My first baby shower!

One of the main reasons I love my school is my awesome team - they make working there enjoyable and we always have a good laugh about something. A few days ago they threw me the best "first" baby shower a prego could every want! My co-workers were very generous with lots of wonderful gifts that I can't wait to put to good use!

They incorporated our safari nursery theme into the baby shower with the little details of the diaper cake (Ummm E, I didn't know you were so crafty. Have you been holding out on us?), real cake, and board book. Although I pretty much detest being the center of attention, I felt very honored to be showered with so much love and thoughtfulness.




Yes, that is me with the huge belly. R and I lovingly refer to it as "the bigness."








In other news, I finally broke down tonight and got my first pair of pouch pants. I folded. My one pair of well worn GAP jeans that I wear all of the time with my maternity band still fit, but I decided to get a pair of capris and try out the pouch. The summer heat has already started to roll in, and I am thinking they might come in handy while I teach summer school and am REALLY big.

Now that I am quickly approaching the third trimester (seriously, where has the time gone???), I have the pleasure of taking a glucose screening. My little bottle of orange dextrose has been staring me down every time I open the fridge. I am crossing my fingers that I pass the first test with flying colors so that I don't have to endure the 3 hour test that is supposed to be torture. Wish me luck tomorrow!

Productive Sunday???

Something is wrong when I am up and out the door ON MY OWN FREE WILL by 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning.

It may have been that 4 hour nap yesterday... yes, it probably was. In my defense, I am now officially 27 weeks prego and wasn't feeling so bueno in the hot and crowded R.E.I. store. When we made it back to home base, I immediately beelined for the couch and didn't surface again until four hours later. There is nothing like a half night's worth of sleep to make you feel better! The reason we ventured out to R.E.I. AND the reason it was such a zoo was their semi-annual sale. We arrived empty handed but came back with THIS:





The BOB Revolution jogging stroller. It is supposed to be the best, and the local running peeps must love it because it's all I see when I zoom creep around Town Lake these days. It carries a nice price tag, so when it's on sale, you have to scoop it up quickly!


Anyways, back to productivity...

Today, I have already:
-gone out for breakfast - short stack of pancakes? Yes, please. I guess a side of fruit too.
-done a load of laundry
-cleaned out some things in the garage
-made a Goodwill donation trip (while leaving the 'hood I saw not one but THREE BOB strollers - case in point.)
-worked 5 hours at the hospital

Now, I will get to my grading. This will be the first time all year that I have entered my grades online well before the deadline. I know it's only 24 hours before, but if you consider that I have always put them in no more than 30 minutes before (or sometimes even 30 minutes after) the deadline, I consider it a big difference.

What I would also consider a big difference is the way I feel now as opposed to just one month ago. My feet hurt by the end of the day if I've been on them a lot, and I can no longer take walks over 5 miles without feeling some pain. This past Friday night, R and I went for a walk to get some frozen yogurt. Round trip it is around 5 miles. The last 200 yards I was inching my way down the street and then once inside, I sprawled out on the living room floor where I fell asleep. I have decided my body can best handle 4 miles or less, especially with the hills in our neighborhood. I guess that means I'll have to start driving to get my frozen yogurt goodness. :)

Whew, I will have to admit that all of this productivity is making me quite tired.

100 more days!

According to one of my iPhone baby/prego apps, we now have 100 more days until Little G makes his grand appearance ... that is, if he arrives on his expected due date! A random lady at the HEB (pronounced: Heeb) commented that I must be due soon. When I told her not until August, she was like, "Well I hope you make it until then! How many do you have in there... one or two?" Another quote to add to my list of: "Things You Should Never Say Out Loud to a Prego."

So after much deliberation, I finally have made my bedding decision. We opted for option A because it is not too baby and will be something that Little G can grow with. However, R wasn't too crazy about the orange in option A. It was a bit too bright for his taste, but we loved the look and luckily found it in chocolate brown. Of course the fabric that I decide has to be mine is only found in Australia and is more $$$. But, the woman doing the custom bedding is AWESOME and makes really beautiful stuff that is shown on her etsy site here:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/fingersandtoes

She has been really patient and wonderful in helping me choose fabrics and color options that we like. Here is the final mock up of our order ... I can't wait until it gets here! Wow, dorky, I know. You know you are a mom when...



I'll post later this weekend about our recent trip to Cabo when I am not so tired. :)

Nursery Registry Nightmare

Oh registering - I had been putting it off until R and I could tackle it together on a weekend, but it seems that every weekend lately has been busy with something. I put it on the calendar and we went this past Saturday.

The minute we got inside the store and sat down, R looked at me and groaned, "I hate shopping." I immediately gave him the stink eye, T mama style. I told him it should only take a couple of hours and that he could go outside and take breaks if need be. He countered with an hour and a half, but I held firm with two hours. Try THREE hours later and we had finally conquered every nook and cranny of that baby superstore. R was a trooper and quickly decided he wanted full control of the scanner gun. We scanned our little hearts out, and I tried my best to keep him from scanning things that were ridiculous (My Baby Can Read, flashcards for kids ages 4 and up, etc.). The only heated battles we had were on things that he deemed "red" when they were clearly pink! Man needs his eyes checked! :)

We sauntered with the scanner ceremoniously back to the registry counter like two successful conquistadors only to be asked, "Ummmm, what was the last thing you guys scanned?" When we told the saleswoman, she reluctantly told us that the scanner, for whatever reason, had STOPPED WORKING. Not only that, but we didn't get over 2/3 of the items we scanned in the system!!! O - M - G! Now imagine the look on R's face. Yeah, not so bueno.

