Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Happy Birthday!

As hard as it is to believe, my baby girl is turning 15 years old today!

Vannah Grace - I love you more than you'll ever know! I feel more prepared than I ever would have imagined to become a mother because you have allowed me to be a mother to you. You have taught me so much about unconditional love and what it means to be a family. You are wise beyond your years. As much as you yearn for adulthood, I pray that you will take the time to slow things down and savor these last few years of being a teenager. Life has so much to offer you. Danny and I are both so incredibly blessed to have you in our lives. You bring so much joy and laughter to our home and for that, I am grateful. I hope you have a wonderful birthday and know how very much you are loved!

The Nursery

Thanks to some loving people in our lives, the nursery is really starting to come together! My in-laws bought us the crib, which Danny put together over the weekend. A close family friend came over last night and brought with her the crib bedding set AND the lamp and mobile that matches. (She also cut my hair - for which I am extremely grateful! I kept thinking - I'll want to be able to put it in a ponytail when baby comes, which really meant that I've been putting it in a ponytail constantly. I'm glad to have some of the dead weight gone and am loving my new hair cut!)

Here are two pictures of the nursery (so far):

This is the changing table, glider (which I'd love to reupholster but don't think I know how), and the bookshelves...we'll remove the cans of paint on the bottom shelf before Baby makes its debut.


Here's the crib with the bedding! It's hard to see in this picture, but the theme is called "Bunny Meadows." It's a sage green and brown combo and I love it! I snapped these pictures with my cell phone this morning, but will try to take some better pictures ASAP. Above the crib, I plan to spell out the baby's name in letters that I've decorated myself (I've bought the letters...now to decorate them...). Interestingly, the two names that we've chosen only differ by one letter, so we'll be prepared either way!

The countdown is officially on! I am due 6 weeks from yesterday. I'm not feeling like I'll go early by any means. I am praying that Baby stays tight until March 1, due to some benefits stuff at work (and of course because the baby will be healthier the long he/she stays baking!).

Our first shower is this weekend and I am so excited to catch up with some old friends! I've become even more of a homebody since I found out I was pregnant, so it will be nice to just be able to spend time with some great people we haven't seen in a while. My mom and sisters are hosting this monkey themed shower...and whenever my family is involved, you can just about guarantee it will be wild! Can't wait for the fun of it all!

Monday, January 17, 2011

Moving right along...

Today, I am 33 full weeks pregnant! It's so hard to believe that we have just 7 short weeks before the baby comes! We have so much to look forward to in the next few weeks (including four, yes FOUR, baby showers!!). I feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family. I know that this baby will never be short on loving adults in its life. I've been working on some homemade thank you notes for the showers, but am already thinking I just don't have enough. Some people might get some store bought notes, and that will be just fine! :) I think it's a good problem to have!

As far as my pregnancy goes, things seem to be progressing quite well. We had an ultrasound at my appointment this week to check the baby's growth. The ultrasound tech was so wonderful. My mom and two of my sisters were with me and she was very patient and gracious with us! She even switched over to 3D mode and tried several times to get a good picture of the baby's face! The baby apparently loves to suck its thumb, so we couldn't get a clear shot. But, those chubby cheeks were unmistakable! I sent Danny a picture of the ultrasound and he said "It's kind of blurry but those are definately your cheeks." I think he's right! Here's a picture - it's not the best quality, but you can see it's little face!



The baby apparently weighs around 4 lbs 9 oz. When the ultrasound tech told me that, I freaked out a bit! I don't know why, but it just hit me that this baby is really coming soon. I mean, I know it's coming. I feel it moving inside of me. I wake up five hundred times a night to go to the bathroom, try to get comfortable, pop a few Tums...preparing for the sleepless, blessed nights that are to come.

I am so excited to be a mommy. I feel like this is the role that I've been preparing for my entire life. I've always taken care of my younger siblings and helped a lot with my cousins when they were small (at times, I think I knew more what I was doing than my aunts did!). I know that so many things are going to change, and I am anxious for all of that. But, in the deepest part of me, I also feel like this is my ultimate role. I just can't wait to hold our little one and cover it in love. I'm trying to be patient - knowing that after the baby is here, everything will change. Danny and I have been together for a long time. It's always been just the two of us (and our little Vannah). I'm so excited to see him as a father and how the little one will strengthen our relationship even more and bring us even closer together.

We know that this is going to be a challenging phase in our lives. This morning, I reminded him again that babies eat 10-12 times a day! That's every 2 hours!! That scares me...we both like our sleep. I don't want to wish away these last few weeks of pregnancy. I hope to enjoy the little moments when I can feel the baby moving inside of me and no one else will ever know what that was like for the two of us. And, hopefully, spend a little bit of quality time, just me and Danny, before we have our little one home with us. I hope to not stress about all that HAS to be done, and focus on enjoying the process.