I Feel Huge! :)

I would also hate to keep anyone in the dark about what I'm looking like these days! ;) I saw my sister this weekend (whom I just saw on Memorial Day, which doesn't seem like too long ago) and she said I definitely needed to change my profile picture on myspace and facebook because I'm "way bigger" now. :)

I'm up to about 34 1/2 weeks now (35 weeks on Sunday). I can't believe how close we're getting! This whole experience has been so surreal to me. The idea that we're actually going to have a baby just blows my mind. However, the good news is that so far I've only gained an extra 17 pounds! I would tell you what I weigh now, but then you'd be able to figure out where I started at and we don't need that!! :)

I still feel really good. I wish it were this easy for everyone because I know it's not and that makes me feel sorry for my friends that have bad experiences. I've had a few little contractions every once in awhile but nothing big and definitely not anything to worry about. But most of the time I feel great. :) I washed all of my baby laundry yesterday so all of the clothes that I have that are 0-3 mos. are clean and ready to go as well as towels, washcloths, burp cloths, blankets, and on and on. :) I have two more baby showers this weekend (my last two!) so look forward to posts of those as well!

Nursery, Phase 2

First of all, I realized today that I am obsessed with reading other people's blogs. Not to mention the fact that I find myself disappointed to find out that they haven't posted anything new. And who is the worst about not posting anything new? That would be me!! So to those of you that feel disappointment that I haven't posted anything new in a couple of weeks, my apologies to you. :)

I said that I would post pics of the nursery process. The painting was very successful and took way less time than I thought it would. The first day I painted for a total of about 5 hours and got the insides of the closets and all of the light green walls finished. The second day I did a second coat on all of the light green walls for a total of about 2 1/2 hours. The third day I did the crib wall (with Ryan's help around the ceiling and trim) and that only took a couple of hours (Ryan also had to touch up around the ceiling on the light green walls). The fourth day was Ryan and me doing second coats on the crib wall for maybe 1-1 1/2 hours. Not bad at all! Considering last summer I painted our kitchen/dining room/informal living room (for those that haven't been here, it's one long rectangle) for a solid week and each day was a full day of painting (the first couple of days were literally 12 hours of painting!). So this year's painting was a huge success. :)

Yesterday morning we (when I say "we" I mean "Ryan"!) finally got the crib put together. This is a story in itself. For whatever reason, Ryan and I have horrible luck buying furniture. As in, when we get it home there is always something wrong with it. I swear, I'm not making this up! I could tell you about our furniture-buying adventures, but that's another post in itself! Anyway, we get the crib home and Ryan intends on putting it together that night because he knows how excited I am about seeing it completed. Well, one of the side pieces has this really bad flaw on the top. Upon examining the other pieces, Ryan realizes that one of the legs looks more like it's brown (it's supposed to be black). So back to the store we go the next day to exchange these pieces out. Problem solved. However, the next time Ryan tries putting the crib together he realizes that what he thought was the bottom of the legs was actually the top and two of the legs are really messed up. Back to the store again. Oh well, it's now all finished. However, there is no mattress or bedding yet! I ordered bedding from ebay and it's supposed to be in soon and when it comes in I'll go to Target and get a mattress so I can get all of that put together!

Now to explain the pics I'm posting. I just went around the room and took pictures of everything. Under the window is our guest bed. I bought new bedding for it and turned it so that it would look sort of like a daybed or perhaps even a couch.

To the right of the bed is one of the closets. This is the one that will actually house clothes. As you can see, we moved a dresser into the closet as well.

The other closet is going to be used as a changing area. The bookshelf you see in the closet is going to be our "changing table" (even though it has a car seat on top of it at the moment!). The only thing I have to do is get one of those changing table pads.

To the right of that closet is my really comfortable chair and ottoman (albeit not exactly gorgeous in color, but who cares!) and a trunk we got from my grandma's house that we're going to use as a toy chest. Right now it's not exactly safe for a baby (well, for any child!) but we'll work on that. And the other day I came up with the idea (since the piece is old and well-used in the first place!) that it would be so cool to paint it with chalkboard paint. So I think that might be what I do because it will help it match the decor in the room anyway, and what kid wouldn't love that!

Lastly is the crib. At least you can get an idea for it, even if it isn't all the way made up!

