Father's Day

Today was Matt's first (unofficial) Father's Day, & we had a great day. I made him pancakes & bacon for breakfast, we spent some time just relaxing on the couch & watching t.v.(which it seems like we haven't done in a looooong time), & then we headed up to Randall Road. We had a lot of errands we had to run, but it was nice to be able to just spend some time together. When we got home, we made a homemade tomato, goat cheese, & basil pizza with fresh basil from the garden. It was delicious!

I got Matt a shirt and a bottle of wine for Father's Day, but my favorite gift was this book, called "Why A Daughter Needs a Dad":

I found it at Borders on Friday while I was looking for another baby book. Before I knew it, I was bursting into tears in the middle of the bookstore. It was pretty embarrassing. I assumed that it was just my overly pregnant, overly emotional state that led to the tears, but Matt got a little misty when he was reading it today, so maybe it's just a really sweet book. :) Here are a few of my favorites:

A daughter needs a Dad...
...to be the standard against which she will judge all men.
...to tell her truthfully that she is the most beautiful of all.
...to teach her to believe that she deserves to be treated well.
...to teach her that her value as a person is more than the way she looks.
...to teach her what kind of man to choose to be the father of her children.
...to learn what she should expect from her husband.
...to help her take the risks that will build her confidence.
...who will let her know that while she may not be the center of someone else's world, she is the center of his.

I know that Matt will do all of these things for our daughter, and that he will be as amazing a father as he is a husband. This little girl is so lucky to have him. :) Okay, I need to stop before I get all emotional again!

On a pregnancy note, I think that the baby has dropped in the last couple of days. I was noticing on Saturday that it wasn't as uncomfortable as usual when I was seeing patients, and that I didn't feel her feet jabbing into my ribs like I have been. We had my family over for dinner on Saturday night to celebrate Father's Day, my Mom's birthday, and my Grandma's birthday. My Dad mentioned right away that my belly looked lower, & I think he's right. It seemed really early for the baby to drop, but after doing some reading, I guess it's normal for the baby to drop as early as 4+ weeks before delivery, so I guess it's not too early (and she's not going to arrive tomorrow, whew!). I am going to the doctor every week now, and next Friday will be my first check to see if there are any signs of dilation, etc. I'm curious to know if there are any signs of my body preparing for labor.

I'm still feeling good overall, but I'm definitely slowing down. Everything wears me out, and I'm starting to feel like I'm waddling (although Matt assures me that I'm not). :) I've been having a decent amount of contractions, and exercise definitely brings them on, so I think my days at the gym are numbered (and my workouts on the days I do have become very short & very light). But, I'm happy that I made it this far. I guess I should just sit back, relax, and enjoy my final weeks of relaxing while I still can. :) Here is today's belly picture at 35 weeks, 3 days:

Family Shower

On Sunday, my sister threw a family shower at my mom's house. They both worked so hard on everything. It was a "Garden Tea Party" theme, & it was soooo cute!!!! I'm so sad that we didn't get a chance to take pictures before everyone arrived. I also forgot to take a picture of the food table, but it was so cute, & the foods were all very frilly & delicious!

They decorated with lots and lots of tissue paper balls:


All of the tables were set up outside:


The tables were decorated with adorable diaper cakes:


We had tea with our cake:


My sister, me, and my mom:


My mother-in-law and I:


We got soooo many gifts. This little girl is already spoiled rotten. Here are a couple of my favorites:

This is the beautiful sweater, hat, and booties that my mother-in-law made for the baby. They totally made me cry when I opened them. I think I want to frame them & hang them in the nursery until she is big enough to wear them. They are too pretty to hide in a closet!!!


My mom got us our Moses Basket (which is pink, but looks peach in this picture).


After we got home from the shower, I couldn't resist going through everything again & playing with the most girly gifts.

Here is her new collection of footwear:


This is her hat collection (courtesy of Jacqi, Tara, & Olivia):


I challenge someone to find an outfit that this little girl doesn't have a headband to match. :) My mom & Olivia got us tons of ADORABLE headbands, bows, & hair clips!!!


I can't believe how many adorable outfits she has already:


This little girl is spoiled rotten already. :)

Friends Baby Shower

Saturday night was my baby shower thrown by my girlfriends. It was an evening shower, & it was so girly. Candlelight, roses, chocolate...what more could a girl ask for??

Delicious food (my favorite was the chocolate fondue--yum!):


Lots of pink roses & candles:


"Clothesline" with baby items (including Baby G's first tutu--made by Olivia!):


Nicole hand painted wine glasses (with a G for Baby G). The girls added tutus around the stems, added charms (baby feet, bottles, etc). They filled the glasses with little bags of Jelly Bellies. They were adorable!


This is the beautiful blanket that Selena made for Baby G:


And finally, here's a picture of me & the best friends a girl could ask for. :)

Overwhelmed

Okay, this is going to be a mini blog post because I am absolutely exhausted, & I need to get to bed. But, I had to post and say that Matt & I are completely overwhelmed by all of the love and generosity our family & friends have shown us this weekend. We have had the best weekend celebrating the upcoming arrival of Baby G with our friends and family. The 2 showers that were thrown for us this weekend were absolutely perfect. They both had so many beautiful details that were so perfectly planned out. We feel so loved, and we are so grateful for all of the wonderful gifts we were given, but most of all, we are grateful for all of the amazing people we have to share our excitement with. I promise to post lots of pictures this week. :)

Check, Check, Check!

It has been a VERY busy weekend, but we have checked so many things off of the baby checklist. On Saturday, we took a breastfeeding class at the hospital. When I registered for it, I was planning to go by myself, but the lady in registration said that husbands are encouraged to attend, and that they almost always do. So, Matt came along, and we both worried the whole way there that he would be the only guy to show up. But, the class was full of couples, and I was so thankful that Matt was there & I didn't show up alone. The class was very informative, and we both learned a lot.

After the class, we headed out to celebrate some birthdays. My friend Olivia's daugher, Audrina, turned 1 on Sunday, and her birthday party was Saturday. It was a polka dot themed party, and everything was so cute. I'm including a picture of the birthday girl because most of the people who follow this blog know Olivia and Jordan, and also because Audrina is just too cute not to share. Even with Goldfish in her mouth. :)

After Audrina's birthday party, we went out to a big birthday bash to celebrate the 60th birthday of Matt's Mom, Dad, and Uncle Danny. It was great to see lots of family!

On Sunday, we had our tour of the Labor and Delivery, and the Mother/Baby units at the hospital. It was great to get familiar with the check-in process, and to see all of the rooms so that it doesn't feel so foreign when we get there on the big day. The hospital is very nice, and it's so exciting to think that we will be heading back there very soon to meet our little one!

Tonight, we went and met with the pediatrician (Matt didn't try to cut off any appendages in an attempt to get out of it this time, lol). The pediatrician was SO nice. He sat down with us for 50 minutes and told us all about the practice and his philosophies. He took the time to answer all of our questions (which, surprisingly, we didn't have many after he went over everything so thoroughly!). We both felt really good about him and the practice, and it's a huge relief to have that decision made.

I think that's about it. 3 items off the checklist, 58 more to go! Okay, not really, but it feels like it, and time is flying!!!! Here is this week's belly picture at 33 weeks, 3 days:

Memorial Day Weekend

Well, our holiday weekend didn't get off to a very good start, but it turned out to be a great weekend. On Friday night, we were supposed to go and meet the pediatrician at 7:45. Matt wanted to eat out after the appointment, but I really wanted to eat a healthy meal at home before we went since we would be on the run all weekend. So, Matt agreed to grill some chicken breasts before we left. When he reached into the cabinet to get out his grilling mitt, my mandolin slicer fell out, and he instinctively grabbed it, and sliced off the top of 2 of his fingertips.

So, we headed over to urgent care. The cut on his index finger was a complete cut, so there was nothing to do besides wrap it up to stop the bleeding. His ring finger wasn't cut completely, but they couldn't stitch it either, so they tried to tape the skin back together, & we're just hoping that it heals. So, needless to say, the pediatrician visit was rescheduled, and we ordered a pizza. Sometimes I think Matt will do anything to get his way. :) Here is his wrapped up hand and the culprit:

Saturday morning, we headed up to Milwaukee to see the Mets play the Brewers. We stayed at the Hyatt downtown, which is the same hotel that the Mets stay at. We got to see a few of the guys walking through the hotel, which was pretty cool. Here's Matt heading into Miller Park on Saturday night:

Unfortunately, they lost on Saturday night. So, on Sunday morning, we woke up and decided to head back to the park to see if we could catch a win. We sat out in the left field bleachers, and it was scorching hot. We sat behind some REALLY annoying and drunk high school kids. At one point, the girls were admiring their "adorable" belly button piercings. Matt suggested that I show them how "adorable" those piercing holes were going to be when they are 7 1/2 months pregnant someday, but I spared them the fear. :) We had a great time at the game, and the Mets won!!! We took this week's belly picture in front of Miller Park. We've started joking that the baby is like our little "Flat Stanley" (if you don't know what that is, you can google it) because we take pictures everywhere that we take her. :) 32 weeks, 3 days:

When we got home on Sunday night, we decided to have a fire on the patio. We ended up hanging out around the fire until about 1 a.m. It was so nice to relax outside! Monday was our catch-up day. We worked out in the yard & worked on the nursery most of the day. Monday night, we headed up to The Foundry to watch the Blackhawks win their 2nd game of the Stanley Cup Series. It was a great end to a great weekend!

2 Months To Go!

Baby G's due date is less than 2 months away now, & we are making some major progress in preparing for her arrival! We have been working hard on the nursery. Matt got all of the painting done. Our friends, Tara and Jay, and my mom came over last week. Tara & my mom helped me paint a tree on the nursery wall that the crib will go on. We added silk peonies flowers to make it 3D, & it looks so cute! While we were doing that, Matt & Jay installed recessed lighting in the 4 corners of the room. The lights are on dimmers, which will be very nice for middle of the night diaper changes. The nursery chair arrived as well. We're hoping to hang the chair rail & the curtains this week. I'm so excited to see it all start to come together! Here are some sneak peeks. The pics didn't turn out very well since I took the pictures at the worst time of day possible, but you get the idea. It's hard to see, but there are white flowers painted in the center of the leaves:





Our other big accomplishment this week was buying a new vehicle. It was time to say goodbye to my 2-door Civic days. It just wasn't going to be ideal to struggle with getting a car seat in & out of the back seat. We got a Hyundai Santa Fe. It definitely feels weird to be driving a bigger vehicle after having Civics for the last 9 years, but it will be nice to have the extra space (and nice to have a vehicle that can fit the baby and Bailey), & the fuel efficiency is great for a SUV.





The weather was great today, so we decided to head into the city to enjoy the day. We walked along the lake for awhile, and then headed over to Wrigleyville to grab lunch and watch the Blackhawks game. We had a great time. It was so nice to be out & about (and away from the house & any pressure to do something productive). We both have huge blisters on our feet from all the walking, but it was definitely worth it. Here is this week's bump picture: 31 weeks, 3 days.



And, since I was a slacker last week, this was the 30 week belly picture: