Our visit with Santa

It has been cold in Virginia! I think the high today was in the forties. We wanted to take Aiden to do his first pictures with Santa. So I bundled him up in his cutest fleece outfit and put a big bib on him to catch all of his spit up between home and Santa. When we arrived at the mall Santa was on his break, so Jay and I decided to go get dinner while we waited. I was holding Aiden and I could feel him poop. I said "Oh nooooo" and Jay took him to the bathroom to get him cleaned up. Aiden pooped all over everything he had on. His Pamper just couldn't hold it all. Jay returned 20 minutes later looking like this. I laughed so hard I cried.

So we went to Gymboree and bought a new outfit, down to his socks. We then proceeded to wait in line for an hour until 7pm which incidentally is Aiden's bedtime. I thought for sure we were going to get the classic crying baby photo and part of me really wanted that. But we got a good one anyway. And he had on a really cute, brand new outfit.

We are now Virginians!

We love Virginia so far. But, I am not sure if it is a love of Virginia or how everything is just so right. I was forced to quit my job with this move and we decided my time would be best spent with Aiden. God really had a plan for us. I can't imagine not seeing everything this child does on a daily basis. This time is so precious and I am so lucky that I get to witness every moment. Don't get me wrong, it is hard. Unbelieveably hard! I rarely get to speak to an adult and end up in my sweats all day. Hopefully that will change as we start to go out in VA and do more. In fact we are starting a baby gym class and supposedly each week we will learn a new sign. As in sign language. We will see if it works.

He is a sweet baby. He has started to grab things, he can hold his head up pretty well, he can stand for a few moments when you hold him, and he has started to smile at you. His smile will melt your heart. This morning I went to get him out of his crib and when he saw me he smiled. That is what pure joy feels like.

Our little man

Introducing our little man. He is so amazing and we love spending every waking moment with him. Even some of the moments that occur at 3am are so precious. It is funny how someone who has only been on Earth for three weeks can have a personality, but he does. He loves to be held and rocked. He doesn't like to nap during the day, he will fight it until his body hits his swing. When he wakes up he throws both hands above his head and stretches. He doesn't like to be cold and therefore hates to have his clothes changed and even his diaper.

I am attempting to take everyone's advice and cherish every moment right now, because he is only this young once. I am also so thankful that God has led us to Richmond, VA. It is giving me the oppurtunity to spend as much time with him during his first year of life as possible. I would have never done that had God not intervened in our plan.

Here are some more pictures....

Could be my last pregnancy survey

How far along? 38 weeks
weight gain/loss:I will no longer be answering this question. Boo to the scale!
Maternity clothes? really any clothes that will actually fit now. I now realize why some pregnant women have their belly hanging out from the bottom of their shirt
Stretch marks? Still none.. Please stay away!
Sleep: Some nights I sleep and some nights I get none.
Best moment this week: Knowing I will meet Aiden soon!
Movement: He has slowed down a lot. There can't be much room in there.
Food cravings: I have not been as hungry lately.
Gender: BOY!
Labor Signs: I had some blood this morning. Kind of exciting at this point in pregnancy.
Belly Button in or out? Way out, and it hurts
What I miss: Currently it is bending over
What I am looking forward to: Viewing my maternity pictures and getting my glider in
Weekly Wisdom: Order your glider early
Milestones: Full term....

Virginia is for lovers

Well, DH lost his job at his manufacturing facility here in South Carolina. We have been presented with a wonderful oppurtunity to move to Richmond, Virginia. Which is perfect and exciting except for figuring out how to finish my master's program. I have put my heart, soul, blood, sweat, and tears into finishing this program for a year and half. At first, I said to myself "Self, you can just transfer to a university in VA and everything will be fine." Wrong! As I started to research I found out that the one and only university in Richmond that offers my program will only except 6 credit hours in for transfer. I have 24 hours. Not OK. I tried calling and emailing the dean of educational leadership at the VA university. Only to get a reply and I quote "You would be better off to try and finish your program in SC". So watch me, I will finish this program and graduate in May come hell or high water. It will be done. I will not give up. I will move to Richmond and finish my master's program..stay tuned...

Week 34

Yes, I rocked a bikini in Edisto!

How far along? 34 weeks

weight gain/loss:I will no longer be answering this question. Boo to the scale!

Maternity clothes? yep.

Stretch marks? Still none.. Please stay away!

Sleep: What is this sleep that you speak of?

Best moment this week: Having my girlfriends feel Aiden move for the first time.

Movement: He has very active days and loves the left side of my belly.

