Baby Pool

So I am officially uncomfortable and past the point of logic. Shuler dropped 2 weeks ago and, although the doctor says there is no medical evidence that this means anything (she was no fun at all), I have decided that I think he's going to come early. Yes, I realize this may be wishful thinking. I get crampy whenever I do too much and am so swollen that I feel like my skin is going explode, so I've decided that this would be at least a little more fun if we started taking bets on when Shuler Lane will arrive. I am betting on my 37th week, which would be 3 weeks from today.
I am hesitant to do this because I hate this picture, but for those of you who would like to see proof that I am the size of a baby elephant, here is a picture from Christmas Eve:

33rd Week (Updated)

Merry Christmas Everyone! Things are good in baby land...32 week check-up went well. I had a rough week and had to have a preterm labor test, but it was negative and turns out I just need to stay off my feet a little more. We picked out paint for the nursery and Jason is working on it now, so we're getting closer. They have opened a Buy Buy Baby store in Columbia & Greenville and they are wonderful! So, I've opened a registry there. Mom is going to the doctor with me December 30th to check up on Baby Shuler.

We are so excited for Elizabeth & Matthew Lilienthal who had their baby boy this week and our friends Shanah & Rob Seneca who just welcomed Baby Harper into the world this morning! What wonderful Christmas gifts for them!

Also, there was another important birth this week:

JASON'S! My wonderful husband was born 32 years ago tomorrow :-)  Here are pictures of his very first birth day and his 28th!

We wish you all a wonderful holiday as we celebrate the most important birthday of all! XOXO from The Wilsons!

Shuler Preview...Jason on his 4th Birthday:

31 Weeks...

Here's a few random updates on Baby Shuler:

• Doctor's appointment last week went well. I'm still measuring on time and he's still just a little athlete. We go back every 2 weeks now - next one December 16th.
• I was wrong - I did not know what ENORMOUS was before. I'll post some pictures after the awesome baby shower we have on Saturday! According to BabyCenter Newsletter, our baby is about the weight of 4 Navel Oranges this week and in the midst of a growth spurt.
• Things have been hectic and therefore we have not finished the nursery, but we will let everyone know when we do.
• I should come with a warning label that says this: May cry irrationally, Will say anything that comes to mind, Gets very little sleep at night, Needs a restroom break every hour plus every time she stands up, Will talk obsessively about how huge/enormous/ridiculous her belly is...

This is from my BabyCenter Newletter this week & Cracked me up! (Mostly because it's true):
Fun baby shower games!
• Guess how many times she'll pee in the next ten minutes!
• When her belly button pops out, will the baby be done?
• Who can finish a half gallon of ice cream first?
• Guess where she left her keys!

To my baby boy...

Dear Shuler,

Nine months ago I left a child's birthday party in tears because I wanted one of my own. God must have been listening that day because two months later we found out about you. In the last seven months, you and I have been through alot together. As it turns out, I'm not as good at being pregnant as I'd hoped. Thankfully, you seem to be handling it quiet well and always seem to give me that reassuring nudge that I need to keep going. You are one active little boy and this week your activities have become visible from the outside. Your Daddy and I have thoroughly enjoyed watching Mommy's belly moving with your wiggles and Koozie has not yet figured out why Mommy's belly has started poking her. You have woken me up for the last few mornings by nudging my hand, which always seems to be protectively draped over my tummy. I interpret that as "Good morning Mommy! It's time for you to eat!"
In 10 days, we go back to the doctor, which is so much fun because we get to hear your heart beating! It has been such an adventure watching my belly grow and knowing you are growing into a healthy little boy. Your friends and family are so anxious to meet you, but no one is quite as anxious as your parents. In less than 3 months, you will be here and we will all be here to show you and teach you all that is good in this world. So, thank you little one for this amazing experience. Just keep wiggling and kicking and before you know it, you'll be ready meet your family who already loves you so much!

Hugs & Kisses,
Mommy

Shuler's First Shower

Thanks Dawn for a wonderful shower! I am so blessed to have all of you in my life and Shuler will be one spoiled little boy!

