The Gift

So as Johnny and I were shopping for some last minute gifts yesterday, I was looking at all the people rushing around the stores trying to find the right gift for the right people, much like myself! During the hustle and bustle, I was reminded about a sermon our paster just gave recently on the greatest gift we have all received, or at least can receive if we so choose....This is the gift of Christ that God gave to us, which we are supposed to be celebrating around this time of year. It's not about what gifts we give each other, how much we spend on our friends and family, "if I get her something she has to get me something", and the shear competition of the holiday that we should be focusing on. We need to be focusing on the gift that God gave us without which we would have nothing to celebrate this Christmas season! As Joey grows inside me, I cannot imagine giving her up for anything, I will love her, cherish her, and protect her all the days of my life! God gave his only son to die for us so that we may have eternal life. HELLO.....did you read that??? Anyone with a child, could you willingly give your child to death to save another person's life? If you honestly answer "yes" to that question, than you are a stronger person than I :) God did love Jesus, by giving him an amazing purpose in his life, he did cherish him, by giving him an amazing resposibility to preach the good news and die for all mankind so that we may live, and he did protect him, by letting him touch as many lives as he did before dieing on the cross and then raising him from the dead, causing his story to live on to this day. Our God is the most loving God there is, and as he loved Jesus, he loves us just the same! I know the reason for the season, it's to celebrate the salvation we have in Christ not to see who got the biggest and the best new gadget, who did what to the turkey, or why aren't there enough presents under the tree. "Thank you God for sending your son to save us. He was born in a humble manger and remained humble throughout his days. I trust in him and seek his wise council everyday. What an amazing gift we have in Jesus! Merry Christmas, and Amen."

100.00

So I finally hit the 100.00 mark!! I went to my doctor's appointment today and weighed in at 100.00!!! My doctor said that everything looked good. She had evaluated the sonograms and all is well. She asked me if I had any questions, problems or anything that I wanted to discuss. I told her how blessed I feel and that nothing was bothering me. She did say that I need to start gaining weight :( I have only gained 1 pound and that is not good enough for her I guess, so her solution is to add 500 calories to my diet each day. That's alot!! She said I need to drink a protien shake or something per day. Not the half that I would usually drink, but a whole protien shake...that's what Johnny drinks! Well I guess I can try. So expect those baby bumps to start looking bigger soon I guess. Other than that everything is "textbook" she said....I guess that's a good thing?? Stay tuned for more updates.....

It's a.......

So today Johnny and I woke up with a pep in our step :) This is the day we got to find out what sex the baby is!!!! We went to the doc, and had to wait a little bit..once we got called in I was weighed...98.8lbs...then we went to the sonogram room. The tech had me lay on the table and reveal the belly! She said she was going to take some measurements of the baby, and that they usually don't like that, so it causes them to move around hopefully revealing weather it's a boy or a girl! We got to see all 4 chambers of the heart beating at 144 bpm, we saw the right and left side of the brain, the kidney's, the bladder, the stomach, and so much more!! It was crazy how much we could see, our baby is so miniature right now!! So like predicted, our baby didn't like being poked, proded and moved around. We got to see the goods, and we are having a GIRL!!!! I started to tear up and Johnny was beaming from ear to ear!! We got some great pics and The are under our Sonogram section!!! We are going to name her Josephine Leigh Stout and call her Joey. Read the blog below for the origin of her name! Well, here we go, the journey just got more interesting!!

What's in a name????

