throwback thursday: baby shower

So let me first interrupt this normally scheduled blog post to say that my lil man is officially 4 months old today! I cant believe its already been 4 months! man time flies! If you follow me on instagram then you probably already saw this photo, but I still have to share it.

Since his 4 month checkup appointment isnt until tomorrow, I probably wont get around to doing a 4 months post till this weekend. Plus, I need to catch up on posting his 1-3 months posts. (yeah I know, Im a big procrastinator)

Now, back to this weeks throwback thursday, topic: baby shower.

 

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So I first want to give a huge shout out to my sister, mom, & awesome friends (you know who you are) You all did an absolutely fabulous job on my baby shower!

The theme was monkeys. My sis was the host but she let me pick out my theme and do the guest list. We invited almost 85people! I think about 45 showed. The location was already decided. Like all our other family events, it would take place at my parents house. Its a great entertainment/party house with plenty of space inside and outside for family & friends to be comfortable but still involved in the party. The date was set, it would be Saturday April 21st, (I would be 33 weeks pregnant) and the invites were sent!

Invites

I actually started off the morning by getting ready at a family friends house before the party started. They happen to be out of town due to a family death, but had told me I was more than welcome to use there house to get ready. You may ask why I wouldnt just get ready at my own house? Well, you see, I love taking baths, but unfortunately due to my height, I dont really ever fit into any baths comfortably. Now add a huge round belly and I really dont fit. And see, this particular friend of ours has an absolutely awesome renovated bathroom. With.....here it comes......a huge tub! So I figured Id pamper myself!

sorry if some of you think this is inappropriate, i thought it was cute of my tummy

Once I arrived to the shower, I was overwhelmed with all the friends and family that were able to come and help celebrate the anticipated arrival of our little one. My sis had organized lots of food, drinks, decorations, and CUPCAKES!!! she knows how much I love cupcakes, and these were absolutely precious!

cupcakes from sweeter days bake shop

And the flavors were even better!!! My favorite, which was what the giant cupcake on the top was made of, was orange creamsicle. omg.to.die.for. But we also had strawberries & cream, banana cream, carrot cake, chocolate banana, and I think 1 or 2 more, but the flavors slip my mind.

Then there was a surprise delivery. I was told to go to the front door. When I opened it, here was a flower delivery guy. You see, when my sister had her baby shower, my father was out of town, and his way of showing he cared while he was gone, was to send her flowers with a cute lil note. And even though my father wasnt out of town (he was actually in the other room at the time) he still sent me flowers. If you knew my father, this is a big gesture. Hes not normally the one to show emotions.

We are so lucky that we have so many people out there that loved Matthew even before he was born. The amount of gifts we got was just overwhelming. So many things. My mom went crazy (you can see her gift is the stroller with the blue "Grandma is simply the best" outfit). My sis went crazy (pack and play not pictured). And the rest of our family and friends went overboard as well.

One of my favorite gifts was actually a personalized rocking horse from one of hubbys childhoood friends. She personalizes it for each person she gives one too. You can see the image below.

There were so many wonderful people who came. Everyone had a great time. We played a couple games including the cant say baby game and celebrity baby names crossword puzzle. We ended up not playing the dirty diaper game because someone said it was gross. I actually find it funny, and convinced my best friend to play by herself once everyone had left. But we did have advise cards that everyone filled out, I loved reading all the things people wrote. My fav was actually one from one friend who wrote another friends phone number on it and simply "call her to babysit." lol.
And I think that basically sums it all up. I had a Great time and I'll never forget all the wonderful people who helped celebrate.
What was your baby shower theme? Who hosted it and where? Any favorite gifts or memories? I wanna here.

Next week Ill be talking about all of our ultrasounds we did. We got to do two 3D ones with lots of pictures!

throwback thursdays: gender reveal

This weeks Throwback Thursday is kinda short and sweet. Its about how we found out whether we were going to be playing with dirt and tonka trucks or makeup and barbies.

 

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As I've mentioned before, I am 1 of only 2 girls in the family. Growing up I loved having an older sister. She may not have liked have a tattle-tale younger sister who always told on followed her around, but eventually I realized that I would one day want 2 little girls to be able to share the same kind of bond my sister and I had. But for some reason, I always had it in the back of my mind that I wanted a little boy. And I wanted a little boy first. (you know, the whole older protective brother thing). But then when I got pregnant, Matt and I were convinced that because we both wanted a boy first, then the baby growing in my belly had to be a girl. And we thought that since everyone else that we knew were having boys, then we would most likely be the one to end up with a girl.

Now please do not mistake my want for a little boy first, to mean that I wouldnt have absolutely adored having a little girl growin in there. I just had it in my mind that I wanted a lil boy first. And of course the hubby wanted a little boy too, for a multitude of reasons. But we were so convinced that we were going to have a lil girl that we even had a name picked out for a girl already (Emma Rose).

Now usually the earliest a doctor might, and that a big MIGHT, tell you the gender through an ultrasound is around 16 weeks. But my doctor said that I would just find out at the anatomy scan I had scheduled at 20weeks. Lucky for me, I have a close friend who I met at my first job at age 16, who now happens to be an ultrasound tech at a local hospital. She also happened to be pregnant, with her 2nd son, and was due only 3 weeks before me.

me 32 weeks  |  ciji 35 weeks

So when I first called and told her I was pregnant, she immediately said she would do a gender scan for me when I got to 16 weeks. So only 2 days after Christmas 2011, Matt took off work early and we went to the hospital she worked out to find out.

But, you see, during the previous 16 weeks (when I swore up and down it was going to be a girl) I had also been pinteresting away cute ideas for a gender reveal. Should I have her right it on a piece of paper and put it in an evelope? Have my sis take it to the bakery and get the inside of a cake dyed blue or pink? Have her fill up a box with pink or blue balloons? Oh so many choices! But see Im also very impatient. like.extremely. And hubby wasnt too fond of these gender reveal ideas (yes hes very impatient too). So after my friend did the initial scan and decided she wanted to take me to a different room to use one of the better ultrasound machines, just to make sure, I couldnt help but axiously wonder if it was a boy or girl.

We went to the other room. Where another tech just so happen to be, who also confirmed with my friends guess at the gender, and now both Matt and I are chomping at the bit. Knowing these two people who stand in front of us know whether were going to have a son or daughter, and we dont? omg I couldnt handle it. But also didnt want my sis to be upset that we wouldnt be doing one of the gender reveal ideas we came up with. At one point my friend even said, "Just blame it on me, tell you sis I slipped at told you, not knowing you wanted it to be a secret." We all laughed. But in the end, I couldnt resist. So I had her tell me.

Yes, my son may end up killing me years from now, but this is the first picture of his "lil guy" as my niece calls it. Hubby couldnt control himself when he found out. He was excited beyond belief. I just couldnt comprehend that it was indeed a little boy. What its not a girl in there? is all I kept saying. And my friend and the other tech just kept saying "Oh trust us, its a boy in there!" They even said that normally they wont say for sure (like 100%) if its a certain gender, but both of them said that from what they saw it was most def a little boy.

And a couple weeks later at our anatomy scan, the tech there confirmed as well. Now, I couldnt not imagine not having a little boy. He is so precious, and I cant wait for one day when I can give him another sibling, whether it be brother or sister!

Oh and for those of you who have been following along for a while now, I guess Suzanne's fertility reading was somewhat wrong. We had a boy, not a girl, but we did find out in October, however, it was before my missed cycle not after.

How did you find our the gender of your baby? Dont forget to link up! Next week Ill be sharing how my baby shower went.

 

throwback thursdays: dont jynx anything

This weeks Throwback Thursday is all about how we told family and friends about our great news.

 

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When I was pregnant I was definitely one of those types that was scared to tell anyone just in case it might jynx something. You see, I have a very dear friend of mine who went through the excitement of finding out, telling everyone, and then suffering from a miscarriage. I saw how hard it was on her to have to tell people she was no longer pregnant. The sadness in her voice and her eyes was enough to scare the crap out of me if I were to ever get pregnant. So I promised myself that when I did get pregnant I would make sure to wait at least the 12 weeks before I went and told the universe.
However, my husband didnt quite understand this whole concept. He was excited beyond belief and didnt know why we wouldnt want to share this with our friends and family. I tried to explain to him that I was excited too, but god forbid anything happen to the baby I wouldnt want to have to talk about it with everyone. So we both agreed not to say anything. About a 3 days later, after an anxious husband pleaded with me, we agreed that he would be allowed to tell his mom and sister if I could do the same.

