C.N.B.

Several people have made it their mission to figure out what C.N.B. stands for. As we have said all along, even if you guess it, we are not going to tell you it's right! I will tell you the story that is behind the name though. Nathan and I have always had a hard time trying to pick out names for girls. Boys, no sweat. We have several of those names but a girl, that is another story! When I was pregnant with Hope, her name just fell into place. We had been trying to come up with a girl name for weeks (of course we had a boy name already) but a girl name was so elusive to us. We still had not 100% decided on one when the signs of a healthy pregnancy started leaving us. Every time we went to the doctor, it was always the same thing... I hope this test comes back normal, I hope that they are wrong and the second opinion will be better, I hope her heart defect is not as bad as they think, I hope that the Downs has not had an impact on her organs... Of course for everything that was said, there was always an "I hope" in there. As we pulled into the driveway one night after a long day at Duke Peds, Nathan said "I have called her Hope all day". I simply said, "Me too". And so, Hope had her name. Noelle came from one of my favorite Christmas songs, we just changed the spelling from Noel to Noelle.

This pregnancy has not been nearly as eventful so we did not have a name that just came to us this time. In the end though, it ended up the same way as with Hope... Nathan picked the first name and I picked the middle name. I walked into the den one night with the name book waiting for the Carolina and N.C. State game to start... When we started dating, Nathan did not have a ACC team that he pulled for. Being from the mid west, he had no school loyalty and decided that he was going to pull for UNC instead of State or Duke just to be the odd ball out in the family. My father and brother went to NCSU and I did my undergrad and some of my grad work at NCSU while my mother went to Duke. Needless to say, there was no Carolina blue around us till Nathan and boy oh boy, what a fan he has become. As you can imagine, the games get quite interesting around here when the teams play!! On this particular night, we were waiting for the game to start and I sat down in a chair across from the Christmas tree while Nathan was channel surfing. I was very focused and determined to find a name (at this point we had already found out it was another girl) and only had about 20 minuets before the game started. We had a list of 3 names, Chloe, Lane, and Luca. I already know several Laney's, Nathan wasn't sold on Chloe, and Luca was not something either of us was sold on but was the one we most agreed on at that point. Out of the blue, Nathan says "What about C...?" I tossed it around in my head, not quite sold on it, but I really liked it. As I learned the meaning of the name, I really really liked it. It took me about 10 minuets to figure out that Nathan had found another game on TV for a team that we root pretty hard for... one of their players has this name. Once I figured out where he got the name, I was sold. Double meaning... First, she has a name sake and second, it is SO VERY fitting for our journey these past few years with our dreams to have a child. Once we got the "C" we decided to have the middle name start with an "N" so that she would have our initials... "C" for Christy, "N" for Nathan, and of course the "B" is our last name. The "N" is a name that I have always loved... I fell in love with it when I was watching a Drew Barrymore movie and this was the "name" of the character she played... While both girl's have the "N" as a middle name, they do not share the same name....

Bags are packed!

If you can believe it, we are finished with week 36 and started week 37 today! Nathan doesn't think that we will go all the way to 40 weeks though... time will tell! I had some serious contractions today for about 3 hours and then they went away. Nathan thinks that they were Braxton Hicks, I am not sure what they were but she has not dropped yet so I think that we still have lots of time left. We do have our bags packed so that we will be ready when she lets us know that she is ready to make her grand entrance into this world.

We ventured off last week for another doctor's appointment and things still look good. I actually gained this time, I am up to a whopping 13 pounds now! All in all, doc said that he was pleased with the weight gain. Apparently around 6 pounds of it is all in the placenta due to the extra blood and around 6 to 7 pounds of it is the baby so I can really say all of my weight gain is baby weight! Still crossing my fingers that this means I will weigh less after delivery than I did when I got pregnant... how nice would that be!!!

Baby girl is still very active. She is not kicking so much now, it is more of a roll. She is running out of extra room in there so every time she moves, I can feel it. One of my coworkers told me the other night that I have my own built in toy for entertainment... this was of course after she told my my stomach looked like something off of the movie "Aliens"!!!!

Prayer of Thanks

For years many of you have watched my side of the family struggle with cancer... I am so excited to say that my mother had her SIX YEAR CHECK UP AND IS STILL CANCER FREE!!!!! Thank you all for your prayers over the years.

Diaper Cakes

This is the coolest thing ever... if you have never seen one of these things, it's pretty mighty. This one is from a shower that I had this past weekend here in the neighborhood....

We are getting there...

Several folks have asked what CNB's room is shaping up to look like... while we still have not gotten everything hung up on the walls, here are a few pictures so you can get the general idea.

Still holding at 9.5 pounds!!!

So, we made it into March!! Who would have ever thought that!!???? I had a doctors apt today with my least favorite person in the world, Dr. Doom, and things are still going well (no, that's not his real name but every time I have seen him with prior pregnancies something has been wrong) . I was very nervous to see him and my blood pressure was proof of that... it was much higher than it has ever been in my life, 135/82... I normally sit around 90/55. It's been two weeks since my last check up and I did not gain any weight!! Hot Dog!!! I actually was a little concerned this time because I just knew that I had gained from where CNB was growing but Dr. Doom told me that he was actually pleased with my weight gain because I was "healthy" when I got pregnant... what a nice way to tell a pregnant lady she was already a little fluffy from the get go!! LOL!!! Belly is measuring right on the money though so still no reason to be concerned that CNB is not growing properly. She had a great heart rate today and actually "slept" through the whole apt once she got over her hicups!

Here is the kicker from today... of course there was one, I was with Dr. Doom!!!! Apparently months ago I tested positive for Strep B in the bladder but never knew it... he got to be the lucky one to tell me!! I have actually done a lot of reading on it tonight and found out that around 1 in 3 women tests positive when they are pregnant and if you tested every woman at some point in their life, they would test positive. It can be found in multiple parts of the body (such as your bladder, bowels, throat) and from what my doctor has told me, it is the same type of strep as when you have strep throat but its in a different part of your body. I was never told that I had this so of course, Dr. Doom was the one to tell me. What this means is that I will have to be given antibiotics during delivery to keep the baby from getting it while in the birth canal. I could test negative today for issues but a week from now at delivery have it and pass it to the baby. Babies have no immune system so if it were to go to her, she could end up with problems and truthfully, they could be fatal. BUT, MOST OF THE TIME (99%) THERE ARE NO ISSUES and the medication prevents issues from happening. So, the new prayer request we have is to be in labor long enough (remind me later that I asked for a longer delivery) to get two rounds of the antibiotic before she comes out. Normally that is not an issue but given that I was 0 to 10 and done with delivery last time in less than 6 hours, this could be interesting. The doctor was very reassuring that most of the time, nothing happens... the cases where you hear of things happening to the baby are women who 1. never were tested because of early labor or, 2. never had prenatal care. So, much to my fingers dismay of typing this, happy thoughts, happy baby, longer delivery... remember, whatever it takes.

Sprite Love

So about the father/daughter pictures & video over to the right.....

Nathan showed me this video the other day and said "get ready"!!! I was not sure what I was in for but quickly learned that my hubby was talking about CNB and is getting ready for daddy stuff!! For anyone who has a daughter, you will crack up... for any of you who grew up with a father, you will remember sweet times with your dad, even if he never dressed as a queen for you!!! If you have sound, turn it on... the song is very fitting... if you don't have sound, the video is still a hoot... it is less than 60 seconds but I promise it will make you smile.