Stats for Week 20 - Halfway Point!

 Baby's size:

Little Lucas is now 6 1/2 inches long and weighs 10 1/2 ounces!

Total weight gain:
10lbs. Yowza!!

Maternity Clothes:
Since my last post, I went to the Motherhood Maternity outlet in Smithfield and was able to find a pair of jeans and khakis that worked so great for me! I love the jeans almost as much as my designer jeans before the pregnancy! And, might I add, they look great with my cowboy boots!

Food cravings:
Butter Pecan ice cream and I have established a really close relationship this week! And Maola is the ONLY way to go (weird, I know!)
 

Movement:
Well the movements remain sporadic, but they have changed from "flutters" to "thumps"!! I can feel distinct kicks now, but only when I'm lying flat or sitting still. If I am up moving around, it's not strong enough to notice just yet.

Best moment of the week:
Going broke buying baby clothes at the Smithfield outlets! Watching Dee get excited about all of the clothes definitely made my heart smile!

What I'm looking forward to:
This week I am actually looking forward to heading out of Greenville! We are leaving on Friday for Charleston for the American College of Cardiology conference at the Wild Dunes Resort! I am looking forward to learning alot and also spending some time on the beach. I don't necessarily care to sun bathe (seeing as I probably couldn't fit into my bathing suits anyway!), but am looking forward to just seeing the ocean and doing some beach walking : )

What I miss:
Sleeping on my stomach!! (And a good night's sleep!)
I guess my body's getting me ready for after baby arrives!

Symptoms:
Still having some low back pain, but about a week ago I started prenatal yoga and this has seemed to help already. It's great for stretching my back and helping me remember to keep my posture right throughout the day.

Belly Button:
Still moving its way outward! The belly button ring is officially taking a rest break in the jewelry box. (My dad would be so happy!)

 

 

 

Baby Registry

Today we registered for the baby!! It was so fun to go through our little list of stuff to register for and we feel like we really have some great things on them both! We registered at both Babies R' Us and Target. You can access the Babies R' Us registry HERE and the Target registry HERE ! We are looking forward to getting the nursery put together with all of the things we registered for! As you know, we have already bought PLENTY of clothes, but we always welcome more! : ) We will continue to add to the lists as we get closer to time. In regards to the diapers, we registered for the type of diapers we like, but we are also open to any other brands, sizes, etc. that you may want to purchase (we just didn't want to register for every single brand and size that there is!) Let us know about what you think of the list and we welcome any and all suggestions for good things to spend the money on, and things to not waste our time with! We must not forget, we are both new to this whole experience!

 

Here are a couple of our favorites from the registeries!

 

I cannot wait to get a Boppy! This is a breastfeeding pillow that serves so many other purposes as well. Not only can you wrap the pillow around your waist to support the baby when you breastfeed, but the baby can lounge on it (shown in the picture) and can be put on their tummy and propped up on the pillow for tummy time!

T

This is the pattern on the back of the pillow

 

 

A definite must have on the registry - a musical bouncer! We loved the safari theme!

 

One of the most important things for us to get is our travel system! We are in loev with this set! For one set price, you get the car seat, carrier, and stroller in one! The pattern is very modern and is has extra minky padding in the carrier and stroller to keep the little one tucked in well! We love this and even if it is on the higher end of the price range, we know this will last for years seeing as he can grow it in up to 50lbs!

 

In matching fabric and pattern, we registered for this pack n' play! It is extra special because it includes a newborn napper (basically a bassinet) as well as a changing station, and a connection to hook up an ipod or iphone the platy the music through the little speakers in the play area! How awesome is that! You guys know I love my technology!

 

Last but not least, we were very excited to find a baby Magic Bullet for making homemade baby food when the time comes! This includes the blender as well as storage containers! We also registered for little labels to put on the containers. I've been doing a lot of reading in regards to making your own baby food and it seems pretty doable at this point!

 

Crib Bedding Has Been Purchased!

 

After months of searching (and I do mean searching...searching HARD!), we have found our crib bedding! Because we had bought a glider and ottoman that is a sage green color, I had to make sure the bedding at least had a touch of green in it so that it would match. Here is a picture of the set:

We love the different patterns! We did not buy the blanket, but we did buy a matching striped pillow for the glider and a blue fitted sheet instead of the white one shown.

 

Here is a picture of the fitted sheet we got:

 

And this is the pillow that matches the glider!

Once we get the set in, we can then start picking out paint colors. We have some options in mind, but we have not definitely decided on anything since we haven't seen the actual bedding in person.

 

Here are some ideas:

 

In this picture, we love the wall behind the crib. This is the bedding we got, but it gets a little overwhelming with all of the other stuff to buy that matches it. We plan on doing an accent wall on the wall that the crib is on, but this is just an option.

