That's our baby! :)

Got all GOOD news at the doctor today!! Blood pressure was "excellent" again and I'm weighing in at the same weight I was a week ago, so that's good too! :) But the REAL fun news came with the sonogram...

The lady doing the sonogram was able to get a really good angle on her face, which is apparently rare at 38 1/2 weeks. She got so excited by it that she did (for FREE) a few 3D pictures of Avery's little face for us to bring home! I can't believe how much she looks like Collin to me!! I think she's just such a precious little baby and I can't wait to kiss those chubby cheeks in a few days!!

She is currently 7.5 lbs which puts her in the 77th percentile. That means we're right on track! We're not inducing... we're just going to ride it out and see how things go. Collin and I were both 8+ lbs, so she probably will be too. To me, she's just an adorable carbon-copy of her Daddy!! We're both SO in love...

Here are the sonogram pictures! (Incase you're wondering... NO there's not an alien twin in there with her! :) The funky-shaped blobby stuff you see is the placenta, and Avery is apparently using it as a pillow. Smart baby!) The countdown continues...


In this shot she has her eye open! (She may have both eyes open, but the other one is covered up by her "alien twin!") :)




And in this picture she looks like she's licking her top lip or something. Who knows?...



In the pictures above, I was just trying to figure out who she looks like so I put my newborn picture on the left and Collin's on the right. I think she looks like COLLIN!! What do you think?

Getting closer to "ready!"

Each day brings us a day closer to THE day!... and it gives us another opportunity to finish up some lingering projects/tasks that have been on the "to do" list for a while. Seems like we got lots of things crossed off the list this weekend, which feels really good.

Collin got the car seat installed in the Jeep with a little help from Joe Mitchell (a "seasoned" Dad of a 4 month old) and it seems the guys did a great job! We've still got to take it by a fire station to have it inspected, but it was VERY surreal to ride to church yesterday with a car seat in the back! HA! What a weird first-time feeling...

I finally got the things hung on the walls in Avery's room that I've been meaning to hang for a while. The nursery is really starting to feel peaceful and serene, which was always what I wanted. I probably spend a half-hour each day just sitting in that rocking chair and looking around the room playing lullibies to Avery through my belly. She likes her rocking chair already. And she now has a VERY full and fashionable closet, thanks to lots of very nice gifts and some precious hand-me-downs from family and her 4-month-old friend, Ella Mitchell. (Everyone told me not to buy any clothes for her because I would be given enough... I think they were right!) I hope this child likes PINK! :)





















The other "project" that's FINALLY wrapping up this week is the Kitchen!! (Queue Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus!") Today the backsplash and utility room tile went in, and the wood flooring will go in tomorrow. Finish all that off with baseboards, etc. and we're done!! :) Collin worked SO HARD this weekend doing electrical work and installing track lighting underneath the cabinets and in the glass cabinets over the sink. If I say so myself, he's rather amazing. Avery has one smart and talented Papa!! (Here are a couple of snapshots I made of the kitchen progress. I can hardly believe we're close to the end of this never-ending remodel. (Pregnant friends-- be smarter than I was and NEVER ever remodel during a pregnancy!!)

















On Wednesday, I'll be posting more baby news-- WITH PICTURES from the sonogram!! :) After that appointment we'll know a little more about when we can expect Avery's arrival. Thanks for checking the blog! We hope everyone is doing well!

Love to all--

37 1/2 weeks Doctor's report...

Just got back from my Doctor's appointment and everything looks good! My weight is on track and the nurse said my blood pressure looked "excellent!" (Always nice to hear good news at the doctor.) I'll be 38 weeks on Monday!

Collin came along this time and we got to hear Avery's heartbeat again. The nurse put the doppler over to the left side of my HUGE belly and it sounded somewhat "swishy" and muffled and then she moved it to the right side of my belly and it sounded perfectly clear as if she had a stethoscope on a little baby's chest. She explained that the left side was the blood rushing through the placenta and the right side was where we were hearing her actual heart beating. (Probably way too much information for most of you reading along, but we thought it was interesting!) She's pumpin' along at 140 beats per minute and she is doing her own water aerobics every day... seriously sometimes I think she's going to come out through my belly button.

