Week 36!

Oct 10th

Baby girl is the size of a chihuahua this week! I cant believe how big she is getting and I cant believe I am 9 months pregnant. I mean, when did that even happen?! I feel like I just peed on a stick. Not to the point where we could have a baby at any time! She's about 19 inches and weighs 6lbs now! She's almost to full term and is just spending her time packing on some baby fat :D

How's Mama? Overwhelmed. Y'all, I mean seriously. We are going to have a baby soon. Her nursery isnt done, the house isnt where I want it, all the things. I might have been a bit overwhelmed this week. Not to mention that we werent even at our house for part of the week. More on that in a bit. Just feeling a bit unprepared this week. The braxton hicks continue and they do seem to get more and more intense as the weeks progress. All the other fun things include- constipation, not sleeping well, and ALL the heartburn. I've woken up throwing up in my mouth numerous times this week. It's disgusting. I've just gotten to the point where I leave tums sitting out on the nightstand so I dont have to get up. On the positive side of things, she's moving a TON. I thought this would slow down based on everything I've read, but she's just a dancing away in there. It's SO cool to watch my belly move. I've tried to catch it on camera, but she's got some stage fright. lol. She makes all the uncomfortable worth it. :D

How's Daddy? Overwhelmed too. There's just so much going on right now that it's ridiculous. We would be this busy if we werent expecting, so getting ready to have a baby is just an added on HUGE thing. lol. He's still bringing work home and taking care of me :D He also went dad mode and installed the car seat!! It's SO weird to have a car seat in the car!!

This week: Well, Monday when we still didnt have power and Duke Progress Energy was saying it would be off till next Sunday, we packed up our stuff and headed to John's parents house. I ended up having to take the full day off and John went ahead to work after helping me unload everything. For the most part, everything in our fridge was ruined and will have to be tossed out. We were able to save some frozen meat and brought that with us to Jim and Jane's house. Being at their place was really nice. Electricity, company, cell service, hot showers lol Little things :D 

Tuesday, we found out our power had come back on around midnight! So much for Sunday. lol. We were both so busy for a few days after work the next few days that we didnt even have time to move home, so we just stayed with the Martins. The commute was AWESOME. 25 minutes to work? Yes, please. lol. Anyways, so Tuesday we both worked like normal. I say worked like normal, but my work threw us a baby shower at lunch!! Again,we were overwhelmed with kindness! So many gifts. It was behind nice of everyone!! After work we had a breastfeeding class. We try to make these nights a little special and get dinner together. Tuesday we went to Rudino's before our class :D  It was also nice to have John's parents available to take care of Carter for us so we didnt have to rush back to their place and take him out. 

Ladybug toboggan that a co-worker made! It's freaking adorable!!!

Wednesday, we were supposed to have a concert after work, but it ended up getting cancelled for a medical emergency of one of the members. The 2nd concert to get cancelled in less than a week. We were SUPER bummed. Here we are trying  to do these things that will be too hard with a little one and they get cancelled- twice! :( Since it got cancelled we had originally had a tour of the hospital scheduled. We were able to get that back and went there after work. Getting a tour of the hospital made it ALL too real. Y'all, I'm having a baby soon. AH! While we were on the tour, we found out one of the girls from our labor and delivery class had her baby that day! Then we figured out who was next, and it's me! I just cant believe it. I know it will be fine, but I'm a bit terrified. Since the tour wasnt that long, John- being the sweetheart he is, went to his parents house and finished packing up what I missed earlier that day, and brought everything home. He let me go straight home after the tour. He's the best. 

Thursday, we crashed. Just too busy every night. SO tired! I did go and pick out fabric for little girls room! It was so nice to have a plan put together for colors and what I was going to make. My crazy self decided I couldnt wait for someone else to do it, since so much was pending on the color selected, so I decided to do it myself :D Oh! my mom also took me out to lunch for my birthday (we finally found a time to get together). She gave me the sweetest "Mom" necklace :D 

(picture of necklace!)

