7 1/2 weeks and counting!

Hey everyone! Ok, so I only have 7 1/2 weeks left and I am starting to count them down! (Hopefully she will come a little early so that we can all meet her!)

Ok, so here's what's been going on: We finished up our birth classes last Thursday and we feel a lot more prepared now. Hopefully we won't be completely bewildered when the time comes now. Grant even said that he feels like he can help me through labor now - and not just stare at me in pain. So, the classes were good! Thanks Elissa Brody for helping us out so much!

We also met with Olivia's future pediatrician last week. She was highly recommended to us by my neighbor and the practice where she is was also recommended to us by several other people. We had an info session with her Thusday before our last birth class and REALLY liked her! Yeah, one more thing checked off our list! Now we need to get the insurance thing figured out to see which of our insurances we will put her on AND we have to do the lovely task of creating our Wills so that she is covered in case anything happens to us! Fun!

This past weekend was our 5th anniversary! We actually wound up going to a friend from college's wedding on Saturday night so we went out Friday to celebrate our anniversary. We decided not to do anything big for our anniversary - partly because we haven't even had time to breathe lately, and partly because we are just so focused on all the baby stuff. But I tried to look nice (and not feel like a complete cow!) and we went out for a nice dinner. Grant even got me roses! Here's a picture of us from that night:

I had a doctor's appt. yesterday morning and everything was going well. My blood pressure is starting to increase some, so we are going to keep an eye on that, but she seems to be doing well. I did get a chance to ask the doctor about my placenta stuff. I just wanted to know what to expect from my next ultrasound at 36 weeks. She said that if the placenta is still only 1 cm away from the cervix opening or still pretty close, we very well may still be scheduled for a C-Section at about 39 weeks. We'll just have to wait and see about that one. We have that scheduled for May 19th. I have one more doctor's appt. between now and then, also.

We did get our stroller from my mom last week - yeah! That has been fun to play with. Some of Grant's relatives had already gotten us the car seat that goes with it at our shower. Here is couple pictures of them. One with them separate and one with them put together as a travel set:

We also found out that Grant's parents got us our highchair and pack-n-play for our anniversary! Yeah, now we've got all the big stuff taken care of and we are almost ready for her (at least with all the stuff - not sure about emotionally yet - still working on that one!) They'll bring those up to us when the glider comes in, in another week or two.

And last, but not least, I finally got the bookshelf (the one that we had made for us) painted! I did an antique-like paint job on it and I think it came out really pretty. I painted it the yellow from the room first, then painted the sage green over the yellow. Then sanded some of the edges to age it a bit and make it look more interesting. We both think it came out really good. See for yourself:

Ok, well that's about all for now. We've just been sooooo busy these last couple weeks, hopefully after this week, it will all slow down a bit. I hope you are all doing well. Help me count down the weeks!!!

April Showers

Hey there everyone! Sorry it has taken me so long to blog about the showers, but this week has been quite busy for us! Anyway, this past weekend my mom had a shower for us on Saturday and my mother-in-law had a shower for us on Sunday! Wow, very busy - but lots of fun!

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My mom's shower:

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My mom and two of my friends from High School (they were also in my wedding), Leigh and Thuy, threw me a nice shower and we got a chance to see what the maximum capacity is for my mom's house! Wow, didn't think we could fit all those people in there.

Thanks Mom, Thuy and Leigh - the shower was wonderful!

(Also like to send a Thank You out to Monica, who works with my mom, for helping out so much with everything!)

My Aunt Sue and Uncle Paul flew down from Rhode Island to come to the shower (ok, my Aunt came to the shower, my Uncle came to play golf with the boys!). That was VERY nice of them and I enjoyed seeing them! I wanted to thank them for coming down, as well.

So, here are some great pictures from the shower:

Look at the cute lamb cake!

Here's me opening some gifts.

Kayla, my niece, got to help!

Here's the beautiful quilt that Diana made for Olivia!

Look at all the little clothes!

Olivia is really going to be doing a fashion show when she gets here!


Here's myself with Leigh, Thuy & Lana ("mini-Thuy")

My Mother-In-Law's Shower:

My mother-in-law, Becca (sister-in-law) and Sharon threw me a wonderful shower on Sunday and, again, we tried to max out the capacity of my mother-in-law's house! The shower went very well and it was really nice to see all of the family again. (especially all the little ones - wow they grow up quick!).

Thanks Susan, Becca and Sharon - the shower came out very nice!

Here are some great pictures from that shower:

Here's Ms. Sharon getting everything ready! She's become a pro at this sort of thing! Thanks for everything!

Here's the cute diaper cake that they got for me!

Here I am opening some gifts!

Here's the beautiful quilt that Pam Bowman made with Susan's help! It is gorgeous AND Pam made a bear, throw pillow and Olivia's first purse to match!

(Notice how 2 of the fabrics are the same as the quilt that Diana and My mom did! )

Here I am with Susan, Jill, Clyda and Amber! Great to see you all again!

Here we are at the end of a very FULL weekend! We made it!

We also got to get our bookshelf that Alan's friend made for us - and it is beautiful! It came out better than we expected and is almost too pretty to paint! I'll post pics once we do get it painted and up in the nursery. Thanks Ricky Watson!

On the road again! Wow, didn't think we'd fit everything in there!

And here is some of Olivia's fashion styles! She already has a full closet AND almost a full dresser! Wow, we have so many clothes, not sure what to do with all of them! - But she'll be adorable!

Now that's a lot of clothes!

