Sunday, September 19, 2010

"I think you've gotten like three times bigger since I last saw you."~Barista at Starbucks



34 weeks pregnant. I have no idea how this top still buttons shut.

My nesting instinct has definitely kicked in. I've been cleaning basically anything and everything. Yesterday morning I even went so far as to sweep and mop the basement.
Seriously.

We've got almost everything done and ready for Michael. Yesterday the rocking chair Aaron's parents bought for us was delivered:



Right now it's the first thing you see when you reach the top of the stairs, and I think it really just completes the nursery. We still need to hang some things on the walls, including this poster we bought:



Also, my mom found an old bookcase that my dad is stripping and re-painting to put in the baby's room as well.

My mind seems to have completely been taken over by baby thoughts, just baby baby baby. I am starting to get extremely impatient to meet my little guy and get to know him. It honestly is almost all I can think about.

I've decided to make sub plans for the month of October just in case Michael decides to pop his little head into the world early. Though I am hoping to at least make it through the first week of October since then I'll have gotten through conferences and state testing. After that, it's pretty much "come whenever you want baby boy!"

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

♥ smile.baby ♥




I just booked newborn photos for Michael!

The other night on the radio I heard an ad for a photography special for "blizzard babies" (which is apparently what Michael is) and started thinking about how nice it would be to have some professional photos of Michael as a newborn. There's just such a small window of time where they're at that precious little newborn stage, I think it would be beautiful to have it captured in some professional photos. That way we could also have photos in time for Christmas to give to relatives (so sorry family members who read this, I just spoiled your present). Plus we're finally getting our deposit back from the apartment we moved out of in June, so we'll have some extra money coming in.

There was one photographer here in Lincoln that I really liked but she was just so expensive. Her photos of newborns were amazing, but the prices were just really outrageous--at least for people with our paychecks, haha.

So then I went to the website of the photographer whose ad I actually heard. I also really liked their baby photos and their prices were much more reasonable. Also, the couple who run the studio used to be part of the studio that took my senior pictures six years ago (which seems like both a very long and very short time ago) so I've already worked with them before and was really pleased with the work they did then.

I did contemplate getting maternity shots done because I do think they're beautiful, but I honestly don't know when I would ever actually look at something like that or who I would show them to, and I really can't see having a photo like that hanging in my house. It's basically the same way I felt about getting bridal portraits done last year--nice idea, but just ultimately not for me.

So right now our photos are scheduled for November 4th, which of course just gives me one more thing to be excited about--as if I don't have enough to distract me from work, haha.

Speaking of work, things are going really well. I love the school I'm at and so far I'm keeping up with everything. I feel like summer school was kind of a crash course first year of teaching so I feel like I'm a little more settled than I might otherwise be. I made a few goals for myself with this school year and so far I've stuck by them pretty well. One was to send copies to the print shop instead of always making a ton at school. I was really bad about this during my student teaching and summer school--though to be fair, at summer school since I wasn't technically a teacher with the district I didn't have my own copy code so I always had to wait for the media specialist to give me hers.

Another was to have all my lesson plans done for maternity leave by the end of labor day weekend. I finished my maternity lesson plans this past weekend, so I was off by a week on that one. Regardless, it's still so nice to have them finished and typed up, though I still need to put them all together in a binder and make sure all the copies have been made. Oh and I need to get a short video about the Trojan War.

I had an appointment with my midwife today, everything is on track and yes, Michael is the right size. People keep making comments that I'm still tiny (even though I feel like a lumbering giant) for being 33 weeks pregnant. I know people mean to be polite when they say this, but all it makes me do is worry that something is wrong and Michael is too small. So I asked my midwife about this, and she assured me that he is measuring at exactly the right size and that the reason I don't seem as big is 1. I have a long torso which gives the baby more room and 2. I was pretty skinny to begin with so, as I've been saying all along, though I may not look super preggers, for me this is pretty big. For example, pre-pregnancy my waist was 26 inches, I measured just now and I'm at 38.
yeah.

More than anything I am just starting to get so impatient. I just want to meet my little guy.