6 Weeks Left and Counting!

34 Weeks!

Ho Ho Ho!

And she had a belly like a bowl full of jelly!

Our Christmas splurge...Petunia Picklebottom baby bags!

My wonderful Mom who bought me everything I need for my hospital bag!!


Cutie pie Alexa Brianne

Ugh boots..check. Pink glitter bag...check. Fake hair...check.
Watch out Beyonce...Taylor Grace is here!



Nice hair girls!
Christina Aguilera (aka Alexa) & Beyonce (aka Taylor)


All the kids and All of their gifts!!
It's so fun watching them open up their goodies!


My brother, Sean and my Sis-in-Law, Darcy

My brother had a portrait done for Darcy that included my nieces & our little angel Austin...

It was beautiful to remember Austin on Christmas and Sean brought us all to tears.

Matt and Sean....Matt loved his Secret Santa Cowboys gifts!

Beau just couldn't wait for Santa any longer...

...neither could Mindy!Matt finished off a great year with his company and we celebrated at his Christmas Potluck! Our Chicken and Dumplings lost the potluck contest by one!!

We brought two dishes so we would have a better chance of winning...so competitive :)

33 Weeks!

Happy Holidays Everyone!! I apologize I have been terrible at updating the blog the last two weeks, but we have just been on the go preparing for Christmas and attending all of our super fun Christmas parties and festivities! And when this Mama gets home after running around I feel comatose these days! I was proud of myself for making it to midnight at two Christmas parties :) Then, in a blink of an eye, the holiday has passed and it's on to a New Year. I don't feel quite as sleepy as I did in the first trimester but my energy has definitely lost its luster now that we are getting close to the Big Day! And I don't think I have ever looked forward to the New Year celebration as I am this year. Second to our wedding, it is going to be the most incredible year Matt and I have ever had as a couple....our 6 year anniversary of being together, our 2 year wedding anniversary, and a perfect addition to our family...our little girl!!

Our baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe) and is almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers — which will help regulate her body temperature once she's born — are filling her out, making her rounder. Her skin is also smoother than ever. Her central nervous system is maturing and her lungs are continuing to mature as well. Of course, Matt and I seem to worry about everything and especially the amount of weeks we have left until her due date. She seems very happy and uncomfortable in her little water world and we hope she stays that way as long as possible. It is nice to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies. But I do hope she keeps growing inside of me, getting bigger and healthier each day until her birthday in February!

I've started washing her little things and putting together all of those last minute necessities such as my hospital bag, baby toys and of course.....refolding her clothes for the umpteenth time because that is completely necessary :) We have finished all of our childbirth and CPR classes and I'm looking forward to our car seat check and my last class, Breastfeeding 101! Then we'll be ready!! I may be doing all of this too early but the months just seem to fly by these days and I know she'll be here before we know it!

We are SO excited, I just can't even explain to all of you how giddy we are to meet our daughter. We love seeing her move in my stomach and we have convinced ourselves that she responds to our words. Last night we were lying in bed and Matt had his hand wrapped around me feeling her move and every time I told her to say hi to her Daddy she would kick immediately! I'm sure coincidence but it was still cool!

We hope all of you have a wonderful and safe New Year! You all mean so much to us and it means even more that each of you take time out of your buys lives to follow our journey to becoming parents. We Love You and Happy New Year!!

8 Weeks Left and Counting!

32 Weeks!!

Carrie, Melody and Colleen with myself and The Bump!


The Girls!!


Happy Matt after a couple drinks :)

Our cute stroller..cherry blossoms!!

Mindy The Morkie!

Bah Humbug Daisy :)

32 Weeks and completely breathless! This is breathless in a completely different light...Boy is it getting harder physically to maneuver myself around and run those marathons I'm SO accustomed to :) hehehe The "Prepared Childbirth" classes Matt and I are taking have taught us many little tidbits that my books had not explained in detail...such as your anatomical structure prior to pregnancy, and what it looks like now!! With my uterus pressing up into my diaphragm it is getting much harder each day to breathe and sleeping has just flown right out of the window! My body seems to be adjusting...my mood in the morning, not so much...but I'll get used to it. Right??!!!?? Each day I wake up exhausted and almost pass out from blow drying the horse mane I've grown during my pregnancy...then she kicks...and I immediately am thankful for those sleepless nights and the heavy breathing Matt is getting accustomed to, but still chuckles at :)

By now, she weighs about 3.75 pounds and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in my uterus. I'm gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to her! In fact, she'll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb. She now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least peach fuzz). Her skin is becoming soft and smooth as she plumps up...hopefully she'll be a bit more conservative on the plumping for my sake!

