Katherine's Nursery

We've had fun preparing for Baby Katherine and decorating her nursery. I love the way it turned out.

We transformed our guest bedroom into a nursery but decided to keep the guest bed in her room for when we have people visit.

I had in my head once we found out she was a girl that I wanted her nursery to be pale pink and mint colors, but I had the hardest time finding any nursery bedding in those colors that I liked. Thankfully, Target released a new line of nursery bedding this Spring, and they had almost exactly what I was envisioning. I really love the added touches of gold and blue.

Matt spent a whole day lovingly painting the walls pink for me.

We bought her dresser/changing table at Ikea when we were on vacation this summer. The drawers are spacious and already full of so many sweet things for her to wear.

Samuel asked to draw a picture of our family and hang it as a decoration in Katherine's nursery. How could I say no? He's so proud of it. I'm sure Katherine will love it :). He's the one holding her of course.

The kids always want to play in her room. They pull out all of her baby toys and books and look at them, and they always end up climbing in her crib and playing "baby." Samuel was very concerned that she doesn't have a pillow in her bed. I think I've finally convinced him that babies don't need to sleep with a pillow. He's always looking out for his sister.

We can't wait for Katherine to get here! We are ready!

Third Trimester Recap

We are getting so close to meeting our sweet girl, and we can't wait! And honestly, I'm ready to not be pregnant anymore.

Overall, I've really felt okay, so I feel like I can't complain, but it still isn't always fun being pregnant. I get tired easily throughout the day. In the last few weeks I've noticed that I feel good in the mornings, and then after lunch I usually hit a wall, and I'm just done for the day, ha! Usually, some energy will come back later in the day, but I'm pretty much used to being tired all the time.

I haven't been sleeping great for what feels like most of my pregnancy. I fall asleep fine, but when I wake up in the middle of the night anytime between 1:00 and 4:00 (to go to the bathroom), I usually always have a hard time falling back asleep and am usually awake for an hour or two in the middle of the night. Ugh, I guess my body is just preparing to have a newborn. At least I'll have a cute snuggler when I'm up in the middle of the night.

I'm also hot most of the time and I feel like I sweat constantly, especially at night. I'm so grateful that we had a mild summer because those hot days were pretty miserable. I'd be sweaty just from getting the kids loaded in the car, and I didn't play outside with them as much as I wish I could have, but I just got too hot.

I've been really emotional too. It's a roller coaster, but I think I've cried more in the last month than like the last two years combined. I can feel really good and prepared and on top of things one minute, and then feel super overwhelmed and stressed the next and those feelings of being overwhelmed and that I'm failing at being a good wife and mom almost always lead to a melt down (Poor Matt).  I'm ready for my hormones to stabilize and am preparing for plenty more melt downs in the next few weeks, ha!

Other than those symptoms, I'm just uncomfortable. I have a lot of lower back pain at the end of most days. I tripped and fell outside about a month ago, and my foot and tailbone were super sore for about a week, and it was awful. Bending over was  excruciating. I know it was a mild injury, but with the baby sitting right on my tailbone already, it made it so much worse. I had convinced myself that I would probably be sore until I delivered, but thankfully, it healed, and things are so much better now. I still don't enjoy bending over, but it's something that I do all the time. It's part of taking care of three kids, I guess. Elisabeth told me the other day that her back hurt whenever she bent over :). Maybe I've been complaining about it some out loud, ha!

Katherine is super active at night (maybe that's one reason I can't fall back asleep in the middle of the night). Her kicks are strong, and her little feet are right up in my ribs. I still don't ever get tired of feeling her move though. It's bittersweet thinking about those little kicks not happening inside me again.

The kids are getting super excited about meeting their sister. I think they finally know that she really is coming soon, and they talk about her all the time. Nathan asks how many days are left until she's here. He asked last week how many Fridays until she'd be here, and when I told him there was only one more Friday, he freaked out and ran and told his brother and sister how soon she'd be here. Samuel tells me all the time that he wants to take care of Baby Katherine while I cook dinner every night, and Elisabeth tells me that she's going to be a good big sister and tell Daddy whenever Katherine gets hurt. They all talk about coming to meet her and hold her in the hospital. It's been so fun and special to share this pregnancy with them. This baby is a blessing to all five of us. I don't think she could be loved any more than she is already.

