Dear Baby Girl,

Dear Baby Girl, 
Your Daddy and I are so excited for you to be here. We have been picking out very special things for your room. I have had the best time looking at all the beautiful nurseries others have designed for their little bundles of joy. It is so hard to decide on what we want for you. I think you must feel the excitement too because you have REALLY started moving lately. A few weeks ago I felt a few flutters, very sporadically, usually at night. At our ultrasound 2 weeks ago, the doctor said the placenta was 'anterior' which means its like having a little pillow on my belly. He said it could take several weeks maybe a month before I would feel you. He didn't want me to worry because he knows that people start to ask and since I have never felt a 'kick' I would not really be able to distinguish it. 
Yesterday, I was laying on the couch and I was felt you! I pictured you swimming around and trying to get situated, tunneling, burrowing into a nice spot on the other side of my belly. Then, Mrs. Wendy(who you'll meet very soon- she lives across the street and has 3 little boys) told me to put the remote control on my belly and watch it move. So, today I saw you kick the remote! I tried to show Daddy but you stopped. Then, later I felt you move again and i put my iPhone there and Daddy saw you too!
We are so thrilled and can't wait to see you again on the ultrasound next month! 
Right now, your bedding is in the washer and after it dries we will take it to a store to pick out some paint samples for your room. I know you will love it. 
We love you so much, 
Momma and Daddy

Hot summer daze...

I have been so blessed to have no real complications throughout this entire pregnancy. The toughest part has been how indescribably tired I have been. I have always been a 'napper.' I have always been able to fall asleep anywhere. Never have I wanted to desperately go.to.bed. ALL times of the day. My next OB appointment is August 1st and I'm going to ask if I need more iron. I know for the sake of my bowels I don't WANT more iron, but I am starting to wonder about this fatigue...Anywho...if that's the only complaint I can come up with, I know I am doing purty dang good:)

We made some fun baby girl decisions this past weekend and are still working on the nursery decor but here are some of the things we have picked so far:

This is the bedding Michael picked out the night we found out it was a girl. (PotteryBarnKids-"Penelope") He was looking online while I was 'napping' on the couch and when I woke up I saw it and loved it. I got to see it in person this past weekend in Atlanta and ordered it. It should be here tomorrow! Once we get it, we will go to paint store and get some pink and green samples to decide what color to paint the room:) Probably either a very pale pink(similar to the photo above) or a pale lime green.

A decision we are now in the process of making is to get PBK's Larkin Dresser and Kendall crib:

~OR~
Get this set from Munire' called "Bristol" where we would get the crib, 6 drawer dresser(no hutch), and 3 drawer (not pictured) rather than bedside table:

I prefer the white but all the stock photos of the set are in the dark wood. Michael still thinks the white is too girly if we have a boy next but I think it would look great with this whale bedding that I LOVE:

I just loved everything in PotteryBarn Kids and I went ahead and started a registry but still have to do some editing...

I will have to take some before pics of our nursery. I should have taken a pic of what a messy, useless 'office' it was before we made some headway yesterday and moved the desk and a TON of junk out. but there is still junk up there so I'll take some tomorrow before we get it all cleaned out.

Sweet Dreams!
Dannis

Footloose and fancy free

I'm writing this as I ride the Groome shuttle to the ATL airport to get on a plane to head to Destin! I had an absolutely fabulous Fourth of July weekend and got to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa Plunk, Debbie and Bill and Chris and the kids. The puppies love going to their Nana's house. Even though I think Cash was a tad jealous of Madison. Here's a pic of us heading to Nana's:





We laid around and got to watch a few episodes of the wiggles with Madison. Here she is playing in my shoes:





On Monday, the fam came over to our house and we had a big old fashioned block party. I just have mobile photos now but I will post pics of the huge jumpy-house-slide and all the friends that came. Here is a firework shot:





I love my neighbors. They really know how to throw a shindig:)

I had to work yesterday but I'm off til next week so I'm joining some friends at the beach until Saturday. I'll let you know how it was.

Enjoy your week- it's already hump day!
XO,
Dannis

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It's a GIRL!!!!

Super exciting day today!
We knew that they were going to do an ultrasound but we were not sure if they would be able to tell the gender. So when the ultrasound tech got started and immediately snapped a few shots I remember thinking "Oh she is just going to go through this super fast, there is no way we will know if it's a boy or a girl." Well, 2 seconds after that, she was showing us her legs and explaining the position the baby was in and she said so you can definitely tell it's a girl here. I was shocked. I was already teary eyed just from seeing her and then she was just saying it like saying "the sky is blue, grass is green, SHE IS A GIRL!" I thought it was going to be a girl, but to have the tech reassure me about 3 times, "Yes. It's for sure a girl." I couldn't stop squeezing Michael's hand. Every time the tech would click another view, I would squeeze. We got the entire sonogram on dvd, I guess I will have to figure out how to upload videos and maybe I can share it. In the meantime, here is her first shoot. She will probably be asked to model for Gerber next spring- haha. XOXO, Dannis

Beginning baby bump

This is my baby jelly belly at 15 weeks:)






Have Happy Weekends!
Michael, the pups and I are at my moms trying to clean up some old tree branches. It's not going too good right now...I'll take pics if we make any progress.

XO, Dannis

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Preggo!

The surprise of a positive pregnancy test.

It is still amazing to me that even after trying and having a such disappointment how amazed I was that I was pregnant. How it still amazes me that I am pregnant. Words cannot the begin to describe the flood of emotions that I felt on Tuesday, April 12, 2011 when I saw the + on the CVS generic pregnancy test. I had taken one on May 31st and it was a nice bold digital NOT PREGNANT on the screen that day. I had taken about 7 others that read the same in previous months. But, after eating a cadbury egg and a couple sleeves of Peeps bunnies I decided I WAS going to take one even though Michael was in Arizona, 3 time zones away, even though I was cramping like the mother of all periods was about to come, even though I had had spotting about 8 days ago, even though I was ready to just start taking Clomid already and figure out what was wrong with me. Astounded when the plus sign magically appeared on that plastic stick. Tears, laughter, relief, joy and guilt. I felt so guilty that Michael was not here, he didn't get to see the magic + appear. How was I going to tell him?! I can't really say all the thoughts that ran through my head for the next few hours. I cannot see how teenagers and other adults hide their pregnancy from their loved ones for months. I was exploding to tell any and every person I could.

I finally told Michael while we were talking on FaceTime and he got to see the magic + and he said I KNEW YOU WERE! He started telling his Ortho people that same night.

Here is the magic +:

We went to our new OB/GYN on Friday, April 15, 2011 and they took the most beautiful picture I had ever seen:

We talked to the Nurse Practitioner that day, Kay Medford, and they drew blood, I had to go back on Monday and they drew more, We went back about 2 weeks later on April 28, 2011, when they did another ultrasound, the heart rate was 146 and they said while everything looked pretty good, they wanted to put me on Prometrium to make sure the baby got enough support until the placenta took over.

I went back again on May 27th and they did more bloodwork and a doppler the heart rate was 176! My mom was with me for this appointment and she said "Sounds like a girl!" and Dr. Childs said, yeah it kinda does:)

I can't wait to go back on June 30th to have our next ultrasound!! We may be able to tell if its a boy or girl:)

Thanks for all the prayers and sorry to just now blog about this great news, I hope to have made it over the hurdle of the exhausting first trimester and will keep you posted!
Love, Dannis

Mobile uploads from Chicago

These first few are from the stained glass exhibit.








Funny tee shirt








Gino's east


Cloud gate




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