Fidgety Five Month Old!

"Oh, Allie Grace...How can I entertain you? What does baby girl want to do?" These are constant questions Chadd and I have for our ever so energetic, fidgety girl. She just turned five months on December 22nd and is kind of in that awkward stage where she wants to sit up all of the time but isn't able to totally unassisted yet. It's about time to say goodbye to her cherished activity mat and glider as she doesn't like to lay back anymore (unless she's really sleepy). We have been introducing her walker, jumperoo, and superseat (similar to bumbo) some. She likes these because she can sit up/stand in them but they don't enthuse her for long. Luckily she is starting to like tummy time a little more as she can fully hold her head up and watch everything when she's on her tummy. She also still likes to snuggle and be held and seems like she enjoys the baby bjorn now that she can face her surroundings instead of my chest.

Bibs are Al's best friends as she is drooling profusely but she has yet to cut a tooth. Teethers don't seem to help much; she actually prefers sucking on soft items like her clothes, bibs, loveys, etc. While she still loves her pacifiers, she has also taken to sucking her thumbs. I love watching how she's developing all of her senses! Grabbing anything and everything is her favorite, especially Lily's ears (shown below) and she has a good grip too. She even has started to reach out her arms to me some which is something I wasn't expecting yet. When you say her name, she looks and listens until her eyes find you and she also will move her eyes from left to right and right to left to follow an object. She's becoming interested in food as she looks at me as I eat and will even sometimes open her mouth as if I'm going to feed her what I'm eating. My family was giving me a hard time on Christmas morning because they also noticed she looked intrigued when we were eating breakfast so I let my mom mash up a banana. We fed her about two small bites and she didn't want any more. That's okay though because I would prefer to wait until six months to really introduce solids.

Because of her lower percentile in weight at her last appointment, I did take her to the pediatrician on 12/21 and they did a weight check. She had gained a pound and is now 13.6 lbs. The Dr. was not concerned with her weight and said to just continue doing what I'm doing (which is just nursing her).

Time is going fast but it is really awe-inspiring to watch my honey bunches learn and grow and I'm so thankful to God for every minute with her!

Really? Four Months Already!

Allie turned four months old on November 22nd and I am still in utter shock. What happened to my newborn baby? In all honesty, even though I want to hold onto each moment forever, I am enjoying watching her grow and develop that sweet little personality of hers.

New tricks: As of two weeks ago, Al started blowing raspberries. She was all about it for a week but she hasn't been doing it as much lately. While on her tummy, she's now able to raise up on her arms and hold her head up (pictured below). She loves standing on my lap and when placed on her back, she often tries to lift her head up like she wants to be in a sitting position. She also is grabbing onto everything; she especially loves her O-ball. She recently started grabbing her toes as well. Another thing I've noticed is that when someone leaves the room, she really follows them with her eyes.

Mannerisms: Allie gets distracted easily while feeding now. If I am talking while she is nursing, she often looks up at me as if to say"Hush, Mommy!" She's also a very light sleeper; the slightest things wake her up, that is when she's napping. If she's in bed for the night, she's not as easily awaken. Al still takes lots of naps during the day but they are much shorter than before. When she gets upset, a little dimple under her right eye appears (it's the cutest). She is quite the actress; she can turn a smile into a frown or a cry into a laugh in 1.2 seconds. Recently, she's even arched her back a few times when I am putting her in her carseat as if to say "No, I don't want to go in the hole!" Cuddling is her favorite and that's fine with me; I'll enjoy it while I can! My drool queen is also wearing bibs frequently and chomping her gums on just about anything her mouth makes contact with. Gnawing on my finger seems to give her the most comfort although she still loves her pacifier as well.

Stats: Allie's appointment was on November 24th. She was 12.5 lbs, 25 inches long, and her head circumference was 16 1/8. She is a little underweight for her age but the Dr. wasn't too concerned. She said just to make sure I'm taking in enough calories and drinking lots of water. She also suggested that I pump once or twice a day when she's sleeping so that my supply doesn't dwindle. She is in 3-6 month outfits and 6 month sleepers (as she's very long). She's wearing size two diapers and size one shoes. Her eyes are still a beautiful dark blue though they look black in pictures and her ears are starting to stick out a little bit as you can see below ;)

Little Ladybug is Three Months Old!

