Baby H: 26 weeks

 

How far along? 26 weeks {98 days to go until my due date!!}

Baby Size: Baby H is 14 inches and 1.75 pounds. The size of cucumber. The baby can hear Nick's voice now - I better buy some books for him to read to the baby!

Total weight gain: 24 pounds. I remember when I first found out I was pregnant and thought I'd only gain 25 pounds during the entire pregnancy...how naive was I!?! The weight gain has seemed to slow down alittle...but so has the brownie sundae intake. Coincidence?!

Maternity clothes? Barely wearing anything non-maternity these days.  
 

Sleep: Still sleeping great most of the time! I had one night when I woke up every hour - but that was the night before the shower I hosted, so I think my brain just couldn't shut off. I was back to sleeping through the night the following night.

Best moment this week: Becoming a member of Nick's church. I know this is not pregnancy related, but it's something I wanted to do before the baby was born. Now the baby will be baptized in the same church we were married in and we're both a member of.

 

**All dressed up for church on Sunday - ready to become a member of the church**

 

Miss Anything?  Nope, not really.

Movement: I was so busy on Saturday, that when I finally had time to relax and sit on the couch at 8pm - I realized I hadn't felt the baby move all day! I made sure to drink plenty of apple juice the next day so I felt lots of movement! And ofcourse, I freaked myself out thinking the baby wasn't moving enough or the movements weren't strong enough...but once s/he had several strong kicks in a row - I was convinced everything was fine!
 

Food cravings: Not really. Just trying to eat a balanced diet at this point.

Anything making you queasy or sick/symptoms: Just when I thought the bloody noses were done - I got a really bad one this Saturday. Let's hope they're only once a week now instead of daily. My leg/foot is hurting less because I know what motions make it hurt, so I've try to avoid those positions {such as extending my foot out}.
 

Gender: Not finding out. This week's wives tales to predict the gender of the baby - Clumsiness: If you find yourself clumsier with pregnancy, its a boy. If you remain grounded ans still in control of your body, its a girl. Nick claims that I've been more clumsy with this pregnancy - which I agree considering the number of times I've spilled food & drinks!  Based in this wives tale: it's a boy.

Have you started to show yet: I have completely embraced the belly and I love dressing the bump!! I think it's crazy how some days - my belly seems huge and other days I barely notice it! 

Mood: Happy all week long!!

Stretch marks: None.

Belly button in or out: Barely in.

Wedding ring on or off: On.

Labor Signs: No.
 

Thoughts: 

I hosted a couples baby shower this past weekend for Rachel & Nolan. Everything turned out great and they received lots of great gifts for baby! The best gift was definitely the Poo-Poo Pail for Nolan. It was a 5 gallon bucket with diapers, wipes, butt paste, goggles, face mask and tongs! SO funny!!

I'm headed to Chicago next weekend for a girls trip. We'll be doing some shopping, eating, drinking {for the non-preggers} and going to the Pink concert. The same group of girls went to Chicago 2 years ago for the Bon Jovi concert and we had a blast, so I can't wait for this trip!! I'm hoping to get in some good shopping & finding something cute to wear for maternity pictures!

**The girls on our last Chicago trip**

I was going to plan a babymoon for Nick & I in March, but I've decided there just isn't enough time for it. We're already traveling out of the state 3 times this month, so we'll only have 2 weekends at home - I'd rather stay home and relax those free weekends!

I read that Braxton Hicks contractions often begin around 26 weeks {insert panic face here} the thought of having contractions makes it more real that the baby will be here soon! And so will the labor pains...

Things I'm loving {for baby}

As I  search the internet for all things baby - I am seeing a theme of items I am loving. Things I never would have thought twice about before.

Elephants. Really?!? I never thought I'd see the day that I thought elephants were so cute! But now, I find myself searching the internet for all things elephants - prints for the nursery, blankets, hats, hooded bath towels and toys. I don't want to have a theme in the nursery, so I won't be adding a ton of elephant items but I'm sure I'll have a few things around the room.

How cute are these elephant prints?!?

 

 

So many adorable blankets!!

 

 

 

 

And other fun elephant items!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gray & Aqua. If you can't tell from all the items listed above...I'm in love with all things gray & aqua. I originally wanted to have apple green as an accent color in the room, but I'm drawn more & more towards the aqua color instead!

Burp Clothes. The homemade burp clothes from cotton diapers are SO cute! All you  have to do is pick out fabric and sew them onto a cloth diaper - luckily, I have a MIL that has experience making these!!!

Onesies with applique.  Do you know how hard it is to find gender neutral clothes? I've been able to find some onesie, sleeper and sleep sacks - but not many. In my search, I came across white onsies with appliques and fell in love. They can be made with different animals or details on them - in any fabric - so they can be gender neutral.

 

 

I'm sure as I continue to search the internet, I'll find other items that I love. And I have a feeling my checking account is going to be in trouble...

