I just love this bump comparison from Arden to babyT!
I'd been browsing through old pictures and was telling Taylor how much I loved the one he snapped of me sitting on our bed with a {large} bump towards the end of my pregnancy with Arden and then realized it was almost exactly {to the day!} the same number of weeks as I am now!
Of course, we stopped what we were doing and tried to recreate it.
Yall. The weeks are just flying by. But in such a good way!
There have been so many fun things going on as we continue to get ready for babyT!
We got our maternity pictures back!
They turned out fabulous!
Will be posting them as soon as I can load 'em onto my laptop.
Last Saturday a sweet friend (and coworker) and I spent 3 hours prepping freezer meals.
Carla is a great cook & I've always wanted her to show me how to make her famous meatloaf.
Seriously - so yummy.
We each ended up with about 6 freezer meals:
2 meatloafs {w/ the best sauce to add on top!}
2 chicken pot pies
2 meals of spinach/cheese lasagna roll-ups
It was really fun chatting and listening to music while we cooked up a storm!
Carla is also super savvy about prepping meals in advance and freezing, so she knew exactly the best way to package everything.
For the meatloafs we got the meat mixture all ready but then flattened it down into gallon ziplocks so each meatloaf is easily stackable when frozen. To prep one you just have to let thaw overnight, form into a loaf, top with sauce, and then cook.
For the chicken pot pies, we made the filling & then poured into gallon ziplocks and froze them flat (just like the meatloafs). To cook, you just have to thaw overnight and pour into a pie dish, top with crust & bake (we usually only do top crust for our pot pies).
For the lasagna roll-ups, we prepped all of them (about 6-8 per meal) and then individually froze on a baking sheet and then tossed them all into a gallon ziplock. To cook, all you have to do it take out of the freezer, top with sauce, and bake. Freezing them individually also has the extra benefit of being able to choose if you want to heat up a whole dinner amount or just 1 or 2 for a lunch portion.
Carla's meatloaf recipe was passed down from her mom, but here are the recipes that we followed for the other two meals:
Chicken Pot Pie
Lasagna Roll-Ups
Besides stocking our freezer, Taylor and I knocked off a few more "to-dos" from our list!
We hung framed prints in babyT's nursery.
I picked up a receiving blanket I had monogrammed.
A friend finished a custom sign for his room - I just need to hang it.
We finished setting up the crib (which is now complete with a bumper - see below)
The room is just about done now!
So we got a second bumper - yes we're those people who do use a bumper on our crib.
I know, I know.
Not safe, etc.
We still use one.
Moving on.
Arden has had one on her crib from the very beginning and still does now.
We kind of splurged on hers and lately she's been standing on it a lot as she pulls herself up - which crushes my soul a bit because it wasn't exactly cheap! Anyway, besides slow destruction by toddler, we had also purchased it in a neutral linen color with the intention of getting more use out of it for baby #2 (and onward). Well Arden is still using it, and while I know babyT won't be in his crib for at least 2-3 months (we'll keep him in a swing by our bed until then, like we did with Arden), it was kind of irking me that babyT's room looks so unfinished without it.
So I went on the hunt for another bumper.
I look around on a lot of neighborhood swap boards & one day stumbled across the perfect one.
And it was an absolutely steal of a deal.
A momma in the area was selling a bunch of her nursery stuff (crib, etc.) and this bumper was part of it. It was in excellent condition, and the {only!} $30 we paid makes me feel like I should have looked a little harder for a used version of our original bumper and not paid full price!
A toss in the wash & it's as good as new & goes perfectly in Arden's room.
And now babyT has a bumper on his crib too!
This week I prepped little Easter gifts for Arden's teachers at school.
Since Easter is a week before my due date I wanted to have them ready early.
I found an egg-specially cute pun for the card!
I still need to make a crib skirt for Arden's room but now I'm on to the next craft project/goal:
I want to make a little bassinet banner for the hospital for babyT.
I love this one I found on Etsy, but cannot bring myself to spend that much.
So I may try to make one myself this week.
If only I could AmazonPrime myself craft supplies!
The idea of going all the way to Michaels is exhausting.
Why doesn't every store deliver??
I also started prepping little thank you gifts to take with us to the hospital for our nurses.
Last time I did big snack baskets (per a reco from a sweet friend who is a L&D nurse!)
This time I'm doing candy bars.
Surprise, surprise, I found a cute little punny note to go with the candy.
Hilarious story:
I was in CVS purchasing the 10+ boxes of M&Ms and walk up to the counter with them. The check-out guy (younger-ish 20-something) does a double take at the quantity of boxes + my large belly and slowly says "so, uh, just a small pregnancy craving for m&ms?"
My friend and I about died laughing.
Last weekend I also started packing my hospital bag.
