31 Weeks...Only 9 More to Go!

Yeah, I know, it's been a while. A lot has been going on, but for the readers' sake I will try to summarize.

First of all, Zeke and I officially picked a name: Evie Lynn Shotts.

I modeled in a maternity fashion show on November 11 (26 weeks). I love my outfit (I own it), but you can hardly tell I'm pregnant because of the shirt style. Had a blast and got some great prizes for participating.

No more leaving Atlanta...I'm here until Evie comes and we both get the OK to travel again. Since I had to be back in Atlanta before Thanksgiving AND because Mom, Dad, and Steph were spending Thanksgiving in Atlanta, the Treeces and Colemans had Thanksgiving dinner the Saturday before Turkey Day. Here are a few pics:

Dad, the official carver
(mom will be embarrassed I posted this pic with dad is in his painting clothes)

Papa, Me, and Granny

Me with 3 of Evie's aunts

Mom, Dad, and Stephanie visited us in Atlanta over Thanksgiving. We had a great time and shopped til we dropped - yes, we battled the crowds on Black Friday (though we waited until around 11 to head out, no 5am for us). We hit up both malls, several stores, and a few restaurants. They got to experience life in the big city and my driving in big city traffic :) I was sad when they left, and I miss them very much!

The next day, Sunday, was my second baby shower given by Leslie, Missy, and Stephanie. I was 27 weeks, 6 days. The shower was wonderful! Thanks to all! Here are a few of the many pics Mom took :)

Hostesses, Mom and Me

I'm embarrassing Evie already

Ultrasound pics at 27 weeks:

I had an ultrasound this week, but didn't get any pics. Evie was positioned head down and face away and was active. The tech had difficulty taking measurements because she wasn't cooperating. She even kicked/hit the ultrasound wand a few times. She measured 4 lbs., 2 oz. Evie got the hiccups for the first time last week (during the night). I feel great, still walking and swimming. Zeke has made comments about my movements becoming a little awkward as the belly has grown. The awkwardness is mainly getting comfortable on the couch (and getting up from the couch). In my defense, it's difficult to get comfy on the couch 7 1/2 months pregnant with my husband and dog (who takes up 1/3 of the couch despite weighing 8 lbs.). Here's a belly pic Zeke took Sunday (30 weeks, 6 days):
On the coldest Saturday of the year so far, Zeke, Panda, and I got dressed up and headed to the park to take our picture for our Christmas card. Panda was particularly excited about going to the park this day and was running wild (although on a retractable leash). We get to the park and I'm setting up the camera on a concrete pillar to take our picture. I have the leash. Panda goes around the corner of the pillar. Zeke hollars "Oh my gosh, Panda's in the water." I'm thinking he's walked into the lake and gotten his two front paws wet. WRONG!! Panda has fallen/jumped into the lake at an area that has a ledge so he can't get out. I scream, "Zeke get him out!" Zeke is apparently in shock and just stands there. I reach down into the water and pull Panda out (I'm wearing leather and cashmere gloves). Panda is soaked from head to tail, is covered in lake goo (leaves, dirt, little sticks, etc.), and is freezing. We tie him up, take the pic as fast as we can, and head home. Panda is shaking because he is so cold (Papillons do not have undercoats) so I have to take off my nice sweater jacket and wrap him up to keep him warm until we get home. I really wanted my belly to show so Evie would be in the pic, but we were in such a hurry to get it over with and get wet, freezing Panda home we just had to do the best we could:

With wet dog (and wind blown hair for me)
Without wet dog

Panda had surgery to remove an enormous bladder stone (1 cm in diameter for an 8 lb. dog is huge). Surgery went well, recovery was rough (on Panda and us). He had to wear a cone for 14 days. The cone made him crazy. We had to end up getting him a doggy drug to calm him down because he couldn't rest with the cone. (Panda's incision healed well and he is fine now.) It was pitiful...see for yourself:

Awesome Cirque show with horses

It snowed in Atlantic Station (too bad it was fake)

I can hardly zip this coat

Most recently, Zeke and I did some Christmas shopping Saturday at Lenox mall. It was crazy, worse than Black Friday! We had a good time until it was time to leave. It took us over 40 minutes just to get off mall property because traffic was so bad!

First Baby Shower!

On October 24, my friends, Juli, April, and Leslie, gave me my first baby shower. (You're probably thinking, "Isn't 23 weeks a little early for a baby shower?" Well...my doctor doesn't want me leaving Atlanta after 28 weeks so the shower had to happen a little early). The decorations, food, friends, guests, and gifts were all great!! Thanks to the hostesses and all of my friends and family. I had such a good time! I loved sharing this with all of you, and of course I loved all of the adorable little girl gifts I got! Here are just a few pics from the shower.



