Prenatal Yoga

When I was pregnant with Ava I started prenatal yoga when I was 15 weeks pregnant.  I did this up until the week before I delivered Ava and I really felt like it helped with me deal with my body changing during my pregnancy as well as my delivery.

With my second pregnancy, I feel like my life is so much busier that I did not start my prenatal yoga until 23 weeks pregnant.  I was sad to learn that the studio that I practiced in last time in 12th South was no longer offering prenatal yoga but was able to find Sanctuary Yoga in Green Hills that does offer this.  The first class kicked my butt and I was so sore afterwards that I was in pain for two days.  Besides being out of shape, this yoga studio pushes you harder than what I was use to and we are doing full on yoga poses.  The prenatal part comes in at the beginning were we sit around in a circle and discuss our pregnancy and at the end when we get in a comfy position and the teacher comes around and massages our backs.

Last night was my third class and I have had the same teacher each time.  She corrected me a lot in the beginning of the class and made a comment as she was passing about how flexible I was of which I laughed in my head because I cannot even touch my toes at this point.  When she came back around she said I was over exerting myself in the poses and while I was really flexible, I need to not stretch out as far in certain poses.  I told her that I am not flexible and then she asked if I use to be a dancer because of my body of which I politely said no but thanked her for the compliment. This gave me a little ego boost during the class because even at 25 weeks pregnant, someone thinks I am in decent shape~

I have not been taking too many pictures of by growing bump, but here is one of Britt last night at 25 weeks.

I had to include this picture of Ava.  Today is her Halloween party at school and I am picking her up earlier because we are flying to Orlando to spend Halloween at Disney's Magic Kingdom!  I am so excited to take her on this trip!

June 1, 2013

So let's go back to June 1, 2013.  As you may remember, this is the day that we said farewell to 1716 Green Hills Drive and moved out of our home.  The week for me was very emotional and I cried more times than I could count.   By 4:00pm this day we had everything moved out and I went around one last time and turned on all of the lights, left a note and a bottle of Arrington Vineyard's Red Fox Red wine to welcome the new owners to Tennessee and their new home.

By 5:00pm this day we had gone to El Palenque and had dinner.

We made a stop at CVS on the way home.

And by 6:00pm on June 1st we got this news...

By 6:01pm on this day, Travis and I were speechless.

Yes, we were wanting to expand our family this year.  Yes, we were very caught off guard.  Yes, we could not believe that we had just moved out of our beautiful home into a small condo to find out we had a baby on the way.  Yes, we had just moved the majority of our belongings into two storage units that included ALL of our baby items.  No, we did not label any of our boxes other than Storage so we have no idea where anything is at in these two units. 

The first Trimester went by and all I remember was being tired and nauseated.  I remember being very tired during my pregnancy with Ava however the nausea this time around was new for me.  It just lingered all day, every day for 12 weeks and I found if I was not eating every hour and a half, I felt even worse.

Our first appointment with Dr. Crowe was at 9 weeks and we got to see our little one for the first time and listen to the heart beat.   Although this pregnancy was a bit of a surprise for us and I was not feeling the best, one of the best sounds to hear is your baby's heart beating for the first time and I cried again just like I did when I heard Ava's.

Three weeks later at my 11 week mark, I had scheduled to have genetic testing done.  We had this done with Ava and it is good to know if there is anything wrong with the baby so that you are prepared.  It is not invasive and simply involves an ultrasound and blood work.  During the ultrasound they measure the nape of the neck and pair this with the blood results to determine if there are any signs of down syndrome.  Luckily our test came back okay and we have a healthy baby!

The good part of this test is that you get to take a peek at the baby during the Ultrasound.  Travis could not make it but luckily they gave me this photo afterwards.

I texted this picture to my husband of which he replies "Holy Crap, that's a Baby!"  Translation is he was as surprised as I was that at 11 weeks you can tell from the profile that it is a Baby and not a little blip on the screen.

With Ava I knew that I was having a girl and since I got pregnant, I said I was having a boy.  Every pregnancy is different but to me the fact that I was craving chicken wings, greasy food, and sweets made me positive I was having a boy.  For Travis he was certain we were having another girl but either way we were so excited.

On Monday, September 23rd we went to our 20 week ultrasound appointment and within seconds the tech asked if we knew what we were looking at and we did...it was a BOY!

Tears followed this amazing news and we were excited to call everyone to let them know that
Britt James was expected to arrive in February.  We chose the name after two family names, Britt is Travis' Grandmother's maiden name on his Mother's side as well as his Mom's middle name and it is also Travis' middle name.  James is after Travis' father, James Baird.

While dressing Ava is so much fun, I have had just as much fun picking out clothes and planning Britt's nursery.  I love the fact that we have a beautiful daughter and a handsome son on the way.  Life Is Good!

