Thirty-three (and a half!) Weeks

I have a very good excuse for posting my photo super late this week. It has something to do with moving into our new house. And having the contractors still working on it. And having to unpack boxes before the rest of our boxes arrive from London (tomorrow). And...

I could go on - but enough excuses! Here she is, all 33.5 weeks of her!

I think dresses (and horizontal stripes) make the bump look bigger than it actually is, but friends and family who saw me last week can give you a real opinion! We had another check up this week with the doctor and Baby C is doing great. The nurse even commented on how much she was moving around when she was trying to get her heart rate - she wouldn't sit still! The baby should be around 4.5-5 lbs now and about 18" long. Pretty much a full size baby! Just a few more pounds to pack on before her arrival and she is ready to go. Hopefully she doesn't decide to show up too early - her room isn't ready yet! We should be getting her crib next week and the changing table has already arrived. We are just waiting on a few more items and soon she'll have a place to call her own.

Thirty-two Weeks

It's that time again - here we are at THIRTY-TWO weeks! That means there's only eight weeks left to go - or two months. According to one book I'm reading I'm already in my ninth month (with the last couple of weeks making up your tenth month) but its less scary if I say I'm eight months along.

I have been up in NY for the last few days spending time with friends and family - and sleeping, lots and lots of sleeping! My mother-in-law threw a baby shower for me over the weekend which was super fun. I got a chance to see friends and catch up with everyone. There were games and cupcakes and lots of belly rubs - but I didn't mind one bit! It was a lot of fun and everyone was super generous with their gifts for Baby C - she is going to be one well dressed little lady!

Thats me! i think I'm carrying better than she is though ;)

Tomorrow I head upstate to visit my side of the family and my mom and sister will be throwing me a baby shower too! This baby is extremely lucky to have such amazing grandparents! We can't wait to catch up with family and get (even more) rest. I've been averaging 9-10 hours of sleep a night and most days manage to get an hour or so nap in as well! I must really need it though - it been great to have this opportunity to rest and recharge.

The baby has been loving all of this attention, and has been doing lots of kicks and flips to show off for everyone. The hiccups are still continuing almost every day and often more than once a day. While she's still moving around a lot I have noticed less punches and kicks and more squirms and wiggles. I think she might be running out of room in there!

Thirty-one Weeks

Here we go - week number thirty-one!

Please excuse the exhausted look on my face. I think I got a little ahead of myself last week when I said I still had a lot of energy. That energy seems to be waning. Considering how much I have going on right now I still think I'm doing pretty well, but where I used to be able to go 3-4 days at full speed before having a rest day, I'm now finding that the max I can do is 2 days in a row before needing to take a breather. Literally a deep breath as well as a bit of a rest - this baby is making it harder and harder for me to breathe! The ongoing bronchitis doesn't help, but I find myself getting winded by just talking on the phone and folding laundry at the same time (that couldn't possibly have anything to do with the fact that I haven't worked out in about three months...could it?)

Our little gymnast is still twisting and turning and kicking all around, though I think she only has a couple more weeks of freedom before she gets too big to move around like a maniac. I'm going to miss the feeling of her in my tummy once she's born, but it will be nice not to feel like there's an alien trying to escape from my belly button. One other thing I am looking forward to once she is born is sleeping any way I want! Imagine the possibilities - on my back, or my stomach, or my side or any combo of the three!! Not that I will have much time to sleep...but I'm ignoring that little fact for the time being.

We are getting so excited to meet our little girl. I keep imagining more and more what it will be like - what she will be like. And even though the thought of actually having to take care of a baby - MY baby - still terrifies me, I'm getting more and more excited. There's only nine weeks left now! April is chock full of baby classes - everything from lamaze to infant care to baby CPR. As you can imagine Brian is SUPER excited for all of them ;) but I really think it will help prep us and (hopefully) calm some of our nerves.

Either that or it will completely freak us out and we will run away screaming from the hospital as fast as we can.

It's a toss up really.

I am off to New York this week for two fabulous baby showers thrown by my super generous mother and mother-in-law. I can't wait to spend some time with friends and family and actually have a chance to relax! No appointments or house related tasks to do - hopefully I'll look and feel more rested after this trip!

A Room for Baby (part 2)

Remember that time, when I designed a beautiful nursery in muted purples and neutrals? That was fun, wasn't it?

When I started to make that design board into a reality I ran into a few...difficulties. See, all those pretty pictures were taken from places like Anthropologie and Restoration Hardware baby & child. When I started to look for similar items from places that were a bit more...in reach...my options were limited. Actually - I didn't have any options. I found that all the "normal" baby stores (Babies R Us, BuyBuy Baby, even Pottery Barn Kids) had very traditional baby items. 

Read: pink and blue. 

And little in between.

Even though I loved my original vision for our baby girls room...there was no way I was letting an infant have more expensive sheets for her CRIB than what I have on my BED.

Sorry baby. I love you, but something tells me you are not going to appreciate a $300 sheet set. Mommy on the other hand definitely will.

So - now that we have a new house and have a room picked out it was time to get to work on a new design board! The original inspiration was an owl sheet set that I found at Pottery Barn Kids. I liked it because it was cute and colorful, but not too pink and over the top.