It's currently just a pile but I'm feeling better about at least having some stuff out and ready to go!
Arden continues to be adorable.
She now lets us put bows in her hair every day.
She's point to her head and say "bo" if we forget.
She loves to color.
She calls all colors "yeayo" (yellow) but will repeat back the correct color once we tell her what it is.
She also loves playdough. And going to the park.
Baby Update
Our weekly appointment went well!
BabyT's heartbeat was strong at 129 bpm.
I'm still 1cm dilated and 50% effaced.
My belly is measuring right around 36/37 weeks.
My GBS rest results came back negative, woohoo!
Means one less thing to worry about at the hospital (and one less reason to be hooked up to an IV).
My doctor asked about setting an induction date as early as 39 weeks.
I told her we preferred to wait as long as possible & she said she'll let me go until 41.5-42 weeks, so we'll revisit the induction conversation around 39 week (you have to schedule it about 2 weeks out).
Overall, all good!
We had a birth planning meeting with our doula.
I've heard of birth plans, of course, but never really intended to make one myself.
I have a general idea of what I'd like, but didn't feel the need to get it down on paper last time and so wasn't totally planning to do it this time either.
Our doula thinks it's a good idea to get it on paper, so we probably will, but it will be pretty general stuff that we can mostly just speak to.
It was really fun talking through our game plan though!
Is it silly that I'm kind of excited for everything to start happening?
I mean I know the active labor + delivery part is going to be intense, but it's kind of fun thinking about all of it getting started!
She gave us some good tips on things to do in early labor to help me + baby along.
I'd like for babyT to keep cooking a little bit...but I'm getting very close to feeling really ready for him!
Taylor and I had a fun lunch date after our meeting with the doula & went to a ramen place in Deep Ellum. It was SO good! I've been loving Pho lately but hadn't actually had ramen out before and it's delish.
I'd been browsing through old pictures and was telling Taylor how much I loved the one he snapped of me sitting on our bed with a {large} bump towards the end of my pregnancy with Arden and then realized it was almost exactly {to the day!} the same number of weeks as I am now!
Of course, we stopped what we were doing and tried to recreate it.
Yall. The weeks are just flying by. But in such a good way!
There have been so many fun things going on as we continue to get ready for babyT!
We got our maternity pictures back!
They turned out fabulous!
Will be posting them as soon as I can load 'em onto my laptop.
Last Saturday a sweet friend (and coworker) and I spent 3 hours prepping freezer meals.
Carla is a great cook & I've always wanted her to show me how to make her famous meatloaf.
Seriously - so yummy.
We each ended up with about 6 freezer meals:
2 meatloafs {w/ the best sauce to add on top!}
2 chicken pot pies
2 meals of spinach/cheese lasagna roll-ups
It was really fun chatting and listening to music while we cooked up a storm!
Carla is also super savvy about prepping meals in advance and freezing, so she knew exactly the best way to package everything.
For the meatloafs we got the meat mixture all ready but then flattened it down into gallon ziplocks so each meatloaf is easily stackable when frozen. To prep one you just have to let thaw overnight, form into a loaf, top with sauce, and then cook.
For the chicken pot pies, we made the filling & then poured into gallon ziplocks and froze them flat (just like the meatloafs). To cook, you just have to thaw overnight and pour into a pie dish, top with crust & bake (we usually only do top crust for our pot pies).
For the lasagna roll-ups, we prepped all of them (about 6-8 per meal) and then individually froze on a baking sheet and then tossed them all into a gallon ziplock. To cook, all you have to do it take out of the freezer, top with sauce, and bake. Freezing them individually also has the extra benefit of being able to choose if you want to heat up a whole dinner amount or just 1 or 2 for a lunch portion.
Carla's meatloaf recipe was passed down from her mom, but here are the recipes that we followed for the other two meals:
Chicken Pot Pie
Lasagna Roll-Ups
Besides stocking our freezer, Taylor and I knocked off a few more "to-dos" from our list!
We hung framed prints in babyT's nursery.
I picked up a receiving blanket I had monogrammed.
A friend finished a custom sign for his room - I just need to hang it.
We finished setting up the crib (which is now complete with a bumper - see below)
The room is just about done now!
So we got a second bumper - yes we're those people who do use a bumper on our crib.
I know, I know.
Not safe, etc.
We still use one.
Moving on.
Arden has had one on her crib from the very beginning and still does now.
We kind of splurged on hers and lately she's been standing on it a lot as she pulls herself up - which crushes my soul a bit because it wasn't exactly cheap! Anyway, besides slow destruction by toddler, we had also purchased it in a neutral linen color with the intention of getting more use out of it for baby #2 (and onward). Well Arden is still using it, and while I know babyT won't be in his crib for at least 2-3 months (we'll keep him in a swing by our bed until then, like we did with Arden), it was kind of irking me that babyT's room looks so unfinished without it.
