6 more days!

Lots of news from my appointment yesterday, but little time to talk about it. I'm on a break between 2 college fairs that I am working at today, my last 2 events for work for a while! First they did an ultrasound to estimate how big Amelia is. I was quite surprised when the tech told me that she was measuring 39 weeks, 6 days already! They estimated her weight to be about 8 pounds, 5 ounces!

When I saw my doctor, she checked me and I had only dilated to one centimeter. She suggested that we wait until Tuesday and she will check again for more progress. If I haven't dilated more by then, they will admit me to the hospital on Tuesday night to start drugs that will speed things along before they induce labor on Wednesday morning. If I have made more progress, they will admit me Wednesday morning to be induced. I really hope that we progress a little more and I don't have to spend an extra night in the hospital. I'd rather just go Wednesday morning. Either way, if she doesn't come on her own before then, we will be meeting our precious girl in 6 days!

I am so so bummed that my sister, Mar can't be there for the birth if Amelia waits until Wednesday to arrive. She is in nursing school at Southern Miss and can't miss her clinicals on Wednesday and Thursday. Mar, I promise I am going to walk and walk and walk to try to speed things up so maybe she will come on her own before then!

Is there anything else to talk about around our house?

Some snippets from our recent conversations:

1. I'm SO ready to meet her! Aren't you SO ready to meet her?- me to Cliff almost every day

2. I can't wait to kiss her all over. I mean, with other people's babies you want to kiss them all over, but it's not always acceptable, but she's going to be ours and I can kiss her all over if I want.- Cliff

3. I'm so ready to hold her. Aren't you SO ready to hold her?- again, me to Cliff almost every day, but he sometimes says it to me.

4. I can't wait. Can you just NOT wait?- me to Cliff

5. Dang, I am huge.- me to no one in particular while looking in the mirror

6. I love you, girls.- Cliff to me and my belly when he leaves for work

7. Look at my belly moving. It's so crazy.- me to anyone who is sitting by me. I'm still fascinated by it all.

8. Ugh, I have to pee AGAIN.-me a million times a day and night to anyone who's around

9. I really hope she's cute.- we've both said it, but mainly me, then I throw in a quick but of course her health comes first.

10. Cliff, I need you- me in my sweetest voice anytime I drop something. The wonderful father-to-be then comes running in to pick it up for me.

No real news to report

Just a quick update- at my appointment last week, I had started to dilate just a little, not even a whole centimeter yet. They'll do an ultrasound at my next appointment on Wednesday to estimate how big the baby is. Yikes! I am terrified that she is going to be huge, ha. But progress is progress, so she is on her way!

These past couple of weeks have been so hectic as I try to prepare for Amelia's arrival. I've been spending my days finishing up things at work and my evenings washing baby things, trying to pack for the hospital, and getting my house clean and ready for baby. I had speaking engagements at 3 of our biggest high schools last week, and I spent lots of time walking and climbing stairs, which I think may have contributed to the labor progress. After all that, I have just been too tired to post on the blog.

I am happy to report that we are now pretty much done with our preparations and we can finally relax and wait for Amelia to show up. I had planned to spend my whole weekend cleaning my house and doing laundry, but was pleasantly surprised when Katie showed up with her fancy vacuum cleaner to help. Not that Amelia would care, but I just couldn't fathom bringing her home to a house with dusty baseboards! Katie even braved cleaning my bathroom, which was appreciated so much. Cleaning takes me so much longer these days because I tire so easily and have to stop every now and then. Now the baseboards are clean, her room is tidy, and we are just waiting to bring her home.

But of course in our lives, nothing is ever easy, so I have to add a little side note about our weekend drama. As we were getting in the car to go to church yesterday morning, I discovered that my wallet, along with our "Dave Ramsey envelope system," which contained over a couple of hundred dollars in cash, were missing. I was dumb to leave my purse in my car, and it was even unlocked for our lucky thief. I had sent Cliff out to my car the night before to get something, and he accidentally left it unlocked. UGH! It is always something with us!

Now I have to deal with replacing my license, debit card, insurance cards, everything. What a pain! We are just grateful it wasn't something worse, as all those things are replaceable. I hope I have learned my lesson that I no longer live in the country and have got to be more careful about leaving things in my car!

I'll be sure to pass on news after Wednesday when we have a better idea of when we can expect to meet Miss Amelia Kate Furr!

Baby shower and nursery pics

Sunday I had yet another fabulous baby shower! This one was hosted by some of my girlfriends as well as Amelia's aunts, Katie and Mar. Katie was brave enough to host the shower at her new home less than a week after moving in! Everything was so so pretty and I had such a good time seeing friends and family and of course opening more cute gifts for Amelia! Aunt Kathryn even came all the way from Arkansas and surprised us. Amelia is so spoiled already being the first grandchild and niece on both sides of our family. Everyone is just so excited to meet her.

