...beba's birthday...

it's tomorrow! well, maybe the next day depending on how the induction goes...but i'm praying for a quick and easy labor! :)
tonight seems a night just like any other. i'm wasting time on facebook, drew is back in our room fiddling with something, the windows are open and we're just hanging out. or so it seems...
really we're mentally and emotionally preparing for the birth of our sweet daughter. a little girl who is sure to change the world. our world at least. and while drew and i share a pretty great world right now, we know that it's just going to get better and better. we can't wait to meet you miss _____ ___ davis!

...contraction, traction...what's your action?...

it seems to me that contractions seem to be the great mystery of the world. nobody can really describe what they feel like and you often get the nodding of the head and "you'll just know" explanation. which is one that i'm sure i'll be using once they've come and gone, done their job, and pushed beba out into the world. right now though, as i walk around my house experiencing "discomfort" and "tightening" and even a few "whoa! that hurt" pangs, i'm not really sure what to do. should i be timing them? should i ignore them? should i start re-washing every article of her clothing in hopes of her wearing them by tomorrow?

...my true love...

three years ago today, drew and i had our first kiss in del mar. two years ago today, drew and i had our first kiss as husband and wife. i've been looking over some of our wedding pictures, remembering back to that day and all that it entailed - waaaay too much preparation, but the blessing of so many friends and family coming alongside to support us in our choice of one another.
i feel truly honored to call drew my husband. marriage hasn't been warm fuzzies and bliss every second of the day [is it for you?], but it has been the most incredible experience of my life. i am thankful to have found such a man of integrity, a man who works hard to do the right thing and who tries his absolute best to love me well.

i was a little bit nervous that we would be celebrating the birth of a baby today. but don't worry, she's not here yet! so we're keeping august 5 as our special day...a day to celebrate our kisses and our life together. but we certainly won't mind if she wants to come soon after...especially since i told drew that this year for our anniversary i'm giving him a baby!

...back to the waiting game...

just wanted to share some great news...
my high blood pressure appears to have "resolved" itself. dr brody said that going on maternity leave and not working anymore seems to have done the trick! :) dr. brody's plan no longer is to induce me next week. we are back in the "when the heck is she going to come???" club. i am thankful that we won't have to coax her out artificially, and as it is, it looks as though she could come sooner rather than later anyway. i received all my instructions for heading to the hospital and was told to make an appointment for next week "just in case she hasn't come yet". of course, as we all know, little babes seem to be on their own schedule!
so there's the update. we're really excited for what's to come...

...beba daddy...

some of you may be wondering what drew has been up to during the course of the pregnancy. while i've been hard at work carrying our precious daughter, he's been hard at work prepping for her. i thought i'd give you a little peek into his life these days...

ah, the crib debacle. tried on 3-4 different weekends to put it together. after a million phone calls, PB Kids agreed to send us a brand new one. he put the new one together in 20 minutes.


for some reason, i was incapable of lining dresser drawers. drew knew these drawers were bugging me...and what a man! he got right down to it.


drew gave me the full tutorial on our new uppababy vista. thank you ellen!!!


in his endless quest for knowledge, drew read up on proper installation of an infant seat.


after all that reading, he needed a break.


and after all that baby gear assembly, he REALLY needed a break. he clearly had no problem snuggling up to my maternity pillow. aka: the snoogle. aka: mike noogle.


and once he felt very well rested, he was back in the game. drew = MJ.


i have the best husband ever! and on wednesday, we celebrate our 2 year anniversary! i am one lucky lady...and beba will be too. xoxo.

...cousins...

kimmie and dillan came down for a visit today. dillan is such a great babe!
at one point though, he was just a tiny bit grumpy so i put him on my belly.
beba calmed him right down. she rolled around and gave him a few kicks.
they were bonding! it was so, so sweet.
by the next time we see dillan, his cousin will be out of the womb and into the world!

...sooner rather than later...

well, in a major turn of events, we can now take most of the guesswork out of beba's arrival date.

35 week appointment - i went in to find that i had high blood pressure : 150/90-something. dr. brody ordered tests, i was put on "restricted activity" and told "the goal is to make it to 37 weeks". the concern was that i was developing a condition called preeclampsia. this of course caused me some anxiety, and i went home crying and thinking that there was no way i was ready for a baby in only 2 weeks. i had just gone on maternity leave the day before! then my blood tests came back normal, everything appeared to be okay, and i resumed getting ready for beba [hoping it would still be a month or so].