Friday, we had another baby appointment! Still doing well, still head down, and still not dilated at all. We got to see our precious little one on an ultrasound this week! :D We learned she's measuring at about 6lbs 7oz- 46 percentile. Which at first had me concerned, but really she's just average and all the doctor's said that's perfect. So I'll take it :D We also learned she is sunny-side up! They said she would likely rotate. If she doesnt, I'll be in for some awesome back labor, I'm sure. 

Friday night, we got to babysit Mason while the Kinlaws went on a date night! They wanted to fit one in before her maternity was over (I cant believe how fast it went!). We had a great time loving on that little boy and were glad we were finally able to babysit him. Honestly, it was very eye-opening for us. haha :D Sleep, eat, eat some more, diaper change, eat and sleep more, and more diaper changes. It was good for us to see what we have coming up :D He's so sweet, I could have held him all night. 

The rest of the weekend was filled football (an awful game that we should have won), and cleaning/working around the house and in the nursery! Hopefully, this next week isnt as crazy :D

35 weeks!

October 3rd

Little girl is the size of a Mini Lop Rabbit! So adorable!! She's between 18-19 inches and between 5-6lbs these days!  Most of her organ and skeleton development is complete and she's growing stronger and stronger each day!

How's Mama? Much less tired thanks to the extra iron! It also might have something to do with IT'S MY BIRTHDAY WEEK! :D I have started to have even more Braxton Hicks contractions and some of them are INTENSE. Whew-y! I have also started to have some cramping. We had a baby appointment ON my birthday, because hearing her little heartbeat is the best present! I also had my first cervical exam! I'm still not dilated at all- which at this point is a good thing. She is head down though! We are measuring ahead of schedule, so they have ordered an ultrasound for next week. I cant believe my appointments are every week now! Luckily, they are not worried about anything, just wanna check her out on screen. Other than that, I'll share about my birthday down below. It was a great week and I'm feeling pretty good :D

How's Daddy? The best hubby in the world! Our week was INSANE and he still did his best to make my birthday week so special. He even came to have lunch with me one day :D Other than that, he's pretty slammed at work and when he can, he's been bringing stuff home to knock stuff out. I think he's super worried about being out for so long and falling even further behind.

The week: HAPPY BIRTHDAY WEEK! haha :D Monday and Wednesday were filled with baby classes after work. Monday was a bringing home baby class. We learned how to bath, dress, swaddle, and care for the baby. We got to try on carriers and learned a lot about car seats. It probably didnt need to be as long as it was, but I'm glad we went. Wednesday, was our regular labor and birth class. I had started to get concerned about my Braxton Hicks being so severe that I actually asked my instructor about it. She was a doula for 20 years, so I figured she might have an answer. I was trying not to be too paranoid and call my doctor. She told me is sounded normal. Everything always ends up being normal (thankfully!). 

Friday, was my actual birthday! We had our appointment so we both got to leave work early and beat the traffic home after our appointment! That in itself is an awesome birthday present. haha. That night we had plans to go to State for some Howling Cow Ice Cream!, meet up with friends at Raleigh Brewing Company, and then went to dinner at H-Street Kitchen. It was AWESOME! John kept doing everything he could to make my day special and he sure did. I *thought* we had agreed on no gifts, but of course he surprised me with some. He knows my love of scarves and got me the two I wanted for nursing :D He also got me the Rogue Chocolate Stout I had on my birthday last year on our epic road trip- I'm super excited about having it once she comes out. I know he knew how much I was missing our trip and how special something like that would be. :D He's the best.

Erin made me the cutest shirt!!! 

I wore it Friday to work in support of the big game the next day :D

Howling cow! Yes, that is a sundae. No, I do not care what you think :D  And yes, it was before dinner. It was delicious!

 Dinner!

 Love all the people in this picture :D

 And this little cutie!!

 I'm so lucky to have the best date for life:D

 31- AH!

