nursery

The nursery is finally complete! Well, for the most part.  There are little things that need to be added here and there, but it's pretty much done and ready for baby boy!  We LOVE how it turned out! Honestly, I had absolutely no vision until we started piecing it all together.  I was getting so stressed looking at nursery ideas on Pinterest and trying to figure out how they did it, that I ended up just simplifying what I thought I wanted.  I envisioned his room being cozy and fresh and I think we nailed it!

When people asked me what I was doing for his room I would list the couple things I knew I wanted:

-grey walls

-white furniture

-fur rug (so random, but this was literally the first thing I knew I wanted for his room)

-awesome light fixture

-neutral colors (grey, white, tan, brown) with a pop of color somehow (probably from a quilt my mom was going to make)

So we went from there!  I knew I wanted to make a trip to IKEA to look for a dresser and the light fixture.  Matt's mom bought us his crib and I just wanted something white and simple and convertible (which pretty much all of them are now it seems like).  I figured everything else would just come together.  SO not like me!

We actually found our comfy recliner before any of the other furniture.  We came across an awesome deal at a furniture store by our house and couldn't pass it up! It is such a comfy chair.  They only had it in this color which wasn't exactly what I had imagined, but it ended up working well!

My mom and I went to Joann Fabric one night and spent entirely too long looking at quilt patterns and fabric.  My mom is amazingly talented and crafty, but she had never made a quilt before.  We eventually found a pattern we liked that she felt like she could whip up and then we started stacking piles of fabric on the cart to decide.  It took forever.  We were so back and forth and then I randomly saw these couple things of fabric and they just jumped out at me.  We decided to do grey, teal, and a limey chartreuse green.  Not only did we get that fabric for the quilt, but we also got extra and other patterns that matched for pillows, little quilted animals, the bedskirt (which ALL were made by my mom.  It means so much for all of those little accents to have been made by her. I love that she handmade all of it and we get to see it every time we walk in his room...which is a lot).  She started working right away and got it all done in no time at all.  For a first-time quilter, I'd say she did a pretty dang good job!

Little knit dog made by my friend Ashley

For the walls, we used the same grey color that we used in our living room and master bedroom.  It's my favorite wall color in the house (close second is the purple in the laundry room :) ) so I went with it because I knew it worked.  (Is that lazy?) We made our trip to IKEA at the beginning of December.  We got his dresser (which is awesome! it's so solid and sturdy and the perfect color.  We decided to use the dresser top as a changing station instead of buying a specific changing table), light fixture (it took me about 27 years to finally decide on this one.  It was my favorite one by far that I had seen, but I was worried it wouldn't put out enough light), lamp (which helps tremendously with the low lighting issue!), storage cube (in the corner of his room), and some little accent pieces.  

We spent a weekend putting everything together.  Ok, I take that back.  Not we.  I was there for moral support and to put a couple pieces together, but Matt basically did it all.  I know he's thankful it's all done now so I don't have anything to nag him about :).   He is incredible.  He is always incredible, but watching him put together all of the baby's furniture was just crazy.  He worked so hard to make the room what we wanted and it turned out much better than I ever even imagined!

I found a storage cube at Target that would fit perfectly in the closet.  Matt took down the old closet fixtures and the door and put in a new closet rack.  I knew his little clothes wouldn't hang down very far so to not waste space I thought the cube would work perfectly! And we can use that storage for the loads of baby stuff :). We hung some curtains to cover instead of a door.  Both of the curtains are a light linen/burlap looking material.

Next was the hanging the stuff on the walls.  Matt's least favorite pastime.  It was like pulling teeth to get him to hang things.  We actually JUST finished hanging stuff late last night after much begging :).  I made a little gallery wall with frames and mirrors for above his bed.  We used prints from our maternity session with my friend Jamie, extra fabric from his quilt and other little pieces, and a Dave Matthews Band lyric.  Matt and I are huge DMB fans.  We've been listening to his music since our very first date. It was only suitable for our son to have my favorite Dave lyric in his room :).  

