Pregnancy Journal

36 weeks

So this week has been more eventful than I wanted. Was hoping for our last ultrasound, but we're set for at least a few more now that we've discovered baby girl's head is in my ribs. Had hoped to do another drug-free natural birth, but if baby doesn't flip, looks like a c-section may be in the cards this time. The closest doctor who will deliver breech babies is 5.5 hours away. In the meantime we have a few tricks to try and encourage her to get into the correct position, including chiropractor, some unique yoga poses, and probably an ECV, where they try to turn baby from the outside. Fingers crossed and prayers said something works! Otherwise, she's doing well at 24% for size and growing hair just like her big sister. We are so excited to meet her sometime soon! 

32 weeks

Getting biggy and biggy as my daughter says. I would guess this little one is a bit bigger than her older sister. And lower, which I didn't think was possible, but my pelvic bone would disagree. Most women seem to talk about discomfort in their ribs, but I guess that's not a sensation I'll experience. She's nowhere near as active as my first either though the Braxton hicks contractions are MUCH more frequent. But we've been having lots of fun working on the nursery this month. Cordelia arrived in less than 6 weeks from this point so getting excited!

28 weeks

The last month went so fast that I'm actually almost 29 weeks. Had a doctor appointment today and we heard the heartbeat on the Doppler. I remember Cordie never let them rest the Doppler for long or she'd kick it, but this baby girl was perfectly fine with them taking a nice, long listen. Funny how you can see different personalities emerge so early.

24 Weeks

24 weeks. Viability! It's a big milestone and she's finally kicking pretty consistently so anxiety is finally going down a bit. 

20 Weeks

Halfway! Maybe even more if this one decides to show up early like her sister. She's gotten so much stronger over the last week. You can see her kicks from the outside, and both Ben and Cordie have felt her kick. Little nervous about the anatomy scan on Thursday, but excited to get another glimpse of my baby. Cordie is still excited. Ben said when they came to pick me up from the airport after my business trip, he asked if she was excited to see me. She said, "Get to see my baby sister!" I think she may have thought I was coming home with the real deal.

16 Weeks

16 weeks and feeling movement. This one likes to roll and flip, twist and turn. Makes me a bit nauseous. Other than that I'm feeling good though sleeping has been less comfortable this time around. And I NEVER have issues sleeping so that's new. Weird dreams all the time. Even Ben has been having them, but I guess that's a thing, for the dad to also have strong/strange dreams. Cordie talks about the baby almost everyday and constantly asks to go see the baby on the TV (i.e. ultrasound). She likes to say, "Little tiny baby growing."

It's a ... GIRL!

Totally shocked. Had completely convinced myself it was a boy. This pregnancy has been so different (hardly nauseous at all was the big one) so I just assumed. I even started using "he" when referring to the baby. We even picked out a boy name and not a full girl name! Cordie is thrilled. Once the tech said what the sex was, she yelled, "Baby sister!" We are thrilled as well, but I feel like I have to adjust all my thinking from the last few weeks. Praying things continue to go smoothly.

12 Weeks

 8 Weeks

I thought I would consolidate all my pregnancy stuff to one spot so as not to inundate social media. I'm so excited about this new baby I don't want to keep it to myself, but perhaps containing my enthusiasm is a good idea.

We'd like to share ...

Cordie would like to share ...

We're due February 2016! She's super excited!

Upside down, but still cute.

13 weeks :)

Perfect hand.

Sometimes she's not 100% sure about baby brother or sister though. 

Thanks, and we're going to ask for your prayers! There's a bit of a story to this one that I'll share in the coming weeks, but for now, we're celebrating this new life and highly anticipating his or her arrival!

Sunroom to Playroom

When we purchased our home, our only complaint really was that the bedrooms (besides the master) were a bit small, and there wasn't a playroom for when we had children. Sure enough, our daughter has taken over our living room with her toys, and since I also work from home, it was becoming a bit claustrophobic. Shortly after Christmas we decided we needed a playroom and that the completely useless sunroom would be the ideal spot.

Before we purchased our home, we first toured it in December, so of course we didn't think to try to open the windows. Neither did our home inspector apparently because not one of the 13 windows in the sunroom opened come spring.  No airflow = melting in Florida and the tiny ceiling fan did little but move the hot air around. There was an in-wall air conditioning unit, but no outlet close enough to plug it in ... NICE planning. You get the idea. It was a total gut job. And it was a bit daunting, but I am SO HAPPY with the end result! See what 7 months and a whole lot of patience looks like below.

