I vow to help you love life, to always hold you with tenderness and to have the patience that love demands, to speak when words are needed and to share the silence when they are not and to live within the warmth of your heart and always call it home.

Monday, May 25, 2015

Norah June's Nursery

The nursery is finally complete! It's by far my favorite room in the house.  We chose orange, teal and gray for the colors because we started decorating before we knew the gender, and they're such fun colors!  We don't really have a theme like most nurseries, but there are a few mermaid items, travel hints and of course we couldn't have a nursery without a globe.  Have to start her young!

My husband did the hard parts like painting and assembling the furniture while I took on the fun tasks like decorating!  I've had so much fun piecing together her first room, and we can't wait see her in here for the first time.

Yes those are Harry Potter books!

"Oh the places you'll go"


Bedtime story collection started

She'll be told this from Day 1
You Are Our Greatest Adventure



Sign made by yours truly!


These are each our stories on how we met each other, thought these needed to be in Norah's room!

Saturday, May 16, 2015

Bumpdate: 38 Weeks


SO relieved Dad is HOME!!!






I took this the day before I turned 38 weeks and just so happens the day before I gave birth to our beautiful, perfect daughter.  Last pregnant picture!  More to come on my amazing Mother's Day present.

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Bumpdate: 37 Weeks, Full Term!



We Made It!


Size of baby: Winter Melon

Pregnancy Symptoms: No more lower left back pain!!!, pressure weighing on my cervix, slight feet/ankle swelling, round ligament pain when I roll over in bed

Things that make me nauseous: Nothing

Cravings: Cantaloupe and watermelon, iced green tea

Sleep: 5-7 hours/night, peeing 3-4 times a night, boo!

Exercise: CrossFit twice, walked 5 miles

Baby Movement: Not really kicks anymore, just squirming and rolling

Total Weight Gain: Didn't weigh

We made it to full term!!  Even if Dad isn't here yet, at least she's healthy and ready!  I'm so relieved that despite anything else, she made it full term and she's perfect.

She's definitely hanging to the right!

Stretching these to the max!

Sunning the bump

We're both resting this week!
Coach potatoes! 


I took it pretty easy this week with exercising.  I really didn't want to trigger anything while my husband is only days away from arriving.  I did have another midwife check-up at the end of the week and good news my amniotic fluid decreased slightly, so at least it's not on an upward trend!  That was a huge relief.  As for progress I'm still dilated 2cm, 80% effaced.  She is estimated now to be 7lbs 12 oz, healthy little girl for sure!  I also got a doctor's note for home rest from now on!

Earlier this week I for sure thought my water had broke, so I called Kit and he started looking at flights!  I went into L&D, got tested for amniotic fluid and thankfully it was negative!  Whew for sure scared me a bit!  My husband wasn't scared, but so incredibly excited!  I kept getting texts like, "We could be meeting our daughter within 24 hours!" I absolutely love hearing him so excited, but I can for sure wait a couple more weeks.  I'm in no rush!

Third trip to the hospital!

My post hospital treat!


On Saturday, 9 May our sweet boy turned 6 years old!  I know tons of families really forget their pets after they have kids, but we won't be that family.  Zeus will always be our first baby, and we can't wait to see these two together.  Happy Birthday Zeus!!

6 Years Young!

Birthday consisted of bacon for breakfast, dog park time, bath and a frosty paws treat!

Also my amazing husband finished ALL his finals this week!  Our daughter let him at least square things away in Oklahoma before making her arrival.  We're so relieved, and I'm so proud of my husband.  I have no idea how he stayed concentrated for two weeks during such a stressful time.  We find out his grades on our due date.  How cool is that?


Done with finals selfie!  (upon my request of course)


This week was the slowest by far of my entire pregnancy.  I know it's because I'm days away from having my husband come live with me again, why wouldn't I be anxious!?  It's been a long 9 months since we've lived together, and I'm BEYOND ready for the next three months of waking up beside my handsome best friend again.  I'm starting to feel like a walking ticking time bomb though.  We just never know when the moment will happen!  Truth be told it's scary, but really exciting not knowing exactly when she will deem herself ready to become earth side!  I'd like her to give us at least a few days for Dad to settle in and of course get one more date night down in the books!

Saturday, May 2, 2015

Pregnancy Must Haves

I wanted to share some of my favorite items being a first time mom that made this pregnancy comfortable for me!  In no particular order...

1. Crocs.  Yes they're the ugliest shoe you'll ever wear, but when you can't hardly bend over to put shoes on these suckers came in handy!  Plus I'm a gal who needs support.  I'm not a fan of the cheap, thin flip flops that make your feet hurt after a 5 min walk in them.  They offer great support, slip-on and were perfect for walking my dog every night in or taking out the trash.  I might have even worn them to Wal-Mart once...or twice.

