The Nursery Is Done!

The title says it all...the nursery is done!

The nursery was originally our guest room--aka "The J-Money Shrine"

The walls were plastered with Justin's basketball memorabilia and let me tell you, it was NOT easy for him to see his shrine taken down.  He honestly wanted to keep the room the way it was, but just add a crib, changing table and a few basketball knick-knacks...I told him, "MAYBE--if it's a boy."

Well, we all know we're expecting a girl, so down went the shrine...and in came new decor!

The guest room (aka J-Money Shrine) on "demo day"

I'm the first person to admit that the nursery is not one bit girly...for some reason, the frilly pink nurseries never spoke to me.  Instead, I liked something a little more whimsical, eclectic and "vintage."  Something that went more with our house than a castle!

Thanks to Target, I found a few "inspirational" pieces to kick-start the nursery decor

Up went new paint and curtains--in came an area rug, a super-worn rocking chair found on Craiglist, the crib, changing table and armoire (also found on Craiglist).  The armoire and rocking chair were scheduled to be refurbished--but before the chair could go to the upholstery shop, we'd have to get Mitzi out of the rocking chair...she LOVED that nasty thing!

And finally, after several months, the nursery is done!  

The pictures turned out a bit "hot" from using the flash, so I apologize!  When the curtains said they were black-out, they weren't kidding--and probably didn't help that I decided to take the pictures after dark, either!  

But anyhow, here it is...our little girl's nursery, full of blue!  lol

For the time being, the area by the armoire is the "Mitzi-zone."  Mitzi's crate and food will be in the nursery until the baby moves out of our room--at that point, we can decorate that area a bit more and make it blend more with the rest of the nursery.  But something tells me Mitzi will continue to be a fixture in the rocking chair--thankfully, it's just not near as nasty as it once was!

Week 37--Insomnia & Gaining An Extra Day

Well, folks, in an attempt to make up for my last novel...I mean, post...I will try to keep this one short and sweet!

This week is week 37 and we find ourselves in the midst of the weekly doctor appointments. 

Last week's appointment went well.  My belly continues to measure "perfectly" and after some poking and prodding, we had a bit of a discovery.   As I've suspected, and even been known to say, this girl is truly "hiding out."  From what the doctor could feel, she and her protective bubble are literally tucked up in my ribcage.  But it makes sense--between the awful, awful stomach pressure and watching my ribs literally move when she kicks, we weren't surprised by the news.  The surprising part, though?  Doctor noticed her head was low, "very low" as he put it...so, either this little girl was REALLY stretched out, or she's going to be a long one!

While at the doctor's office, they did the usual dilation check and while there was a slight change, Dr. Gros gave me his blessing to spend a few days in Kansas City.  The annual Kansas Association of Realtors conference was this week and my graduation from the association's Leadership Academy was to take place on Tuesday.  After a year's worth of traveling for sessions and learning more than I ever imagined I would, I did NOT want to miss our grand finale.  Luckily, baby stayed put and I could "walk" with the other 11 Realtors who were selected to participate!

Tomorrow, we have yet another appointment.  I'm curious about a few things...at last week's appointment, I was still up just a total of 19 pounds, but I feel HUGE!!!  And honestly, it feels like this baby experienced a significant growth spurt since last week, so I'm anxious to see how much weight has been gained!  Justin's curious about the dilation--I really haven't had any contractions (that I know of), so I'm guessing there won't be any changes there.  But who knows--the doctor might have something different to report!

Aside from feeling huge, I honestly do feel pretty good.  I don't feel like I'm just weeks away from giving birth.  I'm still moving around really well, my moments of waddling are few-and-far between, swelling is pretty mild, etc.  There are occasional twinges of pelvic expansion, but hey, I'll appreciate that when it's go time! 

The one thing I'm already missing is sleeping ALL night long!  Justin and I chalk it up to my body preparing for being up throughout the night, but more often than not, I find myself wide awake after 4 hours of sleep...even if I take Benadryl!  I try to fight it and I'll lay in bed for a couple of hours, then I give up and get up for the day...as my mom is known to say, "If you start your work one hour earlier every day, by the end of the week, you've gained an entire work day."  I hadn't always thought if it that way, but it's very true.  Guess I have the combination of her philosophy and insomnia to credit for my productivity!

