Fortune Cookie

Brian picked up chinese take-out for us last night. This was my fortune cookie... could it be a sign?!

I braved the snow...

for my weekly appointment and got some great news! I am 100% effaced and 2 cm dilated. Go Preston! In case he doesn't decide to come on his own in the next few weeks, we scheduled his induction for Friday, February 4, his due date. Pretty exciting to know that I am NOT going past my due date and I've started labor on my own :)

Very worth the drive to the doctor's office in several inches of Memphis snow.

Happy Snow Day everyone!

36 Weeks & Progress

Preston is the size of a crenshaw melon... whatever that is.

Basically, he weighs almost 6 lbs and is 18.5 in long. P is head down and very low. He is still moving like crazy though. We go to the doctor once a week and hear his heartbeat. It never gets old :) Just one more week and he will be full term. Pretty exciting!



As for me, I'm 9 months pregnant! I am feeling okay for being so pregnant I guess... for some reason, I threw up yesterday morning right when I woke up. It was my first time to get sick through the whole 9 months. I have heard about 3rd trimester nausea, so I know it's nothing to be alarmed about. I am feeling lots of pressure very low. I am going to the doctor weekly now for check-ups, and at my check-up on Thursday, I was already 50% effaced, which was great news for 36 weeks! That explains some of the pressure I have been feeling. I almost feel like I am walking around with a bowling ball between my legs (sorry if that is a little graphic - it's the only thing I can compare it to!)

At this point, I could have him any day, although most first time moms go past their due date. I'm feeling scared and anxious. I am getting really scared about the birth. I know people do it everyday, but I think it is pretty normal to feel scared. I just really want Preston to be okay. Brian and I were talking the other night and he was saying how he couldn't wait to hold him for the first time. I told him that I was excited for that moment too, but I feel like I have a mountain to climb before I can get to that point :) My goal for the next few weeks is to relax, have Brian give me lots of back rubs, put my feet up, and enjoy these last few weeks of pregnancy.

Here I am at 36 weeks:

36 down, 4 to go!

Nursery Progress: Chapter 3

We have been working HARD at our new house. I can't believe how much we have accomplished in one month! Specifically on our master bedroom and P's room. I will post some before and after pictures of the master bedroom soon. We still need to hang some things on the wall and move out a workshop full of tools that is set up next to our bed :) BUT I do have a nursery update.

This is what the nursery looked like before we moved in.

This is the old owners stuff. I am not sure if you can tell by the picture, but the walls are dingy, off-white and the trim around the windows and floor is mustard. (Yes, mustard. It's everywhere in our house. We think the old owners must have gotten a deal on mustard paint.) BUT, what Brian and I saw when we walked into the room was the POTENTIAL for a beautiful nursery for our first born. We saw the three pretty windows and how light flowed into the room. When you look out the windows, it feels like you are in a tree canopy since it is on the 2nd floor. Then we saw this:

Chaos? Yes, but really it's a huge walk-in closet that Preston can grow into with a window inside.

The first thing we tackled was the paint. Here is daddy-to-be putting on the first coat. You can get a good look at the trim all over our house in this pic :)

We even had a little help from our friends the Pela's :) I cannot thank Robyn and JM enough for helping us with P's room. They are like family to us! I am sure JM will love that I posted this pic of him, haha.

As for the color, we went with Benjamin Moore's Gray Horse. I wrote a little post on the paint we chose - Natura. Turns out it is awesome! It has no smell to it at all, and since it is chemical free, I could even help paint the nursery. For the trim and windows, we chose Ben Moore's White Dove. It is white with just a hint of tan to it, although it looks very white in person. We also painted the ceilings and the closet a basic white to freshen everything up. We are big Benjamin Moore fans now and plan on using it throughout.

I am going to wait to show you the total picture when we are finished (which should be very soon!), but here are a few accessories we've picked out for the nursery.

The first is the rug... this was a tough one. In fact, we even lived with a rug from Capel Rugs in there for a day before deciding that it wasn't what we wanted. Finally, we decided on this one from Pottery Barn Kids in a 7 x 9 in navy.

We love the idea of gray, yellow and navy as the prominent colors for the nursery. We'll also be throwing in small amounts of green. These colors blend with our plans for the rest of the house. We liked this rug, because we thought he could grow into it. It isn't too baby, but it is still soft enough to play on and crawl around on.

Now for fabrics. I didn't want a traditional bed-in-a-bag for the crib. I relied on the efforts of my mom, who is an expert sewer to make us custom bedding for the crib. On a side note, it means a lot that she did this for us. It makes his crib so special and we can't thank her enough. For the crib skirt, we used this fabric from Ikea and I really love it!

