Yea!!! Showers & Furniture

The past two weekends have been great at the Lasseigne household. We had baby showers and arrival of baby furniture.
The showers were wonderful and I can not thank my hostesses enough!!! All of you did such a wonderful job (Erin, Keri, Kathryn, Emily, Lana, Kelly & Gina) and Stephen & I are so thankful to have you in our lives. Also, thank you so much to all of you that were able to come! It means so much to me and I really appreicate it! My mom took all of the pictures, so when she hands those over I will post them. We got a lot of great gifts and can not wait to share them with our baby girl.

I promised I would post pictures of the wall and then Stephen got the furniture in before I had a chance to snap a picture. This morning I took a few around the furniture, hopefully you can vaguely see the leaves. The idea was for them to be an accent at different light angles. So here is the wall.




















Here are a few pictures of the baby furniture.






I found out this past week that the main fabric I have based the whole nursery around is back ordered for another 6-8 weeks. I am REALLY hoping it is just 6 weeks, I only have 11 weeks to go until I am full term. I have become okay with the fact that I probably will not have her bedding by the time she gets here, it is still nerve racking. She will be in the bassinet for the first few weeks, so it is not real crucial. I think the part that makes me so anxious about it is the nesting that I am going through. For some people it is not a big deal, to me, I am bringing home my angel to an incomplete project/room. God has taught me a lot about patience over the years, so I think now we are on to “Learning How to Roll With The Punches, Lesson 1.”

I can officially no longer watch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition until after she is born. I just sit there and cry at every little thing and if anyone on the show cries, I’m done. I have my opinions on the election results but will keep most of them to myself. The history making aspect was neat; the moral aspect is what bothers me. I caught myself in the shower the next morning worrying about what type of country she is going to be raised in – which led me to start praying earnestly that we will raise her with a great Christian foundation and leadership. It is not just my angel I worry about it- it’s our parents and their financial/retirement plans that have had to be altered because of the economy, or the people that now have to put their dreams on hold.

So not to be “Debbie Downer” I will leave you with a 29-week baby update. She should now be around 2 ½ pounds and about15” long. The fruit/vegetable they compare her to this week is a butternut squash. (Those really crack me up for some reason) I have really been able to feel her hiccup lately and sometimes you can feel it from the outside as well. She still likes to kick or punch me in the bladder a lot, which her daddy finds amusing. My glucose test came back fine, however, I am anemic. I’ve been trying to take my iron but it is tough on my system so I am going to explore other means of getting iron as well. I may have to live off of spinach dip, since that is the only way I will eat something green unless it is peas.

A week of first's....already.....

It is not very often that after three years you get to share a "first" with your spouse. Stephen & I had the joy (well kind of) of experiencing two on Saturday (25th)!

One first started when we went and bought the furniture for the nursery!!!! It was fun, yet somewhat overwhelming. On one hand ,I was so ready to get this part over with to help satisfy the itch to get everything ready for her big day. On the other hand, all I could see was dollar signs. And Lord knows, especially with a girl, that is not going to change. You could somewhat see the humbled joy within Stephen when he was paying for/taking care of his little girl. I sat in one of their gliders and watched distantly and quietly as he worked out the details.

So... off we go, back to the house and guess who is hungry?? That would be me. I had Stephen get off at a different exit that has a weird left turn at the end of it. We both look over our right shoulder as he prepares to make a left - all clear. He proceeds in to his turn, I see something over my right shoulder and here ladies and gentlemen would be our second first. We were unfortunately in our first accident together. It was not a major and everybody was fine. Basically our front passenger panel/bumper was damaged. Of course, I freaked out mainly because I have never been involved in an accident as a passenger. And Stephen was probably more upset with himself than anything else. The rest of the afternoon we spent laying around in the bed and being thankful that we still had one another b/c it could have been a lot worse than it was! God had his hand on us, that's for sure!

