Nashville Baby Shower

Last weekend, my mom and I headed to Nashville for my baby shower with my college friends and immediate family. We got there Saturday around dinnertime and immediately went to Home Goods. We do not have one of these amazing stores in Memphis, so we were excited about what we could find for the new house. I got a rug for the family room and two lamps for our master bedroom. Then we went to Joanne's next door to Home Goods to look for fabric to recover my dining room chair seats. Thankfully they were having a sale, and we got all the fabric we needed for $8!

Sunday morning we got up and went to the outlets in Lebanon. Preston racked up. We kind of went a little crazy buying stuff for him, but they have a Carter's outlet, Gymboree outlet, Gap outlet with kids stuff, and a Polo outlet with kids stuff. It was fun to just spend some one-on-one time with my mom.

Then we headed over to Hurt's parents house for the shower. Meg and Hurt through such a sweet shower for me and Preston! Thank you so much girls!

Hurt made the cutest banner ever for the shower. I plan on hanging it over Preston's crib.

The hostesses and me

My mom and me

We played a cute game where they had to guess the size of my belly with a ribbon. My mom and mother-in-law won and guessed it perfectly!

Here they are, very focused :)

Natasha helping my mom

It was so great to see so many of my college friends. They got Preston the cutest stuff ever! I know Candice has more pictures of opening gifts and everything, so hopefully I can share those on the blog one day.

From L to R: Adrianne, Natasha, Hurt, Me, Meg, Candice, Jocelyn

Lauren and Amber had to leave early and unfortunately, I didn't get a picture with them!

The family that was there, L to R:

Marley (Brian's cousin), Mom, Mallory & Brittany (Brian's sisters), Debbie (Brian's mom)

Now to the food! They had quite a spread.... it was awesome! Cute cupcakes with a "P" on them. Meg found the cute toppers :)

Here's the whole spread of food... so much good stuff!

For the centerpiece, they had pretty flowers with the invitation to the shower framed. Hurt painted the cute little magnetic train that has his initials in it.

Cutest favors ever! They got popcorn bags and on the front it says "Cami's about to POP!" I think they found them on Etsy.

It was so great to see everyone and I had such a great time. I got home with all the stuff and Brian helped me take it all out of the car. When I was telling him about it, I kind of got choked up because it just meant so much to me and was so sweet. I am so fortunate to have the friends I have :)

Also, I forgot to post this picture from my work shower. This is the diaper cake Julie made me... how cool is that?

Preston is one very spoiled child :) Thanks everyone for doing all this for our little family. We are really looking forward to meeting him and can't believe he will be here so soon! This Thanksgiving, we have the most to be thankful for!

29 Weeks

We're in the 7th month and the baby is the size of a butternut squash!

Here is what he looks like:

For Preston, all five senses are officially working. He is doing great so far! I turned in all my stuff for maternity leave at work and am looking forward to a few months at home with him.

Here is what I look like:

29 down, 11 to go!

28 Weeks

Woohoo! Third trimester is here!

Preston is the size of a chinese cabbage... what the heck is a chinese cabbage?


He weighs 2 and a quarter pounds. I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and she told me he is measuring on track perfectly and his heartbeat was in the 130s. He is still SUPER active and moves constantly. It's a very strange sensation to feel him move... I don't think I'll ever get used to it. This week, the baby has eyelashes and layers of fat are beginning to form on him. We are really hoping for a chunky baby, so grow baby grow!

I am still doing great. This past week I battled a sinus infection and the lymph nodes in the my neck swelled up. You could see it just by looking at me! Thankfully, it was nothing an antibiotic couldn't fix. At my doc appointment, they did the gestational diabetes screening test and thankfully I passed with flying colors! My iron was a bit low, so they told me to take a supplement with my prenatal vitamin every day.

I am continually amazed at the inappropriate questions I get on an almost daily basis. A lot of people told me to prepare for this. It's like people think you can ask pregnant women ANYTHING and it's okay. I mean, I will have random people in the grocery store come up and touch my belly. GROSS - I don't know you. The thing that bothers me the most is when people ask about my weight, mainly how much I have gained so far. I have tried REALLY hard to still eat healthy and I don't snack or anything, mainly because I am only hungry at normal mealtimes. It is HARD (mentally not physically) for me to gain weight - I am a Weight Watchers fanatic and work hard to stay small, so for me, gaining weight has probably been the toughest thing to go through in pregnancy. I hate looking at the scale. So far, I have gained 17 pounds. Apparently, most women gain 11 pounds their last trimester. If I stay on track for that, I will gain 28 pounds. The normal pregnancy weight gain is between 25 and 35 pounds. I really don't want to have to lose a lot after the baby comes. I know gaining weight is what's best for the baby, so I am accepting it, but it isn't easy. If Preston is a big boy, it will make up for it though!

Here I am at 28 weeks!

I'll be heading to Nashville with my mom today for a baby shower with all my Nashville friends. Can't wait!!!!!!!!

Introducing.... Our New House!

I am really excited about this blog post! We finished up the inspection and after no major problems, we can finally celebrate our new house. We knew we wanted something we can live in a long time, and hoped for a "forever home." After looking at lots of houses, we found one we both love very much. We knew the neighborhoods we wanted and we knew we wanted an older home that needed a little bit of work.