28 Weeks: Doctor's appointment last week went well. I am measuring on time and Shuler is very active. Jason is working on the nursery. We will have a giraffe theme with crisp whites and tans. I finish student teaching January 26th, the first day of my 38th week.

Love my Girls!

Even more thankful than usual to have great girlfriends!

Katherine's Engagement Party in August (4 months)

Clemson vs GaTech Game (6 months)

In other news...My door won for the 7th grade! WooHoo! And for the record, it reads "Too Proud to do Drugs" and I had the kids each write what they are proud of on a feather.
Also, I'm SO excited because I am starting a 6 week reading unit on Hunger Games next week! My teacher is letting me design the whole unit and this is a book that I LOVE, so I'm really excited about teaching it. If you haven't read it, you should.



It's official...

I am officially a teacher...Why? Because I get excited about things like decorating our door for Red Ribbon Week...

23 Weeks

Baby Wilson officially has a name: Shuler Lane Wilson
Shuler is Jason's mother's maiden name
Lane is my Aunt Jean & Uncle Ed's last name
Three wonderful family legacies...

I went to the doctor today and everything looks good. Shuler was very active during the ultrasound which was really fun for me to watch. Things have been really hectic for me and are not going to slow down anytime soon, but I love teaching and each day brings us a little closer to meeting our baby boy!

Amusement

Most of you probably know that I am very easily amused, but I thought I would share some of the things that amused me this week with you:

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My students were instructed to copy a question off of the board. The question read: "Can you diagram a sentence?" When the teacher came around to check that they had written all that they were asked to, she found that one of her students had written this sentence (and had no idea that it wasn't correct): "Can you diaphram a sentence?"

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2 students were discussing the rule against PDA's at school (this stands for Public Display of Affection). The conversation went like this (again neither student realized at any point that they were saying it wrong):
Student 1: "They don't allow PDA in school"
Student 2: "What's a PDA?"
Student 1: "It means Public Display of Erection"

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A fellow student teacher at my school was waiting for his class to settle so that he could begin teaching. One of his more jovial students struck up a conversation with him and it went something like this:

Student: "Mr. Williams, are we going to be doing math today?"

Teacher (sarcastically with a laugh): "No, Cooper, we're going to be making pot holders."

Student: "You mean we're going to be making blunts?!"

Teacher: "Huh?"
Student: "Blunts, like that you roll up to hold pot"

Where do they come up with this stuff??

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Ok this last one is about a dream I had and just amused me enough to share it. So you've probably heard that pregnant women have crazy dreams and I am definitely no exception. This one seemed to be my subconcious not-so-subtly reminding me my life has changed.

So, in the dream I'm in a scene I may have easily found myself in a few years ago: I'm at a party with my friends and we're sitting at a table playing quarters (as in the game where you try to bounce quarters into a glass and the loser has to take a shot). Now I'm losing miserably (which never would have happened in real life) and I notice I'm starting to feel a little sick. Well, that would make sense if I were taking a shot each time I lost, but I realize that I'm still pregnant, so that can't be it. So, I look down and see a little pile of large pink pills and realize that I've been taking a pre-natal vitamin instead of shots!

20 Weeks

20 Week appointment went great! We definitely have a boy and he is doing great! I'm feeling him move around a good bit now, which is definitely a new experience. We got alot of pictures this time:

The Bump

I think I'm past the point of a "bump"...it grows a little more each day and according to Jason I'm always either touching it or talking about it...

And this is the "bump" from my point of view each day...(notice how you can't see my feet - it has made showering an adventure)

I think he kicked me a few times today in church...we were singing so I guess he liked the music. I guess that's a good sign :-)