Where has the time gone? My little baby is not so itty bitty anymore! On October 22nd, Allie turned three months old and oh boy, has she reached some milestones this month.

At 10 1/2 weeks, she started drooling a lot and making little bubbles. She almost always has something in her mouth, whether it's her pacifier or her fingers. She also started trying to pull her head and shoulders up when she's lying down on her back.

About a week after that, she began standing up when she's holding on to my fingers and turning from her back to her side (which is now her preferred sleeping position). I noticed this change when I switched her from the Rock n' Play to the Pack n' Play for overnight sleeping. Even though she enjoyed vibrating in the Rock n' Play, I think she's thankful for the mobility she now has in the Pack N' Play. She often ends up in a reverse position from where I originally laid her and she tends to favor her left side. And yes, she is still in our room and she's a great sleeper! She usually only gets up once or twice in the night to eat and falls right back asleep!

She is super talkative and loves the sound of her own voice! That's okay though because we love it too! Unlike her mother, she's a morning person as she will give you the sweetest smiles when she wakes up!

Allie has become more interested in her activity mats. She kicks like crazy and has started grabbing onto the dangling objects and trying to put them in her mouth! She also has taken a liking to Violet (her Leap Dog) and her loveys!

On October 24th (Nan-nan's birthday), she rolled over from her back to her tummy in her crib! This is exciting but also kind of scary because I don't want her to start sleeping on her tummy.

Her nicknames include: Little Al, Baby girl, Blue-eyed beauty, Little ladybug, Gummy bear, Allison (her daddy and Papa Bob call her this), Doll baby (Nanny's nickname for her), and I'm sure there are more that I can't think of at this moment.

Unfortunately, I had to return to work on October 5th and while I am blessed that I work from home and my mom and nanny watch her, this has still been a very stressful transition. I came into chaos as my sub was changed twice while I was out and it just seems like I cannot catch up. I also miss getting to spend every minute with her during the day. I truly believe being a mom is a full-time job in itself and I really wish I could be a stay-at-home mom and devote all of my time/attention to her. After all, she is growing so fast and I don't want to miss out on any important milestones!

She exclusively breastfeeds. I pumped for the first time when she was three weeks old so that we could introduce her to a bottle for times when I would not be around. She took right to it! However, we didn't stick with it and she screams when we try to bottle-feed her. This is another reason why it is favorable that I work from home. At least we get these bonding moments throughout the day!

I'm not sure of weight and height right now as she hasn't had a doctor's appointment since her two month shots but she sure does seem long! She has outgrown most of her 0-3 month sleepers and is now in 3 month and 3-6 month sleepers. As far as other outfits go, it really just depends. She's wearing 3 months, 0-3 and 3-6 clothes. For diapers, she is in-between a 1 and 2 depending on the brand. Pampers size 1 are my favorite right now as they fit perfectly!

Again, I've written more than I intended but I just don't want these moments to pass me by. I want to remember everything and be able to show this to her one day! Until next time...

Allie's First Two Months!

These past two months have been full of different emotions for me as I have taken on this new role as a mom. Even with the lack of sleep (anyone who knows me knows that I love my sleep), I have never felt more purposeful and joyful. My days now revolve around my little one and mostly consist of breast feeding, changing diapers, and entertaining her. But I wouldn't have it any other way. Sometimes while singing to her and/or rocking her to sleep, I gaze at her and just cry tears of joy. She is my greatest accomplishment and I am already so proud of her!

