The Home Stretch

It seems crazy to think that the final month of life with Aiden in my belly has begun. The little guy could come at any time! (though I'm still trying to coax him in to sticking around till his due date....best for his brain development and my peace of mind) :) The doctor also told me the other day that Caucasian boys have the most respiratory problems when born early so that's another reason for him to stay in as long as possible. Do you think he's getting all these thoughts that I'm directing to him?
I know most people reach my stage of pregnancy and are ready to be done, but I'm just not there. The entire pregnancy has FLOWN by, and I want these last few weeks to just savor the time with my hubby and to focus on and enjoy this last little bit of pregnancy.
I had a dentist appointment yesterday, and it made me reflect on so much. (doesn't the dentist do that to us all?) The last time I went to the dentist, I was about a month into knowing I was pregnant but hadn't shared the news with many people. I told the dentist so that I wouldn't get x-rays, but this visit I didn't have to mention the baby....it was pretty obvious. It just made me reflect on how quickly time passes, how much life changes in six months, and how much Mr. Aiden has done while in my belly (floating the river, visiting LOTS of places, going to a Cowboys game, running and biking a few miles, and on and on the list could go). We've kept him pretty busy while he's been in there....
As we dive into this last month, I just want to say a huge THANK YOU to our family and friends for all the support, love and generosity you have shown. You have made this special time in our lives even more wonderful, and we appreciate you more than words could say!
And now.....the 9 month kick off picture: (hopefully the next one of these will be when I'm on the way to the hospital....not when I'm more than a week overdue....)

Ta-da!

Here are pics of the (basically completed) nursery. There are still a few little things we need to wrap up, but for the most part, this is what the room will look like that our new little guy will call home!

Movin' on Up

That's the general direction of Mr. Aiden these days.....up. In the last few weeks he's moved up significantly. I don't remember feeling him above my belly button until about two weeks ago. Then, this last week he decided to do a wrap around to my right side....I thought he might kick me in the hip bone! Despite the fact that he's moving up and around, he's not much of a public performer. You have to be very patient waiting for him to move, and oftentimes I think he knows when someone is waiting to feel his little body wiggling because he won't move for a long stretch and usually waits until the person walks away. Sneaky little guy....

My showers have been WONDERFUL so far! Full of wonderful people and thoughtful gifts and happy moments. I have another Dallas shower tomorrow....I'll make a collage of shower pics once they all wrap up. Thank you to all the fabulous people in our lives who love us and want to show us support during this exciting time. We are blessed to have you in our lives!

This week starts month eight...CRAZY! He'll be here soon!!!!

Bits and Pieces

So I've been thinking.....when you are trying to lose weight and you reach your goal weight early, it's considered an accomplishment. I think the same rules apply in pregnancy and weight gain, right? If you reach your goal weight 9ish weeks before baby is due, it should also be considered an accomplishment. That's what I'm going to tell myself for the remainder of the pregnancy. :)

Some of my Dallas gals threw me a fabulous shower last weekend (pics to come in a later post). A huge thank you to the wonderful gals who planned, prepped and set up....and thanks to everyone who came out and made for a wonderful afternoon. I appreciate all the super useful and ADORABLE gifts (knit baseball hat that will go perfectly with Yankees outfits, crocheted booties, fun decorated onsies...just to mention a few!). I'm hoping Aiden is chill and likes to "play dress up" (is there a manly way to say that?) when he's born...he has a lot of great outfits to try out.

Aiden's room is coming along in the sense that all items are ordered, but we are still waiting for some things to come in before we can finish up the details. One idea I found during a pintrest search was hooks like these: http://www.ashberrybaby.com/Star-Wall-Hooks.html

We decide to make our own personalized ones in Aiden's room colors, and I'm thrilled with how they came out:

And a pic of one of the new hooks displaying the fabulous diaper bag (thanks Mal!) that I promised to post soon-ish back in November (hey, sometimes two months is my idea of soon these days...apologies!):

My amazingly wonderful hubby put most of the elbow grease into these hooks so much love and thanks to him for making the vision come to life. We are waiting to receive decorations for the wall behind the crib. Once those get up, we'll get the rest of these pieces we have on the walls.

New Year, Bigger Belly

Happy New Year friends and family! I hope you all had a blessed Christmas and your new year is starting off well. Mine is starting off with an ever growing belly. :) I feel like I JUST posted a picture of my belly, but I was a week late last time and the time has passed quickly with the holidays. Anyway, without further ado....my 28 week belly pic:

I can't believe Aiden will be here in 12 short weeks, give or take a few (I'm hoping to be more on the give side....). Mentally I'm trying to prepare for him to be late (everyone I've talked to who has gone past their due date says those final days are grueling), but in all other aspects I'm trying to prepare for him to be early.

In line with this, we decided to redo our kitchen this past weekend (who needs a relaxing long weekend, right?) We LOVE how it came out. Just took a few hours (or days) of work and a few gallons (5ish) of paint. That's right, the entire transformation was created with painted. We did the ceiling, cabinets, walls and countertops (check out Giani Granite). Important lessons learned: it always takes at least two coats, oil-based paint takes a long time to dry and is tough to get out of hair, we are hiring someone to do the painting next time around. It was honestly worth the effort though, especially because if was so cost effective (less than $400 for the entire project, including a new fan).

Next weekend is a Dallas shower so a new post and lots of pics to come!

Like Mother, Like Son

The below photo is from the start of my 25th week....with Aiden popping out! It's a little difficult to take the picture and show the month count on both hands....not quite as graceful as holding up just one hand in the back. Oh, the things we do for kiddos. (ha! I know, there are real sacrifices to be made in the coming months, really, I do.)

I've noticed that Aiden takes after his mom in a few ways. He's a night owl (he doesn't keep me awake at night....just likes to start moving when I lay down to go to bed.) I won't complain if he likes the night hours...just as long as he isn't a fan of the morning hours. (People say that all babies are morning babies. Is it too wishful of thinking to hope I get the one baby that isn't?) I guess it's a good thing Ryan's a morning guy, if it turns out that Aiden likes all hours of the day. Another fun finding was last week when we were setting up the Christmas tree and jamming out to the Christmas tunes - Aiden was hopping along to the beat. I sure hope he loves Christmas as much as I do!

It's crazy to think that there are less than three weeks to the start of the third trimester. I can't believe how quickly the first two have passed.

I've been meaning to post a picture and congrats to the new Mr & Mrs Collin Ruth! Married now for four fabulous weeks. Cheers to a beautiful future together.

I don't know if I'll post again before Christmas so if I don't, merriest of Christmases to you and yours!

Surprise!

Surprise! has been the theme of my last week. It started last Friday when my Schweizer family threw me a surprise baby shower! It was a fabulous shower, and I didn't expect it at all. The shower was at Charlotte's Tea Room in Warwick, NY, and everything about it was adorably themed. Jillian made me a 'Mad Hatter', we drank 'Mother's Tea', and the favors were tea pot shaped timers. Seriously, so fabulous. (We also got Yankees gear galore, which delighted Ryan.)

The shower was a reminder of how blessed we are by the people in our lives. I was so surprised and overwhelmed by gratefulness when I first walked in to the shower that I almost started to cry. Thanks Schweizer fam, for a wonderful, wonderful shower.

We returned home from NY to a gift from my sis, that she hadn't been able to ship to NY in time for the shower.....the MOST wonderful, awesome, amazing diaper bag EVER. (seriously, who thought I would ever say that about a diaper bag. oh but it's true....) I don't have any pics with it yet...I'll take one soon!

The next surprise came....oh about Monday or Tuesday of this week, when Aiden decided it was time for my bump to make a grand appearance. These last few weeks people have been telling me you can just see my bump, but when I showed up at work on Tuesday my bump was commentably bigger. I'll post a 6 month pic next week....you'll see.

Finally, I was surprised to find out that Aiden is the #1 name for boys in 2011, based on the MSN list that came out today . The one thing I wanted to not pick was a top ten name....and then we gave him the most popular name in the book. Oh well. It's definitely his and I couldn't imagine calling him anything else.