Weekend Without Daddy

Caleb headed out of town Thursday afternoon for the annual men's retreat. He and 3 others went up early to camp and hike Thursday night and all day Friday before everyone else go there. That left Brady and I on our own for the weekend.

We made lots of plans for the weekend without daddy.

 It started Friday morning. We met some friends for a play date at a local indoor swimming pool. Brady had such a wonderful time swimming with his friends for a couple of hours.



After swimming the mommas decided to have lunch at Chuy's. The kiddos were so tired. Grady even fell asleep. We put him in the booth next to us. Ha!!

Brady and I came home. Brady took a nap and I took a shower, cleaned the house a little, and finished packing.  When he woke we headed to my mom's house for the weekend.

My sister and Noah also spent the night on Friday night at Mom's. Amy and Mom were able to see and feel Presley kick. They were pretty excited and they realized I wasn't exaggerating when I say she kicks HARD!!!

 Saturday morning we woke up and Poppy made us pancakes before we headed to the zoo for the day. We had a great time, but pregnancy, 2 toddlers, zoo, and 80 degree weather wore this momma out!

They have a new dino exhibit at the zoo and Noah was so scared. He sat in Brady's lap in the wagon. Ha!!

The dino's were big and scary! They also moved and made noises.

This bird attacked Brady and I . It got stuck in my hair.

Brad said, "It don't wike the birds anymore."

Amy named herself the bird whisperer.

The zebras are never out this close to the people when we are there.

Brady had to have this snake. He loves this snake and will not put it down!

Amy and I had to go decorate for a baby shower after we got back to mom's. We left the boys like this in the chair watching t.v. with Mom. Sweet cousins!

Notice the snake!

  

Baby Talk- 23 Weeks

I am now 24 weeks as of today, however I typed this up earlier this week, but did not have a picture. My sister took this close up belly shot in my bathing suit yesterday, so I thought I would go ahead and post this with the picture. I really didn't want to miss documenting a week. :)

Things are moving right along. I am kind of at the point where I feel like I have forever until she gets here, but I have so much to get done before she is here, which makes me feel like 17 weeks is not that long.

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 23 weeks

Size of baby: length of spaghetti squash

Total Weight Gain/Loss: up about 10 lbs

Clothes: It is about 1/2 regular and 1/2 maternity.

Gender: Girl! Presley Lynn Barrett

Movement: yes, this week we have started to see her move from the outside of my belly. It is the weirdest thing. It happens a lot during church service.

Sleep: not great, but not terrible.

What I miss: I guess feeling normal.

Cravings: anything as long as some one else cooks it. :)

Symptoms: same as always, nothing new really

Best Moment this week: Lots of movement

What am I looking forward to: Dr. appointment next week.



We have had a super busy weekend, so expect lots of fun post to come. Also, I will be posting week 24 soon!

Weekend in Pictures.

The phone rang while I was filling up Brady's bath and I got distracted. Brady started yelling something about too much water. Oops!

Brady fell asleep on the way home after storm chasing all day. It may have been more like avoiding, but whatever.

An imaginary baby crocodile joined our family this weekend. Baby crocodile and Brady had to take a bath. Brady asked if I could take his and baby crocodile's picture in the bathtub, so here it is.  Baby crocodile is supposed to be sitting to Brady's left. He has a helmet and a sword in the picture, so I am told.

My sweet boy and me before dinner and a little shopping Saturday night. He always wants a picture with Mama these days.

We went to Olive Garden for dinner on Saturday night. Brady and Caleb entertained themselves by making salad faces. I am not sure which one enjoyed it more.

Sunday, Brady had his first t-ball practice. He was worn out, because he hadn't had a nap that day and it was so so so cold.

He hit the ball well on the tee.

They did some catching drills. I think he was a little bored, because he started wandering around the field. He yelled, "Hey Mom, I am just walking around." to me through the fence.

Then they attempted to run the bases. Brady got trampled once, but just got up and kept running.



The walk to the car and ride home were miserable. Brady cried and whined the entire time. Luckily our house is literally 3 minutes down the road. He didn't understand the taking turns with every one thing and he was so tired. This is sure to be an interesting season!!

That was our weekend in a nutshell. We did a couple other normal things as well, like church and spent some time with family, but that is every weekend stuff. :)

Baby Talk- 22 Weeks

22 Weeks

The weeks are moving right a long. As we enter into Spring, longer days, and a busier time of year, I am thinking that the rest of my pregnancy will go a lot quicker. Spring and Summer seem to do that. I am excited for all the Spring and Summer holds and to welcome our sweet baby in July. With that, I am also left feeling like there is so much to do before she gets here.