As I mentioned in my previous post, Allie was born on July 22nd at 3:12pm. She was 7.5 lbs and 20.75 inches. As most people know, babies tend to lose some weight a few days after they are born. When we left the hospital, she was down to 6.11 lbs but at her two week appt, she was back up to 8.1 lbs and still 20.75 inches. Today she had her two month appointment. She is now 10.10 lbs (45th percentile) and 23 7/8 inches (97th percentile). We have a tall girl! She also had her dreaded vaccinations today. She was a little bit fussy during the check up, was pretty calm when she was given the oral vaccination, and then she cried/screamed as soon as the first shot went in. She calmed down immediately after I started nursing her and fell asleep soon after that.

Allie has been a good sleeper for the most part! Yes, she is still in our room and I plan to keep her in our room until she outgrows her Rock n Play. She usually sleeps for 4 hours at night, wakes up to snack a bit and falls right back asleep. There have been a couple of nights where she slept up to 6 hours without even waking up to eat. There have also been a couple of nights in the past week where she woke up screaming and wanted to cluster feed. I'm hoping that doesn't continue because I just hate to see her so sad.

As for food, she is exclusively breastfed. I didn't even pump until she was three weeks old and I rarely pump as I am still on maternity leave. She was also introduced to her first bottle at three weeks and took it like a champ as well so she is not very picky about breast vs. bottle which will be good for when I return to work.

We have spent the majority of my leave at our house and Nan-nan's house. She and Stella are becoming great friends! When Stella was first introduced to Allie, she wasn't sure what to think and she slapped her (don't worry, it wasn't hard and Allie didn't even cry). Now Stella is giving her kisses! We've been on many shopping trips: Oviedo Mall, Target, and Waterford Lakes to mention a few.  She's also been to several restaurants and visited Oviedo on the Park and Riverside Park. She usually uses these outings as a chance to take a long snooze.

First Month: She spends most of her time eating, sleeping, hiccupping, and grunting. She absolutely adores watching her butterfly mobile along with looking at lights and ceiling fans. She also loves her pink mam pacifier, pulling her Mommy's hair, and bath time. She doesn't like when her dogs bark, especially Lily's shrill bark. Overall, she's a very happy baby and we are so blessed to have her!

Second Month: She is still doing all of the above but she also has begun smiling, cooing, and a little bit of laughing! Her gums are very prominent and we think they are the cutest! When she talks to us, it often sounds like she is saying "Hi!" She has been to church a few times and enjoys the praise and worship music. Her current favorite song is "You're Beautiful" by Phil Wickham. If she's upset, I nurse her and sing this song to her; it immediately soothes her and helps her fall asleep. She still loves her pacifier but has now found her fingers and often sucks on them. We think she may follow in her daddy's footsteps and be a soccer player as she loves kicking! She also has grown some long eyelashes like her daddy.

Milestones:

• July 25th-Home from the hospital!
• 3 weeks old-Outgrew her newborn diapers, began wearing size 1 diapers.
• August 9th-Allie finally lost her umbilical cord after 18 days!
• August 10th-She got her first real bath in her whale tub!
• 5 weeks old-Outgrew her newborn clothes, began wearing 0-3 months and 3 month clothes.
• August 22nd-Turned one month old and celebrated her Aunt Mel's birthday!
• 5-6 weeks old-Started cooing and smiling!
• August 30th-Attended her first church service!
• September 22nd-Turned two months old!

Labor Day

Many women get anxious during those last weeks of pregnancy and I totally understand why. I would say that most of my pregnancy went by fairly fast but the last few weeks felt that they dragged on as I was anticipating meeting my baby girl. As my due date approached, I also hadn't been experiencing any signs of labor other than some Braxton Hicks contractions. I thought for sure that I would end up having to be induced at 41 weeks as that can often be the case in first pregnancies. Thankfully, I was wrong...