Saturday we slept in and it was game day! I forgot to mention that all week we had our eyes on Hurricane Matthew. He was coming up the coast. The forecast kept changing dramatically (as it does). One day it was going to his us hard, the next we were going to have light rain. Because of this we didnt prepare as well as we should have. We were fine, but hindsight is 20/20. We had tickets to an all day concert festival in Clayton, but it was cancelled, just in case. We were bummed. It did mean we could watch the game Saturday though. The game was at noon game and we had a last minute offer to go to the game! It was Carter Finley's 50th Anniversary and we were playing Notre Dame. If it hadnt been POURING and the wind wasnt ridiculous, we would have gone. But we turned the tickets down and opted to watch it on the couch. lol. It was a very fun game to watch- the field was soaked from the rain and the players were sliding all around. A little after half-time, we lost power. We figured it would be out for a little while, but it didnt come back on. John was SUPER bummed, he really wanted to see the end of that game. Next we lost internet and cell service. Womp.  After sitting around our house for a bit, we decided to make a Target run and just get out of the house. We walked around Target some, picked up a few things, and then went across the street to Carolina Ale House for dinner. We got to watch some football there and turned what was kinda a crappy day into a fun date :D We decided to head home and feed the puppy and then come back and go to the movies. When we got home I realized that we should have gone by the movies to see if they were even open. We couldnt call them, so we just went back up to White Oak- we didnt have anything to do anyways. Of course they were closed. On our way home, there were firetrucks and police in the road of 40. In the short time that we came and went, a river had started to flood 40 and you could barely drive through it. Crazy. We ended up going to bed after we got back- it was late anyways.

Sunday we slept in some and then found we were still without power, internet, or cell service. So we decided to go run some errands. The rain had stopped and it was a gorgeous day. John had said for my birthday weekend we could do whatever I wanted, that mostly got killed by the weather, I was really sad we couldnt do the concert Saturday. I was totally up for returning baby stuff on Sunday though  (we got a ton of doubles) and going to At Home to look at decorations for her room! We drove all the way up to North Raleigh and stopped for lunch at Twisted Fork. Of course I had to pee when I was leaving Twisted Fork and unfortunately found that I was bleeding some. It freaked me out. I ran out and grabbed John and got him in the car. I tried to call my doctor but their lines were dead from the storm. John was doing his best to calm me down, but I was in freak out mode. He finally had the great idea of trying to call our Labor and Delivery instructor, Toni. Somehow I had her phone number in my email and called her. She was SUPER helpful. She told me to call the hospital and see if I could ask a nurse there about it or if they could get in touch with my on-call doctor. After talking to the hospital- we were going in to get checked out. I started balling. I wasnt ready for this. This was not how the day was supposed to go. We got all the way to the hospital and my doctor called!! She ended up telling me that a cervical exam (like I had on Friday) could cause bleeding and all the other symptoms I was having and that I didnt need to worry or go to the hospital. PHEW. So,bless John. He turned around and we went back to North Raleigh to exchange baby stuff.

Let me stop and say that John is my rock. He was totally calm and in control the entire time, which was exactly what I needed. I know he will be everything to me in the delivery room when the time comes to have her. I love that man more than you can imagine.

So, we went to Target and Babies R Us and then headed to At Home. Y'all, I didnt spend ANY money in there! It's usually worse than Target for me. I want all things. haha But I showed some self control and decided that it was too hard to decorate her room  until I had all the bedding done and the right color teal decided on. After shopping, we decided to head back home. We ended up hanging out with the Kinlaws for the rest of the night. We made some food and played a board game. We kept calling Duke Progress Energy to see if they had any updates (We could make calls every now and then, but couldnt text or really receive any calls). We called around 9pm and they finally had an update! They said that power would be back on by 11:45 Sunday and then I hung up the phone as we celebrated! Around 11pm I called  again to see if there were any changes and we listened to the whole thing this time. The whole message said 11:45pm Sunday Oct 16. A WEEK FROM THEN! Talk about crushed hoped. lol. We went home deflated. We had contacted our respective supervisors that day while we were out to let them know we might not be in to work or late if we could make it work. Not exactly how I wanted to spend my birthday weekend, but John made it awesome anyway :D. Next time, we know to prepare a little better for the power being out for so long!

34 Weeks!

September 26th

Baby girl is the size of a Quokka this week! SO CUTE! She's about 18 inches and about 5lbs now! She's peeing up to a pint a day- so weird to me. haha.

