Baby Bump - 33 and 34 Weeks

At 34 weeks I am...

- Feeling good. Although I do feel like I get tired easily. Not necessarily sleepy-tired, but just winded from even the slightest physical activity.

- Feeling baby's hiccups all the time. She usually gets them a couple times a day. They seem to always be coming from a different spot. Is she just constantly doing flips in there? I wish I knew what position she is in.

- Continuing to have restless legs syndrome. I cannot stay still for long at all. Even sitting through a sermon at church is a challenge. I need to stand up and do some high kicks.

- Trying not to waddle. In public at least. When I am at home I let the waddle out.

- Having braxton hicks contractions a couple times a day.

- Sleeping well. Maybe a little too well. I am pretty sure I don't move at all. When I wake up to go to the bathroom I am still on the same side I fell asleep on. Having a 20lb bowling ball strapped to your stomach does not allow for easy flippage. I cannot just flip to the other side while sleeping. No, it requires being awake and assisting with lifting the melon from one side to the other. Not an easy feat.

- Constantly entertained by stranger's comments. It is fun that strangers usually strike up a conversation about pregnancy or ask me when I'm due, etc. Sometimes people like to guess what I am having - but it is usually split about 50/50 boy/girl. People will have the exact same explanation as to why they think I am having a certain gender, it is pretty funny. However, there are some times when I am out and about and just feeling kinda huge and maybe a little moody and want to avoid any you-should-have-kept-that-to-yourself comments. Comments like - Are you due any day now??? Um, no. I still have 5 1/2 more weeks left. Oh WOW. I have already written a book in my head on Things Never To Say to a Pregnant Woman.

I can't believe it is getting so close to her due date! Although it is weird to not know how much time I really have left to prepare. Do I have 2 weeks left? 7? We shall see!

Baby Shower

This past weekend some sweet friends threw me a beautiful baby shower.

Here are the hostesses - these ladies know how to throw a shower!

They worked so hard to make every detail absolutely gorgeous. Everything was so special and well thought out. Here is the food table.

Here is the delicious dessert table. Cake, cake balls, chocolate covered strawberries, mmm!

This clothesline was so precious. I cannot wait to dress her up in all these adorable clothes. Look at that tu-tu!

My Dad's cousin Sandy, and Aunt Thelma were so sweet to drive in from Austin for my shower. Aunt Thelma will be our baby's great great Aunt!

And Greg's mom and my 2 sisters in law were so sweet to come in from Waco. I felt like it was my wedding weekend again having all this family in town! It was so fun.

* All of the above photos were taken courtesy of Mr. Waller. Thanks Dave!!

I am sad I didn't get pictures of more friends at the shower. I was starting to make the rounds but then I think we started playing a game and I got distracted :)

The Grosse Girls...

The pregnant Grosse Girls.

I just have to share some of the hand made gifts I received. I have such talented friends! One of my long time childhood friends, Christine, who now lives in Missouri makes diaper cakes and she sent this for the shower. I can't believe she made this! That is a little tu-tu onsie that is around the diapers. I don't want to take it apart though - it is too pretty.

My sister is super craft girl! She has always been crafty but I feel like in the past several years she has gotten into everything. From re-doing furniture, to sewing things on onsies, there is no stopping her!

I love these little onsies she did. If you are wondering what the "C" stands for, we are pretty close to deciding on a name, but have not made the final decision. I will share it once we have finalized it.

She also made these precious headbands and clips. I love them! These were on the diaper cake she made that was on the dessert table.

My sister in law Jill can scrapbook like no other. She made me an amazing wedding planning book and also helped Greg make an awesome scrapbook for when we got engaged. She made this scrapbook to document that first year of Baby Mattern's life. This picture doesn't even do it justice - each page is so detailed and beautiful. And all I have to do is put a picture in each month and I have the most wonderful memory book!

Liz's mom makes the sweetest smocked baby clothes. She has an Etsy store here. She made these 2 darling dresses. I think I may be bringing the baby home in this white one.

Abby makes all kinds of crafty things and I was so excited that she made this taggie blanket for me. I love the different textures and the ribbons and I know baby will too!

And lastly, my friend Emily made this adorable little lamb. I absolutely love it! It is hard to tell in the picture but it has Jeremiah 29:11 on it. So sweet.

Whew, this was a long post. Of course I got so many other gifts that I adore - from the cutest dresses imaginable to every day baby necessities that will be so useful. Greg and I felt so blessed by our generous friends and family and could not be more thankful. I am so excited to meet this little one!

Baby Bump - 31 and 32 Weeks

I am 32 ½ weeks! I feel like the weeks are going by so quickly now. She will be here before we know it. Here is the belly – loud and proud.