Week 36--Where Did September Go?!?!

Have you ever had one of those months where you just KNEW you were going to be super busy???  For us, September was certainly one of those months...When we turned the calendar from August to September there was hardly any blank space left--where would we fit in all the day-to-day stuff that pops up?  And now, today is already the first day of October!

It's crazy to think that in just about 4 weeks or so, we'll be welcoming our baby girl to the world...eeeeeeek!  I haven't been the best about taking weekly pictures, but here are some updated belly shots:

Week 33--finally had a stranger comment on my belly!

Week 34

1 day shy of 36 weeks!

And slowly but surely, my feet are disappearing!  When I look down, this is what I see!  On a funny note, my belly button has NOT popped yet--the little "bump" that's now showing is my belly ring...one day, an older lady said, "Look--your belly button finally popped!" and I just didn't have the heart to disappoint her with the news that she was really looking at my body piercing...!

Speaking of baby, we had all of our baby classes this month and took our tour of the Labor & Delivery unit at our local hospital.  Since most of my face-to-face time with clients is in the evenings, it was a bit tricky blocking out 6 evenings for classes and still finding time for clients--plus, all of my other community activities that have evening obligations!  But, I got through it and we even heard a baby being born when we were touring the L&D unit--made it worth skipping out on work!

Work has continued to stay busy.  Many people have asked if I will continuing to work the next few weeks and so far, that's the plan.  I have another agent who will cover my transactions while I'm on maternity leave, but I really do like my clients and my work so much that I don't want to be on the couch, twiddling my thumbs, doing nothing.  Fortunately, during the past month, I have been blessed with four closings, executing a contract on a pending sale and bringing on a new listing--my broker is loving my productivity, but I'm just happy that I could help my clients achieve all of their goals!

I will admit that when I get home from work, I am more than ready to sit down for a minute!  Fortunately, my energy hasn't taken a huge hit, but I'm to the point where I definitely need to elevate my feet.  And when I'm on the couch, that means one thing--the dog has to be on the couch, too!  Mitzi, being the lap dog (or well, belly dog) she is, has finally figured out how to "fit" on my lap without smushing the baby!

And anytime one works hard, you have to play hard!  Otherwise, as one of my favorite movie characters once said, "If you take life too seriously, you'll never get out alive."  Thank you, Van Wilder, for giving me permission to take some time off ;-)

Keeping that advice in mind, we spent one of our evenings at the 2nd Annual CASA Comedy Club fundraiser and let me tell you, it was a blast!  They brought in three excellent comedians from the East Coast--the second guy had me laughing so hard that I was worried I'd start having contractions!  And always the foodie, I have to admit the meal was top-notch, too.  Just can't wait until we go again next year!!!



A few Sundays ago, we scooted down the road to Lawrence to attend my brother-in-law's church confirmation.  The bishop is always present for confirmations and I just had to tease Adam about getting a picture with the "guy in the funny hat."  As a little, little kid, I could never remember the Bishop's title, but I always remembered the funny hat that he would wear!

Before we left town, we stopped by Morningstar's Pizza to pick up our TEAM DAIN shirts.  5 weeks ago, my first cousin, Dain, fell from a roof and shattered his C-5 vertebrae.  Dain's been living out in Washington State for several years now and has been receiving excellent care while in Seattle.  But with his paralysis comes unbelievable expenses and hurdles--being a Lawrence native, the shirts for his fundraiser could be purchased locally and we just had to get our hands on one, take a picture and send it to him!  Dain's updates always put a smile on my face (well, most of the time--sometimes his reality checks and my hormones aren't a good combination!) and we wanted to do the same for him!

Speaking of family--last weekend, my sister and sister-in-law hosted a shower to celebrate Baby Williams.  All I can say is that this little girl is well-loved by so many people and she's not even here yet!

