Nesting

Christmas Vacation has provided a nice opportunity to check some items off the "To Do Before Emerson Comes" list.

During the break I have cleaned out every cupboard in the kitchen and reorganized all dishes, cookware, and pantry items.  Scott has worked on the trim in the nursery (pictures soon!) and shampooed the carpets upstairs and down.  The guest/craft room has been reorganized after the Christmas gift making frenzy, and multiple boxes have been dropped off at the Goodwill.  We even cleaned our bathroom top to bottom!

This nesting instinct is bringing out my tendency to hyper focus on random tasks...Today I've been obsessed with organizing my jewelry amidst the clutter that covers my dresser.  I have to complete a DIY jewelry hanger first!  I'll share before and after pictures when the project is complete.

And all the lovely Christmas cards we've received lately?  I cannot rest until I have the perfect address book to record the addresses of these special people.  (I will, after all, be sending birth announcements soon!)

The last project that haunts me day and night is the curtains for the nursery!  Mind you, the trim around the window must be completed first, then the blinds and curtain rod purchased and installed before we'll ever need the curtains.  But I have this pressing need to buy the curtain panels and embellish them NOW.

I was inspired by these adorable curtains from the Land of Nod.  I love the ruffles, but want white curtains for the nursery.

My plan is to buy white curtain panels and embellish with pink, green, and chocolate brown ruffles at the bottom.  I know that curtains will have virtually no impact on our life with baby, but somehow I will rest more easily once the ruffled curtains are complete!

I will try to post more regularly on this blog now that we're starting to accomplish some things!  Stay tuned for a new belly pic and pictures of the recent projects!

The Nursery

As soon as we found out that Emerson is a girl, her daddy picked out paint colors for the nursery!  And then we took advantage of a visit from her grandparents...her Daddy and Papa had the room painted all in one morning!  As you'll see from the pictures below, the walls are indeed pink.  Over Christmas vacation the hope is to replace all the yucky old trim and get the white chair rail up!

The only other piece of the nursery that is done at this point is the glider.  My dear cousins gave us their glider and ottoman when they moved.  It is seriously the most comfy chair ever.  But after rocking and comforting multiple infants...the cream colored cushions were looking a little worn...and I just can't do white trim with an ivory rocker...

Before

I spent hours over a long weekend pulling off the old fabric....and sewing on the new stuff.  Whaddya think of the new look?

As I leaned back into the chair to relax and enjoy a finished project, Emerson started wiggling around enjoying the rocking already!  I love to imagine the hours we'll spend here...

Picture update

Here's the bump at 26 weeks.  Sorry for the blury picture...I'll try harder next week.  :-)

Baby Likes...

...her mama's favorite cookies!  Click on the recipe to open a new window with the picture...then you can print it and get baking!

If a picture is worth a thousand words...

Then this post might need to be long.  I've had so many computer issues in the last several weeks!  Now that I've got the Internet working again, I can no longer load pictures onto the computer!  But it has been so long that I thought I could at least write a picture-less update...

If you notice the pregnancy ticker at the bottom of my blog, we're at 26 weeks and counting!  Only 14 weeks to go!  The bump is growing...and moving!  Baby Daddy and I like to guess at what baby part is sticking out or kicking at me.  It seems that Emerson is still enjoying enough room to turn somersaults inside of me.  That is certainly what it feels like when I lay down and try to sleep!

But really, things are great.  I'm dealing with aches and pains related to an extra number of pounds and a shifting center of gravity...but I'm still sleeping well and able to get through the school day (and even get a few things done at home in the evenings).

Random pregnancy trivia:
1. Still no stretch marks (unless you count those from puberty:-P).  I lather on the cocoa butter each and every morning.  Fingers are crossed....
2. Belly button is....flat.  Not an innie and not an outie.  It's just flat!  I felt sure it would pop out by this time!  But my mom's never popped, so I might not have the turkey timer after all!
3.  I'm thrilled each time I run into someone I haven't seen in awhile.  There's no longer any awkward questioning...just "When are you due?!"  or "Well, I see congratulations are in order!"  Hurray for obvious pregnancy and no more ambiguous fatness.
4.  I think Emerson had the hiccups three times today.  I think.  A gentle kick, repeated regularly like, 20 times in a row... Is that hiccups?

Something I've wanted to say...

I thought that if I started a baby blog, I'd have endless things to write about.  Pregnancy makes it very easy to obsess!  Symptoms, emotions, nurseries, tiny socks, planning...there's so much!

