BABY SHOWER!

Here are just a few snapshots of our first baby shower!! It was so fun to see some of our family and friends and celebrate our little monkey!! Everyone totally joined in on the monkey theme and I honestly didn't realize how many monkey items there really were! Now I just hope that the little lady isn't afraid of monkeys hahaha.

This is the gorgeous cake!! I can't believe how talented the cake lady is! Thank you Auntie Peggy for once again providing and AMAZING cake!! I only wish that I had gotten to eat more of it!!

Proof that we are still madly in love!

I can't believe that someday she will be wearin this shirt and will be "monkeying around"
I absolutely LOVE this gift haha!! Aaron has always been the "golden child" in his mother's eyes! She gave him this very fitting pillow that reads "A man's house is his castle until his queen arrives" Somehow I don't think Aaron will mind sharing the spotlight with his little lady!!

This is another favorite! My Auntie Marsha MADE this monkey bank!! It even has earrings! I can't wait to start saving coins in the monkey bank with the little monkey!

We are so grateful to have such a supportive and generous family!! My mom and sister did such a great job planning this special day for me! I wish I had gotten a picture of the shower favors bt they were sooo sweet and creative thanks to Auntie Ehrmie (My friend Sara)!! I know that it must be a lot of work to pull off such a great day and I really appreciate their efforts! I never realized quite how much stuff is needed to care for a little one and I can't imagine what we would do without the support of our family! We are really looking forward to seeing all the Western Mass folk at Baby Shower #2 and are hoping that we are still sporting a baby bump when that day comes along!

Oh baby Oh baby

Wow I have really slacked bigtime on this baby blog this month!! I have pretty much just been holding my breath watching the time go by so that she can grow bigger and bigger and I don't have to worry so much about the little monkey coming early! Some fun updates: we are both doing great so that is very exciting! I am starting to feel body parts in my belly! I can tell where her feet are and I can feel her head and her bum though I am not always sure which is which :-) She has been extremely active these days- pretty much moving non-stop from 4pm-1am. A few of her favorite things are: Maple Syrup, her daddy, and the Black Eyed Peas. These three things almost always elicit some sort of reaction for her. Maple syrup makes her roll, whenever Aaron is talking or tries to touch her its like I can literally feel her stop and try to listen and the black eyed peas get her moving like crazy!!! She dances right along to the beat!!

We had our first baby shower on Sunday! I will definitely be posting pictures and sharing more about this day in a post all of its own but I will say that I was completely overwhelmed by the generosity. There were soooooo many thoughtful gifts given to our Monkey that I don't even quite know how to say thank you!! We have been so blessed to be surrounded by so many friends and family through everything that Aaron and I have been experiencing the last few years and all of the support is very much appreciated!

I am hoping to work on her nursery a lot this weekend so will be posting more about the shower and the nursery very soon. I promise never to go a whole month without posting again!! I can't believe that she is due 9 weeks from tomorrow! I am sure it will fly by and I will be posting baby pictures and thinking that June seemed so long ago!!

26 weeks and counting!!

Wow I have really been neglecting this blog the past few weeks but now that we are home for a bit I have plenty of time to catch up on whats been happening!! We are definitely behind in the picture taking but here is the most recent belly shots!

25 weeks!

25 weeks!

We have also been hard at work getting her nursery together! Here are just a few shots of us getting the furniture together! You wouldn't think it would be so time consuming and difficult to put these things together but it all worked out and honestly didn't take TOO long!!

We were lucky to have my dad and sister Catherine to help put together the dresser!! Catherine spent the weekend with me while Aaron was in VT fishing with his uncles! We were able to move a bunch of stuff upstairs and set up my new closet! Aaron is turning out to be way more handy than I anticipated when I married him and he completely remodeled our closet! It is better than I could have imagined! Catherine and my dad finished up the sunday afternoon but putting together the dresser!

Aaron put together the changing table the next day! I absolutely love the furniture and I am very glad we decided to go with the natural wood color!

Putting together the crib was a little more challenging!

Luckily we had Boomer being his usual nosy self and helping out!

I think this smile is more about the fact that he is almost finished than that this was a fun project!

I am giving the two thumbs up!

Yay Daddy did it!

Showing the baby her crib!! She was kicking with joy :-)

So some more news on the pregnancy front is that we are currently on bedrest. I always thought that bedrest would be a really nice ---- a perfect excuse to literally lay around and not do anything- but I never considered that bedrest meant that something wasn't right and that laying around while preparing for a baby is not exactly the ideal situation! I started having so stomach pain and just not feeling good on Monday, and then it sort of led into Tuesday. Wednesday I got up early to do some on-call stuff for work and when I got back to the office on Wednesday morning around 10am I was pretty sure that I needed a day to just try to feel better! Luckily my boss was nice enough to let me go home for the day and Boomer and I just slept ALLLL day! It was in the 90's that day so to be honest I dont know which one of us was more miserable! I felt better wednesday night and even better thursday morning when I woke up! I started getting ready for work and it just all went downhill! I figured it was time to call the doctor and just see if there was something going on..i went in and got checked out...my cervix though soft and sensitive (not really sure what that means) was completely closed but there were some signs of preterm labor so they did a few tests just to be sure. Everything looked great except we did get a positive result for one of the preterm labor tests so they called me in to start corticosteriod shots to boost the baby's lung function and sent me home to rest for 10days!! I was very very scared at first but things seem to be getting better so I am much more relaxed and looking forward to carrying this baby for several more weeks if not months! I am hoping to get the all clear to go back to work June 7th but will know more in a few days!! In the meantime I am just resting and making sure to keep this little monkey safe!

I am so grateful to have Aaron who has been sooo supportive through this entire pregnancy but especially the past few days! My sister has also been amazing throughout and came this weekend to clean my house- HOW AWESOME IS THAT!? and we have such supportive network of family of friends! Finally I have Boomer who has been laying at my feet making sure to check on me and trying really hard to be a good dog!!

Well we will be adding more pictures soon! Thanks for sticking it out on such a long post!!!

23 Weeks!

Well I guess I am a little behind writing- It has been a busy few weeks. A few baby updates: We had our echocardiogram for the baby and everything came out normal! She has a strong and perfect heart so that is very good news! Monkey can hear some loud noises outside the womb now so she is getting used to hearing Boomer! I have been talking to her a lot lately and I am surprised at how much bonding can happen even though she is still in there. I love poking her and having her poke me back- its a pretty fun game- hopefully she doesn't think I am torturing her. She has finally kicked her daddy! I think she was so happy about all the work we did upstairs to get ready for her arrival that she gave Aaron a really good kick the other day! I hope that as she keeps getting bigger he will be able to interact with her as much a he wants as well! Mommy and Daddy updates: I am feeling really great these days! I had a few days off from work this past week to get things done around the house and I am happy to say that they were productive. I have been able to go for walks with Boomer everyday lately and I think this has been really important to my feeling great. I did get the "stay away from the cookie jar" lecture at the doctor's office :-( I personally think its HER that is getting bigger and not me! The unpleasant side effects lately have been swollen feet and difficulty sleeping and both of these have been bearable to far! Aaron has been to every single doctors appointment and has been a huge part of every milestone that we have experienced. Both Monkey and I are sooooo lucky to have him! Unfortunately he has not been willing to gain a few extra pounds to make me look better but I guess I should be greatful for that haha!

We painted the nursery this week! I just know that the little lady is going to LOVE her purple striped room! We both love it and Boomer has given his official stamp of approval as well. Check out these pictures from the nursery! I can't wait to start decorating and to set up her furniture!!

Boomer loves his new baby sister's room!

Momma is already matching her little one! This is also a good 23 week picture!

Some more pictures:

YAY she is in there!!

22 weeks!!

21 weeks!!

So this has been another exciting week! The baby has really started kicking now and sometimes it almost hurts!! I am glad that she is such a strong little girl and I absolutely love feeling her move in there. I have started to be able to see my stomach jump from the outside with some of her stronger moves! She still won't cooperate so her daddy can feel her but I am sure it won't be too much longer!! We are looking forward the weekend ahead as we will be hopefully begin painting and moving upstairs. Aaron has officially amazed me with his carpentry skills!! He has completely remodeled our master closet and it looks awesome!!!! I can't wait to paint and get up there! I am going to be very spoiled with such a great closet!

Pictures

So this is the first official baby bump picture taken at 14 weeks!!

Obviously I still have some work to do to master the art of uploading pictures but you get the picture!

Pictures!!

So now that we have a computer and home internet we will be able to share all of the baby pictures in a more timely manner. But since we have a few weeks stored up here are our baby bump pictures thus far.

17 weeks!

15 weeks!!

16 weeks!

18 weeks!!

19 weeks!

Half-way there at 20 weeks!!

21 weeks and getting big!!!