15 Weeks Pregnant

I am 15 weeks pregnant today!

Pregnancy Highlights:

How far along: 15 weeks
Size of the baby: Baby Hardy is about the size of a softball.
Total Weight Gain: 1.5 pounds
Maternity Clothes: None yet.
Gender: We cannot wait to find out!
Movement: I have not felt any yet.
Sleep: I am sleeping pretty good.
Symptoms: I am still getting nauseous every night starting at about 8:00pm. The Reglan I am taking is helping but unfortunately the sickness has not disappeared.
What I Miss: Simply feeling good and having energy.
What I Crave: This week I have really been craving Mexican food!

This week we had a really sweet moment with Collin involving the baby. We have been telling him daily that Mommy has a baby in her belly, which we are not sure he understands. This week when I asked him what was in Mommy's belly, he said "baby". I then told him to give it a kiss, so he lifted up my shirt and kissed my belly. He is going to be a great big brother!

Collin: The Singer

In the car after church today, Collin seranaded Patrick and I with a new song he learned. We were sitting at a red light and Collin was in the backseat just chatting away. We thought he was singing a song about the red light, so we asked him if he was saying "green, red". He quickly replied "no" and went on about his song. A couple of minutes later, after we had gone through the light, he was still singing. Patrick looked at me and said he thought he was singing the song "Deep and Wide". We started singing it and Collin got so excited and started clapping. He then sang it for us in his own little way which went somthing like this: "deep, wide, deep, wide, (a bunch of mumbling to the tune), deep, wide." It is the first time we have ever heard Collin sing and we absolutely loved every minute of it. Unfortunately the song went on for another hour or so, which means we need to teach him somthing new.

Alpharetta Fun Fest

This morning we took Collin to the Alpharetta Fun Fest for a morning of fun. Although it was really hot, Collin had a great time. We bought him twenty tickets and he walked around showing us what he wanted to do. He ended up going on an inflatable firetruck slide, inflatable Titanic slide, and the miniature train twice. They also had a firetruck from the Alpharetta Fire Department for the children to explore. Collin got in the firetruck and refused to get out. He was investigating all of their equipment and trying to buckle himself into the seat. He ended his fun by visiting the petting farm where he got to see a pig, llama, goats, duck, chicken and camel. His favorite by far was the small cow that would get right in his face and "moo" as loud as he could. Collin was a little scared at first but then thought it was hysterical. We ended our morning of fun by heading out to pizza as a family. It was a great Saturday!

Catch Air Playdate

Today Collin had a playdate at Catch Air with his friends Mackenzie and Caleb. Below are some pictures of his adventures.

Mr. Talkative

For the past two weeks Collin has been attending preschool every Monday and Wednesday. Although he comes home chatting about his new best friends Gavin and Jake and everything that happened at school, I was not sure how much talking he was actually doing to his teachers and classmates. This afternoon when Ms. Tina brought Collin out to the car, she told me that he talked nonstop all day. She said he was talking to his friends and kept saying "Ms. Tina, Ms. Tina" all day long. This was music to my ears. To think that nine months ago he was barely using any words and in speech therapy weekly, and today he was Mr. Talkative at school is a true miracle. Words cannot express how proud we are of his progress!

14 Weeks Pregnant

I am 14 weeks pregnant today!

Pregnancy Highlights:

How far along: 14 weeks
Size of the baby: Baby Hardy is about the size of an adult fist.
Total Weight Gain: None, although my belly is growing.
Maternity Clothes: None yet.
Gender: We cannot wait to find out! Patrick thinks that it is a girl and I am still not sure. Some days I feel like it is a girl and others I feel like it is a boy.
Movement: I have not felt any yet.
Sleep: I am sleeping pretty good. I stopped taking my Unisom this week but am still able to sleep.
Symptoms: I am still getting very nauseous every night from about 6:00 pm on. The Reglan I am taking is helping but unfortunately the sickness has not disappeared.
What I Miss: Simply feeling good and having energy.
What I Crave: Fanta and Publix chocolate parfaits. I am sure this is why my stomach is growing!

13 Weeks Pregnant

I am 13 weeks pregnant today!

