36 weeks & Nursery pictures

Well we've made it to 36 weeks as of Wednesday! Yay! We went to the doctor on Thursday and Nora's heartbeat sounded great. Still praising God that the abnormality resolved itself. The doctor checked me at my appointment and we've already made some progress. I'm dilated to 3 cm and am 80% effaced. Dr. Fry seems to think we might have a baby sooner than later. I go back next Wednesday and we'll see where we're at. I think that we're as ready as we're going to be for Nora and are so excited to meet her! Here's an updated belly picture, it's definitely getting bigger!

36 weeks, 3 days

August 24th

Here are some pictures of Nora's room. We're combining her nursery with the guest bedroom. So we've decided that if you come and are a house guest that you're also on "baby duty", ha!

Nora had to have a few things of daddy in her room. 

This is my favorite picture of Matt from when he was little. He's feeding a calf a bottle. 

A few pictures of the soon-to-be "big sister". Lately she seems like such a big girl, which is what we were hoping for before Nora came but it's still a little bittersweet. 

Update on Baby Nora: 34 weeks

We are at 34 weeks, yay! Matt and I were just talking the other day about how quickly this pregnancy has gone. It seems like a lot has happened since I last blogged about our sweet little Nora so I'll try to recap as best as I can (this post may be a little long). At 30 weeks we had another ultrasound of Nora because on the 20 week ultrasound they didn't get a good look at her spine. Her spine looked good at the 30 week ultrasound and we were excited to have another look at our girl. Here's a 3D picture from that ultrasound:

Two weeks (32 weeks) later I went back to the doctor for a regular check up. Since most check ups are pretty routine at that point I went early in the afternoon while Matt was at work. Dr. Fry was listening to Nora's heartbeat and detected an irregularity, called a pre-atrial contraction. She listened for about 5 minutes to make sure that's what she was hearing and told me that she wanted me to come in first thing the next morning to listen again. She said that most of the time these things resolve themselves and she never hears it again. Of course I left the doctor's office crying, called Matt and we spent the evening worried about Nora. The next morning we were at the doctor right at 8 to listen again. That morning Dr. Fry heard it again and said that she wanted to recommend us to a specialist. The specialist didn't have an opening for a week but we went ahead and made the appointment. At that point we had everyone we knew praying for Nora & for the upcoming appointment. 

That evening Dr. Fry's nurse called us (at 5:45 p.m.) and said that the specialist was going to open his office just for us the following morning to check Nora out. We had mixed emotions, not knowing if we were getting in early because it was urgent or because our doctor had called in a favor. The next morning we went to the specialist and he did the longest ultrasound I've ever had (almost an hour). He looked at Nora's anatomy of the heart, heart rate, blood flow to the heart, blood flow to the umbilical cord and checked her anatomical measurements. He was not able to detect the pre-atrial contraction (PAC) and said that her heart looks good. He told us that PACs can be common sometimes in the 3rd trimester.  He said that as of that time we have baby girl who looks pretty normal. We were so relieved!

Now, two weeks later we are at 34 weeks! We went to the doctor today and everything still looks good. Nora's heart rate was good today and her heart beat was normal. 

Here are some fun facts about Nora:

• She should weigh about 4 3/4 pounds (the size of a cantaloupe) and should be about 18" long 
• She is fully developed and right now she's just fattening up
• Her lungs and central nervous system are maturing
• She already gets annoyed when her sister crowds her space :) Ellis has been kicked several times!

33 weeks, 5 days

Ellis at 14 months

So I'm not doing monthly posts on Ellis now that she's one but will stick a few in here and there. She has changed so much in the last month that I wanted to write down everything she's doing. She is a little ball of energy and so much fun to be around!

Ellis you:

Weigh about 20 pounds 

Are talking more & identifying objects. She still says the normal "MaMa, DaDa, Baby, Bye, Hi". Some new ones include "Thank you (in reference to her sippy cup), Good girl, Animal noises (dog, cow, horse, elephant, sheep), EIEIO, Tickle Tickle, I Love You"

Love music and will do the moves to The Itsy Bitsy Spider. You also "sing" to most songs and always dances. 

Have a new favorite game, "tickle" mommy & daddy. Sometimes the tickles are more like scratching but that's okay. 

 Have been on the verge of walking over the last week but on Tuesday you really started walking! Since then you have been going non-stop!

Opinionated. You responds yes/no to questions but mostly says "no". 

Continue to be a good eater. I think that some days you eat more than mommy! The only thing that you really don't like so far are peas.

 Say "Cheese!"

"Mom, I can't see you"

 "Don't you think that it looks much better as a necklace?"

"Look mom, no hands!"

Ellis,
We just love being your mommy and daddy. Every day it seems like you learn something new and are eager to share it with us. We can't wait to see how you act around your little sister, I have a feeling she'll be getting some kisses! We love you!
Mommy & Daddy

Summer Wrap Up

I've been off since the end of June with Ellis and it honestly has flown by. This week was the first week back to school so I thought that I'd just recap the summer in one post. First of all, Ellis is the sweetest, funnest, smartest child I know, and I don't really care that I'm probably a little biased. She has also changed a lot over the summer and is starting to seem like a "big girl". Most days we stayed at home and played and that was enough to wear us both out. Here are some pictures of things we did this summer and our sweet little girl. 

Fun in the pool with daddy & mommy. 

She's definitely a water baby!

First Snow Cone of the Season

Happy Father's Day!

Picnic in the park

Fireworks! She loved them and laughed the whole time!

Family picture at the lake on the 4th of July

After the 4th of July, Ellis went to Conway. She stayed with her MiMi & Poppa for a few days and then with Grandpa & Grandma. She had fun, despite getting hand foot and mouth in the middle of it!

Poppa with the 2 youngest grandchildren

 MiMi & Ellis

Aiden & Ellis

Ellis on our weekly shopping trip 

Fun at the Splash Park 

The park with Zoe 

 Some days it's just too hard to stay awake through lunch

 Happy 30th Birthday!

28 Weeks

We've made it to 28 weeks, which means we're in the third trimester, the home stretch! Yay! Little Nora is moving around constantly and giving her momma LOTS of heartburn! Here are some fun facts about Baby Nora and some belly bump pictures!

• She's about 2 1/4 pounds and measures around 14.8 inches 
• She can also blink her eyes
• She may also be able to see light that filters in
• She can hear, although muffled

24 weeks

27 1/2 weeks

Party Time!

We had Ellis' first birthday party on May 25th and it was so much fun! We did a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme since it's been one of our favorite books to read to her. She was so sweet at her party and had a lot of fun. She especially enjoyed opening her presents and with every new present she would say, "Oooh". She was such a lucky girl to have her grandparents, 2 of her great grandmas, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends there. Here are some pictures of her party. 

Party Invite

 Welcome to the Party!

A Caterpillar Collage of her monthly pictures birth-1 year

Family Picture (You can even see Baby Nora)

Ellis with her Great Grandmas

Ellis & her friends playing on the blanket

Smash Cake

She loved everyone singing "Happy Birthday"

"Mmmm, looks yummy"

She wasn't quite sure about the cake, so mom & dad
helped her get her hands dirty

She wasn't too thrilled to have icing all over her hands

Time to open presents!


She had plenty of help from her cousins

We got this slide/swing combo for Ellis and she has really enjoyed it

Lincoln & Aiden having fun "playing" ladder ball

Graham wanted to play too

Family picture the next day that included Adrienne, Mike & the 

boys. Graham was still sleeping when we took family pictures at the party.