Home Run Stretch...

So here we go ladies and gentlemen...the end of my 36th week!

I'm thinking God is teaching me a lesson; a lesson of patience, peace, and trust. From the very beginning I have just had this internal feeling that little Axel is going to come into this world early. As most would say, this sounds like a wish!. Yes, it does and at this point it has become a wish. So much of a wish that I find myself anxious and constantly thinking about this little guy (when is he going to make his grand entrance, what does this and that mean, should we pack our bags already? ect.). I'm thinking this is usual, but it makes for a feeling of time creeping along...

Our way of handling this time is to fully put our trust in God and ask for patience and peace. Kyle and I have been very purposeful these last few weeks in spending meaningful time together and splurging a little more than usual doing the things we love - watching movies, eating our favorite foods, visiting friends, and treating ourselves by spending a little more money and time on our hobbies. As we say, we're preparing!

Update from our doctor:

- 1 cm. dialated
- effacing beginning, but not far along
- Axel is head down and has turned his body in place for delivery
- having a few contractions daily, but never consistently.
- Blood pressure and heart rate good!

So the doctor never mentioned our due date. At this point all she said was to call her when my contractions become more consistent (every 5 minutes for an hour) and/or my water breaks.

Just thought an update would be nice to hear and I will try to post a few more updates before Axel's arrival!!

Our Baby Boy's Name...

As many of you know, at the beginning of the pregnancy, Kyle chose for our baby's name to be a secret. Well, when we found out our baby is a boy we didn't have much of a secret because we didn't even have a boy's name chosen...only a girl name. After lots of time, we finally decided on a name. Then during my 6th month Kyle decided he didn't want to keep it a secret anymore so here we go...

Axel Austin Tillman

Axel (derived from Absalom in the bible meaning 'Father of Peace'): Kyle and I decided that an easier way to look for names is by meaning, not names themselves. We began looking at names that meant liberty. Didn't work. So then we chose peace as our second important meaning and we immediately loved and agreed on Axel. Wow...it still puts a huge smile on my face to think of us choosing this name together and how much the name and our baby Axel already means to us! What a great experience.

Austin (meaning 'great, magnificent'): This is Kyle's middle name. We decided when we found out we were pregnant that our child would have one of our middle names. The meaning fits perfectly into the whole name!

There you go!! We took months deciding on a name and we are very excited to now meet our baby Axel!

I pray that he learns from his name and treasures his name and the place his name comes from.

Easter and 29 weeks pregnant

 EASTER

For Easter this year, Blondie and I were able to go to Mom and Scott's lake house. It was such a relaxing trip, neither of us wanted to come back. Blondie actually was carried to the car by Scott because she did not want to leave the door of the house! lol As you can tell in the pictures the wind was so strong that no boats were out and Blondie couldn't go swimming...Scott's new golf cart was great to drive around and sit by the lake in! BTW, Mom was able to feel our active little baby move for the first time today! What a joy and blessing!!

29 weeks pregnant:

Things went very well this week. No braxton hicks and lots of movement!! It's crazy to think that we're at that point now where doctor's appointments are every other week, so we only have one more week and we get to hear his heart beat again! This is always a very exciting time for Kyle and I both. Here are some pictures of the lake and of the baby and I.

28 Weeks Pregnant

We're getting there!!!! Finally, we have begun the last trimester of this awesome new beginning. 28 weeks and here we are...

Kyle and I were talking about this last trimester; our hopes for this last portion of such a fun time! One of our hopes was that we could treasure this last time of it being just US. Taking time for purposeful interaction and acknowledgment of each other. What can we say...we love each other! =) Another hope was that our baby boy would come early...late enough that he's fully developed, but early because we are so ready to meet him. As Kyle said, "We've waited this long and now I'm just ready!" I mean, we have so much control over when he comes and all, I'm sure this hope will be met! lol

A little catching up to 28 weeks: weight gain (yuck) - no matter how come I am gaining weight, it stinks! and braxton hicks... our first experience of braxton hicks contractions wasn't to bad...tears were shed, yoga positions used and little sleep AND we made it through. When the baby finally moved, he moved onto my bladder - so to help me feel better, at 2 am Kyle brought me gelato and we sat on the bathroom floor eating gelato together!! I'm telling you, through the morning sickness to the false contractions we have many memories - many of which are funny...now!

Here we go:

Sneak Peaks

Here are a few pictures that show some sneak peaks to what the nursery is beginning to look like.

Some of my wishes for the nursery include original ideas, many things treasured, and a wonderful, relaxing place for our little boy to be anything he wants. So, a great friend of mine, Audrey Omenson, is making some original artwork for the walls that I am super excited about. I have ordered a handmade quilt from an individual on Etsy involving 5 different patterns of green, blue, owls, and yellow. The dresser in these pictures was my dresser growing up and the bear sitting on top was my favorite stuffed animal as a child and still now, Mr. Lucky! I have decided to test my luck in sewing by making an owl mobile by hand. And lastly, the rocker in these pictures has been passed down through our family from a great uncle of mine. We are very excited how all the different pieces of furniture and ideas are coming together!

