Name Game

If you recall from a previous post,  I had mentioned that Abigail's room was incomplete because we wanted to put her name up on one of the walls.  It's become a pretty common thing to do, actually.  I've seen it done so many ways.  Usually, decorated wood letters are hung up by ribbon, like this:

While that's cute, I was thinking about how potentially dangerous it can be, especially if an earthquake were to hit. I could just imagine that the wooden letters would start falling down one by one.  That's not good.  I know I could secure each wooden letter, but eh...I'm not all that motivated to nail each one to the walls, especially since we live in an apartment and I know we won't be here for too long, since we're hoping to buy a house in the next year or so.  So, I looked around to find a safe (while still being cute, unique and matching the room) way to display Abigail's name on her wall.  It took a while for us to decide how to do it, but today, it's finally here and done!  

We love love love it!  As you can see, her name is made out of puffy, fabric letters of different patterns.  Also, the colors match her room, as well as the little cupcakes.  I know you can't see it in the pictures, but the fabric on the cupcakes are swirly and glittery.  So cute!

We're securing them onto the walls with some of those handy dandy (and removable) hooks that stick on to the wall.  We were trying to figure out whether her name should be hung over her crib, or across from her crib and over her changing table.  We went with over her changing table, because hopefully she will see it while she's in her crib and learn how to spell her name! :)

Her room is now finished, with the exception of a few frames that I just need to hang.  Yay!

Baby's Room

The baby's room is just about done!  All the clothes have been washed and put away.  The sheets are clean and put on.  Even the diapers and wipes are ready to go!  All we need now is the baby!  :)

Here's a peak in our baby's room....

The crib's all set!  Even the mobile is ready with fresh batteries!

...even the diaper bag is stocked!

Her cabinets are full
..and the changing area on top is ready too!

The only thing missing....is that we want to put her name up on the wall with letters hanging off of  ribbons.
We'd put it up now....but her name is still a secret ;)

Spring Break and Maternity Leave!

Yesterday was my last day of work for the year, can you believe it?!  Today was my official first day of spring break, and really, of my maternity leave too!  I'd been soooo busy at work preparing for my long-term sub to take over.  I was finishing up IEPs and lesson plans for the last 10 weeks of school that I won't be there for.  It was so stressful, and I'm so glad it's over so now I can finally relax and focus on getting ready for the baby to come.  Actually, that's a lie.  I still have 2 classes that I'm taking at CSUF to clear my credential, but at least I can do all the course work from home and just attend the classes online.  Still a lot of work, but at least I don't have to go to work too.

Anyways, yesterday was a great day because after work, my friend Piyada treated me to a pregnancy massage at Bellagio Spa in Irvine!   She had asked me earlier on in the week if I had any plans after school on Friday.  Since I didn't, she made reservations at the spa for both of us to get massages.  I was SOOO surprised!  She kept telling me that she wanted to make up for not being able to make it to my baby shower at work.  Oh my goodness!  This definitely more than made up for that!  I haven't been to a spa in forever...and I know my body definitely needed it.  After our massages, we went to Zov's (a nearby restaurant) to get a bite to eat.  What a great way to get spring break started!



Today, Michael did not have work, so we did some nesting.  :)

We cleaned out both of our cars, put together the stroller, installed the car seat bases, and even washed, folded and put away some of the baby's clothes and blankets.  Tomorrow, we've got more cleaning to do, but it's exciting because the baby's room looks just about ready!  Clothes are washed and put away and all the furniture is set up.  All that's left is to finish organizing her closet, and washing her sheets and putting them on the crib.  It all looks so cute!  I'll make sure to post pictures soon.

Productive Day!

So apparently, the only way we can get things done is during 3-day weekends.  This weekend, not only did we get to see the baby during our 3D/4D ultrasound appointment....we also got some work done in the baby's room!  We put up the wall decals, and even put the sheets on the baby's crib.  Of course, we know we need to wash all the sheets and everything closer to when the baby's coming-- but we just wanted to see how it all looks together.  I didn't take many pictures, but this should give you an idea of how it looks.  If you want to see the rest, I guess you'll just have to visit!  :)

Building the Baby's Furniture

Two days ago, a BIG BIG box was waiting for us in front of our door.  Yup!  The baby's dresser arrived!  

And last night, Michael and I decided that maybe we would just "quickly put it together" before dinner.  We opened the box, and oh my goodness....there were tons and tons and tons of pieces.  We looked at the directions too and they just look very complicated.  Not many words...just diagrams, and it's not like the pieces were labeled.  We felt really overwhelmed, so I called my very handy father-in-law, Fred, hoping that maybe we could set a day or time that he could come over and help.  Apparently, my timing was perfect, because they (Fred & Mom) were on their way to dinner and invited us to come along...and then afterwards, we could all come back to the apartment and put the dresser together that night!

We had dinner at Chili's and then met back at the apartment.  Fred had also quickly gone home to pick up his electric screwdrivers.  Work immediately began, and Fred taught Michael how to use the tools to build his daughter's dresser.  It was very cute to watch.  :)

The finished product  :)

I couldn't be happier with the new dresser.  We were a little nervous because we had never seen how it would actually look in person, since we found it and bought it online.  But it's perfect!  Matches the crib and fits the room just how we hoped!

THANK YOU SO MUCH GRAMPY!  You blew us away with your generosity...especially since you had just gotten back from Ohio for work and hadn't gotten much sleep.  Our baby's so lucky to have you!  :) 

More Baby Furniture!

We have the crib and the sheets.....but now, we also have a dresser!

We'd been debating for a while about what we want to put in the baby's room.  We looked at different furniture stores, and even at pictures of friends' nurseries for their babies.  It seemed like a good idea to have a changing table as well as some kind of system of cabinets.  After a lot of thinking practically, searching, debating, and then price comparing, we found something!

