Nakita Grinie

6.17.14 | I refuse to accept the (seemingly) new definition of 'full term' being at 39 weeks. Hog wash, newer standards of today's pregnancies (since I'm so seasoned and all)! I'm full term according to me!!



The Good: This week went so quickly I barely know what to put here!! Oh yes, I had my 36 week appointment and baby is certainly head down, my blood pressure is still really good (always a relief at this stage in pregnancy), and his heart rate was 150. My OB did the Group B Strep test (I've been positive both other times, so we will see if I'm lucky enough to have it every time!) and therefore an internal exam. I was not hoping for any type of dilation since I've never ever been even a 'fingertip' dilated until actual labor. Seriously, my appointment 2 days before I had CC showed I was 'totally closed up'. But this time? 'I am touching your baby's head right here, and you are 1 cm dilated.' WHAT?? WOAH. Obviously this does not mean anything for early labor but hey, 1 cm down and 9 to go! Maybe those creepy, consistent contractions last weekend did a little something? I go back this Thursday to get the strep results and after that I will have only two more weekly appointments remaining. Holy cow.

Along with this idea of 'holy cow---stuff is about to go down'? I have exactly 7 days of work remaining at the most. I have two Mondays, two Fridays, and three Wednesdays ahead of me. Which, as you will read soon enough, is a very good thing.



I know it's dangerous to believe I will go early. I annoy myself with these thoughts, for sure, but baby boy just seems like he is gearing up to go SOON. Lots of contractions all week long but nothing quite as regular as the weekend where they came every 8 minutes. I feel like my belly is stretched to capacity, I'm exhausted, and mentally I truly question my sanity for three more weeks. We shall see, I suppose.

I was able to walk a bit more than the week before, and we had a great/active weekend that felt doable and not like it was going to send me straight into labor. So that's good! Celebrating Nate, Tony, and my dad for Father's Day will always be a highlight. And although the days at home with the kids are not easy, we have had some really fun times together just being silly and soaking in these last days with just Mommy, Truman, and CC.



Truman took this picture and it was all his idea. Seriously.


Lucky kids



The Bad: Are you ready for this whine-fest?? Well, I'm exhausted for one. I seriously took about three naps last week and STILL felt tired, along with a new bedtime of pre-10pm. It's hot and humid outside by Wisconsin standards and especially by 'end-stage pregnancy' standards. I'm like a freaking heater myself and even Nate said when I touched his arm one day it almost scalded him. True story. NOW I understand why women dislike being super pregnant in the summer.

And aside from the heat and the fatigue we've got going on up here, I truly do not know how much longer I can last at work. Yesterday I saw six patients, most of which kept their homes at a 'comfortable' 85 degrees while boasting the lowest, most challenging-to-stand-from chairs in the history of ever. This means I was in and out of my van no less than 16 times total, in the heat, with this heavy belly that just won't quit. Forget the amount of patience it requires to deal with six people all day long---I just don't have it anymore. And forget the ability to make it more than an hour without peeing, which, again poses a major problem when working out of patient's homes all day long.

And finally, in this 'I'm-Hitting-The-Wall' complain-fest? My upper back is jacked. It might be from work and it might be from pregnancy and is definitely not helped by that combination. But my left upper back (T6 for those healthcare people out there) is taking my breath away it's so irritated. Also the front of my ribs are killing me, which makes sense because that is where this troublesome rib in the back meets my chest bone in the front. I'm certain it's one entire rib that is causing this problem (front to back), and I've had my personal PT work on it a few times now (ahem, Nate). It feels a little better after he works his magic and I KNOW I need to work extra hard on my posture right now but OMG, an 'injury' like this makes me feel so freaking old. I'm very lucky not to have had any true pain before this in pregnancy but right now. True. But now I cannot turn over in bed, sit up straight, slouch, pick up a child, or carry anything remotely heavy without searing pain. Sometimes it's hard to take a deep breath. It hurts and it's not going away.

