36 Weeks!

As of today, I am 36 weeks pregnant! Oh.....my.....goodness! We are SO very close! Pregnant friends are starting to give birth to their babies or are within weeks or days of giving birth. This is getting very real folks!

As of 36 weeks, Baby J now weighs almost 6 pounds and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. He is contuining to pack on the pounds at the rate of about an ounce a day. He's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered his body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected his skin during his nine-month amniotic bath. Baby J will end up swallowing both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, which will form the contents of his first bowel movement. Fun times, lol!

At the end of this week, Baby J will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.) Woohoo! This is such great news! As long as he stays in there for another week, he will have all his sprinkles and shouldn't require any additional treatment after birth. He is currently in a head-down position, which he has been in for quite some time, so I feel very lucky that additional coaxing will not be needed for Baby J.

Now that Baby J is taking up so much room, I seem to be having trouble eating a normal size meal. I ate an entire chicken biscuit (please note that this is not something difficult to do) from Chick-fil-A this past Friday morning and I felt sick afterwards, ugh! If I do eat a normal size meal, I definitely feel the consequences which usually includes a lot of heartburn and acid reflux, yuck! I am looking forward to the day when Baby J drops a little lower and allows me to breathe easier and have less heartburn. There is a downside though, that will only mean more frequent trips to the restroom.

He keeps growing and growing and growing......as do I!

Say hello to my little friend!

Chris mentioned tonight that he thought he had gained some weight, so he suggested that we include his updated belly pic. I think he's gotten skinnier!

Why didn't we think of this?

Baby Shower at the Tea Room

My wonderful Aunt Jan, cousin Kristen and her two girls, Kallan and Marin, threw Baby J and I an extremely fun baby shower this past weekend. They hosted the shower at the Victorian Tea Room in downtown Rome. I have never been to a tea room before, so I was unsure as to what to expect. I do know that my grandmother Jo loves tea rooms, so I knew it would be a lot of fun.

The shower started out with all of us sitting down to eat lots of yummy foods and sample many tea flavors. Some of the tea was good, like the hot chocolate strawberry and some were not so good, like the peach iced tea. Everyone seemed to enjoy the tea party and I was exceptionally thrilled at how much fun it was.

After stuffing ourselves with all the yummy treats and teas, it was time to open the many generous gifts for Baby J. Baby J gots lots of fun stuff at the shower on Saturday, things that I know we will get a lot of good use out of once he arrives.

Thanks to everyone who made it to the shower on Saturday and thanks to Jan, Kristen, Kallan and Marin for hosting and planning! It was so great seeing everyone! Thank you also for your extremely generous gifts. Chris, Baby J, and I sincerely appreciate it! What would we do without such wonderful people in our lives!!!

Me, with the awesome hostesses!

Marin, Kallan and Me

All the ladies enjoying their yummy treats and teas!

And more ladies enjoying the tea party!

Admiring the cute outfit for Baby J

Spit Happens? Yeah right, not from my baby, lol!

Baby J's Georgia Tech pacifier, so cute!

Our first package of diapers.....oh, how we will go through so many of these!

Baby J's Pebble Peach t-shirt, my brother Marc is SO jealous!

Playing dress-up with Holly, Marin and Kallan

My Mom and I

Allison Eubanks and I, she is due just a short month after me. I know our little boys will be great friends!

35 Weeks

As of today, I am 35 weeks pregnant! Now that his room is nearing completion, the short five weeks remaining until we meet Baby J don't seem so scary. I am sure Chris and I will have everything prepared in plenty of time before his arrival.

At 35 weeks, Baby J is approximately 18 inches long and weighs about 5 1/4 pounds. Because it's so snug in my stomach, he isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times he kicks should remain about the same. I have to admit that while he hasn't been killing me with cross body movements recently, he is still extremely active when he is awake. His kidneys are fully developed now and his liver can process some waste products. Most of his basic physical development is now complete, so he'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.

Thanks to everyone who voted on the name poll for Baby J! Reed was the winner with 14 votes, followed by Will and Avery with 10 votes and Chase with 9 votes. We continue to waiver on what Baby J's name will be, but we sincerely appreciate your input! We will take it into serious consideration.

The belly with Baby J's crib!

