I have been meaning and wanting to write this post for weeks now, but I haven’t actually had time to sit down and write it until just now! Baby girl is sleeping peacefully in her nap nanny (which she loves—worth every penny!), so I’m taking advantage! I guess what I want to write about is more of a “things I learned” as well as a “things I wish someone would have told me” post on both the pregnancy and birth. I have quite a few friends who are pregnant now, and I know that when I was still pregnant I would have loved to have read something like this from someone who had just been through it, so hopefully it is helpful… and of course I guess I better add a disclaimer that I do realize everyone’s pregnancy/birth is different, but these are things I learned during mine!

Pregnancy

• Take advantage of people (husbands, parents, friends, strangers, whoever) waiting on you hand and foot. A friend of mine told me that after she had her baby, she was like “d*mn, I have to get up and get my own water now?!”. It is true… so when people say “oh you’re pregnant, let me get that for you”, let them. After all, it won’t last forever, so why not enjoy it?!
• Do what you think is best…not what everyone (and trust, everyone has an opinion) else tells you is ok. I briefly blogged about this during my pregnancy in a “things not to say to a pregnant woman” post, but it seems that everyone has their own opinions about what you should and shouldn’t do while pregnant. Here is the truth about me: during my pregnancy, I drank plenty of caffeine and diet sodas, occasionally ate (raw) sushi, ate (gasp!) cold lunch meat quite a few times (because who likes warm lunch meat? Gross!), drank wine (when it didn’t give me uncontrollable heartburn), ate plenty of hot dogs….I could go on and on. And guess what? Baby girl is 100% healthy and perfect, and so was I during my pregnancy. Throughout my whole pregnancy, I tried to keep in mind that back when our moms were pregnant with us and for the hundreds of years before that, none of these “rules” existed, and they ate and drank whatever they wanted…and we all turned out just fine. So, I never went overboard (all things in moderation), but I did not completely deprive myself of the things I loved!
• Rest while you can. This kind of goes along with the first one, but seriously… sleep will not be the same after the baby comes. So any chance you get to nap, sleep in, etc—take it.
• Relax. You will learn as you go. Now, I’ve said it before, but I am 100% not a worrier, so I didn’t have much trouble doing this, but I will admit that there were times when I thought, “holy crap, I have no idea what to do with a baby”! Guess what? No one does, at first. You learn as you go. So during those last few weeks of pregnancy, don’t let that be something you worry about. You will figure it out, just like everyone else does… and it doesn’t take long before you feel like a pro. ;)

Birth

• Trust your doctor. There is a reason that you chose him or her to be your doctor… so trust that they know best. I trusted my doctor so much that when he said he didn’t like the way my fluids looked and that he thought we should deliver that day, I never had a second thought. He made me feel so comfortable that I wasn’t even the least bit scared when he told me that the cord was wrapped around her neck—I trusted that he would do everything in his power to ensure a safe delivery.
• EPIDURAL. Really, enough said. I have an admittedly extremely low pain tolerance, so this was really never even a question for me, but seriously. It was the best decision I could have made. I enjoyed every second of my labor and delivery, and I do not think that would have been the case at all without my friend, the epidural.
• Don’t be afraid to tell the nurse/doctor if you are still feeling pain. After I got the epidural, I was still in quite a bit of discomfort, and I was a little bit nervous to tell the nurse that I was still in pain…I thought that maybe I was just even more of a wuss than I originally thought and that the amount of pain I was feeling was normal, even after the epidural. I finally spoke up, and the nurse told me that I should not be feeling that much pain at that point, and she bumped up the pain meds… and it was smooth sailing from there on out. Thank goodness I said something!
• Be prepared for the bleeding. I mean a LOT of blood. Sorry to any boys who may be reading, because this may be TMI—but I’m serious, y’all. No one told me how much bleeding there would be after the birth… and it lasts for weeks after the birth, not just for a few days. The doctor told me to expect the bleeding for 4-6 weeks afterwards and I was shocked!
• The pain doesn’t end after the birth. This is perhaps the thing I was the least prepared for…the pain afterwards. After Hadley was born, the nurse came in about every 30 minutes to an hour and pressed (hard) on my stomach to (again, sorry if it’s TMI) push out any additional fluid/blood/I’m not sure what else. It hurt one million times worse than the actual delivery did. Every time they would push on my stomach, the nurses would apologize…and I had to do everything I could to hold back the tears, it really did hurt THAT bad. The good news is, they didn’t have to do it too many times…probably 10 or less, but still. I just really was not prepared for that. And after that part was over—the pain was still not over. I did have to have an episiotomy, so I expected to be a little bit sore for a few days, but I don’t think I was quite prepared for exactly how sore I would be and how much I really had to take it easy for the days following the delivery. I would say it was probably a full two weeks before I could sit down/get up without a decent amount of pain. It was nothing excruciating, but it was definitely more than I expected. Obviously, I had a natural (vaginal) delivery, so I can’t speak for a c-section, but I can imagine that the pain level after that is much worse!
• Enjoy every minute. The birth experience for me was all very surreal—and it went by SO fast! Sometimes I still can’t believe that I did it… and not only did I do it, it all felt so easy! I know that I was very blessed to have such a smooth, fast labor and delivery, but I will say that any nervousness/anxiety I felt about the whole labor and delivery process was way worse than the real thing. It was one of the best experiences of my whole life!