I had my monthly doctors appointment on Thursday and she checked everything out and did not feel that the wreck disrupted anything. I have actually been feeling her move around a lot more, but I think the wreck flipped her b/c she is kicking in a completely different location... like my bladder. Her heart rate is great and the doctor feels I am moving along just fine. I am not real keen on the weight I've gained, but it's a part of the package.

We got our first baby gift this week!!! Stephen & I were so giddy as we were breaking in to the box. It was her Ocean Wonders Acquarium that goes on the side of her crib. Speaking of which, we will be picking up and putting together the week of Nov. 8th and this coming weekend hopefully we will finishing painting the nursery - if we can figure out this whole glazing idea we are trying to pull off..... that we can't find any information on. It is real hard to explain, so if we pull it off, i will definetly post pictures.

ALSO, this weekend I have my first shower and can't wait to see everyone. It will be so much fun! I am trying to get Stephen to attend, but we'll see.

26 weeks - Becareful little ears what you hear...

"No-Name" is moving along and kicking around like crazy. According to my updates she should now be able to tell the difference between mine and Stephen's voices. However, Stephen & I feel she will recognize JT's voice better than she will recognize ours because he is so vocal. It is next to impossible to ask him to be quiet b/c he just talks right back. I see the good and the bad in it, I would like for her to be able to fall asleep under any condition without it being super quiet around her. I have very high hopes that I will be the kind of person that will be blowing and going, however, there is also reality...

Guess what?!! We decided on a paint color and painted the nursery this past weekend. To give you an idea the paint color name is "simplify beige." Here is a swatch:


I think we both really like it. That room gets a lot of afternoon sun and it just makes the room feel so fresh and airy. I would have liked to have gone with a bolder color but that room can seem small and we did not want to close it in any more. We are going to try a glazing effect on the walls using "branches" from the fabric pattern (shown in a previous blog). I'll let you know if it works. If not, its just paint and we can go to plan B.

SIDENOTE: Last night, Stephen & I were watching t.v. and I came across the Discovery Health show "Freebirthing." Okay, that's just weird. It's a/b pregnant women who refuse to be followed with medical treatment and would prefer an unassisted childbirth. REALLY? They followed two women through the process and luckily neither of them had any complications. I have been through way to much to be too strong willed to not ask for help or medication. More power to them, but Stephen & I were partly speechless and partly disgusted at the same time. One family cut the umbilical cord with regular scissors. I found this on wikipedia to explain why some people do this:
The reasons for choosing to give birth unassisted range greatly from mother to mother but a few key factors are common to most.

- The conviction that birth is a normal function of the female body and therefore not a medical emergency.
- The belief that most interventions commonly used by the medical profession during birth cause more harm than good in a normal birth.
- The sense that the mother will be more apt to follow the natural flow of her individual birth in an undisturbed birth setting, thus enabling her to find the optimum positions or techniques to birth her child safely.
- The understanding that birth is an intimate, sexual, and potentially orgasmic experience,[3] and that privacy is absolutely essential for the erotic dimension of birth.
- A noted increase in the feelings and ability to bond with and take responsibility for the welfare of her child.

Some have requested a picture of the "buddha belly" (as Stephen & I call it) so here it is at 26 weeks:

Austin Pictures

No-Name Lasseigne

(You will see a few posts in a row b/c its been a few weeks.)
It’s about freakin’ time! Stephen & I finally got around to registering this weekend- however, she still does not have a name, so i've nick-named her "no-name." It was so sweet to see how involved he got with registering. Of course I had to give him the laser gun so he could scan everything. I think at one point he even said “Hey, let me do it – you get to carry her all the time.” So I would just point and he would scan.
I will say it was a little overwhelming, so many things to choose from and how do you know which one is best. I think the thing that stumped up the most was which type of bottles to choose.
We also decided on furniture (see picture below)! I am so excited. It the Metro collection by Bonoavita. We think it is great quality and will last a long time, either for her or for whenever #2 comes along.

