35 Weeks

Well, 35 weeks is almost in the books! I had forgotten to have David take the weekly belly picture until I was already in my pajamas, so now you'll all know what I sleep in! I just couldn't bring myself to change out of the comfy pj's and into nice clothes again. (And please forgive the quality of some of the pictures in this post...we got a new camera and we're still learning how to use it.)

35 weeks, 4 days

This week, we've really focused on getting some projects done in anticipation of Sprout's arrival. We've finished up our Empowered Birth classes, so we were home almost every night this week. It's a good thing, because we've got a lot to catch up on!

On Tuesday afternoon, after work, the bank where David works had a shower for us. It was so nice...and it was the first shower that David had ever been to in his life! He opened all of the gifts, since I've opened tons of gifts from all the other showers. He cracked us all up as he tried to figure out what each item was! We got lots of nice things, and got quite a few diapers. We should be in good shape for a little while on those!

For the past several months, I've been working on a cross-stitch pattern to hang in Sprout's room. I finished it this week! Well...almost. I still have to add Sprout's name and birthdate...but that will have to wait for awhile. What do you think?

This week, we've been trying to get organized. I've been making lists like a crazy woman. I have a list of things to pack in our hospital bag, a list of things I need to buy in order to have our hospital bag complete, a list of things I need to buy for aftercare/recovery, a list of people to call as soon as we leave for the hospital, and a list of people to call at a reasonable hour once Sprout arrives. Whew! I really need to get to work organizing the nursery, because this is what it looks like right now:

Yikes! We just don't have a lot of storage space. We have one tiny corner closet, which David has been working on:

He and his dad built the shelves in the closet, and he put in the curtain rod tonight. He's also bought some decorative trim for the front of the shelves to make them look a little more finished. We also bought a storage bench to put under the window, and I put that together tonight while David was working on the closet. Of all the stuff we've put together lately, that storage shelf had the easiest directions to follow, by far. Right now, there's a load of tiny little laundry in the dryer. Itsy bitsy socks. Teeny tiny onesies. Super cute rompers and gowns. Precious little hats. Receiving blankets. Hooded towels and washcloths. I've never had so much fun doing laundry in all my life. (Ask me in a few months if I'm still excited about baby laundry!)

This weekend, we're going to visit Benson & Kristin, and Kristin is going to do some maternity pictures for us. I'm excited to get to spend some time with them, and of course, excited about the maternity pictures. Kristin does awesome work, so I can't wait to see what she's got planned for us. And that reminds me...I need to make another list of things to take with us for pictures (tiny shoes, little blankets, the sock monkey, storybooks...).

Over the last week or so, I've started to notice that Sprout really responds to music and singing! Every time I'm in the car with the radio on (and singing) Sprout starts to really move around. The same thing happens in church when we're singing. I absolutely love it! I'll be excited to see how he/she responds to music once he/she's outside my belly!

Even though I wrote this post last night, Blogger decided to hold my post hostage, so I'm early this morning to post...while I watch Prince William and Kate's wedding. About 30 years ago, my Mom was pregnant with me, watching Prince Charles and Diana's wedding, so I thought it would be fitting that Sprout and I watch the royal wedding, too. Who knows...in another 30 years, Sprout may be watching William and Kate's kiddos get married!

We're Making Progress!

In my last weekly update, I panicked a little bit about all the stuff we still have left to do to get ready for Sprout's arrival at the beginning of June. I think it was a good panic though, because it really got me in gear. I had quite the productive weekend! I got the quote transferred to the wall, and painted the first coat on it. David hung the curtains, too, so now it's really starting to look like a finished room. There are still a few things to do, but I'm feeling much better. This is a shot of me painting the quote on the wall. I considered buying it in vinyl and applying it to the wall, but I knew that it would be much cheaper to paint it. The vinyl transfer was about $40, but I think I've probably got about 50 cents in the painted version (about 25 cents for the transparency, and about 25 cents for the paint). I just printed the quote onto a transparency, then used an overhead projector to project it onto the wall. Then, I outlined the words with pencil, then painted it with the same paint as the trim color in the room. The paintin is a pretty tedious process, because the words are so small, and the print font has a serif. It took about 2 hours and 45 minutes to get the words painted in on Saturday afternoon.

And this is what it looks like right now. It looks pretty good in the picture, but in real life, it definitely needs another coat. You can still see the wall color through the paint, and the edges are a little fuzzy. Hopefully it'll look more crisp after a second coat.

And here's a shot of one side of the room so far! I wasn't very happy with the curtains at first, but they're growing on me. They look a little bit too yellow in real life, but here, they look really nice.

And there's the other side of the room with the changing table and glider. Please excuse the stuff stacked on the changing table, and the gift bags in the corner. We're still working on storage solutions. We still need to put the curtains on the french doors, hang some shelves on the wall, and put some shelves in the closet. I think it's a doable list for the next few weeks!

