She's Here!!!

Claire Elise Prather was born on July 8, 2007 at 10:14 a.m. in Big Spring, TX. She weighed 6 pounds 10 ounces and was 19 inches long. Both mother and daughter are doing very well. We will have more pics and information in the very near future!!!

Still Pregnant!

Yes, I'm still pregnant! We've made it to 37 weeks ;) I went to my regular doctor yesterday morning and he said that since I was to be 37 weeks today, I didn't have to be on bed rest or take Terbutaline anymore after last night. He even said I could go to work. So, I came home from the doctor's office, reported what he told me to Scott and went to work yesterday! So, technically, I only missed about 30 minutes worth of work between Friday and Monday. One of the ladies at work is convinced that I am going to have Claire on Saturday and her birthday will be 07- 07 -07. Honestly, I think that would be pretty cool, but I'm not holding my breath.

A small update on my grandma: her surgery went well yesterday; it lasted about 12 hours. The doctor said the tumor was about as large as his fist. It ended up being wrapped around her brain stem, so it is very good that they did the surgery to remove it. He said it was a life-threatening tumor. We are thankful that the surgery went well. Of course, she is still in ICU and I haven't heard anything today, but that is what I know as of last night when the surgery was finally over. Thanks to everyone who has been praying for her.

Well, I'm off to try and take a nap. It's getting harder and harder to sleep at night, so maybe I can catch a few winks this afternoon!

Recent Happenings

Thank you to everyone who commented on my last post...whether in sympathy, encouragement or advice. It's so nice to know that so many people care! The next two nights of VBS went more smoothly; I just avoided the "opening ceremonies" in the auditorium altogether and brought Will in time for his class. That seemed to work much better. We survived and VBS is over--yea! VBS is always a stressful time for our family since Scott is one of the main people in charge, so we always feel really relieved when it's behind us.

On Thursday, Scott took a much needed day off and rested as much as possible. That night, he and I went on our last Midland trip before Claire comes. Will stayed with his surrogate grandparents while we went shopping for a few essential baby items.

Why was it our last trip you ask? Well, because on Friday morning, I became really dizzy and swollen very quickly. I called my OB/GYN office to see what I needed to do. The nurse told me she would feel most comfortable if I went up to L&D and let them check me out. So, we went back up there, me thinking that this probably wasn't necessary...maybe I just got too hot or something. Well, evidently I was wrong. When we got there around noon, I was dilated to 2 cm. I already knew this because my doctor had told me so at my regular appointment on Monday. They of course hooked me up to the fetal monitor and discovered I was having contractions--again, something I already knew because I'd been having sporadic Braxton-Hicks contractions for a couple of weeks. Problem being, I was having a lot of them, and they started to become a little more regular/closer together than they wanted. So they flushed me with fluids for a while trying to see if maybe I just wasn't well hydrated. That did not stop the contractions. So they then gave me terbutaline (a contraction-stopping drug) at two separate times. At about 4:45, the contractions had pretty much stopped and they were ready to let me go home. But, of course, they had to check my dilation again. It had progressed to 3 cm with all that contracting. They still let me go home, but I have to take oral terbutaline every six hours for this next week. And I have to "rest." So, therefore, no more working, shopping, etc! It was a good thing we got that last Midland trip in before this happened :)

I'm feeling alright, but of course I'm paranoid that I'm having contractions and not knowing it. Also, the terbutaline makes me very shaky and kind of crazy feeling. I guess it also makes my heart race, so I feel more tired than normal too. I will be 37 weeks (full term) on Tuesday, so maybe if we can just get past then, everything will be good :)

This has made us really get down to business on getting ready for Claire's arrival, though...we finally hung up the shelves in her room and washed the infant carrier seat pads today. Our bags are packed and ready to go, too. Please pray for a safe and uncomplicated delivery...I have no idea if I'll be able to post again between now and then :) It seems my babies don't like to cook as long as they're supposed to!

Showered with Love :)

Last Saturday was my baby shower! It was so nice--very lovely with lots of goodies to eat and of course, some really wonderful gifts! I am so blessed to have such sweet people in my life. Thank you!

