Late night shopping/hello 3rd tri!

After a day of feeling completely restless and trying to pack a hospital bag when I have nothing to put in it, Bill and I went midnight walmart shopping to grab some baby stuff to help ease my panic. Since I have previously researched everything, (really, I research everything I want to buy first!) I knew pretty well how much everything cost and which specific items I wanted, so it was a pretty quick trip. Which was really good, since I was so tired I nearly fell asleep on the three minute ride there.

I bought a infant to toddler bathtub (there was a cute pink one there, but it was an extra $11 and I figured she won't use it that long - it'll be usable for the next child and if it's a boy, I'm sure he'd rather a blue whale of a bathtub than a bright pink girly one). Really, not that much thought went into it - the blue whale was much cheaper and had good reviews so it went into the cart.

 I got a tube of Desitin, and contemplated grabbing some baby wipes too but one small/medium sized bag was almost $10 so I passed it up for now. I wanted to make sure I got everything on my list.

 I bought the first girly pink thing, which was a changing pad cover. They were marked down by a whole 50 cents today, and I bought two - one in a pretty pink and another in cream to go with the nursery (they also had blue, but there's already so much blue, and green which isn't part of the nursery scheme.) It actually stands out a lot in the nursery in a cute way, it makes the pink ballet shoe picture frame and the pink dressed teddy bear that's on either side of the diaper changer stand out more and bring out the girly in our boyish nursery. It's coming along, just slowly!

 We also grabbed a crib mattress since Walmart had them for pretty cheap. We went with the most expensive option there though, which was a firm Sealy mattress that had 300 ratings and all of them very high online. I had forgotten to measure the crib beforehand to make sure it was a good match (our crib just seems so big compared to others) but it ended up fitting perfectly with no room around the edges. (Of course, as soon as we got it home and I made sure it fit, I cut it out of the plastic, put our only crib sheet on it and covered it with a teddy bear quilt, just to get the feel of it.) The crib looks so much nicer now! I may not be ready for baby to come yet, but the crib now looks like it is and that's exciting.

 The last thing I grabbed was a 10 pack of chocolate chip granola bars, which look really yummy and I'm hoping stay put in my hospital bag instead of being eaten before 12 weeks are up. The rest of the food and drinks will have to wait until we're closer to the deadline, because I know too much temptation will do me in.

 It was a very quick way to spend a hundred dollars! Within a half hour and only a handful of items, we left $100 poorer. But I feel like I can sleep a little better, breath a little deeper now instead of panicking quite as much. Yes, I know there's still a huge amount of things to get, but we got one big thing off the list and a few needed little things that flesh out the nursery a bit and make it look a bit fuller. Starting next week, we'll start adding a box of diapers and/or a pack of baby wipes to the grocery bill each week. In about a month or two, I'll start adding labor snacks and drinks to the list as well (not planning on getting that much, but enough that if we end up at the hospital, Bill will have snacks and drinks for a few days.)

Oh wow, I just realized that it's now officially Thursday - I'm one and a half hours into my third trimester. 12 weeks (or maybe even scarier sounding, 91 days) better crawl by!

Edit for pictures:

Here's the bed - I think it looks so comfy! (and boyish, but I'll fix that later)

Bath tub:

The pink changing pad is much prettier than in the picture:

 Hospital bags (the front one is our diaper bag. It has lots of pockets inside, and is a really pretty blue.)

26w, 5d

I know it's not Thursday, but I just feel so big and like I've really blown up, so I took a bunch of pictures of my belly today.

*Note - my mirror is not terribly dirty! These pictures were taken before and after a shower, with the hot water running. So it's just steam!

I feel so huge! I terrified myself this morning that I might of had a super light stretch mark over my hip that was maybe a half inch long or a little less. Bill looked at me like I was crazy as I ran from room to room to look in bright sunlight while pulling my skin back and forth to see if it was a real stretch mark. Even as he was walking out the door, I made him get a close up look and tell me. He calmed me down a bit by saying something along the lines of "If you have to look that hard to see if it is one or not, then it probably isn't." I kept looking after he left, but finally chalked it up to not being one. Not that I won't keep a close eye on that area for the next few days.