As we are fastly approaching our sonogram this Friday, I am so excited to find out what the baby is so we can start calling him/her by name!! Our names our great, in fact, the greatest names ever picked if I do say so myself :) We've had them since week 7 I think and havn't changed our minds, so they must be good ones! For those who havn't heard.....here goes: For a girl, we are going to name her Josephine Leigh Stout....we will call her Joey! Josephine is my Great Grandmother's name...she was a strong lady, and one of the most amazing women I have ever met! I am so lucky to have spent the time with her that I got to and cannot wait to see her in Heaven one day, as she was a great role model of Christ's love! Leigh is the middle name of two of my dearest friends, Tonya and Karissa! I've known Tonya since the 2nd grade I think, and we have been stuck like glue since! She's the type of friend that you would do anything for, not only because she would do the same for you, but because she is so loving and caring, it's hard not to be the same back to her! Tonya and I picked up Karissa in high school in Mrs. Barnett's class. Karissa and I aren't as close as she and I would like to be these days, but the thing I love about her is that no matter how long we spend apart, when we do get together, the conversation starts right where we left it off, and we just have a blast! I know if I called Karissa at 2:30 in the morning because I had a weird feeling or something like that, she would hop in her car without question, and haul it up to McKinney to be with me! That's the kind of friend she is, and I love and look up to her for that! Now...on to the boys name....Carl Bauer Stout...we will call him Bauer!! Carl comes from 2 men in Johnny's life and my own. Carl is the name of Johnny's favorite Grandad. He remembers playing catch in the house with his Grandad, breaking stuff, then his Grandad would glue it back together so the kids wouldn't get in trouble! He was always ready, willing and able to get on the floor and play with the kids, and from the stories I've heard, just a phenominal man! If you have been to our home, you have seen the bright orange crushed velvet chair in our living room. This was Carl's, and is not leaving our house anytime soon! The Carl in my life is also known as Bigman. He is legally my stepdad, but so much more to myself and our family! He is fun, artistic, amazing with his hands, and can fix most problems from life issues to the garbage disposal. He is definately a Jack of All Trades. My sister and I met Carl before our mom did, and we introduced them not knowing what the future held, but man are we glad it happened! The result has been a great dad and role model! Johnny loves Bigman because he can make any situation funny :) Onto the name Bauer...From the time Johnny's best friend Cory named his son Easton (a popular hockey brand) Johnny called dibs on the name Bauer (another popular hockey brand). We were kind of joking around, but now love the name and will actually call him by Bauer if it's a boy! Johnny is super excited about nailing a Bauer hockey stick to the wall if it is a boy! So long story long, that is where our child's name comes from, whether it's a boy or girl, these are our names and we are sticken to em...what do you think??

Not much going on!

So I can gladly say that I have been blessed with a dream pregnancy up to this point with the exception of the Round Ligament Pain! This is why the lack of entries lately! Not much to report (kind of the "no news is good news" thing). I feel great, I am getting bigger, I am feeling the baby almost every day, and my jeans still fit with the help of a rubberband! If you didn't know, we are going to find out what the baby is on the 14th of December! Please pray that for the sonogram our child is an exhibitionist...we want to see what he/she is. Please also pray that this exhibitionism doesn't contunue after womb exit! We will let you know if anything developes or comes about! So stay tuned!!

Butterflies.....

So you know that nervous feeling you get right before you go out on stage, meet your possible new boss, go on a rollercoaster, or get caught doing something wrong???? Well many people said when I finnally felt the baby move it would feel much like that! Well the other day I felt a a rumble in my tummy! It felt like the flutter of a butterfly's wings in my abdomen. I thought "yikes, too much fried food". As I was reading a book my good friend Debbie gave me, I realized THIS was the baby moving!! Not a nervous feeling, but a flutter feeling! Anyway, since I've figured it out, this baby is not stopping :) Let's hope our baby stays as active in it's life as it is in my belly! Oh, and we find out what Baby Stout is on December 14th, so mark your calendars and we look forward to letting you all know

Thank You!!!!!

Just wanted to say thank you to those who have been calling and asking how I am doing!! I am feeling so much better, I got to take it easy these past few days and have slowly been adding activity! Today I will be teaching my classes and seeing how that goes. I have an appointment tomorrow with my OB to see how I'm "healing". As long as I keep going slow, my body will be fine :) Natures way of letting me know I need to take it easy I guess. To all of you who knew what Round ligament pain was and didn't warn me about it.....thanks for nothin' :) Just Kidding!! But I am glad to know that I am not alone, and I do not have appendicitus! Again, I am doing and will be fine, thanks for asking!! Keep reading and I'll keep writing :)

Round liga what????