Of course, I tried to put a positive spin on it and gave the following reasons why it wasn't SO terrible:
- we now had time to research items that we weren't 100% sure of which brand to get or if it was even worth getting
- we needed to go back anyway to pick up the another piece of the nursery furniture that we had just purchased (only one piece will fit in the car at a time)

Okay, so really, there were only 2 reasons, but it's better than zero!

Soooo we ended going back the following morning the minute that they opened, scrapped our previous registry, and started anew. Round dos only took us an hour and a half - ha, R's original time allotment. We were determined to get it done this weekend and we did. Mission accomplished.

We registered for lots of fabulous things (R got really excited in the book/toy section), AND we purchased the baby room furniture... shown below, minus the hutch.





As I have been perusing the web for cute nursery décor, I stumbled upon another cute safari look. Now I feel like I am in a conundrum. Which look should I go for???

Option A:

The custom bedding - I like this crib bumper, but would opt for a different crib skirt/sheet:





The bedding would be complimented by these wall murals:







And, now option B:

The bedding - I like the colors and animals but would probably opt for a sold crib sheet:





The bedding would be complimented by these wall murals:






Two completely different looks and two completely different color palettes. Option A would be mostly blues, oranges, and browns; Option B would be mostly greens, blues, and yellows.

What do you think???

Happy Birthday Lucy!

My niece turned the big 2 last Friday. We had a busy weekend with the crawfish boil, family coming in town, etc., so we postponed her celebration until today and combined it with Mother's Day with the extended family.

I had to work at the hospital, unfortunately, and was too pooped when I got off to make it over for the after party - sorry fam! But I thought I would make a blog dedication to our sweet little Lucy in honor of her birthday.

Lucy (aka Chubs*, Lou Lou, Luce) is very cuddly but can also be very dramatic and demanding - she has been called Lucifer on more than one occasion. She is about to become a true middle child once her baby brother gets here in August. We are all curious how she will react to no longer being the baby of the family.

Happy birthday Lucy! Tía loves you!


*I started calling her Chubs when she was a baby for obvious reasons, but not anymore now that she is getting older and losing her baby fat. I also don't want to give her a complex. :)

Feliz Cinco de Mayo

¡Hola amigos! I should be winding down and going to bed, but thanks to my late nap, I am about to head out for a walk... at this hour, I'm sure it will just be me and the deer strolling around the 'hood. Getting up tomorrow morning should be fun!

The past several weeks I have been feeling Baby G's movements more and more as he gets bigger. R has been able to feel him move, too, and thus the father/son games have already begun. R pokes at my tummy and Baby G immediately responds with a kick. Sometimes he doesn't even have to poke - just the sound of daddy's voice gets him going. R loves it, and I don't mind it since it's their bonding time - just as long as it's not when I'm tired or sleeping.

This morning, Baby G decided to wake me up at 5:00 a.m. 5:00! I almost couldn't get back to sleep because of all of his kicking. Don't get me wrong, I love to feel him moving around, but not at such ungodly hour. I figure I'll have plenty of that for a long, long time in 4 months when he makes his arrival. Right now, I want my sleep!

I found a really cute diaper bag/backpack today that I could not resist getting. One more thing to cross of my list! It's a Timi and Leslie brand (I had never heard of it but they got rave reviews online), and I scored it for $40 brand new at a resale shop! Sweet! It's über girly, which means that unless R is in a big time jam, he probably won't be taking this bag with him. We've already decided to have separate diaper bags, and I know he's going for the more "manly" look.

The Sixth Month

I have officially made it to month seis! My current weight gain at week 24 ... 14 pounds. Blood pressure is good and baby's measurements/heartbeat look good.

Between now and my next appointment at 28 weeks I have to take my glucose screening for gestational diabetes. For anyone who has never been pregnant or heard of this, I have to drink 50 mg of dextrose in 10 minutes or less and then hurry over to my dr.'s office for a blood draw within the hour. I have to fast for an hour beforehand and cannot eat or drink anything until after my blood draw. If I pass this first test successfully then all is good. If not, I have to go through a 3 hour screening which is supposed to be awful.

I'm starting a prenatal yoga class this week. Let's hope I stick to this better than I have with my cooking attempts!

I decided to wash and organize Baby G's clothes sizes 0-12 months the past couple of nights. We haven't purchased any nursery furniture yet, so I am putting everything temporarily into storage bins. He has quite the wardrobe already, but I can't help it if I want my little man to look good!

This past weekend we had our annual family crawfish boil. We all agreed it was the best one yet, and I can't wait until next year when there are 3 new babies in attendance! As you can see from the picture, although my due date is 2 weeks later than the other two lovely ladies, my belly is FAR bigger than the others. What's up with that?!?








Now that August is looming closer, we are starting to think more about how we are going to put together the nursery. As of now, we are leaning towards an "African safari" look since we both love Africa. I have found inspiration from two different nursery designs online.

In the first one, I really like the custom made bedding:




And in the second one, I really like the wall murals: