If It's Not One Thing.....It's Another

My poor furbabies had a rough weekend and they are just now getting back to their normal selves. I will admit that its hard enough having one sick (Ive dealt with that plenty of times) but Ive never had to deal with both. I'm glad that this happened during the weekend so that Mr. Hunt was with me to calm me down and help me take care of them.

As I mentioned in the Thanksgiving post, Hannah got sick from the bone we gave her for a treat. Nothing like a treat that makes you sick....poor girl. She never gets sick so this must have been pretty traumatic for her. She was basically sick on and off it seemed. She got sick on Thanksgiving evening and night the most. Then Friday she was sick once and slept alot. Then, just when I thought she was fine, she was sick again on Saturday during the Gamecock, Clemson game. It kind of worked out because one of my best friends Adrienne and her boyfriend Richard were in town and watched the game with us. Normally we are fighting Hannah to calm down and stop annoying the guests, but she basically slept the whole time they were here. Sunday she was back to normal, needless to say, we wont be getting those bones again.

Now, River was a different story. He surprisingly didn't get sick from the bone. I'm not sure if he ate his whole bone or if Hannah got ahold of it, but if you know River at all, its shocking that he didn't get sick. Poor guy cant catch a break. So, with Hannah stealing all the thunder of being sick on Thursday and Friday, River decided he needed something to happen to him too. On Saturday mid-morning, River sat down in front of me and when I looked at him, he was squinting his left eye at me like he was winking. I called his name and tried to see if he was just doing it for some reason, but he didn't stop. I mentioned it to Mr. Hunt and sure enough, he kept doing it. He would blink that eye and squint it alot. I put a warm wash cloth on it thinking that something was just stuck in his eye, but it didn't seem to help. Mr. Hunt and I told each other that if it was like this still tomorrow (Sunday), we would take him into the vet. While Mr. Hunt and I were getting ready for our company to come over for the game, his eye was getting worse. I looked it up on the Internet (which I probably shouldn't have done), but I read that dogs eyes can go from bad to worse in just 24hours and they can go blind. Sure enough it kept getting worse and then not only was he squinting and blinking, he then started to rub it with his paws and on the floor. We decided we had to take him in right then. Long story short, they did a few tests and it wasn't anything major. There was a small scratch in his eye that just needed some drops and medicine for a week. We brought him home just in time for the game. What made me feel better was that besides him looking awful, he was acting normal. He played fetch with Adrienne and Richard the whole game and acted like his eye didn't even phase him.

But he looked like this the whole time.

They said his eye should be better in a week and its already mostly better. He still will squint it a little, but its much better than it was.

As much as I was stressed out this weekend with the sick fur babies, I couldn't help but remind myself that this is what I signed up for, and with a little human on the way, I will probably look back at these times and think these were little problems. I'm sure I will come across worse days, worse weekends, and worse situations. I need to learn to handle these things a little better for sure. I cant help it, these fur babies really are like my babies......and its almost worse since they cant talk to tell me whats wrong.

"This too shall pass" needs to be my motto about these sort of things. Because just like always, that too past, and both fur babies are doing better. Thank goodness!


Love
Jennifer

Maternity Photos I Love

I know I talked about getting our maternity photos done by my good friend/neighbor and provided a link to see some of them, but I wanted to share some of them too on here. Of course, I love all of them, but here are just a few.

We had alot of fun and we are grateful to have these pictures now to look back on my first pregnancy.


Love,
Momma

4-Peat

I'm so happy to say that the Carolina Gamecocks have beaten the Clemson Tigers for the forth year in a row! This is awesome in so many ways. One being that it means that the seniors that have worked so hard have never been beaten by them. How awesome is that? And on the opposite side, it means that Clemson's seniors have never beaten us. Great! Also, this was Clowney's first year playing in Clemson and he broke the record of sacks at their stadium. What? Think about how many players have gone through that stadium and played, and at his first visit, he broke the record.

Also, this is the first time since the 1950s that we have won 4 times in a row. This makes me smile. Again, beating them 4 times in a row means so much and is so awesome in many ways, but really it just makes me smile. We have another year of bragging rights. And like we always say, it doesn't matter how the year is going.....we could lose all of our other games, as long as we beat Clemson, then it was  good year. So yes, its a good year! To make things even better, this win made Steve Spurrier the winniest coach at the University of South Carolina. What a way to accomplish that.

