Getting Ready.....Feeling Prepared

Here we are in the final weeks of my pregnancy. I cannot believe it is coming to an end. It is really all so surreal and crazy. My thoughts are all over the place. I am anxious, excited, worried, happy, scared, nervous, excited, etc. You get the point. I am all those emotions rolled up into one. Will I be a good mother? Will I know what to do with this baby that relies on me for survival? How will I know what to do when she cries? OMG its just crazy to think in 2 weeks or so I will be welcoming my first born child into this world...my baby girl! It is a day I have anticipated my whole life and its getting closer by the minute. At times I feel like its so far away but then again she could technically come any day now. I am officially considered full term and my doctor doesn't think I will make it to 40 weeks. I am 18 days away from my due date. Y'all that is not long at all. In fact that is right around the corner. For some reason I have always thought this would be a planned birth, you know a planned date for induction. Now that it is so close I am thinking this could happen anytime and its not always necessarily planned. Not that I am planning on being induced at this time, its just what I always had in my head. I went and pre-registered at my hospital yesterday. One more thing checked off my to do list. I went to the doctor Tuesday and everything looked great. Her heart rate looked good and she is head down. She has not 'dropped' yet and so I think she is nice and cozy in there. I am hoping she comes maybe a week early, because this mama is ready.......or so I think. :)

Overall I am still feeling pretty good, just getting tired and not sleeping at night. I am up every couple of hours to go to the bathroom and then it takes me a while to get comfortable to go back to sleep. I guess she is getting me ready for no sleep when she makes her grand debut. I feel like I am semi getting prepared for the no sleep. She still moves A LOT. I know that is the one thing I will miss. I love feeling her move even if she gets up in my ribs at times.

This past weekend my mom came up and we did some last minute shopping. I might have picked up a few things at the local baby store too. I just cant resist a cute outfit and bows. I am in so much trouble with having a girl. I packed Mary Kathryn's bag and started to pack mine. We also washed up everything I needed and she needed for the hospital. In case she decides to come anytime our bags are packed. :)

Here is my 37 week picture. I don't know how my belly can get any bigger. I am feeling huge these days. (excuse the bad iphone picture)
Do you ever feel really prepared for a baby? I think not. I think I am as ready as I'm going to be emotionally and physically. I keep thinking about how our family dynamics are going to change. Its been just me and Todd for so long. Just the 2 of us and now we are adding a baby. 8 years ago on August 1st we went on our first date. Who would have ever thought the guy I met in Victoria's Secret would become my husband and now we are expecting our first child. He is so excited too and I know he is going to be a WONDERFUL daddy. I definitely think she will be a daddy's little girl. I can't wait to see him bond with our daughter. Its going to be so special.

The Nursery Reveal

Today I am 33 weeks pregnant!! I can't believe I am in the home stretch now. Only 7 weeks or less to go. I am hoping for less like maybe 5-6 weeks to go. I am getting so anxious and excited for her to get here. I cannot wait to see her sweet face and just hold her. Being pregnant has been an amazing experience but I am ready for it to be over. Its hard to believe that the end is near and that our lives will be forever changed. :) I am still feeling great but I am definitely looking big these days and ready to pop. Sleep is going okay, I wake up a few times to go to the restroom and I have to change positions pretty frequently. Every night when I am trying to go to sleep Mary Kathryn decides its time for a dance party. It feels like she is doing gymnastics in there, but I love every moment of feeling her move. I know that is the one part I will greatly miss about being pregnant.

We have almost finished the nursery so I thought I would go ahead and post the pictures. We still have to find a few more things for her shelves and put up crown molding. Otherwise, it is complete and I LOVE IT!!! It turned out just the way I always imagined. I am so thankful for my hubby and all his hard work of making the nursery just the way I want it. I think its perfect for our little princess. :)
The lighting is different in these pictures that's why I posted both.

I am sure I will spend lots of time in this chair. Its so cozy, I love it. :)
The background color of the built ins looks weird in these pictures but its the same color as her monogram which matches her bedding.

27 weeks and a sneak peek...

