Showered with Love

This past Sunday, my friends threw me a baby shower! They are all so sweet and good to me! It was so much fun, and Caroline has lots of super cute new things! After the shower, I came home and spread it out all over the bed so Ronnie could see all of the new goodies! Sara Catherine has enjoyed looking at all of Caroline's things. She even picked Caroline out some things for the shower! I am so worried that Sara Catherine will become jealous when Caroline arrives. So my family, friends, and I have tried to make things extra special for her, too! Caroline had Sara Catherine a present at the shower :) and so did other family and friends! I think she feels like she is a part of this whole process and is excited about being a big sister. I hope that this continues once Caroline is here! I plan to have Sara Catherine balloons, a personalized cookie, and a toy all from Caroline when she comes to the hospital to see her for the first time! Since I am out of school for a whole week, I hope to get Caroline's room all together! Thanks again to ALL of my sweet friends and family who helped make the shower so special! My family is so blessed!

This picture was taken at the end of the shower when SC was opening up her presents!

The presents!!

Sara Catherine

This is one of the sleepers SC picked out.

This is too cute! It is a sign to hang on the hospital door when Caroline arrives! My friend Amanda got it for me and this is the website it came from: www.shophollydays.com.

My hostesses and me
From L toR : Amanda, Kelly, me, Meredith, and Kim

This was one of my favorite gifts! Meredith made me a diaper cake! She shed a lot of time and blood into this :) The very top is a hair bow holder (that Meredith also made) and a crown (for SC). It was stuffed with all sorts of necessities! The very middle had four bottles of wash and lotion!

One last thing! Sara Catherine got fitted for her hearing aids yesterday afternoon!! The audiologist said they should be in within a few weeks! I took her by myself because from the way they made it sound, she was just going to have to do more testing. When I got there I was told that after the testing, they would fit her! It was an exciting process picking out the hearing aids. Probably more for me than SC! I picked out clear for the outside part, but I let SC pick out the molding that will be in her ear. She picked out pink! The actually fitting was so stressful, and I told Ronnie he owes me big time!! The audiologist had to stick this really soft foam down her ear. It was so far in her ear that it was attached to a string so she could pull it out. The reason for the foam was so that the puddy would not go down her ear. Sara Catherine screamed and cried like I have never heard come out of her before. It was pitiful! She is always really good about shots and things of that nature. Once she was through with the first ear, SC was crying so hard I just held her for about five minutes to calm her down before the second ear was done. The audiologist assured me that was normal for her to be so upset and that it is uncomfortable for her. I told Mom and Ronnie I thought I was going to go into labor because I was so stressed and freaked out when that was going on! I was only joking, but Ronnie will definitely take her for her next mold fitting which will be in about 6 months!!! I'm excited about her hearing aids! When the audiologist was going over the results from the testing with me, I asked her at what level would the sound of a bird be? Sara Catherine scored the lowest with that pitch, and I realized my child has probably never heard birds sing! We went to Dothan about a week ago and went into PetSmart to look at the animals. When we went by the birds, I asked her what were the birds saying. She just shrugged her shoulders and said she didn't know. I asked if she could hear them, and she very casually said no and went on her way. It didn't bother her because she probably has never heard birds, but it broke my heart! It will be so awesome to see how she reacts to all of the new sounds! I will probably take her back to PetSmart just so she can hear the birds once she gets her hearing aids!! I am so happy to have a week off for Thanksgiving! After this week off, I have one more week interning and then I graduate!!! YAY! I hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving! I know that I am so thankful and blessed for the things in my life: Jesus, Ronnie, Sara Catherine, a precious gift growing inside of me, family, friends, Ronnie's job, our home, our military, that I live in the USA, and that I am finally about to graduate college!! Happy Thanksgiving!

Playing Catch Up

Wow! So much has been going on since I wrote my last blog entry. I guess I will start with Halloween. My cousin, Amanda came down and we took our girls to Vicki Popwell to have their Halloween picture taken. The girls were too cute! I really think the pictures are going to be sweet! All three girls (Sara Catherine, Ava, and Lily) were black cats, or as we called them, "a litter of kittens"! After the photo shoot, we went down to Pleasant Home to take the girls around to see our family. Next, we headed back to Andalusia and went trick or treating in town. Sara Catherine had a blast!! I know she enjoyed trick or treating, but I think she had even more fun spending time with her cousin, Ava! We went to the last house right around eight o'clock. When we got back in the car, she was asleep within two minutes!! Here are a few pictures from Halloween...

Does anybody recognize the witch??!!
Hint: She taught at P-home!

Sara Catherine and Ava trick or treating at Aunt Christin and Uncle Hunter's house.
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SC posing for the camera!

I took this picture a couple of miles down the road from the last house we visited!

On Wednesday, we went back to Birmingham to see the ENT. He gave the clearance for hearing aids and also had blood work taken for a genetics test. We will not get those results back for a few weeks because they had to be sent to Boston. Through this whole process, we knew that our insurance was not going to cover the hearing aids or fitting for the hearing aids which is crazy because as you all know, teachers have great insurance! We were told by the audiologist that the hearing aids cost at least eight hundred dollars per ear, and that was at the low end of the quality of hearing aids. Well, we knew we would not be getting the cheapest! So, we were prepared to fork out a lot of money for them... not to mention how much we had to pay for the appointment for the fitting. However, we have had a huge blessing come our way! I had a few different people talk with me about the Children's Rehabilitation Service (CRS) and how they would help pay for Sara Catherine's hearing aids. I contacted them and went and filled out paper work. Now for the good news...they are going to help us! I am pretty sure they are going to pay for the hearing aids and even some batteries! The fitting will be free, too! Had I not had friends contact me about CRS, I would have never known about it and went to Birmingham for a fitting when we went on Wednesday. It is so awesome to see God's blessings and know he is in control and to trust Him! Here is a picture of Sara Catherine with cow at Children's. At our first visit, she saw a little girl getting her picture by the cow and remember it when we went back.



Last but certainly not least, Happy Birthday Meredith!!! I hope you have a great 25th birthday! Ronnie and I are excited about going out to eat with the crew and then going to get our ultrasounds tonight!