32-Week Doctor Visit

Just got back from the doctor. Again, all is good. Dondi is now at 32 weeks, and 4 days. Jordan's heartbeat is good and strong, Dondi's blood pressure is in the good zone, and her weight gain is normal. She's having trouble sleeping through the night, and her joints are beginning to hurt. "All that's part of the deal, though," she says.

Next appointment is in about three weeks, and the last sonogram should be in about a month.

More Nursery Work

The nursery continues to come together. Saturday afternoon, Roy's parents bought another piece of our nursery furniture set, a chest of drawers, which we put underneath the nursery window. Then Sunday, Dondi's parents hung the blinds and valance they had gotten for Jordan. It looks fantastic.

Jordan's room was a flurry of activity as we got the furniture moved in, blinds worked on and valance hung. We sincerely appreciate all the help all four of Jordan's grandparents in getting this nursery done. It looks great. Below, see some pictures of the crib with the new crib set (thanks Elaine and DeeAnn!) on proud display.

Jordan will be here in just about seven and a half weeks. His crib is ready, and Mom and Dad are trying really hard to be ready. Dondi took her breast-feeding class last week at our chosen hospital, so she is now an expert with no fears, qualms or questions. Well, maybe a couple of questions....

Dondi has another doctor's appointment Monday morning. Look for a short update by Tuesday morning.

Two Days, Two Showers

We had two more showers yesterday and today. We have the best friends, co-workers and families anyone could ever ask for. And for the record, Jordan (who isn't due for another 8 weeks) may be the most spoiled child on the face of the earth.

Friday's shower was held by Dondi's co-workers and was held in the company's training room. Jennifer, Misty, Christy and Erin hosted the shower, which had great balloons, blocks and airplanes as decorations and pizza and cake to eat. We also received great outfits, blocks, some more outfits, some baby gear, gift cards, and still more diapers.


Dondi with Jordan's burp cloths.

Thanks to everyone who helped organize the shower, and thank you to everybody who came, as well.

On Saturday morning, Elaine hosted a brunch shower at her home for many of our family friends, who all came out to celebrate Jordan's soon-to-come birth. And they didn't let us leave empty-handed.

Elaine served a wonderful brunch, full of fruits, breads, an egg and susage casserole and plenty of other great food. Plus, she had brought in a chocolate fountain. Life doesn't get any better than a fountain with chocloate continuously flowing.

We received more outfits, the mattress for the crib (along the way, cribs and mattresses stopped being sold together; which was news to almost everybody among our friends and family), more diapers (because apparently, Jordan will go through a lot of them), and a cool ducky bathtub.

We were definitely reminded how blessed we are with such loving friends and family. Thanks to everybody who has come to the showers. Formal thank-you notes are en route over the next week or so.

Oh yes, here's that chocolate fountain:

Another Doctor's Appointment

Not much to report on this one. Dondi's blood pressure and weight are in the good range. Also her blood glucose scores were great, so that is over and done with.

We're doing appointments every two weeks now. In six weeks, we'll have the final sonogram. So, the countdown is on. October will be here before we know it.

The Picture at 30 Weeks

Here she is this afternoon, mid-way through week 30. That means, Jordan should be here in 10 weeks. You ask, "are you ready?" The answer: of course not!

According to the experts at BabyCenter.com, the average baby at this point is about 3 pounds and a little more than 15 1/2 inches long at this point.

We did some shopping today with Debbie, picking out blinds at Home Depot, a couple of items at Babies R Us and then on to Target for a curtain rod and some other household goods. Oh yeah, lunch at Chili's was great. The heat and humidity, not so much.

Dondi has another doctor's appointment Monday where we'll get the latest news and see how she and the baby are doing.

First Baby Shower

The family held our first baby shower this afternoon, and they provided Jordan with a lot of great stuff: diapers (do you guys really think we're going to need that many?), some outfits, lights, pack & plays, a take-along swing, some more diapers.



Jordan's joining a pretty generous family, and we truly appreciate it all.

Special thanks to the hostesses of this shower, Sandra, Stacey, Diann and Elise. Y'all are the greatest.

Chloe with the Bassinet

We haven't decided if Chloe is warming to the idea of Jordan's arrival, or if she just likes his stuff.

