I'll Have a Pink Christmas

                                     Leighton's "1st Christmas"

I truly cannot believe Christmas has already come and gone? Wasn't it just last week that we had beautiful, warm weather... oh wait, it was. Only in Alabama can you have 60 degree weather one day and snow flurries the next. No wonder people are getting so sick. Thank the good Lord, all the McGhee household is healthy, a blessing to be counted, for sure. Also, I'd like to add with all the "global warming" talk these last couple of years, it feels good to know that I serve the God who controls the weather and global warming is simply not something I worry myself with. (stepping off soap box)

We had an absolutely wonderful Christmas! We survived seven (yes, I said seven) rounds of celebrating. And when I say "we" survived, I mean everyone but my feet. Poor things were so swollen but nothing a lot of water and a little pillow propage couldn't fix. Santa brought us everything we wanted; time with our family to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas and basically just things we needed for our baby girl. We wouldn't have had it any other way. We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas as well!

We are now over 30 weeks along, which seems impossible, but it is definitely true. At 30 weeks Leighton is about 15.7 inches long and she weighs almost 3 pounds (like a head of cabbage). About a pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds her, but that amount will decrease as she gets bigger over the following ten-ish weeks. Her eyesight continues to develop, though it's not great just yet. It actually won't fully develop until a little while after she's born.

Well, the nursery is painted, and has new carpet. Our wonderful in laws are delivering our furniture to us not this weekend but the next and hopefully, we can get the chair molding up before then. So that way, all we have left to do is set everything up! I cannot wait to see it completed.

We start birthing/breastfeeding/infant CPR classes in the beginning of January. We have picked our maternity/newborn photographer. We are pretty sure we have picked out our pediatrician, just need to plan a meeting with him soon. The only thing we are having real trouble with is picking out the baby book! I never thought this would be so difficult! Any mommies out there have a rockin' baby book they want to show off and tell me where to purchase? I like to document EVERYTHING (obviously) so a book that does that well would be ideal. I would really appreciate it!

I continue to feel very well! My only complaints lately are are the swelling and a little bit of indigestion and heartburn, but I really don't think I could have had a better pregnancy so far! Our next appointment is the last 4-weeker. We will start going every two weeks after that. Wow, 30 weeks sounds so much closer to 40 weeks than 29 did!

29 Weeks

 Leighton Elizabeth in 4D

I am going to go ahead and warn you, this may be quite a long update, as it's been a few weeks!


Leighton continues to grow perfectly and is quite the little mover. She kicks like crazy, but I absolutely adore.it. She still has never kicked me to where it has "hurt," as a matter of fact, all I can do when she kicks is smile. Every single time. I have never felt such joy in my entire life. God is so very good.

I still tend to experience a little swelling in my hands and feet every now and then. Just getting off of them for a little while and propping them up helps tremendously, as does drinking more water. Sometimes, I feel like I might turn in to a bottle of water because I drink it non -stop! I am still very strict about no caffeine.


Another thing I have been very strict about is not taking any medications while pregnant. I know there are many meds that are perfectly fine to take and if at any point I had been told by my OB that I had to take something, I would have, but not by choice. Last week, though, I thought I may have to give in and take something because I became very ill with either a 24 hr virus or food poisoning, still not sure which.


It  first happened just a few short hours before I was to get on a plane bound for NYC for a girls trip with some of my Mardi Gras organization friends (including my mom). I got sick again in the airport before take off. Then again on the first plane. Again on the second plane. Then, again in the NYC airport. I was still in good spirits all the way up until then. I kept saying "I'm fine, I'm sure it's a 24 hr thing. No big deal. I'm ok. That's what I get for bragging about an easy pregnancy." Well, by the 5th time I realized that I had absolutely nothing left inside of me, which meant my poor baby girl had nothing inside of her either. It's my job to give her nutrients and help her grow and I was helpless to do so. I was weak, emotionally and physically. I had to be wheel-chaired out of the airport because I didn't know if I could make it out on my own.