2. Cocoa butter and Bio oil.  Yes I still got stretch marks almost up to my boobs, but I knew that would most likely happen.  I'm prone to them, but it still didn't mean I didn't want to lather up as much as I could.  Who knows, maybe I would have gotten more?  I never once had an itchy tummy!

3. Bump belt.  I got mine from Amazon for about $22.  I loved it when I was running.  It gave me that extra support that I needed to not feel like I was flopping all over the place.  It also helped during my walks with Zeus.



4.  A good water bottle.  I never went anywhere without my Tervis cup.  It was easy to clean, holds 24oz and it kept my water cold all day.  Water keeps the BH contractions at bay!

5.  Heating pad.  At 35 weeks my lower back started having some intense, sharp, vomit-inducing pain and one thing I found that helped tremendously was an electric heating pad.  I bought mine from Wal-Mart in the pharmacy section.  Best $17 I ever spent.

6.  Yoga pants/shorts.  These stretch with you from the first trimester when your usual pants start getting tight all the way to when you can't clasp your hands around your belly anymore.  I live in Florida, so I wore the heck out of the yoga shorts in my last trimester in the Florida heat.

7.  Neutrogena acne spot cream.  During my first trimester the hormones raged war on my face and for the first time in my life I had horrible breakouts.  My husband suggested this cream (no idea where he heard of it because he sure doesn't need it), and it usually got rid of the trouble spots within a day or two.

8.  Horseshoe pregnancy pillow.  I got lucky and bought this off of a Facebook for sale site  for $20, but they usually run for about $60-$80.  So. Worth. It.  I loved the horseshoe one especially because you don't have to move it every time you want to turn over.  I started using it my second trimester and it's truly a life saver.



9.  Exercise routine.  This isn't really an item, but I believe this helped me in SO many ways.  My exercise of choice was running (until 29 wks when my doc told me no more) and CrossFit (hope to keep doing it until delivery).  Exercise helped me not gain an out of control amount, kept my swelling at bay mostly, helped me maintain muscle tone, kept the aches and pains mostly to a minimum, did wonders for my emotional health and really helped me stay limber.

I'm sure every pregnancy is different, so it'll be interesting to see what my favorites are for the next go around!

Bumpdate: 36 Weeks





Size of baby: Watermelon

Pregnancy Symptoms: Lower left back pain

Things that make me nauseous: Back pain

Cravings: Smoothies and shakes (anything cold)

Sleep: 5-7 hours/night

Exercise: CrossFit 4x's, walked about 5 miles

Baby Movement: Not really kicks anymore, just squirming and rolling

Total Weight Gain: Didn't weigh


It's May!


I've been pregnant for 9 months now!  Each week we hit now just seems like such an accomplishment for some reason.  I am still in disbelief I've carried our daughter for 9 months, and it's just getting more and more real that we'll be meeting her soon.

We had a check-up with the midwife this week.  I had the GBS test done (yuck) and my first cervical check.  I wasn't going to do one, but this week I've been feeling some twinges/pressure in my cervix area so I thought what the hell.  To my surprise I'm dilated 1.5 cm and 80% effaced!  We also had the last ultrasound so that we could see her positioning.  She's head down, and her feet are toward my left side, butt on my right.  There was one slight concern, my amniotic fluid is border lined too high.  It's not quite polyhydramnios but I'm .10 away.  Basically the concerns of having too much fluid is that when my water breaks the increased pressure difference could cause the placenta to rupture from the uterine wall or the umbilical cord could poke out first before the baby.  Both would require an emergency C-section.  I'm trying to not read too much on it and not to worry myself.  My midwife has ordered another ultrasound for next week to check my levels again. From this point forward we'll see the midwife once a week until DDay!




No wonder I have back pain...


My back has felt a lot better, and lucky me I've actually been able to get some decent sleep without waking up in pain!  I'm not sure if it's the chiropractor I'm seeing twice a week or that she's shifted.  Either way I'm so grateful to feel somewhat normal again.

This week my husband started his finals for law school!  He has two this week and two next week then he'll road trip home!  With each final he gets through I feel a little more accomplished that I could keep her in long enough for him to knock these out.  That's my only real job these next two weeks!

My sweet friend snapped this of me this week, whoa baby!


My sweet CrossFit ladies threw me a wonderful baby shower, and it was so much fun!  These girls have really been my only social life outside of work, and they're so encouraging in the gym.  I probably would have stopped CrossFit a couple weeks back if it hadn't been for their support.  CrossFit has kept me feeling like myself, kept my weight gain at a manageable level, allowed me to keep some muscle tone and helped so much with the swelling, aches and pains of pregnancy.  I love my box!



"My Mommy can backsquat more than your Mommy"





Oh Miss Norah, you're so loved already!