Treasures From My Baby Shower

Wow I haven't updated in forever... we've been really busy. Lots of new stuff and improvements around the house, but I'll get to that in another post. I want to share some of the amazing creations that people made for our baby girl. We are truly blessed to receive such gifts and be part of such a creative and ambitious family! My shower was almost two weeks ago. There were 22 people including me, and a lot of family members who put time and dedication into getting things ready for the shower. The food was amazing and the gift opening was never ending!

First we'll start off with all the creations from Nana (Bjorn's mom)!

Bjorn's mom is a MASTER quilter. We have quite a few from her and I love them. They're beautiful and something you keep forever. Tatiana's turned out quite adorable!

Front of the quilt

Back of the quilt

Close up of the fabric

Another close up

Tutu made by Nana

Taggy blankets made by Nana

Stuffed elephant made by Nana

Dress made by Nana

Afghan blanket made by Bjorn's Aunt/God Mother

Matching hat to go with the afghan

This was my best friend's cup when she was a baby, but it was never engraved. So she got it engraved for our baby and gave it to us! I love it, and I love that it has history.

Basket 'o toys!

My mom got this at a local craft and art show... it's kind of like a boppy but is completely round instead of 'C' shaped.

Baby girl got SO many clothes at the shower...I think we're set for at least a little bit! From age 0 - 6 months we'll have 56 onesies to choose from...she's already a clothes horse! ;)


Well between my last post and this one we also got a rocking chair for the nursery. I originally wanted a glider but the nursery is so small I really don't know how one would of fit (and one really wouldn't have fit with a stool). My best friend, the one who gave Tatiana her silver cup offered us her grandma's rocking chair since it was just sitting in her basement. We looked at it and I knew immediately it would fit perfect. She gave us permission to paint it or do whatever we wanted with it, with only one clause in the verbal contract, if I ever don't want it anymore, I'm not allowed to get rid of it or sell it, I must return it to her...deal! The finish on the chair was worn off in some places, and since our nursery furniture is all white I decided to paint it. Two cans of spray primer, two cans of spray paint in white, and about three hours later and we have our perfect rocking chair. I ordered the cushions for it last week and I think it fits in well with our mix 'n match fabric theme.

...and now as I sit on my newly built deck, and before I take a hot shower and watch 'The Tudors' with the husband, I leave you with a photo of Vesper wearing the baby's first sunglasses (taking this photo took a REALLY good treat and a lot of patience!).

3D/4D ultrasound...a success!

At our 20 week ultrasound Tatiana thought it was a fabulous idea to put her hands over her eyes, pretty much the entire time. So when we started the ultrasound last night and her hands were over her eyes, I kind of thought, "oh no...here we go again!" The tech was patient, and after 5+ minutes she finally removed her hands from eyes. She is most definitely fascinated with her hands, especially the act of shoving them in her mouth. At one point she had her feet near her face, and her foot was SO close to going into her mouth lol...then she contemplated shoving her umbilical cord in there also. At least she keeps herself entertained. :) My parents and Bjorn's mom came with for the Tatiana Antoinette Variety Show as well, it's so cool to be able to share these moments with them. And for my sanity, the gender was reconfirmed, she is still 100% a she! I'm so glad we did this, we got some amazing shots. It was also funny to feel and see her movements simultaneously.

Psychic readings, sewing, and staying up too late...

Tonight......we get to see our little girl. :) Can't wait! I hope she's cooperative!

This past weekend I was a busy bee, and luckily I had the energy for it. Friday night was dinner with the in-laws. Saturday was the Festival of Nations downtown St.Paul and a wedding shower/bachelorette party. The Festival of Nations was okay, it cost a lot of money ($10 parking, $10 to get in), and then all there really was to do was buy food and shop. I was excited for the food, but unfortunately it was mediocre compared to if you went to a real Polish (or insert another country name here) restaurant. All I bought was a $5 pair of earrings, which is astonishing, but nothing else appealed to me. I could definitely see going back in a few years when we have a child who would be interested in getting one of the "passports" and going around to the country booths to get them stamped.

