Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving has been very busy with family get-togethers and celebrations. We were very lucky to have both of my sister in town and celebrated Maggie's 20th birthday (only one more year!!) on Thanksgiving Day!


We went to Gary's aunt & uncles house for Turkey Day and then my parents house the day after for Maggie's traditional birthday dinner of pizza and dip & bread (a pregnant woman's dream-might as well take advantage of this last week right?).


I also checked some major items off my 'to-do' list this weekend. We cleaned the entire house, got our few last baby items (on Black Friday-who does that?? Maggie & Kelly...), toe nails painted and the house is at least 1/2 way decorated. I still have a few more things to get done before Thursday, but I still have 3 days.


I am totally crazy and I am going to work one day this week. At least it will help pass the time. I feel like I am constantly staring at the clock waiting for the night to come and it finally to be another day. People are constantly telling me to 'enjoy' these last few days because before I know it...things are going to get REALLY busy around my house. It is REALLY easy for them to say that when they don't have two (adorable I'm sure) feet lodged in their rib cage. Although there are going to be sleepless nights and much, much more to do, I am ready to move onto the next stage and leave the pregnancy stage behind :)

This Is It

All that is left of the lovely Heparin injections. I think that I am more excited in the slowly diminishing amount of vials then anything else. I am at the point now where there are not too many places left to put a needle-I feel like I am going to pop everytime I do an injection!!

The 'almost' Big Sister

This little girls world is about to be rocked.

I had another doctors appointment this Tuesday and had my non-stress test today. Everything looks great with the baby! She was even sucking her thumb today which was pretty cute :) My doctor let me know that I have a 30% chance that I will go early. I like to think of that as a 70% chance that I will make it right up until my scheduled c-section date (even though I know how much Maggie would LOVE to share her birthday).

Complaints from a 9 month pregnant girl

I have made it through 261 days. I have 19 days to go-I shouldn't complain. I am complaining. I am in pain-so much pain. The only thing that I can compare it to is a broken rib like pain. No, I have never broken a rib, but this must be what it feels like. I am only pain free when completely laying down. I can maintain a level of pain tolerance if I am sitting. Walking is becoming difficult and, at times, totally embarrassing.

Today I was (again) attempting to get some Christmas shopping done at Target. I repeatedly had to stop and bed over in a pathetic attempt to remove my child's foot/leg/knee from my rib cage. I think that the other customers thought I was crazy or felt bad for me...by the time I started to remove clothing (don't freak out it was only a fleece) thinking that this would help the discomfort (don't ask-it just seemed like it would help) all shoppers had definitely jumped on the 'look at that weird girl' train.

As I was driving home I started to remember having this same problem with Brooke. After she was born and I got back to my former self, I realized that my rib cage and permanently been altered. At first this kind of freaked me out and I was upset. My ribs seriously stuck out farther then they did before and they were not going back! I totally got over it, though, because I thought this actually may help make me look smaller...I had some kind of logic to this theory. I also thought that if I was to have another baby, it would totally be easier because I now had more room. I was wrong. Maybe this child has huge feet or extremely long legs-I am not sure-either way...it-hurts-bad.

One more complaint-contractions. Low-lying, stop you in your tracks, think that the baby may be born right here-right now-in the middle of Target (I spend a great deal of my time there) contractions. I keep trying to tell my body to chill out. We have a date-things are planned and I need 19 days. The baby's room is not ready. I still have a laundry list of Babies R Us shopping and Christmas shopping to complete. Our cars need oil changes and to be cleaned (yes-both important to me prior to babies arrival....I don't want people to judge us by our filthy cars when they help install the car seat! You know they would judge....I would judge....). My body's reply to my request? Here's another one-have fun :)

So there you have it-my rant and rave for the weekend. I promise to try and get a better attitude by Monday-it will all depend on whether or not another foot has decide to invade my rib cage.

Last Ultrasound

We had our last ultrasound today. When I look back on the beginning of this pregnancy (first ultrasound being in April) it seems to have gone by SO fast...but these last 3 weeks seem to be going by SO slow...

Our update today was great! The baby measured 5 pounds 13 ounces...so almost 6 pounds. The good news (as of Tuesday) was that I hadn't gained any more weight since my appointment the week before. I totally made up for it by eating extra that day so I am sure it will all catch up to me by next week :) My grand total thus far has been 23 lbs-can't wait to have to start working that off....The ultrasound also told us that baby girl has a full head of hair! I asked if they knew what color but apparently that technology is not available just yet :) I am curious to see if she comes out with a full head of dark straight hair just like Brooke---22 days will tell us!