A few pictures from the event:

Yummy!!

Awww...

All the goodies

The lady whose home at which the shower was held had this motorcycle on the back porch (her son-in-law's). We thought it was too funny and so I had to pose with it! Just call me "Motorcycle Mama."

33 Weeks and "Glowing"

I'm in the shadow because the sun was SUPER bright and it was really hot out, so we took these as fast as we could so we wouldn't be all sweaty at church! :)
In front of the pomegranate (sp?) trees on the other side of the alley. This is what I back my car into everyday :)

Overdue Update

Thank you to everyone for their sweet comments concerning my birthday and anniversary! Even though we were apart for the actual day, we still had a good anniversary and birthday. Scott and Will went to the Tulsa, Oklahoma, area for Scott's family reunion and I travelled as far as Amarillo with him and stayed a few days with my wonderful friends Chelsey (at her home) and Jen. I hadn't seen Chelsey since September, so it was really nice to get to spend some time with her. I was glad to get to see my friends one more time before Claire is born. We had lots of fun cooking, watching movies, catching up, and we even got to relax by the pool. It was an excellent way to spend my birthday :)

Scott and Will came back through to pick up Jen and I on Tuesday morning and we all headed home. Wednesday was an exciting day because some of our very best friends had their third baby! I spent most of the morning at the hospital waiting but I had to go to work at 1:00 pm. Sure enough, as soon as I got to work, the baby was born. So I played flower-delivery-girl and took some flowers up to the hospital and just stayed a little longer than normal :) Congratulations to Leland and Harmony on the birth of Reese Ann! Go look at her adorable pictures here.

Scott and I had our anniversary date on Thursday night. We had a great time enjoying a meal with just the two of us and ate waaayyy too much. We walked it off by going shopping afterward :) Friday was spent preparing for our yard sale on Saturday...finally!! It seemed like everytime I would try to do this thing, it would rain or some other circumstance would pop up. We finished pricing things and prepared ourselves to wake up at 5:30 on Saturday morning to get set up and get the signs out. Yuck. We ended up doing pretty well, though, and it wasn't unbearably hot, so that was all good! The rest of the stuff was donated to charity, so hopefully someone will get some good use out of it.

This week, we will be preparing in a couple of different ways. Scott is headed to Laramie, Wyoming, for a mission trip on Sunday. He just found out last week that a couple that was going to go was going to have to stay home (for good reasons), so he has to take over their class. So, he'll be busy not only getting prepared to lead the trip, but also putting together a VBS class for 4th through 6th graders. My dad is coming on Friday to pick up Will and I for a trip to San Antonio. My cousin is getting married on Saturday and then I am going to stay there with my grandma for about week until my mom comes through to take us back home. My baby shower is on Saturday, the 16th, so she was going to be coming back our way anyway. So I figured it would be easier for me to stay with my grandma than be without Scott for another week at home.

After all that, I think we'll slow down a little (with the exception of local VBS) and will be getting ready for and anticipating the birth of baby Claire. I can't believe that I am 33 weeks along...that means only 7 to go! Hopefully we'll find a moment to take some pictures of my growing belly sometime soon. She is really quite the gymnast/kick-boxer. Sometimes I wonder if she will actually break through my skin, she pushes so hard! Seeing Reese got me really excited to get my little one here (although I don't really want her to come quite this early!) and see what she looks like and hold her. Babies are so precious! Soon enough...