This last week has been so wonderful, and we've had some amazing surprises! Matt and I had an Infant CPR class we decided to attend with our friends Annie & Eric Nicksick. They are due January 11, 2008. We called them early Friday afternoon to check in before the class and to see if they'd like to go to dinner before or after the class. Annie's response was "we may not make it to class, I'm having contractions 5 minutes apart" Whoa!! Seriously??!! I actually got butterflies like I did when I found out my friend Alison was being induced since these are the two women I have been able to share my pregnancy with the entire time. If Annie is going into labor....that means....WE'RE NEXT!!! We attended our CPR class...of course Matt made me giggle for half the class as he compared the dumby infant feet to mine, fat and chubby...but we passed and it was very calming to know we are able to perform CPR in the unlikely instance that it might be needed.

As we left class, I called Eric to check on Annie and he said "come to the 2nd floor of the hospital...we're here and we're going to have a baby!" After a quick bite to eat ( a pregnant girl's gotta eat), we rushed upstairs and after about a 10 minute wait they came and fetched us from the lobby to introduce us to their little girl!! Makenna Nicole Nicksick, 6 lbs 8 ounces and 20.25 inches long. She is beautiful with strawberry blond hair and perfect little rosebud lips. Eric is my oldest friend, we met when we were 9 yrs old, and it was so awesome to be able to share such a special moment with them. I loved watching Eric and Matt oooing and awwwing over little Makenna. Since she was 3 weeks early, her lungs have a bit more developing to do, but she is doing much better. Congratulations Mommy and Daddy Nicksick!

Being in the last stretch of pregnancy, your body just starts to feel more and more unattractive because you feel so awkward. Getting dressed is a little depressing in the morning because at this point I am growing OUT of my maternity clothes and in a couple weeks I feel like I'll be wearing Matt's sweatsuits to work! We were invited to our friend Ryan Pulliam's Annual Christmas party and it was so nice to get dressed up and go out with my husband. He looked so handsome and we had a great time. Of course, attending Christmas parties pregnant means a bedtime of 11:30pm still but hey, it was a blast and Ryan has everyone bring a unwrapped gift for Toys For Tots so it was a great night!

Matt and I have begun putting together all of the major items in the nursery such as the stroller and trying to figure out how the car seats work! Thankfully, the hospital will install our car seat base for us so we make sure it is done correctly. Her stroller is adorable in person, we love the cherry blossom print and we keep taking it for test drives around the house. A couple of the guys were over today for Sunday football and of course I had to bring it out and they test drove it too! Matt's Mom brought over her new little puppy, Mindy the Morkie (maltese/miniature yorkie mix) and she is as big as one of the wheels of the stroller!! So cute, but our little princess Daisy was not very happy about another baby in the house, hopefully she won't be pouting every day after the The Bump arrives. I can already tell we'll have too many spoiled girls in the house in no time at all :)

My favorite holiday, Christmas, is just around the corner and this month is just flying by! Loving the comfy clothes ( oversized sweaters are so in right now)...more Christmas shopping ( of course I haven't finished yet)...New Year's ( yum sparkling cider)) and then Baby!! What a happy season to enjoy the last months of my pregnancy!

9 Weeks Left and Counting!

Nursery sunflower to watch over her when she sleeps!

So pink! So cute!

Her first set of sheets!

A full closet...of course!

So many socks and hair bows I already had to buy organizers!

Adorable pillow my girlfriend Brittney made for her...It fits perfectly in her rocker!

Nesting Nesting Nesting! Okay, the urge is 100% in full effect to reorganize and refold every item in the house. Now that I have all of these itty bitty little clothes and goodies in her room, I am having so much fun getting everything ready for her! I was so excited to get her mattress and bedding into her crib...it's so cute!! I actually got excited and announced to Matt "her first set of sheets are in our washer!! The first thing we've ever washed of hers...Aaaa..isn't that cute honey??!!" Every item just seems so small, it's really hard to imagine that she will fit into all of it!

At the time being, she doesn't feel SO small in my belly of course! She feels huge!! We started the first of our three "Prepared Childbirth" classes last week and although we knew quite a bit from our books we've been reading, there were some very helpful labor topics we went over. And yes, we watched two births......one was a natural birth. Looked like A LOT of fun...hahaha. I'm 100% believer of epidural for sure now. We also had to do this exercise where we received definitions of pregnancy terms and we had to match them to the correct words on the board and read the definitions out loud in front of the class. Matt offered to do all three words and I almost died when I realized the poor guy had gotten "lactation" "locchia" and "placenta" Three of those really graphic definitions that you quickly learn about in pregnancy that I don't even like to talk about! It was a three hour class, Matt had to give me a massage and do relaxation techniques for the last 30 minutes and he's such a good sport. Thank you and love you husband :)