25 Weeks

It's so hard for me to wrap my brain around the fact that I'm 25 weeks pregnant now. It seems like quite a milestone! I keep thinking to myself that I've been pregnant for half a year, but that would only be true if there are 50 weeks in a year...sometimes I forget that there are 52. :) At any rate, I'm close to that half-year mark. A couple of weeks ago, I talked about looking through my closet thinking about non-maternity clothes that I thought would fit for awhile, and most of them I can't fit into anymore . But this dress is one of the exceptions:

I love this dress. I got it at Wal-Mart a couple of years ago, and I've gotten a lot of wear out of it. I enjoy wearing dresses in the summertime, because they're just so...easy! I tell my students that if I wear a dress to work, it probably means that I overslept. I love that I don't have to think about matching anything...I can just throw a dress over my head and go! Anyway, this one has always been very "swingy" and has lots of extra fabric in the front, which has turned out to be a blessing. It's sleeveless, but we've had some unseasonably warm weather here in Kentucky lately, so I decided to wear it with a light cardigan. It was so comfortable! I do have to say that I really don't like the way I look from the side in a dress now (whether it's a maternity dress or not). I'm just so...wide. And I'm only going to get wider!

This week, I've really noticed that I'm starting to become less agile. I just can't really bend straight over (or to the side) anymore, and getting up and down off the floor?! Ha! Every morning, I sit on the floor in the bathroom in front of my full-length mirror to put on my mascara and eyeliner. Thank goodness it's next to the tub...I can heave myself up by pushing against the tub. If it weren't there, I'd either have to wait for David, or try to roll over then push up. :) Really, it's not quite that bad, but it's certainly not graceful.
Lots of people have asked me about cravings lately. All I want, all the time, is sweet stuff. Candy, chocolate, ice cream. Valentine's Day didn't help me out at all...we got lots of delicious goodies from family and friends, and of course, I've been eating it all. I don't know that I can blame my need for sweets on the baby, because I've always liked sweets, but I have noticed that I just can't seem to get enough now. Maybe it is Sprout! At any rate, he/she will certainly be sweet if I keep this up!

I think Sprout must be going through a growth spurt. I've been feeling a lot of pulling/tugging/stretching sensations lately. It's hard for me to imagine that, before too much longer, there will be a full-sized baby inside of me (somewhere in the neighborhood of 6-7 pounds, I'm hoping...not much bigger!). I just can't imagine where it will all go! I'm a short girl (5'2"), and I have a really short torso, so my belly can only go out! It's no wonder I've been feeling lots of stretching! I'm still using my stretch mark cream, but I don't know how much longer I'll be without stretch marks. I'm not all that concerned about them, because having this little one will be worth it all...but it would be nice to make it through pregnancy with a minimum of them.
I have my next OB appointment on March 3rd...and I'm guessing it will be just as quick as the last one. I do have my 1 hour glucose test that day, but I get to drink the orange stuff at home, so I don't have to hang around the office that long. Let's hope I pass! I think at this appointment, I'll be seeing Dr. Brown, the other doctor in the practice. I've spent lots of time in the office over the past year, and I have never laid eyes on this man. I would prefer to make it through the pregnancy and only see Dr. Basham, because I just love her and she's been so good to me, but I understand why I need to see Dr. Brown. And, after all, there's a chance that he might deliver the baby, so I would certainly want to meet him before then. I've heard good things about Dr. Brown, but I'm still apprehensive.

We're finally making some progress on baby preparations! The crib and changing table arrived last week, and David and I spent about 3 1/2 hours on Sunday night putting everything together (and that's when I realized that getting up and down off the floor is getting to be really tough!).
The crib is the DaVinci Emily model. It was one of three cribs that were recommended by Consumer Reports. Honestly, I don't love it, but I like it better now that we've got bedding on it. I wanted to buy a different one, but I was afraid to buy one that hadn't gotten a good rating. It also wasn't sold in the stores we'd looked at (Target, Babies 'R Us), so I was hesitant to purchase it. But we ended up visiting USA Baby a couple of weekends ago, and they had a floor model there. We didn't buy it from them, because I'd found a great deal at Target that got us the mattress for free (and some reduced shipping costs). This is the changing table, which I have mixed feelings about. We really only have two walls in this room (the wall to the right of the changing table is mostly windows, the other wall is 2 french doors into the hallway), so I knew we wouldn't have much room for furniture. So that's why I got this changing table with the three drawers. I thought it would give us more storage, but I'm not a fan of the rail along the front of the changing table. I'm pretty short, and I'm concerned that it might get in the way when I'm changing the baby. We'll just have to see how it all plays out.

I've put the bedding on the crib, and it's super cute! But the room is just so bare! We're going to have to get a big rug for the floor, and I have to figure out how to wedge a rocking chair in there somewhere. I plan to paint a quote over the crib, but David isn't all that enthusiastic about the one I have picked out. I'm looking for other alternatives. I need to figure out what to do about curtains, too. So many things to think about! Lots of days, I just go in there and look around, imagining what life is going to be like in a few months. I'm sure it will be crazy, but completely worth it!