Katie Update

Football season is officially here and the Tigers are 2-0. WooHoo! This is my last week of my Practicum and I start officially Student Teaching over the next 2 weeks. I will be teaching under the most awesome Language Arts teacher and I am so excited. If all goes well, I will have only 9 days to complete in January and will be finished with my Student Teaching before the baby comes. I am doing a "mini-lesson" this Thursday on the African Slave Trade for 20% of my grade, so wish me luck! The Social Studies teacher I'm working with now is awesome, so I hope I can live up to the challenge :-)
In pregnancy news: I officially grew out of my pants this week and in a last ditch effort decided to try the Belly Band. I felt like a weirdo with my pants unbuttoned all day, but it seemed to do the trick and my shirt covered it. It was really tight around my belly and that started to bother me through the day so I guess I'm going to have to break down and buy maternity pants. I look down at my belly every night and tell Jason that I don't think I can get any bigger and despite this it seems to grow every day. I've only felt him kick once and to be honest I wasn't sure even then. He's always moving around when we're at the doctor, but I can't feel it yet. Other than that I'm exhausted and achy most of the time, but it's still a pleasure to know he's growing in there and will be here with us in just 5 months! We have decided to name him Shuler, which was Jason's mother Donna's maiden name. We're still working on a middle name for him. I should tell you that my husband wants to name him Morocco (Rocco) and everyone at his office thinks this is great fun so I'm a little worried we are going to end up with some version of this as a nickname - although it has to be better than the one his Aunt Manda likes to use: Nubs. I'm pretty sure Jason is kidding, but it's mostly hard to tell with him. Koozie seems very attracted to my belly lately so I'm convinced she knows something is in there. We leave TLC on the TV every day so she can hear babies and hopefully get used to the sound - my luck is that this will make no difference but it's worth a shot. I will put up some more pictures when we go to the doctor next week. We'll be having a level 2 ultrasound to look for genetic defects and things like that so keep us in your prayers and God willing we will find a healthy little boy and have lots of pictures to share. I can't believe we're halfway through already! It's been an adventure!

Oh and I've had requests to share any cravings I have and I have just gotten a healthy appetite back in the past week, so... Last night I had a killer craving for steak, which may not sound strange but I haven't wanted meat at all in the past 5 months and never craved steak before in my life so it was a little strange for me. Jason laughed as I devoured half a steak, a baked potato, and two rolls. This is a very large meal for me - I usually take four bites of something and have to save the rest. Yesterday I bought a box of nerds, a pack of sour skittles, and a back of gummy life savers at the gas station on my way to class - this is also a very weird craving for me. I've never done that before. The cashier laughed at me.

It's a Boy!

Looks like Jason beat me to the blogger this time :-) Yes, come February Jason will no longer be outnumbered in the Wilson house. I would like to point out that I am apparently living proof that how you are carrying it doesn't determine the sex - I have been complaining the past few weeks that "I feel like this baby is trying to grow into my lungs!" and the women at school kept telling me that it must be a girl because I'm carrying it so high - WRONG!  Despite this, I could not be more excited. I can only hope that this little one comes out with beautiful dark curls and dimples like my Jason had. We have agreed on one of his names and once we've settled on his full name, we will share it with all of you. Like Jason said, our 16 week appointment went well and we are just waiting on the results of some blood work. We should have known it was a boy - or at least taking after his daddy - because this was his behavior at our doctor's appointment: when the nurse checked his heartbeat, there were all kinds of sounds that she explained were him moving around quite a bit; half an hour later when we got to the ultrasound, he was curled up apparently sleeping (that's Jason - wide open one minute, sound asleep the next); then it took the ultrasound tech jiggling my belly for a while to get him to uncross his legs and I knew right there that he must take after his daddy because you know Mosier women aren't modest! Anyway, I'll try put the ultrasound pics on here, but I apologize for the quality - I'll have to find a scanner so they'll be more clear. Our next appointment is September 23rd.

Student teaching is going pretty well so far. These kids have such unique personalities and they already have a little piece of my heart. I have found, to my surprise, that my favorites are the hyper boys that are very bright but can't sit still for 5 minutes - they remind me of Tennent and John Lynn! So, maybe I will make a good boy's mom after all. I worked with them alone briefly for the first time this week and even I was surprised by how well that went, so I definitely think I've found my calling. On the other hand, for those of you who were taking bets, I lasted only two weeks before I got sick. Yes, those little germ infested creatures have already given me some kind of cold, so I've been miserable on the couch all weekend. Koozie has been a wonderful nurse :-) and Jason has been an angel as usual.

