Best Week Ever!

Hi guys!

Did you watch this show on VH1?  I used to all the time!

Hint:  It's ME!   

I'm so excited that this week is Easter and I am having all of my family over to our new house on Sunday (as in, the family gathering will be there, which I have never hosted, because it's 20 people and we have never had the space before.  I'm so looking forward to it!) Plus the nursery is coming together and it will be looking amazing in time for all my family to see it!  Wheee!!!

As I already told you, we had it painted this week.  It looks amazing!  I can't wait to share pictures, once we get a few more things in place.  But hold on, that's not all.  I called the furniture store and they are going to deliver the nursery furniture and put it together for us today!  I'm so excited, I feel like a little kid on Christmas.  I'm planning on working on the window treatment tonight and seeing if I can knock that out, and maybe the crib skirt too if I have enough fabric.  I really want it to look good for when everyone comes over to visit.  

I will be sharing a tutorial or two of how I made everything too.  So, stay tuned for lots of pictures coming soon! 

Hump Day Bump Day

Here's me at 24 weeks (from late Sunday night when I tiredly told Art: "We never took my 24 week picture!"):

The reason I am wearing flip flops in the picture is because my feet were hurting so much from walking around BRU for 4 hours in cute but un-padded sandals that I refused to put them back on!  (This was before the cold snap that has mysteriously arrived this week, which I am not happy about).

Oh and holy moly!  Has my hair been growing fast lately!  I don't usually cut it that often, but I guess I am going to have to start making a habit of going every 6-8 weeks like the stylists always tell me to.  Add another thing to the never ending to-do list! ;)

25 Weeks! So much to say!

I'm excited to say that we are just chugging right along through the to-do list lately!  Here's an update on where we are:

Home Stuff
-Finish organizing my closet - whoops, I never really got back to this quite yet
-Finish unpacking/decorating the bedroom (since we just moved in December it's still a bit disheveled)
-Unpack/organize/decorate the guest room - to do this week!
-Install IKEA shelves in the office and unpack the rest of the office stuff
-Clean up the formal living/dining room area (currently being used as a storage/furniture building area)
-Organize the craft room
-Finish organizing the baby's bathroom Done!
-Install a utility sink in the laundry room and possibly a counter and shelves

Preparing for the Baby
-Create our baby registry Done!
-Order the crib and dresser Done!
-Order glider
-Get the nursery painted and decorated, with everything set up and organized - In progress!
-Sew crib bedding and window treatment
-Read 1-2 baby care books (Baby 411 and What to Expect: The First Year) - Baby 411 ordered, it will arrive tomorrow.
-Read 1-2 breastfeeding books
-Do 1-2 freezer cooking sessions so that we will have a month's worth of meals on hand and already prepared

Okay, so on this big list it doesn't look as impressive, but I have another handwritten list with smaller to-dos written out and that one is really rocking.  The big things that I am so excited about are that we finally registered at Babies-R-Us this weekend and we are getting the nursery painted this week!  Once the painting is all done I'm hoping that the furniture store will be able to deliver our nursery furniture pretty quickly.  I'm anxious to get the room all put together and start organizing all of our little girl's growing collection of stuff :)  And of course to start on the crib bedding and window treatment.

I'm very relieved to have the registry stuff out of the way.  After spending 4 hours in Babies-R-Us, I don't want to go near that store for a while!!!  I still have a few items that I need to research (like breast pumps) but overall we were able to make a lot of decisions and that feels good.  The biggest one that was probably the toughest was the stroller.  My dear hubby really wanted to get the BOB Revolution, which I secretly was dreading because of how big and heavy it is.  Luckily, I think he realized that we should compromise and we ended up picking out the Baby Jogger City Mini in Sand/Stone:

I'm really excited about it, it seems like a great stroller and it is really easy to fold and unfold.  And the giant sun shade will be indispensable what with living in the Sunshine state.

Moving on to my weekly update...

How far along?: 25 Weeks, only 105 days to go!

How big is baby?:   Your baby is the size of a cauliflower! She weighs about 1.8 lbs and and measures 13.5 inches.  She's beginning to exchange her long, lean look for some baby fat. As she does, her wrinkled skin will begin to smooth out and she'll start to look more and more like a newborn. She's also growing more hair — and if you could see it, you'd now be able to discern its color and texture.

Any appointments or updates this week?: No appointments, but I do have an update: last night I swear I felt her hiccuping!  It felt like little twitches that were very consistent for about a minute or two and then stopped. 

Body changes?:  The bump is still getting bigger, and I've officially outgrown my favorite bra.  Maybe one day it will fit again?

Maternity clothes?:  Ohhh yeah!

Best moment last week?: Getting our registry all set up.  As tiring as it was, it was a really special milestone and I'm so glad that we could do it together.

Food cravings?: A strawberry cream pie from McDonalds.  Someone was raving how good they were and I just *had* to try one.  Yep, they are delicious (although probably terrible for you).  Also, yogurt covered pretzels!

Symptoms?: Leg cramps at night and feeling extra sensitive/crying easily!

Exercise?: I definitely think that walking around BRU for 4 hours counts.  My legs and feet were sooo sore afterwards!

What I miss?:  Nothing.

