34 Weeks!

Jeremy got the seed down in the backyard this weekend - so happy that part is done. Now in 2-4 weeks we should actually have grass in the backyard. I'm so looking forward to that. Our front yard and flower beds in general are a weed nightmare! But that is something I'll have to deal with this summer I suspect. I've tried to get some teenagers to come and weed for me, multiple ones said they wanted to - I'm paying after all! But non have actually shown up to do it. I'm not going to hold my breath...

We did not get the closet system installed though. Jeremy and his dad are going to do that this weekend while his parents are in town to visit and go to the family baby shower. Its the last one, after this I have to take inventory and start picking up all the stuff we will still need when our adorable tiny human makes her appearance. Its crazy to think how much stuff is needed to support a whole nother human being...our little human being. Crazy!

But with the backyard pretty much done, waiting on mother nature now, and hopefully the closet system up this weekend. We only have a messy garage to deal with now. And getting ready for the baby. With 6 weeks left...thats a good feeling, if the garage doesn't get cleaned its not the end of the world after all.

This weekend is going to be crazy busy, Jeremy's parents get in town tonight. Saturday we have our maternity photo shoot in Seattle and then we're going to a friends house for a Crawfish boil! Sunday is the baby shower, Monday we already have dinner plans to celebrate Jeremy's AA degree. And then his parents leave on Tuesday. We will be on the move pretty much every day, I hope I survive it! lol

And ya - did I mentioned, Jeremy's officially done with his schooling! He was able to get a substitute class for his internship credit, since he has 4 years experiance directly in games already, and he filled out the paperwork for graduation last week! I am sooo proud of him, and super happy for him too!



How far along?: 34 weeks

Total weight gain: 25 lbs...jumped up 3 lbs in a week! eeks! I need to get back to my workout schedule.

How big is baby?: About 18 inches, 4.75 pounds - the weight of a canteloupe! Crazy. Its weird to think if she was born now, she'd look just like a very small baby! I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around that.

Maternity clothes?: Oh ya, and even that is starting to ride up. My belly is getting huge! And unfortunately so are my feet - i try to prop them up every night but they're growing...

Stretch marks?: Still no more.

Sleep?: Starting to wake up 3 times a night again, makes it really hard to get up in the morning.

Best moment this week?: Dinner out with my mom and Wendy prior to Cats. Cats itself (the musical) wasn't all that great, but it was good to spend time with the girls.

Movement?: oh yes, more and more. she basically moved during the entire Cats performance, I don't know if it was the music or the loud noise but it was definitely keeping her active. She is also just more active in general, it used to be just after I ate for a short while and then in the evenings, now its all the time.

Food cravings?: Nothing this week.

Labor signs?: No.

Belly button in or out?: Still In.

What I miss: Having time, I feel like there is so much to do and trying to get it all done just takes everything out of you. Hopefully we will be done soon.

What I'm looking forward to this week: Our super crazy weekend, and everything about it!

Weekly Wisdom: Relax and put your feet up, everything will get done in due time.

Milestone: At 34 weeks if she was born now, she would have no health issues! Yay!

33 Weeks!

I know I keep saying this, but boy have we been busy! My girlfriend at work had her baby last week! A great thing for her, but it created some serious work issues for us. Due to forecast timing I was pulling some serious hours; 9-10 hour days which is very unusual for me. Add that to plans 3 times after work last week and I was seriously exhausted. And...swollen! by the end of day 2 last week my feet were exploding out of my shoes. I slept with my feet propped up and of course got cramping during the night as well. But, I am happy to say its mostly gone away by now.

One of those plans last week included a painting class with Wendy. Oh what fun it was! Look what I made for our office:



And then this past Sunday we had my friend baby shower! Wendy and my mom put it together and they did a wonderful job! It was so much fun and my friends and old coworkers really went all out with beautiful gifts for Brianne. I can't wait to finish putting the room together and put everything away. I'll post pic's of the shower soon. I have one more shower on the 29th that is family and family friends, it will be nice to see some that I haven't seen in a long time.



How far along?: 33 weeks

Total weight gain: 22 lbs

How big is baby?: About 17 inches, 4 pounds - the weight of a pineapple!

Maternity clothes?: Yep, also wearing some flowy dresses in this nice weather and I am happy it is spring so I can wear my flats, although my feet seem a bit bigger than normal due to swelling so I can only fit in the ones that were kind of loose before.

Stretch marks?: Still no more. It pays to lotion up!

Sleep?: Last week my legs were cramping so I didn't get the best sleep, but this week has been better.

Best moment this week?: My baby shower! It was so good to spend time with friends. Before the shower I went and had coffee with my girlfriend Kathryn and a pedicure with my girlfriend Wesa. Both were wonderful and it was great to get out of the house and not work for once!

Movement?: hiccup! hiccup! hiccup!

Food cravings?: Nothing new.

Labor signs?: Nope.

Belly button in or out?: Still In.

What I miss: Energy, and being able to deal with long days without physical repercussions.