Once we got to the hotel I decided I needed rest to beat this thing so I took a nap. I had also been advised by a nurse in our group to not try and put anything in my body for 4 hours because my body would, obviously, just reject it. So I slept, too, to keep my mind off of hunger and thirst. When I woke up I had a message from my nurse (whom I had called earlier to inform her of the situation and ask for advice) telling me she could call in a script for me and gave me some OTC options too. She told me if I wasn't able to keep anything down by the 24 hour mark I needed to go to the hospital for fluids. I didn't want to do either. I can only imagine what an ER experience in NYC would be like. Luckily, I only got sick once more, at dinner, and then I was all better. I was so glad I didn't have to break down and take any medication. The Lord was really looking after us.


I must say, Leighton was such a trooper all day. She rocked those flights, only kicking slightly more than usual but I was never in pain or anything because of her. And she kicked a little more too, I'm sure, because she was hungry. Poor baby.


We went in for our 28 week apt and 4D ultrasound thursday and it all went very well! Her heartbeat is still good and strong at 152 bpm. My OB measured my belly and said my measurements were right on target.


The 4D ultrasound was incredible, technology never ceases to amaze me! We were able to see some of her sweet features and have decided that her face shape looks round like mine and her cheeks look full like mine. We think she may also have my nose. It doesn't appear that she has any hair at this time. Our sweet ultrasound tech kept saying how beautiful she was and how cute her cheeks were. I cannot wait to kiss all over my sweet angel's face! She is still head down, which was good news. She was also talking a lot and opening and shutting her eyes, too. She decided it was time to go to sleep towards the end, being a movie star is hard work. We have many great pictures and another movie of her to watch now. I think I have already watched it 10 times.

We have made some serious headway on the her nursery.. We finished all of the painting on time and then we had a professional come in and finish up the complicated stuff. So, the nursery is all painted! The only big thing left to do before we can move in her furniture, will be to put up the chair molding, which we will do right after Christmas. The nursery looks exactly like I hoped, and pictures don't even do it justice, though, I will be providing them for you. Enjoy, just remember that though the stripes are uneven now at the bottom, it will be covered up by the chair molding soon. The first pictures are what her room looked like before it was hers, when it was just the guest room, so you can get the full effect of the transformation. 

 When it was still the "Guest Room" I loved the yellow bedding.

One of my favorite paintings, it has been moved to our bathroom

Our overcrowded bookshelf

Goodbye Guest Room, Hello Nursery:

One of 3 black and white striped walls

I chose these colors because I love the concept and the classy look, but I also chose them for baby's brain development. While I love pastel colors, babies can only see bold contrasting colors for a while, or so I learned in my HDFS classes at Auburn. 

Last striped wall

The back wall, where her crib will go

The rest of the back wall. Remember: there will be chair molding all the way around the room. 

We hope you like the nursery so far! We'll keep adding pics with each bit of progress.

26 Weeks

Me at 26 weeks preggo! My belly button is a full-on "outie" now.

It's insane that we are already 6.5 months along! Will we seriously be in our 3rd trimester in just 5 days? This whole process is passing by far too quickly. We have been so blessed to have a pretty easy pregnancy so far and we grow more excited each week to meet our darling daughter. We already love her more than we ever thought possible. At 26 weeks her ears are pretty developed and can supposedly hear all of our conversations. She's doing practice breathing, inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid, to develop her lungs. She's putting on more baby fat, weighing around 1 and 2/3 lbs and is about 14 inches head to heel, the size of a cucumber.

Well, other people can finally see her move now!. My mother also got to see her and feel her move this last week. It usually doesn't take this long for people to be able to feel baby move but, apparently, the position of my placenta sort-of  "pads" her movements. I won't complain as she has yet to keep me awake at night. There is nothing in this world that brings me more joy than feeling her move! 

I said our pregnancy has been pretty easy so far. The only thing I am having issues with lately is my feet swelling a bit. I know I need to stay off of them more and prop them up but I am just not the kind of person who can just sit around. I have to keep busy. I'm trying to be a good patient, and the swelling does go down when I take it easy. 

