My Furry Children

I have 3 dogs and I love them all dearly. Jon and I purchased a fancy new camera in order to take professional-like pictures of Adeline, but since there's still no Adeline here, we've been practicing on our other babies.

An action shot of Tulip. She thinks if you sit on the floor, it's time to play fetch.

Mommy, I know I hate going to the groomer, but come on..it's time.

I'm Sunny. I know the backyard may say otherwise, but I'm just too pretty to dig.

I'm Hunter. I promise it's not me doing the digging either, some other dog sneaks in here when you're not looking.

Look at us. We're too adorable to do anything wrong. It really wasn't us who destroyed the plant table Daddy worked so hard to build.

I hope you've enjoyed my children!

Different Generations

For those of you who don't know, I work as an Occupational Therapist. I work at an inpatient rehabilitation hospital for people who have had surgery, car wrecks, strokes, things like that. The majority of the people I work with would be considered in the geriatric population. I just love this group of people because I feel that I learn so much from them. They pass on wisdom to me that I wouldn't get from the peer groups I normally surround myself with. Since I've gotten more and more noticeably pregnant, I've gotten a lot more snippets of advice. Some are comical, some are truly helpful, but none have been rude..until yesterday.

Let me preface this by saying that this past week has been National Rehabilitation Week. All employees were given t-shirts to wear on Friday in celebration of this week. I normally do not wear t-shirts anywhere but around the house and to the grocery store, but I wore one to work yesterday. I got a size medium, since the small was borderline showing my stomach sticking out the bottom. Therefore, this t-shirt allowed ample room for my stomach, but was slouchy and hanging off my shoulders, etc, but I figured it was better than showing my pregnant belly.

So this is me in my big t-shirt that I wore to work yesterday.

Now, on to the rude comment. I worked with a patient who was in her early-to-mid 70s and we got along great. She never mentioned anything about me being pregnant and if patients don't bring it up, neither do I. Well, after our session, along came another therapist who asked this dear sweet lady how things went with Lindsey. The patient proceeded to say, "She was fine to work with, but she is very inappropriately dressed. She shouldn't be allowed to wear such tight clothing with her pregnant belly showing like that. When I was pregnant, women wore tents so no one could see our stomachs."

At first I took offense to this. I don't know how I'm supposed to hide an 8 month pregnant stomach other than locking myself behind doors for the remainder of my pregnancy. But after some time has passed, I can only look at this situation and laugh. We are from different generations, and while I wish that we would adopt some of the values of previous generations, I am glad that women are no longer hidden away behind doors or "tents" while they are growing the miracle of life.

Weekend in our Hometown

Adeline had her second shower this past weekend in our hometown...the big city of New Boston, Texas. We got sooooo much stuff and we can't wait to use it!

This is me with almost all 18 of my hostesses. This is how showers are done in small towns. :)

The adorable cake that I took about 20 pictures of. I almost wouldn't let anyone cut into it.

The beautiful quilt my grandma made.

Juliet made this. I told you I married into an extremely talented family.

The two excited grandmothers-to-be.

My sisters-in-law and soon to be aunts!

My two best friends. Since I'm an only child, these will be Adeline's aunts from my side of the family.

Saturday night we celebrated birthdays with Jon's family. His mom's birthday is today (September 23), and mine is tomorrow so we had a big birthday dinner celebration in our honor. It was such yummy food!

The spread.

Two yummy desserts, one for me, one for Karen. :)

Jon's mom also made my 3 Day team pink tutus to wear during their 60 mile walk. When I formed this team I was not pregnant, now that I am I will not be able to participate in the event since it is taking place exactly one week before my due date. However, several of my friends and family are still participating. I had to try on one of the tutus since I will not be able to wear it for the walk.

We also got to see my cousin and her precious little girl who was born in April.

We had a great time at home, but it wore me out. We were going nonstop the whole weekend. Consequently, I started feeling terrible yesterday at work, so I decided to take today off to stay home and try to recuperate. So far, I'm feeling better, but the couch is calling my name.

Ahh..relief!

Thank you all so much for the advice on my hip pain and for voting on the paintings. I tried everything you suggested and it would bring relief for short periods of time, which I was very thankful for. However, on Tuesday I decided to go to a women's health Physical Therapist. She did an assessment on me and found that my pelvis was so rotated that my left leg was 1.5 inches longer than my right leg. This rotation was putting pressure on the muscles and nerves surrounding the pelvic/sacral region on my right side. She showed me some exercises to realign my pelvis, and by the end of the day, I was feeling about 70% better. I went back to the PT on Friday afternoon and I had rotated a little again, so she did some more adjustments and gave me some strengthening exercises so that I can strengthen the muscles around my pelvis so that they will hold it in the right place. I feel absolutely amazing today. I'm walking with absolutely no pain!

I wanted to share all this with you to save you or someone you know from the excruciating pain that I went through. My PT was telling me that this problem is fairly common among pregnant women and so many believe that it's just a part of being pregnant and that they have to deal with it. Towards the end of your pregnancy, your body starts to release a hormone called relaxin which loosens all your joints (especially ones in the pelvic region) in order to prepare for the birth of your baby. This makes everything very "loosey goosey" which subsequently puts tension on all those muscles and nerves. She said that it is very beneficial to strengthen those muscles because it can lead to an easier delivery and a speedier recovery afterwards. Not to mention, a pain free, enjoyable 9 months! So please, keep this in mind for future pregnant women. Women's Health Physical Therapy is an up and coming medical field and your OB will be happy to refer you to one, they just have to be educated on its benefits. I wouldn't have known this field existed if I didn't work with a bunch of therapists, so please pass on this information.

I need your help!

I need help on 2 things. First and foremost, I am having excruciating hip/butt pain. It starts in my low low back then goes down about halfway in my right butt cheek. If I am completely and absolutely still, it only barely hurts, but if I get up to walk around or turn over in bed, I almost cry. I actually have shed tears over this. My OB told me Tylenol and heat, but it doesn't seem to put a dent in it. I'm just wondering if any of you have experienced this during pregnancy and if you have any pointers for me. I'm desperate for some relief!

The 2nd thing I need your help on is what painting I'm going to buy for Adeline's nursery.

This is where the picture will hang. Right above the changing table.

This is the first choice of pictures.

2nd Choice

3rd Choice

4th Choice

Please cast your votes! I'm anxious to see what everyone thinks.