How's Mama? Tired. But that's the norm now. haha :D We had a baby appointment on Monday!! I love going and hearing her little heartbeat and ensuring she's doing great in there!  We also found out that my iron is low, which is probably is a huge reason as to why I'm SO tired all the time. They had me start an iron supplement. I kid you not- the first time I took it, I noticed a difference. I had SO much more energy. I mean I'm still tired, but like normal tired, not dragging and need sleep ALL. THE. TIME. Tired. So thankful for that! they also told me to start taking colace with the extra iron to help with any constipation that might occur. yay. lol. On a happier note, little girl is getting so strong in her kicks and it's so neat to watch my belly move some now! :D

How's Daddy? He's good! Tired and very busy. He's gotten to go through all the presents with me! We didnt end up doing it over the weekend because we were WAY too tired. haha.  I know all my tossing and turning is making him sleep even worse than before :( 

He's a champ though :D 

This week: This week was another busy one. Monday I helped throw a baby shower at work for a co-worker. Remind me not to take on a lot this late in my pregnancy next go around. I cried tried to wrap the presents because I couldnt figure it out. I'm pretty sure John thought I was losing it. lol. Wednesday we had baby class again! The classes have been so helpful, I'm really glad that we signed up for them. It's just helpful to know more about what to expect- even if everything is different for everyone. lol. John had to go out of town for work Thurs-Saturday. It was his last trip before the baby comes! Crazy!! The Kinlaws also went out of town, so I kept Bailey. It was nice to have a little time to myself :D Friday night I was my first real night back at PNC. It was great to see everyone again!!! However, by the end of the night, I was done. I had to call it quits and I dont have plans to go back until after maternity. It was too much on my body. I'm really glad I tried though, because I would have been mad at myself if I hadnt. OMG. While I was there, a lady started to choke! The whole table ran over to me to help and do the Heimlich. I went to help her and then remembered that I'm 8 months pregnant and that couldnt really happen. It was super scary though. Luckily, I was able to help someone else do it and a HUGE piece of turkey shot out of her throat. I'm so glad she was okay! So scary. Saturday and Sunday were filled with relaxing and working on the house more :D 

Celebrating Baby M's Impending Arrival!

Y'all, John and I have been completely overwhelmed with the kindness and excitement from all of our family and friends. Our little baby girl is already adored and loved by so many and it just warms my heart. 

I have the best best friend, sister, and mom in the world! They threw me an amazing baby shower at our home. It was just about a month ago at this point (sorry I'm so behind!). John and I got up the morning of the shower and cleaned the house (remind me to do this BEFORE the day of next time. lol) Then I got ready and got out of the house. My mother-in-law, mom, and I had plans to get lunch and get our nails done :D I thought it would be nice to spend some time with the grandma's-to-be before the shower. Then we went and enjoyed a nice pedicure and I got a manicure! It's so nice to have someone else do your nails. Especially, now that I cant really reach my toes well. haha

Krystal and Sherry wanted me back at the house a little before people started arriving so I could see the house decorated. It looked SO good y'all. Like so pretty. These ladies know me so well and for that I am so thankful!

Entry- with a bowl of Oreo Truffles Pops for people to take!

 Flowers and presents!

 Sherry did an incredible job with the decorations!

 Everything was so pretty :D 

 They even decorated her room! :D

Sherry made the coolest diaper bouquet!! She's so creative.

I LOVED it!

Selfie before the shower!

The food was delicious! Of course Krystal heard me say that I really wanted some Ham Delights a few days before the shower and so she made some! and she also surprised me with mini pumpkin cheesecakes- they are by far my favorite!! She is awesome!

Sherry painted and decorated the mason jars you see on the table- they are so adorable that they will be going in little girls room :D

My sweet Aunt Rhonda was so gracious to make my cake and OMG. It was just as delicious as I remembered it. She did a fabulous job. 

 Love her!! 

I was completely overwhelmed with how many people were able to come to the shower. My cousin flew in from Chicago! John's aunts drove in from Fayetteville, my grandma drove in from Jacksonville, friends from my neighborhood, work, childhood, and college years, SO many people I love! They all came to celebrate my sweet baby girl with me. Seriously, words cannot explain how honored and loved I felt :D

We all got some yummy foods first and everyone got to chatting. It was so nice to be able to catch up with some of these people! I wish time would go slower. haha.  After awhile we stopped and played some games :D Then we opened up presents and ate cake!- I dont even know where all the time went! It went by so fast! We were definitely showered with TONS of gifts and John and I are just so thankful for that!

