The Final Countdown

We're full into prepare-for-baby-mode at our house. Saturday we installed the car seat - and had it checked by a certified installation person. It was a very informative 30-40 minutes at Mother Nurture/Baby Moon. I love that we have them as a resource!

sorry for the poor picture quality - it might have helped if I had taken the car out of the garage, but it's all rainy here today so there's not much sunlight

A few weeks ago Pete assembled the stroller. We thought it would take some serious work, so I got out the camera to document the assembly, but it was super-easy! (much easier than the jumperoo - which is also all ready to go)



I picked up the monogrammed outfit on Saturday - it is PERFECT! Can't wait to put Baby Girl in it!!

Audrey made us a pillow for our glider and I have 5 prints to hang in the room - then I can 'reveal' the nursery! It's all coming together - now we just need a little person - eek!

Happy Birthday Meredith!!!

Today is my friend Meredith Houlihan's birthday - she recently started her own blog and it's fantastic!! I know Meredith from school - she works in the faculty offices of our department - and it's always great to get to see her when I have an on-campus errand. She and I share a love of preppy cute things, cardigans, and chocolate. She also proudly displays all my leftover craft projects from the outpatient speech therapy clinic. Here she is with her cutie husband Hunter on their wedding day last summer. How it has almost been a year since they got married is beyond me. Time Flies!

Way back in February Meredith tagged me in a post about Stylish Bloggers!! I don't know about stylish, but I try to share the fun we have around our house :) Anyway, here are the rules:

1. Make a post and link back to the person who awarded you this award

2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Award recently discovered bloggers the award so it will be their turn next.
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them they’ve won.

So here are 7 things about myself - I'll try to come up with something new since I feel like everyone who reads this knows me pretty well.

1. I am really enjoying March Madness. Last season was the first time I watched any basketball because UK had such a dream team, and this year I did a bracket at work, and am having so much fun watching the games. It's probably because all the underdogs are winning. Tonight's our big game against UNC - so GO CATS!!

2. I am obsessed with ice water. This is since pregnancy. I used to prefer my water room temperature, but now I get up every morning and fill my Tervis Tumbler with ice and then water and I repeat this throughout the day at work. We only have 16 0z glasses at our house, but I'm thinking I need to buy a big 32 oz one to take with us to the hospital.

3. Every morning with breakfast I eat 1/2 grapefruit and Pete drinks a glass of grapefruit juice. In my first trimester, I drank La Croix sparkling water every day in grapefruit flavor. Now they are no longer available in Lexington (boo.) So...one of our nicknames for Baby Girl is Pamplemousse, or mousse for short :)

4. I only had to work a half-day on Friday so I was able to do a little shopping! I bought a coming home outfit for Baby Girl at Bella Bliss and had it monogrammed with her name on the front, so.......someone other than me and Pete knows the name!!

5. We've had dinner two nights in a row at home and we're going to eat here tonight, too. Confession: This is probably the first time we will be eating dinner at home at least 5 nights out of the week in 2-3 months. After our kitchen was finished we had gotten in the habit of eating out - usually Oasis, Rincon, or something similar and with me working all day and then having to work on my comps in the evening, we've been bad. :/

6. I'm afraid if our baby ISN'T born with red hair people will be disappointed (me and my dominant dark hair getting in the way).

7. My favorite Pandora station is the Disney Children's Station. It always plays good stuff from Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, and The Lion King, and then Friday when I was listening to it it also had some Glee soundtrack and Julie Andrews!! It's the perfect music for cleaning the kitchen.

okay! that's seven things!! I tag Rachael at Living the Dream, Jennifer at From Bluegrass to Palmtrees, and Stephanie at A Day in the Life...

All three of these ladies have blogs that with any post can have me in tears just as easily as laughing my head off. Can't wait to see what you all post next!!

We are SO lucky.....

...to have such loving and generous friends!!

Earlier in March all the girls from my program at school got together and threw a shower for me and Mindy. Mindy is due 10 weeks after I am with a little boy!

