Nursery Nesting

Since the first of January, we have been working in the nursery A LOT! First, the relocation of all our office furniture/computers/stuff/junk! Most of it was moved to the back room, a sunroom that is becoming our office. Then our contractor Shawn started redoing our walls, doors and closets. Here are a few before and in progress photos.

A blank slate...

First up, taking out the random window between rooms and replacing the door to the sunroom/office

Our tiny closet is about to grow

Elfa and The Container Store are amazing!

We love, love, love the barn doors that Shawn built for us!

Ben's first piece of baby furniture completed

And another project!

Carpet is done! FLOR pieces are really cool.

Time to read

Thanks to one of my father-in-laws, Wes, for helping with straightening our crib (due to our wonky floor not cooperating with our striped wall.)

Poms in progress - more to hang and waiting on chair to arrive for this corner (aka, future home of many late night feedings)

So we have made some progress! I am excited about how it's coming together. We couldn't be happier with the work our contractor did. Shawn is a friend from Lubbock and I'm so glad we decided to work with him. Our closet is also filling up quickly with lots of goodies from our two showers. We are so blessed with generous friends and family! Hopefully we will have a few more details finished up soon.

Well tonight we have our second LaMaze class. We are going to a birthing center for classes to get a perspective outside of the hospital. Last week was interesting with a lot of alternative options and good information. The class ended with a water birth video that was intense to say the least. We won't be going that route. Can't wait to see what tonight brings. Happy weekend everyone!

 

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Showered with Love in Lubbock

     This week was spring break and it couldn't get here soon enough. I'm so glad I've made it to spring break but I can't believe another month has flown by. I'm now at 30 weeks and officially in my third trimester. I'm definitely popping but I must not be completely done because my belly button hasn't completely popped yet. It's holding strong as a 'flattie' as Ben has named it. Hard to see how I'm going to grow more... but with 11 weeks left and the baby only around 3 pounds right now, I'm sure I'll be expanding some more. Stretch mark cream, don't fail me now!

We took this photo two weeks ago at 28 weeks.

 

     I started spring break off with a trip to Lubbock for our first baby shower. I can't believe after all the generosity our friends and family showed us last year for our wedding, they are ready to do it again. But they are and we are so grateful. The baby and I made our last flight for the pregnancy to Lubbock while Ben got a dude ski weekend in Colorado with some friends from Kansas. I love to ski but I'd still argue that my weekend was better. Saturday morning we had a shower brunch at my best friend, Juli's parent's house. Cathy, Juli, two of my mom's oldest friends, Theresa and Linda and three of my oldest friends, Geetha, Emily and Amy all were hostesses. They had taken care of everything down to the smallest detail with yummy food, coffee punch, adorable decorations and a diaper cake with a hidden bottle inside of delivery room champagne! I had a chance to see several of mom's good friends along with old friends of mine from growing up and McMurry. A few moms came for friends that couldn't make it from out of town too. Including moms and daughters there were actually three generations represented for several families. We took a mass photo of this which was quite the photo op. We were also truly showered with baby goodies - so many generous guests made me feel very loved. Thankfully mom and dad are driving to Dallas next weekend and can bring everything to us. I can't wait to find just the spot for it all in the nursery.

 

One of my favorite gifts - booties and a baby blanket made by Aunt Monty

 



Goodies from Angela in Kwaj

My little helpers - Cate and Sophie

 



The sleep lamb was a very popular gift

Family - Julie, Mom, Aunt Monty and I

 



We had a whaley good time!

     Over the weekend, we also fit in a Tech basketball game, some of my favorite restaurants, shopping and some more girl time. The boys team had an exciting win against UT. Mom and Dad have been talking about the team all season so I was glad to make it to a game.

Go Red Raiders!

     Saturday night, I met up with the girls again at La Diosa, my favorite wine, ahem water bar, in town. For me it was a straight water night which was perfectly fine, the fun part was catching up with everyone. We all have different lives in various cities, with children, without children, some married for over a decade, some single, some newlyweds; but we can still remember quickly why we became friends so long ago. There are other groups with long bonds like this but I still feel we are pretty lucky to have history together for over 25 years. The conversations have changed some, still lots of relationship talk and reminiscing about old times but now it's also baby talk and even beyond to what type of kids we want, their possible high school experience and what we had that we hope they will have too.

The rest of my time in Lubbock was spent shopping with mom, at the movies, seeing family and enjoying some of my favorite foods from home. I had to pull the pregnancy card but mom gave in and made me a red velvet cake. Red velvet is almost everywhere now, but no one's red velvet is like mom's.

