At 31 Weeks and 13 Months

OK, so technically, Emma is now 14 months, but I started this when she really was 13 months old. And I liked the whole 31 vs 13 thing.



At 31 weeks, I definitely look pregnant.
At 31 weeks, I not only have a name picked out for our son, but we also know his birth date!
At 31 weeks, we have a crib, but no mattress or bedding.
At 31 weeks, I love to go into Alex's room and enjoy what it looks like so far.
At 31 weeks, I'm still exhausted. So much for a second trimester burst of energy. I've now given up hope.
At 31 weeks, I let Emma crawl up the stairs by herself and save my strength for giving her a bath. :-)
At 31 weeks, I now go to the doctor every two weeks.
At 31 weeks, Alex's presence is a constant reminder by his kicks and pushes against my belly.
At 31 weeks, I am both intrigued and frightened at the possibility that I might actually see the outline of his hand pushing out against my tummy.
At 31 weeks, I'm relieved we are passed the heat of a Houston August!
At 31 weeks, I wonder how it is that super-organized Heather is so far behind in her preparation for this baby.
At 31 weeks, it is fun to watch Jeff speak to his son through the "speaker".
At 31 weeks, I still haven't gotten swollen ankles and I'm still wearing my wedding rings!!!
At 31 weeks, I think Emma still thinks I am having a puppy instead of a baby. :-)



At 13 months, Emma got her first haircut but probably needs another one!
At 13 months, Emma's favorite thing is still the puppy.
At 13 months, she loves splashing in the bathtub and I am proud to say that I let her!!
At 13 months, Emma is a walking, squealing delight.
At 13 months, she has been moved up to the toddler class at church. (what, already???)
At 13 months, she has outgrown footie pajamas and now wears separate jammies to bed.
At 13 months, Emma knows when her daddy is gone and will call his name as she walks from room to room looking for him.
At 13 months, Emma cut four molars. All at once. Almost completely painlessly. Almost.
At 13 months, she needs new shoes, but apparently has a tiny foot that complicates things. Well, that, and I refuse to buy plastic shoes or shoes that are all pink sparkles or light up or have a heel on them. Can I just buy a pair of plain white sandals?
At 13 months, she loves milk. She is her mamma's daughter.
At 13 months, she is still a good eater, and will eat most anything we give her. Including beets. (UGH!)
At 13 months, she knows her shoes go on her feet and the brush goes in her hair, but she hasn't figured out how to really accomplish either.
At 13 months, she prefers to feed herself and will generally refuse food if you are trying to feed her.
At 13 months, she loves Little People, my nail polish, and music.

The Return of the Glucose Test

Well this morning was my glucose test. There is no way on this whole earth that I could not eat. It's just not happening. This little mister inside me demands it. I talked with my ob nurse last visit and she said I could eat. Just nothing with sugar. So I made two eggs this morning and drank a glass of water. Because it was a necessity. I admit I thought long and hard about a glass of not just milk, but chocolate milk, but when I took the milk jug out of the refrigerator and read that there were 11 g of sugar just in the milk, I slowly put it back. (But you had better believe that I either need to stop for a chocolate milkshake on the way home or I'll need a tall glass of chocolate milk when I get home.) So I go in this morning, armed with a straw (thanks Grannie, for the fantastic suggestion last time!) and my sweet husband who agreed to go with me for moral support. The girl gave me a bottle of orangish liquid and told me I had 5 minutes or less to down it. In walks another girl, here for the same thing. She gets a red one. It is at this moment that I realize I had red last time. Red is fruit punch flavored. I have started sucking down orange. The only flavor worse to me than orange would be grape. I really really wanted to offer some to Emma, but I figured we'd pay for her sugar rush later and I should just suck it up and suck it down. In like three swallows the other girl is finished. I'm barely below the top of the label. Grrr. Meanwhile, the two husbands are talking and I am mystified at how she is guzzling her drink so quickly. I keep sucking that straw and after they leave (of course) I finally finish. Let me pat myself on the back for a minute. I did not have to be told I was running out of time by a nurse this time. Last time I was spoken to several times about how I needed to speed it up, so that was a good thing. I went upstairs to my ob visit, but they didn't call my name before my hour was up and it was time to head back downstairs again to have my blood drawn. Now let me just start by saying, for those of you who don't know me well enough, I don't do blood. I don't want to see it, I don't want to talk about it, and I darn sure don't want to give any away. I have this theory that my body makes X amount of blood that happily circulates around in my system for a reason. Take any amount away from said happy little system, and I think there should be a problem. So this has always been a problem for me. Add to it that one of the ladies who does the draws has been wonderful every single time I've ever done this (with Emma and now with Alex) and there is another woman who I did not care for when I was pregnant with Emma. I have a friend whose doctor is also in the same facility and she and I have compared notes several times about how we like the one but not the other. Well don't you know this is the second time I get "the other". She was fantastic. I told her I was probably her worst patient and that I would please not like to see anything. Please. She said I wasn't even close to being her worst because I didn't flinch when she [AUNT JAYNE STOP READING] put the needle in. She took her vials, band-aided me, and sent me on my way. [AUNT JAYNE YOU CAN READ AGAIN]
So back upstairs we go and get called. The little man's heart rate was 153. I gained 5 lbs. All is well with both of us and we've now entered the bi-monthly visits. 63 days to go. By the way this little boy is pushing on my stomach all the time, you can bet I'm counting.

