Christmas 2013

Christmas Day was the day I looked forward to all of last year because it was Natalie's due date! I have always loved Christmas :) The excitement, traditions, and time with family has always been very important to me! This year was super special because my sweet girl was here, healthy and 3 weeks old! I thought I would share some pictures of our fun day with our sweet girl!

 

Santa came to see Natalie! (Her daddy requested the Alabama football stuff!)

 

Natalie slept 5 hours straight and woke up so happy!! So did mommy!!

 

Headed over to Pop and GiGi's...she was so tiny!!!

 

 Santa also left some things at Pop and GiGi's house!! He is too kind!!

 

Nathan didn't want to participate in Christmas Jammies this year :(...what a dud!

 

Natalie with Pop and GiGi...they love her SO much!

 

I love my little family!

 

Opening Natalie's stocking :)

 

Natalie and I both got lots of new clothes :)

 

Nathan's favorite gifts were hunting decoys!

 My favorite Christmas present!

 

Eating Christmas lunch with my grandparents! Mom always cooks a huge lunch on Christmas Day! It is making me hungry just thinking about it!

 

Natalie hung out in her bassinet while we ate...just kidding!! She only let me take her picture in it...I had to hold her while I ate :) Of course, I didn't mind one bit!!

 

The amazing cook!!

 

 Family Photo Time!

 

Four Generations!

 

I love my Grandparents!

 

Me and my sweet little girl!!

Nathan and Natalie!!

 

Natalie loves sitting with Pop just as much as he loves holding her!

Best Christmas Ever!!



 

I hope everyone had as wonderful of a Christmas as we did!!

Kelsey

Our Cloth Diaper Experience

I think almost everyone has asked me how cloth diapering is going!! I think they secretly want me to hate it :) just kidding! But because of all the interest in our cloth diapering I am going to try to blog about with the most detail as possible! I will continue to update this page...and you can find a link to it under Natalie's tab at the top of my blog! You can read all about my decision to cloth diaper Here!

 

January 29: Natalie is 8 weeks old today and weighs right at 9lbs. I bought the BumGenius Freetime diapers. They are one size and adjust nicely with a snap system. You can start these as early as 8lbs but I feel like it really depends on the baby. Although Natalie is over 8lbs her waist is still so tiny...we are still in newborn size disposable diapers. I feel like once the newborns are too small we will be able to move into our cloth diapers. Which I am really excited about!!! They are all washed and ready to go :)
Just to give you a visual this is the size difference between our one size cloth diapers (shown at smallest size) and our newborn size disposable!

 



Natalie Week by Week

Natalie did fairly well for this photo shoot! I was actually able to get several good pictures! In case you didn't know...photographing a baby is really really hard!!

This is our only good 2 week shot! And I mean only!! She was really fussy and did NOT want her picture taken :)


 Week 3 was even worse than week 2!!! We were at my parents house for Christmas and she was not having it!! Sadly, this is the "best" picture! ;)

 
  This was taken the 4th week but not on the day she turned 4 weeks old. Nathan was sick with the stomach virus so Natalie and I had to stay at my parents house. My camera was at my house so I didn't get to take any until we returned home.


Natalie at 5 Weeks!! Look at that adorable profile! I love her little cheeks! :)

 

6 Weeks! She is looking so grown up! It is getting a little easier to take her pictures now that I can prop her up.

My Pregnancy: Part 4

 I have written and re-written this portion a million times. First I want to expand on the second part of Part 1. If you missed out on the first part of my story you can find it HERE. I am a planner...and I like to be in control of what is going on in my life. Having a baby was one of the first things that I couldn't fully control. I had it in my plans to have a baby...and I had it in my plans NOW! (I'll admit...one of my downfalls is that I can be very impatient) So I didn't understand how to handle not getting pregnant right away!! God has really had to show me that my plans are not His and His are the only ones that are important for my life. His plans for me are so much greater than anything I can plan for myself. I had to accept this...and I mean REALLY accept it. Not just say "ok, ok God I will follow your plans...but lets get this show on the road and give me a baby." I had to come to a realization that it may be years before I had children. Once I whole heartily accepted this I was able to find peace. And it was only a few weeks later that I found out I was pregnant. The same has gone with my entire pregnancy. I have had to realize that it's not always going to go the way I had planned...it is going to go the way God has planned...even if I don't understand why.

I went to the hospital for the first time on Thursday August 15. The day before I just wasn't feeling right. I had been really busy at work and by the end of the day I was having a lot of pain in my back. I thought that I had just overdone it that day and once I got home I could rest and then I would feel better. Nathan put the crib together that night...I was so excited and wanted to be a part of putting it together but I just didn't feel like it so I sat on the bed, watched and took pictures. I finally went to bed thinking that I would feel better the next morning. But when I woke up I still didn't feel right. I was laying in bed and all of a sudden I felt my stomach get really hard. I had never felt anything like it before and thought that it was just the baby pushing up against me. About 30 minutes later it happened again. I called my mom (throughout my pregnancy I have called her about a million times with questions!!) and she told me that I probably needed to see the doctor. I went to the doctors office and they told me to go back home, rest, and drink lots of water....but if the contractions got worse to go to Labor & Delivery. By the time I got home I was contracting every 10 to 15 minutes so we headed to the hospital.