PS: someone asked me how to use the comments: if you want to make a comment on any of our posts, just click where it says "Comments" at the bottom of the post and a little box will pop up for you to write in. It usually says "0 Comments" or 1 or 2, depending on how many have been left already. Thanks!

Hiding the Paint Brushes

Our 16 week visit was yesterday afternoon in Greenville. We got there a little early so I wanted to take a 15 minute nap in my car, as I have been known to do during my lunch break, but Katie wasn't as interested as I was about closing my eyes for a few minutes in the parking garage at Greenville Memorial so we went on into the doctor's office.

While Katie was getting some labwork done I ran into my boss's wife. She was a little confused as to why I was carrying a purse and roaming around an OB/GYN office but thankfully Katie came out from around the corner and eased her mind before any rumors were spread.

We didn't wait too long before going back to see the doctor. This is a fairly large practice so we see a different doctor each time. This time it was Dr. Dubose; best one yet by far! You know you have a no bulls**t doctor when they ask you if you want to do a test and before you can answer they tell you it is stupid and a waste of time. This wasn't an ultrasound visit but because we hadn't seen the baby in about 6 weeks she squeezed us into line and did a quick scan so we could take a peak at how things were going.

We came away with 3 pictures: 1) full picture that actually looked like a baby for the first time 2) one tiny foot (hope there is another one) and 3) evidence that we are having a BOY; or at least that is what the scanning lady said.

So I guess I have to hide the paint brushes from Katie until 20 weeks but it looks like a baby boy is on the way. Now I just have to find a way to cover up the canteloupe paint we used in the bedroom that is going to become the nursery.

The Kooz

I feel that we should devote at least one blog to our first baby, Koozie. She has been a joy from day one and neither of us could imagine life without her. This new addition will be such a change for her as she has always been the baby and, truth be told, she rules this house.

She is a daddy's girl, always Jason's little shadow. She loves to snuggle and likes to lay against mommy's belly lately. She pulls all of her toys out every time I put them up, steals food when no one is looking, and insists on being in our lap regardless of what we are doing. We can always count on Koozie to be glad to see us, even if we've only been gone 5 minutes, she'll be waiting by the door, tail wagging.

 First Halloween

First Play Date with Chloe

Hanging out with cousins Barkley & Bernie

Congratulations Anna & Cole!!

Belly Pics

I swear my belly gets bigger every day! which is hard to believe since I basically don't like any foods anymore. It's fun and also hard to get used to - all these years of trying to hide all traces of a belly and now I'm learning to show it off :-) Oh the joys of being a woman! But I love that I now look pregnant  - it makes all of the morning (noon and night) sickness more worth it and maternity clothes are so comfy. So I decided to get Jason to take belly pictures of me and about a hundred pictures, and whines from me, and Jason laughing, we managed to produce this one picture that I am pleased with - enjoy ;-)

Surprise!

Baby Wilson at 10 weeks

Baby Wilson's 1st Picture (5 Weeks)

Our First Blog

We have decided to set up a blog to regale our family and friends with updates on life as a Wilson. We are now 15 months into our marriage and couldn't be happier. God has faced us with some difficult trials in Year #1, but we have faced them together and so far Year #2 has included the most beautiful surprise: a new member of our family! Up until now, Koozie has been our one and only child and I keep reminding her that she will always be our baby :-) but, God willing, we will have another baby joining us in February 2011.
I am now 13 weeks and 4 days into the pregnancy and just this past week have seen a let-up in my morning sickness (YAY!). Despite the fact that Baby Wilson endured my laproscopic surgery at only a week old (before we knew he or she was there), the pregnancy has progressed positively and everyone seems to be healthy. We plan to find out at 20 weeks if we have a boy or girl so stay tuned!
In other news, I start student teaching next week and can't wait to get into the classroom! I'll have class at night also, so it's going to be a busy fall. I will be graduating in May 2011. Jason has recovered from the parking assignment frenzy in June and is looking forward to Football Season 2010.
We will try to update here as often as possible, so check back soon!