Isn't she beautiful?!!!!!!

This is me holding the "male" baby carrier. I get to carry Oda Mae for 9 months whe she gets here.

 

Thanks Uncle Rob. This is the best gift we've gotten so far!!! 

Gift Suggestion

Oda Mae wants this.....CLICK HERE.

OD

Week 36

We are almost at the end of the book now. Only 4 more chapters in Your Pregnancy week by week. "By this week, your baby (Oda Mae) weighs about 6 pounds. Its crown-to-rump length is over 13.5 inches, and total length is 20.7 inches."

We had a Dr. visit today and no sonogram. I was a bit disappointed because I had brought my camera to take pictures of Brenda all laying down and looking at Oda Mae. She did take a strep test though. (No, I did not get any pictures of that.) There is a one in four chance that she has strep. This will not hurt Oda Mae 'cause if she does, then she will take some antibiotics when she goes into labor and all will be fine.

Brenda has been having some "mild" contractions for a few days now. The Dr. checked for dilation and with the magic number being 10...we are now at 2. We are anxiously waiting for Oda Mae to "drop". Apparently, this can happen at any time. The Dr. says that being at 2 cm means that Oda Mae might be here a little early. The due date though, has yet to be changed. For those of you who forgot....March 22.

I found a little joke for you all. This is completely unaltered!!!! I copied it straight from HERE

"Brenda, pregnant with her first child, was paying a visit to her obstetrician's office. When the exam was over, she shyly began, "My husband wants me to ask you if its still okay..."

"I know, I know." the doctor said, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder, "I get asked that all the time. Sex is fine until late in the pregnancy."

"No, that's not it at all," Brenda confessed. "He wants to know if I can still mow the lawn." "


Ha!!!!!

J.

Since most people...

don't know where the hospital is, here is a link to their website. Look down at the bottom right hand corner and get directions. We'll call you and let you know when to be on your way.


Baylor All Saints


Love,
OD

P.S. Thank you all so much for the gifts for the Oda Mae. The shower yesterday was a great success!!!!!!!!!!

$$$$$$

I think that this is a viable source of income for us at this point in our lives. Who's with me?!!!

Advertising Space Available ON MY PREGNANT BELLY ! !


J.

Went to the Dr. Today...

Everything is going well. The Dr. said that tomorrow is 35 weeks. I'm not too sure how all of this week measuring thing works. I thought we were 35 weeks last week. I think the Dr. is just not too sure when Oda Mae is coming so, she keeps moving our weeks around to throw us off the trail. We go back again next Monday. Maybe we'll get to see Oda Mae then.

A quote from Your Pregnancy: Week by Week, "At this point, you may be feeling a little nervous about the birth. You might be afraid you won't know when it's time to call the doctor or go to the hospital." I guess we're not supposed to feel this way until tomorrow. I'll make sure that we wait until then to start panicking. The Dr. today said that if Brenda went into labor today that they wouldn't do anything to stop it. I guess there's no turning back now.

I'm going to finish the nursery today and I'll take pictures and post them here in a couple of days or so. Until then....a little poll :)

J.

Do YOU know how to get to the hospital if Brenda were to go into labor today?
	YES
	NO
	I know how to get to A hospital.
	I don't know how to get to ANY hospitals.
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Man oh man...

You have never seen so many pregnant ladies in one room before. For eight hours my family and I were in class with about 12 other couples learning the basics of birthing 'cause "I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' no baby!"

We actually had a lot of fun and learned a lot about what is going to happen to us. Everybody had nametags that were pink (if you were having a girl), blue (for a boy), or yellow (if you just didn't care.) We thought about it too late, but Brenda and I decided that the next time we did something like this, she would wear a pink nametag while I wore a blue one. :p

Much of the class was geared toward the "coaches" (that's me). Basically, you have to give massages for the length of the labor (14 - 36 hours!!!!!!!! Who knew?) and not say anything stupid like "just relax" or "I know how you feel". Also, you don't want to tell your laboring wife to "Push", she knows that she needs to push. Saying something stupid like that could send you to the emergency room; which, fortunately, is just downstairs. Also, many of the coaches tend to be shall we say, light-hearted. The nurses said that they don't like coaches who faint. If they have to bring you orange juice because you're unconscious and lying on the floor, they will definitely not be your friend anymore. Frankly, they're not really YOUR friend to begin with.

We got to watch some videos right before lunch. Let's just say babies are not pink and cute when they are first born! They have to go through some major reconstruction before they come home. Only a few of the "coaches" were not able to eat lunch afterward. I was able to eat mine and part of the guys lunch next to me. You should all be proud.

As for Brenda, I think she feels better about knowing what to expect and what to do when things start moving along. I DON'T think she feels better about having to get this thing out! It's pretty scary when you think about it. BUT, she is going to do great because she wants to be a mommy more than anyone I've ever seen. The nurses were able to show us all the things that would and might happen. They were really good about showing step by step how things would progress and how everything would be handled.

We were able to take a tour of the hospital and the rooms are nice and everything is fairly new. It will be a good place for Oda Mae to be born. I was able to make it to the hospital in 13 minutes yesterday. With a little more practice, I think I can do better.

J.

BIRTHING CLASS TODAY

We're off to the competition. Team Tullos is goin' to find out how to get this thing out! Wish us luck.