I still have SO much left to do before December 3rd. I have a major trip that I need to make to Babies R Us to pick up some 'essentials.' I also need to wrap up my Christmas shopping as my time will be limited come December. I hope that baby girl doesn't try and stir things up by arriving earlier then her scheduled time-I am a bit OCD when it comes to organization and things already being on the calendar. We shall see!!! Only 6 appointments left to go :)

Brooke's New Room :)

We have taken the plunge and had Brooke sleep in her 'big girl' bed since Sunday. We had tried to get her to sleep in the new room before, but she was not interested. Last Saturday after a very fun Halloween, she attempted (almost successfully) to escape from her crib. That was the final straw-she went into the twin bed cold turkey and has been sleeping through the night ever since! So far, she thinks that it is against the rules to get out of the bed without Gary or me coming in the room first...we will see how long that lasts :)

Speaking of Brooke's new room...at some point in time (maybe two months ago) I had promised some updated pictures.

I am not in love with the guard rails, but at this point they are necessary. After a couple months I think that I am going to take them off-I can live with them for now.

Isn't the headboard fun?? My mom and Gary made it for Brooke. I would like to say that I helped...but I really didn't.

The quilt was a HUGE find off of Craigs list ($20). It is from Pottery Barn and only a few year old. It was in great condition and literally one block over from our house. I was able to find the matching pillow sham off of Ebay for only $10!!

My friend Marci gave us the perfect color and size lamp to go on Brooke's night stand. This was such a help since I had already spent many shopping trips looking for one with zero success.

The only real 'issue' that I had was the bed skirt. It really wouldn't have been a problem, however, Gary decided to lower Brooke's bed. Again-this wouldn't have been a problem, but the bed (that my parents loaned us) was not able to be lowered...so Gary's solution was to saw off part of the legs....my parents loved this news :) The height actually works great for Brooke-not so much for a standard size bed skirt! I was able to use some pins and get it to the right height. I think that it works.

The dresser still needs to be organized and cleaned up a bit. It was hard to find an angle to take the picture without catching myself in the mirror-not a pretty sight right now :)

I found this little shelf at Hobby Lobby for around $10. It works great for all of Brooke's bows and her backpack.

I had been searching at stores looking for some art to hang on Brooke's walls and I found two really cute pieces through Etsy. I think that they are both adorable Brooke LOVES them!!

I found this one at Lemon Drop Studio. You can visit them here. You get to pick all of your colors, fonts, etc. Brooke was totally excited to see this elephant in her room (her current favorite animal)!! What is even more amazing then the adorable art they have to offer is there turn-around time..it is unreal. I ordered this print Sunday evening and that same night I had a proof!! The next day it was already in the mail!!

This second print I found at Babybyrds. You can visit them here. How cute is this!! You are able to really customize your order picking background color, letter font/color as well as accent (I went with the adorable bird). They also have TONS of prints for adults too-there is one I have my eye on for our family room once new baby girl makes her arrival . Did I mention their customer service too? I immediately heard back from them and had a proof ASAP! Being in the retail field, there is nothing like good customer service to make you want to come back for more :)

The room is still a work in progress and I'm sure it will continue to be for awhile. Right now Brooke is happy and sleeping in her bed throughout the night...which makes me happy :)

Happy Halloween!

This Halloween we were lucky enough to have Amy, Joe, Jack, Lily, Tracie and Maggie over to celebrate! The boys (and Aunt Maggie) took the kids trick-or-treating while Amy, Tracie and met stayed back to hold down the fort and hand out candy to the many trick-or-treaters I was sure that we would have....We had around 4 kids come by the house...needless to say, we have TONS of candy left over...not good for me.

Little Flower ready to go trick-or-treating!

Back with her candy!

Lily totally needs to show Brooke how it is done.

I swear she and Jack had double if not triple the amount of candy that Brooke did...and they went together!!

Buzz Light Year trying to save us from the 'evil' black sheep. He was successful-thank you Jack.

Brooke-totally freaked out by the Black Sheep..she warmed up to her eventually.

Other news? Brooke slept in her new room and big girl bed for the last two nights!! It is worth of a total post of its own..coming later with pics of the new room.