So yesterday we had a cheer competition on my old North Texas college campus! The girls did awesome, and for some reason I was super hungry the whole time...so I ate. By the end of the night I had this shooting pain in my lower right abdomen. I was fine when sitting, but when I extended my right leg or stood up after sitting for a while, I was in pain...alot of it! I asked my Sister In Law Lisa what she thought of it, and she said, "welcome to pregnancy...the baby is growing, and that's what happens". I decided to sleep it off and leave well enough alone. Sleep, however is not what occurred. I was up 1/2 the night with this pain still shooting me in my side, and I could not get comfortable. I contemplated waking my sleeping hubby to go to the ER it hurt that bad. I decided to tough it out till the morning, but at 7:30a the pain was still there and I couldn't stand up straight. I called Lisa again because she recently had appendicitis and I wanted to seek her wise council again! She said to call my OB and if they didn't call back to go to the ER. Johnny took the day off because we were both envisioning our day at Allen Presbyterian waiting for our diagnosis, possibly surgery. Well, after getting dressed and ready, the pain got better. We decided rather than dropping the cash at the ER we would just go to the OB and have them check me 1st, then if they recommended us to go, we would buckle up and head that way! My OB ruled out appendicitis because the pain had dulled. I could now stand straight :) I got weighed in; still no weight gain, gave a sample, listened to the babies heartbeat (again, coolest thing ever, and it's at 143), then waited for an answer. Long story long, I have Round Ligament Pain. This is a ligament that is attaches your pelvis to your groin area. With all the moving and climbing of stairs at the competition, mine has been severely agitated. The doc ordered rest today, and that a heating pad be attached to my hip area today. We got home and Johnny started searching the web to find out about this medical marvel he hadn't yet heard of. Low and behold it does exist, and usually happens in pregnant women who have been recently active. It is also most common in the lower right abdomen. So here we both are at the house. Johnny and I both woke up from our 3-hour nap, and now he is getting ready for work at EWA!! Just thought I'd update you all :) I will be back at work tomorrow, but Johnny has advised me to take it easy, as ligament pulls are not quickly healed (he and my Bro in Law were Kinesiology majors at North Texas, which qualifies them both, or at least makes them both feel like it's ok, to give semi medical advise to those in pain :) Regardless I'll take the advise! This baby is amazing but it's doing weird stuff to my body :(

Preschool Already???

So in McKinney there is a Preschool for kids of parents who work in the district. This is a very coveted thing for a few reasons.....it's cheaper than normal daycare, the kids actually learn while they are there, and it helps the kids from the McKinney High Schools get the credits they need to graduate (or something like that), and I'm sure there are more positives. Well, Johnny just informed me last night that he put our SEED on the waiting list for this Preschool!! Can you believe that we already have to start worrying about these things?? I can't. Anyway, our baby, who we don't even know if it's a boy or a girl, can't even start this school till it's 2 years old!! Crazy Stuff...anyway, let's hope it works out :)

Measurements

As of today...waist 30" and tummy 29.5"...the sad thing is that my husband just offered his clothes to me because that is the size he wears!!!

Rubberbands are a miracle!!

So I found out today that my pants are getting a little snug :( I am fine to button them while standing, but when I sit, they hurt my tummy!! So I remembered a suggestion that I'm really not sure who to give the credit to, but here goes....Take a rubber band, loop it through the button hole, and then attach the other end to the button! This is a lifesaver, as it gives me another 2 inches on the waistline of my jeans. :) Now usually at work I am wearing sweat pants, and this is not a necessary daily tactic, but on the weekend, I like to wear what I call "real clothes", and I am getting too big for them :( Everyone keeps reassuring me that I am getting bigger because the baby is growing and blah, blah, blah.....Johnny put it best tonight when he said that I was upset about the rubber band because I had the disillusioned mind to think that I was going to fit into my size zeros throughout my entire pregnancy. He is right!! I know plenty of people who wear their very own clothing right up to the date of the birth. These people are usually tall, and the baby has some legroom in their mommy’s bodies. I can only imagine how cramped the living space is inside my 4'11" body. This is why my pants are snug at 14 weeks, the baby is getting bigger and needs some space, and so it's just going right on ahead and making some! I guess I can't blame it, I gotta have that legroom too!! So here's to the pack of multi sized rubber bands I am about to purchase, may you keep my in my size zeros for just a little bit longer :)

Belly Bummer.....