This is the picture from the website.  We bought it online from JCPenny, and they had a really good sale, as well as free shipping.  We liked that there is a good amount of storage, the height is perfect just to add a changing pad on top of, it's the size that we were looking for, and also it matches the crib!  YAY!  

...the only downside is that it will need to be assembled.  But then again, I was pretty good at putting together the rest of our furniture, so hopefully it won't be so bad!  :)  We're really excited for it to get here so we can get more of the baby's room set up.  I'd like the room to be just about finished before I get too big to help Michael with setting up everything.  

Special Delivery!

Look what came in the mail today!

The baby's crib bedding set came!  YAY!  It's funny because we ordered it through Amazon.com just a few days ago, and it's already here!  The picture came out a little dark...the blanket's colors are actually a little brighter than they look here.  We're soooo excited because we actually hadn't seen the bedding set in person, only online.  And yet, it's even better than we thought it would be!  So soft, too!  It's perfect! :)

So blessed!

The Summers Family just left an hour or two ago, but I'm so excited, I just wanted to post about it.  No, haha, I didn't mean for it to sound like I'm excited that they left, but because they came to visit us in our apartment today.  With them, they brought lunch, Christmas presents, and baby furniture!  :)

We now have a crib, a co-sleeper, a travel swing, baby bouncer, a boppy, high-chair, bath seat, travel booster seat, and more.  To top it off, Branden even took care of assembly!

The co-sleeper fit perfectly in our room, just a couple feet away from the bed!
And what makes it more special is that the baby will be in the same bed
as her cousins came home to when they were first born.  <3

The crib -- set up and ready!

THANK YOU SUMMERS FAMILY!

...and especially Branden who delivered and assembled everything so quickly!

We very much enjoyed your visit, and please feel free to come by again soon!

Cleaning and clearing

We've been so busy for the past week, just trying to get the rest of the baby's room cleared....and low and behold, we are done!  (or as done as we can be for now)

We've got a couple things left in the room, like the printer, and a few boxes up against the wall.  And the closet is still pretty full of non-baby things, but we've made some good progress!  We're ready for the crib and other baby things to start filling the room.  This coming Tuesday, Nicole and Branden will be bringing the things over.  It's getting exciting!  I think when I see the crib fill the room, it will feel even more real.

20 Weeks!

At this point, my major "symptoms" are that my back and hips are achy.  It's hard to find a comfortable position while laying down.  I soooo miss being able to sleep on my stomach.  Also, I get painful leg cramps at night, and occasionally, I'll see my feet swell a bit.  My appetite is here and I don't have any food aversions, but I'm definitely not constantly eating either.  Michael still needs to remind me to eat every once in a while.  And most recently, my stomach is now starting to itch.  I put on cocoa butter lotion, but all I think it's doing is making me smell like a candy bar.  I hear it's supposed to help with stretch marks or itching...I guess time will tell.  Other than that, I'm still waiting for the baby to kick hard enough to feel on the outside.  I can only feel her flutters of movement on the inside for now.  Michael talks to my stomach all the time and encourages her to kick.  It's pretty funny.

Anyways, time goes by so fast!  I can't believe that I'm at the half way point of my pregnancy.  And just think-- in just 20 more weeks, our baby will be ready to come out of my tummy and come home with us!

Speaking of coming home...Michael and I have been hard at work clearing out our second bedroom so that we can turn it into our little girl's room.  The room was previously an office/store room...and it was FULL! My sister has been so helpful because she's been here helping us clean, sort, and haul car loads of unwanted and unneeded items to Salvation Army.  There were things too that I wish we had room to store until we have a house....but we're trying to keep only what's necessary.  It's not even just the throwing away and giving away that's the hardest part...it's the loading/unloading in the pouring rain that makes this all so inconvenient.  :(  This week, apparently, Southern California is having the biggest set of rain storms it's had in over 10 years.  All the streets are flooding, and it's almost too scary to go anywhere.  But since this is our week off and our only chance to clean...we don't have much of a choice.

Anyways, once we get the room cleaned out we can start setting up the baby's room with some furniture.  Michael's sister & brother in law, Nicole & Branden, have graciously offered to let have their crib and several other baby items.  To top it off, they're even going to deliver and help with assembly! We couldn't be more excited or thankful!

Butterflies, fairies, or flowers....oh my!

Michael and I went to Babies R Us a couple weeks ago to look for a present for our niece, Annabelle.  While we were there, we ventured towards the baby room decor to see the different nursery "themes".  The store didn't have all that many (about a dozen or so)...and most looked similar to one another.  There were princess themes, butterfly themes, and others with flowers, fairies, and little animals.  None really stood out to us.  So we went home and I looked around on the Babies R Us website.

Turns out, they have TONS more!  We even found one that we both agreed was super cute and girly...but not too pink.  Unfortunately, these themes are usually unavailable in the stores and need to be ordered online.  However, since Michael's dad gave us some money to buy something for the baby, we think we've decided to put it towards buying the crib bedding.  Also, I was able to find the same bedding on Amazon.com, who sells it a little cheaper, tax free and with free shipping and handling!  Woo hoo!  I'm sure we'll be buying it in the next couple weeks.

And since I'm sure you're curious what our "theme" is.....here it is:

CUPCAKES!  :)

The bedding is made by a company called Trend Lab, and although it's sold by Babies R Us, they don't seem to sell any of this particular theme in their stores.  Kind of a bummer, especially since we were hoping to register for some blankets that coordinate with the bedding, but that's okay.  The patterns are colorful and could match with most things. I just think it's sooooo cute!