Baby Gear

Picking out baby gear is exhausting! Friday after the dust had settled at most stores Clint and I decided to go check out Babies R Us and Buy Buy Baby for any deals. We wanted to make a decision on furniture because a lot of selections could take up to 12-18 weeks to come in. Originally we bought a cute refurbished dresser. However, it would need painted and the drawers needed all new gliders. Clint has been working hard on the Farley house trying to completely fix it up as well as several home projects; he is not feeling up to doing work on a dresser right now. We are definitely keeping the dresser and I have been searching online/Pinterest (and waiting for my mother to visit) and I want to make the dresser into a table that we will put in the front entryway or in the dining room. Not sure yet! 

Babies R Us had a Black Friday deal that scored us a free crib. We bought 2 dressers (one long one and one tall one) to get the free crib (that converts to toddler bed and full size bed for the future). I'm not sure if we want both dressers in the baby's room right now. We can always use the tall dresser in our 2nd guest bedroom until we have another baby...way down the road :)

We also looked at strollers for quite a bit. My aunt in St. Louis is being very generous and purchasing the stroller & car seat of our choice. I have been looking online for a while now but it was good to check them out in the stores. Originally we saw two we liked but when we looked again at the second one we didn't like the stroller as much.

 

This is the Britax B-Agile and B-Safe travel combo. This set is a bit more pricey. It has excellent reviews on all the sites I have looked at. Clint isn't too keen on getting an all black set because he thinks it will be hot. What do you all think? The two things we both don't like is that you have to buy the tray for the baby separately and you also have to purchase a separate holder/organizer for the handlebar (drink holder and such). For the price of the set you would think these things would be included. The stroller is 16 pounds and folds with one hand (you pull a heavy dutty strap from the middle of the seat); both of which are big pluses! The car seat carrier weighs 10 pounds which is just a little heavy. I am looking into getting a carrier that you wear to try to share the load.

There are a few others we have looked at but I just can't commit! Any advice or suggestions?

We also looked at high chairs and play yards/pack and plays. These choices were hard to make! One - I like things to match :) Some things also have so many features/choices it's hard to decide (or decide to go without). We also want colors that aren't overly boy or girl for the future. I really like black and gray as well as turquoise and brown.

We are going with the Graco DuoDiner LX Highchair. It has really good reviews (easy to clean!) and it transforms as the baby gets older into a booster. I know we don't need it right away but if we get this now we don't have to get it later! If we don't receive one as a gift, we'll just get it when we need to.

 

We saw this pack and play at Babies R Us and it is so cute! I love the owl mobile and the colors :) We will be using this for the first few weeks for the baby to sleep in our room.

We also looked at baby monitors and a carrier like I mentioned above but I'll save that for later. I would love come input or suggestions if you have any!

Halfway There!

Today marks 20 weeks or halfway through! I can't believe I am already to the halfway point. The first few months were full of fun thoughts and planning. Now I am starting to feel the need to get ready! We bought our furniture last Friday and we started looking at different items that we actually need (stroller, car seat, pack and play, baby carrier, and the list goes on). I started a post all about the baby gear but I am not finished with that yet. It is so hard to make decisions! I love having reviews available but sometimes I think I look too deep into them which makes buying hard. 

I told my students last week that I was pregnant and word has started to spread to kids in other grades. It's so funny to see students staring at my belly! Since I told my own students there really hasn't been any other talk about but we'll see if that changes as I get bigger!

So far I have gained about 5-6 pounds (depending on the day!). I still really haven't felt any definite movement yet although there has been a few times I wasn't sure. I'll keep waiting (since there isn't really any other choice).  I haven't had any food cravings or mood swings or pains or really any other things that have changed since becoming pregnant. Seems weird but I'll take that over any complications! So for now, just enjoy the pictures!

19 Weeks

This weekend Clint and I were pretty busy. Friday night we went to a Pacer game with my dad and stepmom. They won 7th row tickets right behind one of the goals and they were great seats! The game was close until the Pacers blew it wide open in the 4th quarter and ended up winning by about 20. We have never really liked NBA games but we both had a lot of fun!

 Saturday I spent all day trying to fix my half-broken computer :( Yep, it was only working correctly for about a week! So I am in the process of saving important files but it is very slow and/or freezes often so it's taking a while. Then I will reboot :(

I also ordered several things! From the pictures we just had taken, I ordered a large print to hang over our bed, 3 medium prints to hang somewhere, one canvas to hang in our bedroom, Christmas cards, and invitations to our gender reveal party! One bad note - yesterday morning I realized that I forgot to put the date on the invite! FAIL! We'll see what I can do.

