Sunday, June 24, 2012

{38 weeks}




How far along? 38 weeks! Could this be my last post???!! I know this heat is killing me!
Total weight gain/loss: a little over 21-22 probably
Maternity clothes? mostly leggings & maxi dresses at this point

Stretch marks? no
Sleep: Finding it hard to sleep lately.  I'm uncomfortable with this big belly, but so tired!! The pregnancy pillow helps....sometimes.  I am having pregnancy dreams too, I never did before.  I had a dream that we were at a Texas Rangers (WhAT?!Random) game and we forgot that I couldn't travel after 36 weeks.  I was (am) 38 weeks and I started having contractions and panicking that we wouldn't make it to Liberty Hospital in time.  Luckily, it was just a dream and I woke up thankful that we're here in KC.  Nothing to worry about.
Best moment this week: 1.We bought a camera!! So excited to take some pretty pics of my little man once he's here.  For now, Calvin is my muse ;).  I have been practicing and have visions of aperature, shutter speed, f-stop dancing in my head.  I think I'm getting the hang of it.  Richard, a friend at work, is a photographer as well as his fiance, he is giving me some pointers that I should know for great photos.  There is so much to learn!! I'm excited to hopefully get some really good hospital pics that we can cherish for years.  Mike and I have been practicing all the different functions of our Canon Rebel T3.  It is by far one of my favorite investments in a long time. It's like the gift that keeps on giving =) 





Except we are really excited about our 'gift that keeps on giving'......


We have practiced using it....


around the home......

in our bathroom....perfume looks so pretty when photographed like this!

......and at Trezo Mare for what could be our last date night before 'little' arrives!

Mike's tilapia & Stella - I wish that was my Stella =). 


2. We got our maternity pics back! I love them! Here's some of our favorites! Taken by The McGinnis Studios.  Such a talented person Ashley is and hysterical too!














3. We got the monitor/webcam set up in the nursery. Thanks to my friend Steph and her very intelligent husband and the entertainment of the cutest 8 month old Alaina!!! We couldn't have figured it out without them!! And we love love love it! It's mounted on the wall with some foam double sided tape.  The picture is really great and we can pull it up on our iPhones, iPad, and our Macbook.  So convenient for movie nights and stuff. 







4. We got both car seats finally put into the cars and We are ready for you baby boy! ;) You just feel free to come at any time.

Miss Anything? Nope

Movement: Yes, he's slowing down though.  He's running out of room, poor guy.  Makes me claustrophobic thinking about it.
Food cravings: potatoes, sweets, milk...chocolate milk is still one of my biggest cravings.  This week lemonade has been popular too.
Anything making you queasy or sick: not really, when I don't eat snacks throughout the day, I get a little shaky.
Gender: boy!
Labor Signs: Not really.  Some cramping, but not really. 

Symptoms: ACID REFLUX! Tums are a staple on my nightstand, now.  Swelling! It goes down at night but during the day it's bad! I feel like my face is swollen too.  It's funny because our photographer said that she likes to take pics between 34-36 weeks because your face will start to swell.  Now I believe her! I'm also having bad back pain.  I'm pretty sure it's just me naturally overcompensating for all of the weight on my front side by arching it back more than usual.
Belly Button in or out? out -my belly button is even running out of room to expand....Yikes!
Wedding rings on or off? OFF! My fingers swelled last night! I'm wearing my promise ring from high school....Maybe it will go back on soon, but for now, I'm leaving it off!
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy & too excited because I know in a max of 3 weeks my little love will finally be here!
Looking forward to: Tuesday doctors appointment.  I want to see if I'm progressing at all.  Although I asked my mom and she said for us kids she had no signs before, her contractions just started one day at 6 minutes apart.  I'm sure I will be the same way. 

Sunday, June 17, 2012

{37 weeks}


How far along? 37 weeks! FULL term baby! And Happy Father's Day to my daddy (we're going to meet him and my step-mama and step-sister at Buca di Beppo right now!) and of course a Happy FIRST Father's Day to my dear husband.  He's going to be the best dad.  Our son is very lucky to have him as a father....
Total weight gain/loss: Over 20 - Dr.'s appointments are on Tuesdays from here on out, so we always find out for sure on Tuesdays.  Last time I weighed about 138-140.
Maternity clothes? Nope those shorts are tied with a hairband. :)

Stretch marks? nope
Sleep: I sleep well.....kind of. I wake up a lot and find myself struggling to get back to sleep.  I wake up at about 6 every morning now and start cleaning and breakfast.  I'm crazy.
Best moment this week: Being full term and knowing that if I go into labor today that they won't stop it.  It's such an exciting feeling!! Everyone keeps asking me if I'm scared.  I'm not - honestly - I'm so excited for the WHOLE experience! I think it will be amazing!