I'm 1 cm dilated and not yet effaced. Next week the Doc wants to do a sonogram to see how BIG Avery is to determine if we need to induce. Seems the Doctor may suspect a Poage-sized baby indeed!! :) If she's sittin' in there at 8 lbs. and we're still 2 weeks from the due date, we may go ahead and see if we can move things along. Otherwise, I still plan to just "live & let live" and hope to go into labor naturally!

Either way, we will for SURE get to see our baby girl next Wednesday on the screen and I'll post pictures as soon as we have them. Not long now!! We can't wait! :)

Almost time for the Harvest! :)

FALL IS HERE!!!... You know what THAT means!!... Football season, cooler weather, crisp air... and all kinds of things are "dropping!" I was just in Bed Bath & Beyond, and a co-shopper pointed his finger at me and said, "You need to be at the hospital! You've dropped and everything!" His wife looked humiliated, but I got a good laugh out of it. :) A little less than 3 weeks to go!! ...If she doesn't come early, that is!...

Can I just say how STRANGE it is to know that in just a matter of days/weeks Collin & I will be parents?! The other night as we were going to bed I said, "We're about to get a roommate!..." It's so exciting and so ODD at the same time, but we couldn't be happier. We are definitely counting our many blessings in these next few days until we get to count fingers and toes too! :)

The house is getting more and more prepared for Avery day by day. The nursery is coming together, the pack & play/bassinet is set up by our bed and ready for use, hospital bags are packed and ready to hit the door in a hurry, and the kitchen mess is even starting to settle! All in all, it's been a LONG hot Summer, but we can definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel on all the work we've been doing and we're ready for "Harvest season" in more ways than one.

Tomorrow I go into the doctor for my weekly check-up, so I will be posting news again after that visit. My doc will be able to give us a more accurate reading of my progression and may be able to tell if she'll be early/on time/late... etc. Can't wait to have more to report!

Thanks for the prayers! ...Keep 'em coming as the countdown continues!...
Love & Hugs--
The Poages

Watch Me Grow!!

"Are you relaxing and putting your feet up?" :)

This is the question I'm asked most frequently now that I'm not going in to the office on a daily basis anymore.... But believe me... I'm still WORKING. :)

"Relaxing" and "putting my feet up" just isn't an option when my kitchen project is still going. But we're making progress!! The cabinets are in, the countertops are in and the appliances are now in! Some of the appliances are ready to use... some aren't quite ready yet, but we're getting there. Still can't use the kitchen sink, but the dishwasher is good-to-go! :) Still can't use the ovens, but the microwave is useable. AND-- I have my refrigerator back, so now I can have things like MILK again and leftovers!! :) (The things we take for granted...)

The countdown is ON and we've got about 3 1/2 weeks until Avery arrives!! ....Maybe I'll have a few minutes to put my feet up in the hospital...... ;)

A few pictures of the kitchen taken last night and this morning. Collin & Erroll (one of Avery's Uncles on the Poage side) are busy working away!

Wedding weekend with friends!

I got to hang out with some of my best friends again this weekend and it was SO much fun! On Saturday night, Miss Melissa Turner became Mrs. Jon Babich! It was such a beautiful wedding and everyone had an absolute blast. The weekend was so special as we watched our friend GLOW with beauty as she walked down the aisle. (I seriously have the world's most beautiful friends... I'm not kidding.)