We put it with a white crib sheet, a white super soft bumper, and a monogrammed blanket to hang over the side. It's perfect and I love it. Every night I look at his crib and I can't wait to have him in there!

Then we are using other miscellaneous Ikea fabrics for projects like an ottoman, window treatments, pillows, etc. Here are a few of those:

Next are picture frames from Ikea to brighten up the gray walls... we went with the navy, sky blue, and white.

Also, I have to say, what did I do before Etsy came along? Thanks to that website, we have found lots of cute things for P's room. Here are a few of them...

I didn't want a traditional mobile for his room, so what is more fun than these hanging from the ceiling above the crib?! For the colors, we went with white, gray and yellow. They are SO FUN and are much more interesting than a regular mobile.

We really wanted fun art to dress up the gray walls, and when I found these on etsy, I could not resist. I mean, how sweet is that?

Next up, I found this Italian alphabet poster that seemed to fit the color scheme perfectly. I love the idea of hanging this in P's room, because he has a little Italian in him and I studied Italian as a music major in college.

Some of the things I am most excited about are the very meaningful pieces we are adding to his nursery. We are hanging a piece of art that hung in Brian's nursery, family pictures, a few quotes that I have always loved, and lots of other items to make it more personal.

His closet has also gotten a huge makeover and we have some fun plans for it, since it is soooo big. I did five loads of laundry this weekend for Preston and put away all his little clothes, blankets, and burp clothes. I set up his changing table with all the stuff needed to change diapers and keep him clean :) While Brian was at the Liberty Bowl cheering on the Dawgs (pathetic game), I even put together his Little Lamb Infant Seat. It is so precious and I can see him snuggling in it.

It is all coming together so nicely and we should be done very soon so stay tuned!

35 Weeks on NYE

Preston is the size of a honeydew melon!

He is over 18 inches long and weighs around 5 and 1/4 lbs. His kidneys and liver are fully developed and working like they will outside of my belly. Most of his physical developments are complete. Now it's all about gaining weight. Here is what he looks like in there:

I had a great week and am feeling good. My blood pressure is still in the low-normal range, still haven't felt any contractions (false or real), still a little anemic, and still not getting a solid night's sleep. I am up about every 3 hours. My heartburn is not as bad (thank goodness - hope that keeps up!) Just feeling big, clumsy and awkward, but that is to be expected. From here on out, I am at the doctor every week getting "checked". This pregnancy is just flying by! We spent some of Christmas day with my family watching him move around in my belly. His movements are so big now, you can see little elbows, hands, knees and feet jabbing out just by looking at my stomach.

Speaking of Christmas day, for a child that is not even here yet, Preston was seriously spoiled by his family. Everyone from grandparents, great-grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles got him stuff. I didn't really think about this until this past weekend, but Preston is the first boy born in Brian's family since Brian! I think all the little girl cousins are excited :)

Here I am at 35 weeks:

35 down, 5 to go!

Merry Christmas from the Fields Fam

As we prepare to welcome
our little blessing in early February,
we wish you many blessings for the Christmas season
and 2011.

Thanks to Candice Tate for the beautiful photos :)

34 Weeks on Christmas Eve

Preston is the size of a cantaloupe at 34 weeks!

This week, he is weighing in at 4 and 3/4 lbs and is almost 18 inches long. His fat layers are filling out, making him rounder. His nervous system and lungs are maturing. He is still sooo active! I went to the doctor this week and he is measuring right on track and had a heartbeat in the 150s! The BEST part of the appointment was when she went to hear his heartbeat, she put the wand on my belly and suddenly, Preston got the hiccups! So we heard WOMP, WOMP, HICCUP! WOMP, WOMP, HICCUP! You could actually HEAR him hiccup. It was so cool and made us all laugh. I was so glad Brian was there to hear it. Preston feels so big in my stomach, like he has absolutely no room in there at all. I even had the doctor double check that he was normal size... haha! I am sure that is a total first-time mom thing. All his jabs and pokes to my ribs really made me think he was bigger in there. I was happy to hear he is right on track though :)

This week, I'm feeling pretty good. Just growing! Still doing well with the weight gain at 22 lbs so far. Also, no stretch marks at all so far (thank goodness!) Putting on socks and shoes is hard! I envy summer pregnancies where women get to wear flip flops everyday! But then you would have to deal with the heat, which would be no fun (especially with my swelling issues!) People always ask me, "Are you ready for him to be here???" I am excited to meet him, but am perfectly happy if he stays in there a little while longer :) It would be nice for him to grow a little bit bigger and for Brian and I to prepare a little bit more.

Here I am at 34 weeks:

34 down, 6 to go!! (Wow, only 6?!?!)