April was kind enough to host us at her new house, Tracy and Holly made the darling diaper cakes, Ginnie brought the delicious treats from Babycakes, and Corie got us coordinating frames! They're magnetic so you can put different initials and little figures on them - so cool. It was so fun to have someone to share in all the shower fun - Mindy and I sat side by side opening gifts and playing games - we had the best time!! I'm so excited that I know so many people who are having babies this spring or summer. I think we'll have a good time sharing ideas and inspiration, trials and triumphs as we wade through our first few months as moms. Thanks to everyone who took time out of their Sunday to come. :)

Then, two Wednesdays ago, our church choir threw us a shower during the second half of rehearsal time!! This was especially fun because Pete was there, too! We love being a part of such a great group. Here are some pics of us opening our gifts:

a whole box of goodies

including some awesome soft books!

Then it was time to open the big box.

THEY GOT US OUR PACK 'N PLAY!!!

Here we are getting ready to leave, giving one last thank-you to our fearless director Clif.

We're all done with showers and have bought all of our remaining gear. I finally found a coming home outfit this afternoon at Bella Bliss. Now we just have to install the car seat, write a labor plan, and pack a bag. Oh yeah. And find a pediatrician. We've met with one and have appointments with two more in April. Nothing quite like waiting until the last minute. Oh well, I have been pretty busy with certain school projects up until this week ;)

I'm pretty excited about this upcoming weekend - no major projects, just time to clean the house and try to relax a bit!

I'm BACK!!!

So you know what that means........

I PASSED MY ORAL COMPREHENSIVE EXAM!!!! Here I am shortly afterward - in all my 'professional' attire. For being 36 weeks pregnant, I l.o.v.e.d my dress! (you really can't go wrong with navy in my book)


My presentation went really well, and I was able to answer the questions regarding my client and his intervention with confidence. I missed a few of the 'general knowledge' questions - I had to say 'I don't know' twice - but apparently it wasn't enough not to pass me, so in May I'll graduate with my Master of Science in Communication Disorders and will be on my way to being a Speech-Language Pathologist!! Yay!! I can't believe it has gone by so quickly - so much has happened in the past three years, but, as always, it seems as though it happened in the blink of an eye.

Now that my evenings are back to being my own I'll hopefully get on the wagon with blog posts. I've got pictures from two more showers to share, a nursery to reveal, and a Baby Girl to deliver!!! So stay tuned :)

Babies, Babies, Everywhere!!

In the past 9 days I have been to 4 baby showers!! Two for me, 2 for other friends of mine who are also due in April. Here's a pic of all the preggo ladies at my shower two Saturdays ago.
Bari's due May 30th, I'm due mid-April, Megan's due April 30th, and Emily is due April 1st.
Emily, Megan and I are all having girls - yay for more girls to join the Nugget!! Josh and Bari aren't finding out the sex of their little one so it will be a Memorial Day surprise!

February 26th I had my first shower - a fabulous bird and nest-themed event thrown by Rachael and Audrey.
And as I mentioned earlier, Grandma Prann came!!!
It was so great to have her sitting beside me as I opened gifts - oohing and aahing over everything with me.
AND Matt and Jen drove in all the way from SOUTH CAROLINA just to come to my shower!! Talk about great friends. We all went to lunch before the shower - Grandma too - then Matt and Pete went off together while Jen stayed for the shower.
Like all of my friends at the shower, Matt and Jen were super-generous with their gifts. They want to be sure that Baby Girl Crawford is well-supplied for her first trip to S.C., so in addition to giving her the most darling sundress with flamingos on it, they gave us this little number:
You might not be able to tell from the picture, but it is an infant-sized crocheted/knitted(?) BIKINI!! Jen assures me it was meant as a joke, but I feel like we'll at least have to take a picture of Baby Girl in it just for posterity.

It was so great to see all my friends - old and new - and I feel so lucky that our little girl will have so many people to love and support her when she makes her arrival.

The day after my shower was Emily's - it was a GREAT little party for baby Scarlett - I forgot my camera, though, so I'll have to wait for others to share their pictures before I can post any.

This past Saturday was Megan's shower. Emily H., Emily L., and Christa did a FABU job decorating. I l.o.v.e. all the pom-poms. AND we made an alphabet book book for baby Clover. Emily had 26 pages with a giant letter sticker on each one. There were plenty of markers to go around and we each made a page or two for the book. I chose L and did an L is for Ladybug page :) That and Present Bingo are my two new favorite shower games. AND the minute-to-win-it game Rachael incorporated at my shower. Maybe I'll post that video later.

On Sunday, April, Ginnie and the girls from my program at school threw a shower for me and Mindy, who is due at the end of June. I'll save that one for another blog, but it was great!

Less than two months to go!

Well here I am at 32 weeks. I am still feeling good, though people at work are starting to say things like, "you've really popped!" and "you look bigger every day!" The ladies saying these things all have children and I want to ask them if it made them feel good to have people comment on your size every day of the week!!! I really doubt it did. I think the real reason I'm a Grumpy Gus is because I am nearing the 20-pound mark with my weight gain and I have yet to wrap my mind around it mentally. And I'm feeling pressure to have the nursery finished - which it SO isn't!! We have no glider, no side table, no lamp, and I'm still waiting on the prints I ordered from etsy several weeks ago to arrive. I am also still looking for the perfect thing to go on the main wall behind the crib.

I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow - hopefully hearing the heartbeat again will ease some of my worries and get me back in the correct mindset. Also, if anyone wants to help me do my comps presentation - please call!!

Little Laundry

Saturday I did my first load of wee-one wash!! I've been antsy to put things in the dresser but hadn't purchased any baby detergent, so I was holding off. I decided to go with Ecover - we already use their dishwasher detergent and love it. It is free of optical brighteners, low sudsing, and plant based, so if our baby has sensitive skin (like her red-headed dad) it should be okay.

Pete and I have bought a fair amount of clothing but I only washed things we bought for the nursery like crib sheets or items that have been given to us as gifts - which seeing that we have super-generous friends and family who started lavishing us with stuff as early as Christmas made a pretty nice-sized load:

Doesn't that make for the prettiest load of laundry?!?! All pink and green (with the occasional navy item) - I love it!


Hopefully there will be a 32-week post tomorrow - I was feeling frumpy this morning and didn't want my picture taken. Maybe tomorrow I will be in a better mood :)

Guest of Honor

Rachael and Audrey are throwing me a baby shower next Saturday and I couldn't be more excited about my special guest: GRANDMA PRANN!!!!

She's flying in on Friday and back out again Sunday afternoon but I am as happy as I could be that she agreed to come. Anyone who has known me for more than say two minutes knows I completely idolize and adore my Grandma - we've always been really close and that bond has only grown stronger since my mom passed away. In November my Grandpa passed away and I was so glad that she and I had a few days to sit together before Thanksgiving at my Aunt Susie's and just talk and talk, sharing memories, laughing and crying. When I call her at home she answers the phone and says, "Oh Laura!" as though she couldn't imagine anyone else she'd rather speak to.

Last March I flew to Florida for spring break and spent the whole week at their house - just me and Grandma and Grandpa. It was great! I'm so glad to have made those memories with both of them. Here's a picture of me and Grandma at Sharky's on Venice Beach:

and again this November on Thanksgiving:

Can't wait to see her!!

30 weeks down, 10 to go....

...and I'm getting bigger by the DAY!! Some days it definitely feels like that, but since I'm supposed to grow a centimeter a week, I guess I shouldn't make a big deal of it. I still have a belly button, but it is shallower (more shallow?) than it used to be. Cool development: now I can tell where she is - what is a foot, her bum, or her hands. Can't discern yet whether or not she has The Carter Big Toe :)
Forgive the name badge in the pictures - neither Pete nor I noticed until after the fact.

Nursery-wise, I don't have much of an update. Our dresser has arrived with it's changing top, but we are still waiting on the changing pad to get a complete picture. We've hung some shelves but I'm still waiting on a few prints for the walls and our glider won't arrive for another 3 weeks. Here is a teaser until I can post a grander reveal.

I feel like I have been pretty restrained when it comes to buying clothes for our little one. But occasionally there is something I just can't resist. Like this outfit from Boden.

Or this little dress from Baby Gap. Can you say Fourth of July?


On Monday when my Boden package arrived, we also had a box from Jan and Umpah!! Jan lovingly knit us this darling sweater set for the Wee One's arrival. Thanks Jan!! You'll have another person calling you Nana Jan in no time :)

Those are all the baby updates that I can think of.