The Bump is over 16 inches long now and weighs approx 3.3 lbs and she is headed into a growth spurt right now. Uh oh!! I don't know if there is any room for her! She can turn her head from side to side and she is beginning to plump out so her skin is a pink color now rather than transparent. We have a prenatal appointment tomorrow so I'm looking forward to hearing her heartbeat. It's definitely the highlight of my week every two weeks when we head to the doctor. I am having good days and bad days but overall feeling great. I do have quite a hard time breathing because my lungs are so squished so I try to have the best posture ever so that I have as much room in there as possible! Boy have things changed....sticking my chest out serves an entirely new purpose....breathing! hahaha

10 Weeks Left and Counting!

30 Weeks!
Grammy made these adorable personalized Hershey Bar favors!


Grammy and Aunt Lois

Hot Grandmas! And Wonderful Hosts!

Stacie, Lori, Elizabeth (a girl due in March) and Danielle

Annie Nicksick (a girl due in January!)

Stefine, Amber, Theresa and Carrie

Alexa and Taylor, my beautiful nieces!

My favorite cupcakes from The Cupcakery!

Two generations and the third on the way!

Taylor Grace will show our little one how to accessorize!

Gifts...Gifts...and more Gifts!!

Aunt Christy, Grammy and Aunt Darcy posing with The Bump!

Auntie Jennifer!

Alison made me a diaper cake with such cute goodies!

We love Rylee!! The Bump's future best friend!

What a cute outfit Rylee!

I HEART baby showers! I HEART hitting the 30 week mark!! Let me tell you, it has been such an eventful and fun week for Matt, the baby and I!

As I prepared for my baby shower this last weekend, Matt headed out to Dallas, TX to spend some much needed "man" time with a bunch of his friends he worked with in Corfu, Greece back in college. Boys don't like baby showers anyway...so off with the husband!!! hahaha He and his friends were able to scalp tickets to the Dallas Cowboys vs Green Bay Packers game. He had a blast and did all that "man" stuff they do...which he needs to get as much of as he can before the baby girl arrives and the boys will be outnumbered in our household!!

My Mom was nice enough to stay with me while he was gone...I was having dreams of waking up in labor in the middle of the night and having to hop in the Hummer and drive myself to Summerlin hospital then not being able to find a parking spot and ultimately having the baby in the Hummer. Yikes!! So, yes I asked my Mom to stay with me :)

My Mom, Patti, my best girlfriend, Alison, and Matt's Mom, Cathleen, threw me the most amazing baby shower on Saturday. It was phenomenal and was by far the best baby shower I've ever been to!! Really...and not just because it was mine :) About 55 of my friends and family came to celebrate our little one on the way and oh my goodness, the gifts!! There were so many gifts!! I was, to say the least, very overwhelmed by the generous and wonderful items they all purchased for the baby and I had a hard time keeping back my tears of happiness while reading all of their sweet cards and notes to us. It took me two hours to open them all!

Matt returned back from Dallas the night of the baby shower and he was floored when we drove up to the house....a Hummer, a GMC truck and a car packed full! Lots of stuff to put together honey!! We definitely had full intention of getting everything put together and displayed perfectly in her room, but four days later I'm still trying to find a place for all of the gifts that are covering her floor from one end to the other! The girls asked guests to bring a package of Pampers to enter a door prize drawing at the shower, so on top of the gifts we have hundreds of diapers ranging from newborn-size 3. Thank you so much to the amazing hosts for making me feel so special....Thank you Thank you Thank you Everyone!!!

We are so happy to be 30 weeks...a robust and healthy 30 weeks at that! Okay...and maybe a little less patience these days and A LOT more clumsy considering I can't see my feet at all anymore. Sleeping soundly is really becoming a chore and my stomach and bladder are squished in there like sardines. I know this, because I get full after a quarter of a meal and I use the restroom every hour during the night. I have mastered sleep walking...I could tell you exactly how many steps it is from my roll off the bed to the bathroom and back. I'll be totally prepared for those 3am feedings back and forth to the baby's room!

She is kicking a bit less as she gets bigger and doesn't have quite as much room to move around in her amniotic sac with only about a pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounding her. She is about 15.7 inches long and she weighs about 3 lbs now. Her eyesight continues to develop and when she is born her vision will be 20/400 meaning she can only see objects inches from her. Her Daddy will have to hold her close so she can recognize him right away after she's born. We can't wait to see her little face and those chubby little cheeks.

Until then....I will have to find a spot for all of her things and I think it is pretty safe to say that our little girl is already spoiled! Uh oh...we are going to have our hands full with this princess :)