That evening was Lea's bachelorette party! Her sister was super organized and had a ton of decorations to decorate the hotel suite with. Lea was quarantined in another room while the decorating and preparation was taking place. Once she was allowed to emerge we got to eat a lot of yummy food, and then my favorite part...a psychic (who the bride knows through her fiance) came to do readings! There was about 15 girls, and the psychic, Robin, did the readings all together while we were seated in the room together.

Robin said when she arrived that she had some pets (from the other side with her)...a dog and a cat. When she walked up to me she asked if I had a cat that had passed, and I said yes, that my childhood cat I had since I was 5 passed away last year when he was 18. I was the only one she asked that to, and I guess it's because when she walked up to me the cat started howling and wouldn't leave her alone. It's ironic as well because for the last 3 years of his life my cat would literally sit in the hallway and just howl, not meow, but howl for no apparent reason. Oh and apparently our unborn daughter wanted me to know that she wants to go to college (great she's already sucking my bank account dry!) and was very adamant about it, she also said not to ask about labor because I don't want to know, but that she would be healthy. Oh man, I hope that's true! Robin also said she was sensing that I had some questions or thoughts about our house, I didn't really have questions, but yes our house (building the deck, having some electrical work done,etc...) was definitely in the back of my mind. Robin also said I had a woman with grey hair from my mom's side that really likes me and follows me. Not everyone got great news, one girl asked if the boy she was dating was 'the one', and it turns out he's a good guy, but not 'the one.'

Next the bride opened her gifts and then everyone got ready to head out to the bars downtown Minneapolis. Because I'm pregnant Bjorn picked me up at the hotel around 10pm right before everyone left to go downtown. I was at home and in bed before midnight...ah the joys of pregnancy.

This weekend I also did some sewing...

I've made a few of these, I call them mini-taggy blankets! I whipped this one up quick for my friend's 6 month old daughter before leaving for the bachelorette party .

 

And I also made my first project using a zipper. I love colored zippers!

So yesterday I discovered that I can no longer go to bed past midnight and then get up early. I felt and looked like a zombie all day, and also started feeling really nauseous. I ended up having to go home early. Last night I was downstairs sewing and at 10:15 Bjorn came down to tell me it was time for me to go bed! haha.

28 Weeks...and 1 day...well almost 2 days

Maternity Clothes: Yes, mixed with some regular stuff out of my closet.

Stretch Marks: Nada....yet.

Sleep: The now normal 2 - 3 bathroom breaks a night. This week I've had quite a few leg cramps in the middle of the night...3 last night alone!

Movement: Yes, this baby can get pretty crazy and I love it.

Food Cravings/Aversions: Watermelon.

Gender: Pink.Pink.Pink.

Belly Button In or Out: In...I don't think it will pop, it's pretty deep.

What I Miss: Feeling normal. Being able to walk Vesper without having excruciating round ligament pain after 30 minutes.

What I am Looking Forward To: 3D/4D Ultrasound on Tuesday! I hope this baby girl cooperates so we can see her cute little face.

Best Moment This Week: Just all around feeling better this week then the few previous weeks has been a blessing.

Nursery and House Updates

On Friday when I got home from work there was a huge package on our doorstep. I was confused because even though I had ordered some stuff I wasn't expecting any of it to arrive anytime soon. Well much to my complete joy it was a cubby style bookshelf I had just ordered 4 days before. I found this awesome store online, The Land of Nod.  There aren't any of their actual stores in our state, and I was desperate to find a cubby bookshelf in white that would fit under the window in the baby's room. So after a couple months of searching online I decided to purchase this one. It's really very nice and fairly easy to assemble...although I am not good at following directions and assembling furniture so I had to back step a couple times and Bjorn finished it up. Now I have a place to store all the books and toys my cousin gave us!