36 week appointment - went in for a visit with the midwife as dr. brody was out of town. i was expecting the best. high blood pressure again! this time i started bawling before the midwife could even make it in the room. they hooked me up to the fetal monitor and beba was happy as a clam - heart rate was great, and she was movin' and shakin' in her usual ways. the midwife ordered more blood tests and put me on "moderate bed rest" and sent me home. i straight up asked her if high blood pressure was a reason to induce. she said yes. my blood work came back normal but my urine test showed slightly elevated levels of protein.

37 week appointment - full term! dr. brody greeted drew and me, and then she went straight into our action plan. this relieved me greatly as i was hoping not to have to come up with one of my own! :) because of the high bp and elevated protein, i have put in the mild preeclampsia category. the good news is that my blood pressure has been low [probably because of my good bed rest skills] and i'm fine, but dr. brody does not want me going past 39 weeks.

soooooo, unless beba decides to come out on her own before august 12 or 13ish, i will be induced. that's less than 2 weeks away!!! although being induced was definitely not in my birth plan, i have found myself to be okay with the new plan. our top concern is the health of beba, and her coming just a week early is not a big deal. and the perks of knowing when she's coming are that my parents can make it out from colorado and drew can plan his time off of work. it does take away some of the anticipation - "when are those contractions going to start?...did my water just break?...why won't she just get here already?" but all in all, i'm okay with this. and, of course, there's always the possibility that she'll push her way out before then. these days, it does seem like she could pop out of my belly button at any moment.

please pray that my condition does not get worse before the 39 week mark, and that these last weeks are filled with peace and health before [and after!] her arrival. we're really looking forward to meeting her...

...beba love...

well, it's been over two months since i've updated. but let me make one thing clear, just because i've been bad at blogging doesn't mean i don't love my beba. :)

i often wish that i was a better communicator. sometimes you can't shut me up, and other times getting more than two words out of me is like pulling teeth. what can i say? it's a flaw. but more than anything, my lack of blogging can be attributed to the prego brain alien that has rendered me one part brain-dead mixed with one part non-stop nester...topped with two parts nervous nelly. and certainly, you don't want to hear about my first time mom anxieties day in and day out...that's what my fellow prego and cubicle mate jenna is for. she's been the one to hear about every ache and pain, rational and irrational thought, and many times the TMI that rolls off my tongue before i can stop it [i mean, does she really need to know the exact spot of each and EVERY one of my stretch marks???].

anyways, i'm going to focus on the joys of these last two months. here are some stellar highlights:

the house remodel. in may, we were fortunate enough to get new floors and a few other things in the place we are renting. it's 2 bedrooms, 1 bath and we're planning on staying another year before [hopefully] moving into a bigger place. our landlord was generous enough to revamp the place before beba arrives [without raising the rent - yeeeaaah!]. the good news: we got new floors, a new bathroom, new oven, microwave, and a dishwasher installed!!! the bad news: we were displaced on SHORT notice for a good 3 weeks, and our not-so-favorite contractor lurked about for another 2 or 3 weeks after that.

mom and me in the revamped kitchen.

beba's room! after the new stuff was put in, we figured it was a great time to get to work on beba's room. we had to switch our rooms - we moved into the bigger room so we could keep drew's office in with us, and beba will be in the smaller room. the catch - beba's room has the [much] bigger closet so it required some major purging on our part. fortunately, my mom was in town and she was the biggest blessing ever as she helped us shake and shuffle and reorganize all of our stuff. beba's room is still a work in progress...drew's been on the phone with PB Kids about 8 times a day trying to get them to own a mistake they made with the floor model crib we bought [newsflash - as i am writing this he just called to say they're sending us a BRAND NEW crib]...and yaya and papa bought us an amazing chair on craigslist for $115 only to get quotes that it's going to be $500 to recover [not including the fabric]. uhhh, i'm pretty sure we could have bought a brand new one for way less than that! :) all that being said, at this point, beba has no [finished] place to lay her sweet head so it's a good thing we still have over a month to go!

dillan is here! on thursday, june 4 our wonderful nephew dillan davis olson was born. and what a great little guy he is...i tear up just thinking about the amazing addition he is to the davis/olson fam. i was fortunate enough to be in with kim during his birth, and it honestly was one of the coolest experiences. i was so thankful to see a birth and be able to prepare myself for what's to come...and of course the fact that it was dillan's birth made it all the more special! kim and dust are making a great transition into parenthood, and drew and i can't wait to have beba here so we can join in the fun!