Thanks everyone for having/coming to the showers! I really enjoyed seeing everyone and Olivia is definately going to be a VERY well dressed, spoiled little girl! :)

Started Birthing Class

Ok, so Grant and I went to our first birthing class last night and NOW IT SEEMS MORE REAL!!! Wow, a lot of information - and a little bit scary. So, apparently we (I) not only have to figure out how to get this child out of my body, but then we have to know what to do with her once she's out!! No one told us this part!!! (ok, just kidding - we knew, but geez, I mean, isn't there a better way!?!?) Anyway, we really liked the lady teaching the class - she is very up front and isn't trying to sugar coat everything - but she isn't trying to scare us either. She is a former OB nurse (for 18 years) and is just trying to give us all the information as honestly as she can. Hopefully we will be better prepared for this whole "delivery" thing once we complete our classes. We have another class on Thursday night then Tuesday & Thursday next week. We also have some 'great' videos to watch for homework between now and then! yeah!

Ok, so what else is going on with us right now?? I went back to the doctor yesterday to have them look at my rib again since I am still getting that sharp pain and see what else we could try. Now they are trying me on Nexium for a week or two to see if maybe it is acid reflux - if it works, great! If not, then I'll be off to a GI specialist! fun! I did ask them about what to expect with my 36 week ultrasound - like what it means if my placenta doesn't move any more and how far it needs to move. She told me that since it isn't covering the cervix opening anymore, I am already good to try to attempt a natural birth (most likely), but the extra ultrasound is to get a better idea of where the placenta is so that during my delivery they will know if my placenta is still close so if I have extra bleeding - they can monitor it and possibly take me for a C-Section if it gets bad. So, looks like I will most likely be attempting the normal birthing experience!

I did find out that I have lost ~4 lbs since 2 weeks ago. Not sure how that happened, I haven't been sick. I think I've just been too busy running around to eat as much as I have been. It's not a big deal unless I keep losing weight. So, I'll just keep eating when I'm hungry and we can go from there.

On a very fun note - I have my first 2 showers this coming weekend! My mom is having a shower on Saturday and my mom-in-law is having one on Sunday! My aunt Sue and uncle Paul are flying in on Friday from Rhode Island - so my aunt can come to the shower. (dad, Grant, uncle Paul and Chad, are going golfing instead of hanging around with us ladies!) They are flying into Raleigh (much cheaper than Charlotte) and are going to come by and see the house/nursery when they get here - then we'll all go to my parents (about 2 1/2 hours from here). This weekend should be fun to see everyone - but I'm sure we will be very worn out by the end of it. AND our bookshelf is ready already! Yeah! That was REALLY quick! Susan said it looks really good - I'm excited to see it and get it painted for Olivia's room!

Well, that's about all for now. I'll write more next week after our showers. I'll see a lot of you this weekend, otherwise, take care and keep in touch!

30-Week Belly Shots

Hey everyone! Ok, so here are my 30-week pics I took the other night.

Check out the belly on that chick!

WOW, Mamma! Now, that's a belly!

As you can see, I have been GROWING! Only 10 more weeks left! (Well, that's if my little placenta continues to move on out of the way - otherwise, it may only be 7 weeks left - YIKES!)

I get my cake and I can eat it, too!!

Just wanted to share my good news - my 3-hour glucose test came back completely normal! Yeah! So, I don't have gestational diabetes! Yeah!

Bring on the cake!

I hate needles!

Ok, so this morning I had my 3-hour blood screening for glucose. This is the more in depth test since I failed the 1-hour test last week. So basically they told me I couldn't eat after midnight last night then they took blood when I first got there this morning. Then I got to drink that oh-so-yummy orange drink and get my blood taken every hour for the next 3 hours. Yeah - that's 4 TIMES that they took my blood! All out of the same arm in the same general area - needless to say, my arm is sore and looking like someone used me for a pin cusion! THEN - I FINALLY got to go get some food - close to noon! (It's not nice to starve a pregnant woman!) Ugh! I hope this test comes back as negative. I don't want to give up sugar for the next 2 to 2 1/2 months! I should hear something about the results by the end of the week.

On a much MUCH better note - we ordered our glider this weekend! We went to visit Grant's family this weekend. Susan had found a great place that had the Dutailier gliders where you can specially order the wood finish and fabric and all the features you want. The one we ordered is going to be great! The wood finish is pretty close to our furniture and the fabric we picked is a sage green micro-fiber that matches our bedding perfectly! It will be beautiful, AND it is probably the most comfortable chair I have ever sat in! We also found out that if we ever wanted to change the fabric, we can just order replacement cusions for it. So, if we, say, have a boy in a couple years and want it to match his room, we can do that! Yeah, my long search is over!

We has also been looking for an unfinished bookshelf for her room so that I can paint it green to match and we have a solution for that, too! One of Grant's dad's friends from work builds furniture and they are going to have him make us a little bookshelf exactly how we want it! Yeah, now I just need some wall art and I'll be done with the decorating! (I just have no idea what to use for wall art!)

We also got to see little Drew (Our new nephew) this weekend and he is a cutie! He is a very serious little man - always with a serious look on his face and he wrinkles up his little forhead like he is in deep thought! But he is very cute and has very nice blue-blue eyes. I think he may actually keep his blue eyes - like his daddy! Check out their new web page: http://www.babyhomepages.net/andrewalan/index.php

Anyway, that's about all for now. I'll let you all know when I get my results back from my glucose test. Keep your fingers crossed for me! :)

Awww Sugar, Sugar . . .

Ok, so I got a call this morning from my doctor's office - apparently my glucose test came out a little high. I am going to have to go and do the 3-hour (more intense) glucose screening on Monday. Apparently, they do this further screening if you are above 140 and I was 142! ugh! So, hopefully this is just a formality and won't result in me having gestational diabetes - the nurse said that I am probably fine, but they need to confirm that with the further testing. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

AND . . . I have no idea how this slipped my mind, but I forgot to set up the mobile the other day when I put all the bedding together. I mean, this is the cutest part!

Look at the cute little lambs: