Home

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Lions, Tigers and a BIG baby boy...OH MY!

Well, I'll keep this short and simple since the majority of my posts are long. Plus I'm just so excited and overwhelmed with today that I don't feel like sitting here telling the ENTIRE story. So, enjoy the cliff notes.

My mom and I went to my doctors appointment today expecting just my usual exam, but to our surprise we got to have a sweet little ultrasound! *Yes, Shawn was very upset that he missed this one, but no one knew we were going to have it.

Well, before the ultrasound began I had my usual exam to see if I have dilated....I'M AT A ONE! WHOOOO. haha As most of you sweet readers know I have been having contractions for quite a while now and have been on medicine to stop those...they haven't stopped. I haven't even really noticed them dying down either except in the mornings...I don't seem to have as many. BUT this morning, of all mornings, I had one after another while I'm having my ultrasound. My doctor didn't like that much.

Here's how our "little" man is measuring:
Head: 40-41 weeks!!!...I'll be 36 weeks tomorrow!
Body and everything else: 38-39
Weight: 8 pounds 1 ounce!!!!!

The doctor jokingly asked "And we have your due date set for the middle of May??" and I said "Yes, will we even make it to May?" and she sat there for a second...kind of giggled and said, "In my most honest opinion...no. I'll be happy if you make it to 37 weeks."

SO, she put me back on that HORRIBLE medicine that I was on a few weeks ago to try and stop these contractions and see if we can make it ONE more week. She wants to see me back on Friday to see if I have progressed any. Honestly, I hope I have :) I'm SOOO very ready to meet "My little giant" as the doctor called him.

Of course, I want what is best for our son and I want him to come on God's timing...after all He knows best! I still don't think I have wrapped my brain around all of this news...Are we really having a baby?? And so soon???

Here are a few pictures that we have taken lately.
35 Weeks!
New counter tops!
My new BIG sink... Inspired by Eric and Halie Overton :)
I have before pictures of the front of the house, but I don't have any pictures after Shawn, my dad and Dwight got done pruning and planting flowers. I'll put those up soon!

My sister and sweet nephew visited this past weekend. Lola found a new best friend. She LOVED Brenden as you can see and wouldn't leave him alone. She was such a trooper...putting up with lots of hits and pulls on her sweet face. The big dogs still don't know what to think of Brenden...hopefully seeing our little one grow will help with that.


My mom and I have been working hard to get everything cleaned and organized this week. We got our glider today and put together!! I'm putting Shawn on hanging duties tonight in the nursery...I'll post some final pictures of that soon too.

Stay tuned for updates! We could have a sweet baby within the next couple of weeks!!

Thursday, April 8, 2010

I Feel the Need to Brag

I can brag about my family right??
Well, after sitting in front of my computer all morning and playing with my photoshop, I have fallen in love with a picture of my sister.

A few weekends ago I took some pictures of my sister, her hubby and my sweet nephew. *I am by no means a pro, but they trusted me enough to take some pics of their sweet family. I appreciated the practice*

I have had a beautiful Canon Rebel camera for a couple of years now and photoshop for a little bit longer...I'm just now discovering what these two can do together! It's amazing what you can find on the internet these days (tutorials, free downloads, actions)...all for photoshop!

Anyways, here's my beautiful sister. Before and After photoshop :) Enjoy!



Wednesday, April 7, 2010

April Fools??

Is our son already playing jokes on us??
Allow me to fill you in on what's been going on in the Overton household the last week.

It all started back in Lubbock a couple of weekends ago. I was telling my mom and sister to feel my belly.."It's all baby...feel!!". They both felt and looked at each other then nicely said "Um, Jay, that's a contraction." OOOHH, that's what that is! HA, I started to wonder about those feelings I was having. I thought "he sure does move this way a lot."

It all clicked right then and there. I've been having contractions from the beginning of conception it seems. I always told Shawn about this feeling that I was having but I didn't know what it was. I thought it was the baby stretching.

"How can she not know that she was having contractions" you ask?? Well, like I said...I have been having these since VERY early on in our pregnancy...I didn't think they would come so often. I also thought I would feel some sort of pain with them.

Back to the story, I finished out my weekend in Lubbock all the while noticing that these contractions were not giving me a break. I felt like I was having them constantly. I brushed them off thinking that they were Braxton Hicks contractions. That following Tuesday I went in for a sonogram...still contracting...and was put on meds to stop them. *Read the previous post for the full story*

That medicine was the most awful stuff!! I was so jittery and felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest. Well, Thursday comes along and we drive into Pampa for our child birthing classes. In that class we learned that if you are before 37 weeks and are having more than 4 contractions in an hour you need to let someone know. That's when I started looking at the clock. 1...2...3...4....yep 4 contractions in less than an hour. During our break I found the nurse teaching the class and she suggested that we go upstairs just to get checked out.