Last week we met with our amazing photographer, Beth with Hazel and Blue Photography.  She has done all of Ava's photo shoots and we got together for Ava's 2 year photo's.  I wanted to include some pictures of Ava announcing that she was going to be a Big Sister.  Beth sent me the below collage from our photo session and I am so in love with this sweet announcement!

I'm Learning Momma

Ava's favorite book to read at story time each night is her Bible.  As happy as this makes me, I believe that she likes this the best because of the illustrations on each page and she loves flipping the pages and pointing to the different pictures.  Her favorite page is Noah's Ark and she enjoys pointing to each animal, telling us what the animal is, and then making the animal sound.

Tonight after she pointed to each animal I told her that it was time for bed and she looked at me and said "No, Momma...I am learning!"  I really cannot argue with this logic and for a 2 year old, that is the best excuse I can think of to say on why it is not time to go to bed. After this  I had to let her stay up for another couple of minutes.

Ava Marie's 2 Year Stats

Two weeks after Ava's Birthday we went to the Pediatrician for her 2 year check up.  Ava was a champ during the check up and listened to everything that Dr. Long asked her to do.  I think that watching Doc McStuffin's has helped because she understood that it was Time for Her Check Up!  She even sat still during her nasal flu vaccine and did not cry.  Afterwards she ran to the front desk for her stickers and then we were out the door.  Ava is still topping the chart in her stats which should come to no surprise.

Height is 36.5 inches which is in the 98th percentile

Weight is 31.2 pounds which is in the 92nd percentile

Ava shares the same Birthday has a boy in her classroom.  I went to pick her up the week after her Birthday and noticed a picture of Ava and her classmate that read Happy Birthday.  Standing next to the little boy her also just turned 2, Ava looked to be a head taller than him.  Also on the playground she is almost as tall as some 5 year olds.  Even though she is this tall now, Dr. Long expects that she will be 5 feet 8 inches which is considered tall for a woman.

Ava Marie is a fun, energetic, curious 2 year old.  She loves to dance, sing, and be silly.  She has a great imagination and loves playing in her kitchen, with her dolls, and anything involving drawing.  She can count to 10, she knows her ABC's and has a great vocabulary.  She loves to run, jump, and play on the playground.  Ava gives us kisses, hugs, and tells us that she loves us.  Life is good and we are beyond blessed with Ava Marie. 

Pop on by, there is so much to do...Ava Marie Turned 2!

Well after many tears by her mother during the week, Ava Marie turned 2 on Friday, September 20th.  Everyone says that time flies but having a child and watching how fast they grow really makes this statement true.

For her 2nd Birthday, we continued the Pancake Pantry Birthday Breakfast tradition and went Friday morning before school.  Travis looked at the children's menu and saw polka a dot pancakes and thought that they had sprinkles in them so we ordered them for the Birthday Girl.  Ava was not wanting to sit still and continued to run around our table until she saw her breakfast come and then she got the biggest smile on her face and wanted to sit down.  We were wrong about the polka a dot pancakes and it turns out that they are M&M pancakes that are covered in  M&M's inside in out.  Well our chocolate loving daughter managed to pick out every M&M without eating any pancakes and so we set her to school with a sugar high. Of course I had a special outfit made for Ava to wear to school and we also picked up Christie Cookies for her and her classmates to celebrate her Birthday.

 That evening Mimi, Uncle Chace and Aunt Mandy arrived and the present opening commenced and lasted throughout the weekend. 

On Saturday morning we went and did a 5K in support of Mercy Ministries.  This proved to be a great idea because it wore Ava out so that she went down for her nap early and slept well before her big party!

After her nap, we headed to Monkey's Treehouse to celebrate Ava's Birthday with family and friends.  We had rented the place rented out and Ava loved seeing family and friends show up to her party.  As you can see Ava had an absolute BLAST and left with the biggest smile on her face.

For her party theme I wanted to keep it simple with a balloon theme and I chose the colors of pink, yellow, and turquoises as her party colors.  While I did not want to go overboard since the venue itself was a lot of entertainment for the children, I still tried to add personal touches to make her party feel special.

The balloon  started after I found these adorable invitations on Etsy.  I was going back and forth between a couple of themes but once I saw these I was sold. While I had these made, I had to punch holes, cut and add the twine to the invitations.  While this was slightly labor intensive, it was worth it for as cute as they turned out.

Next I asked my sweet friend, Kaitlin, to make some water bottle labels and punches for the goodie bags.  She is so talented and did an amazing job at matching Ava's invitation.

I then made balloon toppers for each of the cupcakes and also used the balloon punch in the place cards.

As a parent, I could not have been any happier to see how well everything came together and to see the joy that was on my daughter's face as she laughed and played with her friends.

After the party we headed to Nana and Papa's for a cookout.  Ava enjoyed opening her Birthday gifts and it was nice to unwind on Nana and Papa's back porch.  It was a very long day and we all slept well that evening but I could not have asked for a more blessed day for Ava's 2nd Birthday.