I woke up at 2:30 am on the morning of June 21st with real contractions. This was my due date! I knew these were real contractions because they felt more like menstrual cramps and were more regular than the Braxton Hicks I had previously experienced. I got out of bed and went into the living room where I started timing my contractions and fiddling on the computer to waste time while I waited for the contractions to become more regular. By 4:30 am I was experiencing contractions that were about 4-5 minutes apart. I called my mom to find out if she thought I should head to the hospital and she said that we should. I woke Chadd up and my mom met us at our house and we all headed to the hospital at about 5:30 am. By the time we were checked in at triage, some of my contractions had slowed down. When the nurse checked me, I was only 1cm dilated but she hooked me up to a machine anyway to monitor my contractions for about a half hour. No progress had been made but she knew I didn't live very close to the hospital so she sent me to walk around the hospital for two hours and then told me to come back to triage and we would check my dilation again. It was still pretty early in the morning before the sweltering heat hit so we all decided to walk around the lake in front of the hospital. By the time we returned to triage, I was still only 1cm so they sent me home and told me to go to my OB appt later that day.

After eating some Chicken and Gnocci soup that my mom bought me from Olive Garden, visiting with she and Kourtney for a bit, and bouncing on the exercise ball my sister let me borrow, it was finally time to go to my OB appointment at 3:30pm. Chadd took me to my appointment and they first did an ultrasound as well as a non-stress test to measure my contractions. When Dr. D'heureux checked my dilation, she said I was three to four centimeters dilated. I asked if I could go to the hospital and she said to wait until my contractions were closer to 2-3 minutes apart. She also advised me to take a long walk that night and said that she predicted I'd be back at the hospital later that evening or early the next morning. By 7pm that evening, I started having some contractions that were 1-2 minutes apart and some that were 2-3 minutes apart. They also were increasingly more painful. I told Chadd we needed to leave right away. I was so worried that we wouldn't make it to the hospital that I wouldn't even let him go to a drive thru to get himself dinner on the way. When we finally got to the hospital, I had to wait in triage for an hour and a half. I was pretty embarrassed but the pain had gotten so awful that I was crying in front of everyone in the waiting room. My back hurt so bad and my mom asked for a pillow and was told "pillows are for patients." I didn't understand that as I was about to be a patient. I also didn't understand why I was in obvious pain and it took so long for them to take me to the back. It seemed that they were going in order of who came in first rather than in order of pain level. The triage unit was my only complaint about Winnie Palmer.

Once I was taken back, the nurse checked my dilation and then hooked me up to the machine and said that they would be measuring my contractions for an hour or so. She did not tell me what my dilation was at the time but I assumed I wasn't dilated enough since they wanted to monitor me. The contractions were still really painful but were sporadic and the stretcher they put you on couldn't have been more uncomfortable. The nurse saw the pain I was in and gave me some morphine. This helped a little bit but when asked about my pain level, I told her it was a 7. She wanted to argue with me about that. She said "Oh come on, that's only one below what you said before." Did she not want me to tell the truth about my pain level? My mom and I both didn't really appreciate her snarkiness. One hour turned into several hours probably due to the pain I was experiencing. Only one person was allowed back there with me at a time and my mom and Chadd switched off during that time so that he could get some dinner. When the nurse came back in to check my dilation, she gave me a funny look that I wasn't sure how to read. She asked me "Did you feel your water break?" I told her that I felt a slow trickle a few times but I just associated that as discharge from all of the dilation checks I had that day. She said she was pretty sure my water had broken because she could smell the amniotic fluid when she lifted the blanket to check my dilation. Chadd and I were thrilled with this news because I was worried I wasn't going to be dilated enough and they were going to try and send me home again. She did the check and sure enough, my water had broken, I was 5cm dilated, and she said they would have me in a room in the next fifteen minutes or so. I begged to have an epidural and she said they couldn't do it in triage but would do it immediately when I got to my room.

