with seven weeks left

I didn't mean to let a whole week pass without a blog post, but alas. We had a good week. It was a very busy weekend, and we are just slowing down (we kind of have to, since we are "snowed in" today...).

Graeme and I are at 33 weeks today! We were supposed to have a doctor's appointment this morning, but our office is closed due to the snow and whatnot. I was a little sad not to go, but hopefully we can reschedule for tomorrow, Friday, or Monday. It is almost time to start our weekly appointments! Yay!

We are close to having everything we need to take care of this little boy. Diapers, an extra carseat base, and a manly diaper bag for Aaron are the last "big" things on our list.

I am still feeling great. I still have a bit of a lingering cough and runny nose from my cold I had last week. Pregnancy-wise, I am becoming slightly uncomfortable after I eat (my stomach is crowded I suppose, so even a small meal makes me feel really full!). I still feel energetic and like I can move around pretty well. Getting up from lying down is getting a tad tricky though. :)

Graeme moves so much. He is all over the place in there. He also gets the hiccups pretty frequently. It feels pretty funny to me.

I have one more baby shower this coming Saturday with some of my best friends from high school (most of us have known each other since elementary school). This shower will be on the opposite end of the spectrum from our other baby shower. It will be just girls and only six of us. I am forging the way and having the first baby of the group, though I am sure this will be the first of many baby showers for us. I am positive that with all of their great tastes, Graeme will come away with some adorable stuff.

Nothing else to report this week. Only seven weeks left!

in week 32

Hello 32 weeks! We only have 50 odd days left until we meet our little boy, and we are ready! And we feel even more ready after our very fun baby shower at Journey this past week where we were insanely blessed by our friends and family.

We wanted a shower that was simple, and fun, and where anyone from Journey that wanted to come could come and go as they wanted to. Kids. Men. Whoever. We like everyone. Also for this shower, we didn't want froo-froo. Or games. Or extravagance. Our awesome friend Julie, with several other wonderful ladies put together a perfect shower.

I'm pretty sure this is the coolest cake ever. Julie incorporated all of the colors from Graeme's room. Plus, it was delicious.

We tried to get around and talk to everyone, but we were soon ushered up to the front to open gifts. And we had a lot of work to do.

We were blown away by everything and so thankful! We seriously couldn't thank everyone enough for all of the wonderful stuff we got.

As a small act of gratitude, I finished writing like 75 thank you notes. It always feels better after writing thank you notes at least!

I have had a lot of fun opening everything, sorting it out, and trying to figure out where it will live in our house. I will say though, baby clothes are filled with so many of those stupid plastic strings that hook them together and hold their tags that I was going crazy.  

Anyway.

This past week was great. I did somehow finally succumb to catching an awful cold. It was the first time in my pregnancy that I had gotten sick (other than morning sickness), so I feel pretty lucky to have made it seven months before I came down with something. I spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday feeling pretty lousy (of course, the day of my baby shower I was sick). But, by Monday, I felt much better. And I'm almost back to normal at this point. Hopefully that was the first and last time I'll be sick until Graeme gets here. It stinks when you can't take any medicine that would actually work.

Now that we are down to the final weeks, we are having fun getting our house all set-up for Graeme. I am crazy (and Aaron doesn't mind too much), and couldn't wait to open and put together the swing. And the play yard with the bassinet. And the stroller and carseat. So, our house already looks like we have a baby. (Well, I don't suppose the stroller and carseat will typically sit in our dining room like they are right now though...)

Not too much longer!

a debut of Graeme's room

After we found out we were having a boy, it didn't take us long to decide on a theme for his room. That theme being superhero. (DC Comics only). We didn't want to feel like Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman threw up in his room, so we went for superhero accents around the room. We also wanted his room to be colorful, because that's just fun. We want Graeme to love his room for as long as possible, so it's not too babyish either. A lot of our ideas came from here. 

With that all in mind, here is Graeme's nursery!

