Sunday, December 19, 2010

The home stretch

Yesterday, this baby in my belly officially turned 27 weeks gestation. The 27 week mark also officially means I am now in the 3rd trimester! I am so excited to be entering my last few weeks before we get to meet our baby girl. She is now just over 2 pounds! and about 14.5 inches long. It's hard to believe how big she is getting in there! I love Brent's reaction the most to the weekly emails we get, he always holds his hands up to see how long she is, and his eyes get so big, and he pats my belly and tells our baby girl to keep on growing, she's not done yet. She's rapidly adding healthy fats to her body, filling into her skin and becoming a plump baby girl. Her eyelashes are growing this week also. The biggest things happening now along with her accumulating fat, is her lung development. She will continue to breath in amniotic fluid, which will help her lungs develop so that when she finally makes her grand appearance she will be breathing in fresh air on her own. The email says that if she were to be born now, with medical help she would be good to go (after a couple month stay in the NICU of course).

I have been feeling our baby girl move a ton lately, she has a lot of room in my belly, and is making the best of her warm space. My favorite thing is probably when she hiccups, which happens at least once or twice a day now, it's only for a few moments, then the flips and kicks settle into soft rolls and she falls back to sleep. She has her very active times, usually after dinner, and when I get in bed and lay flat on my back, and sometimes early in the morning, around 6 or 7 am, usually when Brent wakes up for work, she likes to move around and wake me up and let us know she knows were awake. 

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Sunday Baking... or is it Nesting??

I had the baking itch this weekend, so yesterday I went to the store and loaded up on all the essential baking needs, flour, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, butter, chocolate chips, etc... and today, I'm baking.

Our morning started out with me making these


Yes, they are from scratch. and just about 3 hours after I started we were finally able to enjoy them. The rising part took a bit longer than I expected, even after I had read the recipe last night, I still didn't get up early enough to have them for breakfast, so they were dessert after lunch. and oh my are they delicious!


I also made some yummy cream cheese frosting to glob on top, I don't consider it a cinnamon roll without a ton of frosting lol, it's so much better when melted down inside each ring... yum!


Brent finally admitted that this "nesting" thing is pretty awesome... especially when he benefits with cinnamon rolls, and his favorite cookies. Those favorite cookies? They happen to be Chocolate chip, coconut, oatmeal cookies. more ooey gooey goodness. 






I'm not sure what else I'll make today, Brent is now requesting Chocolate Snickerdoodles... I think I can handle those. 


Saturday, December 4, 2010

Progress!

Our baby girl has a crib! and her room is so close to being finished! Brent and I tore apart the desk this morning, which was actually quite fun. I loved using the sledge hammer to break it up! until Brent came in and told me to take all the screws out first lol... oops! So, he finished demolishing the desk... I wasn't allowed to touch the hammer anymore. So instead, I hung up our babies girls first outfits! They are so cute! Thanks Mom! She's going to be the most adorably dressed baby girl ever :)


Here is the crib!! We ordered this from Restoration Hardware back in August, so it's been in the garage all wrapped up for the past 4 months, I'm so excited to finally have it up and in the nursery. It really is beginning to come together, I just have a few more things to do, or more of a long checklist of little things, It should make the next couple months go by quick, I hope! 



Lil loves the nursery, she sits by the door each morning waiting to be let in, so cute. 


I picked up this adorable mini chair at TJMaxx Home-goods a few months ago, It's so tiny, our baby girl will be able to fit into it earlier than most of the other kids chairs I've seen. I cant wait for her to sit in here and flip through her books, I realize it's still awhile until that will happen, but it's fun to think about! 

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

My first Cloth Diapers!!

I just had to share this because i'm so excited! I love Zulily.com, a site that has daily deals for moms and kids stuff. I check it out every day when I get the email of all the new goodies they are offering. This morning I was particularly excited when I opened up that email, Fuzzibuns were on sale!!! Brent and I have fully committed to cloth diapering and were just talking about how we really need to start stocking up on them before baby girl gets here. I have a list of diapers I want to try, I will add it below just for fun, and Fuzzibuns are at the top of my list! They are so cute, and have such fun bright colors, like these 3 I ordered this morning,

Crushed Berries Perfect Size Diaper Grape Perfect Size Diaper 

I am so excited to put these on our baby girl, she is just going to be so cute!! and I am so thankful to have this option, It is wonderful to help out our environment and keep a lot of plastic out of our landfills. Brent and I hardly use our garbage anymore, and we hope to keep that up once baby girl is here, we still plan to recycle everything we can, and will do our best not to be wasteful. So, here is my cloth diaper wish list, I hope I can check some of these off this list before she arrives in just a few months,