Side note: Aggie football starts this weekend. WHOOP!

We Have a Date AND a Name!

November 6th. Mark it on your calendar. Baby P will make his appearance that morning. Now that we have a date, the time is quickly pressing upon me. With Emma, we had a crib set up before we even knew she was a girl. That nursery was painted pink practically the day after we found out she was a girl. Baby P however, well, that has been another story entirely. I am realizing that chasing a one year old (holy buckets, how did my sweet baby get to be one year old??) is more time consuming than I thought.
Three weeks ago, while Emma was down for a super long Children's Ibuprofen induced nap (she had a fever and was cutting 4 molars, what do you want me to say??), Jeff and I power painted the nursery. And when I say power painted, I mean it was fast. We spent the best $4.79 we have ever spent and bought one of those edge painter thingies. Think As Seen On TV. Billy Mays in his blue shirt at his finest. I tossed the gadget in our basket hoping it would pay off and not be wasted money. Oh BABY was that thing worth it! See, when Jeff and I paint (which we have done numerous times together) I’m the detail girl and he’s the bulk guy. I do all the cutting in and “hard” parts and he covers the masses. It just works better that way. But usually I end up taking forever because of that whole perfectionist thing I’ve got going and he’s standing around waiting for me so that he can cover the walls and do his part. Not so this time my friend! I had to wait for him! That four dollar gadget saved me time and made my edges look amazing. Not so much paint on the ceiling this time, which is a bonus, and we have a chair rail in this bedroom so you can imagine what that would have taken to accomplish with a brush. We will be keeping the Shur-Line Paint Edging kit my friends, and using it every time we paint. Worth more than its price, it is one of those things that everyone should own. I’m just saying.



So back to the actual nursery. We’ve gone with a very masculine sports theme and we love how it’s coming together. The walls above the chair rail are khaki, the walls below ended up looking surprisingly Aggie Maroon (I promise I didn’t do this on purpose, but now that we’ve got that element added, I’m thinking some Aggie stuff may have to make its way into the room! WHOOP!) and we’ve added navy accents. We painted the dresser navy blue with white drawer pulls and I painted red stitches on the drawer pulls so that they look like little baseballs. Totally Jeff’s idea. Isn’t he creative? I’m so proud.
Last weekend we got the crib and it’s all assembled, waiting for a mattress and some bedding to help finish it off. We also lucked out by overhearing a lady at Babies R Us say that she heard of a promotion to get 20% off of a new stroller by bringing in your old stroller. Jeff’s radar ears snapped to that bargain and we stopped to listen to the “fine print”.
Bring in your old stroller to Babies R Us. Check.
Choose from a select line of vendors. Graco is included, that’s what we wanted. Check.
Cashier issues a 20% off coupon. Wait, that’s it? All we have to do is turn in our old stroller and we can get 20% off of the double stroller we want?? SWEET! Put that box in our cart kind sir!




So with Jeff’s wheeling and dealing, the ongoing furniture sale, the stroller deal we stumbled upon, and our official discount for buying off of our registry, we ended up making out like bandits! We’re super happy with our stroller (we took it on its maiden voyage last night and Emma seemed to enjoy it – Mamma certainly enjoyed the ease with which it steers!) and bed. We’re getting closer to being ready for this sweet baby to arrive.
So to address the name portion. He will be named Alexander Scott Parnell and we shall call him Alex. Alex and Emma. Alex Parnell. We love it. Now I just need to get some letters so I can put his name over his bed like we did for Em.

Now let me end on this humorous note:
A Daily Conversation in the Parnell Household
Heather or Jeff: Emma, I love you!
Emma: [grin]
Heather or Jeff: Emma, I love you!!
Emma: PUPPY!!

Baby Kisses and Funny Outfits

Emma has learned to kiss y'all! If you ask for a kiss, she will bring her head towards you and open her mouth. Most of the time, I end up kissing those adorable teeth, but I love it nonetheless. Jeff and I ask her for kisses over and over again. And again. It's adorable.
She's been staying with Nanna while Jeff and I are at work and for the past two days, she's had, well, um...lets just call them "diaper malfunctions", OK? Such that Nanna has requested an extra outfit in the diaper bag. I think we might have to opt for two changes of clothes. After the Pediatrician Mess of 2008 (In which Emma threw up on me and then immediately exploded her diaper down the front of me - to the extent that I had to borrow Jeff's undershirt - he unexpectedly showed up at the dr's - just to make it out of the exam room and home. It was one of those moments where you wonder if there is a back door you could sneak out of and could you REALLY make it to your car before anyone realized you had left your t-shirt behind in the trash to die a rather smelly death.) I used to carry not only an outfit for Emma but a shirt for me. I suppose I've become complacent as we haven't needed an extra outfit for either of us in a very long time. Needless to say, after yesterday's "incident" there was an extra outfit in Emma's diaper bag this morning. And at 8:37 this morning Nanna called to say Emma was already in said replacement outfit. Sigh.
Enjoy Emma's makeshift outfit from yesterday.

