Nursery Progress

We made it safely back home, and Matt still had some vacation days left to spare. Isn't it strange how you feel like you need a vacation from your vacation sometimes. Matt didn't get much resting time in though. I took full advantage of him being home and we went on the hunt for the perfect gray color for the nursery (not sure if there is such a thing, but we tried.)

Here is the progress we have made so far.

The top picture is all of the letters that we bought, painted and modgepodged.  The bottom picture is the moch up I did on the wall.  I cut each letter out of paper and taped it to the wall to make sure I liked the placement and spacing of the letters.  In the right corner of this wall (which you can sort of see) is a large boocase, that holds nicknacks and books and picture frames.  The black piece of paper above the bookcase will become the new home of the charicture that we had done in Gatlinburg to announce the pregnancy to Matt.  In the left corner of this wall there is a glider (which we hope to recover). I can picture Matt and I sitting in the glider feeding the baby, reading a story to them before bed or just snuggling with them. Once the baby is old enough bean bags will be added and this will be turned into a reading area. (I hope our child has a love of books like I do.)

This is the dresser that Matt and I found on Craigslist and refinished. It's currently housing most of the goodies that we got from our baby shower. The bottom drawer is dedicated to diapers, the middle drawer has toys and health and bath supplies, and the top drawer is dedicated to feeding supplies. We of course will eventually move the bath and feeding stuff but for now it's all contained in the dresser. We plan to paint this wall gray as well (we wanted to live with the one wall to begin with to make sure it wasn't too blue looking or too purple or yellow- it's hard to find a true gray.)  The black pieces of paper above the dresser are going to be frames and shelving.  As soon as we get the wall painted we will be ready to yut them up!

We are going to add a changing pad to the dresser as well as shelves above it and a few pictures. The large black rectangle you see will not be a picture, instead it will be an empty frame with a coat hook. We thought we would hang the coming home outfit there, and later maybe another special outfit.

And that's nursery progress 1.0 for right now. Stay tuned for version 2.0 as more progress is made.

Snowflake Baby Shower

Today was our first baby shower.

Words can not express how grateful I am for family and friends who are just as excited as we are to welcome this new baby into the world. Thank you to everyone who was able to come to our baby shower and help us celebrate.

We ended up with about a foot of snow for the shower so it was extra special to see people make the trip out in the weather to bring gifts and words of advice for our growing family. We are beyond blessed to have each and every one of you in our lives.



 The picture on the left is our road the morning of the shower.

(Matt did a good job driving in "real/ not North Carolina" snow.

The picture on the right is looking out the back door.

Beautiful! But it can stay in Pennsylvania.
 

One of the things Matt and I wanted to do at each of our showers was to have the guests make predictions about our bundle to be----

Here are the results:
Nine of the guests this little bundle I'm carrying is a boy! These included my dad, my grandpa, Aunt Joan, Aunt Cyndy, Uncle Dan, Tina, EJ, Jason, Becca,

Five of the guests think there is a future princess growing inside of me! These included my mom, my grandma, Uncle Chris, Travis, Tara

The winner goes to the boys on this one :)

Birthdate + time predictions ranged from February 14 to March 7th (more than a couple think March 2nd is going to be the lucky day!)

Tina- February 14 (2:14am)

Great grandpa- February 26 (midnight)

Becca- February 27 (11:27am)

Aunt Joan- February 29 (2:10am)

Uncle Dan- March 1 (11:05am)

Grandpa- March 1 (middle of the night)
Great grandma- March 2
EJ- March 2 (12:05)
Tara- March 2 (2:39pm)
Travis- March 2 (3:00pm)

Aunt Cyndy- March 3 (11:00am)

Jason- March 4 (8:30am)

Uncle Chris- March 5 (2:30pm)

Grandma- March 7 (9:00pm)

Out of 14 people....