 

Here is another option for the accent wall:

 

 

Also, I found this great rug on this same blog! I love the sheepskin in front of the crib, but I just wonder how this would look over carpet instead of hardwood floors. The rug is 100% sheep skin and is hypoallergenic and is great fot "tummy time" for the babe!

Breastfeeding and Baby Shopping!

This morning I went to my first breastfeeding class at Happy Girls Bras and Breastfeeding! This is a store that just opened up in Greenville that I referred to in a previous post when I won the gift bag with the nursing bras and camis! Sophie, a retired lactation consult from Vidant Health, opened up this shop and is holding free breastfeeding classes and support groups for expecting and new moms. My friend Jessica Webb invited me to go today and I am so glad that she did! We got to enjoy Sophie all to ourselves and went through everything related to breastfeeding. We learned alot and got all of our questions answered. Sophie really got us excited about making our breastfeeding goals atainable and we had a great morning together! Luckily, Dee will be able to get me a breast pump from work, and Sophie said when I get it that I can bring it in and she will help me get it all set up and teach me exactly how to use it. It really is great to have such good support seeing as so many women say that breastfeeding is one of the hardest things that they have ever done. I look forward to taking it on myself and knowing that I have so much help will make it that much easier!

 

Here is a picture of us earlier today! From left to right: me, Sophie - the owner of Happy Girls, and Jessica Webb on the right

 

 

After the breastfeeding class Dee and I decided to start looking at baby goodies to register for in the next coming weeks! We had to get a picture because we parked in the "Expectant Mothers" spot at Babie's R' Us! While I may not need to park close because of my size,

it still brought a smile to our face that we could! : )

We Officially Have a Problem!!

Dee and I took an afternoon trip today to the Smithfield outlets! One would say we went a little overboard shopping for the baby!! We couldn't hardly stand it!! With all of the cute onesies, I can't wait to put our little boy in these clothes!! Here are some pictures of the full wardrobe so far as well as some of our favorites! Don't judge us, please! Hahahaa!

 

 

 

 

Now that's alot of baby clothes!!!!

 

 

I saw this onesie at the outlets in Mebane and just had to go back and get it in Smithfield!

One of Dee's favorites -- He loved the moose!

I can just see little Lucas wearing this crab onesie this upcoming summer

at our yearly family vacation at the Outer Banks!

 

 

You know Dee had to get a football onesie : )

 

Yes she does!!!

 

 

Dee loved (and I mean loved!!) this soft, fluffy bear onesie!

He liked it so much he had to have his picture taken with it! Haha!

Stats for Week 18

The Belly is Quickly Growing!!

 

Baby's size:
Baby E is about 5 1/2 inches long now and weighs 7 ounces! According to my readings, he is in there just flexing his arms and legs like crazy!

Total weight gain:
9 lbs total. Right on target!

Sleep:
A couple of nights this week, I woke up at 2am wide awake! I stayed awake for about and hour and 1/2 not being able to fall back asleep. I think it's a combination of having to adjust my sleeping and definitely the excitement of everything going on in our ever-changing lives!

Maternity Clothes:
I haven't bought any maternity clothes since the last post, and after now knowing it's a boy, I will probably be spending my time shopping for him now!

Food cravings:
Well this week was my birthday so I have officially succeeded in eating some sort of cake every day this week! Baby and I are on a SUGAR HIGH!!! Haha!

Movement:
Still feeling fluttering! One night this week Dee was even able to put his hands on my belly and feel a little gurgling! It's hard to tell if it's my stomach or my baby, but I like to think it's the baby either way!
 

Best moment of the week:
Well, I had my very first (but definitely not last!) prenatal massage at Massage Works! Jamie did such a good job, and seeing as she has a 4-month old, she is really in tune to what my body needs right now and was able to educated me on alot of things in regards to keeping my body and muscles from aching!
But, I will of course have to say the BEST moment of the week was......
the gender reveal party, DUH!!

What I'm looking forward to:
I'm looking forward to now getting the nursery together! No rush here, but ready to see the end result come together!

What I miss:
I miss my pants fitting!! It's too soon to buy maternity pants, but I'm running out of room with the ones I have! I have been using a hair tie to loop through the button hole, but now the zippers are not zipping at all which is beginning to cause a problem!

Symptoms:
Unfortunately I have been having so pelvic pain/lower back pain on alternating sides. After some reading, I've found this can begin this week and last throughout the pregnancy. It's caused by a pinched nerve due my growing uterus and changes in my posture due to increased weight in my front half! Thankfully Dee has brought me a heating pad home and this has helped, as well as being a little more conscious of my back and shoulder posture.

