chloe's nursery so far

I put these on facebook already but wanted to get them here.

Here is the orange wall with cute new lightswitch cover we were given (love it) and her abundance of stuffed animals (all presents!). The drawer is filled with onesies, and these are only from basically 0-3 months, some 3-6 but they still look super tiny to me. I have been very blessed with clothes... as you'll see in next pictures.

This is the shelf in the closet with hooded towels, wash cloths and receiving blankets. I know it won't stay this neat, but I can dream :-)

Here is the beautiful closet! We love it!!! I am so happy, it is like the epitomy of nesting if I ever saw it. Preparing, washing and folding all this has been therapeutic/exhausting for me at the same time.

Here is the wall mural my father and I painted today. It is based off the crib bedding, JJ Cole, PInk Craze. I wanted something big, graphic and fun but still girly and lighthearted. So I just took the flowers on the bedding and worked with them, creating a design in ILlustrator an d projecting on the wall. It was not easy to paint, took at least 3 coats on each of the flowers to get them thick, perfect enough.

Another view of the mural on the wall and her crib/changing table!

I will be 36 weeks on Tuesday. Things are so crazy in my head right now. I feel so ready and so not ready at the same time - but mostly I just can't wait to meet my child!!! It's just around the corner... the pregnant girls from my shower are starting to tick off the list, 2 out of 5 have had their babies, one more then I'm next. Crazy crazy crazy life!

I'm still in pain, no change there - stopped doing chiropractic because it wasn't helping me. Since I stopped I will say my pelvic/groin pain has actually improved. Not sure if the adjustments might have actually been irritating my sensitive bones/muscles instead of helping. I've been working in bed a lot during the day. I really need to get my taxes done and some business things sorted out in the next 2 weeks so I can put it behind me and focus on the baby when she is born. They gave me a sonogram of my upper abdominal organs to see if there was anything weird going on there, but I don't think they will find anything. I didn't get to see the baby in that sono though, so I was thoroughly disappointed. I know in a few weeks it will be a moot point since I"ll be looking at her in person, but still... it's such a mystery!!!

Also, I feel like a whale. Seriously. And people are starting to say "you look like you're going to pop" to me, which is both exciting and insulting at the same time. Oh I also got "she's never going to make it to March 9 with how she's carrying that baby and how she's walking" -- it's so weird... I don't see myself as waddling, etc, but I guess I am...lol.... but people need to understand we as pregnant ladies don't really have much control over how we carry the baby and how big we get (aside from how much we're eating). I seem to be a bit torpedo-ish... and I can't help it! And I still have a month to go till my due date, and she could put on 2 more lbs during that time. hhhollly crap!!!

aaaaah

A glider!!

Brian is so flippin sweet, and always manages to surprise me with SOMETHING at Christmas time. We agreed we weren't getting each other any presents for Christmas - money is tight, and any money we have, we want to put towards baby stuff we needed. We wanted to get the a nice glider/ottoman combo for the nursery, but had put it aside because we didn't think we could afford it. Well, we put some Christmas money we were given back into our budget and walah - a beautiful brand new glider, that matches the nursery furniture so perfectly I want to scream. And he even got it on sale which makes it so much better. He got it home in his car and put it together in an hour so that I could see it. He led me up and played Christmas music in the room and put bows on it. So so adorable.

I also got myself this ring for $13 to replace my wedding rings which have a lot of welding and extra fitting on them that are getting too tight for me. It's fakey but I love it.

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The 3-4 hour glucose test went "eh" this morning. It definitely wasn't fun, but I just hope my results are normal. I got a bit weak about halfway through but it's over now. I just have very bruised up arms from the 4 blood draws. Thank the Lord for my cell phone, twitter and 3G networks. I don't know what I would have done without it! haha.

27 weeks - third trimester!

27 Weeks:

This week, your baby weighs almost 2 pounds (like a head of cauliflower) and is about 14 1/2 inches long with her legs extended. She's sleeping and waking at regular intervals, opening and closing her eyes, and perhaps even sucking her fingers. With more brain tissue developing, your baby's brain is very active now. While her lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning — with a lot of medical help — if she were to be born now. Chalk up any tiny rhythmic movements you may be feeling to a case of baby hiccups, which may be common from now on. Each episode usually lasts only a few moments, and they don't bother her, so just relax and enjoy the tickle.

See what your baby looks like this week.

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It's a shock to be entering my third trimester. I'm starting to deal with a new set of fears - what if the baby is born too early, what if something happens to her in the womb, what if I mess something up, how the heck will i get through delivery, the pain, etc. Is my grandpa going to make it to see her born? Just praying for fear control at this point and God's comfort. I have a lot of questions for next weeks appt... Brian and I are also going to start a childbirth class in January and my mom is planning my baby shower. It felt like this point was so far away, and now it's rushing on me. I'm 27 weeks - in a week or two I am going to start doing kick counts --- It is freaking me outttttt.

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Brian and I got our crib in! We were so excited we set it up at 11:00 at night... it was actually super easy to set up. We still need a mattress though. haha. Anyway, here are some pictures of the baby's room so far. I originally didn't want to show until it was done, but it's probably cool to remember the process. Plus we might move the furniture around... not sure.

I plan on putting up pink curtans and removing those blinds with long cords (of course) and putting her name and some art up above the crib. The white wall will have some sort of mural which my dad and I will hopefully paint. I tried to keep the paint colors something that could switch if our sonogram tech was wrong and it happens to be a boy. haha!

So here is the nursery so far!

26 weeks, belly shot, crib

26 weeks

Your baby is inhaling and exhaling small amounts of amniotic fluid, which is essential for the development of her lungs. These so-called breathing movements are also good practice for when she's born and takes that first gulp of air. And she's continuing to put on baby fat. He now weighs about a pound and two-thirds and measures 14-15 inches (an English hothouse cucumber) from head to heel. Most babies this age, yours included, still like to snuggle in a slightly curled position inside the uterus (thus the term "fetal position"). And at just over two pounds, she has doubled in weight from four weeks ago.

The network of nerves in your baby's ears is better developed and more sensitive than before. She may now be able to hear both your voice and your partner's as you chat with each other. And even though the sounds your baby hears are muffled (thanks to the creamy coating of vernix covering those ears), she may recognize both yours and your partner's voices. So this might be a good time to read and even sing to your baby (or rather, your belly). Also, your baby's taste buds are very developed now too (with more taste buds than he or she will ever have outside the womb, actually).

I also read somewhere that this week and last week the baby's limbs were growing to almost their birth length. This makes sense becuase I have been truly feeling more movement that is stretching out, and reaching higher then ever before. I was in shock today on the drive home feeling sensations almost 3-4 inches above my belly button, you can tell she is stretching out and pushing in new ways! It's crazyyyyyyyy (and a little uncomfortable). I'm still having the under-the-bra, across the muscle of my rib cage pain. Not sure what to do about it.

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I have been slacking on the belly pictures because the last 3 weeks (excluding Thanksgiving) have been some of the craziest of my life, trying to get caught up from all the fall weddings. I couldn't get it all quite done, I'm only one person, but I hope to get a lot more finished this week! November was super productive and for that I am happy. ANYWAY... that being said.

This picture was taken on Thanksgiving at 25+ weeks. Brian took it :)

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We also picked out and ordered our crib/changing table, our Christmas gift from Beth & Paul (brian's parents). We are so so so thankful for everyone helping us out with all these expenses and things we need. We are so blessed! We decided to go sans dropside, and I'm glad because I'm hearing about all kinds of recalls and proposed bans on drop-side cribs lately. I think they are pulling millions of them from the market, so we decided on the sturdy non-drop side instead. Our crib is not a luxury crib by any means, it was one of the most affordable ones we could find. But I liked the style, simple, slightly traditional, and white.

Graco Lauren, in White. It is convertible but it's so affordable that if we don't get to it, I'm not worried about it! I wanted the changing table to match too because we already have a few different wood colors going on in that bedroom, and all the molding in the room is white.