Welcome Baby Carter!

Here are a few pictures of Carter! Enjoy!

Elli, Carter's big cousin, holding him! She is a great big cousin!
Carter and his momma!
A closeup of the superstar! He weighed 8lbs 4oz and was 21 in long!

If all goes well, we should get to go home tomorrow (Sunday)! We can't wait!

Come on Carter!

Well, we are going to be 39 weeks tomorrow and still no indication that Carter is anywhere near making his debut. Officially, a full term pregnancy is considered to be 37-41 weeks, which is all fine and well, except that at 37 weeks, we started thinking it could be "any day now." This could drive a person crazy! Every little pain, every movement....it makes you think...could this be it? So, far, it hasn't been it. Carter is pretty cozy in the womb and may never come out! And, scientifically, other than pitocin, there really is no way to get labor started.

But, just for fun (and to give us something to do while we wait!), we have decided to try every old wives tale that we can find for starting labor. So far these have included:

Walking-we do this every night anyway, but now we walk with meaning!

Swinging-Fun, but unproductive

Eating Spicy Food-I've tried, but I don't do spicy very well, so it has been minimal

Talking to the baby-Not sure how this one's supposed to work, but we've done it!

Consumption of Tropical Fruits-Mmmmm....Pineapple mango smoothie!

Massaging the Achilies tendon-yep, for real...didn't work!

Having a spa day-meant to relax the mommy...didn't work, but sure was fun!

Various methods of "Stimulation"-This is a PG blog, so I'm not going to elaborate, but let's just say that's not working either! At least Jared's enjoying it!

So, needless to say, none of these things have done the trick. One thing that is highly recommended is drinking castor oil, but it also comes with violent diarrhea and upset stomach. So, I'm gonna pass on that one! Let me know if you've got any other ideas that I should try!

Maternity Photos

This week Jared and I went to have our maternity pictures done. Angela Wisley, a girl from our church, did our maternity session. She is 16 and just starting out in her business in the last year or so, but she did a phenomenal job! We didn't start until about 7:00 Thursday night but it was still so hot that we were all sweating! But we had a lot of fun. This is just one of the great pictures Angela got. Hop on over to her blog to see some more: http://angelawisley.wordpress.com/

Camp Survival!

Well, we survived the week at Centri-Kid (all three of us!). Though people thought I was crazy to go to camp at 36 1/2 weeks pregnant, it was well worth it. The folks at Lifeway really do know how to do camp and Centri-Kid is very chaperone-friendly! The only challenge I had during the week was that it was so hot! We did have one mis-hap while we were at camp, which is now pretty funny, but at the time not so funny.

So, we were getting out of the adult gathering while the kids were at Bible Study. All of the adults were walking together from the chapel down to the rec field for what is called OMC (organized mass chaos). This is like the hi-light of Centri-kid and what everyone looks forward to. Anyway, we're walking and all of the sudden Jared trips over the uneven pavement and rolled his ankle (which is not uncommon for him). He falls completely down, rolls over groans a little bit and hops back up. Me and Jared and the others around us kind of laugh it off and keep going. Just a few seconds later I look back to check on him and notice he is staggering. I thought, wow, his ankle must be really hurt. As I was saying "Are you sure you're okay?" I happened to notice that Jared's face was sheet white and his lips were a nice shade of blueish/purple. And, he wasn't staggering from pain in his ankle...he was passing out. So, in the 2 or 3 seconds it took me to figure all this out, Jared had hit the ground. (Much thanks to Peter who helped Jared fall in the mulch rather than the pavement!)

Anyway, Jared was out cold! I immediately hit the ground and started patting Jared's cheeks and yelling his name. By this time, I was totally freaked out and crying, and we were creating quite the spectacle! Someone ran up to me and asked if we needed anything (Jared was still out cold). I said, "we need the nurse!" Apparently she thought I was the one with the troubles, because she came back with an OB nurse that was chaperoning for another group! Anyway, right before the nurse gets there, Jared opens his eyes and in the most peppy voice, asks, "Did I fall down again?!" then closes his eyes back. Anyway....in the end, he was fine. The ankle was fine. He simply passed out from the combination of the pain/dehydration/getting up too quickly after he fell. Then for good measure, he got stung by a wasp 2 hours later! It was quite the day, but we survived.

So for those of you who are wondering...yes, Jared did dislocate his shoulder 2 years ago at Centri-Kid doing cartwheels. And, yes, that's the only other year I've been to camp. So, I'm thinking maybe I just shouldn't go to camp anymore!

Columbus Zoo

Well, last Friday was my last day at work. So, as a celebration of my first week "off," Sara and Elli came for a visit this week. One of the things we did was drive to Columbus, OH to go to the Columbus Zoo (which recently surpassed the San Diego Zoo as #1, thanks to it's new polar bear exhibit!). Sara and Elli, who are from Alabama, drove to meet me in Tennessee and then came to Kentucky with me. When we were half way to Columbus, Sara says, "Are we, like, in Canada, because it feels like we should be in Canada." I guess they had done a lot of driving! (**We later found out it would take 8 more hours to get to Toronto which is the closest place to crossing the border, however if we could jump across Lake Ontario it would be much quicker.)

Anyway, we called to invite Rebecca-a childhood friend from TN who lives in Columbus-and her son Ethan to go with us. She in turn invited us to stay with them. So we had a great visit with them. These pics are all pretty self-explanatory. Just know that we had a great time.

And by the way....when we asked Elli what animals she wanted to see at the zoo she said the "quack quacks" (ducks) and the "fishies." Luckily the zoo had both...unluckily, we almost drove to Canada for her to see some ducks and fish.Stylin' in her cool hat and sunglasses.

Me, Sara and Elli with Rebecca and Ethan.

A very cool turtle.

Thanks for checking in. Have fun reading all of the things I posted tonight. It's amazing what one can do with time!

Smyrna Shower

This past weekend we had our baby shower in my hometown of Smyrna. It was so good to see old friends again. It is always fun to go showers in Smyrna because you get to see all the folks that you grew up with....all of the ladies that rocked you in the nursery at church...people who know more about you and your family than anyone else. It was a blast! The shower was a morning shower at Cason Trailhead Park. It was timed just right so as not to be too hot!

This, of course, is the beautiful Elli who was a champ at the shower. 3 hours is a long time to be somewhere with a lot of "No No's" but she did wonderful!

This is the fancy smancy watermelon baby carriage that Matt and Sara made for the shower.

Sister and hostess #1 Sara

Best friend and hostess #2 Bonnie

Other best friend and hostess #3 Nancy

All in all it was a great shower and so much fun. We truly got the final few things that we needed to prepare for Carter's arrival. Thanks to everyone for coming! (**On a side note...I somehow managed to go through this whole shower without taking ONE SINGLE PICTURE with my mom, which makes me very sad!)

Church Shower

We were very blessed in this pregnancy by so many gracious people showering us with gifts for Carter. This shower was our church shower and it had a super cute jungle theme!

This is a really cute diaper cake. There is no telling how long it took to put this together!


Here's our cupcake tower. I think we all took home cupcakes there were so many!

This is a picture of us opening gifts. This cute little personalized stool was a very special gift handmade by the Clays.

And this is a picture of the gift table BEFORE people stared arriving. You can only imagine what it was like once everyone got there!

Thanks again to all who showered us with love and gifts!