Erika's Tummy - 24th Week

I just finished my 23rd week and don't have much longer till I'm in the THIRD TRIMESTER!!! Time is flying by! All I seem to do lately is eat, Eat, EAT! I've almost hit 150 lbs....yikes! I'm enjoying every minute of it though. The baby has been moving around a lot lately. He supposedly can hear us now, so Lawton talks to my belly all the time.

There are just a few touches left on the nursery then we'll put the crib together, hopefully tomorrow! The weather this weekend has been cold and rainy! Maybe we'll even get snow Sunday night and Lawton can have off on Monday to go with me to the doctor!

Love,
Erika, Lawton, and Baby Mason

Chair Rail Molding - Part II

Our neighbor, Jeff, came by tonight with his saw, air compressor and staple gun to help with the chair rail. He's so handy! Take a look at the room with the molding up. Lawton was just a few inches short, so he'll have to make another trip to pick up a small piece of chair rail in order to finish tomorrow. This project took him right at a week to complete...amazing! This window you see looks out to our driveway. I will be putting the rocking chair in front of it. The wall that's all blue will be the side that the dark brown crib will be up against. Great idea, Lawton! Maybe I need to start watching HGTV too....

Love,
Erika, Lawton, and Baby Swann

Erika's Tummy - 23rd Week

I just finished week 22 and I'm now entering the 6th month. How exciting! My tummy is growing and the baby is kicking all the time. He's about 1 pound and 8-10 inches long. I've definitely felt the stretching and tightness in my lower abdomen. I now sleep with 7 pillows around me. Thank goodness we have a King size bed...plenty of room!

This weekend, we had our friends, Will and Lee, come stay with us. Lee got to feel the baby and Lawton actually saw my stomach jump when he kicked. Since I'm now officially over the stomach bug, my hearty appetite is back. I still have some nasal congestion, which is normal, and that will probably linger on the next couple months. My next doctor's appointment is next week, March 2nd.

Love,
Erika, Lawton, and Baby Swann

Chair Rail Molding - Part I

This weekend we moved all the furniture out of the nursery so we can have room to start putting the chair rail up. Lawton began putting Primer on it. Our neighbor, Jeff, is going to come over later to help him cut it and place on the wall. We're excited to see the outcome! He's been working so hard on this nursery. Our baby boy will be so proud of daddy!

Love,
Erika, Lawton, and Baby Swann

Closet Area

Here is another look at the room. We are trying to decide how to setup
the room now. I guess Daddy will be putting together the crib soon.

Painting is Finished

I finally wrapped up the second coat on the nursery. Everything looks
great. I have to put up the chair rail, but I am saving that for the
weekend.

Following Doctor's Orders

Well it turns out that I did have a little 24 hour virus/stomach bug. I haven't been that sick in a long time. It started with a week long cold and turned into nausea. We are still airing out the 4Runner and I'm dreading going back to work after a day of bed rest, especially in this yucky weather! Cold and Rainy! I'm still weak, but drinking plenty of fluids and the doctor has prescribed some phenergan for me to take when needed. Luckily, I only work a mile from home. For the rest of the week and this weekend, we'll be taking it easy.

Meanwhile, Lawton's been hard at work on the nursery. We will take some updated pictures and will post them soon. We held up a piece of the crib next to the walls and it's perfect! Can't wait for you all to see it!

Love,
Erika, Lawton, and Baby Swann

Lawton's Day Off

On Lawton's day off, he was anxious to get started on the nursery! Yesterday, he took a picture of the room with our plain ivory paint on it. Now that we have the new colors, he taped along the edges and where the white chair molding will divide the two colors and began his work. He started with the light sky blue for the top and a dark chocolate brown for the bottom. These pictures will give you an idea of the progress he's making. You should be able to envision what we're picturing.

I checked it out when I got home from work, but couldn't stay in the room long since the paint smell was strong. You'd think I'd be able to handle it working in a printing company all day! I love it! He's doing such a great job! On another note, I'm still getting over this pesky cold. Although today, I did throw up twice, once on the way home (yes, in the 4Runner) and again tonight. That's the most I've gotten sick since I've been pregnant!!!! I've left a message with the doctor. I just want to make sure I don't have a virus or the flu...no fever, thank goodness! I can't catch a break...

Love,
Erika, Lawton, and Baby Swann

The Nursery Begins.....