At about 2:30am, I was finally in my labor and delivery room and within five minutes of being there, the anesthesiologist came in to give me the epidural. I wasn't nervous about the epidural at all; I just wanted the pain from the contractions to go away. Almost immediately after the epidural was given, my pain ceased. At that point I had already been up about 24 hours and everyone was telling me I should get some rest while I could. However, I couldn't believe the relief I felt from the epidural. My adrenaline was going so strong because of that and also the anticipation of meeting my baby girl. Even though I hadn't slept for 24 hours, I knew I wouldn't be able to nap before I began pushing. I rested my eyes for a while and tried but it just did not happen. I was allowed to have three people in my labor room and so it was Chadd, my mom, and his mom, Kim. Around 8:00am that morning is when they checked my dilation and said I was 10cm. Kim and I rushed to do our makeup real quick as we thought Allie would be here fast. I began pushing at around 9:30 but the nurses ended up having to give me Pitocin because my contractions were still irregular. About an hour into pushing, we had to take a break because I had three close contractions in a row and it made Allie's heartrate drop into the 80's. That was terrifying as the nurses rushed to put oxygen on my face. About 11:45am is when I began pushing again. This time they started off with keeping the Pitocin really low as they didn't want to cause any more distress. I pushed for hours upon hours and the nurses kept rotating me in all sorts of positions (back, both sides, even all fours). They also involved this little peanut shaped pillow. Throughout all of this, I vomited quite a few times and my mom laughed because I was like "There goes another $30 dollars." I remembered that the hospital charged Chadd for the container he vomited in when he had an ACL surgery. Anyway, they ended up gradually increasing the Pitocin again throughout the hours of pushing but she was still not progressing through the birth canal. The nurses could see her head and told me she was a blondie. The doctor on call had a C-section he needed to attend to but since my labor was not progressing, he called another doctor from the practice to help with my delivery.

When Dr. Quirino showed up, the nurses caught her up to speed on what had been going on. She immediately did an ultrasound to see what was going on and found out that Allie was sunny side up. She gave me two options. She said she could go ahead and try and turn her and then I could try to push her out for three more contractions. If that did not work, we would go into an emergency C-section. My other option was to just stop labor and schedule a C-section but we could have to wait for hours for a room to open up. She said vacuuming and forceps would not be an option because Allie was still behind the pubic bone. I was fine with that as I would prefer a C-section over those two routes. I was exhausted but wanted to just do what was best for Allie and I didn't want her to be in anymore distress. Everyone told me how far I had come already and that it wouldn't hurt to just try and see if we could turn her and avoid the C-section route. Plus, if it didn't work then I would be able to get the C-section sooner rather than later. As soon as the doctor reached up there to turn her, I experienced immediate regret. Even with an epidural, I have never felt so much pain in my life. I was screaming uncontrollably and crying. Chadd said he almost started to cry when he could see the pain that I was in. My mom was at my bedside praying for us. After the doctor had turned her, she did another ultrasound to check her position. Sure enough, Allie had turned right back to sunny side up. The next few minutes felt like a blur. The emergency team rushed in to get me prepped for surgery. One person was washing my arms and legs and another person even handed me a toothbrush to brush my teeth. I thought that was strange but I didn't ask any questions. At that point, I just wanted my precious baby girl out! The anesthesiologist gave me more medicine and the pressure I had been feeling immediately went away. The team sent Chadd to get dressed in his scrubs and I said goodbye to our mothers before they wheeled me out of the room.

On the way to the room and once in the room, the anesthesiologist could tell how upset I was. The tears were still streaming down my face. He gave me words of encouragement and definitely helped ease my fears. They got started on my surgery and Chadd joined me in the room. I remember the scent of a burning smell and asked what it was. They said they were cauterizing my skin to prevent infection. I will never forget the relief I felt once I heard my sweet baby girl crying. She was born at 3:12pm and was 7.5 lbs and 20.75 inches. They called Chadd over to meet her and watch her get her footprints done but I obviously couldn't move as they were closing me back up. I wish they would have shown her to me over the sheet but they didn't. It felt like forever before I actually got to hold her. Once she was finally in my arms, I couldn't believe the love that I felt for her. It's exactly as people say, "love at first sight." She was even more beautiful than I had imagined. It was a moment I've been dreaming about my entire life. We got a few pictures taken together and then they took her to get cleaned up. The nurses brought her back to me once I was in recovery and I got to feed her for the first time. She immediately latched and I was shocked that it wasn't painful at all. I was kind of like "That's it? This is easy!" After a few hours in recovery, we were wheeled up to my room where we were joined by our parents. They got to see Allie for a little bit but then went home to get some rest as it had been a long couple of days.

