Hold on to your britches...I'm about to go catch up crazy!!

To get our Holiday season started we received some very special winter accessories handmade by the wonderful Nelda Cade...

 

We celebrated Sister's Day...though for the life of me I can't remember what we did...



We had our first fire and hot chocolate.

We had our Christmas pictures taken...

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Stephenville...

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Rosebud...

We visited Homestead Heritage...

 

I got an early Christmas present...a new craft room!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We put up our Christmas tree...

Apparently Sadie felt like a Halloween dress and wind pants was the best attire to decorate in...

 

 

We had lots of snacks...

 

We went to Christmas parties...and wore our ugly sweaters...

And played Minute To Win It...

We got our first Nativity scene...

We celebrated Christmas in Stephenville...

We had a Christmas program...

 

 

 

We went to Casa Manana...

to see Frosty...

 

 and we loved it!!!

We celebrated Christmas in Rosebud...I absolutely LOVE this pic of Mimi and Jack.







 

I don't know what Jack was so excited about...

 

Whew!!!  We've had a GREAT holiday season!!

The Day Has Come

Well, the day has come...no...I'm not talking about having a baby. My blog has run out of space for pictures. Since I doubt you would enjoy a blog without pictures I had to either pay for more storage (you know I'm too cheap for that) or I could start a new blog. So head on over to www.theballardlife.blogspot.com to continue following our growing family! Hope to hear from you soon!

Erica

A very long night

It all started last Monday. It was a normal Monday. The kids and I went to the gym. I did my water aerobics class although I wasn't feeling very well. I just felt really tired. When we got home from the gym I fixed some lunch and made a grocery list. The kids and I headed out to HEB. We returned home about 2 hours later, put up the groceries and I started on dinner. During dinner I really started to feel bad. I went to lay down on the bed and called my mom. As I'm talking to her (and finally laying still for the first time all day) I realized I was having contractions. I decided they were strong enough, close enough together and I was hurting enough that I wanted to go to the hospital. Beau called Rob and Shelli to come over to watch the kids and we hopped in teh car.

When I got to Labor and Delivery they put me in a triage room and hooked me up to the monitors. I was contracting at least every 5 minutes. They checked my cervix and gave me about a gallon of water to drink. After about an hour they checked me again. I hadn't changed enough to say I need to stay so they gave me a shot of Demerol and Phenergan to help me relax and sleep. They sent me home with instructions to come back if they continued and were bad enough that I couldn't sleep.

Two hours later I couldn't sleep and the contractions were even closer together. If I had been thinking like a nurse I would have told myself to give it a little more time since oral hydration takes longer to take affect than if I had been given an IV. However, I was thinking like a mom, not a nurse and am so nervous that my labor will go really fast (and I won't have time for an epidural) so I woke Beau up and made him take me back to the hospital.

My cervix still wasn't changing (which was a good thing - I wasn't actually in labor). They gave me more water and made me stay for another hour or two to make sure my contractions were slowing down.

At this point (about 4 in the morning) my support staff succumb to his primal desires...

I already had an OB appointment the next day. When I saw my OB he decided, for my piece of mind (I do not want to have to send my baby to the NICU if I can help it at all) he would put me on bedrest and give me a medication to try to slow contractions.

So far its been 5 days on bedrest. I've gotten quite a bit of busy work done, but my house is a wreck. I think Beau may be realizing just how much I do during the day. Since its so hard for me to relax in a messy/dirty house I've gotten up a few times a day to try to clean the kitchen or do some laundry, but it really takes it out of me and I usually end up with a lot of contractions and take a pill to try to stop them.

I would really like to make it to 38 weeks, not sure if that will happen though. Although the OB joked that after all this work to try and hold off labor I'll probably end up needing to be induced!! Ha! I have another appointment on Wednesday. We'll see how my body is responding and go from there...

I have some precious friends that are really taking care of us though. We are truely blessed.

Time to test your psychic skill...

I put a new quiz on the right side of the blog. Also, just for fun...leave a comment on this post and lets see if you can guess the time of birth and the baby's size. Good luck!!

Baby B's Shower

Last Sunday I had a baby shower hosted by some ladies at church. It was great!! I requested a Diaper/Wipe shower and ended up with over 2000 diapers!! Surely that will last a while...right??

Some yummy snacks...

One of the ladies had overheard that I am really loving owls right now so she made these delicious cake balls!...

Just a few of the gifts...

I let Sadie come with me to she shower (a continuation of Girl Time Weekend) and help open the gifts...

My lovely hostesses Glenda, Marca, Sami, Sally, Becky and Melanie (Annette not pictured)...

A few of the ladies were so sweet to give Sadie a gift (and Elijah too)...

Side note: I mentioned Girl Time Weekend...Elijah and Beau went camping (Junction) on their yearly Men's Campout and Sadie was so disappointed that she couldn't go so I told her we would have a whole girl time weekend. We painted nails, braided hair (which her new thing is she wants 2 braids every day), watched movies, had Maci and Lori Anne over and of course had the shower. She loved it! As I'm typing this I can hear her in the kitchen...she hums while she eats if its something she really likes...like she's constantly saying "yummmmmm". She is such a mess and I love it!

34 weeks

Elijah took a belly shot for me.  I think he did a great job capturing me and Baby B at 34 weeks!

And yes, I'm sure I'm not having twins.  And no, I'm not about to pop.  I will get bigger and I can't wait to hear more comments about that!

My sarcasm font isn't working today...sorry!  :)

I was made aware, the other day, that I never updated the blog about the baby's follow-up appointment a few weeks ago.  We had our second ultrasound and the tech looks at the kidneys and urinary system and tried to get the baby to show us its face, but couldn't get it to cooperate.  After that she said "let me go see if the Dr is ready".  When she came back and got us she took us to a room where the Dr was waiting.  I did not think that was a good sign...you wait on the Dr...they don't wait on you.  When we walked in he said "So...how's it going...how are you feeling?"  I said, "I'm fine!  How many millimeters were the ureters?!?"  He said, "Oh, they're fine...everything's fine."  I yelled, "Lead with that...that's all I care about."  He then said "Oh, I knew it would be fine, the ureters were right on the border of being dialated."  Hmmm....that would have been nice to know...oh say...8 weeks ago!!!  Oh well.  So everything looks good!!  Praise God!!  Thank you for all the prayers!

Easter is fun...really.

On Easter Sunday we invited some friends over for lunch after church services.  Before they arrived I wanted to take a few pics of the kids in front of Beau's roses.  They had already taken off their shoes, but I thought I'd still get some good pics.  Nope.

The first attempt...

So then I had a great idea...get them to sit in the grass...that'll be so cute.  Nope.

Ha!  My beautiful babies.  Happy Easter.