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Sickness, Seniors & Storms

Sorry it's been so long, my friends! It's been an interesting week. Our family was stricken with some type of bronchial/sinus infection and all three of us are on anti-biotics. Mine started way back when I was in Houston and kept coming and going, but my body finally decided this weekend that it had gotten the best of me and put me down for a while. I was feeling quite miserable. On top of that, I had some massive back pain on Friday that was just compounded every time I coughed. It hurt so bad all day without letting up that it got me scared enough to call Labor and Delivery and see if I needed to come in and be monitored. They "said" (not really) to go ahead and come in so they could check it out. So, we spent about 2 hours in the hospital on Friday night and everything was completely normal. They chalked it up to round ligament pain. I was still hurting on Saturday, but I could actually get up and walk around, so it was better. (Sorry, Mom, if you're reading this now and freaking out, but we didn't want to call you on Friday night and scare you and I was feeling so bad the few days afterwards that I never got around to calling. You can scold me later.) Anyway, Will ended up spending the night with his surrogate grandparents on Friday night and we picked him up at around 11:00 on Saturday morning. I'm sure he would have stayed there and played all day (they live a few miles out of town in a more "rural"-type housing division, so there's lots of room to run around, and of course, they have fun things like "tractors," four-wheelers, and golf-carts to play on), but we made him come home and take a nap :)


On Sunday, our congregation honored the graduating seniors by giving them a Bible and having a potluck in their honor. I barely made it through that and got home in time to crash. Thankfully, it was also a 5th Sunday, so we didn't go back for evening services (on 5th Sundays, they have worship, lunch, and worship again right after). On Monday, I was still feeling much too ill to go into work. In fact, I still felt pretty horrible on Tuesday, but went ahead and went because I felt bad for being gone two days already. Thankfully, there was a huge stack of statements to stuff, seal and stamp, so I basically got to sit and do that the whole time. I had a doctor's appointment yesterday afternoon and had to drink the oh-so-yummy orange-flavored glucose drink. I was sort of thankful I was so congested because I couldn't really taste it! I had my regular nurse this time so I asked her if we could take another little peek at the baby to reassure me that it's a girl and not a boy. I felt bad that Scott wasn't there with me to see her (it's pretty much definitely a girl, by the way!!), but we took such a quick little look that he didn't miss too much. We basically just wanted to check those specific parts and that was it. She did get a little face shot (not great) that I'll post. I won't embarrass my daughter by putting her woo-hoo on the Internet for all to see, but believe me, I'm not worried anymore that she'll come out a boy :)

Her face is on the left, eyes looking at the "camera," her tummy is on the right.

While at the doctor, I asked him what else I could take to clear my head and he suggested gaufinisen (sp?) which is the real name for Mucinex, and between drinking the orange stuff and getting my blood drawn, I went and picked some up. It has helped tremendously! I felt so much better last night and today that I actually got my house picked up and laundry done! My house doesn't look as much like a disaster area as it did--yea!


Today, we had a big storm come through town. It looked really nasty outside. There were reports that we might get some bad hail, but it never really hailed here except for a bit of pea-sized stuff. Odessa got slammed pretty badly, though. Thankfully, we were just doused. Unfortunately, however, that meant that for the second week in a row, I missed out on Girls' Lunch Out with Harmony and Abby. I was disappointed, because I feel like I haven't seen either of them in a long time. Harmony has been super-busy with tax season and Abby has been to Lubbock a lot. So, I need to see my girls sometime soon (hint, hint!).


This weekend is Harmony's baby shower and next week my in-laws are coming to town because Will is turning TWO!!! I cannot believe that my baby will be two years old in almost seven days! Where does the time go? Enough rambling for tonight. I'm sure I will have something much more interesting next week :) Have a good one!

A Little Update

I think it is so funny how many people I know that use ointment for horses on their children's bottoms. Since I have told that Corona story, I have had so many people tell me that they use it! My only question is, how come I'd never heard of it before? Will is doing 99% better since we started using it on Tuesday. I'm so glad. It tortures us as much as it tortures him to wipe that sore booty of his! Onto other things besides rear-ends...

Will is completely moved into his new room! We got a set of box springs and a bed rail on Friday and I think it is going to work out really well. Last night when we went to check on him around 11:30, he was either still in his bed or he had gotten back into it instead of falling asleep on the floor. I think that is the first time since we transitioned him out of the crib that he hasn't been on the floor when we looked in on him. I think he really likes his bed, he just has to get used to it. He's really doing well with the whole transition, though.