Earlier in the week my mom told me about a garage sale in her neighborhood where a couple families were going to be selling their used baby stuff. I promptly left work to check it out with her. We ended up spending $41, and got a ton of clothes and my mom got some big kind of plastic toy stuff (the kind of stuff I fear is going to take over my house) for her house. $25 was spent on dresses, onesies, pajamas, and hats...a total of 36 clothing items. Many of the items are Baby Gap, Old Navy, and Carters. I rushed out to Target to buy some Dreft laundry detergent and washed them all, and they are now neatly folded away and hung up.

I also came across some forgotten hats I hand embroidered very early in my pregnancy that I really love...

Tatiana also received some more cupcake themed outfits...the one on the left is from my Aunt and is an entire outfit. It's by Vitamins Baby , who makes really cute clothes that can usually be found at boutique kind of shops or online. The one on the right is also usually sold at boutique kind of stores, or in this case at Whole Foods (I can't think of the brand off the top off my head right now), we also have a bib that matches it.

Bjorn spent the weekend working on rebuilding our deck. When we bought our house, which was a foreclosure, we had an inspection and discovered that whoever originally put the deck on never properly installed deck flashing. So what this means is that when it rained or snow melted the water would drain into the house where the deck was attached, specifically part of the kitchen floor. The kitchen floor was all wonky and rotted out there. The bank refused to fix it and said they'd just take one of the other offers on the house if we didn't like their answer. So we bought the house and Bjorn and my dad had to rip the entire deck off (which for the most part was not in bad condition), then we had to have someone come out and fix the floor and install proper deck flashing. Well for the past year and a half we've had no deck and a huge deck frame sitting in our backyard. With the help of our tax refund and our amazing neighbors the deck now has proper footings (which it did not have before), and the frame has been repaired and reattached to the house. Now all that's left is buying the actual top decking wood and putting it on the frame. Once again, we have an amazing neighborhood with amazing neighbors, there's no way we could have done it without them. Did I also mention that it rained most of the weekend so everyone worked in the rain and mud? I'm gonna have to get used to my house already feeling too small, because I don't ever wanna leave our neighborhood!

The white boards are a temporary solution so that the dogs can actually go outside without me having to launch them into the yard and then pick them up.

I did some plant shopping this weekend for my vegetable garden. Currently planted in my garden: zucchini (from my seed kit), green beans (from my seed kit), radishes (from my seed kit), a raspberry bush, and chives. Now sitting in my kitchen are more plants... tomatoes, rosemary, cilantro, thyme, strawberry plants, lettuce, and probably some others I can't think of at the moment.

So while I was out with my mother in law plant shopping and what not, the truth really started to sink in... I am pregnant, and I have swollen pregnant feet (something I received on my birthday this year, thanks Tatiana!). Any shoes I wear leave huge imprints in my feet and are super uncomfortable. Well I am all about fashion before comfort with shoes! But...I finally had to break down and buy...a pair of Birkenstock sandals. I am not crazy about the way they look, but boy do my feet, back, and round ligament feel much better with good support on my feet, and I can adjust the straps if the swelling gets really bad. I think it was a good decision since I still have 86 days left until my due date, and the swelling is only going to get worse as the weather gets warmer. I snapped a photo of them this morning, and yes my feet are swollen in this photo, but not too horribly since it was still early in the day.

And the last item I have to share is a purse that I received for my birthday that my mother in law made. Super adorable, I love it. The flower is also removable so you could put it on other things. I am a lucky girl!