On Tuesday, I had my 24 week visit and growth ultrasound. I was really dreading the orange glucose drink, but it wasn't too bad. The drink tasted like those long popcicles in plastic that you buy as a liquid then freeze. I just chugged it. I had no trouble drinking it or keeping it down, I just felt really full after downing 10oz. The glucose screen came back negative,YAY no gestational diabetes! My ultrasound showed that our baby girl was growing well: approximately 1.5 lbs, 71st percentile for growth! I can definitely tell she is growing. It's obvious I'm pregnant now, as my belly has grown quite a bit. Also, she is very active. I love to feel (an see) her kick, punch, and move around!! Zeke can also feel her move if he puts his hand on my belly at the right time. She was apparently sleeping (she's not much of a morning person, she likes to party at night) when the ultrasound started and didn't cooperate well with the tech. We only got three pics because she wouldn't turn for the tech to get a good angle.

Profile
Hands (crossed)
Legs (crossed)

My OB visits are getting closer together (every 2 weeks) and I now get ultrasounds every 3 weeks. It's hard to believe I'm at 25 weeks already! Only 15 more weeks to go!!

Coming up...
Modeling in a maternity fashion show, Zeke actually has a couple of days off, OB appointment, Panda's surgery to remove his giant bladder stone, Residents' Retreat, ultrasound, ASHA in New Orleans, baby shower in Paragould, Little Rock, Thanksgiving.

Party at The Palms

If you've seen a pregnant girl driving around Little Rock or Paragould in a white PT Cruiser over the past week, it was me!! (I know what you're thinking, "A PT Cruiser...eeeww!" In my defense it's a rental car, and it was going to cost extra to upgrade to a different car. The past 3-4 times Zeke and I have had to rent a car we have been cursed with a PT Cruiser...they are noisy and have more blind spots than unobstructed views.) As usual, things have been pretty busy in the Shotts family. I left Zeke and Panda in Atlanta on Thursday Oct. 15 and flew to Little Rock. Friday morning I got up early and drove to Hot Springs to work the PhD recruiting booth at the ArkSHA Conference (Arkansas Speech Langauge Hearing Association) for a couple of hours. When that was over I drove my rockin' car (at least it was white and not electric blue or woodgrain) from Hot Springs to Paragould to see my wonderful family that I hadn't seen in months! We ate at DQ (yummy!!), Munchy's (yum!), and Memaw's (double yum!); did a little shopping; and celebrated my birthday with the whole fam (Mom, Dad, Steph, Brannon, Missy, Morgan, Granny and Papa) at Colton's where my "wonderful family" told the waiter I was the birthday girl so the Colton's gang would embarass me (but at least I got a free ice cream sundae out of it). Since the fam hadn't seen me in a few months, everyone was pretty shocked at how much my belly had grown. (I'll post a pic in the next blog.) I had such a good time with my family, but I had to leave and head back to Little Rock on Sunday. I spent Monday and Tuesday working on school stuff and catching up with some friends at lunch. Wednesday was cleft clinic day at ACH. Thursday I had a meeting with my mentor to discuss the second version of my prospectus rough draft then had dinner with some classmates. The rest of my week I spent shopping with Leslie and partying at The Palms with JT and Les. Today's agenda consists of updating my blog, schoolwork, resting, and visiting with my mom and dad when they get here tonight!

Tomorrow is a pretty big day...MY FIRST SHOWER!!! I can't wait, I'm so excited. I know it's still early, but my doc doesn't want me to travel after 28 weeks and my friends wanted me to have a shower before I was confined to Atlanta. I will definately post a shower blog complete with pics.

While I've been partying in Arkansas, Zeke's been working his tail off in Atlanta. His shifts have been anywhere from 12 to 30 hours every day this week! We even went a couple of days without talking to each other because I missed his call and he was in bed or off to work when I called him back. Since I've been gone, his daily routine has looked like this: wake up and get to hospital by/before 7am, hopefully have a working lunch, get home at 9:30pm, eat supper, go to bed. The only reason the routine changes is if he's on overnight call which consists of getting to work at/before 7am, hopefully getting to eat anything for lunch, eating chips for supper, getting 2-4 hours of sleep on a rock hard bed and plastic pillow in between getting paged, going home the next day at 1pm. I did get to talk to him Thursday night for about 5 minutes. He told me that Wednesday he discharged 4 patients, but Thursday admitted several more, and maxed out on the number of patients he can have. Poor thing! Not only has his work week been terrible, but he has no wife to take care of him when he gets home. The light at the end of the tunnel is that he has a "Golden Weekend." That is when you get both Saturday and Sunday off, which is kind of a mircle, especially when you only get 4 days off a month.

Tidbits of info...
I am 23 weeks, 4 days
I felt my baby girl give a real kick/punch for the first time last week. Since then she has been pretty active. Mornings aren't her favorite though...she prefers to party at night. A couple of days ago she started stretching out. I felt some pressure on my belly, then felt with my hand what seemed to be a hard little head. A few seconds later she moved and it was gone. She's only done it a couple of times since then.
My next OB/ultrasound appointment is Tuesday. That appointment includes the glucose tolerance test - yum!