Baby games!

 OMG. The cutest little toboggan for her!!! Mrs. Wuf! 

The last gift I opened was by far the most precious of them all. My mother-in-law gave us John's hospital outfit from when he was born. Look how tiny he was!!! I dont even know how she kept up with it all these years, but it is incredibly sweet to have something so precious from her. I know it had to be hard for her to give it to us. It made everyone cry. 

The shower was perfect and everything I could have wanted it to be. :D The guys had a nice time out doing guy things- I know John needed the guy time! and time away from worrying about projects around the house. After the shower, the boys came home and we all hung out and ended up going to dinner. It was a lovely day. :D 

My sweet hosts!

Here are some pictures with folks from the shower! 

(I'm horrible at remembering to take pictures!)

John'a Aunts and Mom :D 

 Grandma to be!

 Aunt Julie!

 Kristen came over early and helped the girls set up. :D  

 My grandma :D 

Me and Kim :D She's the one who had the Mrs. Wuf toboggan made!

 Jennie! We've been friends since 2nd grade!

 My sweet cousin Christina :D

33 Weeks!

September 19th

Baby girl is the size of a ferret this week! She is between 17-19 inches long and weighs between 4-6lbs. Babies start to vary even more now! So the guessing is even harder. Wherever she is at, she will put on about 1/2 lb a week at this point. phew! She's started to keep her eyes open while she's awake and she's dancing up a storm in there! Her movements have started to turn into more of rolls than jabs since she's getting so big in there. She still jabs, just not as often. lol. 

How's Mama? MUCH better than last week. I still had a nasty cough for most of the week, but much better overall. Very tired, not sure if it's residual from being sick or just pregnancy in general. lol. Sleeping is also getting even harder, so that's probably a huge factor as to why I'm tired also. I am loving her rolling around so much this week and very excited about my shower this weekend!!!  Oh and the heartburn is back. ALL of the heartburn. I have to keep tums on me at all times now. lol

How's Daddy? I stressed him out. There is so much to be done before the shower (that we decided to have at our house). On top of that he's been working late each evening. He's one superhero though!! When he does get home from work, he hasnt stopped in the house. Each night he's either worked on crown molding in little girls room or worked on the ceiling in the kitchen. His dad even came over a few nights this week to help with both. 

This week? This week was filled with doing stuff for the shower after work. Cleaning and prepping. Wednesday night we did have baby class again! We learned relaxing techniques and John learned a lot of support techniques. They actually came in very handy this week as after class Wednesday in the middle of the night, I woke up SCREAMING with a charley horse. I thought I might have gotten away with no leg cramps since we were so far, but NOPE. I've had charley horses before, but this was by far the worst one I've ever had. John was awesome. He jumped right up from his sleep and started to massage my leg and help however he could. He started to use the techniques we learned in class- which helped A LOT. This happened again the next night, but I was lucky enough to catch that one was coming on before it did. Phew. That pain is no joke. I fear for labor. Friday night came and John and I worked on the house some. 

Saturday was my shower!! I will have a whole post on this! But it was perfect :D I have the best husband, best sister, best mom, and best best friend in the whole wide world. They made my day better than I could have imagined. Everything was beautiful and delicious! During my shower, Josh and AJ took John out for a guys day to celebrate their way. After the shower, we all got back together and hung out for dinner and drinks :D We learned this week that our favorite bottle shop was sold. We've become good friends with the owners over the past 3 years and was sad to hear the news. I might have cried (shocker). So one of our stops was to go say bye to him. 

Love my mom and sister!

 Love this woman and of course Mason too!

Sunday- was basically a recovery day for most of the day. We slept in and then slept on the couch and didnt get up until about 4pm when we had to get ready for my brother's surprise party. If it hadnt been for his birthday, we would have stayed on the couch and probably wouldnt have moved all day. haha. Instead, we went over to Britt's parents house and celebrated my sweet brother. I cant believe he's 25!! So thankful he has an awesome wife that planned a special event for him :D