Holy Baby Bump!

The bump at 27 weeks 3 days

This picture makes me feel huge! :) 3 days shy of 7 months prego in this pic

This weekend starts my baby showers...I am really excited :) Saturday evening, my boss is having a couple's shower/BBQ at her house for Corey and I and all of my co-workers. Sunday afternoon, Corey's family is throwing me a shower at his cousin Denise's beach house.

I am really excited to see everyone now that my bump is really showing. I am really glad we got the nursery setup so I have an empty room to start organizing and storing everything as we receive it.

Monday, we go back to the Dr. for my 28 week/7th month checkup. I will have to take the 1 hour glucose tolerance test while I am there and we are also having our follow up ultrasound done to see if the cysts that were in our baby's brain have dissolved (keep the prayers coming!).

I will keep everyone posted as to how our appt goes.

Love to all :)

Beginning of the nursery

Corey starting on the changing table

Izzie wants to help with her Bubba's room :)

Corey's dad measuring for the chair rail. Before view of room from door Another before view

Another before view

Corey found this wall hanging he made when he was little. He may repaint it, but either way we are going to put in the nursery.

Changing table

Corey helping put up the chair rail

Corey and his dad working on the crib

Corey working on the drawers for the dresser

Finished crib...we haven't decided on the room setup yet so the furniture isn't where it will be permanently

Finished dresser...missing middle drawer knobs

Finished changing table.

I am exhausted! Today we worked all day on getting the nursery and spare bedroom organized and setup. While Corey and his dad put up a chair rail and put the furniture together, I boxed and organized items for our attic and took a huge pile of stuff to good will. We donated some furniture to a needy family and finally got the spare room cleaned out so its not just a junk room anymore. Still needs some final touches and cleaning but is much better.

Corey and his dad worked really hard in Baby Burns room. The chair rail and furniture turned out great. We still have to decide how we want everything arranged in the room. Corey is also going to do some touch up painting tomorrow. I am just glad the room is in much better shape for me to start piling baby stuff in it as it arrives. I need to wash the bedding and put it in the crib, hang the curtains, add stuff to the walls, etc. At least the big items are done, so I can take my time with the little stuff.

I am still fighting off this cold or sinus problems I've had this week. My congestion is moving into my chest so its been a rough few nights with little sleep due to not being able to breathe and coughing. Hopefully I will feel better in the next few days.

Looking forward to Father's Day tomorrow :)

26 weeks and down and out with a cold!

Hit the 26 week mark on Monday. I had some pretty bad reflux going on Monday, kept feeling like my food was coming back up. That night my throat was a little dry and then BOOM all night I kept waking up feeling like I was coming down with Strep throat :( I normally would have just waited it out a couple of days, but figured I should head to the dr since I'm prego and had a busy work week ahead of me. Thankfully, the strep test came back negative, but unfortunately being prego that means having to just tough it out! I am glad I didn't have to risk taking antibiotics but it sucks not even being able to take cold medicine or dayquil. I am sticking with my allergy pill and picked up some cough drops to keep my throat numb.

I have been used to the stuffiness as apparently thats just part of being prego, but I just have had a bad scratchy throat and it hurts to swallow. I've been living off of Chick Fil A's chicken soup for a couple of days now. Today you can actually hear that I'm sick as apparently I have some draining going on. It must be in my throat or getting into my chest as I have been coughing a bit today. Last night was rough as I kept trying to prop myself up so I could breathe but then my neck would start hurting. Thankfully Vapo Rub is working for the most part.

This past weekend Corey and I discovered that Baby Burns kicks and punches can now be seen. I was laying on the couch and Corey and I were laughing as my belly looked like it was dancing at times. Even if I am not looking I can feel my belly moving, and the kicks don't feel so "internal". He must be getting big and strong now :) I am definitely feeling him a lot more throughout the whole day now, instead of just when I am laying down at night. Corey's mom got to see the show in my belly too on Sunday so I am glad other people can now enjoy his movements. Corey still hasn't been able to feel him, but thats only because he is either to slow to come over to feel or Baby Burns gets shy as soon as anyone besides me touches my belly!

We go back for my next dr appt on the 28th and then we have our 3d/4d ultrasound on July 3rd. My 7th month/3rd trimester starts next week - craziness! Hard to believe that on June 20th we will only have 3 more months till our little one will be here :) We still haven't decided on a name but have definitely narrowed it down. We figure if nothing else, once we see the 4d ultrasound and can see his face that might help us out.

Corey and his dad are going to be working on the nursery this weekend. They will be touching up the paint on the walls, and trim, and adding a white chair rail to the room. They will also be setting up all of the furniture. I will be working on organizing our other spare room and taking things to goodwill or boxing things up to go in the attic. I am glad the nursery will finally be setup as we have our first 2 showers next weekend and will soon be bringing home baby stuff and will need a place to put it! I am looking forward to getting the clothes hung up and put away in the drawers and getting the crib bedding on and decorations up.

