Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Busy Busy Busy

Well the last few days have been busy ones around the Lyons household. Jeff has been amazing and within 3 days everything is packed and ready to go - and it is only Tuesday! Tomorrow Jeff has to work the Music City Bowl and then Thursday we will use to visit the house, run a few errands, and do some prep work for moving weekend to start on Friday... and of course watch some bowl games to relax. So far this move has gone smoothly and I hope the next phase progresses just as wonderfully. We already have some great volunteers to help us with cleaning, moving and unpacking - the out pouring of love and support from our church is amazing!

Sunday was a day that we took off from packing, but were able to do a little Craigslist shopping for items we need for the new house. We found a washer and dryer right here in Spring Hill. It was a little older than we wanted, but we ended up talking him down from 175 to 125! We can be clean in our new house now :) Our next stop was also in Spring Hill. We found a good quality kitchen table and chairs that were just about brand new and they match our kitchen cabinets perfectly! We were able to get these for 70, down from the list price of 100. So far, we had saved 155 bucks from what we had budgeted for these necessities. The next item we picked up was a needed nursery item - a glider rocker for all those restless nights! Our favorite chairs were fluffy fully upholstered glider rockers that ran anywhere from 500-thousands - way more than we are able or even willing to spend. We were ok with settling for the basic glider that you can find just about anywhere - wooden with a padded cushion. I fell in love with one on craigslist that was a little out of our budget, but because of all the money we had saved elsewhere, we ran up to Franklin and picked it up! I was hoping to have a picture, but no luck - you'll just have to come visit to see it in the nursery :) It is a wooden glider, but it is also a swivel rocker so you can rock or sway and had an ottoman too. It has a higher back and has a little more modern design with painted white wood and the best thing being pretty light pink colored chenille fabric to match our nursery. It was perfect!!! I am so glad we were able to find this little gem on Craigslist. So that was how we spend our afternoon on Sunday! It totally wore me out and probably was a little more running than I should have done, but we found all the items we needed close and cheap - that is a deal for sure. We feel much better about moving into our new home now.

Today was a great day! We had our OB appointment and an ultrasound. We hadn't had one since 20 weeks and missed seeing our little girl! Today was another long one as they had to measure lengths and blood flow and amniotic fluid and on and on. Everything checks out fine and she is weighing in at 5lbs 1oz - aiming to be about 6lbs if we have to deliver at 37 weeks and about 7-8 if we deliver at her due date of 2/14. I am doing well too with great blood pressure but still some swelling. I get some other test results that is the big tell-tell sign for pre-eclampsia sometime tomorrow. That will determine my level of bed rest for now. We did go ahead and make the decision to let me stay modified pending tests, but that I am not going to be working anymore. I experience the most swelling, headaches, etc when I am at work, even though I have been sitting only for the last couple weeks. We think we stand the most chance of not developing full pre-e by going ahead and staying home and not pushing it. So I am going to be home for another 3-8 weeks before she joins me... yikes!! Feel free to come visit or bring me games, movies, books... all that fun stuff! Thanks to everyone who has already offered, I may be calling soon :)

Well that is just a catch up from the last few days - now we are headed into the home stretch of Move 09. I leave you with a little photo of the mess we have made in the garage.



Saturday, December 27, 2008

Merry Christmas to all!

I hope all of your Christmases were wonderful and filled with love and loved ones!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

New Stroller and 32 week OB appt

Today was a great baby day! This morning I had my OB appt for the week, we are 32 weeks and 3 days. Because of my condition I am having an appointment once a week - they are getting tired of seeing me around! Today I met with one of the other doctors in the practice just in case my doctor isn't available during the day of delivery I won't have to have this baby with a complete stranger. Dr. Bell was very nice, really energetic! She gave me great news - everything is looking good, I even improved over last week. They checked weight, blood pressure, swelling, urine and did some blood tests and they all came back either holding strong where they were last week or looking better. I am excited to know that the restrictions I have with work and home are getting results. It makes sitting around feel a lot more productive! With luck we will be in this pre-pre-eclampsia stage and not ever progress to full Pre-eclampsia. If this is what it takes to keep this baby in as long as possible and have her come out healthy, I will do it joyfully.