Also, with my crazy nesting in full effect, the guest bedroom is finally transformed! It used to be mike's "office" which is now in the basement. And we do have guests quite often so we really needed another bedroom.  Exit Mike's office - if that's what you want to call it ;) Love ya babe...., enter guest bedroom.  I finally competed it (for now) today.  At 8 this morning I was spray painting a piece of wood out front....yikes! (Yes, I wore a mask, yes my neighbors think I'm crazy).
Anyway,  here are some pics, I think it turned out pretty well and we will be so glad we have it in those first couple of weeks after baby is here for grandmas to sleep in :) My mama already said - "Oh, I can't wait to sleep in here once he arrives!!" The shelf was a little DIY there were originally going to be two shelves in Baby B's room, but I decided I only liked the one.  Well I had already spray painted the HobLob brackets heirloom white.  So I had to keep them.  I was at Target yesterday and almost bought a shelf then a lightbulb came up above my head and I decided I would use those brackets and the extra wood from the shelf in the baby's room.  That shelf was also DIY. And here are the pics:


Crooked little vase - I swear you can't notice it if you're looking at it!! I also think this picture is slightly crooked...






Miss Anything? Not really. 
Movement: Hiccups - CHECK! This babe has the hiccups at least 3 times a day.  I read somewhere that it may mean the cord is wrapped around his neck (I don't know why I google stuff like that) but when I asked the Doctor they said it is perfectly normal and just baby practicing breathing.
Food cravings: Carbs and grape juice. White grape juice specifically.
Anything making you queasy or sick: No - just brushing my teeth but that's been since the beginning
Gender: BOY!
Labor Signs: Not yet. 

Symptoms: Some back pain that's typically relieved by the heating pad, sore feet when I went shopping on Saturday.
Belly Button in or out? out!
Wedding rings on or off? on
Happy or Moody most of the time: I am so happy! I'm so excited to meet this little man that has been kicking and punching me for 8 months =)
Looking forward to: Doctor's appointment when they start checking for dilation and signs of labor!! Also, Tuesday night we do the pre-admission visit at Liberty Hospital.  I'm excited to get to see the birthing center and all.  I have been there before but I think it will make everything more real. 

In other exciting news:LOOK! MY PEPPERS ARE STARTING TO GROW!! I planted peppers, basil, cilantro and tomato's.  Basil and cilantro are not doing so hot....



Sunday, June 10, 2012

{36 weeks}


A little sass this week apparently. 

How far along? 36 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: Will find out for sure Tuesday - last week it was about 20 lbs, probably close to 20.5 now at least.
Maternity clothes? not so much

Stretch marks? nope!
Sleep: It comes and goes. I think it's God's way of getting me used to no sleep....my husband on the other hand......he sleeps like a baby.
Best moment this week: The best moments always occur on the weekends ;) Hmm - I would have to say going to the City Market yesterday with some friends was a nice little getaway.  



We had fun and my friend Jana had never been.  I got some Brioche bread that I used for French toast this morning.  It has no preservatives but you can freeze for up to a year.  It's sort of a sweet bread and so yummy! I am also so crazy with organizing and cleaning at this point.  I feel I was OCD to begin with and now I think it's scaring my husband :) Sadly I think the best moment this week is getting everything organized and cleaned which happened today!!  Our house is finally ready for baby in my opinion. Also, we are taking our maternity pictures at sunset tonight in Weston so I am really excited to see those!!
Miss Anything? Being comfortable.  It sounds strange but I feel like I'm constantly am wearing an underwire bra because my baby is right under those puppies!
Movement: Yes, the Dr. checked my cervix last week and said he's still head down and I'm dilated just slightly.  Not sure if that means 1 cm or what.  I didn't ask and should have. I know exactly how he's positioned in there so it's funny to say those are his little feet or legs over on the left hand side..  His back is along my right hand side, booty under my right rib cage.
Food cravings: Salty this week (chips, BBQ) - along with some cupcakes from the shower, and banana smoothies are the hot item.
Anything making you queasy or sick: brushing my teeth, never fails to gag me.
Gender: Boy - we can't wait to meet you our sweet boy!  I get emotional just thinking about the first time I will see his face. 
Labor Signs: Nope

