Entering the Home Stretch

I can’t figure out if my belly looks like it dropped in this picture or its the stripes of my shirt throwing off the visual.

As of today, the maximum amount of time I have left carrying this little baby is ten weeks, and I hit full-term in just six weeks. I already feel like those are such small windows of time, but I think they will go even more quickly because the holidays will be in full swing as of tomorrow! Pregnancy is still going fairly smoothly. I have trouble sleeping sometimes because my back or hips ache and I have to constantly flip to my other side. But there are other nights where there is no pain at all, either way I still get up about four times to use the bathroom. My back hurts the most when I sit on our couch, I think because it’s too soft and doesn’t provide enough support for me. I often ended up sitting on the floor. That is until I found this super awesome wearable heat pad.  I warm up the included pack in the microwave and it makes my back feel so much better! I had my glucose test last week and no gestational diabetes here! I was a little nervous. The stretch marks have come in full force, I guess there really is no escaping them. I have two patches of multiple marks on either side of my lower belly, they seem to be low enough to be hidden by my pantline.  Either way I keep hydrating with my oils and creams so hopefully they wont become really severe.  With my preparation time dwindling, my to-do list this weekend involves getting my hospital bag together. I made this list of things I think I may want/need:

chapstick

warm robe

slippers

(3) warm socks

(3) undies

My coming home outfit

premie size baby outfit

newborn size baby outfit

baby beanie

Nikon camera & bag

extra batteries + charger

(2) phone chargers

pads

face wash

face lotion

shampoo, conditioner

hairbrush & hair bands

body soap

lotion

toothbrush

toothpaste

makeup remover wipes

makeup bag with essentials

Any input on things I might be missing? 

This past weekend Michael and I put some more decorative touches on the nursery. It looks done, but I am honest enough with myself to know that no room is ever done being decorated in my house! I have a lot of ideas I’ve been toying with in my head; for now I’ll call it functionally finished and ready for occupancy.

I am thinking about removing the slender door that you can see next to the hippo. Behind that door are some deep built in shelves. I think they would look great exposed with colored baskets for organizing blankies, clothes, books, anything really! I’d also like to get this breathable crib liner.

I also want to put some small book ledges above the glider for easy access to bedtime stories. I love these from Ikea, I have seen them used a lot for books in kid’s rooms although they are made for spices. We just need to make the hour long trip to Ikea to pick some up. Luckily there are some amazing taco trucks that operate right across from Ikea that make the trip totally worthwhile.

We spent all day Saturday making the star baby mobile together. The majority of time was spent painting multiple coats of paint and glitter on each star. After that, the assembly was fairly quick. We used a wooden embroidery hoop (two pieces) and wooden stars from Michaels. Each star is hung with a stretchy jewelry cord instead of fishing line. I was worried we wouldn’t be able to get the kinks out of fishing line since the stars are fairly light and the line wouldn’t really stretch out straight. I plan on tying purple tulle all the way around the embroidery hoop, I got too anxious to hang it up but I think it would look better with full tulle coverage.

Here is a little closeup of the Maddie portrait I talked about months ago. I finished it a long time ago and never posted a picture of it! I love the colors, it’s one of my favorite things in the room.

Here are my stats for this week:

How far along? 31 weeks
How big is baby?  A coconut! 16-18 inches long, weighing in at over 3 pounds
Miss Anything? The ability to zip up sweaters/jackets. Wearing normal clothes.
Sleep: Hit or miss, having to drink water throughout the night or I feel like I’m dying of thirst
Movement: Super strong kicks and punches, she seems to be on a regular sleep/wake schedule
Food cravings: Fresh fruit and yogurt (mixed together)
Anything making you queasy or sick: The smell of garlicky tomato sauce when washing the dishes from dinner.
Gender: Girl!
Labor Signs: Had my first non-exercise induced Braxton Hicks, kinda freaked me out
Symptoms: Severe heartburn
Belly Button in or out? I miss my old belly button. This one is looking really strained, it’s also lopsided.
Wedding rings on or off? On
Mood: Happy! Really giggly still, don’t know if I’ll ever be the same…
Looking forward to:  Still awaiting baby’s best friend to be born! Her due date is tomorrow.
Upcoming appointments/events: 32 week checkup next week

We’re Back! With a Polka Dot Closet

We arrived home from California on Tuesday, the 13th, and after a brief battle with a cold and flu for the both of us we’re finally feeling back on track. During our vacation we were able to see the majority of both sides of extended family which is so rare for us with limited trips home, tight schedules, and relatives dotted throughout the golden state. Thanks to my sister’s wedding I was able to see many aunts, uncles, cousins, and family friends; some of whom I hadn’t seen in years! We also were lucky enough to spend time with Michael’s immediate and extended family and see our nieces who are growing up so quickly. On the last day of our trip we were able to squeeze in a day with some old friends, too. It was probably the most successful trip home we’ve had in terms of faces seen. Thanks to Michael’s brother lending us his pickup truck we were able to travel between Sebastapol (wine country), Monterey (central coast), Gilroy and Walnut Creek (SF Bay Area) throughout the course of a week.