That is all I can think of for now, though I know I will probably think of 10 more things I should have added once I post this. I hope this is somewhat helpful for those who may be reading and are currently pregnant or may be soon—like I said, I would have loved for someone to tell me all this before I went through it all! Seriously, though, my first pregnancy and birth experience was inexplicably amazing—and I can’t wait to do it all again… not quite yet, though! ;)

-S

Before we even found out we were expecting, Jon had an idea of a fun way to document the bump growth throughout the pregnancy. His idea was to take a picture of me each week wearing the same thing and standing in the same place in the nursery (formerly the office), so that we could see my growth as well as the transformation of the office to the nursery as the weeks went by. I am SO glad he had this idea and even more glad that we stuck to it and took the pictures each week… I will admit that we missed a couple of weeks at the beginning, when we were on vacation or it just slipped our minds, but at that point I wasn’t showing anyway so there wouldn’t have been much to see. ;)

My husband has become quite the iMovie expert, and I am thrilled with the way the video turned out! I love to look through these pictures and to see what we had going on that week…you can see when we moved the furniture out of the office, when we painted, when we had our baby showers, when we touched up the paint, when we finally got our nursery furniture, etc. It is hard to believe that the pregnancy is over now, it seems like it FLEW by!

Without further ado… here is the video. Huge thanks to the hubby for working so hard on it. Enjoy! :)

-S

It is surreal. Today was my last official day of work….until July. I have been planning my maternity leave for months, and it has just seemed so far away—but it is HERE. Getting up and getting ready this morning I just couldn’t believe that this was my last day…which means that Hadley will be here any time now. Of course I have known that she could be here any day now, but for some reason it really hit me today!

As far as last days at work go, today couldn’t have been any better. A couple of weeks ago, we had our “official” BDO Christmas party at Raleigh Country Club…which was really nice (and really fun), but today in the office we had our 2nd annual tacky sweater party and “dirty santa” gift exchange. There were some QUALITY outfits (think long denim jumpers and tons of Christmas sweaters with fur, bells, arks (don’t ask, hahahaha) and the like. And the gift exchange—was hilarious. Instead of doing a dollar limit on the gift, the rule was that you had to bring something that you already had at your house. Where some people got some of that stuff, I have no idea… but it was quite hilarious. It is days like today that make me realize how lucky I am to work at such a great place… the people at BDO are really not just coworkers, they are family!

I am really going to miss everyone while I’m out…but I will be back at least for 2 months starting the week after July, and I’m sure I will have to meet people for lunches, etc. while I’m out in order to stay up on all the latest news! :) Anyway, I am just feeling very blessed that I am able to take such a long leave with our baby girl. While I will miss everyone at work, I am so looking forward to all the time I will get to be at home with her. So, let the bon-bon eating and soap opera watching begin! (Kidding….or am I?!)

That’s all for now, we’re about to sit down for dinner with my parents… so excited for a fun weekend filled with family and early Christmas celebrations. And I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again…this would be a great time to come, Miss Hadley Jo! ;) Hope everyone has a great weekend!

-S

Seriously. It is NO JOKE. I have read about nesting in tons of pregnancy emails, seen it on tv, you name it… but I guess I kind of just shrugged it off and thought it was just one of those funny pregnancy “symptoms” that people tend to exaggerate. Wrong. As we are just about 2 weeks from the due date, the nesting instinct has more than set in with me, and to be honest, it is really all I can think about when I am home!

I think that most of this spawned from the pre-labor scare I had on Friday… seriously, if that would have been the real thing, I would have been mortified for people to come to our house with it in the shape it was in. Jon says I was totally overreacting and that it was clean, but there were pine needles EVERYWHERE from our Christmas tree, not to mention a coat of Ralph’s dog hair pretty much everywhere downstairs. Anyway, I guess our little scare lit a fire under me, so here are just a few examples of my (admittedly) ridiculous nesting behavior from the last week:

• I physically cannot let myself sit down without at least the downstairs being clean. I have vacuumed every day this week when I have gotten home. When Jon came home last night, he said “did you seriously vacuum AGAIN?!” Whatever. It is just hard for me to feel like things are clean with us having a dog that is still shedding like it is July!
• I have washed all of the comforters, rugs, shower curtains, etc. (things that don’t get washed regularly) in our house.
• Friday night, we did not get home until almost 1 a.m. from the tacky Christmas party at the Lemire’s…but I could not let myself go to bed until I had started the laundry, which consisted of the last few baby things I had left to wash…why it couldn’t wait until Saturday, I really don’t know, but I HAD to do it then.
• Saturday night, I could NOT go to sleep even after staying up until 12:30 a.m., because as soon as I got into bed I realized that I had not dusted the blinds before we hung up the curtains in the nursery (last week). I had to sit there and talk myself out of getting up to dust them right then! I still have not done it, by the way…but it is on my to-do list.
• I have plans to make two different types of soup as well as baked spaghetti this week just to freeze for us to have to eat after the baby comes.
• Yesterday, as soon as I walked in the door from work, I cleaned out and organized the pantry, refrigerator and freezer for the first time in ages.
• Things like dusting the window sills and baseboards are on my mind and I am feeling like even though I try to do both once a month, I HAVE to do this again before the baby comes. I guess because she will really care about dust on the base boards?!

Those are only a few examples that I have thought of off the top of my head—but I’m sure Jon could give 20 more. Every time I mention something that I would like to get done, he just sighs. He is trying his best not to tell me that I am crazy, but I know he is thinking it. Am I crazy? Probably. But will I feel a lot better if I get all of these things done before Hadley arrives? YES! I realize that if everything does not get done, it will not be the end of the world…but I am telling you, it is like a switch has flipped in my brain and I really do feel like it COULD be the end of the world if it doesn’t.

I did some googling just to make sure I really am not 100% batty, and it turns out this is completely normal… Per Parenting Weekly:

Around the fifth month of pregnancy, the “nesting” instinct can set in. This is an uncontrollable urge to clean one’s house brought on by a desire to prepare a nest for the new baby, to tie up loose ends of old projects and to organize your world.

Females of the animal kingdom are all equipped with this same need. It is a primal instinct. Just as you see birds making their nests, mothers-to-be do exactly the same thing. The act of nesting puts you in control and gives a sense of accomplishment toward birth. You may become a homebody and want to retreat into the comfort of home and familiar company, like a brooding hen. The nesting urge can also be seen as a sign of the onset of labor when it occurs close to 40 weeks of pregnancy.

So, maybe this is just a sign of the onset of labor? Haha, I can hope! On that note, I’m off to make some baked spaghetti for us to freeze for later. ;) Hope everyone has a great night!

-S

CHRISTMAS! It is unbelievable to me that Christmas is two weeks from today. Throughout the whole pregnancy, we have related Christmas to the baby’s arrival—and now it is only two weeks away, and only 19 days from our due date. I briefly debated not “fully” decorating the house for Christmas this year just because of everything that will be going on and the fact that when it comes time to un-decorate, we will have a brand new baby in the house and will likely be sleep deprived, tired, etc….but I just couldn’t do it. It remains to be seen whether Hadley will grace us with her presence before Christmas or not (I’m still holding out hope!), but either way, this is sure to be one of our most memorable Christmases ever as a family!

We started our decorating last weekend, and finished it up earlier this week…however, I wanted to get the house cleaned before taking pictures of everything.  I have been in full-on “nesting mode” this weekend (more to come on that later this week), and the house is just now finally up to my standards (though somehow I keep finding pine needles in the most RANDOM places…the joys of having a real tree). Anyway, I thought I would share just a few pictures of this year’s Christmas decorations! Tis the season!

Dining room:

Mantle:

And of course a new stocking this year!