Thankfully, I passed my Gestational Diabetes test the first time at our last appointment! Score! I was convinced I was going to fail as I am a sugar-aholic. However, I ate only eggs for breakfast and my test wasn't until 2:30 so I just drank water all day up until 2 hours before. Then to take my mind off of hunger/thirst, I went shopping (well, more like window shopping). When I got to the appointment, I drank the little drink (mine was "fruit punch" flavored) first. I just chugged it down because the one time I pulled it away from my mouth, it had an aftertaste of medicine. Other than that, it wasn't that bad. Not as terrible, or even as sweet, as some people made it out to be. The only thing I thought was odd was that I had to drink it in the lobby of the OB's office with all those people watching me. I suppose they have to make sure you get it down somehow, an insurance requirement I assume.

Then, I waited for an hour chatting with another 24-weeker who had just finished drinking her drink. When it was time to draw blood, to my dismay, it was not a blood draw from the arm, it was a finger stick. As much as I hate needles and blood being drawn from my arm, I dislike finger sticks more. That horrible "click" noise the needle makes causes me to jump out of my skin and it definitely stings more and for much longer. When the OB came in and said "Well, you passed by a long shot. 20 points under," I could have fainted, and not from the lack of nourishment. I was SO excited I could have kissed him. (If you fail the first GB test you have to come back, drink the drink again, and sit in the waiting room for 3 HOURS and they take blood every hour on the hour. Um, no thanks.) So, now I am DONE with tests and blood draws.Sigh of relief. Thank you to everyone who prayed for me that day, I know they were heard. I also, of course, got to listen to her sweet heart beat again. That's my favorite part of the appointments (other than when we have ultrasounds). It was beating mighty fast this time, I'm sure mommy's nerves and that sugary drink were to blame.

At our next appointment we will be seeing our baby girl in 4-D! I cannot tell you how excited I am for this. We will be almost 29 weeks at that point so we might get a pretty good idea as to what/who she will look like. I wonder about this all of the time.

Her nursery is coming along slowly but surely. I am hoping we  will have all of our part of the painting done by the middle of this coming week so then we can begin to get quotes for the complicated part (yes, I am being complicated, would you expect anything else?) and decide on that by the end of the week. Then, the next week get that knocked out, so that painting will be DONE and we can being moving her furniture in, which came in this week. I cannot wait to see it all set up! I promise many photographs soon.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, I know we did. A ton of food, fun, and family time with much to be thankful for and an Auburn Iron Bowl victory to boot! God has blessed us all so richly and far more than any of us deserve. I hope we all take the time to reflect on that, and not just on Thanksgiving day, but every day. What are we most thankful for in our household this year? Leighton Elizabeth McGhee, of course. 

Our First "Children"

Today's post is going to be a little different but no worries, I will do an update, like I always do, at the end. :)

Though Leighton Elizabeth is our first baby, our family actually began about 3.5 years ago. This was when we added our first member, Baron McGhee. He is our brilliant, sweet, and hyper-active Rat Terrier. (Cousin to the Jack Russell)

He was born the day after Valentines day in 2007. We welcomed him in to our family in late March that same year. I picked him out specifically because he had a slight, natural mohawk on the top of his little head. He still has it. Baron is the smartest dog in the whole world, and I'm not just saying that because he's ours. He was potty trained in a mere two weeks, and does every trick in the book. We call him our "circus dog." He sits, lays, stays, jumps, dances, high-fives, shakes, etc. And he does most of these by hand signals that we came up with, kind of like sign language for dogs. His favorite things in the world are: chasing the red dot from the laser pointer, eating, playing fetch, his brother, treats for being a "good boy," his toys, people in general. Most dogs, believe it or not, are not attached to their owners like most people think. Baron is very sweet and loves just lounging with us but he is also very hyper and loves chasing, playing, etc. He does tend to jump on new people (a habit we have tried sooo hard to break, failing miserably) but he is harmless. He will turn 4 just before Leighton is due.

