the little things

time to get movin'!

 

Size of baby: Should be about over 7 lbs!

Total Weight Gain/Loss: +18

Maternity Clothes: all maternity pants now and nursing tanks and comfy shirts.

 

Gender: A Boy!! Grayson! :)

Movement: Lots and lots!  Especially when I have my every-other-day cup of orange juice.  He REALLY has a party in there!  Last night he was pushing and "swiping" on the right and left at the same time. Really weird feeling!

 

Sleep: Still a hit or a miss. 2 nights ago it was awesome. Last night? Eh. Not so much!

What I miss: Bending over to put my pants on without it hurting. haha.

What I'm Looking Forward to: seeing his sweet face!

Cravings: chocolate milk. icecream. BLT's.

Symptoms: dull cramps. pressure. LOTS of pressure.

Best Moment this Week:  hearing his heartbeat again today and knowing he's doing really good in there!

At my doctor's appointment today, I met with a different doctor. An older male, who is pretty old school.  Two things that I'm not usually fond of, but I was happy for a good appointment without any issues today.  He usually makes me feel kinda dumb, but today he was very laid back and very informative and friendly. An answered prayer!

My cousin, Steph who's an obgyn nurse mentioned to me yesterday that I could always ask to have my membranes swept if I wanted. I was hesitant because of this doctor, but luckily as soon as he walked in, HE asked ME if I would like to have it done!  Without hesitation I said, "uhhh yes! please!"

Now, sweeping of membranes is never a guarantee, but rather a hope that it will help move labor along and sooner. It doedn't work for everyone and I'm aware of it.  I'm just praying it might for me! hehe. I thought he was doing a regular cervix check, but was I happy when I found out he had done it all in one big sweep! It wasn't so bad (just lots of pressure) and I even got a "you're a tough gal!" from him! Made me feel good! 

I was told to walk as much as possible today and tomorrow, so after the appointment, Nate and I went to Hallmark to get this cute guy for Grayson:

Watson the raccoon!  He's perfect for Grayson's room and we think it'll be so fun for him when he's a bit older!

Then, we ventured to Walmart to pick up a bunch of different things and walked the whole store! I was so slow because of cramps and pressure, but it felt really good to be up and moving!

Nate took me to lunch at Longhorn. Delish! And then we stopped by our favorite dairy/icecream shop so I could get 2 of my cravings: a chocolate milkshake and some of their amazing chocolate milk to bring home!  It's been a fun day and I'm exhausted, but I'm hoping to go to mom's tonight and walk on her treadmill. It's so boring just walking in my house!

So, no Grayson yet, but maybe soon?! Who really knows!

Happy Weekend! :)

 

everyone keeps asking

"when is that baby getting here?!"

Trust me, peeps. If I knew, I'd tell ya! ;)

I also love when people tell me when he CAN or CAN'T come! haha.  I'm sure I'm guilty of this too, with friends or family when they've been expecting, but my how different it is when it's you! haha!

I wish I could just pick his birthdate and be done. But, alas, we haven't reached that quite yet.

It could still be another 2 weeks. Oy. Just come out already, Grayson!! We're ALL ready!

My days have been filled with family, phone calls, church, my last day at the Pregnancy Care Center for a while (*tear*), not making dinner, BLT's, icecream, the usual aches and pains, pressure, laughs, texts, scrapbooking, some TV (but, honestly it's just boring these days!), walking, jumping jacks (what a sight that was I'm sure!), bubble baths, facebook, picking up, washing clothes, and trying to sleep.

I'm just ready for this baby! 

...have I mentioned that lately? ;)

(page I whipped up last night while Nate organized his newest Hot Wheels finds!)

spring wreath

I have 12 days til my due date. 12 days!  Whoa. When did that happen?!  Now, I know I more than likely will not have the luxury of going early. Actually, I'm quite certain this baby is going to make me wait it out as long as he can. Mother's intuition, maybe? ;)

But, it's still very exciting to know I am so close! So close to meeting our miracle. Our first. Our most precious blessing and gift. It's unreal!

As the days go by, I have been trying my best to get distracted as much as I can. Facebook. Church. Lifetime movies. Army Wives (!!) Crafts. Scrapbooking. Cleaning. Hanging out with friends and family. Napping. Bubble baths. You name it. It's been wonderful passing the days kind of "leisurely" and I am grateful for each one, because I know in that very short time I have left, Grayson will keep me hoppin' and I'll really miss these "boring" days! haha.

