Bloomington Baby Shower

My friends Kim, Jena and Sara threw my first shower for me last Saturday. It was held at the Broadview Mansion here in Normal and all of my "Bloomington" friends and co-workers were invited to this shower. I have another one coming up on April 11 in Rushville.

Jena made all of the food and her mom made the awesome cake and carved the watermelon. What a cute idea! The cake tasted as good as it looked, too. :) YUMMY!

I loved EVERYTHING at the shower. The decorations were so fun! I think every aspect was covered. Great food, Great friends and lots of GOODIES for Baby C. One of my favorite things was the book bin. Everyone was asked to bring a favorite book - new or used - and write a message inside to Baby C. It was fun to read all of the messages when I got home.

My friend Nanci MADE this blanket! It is so cute - pink on one side with a quilt pattern on the other side. It's even personalized - Baby Cunningham 2009.

I got a nice selection of things off the registries, as well as some other fun things, including the cutest clothes, of course!! Baby C. will definitely be fashionable!!!

My sister Tammy and niece Ella, as well as my good friend Casey came up Friday night to spend the night. Then Bridgett and the girls and my mom came up Saturday for the shower and then they all stayed all night at the Double Tree whirlpool suite. The girls had fun swimming! I went to hang out and then came back home to sleep in my own bed. Here are a few pictures of the girls at the shower, along with Shayna's daughter, Bella. Pretty soon there will be another girl to add to the mix! :)

Take one...

Take two...

I had a fun day and weekend. I can't say thanks enough to Kim, Jena and Sara for throwing such a wonderful shower for me and to everyone that came. I can't wait for our baby daughter to get here and now I am even more anxious!!

More pics...

Thanks everyone!!!!!!!!!!

Oh yeah, and THANK YOU to Katie H. for taking all of the pictures!!! I can't wait to scrapbook!! :)

Size Matters

I am CRACKING up right now. Thanks to 'The Daily Kick' email I receive, I now have some great comebacks for all of those random comments people make about the belly bump. I am sure I am even guilty of making some stupid comments, but now that I'm pregnant, I'll know what to say to another pregnant person and WHAT NOT TO SAY! :)

Can you believe those people who make wildly inappropriate comments (you're so big! you're so small!) about your pregnant-person size? Neither can we. How rude! We polled our sassiest preggo-lady sources and got a few great comebacks. Next time, you'll be prepared!

You're so HUGE:

• "Yeah, I'm actually a week late and my water could break at any minute -- stand back!"
• "I know, I gotta start cutting back on the burgers and booze." (My Fave)
• "I'll try to take that as a compliment."
• "Yeah, but I'm going to lose 20 pounds in a day. What about you?" (2nd Fave)
• "Well, ya know, I'm growing a life. What have you done today?"
  

You're so TINY!

• "Doesn't feel that way to those of us looking down at the belly."
• "I've decided to gain all of my pregnancy weight in my ass." (HILARIOUS!)

Dream

I had the WEIRDEST dream last night...actually 2 weird ones but I can only remember the first one. I laid there for a while after I woke up in the middle of the night with this one not being able to go back to sleep...

I apparently had the baby but Travis and I could NOT agree on a name. (We haven't really decided still) but in the dream, he said ABSOLUTELY not to Ava. We couldn't bring baby home until we signed papers with the baby's name on it. She was born in Peoria so we go back and go into this room where there are tons of babies lined up (sort of like they are at the hospital) but there wasn't any glass between you and the babies and the last name is on the end of the little bed written in marker and taped on. We tell them we are there for our baby and they hand me this probably about 2 year old. I'm like, uh...my baby is 3 days old! This is NOT our baby. The toddler was carrying on a conversation with us. They looked at all of the babies lined up and could not find our baby. Then I think I said it was a boy. Finally they found the baby. Our name tag had to be folded over since it was longer than the width of the bed which made finding her harder. I know there were some other odd parts but I won't go on!