Then, in May of 2009 we added another member to our growing family. 

Barlow McGhee, our Miniature Dachshund, was given to me on my birthday, May 27th. He was born April 3rd. Barlow, well, he's our pretty dog. He is dumb as rocks but my goodness one look at his sweet "please pet me" face and you're hooked. He is the happiest, sweetest dog in the universe and his being dumb is a great source of entertainment for us; there is never a dull moment. It's almost impossible to have a bad day in our household because of him. Baron didn't particularly like his brother at first but now they love each other. They love playing together and only get jealous on occasion. Barlow was a much more difficult dog to train. It took an entire year to potty train this poor thing and there were so many times I'd want to give up and give him away and then he'd crawl in to my lap, turn over on his belly and give me the saddest face you've ever seen. Naturally, I could never do it. Barlow's favorites are; his mommy, his toys, his brother, food, treats, being outside, people in general, and being loved on. Barlow will turn two about a month after his little sister is due.



We love our dogs. We treat them as family members, but not as people. We are a little concerned as to how they will react when Leighton gets here. We have done all the research and gotten tips like "bring home blankets from the hospital with her scent on it before you bring her home" and "before she comes, play crying baby sounds for them often so they will be used to it." We want to know what worked for you? How did you get your dogs used to the idea of a new member? How did you handle jealousy issues? Safety issues? We only have dogs, no other pets, so any advice is welcomed and we thank you in advance.

Now, for the regularly scheduled update. We are 24 weeks pregnant as of Friday! Baby girl is now more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound, about as much as an ear of corn. Blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that her increasingly developing ears pick up are preparing her for when she gets here. Supposedly, loud noises that become familiar to her now probably won't bother her when she hears them after she's born.  She has a tiny figure now, but her body is filling out proportionally and she'll soon start to plump up. Her brain is also growing quickly now, and her taste buds are continuing to develop. Her skin is still thin and translucent, but that will start to change soon.

I feel her little kicks a lot more recently and I can now see them. 

I have begun to get a little swelling  in my feet when I am on them for too long so I try to rest a little during the day and the back pain before bed is no fun either but luckily once I fall asleep it seems to disappear, it's just the falling asleep part that is uncomfortable.

Gestational Diabetes test tomorrow afternoon! I would appreciate anyone who will say a little prayer for me for this delightful occasion.

I think that's all I have for now, hopefully I'll have nursery progress pictures posted soon. We are working on it right now! 

Baby's First Vacation

Well, the past 2 weeks have gone by so fast! I was always told that after the first half, your pregnancy seems to go by much slower. Not for us! At 22 weeks gestation our baby girl now weighs 1 whole pound (ohmygosh that makes me tear up a little bit... silly pregnancy hormones), and is around 11 inches long, about the size of a squash. Her lips, eyelids, and eyebrows are becoming more distinct, and she's even developing tiny tooth buds beneath her gums. Her eyes have formed, but her irises don't have a colored part yet. Inside her tummy, her pancreas is developing.

Leighton has officially taken her first vacation, which was also her first time out of the country! We went on a cruise to the Bahamas and Key West (one of my favorite places in the Continental US). It was an absolute blast.

While on the trip, I ate so much that baby Leighton may actually weigh more than one pound! ;) I've only had a couple of headaches so that made me happy and I never broke down and took any meds. I don't know why I have been so against taking anything, it just never felt "right." But, I appreciate all of the advice everyone gave me as to how to get rid of them. While on the cruise I read "Baby Wise." It all sounded great and I'm hoping it all works as fabulously as everyone says in the reviews. I would love any advice about it from you parents who have followed it.


I have been feeling her move a lot more recently which is my absolute favorite thing in the world! I have been having some minor back pain that is a little frustrating when I am trying to sleep but it could probably be much worse, so I am not going to complain. 

I 100% understand pregnant brain. I forget everything unless I write it down immediately and that is so not like me, and it seems it gets worse the further along we get. I have so many reminders in my crackberry now, that it's alerting me like every 5 minutes!


