25 Weeks And Counting!

This is where her crib will be!
Her ever growing closet with a new addition from her Daddy!

Her first Texas Longhorn!

It's DONE It's DONE It's DONE!!! The nursery mural is finally finished! I told y'all I was determined to get everything done this week and I woke up this morning, satisfied my pancake craving that started at 10:30pm last night, and went to work in the nursery for a straight four hours of painting. I can say it is a fabulous feeling to be finished with the painting and begin to look forward to putting together the crib that Grandma Channel had delivered to us last week. The crib is beautiful and I can't wait to see it in the room with her crib bedding that we bought pretty much the minute we found out we were having a girl! What can I say, I love to decorate, and this has been our most fun project of all. I hope The Bump loves her cozy little girly girl room!

My girlfriend Jenn and I went to visit Alison and beautiful little Rylee who is now 6 days old. She is SO cute!! She is beginning to make her own little expressions and even smiles in her sleep. Mommy, Dad and baby are doing wonderfully and Rylee is just perfect. It's so exciting to see them with a new addition to their family and how happy they are. I can't wait until our little girl gets here and I can see my handsome husband hold our tiny little girl in his arms.

That'll be my perfect day :)

I probably say this a lot, but The Bump is growing so quickly, it amazes me. Just since last week she has grown another quarter pound and is now a full 1 1/2 pounds! This week has been interesting because I'm beginning to have "alien" stomach...she is getting so big in my belly that when she moves or kicks I get these protruding and rolling motions on my stomach that you can visibly see from a couple feet away. It's hysterical to sit and watch...now you know what Matt and I do at night after work. hahaha Her body is starting to gain a bit more fat and if she does have any, the color and texture of her hair is recognizable now.

For now, I'm just enjoying being pregnant and thankfully still feeling fabulous!!

Have a safe and happy Halloween this week, love to you all!!

24 Weeks And Counting!

6 Months!!

Almost done!

Enjoying Alison's last moments of pregnancy!

The Bump can't wait to meet her best friend Rylee!

Happy Birthday!!

Wonderwoman (aka Stacie) and Miss Piggy (aka Cathleen) stop by for the Bday Party!

Matt and his two girlfriends, Alexa & Taylor :)

The Bday Girl and her Girls!

The Boys!

Dreaming of the Cowboys on the way to Grandma's House!

Rylee is here!! Love her hair!!

24 Weeks

What a BUSY week we've had enjoying our 6 month mark with such great family & friends, old AND new!! Matt and I have been absolutely determined to get our nursery done since we are dying to set up the crib and get the room finished. Matt has been helping me patiently paint the detailed ribbon in the nursery, although he has fired himself a couple times now!! He gets so frustrated if he doesn't make a perfect line...how did that happen??!! I found a soul mate perfectionist like myself!! hahaha It's coming along though and we've made huge progress since last week. Since I'm pretty much nocturnal at this point, I wake up at the crack of dawn, throw on my pink painting gloves (of course I can't mess up my french mani) and head into the nursery for a couple of hours of staring at the wall really hard while trying to keep a steady hand.

I was so excited to end my work week and start our weekend because our good friend Robyn Harris from New Jersey was in town visiting so I spent Friday doing Girl's Night with she, Jenn and our friend Alison who was enjoying her last moments of pregnancy!

Matt and I were both excited as well to show off our progress to my family this past Saturday to celebrate my Mom's upcoming Bday at our home. My two brothers and their families as well as my Aunt Lois came to celebrate my wonderful Mom on her big day with lots of food and WAY too many ice cream sundaes! My nieces taught me that you can actually have all three types of ice cream in your banana split and really not feel guilty at all...wait...is that the pregnancy justification devil on my shoulder whispering in my ear? Either way...they were good!! I love being able to spend time with the fam especially since we all have so much going on in our day to day...and honestly, what beats putting a smile on your Mom's face!!

