37 weeks Update

Hey Everyone!

Behind on posts again so I'll see if I can catch up while Sterling is working on noms today :) So a couple of weeks ago, my sister Janna (along with the help of my mom and sister Jessica) threw us a baby shower at our house. We received so many wonderful gifts from family and friends and it was great to get the chance to visit with everyone and enjoy some nice food. Janna made us a beautiful cake and great side dishes and then we catered brisket and pulled pork from Tin Roof BBQ nearby our house. It was awesome! We played two shower games - one in which everyone guessed the size of my belly with pieces of yarn - THANKFULLY not with an actual tape measure, haha :) My mother-in-law Tammy and college friend Trey won the contest - both were pretty much spot on! I was impressed! The second game was a diaper changing contest between me and Sterling with baby dolls. I won :) But in all fairness, Sterling's diaper was rigged with mustard and brownie :) :) It was pretty entertaining to watch though I really hope his baby cleaning skills are better on our actual baby than it was with the toy baby! Here are some pictures from the shower:

Sterling's first Christmas outfit from Tammy and John :)

Me and my younger sisters

Me with my mommas :)

With mom and dad

Janna and Jessica

Sterling with both of our dads

Pretty cake made by Janna

Sterling's Aunt Debbie and Grandmother Eva Jo

Mustard and Brownie filled diaper, ha!

Rice Alumni

With our parents...proud parents and grandparents to be!

The shower was awesome! We are so fortunate to have such great family and be surrounded by such wonderful people. We lead a very blessed life :)

In other news, yesterday evening, our friends Jake and Brisa had their first child, a baby boy named Jacob! I talked with Brisa this morning on the phone and it sounds like their little family is doing well :) Brisa says that Jacob looks a lot like his daddy with blonde hair and fair skin. He weighed 7 lbs and 14 ounces. We plan to go visit them at the hospital tomorrow. I can't wait to see the little guy! Hard to believe we're next on the baby list!!!

My next doctor appointment was suppose to be this coming Tuesday but I called on Friday inquiring about medicine that was safe for me to take for a headache that wouldn't go away (had it for 5 days straight) and instead ended up having to go into the office for an unexpected visit. Because of the never ending headache and a few other symptoms, they wanted to check my blood pressure and do a urine test on me to make sure I didn't have preeclampsia. My blood pressure was a little higher than what it is normally, but still within normal limits so everything was in the clear!

Also while I was there, the doctor checked my uterine measurements and the size of the baby. Dr. Swaim estimates that miss Lauren is around 6 lbs and 10 ounces - so if she stays in utero until her due date of October 15th/16th, she will likely be "a good amount over 8 pounds" - pretty big for a baby girl. We'll just have to wait and see how early she comes (if early at all) and how accurate the estimates are :) Dr. Swaim also checked my cervix for physical changes in preparation for labor and I am 1.5 cm dilated, 60% effaced, and it is currently located about half way down to where it is suppose to be located when it is time to get the baby out! I'm not sure if that has any effect on my due date or not, but it is a good sign that my body has started to gradually prepare for delivery -supposedly this will help with the amount of pain I will experience in the stages of early and active labor if my cervix has already dilated a good amount before uterine contractions set in. After all of the anxiety from the placenta issues we had, it brings a great amount of relief to know that our baby has grown well and is considered full term and that my body is doing what it's suppose to do to prepare for her arrival. Seriously, God's timing is awesome - couldn't have asked for a better time to find some peace than right before our little one gets here :)

All we have left to do for baby prep is to install our car seat bases into both of the cars and put together the stroller and then we are ready for whenever she decides to make her debut :) My mom is predicting 7-10 days from now based on what Dr. Swaim said about my cervical progress - We're hoping she holds out past the end of bid week for Sterling's work and also past next weekend so Sterling and I can have one more weekend to ourselves where he isn't on call for work and John & Tammy don't have to miss the Texas/OU game :) We shall see when miss Lauren tells us she's ready! I will post some belly pictures soon - haven't loaded them on the computer as of yet, but keep an eye out for them if you are interested!

We hope you all are doing well!!
J&S