The Nursery is Finished!

Greg and I finished the nursery this weekend and I am in love with it! I could sit in there all day and look at all the cute things. I love that we got such a great deal on everything and that it is so totally "us."

Standing in the doorway, looking into the room. The scrapbook paper will eventually be replaced with newborn pictures.

View of the room from the doorway. Our good friend Veronica made the amazing canvas and curtains for us!

Crib, mobile from my parents, and the canvas. I love the elephants!

Comfy rocker, bookcase, and the awesome curtains. We eventually want to get sheers to go behind the valence in the window, but that might not happen for awhile ;)

Dresser, changing pad, and the wall letters. I love this part of the room! I bought the circles and letters online and then decopauged scrapbook paper on top of them. It took Greg and I awhile to get them just right, but I'm so proud of the way it turned out.

Close up of the letters :) Love 'em!

Close up of the mobile...I think this is one of my favorite parts of the nursery. It plays a sweet lullaby and I'm sure Will is going to love watching it.

Close up of the bedding. The green parts are all corduroy and the white elephant is a fuzzy microfiber material. I love all the textures!

The newborn and 0-3 months side of the closet. You can see our carseat poking out, the elephant boppy from Target, and all the precious little clothes in there!

In other news, I'll be 37 weeks along tomorrow...officially full term! Yay! :) I had a doctor's appointment today and Will's heartrate was strong in the 130s. He is still definitely head down and I'm still feeling a ton of pressure down low. Dr. Hancock said it could be any time now and to be prepared...we'll see when it actually happens! I really have no idea. Sometimes it seems like it could be happening and other times I feel like he'll never arrive. Either way, it's going to be coming up within the next three weeks! I got all the laundry done this weekend and we packed our hospital bags. It's very weird to think that the two of us will go to the hospital and we'll come home with three. Very surreal and exciting at the same time. I have some amazing friends who are all planning to come visit us in the hospital and are wanting to come help out after he arrives. I feel so blessed to have such a supportive husband, family, and friends!

Here's my 37 week tummy picture...I'm feeling very large (and have very swollen feet), but I know it'll all be worth it once he's here :)

Tell me he's not spoiled...

I've just finished washing, folding, and putting away two large loads of laundry...they are solely Will's clothing! And I have two more loads to do, plus his bedding. Greg and I were at Wal-Mart and I picked up 4 10-packs of children's hangers, thinking that 40 would certainly be enough. Hah! I used 30 on the first load alone, and that's not including the things that I stuck in the dresser. I think the kid has more clothes than me and he's not even born yet :) That's a good thing though...less laundry for mommy to have to do each week!

Greg and I spent the afternoon at our friend's, Aaron and Veronica, house. Veronica is an awesome interior designer and we "swapped" talents. I took her maternity and newborn pictures in exhange for some help with the nursery! So while the boys played video games, we talked baby stuff. She is going to make a canvas to hang above the crib of elephants like the ones on our bedding. She's also going to help sew some curtains for me. I can't wait to see what it looks like! In the meantime, I've got to finish decopauging the letters for the wall. I'm about halfway done and then we'll hang them above the dresser. It's all coming together! My goal is to have it finished before my shower in February.

Not much new to update on...Will has been kicking like crazy lately. Greg got to feel him for a long time today. His movements now are SO different from when I first started feeling him. It used to feel like air bubbles in my stomach or popcorn popping. Now, I'm starting to be able to identify what body parts are poking me. We're almost down to two months until his due date...crazy how fast time flies!!

99 Days Left...

Sorry it's been so long since my last post! I was sick all last week, then I had graduation this weekend and Greg and I finished up (most of) our Christmas shopping. Let me just say this - being sick is not fun at all, but especially when you're pregnant! I don't know if I had a mild version of the flu or some other stomach bug, but I'm so glad it's gone! I ended up going to the doctor just to make sure everything was okay with Will since I'd been running a fever. He's doing great (and is as wiggly as ever!) His heart rate on the doppler was 155bpm. There was a moment while listening to it that I could hear two heartbeats and I think the panic must have shown on my face because the doctor laughed and assured me that it was just MY heart beating on top of the baby's ;) Whew! I go back in on January 7th for my last monthly appointment before they move to every two weeks. I also have my one hour glucose test that day to see if I'm developing gestational diabetes. Before that I have to drink a sugary orange drink they gave me and then they'll draw my blood to see how my body handles the sugar. I'm a little nervous since I've had some issues with low blood sugar in the past and hoping that I don't have gestational diabetes...Even if I do have it, though, it would only mean that I'd have to go on a restricted diet and check my blood sugar levels for the remainder of my pregnancy. Not too bad!

I graduated from UMHB on Saturday with my BA in Education. I can't believe it's over, but I'm very thankful that it is. I learned a lot through all the hands on experience I was able to have being in classrooms, but I'm definitely not itching to get into graduate school or anything like that! I'm also very thankful that I have a job and that I don't have to begin subbing after the holidays. God is wonderful and He truly has a plan for my life that is greater than anything I could ever imagine!

We almost have the nursery all put together! We bought an upholstered rocking chair from USA Baby (and got an awesome deal on it!) and a bookshelf from IKEA in the past couple weeks. Our JCPenney bedding finally arrived and I love it. Now I've just got to get the decorations in there and it will be completely ready for Will. Here are some pictures:




I don't have a belly picture yet for this week...I'll try to get that before we leave for Christmas! But here's what is going on with Will this week. The nerves in his ears are becoming more sensitive and he's beginning to be able to pick up on the sounds of other people's voices; not just mine anymore. He seems to love when I'm listening to music too - no matter what kind it is, he'll start to wiggle around. He's still gaining all that baby fat and practicing breathing with amniotic fluid. He weighs 1 3/4 pounds and is around 14 inches long. We're hoping to get a 3D-4D ultrasound in the next month, so we'll have some good pictures of him and hopefully some video too!