Fuzzibuns Perfect fit ~ sizes small, medium, and large ~ any colors and prints, they are all pretty darn cute.
GroVia ~ any of the all in ones or one size,
Bumgenius
Bummis

A Guest, Snow, and a pop of color

 Last week we had a guest over the Thanksgiving holiday, Abby's good pup friend Sadie! She stayed for a couple of days while her family was up north with their family. We had a great time with her here, Abby had a friend to play with all day, which made us realize that we may someday be able to get another pup, just not soon. We do plan on getting another pup when baby girl is somewhere between 2 and 3 years old, Brent and I agree that getting kids a puppy is one of the best presents ever, but he doesn't want Abby to feel any more displaced than she already will with children around, so we'll wait. Anywho, while Sadie was here, it snowed a little bit each day, never more than an inch or so, just dusting's throughout the week. The dogs loved playing with Brent every day when he got home, so one afternoon I snapped these fun pics, they are not great since the dogs were jumping around all over the place, but they still show how much fun the girls had with Brent and the snow.
  

Sadie was infatuated with the tennis ball, I'm not even sure where it came from, Abby doesn't have tennis balls... but somehow Sadie found one in the yard and toted it around the rest of the week



Lilly was less than thrilled with the snow and the dogs running all over the deck making so much noise


The only smiling shot I got of Brent, the rest were scowls, his back, the finger... delightful huh


Here is Abby waiting on the above mentioned tennis ball... so intent and focused

 

Last night Brent and I had to run a couple errands after dinner, when we got out on the road, a light dusting of snow had formed on the roads, making people weary of driving which was causing a ton of traffic for 7pm. This morning we woke up to this! Almost a foot of snow had fallen overnight. It sure is beautiful, but I didn't leave the house today, I wasn't very trusting of other drivers once I heard about the 39 accidents that happened in less than 3 hours... scary. Brent had to drive to Twin Falls in this, He had to be on a site late morning, so he left around 7am, and once he got out of Boise and down the freeway an hour or so, there was only about an inch of snow on the ground, so it was a pretty easy drive for him, I pray his drive back is just as great. 






Now for a pop of color! We are one step closer to finishing baby girls room!! This weekend Brent hung up chair rail around the nursery, I was going to do stripes, but got overwhelmed with all the taping I would have to do, i'll do stripes later... We still wanted a bright splash of color on the walls, so scroll on down to see what we picked,




I love this blue! it's more of a turquoise/teal-y blue, but it is so fun and adds just the right amount of color that we wanted. I realize this is a little girls room, but were not huge on the pinks... so were sticking to the blues and greens, we love them. I am also almost finished with the fun fabric stitch rings, they are turning out pretty cute I think, I need to adjust a couple of them, and add a few more little details, but it's nice to have something up on the walls. 



I also hung this sign up last night, "All because two people fell in Love" is something Brent and I had wanted to put in our baby's nursery before she was even conceived. She is our miracle, and would not be joining this world if it weren't for the love Brent and I have for each other. My mom found this adorable sign in a little shop in downtown Sumner, Washington, and it is perfect. I should have panned out on it, but figured it will get photographed plenty once the room is finished, right now it's just a plain wall surrounding it. I hung it in the corner where the rocking chair is going to go, which I thought was pretty fitting, since we'll probably be hanging out in the corner a ton in just a few short months. 


Saturday, November 27, 2010

24 weeks

Just a quick update for week 24. Baby girl is about a foot long now, as stated before if she's anything like her parents, she's already taller than average, but length/height is something the u/s wont measure.By today she should be about a pound and a half, and gaining steadily. She'll continue to gain approximately 4-5 ounces a week from now on, and the last couple of weeks that should slow in her preparation for arrival. She's pretty skinny right now, but with all the weight gain she'll be nice and plump before we know it. Her brain is developing all the crucial things it needs right now, so i'll be upping my DHA intake from here out. Her lungs are also developing the crucial branches she'll need to breath on her own, she's also starting to develop the cells that produce surfactant, the substance that helps her lungs inflate once she's out of my belly and breathing on her own. Her skin is still pretty thin and translucent, but is thickening rapidly in preparation for the outside world. 