So, after I had some Starbucks with my friend Stephanie yesterday, I decided to run to the craft store and pick up the minimal supplies needed to try my hand at a yarn wreath. I had quickly googled it while waiting for Steph and thought it would be the perfect Spring touch for our front door!  

These things are very inexpensive to and when I got home I couldn't believe how easy it was! I spent a total of $10.00 for the supplies (I already had the hot glue and gun), but that was for 2 full spools of yarn, one of which is for another wreath and I didn't even use half of the other one! PLUS, I still have 5 or 6 sheets of felt left, so really, my cost was easily half that for this one.

If you're interested in making your own, here's all you need:

-A foam wreath (or a straw wreath, but I couldn't find one).

-Yarn in any color you'd like. I had a hard time choosing!

-Scissors

-Hot glue and gun

-Felt 

What took the longest was wrapping the yarn around the wreath. One thing I learned was to wrap it around about 8-10 times, then stop and "bunch" them all together, then wrap another 8-10 more times and repeat.  I just tied a knot to start, and a knot when I was at the end. Easy!

This was my first time making any sort of felt flower, so they aren't the best, but they work. :) Just cute a "wavy" circle in the felt (the bigger the circle, the bigger the flower). The bigger flowers in mine were using mostly a whole sheet of felt.

Once the circle is cut, you just start cutting anywhere on it , following the flow of the circle, still making wavy cuts until the end, leaving the very end as a little circle (that will b glue to the base of the flower to hold it all together). 

Start tightly wrapping the strip of felt from the side you started cutting from. For a more loose flower, you can let up on the tightness about half way through.  Hot glue the "base" and it's all done!

Make as many flowers as you'd like, then attach them to the wreath using hot glue. Easy peasy!

It was fun to make and was a good time filler. I'd like to make a couple smaller ones for around the house eventually, but we'll see!

Just something fun for the front door! 

Hope you're having a beautiful weekend!

38 weeks!

 

Size of baby: Watermelon! Haha. He's around 7 lbs. 

Total Weight Gain/Loss: +16 (I lost 2 lbs this week)

Maternity Clothes: all maternity pants now and nursing tanks and comfy shirts.

 

Gender: A Boy!! Grayson! :)

Movement: He's a mover for sure! Big swipes across my belly happen many times a day. It's so exciting and neat to see!

 

Sleep: So-so. I haven't been sleeping super good lately.  Just overall discomfort. I've been taking 1-2 hours naps the past couple of days which seem to be helping.

What I miss: sleeping on my belly. bending down!

What I'm Looking Forward to: Meeting our Grayson!

Cravings: chocolate milk. pineapple and other fresh fruit. chips.

Symptoms: lots of pressure still. contractions. braxton hicks.

Best Moment this Week:  Hearing his sweet little heartbeat @126 bpm today! He likes to make the doctors really work to get it tho...but once we get it, it's music to my ears!

The doctor at today's appointment said I am still at 2cm and 90% dilated.  He could still come any time, but I just don't feel like he's in any hurry.  She said once I were to hit 41 weeks, they would induce if I wanted. Sigh. I'm really hoping he decides to come on his own before then.  We'll just keep praying and as long as he's healthy and safe, nothing else matters to me.

 

almost complete.

 

The list maker in me is mighty happy these days to only see just a couple little things that still need I'd like to have done by the time Grayson arrives.  

Here's how it looks 17 days out from Due Date:

-clean cabinets with Murphy's Oil (Nate says he'll get on this soon. Tomorrow maybe?)

-pack Nate's bag (electronics too)

-crib/dresser/nursery assembly

-hang shelves and art on nursery walls

-purge/clean pantry

-oil change in my car

-recall check on my car

-clean my car

-install carseat

-sweep all ceilings and corners

-scrub tub

-lay out linens, etc for Sandy's stay while in hospital

-buy "extra" food items needed for freezer meals

-put new shower curtain liner up

-clean up scrap space and upstairs space

-make room in kitchen cabinets for bottles, accessories, cleaning stuff, etc.

-file taxes.

-get caught up on budget (pay bills ahead where we can)

-tighten all dresser/drawer knobs

-get side door fixed

Only 4 more things to do!  Yey!  It feels so good.  I'm also hoping to give our house a quick "clean up" even though I've been trying to keep it as neat and tidy as can be to avoid having to worry about it being clean for baby. (if you knew my mother, you'd understand my OCD with this! ;))

Something not on this list, but that I also did was go ahead and put some spring decor up since Grayson is set to be an April baby, I didn't want to have look at snowmen/winter-type decor and worry about getting some Spring stuff up, so to the attic I went and set out a few of my favorite things on my favorite table!

