26 Week Doctor's Appointment

Can I just start by saying that I have NEVER been so excited about going to the doctor as I have been during pregnancy. It is SO FUN and the highlight of my month. :) I just love it because it means I get to hear little man's heartbeat! He is pretty fantastic!

Anyway, December 21st was my 26 week appointment. This was the "fun" appointment where I was supposed to drink the sugary orange drink and take my glucose test (to check for gestational diabetes) an hour later. I had heard horror stories about this sugary drink, so I was DREADING that part of the appointment. I was glad when I found out that Hays would get to come to this appointment with me because it was during his Christmas break from school! At least I'd have my hubby there for moral support as I choked down this drink. :)

When we arrived at the appointment (EARLY for ONCE! Hays picked me up from work earlier than usual for this appointment because it has been snowy/icy in Lexington, but we made it faster than we expected!) I signed in and received my little bottle of "orange goodness"! I had 10 minutes to drink the beverage and then I had to take the bottle back up to the registration desk so they could mark down my time. Exactly 1 hour after I finished the drink I had to have my blood drawn so they could do the test for gestational diabetes. When I sat down beside Hays with my orange drink I told him it was Fanta and he asked if he could have one! Gotta love my hubby! Honestly, the drink wasn't NEARLY as bad as I thought it was going to be. It actually tasted fine until that last sip- I guess it had more sugar than the rest of the bottle. Whew- I did it!

When I finished the drink I returned it to the desk and went to the bathroom to leave my urine sample. I'm sure Hays thought I FELL IN the toilet because I was gone forever! I had some issues and came back to the waiting room giggling! It was one of those days! I did finally get my urine sample completed after having dropped (and retrieved) my first of two urine cups from the toilet! Oh joy! Don't worry....I washed my hands for at least two minutes after that!

Very soon after I returned to the waiting room our name was called and I headed back to the scale. Dum.....dum.....dum!!!!! Now that I only go to the doctor every 4 weeks and I don't own a scale and I can LITERALLY SEE my belly growing every day I get a little nervous about the weigh-in part of the appointment. I stepped on the scale and saw a number that I've never seen before, but it was only 3 pounds higher than my last appointment! Bringing my grand total of pregnancy weight gain to 9 pounds. Doesn't sound so bad, right? Then again....that was BEFORE Christmas and ALL the yummy food and sweets that I have had this week, so who knows what the next appointment will have in store. :) Oh well, all this weight gain is definitely for a good cause! I LOVE YOU BRADY!

After the weigh-in, we headed into the exam room and chatted with the nurse for a bit. She took my blood pressure (which was good: 110/72), asked me the standard questions (any unusual symptoms: bleeding/cramps/etc? to which I said no to all of the above), and handed me some papers to fill out (including the REGISTRATION FORM FOR OUR STAY AT THE HOSPITAL)! How crazy is this!?!?!?!? We are really going to have this baby in a few weeks! It's already time to fill out this paperwork. WOW! She also asked me about the plans for Brady's boy parts- whether or not he would be circumcized. Again....I can't believe it's time to be making THOSE decisions! Wow! Sorry Brady, the answer is YES! I think you will thank me during your years of communal showering in sports locker rooms! ;) Then the nurse handed me a sheet of paper with information about counting kicks. Yes, we are already at that point in the pregnancy! WOW! She said usually this starts at about week 27 but I could go ahead and get started. They said that the goal is to feel 10 "kicks" in 10 hours. The reason they give SO LONG for Brady to get all his kicks in is because babies have times of day when they are resting and times of day when they are active, and to be sure that mommies don't unnecessarily worry themselves it is totally fine if it takes the full 10 hours to get all the kicks in. Well, I don't think I have much to worry about- Brady is a pretty active dude ALL DAY (except during his afternoon nap- how funny?) so he can usually get all 10 kicks in the first hour that I start counting. Lately I've noticed that I must be getting used to some of the kicks because Hays will put his hand on my belly and feel him even when I don't notice that he's kicking. I must be getting used to your little jabs, Brady man! ;)