I'm surprised that I haven't posted about any of the other games all year, but time is flying by and I was preoccupied with baby stuff. Long story short, I'm proud to be a gamecock. Last year we ended with a record of 11-2 which was the best record we've EVER had in University of South Carolina history. If we win our bowl game this year, we will have the same record, which is awesome to kow that we are still getting better. Im curious to see which bowl game we have and Im curious to know if Baby Jane will be able to watch her first Gamecock football game!


Love,
Jennifer

So Thankful

Since I haven't had a real juicy blog post in awhile (and by juicy, I mean some good pictures and information other than baby stuff), I decided to capture Mr. Hunt and Is Thanksgiving play by play. Well, sort of. Also, this was the first year ever that we weren't with family, so it was a very interesting but fun time cooking and being together.

We started our day with a little family photo to remember our first Thanksgiving alone, and to also remember that Jane was almost here!

Then we headed to the grocery store. I know...shame shame. That's the last thing I wanted to do. I normally just roll out of bed, come into the kitchen smelling Thanksgiving dinner already cooking, watch the Thanksgiving Parade, and slowly wake up, still in my PJs. I did most of the shopping on Monday so we didn't need much, but Mr. Hunt had a plan for the turkey and we didn't have some of the ingredients for that. To make my time out a little more enjoyable, I treated myself (and Jane), to a gingerbread latte and a zebra striped doughnut. YUM! I really wanted a plain glazed doughnut, but they were all out. I assume a lot of the doughnuts were consumed the morning of Thanksgiving too while everyone started cooking.

Mr. Hunt had a breakfast sandwich from Starbucks, but he ate it too fast for me to get the camera out. He also enjoyed a green tea on the way back home.

Here is what was on the Hunt Thanksgiving Menu:

• TURKEY
• ROLLS
• GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE
• GRAVY
• MASHED POTATOES
• PUMPKIN PIE

There were plenty of other things we really wanted to cook, but this was enough food as it was. These were the essentials for us.

We made sure to make Thanksgiving a great day for the fur babies too, so while at the grocery store we picked them up some special bones. These bones can only be eaten outside, but they don't mind. They ate them alot faster than we thought. We thought this would keep them occupied for awhile, but it only did for maybe 45 minutes.

First things first....the TURKEY! We had to dress it up and get it in the oven. We had a 10 pounder so it was going to take about 3 hours to cook. I let Mr. Hunt do most of the turkey cooking so that I could take pictures. He basically cut up some veggies to put inside the turkey and on the bottom of the pan, then we stuffed some herbs inside, and rubbed under the skin and the outside with a special herb butter that he made. Pretty simple.

While we were getting the turkey ready we had the Thanksgiving Day Parade on in the background, but as soon as we had that thing in the oven, I sat down right in front of the TV with all the Black Friday ads and enjoyed watching the rest of it. No, I didn't plan on, and didnt, go out Black Friday shopping, but its still fun to look through the ads...and they also sometimes have deals going on longer than Friday and also online. I didn't really find anything fun though. River actually liked watching the parade too. I'm not sure if it was the big balloons or just the loud noises and colors.

After watching the Parade, football took over the TV and I started to make a shrimp and crab dip that I found on Pinterest. I figured since we weren't going to be eating until 3pm or so, it was a good idea to have at least one appetizer to snack on. It turned out really yummy, but there was definitely too much just for the two of us.

By the time we were done snacking, it was time to get all the sides started since the turkey was going to be done in about an hour. This is where it got pretty hard. The turkey was taking up all the room in the oven, so we couldn't put anything in the oven until it got out. We read that with foil on top of the done turkey, it would stay warm for 45 minutes so we weren't in a rush. Also, Mr. Hunt put some things onto the grill like an oven which actually worked out really well. I didn't get many pictures of this part since we were both scurrying around the kitchen trying to get everything done.

We somehow got all the food ready at the same time. Nothing got cold which I was afraid of. It was now time to eat! I popped some bubbly.....or some sparkling apple cider which was actually really yummy.

Look at all this yummy food!

I had intentions on using our fine china for the first time, but then at the last minute, we just brought out the regular plates. Oh well, maybe next year or when we have other people with us.

Then of course we only ate for like 2 minutes because we weren't even that hungry. We left our plates on the table and went back to snack after a little nap.

Then we had a great time Face Timing with our families. Technology is so great these days, we felt like we were there with our family members. It was great!

Lastly was the yummy pumpkin pie. I actually made one and a half pies. Let me explain. When I poured the ingredients into the first shell, there was leftover and I had another pie shell so I figured I would just pour the remaining in the second shell. It made for a weird looking pie, but it was still yummy.

