The nursery is ALMOST complete...

all we need now is the baby! :)

Well, the baby and a few other things. We'd like to get a rocker to put in the corner, instead of having the swing there. The swing was a gift from my sister and her family (Thanks sis!). We plan on using the swing out in the living room area or whenever we're in the basement. Or wherever it is needed!



The bookcase that John built is filling up quickly. We have extra blankets, books, a basket of toys, piggy bank, and a night light from my childhood. Above the bookcase are a couple of floating shelves with decorative items and the camera for the video monitor that we purchased to keep an eye on our little guy.

We went with the MobiCam which can be purchased at Wal-Mart for $90. You can also buy it at Target for an extra $30, but who wants to do that? We've tested it out for sound and picture and so far it appears to be a good product, but the real test will come once Baby W arrives!



If you'll recall I blogged about our tree decal fiasco the other day. Well, that day I went to work on the tree, and the problem has been resolved. I traced the tree, took down all of the stickers and then painted the tree and the leaves. We left the birds and the nests off, but they can be added at any time if needed. You can see the finished results below.

Also in the below picture is the travel crib/pack 'n play that we registered for and received at our shower. We plan on using the bassinet function as a bassinet in our bedroom for a while. Hopefully we won't need to use it too long once we feel comfortable putting him in his crib at night. His crib is only 15 feet away from us, so let's hope that this isn't a problem.




Other than that things are going well. In 8 weeks or less Baby W will be here, and all of my blogs will be about him and how he's doing! Can't wait!

Changes have been made...

Our temporary solution to my swelling feet has been to move one of our recliners from the basement back into the living room. In order to do this we needed to move the desk/computer, again, so it's new home is in the basement.







Now, I can relax in our living room upstairs, with my feet propped up, playing on my NEW laptop. That's right...Happy Early Birthday to Me!!! (By the way, this was totally John's idea!)

Public Service Announcement: Regarding Tree Decal

So, John & I purchased a tree decal to put up in the nursery. We bought it from AllPosters.com. It arrived quickly (with standard shipping), the packaging was in good condition, and it was easy to put together on the wall (just time consuming). Once the final product was up, we loved it!

Fast forward a few days and we noticed that the edges of some of the stickers (it was like a puzzle with all of the stickers) were starting to peel up around the edges. So, we thought simply smoothing it out would solve the problem. Wrong!

More and more of the stickers started having this problem and no matter how often we smoothed them out they would peel right back up. So, we contacted the company and received a full refund (minus the shipping costs) and were not required to send the product back (which is good because we threw away the packaging it came in).

So, now we are deciding whether to trace the tree and paint it on or not. We love the tree and how it looks, and something definitely needs to be on that wall because it is bare...but I would most likely be doing all of the work of tracing and painting the tree.

Here are some pictures of how the decal is peeling:

A closer look at the organization of the closet...

Here are more detailed pictures of how the clothes are organized in the closet:

0-3 Months: Most of these clothes are in the dresser, so that is why there is only 1 item in this section.



3-6 Months



6-9 Months



9-12 Months



And the bottom of the closet:

Nursery Organization: Round 1

I finally started putting things away in the nursery. The organization of these items is still possibly a work in progress, but it's a start.

In the top drawer of the dresser (with the dividers) we have all of our diapering needs on the far left; in the middle we have little socks/booties and gowns/play 'n sleeprs; and in the bigger section we have clothes from 0-3 months (onesies, shorts, pants, etc.). Most of the clothes that we have are in the 0-3 month range, so we will need to get bigger sizes as he grows.



In the middle drawer we currently have hats, bibs and receiving blankets. This is also where we will store burp cloths and swaddling blankets. These items definitely won't fill up this drawer, so we will have extra space for other items.



In the bottom drawer we have a variety of blankets and extra sheets for the crib. We've already received many blankets and they have already filled up this drawer, so at the moment that is all that will be going in there.



The closet still has plenty of room for things, but at the moment we are storing diapers/wipes, the comforter that came with the bedding set, a Bumbo, the Boppy pillow, diaper bag, floor mat, bathing supplies (including a tub), a humidifier, and a booster seat.

You cannot tell in this picture but I have made hanging dividers for the closet to organize clothes by their sizes. Here are the sections, from left to right: Newborn, 0-3, 3-6, 6-9, 9-12, and 12-18. This should help when I'm frantically looking for an outfit for our baby to wear.



I'm sure that once he's here and we've developed habits or routines my organization process may change a bit, but until then this will at least give us an idea of what we have and what we still need.

Baby W's Mama Update...

How far along? 32 weeks, 4 days

Total weight gain? Still not sharing

How big is baby? Around 17 inches long, and about 4 pounds

Maternity clothes? Yes, I've been enjoying them for a while now

Stretch marks? I just noticed some small ones on my sides.

Sleep? Haven't slept through the night in a long time. Get up twice now for a potty break, and struggle to find a comfortable position at times.

Best moment this week? Putting away all of the gifts we received from our baby shower.

Movement? Yes! His back/butt bulge out on the right side of my stomach while the left side gets all of the kicks and jabs.

Food cravings? Not really.

Labor signs? No. Although I'm at the point now where Braxton Hicks contractions should be starting. I hear it's practice for the real deal!

Belly button in or out? It's out for the most part.

What I miss? Sleeping through the night (I doubt I'll get to experience this again anytime soon!). Wearing my wedding ring.

