34 Weeks

How far along: 34 weeks

How big is baby:

The Bump says that I currently have a butternut squash inside of me.

• He's recognizing and reacting to simple songs, if you're singing them. (If you're not, start! He may find them soothing after birth.)
• He's also urinating about a pint a day.

Stretch marks/belly button: Yup.. still have stretch marks. I think they are kind of slowing down. It seems like there was one week that they all popped up and then since then there hasn’t really been anything new. Belly button is still an innie, though shallow.

Sleep: Okay. I am mostly interrupted by the need to pee and usually once a night I will need to take some Tums.. Heartburn itself doesn’t seem to wake me up, but when I wake up and need to pee, the heartburn is there and I won’t be able to get back to sleep without a couple Tums.

Diet/Cravings/Aversions: Nothing really. Maybe Swedish fish still. No real aversions either.

Movement: Yes, lots. Especially at night time after supper when I am just sitting on the sofa. I can see my stomach bumping around and wonder what the HECK it is doing in there.

What I'm loving: At my doctor’s appointment I was able to ask a couple of questions about delivery that I’d had and the doctor/practice seems to be on board with what I was thinking. Yay! I was nervous since I do lean a little more crunchy than typical and I wasn’t sure how it would play out with a standard OB office.

Oh.. and since my shower was Saturday (more below!) I feel so much more prepared! And my mom and I went to Babies R Us on Sunday and finished out some of the registry stuff that I wanted to buy (car seat!) so that pretty much all my baby purchases are complete. We are going to go to Ikea this weekend and get some small things too.

Symptoms: Movement (duh), had my very first (ever) bloody nose- it wasn’t gushing or anything, but definitely dripped out L I have had bloody snot (sorry) but not drippy like this. Needing to pee a lot, and… constipation (sorry, TMI?).

What I'm looking forward to: Ultrasound this week to see if baby is still breech. I think it might be flipped due to where I feel the hiccups, but who knows. Also- I only have 4 weeks of work left. WHAT. So crazy. I will miss my office and everyone in it, but some days when I am in traffic it is so nice to think about not doing that day in and out.

Best moment of the week: Um… my shower was freaking awesome on Saturday. Amanda and her mom did such an awesome job with a whole wintery theme.. It was a winter wonderland!! Milk and cookies (all my favorite cookies!), a full lunch and mashed potatoes with toppings! Mashed potatoes were my one BIG craving in first tri :)

 

I guess we can have a baby now...

 

How I'm feeling: Good.. just big and slowing down. My sciatica is all gone and I don’t have any weird aches and pains. My hands are still itchy, but not debilitating or gross looking either. Just plain eczema itchy I think. Never had eczema before, but I will take plain dry itchy over the other!!

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Amanda's Baby Shower

So my friend Amanda is knocked up. Baby M is coming at the end of February! I am so pumped and can't wait to be an aunt to two of my best friends' baby.

Of course I jumped at the chance to throw her a shower and hoped it would be one that she would love. I wanted the day to be special for her! I joined up with our other friend Amy (and the day-of help of Amy's awesome mom!) to put it all together.

Menu:
Brownies
Dunkin Donuts Munchkins
Chocolate Covered Pretzel Rods
Spinach Dip in a bread bowl with baguette slices
Individual shots of ranch dressing with veggies
Caprese Kabobs
Mini Fruit Pizzas

Chocolate cupcakes with fudge buttercream
Yellow Cake with vanilla buttercream

Fruity French Sodas (Orange, Berry Something, Lemonade and Pink Lemonade)
Water with limes and lemons

Hot Chocolate Bar!

 

The food spread.

Delicious spinach dip- Amanda's one request for the shower.

Yumm fruit pizzas. SO GOOD.

My baby.. the cake.

 

Cupcakes with little fondant flower toppers to coordinate with the cake.

I was nervous about the hot chocolate bar. I first decided on doing it back in the fall/summer when I was originally planning- I thought "January! It will be cold and awesome for hot chocolate!" How wrong I was.. Our January in Maryland was SO MILD. I was figuring no one would want hot chocolate since it would be so warm and muggy. 