27 Weeks...and a trip to the hospital.

So I had mentioned earlier this week that I had slightly elevated blood pressure. When I got it rechecked on Monday it was fine but I was told to keep an eye on my swelling feet and if I had a continual headache to give the doctor a call. Well yesterday I was feeling really ishy, and I woke up with the same headache I had the day before and of course my super awesome pregnancy feet were pretty swollen. I didn't think much of it, until my work day started to come to a close. I started putting puzzle pieces together (and was worried that maybe I was developing some preeclampsia symptoms) and decided to leave a message on the nurse line at my OB office. I requested that someone call me back and that I'd like to be squeezed in the next day for some testing. Usually for preeclampsia testing they check you out, take some blood, take your blood pressure and check your urine for protein. Well the office was closed but a nurse called me back at 4:45 and told me the on call doctor (coincidentally the only doctor/midwife at my OB office that I've never met) wanted me to immediately go to the emergency room and straight up to labor and delivery for testing.
 
Well given these hormones, I pretty much burst into tears and told the nurse I didn't feel comfortable going to labor and delivery. First of all, I know any trip to the hospital warrants at least a $200 bill (insurance pays most, but that's still a lot of money to us), and I knew that if I could just get tested at my OB office the next day that I wouldn't have to pay anything. Secondly, Bjorn and I were supposed to baby sit for the neighbors. Thirdly, all I could think was what would happen if I had preeclampsia and had to deliver a premature baby. Now that I think back, I didn't once even think about my own health (preeclampsia effects both mother and child, if it's really severe the mother can have seizures), all I was worried about was my little baby staying inside my oven to continue cooking! Well the nurse said she'd have the doctor call me back. Well, the doctor was none too happy with me, and sounded quite peeved that I was resisting going in to the hospital. Our neighbors had separate husband and wife plans for the evening, so one of them said they were going to stay home and that Bjorn should go with me.

Well to make a long story short, we were there for about 4 hours, we were admitted to an actual labor and delivery room. When we first arrived the nurse that met us at the door asked if I wanted a wheel chair, and I laughed and said no, and then Bjorn chimed in that he might need one (due to being stressed out) lol. They constantly checked my blood pressure and had the baby on a monitor. The nurses were quite impressed with our little girls heartbeat...they thought they'd have a hard time finding it, but they had no trouble at all and she continued to stay between 145 - 172 beats per minute the entire time. All of my blood work and urine came back totally normal. I think I got the best labor and delivery hospital tour ever since I was actually in one of the rooms for so long, and the staff at the hospital is awesome. The one good part of the evening was hearing our baby's heartbeat for 4 hours straight, and any little movement she made we could hear. One time she kicked so hard that the sound of it on the monitor scared the crap out of me! While I want to say, "see I told you I could wait!" to the doctor, I know she was in the right. I'm just sad for our checkbook when the bill arrives!

So now that I've written a novel on last nights experience here's my 27 week check in...

Maternity Clothes: Combo of regular clothes and maternity.
Stretch Marks: The 's' word! None yet...fingers crossed.
Sleep: UGH. At least 2 - 4 potty breaks in the middle of the night, plus constantly waking up due to being sore and achy.
Movement: Getting stronger every day! I have now officially seen my belly jump.
Food Cravings/Aversions: Nothing in particular.
Gender: Girl
Belly Button In or Out: In...and I finally got a pregnancy belly ring.
What I Miss: I don't even care about not being able to drink wine anymore, I'm just so sick of feeling achy and sore. Even after walking the dog for 45 minutes my whole body just aches. My round ligament, mid back, lower back, and hips are the worst. Bending over to pick anything up makes me feel exhausted!
What I am Looking Forward To: The weekend...after last nights drama I just want to be able to sleep in.
Best Moment This Week: When Bjorn was feeling the baby kick and his whole hand jumped because she kicked so hard!

The Weekend...a condensed version

First off...my house is CLEAN. It's been driving me crazy for weeks and I just haven't had the time to really work on it. Our guest room is no longer a dumping ground for random furniture and junk...there are no longer clumps of Vesper's winter fur coat on the carpet in my house, my bathroom looks sanitary, and I got to sleep on clean fresh bed sheets. So while I was working on all this on Sunday my Dad came over, and as far as Bjorn and I knew he was going to rototill my garden. Well much to my surprise Bjorn and my Dad also put new fencing in my garden, and I have a GATE. I don't have to step over fencing, which was a pain when I wasn't pregnant, and seemed like a danger now that I am pregnant. AMAZING. They spent along time on it and I am very happy girl.

