Gender Reveal Party

I'm so excited to finally get to share with you the pictures from our party! Our sweet friend Maura who has Maura Dawn Photgraphy and Eugene Grace Weddings offered to snap some gorgeous photos of the party.

The reason I decided to go ahead and do a gender reveal party is because I felt like going all out! This may be our 1 and only child and I wanted to celebrate with a lot of close friends and family that have been on our journey with us from the beginning. It was also a way to just say thanks for all the prayers!
I decided to go with a brunch theme since I wanted to have it first thing Saturday morning! I knew I wouldn't be able to hold it in that whole day. 

voting! Team Girl and Team Boy

3 generations. Couldn't do life without them.

Pop Pop Pancakes! My favorite food we had at the party!

Cinnamon Muffins

Fruit and Granola Parfaits

Fruit kabobs w/ a donut hole on the end

Drinks. OJ, Milk, Raspberry sparkling grape juice and water

The Menu:

-muffins

-mini pancakes

-donut holes
-lil smokies wrapped in bacon

-blueberry scones

-mini pb&j's cut out w/ baby shapes

-egg, cheese, & sausage casserole

-Fruit parfaits w/ granola

Everyone debating on what it will be!

All the girls in Pink and Blue

Ultrasound banner I made. Inspired by yours truly. I didn't even get this off pinterest!

Party in Action

Pinata Time! The suspense is killing everyone!

Hit #1... Nothing

SURPRISE!!! PINK everywhere!

The only girly gift that was given! Camo of course for Marc's sake!

I loved everything about the party. I decided I love party planning. I could have gone a lot further with the details but thought that may be over the top since it was just a gender reveal party. I really wish I would have made food labels and given party favors but basically I just ran out of time and I really had less than 24hrs from finding out to pull this thing off! So with what time I had, I felt pretty good about everything. I got most of the decor from Hobby Lobby and Party city. I thought about the way to actually reveal it for weeks and decided to go with the pinata idea. It was fun for everyone (although not everyone got to whack it) but it kept it suspenseful! I wanted everyone to line up in Team Blue or Team Pink which was dependent upon what they wore that day! It was split pretty evenly. The lines never actually formed and it was mainly chaos, but super fun chaos!
I was thankful to have all of our parents there and other close friends travel from all over attend. I felt very, very loved. Thank you to all that came and helped me pull it off!

Next up I will tell you how we found out the night before! 2 days I will never forget.

17/18 weeks

Well I'm holding off posting any pics of our party that we had because a friend of ours who is a photographer took some pics and they will be way better than what I would post, so I'm sill waiting on those but super excited to share them with you all.

I took this pic last week. I was worried I had not grown all week and boy was I wrong! Baby girl be growing large and in charge. I also think this pic makes me look bigger than I really am or I could just be in denial! Oh well, I'm grateful for the growth. However; I'm not quite as thankful for the back pain I've been having the past 2 days. I'm getting really scared that it may stay like this the rest of the time. I've got to get a plan in action with either massage therapy, physical therapy or a chiropractor. Anyone have any recommendations?

How Far Along: 18 weeks

How Big is the baby? She is the size of a pear (6oz)

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I'm up 5lbs since finding out

Maternity Clothes:Yes on the bottom part, no on the top

Gender: A GIRL!!! 

Movement: I think I have felt a few flutters here and there but never really know. I can't wait to feel some kicks though!

Sleep: I'm getting used to sleeping mainly on my left side, but really miss sleeping on my back completely. This came as a shock to me that you aren't supposed to lay flat! Yikes

Symptoms: Manly just evil back pain, other than that I feel great!

What I miss: I will miss being able to wear a 2 piece all summer! Ha. probably for the best though. And eating chick-fil-a

Cravings: I absolutely love breakfast foods, pasta, pizza or fried stuff. I hate chicken right now.

Best Moment this week: Finding out about our little girl and having a super fun gender reveal party!It is something I will never forget.

What I am looking forward to: Starting to feel Marchelle move more and we have 2 big appointments this week. Hoping to confirm that everything looks normal so far.

It honestly has not sunk in that we are having a girl. Although, I'm not surprised one bit and I'm thankful to know my intuition works. I had no idea we would have such a hard time picking out a name. I have liked a particular name for a very long time and have basically had my heart set on it but there a few factors that Marc doesn't love about it. I like unique names and he likes more traditional, so we are somehow going to have to compromise. I would really love to name this kid before she comes out so here's to hoping that can happen!
The other hard part about names is that we had chosen names that we loved before we got married (yes I'm weird like that) but since it has been several years, those names have been overused or taken by family members. So I'm on about round 3 of names! Of course we had settled and agreed upon a boy name and we are still hoping to use it one day. We will for sure use my maiden name which is Baker (if anyone steals this name that is close to me I will hurt you... just know you have been forewarned!)
Since my dad had no boys we thought that would be a special name that could at least be carried on in that way. My dad likes to refer to our embryo that is currently frozen as our "frozen fella." :) This makes me smile and I hope that it is mainly for his sake!