One of the highlights of the weekend was getting to spend it with my former college roommate, Jill.  A few weeks before the shower, she called to say she was coming down from Omaha for the occasion--needless to say, I was beyond excited!  Sometimes, our schedules prevent us from seeing each other for several years at a time--but this year, we've squeezed in three road-trips to see one another!  Kinda helps when there are "milestone" birthdays, weddings and babies to celebrate :-)

The morning of the shower, we did our final walk-through with the painters.  After four weeks of work, the painters were DONE and they could finally move on to another project!  Needless to say, our house took WAY more time than any of us expected...The job was originally estimated to take a week and a half or so.  By the time it was all said and done, they spent two weeks doing prep work, followed by 2 weeks of painting, used 50+ tubes of caulk and did numerous (unexpected) preservation projects.  I guarantee they never want to see our house again!!!  lol

I won't bore you with all of the before's-and-after's, but here are some of my favorite improvements:

Before...

After...

The original mail slot...one of the things I love about our house!  The mail drops directly into our living room--how cool is that?! 

The restored mailbox and hardware.  MUCH more attractive!  lol

The dormer and "hand-crafted" vent before...Always loved the dormer, but HATED the vent

The dormer with the original window afterwards...



The newly painted porch!  There's a total of 9 colors up there!  But fortunately, it doesn't seem like that many :-)  Do love the throw-back blue ceiling and how it makes everything else just 'pop'!  Before the other paint started to fail, the porch was our favorite part of the house--now, we enjoy it even more!

After our walk-through, Justin started into the yard. Having people trample our yard for 4 weeks really did a number on the grass...but, it was also in serious need of being aerated and over-seeded.  Thankfully, Justin loves yard work--he was beyond ready to go pick up the machines and get our yard back in shape!

Running the aerator!  We're not sure if our yard has EVER been aerated, so it will be fun to see if it makes any difference come Spring!

Justin's other project is nearly done, as well!  We now have power to the garage...

The new siding has been hung and the opening has been reframed to accommodate a new door.  Once the door arrives and is installed, the garage will be trimmed out and we'll be DONE for the season! The siding will still need caulked and painted but that can wait until the Spring.  We are so over home improvement projects right now!

And last but not least, last week was our 3rd wedding anniversary!  Woo-who!  It doesn't seem like it's been three years since we got hitched.  Time truly has flown by and now that a baby is getting added to the mix, I can't even imagine how fast the next 10-20-30 years will go!  Scary!

As our anniversary fell in the middle of a busy week, we decided to "celebrate" with lunch on Friday--followed by flu shots at Walgreens.  Could it NOT get anymore romantic?!  lol...next year, somebody better force us to get a babysitter so that we can celebrate with a real dinner, a movie, SOMETHING!  But worst part about being lame?  We had Mexican for lunch and holy hell, my acid reflux kicked into high gear.  It wasn't until Monday that I was able to consume something other than water, Tums and popsicles.  I was absolutely miserable, but thankfully, the pressure on my stomach is just temporary.  A few weeks ago, I shared my theory about this girl coming out with not just a head of hair, but an Afro...after this most recent experience with "heart burn," I'm convinced the Afro has grown into dreads ;-)  Guess we'll find out if I'm right in just a few weeks!

Week 32--Common Questions & Favorite Things

I feel like such a broken record, but I can't believe how fast time is flying by--today wraps up week 32 and tomorrow ushers in week 33!  On Friday, I had my 8-month appointment and all continues to go well.  I'm up a total of 17 pounds and my doctor is convinced I'll gain like crazy during the final weeks...baby's heart rate continues to stay around the 148-152 mark and she's measuring "perfectly."  The doctor still laughs every time I lay down because my belly REALLY disappears when I do that, but  he keeps saying all is well.  And that's what we've been praying for!

Tired!  In need of a nap and a break from the heat!   Allergies have also been crazy and my face has puffed up!

Smuggling a small pumpkin!

As my pregnancy has become more obvious to the outside world, I've started to find that I'm asked the same questions time and time again...I try not to make my answers sound rehearsed, but really, how much can you differentiate a response?!  Most of the questions and answers go a little like this (sometimes, language is edited or detail is left out!)