I am wearing a maternity shirt in this picture, but regular jeans. I feel like a lot of maternity clothes make me look bigger, because they draw attention to the belly area, but they are usually so much more comfortable. This picture was taken Saturday,which is when I actually roll over to the next week. We went out to eat dinner and while we were waiting several people offered their seat to me while we were waiting. So, I obviously look pregnant now. It was sweet of people. I like to think people are good in general.

I thought about cropping Brady out of the picture, but I love his sweet face. This is how he looks at my belly every day.  

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 22 weeks

Size of baby: length of spaghetti squash

Total Weight Gain/Loss: about 6-8 lbs on my scale. It varies from day to day, based on how many oreos or doughnuts I have eaten the day before. Just kidding, sort of...

Clothes: It is about 1/2 regular and 1/2 maternity.

Gender: Girl! Presley Lynn Barrett

Movement: I feel her throughout the day some, but especially at night. When she moves, she moves big and kicks hard!

Sleep: it seems to have improved lately. I am sleeping pretty good these days.

What I miss: being able to play in the floor with Brady. It is getting increasingly harder and more uncomfortable to get up and down from the floor. Brady will say, "I will wait for daddy to play this, because the floor doesn't hurt him". Sweet boy.

Cravings: Nothing really. Whatever it is, it has to be in small portions.

Symptoms: same as always, nothing new

Best Moment this week: Just seeing how excited Caleb is about having a daughter. He had a meeting at work this week and he had to share a piece of good news. His was his baby girl. He came home and told me all about it. (He isn't one for much details or information, so it was special.)

What am I looking forward to: enjoying time with Brady and planning for our new baby.

Recent Happenings

• The weather has been beautiful recently. Brady has been really big on picking me a flower. His daddy is teaching him young. So sweet!

• We hiked walked to a waterfall on some land my parents bought to sell this past weekend. (My parents are and have been for a long time in the real estate business, so it isn't odd for them to do this.)Brady loved it. We went to the easiest one to get to because we had a preggo and a 3 year old. Ha! The waterfall was pretty, but difficult to get a great picture of.

• Tuesday was National Pancake Day, so we went to IHOP for free pancakes. Brady ate his entire stack of 3 regular size pancakes. The waitress was shocked, he ate them all. I told her he would, he loves pancakes!

Before

After

• Yesterday, we met my sister, Noah, and my grandmother for lunch. Caleb was off so he tagged along. Amy had her husband meet us as well. We all had a good time. I forgot my camera so no pictures.

• After lunch, my grandmother took us and Amy to Wal-mart. She had each family get a cart and said, "O'kay, get what you need, paper towels, laundry detergent, snacks, whatever." It was so nice of her. Brady had no trouble picking out some things. We came home with doughnuts, oreos, Capri Suns, fruit snacks, and Kool-aid packets. Ha Ha! Of course we got some other things as well. She kept telling us we needed to get a little more. It was so nice of her and unexpected. It was a little harder than it sounds because we didn't want to overdo it or get too much.  I am so blessed to have 2 living grandmothers.

• Today they are predicting severe storms and tornadoes in our area. I have never been one to  get real uptight about storms, just aware and cautious at times. However, when Brady was just months old our town got hit by a large tornado and a young mother and her infant baby were killed. Many families we know had severe damage to their homes. Since, I have been a little more scared of storms. It is worse when you have a family anyway. Brady and I are trying to figure out our plan for the day. Well, I am trying to figure out our plan for the day. We don't have a basement or real safe place other than the central bathroom or closet. Hopefully, it won't get as bad as they say.

Baby Talk- 21 Weeks

21 Weeks

I am wearing all regular clothes in this picture. I am pretty excited about that. It makes me feel a little better, when I haven't felt too well the past several days. My face is a little swollen from all the sinus problems. Brady insisted he be in the picture. He loves to touch the baby. I am not sure what is up with his face. Ha!



Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 21 weeks

Size of baby: length of a carrot

Total Weight Gain/Loss: about 6 lbs on my scale.

Clothes: It is about 1/2 regular and 1/2 maternity.

Gender: Girl! Presley Lynn Barrett

Movement:  I feel her throughout the day, but especially at night. When she moves, she moves big and kicks hard!

Sleep: as good as to be expected. I have had severe sinus and allergy problems which have interrupted my sleep more than anything this week.

What I miss: being able to take sinus/allergy medicine that actually helps.