School updates: I passed the Speech-Language Pathology Praxis!! Also, the faculty chose from the three case studies I submitted last week and I know which case I will present for my oral comps. I can't really say anything about the client, but his therapy focuses on aural habilitation using the Auditory Verbal approach. I have 3-4 weeks to find evidence-based research to back his therapy and write it up in a 25-slide powerpoint presentation with accompanying handout. More intimidatingly, I also have to prepare to answer any question the faculty may ask me after my presentation, whether it is related to my case in particular or any other area in our field. My fingers are crossed that they will have mercy on my 36-week pregnant self and ask me easy questions like, "what colors are you using in your nursery?" So I definitely have a lot on my plate these days - please forgive if my blog posts are even fewer and farther in between!!

Hello 3rd Trimester!

Here I am at the beginning of my third trimester - I can't believe it's here already!
I had my glucose test today to screen for gestational diabetes (and yes, that stuff really DOES taste as bad as everyone says - thought I was going to throw up) - if I failed, I'll get a phone call tomorrow scheduling me to come in for ANOTHER test to further determine if I have it. So, fingers crossed my phone doesn't ring tomorrow!! But in case it does - we're eating chocolate chip cookies tonight!!

Pete was able to come to today's appointment so we went over to the women's hospital afterwards to check out the facility. We figured today would be a better time to figure out exactly where we're supposed to go rather than when I'm in labor. It's a brand-new building and seems really nice. I got a little overwhelmed/teary-eyed when we walked by the nursery and they were bringing a minutes-old wee one in to have its first bath(!) but otherwise it seems like a standard place - just a little more modern with nice amounts of privacy and space for new families.

Otherwise, I'm doing really well - haven't gained too much weight, my blood pressure is nice and low, and I'm not having huge aches and pains. I love, love, love my prenatal yoga class and think it helps quite a bit with both my physical and mental well-being. In four weeks we start childbirth class at the same place where I take yoga and I'm really looking forward to it.

Sorry it has been so long since I've updated - I've been busy at my new rotation - which is fantastic and I love it AND I got a new computer.....we made the switch to mac!!

My dell - which is about 4 - 4 1/2 years old has been going 'blue screen' every few weeks and is slower than molasses. Pete and I have looked at a few macs now that we have an apple store in the mall and with my comps presentation in March we really didn't want the dell to crash completely while I was halfway through writing up my research and powerpoint presentation. So on Saturday we went back to the Apple store and got a MacBook Pro!! So far I LOVE IT!! It's really fast and lightweight, and is totally user-friendly and easy to figure out. iPhoto is great for uploading and organizing pictures!

Yesterday our dresser/changing table was delivered and I've ordered a crib bumper, so hopefully I'll have more nursery pictures to post soon. That's it for now - the cookies are getting cold, I've got to go!!

UPDATE: no phone call today - so I should be good to go!! NO GESTATIONAL DIABETES - YAY!!

Sorry I haven't updated in a bit....

I've been pretty under the weather. I woke up Saturday morning with a pretty bad cough and made it through the test okay, but felt progressively worse as the day went on. Carden and Courtney were in town so they came to visit before they headed home, but I couldn't hold sweet baby Clark because of my germs! After they left I went straight to bed and Pete went to the store to buy some soup. I ate about half a bowl when he got home and then pretty much called it a night. We stayed in all Sunday and I felt pretty good all day so today I headed out to Ikea in the morning. Apparently I overestimated my condition - because now I've taken another nap before dinner and am sitting here with my box of tissues planning to go to bed at 9:30pm. Hopefully I'll feel better when my alarm goes off at 6:30am!!

Busy week!

Sorry there was no picture yesterday - Pete stayed overnight in Cincinnati because of the weather. So, a day late, here's my 26-week picture. I'm really getting big!! But most people tell me I look pretty average for 6-months pregnant, so I feel good about it.

Today was the first day of my last semester of graduate school! I'm at the Lexington Hearing and Speech Center and couldn't be more excited to be placed with such a great organization. Today was pretty slow because Fayette County was on a snow day, so the majority of clients canceled - I got to go home early at 3:00pm!

