Pictures of Our Little Princess

 



 

We finally decided on her name last week!! We had a first name picked out but we were have trouble with the middle name. This name picking thing is a lot harder than I thought it would be!! Natalie means "born on Christmas Day". Even though she will probably not be born that day it is her due date so we thought it was fitting :) And we just liked the name Claire!

 

I thought I would share all of our ultrasound pictures up until this point :)

 

 Here is Baby Natalie at 7 weeks! She was the size of a grain of rice. So tiny!

At 9 weeks she was the size of an olive!

At 10 weeks she was the size of a prune! You can see her flounder-like arms!

 This was at 19 and a half weeks! The ultrasound where we found out she was a girl :) She was about the size of a Barbie Doll. I love this precious profile picture!

 Natalie's sweet little face :)

My tiny baby had grown so much!!

 

Baby Natalie in 3D at 30 weeks!!

 

She loves to open and close her mouth!

 

This is my favorite!! I love her little grin :)

 

 

It has been so much fun watching her grow and change! I cannot wait for my baby to get here so we can meet her!!

 

XOXO,

Kelsey

My Pregnancy: Part 3

The first part of my second trimester was a breeze!! I felt great and was enjoying watching my little baby bump grow!! I was one of the lucky ones with pregnancy symptoms. I never had morning sickness! The only bad symptom I had was a ferocious appetite!! I was hungry ALL the time!!! I would eat a huge meal and 15 minutes later I would feel like I had not eaten in days! Think about the hungriest you have ever been in your life...this doesn't even begin to touch the hunger I experienced!! The only way I could describe it to my friends was to tell them "I would literally poke your eyeballs out to get your food if I was hungry and you wouldn't share". It was THAT bad!! And it started in the first few weeks of pregnancy and lasted until about week 20!!

Did I mention how much I was enjoying watching my baby bump grow?!? I know this will sound awful but I was one of those people that really dreaded the "pregnancy" part of having a baby. I mean who wants to gain a ton of weight and worry about stretch marks. And I never understood why all these girls would post pictures of their huge belly on Facebook!!! YUCK! But now I totally understand! That is MY precious baby in my stomach and I am so proud of it! My whole perspective has changed! I LOVE being pregnant! Even after all of things I have been through. It was during my 15th week that I felt her move for the first time!! At first I wasn't sure if it was her or not. But after feeling the same thing for a few days I knew it was her! Feeling your baby move is the most incredible thing ever!!! I think it is one of the reasons I love being pregnant so much. She is always with me and I don't have to share. I was the only one that could feel her for a while...Nathan didn't feel her until about 21 weeks. I love the fact that she is with me 24/7. I know her schedule...I know when she is awake and when she is asleep. And I know when she doesn't like something...she hates the monitors at the hospital!! I know when she is tired and when she has lots of energy. And I selfishly love being the only one that knows this stuff! When she gets here I know I will have to share her with other people...and I know that that will be hard. So I have really loved getting to enjoy her by myself! :) Pregnancy really is a special time!

It was also during this time that we found out the gender!! Although I didn't really care if it was a boy or a girl. We went for our anatomy ultrasound at 19 and a half weeks, but didn't find out at the doctor what the gender was. All of my friends were like how in world did you not find out!! Honestly, I was only worried about finding out one thing....if my baby was healthy or not. The anatomy scan is so much more than finding out the gender. It is the ultrasound where they look and make sure all of the baby's organs are there and check to see that they are growing like they should. Even after the appointment was over I was content just knowing my baby was healthy! We had a gender reveal party that night and found out with all of our family and friends that we were having a little girl! It was so exciting and I am really glad that we waited until then to find out :) I think it was more fun for our families that way...they were excited about seeing our faces!! You can see my full post about the party HERE!

Here is a picture of me and my baby girl the night we found out!!

 

This part of my pregnancy was definitely the easiest part! I even told people that if every pregnancy was this easy I wouldn't mind having LOTS of children!! Little did I know what I was in store for the next few weeks. Even though this part was so easy I wouldn't say that it was better than the other weeks. Because I have truly enjoyed every part!

 

Stay tuned for part 4!!

 

Kelsey

 

Nursery Progress

I am so excited because I finally feel like we are making some progress on the nursery!! For those of you who don't know I went into early labor two weeks ago at 28 weeks pregnant. Luckily, they were able to get it stopped :) I had to go to UAB and was there for a week but now I am back at home on bed rest. We only have 10 weeks left until her due date...but there is a really good chance that she won't wait that long so we decided that we better get the ball rolling with her nursery!!

 

Nathan painted the nursery the weekend after I came home. It looks a million times better!!

 

Here is a reminder of what the room looked like before. It was an awful yellowish color. The room felt really dark and small.

Nathan working hard!!

 

Here it is finished!! The room feels so much bigger. We did go with the Benjamin Moore color Edgecomb Gray that I talked about HERE. And I LOVE the way it turned out!!

