week twenty-nine

It appears the nesting continues!! This week I attacked our bedroom with a mini-makeover, including a freshly painted wall, new frames on the wall, and tons of florals and sweet smelling candles. 

When the baby comes, I'm sure I'll be spending a lot of time in this room…taking in naps wherever I can get them. And for those first few weeks the baby will be in a bassinet beside our bed. This room needed to be spruced up in time for his arrival :)

The frames are UP in the nursery!! There are still 2 more holes from previous frames that I need to figure out how to cover up…and then I can finally start filling them with photos!

I've designed a few prints in Illustrator, and I'm planning on using a couple maternity photos once we shoot them in March. 

ALSO…the crib bedding came in the mail today! SO happy with Olive & Andrew as a company -- everything was packed beautifully and it came much quicker than expected. 

A closeup of the beautiful pattern… look familiar?

In other news, here's a photo of the food that I'm craving like CRAZY lately: homemade apple oatmeal with a few chocolate chips thrown in for good measure. 

HEAVEN!

i can feel it all coming together...

This little bought of third-trimester energy has me crossing off things on the pre-baby-to-do list :)

Things like:

• start reading the "baby's first year" book, now that I'm done the "when you're expecting" one.
• buy a stroller.
• choose a carseat. 

Here's a photo of my bedside reading buddy:

Our stroller and car seat are very "top-of-the-line," and everyone seems to feel confident in our decisions, which helps :)

I couldn't contain my excitement when I got the stroller home yesterday and I immediately put it together. Hey, if a pregnant girl can assemble this thing, it deserves all 5 stars. Every time I walk downstairs I push it around a little bit haha…it reminds me of how excited I was when we bought my wedding band, knowing I couldn't wear it for a few months!

I had my 28 week ultrasound yesterday and my Mom joined me for it! I was so excited when we saw the face pop up on the screen :) Look at those chubby cheeks! 

The ultrasound tech said it looked like he was frowning because of all her poking around.

As usual, we saw the baby's feet up by his head (and he even had the toes in his mouth at one point!). Our little yoga baby.

The kicking I feel is definitely getting intense as the space becomes limited, but it's so enjoyable to feel those little arms and legs moving around all the time. Except sometimes it feels like he's kicking right on a muscle so it kind of has a spasm effect. It's not painful or even uncomfortable, but I make weird faces when it happens. 

Now that we're less than 3 months away, I feel like I need to make a massive to-do list to keep track of everything. 

I'm sure I've said this a hundred times, but I'm so thankful to not be working during this time (and not just because I can make massive sandwiches for lunch whenever I please…).

P.S. I'll leave with you this fun thought: Queen Latifah and I probably share a bra size now. At least, that's how it feels.

week twenty-eight

Week twenty-eight…which marks the arrival of the THIRD TRIMESTER!

So far, it has brought me:

• really, really, really intense fatigue. 
• hunger. soooo much hunger.
• extreme and unquenchable thirst.
• another burst of nesting (that is, when I'm not sleeping…)

I've finally finished the frame collection for the wall above the crib, and today I sat down in the nursery to lay it all out. Now that I know the sizes, I'm excited to design the prints to fill them!

I also found some very adorable baskets from Home Sense for the closet shelves. Those little chalkboard signs will eventually read things like: toys, blankets, etc.

This little plane is also from Home Sense, and I'm thinking I might design a print that's similar :) Our little adventurous boy!

I also found a GIANT chalkboard for above the changing table, but it needs a little TLC, so that's the new project :) But this is what I'm using as my inspiration:

That photo of adorable Henry has been floating around in my mind ALL YEARRRR. 

ALSO, we bought a glider yesterday!!! My dear mother-in-law told us about a one-day 50% off online-only sale, which made for an easy decision:

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting with Cat from Cake Whisperer to chat about the cake for the baby shower…eeee!!! She has such a gift, and I'm confident that whatever she comes up with will be just fabulous. My only words of caution for her: no typical baby themed stuff. She gets me.

Less than three months until it's BABY TIME! I'm getting really excited now :)

hello baby belly! (& pregnancy dreams)

I've popped!

At least I think that's what it's called… All I know is that suddenly I look SUPER pregnant. It happened about a week ago and my husband is very excited about it :) It certainly helps make everything seem real finally!

I even have this amazing waddle going on some days…

As far as what else is new and interesting:

• The kicking is getting STRONGER, and while I was taking a breather and watching some House of Cards on Netflix the other day, I saw my belly move! 
• Flipping over in the night is getting more and more difficult, which basically just means I find a position and stay there until morning.
• Pregnancy dreams are getting SCARY-REAL.

Let me take a minute to emphasize that last bullet point… because honestly, pregnancy dreams are CRAZY! They are so vivid and it becomes hard to differentiate them from real life.

Here's one from last week that had me waking up almost in tears:

I was standing in a church with our families and Ryan, minutes from

getting married. The ceremony started, and I could see Ryan's

anxiety level going up by the second. He started getting really hot

and took off his jacket AND his dress shirt, so he was just standing there

in a t-shirt, super sweaty. 

Apparently I took this as a sign that we shouldn't get married and

I called off the wedding…

Flash forward to a year later, I'm driving in a car with the window down, 

hair blowing, alongside the perfect soundtrack 

(again, this WHOLE dream felt (and looked) like a movie…), 

in the middle of nowhere. I pull up to this beautiful cottage home and, as if

 I were Rachel McAdams in The Notebook, I knew immediately that this was

 the dream house I told Ryan about back when we were together. 

He had built this beautiful home in the year after I left him at the altar.

How much more Nicholas Sparks does it get, really…

I spent the next little while exploring the beautiful deck and eventually 

went into the house to see that everything was more or less finished, 

except it wasn't furnished. As I explored the basement, I heard a noise upstairs

 and when I came up I saw Ryan standing in the kitchen with his back to me.

I said "babe…"

He turned and just looked at me in shock. 

Before he said anything, Andrew came in and said "what the hell are you 

doing here?" He was obviously super pissed at me for what 

I did to his best friend. But what makes this really adorable is that it was clear
that Andrew moved in with Ry after the wedding drama went down and took
they both quit their day jobs to build this house. 
What a bro.

I said "I'm back," never really taking my eyes off Ryan.

Andrew told me I needed to leave and literally tried to escort me out the door,
but Ryan said if I came back for breakfast tomorrow morning, we could talk. 

Sad movie-music played while I drove home. 
Not knowing how our talk tomorrow would go... 

I woke up convinced that a) I was single. b) I had ruined the best thing in my life. and c) Andrew was super mad at me. 

I'm not kidding, I had tears in my eyes while Ryan showered and I had to convince myself that that wasn't my life…that I hadn't backed out of our wedding and that thankfully, reality was all happiness and rainbows. 

I only wish I could show you how dramatic this dream was, and also how beautiful everything looked… I've obviously chosen a fabulous director for my pregnancy dreams! 

Also, ever since that dream I've pictured Ryan as this super-handy house builder man. Apparently all that's standing in the way of his construction-genius is our relationship. Now I joke with him that he should just build our next home because he obviously knows how… 

P.S. Here's the finished baby shower invitation! To see more photos click here :)

a sneak peek at the shower invitations…!

I've been busy :)

On my business blog, I posted about how I was struggling to make the transition between 2013 and 2014, and apparently all I needed to do was admit this and put it into words -- because my days have been bright and productive ever since!

It helps that my sickness is 99% out the door (the 1% being a little cough that only really comes out at night).

Firstly, I found the perfect crib bedding! It will be about 3 weeks before they're in my arms but I have time :)

And secondly, I've finished the baby shower invitations! They're all bundled up and waiting for the mailbox today…eeeee!!!

These two items are certainly related because the pattern I chose for the bedding became my inspiration for the invitation suite, and now I feel like I have a concrete colour scheme for the nursery. It all kind of fell into my lap and I'm thrilled. PLUS, like I've said before, it's bright & cheery which will make a certain member of my household very happy!

Take a look at the fabric:

And here's a little sneak peek at the design I made in Illustrator for the invitations…!

I took some pretty photographs of the finished invitations today before packing them up, and I'll share those once I am certain everyone has received theirs in the mail. Because there's nothing better than surprise snail mail!!!

I am off to a great start when it comes to achieving balance in 2014 :)

week twenty-five

PROGRESS!!

Huuuuge progress :)

In the last week, we've knocked off some major things on the to-do list, including registering at Baby's R Us, buying the furniture for the nursery, AND putting it together. Boom!!

What started out as a box quickly turned into a fully assembled crib thanks to a handy husband :)

Things we've learned:

Babies need lots of things.

Unfortunately most things come in green, not blue.

Expensive strollers are expensive for a reason.

Expensive receiving blankets are not.

Walking around a store with a scanning gun is dangerous stuff.

Sometimes IKEA is cheaper than trying to build it yourself.

As for the part about me growing a baby inside my body, things are starting to get real. 

A little update:

Apparently I have become one of those people who lies awake at night and listens to a ticking clock. Just months ago I wouldn't have been able to relate to that in the slightest, but I find myself awake at night with eyes that are adjusted to the dark and a hand on my stomach to feel the kicks. 

Thank goodness the baby kicks too, because without that I'd be forced to go downstairs and watch TV for entertainment. Instead, I'm slowly put back to sleep with happy thoughts of those little arms and legs :) 

I've been super sick. And being pregnant while you're sick is really just the icing on the cake. This has made me aware that not-pregnant-Laura is almost always heavily medicated during a cold or flu. 

My normal recipe: a strong cup of NeoCitran, two Tylenol Cold n' Flu, Vick's for my nose, Halls for my throat, and maybe even a muscle relaxant if I'm feeling particularly achy. 

My pregnancy recipe: one Tylenol (ONE?!) and 8 days of solidly doing nothing at all. Much less fun than the party version. 

Remember I said I was becoming intensely emotional as of late and that it was probably becoming annoying to my husband? Well the Universe has his back because for about a day and a half during my sickness I could only communicate by whispering (and even then it was painful), or the Speak-For-Me app on my phone (voiced by a lovely robot lady with a slightly sassy attitude). 

Upcoming doctor stuff:

I have to take a 2-hour glucose test sometime this week (mmm, cue the cravings for sugary orange "drink"), plus a regular checkup at 27 weeks, and another ultrasound at 28. 

How do people go through pregnancy while maintaining a job? I'm confused. 

Currently excited for:

Decorating the nursery -- it's in that amazing state where all the big stuff is in and it's ready for little details!
Working on an invitation to the baby shower in February.
Prepping for maternity photos in March.
2014 in general!

A few photos from Christmas in Barrie…

I've noticed that 99% of the photos I took over the Christmas holidays were of the little dog…largely because he sticks pretty close to me when I'm sick. 

I am on the hunt for the perfect crib bedding now, as well as a glider for the nursery… As for the bedding, I think I might surprise everyone with my bright and cheery choice for fabric (you just wait!).

That's all for now! Ry starts a new job tomorrow and that's when life will officially get back to normal. It's been SO long since I've done things like iron his shirts and make his lunch, and I'm ready for that routine to resume.

Christmas, you've been fun…but real life is way better :)