Belly Button:
The belly button remains an innie but is slowly makes its way to an outie! I didn't think that my belly button would change seeing as deep as it was inward, but it is defnitely progressing outward!

Leaving you with some pictures again! Enjoy : )
 

 

 

 

 

It's A..........

BOY!!!!!

We had our gender reveal party with all of our closest family and friends on Sunday, September 9th from 4-6! We were able to share an amazing moment with so many of our closest loved ones, and we couldn't have asked for a better day! We had Allison Phelps do our cake since she did such a great job on our wedding cake! You can visit her website at www.vanillabeanbakeshoppe.com. We sent her the envelope that the ultrasound tech sealed up for us. In the envelope were pictures for proof and "I'm a boy!" written on the paper! We cut into the cake that she made for us and found the inside of the cake to be blue, which is exactly what we were are secretly hoping for! We were so lucky to be able to share this with our friends and family and cannot wait for them all to meet little baby E - which we can now call Lucas Christian Eubanks !

The cake!

The table all decorated and with the sign Hannah gave us for the nursery

 

 

Cutting the cake and revealing the B-L-U-E!

 

 

Happy soon-to-be parents of a little boy!

 

 

 

My extra excited Mom!

 

 

We asked that our family and friends not bring gifts but only diapers!

We definitely got a good head start!

 

 

Yay!

 

 

I have already embarassed him and he hasn't even enterred the world yet!

Proof of his little pee-wee! Haha!

 

 

Showing off the ultrasound pictures

Ultrasound! Boy or Girl??!!

Well today Dee and I went for what is called the "fetal survey" at the OBGYN office! Our appointment was at 9:30am and we got lucky to get Leigh Ann to do the ultrasound again for us! She is so great because she explains everything that we are looking at and teaches us alot about what we are looking at and what measurements she is getting on the baby! She measured so many different things, from the length of the humerus, the femur, and the spinal cord, she showed us Baby E's stomach, kidneys, and bladder, as well as the 4 chambers in the heart, the 2 ventricles of the brain, and we were even able to see the cerebellum in the brain which coordinates movement! We were almost completely able to rule out alot of birth defects, such as congenital heart defects, Down's syndrome, spina bifida, neural tube defects, and clef lip. This is always reassuring, although she must remind us that this not always 100%. The baby is actually measuring at 18 weeks and 4 days, which is one week earlier than what we were originally told. This would make a due date of February 1st instead of the 8th. This again is not a definite and she said the ultrasound can be as far off as 7 days. For now, we will keep a due date of February 8th. She also did measurements to ensure that my cervix is not predisposed to requring C-section (a little too much information I know!) But, the good news is, my cervix is perfectly fine (yes!!! hahahaa!) so I will not have to have a C-section in regards to this which is great because I would like to avoid that at all cost! We took a bunch of videos of the ultrasound, but they actually did not turn out as well. Now that Baby E is getting bigger, it's hard to tell what is what, but I did include a couple of snap shots from the ultrasound! I also included a picture of us before going in to the appointment because I must say we were a little excited - little is an understatment : )

 

 

 

 

Now most of you know that Dee and I are having a gender reveal party on Sunday! When we were having the ultrasound done, Leigh Ann turned the screen when it came time to find out if it was a boy or girl. She told us when she quickly could tell what the sex of the baby is, and smiled a huge smile just to rub it in! We are dying to know what it is, and here is a picture of the envelope that I had to send off before I ripped it open to find out! I sent Allison the envelope and she will make a cake with the inside either blue or pink based on the sex! We can hardly stand it!

Baby Bump on the Dance Floor!

This past weekend we went to Asheville for Katie and Bo's wedding at the Biltmore Estate! It was so great to see our good friends, but we missed Hannah and Jeremy that live in Michigan. They just had a little boy at the end of July, and with the new addition and all that comes along with that and an already 12 hour drive, they were unfortunately unable to to make it. We had a great time at the bridal luncheon, rehearsal dinner, and wedding! We enjoyed lunch at Tupelo Honey (other enjoyed lunch and mimosas!) We had the rehearsal dinner downtown Asheville at a restaurant called Magnolia's! After dinner a band set up to play which got the whole party on the dance floor! We cut lose to Journey and of course, we did the Wobble!! A baby can't keep us from breaking it down! On Saturday night we had the wedding which was all beautiful! I have included some pictures below!

Dee and I before the rehearsal dinner!



UNC-W girls! From left to right: Kelly Allen, Marian Guill, Katie Dial, me, and Sarah Yeager

 

With the special couple, Katie and Bo!

 

One of my favorites - Kelly Allen !

 

Before the wedding!

 

Yay!

 

 

Kelly showing off my belly :)

 

 

With the gorgeous bride!

 

 

End of the night!