3rd Trimester!!

Excited to announce… I am officially in the 3^rd trimester!! Hooray!  How does that make me feel?  I am soooo excited and yet nervous at the same time.  Mainly nervous because… uhh… have you seen the world we live in?  There are a bunch of crazies in it! Long gone are the days we can let our kids play around the neighborhood for hours at a time without worrying about a creeper trying to kidnap them or stalk them. Granted, we live in a good area, but these days call for us having to have our guard up at all times.  Also, working with the youth in our church, I get to hear stories of the things they see and experience at schools. It’s shocking to me.  There is so much pressure on parents to make sure their children are raised to be strong enough to stand against things and not join in simply because it’s the ‘thing to do’.  Luckily, I also get to see the youth do just that and so that gives me hope that even though it will be tough, it can be done.  Christian and I will work hard to make sure Aria is taught the necessary things to help her get through the trials she will face.  And I also just have to come to terms with the fact that we will fail at times and she will fail at times and it’s… ok. J 

Ok… sorry.  Didn’t mean to get so serious there.  Let’s go back to 3^rd trimester talk!  So with only 12 weeks to go, there are lots of fun ‘to do’ items.  We will be meeting with Aria’s pediatrician, taking a child birth class, getting hospital bags ready, creating any birthing plans we may have, finishing up the nursery (more on this in a minute), getting things set up for maternity leave, mastering a waddle and a few other things.  Home stretch people!  I continue to keep super busy with things so time is just flying by. My bump isn’t really a ‘bump’ anymore.  It’s just a big belly.  Lots of people are commenting on how big it’s getting too.  I promise that doesn’t hurt my feelings.  It’s a part of the process and I proudly own the belly growth.  It just means my little one is growing and getting ready for her debut.   

Aria should be close to 2.5 pounds by now and about 14.5 inches.  Said to be about the size of an eggplant.  She LOVES to push on my bladder.  I try to tell her it’s not a trampoline but she isn’t convinced.  She moves around a lot too. Some days more than others. Probably starting to get cramped in there for her.  The cutest thing to date is feeling her hiccups!  Oh I love it.  It is possible she may have a lot of hair because I am getting lots of heartburn.  According to those wives tales, the more heartburn, the more hair they have.  Who knows if that’s really a contributing factor or not.  The chances of her having a lot of hair are probably high anyway.  I would almost be shocked if she didn’t.  I mean my brother, Axel and I came out looking like monkeys we had so much hair! Ha!

Her room is at a complete stand still right now.  Which is now more than frustrating.  Allow me to go on a rant about this process with the dresser.  I was trying to be really patient, but now I am just over it.  Alright… here we go.  From the beginning.  I ordered the crib and dresser from 2 different sites.  The crib site (Baby Supermall) didn’t have the dresser we wanted and the dresser site (Wayfair) didn’t have the crib available until end of August.  The crib came in just fine and we absolutely love the choice we made.  The dresser came in completely damaged.  (The bottom of the dresser was cracked, there was a small crack in the wood at the top and the side of it had come off of it.)  That’s ok though.  Things happen.  Wayfair was great with customer service and sent out a replacement dresser that same week and 2 weeks later we got the new one.  That one was damaged too! The damage on this one was much less (2 drawers broken and the back panel cracked) and totally fixable. The problem is… do I want to take the time to fix something that I paid $500 for? Not really.  If I paid that much for it, I want it in great condition.  I think that’s fair.  So I called Wayfair immediately and told them about the new damage.  They gave me an option of sending us parts and having a furniture medic come out to repair it.  I agreed to both and was told I would receive the parts by this week.  Great! Things are looking up… right?! Nope.  On Monday, I received an email stating that my order is on hold until I provide the part numbers.  I have a few problems with this: 1. Why did you wait until the week I was supposed to receive the parts to tell me you need more information? 2. Why didn’t you try to gather this information on the first call?  3. How am I supposed to give you a part number when I didn’t even get instructions because it came assembled?  I spent Monday and Tuesday going back and forth with someone letting them know I don’t have part numbers.  Eventually, after the 2 days, she realized what I was saying and said she would have to call their warehouse to see if they could find the instruction manual and get the part numbers for me.  This morning I received an email from the same lady saying they found the part numbers and I should get the parts in a week.  Finally!  Ok, so what about the furniture medic to come make the repair?  “Oh. We don’t know if we have one available in your area so you may have to make the repairs on your own.”  Umm… what?  I want it done the right way which is why I wanted someone to come and do it.  Also, if for any reason something else breaks in the process or turns out not to be fixable, I don’t want that coming back being our fault.  I work in the corporate world… C.Y.A. always.  She understood my concern and offered me a $100 credit on their site in lieu of the furniture medic.  Pass.  At this point I have no interest in purchasing things from them.  I understand it’s more the delivery services fault but this entire process has been a mess and I have been dealing with it for 2 months.  I’m just disappointed.  I can’t really figure out the rest of the room until I have the furniture pieces in there.  Luckily, I do still have time to get all this sorted out, but I am just not pleased with the process I have had to go through with this.

Alright, rant over.  On to happier things! Last Saturday, we had some family pictures done!!  Though it’s still too soon to get all our pics back, the Facebook sneak peeks were posted and I am so excited.  Here is a cute picture that sums us up pretty nicely.

Right now I am getting ready for family coming to visit next week, our 4D ultrasound next Friday and the baby shower which is just 8 days away.  Before all of that excitement, I will have a special upcoming post for you.  I am doing a Q&A with Axel!  He will tell us all about how he feels about becoming a big brother (which is sometimes good and sometimes not so good), what is he most looking forward to and what is he most likely going to be annoyed with.  It’s fun to hear other’s perspective and with a 9 year old… well… you just never know what he will say.  Love you all and thanks for letting me vent out my frustrations with you.

"What's in a name..."

Last week of the 2^nd trimester now.  Wow!  Home stretch time.  Aria is continuing to grow, kick and get all fattened up.  My cravings still consist of those darn egg rolls and anything sweet that I can get my hands on.  I will admit that I have been guilty of not eating so well these past couple weeks.  I indulge in cookies, candy and all things containing chocolate.  I will pretend my growing bump is ALL baby though. Lol.  Here it is at 27 weeks.

 

So we got dresser #2 yesterday and guess what?!  It was damaged too… *sigh*.  At least this one wasn’t as bad so they are sending replacement parts and hopefully we will be done dealing with this mess.  The parts are being delivered by the same service though so who knows if they can manage to get those here in one piece.  I’m trying to be patient but it’s hard.  3^rd times the charm though right? Fingers crossed.  Should get them by the end of the month.

Alright, so it’s time to give some good news AND also get a little sentimental.  We have officially chosen her middle name!  We have been bouncing back and forth between 2 different names and ultimately decided on this because of the “meaning” behind it.  Since I already told you how we came up with her first name in an earlier post, allow me to give you some insight into how we got this one.

About 4 years ago, I was lucky enough to travel to Utah to meet a few of Christian’s family members.  Among those were two very special women. 

 

One of them was Kay, Christian’s Grandmother (On the left in picture above).  So let’s start off by saying that she didn’t look like a grandmother.  She looked young, fashionable, and fun!  In the short time that I was there with her, she was full of kind acts of service and I come to find out, that’s how she always was.  She was the type of person that would go out of her way to fill a need.  Christian often tells me that some of his fondest memories were the annual birthday dates… which is probably true for most of her grandchildren.  She was optimistic and would see the inner beauty within people.  Truly, she was someone I instantly fell in love with when I met her.  Sadly, her life was cut short a few months later leaving a void in the lives of those who knew her.  One of those people being Christian’s mom, Carolee (On the right in the picture above).

Carolee was…. SO many things!  Beautiful, funny, loving, outspoken, spunky, service oriented, accepting, loyal and insightful.  Not to mention extremely unfiltered.  Sometimes to the point of irreverence.  There was never a dull moment with her.  Her laughs were soooo contagious!!  I remember her starting to tell us a story one day and she kept laughing so hard she couldn’t get it out.  Christian and I started laughing because of her laughing without even knowing the story yet.  5 minutes later, we were STILL laughing and still in the dark.  Apparently this was very common because Christian remembers many times his mom being on the phone laughing with someone and he would join in not even knowing what was being laughed at.  It was truly an infectious laugh.  I am blessed to have had the opportunity to spend more time with her when she moved to Houston and really get to meet the women that raised such an amazing man despite the trials that being a single mom brought on.  I would hear the most entertaining stories from her all the time.  But always she mentioned how proud she was that she was able to teach all the small children how to drink from straws.  She also was proud that she made her niece vacuum perfect lines in the carpet… “as it should be done.” (And FYI – Christian vacuums this way still.)  As we got to know each other, we realized we were pretty similar.  We enjoyed a lot of the same things and could talk about almost anything and share the same opinions.  We had funny times, serious times and sad times while she lived with us.  The saddest time being 3 years ago when she suddenly and unexpectedly passed away.  It was devastating to say the least.  The joy and laughter she brought with her was going to be missed and hard to replace.  We miss her every day but am so grateful that we will be with her again.

So now you know a little about these 2 women that we love so much, but unfortunately aren’t here to celebrate in the joy of our new family addition.  I know for sure Carolee would be just beside herself at this news.  She would have bought everything in sight for our little girl and be completely wrapped around her little finger.  She would also be purchasing straw cups getting ready for that big day! Haha! Anyway, we knew we wanted them to be a part of this new life event for us, so we thought of the perfect way.  A name!  Though it’s not much, it’s something that Aria will have with her for her entire life and can always know about the 2 women that played such an essential role of making her dad who he is.  The women that though she will never meet here on earth, will get to know through memories we have and will share with her. 