Cravings: Nothing really specific. My appetite is down from all the drainage and sinus issues. I have been drinking a lot of liquids.

Symptoms: same as always, nothing new

Best Moment this week: I got a lot of  look at your cute belly comments this week. At this point it is a good thing, at least people know I am not just getting fat. Ha Ha! In a few weeks, I will probably hate these comments. Ha!

What am I looking forward to: enjoying time with Brady and planning for our new baby.

Baby Names

Choosing a name for a child is hard. It is with them forever, it is part of their identity, and it is a huge responsibility to the person naming. People can be just plain mean when it comes to the name you chose for your sweet baby. Between pregnancy hormones and the insane amount of time and thought that goes into naming a baby, you would think people would be a little more respectful.

I know not everyone will not love or even like the name I(or anyone) chooses. However, it isn't their baby and they can name their babies whatever they like. It would just be nice for people to be a little  more kind in the matter.

Stepping off my soap box now....

I didn't have a lot of mean or disrespectful comments about Brady's name, but a lot of "you must be a fan of Days of Our Lives" comments. I am not, by the way. In case you don't know, Brady is Caleb's middle name and was his grandmother's maiden name.  I wrote about his name here way back when I first started blogging.

Shortly after Brady was born, I began thinking of future names for any future kiddos. I would casually run them by Caleb and 9 times out of 10 he vetoed them. The 1 out of 10, he didn't love, but didn't turn down immediately. When we starting thinking about trying to grow our family, the name game, became more and more of a conversation piece.

We still rarely agreed on names.

I had came across some names I liked, but would hesitate to share with Caleb, because he never liked them. I was at a Christmas party with a couple of new moms and expectant moms, when names came up. A name was brought up, by my sister for another couple, that I had seen recently and I really liked it. One member of the couple it was suggested for didn't care for it, and I had never shared it with Caleb. He wasn't at the party so my sister text it to him and Caleb loved it. He was done. If baby was a girl that was the name he wanted.

I was hesitant to confirm for certain, because I still had a couple names floating around in my head that I had grown attached to. The week of the ultrasound, we agreed to this particular name if baby was a girl. We didn't have the first boy name. We could not agree on anything for a boy.

We have always had a middle name for a girl, Lynn. The middle name is my middle name, which was also my aunt's middle name. It just so happens Caleb's dads name is Lindrell, which fits well with Lynn.

Baby girl's name will be...

Presley Lynn

We are pretty excited about our baby girl and her sweet name. We both love it! I really love it when Brady says it, Pweswee! So sweet. He is not as devastated as I thought about his baby sister not being named Spider. ; ) Ha!

Baby Talk- 20 weeks

20 Weeks

I am halfway there to meeting our sweet baby girl!

She weighed 12 ounces at the ultrasound last week.

We are all so excited about a little girl. I think it has taken the entire week to really set in.

Yesterday was a rough day. I felt terrible, sinus congestion, headache, extremely tired, and nausea. I felt like I slipped back into the first trimester for a bit. I am not sure what all that was about. Hopefully, it was just a one time thing.




Pregnancy Highlights:


How Far Along: 20 weeks


Size of baby:  length of a banana


Total Weight Gain/Loss: about 6 lbs

Clothes: I can still mostly wear regular clothes, but am pulling out the maternity more and more.

Gender: Girl! Name post should be up tomorrow.
Movement:  I feel her move every day and when she does it is strong. It is mostly when sitting or when I am in bed at night. She moves a lot in the morning around breakfast time.


Sleep: I fall asleep fine, but have still have trouble falling back to sleep if I wake up from a dream or a bathroom break. Then I feel so sleepy the next morning.

What I miss: Not sure.

Cravings: Nothing really specific. I have to eat small portions or I am miserable.


Symptoms: it varies day to day. Mostly,I am uncomfortable, random aches and growing pains, and trouble breathing well after meals. (again the small meals and lots of water help)

Best Moment this week: planning for a girl and watching how excited Caleb is about having a daughter.


What am I looking forward to: preparing a girl nursery.

Weekend Updates (a catch-up post)

Friday

My sister and Noah came and joined us at the Discovery Center. My sister also brought me a Starbucks coffee. So nice!

The boys had a great time, as always.

They had a dentist come and talk to the kids and then gave out free stuff. We love free stuff! The lip therapy is awesome!

We came to my house and had a quick lunch. The boys took a nap while Amy ran to the grocery store.

