36 Weeks

I'll keep this one short and sweet today. (Edited to add: Ha! I ramble on forever in this post. Get your skimmin' eyes ready.) Last night, allll night (from 8PM to 8AM), I dealt with a bout of false labor, or a false start, or whatever you want to call it. They were what I would call slightly painful, time-able Braxton Hicks contractions. When I timed them, they were about 3-5 minutes apart, but not painful enough for me to wake Will. And they were WORSE when I laid down! I finally slept from 5-7AM. I got up around 8 and showered when they slowed down considerably. 

I took the hardest nap OF MY LIFE this afternoon (after Mass and the largest Cracker Barrel brunch you ever saw!). You know, the kind where you wake up disoriented and your whole body hurts because you haven't moved in the slightest in over an hour? It was glorious. I'm still having crampy Braxton Hicks contractions but they are irregular (I think  - not really paying attention) and markedly less painful. 

Boo. Let's hope things get going for real soon because we all know baby's on a deadline.

Here we are at 36 (and a half!) weeks:

And same shirt, same pose, same 'do . . . 7 weeks apart. 

Good thing I went up a size when I bought this shirt! And I think my hair put on half an inch. That's attributable for like an extra half pound of weight gain, right? (I was at 43 pounds overall gained at my appointment on Friday.)

I won't be following the usual preg post format because, ehhh, the nap wasn't that good.

This past week was weird. In the beginning of the week, I was my normal tired self, cursing the shopping and to-do lists before me. Then things took a turn on Thursday and I felt amazing. I told the doctor at Friday's appointment that I thought the baby was quite comfortable in there and wouldn't be out for a while! Notwithstanding my efforts to get things ready for him to come out. I started a low dose of evening primrose oil, did a lot of bouncing/pelvic rocks on the exercise ball, and took some Tylenol.

The doctor did the GBS swab and offered to check me for dilation and effacement. As he put his hand on my belly, the baby kicked him as to say "don't listen to my mom, I want out of here!" Yes, I was 2-3 cm dilated and the doctor could feel William's head. (N.B. I was so excited about dilation, I didn't think to ask about effacement. Only later through Dr. Googs did I learn that it's actually a more important sign for when you will go into labor. Oh well. Only a few days until the next appointment anyway.)  The doctor assured me that it wasn't a sign I would go into labor soon, but I was just excited about being 25% of the way done dilating before even going into labor. I'll take it. He told us he thought we'd have a "healthy 7 or 8 pounder" and then told us a story about a 12 pound baby he delivered where the baby's butt got stuck in the birth canal and he had to yank it out. Ha! Noooo thank you.

I didn't have any cramping or problems after he checked me (I was kind of fearing it would be painful, but it wasn't at all) and Saturday (yesterday) was another good day, until I got in the shower and observed my belly contorting to the oddest shapes. It was like the baby was going from the left side to the right side, back and forth. Then, while watching House of Cards (so into this show right now!!), things got painful. The rest is history, as in, I already complained about it in the beginning of this post. 

And now we wait and see if things start up again . . .

This is what he did all weekend. Definitely wasn't watching golf. No way.

. . . while we ponder the structure of a perfectly just society. Or watch Netflix. One or the other.

The Nursery

There's nothing like a three-day weekend to scratch those final pesky to-do's off your list, or in other words, to get your husband to do stuff for you. Without further ado, here is the completed nursery . . . 

All together now, breathe a sigh of relief. Ahhhhhh. 

We went with an Air Force aviator themed nursery as Baby Brez is named after his great-grandfather, William Hugh, who flew B-17s during WWII, and, of course, my hubs William Patrick, just joined the U.S. Air Force (though he prefers being flown to flying). (We can't forget, also, that Baby Brez is named after my own dad and brother, who are both named William as well. It's not weird or confusing, just an awesome name. Maybe we'll go all George Foreman and name all our future sons William.) 

I think perhaps they bear a slight resemblance? Eh? 

Willy Hugh on the left in the 1940s. Willy Patrick on the right at our wedding in 2010. 

Just a little.

It's the chin.

Now that we understand all the onomastics of Baby Brez (don't think I'm smart - I happened to watch a NatGeo special on King Arthur today and learned this word, ahem . . .) and the motivation behind the choice of theme, we can get down to the gritty decor details. 

At the entrance of the room, Will spray painted and hung some old shelves (formerly espresso brown). He also spray painted the letters, which were originally bright pink, blue, and green (from the baby shower), and displayed them with some toy planes that were also leftover decor from the baby shower.

This rocking chair below, given to us a few years ago by Will's parents, was also a dark brown. Will spray painted it white and we added a cushion that would match the gray crib. 

The model B-17 and the B-17 sketch above the closet were also given to us by Will's parents. 

We found the nightstand for $8 at Goodwill and spray painted it to match the rocker and shelves shown above. The B-17 sketch above the crib is a very light poster board material, also something gifted to us by Will's parents that they had lying around in storage. 

On the other side of the room is some storage and a changing table.

