32 Weeks

What do Coraline and a Jack in the Box have in common?

How far along? 32 Weeks 

Total weight gain? Up 30 lbs, will have another check up Week 34. Really trying to maintain a total weight gain no more than 30 lbs, but seeing how I am at 30 lbs already and Coraline still has big growth spurts ahead...my dream seems to be squashed. :-[

Maternity Clothes? ASOS is my top #1 choice! The tops/tunics run true to your pre-pregnancy size. (Given you didn't let yourself go and blow up like a balloon - boob growth is accommodated for). I found that the pants are true to your current pregnant size. So if you measure your hips properly, use their size chart to order the proper pregnancy size. Yes this means you may order a 10/12/14. Grieve for a bit, then get over it. My next choices are The Gap/Old Navy. I have really only ordered tank tops from there and again, true to pre-pregnancy size. However, for 3rd trimester I recommend going up one size, the belly region can get tight. :-)

Stretch Marks?  The red marks are still on my butt! Good news, the red marks on my boob have vanished! Gone! Not even a slight sign that they were once even there. WHOOP!

Sleep:  Sleeping well again. :-]

Best moment this week: Nursery details have been added. You can see details of our Glam Nautical Nursery: HERE. 

Miss Anything? Alcohol. It is hot and I want to enjoy the fun fruity alcoholic beverages everyone else is getting to enjoy. Jealous. 

Movement: She LOVES to move!! What's new? ha!

Food cravings: Watermelon. Henry picks the best ones too. Each time before he leaves town I make sure he picks a watermelon first so I can snack on it while he is gone. :-)

Anything making you queasy or sick: Textures are still making me sick. 

Gender RESULTS: BABY GIRL!!! My gut feeling was right all along! I absolutely can't wait to meet her!

Labor Signs: More contractions this week! Happened at work while sitting at the desk - probably because I was stressed. I am on a roll. 

Symptoms: 
Braxton Hicks! Yay.
Learned I am allergic to cocoa butter.
Hips hurt. Especially my right hip.
If I don't take my prenatal vitamin at night, my legs get extremely antsy! It feels like I need to go running they get so antsy. However, if I take my pre-natal within 30 minutes they chill out. I read that it has to do with the iron. Either way, it works.
Movements have changed from individual movements to feeling simultaneous movements in two different spots. Like I will feel something toward my right side up by my ribs, and at the same time another movement on the left side of my belly button. It's the weirdest, yet most wonderful feeling in the world.
Disappearing belly button, baby bump, nails and hair growing like weeds, baby movements (the best!) and my boobs have drastically increased.
Frequent bathroom visits
Occasional swelling of my feet and hands. Especially my right foot. 

Belly Button in or out? My belly button is officially FLAT. No innie, no outtie. 

Wedding rings on or off? Both rings have moved to my pinkie fingers. I had a scare with my Aggie ring and just decided to keep them both there. Juuuust in case. 

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy, Happy!

Looking forward to: Finishing out the nursery and getting back into our house from the tornado!

Baby Name? Coraline! I love the name!! See WEEK 21 for name details. <3

Thoughts: First thought - gosh we look a shaggy mess in this weeks photo!!
Second - We are learning so much in our Birth Boot Camp class. I can't express to you how wonderful this class has been. We intend on doing a natural birth. I had wanted to do the Bradley method, however in a small town that was close to impossible without driving an hour to get to a class. When I found this class right down the street from us, designed by a lady who taught the Bradley Method for over 20 years I was ecstatic! I have been against epidurals since I was in high school. I have always had a pretty high pain tolerance, such as opting to have my teeth drilled without medication. Plus I have woken up in the middle of a few procedures, so not only do I have a high pain tolerance, my body has a high tolerance I guess to anesthesia. I would assume that given my history, an epidural wouldn't really work to the extent on my body that it does for most others. Each person has their own reasoning for either choosing an epidural or choosing natural and I don't knock those choose the epidural. This is just my personal preference. I want to be able to labor in my position of choice, walk around, use the restroom and better engage with my baby post-delivery. However, I know I can't beat myself up if for some unforeseeable reason I do end up getting an epidural. My birth plan though clearly states no epidural and to not offer drugs to me, I know they are there if I choose. :-]

About the Board:

Inspiration was from a dream. You hear of those crazy prego dreams? Well this one was pretty odd. I dreamt my stomach was a Jack in the Box. I would crank the Jack in the Box and the music would play until my belly would pop open. It would pop open like the vintage post office box drawers on the street. When it opened I could see Coraline in my tummy, head down, facing my spine. She was wearing this super cute footy onesie I had recently purchased. When she saw that I was looking down at her she looked up at me from between her legs and reached her hands up for me to pick her up. I almost went to pick her up until I realized she wasn't ready to come out yet and slammed the drawer shut!!! HA! Pretty odd, huh? 