Sunday was the Happy Cowboy Day for the Channel household......Matt's Mom is originally from Minnesota so of course the entire family was talking smack through mass text messages the entire morning. Cathleen made hordes of corn beef cabbage chicken spaghetti & jalapeno pie as Matt, Cathleen, Beau, Daisy, The Bump and myself rooted for the Cowboys and the entire Gifford clan (Cathleen's sister's family) rooted for the Vikings down in the South. We all knew the Cowboys would clean up but it felt REALLY good gloating at the end of the game!! hahaha
Nanner Nanner Vikings fans...oh yeah and the Cowboys record just gets better :)

And to finish off our wonderful weekend, my girlfriend Alison and her husband Greg headed into the hospital for a 4am inducement to bring their lovely and beautiful little girl (also The Bump's BFF) into the world. Rylee Hordesky was born at 4:19pm on October 22nd, 7 pounds 7 ounces, and she is an angel! She has so much hair, the reddest little pout and big blue eyes. Alison is doing wonderfully and says, "labor is such a breeze!!"
In light of my current situation being pregnant and all....thank you Ali for putting hope at the end of the tunnel!! In 3 months, I hope I can say, "that was easy! Piece of cake!"
Our little pumpkin is getting so big, my stomach just gets harder and rounder each day, and my skin does feel like there is no way it can stretch any more. Thank goodness for belly lotion!! She is just about a foot long, maybe a tad longer, and she weighs a pound & a quarter at this point. Her lungs are developing branches of the respiratory tree. Her taste buds are developing this week and her brain is growing very rapidly. The other night I was actually able to feel the roundness of her head just a couple inches under my ribs and then she rolled and it disappeared. I also have started to have mild Braxton Hicks contractions throughout the day. These are normal around this time in the pregnancy but they do stop you in your tracks! The entire uterus contracts and hardens and your stomach feels like a steel ball. The first time it happened I freaked...of course calling the doc's nurse and my sister-in-law to question the normalcy of my rock hard pooch!!
What is amazing to learn is that my body is actually exercising to prepare for real labor when my contractions might not be slight and cause me to possibly curse, blame Matt for everything..."You did this to me!"and "Get her out of me now!"...and uncharacteristically crave drugs! Or maybe I'll be like Ali, pop the baby out and say "No prob!!"
For Matthew's sake, let's hope for the latter....a crazed pregnant woman is never an attractive site :)
Happy Birthday Mama!! Congrats Alison and Greg!! And LOVE to you all!!

23 Weeks And Counting!

Pregnancy Truth #1: Belly Buttons DO go the opposite direction.
Pregnancy Truth #2: You REALLY will not fit into any pre-pregnancy outfit.

Pregnancy Truth #3: That thing they call "nesting"...yep it exists!

But it's all worth it for this little mover and shaker I have kicking away inside! She's been on a binger this weekend, literally she has not stopped kicking since Saturday night! Last month Dr. Spoon told us that later in the pregnancy we would be doing kick tests...marking each time the baby kicks within an hour. I kept thinking last month that doing so would be so hard because I sometimes wasn't sure if she was kicking or if my stomach was growling. Now I see EXACTLY how the kick tests work because when she kicks today, I definitely feel it! It feels as though my stomach is jerking in funny directions, makes me crack up most of the time when she really gets going. Love it!

This last Friday, the "nesting" itch came on strong! Matt and I started the nursery in full force, what started as a practice sketch of the ribbon mural I wanted to draw around the mid-section of her nursery ended with an entire ribbon wrapping around the baby's room. I couldn't help it...once I got started I couldn't wait to see the finished product. We had a nice little Saturday at Home Depot...no, that's not an "Old School" movie line haha :) That little trip not only ended up with the purchase of a new apple tree, 12 sets of snapdragon flowers and jalapeno and cactus plants for our courtyard but also new painting rollers, brushes, tarps, and the "perfect" pink paint for her room. Poor Matthew...I guess you can't help but become a "nester" if you're living with one!! It was hard work and we were pooped that night from painting but waking up to our newly painted nursery was a pretty awesome feeling...now, we just need a little princess to fill it! Stay tuned, this week's project is the detail on the ribbon...I'm determined to finish!