Much more work still needs to be done, but the end is near!!

The Journey Continues...

One of the wonderful benefits of working at a school includes having breaks, like Spring Break! Well, what a perfect time to go on our 2nd year anniversary trip! Last summer we had great hopes of taking a week trip to Colorado to tour different breweries and camp in beautiful places. We didn't know then that I was going to be 6 months pregnant during my break. So, we decided instead to have a very relaxing and rejuvenating trip to Fredericksburg, TX. What a great idea it was!

Over great food and beverages (Kyle enjoyed this part!) we talked about how far we've come in two years of marriage. Reflecting back on the fun times and the challenging times of our past two years. We realized that you never really know where you're going to be a year in the future. We are very excited for what this next year will bring. Some of our goals include healthier living through food, exercise, quality time spent together and with our new baby boy!

We love each other and are very thankful for each other! This was a great 4 days and place to celebrate our life together.

This is Serendipity, the two story Sunday House that we had the privilege of staying in.




Some of the different activities we did include massages, visiting a micro-brewery, shopping, eating lots of ice cream, and touring 3 different wineries. We then decided instead of going home to drive to Lake Livingston to my parent's lake house for one more night enjoying good food and staring at the stars...

21 Weeks Pregnant...the ups and one down (Belly Pics)

Oh 21 weeks...the joy and pain you bring!

This week we were able to go for our monthly appointment and hear our baby boy's heart beat! Yes, it again brought smiles and tears to our eyes. I don't think I can ever get used to hearing that strong, fast heart beat...it is one of the best sounds a mother and father can hear. Reports show no abnormalities in development which was comforting to hear.

This week has brought to us sweet moments of movement by our baby boy. Finally I'm beginning to feel some flutters and movements. When I say that the baby is moving, Kyle always puts his hand on my stomach like he's going to be able to feel him already. =) The joy of becoming a Dad and trying to catch every ounce of love from his baby.

I asked Kyle this week to play music to our baby. My awesome, musical husband decided that playing music meant actually playing his guitar to the baby. Well let me tell  you this Mama isn't complaining. I sure did fall asleep to Kyle playing Beatles and Jack Johnson songs to our baby...so peaceful!!

Unfortunately, this week has also brought on my first round of pregnancy pain. This boy loves to curl up in my pelvic bone area which resulted in lots of pressure and cramping and back pain. Thankfully I was recommended some exercises by a Doula that a good friend of ours knows and I have a wonderful husband who will rub my back.

This sweet, baby boy is growing like a weed and we're loving every second of it.



Kyle Time...

So I haven't actually updated on anything other than myself so it's....KYLE TIME!!

When we moved down to Houston, Kyle decided to go ahead and to continue working at P.F. Changs, chosing the 610/Westheimer location. While enjoying it, the job wasn't bringing in enough pay for the work he was having to do. After praying about what to do next and guidance on living on a meager salary, God provided. Kyle was promoted to full time bar tender. Lots of positivity has come out of this promotion. Kyle is enjoying his job even more. He is also able to bring in enough money to help us keep going with the life style we have chosen (meager, but fun!).

 Also, Kyle's schedule has changed and is awesome for us! At the moment he works Wednesday night, all day Friday, Saturday night, and Sunday morning (equaling 40 hours - exhausting). With that schedule though, we have made a 'New Beginnings' kind of decision - Kyle is going to be our baby boy's care giver. We will need to hire a Nanny for 1 day and the rest of the week Kyle has the priviledge to be with our baby boy! He has expressed lots of excitement about this new decision. We've had a conversation about this time being a developmentally appropriate learning time...so Kyle's joking response was that he would teach our son how to brew that way he can learn science, math, and vocabulary words including malt, grain, and hops! haha

With all that being said, Kyle is doing great! He's super excited to be a Dad and is enjoying this place of life we are in!

18 Weeks Pregnant....Beware - they show my belly!

This is was THE week!!!! The week that we got to know one more aspect about our baby and SEE our baby!! This week, as you can read in the earlier post, It's a BOY!!, was very special to my Mom and I. It was just a simple appointment that had such huge meaning to our lives. The wait to this point was worth every second to be able to see our baby kick and his arms trying to get away from the ultrasound technician. We had a blast this week and are now looking for names. Have any??? Let me know what they are! We'd love the help. Here are a few pictures again of this baby growing. Kyle actually took these this time and they turned out blurry..oh well...we tried. Beware...this one actually shows my belly!!!!

                                                                              Enjoy!