At 32 ½ weeks I am…

- Still feeling good! I am so incredibly thankful for this. I have noticed a tiny bit of nausea coming back here and there but it is not much at all – definitely nothing like the first trimester.

- Sleeping well. I get charlie horses fairly often, but other than that I don’t wake up much at night.

- Realizing how the belly really does limit me physically. Getting up from laying back on the couch, getting out of bed, bending over, putting on tennis shoes, shaving, painting my toenails, etc. all require much more effort. Sometimes I forget how far my belly sticks out there, and I bump it on things or I try to squeeze through spaces that are too tight.

- Loving the expectant mothers parking spot at the grocery store :)

- Enjoying reading other peoples pregnancy blogs. I love to google the week that I am on and search for random people’s blog posts for that week. It is fun to see pictures and read their symptoms. However sometimes it makes me feel like I need to get on the ball when I read how other people already have their bags packed at this point, the nursery completely done, their car seat installed, etc. In my mind I still have 7 ½ weeks to get things done, but I know I can’t really count on that because she could come early.

- Having major restless leg syndrome – usually at night when I am relaxing. I have to wiggle and flail my legs all about because they just get so antsy.

- Maybe having a few Braxton hicks contractions? It is so hard to tell if she is just bunching up really tight or if I am having a Braxton hicks. I think I usually have about 1 a day where my stomach gets rock hard. It doesn’t hurt, just feels strange.

- Starting to feel a little sad that I won’t be pregnant for much longer. This may sound so crazy, but it is true. I really have enjoyed pregnancy and think it is such an amazing miracle designed by God that women get to experience. Ok, then of course there are times when I feel huge and feel nauseous and look down at my blimped up spider vein cankles and think it will be nice to get back to normal. But overall it is such a fun time. It is like the engagement period – where everyone is so happy for you and there is so much excitement and anticipation. Of course the marriage is way better than the engagement, but there is something so fun and exciting about that short period.

Also this weekend some sweet friends threw me the most wonderful baby shower. That deserves a post of its own though.

October and Belly Pics

I can't believe it is October! I am so happy though because October is my most favorite month! I love the weather - even though it is not exactly fall weather, it just seems that October has such beautiful days. Still warm, but with a tiny hint of cool in the air.

I also love all things pumpkin - pumpkin candles, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin lattes, etc. I plan to try out some new pumpkin recipes this month. I recently made some pumpkin apple spice muffins and thought they were delicious. I also want to try pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin spice lattes - which is a crockpot recipe I found last year but never got around to making.

Another reason why I love October is because it is the start of honeycrisp apple season. I have probably mentioned this on here before, but I absolutely love honeycrisp apples. They don't even come close to any other apple. I already bought a bunch at Kroger last week and they are delicious.

Ok, on to belly pics.

At 30 weeks I am...

- Feeling good! Haven't had much back pain at all and I am sleeping well. It is funny though because at night when I am laying down it relieves the weight of my belly, but then in the morning when I first get out of bed it is always a shock how heavy my belly feels. Like - what the heck is this huge bowling ball doing attached to my stomach?

- Still dealing with monster feet. I am hoping the slightly cooler weather will help things out. Although I am realizing it is not just the heat, but actually sitting at a desk all day makes them swell. On the weekends when I am out and about and busy they hardly swell. Then during the work week they become blimps. Oh well, what can you do.

- Eating a lot of milk and cereal. It is so funny how much we go through in a week. Both Greg and I eat cereal for breakfast, and now both of us eat a bowl after dinner every day. I like to fill my bowl full of milk where you can barely see the cereal. And then I gulp it. And sometimes I have to top it off again. I am loving milk these days.

- Excited that we have finished the childbirth class! It was a 2-part class that we did last week at Memorial Hermann. The birth video was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. It got both Greg and I so excited to meet our little one.

- Still amazed at all the movement this baby does. I love watching my stomach when you can see it from the outside. It never seems to gets old. It is just a miracle that there is a little human inside. God is so good!

- Finally able to say I officially have an outtie :) My belly button had been flat for the longest time, but I think it has now popped out a little. It is so funny all the changes that happen.

Growing Baby

It has been a few weeks so I feel like I have a lot to catch up on. I’ll start with the belly pics from the last 2 weeks. And it is almost time to take another because on Wednesday I'll be 29 weeks. Baby girl is growing.

This past weekend we went to Waco to visit Greg’s family. Jill was so sweet and gave us a TON of baby girl clothes to borrow. I am so excited! And of course they are all so adorable because Hollyn always has the cutest clothes. We are so grateful for those – what a blessing.

We also did some major shopping. Jill took me to this huge consignment sale that only goes on a couple times a year. It is put on by Just Between Friends. Apparently they have these in Houston and other cities too, I just didn’t know about them. It is just for children/baby stuff. There was SO much stuff there. I ended up getting some good deals on some baby gear including a Baby Bjorn carrier for $23 and some Dr. Browns bottles 3 for $2. We also went to another consignment shop and I got a few maternity clothes and a super cute newborn gown. I found a pair of maternity jeans (that are long enough!) for $12! Now I can stop wearing the belly band with my jeans or using the classy ponytail-holder-looped-through-the-button method – woo hoo.

We have made a bit more progress on the nursery. We picked up the dresser that was painted by Jannet. She did such a good job – I love how it turned out. I was going to change out the hardware but I actually think it looks great as is.

I found the cutest drawer liner at Michaels in the sale bins that I put in this weekend. I plan to start washing all the baby clothes we have so far and put some of the things like sleepers/gowns in the drawers. I can’t believe it is time to do that already. That makes it seem like a baby is actually coming!!

I finally finished my alphabet art project. I am so excited to have finished it. Sometimes I start projects and don’t finish them if I don’t like how they are turning out. Greg can confirm this. But I am glad that this one is complete and now I can move on to my next project…the crib mobile!

I was originally just going to buy a crib mobile from Etsy. Something like the butterfly mobile I posted a while back. But then I found this one. I just love it. I think it is so sweet and pretty. However it is more than I want to pay for a mobile. So I have decided to make it myself. I am a little nervous because the one on Etsy looks so good – not “homemade” looking. After buying all the supplies I can see why the Etsy seller charges so much – I actually think that is a fair price. The nice looking floral stems are expensive, even on 50% off weeks. Also, pearl stands and fake crystals are kinda pricey too. Anyway, making it myself will still be much cheaper than buying it, and it will be fun to do. Now I just need to find a little free time to work on it…

Here is one of the pictures of the mobile from the Etsy seller. I am going to do it in shades of pink since purple didn't look as good when I held it up to the bedding fabric.

Baby Bump - 26 Weeks

At 26 weeks I am...

- Feeling good!

- Pre-registered at the hospital! I haven’t given much thought to the labor and delivery. It is too terrifying to think about. But I am trying to take care of the stuff I need to do now like pre-register and sign up for classes. So far we have only signed up for the hospital tour, but will probably also sign up for some other classes like prepared childbirth, infant care, and breastfeeding. Are husbands supposed to go to breastfeeding classes too? Or should I say – life partner? (Everything I read in my baby books or on baby websites is so PC that they never use the word Husband. Gotta love it.)

- Feeling like my belly is stretched to the max. I know it is not - I still have 14 more weeks until I am at my “max”, but recently it has been feeling SO tight.

- Sleeping well at night still. Although I have started to get those leg cramps recently. They are basically like charlie horses but it is harder to flex my foot to make it go away. Speaking of feet, I have puffy feet almost every day now. It looks really awesome to have your swollen feet spilling over the top and sides of your high heels. Good thing my pants are long!

- Feeling so many crazy kicks all day long. I love it! I can tell she is getting big because I will feel kicks on opposite sides at the same time. My favorite is when I can feel a body part - although I am never sure exactly what it is. Sometimes I will feel a really big hard spot that makes me think it is a head or hiney. Other times I will feel something pointy (like an elbow or knee) or long and skinny (like a leg or arm). It is so adorable and just another reminder that OH MY GOSH THERE IS A REAL PERSON IN THERE. She is also an early riser. When my alarm goes off at 5:30AM baby girl is already awake - play time!

- Wishing we could decide on a name! I can't tell you how often I get asked that question. No, we do not have a name.

25 Weeks and Nursery Progress

I am getting a little behind again since I am almost 26 weeks, but I will go ahead and post this picture from last week. For some reason I think it looks smaller than my 24 week belly pic. Oh well, I'm sure my picture from this week will be nice and big.

Greg and I have been making progress on the nursery. Last weekend we painted it. It didn't take long at all, and was fun to do. It is kind of a yellowish color, although it looks like a different shade in all of the pictures below.

This is one of the fabrics for the crib bedding. There will also be 2 polka dot patterns - one tealish blue and one light grean, and a solid pink.

This is the room after we finished painting.

I also started working on a really fun craft project for the nursery. I was inspired by some nurseries I saw on pinterest where they had the alphabet on the wall using letters of all different colors / sizes / fonts. I am doing that on a smaller scale. I bought a 24"x24" canvas, and I am buying all different letters to decorate and put on there. Some will be wood, some fabric, some ceramic, just whatever I can find at Michaels and Hobby Lobby. It has been so fun decorating them all differently! Here is a preview of some of the letters I have done so far.