Finish nursery... check!

Here are a few pics of our finished product! It feels so good to have this done. Now we're just waiting on our beautiful little girl to make it "real".

37 Weeks - We're full term!

Full Term. We are full term. It seems like just yesterday we were TTC, I was waking up every single morning at 6 to temp, stressing over every little symptom in the 2 weeks leading up to AF. Now we could have our little miracle any day now. :) What an amazing feeling!

As you can see from my beautiful picture in the post below: I'm very swollen. It gets worse by the day, but the doctor still says everything is okay, so I'm trusting she's right. It is so ugly though! I can't fit in any of my shoes, and I sure don't want to expose the world to my grossness by wearing flip flops. I think it's come to that though. I'm wearing a Walmart faux diamond band in lieu of my beautiful wedding ring. :( I couldn't just not wear a ring, so we spend a whopping $8 on an extra large band for the time being.

Good news! (A little TMI so if you don't want to know, don't read any further.)

I lost my MP Sunday!! I woke up, went to the bathroom, and noticed it was coming out in chunks! Yeeaaah!! Yes - I am ->that<- excited about my grossness. I know it could still mean weeks, but progress is progress, right?!

**How far along? 37 Weeks - Full term!

**Total weight gain/loss: I'm attributing my gain to swelling...hehe...40 total.

**How big is baby?: Around 6-6 1/2 lbs. now.

**Maternity clothes? Blah - It's slim pickings now.

**Stretch marks? They're like kudzu. I hate them.

**Sleep: Like a baby... I get up 2-3 times to pee but that's it!

**Best moment this week: Losing my MP. :)

**Movement: She's still rocking-n-rolling.

**Food cravings: Actually, nothing this week.

**Gender: Sweet baby girl!

**Labor Signs: More and more contractions. Lost MP, lots of cramping.

**Belly Button in or out? It's stuck. I'm wondering if it will ever go back in.

**What I am looking forward to: We have our growth U/S this morning!

**Weekly Wisdom: I'm trying all the old wives tales for inducing labor, so I'll let you know next week if they're all BS or not. :)

**Milestones: We're full term!

Have you ever seen sausage feet?

Well, please allow me to introduce you to my overly swollen feet. How is it one can have rolls on their toes and ankles?! I didn't think it was possible, until I saw my poor feet. Disgusting, huh?

I'm a beautiful blogger =)

Thanks to Emily of Little Bit of US and baby, too! for this award!





*Name 7 interesting things about yourself, then pass this award on to others!

Here goes nothing:

1. I'm a tomboy at heart. I love poker, four wheeling, all water sports (skiing, tubing, you name it), flag football, pretty much all the things guys love doing.
   
2. I wanted to be a professional singer when I was little. Okay, not little, maybe up until 16 or so when I realized I needed a back-up plan for the real world. I actually sang solo's... how embarrassing!
   
3. I'm a very emotional person. I get my feelings hurt easily. I cry when I'm sad, happy, mad, or just because I feel like crying. As you can imagine, pregnancy hormones have made this 1000x worse! Poor Jack.
   
4. I'm an overly anal person with finances. I can't stand when someone throws away money. I manage 6 personal accounts as well as 2500 tenant accounts at work. It makes me happy to manage money. (What a dork... hehe)
   
5. I never thought I could be any more in love with my husband than I was the day we got married. Then we conceived a child. This perfect love I've felt since the day I said "I Do" has mulipied into something unfathomably strong.
   
6. I'm very self-conscious. Always have been.
   
7. I was a cheerleader for 7 years. I just don't fit the stereotype. I'm not particularly peppy, I don't get along with girls, and I'm not really about "team spirit". Why was I a cheerleader? I have no idea. I loved it. I took it very seriously, and was actually pretty damn good at it. ;)

Now to nominate other Beatiful Bloggers!

• Baby "O" is on his way...
• Waiting for Baby "M"
• Amour de Bebe
  
  

36w Appointment - Contractions?!

So it seems our little anxious one may make her arrival sooner than we thought, or so the doctor says. =) I woke up around 3am Tuesday morning with period like cramps and braxton hicks. The braxton hicks are no biggie, but accompanied by the cramps, it definitely sparked my interest. These lasted (and progressively got stronger) throughout the morning, and by my appointment at 10, I was in some minor pain. Nothing horrible, just extremely uncomfortable - especially in my back. The doctor didn't seem too overly concerned with it. She told me to keep timing them and just head to L&D if they became consistent. She did mention that with the size of the baby and the fact that I was having contractions, she didn't think I'd make it a few more weeks. All day long I had contractions. They varied anywhere from 3-4 minutes apart to 30-45 minutes apart.

Jack and I went out and ate Chinese, proceeded to Target to try and walk (Huge FAIL - I was so sore we ended up leaving after like 10 minutes), then went home and took a bath. Things had calmed down a bit by late last night, the contractions were averaging 30 minutes or so apart.
I didn't sleep last night because of the anticipation, contractions, and the fact that my abs felt like someone had stuffed them in a food processor and left it on for an hour. Talk about being sore!

So there's my update. I'm still having contractions, still averaging around 30-45 minutes apart. I'm hoping if nothing else that this little tease spell is helping me make a little progress down there. Only time will tell... =)

36 weeks and counting...

We're now within a month (*hopefully*) of meeting our baby girl! 1 week until I'm considered full term, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she decides to meet us sooner rather than later. I'm impatient, so is Jack, but how can you help not to be when what you're anticipating is something this huge?!

I have my first weekly appointment tomorrow, and our growth U/S is next Tuesday. How exciting?!

I've really been feeling the effects of the final month of pregnancy. It's tough! The pains, the hormones, did I mention the pains? It's all worth it though. I wouldn't trade this for the world. :)

**How far along? 36 Weeks... 4 to go!!

**Total weight gain/loss: I think just 1... I'll update after my appointment tomorrow. That puts me at 34 total.

**How big is baby?: Around 5 1/2-6 lbs. now.

**Maternity clothes? pfff- I'm trying to fit in them.

**Stretch marks? Ugh - yes.

**Sleep: It's like 1st tri all over again! I'm always tired! It just sucks sleeping because I wake up every 30 minutes with terrible hip pain, or horrible butt pain (haha - I know), or having to pee.

**Best moment this week: It's sinking in that our baby will be here in a month!

**Movement: Oh yeah - She loves kicking Mommy in some not so nice places...

**Food cravings: Besides slush puppies, I'm craving food that's good for you! What?! Seriously, like yogurt and fruit!

**Gender: Sweet baby girl!

**Labor Signs: Tons of braxton hicks, and I had a short bout of contractions a few evenings ago.

**Belly Button in or out? It's not going back in...

**What I am looking forward to: Meeting our little girl! It's crazy it's ->this<- close!

**Weekly Wisdom: There are some weird things that happen the closer you get to delivering. Just pass everything off as a pregnancy symptom when you're this far along, because there's a very good chance that's all it is!

**Milestones: One month to go!

In honor of our snow fest!

It's snowing in Georgia! ::gasp::

This is the south. The rarity of seeing snow where we live is high, especially more than a dusting. Right? I mean, I've lived here my entire life and I've seen snow less than 5 times. Well mother nature had something else in store for us this winter. We've seen the warnings by the weather guys... everyone took it with a grain of salt. We know better than to get our hopes up for such a rare occasion. Boy, were we wrong! 6-7 inches of snow later, we're still in absolute shock! Snowmen lined the streets, everything... and I mean everything shut down, common landmarks were almost unrecognizable being so heavily covered in snow. It was amazing! I've never seen Georgia in such a more peaceful, beautiful state. Absolutely breathtaking. Here are a few pictures of our "snow storm":

My baby girl and I- She LOVES the snow. :)









Our firepit:









Beautiful trees in our backyard:

Front yard:

35 Weeks/ 35 Days to go!

35 days and counting until my due date! 2 weeks from last Sunday I will offcially be "full term". Hard to believe, huh?

I had my 2nd shower this past Saturday, and it was every bit as wonderful as the first one! My MIL and SIL hosted this one, and did an awesome job with everything! The food was wonderful, the games were entertaining, everything was perfect!

The beautiful diaper cake and vanilla/chocolate carriage cake. (How cute?!)

















Another thousand gifts!
















**How far along? 35 Weeks... 5 to go!!

**Total weight gain/loss: Another week with no gain. :) 33 total.

**How big is baby?: Around 5 1/2 lbs. now.

**Maternity clothes? Getting ridiculous. I think I have maybe 4 shirts I can fit into. It's sad....

**Stretch marks? I'm skipping this stupid question. (Can you tell I'm a little sour about this?!)

**Sleep: no complaints!

**Best moment this week: Getting our carseat and stroller set up and having another awesome shower!

**Movement: She's still rocking-n-rolling.

**Food cravings: Cake. haha - healthy I know. Not the icing though, I've never liked the icing. Just a plain vanilla cake, and of course slush puppies. :)

**Gender: Sweet baby girl!

**Labor Signs: Still lots of braxton hicks. I'm ->almost<- ready for the real thing! **Belly Button in or out? Still a gross looking outie. **What I am looking forward to: 2 weeks and counting until our growth U/S and FULL TERM!! **Weekly Wisdom: Don't think just because your scotch free in the stretch mark department at 34 weeks that it means you won't get any. Think again, my friend. I hate to be the bearer of bad news. :/ **Milestones: Hitting the next big "milestone" 35/35 - 35 weeks along, 35 days to go! Excuse the classy PJ's.. ;)

Role reversal... If men could get pregnant.

34 Weeks!

I'm a little late... as usual. ;) This past week was another busy one! As you can see below, my first baby shower was this past Saturday. It was amazing! My other shower is this coming Satruday, and I couldn't be more excited!

I had a doctor's appt. Tuesday - another very boring appointment. I guess that's good though... we don't want any big news for a few more weeks! She did say she wants to do a growth U/S in 3 weeks, and I'm sooo excited to see Lily again! It feels like forever since we've "seen" her!

Sunday we had our pictures done, finally. The lady stood us up two weekends in a row, so I was shocked when she called us Sunday and said she was at the house! She thought we had an appointment scheduled for 4... um NO!! We were out and about all day Sunday. So I pleaded with her to wait until 5, we rushed home and got ready, and had them done at what I think was the perfect time of the day. The sun was almost setting, so I'm excited to see how they turned out.

**How far along? 34 Weeks... 6 to go!!

**Total weight gain/loss: None this week!! Wahoo!!! Still up 33 though.

**How big is baby?: Around 5 lbs. My little chunky butt. :)

**Maternity clothes? It's amazing how few I can fit into. She's dropped so much, none of the shirts are long enough!

**Stretch marks? I'm still holding out hope that I'm just seeing veins, not stretchies on my tummy. I'll let you know as soon as I figure it out (or come out of denial.)

**Sleep: a much better week this week. Thank God! I was a walking zombie last week.

**Best moment this week: Hearing my baby girls heartbeat at the doctors office. It never gets old. :)

**Movement: She's hilarious! She'll only move for a few select people, others she "hides". She sticks her butt out for her daddy and I though.

**Food cravings: Nothing new. Still the glorious slush puppies. I've been wanting to try new weird things that I've never tasted though, like avacado. Oh, and I've become a fan of hot sauce. That's a very strange one for me. I even put it on my pizza!

**Gender: Sweet baby girl!

**Labor Signs: A hella lot of braxton hicks. Like maybe around 25-30 a day. None are painful though, so the dr. says that's fine.

**Belly Button in or out? Still a gross looking outie.

**What I am looking forward to: My other baby shower this weekend, and our growth U/S in 3 weeks!!

**Weekly Wisdom: If you've ever contemplated getting your belly button pierced, DONT! Well, if you ever want kids that is. The hole turns into this weird, gross looking stretched out line above your belly button. Trust me, your belly button does not need any help looking strange at this point.

**Milestones: We have 3 weeks until full term. O.M.G. that's less than a month...

1st baby shower!

So my first baby shower was this weekend (hosted by my mom and best friend), and it was amazing! It was way more than I could have ever imagined. Everything was so beautiful: the decorations were perfect, most of my work "family" came, my mom, MIL, and SIL were there... it was just simply wonderful! Like I've said before - I really do have the best family and friends anyone could ask for! With all the gifts Lily got, I'm pretty sure she's set with what she needs until she's grown! Here are a few pictures for your enjoyment. :)

This is walking into the country club.












The view from our room!













The adorable diaper cake -

















The tons of gifts!












The delicious spread...and swollen me. :)