I did a few things throughout the remainder of the class that she suggested but still had 2 contractions in less than 30 minutes. So, we go upstairs to get checked out.

After they poked me 5 times and finally got the IV in the doctor came in to check me. Thankfully, I wasn't dilating. BUT she wanted to keep me over night to monitor the contractions since they were coming so close together and were pretty strong. She informed me that these were definitely not Braxton Hicks contractions...they were full blown!

So, Shawn and I spent a sleepless night in the hospital on April Fools praying that when morning came I would still be just contracting and not progressing into anything that they couldn't stop. The doctor gave me some new medicine...I like it so much more! She checked me and released me.

We head home only to have a very busy weekend with my parents. Shawn and my dad worked so hard on installing our new counter tops...pictures coming soon..and cleaning up our front yard...pictures of that coming soon too! My mom helped me in the nursery and we put together his swing they bought him. I couldn't do much since I was told to treat the rest of my pregnancy as if I were on bedrest. Not all out bedrest...but be cautious of how long you are up.

BUT, when I am up doing things the contractions just come one after the other. So, I tell myself to lie down and they begin to slow down. They slow down until my sweet man gets home from work...then they start back up. I jokingly told him that he needed to move out for at least 2 weeks because he is going to make me go into labor.

This is long so I'll sum it up.
*Had contractions, spent April fools in the hospital. (baby boy will get a talking to for that one hehe)
*Still having contractions but taking it easy.
*No pain with the contractions, but they can be so frequent that they take my breath away and make me feel like I just worked out.
*I am on weekly visits with my doctor now.
*We got to fall asleep to our sweet son's heartbeat at the hospital.
*AND he had the hiccups while the monitor was on and we could hear those...so sweet.
*He is living in there as if nothing is going on out here. So he's doing great!!
*He's growing too!! I feel it...

Stay tuned for new pictures of projects and my belly at 34 weeks!


Sunday, April 4, 2010

Me and God - What He Did

I hope everyone had a great Easter holiday. It seems that the older I get, the more Easter means to me. Easter is the reason why I have eternal life. It is why I am able to have a personal relationship with the God of all creation. Easter is a day full of great traditions and activities. However, I feel that the greatest thing about Easter is that it reminds us to stop and reflect on what Jesus did for us on the cross.

Me and Jamie were able to start reflecting of Christ's death earlier this week when we attended a free viewing of The Passion of the Christ movie at a local theater here in Shamrock. Although I had already seen it, it had been a while and I knew I needed to see it again. Just like the first time, it was hard to watch. Although it wasn't easy viewing, I really appreciated what the makers of the film were trying to accomplish. While some people like to view Christ's death on the cross as somewhat elegant and symbolic, the makers of this film portrayed it closer to what it actually was. Jesus, the Son of God, the only man to live without sin, suffered one of the most painful and horrific deaths imaginable. Not only that, He did it willingly! He did this to save us from an eternity in hell that we all deserve! He did it for the very ones who were crucifying Him! As I watched the movie, I couldn't help but realize that it wasn't the Roman soldiers or the pharisees torturing Jesus and nailing Him to the cross...it was me. Jesus went through all of that suffering for the world as a whole, but also for you and me as individuals. While I left the theater with a heavy heart, I was glad attended.

That movie helped make what Jesus did for me a little more real. As a follower of Christ in 2010, I am blessed because I know what Jesus has done for me by reading the bible. However, it has been 2,000 years since His death occurred. Being human, it can be easy for Christ's sacrifice to slip from my mind, or for it not to be as real as it would have been if I were there. I often pray that God would make what Jesus did for me on the cross more and more real in my life today. Just think how powerful it would have been to actually been there in person and seen His sacrifice. To hear His voice and feel the earth shake after He had died. Although it would have been traumatic, I know that I would have been deeply effected and moved by the event. I wonder if being at the cross in person would have allowed me to overcome some of my fears and shortcoming as a Christian today?

What I am going to try and do and what I encourage you to do is to reflect on the cross daily. We only have 1 Easter service a year and only take communion roughly once a month. These are the built in methods we have for remembering Christ's sacrifice. Not only do we need to remember Him on these occasions, we need to remember what He did for us every day! Starting your day off knowing that the Son of God died so that we would have eternal life with Him is a great way of putting things into a Godly perspective. If nothing else, thank God for what he did for us on the first Easter, and live your life as if you were there!