Almost there

I haven't posted much about this pregnancy, and now it's almost done. Here I was at 26 weeks:

 

And here's 36 weeks ( a week and a half ago.) What a difference 10 weeks makes, eh? And in another 10 weeks I'll have a sweet little 6 week old baby!

 

I'm getting more and more excited about this little boy. We still don't have a name picked out, but hopefully we'll know when we see him. I'm pretty much ready as far as preparing for the little guy goes, and I'm definitely ready to stop being pregnant! I dream about labor almost every night and wake up disappointed that it's still weeks away. But in the meantime, I'm trying to focus on my other baby

Daphne will be 17 months old this week. She is such a joy and a treasure (mostly.) In the last few weeks she got 5 new teeth all at once, and we finally weened her from the bottle. She has been such a fun little companion as she learns new words, forms opinions and asserts her personality.

 She started our her life as the most un-cuddly, un-affectionate child, but she's growing into those characteristics more and more every day. At night and naptimes she likes a good snuggle before I lay her down, she works so hard to arrange herself around my huge tummy and then hold on for dear life. It's pretty funny. She also likes to pat my tummy and poke my belly button, but I'm afraid the poor dear has no idea what she's in for.

 She loves to put on her coat and get in the car. She likes to take everything out of mommy's wallet and pretend to talk on the phone. Her favorite toy is whatever item I happen to be using. She likes to brush her hair and mine with whatever she can find that resembles a hairbrush, i.e. doll brush, bottle brush, toilet brush. And yes, she is getting some hair. But only in one strip right on top of her head. Mohawk? Yep.

Planning a career in bank robbery to help pay off dad's student loans.

 She loves babies and I'm so excited for her to be a big sister. I just hope and pray that I will be able to give her everything she needs while I'm juggling a newborn. Bryce has been so amazing getting up with her early in the morning and taking over when he gets home, not to mention listening to me complain about various aches, heartburn, hormones, etc. I constantly remind him that he has no idea what it's like to be pregnant and he should count himself lucky to be male. But the truth is, I definitely wouldn't put up with me, or someone acting like me for so long. My kids have the best dad!

Bath time is her favorite. It's only my favorite when she doesn't poop.

Working hard on labor day

After a fabulous breakfast at a fun breakfast place Bryce rented a ladder and spent the day putting up this ceiling fan. While he was doing that, I got to clean up what I am sure will be the first of many poop explosions in the crib. You know the kind...where every surface and every item in the crib (including the baby) are covered with a healthy smear of poop. Casualties included a pillow and two stuffed animals that couldn't be saved.



I'm so proud of my handy man husband. But I'm not pleased about the catastrophe that used to be the living room. I guess I'll spend the rest of the day cleaning up after my other mess-maker.

11 months

Our little bug is 11 months old. Almost a year!
She's such a big girl these days.
She can wave, clap, stand unassisted for about 8 seconds and walk along edges.
She finally takes a bottle, won't eat baby food, but will eat anything else and likes to feed herself.
Still a mama's girl with some major separation anxiety, but loving her daddy more these days. Loves other kids, dogs and anything that's not a toy.
She's a good sleeper as long as she's at home in her crib, still likes to be swaddled at night and likes climbing out of the bath tub more than sitting in it.
Two bottom teeth, still not much hair to speak of but lots of personality.

We can't get enough of this darling, happy girl. She makes us happy in every way and it breaks my heart that she is almost a year old. She's more fun everyday but I don't want her to grow anymore. Any tips for that?

Jaimie's baby shower

My friend Jessica and I recently teamed up to give our friend Jamie Parker a baby shower.
Jessica is a design wiz, and made all our cute little paper items.



Can you tell she's having a girl?


We had a great turn out and it was a really fun party.


Unfortunately we let the afternoon slip by without getting a shot of the hostesses and guest of honor together. We'll have to get one soon.

We can't wait to meet your sweet baby Jaimie!

Half way through January and I never even blogged about our Christmas fun. Have I been super busy? Absolutely not. I have been consumed by the tv series Roswell for several weeks. It's basically LOST meets Twilight with a whole lot of cheesiness thrown in; what's not to love? Netflix and I have been great companions but now I've finished the series and all my normal productive and pleasure pursuits can resume.

Check back soon for posts covering:
Bryce's trip to Brazil
Christmas
Adventures of Daphne
awesome pictures of my duct taped car and more.

For the time being, let me just say that 2010 was the greatest year of my life so far, and I think 2011 is going to be even better

And this is why:

Adjusting

My first week and a half of being a new parent went so smoothly, I honestly couldn't have imagined it going easier. As we got closer to the two week mark things got exponentially more difficult. Hopefully we'll level out soon. But for now here are the ups and downs of new parenthood...