celebration! my mom came out in june, and not only did she go above and beyond to help us with our house, but she threw me a family shower up in orange county with the help of my aunts and grammy. it was [of course!!!] beautiful down to every detail - boxed lunches, unreal flowers, sweet touches. i love when both sides of the family are able to get together...add in crystal, whit, kim, dillan, leslie williams and her daughter havilah, and it was quite the group of special people! and the fact that they were there to celebrate beba was amazing...once again, tears. :) beba was blessed with many gifts some of which took hours and hours for people to make. my mom made some sweet shirts and outfits, my aunt adrian made her a beautiful quilt, and my cousin sandra gave beba a bucketful of homemade outfits and blankets. i hope beba gets their crafty skills...everything was so awesome!





daddy. oh man, more tears. i couldn't be more fortunate to have the husband that i do. he's working hard at both of his jobs. he's working hard around the house. and he's working hard to keep me happy! the demands of his jobs are nothing compared to the demands of his emotional wife who's carrying a few too many pounds and expects a 30 minute massage/tickle each and every night [along with very deep, meaningful conversation]. i'm madly in love with him, and i can't wait for beba to know and love her daddy. he's going to be amazing with her. he's certainly amazing with me.

drew practicing his soothing skills on dillan. so cute.


changes. and now to the joyous part of all my body changes. weeeelll, we don't need to get into the nitty gritty, but suffice it to say, while i am not quite ready to meet our little girl, i am DEFINITELY ready to not be pregnant anymore. my bras don't fit [in fact today i actually left work so that i could go home and change out of one...it was literally suffocating me!]. i am carrying straight out and LOW, so low that i had a week of being convinced that i was on the verge of pre-term labor...and i'm not joking either. that combined with a few other disconcerting symptoms sent me down to labor/delivery a couple of weeks ago. fortunately, i'm all sealed up, and beba is still cooking away [for now]. she rocks and rolls, and i love knowing that there is a small body and soul inside...such a miracle! so i deal with the back aches, pressure, and turning from side to side 80 times a night...hey, it's nothing that any other mommy to be doesn't have to handle!

ultrasound at 30 weeks. that's a white belly!

upcoming fun. we'll hit the six weeks and counting mark on thursday, and there is some great fun happening between now and beba's birth. i have a few showers coming up in mid-july. i just love when friends and family get together to celebrate life's beautiful seasons. beba is going to be surrounded by so much love, and we are truly blessed to have such quality people in our lives.
also, i go on maternity leave a week from tomorrow! really anyone who has ever met me knows i've pretty much been waiting my whole life for this. i absolutely love the people i work with and i am so thankful for my year and a half at north coast calvary. but not having to work [for how long, who knows?] is a dream!!! and i plan on eating up every day between now and her birth. the goal is to not be as white as the hospital bed sheets upon checking in for delivery. i know every inch of me will be seen by random people, and while that is heinous enough, there is no need to blind them unnecessarily with pasty, vampire skin.

so there it is. the scoop. the goal of course is to break my updates down into bite sized pieces, but i appreciate you sticking it out through this loooong update. you must really love beba. :) and like i said earlier, sometimes you just can't shut me up...

...best thing ever...

honestly, could i be any more excited? i don't think i'll sleep all week [and not just because my belly's poppin']. a REALLY big giveaway AND ryan seacrest? what more could an expectant mother hope for? beba's kicking with glee.

...celebrating life...

dillan is almost here, and we had a great time on saturday celebrating his upcoming arrival and his great mama kim!



pretty much everywhere i go these days, i am surrounded by pretty prego ladies. on may 7, steph, les, kim and i will head up to LA to be "showered" on ellen's first-time moms show! we're just hoping for a year's worth of diapers, and we couldn't be more excited!

...havilah...

after months and months and months of waiting, erik and leslie finally welcomed their little girl into the world yesterday.
havilah blair williams. 9 lbs. 21 inches. pure bundle of joy.

drew and i were able to go up and visit them last night, and i definitely cried when i walked into the room and saw les holding her daughter. erik and les are very special friends to us, and we are so, so happy for them!

we're just excited for beba to be born so that she and havilah can be playmates!

...beba...

it's a girl!
there's really no better way to say it than that. :)

on this street corner in seattle, i surprised drew with the news that he has a daughter on the way!

everywhere we went on our babymoon, we found PINK!
this is outside an amazing restaurant called [appropriately] The Pink Door.
mmm. delicious!

we had some time at the sutherland's cabin to hang and reflect on all the upcoming changes...we honestly feel so privileged to have the blessings of our family, friends, God's provisions, and a little one on the way...

ellen!

kim informed me and a couple of friends that ellen is hosting a mother's day show for first time mommies. kim encouraged us to write in and get tickets. and even though i wrote in for tickets, i didn't even need to...because kim was called the next day and got us 4 tickets to the show!!! we're so excited to be a part of the mother's day show. we're hoping to walk away with a fantastic baby item or two.
what's really cool is that this will be an encore appearance for me on the ellen show. a couple of years ago, leslie bettino and i went with my aunt to a taping of the show, and i was selected to be part of an audience game. the bad news: i was caught dancing AND semi-singing on camera. the good news: i won an XMradio with a years worth of service. the bad news: i never even opened the box. the good news: drew and i went on our first post-college date a week later and i was able to wow him with my appearance on ellen. so glad that it helped catch me the man of my dreams!

bebo is a racker. big surprise!

on sunday, we took a trek up to ultrasound services in costa mesa. we were hoping to find out the gender of bebo [a gender-neutral name]. we had some friends meeting up for dinner, and we were going to have the "big reveal" and open the sealed envelope all together. bebo or beba? HOWEVER, even after a huge glass of orange juice, we looked up at the screen to see our precious little babe sitting cross-legged on his or her little butt. bebo waved and gave us a few hiccups but refused to do much else. then, after some more o.j., a few flights of stairs, a bag of m&ms, a few more jumps and lunges, and 45 minutes, we did 2 more ultrasounds...only to find that bebo was still sleeping peacefully in crisscross applesauce position. clearly, we were not going to get much cooperation! we will now have to wait a few more weeks to know, but bebo's modesty only confirms my gut feeling. to quote a friend on facebook, "usually girls are modest. boys want to show off!" this was further confirmed when kim and dusty went to get their ultrasound and our coming-in-june nephew dillan showed his stuff in the first 30 seconds! :)

so. bebo or beba? stayed tuned for the april 6 ultrasound...and pray that our little one wakes up [and musters up a little courage]!

it comes and goes in waves...and then it's gone!

for those of you who have had been in some sort of contact with me over the past 10 weeks, you know that i have spent much of my days fighting back the urge to vomit [many, many times unsuccessfully], looking green, and hunting every 20 minutes for the next piece of protein to put in my mouth. drew has been the most patient, saintly man - washing dishes, fetching me beverages, doing a deep clean of the house on valentine's day, footing the skyrocketing grocery bill, and overall just being an amazing man! so far i haven't had what most would think of as an easy pregnancy, but praise God that it's a healthy one and that i have a wonderfully supportive husband. and on the day i turned 16 weeks, my luck changed! i have had a blissful few days of not having to eat every 45 minutes and, for the most part, i almost feel like a normal person again...hallelujah! hallelujah!

...16 weeks...

here is a new pic of the belly. look carefully for the rubber banded jeans. i'm pretty sure my booty grew more than my belly! :)

the belly

i'm not sure how i feel about posting these, but what the heck. whit, these are especially for you.

oh baby! oh bebo!

most days go by and i think to myself, "are we crazy??? i'm not old enough to have a baby!" and yet, here we are, 27 and 28 [more than old enough!] and we are getting ready to bring a little life into the world. after only a year and a half of marriage, drew and i couldn't be more excited to enter into this next season. parenthood is something we've always looked forward to, and we're embracing it for all that it promises to be - incredible, difficult, life-changing, and the best thing ever!

we found out we were pregnant on dec. 20...just in time for christmas! drew and i flew home to colorado and were able to surprise my mom, dad and brother with a little gift on christmas morning. they were overjoyed! my dad dubbed the little baby "bebo" on the spot, and the nickname has stuck [and no, that will not be his/her real name!]. :) and while they know what they're calling the babe, we still don't know what the baby is calling them. perhaps p.pa and birdie?

for new years [we celebrated christmas late with drew's family] we surprised dick, crystal, kim, dusty and whit with the surprise of a new grandbaby/cousin/niece or nephew. kimmie is pregnant, and their little boy, dillan, is due in june! papa and yaya will become grandparents to 2 babies in 2 months!

we feel so blessed to be embarking on this baby journey with so many of our close friends. babies, babies, everywhere! over the course of the next few months many of our family and friends will be having kids...and we look forward to meeting each and every one of the sweet little babes! and we're REALLY looking forward to meeting our little one. he/she is due out on august 20!