Pregnancy Highlights:

How far along: 13 weeks
Size of the baby: Baby Hardy is the size of a peach.
Total Weight Gain: None! I initially lost ten pounds during the pregnancy but have finally gained it all back and am back to my original starting weight. Despite the lack of weight gain, I still have a bit of a belly already.
Maternity Clothes: None yet but I am very excited to wear my new Citizen maternity jeans in the near future.
Gender: We cannot wait to find out!
Movement: I have not felt any yet.
Sleep: I am sleeping good with the help of a nightly Unisom, as was prescribed by my doctor.
Symptoms: I am still getting very nauseous every night from about 6:00 pm on. The Reglan I am taking is helping but unfortunately the sickness has not disappeared.
What I Miss: Simply feeling good all day, every day.
What I Crave: Ever since my doctor's visit last week I have been craving Grape Fanta. I had never had one until my doctor's visit and loved it! A Dr. Pepper would be much better but at least the Fanta has no caffeine.

Collin's First Day of 2 Year Old Preschool

Today Collin had his first day of 2 year old preschool. I am not sure who was more nervous, him or Mommy! He is once again going to Johns Creek United Methodist Church which we absolutely love. We all went and met Collin's teachers, Miss Tina and Miss Laura, last week and Collin loved both of them and his new classroom. The only thing that made me a bit nervous was the carpool. Since he is in the preschool, he has to go through the carpool line each morning and have one of the teacher assistants walk him to his room. I know they highly recommend it and it is for his own good but it made me a bit uneasy not being able to physically walk him to the room and make sure he was okay. However, I followed their suggestions and put him in carpool and he did great. His teacher Miss Laura got him out of the car and he held her hand like a big boy and walked into the school. It brought tears to my eyes to see my little baby growing up. All day I worried about him and whether he was having a good time and making friends. When I picked him up that afternoon Miss Tina was holding him and said he had a great day up until the last hour and a half when he would occasionally ask for me. That broke my heart. However, once he got in the car he talked nonstop about school. He told me he made two new friends, Gavin and Jake, and that he danced in PE. He also told me Miss Tina gave him orange goldfish for snack. All of his talking made me think that he really did have a lot of fun. I am hoping he adjusts quickly to school and begins to love it as much as he did last year.

Baby Hardy Update

Patrick and I are excited to announce that we are expecting! We decided to wait until our 12 week appointment to share the news since the pregnancy has been very rough thus far. Since about five weeks, I have been extremely sick. I was sick with Collin but nothing like this. I was literally sicker than I have ever been and spent all day and night laying in the bed. At eight weeks my doctor sent me to the hospital for extreme dehydration and since I had lost ten pounds. I was diagnosed with hyperemesis, otherwise known as excessive vomiting and dehydration. I spent 48 hours at Northside in Atlanta getting pumped full of fluids and medicine. The weeks following the hospital visit were still pretty rough, but around 11 weeks the sickness began to get better and was only present in the evening. I am still nauseous at night but it is much better than what it was!

Despite everything that has happened, the baby appears to be doing great! We had our 12 week appointment today and the doctor said the heartbeat was very strong and the baby was measuring right on schedule. This was an answer to our prayers since I have been so sick and weak for the past three months. We were able to get a 3-D ultrasound of Baby Hardy and saw he/she putting his/her hands together like they were praying. Baby Hardy was sitting with his/her legs crossed so we were not able to tell if whether we are expecting a boy or a girl. I guess we will have to wait until our 20 week ultrasound to see whether Ansley Iris or Parker Lavon will be joining our family. Whatever God blesses us with, we are beyond excited and cannot wait to meet you!

Collin's Got Something to Share....

He is going to be a BIG BROTHER! Our second bundle of joy is due on March 20th. We cannot wait to see if Ansley Iris or Parker Lavon will join our family.

Collin's Big Boy Room

Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely LOVE decorating! I love coming up with new ideas and bringing my vision to life. All spring and summer I have been searching for a cute theme for Collin's big boy room. I knew I wanted to do something that was mature enough to grow with him over the years and that he hopefully would grow to love. I had been eyeing the Pottery Barn Kids Junior Varsity bedding for awhile and decided to go with it. I thought it looked like something that he could enjoy for years to come since it was filled with different sports scenes. And what boy doesn't love sports? I spent countless hours planning how I wanted the room to look and now it is finally close to being finished. I am only missing the books on the bookshelf, which are still in his nursery, and a CD player and alarm clock. All in all I love how it turned out! Collin affectionately refers to it as his "big boy room" but has definitely let us know that he is not ready to leave his crib yet. Oh well, it gives us something to work on.