Fur baby birthday

I realized I never posted about Cash's 4th birthday! His birthday is on Cinco de Mayo (I forgot to put on his mini sombrero!). We celebrated with lots of extra treats, playing, snuggling, and a photo shoot :)

4!!

happy birthday to our first "baby"!

Here are some other recent shots of him that I love. I'm a little obsessed with my puppy. I can only imagine how I'm going to be with our daughter! Poor thing ; ) I just hope she and Cash will be the best of friends!

24 Weeks

How far along? 24 weeks

Maternity clothes?  same as last week- pants with stretch, belly band, or the black maternity pants (definitely getting my $6 worth!); still wearing all of my regular tops (of course there are some that no longer fit in the chest or belly area!)
Movement?  She's moving more and more often!
Cravings? this week I had a serious craving for some Sunset Nachos (thank you J for going out to get them for me at the last minute!) and chocolate chip cookies, so I made some :) Fruit is still at the top of the list, too.
Anything make you queasy or sick? nope! Although over the past couple of weeks, I have realized pizza really never sounds good and spinach doesn't taste right to me. Bummer because it's (the spinach of course) so good for me and baby and I used to LOVE it!

Sleep? it involves lots of pillows and varies night to night...I'm just happy with whatever I can get!  
Best moment this week: I put together the shelf for baby's room (yes, all by myself!), so she now officially has one piece of furniture in her room that is just for her! 

Gender: Girl
Labor signs? Nope
Symptoms? nothing new! 

Belly button in or out? getting more and more shallow...especially at the end of the day. I can defintiely see the inside of my belly button. I took a picture of it last night, but it's not something I think everyone really wants to see!

What I miss: sneezing and not feeling like I pulled a muscle ;)

What I am looking forward to: the 3 day weekend!! And hopefully making more progress on transitioning the rooms in our house (office to basement, guest room to office, guest room to nursery!) And not having to do a glucose tolerance test like most preggo ladies do around this time- we already know I have the 'betus (and under good control, too!)
Weekly Wisdom: I found out last week, Braxton Hicks can start at 14 weeks! I felt a firm spot a couple weeks ago. I thought the baby was probably still too small to actually be able to feel her body pressed up against a certain area, so I asked my nurse practitioner. She said it was probably a BH contraction, but nothing to be concerned about (unless I noticed it 5 times in an hour). There was no pain, I just happened to be feeling my belly and noticed it. It's interesting!
Milestones: She is almost a FOOT long!!

12 to 23

I thought it would be fun to do another comparison picture since I wore the same shirt for these weekly pictures. She's growing, that's for sure!

Baby E's Nursery! {The Plan}

I've really been looking forward to doing a post about the nursery! I think it's so fun to be able to do a room from scratch, but there's also a little bit of pressure because you want it to be just right AND there's a deadline :) When we found out we were pregnant, I knew almost immediately the direction I wanted to go. Thanks to Pinterest, I found that I really like more neutral, bright, and simple rooms. Since we aren't sure how long we will be in our current house, I decided we wouldn't paint the guest room (which will be the nursery) and leave it tan (Behr's Toasted Wheat). For a boy, I wanted to do tan/white/light or aqua blue/green. For a girl, tan/white/aqua blue/pale pink (although now I think I want to pull some green into the mix as well). So the color has actually worked out well with the color scheme. I also knew I wanted to do white furniture and the rest really wasn't hard as I had been "pinning" away on Pinterest for months! I put together this very unprofessional looking inspiration board, but you get the idea.

(clockwise from bottom: Sheep Rocker, Pottery Barn Kids; Comfort Glider, Pottery Barn Kids; fabric, babybedding.com; Graco Sarah crib, many retailers; White Window Blackout Panels, PB Kids; Rug, UrbanOutfitters.com; Bookshelf, Target; picture frame, DIY; Prints, TrafalgersSquare [etsy]; Dresser, IKEA; Picture Ledges, IKEA)

I like these fabrics for possible crib sheets.

And this is what I'm planning for the layout. I think the sheep can go somewhere between the crib and window or the shelf and window, and the hamper for dirty diapers on either side of the dresser (maybe the side by the door- away from where I'll be spending lots of time in the glider! ew)

To do:
- Empty room, move furniture from guest room to office
- Organize closet (she and I will be sharing!); including organizing her clothes by size and hanging vs not hanging and using hanger tags
- Change light fixture- will probably do a fan

Purchased:
- dresser/changing table
- Sheep Rocker (this was J's pick and a great find at the PB Outlet!)
- elephant prints for above crib
- picture ledges most likely to go above dresser
- window panels (got a GREAT deal on these from the PB Outlet as well! Thanks Shannon!)
- bookshelf (assembled and up in the room!)
- rug has been ordered
- ottoman for glider
- crib skirt (Serena & Lily, great find by Emily at Essex!)
- hamper for diapers

Still need:
- glider (still working on the color)
- crib
- fabric
- bedding: crib sheet(s), bumper (undecided)
- lamp for dresser/changing table
- frames for prints (thinking diy...)
- prints/photos for picture ledges
- baskets for shelf
- pretty hardware for dresser/changing table

To make:
- ruffle lamp shade (I want to try this using the floral fabric)
- sew floral fabric to bottom of crib skirt
- frames for elephant prints (using this tutorial)- thinking about doing 3 different patterns or 2 of 1 pattern and one other- stripes, dots, chevron- using white, pale pink, aqua, and maybe a gold??
- mobile
- ottoman slipcover

To decide:
- BEDDING!?
- Glider color
- to use or not to use? and if so, where? (of course she'll need a name first, ah!!)

Looks like I definitely have enough to keep me busy until she gets here! : )

23 Weeks

How far along? 23 weeks (picture taken at 23 weeks, posting this 23 weeks/6 days :)

Maternity clothes?  Still mostly wearing normal people clothes (although the pants are several sizes larger than what I wore several weeks ago!). I wear my black maternity pants at least once a week to work and my belly band several times a week.
Movement?  Oh yeah! I was even able to see her punching/kicking the other night! She also poked the ultrasound probe at our fetal echo this week- I think she's had enough of the doctor appointments this week (we had 3 total!)
Cravings? candycandycandy. I still looove strawberries and really any fruit!
Anything make you queasy or sick? no and thank you!

Sleep?  it has most definitely been better...
Best moment this week: SO many this week! I'm going to have to list them :)
- had our follow up/growth ultrasound and we were able to get pictures of everything we couldn't get last time (face, profile, etc) and everything looked great! We could also really see her hands/fingers and feet/toes- SO CUTE! She's also measuring right on track- pretty much everything was in the 23 week range (or mid-30 to low 50th percentile) and her estimated weight is 1 pound 3 ounces (43rd percentile)
- when I got pregnant, my A1c was 7.4. My 1st trimester A1c was 6.2. I had it checked this week, it's down to 5.7!!! This is my best EVER! (or at least as long as I can remember)
- at our fetal echo she was being very photogenic! (about time!) They were able to get very clear images of her heart and arteries (and everything else I can't remember the names for...) and from what they can tell, her little heart looks perfect!

Gender: healthy, healthy girl!
Labor signs? no- we have 17-ish weeks to go and I'm keeping her in as long as possible!
Symptoms? ok, I'm going to get real this week about some "symptoms" I haven't yet put out there, but want to remember and so other people know they are normal, too! Rapidly growing (and tender!) "chest"...crazy, short little hairs sprouting from the front of my hairline (kind of like little bangs that stick straight up...fun times)...nails are stronger and growing faster...I've noticed my leg hairs grow slower- I like that!...BREAKOUTS ("backne"...omg and don't know what to do?!)...my tummy is getting fuzzy (hoping I don't look like J by the end of all of this ;)...slowly becoming more insulin resistant and upping my insulin doses (this is normal!)...over the past month or so, I've noticed I'm getting really clumsy! Running into things, dropping things...and let's not forget this baby brain that has started up!

