36 Weeks: 1 Month

Okay... so I'm really behind this week. :) I have no excuses, it's just been a crazy week and Eric and I didn't get around to taking a photo this week. But all is well, no worries. My doc's appointment went well (well, I had my first internal exam, so you can use your imagination about how "well" that went, but other than that...), blood pressure and protein are fine and I'm not dilated yet. I've been having more contractions, but nothing in a pattern or timeable. After this coming Monday though- it's game on Evie! After 37 weeks a baby is considered "full-term" so she can feel free to make her appearance anytime. ;)

Eric's work threw us a little baby shower, which was SO nice of them since I've never met any of the ladies he works with, but he's been there for nine years and it's a great place to work so we are so grateful! We got a few of the last things we were missing, like pacifiers and bottles and the extra carseat base for Eric's truck, so we are so thankful for everyone's generosity.

So, less than a month now- we're so excited!!!

Umm.... I'm huge. I think that's all we need to say.

Arlene, a sweet lady at Eric's work, even made us a blanket- so cute!!

35 Weeks: 35 Days to Go!

35 days until my due date- yay!! I am SO ready to be done being pregnant now. I've really loved it, but this past week I feel like I've turned a corner into "really uncomfortable" territory- and it's not going away until this baby comes out. In case you want to know what I'm whining about these days, complaints include shortness of breath, swelling, pain, and numbness in my feet and hands, returned nausea in the mornings, sleeplessness, soreness and cramping.... yea I'm a mess. ;) But, I know that I'm really blessed to have had such a good pregnancy thus far- so I can deal with all of this for another month or so.
Speaking of, I've been having the feeling lately that I'm going to go a little early. I don't know why, and I know "feelings" mean nothing, but it's just how I feel lately. I'm just hoping she waits until we go take the hospital tour (yea, we procrastinated a little on that!) and meet the pediatrician- both of which will be done before the end of March.
I still have a few more things to take care of with the nursery, carseat, etc. but for the most part I feel pretty ready. Now it's just a waiting game!

The Nursery Diaries: Decor Part 1

Mom came over tonight to help me get some of the decor up in Evie's room- I am in LOVE with these letters!! :) They turned out so cute, I really like them. I bought the letters at Michael's, painted them red with acrylic craft paint, and then glued the gingham ribbons on. Then we just used thumbtacks to hang them on the wall- it was really easy!

Also, note the adorable white balls on the top of the storage cubes- my mom made those for Evie's room awhile ago and that's their home for now. They are a Martha Stewart craft, starting with a styrofoam ball and then gluing cupcake liners all over it. They turned out really cute!

Also, we hung the red tissue paper pom poms above the crib. I think they look really cute and I like them.... but I'm not gonna lie, I just checked on them a couple hours after we hung them, and the big ones fell down. :( Thankfully, they didn't pull the thumbtack down- which means down the road my poor baby won't have thumbtacks in her crib!! It seems that the nylon thread we used to hang them is not strong enough to hold the two big ones- it slid out of the tape being held up by the thumbtack in the ceiling. So, I'll have to figure out a different way to hang the bigger ones I guess! Here's the rest of my to-do list for decor in Evie's room:

• Find white mirror for above the dresser
• Apply ladybug vinyl wall decals
• Make cornice for window and hang white panel curtains
• Hang art on bookcase wall

34 Weeks: 6 Weeks and Counting

It's a pajama picture this week friends- I will admit it's getting harder and harder to keep taking these photos each week as I feel bigger and bigger! ;) But with only 6 weeks to go, I can't stop now. 6 WEEKS!!! I can't believe it, I'm so ready to be done and have this baby girl in my arms.
Our family shower was over this past weekend (see post below) and Tammy my sister-in-law did a fantastic job, everything was lovely. We got a lot of our big gifts, so I'm spending this week drowning in instructions to assemble our pack n play, swing, stroller, etc. But we are so grateful for everyone's generosity- we have the best family!
I'm also going to attempt a trip to Target and Babies R Us this week to try returning the few duplicates we got. We didn't get too many thank goodness, because I've heard that Target especially is REALLY unhelpful when it comes to registry returns. I'm following all of their instructions online and hoping for the best, but I've heard stories of girls being there for 2 hours trying to get everything straightened out. Such a pain!
I've stalled on Evie's nursery for now, I'm waiting for some things to come in the mail (decor stuff) and I'm waiting for my sister to be available to help me put things up. :) This is a busy week for everyone, so I might not get to that stuff until next week, which is okay. I'm finishing up baby laundry today- yay! I will post pics when there's something new to see in there.
As for me, I'm pretty good, just feeling really heavy lately. Physical exertion has become a serious chore because I just feel like I'm carrying around so much weight- I get tired just thinking about it! I keep truckin' along of course, but I'm definitely feeling tired and sore. But overall, still in a generally good mood most days. :) 6 more weeks!!!!

Family Shower Photos

My wonderful sister-in-law threw our family shower this past Saturday, and it was lovely! It was at an ice cream shop, and we got so many wonderful presents. Mostly we received the "big" things, like our travel system, high chair, swing, pack n play, etc. Our family was so generous- we really appreciate everything that we received! Here are a few photos from the day.

