MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

I probably won't be blogging again for the next few days so... We pray that everyone has a happy & safe Christmas! May God bless you and your family as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Love,
Tony & Hannah

29 Weeks--Almost Christmas!!!

11 Weeks left to go and still feeling a little tired, but overall, pretty great! Decorating for Christmas this year has been a slow going with all else we have going on in our lives right now, but we've FINALLY finished decorating, HOORAY! Almost all of the decorations were up the day after Thanksgiving (and yes, even a small few done on Thanksgiving Day...as my mom gasps...I know, I know...she hates when decorating for Christmas takes place before T'giving has come and gone) However, for some reason, it took us forever to complete decorating the Christmas Tree and get the Christmas village set up. I guess the small task of working on Owen's nursery distracted us somewhat :)

We have 2 Christmas parties to go to this weekend--Matt & Amanda Hene's and then Tony's High School Crew's--as well as a birthday celebration for Chris (Tony's bro) and we're really looking forward to the fun packed weekend...and then after that...it's CHRISTMAS, YAHOO!!! It came so fast this year, I can hardly believe it's almost 2008, that's crazy! An even crazier thought, and this is so random, but last night Tony & I saw a commercial for American Idol (the new seaon starts on Jan 15 for any fellow addicts by the way...) and I asked him if he realized that by the time the 7th American Idol is named, we will have a kid. Okay, so yes I know, there's only 11 weeks until his due date so I better come to grips with this fact, but it's still so strange to wrap my mind around...

Well, I guess that's about it for this week! I'll close with a few pics of our house all decorated for Christmas followed by the usual baby update...he's a squash this week so that's kinda exciting, um I think?...

Our Christmas Tree

The fireplace & mantle...with my Willow Tree Nativity, I LOVE IT!!!

Our dining room table, I got this idea from Southern Living and I think it turned out really cute :)

Our Christmas Snow Village--look closely and you may be able to see the cute little people :)

Check out our miniature version of the Leg Lamp from A Christmas Story...hehe, if you like this one, you should see my parents' FULL SIZED version in their front window, it's quite a trip!

Our outside lights :)

29 Weeks: Size o' a Squash
Your baby is almost 17 inches tall now (nearly as tall as he or she will be at birth), and close to 3 pounds (a weight that will likely more than double — and may even come close to tripling — by delivery time). His wrinkled skin is smoothing out as more fat is deposited under the skin surface. This fat, called white fat, is different from the earlier brown fat that your baby accumulated. Brown fat is necessary for body temperature regulation while white fat (the fat that we have) actually serves as an energy source.

Which explains why your energizer baby feels so energized! Space in your baby's living quarters is now at a premium, so you'll be feeling jabs and pokes from elbows and knees mostly. But those kicks will be more vigorous than before (and also less erratic) because your baby is stronger and excitedly responding to all sorts of stimuli — movement, sounds, light, and that candy bar you ate half an hour ago.

Baby's baby-teeth buds formed weeks ago, but now the buds for permanent teeth are forming in his gums as well. And back to those kicks, who's counting? Actually, you should be. Now's a good time to start doing a kick count twice a day to make sure baby's doing just fine (plus, it's a good excuse for a rest). Lie down (preferably after a snack) and keep track of your baby's movements. You're looking for at least ten movements in an hour's time (don't forget to count movements of any kind — kicks, flutters, swishes, rolls, and so on).

A Mississippi Christmas

This past weekend we went to Mississippi for the Stimpson Family Christmas. (Tony's mom's side of the family). The entire family--minus his cousin, Karen--was there to celebrate. We had a gigantic traditional Christmas meal followed by lots of visiting, opening presents, and being entertained by the kids. Tony's cousin, Dan, and his wife, Robin, have 3 precious children--Reese, Charlie, and Banks and they were a lot of fun to be around--Charlie especially is a ball full of energy! Reese is such a little mama and big helper for her mama and Banks is a happy, relaxed baby. It was a short trip, but it was nice to see Tony's family because we haven't seen them in a while...and with Owen arriving soon, it will probably be quite a while before we take the trip to Mississippi again :) Here are a few pictures from our trip:(from L to R)
me, Pat, Robin, Kelly, Dan with Banks in his lap, and Reese on the floor

D showing off his gift from Kelly & Robert--
a picture of himself during his service in the military. Kelly had this picture restored and framed for him.