I scrapped last night. Week #36 layout for Grayson's book! I'm planning on doing Week #37's layout tonight.  Thanks to a 2.5 hour nap this afternoon, I am finally feeling a little bit "energized" after a night full of mild contractions and lots of cramping last night. Oy.

Off I go to put some glue to paper!

paper + glue

I have Studio Calico to thank for putting out some awesome kits each month.  Why?  Because honestly, those kits are the only thing that help me scrap these days!  I love them and get so excited and motivated to scrap a page or two as soon as the UPS man drops them  at my side door.  They're fab.u.lous!  

Thought I'd share some of my latest pages.  I know when Grayson arrives I probably won't have the chance to scrap often, at least right away, so along with naps, I'm trying to get in as many pages as I can before he gets here! ;)

My cousin Steph and her new baby boy, Michael. Loving all these baby boys being born into our family!

Nate melts me when I see how much hard work he always puts into anything Grayson-related!  He is so in love with his son already and he's not even here yet! :)

Nothing like a little paper and glue to make for a good week!

37 weeks!

Hooray!  I've reached the official full-term mark!

So very thankful to have gotten this far. Now, I just wish he'd get here! ;)

 

Size of baby: According to my doctor today, he's right around 7 lbs!

Total Weight Gain/Loss: +18

Maternity Clothes: all maternity pants now and nursing tanks and comfy shirts.

 

Gender: A Boy!! Grayson! :)

Movement: Lots and lots. He's an active guy! He's mostly right at the top of my belly or realllly low just pounding away.

 

Sleep: Pretty good this week.  Aside from the occasional hip pain and many trips to the restroom during the middle of the night!

What I miss: sleeping on my belly. bending down!

What I'm Looking Forward to: the big moment!!

Cravings: Waffles. Still craving milk. Chip dip. Orange juice. 

Symptoms: pressure, pressure, pressure! aches. heartburn!

Best Moment this Week:  Just seeing him move all over my belly at all hours of the day. It truly is so amazing!  I LOVE it!

I had my weekly checkup this morning with my favorite doctor and was so happy to hear that things are looking wonderful!  I checked out wonderful and Grayson was spot on "perfect!"  Dr. L said I'm still 2 cm dilated and 90% effaced. She was tickled with how thinned out I am.  Grayson's heartbeat was 137 bpm.

The Dr. even felt his head and said he is definitely in the "ready to go" position!  

Because I've been having some mysterious leaking lately, she brought in the ultrasound machine so we could see him (it's been 17 weeks since we have!) and to check my amniotic fluid levels.  She was very happy with the fluid levels and said it must just be urine (!) *gulp* LOL!  

Grayson was moving allll around and I was hoping to get a second look at his "goods", but he was being a stinker and was hiding them! Haha!  But, it was such a complete joy to see him so active in there and she even said his head is looking a bit small (which was a relief to me because Nate had a huge head when he was a babe!) and said Grayson is looking and sounding wonderfully!  Praise the Lord!

She said the she believes he'll be between 7 and 8ish pounds at birth!  

I just can't wait to meet him!!  I'm really getting more and more anxious by the day!  Thank you all for the well wishes and prayers!  We appreciate them so very much and seriously can't even believe our biggest prayers are being answered!  So very grateful for what the Lord has done for us. He is great! :)

I'm looking forward to an afternoon nap here in just a bit (I can't keep my eyes open!) and then an evening with some girlfriends later tonight!  Hope you have a good weekend!

Also praying for all those in Japan today. Scary times.

 

ideas

For the past few days I've noticed myself "collecting" random images found on the web and sticking them in an iPhoto folder. I love getting ideas from all over. And now Pinterest is REALLY helping with that love!

I wanted to share a few I'd love to incorporate into our home over time.

Grayson sure has LOTS of books already and I thought this "rainbow" order was SO cute! I'm definitely planning on doing this one sooner rather than later!

I adore the collage of white frames holding this family's dearest memories. We have a little hallway that I'd love to try this out on over time.

I'd LOVE to make one of these for our home!

One day I'll have a neat little bookcase just like this. Tidy. Colorful. Simple.