Nursery preperation is underway! All of her bedding is in (except for a few minor things) so we are just waiting on the furniture! We have started moving everything that is currently in her room out of there so that we can begin the painting process. It's going to be pretty complicated so I am hoping to begin later this week. This is the most exciting part so far, aside from finding out the sex, of course! 


Also, in just a couple of weeks I go in for the dreaded gestational diabetes test. Any advice for that would be much appreciated as well!

I have had the craziest dreams during this pregnancy. I'll either have the most terrifying nightmares or dreams that are so weird that I'd kind of be embarrassed to share.  

Lastly, here is a picture of me at 22 weeks pregnant! A couple people mentioned they want to see a pic of my actual belly. Well, your wish is my command. Enjoy!



Half Way There

A little Bon Jovi anyone? "Ohhh we're half way there...." too much?
Well, it's very hard to believe that we've made it to 20 weeks. It feels like just a couple weeks ago we were sharing our news with the world and now we have reached the half way mark! Baby girl now weighs about 11 ounces. She's also around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom and about 10 inches from head to heel, about the length of a banana. (For the first 20 weeks, when a baby's legs are curled up against it's torso and hard to measure, measurements are taken from the top of it's head to it's bottom, the "crown to rump" measurement. After 20 weeks, they are measured from head to toe.) She is swallowing a lot these days, which is good practice for her digestive system.

I have been feeling her little flutters of movement lately which is SO exciting! I absolutely love feeling her move, it brings me so much joy. I cannot wait until she is kicking enough for others to feel her!

I had my first random stranger come up to me and touch my belly the other day at the mall. I didn't like it. It was weird. I would never touch a stranger's baby bump. Oh, and then this stranger told me she could sell me something for my acne (caused by the pregnancy). Umm, thanks?

Sadly, I think I got a little ahead of myself when I said my headaches were gone. They returned last weekend with a vengeance. I still couldn't bring myself to take any medicine. However, with the weekend gone, so were the headaches again. None this week so far.

We had our 20 week ultrasound this afternoon which confirmed, she's all girl! It was so incredible to sit there and watch my baby girl move. And was she ever moving! She had the hiccups (sooo cute to watch even though I know she didn't like them) so that made her kick and squirm like crazy! We also got to observe her touch her face with her little hands and play with her feet. She is no longer Breech (YAY) but again, she still has lots of room to move around so that could change any time, though we will keep praying that it won't! The u/s tech and OB both confirmed that she is perfect as far as growth of all limbs/organs. 

Oh, and mommy to be is growing well, too. I have gained 9 lbs thus far (and at halfway there, that's pretty perfect). They told me at the start of this process I should gain about 25-35 lbs. I also found out today that my blood type is A+. Yeah, I know it's sad I didn't know that before age 23andahalf but as you know, from reading previous posts, I don't just willingly give my blood away, and I guess I just never really needed to know. Her dad is A+ as well, so I guess it will be no surprise what Leighton is. And, maybe her grades in school will be around that same letter ;) This will be way easier to remember than all of our Social Security and Drivers License numbers! 

We got a video of her u/s today, so hopefully I can figure out how to upload it. Until then, as promised, here are pictures of nursery inspirations (see if you can try and envision what her nursery will look like from these little clues), and an updated "bump" picture.  

Nursery Inspiration Pictures: (Some items pictured may be things we are actually using, some may just be ideas, some may be in there just to throw you off. You just never know...) Cannot wait to hear everyone's thoughts/ reactions!

                                               And....

                               The growing belly: 20 weeks!

18 Weeks

I know, I am a few days late posting the "weekly update." I have gotten a few remarks from some of you that you have been looking for it! Apparently, the food comparisons are a hit, everyone wants to know what "vegetable" she is this week. Ha! Well, baby girl is now around 5 and 1/2 inches long, about the size of a bell pepper. She weighs almost 7 ounces! She's now flexing her arms and legs, so we should feel some kicks any day now!  You can now see her blood vessels through her thin skin, and her ears are in their final position, although they're still standing out from her head a little. A protective covering of myelin (remember that from college Biology 2 class anyone?) is beginning to form around her nerves, a process that will continue for a year after she's born. And, all of her parts that make her female are now in place.