Ok, everyone take a deep breath, now push your tummy out as far as it will go.....now do the reverse, when you take in that breath, suck that tummy in. If you just accomplished this amazing task, that is more than I can do! Sure, I can bulge my tummy out with the best of them, but when it comes to sucking in, I can no longer participate :) Ahh, the things you find out while waiting for your cheerleading teams to compete :) On another note, I came home today from our competition to find that my Hubby and Mother-in-law and Sister-in-law had busted their booties to get our crown molding up in the house!! It looks great, and I am amazed at their craftsmenship! Thank you, thank you, thank you!! One less thing to do before this bundle of joy arrives!! Can you believe it's only 6 months away??

That time of year.....

For those of you who live in the DFW area, how excited are you that the weather is actually cool these days? This has nothing to do with our baby, so if you are reading for that purpose, I'm sorry. This small entry is to let the world know that I, Christy Stout, have officially moved from Frappachinos and Iced Mochas to Hot Chocolates, and Hot Mochas! All decaf of course, but none the less I have switched! It was so great to have my belly warmed this morning to the tune of a Tall Decaf Zebra Mocha from my beloved Starbucks! Here's to a great winter! If only I could Snowboard pregnant :)

Monthly Appointment

Today I had my first monthly OB visit. I was prepared to be in the office for a while just based off of the last 2 appointments we had been to. I walked in, signed in and was called in :) I got weighed and I have lost 2 lbs????? This is puzzling because I haven't had any morning sickness or changed my diet in any way, but oh well, the doctor said he wasn't worried! Then I got to hear the baby's heartbeat! How amazing is it that there is this little being inside me growing and developing? I am so excited that I got to hear the heartbeat, but Johnny is kinda sad that he didn't get to hear it :( It’s heartbeat measured in at 161, which I think is super fast, but was told is normal and healthy! After that the doctor asked me a few questions and I was on my way!! I'm all about the 20 minute appointments! I think Johnny is going to come to the next appointment so that he can hear the heartbeat! This journey is crazy!!!!

Projects R Us

I'm sure that Johnny didn't know that signing up for baby also meant signing up for Projects R Us, our very own family runned business. For what it's worth, neither did I! Since we found out about him/her, we have moved the office in it's entirety, created a new office in a nook we barely realized existed, installed a shelf above our bed, painted our old office for the new bambino, (deep breath) rushed into home depot at 30 minutes till close trying to cut and buy crown molding to cover our ceiling paint mess ups in the old office which lead to putting crown molding in every bed room upstairs (another deep breath), and last but not least...crib refurbishing. That's right, our friends Cara and David gave us this crib and told us to do with it what we will...it is out of their attic and therefore we can paint it, toss it, whatever we want to it. We decided that painting a FREE crib would be better than tossing a FREE crib! People have mentioned that we are crazy to take on such a new business during my pregnancy, but I don't see it as a business (and if you haven't caught on, it's isn't a business at all) as much as I see it as an investment we are setting up for the future. Let's remember that it takes money to make money, and we will see our return in about 6 more months! All these extra little things will be worth it to make this child's life better than it can be. So for now, we will hold our paintbrushes high, breath through our masks, and push on as we see our business grow into what it can and will be! Wish us luck :) (Disclaimer: Projects R Us does not hire out for services. Please do not call looking for our handy skills to be put to use at your house! Thanks :)

Competition Season Begins

So today was baby Stout's first cheer competition experience ever. I think he/she liked it for the most part, except when I started to yell and get excited! It made me light headed so I had to kneel down for a bit, causing me to miss a part of our cheer team's routine. Apparently, our child is already longing for attention! I knew this would happen, I just wasn't anticipating it in the womb :) Oh and about the competition, the girls did great! They are going to have a great season this year!

My loving Hubby.....

So Johnny and I have found a church home that we love attending, and are pushed to grow spiritually in. We attend service and go to a great Bible Study on Sunday nights. This Sunday in particular we were talking about 1Peter 3:1-7. For those of you who don't know, as I didn't, these are some contriversial verses on the role of Husbands and Wives. Not only are we as wives supposed to honor our husbands by working on inner beauty (thank goodness my husband finds great value in this...make up and great hair is too hard for me!) not external, but we are to lead holy lives and have a gentle and quiet spirit in the process. That means lead by example not by speaking :) On the opposite side of things, the Husband is supposed to honor his wife by respecting her as the physically weaker of the two sexes and more. This is not to be taken derogitorily, but as a command for men not to abuse their wives. At the end of our Bible Study we were asked ways in which our Husbands could honor us. I said that I love it when Johnny tells me that dinner is good. Easy enough! Well, this brings us to the present time. Johnny had Monday off of work and when I came home, he had primed the baby room all by himself. I was trying to let him off easy at Bible Study, but this was a HUGE way to honor his Wife!!! I know how much he HATES to paint, and so that he spent his day off doing that, he is living out biblical pricipals like a champ! I am so proud and so honored to be Johnny's wife. He makes a great husband and is going to be an amazing father! Thank you God for letting me share this amazing experiance with a great man!

Like a faucet....

So I cannot get over these crazy allergies. I have gone through 3 boxes of Kleenex in 3 days, no joke! My nose is a visual and stinging reminder of this fact :( I called the OB and tried switching my allergy medicine, that didn't work...then I tried Tylenol sinus, which my OB also suggested. Nothing! I guess God decided that instead of making me nauseous he is just going to turn my nose on like the water faucet. Seriously where does it all come from? My doc said that allergies are sometimes worse during pregnancy because of your mucus glands working over time to create protection for the baby. So what I am hoping is that this allergy, nose drip, throat itchy thing is over by the end of my first trimester like nauseous is supposed to be done by the 1st trimester.

Already Sleep Deprived.....

So I didn't realize that when we jumped on board for parenthood that my "sleep through the night" nights were going to be over before our beautiful baby has even arrived. We have known that we are pregnant for about a month now, and since then, it has been hard to sleep through the night. If I don't waken to pee, then it's to sneeze or blow my nose, or for no reason at all. I have consulted many women with kids. They say that my body is getting me ready for life with a baby. I know that I won't be able to sleep at that point, I get it, but I only wish I could sleep throught the night until then........Last night I guess God had mercy on my soal and realized I was sleep deprived. I slept through the entire night, no pee, no sneezing, nothing! Needless to say, today I feel energized and ready to go! Here's hoping for many more sleepfull nights!

Our First Sonogram.....

So, yesterday we had our first sonogram! It was a little crazy to see that there really is something growing in my body and I'm not just making this stuff up. I was laying on the table with my loving husband on my left, the doctor at my feet, a nurse by the door, and the sonogram tv screen to my right. Everyone was calm, cool and collected until the show began. I perked up, and Johnny might as well have jumped in my lap he got so close to the machine. When we saw the heartbeating so fast and distinctly, the doctor gave the "atta boy" look and said everything was looking great! The nurse even said it was the cutest baby she'd ever seen. That was of course after we asked her if it was the cutest baby she'd ever seen! Once the sonogram was over, we proudly took our picture to the front desk, made our next apppointment, and headed to work to show off our little lima bean! Pictures will be up soon...we are so excited! Johnny said it was the coolest thing he's ever seen, and I have to say, I was pretty darn impressed myself! More to come soon, stay tuned!

We're Preggo!!!

So Johnny was at a Hockey game tonight and i got the itch to take a pregnancy because...well let's just say I had my reasons! i took the test and it was POSITIVE!! I put the test on a paper towel on the table with a note on it "don't touch this because I peed on it", and waited at the top of the stairs for Johnny to get home. I called him and let him know I had a present for him on the table, but I was going to bed. He walked in and paused a bit, then yelled "Babe, where are you...are you serious???" That night I took the another test, and it came out Positive as well! Wow, we are in for an amazing life change! Stay tuned for updates and pics :)