Before

 

So then the demo began.

 

First window out.

Took it to the studs.

 

Putting lights in. There weren't any before, and we added several outlets.

 

PT Cruiser to the rescue! Fit all 10 windows. There use to be 13 windows in the sunroom, but they were all different sizes (41 in, 43 in, 39 in, etc.). We decided to remove the two small windows next to the doors and reduced the number on the remaining walls so that each window was the same size. 

We decided to install the windows ourselves due to cost. The company quoted us a price originally and assured it wouldn't change that much, but in order to get the final quote they had to come measure the window openings. However, we had to reframe everything since we were getting all the same size window instead of six different sizes. So Ben removed all the windows and reframed the walls. The company came back to measure, but the second quote was almost a grand more! Apparently the last guy didn't factor in hurricane protection! We about fell over, but we were kind of stuck because we had 10 gapping holes in our house. The final option was install them ourselves. I say us, but Ben and our wonderful neighbor did the job beautifully! They all open!!!

Cordie liked helping.

 

Buh-bye ugly stone and hello insulation!

 

Drywall is up. It was finally my turn to help. I did the taping, mudding, and sanding. There was so much to do! Best advice:  Tape, mud, sand. Repeat. Repeat again. This takes more patience than I was blessed with, but it gave us the best results.

 

We chose Benjamin Moore's Blue Danube. I was a bit unsure of the color once it was up, but you'll see how it turned out.

See why I panicked slightly?

 

The ceiling was a lot of work, but we wanted something that would make the room feel rich. So we purchased 220 ft of these interlocking wood boards. I painted them all and then we nailed them up. Lots of work, but the end result was so worth it. When we were purchasing the wood, a woman in front of us at the register exclaimed, "You have a big project ahead of you!" We laughed and said it was a small project in the grand scheme of our larger one!

 

Next up was trimming out the windows. I was most nervous about this phase of the project. It just seemed impossibly hard, but we found the most perfect pieces of trim, and a project I anticipated taking several weekends, only took two! Ben did so amazing.

 

Finally, it was time for the floor and the rest of the trim around the doors and floor. Basically we replaced EVERY surface (including siding on the outside of the house) in the room. See the finished result below! (Sorry. Longest blog ever!)

 

Final touches!

 

I just love the floor!

I think we're going to do something similar to the ceiling in our master now.

I pained the little rocking chair and the table and chairs below. They are bit brighter than I wanted, but Cordie said they are bootiful.

Love being able to display our daughter's artwork.

Kitchen complete with hooks and buckets to store her utensils in.

Repurposed the doors to make them a bit brighter and clean. Someone wants to come play!

 

Cordie approved!

 

Thanks for making it to this point. This was by far our largest project, and it still needs some curtains and a few finishing touches, but we are so happy to have a space that we can use once again.

 

 

2 Years Old

How is it possibly your birthday, little one? And yet, it feels like so much more time must have passed as you have just grown beyond measure this year. Last year you started walking, and this year you are twirling and running and jumping. You carry full conversations and have quirks all your own like how you call us "honey" since mama and daddy call each other that and singing is just the best way to pass the time. I am amazed daily at your intelligence and find my breath caught by your beauty so often. 

We're called to pray ceaselessly. I never mastered that and still haven't, but each day with you I find myself repeatedly thanking God, praying to Him for guidance on how to best raise you, and having full conversations with your guardian angel. You are definitely bringing me closer to God and heaven, and that's such a perfect gift. 

If you'd like to see some snapshots from the day, keep scrolling :) And thank you to everyone who sent cards, presents, videos, pictures, texts, whatever! It absolutely made my whole year to see how much this little person is loved. 

When she came out of her bedroom, she said, "wow!" upon seeing the decorations. We are princess obsessed right now.

Spoiled much?!

Nona and Poppy did good! She hopped right on.

How cute is that apron? Aunt Kelsey always makes her something from scratch!

The look on her face when she saw her princess dress! Priceless. She practically gasped.

This was her BIG birthday present that took 3 hours to assemble, but it was 75% off so we had to! She LOVED it. (Also, sneak peak of our new sunroom. It's 90% done, but not quite there yet! Post to come soon!)

So I was going to buy a birthday cake since the birthday girl requested a mermaid cake, but man are those things not cheap! So, sorry kid, you get mama's handiwork. 

She grew about 5 inches!

Happy Birthday, sweet girl. We love you.