*eight of the guest think Bebe will have blue eyes

*six think Bebe will have brown eyes

*six think Bebe will have blonde hair and
*eight think Bebe will have brown hair

Weight predictions....
5 pounds
6 pounds
6 pounds 4 ounces

6 pounds 5 ounces

6 pounds 8 ounces
6 pounds 10 ounces
6 pounds 11 ounces
7 pounds 5 ounces
7 pounds 6 ounces
7 pounds 6 ounces
7 pounds 6 ounces

8 pounds

8 pounds 2 ounces
19 pounds 4 ounces (!!!! Ok I'm not ok with this one- 19 pounds no thank you Aunt Joan)

Predictions of our little ones future professions.....

* 4 predictions Bebe will become a teacher

* 3 votes Bebe will become a doctor

* engineer

* politician

* nurse or construction
* construction
* whatever you desire

I loved reading what traits everyone hoped our little one would inherit from us. Many of them brought tears to my eyes realizing the qualities you find in Matt and I. And I hope all of the wishes you have for the future Pressley come true.

And this is the point that I cried! I thanked everyone for coming out in the snowy weather and told them how much it meant to us that they took the celebrate with us.  I gave each person a candle and asked them to say a prayer for us when they heard we were in labor. 


 

I didn't get a chance to take many pictures of the festivities but here are a few of the red, silver and white decorations.

I love the color scheme and the snow that was added outside made it that much more cozy.

We made and decorated HUGE sugar cookies before the shower.  They were good, we had enough left over that we got to take some home--- along with all these goodies for Bebe Pressley!  WOW!














Again thank you all for coming out in the weather to visit with us and share in our joy. This baby is being born into a wonderful "family"

 

31 Weeks

Single digit number of weeks left!

Well we are in Pennsylvania this week for Christmas and a northern baby shower. I wasn't sure how the 8 plus hour drive would go on the way up. But it wasn't too bad, I didn't get too uncomfortable in the car and there weren't any "accidents". Matt did a good job getting me to a bathroom when that urge hit. We however didn't get a lot of walking time in. Dr. H suggested getting out every couple hours and walking a bit. Once we hit Virginia it started snowing and there was snow on the ground at every breaking spot- so I couldn't do much walking outside. I would walk around inside the gas station for awhile before using the bathroom and walk around again after, so we made do.

Matt got to see some real snow on this trip- he even made a snowman :)

So cute coming home and me going inside to sit and wonder "what happened to my husband" to look outside to see him building a snowman by himself. Made me think about future Christmases with grandma and grandpa and building a snowman as a family.

Christmas was nice. I hope you all had a blessed Christmas as well.






Matt bought the baby a recordable teddy bear for Christmas. I love that the patchwork on the bear matches some of the colors we are using in the nursery.


It will be fun to record different things as our little one grows up. My mom always leaves notes for me/us when she visits for us to find after she leaves. Matt and I also leave notes for each other - so it's like carrying on a tradition in an auditory way :)

Matt and the baby also got me a beautiful rose gold ring.


Matt said the baby told him I needed it. Currently my wedding rings still fit- but if the time comes that my fingers swell and I have to take them off I can wear my new band on that finger (so it doesn't feel so naked) but for right now I'm wearing it on my right hand.






The baby and I got Matt a keychain that says "our hero". This is the picture and caption he posted on facebook. 

He has truly been our hero throughout this pregnancy. I can not imagine where we would be right now if he had not believed in me and given me the courage to quit my job. He was my strength and sounding board when I needed him. And now he is giving me the opportunity to stay at home and raise our child. Our hero. I also got him a onsie from the baby that says daddy and me.






The above gifts weren't anything though- the best part was being able to spend Christmas with my family.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from

our growing family to yours! 

May your holidays be filled with

lots of love, laughter and happiness

(and hugs and kisses from your loved ones!)

30 Weeks

Hello blog world!  We are in Pennsylvania this week for Christmas and a holiday baby shower. We are super excited about both of these things.  Christmas has always been a favorite holiday of mine, and now that Matt and I are starting our own family, I often wonder what our family traditions will be? And how many kids will eventually be a part of those traditions?  What will our kiddos look like? So many un-answered questions.  I know that our family story is already written and in God's hands- but it's fun to imagine all the little things.

One of the things that I made for the baby shower is a predictions card where every person who comes will have a chance to predict whether this LO will be a boy or a girl, the LO's birthday and time, height and weight, hair color and eye color, whether they will look like mommy or daddy and future profession.  It will be interesting to sit down with Matt and read through these predictions and make some of our own.

I am really looking forward to making memories with our new family of three and planning yearly traditions that will occur for a long time to come. 

29 weeks

 

Well I got my first rude comment. I guess I knew it would be coming. But considering I have only had one person ask me in public if I was pregnant (actually it was a little girl who asked her mom of I was pregnant- her mom was mortified until I said yes. Her mom's due date was the following day.)

"Are you sure there is only ONE in there?" Really- don't ask this question. Or "are you sure that's when your due?"

Trust me- those are two things that I wouldn't lie about.

I know my belly has obviously grown and I have put in weight- but I didn't think I looked like I was growing two babies!  Hopefully that is the last time I hear a negative comment- but I doubt it. I'm growing a blessing in my belly people. Say nice things, like "wow you look great"- that's about the only comment you should make to a pregnant woman. That and "here I bought your little one a special gift." That's all. No comments about weight, or how many or how long is left.

We have eleven weeks left until Bebe's arrival- time is going fast!

Matt and I attended a healthy beginnings class this past week- it was very informative. We learned how to give a newborn a bath, as well as infant CPR and what to do if an infant chokes. Three things that I actually  had some concerns about and am glad they went over them. Tonight Matt and I start our first Bradley class. It is a 12 week class that will go over techniques to help us have a natural birth.

Other big accomplishments of the week- I finished the alphabet wall for the nursery :)

28 Weeks

Matt and I have had the chance to take a few classes already.  And the rest of this month and next month is pretty full also.  We went on a tour of the maternity part of the hospital, and also to a pain managment in labor class.  I was a little disappointed in the pain management class. Matt and I are planning on trying to have a natural birth- why take pain management then? Well I know that birth is an unpredictable event and  there is a possibility that I will not be able to make it the entire time without pain medication, so I wanted to be informed. I also wanted Matt to be informed as well since he will be a part of the decision making with me. I figured the class wouldn't talk about natural pain management- but i didn't expect the big push for the epidural. They actually said "epidurals is just what we do here. Everyone wants one so we give them one." "Even those who come in thinking they can do without end up getting one eventually." This totally disheartens me. I was also surprised that they didn't go into anything about c- sections.    The class went into the difference between using an analgesic and an epidural.  But nothing about c- sections. That was one topic I wanted some more information about. What all it consists of, etc. hopefully we will go over it in one of our other classes. Matt and I did discuss that we do not want to use an analgesic (which is a type of pain management that is injected into the blood stream and does get passed to the baby. 

We stopped after class and spoke with one of the nurses about wanting to go naturally and asked if there were nurses there that have participated in naturally births or had one themselves that we could ask for when we were admitted. (I really wanted to check into this because of the comments made during class. She spoke with us briefly about writing a birth plan and letting them know whenever we  are admitted that we would like to try to go naturally and they will hook us up with the right nurse. So that made me feel a little bit better. 

Without further ado, here are our stats for this week (well those that have changed atleast)

How far along:  28 weeks down, 12 weeks to go

This week baby is the size of: a Chinese cabbage. For those of you (like myself) have no idea what that is;  the baby weighs about two and a half pounds and is about 16 inches long from top of the head to the tops of the toes.

Next appointment: We start going every two weeks now.  This next time will only be a week and a half since 2 weeks would be right before Christmas.  Decemeber 19th. 

Movement: There is no telling what kind of movement I will get from day to day. Somedays it seems like I have a little gymnist in there, and other days I think I have a sleeping beauty.

What I'm loving: feeling the movement and watching my belly move when Bebe is up and moving and grooving. 

What I'm looking forward to: Christmas and seeing all of my family and friends from PA at our baby shower. 

Milestones: Baby P is now able to blink and cough. He/she is also getting better at sucking and breathing.

Goals: My goal before leaving for pa is to get a few things made for our shower. I plan to put together a scrapbook for the baby from everyone at the shower. It will include predictions and wishes and advice for the new parents. So I need to design that. I also have a book I plan on making a small favor for everyone. So I need to get those things done!  I also need to figure out Christmas gifts!