Baby Update

Well it's about time I blog again. Where has the time gone?! 

I'll try to recap the past several months. For Halloween at school we were to dress up as a book character. I decided to share the day with my growing baby girl and incorporate her into my costume. The students loved it!

October 2015

Here is a picture sometime close to Thanksgiving...

Late November, 2015

Here we are all dressed up for The Ellys - Elevation Staff Christmas Party. It is one of my favorite nights of the year! We are so blessed to be on staff at a church with such amazing culture that truly knows how to have fun, care for one another like family and most importantly serve Christ.

Mid December - The Ellys, Elevation Staff Christmas Party

The week of Christmas we were able to spend some time with Heather and Josiah Prince who now reside in Nashville (Josiah went and got all famous on us). Todd and Josiah were in the band Philmont together many years ago and the four of us always have the best time. It was a such a fun date night and great to catch up since we haven't seen them in about a year!

Later that same night we stopped in at the Ballantyne Hotel to see the gingerbread houses on display. The restroom was super fancy so I felt it was a perfect time for a baby bump picture of course.

A few days later it was Christmas Eve. We take a photo like this each year and while technically baby Peri girl is in the photo...this truly is our last one of just the two of us plus Mags. Next year we will have a 9 month old!!! That blows my mind y'all!

January 11th marks 33 weeks pregnant!!!! I had a student ask this past week "did you have your baby?" HAHA I said..."ummm, sure hope I don't look like this after baby and back at work!"

Over the past few months we have been busy with the holidays and such but decorating her nursery has been a fun project together. We have built the crib, painted walls and furniture and added sweet accessories. More pics and details on the room soon!

During Christmas break as I was off work, I was hit with the worst pain. I could barely walk somedays. My sciatic nerve was hurting my lower back on my right side and shooting down to my right knee. I prayed and prayed for it to go away before work began again. Thankfully by the time I started work again, the pain let up. Then this past Monday night the pain returned on the opposite side it was before. It can really bring me to tears so prayers for that currently!

These days I'm crazy exhausted by about 2:00 each day. I'm truly giving it all I have for the students and I don't think they would ever know but behind the scenes I'm much different. I will say having students around all day is a huge help. Whenever my shoes come untied, I always have someone willing to help. Same when I drop something (which is the worst these days) but little fingers are always eager to help me. Love those kids! It is very difficult to shelve books (haven't done much of that - huge thank you to my parent volunteers) and most of the time I feel a little out of breath especially after lunch. My afternoon rest nap times are very precious to me right now. Heartburn is still happening mostly at night when I'm in bed.

I went from hating Mexican in the first trimester to loving it again. I've had it three times just this past week! However, unfortunately, Chipotle (a pre-pregnancy favorite) still doesn't appeal to me. I got sick in Chipotle very early on in my pregnancy and ever since then, I can't even look at the food.

Todd is being the best and sweetest dad to be! He has helped so much in the nursery and we even took our first baby class together. We have more classes to take but we like feeling prepared for what is to come. 

My first baby shower is this weekend and I absolutely cannot wait to celebrate this little girl with family and college friends. While her room feels pretty much done we are still empty handed when it comes to diapers, wipes, crib sheets, changing pad....and so on. Each day it all seems more and more real. The house also is starting to feel real quiet as if someone is missing and we are excited for this next adventure to begin!

Keep praying for good health for me and baby! 7 or so more weeks to go which doesn't feel long but at the same time it kind of does with this crippling back pain. I know it is all worth it!

Love to all!

-Sara

Her Name

Peri Kathryn Davis

For as long as we have been married, we have tossed future children names around here and there. When we found out we were pregnant this became a topic of discussion daily. Todd would toss and turn over it while I was dealing with morning sickness so I could barely concentrate. 

We took a beach trip during the summer with my family and on the way we made a list of names we liked for boys and for girls. During that trip we even said a few to our family to get reactions and welcomed their input of suggestions. 

Peri was never one of them until the very last day of our trip.

I also want to say at this point in my blog post that I always knew I would be one of those people that just shares the name. I totally get the whole not telling until they are born but we personally together have always known we just wanted to share early. 

Back to the name. On the last day of the trip Todd and I went out to eat lunch before we headed home. While at lunch we decided that by the time we got home from the beach we would have agreed on a name for a boy and a girl. During our lunch date as we were googling names and such, the name Peri was said. Let me rewind for a quick second and let you know that I actually had a new 5th grade student last year named Peri. I do remember mentioning to Todd a year ago about this new girl and how I liked the name. It really helped that she was such a sweet enjoyable student. As a school teacher of almost 800 students, it can be really hard to choose a name. 

So when the name Peri was brought back to our minds we both loved it and the unique spelling. Once Todd looked up the meaning we both just knew it was the one. So what does Peri mean? 

Mountain dweller. 

For two people who met in the mountains, it just fit our story perfectly. 

As far as the middle name goes, we just liked it paired with Peri. We are debating calling her Peri Kate or maybe Peri Kathryn. But who knows, she may just end up as Peri. We like all our options and have decided we will let it flow naturally once she is born.

After we chose the name we went back to the beach house and told my family. They loved it and were so supportive. It has been so fun already to begin calling her by name and even hearing family/friends ask "how is Peri?!"

Also, in case your are curious, we did have a boy name completely chosen too. But that name will remain in our hearts for now and who knows, we may be using it in the future depending on God's plan for our family. 

So there you have it…the reason for the name.

 Peri girl, we can't wait to meet you and LOVE you to pieces!

-Sara