Symptoms: Tired, uncomfortable, acid reflux, back pain, my feet hurt, I waddle, overall though I'm not feeling too bad for being in my final month, thank goodness.  I think I paid my pregnancy dues when I was sick from 6-18 weeks.
Belly Button in or out? Way OUT! Our friend Amanda who is also pregnant is a teacher and she said that one of her students thought that her belly button was the baby's nose.  Isn't that sweet?
Wedding rings on or off? on
Happy or Moody most of the time: HAPPY, although today I was very irritable for about 3 hours.  Weird.
Looking forward to: Weekly doctors appointments from here on out and getting our monitor set up! We went to get it today. We did not end up with the Withings one that we originally wanted because it is not sold in stores.  We wanted to try it before we bought and it just was not possible.  While I was at the Royals game the other day I got to talking to my mom's best friend about the monitor system her daughter uses for their new baby. The monitor is really the only thing we have left to get.  She began texting her daughter and she said she is able to monitor her baby with the D-Link DCS-932L day and night web cam.  For a whopping $80 at Office Max!! I was all over that (At least $160 cheaper than the original one!) - and she is a tech savvy stay at home mommy so she said she would come over to set it up for us! Of course we are going to try to set it up first ourselves, but she sent me this picture of how clear it is! 





Isn't that amazing? And it has sound, and can be connected to our iPad, iPhones and our home computer over wifi.  Just like the Withings one.  I'm wondering why I didn't think of this and why more people don't take this route????!

Monday, June 4, 2012

{new baby, new closet}

So Baby B's grandma and grandpa really surprised us one day and completely redid the lame closet that was in his room.  I literally sat down in front of it one day wondering how the heck I would make it all work.  Mike and I have separate closets, both of which are big enough for both of our clothes, but this closet! It was bad! To say the least.  Unfortunately I did not take a before picture because we did not have much warning! Just came home one day and "Surprise new closet!" I am so excited about it.  Mike thinks we should paint it, but I just can't put the effort into something that will be mostly hidden.  I'm ok with the white walls and the organization =)

Anyway, this is the closest before picture I could find.  It was literally one bar and a shelf. That's it.  I think that would probably only fit 1/8 of his total clothes. yikes! As you can see it was hardly functional.


Fast forward a couple of weeks.  Now mind you there is a lot more storage in here than we are using right now.  I know we will eventually use all of it and he gets bigger and accumulates more stuff.  The toys are all down in the basement for now, but I'm just sure that at some point we will have a basket on the floor of the closet with more toys.  

Here's the closet for now.  We have a great foundation to work with and now I feel as though we have more than enough room for everything! As for where the swaddling and recieving blankets and burp clothes are, they are in the changing table that is not really a changing table as well as a basket with newborn diapers, wipes, peepee teepees.  In one of the the drawers we have Sofie the Giraffe, pacis and things of that nature. Ahh I love being organized!!

Curious Calvin

Still using this for onesies, socks, mittens and hats

Organized by size


0-3 months hanging on the bottom rack on my fav velvet hangers in baby blue! 

In the bottom basket: anything 12 months - 18 months.
In the top basket: anything over 18 months.
All folded.  For now. 

OMG shoes. 

Left side of closet, these are 0-3 months. Items that are not onesies. 

A few books

Top rack: These items are 3-12 months.  Items that are not onesies, I just hung the nicest items up here for that size group.  It's mainly overalls and sweet little Gap outfits, Polo jacket, nice sweaters and things like that that couldn't fit in the door organizer.. 

Photography props =) I'm sure this will hold something else in the future, but for now these hats are too dang cute not to display.  Also, we could add another shelf down below this one if we wanted to. 

A large amount of diapers from the diaper cakes (2) that were at my 1st shower.  This isn't even all of them!


Looking in

There is a shelf at the very top too for even more storage! We are not currently using this, but I'm sure we will!

Another shot 0-3 months

This is not in his closet, but look at all the stuffed animals and rattles and things L has!! Lucky kid.  PS Can you tell we LOVE elephants??