Paint color:  Aquatint by Sherwin Williams

I'll start with the clock wall and work my way around...

The closet is on the left. Inside is a Circo cube shelf with fabric bins.

Red clock from Target.

Batman and Superman hooks are Command Hooks. "Mickey Mouse" cape is from Hallmark and came with the Mickey pictured below. (Basically, our two favorite worlds collided. A superhero Mickey.)

Aaron made the wooden bench/shelf when he was six. Teddy Bear was mine that my parents gave me when I had my thyroid removed. Crocheted blanket was made for me as a baby by my great grandmother (basically the only thing from when I was a baby that didn't scream "girl!")

Next is the bookshelf. Aaron has had this bookshelf since high school. It has moved with us, and happened to match Graeme's furniture perfectly.

Stuffed "Itty Bittys" are from Hallmark. Green frame from Target Christmas clearance. Stacking cups from Target Dollar Spot. Fabric bins from Target. DC Comics Little People from Target. To the right are some floor pillows. The bottom shelf has our growing collection of Caldecott Medal books.

We LOVE children's books. We have like three more boxes of them in the attic waiting to be pulled down as Graeme grows. Aaron's "It's a Boy!" Vinylmation was one of the first things in this room.

Bat Signal night light is from Pottery Barn Kids. 

Above the bookcase is an awesome orange shelf we stumbled upon at HomeGoods. It was cracked on the back so they gave us a nice discount. My dad fixed it right up with some wood glue and a clamp.

Our friend Amanda made the posters for us. The idea came from Etsy.

Wooden blocks are from Toys"R"Us. Vase is from Target.

My First Batman Book was a find by my mom. Also from Pottery Barn Kids. The comic book cubes are actually iPod speakers that Aaron found at Kohls totally randomly. We got them for free because we had a $10 gift. The fun robot is from Target.

The next wall holds the window and a trunk that was given to us before we got married. It started out as our coffee table in our apartment. Then it sat in our loft in our house. Now it is a window seat and toy box for Graeme. Thanks to Bensen and Keyen and their parents, it is already filled with baby toys.

The curtain is from Bed, Bath, and Beyond. It's a blackout curtain, and I'm jealous of it. It makes the room so dark. Curtain rod and pull back are from Target. Batman sign was a gift to Aaron long ago from a friend at church. My talented mom, Graeme's Mimi, MADE us these orange cushions. She's awesome. The middle pillow was on clearance at Target for $7. The other pillows are from Etsy. (Green Lantern and Flash are still on their way.)

Next is one of my favorite things in Graeme's room because my crafty (who knew?) husband made them all by himself.

We saw the idea for this on Etsy, but it was ridiculously expensive. It cost us a bit to make them, but not nearly as much. Wooden letters and Mod Podge were from Michael's. The comic books are Batman:  Brave and the Bold.  The superheroes pictured are Green Lantern, Flash, Green Arrow, Plastic Man, Robin, Joker, Batman, Hawkman, Catwoman, and Shazaam. He painstakingly found perfect pages for each letter and glued them on. Then cut off the excess with an exact-o-knife. I hung them with sawtooth hangers from Target. The "M" is our favorite (there is a better angle of it later).

Next to his awesome name is his crib. This crib was "given" (because they hardly asked anything for it at all considering how amazingly nice it is...) to us by the family I nannied for. It was barely used, came with the mattress, and converts to a toddler bed, twin bed, and full-size bed. We are incredibly blessed to have it.

I made the mobile with paint chips (that I felt kind of guilty about "taking" even though they're free), a circle die cut, fishing line, clear tape, and an embroidery hoop. The whole project was less than $5. I found a tutorial here, and kind of made it my own. The sheet, bumper, and blanket are all from Target.

My mom not only made us orange cushions, she also sewed our crib skirt. Apparently, crib skirts either come in a bed set or are crazy expensive. This one is insanely better than any I found. (The hamper that's in the corner of the picture is from The Container Store.)

