T minus 1 month...and counting.

Only 4 weeks left! I cannot believe it. On one hand it seems like these last 8 months have flown, but at the same time 8 months ago seems like a lifetime ago. We are definitely in the homestretch and tying up as many loose ends as possible. We've been back to the doctor for a couple of uneventful appointments but today we had one with an ultrasound! They weren't able to get any great pictures, we know that he has the cutest chubby cheeks and his current weight estimate is about 6 lbs 8 ounces (slightly larger than average, but just an estimate).

So much has happened in the last month. On Halloween weekend Michael went to New York to visit a good friend and one of their other friends met them there. They dressed up as the Top Gun crew and had a blast. The same weekend I had a girls' weekend in Dallas with 2 of my best friends. Our weekend was a little more relaxed consisting of brunch, shopping and "Painting with a Twist" (except mine was without the twist). That Monday we carved a pumpkin, dressed Ava up in her Chicken costume and passed out candy to trick-or-treaters.

The next weekend we went to Baylor's Homecoming and Michael played in the Alumni Lacrosse game. I love watching him play just about as much as he loves to play, and those opportunities seem to be getting fewer and farther between. We tailgated before the game and then had a blast watching Baylor beat Mizzou! We've decided that Max is a good luck charm since both games we've been to we won!

Weekend before last we went to The Woodlands to see Michael's family for an early Thanksgiving. It was a nice, relaxing weekend and so great to see his family. His mom is an amazing cook and made the best Thanksgiving dinner you could imagine. And only in Texas can you have thanksgiving dinner poolside in a t-shirt and shorts.

This past weekend Michael and I celebrated our 5 month anniversary with a great dinner at French Quarter Grill here in Austin. We spent the day Saturday cleaning our cars and Sunday my parents came into town to help us out with the nursery. It is pretty much finished now with the exception of hanging things on the wall. But at least we know we are ready for Max to be here whenever that may be.

It's hard to believe that we'll finally get to meet Max in the next few weeks, and we are so excited to see what he looks like and most of all to know that he is healthy. I thought I would get more nervous as the time nears, but I am really just getting more excited and almost more at ease. In the past couple of weeks even it seems so much more real. I do however keep having a recurring dream that I forget to feed him for days. I know it's insane and I know it won't happen, but I think it's just me worrying about being a good mom. I don't doubt that I will be, but my type A personality is having a hard time accepting not being able to plan for everything. Luckily we took a childbirth class that has really helped us feel more prepared. You can read all the books in the world, but a class like this is definitely worth it!

With Thanksgiving coming up I am realizing just how much I have now more than ever to be thankful for. I am so blessed.

 11.10.11 34.5 Weeks

11.22.11 36 Weeks

Blessed with wonderful friends!

This past weekend couldn't have been more perfect. So many of our friends came in town and 4 of my closest friends threw us the most amazing shower! They went over and beyond on everything and everyone had a blast! We got some wonderful gifts and felt so blessed to have so many great friends there.

With the wonderful hostesses!

Just the two of us...or should I say 3?

With Michael's cousin, Allison, her husband Heath and
their 3-month-old Hayes (Max's future best friend)

Such a fun game...diaper relay race.

I totally kicked his butt...twice!

Lucas and Kyle, neck in neck...There was so much
excitement Ava didn't know what to do with herself!

Adorable blanket and bib from Michael's grandmother.

Michael's Baylor lacrosse coach had a onesie made with
Michael's lacrosse number on it...too cute!

Not only did the hostesses throw an amazing shower, but
they gave us this basket full of all kinds of goodies!

We had a doctor's appointment yesterday and everything went great. We will have another sonogram at our 36 week appointment, so of course I am looking forward to that. I have been a little under the weather over the past week and all of the excitement over the weekend put me over the edge...I had a full blown, horrible cough by Sunday. However, I am feeling much better now, especially after getting 11 hours of sleep last night.

The new thing this past week or so has been hiccups. Max seems to get them at least twice a day. He is moving a lot. Something tells me he's going to be a very active and strong baby. Braxton Hicks contractions are in full force and I get them several times a day. My belly button has officially popped and no matter how I try to cover it up it pokes out!