 

 

When I got there everything seemed to move so slow...like hospitals aren't slow enough already! I was ready to find out what was going on and make sure my baby was ok. They hooked me up to the monitors and sure enough I was contracting A LOT!! They ran several tests and ultimately decided that it was probably a urinary tract infection causing the contractions (but they wouldn't know for sure for a couple of days). They sent me home with an antibiotic and said they should start to slow

down.

 

I was scared to go to sleep that night. But I finally did and when I woke up they were still there. And as the day progressed they got worse. They had told me at the hospital that if they picked up to take a hot bath and if they didn't get better by doing that then to go back to the hospital. So that's what I did. The hot bath didn't help...they were coming every 2 minutes...so we rushed back up to L&D. The results of my UTI test were still not back but they still thought that that was what was causing everything. They did decide to give me a shot of terbutaline which is supposed to help stop contractions. The first shot they gave me didn't work but the second did. At least for a while....by the time I got home the contractions were back but they were a little more spaced out (as in every 30 minutes).

 

The next morning I woke up to contractions what were every 2 to 3 minutes again. I knew that if it was UTI causing my contractions then they should be getting better by this point so we went to L&D again. This time they had my test results back and I did not have a UTI. They finally just decided that I was just going to have contractions and that they may never stop. They told me that I needed to be on bed rest because my contractions were the worst when I was up on my feet.

 

The weeks to come were rough. I think a lot of people think bed rest is fun...but let me tell you...it is NOT. It was very lonely and you feel so disconnected from life around you. Everyone you know is continuing on with their daily activities and you are stuck at home not even able to get off the couch. I wasn't allowed to do housework...I could only get up to take a shower and that was it. Don't get me wrong...I wanted to do whatever I had to do to get my baby here safe...I would've stood on my head upside down for 9 months if that's what I needed to do. But it didn't make bed rest any easier.

 

I see so many pregnant girls complaining about how big they are and how hard it is to move around and how nothing looks cute on them. I would've welcomed all those things! I wish I could have enjoyed this part of my pregnancy like normal people do. I would've loved to have been able to go to the maternity store and pick out "cute" maternity clothes! And walk around where people could see my little baby bump that I was so proud of! I would've loved to have been able to go to the baby stores and buy things for my little girl. And have been able to decorate her nursery from somewhere besides the couch. And this was only the beginning.

 

The worst part was the fear. I felt like a ticking time bomb...I could go into labor at any time. And there was nothing I could do about it. As a mom you feel like it is your responsibility to take care of your baby....and I felt helpless. I was still so early into my pregnancy (21 weeks) and I knew that if my baby was born that she wouldn't live. The thought of losing the child that I had prayed so hard for and was so excited about was unbearable. I think I cried everyday for the first few weeks. Because not only was that fear there...it was the only thing that I could think about. I didn't have anything to take my mind off it.

 

As the weeks passed it got a little easier. We still made several trips to the hospital...and my doctor was great to see me at her office when I would get worried. The further along I became the better I started to feel because the percentages of babies that survived early births went up with every week she stayed put. The first goal to reach was 28 weeks which seemed like forever away...but I finally made it there with lots of prayer :)

 

My mom went through the same thing with both of her pregnancies except she lost twins at 20 weeks. She was on bed rest with me starting at 24 weeks so she knew what it was like. And she was so great to be there for me...she was the only one who truly knew what I was going through. She reminded me one day that Natalie was God's child not mine. I had to give her over to Him no matter what happened. It was really hard to do and I had to pray everyday. But everyday that I prayed I would hear God say back "I will take care of you and your baby". This is the only way I was able to make it through.

 

Here are a few pictures of me while I was on bed rest. I don't have many but I am glad for the few I have to remember this time! 

 Me and Cricket on the couch...this is where I spent all of my time unless I was at the doctor, hospital, or in the bed.

 

This is after one of my doctor appointments around 24 weeks.



 

This is me and Nathan on our anniversary! I was almost 27 weeks. We didn't get to go anywhere that night so we stayed in and got Logan's to-go! It was also my moms birthday so we celebrated with them :)

 

Part 5 Coming Soon!!

Kelsey

 

Welcome to Natalie's Nursery!

I am so behind in blogging!! So much has happened the last few months and I do plan to catch up on everything but today I only have a few minutes so I thought I would share pictures of my sweet girls nursery! And I am going to give a detailed list of where everything came from!! :) I hate when I see something I love on a blog and it doesn't say where it is from...so I am going to do my best not to leave anything out!!

