8 Weeks to go!

Wow what an eventful couple of weeks. First we had our shower for Eleanor! February 18th.
We had a lot of wonderful friends and family come to join in the celebration. My in laws got us our stroller and car seat and bassinet!! They are awesome! Mom got us the boppy pillow, bear tummy time matt, swing, vibrating chair and other useful things. Beyond that we got a lot of clothes and dresses for Eleanor and not a single diaper! Go figure! So she will look nice while she craps her pants :) lol oh well ..I'm just a practical mommy and like getting things that are useful but I was happy she is all set on clothes..
Here are some pics from that day. Everything was really lovely and our moms, Matthews dad and Sara and Michael did SUCH a great job.

The guys did a baby bottle drinking game. The first to drink all the apple juice out of the bottle won.. Juno won!

Then after the shower we had a restful week and this weekend I went down to see my mom for the weekend. She got us our Crib and Changing table!! Yah!!

They are both from the Baby Dreams- Renaissance

 Collection . The dresser is awesome because it doubles as a changer and we don't have to then have extra furniture in the room. At first I didn't want white furniture but in the end I just fell in love with these pieces. Now all we need is a bookcase but I want to wait to see how much space we have after we set all these up in the room and also with the glidder.

Other than that things have been pretty quiet. THANK GOD. I have had 2 braxton-hicks contractions that really threw me for a loop and we have our 32 week appointment tomorrow with Dr. Parks. I can't believe we have 8 weeks to go. I gatta say I can't wait. I'm so tired and sore I'm ready to have her outside my body and in my arms. 

Not feeling so hot.. this helps...Sexy Men

30 Weeks!

We had our 30 week appointment yesterday. I have so much good news to share. First I passed my glucose test! Hallelujah! I was so worried about it because of the four blood draws they have to do but it ended up being fine. The worst part was keeping the drink down they give you on an empty stomach.

They also said my anemic levels from the blood work are normal so no need for extra iron supplements and my blood pressure and urine are both normal. Eleanor is head down, which explains why my pelvis has been really sore. I am no longer allowed to watch ESPN because they have had these super bowl documentaries about the players and they are all starting to make me cry. Last time Matthew came home I was crying because the Saints won the Super bowl a few years ago and it was such an amazing story to watch on ESPN I was crying. I also cried when the Giants won the super bowl this year. Its amazing but sports have made me really ubber emotional.. of all things!

Tonight we have breast feeding class. Matthew is coming with me because they encourage the dads to attend to help remember the information that is given. We are also going to stop by the Goddard School one more time to see if we want to enroll Eleanor there. I'm sick of looking at day cares.. they are all either great or horrible and nothing in the middle. If we like what we see this time I think we will enroll to hold her spot. The last day care we toured had beds that are not legal to use and their excuse was that they have till January of NEXT year to make this change and that they don't have the funds to do that presently.. really? so these kids are going to sleep in these cribs till you have the funds.. no worries that they are not safe? omg.. so yeah.. sick of looking at day cares and knowing within five minutes that we don't want to leave her there.

Financially its been overwhelming to realize how much its going to cost to add Eleanor to our insurance and to pay for her daycare. Insurance wise if I add her to my plan its $135 a paycheck which is $270 a month. For the daycare we are thinking about putting her in it will be $222/week  which is $888 a month.  So that's about $1,158 a month to just keep her taken care of while we are at work and to maintain her health care. This doesn't even include all the supplies a baby needs or the co-payments for doctor visits. Its really frightening to think about taking all this on but she will be worth it and we will make it work. My mom has graciously said she will assist with the daycare costs each month so we couldn't be more grateful to not worry about that expense. At this rate we may be only children who only have 1. Which would be fine by me because I don't even know how we would deal with siblings as it is :)

Our Baby Shower is this weekend. I can't wait! Our mothers and Sara have done a lot of work and are so grateful to them for throwing this shower. Hopefully my next blog will be pictures of our shower! I think it will hit us even more when we start to put together her nursery. Right now its an empty room but once stuff starts rolling in it will be really strange.

Valentines Day was awesome. It was our last Valentines day for just the two of us and Matthew did it up great! When I got up yesterday morning he had stuffed animals sitting in my drivers seat and a card on the dash board. Then when we got ready to leave for dinner he had a card waiting for me on my passenger side seat. We had dinner at the Fig Tree and it was very fancy. I actually fit into one of my old dresses and I looked great. I even wore a small high heel with my dress. Dinner was delicious. I had a Veal chop and a salad with goat cheese. The waiter knew I was pregnant so he had the bar tender make me a mocktail drink that tasted delicious but was of course alcohol free. Matthew got the surf and turf and we shared a slice of cheesecake. When we got home we were so tired though. Fancy dinners last 2 hours because of the slow pace of getting the food out for the romantic aspect. I was so sore and tired the second I lay down in bed I was out. I'm still tired today.  here is a pic of the stuffed animals I woke up to yesterday. My hubby is the best :)

Dads

I get really emotional when I see a little girl with her dad. The other day a man was taking his little girl to Cold Stone for ice cream and it made me cry. It made me cry because those father daughter dates I went on with my dad are over. I now look to the future and pray that Eleanor can share those wonderful times with Matthew. I pray that she can love her dad as much as I did and that they can build new memories and traditions. I know Matthew will be an excellent father. Its one of a thousand reasons I married him. I'm so happy for Ellie because I know she will have a dad just like I did that will love her so much and be such a fun and loving dad. I can't wait to take her to Tar Heels Games and Panther Games. I can't wait for him to read to her all kinds of books and teach her to ride her bike. He will be someone she can go to for anything and he will be someone for her to look up to and trust. A lot of men nowadays are so self absorber. Fathers don't stick around like they use to and they don't work hard on their families and themselves.
My wedding rings have become to tight on my fingers so now I wear my dads ring. I love to wear it because it makes me feel close to him even though he is far away. There are so many times I want to just call him and ask his advice or get him to tell me that everything will be ok. It makes me angry that he was taken from our family by such a vicious disease. He was such a good man and deserved to grow even older with my mother and have a peaceful long life. It hits me through each week that he is gone and I have flashbacks to his last moments and I hate to remember them.  It doesn't help that I am an emotional wreck from my hormones. I cry at almost all sappy commercials and cry for no reason at all. I'm so ready to not feel crazy anymore.

My dad told me before he died how happy he was to learn they were having a girl and that he wanted a girl so much. It gives me such comfort to know I had such an amazing father. It also gives me a lot of comfort to know that Matthew will be just the same for our little one. I have such security in knowing that Eleanor will be loved just as much as I was by my own father.