37 Week picture

The black shirt makes me look smaller than I really am. I swear, I'm gigantic!

I know I updated yesterday but we got a couple exciting deliveries this weekend that I have to post about. Our stroller (a generous gift from my aunt and cousin) was delivered, and we love it just as much as we remembered. In the very beginning we'll use a our carseat with a stroller frame, but once the baby gets a bit bigger we'll start using this bad boy. (The model in the stroller is Toto, my beloved childhood stuffed animal which will certainly be passed down to the babe.)


I also received my latest camera lens, which was a late Christmas gift from Stewart. It's a fixed focal length lens (50 mm f/1.8), and will be great for photos of the little one. These pictures were taken no more than 2 minutes after putting the lens on for the first time, inside at night with no flash. I love this lens already!!

37 Weeks

It's a big week....I'm officially considered full term. Let's all take a moment to process that. (Or you still may be processing the fact that something now the size of a watermelon is inside of me.)

We had a rocky start to the week with a little bug that both Stewart and I picked up over Christmas. We're both feeling much better now and looking forward to the getting all the loose ends tied up and final to-do's checked off so we can finally feel prepared for the baby's arrival. You've probably noticed that I'm still not referring to him by name on the blog. That's because while we've pretty much decided on his name and will gladly tell anyone who asks, I still feel funny about making a big name announcement before he gets here. Maybe there's a tiny part of me that worries that we'll see him and decide that the name we've decided on just doesn't fit, or maybe just that I'll change my mind last minute. Anyway, sorry to keep you in suspense, it won't be long now!

Last night we had our final baby shower, thrown by the women's group at Stewart's family's church. It was SO nice, and we felt so loved by all the friends and family that came out to spend the evening with us. Stewart was a really good sport to stay and open presents with me. We got some of the cutest outfits and toys, baby necessities, and of course diapers. We're so thankful!

Me with the hostesses






Savannah was a big helper :-)


Is there anything cuter than baby shoes??


Opening the box of goodies from my mom




I'm too exhausted to take and upload a belly picture right now. I'll try to get around to it tomorrow. :-)

Report from my first weekly doctor visit

Today was the first of my weekly doctor's appointments, which last from now until the big birthday! Everything looked good....blood pressure, iron levels, baby's heartbeat, etc. When he measured my belly the doctor said he thought it was a bit lower and maybe the baby had started dropping (a surprise to me.) Then when he actually checked me, he literally said "Oh my, there's the baby's head, he's very low!!" However there is absolutely no change to my cervix, so it doesn't look like we're having a baby tomorrow or anything crazy like that. I gained 4 lbs since my last appointment 3 weeks ago (which I'm blaming on our week in B-town), but surprisingly I didn't get a weight lecture. I think maybe the doctor figures it's too late now to lecture me! This puts me at a total weight gain of 32 pounds. It looks like I'll be at the upper end of the recommended 25-35 pound weight gain by the end of this, but hearing other people's stories about how they gained 50 or 60 pounds makes me feel pretty darn good about 35.

My friend Kayla is ready to have her baby any day now, and so is my anchorwoman buddy (who I just ran into at BabiesRUs!) I've been thinking about them a lot, and can't believe that I'll be soon to follow!

36 weeks

It's 2010! I'm having a baby this year....maybe even this month!! Stewart and I are both very punctual people (we HATE being late), so maybe our son will take after us and come on time.

We finally rearranged our bedroom to make space for the cradle. Stewart and I switched sides of the bed so I'd be closer to the cradle, and it feels so weird to sleep on the "wrong" side. This morning when the alarm went off I almost smacked Stewart's head, because it was right about where my alarm clock used to be when I slept on the other side. It's going to take a little getting used to.

The cradle is so beautiful....my grandparents had it made for me when I was born, and both my brother and I slept in it as infants. I have ordered a cradle mattress which should be here soon. Look how pretty!






We did a little after-Christmas shopping, and I splurged on a couple things for the baby. I've been very good about not spending money on baby clothes, especially since we still have one more shower coming up this weekend. I think this was actually only the third time I've bought anything since finding out I was pregnant. The little sleeper was only $3.99....yay for post-holiday sales!




We've also gotten some super cute outfits from friends lately...


