Turning Tables

Lots of material has been published on pregnancy. I'm reading some of it and motivated by one of my books, I planned a final, pre-baby girl's night out.

However, after arriving at the restaurant of choice - Grimaldi's at Watters Creek - I soon realized my girlfriends had turned the tables! They had planned a surprise birthday dinner. Since my big day is just two weeks before Baby Scruggs' anticipated debut, they figured they'd take this opportunity to celebrate with me.

It was awesome. In addition to the balloons, candles, and a delicious, over-the-top assortment of minis from Nothing Bundt Cake, the girls had reached out to a bunch of family and friends, including them in the surprise.

Each person was asked to share why they love me. The girls took those sweet sentiments - all 40 of them - and created a huge, laminated birthday card! I could barely read for tears.
It was SUCH a special evening. Never have I been that surprised in advance of my big day.

Soon, Anthony and I will welcome our Blessed Little One and as we wind down these next 30-something days, I feel completely and utterly loved by my family and friends.

Thank you, Lord. I AM grateful!

The Cross

Prep Machine

Over the weekend, Daddy was a baby prepping machine. In one day, he attended a three-hour car seat class, painted the nursery ceiling Martha Stewart's Heavenly Blue, put together Baby S' bassinet, and assembled the crib!

My contribution was doing the first official load of baby laundry - four sheets, a mattress pad, and two bassinet sheets. Yay! And, I found this super cute lamp on the clearance table at Home Depot. Ain't it cute?

Packages!

I love receiving packages, especially unexpected ones. So, imagine my sheer delight yesterday when we got three of 'em! Technically, four, but one was an order I'd placed for those custom prints soon to be hung in the nursery.

Anywho, the bundles contained a crib mattress, quilted, waterproof pad, sheets, and a much-desired wireless, color baby monitor! All items from our registries. Woo hoo!

Little Blue Bird

Seven and half weeks from now (or less) we'll make a 20-30 minute journey to a neighboring town for a life-changing experience - Labor & Delivery!

The other day I started making a list of things to pack. In addition to a going home outfit for the Blessed Little One, an air mattress for Daddy, and a cache of gadgets that'll help us capture and document baby's arrival, I'm gonna take this!

It's a small gift given to me by my Aunt Hazel. She was a hoot. A long-time educator in the Birmingham school district, she was the kind of person who said whatever came to mind. She held nothing back. We shared May as a birth month.

Aunt Hazel is in heaven now, after a battle with cancer. Despite the diagnosis, she never stopped smoking. That's just how she was, a strong-willed, fiery, courageous, rebellious-but-brilliant woman. I can't think of a better focal point for those hard moments in labor than this sweet, little blue bird.

Things kids say

I'd been searching and searching for this because I thought it was the cutest commercial ever produced. Even though I've seen  it a bunch of times, it makes me giggle!

Short and sweet

Wow. Yesterday's post was like super long. This one will be short on words and long on pics from our baby shower. The hosts used lemons, inspired by fruit of the womb in Psalm 127:3. It also reminded me that through some challenging years on our journey to parenthood we made lemonade...The first pic is how our CD's of images arrived from Candace Johnson of Pixel FX Photography. She's an awesome shooter!

See. Super cute packaging!

Nursery in Progress

Seems like I've had a bunch to say via this blog lately. LOL Today I'll give you a sneak peek at how the nursery is coming along. There's not really a theme, per se, but the inspiration is coastal/beach. Though I can only float, water is one of my favorite natural resources to be near. Something about looking out over a deep blue ocean, a man-made Texas lake, or even a swimming pool is just SO calming. These photos I took in February on the South Carolina coast, near Charleston. They'll hang above baby's bed.

Being on Team Green means we need a gender neutral space that will adapt to whichever God chooses, a boy or a girl. I really despise color sexism. Yeah, I'm a girl and I like pink and green, but I also love cobalt blues, forest greens, chocolate browns, etc. Oops. How did that soap box get there?

Anyway, these are some items I found at HomeGoods. They serve as my jumping off point for decor. A couple days after purchasing them I found a luxurious, shimmery, sky blue curtain panel on the discount shelves at T.J. Maxx. It's beautiful and I'll post a pic once we get it hung.

To brighten things up, (since our crib and dresser are espresso), I'll add a white basket/organizer for the changing table, bright green bedding, and this bookcase (not the best pic) from IKEA. It's the Expedit with Knipsa baskets. Love it!

Our first furniture item received and promptly assembled by Anthony was the Carter's Chocolate Sleigh Glider. I Love this pic of our future nursing corner. The wall to the right used to be a dark chocolate, Otter, by Sherwin Williams, but sweet hubby primed and painted it last weekend to match the rest of the room, which is SW Believable Buff. It made a huge difference in such a small space. Next, we'll paint the ceiling (and maybe add crown molding).

