V's Nursery is Finished!

About a month ago I revealed photos of Victoria's nursery, which has been my favorite home project for the last 3 months. You can check it out by reading this entry. 

There were two parts of the nursery I couldn't finish without the help of my mom. She came up last week for a couple days to help tie up the loose ends and now the nursery is officially ready for baby! 

Part One left unfinished was a big, comfy chair that my mom was recovering. She's quite the seamstress and helped us save some money by covering a chair that had already been passed down to us from Trey's family so it would match the baby room. You can see what it looked like before (stripped of its pillow covers) in the nursery reveal entry. We chose to go with a neutral color (and added a pink accent pillow) so we can use it in future baby rooms, no matter the gender. 

Our cat loves the chair & matching ottoman already!

Here's a close up of the suede material & the animal print piping - doesn't it look amazing?!

 Part Two left unfinished was the setting up of the changing table. The changing table matches the crib (which were both mine when I was a baby) and my mom brought it up with her when she came. Check out how adorable it turned out with all the cute containers!

Goes perfectly!

Now all we need is baby. We're ready, Victoria! Come check out your beautiful room :) 


xoxo,
your momma

Bumpdate : 37 Weeks

Wow! I can't believe I'm full term. I'm officially at the stage where all of baby is finished developing and now she's just gaining weight as we wait for her arrival. I've actually thought I was in labor multiple times now - all times it was what they call "false labor". Although, the contractions seemed real enough to me! Last night's were the strongest but the intensity slowed down around midnight. Trey and I are definitely getting in some excellent practice for the real day! I'm so glad we took a childbirth class so we know what in the world is going on and how to handle it. Trey is an amazing coach and partner because I do not do well with pain. Thank you sweetheart! Future moms, if your hospital offers childbirth classes, you should certainly take one. I cannot imagine going through these last parts of pregnancy and the upcoming birth of our baby without having some sort of "heads up."

Being full term, and because so far all has gone well, my Dr. said Baby V is welcome to come any time now. If she's early, she'll be just fine - so even though her due date is 20 days from today, maybe she'll surprise us and come earlier!

37 Weeks, Day 2

 

 

 

 Here's the latest update on pregnancy (and perhaps my last!). 

• Total Weight Gain: about 28 lbs
• Size of baby: Hard to know for sure anymore - she was measured at week 34 to be 5 lbs 10 oz...she is probably somewhere around 6 lbs
• Sleep: Taking it when I can get it. When you have to go to the bathroom every hour, it's hard to get a lot of sleep! Thank goodness I am off work now and I can take naps throughout the day.
• Best Moment This Week: My weekly check in with the doctor (I love hearing that heartbeat!). I am now 3 cm dilated, a little more than 60% effaced, and baby is at a -2...so we're making some progress already!

• Movement: Still moving a lot, although I can tell she's getting really cramped. It hurts a little more than it used to!
• Food Craving:Rocky Road by Edy's - all the time
• What I Miss: being able to move :)
• What I'm looking forward to: being a mommy. for real.
• Weekly Wisdom: Sleep as much as you can before baby gets here. Best advice ever.
• Symptoms: HUGE, swollen feet/ankles - trying to do better at staying off them and swollen hands, lots of practice contractions (Braxton Hicks) and other pressure letting me know that we're getting close!

Look ma, no ankles!

 Tune in tomorrow - I'll be sharing pictures of the parts of the nursery that were unfinished. Now we're all ready!

xoxo,

 

1 Year Blog-i-versary!

Wow, it's hard to believe I started this blog a year ago...sharing my and Trey's plans of starting a family. You can look back with me and read my first entry here:  Now our little one will be arriving any day!

School is out - today is my official first day of summer break. It is certainly welcomed with open arms. As much as I loved my class this year and loved being pregnant for the majority of it, the past month has been tough! The last two months of pregnancy are certainly the hardest (at least for me) with all the major physical changes, feeling exhausted again, and the fact that it's the start of the hot, summer heat. Recess was my least favorite part of each day, but my kids were so sweet and helpful, carrying a chair and water outside with us and getting me set up before heading off to play. See? I told you I had an amazing class! I will miss them - a lot. I am so grateful that I had a great class this year because it's kids like them that remind you why you decided to be a teacher in the first place.

However, nothing beats sitting on the most comfortable couch in the world in the AC, with an extra fan, my bottled water, and having absolutely nowhere that I have to be. Thank you summer break!!!! It's supposed to hit the 90's today, so I'm prepared to keep cool. I'm embarking on pregnancy week 37 (on Thursday) which means I'll officially be full term and Baby V is safe to come, if she so chooses. I'm kinda hoping she does come a little early - I'm so excited to meet her I can hardly stand it! Literally though, I can hardly stand (hah!) as I've been cursed with the aches and pains of swollen hands, ankles, and feet (they're HUGE!) and it's not really practical (or comfortable) to lay with my feet above my heart all day long. But perhaps being at home and off my feet will help with this as we enter the last stages.

I have loved being pregnant and I have the feeling I will miss it once V arrives, but nothing will be better than having my baby girl in my arms. She's going to be amazing and I can't wait to share her with the world.

xoxo,

Nursery Reveal!

