Painting is Finshed - or is it?

Well - we thought it was finished - but it isn't!
I had full intentions on helping Justin paint the room….we even bought me masks to wear while painting. I went shopping with two of my friends on Saturday morning to come back to the nursery being completely painted!
Not only was the room painted but Justin had cleaned both showers, the oven and the BBQ pit! I was impressed! I am so blessed to have such a hard working husband!
We let the pain dry and inspected it. We found that where the walls meet the ceiling there is just a little bit of yellow that we can see. The last time we painted that room we didn’t tape it as well as we did this time so the line was not very neat.
Sunday Justin tried to fix it with the trimmer tool but that did not work out well. White ended up getting onto the blue too much on the walls AND the white we thought matched didn’t!! Of course because of this we had to repaint the WHOLE ceiling. Although Justin was frustrated – he did an awesome job getting that done quickly.
Now we just need to re-tape around the ceiling and then we will paint the top of the walls again.
Lesson learned – we should have painted around the edge of the ceiling even on to part of the walls before taping them off to be sure we would cover all the old color. OH - also to make sure the paint matches before we start painting ceilings!

A Stranger Finally Noticed!

I had to make a quick trip to the mall to get my makeup I was running out of and while I was there one of the associates asked "So when is that baby coming?"

I was so excited that a stranger actually noticed I was pregnant without me having to BUY baby stuff to validate what they may have thought.

These are the letters we bought for the nursery - We are going to either paint them or use some sort of scrapbooking paper on them to match the room! I will of course post a picture of what they look like AFTER as well!!

Saturday I was craving a slushie SO BAD!! Since we were in Lexington I had to depend on either the snow cone stand being open or one of the gas stations having an icee machine. Unfortunately, neither worked out for me. I had to make do with a fountain drink and crushed ice. It helped my craving but was NOTHING like a slushie!

I hope that Jace gets my bass fishing skills!! All of the family went out to the land Saturday and we fished and had lunch. Well, Justin was casting for about 30 minutes and almost caught a fish multiple times, but no success. He asked me if I wanted to cast a few times so I did. With my first cast I caught a fish!!!! He was pretty big too - as far as the size that was in the tank anyway.

We met with a lady from work on Monday who was looking for pregnant models for her part time photography studio she has. She is willing to give a deeply discounted rate for maternity and newborn pictures - but she is looking for one person to do a birthing session for FREE!! These pictures would not be of the actual birth but a few of Justin and I while I am in labor then pictures of us and Jace RIGHT after he is born. These are the moments you can REALLY capture raw emotions!

To have the chance to have this done for us free would be a blessing! I am not sure if she has decided we get that session free but we did let her know we were very interested!

At the moment we have tentatively schedule the maternity pictures for May 16th. Depending on when Jace arrives, she may or may not be able to do our newborn pictures.

Jace is due on July 15th but she leaves to go to Ireland on July 18th! I have a feeling he may come earlier than July 15th! We will see!

Here are my 24 week belly pictures!!

24 weeks is a BIG milestone - if Jace had to be born for SOME crazy reason he has better chances of living after 24 weeks than before. They call this milestone a viability date!!

Now of course we must cheer for him to stay in there and baking for AT LEAST another14 -15 weeks!!

Maternity Hospital Tour and Working on the Nursery More!

As I mentioned last post, the border came in! Here is the picture I said I would take of it. It looks so much better in person than it does online - in my opinion!

Above the border are the two paint swatches I got from Lowe's. We chose the middle colors on both swatches. The darker blue really matches well with the stripes that are on the "little league" square of the border, you can't see it on the picture but there are tiny stripes on it.

The dark blue we chose is called Belle Grove Victory Blue.

The lighter blue is called Schoolboy Blue.

We will be painting the top half in the lighter blue and then the lower half in the darker blue, with the border in the middle.

Justin just finished taping the room and was checking out the paint colors on the wall.

We were not sure if we needed to prime the walls - and sure enough that yellow was showing through more than I wanted so we decided to prime.

Thanks to Nick and Lauren - we were able to use their abundance of primer for our walls. They even came over Sunday and Nick helped Justin prime the room!

Thanks guys!!

We went on our Maternity Tour at the hospital on Thursday evening. I am glad we chose that hospital! It's beautiful and seems VERY clean! We all learned a trick - to ask for room 311. It is the largest post-partum room available, a corner room of course. Who wouldn't want a bigger room? As long as it is not taken I WILL be in that room! *GRIN* So the greatest part is that there are only private rooms in this hospital - since that is all they offer then insurance will cover the private room. YEAH!

Justin and I started riding our bikes on Monday, and then again on Tuesday (loving this time change). Since it has been awhile - before day light savings in the fall - I had forgotten how much my butt bones would hurt from that seat! OUCH! I know eventually I will eventually be able to stand it but wow - Tuesday was rough. I am thinking we may need to invest in seat cushions or something - the weight gain from pregnancy won't make it easier on me. I actually was surprised that my balance was not off - I felt a tiny bit off but not nearly like I was expecting.

My favorite part of exercising is the deep sleep I get at nights because of it!

Not even my bladder is waking me up on those nights!

Nursery Kickoff is about to Begin in 3, 2, 1...

The bookcase came in on the 5th!!! We finally put it together last night!! The other pieces for the nursery should be coming in sometime in the beginning of April.

I really thought the bookcase would be pretty easy to assemble.........nope - it took us a little over a HOUR to put it together! Now that it is set up we get to just let it sit in our office until we finish painting the nursery. Which looks like we will be starting this weekend maybe! The border came in yesterday and it looks even better in person than it did on the website! I will have to get a picture of that and post it as well!

I had to do the heart on my belly picture - as silly as it is,I could not resist since I actually HAVE a belly to do it now!

