Some Major Movement

Before Friday Night, I would say that our son was a calm baby! I feel him move every once in a while ... and only a couple of kicks, and that's it

It was finally 1 am when we went to sleep. I finally had my bladder empty, comfy in our air-up mattress, and settled in for sleep! Or so I thought ...

Baby Neal decided it was not sleepy time yet, and began to kick, squirm, elbow, flip, etc. I rolled over and told Bryan that his son would not go to sleep! I put his hand on my stomach ... and 2 seconds later he was like whoa, I felt that!

So early early Saturday Morning on August 15th at 19 weeks, 6 days ... Bryan felt the baby move for the first time!

Camping at the Horse Shoe

Ten of us decided that we would rough it for one night (don't ask me why)!! We played volleyball, chatted, grilled, etc.

Jaime and Clint!
The boys broke out the cigars and Dr. Pepper!!
Lookin Good, Boys!

So, we decided to play some Mexican Train!
(Charlotte, Kaela, Lacey and Jill)
We went to bed around 1AM ... Well that is what time we went to our tents! I could not sleep worth anything

All the things that kept me awake:
-2 raccoons a couple feet from our tent ... trying to find some food
-a really stinky skunk
-pecans hitting our tent and the trucks
-the baby kicking me like crazy
-the kids next door crying
-very lumpy mattress
-having Bryan take me to pee X3

I was so excited to finally see the sun come up!

The Brave Souls ...
Bryan, Me, Darren and Charlotte, Jaime, Danah, Blair and Lacey, Jerrica, and Clint

I am sooo excited about sleeping in my bed tonight!!

The New and Keeper Carseat

Yeah, the UPS guy came by about 5PM!!

... a little beat up ...

Of course (even though we had somewhere to go) ... we put the stroller together!

We loved it!
It's light green with brown!

This one is definitely a keeper!! We can't wait to put a little baby in it!!

Tale of the Two Carseats

As soon as we got preggo (and actually before), I have been searching long and hard for a car seat! This, I felt, was our most important purchase ... and I didn't just want to get the first one I could find that I liked!

Within the past month, I decided that Chicco was our brand, and the Cortina/Key Fit was what I would like to have! I then began to search just this car seat for the best price around!

Last Wednesday, I found it at Babies R'Us for 15% off and Free Shipping! When you are looking at hundreds of dollars, 15% off really adds up! And who wants to pay shipping on something that weighs 45 lbs! I told Bryan that I had never seen this travel system that cheap, so we decided to make our first big purchase and order it! We were soooo excited!!

After they shipped our travel system, I checked the tracking number to see when it should be here! Tuesday (8/11) was the big day! So on Tuesday Morning, I checked and sure enough it was on schedule and out for delivery in San Angelo! I kept waiting for the call from Bryan saying that it had come in ... but that never came! I was home by 5PM and thought it was weird that we had not received it! I check the tracking to see if there was an update! At the top, where it had said "In Transit" all day ... now said "Exception"! In the comment area, it said that "UPS needs the correct street address. UPS is trying to obtain this information from the customer."

I didn't know if I was supposed to call them ... or if they would contact me! So finally around 6:30PM, we decided to call UPS (which is a 800 number)! I explained the situation, and so he read the address that they had for us ... and of course, it was exactly correct! So he took my name and number, and they were going to locate the local UPS ... then the local guys would call me! Shortly afterwards, they did! He said that the girl running that route did not know this area very well, and couldn't find our house! !?!?!? So I guess, instead of called someone and asking for directions ... she just decided to go back to the warehouse! He told us we should expect our carseat tomorrow (wed).

Wednesday was another normal day! I went to work, got logged on, and started the day! Later, I checked my email ... and I received one that made things a little complicated! It was from diapers.com ... Enter for a $1500 sweepstakes! Well, why not ... we could use that! hehe After I entered, I went to their website to see what all they had! They have all kinds of baby stuff ... including carseats ... Chicco carseats! Of course, I had to go check out the price! You can imagine my shock, when I found our exact travel system (different color) for $30 cheaper! And I thought I really did my research! But how was I to know to look on DIAPERS.COM!!! They had the system 14% off, with FREE Shipping, No Tax ... and then an additional 10% off! I called Bryan ... and when I said, that I wanted to send back the travel system from Babies R'Us (yes, the one we had not even received yet) ... I think he thought my crazy preggo hormones were talking!