Awesome. This post is so uplifting, isn't it????? Gotta get it all out there, lest you think I am one psychotic pregnant lady who loooooooooooves every second until the bitter end. I do love it, yes, but right now is a bit of a pill with the heat/work/fatigue/and rib pain. It's hard growing a human, I suppose.

The Belly: I feel huge but know I am not compared to other girls' 37 week bellies. The bump is round and compact and so freaking veiny/stretched to the max, especially at the end of the day. I'm not all that hungry anymore (again), I've gained a total of 29 pounds (shocked it's not more!), and a lot of my maternity tops are daringly short now. Boo.

(Is this an offensive photo? I feel like it might be shocking to see my bare belly but I want to remember it, so hi. It's just so veiny and it feels like one of those fake bellies strapped to my body sometimes. No stretch marks yet but I wouldn't be surprised if I got my first battle scars in the next few weeks)


He's still a mover and a shaker, and a baby that hiccups at least 5 times per day. A few of his kicks and punches are pretty painful and I'm getting these new ovary zaps that are cray. I mean I will just be walking around and my legs will feel weak from the pressure/zing to the ovaries. Not the cervix, but the ovaries. Yes, I know I'm going crazy. Weird stuff is happening in my body.

Fun comments from patients this week: 'Are you SURE that's a boy in there?' (ugh, YES, people!!).  'You look....so....tiny for having 3 weeks left. I bet you haven't gained more than 18 pounds, have you? That's all I ever gained when I was pregnant, you know.' (ha, well, thanks? But yes, I have gained more than you did FOR SURE).

The Comparisons:

At 37 weeks with Truman, I was writing my LAST PREGNANCY POST. I was induced beginning on 37w5d and finally had him at 38w0d. Woah, buddy. I was just finishing up our final baby shower, was really struggling at work with my blood pressure, and had no clue I'd be induced just a few days later. I also think my belly with Tru was always SUPER small until this week. Now I think my first time belly and third time belly are very similar but just different shapes. I gained a lot more with Truman than I have with this baby with the pre-E (was up 37 pounds already) and I can't help but wonder if this baby boy will be as 'big' as his brother was (7lbs10oz two weeks early). Love that this comparison includes Truman in the womb and then as a big boy, ready to meet his little brother. Cecelia was not interested in photos, obvi.



At 37 weeks with Cecelia, I was still annoyingly upbeat about life but I did admit that by the evening hours I was impatient and grumpy. Maybe I wrote that post in the morning? Note to self: write the rest of these posts in the morning. Also, had just finished CC's nursery, was really proud to avoid pre-E so far, and was hanging in there at work. I had gained 30 pounds and I don't have a good comparison shot of that pregnancy compared to now, but I do think my belly was smaller with my girl.

Fun with shadows


So that's it. Full term according to some. Getting very very close to meeting this boy no matter what. Mentally getting very close to being d-o-n-e. Trying to take it a day at a time and hoping it cools off/my energy returns/my rib knocks it off already.

3/26/17 | 25w1d

Twenty-five weeks seems really far along, doesn't it? I mean, fifteen more weeks until my due date or about 3.5 more months? That's insane, I can hardly believe it.




This week baby is the size of a cauliflower and his kicks keep getting stronger, consistently happening whenever I eat, sit down, or try to fall asleep. I told Nate that 8pm seems to be this kid's most active time and we agreed that seems to be par for the course. I've caught myself wondering what it would be like to have a child that sleeps well, within his first year of life. I cannot imagine and know I shouldn't even get my hopes up to have a 'good sleeper'. 

In that same vein, Porter slept through the night last night for the first time in weeks, perhaps months. Can I get an 'amen'? Sticker charts really work for our children, point taken. Hopefully he keeps this up, mama needs some freaking sleep because I'm tired. My sleep is still fairly light and restless but at least I didn't have to physically get out of bed until 7 am this morning---the glory. 

Completely unrelated to pregnancy but I'm plunking it here anyway: Truman lost not one but BOTH of his top teeth this week, within 24 hours of each other. I'm not sure why these teeth got me, but they did. My biggest boy, weren't you just cutting those teeth yesterday? He looks so different. So big. Hold me.







Let's talk about this comparison for a second. Yes, my hair was crimped. 1988 was a great year. And come on, people who say Truman only looks like Nate!

Back to this pregnancy...

I had my first comment of, 'Oh, you are due in July? That is so SOON. You are going to have your hands full, aren't you?' I mean, don't we already? Our hands were full a long time ago, this will just be a new dimension of 'full'. But of course, our hearts will be even more full than our hands, with more love, more loudness, more memories to be had with our bigger family. I've been feeling overwhelmingly blessed this week and humbled by this baby in my belly. Bear with me here, I feel lots of emotions coming on during this post.




Also, I've noticed a gross, acidic taste in the back of my throat after I eat. I don't know if this is heartburn or reflux or what, but it's pretty annoying. I've never had heartburn before and figured it would be more in my chest--this feels like my food is too acidic, if that makes sense. It doesn't matter what I eat though, everything makes that taste appear. It's not painful but it makes me want to drink water and not eat as much food. Novel concept!

There were several more hours spent in the attic this week, sorting and purging and creating boxes to go to Goodwill. I finally went through my 'keepsake baby boy' boxes and nearly cried when I found that I've saved lots of tiny boy clothes. Anything remotely sentimental, with memories attached from the other boys, were in those boxes. I love hand-me-downs so much (it's the comparison thing, I can't help it) and am so happy that I didn't actually purge everything we own last summer and fall when I couldn't handle our attic anymore. It's looking really great up there! I have three bins of girl clothes that I'm trying to pass down to our friends, but everything else has been donated or stored for safe keeping. The baby has two bins of toys that I'll keep. I think we found a car seat to purchase from a friend. Still looking for a mamaroo. And of course, no nursery to decorate until the fall or winter when our addition is fully finished. 

OH, and the floor plans changed again. We have decided not to mess with the attic because the beams are not the correct size and there will be many structural issues if we push for the walk-up attic becoming a fifth bedroom. (Read: TONS of money). Instead, we have a new plan for adding a fourth master bedroom, master bath, master closet, and a fifth kids' bedroom in our second floor addition. This fifth bedroom will probably be the baby's room and will be the same size as Porter's current nursery. I've wanted five bedrooms since we started this process and to see it all drawn out is so satisfying! Now we just need the structural engineer to make his recommendations and then we sit in front of the board for our suburb and cross our fingers that everything passes. I'm guessing we will break ground in May or June. Really hoping we have a roof on our house when I give birth but we will take it as it comes, I suppose!

I must be highly emotional today, this is the third time I've almost started crying when typing this post. Hormonal pregnant woman alert.

With Porter, we were coming off a horrible round of illness for the family and I had gained 17 pounds so far. This time I'm at about 15 pounds according to my (rarely used) scale. With Cecelia I hit the 20 pound mark at 26 weeks, and with Truman I was at 18 pounds at 25 weeks. I know, NOBODY CARES about my weight gain and when it happens but these things are fascinating to me. I love comparing pregnancies and also my children, as bad as that sounds.

All three times before this we had named our baby by 25 weeks. This time we are down to two names and of course I prefer one while Nate likes the other better. I might just agree with his top pick, since I did choose both names anyway and love that choice also. Or I might keep working on him to fall in love with my top name choice. Or maybe we will just wait until the baby is born to decide but that thought makes me panicky for some reason. (Type A, so different than what we've done before this). 

Now, reading back through my three previous blog posts at 25 weeks, something really sticks out to me. This was me at 25 weeks pregnant with Truman:

That's it... jumping back on the fitness train, and packing on the lbs marks my twenty-fifth week. I really love being pregnant you guys. At least right now, at this point in the process, I'm feeling incredibly happy and blessed and ready to pop out another 3 after this one. But I suppose I should bite my tongue until I experience the glory of labor and delivery, the frenzy of living with a newborn, and lack of sleep. Call me naive but I cannot wait:)

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Still riding the hormonal high from the excitement on Tuesday. I want to remember the details of the anatomy scan and also the gender reveal photo shoot, so I hope you don't mind the rambling. Spoiler alert in case you haven't seen my various social media updates: It's a boy ;)

On Tuesday morning, when I was exactly 20w0d pregnant, I was too excited to sleep after 5 am. Granted, this was the first wake up from one of my children but usually I don't have any issues passing out again after early morning shenanigans. Not this time.

I got up and showered around 6, applied actual make up (on a day off!), and did my hair. The kids and Nate gave up on the sleeping fight as a whole around 6:45 and we all went downstairs together. I was supposed to drink 24oz of water from 7:30-8 and then hold it all until my 9:00 ultrasound. I did drink lots of agua but didn't keep track of the time so much. I figured as a third time mom my bladder would be sufficiently full for them to get a good scan either way, but I threw in some coffee for good measure. Tony came over at 8 to watch the kids and I was ready to pee myself by 8:30 as we were on the road to the ultrasound. Fun times.

I had requested my favorite ultrasound tech that has done my other two 20 week scans along with a scan before my D&C and another 'growth ultrasound' with CC at 36 weeks when they weren't sure if my fluid was getting too low. We weren't sure if we could actually get our guy but when he walked out and called my name, I nearly forgot about my bulging bladder. Yes! He is so good and talks through the entire scan, telling us everything he sees and what the 'norms' should be. I told him this was the fifth time we'd seen him over the years, he asked how many kids I have and how many pregnancies I've had (I always bristle a little to say 'fourth pregnancy, third child'), and he asked if we wanted to know the sex. We said we did want to find out, but wanted him to put the ultrasound picture with The Shot in the envelope---just like he had done for Cecelia.

He started scanning and immediately said, 'Wow, look at you, mom!' referring to my huge black hole of a bladder. Um, yeah. Apparently I did down enough fluid. Then he scanned my cervix, and up to the baby quickly. He moved the wand a little and said, 'There is going to be no doubt about the sex of this one, since baby is spread eagle. You are going to have to look away a lot during this scan, I think!' Fine by us, and right after that he did have us look away as he printed off the results. Probably 20 more times throughout the hour scan he told us to look away because of Mister Modest's pose. Oh, boy. The tech told us he was 99.9% sure he would be correct with his guess and has only been wrong once in his career. I remember him saying he was 98.5% sure with Cecelia and 99% sure with Truman---so just his assuredness about the correct sex had me thinking more about a boy.

We remained strong although I admit I peeked a lot, but swear I never saw anything obvious. I was probably more confused after the ultrasound actually. Going in I really felt like this baby was a boy, then with the 'obvious' gender that caused us to look away so often I figured it HAD to be a boy. But once when I peeked I thought I saw the 'three lines' of a girl scan, so really cheating did me no good and I left feeling more confused. I just didn't want to miss out on any time seeing our baby on that screen! Nate was more of a rule follower than I and never peeked, apparently. He also officially guessed girl and I officially guessed boy but I promise that correct guess wasn't because I ruined the surprise at the scan. ;)

The technician walked us through the brain views and measurements, neck fold size (for Down Syndrome screening), the spine for signs of Spina Bifida, the kidneys, the bladder and stomach, the eye lenses (!!), the heart, the blood flow into and out of the heart and kidneys, the arm and leg lengths, and tummy/head size. It all looked really good! I might have been holding my breath especially when looking at the brain and heart. Just when I'd get panicked about something looking off (since I'm a fantastic ultrasound tech!) baby would do something especially cute. We got to see him trying to suck his thumb many times and only correctly landing it in his little mouth once. Adorable. He kept opening and shutting his mouth and his jaw is pretty much the sweetest thing ever. The tech kept saying, 'Wow, this is one active baby' because little man wouldn't hold still for a lot of the measurements. I KNEW I felt a lot of movement! Sure enough, he'd wiggle away whenever the tech tried will him to be still.