Baby Steps

Friday after work, both Jeff and I were at my mom's house to pick up Emma. I wasn't sure if he was picking her up or if I needed to and he wasn't answering the home phone. Turns out he was at Mom's. But I stopped by her house before I got home and the three of us visited while Emma cruised around the coffee table. My mom got Emma the cutest stuffed elephant and she loves it. She kisses it and grins at it and carries it around.

Well we three were sitting there chatting and Emma, clutching Elephant, took two steps from the coffee table to the couch. The only thing she was holding on to was Elephant, so it's official. Write this down in the books, people, June 12th, 2009, Emma Elise Parnell took her first steps.
She has yet to have a repeat performance, and I'm wondering if she even realizes what she actually did since she was holding onto the stuffed animal, but whatever. I saw it. Jeff saw it. Nanna saw it. She walked.

17 Weeks and 11 Months

At 17 weeks I am occasionally tired but I think it has more to do with juggling Emma, work, Jeffrey, myself, and the house.
At 17 weeks I definitely need maternity clothes but I think I'm still in that "is she fat or is she pregnant" phase.
At 17 weeks, I am noticing it is harder and harder to get Emma out of the tub or her crib. Especially if she's not really ready to wake up and I have to lean in and get her. Someone tell her it's easier if she stands up please?
At 17 weeks I am beginning to feel Baby P moving. While it's not regular, I enjoy it immensely when it happens.
At 17 weeks, I am counting down the days until July 10th, when we will find out what color we are painting the new nursery.
At 17 weeks, I think about what will it REALLY be like to have two babies.
At 17 weeks, I now have to take a thyroid pill since I have hypothyroidism. It's not a big deal and the doctor doesn't seem worried about it.
At 17 weeks, sleeping is becoming more uncomfortable, but I have a sweet husband who lets me get lots of it!
At 17 weeks, thankfully I am still sleeping through the night!
At 17 weeks, it's thrilling to think of expanding our family of three to a family of four!


At 11 months, Emma is pulling up on everything and surprising us with her strength.
At 11 months, Emma crawls quickly and will be off and around the corner before we know it.
At 11 months, Emma stands on her own for long periods of time without falling.
At 11 months, Emma is able to simply sit down from a standing position instead of crashing down to the ground and crying.
At 11 months, Emma enjoys her toy that spits balls out of an opening while playing music.
At 11 months, Emma also realizes that she can put the balls back through the opening where they shot out of all by herself.
At 11 months, Emma enjoys going to the pool and splashing in the water and looks mighty adorable in her bathing suits!
At 11 months, Emma now has 4 upper teeth and 4 lower teeth, although some of the teeth are at varying stages.
At 11 months, Emma says things like "mama" "dadee" and "nananana" as well as nonsense words that sound very similar to words we use. She "talks" all the time and we are fascinated by her use of different tones and the inflection in her voice. She speaks beautifully, we just don't really know what she is saying!
At 11 months, Emma will eat anything you feed her. She loves beets, lima beans, squash, and all kinds of fruit. This weekend we are planning on trying mini Emma sized burgers to introduce her to beef.
At 11 months, Emma adores Kylie. I mean adores. If she is crying, we ask her "where's the big fat dog?" and she'll stop and look for Kylie. She crawls to Kylie and buries her head in Kylie's fur and squeals in delight.
At 11 months, Emma is tolerated by Kylie. :-)
At 11 months, Emma's first birthday and first steps are just around the corner.


At 17 weeks and 11 months, it seems impossible that Emma was once a newborn and that in a few months, we'll be starting the process over again with a new baby. YAY!!

Pretty vs Preeee

My little Emma Bug enjoys talking to all things outside. She has this adorable little whispery voice (which I can only assume means she is full of secrets, just waiting to come out) that she uses and it is so fun to watch her stand in the window and talk to the flowers outside. Or the squirrels, or the birds, or whoever her friends are out in the back yard. But we've been saying "pretty" to her quite a bit. Pretty flowers (consequently my first words), pretty necklace, pretty hair, you get the picture. So yesterday morning, before I had to hustle off to work, Emma was looking outside and I said pretty flowers. She mimicked me and said "preee". OK, so I know what you're thinking. Preee is a far cry from "My, look what pretty flowers are growing in our garden, Mamma," but she repeated after me 5 - 6 times.
Heather: Pretty
Emma: Preee
Heather: Pretty
Emma: Preee
You get it. So if you were MY mom, you'd say to run to the baby book and write that one down officially in her book. I'll wait, because I'm trying to be objective. But inside I'm stoked because conversation is around the corner folks! I'd much rather my sweet little girl be able to converse first. We can work on walking later. Bring on the words!!