Making Music and Making a Baby: 30 Weeks Pregnant

I can't believe we are at 30 weeks already! Everyone kept telling me that time would fly by, but I didn't think it would...until now! Even though I miss my flat tummy, I was looking at my baby bump yesterday and thinking that I'll really miss it when it's gone. I know I'll have the amazing trade off of looking at Reid every day, but I have loved this season of my life and, dare I say it, of my body. :)

We had our last doctor's appointment on Tuesday and everything looked great! We set the official date for me to be induced! Unless he comes early, we will be checking into the hospital at 4am on August 9th! As we were leaving the doctor Jesse looked at me and said, "We're having a baby!" Haha! I love how things hit us at different times.

We were so blessed to have Kacey Randolph do a maternity session for us this week. She took us to Cannonsburg in Murfreesboro (super cool place) and helped us feel comfortable and natural and let us use sentimental items and let us be "us". This girl is seriously talented and I can't express how excited we are with the finished product. Kacey, we so appreciate you blessing us with your gift!

One item we brought with us to the session was a guitar that belonged to Jesse's dad. We used it in several shots and as I looked at the photos, it really made me reflect on how much music has shaped who we are as people, as a couple, and what we will be as a family. We both grew up with music around us. Jesse played music with his dad and was in several bands in high school. He played a ton around his hometown and, of course, music (and God) brought him to Nashville and to me. His family was always supportive of his talent and didn't miss a show! When I was little, I sang before I talked. I grew up singing the Judds with my mom and the Andrew Sisters with my Aunt Julie. My family sings "Happy Birthday" in 4 part harmony. I used to serenade my household on Sunday afternoons and my family was there at every show I ever sang in in high school and college. Both Jesse and I grew up immersed in music. Now, as a couple, music is a daily part of our lives. Whether we are worshipping with the team at church, heading to one of Jesse's shows, sitting on the couch with Jes playing and me singing or cooking dinner to our favorite playlist...music is a huge part of who we are and a passion we can share. There's nothing more powerful than being on stage together on a Sunday morning as we strive to help others find the passion in worship that we have in our lives. Now that we are preparing to bring this sweet boy into the world, we are so excited to help facilitate the love of music in his life. He can be whatever he wants to be, of course, but we know that as a family, music will be a huge part of our lives. I pray he is a passionate worshipper and uses what talent I'm sure he'll have to glorify our Lord.

I am so thankful for God's flawless design and how he gives us things we never knew we always needed. I always wanted to marry someone who was musical, but I never knew how powerful of a force it would turn out to be in my marriage and family. Praise God, for he supplies all our needs.

****All Maternity Photos by Kacey Randolph Photography****

Third Trimester and SUMMER!!!!

I feel like I should win a gold medal for actually making it to summer with (some of) my insanity intact. It has been so hard to focus on school lately when all I want to do is focus on these sweet little kicks coming from inside my belly. Now I can sit and think about (and freak out about) becoming a mommy without feeling guilty that I'm not thinking about decimal points and fractions. :) We had our first baby shower on Tuesday. My work friends threw me a diaper shower and I was completely blessed by the amazing staff at LLE! We have diapers of all sizes and more wipes than I can ever imagine using...although everyone tells me that I will use every.single.one. My wonderful team blessed me with the diaper bag I have been OBSESSING over. Vera Bradley, Totally Turq. Its the cutest thing ever! I love it. I wanted so so badly to come home that day and fill it with baby stuff. Haha...like I said, obsessive. I can't wait until it's filled with all the tings my sweet son needs.

So the last day of school felt surreal. I walked out thinking, "the next time I'm here, I'll have a sweet baby boy living in my house." It still doesn't feel real! I just can't imagine the feeling of seeing his face for the first time and kissing his little cheeks and holding him skin to skin. How do you anticipate something you can't imagine?

As I was told by so many, the third trimester has brought. I mean, as if someone said "ACTION" the third trimester has rolled on cue and brought with it as many naps as I can fit into one day! I am thankful to report a normal blood sugar test! I was really worried about having to prick my finger every day and worry about all the things that come along with gestational diabetes. Praise God for his abundance of blessings.