I seem addicted to german chocolate with cream cheese frosting cup cakes. I made some last night and I honestly can not stop myself from eating them! I have an entire little bag of dark chocolate that I've barely touched, but I made 21 cupcakes last night that are dwindling fast. I'm somehow going to have to resist making them again, because I'd get so fat so fast on them. I've been torn between pushing some off on Bill so I don't eat every last one of them, to being possessive and wanting them all.

I also made my first fish dinner last night! I fried up Hallock with fresh lemon, rosemary, sea salt, ground pepper, and celery salt. It turned out much better than I thought it would, I was so pleased! I really struggled with trying to make it perfect, and it came out super tasty. I paired it up with au gratin potatoes, garlic and cheddar mashed potatoes and sweet cream corn.

 (The second batch cooking:)

 My second batch was super tasty, but the fish broke up a bit:

I've been experimenting with other things as well. I made my own garlic bread two nights ago and made more an hour later. I HATE anything with garlic in it, I gag at the smell and can't stand the taste. But, I love garlic bread. Go figure. I made a big batch of choo choo wheels (that i found at an amish store since they no longer show up on Redners, Weis or Walmart's shelves) and garlic bread and ended up barely eating my beloved choo choos because I loved the garlic bread taste. It was super easy and will most likely be a new addiction for me.

Still sick, btw. I think it's sticking around just to torture me, because Bill bought some delicious looking ice cream the other day and I won't touch it until the sickness is completely gone. Especially now that the sickness is all in my nose and chest, any dairy would make it flare up. Still, I keep opening the freezer just to look at it. I've never been such an ice cream fiend in my life.

 I've been so exhausted today that I've done little than sleep or relax. I woke up and made a big breakfast that was supposed to be for both of us, but I ended up being not hungry at all so I didn't make my portion. Lately when I cook, it's more just because I really enjoy seeing the finished product rather than actually being hungry. I ended up making Bill some eggs, toast and grits, then packing him choo choo and fish leftovers for lunch. Within two hours of being awake and doing only that, I was already so tired that I went to lay down on the sofa. Once Bill left, I did some baby research and cleaned up from the breakfast, then slept for two hours. Still exhausted after waking up, I barely got anything done more than vaccuming, showering,  taking care of Sophie and drooling over the thought of a well put together V&S Italian sandwich and cheese fries. I'm not sure if it's a pregnancy thing or a sick thing, but I'm really hoping it goes away. I have such a big itch to get the laundry done and do dishes (really!) but my body won't let me.

26w, 4d

After 6 or 7 days of being very sick, it's finally, finally starting to break. Which is good, since if it wasn't showing signs of getting better today I would have had to notify my doctor. So my body has pretty good timing! I still feel congested and am coughing a lot, but it's so much better than having so many things feeling like they had completely shut down on me. No medicine, even what my doctor recommended, helped me at all.

It's so exciting knowing what gender the baby is. It was a relief to me, knowing that now I could buy baby things that aren't just gender neutral things. Bill is really thrilled, he keeps talking about "our daughter" and "our little girl" which really makes me feel better about entering third trimester this week (I've been dreading the end, now it's not so much of dread as just simple reluctance.) Being able to call baby by name is also a lot of fun. Now I know who that is in there that's kicking me, and when she won't stop trying to headbutt her way through my skin like she is today (which doesn't feel good!) I can at least smile and tell her "calm down, Katie."

Finding a middle name for her though is much, much harder than finding a first name. I really thought it would be the opposite! My problem is that everything I think of just doesn't seem to "fit" her right. I feel like I'm waiting to see the right name and then say "oh, that's it!" There's very few names that I'm even willing to consider. I tried all day yesterday to make a big list of names I liked for Bill to look at and limit down. My goal was to do like a whole page of them. Instead I came up with 5-10 in total, with only a few that I like enough to truly consider.

 I can't believe the baby has been so incredibly active over the last week. Maybe it's because I've been so not active and without energy that I've been able to feel more, but she barely ever stops moving. Which is great, because I was really skittish about having a virus with her in there, especially when it was so unending. But it doesn't seem to have affected her at all. She's way more energetic than I am! She'll definitely make counting the kicks, which I have to start doing next week, an easy job! She kicks, rolls and punches more than five times in two minutes, let alone an hour.

