To Dallas and Back

Our Dallas trip was just too short! We drove in Thursday night for Eli's conference on Friday and basically still don't understand why Emily cries/whines the whole way. I guess that never stops us though and we try to make her as comfortable as possible! On Friday Emily and I snuck off to meet up with our friends Rebecca and Sophia. Rebecca was looking great, despite being 40 weeks pregnant! The girls had a lot of fun and we were able to just kind of sit back and relax while they played. That evening we had dinner with my sisters Mary Clare and Lauren at my favorite BBQ place...yes, the pregnancy cravings definitely crept in that weekend! Emily had a grand ol time running around the whole restaurant like a chicken with his head cut off. God bless Eli for chasing her, and thanks to the wait staff for humoring us. That night I enjoyed some quiet time in the hotel while Eli went out with some of his coworkers who were also there for the conference.

Reading the extended version of Emily's favorite "The Foot Book"

Obsessed with croissants!

Saturday we headed over to Eli's sister Teresa's house for a beautiful breakfast along with Eli's Aunt Joan and her family. Emily really loves her cousin Aidan, who is almost 1 year old and starting to cruise around the house. He's so funny to watch! After Emily napped at Lauren's, we went to confession at UD to take advantage of the plenary indulgences of Devine Mercy Sunday. Lazy Faire and Mallapalooza were going on too, so we hung around as long as Emily let us and then hit the road back home.

Cuddly girl after a nap

The rest of the week so far has been pretty usual. On Monday I saw my OBGYN who says that only now am I 27 weeks, and that the baby is just measuring a week or two bigger than that. I had a bad experience with the glucose test to test for gestational diabetes and have to go back on Thursday again. The test requires you to fast beforehand, and even though I got to the office early, they were too busy to test me in time for the glucose to take effect, so by the time I left at 3pm I thought I was going to faint and die. Looking back, I shouldn't have driven home, but had a huge binge as soon as I hit the front door. Thank goodness my mom could watch Emily...I think I would have lost it!!!

We tried out the pool yesterday and I'm extremely relieved to say that Emily is officially scared of the water. It was pretty cold, and she didnt want to get in, and she was terrified everytime Eli would go under. This was perfect because she's so fast that I thought she would definitely learn to open the door and run out and jump. So today I'm going out there again...just to sit and relax and have some peace of mind! :)

27 weeks and going strong

Sorry...this apparently didn't post last week like I thought it did...

Well we made it! After seeing the Perinatologist yesterday, I'm 27 weeks pregnant and wont be delivering anytime soon! The doctor did an ultrasound to measure the cervix and there are no signs of oncoming labor. Since I have seen her every month, she'll hopefully be able to tell if there are complications early and administer the steroid shots to strengthen the baby's lungs if need be. Eli is still giving me my progesterone shots weekly (God bless him!!!) and apparently they're working...which is great because those suckers hurt all the way up until the next week's shot. It's kind of cool now knowing exactly what my baby looks like inside, since we saw Emily develop on the outside when she was born at 27 weeks. We still don't know the gender and are keeping the names a secret...but I will say that the names we chose are after great saints! This little squirmy wormy should get nice and fat and stay in the oven until mid July.

Emily is keeping very busy and is ready to go swimming in my parents pool. San Antonio heats up really fast in the summer so I'm trying to keep her entertained outdoors while the weather is still nice. Today we went downtown to mass at St. Joseph's, a beautiful old German church, but it was closed because of carpet installation. Disappointed, we walked down to grab some lunch and take it down to the Alamo where tons of people dressed patriotically for the Tea Party! Emily just sat in her stroller watching all the commotion while I ate my lunch (this is an extreme rarity...she is notorious for leaning so far forward in her stroller that it tips over...like every toddler I'm sure). Afterwards we went to the zoo--it's a fabulous 75 degrees and breezy day--for a few hours. I love our membership pass because I can go once a week until I get too tired, and not feel guilty about never seeing the whole zoo at once.

Eli and I are in the swing of San Antonio life. Eli's job is going great and his calendar is pretty stacked with projects and such. It's so nice to have him come home for lunch and have his help after work!!!! I don't know how we did it back then when he left at 7am and wasn't available until 11 each night because of grad school. Poor guy, but now he's getting in his relaxation time before the new baby comes. I'm feeling a lot better physically than I had been the first 5 months of this pregnancy. Even though I'm much more exhausted and rarely get to sit down, I really feel like God is giving me a lot of grace to stay positive and gracious. I'm able to take Emily to mass everyday and I'm trying to grow deeper in my faith life. Eli and I have joined a church ministry called Covenant of Love, a Catholic marriage enrichment program which focuses on ways to strengthen your relationship with each other and allow your marriage to be more Christ centered. Recently we've been working very hard on our budget for the year so that we can hopefully buy a house by December. We follow Dave Ramsey's total money makeover baby steps, and are almost completely out of debt (from medical bills)!!! We are pretty good savers and always try to keep the virtue of temperance in mind. So keep us in your prayers! And pray that we'll find a house close to where we live now!

Easter was great and I'll be posting about that next along with some pictures. We're headed to Dallas tomorrow for Eli's conference so I'm about 5 loads of laundry behind:) Dying easter eggs

Pooped out after Easter mass

Sleeping with her baby

Wearing the bunny ears from Danze grandparents