Dean multi-tasking: chatting & opening presents at the same time :)

Charlie playing with the box his remote control car came in--
I think he liked it more than the actual toy!

Reese taking her turn with the box

Tony's attempt to get a picture of the dogs--
Margo and D & Dean's very chubby dog, Sophie

28 Weeks--Nursery ALMOST complete

Wow, I don't know where the time has gone! Only 12 weeks remain until Owen's due date! That just doesn't seem like much time at all to me. For some reason to me, saying that Owen is due March 4th seems further away than saying he's due in 12 weeks. I don't know why...it's funny though. I'm starting to feel the tiredness coming back somewhat. I could really use a nap every day around 3:00 :) It's not too significant yet, but I'm sure it will catch up with me soon. It doesn't help that I am not sleeping well--I just cannot get comfy at night. My hip starts hurting around 2am and then I toss and turn for the rest of the night. Weekends seem to be better--I guess because mentally I know that I don't have to get up and go to work in the morning so I relax a little more. Oh well, this too shall pass :)

Tony asked me the other day if I was ready for Owen to get here and I told him, "yes, for sure!" He said, "well you know, we won't sleep when he gets here either," but I just told him, "well, I can sleep when he does which will hopefully add up to more sleep than I'm getting now!" Tony and I have both been reading On Becoming Babywise which, so far, has been quite a useful tool to prepare us for things to come. My cousin, Mary Beth, & her husband, Scott, used it with their children and they are the most well behaved children that I know so I think it's worth a shot! Supposedly, if we follow the philosophies given in the book, Owen should be sleeping through the night by 7-9 weeks old. We will just have to see about that--I know that every baby is different so I'll have to update on this subject when the time comes.

Owen's nursery is ALMOST finished...yay! All we have left is a little bit of touch up paint and add a few accessories...shelving, pictures, etc. Tony also plans to make a hutch for the dresser/changer combo so that is still yet to come too. I do hope he finishes it before Owen gets here...he says that he plans to so we'll see :) I will post more pictures when we're 100% done, but here are a few pictures of the nursery now:

The crib & glider--you can see the dust ruffle pretty well, but I'll have to post a better picture of the bumper pads later. I will also be making a few throw pillows for the glider and hopefully a blanket too.

The dresser/changer with a few of the sweet gifts we've been given for Owen--they won't stay there--they'll move to the shelves or the hutch, but I like looking at them so I've displayed them here for now .

The curtains

Here are 3 paintings that I did for the wall--they are similar to the fabric I used in the bedding & I think they turned out pretty cute :)

28 Weeks: The Eggplant Reign Comes to an End

Are you dreaming about your baby? Your baby may be dreaming about you, too. Brain wave activity measured in a developing fetus shows different sleep cycles, including the rapid eye movement phase, the stage when dreaming occurs.

By now, your baby, who weighs in at about 2 ½ lbs and stands — or rather lies — at almost 16 inches (measured head to toe) has added blinking to his growing bag of tricks. (Outside in the real world, blinking is necessary to help keep foreign objects out of the eyes.) Other impressive new talents being added to your baby's roster include coughing, more intense sucking, and, perhaps most important, better breathing.

The good news is that babies born this week, though premature, have an excellent prognosis because their lungs have reached the point (for the most part) of maturity — so you too can breathe a little easier now. Of course, it's still best if a baby doesn't make his debut yet — there's still a lot of growing and maturing to do over the next 12 weeks.

27 weeks

Not a whole lot to report since my 26 week post was so late :) Tony and I have been SO busy this week! He took a trip to Las Vegas this past weekend with the guys and had a lot of fun. They mostly spent all of their time at the Sports Book watching all the football games. It was his first trip out there and he's always wanted to go. I was really glad he got to go before Owen gets here (not to mention grateful he took the trip with the guys--I'm not a big fan of Vegas!)


