36 Weeks and Counting

Woa have I been MIA or what??

We've been super busy getting ready for baby Pierce's arrival. We only have 28 more days until our due date, but everyone thinks he's going to come early. And I agree. So while I'm counting down from 28, I secretly hope that we really don't have that long to wait.

As of today I feel that he could come any time and we would be ready :) We have everything that we would need right away, and almost everything we need period. The only things left are a crib mattress which we will be getting next week, and sheets for the crib and changing table. That's it. After that we have everything :)

I've done a lot of work on the nursery the past couple weeks and it's so nice to see it all come together. We've got our decorations up; I painted his dresser and reassembled it; I painted his bookends; I made a baby mobile; we received a glider from my mom today and it's assembled and I'm currently working on his baby quilt :) I love all of it!

His co-sleeper is set up next to our bed, our baby monitors are charged and set up, I received my breast pump today, our hospital bag is almost fully packed, and we're interviewing pediatricians.

Four weeks ago I didn't feel ready at all. There was still such a huge list of things we needed to get done and not having the nursery finished (or even close to finished) was stressing me out. But now, I'm ready. I'm so ready :)

We even started sleeping with his blanket we plan on taking to the hospital so it smells like mommy and daddy. I was pretty sure John would think it was weird or silly, but the other morning he was sleeping with it :) he's so cute :)

So hopefully in 28 days (or less) I'll have baby photos to post, but until then I'll probably continue to be MIA and just relax and enjoy the last few weeks John and I have to ourselves :)

Pregnancy Productivity

This week I finished painting the nursery :) I LOVE how it turned out

We went with a tan base on all four walls and then charcoal gray stripes on the accent wall that will be behind the crib :)

And then we'll have red accents throughout the room :)

After I finished painting I moved all the baby stuff back into the nursery where it belongs. We now have baby clothes hanging in the closet, and the changing table set up and organized with diapers, diaper cream, baby lotion and soap, as well as health stuff like our thermometer, nail clips, all that jazz. I've got his toys in his toy box, and we got his carseat and stroller set up. The carseat even has toys dangling and a little carseat cover on it already. I was on a roll; I wanted to get everything that we had set up right away! 

I also finished filling out my FMLA paperwork. After going back and forth about whether or not we could afford day care (even at my center) we've decided that we will be better off paying the ungodly daycare cost than having me stay at home or even getting a part time job. It was a tough decision, and one that caused a few disagreements, but we've decided that baby will in fact come to work with me and my amazing husband will pick up a second job to help afford the cost. I really hate that he has to work two jobs just so we can afford day care, but we would lose more with me quitting my job. I think it's horrible how expensive day care costs are. I've always heard how expensive it was, but I never knew how expensive until we started looking into it. And the worst part is there's no help in paying the cost (if you have a full time job). Ridiculous.  So anyway, I'll be going back to work 6 weeks after baby boy is born. Soon? Yes, extremely, but me not working is going to be tough on us financially and since he's coming to work with me I get to be with him all day whether I'm working or not, so I might as well help bring in some money (especially since the holidays will be right around the corner!). 

So that's my pregnancy productivity this week. I'm hoping I can talk John into setting up the crib this weekend so I can add that to the list. I love seeing the nursery come together. It's starting to look just like I pictured! :)

Productivity

This week work is really slow. I've only been doing half days going in at 12:30 and as much as that will suck come next paycheck, it's been nice to get stuff done that we really needed to get done.

Here's my productivity list:
- Almost finished painting the nursery

it may not look like much yet, but underneath those five coats of white paint is a very ugly dark brown, and those walls were a boring white. drastic changes here guys

- Put up our fireplace mantle  (a project I wanted done as soon as we moved in over a year ago...)

that mantle was unfinished wood that I stained. I think I did a pretty good job

- Registered for the hospital
- Sent in our financial paperwork for the hospital
- Started filling out my FMLA forms
- Did a project for my classroom

On top of keeping the house clean! Our house always looks like a hurricane went through it by Tuesday, but now it's  Thursday Eve and the house still looks great :)

I've been stressing about getting all of the above done, and now it's finished :) well, okay the nursery isn't finished, but we're sure gettin there!