Hospital Tour and Doctor Visit

We toured the maternity area of our chosen hospital on Tuesday. It was fantastic. Friendly staff, great rooms, and lots of fun stories. Dondi especially liked hearing how long first labors usually last (average, according to the labor/delivery nurse giving the tour is 18 hours). Dondi figures 18 hours means she can watch six movies (there is an in-room TV/VCR). I bet Dondi would go for a Lethal Weapon marathon....

We were impressed with the nursery, the labor and postpartum rooms, the attention to detail and the security measures they have in place.

Dondi also had a doctor's appointment today where they did her glucose screening test. The nurse said if we hadn't heard anything by Monday, that means she's good. If there's a problem (and she has to go in for the three-hour test), we'll probably know by tomorrow.

Over the river and through the woods

We are just back from what we expect is our last out-of-town trip until Jordan comes in October. We visited the Arthur families up at Dondi's grandma's house near Perkins, Oklahoma. Below you can see all the cars that brought us to Oklahoma. We had family in from five states: Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri. It was great to see everybody.



The trip was fun, if too short (we drove up Saturday and came back Sunday). Dondi got to see her grandma and about 2,536 of her closest relatives (it seemed like that many to Roy, but we may have counted a couple of people twice).



Dondi handled the trip really well. We had to seek special permission from the doctor to go. The risk of blood clots was the main reason for the caution, so we stopped a couple of extra times to walk around and get some water. Speaking of the doctor, Dondi goes back Thursday to take her mini-glucose screening test. If that goes well, we're done with worrying about gestational diabetes. If it doesn't, then she gets to go in for a three hours where they do a much more detailed test. Obviously, we really hope Thursday goes well.

Jordan didn't seem to mind the trip (or the food) either. He managed to kick a lot (never when Roy was around, of course, but Aunt Deona got to feel him kick once).

From the weekend, we want to send a shout-out and special congrats to Billi and John on their marriage; Amber 1 and Jeremy on their pregnancy and Amber 2 on her soon-to-come daughter Skyler.

New nursery pictures

We continue to work hard to get the nursery ready; after all, Jordan's going to be here in about three months! Here are a couple of pictures we shot today, after finishing up our work.

The pictures show the airplanes art hung on the wall. (Airplanes are from the Wallies collection of wallpaper art).

More pictures soon.

26 Weeks, 4 Days

Dondi had another doctor's appointment today, and all went well. We are now officially (more or less) in the third trimester, so the home stretch has begun. The doctor said Jordan is growing on schedule. The doctor also said that Dondi's back pain should begin to subside in about 14 weeks (for those of you keeping score, the baby's coming in about 14 weeks). Roy also got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time today, which was very cool.

Roy painted the nursery closet Sunday afternoon. We thought about doing it over Memorial Day weekend when we painted the nursery itself, but Roy didn't think it needed it. Well, he changed his mind Saturday while washing down the closet's baseboards, walls and shelves (the previous owners cleaned the house about once every 12 years whether it needed it or not). So, he painted the closet Sunday after church. Roy's Rule No. 1 for painting a closet: never, ever, ever paint a closet on a July afternoon in North Texas. Ever. The fumes, combined with the heat nearly do not equal fun.

So the nursery is coming along nicely. We'll post some new pictures once we get everything that's supposed to be in the closet back in the closet, and we can get some of the wall art hung.

The Picture at 25 weeks

Dondi, at 25 weeks along. Jordan's growing quickly, and apparently can now hear what we're saying (so I guess that means we have to start spelling the big words).
copyright 2005, Roy & Dondi Hayhurst

Week 25 (15 or so to go)

We will start the 25th week about mid-week, but we read some interesting stuff about Jordan's development (which we thought you might find interesting, as well).

While we don't know exactly the details, generally, a baby at this point is:

• 13 1/2 inches long, measured from head to heels
• Weighs about a pound and a half
• Has recognizable hair and hair color.

Source: BabyCenter.com

Hope you have/had a great Independence Day!

Yet Another Doctor's Appointment...

Dondi went to the doctor again today, and got another clean bill of health. The doctor said that she sure is consistent. Jordan is developing on schedule (heartbeat was strong and steady) and Dondi is progressing normally.

