34 weeks today!

I am 34 weeks along today which means I only have 6 weeks left, if she is on time.  We had a dr. appointment yesterday and the doctor is very happy with how things are progressing.  I have been experiencing some light cramping over the past few days.  She said those are small contractions and most likely my body preparing itself.  She said as long as there aren't more than 4 in 1 hour then I shouldn't worry...so I'm not worrying :) I can't believe it is almost here!

I've been getting a few new symptoms as things progress.  Up to this point, I've been lucky enough to have escaped the evil grasp of heartburn but it has now entered my life and is making up for lost time.  I was up for about 4 hours on Monday night, trying to sleep propped up which proved to be very difficult.  I've also gone through the pregnancy with very little swelling in my hands and feet, however I'm now experiencing some minor swelling in the morning but it usually tends to get better throughout the day.

Stella is still moving like crazy but her moves have switched from twitches and kicks to rolls and pushes.  I'm assuming it is just because her space is getting smaller and smaller so she has less room to move.  It is so strange to watch my belly roll and move with her movements.  She still seems to be shy in front of her daddy though because every time I tell Matt to watch, she stops immediately and refuses to move.

Lastly, we took a class last night called "Sensational Beginnings" which went over a child's first year of development, what to expect and how to encourage them.  The instructor was great! She was funny and animated and gave thorough explanations throughout the class.  Here is a little tid bit that I bet you didn't know...drooling is a sign of baby development! Many people assume that drooling is a sign of teething, however you will usually see increased drooling around 4 months, 9 months and 12 months because those are the time frames when they are learning how to control other muscles.  Around 4 months they will be working on their larger core muscles for sitting and when they are concentrating on controlling their larger muscles, they tend to forget to control their smaller muscles (ie - mouth) and they drool.  At 9 months, they will begin working on their larger leg muscles to get ready to walk and again, will forget to control their mouth muscles and then at 12 months, they will begin to work on fine tuning their smaller movements like pinching with their finger and thumb, rather than grabbing with a whole hand.  It makes total sense but isn't common knowledge!! Also, if you are just meeting a new baby, give it time to take you in because they go into sensory overload very easily.  If they are overwhelmed, they will look away, sneeze, fidget and/or cry of course.  Anyway - now you are a little bit smarter in the ways of the mysterious baby :)

I hope all is well in your neck of the woods!

Nursery Pics

We still have a bit of work to do but my mom, dad, Matt and I got a lot done in the nursery over the weekend.  The bedding is still being made and we still have curtains to hang but we hung some decorations on the wall and started to pin the bedding to visualize what it will look like.  Here are some pics...the brighter ones were taken with natural sunlight and show the real color of the nursery wall.

Here is the rocking recliner and tree in the corner of the room.  We added the fabric to the top of the ottoman:

Here is the crib with the mock bedding and a recently hung "STELLA" above:

Here is the dresser with the recently hung frames.  After these pics were taken, we hung the S so it was centered and floating in the frame:

Lastly, here is the bookcase (yet to be organized) with some decorations on top:

I hope you all had a great weekend and enjoy the pics!





Feeling a bit bipolar!

I feel like I have been able to remain fairly "normal" throughout this entire pregnancy.  Of course I've had my moments of anxiety and craziness but nothing too out of the ordinary.  I don't think I've been super demanding or needy.  I haven't asked Matt to go get me something because I craved it.  I haven't cried much or been super emotional.  For the most part, I've been pretty happy and laid back (I think - Matt may say otherwise haha).

BUT NOW...things seem different.  I feel like I'm on a roller coaster of emotion that is far beyond my control.  Some days I couldn't be happier and have more energy but then others I'm so grumpy and on edge!  Poor Matt never knows which wife he is getting!  The worst thing is that I can recognize when I'm being irrational and crazy, yet I can't seem to stop it!  So, it is confirmed...I have turned into a crazy pregnant lady.  Bummer! I was trying so hard to avoid the crazies!  Fortunately, I haven't unleashed the crazy on anyone but Matt.  Unfortunately, I keep unleashing it on poor Matt.  I've tried to explain that it isn't him and I realize I'm irrational.  Thank goodness for a husband with abundant patience!!!

Beyond my bouts of insanity, Stella is doing well and continuing to grow.  I am 33 weeks today so 7 more weeks to go!  She is rolling all over my belly and pushing her little foot and booty into my ribs.  She is reacting more to sound and touch.  I can pretty much always get her to move if I give her a little push first.  I've finished all of the baby laundry that I have.  Her clothes, blankets and toys are all washed and put away somewhere in the nursery.  I'm not sure I have organized things in the best manner so they may not be in their final place but they are at least washed and put away somewhere :)

My parents are coming to visit tomorrow and I'm so excited! They haven't been here in quite some time so they haven't seen the nursery or the house in a while.  I'm really anxious and excited to get my mom's help to organize and make things seem more manageable.  Isn't it funny how moms have that ability?!

