Cason’s Here

Cason Philip arrived 5 weeks early! 

April 16th, 2010

2:17am

6lbs 12oz

19.5 inches

Our First Family Picture

More about our whirlwind birth story and more pictures coming on Filling The House!

Baby Shower – Part 1

Saturday was my baby shower.  Two of my awesome friends, Suz and Jennifer, and my two awesome sister-in-laws, Whitney and Stephanie, hosted the shower at Stephanie’s house.  They did a fantastic job. 

Super cute cake incorporating a little of me and a little of Ryan!

So much delicious food!

Banner on the fireplace.

I somehow didn’t get a picture of the cute water bottles that had custom made labels with Cason’s name and the same pattern as his crib bedding.    I also never got a picture of me with the hostesses, or with my mom, or with Ryan’s mom.  Ah, that’s my life!

I’ll post more pictures from the shower/gift opening later.  Thanks to the four of you for all your hard work. Ryan and I both really appreciate it! 

32 Week Appointment

Today was my 32 week appointment with the doctor.  Still just moving along with nothing new to report.  I signed all the papers at the hospital to authorize treatment/payment so that is marked off the list.

I guess the biggest news was that the scales are finally starting to match the way I feel.   I'm up about 15lbs.  With two months left, I guess thats pretty good.  Heartbeat still sounded just fine, blood pressure is fine, etc, etc.  I'm thankful to not have any complications and to be generally feeling well.

Cason definitely has a daily routine and I hope this routine carries over into life on the outside (ha, like I'd be that lucky).  I don't feel him much in the mornings unless its a weekend and we sleep in.   By the time I am in the car and headed to work he's awake and moving around.  I guess he's repositioning himself.  His favorite position seems to be having either his feet (or hands or knees or elbows... something) pressed right at the top of my belly, almost to my ribs.  He stays in this general position most of the day while I'm at work so I often feel kicks and rolls and other movements right across the top.  He's pretty active all day while I'm at my desk and into my drive home.  Once I'm home and moving around cooking dinner, it must lull him back to sleep.  He'll wake up and start moving around again when we are watching TV and getting into bed.  But, he's a good boy and doesn't keep me up all night (please, please, continue this habit... ha).

The movements are a lot more intense (best word I can think of) now than before.  It's not just a kick or punch here and there but longer movements with a lot of pressure.  Sometimes I have random lumps sticking out which aren't too comfortable and often one half of my belly will be bigger than the other (I picture him in there with his butt up in the air)  The movements at times are uncomfortable but always welcome because I know that means he's doing okay in there.  Ryan can feel him more often but does still seem to have the "magic touch" to make Cason immediately stop moving as soon as he puts his hand on my belly... again, I hope this continues on the outside too!  :)

That's the latest on the baby front.  Still waiting for the chair to arrive so we can finish up the nursery.  Neanie and Grandpa are on their way from Jackson for a visit.  I have my baby shower tomorrow and am very excited about that!

27 Weeks – Growing Belly

I’m definitely pregnant. It’s a beautiful day in Woodforest so I had Ryan take a few pictures of me that I won’t need to crop my head out of!!   Admiral joined in on the fun.
 
And a close up…
I’m feeling good.  Sleeping okay but miss the feeling of sleeping through the night.  I guess it will be a LONG TIME before I know what that feels like again. 
I have the 1 Hour Glucose Test at my 28 week appointment on Friday.  This is my last every 4 weeks appointment; I start going every two weeks after that.  Based on due date, I’ll officially have 3 months left on Tuesday… can’t believe I’m two thirds of the way there!

24 Week Update

I'm 24 weeks today and everything is going well. Had my 24 week appointment on Friday and Cason's heartbeat sounded great. As most of our appointments have been, this was just a check the heartbeat and make sure I'm not having any weird symptoms. All is good. I was sent home with my glucose drink for the gestational diabetes test at the next appointment (4 weeks). Everyone says its not as bad as people say it is and since I'm a big fan of sweet Kool-Aid, I might even like it!

Cason has been very active today. This morning, I looked down and my belly was jumping when he kicked. This was the first time I'd been able to SEE him move. Ryan was able to see it too which was fun for us both.

I did 4 daycare visits on Friday. Of course my top 2 daycares are either the most expensive or the most inconveniently located. Typical. I am visiting a lady that keeps kids in her home this coming Friday. I hope I love her because that's the route we'd like to go to start out with!