Now, for those of you who dont know me real well, my sister and I are extremely close. Like BFF's x1000 (ok a lil extreme but you get the point). So I knew I would have to tell her some way special. Since it was my neice's 5th birthday the following day and we were all getting together for dinner, I figured it would be a perfect time to give my sis a little present too. See when we were growing up our mom always made a joke on our birthdays that she was the one who deserved a present, because she was the one who had to go through 12+ hours of labor. My sis and I always used to make fun of her but I thought I could use it to my advantage.

So the next night at dinner I told me sis (and mom) to come out back with me because since she was the one who went through labor she deserved a present too! So my mom, sis, husband and I all went out back and I handed her a little bag. Inside was the pregnancy test with a little ribbon on it as the present. When my sis opened the bag and saw the stick she couldnt even control herself and burst out in tears. My mom didnt understand as she hadnt seen the stick inside and kept asking "What is it? What is it?" So I handed her the lil bag and told her to open it as well. Again here came the waterworks. Everyone was so excited. My sis was a lil upset that i didnt call her the minute I had peed on the stick, but we laughed about it. I let her know that I was planning on calling her the minute it was confirmed by a doctor at my appt the following week.

First ultrasound of our lil boy (we didnt know the gender at that time) at 6.5 weeks.

Then I let them know that this was to be kept a secret until Matt and I were ready to tell everyone else. Now you thought it was hard for me and Matt to try and keep this a secret? Well it was way harder for my overly excited mother and sister to do the same!

We then decided Thanksgiving would be a perfect time to tell everyone else. Since we were going on a family cruise we figured it would be a perfect time to tell my niece and nephew. And then everyone else we would tell once we were home from the cruise.

Family Thanksgiving Cruise 2011
(not picture is my mother-in-law and her boyfriend who also came but got on the ship later than us)

It was actually very interesting trying to keep the secret from my nephew. He knows Im the type to do adventurous things with him, so when I declined going on the tallest/longest over water zip line with him in Labadee, Haiti, he asked "But why Leah? I thought you wanted to go on it?" My brother-in-law actually came to the rescue in a split second, claiming  I had "lower lumbar back pain" and wasnt allowed to go on. I at first laughed, thinking is my 11yr old nephew even going to understand what his father just said? But then my BIL informed me they had just read the excursion descriptions back in their cabin and the 2 reasons it said people werent allowed to go on the zipline were being pregnant and lower lumbar back pain.

So that night at Thanksgiving dinner when we told the kids that I was pregnant, my BIL said to my nephew "now do you see why we had to say that about Leah and not being able to go on the zipline?" And my nephew goes, "so hold on, you dont have lower lumbar back pain?" All of us adults just burst out laughing. Between my nephews reaction and my neice getting so excited about having a baby cousin, Thanksgiving turned into one memorable night!

For the rest of our friends, they gradually found out I was pregnant. Mostly from finally realizing that I wasnt drinking anymore at any of our social gatherings.  It was great to see everyones surprising reactions. Everyone was so happy for us. Im glad I can look back and see that this was definitely a special time in our lives.

Dont forget to link up and tell us how you shared the news. Next week Ill be talking about when we found out the gender.

 

Throwback Thursdays: Telling hubby we were pregnant

No Im not pregnant again. But since I completely missed documenting basically my entire pregnancy I think Im going to start my own weekly post called Throwback Thursdays. This way I can recap special moments in my life from the past year and be able to share it with ya'll.

Im gonna start with how I found out I was pregnant and how I told my hubby the good news. 

It all started on Monday October 3, 2011.

We had been trying to get pregnant for about 3 months and for some reason Id been having this feeling that that month was different. So before I logged into work I did the unthinkable and peed on a stick. For those of you who have tried to get pregnant or are currently trying to get pregnant you know about the whole 2 week waiting period. Well if you thought 2 weeks was a long time to wait, think again. Those 3 mins of waiting for the results are even longer. I knew I could be setting myself up for disappointment, but as mentioned before every little thing during the 2ww felt like a definite sign. And technically I wasnt due for my period for another few days. Unfortunately once those 3 mins were up, I looked down at the test and only saw 1 line. That meant negative for those of you who aren’t familiar with the tests.