I've been watching A Baby Story and other birth shows, and now they're starting to go from "show" to "wow, I'm going to be in that position really soon." I'll be in my third trimester in just a few days, and I'll be 30 weeks so soon. I almost feel like once I hit 30 weeks it's basically all over. The fact that it's turning April this week as well is a big wake up. It's getting so close to June! I don't think I'll be able to sit still at all once June 1st comes.

26w, 2d

Today Bill and I finished the nursery! Well, everything besides the glider we still need to get (I'm being picky and they're expensive.)  We rearranged the nursery so that everything was in a functional position with a baby, then put the vinyl lettering up on the wall. The lettering, which I figured we could slap up in five minutes, ended up taking over an hour of measuring, leveling and then trying to get the letters to actually come off of the plastic tape and on to the wall. It was definitely worth it though, I love how it looks. And of course, when I say we did the work, I mean I sat in the middle of the room offering "opinions" on what should go a little more to the left or right and holding a box of tissues because I was still half out of it. Thankfully Bill is further out of the sickness than I am, and he was able to stand on the ladder putting it up straight.

 It was a long process, so of course there's lots of pictures from it!

The whole corner of the room:

Our last ultrasound picture in a little ballet shoe picture frame:

(that I'm still so surprised I get to use! I bought it thinking it would be in the closet until maybe the next baby)

 We've chosen a first name for our little girl, and now we're actually starting on the middle name. Or, at least, that's our job starting tomorrow. Bill would like to know what we're going with, and I'd rather stop dreading trying to make the decision (naming a person is so stressful, in my opinion!) It'll definitely be nice to be able to say our daughter's full name, instead of just having an awkward pause when it comes to her middle name.

 I'm super excited to have the nursery done, it really turned out so much nicer than I even thought it would (and I had pretty high hopes!) We just need to maybe add a few pink things (blankets, a few pink flowered 3D wall decals and such) but that'll be saved for later since it's just decorative and unnecessary.

26 Weeks!

What a fun way to celebrate 26 weeks (btw, where did week 25 go??), with a gender ultrasound!

 We got to the hospital about 20 minutes early, and were taken back within five minutes. The ultrasound tech student I was with started right away. I let her know right off the bat that I'd love if she could spend a little time trying to find the gender. While I said that, she discovered that the baby had flipped head down, so she said it should be fine to look at the gender near the end. I'm pretty sure baby flipped about 4-5 days ago. I told Bill I had a feeling she did, because I started getting lots of kicks up in my ribs and it was much harder to breathe. I still get lots and lots of little punches low down though, but it feels different than the kicks (I can feel the little fingers making movements against my uterus too).

 It took a long time to get through, not because she was a student but because the baby hated the ultrasound. Usually baby is calm and unmoving. Today, she was wide awake and kicking the device everytime it went on my belly. She was very into having her gender, measurements and all kept hidden. My belly was moving all around like an ocean.

 Baby was measuring 2 days ahead and 2lbs exactly. When it came to gender spotting, the baby started moving like crazy. It was okay though, because I got a glimpse of it before baby kicked away and knew it was a girl. After a few moments, the tech announced that she thought it was a girl, maybe about 85% sure. Bill, who was barely conscious from how sick he was, asked if there was any way we could get more sure. She said she'd try again at the end, and invite a more experienced tech in. So she did return to the gender and got a great shot, making me completely sure it was a girl. She said this time she thought it was definitely a girl, though she wasn't allowed to say 100%. Another tech came in who wasn't a student and took a look, then said "definitely girl." It was nice to hear, but by this point I was already sold - I had seen not just the absence of the boy parts, but could clearly see the girl parts. It was a very good machine - it didn't let much stay hidden.