 

There has been one weekend that I haven't been on bed rest since August. My doctor released me to go back to work on light duty at the very end of September. My mom and I got out that weekend to do some clothes shopping since none of clothes fit me anymore :) We went to a store called David Christopher's while we were out and I found the most beautiful armoire!!

 

 

I was so excited to find this piece of furniture!! It was the last big piece that I needed to get and it is so hard to furniture shop from home :)

 

Here is a picture of the inside with some her things already in it!!

 

Nathan went to one of our local fabric stores called Your Décor to pick up some fabric samples for the rocker. They are always so helpful over there!! Here are some of the choices he came home with...I am still trying to finalize which one I am going to go with.

 

 

 

Today we had a package arrive...and it was more of the bedding!!! We are still waiting on one last shipment that we probably won't receive for another month or so :( But this is the main thing the I had been waiting on...the duvet cover for the crib!! I am so excited about it!! It looks exactly like I hoped it would!!

 

 

NOTE: The crib is still not complete! I am still waiting on pillow shams and I don't have sheets on the mattress yet. But I just couldn't wait to share!!

 

Another piece that I forgot to share the first time around is the antique book rack. This is actually the very first item that we purchased for our baby! There is a local antique store here in town called Scobek's. I LOVE their store!! So many pieces of furniture in my house have come from there!! And the guys that run it are awesome!! They are so helpful and always help me find whatever I am looking for! If you live here and have never visited their store you are missing out!!!

 

 

 Isn't it sweet!!! I fell in love with it the second I saw it!! I can't wait to fill it with books to read to my baby girl :)

 

Another thing that I am really excited about are these super cute wall sconces that are going to go above the crib. They actually hung over my bed at my parents house but we decided that they were perfect for the nursery...so I stole them from my mom. This is not the best picture but you will get the idea!

 

 

Here is a drawing I did of what I have in mind for above the crib. Don't laugh!! I have never claimed to be an artist!

 

 

I plan on hanging to the mobile in the middle and the sconces on either side. I know that the mobile in the middle is not the traditional way to do it...but I think it will work. I am still waiting on it to come in though.

 

Here is a picture of the daybed. It still does not have bedding so it looks pretty pitiful.

 

 

The wall space above the bed is pretty big and I have been trying to figure what to do to fill the space. I think I have decided to do a canopy. I didn't want to do a bed frame because it would take up so much room on the sides but I feel like the bed needs to be outlined in some way. Here is a picture of what I am planning on doing.

 

 

I have a mirror that I am going to have painted and I saw these really cool wall letters online that I think I am going to hang over the mirror. Here are pictures of both.

 

 

 

I am still looking up ideas on exactly how I want to do the canopy. I'll share them soon :)

I also need to have Nathan hang the curtain rods so I can pick out curtains. And I need to pick out a rug. Once we finish all these things her nursery will be complete!! Hopefully it won't be long!!

 

Until next time!

Kelsey

 

 

 



My Pregnancy: Part 2

No one can prepare you for how hard your first trimester is. I had never thought past a positive pregnancy test. I guess I thought that everything after that was just all about being excited. For me, the first trimester was not hard because of the pregnancy symptoms...but because of the worry. Maybe it is just me...I know I worry a lot more than the average person...but so much can happen in your first trimester. The miscarriage rate is so high right at first. My biggest fear was that we would go in for an ultrasound and they would tell me that my baby didn't have a heartbeat. I already loved this little baby so much and couldn't fathom the thought of losing it. I spent the entire first trimester praying that my baby would be ok and if we could just make it to 12 weeks I could rest well. My mom quickly let me know that the worry you have for your child never goes away....and in the short months that I have been pregnant I see how right she is! (To my baby girl: if you read this one day...always know that mommy knows best!!) I prayed every single day...most days more than once. And every time I prayed I heard God say back "I will take care of you and your baby". I always love when I hear back from God. I used to think that it was impossible...but then I realized that God speaks to us in so many ways...we just don't always listen. If you have never listened long enough to hear back from God...wait for next time. Because this is best kind of comfort you will ever receive! This one sentence has gotten me through so much :)

When I was considered to be 5 and a half weeks pregnant I started to show signs of a miscarriage and I was so scared. I was told to come in for blood work the next day. My numbers came back good so they decided to do an ultrasound to make sure I wasn't having an ectopic pregnancy. The ultrasound went well...it was too early to see a baby but everything else looked good so all we could do was wait. They scheduled me for another ultrasound for 7 weeks. I thought that appointment would never get here. But it finally did and when I saw my tiny baby with an amazing little heartbeat my heart just melted. I was instantly in love!! One of my very first thoughts was how in the world can people not consider this a baby!! I mean you could see her heart beating! Life is such a miracle and so many people take it for granted. We had to wait another 2 weeks before we got to see our baby again. And it was just as incredible as it was the first time around :) This time instead of looking like a little piece of rice she actually looked like a baby!! You could see her little body with arms, legs, and a little alien looking head :) She was so cute!!  It was after this that we decided to tell the world!! We sent out cards to our family and friends...even though some of them already knew.

I ordered these cute little cards from ETSY! It was so much fun to hear from people as they got them!!

At 10 weeks I had really bad pain in my stomach so they decided to have me come in to make sure everything was ok. They use what is called a Doppler to listen to the baby's heartbeat. At this point I had never had that done before because we had always had an ultrasound. The nurse spent several minutes trying to find the heartbeat but couldn't. She told me not to worry because the baby was still so small and they can't always find it. So they immediately sent me over for an ultrasound. The worrier in me tried to stay calm. I was by myself that day so I called Nathan and my mom and just told them to say a prayer for the baby. I had to wait about 30 minutes to have the ultrasound done and while I was sitting there waiting my sweet husband showed up. He didn't want me to be by myself in case something was wrong. They finally called us in and immediately found the heartbeat!! I was so relieved :) And it was fun seeing my baby again!!!

I finally made it to the 12 week mark and I was so relieved. Looking back, I wish I would have enjoyed those weeks a little bit more. I was so consumed with worry that I missed out on a lot of the excitement I should have been experiencing. One of the many lessons God has taught me through my pregnancy is that He is in total control. This baby girl is His...not mine. And His plans for her are better than anything I could ever imagine.

Hope you are enjoying :) Part 3 Coming soon!!

Kelsey






My Pregnancy: Part 1

I have had so many people praying for me and asking about me in these last few weeks that I decided to share my pregnancy story here and I want to start at the very beginning. My story is pretty long so I am going to do it in a 5 part series. Some parts are very personal...but my hope is that someone who is going through a difficult pregnancy like me might find comfort in my story.

 

I found out that I was pregnant on April 13. On the day before I was getting ready for work and decided to take a test. I suspected I might be pregnant. I took the type that has the pink lines. One line means not pregnant and two lines means pregnant. Only one line came up. I was disappointed. I wanted a baby. I set the test aside and brushed my teeth and a few minutes later I picked up the test to throw it away and I saw this super faint second line. I stared at it for while thinking am I just imagining a line because I want it to be there...or is it really there?? According to the most accurate source of information {insert sarcasm} GOOGLE says A LINE IS A LINE!!! I still decided not to get too excited. So I stopped by Nathan's office on my way to work to show it to him. Of course by that time it had been more than 10 minutes...which is the time frame for the accuracy of the test. We decided not to get excited and that I would try taking another test later on that night. We were hosting a party at our house the next evening for a friend of mine that was getting married..and we were busy that night trying to prepare for the party so I just decided to wait until the next morning to take it. I couldn't sleep all night so I ended up taking the test at 4 a.m. This time I made sure to take the type that says either pregnant or not pregnant on the screen. It took the test several minutes for anything to come up...it felt like forever...but it finally popped up pregnant!!!! I was beside myself excited!! I ran back into my room and woke Nathan up! He was really excited...but a little skeptical of a home pregnancy test. He wanted to get it confirmed by the doctor. He had no trouble going back to sleep...but I was too excited! I just laid their thinking about my baby!!! I wouldn't let Nathan sleep past 6 a.m. because I wanted to go over to my mom and dad's house and tell them!! I didn't do anything exciting...I just walked in the back door and said GUESS WHAT!!!! You are going to be grandparents!!! My dad thought we were joking at first :) But they were thrilled!! We had the party at our house that night and I was just bursting with excitement! I wanted to tell everyone... but I kept it a secret...at least for a few more weeks :)

 

Pregnant!!!!!

 

This is me and my friend Allyson (the one getting married) at the party that night :)

 

The weeks prior to finding out I was pregnant I learned a lot about prayer. I have prayed for this child since before she even existed. As I mentioned earlier...I really wanted a baby. And I hope my little girl will know just how much she was wanted and how very much she is loved. I went through a time where I really worried that I might not be able to get pregnant. It must have been Satan messing with my mind because I had no logical reason for thinking that. I prayed that God would give us children. But I also struggled with prayer at the time. I went through a period where I was sort of angry at prayer. I wondered why we even prayed. If God knows everything that is going to happen and we can't change His mind...why pray?? I shared my thoughts about it with my mom one day and she reminded me that we don't pray to change God's mind....we pray to align out hearts with what He wants. I then realized that I didn't need to pray that I would get pregnant....I needed to pray that God would bless us with children WHEN and HOW He wanted to. Looking back I can see how God was preparing me for the pregnancy that I was about to experience. And that the most important thing was that I give my fears to Him and TRUST.

 

Stay tuned for Part 2!!!

Kelsey