Christmas 2010

In Pictures:

First Christmas with Jersey

Mom & Jersey, she got her a 'Santa Baby' t-shirt

Anthony & Beth (~19 weeks pregnant here)

Jake & his mom...they don't look anything alike...do they?!

Last Christmas as a 2 member family, well 3 with Jersey (30 weeks pregnant here!)

Isabella with her baby doll

Ann, chocolate faced after eating a cupcake! What a big ChEEsE!

Nellie and her sweet treats for the night

Gamma and her girls

Jersey, opening her stocking-the excitement we had on Christmas morning since we had already opened and used our gifts. The new camera and camcorder...the same ones I stood in the cold for on Black Friday! We relaxed and enjoyed the silence for the last year.

The bone she got in her stocking was delicious-based on the amount she devoured in 30 minutes, however, she has gotten sick twice since eating it so its gone & never to return. Too much of a good thing is not good.

I hope you enjoyed Christmas this year as much as we did.

My Comfort Level

Is going down...and going down fast! Since last week I feel like I've gained 15 pounds all at once-stretching out any possible muscle left in my upper abs. I can't breath like I used to or catch my breath for that matter. I get winded when I'm walking up 1 flight of stairs or when I talk too fast at work. In bed at night when I lay down, it takes me a good 10 minutes to catch my breath after walking up the stairs and brushing my teeth. The interesting thing is I'm carrying her low and didn't expect this much discomfort in my upper ab region, but then again I am new at all this anyway.

Tonight at work I changed positions a million times when I was trying to teach and I finally had to stand up (which was the most comfortable, but still not best) to finish teaching. There isn't any room left, but she still has at least 7 more weeks to grow! I don't know how people handle it with twins or more-every time I'm uncomfortable I think of Kate from Jon & Kate plus 8 & how her belly was plastic wrapped to give it some support. I can't imagine the discomfort she was in as her stomach was stretching out 2 feet!!

Did I mention I now know what overweight people feel like when they are huffing and puffing up the stairs or tying their shoes? I couldn't imagine being this way my entire life. If you are huffing and puffing...I can help you lose weight-you don't have to live like that!

Bottom line: I'm a wimp, its official. I knew it. But, I didn't think I'd be this bad (I'm sure Jake did). Let me just make it clear-I'll be having all the pain meds I can get...epidural, yes please...for this wimp of a person.

Hmmm....

Jake and I have been wondering what Nora will look like and I started to think about what we each looked like when we were little. I just love this picture of Jake when he was younger-look at the long blonde, curly hair! Nora would be adorable if she had her daddy's hair. I don't have any really young pictures of me, but I had stick straight hair-same color as Jake's in the picture below. Makes you wonder..either way she'll be cute as can be.

Merry Christmas-2010

Christmas (No) Baking

Just finished with my Christmas (no) baking after a couple hours in the kitchen. Last year I did a lot of different kinds of cookies: chocolate chip from scratch, snickers surprises, sugar cookies, etc, but this year we had a lot of things in pantry that needed to be used up so I did a little no-baking! I also got a lot of coupons for free chocolate chips and refrigerated (side note: I dont know how to spell refrigerate with out specll check-I always want to put a 'd' in it!) chocolate chip cookie dough (the break and bake kind) those expired on 12/31/10-so I needed to bake them up too. This year it was puppy chow-we had left over chex cereal that wasn't going anywhere fast, no bake cookies-oats that my boss gave me because she wouldn't use them, the chocolate chip cookies, and I guess I did bake a little-chocolate cupcakes so that I could put red and green sprinkles on them for Jake's work for tomorrow. Even though I didn't make anything from 'scratch' or bake much I still had tons of dishes! That's the part I hate about cooking or baking. an you tell chocolate and peanut butter are my favorite? I thought about making peanut butter fudge, but I think I'll save that for next year...I'm tired!

Later tonight we are going on a drive to look at Christmas lights. Jake knows of some houses in Avon/Brownsburg that have music that plays through the radio so he's going to take me on a ride-we might get ice cream too (mmmmm)!

Favorite Things

Everyone has favorite things-especially this time of the year-you know Oprah, Ellen, etc...I have some too, but pregnancy related (of course-after March you'll be excited to not hear about my pregnancy)

So here they are:

Belly Butter & BeautiControl Extreme Hand Repair becuase my skin has been so dry!

Tylenol to get rid of horrible headaches.

Oreos & Swiss Cake Rolls-reminds me of my childhood snacks

Milk...I can not get enough of it!

My pillows-all 6 of them (2 to lay my head on, 1 behind me, 1 between my legs, 1 at my feet, and 1 to lean my upper body on) to keep me comfy at night.

Peanut Butter on Apples just becuase its soo good and I can justify a few extra calories.

Stretchy clothing-no explanation needed.

Nightlights throughout the house to guide me... for restroom breaks and night time snacking.

My Husband-for helping me get up off the floor after tying my shoes, to help me pull off tight boots, for massaging my back/neck/shoulders when in need, to run upstairs when we are walking out the door becuase I'm out of breath and dont want to walk up them again, making me something to eat, and so many more things that I can't remember right now (darn prego brain!)

Tuna & baked potatoes at work for lunch...Christina thinks Nora is going to come out flapping like a tuna fish! (note: I'm aware of fish recommendations and am following them)

and...sleepy time-taking advantage with this one since I know after Nora is here the second pregnancy will be very, very different!

Every 2 Weeks!

I'm 28 weeks which means my doctor visits are every 2 weeks from now on! At this past visit I had the great pleasure of the glucose tolerance test. I went in without anything to eat (I don't want to pass so I don't have to do the 3 hour test), but I should have had something. Taking 50 grams of glucose in the morning on an empty stomach is NOT a good idea. On the good side, it wasn't near as bad as I had imagined, but I like diet Sunkist-which was the flavor I'm just not used to all the sugar. It was chilled so that made it easier & seemed to have some carbonation-I thought it would be dead flat. After waiting 45 out of the 60 minutes I thought I was going to pass out from all the sugar- I was a little shaky. After the hour, I had my blood drawn by an awesome woman who knows how to draw blood (unlike the phlebotomist I had earlier on in pregnancy).

After that test, I had to have a Rhogam shot-I'm A (Rh-) blood type so to make sure the baby wasn't going to be fought off by my immune system...I guess it's protocol. I remember all that stuff, slightly, from the genetics section of biology, but it's been too long to remember details. I just go with it.

Blood pressure was 120/60 (higher systolic than normal) up ~20 pounds and feeling it too. Nora was excited to see the doctor-she was kicking like a mad woman! Doctor confirmed an ultrasound at 32 weeks and that rounded out that visit.

Heres the belly progress at 28.5 weeks:

After these pictures, I should really invest in some self tanner! OR learn some photoshoping techniques to make me look like I have a little more color!

Of course, Jersey wanted a picture! There would hve been one with Jake too, but he has yet to keep his eyes open with the new camera-I told him he better work on that!

"Assistance is needed in strollers!"

We pressed the 'help' button after several attempts to get the stroller back in upright position. This was probably our 4th time at Babies R Us playing with the strollers and every time we get it folded down, but never can figure out how to get it back up! We die laughing and never have pressed the button before-usually we just put it back up where the display is and walk away, but not this time. (we would always tell the cashier about the stroller section when we were checking out, but still we should have pressed it before walking away!)

Other things that are challenging for new parents include: assembling and disassembling pack n plays, figuring out the difference in bottles/pacifiers/monitors/etc, and soo many other things that I can't think of now that I'm trying to think of them. Needless to say, having an infant is wayyyy different than anything we've ever experienced, but we are learning quickly and usually end up laughing at ourselves when it's all said and done.

A Thursday Routine

Today we made another trip to Greenwood to shop for Nora. This has been our routine for a few weeks now-well not every week, but when we have the day off or coupons that need to be used up. The trip today was to get the travel system, but we ended up doing several returns and buying other stuff we needed too.

We started out at Once Upon a Child where we got a steal of a deal on a used Serta mattress and a changing table pad. We knew we wanted to buy used of these two because they both have covers that we could get new and just disinfect the pad and mattress. We also got a new mattress pad for extra protection. Why would you buy them new?

For lunch we went to McAllisters, a Thursday ritual, where I always, always order the grilled chicken spud...mmm its soo good! Jake always gets something new and today it was an open sandwich with coleslaw and, of course, some tea.

After McAllisters we headed to Buy Buy Baby because Jake is fascinated with the "mama-roo" its like a swing, but plays music and does different motions like the car, a W shape, figure eight, etc...when I say fascinated I mean-that's they only reason we stopped there. But I cant get out of a baby store with out using a coupon or finding something on the clearance rack. So we came home with 4 outfits-one of the shirts had a dog on it that looked like Jersey-I couldn't resist it!

After Buy Buy Baby, we went to Babies R Us-the real reason we went to Greenwood. We knew we wanted to get the travel system today, but after fitting the mattress and changing table pad in the car we weren't sure if it would fit! Ultimately, we took it out of the box and everything went fine (we kept the box, just in case), but there was no way it was fitting in the car in the box. Thank goodness Nora wasn't with us-we would have run out of room. Note to self: bigger vehicle would be nice...

Along with the travel system, we couldn't leave with out getting $8 off diapers and a $15 gift card for purchasing 2 boxes-so we did and now feel comfortable with several boxes in the closet. Before going, I did a diaper spreadsheet (Jackie & Alex-I know you are laughing at this point, but you too will do this eventually) to see where to buy the cheapest diapers. So far, out of Wal-Mart, Sam's, Costco, Babies R Us, several online sites, and Buy Buy Baby..Babies R Us is about 7 cents cheaper per diaper. When Jake found out that we are going to go through 5-8 on average per day-it was necessary to do the math! (I still don't think he knows what he's getting himself in to!) My only comment was...well babies aren't cheap, do you want to do cloth diapers?

We wrapped our day up at Target-always a bad idea. I can never get past the dollar section-especially now that they have $1 books, so I picked a few up that I didn't already have. After that, we had a return, we put a few more things on the registry, and searched for the clearance. I didn't have to look to far-they had tons of red stickers that were calling my name. Jake hates this and always says "that's why they do that to get you and every other woman to look at them"! Of course, do you see how much I'm saving?! I know the difference between 'clearance to try to sell' and 'actual clearance-where the price is too good to resist' so they don't get me on a $15 clearance outfit for a newborn!! Who would pay that much? $2-I'm sold!

A successful day in Greenwood-only spending a fraction of what we could have thanks to great deals, coupons, and several gift cards (the biggest being for our travel system from Jake's Grandpa-it happened to be $30 off and I was able to use a 20% off coupon too!).

After putting together the stroller, Jake felt the need to display it in her room...like it was a new car! I can still hear him saying, now we have to make sure the wheels are facing this way...He's one proud daddy!

Thank You!

Saturday I had my first baby shower thrown by my sister in laws Rachel & Tabatha. We received some great things from Jake's side of the family and friends in the area. We are all stocked up on baby bathing and lotion-type stuff...I don't think I'll have to buy any of it based on the amount we got!

It was a brunch shower complete with awesome food that ranged from muffins, mini quiches, biscuit deliciousness, frozen fruit cups, and doughnuts! Just look at that stunning table! Pink Christmas tree borrowed from Ann & Nellie's room ;)

Nora now has even more clothes than before-she is going to be dressed to impress!

Rachel made this blanket for Nora-she's so crafty. I love it! Funny thing at Jake's cousins shower in April or March I mentioned that when I get pregnant I would like her to crochet a blanket for me...little did I know it was going to come so soon! The blanket below was made by Peggy, Rachel's mom (see where she gets it from?!). It's a flannel-like material with "Baby Nora" and a baby carriage embroidered on it in colors to match the nursery! I can't get enough of hand crafted gifts.

A pink baby giraffe that plays lullabies! I thought it was adorable.

There were other gifts including a boppy pillow, diapers, Purdue things, clothes, you get the idea. I had a good time seeing everyone and am so greatful for the friends and family members that Jake and I have in our lives. We are blessed to know such awesome people. Thanks again to those who were able to make it! We appreciate all the gifts-babies are very expensive!

Gift Exchanging

Doing a gift exchange always sounds like a good idea until it happens. The kind of gift exchange I'm talking about is the kind where you bring a gift for male/female and draw numbers and pick gifts and the other people involved have a chance to steal your gift. We do this at one of our family Christmas party's and have done it for other things too-so we've had a lot of experience. I've come to the conclusion that the gift I take is always the one I want to take home...so after this year I have decided not to participate! Call me scrooge, but when I buy a gift for something like that I try to find a good deal where you are getting more than the amount because I found it on sale-where most people just take face value and spend the amount no matter what the gift ends up being. I find that mine suits me best anyway-so why ruffle my own feathers over a game that has been chaotic or frustrating in the past. Does anyone out there know what I'm talking about?