Food cravings: Anything sweet and chocolate

Gender: BOY!

Labor Signs: I am having random contractions.

Belly Button in or out? Way out, and it hurts

What I miss: My girly figure

What I am looking forward to: My maternity photo shoot and finishing the nursery

Weekly Wisdom: Get the nursery completed early

Milestones: Aiden is estimated at 5 pounds. That means to me if he was a preemie he would do well.

Pregnancy Survey

How far along? 31 weeks

weight gain/loss: Well, the dr. says 18. I say I gained some weight in between finding out I was pregnant and my first appointment. I say 25.

Maternity clothes? yep.

Stretch marks? None yet, I am hoping it stays that way. I know I am fighting a losing battle. But I still lube up the belly daily.

Sleep:Some nights are good, some are really bad. Luckily, I have more good.

Best moment this week: Just feeling him move. I will miss it. I love feeling him move no matter where I am or what I am doing.

Movement: He likes to punch mom's bladder

Food cravings: Does anyone have any pastries?

Gender: BOY!

Labor Signs: None, thank God.

Belly Button in or out? Way out, you can see it through my clothes.

What I miss: The things that I would not give a second thought to doing, like going tubing with the family in the mountains this past weekend. I was really disappointed.

What I am looking forward to: Meeting Aiden.

Weekly Wisdom: Thou shall never think a pregnant lady has it easy.

Milestones: 31 weeks is a great milestone. I feel more confident the longer Aiden continues to grow.

So I find symbolism in small places

I had a wonderful shower on May 30th. It was wonderful to get to spend time with the poeple I care about the most in this world.
Here are a few pics:








Now here are the pics when my best friends and I decided to get our husbands to take a photo of all of us.








Note to self: Get someone else's husband to take pics or get Jay photography lessons. We go through the same thing when we take my belly pics. I have Jay take 10 before I find one that will work.


After my shower I had to find some new homes for all of the goodies we recieved. Aiden is so lucky to have so many people that care about him. I went downstairs to find a spot for the baby bottles and accessories. Low and behold where is there room? Where my martini glasses are! SO I began to move my martini glasses to the top of the cabinet. Very symbolic don't you think? Martini glasses to baby bottles.

25 weeks

There is not much that the 2 people who read my blog don't already know.


1) Got pneumonia, because of fever got very dehydrated, because of dehydration started having contractions and spent 4 days in the hospital.


2) Put on bedrest for 2 weeks because of #1.


3) Aiden and myself are doing just fine.


Oh and I have my first shower on May 30th. I am super excited!


Here is a picture of Jay in our house on a normal basis now. Apparently he thinks it is cold in the house.









And here is a pic of me on the same day. (Notice what I am wearing). 25 weeks..wow! My belly is getting big. It is hard to believe that I have less time being pregnant then the amount of time I have been pregnant. 15 weeks to go! I hope we have a cold snap.

Damn the man!

Postage prices went up again. The man is always putting me down. I just bought 20 stamps and now I have to go back and buy 2 cent stamps! Damn the man!

I am not sure if I am prepared for this part of life (dog related)

Last night as my dog, Alston got annoyed with me not sitting still and he left the bedroom. I made the comment to Jay that Alston was becoming a grumpy old man. Then it dawned on me that Alston was nearing 8 years old. It is hard to believe that as far as doggie life spans goes, he is old. He has really changed in the past year. He has become grumpy and very secluded from my husband and me. He is very content laying on the couch downstairs by himself. When he was younger he was very much a lap dog and a cuddler.

Please keep in mind with the next part, I am pregnant and hormonal.

Last night I started to think about how he was entering the last stages of his life, and I am not at all prepared for that. When you have a puppy sometimes you wish the time away, saying that you wish they were older and calmer. But now, I wish he was a puppy again.

And God grants us humility

I have noticed that when I get really down on certain areas of my life, God has a way of granting me humility and making me realize that everything is just as it should be. I have been very negative about teaching recently. Everyone at school was getting on my nerves and I was not looking forward to going to work at all. Today, one of my co-workers emailed me about an after-school club that she runs at my school in conjuction with the local church. She told me that every meeting the students make prayer requests. And she thought I would like to see the list for Wednesday afternoon. It said "Several kids requested that we pray for Mrs. T because she is pregnant." I was so glad that I read the prayer request at home because the tears just streamed down my face. After I told a friend about this she told me that the same thing will happen when Aiden arrives. She said there are times she gets so mad or frustrated at her kids, and God reminds her what all she has to be thankful for.