But I'm often hesitant to hop online and type up whatever random pregnancy thing is on the forefront of my mind.  And I think I know why.  There's something I want you to understand.

I wasn't always pregnant.  *Duh.  Thanks, Beth.  Everybody knows that human gestation is only 40 weeks.  Of course you weren't always pregnant.*

What I mean is that I've wanted to be pregnant for a long time.  And, for many people, wanting to be pregnant isn't enough to make it happen.  I mean, wanting to be and not taking any...ahem...precautions...doesn't mean it's gonna happen.

And technically, the truth is that I have been pregnant before.  But not for long.  Our first pregnancy happened after several months sans precautions.  I remember being surprised that it took so long!  I come from a very, very fertile lineage.  (My parents combined have 14 siblings, who have gone on to produce my 45 first cousins.  Who in turn are producing countless second cousins...)

So after too many months of a disappointing single pink line on the stick...I came to the conclusion that it wasn't time.  I knew I couldn't control God's timing, so I went on with my life.  And, of course, that's when it happened.  Late period, two pink lines, joy and elation, peeing all the time, calls to the future grandparents, etc.  I was PREGNANT!

But then...There aren't really words to describe how I felt when I realized that we were losing our baby.  So many hopes and dreams and such powerful love...and yet we were powerless. 

I want you to know that I've been pregnant before, and it did not go as I had planned.

Praise God, this pregnancy is different.  You've seen the proof, right?  I want you to know that I realize how lucky I am.  And I'm not blogging to mindlessly brag about my pregnancy...I'm blogging to celebrate and cherish it.  This connection I have with my daughter, the fact that God is knitting her together in my womb is a privilege and miracle that I wasn't sure I'd ever get to experience.

And so, if you're reading this, and pregnancy hasn't been an easy thing in your life...if you've suffered through miscarriage or infertility, or even if you're waiting for the lack of precautions to pay off with the double pink lines...I feel for you.  If I know your story, I pray for you.  And our experiences remind me that much more to be grateful for what God is doing in my life.

The First

Since morning sickness hit in early July, I have hardly touched my sewing machine.  I spent the summer sitting on the couch, eating the same awful pretzels and bananas, trying not to throw them up.  Then school started.  And although I was feeling better, my sewing room was suddenly packed to the gills with stuff from the junk guest room that will now be the nursery.  After a few hours of cleaning, purging, and organizing, the sewing/guest room was finally ready to be used!  I had a project to work on that I had promised to a friend...but last night that project was finished and the sewing room was calling me! 

Now, I've sewn things for babies.  And I've sewn things for little girls.  But I have never sewn anything for MY very own BABY GIRL.  Until now.

I used the free pattern here, which I've used before.  But I had to add a ruffle because....BABY GIRL!  It was so fun to turn some pink flannel and an old brown T-shirt from my stash into a cute little bib that Emerson can drool and spit up on!  And there's something special about spending time making something for someone that shows that you love them.  I'm sure my infant will be aware of the time I spent sewing her ruffles.  Ha.

What about you?  Do you sew?  Craft?  Cook?  What do you do when you need a creative outlet or a special gift to show you care?

21 Weeks

(Can you tell I'm totally uncomfortable posing for these pictures?  But it seems to be a right of passage when you have a pregnancy blog and your sisters/mother/grandmother live too far away to keep an eye on the bump.)

When you're counting the weeks of pregnancy, they seem to creep along slowly.  It took absolutely FOREVER to get to week twelve when the first trimester was over and we could breathe a little easier.  Then the trek to 18-20 weeks crawled along as we waited to have our ultrasound to see our little love bug and find out she was a girl!  I was hoping that at my 20 week appointment last week the doctor would change my due date since Emerson has continually measured a week bigger that my due date.  It would have been so nice to magically skip ahead a week--kind of like daylight savings in the spring only without the sleep loss!  But unfortunately for this pregnant mama, the doctor says if the measurements are within two weeks of your due date everything is good.

So here I am at 21 weeks trying to be patient!  It's not because I'm tired of being pregnant already...I'm just so excited to share the world with this little girl!  And in all seriousness, I will happily walk, shuffle, trudge, and even waddle through every single week of this pregnancy to do everything I can to give my child the best start in life.  I know it is such a gift to do so.

Plus, if my experience as a kindergarten teacher means anything, patience seems like a good virtue to have with a little one in your house.