Our prenatal appointment went great today and she and I are growing at a healthy pace...slowly getting bigger...and rounder :) She's now weighing a little over a pound now and is more than 11 inches long with transparent, wrinkly skin which has turned red from her blood vessels which are showing through. Her blood vessels in her lungs, although they are the last organs to fully function, are forming to prepare her for breathing. She can also hear noises outside of her comfortable little home....she may know Justin Timberlake by heart and a play by play of each and every Cowboys game by the time she's born!

22 Weeks And Counting!

Fall is here and the weather has FINALLY cooled down in Vegas! All Matt and I wanted to do this weekend was enjoy the weather, getting out and about in the non-100 degree heat as well as get the house organized for more baby stuff! I couldn't help purchasing our very first baby hangers (40 of them since I'm sure her little wardrobe will be extensive..lol) and hang the clothing we've received so far. It looks absolutely adorable...it's all so tiny!!

This weekend also marked the date of my ten year anniversary from graduating from Green Valley High School. We were lucky enough to gather a good amount of some of my old friends together to catch up and celebrate a little bit of an anti-reunion night out (considering none of us actually attended the real reunion held by GVHS). Our good friends Annie & Eric are due a month before us and they are having a little girl as well. Annie and I pretty much perched our pregnant tooshies at a table and chatted about all the welcome and some not-so-welcome joys of pregnancy...body pillows, back pain, Gap & Old Navy maternity clothes and seeing the reactions of our two favorite men when they both found out they were having little girls. The great thing about reunions I realized is not so much about what everyone else is doing, but is a good time to reflect a little and be thankful for all of those little things you take for granted in your own life....how far and how much you have actually gained since moving out of your parent's home that day ten years ago. It's been a long road growing up and time flies, but every detail pretty amazing.

Well in just a week, our baby girl has completely changed her schedule. Each and every time I eat, she goes nuts...bouncing and bopping around my belly. Right...left...then right again! Thankfully I gave up caffeine when I got pregnant, because Lord, I cannot imagine what she would be doing after a cup of coffee these days! She was doing the Mexican hat dance after I ate just a little too much Cholula hot sauce at lunch today...sorry Baby!

She is starting to resemble a miniature newborn at this stage in the pregnancy, about 11 inches long and almost a full pound. Her skin is still a bit wrinkly until she gains enough weight to fill it out. Her eyes are developed, although her iris still lacks pigment and her pancreas, essential for the production of her hormones, is fully functioning at this point.

She's just growing like a little bean and she can kick me all she wants. I get absolutely giddy when I can grab Matt's hand and she high-fives her Daddy from inside my belly. High-fives, that is, for Daddy's 5th Cowboys win! She loves to remind us that she's active and healthy and it's such a fabulous sign each and every day.