I wish you all a happy, happy day and pray you have more sanity than I do at the moment!

Showers & Update...

As you know, last weekend I had 2 baby showers.  One was thrown by our family church and one was thrown by my friends, Diane and Julie.  I am just in awe and amazement at how many people came and how extremely generous everyone was.  We feel very blessed!  Between some of the hand-me-downs and all of the adorable clothing gifts that we received, this baby is going to be one stylish little girl!  Here are a few of my favorite pics.

Church Shower Pics:

Table decorations at church:

Table of gifts:



Quincy and Ally with the beautiful diaper cake made by the Mortimers:

Shower at Mom's house...

Diane, Ally & Julie:

Belly Kiss :)

Gorgeous cake:

Stella wreath on the door:

After we made it home we separated all of the clothes on the guest bed:

Here are some examples of the adorable clothing we received...

From Great Grandma Hedman:

This is a contender for the "coming home from the hospital" outfit:

This dress is handmade and flawless:

Isn't this a fun party dress from Debbie:

I could keep posting picture after picture of all of the amazing gifts we received from embroidered and hand made blankets to boppies to awesome necessities, etc.  As I said, I'm still in awe of how generous all of our friends and family were.  Stella is so lucky to be surrounded by such a special group of people.

In addition to our showers, we arrived home and had our 32 week appointment on Tuesday.  We had our last ultrasound where they did the measurements.  They measure the circumference and diameter of the head and tummy and then the length of the femur bone and they can judge the weight (give or take 7oz they say).  Well...our little Stella is measuring in the 70th percentile at 4lb 13oz.  Our doctor is hoping she will be in the mid 8lb range but said it is possible to expect a 9lb + baby.  YIKES!!!  Not surprising but yikes!

That is all for my traveling adventures! I am officially staying at home for the next 8 weeks or until our little one arrives.  I will keep you all posted on how things are going.

Stella in 3D!!!

Hey everyone! Matt & I had a 3D ultrasound done today and we wanted to share the pictures with you.  We were told she is measuring a week ahead at 4lbs 4oz and she is still supposed to gain about 4.5 lbs over the next 9 weeks.  That means a 9lb baby for me...YIKES!!!!! We have one more ultrasound on Tuesday for measuring purposes...I'm hoping this one just wasn't accurate (maybe wishful thinking but so what!)  She is head down and her foot is right between my ribs and her little booty is what I've been feeling in up upper right corner of my rib.  Only 8 1/2 weeks left and we will get to meet this little one!!

It is hard to say but we think she has my lips and Matt's nose.  What do you think??

Here is a cute one...she is saying "ROCK ON!!!"

This one is slightly creepy cause she looks a bit like skelator but it is her doing a big yawn...she is sleepy like her mom!

Here she is rubbing her little eye

Making a fist

And lastly, squinching up her little nose and face

Off to Seattle this weekend for my baby shower! I will post for you all next week about the shower and the appointment.

Viva Las Vegas!

Matt and I just returned home from our fabulous trip to Las Vegas, thanks to Hewlett Packard, and we had a blast!  I will say that going to Vegas pregnant makes for a completely different Las Vegas experience than my previous visit but we still had so much sober fun together.  We arrived on Friday around 4pm and checked in to the new and beautiful Aria Hotel in the new City Center complex right in the center of the strip.

Once checked into our room, we freshened up a bit and went shopping at the Planet Hollywood Miracle Mile Mall.  Matt immediately found the Volcom store (surprise surprise) and then we just sort of wandered around.  After shopping, we went to grab a quick bite to eat at a Cafe Vettro back in our hotel.  Matt quickly caught on to the fact that everything in Vegas is about 3x more expensive than at home. 

After dinner, we attended the cocktail hour sponsored by HP.  We had bottle service at our table, which was amazing, but I was only able to partake in the juice portion and left the grey goose to everyone else.  The hostess did bring me a fun and yummy juice drink in a martini glass which made me feel special :)  After the cocktail hour was over, everyone began to part ways and head out for a fun Friday night.  I attempted to show Matt some of the strip, since this was his first time to Vegas.  We made it across the street and went in to the Paris Hotel and then back across to Bellagio.  We watched the Bellagio fountains and sort of felt like we were in Ocean's 11.  Matt took a great video of the fountains on his new fancy phone.  My feet and back, unfortunately, did not hold up very well and we started to head back to the hotel.  We both felt lame going to bed around midnight in Vegas but we both were so tired that we just needed some sleep.