He he

I was told by a close friend that I could not have such happy go lucky posts about Aiden and have the blog title: Bitter Party of One. So until I come up with a better title we are now: Bitter Party of Two! He he...

We're having a boy!

Yipee! We are so excited. We found out last week at our ultrasound and his name will be Aiden Hamilton. I am kind of a fuddy-duddy about my ultrasound pics and I don't think I want to post them. I mean the thought of my uterus being posted on the internet send shivers down my spine. So, unless you are a close friend you probably won't see them. I may change my mind as time goes on, we will see.

I began looking at day cares this week. This is not the fun task that most things involving this pregnancy are. I can't imagine having to hand my baby off to a stranger after only 8 weeks of time in this world. I am going back out today to look at more, and hopefully I will have a better attitude than I did yesterday.

My DH had never really read my blog before so I sent him the link so he could look at it. He came home that evening and said "we need to talk about your blog". I am sitting there going "I haven't said anything bad about him, what is his problem?" He then says, "I looked at Amy's and hers is much better than yours. She has videos and all kinds of stuff." My DH is a silly jokester, so this is not at all out of character.

Our sweet potato

This is an awfully weird looking sweet potato. Anywho, I am feeling a lot more movement recently and baby T even woke me up in the middle of the night moving. It is such a surreal experience to feel your child growing inside of you. We bought a gender neutral stroller this week and that was our first big baby purchase. It was very exciting! We bought it because it was on super sale.

Now, the important news: I go in on Thursday for our big ultrasound to find out if we are having a boy or a girl. Jay and I are very anxious to find out. We also prayed this morning for the health of baby T this week at our ultrasound. But, do not expect to find out what we are having on Thursday. We are going to have the ultrasound tech write down the sex on a card and seal it. We are then going to go home and open it with our family over Easter weekend. We can't wait! I just hope that Jay does not torture me with the card.

Here is a pic of my belly from this week:

I was tagged

I was tagged by a woman who I met when we went through a miscarriage together. She is a very strong woman. She has recently moved on to Sucess after a Loss with me and I could not be any happier for her. She deserves a sticky baby!

Here are the rules:
1. Find your sixth picture folder and in that folder, the sixth picture.
2. Post it on your blog with some of the background of the picture.
3. Tag four others and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they’ve been tagged.


This picture is of me and the four most important ladies in my life. This picture was taken at our annual Christmas get togther in 2007. From left to right, me, Amy, Jennifer, Catherine, and Jaimie. I look drunk...I was...


I am tagging: Amy, Catherine, and Mrs.KS, and Abbey

16 weeks and a first time event

I am now 16 weeks. It is so exciting to see my belly getting bigger and start to tell people that we are expecting. I was sitting at work on Friday after lunch and felt what other women have described as a "flutter". It felt like a muscle spasm that was very light and it did not hurt. Then it dawned on me immediately after it happened that it was Baby T. I almost busting out crying with joy right there in my classroom. I haven't felt another one since, which is normal. But I can't wait until it happens again.

My first baby purchase

Here is my first baby purchase. I mainly bought this because of the one that read "cute but messy--just like daddy". Which is sort of ironic because I can't eat now without making a mess out of my belly. It is like food droppings are sudddenly attracted to the spot.

My first belly pic

I have really hesitated taking pictures of my belly until now. I am not totally sure why, but I just felt like there was not much there and with the m/c pregnancy I could not stand to look at any pictures from that time period. I am deffinitely getting a belly although some of my friends have scoffed at my belly saying it was teeny, puny, and someone even called it pitiful. If only people could walk a mile in others shoes.....

Anyway, here is my first belly pic and I am totally in love with the baby inside!

A few people have noticed

A few people have noticed that I have not made many blog updates lately. It is because I am pregnant and haven't had much to say about anything else. Today we are 12 weeks and our baby is the size of a plum. I was scared to post anything for fear that somehow my parents would find out before we told them. But we told them today and they were very excited. We are very thankful for this blessing.

What a year can bring

It is weird to me how a year can bring so many ups and downs. If you would have told me on January 3rd, 2008 that I would start my masters program, stop taking birth control, get pregnant and have a miscarriage all in that year I would have called you a filthy liar. Last January I was not even sure I wanted kids and this January is a completely different story. What a difference a year makes.

I keep saying things about 2008 sucking, but that is simply not true. I need to remember the good things about 2008. There were many. Among the top few would be having a stronger marriage, getting baptized, and spending time with friends and family.

That being said I hope that 2009 brings us the greater joy of starting a family.