The Baby's Room

We spent some time nesting this weekend and we think that our nursery is good to go! :)

Here are some pictures of our baby's room:

Daniel hung the curtains this weekend! Thanks for sewing them Grandma Sharon!! They are super cute.


Our baby's bag is packed and ready for the hospital. Thanks for the great diaper bag Laura & Dimitris!

We hung a leaf and insect mobile above the changing table. Thanks for the mobile Grandma Nola!

Here is my childhood bunny bookshelf, hand crafted by Grandpa Smeby. Love it.

Our little baby already has a collection of books ready for him or her to read when they arrive!

Finally the crib and dresser. Now all we need is a baby! :)

Baby Storm's due date is just 3 days away!

Pumpkin Magic

Tonight Daniel and I went out for dinner at Sala Thai - best Thai food in Madison and onwed by our neighbors! We were walking back home and we saw a house with 12 pumpkins sitting on the front stoop. The pumpkins spelled out Recall Walker. Only in Madison. :)

http://www.recallscottwalker.com/

Here is a picture taken from my cell phone:

Reading Materials

So I have subscriptions for a handful of magazines including Martha Stewart Living, Real Simple, and - my guilty pleasure- US Weekly. I have to keep up on my celebrity gossip! I recently started getting Parenting magazine to start learning about baby things. Today I received an issue and Bethenny Frankel was on the cover. Say what?!? It was like getting another copy of US Weekly. Wierd. We'll see what Bethenny can teach me about being a mom...

New furniture

We have new furniture for the living room! Tonight Daniel put together our baby swing. We got this swing off of Craig's List - these things are crazy expensive if you by them brand new! Our friends Erinn and Andy swear by their baby swing for little Charlotte! Hopefully our little one will like to swing too. :)

Sabbatical!

One of the benefits of my job is that for every 5 years of work employees get a one month sabbatical! I have worked as a project manager for 5 years and 3 months so I offically applied for my sabbatical recently and it was approved. Yesterday I received a commemorative plaque stating that I earned my time off! :)



In addition to the month off, I recieve a stipend for me and partner to travel anywhere in the world. If you look at my certificate you will see that it reads Norway, Netherlands, and Germany. Daniel and I have decided to visit our family homelands! We will be traveling in mid-May so our baby will be just over 6 months old! Our baby's grandparents will be joining us for parts of the trip as well. :) It will be an adventure. Get ready for some exciting blog posts from Northern Europe in a few months. We are very excited!!

39 Week Appointment

Today I had my 39 week appointment! Only 1 week until baby Storm's official due date, can you believe it!?!

Here is the latest:

1. I am measuring right at 39 weeks

2. Baby's heartrate was at 141 bpm today

3. I am between 2 and 3 cm dialated

4. I am at 50% effaced

5. Baby Storm could come any day!

Here is a recent picture of me bouncing on my birthing ball. :)

Also - I had a prenatal massage today! It was incredible. Super relaxing. Brad and Amelia gifted me a prenatal massage for my birthday and I was going to save it until the end when things are getting uncomfortable. So I finally used it tonight and it was worth the wait. Thanks for the great present!!

A picture of my massage table :)

Yoga!

Tuesday night is yoga night! I have been going to prenatal yoga classes during my pregnancy and they are the best! I feel so much better afterward, especially in my hips. This week I officially started wearing yoga clothes to work. I am so glad that my work does not have a dress code. :) It is nice to wear yoga pants on the job.

Me and my yoga mat

Vikings + Wings = A great Sunday Evening

This weekend Dan and I took our last baby class! The class was on Breastfeeding and Newborn care at Happy Bambino in Madison. Love that store! The course consisted of the instructor and one other couple so it was super informal and wonderful.

One factoid from class - did you know that breastmilk heals conjunctivitis faster than antibiotics? If you flush your eye with breastmilk, you will be all set. Good to know. :)

After class was over on Sunday, Dan and I were running errands and listening to the radio. We were mildly shocked that the Vikings were beating the Pack at half time so we decided to go to a sports bar to watch the rest of the game in person. Dan claims that it will be one of the last spontaneous things that we will ever do. :)



Daniel enjoying the game.



Had to have hot wings. They were so awesome!! Until about 10:30 on Sunday night. I needed some serious Tums before bed.

38 Week Appointment

I had my 38 week appointment on Wednesday. Here are the notes:

1. Lost 4 pounds from the previous week.
2. Baby's heartrate was 139bpm.
3. Baby is definitely head down and ready to go!
4. I am measuring right at 38 weeks.
5. The doctor said that there is no Badgers game this weekend and it is not Halloween yet so it is a perfect weekend traffic-wise to have a baby. :) We'll see what happens!

Here is a picture of me next to our decorative Halloween ghost.

Grandma Sharon comes to visit!

Last weekend my mom visited Madison - one last trip before baby to help me make freezer meals, run some errands, and do some baby room crafts. It was great to have her over! We got a lot done!



A Mom and daughter shot!



We made a bunch of freezer meals together! Here is a great website if you are looking to make freezer meals of your own:
http://www.marthastewart.com/274277/freezer-friendly-foods

Once Dan gets his deer our freezer will be completely full. :)




We decorated the baby's room and hung up wall art. We even went to Babies R Us and picked out 2 coming home from the hospital outfits for baby! I can't wait to find out if baby Storm is a boy or a girl!!



We also did some crafts together like decorating this lampshade. Love it. The cute rolling turtles in front of the lamp are a baby gift from my friend Kim! Thanks, Kim! Those little turtles are adorable.

Thanks for coming to visit us Mom! You are the best. Next time you come to Wisconsin you will have a new grandbaby to hold. :)

Our Naughty Dogs

Yesterday morning Daniel left for work early so the dogs were unsupervised as I took a shower. While washing my hair, I heard a bit of dog wrestling followed by a crash. When I opened the bathroom door, Scout scurried by with a guilty look on her face. Watch out! This dog mom inspected the house and, to my horror, spotted an empty pan that used to hold delicious pumpkin bars on our dining room floor. Chief and Scout had gobbled them up as a second breakfast. Tragic. These were fantastic pumpkin bars. My mom and I made them over the weekend - they had real pumpkin and awesome cream cheese frosting. I was so mad! The dogs were promptly banished to their kennels. Stealing pumpkin bars from a 9-month pregnant woman is a terrible crime!! :)

37 Week Appointment

We officially made it to full term. :) If I had baby Storm tomorrow he/she would not be considered premature!!

Here is the latest from my 37 week visit:

1. I gained 7 pounds in one week. Yikes! My nurse siad that it is all fluid retention at this point in the pregnancy.
2. Baby's heart rate was 144.
3. My Group B Strep test was negative.
4. I am measuring right at 37 weeks. Baby could come any day now!

A recent picture of yours truly:

Apple and Pumpkin Picking

A few weekends ago Daniel and I went to the Eplegaarden apple orchard and pumpkin patch with our friends Melissa and Brian.

It was a beautiful and warm Saturday. We picked 20 pounds of apples! Most of the apples we harvested were for freezing and baking later.



Daniel picking apples!



A full bag of apples! :)



Melissa harvesting apples.




We also visited the pumpkin patch! We picked out our pumpkins for carving this Halloween.





Dan carrying our carving pumpkins and me holding our little pumpkin. :) Can't wait to take our baby to the pumpkin patch next year. We are excited to meet you, baby Storm!

Brad comes to visit

This week Brad came to visit! He and Dan went to a Wilco concert on Wednesday night. Uncle Brad bought the baby a Wilco onesie. It is super cute. I had Thursday off so we had a great brunch, took Scout to the dog park, and visited St. Vincent de Paul. Good stuff.

We spent some time on the Terrace together Thursday night. Madison has been having a spectacular Indian Summer lately. It has been so warm and beautiful the past couple of days. It was great to sit outside!

The iconic Terrace Chair. :)

There were lots of people sailing and spending time outside.

Drinks, popcorn, and scrabble on the i-pad, can't beat it!


It has been so awesome having Brad around the house. He made us some fantastic meals to save in the freezer. He also swept/mopped our floors and helped us move furniture. Wow. Love it. Thanks Brad for coming to visit!! You are the best.

In the Homestretch!

We officially passed the 36 weeks mark. Yay! Almost there. I am still feeling pretty good although it is getting harder and harder to get comfortable in my office chair, in bed at night, pretty much everywhere. :) Here is the latest from our most recent appt:

1. I am measuring exactly at 36 weeks!

2. The average patient at my clinic gives birth at 38.8 weeks - yikes! We have a lot to do between now and baby.

3. Baby's heartrate was at 156 bpm.

4. I got a flu shot.

Retiring the Suitcase!

I just wrapped up my last work trip to Fresno! Good news - I did not give birth at the Community Medical Centers go-live. :)

Things went really well - we made the local news, here is the link:

http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/video?id=8369104

The only shots of me in the video are of me eating in the command center! hahaha.

After a week in Fresno, I took my last flight home to Madison before baby. It is definitely time to retire my suitcase for a few months. When I was coming home, my feet/ankles swelled up like crazy - I looked like the Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters. Also, since we were on a smaller plane, I was no longer able to put down my tray due to the size of my belly. yikes.

Throughout the course of my pregnancy, my baby and I have logged approximately 60,000 airline miles. Baby has been to Fresno and back 10 times! We have been stranded in Detroit, we made an emergency landing in Salt Lake City, and we have been re-routed through Las Vegas. Yep - we have spent countless hours in airports together already. In utero, our little guy/gal has visited 11 states. Whoa.

This prompted Auntie Katie to make the following onesie:

Well Traveled is right! :) Thanks, Katie -- Can't wait to put this on baby in a few short weeks!