We got our Christmas tree on Tuesday night and soaked it in water overnight so it would be nice and hydrated before we put it in our house. Wednesday we put it in the stand and last night (Thurs.) I strung on the lights. I ran out of lights so we are going to have to go out and get a few more strands this weekend. Slowly, but surely we're getting our tree decorated--we hope to have it completely finished by Sunday. We did some Christmas shopping last night and took care of almost everyone on our list. We just have a few more to get and then we'll be done with that too!


Also on the list for the weekend is dinner tonight with the Dichiara's for Kelly's birthday (which is tomorrow), finishing the walls in Owen's room, and also hopefully finishing our Christmas shopping! Looks like our busy week is going to contiune well into our weekend too! Oh well, at least it's all fun stuff on the agenda...that's what the Christmas season is all about, right? :)


27 Weeks: Maintaining Eggplant Status
Most babies this age, yours included, still like to snuggle in a slightly curled position inside the uterus (thus the term "fetal position"). Even so, beginning at this stage, your baby's length will be measured from top of head to toe — which makes your baby nearly a full 15 inches now. And at just over 2 pounds, he has doubled in weight from four weeks ago.

Your baby's auditory development is progressing as the network of nerves to the ears matures. And even though the sounds your baby hears are muffled (thanks to the creamy coating of vernix covering those ears), he may recognize both yours and your partner's voices. So this might be a good time to read and even sing to your baby. And while you're at it, here's another way to have some family fun: If your partner presses his ear to your belly, he might be able to hear the baby's heartbeat.

Your baby's taste buds are very developed now too (with more taste buds than he or she will ever have outside the womb, actually). Need a taste test? If you eat some spicy food, your baby will be able to taste the difference in the amniotic fluid (but keep in mind that you'll have different mealtimes, with your baby's coming about two hours after yours). Some babies will even respond to that spicy kick by hiccupping. And although hiccups (which feel like belly spasms to you) may seem like they're disturbing to your baby, he isn't stressed at all. It's just one more sensation that babies need to get used to.

26 weeks...a little late, sorry :)

Last week time just got away from me and I forgot to blog...oops :) We did quite a lot of work on Owen's nursery last week. Tony and Robert (his dad) finished putting up the paneling and they did SUCH a great job :) I wasn't there while they worked so unfortunately I don't have any photos of their work in progress, only pics of the finished product, but man does it look good! You will notice that the color is grey--this is NOT the finished color, it's been primed so that it's ready to be painted!

You can also see Owen's crib in the middle of the room--it's filled with all of the tools Tony & Robert used, but you can get an idea of what it will look like :)

After the paneling was up, Tony and I spend an evening last week painting the paneling. We had to brush the paint on, so it took a little while longer than rolling it, but it was worth the extra time--it looks great! We still have one more coat to put on, and then after that Tony can put up the chair rail and put back up the base boards and then the painting part of the nursery will be complete! We hopefully plan on getting that part done this week/this weekend so more pics to follow!!! Yea! I can't wait to see the finished product.

Here's Tony painting the paneling.

And one of me painting too...please excuse the lovely outfit, I was COLD! :)

Proud daddy-to-be...one coat of paint down, one to go!

Here's what I found "precious, innocent" Margo doing while we were painting...what a brat!

26 Weeks: Still an Eggplant
Your baby's eyes — which have been closed for the past few months (so that the retina, the part of the eye that allows images to come into focus, could develop) — are now beginning to open. What this means is that your baby is able to see what's going on now.

The iris, the colored part of the eye, still doesn't have much pigmentation (that'll fill in over the next month or two), so it's too early to start guessing your baby's eye color. Even the color your baby will be born with might not be the permanent shade; so you may be kept guessing until your baby is close to six months old.

Look what else is going on this week: Your baby's brain-wave activity is kicking in, which means your little one can not only hear noises but can now also respond to them. Not in so many words, of course, but with an increase in pulse rate or activity.

And talking about activity, at your baby's current height and weight—about 9 inches tall and 2 pounds—and at the rate he’s growing, your baby will soon be feeling a little cramped in there. Not to worry, there's still plenty of room for your baby to grow. It just means your gymnast will have less room for those somersaults, cartwheels, and other Olympic feats.