I knew I needed some sort of object to hold his diapers on his changing table.  I looked all over for some caddy that would work, but nothing seemed to jive.  I had bought this teal crate at Home Goods and planned on using it on the floor to store his blankets in, but one day I randomly set it up on top of the dresser and realized I could totally use it for diaper and other essentials.  It works!

Love the little Harley.  I found that stashed away in one of our drawers and thought it'd be perfect to set up on his shelves. The shelves aren't really finished yet.  I still have some work to do to decide what's actually going to go up there.

I think the fur rug is a hit :)

Now we just need the little guy to get here so we can show him the new digs!

baby showers

It's overwhelming to see how many people love and care for us and this baby already.  I've been to many a baby shower, but being at my own was surreal.  I got so excited for every single person who walked in the door.  So fun!

My first shower was thrown by my co-workers.  The theme was "Candyland" so everything was super colorful and cute.  Donna, Amber, and Kendall did a fantastic job with the planning, it was so fun!  About 18-20 girls from work were signed up to come, but the huge snowstorm we got a couple days prior made the roads not so great for some of them to come :(.  We still had a great turnout though!

Some girls brought their babies and it was so fun to hang out with everyone outside of work.  I seriously work with the best girls!  A bunch of girls went in on a "group gift" for me and then people brought other gifts for baby boy.  It was so sweet!  Such a great day!

Self timer at it's finest :)

Hostesses with the mostest

This past weekend were my two family/friends showers.  It was crazy that it was actually time for them already.  I remember my family throwing out dates for the showers and it seeming so far away.  I remember thinking "I'll be 34 weeks at my showers and that will be so crazy because he will be here so soon after that!".  6 weeks to go and I'm definitely feeling the crunch that I had prepared to feel to get ready for him.

On Saturday, my mother-in-law and Matt's cousin threw a baby shower for that side of the family!  There were a ton of people there! Of course, it started snowing the minute the shower started so a couple people had to leave early to be able to get home before it got bad.  We had some awesome food (mini fruit pizzas! yum!) and hung out before we opened gifts.  Matt's cousin made a really cute game where she emailed Matt a list of questions (anything from "how many diapers does a baby go through in one day?" to "what is one trait you want your son to get from Jamie/from you?"), he answered, and then every time I opened someone's gift she handed them a question and they asked me.  It was so funny to hear my answers as compared to Matt's answers.  Some of his answers were pretty comical ("how old are babies when they stop needing to take naps?" "silly question...I still need a nap!").  We spent the rest of that night hanging out and playing cards with Matt's family who had traveled in.  What a great day!  

homemade burp cloths from Samantha

homemade Boston Terrier hat from my mom!

awesome motorcycle diaper cake from Matt's mom!

don't mind the repeat outfit from my work shower :)

On Sunday was my baby shower for my side of the family and my friends.  My Aunt Janice and Grandma Mary threw this one.  Everything was perfect! You could totally tell they put so much time and effort (and love!) into every little thing.  The details and colors were adorable!  Just like the other showers, everytime someone walked in the door I got SO excited! It just meant so much that people came.  I loved having everyone together, I didn't want the day to end!

We had fruit and yummy cupcakes before we started the games.  We did a cute little quiz and a word scramble and then we did the game where you guess by a piece of string to measure how big my bump is.  Pretty much everyone measured way too big, but my mom got it within a 1/2 inch!  Then, we went to the gifts.  Once again, I was overwhelmed by the generosity of our family and friends.

What a fantastic weekend! We definitely feel the love from everyone :) Love you all!

weeks 32-34

week 32

32 weeks and -32 degrees wind chill...we are in the middle of a crazy winter storm.  We got 11 inches of snow on Sunday and the temps started dropping that night and will continue through Monday and Tuesday.  We had -30 to -40 degrees wind chill! Of course, our furnace isn't in top working order-we are waiting on parts so Matt can fix a couple things so we turned it way down and are using space heaters to stay warm.  There are a ton of people without power and we were lucky enough to make it through with only a minor power surge...be careful with blow drying your hair while running a space heater :).  Matt shoveled 3 times those couple days.  I can't say I mind not being out in that weather and shoveling, but I do wish I could help him so he wasn't out there so long doing all the work.  We are trickling water so our pipes don't freeze.  I don't remember the last time we had to do all of this!  We just stayed inside Sunday and Monday (luckily we were both off work!) and hibernated :).  It was awesome to be snowed in with my favorite person.

