Baby Shower #1

Chris & I traveled back to Durham a few weekend ago for my Fall Break.
It was so wonderful to see our Durham friends again!

My sweet Bible Study girls hosted our 1st baby shower for baby Tarr.
We had such a great time!!! Karen prepared yummy spinach artichoke dip, chocolate covered strawberries, hummus & veggies, and adorable cupcakes!
Our dear friends blessed us with so many wonderful gifts...
hats, bibs, 2 BumGenius cloth diapers (:-)), red baskets for baby Tarr's bookshelf, toys, pacifiers, dishwasher baskets, bottle brushes, burp cloths, some very adorable outfits, a changing pad, hooded towels & bathcloths, a bath robe, a bath thermometer, and Dr. Seuss books.

We feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends!!!

announcement cake

Again, better late than never!

Cheri was so kind to make the most precious cake for us to share baby Tarr's gender with Chris' family.

She went so far above & beyond what I asked for, & I could not have imagined a cuter cake!

Chris' dad cut the cake revealing the blue cake & our fun secret!

at last!

I know it's taken a few months to get these up, but here are a couple of our gender ultrasound pictures. They're scanned in & slightly crooked, but I couldn't resist posting them anyway.

No matter how many times I look at them, I just can't get enough of the little glimpses of our little man.

We're so looking forward to our 28-week ultrasound so we can get another chance to see the little guy! (just over 2 more weeks away!)

busy, busy boy

Our little one is definitely a busy, busy boy!

I have been able to feel him moving for several weeks now.
At first it was just little flutters (a friend described it to me like what it might feel like if you had swallowed a goldfish...pretty accurate, although I've never swallowed one!).
Now, I'm feeling much more distinct movements & at times I'm pretty sure he's kicking me.
I so love being able to feel him moving around!

At 23 weeks, our little guy measures almost 12 inches long & weighs closes to 1.5 pounds.

It's hard to believe that we're over 1/2 way there. I have a feeling the next 19 weeks are going to fly by!

The registries.

Alas, we have registered for baby gifts!

Saturday night we went to Babies R Us & had a blast selecting some sweet things for our little man.
After that 2 hour experience, Chris was pretty much over registering, so he left the Target registry up to me. I had to run to Target this morning so I registered while I was there.

We have decided to use cloth diapers (more on that later) so we also created an online registry/wish-list @ Diaperjunction.com. Should you wish to view our registry there, the password is 'diapers'.

We have some showers fast approaching...sooo exciting!!!

The bedding.

Alas, I'm finally back to the blogging world. Working, along with moving & getting settled has definitely been consuming all of my time for the last few weeks.

I have quite a bit of catching up to do as are quite busy planning for the arrival of our little man.

I have officially decided on this crib bedding...I love it!
I'm hoping to order it this weekend so we should have it very soon...can't wait for it to get here!

It's a...

.................................................B-O-Y!!!!

I am nearly 2 weeks delayed in posting the news (so everyone already knows), but our little one is a boy!!!

Our ultrasound was great & it was so fun and amazing to see our litte man up close & personal. We could see him moving his hands & feet around which was so amazingly wonderful!!!
He had his legs crossed to start with so I was quite nervous that we would leave without knowing his gender. He didn't disappoint though & decided to uncross his legs revealing the evidence of who he is!

We have spent the last week moving to our new place so things are quite hectic.
We will have internet access again tomorrow so I can then upload some ultrasound pictures & pictures from our gender reveal with Chris' family (super fun!).

We're hoping to be settled into our new home by the start of next week so then we can shift our focus back to officially deciding on a name for our little man.
The painter came on Saturday (in the midst of us moving furniture) to paint the nursery. I am so happy with how it turned out.
I have the bedding picked out (pics to come) and we're thinking of starting furniture shopping in the next couple of weeks.

I love planning for our little man's arrival!!!

Staff Scientist extroirdinaire!!!

Chris' boss offered him a full-time permanent position at Vanderbilt as a Drug Discovery Staff Scientist!!!

He accepted the position willingly, and we are soooo excited!
We had planned on him having one more year of funding for his post-doctoral fellowship & then the rest was up in the air.