I continue to feel great! Thank you to those who are always asking me, it's great to have so many people who care about mine and baby girl's health. Speaking of baby girl's health, we had a tiny scare last week and after praying about it, I just knew everything was going to be ok, so I decided to wait until we knew everything was fine before I made it public knowledge. I just don't like a lot of drama/attention.


Ok, so you remember at 16 weeks we had all of that blood work done and I wrote about how I agreed to a quad screen? (if not just go down a few posts) Well, last Monday was a week since we'd had it done and we got a call from our OB that morning and they left a message saying we needed to come in to discuss our blood work, and they had an opening at 1 p.m. We knew this meant something bad because they had told us if our blood work came back fine that we wouldn't hear from them, we'd just see them at our next apt. So, immediately I began to panic. I called Jeremy and told him that he had to come home right then from work and I was so upset I could barely speak.

I called the OB office back and told them I could come in and I asked (I just had to) if this meant something was wrong. The nurse said that yes, this meant there was an abnormality in the blood work. My heart fell to the floor. I was so confused. We had just seen her on the ultrasound screen on Friday and she was just fine. I called my mother and told her what was going on.


After a long hour in the waiting room, our OB came in and began to explain the lab results. He said the Trisomy 18 and Downs tests all came back fine. But the test for NTDs (Neural Tube Deffects) such as Spina Bifida came back abnormal. He said that this didn't diagnose anything, it just didn't rule it out. He said the target afp (alpha fetoprotein) level they like to stay around for this particular test is 2.5 and mine was 2.7. He said he had never ever seen such a low number and a number so close to the target number turn in to any sort of defect, that most defects are much higher numbers, like in the 4s. I wanted to hurt someone. They made us worry that much for .2 points. I was angry but I tried to calm down and remind myself that they were just doing their job.


Then my OB said he wanted to take one more vile of blood, run the test again, and if the levels went down, then that would be that. But if they were still elevated then they would send me to do a level 2 ultrasound at UAB. He said an amnio wouldn't be necessary to which I responded, "good because I wouldn't have one done anyway." (I feel like I am way to young for that) After more blood work, they told us we would know by Friday. So, I just gave the situation to God and let it go. I just knew in my heart everything would be fine. God really gave me a peace about it.

On Thursday afternoon my sweet, favorite (and also pregnant) nurse called me right before their office closed to give me the GREAT news; everything was fine! So, needless to say, I am now pretty strongly opposed to this Quad Screen (some doctors call it a tripple screen, they are the same). If you are young and have no history of birth defects in your family, I suggest you skip this little test that causes way more worry than necessary. Not to mention, most of these birth defects can be detected by ultrasound anyway. I just did the quad screen so that we would be prepared if there was something wrong, but as I said, they would have been able to see it via ultrasound anyway if there were something seriously wrong and we still would have been able to be prepared. I will never have this test performed in any other pregnancies I may have. Everyone is entitled to make their own decisions but I am going to take every opportunity to share our story. I love modern medicine, do not get me wrong. But sometimes I think they carry things a little too far these days. Oh, and I should say here: Sis, I should have listened to you! (my sister had a similar experience and her baby girl, who was born this summer, is just fine. She warned me not to do the test and I didn't listen. Lesson learned.) 


On a lighter note, my headaches (knock on wood) seem to be gone! Hooray! Also, last week was filled with starting to pick things out for the nursery! I am dying to show you all everything we have picked out so far, our plans, and where I got my inspiration. My mother has always been the decorating genius and it's all finally starting to rub off on me. I LOVE to decorate, and I think decorating her nursery will be the most fun project yet! In the next post, I will share a bunch of pictures that inspired me for Leighton's nursery so you can try to guess what the nursery will look like! Also, I will put up a new belly picture next time, since some of you have been asking for that. Until then, have a blessed week!