Nursery Time

Hey there everyone! So, we have finally started to make a bit more progress on getting the room cleared out and ready for Olivia. Well . . . we've made some progress and at least have a plan for the rest! Grant and I worked on getting the desk cleared out and getting all the little odds and ends cleared out of there last night. We made a lot of progress and just have a little bit more to do to get everything out that we can right now. Then we'll just have the big desk and little loveseat left to remove from the room, which my dad will help us do.

My parents have volunteered to come up in February (once Grant is back on his feet) to help us get the nursery set up. Dad is going to help us (grant) prime the walls, paint and put up wainscoting and a chair rail to dress up the room. (Mom and I will probably go check out the cute baby stuff and babies-r-us) We are very greatful for their help! I won't be able to do the painting because of the paint fumes, so it will be nice to have him come up and help grant! Then, by the time we are all done that weekend, the room will be ready to move in the furniture once it comes in. Yeay! I am so excited to get started on this room.

In fact, today I had a friend come over and help me brainstorm ideas to get extra storage in the closet and we went and got a rubbermaid drawer thingy for the bottom of the closet and bought some wood to make some small shelves on the right side where it indents a bit. Now we just need to get them cut, painted and installed. We're making progress . . . slowly . . . but progress is better than no progress! Once my parents come the weekend of Feb 16-17th, we'll be pretty far along with the room. Then once the furniture comes in we can get all the cute little accessories (shelves, wall art etc) to dress it up a bit more.

AND . . . Grant's parents wanted to get our bedding for us and have offered to get it early so we can go ahead and look at it and plan around it. Yeah! We'll be ordering that pretty soon so we can go ahead and get it to see how cute it is!

Anyway, that's about all that's been going on here. I'm still feeling little pokes (kicks) on the inside of my tummy that are really cool! I am now SURE what they are and whenever I feel them, it makes me smile! :)

Thank you all for reading my blog! I've been getting a LOT of feedback about it and apparently have quite a few frequent visitors! Thanks so much for keeping up with our special time and feel free to leave us a cute comment on here anytime! Take care.

First little movements . . .

Ok, so I 'think' that I was feeling those little flutters the last week or so, and then last night - I definately felt some little pokes in my lower belly! Then again today! How cool! There really is something living in my belly and I can start to feel her now! I am so excited! Can't wait until Grant can feel her move, too!

So lately when I don't have a headache (which is becoming less and less) I really feel GREAT! Today I had a pretty good headache, just from eating lunch too late, but then once I ate and it went away, I felt really good. I think I finally know what the "pregnancy glow" is all about! I hope this part lasts awhile. I am getting really excited about our little one. Grant's family came up Monday for the afternoon and brought little Olivia a bunch of REALLY cute outfits! She is going to be the best dressed little infant! I can already tell that she is going to be adorable just from her sonagrams, anyway - and now she'll be even cuter with her little outfits!

The valance I ordered came in the mail yesterday and it is REALLY cute! I love the colors and fabrics. Now I just have to get Grant on his feet (both of them!) so we can work on that nursery! Until then, I am going to have a friend of mine go with me to get some stuff to organize the closet. At least I can get that part done while we wait for Grant to get back on his feet. I am getting really excited about getting Olivia's room ready for her arrival. That is going to be fun!

And by the way, we have gotten tons of positive feedback about the name Olivia! Everyone seems to love it and the more we call her by name, the more we love it, too!

Well, just wanted to let everyone know what was going on with us. Not much other than getting anxious to get Grant walking and to get moving on that nursery! Until next time - take care.

Olivia Anne

We would like to introduce our little baby girl by her new name: Olivia Anne Nelson! We have liked this name for a while and just had to be sure before making it public. We even went to a bookstore and spent about 2 1/2 hours looking through baby name books just to make sure that it was our favorite name. Now we are sure so we are making it public. I am just excited to be able to call her by name now! I hope you all like it as much as we do!

Little Girls

Hey everyone! Just wanted to let you all know that now that it has sunk in that we are having a little girl, we are getting really excited. We went to Target last night and got a couple of little newborn girlie outfits and they are SOOO cute!! How fun! I think purple is going to be her color! :)

We have almost decided for sure on a name, still rolling it around in our heads. We'll let you know as soon as we are sure!

Also, we have decided on the bedding for her so now we can start thinking about decorating and painting the nursery. That is when Grant is off crutches! At the moment he can't do much and I am not allowed to lift much or do any major stretching and straining, so the nursery will have to wait until next month!

Here is a link to the bedding to take a peak at it: http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2709275 It has shades of sage green (my favorite) and cute little lambs on the mobile! See below:

Aren't they cute!! Right now it is only offered online, but we like it so much we think we are going to go with it anyway. They said that it may wind up in stores, though. We went ahead and ordered one of the valancees for the window to get a look at the colors and everything to plan from that. It should be here soon. Can't wait! We've also already gotten a little lamb stuffed animal that plays a lullaby at Cracker Barrell the other night. It is very cute. Now I know what Susan (my mother in law) sees in all those cute little lambs! :)

Anyway, just wanted to tell you all about our bedding decision and let you know that we are close with a name. Hopefully we'll have it for you in the next week. Other than that, I think it is going to be really fun to have a little girl! I know that our friends Randy and Sara are loving spending time with their little Gracie and it just makes us so excited to meet our little one!

As far as how we are doing personally, Grant's leg is doing much better. Only a little itchy here and there, but much better! I am doing well, just trying to watch what I do to make sure I am not going to hurt myself (or my placenta!). It can be a little daunting if you read too much about Placenta Previa online or in books (like I did) so my advice is: don't! I am trying to not get too freaked out by it all since it is still early and the majority of people diagnosed this early are fine. So, just keep us in your thoughts and maybe we can Will that misbehaving placenta to move out of the way! :) Hopefully next time we'll let you know our baby girl's new name! :)

And the Verdict is . . .