I've been having a pretty rough week with all the changes going on inside, She's growing so rapidly that it's causing more growth than I've ever had before, i'll post a new belly shot tomorrow. My back feels like it's been smashed with a hammer continuously for 3 days... or like someone is pulling so hard on my muscles that they are finally starting to separate. I was up last night at 3 am for about an hour, doing some yoga stretches trying to get my back to pop, which it finally did when I reached for my glass of water... Thank goodness! After the self adjustment I was able to go back to sleep (after tossing and turning all night previous to getting up) and get a couple hours rest, interruption free. Oh, and my husband never even noticed I was gone... I hope that changes when the baby gets here. I've been pretty nervous with how severe the back pain was. I was checking all the symptoms of pre-term labor, kidney infections, and anything else related to pregnancy and back pain. So far, I'm thinking it's just muscles moving, but my goodness, I'm ready with any and all other symptoms that might arise after all the research I did. I'm hoping it will pass, as every other pregnancy related thing has, and next week i'll be good as new. Until then, we'll keep an eye on things more closely. Brent said as long as i'm just feeling kinda crappy, thats ok, but if I start feeling REALLY crappy, let him know... Thanks for the love hunny. 

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

A Visit with Baby

This morning I was lucky to get another ultrasound at my 34 week check up appointment with my midwife. It was a follow up to the anatomy scan, since baby girl was so wiggly last time, the tech didn't get a great shot of the heart, or measurements, so I had to go back today for those shots, and some fun face time with baby. She loved smiling and showing off to us! Unfortunately, she wouldn't turn, so no profile shots, but we have 2 neat frontal face shots, one is a bit alien like, but she was yawning or yelling or something, so her mouth is wide open, which the tech said was pretty neat to see, not all parents see that. Baby girl was yawning a ton, which we realized meant she was settling in for a nap, she completely fell asleep about halfway through and refused to move any more. 

(below) look at those adorable cheeks! the lower half (left side) of her face, looks blurry because she had her hand and arm resting against it while snuggling up for a nap, I really wanted to get a pic of her with both hands holding onto her face, but the tech couldn't get a clear shot of it, she was so darn cute!


(Below) she has all 10 fingers and toes, here are 5 of those cute little toes. All bones are present, and her little foot was so precious!


(Below) She kept yawning and opening her mouth, and this is the pic we got, she looks kinda like an alien, but I swear thats a baby in there. You can also see a little hand sitting there below her face, off to the left of the picture, she was moving around at this point before falling asleep.


Now for her stats. She's measuring perfect, right on her due date. They approximated her weight at 1lb 3oz, and she's measuring in the 50th percentile on all of her measurements, head size, heart, legs, arms, etc. The only measurement they wont do is length, but she has some long legs and just for a reference, her head is sitting in my pelvis, and her back runs along my left side, with her feet tucked up into my ribs... thats one long baby! 

This was our last ultrasound before her arrival, unless something is wrong, or she is late, but were hoping neither of those will factor into this birth. I cannot believe we'll get to meet her in just a little over 3 months. The weeks are flying by, and with the holidays here, it's only going to go by even faster. 

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Baby it's cold outside!



This is what today shared with us. Snow!! we woke up to cold temps and cloudy skies, and then those clouds opened up and we were able to enjoy fluffy white snow falling all afternoon. This was a particular treat since my mom is here, and every winter she visits she wishes for snow, but never gets any, this year she got her wish. 




Brent went duck hunting with Abby this morning, who has been pretty tuckered out all day since. This is her current position on the couch, unconscious and snoozing peacefully, with occasional little whimpers and kicks from her dreams. I'll bet she had more fun with her dad today than she did all week with me in Seattle, but thats ok, she's a bird dog and is supposed to love swimming through freezing temps over anything else. 




Since today was so snowy and cold, I decided it was a good time to catch up on the nursery projects I put on hold during my trip. These are some adorable fabric frames that I made as wall decor for the nursery. They are so fun and easy, I've had a great time matching colors and patterns and cant wait to see the finished product. 





My mom and I found these adorable felt applique flowers at the craft store this weekend, they go perfect with the bright colors of the fabric I already had. I love the contrast in colors, and think they add the perfect touch to this fun project. 




Saturday, November 20, 2010

23 weeks

She's a mover!! The past week has been so neat to feel this little girl dance and wiggle and punch her way around my belly. My mom was able to feel a couple of really great kicks/punches... not sure which is which yet. and bright and early this morning, Brent was finally able to feel his little girl move for the first time. she woke me up, so I woke him up, and we sat in bed for about 45 minutes feeling her wiggle and move, it was pretty neat. all day today she's been up, I think I've been on the go a little too much for her to nap, so tomorrow were taking it easy.