We ended up staying in the hospital for 3 more nights and were not discharged until Saturday afternoon. Even though I am not a fan of hospitals, I actually liked being there because all of the nurses were wonderful, knowledgeable, and so helpful with any questions I had regarding Allie and/or my recovery. Not to mention, we had what we were told was one of the nicest views in the hospital-it overlooked both lakes outside. Our visitors included Mom, Dad, Kim, Mark, Melissa, Nanny, Daisy, Sean, Cameron, Kourtney, Christian, Lindsey, Jamie, Justin, Katie, Robin, and Leyton. Although my labor experience was interesting to say the least, we are so fortunate to have a beautiful, healthy, mostly easy-going baby girl!  I was a little worried about how comfortable Chadd was going to be with her as newborns have always made him nervous but he's a pro. It was love at first sight for him too and it just melts my heart to see what an amazing daddy he is. I'm so in love with our little family and I thank God daily for all of our blessings!

A Dream Realized

I used to be one of those people who felt that they had to have everything planned out. I was married by 23 and planned to start having kids around 25 or 26. My goal was to have all of my children before the age of 30. One thing I've realized about life is that sometimes God has other plans and in the great scheme of things, His plans are often greater than our own.

A couple of years ago, I felt ready to have a child and Chadd and I even tried for about three months. I was so caught up in this ideal plan of mine though that I wasn't really thinking about if he was ready or if our relationship was ready for children. We were high school sweethearts and we had been together ten years. I always considered him my best friend but at the time, we had really grown apart and our lives were going in different directions. For this reason along with many others, we ended up separating from each other for about eight months. During our time apart, I formed a much stronger relationship with Jesus and eventually I felt Him calling me back to Chadd. We started seeing each other again in late October of 2013 and after counseling and a marriage course held at my church, we officially recommitted our lives to each other on April 18, 2014. While no relationship is perfect, ours was now stronger than it had ever been and none of this would have been possible without Jesus.

Skip to November 13, 2014…My period was a few days late and while I didn't really have any other symptoms yet besides fatigue, something in me told me, "This is it! You are pregnant!" I didn't want to tell Chadd until I knew for sure because I had all of these cutesy ideas of how I was going to announce it to him. I went to the store after work that afternoon and picked up a couple of pregnancy tests. I took one right when I got home and it was positive! I immediately cried tears of joy and just thanked God for finally blessing us with a child. Our niece, Daisy was staying with us at the time because her mom and Sean had just had a baby girl of their own the day before. I didn't want to call Chadd on his way home from work and tell him over the phone and didn't want to tell him in front of Daisy so I had to wait until Daisy had gone to bed. Needless to say, it was torturous waiting so long to tell him and my cute announcement ideas were thrown out the window. None of that mattered though. Later that evening while Chadd was lying in bed, I escaped into the bathroom and grabbed the pregnancy test where I secretely stashed it. I came back into the room with my hands behind my back and whipped it right out in front of his eyes. His expression was of total shock. We prayed together that evening; we thanked God for blessing us with a baby and asked Him to keep the baby and myself safe and healthy.