I go back to school tomorrow, hopefully for four full weeks. Surprisingly, I hadn't been dreading going back like I thought I would. BUT then I woke up with a sore throat this morning that has gotten progressively worse, so now I'm wishing I could just stay bundled up on the couch tomorrow. It's going to be a rough month at work, because they are expecting me to do about four months worth of paperwork in the next four weeks. Of course I wasn't informed about this until the week before Christmas break (and I refused to do any work over the holiday.) So I have quite a daunting task ahead of me, but I'm going to try my best not to get too stressed about it.

Here's the weekly picture. We're not sure why there's such a weird shadow....

35 weeks

35 weeks pregnant....means that we have only 35 DAYS left!! Can you believe we're down to counting in days? Craziness. Santa brought the baby's carseat, so we're one step closer to being ready, although I think we'll wait until around week 37 to install it in the car. I spotted a graco stroller frame through the window of a kids consignment store, so we may go check that out in the next day or so to see if it works with the carseat. **Update: The basket of the frame was a little dirty and the store kind of smelled like cat pee, so we decided to hold off.

Christmas was wonderful, although it wore me out! I'm already getting spoiled by this time off from work and it's going to be really hard to get up the energy to go back after the Christmas holiday. Stewart's mom finally got to feel the baby move, after several frustrating attempts over the last couple weeks. We skyped with my family up north, and got Stewart's parents all set up so they can skype with us as well.

I'm making this a short post since we're still enjoying lots of family time, plus I don't much new to report. I hope everyone had a wonderful, love-filled Christmas!

Thoughts on Christmas

I've never been one to take fortune cookies seriously, but there's one fortune that I've saved for a loooooong time (maybe since I lived in Nashville). I've moved several times and still managed to hold onto this little strip of paper, now yellowed and brittle. Its current home is on our refrigerator, and now every time look at it I smile a little smile of agreement. It reads "Your dearest wish will come true."

All I've always wanted is to be a wife and a mom. I know that's not always a popular ambition in these times when women can be whatever they want, and there have been plenty of moments when I have worried that people would think less of me because I don't have this driving need to have a successful career. I like having the skills that allow me to support myself, and I'm certainly glad that I have my master's degree, but ultimately my job has just felt like a stepping stone to what I feel is my ultimate purpose, and that is motherhood. When Stewart and I got married, we knew it would be several years before we would start a family, and I was ok with that. In fact, I was glad that we would have a few years to be married before bringing kids into our family. Well, that feeling lasted about a year. We hit our one year anniversary, and all of the sudden the desire to have a baby hit me like a ton of bricks. And it didn't go away. The next two years were really hard...I honestly let this desire consume me. I would think about it all day, every day. I would cry on my way to work (and many other times) because it seemed like so long to wait until we'd be able to have a baby. Of course the unknown of how long it would take to actually get pregnant once we started trying made it even harder. Thankfully I have a wonderful husband who understood and never made me feel bad about what I was going through. But those last couple Christmases were always tough for some reason. All I could think about was how long it would be before we would be celebrating Christmas with our children. I remember last year that I hoped and prayed that I would be pregnant by this Christmas. I imagined how different I would feel, how my sadness would be replaced with anticipation. I imagined being surrounded with family and talking about what the following Christmas would be like, once we had a new member of the family. And the whole time I was thinking and hoping for these things, I pictured myself being maybe three or four months pregnant. I had no idea that we would be only weeks away from meeting our son.

My dearest wish is about to come true.

Merry Christmas!

Baby Boom!

It looks like 2010 is going to be the year of babies in our family! We just found out that another one of Stewart's cousins is expecting, which brings the total up to four babies due next year. Stewart's dad is one of four boys, and all four brothers will be getting a new grandchild in 2010! I'm due first, and the other due dates are May, June, and July. So far we know that the first two are boys, and apparently Granda (Stewart's grandmother) has predicted that all four are going to be boys. I'm excited that there are going to be so many little ones around the same age in the family!

There's one more baby that I'm SOOO excited about! If you've ever taken a peek at the sidebar on my blog, you've noticed the little button in support of my friend Adrienne, who has been waiting for the day when she can bring her little girl Lily to her new home in the US. Well that day is finally here!! Adrienne and Lily are arriving from South Korea today to join the rest of their family in Nashville just in time for Christmas! What a blessing! You can read more of their story and see pictures of beautiful Lily at http://www.our-journey-to-parenthood.blogspot.com/. Welcome home, Lily!