23 Weeks -- Belly

There is no doubt I'm pregnant now. I'm getting lots of "you're finally showing" comments from my coworkers and it's nice to know I don't just look like I have a gut.

I'm still wearing a lot of my non-maternity pants with the Belly Band but am having to stick to maternity tops these days. One of my co-workers had 3 plastic bins of maternity clothes she's letting me borrow and I'm so grateful (and Ryan is too!)

I'm just over 5 months pregnant... over half way there. 24 Week appointment is tomorrow then I'm going to try to check out a couple of daycares to get that process started. I'm feeling pretty good but am staying fairly tired. I'm not sleeping great trying to get used to this side sleeping thing. Ryan bought me the Boppy Pregnancy Pillow today so we'll see if that helps.

Cason is moving around a lot. He really liked the Raising Cane's I had for lunch yesterday (or maybe he didn't like it?) because he really started to move. It cracked me up because he's normally not that active around lunch time. It normally starts late afternoon and then again when I get in bed. Ryan has felt a few kicks but as soon as he puts his hand on my belly, Cason stops moving and as soon as he takes it away, he'll start kicking around again. Little stinker.

We got a call today that the rest of our furniture is here (way earlier than promised) so we have to figure out if we should pay for delivery which is probably the best idea since the big dresser has to get upstairs. Hopefully we'll figure that out to get it here this weekend. Now I just want to get the message that the bedding has shipped too!

And we have a name...

After much discussion, only a few heated moments :), and a few days of testing it out, Small P finally has a "real" name...

Cason Philip

We've been mainly drawn to C names and kept coming back to Cason as one of a couple that we both equally liked. Also, we decided to look up the meaning when we were still deciding and there isn't much to find. But, a couple of different sites pointed to Cason being an Italian name that means "House". We felt this was just slightly appropriate!

Philip is Ryan's middle name, his dad's middle name, he grandfather's middle name and maybe it goes back further, we aren't sure. I was very drawn to the family history and we think it flows really well.

Big News Gets Two Posts!

We had our "big ultrasound" today to see the baby and find out the gender. See the Baby Blog for details!

It's a....

BOY!

We were pretty convinced HE was a SHE until today. The odds in our group of friends were leaning toward girl and I'd been the only one with any kind of Morning Sickness so we had convinced ourselves that it was a girl. Much to our surprise, the ultrasound showed clear evidence of a boy. So, here we are, on TEAM BLUE! Ryan can't stop smiling! He's so happy. He and Brandon are now officially planning the boys YMCA League basketball teams! Let the competitions begin!

He was super active during the ultrasound which was fun for us to see. Lots of moving his feet and arms, he even rolled over to his belly! He also had the hiccups so you'd see his little heart beating away and then his belly jump. So amazing! Here are the pictures.

Perfect profile picture.
Perfect little foot.
Either sucking his thumb or scratching his nose.



And now, for the R rated material. In case you want to see the proof for yourself... He's DEFINITELY a boy!


My doctor's office had just gotten a new ultrasound machine and the tech was teaching herself all the new buttons so she flipped over to the 4D mode. Normally you have to pay extra for this (though I've heard this tech likes to do free sneak peaks anyway). So we got to watch the little guy move around in a little more detail. He kept putting his hands up to his face and then he yawned and stuck his tongue out. I was afraid the 4D would look a little scary this early since there isn't much fat on the baby yet (if you pay for it, they tell you to come at 28-32 weeks), but I think he looked pretty darn cute!




So, we are almost to the halfway point. My first two ultrasounds (at 6 and 7 weeks), he measured a couple of days behind what the calender said my due date should be. Today, I'm 19weeks, 2days but measured right at 20 weeks. We'll see if this continues. I fully expect to have a big baby! Everything else is looking good. I'm feeling good except the once or twice a week morning sickness but I'll survive that.

Merry Christmas!

19 Weeks -- First Bump Picture

I'm entering the 19th week and finally starting to "show" but in normal clothes probably not enough for people to know for sure that I'm pregnant and not just fat. :)

I figure I better start taking the belly shots to document my progress. So here I am... 19 weeks.

I weighed myself at home earlier this week and weighed in at my pre-pregnancy weight. This is a good sign since I'd been losing weight slowly during much of the first trimester. I'm definitely eating more but probably still not enough. The mornings can still be hard and though I'm hungry, nothing sounds good until about 10:30 or 11:00am. It's not as easy to force yourself to eat as you might think.

