Fun Moments

Fun moments...

I saw this on the back of a car.

At the junior high youth luau, the interns decided that Brock needed a lei so they rigged it up. The youth at church are so excited to meet Brock. Many of them have enjoyed watching me grow and have now felt their first pregnant belly complete with little hockey punches, which make them giggle. I am sad that I will not get to join them on their summer trips this year, but I will be thinking about them and staying where it is nice and cool.

A Shower fit for a King (of the jungle)

May 19 25 weeks

My sisters, mom, and cousin definitely outdid themselves. They threw a jungle/safari themed shower for Brock and me, and I have never felt more spoiled and loved. A lot of my friends who live in Houston and both of our families were there. I miss them all so much, think of them often, and cherish the time I get to spend with them. One of my favorite things about my wedding was that it was the one time (so I thought) that a crazy mix of people who care about us would all come together in one place. Having moved a lot growing up, living in a different city now, and going to school in Austin has created quite the spread of family and friends. I didn't realize that I would get to feel a similar feeling at my baby shower. Angie had a game with questions wrapped in each layer of a package...Grandma Anna (my mom's mom) had come the furthest from Baxter, West Virginia, Megan had known me the longest since 4 months of age, and Beth opened the final layer to win the prize with a funny story about my 18th birthday party. These are just a few examples of the questions that reminded me of the fun combination of people present to celebrate Brock. The dessert spread was irresistible, complete with my favorite...Little Debbie Zebra Cakes and sour patch kids. They even had eggless cupcakes for me. They made sure that the entire spread of food was friendly for my food allergies...once again the only other time this occurred was at my wedding.

These pictures were on the entry table. Apparently Jeff and I had the same playpen.

Items for the Price Is Right Game.

The challenge was to make a diaper cake for me, and they did an amazing job! I don't want to take it apart.

Me with my beautiful sisters!

My cousin Tacy came all the way from North Carolina and Tara has recenty moved to Houston, which is so much fun!

My aunt and grandmother came from West Virginia!

My other mother, Belinda (Megan's mom).

Jeff's step mother, Cheryl and Nana drove from Dallas that morning. They are so excited for Brock to come, and Nana is thrilled that the Fletcher name will continue.

We sent the big items back with Jeff's mom and step-mom, we brought back most of the small stuff, and then my parents brought the rest the following weekend. Brock is one lucky little guy and will be very well dressed!

Sunny and Monster were not sure what to make of all of it. Let the slow exposure to baby stuff begin.

I was exhausted after such a fun weekend. I have started to notice a little swelling at the end of a work day and when I've been busy. I generally listen, try to rest, and put them up if I can.

My sweet friend Beth had ordered Brock's gift before the shower so Brock received his first package addressed to him a few days later. I love it!

We couldn't resist sorting through all of the gifts, looking at everything, and opening the boxes. Our very sweet friends personally approved of our stroller and gave it to us at the shower. Jeff put it together, "racing harness" and all. The dogs were not too sure about this new contraption.

A few days later, the Pack 'N Play was delivered so we decided to put it together. It took at least an hour to figure this one out so I had to take a break. Monster really had a hard time with this one.

Big hiccups for a big boy

May 11 24 weeks

It's kind of a long story, but after a discussion with my doctor we decided to go for another sonogram at a different location. Jeff and I got to go have a nice long look at Brock today, and he was as cute and perfect as ever! He moved his lips, kicked his legs, and squirmed around. They also said that he is on the bigger side weighing 2 pounds, but everything looks great.

During the sonogram, Brock had his first episode hiccups that I could recall. It was pretty cute because I could see them on the screen and feel them. He had hiccups again the following day while I was at work.

Brock is very active these days. It is becoming easier for Jeff to feel and see him moving around, which is so fun! He gets very active when I sit down in the evenings or after I eat. The other day when one of my patients was crying, he became very active. I don't think he liked that I had an upset patient.

Mother's Day

May 13 24 weeks

So I worked Mother's Day weekend this year, and I can't wait for next year. I have always liked Mother's Day because I have such an awesome mom, but this year especially I loved seeing all of the moms with their kids! I even got a few "Happy Mother's Day" comments myself, a few cards, and a bunch of text messages. I couldn't believe it, and it was so sweet of people to think of me on Mother's Day! I can't even imagine how this is going to feel when he is actually here.

When I arrived home after work, I received one of Jeff's most thoughtful gifts yet, and that says a lot because he is creative. He made a Brock chain, and I am supposed to tear one link off each day. The red is my birthday, and the blue are the 10 days surrounding my due date. There was also a very sweet card and a dozen roses. The chain is already quickly disappearing.

Wedding

April 14 20 weeks

Brock got to experience his first bachelorette party with some of my favorite ladies. We spent the day celebrating Becca's upcoming wedding with a wine tour, dinner, and girl time. I was the driver, and it wasn't that bad to only observe the tastings as we watched Becca enjoy her day.

