Week 37: Family and Baby Shower Weekend!

This post will be more pictures, than text. (I know you're disappointed.) Friday night, we spent a great evening hanging out with my sweet brother and sister-in-law along with their new little boy, Pearson, who is about 2 1/2 months old. I was thrilled Uncle Blake got to meet his new nephew finally!

On Saturday, I was blessed with an INCREDIBLE baby shower thrown at the Beddoe's beautiful house by Sarah Beddoe, Gillean Wade, Katy Hopkins, and Natalie Lesikar. Just thinking about how much this little guy is already loved is completely overwhelming to me! Everything was incredible from the decorations to food to favors. I cannot thank these amazing ladies enough for doing this for me!

 Hostesses!

 Sweet teacher friends...and Ethan! :)

 Carter has somewhere to sleep when he gets home! Thanks, Aunt Sarah and Uncle Chase!

 The Baby Bjorn...thank you sweet hostesses!

 Such a gorgeous hand-knit blanket!

 Car seat! We have a way to bring him home!

We finished off the weekend with the Ezell family watching my other nephew, Liam, get baptized. We had a great time and are looking forward to seeing the family again soon...for Carter's arrival! So crazy to think that the next reason to get together is for his birth!?!?!?!?!?!

36 Weeks: Update

Well, we have officially finished weeks 35...

And week 36...

...and are starting week 37 today! At the end of this week, Carter will be considered full term. Hallelujah - the end is in sight! My doctor started checking me this week, and we found out that I was 1 - 1.5cm dilated and just a little bit effaced. It doesn't really mean anything...apparently people walk around dilated for weeks before the baby is born. But, it was at least nice to hear that my body is moving in the right direction! My weight dropped a little this week (which was SO odd to see after 8 1/2 months of watching it climb) so we are doing a sonogram next week to make sure Carter's growth is still on track and to check the fluid levels. We are looking forward to seeing our little grey blob one last time before he is officially out and in our arms in color!

We have just gotten home from Baby Care class...Blake was thrilled to be there and loved every minute. ;)

 Blake also made his first clothing purchase for the little man this week. Such a sweet daddy gesture! It will be very useful for Carter's second football season...if I allow it.

We are looking forward to a busy weekend of family and friends as we see Uncle Stewart, Aunt Gillean, and my nephew Pearson tomorrow night and celebrate my baby shower on Saturday. I am so excited to see all my sweet friends and to celebrate this little guy! My work baby shower is also this coming Tuesday so I will have lots more fun stuff to post after all of that! I have the greatest friends in the world. :)

Week 34-35: 3D Sonogram and Canteloupe

This week, we had some extremely nerdy fun with our belly picture. Canteloupes are one of our favorite fruits, and since Carter this week is a "large canteloupe," we thought it'd be fun to do a little comparison...

Looks eerily accurate to me! A few days ago, we had our 3D sonogram "second chance" appointment since Mr. Stubborn was not facing the right direction last time. This time worked...better. The problem? Little man has a mild obsession with his hands. As you'll see in a minute, we got LOTS of great shots of partial face and hands. He was certainly awake this go-round thanks to the Coke slurpee I drank on the way to the appointment, but he would not stop eating his fingers! I think we will be investing in a good baby nail file and some newborn outfits with cuffs to cover his hands or else we are going to have a baby with some nasty face scratches! Ok, here are the good pics...

Partial profile/ear

 Little foot

 Almost a good face shot!

 Arms/chest and crossed ankles

 "Hi, my name is Carter and I eat my fingers..."

 "Where's the weight room?"

 So close to seeing a full face!

 Pursed lips

And the ultimate question...who will he look like?? Regardless, we can't wait to see your REAL non-alien, non-orange, absolutely beautiful face in just 5 short weeks, sweet boy! XOXO.

Carter's Nursery: A Pottery Barn Kids Commercial

It is finished! We've been working on little man's room for quite some time now...so excited to say we are officially DONE. You could literally rip this room out of a Pottery Barn Kids catalog. Oh well! We love it, and we really hope that Carter is as much of a football fan as we are! (How can he not be when he is 50% Ezell and 50% Wade, right?)

Junior Varsity Bedding

Little man's initials

Bedding and crib detail

Glider...sooo comfy!

Beautiful custom pillow! Thanks, Cassie Cox!

Let the brainwashing begin...

At least we know he'll have something to wear when he gets home! :)

Curtain detail...thanks Gammy Kari!

We have just six weeks (or less hopefully!) to go until we get to bring our sweet boy home and that day cannot get here fast enough. We are crossing our fingers that our "second chance" 3D sonogram will go well on Tuesday night...we went last weekend, and Carter's stubbornness got the better of him. (My mother says this is payback...hmm...) He would only show us an ear and partial profile. He usually responds pretty instantly to sugar, cold drinks, and caffeine, so hopefully drinking a Coke slurpee right before the appointment will "encourage" him to move around and show us that sweet face we want so badly to see! If not, we'll have to just chalk it up to being like his mother...stubborn and not a fan of having pictures taken! :) On that note...

33 weeks down, starting week 34!

I also received my baby shower invitation in the mail this week! It was very surreal to see my name on a BABY SHOWER (?!?!?) invitation, but I absolutely cannot wait to celebrate this little guy with sweet friends on April 16! Hopefully I will have updated sonogram pictures in the next post...but I said that last time too, so no promises! Until then, please pray for a healthy, squirmy, camera-happy baby boy on Tuesday night! :)

Weeks 32-33: Spring Break

Spring break so far has been absolutely WONDERFUL! This past weekend, we got to meet that precious BFF (whether he likes it or not!) of Carter's - William Beddoe. He was a total sweetheart and six pounds of pure preciousness. We cannot wait for boy play dates this summer!