Then the nurse asked if I had any questions....I know they dread asking first time moms this question because we always have A LOT of questions. Here is a sampling of mine:
-I feel like I'm losing my hair.....when I brush it it comes out in chunks and is all over my bathroom sink! Is this normal? Yes, this is totally normal and is due to hormonal issues. Typically pregnant women notice most of their loss of hair after the baby is born but many can notice it during pregnancy too. There are always cycles of hair growth and release and these are heightened during pregnancy.
-When will I find out about the results of my glucose test? Should I stay away from the Christmas sweetness until I know for sure if I have gestational diabetes? If I have GD, they will know in about a week and give me a call. If I do not have GD then I will not find out until my next appointment. So, no news is good news. They said I did not have to stay away from the sweets until I found out. That I should just assume that I passed! Yay- this is what I was hoping for! :) But I will still feel better once I DON'T hear from them for sure all week!
-Childbirth class- can I sign up for the January session? There are still spots available for the 1/29 class, so we signed up! The class is from 9am-3:30pm, costs $60, and we are to bring 2 pillows to sit on during the class. This should be FUN and make this even MORE real!!! :)
-Hays and EVERYONE I work with has had this head cold that is going around. If (or more likely WHEN) I get it what can I take? There are lots of pregnancy approved drugs that I can take for a cold: Tylenol Cold, Sudafed, Robutussin, Dimatap- whichever closest matches my symptoms. I haven't come down with this cold just yet, but I am so glad I have options in case I do! :)
-Can I hurt him when I move around and bend over? I feel like I might pinch his head or legs between my ribs and hips....is that possible? No, this is not possible. Our bodies are designed (thank you, God) in a way that the baby and the uterus are protected from our other body parts, so even if I bend and stretch and feel like I might be squeezing the baby, I'm not. :) Blunt force trauma (like a car wreck or being punch in the gut) is really the only thing that can hurt the baby or the uterus. Looks like I'm going to have to give up street fighting and wreckless driving......darn it! ;)

After my Q&A session the nurse left and Dr. Schell came in. She let me know that everything looked good: my urine sample, my blood pressure, my weight gain. Then she asked us if we had more questions, so I went over what I had asked the nurse and she agreed with all her answers. Then I climbed up on the exam table and we listened to Brady's heartbeat (which was perfect and beautiful at 145-153 bpm). Dr. Schell even commented at how active Brady was. It was hard to find a heartbeat at first because all we could hear was him flopping around in there. He is always an active little guy, but I guess the sugary orange drink really had him riled up! :) After the heartbeat, which she said was perfect and normal she measured my belly. I had never had this done before, but it is another way of dating a pregnancy. She measured from the top of my uterus (a few inches above my belly button- which is still an "innie" for now) all the way to the bottom of my uterus (a couple inches above my pelvic bone). I measured at exactly 26 cm which is equivalent to 26 weeks gestation. How cool is that?!?!?! Hays and I were amazed! So it looks like everything is right on track!

We are so thankful for a healthy pregnancy so far and hoping it continues until March! :) Thanks for all the prayers for our family of three!

27 Weeks!

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along: 27 Weeks

Size of Baby: Brady is the size of a head of cauliflower (16 inches and 2.5 pounds)

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Had my doctor's appointment this week......dum dum dum....and I had gained 3 more pounds (current total +9 lbs.)

Maternity Clothes: Mostly wearing maternity clothes, non-maternity shirts are starting to make me look and feel like Gus-Gus from Cinderella! ;)

Movement: Brady is getting strong (or as Hays would like to say "SAVAGE") so his kicks and punches are getting more and more obvious (even from just looking at my belly)! It's wild!

Sleep: I have been sleeping pretty good, I get up at least once a night to potty but can usually go right back to sleep. I have been getting up pretty early and it's hard for me to go back to sleep because that's when Brady likes to be active! But I am doing okay. It's nice being off from work this week because when I can't sleep at night at least I can nap! :)

What I Miss: Putting on my shoes and being able to breathe! It's funny how much difference a few weeks make. Getting ready is starting to become a chore and I'm sure that is going to get worse over the next 13 weeks! ;)

Cravings: Cherry Coke just sounds delightful! I have been sharing sips of Hays' Coke or whatever caffeinated beverage he has been drinking! I figure a SIP doesn't count, right? I think I will add a 2 liter of Cherry Coke to the list of items I want after Brady's delivery....along with a HUGE Jimmy Johns turkey sandwich!

Symptoms: Heartburn is baaaaack! But I am surviving! Brady must be working on some pretty curly hair like his daddy!

Best Moment This Week: Brady's first Christmas! Hays and I spent the holidays at home in Greenville, as always, and it was fabulous! We LOVE home! I can't wait for next year when Brady can REALLY be a part of the fun at Christmas! We will have such a GREAT TIME!

26 Weeks!

Pregnany Highlights

How Far Along: 26 Weeks

Size of Baby: Brady is the size of a cucumber (15 inches, 2.2 pounds)

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I will find out for sure on Tuesday, as of my last appointment I had gained 6 pounds, but I am POSITIVE this number has gone WAY up! Oh well, it's for a great cause! ;)

Maternity Clothes: Wearing ALL maternity pants and a mix of maternity and non-maternity tops. I don't know how I will ever say goodbye to the maternity jeans- they are pretty much the best things EVER! :)

Movement: Brady has plans of his own when he wants to be active. Sometimes during the day I will go a few hours and not really notice that he's moving- which scares me and I BEG him to move. Then, once he starts he does NOT let up! I think his favorite movement time is when I get up in the middle of the night to pee (usually about 3AM). When I lay back down he is LOVING LIFE! He bounces around and does flips for the next few minutes. Sometimes it's hard for me to go back to sleep, but sometimes I'm so tired I can sleep through it! The other morning I woke Hays up to feel it and he put his hand across my belly and he could feel Brady from one end of my belly all the way to the other. Little Brady man must be stretched out in there! :)

Sleep: I get up at least once per night- sometimes I can go right back to sleep, sometimes I'm up for a couple of hours. The good news is, I can NAP like it's nobody's business! :) So, when I am not getting a TON of sleep during the nighttime hours, I can make up for it with my 3 hour naps on Friday evenings. Yes, that actually happened! :)

What I Miss: Nothing really- sometimes I will crave Jimmy Johns (ahh...deli meat)! But those cravings are fewer and farther between lately. :)

Cravings: Oh boy! I have a problem! I am ADDICTED to Dairy Queen Reindeer Bites Blizzards! Oh. My. Word. They are UNBELIEVABLE! I may or may not have had FIVE in the last week! That's just ridiculous! It's the perfect mixture of vanilla ice cream, chocolate chunks, caramel chunks, toasted coconut, and graham cracker crust pieces. MMMMMM!
Side note: as I was trying to find this image of the Reindeer Bites Blizzard, I came across the nutrition information. EEK! All I can say is DO NOT look at this. I am disturbed, and now REALLY dreading the scale on Tuesday!!!

Symptoms: The hip and lower back pain still comes and goes, but it seems to have gotten a bit better (must have been that WHOLE 15 minutes of yoga I did last week). LOL! But overall, I am feeling pretty good. I'm not sure what has happened but I can't remember the last time I had heartburn. WOW! I should knock on wood right now! :)

Best Moment This Week: FEELING Brady's heartbeat. Hays' favorite passtime lately is loving on Brady (talking to him to feeling him move)- he loves the baby belly for sure! On Saturday night, he was doing the usual "goodnight Brady" routine and his face lit up and he said "I can feel his heartbeat!" It was SO cool! At first I wasn't convinced that it was Brady's heartbeat, I thought it might be mine. But then I felt it, and it was definitely faster than my heartbeat. :) Awww- Little Brady Man, you make us SO happy....even just feeling your sweet little heart! :)

Weekend At Opryland

One of our Christmas traditions with my mom's side of the family is giving the gift of TIME with each other during the Christmas season! This year, a group of 13 of us (Me, Hays, Mama, Daddy, Rachel, Derek, Judy, Wayne, Nana, Poppy, Jenny, Lauren, and Maddie) headed to Nashville where we met at Sante Fe Steakhouse for lunch. After eating WAY too much, we headed to Opryland Hotel to walk around and see the sights and take pictures. Opryland has always been SO BEAUTIFULLY decorated for Christmas, but I haven't been to see it in many years. I was SO EXCITED to see it! We walked around for a couple of hours and took pictures of all the pretty decorations. One of my goals for this trip was to get a picture for our Christmas card, which means Hays had to pose and smile for DOZENS of shots. Which I'm sure made him very happy! He was a champ though, and we ended up with a good picture for our Christmas card. :)

Here's a sampling of the some of the fun shots we got inside Opryland.

