The Verdict is in:

My husband only knows how to make BOYS!!! Yes we are having another sweet little boy. We are more than excited and very blessed. We are for sure prepared for him, I knew it would pay off saving all of Nathans clothes. Nathan did get to go with us and I think we confused him more than anything b/c now he keeps asking to see the baby (a real baby). Baby boy is healthy and growing like a weed. He is measuring 8 days ahead of schedule which should move my due date to 10/26 but the doctor is not changing it we remain at 11/3. We all know I will not even make it to 10/26, but I do need all of you to pray for me now to make it as close to my due date as I can get. Dr Bill said today they will take my stitch out around 35 weeks. My weight seems to just keep increasing by the day, I gained 4 pounds since my last visit and that brings my total to 10 pounds overall.

It is crazy to think that this pregnancy is flying by and I only have 18 weeks before they take my stitch out. I think that is enough time to figure out a boy name considering I had only been thinking girl names. I know I will admit I did have a small moment of disappointment when we found out b/c I will not get to experience a girl. I looked at Doug and said "Do you really only know how to make BOYS". He just laughed. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and enjoy the NO RAIN!!!

two new members to the stell family

So today we were going to get "McQueen" as in lightning mcqueen a new tank. Nathan got Mcqueen for valentines day. While we were there we decided to get him two new friends. So from left to right we have - McQueen, Sketch and Bama. Sketch is of course Dougs fish and Bama is mine. Nathan wants to help feed them, we will see how long that lasts.

Happy Mothers Day!!

I had a wonderful Mother's Day. Nathan and Doug got me some very cute pajamas from Victoria Secret and we have just spent a very relaxing day at home. They took me to lunch at Logans. Saturday I got to spend the day with my wonderful Mom and sister. My sister treated me and my mom to lunch at the Olive Garden, so Thank You Sis. Then we went over to the galleria and Nathan got to ride the carousal.

I have been so blessed to be chosen to be this little boys mom. He has been the greatest joy in my life.

Update – The surgery went well Friday, I had to be there at 5:00 am and my surgery was at 6:45. The one downside was that they gave me too much spinal and I was there until 12:00 waiting for it to come off. When I left my butt was still numb, LITERALLY. I was able to somewhat walk by myself. Nana kept Nathan for us over the weekend so I could recover which was nice. I did not leave the house for 3 days. I go back this Friday as a followup and then we go for our big ultrasound on May 29th at 8:00. SO SUPER EXCITED ABOUT THAT APPT. My gut is screaming girl but we will be happy with either. For the record I am still scared of a girl. I think I am more scared to have a girl than doug is which is so weird to say.

My attempt at getting pictures of Nathan on the beach. I think overall they turned out okay considering all her wanted to do was play/throw the sand.

Okay, here are a few pictures that I took last weekend at the beach in Gulf Shores. Now that I am sitting down to go thru them is when I realize that I did not take that many pictures. I have just a few from the beach and one from when we went to eat at Lulu's. While we were there the weather was just right. This was our one and only trip to the beach this year due to my pregnancy and trying to save my time for maternity leave. It was nice to visit with my dad and we look forward to going next year for longer periods of time.

I thought I would make a little post today and tell what all has been going on with me. Let me start by saying that I still feel like crap on a daily basis with this pregnancy. I just had to get that off my chest. Now, I have made it to 13 weeks and I am getting my cerclage (the stitch) this Friday. I also want to tell yall the drama with my leg. About two weeks ago I had a knot come up on my leg, I did not think much about it at first until a week had gone by and it was only getting worse. It would send pain down my leg when I would stand up. So I went in to the doc in the box (huge mistake) thinking they would give me some cream to put on it and all would be well. Little did I know that they would think it was a staph infection. OF COURSE I freak out b/c I don’t know how serious it is or what that could do to the baby. I immediately go to my OB and he cuts it open and drains it and does a culture on it and now all is well. Dr Bill thought it was only an infection and that I would be fine. It started getting better and I did not think about it anymore UNTIL Monday. I get a call from the OB office saying the culture came back as Staph. Well since I am having my surgery Friday I cant take any chances so I am off to see Dr Bill today and see what he says about the thing on my leg. For the record it looks like it is gone to me but what do I know. So I want yall to pray that everything goes well today and that I will get to have my surgery on Friday, yall all know that I NEED this stitch, it is my saving grace to a full term pregnancy.

Happy Birthday to ME!!