In other baby arrival news, my best college friend, Erica Ladwig, welcomed her sweet baby girl, Madelyn Alyse Ladwig, yesterday afternoon at 3pm! I sadly am not allowed to travel anymore, and since they live in Houston, I don't have any pictures yet to post. Nevertheless, I cannot wait to meet this sweet little one once Carter is here! She looks absolutely beautiful in the online pictures I've seen...hopefully, we will have some pictures of Carter and his future bride posted when the Ladwigs come to town around Memorial Day.

On Monday, our sweet niece Kensington joined us for a few days. She was such a precious little helper and we had so much fun painting toenails, going for walks, playing with bubbles, and shopping together.

While she was here, we had a little scare with Emma, our four year old Boston Terrier. We took her Tuesday morning for her annual exam and shots, and for whatever reason, she had an allergic reaction to the shots. It was horrifying to watch her teeny little legs go out from under her as she collapsed and became very cold. (Sidenote: God should NEVER allow pet scares in the third trimester...I haven't cried that hard in a LONG time. Stupid hormones!) The vet kept her Tuesday afternoon for observation and gave her some steroids to reduce the swelling in her face. Fortunately, she was able to come home late that afternoon, but she wasn't quite herself until this morning. All she wanted to do was cuddle and sleep for most of Tuesday night and Wednesday.

In baby news, Carter has developed a new past time - HICCUPS. These crazy little bouts of spasms happen at a minimum twice a day...the most cases I've counted so far in one day is six. (Today, we have had two cases so far and it's only noon!) It is the absolute craziest thing I've ever felt...but I love it!

I've decided, after way too much time off from work and a quiet morning alone at the house, that this is a typical daily schedule for little C in the womb:

• Wake up (my eyes actually open now when I'm awake!) 
• Kick Mom to wake her up 
• Breakfast (eggs are my fave...I do a little happy dance after Mom eats those) 
• Get the hiccups (gotta work those lungs!) 
• Nap (hiccups are exhausting) 
• Kickboxing class #1 
• Lunch (sunchips, please) 
• More hiccups 
• Sleep again 
• Practice walking by "pedaling" on Mom's ribs (she LOVES this) 
• More hiccups (I'm going to have the strongest lungs in the world) 
• Dinner and dessert 
• More pedaling/kickboxing (the most intense workout of the day...gotta work off that Blue Bell!) 
• Last bout of hiccups (gotta make sure Daddy feels them at least once a day, too)
• Back to sleep
• Repeat

He has definitely developed a daily pattern, and it is one I am hoping continues once he is here. He lets me sleep a lot...like the 11 hours I got last night...thanks little buddy! Wishful thinking?!? Ha. I'm not that naive...I'm savoring the sleep while I can! That's all for this week...we are doing a 4D ultrasound on Saturday. Can't wait to see the little man's face again!!! It's been 3 months...way too long!

Week 31: Will Beddoe, The Genius of the Neti Pot, and Baby Consignment

Well, here we are in the middle of week 31! Just 9 to go...we are in single digit weeks! This is crazy!!

This week, we got the THRILLING news that our sweet friends, Matt and Sarah Beddoe, welcomed a baby boy! William Ford Beddoe was born Wednesday morning, 3 weeks early, and he is absolutely precious! The Beddoe's had more self-control than we did and decided to wait to find out the gender, and Sarah had every single tell-tale symptom of a girl pregnancy - sweets cravings, carrying high, Chinese gender predictor chart, etc. I have been calling the baby a girl for weeks now! When I got the news that not only had she delivered, but that it was a boy, I literally screamed at my desk and started jumping up and down! A girl would've been great and we still would've made them BFFs whether they liked it or not, but now we get the thrill to raise two boys together just two months (or so) apart! We could not be more surprised or ecstatic for the Beddoe family...and selfishly for ourselves!

This week, I have been suffering from some allergy/sinus issues. Yet another wonderful pregnancy issue for which you can take NOTHING. Enter the Neti Pot:

This odd-shaped, genie-in-a-bottle looking device, I have to say is pure GENIUS. I must admit, after reading the directions and looking at the, well, frightening pictures in the instruction manual, I didn't think I could do it. I thought I would drown. But once I braved it, I was HOOKED. What this does is rinse out your nasal passages with saline (salt) and force out all the backed up goo that doesn't come out when you simply blow your nose. Gross, I know, but genius. This is the sole reason I have been sleeping at night this week. Thanks, Neti Pot! (Insert cheesy two thumbs up emoticon here.)

And, my final news this week, we discovered (thanks to Channel 8 news and my sister-in-law), the phenomenon that is baby consignment. Last night, we spent a really wild and crazy Saturday night in the suburbs at an annual baby/kids consignment sale in Plano called Divine Consign. I had worked in the morning, so I gave myself that overtime money ($75ish) to play with at this sale. I'd say we did pretty well...especially for coming in $20 under said budget! Our loot: Ralph Lauren/Tommy Hilfiger baby clothes, two pairs of brand new baby shoes, a baby xylophone and bead toy (Blake's nostalgic picks...can't say no to classic toys!), baby Einsten octopus toy, a soft sports-themed book, a football rattle, a car safety mirror, and brand new coffee table edge safety guards. Not too shabby for $54!

That's all for this week. I have another doctor's appointment this week and spring break starts Friday afternoon. Good Lord, I've earned it after working a 50+ hour crazy week this week and expecting another this coming week. Looking forward to some rest and relaxation at home next week...have a great one!