I hope everyone has a safe and blessed Christmas!

Happy Viability Day, Will!

Today marks 24 weeks of being pregnant...the special thing about that is that Will is now considered "viable" outside the womb if he were to be born today! All his major organs are functioning, and although his lungs aren't working properly, he could live with a respirator. His mommy definitely wants him to stay in there and cook for awhile longer though...no early appearances, please!

Will weighs about 1 1/2 pounds this week and is the length of a foot long hot dog. My baby book said that he looks pretty cramped in there now...I can imagine so! I can feel him moving around very often! It's pretty fun if he's kicking to put my hand over the spot and press down a little bit. He usually goes into a fit of kicking as if to say, "Hey! I'm cramped enough in here already. Please don't make it any smaller!" He also looks like an infant now and the next 16 weeks will be spent accumulating fat (for cute, chubby cheeks!) and continuing to perfect his breathing/organ functions.

This past weekend we painted our Craigslist find dresser...It looks great! It was an exhausting, all day affair, but we managed to get it completely painted, clear-coated, and moved into his room! The silver knobs we bought for it look great too. Now we just need a rocking chair or glider and a bookcase. Our bedding should be here any day (provided JCPenney doesn't mess up our order again!) and his room will really start coming together. I have a bunch of cute decoration ideas and I have a friend who is an interior decorator to help :)


I started my job at Robertson last Wednesday and was in a math training today. I'm slowly getting my room set up and will start teaching my kiddos on Friday! I'm really excited about working there and I'm really enjoying everyone I work with. I think it's going to be a great fit...God is so good to me!

23 weeks

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We sure did. Lots of time with family and great food! On Friday, I braved the crowds and did some Christmas shopping. I got quite a few things accomplished (although I still have to shop for Greg - he's so hard to shop for!) and found some bargains on maternity clothes and baby clothes for Will...he's growing quite the wardrobe of sweet little boy clothes!

On Wednesday, Greg and I found an awesome dresser off of Craigslist. We'd been looking for something that could double as a changing table and found a great, sturdy one that was selling for a great price. It's an ugly green color that I'm not too crazy about, so next weekend we're going to be spray painting it white. We got some brushed silver knobs for the dresser that will look great on it once it's painted! When we got there, the lady wouldn't budge on the price but she did throw in a changing table. We'll have to paint that white too, but Will's nursery is definitely coming together! We're still searching for a rocking chair...but everything we've found so far is about $200 more than we want to spend!

Yesterday we spent the day doing some Christmas shopping and then put up our tree. It looks awesome and it's so exciting to have all our decorations up. I love Christmas time :) We also found some icicle lights in the attic of our garage that Greg is going to put on the house next weekend. I'll put pictures of everything up later.

As you can see, it's been incredibly busy around here! I graduate in three weeks (hooray!) and I'm trying to get all the last minute things tied up with my student teaching. I had a job interview last Tuesday that I should be hearing back from sometime this week...it would be an amazing opportunity and I'm really praying that it works out. Even if it doesn't, I know God will take care of us and that's all that matters.

I'm 23 weeks along this week...only one more week until his "viability date," or the day when he has a greater chance of surviving outside the womb than not. He's now weighing in at over a pound and is about the size of a large mango. He's able to hear talking and music from the outside and can even feel movement now when I sway from side to side! He gets so active at church when the music gets loud...it seems like he really enjoys it! I'm enjoying all his kicking and moving around too. He's getting so much stronger. Last night I could even see my belly moving from his kicks! I really can't believe how fast everything is going - we're going to be meeting him so soon, which is very exciting! Here's my 23ish weeks picture, taken tonight before church. I had many people commenting on how it looked like I'd "popped out" and was really starting to look pregnant. I'd say so!

Bedding Ordered!

This afternoon, Greg and I ordered Will's bedding from JCPenney! I had actually picked out a few weeks before we found out that he was a boy...and in the meantime changed my mind and decided to keep looking. Well, I kept looking and kept looking, just sure I'd find something else I liked better. I think I've looked at every single baby bedding available on the internet! After talking to my mom for a long time this afternoon, we decided to order it! It's on back order until December 5th, but I'm very excited to have it picked out (finally!)

Yesterday, I had my last wedding until after Will gets here...and boy am I thankful it was my last one! I've been in tons of pain all day today. I think being on my feet for 10 hours combined with the weight of my camera, lenses, and bag caused something in my lower back to get strained. I've spent most of the day laying on the couch with a heating pad on my back. I also took a hot bath. Everything helps temporarily, but the pain is still lingering. I'm planning to go to bed early (read: after I write this post!), take some Tylenol and hope that a good night's sleep fixes the problem.

We have a crib!

Greg and I spent the afternoon putting together the baby's new crib! I'm very excited about it - we love it and we got a great deal on it...always a good thing! Hopefully we can find a dresser and rocking chair or glider that match to go in the room for just as good of a price. We'll see!

It wasn't too complicated to put together. Greg did most of the work while I held pieces up. Riley and Sammy oversaw the entire project and checked out all the pars to make sure they didn't have anything scary hiding inside!

Greg working hard while I take pictures...hey, it's what I'm good at!

Sammy and Riley making sure we're doing a good job.

The finished product! I can't wait to get cute bedding to go inside :)


The "babies" get to try it out! :)