22 Weeks

- We transformed the office into the guest room. Andrew is pumped because his recliner and play station still fit nicely in the room. Lord, help us.
- The nursery is cleared out (somewhat). The dresser and changing table have been painted and waxed. We bought a sample of paint called "breathless". I'm still iffy about it...it might be too light. The first new thing we did in the nursery was install a new fan/light fixture.
- I used Hayley Hayes' promotional code and ordered a Seven Sling and only had to pay shipping! A $43 purchase for $16. Yes. Check out "funny mom stories"!
- Claire started moving more when I was still and sitting, but music was on.
- I've been eating a lot of Oreos lately. Must. Stop.
- We got our health insurance statements back and my cholesterol is high! The doctors haven't said anything, but I really need to start exercising (and food watching) a little more closely! (Side note: mom said this is because I didn't fast before having blood drawn.)
- I've been very very bad about choosing something to make and eat for dinner. I'm sooooo indecisive!
- Spent some time with Jamie and Millie! I spent about an hour looking for my keys that morning to find them in Jamie's birthday present.
- I decided "breathless" is the paint color! Time to start painting...sometime.
- All furniture that we have is in the nursery. Hopefully the crib fits.
- Mom came!!!! She came on Monday, and we shooooooped for the little miss! I loved it. On Tuesday we did some hard core deep cleaning! Mom is a power cleaner. I couldn't have done this without her. We did a lot of home shopping and had great food.
- I've been getting a pretty bad pain in what I assume is my stomach every evening. It feels different from heart burn. Like a bruised spot. Maybe it's just growth?
- 3 times now, I've got her on video moving and sent them to Andrew. If he can't feel it, he should at least see it! I'm going to share one...don't judge. Also, I am very thankful that I don't have stretch marks (yet), so the  creases on the belly are from my super awesome, cozy, Andrew's old boxer, pj bottoms.
- Last nights routine: woke up to use the restroom 4 times between 10:30 and 12:45. Woke up 2 more times to use the restroom. Was up at 5:35 with Andrew, and then stayed up for about an hour to have a sneeze attack/runny nose/bloody nose. Fell asleep and woke up around 8ish when Andrew got home and asked him to close the bathroom door while he showered. Slept until 9:45. Thank GOODNESS it's summer vacation!

(22 weeks on 7/24)

The color sample of "Breathless". 

Video of Claire moving. I don't know if it works. 

I'm lovin' it

You should read that title as if you're singing the McDonald's theme song…just FYI.

I realize that a lot of people find pregnancy to be awkward or uncomfortable or ugly. I understand now how those feelings could come into someone's mind, but that is absolutely not how I feel about this whole process.

I've always wanted to be pregnant. I've always thought that it looks somewhat glamorous. I've always thought that pregnant women of all shapes and sizes are absolutely, 100%, the most beautiful women on the planet. I was hoping that I would feel this way about myself when I became pregnant, and I am happy to report that I DO!

I haven't struggled with self esteem or self consciousness since I got braces. The only thing that ever bothered me about my appearance enough to make me shy or nervous to speak to others was the gap between my teeth. After that, I've been pretty happy. Sure there were times where I didn't like the way clothes fit, or how my stomach looked in that swimsuit, or the haircut that I had, but I still went out and lived my life. Whatevs. I've been really skinny and I've gained a lot of weight really quickly. Your friends shouldn't be your friends based on how you look. Am I right? Recently (within the past 2-3 years) I've really struggled with some stomach and bloating issues. I really hated it. I couldn't wear a fitted shirt or dress because I knew that I would have some super bloatage by the end of the day. This shaped my love for Piko's…bless those flowy miracles. I found some (at least I thought so) great alternatives for my wardrobe to accommodate my gas bubble - as I so lovingly called it.

Well, now I'm pregnant. Getting bigger in the stomach is part of the process. I. LOVE. IT. I love the way I look and feel so far in this pregnancy. I love that I can wear tight shirts and not feel self conscious of the stomach sticking way out in front of me. I love maternity pants and I don't think I will ever give those things up. I love that I am at the stage now where pretty much anyone that sees me knows that I am with child. I love that I haven't gained a lot of weight and it seems that most of the weight gained is in the belly region. I love that I'm pregnant in the summer because I love being tan. I've come to find out that tan and pregnant is my happy place. (Ohmygosh…how vain did that sound!?!?!) I have never been more comfortable in my own skin as I am right now.