Downs first to get them over with:

1. My baby doesn't sleep during the day. Apparently naps are beneath her.

2. Mastitis sucks, and I don't think I even have a very bad case.

3. My bedroom permanently smells like baby poop, even though I can't seem to find any lingering traces anywhere.

4. I'm no longer allowed to go anywhere because my little lady is only comfortable when she's being held or swaddled and it's illegal to drive while holding or nursing your baby.
5.Miss Daphne always cries the loudest and the hardest when I decide to finally get in the shower.
6. My house is messy, and I would so much rather sleep than clean it.

As for the ups:
1: I get to snuggle and kiss this cutie all day long (and I do mean all day long because she is awake all day long!)

2. I've always hated blow drying my hair, and now I don't have to because I'm never leaving the house again.

3.Bryce is such a cute daddy! He literally pushed me over to get to the baby first when she was crying last night.

4. I've never felt so happy and emotionally healthy in my entire life as I do right now.

5. Baby smell, soft baby skin, cute baby noises, baby kisses.

6. You probably can't tell, but in this picture all of the mail is addressed to my infant. This is all the mail we got Saturday; I have become obsolete. That's totally fine-she's welcome to start pitching in and paying some bills!

7. My messy house doesn't even bother me that much because I'm cloistered upstairs snuggling my tiny sweetheart.

8. Half my preggo weight has fallen off! I know I have a long way to go and the rest of the lbs aren't going to disappear quite so easily, but Man! I feel skinny compared to a few weeks ago.

9. Baby laundry is so much cuter than regular old adult laundry. It doesn't even feel like a chore to wash all those pooped-on sleepers.

Wouldn't trade these days and nights for anything!

Ready for baby!

I've been doing some intense nesting the last several weeks, and now my little nest is all ready to bring a baby home to it. There has been lots of cleaning and baking involved, but I've mostly been best friends with my sewing machine. Here's what the baby's room looks like

I made all the bedding

Bryce and I refinished this Goodwill dresser together and I sewed the changing pad cover

Figured out how to make a diaper stacker without a pattern. It was quite a triumph!

Coordinating laundry bag from scraps

Nursing cover

Car seat cover

Not pictured: About a zillion hair bows, at least a dozen burp cloths and a couple of dresses I made.

And after all that I am still not done with the list of projects I want to finish before she comes.

Taken at 33 weeks, I'm 35 1/2 now.

Unemployed!

And 100% happy about it.

I didn't believe the end of this school year would ever truly come.

But it came, I survived and now on with life. I'm so happy I'll be getting to stay home with our little girl. However, I'm kind of overwhelmed at what I'm going to do with myself for the 11 hours a day I used to be at work each day until she comes...

I do have lots of projects on my to-list, such as

Refinishing this dresser,

turning this stack of fabric into bedding, curtains, etc. for the nursery,

replanting our little garden that got washed away in heavy rains,

cleaning out my garage

using my gym membership

knocking some books off my summer reading list

nagging Bryce about getting a fence put up

and on and on.

Oh, and to all my friends in the Indianapolis area, I am free to hang out now, ANY TIME!

Yes, I think I am going to like being job-free.

That's right folks!

We're having a girl!
Ruffles and bows, YAY! And, no need for me start pretending I'm interested in sports just yet.

Our little missy is looking good and healthy, due September 18th.

I'm so excited, I can't stand it.

What do YOU think?

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We go in for the big ultrasound in about 2 weeks. I've been dreaming about baby girls and baby boys so I'm divided. I think Bryce has gotten tired of me asking him a hundred times a day what he thinks it is, so will you indulge me?
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Take my poll, what am I having?

Lucky Number 22

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22 days left of school. Can't wait for this to be over.

lskaaf

22 weeks left of pregnancy. Enjoying this quite a bit now that I feel well.

aLSKFN

I'm liking this number so much today, I think I'm going to be 22 again this year.

I hate the word belly

So here is tummy picture

17 weeks and well on my way to HUGE.

Major craving so far:

Mustard

On a hot dog, a pretzel...or just by the spoonful.

OK!

Just one of the reasons I haven't blogged in a couple months is because my life was consumed by being in a play. I was in the show Oklahoma! at Footlite Musical Theatre in downtown Indianpolis. It was a lot of fun, but I'm glad for some time off. Thanks to my super friends who came to see the show!

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Another reason I haven't been up to blogging is my job. Anyone who's talked to me between last August and now knows that my job this year has been no piece of cake. I've had a particularly rowdy bunch of fourth graders, and I won't get into the nitty gritty details. But the good news is...I will not be enduring the same misery next year. I will be staying home to care for the BABY we're having in September!

ADEQFQE

And that's the third reason I haven't felt like blogging. I'm just about 16 weeks right now, and I think I'm finally over feeling like I have stomach flu all day, every day. I've had a few ultrasounds and baby appears to be doing well. I'm showing a little more than I would wish to this early on, and pants no longer fit, but it's so fun to visibly see the proof. I'm so excited for this baby to come, but so far I feel completely unprepared. That's normal right? Now I just have to get through the last 7 weeks of this school year and I can focus on getting ready for BABY!