September Showers

Not only has it been showering in the sense of nonstop rain in Norfolk, but Jackson has been showered with love from so many of our friends in the last two weeks.

On September 18th, I had a shower in Springfield hosted by mom's best friends, Mrs. Dutton, Mrs. Hallah, Mrs. Chenoweth and Mrs. Chapin.  It was filled with special details, like an amazing diaper cake, delicious homemade food and rubber duckies in the blue punch.  I am so grateful for how these women have loved me during my time at First Baptist in Springfield, how they love mom now and how they already love Jackson so much! Jackson got a ton of books, which we are so grateful for! We can't wait to read to our little guy and to use all of the practice and cute things we received at this shower. Thanks mostly for the prayers for the three of us.

 Diaper cake from Mrs. Chenoweth

 Mom, Nana and me at the shower

The hostesses, Mrs. Dutton, Mrs. Chapin and Mrs. Hallah (not pictured: Mrs. Chenoweth)

Then, on September 24th I had a great shower from all the ladies at work, hosted by Michelle in Virginia Beach.  Jackson got some great onesies, sheets and the most precious North Face winter outfit so we can pound the pavement as soon as my doctor allows us to! Jen Paet amazed us again with her homemade cake that was cute and delicious.  Michelle organized games that I had never seen at a shower before. One was drawing a picture of Jackson on a plate that was placed on top of your head....we had some ugly looking babies!  :) Next, we played 'guess the baby food'....bananas, plums with brown rice, and peas....gross! Luckily, I got a great cookbook from Shannon about making homemade baby food!

 Work baby shower

 Cake courtesy of Jen, she is super talented

 All the ladies from work

Thanks to everyone who has surrounded us with support as we get ready to officially welcome Jackson into the world sometime in the next month!

There's an old saying that...

pregnant ladies who stretch in front of the tv deserve to be photographed and have said photographs posted on the internet.

I (JB) haven't posted in a while for a few reasons: 1) life has been busy as usual- I suppose those are the joys of residency and pregnancy all combined into one    2)  Heather has been doing a great job of updating the blog   3)  it seems like things have reached a new status quo here in the Byrne household- pregnancy seems to be our new norm.  Part of me is convinced that there is actually no baby coming and Heather will just remain pregnant indefinitely because it seems like it has been so long since we found out we were expecting.  Heather has adjusted really well to working while growing a baby and life has seems to be going on (mostly) as usual.  Something tells me though that over the next 6 or 7 weeks things are going to change...

We've pretty much finished Mr. Jackson's room.  We ordered curtains this weekend which should be coming soon.  We ended up repainting the green for another less frightening green (see H's previous post on "The Chicken Roaster") which should allow lil' Jackson Shaconstance Byrne to sleep in peace.

Well, that's about all I have at the moment- one final thought: what baby's room would be complete without a wall decal?  Ignore the period, that was just an extra piece of decal that I stuck up there, but it seems a fitting end to this blog about

The Dreaded Black Line!

Bummer. I tried to fight against it. I tried to stop it. But alas, I got the linea nigra, in my mind the dreaded black line of pregnancy! So, instead of hiding it I've just decided to be a belly-baring-beach-goer for the rest of the summer and really enjoy the last 7-ish weeks of having this baby belly! Plus I would love a little summer glow on this growing belly of mine before Dave Rathbone takes some maternity pictures for us (Thanks!!!)  This is the day after Hurricane Irene in Virginia Beach (wearing running shorts as we were unprepared for such a gorgeous day!)

Other body joys of pregnancy....people pointing out my new outie, which one of my baby books calls "The Proud Badge of Pregnancy".  I thought about covering it with tape or a band-aid and then realized that was so much work and why do I need to care about having a temporary (at least I hope it's temporary!) outie? I will embrace it as a way of reminding me that I have the blessed role of growing our little boy, Jackson and that he is just BURSTING to get out into this world, as evidenced by my stretching abs, bulging umbilicus and little black line.