Nursery & Baby Update - 30 Weeks

One more week down, and more nursery projects have been completed! Ben was very busy yesterday, getting a few items off the baby to-do list crossed off. First, he got Jake's bookshelf put together and attached to the wall while I was at work, so I got to do some more decorating after getting home!

Ben still has some work to do on the monkey cut-out, so hopefully Mr. Bojangles (as Grandma has taken to calling him) will be up with his new friends before too long! Ben also got Jake's letters put up above the crib:

All together, I'd say the room is shaping up to be a great little nursery for Jake!

In other news, I had a bit of a scare this week when I got the results back from my one-hour glucose test. The results came back Monday a little high - 135, with a cut-off of 130. After spending half the day freaking out about the prospect of dealing with gestational diabetes (hey, I'm a pasta nut), I found out that the cut-off in some states was as high as 145, which calmed me down a bit. Tuesday I had the 3 hour fasting glucose test performed at the office, which involved fasting from 7:30 pm the night before, getting pricked at 7:30 am the next morning, then drinking an entire solution of glucose, followed by three more pin pricks every hour...still fasting. I felt like a pin cushion and was miserably hungry, but I was rewarded afterward with some yummy Thai food (Tommy's Thai rules!) for lunch. The next afternoon, I found out all was normal...w00t!!

Ben and I are now 2 weeks into our childbirth classes at Rose, which have been wonderful. I feel so much more empowered having the information under my belt (much better than any book, I swear). And I'm starting to feel like I'll be able to follow the unmedicated birth plan that I'm developing. Ben is being as supportive as ever, too, making this whole process, which can be so overwhelming at times, a hell of a lot more bearable, and even somewhat enjoyable. :)

So all is normal in our little world. We're just so ready to meet our little man - only 10 weeks to go!!

The Nursery!!

We have a nursery!!! Our condo is now officially off the market, and Ben and I busied ourselves over the holiday weekend getting the nursery set up! We moved all the guest bedroom furniture out of Jake's room Friday afternoon. And Saturday we had Jake's new furniture delivered!! The rest of the weekend was spent getting things set up, and I've finally found some time to take pictures of the current state of the nursery:

I remembered that we had the blue recliner in our storage unit. It's so comfortable and I think I'll like it a lot more than any glider we could afford to buy. Jake's bookshelf is being delivered on Tuesday (supposedly); it will go underneath the animal cutouts that are hanging up on the back wall. Ben will be finishing up the monkey cutout in the next few weeks as well. The poor elephant lost his hanger in the move, so we'll need to fix that soon (probably re-do the hangers on the rest of the animals as well; after all, they were originally made 30 years ago). And we still need to tack on some hooks to Jake's letters so that those can be hung over his crib. Lots of little things to do, but the major stuff is in place. Now we just need our little one to complete the room!! Less than three months to go!

Baby Shower!

Well, I finally got to experience my very own baby shower!! I traveled down to Dallas this past weekend, where two of my oldest friends through a big one for me and Jake. The shower was amazing, complete with lots family, old friends, and even a diaper cake:

Too cute, huh?!?! Jake pulled in quite the loot as well...we now have his bedding, lamp, bath stuff, as well as lots of toys, receiving blankets, burp cloths, clothes (oh my God do we ever have clothes), and a few gorgeous homemade quilts and afghans:

And all the diapers that came with the diaper cake, along with a nice diaper bag. We still have some big items to go - the car seat, stroller, and playard - but we have gift cards and two more showers up here in Denver. It's so hard to believe how much stuff our friends and family are providing us - such a blessing!! We also got another item marked off the nursery to-do list - making JAKE letters! One of our hostesses made these beauties for us:

Ben and I have also made a couple of "critical" decisions for the nursery. I wanted a cubby/bookshelf for Jake's toys and books, but I insisted on it being short so that he couldn't climb up the shelves. Well, we finally found this item on Amazon.com a couple of weeks ago:

The shelf can sit on its side, and Ben is going to (eventually) attach it to the wall so that Jake can't pull it over on himself when he starts pulling up. Aren't the little baskets in there cute? They've got a ton of colors to choose from (also available at Lowe's), so we'll be able to match them nicely with Jake's bedding. We're going to paint it a darker green color that goes well with the bedding, and we're looking for an inexpensive white nightstand to paint the same color.

So the plans are all in place...we just need a room to decorate now! Our condo will be on the market for two more weeks...then I get to start decorating the guest room. Jake's furniture should be coming in any day now, and the store will hold it until we ask them to deliver. I'm getting so excited, and antsy - it's time for Mama to nest!!

23 weeks, and ready to plan for Jake!