Nursery Progress...

I can't even lie or hold off anymore, it's been finished for 2 weeks now! I tried to hold off thinking that everyone wouldn't be surprised, but if you know me you understand I get an idea and run (I mean run with it!). I think Jake is excited that his 'projects' are finished now, but I'm bored and am trying to figure out new crafting projects that I can do now that it has nothing to do with the nursery. So, here it is:

Nora's mommy made butterfly mobile. I couldn't resist when I saw it on one of my Facebook friends pages...I Googled it and found tons of butterfly mobile ideas & I created this one with mostly shimmery white butterflies with a few black ones to match the room. I think it turned out awesome for less than $10! Of course that doesn't include the labor of tracing, cutting (a million butterflies), and putting it together with Jake's help. He doesn't like the word project-because it usually costs a lot of money, but when he found out how much I spent to make it he was OK with this mobile compared with any other one I could have gotten-that isn't near as cute!

Nora's little library...we added to it this weekend after the shower I had for Jake's side. Target has great books in the $1 section that I took advantage of.

Can't beat clearance items: lamp $6 from Gordmon's, mirror (that has been painted twice since I bought it) from Goodwill for $8 and the picture frame from Pier One for $7 holding our first ultrasound pictures.

Her name on the wall turned out just like I had imagined it.

Clearance T.J. Maxx ugly colored shelf for $6-spray painted & Hobby Lobby 50% off wall art with some of Nora's gifts from the shower.

Nora's stuffed animal-Jersey!

Black Friday 9 cube storage from Menards for 40% off! Waiting on the canvas inserts to go on sale at Target.

We are excited to be finished and ready to relax for a couple months until she gets here. I have a doctor appointment on Wednesday, then every 2 weeks from there! In August, the every 2 week appointments seemed soo far away-I can't believe how time flies.

Pregnancy Joys

This might be TMI for some people, but if all I ever talked about was rainbows and unicorns I'd be lying about pregnancy. The past 2 weeks I have experienced two joys that have made Jake and I both laugh: leaky bladder when sneezing and producing milk....You can see why TMI might fit the category. Luckily, we were at home or with family when these fun things have happened. Actually, we were in WalMart once looking in the baby section and I sneezed. We had just eaten and I was going to go to the restroom on our way out of WalMart since its at the front of the store and Jake knew that I had to go. He started laughing and said to me "did you just wet yourself?"!! At that point we both started laughing so hard I almost did what I hadn't done until that point. I felt like he was talking to an 80 year old lady!

I checked my email that night and one of my pregnancy email subscriptions was talking about embarrassing pregnancy stories and leaky bladder was one of them. Apparently, the hormones that the body makes to prepare for baby and birth also have an effect on your bladder (and it doesn't help that she is low and bouncing all over it all the time). I turned to Jake after reading it and said to him see its not my fault!! And we both cracked up again...what else is there to do?!! Gotta love all things pregnancy not just the good ones!

We are going to have...

A nephew joining us in the world around May 12th, 2011! My brother and Beth found out Friday that they are having a little boy. His name has been determined for years (by my brother). Hunter David Michael Southern. Wow, that's a mouth full. Unlike Nora, he is going to have to take an entire month to practice just his middle names! Hopefully he's never in a hurry to sign papers and thankfully, when buying a house you don't have to write your whole name, just initials.

Regardless of how long his name is, we are glad to be Aunt & Uncle of a little man since girls are all either one of our families has known! So happy for Anthony & Beth-they were really hoping for a boy.

Peanut Butter Panic

It's ice cream...Blue Bunny Ice Cream and its the best ice cream ever! I won free coupons from our National conference that was on November for 2 tubs of Blue Bunny and that was our second which beats out the previously noted Blue Bell ice cream-which is still amazing. But, if you're looking for a "peanut butter panic" you have to try it. Its vanilla ice cream with peanut butter and chocolate chunks with Reese like hunks all in a delicious mix. mmmm, it was good last night! I just hope Jake doesn't figure out how good it is!