Happy 4th Wedding Anniversary, My Love!

4 years ago today, on May 24, 2008, I married my best friend. I can't imagine life without you Nate and I feel so blessed to share my life with you. We are perfect compliments to each other. Where I am weak you are strong and vice versa. Thank you for being a wonderful husband, father, provider, best friend, and partner in life. I love you!

Baby Brown Has Arrived

It's a boy!!!

"Your first breath took ours away". With joy we welcome Orion Alexander! Born May 5, 2012 at 7:53am. 7 lbs 15oz 20 inches. Mom and baby are doing well! More pictures and his birth story to come.

39.5 Week Pregnancy Update (aka You Haven't Had The Baby Yet?)

I haven't done a pregnancy update in almost 10 weeks! At least a lot of my posts have been baby related so everyone still probably is somewhat up-to-date.

 39.5 weeks 4/30/2012

39.5 weeks 4/30/2012

Due date: May 4, 2012



How far along: 39.5 weeks


Maternity clothes: My belly has gotten so big almost none of my maternity clothes fit. Most of the shirts are like the one in this picture, too short. I can't stand anything tight on my belly so I am limited in the pants department too. I am definitely looking forward to not wearing maternity clothes.


Baby bump: For weeks it has felt like my belly can't get any bigger but it still does.


Gender: We aren't going to find out the gender. We are really excited to announce both the gender and the name once the baby is born.


Heartbeat: The past few weeks the baby's heart rate has been in the 130's and goes up to the 140's when the baby is moving which is perfect.


Movement: Late 3rd trimester movement is different than earlier movement. It get elbows and knees and shifts in position but the baby is out of room. My baby has never been a big mover though. I hope that means the baby is a calm baby.


Symptoms: Late 3rd trimester pregnancy sucks! There isn't a nice way to put it. You don't sleep, you're huge, you're uncomfortable, everything hurts, you are just ready to meet your baby!

Tests and midwife appointment updates: All my appointments the last 10 weeks have been very low key. Only trace amounts of protein, great heart rate for the baby, measuring right on track via fundal height. I have been allowing myself extra time to arrive at my appointments so I am not rushed and using my Hypnobabies techniques once I am there to relax and help lower my blood pressure and have been very successful. My blood pressure has been great at all my last appointments and was only 102/70 on Friday which is amazing for me. I am GBS negative which is great since I want a natural childbirth and don't want to be hooked up to an IV. It also allows me to labor longer at home because I won't need to receive to doses of antibiotics before baby is born. Honestly everything at my appointments has been great!


Exercise: I did prenatal water aerobics until about 35 weeks but then just had too many conflicts with the kids schedule so I stopped. I have been still walking 4-5 times per week since the weather has been great.

Next Appointment: Friday, May 4th, my due date.

Here is the link to the Baby Center: Your Pregnancy: 39 Weeks  some of the highlights are: your baby is ready to greet the world. He continues to build a layer of fat to regulate his body temperature after birth though he is likely to measure 20 inches and weigh over 7 pounds.

Happy 12th Birthday Brennan!

It's hard to believe that 12 years have passed since my baby boy was born. At 5'1" and 105 pounds he isn't much of a baby anymore. He is almost done with his first year of middle school and is excelling in many areas. Brennan I love you more than words can describe. I am proud of the young man you are becoming and proud to be your mom. Happy 12th birthday!

Love,

Mom

 No better birthday gift for a 12 year old than his own set of tools

and money, a book, and candy

 July 2011 Yellowstone

 Kindergarten graduation May 2006

November 2001, 18 months

 May 2000, newborn

Maternity Clothes

Finding cute and stylish maternity clothes is quite the challenge. 12 years ago when I was pregnant with Brennan maternity clothes were even more frumpy. I was excited to be contacted by Seraphine, maker of stylish and fashionable maternity clothes. Their clothes are even a favorite among celebrities .

The hardest part about finding cute maternity clothes that fit well is the different stages of pregnancy. This being my 2nd pregnancy I began to show early, around 10 weeks along. I was pretty thin before getting pregnant and wore a size 4 or 6 depending upon the brand. According to all the maternity sizing charts this would make me a size small. I am also tall though so in pants and long sleeve shirts small typically doesn't fit me. I did buy some size small stuff at the beginning of my pregnancy because my pre-pregnancy clothes didn't fit and medium and large seemed huge at that point. Those things lasted until about 25 weeks when some of them began to feel very snug. I then invested a a few medium and large items which lasted me through the middle stage of my pregnancy. I am now 39 weeks pregnant and for the last few weeks not much fits or is comfortable anymore.

I decided to review the Blue Wash Straight Leg Maternity Jeans when I was first contacted by Seraphine, in my 22nd week of pregnancy. At the time it was cold outside and I have a few pairs of cute knee boots I was dying to wear but tucking my boot cut maternity jeans into them wasn't going to cut it. A cute pair of skinny jeans was just the right thing. Based upon their sizing charts of my pre-pregnancy size I would wear a Seraphine size 1 (US size 4) or Seraphine size 2 (US size 6). I went with the Seraphine size 2 because I had gained some weight and didn't want the pants to be too tight. Shipping was very quick but unfortunately the jeans were too tight to be comfortable. After talking with my contact at Seraphine and describing my fit problems they suggested going up two sizes to a Seraphine size 4. My contact indicated that the smaller sizes are cut slimmer through the butt and hips and that was where the jeans were too tight. I am glad I went with the size 4. They are comfortable even at this stage in pregnancy and don't look sloppy at all. Colorado has had an unseasonably warm spring so I haven't gotten to wear them with boots but I think they look cute with ballet flats too. Another thing I like about not having a full belly panel is that these jeans will work for the postpartum period when my pre-pregnancy clothes still don't fit but I don't want to be wearing frumpy, full belly panel, maternity jeans. 