So, I kicked off summer with a celebratory lunch at IHOP with Megan and Michelle and then a nice LONNNNGG nap and then Sex and the City with my girlfriends. Jesse is out of town playing in Bay St. Louis in Mississippi. I miss him like crazy. I think I go a little off my rocker whenever he's not here. I just don't feel like myself when I'm here by myself. He's my stability.

I'm ready for the R&R that comes with summer and ready to get this place ready for a perfect homecoming for Reid. Not that he's going to go around checking baseboards when we bring him home from the hospital, but I want everything to be ideal for him. Nothing has ever seemed so important creating the PERFECT environment for my sweet little angel.

Weird Weather and Weird Hair

The weather today has been total madness. Even as I watch the news for the millionth hour in a row I STILL can't believe the massive amounts of water that have overtaken the Nashville area. As if I needed one more thing to freak me out, now I've already told Jesse that once Reid gets here we will NEVER drive in the rain just in case it is like this again and we get flooded on the interstate and have to wade out of our car to the side of the road, baby in tow. He laughed, of course. My worries and scatterbrained thoughts are nothing of consequence to him lately, which is good. ONE of us has to be sane around here!

So we had a wonderful, lazy Saturday morning. Lounging around with the dogs, no t.v. on, reading and basking in the quiet. We had planned to go register today and so around noon we decided to get ready to head out. I took a shower and afterward felt very tired and told Jes I wanted to take a nap first (LAZY)...AND woke up 2 hours later! whew! When we went downstairs we both had a dozen missed calls. Apparently the weather had gotten bad? lol. Thirty minutes later we were putting couch cushions in our downstairs bathroom and rounding up the dogs. Everything turned out fine of course, but not for everyone. We are still amazed that I-24 is flooded and cars are completely submerged and a trailer floated down the interstate and was destroyed and cars were FLOATING down the itnerstate upside down? What in the world? Where's the Ark??? We are praying for everyone affected by this horrible storm and especially the families of those that lost their lives. Weird weather.

On another note...sooooo we all know I have STRAIGHT hair. The straightest. There in no curl in there. Well, so today I took my shower and decided that I wanted to take a nap. I've done this before. Just woke up, blow-dried my hair, straightened and went along. NOT TODAY. When I woke from my nap and looked in the mirror, my hair was straight up CURLY!! Where did these curls come from? When did my hair decide it wanted to be wavy?? It was so weird. It was everywhere and I had no idea what to do with it. I don't know how to have curly hair. Ha! Anyway, I've heard pregnancy can make your hair change, but it just really weirded me out. Pregnancy totally takes over your whole body. Weird Hair.

Weird Day.

What a Week!!

Last week was so crazy! Didn't feel well the whole weekend before, but Monday morning (my 28th birthday) I woke up feeling fine. Had a great day at school and a wonderful birthday dinner with family. Tuesday morning...not so great. Woke up throwing up. Poor Jesse. He just loves me no matter what. That was a goooood thing on Tuesday morning. Since it was the last day of TCAP I HAD to go to school, ended up throwing up mid-test, sleeping in the nurses station and looking like DEATH the whole rest of the day. I am so thankful for the wonderful team I work with. They took excellent care of me. Luckily, I had an ultrasound that afternoon and was seeing the doc anyway. He said I had a virus and not to worry. Yeah right! But I did feel better by Wednesday morning so praise God!

I'm so excited that I got our glider for my birthday! The nursery is really starting to come together! J put it together for me and I love to just go and sit in it and imagine rocking my baby! Jesse had to work on Tuesday so my mom went with me to the ultrasound. It was so special to share that with my mom who is so supportive and excited about her grandbaby. We just could believe it when we saw that sweet profile on the screen. He has gotten so big. He weighed 1 lb 8oz! That's in the 63rd percentile. Doc said he's right on track!