Nursery, Phase 1

I'm finally getting to start on the nursery! I think some people have panicked a little for me when I tell them that the baby's room hasn't even been started. :) But that is no longer the truth. I began painting yesterday and will hopefully be finished either tomorrow or Friday. Then it will be time to start decorating! I'm posting a few pictures to give you an idea of what's going on in the room. Her room has two closets that used to have accordian doors in front of them. But we've taken the doors down and are going to use that space. One side will house a dresser and her clothes and the other side will have a changing table and the supplies for that. And I'm sure there will be toys on both sides! There are two colors I'm using for painting. I picked something that would match the red, black, and white theme without being one of those colors. So the green is supposed to make you think of grass or leaves, since that is what you would find around ladybugs!

The inside of the closets is a darker green called Key Lime and the other walls in the room are a shade lighter than that (although I don't remember what the color is called). The only wall that is unfinished is the wall that the crib is going to be on. It's going to be painted the Key Lime color as well, as an accent color.

I will definitely keep posting pictures of the process, as well as the final outcome!

My Advice to You

Short and simple: Don't waste time going to Six Flags when you are pregnant and can't do anything there! :) We went on Saturday with the group of college students we "lead" in a Bible study. It was fun in that I got to hang out with them (when they weren't riding roller coasters!), but Six Flags is definitely not made for a 31-weeks pregnant girl! I spent a lot of time alone, since I really didn't want to stand in line with them while they were waiting for the rides and anyone that was in Texas on Saturday knows that the heat and humidity was awful!! But oh well. I survived and lived to tell about it! So you heard it here first: going to Six Flags pregnant is not a whole lot of fun! (I only saw 3 other women in my same predicament!) Hope my advice helps someone out there! ;)

Baby shower #2

Yesterday a baby shower was held for me at school. It was a lot of fun; very sweet and special. I'm posting pics of the cake, me with the hostesses, and the gift table (make sure you take a look at the diaper bear that my wonderful friend, Alison, made). Some of the gift highlights: several adorable outfits, duck bath towel, washcloths, bibs, spoons, bowls, sippy cups, diapers, wipes, Target gift cards, etc. I have to describe a couple of things my friend, Misty, made. One was a ladybug with a long ribbon attached to it to hold bows/clips. Then there was a box that had a headband with a little ribbon loop on top. The rest of the box was full of flower clips and bow clips to clip to the headband...this girl is going to be so stylish! :)

In looking at the picture of myself, I think I'm starting to look kinda huge! :) We're all the way up to 30 weeks now, crazy enough. I went to the doctor today and Karys's heartbeat was still a little more mellow this time (142), but my doctor says that's fine. I also found out that she doesn't let people go more than a week past their due date (yay!). I really have no complaints at this point in time. Okay, I take that back. The air conditioner in my car is out and it's ridiculously hot outside!! :) But I'm sure all of Texas, pregnant or not, is feeling this!

Happy Mother's Day!

Today is technically my very first Mother's Day. My sweet husband got me a digital photo frame, which was so awesome! And then today at church I was able to stand with all the other mothers to receive the little gift of candy that was given to all of the mothers. Hope all of my mom friends have a great day! :)

The "Dreaded" Sugar Test

At today's appointment, I had to do the glucose tolerance test, or as I've heard other people refer to it: "drink the nasty drink." I have come to a conclusion by doing this. I think I need to be done listening to other people's opinions on anything pregnancy or childbirth related, unless what they have to say is extremely positive. I am an extreme worrier by nature and hearing people's bad experiences about anything I don't know about, but will soon find out about, only makes the worry and fear that much worse. I had psyched myself out that this drink was going to be so nasty, I was going to have trouble drinking it, etc., etc. However, I am happy to say that I will put myself in the category of people who didn't mind it. I definitely didn't hate it...it was kinda good. It reminded me of drinking a flat Sunkist. Not half bad. So if you have positive stories to tell me about pregnancy and childbirth, bring it on. Otherwise, I may need to wait until after I've experienced it to hear your story! :)

At our appointment this morning, Karys was pretty mellow. Usually when we hear her heartbeat it's over 160 beats/min. Today, she was only at 142. My doctor said she was probably chilled out from all that sugar we had to have! :)

We're up to 28 weeks now...only 12 weeks left to go! Yikes! And for those of you asking if we've got everything ready, NO! I have to get out of school before I have any time to get her room ready. So needless to say, that's June's project! Thank goodness she's supposed to be a late-July baby!