On Tuesday we had a doctors appointment and an ultrasound. We had a regular ultrasound to check on everything and make sure the baby looked good and to check on the ever growing fibroid. The fibroid continues to grow but luckily it is not over my cervix and doesn't seem to be affecting the baby. My doctor will continue to keep an eye on it. He hopes after I deliver it will disintegrate on its own. We were also able to squeeze in our 4d ultrasound. Technology is so amazing these days. Her heartbeat was 136. We fell even more in love with our baby girl when we were able to see her sweet face. The 4d ultrasound was amazing. We could see her sucking her thumb and she kept wanting to keep her hands up by her face. At one point she was playing with her feet, it was so cute. She has the fattest cheeks and prettiest lips. We were all shocked by how big her lips looked. My MIL asked the ultrasound tech if her lips really were that big. haha. Watch out Angelina Jolie, you are about to have some competition. It was by far the best day, Todd and I couldn't stop talking about how cute she was and it makes us even more excited for her arrival. We are truly blessed, I thank God every day for my precious miracle. We were able to get some great pictures of her. We think shes pretty cute. :) Oh and Mary Kathryn already weighs 2 pounds and 11 ounces. I can't believe it!!

Check out those lips. I am headed home this weekend for Fathers day. I am looking forward to spending the weekend with my family. I haven't seen them in about a month and my mom has never gotten to feel MK move. She moves all the time now and I can't wait for my mom to be able to feel her. We are also meeting my aunt this weekend. I am so excited to see her. I think she will be shocked as to how much I have grown since my brothers wedding. So far, I have gained 17 pounds total and my doctor says everything is measuring right on track. Overall I am still feeling great. I am just trying to stay cool in this heat. This is the hottest June ever and I am not just saying that because I am pregnant. Luckily I am putting my blow up pool to good use. :)

MK's bedding came in last night and I am in love. It is better than what I expected and it looks perfect. I am so excited about her room coming together. I promise to post pics when its completed. For now I will give you a sneak peek. We still have plenty to do in the room, slowly but surely its getting done.

A Cluster of Thoughts

We had a nice relaxing Memorial Day weekend. I wish every weekend was a 3 day weekend. It was so nice to spend 3 days with nothing to do with my hubby. We spent our days playing with our niece, shopping (including buying me a pool for the summer) and spending time with friends. Every summer we always buy a cheap blow up pool for me to sit in. It gets so hot here in Texas and with me being 6 months pregnant, it was definite must. We found one at big lots for $35 and it has seats in it. I spent most of the day Sunday after church lounging in my new little pool. It was nice and relaxing.

I also started a new book called Just Breathe by Susan Wiggs. It is has been in my night stand forever and I decided it would be a good summer read. I love to read but lately I have kind of gotten out of the habit. I have a night stand full of books but nothing has really peaked my interest. I can tell I am going to fly through this book. I can't put it down.

Mary Kathryn is wiggling and moving like crazy. I can literally feel her doing flip flops in my stomach. It is the neatest and wierdest thing. Of course as soon as I call Todd over to feel her or see her, she stops.......EVERY SINGLE TIME. I think she might be a little stubborn already and have a mind of her own. :) We only have 103 days or less until we get to see her sweet face. I cannot wait. I have dreams all the time of what she might look like. I think shes going to look like Todd but maybe have dark hair like me. We will get a peek at her in 2 weeks when I go back to the doctor for my monthly check up. Its hard to believe I am 2 weeks away from my 3rd trimester. Time is really starting to fly now and I would be lying if I didn't say, it makes me a little nervous.

Everyone is talking about their beach trips and being off for the summer and I am a little jealous. I wish I had a beach trip planned this summer. What I wouldn't do to go to a nice beach and stay in a cute little beach house. Its been quite some time since I have been to the beach and I definitely have the itch to go. I love summer time don't you. Sometimes I wish I was a teacher just to have the summers off. I am so jealous of all my teacher friends. Our summer is already booking up fast and it just started. I know it will fly by and MK will be here so soon. :)

Well enough of my random thoughts for the day. Hope you all are having a good 4 day work week. Don't you just wish every week was a 4 day work week. Now that would be nice. :)

24 weeks!!

