reflecting on my pregnancy... Who's ass is this anyway??

Faced with only 7 days of pregnancy to go, I thought it would be fitting to take a few minutes to reflect on this miracle.

I am blessed and lucky to have been able to concieve and carry a healthy full term baby.

I have gained nearly 40 lbs. I hear that a lot of this weight is dispersed in various areas, blood volume, placenta, baby, etc. but I'm pretty sure most of it just went straight to my ass.

It is cool to park in the "expectant mothers only" spot at the mall and grocery store.

I have given up alcohol and caffeine for 39 weeks. This is a miracle in itself.

Strangers and friends wait on you and treat you like you're handicapped for 9 months, carrying things, opening doors, smile at you and congratulate you when they see your tummy. ("your cute little baby bump" )

Strangers and friends ask you "when are you due?" and " do you know what you are having?" a million times a day. To them its small talk. To me its really annoying and... there is nothing little about this "bump".

The first time you feel the baby move you're filled with joy and wonder and can't wait to get everyone else to feel the miracle of the life inside you.

At 9 1/2 months this child, with its own free will, is doing yoga, jumping jacks and kick boxing in there at all hours of the day and night with absolutely no concern for my sleep patterns or daily routine. I swear its like abuse and one morning I'm going to look down and see limbs actually sticking out.

I have been lucky enough to never have experienced morning sickness.

I have, however, experienced pain in every single cell of my body. My back hurts, my legs hurt, even my skin hurts. I have some new little red spots on my face and neck that dont go away. I simply don't recognize my own ass or the logs that have replaced my legs. My once tiny and bejeweled belly button is barely an indentation now. My feet are so swollen that I can only stuff them into one pair of flat slide ons that are barely a step up from crocks.

My boobs have grown 3 cup sizes. I am a full C for the first time in my life!!

Having full C's is pretty irrelevant when your belly is 38 inches around. The boob to belly ratio is a definate factor.

I spent a small fortune on some pretty adorable maternity clothes.

There is nothing adorable about the belly panel on maternity pants or maternity underwear.

Its a GIRL!!!!!!

There is no con to this one. :)

I got to paint a room in my house PINK and buy frilly dresses, hair bows, tights with ruffles on the butt, and patent leather mary janes.

See above. We are going to be broke.

I am having a scheduled C-section in 7 days and don't have to suffer through a long painful labor.

I am having a scheduled C-section in 7 days and will have my stomach cut open and a child removed from it. I will have to go home and recover while taking care of a newborn. I am scared.


Ok, ok. All in all I have had a super easy pregnancy with no complications. I am thrilled to no end to be having the little girl that I'd wished for for so long. I may never get to experience this again if Scott gets his way and am glad that I journaled through the whole thing. In a few days it will no longer be just me and my little boy and that makes me a little sad. (but he is sooo super excited and I am glad for that) I'm excited to watch Scott become a father and Braeden become a big brother. I can't wait to see what color her hair is!!!!! :) I look forward to holding her and rocking her and seeing her in all of her little outfits.

I am definately ready to have this baby!! 7 days are going to DRAGGGGGG by.

Trick or Treat

I was lucky enough this year to be able to visit Braeden's school for his Halloween parade and party. That's his teacher Miss Green. We like her alot.

Here he is waving at me!! Hi Bud!! I do have to say, that even though the school sent home a note that said no weapons, masks, or gruesome costumes there were still alot of them. (see the kid 3 in front of him with the full face mask. I don't even know what he is supposed to be, how is that safe??)

During the party the kids did a mummy wrap game. That's B under all the toilet paper! :)

He was an awesome Luke Skywalker if I must say so myself...and the only one in his whole school.

Our blow ups were a big hit in the neighborhood. It was Braedens job to plug them and unplug them everyday.

This was our first year in the new neighborhood, and we weren't real sure what to expect as far as Trick or Treating goes. There aren't a whole lot of little kids on the block. We only had about 40 kids come to the house but I was happy to see that just about every house in the development was home and passed out candy.