My heart ached for the rest of the day, but I kept telling myself there still was a chance that I could be pregnant. It may just be too early for the pregnancy test to recognize it. I didn’t want to bring it up to Matt either, as I didn’t want him to think I was crazy crush his hopes either. So I went on with my day at work and put it out of my mind. I promised myself I would not POAS until after I had missed my period (another 5 days away).

Guess how long that promise lasted? A whole 24 hours. The next morning I just couldn’t resist. I truly felt like it was different this time. Just little things I noticed. I had felt bloated the past couple of days. My breasts were soar.  Overly tired. All symptoms that could just mean AF was coming. I tried to hold out. I even made it to my lunch break without doing it. But I figured, why not try one more time, just to see. This time I wanted to try to use the digital test (I literally had a whole box of tests from doing the whole TLC: A Conception Story). So I POAS and brought it into my office and waited for what seemed like forever. Glancing over about every 10 seconds to see if the little clock had stopped flashing. Much to my surprise, the result I read off the test stated “YES+”

Wait. Hold on. Im pregnant? I looked at it again. No, my eyes weren’t tricking me. It clearly stated I was. OMG! IM PREGNANT! I just sat there for a couple of minutes. Maybe it was wrong. I should pee on another stick. Maybe the one with the lines. I heard even the faintest of lines still means pregnant. I have to see those two lines. (those who have been there are probably laughing right now, how many sticks did you pee on? lol)

So I did it again. POAS again. Waited again. Glanced a few times again. And then it appeared. Yes it was a very faint line, but indeed a line. Same result. Different test. That must mean its true right? OMG! IM PREGNANT! WE’RE HAVING A BABY!!!!

Immediately the next thing I thought of was how am I gonna tell Matt? I knew it had to be somewhat clever, but I didnt want it to be too completely corny either. I researched all day trying to come up with something cute. I actually found a maternity shirt that was a Dolphins shirt that said "future kicker" with little footprints over the tummy area. I thought perfect, were huge Miami Dolphins fans (yes, dont laugh, I know our team sucks, but we cant give up on them now lol). So I ordered it immediately and choose the fastest shipping possible. Which meant I had to wait another 2 days. How would I ever keep this secret from Matt? 

It was so hard the next couple of days, but somehow I managed to keep it a secret. And I also came up with the great idea that I would put a hamburger bun in our oven and ask Matt to go check why the over wasnt getting hot. The plan was for him to open the oven and say "Why is there a bun in the oven?" Then turn and look at me with my shirt that says future kicker. Clever, I know, however has anyone ever told you men arent as clever as women, yeah. We'll get Matts side of the story in a sec.

So the night that I decided to tell him while we were working on the kitchen during the remodel. I even tried to get in on video when I told him but for some reason the camera cut out right when it would have captured his reaction. Obviously things didnt go as planned, and hubby didnt realize what was going on and I had to explain it to him. It actually took him a few minutes to hug me because he didnt really know what was going on. lol. But once he did we were both so happy.

When I asked Matt to recap the story in his version this is what I got:

"We had been working on the kitchen and you had freaked me out but saying the oven wasn’t working. So I turned it on and opened the door to feel for heat. It was working perfectly fine. I did happen to notice there was a hamburger bun in there so i took it out and placed in on top of the stove and went back to what I was doing. You responded with “Think about what you just saw!” I didnt understand "What? A bun in the oven?" Stupid me, I still didnt get it. You then said something about look at my shirt. I read it and thought about it for a second, "What are you pregnant?" You shook your head. "Really?" I was so excited, I didnt really know what to do with myself. I was kinda quiet and you had to actually ask if I was going to hug you or not. I was so happy I wasnt even thinking."

If you want to see the footage I did catch play the video below.

Yeah sorry for the cursing and i wish it had caught the rest. But i guess Ill learn better for next time.


<a href="http://southernwifey.blogspot.com"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8171/7983096222_3d3cff74a4.jpg" border="0"></a> So how did you or are you going to tell your spouse that youre pregnant? Link up and tell us. Maybe one of your ideas will inspire me on how to tell hubby whenever baby #2 is on the way! Next week Ill share how and when we told our family and friends we were pregnant.