I woke up the shower morning to snow and ice! (Of course then I was worried about no one showing up, but everyone pulled through!) The hot chocolate was perfect.

For mix-ins we had caramels, pirouline cookies, marshmallows and chocolate chips. YUM. Oh and canned whipped cream to top with.

For the favors I made cupcakes in a jar- these were so fast and easy to do.. About 2 weeks before the shower I made the actual cupcakes and then just froze them. A couple of nights before the shower I unfroze them and then next day sliced them all in half. I layered them in the jar with the frosting and topped with sprinkles and then labelled them with a little thank you card designed to match the rest of the paper-goods.

During the shower we gave both grandmas-to-be a little baby brag book and they both got corsages.

The room- typical church basement layout.

I decorated all of the tables with flowers in the colors from the bunting banner over the food and with kids books that I accumulated. I scoured goodwill and the $1 bins at Target for a month or so to get a bunch of books to start the baby's library. Oh and I used the scraps from the bunting to make little flags to stick in the flowers.

Me, Amanda and Amy.

Instead of the poopy diaper game we have a table set up for everyone to decorate onesies and/or bibs for the baby. We had iron on fabrics and fabric markers. It was so fun to see everyone's craftiness.

We also played the old shower BINGO standby while Amanda opened presents. I couldn't find any cards that I liked (or had enough quantity/the types of presents on the registry) so I just designed my own. It was a pain in the neck to make 30 individual cards, but they were cute.

Cutting the cake.

Sign on the present table "Little baby, big blessing... showered with love"

All the loot!

It was an awesome day and I was so glad so many people came out in the snow to celebrate this baby with us!

**Yeah.. my pictures are bad.. The lighting was terrible and camera kept crapping out. Sorry dudes. I supplemented some with pictures from Amanda's cousin.

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Amy's Baby Shower

 My friend Amanda and I co-hosted a baby shower for our other friend yesterday. Baby B is due in the beginning of October.

Tom and Amy know that they will be having a girl but Amy prefers gender neutral rather than over the top girly. We based the shower off of the bedding that they registered for:

NoJo Jungle Babies from Babys R Us

We stuck with elephants, sage and brown and a little bit of alphabet thrown in there.
The invitations were on cream paper with sage, brown and cricut elephants in various patterns and colors.

Tied up and ready to go.

Lucy stayed up late with me on Friday night finishing up the cake and cupcakes.

 Amanda found a wicked cute sign for in front of the house and had TONS of balloons!

She also made this very cool Baby banner for the front door. How crafty is she!?

For the cake, I made a yellow cake with fudge buttercream ruffles.

The cupcakes were chocolate with a peanut butter buttercream. Yum.

Ruffle cake on Amanda's cute cake plate.

 We also had tons of other snacks:

Veggies in vases with Ranch, fruit salad, chocolates.

 Also, check out the cute receiving blankets on the table in the shower colors- Amanda scored those!

Mini brownies w/strawberries & whipped cream, sausage balls, spinach dip.

Empty tray for cheese & crackers yet to arrive.

Drinks were iced tea, water with limes and lemonade.

The "theme" decor was carried throughout the first floor..

Welcome Baby on the patterned paper used on the invitations.

 The TV cabinet:

Awesome onesies with safari animals!

A poster with the alphabet and a little elephant-
we made this to give to Tom & Amy, figuring that they can use it in the baby's room!

Letter blocks I stained to add some contrast- also able to be used in the baby's room.

For games we played the game with little plastic babies in ice cubes where you have to shout out that your water broke when the baby frees itself. We also played baby Price is Right and Bingo while Amy opened her gifts.

A "Baby Things" basket for Amy that we held the Price is Right items in.

For the favors I made elephant sugar cookies with Royal icing and packaged them in cellophane bags with cute little tags.

All in all it was an awesome day and I am so glad we were able to celebrate with Amy and help them prepare for Baby B #1.

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