The tree (and all but 3 presents that I have left to wrap!):

Our NC State tree upstairs:

And finally, the outside, which I will admit that I did not help with at all (thanks, Jon!):

I love Christmastime. Now, listen up, Hadley: your stocking is ready for you… you can come any time now! :)

Happy Holidays!

-S

Hey friends—sorry I was MIA yesterday, but it was quite the eventful day! I woke up and went to work in the office, and around 9:30 I started feeling a little crampy.  At first I was sure it was nothing, it wasn’t painful or anything, just a little uncomfortable. The best way I can describe it is (sorry if it’s TMI) a cross between needing to use the bathroom (but I knew I didn’t) and period cramps. I talked to Sarah about it and she said what I was thinking, but really wasn’t sure—that it could be contractions! She suggested that I started timing them, so I did… and turns out they were happening around every 7-10 minutes. Again, they weren’t painful, so I was still convinced it was nothing, so I just tried not to think much about it.

But, they kept on and I promised, after much coercing from Jon and Sarah (I did not want to be that person who called even though it was nothing), that IF they were still happening at 12:00 I would call the doctor. They were, so I called and had to leave a message with the nurse. She called me back around 1:30 and after hearing my symptoms, she said it definitely sounded like contractions, but that unless they were coming 5 minutes apart and were getting a lot stronger, I probably didn’t need to come straight in. She told me to leave work, go home and lie down on my left side and to keep timing them and to see if they slowed down or stopped once I laid down. She said they did want me to come in the next morning though, so I made an appointment for 10:00…she just said to call back if they got any stronger and I could come in before that. So, I headed home and did as she said—and they did not stop, but they did slow down, to maybe only every 20-30 minutes instead, and not quite as strong as they were feeling in the hospital. At this point I was convinced that it had to just be Braxton Hicks, just stronger ones that I had felt up to that point… but I really didn’t know. I really thought that I would just KNOW when it was real contractions and not a false alarm, but I really had no idea! I will note that Jon was in freak-out mode during all this, I’m pretty sure he called/texted me at least 3 times per hour once he knew what was going on… I told him to calm down and that he would be the first person I told if anything changed! It was cute though, he was so excited just at the thought that something MIGHT be happening.

One thing I forgot to mention was that my work baby shower was scheduled for yesterday afternoon… so when I went home to lie down I told Sarah that I would just keep her posted, but the shower was at my favorite—Dos Taquitos—and I had seriously been craving their cheese dip and guacamole ALL week, so it would take a LOT for me to miss it.  Since the contractions slowed down and I was really feeling fine, just a little weird, I headed on to the shower. The shower was awesome, and my coworkers were SO generous and thoughtful! I wish I would have taken my camera so that I could have gotten some pictures of the whole group, but just with everything else going on I forgot to grab it on my way out the door. I did take 2 pictures with my phone, one of the cute (and delish) cupcakes from Cupcake Shoppe and one of the awesome diaper cake made by our office manager, Gloria!

At the shower, our coworkers gave us the sweetest card which they all signed (I finally read everything that everyone wrote today and cried—hormones!), the adapter which allows our car seat to hook onto our stroller (the last thing that we really needed!), a humidifier, and a gift card to Buy Buy Baby for us to use to get anything else that we needed. The big surprise came last—they handed me an envelope and said this was the last part of our present…I had no idea what it could be! I opened it to find a gift certificate for us to have not one, not two, but THREE photography sessions (called the “Baby’s First Year” package) with a local photographer, Becca Robinson, to be used for Hadley’s newborn, 6 month and 1 year photos, or whenever we would like to do them. Amazing, right?! Sarah and I had run across this photographer’s work randomly one week when she had a Living Social deal, and saw that she offered that package…but we had really just talked about it in passing. It was just pretty pricey, and with the whole me staying home with the baby thing, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to justify the cost, so I just figured Jon and I would talk about it later and decide if we could afford it. Anyway, long story short, it was an amazing surprise and I am SO grateful to all of my coworkers (FRIENDS!) for their generosity—they are seriously the best, ever. Thank you so much everyone!! As we were leaving, Jon said to me, ”I really wish there was some way I could work for BDO,” lol. Too bad we don’t need any civil engineers at our public accounting firm. ;) 