Another great baby thing happened today too - we got our stroller and car seat! Mom and Dad were so awesome and actually got us a travel system for my birthday - one of the biggest things we still needed and have to have before she gets here. After looking at the features and quality of this system, we all decided that it wasn't going to suit our needs the best, so we started looking for other options. I always feel bad about returning gifts, but mom and dad completely understood and even encouraged it. They knew we had done our research with strollers and had features we were looking for and they were totally fine with our swapping it for a stroller that would work for us better. Well today I found the one! I was at Essex - if you don't know, you need to go - just to look at their selection of baby stuff, not expecting at all to find much. But I walked in and was shocked to see not only car seats and strollers, but the brand and model car seat that we loved in the right color! It was on sale today even - just 25 bucks for a car seat that was about 80 bucks. Typically this set would have been beyond our price range at about $250 total, but after seeing the car seat on sale and even coming across the stroller for 60 and the car base for 25 we jumped at the chance to save so much. All three pieces came to only 120! We even have some money left over from the set mom and dad got us. Amazing! I was doubtful that we would find a set we would love that we could afford and bam, there it is. I see God working in all the little ways and big ways to help us get prepared for this baby's arrival. Again I must say... Amazing!

We rushed home tonight and got started putting it together. I know it is just a stroller and there isn't a lot of romance or creativity in putting on a few wheels, but it was a great time to spend together. This was one of the first things we were really able to get ready for her so it definitely makes it more real that she will be here very soon.

This will be the last post before Christmas, so everyone have a wonderful time with your family and friends! I am looking forward to some family time - and probably more baby gifts! yippee! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Monday, December 22, 2008

A plea for help!

Some of you may have received this via email or facebook, we just wanted to get the word out every way we know how!

Birthday Weekend and Rudy Christmas

This was a fun filled weekend with both Birthday and Christmas celebrations! And yes, I took care of myself! This weekend was a little busy and I had fun traveling and celebrating while all the time staying seated as much as possible and keeping to my "bedrest" rules!

The weekend started out on Friday at 12:30. Jeff got off work for a half day so we could celebrate my birthday just the two of us (because, as you'll read later, my birthday was a busy day!) We headed to Opry Mills to see my pick of a movie - Four Christmases. The movie was great (for a cheesy holiday movie) and we enjoyed the time together - and the time with movie butter popcorn! After the movie we had about an hour to kill before our dinner reservations so we did a little baby shopping at Essex and Old Navy and got some cute pants, stuffed animals, and little play gym - all clearance! The highlight of the evening was our beautiful dinner at the Melting Pot! (thank you NorthStar Christmas party door prizes!!!) We had a great 2 hour dinner and dipped til our hearts were content! I was a bad celebrator and totally forgot to take pictures until the last course - dessert - and then only got a dim picture from my iphone :( Even without pictures Jeff and I will be able to remember this weekend, probably our last big to-do before baby arrives. We enjoyed the time together and the great experience that is the Melting Pot!

After our bellies were way too full, we journeyed a little further north to Bowling Green. You may call us silly for our next stop, but we highly enjoyed it! We had reservations at the Drury Inn in Bowling Green! Indoor Pool, King size bed, and a plasma tv - it was the perfect setup to relax and be lazy! We enjoyed our swim in what turned out to be quite a chilly pool - we were even entertained by the cannon-ball kids followed by what i can only assume was a honeymooning couple in the hot tub. (more disturbing then anything, I assure you!!) After the pool we took in the simple pleasure of watching random shows on cable tv while snuggled in the huge king size bed!! Add a few cheetos and reeses pieces - it made for a perfect night :) I enjoyed my birthday celebration day with Jeff and was glad that even though I have to take it easy, we were able to spend time together and make memories for my 25th birthday. Thanks my love!