How do you feel?  Most of the time, pretty darn good and complaint-free.  Some days I wake up feeling like I've been hit by a truck, but hey, that wasn't uncommon before I became pregnant!

Does your back hurt?  Holy hell, it hurts.  So, maybe my answer to the previous question was a lie.  My lower back hasn't given me any problems--but my upper back, right along the bottom of where my shoulder blades meet, has caused tons of misery since about week 18.  Doc seems to think it's a pinched nerve--I seem to think it's a pain in the @$$.  Or, the fact that my back isn't used to supporting so much weight in my chest.  Either way, I hope it eventually disappears!

Do you have a name picked out? Justin and I have a list of names.  First names were pretty easy to come up with--middle names, not so much.  We have a few combinations that we like, but to be safe, we're waiting until we meet the baby to pick a name.  We're just not "sold" on the names and I'd hate to be the fool who "changes" the name once she gets here!  Months ago,  before we knew the gender, we came across a boy's name that we BOTH absolutely loved--if there's ever another child, and Justin's chromosomes decide it will be a boy, we won't have to spend months figuring out a name!

Do you have a birth plan?  Nope.  Last I checked, this little girl has the final say on how she enters the world, so we're just going to roll with the punches.  One thing I don't mind letting the nurses know ahead of time?  I'm totally okay with the use of drugs :-)

Are you scared of labor?  At this very moment, not one bit. 7 months ago?  Most definitely.  I couldn't even read the labor & delivery section of our insurance booklet without nearly losing consciousness.  I've since realized that our childbirth classes will give me the information that I need, I will be in the care of a great team and I'll have Justin by my side (hopefully, he just doesn't pass out!).  Now, coming home with a baby to care for???  THAT terrifies me!

Is the nursery ready?  Almost!  I am SO glad we started on it months ago.  We're just waiting for the rocking chair to come back from the upholstery lady and the room will be done!  Once everything's in its place, I'll be sure to do a "reveal" on here!

What kind of cravings have you had?  None!  For the first 18 weeks, it was more an issue of what could I eat, without making my nausea even worse.  Once I got past that, I waited for the cravings to kick in.  And they just haven't!  The only "staple" in our pantry (or, well, freezer) is a box of popsicles--each night, I lay in bed and munch on two of them so that I can get my kick-counts in.  And usually, baby girl gets her 10 kicks in within the first 5 minutes or so!

Have you had any heartburn yet?  Ha!  Heartburn?!  Are you kidding?!  If the old wives' tale is true, this baby won't be coming out with just a full head of hair--she'll be rocking an Afro!  See, for several years the doctors thought I had Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)...what makes GERD different from typical acid reflux is that I couldn't FEEL the heartburn, even though it was there.  After ongoing problems, we learned that I truly have what's called Laryngopharyngeal Reflux (LPR).   Basically, and this may be too much information, my stomach acid doesn't just stop at my esophagus--it continues up into my larynx/voicebox.  Problem with that?  It causes episodes where I just can't breathe.  I'll wake up in the middle of the night gasping for air--I'll be driving in my car and suddenly, I can't take any air in.  The episodes are short and I'm always fine afterwards, but it's still scary.  If I take my medicine and avoid wheat, no problems.  However, add a pregnancy to the equation and I'm back to nighttime episodes--and now I FEEL the acid reflux.  The burning is atrocious, but I'm ready and waiting to pick out that baby 'fro!













It seems that with every change in life, you find "favorite things" that usher you through the new period.  For J-Money and I, expanding our family happened MUCH earlier than we thought it would and I will never forget how overwhelmed I was by the news.  We had had so many changes in 2012 and were really looking forward to some stability in 2013.  But now, we were going to have a baby?!  How would I ever deal with the changes that were bound to come in the next 9 months?!  Fortunately, there were a few little things that sure made the changes much easier to deal with!

