Gender Reveal Party

We had a blast at our gender reveal party.  There is nothing better than having a sister who is an excellent party planner. :)  She did all of the hard work and Bryan and I got to know what the baby was.

Erin had a sign in table.  Each guest had to pick a pink or blue bow.  (See the bow tie or hair bow?)  I thought this was adorable.  

Erin had thought of everything.  We had delicious appetizers, a full Italian style dinner and then and ice cream bar and cup cakes for dessert. There was pink and blue everywhere you looked.  It was wonderful!

Shout out to my sister-in-law for making these adorable cupcakes.  They added that special touch to an already special evening. :)  

Erin even picked out this verse to have on display.  I love it!  I am amazed at how many people already love our little one and how many people are already praying for them too. 

After dinner, people were starting to get antsy (specifically my mom) as far as wanting to know the reveal.  Erin had 1 game planned before we could announce, which was far okay with me.

Now it was time for the reveal.  My mother-in-law helped me decorate the box, but I handled what was inside. :)

This was picture was snapped just after the video finished.  I wish my mom was excited!  There was definitely jumping involved as well.

The whole thing was a blast.  Thank you to everyone who came.  Charlotte Abigail Hazzard is expected Oct. 1st!  (You can call her Abigail!) :)

Finding out the Gender

It was finally time to find out the gender of the baby.  Bryan and I had an appointment at the hospital where we are going to deliver to find out and then a follow up with my doctor (next door) afterwards.

We were both a little excited to say the least.  My instructions were to drink 32 oz of water starting an hour before the appointment.  A sweet friend sent me a tip to drink orange juice before to make sure that the baby was awake and moving.  My appointment was at 1:00.  So at 12:00 I started chugging a combination of OJ and water.  We got checked in by 12:30 and they brought me back to a waiting/changing room and then they left.  Bryan couldn't be with me because there were other women only in robes too.  So we were in separate waiting rooms texting... bored out of our minds.  Thus these two pictures...

The socks had grips on the top and the bottom.  I was very stylish! 

My appointment was supposed to start at 1:00.  (Remember I had drunk 32 oz of fluids starting at 12:00).  At 1:45 I was still in this waiting room with no nurses around to ask if I was getting close.  I finally stuck my head out in the hallway--while doing the pee dance-- and asked a pink scrub if I could use the restroom before my test.  Ahh!  I felt better after that...

Around 2:00 the nurse/tech comes in and brings me back to get situated.  She left to grab Bryan and I was in this room alone... excited/nervous as all get out.  When they returned the tech had some questions for Bryan and me.  Possibly my favorite moment of the day happened next and I didn't realize it until later.  The tech asked me my height and then turned to Bryan and said "What's Daddy's height?"  Bryan stared at her but didn't answer.  I finally asked him how tall he was and he replied.  Later he told me he was thinking of his dad's height.  He didn't know why they needed the grandfathers height, but he was trying to figure that out.  He didn't immediately respond because no one had every called him Daddy before.

The tech was so nice.  She promised not to tell us the gender of the baby until she was 100% sure.  She wasn't going to say she "thinks" is a ____.  She will not announce until it is confirmed.  After the short interview we got started.  Within seconds we see the most amazing thing ever!

The tech starts snapping pictures left and right.  The baby was up and moving (the OJ was a good idea).  We got to see the most incredible things: the profile, the spinal cord, the brain, the kidneys, the blood flow to and from the kidneys, the 4 ventricles of the heart, all of the fingers and toes.  The tech measured the height and length of pretty much every bone in the baby's body.  Towards the end she had some troubles getting all of the pictures of the different sections of the brain that she needed.  It took a while and the help of one more tech, but she got it.    

She had figured out the gender and turned the screen to finalize the picture.  When she turned the screen back around we saw "It's a ____!"  I wish I could accurately describe this moment, but I don't know the right words. I will however remember it forever.

Before we left the baby did flash us and I-love-you sign  \ml/.  They are going to be a natural signer! :)   

We left and went to my follow up appointment with my doctor.  She said that everything looked good.  There was one spot on the brain (she gave a specific medical term that I had never heard of before) that showed an irregularity.  She went on to explain what that meant in laymen terms, but she wasn't worried.  She said that if there were 2 or more irregularities they would continue tests, but that this was a "normal variant" and that it would likely fix itself before the baby was born.  She was very encouraging.  I have been praying over this day and night.  I have decided that I cannot worry about it because what would worrying really do anyway?  God has breathed life into this little one, He can handle a "normal variant."  I will however ask you to join us in praying for it to go away. :)

Announcing the baby

This has been fun :)

Oddly enough, I had found a ringworm on Paco the day after we found out we were pregnant.  The first person I told that we were pregnant was the vet tech... I had to make sure it was okay for me to be around Paco.  Then I called the doctor and made an appointment.... I mean 3 sticks had said yes.

We immediately got on the phone and started to try to set up times to get together with parents and siblings.  We had to be discrete... so my family took the longest.  Remember, we found out on a Wednesday.

Saturday I cheated and told Mandy, my ASL coworker.  I just couldn't keep it in any longer. I mean... it had been all of 3 days that I hadn't told anyone (besides the vet tech).  I was about to burst.  :)

Monday night Bryan's parents came over and we cooked  (all Bryan... let's face it, I don't really cook) them dinner.  We got to tell them sitting around our dinner table.  Marc and Lori were both surprised and excited.  We did swear them to secrecy before letting them leave.

Tuesday night we got to tell our small group.  We just waited through prayer requests and then mentioned ours.  :)

Wednesday night we met up with Travis, Jessica, and Nathan for dinner.  Once everyone got situated, I gave Nathan a late Christmas present.  I know it was late, but it was a Disney towel wrap that just didn't get done before the Holidays.  It had Mickey Mouse ears and his name on the wrap.  When I handed it over, I mentioned this photo that was sent to us on our 2nd anniversary:

I also mentioned that we were a little later than he requested, but that we were finally bringing him a cousin! :)

Thursday night, was finally my families turn.  They had been playing hard to get and for some reason couldn't understand why I was causally being so pushy.  We met for dinner at Pappadeauxs.  I had a ton of Mary Kay to deliver to my mom and sister, but I also had a children's book written by Karen Kingsbury to give to my dad.  I opened with "Well... they were both getting stuff, I thought you should too."  My dad opened the book and started reading it to the table without missing a beat.  The story was about a Daddy and his daughter as she grew up.  It went through tea parties and sporting events to prom and then a wedding.  There was one page of the Daddy and daughter dancing at the wedding.  Then the next page was of the Daddy, his daughter and son-in-law at the hospital having a baby.  My mom's eyes were HUGE throughout the squealing creaming with excitement!   They were a little bit excited to say the least.

We waited until after the 7 week doctor appointment to tell the rest of the family.  We told Mimi and Gramps by asking how many great-grandchildren would be at Christmas this year?  She responded with 4, and we told her it would actually be 5.  Glee is the only way to describe that moment. 

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We decided to wait until after the 1st trimester before announcing the baby to anyone else which was a couple weeks after Spring Break.  It was really neat to watch different people as we would tell them.  My favorite group left to tell might have been my students. 

The week after I found out I was pregnant, my 7th period started giving me grief about having a baby.  It was a class of all girls and 1 boy so they felt they were entitled to discuss my family planning.  It was the freakiest thing ever.  They didn't know, but it was almost like they did.  I finally told them on a Tuesday.  I had planned on telling them Monday, but we had state testing and I didn't see them.  I walked in and with sheer excitement told them that I was pregnant and all their teasing was for nothing because I had been pregnant the whole time.  The class blinked a couple of times and then said "yeah right... like we're going to fall for that one."  I looked around in confusion, I wasn't sure why they didn't believe me.  Then they yelled out "Today's April 1st.  We're not buying it!" 

Excuse me?  I had accidentally chosen April Fools Day to finally tell them I was pregnant and now they didn't believe me.  My bad.   I had to pull the ultrasound out from my purse before they started to believe me, and then only half of the class wanted to.  They all were acting like they didn't want to get duped and me say just kidding.  One girl yelled out "look at the name on the ultrasound, you can't fake that."  It wasn't until then that I finally had their belief.  

The next day I had the pleasure of telling the rest of my students, they all came in saying they had heard I was pregnant.  My response to that was... "Guys, what was yesterday?  April Fools.  Think about it!"  They believed that and then I got to tell them for myself and see their reactions to the truth.  