What I'm looking forward to this week: Putting the closet system together in the babies room so I can start putting everything away! Oh - and going to CATS on Saturday!

Weekly Wisdom: Take some time to relax, and don't plan to much after work just in case.

Milestone: Started my 2 week appointments - still gaining perfectly. 1mm per week, with only 7 weeks left I don't think my belly is going to get much bigger...but we will see!

31 Weeks!

So as you saw on Sunday's post, we finished the laundry room. Yay! One thing done, a million more to do.

In addition to that, our friend Heather started painting the nursery! She's a fantastic artist and offered to paint a mural on the wall, so we're doing a simple one...it looks AWESOME! She's only half way done and I'm soooo excited, I can't wait to see it completed. Sorry, no pic's till its done! ;)

Her and Jeremy are coming over tonight for dinner and to continue working on it. Should be a good night. Jeremy has been friends with my husband since they were tiny tots...they're pretty much family. I picture my little girl running around and talking about Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Heather :) Yep...I'm getting sappy in my last trimester.

The closet system for the baby's room came on Monday, so Jeremy (mine!) and me emptied the closet of the stuff that was there and painted in the blank spots. I'm hoping by this weekend we can get the system up so I can start putting things away. It is also suppose to be nice out again...so we're hoping we might be able to get a good chunk of the landscaping in the backyard done too. Its going to be another busy weekend, and I don't even want to think about the fact that I still need to finish our taxes....ugh!



How far along?: 31 weeks

Total weight gain: Holding steady at 19 lbs

How big is baby?: About 16 inches, 3.3 pounds - the weight of 4 navel oranges

Maternity clothes?: Of course.

Stretch marks?: No more than before. I'm thinking my lotion regiment is working! Hope it continues that way.

Sleep?: Having a hard time getting up this week - my hair has basically been in a bun every day due to the fact that I can't get up in time to have the time to do it!

Best moment this week?: Finishing the laundry room. And potato skins on Sunday night with my honey. Thanks Black Angus!

Movement?: Less kicks more wiggles lately. And she's been getting the hiccups again, THAT is a weird feeling.

Food cravings?: Sweets Sweets Sweets! This morning I HAD to have a donut. And I've had 2 red velvet cupcakes this week. I swear she's going to come out tinged with red...

Labor signs?: Nope.

Belly button in or out?: Still In.

What I miss: Being able to do yard work. We went to flower world this weekend to pick up a tree, a rhododendron and a hydrangea for the backyard. While we were there I picked up 3 heathers for the front yard - I was able to get them planted when we got home...but man was I exhausted afterwards!

What I'm looking forward to this week: Finishing the backyard maybe? or putting up the closet system. Or seeing a more complete painting in the baby's room! I'm just looking forward to getting more house stuff done in general. I'll feel a whole lot better when we don't have so much on our plate.

Weekly Wisdom: Get your stuff done early, cause the 3rd trimester is more tiring than the 1st! And that's saying a bunch!

Milestone: Doctor says I'm gaining perfectly! No lecture for me! :) Not really a milestone...but a good thing for development purposes!

Laundry room storage

We finally did it! After weeks of planning, preparing, cutting, painting, and just plain procrastinating - we installed the self made cabinet system this weekend!

Here is what our laundry room looked like when we moved in:



Please take note of that back wall - I have no idea what they were thinking when they built the downstairs, but that line at the top and right is a 2 inch pop out. This made installing a system not exactly simple since the wall was not the same depth for the entire width.

A few months after moving in our dryer went out...so we replaced both of them with front loaders, something we had in the condo and loved! Since I knew eventually this would be the room the cat box would go we decided to stack them to leave room. For the past 8 months or so the laundry room has looked like this:



With the baby on the way, and the cat box currently in our hallway upstairs we knew it was time to do something.

1st step - install cat door. Okay, you can see that in the above...so I didn't exactly take a picture of the room as it looked for the past 8 months, shoot me...but you get the idea ;).

2nd step plan - what do we need? We needed a cabinet that we could put a cat box on the bottom of. it needed to cover the vent and gas line, 38" tall. It also couldn't be to deep to leave room for those items and allow access. Well, this meant a normal cabinet wouldn't work. And a system wouldn't work cause not only is the wall funky but the vent is in the way too. So I took a page from the YHL playbook, my favorite blog! Their home made system looked like this:



link here

Now, I'm going to be honest, they make it look soooooo easy...and it was NOT! My god was it not! Although, we had a few stumbling blocks and weird things about our space...but cutting, priming, painting, putting together. NOT EASY. 3 weeks later, lots of sweat and tears, okay, no tears....but lots of cursing! And we finally finished it.

After planning, we bought the materials and took it over to Mom & Howards and the boys spent 4 hours+ in the garage cutting the pieces and putting things together.

Great teamwork!







Then we primed & painted:



Then installed! Check out our final product:



I still need to make it look a little "prettier" but its super functional and I love it!

Did you notice the cat box on the bottom? *extra bonus points*

Growing Baby Bump

I can't believe how far we've come....

20 weeks:


25 weeks:


30 weeks: