Full Term and Ready to Go!

Nick here....

Today marks 37 weeks in the pregnancy and Alex has made it full-term! I am really proud of her and how she has handled this pregnancy. She has been a trooper every step of the way. This past 2 weeks we have been getting final preparations done around the house. Everything is washed and clean! For those who know me, I was very excited once this was all finished. We made one last run to Babies R Us today and everything on our list has now been purchased and put up where they belong. Madison can officially come when she pleases now, but we hope she stays put for at least 2 more weeks! Here are some pictures of the nursery all ready to go.

The view from the door to her room.

Her bed and bedding.

Dresser/Changing Table and her awesome shelf, with a cool photo from the maternity pictures.

A girl's closet has to be full, right?

One month to go!

I know, I know, it's been a long time since the last post.  It's been a busy March over here at the Hampshire house.  We've been in full gear getting ready for Madison's arrival and enjoying the company of great family and friends at the baby showers. 

We had three, yes three, baby showers!  This has only reminded us how lucky and blessed we are with great people in our lives.  Madison is going to be so loved.  We had one in our hometown in Port Arthur thrown by both of our mothers.  They did a wonderful job and it was great to see family and friends I haven't seen in a while.  My two best friends, Mindy and Dee, threw me a shower up here and everything was beautiful.  I could not ask for better friends!  My office also threw me a shower and Nick was invited to this one so he got to open some presents for once!  We have everything we need for this little one to arrive!  Here are a few pictures...

Me and the two grandma's

Look at all of her gifts!

Me and the girls

Mindy made this beautiful diaper cake

Jenny made this beautiful diaper cake for my office shower (Diaper cakes are pretty!)

Guess I couldn't let Nick have all the fun!

On Sunday I will be 36 weeks.  I cannot believe how fast this has gone by.  I'm still waiting for the complete slowdown everyone talks about at the end.  We are starting to feel a rush of emotions like anxious, excited, and nervous just to list a few.  This last month will be filled with doing the last few things like packing my bag for the hospital, putting in the car seat, washing clothes and getting her room organized.   I also want to try and enjoy and completely take in this last month of being pregnant.  Who knows, could be more or could be less than a month!  I've been really fortunate in that this has been a smooth pregnancy with few things to complain about (besides the AWFUL heartburn).  I want to take it all in and enjoy this last month that I have her all to myself.  I guess it is a little bittersweet.  Nick is feeling the complete opposite as he is counting down the days until he can have her all to himself for once!  Let's see how this last month goes!

Take a look at our cutie!

Nick and I decided a few weeks ago to do a 3d/4d ultrasound and we got to go yesterday evening. We wanted to share some pictures and video of little Madison! We were told while we were there that she is already head down, so that was good news! Hope she stays that way. Everything else still looked perfect!  She was being stubborn and keeping her hands in front of her face except for a small window of time where we were able to get these shots.

Her cute face!

 

Her arm next to her face.

Cold Days of Winter

Finally the sun was out today and the weather is warming up!  The weather here has been crazy with record lows, snow, and several snow days.  Well, snow days for me, not for Nick.  Weathermen can't stay home when there's bad weather but we appreciate all their work.  They actually didn't do too bad of a job getting it right this time ;)

While I won't lie, it was nice working from home in my pajamas for a few days. I was feeling a bit of cabin fever and I'm so happy to see the sun and be able to get out of the house without fear of getting in a wreck because of icy roads.  I think Lucy enjoyed the cold weather because she had me all to herself and she loved running around in the snow.  She didn't last very long outside though because it was so cold!

Mady was the warmest one around here during all this cold weather nonsense.  I'll be 28 weeks tomorrow  and I'm in the third and final trimester.  Everything is going great and she is growing everyday.  Last weekend my parents came to visit us, in between the two winter weather storms we had up here, and we went and got their gift to Mady which is the travel system.  It took us forever to figure out how to put that thing together!  But we love it and it will definitely be used. Thanks again Mom and Dad!  All of her furniture has come in and the room looks great.  Now we just need to fill it up with decorations and all those things babies need and it'll be ready for her.  The toyshelves were Mady's gift from Nick's mom and they look great in her room.  Thanks Lauri!

Our next appointment is Monday, Valentine's Day.  I can't think of a better present than to hear her heartbeat on Valentine's Day!