Hard to see the cake, but it has Amelia's monogram and a sweet bible verse on it. Check out the tiny painted pumpkins and the ribbon on top of the green ones. Such a cute idea!




Katie and Kathryn were sweet enough to help me put things away when we got home. Kathryn even fixed the dresser after I broke it while stuffing all the clothes into it!


Oh and here is photo evidence of Aunt Mar putting together the bouncer. She was a big help after my work shower Friday.
Don't know how Katie avoided being in any pics, but she has been a big help in preparing for Amelia so I have to give her credit too! Here are some new pics I took of the nursery. We are pretty much finished, but I have a couple of canvases for the walls that are being painted, and a floor lamp is on its way, but otherwise we are ready for Amelia to move in!







The teapot chandelier is one of my favorite parts of the room, but I couldn't get a good photo of it. I had to turn the lights off and use the flash to get this pic.

Look at all her clothes and bags! This child has been given so much already. We are going to do our best not to let her be a spoiled brat, but it is going to be a challenge with all these grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends who want to keep buying her things. We appreciate everything so much!




Can you tell I am having fun with my new camera? I used to never bother taking pics, but I knew I had to step it up with a little one on the way. I am ready to take some sweet baby pics!

One Year Ago

Today it has been a year since we lost our first baby. Even though we are so, so excited to meet Amelia in just a few weeks, and there has been so much preparation to keep me busy, my heart has been heavy for the past couple of days. It is impossible to understand unless you've been in this situation. As thrilled as we are about Amelia, and although it does lessen the pain and gives me something new to think about and look forward to, the hurt from a miscarriage never totally goes away.

This blog's original intent was for me to document this pregnancy and subsequent journey of our family. I fill most of my posts with happy, exciting news or complaints over people getting in my business. However, I couldn't help but share how heavy my heart has been today. So many of you have followed us through this past year, praying for us and being hopeful for us during the last nine months. We never would have made it through without you all and our faith in God.

Tomorrow I will be positive once again and post some photos from our awesome shower in Brookhaven this past weekend as well as some new photos I took of the nursery.

Baby Shower #3!

Yesterday, our co-workers at Co-Lin honored us with a fabulous shower! Cliff and I are so blessed to not only have great jobs that we love at Co-Lin, but we also have wonderful co-workers who are also our friends. The girls in my office, along with Neisha Leggett and Natalie Davis went to a lot of trouble to make sure everything looked and tasted great. The loot from this shower included cute accessories for the nursery, a couple of blankets and burp clothes, a few outfits, some gift cards, and diapers, diapers and more diapers! The diapers seriously filled up the whole trunk of my car! I have no idea how quickly babies go through diapers, so there is no way for me to know how long all these diapers will last, but we are just happy to have such a good start.

One of my favorite gifts was from my boss, Lea Ann, who got Amelia a sterling silver jewelry box with her initials engraved and a tiny bracelet with her name engraved. Now she finally has a place to store her growing jewelry collection!

Shoe Issues

This has been discussed in the previous post, "Things not to say to a pregnant woman," however it has become such an issue that I feel the need to address it again. People continue to constantly judge me for my shoe choices and make comments on them.

Here are the alleged baby killers:

The heels on these shoes are very low, compared to shoes I would normally wear to work everyday before I got pregnant. These days my feet have started to swell a little, and these happen to be my most comfortable shoes. Note the stretchy strap across the top, the open toes, and the room on the sides for my feet to "grow" throughout the day. The problem with these shoes is that I need help buckling the strap, ha. But once I have help with that, I can wear them all day long comfortably. Yet every time I wear them, someone wants to comment on the fact that I don't need to be wearing heels! I wore these to my dr. appt last week and asked my dr. about them again. She said that as long as they were comfortable to me, to keep wearing them as long as I can.

But to satisfy the critics, I purchased these:

They look like they would be comfortable, but the backs of them rub when I walk creating blisters and they start feeling too tight when my feet swell during the day. So I have abandoned them, and have gone back to the super comfy Nine West heels pictured above. I just have to say that I am tired of being judged for my footwear choices! I promise I am not harming myself or my baby by wearing them, and they REALLY are the most comfortable work shoes that I own right now.

I think people want to see me come to work in these:

Or these:

No offense to croc fans, but they are just not my style, and I refuse to wear them just because I am pregnant! Now, house slippers do look pretty appealing, but they aren't very professional. If it comes down to it during the next few weeks, I may just have to resort to them, but I am not there yet!

Moral of the story: Stop bossing me around about my choice of footwear! I am not trying to harm my baby just to wear heels!