With all of that crazy weather, it was a solid 2 weeks by the time I could get back to teaching/taking BodyPump.  I was super nervous to get back at it at months pregnant.  That first class back on Thursday was brutal.  I think every muscle in my body was sore those next couple days.  But it was so good to be back at it!  I am still using close to my normal weight-definitely lighter in squats and not using the bar on my back for lunges but I haven't had to go down too too much which is great! I just listen to how my body is feeling and don't over-do it.  Hopefully I'll have an easier time getting back at it after I have him since I've tried to keep up with it.  I think staying active and continuing to teach my class/work out has really contributed to how great I've felt throughout this pregnancy.  I have aches and pains here and there (mostly hips and back), but I really can't complain because I know people can have it so much worse.  I've started sleeping with a humidifier in the room and it's really helped with the nasal stuffiness and waking up with a sore throat.  Still having Braxton Hicks contractions.  I had one in the middle of the night that hurt a little bit, but once it went away it didn't hurt again.  My belly continues to pop out there and my poor belly button is so over the stretching.  The little space between my old belly button piercing and my naval is stretching and looks pink and annoyed.  Don't get too upset-we still have 8 weeks to go! Baby is still super active and he feels so big in there when he moves now! Big waves and rolls now instead of little kicks.

I had my work baby shower!   It was so fun.  I am so blessed to work with such amazing people.  The theme was "Candyland" so it was super colorful and cute.  About 18-20 girls were signed up to come, but because of the snowstorm the roads were still bad for some of them so a couple couldn't come.  A lot of girls chipped in and got us a group gift! It was so thoughtful.  Knowing that I work with people who are so generous and care so much about me means so much!  This baby is so loved already!

Baby is the size of a squash this week weighing in at 3 3/4 lbs and 16-17 inches long!

week 33

I'm not sure what happened, but 33 weeks feels so much different from 32!  Cue the next panic attack.  32 weeks was "woah 32 weeks! getting closer but still have some time" while 33 weeks is "holy crap, this baby could come in 4 weeks and be full-term!".  I am starting to wrap my brain around this baby actually being here, it's a crazy feeling! Of course I am SO excited for him to be here but I hope in the coming weeks I feel like everything is just starting to come together. I wonder when he will decide to come...early? late? on time?  

Everything is still going well! Getting bigger by the minute it feels like.  Sitting on the couch in the evenings is getting more uncomfortable.  I feel like everything is pushing up into my ribcage and making it harder to breathe-especially his head/butt!  We are definitely to the "rolling out of bed" stage. If Matt isn't awake to help push me out of bed (no kidding...he totally helps push me out of bed or off the couch-it's hilarious) I log-roll out.  Abs are completely gone.  It's getting painful to lay completely on my side at night-my belly just feels too heavy and unsupported even though I have tons of pillows-so I mostly sleep on my back with a hip propped up.

We had our appointment this week just for a normal check-up, but also for an ultrasound to find out his positioning and growth in there.  Sure enough-little man is breech! I had a pretty strong feeling that was the case.  When I had mentioned the possibility of it at a previous appointment and then when my doctor felt around and thought his head was up top I started preparing myself for him being breech.  So I can't say I was too shocked at the news from the ultrasound tech.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't the slightest bit sad to hear he's breech.  Just a little disappointing I guess because if he decides to stay that way we'd have to have a c-section.  That whole rest of the day I was a little upset just thinking about him staying that way, but by the next day I was mostly over it.  I can't really do much about the way he's positioned in there (and heck NO we are not doing the external version to try and turn him) so if he is meant to be sitting in there that way then so be it! We talked about all the stuff out there people tell you to do to flip your baby and we decided we aren't doing anything invasive or risky.  We are just going to let nature take its course and he's still got time to flip!  We're ok with doing the silly things like laying in different positions, putting something cold on top and warm on bottom, and possibly even the chiropractor.  We will have another ultrasound at 36 weeks to double check again.