Talking to Babies R'Us was the first thing we had to do ... if we had to pay to ship it back (which would cost at least $20), it would not be worth the trouble! So I called babies r'us and told them that I had found another system that we liked better (that was all I said), and that we needed to return the one we ordered from them! The guy said "ok, I will send you a UPS return label to your email! Print it out, put it on the box and take it to a local UPS store!" YES! Exactly what we had hoped to hear! We would not have to pay a cent to ship it back!

After we heard that great news ... AND since the extra 10% off sale was only for Wednesday and Thursday ... we decided to go ahead and buy the carseat travel system from diapers.com!

And Finally Last night around 8PM, we received the first travel system!

The system is choco brown, beige ... lined in orange!

Of course, we had to take it out of the box and play a little!

So Yesterday, we received a really cool travel system. Today, it is in my car, ready to go to the UPS store after work. and Tomorrow, we should receive the new travel system!!

Sweet!

We received a little surprise in the mail yesterday!

Thanks Anna! We love this onsie!! :)

19 Weeks

Well, we definitely had some funny things happen this week!

Last Sunday, I was sitting in the deli area at Target, sipping on a strawberry smoothie (which was great)!! A girl sat at the next table and began to eat her hot dog! She then said to me, "I think they made places like this for pregnant women!" I was like, "Are you pregnant?" (She definitely didn't look it! She said yes, I'm due in march ... when are you due? This was the first time that someone I didn't know asked about this pregnancy!

Then on Monday, we went to the airport to pick up Jill! Bryan saw an old friend in the lobby, and played catch up with him. I walked by them to go to the bathroom. When I came back Bryan said that when I walked by, his friend said is that your wife? Bryan said yes. Then he asked if we were expected!? I guess it is getting obvious!

A cottage parent (a guy) told me that that I am "protruding"!!

Then at the colts game on Thursday, we saw an old friend! As soon as I stood up to hug her, she said, "You are expecting?!"

It's kind of weird, but I guess we can say that week 19 is when it became obvious to the public eye that I'm pregnant!

Almost half way there!!

A Few Items

Of course, after we found out we were having a boy ... we had to go buy some BOY clothes!!

Yes, I think Little Boys are Special!
(Thanks, Roy & Mary!)

Academy was a necessity for camo!

I have been buying clearance baby clothes since we got married!! These are all the boys clothes Little Neal already has!!

You will find no dresses or bows or princess shoes in there!

My Sweet Baby Boy

SO this might come off as jibberish to some of you, but I want to remember how I felt after we found out we were going to have a little boy!!

Let's start with a little before:
For the past couple of weeks, I had been pretty sure that this baby was a girl! I had dreams about girls, my friends were having girls ... it just seemed right! Bryan even started to feel the same way! But this past week, he was like i think it actually might be a boy!

On Sunday Night, our neighbor asked me what we were having! I said a girl ... no hesitation, no "i think"!

Monday morning was a different story! I woke up at 6:30am, rolled over and poked Bryan! He was like what? I said, "Bryan, it's a boy!" He said yeah, I think so too! We both had had dreams about it being a boy!

Skipping ahead to after the appointment:
I, all of a sudden, felt totally different! The day before ... I had been carrying a baby, what had looked like a peanut, a little alien, and I had even been told it looks like a grape and a peanut together! BUT NOW, I am carrying my son, our son! We saw his organs (bladder, kidneys, stomach, heart, which was pumping like crazy)! We saw his little man part, which does not make him just a baby .... it makes him a human baby boy!! We saw his arms, legs, fingers toes ... and even his long spine and little rib cage!

All of this hit me, and by the time we got to the car ... I was bawling! Bryan's like what's wrong! I was like, Call me crazy, But I love him even more now than I did yesterday! Yesterday, I loved this "thing", "it", "baby neal" inside of me ... But Today, I really love "Our son", "My baby boy"!

We can blame this all this emotional crap on my pregnancy hormones!

*Also, I forgot to say yesterday ... We finally got to hear the heartbeat! She turned the speakers on and there it was, loud and clear! I said, "that's the first time we have gotten to hear the heartbeat!" And then she turned it off! His heart was beating 144 bpm!

*After the appointment, we got spoiled with a couple cute boy outfits and some picture frames! Thank You so much, Mary and Roy!! We really appreciate it all!!

We do not have a name for our baby boy yet! Nor will we name him until after he has made his arrival! Our plan is to have 2 solid, full names picked out! Right now, we have a lot of names, but not really anything set!! For now, we are calling him our cowboy!

Thanks for all the comments!! We are very excited to blessed with a little boy!

It's a ...

Today was the big day!

I woke up at 6:30 this morning ready to go!!