We are now in the home stretch...only 8 weeks left! Gosh, that's hard to believe. We have put together a list of all the things we need to get done before Max arrives and it seems to be growing rapidly. Luckily we've gotten most of the necessities taken care of, but just have a few more things like carseat and some other smaller things that we're probably going to end up biting the bullet and buying pretty soon. Other than that we're just trying to get organized and prepared. I am the type of person who will prepare to get prepared, but it never fails, I will not end up being prepared. I am trying to be realistic about everything and accept that there will be some things that I'll just have to go with the flow on.

Our maternity pictures turned out great and you can check out a preview on our photographer's blog if you would like. http://family.knotsandtotsphotography.com/2011/10/18/cedar-park-maternity-portraits-wendy-and-michael/

3rd Trimester and Doggy Lovin'

Things are going by faster and faster and I feel like I'm getting bigger by the second. I cannot believe that I am in my third trimester and 31 weeks pregnant. Deep breaths, let's not freak out.

29 Weeks

I am dying to get the nursery set up, and now that we FINALLY got the dresser/changer delivered today I can get going on it. Some friends are throwing us a shower at our house next weekend, so this will be my big project of the week...among the many projects that I have been taking on lately.

30 Weeks

I have been feeling extra "crafty" lately. I've spent way too much time (and money) at Hobby Lobby and Michael's over the last few weeks. I am absolutely going to blame it all on Pinterest...there are way too many good ideas on there, too bad I am the queen of gathering ideas and never following through. But, I've decided to make all of my thank you cards and Halloween cards, so we will see how that goes to start out.

We went to Waco last weekend to see the Baylor vs. Iowa State game and had a blast! It's definitely getting more and more uncomfortable to sit in one place for an extended amount of time, but I can't think of many things more worth it than a Baylor football game. Unfortunately this week's game wasn't so great...losing to A&M hurt.

Last weekend we got the most amazing gift we could possibly imagine....RAIN!!!! It rained for several hours  last Sunday and it was incredible! Round Rock just got put on emergency water restrictions (absolutely no outdoor watering...how absurd) so this was a God send. I would not normally talk about rain, but it's not even funny how desperately we have needed it!

Our doctor's appointment went well this past Tuesday and Baby Max's current weight estimate is 3 lbs 11 oz. His heartbeat was strong, as usual, and everything else looked great too. We are now on bi-weekly doctor appointments.

We took maternity pictures this week. It was an idea that I was not completely sold on, but in the end found a really great deal on Moolala (a coupon website like Groupon) and decided why not. From the pictures that they showed us on their cameras I was so pleased, and I am so excited to see the final product!

This weekend has been nice and relaxing. We went out on a date night on Friday night and then walked in the Brushy Creek Doggy 3K and Play Day on Saturday morning. We hung around the house to watch football that afternoon and relax. Today we went to church, lunch and then to a pumpkin patch...one of my favorite fall activities! 



A special Happy 25th Birthday to my wonderful sister today! Love, love, love her!

Ava in all her glory.

She totally dominated in the turkey dog eating contest...
and he had  a good 20  lbs on her!

Fall Showers

Fall is by far my favorite time of year, I love the weather. I love the decorations, I love pumpkins (and just about anything pumpkin flavored), and I love football! Unfortunately the weather hasn't quite made it here yet, but my fall decorations are in place, the pumpkin spiced lattes from Starbucks are here and football is in full swing. Falling asleep on the couch with a good book on a Sunday afternoon with football on in the background is one of my favorite things in the whole world...it reminds me of Sundays growing up at home, although the addition of the book is more since I've graduated from college and am not actually required to read.