The dogs also had a fabulous day enjoying the sunshine. And no one rolled in poison or pooped in the house this weekend, so kudos to Tater for behaving!

In the middle of the afternoon I took a break to prep dinner...and good thing I did because come 7:30 I was so exhausted and sore from the house overhaul and laundry that I hardly even felt like throwing everything on the grill, but I did...and I felt like I should be having a beer since I was grilling and had just spent the day working hard....but I had skim milk instead.

So that was Sunday...and the rest of the weekend consisted of dinner with Bjorn's family and his mom spoiling me far too much with all my birthday gifts. She always finds such fun things. There were six dogs there for dinner as well, it got a little crazy, but in kind of a comical way...two are fighting, ones trying to get food off the counter, another one is in time out, etc... Saturday I spent the whole day with my mom and aunts who were here from Chicago. We did some shopping which was fun, but my pregnancy is starting to effect my ability to teeter around for 5 hours in platform sandals with the ever so attractive swollen pregnancy feet. We went out to dinner at a great little independently owned Italian place, and finished up the night by playing dominoes.

Baby Update:First of all, holy cow little girl, you are out of control today! She has been kicking, punching, moving, etc... like crazy today! And when I'm sitting she's all up in my ribs...out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw my belly jump, so I decided to sit and watch it for a few minutes... Why yes, I did see it, because it happened again and I clearly saw it. So amazing!

This morning I got a call from a nurse at my OB office. She requested that I come in for another blood pressure reading because it was high at my last pregnancy class (last Wednesday). I immediately started getting anxiety thinking about how I might have high pregnancy blood pressure and end  up having to deliver the baby early, and what if she had to go to intensive care, etc... Well all that worrying doesn't exactly help to lower blood pressure, so then I was freaked out that I was making it high by being freaked out. Long story short, it was a great reading, and my blood pressure is fine. I think it was high last Wednesday because I was running late for our class. The first place I parked I hopped out and headed in the door, then someone told me I couldn't access the part of the hospital I was going to through that door, so then I had to get back in my car, drive to a different lot, and park far away. By the time I got to class I was all anxious, and I'm pretty sure that's why I got such a high reading. Lesson learned: RELAX. There will be plenty of time to freak out after the baby is here. :)

Oh and I almost forgot...here is my birthday present from Bjorn... someone (ahem, me) might have helped him pick it out, but I was still really happy to get it. It's from Capturing Couture ...I had forgotten about it until I took my camera out on Sunday and was pleasantly surprised to see it again.

99 Days and 25 Years

Yikes...the title of this entry is scary and exciting.

First off, and more importantly. We are in the DOUBLE DIGITS. 99 days until Tatiana's estimated due date! It's amazing to think when our baby was first conceived that we had 280 days to go...well 181 days later and we have about 3 months left. It still seems like along time to me, so I'm not starting to freak out ....YET. I probably will around 40 days or less.

And less excitingly....I am a quarter of a century old...BOO. I know, I know, so many people are going to think, "OLD? That's not OLD." Well it sure feels like it, especially when I look back at photos from my past birthdays...such as my 21st birthday.  It's official...I'm married, pregnant, and 25, my life is over! :)  Just sarcasm...I know my life is just beginning...we still have 40 days until our first wedding anniversary, and we have yet to begin the life long journey of parenthood.

Now a look back at past birthdays...and yes, all four of these birthdays ended up with dinner at the same amazing restaurant downtown Minneapolis, Pizza Luce'.