Our "big ultrasound" is Tuesday morning. Please think good thoughts for the baby's cooperation in showing "the goods" then look for an update with gender news sometime Tuesday late morning/early afternoon!

Grounded!

I'm using this post as reference material for later in this baby's life.

Dear Nameless Kid Growing Inside of Me,
As of yesterday, 12/7/2009, you are officially grounded until you are 16. If you continue to make me spend any more time with my head in the toilet, you will get more years added to your sentence.
Love,
Your Mother

:)

Sigh... its been over 2 weeks and I thought I was in the clear. I guess I'll be one of those that has it happen off and on for the duration so I should just get used to it already and stop complaining!

In other news... I'm trying to eat more (I just had a WHOLE potato from Jason's Deli) and eat better and get the extra nutrients like protein, calcium, etc. I just I'm still not into eating lots of meat (which is a weird lifestyle for me) so I've tried to eat protein bars as snacks. Yuck, why do people CHOOSE to eat those things. Bleck. I think the eating "more" part is going to be fun but the eating "better" part is going to be hard.

16 weeks

We saw the doctor again today. No ultrasound :( so this baby's gender is still a mystery. We did ask if we could come back sooner than 4 weeks to find out the gender before Christmas and the doctor complied. We go back in 3 weeks, December 22 for the "Big Ultrasound".

Heartbeat was strong. I weighed in a couple of pounds LIGHTER than last time, with my tall boots on. I guess I should be happy about this but its weird to think a I have another life inside of me and I'm LOSING weight. The doctor assured me this was fine, the baby is taking everything it can from me (signs of the future???) and that as long as I'm eating better now (which I am) that I will start gaining weight soon.

Doggie Cousins

Admiral has been a part of our family for over 3 years now and had definitely been our baby boy no matter how big he is. For the first two and half years of his life, he was the only granddog on Ryan's side of the family. He is the spoiled rotten first grandchild who got lots of one-on-one attention from his grandparents!! :)

Now that Ryan's brothers are both married and in their own homes, the doggie family has been growing. When Kevin and Stephanie got married, we added Steph's dog Maya to the family and then we met Clive in June.

Just a few weeks ago, Eric and Whitney drove to Dallas to bring home their baby, Fievel.


Thanksgiving was the first time we got all the dogs together and it was a blast watching the "kids" play. The boys did a lot of wrestling, fetching and swimming while Maya did her best to stay out of the action (which is why I never got her in these pics--I'll do better next time!!! )

Clive and Fievel became fast friends. Fievel would nip and paw and jump all over Clive and Clive seemed to love it.


Admiral seemed to be pretty smitten with Fievel but he can be a bit intimidating to a little guy. Fievel did lots of hiding in small places that Admiral cannot fit! I think that when Fievel gets a little bigger he'll probably be bossing Admiral and Clive around on a regular basis! He's feisty

Kevin started playing fetch with Clive and Admiral joined in. Of course, Admiral thinks the only way to play fetch at the grandparents house is in the pool. Kevin would throw the ball in the grass, Clive would run after it and Admiral would run the opposite direction to the pool wondering where the ball was. Eventually Admiral got a clue. We finally gave in and started throwing the ball in the pool (had to be freezing). Clive followed Admiral right in.

Clive really only likes to get in if someone else (human or dog) is in the pool. He really wanted that ball but was just not so sure about jumping in until Admiral went first.

And you can tell when Admiral gets tired... He starts getting lazy and tries to wait for the ball to drift back toward the edge of the pool instead of jumping in to get it.

Fievel was very curious of what the big boys were doing, but this is about as close as he got to the pool. Only time will tell if he likes to swim!

Cousins... it doesn't get any better! And you know, as I wrote this post, I couldn't help but laugh that sometime in the next few years I could return to this post and replace all the references to dogs and puppies to kids and babies. As I think about how our family is about to grow again and how much my cousins have meant in my life, I think about the fun times our little one will have with his/her older cousin Helmi. And, I look forward to the day (whenever it may be... no pressure) that we add more people cousins to both families!!

I ate my words...

And they came right back up... TMI?

In my last post, I was on day 5 of no sickness. I had switched to a new method of medication... one pill each night instead of half in the morning, half at night. This seems to be the key. Then, I ran out of drugs the day after my last post and made it a few more days without getting sick. I was on time/early for work the whole week. Miracle!