27 Weeks (9/23)

We had our doctor's appointment two weeks ago and everything went great! Baby boy Magee was at the time about 2.5 lbs (slightly bigger than average) and was blinking and yawning during the ultrasound, it was THE cutest thing that I have ever seen! I was completely wrong about him being in transverse lie (he is now head first, ready to go) I guess I was just confused by the simultaneous kicks on the opposite sides of my stomach. As I mentioned in the last post, we have officially chosen a name and we are now sharing it with everyone. His name will be Max Cameron Magee. Max is just a name that both Michael and I liked a lot and Cameron is special to us because it is the name of a park that we would go to often in Waco and it is where Michael took me to propose to me. We thought about doing the whole keep the name a surprise thing, but we couldn't take it anymore.

My sister (The amazing Hostess) and I
in front of the cutest cake ever!

The coolest diaper cake...A family friend
made thisone and did a beautiful job!
twopeasgifts.com

                                                       





I had my first shower this past weekend in Sealy. It was so good to see so many friends and family members who were able to make it. We got so many great things, I can't even begin to tell you! The nursery is packed and have some serious organization to do! My sister did an amazing job putting everything together for the shower, I am so lucky to have her!

With my parents and sister

Michael's Mom, Grandmother and Sister
(He hung around before things got started)

My mom and grandmother

Several people have asked me where I am registered so I am including the links to the registries. I ended up doing a few smaller registries because some stores like Babies R Us have a huge selection, but other stores like Buy Buy Baby are much easier to work with. Unfortunately I didn't realize when I started the registry at Buy Buy Baby that it only has a few locations in Texas. We also ended up doing a couple of really small registries at more specialized stores like Restoration Hardware Baby and Child and Pottery Barn Kids  because we purchased some larger items like crib bedding and rocking chair from them and they offered incentives for starting a registry that helped make those items more affordable! So I didn't end up registering for an exorbitant amount of things, I just spread them out over several registries.

I have had some really great help from mom-friends telling me what to get and what not to waste my money on as well as what products work best and which ones are a flop. I know a lot of this is stuff I will have to figure out on my own since each baby is different, and things are constantly evolving, but I would love to hear any other advice from moms out there who wished someone would have told them something before they had their baby.

Opening gifts with one of my good friends
from high school, Natalie.

Everyone had to guess how big I was with a
piece of yarn, it was quite humorous!

Happy Birthday to Me and Madre!

Well my birthday was this past Friday, but I feel like we've been celebrating for over a week now! Last weekend Michael and I (and Ava) went down to The Woodlands to see Michael's family. We got to watch his sister, Leslie, dance in her first drill team routine at the football game on Friday night and went out to eat at The Grotto and celebrate all of our birthdays (Michael's, his mom's and mine) on Saturday. I absolutely love their Italian wedding cake desert and was so excited to eat there since we don't have one in Austin.

Before we left for The Woodlands I started feeling allergies coming on and by the time we came home it had developed into a full-blown upper respiratory infection that I spent most of the week battling. Thankfully I was 100% better by my birthday on Friday and had such a great day! I went for a much overdue pedicure that morning and got a free birthday coffee from Starbucks on my way home, thanks to my Starbucks gold card! We decided to hire cleaning ladies partially for my birthday and partially because the cleaning duties have been put on a back-burner since I've been pregnant (not that I haven't been cleaning just not as often as I would like). It was probably one of the best decisions we EVER made and I think we are going to start having them come once a month to pick up my slack! I went for a prenatal massage that afternoon and when I came home Michael surprised me with a cupcake and some beautiful rose gold hoop earrings to match the watch he got me last Christmas! He also informed me that he had made reservations for dinner that night at Jasper's which was absolutely wonderful! Both of our entrees were delicious and we went for the desert sampler at the end which included, Cherry Limeade Pie, Butterfinger Creme Brulee and Dark Chocolate Molten Lava Cake. Heaven. We went for a walk that evening but probably should have walked all night to burn off those calories! 

We went to downtown Austin on Saturday  to meet up with several of Michael's friends who were in town for ACL (Austin City Limits Music Fest) for lunch, and had a great time catching up with them! My parents and my sister and her fiance came in town on that afternoon and we went out for another wonderful dinner with them at Austin Land and Cattle. My mom's birthday is the day before mine (Sep 15th) so we always have fun celebrating together! We all got steaks at dinner and they were great. My mom brought a red velvet cake from Ooh La La, a bakery owned by an old friend in Katy, and we finished the evening by stuffing ourselves with that too. We sent them off the next morning after taking them to 620 Cafe (it now seems to be the place we take all of our guests for breakfast). It was so great to spend time with my family!

The pregnancy is going great and we have officially chosen a name for our little boy! I am pretty positive that he is in transverse lie (laying horizontally) and has been for the past week or so. It is not very comfortable at all and makes my stomach look quite lopsided. I will know for sure on Tuesday when I go in for another ultrasound and appointment. Simple things like putting on my shoes or getting dressed are becoming more and more difficult by the day. Everything is coming together nicely as far as the nursery goes and we officially have 2 showers on the calendar. After much research and getting suggestions from other moms, our registries are ready to go at Babies R Us, Buy Buy Baby and Restoration Hardware Baby and Child (for a few decorative nursery items), and I noticed today that some items have already been bought! We only have 3 months left and things are starting to get really exciting!

26 Weeks

 

Labor Day Weekend Fun and Central Texas Fires

Michael facing off

What a wonderful Labor Day weekend! Friday night we got to watch the Baylor vs. TCU game with some great friends and it ended up being an amazing game ending in a big Baylor win! There are few things I enjoy more than seeing Baylor win and it makes me sad to see the Big 12 fall apart as it seems it will (but that's another story that will get me unnecessarily fired up...again). Michael played in a lacrosse tournament on Saturday with some of his Baylor teammates and I always love watching him play...even when it's 100+ degrees out. I wish he got to play more and I know he does too! We watched the Saints (Michael's favorite NFL team) win on Saturday night and hung out with friends in downtown Austin. Michael had one more lacrosse game on Sunday morning and then we ran some errands including a stop by Godiva for our free monthly chocolate (if you're not a member of the Godiva rewards program you should be). Monday we watched our friend, Lucas, compete in the Austin Triathlon. It was his first triathlon and, he did an amazing job finishing 14 in his age group! We recovered from our long weekend with a relaxing afternoon and evening.

Michael and friends

Lucas in his transition from bike to run

Beautiful weather rolled in on Sunday bringing us the first days of under 100 degrees since I can't even remember when. Austin had a record-breaking 80 days of triple digit heat this year and it has been so nice to be able to walk outside for more than 2 minutes. Unfortunately with the high winds and extreme drought many wildfires have broken out in Central Texas. The Bastrop County fire that has destroyed nearly 1,400 homes and 40,000 acres claimed my aunt and uncle's home in Bastrop on Monday night. It is truly devastating and as of this morning the fire was still only 30% contained. Please keep them and all the others who have been affected by these fires in your prayers! I did not take the picture, but this is smoke from the Bastrop fire which is about 30 miles away from Austin.

Baby boy Magee still seems to be doing great, he's getting bigger, as is my stomach, and he's definitely getting much stronger. He is becoming more and more active and packs a powerful punch these days. We finally received the crib on Friday and put it together over the weekend. Now we just have to finish the rest of the nursery! 

24.

Yesterday we celebrated Michael's 24th birthday...well actually we've been celebrating from the minute he got home from work on Friday with cupcakes...he was just a little bit anxious. After several attempts, Michael finally convinced me to give him his birthday present on Friday (I can only imagine what he was like growing up on the days before Christmas). I think I did good though...he seemed a little excited about his new Garmin GPS watch when he got up on a Saturday morning to go for a run to "test it out." He probably would have gone that night if we hadn't stuffed ourselves at Chuy's with great Tex-Mex and the biggest piece of Tres Leches I have ever seen (and yes, we finished it).

We spent Saturday at one of his favorite places on earth, Cabela's. If you are unfamiliar with  Cabela's, it's basically an outdoors-man's dream store filled with anything that has to do with hunting, fishing, camping or outdoors in general. In Michael's words, "it's pretty aggressive." I think we may have walked down every isle in the store...ok, that may be an exaggeration but we definitely hit every section. Later that night we got together for dinner and drinks (minus the drinks for me) with a couple of his good friends from high school and ended up at a sports bar where we played Darts and Washers for the rest of the night. We had a blast with them...I wish I had taken some pictures! Yesterday we went out for a nice dinner at one of our favorite Austin places, North by Northwest and finished the evening with a nice walk and Michael's favorite TV show, Bachelor Pad. Haha, just kidding...kind of.