Red rug is from Target. There is also a navy one next to the bookshelf that didn't make it in a picture.

This orange bear and blue dog have caused much drama. They had a third friend, a green frog, that we didn't purchase when we saw them all at HomeGoods. Later, he was gone. And now he is nowhere. You can't buy him. We have looked high and low. We have learned our lesson. Green frog shall never be ours. And now we know: if you see something you like at a place like HomeGoods, buy it then. Don't wait. There is no second chance. Anyway...

Up in the corner there is another fun thing, our baby monitor. We were pretty particular about what we wanted and couldn't decide on one when we went to register. After doing a lot of research, we decided on this Lorex brand camera. We got it on Black Friday for more than half off of it's usual price. It's a lot of fun, and it pans the entire room. We hid the cord (and covered up the choking hazard) with a cord hiding set thing from Best Buy.

We are almost done! Next is our dresser/changing table. This was a gift from some wonderful friends at Journey. It happened to match the crib almost perfectly. And, when Graeme no longer needs a changing table, it will still be practical.

The changing pad was a gift from the family I nannied for, the "Super Hero" canvas was our first purchase before we had even officially decided on his room. We saw it at Target and bought it "just in case." The lamp  and the storage bin are also from Target.

Batman and friends are on the lookout for any trouble.

The last corner of his room is the armchair. I hemmed and hawed about a chair a lot. I didn't even know that I really wanted a chair. I didn't want a wooden rocking chair or glider because I wanted it to be comfortable. If I got a chair, I wanted it to be gray. Of course that meant that all the chairs that I liked were too much money. We were over at Aaron's parents one night and his mom was asking if we found a chair. Later, Aaron went upstairs. He called me up to show me that his parents had a gray armchair in their room. We came down joking that we "found a chair!" His mom said, "Oh! Where?" "In your room." She was puzzled why we wanted "that old thing," and said she had been wanting to get rid of it. We gladly offered to take it off their hands. It's like 30 years old, but it's in great shape! And it meant that we bought none of the furniture in Graeme's room!

The blanket and ottoman are from Target. The ottoman is also a storage cube and was another great clearance find. The side table is from Target. (If you can't tell by now, we basically love Target.)

These comical prints were stumbled upon at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. We had to buy them, of course.

Another one of my favorite things is this pillow. It's from Etsy, and Aaron didn't want to spend the money on it (I admit, it was a ridiculously pricey pillow). But when my wonderful mom-in-law saw it, she said, "Oh, you're getting that pillow." And that was that. Thanks, Gigi!

Alright, so there you have it! That is Graeme's room that we have had so much fun decorating. We couldn't have done it without our parents and some wonderful friends. Now, we just wait for him to get here and enjoy it for years to come!

in the single digit countdown

Our little Graeme will be here in just nine weeks (ish)! It's hard to believe we are down to single digits in counting the weeks until he's here. We are so ready to meet him!

Well, we are at least mentally ready to meet him. We still need a few things before we are ready to take care of him. You know, car seat, diapers, clothes...stuff like that might come in handy. Hence, I am excited for our first baby shower this weekend!

This past week was great. We had some "lasts." Last flight before he's here. Last trip out of state before he's here. Saw some friends for the last time before he's here. We took our last childbirth class.

Speaking of class, it was great. We only had to endure a little bit more of the awkward video, and the rest of the class was just learning more about delivery and the first few weeks with a newborn. I know you can't be totally prepared for having a baby, but I feel a lot more knowledgeable about the whole thing. I'm glad we took the class.

We also had an appointment with the doctor this past Monday. It was easy-peasy. Everything is still looking great. My iron went up a little, so that was good I suppose. Graeme's heartbeat is in the 140s and nice and strong. We go back to the doctor in two weeks, then two weeks after that. Then we will be a week away from full-term and start going to the doctor every week until he's born!

