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!!

14 Weeks, and Sick

-Mandy

It's official - I'm now in my 2nd trimester!  Supposedly a time of relative comfort, disappearing nausea, returning energy, and a growing belly, it's so far been living up to its expectations.  I'd consider life just about perfect right now, if it weren't for this awful upper respiratory infection that's been nagging me for the past week!

On one hand, I feel lucky that this illness held off until now.  I don't have to contend with this on top of nausea, and I'm not nearly as nervous about the medication I'm taking (Robitussin DM, Tylenol, Sudafed, and Benedryl - all approved by the doc).  But the fact that this illness moved in just as the nausea was moving out has got me a bit irked.

In the midst of all the coughing, however, I've begun to enjoy a real pregnant belly.  While it's been gradually rounding for a few weeks, my uterus didn't really start to pop until this past week...and it seems to be pushing the rest of my belly toward the front.  The maternity clothes that sagged a week ago are fitting nicely now, and I'm starting to look pregnant to the outside world! 

With all these changes, I'm beginning to imagine the little life growing inside me.  I've even been a bit humored by the idea that Bun has been feeling and reacting to my deep chest coughs this past week. ;-)  Ben and I see the doctor on Tuesday for another ultrasound and a check of my cervix.  Although it's early, I'm crossing my fingers that we'll be able to find out if it's a boy or girl.

Life's getting exciting in our world...I just can't wait to be done with this respiratory infection and get on with enjoying the best part of pregnancy!!

Belly Pic - 11 Weeks

Here's the current belly pic - so great to finally be showing!

Belly Pic - 11 Weeks

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!!!!

Some of my favorite things

-Mandy

As I enter my 9th week, I'm thinking about all the things that helped me through my second month of pregnancy. In honor of Bun's third month, I present a list of my favorite things:

1. Good jogging, sleep, and (soon) maternity bras
2. Ginger gum
3. Lemonade
4. Starchy foods
5. Fruit
6. Seabands
7. Sleep
8. Midnight (or 3am) snacks
9. Exercise*

And some of my least favorite things (which used to be some of my faves before getting pregnant)
1. Chocolate
2. The thought of wine, or any sort of alcohol
3. V8
4. Broccoli
5. Leafy green veggies
6. Chicken (unless it's fried)
7. Food in general
8. Exercise*

*Notice "exercise" made the list twice; this one depends on the day of the week.

A few interesting developments from this past week:
1. Occasional bloating makes me look pregnant - and I mean really pregnant.
2. I've gained just a couple of pounds but can comfortably button only two pairs of my jeans.
3. Ponytail holders make great extenders for pants that can't be comfortably buttoned.

I'm also starting to think about nursery furniture, but will wait a bit longer before getting too into re-decorating. Right now I'm looking forward to losing the nausea, a return of my appetite, and a real pregnant belly that doesn't come and go with bloating. This whole pregnancy thing is an adventure already!

Belly Pic - 7 Weeks

-Mandy

So we've decided to start documenting my growing belly now, before it starts to grow. The belly currently measures 31 inches - the same measurement I got when I found out I was pregnant. In theory, I should wear the same outfit in every picture and take it in the same spot each time. Since the clothes I'm wearing now will never fit in 8 months, I found a simple enough black tank-top, which I'm sure I can later match with a preggo top. And we chose Bun's future nursery for our "studio".

Seven Week Belly Pic

While I don't look pregnant yet, I'm definitely feeling the full swing of first trimester symptoms. I'm nauseous all the time and have very little appetite, so eating has become quite the chore. I'm also feeling exhausted most of the time and have started taking naps during the day and sleeping at least 9 hours a night. I'm trying to continue my workout regimen, but it's getting difficult to drag myself out of bed in the morning for the gym. Even so, I feel so much better the days that I find time for even a short jog. I've also been quite pleasantly surprised with Sea Bands - the baby blue wristbands I'm sporting in the above pic. Not only are these stylish accessories quite the fashion statement, but (more importantly) they really help keep the nausea under control.

And then there's the mood swings: I've cried more in the past few days than I think Ben has seen during our entire marriage! And anything can set it off - running out of hot water in the shower, Ben cooking dinner and doing the dishes, or a bout of nausea when we're out shopping. Ben's a trooper though - glad I married such a patient guy. :)

No matter how I feel, I know it's all going to be worth it when I get to hold our little Bun in 8 months! For now, I'm anxiously awaiting the 2nd trimester energy boost I've been promised.

Heartbeat!

-Mandy

I'm officially seven weeks pregnant today, and Ben and I are now breathing a bit easier - we saw, and heard, Honey Bun's heartbeat this week! Although I had my first prenatal appointment during my fourth week, it was too early for me to see anything too telling. So the first appointment was filled with details - prenatal blood tests, checking the safety of medications, questions about symptoms, etc... This week's appointment was the big one, though, the one that let us know Bun really was in there, developing into our own sweet little baby. Until this appointment, I was having a hard time even accepting what was happening inside my body - I've been just so scared that it wasn't real, or that it might go away.

But it is real, and the experience of this week's appointment was absolutely amazing. The ultrasound technician quickly found Bun and we saw the quick fluttering of his/her heart. After taking some measurements, the technician turned the sound on, explaining that it wasn't always possible to hear the heartbeat this early on. Barely a second later, the room was filled with the quick pounding of our little one's new heart! I was in tears, and Ben was holding my foot (rather tightly) - it was the happiest moment of my life (his too I'm sure).

I'm sure there will be many more of these moments to come. And, while I'm still holding onto some of the anxiety, I'm also so much more excited about planning for Bun. I have a feeling the next 33 weeks will fly by before we know it!