All of the anatomy looked healthy and normal, and I remember the tech even saying, 'Look at that perfect shot of the four chambered heart,' a few times. We got to watch the heart in detail for some time since the clinic just changed their policy to include much more detailed measures of the heart, something that used to be done at the Perinatology level and not a standard 20 week scan. Don't mind it one bit!

I was pretty much in awe the entire time and Nate was, too. It's just so freaking awesome to have access to modern-day technology that allows us to see our child in utero---a fully formed, growing, miracle in my belly. Pardon my emotions over this but it's beyond my comprehension how something so beautiful can start with a few cells and grow into an actual person. God really knows what he's doing with this whole gestation thing, huh? Boggles my mind. I love it.

A few of the pictures we got to take home. Little thumb sucker.





Sorry to post a picture of your junk online, baby boy. But this is pretty obviously a boy part, no?



After a little over an hour the tech let me pee (OMG, finally!) and then we did a few more kidney pictures. He reassured us that everything looked great but kidneys are just really difficult to see and he wanted the best possible images---and ended up getting good ones. The tech said that my OB would let me know if they wanted me to come back for anything else but he was pretty confident that all was well. The next day my OB's nurse called me to officially say 'your scan was normal' and although seeing their phone number on my screen will always stop my heart, it was nice to hear those words. Sigh of relief for sure!

We left the office and drove back home, discussing our predictions and our plan of attack to get the kids ready for the photo shoot. We arrived home around 10:45 and CC had just woken up from a nap in her Papa's arms---woah, early nap! I guess she needed it and I was happy she rested so that she wouldn't melt down mid-photo shoot. We got the kids dressed, got ourselves dressed, I packed up my goodie bag full of photography bribes and crafts, and freaked out when Cecelia started pulling the 's' off her shirt before we left. I found some craft glue and glued it back on, but come on, Big Sis!! Let's not destroy GoGo's creation!

We headed out as a family and said goodbye to Tony around 11:15. As we arrived downtown at Andrea's new studio we saw Erin parking her car, too. Perfect timing! We were all super excited and I couldn't wait to get the show on the road. Andrea and Erin peeked inside the envelope right away and did a good job of keeping straight faces after that;) We set up the banners, I fed the kids about half of my snacks before we took a single photo, and we were ready to go!





Truman kept asking, 'When are we going to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl?' over and over again, and we weren't sure if he'd ruin the surprise by yelling it out or something. Cecelia was mostly oblivious and straight faced but both kids were so well-behaved and cooperative, it was shocking.

When Erin put the 'lil' brother' onesie in Truman's hand and the ultrasound in Cecelia's hand, Nate and I had our eyes closed and did not peek. The kids were silent and followed Erin's and Andrea's directions perfectly....so that when Andrea told us to open our eyes we saw the blue onesie right away! Truman just smiled and looked so proud, Cecelia was just staring at Andrea, and after we celebrated a bit T ran up to Andrea to look at the back of her camera. He did this a few times at the shoot--I guess he likes to check his angles to make sure Andrea catches his good side;)

Nate and I hugged and kissed, we picked up the kids and hugged them, and I hugged Andrea and Erin. A boy! A baby brother! I was too excited to cry tears of joy at that moment but they definitely came later on in the day. Not because I secretly wanted a boy, or because I was sad this baby isn't a girl. But I just keep getting hit with emotions about this baby in general. It feels so real now that we've seen him moving around, sucking his thumb, opening his tiny mouth. Now that we know Truman is going to have a brother and Cecelia will be sandwiched between two protective boys----it just makes me feel so blessed. I can picture our family so much more clearly now. And I'm overwhelmed with gratitude for these children and this husband.

