19 Weeks and Nursery Ideas!

So here I am at 19 weeks (as of yesterday)! I have to say, I love my belly. Sure, somedays I feel fat, but generally I am just insanely happy to be looking round and pregnant.



We started clearing out the nursery earlier this week, and our theme is going to be owls. We are basing it off of this fabric from Spoonflower.com:



I'm going to make curtains, a crib blanket (not a quilt, and it won't be used in the crib until baby is older but it will match), basket liners, a lamp shade, a breastfeeding pillow cover, and more. The crib skirt will be out of plain lime green fabric, and we are going to make some cushions for the rocking chair (that Nate's mom used to rock him in, aww!) out of either lime green or teal fabric.

Mom and I are going to paint a tree on the wall and add shelves like in this picture but with lime green accents, not orange:



I bought this owl piggy bank off of Etsy and it will probably go on one of the tree shelves:



And I will be buying/making other various owl accents, such as sewing up some cute owl book ends similar to these:



Our crib and dresser/change table (with removable hutch) is second hand, but it is gorgeous. Here is a picture from when we bought it off Kijiji during our last pregnancy in 2009:





I'm toying with putting this wall quote above the baby's crib:



And mom and I are also going to paint owls sitting on branches on the huge while closet doors (they take up one wall). I don't have a picture of that, but the owls will be pulled from the fabric.

I so can't wait to get started! Nate is putting the crib together today, as we have his cousin Greg and his wife Jodie and their baby girl Alysa coming to stay with us next week (and Alysa will be using the crib and change table while they are here). We just visited them in Vancouver a month or so ago, they are very close family to us and we usually only see each other once a year, so we are really excited to see them again. I cannot wait to cuddle Alysa again. She is such a pretty baby, here is one of my favourite pictures of her that I took while in Vancouver:



I'll be taking in progress pictures of the nursery, so I will definitely post them all once it's done. Mom and I leave for Vegas on Tuesday morning, so I will also post pics of our haul. Stay tuned!

18 Week Ultrasound

Friday was a very eventful and exciting day! First, we had our 2nd OB appointment at 9 am. I will admit I was a bit nervous even though I had been feeling movement. It didn't help that our little squirmer kept dodging the doppler, but our doctor's resident was super sweet and understanding (and pregnant herself!) so she busted out the portable u/s machine to give us a little sneak peek. Baby was moving up a storm, and even waved hello to us. I was measuring right on target and everything else looked good. I made sure that I was cleared to go to Vegas next week (which I am!), and after a quick hello to our actual doc, we were off to wait for the big ultrasound.

It was so nice to actually have just an external ultrasound with no crotch cam needed! Though my bladder has never been fuller and I was soooo uncomfortable. Baby was being fairly cooperative though very active, and finally at the end he/she revealed it's gender to the tech. When he brought Nate in, he gave us a "tour" of our precious little baby, and when he got to the potty shot, right away Nate and I saw what it was without a word from the tech (though he quickly confirmed our guess).

It's a BOY!!!!!!!! We are so very happy!!!

It's what my gut said he was, though I did keep dreaming of him being a girl. However, I could never quite wrap my head around our baby actually being a she, so looks like Mommma's intuition was right!

I have to go back for a follow up u/s in 3 weeks because the tech said it was too early to get some of the measurements, though they did tell me to book between 18-20 so I'm not sure why it was an issue. But baby looked very good (weighing in at 7 oz, heart rate 147 bpm), and my doc said she would have called Friday if there had been any obvious problems (due to us being higher risk for Downs).

Mom and I are headed for a quick trip to Vegas next week to do some baby shopping and enjoy a girls' getaway. I can't wait!!!

Here is a picture of our little boy:



And me at 17 weeks:

Vancouver Pics - 15 weeks

We were in Vancouver a couple of weeks ago to visit family, and these were taken a few days shy of 15 weeks:

16.5 weeks!

Not much to report, but I wanted to check in anyways. The most exciting thing lately is that I am definitely feeling movement! Sometimes it's fluters, but more frequently now it's been squirming and rolling, since about 15 weeks. I know that's super early for a plus size first time mom, but there's no mistaking it. When I cough or sneeze, it sends my poor baby into a frenzy, and it is very obviously the baby moving. I feel so lucky I do get to feel movement this early, and it definitely helps make me less paranoid. There are definitely days where I don't feel much, but I know that's normal so early on and I try not to worry. And now that my morning sickness has pretty much disappeared (though I still gag brushing my teeth and swallowing my prenatal) and I pee less often, there are days I have a hard time believing I'm pregnant. But then I will feel the baby move, or I will get a horrible headache, or round ligament pain and I'm right back in the thick of it. On particularly paranoid days if I need more proof, I can very obviously feel my uterus and the fundus is right where it should be. Plus if I lay on my tummy it's like laying on a cantaloupe (and it usually makes the baby squirm/roll).

There are still days though where despite feeling all of these wonderful things, I can't help but think of what if's and worst case scenarios. Surprisingly, we worry very little about our increased risk of Downs. I thought for sure that despite my rationalizations, pregnancy hormones would get in the way and make me sick over it. But I just really feel like everything is going to be fine, and that there's no point worrying about something that we have no control over. I am anxious for our appointment and ultrasound in 10 days, where hopefully we can find out more. But I'm not frantic or anything.

This past weekend, we started cleaning and organizing the basement to make room for the furniture in our guest room. Once that's moved out (hopefully in the next few weeks) we will be able to start on the nursery, which is going to have an owl theme! We need to wait on the gender to order fabric and other accents, but I think we're going to leave the walls as is (a nice beigey taupey colour) and just bring colour into the room in other ways. Mom and I are going to paint the sliding closet doors (they take up one entire wall) and then paint trees with owls on them. I'm going to be making the crib sheet(s), valence/drapery, crib skirt, and a matching blanket for playtime (no quilt or bumpers as you don't use them anyways). We already have the crib and change table from our previous pregnancy (we bought it super early, but it was such a great deal and I am so glad we did!) we just need the crib mattress.

This weekend we also bought a used Valco stroller, which included a rain cover, cup holder, toddler seat ,and kick board for $280. Brand new this would have cost us over $700! We also picked up a used Snap N Go for $50 ($100 new, and it has only been used a few times), and I am getting the car seat adapter for the Valco for $25 (normally $65 new!). So all in all we saved over $520. Not bad!!! I have become addicted to Kijiji lol!