I know it's hard to see, but I love the look on Eric's face in this photo! He is laughing hysterically about the "Band in a Box" that we received, as someone made a joke about how that gift wasn't allowed to come to their house. :) It is very cute, but will definitely be loud!

First Baby Shower

I figured I better get these photos up before our second shower this weekend, or else I'll be really behind! :) Our first shower was thrown by my mom and sister Allison. It was held at a children's book store in our town called B is for Books, and the theme was "Once Upon a Time." It was a huge success! Everyone loved the setting, the food was delicious, and we got so many wonderful gifts from everyone. Here's a peek at some of the details.
The book store all set up before the guests arrive (that's Allison waving). They have a party room which is where we set up the food and some tables for ppl to sit at, then we opened presents in the main store area.

My sister is a very talented baker/decorator, and she did the cupcakes for us. Some had little pink flowers, and others had these adorable toppers, with different scenes from Alice in Wonderland on them.

The favors were bookmarks from Etsy- they were quotes and illustrations from various children's books and I loved them!!! They each had a different cute button at the top with coordinating ribbon as well. Madeline was one of my favorites growing up. :) My mom and sis and sister-in-law wrapped them with a few tea bags and a thank you tag.

Here's the spread of food- everything was so good!! Also, you can see along the tables a project that Allison and I did together. We went to the thrift store and bought a bunch of the Little Golden Books for less than $10 total. Then we went through and picked out the best illustrations, and cut them out in a pendant shape. We strung them on ribbon, and hung these banners along the tables, as well as along a wall. They turned out so cute! We had everything from The Pokey Little Puppy, to old-school Cinderella, to a Raggedy Ann and Andy story. They were a really nice touch.

This is one of the two games we did. We took a random batch of bump photos from the blog, mixed them up, and then people had to put them in the correct order from oldest to most recent. People thought this was really fun, and it was really low key because they could go and do it whenever. The other game we did was just a sheet of lines from popular storybooks, and you had to match up the book with the quote. Easy and fun!

And here is Eric and I on the "couch of honor" where we opened presents. I decided not to post any photos of me opening presents- I look ridiculous in most of them!! I'm always making such funny faces, Tabitha (my sister-in-law who took pics) said it's because I kept oohing and awwing at everything we opened. :) Anyway, you get the basic idea. One down, one to go!

33 Weeks and a Nursery Diaries Update

Well, I was stalling my post this week waiting for photos from my first shower, but my sister hasn't sent them to me yet, so we'll talk about the nursery instead and I'll make a seperate post for shower fun. :)
33 weeks- and it's March!!! That means I can officially say I'm having a baby "next month." I'm so excited!! Part of me is really scared, but it's a pretty small part. Most of me is jumping up and down with anticipation of Evie being here with us. And now that her room is really coming together, I feel a lot more "ready." What can I say- I'm a planner and an organizer, I feel better when everything is in it's place.
I go to the doctor's this morning, hopefully my blood pressure is okay. I've been having a really hard time in the mornings with my hands and wrists (especially my left) being asleep and then being generally in pain for a few hours after I wake up. I'm guessing it's probably pregnancy carpal tunnel- sometimes I can't even open the milk carton it hurts so bad! Thankfully it goes away, and it only happens in the morning, but I'm going to mention it at the docs. Otherwise I've been feeling pretty good. I can tell I'm "nesting" because I definitely have more energy than usual, at least when it comes to taking care of things for Evie. Shall we take a tour of the latest nursery updates?
We moved the crib the other side of the window- I didn't want to at first, but the dresser couldn't go where I wanted it (blocking a cold air return) so we had to rearrange. I like it now though- when you come up the stairs it's the first thing you see in her room and I like that. :)
This is the corner where the crib used to be- it now houses the cubical storage unit I put together yesterday. There's the corner of the dresser we found- thanks to my Aunt Ann who sent me the craigslist link! It should work quite nicely, the drawers are nice and big, and the top is plenty long for a changing pad, plus room for a basket of supplies. We're going to replace the handles with pretty ones- and we might put legs or a platform underneath to pick it up a bit. It's kind of short, but we're going to see how it goes and decide about that later.

Close up of the storage unit- this is NOT the finished product obviously. This would make me nuts if it looked like this!! We're going to get the matching fabric storage cubes in red and black (at least 4 of them) to store the cloth diapers and other things in, then use the other spaces as more decoration. Notice the adorable red and black suitcase- my sis got that as part of our shower gift and it is really cute!! Also notice our growing stash of cloth diapers on the bottom- I'm SO excited to use them! And that's more baby laundry to the right... please ignore. ;)

Just had to show you the "newborn" drawer- her teeny tiny clothes!! I washed everything we have yesterday up to 9 months. I know we'll get more this weekend at the family shower, but I wanted to do it in batches. Also, I know I might have to rearrange the drawers when we get more clothes, but it just made me happy to put things away. 0-3 month clothes make me all teary-eyed and happy. :)

Oh yea, and here's me! It was about 11 o'clock at night after a long day of getting Evie's room set up- and we still have a ways to go! I haven't started any of my decor projects, and we still need to get the rocking chair and bookcase, and do something with the closet. But for now, this has been the longest blog post ever, so I'll leave you. If you're still reading- thanks. :) Shower pics to come!