gives a pretty good description of the disgustingness, but once you live it in real life - her book doesn't seem to touch it anymore.
And when these disgusting things start happening - you want to run and tell someone because HEY - what the heck was that? Was that normal? Surely not. But rest assured, the more disgusting it was - the more likely it is that it's normal..unfortunately. And really, who can you run and tell these things to? A friend who has been pregnant? She's probably grossed out on the inside because she remembers but doesn't want to imagine that coming from someone she considered a friend. Or maybe her Momnesia has already kicked in and she's back to enjoying the bliss of not remembering the disgustingness. Your husband? Not if you ever want him to look at you the same. If that's even possible after pregnancy.
And the pain? From this point on, I will never look at a pregnant woman and immediately think, "Aww..she's so cute! How sweet!" Instead, I'll think "Bless her poor, sweet heart. She's probably in so much pain right now." The hip and pelvic pain, the stupid contractions that hurt like spitfire but aren't doing anything, the sleepless nights because of said contractions OR general uncomfortableness, and to be honest, the belly itself is so heavy that even it hurts.
Oh for the poor, poor women who go past their due dates. I PRAY that I'm not one of them. I can't even imagine how much more miserable this can get. MISERY...I thought I felt that in the beginning of the 3rd trimester...HA!!!!! If that was misery - this is total torture. God did say he would increase labor pains and child bearing for women thanks to Eve. Really, God stuck it to the women and farmers. Weeds for the farmers, pain for the women. Judd and I are screwed.
My birthday is tomorrow - what do I want? My baby. I want her in my arms instead of my belly. I want the pain to end. (Disclaimer: I only want her if she's healthy. Do not misunderstand me. If she still needs time to cook, obviously, I'll do whatever I have to do to accomplish that...but by golly...if she's ready - come on!) I want to see the sweet face from the 3D ultrasound in REAL life. I want to touch her cute little foot from the outside instead of feeling it from the inside. I want to start losing weight. Yes, vain - I know. I want to know if she has hair. I want to hold her close to me and cherish those "newborn" moments that I'll never get back - no matter how exhausting. I want to make home videos that she'll watch when she's older. And take TONS of pictures. I want to remove every other picture in my house so the frames only hold her sweet face (although my nephews might get to stay...) So - in honor of my birthday, let's get this ball rolling a little faster, okay Caroline? Sound good to you?
Positive Polly doesn't seem to be anywhere around. If you see her, send her to my house. Negative Nancy doesn't seem to be leaving. I think she's settin up shop on my couch.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
36 Weeks & Finished Nursery!
My sleep hasn't been great lately, and it's getting more and more difficult to even fall asleep. Even when I'm really, really tired...it takes me over an hour. There are things that I will miss about pregnancy. Like, feeling her movements (the unpainful ones), feeling her hiccups, the anticipation of meeting my first baby, etc. But - having said that - there are many more things that I won't miss. I'll list them here for your viewing pleasure.
I won't miss:
- Not being able to breathe because she's in my ribs.
- Her foot lodging itself in my ribs.
- Her fist punching me in the cervix.
- Peeing when I sneeze. Yes, I know...it's disgusting.
- Having to sleep with a pillow between my legs because my hips and pelvis hurt so badly.
- Getting up to pee 128743398 times a night.
- My feet swelling.
- My cankles.
- The extra 26lbs that I've gained.
- The belly being in the way everytime I need to do something that requires bending over.
Those are just my top 10. I'm sure I could come up with more...but I feel like that would turn this post into a much more negative one than I need. I need to stay positive. I have 4 more weeks of this!
I owe you some pictures...so I took some of Caroline's finished nursery. I'm pretty sure it's completely finished. There's not room for anything else, really! Her closet literally can't hold another piece of clothing. I was trying to push them all really far and cram more clothes in there...and they wouldn't move any further. So...we had to paint a chest of drawers and change the knobs on it so we'd have more space for clothes. Anyway, here is her nursery!
Her very full closet.
Our bags are (halfway) packed! Yay!
Her burp cloths!! I love them!
Sorry for the poor quality. I took this one myself. I think my belly looks a little more downward sloped than it did last week. :) If you disagree, don't tell me.
Handmade Baby Gifts!
Monday, August 17, 2009
Update!
Our shower on Sunday was amazing! We have such a wonderful church family. We really and truly feel so blessed to have these people care so much about our daughter that they were willing to spend their hard earned money on her. We KNOW times are tough...so we really do appreciate everything. My living room is in a current disaster state. I had JUST gotten it clean from last week's shower! Ha! Caroline is one lucky (blessed!) little girl. Clothes, diapers, baby gear, sleepers, socks, hats, diaper bags, you name it - she got it!
It was so weird to see my family and think, "The next time I see you - I'll be in the hospital having a baby!!" It really kinda blows my mind. It was all I was able to think about after they left.
On the pregnancy front, I've noticed more swelling in the last couple of days - but nothing too bad. Propping my feet up for a while makes it go away so that's good. It was funny Sunday to see my feet coming over the sides of my flip flops. Audra said I had "Dunlap disease of the feet." Just in case you don't know what that means...Dunlap Disease is when your belly "dun lapped" over your belt. Ha! So really, I have it of the belly and the feet!
