100 Days to Go!

Yikes! I can't believe it. I remember when I first got pregnant, and looked at my pregnancy ticker (see above) just how far off "double digits" seemed. I know I say it all the time, but I can't believe how fast this has gone. Not that it's over yet or anything, but we're getting close!

I got a bit of good news yesterday - I passed my Glucose Screen test! Woohoo! So basically all that means is that I don't have Gestational Diabetes, and I can eat whatever I want. Whew!

I had a dream last night that I had this baby, and it was actually twins! A boy and a girl. I was excited, but I remember being mad that the doctors never detected the twins any earlier than delivery! haha. They both had brown hair and blue eyes, and looked very "Blair."

Jeff's family is coming down to Dallas this weekend for a visit. While they're here, we're going to put them to work hanging a ceiling fan in the nursery! :) We're such great hosts, aren't we! Maybe while they're working on the fan, I'll work on getting the blinds hung. Once those two things are done, then we're really just down to getting furniture in and curtains hung! It'll be great!

In other nursery news, Bailey LOVES the nursery. Maybe it's the paint fumes, but she goes in there all the time. She must think we're making her her own little room. :) Sorry Bailey! Just this morning while I was doing my hair, she was in there rolling around on the carpet. Weird dog! At least she likes the room to begin with, so she'll have a positive connotation associated with the nursery!

The Nursery is Painted!

My parents came over on Saturday and helped us paint the nursery. Boy, did it feel good to get the nursery EMPTY!!!! It was a complete disaster in there. But, it all had to go somewhere, and now the rest of the house is a disaster... But we decided that between now and when the baby comes, we are going to take one room in the house on a weekend, go through it top to bottom, and throw away everything we can... And what we can't throw away, find a place for it. Because we know once the baby is here, none of that will ever get done!

Without further ado, here are the nursery pictures.

Before painting:





After painting:



And here's the curtain material held up next to the wall:



Now that the room is painted, we can really get moving. We need to buy blinds for the window, then I can sew my curtains, and we're also going to install the ceiling fan. I think we'll try to get those things accomplished in the next weekend or two. I could spend my evenings sewing, it shouldn't take too long. I'm so antsy to go out and buy my furniture! I can't wait to get the nursery looking more complete. We're holding off to see if the furniture ever goes on sale, so I'm trying to be patient!

Last Friday I checked out 3 baby name books from the library. I'm starting to feel a lot of pressure on my girl name!! Time is running out! While we were waiting for the first coat of paint to dry, my mom paged through the books and we discussed some girl names. We got a couple new ideas, but nothing that feels 100% right yet. I have a feeling we'll be going to the hospital with a list of several girl names, and then if it's a girl, see what she looks like and then decide. :) Now if I could just get Jeff to agree to my favorite girl name!

25 Weeks & Picture

Here I am at 25 weeks!



This morning was my 25 week appointment. Weight gain so far - up 4 pounds from the day I got my positive pregnancy test! (But I had lost a few pounds in the first trimester, so in reality it's a little more than that!)

I got to hear the heartbeat on doppler again, I never get sick of that one! Dr said it sounds great.

I asked him about my itchiness, and he told me to try stop taking my vitamins for a week and see what happens. It actually sort of makes sense, because the company of my prenatals changed their formula, and I started getting itchy right when I started my new box with the new formula! So we'll see! I don't feel comfortable going completely off the vitamins though, so I still have a bottle of OTC Prenatals I was taking before I got pregnant, and they never made me itchy, so I'm just going to switch back to those for a week. HOPEFULLY that's my cure! Because the itchiness was so bad last night, I was kept up in bed for an hour with uncontrollable itching. It was miserable.

I also asked him about the pain I was having a couple weeks ago. He said it definitely sounded muscular to him, and he said if it comes back, to buy a maternity belt to give me more support. So that's good to know, if it comes back! (Let's hope it doesn't!)

We set up my next appointment for 3 weeks from now, and then he said after that we move on to bi-weekly visits! Yikes! I can't believe how quickly it's going. He also said it's time to start looking into our birthing classes. I'll call the hospital sometime this week and get that set up.

Three Days Pain Free!

Amazingly, tonight marks three days that I have been pain free. I think I mentioned it before - the abdominal pain I was having - but starting right around 22 weeks and ending just after 24 weeks, I would just hurt and ache every night. From people I asked and talked to, it was just the muscles and ligaments really getting stretched. I'm not sure what happens next - they get to the point of no return or something? But it doesn't hurt anymore. It feels great not to be in pain every night, I can eat like normal and have no pain, and waist bands don't hurt anymore! I'm making a point to truly be thankful for times like this when I'm really feeling good! I'm only a few weeks from the third trimester now, and who knows how long I'll be comfortable beyond that! haha.