Pregnancy and Teaching

I love my job.  I'm teaching kindergarten again this year (yay!) and these sweet five year olds are not shy about my pregnancy.  Some of them are very knowledgeable about this subject, like Brian, whose mom has TWO babies in her tummy--both boys!  He reassured me before we had the ultrasound, "Don't worry, Mrs. Harmon.  Its okay if you don't know.  They will tell you." 

Then there's Juan, who felt the need to tell the whole class how the baby would get OUT of my tummy...I hope none of my students were scarred for life.  (The rule now is that we let the doctors take care of that part and we don't worry about it at school.)

Other kids don't have as much background knowledge about pregnancy.  Little Sarah asked me, the day after she found out I'm pregnant, "Did you have that baby yet?"  When she heard that I had not, because the baby needs to grow more, she shook her head and said, "You better go to the doctor and get that thing out of you!"  The other kids helped by explaining that I have to get REALLY fat before the baby can get out.

My past students that are now in 5th grade have a much more mature take on things.  They want to know how many months along I am, what the gender the baby is, and in which hospital I will deliver.  And they were polite enough to wait until someone told them I'm expecting, instead of asking me about it when they noticed my stomach growing.  They didn't want to be wrong and seem rude.

So  I was confused yesterday when a fifth grade boy asked me in passing, "Mrs. Harmon, where's your baby?"  Knowing he has younger siblings and understands the long nature of pregnancy, I pointed to my belly and gave him a questioning look.  Resisting the urge to smile, the boy cried, "You ATE her???"  Then giggled and ran away. 

My first thought was to laugh that he set me up for such a line.  And my second thought was of pride...because this young man came to school four years ago speaking only Spanish...and now his English has developed enough for him to make a joke!  Using correct past tense!

My feelings may change in about 15 weeks when I'm waddling around the school ready to pop, but for now I love the extra fun that pregnancy is adding to my job.  Thanks for that, baby girl!

Baby Likes...

These cookies!  Pumpkindoodles are a delicious take on the old Snickerdoodle, but with a little more spice and, well, pumpkin!  They're not overly sweet and have a nice, spicy, fall kind of flavor!

And in case you're interested, here's the bump at 20 weeks.

How do you know?

Some people find it interesting that we are sharing our daughter's name before she's born.  Many parents keep it to themselves...to have an element of surprise after birth, maybe to prevent someone stealing the name, or to be sure that they can change their mind at the last minute.  But I have wanted to shout it from the rooftops for months!

"Months?"  You ask.  "Didn't you just find out the gender, like, a week ago?"

Its true.  Last Wednesday was our ultrasound. But it just confirmed something I have felt strongly since I saw those two pink lines on the pregnancy test.  I always *knew* she was a girl.

Think I'm crazy?  I've spoken with other moms that have experienced the exact same thing.  But of course there are some very different stories.  There are the moms that had no idea.  And still others that were convinced of the gender, only to find they were wrong!

I'll admit, I tried to prepare for that.  We had a lovely little boy name picked out.  I had scoured the stores to be sure there are adorable boy clothes on the market.  And I looked at pictures of my husband when he was tiny to remind myself that there would be sweet days ahead if I was wrong about the whole *knowing* thing!

But I couldn't shake the feeling.  When I prayed for my baby, it was "she" and "her" and I'd have to add in..."Or him.  I would love a him, too..."  One day I was by myself in the house, trying to grab the things I needed to run some errands and when I felt a kick I responded with, "I know, baby girl.  I'm almost ready."  The words were out of my mouth before I could even think that I didn't know the gender for certain!

I got fairly anxious in the days leading up to the ultrasound.  I realized how much "girl" had become part of my thinking process, and I was going to feel guilty if it turned out my baby was a boy!  (I'll admit, my husband had to remind me that HEALTHY was the preferred diagnosis from the ultrasound, and finding the gender was just a perk.  So true...)

My point is that I'm happy to know that my hunch was on target.  I'm glad to be able to use pronouns without correcting myself.  I LOVE that the nursery can be painted pink.

So back to the name...In the same way I instinctively knew she was a girl, I feel that Emerson will grow into her name.  It's perfect for her.  And I want the world to know it.

It's a Girl!

How do I begin a blog about the most important thing I've ever done? The thing I've eagerly anticipated for as long as I can remember? This miraculous thing that God is allowing me to do...something I could never take for granted?

As much as I'm at a loss for words in this first blog post, I know that they will come eventually. And when they do, I'll now have a place to share them.

This is our Emerson Grace.

She's been growing like a weed for the last 20 weeks and should continue to bake for another 20. Her daddy and I are so in love with her already.

I hope you'll join us on this journey.