I had hoped to have her nursery complete before she arrived. I had everything I needed to finish it...I just had not gotten it done. (For those of you who are new around here I was on bed rest for almost the entire 2nd half of my pregnancy! I pretty much pulled this room together from my couch :) Thank goodness for online shopping, my husband, and my parents!!) I had Natalie 3 weeks early...and while we were still in the hospital my husband and dad finished it for me! They are so sweet!! And did a great job!

 

 

Welcome to Natalie's Nursery!

As soon as I found out I was having a little girl I knew exactly what I wanted her nursery to look like...Sweet and Heavenly! I know a lot of people do bright colors for little ones...but I wanted something neutral and elegant. So I went with white and a few touches of pink.

If you are interested in seeing how the nursery came together you can check it out HERE, HERE, and HERE.

I think my favorite part Natalie's room is her crib. And I especially fell in love with the way it looks with the bedding on it! I wanted an iron crib from the beginning and knew I had to have this one as soon as I saw it! I loved the detail on it!

 

Her mobile was a gift from my cousins! It was one of the first things I picked out. And I love how the pink pops out around all of the white!! The wall sconces actually came from my room at my mom and dad's house. My mom found them several years ago and when I started putting together the nursery we decided that the room wouldn't be complete without them! Mom was so sweet to give them to me :)

 

 

I looked and looked for baby bedding for what seemed like months. The main thing I was trying to find was crib bedding that also had matching bedding for the day bed. I finally started looking at Restoration Hardware Baby & Child and was able to find a ton of options! They have regular bedding to match almost all of their crib bedding. I ordered about 10 fabric swatches in order to pick out what I wanted. It took me forever to decide! When I got online to order what I had picked out they had just released their newest collection! So of course I had to start ALL OVER!!!! I'm so glad I had waited though because I soon as I saw this I knew it was the look I was going for!

For her crib I decided not to do a bumper. I have read way to many things about babies suffocating with them and I am extremely paranoid about SIDS. I knew there was no way she would sleep with a bumper in her crib so there was no reason to even order one. I didn't want to have to take it off and put it back on a million times. I decided the duvet cover and pillows were a more practical purchase and liked the simplicity of the crib this way. In my opinion some cribs are way to over done and it can take away from the beauty of the crib.

 For the day bed, I ordered the same bed skirt as I did for the crib. I also ordered the same standard pillow shams and boudoir pillows. Instead of doing the flowered duvet cover I went with a solid white linen duvet cover. I didn't want it to get too busy. I love the duvet cover...however I didn't think through the linen part. Natalie and I spend a lot of time in her room and we sit on the day bed a lot!! And anyone that has had linen bedding knows how wrinkly it can get!! If I could do it again I might have chosen something that would be a little more "play" friendly! But I must say...it looks BEAUTIFUL!! Nothing can compare to beautiful linen bedding!

The bed canopy could not have turned out more perfect!! And I can only take credit for coming up with how to do it!! (I hope to do a post on how we made this soon!) I spent hours looking up pictures of bed canopies. There are so many ways to do them...and I didn't want mine to look dinky. Nathan made the box at the top and my dad attached the fabric. This is one of the projects they worked on while I was still in the hospital! It turned out exactly how I imagined!!!

Do you remember the ugly blue chair?? Well this is how it turned out!!! I LOVE it!! And so far the white has not been an issue at all :)



The blanket draped over the chair was also a gift from a cousin. It matches the mobile!! I love how it pulls the pink in the room together!

Here are a few more detailed pictures of things in the nursery!



Natalie LOVES being read to!

Look at all those toys!!



I am so happy with how her room turned out!! I tried to design it around Natalie and us being able to spend lots of time in there. And that is exactly what we do!! I hope she grows up to love her room just as much as I do!!

 

 

Here is a list of where you can find everything in her nursery! I will try to attach links to everything I can!

 

 

Crib

Casablanca by Bratt Décor

 

 

Toddler Quilt and Shams

Washed Appliqued Fleur Toddler Quilt

Washed Appliqued Fleur Sham - Standard

Duvet Cover & Boudoir Pillows
Garment Dyed Linen Twin Bed Cover
Garment Dyed Linen Boudoir Pillow (I used a local store for monogram)

Birds Mobile & Matching Blanket
Pink Birds Mobile & Blanket by BlaBla

Storage Bin

Laundry Hamper

Curtains

Nightstand: Target
Rug: Target
Lamp: Hobby Lobby
Book Rack: Local Antique Store "Scobeks"
Armoire: Local Store "David Christophers"
Fabric for Bed Canopy: Hobby Lobby
Wall Brackets for Canopy: Hobby Lobby
Scripture Painting: "David Christophers"
Fabric for Chair: Hancock Fabrics
Paint Color: Benjamin Moore - Edgecomb Gray


Just for fun here are some picture of my sweet Natalie enjoying her nursery!

Hope you enjoyed the tour!!
Kelsey & Natalie