Pink or Blue??

PINK...we are having a girl!! We found out Friday morning. We are so excited. Now the name game and shopping begin. Zeke started a new rotation Friday morning, medicine wards, and couldn't go with me so he had to find out via phone call. His first day on the new rotation he worked a 30 hour shift, had chips from the vending machine for supper, and only got 2 hours of sleep. We didn't actually get to celebrate our little girl until Sunday at lunch.

The last few weeks have been crazy! Here's a summary...
Zeke and I both got the swine flu. (I don't remember ever feeling that bad with an illness, and we still have a lingering cough.) As soon as we were well enough we went to New York for vacation. While there, we made our first baby purchase, an I heart NY onesie (gender neutral because at the time we didn't know gender yet). NY was great, we ate lots of incredible food and saw 6 shows in 4 days, but we had to take naps every day. We left NY on Sunday. Zeke went to Atlanta and I went to Little Rock for my white coat ceremony at UAMS. I flew back to LR on Wednesday. Thursday, the Shotts and their foreign exchange student, JP, came to Atlanta to visit. We (mainly the Shotts and I because poor Zeke had to work) had a great time. We ate lots of yummy food, and Vern Ann took me maternity shopping for my birthday! Saturday afternoon, the Shotts left and Zeke came home from his 30 hours shift and slept for a few hours. Sunday Zeke and I went to church for the first time in a few weeks. It was so great to get to attend church again. After church we went out to eat to finally celebrate our little girl! We ate at a brunch buffet that had pizza on it. Zeke got a piece of pizza with avacado, chicken, tomatoes, etc. and said it was great I should get a piece. When he was almost done with the slice, he spit something out of his mouth and said, "I think that's shrimp." For those of you who don't know, according to allergy testing, Zeke is deathly allergic to crusteceans (shrimp, crawfish, lobster, etc.) I ask the chef, and yes pizza had shrimp on it. I freak out. I had removed the two epi pens I usually keep in my purse when I traveled to Little Rock. I was thiking, "AHHHHH! I'm going to lose my husband and be a single mom!" I start asking Zeke a million questions about how he felt, what should we do, where was the cloest hospital, etc. Zeke is super calm and says he's fine, keep eating. I keep eating, but I constantly ask how he's feeling. He never exhibited a single symptom, not even a hive which is a miracle because he has previously broken out in hives just from eating food cooked on the same surface as shrimp.

This week I am working on my dissertation (as always), catching up on housework, looking at adorable diaper bags (pink of course), and trying to figure out what babies need so I can register. Zeke is working, another 30 hour overnight call shift this week. We are having community group at our place this week for the first time. We are meeting in the club room of our condo building because our actual condo is so small. I'm looking forward to it...we really like our new community group!

A first!

Though this blog covers all of our adventures, the biggest is our baby!! I really should have started this several weeks ago, so to catch you up here's a review of the past several weeks:

Week 4 - Moved to Atlanta and found out we were expecting!! We told our families that weekend and of course they were just as excited as we were!

Week 9 - First prenatal appointment at UAMS and first ultrasound...baby's first picture taken :)

Week 10 - First prenatal appointment at Emory. Saw the heartbeat and baby moving around - I cried.

Week 11 - Zeke got to go to my ultrasound appointment with me at Emory. We heard the heartbeat for the first time and got to see the baby moving around!

Week 12 - Got to hear heartbeat again

Week 14 - Emory - My blood pressure was low for the first time in 4 years, and the doctor discontinued both of my blood pressure medications. UAMS - had my last prenatal appointment at UAMS and got to hear the heartbeat again. All prenatal care will now take place at Emory. This was the first week I noticed my pants getting a little tighter around the tummy.

Week 15 - My baby bump is noticeable (though small). I had to wear a belly band with my jeans for the first time. I like that I'm getting a tummy!

Week 16 - Heartbeat good at prenatal appointment. Started a tiny dose of Thyroid medication to keep my thyroid functioning within normal limits throughout the pregnancy. Will find out gender at next visit (Oct. 2)!!

Back to present day...

Zeke and I spent the holiday weekend in Charleston, SC. Sunday night we were laying in bed watching TV when I felt a new sensation in my lower abdomen. I grabbed Zeke's hand, placed it on my lower abdomen, and asked Zeke if my uterus was there. He calmly said, "Yes, why?" I told him I thought I just felt the baby move for the first time. I did!! It was little flutters like the books say. I poked the baby a little so he/she would move around more and he/she did! I felt it for several minutes, then Zeke told me to quit poking the baby and let him/her get back to sleep. I hope I feel the baby moving again tonight!