It's A ....?!?

Well Marchelle cooperated and...

It's a GIRL! 

Lots of ruffles and bows in our future!
We are beyond thrilled and have had 2 of the most exciting days of our lives. Thanks for all of the prayers!
Those who voted for a girl were right! It was 42/44 so it was really close!

More posts of the party to come later!

What's the Gender!?

A friend of mine blogged these Old Wives tales a little over a year ago and I have been wanting to do it ever since! Thanks Julee! Right now you can see on the right side of the blog that you still have time to cast your vote! Right now Team Girl is winning by more than half! I'm so excited and praying the baby will cooperate for us on Friday!

Morning sickness: They say that little girls make their mama's sick and I have thrown up none and only had mild nausea for 4 weeks which indicates BOY!

Soft or dry skin? Mine has been extremely dry which indicates BOY!

Are you craving citrus? Not really, but I don't mind me some OJ in the mornings. BOY or GIRL!

Have you felt glowing or less than beautiful and had lots of breakouts? I have had no breakouts whatsoever but I normally have very clear skin so I don't know how to take this one! But little girls are supposed to cause breakouts so... BOY!

Heartbeat indicator: Both our heartbeats were in the mid range (155 and 169) which is said to be an indicator of a GIRL!

Craving fruit or meat?: This is hard because I really dislike fruit and Chicken is my main food aversion, but I am loving fruit snacks and never mind having a burger here and there, so I have no idea! BOY or  GIRL!

Chinese Calendar: This one makes me laugh because since we did ivf and it didn't work the 1st time, we actually conceived in October and will have a baby in October... but it says GIRL! A lot of people say that if you do IVF you are more likely to have a BOY! So again,  BOY or  GIRL

 

Pendullum test: Never have tried it! BOY or  GIRL!

Dreams- They are just plain crazy, but nothing specifically about either gender. So again, BOY or  GIRL!

 

My guess has been GIRL! all along, Marc's has always been BOY.  What are your guesses??? Be sure to vote in the poll on the right side of the blog before Monday! 

We have all of our family coming in on Friday afternoon for the ultrasound. The people are actually coming to our house to do the ultrasound. They do private parties and what nots so I thought it would be neat to hire them to come so we can have our family there. I'm just praying the baby will cooperate for all of us since it didn't at all for us last Tuesday.

I'm then going to attempt to have a gender reveal brunch on Saturday morning for all of our close friends and family. Can't wait to tell you all!

 

Do you all have any tricks that worked for when you tried to find out the gender of your child? If so, please let me know! I've heard to drink a cappuccino from Starbucks, drink Orange juice (which I did last time and that didn't work), or a diet coke! Any other things I should know about?!?

 

 

1st Mothers Day

Well I finally got to experience my first Mothers Day. It was surreal, but so wonderful. I still wish I could be holding a newborn because sometimes it still just doesn't feel that real that I'm still pregnant. I'm thankful I was able to wake up and feel joy again. I still thought a lot about how I felt last year and I honestly could not stop thinking about those who have lost mothers, babies or who are still waiting. I know God's plan and timing are perfect, but honestly Holidays exaggerate most emotions and sometimes it can just be plain hard.

When I woke up, I woke up to some really sweet text messages. I was blown away at how many I received wishing me a Happy 1st Mothers Day. I felt so truly blessed by each one and was shocked that people would think of me.Marc really spoiled me. He woke up and went and got me some delicious donuts! I think the baby really loves some donuts! All I know is I scarfed those suckers down fast! Yum. I looove donuts and really always have. Horrible, I know! I'm sure that baby was flipping all around while we were sitting in church. I can't feel Marchelle move yet, but I keep waiting to feel a flutter, I'm definitely paying attention to all twinges right now! It was also great because I actually attended church for the first time in several years on Mothers Day. They always do baby dedications on those mornings and it is just something that I couldn't handle in the past. Just maybe, next year I will be doing that.

I also received some really special cards. Marc made a card and wrote some the sweetest things I think he's ever written to me. He also made me a gift card! He got me 10 hours with one of our friends that is a designer around our area and she has done some incredible design work on nurseries. He came up with this all on his own. I'm so excited! I love decorating, but have the hardest time getting started, so I'm hoping she can help me dream up a fun plan and then I can help execute it! I.can't.wait!









I also just want to say thanks to all of our moms out there who have helped us through the past few years! Not sure where we would be without all the support and prayers. We will forever be thankful.
And to those that are still waiting, I do understand your grief and my prayers go out to you.
Love you all!

16 weeks and a scare

So in my last update I said I had gotten a blood test done for abnormalities and was hoping to NOT get a call from the doctor.... well I did get the dreadful call from the doctor letting me know my AFP levels were elevated for the abnormality of spina bifida (a hole in the spine).
I was not expecting that call whatsoever. I had kind of forgotten about it. When I noticed the number I think my whole body went numb. The doctor said there would be a 1/24 chance the baby would have it and they would have to send us to a maternal fetal specialist (basically a high risk doctor) to get some better results.
So we went Tuesday morning hoping to get some definitive results. That unfortunately did not happen. The appointment was good in the fact we got to see baby Marchelle's heart beating, we got to see a perfect little brain, and sweet arms and legs. Unfortunately, the way the baby was positioned and the lack of flipping over, they could not get a great look at the lower spine (which was where they needed to look). The upper part was great. So it could be nothing or could still be something, we have to wait 3 more weeks to go back for a follow up. They want us to do an Amnio and I'm NOT doing that. There is a 1/200 chance that it would kill the baby. I'm sorry but our odds have not been good thus far, so we do not feel like taking that risk is worth finding out if there is a chromosomal disorder. We love this baby no matter what, regardless if there will be any issues. From here on out we will be consistently monitored as a high risk patient, which is fine. I really don't mind checking on the nugget more often. I have been so spoiled by getting to see the baby every 3 weeks. The appointment was a tad frustrating in the fact they told us the the elevated levels could mean a multitude of horrible things that could go wrong. I have recently learned that a lot of these tests come back as false positives and are optional to have. No one told me this beforehand and no one told me this was an option so looking back, I probably would have opted out of doing it.
But it is what is now and there is always a reason for everything, so for now we know that God has brought us this far and we are trusting Him to get us through no matter what the outcome may be.  

16 week bump

Profile

the baby says hi lovely blog readers, thanks for praying for me!

Clinging to this verse. Praying for the best outcome. 

Philippians 4:8 (NIV)

⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Ra's wedding

This past weekend was so much fun celebrating my good friend Rachael. I know I've done a couple of posts on her now, but we have gone to school since pre-k al the way through college. Now she lives in my neighborhood. I was so honored to be a part of her big day this past saturday. She was the most beautiful and calm bride. I couldn't believe how chill she was the whole week before and the day of.
Her wedding was gorgeous and she had some really fun things at it.

I made her pose like this, she loves senior pics.

they have always towered over me...

My friend Jennie came in from Austin! She also did my hair makeup. I wish she lived here soo badly. And my sis looks way too old and gorgeous!

My whole fam with the bride!

She had a sno cone booth! Endless "Shave the Planet." I thought this was super creative. The groom is obsessed w/ sno cones and they spent a lot of their dates there. They were delicious. I many have had 2! 

Photo Booth fun!

Pi Phi Sisters

Old college friends! She cooked a lot of meals for these boys!

And away they went in a golf cart! She loves golf carts! They were actually staying at the hotel where the reception was so they didn't really need to go anywhere. Also, if you look behind the golf cart you can see a lantern lit. These were Chinese lanterns they set on on fire and they all floated away in the air as they drove away! It looked awesome, minus a
few people almost catching on fire.

It was such a fun wedding. She had a fabulous band along with a cookie and cake bar,  which I failed to get a picture of. I was having so much fun catching up with people from all of my different walks from life. There were high school friends, college friends and lots of current friends. It was so great catching up with everyone, it definitely made my heart happy. I'm also so happy for Rachael and Zach and starting their new life together.

Operation garage

This past weekend, we had an actual weekend at home which is rare these days. When we are home, we like to be productive and Marc likes to do fun projects. So for his project this weekend he decided to re-vamp the garage. It was becoming quite the disaster and starting to feel junky. Because Marc enjoys every hobby/sport known to man, we have lots of "things" that have to be in our garage. He worked so hard and did a fantastic job. Unfortunately, the pics don't do it justice to his mad organizational skills. He basically organized each shelf or space by hobby or subject. It's truly amazing and should be on a tv show! We also need some extra shelf space for baby things since we have absolutely no closet space in our house. Honestly, we have no hall closets, just closets in the bedrooms so it creates quite the challenge for storing things. This will help tremendously in several months.

Before

Before

Created a closet next to the water heater. We will be able to store diapers and what nots here since it will be enclosed. We were able to use some left over tile to make it have flooring (my idea!)

Almost finished! M hard at work and analyzing.

Ta-Da! All cleaned and organized.

I'm so proud and it feels so much better. The next project will be to clean out our walk-in attic space which will be right off the babies room and the closet in the babies room. It's pretty scary in there but we have to do it before it gets sweltering hot. Basically we threw everything in there when we moved and its all the stuff we have no place to store it.
I'm seeing a garage sale in my near future!
Thanks honey for having amazing skills.