Friday night and Saturday morning we had our childbirth class. It was so neat. We both feel much more prepared for the upcoming delivery. There's a lot to know, but being in the know makes us so much more comfortable. Jes did great. He held a HUGE plastic baby and practiced changing diapers and swaddling. He's going to be such a good daddy. He listened attentively and is so interested in learning as much as he can. He's amazing.

Today was church outside the walls and we went to work at the Stones River Center in Murf. I raked and trimmed bushes and now I'm sore. Guess we know who has NOT been working out lately. It was a great time, though and such a blessing to BE a blessing. Then we went to White House to buy a black shelf we found on Craig's List. That was the last piece of furniture for the nursery! Time to get busy working on it! Can't wait.

All in all it's been a great week! Can't believe I'm going to be 24 weeks tomorrow! I am just LOVING being pregnant! Every day is a new adventure! Reid is growing, growing! Every day we grow more anxious to meet him.

Sickness...

I dislike so much these beautiful days that I miss out on because unexpected sickness hits. I am thankful for the sickness as it is a reminder of the precious gift God has given me, but I can't help feeling a little sorry for myself...just a little :). Luckily, I have an amazing husband who loves me despite my disgusting-ness and rubs my back and cuddles me on the couch and reminds me that I can get through anything as long as I have him. Now more than ever I am aware of how important it is to marry a PARTNER. Someone who goes through your emotions with you and shares your ups and downs with joy and tears! I love love LOVE my husband and praise our God for every moment we share!!! Ok - mushy-ness over...gotta go lay down again. Sickness is back :)

22 Weeks Pregnant and Loving Life!

It's been a long time since the last time (and only time) I blogged! Time just goes by so fast! Being pregnant is an adventure for us every day. Something new is always going on with my belly! The biggest news is that we are having a BOY!!! Reid Bennett Hanks. We both thought SURE it was going to be a girl so it was quite a shock seeing that boy part on the screen. I'm pretty sure it took 2-3 days for it to soak in. We found out on a Saturday and on Monday at work I got a text from Jes that said "We're having a boy!" HAHA! It had just really hit him. Well, God know's best and it turns out that having a boy is exactly what we always wanted...even if we didn't know it! We just love him so much already!

We found out it was a boy at 15 weeks at the 4D Peek Boutique in Franklin. It was such a wonderful experience and I would encourage everyone to go! My parents, grandparents, brother and sister-in-law and aunt were all there and Jesse's mom and grandmother drove in for the weekend! We all went in together and they had couches and chairs and a recliner for Jesse to sit in next to me. The ultrasond was projected wall size. It was amazing. He was moving and kicking and it was the most incredible thing I've ever seen!! I am so glad our families were there to experience it with us! What a special day! Of course, baby shopping was done right after :).

We've since gotten our crib, changing table, travel system, TONS of clothes (thanks to a wonderful coworker!) and other little things. Just tonight we washed a load of baby clothes and sat and folded them and laughed about how tiny they were. It's hard to imagine having someone that small living here!

He moves around like crazy and his daddy FINALLY got to feel him kick tonight! What an exciting moment! I can't wait until we can sit and watch him moving around in my belly! We have childbirth classes booked and are slowly but surely preparing for this sweet baby!

The hardest thing so far has been the passing of my sweet Grandma. My dad's mom passed away after a long battle with cancer. She fought hard and was tired and when the time came, she went fairly quickly which is a blessing. She was loving on her family up to her last days and is sitting in heaven now where she belongs. The trip to Michigan was a brutal 10 hour drive, but so worth it. It seems weird to say but the weekend, despite the funeral, was wonderful! Such a great time with my dad's side of the family and I loved taking Jesse to MI for the first time and having him get to know them better. I am so thankful for my grandma and the sweet person she was. I found out she had already started a Christmas stocking for Reid Bennett. We will treasure that forever.

I love being pregnant and am so thankful to be growing Reid Bennett in my belly. I can't imagine anything being this special. Having him safe and protected inside me. It's an incredible, overwhelming feeling...