We feel so blessed and know that the timing could not have been any more ideal.
This position pays more, has better benefits, and will give us the stability we have been longing for.
Nashville is officially our home for a while to come!

I'm so proud of my man & all of his hard work.

new clothes!

Our little one is rapidly growing as evidenced by my rapidly growing baby bump!

This means I can no longer comfortably wear many of my pre-pregnancy clothes.

Thanks to Lyndsey I have a wonderful selection of lovely maternity clothes!!!

I feel so fortunate that I don't have to go out & spend hundreds of dollars on furnishing a wardrobe appropriate for work & downtime.

I have supplemented my new wardrobe with a few pieces that I'm quite excited about...

*A $5 pair of jean crop pants from Target (sooo comfortable)-I picked them up a few weeks ago on the 70% off clearance rack & then got another 30% off that!

*A $13 purple knit dress, also from the clearance rack at Target...it's wonderfully comfortable.

*I ordered a pair of black leggings from Old Navy for the fall. Less than $10!

*Today I splurged a bit...I saw this dress at Gap.com & just loved it. I got 30% off & free shipping, so all in total it was $41. I figure I can wear it to work, to church, and perhaps to a baby shower so it will get plenty of use! (That's atleast how I justified adding it to my wardrobe)

I'll probably add a few more pieces here & there but am pretty much set for the next 5 months!

choices, choices...

We've taken a bit of time lately to start researching baby gear and trying to decide what we like, what we think we need, and what we think we can live without.

I am totally overwhelmed at times by the number of baby products out there. There are just so many choices & so much stuff.

So, we started doing our research with the most important things that we know we will have to buy.

Travel System
Just like everything else, there are so many carseat & stroller options to choose from.

We did our research on safety ratings and were able to narrow down the list quite a bit.

This Chicco Midori travel system is our #1 pick.

It gets great ratings for safety, will hold an infant up to 30 lbs., and I love that it is neutral & not too busy.

Friends of ours that have used Chicco travel systems with their children also recommended them highly to us.

Cribs

I have only looked at cribs online and am anxious to start looking at cribs in stores.

So far, I have 2 favorites and they are obviously quite different in style.

I do know that whatever style we choose, I want a dark wood tone.

Other furniture

The nursery is a small room and I do not want it to feel cluttered, so I want to limit the furniture in the room to the crib, a dresser (doubling as a changing table), and a glider rocker.

I have only looked at dressers online & haven't found anything I love.

I think it may be the hardest piece of furniture for me to settle on.

I haven't looked at all into glider rockers, but I know I want one!

I can't wait to rock, sing, & read to our little one while gliding away.

Swing

Maybe our baby will love a swing, maybe not.

But, I want our baby to atleast have a swing.

I first saw this Fisher Price Snug-a-Bunny swing in a pregnancy magazine they gave me at the OB's office on our first visit.

I immediately knew that it was the swing for our little one.

I look at it everytime I go to Target & fall more in love with it every time.

It is super soft & cozy and the bird mobile is simply precious!

It is a bit large, but our new living room is pretty spacious so it should be ok.

Obviously, we have so many other choices to make, but we've atleast started the process and it's been so fun!!!

I welcome all suggestions from my experienced friends on what "stuff" you used & what "stuff" you found you maybe could have lived without.

what i do know...

Only 13 days until we will hopefully find out the identify of our sweet little baby T... I can't wait!!!

While I obviously don't know if baby T is a boy or a girl, I do know...

I have had 3 dreams in the last several months that baby T is a girl,

I've always imagined having a house full of little boys, but now all I can think about is dressing up sweet little girls,

If you believe old wives tales, baby T's heart rate at our last visit was in the 150s=girl!,

If baby T is a boy, he has name already!,

If baby T is a girl, we have some serious work to do on the name front,

Regardless of baby T's gender, he or she is already sooo loved!!!

a new place...

We've been thinking about moving into a new rental house for months now, even before we knew baby T was on the way.
With news of our growing family, we knew we needed to move somewhere with more space.

We have secured a rental house in a neighborhood (Crieve Hall) that we love.
It's an older, established neighborhood but has a beautiful mix of older couples and new families.
It reminds us a bit of where we lived in Durham.

