Plans and Babies Don't Mix

WELL, a lot has happened since my last post.  Let's back up a few weeks.

We hired a photographer and met with her on Oct. 22nd to take some maternity photos.  She was great!  Here are a few of our favorites.  (Please note that all these photos are copyright Stephanie Shirley Photography - please do not copy.)

Many thanks to Stephanie!

After the pictures, we continued to get things ready for the baby's arrival.  My due date was Nov. 23rd, but I was convinced that we wouldn't have a baby until after Thanksgiving.  Lesson #1 of Parenthood: things don't always work out the way you plan. :)

We had a regularly scheduled weekly doctor's appointment on Tuesday, Nov. 8th (37 weeks, 5 days), and during the ultrasound the doctor discovered that the amniotic fluid was low.  She recommended that we induce that very day.  Needless to say, we were a little unprepared for that news!  She told us to go home and get our hospital bag (not yet packed!), eat lunch, and check into the hospital.

Dan and I were both a little shocked.  We each called work to let them know that we would not be back for a while! :)

We were all checked in and settled in our room by 1:30 pm that afternoon.  Things progressed very slowly until about 5 am the next morning when the baby decided he was ready to be born!  The doctor just barely made it in time to deliver at 7:03 AM on Wednesday, November 9th (exactly 2 weeks early).

We are happy introduce Harper Tritz Hollingsworth!  He weighed 6 lbs 2oz and was 18 3/4" long.

The following 3 photos are again copyright Stephanie Shirley Photography.

The next couple of days were a whirlwind.  We checked out of the hospital on Friday afternoon.  Harper and I were both healthy and happy to go home!  We've spent the last week enjoying our new little family member.  Here are some highlights from Harper's first week of life.

Sleeping at the hospital.

getting ready to go home...

all set in the car seat.  I think he looks like he's ready for a roller coaster ride.

Hanging out with Dad at home.

After his first sponge bath.  He didn't really love it. :)

Monday (5 days old) - first doctor's appointment.  He was a champ and already regained his birth weight!

These last two are my favorites.  He loves to make little faces!  I could watch him all day long.

We'd like to thank all of our friends and family who have sent us messages of congratulations, flowers, gifts and meals this past week.  We absolutely love our little Harper!

Where has the time gone?

I can't believe that we have less than 6 weeks left until this little one joins our family.  We are both getting excited!  The nursery is starting to get full.  And messy.  

And it seems strange to see one of THESE in our car!!

 I'm still feeling pretty good.  Starting to get tired by the end of the day, but other than that, I can't really complain.  This pregnancy has really been a blessing.  Here I am at 34 weeks.

(Almost) 30 Weeks

I can't believe that Wednesday will mark 30 weeks pregnant!  It is suddenly going waaaaayy too quickly!  :)

The little one is kicking up a storm these days.  I'm finally starting to look and feel pregnant. HA!

Here is a photo taken at 28 weeks.

It's starting to feel real!

So many requests for photos lately..... where to start?

Nursery furniture!  It arrived today, and even the room is still empty of decoration, it sure is strange to see this kind of stuff in our house!  :)

(puppy not included)

crib

dresser/changing table

end table

And why not?  a baby bump picture.  This was taken last week in San Diego (22 weeks along).

for Jenna

I did a photo shoot for two great families in our ward a few weeks ago.  I've been promising a sneak peak for too long.  Here are two of my favorites.

More to come, I promise!!

Photoshoot - Family {D}

I had so much fun with this little family a couple of weeks ago!  Here are a few of my favorites!
(click to enlarge)

Week 16

Week 16 update:  my pants don't fit! :)  I've started getting fat... or, as Dan so nicely points out, the baby is growing!  I guess this is a good thing.  I'm definitely starting to feel better - still tired, but mornings are much more pleasant these days.  Next appointment is July 5th - for the anatomy ultrasound.  I'm actually starting to get excited.

In other baby news, after some prodding from our parents, we have registered.  Registering for baby stuff is a lot more stressful than I had thought it would be.  Most of the problem is that we don't know what we will need/use.  Thanks to a few friends on Facebook (thanks, Katy & Meg!), and the Baby Bargains book, I think we have it figured out.  At least for the moment. :)  In case you care, we're registered at Amazon.com,  Baby's R Us and Walmart.  AND we ordered nursery furniture!  You'll have to wait 6-8 weeks to see what it looks like, though.

What else is happening?  Well, we went to our first Astros game (with the Youth Group).  It was a lot of fun, and we stayed for the fireworks afterword, which were awesome!  Way better than a lot of small town firework shows I have seen on the 4th of July.

AND Dan pointed out my first gray hair.  AHH!  I wasn't too pleased about that one.

And what's a post without a puppy picture?

Updates!

1st Trimester Screening was today, so lucky us got to see our little hitchhiker wiggling around this morning. He's measuring at 13 weeks, right on track for our November due date.


It is amazing how quickly he's growing! Just a couple of weeks ago he just looked like a blob and now it actually looks like a real human! Pretty cool.

(We are calling the baby a "he" for ease. We do not know, nor will we find out before the Birth Day, which gender we will get.)