From there  I pulled out the main colors and decided to use those as an overall color scheme. What it eventually evolved into was a pastel palette whose colors still popped and were fun. We are going to have white furniture (an idea left over from the original palette) and use the four main colors (pink, blue, green and purple) as accent colors throughout the room. Items like the tree and owl decal and the multicolor hooks will add pops of colors without being too overwhelming. The wall color will be a super light blue and we will use chocolate brown accessories to help add a bit of depth and contrast to the room (think storage bins and baskets, along with the hardwood floors).

Overall I think this design board is much more achievable in real life. Mostly because I have already registered for/bought a number of the items on this board :)  And when I stepped back and compared the two ideas I realized that this color palette and theme is much more baby friendly. As much as I would love to have a beautiful nursery decorated with nice, expensive, sophisticated details - something tells me it's not really practical. This on the other hand is cute, whimsical and fun. Perfect for our baby girl.

Perhaps I'll turn that design board into one for the master bedroom instead...

Thirty weeks

So here we are, 3/4 of the way through my pregnancy. THREE-QUARTERS?! How the heck did that happen?? As usual we have had a SUPER busy week and as usual baby has been a trooper through all of it. She has been rolling and flipping, kicking and hiccuping through it all. It's really weird now to be able to feel her whole body move and roll around. And even weirder to look down and see my belly completely lopsided when she shifts to one side! She's still getting the hiccups almost every day, she must be busy practicing her breathing.

The baby is over three pounds now and it getting ready to go through a major growth spurt. In a few weeks she won't have nearly as much tumbling room in there. All things considered I have had quite a bit of energy which I am extremely thankful for. We just closed on our new house yesterday (!!!) and will soon be able to decorate her room! Speaking of which I have completely switched the decor for her room, more on that later this week! I've also started going back to prenatal yoga, which is helping with the lower back pain I have been have for the last couple months. If I can get at least one session in a week I think I will feel a lot better - physically and mentally!

See you next week!

What's in a name?

Probably the most common question we get asked after "Do you know what you're having?" is "Do you have any names picked out?" With good reason of course. People want to get to know this little being I have growing in my tummy, and after finding out the sex the next natural thing to want to know is what are we going to call her.

We have decided to keep the name a secret. We aren't telling anyone - not even our parents or our closest friends. We were happy to share the news that we are having a little girl, but this piece of news we are holding on to. We've decided to do this for a couple of reasons. The first reason is because we want to maintain some element of surprise. We don't want the world to know everything about this baby before she gets here (which might sound strange coming from someone who is writing a blog about being pregnant...). So now she has two surprises going for her - when she will be born (sure she has a due date but what baby actually listens to that) and what her name is going to be.

The second reason we don't want to spill the beans is because we don't want people judging her name. An old colleague of mine said while she was pregnant that they weren't telling anyone the name because as soon as they did, people would pass judgement on the babies name - and he wasn't even here yet to defend himself! I had never thought about it like that before, but realized that it is totally true. Whether its positive or negative you just can't help but have an opinion about a babies name when you hear it for the first time. You will probably associate it with someone that you know/knew with that name, and immediately have a stigma attached to it. Lots of people have told us straight up if they do or do not like a name when we have made an off hand comment about a name we had once considered. People are a lot quicker to offer their opinions when it's just a name that you are thinking of.  They are less quick when that name is actually attached to a little tiny person. I mean, would you really say to someone "Oh you named your baby Cupcake? I don't really like that name." Of course not! You're more likely to say something like, "Oh you named your baby Cupcake! How cute!" Sure,  you will still have your opinion about the name Cupcake, but you're more likely to keep it to yourself. 

And you know what - all of this is absolutely fine. I don't get mad or upset when people share their opinions on babies names - heck I do it all the time, even now when I am going through it myself. It's only human nature and you are entitled to your opinion. It's just that for us and our baby - we would rather not hear those opinions until you have an adorable little face to match that name to :)

The last reason we have decided not to share our leading baby names is that we haven't really decided yet. We already know the middle name so all we have to solidify is the first name - ie the most important name. We have a short list of names that we really like, but we aren't really committed to one front runner yet. It is such a massive decision - I feel an incredible amount of pressure to pick the perfect name that will be suitable for a baby, toddler, teenager and respectable adult - that more often than not we just push the conversation aside. When we do want to talk about it our conversation usually goes a bit like this - 

B: What do you think of randomgirlsname?

T: Yeah I like that, it's pretty

B: Yeah, its nice.

*long pause where our fear of name commitment sets in*

T: So...whats on TV?

It feels like such a BIG decision, I know that if we were to pick a name now I would just second guess myself every day until she is born. There are so many elements to think about and consider - how does the first and last name flow together? How does the first, middle and last name flow together? What would her nickname be? Is there any way at all that her name/nickname/initials can be made into a joke or teased by other kids? No wonder easy names like John and Elizabeth are so popular.

In all reality I think that we will end up with two or three top names that we love and we won't confirm the name until the baby is actually born. I think it will be a lot easier once we see her little face to decide what name fits her the best.

How about you? Did you tell people what name you chose for your baby before he/she was born? For the love of God please tell me how you managed to pick a name! Did you have a lot of negative opinions? Share your story with me so I know we aren't the only ones!