You are probably wondering what the heck that window pane thing is. It was a crazy thoughtful and creative Christmas gift from Chris and Rachel, Will's brother and sister in law, who made it with a screen printing contraption that they own. 

On the back of the window pane is a message from Chris and Rach and Will's grandfather's cadet identification card (I believe they just found it online somewhere) containing his actual signature used to create the screen print on the window. Pretty incredible! 

A mother can only hope and dream that her son will have such lovely penmanship.

Below is a cube organizer containing some storage (currently lots and lots of tiny baby socks and some extra sheets). On the backs of five of the cubes, I glued flight maps given to us by Will's late uncle Danny, who was an Air Force vet and air traffic controller. Each map is of an area we've lived: Washington, DC, Daytona Beach, Charlotte, and South Florida.

I stenciled and painted the military alphabet onto another flight map of Florida given to us by Uncle Danny. This was Pinterest inspired . . . so instead of paying $30+ for a couple 8x10 prints, I made this huge poster for about $3 (for stencils and paint).

The boy's potential going-home outfit occupies the changing table . . .

Starting him off on the Momma's Boy track early by making him wear the words "I LOVE MOMMY" across his days old chest and forcing him into baby Uggs. What can I say.

This pair of framed vintage plane prints were nabbed at HomeGoods on a random "let's see if they have anything cute for the nursery" outing while we were still in Florida.

And finally a shot with more detail of the crib, where our dear child will always be watched over, whether it's by Jesus, his controlling parents via video monitor, or the badass Air Force bear. Observe:

We're alwayyssss watching.

Clearly means business.

For inquiring minds, of the items we purchased:

Crib - Walmart

Rug - Overstock.com

Cube Organizer - Target

Changing Table - Amazon

Vintage Plane Framed Photos - HomeGoods

Rocker Seat Cushion - World Market

Red Humidifier - Target

Curtains - Target

Hasta luego. 

35 Weeks

35 weeks down, 5 to go! It feels so recent that I was typing out the words "30 weeks down, 10 to go."  The third trimester is definitely going by fastest of all (though I hear the last month is the slowest/worst - we'll see). This week, Baby Brez is thankfully once again the size of a recognizable piece of produce: a coconut. (Source.) If my hunger/insatiability is any indication, William could be nearly 6 pounds (or more, let's keep it real, I cannot stop eating). 

Not my best look---I could be wearing a shirt that actually fits---but sharing anyway. I mean, what are blogs for? The look is shamelessly stolen from Susan's recent outfit post. Linking up with FLAP for What I Wore Sunday. (Sweater - Target, T-Shirt - Old Navy (very clearly non-maternity), Tank - Old Navy Maternity, Skirt - Motherhood Maternity). There was a baptism at Mass today (with an awesome family we met at our baptism class, btw), where we got to see exactly how our shebang would go down, which has us so so so excited. It was also good to see one at our new parish in action, because I maybe/probably zoned out multiple times during the baptism class. (In my defense, it was from 7 to 9:00 PM, when I'm practically sleepwalking.) 

Daisy, as you know her, had to get involved in the photo shoot. 

I apologize Ace's butt is such a distinctive feature of this shot . . .
but . . . you know it makes the photo.

Will changed before I could get an outfit photo of him (he looked super cute, in my humble opinion), so I'm posting this gem as punishment. That wrinkled stinker. 

Even Ace is rolling his eyes at that outfit choice.

Pregnancy Stuff . . . 

Overall Weight Gain: 35 pounds last time I weighed myself, which was probably a while ago, but we'll just run with it. I really think I may stay within my goal of 40 pounds gained, especially if what I read is true that you stop gaining wait the last week or two. The only thing holding me back will probably be water weight as I'm starting to feel the swell. (Note in the photos above that my wedding rings are on my necklace rather than my hand!) 

Exercise: Squats and walking, but very little of each. Mea culpa. 

Cravings: Still craving the milk! Will told me I should ask our OB "if there is such a thing as too much milk." (Cause of death: MILK. ????) I've also just been hungrier and thirstier in general, which makes sense to me, considering. Put on that weight, little dude. 

Updates:

• My 35 week appointment had to be rescheduled for next week because (gasppppp - how dare he?) my doctor was delivering a baby during my appointment. Hopefully I'll have lots of exciting updates next week. 

• I had my first painful Braxton Hicks contractions yesterday. (I've been having pretty frequent BH contractions for a few weeks, but certainly not painful ones.) I was sitting at a Christmas party gift exchange (yes, a little late, but it's a family reunion as well, so, makes sense?) and had three painful contractions in a row. I got up, started walking, and they went away. We'll see if they actually did anything at my appointment on Friday. 

• Again, I'm starting to feel pretty swollen. My hands, wrists, and face are noticeably larger (at least to me), especially when I get hot, when I can't get my rings off. When I cool down it's fine, but---let's face it---I'm hot most of the time. It was 40 degrees outside today and could have sat outside an hour taking in the sunshine and cool (or, to the non-pregnant, cold) breeze.

• Our due date is in exactly one month. 

Sibling Bump Wars:

Probably only a couple days ahead of me in this pic from last week.

We are getting close! These bump wars are soon to become birth wars. Who will be the first grandchild: MOLLY or WILLIAM? It will be a distinction our children may care about from approximately ages 5 to 8 . . . . Life changing stuff. We will know pretty soon. Alert alert alert - we are over halfway through the dreaded month of January! 

Life Lately (7QTs)

Linking up with Jen today . . . 

1. Wondering what I've been up to lately? Allow this Daisy photo series to demonstrate:

To summarize, I've been a lazy, tired, much less comfortable-looking blob. So so blobby. I haven't been sleeping well at all, which leads to lots of napping/dozing off on the couch. Just trying to follow everyone's advice for things to do before baby: take naps, go to the movies, treat yo'self! Will surprise scheduled me for a prenatal massage yesterday and it was the best.thing.ever. Except that now I need one every day. He's awakened a beast, a massage-loving beast.

2. All those pictures of Daisy are from the past couple of weeks, taken at different times, sometimes in different locations, indicating two things - that one, I take too many pictures of Daisy, and two, Daisy is weird. #thingswealreadyknew 

3. We are planning on finishing the nursery this weekend, but how about another sneak peek? (Can you tell I just want it to be done so I can share everything?)

Here is the last preview . . . 

And now! . . . 

Yep, Daisy's back. She loves the nursery and thinks it's her room. Nope. The rug was a steal on Overstock.com (the price actually went up in this link) and I loveeee it. We needed more red to brighten things up.

4. We are having guests over this weekend for the first time! My little brother is in town with my stepmom and her parents for a family reunion in St. Louis. We finally bought chairs for our dining room table for the occasion:

(Yeah, that's a high chair in the lefthand corner. We're overly excited first time parents up in here.) Can we talk about these gorgeous fabric chairs?

World Market does it again (for half off I might add). I thought I had it bad for the dining room table a la "you got it you got it bad!" - URSHER (I'll stop), but I've never been so in love with a piece of furniture. I think Will would say the same about his big screen TV. You know, to each his own. The other four chairs are from Target, by the way (can't find a link). We wanted to do a bench on one side, thinking it would be cheaper, but alas it was not (Craigslist around here is not impressive!).

No more rocking chair in the dining room.

The end of an era.

5. On the menu . . . Pioneer Woman's perfect pot roast (so delicious and easy - highly recommended!):

Yes, I've made it a couple times already . . . within the past month.

And, since Daisy's birthday is coming up, what's up Swiss Chocolate Cake?

Last year. An excuse to eat cake is an excuse to eat cake.

If I get crazyyyy, I may make this coffee cake that Ana shared for Monday morning. Or we can just polish off the Swiss Chocolate Cake. Either way, we'll be all healthy-like and I will be a very happy, satiated blob.

6. Can I make it through a take without mentioning Daisy or without a picture of Daisy? Here's a cute picture of the boys, lest you think I'm playing favorites:

We were told when we got Ace that he was a Weimeraner/flat-coat retriever mix, which had us skeptical because he is small, under 40 pounds, has a curly tail, and generally looks like neither of those breeds. He did look very labby when he was a puppy:

And his tail was straight.

And now it is not.

Anyway, at the vet this week, his file was officially changed from Weimeraner mix to greyhound mix. Quite the shift. Of course, I'm like "naturally!" but Will just finds it to be hilarious. The lesson here, when adopting puppies: caveat emptor. You really never know what you will end up with. I am one who appreciates the element of surprise.

7. Finally, let's talk about things I can't wait to do once I'm not pregnant anymore:

• Sleep on my back and/or stomach
• Go running
• Walk the dogs without fear of losing my life
• Put shoes/pants on without grunting (even though Will finds it to be sooo attractive)
• Drink black coffee again
• Try all the beers Will has been brewing (He's bottling the IPA today and will start a Chocolate Maple Porter and then a Jalepeno Saison - I don't even know what those are but I still want them in my belly)
• Hang out with my new bestie, Billy Brez, and bombard you with pictures of him instead of Daisy

That's it! Sorry I just wasted your life with this post. Have a great weekend. Daija, I promise there will be a 35 week bumpdate this weekend! It will be okayyyy.

Sunday Snow Day

Despite all my well-deserved skepticism, the weather people were right this time and we've been dumped with almost a foot of snow. As I type, poor Will is outside shoveling the snow from our driveway in 14 degree temps and 20 mph wind gusts.

Daisy shows off her snow beard.

Besides that whole back-breaking-manual-labor thing, Will has actually been having a ton of fun in the snow. (Nope, I haven't made it out. I went in the garage, does that count?) If you've been following us on Instagram, you've already seen some all of the fun we've he's been having, but here are a couple more shots from my DSLR. 

The good old tiki man. Last time you saw him, he was sweating it out in the sauna that is South Florida.

I can't say for sure, but I think he likes it here.

Aaaand our snow day concluded four straight hours of Downton Abbey.

Perfection.