Everything else checked out ok!  Baby measured 33+4 wks on ultrasound at 33+1 wks and they estimated him at 5 lbs 2 oz already! That puts him in the 75th percentile for weight and the doctor said that puts him on track to be in the 8 lb range at birth.  I have been completely preparing for an 8-9 lb baby this whole entire time so I wouldn't be surprised if he gets up there by the time he arrives.  Maybe I should go return even more newborn sized clothing :).  Baby HR was 156 and he was moving all around in there. BP was good and weight up another 3 lbs which puts us at a total of 21.5 lbs for the pregnancy so far.  

Baby is the size of a durian fruit (what the heck is that?!) weighing in at a little over 4 lbs (well, he's technically bigger than this :) ) and 17 inches long!

week 34

And it has officially set in-he is going to be here so soon!  I feel like the countdown is on-every week just gets closer and closer.  I can't believe only 3 weeks until he is considered full term and only 6 weeks until our due date! I'm so curious to see when he will decide to come.  This past weekend we had our baby showers! (I'll do a totally separate post with all the pictures too on those soon!)  We are just so overwhelmed by the love and generosity of our family and friends.  I knew we had amazing people in our lives, but they all proved it once again.  Just having the people we love there to celebrate this baby meant the world!  Both showers were so much fun.  I didn't want them to end! Baby Boy got tons of stuff!  My mom gave us all of the special things she's been making for the baby and it meant so much.  She is so incredibly talented and I love that she is making a lot of his stuff for him room, it means so much. I can't wait to go through everything from the showers and put it in its place in his room and start to wash his clothes!  We are just so thankful!

We ended up getting 5 inches of snow Saturday night which made for a great background for our maternity pictures on Sunday morning! My friend, Jamie, and we ventured out to some trails by the Wildcat Creek to take some maternity pictures.  It was beautiful out there.  It was super cold though and a little windy.  We kept randomly getting pelted with clumps of snowing getting blown off the trees.  I'm so excited to see how they turned out!

34 weeks brought a really sore hip flexor :(.  I was thinking it was hip pain again at first, but I think I must've pulled my hip flexor or maybe it's just stretching.  I'm sure trudging through the snow on Sunday didn't help.  By Sunday night, I was in a ton of pain and could not get comfortable in bed.  I couldn't move or lift my left leg on my own, I had to grab it and move it when I wanted to switch positions.  I was hoping sleep would make it feel better, but when I woke up and was still in a lot of pain I texted another instructor and had her sub my class for me.  I absolutely hated not being there to teach, but I knew working out would just aggravate it and make it worse.  I'm hoping rest makes it feel better, if not I may have to pay a visit to the chiropractor again.  Other than that, feeling pretty good. No swelling yet so that's good.  Little man is still enjoying shoving his head up into my ribcage and punching me on my right side all day long.  He is wild!  Sometimes I think he's trying to escape or that he's standing completely straight up in there.  He will shove his head up and out and then go crazy with his arms and legs.  Sometimes enough to make me say "ugh!" or "Ouch kid!". His movements are so big now and I can tell he's a big kid in there!  Still hiccups at least once every single day, still cute and hilarious :).  I'm over going to the grocery store.  This big old basketball belly just makes carrying all those bags in and putting it all away extra difficult and unenjoyable.  Too bad I don't have a personal shopper to do it for me :).  Definitely still think he's breech-no flipping yet.  We are still on the same page as far as doing nothing invasive or risky to turn him.  We just want him safe!