It's a GIRL!!!

See her "girl parts" above??? Here are some more of the sonagram pics. The first one shows her holding her arm/elbow and leg/knee up for you to see. Then, the best one of all is the last one where she is sucking her thumb!!!! Awwwwwwww.

Isn't she cute! Ok, so here's the scoop from the appointment. First of all, let me say that she is doing great! Her heartbeat is 149 beats/min (very normal) and she and I are both measuring normal. She looked great and they said she is perfectly healthy! There is one small issue we found out, though. Apparently my placenta is covering my cervix a little. This is called Placenta Previa (see the link for more info) and it will usually move out of the way by week 28 (10 more weeks). Normally as the uterus expands, the walls of it are pulled upward which should shift the placenta upward. So . . . I am having another ultrasound at week 28 to check on it. (Yeah, another ultrasound for free!). If, however, it has not moved by then, then they will continue to do additional ultrasounds every 3 weeks to check on it. The fear is that if it hasn't moved by week 28, it may not move. The biggest issue with it blocking the cervix (besides blocking the exit route for the baby) is that if I go into labor and my cervix starts to open, it can tear the placenta (very bad!). So, that will probably mean that I will need to have a scheduled C-Section early as to avoid that from happening. But, in all probability, it will correct itself before week 28! I'm really not that worried, the baby is doing fine and this is not hurting HER any! If I have to have a C-Section for her sake, so be it! The only down side is that I have been told to take it easy (no lifting, no excercise other than walking and some other restrictions). So if it hasn't moved by week 28, I'm sure they will put even more restrictions on me - fun!

Until then, we've got to come up with a name and baby bedding/decor and register and . . . well . . . we've got lots to do! ;) My next appointment is February 25th for a routine checkup then the ultrasound at 28 weeks on March 31st. Until then, I'll keep you updated on everything else (the bedding, the registry, the nursery etc). Oh, and by the way - Grant is doing well, other than not being able to bear weight, his knee is feeling great and the hives are almost gone! :)

Gracie's Arrival!

We had a very unexpected, but wonderful surprise this weekend! Little Savannah Gracelyn Roberson (Gracie) decided she was ready to join the outside world. Sara and Randy are two of our closest friends and we new that Gracie had already tried to make a really early appearance about a month ago, but were still pleasently surprised when they called us from the hospital yesterday afternoon! She arrived at 4:27 this morning and was 6lbs, 11oz and 19" long and she is ADORABLE! We went and saw Randy and Sara last night to see how the mommy-to-be was doing (and get a little glimpse into MY future responsibilites) and Sara was pretty comfortable with her Epidural. We helped with their animals and brought Randy some dinner then went home to await the news!

Here are some pictures we took this morning when we went to see them:




Isn't she CUTE! She is very quiet and barely made a peep, except for when daddy put her back down. I can only hope that I look as good as Sara this soon after and that our precious little one is that cute!

CONGRATULATIONS SARA AND RANDY!

17-week Update

Hey there everyone! I am 17 weeks along - today! Here are some more pics of my new figure by request:





SO, as you can see, I am starting to develop quite a little belly bump (as Grant calls it!). As far as everything else, I am doing pretty good - still getting quite a few headaches, but they are at least getting better. Grant is doing fine with his recovery, but did have a bit of an issue this weekend. He wound up with some kind of a wierd allergic reaction to something (who knows what) and his entire leg broke out into hives! So after antibiotics proved it wasn't an infection, he is now on Prednisone. So, hopefully this will kick it!

Our BIG appointment is first thing monday morning to find out if our little one is a little girl or a little boy. We are VERY excited and keep trying to make guesses to what he/she is! So get your votes in, the polls will close on Monday. We've already been online looking at baby bedding to start planning the nursery and think we have a good idea of what we like for a girl and a boy - now we just need to know which it is. I've also already been going through strollers, car seats, high chairs etc. to pick out what we will want to register for. You know me - got to have it all planned out! ;)

FYI - I think it is a girl and Grant isn't sure (but voted for a boy!)

So . . . we'll be posting our big news on Monday as soon as I get home to let everyone know the results. (of course, we will be calling our parents first thing!) Until then, let me know what your guesses are! :)

Furniture and Heartbeat!

Hey there everyone! Ok, so we had a big day today! We went and ordered our baby furniture this afternoon. See the link: http://www.babysdream.com/Products/Infinity/Default.htm
It is the Baby's Dream Infinity Collection Crib and Combo Dresser/Hutch in Chestnut finish. (not the one with the drop gate- the stationary one) See the 3rd, 4th, and 5th pictures on the link. The combo dresser/hutch isn't shown in the chestnut - but it is in the first picture with the black. It's nothing fancy, but we like it and weren't looking for anything crazy. And it converts into a full size bed for down the road!

Our next stop was to the doctor's where I had my blood taken for the Quad Screening (to test for Down's Syndrome and some other things) and we got to hear the heartbeat!! He said it was in the 150s. Apparently our little one was quite active again. It took him a little bit to find the heartbeat, then he/she moved and he had to find it all over again. The doc. said it sounded like he was being quite active in there! Looks like he/she likes going to the doctor - we got a show in the first sonagram and are looking forward to the next one. Hopefully we'll not only get a show on the 14th, but he/she will be turned right to show us "the goods!" I'll make sure to post the findings asap on here and, of course, we'll be calling our parents on the way home! :)

The Doctor also said I should be feeling some movement in the next couple of weeks, so I'll be waiting for that! I keep trying to feel something and am not really sure what I'm looking for, but when I figure it out and feel it, I'll let ya know! Until next time.