Manly baby clothes- is there such a thing?

Hi everyone... just a quick update to post a picture of the super cute and extremely manly onesie my dad ordered for "Fred" (Baby Burnett). As you can see, it is personalized with the Burnett family name and, I believe, crest on it. We also received two matching bibs which will definitely help out when our little one starts eating steak and potatoes or umm...strained peas and pureed peaches. I love it! Thanks Pappy! Everything else is going well. "Fred" has a routine of daily activity and this includes kicking mom between 8-9 a.m., 1-2 p.m. and 5-6 p.m. The pattern works well because I know he's in there and awake and he's not disrupting my last two weeks of second trimester sleep. On another pregnancy note, Iain and I went to see the movie Juno last weekend and it is really good. Iain even agreed to this. He's getting paid back for making me sit through I Am Legend. We've also seen Atonement, and 27 Dresses might be on the agenda for Saturday- Just kidding, babe! I'll also be posting some DIY pictures soon. Our guest room is about finished- now onto the nursery!

6 Month Update

Hi everyone. It has been a few weeks since my last post so I thought I would let you know how we are doing. Since the excitement of January 3, not much has happened. Obviously this is a good thing. Iain and I have been working and spending time together. For those of you who don't know, Iain has started a new job which provides much better hours and weekends off. After working a rotating schedule for a year and a half, we both welcomed normal hours with open arms. We've spent more time together in the past three weeks than we have since we first got married. It has been great being able to just kick back and relax together after the madness of the holidays. I've officially entered the 6th month of pregnancy and things are going well. My belly has rounded out and actually looks cute (not chubby!) as it did a few weeks ago. Our little one is also regularly kicking, especially whenever I sit down at my work computer in the a.m. or to watch TV. Iain's also felt him move which I think has made the whole pregnancy a bit more real. I have experienced some of the more unfun 6th month pregnancy woes (swollen feet, bad skin, sore back and peeing at least 25 times a day) but generally I feel great. We've started some DIY projects including planning out the baby's room. It has been decided that "Zoo Animals" will be the theme and some painting will take place in the coming weeks. My nesting instinct has kicked into high gear and I plan on spending tomorrow (university closed) to clean and organize the house. Overall, things are going well. On another note, two new babies are due to enter the Sloan family in the next three weeks. Jennifer, my sister in law, and brother, Matt, are expecting baby Elijah Joseph around mid-month and my cousin, Ben, and his wife, Mindy, are due in with a baby (gender TBA) about a week later. If everyone makes it to their due dates, two more Sloans will be out there in the world. Watch out! Good luck ladies in the coming weeks- I will be thinking about you and anxiously be awaiting your news. However, I will ask for no labor stories. I would like to find this out on my own. I'm scared enough as it is... have a great Sunday folks!

Adventures in pregnancy

Well I decided to bring the New Year in with a bang or at least an eventful January 3. Although I will start off this post with everything is FINE today, I was not feeling very well yesterday. I had some cramping in my lower left side and just generally did not feel myself. Because I had a check-up scheduled for later in the day, I called early and asked to move my appointment up. I had a normal check up, discussed the ultrasound results (which I'll mention in a minute) and told her about my discomfort. Dr. Brown decided that they should hook me up to a monitor to check everything out because my side was still hurting. After about 30 minutes of sitting attached to a machine measuring the baby's heartbeat and my uterus, it was determined that I had had 4 mild contractions. Obviously not a great thing at 22 weeks of pregnancy especially when I wasn't really noticing anything similar to what I thought a contraction would feel like. Anyway, they sent me home to rest, told me to drink lots of water and call them back in a few hours. So I drove home, watched some TV and slept for an hour. Around 3 p.m. I still felt about the same with my left side feeling pretty painful. So I called in and the nurse told me that the doctor wanted me to go to the hospital to Labor & Delivery. This was not exactly something I wanted to hear. Since it was Iain's day off and he was at home, he drove us to Chambersburg and I checked into the hospital. I was definitely not ready for that. It just felt wrong! They put me in bed, hooked me up to another baby monitor and asked a lot of questions. After about 4 hours of monitoring, an IV of fluid (ouch!), a urine test and several episodes of the Simpson's, Everybody Loves Raymond and Friends, we were permitted to go home. Contractions were not being detected and they concluded that the searing pain was from round ligament pain or stretching of the uterus to accomodate the baby. Boy this hurts! I was advised that I should take Tylenol and be aware of possible signs of pre-term labor in case I was to experience anything similar again. It was definitely a long day but I was majorly releaved that nothing was wrong and to know what to do if anything else felt wrong. If anything, we got an early tour of the hospital which wasn't bad. Earlier in the day at my appointment, Dr. Brown did tell me that our ultrasound was excellent and that the baby is developing perfectly. He also weighs in at 1 pound 13 onces so he's not small! Maybe this is what caused the sudden pain in my stomach. She also told me that his length is fine, his heartbeat is right as it should be and that he was moving around quite a lot. All of these things were wonderful to hear. I am hoping that the next few weeks will be relatively quiet after such excitement on a would be boring Thursday. Don't worry- I'll be resting this weekend.

Happy New Year!

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed New Year's Eve and Day. As for me in my pregnant and alone state (Iain had to work last night), I managed to stay awake until about 10:30 which unfortunately wasn't long enough to see the ball drop. Oh well, I will have plenty of sleepless nights in my future. I figured that I would enjoy my dreams last night. Iain and I had a great holiday season. We were able to spend time with my family both in Shippensburg and Uniontown. It isn't that often that I get to see my brothers, sister-in-laws, nieces and nephew so it really was a pleasure to have everyone under Grandma and Pappy Sloan's roof for a few days. I hope you've all made it safely back home! Concerning our baby boy, I've officially reached 22 weeks so we are over halfway there. The baby has been kicking although these kicks are random and not too hard yet. I know Iain is really looking forward to being able to feel them. We'll be embarking on some DYI projects in the next couple of months and will keep you posted on our progress. My nesting instinct has definitely kicked into high gear since all of our holiday decorations are down and put away. I'm looking forward to a trip to the Home Depot this coming weekend...