I know that my thoughts on all of this could still change as I have 17 weeks and 6 days to go with this whole thing. I wanted to document how I am feeling right now. I also know that not everyone feels this way about being pregnant and that's ok! I am so very thankful, and have said this to Andrew recently, that I love being pregnant as much as I hoped and thought I would. This is a total blessing and I refuse to complain or take it for granted.

15 weeks

19 weeks

Almost 22 weeks

Furniture Makeover

Here's a fun fact: when you are the baby of the family, an aunt by the time you're 13, lover of all your friends babies and then go through infertility, you know exactly what you want by the time you have a baby yourself. I had names and nursery plans picked out a while ago and now I seriously can.not.wait. to put everything together!

A few weeks ago (before we were 100% sure that the babe was a girl), we went furniture shopping at local flea markets. For both genders I really wanted a nursery that was some what eclectic and shabby chic, but that still looked nice and put together. For a girl nursery, I wanted something very calm and sweet. We are going with a soft blue color for the walls. Her furniture will be a mix of whites with a few dark wood pieces thrown in. Her walls will have a mixture of gold, white, and soft pink accents. Her bedding and other fabrics will also be a mix of white, gold, and soft pink. Ahhhh…It's going to be my most favorite room. But I digress...

At the flea markets Andrew spotted a potting table. He took one look at it and decided that it was what he wanted to use for the changing table. It is really cool and really unique. It would absolutely look good in a boy or girl's nursery, so we got it! I thought we were going to find a dresser to use as a changing table too, but I love that he picked this piece out. After we found the changing table, we knew we had to find a dresser. We decided to look for a tall chest of drawers instead of a long dresser to change things up a bit. We found a perfect one! The hardware on it was a little girly, but I knew the handles could be changed easily for a boy.

I decided to repaint both furniture pieces with a chalk paint that I found at Joann's fabric store. It was less than half the cost of Annie Sloan paint and I absolutely love how easy it was to use and how great it looks!

It's an off white color, but it doesn't look too creamy. 

I started with the dresser. It was already painted in a really cool way, but it wasn't the color I wanted for Claire's nursery. I forgot to take a pic before I took the drawers out, but all I had to do was remove the drawers and paint 2 coats on the body and drawers and it was done! I used the original hardware and spray painted the handles gold. 

Before

Before

After 1 coat.

After (and in the nursery where it will stay). I plan to hang her coming home dress either in a frame or by itself on a hanger of some sort up above it. 

The changing table was super easy as well. After just 2 coats, it was finished. Love it! 

Before

After. You can see a sample of the paint that we are going to use for the walls and the cross was spray painted in the same gold as the handles on the chest of drawers. I hope to put all of her lotions, wipes, and things on that top shelf. The changing pad on the wide shelf. Tall baskets underneath, and hopefully a 2 tiered shelf of some sort beside it to hold extra diapers and other necessities.  I hope to put a collage of some sort above this. 

When both pieces were finished, I did cover over them with the Annie Sloan wax. Thankfully Leslie had some left over and it didn't take much to cover both pieces. I was also able to paint both pieces out in the garage when we were having our awesome week of 70-80 degree weather…in July…in Arkansas. Yes, please. 

I can't wait to see the whole room complete! 

21 weeks and THE perfect dress!

(21 weeks on July 17th. This picture was actually taken on the day…score!)

- Lots of sleep this week from getting thrown out of whack for the triathlon (2 hour naps…like every day).

- Started painting the furniture for Claire's room!

- Heart. Burn. It's funny because just last week I was asked about heartburn and I said that it wasn't too bad. That was the end of that. Every night, about an hour after dinner, no matter what I've had, the heart burn strikes and lingers until I fall asleep. I've tried different types of food, drinking milk, talking walks after dinner and tums. It's just something that I'm going to have to deal with…so be it. Maybe she will have a lot of hair! :)

- I met the teacher that I will be subbing for while she is on maternity leave. I was happy to meet with her and get things squared away for the first three weeks of the school year…in kindergarten…I can do this… I will say that it is nice to know that I won't just be sitting around bored waiting on the baby. I do plan to sub through at least mid-October at my school.

- I got to have lunch with Kristie and Michelle from school. It miss seeing them! I was walking out of the restaurant when Kristie reminded me that I didn't pay…whoopsie (pregnancy brain is real)!