AND on Saturday I take my written comprehensive exam - the if-I-don't-pass-it-I-don't-graduate-one - The Speech-Language Pathology Praxis. It's 120 questions, multiple choice, and I have two hours to complete it. SOoooo......fingers crossed it goes well. It is a paper exam, so unlike the GRE, I have to wait 4-6 weeks to find out my score. I have one more chance to take it in March if I don't pass, but my oral comps are in March so I'd really like to have this portion of graduation requirements under my belt.

PHEW! Am I the only one who's exhausted just thinking about it?!?! Peace Out till this weekend!

Bad day for the Cats, Fun day for us!!

We drove to Columbia, South Carolina on Friday to visit our friends Matt and Jen (who've been in their new house for two weeks) for the weekend! Adam and Sarah live in Charlotte so they drove in too!! We gathered together to watch the Wildcats play in the Compass Bowl and later for the basketball team to play Georgia.

Jen's mother-in-law gave her this awesome UK cake mold for Christmas - Jen baked a cake in preparation for the weekend and then on Friday night we made a giant blue Jell-O Jiggler! Alas, neither these nor our festive gear helped our Wildcats win EITHER game, but that's okay, because it was SO GREAT to be together even for a short bit.

Thanks again for having us, Matt and Jen!! We had a great time!!

ohmygoodness ohmygoodness

I just saw on my blog ticker that I only have 100 days left of pregnancy - YIPES!!! Can't believe tomorrow will start double digits. That is c.r.a.z.y.

ALSO: we've started a belly-button watch. Pete's really hoping it pops - I don't know if it will, but I have gone from having the world's deepest innie to having a regular innie with a very round, taught circle-part. I'm thinking if it does pop, it won't be until I'm 30-36 weeks. I'll keep you posted (but fear not, there will be no naked-belly pics).

Another day, Another project

Today I made drapes!! They were actually easier/faster to make than the crib skirt! Probably because there were only two panels instead of four and the measurements weren't as tricky. I really like the way they automatically make the space look more like a room.

Thank goodness for our handy-dandy 6-foot tables from Sams - I use them whenever I need a lot of space and will be using scissors or glue or something else that I don't want on our dining room table. Then when I'm done I just fold them back up and put them in unfinished storage.

Of course Pete was kind enough to install the drapery rod for me.

That's it for planned nursery projects. I have extra fabric in the stripes and the dots so I can make a pillow for the rocker and maybe some liners for the baskets in the changing table. Those will require actual sewing though, so I need to dust off my machine. eek!

Getting a Start on the Year Ahead

Happy New Year!!

Hope your day was full of watching football and being lazy. Ours sure was. We started out the morning with pancakes, then watched the Rose Parade, then ate leftovers for lunch and settled in to watch some games. Naturally, I couldn't sit for too long. Neither could Pete - he ended up going to the gym about an hour after I started my little project.

I'm really hoping to have the big parts of the nursery finished before my spring semester starts on the 12th because after that the three months we have left to prepare will FLY. So this evening I made a crib skirt!!

Thanks, again, to Young House Love and their user-friendly tutorials, I was confident that I could make a crib skirt without it looking too 'home sewn'. Maybe that's because it didn't involve any sewing at all!! I have had so much trouble finding bedding that was girly without being too pinky pink. I actually wanted to do something in a robins egg blue with pink and brown accents but Pete said that the rest of our house is already robins egg blue or sea foam green and maybe we should take a break from that. Point taken. :) So last week I spent an afternoon trolling around Lexington's fabric stores and found two prints that I liked. Dots for the skirt, stripes for the drapes. I think I'll still purchase the bumper - maybe from Serena & Lily.

Back to the skirt - it was super easy. Just measure your four sides, and instead of sewing the seams, use Heat n Bond! Then just velcro it to the bottom of your crib - genius!!

The lovely fabric - I like that the pinks are more blush and salmon than bubble gum and fuschia.

As soon as I put the fabric on the table Pete set up for me, I realized I had a companion. Hi Hannah!
Then it was time to measure and cut, then measure and iron, and measure and iron some more.

The finished product - complete with new mattress and sheet!

I'm hoping to tackle the drapes on Monday - fingers crossed it all goes according to plan!