Belly button in or out? in, but shallow

What I miss: I miss using the creams that used to keep my breakouts under control! These hormones are freaking my body OUT. And being tan- tanning seems to help with breakouts, too.

What I am looking forward to:  hopefully putting together some nursery furniture this weekend!
Milestones: she has hit the one pound mark!! You grow girl!

Registering and random thoughts

Registering for a baby might as well be a synonym for overwhelming! When someone asks "How are you feeling?" and you feel overwhelmed, just say "I feel like I'm registering for a baby!". Seriously though, while I was expecting it to be somewhat overwhelming, I thought it would be really fun (it was fun, but more "whoa" than "this is so fun!!"). I remember being so excited to register for our wedding and it was definitely fun. But wedding registries and baby registries (at least for the first baby) are different since for a baby, you are basically starting from scratch and most of it feels way more important that what kind of dish you're going to eat off of or the trashcan you want in your bathroom. And there aren't many products that are just hands down the best, like a Kitchen Aid stand mixer ;) Plus, that just mixes food...we're talking about safety for a child here! So in anticipation for registering, I did my best to prepare. I read books and blogs for recommendations, I researched products, I printed registry cheat sheets...but when they handed us the scanner and I had 10,000 (maybe a little bit of an exaggeration...maybe just 8,000...) bottles staring me in the face, I didn't feel so prepared! So many decisions! I wish someone could show me one item and say, "this is the best, the safest, and guaranteed your baby will for sure love it"...buuut it's just not that easy :) Of course you want the absolute best for your baby, but there just isn't an absolute best of anything for every baby. It's all up to your (and baby's) preference. I am glad that we got started though. Now I have plenty of time to see what we have on there and what we really do (or don't) need. It also brought up some questions, so now we have time to get those answered! Having said all that, while it was a little overwhelming, we did have fun and made some progress (and decisions!)!

Some random thoughts/discoveries from our registering adventure...
- We have narrowed the stroller down to two options. One is a travel system, the other can be made into a double stroller when the time comes. Once we decide on a stroller, the car seat decision will also be made!
- J is freaked out by the sounds the popular "Sleep Sheep" makes...really freaked out "these sounds are scary!" haha (she's still getting one :)
- Having a girl means even your husband wants to get pink stuff!
- Still a little overwhelmed by breast pumps and bottles...uh? We'll get there!

With all of the indecisions(?), there are some things we know for sure...and that feels good!
- We are going to be cloth diaper-ers! While I'm a little nervous about the "extra" that comes with it, I'm really excited! They will save us quite a bit of money, we get to help the Earth, AND they are CUTE! :) I did a lot of research on these a couple weeks ago and have it narrowed down to 2 brands- thinking we'll just just do half and half!
- We are NOT using reusable/cloth wipes. I love you Mother Earth, but not that much
- Thanks to some acquaintances, we got a great deal on a Bumbo with tray, Pack N Play (with the features we wanted-bonus!- and it's gender neutral), and an activity jumper- I love good deals!
- We have a couple of the big pieces for her room and the rest we know what we want, we just have to go get it/order it! (nursery and inspiration post coming soon!!)

Celebrating Halfway!

Emily sent me a link to a site where one mom-to-be made a list of things she loves and loathes about being pregnant at her halfway point. It was really cute! And although I'm a little over halfway, I thought it would be fun to make a list of my own. I really don't want to use the word "loathe" because there's really nothing I loathe about being pregnant (so far!) and like I've said before, I feel so blessed to be where I am and don't want to sound like a big whiner! So I'll just stick to some things I don't particularly just love ;) I am feeling great and feel so fortunate that this has been such a smooth pregnancy thus far and that we have a healthy little girl to meet in a few months!