I guess 34 weeks was the turning point of teaching me to take it easy and slow down with this pregnancy.  First the hip and then on Wednesday I had to leave work early for high blood pressure.  I had a busy day on Tuesday at work and didn't get a whole lot of sleep that night.  On Wednesday I woke up feeling "off".  As I got ready for work, I realized I had a dull headache, was dizzy, and had weird (which I know realize was blurry) vision.  I chalked it up to not getting enough sleep.  As I was driving to work I noticed that I just couldn't see very well, but once again just thought it was because I was tired.  I got to work and saw they had me admitting a 34 weeker at 10 am.  I was hoping once I got working I'd feel better. But I didn't.  Around 8:30 I made my way down to triage to just have them check my blood pressure to see if that was the culprit, basically process of elimination.  Sure enough, it was high. 158/91.  Pretty super high for me.  The triage nurse said that my doctor was actually the one getting ready to do the 10 o clock c section I was supposed to go on and she would give her a heads up that I had come to triage.  She told me if it didn't come down I should probably be admitted.  I went back upstairs still feeling like crap and told the TL.  I laid on my left side in the break room and drank water and had her go find a blood pressure machine from another unit so I didn't have to go back down and be admitted if I didn't have to.  I called Matt and told him what was going on.  I was hoping if I rested for a minute, it would come down and I'd be fine to keep working-pretty sure I was the only one with that thought process. One of my co-workers came in (who also works labor and delivery/high-risk) and talked with me about my symptoms.  Her response was "This is no 'I'm going to sit on the couch and see if I feel better thing'.  This could be way more serious and you are going to call your doctor right now."  So I called the office and they had me come in (luckily it's right across the street from the hospital).  I went over and got checked out right away. BP was down to 132/80-still not great but down from before and I didn't have any protein in my urine.  Baby looked ok and everything checked out ok so he had me get labwork and told me to go home and rest and call back if I had more symptoms.  I got home before Matt left for work.  He gave me strict orders to stay in bed, rest, and not think about anything but resting and tucked me in.  Luckily, I had a good cuddle buddy in the form of a snuggly Boston Terrier who didn't mind staying in bed all afternoon :).  I laid there for a couple hours and took a solid 3 hour nap.  I rechecked my BP when I woke up and it was still a little high at 134/90.  This baby is going to give us a heart attack and we still have 6 weeks left!  Hoping it was all just a fluke and it doesn't happen again!  

Baby is the size of a butternut squash weighing in at 4 3/4 lbs and 18 inches long!

34 big ones!

weeks 29-31

week 29

Last week in the 20's! This pregnancy is flying by.  I am still loving every second of growing this little boy.  I'm still feeling great-besides being anxious about just about everything.  Having the holidays around the end of a pregnancy probably doesn't help to be getting everything done.  Baby Boy is still as active as ever-I love that he moves so much!  Some extremity goes wild on the top of my belly and I see him poke body parts out every now and then.  He is still hiccuping all the time.  Usually at least once a day, sometimes a couple different times per day.  It always makes me giggle.

We had our newborn/childbirth/breastfeeding class this past weekend.  It was great! We had gotten a lot of snow the night before so we got started a little bit late while couples kept trickling in, but we still got all the info.  I learned a lot and I know Matt did too.  I have no doubt he will be an awesome support person for labor and the best dad ever once he gets here.  I'm still anxious thinking about labor/delivery/breastfeeding and how all that will go, but I know I can't control too much of all that and we will just ride it out however it happens!  

We had our doctor's appointment this week and all was well.  I saw a different doctor today (we decided that for these every two week appointments we would try and meet a couple different doctors just in case one of them delivers us and then we will go back to my doctor for the last few appointments) and while I loved him, I was not too happy with his nurse.  She was in such a hurry, barely let the scale beep my weight before she wrote something down and walked away, and took my blood pressure in 1.5 seconds before she walked out.  On her way out, I asked what it was and her response was "its high...140/100...he might retake it".  And she was gone.  The doctor ended up retaking it and it was totally fine (much lower).  I had gained another 2 lbs since last appointment which is a total gain of 16.5 lbs so far.  Baby's heart rate was 144 and we measured right at 29 weeks.  I also got my Tdap shot.

Baby is the size of an acorn squash weighing in at 2.5-3 lbs and 15-16 inches long!

week 30

Rolling into the 30's during Christmas week!  Crazy to think he will be with us next Christmas!  30 weeks seems like a huge milestone to me.  We're in the home stretch now!  I have a feeling these next 10 weeks (or so) are going to fly.  