Pregnancy/Maternity Fashion: 

Top and leggings are from Motherhood Maternity. I love this top, however I feel like it is the least flattering in photos now that I am getting bigger. It doesn't accommodate upper boob expansion very well.

Prepping For Baby Coraline

Preparing for this baby has not been easy by any means. They say you will never be fully prepared for a baby, and that is no joke. What makes it harder for us is we have been temporarily displaced from the tornado that hit our home back on May 15th!! The insurance is just being so incredibly difficult.  National Lloyd is great when they are taking your money, but when it comes time for them to do their job and help you out, GOOD LUCK!!

Needless to say, we are slowly chipping away at all the items we need to do and trying to complete the nursery bit by bit in a house that can't get below 80 degrees. 

We had two fabulous baby showers back to back weekends,  detailed blog posts about those to come, so our house looks like Babies r Us threw up in it at this point.  My aunt warned me that baby items would take over your house, but this is a bit ridiculous.  Haha
Once we get the nursery in better shape I know we can get things in there better organized, but right now our living room is one giant storage room. 

We were blessed to get almost all our big ticket items from very generous family members and friends, such as our car seat, extra car seat base, pack & play,  baby bath tub, stroller, bouncer & breast pump. The only things remaining are the crib bedding, baby monitor and swing. 

The crib bedding is going to be a dual sided dedign which I absolutely can't wait to share! A friend recommended a local lady to sew it all for us and she really came up with a great idea.

Our to-do list still entails:
Getting our A/C repaired!! D*** insurance!
Packing hospital bag
Washing all baby items/clothes
Touching up nursery fishscale wall
Hanging nursery decor
Getting the remaining big ticket items
Cleaning my car out to put the carseat in for the hospital
Finalizing our birth plan
Registering with the hospital
Catching up on chalkboard pregnancy posts!

I think that covers it?

Feeling pretty overwhelmed.  Haha

Glam Nautical Nursery Sneak Peaks

I was beyond ecstatic when Henry and I finally agreed on a nautical nursery theme, whether the baby was a boy or girl. Once we found out it was a girl and decided on the name Coraline, which means Coral of the sea, I couldn't have been happier! I not only was FINALLY getting my beach fix, I was getting to use the gorgeous teal and coral colors I love. I was finally getting to decorate a room 100% the way I wanted to.

Now that everything is finally coming together I can't wait to spend evenings in this room. Which is a good thing since I know I'll be doing that quite a bit with nightly feedings.

I wanted to share a few sneak peeks of our gorgeous Glam Nautical Nursery because I just cant wait until the entire project is done. Enjoy!

What's Going On In The Johnson Household

So normally on Wednesdays I post the pregnancy chalkboard tracker from the week before. Well, this week would have been week 20, but that was posted early. For obvious reasons. {If you missed it click here.} Things have been pretty hectic around here. The hubby was gone for business/bachelor party/business for the last two weeks and let's just say, although he travels a lot, I never get use to him being gone. That always puts emotional stress on me. Not to mention I have been driving around like crazy. Not so great for being preggers. We had a huge thing here called Antique Alley that I sat our for two days doing. This acquired a LOVELY sunburn on the left side of my face. It was so cold and windy, who thinks to put on sunscreen when your wearing a wind-breaker and a blanket? Not this girl. Then I have begun "nesting".

The hubby being gone has made me a crazy woman to say the least - yea, yea, pregnancy hormones don't help. Between working at the office, taking care of the 3 dogs, dealing with lovely Baby Girl's growing movements, cleaning the house, prepping for Antique Alley, and driving all around the state of Texas - I was physically drained too. I had to drive to Sulphur Springs for a Bid Opening, San Antonio where the Hubby was working, College Station to bring the hubby clean clothes for the week, and Arlington for something I am sure wasn't all that important, but I drove there none the less. 

The sunburn from Antique Alley couldn't have been any better placed. It was ALL down the left side of my face, and it was BAD. Why did it have such perfect placing though? Well, I am at that stage where I can really only sleep on my left side - get it? Laying down at night consisted of much discomfort from Baby Girl refusing to ever stop moving and my face feeling like it had the worst rug burn of my life with a heating pad on it. Not to mention the sun drained me of any energy I had left from all the driving. Ugh!

