nursery fever

29 weeks. 29 inches of baby tummy. 15 pounds up. still healthy, and my cute little baby kicks have turned into "owww! what are you doing in there?!"

other than that, i'm becoming increasingly aware of how little time i have left to get everything "prepared" for this baby, especially considering our guest room is being inhabited for another month. i was reminded by my friend that this can be pulled off successfully in four days, which makes me feel a little better, knowing it can be done. but i still have a hard time trying to quiet my nesting hormones telling me to make way for this little guy or girl. 

and so begins the "nursery design" issue. 

below is a bird's eye view of my guest room/nursery. we rent so wall color/trim is staying the same, which is white walls with sage trim. the floors are medium stained original oaks. there is a brown jute rug in there that i'll probably trade out for the softer wool powder blue one in our living room. there is a queen bed, a night stand, and small dresser that are part of set that is pewter and natural wicker. as you can see there are a lot of doors and windows, making space planning difficult. the door to the right leads to the entry space to the house. we don't use it. i would center the crib on the door and use it as a backdrop, but then we may not have room for a chair (which is actually wider than the one pictured). and i can't decide if i want the crib centered with the door or with the bed. because the bed has to be centered with the window. i'm too anal not to have balance.

moving on. this is my guest bedding. i love it. love love love it. 

and these are the fabrics i like for baby. i've decided to take on making my own crib skirt and bumper. i can't find any out there i like enough to spend the money on. and i also cannot stand the way pre-fab crib skirts just hang and blow in the breeze. it's like window treatments that don't hit the floor. drives me bonkers. on top of that, i want to be able to cover the space beneath for storage. 

i'm for sure using the middle fabric, and either the top or bottom with it (not both). you can't tell from the picture, but the dots on the top fabric are actually a darker turquoise than the stripes. it's cute. i also really want to add pom-poms to the bottom of the crib skirt. 

i already have turquoise and orange accents in the room. i don't and didn't intend for the two room plans to blend or go together well. i think i just really like the color combo. 

with the middle fabric i'll most likely go with a natural crib finish and leave the wood--gasp! unpainted wood? whoever heard of such? anyway. i already gave my bit about the curtains, i'll leave painted wood alone. and i'm guilty of it myself. i just painted and repurposed a wood dvd shelf over the weekend. sometimes it is necessary. back to topic--the wood finish will help keep it more masculine since that fabric is definitely more feminine and i'm about 85% sure i'm having a boy. a white crib would be too girly.

so that's what i've got for now. it may change. 

oh and we have a real live registry now! with real things on it! who knew you need so many things for a baby? i think we had fewer things on our wedding registry.

now. back to my quinoa-roni and cheese.

gearing up for 3rd

time is officially flying. october is almost over. my favorite month! what did i do for it?! everyone keeps saying that with the holidays coming up, my third trimester will fly by and the baby will be here before we know it. i think with or without the holidays it will fly by, if the rate it's going now is any indication.

today is our one year anniversary! i can't believe that in three months we'll have a baby. while i won't say we weren't caught off-guard by that fact, the closer it gets, the more real it becomes, and the more exciting. 

to celebrate our last anniversary without kids to worry about for a lonnnnggg time, we went away to fairhope, alabama for a couple of days. it's not something we had in our budget, but we went anyway, cherishing our time away from life. we took the back roads there and on the way we passed a yard-side flea market at which i spotted a pretty neat looking dresser (we've been looking for a dresser to use as a changing table for a while now). the dresser was ok and we ended up not getting it, but the real treasure was a crib! a jenny lind crib frame for TEN. DOLLARS. it was missing the springs/mattress platform but i thought, hey, for ten dollars, we can get one of those off of ebay and make the dang thing work. 

{for those of you unfamiliar with jenny lind, she was a popular singer/song-writer in the mid 1800s. this type of wood spindle furniture came out around that time and was named for her. originals would probably be worth a lot more than $10, but it has been inexpensively replicated for years and years and has always been regarded as very classic, especially in children's furniture.}

the stain on the one we found is coming off around the edges, and it's a medium stain (lighter than the picture). not something that particularly matches anything i have. although i'm usually an advocate of wood and saving an original finish, this crib may need paint. 

for six months i have managed to hold back any need to create an elaborate nursery. mostly because we don't have cash monies for that, and also because i think (no, i know) the baby won't really care. in 3 years when our kid is into dinosaurs and we have to create a dinosaur themed room, then i'll get into "designer mode." people have been surprised that we are not finding out the sex, not only for clothing preparations, but also they say "aren't you a designer?! how are you going to plan the nursery?!" easy. we find a crib. we find a changing table. done. that's all we need. 

that being said, now that we have a crib--now that we have a starting point--my gears are finally starting to turn. this is the bedding i have picked out (the one thing on our registry). at this point i'm not sure if i'll keep it or not, but these are at least the colors: light turquoise and tangerine.

we're not exactly sure what to do about our nursery situation. we have a 2 bedroom house. one of those bedrooms is ours (and is very large) and the other is a guest room, which is very important when all of your family is out of town. we originally planned to have the crib in our room, but we've heard from more and more people that having a baby in your room equals no sleep for mama. too much temptation to jump up at every little breathing pattern change. a crib will fit in our guest room, so i think that it will go there. which works out well because the colors in there are very similar. and it just so happens to have the prettiest bird bedding which would keep the unintentional bird theme. so either way, we have options. we will be putting casters on the crib so we can wheel that little bugger wherever we want.

so enough about that. here's a 6 month picture for you, taken in downtown fairhope. i hope that dress fits for a while! i wear it nearly every weekend. it's comfy and one of those "i'm obviously pregnant" outfits.

not much new in the way of pregnancy news. i feel more movements. i can feel when there's a head pushing to one side. typically the baby is head up and feet down. i've gotten a lot more bladder kicks. that is interesting. one of these days i won't be so lucky to control them and i'll tee-tee myself. sometimes my blood sugar acts funny in the morning. i called my doctor in a panic thinking surely i had  gestational diabetes. they told me low sugar in the morning is perfectly normal and not to panic and just drink some orange juice first thing in the morning to help level it out so it doesn't spike after i eat. 

other than that i still feel great and i am still growing outwardly (as the picture above shows). people now, very confidently, approach me as a pregnant lady and ask me questions. i have to admit i kind of like it. i definitely gave pregnant women the "aww, you look so cute" all the time, so to be on the other end of it feels kind of neat :) 

i've also been so enjoying the company of my friends who are mamas. i've gotten to spend several nights (up past my bedtime) chatting and listening to parenting stories all the way from pregnancy to toddler-hood. i think the most important thing i've taken away from everyone is that there is no one single method that works for every parent. you kind of have to just find what works for you and do it. 

i welcome any advice, so long as it's given in a nurturing way. it's funny how some people deliver their advice in a "you can never be prepared enough" scare tactic kind of method. as if i have a choice. the baby is already coming! i'm no more prepared than they were with their first, which is why i love to hear people's stories! but luckily there are very few of those, and more often than not they are acquaintances. or perfect strangers. and they don't count.

i've come a long way since knowing no one in pensacola when i moved here, to starting a family here and having such a great network of people around me for support. i may not be mentally prepared for a newborn, but i have a lot of friends who have been there and done that. and for that i am grateful! 

pregnancy brain

today i am 25 weeks and my body is officially out of vertical storage space for this baby. it happens when you're short and short-torsoed. so this baby can only grow out, which is happening quickly. and strangers are no longer afraid to refer to me as being pregnant.

another thing that is happening quickly is the deterioration of my brian, or "pregnancy brain" as i've heard it called. i noticed in the first trimester a general forgetfulness, like forgetting to bring my lunch to work or forgetting my phone. little things. now i've moved onto decision making processes that kind of make me appear to be an idiot. especially at work.

i've been called "slow" multiple times in my life. both in joking and serious manners. it's something i've come to accept. but one thing people need to understand about me (and my husband knows this well) is that i'm not a slow thinker, nor am i an idiot. i simply have a very detailed thought process. i'm a thinker, and actually quite logical. i live in my head a lot. and sometimes i am having very deep thought conversations with myself while performing simple activities, which might make me appear to be slow. i am not.

but i don't know where my mind has been recently. when people ask themselves "what was i thinking?!" i am asking myself this in a very literal sense, wondering if i was thinking about anything at all. when people give me pertinent information, it seems to disappear whenever i need it most. or whenever it would be a really good idea to recall an important fact (like in which order shampoo and conditioner are applied to your hair)...gone. i hear it gets worse, but i hope not. i feel like a legitimate idiot sometimes.

but really, all in all, i've had a near perfect pregnancy. and i did not expect that at all. so i am trying to be grateful for that. my weight, size, blood pressure, emotional state, etc. all have been stable and perfectly on track. i have developed a strangely overwhelming sweet tooth (in my non-pregnant state, sometimes i don't even like chocolate, nor can i stand the smell of cupcake icing), but i'm trying to combat it with fruit and natural sugar sources, although that doesn't always work when you live within a few blocks of krispy kreme and that daggum "hot now!" sign is ALWAYS on. stupid donuts...

with the third trimester around the corner, i'm trying to enjoy being pregnant while i can. time seems to be flying. this baby will be here before we know it!

we also finally started a registry. there is one item on it. but, in my defense, people have been SO good to us in providing most of what we need. we really only lack the non-exciting essentials, like diapers, burp cloths, and creams (lord help me if i have to use the word "ointment"). at some point we will hunker down and get serious about it. but not just yet. i want to enjoy all that we've been blessed with without thinking about more stuff we need. with our ever-growing "baby pile," we might be broke but our baby won't know it!!

this explains a lot!

so i've been (reluctantly, due to my hatred of being photographed) having the hubs take photos each month to document my progress. it's no wonder i feel so much bigger lately. look at the difference between months 4 and 5! definitely broke the barrier between questionable weight gain and "there's a baby in there."

and last night we witnessed our first exterior belly movements. the mister likes to say in a deep voice "yo, lil' baby monks--this yo daddy! go clean your room!" and we got a few kicks out of that (literally).

sidenote: it's too bad my hair didn't look as good in 4 as it does in 5 (or all the others, for that matter). i'm having a good hair day apparently! must be the drop in humidity which i'm thoroughly enjoying...

our little night owl

so i'm in week 23 and i just really need to ask all the moms on "i didn't know i was pregnant" a question: how did you not feel that?! if i didn't know there was a baby inside of me, i'd for sure think it was an alien. in contrast to the beginning movements, i know this ain't gas!

last night i was awake (as i usually am during the baby's active times of the night) and felt some sort of limb move from one side of my belly to the other. not the usual jabs and punches. from my kung fu days i thought to myself "i think that was the elbow move from line one...yep, definitely the elbow."if it hadn't been dark in the room i'm sure i could have seen it.

but one thing is for sure, the night time movements are much bigger and more pronounced than the daytime flutters and squirms. i'm afraid we're going to have a night baby on our hands. especially considering how much time i spend just lying awake. something tells me my internal clock is being adjusted. bye-bye sleep! see ya in a few years!

there's not much else to report for the last couple of weeks, except that i seem to have grown a baby in a week. sometimes i walk past the mirror on the way to the shower in the mornings and do a double-take. i even googled "23 weeks pregnant" to see if i was a normal size compared to other women. i'm afraid so. i just don't have as much room. considering the baby already monopolizes every square inch of body cavity i have vertically, the only place for him or her to grow is out. just when i think "man, i'm really starting to look pregnant," then i start looking more pregnant. easy logic, i know. but when it's your body changing, it's very much a daily adjustment!

and that's pretty much it. no cravings, no mood swings. just normal me with a growing belly and an active night owl inside.

whoa baby!

21 weeks. time is flying!

lots of changes these days. like, for example, i'm sitting here trying to type a blog feeling like i just ate 5 lbs of pasta because baby has decided "hey! there's so much more room up here!" and has moved into my ribcage for the time being. where normally my lower belly is tight and round, it is now loose and deflated while my upper belly is quite round (and uncomfortable), unless i can convince little monks to move back down to where he/she is supposed to be.

i also feel like i finally look pregnant (in some clothes anyway). it's definitely that stage where people are starting to look at my belly and wonder. my sister's friend had a shirt that said "yes, i'm pregnant." i think i need that shirt.

i'm feeling kicks and turns and movements all the time now. what started as just a flutter here and there are now full-blown scheduled times of activity (right now i'm picturing the part in step-brothers where they bunk their beds and survey the room exclaiming "there's so much room for activities!"). for example i found myself wide awake at 2am a couple of nights ago, first hungry for a pb&j sandwich, and then returning to bed for probably the most movement i've felt so far. about a week ago i was finally able to feel the little movements on the outside of my belly, but i am lucky to catch them. but that night, all i had to do was rest my hand anywhere near my belly and that was enough to catch the choreography going on inside there. it was crazy! and even the hubs has gotten his hand over in time to feel a few bumps here and there.