Oh and in other news, John finally felt little lamb kick!!! For weeks every time John's tried to feel him kick Pierce stops. He could be kicking up a storm and literally as soon as John would put his hand on my tummy, he would go completely still. Tonight we were lying on the couch and I pulled John's hand to my stomach and told him to just wait and it happened :) John felt it :) not once either, he felt him multiple times! Every time  Pierce would kick John would say something like "there he is" "there's another one" "he just kicked" lol it was so cute :)

I also bought my maternity swimsuit for Maui tonight. Some haters have said some very blunt things to me recently about me going to Maui while pregnant, things like, "you're going like that??" while pointing at my belly or "why are you going to Maui? you don't exactly have a bikini body". After these comments I had full intentions of getting a maternity bikini and flaunting my big prego belly, but I couldn't find one that didn't break our bank :/ Too bad too because I would have rocked that bikini even if I am 6 months pregnant! But the one I bought is still pretty cute I think, even if my belly will be covered ;)

see? cute :)

16 days till Hawaii!!!

This week is turning out to be pretty darn good

Baby Updates

I know Pierce has been able to hear for a while now, but I think his hearing is improving because the other day at work I was sitting feeding a baby while another baby was having a total meltdown right next to me, and as I was sitting there (don't worry, meltdown baby was being taken care of by my co-teacher) I felt him kick 15 times! FIFTEEN! Before then I hadn't felt more than four kicks total, but fifteen at once?? It made my entire day!

Since finding out that we're having a boy I've officially started on the nursery. So far I don't have much done...like, hardly anything done. I started painting the trim a week ago, and I'm still working on it. The original trim was an ugly dark brown and because I'm painting it white it's taking quite a few coats to cover completely. Also, I'm still waiting for John to move out the guest bed in there so I can paint behind it, so far I've only been able to paint around the bed. That's our project for today though- to finish the trim, and to get the bed out. I think that once the painting is done though I'll feel more accomplished because we can move the stuff we do have into the nursery. We still need to get a dresser or armoire (I really want an armoire but we'll see if I can find one that doesn't cost an arm & a leg) and a glider, but aside from those two things I think all of the big items are purchased. We have been so blessed by the people around us! We have had so many items given to us and a couple bought for us, items that would have cost us a lot of money. We are so grateful for everyone's genuine excitement and generosity towards us <3

On a different note, last Sunday I was at my niece's 1st birthday party when suddenly she opens a gift that says "Kennedy (that's her name) is going to be a big sister!" Come to find out John's brother is expecting another baby 4 weeks after we are!! They're just now telling people so I still forget sometimes that Jaici is almost just as far along as I am haha but we're excited that Pierce will have a cousin that's so close in age :) John's cousin's wife is also expecting a little girl 4 weeks before us...there are going to be lots of little cousins running around at family functions. I loved having my cousins around when I was little, and John is extremely close to his- we love that our baby boy will have the same fun experiences.

Our First Big Purchase

We are the proud new owners of this beauty :)

I'm so excited to have such a big item already. We have a lot of little things, but this was our first big purchase. This was a gift from my grandma (so technically not our big purchase). We are so thankful for this crib, it's a much nicer one than we could afford on our own. 

Along with the crib, my grandma also bought our little lamb a super cute baby book, a silver keepsake thingy, Ute booties and Razorback booties (for our Arkansas peeps). It's safe to say she's a little excited for her great grandbaby :)

My sister brought me all of our old Dr. Seuss books. Some are a little worn, but I love that we have the same ones I grew up reading. I'm also going to get mine and John's favorite books from when we were little to go in the nursery. His was "The  Little Fish That Got Away" (surprising? not in the least) and mine was The Berenstain Bears"The Spooky Old Tree". Those are two must haves that we still need to get. But I digress...

John and I get to go in on Friday for our next appointment. I feel like we've been waiting forever for this appointment to come! Our last one was 7 weeks ago, that's soooo long to wait to see our baby! I can't wait to hear that little heartbeat again. That sound makes my heart melt :) And hopefully with this appointment we'll be able to have a better estimate about our due date.

An Absolutely Must Have is Absoulutely Out of The Question

Somebody, please stop me from lookin up baby things 24/7. It's getting a little ridiculous.

I'm not even pregnant yet and all I do is look up baby items we need, baby items I want, baby items that I think are absolutelymusthaves. On one hand I feel like I need to start buying things now so we're more prepared and we're not shoveling out all this money at once, on the other hand ...I have no idea how long it's going to take for us to get pregnant. So do I wait? Or do I start buying little pieces at a time?

Ok let's be real here. I've already bought some little pieces, now I want big pieces, which are harder to justify.

I do get myself in to trouble when I start searching for things though. Tonight for example, I wanted to check out prices on crib bedding sets just to see how much they can run for...I found the absolutelymusthave crib bedding set if we have a girl (which is another reason I think I should stop because I don't even know what gender I am going to need things for and I'm not going all neutrals) only this absolutelymusthave is $478!!! So basically what this all boils down to is that if/when the time comes when John and I are expecting a little girl, I will be taking donations for this beaut, kay?