This post picks up right were my last pregnancy post (at 27 weeks) left off. It covers the following weekend, as well as various November and December activities we planned as "Final Pre-Baby Fun."
November 5, 2011.
My mom and siblings, Daniel, Christopher, and Mary Grace came in town for Christopher and Mary Grace's ball game jamboree against two East TN teams. Also my first shower, hosted by the CSF, was that Sunday.
We have some very dear friends, the Grahams, practically family to us, whose kids are part of the one of the East TN teams. It was fun to get to visit with them, as well as see the kids play against each other.
Christopher and Scott Graham
Christopher and Caleb Graham
Coaches - Mr. Graham and Daniel
Mom and Mrs. Graham
I felt really bad the entire time at the gym, and pretty much just reclined on Jared in the bleachers. I am usually a very enthusiastic fan, and avid "cheerer," but I didn't want to pass out again and freak everyone in the stands out, so I behaved myself and just sat, semi-quietly, watching. Oh, and checking my blood sugar, and eating non-stop... to prove it wasn't my blood sugar causing these issues! Side note: it wasn't my blood sugar. It was a combined vasovagal response that many women experience with pregnancy, exacerbated by dilutional hyponatremia. Once we figured this out, and I started drinking 1-2 gatorades a day, and adding more salt to my diet, the symptoms got much more manageable.
Nov 11, 2011 / 28 weeks
Part of my birthday present were tickets to the Lady Antebellum concert! I love their music... like, all of it. And they were amazing in concert. Even better, I have been a huge Josh Kelley( brother of Lady A's lead singer, Charles Kelley) fan for years, and he was one of the opening acts! Double Score! If you ever get a chance to see them in concert - do it! Hillary Scott's voice is to die for!
We had a great time, although the noise made Ellie go ballistic inside me! Ha ha it was pretty funny to sit and watch my abdomen jump and dance around!:)
November 19, 2011/29 weeks
These the last posed belly pics I took. I never got them made into my usual collage, or blogged about this week. From what I can remember, it was a pretty quiet week, with very little excitement. A blessed change from the previous few weeks, and a nice chance to rest up for what was to come.
29 weeks
That weekend, the Vanderbilt Commodores came to play the UT Vols in Knoxville. If you are new to this blog, I am a Nashville girl, born and raised. My dad played basketball and baseball, and was a Basketball coach at Vanderbilt growing up. So while my husband bleeds orange, I am always going to cheer for the 'Dores! :) In fact, that day I was born was the first and last time the Vanderbilt Football team beat UT, at home for years. My pediatrician always could remember my exact birthday because of this fact. With my dad's history at the University, the Tennessean actually did two articles, two decades apart on this fact.
Here is the 2nd article.
Here is the 2nd article.
The "victory" was fun while it lasted
Dec 3, 2011/30 wks
Jared and I made what will probably be our last Biltmore visit for a while. We made it an overnight trip, and went on the candle light Christmas tour, at night - gorgeous! Before heading to our nighttime tour, we stopped by the Grovepark Inn to enjoy their Christmas decorations and Gingerbread House competition displays. Several years ago, we celebrated our first anniversary with dinner at the Grovepark on their sunset terrace, seen here:
May 2009
The Christmas decorations were gorgeous, and the gingerbread displays amazing!
And this is why they call it the sunset terrace!
God painted a beautiful picture that night!
After the Grovepark, we went back to our hotel to change clothes and head out to eat at Out.back Steak House. Since this was kinda a "girlie weekend" I let Jared chose where he wanted to eat, and of course he wanted steak! Then it was off to the Biltmore!
That night, I experienced the first pangs, of what I now know was preterm labor. I just thought I was sore from all the walking we had done, especially since the terrain was so hilly. On top of that my ribcage had started expanding (something I didn't realized happened during pregnancy). The only way I can describe the pain was it was like the innermost layer of skin, next to my ribs, was extremely irritated. So irritated, it hurt to breathe.
Sunday morning, after breakfast at the hotel, we headed back to the Biltmore for one final daytime viewing. The gift shops there are wonderful, so we picked up some keepsakes for us, a few Christmas gifts, and hostess gifts an upcoming shower.
Sunday night was our final Sunday night service at the CSF for the fall semester. It was also our Christmas party. For one of the activities, we divided up into teams to race to make the best gingerbread displays... but looking back, we didn't even use gingerbread!:) My team, of course, won!:)
My husband still hasn't perfected his photography skills! ugh the blurriness.
Little did we know, we had one more week of "normal" left in our lives!
No comments:
Post a Comment