We merged both of their names together and came up with:

 

Aria Kaylee Eagleston

 “Kay” and “Lee” are two common names throughout both mine and Christian’s family so there is a lot of additional meaning behind them; however, the main influence behind “Kaylee” is Grandma Kay and Carolee.

I promise it wasn’t my intention to make anyone cry or get teary eyed with this post… including myself (as I sit here crying like a baby) but we chose names that have a meaning behind them and felt this one in particular was important to give detail on.

Still many things coming up.  Family pictures, 4D ultrasound and have I mentioned the baby shower? Haha!! But seriously… I want you there… so be there! J  Love you all and I am excited to know that you enjoy reading these as much as I like sharing.

Nursery Prep

Hello everyone!  Let me start off by saying this has been one of the best weeks ever and I am so thrilled to tell you all about it!  Frist things first though, Miss Aria’s update.  Over the next few weeks she will range anywhere from 13.6-14.8 inches long and weighs anywhere from 1.5-2.5 pounds.  She now knows which way is up and which is down, is starting to take breaths (of amniotic fluid not air) for practice and her eyes will soon start to open.  She is also staying super active.  Her kicks are definitely growing harder and you can even see my belly do a little jump when she kicks.  How is it possible to love someone so much before you even meet them?

Some of the more annoying pregnancy symptoms are rearing their ugly head, but I am honestly loving every minute of it!  Like I mentioned before, I absolutely love being pregnant.  I feel like even when it’s unpleasant, the reasoning behind it all is SO worth it.  I sometimes think about how sad we were during the years we weren’t able to conceive and I feel like it would be almost hypocritical to now complain about it all.  AND our bodies go through so much to grow another person, we are lucky we only have a handful of symptoms to deal with anyway.

Alright, let’s get to my exciting week.  Why was it exciting you ask?  Well for starters, we have officially started working on the nursery!!  Last weekend, I worked my butt off (with my Christian’s help of course) to finally get Aria’s room cleared out.  I don’t know why I decided last weekend I just HAD to get it done but I am so glad that I did.   Remember when I said we ordered the furniture and it was on backorder for a while?  Well apparently it wasn’t!  We received the crib last Monday and the dresser on Tuesday.  I was pleasantly surprised and grateful I had cleared out the space for it all over the weekend.  Unfortunately, the dresser was damaged pretty badly so we had to have a replacement sent to us which will take some time.  We know it’s coming soon though, so I am totally ok with it.  Last Monday, I also received another surprise… my dad came to visit for a few days!  I just love that man.  I am a daddy’s girl at heart and have a severe soft spot for him, so getting to enjoy his company is always so amazing.  

On Monday when my dad arrived, we headed home where we received delivery #1.  My dad was eager to open up the crib package and put it together, but I really wanted to paint the room before the furniture was set up.  My parents are all about serving others so I shouldn’t have been surprised when my dad said “well, do you have the paint?  I am going to be here a few days so if you have the paint or can get it this week, I can get it done for you.”  What a great idea!  Christian and I got the paint that night so my dad could start the next day.  Within a few days, we had 3 gray walls, an accent yellow wall and subtle stripes added to the accent wall.  This man!! AMAZING!  We are so grateful for my dad coming and doing us that huge favor while he was here.  I paid him in love, kisses and lots of goodies to eat.  Aria paid him in big kicks which he loved.

 

Once the paint was dry and dad had made his way back to Massachusetts, (that was a sad day), the crib was just begging to be put together. J  The two men of the house got right on it!  Axel was beyond excited to help build it so we had him hand Christian the proper screws and tools needed.  He also helped hold up pieces to make it ‘easier’ for Christian. Haha.

Slowly things are coming together.  We are giddy with excitement and nervous at the same time.  Seeing the crib set up makes this all even more real.  Now each night when we walk to our bedroom, we catch a glimpse of it and know the next 14 weeks are just right around the corner.  Before we know it, Aria will be in there all snuggled up. 

This month will be packed full of great things.  We have Christian’s birthday, family pictures, a 4D ultrasound and baby shower finalizing.  Speaking of the baby shower, most of you should have received an invite by now.  If you haven’t, please let me know and I make sure you get one asap.  Again, it will take place on August 1^st from 12:30-2:30 at the Cypresswood Clubhouse.  PLEASE come and join us.  We will have a light lunch and a couple fun games.  Men are more than welcome to join in the fun as well. 

I believe my work is either currently in denial that I will be going out on leave soon or they are trying to make up for when I do because they have me buried in A LOT of things to do this week! Yuck!  This means I most likely won’t post anything for a little while.  Know that I will update you all as soon as I can.