So today is my 29th birthday. So far I have had a pretty good day even though it is cold and wet outside. No, I dont feel any older and I think I look younger (that is overlooking the big belly). Maybe that is my eyes going bad. I got sung to this morning by my OLDER yet handsome husband and Nathan's sleepy smile I translated into Happy Birthday to the greatest mom in the world. I am so in love with my life and to think it only gets better from here. Needless to say that Doug did remind me that I only have one more year of my twenties. BLAH BLAH. He's just mad b/c he just turned 30 in January. Anyway, I am going to enjoy MY day like every girl should.

Baby update

We went for our first ultrasound this morning and got to see the little heartbeat (more like a flutter). The heartbeat is 113 and after waiting and waiting I finally got to see the doctor which confirmed that everything looks GREAT. Which is always good news. Let me just say that ever since we found out I have had a weird feeling that it is a girl. I actually have been looking at girl bedding and let me just say is very overwhelming when you are used to boy stuff. It is ALOT of pink, flowers and butterflies. All of this was to lead up to say that Dr Bill asked me today if I believed in the old wives tale of how fast heartbeat is to determine the sex. I said that I dont believe that but he said if we went by that we are having a BOY. So go figure if it is we will know that is all Doug knows how to make. I certainly will be happy with either, I just have mixed emotions about it because this is our last baby. I dont know why I am already talking about this, goodness I have awhile before we find out. Oh well, I promise to get our pictures of snow at our house. We made a huge snowman and let me just say that it is impossible to build one around Nathan. He kept wanting to knock them over. Let me give a little update on him while I am here. We are doing really good on potty training, he still does not want to do #2 in the potty. I dont know if he just thinks that you only teetee in the potty and that is it. He is infacuated with Lightning McQueen. I think he could recite the movie word for word. I just love that little boy with every being of my body. He is so silly and keeps me wondering what he is going to say or do next. I just cant figure out when he grew up, I ask him all the time and he just says "I growed up mommy". Funny Funny Boy. I hope everyone has a good rest of the week and I will post again soon.

GUESS WHAT!!!!!

Well, I have tried really hard to keep this a secret but I CAN"T it is just too exciting not to share. Nathan will be a BIG BROTHER in November. We are so excited!!! If you ask Nathan what is in mommy's belly, he will say "A BABY" and then he goes on to say that he has a baby in his belly too. It is really funny! He also thinks that everytime we leave the house that we are going to the doctor because the baby is sick or at least that is what he says. Isnt it amazing how they think and relate things. Anyway, we were 5 weeks yesterday and we go on March 12th to here his/her heartbeat and I will have my cerclage (the stitch in my cervix) around the 14th week. I feel like I am doing all of this for the first time again. But PLEASE keep us in your prayers because those of you that know me, know that my body has tons of problems with pregnancies and we just want to make it to November 2nd with a healthy baby.

Well, we go in the morning to get Nathan's second set of tubes and his Adenoids taken out. I am not in any way complaining about this. He has had his tubes since he was 10 months and no ear infections, so I think we did really good. I am kind of nervous about the adenoids coming out. I have done my research and I know that he does not need them but the Dr said it would be a 3-4 day recovery. Apparently if his Adenoids stay swollen they can cause snoring, sleep apnea, sinus problems and EAR INFECTIONS. Believe it or not we have all of the above, my child snores loud. So anything to go ahead and fix all of that. Please everyone keep my baby in their prayers that the surgery goes well and we have no complications from it. I am really nervous about this. Anytime your baby goes in will make any mom worry. I will let you all know how he did and maybe he will sleep most of the day and I can get some pictures on this blog.

I just want to post a little bit this morning. For about two months now Nathan has been coming and getting in our bed in the middle of the night. At first we were not sure what brought it on, we just thought it would happen a few times or maybe he had a bad dream. While we were off for Christmas around 2:00 in the morning I heard something hit the floor. I look down and Nathan is asleep in the floor next to our bed. I picked him up and put him in OUR bed. I know I should make him go back to his room but my reasoning behind it is that he is my baby and he is already growing up to fast, so I dont mind him being there. Well last night I heard him come into our room but instead of trying to get in our bed he laid down at the end of our bed on top of our comforter. Never made a peep. So Doug and I have come to the conclusion that he sleep walks. So not only do we carry on conversations in our sleep but now we sleep walk. I think it is cute.

This is one of the many pictures I took at Botanical. I just so happen to take it with my little camera and that is how I did not lose it.

Wow what a differnce a year makes. He is such a big boy now, upseting because it is all just flying by so fast.