Sunday we headed to Menards to buy a new bathroom vanity, faucet, and floor for our extra bathroom! We took the old vanity out to put in the house that Clint is fixing up to rent; it was ugly and the floor is uglier! We are nearly finished! I grouted yesterday and now Clint just needs to install the faucet and put the toilet back in. I would really like it painted before Thursday but we'll see!

 

Yesterday was semi-eventful! I was chatting with Emily and Augusta and randomly sprained my ankle. I was just standing there and all of a sudden my ankle turned sideways and made the loudest cracks I have ever heard! Emily even heard it across the room. Our school nurse brought me an ice pack and I chilled in Emily's room for a bit and then drove home. Luckily I drove the truck so I didn't have to use the clutch (it was my left foot).  This morning it hurt something fierce, so I decided to head to the dr. just to make sure it wasn't broken. He didn't say it wasn't broken but he was pretty sure and he wouldn't do an x-ray since I'm pregnant. So he gave me a much better ankle brace than what I had. We'll see how it feels!

 

Today I hope is much better! I am 19 weeks...almost halfway!

Still haven't felt any baby movement but I hope I can soon! The Dr. said in about 2 weeks I should since the placenta was out front where you feel most movement. Fingers crossed :) Not much else to update! See ya!

Gender Reveal

Last Wednesday at my doctor's appointment I had another ultrasound! It is so awesome to see the baby and watch it move. We got to see all the important parts like the heart (and watch it beat!), the kidneys, the spine and ribcage, and we even got to watch blood flowing by the heart. We also learned the sex of the baby! 

Thumbs up! Everything's going great inside mommy's tummy!

Can you tell if it's a boy or girl??

  We originally thought that we might try to keep this a secret until we had the baby but we have decided to do a gender reveal party in December. (I know that sex and gender are not the same thing but I don't want to call it a sex reveal party :) One reason I want to have a party is because my mom and sister live out of state (California) and they won't be here for most of my pregnancy and/or a baby shower. So I decided to let them have some fun with me! I have a few ideas already for the party and I am getting excited! It will be right before Christmas so definitely expect lots of red & green!

18 Weeks!

like my new pj pants?!

18 weeks down and 22(ish) to go! Tomorrow we go to the doctor and we get to do another ultrasound! I can't wait to see how big (and more like a baby) the baby looks now!! Hopefully we also get to find out the gender too. Of course, most of all we hope that everything is going well and our little niblet is healthy!

At 18 weeks along, the baby is the size of a bell pepper! It is about 5 and a half inches long and weighs around 5.3 ounces...still so tiny! The baby also has fingerprints! Better not let the police catch you now little baby! 

I am less tired everyday except Fridays it seems. Last Friday I fell asleep about 8:30! That may be in part to getting 4 new students in a week (I now have 25 students!). I cannot sleep in on Saturdays and Sundays; I have been getting up between 7 and 8 - even if I go to bed late. Better get used to it I guess. Weird thing is that Monday-Friday I can't get out of bed ;)

Not much else to share tonight but I keep meaning to blog in between my regular Tuesday posts. I don't want this blog to only be about babies :)

Week 17!

Today I am 17 weeks along! I am finally starting to get a little belly...although it kind of looks more like I ate too much for dinner! Next Wednesday is our doctor's appointment and I am really excited to see another ultrasound!

I received several maternity tops for my birthday and have bought a few myself but hadn't really needed to wear them until this week. I only have one pair of maternity pants (that Lindsay got me for my birthday but I need to exchange for a different size). I have been using the hair tie around the button method for the last week but my pants are starting to be a little too snug at the waist! I don't even want to talk about dress pants! You can't use a hair tie to get them to stay together so I think I might have to do some shopping. I did a couple new pairs of comfy pants because clearly those are important!

The worst symptom I have had to deal with recently is acne! It has started to attack me! Face acne is never good but just imagine have cleavage acne!! Ugh!

I have never been much of a drinker, just a margarita after school on Fridays but boy do they smell good! I may have to break into the margarita mix that Augusta bought me for my birthday (alcohol free!)!!

I have been able to sleep through the night way better than I did early on, although I am getting up at least once a night to pee! Getting out of warm blankets in the dark is no fun! I also have not been to tired like I was when school first started. I'll be glad to have more energy now!

Well I am missing election coverage so I'll wrap this up now!

Pictures

First note - my computer is working!!!!!!! I am beyond excited!

Second, we received our CD with our pictures that we had taken a few weeks back. Here are a few that I liked.

There were definitely some that I really liked but unfortunately not a whole lot that I did like. Part of the reason I think was the weather and the fact that Clint has the worst smile for pictures. He hates fake smiling! Also, long hair and high winds do not mix! Oh well! I can probably bug my sister to take some that I had in mind.