I officially started working on the nursery over my spring break - the first weekend of April. The first step? Clearing out all the guest room furniture, which also involved reorganizing the entire upstairs. Let's just say thank goodness for the help of Trey, his brother, and father for moving all of the furniture and then my mom for her help in painting, putting the crib together, and her ongoing help with covering the nursery chair/ottoman. There is definitely no way I could have done all this on my own! 

Here's the nursery in the beginning!

Painting with mom: love this shade!
"Cotton Candy" from Lowe's

Lots of organizing!

Since then, and several baby showers later (which I am SO grateful for. Victoria is spoiled already!), I've spent quite a few weekend hours setting up, organizing, sorting, hanging pictures, shopping (the best part!), and more organizing. Trey's huge contribution was putting together her new drawers (courtesy of Target) which was no easy task. They look awesome - thank you honey! I'll let pictures show you the details. There are a couple unfinished areas that I can't finish until I bring my changing table up from Roanoke (yes, the one I used when I was a baby! It's been used by my big sis the past few years and matches the crib) and Mom is also coming in June to finish covering the chair. Check it out:

Look at all her cute little socks! Lots of organizing clothes....

The drawers Trey put together & her hamper.
I love this diaper stacker! So cute - will go on
the changing table.

The bookshelf - spent the wee hours of Friday night organizing this and the closet (below)

I <3 organization!

A view of the bookshelf/closet together

A view of the room from the door (note: unfinished chair in the corner)

The crib and new matching jungle decals - love this look!

This corner will be for the changing table
(rocker will go in our room)

This big chair will be covered in the tan,suede material
you can see a swatch of on the top cushion.
The white frame picture collage above the chair
will have pictures of Victoria & baby photos of her
parents!

All these adorable containers will go on the changing table!


Well, as if you can't tell, I am so excited for her to get here! However, I'm trying to relax and enjoy my "quiet" time until then. Now that the nursery is pretty much ready, I can spend more time being lazy! Although that's not really my style so I guess I can tell myself good luck with that!

xoxo, 

Bumpdate: 32 Weeks! Yikes!

My new favorite attire: preggers comfy clothes!

What a cute phrase: "bumpdate" (get it? Update on the bump). I stole if off another expecting mommy's blog and thought it was adorable. I have been so bad at updating, but this pregnancy has been flying by! This past Thursday marked 32 weeks (aka) 8 months. Whoah! And a lot has changed since my last update at 20 weeks. Check it out:

• Total Weight Gain: 2 weeks ago it was about 22 pounds - tomorrow I'll find out my latest gain...my legs are definitely not used to holding up this much weight!
• Size of baby: Around 3.5 pounds and 17 inches long
• Sleep: Pretty soundly minus my frequent bathroom trips and sore mid-back. However I recently bought myself a "pregnancy wedge" pillow to help keep me on my side or to place under my bump for support - loving it!
• Best Moment This Week: Video-taping V while she kicked around in my belly like crazy.

• Movement: All the time. I love it when it's a big kick and it catches me off guard...I tend to yell out in surprise (eee!)
• Food Craving: Icees on my way home after school - cherry limeade is delish!
• What I Miss: being able to bend over in the shower and shave my legs like a normal person (don't worry...I'm still shaving...sometimes!). I also miss being able to walk quickly. I'm a super fast walker and these days I'm starting to waddle...ugh!
• What I'm looking forward to: V's arrival. I can't believe it's getting so close! I spend every extra minute working on her nursery: washing her new things, folding, sorting, organizing, etc. 
• Weekly Wisdom: I learned this from a coworker: I've started to lay awake after my mid-night  bathroom trips because I have so much on my mind that I need to do before V gets here (ex. finishing the nursery, maternity sub plans, finding a pediatrician, etc.) and my friend suggested putting a notepad next to my bed so I can write it all down...freeing up my mind again for sleep...going to give that a try! I'll let you know how it goes.
• Symptoms: Swollen ankles and feet on work days (and shopping days!), really itchy skin in certain "growing" areas, and I'm finding it next to impossible to stand up after being on the couch, in the bed, or any other "comfy" surface that sinks in. Thank goodness for my husband and his willingness to give me a hand every time I need to stand up! I've also had a lot of back pain in the last ten weeks - especially if I accidentally sleep on my back (which is my natural position) and I've been trying really hard to stay on my side! Hubby has also been a huge help with this and I'll feel him pushing me to my side if he sees me on my back. What a sweetheart :)

Until next time! Xoxo,

Gender Reveal Party!

I apologize for this post being so late, considering our "gender reveal party" was held over a month ago, but spring break is my first chance to finally do the things I want to do! Thank goodness for this week and how it has allowed me to check a million things off my list, while also letting me take time for me (and baby!). 


So here is the story of how we told our families that Baby Woolwine is either a boy or a girl!
I had heard about these gender reveal parties through friends and Facebook about a  year ago and thought, "what a cute idea!". Fortunately, many of those who have thrown them in the past couple years have posted about it on their blogs and I was able to pick and choose from ideas already planted. Thank you to those of you who shared! I also had the help of my mom and mother-n-law to do most of the work, which I am so grateful for. I told them what I wanted and they made it happen - amazing! 