What I'm looking forward to? Meeting our little guy, and for the swelling to go away. Imagine wearing ankle weights around your ankles 24/7...that should give you some sort of idea of how my feet feel.

Milestone? Baby W's head is still down in preparation for his departure. Let's hope it stays that way!

A pregnancy vent...

I realize that once I became pregnant I would gain weight. That is a no-brainer. There is nothing anyone can do about this. And if someone could do something about it there would be many more babies born under nourished...and we really shouldn't want that. I DON'T want that. I want our baby boy to be born as healthy as can be.

Anyway, why is it that people in general feel that it is okay to make comments about your weight when you are pregnant? Would they make those same comments to you if you were not pregnant? Probably not. It can still be hurtful whether or not there is a baby growing inside of you.

The reason for this vent is that between Saturday and Tuesday I received at least one comment per day about my weight from various people.

Now, I feel that during this pregnancy I've remained pretty level-headed (I admit that I've had my moments...but they've been rare and not that bad), but the volume of comments in a short amount of time has made me feel a little more self-conscious about how I look and how I feel.

The first from this past weekend was someone telling me that a handful of people have come up to her asking if I was carrying twins. No, I am not, but thank you for making me feel bigger than I thought I was.

Another comment was from someone closer to me about how she saw someone who is due the same day as me with her second child and that I am bigger than she is. Typically you are bigger with your second child, so this makes me think that when we are blessed with baby #2 I will be as big as the house. Granted our house isn't that big, but it's still a house.

Someone else made a comment about how my face has filled out. Yes, I've noticed that as well. This is why I don't like many pictures of myself lately, because I don't look the same. I've been told that it goes away after the baby is born, but according to some this is only if you "work hard at it". So, thank you for taking away the dream that I'll ever look good again. This should help decrease the risk that I'll go through postpartum depression.

I apologize that this post has been bit of a downer (and a bit sarcastic), but it's been on my mind and I wanted to get it off of my chest.

I still have the hope that I will be able to get back down to my pre-pregnancy weight (and hopefully even lower than that), but I'm also aware that it's going to take some time and some work from me. That is OKAY. Hopefully we are blessed with a healthy, bouncy baby boy. And him and I will spend our summer getting to know one another and taking advantage of the summer months by taking long walks in the parks.

So, even though I've been a little down on myself about this the last few days I know that pregnancy is only temporary, and so is the weight gain.

Weekend Get-A-Way

We went to the west side of the state this weekend to visit John's sister and her family. Saturday we took a drive and stopped by the beach looking over Lake Michigan. It wasn't the best day for a visit to the beach, but we still had a good time.



And I thought this shirt made me look smaller. HA!!!



At the beach with one of my nieces. She told me the next day not to pop any of the buttons off of the coat I was wearing (It was her mothers, but was given to me). Gotta love the brutally honest child!



By the way, in these photos I'm 31 weeks and 5 days.

The 5 S's of Calming Your Baby

We had our last birthing preparation class last night. I'm kind of sad that they're over. We covered so much in such a short amount of time (3 classes, totaling 8 hours), and I feel more prepared on what may or may not happen during childbirth. I have signed up for the breastfeeding course, so I do have that to look forward to.

Anyway, back to the 5 S's...

We watched a video on this starring the guy who came up with this concept. He's a doctor and a professor at a major university (although now I can't remember which one or his name for that matter).

1) Swaddling...we were given life-size baby dolls to practice this swaddling technique in class. It is fairly easy to do, although it was a plastic baby we were using and not one that was fussy or flinging his arms around (that might make this a little more difficult to do in real life).

2) Side position...Instead of holding the baby on its back, you would turn the baby on its side. They also referred to this as holding a football, I'm sure to make it easier for the guys to relate to and remember. :)

3) Shushing...Not "shush, shush, shush", but "Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"...deep breath..."Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"...deep breath..."Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"...and so on...The babies in the video almost immediately stopped crying and calmed down. It was amazing. This technique is to imitate the noises that the babies hear in the womb. Makes sense to me.

4) Swinging...This can either be done on your lap while also using the first two S's listed, or it can be done with a real baby swing while being swaddled. It was also recommended that a faster speed on the swing be used, since the lowest one would not be fast enough to imitate the movement the baby felt while in the womb.

5) Sucking...A pacifier or your finger can be used to do this. In the video they did not recommend feeding or breastfeeding for this 5th S, especially since the other 4 S's would be used at this same time. Might make it difficult to breastfeed if you're also swinging your baby at the same time.

So, there you have it. My main reason for posting about these 5 S's was so that when I need them (which I'm sure I will) and don't remember them (which I'm sure will happen during a stressful moment) I will have them to refer to and remind myself what needs to be done to calm my baby. I might even have to print out the 5 S's if there is no time to check my blog for instructions (which I'm sure there won't be).

On another note, this pregnancy has caused my feet/ankles and hands to swell. Lately the tips of a few of my fingers on my right hand have a numbing feeling, almost like if I had burnt those fingers (which I didn't). So, I looked up what this might be in one of my pregnancy books, and apparently it is pregnancy related carpal tunnel (which will go away postpartum). I informed John of my self-diagnosis, and apparently he didn't believe me because he brought it up in class to our instructor. Probably to his disbelief, she immediately recognized the diagnosis and asked me a few questions about what I was feeling. Um, I believe this is what you'd call a "I told you so!" moment! :)

Our baby shower is this weekend, along with a birthday party for one of our nephews. Needless to say it's going to be a busy weekend, but a fun one!