30 Weeks ~ Maternity Pictures

34 Weeks

32 Weeks ~ Night-Night Baby

I've wanted to make something for baby before she arrives, but I could't come up with something easy enough to be accomplished in an afternoon/weekend.

Yes, that is a hole in her head. Her arms have had to be re-secured numerous times as well.

This is my night-night baby. My grandmother made her for me when I was little. As you can tell, I loved her. I didn't go to sleep without her for years. I thought it would be really cool if I could find something similar to make for my daughter. 

I didn't expect to find this on eBay.

That's right. The same exact baby. For less than $6.00.

I snatched that fabric up and waited for it to come in. When it did, I took two or three hours on a Saturday and made this:

I didn't realize just how worn the original is until the new one was put together. She isn't as soft as my original, but I'm sure time will fix that.

28 Weeks

27 Weeks - Glucose Tolerance Test

Glucose Breakfast

On October 1st I had my dreaded glucose tolerance test to find out if I have gestational diabetes. Rather than drinking the nasty "juice" many offices force on their patients, I simply had to consume 2 pieces of toast, two eggs, four ounces of unsweetened juice and eight ounces of milk within ten minutes. Way better than the overly-sweet junk, but still a challenge as I do not scarf my food down by nature (I know, I know, that will change). 

Results are in. "Normal" results are between 60 and 140 milligrams of glucose per deciliter of blood plasma. My results showed 84 milligrams - well within the normal range. Yay!

25 Weeks

23 Weeks - Painting the Nursery

Before - Plain Cream Walls

We had a few things to consider when choosing a color for our girl's room:

1.   I hate super girly colors. This room was never going to be pink or purple.

2.   I don't like feeling like I have to re-paint, so gender-neutral was a must (no, we're not planning for baby number two, but what if someone made a mistake and we have a boy?).

3.   We live in a rental and need to keep the walls a color that is relatively easy to change.

For these reasons, we set out to find a nice blue-green hue for the walls. I think we significantly depleted Lowe's paint chips in the process, but we finally settled on "Delicate Mist."

After moving all the furniture out, I taped around the baseboards and the ceiling, cut in, and rolled the walls. Two coats and 24 hours later, I painted the baseboards white. The end result is subtle and spa-like. I love it!

21 Weeks - Gender Reveal

On August 19th, our family and friends joined us to find out if we are having a little boy or a little girl. Before we found out, we all made our guesses. (For the complete album, click here.)

Ben and I writing down our guesses

Our votes are cast 

Aunt Esther, Jake and Uncle Jeff

Aiden and Andrew

Grandpa and Grandma

Aunt Meredith

Looking for Blue or Pink filling

 

Jake taking a swing

Uncle Pete breaking open the pinata

Grabbing the pinata stuffing

Dancing on the pinata stuffing?

Our Cupcakes

Guessing the day we'll meet our girl!

Mom taking a guess

20 Weeks

I've graduated to almost 100% maternity clothes...

On August 12th Ben was able to feel the baby kick for the first time! It was so fun not to be the only one feeling what is going on inside of me. We've got a strong one!

19 Weeks - Ultrasound

Sweet Little Baby

On August 10th, we went to get have our first ultrasound. What a fantastic experience! We got a peek at the little person currently baking. It was amazing to see the baby's heart pumping, hiccuping, flipping and sucking fingers.

Mid-Hiccup

To see all of the 80 pictures, you can visit our Picasa album by clicking here.

16 Weeks

Not too much of a visible difference, but I am definitely feeling the baby move now... Even kicking to the beat of "Call Me Maybe" the other day (embarrassing, I know). I feel like we're starting to get to know the little person inside me.

Baby's cousins are also getting curious. They've been concerned that I am such a negligent parent, I let the baby be naked. With "not even a diaper." They've been concerned for the baby's comfort, wondering how the baby can sleep without a bed. And, of course, the age old curiosity of how the baby might get out. Perhaps I will get a cough and just keep going until a baby pops out? If only...

Registry

I have been encouraged by many people to start a registry earlier rather than later. It makes sense to me because I know that I will inevitably forget something really important the first round. I have been slowly adding items as they come to mind. Currently I have a hodgepodge list on MyRegistry.com. I actually love the site as it allows me to register for items not at Target and Babies 'R' Us. However, it also has the ability to cross reference with registries at brick-and-morter stores (which is good because Ben is looking forward to using the scanner at Target).

The next big decision is disposable vs. cloth diapering. We're leaning toward cloth, which would mean I get to determine the brands and amounts we are going to need... what fun that will be.

15 Weeks - First Appointment

On July 9th we met with our midwife officially for the first time. We did all the fun family medical history stuff and I had four vials of blood drawn.  We listened to the baby with the doppler again. This time the heart rate was in the 150s and we could actually hear the baby kicking. I can't feel anything yet, but we could hear our sweetie moving around. I think we have a pretty active little one about to enter our family.

Our next appointment is set for August 8th. Even more exciting -- we have the ultrasound set for August 10th! We are so excited to see our little one. We have decided that, rather than find out our bambino's gender in the doctors office, we are going to wait to find out with our family and friends. August 19th is the set reveal date... The wait may just kill me.

Our Third Anniversary

June 27, 2012

13 Weeks

Just a little bump

June 24th marked the beginning of our 13th week. Goodbye, first trimester! I won't miss the exhaustion or nausea.

12 Weeks - Heartbeat

On June 18th we wet to see our midwife for an unofficial visit. Our mission: to hear our baby's heartbeat. You can hear it at the very end of the video (when it gets dark). You can tell we uses a super high quality camera. :)

And Then There Were Three!

Something exciting is about to happen!

On April 23, 2012 we found out that our family would be growing. It goes without saying that we were overjoyed. All I remember thinking for the first 30 minutes is "Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God." We both knew we wanted kids, but like many things, it's one thing to talk about doing something and another thing entirely to live the plan. We knew everything was about to change. Ready or not.