Saturday was another day filled with relaxation and fun.  We began the morning bright and early at 7am and went to have breakfast together.  Matt had to leave around 8am to make his 9am tee time at Desert Pines Golf Club.  He departed and I headed back up to the room for a quick nap.  At around 9:30, I headed over to the Aria spa where I had booked a maternity massage.  The spa was amazing!  I felt more relaxed just by walking in the room and drinking the lemon water!  The massage was exactly what I needed and I left the spa feeling completely relaxed! 

I, then, headed over to the concierge desk and purchased tickets to the Cirque du Soleil show Love (The Beatles tribute).  Matt had never been to a Cirque show and I had only seen "O", so this was going to be quite a treat!  After procuring the tickets, I headed off to grab some Thai food from a restaurant in the hotel named Lemongrass.  Matt doesn't like Thai so I figured I would take this opportunity to get some while I was alone.  I ended up seeing some other Zones employees at the restaurant and they graciously invited me to dine with them.  Just about the time I was done with lunch, Matt called to say he was done golfing and heading back to the hotel. 

Once he arrived back at the hotel, he was starving so we went to the Skybox (the sports bar in the hotel) where he ordered a big burger and I indulged in an apple crisp dessert.  We waddled back to our room for a quick cat nap and then got ready to head out to dinner hosted by HP.

We had dinner at Mastro's Ocean Club and let me tell you...HP does it right!  Everything on the menu looked delicious but Matt and I both a great mixed greens salad, a melt in your mouth steak with yummy sides and he had the chocolate cake while I had the cheesecake for dessert!  They followed it up with a champagne toast with the entire group and everyone went their separate ways for the evening.

We hailed a cab (lame I know but come on...I'm 31 weeks and was wearing 4" heels...I wasn't about to walk!) and headed over to see Love.  We made it with just enough time to use the potty and head in to the show.  I think it goes without saying that all Cirque shows are amazing and this was no exception!  The show was jam packed with energy, excitement and thrill!  My favorite parts were the rollerbladers and the trampoline artists.  We made our way back to the hotel and stayed up till 1 am!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!!! Such rebels!!

We woke up bright and early again on Sunday, around 8am and splurged on the breakfast buffet!  We both had a huge and filling breakfast at the buffet and, again, left the restaurant waddling :) We headed back to the room to pack and then met the team at the shuttle to head to the airport.

It was a quick and tiring trip but I'm glad that Matt got to see Vegas and we had one more little escape before Stella comes into our lives! 

Next weekend is off to Seattle for the baby showers and then I'm officially done with traveling until after baby comes!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

New York - Oh What a Night!! (Four Seasons reference)

As you know, I was in NY with my mom last weekend.  Going to NY has always been a dream of mine and thanks to my generous brother and sister-in-law, it became a reality!  Here is a quick recap of our adventures in NYC:

Friday:

We took off pretty early and, much to our surprise, found out we were flying first class.  The only time I have ever flown first class was when Matt & I upgraded on our way to Maui for our honeymoon.  Being almost 30 weeks pregnant, I cannot tell you luxurious and amazing that was!  I felt like royalty and so lucky to be so close to the front restroom, seeing as how I had to use it about 5 times during the flight.  We enjoyed a lovely breakfast and yummy warm cookies and milk. 

Finally we landed in NY and we opted to take a shuttle to the hotel.  Our driver was from Jamaica and gave us a great tour of the areas we were driving through and sites we could see through our windows.  We were the last of the passengers to be dropped off so we got to see a good part of NY.  We made it to the hotel, checked in and rode the elevator up to the 21st floor with two other young gentlemen.  For those of you who know Mom, you won't be surprised to find out that she joined into their conversation and tried to BFF them :) I told her I was putting that in my blog and she told me not to! HAHA! Oh well...anyway - we made it to our room which had the cutest view of these rooftop gardens and plopped down on the bed for a quick rest and refresh. 

After a short time, we made our way down stairs and met our favorite concierge, Jacob.  Boy oh boy...did Jacob have flair!!!  We explained we were first timers and needed suggestions for dinner and what to do with our weekend.  He suggested heading down to Restaurant Row on 46th and said if Becco had availability that we had to go there.  We walked down 8th and found our way to restaurant row.  Everything looked amazing but we made our way to Becco, per Jacob's suggestion, and asked if they had a table for two.  They did!! We were guided upstairs to a lovely little table right in the midst of the restaurant energy.  It ended up being a great little Italian restaurant.  Mom and I both had antipasto, a selection of their homemade pastas of the day and we shared a yummy dessert with decaf coffee. 

With our bellies very full, we waddled back to the hotel and headed up to our room.  Mom and I were at a loss with what to do with the rest of our evening and we were both pretty tired from the trip but neither of us really wanted to just go to bed.  So, I found a comedy club just up the street and we bought tickets online.  The show was an improv group.  It was hysterical and we had a great time.  The show ended around 11:30 and at that point, we headed back to the hotel and went to bed.