AND we have decided on the bedding. Here is a swatch of the main fabric- it is brighter here than it actually looks. The walls will be light beige. The main color I will play off of is the red – then accenting with brown, ecru, and lime green. The turquoisy color you see is really more of a sea-foam and has been almost impossible to find stuff to match it.

My belly is really starting to stick out and I think I am starting to officially lose my waist. (check out the slide show below and you can kind of tell) She is estimated to weight a/b 24 oz, or a 1.5 pounds. It is getting a little harder for me to sit up from a reclined position. This whole gaining weight thing has been a little bit of a bummer and I am really starting to be able to tell there is more of me, especially when walking long distances or stairs.
If I could live in my tennis shoes I would! Stephen & I had to go to shoe shopping for me so I could some black flats that would accommodate a bad foot that swells pretty badly by the end of the day, no matter how much water I drink or how long I prop it up. The doctor doesn’t seem to be too concerned about it, mainly b/c it’s my bad foot anyway. She is regulating my amount of swelling by watching my right leg.

Just a few more weeks and I have my last monthly appointment, after the end of October we start our bi-weekly appointments. I am nervous about the whole process but I also can’t wait to meet her! Yes, a her that still has no name...

AUSTIN!

What a neat town. It was not near the size I thought it would be and was pretty easy to get around once you got your bearings straight.
Stephen, myself and his parents went there a few weeks ago for a family wedding. His cousin Mark got married to a sweet girl named Caroline. It was a beautiful wedding and we are glad we were able to attend. I got a chance to meet a lot of the cousins that Stephen grew up with that were not able to make it to our wedding. It was also great to catch up with the ones that I have met before.
Another cool thing we got to do while we were there was go the Austin Musuem of Art. It was really neat to see pieces of work done by what I consider “the greats” – Picasso, Monet, Degas, Matisse, van Gogh, Gauguin, and Delacroix. And of course my favorite was Degas. I have always admired his work, mainly because he worked a lot in pastels and those are really my favorite medium when I take the time to sit down and draw. It also really made me miss school and I caught myself craving that artistic outlet that I used to be able to suffice when in school. I have a few painted pieces planned for the nursery, but nothing real creative. I can’t wait to teach our children art and help them understand and appreciate its importance in our world.

Check out the slideshow pictures from the trip.

Belly movements

According to my weekly update, she should weigh around 1 pound by now. Just think, a year from now, who knows a/b how much she will weigh - it is hard to think about.

People say to pay attention to when she is active because that can indicate her sleep/wake patterns when she is born. Well, right now, her busiest time is between 8pm-9:30. (I swear she is having a party in there) I keep trying to get Stephen to feel her kick and this past week he has been able to. Here is the really cool part.

I was laying in bed and Stephen was in the other room, she was kicking like crazy. I happen to look down and could see my stomach move everytime she kicked. So I scream "Stephen! Stephen! Hurry!" He comes walking back to the bedroom, unalarmed b/c usually when i call for him like that lately it is for him to feel her move and he was starting to lose hope and had almost resorted to the fact that she was real shy to anyone but her mom. He steps in the bedroom with a look across his face like "Why are you calling me back here when you know I'm not going to be able to feel anything." I said "You can literally see my belly move."
His immediate response "Nooo Way......, she's not going to do it now b/c you screamed for me and probably startled her" so he crawled in to bed with me proceed to watch her do kickboxing through my skin. It was so cute, he could not keep his eyes off my stomach, at times i thought he was scared to blink b/c he might miss something.

Still no name, but Stephen is finally staring to throw some out there for me to think about. He has two weeks and counting to help me decide on a first name. I already know what I really like, but I want this to be a "we" decision. I want him to be involved in every aspect of her life as much as I am. He has already promised me that he will teach her how to change a flat tire before she is allowed to drive. (He'll have to teach me in the process. I could probably figure it out, but it is better to learn from a perfectionist... maybe)