Then Sunday hit and it started all over again. I thought... 3 days of no meds, maybe it won't happen again or as often. Nope, Monday started the same way and Monday evening I bee-bopped my way to CVS for a refill. I've been good ever since but run out of meds again this weekend. To refill or not to refill... that is the question. Surely it has stopped by now, right?

In other, more positive news, I'm officially in the second trimester. I've gained a lot of my energy back. I am no where NEAR as tired and exhausted as I had been the first trimester. I'm starting to eat more and be a little less picky, but I'm not stuffing my face by any means. I've still not gained any weight and my clothes are still fitting just fine. I'm sure those days are numbered.

Next week we see the doctor. Maybe I'll have gender news to share....I really hope so!

Feeling Better???

I don't want to put the cart before the horse... But I'm on day 5 and counting of not getting sick.

Friday was miserable... I'm talking MISERABLE. I could only get off the couch to go to the restroom and/or attempt to throw up. Ugh, brutal. The only thing worse would have been actually throwing up all day.

But, since then, it's been 5 straight mornings of not getting sick. I even made it to work ON TIME (could even be considered "early") the past two days! Please let this be my new "normal", please.

I still can't eat Chik Fil A which is a sad, sad thing for me, but I do seem to be having more of an appetite. It's not showing on the scale yet (lost another couple of pounds this week) but I'm sure that is only a matter of time.

Explanation

For the past few months, whenever someone asks about the new house, the conversation always ends up getting some sort of comment along the lines of "Well, I guess you'll have to start filling the house with babies." Many of those comments have come in the past couple of months when we already knew we were pregnant and we just bite our tongues, smile and nod! :)

I've found that my blog is sometimes a little release for me. I don't know how many people read it and don't ever write anything profound that a stranger would enjoy. But, I like writing about the random stuff. When we found out we were pregnant and weren't telling anyone, I had to talk about it. I needed a place to say SOMETHING. I post on a local message board some, and that helped. But I also immediately wanted to chronicle the pregnancy.

So, I started this blog. I decided on a separate blog for a couple of reasons. First, I wanted it to be private for the time being. Also, I know that some people aren't going to want to read about my pregnancy and other baby posting as much as others. This way I can keep the baby stuff in one place and have all the house, travel, cooking stuff on the other blog.

When deciding on a name for the blog, it only seemed fitting to use "Filling the House" since we've heard that comment so often. So here we are... In the house for 1 month, almost 3 months pregnant and excited to know we are becoming a family of 4 (counting Admiral).

Halloween Fun...

Last night was the Hebert's 2nd Annual Halloween bash. We went dressed a Jim and Pam from The Office.
Pam is pregnant on the show (note the belly and ODouls in the picture) and Ryan is wearing Jim's "Facebook" costume from this year's Halloween Episode. If you are wondering about any subliminal meaning to me going as a pregnant woman... click HERE.

Going Public...

This blog has now gone public. All our friend and family found out the good news over the weekend.

We announced to our friends at the Heberts Halloween Party. We went dressed as Jim and Pam from the office. Pam is pregnant so at first, everyone just thought it was the costume. Then, someone said "Wait... are you trying to tell us something?" and the news was out. It was a good night and so fun to FINALLY tell our friends!

Strong Heartbeat

We went today for my 12 week appointment. No ultrasound but she used the "Doppler" to hear the heartbeat. It was strong and fast, like it should be. We are planning to tell all our friends tomorrow night then I think this blog will go public!

I've been feeling pretty "puney" the last couple of days. I really just want to lay on the couch for the rest of the day but I have work work work. Ugh.

Nothing New...

I'll be 11 weeks on Sunday. I go for my next appointment on Friday morning and then we plan to start telling our friends.

Nothing really new to report. I still get sick 3-4 days a week and am pretty exhausted all the time, but its managable. I don't think I've gained any weight because I dont have much of an appetite and when I do, I just want one or two things. The other night, I only wanted McAlisters Chicken Tortilla Soup or Ghenghis Grill fried rice with potatoes (a staple for me these days) and pineapple. So, off to McAlisters I went to find they weren't serving Chicken Tort that day (this happens probably 5 days a year, and of course, it would happen to me). So then I went to Ghenghis and it was so packed, but I waited because thats what I wanted. Ryan started calling me "Pregzilla" that night and it was probably about to be true had my food taken any longer to arrive. I was so hungry that I opened it in the car and had a potato... with my fingers. Nice.

That's really all thats going on in pregnancy world. Stay tuned for a more exciting update next week!