Somehow, I got signed up for weekly emails from multiple companies.  Most of them sucked (hey, just being honest here!) or their links took you to totally different articles.  The one weekly update that I actually appreciated came from Everyday Family.  Soooo very informative and easy to navigate.  Before too long, I actually looked forward to receiving their emails and Justin even enjoyed them, too!

One change that I noticed right away in my pregnancy was the texture of my hair.  It went from being fine and silky to COARSE and dry!  Pre-pregnancy, I could only condition every-other-day...now, I have to use a deep conditioning mask EVERY night!  It will sure be interesting to see what happens to my hair texture after the baby is born...and I'm already mentally preparing myself for the dreaded hair loss!

One of my biggest worries was having to buy a maternity wardrobe.  I've never had an easy time finding pants and now I was going to have to accommodate both a long inseam AND a swollen belly!  Fortunately, GAP's maternity line offered my 37" inseam in some of their pants--and some of their "Tall" section had maternity options, too! 

A lot of the (affordable) GAP maternity pieces bordered on being too casual for work, so I was excited when I discovered that Ann Taylor LOFT had a maternity line...AND they had Tall options, as well!  I just had to make sure to catch one of their sales so that I could actually afford the items!!

I also quickly learned that when it came to dresses and tops, I could score some REALLY cute Pea in the Pod pieces if I surfed eBay or waited for their end of season clearance sales--and, had an internet promo code ready!  I absolutely love everything Pea in the Pod--style, quality, you name it--and would have loved to have my wardrobe be 100% from this company, but I'd have to sell quite a few more houses to make that happen ;-)  And while I'm thinking of eBay--I found quite a few great deals on there, too!  With the help of my tailor, we could make various pieces fit like they should, but at the fraction of retail cost.

When it came to the basic pieces (layering tanks, regular tees, etc), I've had really good luck with Old Navy...for whatever reason, a lot of the stuff from Target fits me funny, but Old Navy has been pretty reliable and oh, so very cheap (again, gotta love those promo codes)! 

As my belly has grown, I've become a huge fan of the Mama Bee Belly Butter by Burt's Bees.  When it comes to lotions, I'm really particular about how they feel going on...and I love the way this belly butter FEELS going on and as it absorbs into my skin.  Oh, and the smell is pretty lovely, too!

One thing I wanted to maintain during my pregnancy was a work-out routine.  My work schedule has never allowed for a "true" routine, but I would try to work out when I could...being pregnant, I try to squeeze in some activity whenever I'm not working 10-12 hour days.  One video that I really do enjoy is the Prenatal Pilates workout by 10-minute solutions.  You have a choice of 5 different 10-minute workouts, so you can do as little or as much as you want.  And the instructor makes great use of the 10 minutes--while doing legs, you're still using your arms, core, etc...and it certainly gets your heart rate going, too!

This next video took my a while to try.  It had GREAT reviews, but looked kinda cheap and weird.  When it arrived, Justin asked if the instructor on the case was a pregnant dude...really?!  You're going to make fun of the video before I even try it?!  The gal is a professional acrobat and yes, is pretty darn buff!  I finally tried the video and I LOVE it!  I can totally see why it had the reviews that it did.  Only downfall?  It takes about 45-minutes to do, so I don't get to use it as often as I'd like to.  But when I do have the time, it's totally worth it!

And the final thing that has made my pregnancy easier and more enjoyable is this guy...

Today, we put together the bassinet that the grandparents ordered for Baby Williams.  Well, not we--Justin.  After putting together the crib and changing table, I realized any furniture assembly needs to be a one-person task!  There are days where Justin drives me absolutely crazy but he's been great during my pregnancy (especially since I have 9 months to drive him nuts!!).  He was a huge help during the first trimester, worked his butt off during the second trimester to support the expense that comes with a baby and now that we're in the home stretch, he's constantly talking to the baby and doing everything he can to prepare for her.  When we meet 7 years ago, had someone told me "that basketball player" would be so enthralled with being a father, I would have laughed at you!  And I would have laughed even harder had you predicted we'd be married and raising a child together!  As we all know, life is full of changes and some of the best changes are those you least expect!!