A few weeks later we went to Becca and Justin's rehearsal dinner. It was pretty hot but so exciting!

My sweet friend Becca even got him two cute outfits for being in her wedding! Everyone has been so supportive and loving! Brock has no idea how much love he will soon experience (or how many nicknames he already has).

May 6 23 weeks

Brock participated in his first wedding. The high heels on a slight incline while a little more front heavy than usual was pretty challenging, but thank goodness we got to walk down with the guys. It was perfect timing with dress size, but we squeezed in and even got down on the dance floor.

 Brock getting some love from the beautiful bride while getting down on the dance floor!

Suspicious Items

We are over halfway there! Fortunately, things have slowed down a bit and have become much more physically comfortable. We are enjoying the little moments and trying to rest up when we can.

April 21 21 weeks
The car seat that we have is one of the safest seats, but it is on the bigger side. So one Saturday when I got off of work early, we checked on the house and then went to finish registering at Lone Star Baby. This store is only in the DFW area, but I love it! They're mission is education. They do private appointments for registering and are always available to teach you about products and answer any questions you might have. Everyone is so friendly and so excited for you. I am still amazed at how excited people are for us, including total strangers. It's definitely surreal and makes me feel so blessed. So while we were there, we had them show us how to put this car seat in my car and see if it fit appropriately. It worked out and ended up living in my car for about a month. I finally took the car seat out of the car, but I still drive around with the base in there. First of all, I'm afraid I won't be able to put it back in if I take it out. Secondly, I don't have a ton of energy, and I kind of like it there.

May 11 24 weeks
Things are started to become very real when Jeff brought in a package from the front porch one morning that was addressed to me. I quickly racked my brain for what I might have ordered online, which I rarely do, but told Jeff I hadn't ordered anything. When I opened it up, I discovered our very first official baby registry gift. It was from someone who couldn't make it to the shower in Houston. It was so sweet, and I just stared at the gift with a big smile on my face. Jeff would only be working for a few hours that day since we had our sonogram. After receiving our first gift in the mail, seeing Brock on the sonogram (and hearing that everything looked great), and checking on our house to find that it had been totally bricked (and I loved the color), we were on cloud 9 for the rest of the day.

May 12
I have been good and only bought a few things at the Baby Gap Outlet with Aren so the rest of them are outfits that other people have given to us. All of his stuff is in our office since we won't be setting up a nursery at this house. It is beginning to pile up so I decided that I could at least hang up the clothes. Jeff didn't understand the need for little hangers, but when I came home with them after work he smiled and followed me into the office. He wanted to be the one to put each thing on the hanger while I organized them by size. It is so fun to imagine him and his personality and what he will look like while we hold up these clothes that sometimes seem tiny and at others seem huge when we think about how big he is right now.

The pros and cons of pregnancy

One of the first times I knew that things were changing and were out of my control very early in my pregnancy was at one of Jeff's hockey games. Anyone who knows Jeff, knows that he might have the most minutes spent in the penalty box for both of his teams. He is very calculated about how he earns those minutes and many times creates "friends" on the other team throughout the game as he takes his defensive role quite seriously. I happened to be sitting behind our goal at this game and was watching Jeff and the other guy push and shove in front of the net. Apparently the other guy pushed Jeff harder than my developing mom brain thought he should and "Get off him" escaped my mouth. A few heads turned to look at me as I sat shocked at my volume. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not very loud. Jeff mentioned later that it's a little embarrassing when everyone can hear your wife yelling over the game...oops.

I am normally a pretty sentimental person and might cry at the occasional television show or commercial so I had prepared myself for an increase in this. I have been surprised, but I actually cry less now. I have definitely been more irritable, which is a little frustrating, but mostly I feel my protective side coming through. I was mentioning to Jeff about how proud I was of myself to not be very emotional during pregnancy when he recalled me crying during an episode of the Office. I'm not sure this is true, but then again memory has become somewhat of an issue as well.

I had not experienced the nice pregnancy hair, but it was growing super fast. It had only been 2 months since my last haircut when Russ had to come to my rescue and cut 6 inches off! I am now getting to experience good pregnancy hair and much stronger nails that everyone talks about. The mask of pregnancy isn't so fun, but it's not a big deal. It is so strange to be pretty much out of control of your own body but a little bit freeing at the same time to not worry about it and know that a little miracle is causing all of these strange things, most of which will go away.

I really have not had many cravings. Early on, I experienced mostly food aversion except for salads (with Ranch), lemonade, and fruit were the only things that sounded appetizing, especially strawberries and pineapple. Of course, there is the occasional pickle, which isn't strange for me, or pizza. I have had a few days of feeling like a bottomless pit but otherwise still haven't been that hungry. Jeff and I have developed a tradition consisting of going to check on the house progress and stopping at Pluckers for dinner. I have never been able to turn down their fried pickles (with Ranch), and I recently discovered their very delicious strawberry lemonade.