 

Nursery Notes 6

Monday & Tuesday.
We worked both Monday & Tuesday nights to finish the closet. Nick painted the second coat on Monday night and installed the shelving unit on Tuesday night. The nice thing about the shelving unit we installed is that it can be moved around - add/remove shelves and make the clothes hanging area bigger as the baby grows {and so does the size of its clothes}.

 

 

 

While Nick worked on the installing the shelving unit and I assisted him by handing him tools & parts...Jayde sat right in the way!!

 

 

Now that the shelving unit is installed - I can start picking up baskets, hampers and other organizers to put in the closet. I might pick up a couple more of the pull out baskets - I think those will come in handy. I really have no clue on how to organize the closet at this point because I'm not sure what I'll need or use, but I'm sure I'll figure it out once the baby gets here!

 

 

 

It only took 2 days longer than expected, but we got everything done on the to-do list! Now that all the big items are installed/assembled/arranged - I can start working on the small things. The fun things that will add character to the room!



 

The list of to-do's to focus on next {can you tell I like to make lists and check them off?!?}

1. Order glider & ottoman

2. Make curtains

3. Make crib skirt

4. Make crib bumper

5. Make changing pad cover

6. Buy frames/shelving/decorations

 

As you can see...alot of these items involve sewing. I think it's time to pull out the new sewing machine I got for Christmas and learn how to use it!

 

 

Nursery Notes 5

Sunday.
I didn't start out as bright & early on Sunday morning. We went to church, dinner with Nick's mom and stopped by to visit Chloe & Baby Abey. Nick was going through withdrawals since he hadn't seen them in over a month! Chloe is such a big girl - she's almost fully potty trained and was wearing her big girl undies!! And I can't believe how big Baby Abey is already {he's almost 6 months} - he's starting to army crawl and wanted to move all over the place!!

**All dressed up for church**

 

 

When we got home - we were ready to start on the nursery again. Nick started putting the first coat of paint on the closet while I worked on putting together the new night stands for the master bedroom {I might post more on this later if they turn out}.

 

 

So glad to get rid of the ugly yellow color!

Note to other home owners...don't paint your closets the same color as the room - it's alot of work to repaint the room & the closet for the next owners!!

 

 

After painting the closet - we were ready to put together the last piece of furniture for the nursery. The chest of drawers only had 6 drawers {and we were experts by this time} so it only took alittle over an hour to assemble.

 

 

I was so excited when the last drawer was installed and the room was rearranged!

 

 

I'm loving the look of the nursery so far - so clean and simple. I feel like the gray walls & white furniture work well together - and once I get the fabric in the room it'll look even better!!

 



Nursery Notes 4

Saturday.

I got up bright & early Saturday morning - 6:30 to be exact! Jayde decided she needed to go to the bathroom and I couldn't fall back to sleep - so I was up for the day. I started cleaning the downstairs - swept, dusted, vacuumed, mopped and cleaned the bathroom. All before Nick decided to wake up at 9am {did I mention he may have had several beers with dinner the night before?!?}.

 

In hindsight, I should have shared my list of to-do's for the weekend with Nick- he knew I wanted to get things done but I don't know if he knew how much I wanted to get done. He decided that we needed to get all of our paper work together to take to our tax accountant on Saturday morning - this was not on my list! He got the paper work done {while I put another coat of paint on the night stands I'm finishing for the master bedroom} and we headed to town to drop the paper work off. Since we were going to town - I made him go to Hobby Lobby with me to get items for the baby shower I'm hosting the following weekend.

 

Once we got back home - the nursery projects started!!  I planned to get alot done over the weekend - clean out the closet, paint the closet {white}, install the closet organizer and put together the furniture. Seemed like we could get it all done in 2 days...

 

Clean out closet - I admit it - I am a pack rat. If there is a closet, drawer or shelf - you bet I'm going to fill it with something!! {this drives Nick crazy} It didn't take very long to clean out the closet and move all the totes to the basement, but what I discovered is that I might have a slight obsession with wrapping paper! Seriously, who needs this much wrapping paper & tissue paper?!?

Paint closet - Once the closet was cleaned out, I thought we'd be able to paint the closet. Wrong. When Nick removed the existing shelving unit, he realized he would have to patch the holes...which meant no painting would get done on Saturday. This was already putting us 1 day behind my schedule...but it had to be done.

Put furniture together - Since we couldn't get anything else done on the closet until Sunday, we moved onto the next project - putting the furniture together. We picked up three pieces from Ikea {the Expedit shelving unit and the Hemnes dresser and chest} for the nursery. I loved the way they looked online and thought they would fit my vision for the room.

We started putting the shelving unit together and it went pretty smoothly...until we pulled out the last piece from the box and discovered it was broken! Needless to say, we weren't very happy . I called Ikea and they said I can exchange the broken piece for a new piece. So now we have to make a special 3 hour trip to Ikea to replace the piece - but it's close to Mall of America - so I'm thinking we'll get some shopping done too! Plus, there are a couple of frames, lamps, shelves and other things I want to pick up from Ikea...so it's not a bad thing that we have to go back!