He has been pushing his butt (or head...some big round lump) up and making a huge hard lump at the top of my belly, usually on the top right side or top middle.  If I push at it, he would push it back out at me and then kick around.   Its cool because I can put my fingers around it and see the shape and how big it is.  I hope it's his butt, because I would feel a little bit bad if I had been pushing on his head this whole time.  His movement has gotten a little different, you can tell he's running out of room in there.  It's mostly him sticking body parts out (butt, head, legs, feet, arms) and big squirms and rolls, and occasional big kicks instead of the constant little kicks all the time. There are times he still goes crazy in there like he's dancing or something :).  I'd love to know how much he actually weighs because he feels so big in there!  Its fun to be able to feel him moving all the way down and all the way at the top or on all sides at the same time.  He still gets hiccups ALL the time.  Today at work, I was holding a baby and once I put her up on my chest, he kept moving and kicking me.  I think he was getting jealous! ;)  Matt got his room cut in with paint this week and hopefully we can get the rest done this coming weekend.  My friend Jamie took some maternity pictures today and she is going to take some more in a couple weeks with Matt and I.  I'm so excited to see them! She is so talented and I'm so thankful she is taking them for us!

Baby is the size of a cucumber weighing in at 3 lbs and 16 inches long!

week 31

It's the last day of 2013! What a roller coaster year it has been.  I'll never forget the feeling of finding out I was pregnant, telling Matt, and then seeing that little heart beat flicker on ultrasound.  This has been the best experience ever and we are so grateful.  2014 is going to be the best year yet and we are so excited!

Matt is amazing.  He got the nursery pretty much completed this past weekend!  I am shocked at how quickly it all came together and how awesome it already looks. On Saturday, he got everything painted (except the closet since he ran out of paint...we were so close!), put together the crib and storage cube thingy from Ikea, and then we put up the light fixture and lamp.  On Sunday, he got the dresser all put together and hung the blinds and curtains. I cleaned the window in the room and the baseboards and vacuumed everything once we were done.  We laid down the two rugs we are trying to decide between and put everything in its place.  I LOVE how it all turned out! It is absolutely perfect and way better than I ever imagined.  We walked into the room and just sat there multiple times this weekend just looking around and talking about him being here.  We've been peeking in there all week :).  So all we have left to do is finish the closet (paint, new shelving, storage cube), hang stuff on the walls, and can just add in the things we get from our shower and have a place to put it.

I've still been feeling good.  A little tired here and there-but nothing a nap can't fix, legs/feet/hips/low back are a little achy after I run around a lot all day, cardio classes continue to get harder (I'm officially done with BodyCombat), and I'm still having plentiful Braxton-Hicks contractions.  I did a BodyFlow (yoga, tai chi, pilates) DVD this morning and it was great!  Yes, it was a little humorous to be doing yoga with a big belly in the way, but it felt so good to relax and stretch.    

I started thinking his movements were getting even more different (to the point of me wondering if he's in a total different position than normal) so I let the doctor know at our appointment.  We saw another different doctor and we loved her too!  After she felt around, she was thinking he might be breech in there.  She scheduled us for an ultrasound before our next appointment just to check positioning and growth. It's not worrisome quite yet if he does happen to be breech, he can flip all the time in there and isn't really settled into his "position" until closer to term/due date.  I'm excited for another ultrasound to see what he looks like-he will be so much bigger than the previous one which will have been 14 weeks ago and I'm excited to see how he's measuring (probably big :) ) and position.  I can't help but get a little anxious about him being breech and having to have a c-section because of it.  I guess we will deal with that once it gets here and honestly, all I want is a healthy baby and whatever way he has to come out will be fine by me.  I obviously would never wish or choose to have a c-section, but we will gladly do it if he stays breech.  Everything else at our appointment checked out well.  Weight up another 2 lbs which makes the total 18.5 lbs so far.  Blood pressure was good, baby heart rate 160, and measured right on at 31 weeks.

Baby is the size of a pineapple this week weighing in at 3 1/3 lb and 16 inches long!