-Mandy

It's been a crazy few weeks. Between finishing our condo remodel, putting the condo on the market, grant deadlines (mine), paper resubmissions (Ben's), and a conference (mine), we've hardly had any time to think about our little man...or this blog!

But things are calming down, at least for now. We've had no views of the condo yet, so we're adjusting to the idea that we'll be bringing Jake home to our cozy, newly-remodeled home. While not completely ideal, the place is so gorgeous now with everything finished. I'm sure Jake will find it plenty comfortable for his first few months. We'll just take another stab at selling next spring (if it doesn't suddenly fly off the market this next month).

So I'm now starting to plan out how we can convert our guest bedroom into the nursery:

I think we have plenty of room for all the furniture we've purchased (crib, chest and dresser/changer), and the few items we still need to buy (glider, night stand and bookshelf). The glider will go where the chair is now, with a nightstand next to it. On the left side of the room I'll put the dresser/changer, as well as the chest of drawers. And on the right side will be the crib and bookshelf. Behind the camera is a bit more room:

I haven't decided yet if we'll move the desk out or not. I'd really like the room to be completely dedicated to Jake, and I think this desk will fit in our bedroom. The dresser in the above picture will also be moving into our room though, and the bed and chair are already slated to move into storage, which is starting to get pretty stuffed. I guess we'll wait and see how it all looks. If we do move it out, I might put Jake's chest of drawers back there and rearrange the rest of the room accordingly.

Now for the walls. I'd like to do a chair rail around the room, and I'm considering painting the wall below the rail a somewhat darker color. I want to stay somewhat neutral, since the condo will go back on the market next spring. But I think a nice shade of forest green will work well with the jungle theme. The only thing I cannot decide on is whether or not I want to use the border that we've registered for. We won't be able to use it after we move, since we're planning on renting for a while. But I also worry about what putting a border up will do when the place is on the market. I guess it just depends on how carried away we get when putting the nursery together!!

So that's the current state of baby planning. I have my first shower in Dallas in two weeks (yay!!!!!). So there might be plenty of inspiration after I get back from that trip. In the meantime, any ideas y'all have are surely welcome!!

Nursery and Baby Update - 21 Weeks

-Mandy

So I'm now 21 weeks. I've been absent from this blog for awhile and have a bit of catching up to do. First, I apologize for my absence (if there's anyone out there who's noticed ;). Also, I apologize for the lack of an 18-week belly pic...we had no time whatsoever to get a picture in!! I'll be uploading the 20-week belly pic as soon as this post is finished. Why the absence? We finally put our condo on the market this past week, and the past few weekends (when I normally update this blog) have been packed with tiling, cleaning, organizing, and other miscellaneous fixer-up projects. The place looks great, though, and we're posed (hopefully) for a quick sale. Then we can find a nice place to bring our little Bun home to!

And speaking of Bun, we now have a name for out little one. We went to the doctor on Tuesday for an anatomy ultrasound, and...

It's a Boy!!!!!!!

So Bun now has a real name: Jacob David, or Jake. :) Jake and I have our first baby shower in 4 weeks, and his registry is now complete (as of last night). We've chosen the Team Safari bedding from Lambs and Ivy:

We also bought furniture for Jake a few weeks ago when Grandma and Keith were in town:

We didn't buy the hutch, but we did get everything else. The dresser will be used as the changing table. Just try to imagine it with the reds, blues and greens of the Team Safari bedding and without out all the pink. I think it will look fantastic once it's all put together. It's on order right now, and the store will keep it for us as long as we need after it has come in. Now we just need a place to move it all! We also need to find a glider and some sort of storage/book shelf, but we're waiting until we know what kind of room we'll have before making those purchases.

In other news...Jake is quite the squirmer, and hitter. ;) He also likes to curl up into a nice tight little ball, which is very easy to find against my belly. If you shove gently on the ball, he'll pop out of it and fly all over my belly. Quite the funny little game we have going! He also gets quite excited when Mommy gets excited...and tends to celebrate by kicking/hitting my bladder. So getting excited now comes with an urge to run to the restroom.

That's about it for now. Now that the major stuff around the condo has been taken care of, I'll hopefully get a bit better about keeping things updated here. I also have a major list of baby stuff to take care of in the coming month (day care, diaper service, pediatrician, nursery decorations). It's going to be a busy few months!!

16 Week Update

-Mandy

Ahhhh, 16 weeks!  I have an appetite, energy, and a belly that's definitely growing!!  (I'll have a belly pic up later tonight...camera battery decided to die when we tried taking the pic earlier.)  While I'm starting to stress about getting a nursery ready (we're putting our condo on the market next month, hoping to move to a larger place that's closer to work and the hospital by September), I'm beginning to feel like I might be able to handle things.  I've also registered for prenatal yoga classes, which should help me manage the worry a bit better!