We can start moving in on the 23rd of August & don't have to move out of this house until the 21st of September.
So, it will be a slow move-in process but it will work out well in that I'll hopefully have time to get some things unpacked & put away gradually rather than being overwhelmed in having to do it all at once.

Our new house...
is a brick, single-story,
has 3 bedrooms (a master, a nursery, & a guest room...yeah!!!),
has 1 bathroom (we were hoping for 2, but we've managed with 1 for this year so we can do it!),
has a patio & a fenced in back-yard,
has a nice kitchen, a dining room, a large living room,
has plenty of closet space (hooray!!!),
is 10-15 minutes from Belmont & Vanderbilt,
and is convenient to the best shopping in Nashville!

I don't have any pictures of the house yet but will definitely get some posted once we get moved & settled in.

The owner has been kind enough to allow us to arrange for the nursery to be painted.
It is currently a horrible shade of blue (not deep enough to be masculine, yet too blue to be girly).
We've settled on a nice shade of taupe (desert fortress) for the walls.
It will be nice & neutral & will work for a baby boy or girl.
I won't get tired of it too quickly (which I think I would if it was pink or blue).
The focus of the nursery will be not the color of the walls, but the colors I plan to bring into the space in the bedding and the decor.

I'm just so excited that we'll have a space specifically for baby T!!!
I can't wait to get busy decorating that space...

28 is going to be great!

Yesterday I celebrated my 28th birthday (crazy!!!)...

I enjoyed a pretty uneventful day with phone calls from family & friends, lots of sweet cards, and a nice evening out to dinner & a movie with my man!

Chris is cooking birthday dinner (round #2) at home tonight so that's another special treat I'm looking forward to.

I also have a bit of birthday cash to look forward to spending on a few new things to fix up our house after we get settled in there, perhaps a new outfit or two, and of course things for baby T's nursery!!!

Year 28 is definitely going to be a year of exciting change for us...can't wait!!!

documenting it all...

Since seeing out little one at the first ultrasound (I may have been slightly in denial prior to this), I have been determined to document the details of my pregnancy and our preparation for baby T.

Besides my blog, I have several fun ways to keep up with all of the fun and exciting details of this time in our lives!

Courtesy of Dr. Driver's office, I have a Smart Mom Planner where I record details of each appointment, jot questions for future appointments, draft a birth plan, and learn a little about what baby T is up to in there.

I wanted a pregnancy journal, but opted for one with mostly blank pages augmented with quotes, verses, and poems about pregnancy and children rather than one that has a week-by-week look at pregnancy (courtesy of Lyndsey, I have every imaginable book to explain that already). I bought "Before your Birth Day: A Pregnancy Journal". I love it. I'm sure that I write random things, but I try to write about my/our feelings, our conversations about baby T, making plans for our little one, and more.
Once we know if baby T is a boy or a girl, I want to pick out a baby book so I can document all the firsts & fun things that will go with watching our little one grow.
I have my eye on a couple of options...
Love this one for a girl...I love, love the bird theme! (Pepperpot Nest Baby Record Book)
This one has some great pages in it & again I love the bird theme! (Emma by C.R. Gibson)

And for a boy...
I love, love the pages in the book (atleast from what I can see online) (Baby Boy Dots by Penny Laine).
My 2nd favorite option for a boy (Sweet Pea by Anna Griffin)

It's so fun to document all of this excitement...

had to have it!

Well,

I had been really good about not buying anything for baby T until we find out our little one's gender...

until today!

I'm in love with Zulily...if you don' t know about it, definitely check it out!

Basically, they offer daily deals on children's books, toys, clothing, accessories and usually they toss in deals on maternity wear & chic things for moms.

Today they featured a deal on super cute gowns and playsuits from Parade Organics, an eco-friendly, fair trade company.

When I saw the brown & orange gown with a printed star & the words "star baby" I knew that I had to have it!

Starr is the nickname my Duke friends gave me years ago, and it's just stuck with me!

Several of them have already commented about a star(r) baby being on the way, so this gown is perfect.

Of course, I would have loved to have bought either something blue or pink, but not just yet...hopefully less than 3 weeks & we can start buying one or the other!!!