Bed Rest...

I came home from the hospital Thursday afternoon and have been on bed rest since then. Five full days of it and I am ready to be done! It's really hard when you feel great but you can't do anything. I am so thankful to my husband and my mom who have been taking great care of me and our house while I lay on the couch. Jay has started the bathroom remodel. Yesterday he and my dad got everything out of there...the cabinet, sink, flooring, toilet, etc. Tonight Jay has been laying the tile which is quite the project all by itself. Poor guy! My mom has been cooking for us, cleaning, doing laundry, and the dishes. She even runs errands. I am also thankful for all the friends who have come to visit and hang out. It really helps pass the time!! Natalie has brought me dinner, movies, magazines, ice cream, and even shopped for a few things that I need for the hospital. It is a strange feeling to not be able to do things for yourself. I watch a lot of tv, have continued to grade papers to try and help Buffi (plus it gives me something to do), written thank you cards, taken naps, and hung out with anyone that is willing to hang out with me!

Doctor West is planning on inducing me right around 38 weeks which is in 11 days! I am so thankful this bed rest thing isn't going to go on too much longer. We can't wait to meet our little guy! I will try to get my most recent belly pictures and Carter's finished room pictures on here in the next couple of days. It shouldn't be hard, I don't have much else to do. :)

My first hospital stay...

I thought I should update our blog about our newest endeavors this week. Last week at my 34 week doctors appointment showed that my blood pressure was a little too high. I had also gained five pounds during those three weeks when I hadn't gained anything the appointment before that. Doctor thought it would be best to schedule a non stress test at the hospital for Sunday just to get a better idea what things were looking like. He also asked me to "limit" my activity including taking a little time off work each week. Sunday's stress test showed the baby was perfect but my blood pressure still wasn't quite where it should be. It really wasn't bad though. I figured everything was fine. The next Tuesday I talked to the doctor and he wanted me to go back into the hospital for another stress test to get an even better idea. So Wednesday morning I got another sub and came down for the test. My blood pressure was higher than it had ever been before which really bothered my doctor. I laid their for 2 1/2 hours with them checking it every 10 minutes. They did some lab work that showed everything was fine there. Doctor came in the first time to tell me that the test shows I cannot go back to work at all. I am officially done teaching because of how high my blood pressure was. This was extremely hard news for me. My poor doctor stood there watching me try to hold back the tears! It is a very weird feeling to expect to go back to school with my kids after lunch and then find out I am done and not going back at all. They continued to check my blood pressure and then even decided that they wanted to keep me over night for more observation. Now I don't even get to go home! What a crazy day! I spend all day yesterday here and all night and am praying that I get to go home today after they get some results back from all the testing. I had lots of visitors which was fun. Sleeping at a hospital is really hard though! The nurse came in at midnight for blood pressure, at 3 to do a stress test on the baby which takes about a half hour, back at 5 for blood work, and then at 7 for blood pressure again. How is a girl supposed to sleep with all that going on. I was not expecting the wake up at 5 for the blood work. She walked in, flipped on the lights, and said "i need to get some blood from ya." I hate getting my blood drawn in the first place but seriously, at five in the morning?!?!?! They must be bored that early in the morning. Now it's 8am and I am just waiting for 9 when I can order breakfast. Jay spent the night here, which was so sweet of him! I loved having him here with me. He got up early this morning to go take his car into a window place to get a rock chip repaired that happened on his way here yesterday. Perfect timing. He didn't want that chip to turn into what my window looks like with a huge crack from one side all the way across to the other side. As soon as that is done he will be back here with me until he goes to work at 2. Hopefully by then I will be snuggled up on my own couch at home. So that is the update for now. One little funny thing is that Carter had the hiccups at 3 this morning while my nurse was doing the stress test. Every time he hiccuped, there was a loud noise on the monitor. It was very cute!

34 week pic and baby shower!

This is my 34 week picture. It is a terrible picture but we forgot to take one when I was actually wearing nice clothes. I even have a water spot on my shirt. How lame am I? But...it shows how huge I am! I don't think there will be room for him if I go another 6 weeks.

My baby shower was wonderful! Thank you to the wonderful ladies that did this for me. I was truly blessed and felt so loved! Thank you everyone for blessing and spoiling us!

The beautiful ladies that did this for me and baby Carter. Thank you girls!!!

Baby Jameson

Hollie and I are just 2 1/2 weeks apart. I can't wait till we all have our babies.

The three pregnant girls at the baby shower.

What used to be the three pregnant girls. One down, two to go!

Hollie made this amazing diaper bag! I love it!!!

Fire fighter stuff...of course!

Sneak peak of Carter's room...

Christmas!!

Just to warn you...this is a long post!
We had a great Christmas this year. This was sort of our first "real" Christmas as a married couple. Last year we were on our honeymoon in Cancun over Christmas so we really didn't celebrate. It was so fun to be in our house for it this year. We decorated the whole house, cut down our own tree, and even hosted one of the Christmas dinners with Jay's family. Christmas eve, we went to our church service which was a great service. Then we spent the evening with my mom. We had dinner together and opened presents. She spoiled Carter! She got us the pack n play.