Our Latest Project

Time feels like it has been flying by and I cannot believe that I am already 26 weeks pregnant!  Mady and I are doing great and she is getting stronger and stronger by the day.  At our last appointment I had to take the test for gestational diabetes and thank goodness I passed!!  Besides a few episodes of heartburn, which is the worst, and some occasional back pain I really can't complain much.  I've been really lucky!  I can feel Mady moving around everyday and am noticing that she is starting to develop a schedule.  She loves the mornings after breakfast, and she calms down around noon, and by night time she is up and ready to party.  That might be because that's when her daddy is able to talk to her :)

With Nick being on shift work we have to take advantage of the weekends he has off so this weekend we spent it working on Mady's nursery.  It was a lot of work but it was all worth it because it looks amazing!  Nick did all the hard work but I helped out a lot!  I have never felt more pregnant than I did this past weekend.  I was exhausted, and at various points Nick would walk in and find me sprawled out on the floor.  He worked so hard to get this done and it looks really great.  It is perfect and we find ourselves walking in there just to look at it, lol.  Ridiculous, I know!  I do have to give a huge thanks to Steve and Dan at Nick's work for letting us use their tools for this project.  They made the job so much easier and were just amazing to have.  Thanks guys!  Here are some pictures of our work...

Top Wall Painted

Installing the panels

Cutting holes in the panels for the outlets. This took precise measurements.

I helped too!

All done!

Close up

All done! It looks even better in person.

Here is my latest picture!

6 Months!

Doctor's Visit and Nursery

Nick here...


Alex had another Doctors visit this morning. Madison is doing excellent and is right on track, and her heart rate today was around 140. It is always hard for the doctor to find a good heart rate because she is always moving around so much when the doctor has the doppler on Alex's stomach. Today was no different except this time, Alex was feeling Madison move around trying to dodge the "scary" doppler signal. She thought it was cool to hear her move, but also feel her move. Alex also had her glucose test today and we should find out the results next week. We hope all will be normal.

After the appointment I went to home depot and bought all the stuff to do the nursery. We got the idea for the nursery from a pottery barns kids catalog. The picture had an awesome rug that was lavender and green and then a green wall on the top half and wainscoting painted lavender on the bottom with a chair rail to separate the two. We had already bought the rug that was in the catalog, and today I bought the paint, wainscoting, and chair rails. I got the top half painted today and will paint the wainscoting panels Sunday. I hope to have it all done next weekend and will post pictures of it all finished. Here are some pictures of todays work. Until next time....

The green on the top half and the rug.

What it should look like when it is all done. The lavender will be a bit darker. It wasnt dry yet.

Happy 2011!!

This will be a year full of changes for us but we could not be more excited for what's to come! We had a great holiday break spent with our family. Madison is not even here yet and she already had a pile full of presents. She is already so loved. Such a lucky little girl!

Well in my last post I think I promised to post some pictures from New York but I can't do that unless I post some I find on the internet because sadly we did not go. Of course we planned our trip during one of the worst snow storms in two decades and our flight was cancelled the night before. We were devastated, but you have to make the best of it so instead we found a great deal on a really nice hotel in Houston by the Galleria and we stayed there for two nights. The picture of us is when we were about to go to dinner. We did some shopping, had some good food, and Nick surprised me with a massage at this amazing spa. It was the best massage I have ever had! We also planned Madison's entire nursery. We walked into a Pottery Barn Kids and inside was the cutest lavender and green rug that matched the bedding we already picked out. From there we found a picture in one of their magazines of a room with that rug in it and it had wainscoting that was painted lavender and the top half of the room painted green with cream colored chair rails. We can't wait to get started! I think she may have sabotaged our trip on purpose so that we would find all of this. Already getting her way! I came home from work one day this week and Nick already had about six samples of paint on the wall in her nursery!

We also got to babysit our nephew and niece (Beau and Claire) for two days while their parents were at a wedding for the weekend. We had a blast with them and got a glimpse into our future one day with two kids, and it's a lot of work! Luckily, we are easing into it with just one, haha. Thanks again guys for letting us watch them!

Madison is a growing girl and she is getting a lot stronger. She was dancing around like crazy last night after Nick started talking to her. We had so much fun just sitting there feeling her move around. We are more than halfway through now and it seems to be flying by ever since our last appointment. This month we'll be busy starting on her nursery and registering.

Below is a picture of Alex at 5 months Pregnant. Hope everyone is having a great start to the New Year!