Here are my Pregnancy Top 10's (so far):

Top ten things I LOVE about being pregnant:
1. Baby kicks
2. Deep, peaceful sleep
3. Belly rubs and scratches from friends
4. Baby shopping
5. My growing belly
6. Hearing my husband talk to my belly at night
7. Maternity pants!!
8. Baby kicks
9. Feeling closer to God thank I ever have and feeling his power in my life
10. Feeling like nothing has ever been or will ever be this amazing!

Top ten things I DON'T love about being pregnant:
1. Not feeling the baby kick and freaking out.
2. Emotional breakdowns (lots of them)
3. Stretch marks
4. Opinions
5. Peeing 75 times a night
6. CRAZY dreams
7. Emotional breakdowns
8. Worrying worrying
10. and worrying

"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:3-4

Whirlwind!!!

Well, I'm going to try this blogging thing again. I started one when we got engaged, then kept forgetting I had it! Then I'd remember I had it and I would forget the password, change it, then forget it again. But now life is getting a little crazier and busier and I think this is the perfect way to keep everyone up-to-date on our life!

In September we celebrated our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!! I don't think either of us can believe we've been married a year. It really does seem like just the other day. But, we are happy to have that year under our belts and thankful for all the lessons God taught us along the way. (even the lessons that were learned the hard way...) Being married is so fun and worth all the work you put into it. We went to Chicago to celebrate our anniversary and LOVED the city! It is definitely somewhere we'd like to go back to one day.

We had a wonderful holiday season! We spent Thanksgiving in Missouri this year with Jesse's family and Christmas in Tennessee with my family. Thanksgiving at the lake was so fun even if it was the quickest trip EVER! Our niece is HUGE and we had a blast playing with her the whole time. As we were pulling out of Janelle's house to head home, I looked at Jes and said, "Babe, I'm really ready to have a baby. Can't we just not TRY, but not PREVENT?" To my surprise, Jesse was on board. Little did we know we already had a little Christmas package on the way.....

WHOA BABY!!!!

So, on December 10, 2009, our lives were permanently altered in a BIG way. In November, I had "skipped" and taken a pregnancy test (3 actually) which all came back negative. "Skipping" is very normal for me so I wasn't really hopeful. Well, the time comes around in December and another no show. All my friends were telling me I was pregnant and to take a test, but I did not think I was. Truly. I was just sure this was my body being weird yet again. BUT, it was the night of the 3rd grade musical and I had some time to kill so Megan, Amy and I went to get dinner and made a stop at CVS. I felt pretty silly buying the test, as I KNEW it would be negative. Well, we went back to school and I'm just soooo carefree and nonchalant about taking this test. (you can tell I did not think I was pregnant. this is NOT the way I have imagined finding out I'm having a baby...in my classroom bathroom, Jesse nowhere around....bad!!!) So, I go in the bathroom, take the test and the results were immediate! I started breathing really loud. Like, hysterical breathing. I could not believe my eyes when that plus sign IMMEDIATELY showed up! Talk about surreal. I just walked out of the bathroom and my friends are standing there and I'm just silent. I cannot even say the words! Luckily, Jesse was already planning to come to the musical and was en route. I was so panicked about telling him. This was soooo not what I had pictured for this moment, but I could not go through this night and act normal. No way. So, I took him into the workroom at school and showed him the test and started sobbing :) He was so calm and hugged me and we just stared at each other like....are we adults? Are we allowed to have a baby? haha! We were in such shock!

Anyway, I went to the doctor the next Monday and Tuesday we got the confirmation that I was definitely pregnant. We told our families and everyone is very excited!! So far I haven't thrown up or been too terribly sick. It has been an amazing experience so far! I love being pregnant and feeling all the little feelings of my body changing and knowing I am growing my baby inside me! Jesse has been the most amazing father-to-be. He takes such good care of me and spoils me. He is so patient and understanding. He already talks to my belly and quotes "music trivia" to it!! haha!! We love this little tiny person already! We recently had our first ultrasound and now we feel like it's real!!! Come on August 16th!!! We are anxiously awaiting that amazing day!!!