Yesterday, Lawton and I went to Babies R Us to finish registering for the big items and a ton of BLUE STUFF! As soon as I heard that the crib we liked was back in stock, I wanted to jump on it! Here is a picture of the Babi Italia Pinehurst Espresso Lifetime convertible crib. My mom said that she would buy it and told us to go ahead and order it since it may take 6-8 weeks to come in and that we shouldn't wait too much longer. Well, to our surprise, there was one left in the store!!!! NO SHIPPING/HANDLING!!! YEAH!!!! So when the lady wheeled it out to put in our 4Runner, we saw how big it was...about 52 inches wide! There was no way it was going home with us that day. We went ahead and bought it and will go back today with our neighbor, Jeff's truck. He's our hero!

Lawton is anxious to start on the nursery since we will have the crib now. He has off on President's Day, so maybe he will get the paint, chair molding, and other supplies together. We really like the colors brown and blue for the nursery. As you can see on our registry, we picked out a cute bedding set, so that will be our theme....along with the swans! As soon as the work begins, we'll post some pictures of the nursery's progress! We also registered for a few other items at Target on the internet. Someday, we'll have to go in the store and look around. It's so overwhelming! I was worn out from the 2 hours we spent yesterday walking around! It will all be worth it when our son arrives in 4 months!

Love,
Erika, Lawton, and Baby Swann

Our Future Soccer Player

Well, today is Friday, the 13th and we've had nothing but good luck today! The baby has been kicking like crazy!!! He's going to be a soccer player just like his mom! Tonight, Lawton and I were just relaxing in front of the TV since I've had a cold all week. I was laying there with Lawton's hand on my stomach and all of sudden Lawton thought he felt him move and I said, "You felt that too?!" He said he did and I told him that was the baby kicking, so he jumped up off the couch and started doing his celebration dance and called the family to tell them the good news! I felt the baby for the first time a few weeks ago but I knew it wasn't going to be long until daddy felt him too. What a wonderful Valentine's Day present!

We're just now ending the 21st week and so far I've gained about 10lbs. The baby is healthy and growing fast! I don't really eat large portions, just several snacks throughout the day. I tend to get heartburn very easily otherwise. It must be that head of hair he has! Thank goodness he got that from his mommy! My next appointment is on March 2nd. I told Lawton he didn't have to go to this one, since it's just routine. I'll keep you all posted...

Love,
Erika, Lawton, and Baby Swann

Looks A Lot Like Lawton (So Far)

Well, here is some visual evidence of the fact that we both think the baby looks like his Dad. It is pretty amazing when you look at the nose, mouth and consider the profile. Dad hopes he gets his Mom's eyes! Let us know what you think. Does he look like Daddy?
Love,
Erika, Lawton, and Baby Swann

It's a BOY!!!

Dad here: I don't think I can express how excited I was today at the ultrasound. I am still in disbelief. Erika is doing a great job and will be an awesome MOM! I can't wait to hold that little guy! We couldn't believe how much he looks like me when I was little. When Erika saw his face, she knew it was a boy!

Mom here: Since Lawton was coming straight from school, he was about 15 minutes late to the appointment. While we waited, the nurse went ahead and took the baby's measurements through the ultrasound. She asked me what I thought it was and I said, my gut feeling this whole time was that it's a boy. She continued on, showing me his heartbeat (about 149) and his heart (about the size of her fingernail), his hands and fingers, spine, brain, etc. Then she switched over to the 3-D/4-D and showed me his face! Once I saw that I thought immediately, that baby resembled Lawton's baby pictures. There was no way that was a little girl in there! She quickly switched back to the regular dimension....about that time Lawton walks in. She tried moving the baby by tapping my belly since his hands were over his face. It was hard to take a picture without his hands in it! She went through and started typing at the bottom of the pictures what each image was...and sometimes used arrows to point out specifics. Lawton was watching my expressions the whole time more than the monitor. The nurse asked if we were ready to know the sex. Um YEAH! All of sudden, I yelled out IT'S A BOY! He turned to look at the screen and said, "What?! How do you know?!" I said, "She typed it at the bottom, LOOK! I KNEW IT!" After that, she went back to 3-D/4-D so Lawton could see how much our son looked like his daddy. It was so exciting. We couldn't make it out to the parking lot before calling family and friends.

Here are just a few of the ultrasound images that we took home.

Love,
Erika, Lawton, and Baby BOY Swann