Our New Home

Many people have been asking me for pictures of our new home. I wanted to wait until we were settled in before I posted any pics. Luckily, having all of our visitors this week forced us to get the house nice and clean. It took a while but we are just about settled in and have unpacked all of our boxes.

Below is a slide show of our new home. We are so grateful for the job Doug Cook and his team did. Our new home is more beautiful than we could have ever imagined. It is by far the best thing about living in Michigan.

23 Weeks and 29 years old!!!

Today baby girl H turned 23 weeks old and her mommy turned 29!! At 23 weeks baby girl H has now developed her sense of movement, apparently she can even feel me dance. To bad her mommy has not been feeling the urge to get her groove on. Blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that her ears are picking up are preparing her for her entry into the outside world. Loud noises including Nutmegs barking are becoming familiar to baby H now. I am sure baby H will be more prepared to meet her big sister than Nutmeg will be to meet her.

Today Lauren turned 29 years old.... her last b-day in her 20's! Chad did an amazing job making Lauren's b-day special. Chad started with making dinner for Lauren last night. Chad made awesome steaks!! Unfortunately, there was a slight injury while Chad was cooking as he burned his finger pretty bad. Chad and Lauren spent the rest of the night icing his finger while we watched the movie State of Play.

This morning Chad got up early and got Lauren her favorite Gingerbread Latte and flowers. Lauren also got an Ultra HD flip video camera, tickets to a Holiday Show at the Midland Arts center and an I Love my Mommy onesie (from the baby). Lauren loved all of her gifts from Chad! Chad also took Lauren to brunch at Cafe Zinc to celebrate. The rest of the day was spent getting the house ready for Thanksgiving. We will be hosting both sets of parents and Chad's sister Kelsy this year. We were so tired from cleaning we went out for a low key dinner. Neither of us deal with the thought of cooking. Overall it was an amazing day thanks to all the little special things my hubby did for me. Thanks baby for making my day so special!!!

How far along? 23 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: 10 lbs

Maternity clothes? I am in them all the time. I can still wear some regular clothes, but my maternity clothes are much more comfy.

Sleep: Pretty good, but I keep falling asleep on my side and waking up on my back.

Best moment this week: Celebrating my B-day with Chad

Movement: While we were lying in bed this week Chad got to feel the baby hiccuping.

Food cravings: Anything sweet

Gender: Girl

Belly Button in or out? In

What I miss? My friends :O(

What I am looking forward to: Thanksgiving

Milestones: Chad being able to feel the baby a lot.

22 Weeks

Starting this week, the bump.com only updates baby H's size monthly which means unfortunately we will not get our next fruit comparison for another 4 weeks. Baby H is now able to hear outside noises. I hope she likes Christmas music because I've burned a CD full of X-mas songs to listen to while we are in the car. Baby H is also settling into sleep cycles, snoozing about 12 to 14 hours a day.

I started my X-mas shopping this week and it's been hard. I always try to start with my two nieces and nephew because buying toys is fun and usually easy....well not this year. I feel like the toy manufacturers have put out all the same toys they had out last year. My favorite person to shop for, perhaps because he is the easiest, is my father. Every year he tells me what he wants, which is the greatest gift he could ever give me for the holidays. I wish more people would be honest enough to do that. This way they get exactly what they want and I do not have to go crazy!! I also did a little bit of shopping for X-mas decorations. I am really looking forward to making our new home look pretty for the holiday:O)

We received our first piece of furniture for the baby this week, our glider and ottoman. Chad put it together as soon as he got home from work and it's comfortable. This might be the best investment I ever make for the baby since Chad likes sitting in it so much I know it will help to get him to feed and rock the baby more!!! The day we got the glider Baby H also got a present from Auntie Kristy and Uncle Joe. They bought her a beautiful Caden Lane blanket to match the bedding set we finally decided on. You can see the blanket in the picture with the glider. The blanket is so pretty and soft I know our little girl will love it!!!

Now that we decided on bedding the next decision is the colors to paint the nursery. Chad and I are going to have a chair rail installed in her room and want to paint one color on the bottom and another on the top. We are debating between whether to do a combination of pink and brown or green and pink. We went to The Home Depot on Friday and bought samples of 8 different colors. Today I painted a sample of each color on the wall to compare them.

How far along? 22 weeks:)

Total weight gain/loss: 9 lbs

Maternity clothes? I purchased a bella band this week to use with my regular dress pants.

Sleep: Ugh....last night I did not fall asleep until 1:30am

Best moment this week: Our yummy dinner at Ruth Chris Steakhouse

Movement: yup, she is swimming in there

Food cravings: Anything sweet.... thank goodness I finished all the Reeses from Halloween

Gender: Girl

Belly Button in or out? IN

What I am looking forward to: My first appointment with my new OB next Monday!

Milestones: We finally picked a bedding set.

21 Weeks

Sorry for skipping week 19 & 20, but I was away visiting family and friends!