i feel a lot of normalcy right now. no crazy emotions or cravings or anything like that. still a general tiredness from time to time, but not a "i can't get out of bed" exhaustion like the first trimester. i just usually think to myself how great a nap would be. i've gained 3 whole pounds, and for this i am very relieved. i admit there's a lot of vanity tied to that, because i've long had a great fear of what my body would do during pregnancy. i'm short, and already curvy. haven't considered myself "thin" since my early teens. i have little room in my body for a baby (and when i say this, i don't exaggerate--i just got back from my prenatal appointment on friday and was shown exactly where the top of my uterus is right now...i have four inches left--FOUR, people). and because of this i always feared i'd balloon up and be one of those women who gains tons of weight during pregnancy and is left with an unrecognizable body afterwards. i had pre-accepted the fact that i'd just be a beached whale as pregnant person. but i think i'm doing ok. i've read and heard that if the majority of your weight is gained towards the later half of pregnancy that you have a much better chance of returning to your normal weight pretty quickly after birth. now, don't get me wrong. i DON'T think these thoughts are healthy in anyway. nor do i judge other pregnant women by the way their bodies take shape during pregnancy because i've always thought pregnant women were beautiful. therefore, i realize that this points to an underlying issue of insecurity. but, dangit, right now i'm just happy that people are telling me i look great for once in my life! i'm living it up while i can!

so other than the fact that i sometimes feel like my legs are going to break off at the hip, i feel pretty good. no major problems. but dang, my hips really hurt sometimes! and i can't pinpoint exactly what it is. some sources say it could be sciatica, and some say it's your joints moving because your ligaments are more stretchy. whatever it is, i'll be glad when that part is over. i'm living for my heating pad most nights.

i also think i finally settled on a healthcare provider to deliver our baby. i didn't initially plan on switching, but i think we've made the best decision possible given our options. and i've learned a lot more about the birthing process since this all started. i just pray everything goes normally and without complication. i like to whisper our baby words of encouragement that usually involve the word "seven" and "little." i like to stay away from words like "nine" and "ten" and "big."

i also went to this giant mom-to-mom sale event thanks to a friend who gave up her ticket and got a lot of goodies for really great deals! one of them was a pretty sweet dinosaur onsie. it even has socks with "claws" on them. it is awesome. my husband and i have a thing for dinosaurs. and i was a dinosaur for my first halloween. super cute.

and i'll just leave you with that thought in your head since this has turned into a novel. and i'll try and get some pictures up soon of my growing (and moving) belly!

almost half way

well, i'm over 19 weeks. and we had an ultrasound last week! above is my favorite picture. it's not so skeleton-y and you can see the perfect facial profile. i'm a little obsessed with that cute little nose. the ultrasound lasted a long time (partially because i didn't want the torture of drinking as much water as they wanted me to before going in, and therefore they made me drink it when i got there). while there we got to see flips and rolls and waves and feet. it's such a reassurance, because even though it's pretty apparent that i'm pregnant, i don't feel a whole lot yet. seeing all that movement was like "all that's happening inside my body?!"

but i am starting to feel more! especially at night when i lay down, and in the morning when i really wake up and really have to teetee. i guess since my bladder is so full there is less room for baby and i can feel more?? i don't know. all i know is i like it! it's surprising how emotionally attached i am to someone i don't even know yet.

i've also come increasingly interested (perhaps mildly obsessed) with pregnancy, the birthing process, and early infancy. i want to know everyone's birthing story. i want to know what it was like when the moms in my life were pregnant. i want to know everything. and people aren't as willing to give up their experiences with me as i would have thought :) every time i see a pregnant woman i want to stop her and invite her over for coffee.

i've also become increasingly opinionated. this is no surprise. i don't claim to be a non-opinionated person. or a non-stubborn person. i don't surprise myself. but i understand the birthing process is something very personal, so for that reason i don't really like talking about it with people. first of all, i don't want to offend anyone. secondly, i understand (despite what everyone might think) that birth doesn't always go as planned. i know this! i promise i do! but i also think that there are a lot further measures you can go to in order to protect your birth plan. i've done so much research. watched a lot of videos. but i haven't experienced it yet, so that's why i'm still pretty private about it. i don't claim to be a pro! when baby arrives and i have time for blogging afterward, then i will divulge :)

i want to know though--is this normal? do pregnant women do this kind of research? or do they just go to the doctor, call the doctor when they're in labor, and go to the hospital and just have a baby the way everyone around them says it should be done? i think it's vitally important to not only know your body and what it's capable of, but to also know the process and know your options. it's never a bad thing to do research and i don't think you can be over-prepared for such a life-defining moment. i've even had fathers tell me that the absolute best moment of their life was seeing their children arrive into the world. wouldn't you want that to be as special as possible? (somewhere someone is going "yes, but safe and special"--i know, i get it.)

ok i'm done.

also. h&m has maternity clothes. and i bought myself a pair of skinny maternity mint jeans. oh yes i did!