In order to get Will moved in, I had to clean out the closet that was to become his. This was a major undertaking since it was the "catch-all" closet of the house. It had seasonal decorations, old Master Follies cosutmes, gift-wrapping supplies, camping supplies...you name it, it was in there. It has taken a while, but I got everything out of there that really had to come out (the camping supplies stayed). So, now the end of my hallway and a whole corner of my living room is filled with garage sale stuff. If you didn't know us and just walked in the house, you'd probably think we are moving because there is just stuff everywhere. I really really really need to have that garage sale I've been talking about having for almost a year now!

Not much else is happening...we are just hanging out, living life. I have had a few people ask me about names for Baby Girl. I am not sure I am quite ready to announce my current pick to all of blogworld yet, but if you would like to make your suggestions, feel free. Maybe you've come up with something that I've never thought of and would be just perfect for our little one.

Weekend Madness

Oh, what a weekend! Will became sick on Saturday with bad poops. Oh, how I hate poop! This did not make for a very good weekend. Scott had to preach at another congregation in town on Sunday and we also had the fun task of getting all of our tax stuff ready by Monday. Ahh! Will and I didn't make it to church services at all on Sunday, neither at our home church or the one at which Scott was guest-preaching. Oh well. It rained all day long on Sunday which was nice because it helped me get some much needed sleep.

Will had decided to get up at 5:00 Sunday morning and since he didn't have any intentions of going back to sleep, he and I went out in the rain to get breakfast at McDonald's at 6:30. I thought that would be a quick little trip there and back, but no. We waited in the drive through for what seemed like about 30 minutes. Maybe it was really closer to twenty. However, it was a ridiculous amount of time. Each person in front of me took so long to order that I thought they must all be ordering for an army or at least their entire Sunday school class. When I finally pulled up to the little ordering box, I saw that all the person in front of me had ordered was a deluxe breakfast. I was amazed. It took me maybe 30 seconds to order. Then, when I got to the window, the man told me the credit card machine was down. I had only brought my debit card and my driver's license with me. Thank goodness Scott had a stash of quarters in my car, so I had to count out $4.32 in change to pay. Crazy!

Today, Will seems to be feeling a lot better. He was in such a foul mood (I know it was because he felt so awful) all weekend that it was good to have my sweet boy back again this morning. This week is spring break (for the entire world, I think!) for Scott, so he doesn't have to make the trip to ACU tomorrow--yea! Wednesdays are always a little bit insane because of that. It's nice to have him just a phone call away.

I don't have any new pictures right now on account of my camera's batteries died and I have been too lazy to find new ones to replace them. Hopefully soon I will get some pictures up of Will's new room (still unfinished) and my lovely baby bump. Speaking of my lovely baby--she is doing quite well, it seems. She is my little acrobat. It feels like she is constantly doing somersaults and kicking and punching away. Maybe she will be a little gymnast or a karate champ when she gets older :)

Pink Anxiety

Okay, I have a question for all you moms out there who have little girls. When you went for your sonogram and the technician said (without guarantee, of course), "it looks like a girl," did you have anxiety about them being wrong? Maybe I'm just paranoid, but it's hard for me to be really excited about having a girl because I am so afraid that I will have everything for a little girl and she will come out a boy! Not that I wouldn't love having another little boy, but do you know what I mean? Am I nuts? I guess I am just worried becuase she said that there was an 80% chance it was a girl and to save my receipts if I go nuts buying pink. Well, like I said, we did not see a "turlte," and it looked like two lines to me, but I'm still weird about all this. So, my question is, did you all just accept that you were having a girl without question, or did you worry too?

Baby #2 is a...

...girl! Well, at least there is an 80% chance that it's a girl. I'm still kind of scared to believe it myself. I wish they could be a little more definite. However, I definitely did not see a "turtle," and it did look much more like girl parts than boy parts. We are excited! I now have to do a lot of looking at all the wonderfully cute girl items out there to choose what I want for the nursery. There are just too many things to choose from, if you ask me! I've been doing some surfing on eBay today already.


In other news, we got Will's new big boy room painted this weekend and somewhat put together. His new bed is good to go and valances are hung. We do need to do a few touch-ups around the room, though. We are still waiting on a rug I ordered that will hopefully look really cute and pull it together. Thanks, Mom, for all your help. We really enjoyed having you here!