The cramps (contractions, I assumed) continued through the shower and for the rest of the night, but they were not nearly as regular or strong, so I figured it must have just been a false alarm. However, it did freak me out enough that when Jon and I got home from the shower, we did finally pack our bags for the hospital and put the carseat in the car (didn’t install it yet—that is on the to-do list for this weekend), JUST in case. If somehow yesterday would have been the real thing, we were so unprepared—we literally had nothing done. Not to mention the house was a WRECK, so after we packed our hospital bags we cleaned…and now I feel SO much better. :)

Last night was pretty uneventful, though I really didn’t sleep well because every time I had to get up to go to the bathroom, it took me a really long time to go back to sleep because I was still feeling some cramps. So, I went in to the doctor, as planned, at 10:00 this morning, and when I got there, I KNEW I was going to be there for a while—the waiting room was PACKED. I always have to wait for at least a little while, which I guess is understandable since Dr. Brannon is the only doctor in the practice, but today it was even more crowded than normal. I finally got called back around 11:00, and they hooked me up to the fetal monitor to monitor the baby’s heartbeat as well as any contractions. Before they did, I told the nurse that I really hoped I was not there for nothing but that I just wasn’t sure if it was contractions… she assured me that it was fine either way and that no one really knows what to expect with their first.  So, I laid on the table hooked to the machine for a little over 30 minutes, and the nurse told me that the top line of the graph that was printing was the baby’s heart beat, and the bottom line would fluctuate any time I had a contraction. The top line stayed pretty steady anywhere between 150 and 160 bpm, and the bottom line stayed pretty steady for the first few minutes, then all of the sudden I saw it go way up, then back down again after a few seconds. I saw 3 big jumps on the monitor plus one smaller jump in the 30 minutes I was hooked up, but I still wasn’t sure what that really meant.

After they unhooked me from the fetal monitor, they moved me across the hall to the ultrasound room. Dr. Brannnon came in and took a look at the printout from the fetal monitor and told me that I was not, in fact, crazy, that it was contractions I was feeling, but they weren’t strong enough yet to be considered “active labor”. He did an ultrasound and said that everything looked great, that my fluid looked good and the best news—the baby was head down! I asked him how I would know when/if she “drops”, and he said that she was already in position! I had no idea, I really don’t feel like she is any lower now than she has been, though I guess I should have known by the fact that I am having to go to the bathroom about every 20 minutes now instead of 30 (ok that might be a small exaggeration, but it doesn’t feel like it), which likely means that she is situated on my bladder. Anyway, Dr. Brannon said that I am definitely getting closer, but that I could have this type of contractions for weeks before “active labor” actually begins—or it could progress really quickly and I could have her any time. (Of course I was thinking, “Well, thanks a lot for that, that tells me nothing!”) He asked me when my next appointment was scheduled for, and I told him Monday… and he said he wanted to keep that appointment but to call if anything changed between now and then. He did not “check me” to see if I am dilated or effaced today, but I am assuming that is what Monday’s appointment will be. As I was leaving, he said “See you Monday, if not before!”. I kind of gasped and said “oh my, do you think it will be before?!?!”. He said he didn’t think so, but that things could change very quickly so you never know… ahhh!

Long story short, I am glad I went to the doctor and at least found out that I am not crazy, I am actually having some sort of pre-labor signs/symptoms. I am a little relieved that it is not quite time yet, as I have a “to-do” list about a whole page long of things for us to do related to both the baby and our Christmas shopping… so we will be doing as much of that this weekend as possible. However, Sarah did google and found out that there is a full moon tomorrow, which has been known to send people into labor…so we shall see! :) Regardless, the last 24 hours’ events have made both Jon and I realize that it could happen at any time…but I know she will come when she’s ready! I just can’t wait to meet her. :)

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

-S

I could not decide whether to blog about the nursery as we made progress, or whether to wait until it was completely finished to share all the details. So, what I have done is waited until it is 99% finished! There are only a few things left to do/add, and none of them are a big deal, so I couldn’t wait to share!