We got to see our Girl at 32 weeks to check on a minor issue. Our doctor had told us there wasn't really a need to do a follow up ultrasound because it didn't matter if the little spot went away or not, but I jumped at the chance to get an extra ultrasound and see her againn Although we were disappointed the issue hadn't resolved itself, our doctor has reassured us that she is perfectly healthy. It was so fun to see her and see how much she's grown. .  That girl wouldn't hold still for the entire ultrasound. We got one blurry profile pic, and that was the best the tech could do with all her wriggling. On top of that she had her hands in front of her face for almost the entire scan. We loved watching her move around and her sweet little body.

We've been working on preparing for Katherine's arrival, and that's always a fun part of the third trimester. Her nursery is 95% finished. I'm waiting on one more thing to come in the mail, and it will be complete. The kids love to play in her room, and I love to be in there too. All her little clothes and blankets are washed. We are stocked with diapers in her closet thanks to so many sweet friends. Her bag is packed for the hospital, and all her cute headbands are hanging in her room. Our freezer is stocked with meals, and I'm working like a frantic lady to try and keep our house decently clean in case she comes unexpectedly. Nathan asked yesterday why we have to clean up all the time, ha! I told him because the baby can come out of my tummy any time, and I want the house to not be messy when we come home from the hospital.

 I'm also savoring time with my family of five and focusing on being intentional with spending quality time with each member of my family before we enter the chaotic haze of newborn life. I've slowed down and am not as quick to commit or schedule activities so we can focus on savoring the last few days as a family of five.

We are so ready to meet the Little Girl who is going to complete our family, and we are so thankful for a healthy and uneventful pregnancy.

28 Weeks

29 Weeks

31 Weeks

32 Weeks

33 Weeks

34 Weeks

36 Weeks

37 Weeks

38 Weeks

Life Lately

We've been having a fun few weeks. The weather has been gorgeous. I can't get over how beautiful it is almost every day.

Samuel, Elisabeth and I met some friends at the zoo one morning. I never thought I'd take them to the zoo in August being eight months pregnant, but it was a great day. We had a fun time. The zoo is always more fun with friends.

It seemed like we spent most of the day playing, but we did see some animals too.

Elisabeth and Kaydence named all the penguins.

Nathan had a five day weekend over Labor Day which is crazy since he had only been in school for two weeks, but we made the most of it and spent a morning at the playground.

This girl is full of personality. Her favorite thing is having people play in her room with her. She loves to put on shows and dress up.

We met our friends in OKC for a fun day playing games and visiting. We had such a fun time playing board/card games all day (without kids). That's something we rarely get to do anymore. We took a break for dinner but ended up playing games for about six hours, and we all wished we could have stayed longer. We can't wait to do it again!

On Labor Day we had a fun family day. We spent the morning playing at the park and having a picnic.

The kids had so much fun and were so dirty when we came home. So after nap we cleaned them up at the pool, ha! We're savoring the last few special family times as a family of five.

Elisabeth has been asking and asking to go see ducks, so we headed there one morning to feed them and enjoy some outside time. It's fun to have Samuel home a couple of days a week to join in on some of our daytime fun.

Elisabeth is having a blast in ballet. Being in class with Audrey is one of her favorite parts.

 They have a super small class, just these three sweet girls. Elisabeth can't stop twirling once she puts her leotard and tutu on in the morning.

It's been fun to be a little spontaneous with these two. We drove past this park, and Elisabeth begged to stop and play, so we did! That won't be as easy in a few weeks, so we're taking advantage of it for now. 

Sometimes I might regret putting these two monkeys in gymnastics. They always want to show me how they can do head/hand stands.

Cuties are ready for church!

This girl loves her daddy.

We have art hanging all over our house. These two might be my favorite :)

 We went to a Lego Brick Convention on Saturday. Nathan was in heaven. He had fun looking at all the Legos and came home with a new set that he couldn't wait to build.

 More Sunday Cuties.

 Elisabeth and Nathan wanted a silly picture.