After we checked out of the hotel the next morning, we continued our journey north to the grand metropolis that is Owensboro KY. This is where my mother is from and where most of the Rudy clan still calls home. We always celebrate Christmas by getting together at my aunt and uncles house the weekend before Christmas. With this group you know you will have tons of great food and hear a tale or two that will get the whole room rolling with laughter. The tradition of late as our family has grown so large is that instead of swapping gifts between us all, we play a rousing game of Dirty Santa. We have a girls gift round and boys gift round. This year started out pretty smooth for us ladies, but the last couple rounds got cut-throat as the stealing picked up - Sarah even stole her own gift from Hannah, poor kid :( I ended up with a cute snowman ceramic drink dispenser... jug... thing... I don't know what it is called?? It holds a couple gallons of drinks with a little spout to pour from. Help me out people, what is this called?? Sadly, the snowman suffered an injury... he fell off the couch when i got home :( The base broke, so he is still usable, just not as cute... sad times. Jeff had an interesting time with Dirty Santa... he ended up with a gallon of Jim Beam. That's my family! One of my uncles "took it off Jeff's hands" (for a fair price!) So Jeff can now go buy his own Dirty Santa gift of his choosing, haha. All in all, it was a great start for this Christmas weekend and we enjoyed spending this time with the Rudy Fam.

The weekend wasn't over yet! Sunday brought a big day of Titans Football! (and my actual birthday!) Because it was a home game, we hosted and smacked the Steelers thank you, Jeff had to work :( I missed being able to be with him for my 25th, but it helped that we had already had such a great weekend together. We did have special visitors to spend time with though-my cousin Susan and her daughter Maya. Since they live in Atlanta we don't get to see them very often, so we were glad that they were able to come up for a few days and spend some time with Nana and Poppa and the rest of us too! Hannah and I were able to join them at Nana and Poppas for the afternoon to watch the Titans game - and entertain 4 year old Maya of course. Susan brought up a whole bag of 0-9 months clothing that Maya wore to pass on to our little girl! I am super excited to be able to inherit :) Susan is now pregnant too with her second due on July 27th, so the clothes may be passed back and forth a couple times! We girls had a great time together playing go fish and talking babies.

Every year for our birthdays Nana and Poppa take us out to eat or cook for us - our choice! This year my choice was Macaroni Grill. We were crossing our fingers that the Spring Hill Olive Garden would be open in time, but no luck. So all 9 of us (Jeff was able to join us after the game!) filled up and pasta and bread and chocolate cake! I received wonderful gifts of more baby clothes, some $$ and amazingly - a stroller and car seat! Mom and Dad went above and beyond and bought a great travel system for us - I must say it was the perfect birthday gift for this mom-to-be. Thank you so much :) My birthday dinner was a wonderful way to wrap up the weekend of Birthday and Christmas fun with all my beloved family. It is amazing to think that this birthday was spent preparing for our daughter and next year she will be just about walking and talking and getting ready for her first Christmas. Amazing.

Well I hope you enjoyed the break down day by day of this weekend, haha. I think we will find that the more I am home on bedrest, the more un-needed details you will read about my life. I know you are more than excited. Thanks for being a part! I am going to continue my day of shopping online (I have changed my mind about nursery decor about 5 times now) and doing what I can to prepare for our move in less than 2 weeks! Time is ticking away... tick tick ticking away (yes, that was a DC Talk reference...) ha!





Thursday, December 18, 2008

Yet another doctors appointment... with some interesting news...

I have had yet another doctors appointment this morning!

Friday, December 12, 2008

Pregnancy update for 31 weeks!

2 posts in one day! You lucky people you! I wasn't planning on posting after today's doctor appointment because it was not going to be anything major, just a little check up. But low and behold, I am on modified bedrest for at least the time being. Agh!