I am still feeling really, really good. I know I still have a couple months to go before I make my final judgement, but I have really loved being pregnant. Other than a couple months at the beginning of being sick (and even that never kept me from work or church or life), it has been great. I am praying that I will have it easy to the end, but we'll see. Minus some minor heartburn every once in awhile and a sleepless couple of hours here and there, I have no complaints for the third trimester.

Everything about this adventure is such a blessing and I am definitely not taking it for granted. We thank God every day for a healthy, growing baby, and that I have stayed healthy too. 

Happy 31 weeks, Graeme!

with a case of the shingles (the roof kind)

I hope you are all enjoying this beautiful Monday. I know that I am happy to see the sunshine!

We arrived home Saturday afternoon from Tennessee to a cloudy, windy Raleigh. Our landing was awful. It made me sick for the entire rest of the day. When the pilot says, "The flight attendants will not be making their final check," you know you are in for a rough ride. I was never so happy to be on solid ground.

Thankfully, it was at least warm outside. We made our way home, and as we got closer, the stoplights and gas stations were out of power. It struck me as we turned into our neighborhood that we might not have power either. Sure enough, we didn't. It stayed off for about thirty minutes and came back on just in time for the wind to pick up again. Off it went again (only for another 30 minutes, thank goodness). After about ten different "severe weather alerts" on our phones for tornado warnings, we made our way downstairs and Aaron made a space in the pantry in case there was an actual tornado. At least we would have food if we were stuck in there.

Then we just sat on the couch and watched the storm out the back window. After about five minutes, a few shingles rained down in our backyard. Uh-oh.

The wind and rain left as quickly as they had come, so Aaron made his way outside to see if they were in fact shingles from our house. He came back in a minute later to tell me that we hadn't just lost "a few" shingles. A big section of them had blown up and over our house and were littering the street everywhere. We live in a townhouse, and we are on the end. Somehow, we were the only ones with any damage. Go figure.

Our nice neighbors drove up about that time and helped us clean up all of the shingles. They informed us that the driving range next to our neighborhood had their four-story nets and poles broken and snapped in half, so I think we were just in the same path of that awful wind.

We lost "half a square" of shingles according to Aaron's older brother who knows things about houses and came up to assess our damage. Aaron made several phone calls and I stood by for moral support (I don't know what I would do without him in these kinds of situations...).

After talking to the HOA today, we are pretty sure they will actually take care of it! Praise God!

I am positive we didn't catch the worst end of the deal and there were probably other people that had a lot more damage from the wind. We are thankful that nothing worse happened, and it was a good thing we had made it home!

So, our shingle-missing roof is still keeping us warm and dry, and that is something to be very grateful for. It just gives us another fun adventure in our life filled with no handyman knowledge. Thanks to everyone who gave us shingle advice. We appreciate it!

about our trip

Like I said yesterday, we are on an INFUSE retreat in Tennessee. It's been a great little getaway so far.

We left Wednesday at noon from RDU. It was cold, and the walk from the parking garage to Terminal 1 is like a mile. Because my husband is the sweetest (and so he wouldn't have to carry both bags all the way since we have yet to purchase wheeling luggage), he dropped me off at the terminal and went to park.

Graeme and I just chilled with all the bags for awhile.

Our flight was right on time, and soon we were up in the air saying goodbye to Raleigh for a couple days.

I was well-prepared with my one dollar bill for my favorite airplane activity.

That's right. Money origami. Here I am with my new froggy friend:

We arrived safely, picked up our rental car, had lunch in downtown Nashville, and then swung over to the Opry Mills Mall. Aaron had a Disney Store gift card that was burning a hole in his pocket. They only had one Vinylmation, so we ended up spending the rest on Graeme. Somehow, out of the three of us, Graeme walked out of the mall with the most stuff. And he's not even technically here yet. We are in for a world of trouble.

We made our way to Murfreesboro after that and checked in to our hotel. The retreat officially started Thursday morning with breakfast at one of the coolest breakfast places I have been to ever. It is called the Pfunky Griddle.