Symptoms: In the first 8 weeks of pregnancy, I didn't have that many symptoms. I was pretty tired and had some pains that felt like menstrual cramps. Those scared me but my friend who was also pregnant experienced them too and the Dr. told me they are totally normal. It's weird that no one talks about those. From weeks 9 to about 22, I struggled with nausea and vomiting. I felt nauseous everyday but the vomiting was only maybe 2 to 3 days a week so it wasn't unbearable. There was one time though that Dirk, Chadd, and I were headed to the Orlando Improv to see Dave Coulier perform. We stopped at the Chick Fil A on University and had dinner before heading on the highway. I started feeling really nauseous on 417 and by the time we hit I4, I told my brother he needed to pull over. I guess he didn't feel comfortable pulling over so he got off on the next exit instead. Well...by that time, it was too late. There were two styrofoam cups next to me in the car and they both ended up full of vomit, along with my jeans. Dirk's car remained unscathed though and for that, I was pretty proud of myself! It was around week 21 that I first started feeling the flutters and within a few weeks, I could start feeling her movements, kicks, and hiccups. I lived for these moments! The greatest joy in pregnancy is being able to feel your baby move inside of you. During the last few months of my pregnancy, the nausea subsided but what replaced it was "acid throat" and upper back pains. I didn't really have heartburn...it was just exactly as I stated it, acid sitting in my throat. Nothing really
helped either of these things but it was better than the constant nausea for sure. I'm also typically someone who enjoys cardio and prior to pregnancy, I would usually go to the gym three times a week. Other than walking, I really didn't exercise throughout pregnancy due to the fatigue and nausea.  Pregnancy is not glamorous but it is an experience I am eternally grateful for and look forward to experiencing again. Not only is it amazing to feel so close to your baby but another one of my favorite things was watching my belly grow and taking pictures of the week by week progress.

Finding out the sex: I have such a close relationship with my mom and I have been looking forward to having a baby girl because I hope to emulate a lot of my mom's qualities and have the same type of bond with my daughter. This was my first child and though I know I would have been elated whether it was a girl or boy...I definitely was hoping and had a feeling our baby was a girl. At our week 12 ultrasound, Chadd asked if the ultrasound tech saw a penis and she said "I'd be surprised to ever see a penis." This was our first clue that my intuition was right but I knew that twelve weeks was a little too soon to tell. At week 16, my suspicions were confirmed and we were told we were having a baby girl. They showed us the little "hamburger" on the ultrasound. I immediately called our close family members and texted my friends to share the news! It was a good thing too because we had already agreed upon the name, Allie Grace and we did not see eye to eye on boy names. I was so excited that I went and bought her first outfit that night! It was a white polka-dotted denim romper with little white eyelet shoes and a white eyelet bow. I also rallied our dogs, Lily and Kenzie and took several pictures so I could make a Facebook announcement and share my excitement with everyone else!

Cravings/Aversions: I really didn't crave much during pregnancy and definitely never had any of those unusual cravings that people talk about like pickles and ice cream mixed together. While I was dealing with the nausea, my diet pretty much only consisted of grilled cheese sandwiches. I only really craved cold foods/drinks like coke flavored ICEEs, strawberry banana smoothies, flavor ice pops, and Jeremiah's Scoop Froggy Frog with chocolate/vanilla swirl. Unfortunately, I could not stomach vegetables. It appeared that I reverted back to my childhood days. However, I did still enjoy fruit and I just made sure I was consistent with taking my prenatal vitamins daily so Allie still would get all of the nutrients she needed.

Favorite Moments: 

• Finding out I was pregnant and sharing the news
• Getting to see Allie on all of the ultrasounds and hearing her heartbeat at my appointments
• Preparing her beautiful purple/teal nursery with Chadd and my mom
• Reading "Oh Baby, The Places You'll Go" and feeling her kick
• Both of my baby showers thrown by my lovely sister, Melissa and Chadd's grandmother, Linda
• Experiencing pregnancy with my best friend, Kourtney

Even though my timeline did not happen in the original way that I had planned, I am so thankful to God for that. He knew what he was doing. I have changed and grown so much in my faith and as a person in the last couple of years. I've always dreamed about being a mother and now that it is a reality, I cannot even express how overjoyed I am. I just look at my daughter sometimes and begin to cry tears of happiness. My wish for Allie is that she always knows how much she is loved by her father and I, the rest of the family, and most of all, Jesus. I hope that she loves Jesus fiercely and that her love for him will outpour and inspire others. I know that she will have some struggles along the way but I hope that she will always lean on God during these times. Finally, just as my dream of having her came true, I hope that all of her dreams in life are realized!