It was a great relaxing day to say the least. Our poor little Hannah got sick from the bone that we gave her, but she wasn't phased. And of course we had a TON of leftovers. Still today, Monday, we are still eating leftovers and they are delicious!

Mr. Hunt and I have so much to be thankful for this year and always. I hate to only talk about what I'm thankful for on Thanksgiving, but it is a great day to talk about and reflect on the year. Without making this post a million words longer, Ill just say that we are SO thankful for our God who has given us everything that we are thankful for here on earth. We are also thankful for our amazing supportive families who live far away, but they make it feel like they are just as close as they've always been. Last, but not least, we are thankful for our special little girl Jane who will be here any day now. We are so blessed to have the opportunity to expand our little family.

Love you all,
Jennifer

My Fur Babies are Best Friends

Seems like our fur babies have become better friends in the last few weeks. They've always liked to play with each other and NEVER didn't like each other, but just lately they've seemed more interested in each other.

Almost every morning they play around outside together. They chase each other alot out there and have a great time. Before, they would just do their own thing out there so I'm not really sure what changed their minds.

Ive also noticed that Hannah will make a point to always sit by River. She also likes to just walk up to him and give him a kiss on the face. I'm sure she is just licking something off of it, but Ill pretend they are kisses.

River isn't as interested in her though. He plays with her, but I think he gets annoyed with her easily since she is so hyper. If he is ready to lay down and relax, she will come up to him and nudge him like she is ready to play. Or she will bring a toy to him and taunt him with it. Usually he just rolls his eyes at her.

But this past weekend put Mr. Hunt and I over the edge. We have seen them lay with each other and cuddle before, but this was something we have never seen.

They slept like this for a good hour. I think Ive seen one of them lay on the other before, but it lasted maybe a second and the one being laid on got up from being uncomfortable. I was almost in tears looking at how sweet they were to each other here.

I'm looking at this whole situation as a good thing. Hopefully they can entertain themselves more once baby Jane gets here. I love that they are best friends, after all, that's why we got two dogs.


Love,
Jennifer

Flowers Year Round

OK, these flowers in our backyard are crazy. For any of you flower people feel free to tell me what kind they are because I have no clue. They are definitely some type of rose, but that's all I know. Ive never witnessed a rose bush that blooms year round....and these do.

I CANT KEEP UP!!!!

We moved here to Texas at the end of February and there were so many flowers on these bushes/trees. I couldn't keep up with cutting them. Then I finally just had to let them go because I didn't have enough vases to keep them in the house. They haven't stopped blooming, even with me not cutting them back the ENTIRE time we've lived here. Its nuts. Now, its almost December....and they are STILL blooming. So, unless they magically stop blooming this month, January, and February, they are definitely year round bloomers.

It makes my backyard look nice with pretty colored roses everywhere, but its also hard work to cut them back all the time. I don't do it as much as I should so when I do, there is alot to be done and I get pricked a whole bunch by all the thorns. Whatever....they are pretty.

Honestly they are my kind of flower because I haven't killed them yet. Any other plant Ive ever owned, Ive killed, even the poor ones in the front yard.

34 Week Appointment

This week was a little more fun than normal and it only gets more fun from here on out. When I say fun....I mean that more is happening and I'm getting more information. I'm not sure fun is the word to use, but Ill use it.

This week I went in and talked about a few questions I had from the last two weeks. We actually talked a lot this week. She had a hard time finding Jane's heartbeat this time. She said its because she is getting so big now, she is squished in there and sometimes the heartbeat can be hard to find. We she finally found it she said it was in the 130s which is good. Then she measured my belly and then didn't tell me what I was measuring. Then we did something new. She felt around my belly to see which way Jane was laying and to try to guess how much she was weighing. It is important to know around now which way the baby is laying since they probably wont move around too much more. Since they are so big now, its harder for them to move positions. Most likely how they are sitting now it how they will stay for the remainder of the pregnancy. Also, she needs to check to see how much the baby weighs because if the baby seems to be too big or too small then that could be mean some underlying problems. Well, she said that Jane was BIG! But not too big to be worried, she is a healthy big. She estimated her around 6.5lbs already. In all the books I read, babies are an average of 5 lbs right about now. She said that I was hiding her being so big since my torso is so long. Oh boy! Ive heard from alot of people that the doctors guesses were always way off, but its still fun to think about the baby and wonder how big she is and what she looks like.