What I'm looking forward to?: Seeing the nursery all put together...I can't wait!

What our little girl looks like this week:

Belated HDBD

I know it's not Hump Day so we can't do Hump Day Bump Day, but Thursday Bump Day just doesn't sound cool!

Anyway, here is my 23 weeks picture from over the weekend:

The green was of course to celebrate St. Patrick's Day!  It's one of the wonderful maternity pieces that my sweet sister-in-law sent me.  It's so nice having more things in my wardrobe now that all my regular stuff doesn't fit.

Have a great day, everyone!

Nursery Update!

So if you remember a while back I was asking for opinions about fabric to use in our nursery.  Well, I don't think I ever updated about this, but we made a decision!  

The winning fabric is...Madison Gate in Baby Pink!

The winner and also Art's favorite

We both loved the pink and green and the fact that it was a very pretty, traditional pattern that would go perfectly with the dark wood baby furniture we picked out.

So now that the fabric is picked, it's time for the fun part...picking out paint colors!  I happen to work for a paint company, so I am lucky to have access to a bunch of color tools like a big fan deck that shows every color that we have (so I don't have to stand in front of the color display in the store for an hour).  

So I went through all of the pinks and the greens, trying to see which ones fit best...

I ended up with these options.  I was using the paper clips to mark which colors I liked best.

The pink in the middle was more of a coral color almost, and the one on the right was a true baby pink.  I showed them all to Art and he broke the tie: baby pink it is!

I love that the paint color is called Sacred! 

Originally we were just planning on painting the room all one color, but I saw a picture that I just fell in love with:

Copyright: Mike and Ann Buoy Photography, http://www.mikebuoy.com

I think it would look adorable to do the baby's nursery like this, but with pink on top and pink and green on the bottom.  But...this is all a little more than we want to take on.  So step 2 is hiring someone to come put it all together!  That's what I'm working on at the moment.  I hope I can get it done before the nursery furniture is delivered.  

What do you think?

24 Weeks - V-Day!

I'm so excited to share another milestone!  Today is V-Day!  For those of you who might not be familiar with it, V-Day stands for Viability Day, because at 24 weeks pregnant the baby's chance of survival dramatically jumps if he or she were delivered early.  Of course, I am still praying that this baby stays put for the next 16 weeks but it is still wonderful to know that if for some reason I had to deliver early there is a good chance my baby would survive.

How far along?: 24 Weeks

How big is baby?:   Your baby is the size of a canteloupe!  Your baby's growing steadily, having gained about 4 ounces since last week. That puts her at just over a pound. Since she's almost a foot long, she cuts a pretty lean figure at this point, 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 lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help her air sacs inflate once she hits the outside world. Her skin is still thin and translucent, but that will start to change soon.

Any appointments or updates this week?:  I had another appointment yesterday, just a standard pee-in-a-cup, get your blood pressure checked and check baby's heart rate check up.  I'm thankful that the doctor reviewed my anatomy scan results and couldn't find anything wrong.  I talked to him about my leg numbness and he said it just comes with the territory but his medical student suggested doing some stretches, so I am going to give those a try.  They also said not to sit for too long, because the numbness is coming from the nerves getting compressed. 

Body changes?:  Still getting a little bigger!  I've gained a little bit of weight but I think I'm wearing it pretty well :) 

Maternity clothes?:  Yep!  All day, every day!  I got some great deals over the weekend at Babies-R-Us, 2 shirts for $5 each and two pajama sets for $7.50 each!  (The pj's are nursing pj's.)

Best moment last week?: Getting to actually SEE the baby kicking me from the outside.  It was so surreal!  She hasn't done it much lately though.  

Food cravings?: Last Friday I had the biggest craving for a calzone!  So add that to the list.  Otherwise still just sweets. 

Symptoms?:  Pretty much just all of the usual. 

Exercise?: Art and I went for a walk last night and I went for another short walk today after work.  I'm going to try to walk every day so that I can be in shape for labor and delivery.  I used to think that walking was boring and not intense enough but now I know I just need to be doing something, anything.  I want to start swimming soon now that it's warming up too. 

What I miss?:  Not a thing!  

What I'm looking forward to?:  Decorating the nursery, get the furniture and finishing our baby registry.  

What our little girl looks like this week:

A Week of Firsts!

The past couple days have been so much fun, I just have to share what has been going on with me. 

Yesterday, I was sitting at my desk in the afternoon and I felt Sweet Pea kick me pretty hard.  I looked down and to my surprise I could see my belly moving!  It was the coolest thing, I couldn't believe that she is now big enough to be moving my outsides AND my insides around. 

Another not-so-cool first was discovered yesterday too:  I have cankles!  Maybe I just haven't noticed because I've been wearing pants a lot in this cooler weather but I was wearing a dress and it was all too apparent that my calves were merging right into my feet :(  I know this is a normal part of pregnancy but I was really hoping it wouldn't happen until at least the third trimester, especially with spring and summer coming up.

Luckily the first first greatly outweighed the second first and really made my day.  I don't really care what I look like right now; I'm having a baby!  And that is just such a blessing.

My last first, that I discovered today:  when I stand up straight and look down I can't see my feet any more!  Isn't that crazy? 

I hope everyone is having a great day!