Wow, sorry, went down a path of epic emotions there for a second.

Pretty freaking awesome to share in this moment with my girls. All of us are pregnant with our third babies. 11 weeks, 20 weeks, 12 weeks.


I won't post all of the pictures again, since you can see them all here. But these are a few of my faves:













And I made an iMovie with the videos and a few of the still shots set to music. I might watch it 500 more times before this kid is born and will smile through the whole 3 minutes every time;) What a day.


Baby #3: Gender Reveal from Julia H. on Vimeo.


After about 45 minutes we had all of the shots we wanted. All of us walked across the street to the Public Market (for the locals) to grab a bite to eat since it was about 12:30 and we were hungry. I tried to text and email a few people while we waited in line for food but my phone seriously DIED on me mid-text. Uggggh. Really, iPhone? Dead at 12:30pm? I figured I would just call my mom and Memaw from Nate's phone but felt badly about leaving my good friends in suspense while we happily chomped away on our meal.

We drove home and T kept saying, 'Mama, we are having a boy!' over and over. The cutest. Then he announced that he was very tired and closed his eyes at 1:30---I guess he needed a nap after such a big morning! CC stayed awake and was singing to us on the way home, also in a fantastic mood all morning and seemingly very into Nate during the photo shoot. She's such a daddy's girl and will be the only princess of the bunch!

I called Mom and Memaw and when we got home, I charged my phone and sent off my texts and emails. As the kids both napped I tried to do some paperwork, Nate had to get his car's emissions tested, and I eventually caved and went through the videos and iPhone pictures I had waiting for me. The videos are what did me in. Such a happy moment for our family.

I'll say it here: I realize that an elaborate gender reveal photo shoot is not for everyone. Heck, finding out the sex is not even for everyone, let alone making it a big production to 'announce' like this. I get it and admit this is a bit 'attention whore-ish' and fully embrace it. I think all mommy bloggers who put their lives out there publicly probably have a teensy bit of AW in them anyway, or at least we appreciate the connections and positive feedback related to events in our lives. I mean, I'm not calling *you* an AW or anything---but I'm owning up to it for this gender reveal;)

We've enjoyed doing this for the last two kids and I adore the pictures we have of us 'finding out' both times, so to us it's worth the effort and AW-ness. Any excuse for me to make crafts and any excuse to plan coordinating outfits for my family makes me happy. Plus, this is very likely my last pregnancy so I fully intend to make a big deal out of everything I can----there is so much to celebrate. I promise not to have huge photo shoots and 100s of pictures for every week of pregnancy here on out or anything. One time deal for now.

We haven't officially discussed names since finding out it's a boy, but I realized that now we won't have to duke it out over the name 'Alice' for a girl. I wanted that one BADLY for Cecelia and Nate shot me down. I was prepared to put up a serious fight this time around and I'm still in love with that name---although he already told me he was 80% sure he'd never like it. Maybe having a boy was a blessing to our marriage;)

I will share a few of our contenders at some point. Let it be known that Truman said 'I think we should call our boy Cranky,' a few minutes after the shoot and he has not stopped offering this idea since. Cranky Crane from Thomas and Friends, duh. He also threw out the idea of 'monkey' while staring at his lovey and 'Mike Wyzowski' a la Monsters Inc. Hahahahah. Oh, buddy. Thanks for those stellar ideas! I have given him a few of my top picks and he likes any of them that can be related to a train or cartoon of some sorts.

So many hilarious questions are emerging from Truman and I love that he really 'gets' it this time. He will count the number of boys in our family now, including Henry, and announces 'there will be four boys and two girls in our family.' He will randomly say, 'I can't believe we are having a boy! I'm so excited' at any time of the day. Originally he said he wanted a sister but I think his preference changed around the time that my intuition changed from this being a girl to a boy. It's neat to think about Truman and his brother being a little over 4 years apart, just like Nate and his brother. Truman being the oldest of three fits his personality so well---my proud first born, paving the path for his siblings in a lot of ways.

Cecelia and I are going to hold down the pink fort among the men. She will stay our 'sister' and we can have lots of mommy-daughter girlie dates along the way. She will have two brothers picking on her and protecting her. I just wonder if she will be tougher than her baby brother?

And the baby boy will always be our 'baby'. All three kids will have their own personalities and place in the family. I just can't wrap my head around having a boy that is not my Truman. Will he look like Truman? Cecelia? Completely different? Will he sleep like his siblings (please, no)? Will he be super laid back since he will be a third child, or extra high maintenance as our baby? Will he nurse as well as his sibs, be as happy as them, get along with them, be as healthy as them?

We can't wait to meet you, little man. You are already so loved. I hope you love being a part of our crazy family as much as we'll love to have you.

Proof that our weekend was absolutely fabulous: tons of pictures, not a lot of words:)

Baby shower #1: a Friday morning brunch in Jefferson City, held by my Mom's friends back home. I got up early on Friday after we arrived to St. Louis very late on Thursday and drove to JC. I wasn't really sure what to expect from this one but it was so much fun. And who doesn't love egg casserole, fruit salad, and yummy treats like these?


Love all the wrapping papers!


Memaw made the trip up for BOTH showers, so of course we had to grab a 'three generations' shot.


The big hit of this shower? The quilt my mom sewed for the baby! I am absolutely obsessed with it. This is the back:


And this is the front. I helped her select a pattern online and she did the rest. Perfect colors, wonderfully modern, and made with love:) In fact, I am told my very own father helped to meticulously cut these strips of fabric but don't tell anyone.



I drove back to St. Louis Friday night, and on Saturday my girlfriends threw me their shower. It was so 'Julia' it was practically dripping with my style. Loose leaf tea, lemonade, coffee, and all desserts.....I was in heaven of course. Just look at those handmade tablecloths Hannah sewed!




And don't even get me started on the plethora of sweets. How did they know I could live off a sugar block for the rest of my life?




All of the bright colors were gorge, and mimic my nursery for sure.


Adorable!


And these little banners made by Maggie will definitely go up on our door once baby boy arrives. Too cute!


Yours truly with an insane amount of loot. Again, the pretty papers make me happy.


After a few games, lots of chatting, and opening enough gifts to make me teary I forced everyone to take a group photo. Surprisingly, nobody even batted an eye because I'm sure they expected this request from me:) When I count it up, these guests span five different states and at least 6 or 7 different cities. I love these girls!


The hostess with the mostess (and the cutest 7 week old ever).


And remember at Hannah's shower how we did a belly shot like this? Well now we have an extra pregnant lady (Hi, Kristen!) and the weeks are a bit different. It goes from being a mommy of a 7 weeker, to 32 weeks, to 23 weeks, to 16 weeks. Who's next, ladies?


All four of my shower hosts.


And my family (mom, me, Memaw, Aunt Beth, and my cousin Amy). We are pretty short and don't look anything alike, right?


And later that night at dinner with Keri and Allison!


So driving back with all of our loot was highly entertaining.


And unpacking it, although it was already consolidated into very few bags, made me feel overwhelmed by everyone's generosity.




I mean, just look at all of the 'odds and ends', for instance.


And because we've started a family tradition by placing Henry in all of the baby's gifts (ie the crib, the car seat, etc) we had to try it out with our new Bumbo. I think he hated it a lot.

So yeah, there are no words for how loved we feel right now. I'm slowly organizing the nursery and am getting started on my thank you cards but I'm still letting the whole weekend sink into my thick skull. We are extremely blessed, for sure. And the next time we cross into Missouri territory we'll have a brand new baby with us. How crazy is that?