I suppose I will start from the beginning, but I don’t want to make this TOO boring, so I will try to make this as brief as possible.  When we first found out we were having a girl, if you would have told me that her nursery would be PINK, I would have laughed in your face. A lot. Those who know me well know that my favorite color is red, so naturally, I assumed that we would incorporate some red in the nursery colors, which I was very excited about. HOWEVER, when we started looking at nursery bedding, I quickly found that there are almost no nursery bedding sets for girls with red in them. In fact, I really only found one (from Pottery Barn Kids) that had red in it, but Jon hated it…so that one was out. I kept looking, at every store I could possibly think of, but I found nothing! I felt so defeated. So, I went on to the next option, which was having custom crib bedding made. Now, I’m not sure how many of you have looked at or purchased custom bedding, but there is sooooo much to decide: the fabric for the outside of the bumper, inside of the bumper, crib sheet, crib skirt, curtains, etc. etc. etc.! Problem: interior design is definitely not my strong point. Hello, I’m an accountant. I quickly got overwhelmed and decided that the headache that all of those decisions would cause was just NOT worth it. So, what the heck were we going to do?!

Enter my fabulous sister-in-law, Kelley. Right around the time that I was pandering over what to do about the crib bedding, I got a phone call from her. She told me that they were about to buy a “big-girl bed” for my niece, Mary, and she asked if I would be interested in having their crib bedding that they used for Mary.  She had it custom-made when they found out they were having a girl (after having 3 boys!), and I loved the bedding… it is feminine without being too girly, and most importantly, it was not themed. That’s right, much to my Mom’s dismay, there would be no theme for this nursery—just not my thing. But, I digress. Like I said, Kelley so generously offered to give us the crib bedding, and I graciously accepted! I was so excited to have the decision made and to be able to start making other decisions for the nursery—what color to paint, accessories to buy, etc. Remember, we had already purchased our nursery furniture back in July, so at least the “big stuff” was covered. 

When it came time to decide what color to paint, of course we started with the colors of the crib bedding: it is mostly green, with accents in light pink, bright pink, and ivory.  Painting green would have been too much green, while painting ivory just seemed so boring! So, I was faced with my worst nightmare (ok, maybe not my worst nightmare, but it was definitely something that I thought I would never do!)…it looked like we would be painting the nursery pink. We ended up going with the lightest pink that we could find at Lowe’s, called “Pink Whisper”, and I actually love the way it turned out, especially once we got everything moved into the room and saw it all come together.

I could go on and on about all of our decision making throughout the whole decorating process, but I won’t bore you…so without further ado, here are pictures (and details) of our sweetie’s (almost) finished nursery!

View from the hallway looking in:

1. 5-opening frame: From Pottery Barn Kids. Can’t wait to fill it up with pictures of Hadley!

2. Changing table (and all furniture): Legacy Classic Kids. I love this stuff. I will note that every single drawer of the changing table and chest is full already… on top of her closet already being full! Whoever said babies don’t take up much room was LYING!

3. Diaper changing caddy: From Land of Nod

4. Window panels: From Pottery Barn Kids, with custom trim added

5. Butterfly mobile: From Pottery Barn Kids, no longer in stock…Jon saw this in store and decided we HAD to have it!

6. Crocheted blanket: Made by my Mom to match the crib bedding. Beautiful, isn’t it?

7. Glider: Dutalier, purchased at Babies R Us. This thing reclines to almost laying down, locks in place, and is unbelievably comfortable! There will soon be a monogrammed pillow in the glider that matches the curtains, but it is not quite ready yet. :)

8. Lamp: From Pottery Barn Kids. I am considering adding some trim matching the trim on the curtains to the lamp shade to spice it up a little.

9. Thumbprint tree: This was what the guests at our Raleigh baby shower all signed for us. It was made by my amazingly talented friend, Moneque. It still needs to be hung up on the wall…that is on our to-do list this weekend! 

10. Twilight Turtle: Made by Cloud B. We registered for this thing and it is awesome!

11. Trash can: From Pottery Barn Kids, personalized with her name on it!

12. Wood Letters: From Etsy. The girl that made these was AMAZING. I sent her pictures of the bedding, and she designed the letters to coordinate. I could not be more pleased with these! See picture below for the detail.

13. Bedding: Custom, gifted to us by my sister-in-law. See pictures below to see close-ups!

14. Carriage Lamp: From Pottery Barn Kids, given to us by Jon’s mom and used as a centerpiece at our Concord baby shower.

15. Avett Brothers “Love that Let Us Share Our Name” Print: From Etsy. This is a print of some of the lyrics from one of our all-time favorite Avett Brothers songs, “Murder in the City”, and we thought it was perfect for the nursery.

Whew. I think that just about covers everything. I really am thrilled at the way that it has all come together, despite my reservations of my interior designing abilities. Now all we need is for this sweet baby girl to grace us with her presence…which you can do any time now, Hadley! :)

-S

Already time for another weekly update, crazy! Don’t have a whole lot to update from this week that I haven’t already talked about, so this one will be short and sweet. :)

We went to the doctor this morning for my 36 week appointment, and all is well! Dr. Brannon did the GBS test (which was much less invasive than I anticipated), listened to her heartbeat (158 and strong as always!) and as usual, asked us if we had any questions. I told him that the only one I could think of was what his holiday schedule was looking like, since I am due on the 30th and she could obviously come any time around Christmas or New Year’s. He promptly told me that he had a 6 week vacation planned, leaving the week before Christmas and not coming back until the middle of February. I laughed and told him he BETTER be joking, and of course he was. He told me that he is on call every weekend from now until the due date except for this coming weekend, and that he is on call for both Christmas and New Year’s and has no plans for leaving town. He told me that he delivers about 97% of his babies and he “does not like other doctors delivering his babies”, so he said that he will be delivering unless something crazy happens and for me not to worry about that. I am so glad and relieved to hear that because I love Dr. Brannon so much and of course want him to be the one to deliver! Anyway, he told me again to “keep being boring”, and I will see him again a week from today!

So here are the 36 week stats for Miss Hadley and mommy:

Size of Baby A: A crenshaw melon. I have never heard of one of these, but it seems to be just a tad bit larger than a honeydew melon:

She is about 18.75 inches long and weighs around 5.75 lbs.

Developments This Week: She is still gaining weight and becoming rounder in appearance (come on, chubby baby!). At the end of this week, she will officially be considered full term. Ah!

Weight Gain So Far: Official count at the doctor’s office: 23.7 lbs.

Cravings: Chocolate milk, Honey Graham Oh’s cereal, milkshakes, and clementines. Nothing new really, just eating a lot of the same thing over and over. :)

Aversions: None.

Symptoms: Just plain uncomfortable! She’s all up in my ribs all the time and I am short of breath a lot.  I was telling someone at my work Christmas party that all of the movements that used to be so cute and exciting suddenly are not anymore… I hate to feel like that, but it really is just plain uncomfortable! The rest of the symptoms are the same—up 2095820385235 (ok, maybe 4 or 5) times to go to the bathroom each night, braxton hicks contractions at least a few times a day, and just being tired. However, I feel so fortunate that most of these not-so-glamorous symptoms waited until now to show up—I can totally make it for only a few more weeks!

Movement: Little Miss has some serious hiccups, at least 4 or 5 times a day on average. I love to feel them and to picture her just hiccuping away in there. As I said above, still lots of hard, deliberate movements…she is running out of room for sure!

What I Miss: Hmm, I think I will go back to one of the original things I missed—wine! There is a Christmas wine that I LOVE that my sister-in-law, Kelley, introduced me to last year and you better believe I am going to stock up on that so I can drink it after Miss Hadley arrives! :)

Things I am Thankful For: Staying healthy even through cold and flu season. There are soooo many sicknesses going around right now, I am shocked that I have been able to avoid them, but so far I am going strong! Now, anyone who is sick please STAY AWAY! ;)

What I’m Looking Forward To: My work baby shower this week, and getting the rest of the baby things we “need” this weekend, which is our last weekend with no real plans before the due date…so we are trying to get as much done as possible!

Bump Growth: Bam! Jon keeps telling people that it is at least doubling every week. And as you can tell—she is still high up in there… I am looking forward to her dropping any time now so that I can finally breathe!

Next Doctor Appointment: December 12.  We will be going every week now until she arrives!

I think that about covers it. I’m off to eat dinner, wrap some more Christmas presents and then to hopefully finish the Christmas decorating. Hope everyone has a great week!

-S

Hey friends-I was going to blog about this last night when we got home, but I was so exhausted after our tour and running some errands that I went straight to bed.  Jon and I went on a hospital tour at WakeMed Cary Hospital last night, where we will be delivering. The tour wasn’t of the whole hospital, just of the Women’s Pavilion & Birthplace, which is where we will be spending our stay.

I would guess that there were about 10 other couples along with us on the tour, all in varying stages of pregnancy. I was a little nervous that I was going to be the one that was the farthest along (read: the slacker who waited until a month before delivery to do any sort of planning at all), but to my (pleasant) surprise, from what I could tell, most of the people there were at least as far along as me, some maybe even further. There were a couple of women there that were only barely showing, but we just assumed they were overachievers. ;)

We weren’t really sure what to expect from the tour, but overall I would say it was very standard. We first got to see a delivery room, where they explained what all would be available to us; they talked about the type of bed, birthing balls, bars, etc. as well as supplies that were in every room.  The guide told us that in addition to the Dad (or partner as the case may be), only two other people are allowed to be in the delivery room at any given time. This means that our family who is there during the labor process (before the pushing starts) will have to switch out the passes to come back and see us, so I hope they can play nice! ;) We have made the decision for our two sisters, Bekah and Heather, to be in the delivery room when she is actually born, so they will obviously get those passes at the point where Hadley is about to be born.

We were next taken to a post-partum room, which is where we will be spending the majority of our time during our hospital stay.  The room was basically the same as the delivery room, it was just a little bit larger and has more seating, a full couch that pulls out for sleeping, a rolling bassinet, and a warmer for the baby (which they explained are hardly ever used any more unless there is a medical reason for it). The room seemed cozy enough for a 2-day (3 if we end up having to have a c-section) stay! They explained to us when visiting hours were and how many people can be in the room at a time (4 at a time other than Jon once we’ve moved to the post-partum room), and recommended items that we should bring with us to the hospital. The main thing was plenty of snacks for both mom and dad.  They explained that I will get 3 meals a day from the hospital, but the dads get nothing… though obviously that is not a huge deal because hospital food is gross anyway!

One funny thing that the tour guide said she was required to mention was that they do request that the dads bring some sort of pajamas to sleep in, rather than walking around naked or in their underwear! Seriously?! I guess that means they have had that happen on several occasions…which I found hilarious. So, Jon will be sure to take some PJs when he packs his bag for the hospital! :)

The tour continued on with them showing us the c-section room (we didn’t get to go in, but they pointed out where it was) as well as the overflow post-partum rooms, which are only used if the rest of the rooms are full…they were empty last night and they said that they are only used VERY rarely, usually only in September and November, likely due to people getting it on on New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day…haha! Those rooms were much smaller and less cozy feeling, so hopefully the other post-partum rooms will be open when we are ready to move to one.

One cool thing that they pointed out to us, wihch I had really not thought anything about prior to the tour, was the security measures in the Women’s Pavilion.  Every so often on the carpet, usually at the entrances/exits of each wing, there are red strips which have security sensors in them. From the time the baby is born, they will wear a bracelet that can only be taken off by the hospital that will cause an alarm to go off if they go across any of the red strips. Neat, right? Y’all know I am not a worrier, so I was really not worried about our baby being stolen out of the hospital BUT I do know that it does happen (though WakeMed Cary said they have never had it happen) and it is definitely nice that they have taken these precautions.

Some other things we saw on the tour were the cafeteria, gift shop, and the  ”coaches corner” where they have snacks, drinks, etc. All pretty standard, but it was good for us to get to see where everything is.

So, some reflections after the tour:

• The hospital is NICE. The Women’s Pavilion and Birthplace has been recently renovated, and you can tell. It feels very homey and cozy, the rooms are huge and seem very comfortable (as comfortable as a hospital room can be, I suppose) and I’m really excited that we will be delivering there. Sidenote: even sweeter is that the hospital is only about 10 minutes, if that, from our house…definitely a plus. 
• The tour definitely made it all seem real. As in, holy crap, we are going to be in one of these delivery rooms in only about a month. I think it sent Jon into somewhat of a panic when it set in that we will be there in just a few weeks… he said that he is just nervous that he will not know what to do or that he will not be able to help me when I’m in pain… I can already picture how it will go: I will be having painful contractions and hardly able to talk, yet I will be the one trying to calm HIM down during them… lol. :)
• Was the tour something that was completely necessary? Nah. I don’t think that we learned anything on it that we couldn’t have just been told upon check-in, but I am still glad we did it just so we got to see the rooms and kind of check out the place. Plus since we didn’t do any classes or anything, maybe now I won’t get judged for being completely unprepared…ha! I just feel like nothing is really going to prepare me for it, so why not just take it as it comes?

I think I covered everything. I still can’t believe we are now less than a month away from when we will be going to the hospital and doing it all for real…AH!

On our agenda for the weekend: hanging curtains in the nursery (finally!), decorating for Christmas (exhausted just thinking about it), and my work Christmas party Saturday night.  Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

-S