Hays and I in front of THE LARGEST tree I've ever seen!
My sweet family and I in front of the poinsetta Christmas Tree!

With the boys this time!

The girls (Judy, Rae, Nana, Me, and Mama) in front of the poinsetta tree!

The boys (Derek, Daddy, Poppy, Wayne, and Hays) in front of the poinsetta tree!

Daddy with his girls! LOVE YOU DADDY!

Hays and I (and Brady) in front of the poinsetta tree!

The girls on one of the bridges at Opryland. We walked around A LOT! ;)

Mama and her girls! LOVE YOU MAMA!!!!

Nana and Poppy with their girls! So sweet!

We had a great time! Merry Christmas everyone! :)

25 Weeks!

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along: 25 Weeks

Size of Baby: Brady is the size of an eggplant (1.7 lbs. and 9 inches long)

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Still at +6 lbs. but I go back to the doctor next Tuesday so I'm guessing this number will go UP some more!

Maternity Clothes: Still wearing ALL maternity pants (it's going to be hard to say goodbye to these in March- seriously!), but most of my dresses, skirts, and shirts are all non-maternity.

Movement: Brady is a mover and a shaker! He seems to be LOVING life in the womb- he moves a lot especially when I am eating!

Sleep: I have been sleeping pretty good, still getting up to potty at least once overnight, but that's to be expected. My hip pain is getting a little better so that's helping with the sleep! :) YAY!

What I Miss: Just some small stuff: deli meat, sleeping on my back, not having to hold my breath when I put on my shoes...

Cravings: Cherry Coke! I really never drank this that much before, but I am a HUGE fan. Everytime Hays gets this I have to have a sip (or fifteen!).

Symptoms: I need to knock on wood right now, but I haven't had heartburn ALL WEEK! Whoa- this is crazy! :)

Best Moment This Week: This weekend we went to Nashville to celebrate Christmas with my mom's side of the family at Opryland Hotel seeing the lights and watching the Rockettes! Hays and I took our Christmas card picture- our first Christmas card picture as a family of three! :) LOVE IT! I am already excited for next year's Christmas card featuring 9 month old Brady!!!

Happy 27th Birthday, Hays!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful, sweet, amazing, 27-year-old Baby Daddy! You make me SO happy and I know that I am SO lucky that you chose me to be your wife! Thanks for sharing the last 10.5 years of your life with me and giving me the best gift ever this year (the chance to be a Mama to sweet baby Brady)!

I love you MILLIONS! 53143!

What We've Been Up To....

I have been a BLOG SLACKER lately, and I apologize, but hopefully posting THREE TIMES in one day will make up for it! :) It's been a pretty great couple of weeks in the Browning household. Last week at work was a short one for us both, Hays only had to work Monday and Tuesday and was off Wed-Sun! I had to work Wednesday, but still got a 4 day weekend for Thanksgiving, so that was FABULOUS! Hays had football practice on Wednesday and Friday so we decided not to go home for Thanksgiving this year- it was our first time to stay in Lexington for Turkey Day! We had technically already had Thanksgiving on 11/6 with his mom's side of the family and we got to see lots of my family that weekend too, so that was our early Thanksgiving celebration and I'm okay with that. :)

Hays' parents and sister ended up coming into town on Thanksgiving day (where we had spasagna, not traditional turkey/dressing for dinner) and then headed to the Winstead/Ramsey household for dessert. It was great to see my BFF Lora Lee and her family that night (especially since we were the only ones in our PJs). :)