Not only was it awesome because you got to cook your own pancakes, but we happened to be there on Customer Appreciation Day, so the pancakes were free! You just paid for any toppings or sides you wanted, and the pancakes were all-you-can-eat.

So fun. Who wants to open one in Raleigh? Not me, but I would come if there was one.

Aaron spent the rest of the day with his group and I came back to the hotel and worked from bed all day. I am in the midst of editing down all of our curriculum for March and getting other things ready for my maternity leave. I did manage to make it down to the rinky-dink exercise room in our hotel for a bit though.

I met everyone for dinner later, and hung out for the rest of the night.

Aaron and I are finally getting used to the hour time difference just in time to come home tomorrow. Of course.

Today has been a little more laid back, and tomorrow morning we hop on a plane back home.

It's been a relaxing, fun retreat.

with 10 weeks left!

We jumped into 2014 head on after a leisurely Christmas "break," and I'm just getting around to catching up with my trusty blog again. Now that Graeme will be here in about ten weeks, there seems to be so much to do and so little time!

We are currently in Murfreesboro, TN for an INFUSE retreat. This is Aaron's fourth year (and probably last for awhile) doing INFUSE, so we have really gotten to know the majority of these wonderful kidmin people from all over the country. Aaron has grown so much from being a part of INFUSE, and I learn a lot too when I tag along for meals.

I will post more about our trip tomorrow, but today, it's time for my 30th week of pregnancy post (a day late)...

Thirty weeks!

We are now significantly closer to the end of this nine month adventure. We are mentally saying that we have seven weeks (37 weeks is full-term) to get everything in order. So that makes it seem even closer!

This past week was another great week.

We had our first child birth class on Sunday afternoon. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I liked it right away. The lady that is teaching it is super nice and not boring at all. It is basically the same class they teach at the hospital, but instead of a giant class of 30 or more people, there are only eight people in ours. It is everyone's first baby. Nobody asks annoying questions the whole time. And it is not a Lamaze-type class like the ones on TV where you sit around on the floor. 

The class is more of an overview of what will happen before, during, and after labor. The lady taught us two little breathing technique things, so that's easy enough to remember. And I also love that she says to go into labor with a flexible "birth plan." We were already planning to just roll with the flow, so it was nice to hear a long-time labor/delivery nurse say that was the best plan. If I'm fine with no drugs and can do the whole thing natural, cool. If I feel like I want to die and want some drugs, great. If we need a C-Section, that's fine. We will praise God for a healthy delivery, no matter how it comes about. I am a pretty easy-going person anyway, so that's how I'm approaching this whole labor thing. I'm not nervous about it...yet!

The only strange part of the class is the archaic videos with the real-life pregnant people who all look like labor is the worst thing ever. I guess they show you worst-case scenarios. Poor Aaron couldn't handle watching the actual birth of a baby. He thinks he'll pass out on me. I think he'll be fine. I could watch the baby being born okay, but not the lady getting her epidural. I think I could get one if I was in a lot of pain (I've had one before during all of my back issues), but I couldn't watch it being done on that video. And if I can get by without it, I won't be sad. I hate needles. Especially long ones heading in towards your spine. I'm sure it's worth it if you are in unbearable pain with no end in sight. We'll just see how it goes.

Anyway, we have our second and last class this coming Sunday afternoon. 

Other than that, I am still feeling great. I have lots of energy still...too much some days, probably. I feel great so I keep going and going. And then I pay for it with a stiff back the next day. Oops.

Graeme is doing well too. He kicks and rolls around and shoves his appendages into my internal organs, so I guess he's having a great time in there.

We went on a hospital visit over the weekend to see a new baby of one of our Journey Kids volunteers, and we realized the next time we were at that hospital would be to have our own baby (at least I don't plan on going to the hospital for any other reason!). We can't even wait!

So, Graeme, give us (and yourself, so you can finish growing nice and strong) at least seven weeks, and then come on whenever you're ready! (Just please don't make mommy wait too long past March 19th...)