End of 1st trimester is 5/25. I'm already starting to feel a little bit better and a little less tired.

In other news, we finally booked our anniversary trip for July - San Diego here we come!

FAQs

After posting our happy news, we have been absolutely overwhelmed by the outpouring of genuine excitement from our friends and family. Thank you all so very much! We know that we have a lot to learn, and it will be a long journey, but we are so glad to share it with you.

There are lots of things we just don't know yet, but I thought I'd answer a few of our most Frequently Asked Questions.

1. When are you due?

Official due date is November 23rd.

2. Are you going to find out the gender?

No, we are going to keep that a surprise!

3. What? How will you know what to buy / how to decorate the nursery / etc??

Two words: Gender Neutral. :)

4. Are you craving anything yet?

Nothing too crazy. Milk, which is strange because I don't normally drink milk, and Spaghetti & Meatballs.

5. How are you feeling?

It definitely could be worse. I'm feeling tired. Very tired. Also, my stomach is queasy most of the time. Certain foods make me nauseous. And did I mention tired?

I guess that's all for now!

Milestones

You probably thought I had abandoned the blog. I almost did! But Dan encouraged me to start again and post an update... so here we are. I can't believe it is May already! The first few months of this year have really flown by for us. Lots of exciting things are happening ... so this is going to be a long post. But if you hang in there, I promise a surprise at the end! :)

I had the opportunity to travel to Glasgow, Scotland, for work. Even though it wasn't the finest time to go to the UK weather-wise, I couldn't turn it down. I spent a week in Glasgow, and traveled to Loch Ness (sadly, did not see the monster), Stirling, Doune Castle (Monte Pyton) and Edinburgh.

After a week of work, Dan, along with our friends Chris and Tessha, met me in Edinburgh. We traveled all over southern Scotland & northern England for the next week. It was a lot of fun! We saw all kinds of great things like Hadrian's Wall, the Preston England temple and of course lots and lots of castles. We also fit in a trip to the spa (for Tessha & I) and driving along the Vauxhall test track in a Land Rover Defender 90 (for Dan & Chris).

Shortly after arriving home, I traveled to Miami for our annual sales conference. The weather in Miami was a LOT better than the UK! :) We spent most evenings on Miami beach sipping cold drinks and people-watching. One afternoon we went on an air boat tour through the Everglades. We saw a lot of alligators, but I kept my distance behind the fence!

A few weeks later, my parents came to visit. We went to Brenham for some antique shopping and a tour of the BlueBell ice cream factory. But the real reason they came was to see the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo. We spent a full day walking around taking in the exhibits and then watching the rodeo that evening. It was a lot of fun (even though Dan could have stood less animals - he had a hard time with allergies especially after watching the calf cutting competition).

Slightly out of order here, we recently tipped 30,000 miles on the NSX.

It was during a beautiful drive through Sam Houston National Forest. We were both surprised at how beautiful Texas can be! :) Look at those tall green trees!

A couple of weeks ago, on a Sunday night, I went into the dining room to set the table. I almost stepped on this little beauty.

At first I thought it was a dog toy, but then I realized it was a REAL SQUIRREL. I was not happy!! I was afraid it might be alive, but luckily it was dead. The dogs had killed it and brought it in to show us. (I wasn't very impressed). Dan had fun disposing of it.

And I guess since you've read this far, you deserve some exciting news.

Yes, we're pregnant!

Crazy Times!

Happy belated New year!

This is Dan and since I NEVER post here I figured I should state that so ya'll dont think you are about to read a Chrystal post. Unfortunatley this one has no pictures or pretty scrapbook pages.

It has been a whirlwind couple of months for us and thought I would just throw in an update and hopefully soon Chrystal will be back at the helm.

Where to start, for Christmas we had my little brother and his family in town for the holidays. It was great having them down and we now know that our home is NOT child proof but we are grateful for pocket doors and the ability section off most of the house. Don't get me wrong we loved having them down and hope they can make it again but when you place a 2 year old in the hands of a couple who only has dogs it's comical at times to say the least. Love you Marsh and Emily.

The same day Marsh and Emily took their family back to Idaho, our roommate completed her internship and left for home as well. I believe it was the 2nd of January. This was the calm before the storm and it was really interesting to actually be able to hear clocks tick again. We had a full week of just us. (yes thats how subdued we are at times)

The "storm" is the amount of Travel we have and will do in just the first month of the new year. I spent a week in Charlotte, North Carolina for work. Chrystal was in Toronto, Canada for work, for 4 days. Once she got home it was time to wash and re-pack since she will be leaving for Scotland for work. Luckily I am able to join her in Scotland for the last week of her trip as a vacation. During Chrystal's first week in Scotland I will also get to spend some time with my Dad before he comes to stay in our home, entertain the pups and take me to the airport.

Considering that is just in January and February we hope the rest of the year can be come as subdued as our home. So far we can see that our schedule lightens up in April. Whoo Hoo!

We hope you all have a Happy New Year and 2011 brings many blessings for you all. Oh and don't worry, knowing me it will be another year before I post again.

Dan