The Baby Bump Diaries: Chapter 8

In case you missed Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, or Chapter 7.

I am 37 weeks today, so full-term! Coco, this photo's for you...

At 36 and a half weeks, I had my first "weekly" check up with my OB. Everything went well...I am a fingertip dilated with a "soft" cervix, but he didn't give me an effacement percentage.

I am personally not a believer of inducing early, that is just for the fun of it. So, we are officially waiting. Only the good Lord knows when this baby will arrive!

I will also tell you that I am not passing judgement on those of you who have chosen to induce early, it's just not for me. Emma was only 7 and a half pounds at birth, and she was full term. I just think that God gives us forty weeks for a reason, and I would prefer to not take home a five or six pound baby. We all know that no matter how miserable we are at the end of a pregnancy, new babies are far easier to take care of inside of the womb than out.

I am measuring exactly how I should, so my doctor said that I should expect a baby about the same size as Emma. He is not "big," which is something that I think all expectant mothers worry about. My doctor is also on call the weekend that I am due. Yay! Knowing that alone felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.

So, there you have it. The update that I promised....I will keep you posted!

please don't cry...

So, based on the response from my last post, I feel terrible. I made several of you cry, which weren't my intentions at all. So, now for something a little more light-hearted...Valentine's Day cards. My friend sent me a couple links where we could find free Valentine's Day printables...amazing! Since my due date is just around the corner, and Emma needed Valentine's to hand out to her class, I decided to go ahead and get this one knocked out. So, this is what we decided on....butterflies.

I had little hands to help me out along the way. She is so sweet and helpful. I love her.

Like any three year old, she was trying to make the butterflies fly...

flap, flap...

You can download the butterfly template here. I printed the cards and cut them out. Afterthat, I cut out red hearts to add to the wings, and Emma glued them on. We bought the suckers. Emma added the eyes, and I added the smiles and the pipe cleaners. Besides buying the bag of suckers, I had everything else at home. They were a lot of fun to make, and I thought that they turned out super cute!

She's all grown up now...

Okay, so maybe it's the pregnancy hormones or the fact that I am about to have another baby, but it has been so obvious lately that she's all grown up now.

Emma would tell you that, "she's all growed up." She reminds me of this multiple times a day now.

Here she is. This photo is really and truly Emma. Emma and Tigg, of course. Since Emma got her big girl bed, she has had a "childproof" doorknob on the door in her bedroom. We did this because we didn't want her wandering the house at night unattended and falling down the stairs. Some people thought this was nuts, but it always made sense to me. When she was in her crib, she couldn't get out of it on her own, we always knew where she was, she was never in danger, and if there was a fire, we would just have to go get her. The same rules applied to putting the childproof knob on her door. Once we moved her to her big girl room, she never tried to come out. Why would she? She knew that she had never been able to leave her room before, and she would just be put back into bed. When she woke up, she would always just call for us to come get her...

Well, I guess a growing belly changes things. I had visions of me nursing the new baby and Emma calling me to come get her out of bed. I decided that any changes that I planned to make should be made long before our little fellow made his debut, so, I took the doorknob cover off. And you guessed it right, it totally freaked me out.

I explained to her that when she woke up in the morning, she could just come downstairs. It took a couple mornings for it to sink in, but she's got it down now. She is so "growed-up" now that she will even turn on her own bedroom light, let herself out of her room to go potty, wash her hands, and tuck herself back in bed. Sounds great, right?

Well, I guess you would call it bittersweet. It is great, but kind of sad too. I feel like she just grew up...overnight. On the plus side, I don't have to climb the stairs quite as often, while being humongo pregnant. And, I even laid out her clothes for her last night and told her to get dressed before coming downstairs. She appeared in my bathroom, while I was getting dressed at 7:45 this morning~dressed and ready for the day. I couldn't believe my eyes. Only someone that had been a mother to young children would truly appreciate this accomplishment.

So, there you have it. The latest on Miss Emma. After I explained to her that her baby brother wouldn't eat all of her eggs & toast and wouldn't take all of her toys (yes, she told me all of this on her own), she has been so excited about Baby Carson. I am sure that we will have our challenges, but for now we are all very excited.

Emma gets herself out of bed, dresses herself, lets herself to the potty, gets back in bed, and talks about her new baby brother all of the time. I for one am hoping for best...

For more randomness, I did finally open my new lens. I love it and took the above photos with it. And, after my doctor's appointment next week, I will post any pregnancy news that I may have. My due date was one month from yesterday....yikes!

Please keep us in your prayers as the whole labor and delivery thing will always stress me out. I am hoping for a healthy baby boy~preferably one that comes on his own and is not delivered via c-section. Is that too much to ask?

The Nursery

We are done! Well, besides stocking up on diapers and wipes and actually having the baby, I think we are done.

Most of you know that this was Emma's nursery. The plan all along was to go with a gender neutral nursery, so that we could use it will all of our babies. I like for their "big" girl or boy room to be more gender specific. Afterall, Emma doesn't even remember her nursery, and we did use it for two and a half years.

I swapped the pink for chocolate brown and added some blue, of course! We bought him a new dresser that he can take with him to his "big" boy room...one day.

Here is Emma's finished painting. I was thoroughly pleased, and it looks really great in the nursery!

We hung Emma's painting, which she calls her "Cupcake Painting" over Carson's changing table. Can you find the cupcake?

My cousin Courtney gave us this plate as a baby gift. I bought a plate hanger, and we hung it on the wall, just as you walk in the door. I love it!

y'all have asked...

so, before Carson arrives, I thought I would answer. I don't think I have posted photos of my house since right after we moved in, so here goes nothing. This post is kind of long, so you might want to grab your cup of coffee. This is Emma's room.

Mama C. hand-painted the toy box for Emma for Christmas this year. I thought that it completed her room!

I made Emma a collage of family photos on the wall. The frames are from the dollar tree. I spray painted them to match.

These are her curtains...

And, her flower balls. I made them too.

Now, for our playroom. We are waiting on owls in trees to be painted on the wall by someone special :)

These are our bulletin boards. I found them on craig's list for a steal.

And, here is Emma enjoying the playroom. Look fast-it is never this clean!

Aunt Marg, this one's for you! Here are my curtains. They are my favorite in the whole house!

And, just for good measure, here's the rest of the den.

I moved my "nursing" chair, so that I could see the tv. The tv went out yesterday.

And here's our kitchen.

The curtains are new too. Thanks to Aunt Marg, I finally have curtains in my house! She is so helpful! The seat cushion and pillows are relatively new as well.

Hopefully, I will get my door back on the laundry room soon.

And, hopefully Carson's head isn't as big as it appears in the ultrasound photo on the counter. Emma is on the left, and Carson is on the right.

This is my computer desk, which is where all of the magic (blogging) happens. It is usually the messiest corner in the house.

I hope that y'all enjoyed the tour. I will be back soon with photos of the finished nursery.

a gift from the big sister...

I wanted Emma to paint something special for Carson's room. I am really trying to work this big sister thing. If any of you have any suggestions for making the transition from one to two, please share! We started with a blank canvas, and I gave Emma the colors from Carson's room.

She painted away. I was so impressed.

She was so serious....working very hard on her masterpiece.

The finished product, which I will show later, came out beautiful! I hung her canvas over Carson's changing table. Emma was so excited to be a part :)

panic mode...

and hanging on for dear life. Okay, well it's not that bad, but most of you know I am type A, so I have a few issues. We have been SO busy lately...taking down the Christmas stuff inside and out, shampooing the carpets (all of them), cleaning out the garage to find all of the baby gear, cleaning the house, laundry, and the list goes on...

We did most all of the above while Emma was at my mom's house for several days. It is amazing just how much you can get done without a little one!

I nearly killed my back and sciatic nerve cleaning this time, but what's a girl gonna do? I am done with the above list of duties, and we did have a wonderful Christmas, but...

*my holiday photos are still on my camera

and

*I got a new lens for Christmas (yay!) that is still in the box (not so great).

So, I promise that I will be back soon. I am sort of overhauling the website, but in order to do so, I am waiting for iPhoto 09 to appear at my front door. Once I get the new software, I plan to do ALL of my holiday posts in the new website format. So, just hang on with me, I think you will all like it!

In other news, we were ALL sick for most of the holiday. On the up side, we are all doing much better. I have been busy washing all of Carson's clothes, bouncy seats, swings, etc. His nursery is looking done~I think! The bottles are washed, and I am currently working on packing diaper bags, re-reading baby wise, labeling his "stuff," baby books, photo albums, scrapbooks, and so much more. Cooking & freezing (food for when our little munchkin arrives) and thank you notes are also near the top of my list.

You will have to scroll down to see our holiday posts....

Happy New Year!

Christmas with the Douglas Family

Rob's dad was called into work on the 26th, so we weren't able to have Christmas with them as planned. So, they made it down to our house on New Year's Day instead. Emma had been with my mom and Ash all week. So, Mom and Dad returned our little munchkin to us on New Year's Day as well. We had both sets of parents with us for the weekend. Emma got her very own digital camera from Grand-dad and Nana. She has enjoyed it so much...

She especially enjoyed having everybody down for their visit.

This photo truly cracks me up. Can you tell who's in charge? Emma had both Papa C. and Grand-dad right where she wanted them. They were all three coloring their little hearts out.