My Family (minus one): Me, Dad, sister Nicole, Mom, brother Mario

Friends who made the trip all the way to Monterey! LeeAnn, Me, Michael (husband), Ashley, Michael C.

As I mentioned earlier, after our California trip I wanted to get into full-fledge baby mode. We buttoned up our registry before the trip and now that we are back it’s nursery time! The purchase of our first house gave me the opportunity to discover my personal decorating style which involved a lot of returns to Home Goods and gawking on Pinterest. Now that I am better at making a cohesive looking space, coming up with a nursery design has been much less of a guessing game and way more exciting! In no way does this mean that I have abandoned Pinterest. I am still majorly addicted to pinning DIY projects and ingenious thrift store hacks.

Most recently I found a tutorial for DIY polka dot curtains via Remodelaholic that I absolutely loved. But after having nightmarish visions of a curious baby/toddler pulling down the curtains and thus being smacked in the head with a curtain rod I decided against adding long, beautiful curtains to the baby room design. Before we left for CA I cleaned out the nursery closet which was quite literally filled to the brim with Michael’s military uniforms, no seriously the french-style closet doors would bust open on their own because that thing was so packed. After hauling out SDB’s, khakis, mess dress and luggage, I was faced with the interior of a very tired looking closet covered in black scuff marks. I thought about getting taking a magic eraser to it, then thought to give it a fresh coat of white paint; but THEN I thought, if I’m going to take the time to make the closet look clean why not really make it pop? With POLKA DOTS! This brings us back to the tutorial at Remodelaholic. The genius behind that blog post, Cassity, used a cup as a stencil for her dots and created a “confetti” look by placing the bottom dots densely and gradually spacing them out as the eye moves up.

The main color of our baby girl’s room is purple and luckily we had two shades of purple leftover from painting our main bathroom and shower room. I used the lighter shade of purple for the background and the dark purple for each dot. Again referencing the polka dot curtain tutorial I used a cup as a stencil for each dot, but I chose to use the top rim of the cup (drinking part) versus the bottom of the cup as seen on Remodelaholic. You can see the stencil the cup rim creates below.

I felt the top part of the cup created a more clean looking stencil than using the bottom of the cup. After lightly dipping the cup in paint (I did it straight into the paint can but you can also pour a bit into a paper plate), gently and evenly press it onto the wall. Make sure you don’t get too much paint onto the cup to prevent globs or drips and an uneven stencil. I could get about three dots with one dip of paint before ending up with a partial circle due to lack of paint. After stenciling I simply filled in the circle with a small paintbrush.

Below you can see the small amount of paint covering the cup’s rim and a filled in stenciled circle.

I started out doing an evenly spaced out polka dot design, but Michael liked the idea of having the dots more dense on the bottom and spaced out towards the top, so that’s what we went with! You can see my progress below.

And the finished product!

Maddie was feeling really generous today and helped out by taking a nap in the closet while the first coat of light purple paint was drying. She left her personal signature on the room in the form of tiny black hairs stuck on the wall.

There is so much more going on with the baby room and I’ll follow up soon with detailed posts! As for my pregnancy things are still going smoothly. Here’s a quick rundown on my stats for the week.

How far along? 21 weeks
How big is baby? 10.5 inches long from head to toe, about the size of a big carrot.
Total weight gain/loss: +11 pounds, yikes!
Maternity clothes? I bought my first pair of maternity jeans and HATE them, I’ll continue with the rubberband + belly band trick. Did get a maternity shirt & leggings that are awesome though!
Sleep: Still waking up at 5:30am every morning, sleeping better unless my back starts aching.
Best moment this week: Feeling baby’s kicks get stronger and more frequent.
Movement: Sometimes it feels like there is a baby ninja in my belly.
Food cravings: Cherry Crisp or Strawberry Tart, so I guess craving tart & sweet things!
Food Aversions: None this week!
Gender: GIRL
Labor Signs: None
Pregnancy Symptoms: Been sleepy again this week, but I am attributing it to my body fighting a cold in addition to building a human.
Belly Button in or out: In
What I miss: Sad that I couldn’t go ride roller coasters with Michael at Six Flags.
What I am looking forward to: Completing the baby’s room!
Upcoming appointments/events: 8/27: 22 week checkup, 8/29: echocardiogram