I have so much I want to blog about right now but I will keep this post as a pregnancy update. I haven't been doing very good about keeping up with the pregnancy updates. I wanted to do an update every 2 weeks and had planned on taking belly pics every 2 weeks. Oh well things don't always go according to our plan. I do capture pictures weekly with my iphone to put in my app so I can see how much I have grown. This experience just continues to amaze me every day. I am feeling MK move alot now. I pretty much feel her every morning and when I am eating dinner in the evening. It is the strangest feeling but I love it. It just brings the biggest smile to my face. I have also seen her from the outside of my belly move, now that is really strange to see this lump pop out on your belly. Overall I am still feeling great and have no complaints. I have had a great pregnancy so far. I went to the doctor last week and everything look good and was measuring just right. I will have an ultrasound at my next appointment when I am 27 weeks. I am looking forward to seeing my sweet baby again. I have a fibroid in my uterus so the doctor wants to take another look to see if its growing any bigger. It has grown each time I have been to the doctor so he is keeping a close eye on it. The place that it is in my uterus has no effect on the baby or the growth of the baby so that is a blessing!! I have gained 13 pounds so far and he says I am right on track for pregnancy weight gain. I am definitely showing these days and people are starting to say "wow you have popped out all of sudden." Even strangers are starting to ask oh when are you due?, what are you having? etc, etc. I also have had the urge to clean. This weekend I actually cleaned the house including deep cleaning like dusting all the shutters and scrubbing the stove and mopping the floors. Todd had asked what had gotten into me. haha. I like my house to be picked up but I am not much of a deep cleaner but lately I am wanting the house to be nice and clean, plus it just makes you feel better when your house is all clean. We should be receiving our chair table and lamp for the nursery in the next week or so. I cannot wait to see it come together. We have the crib and the dresser in the room and Todd finally finished painting it. The bedding is ordered and it should arrive around mid-end of June. I am so excited about Mary Kathryn's bedding. Whenever I show it to anybody, they are like oh that looks just like you. Its so true, it definitely looks just like me and Todd. We have a very traditional and classic taste. We wanted the nursery to be girlie but classic and have furniture that she could keep forever. I think we have accomplished that. Don't worry I will post pictures as soon as it is all finished. We still have a few projects we want to do in there as well. I am so ready for it to all come together. I have a feeling these next 3 months are going to fly by. Its so hard to believe I am already 6 months along and baby girl is moving all the time.

18 weeks

Today I am 18 weeks pregnant. WOW!! I can't believe in 2 more weeks I will be halfway through my pregnancy. That is just crazy to me. These last couple of weeks have certainly flown by. So far I am still feeling great. I have not had any bad pregnancy symptoms lately. My face is finally clearing up and my baby bump is definitely there. I am not sure how much weight I have gained since my last appointment. We will see what the doctor says next week. My only real craving has been anything spicy. Yes, I know I sound like a crazy person but so far I haven't had any heartburn and I want everything to be spicy. I also want to put jalapenos on everything. I have always loved spicy food but now I love it even more. I might regret this in the near future if I do start having heartburn. This past weekend was my brothers wedding and we had a blast. Details to come soon on that after I download all my pictures. I enjoyed seeing all of our friends and family and so glad that my family was able to see my while I am pregnant since most of them live out of state. I am so ready to find out what little baby stracener is, I can hardly stand it. 6 days and counting. My mom sent me an email today to look at the website best dressed child, which I have looked at before and love. She said how broke she was going to be when this baby comes and I agree. I will be just as broke. How can you not love sweet baby clothes!!! They are so cute!!! I am not sure if I have felt the baby move or not. Sometimes I feel like oh baby that is the baby moving but other times I am just not so sure. When I laid on my stomach the other day something definitely adjusted in my belly. I was like oops I guess I shouldn't have done that. I am sleeping really good lately, which is nice. It seemed like early on in my pregnancy I would toss and turn a lot so I am enjoying my sleep while I can and while I can get comfortable. I hope to update a little more often on the pregnancy as I want this to look back on. I am also so excited that so many of my friends are pregnant as well. It is so much fun to share this journey. My best friend just found out yesterday she is having a baby girl and I am over the moon for her. I was on pins and needles all day yesterday waiting for her to call. I can't wait until our babies get here and they can meet. :)

My 18 week picture. Not the most glamorous picture but the hubby just left to go to church choir practice. Plus its hard to take a self portrait. (haha)

Maryland comes to TX again :)

September in D.C.....the last time I saw Tracy.

Today I am headed to go pick up my best friend Tracy from the airport. She is flying in from Baltimore for her second trip to Texas!! I haven't seen her since September and I am looking forward to having a fun girls weekend. We plan on doing lots of gossiping, shopping, and hanging out and of course baby shopping! Baby Stracener is also excited to see her. I have been looking forward to this weekend for a long time and I am so glad its finally here. We will be headed to Kemah tonight to enjoy some good seafood and people watching. :) Now if only I could find something to wear that doesn't make me look large and in charge. haha. Thankfully she is bringing me her maternity clothes so hopefully I won't have to spend so much money on buying stuff I will only be wearing for a little bit. Its getting harder and harder to find things to wear especially because I am in the in-between stage. My clothes are getting too small and maternity clothes are too big. AHHH the joys of pregnancy. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

The last time she was in Texas :)

I added a poll to right side of blog to see what you think Baby S will be. I am interested to see what you think. Of course Todd and I think opposite but we will know for sure on April 18th. I can't wait!!!