27 Weeks and Progress!!

 

 Picture taken today at 27 Weeks 1 Day

How Far along: 26 Weeks 1 Day (Officially in my 3rd Trimester!!)

Weight gain: 23 pounds as of my last appointment about 4 weeks ago.  I have my next appointment tomorrow and will find out the new number (if the snow doesn't keep me from it).  Although, I'm a bit nervous.  Baby B definitely had a growth spurt over the last couple days.  I eat constantly!  I bring a ton of snacks/small meals with me to work (everyone makes fun of my gigantic cooler bag)...I eat and after 30-45 minutes I'm starving again.  Not just hungry...starving....like stomach is going to eat itself starving! 

Maternity Clothes?: Almost exclusively.

Stretch Marks?: Nope...still slathering with Palmers every day.

Sleep?: Not too bad the last few days (*knocks on wood*)...I generally don't go to bed until about 12:00-1:00 am so I pass out pretty quickly and then the alarm goes off just before 6 and I snooze until about 6:15-6:30am depending on the day...which works out great, because it seems to be right about when the baby wakes up. 

Best Moment this week?: Ordering the baby furniture and picking out the paint for the nursery this past weekend!!  See more below...

Movement?: Yes!  Another reason I know Baby B had a growth spurt the last couple of days...he has been moving like I have never felt him move before.  Even Scott was shocked when he felt my stomach last night.  He said it felt like the baby was fighting to get out!

Food Craving?: Nothing in particular...I guess that's a good sign since they say you crave things when you're body isn't getting something it needs.

Gender?: Boy!

Labor Signs: No thank you!

What I miss?:  My body...I was looking through our wedding photos last night and realized just how skinny I was!  And not to get too graphic (but after all, it is a baby blog), but I miss my boobs...we're getting into National Geographic territory over here!!

What I'm looking forward to?: Painting the nursery this weekend and picking up the baby furniture.  We actually got a bit of a shock tonight when Babies R Us called to tell us the furniture had come in.  When we ordered it on Saturday night, they said it would be 7-14 days.  We're not ready yet!!

Emotions: Undecided.  A bit of a cop out, I know.  But I have very mixed emotions this past week:

• Extreme anxiety after realizing we only have 89 days until my due date and felt like we weren't prepared at all.
• An extreme sense of accomplishment and excitement over ordering our nursery furniture and picking out the paint and theme for the nursery.
• Sadness and (slight) crying over commercials such as the 3 day walk for breast cancer commercial and a preview of the interview with the football player from Rutgers who, earlier this year, was paralyzed during a game.
• Slim patience and quick tempers.  For example, when I was waiting in line at the Redbox tonight with six other people waiting for 20 minutes for the woman at the machine to read the description of EVERY movie, including Face/Off.  At which point I informed her that this wasn't Blockbuster and to move it or lose it.  Although I did get a round of applause, so maybe that wasn't so much the pregnancy hormones!
• Nervousness and apprehension over Scott leaving on his first business trip in a couple of weeks, even though I'm super proud and excited for him.

There are so many other emotions I have felt this week, it's hard to keep track!

So....I promised you more information about the nursery.  Last week, Scott and I became very nervous that we had yet to completely clear out the nursery, decide on a theme (let alone paint colors), or decide on/order the baby furniture.  So we vowed to go out and make a decision this past weekend...and we actually did!

We started off at a store called Simply Baby where we found a set we really liked.  Let me preface:  Initially, we had decided against a convertible crib.  We never really liked the high backs or the fact that they really only looked good up against a wall (we wanted to put the crib more towards the center of the room).  We had also been looking for very light/natural colored furniture.  

Well, at Simply Baby, we weren't able to find ANYTHING in the natural wood color in a brand we wanted that wasn't priced through the roof.  However, we did like a really nice Pecan colored set from Munire (the brand I wanted to stay with due to the great reviews in Baby Bargains and on Consumer Reports, as well as the semi-reasonable price tag as compared to other brands).  It was a convertible crib, but we decided that since this furniture was so sturdy, we would want Baby B to grow up with it and the convertible crib was the right choice.  However, once we priced out the whole set, it was more then we had originally planned to spend and, while we didn't mind spending it, we wanted to make sure we didn't like anything less expensive through Babies R Us first.

So, of to Babies R Us we went...luckily, Munire sells a line called Baby Cache at Babies R Us.  Same great workmanship, just a bit less fancy and a much more consumer friendly price tag.  First, I have to say, we NEVER imagined it would be so hard to find natural colored nursery furniture, but apparently espresso is the new fad.  

While we were looking through the Baby Cache catalog in Babies R Us, we saw it...it was perfect: right coloring, very simple.  Just what we wanted!  And without further adieu...

We also decided on the colors and theme for the room.  We have decided on a nautical/beach theme:  I wanted beach, Scott wanted Nautical, so we're going to do a bit of both (both subtle and not over the top though, since we both prefer minimalism here). 

We have decided to paint the lower part of the walls a darker blue (Valspar Seaside Retreat Stormy Waters) and the top part of the walls a lighter blue (Valspar Seaside Retreat Blue Mirage) with a whie chair rail between the two colors.  We thought it would go really well with our "sand" colored rug and the natural colored furniture.  Very beachy!

And the most excited part...we saved a TON of money with coupons and other deals, leaving me enough money in the baby furniture budget to buy the baker's rack/hutch I've been dying to buy for the kitchen. We finally found one we really like.  It hasn't been the easiest thing, since we preferred closed cabinets and those usually run from $1500+, which were NOT willing to pay.  But we found this one for a fraction of the cost and jumped on it!  So, hopefully, it will be here in about a week or so and I can start on my kitchen reorganization!

It matches perfectly with our cherry cabinets and black/cherry kitchen table set. 

I think that's it for this week...stay tuned for the completion of the nursery!