Elisabeth Kae

We are thrilled to introduce the newest member of the Baugher family!

Elisabeth Kae Baugher

Born August 9, 2014, 7:09pm

7lbs, 6oz

20.5inches

Beautiful and perfect in every way!

Saturday Fun Day

We have (at most) one Saturday left as a family of four, and Matt and I wanted to make the most of the time with our boys this last weekend, so we planned a fun Saturday. We've had an unusually cool summer which meant we could make a zoo trip in August. I never thought we'd be able to do that. The weather was also cool enough that we were able to take Nathan to a Drillers' game last week too. We are so thankful for mild weather that allows us to do some outdoor things that don't involve water.

On the way to the zoo Saturday morning, Matt told me he was glad I hadn't gone into labor the night before, because he was looking forward to taking the boys to the zoo.

Our zoo has a special dinosaur exhibit right now, and we had a couple of free tickets from renewing our zoo membership, so we spent the morning roaring with the dinosaurs. Samuel was so cute. He roared at all the dinosaurs. He was really excited to see all of the dinosaurs. They moved and made noises. He was fascinated.

Nathan enjoyed them too and is still talking about them especially their sharp teeth and the dinosaur who squirted water out of his mouth.

We saw some other animals too and rode the train. They repainted the train in a dinosaur theme, and Nathan was so excited to ride the dinosaur train. He also insisted on riding in a seat all by himself. A sad moment for his mommy that he is growing up.

We came home for lunch and naps. Miraculously, we were able to keep both boys awake on the drive home from the zoo (snacks and songs were the key), so they both took good naps. After naps, we popped some popcorn and watched 101 Dalmations.

The boys sort of watched it and sort of played while it was on. After the movie, we changed and headed to the pool for the evening.

We have a ton of pool toys, but all Samuel needs is a cup to keep him entertained for hours.

We played for a long time at the pool. Our little boys have become fish this summer. I'm so impressed by how they've improved in the water over the last two months. We're all going to be so sad when our pool closes.

We headed back home for baths and bed after a fun day.

I'm savoring these last sweet memories as a family of four and looking forward to Elisabeth joining the fun soon!

Third Trimester Recap

We are at most 12 days away from meeting our girl. It's felt so far away for so long that I can't believe we are actually this close!

Physically, I'm still feeling pretty good. The last two weeks of pregnancy are rough, but I'm managing. My parents took both boys to Iowa for my niece's birthday last weekend, so Matt and I had four days to ourselves which helped me get some things done and get plenty of rest. It was a nice break. The boys wear me out during the day and there's a lot of bending down to pick up toys and messes and lifting toddlers. Carrying Samuel up and down the stairs about does me in these days. I make it a point to lie down each day during nap time even if I'm not super tired. I'm taking advantage of the break and opportunity to rest while I can. I've had the typical third trimester complaints: fatigue, lower back pain, being hot all the time (Matt asked for an extra blanket last night when we were in bed), a little heartburn here and there and just being uncomfortable anytime I change positions. I was concerned about being pregnant during the summer heat, but thanks to a very mild summer and access to a swimming pool, that hasn't been an issue at all. Sometimes I dread getting the kids in and out of the car on really warm days. It feels like a workout and I'm exhausted by the time we make it into the store, but nothing really worth complaining about.

For the last week or so I've had some pre-labor symptoms, but they haven't been anything to get excited about. I think since I was overdue with both boys, Matt and I are just planning on Elisabeth taking her time too. Since my doctor is heading out of town a few days after my due date, we have plans to induce shortly after I'm due, and as much as I'm ready to not be pregnant anymore and to meet our sweet girl, honestly I'm totally fine if she waits until the 12th to come. I've never had a firm "exit" date before with my kids, and it's been nice to prepare and know for sure when she'll be here. I think it will be nice to have everything totally ready for her arrival, and it will be nice for my parents too since they are kind enough to keep our boys while we are in the hospital and for a few days after we come home. But I also know how fun it would be if she surprised us and came early. Her story will be perfect however it turns out.

I feel prepared for her arrival. Her hospital bag is packed and ready to go, and her nursery is ready for her to come home to (once I have Nathan move the firetrucks out of her room). My bag is mostly packed. The boys big brother presents are wrapped. All our baby gear is clean and assembled and ready to go. The freezer is stocked with meals to get us through the first few weeks. I'm trying to stay on top of cleaning and laundry, and not let things get too out of hand in case she comes early, and Matt and I are savoring the alone time we get in the evenings once the boys are asleep knowing we won't have much time alone together for a few weeks (or months) after she's born. We're just in the waiting place right now, trying not to make too many plans for the next couple of weeks but also cherishing our boys and giving them extra attention.