So instead of updating on bump pictures right now, I'll upload the pictures that I did get:



Edit: I feel too sick to go take pictures today, and my phone refuses to work anyway. But I took a few pictures two days ago that I'll post. I'll try to take more tomorrow, since I know you can't really tell much from these:



25w, 5d

100 DAYS LEFT! How can it be going so quickly? I'll be in double digits tomorrow, that's just crazy! I'm both filled in anxiousness and reluctance to see the pregnancy end. I'm really enjoying it, I'd rather it not race ahead of me! But I say that every week...lol

 For some reason, today I'm really feeling close to baby with every crazy movement and kick. It's nothing different from any other day, but every time my belly starts shifting from the baby, I get a rush of hormonal affection going through me. Not that I don't usually look down at my belly in fondness, but today it's really stealing all of my attention and making me really feel so much love for this baby.

 Maybe I'm a little thrown off as well because I'm getting a cold. It's made me miserable and grumpy in every other area of the day except with baby. I hate having to get up every few minutes to pee when the baby moves, and dislike when the baby smacks my stomach and makes me want to throw up, but even so I'm only feeling delighted in the baby's movements. It's like a little ray of sunshine through my grumpy day.

 I keep feeling like the baby is growing faster than my belly. Especially at nighttime, my belly feels super tight like it can't stretch over the baby any more. Despite that, I think I've gotten even bigger over the last few days. I can now use my belly as a little table, which I didn't think I'd ever get to.

I hope baby likes orange juice, or at least that my belly remains agreeable to it, because I've been chugging it down today to help with my cold.

 Also, two more days until the gender ultrasound. Keep your fingers crossed that we get a proper potty shot!

A Productive Day, 25w, 2d

We got so much done today! The nursery is looking great! With all the freaking out I've been doing lately because we don't have enough done, this really helped!

 We woke up early this morning and started the shelves. Bill and his stepfather went shopping for shelves and then set them up amazingly quick while I worked on cleaning the downstairs. To my surprise, they got shelves that perfectly matched the nursery furniture, and were the perfect width that I was hoping for.

After I stocked the shelves:

 A better picture of the crib since the last ones were in terrible light, plus the current mobile we have on it:

Picture of the old shelf on the other side of the room (the teddy bears have muliplied!)

We also went dress shopping to find a dress for tomorrow, when we go to a wedding. This took much, much much longer than anticipated. We went to Walmart last night and looked through the very few dresses they had there, then today we headed over to Ross to look. They didn't have a maternity section, so I had NO idea what size to look for, which took up a large chunk of time. I definitely don't fit into the small dresses I used to with this bump! Here's some of the dresses I tried on:

The first one I tried on, which I really loved. Sadly, we couldn't find it in the right size. If it hadn't cost so much, I would have taken it home and seamstressed it for later. The picture just doesn't do it justice - it was navy blue with white dots (usually I hate polka dots) and red lining, with a ruffled tulle sash underneath. It was adorable:



This one I loved on the hanger and hated the moment I put it on. It just struck a wrong cord for me, but it was shimmery and fluttery:

I ended up buying this as a cheap summer dress because I thought it was adorable, and it had plenty of room to grow in! (I loved so many white dresses, though i was looking for any color BUT white to wear at a wedding!)

This was another that was cute in real life, not so much in the picture.

I tried on three sizes of the same dress - one was too small and the others were too big, none would fit:

Loved the silk daisies in this one, but it was too big:

Didn't think this one suited me at all:

Very Holly Hobby-esque, I thought. I liked it as a summery dress but it didn't fit:

I ended up this one, which just carrying it around the store I got quite a few compliments on. I'm planning on pairing it with black high heeled boots and a long (mid thigh) leather jacket with my hair down:

When we got home, we (Bill) put together the changing table! It's one of the last pieces to preparing the nursery (the only thing left now is putting up the vinyl lettering I bought a bit back). The changing table is much bigger than it appeared in the store (or from what my memory told me) so now we're looking at redoing part of the room - the dresser may end up under the old shelf and the changing table moved in it's old spot so it's not close to the window like it currently is. This is a LONG diaper changer, with lots of space!

So it felt like a very productive day (we also finished our aquatic tank with two angelfish today) and now I'm exhausted! I'm spending the rest of the night brushing out my hair to prepare for tomorrow (there's always that one giant stubborn knot in the same spot at the top of my neck that KILLS my belly to reach!) and then heading to bed. I'm very pleased with how the nursery is looking!