I am definitely feeling that my 2nd trimester is coming to an end. I am starting to get some lower back achiness and my feet start hurting by the end of the day. Thankfully no swelling yet! I can also feel that my energy level is backing off some. I think a lot of it has to do with the heat too. I am already missing my nightly walks with Izzie but the heat and humidity have made it too hard to get a good walk in without me getting really out of breath and even sometimes sick once I get back home. I am hoping I will have the motivation to start doing my prenatal yoga dvd at home and I have been trying to get some walking done inside places with AC...but most of the time I am window shopping too much to get any real exercise!

This past Saturday my mom and I went to Florence. Mom bought us a crib mattress from Target so that's one less thing we have to get. We had a great time looking at baby stuff and I was really proud of myself for not spending any money on anything all day :) Mom also got me a really cute cotton sundress that I will probably end up wearing to one of my showers.

Wells thats all for now. I will try to take some more belly pics soon and post photos from our next ultrasound and showers.

Thank you for all of the continued prayers and support. Love to all!

Registry is done and Shopping in Charlotte

I bought this outfit on Mothers Day at Target. It says "Mommy's Snugglesaurus" on it. I thought it was really cute especially since I call our Izzie my "Snuggle Bug"

Mom and I picked these up in Atlanta a few weeks ago. I love the how the socks look like dinosaur feet :)

Two outfits courtesy of Corey's cousin and her family...thank you Denise!

Found these on sale this weekend in Charlotte. I got the first outfit for only $3. Had to buy the Pink Floyd onesie since that is one of Corey's favorite bands. Last were some newborn shirts I found which I thought would come in handy in the beginning when we basically have him in shirts, diapers and socks.

Polo onesies and shirts we found on sale for about $7-10 each. Much better than the normal $27-30 price tag. Corey loves Polo shirts, so now our baby boy can match his Daddy!

This past weekend, I went to Charlotte with my sister Tina and my Mom. It was race weekend so it was pretty busy but we had a great time. We stayed in the Concord Mills area which was really convenient for finishing my baby registry at Babies R Us which was 1/2 mile from out hotel. We drove up Friday night (through bad thunderstorms!) and stopped at the Southpark mall to shop at Pottery Barn Kids and Belk. We finally made it to our hotel around 11pm and crashed. Saturday morning after breakfast we got started on our shopping around 9:30 am. We started at the Super Target (my dream is that we will one day have one!). After an early lunch we went to the Babies R Us to finish my baby registry. It took us about 2 hours to go through the store and pick out everything from bottles, carseat, stroller, diaper bag, crib sheets, bassinet, etc etc etc! After Babies R Us we headed to the IKEA. At this point my feet were starting to hurt, so my sweet sister offered to push me around in a wheelchair...this was quite fun actually! I am glad she did since we went on to do more shopping at Northlake mall and Concord Mills afterwards. Not sure I would have made it without that rest off my feet!

As you can see from the pics above we got some cute baby outfits. I am really looking forward to Corey and his Dad getting the nursery ready so I can get everything organized for our baby boy!

Love, Ashley, Corey, Baby Burns and Izzie

24 weeks - the belly has popped!

So everyone kept telling me that around 6 months by baby belly would suddenly pop out...and boy were they right! I have been showing more lately but I can definitely no longer deny it. People will actually ask me when I am due now, instead of just looking at me trying to figure out of I am pregnant or not!

Nursery stuff!

Rug for the nursery

Crib sheet, crib skirt and a front/back view of the bumper. The chocolate brown side with circles is the front, and the stripes are on the inside.

Back of the quilt (matches the crib sheets)

Front of quilt that matches bedding. This is the bedding I found on sale in Atlanta. We like that is has a lot of colors in it.

Closeup of the knobs for the dresser

Click on pictures to make them bigger. Here is a pic of the knobs for the 6-drawer dresser, a shelf with matching striped knobs, the giraffe print changing pad cover, and the window valance for the nursery.

Corey and I after dinner at PF Changs...I am 24 weeks here (6 months!)

Hey everyone!

I am 24 weeks now. Just had my checkup this morning and everything is great. Baby's heartbeat was a strong 155 bpm. Doc said my uterus size is measuring normal but on the higher end of the normal range. Big boy maybe? :) I go back in 4 weeks. At that time they will test me for antibodies and I will take the 1 hour glucose test for gestational diabetes. I will also have my follow up ultrasound to see if his cysts in his brain have gone away and then my checkup with the doctor. Please pray for no diabetes and for the cysts to be gone :) Hard to believe that in 1 month I will start my 3rd trimester! I am hoping I can really take advantage of June since its not too hot just yet and I still have plenty of energy.

Corey took me on a dinner date last night to PF Changs. Baby Burns either really likes or dislikes spicy food as he was kicking me like crazy throughout dinner.

I will post more belly pics, etc in the next post.