Yesterday also marked my 24th week! Time is really flying now and my belly seems to be growing rapidly! Buttoning any pair of regular pants is pretty much out of the question these days. We had an appointment last week and everything looked great. Baby Magee even gave the doc a big 'ole kick right on the doppler wand as we were listening to his heartbeat. The kicks are starting to get pretty intense since his bones are more developed and sometimes I can feel exactly where he is in my stomach. It takes on some pretty weird shapes as he moves around.

These were both taken in the last week...the first one is a little deceiving, the second one is a few days later and more accurate of how big the bump really is now. Michael laughs at me, but I pretty much take advantage of any time I make the effort to get semi-dressed up and ask him to take a picture of me. The number of pictures he has to take for me to find one that I actually like seems to be increasing with my weight...ha!

ATX Weekend full of Fun and Friends

I couldn't describe a more perfect weekend. Friday night Michael and I got to hang out just the two of us and RELAX! He cooked an amazing dinner for us, pasta with chicken and mushrooms, and brought home some ice cream for desert. He seems to be the only one cooking these days since I'm not supposed to handle raw meat (well at least that's my excuse) and I clean up afterward. We seem to have gotten in a nice routine with this since he likes to cook and I like for things to be clean. After dinner we went on one of our evening walks and called it a night.

Michael's friend and roommate from college, Preston, and his fiance Penny came in on Saturday morning.We had a great time with them and packed a lot of fun things in a small amount of time. We went to The Salt Lick for lunch, luckily we have the only other location than the original one in Dripping Springs only 5 minutes from our house. If you haven't had Salt Lick BBQ before you are missing out, and if you come to visit us we will take you! It's kind of a big deal around here. From there we went to the Austin Ice Cream Festival...when Michael hears "ice cream" there's no turning back or talking out of. It wasn't quite what we expected, we were probably the only people there without children, and we were told the $10 entrance fee would get us free ice cream inside, but no one told us it was just samples. On top of that, there were only about 3 places handing out samples, so the lines were ridiculously long. Nevertheless we got our fair share of Ice Cream.

That afternoon Penny and I relaxed at the house while the guys went to the shooting range. Guns are their big-kid toys and I am happy for them to play all they want as long as they don't drag me with them. Guns make me nervous and I'd rather only use them out of necessity, God forbid! That evening we went to Uncle Billy's out at the Oasis on Lake Travis...another place you need to go (more for the ambiance than the food) if you live here or come to visit. There were clouds all day so we weren't sure if we'd get to see one of their famous sunsets that they are known for, but the clouds cleared just long enough for us to get an amazing view.

Sunday morning, Michael and I woke up and took LMA (Little Miss Ava) for a long walk around the neighborhood. We took Preston and Penny to our favorite breakfast place down the road, 620 Cafe, and to our pleasant surprise they had Chicken and Waffles as their special...jackpot! What a perfect way to end the weekend with our friends. We were kind of at a loss the rest of the day because we didn't have much to do, and we've been spending all of our weekends trying to be productive and get as much done as possible. I had already cleaned on Thursday and Friday (I like having people over because it gives me motivation to clean and organize!) and Michael mowed the yard then too so we kept asking each other "What do we need to do?"  It was actually nice to be able to relax and I finally finished our honeymoon book on Mixbook.com (will post a link soon). All in all it was a wonderful weekend...one of those weekends that I wish all weekends were like!

Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails!!!

That's right we found out a couple of weeks ago that we are having a BOY! Needless to say we are ecstatic. Things have become incredibly real since we found out and we can now say "him" or "he" instead of "it." We're also able to plan more now, which is really fun for me!