I LOVE feeling her move around! And I really love when J is able to feel her move :)

I don't love spending $40 on a tube of stretch mark cream. I know, I know- it's more about genetics, but I think it's a mental thing at least knowing I'm trying to prevent it...

I love that my mom makes us food every week so that I don't have to worry about what we're going to have or making it- THANK YOU Mom!! (and keep it coming! ;)

I don't love how often I have to get up to go to the bathroom. I think I need a temporary office set up closer to the restrooms!

I love that being pregnant has motivated me to eat healthier, take more walks (good for me, baby, and Cash!), and really get my blood sugars under control. I hope I can keep it up even after she's here! But this has shown me that I really can do it and it's not impossible.

I love/don't love that I'll be mega prego in the middle of a Tennessee Summer...I am glad that skirts and maxi dresses are an option, but heat + humidity + having a watermelon sized belly= enough said

I don't love being high risk, but I do love the fact that it allows us to monitor her so closely, hear her heartbeat every other week, and watch her grow!

I love that I don't worry as much as I used to- being pregnant and not really able to control a lot or knowing at all times what's going on is hard. I really realized I needed to put my trust in God and know He is going to take care of me and Baby E!

Ok, now I'm ready to really celebrate the halfway+ milestone with a pedicure!

a peek at little miss...

Our sweet, healthy girl at 23 weeks + 1 day :)

We had a growth ultrasound today (slash follow up from our mid-pregnancy ultrasound when someone wasn't cooperating...) and everything looked great! We finally got to see her face- nose, eyes, chin, mouth (even her tongue when she opened her mouth!)- sweet little hands and feet and her fingers and toes- SO cute!! But she sure does love to keep her arm up by her head/face :) She's measuring right on track and weighs about 1 pound 3 ounces. It's crazy to think we found out we were pregnant 4 months and 5 days ago and we'll be meeting her in a little less than 4 months!

22 weeks

How far along? 22 weeks (a little late posting! This picture was taken at 22 weeks and the below is all in reference to last week :)

Maternity clothes?  still just loving my belly band, leggings, yoga pants, and my one pair of maternity pants! All 3 make life SO comfortable! However, Emily let me borrow a ton of maternity clothes that are just waiting on me when I'm ready.
Movement?  she's moving more and more as each week passes! Some are little and some are definitely more profound. J was able to feel her 2 more times this week :)
Cravings? Fruit, fruit all the time- fresh fruit, smoothies, sorbet, whatever! And SWEETS. Hopefully this subsides...
Anything make you queasy or sick? nope!

Sleep? can't sleep near as long as I used to, but I really can't complain since I'm still able to get comfortable easily
Best moment this week: Just being able to feel her moving more often and J getting to feel her a couple times. She wants to stop as soon as he lays his hand down!

Gender: GIRL
Labor signs? nope!
Symptoms? growing little by little, tired pretty frequently, after some long days my ankle swells a little (always the left one??)

Belly button in or out? hanging in there, getting more and more shallow though!

What I miss: sleeping in :) I'm sure I'll be saying this for years to come!

What I am looking forward to: excited to see her TWICE next week! Ultrasound Tuesday (5/15) and EKG Thursday (5/17- even though they'll be focusing on her heart, we'll still get to peek in :)
Milestones: Starting to look more pregnant and becoming more obvious to others (vs having a pot belly ;)

21 weeks

How far along? 21 Weeks (baby is as long as a carrot!)

