Christmas 2011

This last week has been a bit crazy. Our Christmas celebrations began the Monday before Christmas with my annual dinner with my girlfriends. It was a great night, and since most of us have little ones, or little ones on the way, it was filled with adorable little outfits, headbands, and bows. I've said this before, but I cannot believe I was possibly ever disappointed that this babe was a girl. The baby girl things are so cute I can't stand it! Tue night John had his friends over, and let's just say that that night prepared me for what taking care of a newborn will be like. I was up and down all night trying to quiet them down. Wed was a bit of an unexpected adventure. John and I were both pretty exhausted from the night before, and I couldn't wait to get home from work and go to bed. Well, instead of napping on the couch, we got to head to St Jude Labor and Delivery for a practice round. I had some bleeding and was admitted to L&D where we spent the next 5 hours. Everything with baby was perfectly fine, but I was given the orders to be on light bed rest due to the bleeding and some contractions that I was having while in L&D. This meant that we had to cancel our plans to go to the Mission Inn for dinner/Christmas lights the next evening, which was really disappointing-especially since I made those damn dinner reservations in September. Next year, I suppose...we also had to cancel our Yosemite trip planned for this week. We don't want to chance anything by being too far away from the hospital.

On Christmas Eve, John and I relaxed around the house and watched x-mas movies. We exchange our gifts on xmas eve since xmas day is pretty jammed packed. I have to say I was quite spoiled. My main gift was having stones added to my wedding band. It's driven me crazy that when my wedding band turns, the plain band shows and not the stones (petty, I know!), so John took it back to our jeweler and had the diamonds completed around the band. I love it and am one lucky lady. In addition to that, I got a few outfits (that I can't wait to fit into, post baby) and some funny stocking stuffers. X-mas morning was spent at the inlaws. We had breakfast and did a gift exchange, then headed to my parents for presents and dinner prep. I wasn't much help since I was couch-bound, but it was a nice relaxing day. That evening, John's fam joined us for Christmas dinner, and as usual, we stuffed ourselves to the brim with delicious turkey, ham, stuffing, potatoes, and more. Baby fared quite well this Christmas. She got more gifts than anyone and she's not even here yet.

Here's a look at some of the loot from x-mas day:

New Front Loaders! Aren't they glorious?! Our washer/dryer was about 15 years old and on its way out. We would have to dry our clothes for 2-3 dry cycles just to get them damp. Needless to say, with all the laundry in our future, it was time to upgrade. Thanks Mom and Dad!!

New goose down comforter!

Uggs for the whole fam! It's not Christmas day without a new pair of Uggs, and this time, we all got a piece of the action.

Mama's Uggs:

Dad's Uggs:

Baby's Uggs:

Funny story about babe's uggs. We actually got two of the exact same pairs, one from each grandma. But, one grandma did her holiday shopping much earlier than the other. 5 years earlier to be exact. Every Easter, the Hall's have an egg hunt. My MIL and FIL hide plastic eggs all over the house. Some eggs are filled with candy, some with $1 bills, some with $5, some with $10, $20, and the "Big Kahuna" egg has a whopping 100 smacks for the lucky person who finds it. The hunt gets very competitive, and the hiding places are pretty extreme. One year J found it taped to the underside of the toilet tank lid. Anyway, while searching for the Big Kahuna on Easter Sunday about 5 years ago, John and I stumbled upon a little box. Inside the little box was an infant pair of pink Ugg boots. When John asked his mom why she had a pair of baby Uggs in the closet, she answered that Nordstrom delivered them to her mistakenly and she needed to return them. John joked with me later on that she probably bought them for her future grandkid, but I thought that was crazy since none of us were going to be getting married any time soon, let alone having babies. Well, sure enough, on Christmas morning we opened a familiar package. My MIL admitted that she bought those for her first girl grandchild, and had to wait 5 years to be able to gift them. Talk about getting xmas shopping done early! So, now this little girl has not only 1, but two pairs of uggs waiting for her little feet to grow into.

And speaking of Baby Girl, here are some recent pics taken @ 31 weeks exactly. Only 9 weeks to go (plus or minus a few)! I had a doc appt yesterday, and they scheduled the rest of my visits up through my due date. I only have 6 more appts until D-Day. Craziness!!

2 Down, 1 To Go!

How far along?: 28 Weeks-3rd Trimester Baby!

Total Weight Gain/Loss: +9 lbs. Waaaaa, but I suppose it could be worse

Maternity Clothes?: Yep. And the ones I bought are gettin' tight. Eeek.

Sleep: So/So. I toss, turn, and kick throughout the night, making these last few weeks of getting sleep pretty darn hard for my hub. Sorry about that.

Best moment this week: Finishing the nursery (well, almost)! The crib, which was supposed to take another 4-5 wks to arrive came in over the weekend. I was able to set up the bedding and see the whole room come together. I just have to hang her letters and the room's ready!