Happy January 2014! (and week 29)

We will just kill two birds with one stone here since it's the first of the month and a Wednesday...

First of all, Happy New Year!

Aaron woke up yesterday with a bad feeling of dizziness whenever he moved around (not sure what's wrong with him). Needless to say, our New Year's Eve was spent on the couch watching movies. Not that I'm complaining about that. The movies and couch I mean...I am sad that he is sick. He still feels off today, but hopefully he will feel better tomorrow. Otherwise, to the doctor he goes.

Yesterday we knocked out two of our Disney movies. We are SO close to finishing our over year-long quest of watching all of the Disney animated features in order. We were blogging about them too, but after Peter Pan, we decided it was more fun to just watch them. It took us so long because, 1:  we are busy a lot, and 2:  we would tend to get stuck on one we didn't care to watch for a long time until we made ourselves sit down and do it. Yes, even we admit that not all Disney movies are winners. Anyway, we only have three left! (Four, if you count Frozen, which we've already seen.)

Ok, now that I've gone off on two rabbit trails, let's get down to the real reasons for this blog post.

It's a new month in a new year, and here's what we have coming up in January...

1. Alyssa's wedding.   My good friend Alyssa that I've known since before I started dating Aaron is getting married on Saturday. She and I were "nanny buddies" for a long time and would get our kiddos together every other week. Now that we've both moved on to other jobs, I don't see her as much, sadly. I'm so excited for her as she finishes school and gets married.
2. Childbirth class.    Aaron (and let's face it, me too) is a little nervous about this. We start a two week class on Sunday afternoon. Each class is three hours long. I'm sure they will be helpful, but I'm not so sure I'll remember everything when I'm actually having this baby. Either way, it will be good to get a better idea of what we're about to embark on in a couple months. Especially for Aaron, who is basically terrified of the whole labor thing.
3. INFUSE.   We leave next Wednesday for what will be our last INFUSE retreat for the foreseeable future. It will also be our last little "getaway" before Graeme arrives. Aaron will be busy most of the time, but I will get to enjoy a couple days hanging around central TN.
4. Baby shower.    We are having a baby shower at Journey this month. If you go to Journey and know us and haven't gotten an invite, consider this to be it. And see me on Sunday for details. We've tried to get to everyone, but it's easy to miss people on a busy Sunday!
5. Lisa and London birthdays.   My mom-in-love and my niece celebrate back-to-back birthdays this month. London will be two, which is crazy!
6. Bensen and Keyen date.    A babysitting date with two of my favorite boys is in the works. I love that we still get to see them at least once every month. They are excited to meet Graeme, and they've already passed a lot of super nice things down to him.

I think that wraps up January in a nutshell. I'm also working hard to continue to stay ahead at work. My goal is to have March completely done and ready by the end of January (February is done and just waiting to be packed). And then I want to have April done by the end of February. And to have May at least started before I take off a month or so in March. That probably sounds confusing, but I know what I mean.

Ok, last thing:

Happy 29 weeks to me and Graeme!

We had a great appointment on Monday and everything is looking good and on track. We saw one of our favorite doctors, so that was a plus. He assured us "there's a baby in there," as we listened to my favorite heart beat. He's a funny doctor. Not on purpose. But he makes us laugh because of how he says things. Anyway. It was a quick and easy appointment compared to the last one, and we go back in two weeks. They will see us every two weeks until week 36. Then we will go every week.

I am still feeling great. I really think that exercising throughout my pregnancy (minus a few weeks at the beginning when I would have thrown up during exercise) has helped a ton. I go to the gym at least five times a week and do 30 minutes on the elliptical. I've only gained about 7 pounds so far. Yay.

Graeme is kicking up a storm still and he's all over the place in there. It's fun to watch him move around.

His room is missing three components, and pictures will come soon. After our shower, we will see what else is left to get in order to be "ready," if there is such a thing. But, you know, diapers, stroller, car seat, and things like that are quite necessary still.

Only 11 more weeks until our due date!