I started drinking my water to fill up my bladder, and we finally left the house at 7:50AM!!

We checked in, gave our papers to the ultrasound lady ... and then sat down and waited!

Of course, this whole time ... all I could think about was how full my bladder was!!

Finally, she came through the door and said, "SUSAN!"

We went to the room (with our group: Bryan, my parents and his parents). I hopped on the table, and she began the procedure!

The lady looked, and I guess found everything she was looking for!

Then she said those three words we have been waiting to hear:

"IT'S A BOY!"

I started bawling right away!

We are so excited!!

The doctor says everything looks good!

Thank You, Jesus for blessing us with a healthy baby boy!! :)

This picture is from the bottom view!

Bring on the Boy Names, Bugs, and Baseballs, etc.

18 Weeks

It has been pretty normal around here!

I feel the baby move, more and more every day!

Almost half way through, and it feels like only yesterday we found out that we were preggo!

A Softball Tourney

This weekend, Bryan and his friends participated in a softball tourney! Bryan's Brothers, Ryan and Troy, were able to come down and play also!!

Saturday started off really hott ... then by our 7:30PM game, it was cooling off, with dark clouds in the background! Of course, it started lightning and rain on us ... until they finally cancelled the rest of the games for the day!!

Sunday, we started out with a game at 9AM! We lost and had the rest of the day to ourselves!

Group Photo!

The Neal Brothers

Fun Times!

Taking All Guesses!

Monday is the Big Day!

We will be finding out if I am growing a Baby Girl or a Baby Boy!

What do you think!?

Some Info That might help your decision:
-I am carrying low, and out front ... which points towards a boy!
-We did some of the "Japanese" guess the gender quizzes: all three pointed towards a boy!
-We have not heard the heartbeat, so no conclusions there!
-There are 3 granddaughters on Bryan's side ... so we either have the 4th or the first grandson.
-My grandmother has FOUR great grandsons, so we either gave her her 5th one or or first great granddaughter!
-I have 8 girl friends from high school that have had babies, which equal to NINE GIRLS, No Boys! So, I have either put us into double digits with girls, or broken the tradition!

Bryan and I are just praying for a healthy, happy baby ... we don't care what the gender is!!

Spring Cleaning ...

Just a few months late!

Bryan and I have done some major cleaning this past week! I am honestly surprised at how far we got! Since we moved in ... we have had 2 rooms that are just where all the junk is stored: The storage room and the office, which will soon be the baby's room!

We have thrown so much stuff away ... It was crazy to think we had all that in our house!!

We have a nice size pile of things going to the Salvation Army!

The end result makes me smile!

The Baby's Room ...
Ready for Paint and Furniture!

Headed to the Salvation Army!

Our Storage Room!
Bryan hung his golf bags and bat bag from the ceiling! Great space saver!

That's a lot of stuff for shelves ...
but everything is organized on it!

Making room for a baby is tough ... but I loved doing it!

Beginning the Process ..

Today, I was supposed to go to the hospital from 6AM-6PM. But I got that wonderful call at 5AM that said they didn't need me! :)

So we took advantage of my free morning, and Bryan also being home ... and began the process of making room for the baby!

Starting in our storage room, we made three piles in our living room/kitchen: Boxes to go in my parent's attic, Trash and Salvation Army!

We had most of the stuff out of there and in one of the three piles in no time! We were then able to clean the floor really good! Now we are slowly moving stuff out of our office (which is now the baby's room) in the storage room!

Just to show how hard my hubby worked ...

Nice Clean Room!!

No, we did not paint that room ... someone had done it before we moved in!! hehe

Week 17

This has been an exciting week for me!!

On Saturday, I felt the baby (or I'm about 95% positive it was the baby) move in my stomach for the first time!

When Bryan puts his ear on my tummy, he says there is twice as much movement/noise as there used to be! Baby Neal is definitely growing and getting stronger!

I am hungry all the time! I eat a normal helping of food at dinner ... then in about an hour, I am hungry again! I am trying really hard to get in all the food groups within the day ... and with these hot summer days, I easily drink my 8 cups of water a day!

People keep asking me if I am having any cravings! I would have to say nothing really yet ... though I could eat fresh fruit all day long!! But I've always liked fruit, so I don't think I would consider that a craving!

Luckily, my clothes still fit! My shirts are longer, so yes they are tight on my stomach ... but maternity shirts are still too big! All of my pants/shorts can still be worn with the help of a Belly Band (which I love)!! Dreading that day, when I can't wear normal clothes in my closet!

Picture of the Week: