My First Pregnancy

I am full term now and just waiting. I have figured this whole time that I would go late though.

Noelle at 38 1/2 weeks

I have been dilated to a 1 and 50% effaced for over 2 weeks now. Sadly no real contractions to speak of. Only the prep Brackston-Hicks ones.

Things I have experienced during this pregnancy:

*this is not meant to be gruesome or graphic, just to document*

• increased gagging
• dry mouth (these didn't last long)
• very itchy, especially my belly
• I did throw up, but it shouldn't really count because all 5 times it was directly caused by brushing my teeth and the afore mentioned gagging reflex
• I've also thrown up in my mouth fairly frequently for no reason
• anemia (I had this before)
• achy back, but that's not really caused by the pregnancy
• I've had extra mucus-stuff in my mouth this whole time. Clear and stretchy that sticks to my tongue and teeth and lips. This was quite annoying and I am glad to be rid of it with the end of pregnancy. (I hope.)
• Very mild heartburn, except it's not in my chest. It's in the back of my throat. I've chewed a lot tums, but if I was without them (like at church) I could deal with it.
• At the beginning I had weird not-quite bumps on my cheeks. A textured pattern that looked funny. At the end I got it again, but this time it was red and warm to the touch and I would frequently need to itch my face, which hurt. The day after that developed I noticed it on the back of my right hand too. Red and very itchy. The redness on my cheeks lasted about a week. My hand was more like 2 but it only mostly went away. Right now it is still a little red and bumpy and just as itchy as before.
• swollen feet and ankles, sometimes uncomfortable
• charlie horses in my calves and occasionally my feet would seize up--never both at once thankfully. Eric would have to work my foot to make it bend and relax.
• Pain in my tail bone like I fell and really bruised it, but I never fell. This has gone on for a few months, but not consistently.
• My legs have shooting pains high in my inner thighs. When it started it only happened when I was standing or walking. Painful enough to make me crouch forward for the second-and-a-half till the pain subsided. Now it happens frequently and even when I'm sitting down. I've been told it is only from the extra weight that my body is not used to carrying but I've never heard of anyone else having this complaint.
• She does kick my ribs. Only on my right side or close to the middle. Her feet have never been on my left.
• She has the hiccups all the time. At least once a day.

I gained about 28 pounds. My waist is about 41 inches around. I hope all of my pregnancies will be that in range.

My belly looks the biggest sitting down. She is head down with her bum on my left side and her feet high on the right.

The Nursery

I don't usually call it that though. I almost always say

"the Baby's Room."

This is the bedroom next to ours in the hallway. Until we started painting it was sort of a storage room--but mostly of the things that were supposed to be in there--just not set up yet.

The Before:

(the paint is not that green) The next picture is a much better example, this is the color of most all of my house. It's called "honeymilk" by Valspar at Lowe's and it's a creamy yellow.

February 2010.

Yes. I was not even pregnant when Eric and I started painting. He was hoping to have all paint up before so that I wouldn't have the pregnant excuse not help paint...it didn't work out that way, but I am VERY glad we started so early.

I intentionally did not paint it pink. I wanted it to be a gender-neutral color so it wouldn't need to be repainted. My first thought for a boy/girl color was of course green. But I had to tell myself--you already have 2 green rooms in this house. Pick something else.

So it is Behr's "Mineral Water" from Home Depot. A beautiful light blue.

first coat

MONTHS LATER

Celeste helped me get the tape up. Really she did way more of the work than I did. Especially the more pregnant I got, the more she would say "get off that chair, I've got this."

We had 2 full walls done (from I think 3 different work days) when it finally occurred to me to buy a freaking laser level. OH MY GOODNESS! We got the other 2 walls done in one sitting with that little light. It was wonderful.

One night when I was out Eric wanted to surprise me by getting more tape up. His mom came over to help him and I don't know how long they worked but they got fed up with the level (this was before the brilliant laser level) and went and did my dishes and cleaned the kitchen instead. But Mom Julie left a little note first. =)

Here it is all ready for caulking. I didn't think we had enough blue paint to do the once over thing that people do to seal the edges so we bought painters calk and ran that along all of the edges that would get paint. It sealed it really well and I am so glad we (and mostly that means Celeste) took the time to do it before the paint. It made a big difference on getting the crisp lines I wanted.

DAP painter's acrylic latex caulk. You just run it along the edge of the paint with your finger. Super easy and very effective.

December 3, 2010

Adria playing peekaboo with the plastic drop cloth.

She looks alot like Casey (her dad) in this picture.

We started the stripes. Finally.

This is after the first coat, the yellow needed a second coat and the brown just needed touching up.

It's a beautiful chocolate brown called "Root Beer" by Behr and the yellow is Behr's "Moon Dance."

The beginning reveal. So happy.

And the finished product! I am SO pleased with the result. The walls look absolutely wonderful.

And here is the chest of drawers in it's final resting place by the closet (as opposed to the middle of the room where it lived all year while it was in painting mode).

Those vintage-looking ruffle-y dresses hanging in the closet are all mine. I am not that old but the dresses look like they are from a different time period. I am really excited to put her in them.

Linking up to Thrifty Decor Chick's Before and After Party