 

 

 

 

Next we moved onto the dresser. It took us close to 2 hours to put together and by the end we were tired & hungry! There are 8 drawers on the dresser...and that's what took the longest to put together. We created an assembly line with the drawers and it worked well...AND Nick & I didn't fight once when putting the dresser together! I was pretty impressed! I did realize while sitting on the floor - I am definitely not as mobile as I used to be. The belly gets in the way more & more and I get tired faster than I used to. I'm glad Nick was doing more of the work and I was just supervising!

 

 

 

 

After putting together these two pieces of furniture - we were ready to call it a day. We grabbed something to eat & relaxed on the couch for the rest of the night!

 

Baby H: 25 weeks

How far along? 25 weeks

Baby Size: Baby H is 13.5 inches and 1.5 pounds. The size of rutabaga {whatever that is!}.    

Total weight gain: 23+ pounds. I've been so busy that I didn't even get on the scale this week.

Maternity clothes? Yep! I've been eyeing some of the new spring maternity clothes at the GAP - I might have to order a couple pieces.
 

Sleep: The first part of the week was rough. I had a cold and wasn't able to sleep well at night because I was so stuffed up. Once I got over the cold - I slept like a baby...I was so exhausted from the nursery projects and preparing for the baby shower I'm hosting - that I slept 8 hours straight the last 3 nights!

Best moment this week: The nursery is coming together! Nick & I spent all weekend {and Monday & Tuesday night} on the nursery - putting together the furniture, painting the closet, installing the organizational unit in the closet. I'm really happy with the results of the room so far - even the paint color looks better with the rest of the furniture in the room. I'm glad to have all the big stuff done - now I have plenty of time to work on the little things before the baby arrives!

 

Miss Anything?  Being able to take medicine! Nick had a cold & was able to get over it in 2 days - I think it's because he could take medicine. I had the same cold linger around for 6 days and the only medicines I could take didn't really do anything for me. 

Movement: I love when Nick is able to feel the baby move!

 

Food cravings: I feel like my cravings have slowed down. I just don't seem as hungry as I used to and even sweets don't sound as good as they did a couple weeks ago.

Anything making you queasy or sick/symptoms: Still experiencing pain from my pregnancy hoof {all the moving around putting furniture together this past weekend didn't help}. This week was the first time I've really felt pregnant - not being able to move around as easily as I used to {the belly gets in the way!} and getting tired faster than usual. 



 

 

Gender: Not finding out. This week's wives tales to predict the gender of the baby - Cravings: If you're craving sweet things, its a girl. If you're dying for salty or sour things, its a boy. I've been craving sweets this entire pregnancy. Based in this wives tale: it's a girl.

Have you started to show yet: The bump is definitely entering the room first these days! Strangers are starting to make comments & predictions on the pregnancy {everyone is predicting girl based on how I'm carrying the baby} - I really feel more pregnant than chunky these days!

Mood: This one is so hard. It depends on the day and time of day. Some days I'm over the moon excited about the baby. Some days I think about the labor & delivery and I'm scared to death. Some days I think about all the work we did on the nursery and I'm exhausted. Every.single.day I think about my nephew and what he is going through and it makes me sad.

Stretch marks: None.

Belly button in or out: Still looking funky.

Wedding ring on or off: On

Labor Signs: No

Thoughts:  So many thoughts this week!!! 

I had an amazing Valentine's Day! Nick & I don't usually do much to celebrate this 'holiday', but this year he went all out. Mostly due to the fact that I got him a Christmas gift  {after Christmas on sale when we were shopping together} and he didn't get me one, so he made up for it on Valentine's Day. He surprised me with a card in the morning, a dozen red roses were delivered to work and a new lens and flash for my camera after work. I was beyond excited!! I've been eyeing the new lens for a couple months now and planned on buying it myself with my birthday/Christmas money...now I guess I'll need to buy a new camera bag with that money!!

Having a cold and being pregnant is not fun! I'm not big on taking medicine, but it's amazing how different it is when you don't have the option to take medicine and you can't breath! I was miserable for about 3 days - all day & night. I went through an entire box of Kleenex at work one day and had to sleep on the couch at night because I couldn't sleep {and didn't want to keep Nick up}. I'm so glad to be over it!

Have I mentioned my mother-in-law is amazing??! Not only is she a great painter...but she can sew, too! She is making crib sheets for the nursery and burp clothes with fun fabrics - I can't wait to see them both!!! Once I get the courage to get my sewing machine out of the box - I'm going to have her help me make the crib skirt and curtains for the nursery!

This past week was the one year anniversary of my mom passing away. I feel like it's made me realize how lucky I am to have the people I have in my life. I've felt so much love & support from my family, Nick's family and friends during this pregnancy. I have become even closer to friends/family that are going through pregnancies at the same or are giving me advice on their prior pregnancies. It makes me sad to think that my baby will never know their Grandma...but I know Baby H will be surrounded by all these amazing people!!