My guardian angels were on "super-duty" as I had a blow-out on the drive to Fort Worth. I could feel the car acting funny and unfortunately I've had about 3 prior blow-outs so I can tell the warning signs... Sure enough, as I dialed Collin from my cell to say, "I think I'm about to have a blow-out" I heard a HUGE POP and then flapflapflapflapflap before Collin even answered the phone. I was able to safely make it to the side of the road and then the most amazing thing happened-- FRIENDS to the rescue!! Since I was just inside 820 and almost to Fort Worth, Collin was 30 minutes away. I called my other friends who were headed to the church to tell them I'd be late and everyone sprung into action to help the fat lady stranded on the side of the road! :) Within minutes, Randy (Lindsay's hubby) was there with me to change the tire... Lea (one of my really good friends) spotted me driving to the church and looped back around to pick me up... then Lea's husband Donny came later to retrieve the gimpy toyota and drive it to the church for me. The entire problem was solved before Collin even arrived on scene. All-in-all...... I was MAJORLY high-maintenance that day. (Sorry guys!! Thanks for all the help!!)

But at the end of the busy weekend, it sure was fun to get to catch up with some of our sororrity sisters we haven't seen in years, and others we just saw a couple of weeks ago, but already miss! Friends are such a blessing...

CONGRATULATIONS, Jon & Melissa!!! I hope you guys are having a WONDERFUL time in Hawaii!!

Nursery: Phase I

That's right, folks!! We have FINALLY done something in the nursery!!

Now... I know most 1st time Moms begin the "Nursery project" somewhere around the half-way point (or sooner) but for some reason our nursery sat untouched as a guest bedroom until I was almost full-term at 35 weeks!! HA! So typical of me, but one of these days hopefully I'll stop being a procrastinator... Maybe tomorrow. :)

It was wonderful to actually move baby things into that sweet little room. Mom was in town from Austin and did SO much work. She was truly the superstar of the nursery design as she kept moving things around until we got the "flow" that we wanted. We still don't have anything on the walls, but we'll cover that in "Phase II" I guess.

It sure is a BEAUTIFUL bed!! The bedding was handmade by "Gram" (Mom) and absolutely adorable!! I keep telling her she has a business in this... the bedding is really top quality and I'm so impressed with my Mom's talent. What would we do without Grandmothers?!

Only 4 more weeks until Avery arrives!! (Unless she's............... dare I even say it??.......... EARLY!!) We'll hope we still have 4 weeks. Maybe by then she'll have a nursery AND a kitchen! :)

Hugs--

Precious Moments

This past weekend, my sweet Sunday School friends Marian Ashwill, Diane Kendall, Catherine Couch and Andrea Mitchell threw a baby shower for me and Avery! It was SUCH a blessing as we spent the early afternoon having lunch and anticipating Avery's arrival.

Probably the most treasured memory I will have from this shower was when the group took a minute to pray over Avery. The sweet prayers lifted of blessings and hopes for our daughter's life (from a healthy delivery, to coming to know Christ at an early age, to prayers for her future mate) were SO dear to my heart and will be remembered always.

Avery got LOTS of awesome gifts that will be WELL used and well loved! I am so appreciative of our friends in this class. Collin and I talk OFTEN about how we can't imagine life without this amazing support group and the deep relationships we've formed in the Fellowship Class. You guys mean so much to us and we love each and every one of you!




















Above: Me (and Avery) with "Gram" and "Aunt Jen" and then with "Nana" and "Aunt Kendra"

Below: One of my pregnant friends, Lydia Farell - Due in February!



































Above: Me & Andrea (who just had a baby 3 months ago and looks AMAZING!)



















Below: Avery's "I love Aunt Jen" onesie! ...wonder who gave her that?!

TBG Office Shower!

My sweet co-workers got together and threw a shower for Avery! It was really special, and Avery got some more great & useful things! We're getting closer to being ready for her arrival... Now we just need to get the nursery together for her and we'll be in the home-stretch!