And these are just too cute NOT to have! Especially in our upstairs where Grayson, daddy and mommy will ALL play one day! (Hot Wheels and scrapbooking! ;))

I just think this is beautiful! I would love to do something similar with Grayson's little things in a few months.

Mason jars are like "my thing!" I love them. This would be so cute in our bathroom and easy-peasy to do, I think!

I love our little, humble home, but sometimes I wish I had bigger and more rooms to fill with all the neat stuff and ideas I often find!  Don't you? ;)

Anywhoo, just counting down the days til baby G gets here (very impatiently, might I add! hehe) and breathing through the cramps! Haha!

We're all getting so excited, I can hardly believe I'm in my last month of pregnancy! So ready to meet this precious gift!

36.

 

Size of baby: Should be around 6 lbs!

Total Weight Gain/Loss: +15.

Maternity Clothes: all maternity pants now and nursing tanks and comfy shirts.

 

Gender: A Boy!! Grayson! :)

Movement: Lots and lots. He's an active guy! He's mostly right at the top of my belly or realllly low just pounding away.

 

Sleep: Not so good.

What I miss: sleeping on my belly.

What I'm Looking Forward to: meeting him sooner rather than later! :)

Cravings: sour things. mint chocolate chip icecream. milk.

Symptoms: heartburns. lots of pressure. the usual pains.

Best Moment this Week:  getting to hear his heartbeat again and being told I'm 2cm and really thinned out at yesterday's appointment!

I'm a day late in posting this update and that's because I didn't have much time yesterday. (took that photo yesterday between dropping groceries off and going to mom's! Ha!) Reasons?  Doctor's appointment, a grocery trip to Walmart, a 30 minute phone conversation with gramcracker, a quick dinner and then off to mom and Phil's to visit and see baby Roman.

Oh, and because I started having contractions 5 minutes apart for 3 hours and mom wouldn't let me go anywhere! haha.

I stuck it out as long as possible, thinking it was probably because of my cervix check earlier in the day, but after a text to my obgyn-nurse/cousin, Steph I thought it'd be good to call the hospital.  I talked with the doctor on call (who just so happened to be the same one who had checked me at my appointment earlier) and she advised I come in just to be safe.

So, Nate was at work...all the while on text-notice ;) and mom and Phil ran me to L&D.

Other than a horrible, horrible nurse at the very beginning, all went wonderfully and slowly things started to taper off, pain wise.

I had to have the lovely "probe" Strep B test (again. I had just had it done that afternoon) and another cervix check, where I was still at 2 cm.  They had me do a urine test to check for a UTI...that was negative.  Grayson and I were monitored a few hours and I was definitely having contractions, but nothing consistent enough to need to stay.

Boy, I felt like a goob.  I had a feeling it was just me being a nerd all along, but we didn't want to chance anything.  Mom was getting excited because today is her birthday and she was so hoping to share a birthday with her grandson. ;)  

It's all good though.  He needs to bake AT LEAST another week and I want him as healthy as he can be!  I'm just so thankful to have been at mom's and that they watched over me so well when Nate couldn't be there.  Also thankful I ended up getting a much nicer nurse and for the good care I received.  I'm very thankful Grayson is doing great and that he's decided to keep on baking a bit longer!

What a whirlwind of a few hours!  I'm really excited for that big moment though, once it finally comes! 

Thanks so much for all the kind words about Grayson's nursery!  I want to reply to each one, but I'm still working on my Typepad settings for that. :)

Here's to a good weekend!

 

Grayson's Nursery

It feels so good to have the little guy's space all complete and ready to go!  I feel ready to go too! ;)

A little bummed that his cute mobile won't fit anywhere on his crib, due to the curvy edges and wide back part. :(  And even though we weren't going to keep his bumper pads on once he arrived, I still had hopes to put them on for 'cute factor', but they were too high for the top of the crib! ack!

his little alpha blocks that belonged to Nate when he was a babe!  They make me smile every time I see them!

A cozy little spot for all those late night feedings! ;)

His cute little hedgehog basket filled with some bedtime books!

And his clothes (and other little baby things!) all washed and ready for him to wear! He also has a whole drawer full!  Can you imagine how bad it would be if we were having a girl?! lol!

Thanks for taking a peek into his space!  We love it and very grateful for wonderful family and friends who helped us get everything!  I'm thankful for Nate and all his patience and hard work getting it together!

Now, bring on Grayson!!