Food Cravings: Still have yet to experience a real craving. In fact, I haven't experienced many pregnancy symptoms except for all that sickness earlier on. No weird cravings, no meltdowns or moments of hormonal insanity (I verified this with John, who is always honest when it comes to these things). I feel like a larger, more puffy version of myself. I guess mother nature decided to throw me (and my husband) a bone after making me puke my guts out for four straight months.

Gender: Still a girl-reconfirmed this at my 4D U/S = )

Labor Signs: Around 24-25 wks, I started noticing Braxton Hicks contractions. I wasn't sure what was going on at first, but my entire stomach would completely harden for a few seconds, then relax. There's no pain, and they haven't ever been consistent. Just my body warmin' up!

Belly Button in or out?: Yeah....it's out. Gross.

What I miss: Sleeping on my stomach, and my old clothes. No matter how cute they can be, maternity clothes just aren't the same. I miss my normal size jeans and my size small tops! I've graduated to wearing John's old shirts to bed b/c none of my oversized pj tops fit anymore.

What I am looking forward to: Hopefully seeing this babe's face during attempt # 2 of the 4D ultrasound.

Milestone: Moving on to every other week doc appts! Crazy how fast this has gone by!

Nursery Part 2

This weekend was very productive in the baby department. On Friday night, as we were on our way to get our Christmas tree, we got a call that our crib was in and ready for pick up. I was happy because I ordered it last week and it was supposed to take 4-6 weeks to arrive. So, on Sat am, we headed out to pick it up. The boys did some final touch up on the room, and then assembled the crib. I couldn't wait to see what it looked like with the bedding. I love how the room has turned out so far. The only things left to do are hang the wall letters and pick up the window seat cushion cover (once it's ready), oh and bring a baby home to use all this new stuff...Phew!


Setting up




Crib in all it's glory!


Glider





Bedding details


Inside


Dresser

DIY Wall Letters

With the nursery almost complete, the one thing I needed to figure out was the wall letters. I had a general idea of what I wanted, and I was going to order them on Etsy. I found a bunch that I loved, but they are pricey-especially since this girl's name is going to have 7 letters. For the style I liked, the average price was about $150.00 + shipping. Considering what we've already spent on this kid's room, I decided to google some tutorials and see if I could pull off making them myself. I was skeptical-even after 4 years in sorority spent amongst the craftiest of ladies, I have never been remotely crafty. But to my surprise, they didn't look too complicated at all. The letters I had in mind were a combination of this

and this

I like the idea of a square background, but I also liked the look of the design on the letters instead of just paint, so I decided to combine both.

A few weeks back, I headed to Michael's to gather the supplies:

Scrapbook Paper

Plywood squares (which had to be cut down from 12x12 to 7.5x7.5)

Wooden Letters

Paint (black for the edges of the plywood squares, and light pink for the edges of the letters)

Mod Podge

Exacto knife

After the wood was cut, I used the mod podge to stick the paper on the squares. Once it dried, I cut the paper down to size, then used another layer of mod podge over the paper.

I used two alternating black and white designs for the backing. I wanted it to stand out against the pink walls.

Next, I painted all of the letters. The letters I ended up going with had multiple edges. Since I was only going to use scrapbook paper on the top "layer" of the letter, I needed to paint them so the wood wouldn't show.

Painted (the flash made them look white, but they are pink)


Next was the tricky part-covering the letters w/ scrapbook paper and exacto'ing around the edges. A little time consuming, but they turned out cute! I did, however, start to regret using so many letters to spell her name...

And here they are on the wood squares. I just need to physically attach the letters to the sqaures and then hang them on the wall, but that requires another trip to Michael's.

Close up of the first pattern combo

And a close up of the other pattern combo

Depending on how they look once they are attached, I may add some embellishments. They already have a lot going on with the two patterns, but I will figure that out and then post the finished product once they are hung.

Final Countdown

As of this week I am officially in the third trimester. I can't believe how quickly this has gone by! I bought some sour cream this week that will still be good once the baby comes. That's scary people! It's going to be here before I know it. I've reached an unsettling point where I am literally getting bigger every day. All those weeks I went without showing are making up for themselves now. Needless to say, I am slathering myself in stretch mark cream like crazy in an attempt to hopefully stear clear of them. Hopefully my tactic works.
Starting this week my doc appts are increased to every other week. The Panera in the St Jude parking lot better get used to my face since that's where I go every appt to validate my parking. I also had my glucose test this week, which wasn't so bad. Poor John went with me to keep me company, and we were both highly entertained by the other clientele in Quest Labs. What is it about the DMV, Social Security Office, and apparently diagnostic Labs that attract the weirdest people? Don't normal people need to renew their driver's license pics or get their blood drawn? Where do they go to do it?
All in all, I'm still feeling pretty good. I'm tired by the end of the day, and I tend to fall asleep pretty early, and I can't quite get comfortable at night, but I'm still feeling good. For now.