Baby J's Room

After the mishap last week of discovering that the changing table and crib mattress had been accidentally sent to Cambridge, Chris and I decided to hold off on putting together the crib that we had ordered. We were also iffy as to whether or not the crib and changing table would be the same color, since we were expecting the changing table to be more white than the antique white of the crib. We received the changing table and mattress on Friday and to our surprise the colors matched perfectly. We were thinking that we might end up taking the crib back and keeping the changing table because we wanted furniture to be white-white instead of off-white. After seeing that they were the same color, we decided to give the antique white a chance and it turned out looking perfectly.

We had our good friends the McWhorters over for dinner on Friday night and after that we just couldn't wait to put together Baby J's crib and changing table. We (I supervised) spent a few hours putting everything together. It honestly wasn't that bad. I can say that, even though I didn't help very much, because Chris never got frustrated putting it together. I am sure part of the lack of frustration came from the excitement that we both felt as he constructed the bed our baby will be sleeping in, in just a few weeks.

Chris chipping for the last time in Baby J's room. I am guessing that he will do his best to figure out how to continue his practicing in Baby J's room....I am just hoping he manages to stay clear of the crib and changing table.

Just getting started......

Taking extra care with the piece that will hold our baby boy!

We had to get a picture of me pretending to do something, lol!

The changing table was super easy, so Chris was relieved. It only took about 10 or 15 minutes to put together.

After we got the crib together, we couldn't resist putting Baby J's bedding on the crib to see how it would look. Turns out that the antique white really does not matter at all. It looks great with the bedding that we picked out that is mostly white. Baby J's room is slowly but surely coming together now that we have the crib and changing table. All we lack is a glider, rug and maybe a small table for a lamp and we should be good to go. See below for Baby J's transportation themed bedding!

Chris with the finished product! So proud!

Me with the finished product

Close-up picture of bedding. It's so cute!

And, the interior of the crib. We can't wait to lay our baby boy down to sleep in here for the first time!

The changing table! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Chris imagining changing his first dirty diaper. He is SO looking forward to it!

The best pic we can get of his whole room. It is still a little blah right now, but it will get there!

34 Weeks

As of today, I am 34 weeks pregnant! Baby J has already had a good two weeks to put on the sprinkles to his cake and frosting. This means that he is just continuing to get prepared for his life outside of my belly and the longer that he stays in there, the better off he will be when he arrives. With only approximately 6 weeks until his arrival, he will be busy gaining weight and strengthening his lungs while Chris and I will be trying to get his nursery in order and ready for him.

As of 34 weeks, Baby J now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds and is almost 18 inches long. Babycenter.com relates Baby J's weight to your average cantaloupe. So, if you're in the grocery store in the next few days, pick one up and imagine what I am carrying around, lol!

His fat layers are filling him out and making him rounder. These layers will help to regulate his body temperature once he's born. His skin is smoother than ever and his central nervous system and lungs are continuing to mature. Babycenter.com reassures us that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies. That is such great news! I still have my fingers crossed that he stays in there for longer than 37 weeks. We want him to be as fully cooked as possible!

Babycenter.com says that the fatigue that I had in the first trimester should start to set in this week. I have to admit that I have definitely been a little more tired and irritable than usual. I feel like I am really turning into a normal pregnant woman now with the uncontrollable crying and the emotional outbreaks. I am sure Chris doesn't appreciate it very much and I am doing my best to control it, but it is hard. I am sure he is just thankful that it hasn't lasted for the last 34 weeks!

I am also having major pregnancy brain issues. For starters, I made an appointment with my new doctor when we were still living in Boston. I had been telling everyone that it was the 14th of July, but I opened my calendar Sunday night and it said that my appointment was on the 13th. Yikes, a Monday morning appointment with no way to confirm it. So, Chris and I had to both get up on Monday morning in time for me to take Chris to work and then make it to my appointment by 8:40. I got there, and, of course, with my luck, the appointment is Tuesday at 8:40. Fun times! Chris and I will have to do the same routine tomorrow, ugh!

A much bigger deal than the doctor's appointment being on a different day, I completely forgot to change our address on our Pottery Barn Kids registry. With the move and everything else that we've had going on, I didn't even think about it. I called my mom today to check on a few items that she had purchased and had shipped to me to see if I could track it to see when they would arrive. As soon as she opened the email, she gasped when she saw that it was being shipped to our place in Cambridge. YIKES! It was scheduled to be delivered today. I quickly called Pottery Barn Kids who intercepted the packages and said that they would resend replacement items to our correct address. Thank goodness it wasn't delivered there! I don't know what we would do.