Dondi has another doctor's appointment in 3 weeks, and from there she'll schedule her glucose screening test after that. The doctor says Dondi is about 23 weeks and 3 days through the pregnancy, so we're well past halfway for those of you not keeping track.

We'll keep you posted, and hopefully, we'll have some new pics of the nursery to share in the next week or so.

Nursery evolution

This is the old nursery look. Like the mint green ice cream color of the lower half of the walls?
copyright 2005, Roy & Dondi Hayhurst




Changing table in the nursery
copyright 2005, Roy & Dondi Hayhurst


This is the crib (with the bassinet in the foreground)
copyright 2005, Roy & Dondi Hayhurst


You never appreciate how much goes into making the baby's room until you undertake it. As you can tell from the first picture there, we pretty much used Jordan's room as a storage center until a few weeks ago, when the urge to paint, build the crib and move the changing table/dresser in took over.

We're finding decorations for the room we're going to add, and as we can, we'll post new pics of the nursery here.

More good news

Dondi had another doctor's visit today, and that went really well. Blood pressure was in the good zone, and the baby's development is on track. Although the doctor sticks with the due date of Oct. 20th, the sonogram from the other day shows a delivery date of Oct. 11th, which means Jordan is ahead of his development curve. Just like his mom and dad, he's an overachiever!

Dondi got to hear the heartbeat, which was recorded at a brisk (and healthy) 155 beats per minute.

This weekend was fun, with new clothes from maternal grandma (we'll work on better names later) and Aunt Wendy, who true to her post the other day has made purchases with purpose!

We'll have the pictures of the nursery up soon. I guess I'll have to get creative and read up on how to put pictures on here.

Shout out to our good buds at Quizzicles for the kind words about our little corner of cyberspace.

Hope everyone is well!

Sonogram shows it's a boy!

We found out tonight that we are having a boy! The sonogram went well, and all signs point to a healthy baby growing in there. We're pretty thrilled. Either way was fine with both of us -- we just wanted healthy -- but we're excited about the boy.

At one point during the sonogram, the technician pushed a little harder to try to get a better image of the baby, and he took both arms and hands and pushed back! The technician said something to the effect of "I think I've made him mad." (We think he has both Mom and Dad's personality of not wanting his personal space invaded!)

That's our news. We'll keep you posted as soon as we know more.

Memorial Day Weekend and Less than 24 hours!

We're less than 24 hours away from finding out what we're having (assuming the baby cooperates with the sonogram, that is!).

This weekend, we cleaned out the nursery (we knew from the moment we bought this house which room would be the nursery -- that didn't stop us from using it as a storage room). The top half of the room and ceiling were painted sky blue with puffy white clouds. The bottom half was this ugly mint green color. We painted the bottom half a grassy-green to give it a sky and fields feeling. We also put the crib together (thanks to Dondi's dad who helped us overcome a slight manufacturer's defect). It looks beautiful.

We'll do an airplane/helicopter theme if it's a boy and a zoo animal theme if it's a girl. The sets we're leaning toward use the same colors for both, so that's why we can choose paint without knowing what exactly we're having.

Appointment is at 3:30 p.m. (CDT) Wednesday. Look for a post some time after 5 p.m. with how the appointment went.

What are we having?

Definitely having a baby. Definitely human.

The next sonogram is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. June 1. We should be able to find out then whether we're having a boy or a girl. We'll post it here as soon as we know!

12-Week Doctor Visit

We just got back from the first meeting with the doctor. We did get to hear the heartbeat, but it was still pretty faint. She said that's because Jordan's about 2 inches long and moving around a lot. The heart rate is currently 160 beats per minute, which is good. My blood pressure has dropped to a "good" zone, so she wasn't too concerned with that.

She said I am allowed to help paint as long as it is water-based, and I have to use one of those face breathing masks. They didn't mention anything about my weight gain. With them, no news is good news, so I'm on track. I've gained 6 lbs since my annual check up in November, and that's not bad considering that includes the pre-pregnancy holidays. :-)

Our next doctor's appt is May 9th. Then there will be a second sonogram between 18 & 20 weeks, which is somewhere between May 23 & June 10. That will be the first chance to find out whether we're having a boy or a girl.