39 weeks and.......

NOTHING! well i guess i can't say nothing, i am still 1 cm diliated and 50% effaced and belly is measuring at 37cm. the doctor said that she is at negative one position. not sure what that means. so we wait. i am not a very patient person. i know i am not to my due date yet, but i am READY! sorry if you talk to me and i sound irritated. i am a little. i have been getting a headache the past couple days and today all i want to do is go to bed. i am still working though. well part time, but i am still here. you know this pregnancy has been very easy. i have no room to complain. i can still do a lot of things, maybe not sleep, but still lots of other things. Worth and i were getting a bagel this morning after the doctor and we were talking to this lady that was having twins and she was over it. she is 38 weeks and her belly is measuring 50cm!!! can you believe that. i feel bad wanting to have this baby so bad and here is this poor girl carrying twins. we are in good shape here. i will keep you posted. i promise.

38 weeks

oh my word!!!!!!! so i am sitting in our "office" trying to figure out quickbooks and i look at the calendar. i see the power bill is due at the end of the week, we have a doctor's appointment and then the phone bill is due, and then..... and then..... (do you see where i am going with this?) i see BellaRose's due date!!!!!!!! it is in the same month that we are in now. it is really happening. oh.....my......goodness!!!!!!!! i have so much to do i feel, but am so ready. i need to get the room ready for my mom, pack our bags even better, figure out if i need another nightgown, make sure i have the baby book for foot prints, make sure we have snacks. oh.....my....goodness!!!!!!! have i said that already?

Yellow Dog

How does your garden grow? I will let you know how ours grows in about "T" minus a month or so. On Saturday we made a garden. We are going to be sustainable. Well maybe not susatinable, but we will have A LOT of basil and herbs. We like our pesto around these parts. It did not occur to me to take a picture of this project until we were almost done. Worth got to use the neighbors tiller, and now he has less grass to mow so we are all very happy. I enjoyed working out there with Worth. This will be my project this summer. Well BellaRose's and my project. Okay BellaRose will sit there in her swing while I work but at least I have someone to talk to now.

Sunday (the day not me) was made for yellow dogs. As you can tell this yellow dog had a good day! We went walking at Warren Wilson College and found a little beach spot. The Rain Dog had a great afternoon swimming. She did not stop. She lept like that ALL afternoon after that stick. You would never know that she is getting up there in age. I think that this swimming is really good for her. Makes her bones not creak so much. We love the Rainy Dog! I would have a picture of Atticus, but seeing as he really did not like the afternoon as much as Rainy and could care less about water the pictures would be pretty boring.

Rainy got a bath when she got home and the grass felt oh so good!

37 weeks

On Monday we had some maternity pictures taken by Visio Photography as I have mentioned they are amazing photographers! We felt so honored that they wanted to take our picture. They just came in with all their cameras and just started shooting away. They are so fun and loving. If you ever need a portrait or fine art wedding photographer these are your people. They will have more pictures to come but these are some that they posted on their blog.

We go to the doctor this morning. We will see if there is any progress. My stomach keeps tightening up a lot and it just feels like things are getting harder and harder. Like I have said I am ready, but I guess that does not matter much, it is more when BellaRose is ready. We are anxious to meet her. We have so many questions for her. Maybe she is going to be a soccer player because she really likes to kick. I will ask her questions about that for sure. I can't wait to meet that heel! I will give an update when we get back form the doctor if anything exciting is happening. I can tell you I am really looking forward to not getting on a scale for a really LONG time. I would say until we have our next baby. Talk at you soon.

Hello all! We had hurricane force winds here over the past couple of days and we were not spared. Well I should not say that, we were spared, but not a pine tree. As you can see it is leaning a little bit over our neighbor's driveway. Worth had to take it down. I was his helper. I was the one who needed to stop traffic if need be, we did not have any traffic so I was the photographer. So here is our tree coming down. I helped move some brush, but Worth did all the heavy lifting as his back can attest to today! I wonder if he should enter in the lumber jack competitions that they have on the outdoor network? I think that he would win. As you can tell he is really happy to have to take down the tree.