Thanks to all my friends at TBG! You guys are the best. (A little "plug" for the company, if you don't know what we do... www.tbg-inc.com)

Work Zone

Our kitchen project is... well... a PROJECT. This remodeling stuff is not for sissies. Gives me an all-new respect for the Extreme Home Makeover teams, that's for sure! This picture shows the recent progress. Currently everything that used to be neatly (or not-so-neatly) tucked away in the cabinets and pantry is now spread out all over the house and makes us look like MAJOR pack-rats to anyone who comes through the door. Not to mention the fact that the crib is still "homeless" since the nursery is still functioning as a 2nd guest bedroom and hasn't transitioned into baby mode yet. It's awkwardly placed in the living room for the moment, but will hopefully make it's way into her bedroom one of these days. (How many weeks do we have left now until Avery needs a nursery? Can I get that down to the minute, please? ...because we're going to need every second.) :)

Thanks for all the help, prayers & encouragement throughout this process! I never knew how stressful remodeling could be. TLC and HGTV always make it look so easy! Guess you can't trust what you see on TV!

So far, so good! Hopefully we'll have this all behind us by the time Avery arrives! If not... I hope she can sleep through any and all loud noises like her Daddy!

Baby Shower!! :)

It hasn't rained in Dallas in months, it seems... but there was a beautiful shower on Sunday afternoon!!

Five of my sweet college friends (From left to right: Lea Arnold, Kristin Gustafson, Melissa Turner, Lindsay Key and Kristen Starwalt) hosted the most elegant and precious baby shower for me this past weekend. We had such an incredible time getting together, celebrating & anticipating Avery's arrival! Among other delicious goodies they had a full ice cream sundae bar, which was a HUGE hit! We also played a game that I will never forget... They had planned ahead and given Collin a list of baby questions he had to answer (with specific instructions NOT to look any of the answers up on his phone) :) and then I had to guess multiple choice which answer was his. Some of the questions got interesting answers such as, "How will you know if she's right or left handed?" and "What will you call Avery's dirty diapers?" (His answer to the last question was that he would call Avery's dirty diapers "Mommy's little projects!" ....keep dreaming, honey!) With each correct answer I got a little "prize" to help with Avery. It was a precious idea and a LOT of fun!

At the end of the party the group presented me with a very treasured gift. The guests had prepared in advance individual letters written to Avery, and they had created a beautiful scrapbook for me with a letter on every page. Some wrote to Avery about funny things they remember about me and Collin, some wrote prayers for her and words of wisdom for her life... It is such a treasure and I can imagine reading these precious notes to Avery as bedtime story blessings for many years to come. The entire afternoon was so special and I am truly blessed with these incredible friendships.

Hard to believe that with each passing day we're getting closer to seeing, holding and kissing our baby girl! We may not know anything about her yet, but one thing is for sure: She is LOVED. Many many thanks to everyone for so graciously displaying your love for our little family.

(More pictures to come!...)

Nesting! :)

It's been a productive weekend at our house! Saturday was a day of "nesting" as Collin and Howie set up the crib for Avery. We still haven't taken down the full-sized bed in Avery's room yet, nor have we painted... but we needed to go ahead and set up the crib so that measurements could be taken for the bedding that's being made. SOooo... the crib is temporarily in the kitchen! :) HA! But since the kitchen is not currently functional (under construction) it's a good holding place for the crib until we make room for it in Avery's nursery. **This crib is EXTRA special to me because it was previously owned by my sweet cousins, Jennifer & David Mabry, and used for their 3 kiddos... Michael, Gretchen & Margaret. We LOVE the crib, Jen & David!!**

Next weekend we have Collin's family coming to visit! It is always a rare treat when ALL the 6 siblings and spouses are together in the same place and it hasn't happened since November '05 when Collin's sister, Kendra, got married! We are really looking forward to it. Some of them will be staying with us and will be our last visitors in the house with TWO guest bedrooms. Once the weekend's over we'll start the process of changing guest bedroom #2 into the nursery. I will be sad to see my favorite guest bedroom go, but it will be such fun to set it up for Avery to come home to.

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers! Things seem to be rolling along normally which is always a blessing! Now that I'm in my third trimester I will be seeing the doctor every 2 weeks until I hit 36 weeks and start going EVERY week. We're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and we couldn't be more excited!!... We'll keep you posted!

Baby BOOM!

Well, it seems like a landslide of pregnancies! We have so many friends announcing that they're expecting, along with other friends who are about to POP!... what an exciting time!