J.

Okay, Okay...

I think some of you may be addicted to the Oda Mae Baby Blog....

We went to the Dr. on Monday and everything is going well. The due date has not been moved (YET) and Oda Mae's heart beat is very strong. We are now at the "34 week" mark which means that the baby "weighs almost 5 pounds by this week. Its crown-to-rump length is about 12.8 inches. Total length is 19.8 inches." So yes, if the baby weighed 5 pounds two weeks ago, we're looking at almost 7 pounds now. You may ask, "aren't babies almost ready to be born at 7 lbs? or maybe one more pound to go?"...Why yes!!!!!!! Which is why I've started taking my cell phone with me where ever I go. I also answer when Brenda calls no matter what I'm doing.

You will be glad to know that we made a trial run to the hospital the other day. It's about 15 minutes from the house. I think if I work on it I can make it in under 9 minutes.

The nursery is almost ready. We've decided to leave the room painted yellow, I have painted the trim purple. I also painted the furniture purple, green and yellow. Oda Mae will be the most beautiful little girl in her little room. We have also become the donation center for all clothes pink and red for children between the ages of zero - 10 years old. I suppose this is a good thing. But where are all these clothes going to go?????

Saturday is our "birthing class". I can't wait...I've got my catchers mit, camera, and my binoculars ready. We are going to have so much fun.

Below is a photo of what Brenda would look like if she were invisible and you could see inside of her. ENJOY!!!!

J.

Notice the belly button. When it pops out the baby's done. Just like at Thanksgiving!!!!!! 

Sooner than expected????

Brenda went to the Dr. this Wednesday and it looks like everything is going very well. So well that Oda Mae may be here a little sooner than we thought. Brenda was hooked up to a baby heart monitor for about 30 minutes and then she had an ultrasound. Oda Mae is FIVE POUNDS!!!!!!! now and instead of being in week 31 she may be in week 33. The due date has not been changed officially, but you know that birthing class we were going to take in early March? We've moved it to early February. Murphy's law states that had we not moved the birthing class, Oda Mae would have been born the day before we had our class. So now she will probably come on the expected date.

We'll keep you up-to-date!!

J.

Three Words...

"Guacamole" and "Orange Juice"

Need I say more. :P

J.

Music to our ears...

So, like I said a few days ago, we bought this "Baby Sounds" monitor at Target the other day. It has been a source of great entertainment ever since. You can hear all kinds of noises from the inside of the mommy's tummy. Here is a little treat for all who want to hear...

Oda Mae Allison's Heart Beat

Thanks to our favorite uncle ROB for the help with the web hosting! You should go to his site.

The internet is a fascinating thing!!!!!

J.

Listening....

to Oda Mae at home now. We broke down and bought a little baby listener thingy at Target for 20 bucks. Now we can listen to Oda Mae any time we want. It's fun to hear her doing all kinds of stuff in there. There will be a special "audio" treat for all you blog readers in the next week or so.

We are in between 28 and 29 weeks now with less than 3 months to go. Allison is about 2.5 pounds now and about 15.75 inches in length. That's almost 16 inches all inside Brenda's tummy. (Go ahead...get your ruler out.)

We have now registered at Target for baby stuff. We have people planning showers out the wazoo. Yeah!!!! Baby stuff.

The Dr. wants to start seeing the family every two weeks now. We've signed up for "Birthing Classes" at the hospital. I'm sure that will inspire a couple of blog entries.

All is well!!!

J.

'Tis The Year...

of Oda Mae's birth!!!! 2005, Happy New Year everyone!

All has been going well with the pregnancy, "Mom" seems to be very happy and "Dad" can't wait until baby Allison is here. Oda Mae has been jumping around quite a bit lately. Quite frankly, it's a little disturbing seeing Brenda's tummy jump out at me from the corner of my eye. Oda Mae's favorite game is "Kick the Daddy". Whenever I put my head up to listen, she gives me a good wack up side the head. We're going to have so much fun when she gets here.

Less than three months to go. The first six months have gone by so fast. Plans are in the works for getting the house ready for little Allison. We've already started working on remodeling the bathroom and getting the nursery together. The nursery theme will be "Country Cottage". She'll have a little white picket fence with lots of flowers, birds, lady bugs, bees, and and "family" tree on the walls. All of our family and friends want to throw baby showers. I'm thinking we need diapers!!!!!! HINTHINTHINT

J.

Let There Be Light!!!!!!

We made it to the third trimester. Some amazing things are happening to Oda Mae. Apparently, eyes started to appear at around day 22 of Oda Mae's development. Since then she's been working on getting those eyes functional. (So that's what all the commotion has been about lately.) During the 27th week, Oda Mae has been able to get her retina to "receive light and light information, and transmit it to the brain for interpretation--what we know as sight."

She is so smart, already!!!! Can you believe it?

It must be very weird to be able to see what's going on in there. A matter of fact...there was a blurb on the "Roblog" several days ago that discussed something like this. Ah, yes check this out...Click Here. I bet Oda Mae could see my Christmas lights if I were to make Brenda put her belly up to my trees outside. I'll let you know how that experiment goes. :)

Happy Christmas Eve!!!

J.

10,900 Lights this year!!