In MONUMENTAL news...I finished all...yes...ALL of my thank you notes today. I took four hours and sat down and wrote all the ones from yesterday's shower. It felt good! I really wanted to get them all mailed out this week (from both showers) and it's safe to say that I met my goal. Post office trip tomorrow!
I have my doctor's appointment on Wednesday. I'm excited about it because I start going every week from now on! I'll be full term NEXT WEEK!! Oh my goodness. It is kinda scary to say that. In one way, that day can't here soon enough - but in another way - WHAT are we going to do with a small baby?! We don't know anything about babies! Ha! I have minor meltdowns every day with this thought. Judd and I are going to be parents...that's a little scary. Ha!
Well, I know I owe you some pictures from my showers - and I promise that I will post them this week. I PROMISE. But for right now, I've got to get to work (at 12am....ha!) on cleaning my living room. I just can't go to sleep another night with it looking like a tornado of baby gear came through it. Be watching for my picture updates and 36 week update! Yay!
Friday, August 14, 2009
35 Weeks!
Each week I reach a new level of uncomfortableness that I thought I'd peaked at the week before. I'm wrong every week when I think, "I doubt I get much more uncomfortable than this." Totally wrong. I'm starting to feel lots of pressure on my pelvis...which is odd. It makes it difficult to get up, roll over, etc. I'm doing fine though. My upper back pain only comes randomly now, and that's a blessing in itself! I guess my muscles have finally adjusted. It totally blows my mind that I'll be full term in 2 weeks. Where has the time gone?
I'm really excited because our church shower is this weekend and some of my family is coming. I'm excited for them to see our church family here and also see Caroline's nursery! We're SO blessed - and there isn't a single day that goes by that I don't remind myself of that. :)
So - what's Caroline up to this week? Not a whole lot, actually. But I'll give you a couple of bullets.
35 Weeks
- Her liver is now processing her wastes...so that's who I'll have to thank she blows out her first big diaper. :)
- Her nails are already so long that they need clipping! Maybe that's why it feels like she's trying to claw her way out all the time...
- She's approximately 5 1/2 lbs! My little chubs! May I just say that it totally BLOWS MY MIND that she's going to gain 2-3 more lbs before she's born....
- She's approximately 18 inches long. ;) Unless she has the Jones' family traits of long legs!
- She's pretty much run out of room now...which is why I feel less kicks and more rolls. My ribs just feel her feet run across them. It's nice not to have her kicking me anymore!
That's about it for this week. She's just steadily packing on the pounds! You'll have to excuse my horrible 35 week picture. You only get the belly (and even IT is slightly out of focus, thanks to my photographer husband.) No face in this picture. I look awful. lol. You'll be lucky if you get face in ANY more pictures. Ha! ;) Have a great week everyone!
Out-of-focus 35 week belly picture. Yes, I had to force the shirt to cover the bottom of my belly. :)
Monday, August 10, 2009
Baby Shower!
To anyone who did ANYTHING to help with the shower in Senatobia, I can't thank you enough. The love that was shown to us was nothing short of amazing. We are so blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives. People spent their hard-earned money on our daughter, that they haven't even met yet! That means so much to us. We know how tough times are - so thank you to everyone!
For now, head over to Audra's blog for pictures!
Thursday, August 6, 2009
The Most Unsafe Baby Product...Ever
Click here...
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
34 Weeks w/ Picture!
- The soft hair that covered her body is almost completely gone now. Good...we didn't want her looking like Cousin It.
- She now starts developing her own antibodies this week instead of relying solely on the placenta. That's pretty interesting!
- She's about 17 3/4 inches long. Can you tell her length growth is slowing down and her poundage is moving up?!
- As I said before, she's about 5lbs...which is exactly what my newsletter said she would be! That's as heavy as a bag of sugar!!
That's about all she's up to. So without further adieu...here I am. In all my huge glory...
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Randomness
I can't believe that tomorrow I'll be doing my 34 week update. Is that insane to anyone else? Part of me feels like I've been pregnant FOR-EVER, but part of me feels like I shouldn't be in the last stretch either. Some days I just want to hold her and cuddle her and see her sweet face...and other days I'm terrified!
We go for an ultrasound tomorrow so please pray that everything goes well and she's still healthy and happy in there. As much as I'd like her to come on out, she needs at least a couple more weeks to fatten up and mature a little more. I'm really excited about the ultrasound. I'm ready to see her! I hope she's active during the ultrasound...I like to see her move!
Friday we're going to take Duke to training school. Judd will start harvesting in the next couple of weeks so he's gotten as far with Duke as he'll be able to for quite a while. I'm sad, but at the same time, this will keep Judd from coming home and immediately going to play with Duke (which is necessary!) after Caroline gets here while she's a newborn. Duke will come home around December. :( It's the same trainer that trained Reese before she got sick, and he's a REALLY nice guy. He actually felt so bad about what happened to Reese that he gave us Duke as a puppy without charging us. Anyway, Friday we go take Duke to Blue Springs, then we'll head to Southaven to hang out with the family before the shower and my birthday party.
I'm probably going to hang out in Southaven with my sister on Monday & Tuesday because Andrew is going out of town and she needs some company. It's going to be hard to not come straight home to hang up Caroline's new things though! Well, I'll update tomorrow after the ultrasound with my 34 week update! Hope you all have a wonderful, blessed day!