Yippy......I am now halfway through my pregnancy, just 19 more weeks to go!!! Baby girl H is now the size of a banana. According to the bump.com, baby girl H is gulping down several ounces of amniotic fluid everyday, both for nutrition and to practice swallowing and digestion. Apparently, her taste buds are already working and once she is born she will respond best to the tastes she has already had via amniotic fluid. I really better start considering what I put in my mouth or else this baby is going to be demanding Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and Starbucks gingerbread lattes when she comes out.

Chad and I made our first big purchase for Baby Girl H yesterday. We bought all the furniture for the nursery. We drove two and a half hours to Baby USA in Grand Rapids to find the brands we were interested in. We focused on brands that were highly rated in my Baby Bargains Book, otherwise known as that bible for having a child. For those of you who are not familiar with this book, it is incredible. It gives reviews and recommendations for everything you need for a child (furniture, car seats, strollers, clothes, etc.). The book also tells you the best ways to save money!

When we got to the store we were very pleased with the layout. They had a very large selection of furniture and each of the sets were on display as a mock nursery. Chad and I had two big decisions to make, color and brand/style. We focused on color first as that would narrow down the style possibilities. When we first talked about furniture we decided to go with a dark wood (cherry or espresso) so that the furniture would be gender neutral and could be used for all of our future children regardless of sex. Then when we found out baby H was a girl, Chad brought up the possibility of getting her a white set and having her keep it. The amazing thing about today's baby furniture is that many cribs convert into a full size bed so that children can continue to use it as they grow. I thought it was cute that Chad wanted to make her room more girlie so I went along with the possibility of buying white. The only problem we had was that I had already ordered a cherry colored glider. After debating back and forth we decided to go with an antique white finish figuring that she will not always have the glider in her room. Then came the tough choice of which set to purchase. Luckily not every style was available in antique white so we quickly narrowed our choices down to the Creations Summer's Eve set or the Munire Newport set. Chad being Chad said it was my choice. In the end I liked that the Munire dresser and hutch were a little larger and the set overall seemed more mature and not so baby looking.

The sales women helped us put our order in and of course took our AMEX. In the end we got the crib, changer/dresser combo, hutch and mattress. We are also hoping to get a nightstand, but she had to see if one is still available. The furniture should be available for pick up in mid-December! I know Chad can't wait to get it and put it together! Next up for us is to pick bedding for our little girl, which for us has been a nightmare. I have searched every brand of baby bedding and cannot find one I love and Chad and I agree on. I think the biggest problem is Chad would like to do our little girls room Brown and Pink and I want to do it in a light green and light pink. This debate has been going on for two weeks. Hopefully we figure it out before she gets here!!

How far along? 21 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: 7 lbs

Maternity clothes? Just started wearing them while I was in NJ. It is amazing I actually look pregnant in them.

Sleep: I was up for 4 hours on Friday night....not fun.

Best moment this week: Seeing my Chaddy after being apart for 10 days.

Movement: I feel her a lot when I am in the car with the music on. She must be a dancer although I do now know who she gets that from.

Food cravings: Reeses Peanut Butter Cups

Gender: Girl

Belly Button in or out? In

What I miss? Mojitos

What I am looking forward to: Thanksgiving

Milestones: Buying nursery furniture

I took this weeks belly pics after Chad and I returned home from our date night. I purchased this maternity dress so that I would have one for the upcoming holidays and for when Chad and I go out, which is not often in Midland.

Me in my normal workout clothes.

Trip to NJ

Right after our ultrasound on the 26th I got on a plane and headed to NJ for the week. The main reason for my going home (NJ is still home to me) was to spend Halloween with my three favorite munchkins....my two nieces and nephew. Halloween was a lot of fun! Nicolette was a vampire princess, Frankie was Batman and Ella was Tinkerball. It was an amazingly warm day on the east coast with the temperatures in the high 60's. After about a half hour Frankie looked in his basket and was so amazed by all the candy he got that he asked to go home. We trick or treated for about another half hour before we went home and the kids got to dig in to their goodies:O)

The rest of the week included visiting Natalie and her girls and Francesca and her adorable new little guy Connor. The visit was also very productive as my mom and I visited numerous baby stores in multiple states. My mom and sister-in-law helped me start my registries, which was so overwhelming. Much more so than for our wedding. I also spent days searching for bedding for our little girl....I guess I am being very picky.

Baby girl H also got her first dress and Yankee outfit curtesy of grandma Carolyn!!!

Grandma also bought her bows for her hair (hopefully she will have some) and a cup with her name on it!!!

I also did some shopping of my own and bought some maternity clothes for myself at the Gap.

As you can see from the pictures I had a lot of fun with this. The Gap has fake bumps in their dressing rooms so that you can see what size you will need for when you get further along in your pregnancy.

My mom and I both did so much running around that week (we had to fill the car up with gas three times) that we both needed a vacation at the end of it, but it was so awesome to be home :O)