Pregnancy Summary

Yep. That sounds about right!

Nursery

I am so excited to see the nursery start coming together! We went ahead and bought curtains a while back so Matt could pick the paint for the dresser accordingly. Matt picked up a curtain rod yesterday, so pretty soon we will have curtains up and the dresser set up. Brad & Nova are giving us their crib and, weather permitting, mom and dad are bringing that up this weekend. Matt and I also picked out some fabric this week and Matt's grandmother is going to make us a baby quilt that we'll plan to hang up in the nursery.

We have a color scheme and general theme we're going for, but we're not going all out with the theme (meaning, no wallpaper borders, fancy crib bedding, etc.). I threw a bunch of pictures together to show the general idea/look we're working on. We're primarily sticking with green, orange, and browns/tans for colors, and are going for an outdoors/woodland creatures/camping kind of theme.

Baby Update

We had an appointment yesterday and were SO PLEASED to see that this little girl hit a major growth spurt! She went from 9th percentile to 50th percentile in two weeks. That is exactly what we wanted to see! She also had her eyes open and was "practice breathing," which they said was great. Everything looked good!

Baby Kicks

This little girl is active every morning between 9-11am sometime. Sometimes she is active for that ENTIRE time! I guess I don't have anything to compare to, but I think this kid is pretty active. I feel her kicks a lot, and they are strong!

On Sunday morning she was kicking away, so I decided to try to catch a couple on video. You can see two kicks in this video (one big, one smaller) if you watch the bottom right side of the video.

Snow & Ice Day

We got some snow and ice yesterday, and it is still pretty icky today (and possibly more coming tomorrow!). I stayed home yesterday, and am still at home right now, but hopefully I'll be able to hit the road in a little bit and work a few hours today. Matt bundled up and went outside to play with Penny for a little while. She didn't really care for it. She stayed outside for a few minutes, but then was ready to come back in!

I think she preferred just watching all of the action from inside.

Dresser Makeover

A few years ago we were given a little dresser that made its way into our closet to be used for some of my things. As we started preparing and planning for the nursery, we talked about finding an old dresser and fixing it up to use as a changing table. We looked around on craigslist for a while before realizing that we could use the dresser we already had sitting in the closet! I am SO PROUD of Matt for the job he did! I think it is perfect, and it is exactly the look we wanted for the nursery.

Before (we forgot to take a before picture with the hardware on)

This is the hardware that was on the dresser before

Matt primed it, painted it, scuffed it up some (which he said he felt really silly doing after spending so much time fixing it up!), and put an antique glaze on it.

Then he added new hardware, and put a wooden top on it.

Here is a side-by-side before and after.

Doesn't it look fantastic? Matt has a few other projects he is working on for the nursery, so I'm excited to see the nursery as it keeps coming together.

Uneventful Week - General Updates

It has been a fairly uneventful week around here.

My classes have really picked up speed, so they've been keeping me pretty busy. I'm several weeks in, but still trying to drill in good habits with my homework (and still struggling to stay on task - a lot). It has been a little difficult to stay focused and just knock them out. When I remember that this could be my last big semester, though, it encourages me to stick with it!

We have enjoyed watching several of the teens in the youth group in their various activities lately. A couple of them wrapped up basketball season, softball and baseball are starting up, and we even caught a few track events yesterday. We've enjoyed getting to go to their games and watch them (and if I'm being honest, watching the softball games makes me want to get out there and play again!).

I made homemade butter this week. I had seen tutorials online about how easy it was, so I thought I'd give it a shot. It is ESPECIALLY easy if you have a KitchenAid mixer (no, I didn't do it the old-fashioned way!). I didn't notice a big difference in taste, but it was kind of neat to make our own.

Matt is close to being finished with the dresser he is fixing up for the nursery. The weather hasn't been very cooperative for finishing up (either too cold for the paint and/or stain, or rainy). There are chances of rain through the weekend, but I'm hoping it holds off and leaves a few hours so he can finish up. It looks BEAUTIFUL and I am so proud of him. I'm excited to share before and after pictures on the blog once it is finished. Now I'm trying to convince him to work on another piece to match... I should confess that I've been guilty of giving him sweet eyes and saying, "The baby would love it... knowing her dad fixed these up for her." Is it bad that I'm already using this baby to get what I want??? :)

Nothing much new to report about the pregnancy. We go back to the doctor next week to check on the baby's growth, so you can all be praying that she's growing at a good pace just to avoid any concern.

I guess I haven't done an update on Penny lately! That stinker has started climbing the fence again. She quit doing it for a while after Matt caught her and blew an air horn at her (she is pretty sensitive to loud noises) but she is back at it. I think Matt spent a good chunk of his morning today hiding and waiting for her to try to climb over, and of course she didn't even try today. She got out a little over a week ago and when we got home, we saw her out in the field behind our house staring up a tree as focused as could be. We called her back home and she looked at us, then the tree, then at us, then finally decided she'd come back home (though she really seemed to have a put out look on her face for us pulling her away from whatever she was chasing). Thankfully she doesn't go far when she gets out, but we still worry about her since there is a busy road nearby. I'll try to get a few pictures of Penny for a later update.

So that's our life right now. Nothing too exciting has happened in the past week.

Pregnancy Update - 6 mo. ultrasound

We had our 6 month doctor appointment this week and got to see the baby again (they wanted to monitor the fluid around the baby – everything was good!). She wasn’t quite as active as last time, but she was still pretty wiggly, and even gave the ultrasound tech’s wand a big kick at one point. She has her head comfortably (for her) tucked up under my ribs. She apparently likes to keep her face pressed snuggly against the placenta, which has made it difficult to get great pictures of her face. The ultrasound tech commented that she’s surprised we have even gotten the pictures we have!

Her profile - we can't decide if that is her jaw, or if she has something in front of her mouth. Who knows... ultrasounds are confusing.

This one shows her nose and lips (she is laying sideways, facing the camera). I told Matt that nose looks like it could be a cute little turned up nose like her mother's... ;)

They showed us some 3D images and we got to see her opening and closing her mouth (drinking the fluid) and it was pretty cute. I couldn’t help but laugh when the ultrasound tech and the doctor commented, “Oh, what a cute baby!” OF COURSE we think she is already pretty cute… but I also understand that it’s an unclear ultrasound picture where you can only make out bits and pieces of her features. So I’m not saying I disagree with them, but it was kind of funny.

You can only see part of her face (again, pressed up against the placenta), but she looks pretty sweet to me!



As of right now, she is measuring to be a pretty little gal. They’ll monitor her growth in the near future, just to make sure there is nothing to be concerned about, but for now, they said everything looks good and healthy – she’s just little!

She has started really reacting to Matt’s voice, which is pretty sweet. I may have cried earlier this week when she started jumping around when Matt started talking and singing to her. Then I may have cracked up laughing at myself for crying. Oh, pregnancy…. :)

Clothes

I have officially outgrown most of my pre-pregnancy clothes. I still have a few stretchy, long, or big shirts that work, but most don't fit anymore. It was so warm and beautiful yesterday that I really wanted to wear shorts. I went through my old stuff remembering that I had two pairs of shorts with elastic bands, and thought maybe they would work. I might've torn the first pair trying to get them on.... ooops. The second pair was fairly comfortable when I was standing, so I wore them out, only to find that they were NOT very comfortable when sitting down!

So I'm on a mission to find maternity shorts. Unfortunately, I guess a lot of the stores aren't in spring/summertime mode yet (I know it is only February... but it is also in the 70's outside), so I'm not having much luck so far. Old Navy only has shorts that are way too short, or only in sizes 0-2 (Ha! Give me a break....), and Target has NOTHING on their website, which surprised me. We will be in Tyler on Thursday, so we're going to look around then. Pretty soon I'll have to stock up on a few more warm-weather shirts, too!

Those who know me well know that I don't change up my wardrobe much, so having to look into a whole new wardrobe is strange for me. I will probably still stay pretty stuck in my ways... I'll find a shirt or two that I like and buy one in every color. :)

Pregnancy Updates - 6 months

Today marks 6 months! Matt snapped a few pictures of me to show my growing belly. It has been growing a lot in the past couple of weeks. There are times where I tell Matt I can actually feel my belly stretching and growing. The baby also moves around a lot, and sometimes shifts toward the front of my belly, making it stick WAY out there!

I'll share a few pictures, stories, and updates in this post.

Just this weekend I've had a couple of times where I have a textbook or a songbook in my lap, and she'll kick so hard that it makes the book jump!

One night Penny had her head resting on my belly and the baby kicked right under her chin. Penny sat up and stared at my belly, then stuck her nose right on the place where the baby kicked. I was laughing so hard that I had tears streaming down my face!

One night, around 2:30am, Penny heard a car door slam outside and barked. When she did, it felt like the baby nearly jumped out of my tummy! Even though Matt and I were still half asleep, we got a good laugh out of it (though it wasn't as funny several minutes later when she was still awake and kicking, and I was ready to get back to sleep!).

The baby is about 12 inches long now, and weighs about 1 1/3 pounds. She hasn't been quite as active in the past week or two (at least compared to before!), but I still feel her movements pretty regularly. Though not as frequent, the kicks and punches have gotten much stronger. She also likes to push up on my ribs, which is painful, at times!

I haven't noticed too much of a pattern yet with her movements. I've noticed that she moves around more after I've had a lot of water to drink or when I've had sweets. I had to practice real self-control this weekend after making delicious homemade snickerdoodle cookies... but it was fun to feel the baby jump around a few minutes after indulging! I had to set out the tray of cookies when the teens came over this weekend just so I wouldn't have so many sitting around tempting me!

Matt and I are really starting to get into planning mode now. Matt started working on fixing up a dresser for the nursery, we've started looking at items for a registry, and we've started talking about some serious labor and delivery topics to decide what we want to strive for. I'm sure the next 2-3 months will be busy, as we try to get everything together and ready (as much as we can!).

We have an appointment later this week, so hopefully I'll have some more information to share then!

Busy

The past week has been a little wild! My classes this semester are underway (and overwhelming), Matt has started working on some projects for the nursery, and we've both been fighting off various sicknesses and ailments. Matt has been fighting congestion and coughing crud for several days, and I... well.... seriously, what is happening to my body? So many aches, pains, and strange pregnancy symptoms. I would've sworn yesterday that I had a stomach bug (and I'm still not totally convinced that it wasn't) but then I did a few quick searches online and found hundreds of people claiming they have the same symptoms, at the same point in pregnancy, and it's just "one of those things you have to get used to."

Next week will be the 6-month mark for this pregnancy. I'll try to get a picture or two to share (my belly is growing like crazy... it's strange), along with some pregnancy updates.