accomplished

My goal for this weekend was to spend as much time doing "me" things as possible. I feel super accomplished with that goal and I'm feeling totally ready to start this week of right!

I spent a ton of time with my family and a bunch of time outside and it was exactly what the doctor ordered. I haven't felt this great about a Monday in a long time. Plus, today has a ton of physical activity scheduled. Hopefully a bike ride and a 4 mile run. Look at me go! My knees will be toast tonight, but it will be SO worth it to sweat out all the "bleh" I've been feeling!

A few pictures of my weekend fun:

Lots of time spent with my favorite baby. He LOVES being naked. 

My popcorn taunted me. I couldn't get it open, then I spotted this...Nom Nom Now! 

He's just getting too big! He loves Lacey the Ladybug that hangs from his playmat.

Guarding her baby brother while he naps

Family biking day on Sunday. 15 miles and I hit 22mph while pedaling, not even going downhill!

Group shots are hard when there are 4 of you!

no words

I honestly have no words for how much I adore this baby. Here are a few of my favorite pics from his first two days.

beyond blessed

This weekend will go down in the record books as one of the best ever. A baby, a 21st birthday, celebrating a new home and successful home showings (we’re trying to sell). Glorious.

Friday morning my sister, Jess, woke up at around 2am with contractions. She waited until 5am to call us and inform us it was go time! We went to her house and walked around her yard and helped her cope as best we could. She had her scheduled doctors appointment at 9am so she got ready and went, hoping to be sent to the hospital to have this baby! Well, it didn’t go that way. In reality, it didn’t go as planned at all. She had low fluid levels, was sent for a second opinion and did end up at the hospital to have the baby, but she was being induced. Throughout her pregnancy the one thing that she really didn’t want was to be induced with pitocin. Really, she would have preferred a c-section. They decided to start with cervidil for 12 hours. She started the process at 3:30 pm and was supposed to start pitocin (because apparently very rarely women deliver off just cervidil). We hung around and coached her through contractions and had a small party in the waiting room. It got bad and she only wanted Dan and mom in the room with her. The rest of us had some pizza and laughed and chatted until after midnight. She had only progressed to 2cm so the nurse told us to go home and get some sleep because it was going to be a very long process.

I got home and slept for about 2 hours before waking up to my mom telling me she was heading to the hospital because Jess had progressed to 5cm and was getting the epidural. Ten minutes later we got a text that she was 9cm and we better hurry. I woke up my other sister and we poured our exhausted selves into the car. (4 hours sleep Thursday night and 2 hours Friday night) About 5 minutes after we got to the hospital she was ready and waiting for the urge to push. She pushed 3 times and out came my beautiful, fabulous, perfect nephew.

Dan, my brother-in-law, a very proud new dad! He is wearing a shirt he designed with the baby’s name
it read “Branson Eugene, Released June 2012”


Dad and Grandmas


Aunt Jenni giving him some love.


My stunning, amazing, rock star little sister and the bundle of joy. I love him so much.

 

I’ll be back tomorrow with some pictures of just him. I have taken 1000 pictures in 3 days.

family pictures

Saturday morning I met up with my cousin Dylan, his girlfriend Gigi and her two kids to take a couple family pictures before their new arrival comes this August. They are some of the most gorgeous and photogenic people I’ve ever met and it was definitely my pleasure taking their pictures and capturing some of the love and happiness that just beams from them when they’re together.

oh pregnancy

It's days like yesterday that make me super grateful that I'm not pregnant! I definitely was not envious of Jess yesterday as I watched her and talked her through over 10 hours of steady contractions 20 minutes apart. Apparently she has an irritable uterus, which basically means that she will be contracting like this until he comes out. He did a fFM test and that came up negative. I guess that means that she won't be going into labor for the next two weeks. Barring any other major changes (like her water spontaneously breaking!)
But this is what my day yesterday looked like:

This was the best part of the day! Who pregnant ladies shop at the
pool supply store.

Focused on the monitor and fetal heart rate!

You can't see her contractions here, but his heart rate was perfectly steady. The best part of the night was hearing his
heartbeat.

twiglette

As I mentioned yesterday, today was my sister's 20 week ultrasound appointment. Jess, Dan, Mom and I gathered together in the little room and watched the amazing ultrasound tech point out every little bit of twiglette. We saw the baby's heart and fingers and toes and up his nose! All of that was really fantastic. It was amazing to see all the little pieces in there.

But we all knew why we were there...

To get lots of great pictures of the baby.

 To oogle of mom and baby....

 And of course to find out whether to go out and buy all pink or blue!!!

Side view. This one is upside down because he is breach. 

Seriously adorable baby. 

The "goods." It is most certainly a boy!

Obviously after the appointment we had to go to BRU to check out some goodies to buy for the little man!

do you remember...

So it was a beautiful fall day back in October when my mom, my sisters and I went pumpkin picking...It was torture to not tell ya'll then...

But when I took this picture she is making that face because I was making a joke about how her belly would be out that far shortly! Jess found out she is pregnant and I can finally tell all of you because yesterday was the first day of her second trimester! I will have a little niece or nephew arriving sometime around June 24, 2012!

hmm...pinteresting....

Happy hump day my friends. I'm excited for another oh how pinteresting Wednesday!

I have very definite baby fever. I'm sure I've shared this fact with you guys before. It is a serious problem for a not yet even engaged 27 year old. I want to fast forward a little bit to the point where Mike and I can be married and be financially stable enough to start a family together. The logical side of my brain tells me that life is short and I should live every moment and not look and yearn for the future, but it is hard. 

Picking the theme for this week's Oh, how pinteresting! Wednesday was simple...

All things baby...I'll apologize now for the overwhelming amount of pins I'm about to post...

Normally I don't love gender specific nurseries, but I have a small monkey obsession and these are just too cute to pass up. I love the wall decals.

Source: etsy.com via kpennington on Pinterest

Oh my holy goodness. I love ruffle bottoms.

Source: etsy.com via Kady on Pinterest

I would love this for a girl or boy. Green is totally my favorite.

Source: projectnursery.com via Kathryn on Pinterest

I made my cousin's baby food and it was a great experience. I can't wait to do it for my own child.

Source: homemade-baby-food-recipes.com via Donna on Pinterest

Sigh...I'd love to have my own bedroom like this...I LOVE the stripes for a baby.

Source: google.com via Maggie on Pinterest

He or she will be completely awesome from the start.

Source: wanelo.com via Brianne on Pinterest

Another very girly room, but look at those flowers on the wall! Really beautiful. Love the dark grey walls.

Source: projectnursery.com via mocha+hearts on Pinterest

Adore this, although I'm not a huge fan of the name Henley. Emily is my favorite girl's name at the moment.

Source: picasaweb.google.com via Caressa on Pinterest

I love this. Sometimes you just want to smoosh babies faces...Too much love.

Source: blog.pokkisam.com via Desiree on Pinterest

My heart melts for this picture. Everything about it.

Source: bellababyphotography.com via Julie on Pinterest

My little pilot will most definitely need a picture like this one!

Source: sewinginnomansland.com via Melanie on Pinterest

Love this - Good luck getting the baby to stay still though! I'm impressed.

Source: famillesummerbelle.typepad.com via Tara on Pinterest

Dad is lucky, so is mom!

Source: cafepress.com via Sandra on Pinterest

Sorry for the overwhelming number of pictures, but I warned ya!