On the baby front we had a doctors appointment this morning. No dialation. Nothing! I was hoping for something, but we got nothing. My stomach is measuring 35 inches. She said that hopefully means BellaRose will be smaller. Cross your fingers on that one as well. Everything else is looking good. We go back in a week so I will keep you posted of course. Here is another present that we got in the mail yesterday. This one is from wonderful Jessica and the Carr Family. Thank you so much. We love it. We know BellaRose will love it as well. It is so precious. It can be a little step too right? It looks like it folds and could be a step. So sweet. We love it, we love you! Also on Monday

Visio Photography will be taking some maternity pictures of the belly. We are so excited because they one of THE most talented photographers I know. They take the most beautiful images and it will be such an honor to have them take some belly shots. Check out their pictures. You will be awestruck!!! I am on a constant basis.

Well that is it for me for right now. Enjoy the tree, enjoy the chair, and enjoy the photographers.

the time has come!

no not time for a baby. although i do have someone lined up to inform the world that we are in labor. thank you becky! the time has come for me to be part time!!! as of monday i will be a part time girl. i am thrilled and nervous. we have to wean ourselves off a second paycheck and i believe this will be the way to do it. pray for us! i know this is a good thing though. i have heard from many moms to take this time off, take care of myself, pamper myself, SLEEP. so i take your advice ladies! thank you.

ps- this picture was taken awhile ago, not while i am pregnant. just to let you know i am not pounding the beer!

Question?

So my question is, how important is it to get a pack-n-play? This is a very serious issue. One that I was thinking about at about 3:30 am. Yes 3:30 am. Sleep is not coming very natural right now. I have a belly that won't allow me to do much sleeping so I think about Pack-n-plays and high chairs, among MANY other things, and I wonder if that is something we need to have before the baby comes. Is it?

I leave you with Rainy. When we were having spring, Rainy got a bath. Her first since 1994. No kidding, she was not alive in 1994!

One final note if you want to laugh really hard and have your day completely made for you please go to Annie, Dan, and Will's blog (just click on their name) and look at the video of him laughing. I promise you he will make your day!

34 weeks

Thank you Shanna for this very special sweet gift. Shanna, who I meet through Jessica and now know her better then ever thanks to the blog world sent us this bulletin filled with fun pictures from my blog and my friend's blogs. Thank you so much! I love it! It is perfect! Now I need your address :).

The house is almost complete, but to the unknowing person it is complete and I could not be happier. Some people say it feels like a beach house inside and I would have to agree. We love the beach, we love the mountains, now we have both, well sort of I know Worth wishes he could surf right out our door.

At 34 weeks:

~i can still see my feet (some books tell me that i might not be able to)

~i can't wait to sleep on my stomach!

~sleeping is getting more uncomfortable

~i can still work out and walk, but it is getting harder

~rainy is getting used to life

~i am ready for BellaRose to be here to get this started, but want her to stay in a little longer

~i have 6 weeks to go but the longest i will be pregnant is 8 weeks-yikes!

~the car seat is in my car ready to go (we have no where else to put it)

~i have to go to a meeting at the Agency Field office to learn something about Homeowners insurance even though i won't be here that much longer (oh well)

~my boss gave me the morning off yesterday and it was WONDERFUL!

~my trunk is filled with size 2 diapers (thanks Annie)

~the nursery is done, the closet is filled

~the diaper bag is packed, and my bag is getting closer

~i can't eat a whole lot b/c there is no room, she is so high up she kicks my ribs ALL the time

~i have read 2 books on discipline and we are now reading a book on sleeping and eating called On Becoming BabyWise (i expect to be an expert soon)

~i forget things a lot, like words, and things like that, hopefully that comes back :)

~i CAN'T WAIT to have a cold beer!

~life is pretty darn good!!!!

This is it!

Okay I promise no more pictures of the nursery after this, but i just have to share with you the final end result. I LOVE IT!!!!!!! it feels right, it feels good. It is finished! well almost we still need blinds, but other then that everything is where i want it to be. The pictures were taken with the camera phone so they are not the best quality, but you get the idea. What do you think? Be honest, but if you hate it don't tell me :)

Baby Shower

My baby shower was on Sunday and it was awesome. We got so many beautiful gifts. We are so honored to have these wonderful family and friends in our life. We could not do this without you. Thank you to the hostesses of this party, Becky, Annie S., Niki, Harriet, Jennifer, Kelly, and Angela! It was spectacular!!! Here are a few highlights. Worth even got his own present, a beer, from his buddy Morgan. Annie S. made a 5 tier diaper cake with instructions on when I use the diapers. She knows me so well. Plus the cake for the shower was so beautiful and so good as was all the food. As party favors Becky had M&Ms made that said Bella Rose on them. I forgot to get some from her so I need to do that soon before they are all gone! If you ever need a party done right these are the ladies to do it! Thank you everyone. I wish I could put all the pictures online and thank you all individually, but that would be a VERY long post. It was so much fun and we feel so honored!

Nephews

i know we have been pretty girly lately with all the pink and talking about baby so i thought i would do a tribute to all the newphews in our life. see BellaRose is coming to help the girls out. the girls are far out numbered. there are only 2 girls and 5 boys. i will post pictures of the girls later, but we just had a bunch of pictures of the boys so i thought i would introduce them to you. they are all blonde too. so do we think that BellaRose will be blonde, brunnette, brown eyes, blue eyes? this is a hard one. Rocco (the youngest), the 2nd from top is from my middle sister. She is colored like me and her husband is blonde blue eyes. Christian, top is the oldest at 7. His mom, my oldest sister is also dark like me and she married a blonde blue eyed british man.

Below far bottom is Ethan. He is Worth's older sister's middle boy and he is the most blonde. Cameron middle is very blonde and blues and he is my oldest sister's. Last but not least is Noah, he is Worth's sister's oldest. Here is trying to jump his 4-wheeler and is doing a pretty good job. Same story blonde/ blue eyes. So i ask you what will BellaRose be? Taylor my niece is the only one with brown hair and brown eyes.

Remember these pictures? Remeber how terrible it was?

Well look at it now. Isn't it perfect? This is what we did this weekend. We got out nursery together. It becomes more and more real everyday! I put the changing table together all by meself! I am so proud of my self. Of course it only had like 14 screws and allen wrench, but hey I will be 32 weeks tomorrow and putting anything together is no easy task. I am starting to have people ask me about my belly and I really just don't know what to say to them. "Yeah having a baby" is what I say but really what do you say when people say "look at your little belly" and I want to say "yeah look at yours" :). No one has touched me yet, but I hear that happens!

Name in lights

Look how pretty the nursery is looking. Isn't it wonderful! My visions for this room are coming to fruition and it is just as I wanted it. I know that Bella Rose will be thrilled. The trim and the chair molding just brought it all together. The goal is to have the nursery done this weekend. Worth has to finish up some trim and then the crib will go up. I hope to have it all done by my shower on the 25th so I can start "nesting". On another nursery note the lamp came in from my mom. The picture is below in an earlier blog. THANK YOU again Mom. It is going to be perfect! I will have pictures on Monday.

I came home from work the other day and had a surprise waiting for me. It was from Pottery Barn Kids. I was so excited. That is one of my favorite places. Inside was this towel set along with another and a sheet. It is from my boss and his wife and I think that it is great. It is the first time I have seen her name in lights and it is just beautiful. Bella Rose. My sweet Bella Rose! Which brings me to another thought. How should I do her name on her birth certificate? I want her name to be a double first name, so do I connect the 2 names BellaRose? Do I hyphenate Bella-Rose? I don't like it like that though. I like keeping them seperated but then it would seem like a middle name. Oh the dilemas of naming your child :)

On another note it is my Dad's birthday, the original Godfather! Here he is dancing with me on my wedding day. He was not quite sure how to dance to bluegrass, but I would say that this Italian man from Pittsburgh did a pretty good job. Happy Birthday Bucko, I love you!

MARCH MADNESS

This is my house last spring and summer. The weather has just been so unreal here and I want to plant, but I know Old Man Winter is not through with us. I know just when I start getting sure of myself he comes and kills all my beauty so I will look at these pictures and be satisfied for now. Isn't it wonderous? I have big plans for my garden this year, big plans I tell you. You will have to wait and see or just come over!