On Friday we woke up at 2AM and went Black Friday shopping.....wait, that is totally a JOKE! I was having NONE of that black friday nonsense this year! Sorry, Rae- I know you were up with the chickens! ;) We actually slept in and watched TV that morning before heading down to campus to check out Kennedy's Bookstore (where I actually DID do a bit of Christmas Shopping, so that counts as Black Friday shopping, right?). Then we came back home and put on our layers and layers and some MORE layers for Hays' football game that night. It was supposed to be SUPER CHILLY in Hazard, KY for the LCA/Hazard semi-final football game that night. Burrrrrr! We all got ready (and looked like we could go out and play in the snow) and hit the road to Hazard! A "quick" 2.5 hours later we arrived at the football stadium (thank goodness for TomTom or I would still be lost in the mountains)! It was an AWESOME game, and the LCA Eagles played wonderful (especially the defense, if I do say so myself)! :) Unfortunately the Eagles didn't pull off a victory this year and Hazard would be continuing to the state playoffs the next weekend to face Mayfield.

Saturday morning Hays had his last football meeting and the rest of us slept in....again- yay! Once we got up and got moving Hays and his mom decided we should work on the office to nursery transformation. I was less than excited about this, because honestly it looks like a BOMB went off in our office and was overwhelmed by the THOUGHT of getting started on the room. We started simple by cleaning off the top of the desk in the room, then started moving things out of the room to other places in the house, then cleaning out and reorganizing the random assortment of items in the closet. We found some random "treasures" along the way and ended up with A LOT of piles of things that needed to find new homes. We were able to send a stack of items to Helping Through HIM (a goodwill-type establishment at our church), and organize a bunch of other items into piles that would later go into rubbermaid boxes (to be put under beds and in our attic). We definitely put a DENT into the office/nursery transformation and as much as it stressed me out, I am SO GLAD we tackled it.

The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful, Hays and I stayed around the house on Saturday night after his family left and took it easy! Sunday we went to church, to lunch, and to the movies. It was a pefect Sunday afternoon with my Hubby- the first Sunday afternoon we had spent together since football season started in August! I was a happy wifey! :)

On Monday evening, I hosted my first Thirty-One party! Thirty-One is a cute little company that sells purses/bags/stationary/keychains and other cuteness and most of the items can be monogrammed and personalized. It is precious! A girl that I work with just started selling it and asked me if I wanted to host her first party! I happily obliged and invited all the girls from the marketing department at work. About 10 of us showed up and we had a great time looking through the catalogs and checking out the items Amanda brought! I may or may not have found Brady's future diaper bag:

I ordered the black one with a monogrammed "B" in platinum. That way if I decide I like it as a diaper bag, B is for Brady. And if I don't like it for that it can be a work back and the B can be for Browning. :) Genius, right? I knew there was a method to my madness on this BB thing. ;) I also found some other cute things in the catalog and will post details once I get my order in!

The rest of my work week was pretty uneventful- it's finally turned into WINTER around here, so the commute into and out of work has been CHILLY! It pretty much just makes me want to come home from work and immediately put on PJs.....so, that's what I do! :) On Friday, Hays left for Bowling Green with Ray, the head coach at LCA, to watch the state playoffs this weekend. So when I got home from work on Friday my intentions were to be super productive early and get in bed early (I'm not a huge fan of being home by myself so sleep is an easy way to take my mind off that). Well, turns out my body had different plans and as soon as I got home from work I collapsed on the couch and slept for 2.5 hours. When I woke up at 8:30 part of me just wanted to go to bed but I decided to bite the bullet and go to the mall. I had some things to take back and some sizes to switch around on some other stuff, now that the mall is open late for the holidays I still had time! I guess most of the Christmas crazies had already left by the time I got there because the mall (and even the parking lot) wasn't bad at ALL! Yay! I was able to finish everything I needed to do in an hour and was back at home ready for bed by 10PM. Success!

Saturday morning I woke up to 2-3 inches of SNOW! It was SOOOO beautiful! I love SNOW and think it makes everything look prettier! It really feels like Christmastime now! :) I was a bit concerned about the roads, because my plan for the day was to go to Louisville for a Christmas party with some of my sorority sisters. My friend Claire and I had planned to ride together and I think we were both a little nervous about the roads but decided a trip to see our friends was worth it! The roads actually ended up not being that bad (my driveway was BY FAR the worst of the conditions), so we made it to Louisville unscathed and in time to watch the UK/UNC game (sad ending to that game, but let's not dwell on that)! Alicia ended up following us to Louisville so we had a safe little caravan on I64! :) We had SO MUCH fun at Amanda's beautiful house and it was AWESOME to see everyone. We ate WAY TOO much yumminess that Amanda fixed for us (can't wait for those recipes!), watched the CATS (OUCH Charlie), played a dirty santa gift game (where I scored some LOVELY earrings), and headed to dinner at 60 West (I'm a BIG FAN and will be back)! I took NO pictures, but Herde tagged be in the one below- thanks Herde!!! It was SO much fun to see everyone and catch up with my girls!

Today Hays and I are probably going to take it easy, that's what Sundays are for! We're probably heading to 11:30 church shortly. We just LOVE our church! And I'm sure an afternoon nap will most likely be in our futures! I wonder if Brady will like lazy Sundays as much as his parents do? I sure hope so! :)

Naming Brady Browning

A lot of people have asked me where we came up with the name Brady. Honestly, it was kind of by chance. We had chosen our name for a girl a long time ago- Bailey (after Hays' grandfather Richard Bailey). I LOVE the way Bailey Browning sounds and the initials BB, so when we started to come up with boy names I was trying to find another B name we liked. I looked through some books and some sites online and finally mentioned "Brady" to Hays. He said "I like it" and that was that. It's been our boy name ever since! :)

We had our names decided since VERY early in our pregnancy, so as soon as we found out this baby was a boy we've been calling him Brady. That's just his name! Since Hays is a football coach a lot of people will assume Brady is either after Tom Brady or Brady Quinn but neither is true. We just like the name! Not that we mind Tom Brady or Brady Quinn (whose real name is actually Brayden...interesting), but they are not the namesakes for our son. :)

So Brady Browning it is! Now for a middle name. This one has proved to be a bit tricky....there are several one syllable names that I like: Graham, Luke, and of course Hays. I just like the way a one syllable middle name sounds- I'm weird, I know! Yesterday, my friend Laura, let me know about the Baby Name Generator that will help you pick a first, middle, or BOTH names for your baby. I was intrigued. So this morning I googled it and plugged in Brady's first and last names and here were the suggestions:

1- Brady Charles Browning

2- Brady River Browning

3- Brady Kendrick Browning

And here are my thoughts:

1- Charles is actually a pretty great one because both Hays and I are mildly obsessed with the name Charlie (mostly thanks to this you tube video), but we will NEVER name our child Charlie/Charles because his last name is BROWNing.....that's just cruel!

2- River....seriously?!? I think this one might be a little too hippy/dippy for us. Sorry beautiful River Phoenix, I just don't think it's going to be THE middle name for our baby Brady! I can' t wait to see Hays' face when I pitch this name. It will be priceless!

3- Kendrick. For some reason with this one all I can think about is NASCAR. Sorry, Daddy (aka Granddaddy/GDaddy), I just don't think we can do that to Brady. :)

So....it looks like the front runner is still Hays. I think Brady Hays Browning is cute (and his namesake is pretty cute too)! ;) Don't you?

24 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along: 24 Weeks

Size of Baby: Brady is the length of an ear of corn!

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Gained 6 lbs.

Maternity Clothes: LOVE them! Still wearing maternity pants always, and a mix of maternity and non-maternity shirts.

Gender: Still a boy! ;)

Movement: Brady usually moves around a lot throughout the day. I don't notice it as much when I am also up moving around, but when I am being still he puts on a SHOW. Lots of my friends have felt him now too, which is so exciting! I love to see the look in their eyes when they feel him- I remember having that same look!!! LOVE IT!

Sleep: I have been sleeping better this week- I still get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, but can usually go right back to sleep. My hips haven't been hurting as much either! YAY!

What I Miss: Still miss sleeping on my back- which is odd because I really never slept on my back before I got pregnant. But sometimes in the middle of the night there is nothing I'd rather do than flip over to my back. Weird, huh?

Symptoms: Still having occassional heartburn, but not nearly as often. This has been a pretty good week! :)

Best Moment This Week: Getting our old office/new nursery cleaned out (mostly) and starting to picture what it's going to look like once Brady gets here! It was a lot of work (thanks Grammie for the motivation and help), but is A LOT of fun to envision how different that room will be in just a few months.