I went to my appointment today that was rescheduled from two weeks ago. We went over the report from my big anatomy ultrasound and Jace is perfectly normal!! Praise God!! I knew in my mind that he was perfect but it’s nice to know that my instinct was backed up by the medical proof! The only thing that was noted is he is in the 87th percentile for growth development – which means he is a pretty big baby. He actually measured 2 weeks ahead – as did my belly when she did the tape measurements. The doctor does not have any concern until the measurements are showing 3+ weeks ahead. If he were to become too large there would be a chance I would have to have a c-section and I prefer to stay away from that route as much as I can control. I honestly think that I am further along than originally thought – so since my due date was not actually changed I think I will have him “early”. I also asked the doctor if I could ride a my bike and she said “YES!!” – that is awesome because walking is only so much fun. We started walking this week after the time change but Justin and I prefer a bit more activity such as bike riding. She told us that she even rode her bike with her last one up until 32 weeks – that’s when it started to get difficult. She said she couldn’t figure out why until she realized that her knees were bumping into her big belly – it had gotten in the way. So it looks like I can ride the bike for exercise for at least 10 more weeks – if not more. Oh – and I do get one more ultrasound at 37 weeks!! This would mainly be for checking out to see if there has been any progression started and that the baby is positioned correctly. He was breech and then transverse at the big ultrasound but that is to be expected – there is so much room in there right now he can move about freely. They worry when at 37 weeks and the baby is not head down – it’s a whole lot harder for him to move into position.

My next appointment will be the start of my regular every two week visits! WOW – this pregnancy is FLYING BY!! That appointment is scheduled for April 9th – the day we leave for San Antonio for our Baby Moon! I will be getting my Gestational Diabetes test done that appointment. I pray I pass it! Once I do (because I KNOW I will) we will be off to San Antonio for a nice relaxing sweetheart’s get-away!

A Change in Plans....

Well we decided to not do the accent wall - I was worried the room would be too plain. Then Justin thought maybe we could do stripes - but then I worried that would be too busy! SO we just decided to simply buy the border that matches the bedding and put that in the middle of the wall. We will paint the bottom half of the walls darker blue, and the top half light blue!

We just ordered the border today and it should be here by Tuesday!!! Glad Justin found this place to order it - other places were saying it would take 6-8 weeks to get the border shipped!! That's just outrageous!

I have my appointment that was originally scheduled on Feb. 26th, this week on Wednesday! I will update with a post after that appointment.

I am curious how this will work since I am 2 weeks late for my appointment. I wonder if they will want to see me in two weeks then 4 weeks from that date to get back on track or if they will just ask me to come in again in 4 weeks and not worry about getting back on track. Guess I will have to wait and ask the doctor. OH - and I wonder if I get anymore ultrasounds - I LOVE seeing Jace in there! It's just amazing to me!!

I forgot to add.......

Last Friday when I was in New Orleans, I had my first FULL FORCE kick from baby Jace!! Actually I had two of them.

It was right after breakfast and I was sitting there talking to my family waiting for when I had to leave for the airport and WHAM! I was kicked so hard. I literally jumped out of my skin! I made an "Oh!" sound then felt embarrassed for jumping like that mid-sentence that I almost went into tears. The verge of tears were more from the excitement - but part of it was the embarrassment and also being frightened.

I really hope that I can get use to the full on kicks that are like that - otherwise I won't be able to concentrate on anything and I will start sounding funny always saying "OH!" It almost felt like when you hit your funny bone - just it was in my tummy! I guess maybe he hit a nerve?

Either way - I REALLY do enjoy feeling Jace move around in there! It's not only amazing but its reassurance that everything is just right in there for him!

After those 2 HARD kicks I knew it would be no time before Justin could feel him - and sure enough I was right!

21 Weeks down.......

We have decided on the name

JACE WAYNE BRYAN

Daddy was able to feel Jace move for the first time Monday night - he felt one little kick. Last night he felt Jace REALLY get to moving! It's so incredible to be able to share that feeling with Justin! I was almost in tears when he was feeling him move! I get all giggly when he feels my belly - each time the baby moves I can't help but giggle and get giddy...

What can I say? It melts my heart!

Since I have posted about the busy busy past week already I am going to simply add pictures.......

HEY LOOK I STILL HAVE HIP LINES.....FOR NOW

Wow that flash really makes this shirt show its quality :)

What do you expect for maternity wear?

Nursery Before........

Today we finished up the registry process and registered at Target. Since the baby section is much smaller and we had the majority of things done at Babies R Us, Target was a BREEZE! After grocery shopping we went home and booked our "Babymoon" to San Antonio from April 9th - 12th. I can't wait to go relax and spend some quality time with my hubby! Well - the day was not over with this - we went ahead and ordered all the baby furniture - crib, 5 drawer dresser, dresser/changing table, and a bookcase. All the pieces except the bookcase are back ordered until April 5th!! Once that was finished Justin got all the tape and paint drops ready for the nursery....

As expected Justin is anxious to work on the nursery! We wanted to take before, during, and after pictures of working on the nursery so here are the before pictures. (more like before with some progress) We started to put down the paint drops so that we can paint as vigorously as we want and not get it everywhere on the carpet! Ok ok ok - so we won't paint that crazy but you know, accidents happen and why not avoid a mess?

Over the next week or so we will start taping around the trim, little by little, so that we do a good job and make sure that the lines are straight.

Once the taping is finished we should have a piece of the crib bedding in hand to go match paint to. We plan to do an accent wall in the darker blue where the crib will be and then light blue for the rest of the walls.

Here is the bedding will are going with and the furniture pieces.......

the crib will be coffee colored like the other pieces of furniture......

I can't wait to see the nursery all set up for our little man to come home to!!!