In true Young House Love fashion (they announced their new home today) I'll show you pics and give you the stats.

Info:

• Built in the 1960's
• Colonial style
• Long time owners, maybe even the same owners all these years
• 3100 square feet
• 5 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms with walk-in closets in every bedroom (2 in the master)
• Hardwood floors throughout with thick crown molding (character!)
• 2 fireplaces
• Located in East Memphis, very close to good schools, interstate access, and very centrally located to everything in the city
• Potential for the house to be a "forever" home

WARNING... the house needs a little work! The bones are great, but we'll probably be removing wallpaper and painting for years to come :) Also, these are the interior shots as the house is now with the current owners stuff. We do not own "little old lady" furniture. The owners do have some of the most beautiful antiques I have ever seen! They are having an estate sale before we move in, so Brian and I can't wait to hit that up.

Back of the house... it also has a detached 2-car garage

Double doors that lead to the dining room

One of our favorite things about the house is a large screened in porch off the side of the house. It has so much potential we can hardly stand it.

The door below leads from the screened in porch to the family room. On the right, behind those double doors, is the laundry room.

The family room - love those wooden beams! This is one side of the room.

This is the left side of the room with a large wood burning fireplace and mantle.

Just off the family room is a half bath. It is located in between the downstairs master bedroom, which we will be using as a playroom, and the large entryway area.

This is the downstairs master. We'll be using the 2nd master bedroom upstairs and this room will serve as the playroom, since it is just off the family room.

Also off the family room is the kitchen. To us, this room needs the most work but we are going to wait a while. Gorgeous wallpaper! ;)

The house has an eat-in kitchen and bay window... we've got some ideas for this space.

Off of the kitchen is the dining room. Double doors lead out to the backyard.

Check out the cool knob on the french door.

Moving from the dining room is the formal living room and entry way. We swear that the fireplace HAS NEVER BEEN USED and is in perfect condition. It's really a beautiful room with large windows on one side.

Ahhhhh the entry way. We love the slate floors but that wallpaper is a nightmare. Just look at how high it goes up!

Upstairs, there are two bedrooms on each side, four total. The master and nursery are on the left, the office and guest bedroom are on the right. The room below will be Preston's :) He has a huge walk-in closet with a window inside. It will be funny to see his tiny clothes hanging in there! Also, there are all hardwoods in the bedrooms, the current owners have rugs down now.

The master bedroom... right now it looks like Lucy and Desi live there. It is a large room though, and we can configure it lots of ways. We can't tell you enough how excited we are to have our own walk-in closets to ourselves!

Below is the master bath. This is the sink, the shower, tub and toilet are to the left and one of the walk-in closets is to the right.

This bedroom will serve as a guest bedroom for now, but will probably eventually be the upstairs den for kid hangout space once our little one(s) are older.

This is the upstairs hall bathroom.

Finally, the last and smallest bedroom will serve as an office. More wallpaper to remove!

Here is one of the walk-ins, this one in the bedroom shown above.

So, there she is in all her glory. The house was originally put on the market in March, so we were excited to snag it up after multiple price reductions :) I'll keep you posted on how we update and change the house, starting with Preston's room first! Excited for this next step in our lives.

The best part? We move in December 1.

27 Weeks

My last week of the 2nd trimester. This week, the baby is the size of a head of cauliflower and weighs in at almost 2 pounds!

Here is what the baby looks like:

As for me, still feeling good, but the discomfort is definitely increasing. Bending down to pick things up is harder and I just feel weak. When I drop something, I get really mad at myself :) I feel like my belly gets bigger everyday. The other day I had my Mac in my lap and my belly was covering up half of the mouse pad. Then I readjusted and my belly actually clicked an ad on a web page I was looking at. Yikes.

Here I am at 27 weeks!



27 down, 13 to go!

Preston's First Shower

The wonderful ladies I work with threw me a very sweet shower yesterday. At work, I am surrounded by working moms and they give me so much advice all the time. I love it! I don't know what I would do without them. Children are kind of our world, since we all work at a children's hospital and obviously love kids. Thanks to them, Preston got so much great stuff. I am so thankful for my co-workers. They are such a great group of women and they make work so fun everyday.

Just a few of things we got were the portable high chair, bumpo seat, diapers, wipes warmer, clothes, bibs, burp clothes, swaddling blankets, and a really awesome diaper cake!

Also, thanks to Amanda for not only taking pictures when I forgot my camera but also writing a sweet little blog post about the shower.

Hillary and me discussing Halo sleep sacks

Portable high chair from Julie and Kristy... this will be awesome for trips and visits to the grandparents!

Jen helping me open Katherine's enormous gift :) it was a bumpo seat and pacifiers!

Anne got me the sweetest little giraffe! We have to work on a name for him.

Jennilyn's gift... the cutest little strawberry hat!

Jen was sweet to host all of us at her house. This is her adorable little boy Sam. He was wearing a sticker that said "I Voted Today."

Feeling very thankful today! It was great coming home to Brian with all this stuff for Preston. After we unloaded the car, we looked at all of Preston's new stuff and it felt very "real"... can't believe it! Thanks to everyone in LB's Marketing & Communication department :)