Saturday:

Mom & I both slept in which was AMAZING!  When we were clean, dressed and ready, we headed out to a local diner and had a wonderful breakfast.  From there we cabbed it to Soho, per Jacob's suggestion, for some shopping.  We walked and walked and walked up and down those streets shopping.  Our favorite store was this little scent store that had lotions, soaps, fragrances, oils, candles, etc.  All of the smells were intoxicating!  We both purchased some items from that store and continued on our way. 

After exploring Soho, we cabbed it to the famous NY Macys.  We found out that it is 11 stories and each story is 1 acre.  We went to 1 of the 3 Starbucks locations within the 1 Macys :) and had a quick refreshment.  Then we headed to the baby department and bought Stella some outfits from NY!

When we had done enough damage at Macys, we decided to explore Times Square.  We walked by Bryant Park and took sooo many pictures of all of the amazingly bright billboards.  We were mesmerized by all of the hub bub and lights.  There was a giant reader board with news feeds and one was about Google.  Mom tried desperately to get a pic of the word Google on the reader board for Jonathan but didn't have any success. 

It was almost time to head back to the hotel but Matt had tasked me with getting a NY Mets hat so we trekked our way over to the Mets store and got his blue, flat billed, 7 5/8 hat so he would be happy.  Once we could check that off of our to do list, we headed back to the hotel with sore feet (sore round ligaments for me) to get ready to go to dinner and Jersey Boys that evening.

After getting all dolled up, we headed out to dinner at Ruby Foo's.  It was a great Asian fusion restaurant.  The decor and atmosphere were fantastic.  We left completely stuffed and, again, waddled down the street to 52nd and Broadway to the show. 

Jersey Boys was AMAZING!!! If you like the music of the Four Seasons or Frankie Valli then you would love this show.  It isn't your typical Broadway musical.  There weren't dance numbers, jazz hands, etc. but it was entertaining and the audience had electric energy.  I learned so much and had so much fun being immersed in the story of the 4 guys from Jersey that became the Four Seasons.  As we were walking out, we saw one of the actors walking out of the side door.  We ended up getting autographs from the 4 stars and I even got my picture taken with Jarrod Spector, the actor who played Frankie Valli.  Mom and I were saying that we can't imagine anyone playing that part better.  His falsetto was amazing and he sang just like (if not better than) Frankie Valli.  I was pretty exhausted and sore from walking with my heavy belly so we headed back to the hotel after the show and fell fast asleep.

Sunday:

On Sunday we woke up around 8am and headed downstairs for a quick coffee.  We met an interesting old man at the coffee shop and he actually BFF'ed mom, believe it or not.  We headed back up to our room and finished packing, checked out of the hotel and put our bags in storage.  We grabbed a cab and went to visit Ground Zero.  There was a little museum next to the site which we went in and viewed.  It was a sobering experience.  You know how devastating the 9/11 attacks were to NY and our country but viewing the faces and the missing posters really impacted me deeply.  There were tissue boxes all over the museum and it is no wonder why...the personal accounts, the mangled I-beams, the charred fireman suits and helmets...they all painted a picture of how 1 day changed the world as we knew it.  I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to view the pictures and pay my respects up close and personal.

After a bit more shopping, we headed back to the hotel and had brunch at a fabulous little restaurant, Thalia, recommended by my sister-in-law.  The service and food were amazing and we left happy and full.  Sadly, it was time to grab our bags and head back to JFK to fly home.  We hailed a taxi and were on our way.  This began the most horrifying taxi experience of my life.  You always hear about how crazy the taxi drivers are in NY but so far we had really lucked out and not had any crazy drivers...until now. 

First, the driver was on the phone then entire time (using a hands free headset at least).  Next, we never once touched a freeway so we were going up and down side streets of Brooklyn and narrowly dodging pedestrians, cyclists and other buses and cars.  I had to roll down the window a bit to get fresh air so i didn't hurl because of the speed and swerving.  We finally made it safely to JFK and get the heck out of that death mobile. 

After a few hours in the airport, we boarded the plane and began our trip back to Seattle.  We had 1 flight attendant on this flight that we remembered from our flight to NY.  Apparently he was in a great deal of pain on the flight to NY and had an emergency root canal after we landed because his demeanor on this flight was completely different...He was much more pleasant and talkative.  He noticed that I was pregnant and from that point on, he made sure I was taken care of every minute of the entire flight.  I even got 2 delicious cookies - 1 for me and 1 for the baby! YUM!

The trip was everything I dreamed of and more! I am so thankful and fortunate that I was able to have this experience and share it with my mom and my baby-to-be.

Next weekend Matt and I are off to Las Vegas with Hewlett Packard!  I'm a travelling machine the next few weeks and then nothing until baby comes!