Still not much progress on the nursery, I had hoped to have it empty by now, but it still sits rather full of empty boxes... But luckily those will be easy to clear out. Plus I have another 25 auctions ending on Ebay tonight, all of which have bids, so that's 25 more Breyers and boxes I'll have out of here! Hopefully tomorrow night I'll get it cleared out! My mom is coming over on Saturday to help paint, so I better have it all done by then!

24 Week Picture

Here's 24 Weeks! I don't know why it's a little blurry. Oh well.



I didn't get my nursery emptied this weekend as I'd hoped, but did get some accomplished. We spent ALL DAY Saturday baby shopping. Boy is that exhausting! We didn't buy anything, but pretty much solidified what we're going to buy in terms of crib, dresser, stroller, and all that good stuff! Now we just need to wait for it to go on sale. haha. I also bought my fabric for the nursery, so that feels good to have it in-hand!! Yay! Now I just need to find time to go ahead and start sewing. Unfortunately, though, I can't finish the crib skirt until I actually have the crib, so who knows how long that will be. I think it's my goal to get the nursery painted this coming Saturday. I'd love to have that out of the way. Because we can't do anything else in there until it's painted! And now that I have my crib sheets, I can just take them in the paint store and have them color-match it.

My only complaint lately is how ITCHY I am. Thankfully my belly isn't very itchy, but my legs are soooo bad! I don't know what it is! It just developed in the last week. I even get little inflamed itchy bumps... I don't know what it is! I did have 2 on my belly last night, and sometimes my arms and face get itchy too. They go away after a day or so, but then new ones flare up.. It's not cool! I suppose I'll ask my dr about it at my next appointment. I read a little about it at Babycenter, and they said that a small percentage of women are affected by these little bumps, so I guess I'm just one of the lucky ones??

Minnesota Baby Shower

I got my pictures from last weekend!

I had such a great time in Minnesota. It was wonderful to see my friends and family. As soon as we left the airport, Emily knew my #1 goal was to eat my Sesame Chicken, Fried Rice, and Wontons at Leann Chin. Luckily there is one very close to Emily's house, so we stopped there before anything else! Oh. My. Gosh. I died and went to heaven. I wish I could get that down here. But I suppose it wouldn't be special anymore!

The next day we met up with my friends Mandy and Sarah at the Mall of America for some lunch and shopping. I was at the check-out line at Old Navy when I could swear I hear my mom's voice... But I went along with paying out. When I was done, I turned around, and sure enough - there was my mom! Hilarious! What are the odds! But I suppose, when two Texans head for Minnesota, there's a good chance they'll end up at Mall of America! I got all sorts of good tax-free maternity clothes, which was one of my goals for the weekend! :)

Saturday was my shower. It was so much fun! My mom and my aunt Ginny were the first ones there. My mom was talking to me, keeping me busy and distracted and all sorts of stuff... When the door opens. Yay! Another guest! It was my sister Andrea, her husband Steve, and baby Micah!!! I was SO shocked!!! Andrea had told me she wouldn't be able to make it. I was so happy and surprised, I started crying, but eventually regained my composure! The shower was great. I got lots of great baby stuff, yet lots of people were gracious enough to realize I had to take everything home with me, so I got lots of gift cards! I can't keep myself off the Target website trying to decide what I want to buy! Here are some pictures.

My mom, me, Andrea, and Micah


Micah and Me!


An adorable lion car seat dangle!


Isn't Micah too cute???


A classic toy! Never goes out of style. :)


A newborn sleeper complete with white (Blaze!) rocking horse, and a Wendy Bellissimo lamb mobile. (From my mom)


Me, Andrea, and Micah


Cousins! Sara, Me, Andrea, and Carolyn


My wonderful friends! Dara, Mandy, Sarah, Kelly, Emily, and me.


Micah and his cousin-to-be!


Overall the trip was wonderful. I was also able to grab a quick lunch with Andrea, Steve, and Micah on Sunday before we all left town. Another one of the best things about the weekend was getting to meet and spend time with Emily's little baby Gabriel. He is so precious and it was so fun to get to peek into my future for a few days!! Thanks to everyone up there, it was such a wonderful weekend.

23 Week Picture

Not much time to post much else today, but here is my 23 Week picture!



I even got brave and took a bare-belly picture last night! It's so round!! Tonight Jeff and I are going to have dinner at Outback. Afterwards, we are going to stop at the fabric store and pick up the fabric for the nursery! Maybe we can be REALLY productive and pick up the blinds for the nursery window too... But at the same time I'd like to hurry back home, today is a 20 cent listing day on Ebay... That means I can get more Breyers up for sale! Move em out!