Even thought it wasn't how I thought I would tell them, (let's face it... I'm not cleaver enough to come up with something like that on my own) it ended up being the best way. I got to be a part of seeing how they responded.  I was truly shocked and blessed by how sweet my students were once they knew.  For the rest of the school year, they would manage themselves in the classroom.  When someone was starting to act up, the rest of the class would pounce and get on the them "She's pregnant, you can't talk to a pregnant lady like that!"  And then the one out of line would calm back down and get back to business.  In college they teach that that is the best classroom management... using the peers.  I just hadn't realized exactly how to do it until now.  I hope I can carry this over for the rest of my teaching career... just minus the pregnant part. :) 

Cooper's bib set and bonus!

This is the set I made for Bryan's cousin Traci and her little one. Before the shower, I was nervous that I might not get it finished in time because I haven't been feeling well (I didn't wear the 1st 20 weeks of pregnancy with grace... let's just say that).  But I did get it finished just in time, and I love how they turned out.  I hope Traci likes them too! :)

 

 

Shortly after the shower, Traci also texted me and asked if I could put Coop's name on a hat if she could find a plain white one.  I told her that I would try, but that it might be difficult.  The rest of the school year took over and then Bryan and I were walking around in Babies R Us 3 days before Cooper was due and I found a 2 pack of blue hats.  I honestly had forgotten about it (sorry Traci), but figured it couldn't be too hard... all I had to do was add it to the blue hat.  The hat had this monkey on the front of it, but the back was plain and I thought maybe I could do a switch... and no one would ever see it. 

 

I was wrong, and couldn't figure out how to get rid of the monkey.  I spent about an hour doing a practice run on the first hat and messed up several times.  My plan was to figure out just what I was doing on the first hat to then embroider perfect on the 2nd hat.  Well... let's just say that with all of the planning it didn't help.  The second hat is the one in the picture above, and while some of you would say that it's adorable (my mom) it was not centered and the letters were too close to the top.  I couldn't stand it.  I realize this may be me being too picky, but I can't help it.  I also realized at this point that there was a size inside the hat.  Who new newborn heads were smaller than 6 month olds?  I hadn't factored that in and started to get angry at myself for the whole situation. 

 

Sitting in defeat and frustration, I decided to disassemble the first hat just to see how they did it.  It would be much easier to embroider first and then cut out the pattern so that I could make sure the letters are in the right spot. (Is this just me, or am I doing it wrong?  Anyone have tips on how to embroider on store bought items?)  With a completely messed up hat, I realized that it wouldn't be that hard to sew a baby hat.  I Googled tutorials on making baby hats and found this website.  It had adorable pictures of little hats and has given me several ideas for the future.  I wasn't crazy about her pattern and felt like the torn up one in front of me would be easier to assemble.  I started digging through my fabric stach to see what I could use to make my own. I took a little from the website and from the one in front of me to come up with this:

 

 

I just love how it turned out.  The white material is actually a onesie that I had messed up on and used the scrap from it to make the inside of the hat.  It is super soft and will be perfect for Cooper's skin.  The outside is the same material that I use for bibs.  It isn't as stretchy, but I hope it will work the way I envisioned.

 

I used the blue hat as a pattern to cut out and then with the stich allowance, made it smaller.  I am not positive that it's the right size, but I figure it's got to be closer to newborn size.  When I have my little one, I'll know better. 

 



 

I just love how it turned out and I am very proud of myself on this one.  I spent too long working on the project, but now I know what I'm doing and I think I'll be able to make them now in now time flat.  

 

 

What do you think?

Joys of the first Trimester

The joys of the first trimester.  Caution as you read, some of this stuff is gross!  Don't say I didn't warn you!

First off they should just name the first trimester the sleep-mester, cause that is all I wanted to do.  House work, cooking, laundry... not designed for the first trimester. 

Around week 8 or so I started getting sick.  The first time, Paco had eaten something and puked, just looking at it made me almost miss the bathroom. Don't worry, I got there in time.  Every 2-3 days after that I would get sick again.  I pretty much didn't feel well everyday.  It was worst in the evenings and the first 30 minutes in the morning which was a blessing (depending on if you are my student or husband).  The doctor put me on Zofran, and it did give relief but only temporarily. 

