38 Weeks and counting

I'm officially at 38 weeks, 5 days. Wow, the last month has flown by SO fast! Even though Baby is not here yet, priorities have started changing and it seems like Baby is already taking up every minute of our free time. I'm either cleaning / washing / organizing for Baby, or shopping for Baby, picking up birth supplies, going to classes and appointments...you get the idea. No wonder I haven't had any time to post recently!

Last weekend started something like this:

Friday (took a vacation day):
Put in the first load of laundry to wash
Pay bills
First load of laundry in the dryer
Second load in the wash
Go get my tabs renewed
Stop at a couple garage sales
Stop at Menard's for some flowers (plants)
Chiropractor
Haircut
Wal-Mart for a couple last things on the birth supply list
Home for lunch and a rest, then hanging clothes on the line
Off to my sister's to pick up a couple things
Target for a few essentials
Cub for a few more essentials
More garage sales
Home again - collapse on the couch for a while
Try to get a couple things done around the house
Make a cake for that night's dessert
Starts raining, so head outside to take the laundry off the line
Fold and put away laundry and wait for Chris to get home from work

Saturday and Sunday went much the same.

Even with all the craziness going on, in some ways life has slowed down - mostly due to me slowing down. :) I'm feeling pretty good, just moving slower and everything takes a bit longer. I haven't really minded as I think it's helping me stay calm and feel relaxed about everything; I'm just taking each day as it comes, doing what I can, and resting when I need to (for the most part).

The last two appointments with our midwife have been really good; Baby's in a great position - facing mostly backwards, with head pretty deep down, and still moving around quite a bit, so not getting too big in there. The midwife says it feels like Baby has a longer torso, which I'd have to agree with. :) I've also been doing really well; aside from slight swelling and having to be careful with my back (as it seems much too easy to move wrong and pinch something these days), I've been in really good health. I've been going to the chiropractor for the last few weeks just to make sure everything's aligned as well as it can be, so feeling pretty good overall about labor and birth. Just this last weekend my Braxton Hicks contractions have really picked up and have been getting more uncomfortable in the last couple days; sounds like these should be helping my body do some of the work before "real" labor starts and hopefully shorten actual labor - so my attitude has been pretty positive and welcoming about all this! :) Although Chris and I both have lists of things we'd like to get done before Baby arrives, we have the essentials ready and between our Bradley classes and reading and watching videos I think we're feeling about as prepared as we can be. The waiting begins.

Baby Shower

My good friend Katie threw me a wonderful baby shower on Sunday. And her mom Theresa did an amazing job behind the scenes washing dishes, cutting cake, making punch, and generally ensuring that the rest of us got to hang out and have a great time. Such a special day having so many friends gathered together to celebrate the coming arrival of Baby.


Katie did a great job organizing everything. There was lots of delicious food, including her famous chicken sandwiches and some great tabouli, a yummy cake with creamy strawberry filling, and to top it off Katie picked up my favorite ice cream combination from Cold Stone - Black Forest Dream (chocolate ice cream with brownies, hot fudge, and cherry pie filling - absolutely to die for!). As Katie said, it couldn't possibly be a party for me without ice cream. :)

There was also a rousing round of the rice and safety pin game, with varying amounts of rice flying throughout. :) One of my favorite parts of the day was seeing the painted onesies people made for Baby.


Everyone was extremely generous; there were lots of presents to open full of sweet little things for Baby.



So excited about these cute little board books. Love Eric Carle!

The first section of the cutest little flannel quilt that Katie is making for Baby. So soft and sweet!

Katie also had cards available for people to write advice on - Chris and I loved reading through them all and I can't wait to scrapbook them.

Thank you so much to Katie and Theresa for their hard work, and to everyone for coming - and for your generosity! It is definitely much appreciated, and I am sure all of the gifts will be well used. :) Thank you all for making this such a special day!


Note: I am planning to post a more complete set of pictures in a new "photos" section by the end of the week, so keep an eye out if you're wanting to get a better look at all those cute little baby items we received. :)

Spring is here!

Such a beautiful day here yesterday; not sure what the high temp was this afternoon, but somewhere right around 60. Such a good feeling to be out in the sun - in a t-shirt no less! The ice has finally melted enough off of our road that Chris and I could take a walk after work.


The melting over the weekend was pretty impressive; by the end of the day on Sunday we had a river running across the bottom of our driveway from all the meltwater. Chris has been trying to get the culvert cleared out so that the water runs through there instead, but it looks like we're just going to have to wait for things to thaw out a bit more.


Hoping to post tonight about the baby shower. Happy St. Patrick's Day! :)

Something Sweet

Just finished up my niece's birthday present for her party tomorrow. I started a coordinating dress for her older sister Maddie (whose birthday was last month...), but haven't quite finished that one yet.


The pattern is Sister Smocks by Indygo Junction; not the easiest pattern to follow for a first-timer, but once I figured out how to pin everything correctly it came together pretty quick. And I can't forget a thanks to Mom for the advice and demo on basting and gathering - definitely a lifesaver! :)

Baby Quilt

Loving this super-cute Baby Floss quilt, made by my friend Kristina.



She just finished the sample and will be teaching a class for this quilt in a few weeks at the quilt shop. I am definitely signing up and can't wait to get started on this for Baby. I love the modern fabrics and bright colors used; think this will be a great addition to the nursery.

Less than 10 Weeks to go!

As our midwife pointed out last week - only 10 weeks left until my due date - which means we're now down to 9. Yikes! Thinking about putting together a countdown calendar to make sure we get everything done in time. Definitely trying to stay calm and not panic, but I feel like there are still SO MANY things to do before this little person comes into our lives. Chris is definitely a help here as he keeps reminding me of how much we've already accomplished in getting ready for Baby. Shower planning is almost done and invites are out (thanks Kim and Katie!); still some work to do on the registries, but thankfully that's mostly done as well. The nursery is starting to come together; Chris finished painting last night (yay!), and I have a few little accessories on order to start decorating. So excited to be creating a cozy space for us and Baby. Definitely in "nesting" mode! :)

Here are some pictures of progress on the nursery so far:

Before

During

After

Very happy with the way it turned out; great mix of cozy and bright.

And just for fun, here are pics of a few of my favorite things we've picked up for Baby so far:


Hoping to post pics later this week of all the cute cloth diapers I've been collecting. :)

Registry Information

For those who are interested I've added a list of our baby registry links on the right. The links for everything except Peapods should take you directly to our registry lists. For privacy reasons Peapods doesn't list registry information on their website, but they will email the list if you contact them.