So Jared went to Africa...

I'm not going to lie, it's been a rough week and a half at our house with Daddy gone. Adi understands what it means when suitcases come out, so when Jared started to pack she immediately started to get moopy and solemn looking while Jared was packing the day before he left. Aspen however didn't quite understand and was really upset and confused when we dropped Daddy off at the airport at 5am that morning, and started whining as she watched him walk away.

When we got home she sat and watched the bedroom door, waiting patiently for Daddy to come home. After a day or two she started understanding that Daddy wasn't coming home right away, and she stopped watching for him as fervently after I came home from work. However, every time the neighbor's car door was slammed shut or they thought they heard somebody outside they would run to the door with their tails wagging, waiting for daddy. It was heartbreaking to have to call them back because they didn't understand it wasn't daddy. 

Aspen being an adorable snuggle pup, both were rather clinging with daddy gone. Once he's back I'll be chopped liver compared to daddy.

With unattended pillows laying around Adi did her duty of protecting them wonderfully

It was really tender to watch and know how much they love Daddy, I know our little man will love him and miss him just as much when he goes away. I myself have coped with lots of chocolate ice cream and Netflix movies especially on my days off. And I may have cried a couple times...or a couple ten or so times. Being so far away from my sweetie isn't easy. I will be glad when he is home tomorrow morning bright and early!!!

Nursery Transformation Part II

The last serious project prior to decorating was refinishing a piece of furniture for the nursery. It is a chest of drawers that Jared's great grandma passed on that he used growing up and we thought it would be appropriate to use it for our little guy. However, it needed A LOT of work. Sanding, restaining, and new hardware to say the least. But after many hours of labor it is looking almost new.

BEFORE:

Some serious water damage from over the years

AFTER:

 

The stain wonderfully covered the water damage-you can't even tell it's there!

Lastly was the theme of the nursery. I had seen some really fun cool ideas from Pinterest that involved triangles, and since a geometric shape is pretty darn gender neutral but could still be something fun to play around I convinced Jared to go along with my crazy/fun ideas. I wanted one focal wall but Jared called nix on that idea since we had just spent two weeks painting the nursery, so I had to improvise. I instead decided to go get paint color papers from Lowe's and make some wall art instead. Nothing permanent or damaging.

Then I made our little mister's baby quilt out of triangles which I specifically made twin sized so he can use it as he grows up. I also will be making the bed skirt but so far incredibly happy with how his bedding turned out.

 From beginning laying out...

Sewn together front...

 All finished!

Here's the basically finished nursery. We have some small things still to get like a crib mobile, extra sheets, and a bouncer but he's basically set!

 

Crib+bookshelf. I want to have that bookshelf full of great books for him!

The laundry area+where all his clothes will be stored

At this point we're pretty much ready with the big stuff all we need is a little baby to come fill it-but not for another four weeks at least! It's definitely beginning to become more real and I'm getting more and more excited!

31 Weeks

Week:31

Weeks Left: 9

Stretch Marks: nada, which I'm very grateful for

Sleep: getting harder and harder. I wake up each time I turn over because it takes so much effort, I wake up if I'm laying on my back, and I wake up to go pee at least once during the night. But so far that's been my only real negative in this pregnancy and I'm grateful for it!

Heartburn: has definitely started to get worse, but can be controlled with a glass of milk in the AM and one in the PM, which is why I'm going through a gallon of milk a week-by myself. The funny thing is that spicy things don't irritate it as much as things that are cheesy and high in carbs. Like pizza. 

Cravings: my cravings have gotten incredibly unhealthy. Only fast food sounds good (Artic Circle in particular) which is really irregular because I normally HATE fast food places. Corn dogs, chicken fingers, pizza, and good thick fries along with fry sauce are incredibly tempting to me, which isn't what I want because I only want to gain so much weight during this pregnancy. So I'm trying to find alternative options that are more healthy.

Weight Gain: I'm up 20 lbs. which I'm sure my OB will be happy for but I'm not particularly. Another reason why I've starting watching what I'm eating more carefully because I don't want to gain more than 30lbs. total.

Clothing: I am beginning to be unable to fit into ANY of my pants or jeans (little man is laying really low). My every single day pants are leggings which I'm sorry, I know they're not technically pants but they comfy and dang it I'll wear what I want. I only have two pair and so I am currently washing them every week and definitely need to get a couple more pair.

Daddy: is probably more emotionally ready for this than mommy. But that's also because daddy works graveyards and won't be getting up with baby except on weekends. Mommy likes her sleep and is worried about loosing so much of it. However we are both very excited to welcome little one when he's ready! Only six more weeks until he's free to come anytime!!!

Love our little family!

Nursery Transformation Part I

The largest project, or highest priority project for me after the gardening at our new house was definitely the nursery. It needed to be de-wallpapered, painted, and re-carpeted. And that didn't even include the actual setting up of the nursery itself. Thank goodness I had tons of help from Jared and my Dad.

Dad came over one day when I had rented a wallpaper steamer and helped me de-wallpaper. It was a mess! But thank goodness we didn't mess with any of the other cheaper 'methods' that involve things like scoring the wallpaper and a solvent or even laundry softener because it turned out the wallpaper was part vinyl which put up quick a fight even against the steamer. But a couple hours later we got it all down just in time for the carpet to be replaced (by the way, whoever invented wallpaper should be taken out back and shot-seriously that is the biggest pain I've ever had to deal with).

 

 The 'before' anything had been done in the Nursery

 

The horrid wallpaper. Seriously, how was this ever thought to be good looking?