We find out Bun's sex in a little over 4 weeks, until which I'm taking care of gender-neutral registry items.  I've registered for most of the small stuff (bottles, pacifiers, bath stuff, etc..), and Ben and I have picked out boy and girl bedding sets.  We've also decided on the Graco Snugfit infant car seat, and we'll be checking out coordinating strollers at Babies R Us before too long.  My mom and stepdad are visiting us July 4th weekend, at which point Mom and I will be hunting for nursery furniture.  So things are moving along well...I just need a room to put Bun in! ;)

Potentially the biggest news of the weekend:  I think I felt Bun move this afternoon!!  I'm really not sure, and I know 16 weeks is a bit early for feeling movement as a first-time mommy.  But I definitely felt a sort of popcorn-like sensation - irregular and faint - where Bun is supposedly located while lying down this afternoon.  I figure I'll start spending a few minutes a day lying down and paying attention, just in case.  I understand it should start to get stronger in the coming weeks if it really was Bun.  For now, my imagination of Bun's acrobatics is making my day!!

Eleven weeks, and OUCH!

-Mandy

I'm eleven weeks pregnant today, with a couple of new developments to share. First, I'm starting to show (yay!). My belly began rounding out this week, and it doesn't come and go like the bloating of a few weeks ago. With a fitted shirt on, I actually look like I'm starting to show. And all but one pair of my jeans are too tight to button, so the belly bands are now in full use. Good thing it's about time to announce at work - I absolutely refuse to go into baggy clothing mode!

Another appearance in the past couple of days is round ligament pain (ouch!), caused by these ligaments stretching and thickening to support the growing uterus they surround. This generally doesn't begin until the second trimester, but I figure that's only two weeks away for me. Plus, the fact that I'm starting to show makes me think Bun is fully capable of causing a little trouble. For now, it's more of a inconvenience than a pain, and a brief and welcome reminder of Bun! Just in case, though, I'll check with the doctor during my appointment on Monday morning (so don't worry, Mom! ;).

In other news: we went to look at baby stuff for the first time last weekend, and just about everything I had picked out online looked great in person. We've changed our minds on the boy's bedding, though, to this one, from Lambs and Ivy:

New Boy Bedding: Team Safari

It's a perfect blend of animals and sports, including a cute little monkey playing basketball! Plus, I think the colors will go better with the animal cut-outs that Mom is giving us. I figure we can scatter some wood cutouts of a football, basketball, baseball, and soccer ball next to the animals. Cute, huh?

So things are still moving along. Nausea is waning (although I still have rough days now and then), and my energy is starting to make a comeback. Looking forward to a glorious second trimester!!

Ten weeks!

-Mandy

Well, today I'm "officially" ten weeks pregnant. Still in my first trimester - and still experiencing nausea and exhaustion. But, according to everything we've read, Bun has now completed most of his/her major organ development. So we've got a little baby inside of my belly, starting to grow like a weed!

My excitement has also started to take off this past week, and I've been checking out nursery decor at a rapid click. I'm still going back and forth on several things, but I know I want bright bold colors for the baby to look at (no pastel-colored room, no matter how sweet it may look to us). For a baby boy, Ben really wants to have monkeys, so we've decided on zoo animals. I think my favorite bedding set, so far, is this:

Boy Bedding: Jackson

Plus, Mom has the perfect set of cutouts that she saved from my nursery:

Animal Cutouts from Mom

We just need to find/make a monkey to go with these guys! As for a girl's room, I'm really loving the idea of ladybugs right now. Here's a nice one that I like:

Girl Bedding: Lady Bug

The whole room collection is actually really cute (especially the lamp!!), but they painted walls pink for the online pic, and the room looked like it had been washed over with Pepto!

For the nursery furniture, I'd like to go with a more natural wood color, or possibly oak. I haven't decided if we're going to buy furniture that will be just nursery furniture, or if we want to get something that we'll take Bun to college (i.e., regular crib or a lifetime convertible crib). But my favorite (at the moment) is this furniture collection from Babi Italia:

Furniture: Eastside Cinnamon, Babi Italia

So those are the nursery ideas for now - I'm sure they'll be changing quite a bit over the coming months. But I want to have most of this decided on/purchased/registered for by July...I think some friends of mine back in Dallas are throwing a shower for me in August!! Man, if only I could get past all this nausea, this pregnancy thing would be too much fun!!!!