Emotionally, I'm a roller coaster. Sometimes I get sad thinking about how our family is about to change. We've had such a short 17 months as a family of four and it's a time we'll never get back. This summer has been special with the boys. They've learned to play together much better, we've done fun activities as a family in the evenings, and we've settled into a really nice routine. It's just been a great time, and I think it's okay to be a little sad about the coming changes to our family. Sometimes it's hard for me to remember the time before Samuel was here and we were a family of three, and I know I'll feel the same way in a few months about our time as a family of four. On the other hand though, right now it feels like our family is incomplete and we're just waiting for Elisabeth to get here and make us whole. There is a part of our family missing right now, and I'm ready for us to be a family of five and all the fun and craziness it will bring. I can't wait to watch the boys interact with their baby sister and to watch Matt be a Daddy to a little girl. There's so much to look forward to in the coming weeks. I also am coming to terms with the possibility of this being my last pregnancy/childbirth experience. I've never felt that before. We've always known we wanted at least three children, so with my first two, I could always rest on the fact that I would get to experience all these things again. With this pregnancy, we're just not sure and that makes these last few weeks of pregnancy a little bittersweet. I keep telling myself I need to savor these moments, but at the same time I'm really ready to not be pregnant anymore. I drive myself crazy if I think about it too much :).

I'm so thankful to have carried three babies to full term. It's a blessing I don't take for granted. As hard as the last few weeks can be, I'm grateful she's still growing inside of me and we are fully anticipating meeting a healthy girl in less than two weeks.

33 weeks

34 weeks

36 weeks

38 weeks

Our House- Downstairs Bedrooms and Bathrooms

Our master bedroom and bathroom are off of the living room, and our bedroom is a little bigger than the master bedroom at our last house. I think our furniture fits really well in it, and Matt did a great job picking the wall color that coordinates well with our bedding.

 I try to keep toys out of our room, but the boys love to play on the bed and watch TV in the mornings.

 We have a door in our room that leads to the back porch, but we never use it. I don't think we'll ever have a use for it, and right now, Nathan's pallet (that he sleeps on if he wakes up in the middle of the night) is blocking it anyway.

I'm really enjoying our bathroom especially the shower. I had a strong dislike for the shower in our old master bathroom. It was all tile and was such a pain to keep clean. I complained to Matt a lot about it. This shower has a lot more glass which makes it a little harder to clean, but I will take it over tile and grout any day of the week!

 Two sinks in the master bathroom were a requirement in a new house. Matt and I have never had to share a bathroom sink before. It's just better for our marriage :)

 We do share a closet in this house, and that's been a first for us. It seems to be working out fine, at least Matt doesn't complain much about my shoes being everywhere.

 Behind the kitchen, there is a hallway that leads to our utility room, a third bathroom and a fifth bedroom.

Having a third full bath has been really helpful. A lot of the houses we looked at had the master bathroom, a full bath upstairs and then another half bath downstairs. I never thought it would be a big deal to need another full bath, but now that we have one, I'm glad that we do. It's nice for guests to have their own bathroom and not have to shower in the master bath or the kids' bath.

 When we were looking at houses, we set a requirement that our new house had to have at least four bedrooms. Ideally, we hoped to find a five bedroom house (or a house with an unfinished fifth bedroom, we could finish one day if we needed it), but I didn't hold out much hope for finding one in our price range. We were really excited to find a house with so many bedrooms. We lost our guest bedroom in our last house when Samuel was born, and it wasn't a huge deal. We don't have guests stay with us all that often, and we made do with our pull out air mattress in our couch. Plus we could always kick our kids out of their rooms when guests came and convert their rooms to a guest room if we needed to.

But this space has been really nice. I thought it would just be a forgotten room and end up being wasted space, but we've made good use of it. Having the extra closet for storage has been nice, and it's a great catch all place for things I want out of sight but still need regularly. Right now that usually means the boys' big swim rafts and swim toys. Also, it's doubling as Nathan's second bedroom right now unless we have guests. He still sleeps there every night and everyday for naptime. I also know our guests enjoy having the private space downstairs separate from the rest of the house and the kids' rooms.

And if we decide to add a fourth child to our family someday, our kids will still have the option of each having their own bedrooms which is especially important to Matt.

Our House- Living/Kitchen/Dining/Office

One of the things that was important to us when we were looking for a new house was an open layout. I wanted our house to feel open and be welcoming and hospitality friendly. When we were looking at houses to buy, I was envisioning hosting birthday parties, showers, graduation parties, and hosting holidays, and I wanted there to be space to accommodate a large number of people comfortably.

Also, logistically, an open floor plan is helpful with Little Ones. The kids can be playing in the living room and I can keep my eye on them while I'm in the kitchen cooking.

 

This house has a great layout. The living room isn't huge but it's open to the entryway, dining room and kitchen, so there's plenty of room for people to be together.