WHAT? How weird!! Obviously it's on my mind that the due date is fastly approaching. Not that I have any reason to think I'd deliver early, it still freaks me out to not have things ready. I told Travis tonight that my goal is to have the nursery done by spring break, which he said---'Oh, no problem! It will be done way before that.' So---we'll see!! :) I'd like to at least have the crib put together and then the rest should easy. :)

My Day

What a day! All day I've felt rushed! I started out the morning by going to the doctor after calling with some concerns about varicose veins. My family has a history of them (mom, aunts, gma) so when I saw a bruised area on my leg that I knew was not a bruise, I was freaking out! I went ahead and made my appointment for this morning at 8:25 hoping I could still get to school by 8:55 for my first class (what was I thinking?). I told the teacher coming for art that if I wasn't there, I'd be there shortly, which she was fine with. But then I get to the dr. office and the nurse I have my appointment with isn't even there yet. Then they get me in and do all of the routine checks - blood pressure, leave a urine sample, etc. The nurse looks at my legs then decides she wants to go ahead and listen to the heartbeat (fun, of course) but the whole time I'm stressing about getting to school. I went ahead and called the school office to have one of our TAs cover my class til I got there (thank you Steph M.!!). It all worked out, and the nurse said the veins are just a cluster of spider veins which will get better after baby. It might have a small area that is varicose but nothing to be concerned about right now. Really all I can do is wear compression hose to help. Let me tell ya----NOT COMFORTABLE! and to top it off, it leaves a line on my belly where they are pulled up so it makes it look bumpy. Real attractive!!!!!!! But I guess it's that for a few months for veins forever!!!!

Anyway, I finally get to school and all is well. I have a dentist appointment scheduled for 4:00 and duty after school til 3:20ish. I see that Travis has texted me: "I am an idiot. I need you." I forgot to ask him if he meant to say more or what but I thought that was an interesting way of putting it. I go ahead and call him to find out that after taking his truck in to the shop today (spedometer not working), he left all of his keys with the dealership, got a ride home from work from a co-worker to realize HE HAS NO WAY TO GET IN THE HOUSE! I'm like, ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I have to drive all the way home from school - immediatly - in order to let him in and get back to the other side of town for my dentist appointment at 4 (which is about 3 mins from school). I deal with it--to realize CRAP, I need gas in my car. I don't know how long it's been flashing that I have 0 miles left. I know you can go for about 20 or so miles (well, I think) but I don't know when it started flashing. So, the whole time I'm thinking I am going to run out of gas and I don't really have time to stop and get it. I come home, have Travis take my car to get gas in it up the street so I can at least freshen up a little because right after my dentist appt. I had plans to go to a jewelry party at a co-workers house--and I REALLY wanted to go.

I get to my dentist appt. only a few minutes late, which I called to let them know and they were fine with it. I even have time to stop by school on my way to the party after my dentist appt. to do a few things and also decided to look up some directions to Susan's house (trying to be prepared). My friend Sara told me the address (house #14). I get there, thinking, ok, this is familiar. Park behind Sara's car. Go up to the house, ring the bell. Her dog is barking so I'm just waiting for her to answer and the door opens and it's a DAD of a student of mine (she lives in the area where a lot of our students live). I'm like..."oops, I think I'm at the wrong house!" Funny thing is, I was just at their house a few weeks ago helping the boy scouts earn their art badge. I don't even realize I'm walking up to the same house I was at prior to today. I felt like such an idiot!!! I had never been to Susan's house but knew she has a golden retriever so when I hear and see the dog barking, I think, ok, I'm at the right house. Then to make matters worse, she didn't invite any of her neighbors and said to say it was a school meeting if the mom asked about it. I had to break the news to her that I told him that I was looking for her house for a jewelry party. OOPS! Everyone got a laugh out of that one when I told them. By the way, her house # is 13...so not sure where I got the 14. Sara gave me the CORRECT information.

I think part of the problem is I don't get enough sleep! There just aren't enough hours in the day and once again I'm getting to bed at nearly midnight on a school night but just had to get this off my chest. :)

I did get some really nice jewelry at the party!!!!!

It's a GIRL!!--for sure!

Well, this morning was my dr. appointment where I had to drink the orange sugary drink. I drank it in about 3 or 4 minutes and actually it wasn't too bad! The bad part was having to drink it so fast and not have any water or anything to eat. So, I go in and since the ultrasound tech. had a few minutes before her first appointment, she said she would just do our ultrasound if I didn't mind. That way I wouldn't have to go back this afternoon, for my actual appointment. This was the first appointment I didn't have Travis go to because I figured that there was no reason he needed to go and watch me have my blood drawn for the glucose test, but I figured, oh well! He's seen all of the ultrasounds before this so it would be ok.