My 21st birthday!...I'm holding a seabreeze...mmm...something I will not be enjoying on my 25th birthday, although now a days if I had the choice I would much prefer a nice glass of dry red wine. By this point Bjorn and I had been dating for about a year and a half and I was in my 3rd out of my 4 years of college. This was definitely a 21st birthday...a hotel room (for 6 or 7 people) at the Double Tree downtown Minneapolis, dinner, and out to the bars. It was a lot of fun, but no one got too crazy, and there was no puking (that I'm aware of!). I also remember it was fairly warm for April, I think in the 70's, which is kind of what we're experiencing this year as well. This photo is in a frame in our bedroom. I'm not huge on decorating my house with personal photos, I keep it pretty minimal...lets just say if I ever had to stage my house to sell I wouldn't have that many personal photos to remove from view. I still have that shirt I'm wearing...100% silk from Express...a few days after my birthday it also had a trip to the dry cleaners after someone on the dance floor at Brother's bar smashed into me, thus spilling my vodka cranberry all over my ivory silk shirt.

My 22nd birthday, much less exciting. Just dinner at Pizza Luce' and games at Game Works with some amazing friends. My best friend Sara, good friend John, and of course Bjorn. At this point I was a month away from graduating from college, and 8 months away from being engaged. Sara, John and I all worked at Caribou Coffee (where the photo was taken), and although that job was often back breaking torture, we had a lot of fun too. Now Bjorn and I are married, John is married to a very lovely girl who also worked at Caribou, and Sara is in a pretty serious relationship...oh my how time changes things!

My 23rd birthday...I like my hair here, if I didn't have super short bangs now I would still totally rock that hair-do. My birthday was on a weekday so we just had dinner with our friends Sara and Dan.  At this point in time I had been working at my "real adult job" for almost a year, and was busy planning my wedding. I also had been a mom to an adorable little puppy named Vesper for about 7 months.

Okay, so I don't have any photos from April 14th, 2009. But yes, we had dinner at...Pizza Luce' for the 4th year in a row. This time it was Bjorn and I, both our parents, and Bjorn's sister. Seems like my birthdays get tamer every year, and this will be no exception since I won't even be enjoying a glass of wine. But late this afternoon we have or pregnancy class which I'm always stoked for, and then I will see what Mr. Husband has in store.... and tomorrow is my dads birthday (and my neighbors birthday...and yesterday was another neighbors birthday).

So last night I skipped my monthly book club for many reasons. First of all, I didn't read the book, or even get my hands on a copy of it...my book club is pretty laid back and I was told to come anyway. But...I was so behind on laundry it was getting ridiculous, and I knew that tonight and tomorrow night I wouldn't have the opportunity to do it. So when I got home from work yesterday I tidied up the kitchen, got dinner ready to be cooked on the grill, threw some laundry in, and started version #2 of the valance for Tatiana's room.

I would say this was a complete success, and I like these fabrics much better anyway.

Reading to your baby in utero......give it a try!

This week we started reading a book to the baby before bed. There's two different ones we've been reading. Both of them are from Bjorn's mom. (Please excuse the low image quality, I just snagged them from Amazon.com)

Baby, I Love You

 

Oh, Baby, the Places You'll Go!: A book to be read in Utero

 

Inside the Doctor Seuss book there's some mumbo jumbo about how reading to your baby while in Utero is actually really good, and how there's increased movement from your baby when you do. Well I guess it's not totally mumbo jumbo, because Tatiana has gone crazy each time we've read to her so far. She will start kicking about a minute into reading, and for some reason when we switch from me to Bjorn reading she really goes crazy and kicks me HARD. I'm wondering if it's because when you're reading you are continually talking as opposed to just everyday talking and chit chat. I love that she goes even crazier when Bjorn reads, because she hears my voice on and off all day, and I get to experience her every movement and am basically cuddling her 24/7, and Bjorn doesn't get to experience that. I told Bjorn, "wow she must reeeeaaally love you!" ...and he said, "yeah, or really hate me!" ....naw, I'm pretty sure she really loves him. :)

Baby update: As of today I am officially getting kicked in the ribs. :) That's okay though, because I still love it.