She also got him some super cute clothes.





Thanks Mom for all the great stuff for Carter. We love what you got us too!
Jay and I opened our presents to each other late Christmas eve at home by our tree. We new Christmas day would be a little busy so we decided to have our own little Christmas together that night. It was fun to really shop for each other this year. Last year we didn't do any presents. He even had some fun with wrapping some of mine. This was a lamp that he bought me but he wrapped it with six different papers.


Max wanted to get in on the present action. My mom did buy them some treats which they go crazy for every time I say..."want a treat?"


Christmas morning we went to my Dad's house for breakfast and presents. They also spoiled Carter. They got him tons of Giants clothing. It will be fun to go to a Giants game next summer with him all decked out in his Giants gear. I was in for a real surprise though, when my dad brought in the last gift. He brought me a little red gift bag that had a piece of paper in it. It was a picture of Carter's crib. There is a long story behind all of this though! I knew someone was getting it for us because I wanted to buy it so badly that Jay had to tell me to stop talking about it. I finally figured it out that he said that because someone was getting it for us. Anyway, I analyzed it for so long that I thought I had it all figured out even to the point that I thought Jay had gone to Portland, picked up the crib, brought it to Carter's room, and built it. Boy was I wrong! Jay did a great job of throwing me off the track though! It was in my dad's garage waiting for Christmas for them to surprise me with it. Thank you Dad and Lori for the beautiful crib! We appreciate it so much! I need to get better at letting people surprise me! We came right home and Jay put the crib together.



Christmas afternoon and early evening was with Jay's mom. We had a nice meal with her, opened some great presents, and played games. Two days later she surprised us with the mattress for Carter's crib from her, Grandma and Grandpa, and Jay's two uncles. Thanks guys!!! That was a huge surprise. Carter's crib is all set up and ready with all the bedding in it. We just need a baby in it now.

Two days after Christmas, Jay's grandparents, two uncles, and his mom came to our house for a Christmas dinner. We had a great time with them. We don't get to see them all that often so it was so fun to have them all over here for dinner.







We wish we could have seen Jay's other side of the family. We missed all of you tons! Thank you for the amazing gifts as well. It will be such a blessing to be able to have video of Carter! We love you all!

I also wanted to post some pictures of our house and our tree. These probably should have been put on here first but oh well. Here they are...
This is a horrible picture but you get the idea of what the outside of our house looked like.


This is the tree Jay really wanted. I didn't think it would fit in our living room very well.

This one is a little more our size.



Here is my 30 week picture. I am 32 weeks which I will post soon. Next year we will have a 10 month old for Christmas. That will so great!

Having a big baby...

Carter is still measuring big. Our last three appointments he has been measuring a little big. Today she seemed a little surprised at his measurements. His head is down really low and he is still measuring big. Because his head is low that told her he really is big and its not just because he is up higher in my tummy. So she is sending us in for an ultrasound on Tuesday at Salem Radiology just to get a better idea of his size. We are excited to be able to see him on that screen again. He should be right around 3 1/2 pounds now and moving all the time. Jay even got to feel his hiccups for the first time this week. Maybe we are going to have a baby a little sooner than February 20th. As long as he is healthy, we would love that! We can't wait to meet our little man.

Christmas break has been so nice! Jay has been home a lot and we are doing tons of NOTHING! We have slept in late, watched lots of friends in bed, worked around the house, stayed in our sweats lots, and lots of Jay and Jami time. Jay did get the half bath all painted in the laundry room. We sort of left that and forgot about it for quite a while. It is done now, thanks to Jay! Christmas break is such a blessing to me!

Merry Christmas!

Our 1 year anniversary

For some reason I cannot figure out how to blog at the top of the pictures. I am still figuring out this blogging thing. December 19th was our one year anniversary. We celebrated the night before because Jay had to work on our anniversary. He tried to do a trade for Friday but it just didn't work out. We still got to celebrate and that is all that matters. I had school until 11. It was our last day of school for Christmas break. After I got home, Jay took me to lunch at Sassy Onion. We ate breakfast at Sassy Onion the morning of our wedding. That could be a really nice tradition every year to go back there. I have a very thoughtful husband! Then we actually took a nap together. This may sound funny to do as we celebrate our anniversary but it was so nice to be able to do that together. After we got up, we dressed warm and drove to Portland to go to the Zoo lights. It was really cool to see the whole zoo all decked out with Christmas lights. And it was super warm out. I was actually hot most of the time. Then we drove back to Salem and went to dinner at Olive Garden. Another tradition we want to do is always watch our wedding video on our anniversary. So we watched that in bed and reminisced about that. We had such a special wedding and I love talking about it even now. Our anniversary was very special.

I really did marry the man of my dreams. I am so thankful for him and who he is as a man and as my husband. I am proud of him every day! I still ask myself many times how I got so lucky. Dear Jay...thank you for working so hard to provide for us and Carter. Thank you for finding little ways everyday to make me feel special and show me how much you love me. Thank you for making me laugh and protecting me. I love you with all my heart and can't wait for the next year and many more after that.