 

At every house we looked at, Matt would always try and figure out where we could put a TV in the Living Room. It's surprising how many houses didn't have a good place for one. The only logical place in this house was to mount it above the fireplace. Matt spent hours running wire through the walls to hang the TV (and his surround sound). He knew better than to mount the TV with cords hanging down :).

The biggest adjustment for me in moving to this house is the hard wood floors. Matt and I have never lived in a house with hard wood before, so it's taken some getting used to. I still haven't made up my mind how I feel about it. It has benefits and drawbacks for sure, and I'm still trying to pinpoint the very best way to keep them clean without having to sweep everyday. I will say they have grown on me some over the past six months, so maybe I'll end up preferring it to carpet someday.

The kitchen was a big seller for me. I wanted a big kitchen with lots of counter space and storage, and this one doesn't let me down.

It's been nice having plenty of cabinet space to store all my dishes and appliances.

The extra counter space and cabinet space on this wall has been really nice.

I REALLY wanted a pantry in our new house. Our last house didn't have one, and we made do, but I'm definitely enjoying having a big pantry in this house. I have to share it with some of the boys' toys, but I can deal with that. There's actually a closet that extends around the corner and under the stairwell for extra storage. Right now it's full of boxes of diapers (thanks to Target's baby sale), but one day it will be a great play area/hideout for the kids. There's also a great shelved closet in the utility room, so I tell everyone that I have two pantries now.

I had also hoped to find a house with a formal dining area. We didn't have one (and didn't really need one) in our last house, and honestly we don't really need one right now in this house. But we are planning to be here for many years, and in the future, I think it will definitely be useful at least a few times a year.

My sweet friend Judy gave us this table. We drove to KC one morning to pick it up from her niece's house, but it's been such a blessing to have because we hadn't planned on purchasing a dining room table for awhile. We had higher priorities in our budget. Matt is working on stripping and refinishing it. We've used it a few times already when we've had guests for dinner, and I know it will get used more in the future.

And I was shocked that this house had everything we were looking for, including an office. I had just assumed we'd use a bedroom or a second living area for an office, but this little space right off the entryway is a great space for our computer and books.

It's a little more isolated than the rest of the living space downstairs, which is nice because it's not always the neatest room in our house :). It's a bit of a drawback right now though, because I don't use it much when the kids are awake since I can't be as close to them as I would like and if they play in the office with me, all the books from the shelves end up on the floor

It's s a great "extra" to have without having to give up on of the bedrooms or other living space. Being married to an electrical engineer I know there's no way we'll ever not have a desktop computer in our house :).

Elisabeth's Nursery

Planning and decorating a nursery is one of my favorite things about being pregnant. I've loved each of the nurseries for my kiddos. They are each special and sentimental, and Elisabeth's is no different. It was fun getting to decorate a girly nursery this time around!

Since I was pregnant with Samuel, I've always wanted a lavender and gray nursery for a baby girl. After we found out we were expecting a girl this time, I looked around and struggled for awhile finding bedding that I liked that matched the color scheme in my head. My mom found the bedding for me, and I instantly fell in love with it. It's sweet and feminine but not cheesy or over the top. It's just what i had in mind.

We ordered these letters online and Matt painted them to coordinate with the pattern of her bedding. I had bought a stencil for him, but he ended up doing it free handed. That husband of mine has some hidden talents. I'm so impressed with how they turned out.

This cradle was at my grandma's house, and I always played with it with my baby dolls when I was little. I asked Granny to save it in case I ever had a little girl, and it looks great in her room to hold all her baby dolls and stuffed animals. My mom sewed a new cover for the mattress too.

My sweet friend Erica gave me this print shortly after we found out we were having a girl. It's a special piece hanging in her room.

 

My mom also covered these baskets for Elisabeth's nursery. They turned out so cute. I wanted to add in a little pink to her room, and these are the perfect touch I think. They are filled with sweet blankets, burp cloths, bibs, head bands, and shoes.

I made this bow holder to hold all of Elisabeth's hair accessories, and it turned out really cute. I don't think she'll ever be short of hair bows!

Matt found the purple lamp at a garage sale for $3.00. It was brand new and still had the tag on it. It works perfectly in her room.

And her closet! I think she has more clothes that I do. She owes a big thank you to Erica and Andrea for sharing Sarah and Hailey's adorable clothes with her, and Grammy had some help in filling up her closet with sweet things. We're ready for her to get here and wear them all :).

I think all the last minute details are finished now, and we're just waiting for her to get here and enjoy her room. Until then, the boys have made it an extra play room. There was a firetruck tent set up yesterday in her room, and there have been several times I've found trucks and trains in her cradle. She'll have to get used to life with big brothers!