As you can see he got quite a load!! We will be eating candy for a while. When he got home he poured it all out on the floor, separated it by candy and made a worksheet with tally marks to see what he got the most of. Suckers, jawbreakers and M&M's were the top three, followed by snickers and reeses.

"Pumpkins not punkins, Mom"

These are our pumkins!! We always pick pumpkins that match our family. Tall one for Scott, Medium for Braeden,... this year mine had to be FAT. :) and B picked a tiny one for baby. He is suddenly attached to Bubbin again(the stuffed rabbit) and this pick shows where Bubbin fits in our family. "He's older than Liesl".

"Mom, I can make this face too."

Braeden did all the carving by himself this year, all I did was scoop out the guts because I just can't sit for any length of time on the floor. But he did an awesome job!!

We are looking forward to Trick or Treating in our new neighborhood this year.

preparing for baby

Baby's room!!!! I just fell in love with this bedding, mostly because of the quilt (even though I know you can't even use it). So I thought it was pretty clever to hang it on the wall.

We've been getting ready for the baby to come for a long time now. I finally got her room finished. Doing so also meant re-doing Braedens room since he was using the baby furniture. Above is the little flower border I painted, it matches her bedding.

Her bassinet, it has lamby sheets that I just love and the blankey was mine.
I have always loved this furniture even when it was Braeden's.

This is the project I made out of the old cards I found. They were the cards my mom recieved when she had me. I thought they were so pretty and dainty. The little booties hanging on it were mine too.

Her crib set. The little bear was a gift to Scott's little cousin Keith from Scott's Mom. Keith was very generous to give it up for her.

This is what Braeden's room looks like now. We drove 120 miles to IKEA to get him this bed and desk. It took days to put together and then parts of it didn't fit. My dad had to come over and cut 5 inces off the bottom and 4 inches off the end of the desktop.

Then he had to remove the exisiting ceiling fan and install a new light fixture so Braeden could get in and out of bed.

He loves having a bunk bed, I miss being able to lay in bed with him to read at night, and
when I check in on him at night
I just have to listen for breathing because I can't see his sleeping face. :(

Baby Shower 9/27

My wonderful family gave me a baby shower on September 27th. It


was at Demetrios in Parma. The place is an old family favorite around here and serves German and Hungarian comfort foods.

Lots of friends and family came and I felt truly blessed. Baby showers are way more fun than Christmas!! I've waited a LONG time to get to play in all the pink girlie stuff and I loved every minute of it!!

The baby got just about everything she could possibly need.

catching up

We have have had a busy fun fall. We had to make sure we squeezed in an Indians game. Braeden just loves them. We went on blanket giveaway day and Braeden even got a game ball.

Spent some time at Papa's new house and Braeden got yet another lesson in tractor/lawn maintenance. He really can't wait till he can do it by himself.

Scott got some of his Dad's Browns season tickets this year. I will only go to the games while its warm, so this will probably be my one and only game this year. The Browns lost of course but it was still nice to spend some time with my hubby. We're trying to squeeze in as much as we can before baby comes.

We've also hit the movies, a few great restaurants and a Cavs game.

our housewarming and Scott's Birthday.

We had our housewarming and birthday for Scott this weekend. I spent 3 days cleaning and decorating!! my house looked great!! The best part of having company is getting the house cleaned. The worst part is cleaning it again after they all leave... :)

There was more food than we could eat, and we had absolutely a perfect day weather wise.

I insisted that photos be taken of me pregnant since there are like none... and I just love these. This is me and Scott's cousin Karen.

Scott had homemade chocolate cupcakes on his actual birthday, and this cake for the party.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOTTY!!

The boys always play cards. Matt was the big winner this time!

Ladies chattin it up and drinkin wine. Of course Jacqui always workin on that Blackberry.

Braeden had the full attention of all of Scott's friends all day. They played basketball, baseball, and cornhole. At the end of the night he talked them into UNO.

We had Dennis' fresh popped movie popcorn by the fire. YUM!!!

I could barely move by the end of the night and had to spend most of Monday on the couch. I really couldn't even get up. We ate left overs all day. (Grandma's cucumber salad, blueberry jello salad, pasta salad and icecream. This poor baby ;) )Mmmm.