Sorry for the dark doorway and paint ladder in this last one. The wall between the two doors is where we'll place our Psalm 121 decal we custom ordered from dalidecals.com They were super fast responding to our inquiry. I sent an email at like 5 a.m. Saturday morning and by 9 a.m. I had a quote and by noon we'd placed the order! Can't wait to put it up.

It'll be a constant reminder to our Little Beloved that the Lord is with them every step of the way.

My Bump

I realized after a quick look that I've posted very few bump pics. Here are some great shots from our maternity photo session with Lynn, of Lynn In Love Photography, whose website you MUST check out. She takes the most beautiful, artistic photographs.

Pregnancy humor

Source: Baby Gaga

From time to time I chat with other pregnant gals online and they share some of the funniest stuff about this journey toward motherhood. Recently a bunch of them contributed to a discussion about ways you know you're nearing the end of expectancy. I'll share a few! Enjoy!

You know you're nearing the end of your pregnancy when...

* You can't remember the last time you saw your feet while standing up.

* You keep knocking things over with your belly.

* Dropping your razor in the shower means you won't finish shaving your legs.

* Your maternity clothes start getting tight.

* Washing dishes requires you stand sideways.

* You grunt every time you have to get up from sitting or laying down.

* Strangers tell you that you won't make it until your due date.

* Putting on socks means breaking a sweat.

I can relate to many, if not all, of these. :-) Some of them made me laugh so hard my tummy hurt. Nice to have a few laughs between heart burn flare ups and drop-kicks from Baby S.

It's all coming together

That's what my mom said when I sent her pics of the stroller and glider Daddy assembled this week. He was a machine and had long been waiting for the opportunity to put together something! :-) Here's a sneak peek of the glider in the nursery (which we have not even begun to decorate) and the jogging stroller. The latter we received as a shower gift from a dear, generous friend. We're looking forward to trying it out. I read you should walk with your pets and use the empty stroller to help them prepare for baby's arrival. Zuzu and I may do that soon.

On the move!

Baby S treated us to a show this morning. During our ultrasound, we saw baby jab mommy in the tummy and play with his toes. Apparently the head down position from a few weeks ago is no longer in effect. Now, the baby is butt down, which in the medical world is known as breech. According to this blogger, our little one is in the "frank breech" position, as evidenced by his ability to touch his toes.

Clearly I'm thinking what I saw poking out near my belly button the other day was a shoulder, elbow or fist because the baby's head is just beneath my chest. I love rubbing my tummy, but now I really rub because I know where the baby's back is located. Miracle of miracles, I can't wait to hold this little blessing.

Dr. R isn't concerned about the current position. He said, of course, by our due date (June 4) the baby could be head down... in some cases they turn at the last minute, right before a scheduled C-section. We will be 32 weeks tomorrow and our ultrasound tech is excited about our next sonogram at 36 weeks to see what baby will be doing. She said it's like a soap opera. You're always looking forward to seeing how things turn out.

We'll keep you posted!

So emotional!

Well, we did it! We bought a crib and dresser/combo for Baby S! As we walked out of the store studying the receipt, I began to cry big crocodile tears and quickly pulled myself together. LOL These days everything seems like a miraculous milestone.

Now that we have the nursery furniture covered (our glider came in the same day we bought the other items), I'm doing cartwheels inside and if our Blessed Little One knew what was in store, he or she would definitely be doing flips in my tummy!

This is exciting. This is really happening. It's kind of how I felt the closer we got to our wedding day seven years ago. I look at our lives pre-marriage and pre-baby and it is remarkable in a major way the work that God has done in our lives. We are so humbled by his mercy, grace, and endless generosity.

Was that a foot?

So after a nice three-hour nap this afternoon, I was laying on my right side and felt significant movement from Baby S. I looked down and saw a small area bulging out just to the left of my belly button. Gasping and shrieking, I told mom, who I'd been chatting with on the phone. I'm still not sure which body part it was, but hopefully after this week's ultrasound we'll get a better idea whether or not it was a foot, hand, elbow, or knee, assuming the baby's position doesn't change too much within the next 48 hours.

Perfection

Last weekend we had our family and friends shower and it was perfect. I wouldn't have changed a thing! My mom and two of my sisters worked really hard to create a setting that was welcoming and beautiful. They achieved their goal and both Anthony and I were blown away by the decor and more importantly by the outpouring of love and generosity from 50+ folks who came to celebrate with us. It was just such a blessing from God! I don't have a lot of my own pics because I didn't think to hand over my camera until half way through the afternoon. Thanks to my sister's boyfriend, I have the pics you see on this post! He was SO helpful during the weekend. Also, the hostesses hired a photographer to capture everything. So, in a few days, we'll have pics of everyone who was there and shots of the decorations ('cause I know some of y'all really want to see that)!