Brady was so upset they were gone when he woke up. :(

Saturday

Caleb had to work. I had a gift card left over from Christmas to Target and I have been dying to buy something girlie for baby girl. Brady and I loaded up to head to Super Target.

I love Super Target. We found a couple sweet little outfits.

I am so excited about her growing wardrobe.

We came home and Brady napped. After Caleb got home we headed to the monthly kid devo with our church.

Brady loves the kid devotionals!

The kids are so sweet. They say the prayers and lead songs. Brady always volunteers. It is so sweet.

Mommy and Daddy enjoy getting to spend time with the parents as well, while the kids play.

Sunday

We went to church, came home and had a quick lunch, then Caleb was off to work for a few hours. Brady and I took a nap.

 (Saturday night, I woke up at 4 a.m. very uncomfortable, so I moved to the recliner and never really fell back to sleep. Needless to say, I was tired on Sunday. I don't usually take naps, because they usually make me feel worse, but this one was needed.)

My mom was in KY this weekend visiting my bro and SIL. She brought back a couple of goodies for baby girl. She got both things for great prices. I promise I won't show every little thing. I am just excited right now.

Sunday night, we all three headed to church. After church we watched Courageous with any one who wanted to stay. They had childcare available. Brady had the best time.

After the movie was over, he did not want to leave. They painted, watched veggie tales, built a cardboard house, played with shaving cream, colored, ran, and so much more. He talked the whole way home about what a good time it was. :)

 



It is a...

baby girl!!!!

We had our gender reveal party last night. We had my parents, Caleb's parents, both sets of my grandparents, my sister, her husband, and Noah, and our Taylor. Then, my brother and SIL skyped in for the fun as well.

Caleb's brothers were unable to make it due to work, but we filled them in quickly after we discovered the gender along with my brother and other friends and family.

Everyone got to our house about 6. We had pizza. I decorated the house with pink and blue. Everyone guessed the gender. Caleb had to work until 7, so he brought the cake when he got off. As soon as he walked in the door we attacked him and ripped into the box with the cake. We knew the outer decorative icing would be in the color of gender.

I am certain I screamed it is pink at the top of  my lungs. I have had a feeling that this baby was a girl from early on. The differences in the pregnancy, the lower heartbeat compared to Brady's, and just my gut feeling left me feeling girl. I just knew I was going to be wrong, though. I would catch myself calling her a she and really struggled with coming up with boy names for this baby. It sounds crazy, but I just felt like this was a girl baby.

All day I doubted myself yesterday, but when it came time to vote I threw my chip in the girl cup and never looked back.  I love, love, love being a boy mom! Now I get to experience being a boy AND a girl mom. I am thrilled.

It was WILD at our house last night. After everyone else, I had a hard time winding down. It was just exciting. The whole thing. I am so glad we did this! I would highly  recommend a fun gender reveal with your loved ones. So fun!!! I loved that Caleb and I didn't know either. It was just exciting!

 Everyone is so excited. We are fairly sure we have a name picked out for her, like 99.9% sure. I will probably do a separate post on that at a later time.





Here is the video if you want to watch it. It is the same video from Facebook, so if you watched it there, you may not want to watch again! :)



Baby Talk- 19 weeks

19 Weeks!!!

 

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

This is a big week because we had our ultrasound today. At this moment, I don't know what the gender of our baby is. I do know that baby is absolutely perfect! Things are devolping well. Thank you for any prayers for our baby.

Because baby was being a little stubborn and difficult, we do have to have a second ultrasound next month just get some better looks at the heart and lower spine. Baby did not like its space invaded. No concerns, they just couldn't get a clear look and would like one. : )  She assured me that she got a good, clear look at the gender!

We, along with our families, will find out the gender of our sweet baby tonight together. I am so excited. I am trying to stay busy, busy.  The anticipation is killing me. The ultrasound lady had us close our eyes and I wanted to "accidentally" open them, but I didn't!

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 19 weeks

Size of baby:  about the size of a large heirloom tomato

Total Weight Gain/Loss: up about 5 lbs on my scale, about 6 on Dr. scale

Clothes: Mostly regular clothes. I am wearing maternity shirts or really long shirts only.

Gender: I will do a special gender post tomorrow! I am excited!

Movement:   More and more each day.

Sleep: Sleeping o'kay. It depends on the day. Still having crazy dreams

What I miss: Not sure.

Cravings: Nothing really specific

Symptoms: Just beginning to get uncomfortable at times.

Best Moment this week: Ultrasound and gender reveal party. More to come....

What am I looking forward to: planning for a specific gender

 I feel like I have so much to do to get ready for baby.