XOXO

21 Weeks And Counting!

That's right...21 weeks and heading down the other side! We are officially past our halfway mark of the pregnancy!! We started the morning with a big pancake breakfast...considering I don't even like pancakes pre-pregnancy, you can see that baby gets what baby wants! To help us celebrate our 21 week mark, the Cowboys beat the St Louis Rams and much to my husband's delight (see facial expression in picture #1) the Cowboys are 4-0 now! We are definitely shooting for a Super Bowl baby with the Cowboys playing on the flat screen in the labor & delivery room. hahaha At our last doctor's appt, Dr. Spoon informed us that she is measuring about a week early, putting our due date right on Super Bowl Sunday...February 3, 2008! He then proceeded to inform us that he, as well, is a Cowboys fan!! Who would have known...now it looks like I might have two fans in the delivery room with me asking the nurses to check the score!
I have been feeling great lately and last night Matt was able to feel her kicks. We were watching Knocked Up...funniest movie ever to watch while you are pregnant...and she just started kicking away...hard! I grabbed Matt's hand and put it on the area just to the right of my belly button and this time she kept kicking. Usually she immediately stops the minute he presses his hand to my belly, I thinks she is already teasing him when she does that :)
I also visited my girlfriend Alison, who is due in 4 weeks, and got to see all of her baby shower gifts. She is also having a little girl, Rylee, and oh my goodness the clothes that child already has!! Her nursery is adorable and they delivered the crib and changing table/dresser while I was there.
I am now so anxious to get our nursery done too!! Matt and I have already purchased the crib bedding, but for now we'll have to keep it with our ever growing collection of baby goodies we've acquired from our our wonderful friends and family. We have adorable shoes, clothing, books and even a funny binkie that says "Mute Button" Thanks to Uncle Jeff she already has three gift bags from Christian Dior. I don't even have anything from Christian Dior!!
This little girl is spoiled already :)
Our little girl is approximately ten and a half inches long now, I can certainly tell with the amount of movement I suddenly feel! She is on a pretty routine schedule daily. I feel a lot of movement usually in my lower abdomen around 3:00pm in the afternoon, then she gets going around 10:30pm at night and again at 3:30am in the morning. She kicked so hard the other night it actually woke me up out of a deep dream. Her weight is around three quarters of a pound and all of her reproductive organs are complete by this week.
The bigger she gets, the more I'm dreaming about what she will look like! I ask Matt a million questions each night as to what he thinks she will look like, and what he thinks her hairdo will be like when she is born.
As I'm typing this, she is a bit ahead of schedule today and is steadily kicking away.
That's her way of saying "Hey Y'all"!!
Love to you all!!

Bellylicious...20 Weeks And Counting!!

5 months.....and it's our halfway mark!! Matt and I definitely had a reality check the other day when we realized that we are halfway through our pregnancy and we only have a little over 4 months until our due date! Along with our little girl being a whole 5 months, this week has been full of great events. We celebrated the wedding of two of our wonderful friends, Andrea & Christian, this weekend and the event marked the very first wedding produced by A Sunnie Affair. The wedding was touching and beautiful and I am elated that I started this company. Amidst all of the hustle and bustle of set up, I stepped back and knew this is exactly what I want to do and I'm so glad I finally started doing what I love! I could not have done any part of this wedding without the help of my wonderful Mother, Patti, who helped all 5 months of me set up tables, linens, lighting and all of the yummy details I had planned out. Thank you Mom!! Also, I was so proud of my husband, who stood as the Best Man by Christian's side. Matt's speech to the Bride and Groom was wonderful. To say the least, it was a proud night for Mommy Channel.
Our little girl has begun to beat her own little drum in my belly. This week I had the first signs of sciatic pain which proceeded to cause me to walk like the hunchback of Notre Dame all day at work and pull over two times on the way home from work because my leg cramped up so bad I could not seem to straighten it! I was feeling pretty badly and after waking Matt up at midnight to rub out another leg cramp for me...such a good husband...I tried to relax and get some sleep. As I was tossing and turning with belly aches, I was holding the left side of my belly and as I pushed in just a bit she kicked back. It caught me a bit off guard at first because when you begin to feel the little kicks you are not really sure if that's what it really is! I waited a minute or so and pushed in again, and kick again! I did that for an hour or so falling asleep with a smile on my face and completely forgetting about that sciatic pain. I see now how women forget the pain of childbirth because those moments with your little one make those hard times invisible.
We had a very positive prenatal appointment this month and we received the negative results of our Downs & Edwards Syndrome tests. Although we didn't have any reason to worry, of course we did from the moment they administered my blood test. Her measurements were perfect and my amniotic fluid all looked as it should. She is a little over 7 inches long...looks like she is getting her Daddy's long legs since the average is around 6-6 1/2 inches for 20 weeks. She is producing meconium and a substance on her skin that will protect her in the amniotic fluid.
I'm enjoying pregnancy so much and I wish I could relive all of the moments of our first pregnancy over and over, from lying in bed at night watching Matt talk to her in my belly to the excitement we get as we drive to each and every prenatal appointment. It's those moments that remind you that...Life is so good.