- Once a week (starting last week), Leslie, Kaitlyn, Heather and I are joining some girls for a bible study called "Loving Well" by Beth Moore. It's so great and just what I need to hear and be doing during the summer. 

- Sweet girl still kicks a lot and mostly on the right side or below the belly button. She LOVES to move when I'm relaxing right after moving around for quite some time and she also wiggles a lot when I'm laying on my side to sleep. She's ready to party. (I'll party with you all night long when you're here my sweet child!)

- Bought a new ceiling fan for the nursery.

- I think we've decided that my shower will be on September 20th! I'm so excited already!

I found THE MOST PERFECT COMING HOME DRESS!!!! I was very picky about this dress. I want it to be timeless so that Claire can have it as a keep sake for her child someday. I wanted to love looking at it because it will hang in her nursery. It's exactly what I wanted!! It's all white, smocked, and size newborn (very hard to find)! It even came with bloomers and a bonnet. I'm thinking just bloomers and bonnet for a newborn pic…I die!!!

Gender Reveal Party

On July 5th we got to tell our families (and a few friends) together what our sweet baby was going to be! My mom was nice enough to host the party. My entire family was already in town to celebrate the 4th and throw a surprise 60th Birthday Bash for mom. She sent out some super sweet invitations and everyone was invited to come and join us for a fish fry and then the gender reveal. 

I decorated with light blue and light pink with just a touch of chevron and gold. The onsies hanging on the wall say "He or She". The gold frames and chevron napkins are from Hobby Lobby. The baby's 18 week and 15 week ultrasound profiles were framed as well. Since mom had a big lunch planned, I only got fruit, spicy crackers, pink and blue punch and the MOST DELICIOUS cookies ever made to put on the table. A precious mom from my classroom seriously makes the best cookies. She made cookies for both the girl and boy name monogram and then some black and white chevron cookies. I'm really obsessed with them, and I didn't get to eat one…I'm not bitter about it though…

Mom also outdid herself by hiring a photographer to come a take a few family pictures before the party and then take pictures of the reveal. Unfortunately, the photographers camera had a malfunction and the pictures were lost. I was really sad about this, but it is NOT the end of the world because my awesome SIL made sure to get a few on my camera as well, and some family members got iPhone pics and video! There are a few things that I don't have pictures of, but I will cherish the ones that I do have. 

We had our guests wear a blue or pink clothespin to show their guess about the baby's gender. We had the photographer take "team" pics. These are the only pics I'm sad about not having. I do however have a candid boy team pic! The majority of the guests thought boy, and according to my family's history, I don't blame them! I thought boy, too!

(The girl team was: Andrew, Dad, Doug, Katie, Lauren, Annie, Mama Jo, Aunt Mary, Keely, Mrs. Carol and Mr. Herald. **Michele and Nate had to be in both pics because they KNEW what the baby was!**)

Our plan was to do the reveal by suspending a box in a tree, pulling a rope, and then balloons and confetti would drop from the box. Simple, right? Wrong. The box required a lot of tape to hold the confetti in. This extra tape caused the box to not open when we pulled the rope. Whatevs. Andrew had to get in a chair and open the box himself. (By the way, Andrew told me earlier in the morning that something was going to go wrong with this box…I should learn to listen to him.)

(We are looking at Annie who was totally pumped about another girl cousin!)

I'm not going to lie. The overall reaction is not quite what I was expecting. I'm going to write it off as "shock", but there were not NEARLY has many shouts as I thought there would be. BUT the pictures of faces are priceless. We all knew Mary Lou would have a great expression, but Caliway and Annie are a close second for best faces. 

(Look at Annie and Caliway…my heart.)

After the reveal we all talked about how wonderful and beautiful Claire is going to be. We did talk about that, right? I got to spend a little time with Brooke and Warren and Parker who took time out of their Saturday to come and celebrate with us. We took a few more pictures and then spent time together as a family swimming in the pool. It was the first time for all Goodson's and Curtis' to be together since our wedding. I loved it. 

(Claire's "Goodson" cousins.)

(The girls.)

(Lauren is excited for a "baby"!)

(Thank you for coming Seals family!)

(Thanks to Keely for taking time away from studying for the Bar to come and celebrate. And I guess thanks to Kevin, too..)