Top it off with Baby Girl deciding she wanted to be transverse while simultaneously trying to kangaroo kick her way through my sides WHILE trying to get through a training session that ended in me blacking out and throwing up. Attractive. Good lord I thought I was going to die the other night. I was a literal wreck! An absolute disaster. After much research I found that babies while in the womb will move their head toward the warmest spot. A nurse friend suggested putting ice packs on either side and then something warm near your pelvic bone to help guide the baby's head downward. Ice packs were not going anywhere near my abdomen, so I decided to fill the bathtub with really warm water a few inches below my belly button. I sat in there for a bit and sure enough I felt the pressure from my sides and the sharp, fiery sensation that came with it disappear! Thank you Jesus! 

With all the pain finally gone I began cleaning like a mad woman. Also known as "nesting". I was able to clear out most of our garage that was piled high with cardboard boxes, fill up 4 giant black trashbags from all the rooms in our house, and get the nursery organized for the crib to be delivered and the walls to be painted.  

Sounds exhausting doesn't it? 

17 Weeks

Wonderful milestone week!

Ok first note to make: I am going to TRY, key word try, to post my weekly posts on Wednesdays every week. My new week actually begins on Saturday/Sunday, however I wasn't able to post the week posts because the week had not fully happened. The pictures are taken on day one of the corresponding week. SO, although I am posting week 17 today, I am actually 18 weeks and 3 days. Get it? This way I can blog about the ENTIRE week experience. 

How far along? 17 Weeks

Total weight gain? 4 lbs total on the nose.

Maternity Clothes? Wearing the maternity leggings and belly belt this week. My bump seems to be sitting low, although the photo makes it look pretty round, in person it looks like a watermelon.

Stretch Marks? None.

Sleep: Sleep is great, until little Buddha wakes us up at 2 am and then 6 am. Preparing us for the baby I suppose?

Best moment this week: FEELING THE BABY MOVE! Also, finally finding a gray paint color for the nursery. If anyone is looking for a light gray that doesn't look purple/pink/blue - Dolphin Fin by Behr is GREAT!

Miss Anything? Take a wild guess.....ALCOHOL!

Movement: YES!! Day 1 of Week 17 I was sitting and talking with Henry's family and then it felt like someone poked/flicked me from the inside. I felt it 3 separate times.
Then later in the week I was laying in bed and it felt like subtle "popcorn" I guess. Like it was trying to turn around. So there would be a "tap tap tap"...a few seconds..."tap tap" in a different spot....a few seconds..."tap tap" in a different spot and so on. Then it was so quiet in the bedroom I could hear the swishing noise of the movements. Sounds cool right? Um no, the non-stop subtle movements and sounds lasting about 5 minutes starting giving me a mini-panic attack. haha. I have no idea why! It's like when someone lightly rubs your arm and it tickles, so you have to scratch it. Does this make any sense? HAHA Let's just say it felt crazy weird. I am ready for more powerful movements. LOL

Food cravings: Fruit. Fruit. Oh, and Fruit. Raspberries seem to be the fruit of the week.

Anything making you queasy or sick: I had a bad day Tuesday. I had felt queasy all day long, went and had an amazing workout with my personal trainer, then as soon as I got home I projectile vomited everything I had eaten all day, all over the bathroom. More than you wanted to know, right?

Gender Prediction: Baby Boy actually. This is the first official week I started thinking it was a boy. Only two more weeks until we know for sure!!!!

Labor Signs: Too soon

Symptoms: Baby bump is the most obvious. Nausea. Hair growing like a weed. My nails have started growing quick too. I hate long nails! I rip, not bite, my nails because I can't stand how it feels when they begin to grow past the fingertip, it's this really annoying pressure feeling. *Crazy again?* More crying fits this week. Then the best of them all, baby movements!!!

Belly Button in or out? Innie

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: I cried a few times this week, but EXTREMELY happy! I mean, how could I not be? I felt our little darling moving!

Looking forward to: Reveal Party and more baby movements!!!

Baby Names? Still have to be Henry the 3rd for a boy. The baby girl name seems to be settled on Adaleine, however torn between a middle name still.

Thoughts: Loving feeling this baby move! I wish I felt it more often, but it is usually only when I am laying down. Henry came rushing in the moment he heard I felt the baby and pressed his hand against my belly - of course it didn't move. Tuesday night we laid in bed together, he pressed his hand against my belly as I said, "Did you feel that? That? How about that?" There was one pretty good one that he thought he might have felt, but wasn't sure if he really did or his mind was making him think he did since he wanted to so badly. He laid his head on my belly and is pretty use to the noises my stomach makes because I have a crazy stomach that makes hilarious noises - he said he heard swishing noises, like running your hand through water, that he hadn't ever heard my stomach make before. I wish I could hear it!!!

Week 17 #Selfie from #Instagram. Follow Me!

When we finally found the perfect color, I turned around to see Henry had painted the two potential baby nicknames on the walls. <3