Check out the pictures yourself, the jeans are super cute, even at 37.5 weeks pregnant!

Disclosure statement: I was provided a pair of jeans at no charge by Seraphine in order to facilitate this review. All statements and opinions are my own.

Responsibility/Chore Wars

Our family is in the middle of a war, a war over the kids responsibility/chore chart. As our kids have gotten older they have slowly taken on more and more responsibility for getting themselves ready and doing simple, daily chores. The way our system works is once they are ready for the morning/night they then have free time to watch TV, play video games, go on the computer, etc. This should be motivation to get ready quickly, right? The quicker you get ready the more electronic time you have. In order to motivate them to do their chores they are paid 50 cents daily allowance. If their chores don't get done they are not paid for that day. Wynter and Brennan split the dishes and Phoenix takes out the trash and recycling.

I made the chore chart  about a year and half ago. Originally it really helped keep the kids on track and minimized the chaos of bedtime and morning getting ready time. In addition to rewarding the kids for good behavior with money for completing their chores and electronic time for getting ready early there are also consequences for not completing chores or getting ready on time. This has recently become a big struggle and honestly I'm getting tired of it.

One thing I know as a parent I need to work on is disciplining without getting overly emotional. When you feel like you are constantly being ignored by your children it gets frustrating. I know I need to remind myself that my kids are generally well behaved and responsible but at almost 12, 11, and 9 they are old enough to get themselves ready in the morning and evening and complete simple chores. The chore chart is very easy to use and helps the kids remember each thing that needs done. The stars are put up on the chart and they take down the stars one by one as they complete each item. There really is no reason if I give them enough time that anything should be forgotten.

The past few months have been a constant back and forth struggle in this area. They don't get paid for their chores that aren't done or they get their privileges taken away then the next day we're back to square one. They tell me everything is done, I let them watch TV or play electronics, it's time for bed and half their list hasn't been done. There are clothes and towels strewn about in the bathroom, their rooms look like bombs have gone off, usually they've showered and put pajamas on, about 75% of the time their lunch has been packed, the other 25% of time it has been "forgotten", Wynter and Brennan manage to do their chores about 90% of the time, Phoenix I'm lucky if she's even made an attempt 20% of the time and even then she has usually checked 1 or 2 trashes and left the overflowing one and never takes the barrels to the street unless I specifically tell her. I am out of ideas on how to motivate/discipline them in this regard and would love an feedback or suggestions. For awhile money was their biggest motivator, followed by electronic privileges but none of that seems to matter at this point. The two things I am going to do are once again go over consequences, instill them consistently and unemotionally, and I am going to go back to checking everything on their list before granting electronic time. I think for the next week until we can get into a better routine we will just eliminate before school and before bed electronic time and allow their free time to be playing, reading, or board games. I know once we have an infant in the house (any day now) I am going to have even less time to oversee every task they do but until they show me they can once again be responsible for their daily activities I am going to have to pull in the reigns a bit.


 

Baby's Nursery

Since we don't know Baby Brown's gender finding gender neutral nursery decor that Nate and I both liked proved to be difficult. At first there was nothing we liked and we considered holding off on decorating the nursery until after baby arrived. I am way too much of a planner for that idea to last long. Thankfully we both fell in love with the Bumble nursery set at Babies R Us and it was the inspiration for the baby's nursery.

We decided to skip the traditional bedding package with fitted sheets, crib bumpers, and a quilt. The set was expensive and I have mixed feelings about bumpers. I used crib bumpers with Brennan but as soon as they start to pull up you have to take them out of the crib. Also, in the last 12 years there have been concerns raised about the safety of crib bumpers in regard to SIDS. The quilt was beautiful but also due to SIDS concerns you are not supposed to have any soft bedding in bed with baby so it would only be for display not for real use. I did like the sheets included with the set better than the ones sold separately and the crib skirt was very cute but in the end we decided to just register for pieces of the set. We went with the fitted sheet, the mobile, the wall art, the wall decals, and the fuzzy blanket from the set. I had trouble finding a crib skirt sold separately that coordinated so I made my own, despite my limited sewing skills. We wanted to crib skirt to be green since the walls were yellow.

Everything turned out perfectly and I couldn't be happier with our adorable bee themed nursery!

 Baby's crib and the crib skirt I made

 Close up of the crib. The fuzzy yellow blanket will come with us to the hospital. The bear is a sound machine from my mom that is attached to the crib bar with velcro.

 Rocker with handmade ABC quilt from Brennan's grandma (on his dad's side)

 I love how the wall decorations turned out!

 And a quick peek at how Baby Brown is looking these days. 37.5 weeks, 4/16/2012.

C'mon baby, we're ready to meet you!