Unfortunately, there are 3 additional items that have been purchased from PBK that we haven't received yet, which I hope have not been shipped to us. If you did purchase something from PBK before today and had it sent directly to us, please send me an email at mb_hardeman@yahoo.com and we will find your gift! Thankfully, we still have friends in Boston and there are also new tenants in our place that I am sure wouldn't mind forwarding our packages. Again, I apologize if your gift is one of those, it truly is the result of pregnancy brain!

Week 34 belly pics taken at the end of a very long pregnancy brain dominated day!

Atlanta Baby Shower

Our awesome Atlanta friends threw us a Baby Shower this past Saturday that included good food and good times with friends that we hadn't seen in quite some time. It was so nice to be able to hang out with all of them for the first time since moving back to Atlanta. Chris and I are so incredibly grateful to have such great friends here!

We received wonderful, wonderful gifts for Baby J! We honestly aren't sure that we need anything else. Of course, there are a few things we need for him, but we are so much more comfortable about his impending birth after we received such great gifts on Saturday. We received lots of great clothing, bathing and feeding supplies for Baby J along with a super soft blanket, boppy cover, and changing table cover and too cute stuffed animal. I could go on and on with the gifts that we received for Baby J! Our friends were way too generous! Baby J is going to be so spoiled. Chris did receive a koozie that said "What should I know? I am just the Dad!". Too cute! And, I received a wine glass from Swoozies painted with "Mommy's Sippy Cup". I can't wait to use it!

A big thanks goes out to Adam and Elizabeth for hosting the baby shower and cookout at their home and for the girls who helped plan the shower. Thank you, thank you, thank you! You all are the best!

All the Girls (Jessica, Elizabeth, Amanda, Leanne, Me, Rachel and Laura), thanks so much for the great shower! There were a few significant others at the shower too, but they weren't too keen on having their picture made. Thanks to the guys too, Chris R., Robert, Andy, and Adam.

Lots of goodies for Baby J, including an I'm Bananas blankie with a monkey on the top! I did give Chris the honors of opening the gifts since this will be the only shower he will attend. I think he enjoyed it!

A diaper caddy, so that I don't have to trek up and down the stairs everytime Baby J needs to have his diaper changed. Chris wasn't sure what it was, so I had to explain.

Extremely soft stuff from PBK. Chris and I are considering using the blanket for ourselves. LOL! Just kidding!

Look how cute the towel is that I am holding. Baby J is going to be so cute in it!

Laura with the Wee Block, so that Baby J hopefully never sprays us when we are changing his diaper, haha!

Samson sitting in Jessica's lap, too funny!

Baby J's bathtub!

Be amazed, my friend Jessica made this cake herself! I am so impressed! It was just perfect and tasted wonderful!

Forgot to take a pic of the booties until after we cut into the cake. Look at the little J's, so cute!

Chris trying to get Baby J to be active. We tried and tried for most of the night, but I think he had stage fright. I am sure he will be moving around plenty for them in about 6 weeks or so!

33 Weeks

As of yesterday, I am 33 weeks pregnant! The 33rd week of the pregnancy has included Chris and I doing a little relaxing, a little working and a lot of time spent trying to get settled in our new place. It is finally starting to feel like home thanks to Chris who has done the majority of the unpacking. My mom also came down yesterday to help get our place in order. We were so greatful and so is Baby J! He and I got to relax while she worked.

At 33 weeks, Baby J weighs just over 4 pounds and has passed the 17 inch mark. He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, which will make it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. This is why a lot of babies have a conehead-like appearance following birth. Thankfully, this won't be permanent and his head will move back to a more normal shape. Did you know that the bones don't entirely fuse togoether until early adulthood, allowing them to grow as the brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood? I had no idea. That's pretty interesting.

Enjoy the 33 week belly pics below!

I am so excited that I can still wear my comfy grey t-shirt!

I guess I can post these every week now that I've put the belly out there.

And.....I am really brave now! Chris randomly got this pic during our belly pic photo session. I thought it was sweet!