Nursery transformation: Part 2

Please see the post below for the "before" pictures of the nursery. I couldn't fit them all into one post, so here are the after pictures. We love it!!!

Terry painted the room, and Casey put the furniture together!

Abby and I LOVE the new glider and ottoman from Mom and Dad!

Welcome to the jungle! :)

The crib and dresser (also all assembled by Casey):

And we even got a new light/fan--thanks Grandpa Terry!

We still have quite a bit to do before it's totally finished, but we're so excited to have it all set up! We just want to have a couple more things to go on the walls, blinds and valances for the windows, and we have to sort through all of the "stuff" we've gotten at baby showers to figure out where it will go. Only 2 weeks to go!!!

Nursery transformation: Part 1

Casey's dad came down from Ohio this past week to visit and help us turn the guest room into a nursery. He spent the whole week painting and fixing a million things around the house. Casey put all of the furniture together, and we are really pleased with the end result! In order to get all of the pictures up to show the process, I'll have to do a before and after post. Here are the "before" shots:

Here's our sad guest room as we were taking it apart:

The dilapidated fan--it needed to go!

Terry trying to cover up the blue with primer:

Even the ceiling got a fresh coat of paint!

A pleasant day

What could have been a very boring, very long day has turned out to be quite nice. I had appointments with the neurosurgeon and my OB today, and I just knew that they were going to last forever and be terrible (so optimistic!). :) They actually both went fairly quickly, and I got good reports from everyone. Things are moving right along as they should be, and this baby is due to arrive in three and a half weeks!

Bonus for the day: I got to have lunch with cousin Kim at Lenny's Sub Shop, and we went browsing for baby stuff together for a while. :) It was so nice to have another pregnant friend around to discuss all the joys of being huge in the summer! Thanks for a lovely afternoon, Kim!

Casey and I did a quick photo shoot to get some belly shots, and this is what we ended up with:

35 weeks pregnant... and fabulous! haha

This is what I feel like ALL the time now!

Normal smiley belly picture

I hope these made you smile--we had fun taking them. :)

Memphis baby shower

Casey said I need to get a little variety in my belly pictures, so I'll just post a couple of pictures from the baby shower I had in Memphis this past Sunday. They also threw a shower for me in Ohio, but I couldn't be there for that one--Casey's dad is bringing that stuff down in about a week! :)

One of my hostesses, Abby Scott--she just turned 18!

Mom and I just couldn't wait to eat the cake. :)

All of my hostesses!

There really isn't much to update right now. My blood pressure is still holding steady, I'm still working part-time, and we have less than a month before this baby gets here! Casey is still looking for a job, so that's a little stressful, but we're still praying that something will come through soon. Other than that, we're just trying to get the house ready a little at a time. I just hope we can get it all done!

Back to work

I went back to the doctor on Wednesday and got the "all clear" to start back to work part-time. I can only work half of each day, but I guess that's better than nothing. My blood pressure was back down (the bottom number is still a little high, but nothing he's worried about), and the swelling has gone down quite a bit. I have ankle bones! :) I even managed to lose a couple of pounds of fluid, so he was pleased with the bed rest results. I'm supposed to be resting with my feet up when I'm not at work, so I should probably make this quick and get back to bed.

I don't think there's been a huge change in belly size, but some people (ahem, Rhonda) like to be kept up-to-date with frequent pictures since they are far away. :) For all those interested, here's the most recent belly shot--32 weeks!
I can't believe we only have 6 1/2 weeks until she's here!!!

Stupid blood pressure

Well, here I sit.... in bed..... BOO. I went to the doctor on Thursday afternoon, and it would appear that my blood pressure is a little higher than it should be. Add that to the overall swelling, headaches, and general sluggish feeling and I guess you get bed rest. I was allowed to go to the 2 parent conferences I had scheduled in Cabot on Friday morning (which I really probably shouldn't have gone to), and was then told to stay in bed until my next appointment on Wednesday morning. At first it was kind of nice to be forced to rest, but now.... well, I could use a nice walk, or something. Plus, Casey started working as Uplift's videographer today and will be putting in 16 hour days for the next 3 weeks. He made a WalMart run for quick fix foods before running off, but I have a feeling cereal, sandwiches, and frozen dinners are going to get old really fast. Being the wonderful husband that he is, he considered not doing Uplift and staying home with me but we really need the money. Hopefully I'll get better news when I go back to the doctor on Wednesday. In the meantime, pray for my sanity (and I guess my health, too)! :)

30 weeks ultrasound

With only 2 months to go, here is the latest picture of Abigail Elizabeth from our ultrasound on Wednesday:


None of the other pictures were really good this time, so I'll leave it at that. :) Oh, and here's the latest of me/my huge belly:

With all of the measurements they can take on the ultrasound, they were able to tell that Abby currently weighs in at 3 lbs. 4 oz. Yikes! Since there are still 2 more months for her to grow, I'm kind of glad we've already decided to do a c-section! haha Her heartbeat sounded good, and they said everything looks great. I even had them double check--it's still a girl! :)

I finished my final session of physical therapy today, and I am officially done with this neck mess! Well, have one more follow up appointment in July with the neurosurgeon just to "check in," but that should be it! I really have been feeling better since I've had time to recover, and I think it will be even better when I'm not carrying all of this extra weight. By Christmas, I should be on top of the world! :)