Here's how it played out:


Most of our immediate family lives in Roanoke (our original home) so we decided to have the party there. We knew we would find out Baby Woolwine's gender from the doctor on Thursday, February 23rd (I counted down to this date for many weeks!) and decided to have our family reveal on Saturday, February 25th. It was incredibly hard keeping it a secret for 2 days! My older sister tried to bully it out of me, but I stayed strong and made her wait too. She was not pleased. (love you Nat!). We had considered being in on the surprise ourselves, but decided that we wanted to share that moment together where just the two of us (and the ultrasound technician) knew what we were having. We saved the surprise at the party for everyone else. 


Here are some pictures of the decorations and work our mother's put in:

Our color theme for the party: pink and blue

Ultrasound picture garland

There are multiple ways to share the surprise, as I found through my research, but we decided to go with a cake. The inside of the cake would be colored either pink or blue, but would be hidden by lots of icing and decorations that were gender neutral. I decided to have the cake made by Debbie Lucci in Salem (her cakes are to die for!) and I am so glad I did! The cake was adorable and made my life so much easier on the day of the party. 

The Reveal Cake

We also had snacks and decided to go with the theme of foods I have been craving while pregnant. Naturally, I was happy with this! :)

A menu of the snacks served (lots of chocolate and cheese!)

Mom bringing out more pizza

We played a game where each guest received a card with "old wives tales" on how to predict the gender of the baby. Everyone placed their vote (which they also did through the color shirt they chose to wear) and I tallied it up on the board. The majority voted girl!

7 Boy, 11 Girl

Boy Votes

Girl Votes

Finally, when it was time to cut the cake, we decided to let the grandmother's have the honor. Their faces were priceless. 

And the news the cake revealed?

We're having a .... GIRL!

Being a 5th grade teacher, I also have a class of 20 students who had been more than excited to learn the gender of Baby Woolwine. Literally every day since the day I told them I was expecting, at least two different students would ask "Do you know what you're having yet?" (and it didn't matter how many times I told them I wouldn't know until Feb. 23rd :)

  I decided to share the news with them creatively as well and made cupcakes which contained a pink center. Upon biting into the cupcake, our baby girl's gender would be revealed. 

 I made vanilla cupcakes and then created the center by mixing strawberry jam with cream cheese and adding a few drops of pink food coloring to brighten the shade. Then I used a knife to cut a circle around the top (and only cutting down halfway, I didn't want the pink to seep through to the bottom) and pulling out that piece. I filled it with a spoonful of the jam mixture and then put the top back in place.

 Then I sealed each of the cupcakes with a thin layer of icing to secure the top...

 And finally decorated them with more icing, a few sprinkles, and little baby bottles.

When the students took a bite, this is what they saw! They were incredibly excited. They also wore the color shirt for their vote and I took pictures of those who voted for a boy, and those who voted for a girl, but unfortunately due to privacy cannot post their pictures here (but you can imagine their sweet faces!)

Today marks Week 27 of my pregnancy and the start of the third trimester. I can't believe how fast time is flying by...and how much our love for Victoria Anne (yes, that's her name!) grows each and every day. We are so thankful that she continues to grow bigger and healthier and are praying for her safe arrival in July! 

xo, 

Pregnancy and Woolwine Family Update: Week 22

Lucky me! I got to see my baby girl again after only two weeks since I saw her last (and found out she was a girl)! She was in a strange position last time so they couldn't get a good look at her face and heart...which means, I got to go back sooner than expected! I certainly have never enjoyed going to the doctor as much as I do to see our baby. 


Here are some photos of our sweet Victoria:

Victoria's profile: I love how her little mouth is open!

Looks like she's waving hello! Check out the front of her face

Her mouth is wide open with her tongue sticking out - love it!

She is so adorable - and I continue to feel her kicking "hello" all day long! The technician commented on what an "active" baby she is -- should keep us busy once she gets here! She's comparable to the size of a papaya this week - between 10 and 11 inches and somewhere between 12 ounces and a pound. She's growing so fast! I can certainly tell as my belly stretches tighter and tighter. I'm waiting for my belly button to pop out any day now - eeek! 

Well, it's Friday night which means pizza and breadsticks on the couch with Daddy, Victoria, and Deano (the pups). We LOVE pizza Friday! Of course, I usually crash earlier than I do on a normal weeknight. It's like my body finally gets permission to relax after a week of work....and it takes that relaxation time seriously! Teaching 20 fifth graders is quite the exhausting job - but I still love it (minus the attitude of soon-to-be 6th graders)!

One more thing: my Dad came to visit this week when two of our hometown basketball teams had games in Richmond & he got to stay with us (lucky him)! He got to spend time bonding with our sweet pups, Dean, who is now 8 months old. He will be exactly 1 year when Victoria arrives. We basically go from raising one baby to another in this household! :) Here is an assortment of photos from their photo shoot Wednesday before school:

This one is my favorite :) 

Well that's all for now. Off to relax!

xoxo,