Big Ups, Little Baby!

Everybody, meet Zack!

Zachary--2.19.08--8 lbs 2 oz--19 in

We're so in love with him.

4 days to Week 41...

Will not complain. Will continue to enjoy quiet mornings in bed with Billy and days out with mom. Will stop side-eying belly when baby moves. Will be patient. Will not lose faith that he will come on his own, when he's ready, very soon. Will keep daydreaming and night-dreaming about holding him and gluing my nose to the side of his face.

Still preggers...

I'm due on Friday. Am very anxious to get this baby birthed. I had predicted he'd be here by now. My mom's predicting Valentine's Day--wouldn't that be special. Everybody's calling and sleeping with their cell phones and text messaging to see if the baby's here yet. Waiting and anticipating is fun. Seeing him will be so much funner. :)

37 Weeks!

Just a matter of time before there's another man in my life! Everything is going great and we're SO ready...and anxious,,,and EXCITED! My biggest concern at this point is making it to the hospital in time to get the IV dripping into my general spinal region. I'm not trying to feel an.ty more pain than I have to. I appreciate the beauty and benefits of drug-free labor, but I also appreciate the advances in medical science...and being as pain-free as possible...and drugs.

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!

New picture of the baby at 37 weeks. I had an unexpected sonogram last week. My doc couldn't feel where his head was, so she ordered a quickie for me. I was SO excited to see him again...and to see that he was still a he...and to see that his head was positioned where they wanted it to be. This picture isn't as clear as the others, because he's more squashed up in there, but hopefully y'all can see him: he's facing the camera, his forehead is on the right and his eyes are those two dark slits in the middle--his cheeks and chin are in the middle of the image just before the brightest white part of the image. We have a DVD of the sonogram too. Maybe that's why it's so easy for me to make-out where his face is. i can't wait to see him in person!

New pictures of me at 37 weeks. The family and close-enough friends got the actual real images of me. For y'all (and for my need to not be a little too exposed on the Internet) I applied a special effect to the images before posting them. Obviously I love to share bits and pieces of myself with the world, but naked baby belly...I'm not so comfy with. Still, you get to see how this baby is shaping me up. :) I'm actually planning to frame all 3 of these images in a 3-part frame. I think they look pretty cool.

New pictures of the finished nursery. It turned out just like I wanted it to. I only need to get black-out blinds for the window and there's one more piece de resistance to go on the wall over the bookcase and room will be all set. My mom will be organizing the closet space. Billy and I go into the nursery very frequently and just look at it, pretend like we're tucking a baby into the crib and turn on the mobile just to listen and watch it for a second. We're having fun being silly and "playing" parents. I hope it's as much fun as we're expecting it to be.

Pictures from our baby shower (additional pics coming soon). The shower was SO MUCh FUN! I missed some people who couldn't make it, but we had a great time with the friends and family who did come. My brilliant sister flew in from D.C. and was an excellent host. Her best friend from high school also flew in from IN and was an excellent co-host. My mom and aunts came down from Memphis (missed y'all Paula, Lisa and Amber). Summer Breeze was there holdin' it down for our other college homies who couldn't make the trip to Austin (missed y'all Browngirl, Blen, Tonya and Rhonda). It was fun. I felt very loved. As many of you know, I love/collect frog things, so the theme for the shower was our own version of Little Frog Prince. And OMG, I just discovered a whole line of frog bathroom decorations for kids at World Market. I'm fighting the urge to buy everything now, mainly because my kid won't be able to really enjoy the decor for a couple more years, so a kid themed bathroom wouldn't make much sense now.    

Finishing touches and his nursery will be ready!

 

It's all coming together!

 

First Wall semi-done

Two of the remaining 3 walls have windows and doors on them, so it shouldn't take us long to finish. We have plans to work on the room for at least 1 hour daily, so I'm thinking by Friday, the room will be done. My sister put the crib and changing table together (with some handy screwing work by me) while she was here last week. There are more pictures of this week's progress, but I'll save them for the final album once the room is finished. Just a few more days until I have a living breathing baby in my world!

 

31 Weeks! Pictures!

My belly's bigger. My hair's bigger. Surprisingly, my boobs are still the same size.

Billy calls my belly "sexy belly". I tell him keep all that comin'' 'cause while I am still feelin' cute (don't get that twisted), I am also feeling right rotund and clumsy these days--with moving around causing some grunting and propping myself up onto things to shift positions or get up. I know it comes with the job of spawning humans, but it does not feel sexy.

I'm still managing without having to buy one piece of maternity clothing. All 25 pounds of my pregnancy weight, it seems, is boobs and belly and I always wore tops that fit my boobs and bloused at the bottom and so far my hips and thighs are holding steady at pre-pregnancy size, so I'm making it with what I already had (like the NY & Co. outfit I'm wearing in the pictures after coming home from two Christmas parties tonight), my belly band, and a couple of new trapeze turtleneck tops from Old Navy. I do have to find a winter coat ASAP. If my family wasn't coming for Christmas, I'd pass on the coat, but we're planning to do a couple of the Austin walking tours of Christmas lights, and things are finally starting to chill over down here in TX, especially at night.

Few more pics <<HERE>>.

30 Weeks!

The time is passing by so quickly. He'll be here in no time. I have all the paint, have ordered the crib and changer/dresser, and bought the rest of the nursery furniture and decorations yesterday afternoon. Now it's just a matter of putting it all together. I'm still going with blue and brown, but the true blue and dark brown I ended up choosing are more childlike and less sophisticated than the powder blue and chocolate brown I was going to go with initially.

I'm feeling great these days. People are telling me I don't look like I'm as far along as I am, which is great. I'd be nervous if my measurements were off, but I'm measuring right on the mark for week 30. I've only gained 25 pounds so far too. The whole point of gaining weight during pregnancy is to store body fat and I already had that goin' on when I got pregnant so. Being over six feet tall and already a little on the thick side has made for a very cool first pregnancy for me so far. I haven't even bought maternity clothes yet. After a few weeks of using Vaseline I saw 4 stretch marks! My dermatologist swore that Vaseline was all I'd need, but whatever. After the 4 marks, I started using this other stretch mark concentrated oil and since then, they haven't expanded and no new ones.

I'll be back soon with updated pictures of me and the nursery in progress.

Nursery Design Redo

I thought I was so sure I wanted a moody, purple nursery. I'm glad I chose that color early, because it has SO changed. I got the idea from this pillow. The feel is still very modern, but the new color scheme is chocolate brown and powder blue. I'm pretty sure this won't change. Billy helped me pick the paint samples this time, so I'm more sure that this will be a better fit. It matches the rest of the house more. Three things that haven't changed and I'm 100% will not change are the crib, book shelf and changing table/dresser...unless they sell out or are discontinued or something. The room is small, and these pieces fit perfectly. I have an old chest of drawers that I'll paint red. The chair I chose is of bright orange fabric.