16 Weeks Pregnant

Oh 16 weeks pregnant. This week we went to our monthly doctor's appointment and received some good news! Going into this pregnancy all of us were nervous due to my heart condition. I have left ventricular tachycardia, which before having two surgeries my senior year of high school, would cause my heart rate to race to 240 bpm at times. Since the surgeries I have had no major problems or concerns. Yet, the surgeon had told us that a pregnancy and labor may be very difficult for my body, therefore I would most likely need bed rest and a c-section. So up to this doctor's appointment, this has been an active conversation with my doctor. I have requested medical charts and she has seen some of the paperwork we still had from my surgeries. After reviewing the papers she had, she basically told us: The pregnancy has gone very well up to this point. I have had no 'out of the ordinary' problems. My body is handling the pregnancy very well also. So, it looks like we are going to go forward with this pregnancy assuming I can go through a normal labor/delivery. I was very excited to hear this news!! It was a relief that I was OK and my body knows what it is doing. We also were able to hear the heart beat again this appointment which always puts a few tears and a big smile on Kyle and I's face!

Here are a few pictures from that week. Warnings I am in my pajamas and not at all picture ready! lol

                                                                        ENJOY!

14 weeks pregnant

I was sooooo very excited to have began to show that I took pictures by myself. Thankfully now I am waiting till Kyle can take them (they turn out better).

                                                                                Enjoy!

I will try and post belly pictures when I remember to take them. Right now I am catching up on all of the past pictures that have been taken.

During this period of time, I was over the morning sickness and exhaustion...Thank God! I was and am still fully enjoying the baby bump. It was at the beginning of maternity jeans and loser tops, which I was excited about. I had proof of this 'creature' that I had known about for so long already! I would catch myself rubbing my belly or just holding it when I was sitting on the couch or standing in line at the store. New times and fun times!

It's a BOY!

WoW!! How times flies. I cannot believe that we are half way through this pregnancy. I can honestly say that it's been a blast. We have enjoyed 'almost' every minute of this special time as a family. Minus the all day morning sickness and crazy amounts of exhaustion the first 3 months....things are good!

The big news today is that we got to see our wonderful, energetic, personable little BOY!! For Kyle and I gender was not something we focused much on. We did not have a preference towards a girl or boy nor do we plan on parenting or living life differenlty based on the gender. What we do get to do is know just one more personable idea about our baby. We are able to get to know this little guy even more. Let me say, he's a fun one. While the ultrasound tech. was trying to get him to roll over she would push harder in different areas of my stomach. Everytime she would do this, he would dip deeper into my pelvic area to hide from her and would wave his hands over his head like he was saying, "Stop it! Leave me alone!" hahaha We also were able to see him kick his legs and Kyle caught an image of our little guy sucking his thumb.

I cannot even describe how special this appointment was to our little family. My Mom has never seen an ultrasound due to me being adopted. Today she did!! My Mom was able to meet Kyle and I and be there to see our little guy move and share his personality. Tears were shed, memories were made, and love was shown (especially with the great Mexican food afterwards...Thanks Mom! ha). I can honestly say that as our first pregnancy continues the amount of love and dedication for this child grows more than I ever thought either of those could.

We are very lucky and happy to be where we are today!

Winter and Our Old House

Talk about new beginnings!! We have experienced our first Winter in a lovely 1923 house. As some of you may already know and/or seen, Kyle and I moved into a 3 bedroom 1 bath bungalo built in 1923. The house has character meaning:

-Pipes freeze and then bust during the Winter months (currently being fixed).

-Plumbing problems are a monthly occurence and will eventually lead to a bigger problem (that hopefully is completely fixed now)

-No matter where you walk, the floors creek (I personally love this character of an old house).

-You learn when it's cold to stack pillows in front of the doors and towels in the windows due to such poor insulation around the doors and windows.

The list continues...

With all this being said, you also find out a couple of positive things:
-No matter how big the house, we are almost always in the same room spending time together.
-There's finally enough room for both of us to be able to have our hobbies stay unpacked.
-We finally get to entertain!! We have been wanting to do this for a while, but it was impossible in our 500 sq. feet loft.

With all of it's frustrations and concerns, overall Kyle and I are very much enjoying our new home for this time in life. We know what we do and do not like in a home and are having good training in taking care of a house compared to lofts and apartments.

I will add pictures of the house later.

All about the blog

What is this blog all about? How come start a blog now? Well...

Life is changing! We are at the starting point in so many different areas in our little family's life that, well, it's worth blogging and sharing about. In the following posts I'm going to be talking about Kyle's work journey and where he is at the moment, my own personal school and work journey and where I also am at during this time, and showing you all where life has us now physically, emotionally, and spiritually. God has opened so many doors, blessed us, and is showing us his grace and beauty continuously. 

We are very excited to be where our life journey has us at the moment. We are living with our arms wide open anxiously walking into this journey that God is leading us on!

Welcome along!!