So I went on the hunt for another bumper.
I look around on a lot of neighborhood swap boards & one day stumbled across the perfect one.
And it was an absolutely steal of a deal.
A momma in the area was selling a bunch of her nursery stuff (crib, etc.) and this bumper was part of it. It was in excellent condition, and the {only!} $30 we paid makes me feel like I should have looked a little harder for a used version of our original bumper and not paid full price!
A toss in the wash & it's as good as new & goes perfectly in Arden's room.
And now babyT has a bumper on his crib too!
This week I prepped little Easter gifts for Arden's teachers at school.
Since Easter is a week before my due date I wanted to have them ready early.
I found an egg-specially cute pun for the card!
I still need to make a crib skirt for Arden's room but now I'm on to the next craft project/goal:
I want to make a little bassinet banner for the hospital for babyT.
I love this one I found on Etsy, but cannot bring myself to spend that much.
So I may try to make one myself this week.
If only I could AmazonPrime myself craft supplies!
The idea of going all the way to Michaels is exhausting.
Why doesn't every store deliver??
I also started prepping little thank you gifts to take with us to the hospital for our nurses.
Last time I did big snack baskets (per a reco from a sweet friend who is a L&D nurse!)
This time I'm doing candy bars.
Surprise, surprise, I found a cute little punny note to go with the candy.
Hilarious story:
I was in CVS purchasing the 10+ boxes of M&Ms and walk up to the counter with them. The check-out guy (younger-ish 20-something) does a double take at the quantity of boxes + my large belly and slowly says "so, uh, just a small pregnancy craving for m&ms?"
My friend and I about died laughing.
Last weekend I also started packing my hospital bag.
It's currently just a pile but I'm feeling better about at least having some stuff out and ready to go!
Arden continues to be adorable.
She now lets us put bows in her hair every day.
She's point to her head and say "bo" if we forget.
She loves to color.
She calls all colors "yeayo" (yellow) but will repeat back the correct color once we tell her what it is.
She also loves playdough. And going to the park.
Baby Update
Our weekly appointment went well!
BabyT's heartbeat was strong at 129 bpm.
I'm still 1cm dilated and 50% effaced.
My belly is measuring right around 36/37 weeks.
My GBS rest results came back negative, woohoo!
Means one less thing to worry about at the hospital (and one less reason to be hooked up to an IV).
My doctor asked about setting an induction date as early as 39 weeks.
I told her we preferred to wait as long as possible & she said she'll let me go until 41.5-42 weeks, so we'll revisit the induction conversation around 39 week (you have to schedule it about 2 weeks out).
Overall, all good!
We had a birth planning meeting with our doula.
I've heard of birth plans, of course, but never really intended to make one myself.
I have a general idea of what I'd like, but didn't feel the need to get it down on paper last time and so wasn't totally planning to do it this time either.
Our doula thinks it's a good idea to get it on paper, so we probably will, but it will be pretty general stuff that we can mostly just speak to.
It was really fun talking through our game plan though!
Is it silly that I'm kind of excited for everything to start happening?
I mean I know the active labor + delivery part is going to be intense, but it's kind of fun thinking about all of it getting started!
She gave us some good tips on things to do in early labor to help me + baby along.
I'd like for babyT to keep cooking a little bit...but I'm getting very close to feeling really ready for him!
Taylor and I had a fun lunch date after our meeting with the doula & went to a ramen place in Deep Ellum. It was SO good! I've been loving Pho lately but hadn't actually had ramen out before and it's delish.
Mom Update
Still doing pilates every day & happy to say that I completed another month of workouts every single day. Yay for a good March!
Went to the chiropractor again this week and holy moly does it make a big difference!
I feel like I can stand up straighter immediately afterwards.
And this week, I even noticed that Arden felt lighter when I picked her up after my appointment.
Still taking baths every few days.
And boy do those make a difference too.
By the end of the day, as I've mentioned before, I'm pretty sore and achy - a bath totally makes that go away, so amazing.
Weight gain @ 37 weeks = 23.3 lbs.
Still doing pilates every day & happy to say that I completed another month of workouts every single day. Yay for a good March!
Went to the chiropractor again this week and holy moly does it make a big difference!
I feel like I can stand up straighter immediately afterwards.
And this week, I even noticed that Arden felt lighter when I picked her up after my appointment.
Still taking baths every few days.
And boy do those make a difference too.
By the end of the day, as I've mentioned before, I'm pretty sore and achy - a bath totally makes that go away, so amazing.
Weight gain @ 37 weeks = 23.3 lbs.
Pregnant with Arden at 37 weeks here
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