In the process of de-wallpapering

De-wallpapered

The following Saturday Jared and I got the walls sanded down to get the remainder of the glue off, and then painted. We chose a gender neutral color because we don't want to have to repaint if we have a girl down the road and we personally really don't like having multiple rooms different colors. Boring yes, I know but I'd rather change the color scheme in decorations on a neutral background than have a ton of back breaking work to change the color scheme if I want to.

Painting was a huge undertaking and honestly lasted a week in total because we had to paint the ceiling (it was the awful yellow color that was on the top half of the walls), wait for it to dry, tape and then prime because of the two tone walls, wait for it to dry, paint the floor boards and trim because they had been painted BLUE, wait for that to dry, and then finally paint the actual color we wanted the room.

Prepping to paint the ceiling

After we had primed and painted the trim and floor boards throughout the room

Finally all painted! Now just to decorating which I will dish about in Part II

Home Owners

So you know that mortgage that you dream of and yet fear all at the same time when you're renting?

Yeah, we finally dove head first into one. We love our cute little rambler with it's ginormous backyard and beautifully freshly updated kitchen. But most of all we love the notion that this is where we will bring home our little one, where he will take his first steps, and where I will spend many sleepless nights with him. But first of course we have to finish and decorate the nursery, which I'm incredibly excited about!

 I will update with before and after photos as I get the house put together, and as we upgrade certain things. We've already got a list of desirable updates, home ownership sure is expensive (but I'd rather put money into our house than someone else's renting)!

Unfortunately this doesn't have the house in it, but I will post a picture soon.

24 Weeks

Week: 24

Weeks Left: 13 until full term, 16 until due date

Stretch marks: NONE yet!

Belly button: The biggest update of the week is that my belly button finally popped out. I don't feel like I've gotten much bigger, but apparently I have.

Sleep: Surprisingly sleeping through the nights has become more frequent, I haven't had middle of the night potty calls as much which is honestly nice to not have disturbed sleep. As much as I can get before he comes. However it's already become painful to sleep on my back which is how is my 'fall asleep position' so I'm going to have to train myself to fall asleep on my side.

Cravings: loving my Cafe Rio on a weekly basis if not more frequently. Basically whenever I can talk Jared into it. And ranch, if you give me a bag of chips and ranch dip I could eat the whole thing in one sitting...yes, healthy I know!

Weight Gain: Officially twelve lbs. gain. At least I haven't lost weight since my last appointment, the Doctor will be happy about that.

Clothing: Officially can no longer fit into ANY of my church clothes. I was able to make some of my longer dresses work until a couple weeks ago, now I officially need to go get some larger/longer dresses. This bump makes all my dresses about four inches too short in the front.

Daddy: Finally got to feel a really good kick from this mister about a week ago, which has been rare, since he wiggles more than kicks a lot. But the kicking is increasing so by the time he's ready to come out I may be bruised on the inside from him.

Big news this week: I graduated from college! Can't even begin to say how happy and relieved I am that its over and I don't have to worry about it anymore!!! Now I can focus completely on getting ready for this little one.

 With my dear sweet parents who paid and supported me through my college career,

and my wonderful husband. I think he was more excited about my graduation than I was!

And my huge-ish bump. I forget how big it is and frequently have difficulty getting through skinny spaces like I used to be able to. How can it get any bigger?!

Lie 3 of Pregnancy

This really is a lie of omission but still I didn't realize quite how much this would affect almost every other waking thought I have on a daily basis.

Lie 3: after week 13 you stop worrying about miscarrying.

It's true after week 13 my worries and stresses regarding miscarrying decreased. I didn't constantly check for bleeding when I went to the bathroom and I didn't worry about every little cramp.

When the little mister started kicking it was relieving because other women I knew had started feeling movement far earlier than I did so I started to get concerned about that. Since I started to feel him moving, being able to feel him move every couple of hours has been comforting and even though annoying when he decides to play or jump on my bladder it has been worth it.

No one prepares you for the fear that comes when you don't feel them move for an extended period of time. I will find myself at work distracted and thinking not about my job but about when the last time I felt him move was.

You see he is almost always moving rather strongly before and after every meal, and before I go to bed. Essentially I have almost always felt him by 10am. Which was why this past Sunday I started to get concerned when I hadn't felt him move all day and it was already 1 p.m. I turned to Jared in Sunday School and told him that I was worried and why, and not that he isn't empathetic or concerned about our baby but more his quick dismisal of my (what I thought as valid) concern was to help put into context the reality of the situation. I was having a practical  genuine freak out over not feeling him move all morning, and 'he was probably just sleeping'. Quite honestly I was about two minutes away from calling my OB's on call nurse with my concern and even contemplating making Jared leave to take me to instacare so someone could dopple my stomach to see if there was a heartbeat.

Thank goodness I have a farther-along pregnant friend who told me to eat something sugary and drink something cold and give him a bit to move before I really started freaking out. I did so (on fast Sunday, in Sunday School which definitely earned me plenty of dirty looks) and thank goodness he started moving pretty quickly afterwards.

But I can honestly say I have never felt such fear so intensly over something so small. In that moment I felt what I'm sure I can look forward to once this little babe decides to come into the world and every day afterwards: a mother's intense love. We have a name picked out (no you won't know until he's born) and I already have plans for the nursery (light gray with a triangle theme). We already have hopes and dreams for this little one, and I have already imagined all the sleepless nights walking the floor with him and comforting his cries. I look forward to how Adi and Aspen will be his overly protective big sisters-because that's how they are with other kids. I know Jared will fall in love immediately with this little him and when he's older will be taught to fly-fish, and all the important things of life (according to Jared that includes hunting and shooting). I can't imagine life without this precious soul as part of it and I know that that will never change.

Here's to some sanity as I wish the next 18 weeks away quickly so I can meet this little babe.