One week left....

Until my due date!!!

My bags are packed and the bassinet is ready for when we bring the baby home. :-)

I cannot believe how fast 39 weeks has gone by.

As I think back over the entire pregnancy, I realize that I just don't have too much to complain about at all:
I was a bit nauseous in the first trimester but no actual throwing up (in fact I only threw up a few times the whole pregnancy and once I know it was because I gagged on my prenatal vitamin, haha). Sure, I have been tired pretty much the entire time but still managed to work up until a few weeks ago and keep the house (somewhat) clean and organized....including dealing with a major household renovation and the packing and unpacking associated with it (much thanks to my husband for being a HUGE help with that). No stretch marks, no ginormous amount of weight gain (a bit over 20 lbs but less than 30 lbs, without giving away the exact number...weight gain is still weight gain!), I feel like my feet are swollen but my ankles still look like ankles, my belly button didn't pop out, some heartburn but not constantly, passed my glucose test (trust me, I was worried about that one)...and have generally been in good health the entire time, if not somewhat uncomfortable as the days go by.

I hope that a good pregnancy does not equal a a bad labor/delivery. I guess I will find that out soon enough.

We are very ready for baby Sophia to make her entrance to the world. Her room is ready, the house is ready, her parents and grandparents and aunt and uncles are ready. Maybe not her cousin Cooper, but I think he'll like her when he sees her! I can't wait to hold her and feed her and dress her up in all her cute little clothes. I am excited to be a mom and excited that Michael and I are going to be parents to a little girl that we already love. :-)
Hurry up, Sophia, we are waiting for you!!!!

Baby bump....

I know I only posted a few pics before of my growing belly...and with just one week until my due date I guess I can post some now to show the progression of the second half of my pregnancy....we have been taking them, just not posting! I am definitely ready to post some pics of the actual baby, not just my expanding stomach!!!

26 weeks

30 weeks

34 weeks

38 weeks

Baby Sophia's Room

Another accomplishment in the last couple of weeks has been getting the nursery ready for the coming of our little girl. Everything is now ready for her arrival, clothes all washed and hung up or folded neatly, everything in its spot, just waiting to be used when she comes home.
Changing area....still need something to hang on that wall.

Sleeping area....above her bed says "Goodnight moon, goodnight air, Goodnight noises everywhere" from the book Goodnight Moon.

View from the door

Where mommy and daddy can relax....

Yes, both the closet and the wardrobe are FULL of her clothes. :-)

I am so excited to bring her home to her new room...it smells so nice and is so neat and clean (for now, haha) and I think she will really like it. Now that everything is finally ready, all we need is for her to finally get here!!!

A great week.....

Besides getting a new car last week, my birthday also happened to fall on one of the days. My sister, bro-in-law and nephew came into town and me, my sis and mom did a good bit of shopping. :-) We also all went out to Maggianos (yum) to dinner to celebrate. On the actual evening of my birthday Michael and I had a relaxing evening of dinner and presents and he surprised me with flowers and delicious cupcakes from a new cupcake store near our house (which I didn't know about but will definitely be visiting more often!). Despite being 9 months pregnant (and not celebrating with the usual adult beverages/activities expected on a birthday), it was a wonderful day and I am so happy that I had my whole family here to share it with and my wonderful husband to spoil me and make the occasion great.

Here are a few pics:

With my amazing husband!

Beautiful flowers!

Yummy cupcakes!!

Something new.....

This last week was my first official week of no work....I envisioned sleeping in late and lazing around the house in my pajamas all day long watching tivoed shows....that sure didn't happen! I was as busy as if I had put in a full 40!! But a lot of things got accomplished and it was a very good week.

At the very beginning of the week, Michael and I got a new car (well, used, but new to us). We have been looking for the better part of the year and just haven't found the right thing at the right price and had been worrying a little bit about how to make either my 2 door car or his truck work for an infant. We really hadn't come up with much. After two almost purchases of 4-door sedans (thankfully, with the help of our awesome mechanic, we found out they had both been wrecked and not worth the asking price) we saw a nicely priced SUV and decided to check it out. I will backtrack a little to mention that I might be a tad of a car snob...as in, I drive a 6-cylinder, leather seat, sunroof, 2 door car that I LOVE and pretty much just wanted a bigger version of that car....turns out all those little extras add up on the price tag of any larger or newer version of my car. Michael was only concerned with the safety and price of whatever we got, and in that order. Since he was (probably) right about what we needed to focus on I had pretty much dropped all criteria except leather (haha....wouldn't that be so much easier to clean up if a baby threw up on it??!!) and we were looking at Accords, Altimas, and the like.

Anyway, we go check out this SUV on a whim and it was immaculate and the price seemed decent. But I was so nervous that our mechanic would once again say no way. Turns out the thing was taken care of like a baby and in excellent shape. Ok, that was good news....now the other issue of price....Michael did a great job of negotiating and the best part is we ended up getting it and not increasing our payment (of Michael's truck that we traded in) at all! We stuck to our plan of only having one car payment (my car is paid off) and we are even saving on insurance a little bit! Here are a few pics of what we ended up with......and I couldn't be happier!!!

In the end we got something that we both love, I didn't have to drop any of my criteria and we didn't go over our planned budget on this Acura MDX...it's got leather, V6, loaded with all kinds of features we haven't yet figured out...tons of room and low mileage....plus not one single mechanical issue and great safety ratings....I will definitely be driving this for a long while and am glad that we didn't just settle and ended up finding the perfect baby-mobile for us!!

My Wonderful Baby Shower

This blog is a little late but on July 24 my sister and mother threw me a fabulous baby shower at my parents house. I am so lucky to have such wonderful family and friends who gathered to "shower" me with gifts for our little girl...who will be here so soon! Only about a month to go, I am definitely ready for her to make her arrival.
Here are just some pictures that I had on my camera of the wonderful day (see my sister's blog for many more great pics).

With the party host, my sister!

Wonderful spread of food

Beautiful cake (thanks Tracey!)

Everyone was SO generous

Love this from my bro...we'll see
if I share it with the baby, haha!!! :-)

The day was really wonderful and made me so excited for the coming of baby Sophia. Thanks so much to my sister, Sara, and my Mom for making the day so wonderful!