 

 

     Now it's Sunday and Spring Break 2013 is on it's last leg. While I can't believe it, I do feel like I am going back to work refreshed. After all the fun in Lubbock, I was able to spend the rest of the week at home with Ben. We cooked and worked on house projects, I saw some friends and we hung out with part of Ben's family. I am definitely in nesting mode with the nursery but it is still a work in progress. (Ben showed his patience for all my ideas yet again!) We also had a doctor's appointment and our last sonogram. Everything looked great - my, how that baby has grown (3 pounds, 3 ounces to be exact). We start our birthing classes this coming Friday which I'm excited about. Right now, I feel like we don't even know, what all we don't know about delivery and beyond - but I have a feeling we will soon be aware.

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day tomorrow everyone!

 

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I Love You So Much

     We have had a busy month since I posted last. At our February doctor's appointment, all was on track with the baby and I took the gestational diabetes test. I found out my results for the diabetes test a few days later and I didn't pass so I had to take the longer follow-up test to find out for sure. This was the first issue we've really had through this pregnancy and I was scared when I got the news that Friday. I knew gestational diabetes is temporary but it can also become permanent and if you have it with one pregnancy, it'll probably reoccur with future pregnancies. Can you see how my mind jumps ahead a few problems? Both of those situations were stressing me out.

 

     Ben was great and we went into carb monitoring/lockdown mode over the weekend between the tests. Veggies, veggies and more veggies. I know you can live very fully as a diabetic (I've seen my dad do it amazingly well) but it is a huge shift from my loosened sweet tooth eating habits of the last few months. I took my second test which includes the same horrible sugar drink, a few hours of waiting room time and wandering around Presby Hospital and four lovely blood draws. Then the wait was on for several days. Meanwhile, we were looking forward for our one year anniversary and babymoon is Austin. The day before we left for Austin, we got the fabulous news that I passed my test and do not have gestational diabetes. Relief & happiness!

 

      Our trip to Austin was a lot of fun. We took off work early on Friday to get down there before evening and we stayed just off Town Lake on South Congress. This is my favorite part of Austin. Friday night we met up with my longtime friend from junior high, Amy, and her family for Mexican food and ice cream. They have two little girls so it was fun to see them in parent mode just a few steps ahead of us. Saturday we walked and ate and shopped and walked and napped and ate and relaxed. We found a memento for each of us which we thought was fair - Star Wars tchotchke for Ben, necklace for me, Yoda onesie for baby - sense a theme for dad and baby? Saturday night we celebrated our anniversary with an amazing Italian dinner downtown at La Traviata. We are always on the menu lookout for homemade pasta and they had it so we jumped on it. Dinner brought back not only memories of our big day a year before but also our trip to Italy this summer. We also made a few guesses for how long it'll be til we get back to Italy - really hope our little one is a future traveler!! We finished off the night with a stop by the Driskill, a walk down 6th street and a pedicab ride home.

 

      The only glitch in our trip was on our actual anniversary on Sunday. Yet again, the polar vortex decided to invade Texas which doubled our drive time home and possibly added a few gray hairs for both of us. It was cold and rainy when we left Austin but by the time we were in Temple, ice was forming. As we moved north, the road just got icier and Ben's knuckles got whiter. Seeing a car spin out right across from us on the southbound lanes didn't help, nor the crazy drivers who insisted to continue to speed and weave between the rest of us who were slowing down for the roads. By the time we made it to Dallas we were both exhausted and grateful to just be off the road. Six hours to drive home was not what we expected but we were probably lucky compared to others that same night on nearby highways who were stuck the entire night! We did spend our anniversary night home and safe, enjoying a slice of our wedding cake, so I'm grateful.

      Celebrating our first anniversary and babymoon in one trip was fun and even the thought of it - both of these milestones at once - made me over the moon happy. Wow, we have had such an amazing year. I think Ben and I really appreciate it for all it is in part because we were both looking and waiting for this part of life for a long time. Now that we have it, we are ready to soak up every last bit. I kept thinking about if if had to choose, would I want to relive the last year with all of our adventures or this coming year. As much as I would love to experience our wedding day again, I'm pretty sure the adventure is just getting better. I posed this question to Ben and without hesitation he said he thinks there won't be a way to top what we are going to experience this May. Do I ever mention how much I LOVE this guy?

Had to add two of my favorites from our wedding

 

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