Maternity clothes?  well, I gave in this past week. I can still get away with wearing several of my normal pants, but I found a pair of black maternity pants at Old Navy for $6 (yes, SIX DOLLARS!)...these are the best things I have ever worn!! I'm not sure I'll go back now :) I have already told the girls I work with that they can go ahead and plan on me wearing these twice I week! Still wearing all regular shirts (and pants other than those) for now though.
Movement?  still feeling sporadic jabs and rolls : ) no real pattern yet. However, I have noticed I feel her most when I get home from work in the evening. I think she's just as happy to be home as I am :) I am usually in bed and asleep by 10pm, but this past weekend, I stayed up until 11:30 on Friday night. When I got in bed, she was moving all around- so she either liked the strawberries I had for a snack or this is one of her active times and I just usually sleep through it (11:30 pm?! Girl, we are going to need to kick that habit! ;)
Cravings? Sweet and candy, fruit, smoothies, and sorbet (Kroger's Private Selection Tropical Mango- seriously the best thing EVER)...and recently salad! (maybe I can balance all of those sweets out??)
Anything make you queasy or sick? nope!

Sleep? starting to get up twice a night almost every night to go to the bathroom, but having an easier time falling back to sleep when I get in bed (hallelujah!) and this weekend slept in until 10am, woo hoo!!
Best moment this week: starting to feel her move more frequently :) AND we decided to go ahead and get started on our registries this weekend! Wow- SO many decisions!! But at least we got a start and have time to go through them and edit and get answers to questions!
**UPDATE to best moment (that tops the others above!): 

J was able to feel her move for the first time on May 6th!! I've definitely been feeling her for several weeks, but we haven't been able to get her to move for him. She's most active mid-morning (while I'm at work) and in the evening/night. So we just sat on the couch and waited...and finally he felt her! Just once, but hopefully she'll start moving more for him :)

Gender: Girl
Labor signs? nope!
Symptoms?  I think it's safe to say the nausea is gone! Sayonara!! Started getting some leg cramps during the night, but not bad.

Belly button in or out? still in!

What I miss: I'll be honest- sleeping all the way through the night!
What I am looking forward to:  Officially settling on a name for this chick! We are thisclose.
We also have an appointment with the doctor this week- haven't seen her in almost 4 weeks, so for me that's a long time! Not looking forward to stepping on the scale : / But I'm more looking forward to our follow-up/growth ultrasound in 3 weeks. Hoping she decides to show her face!!
Weekly wisdom: I'm convinced just like you can have food aversions when you're pregnant (which I know nothing about!), foods can taste so much better while you are pregnant! For me, it's fruit. I feel like all fruit I eat is so much more flavorful than before. And that's why I can't stop eating it (or that dang sorbet...)
Milestones:over the 20 week "hump"- officially onto the last half! (whoa!)

Pregnancy Brain

So up until yesterday, I really didn't buy into the idea of "pregnancy brain". I realize I can be forgetful and didn't want to use being pregnant as an excuse (although sometimes at work, I've wondered if they would buy it! ;). I usually just chalk it up to me being me (like the time I tried to use the food processor and didn't put the blade in...I was pregnant, but didn't know it- that's way too early to blame it on the baby!). But this time, I did something way not normal and weird...

A few days ago, I cut up some apples so that they would be an easy snack. Put them in a tupperware container and stuck them in the fridge. I had some for a snack Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, decided they would be good with some peanut butter for breakfast. Well, I scoured the refrigerator and could not find them anywhere. I moved stuff around, opened drawers. They weren't there. I figured J had eaten them the night before or took them to work, and just decided I'd call him on my way to work and ask. Turns out, he hadn't touched them! As soon as I got home from work yesterday, I was on a mission to find those apples! Checked the fridge again (and the freezer, just in case)...nope. Did I leave them in the living room where I was eating them? Nope. Were they in our room or the guest room for some reason? No and no. So I headed back to the kitchen. Checked the trash- not there. The oven, nope. Started looking in the cabinets (maybe I put it in with the rest of the tupperware?)- not in the first three I checked. Then I opened the cabinet with the pots...tada!

I mean, that's totally where apples should go, right?!
Wow... I guess this "pregnancy brain" thing is for real! I'm sure this is only the beginning. J should be scared!