Updated U/S Picture

Here's the latest picture of the baby. She's weighing in at 4 lbs 7 oz based on the US. Her kidneys were completely normal and the placenta had moved way up to the fundus and is no longer near the bottom. I saw my regular doctor on Thurs and she didn't mention anything about my 3 hour GTT so I'm taking that as good news. Most of the U/S wasn't that interesting as she no longer fits very neatly on the monitor and it's really hard to make anything out. The doctor played around with the machine for a while and decided to do a few 3-D shots.

Question: Did anyone out there interview pediatricians before choosing one? My phone nurse suggested I do this.

Our Atlanta Weekend

Our weekend in Atlanta was fun if not a little crazy. The worst part was traffic. I may have grown up in Georgia but I really have never spent much time in downtown Atlanta much less Buckhead so the trip was almost as new for me as it was for Graham. The traffic was a bit stressful as well but I think it was more the lack of familiarity with the area rather than the amount of traffic. We arrived at our swanky Buckhead hotel Saturday evening and pretty much crashed. Sunday morning we woke up late and ended up eating brunch instead of breakfast at the Bear Rock Cafe. It was overcast most of the day and rained a little but that kept the temperatures down which made the Zoo much more enjoyable. We spent about 4 hours at the zoo seeing all the animals and most of the bathrooms (Okay that was really just me :-P). After vegging in our room for a while we decided to be cheap for dinner and get everything to go so we wouldn't have to pay a tip. We went to the Cumberland Mall Cheesecake Factory as the one nearest our hotel only had valet parking and I have this issue with paying people to park my car when I can do it perfectly well. The restaurant was SO crowded and all we wanted was two slices of cheese cake boxed to go. This took 30 MINUTES however it was well worth it. I tried the pineapple upside down cheesecake while Graham got some coffee chocolate concoction which was also very good. For our main course we had decided to get pizza from the California Pizza Kitchen at Lenox. Graham had the number with us so we could order and pick it up on our way back to the hotel. He called and was told they closed at 6:30 (it was now 8). 6:30 seems awfully early to me to close but it was a Sunday. Since our dinner plans fell through we decided to get take out from Maggiano's (neither of us had eaten there) and it was conveniently located right next to the Cheescake Factory. Monday we woke up early to try to get the aquarium early but between traffic and breakfast we didn't get there until 9:45. My parents arrived around 8:45 since they weren't sure how bad traffic would be. I would say the aquarium was definitely worth the money but I have some advice for anyone planning a trip:

• Go on a weekday if at all possible
• Buy your tickets online in advance and for the earliest hour you can. If I went again I would get tickets for 8 am as it was so much easier to view the exhibits before it got really crowded.
  
• Check to see what items are prohibited inside. Graham had to run back to our car with our knives (yes I carry a keychain pocket knife) and my gum as neither are allowed. Also, even though they say no drinks you are allowed water.
• The restaurant had really decent food at prices that weren't bad considering they had a captive crowd. Buy the smallest cup size - it's free refills. Also, drinks aren't allowed in the exhibits but take a purse large enough to put the cup in and just dump it out when you are ready to go back into the exhibits. We did this and just refilled between exhibits.
• Go to the Ocean Explorer exhibit first. It's the biggest, most popular, and most impressive. I guarantee you'll want to spend quite a bit of time there just watching the fish in the HUGE, and I mean HUGE window.
• Park in the first parking garage on Alexander St. It's the same price as the aquarium parking and closer.
  

Well I think that's all. I do have a few pictures but not on this computer so I'll post those later.

We Bring Out the Animal in...Animals?

Rhino Love
During our visit to the zoo we were treated to a show by a male rhino. He had his back to us but decided he needed to prove to us how "manly" he was. Let me just say that by the time he was done there was no doubt and the length was comparable to say, my leg! There were no females in sight so who knows what prompted this show. An older guy next to us said "I have got to get one of those!"

Baby Beluga - Almost
At the aquarium we gathered around the Beluga tank to watch the 3 females and 1 male. They are really graceful creatures, quite social, and remind me of really large dolphins. An aquarium employee was giving us a bunch of facts on the Belugas when he paused and said "It is mating season for the Belugas and I believe we are about to see an example of that." Not once, not twice, but THREE Times the male beluga went after one of the females at the very FRONT of the tank. We were "treated" to very close up views of his anatomy. The female was playing hard to get and he never did succeed while we were there but who knows, maybe that night there was some Beluga love.

31 Weeks

Can I just say that I feel as big as the side of a house? Graham being the loving husband tells me I'm not but as I've never been this large before in my life it is a bit disconcerting. But then, I figure all pregnant women feel that way towards the end.

Long overdue & Long winded

Since it's been a while since I last posted anything of substance I have a feeling this will be long. Consider yourself warned! :-)

Vacation
Our mini vacation at the lake was nice but boy did it make all of us really miss the beach. There's nothing like not getting to go your usual vacation spot to show how much you really enjoy it. I think all of us are sad that we won't get to go this year but we are all looking forward to next year when our newest addition will be joining us. If we go our usual time, September, she will be around 1! Our accommodations were nice but not so nice that I would buy a place there. These town homes were selling for 400K and on up and the craftsmanship left a lot to be desired. Also, the appliances in the unit were base level appliances and since we saw these same appliances in other town homes it must be their standard. If I was paying that much for a 3 Bed, 3 1/2 Bath town home I would really want something more top of the line. We really didn't do too much. Daddy played golf 3 times and Jack played with him once while the rest of us took it easy and enjoyed reading and the swimming pool. Graham and I went fishing a few times and he almost caught one. A fish came after his bait right as he was reeling it in. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures to post - I completely forgot about taking any. We did have several funny things happen on vacation.