The other thing that my doctor determined was that the baby has definitely dropped. Kaki.....you were right when you noticed it in the picture you saw. Her head has already dropped into the birth canal, her body and torso go up my right side and her feet and arms are on my left side. Having her dropped already is actually VERY uncomfortable. Alot of women don't drop until a few days before they deliver or they don't ever until contractions start. But for the unlucky like me...its already happened. She is just so heavy and so low that its hard to walk. Lets not even talk about how many times I have to pee in a day now.

Now Mr. Hunt is convinced she is coming early. He has already been saying he thinks she is coming early, but now with her being so big and already dropped...he is convinced. We will see. All I know is that I'm just going to have to deal with being very uncomfortable for the next 5 and a half more weeks or so.

Oh, and like I mentioned in the previous post, we scheduled to be induced on the evening of December 27th at 7pm. Keep us in your prayers, we are just so excited to think of anything else right now.


Love,
Momma

Controversial

Ok, so this is going to be very controversial for some people, especially those who have had kids of their own. I'm sharing this so that my family will know, and also so that I can look back on my journey one day and remember this decision that Mr. Hunt and I made together.
So when we first got pregnant at my very first appointment, I mentioned to my doctor that Mr. Hunt and I were the here in Texas by ourselves with no family. We had just moved so we didn't have many friends either. Right away she mentioned that we could decide to do an induction after 39weeks if we wanted to try to plan for our family to be here when Jane is born. I thought that sounded good, but didn't really think anything else of it for a few months.
Now that the time has drawn a little closer, we have both had different feelings about different things. The first is the fact that we may be delivering this baby by ourselves....meaning just me and Mr. Hunt. We've heard from friends who just had babies that they loved having family there at the hospital and at home in the beginning. While they were in the hospital it was nice to have someone make food runs or even go home and get the house ready for baby if it wasn't already ready. Also, we would have someone there to go home and take care of the dogs. Once they got home it was obviously nice to have someone help to cook and clean, and even get up in the middle of the night the first few nights for company. So, thinking that we may be by ourselves is a little nerve wracking just because I feel like Mr. Hunt will feel overwhelmed with everything already, adding cooking, cleaning, shopping, and still working will be too much. I understand that all this will come with a new baby anyway, but it doesn't have to be that bad. Our family was already planning on coming once Jane arrived, but they would be there right away. They have all also offered to try to jump on a plane as soon as I knew I was in labor, but I would feel bad to have them drop everything right away and it doesn't really mean they would be there right away either.
So, the idea of being induced started to sound better and better to us for that reason alone. Until I thought about it and did more and more research on inducing itself. Obviously being induced means that you are being administered drugs to start your labor which means that your body and baby weren't necessarily ready to come. This can lead to complications during labor, mainly a longer labor and possibly a c-section if it begins to take too long. If you know me, you know that I don't do pain. Ive heard that the induction could possibly be more painful too bringing on contractions that weren't ready.
This is when I started to just think going into labor on my own would be a better idea. Hoping that would mean not as painful and possibly shorter time in labor. Obviously I know like everyone says....everyones experience is different so there is no way of really telling whats going to or not going to happen. Mr. Hunt and I went back and forth and back and forth many many times and talked to many people about the options.
Finally this at my 32 week appointment I brought up the option again and asked what were the cons of being induced. Here is what she said:

1. She cant induce me until 39 weeks unless there is a complication.
2. At 36 weeks when I start to go to the doctor once a week, I will start to be checked internally for dilation. If I am dialed even just a slight bit, being induced will be no different then if I went into labor on my own
3. If I hadn't dilated at all and started to be induced, there would be a 20% chance of getting a c-section at the end from taking too long

Then we looked at dates. I will be 39 weeks on Sunday the 23rd, but the hospital doesn't do inductions on the weekends. Obviously the next day, Monday, is Christmas Eve. Mr. Hunt and I decided that we didn't want to do anything on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. This leads us to December 26, 27, or 28 left. When the doctor saw this she said she would be very surprised if by 39 weeks and 3, 4 or 5 days I wasn't dilated at all. Her exact words were "I think this is a great idea."
So again, I went home and talked to Mr. Hunt about what she said and the dates that she gave us. These dates would be perfect for Mr. Hunt and his work schedule also, so its ideal. I also spoke to my mom about what she thought (originally she kept saying I should just wait until the baby wants to come on her own), and she agreed with me and agreed to get down here for those dates if this is what we decided. And yes, I know that we are being selfish to not want to have her on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. That doesn't mean that she won't decide to come on her own those days. We just didn't want to pick those days if we had a choice. We will already be celebrating Jesus's birth, River's birth, and running around to all the family on those days. If we have a choice, we wanted Jane's birthday to be somewhat special.

