It's week 31! The baby is still very active, especially when it's time for me to rest. My mother and I just got back from a trip to Minnesota for my best friend's wedding. It was great to see Jennifer and the Bonner family. We miss them so much! Grandmother-to-be and I had a wonderful time seeing the lakes and the Mall of America. It was my last big trip before the baby comes.

The baby's first shower was so much fun! We had a wonderful time visiting with family and enjoying beautiful Babahatchie and the Emory River. We received tons of great baby gifts including a high chair, stroller & carrier, pack & play, and swing. Some of the most creative gifts were a hand-made baby diaper wreath from my mother-in-law and a hand-stitched african animal book from my great aunt.

It's June 11th and I am 28 weeks pregnant! By this week the baby weighs around three pounds and measures about 15 inches long. The baby is still very active. I love my baby bump, although I'm starting to have trouble bending over to put on my tennis shoes! We are traveling to Oakdale, TN this weekend for the baby's first shower. We have invited several of our family members to the party at Babahatchie (my grandparent's summer home on the Emory River). All of our cousins are excited about fishing and rafting on the Emory. We can't wait! Here are a few pictures of the baby nursery. I painted the canvases to match the bedding and the mirror to match the lamp on the dresser. Travis and I still have no ideas as to if this baby is a little boy or a little girl. However, I had a dream the other night that it was a baby girl, so we'll see! Can't wait to meet him or her!

My First Mother’s Day
Travis surprised me with a 5 foot tall stuffed giraffe for the baby nursery and a children’s book titled, The Giraffe Who Cock-a-Doodle-Dood. I love the gifts – he was so sweet to surprise me. I am so lucky to have him as a husband - Travis is going to make the best daddy!

Wren's Baby Blog

Baby's Due Date: September 4, 2008

Baby's Sex: It's a surprise!

Delivery Doctor: Dr. Lynn Ellington, Williamson Medical Center - Franklin, TN

Any weird cravings: I've eaten lots of ice cream, cherry pie, japanese food, cookies, and string cheese (you know, just the healthy stuff!)

Trips with the baby: NYC, snow skiing in Veil, Colorado, Maui, Jackson, TN, and Minn.

Morning sickness: Not really - I got lucky!

Nursery theme: African animals (neutral colors)

Baby's heartbeat: averages 146 bpm

Grandparent names: Hal & Joy - Grandpa & Grandmother, Susan & Bruce - Mamie & Buddy, and Rogers & Anita - Papaw & Granita

Baby movement: The baby is very active! We can see little movements now.

Baby's nickname: Lil' Big Foot - because its foot was huge in the ultrasound pictures!

Baby names: The baby names that we’ve picked out so far are: Olivia Kate, Olivia Harper, Olivia Wren, Madeline Chase, Chase Howell, Scott Howell, and Pierce Scott. (Howell is my dad's name & Scott is Travis's middle name)

Baby's song: “I’ve had the time of my life” – from the Dirty Dancing Soundtrack (one of the greatest films of the 1980’s) This song was playing on the radio in the doctor’s office when I had my first ultrasound and first look at the baby’s face! I found it very appropriate because this is one of my all time favorite movies. When I was little, I used to name all of my baby dolls “Baby” after the main character. I even named my first pet, a hamster, Baby!

Oh yeah and while my mother was cleaning up some stuff around the house (getting ready for the big move to NashVegas) she found the sweetest note that I wrote when I was 13 years old to my future child. It was the cutest thing ever – I’m planning on putting it in the baby’s book.

Two trips to the ER – Scary!

On a Saturday in April Travis and I went to the mall and ate Cocina’s taco salads (one of my pregnancy cravings) and then headed to the Thoroughbred Theater to see “Baby Mama,” the number one box office hit of the weekend. It’s a comedy with the girls from Saturday Night Live – Amy Poler and Tina Fey. Amy plays the surrogate mom – it looks hilarious. Anyways, on our way into the theater I stopped to use the restroom. Several minutes later I woke up with my pants down laying on the bathroom floor – I had blacked out! I freaked out and thought something may be wrong with the pregnancy, so I went to get Travis out of the movie (still in the previews) and we flew to the ER. I ended up getting sick there and they thought that it could be food poisoning or a stomach bug. After I was able to drink some Sprite, they sent us home. We were there from 8pm-11pm. Then around 1:30am I woke up and had to throw up and use the restroom again. Next thing I knew I was passed out on our bathroom floor. I couldn’t keep any fluids down and ended up blacking out five more times throughout the morning. The fifth time, I fell so hard that it woke Travis up. He ran in the bathroom and found me lying stiff on the bathroom floor with my head cocked up against the wall. I wasn’t responding, so he thought that I might be having a seizure. He picked me up and drove us back to the ER. I fell so hard that I banged up my head, teeth, shoulder, and chin. I have a nasty gash on my right eye and right shoulder. We were in the hospital from 4am-4pm on Sunday – Yuck. They hooked me up to an IV and did some blood work. They still think that it had something to do with food poisoning and severe dehydration. They did three different fetal heartbeat tests, and the baby was kicking – so we felt pretty confident that the baby was okay – Thank God! Now, I’m back to normal and just making sure to drink plenty of water.
It’s been 2.5 weeks since my ER incidents and my teeth are still bothering me. I went back to the dentist because one of my front teeth started to change color. I found out that that tooth is dying and it’s infected. I’m on my way to Knoxville today to see Travis's uncles who are dentists to have a root canal – yuck. I just keep telling myself that things could be worse.

Well, it ended up being two root canals. My last fall damaged my two front teeth so bad that I'm eventually going to have to get them crowned. They did two root canals to stop the color from changing and told me that my teeth have vertical and horizontal fractures. I'm lucky to still have my front teeth! I'm currently back at home healing. Dr. Steve and Dr. David were so wonderful to take care of me.