So far, here's the list of Avery's friends-to-be... yet to be born!

Baby Armstrong (Due NEXT week!)
Julie & Chad Armstrong
Mom and Dad are our Church Friends

Baby Arnold (Due January '07)
Lea & Donny Arnold
Mom was Steph's sorority sister, College roommate & Bridesmaid

Baby Farell (Due February '07)
Lydia & Glen Farell
Dad is Collin's long-time friend and was his Best Man in our wedding

Reid Finley Ferguson (Due September '06)
Jaime & Kyle Ferguson
Dad is Steph's long-time family friend from Austin

Baby Flanagan (Due December '06)
Kelly & Al Flanagan
Mom was Steph's sorority sister

Baby Garthoff (Due January '07)
Allison & Shane Garthoff
Dad was one of Steph's work friends

Baby Holtzman (Due September '06)
Jenifer & Zach Holtzman
Dad is Steph's long-time family friend from Austin and worked with us at Pine Cove

Baby Hook (Due October '06)
Holly & Ben Hook
Mom & Dad are Collin's family friends

Baby Killingsworth (Due March '06)
Kendra & Mark Killingsworth
Mom & Dad are our friends from Church (and long-time friends of Collin's)

Baby Levy (Due August '06)
Amanda & Brett Levy
Dad was Steph's Youth intern at Hyde Park Baptist in Austin

Baby Padgham (Due February '07)
Paige & Bryan Padgham
Dad is Steph's friend from work

Emma Kate Wells (Due August '06)
Katie & Adam Wells
Mom was Steph's sorority sister

*Elizabeth Hope "Ella" Mitchell (Already born, but she totally counts! Born May 10th, 2006)
Andrea & Joe Mitchell
Mom and Dad are our good friends

....And I'm sure there are MORE babies that we don't even know about yet!!.... Lots of little lives to pray over and look forward to! What a blessing to be surrounded by such a great support system! Time to buy stock in diapers!! :)

11 More Weeks!

I am amazed at how quickly this pregnancy has flown by!! I feel like it was only yesterday that I was 11 weeks pregnant, and now I just have 11 weeks remaining! Surreal to say the least. The good thing is that I'm going to have PLENTY to keep me busy during the next few weeks which should cause the time to pass really quickly. (Absolutely no time for sitting around twiddling my thumbs, although all I really want to do is sit and feel those precious feet, knees and elbows moving around and daydream about holding our baby girl!)

We are finally making good progress on the kitchen project! Who knows if it will be completed by the time I go into the hospital or not, but we're moving on it! Cabinets are scheduled to be completed by mid-August and then the trick will be getting everything else to fall into place after that. Hopefully it will be a smooth and seamless project... HA!! Yeah, right. Let's keep our fingers crossed that we have it done by Halloween.

Avery's room is starting to feel a little more like a nursery and less like our 2nd guest bedroom with each weekend we work on it! Still haven't set up the crib yet, but the closets and dresser drawers are organized and decked-out with baby gear and diapers! It's going to be a precious room, since "Grandmommy Ellison" will be custom-making the crib bedding! (Thank the Lord for talented Grandparents who are willing to tackle such projects!) I think it's going to be so special to lay Avery down into a bed that was sewn especially for her with love.

OH! And our office moved locations over the holiday! TBG Partners is now in Mockingbird Station instead of the West End. It was quite a chore to pack up the office and move, but it's really refreshing to be in a pristine new space and to explore new surroundings!

**Next Wednesday I go back in to the doctor and they will run the Glucose test to check for gestational diabetes. Please keep us in your prayers for that.**

Our prayers this week for Avery:
- That she will come to know Christ at an early age (II Tim. 3:15)
- That she will choose early to submit herself to God and resist evil (Psalm 97:10)
- That she will continue to grow strong and that God will strengthen the umbilical cord as her source of nourishment until she is born
- That we get good results from the Glucose test next week
- That God will continue to hold her in His hands... until we get to hold her too!

Much love--
Steph