Halfway Happenings: 20 Weeks

- On July 9th (1 day before 20 weeks), we had our appointment and ultrasound.
- Claire measured 20 weeks and 4 days and weighed 12 oz!
- Her head was nestled right on my bladder…I knew it was something! I was having to wait to use the restroom to give my sample to the doctor and I just knew something was making that very difficult.
- Her arms and head are to the left of (and just below) my belly button. Her feet were on the right side. One foot was just poking out straight to the right and the other was up at the top of my uterus. The right is where I feel the most movement.
- Because of her obsession with snuggling my bladder, we couldn't see her face…like at all. Dr. G scheduled another "limited scan" for our next appointment to see it. He wanted them to have a good picture on file and I don't mind getting to see her again!
- Dr. G said that on the outside, my belly is measuring small, but Claire is right on track.
- Heartburn/acid indigestion has started a little (getting worse)
- Still getting up once or twice a night to use the restroom.
- Allergies and nose bleeds have been pretty bad this week. I blame Russellville and Bogg Springs.
- I still feel the need to nap every day. And I do. And I don't feel bad about it.
- I actually saw where she kicked once.
- She gets very nervous when I'm really paying attention or when her dad puts his hand on my belly. She completely stops moving.
- We worked on and finished some home projects. We painted the front door and the shutters black.
- Andrew, Blake and Jacob did a triathlon!

(20 weeks on July 10th)

For your viewing pleasure. A pic to prove that not all shirts can be made into maternity shirts…

19 Weeks

- It's a GIRL!!! We had our gender reveal party on Saturday!

- Claire got to spend sometime with her entire family this week. First we were with my family and went to Wild River Country. I rode the rapids. It was fun, but the spinning made me nauseous. We were in Russellville with my entire family until Sunday. We went to Wickes for few days to spend some time at Bogg Springs. I tried the first parts of the ropes course and then watched everyone else finish and go down the zip line. 

- I spent the last few days spending a lot of time outside! Weather it was in the pool or playing around with the babes, I was moving!

- I am exhausted after all that moving. 

- This girl is a kicking machine! The kicks have changed from flutters to actual poke type kicks. I feel them mostly right under my belly button. 

- Andrew felt her kick for the first time! Only once. She gets shy when we want her to move around. 

- I am LOVING calling her by her name! She is no longer an "it". I sometimes feel silly calling her by name though because it still doesn't seem real. I even used the phrase "your daughter" this week. 

- I am obsessed. OBSESSED. With her. 

- Now that the news is out, I am ready to get started on her nursery!

- Going to the doctor today (19 weeks, 6 days). We get to see her again. I'm not sad about it. 

(19 weeks on July 3rd)

What's In A Name?

You wanna know what's tricky? Choosing a name for a person. You want to love it. You want him or her to love it. You try and think of any possible way for it to be made fun of. You (or at least I) think of how it will sound for a baby, a teenager, and a grandparent. This is a permanent decision, it needs to be a good one.

Well, for my sweet boy, we found a name we loved a while ago. 

RHETT HODGES 

It's classy. It's southern.  It's not commonly used. The only way to make fun of it is to call him "Rhett Butler", and that's not so bad! Hodges is perfect because it's Cherri's maiden name which makes it Pappa (and nana's) last name. Pappa was the only boy, he had girls, and when he passed away there was no one left (in our immediate family) to pass on that name. I love it. It's the perfect name for a gentleman. 

Now for my sweet girl. She's a tricky one. I've always liked different girl names and could never settle on just one, until I heard it...[CLAIRE]. Can you hear the hallelujah chorus? I did when I said the name out loud. It's stunning. It's timeless. It's perfect. Claire is not so easy to come up with a middle name for. We've bounced around a million: Maryl (nickname for Mary Lou), Avery, Ellis, Layne, Katherine, even Davis. I am dead set on her middle name being a family name, so I was determined to pick one and fall in love. The top contenders were Claire Katherine (the name of my cousin who passed away), Claire Avery (the middle name of Pappa who passed away), or Claire Ellis (a last name from my maternal grandmothers family tree). We juggled and juggled said them together and looked at monograms, and we chose our name. 

CLAIRE AVERY

Ahhh, it's just so sweet! The ONLY thing I don't like about it is that I know several people that have used one of the 2 names. However, we now have 2 perfect names to help us always remember our sweet Pappa! 

We can't wait to meet you, Rhett Hodges or Claire Avery! 

Our family (and eventually everyone else) will find out on Saturday what our little one will be!