Ever since we found out I've been creating our registries and shopping online for nursery furniture, crib bedding and all that fun stuff. Michael thinks I have a problem because of how much time I've spent on this, and he is partially right considering I am the most indecisive person in the entire world and a perfectionist on top of that. I wish it was easy as registering for wedding stuff (now that was fun), but you have to read reviews and figure out what all you really need...which just so happens to be a ton of stuff. I'm slightly concerned on where in our house we are going to fit a baby and all the stuff it comes with, just kidding!

Our favorite sonogram picture at 12 weeks. Sic 'em Bears!!!

19 weeks. Looking at the straight at us with his arms up by his face and knees up to his chest. 

I've still been feeling good, with the exception of a bad week that started the day we went to the doctor, but I can't complain because I know what I've experienced has been mild compared to other pregnancies.  I still haven't gained too much weight (about 8 lbs) but feel huge already...this is going to be fun to come to terms with.

21 weeks. Over half way there!

Michael and I go for a long walk with Ava in our neighborhood at least 3 nights a week.  It is probably my favorite time of the day.  The deer are out so much right now and coming into the neighborhood a lot probably to get water. They're fun to watch and Ava would love to get a chance to chase one. We've been spending our weekends being productive and getting things done around the house. I am in full bore nesting mode. I know I have plenty of time, but I also know it is going to go by so fast. I was already the type of person who liked to be organized and have everything planned out, and now it's just becoming a slight obsession. 

We got the chance to go to Dallas weekend before last and see Michael's cousin's new baby, Hayes. He is absolutely adorable and it made me even more excited for our little one! It is so nice to have Michael's cousin and one of my good friends who is about to have her baby any day going through this before me and with me.    Not only will our children be so close in age, but I have some great people to learn from and ask all kinds of questions...and I have a lot! 

1 Month, 18 weeks and 9 days.

1 month of marriage.  Can you believe how fast a month goes by? This may have been the quickest month yet.  We have had an absolute blast in our first month of wedded bliss, and it has been a great start to our life together.  Michael surprised me with cookies and ice cream from Tiff's Treats when he got home from work yesterday and then we we headed to Whole Foods where we bought food for our picnic on Town Lake.  We took Ava and she had a blast at the dog park.  Watching her have fun is one of our favorite things to do, although we always say that she would be the weird kid at school who goes off and plays by herself.  She's great with one other dog and will play all day long, but with a group of dogs she's not exactly Miss Social.  We walked over to watch the bats at Congress bridge, if you're ever in Austin it's a sight to see, and got there just in time to see it end, oh well...it was still a blast!

 Austin, the Beautiful.

 The bats flying out from under the bridge.

A Texas sunset. 

Us, a little sweaty and Ava trying to play with the other dogs.

18 weeks of pregnancy.  According to thebump.com our little one is the size of a sweet potato this week.  I have a bit of an issue with the fruit comparisons, but that's another story.  I have felt what I thought were possibly kicks (or possibly gas) a couple of times in the last 2 weeks, but on Sunday I definitely felt a kick and then again a few times yesterday.  It was the most amazing feeling and it seemed to always happen when Michael and I were talking about him/her.  Can you believe that the baby can already hear at this point? I can't...but I also quickly realized that I have a lot to learn when someone at my friend's baby shower this past weekend said not to jump up and down when you're pregnant, and I responded with "Really?"  In my defense there are some pretty normal things that your not supposed to do when you're pregnant, and I've heard all kinds of myths about things like "spicy foods" and "squats" that will trigger labor. This is all new to me! I have been really lucky to not get sick at all and don't really have much of a "bump" yet, so feeling the baby move is the first thing that's really making the pregnancy feel real! Hopefully the bump will come soon...as of now I can barely button my regular pants, but my hips seem to be expanding just as quickly as my stomach.

9 days until we find out if it's a boy or a girl! I'm trying not to think about this too much because I might just go insane with anxiousness. I'm not going to say what I think it is because I don't want to be the mother that starts off being wrong on her first chance at "mother's intuition," but the vote seems to be pretty evenly split between everyone (including us) in our family on whether it's a boy or girl.  I guess we will see soon enough.