But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Let's start with this weekend during the baby showers. Saturday night I woke up feeling a lot of painful swelling in my hands and feet. I thought it was just from the days activities and sleeping in a hot room with no fan. The swelling ended up staying with me for Sunday and Monday- my poor feet looked awful! I could barely put on my clogs and it was painful to walk around. I called my doctors office to get some advice on reducing the swelling. Turns out they thought it was a bigger deal than I thought and wanted to have me come in that day to run some tests. My doctor wasn't in that day so I met with the nurse practitioner. We did the normal checks on weight and blood pressure, pee in a cup ect. Everything looked ok, but when she looked and measured my legs, she was concerned. She ordered me off my feet and out of work for 2 days to see if the swelling went down. They also did some blood tests too and we were going to wait on results. Turns out everything looked fine and they said I could to back to work and just keep my regular appointment Friday.

That brings us around to today!! I went in today and was able to meet with my normal doctor. After measuring my legs it showed that the swelling only went down about a centimeter and I only lost about 2 pounds of water weight and my legs and feet are still tight and painful. My doctor is concerned about pre-eclampsia and toxemia because the swelling came on rapidly and pretty heavy. So here is what we have going now. I am now on bedrest when I am not at work and when I am at work, I must be seated!! Yikes!! In the mean time we are running more tests on blood and urine and added a doctors appointment for this coming Thursday to check in on the legs and get the test results.

Obviously, Jeff and and I are praying that all will be well and these limitations will only last this week. Of course we will do whatever we need to to keep me and our daughter safe and healthy, but if I have developed pre-eclampsia and must go to complete bedrest it will be a lot on jeff to handle work, the holidays, and moving - all happening in the next 2 months!!! I am trying to keep from worrying before we get any results and doing my best this week to get the swelling down.

That is the pregnancy update for now! Just a little kink at week 31 - only 9 weeks to go! I realized that on Sunday the 14th we will be exactly 2 months away from D-day!! How crazy is that. I can't wait to meet the little girl that keeps kicking me :)

Spring Hill Snow!!!

We have had some fun times the last 24 hours with all this snow! When I left work last night in Green Hills there was a mix of snow and rain, but then by moving up to Jeff's office on Dickerson Pike, it was just rain. Regardless, traffic was a MESS! We decided to wait out the traffic and just go ahead and eat dinner at the Macaroni Grill in Opry Mills. Our meal was great, but cut a little short by a phone call... Dad called and talked to Jeff - the weather in Spring Hill was much worse! Mom and Dad were not even able to get home last night in the car, they had to park at the bottom of our street and walk up! The roads were slushy and icy and the snow was about 3 inches deep. For those of you who have been to "the ridge" you know how steep the hill is and covered in snow it would be no fun to try and drive up - much less to have to hike up! After this news we decided to leave Macaroni Grill and get home as soon as possible before the roads got worse. It was so surreal driving down from north nashville to south nashville! We had rain, the slush, then a little dusting of snow, then a ton of snow - All in less than an hours drive. Jeff did awesome driving in the snow and though it took us a while, we got home safe and sound! We took it slow, had a few slick moments but my new car, with Jeff behind the wheel, was able to make it up the ridge and safely home with no hiking needed. I was very grateful for that! It was a fun adventure :)

Once we safely got home, we realized how beautiful the snow was! We had to get out and play in it! :) We ran inside and got all bundled up and grabbed our camera (it is water, freeze, shock and crush proof so no problems taking into the snow!) The snow was at least 3 inches deep and the trees were totally coated - again I must say how beautiful it was! Brady was having a blast in the snow too. And for those of you that know of Brady, he hates it when it rains and will not step foot on wet grass unless completely necessary. For some reason, when it snows, Brady loooooves it! He runs and plays, he will try to eat the snow and will just about bury his face in it coming up with snow all over his nose. It was so fun playing in the snow with him and seeing how much he loved it. Jeff and I had a great time taking pictures (or trying) of all the snow and trees and Brady of course. It was one of those memorable times when you are just having pure fun and enjoy being with your loved ones (dog included) and you almost feel like a child again. After the snow, we curled up inside with some hot chocolate and football. It made for a great ending to a great night!