Bryan was so supportive though.  I'll never forget one evening early on (maybe week 10 or so) I was in my sewing room working on a small project when Bryan comes home and starts cooking dinner.  Later he comes and tells me that the meat was bad that he was cooking so he threw that out and had started again.  I had stayed in the sewing room working on that project to avoid smells as much as possible.  When that meal was done he came back and got me.  I asked for another minute to finish the task I was on and Bryan went back to the kitchen.  I finished 30 seconds later and walked around to the kitchen.  When I reached the end of the hallway the aroma hit me like a knives in my stomach.  I ran back to the bathroom and managed to lose everything I had eaten in the last year and a half.  (BTW, dry heaving is so much worse than just puking).  All that I could think about was that Bryan had cooked me TWO meals that night, and there was no way I could eat any of it.  Then I started to cry... and cry... and cry.  I couldn't stop.  I was balling on the floor of our bathroom without the ability to stop.  About 10 minutes later Bryan found me on the floor uncontrollably puking/dry-heaving/crying.  I could see the frustration in his eyes (he thought I was still sewing and just being rude) melt away and instantly compassion took over.  He held me until I stopped which took a while.  Then he fixed me grits and put me to bed. 

Speaking of bed... did I mention all I wanted to do was sleep?  My normal schedule turned into this.  I would wake up, go to work in the morning, come home around four and plop on the couch.  Around 6 Bryan would wake me to eat whatever he had cooked.  After dinner, I would lay back down and fall asleep.  Bryan would wake me again whenever he was going to sleep and I would crawl back into bed and repeat.  This went on for several weeks.  :/  Tuesdays were always interesting because of small group.  I made it to each one, but proudly claimed myself a comfortable seat and tried not to close my eyes...

I lost weight during this time.  Surprise!  All I could eat were starches.  I didn't really have any cravings, but had more aversions than anything else.  Basically meat repulsed me, and fruits and veggies hurt too much coming out.  That left the starches, fats, and sugars in the food supply and gallons of milk.  In the beginning, I ate a lot of grits.  If I never have to eat a cracker again, I think I could live with that.  Once I could handle a little bit more, pancakes were my favorite.

I know that the first trimester is supposed to be 13 weeks, but mine felt more like 20.  I felt and acted this way right up until 20 weeks.  I know that once the baby is here and I hold it in my arms--I will think differently, but right now... I'm not doing this again!

Gifts for Madisyn

Bryan's cousin Leeanna had a beautiful little girl this spring.  Madisyn made her arrival 3 weeks earlier than expected but Mama, Daddy, and Baby are all doing well.  I made a little set for Madisyn, but then forgot to take pictures when I was finished (I'm getting bad at that).  Here is the one picture I took mid-project.  I think this material has a sweetness about it just like Mama and Baby.  :)

 

 

Lori, my mother-in-law, also contracted me to decorate little sets for Madisyn.  She brought over the outfits before spring break and asked me to have them finished before they left on their big trip at the beginning of June.  (So I was definitely doing these the last week of May).  :)

 

But they turned out so cute.  Purple and Gold for LSU. Get this girl a head band, and she'll be ready for football.

 

 

 

In honor of Uncle Marc (my father-in-law) Madisyn needed some firewoman gear.  This one ended up being my favorite.  The first picture makes it hard to see the truck, but I promise in real life, it isn't.

 

 

I think she's ready!

Recent bibs

Right before Spring Break/during the break made quite a few bibs. Sorry it took me 3 months to post these, but hey... today's the first day of summer and I'm posting them, does that count?

Erin gave a bib set back in the fall to a coworker, and she absolutely loved it. She said my bib was the only one that worked. So the coworker ordered 5 new bibs. Here they are finished:

 

I spent a good bit of time in the fabric store for looking for these prints.  Sometimes I get overwhelmed by all of the options.  However, I am pleased with the outcomes.

 

I also recently came across this fabric pattern for little girls.  I have made 3 sets out of the  material because I just love it and I feel like the mom's (all personal friends) would love it too! 

I could kick myself because I forgot to take pictures of the 1st 2 bibs sets that I completed.

But I did get pictures of Hannah's set.  :)