Long story short, if baby Jane doesn't make an appearance before December 28th, we are going to be induced then. We will have to go into the hospital on the night of the 27th and hopefully have her that next day.I officially scheduled it yesterday while at my 34 week appointment. It was so crazy to hear my doctor on the phone saying "I need to schedule an induction of labor please" and then say my name and all my information. I was comforted again with the fact that my doctor thought this was a good idea and was all for it and very excited for me. We are very aware that she could come at anytime between now and then and we wont have anyone here, but just having this as a back up plan makes me feel a little bit better. Whenever we talk about this, I always tell Mr. Hunt that God is probably laughing at us while we try to plan the birth of our baby. Its all on his time and whatever he wants will happen and we are very aware of that.
I feel 100% better knowing that she will be here by the 28th of December no matter what (or possibly the 29th..yikes) and I'm OK with her coming sooner too. I'm happy knowing that my family has a specific time that they are coming too no matter if she comes early or when we get induced.

On another note....Mr. Hunt is convinced that I will NOT make it to December 28th. I keep asking him why he thinks Ill have this baby early and he just says "he has a feeling." Just like he had a feeling last minute that Jane was a girl and was right....hmmmmmm. He wont let that idea out of his head, so we will see if he is right.

Again, I know this is controversial. Some couples are totally against inducing unless it is for an emergency. I understand that, but just like parenting, everyone is different. We've thought about it as a couple, and also talked to our doctor in depth and we feel like this is what we want to do. I support every mothers decision and I hope you will support mine too.

Love,
Jennifer

New Strange Pregnancy Symptom

I would have just shared this with my weekly updates, but this needs a little more explaining. I'm actually only assuming this is because of the pregnancy, but its starting to get out of control. I can't stop smelling cleaning products and perfumes. They all smell amazing to me. Weird? VERY!

It started a few weeks ago with my face wash. The same face wash Ive been using for years and years. I was putting it on my face like I do every morning and evening, but this time was different. The smell was amazing to me. All I wanted to do was sit there and just reapply it to my face over and over. It doesn't happen every time I use it now, but once in awhile it will happen.

I didn't really think anything of it until we went to visit my family in Bluffton and it happened again. I was using the soap my mom had out in my bathroom and I was caught smelling the soap over and over. Now, this soap isn't any soap. Ive actually liked this soap for a long time. It is the cleanest smelling soap Ive ever smelled and she has been using it for awhile now, but I always forget to ask her what kind it is. So, when I got back to Austin, I went to the store and sat there and smelled every bar soap until I found it. Its called Coast and its one of the cheaper ones, but honestly its the best soap Ive used. Its not just because of the smell either. It just cleans well and leaves you smelling great. Unlike the face wash though, I CANNOT stop smelling this one. Every time I go into the bathroom, I can smell it. I love when Mr. Hunt uses it. I know this all sounds super strange....and I'm not really 100% sure why this is happening.

I actually called my mom to ask her about it and double check that it was the coast soap. She said that yes, indeed it was. The reason they have used only that soap for so long is because its my dads favorite. It really does leave your body smelling fresh and clean. Some soaps you cant smell it on your skin after you use it, but this one you can....and its lovely. With my dad working outside (especially in the summer months), he loved coming home and using this in the shower.

Every once in awhile while I'm doing the dishes, Ill be attracted to the smell of the Dawn dish soap now too. Only the blue one so far, that's what I am using now. Ive always thought it smelled nice and clean, but this is a different attraction. Again with wanting to just sit there and smell it all day long.

Lastly, I was going through the Michael Kors magazine and they had a sample of their perfume in there. I made the mistake of smelling it. Now, I'm addicted. I rubbed it all over my arms and haven't stopped smelling them all day.

Its OK to think I'm weird. I know I am. I'm contributing it to being pregnant, there isn't another explanation. I think its just all things that smell clean or something. I started to think maybe its from being low iron. I know anemic people tend to want to eat ice chips, dirt, and soap I think. Let me make myself clear. As much as I love the smell of the soap, I dont have the urge to eat it, so maybe it isn't being low on iron.

Out of all these, the Coast Soap is the most out of control though. I can sometimes smell it out in the hallway from my bathroom. I think I might be making it up. I seriously have to pick it up and smell it almost every time I go into the bathroom. Its so weird, but its like I have to do it, and I enjoy it. It also makes me want to sit in the bathtub once a day and soak it all in.

Do you know what could be wrong? Do you think it will go away once I have the baby?

Love,
Clean Smelling Gal