This morning I was able to sleep in and get up and enjoy the snow more! After breakfast Brady and I took a little walk and though the snow was starting to melt, I was able to get some good pictures to remember this awesome snow! Enjoy some below or visit gallery.me.com/jordan.lyons to see them all.









Monday, December 8, 2008

Baby Shower Weekend!

This was a wonderful weekend! I have wonderful friends and family who threw me 2 wonderful baby showers!

On Saturday the 6th, Mom and I drove up to Bowling Green KY for baby shower number 1 thrown by my friend Sarah Edmundson. Mom was able to have lunch with her longtime friend Donna Rigdon and I met up early with Sarah for a little pre-baby shower lunch of Bowling Green's finest - Mancinos!

The shower started at 2 and we had a great spread of potato skins, mini quiches, dip, fruit, cream puffs, cookies, and more! Sarah went above and beyond and we had a great time eating and catching up with friends that we hadn't seen in too too long. And of course, we had to play some fun baby games. We had a blast trying to catch each other saying the word "baby" and were trying to capture as many clothes pins as possible to try and win the prize. Sarah had also loaded up a clear container with baby diapers and we had to guess how many diapers were packed into the container. 103 diapers to be exact! Finally, all the woman had to guess how big my belly had gotten - scary thought! They had to cut a run of yarn that they thought equaled the measurement around the belly and then they all got measured. Mom was the winner! She guessed within 1 inch - good job mom! Present time came next.

I received some wonderful gifts - a bouncer, little pink outfits, teeny wash clothes and hoody towels, blankets, toys, slings, monitors and more. But more than this, I already feel that our little girl is loved and that we are blessed for having these women in our lives. I will always cherish the advice and memories that were passed around from mothers who have gone before me. They reminded me that I will not always do everything perfect, but we will learn together and no matter what, she will always love me. Thank you Sarah, for all the time and love you put into this shower. For all the women who joined us, I will always remember this time preparing for our little girls arrival and you made it even more special. Thank you Thank you Thank you!

After our Bowling Green shower, Mom and I kept heading north to Owensboro. We had a great night with my sweet Nana :) The next morning we took Nana to Mass at Precious Blood and enjoyed seeing the John Rudy Clan at church. Spending time with my Nana and mom was great, I heard stories from when Nana had her twins many years ago - it is amazing how times have changed! I wish we could visit more often, but even just this visit did good for my heart :)

The Rudy women gathered at 12:30 at my aunt Weenie's house for a beautiful baby shower luncheon. Weenie went above and beyond and fixed a great lunch of Chicken Poppy Seed cassarole, spinach salad with raspberries, blueberries, and candied pecans, and a wonderful orange cranberry bread. Oh and the dessert! Peppermint ice cream pie with a chocolate crust and hot chocolate sauce drizzled overtop. mmm mm good :)

It is a rare occasion that just the women are able to gather and gossip! I heard stories from them when they were children, and their stories of raising their own children! We laughed and carried on through lunch and into present time - I learned many fun things about my own mother from her friend Donna who was also able to join us with her daughter Holly. My little one received great gifts of clothes and toys, a Bumbo, blankies and crib sheets, and her first Baby Einstein dvd - among many other pretty pink things. Thank you to my aunts and cousins and friends who were able to join us for this time - it is more than special to be able to learn from my family before starting my own family.

Well I must wrap this up! My weekend of baby showers was wonderful but exausting and I must now head into work! Again, thank to everyone who joined in the fun - Enjoy the few pictures I have posted here and more at gallery.me.com/jordan.lyons