I'm attempting a come back to blogger world

Hi everyone, Well the unbeliavable has happened. I kept procrastinating uploading all of my pictures off of my camera. I had 5 months worth on it and finally did, but somehow they did not save to my computer. Me being in a hurry did not check it before deleting the pictures off my camera. So I have lost halloween and thanksgiving and everything in between. I am very upset about this but I have learned my lesson.

So, here is what we have been up to. We had a wonderful Christmas and so far we are starting the new year off great. Doug and I have been off work since Christmas and so we have been cleaning, I mean really cleaning out. I will post pictures of all the toys we got rid of and just junk that I for the most part have been hanging on to. I am a pack rat. My next project is saving all 3000 pictures on this computer to disk and getting them more organized (so I dont lose anymore). As for Nathan, yes he has been at home with us since christmas, we decided to keep him out of daycare the past week. So he has been staying up late and sleeping in, daycare is going to love us :). He is MR Chatterbox. Carry's on conversations with you and I am loving every second of it. The only thing i am going to complain about is the fact that he refuses to potty train. We have tried everything from toys to candy and bribery. He will use the potty on occasion but our child is okay with wearing a wet/dirty pullup. We have put him in big boy underwear and has messed those up and will not tell anyone because he is okay with it. Where did we go wrong? Will Nathan be 5 and still in pullups? HELP ANYONE WITH ADVICE!!! Other than the potty training he is diffently going thru the terrible twos, he will pitch a fit about anything. I take him to his room until he is done and he comes out like nothing ever happened, he also gets spankings that dont seem to phase him. Wow was not prepared for the two's. We moved him to a full size bed back in September, we bought him a whole new bedroom suit. He has done great in it and I think that is what he needed because he is such a wild sleeper so this way he has more room. Lets see since I dont have pictures to show everyone Nathan was a Firefighter for Halloween and a handsome one at that. He caught on real quick to the trick or treating. We went to a neighborhood by our house with our friends Tiffany, Josh and Mason. I think Nathan and Mason got a good deal, Doug pulled them in a wagon up to the door and they got all the candy. What else has happened since July (my last post). Doug and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary in November. It is amazing how time flies, I guess it seems longer because we have been together for 10 years. He is the love of my life and my best friend. Not to mention the best daddy in the world. We are lucky to have him. Okay, I think that is all and now I will post what pictures i do have.

 

We went to portrait innovations to have our 2 year pics made this year. I think they turned out good. Note: These are not the edited ones so some may look a little crooked.

I did not realize I never posted this picture. Nathan and I went and had our picture made together for Daddy on Fathers day. I think they turned out so good.

2 Year checkup

We went to see Dr. Walley today and had a great report. Nathan is weighing in at 27.6 pounds (50th percentile) and 35 inches (75-90th percentile). Dr Walley could not believe the growth spurt he has had and he was also impressed that we have not had to come see him since our 18 month checkup. I was just bragging at how well Nathan talks and how he really pronounces his words and that little terd was speechless the entire time. Just sat there and stared at Dr. Walley. Now we dont have to go back (unless needed) until we are 3.

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY!!!!!

Today is Nathan 2nd birthday.... We started the day off going out to have a birthday breakfast which will now be a tradition and then tonight we sang happy bday and he got to blow out his candle. Which we had to do twice because he wanted to and he probably would have done more if we would have let him. Then we watched Alvin and the Chipmunks AGAIN. I probably could quote this movie because we watch it so much. Whenever he cant see the chipmunks he will ask you "whered they go", it is so cute and then gets so excited when they come back on. He LOVES it, so thank you Aunt A for that present.

The bottom picture is his growth chart on his bedroom wall. I cant believe the growth spurt he has had since we last measured him at 18 months. So I had to take a picture of it.

I cant begin to explain how amazing this little boy is and how the past two years have been so amazing, he is a true blessing to us and I thank God everyday for choosing me to be his mommy. The past year has flown by. He is talking so much and IS very bossy at times. His favorite things to say is - Stop it and loves to tell you to sit, drink, eat or anything else he wants you to do. I have no idea where he gets that bossiness from. Nathan is showing signs of potty training, he has teeteed a couple of times but I am not pushing it just yet. He will tell me if he needs to go and he has been right everytime. Although sometimes he will confuse needing to go #2 with just having gas. I think he becomes a lil more independent every day which I am not ready for. It just seems like yesterday we were living in the NICU praying that he was going to be okay. Now my baby is grown into a little boy (a handsome one at that).