So, this week and next the fruit comparison is a papaya, pretty good size for our little girl. She's just over a pound now, and about a foot long, at least thats the average, I have a feeling she may be a little longer than average with Brent and I for parents. This week our baby girl's lungs are developing!! They are growing blood vessels and preparing her to be able to breath when she gets here. She's also developing awesome ears now, they are getting more and more keen, and she can probably pick things up like Abby's barks, and when Brent gets home I have noticed she starts going crazy, I think she knows his voice too. What amazing ears she has already.

Brent took a pretty cute pic on his new phone tonight, but, i'll have to update the bump shots tomorrow, it's getting a bit late here to figure out how to send that pic to here and upload it. So be sure to check back tomorrow for hopefully an update of my hugely growing belly.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

A visit to Seattle and 22 weeks

Family...


This is the reason I visited Seattle this week. My cousin Kim and her husband Bob flew down from Palmer, AK for a couple of days just to visit. I was so excited to see them and spend the weekend with them, but I regret not being able to get here earlier in the week to have a couple more days with them. Brent and I will just have to take a trip up North soon to visit. On Sunday, we had our cousin Jamie and her husband Chuck, and their daughter JoAnn down for the afternoon and an early dinner before Kim and Bob had to head back home. I love this family, as I love most of my family, but this family fits, they are all around our age (for the most part) and were all going through some of the same things. Jamie and I are both pregnant, and just a few weeks apart. This is her second, her first is pictured in the above pic sitting with my parents, she's adorable and I love when she visits. 


(above) just the ladies. We had a fantastic an exhausting weekend of shopping, and spending some wonderful quality time together. I would love to be able to do this at least once a year with these ladies, I just don't know if plane tickets and our wallets would like it so much. Maybe every other year? I didn't see these cousins much as a child, so now that were grown-ups it's pretty fun to build relationships with such amazing women, I feel so blessed to have these ladies in my life now.


(below) JoAnn loves doggies, and she sat, entertained, for a good half hour with this roller and Abby. She went through probably 10 sheets of sticky roller paper, and Abby may have a bald spot on her left side (we turned her over half way through lol), but it was probably the best entertainment of the evening. 




And now for belly shots. As stated Above, Jamie is just a month behind me in her pregnancy. So we thought it would be fun to take a belly shot together this week. I am 22 weeks in this picture, and she is about 17-18 weeks. We are so cute!  JoAnn wanted to be in the pic with the babies too :) 



So here I am at 22 weeks. Our baby girl is now a full pound! She's also almost a full foot long! What a week of milestones huh!? From the email I received this weekend, it says she is about the size of a spaghetti squash... but I don't have a picture of that... The biggest thing from here until birth will be her growth. she'll start to gain weight rapidly, and i'll begin to get even more huge than I already feel like I am. This is a good thing though, we want a big healthy long baby to come out in a few months, were hoping for around 8lbs and maybe 22 inches?? we'll see. Other big things, tooth buds are now in place, she has her eyes, but no color in them yet, she's all wrinkly, until her fat layers begin to develop over the coming weeks, and her pancreas is developing, it's already producing some of her essential hormones she'll need for development. Kinda neat to know that she's already a pound and a foot long... she's looking like a mini newborn in there now! 

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Working on Stage 2...

I had to share one of Lilly's favorite nap spots, she sleeps here often, but she just looked so darn cute, I had to share today. Perched up on top of one of our bathroom cabinets, thats where you can usually find her during the day, either there or snuggled on the bottom shelf of our bookcase. Wherever she chooses, she always makes it look so comfy, sometimes I wish I could just plop down anywhere to nap like she does. 


Doesn't this look like one peacefully happy kitty??


While I was working in the nursery today, Abby decided to join me, which she doesn't normally do, she liked getting up in the window to see what our neighbor dog was barking at, I managed to snap this pic really quick before she took off down the hall, begging to be let out. That thing they were barking at? a big white cat in our neighbors tree, they made a team effort attempt to get it, but the cat got away. you can also see the days hard work in the picture, I painted the bottom half of the room cocoa! yay! I love how it turned out, although it does need another coat of paint, which we might get to tonight, or tomorrow, we'll see. 


Speaking of paint, this is just part of the top of the table that we've turned into paint central. There are currently 4 cans, we've put 2 in the garage, and several small sample cans sit in the hall and under the table. 




Now for a sneak peak of some of the projects I've been working on for the nursery...








I have a ton more to do in the room, more stripes of various colors, more accents with fun fabrics, and moving stuff out, just so I can fit baby stuff in. Hopefully i'll be able to get the furniture moved in there sometime in December, not sure if i'll make that deadline but i'll sure try! Stay tuned for our nursery progress, It's slow going, but i'm doing my best to have this special room done by the time baby girl arrives in just a few short months. 

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