1. The people we rented from are also trying to sell their unit. (550K if anyone is interested). On Thursday I noticed flashes in the hallway from the sun like someone had shut a car door outside. I thought maybe it was daddy returning from his golf game. Then we heard someone at the door. Momma walked down the hallway to be greeted by a Realtor who was surprised to see us there. She said her MLS listing showed the unit as unoccupied. She asked if she could show it and Momma told her it wasn't ours and that we were renting. I guess the Realtor figured it probably wouldn't be nice to impose on us and it's probably a good thing as we are fairly neat on vacation but not "show a home" neat. A few days later we had a lady walk right in when Graham was in the hallway and he asked if he could help her, she yelled sorry and ran out of the door. I'm guessing she was another Realtor. (Just to be completely honest, I had to try several spellings to get the right one for Realtor. :-P )
2. On our first night in Seneca we drove down to Clemson to eat at a place called Calhoun Corners. According to the information in our town house it was rated a really good upscale place to eat. We had no clue what to expect and it was good, and quite upscale. After the salad course the server brought out little dishes of lemon sorbet. I wish you could have seen the look on my dad's face. Momma and informed him it was a palate cleanser between courses. Although it tasted really good Graham said he couldn't eat it as it was too weird to have something that tasted like dessert before the main course.
3. As we were driving back from the above restaurant we hit a major rainstorm. We rolled up to the gate where we were staying (it's a gated community at night) and I punch in the code. Nothing worked. I try and try and try and cannot get it to work. We were about call the people we were renting from when daddy came around to try the code. Evidently water has splashed up on the keypad making the bottom three numbers not particularly sensitive. He had to push incredibly hard to make them react. I was quite glad we didn't have to sleep outside the gate that night.
   

Pregnancy
As I said before my GTT really did a number on my blood sugar but I have now recovered and am feeling much better. I haven't heard anything back from the Dr's office and it's been almost 2 weeks so I'm hoping that is a good sign. On July 17th I go back to the maternal-fetal specialist to have another Level 2 U/S to check the placenta and on the 19th I have my regular OB appt. I'm crossing my fingers that all will be well.

Work
Work has been crazy. I have been putting in some incredibly long hours (for me) trying to get a project done. Working those hours has just left me zapped but I think that project has wrapped up and hopefully life will be back to normal. Thus far I haven't felt the need to cut back my hours further and should I continue to feel as good as I have thus far in my pregnancy I plan to work right up until delivery.

Nursery
Now that our nursery is painted we are slowly but surely getting stuff put in there. We've taken down both of the twin beds which Graham's parents will use for guest room beds until we need them back again. They are currently still stored in the nursery but we plan to take them over to his parents house tonight when we go for dinner. Graham bought the dresser on Monday and brought it home on Tuesday. Since we had Wednesday through Friday off he worked on it to get it stained and polyurethaned and we moved it into the nursery today. It came with plain wooden knobs but I plan to use these knobs instead. I just need to order them as our local hardware stores want an arm and leg for them. Can I just say I love shopping on the internet?

Momma, Daddy and my grandmother bought our bassinet/pack and play and that arrived on Tuesday and is now set up. I still need to wash the sheet that goes over the mattress but other than that it's ready to go. I was also excited to see that a few items have been purchased off of my registry. Most notably is my car seat! :-)

Birthdays
Graham and I both celebrated our Birthdays the last week of June along with our anniversary. I told Graham I really wanted a nice watch for my birthday/anniversary. I haven't had one for a while, mainly because the type of watch I wanted was more than I wanted to spend except for as a gift. I gave him my qualifications (silver tone, a scratch resistant crystal, preferably a citizen eco-drive) and he went to work. He did a bunch of research and found 3 he thought I would like. He very nicely offered to let me view them to see what I thought and I'm glad he did as one of the watches was not exactly what I wanted. I told him to pick from the remaining two and on my birthday I got to wear it. I've very much enjoyed having a watch again and it's exactly what I wanted. He did a great job. It's basically this watch without the diamonds.

For Graham's birthday I planned a trip. He has mentioned so many times that he would like to go to the zoo or aquarium. Next weekend, after his cousin's wedding on Saturday, we will leave for Atlanta and stay at a hotel in Buckhead. On Sunday I have tickets to the zoo and on Monday we have tickets (along with my parents) to the aquarium. I haven't really planned out anything else except that we'll eat at the Cheesecake Factory. We really didn't go anywhere special for our anniversary so this will be our anniversary dinner.

Other odds and ends
I've enjoyed my time off this week by working on a crochet project for our newest addition as well as birth announcements. I found some really cool scrapbooking cardstock at Hobby Lobby that I cut into 6x6 squares. I've punched holes in each one for green coordinating ribbon I tied at the top. Once the baby makes her arrival I'll print out the details on white 4x4 cardstock and then glue it onto the 6x6 squares, pop in an envelope, and I am good to go. I spent a lot of time today going over who I need to send announcements to. Right now I am at 70 and plan to make extras just in case. Thankfully I already have 52 done and they really didn't take that long. The other nice thing was almost everything I needed to complete this project was on sale at Hobby Lobby this week! I still need to find/make envelopes, address them, and get stamps.

Well I think that about wraps it up. Congrats if you made it through the whole thing!

Addresses Please

I'm working on my list for announcements and need an address from most of you. If you could send me an email with the address in it, I would greatly appreciate it.

Katie, Amy, Beth, Liz, & Rebecca - I have some of yours but I want to confirm.
Jen - I have yours but I need your parents as I'm sure their address changed even though they just moved across the pond. :-)

My email is kelleyDOTcollinsATgmailDOTcom

Replace the DOT & AT with . and @ respectively :-)