Well, the last time I had an ultrasound (and had eaten a normal breakfast), I got hot and lightheaded laying there flat on my back so I should've been cautious! What was I thinking? With no food in me and a full bottle of sugar, it only took about 3 minutes and I realized I needed to sit up. She was like, "Didn't this happen to you last time?" --very nicely, of course and got me a cool paper towel. :) Then the room started getting black and my ears felt numb. I REALLY thought I was going to pass out (or vomit). She helped me stand up and yelled for a nurse. All I could think was, 'GREAT! I'm going to pass out and Travis isn't here!!' After a few minutes it started to pass but I was still feeling icky! She tried to get a few 'cutesy' sono pics but I wasn't feeling too comfortable trying again (this time I sat partially up). She said to stop in next time and if she has time, she'll get us some more. Anyway, we DID get confirmation that IT'S A GIRL!! We were chatting at first about how we are doing the nursery and she said that we are pretty safe with the pink! YAY! The picture just looks like a big blob to me but she said she saw the girl parts. :)

After we were done, the nurse got me some crackers with peanut butter and an M&M cookie (I felt special!) and some water and I was feeling much better! Hopefully my reaction doesn't mean anything and my test will come back ok and I won't have gestational diabetes! I forgot to ask when I'll know, but I'm assuming within a week.

Bring on the pink!!!!! oh wait---it's already been "Brought-en" :)

Bedding

I'm so excited!! Last week I found this pink and white floral bedding at TJ Max - totally by chance! I was already having a hard time deciding on what bedding I actually wanted. There was the cute pink and brown one from Walmart...but then I decided I'd like to incorporate some green in, too. IMAGINE THAT!! :) I found a cute one from Babies R Us next but it was a little more than I really wanted to spend. Then by chance found this one at TJ Max and the sheet sitting in front is from Pottery Barn Kids which goes PERFECTLY! It has 2 shades of pink - the hot pink matches exactly and it also has a lighter shade of pink, and green, AND brown! I couldn't believe it! They had ONE at Pottery Barn Kids so I was excited to actually see it in person and be able to buy it. The bedding came with a sheet, but this way I can incorporate the other colors. We also bought the little lamp shade and the round glass lamp from IKEA (among a few other things). My registry items from Pottery Barn Kids will also go great! They have the cutest canvas bins in green and brown with white polka dots...as well as dresser knobs. We were able to pick up our crib and changing table tonight too so hopefully soon we can get everything put together. Oh and I also found a boppy pillow at Babies R Us that is part of the bedding set. :)

Happy Valentine's Day

Travis and I had a great Valentine's Day! Travis knew I really wanted to go to The Land of Nod store so he planned a full weekend of shopping for me in Schaumburg--he printed out information, addresses, reviews etc. We also went out to a few nice dinners.

Travis was IN HEAVEN at Texas de Brazil--a steakhouse where you have a little card (notice the green Travis has and the red I have in the pics). If you have your card on green, you are ready for meat and if you have it on red, you are takin' a break. In addition, they have a HUGE salad bar, mashed potatoes and fried bananas (Travis also LOVES...me not so much!) that go along with it. It WAS delicious even though I'm not a huge meat person. I could live off pasta. :) It was similar to Fogo de Chao; where we went in Chicago last year. Anyway, when your card is on green, these guys walk around with a huge hunk of meat fresh from the open fire and they slice off a piece for you (steak, chicken wrapped in bacon, lamb, sausage, etc.). I was still full the next day I think! We also went to PF Changs--Chinese is another favorite of Trav's and I RARELY ever want. I was ok with Trav picking where we went to eat because he endured a whole weekend of shopping and DIDN'T complain once!!!!!!! He even carried my bags! :-) We went to The Land of Nod outlet (not so great for what we were looking for), Pottery Barn Kids (I WAS IN HEAVEN!), IKEA, and Woodfield Mall.

I recently purchased a bedding set at TJ Max (very cheap!) originally from Babies R Us so was hoping to find some things to go with it. See my next post. :)