Nursery

It's getting to be time to start the best part of pregnancy: nursery decorating! Originally I had wanted to do a black, white and teal room. I didn't want anything too girly or pink. I've never been too much of a girly-girl, and didn't want my house to explode with pink because we were having a girl. I found some adorable black and white damask patterns that I was going to incorporate into the room, and teal/turquoise was going to be the accent color. Last weekend my mom and I paid a visit to The Baby Guy and man did he live up to my expectations! He had so much adorable stuff to choose from. I found perfect damask fabric for the crib bedding, but didn't love the teal choices. They all looked too boyish to me, even with a girly damask pattern. J and I talked it over and decided that a little pink wouldn’t kill us. We ended up designing adorable custom bedding-black and white damask bumper, with pink, damask, and polka-dot accents. The bedding I designed is a combo of the two below. It will have pink accents like the picture below. The skirt will look like this one, but reversed. The main pattern will be damask with the smaller trim being polka dot.

And the damask pattern like this pic. The difference is there will be soft pink in place of the blue, and no satin ruffle trim along the border.

I can't wait to see the finished product. It's always been hard for me to picture how designs will turn out without any visuals, but I know this will be adorable. We also plan to to wainscoting 1/2 way up the walls, and paint the top half a soft pink similar to the picture above.

As far as furniture, we know we want black. It will look great with the color scheme, and will work if we have a boy in the future. It's actually pretty hard to find nursery sets in black. Most sets we loved are only offered in white or brown/espresso. We picked some we liked at Bergstrom, but we haven't made any final decisions yet.

We sold all of our guest room furniture, so as soon as that's picked up we can get started. I'll be sure to take before and after pics of the whole process.

Wish us luck!

Week 20-Half Way Baby!

I've made it to the half way point! I feel like this pregnancy is flying by! I am finally feeling wonderful, and I love it. No more sickness or nausea, and my energy levels are back (although I still fall asleep early every night despite my best efforts to keep my hub company). It's been awesome to feel like myself again...I hope this lasts! About two weeks ago, I felt the baby move for the first time. Now I can feel it all day long. It's really cool. I still haven't had any specific cravings, except for Thanksgiving and Christmas food, but that happens to me every year around this time. Here's a little survey with more updates:

How far along?: 20 Weeks!

Total Weight Gain/Loss: None to date...I lost a few pounds in the beginning, and have put one or two of them back on, but I'm still right around my pre-prego weight. I'm sure that will change now that I'm feeling better, tho : /

Maternity Clothes?: Yes! I had to go buy a new pair of pants because most of my jeans are getting too uncomfortable. I tried a paid of maternity jeans on and they were like heaven! I am still wearing all my normal tops for now...

Sleep: Pretty good. I wake up a lot through the night, but that's more to do with my cat jumping on my head and less to do with the bambino.

Best moment this week: NOT throwing up at all! A week is the longest I've made it since I found out I was pregnant, so that is definitely the highlight of my week!

Movement: Yes! I can feel little kicks and punches. I can always feel her right after I eat, and then at night when I'm sitting still on the couch.

Food Cravings: Nothing specific, although I have a real sweet tooth lately. And that's strange for me because I really don't eat sweets. I'm usually a salty and savory kinda gal.

Gender: Still a girl

Labor Signs: Nope!

Belly Button in or out?: In, but it's less deep than it was, which means it's on it's way out...eeek!

What I miss: Sushi, big time. Also, I've missed working out. I've turned into a hibernating slug over the past 5 months, but now that I am feeling better I'm stepping back out into the exercise world!

What I am looking forward to: My "nesting" urge to kick in (see "hibernating slug" above). I am seriously dreading getting the baby's room ready. It's currently our spare room, so that means we have to clear out all the furniture in there and figure out what to do with it. The closet in that room also currently serves as my "overflow" closet, and it's full of excess clothes and other crap that I didn't find a place for when I bought this place about five years ago. Needless to say, it is going to be a project. But I will be happy when we finally bite the bullet and get it done.

Weekly Wisdom: Now that I'm not tossing my cookies all day long, I need to cut out the cookies-literally. I haven't been really worried about weight gain too much since I haven't been able to eat much. It's tough to pack on the pounds when you only keep 1/3 of your meals in your belly. But, now that I'm better I need to start monitoring my intake-especially with the holidays around the corner!

Milestone: Feeling her move, picking out nursery furniture