Crabby Pants

No Sleep + Carrying a Heavy Human Around + Raging Pregnancy Hormones = Very emotional and crabby Grace .. watch out!

I really haven't had any complaints my whole pregnancy and if this is the worst of it, well then I'd say I've been pretty fortunate. If you are one of those people who is going to say, "This is a blessing so why is she complaining?" please click the little x now. Trust me, we count our blessings EVERY day and thank God for Poppy and the healthy pregnancy I've had ... but growing this miracle is no easy work, so for once I am going to whine.

I've been EXTREMELY emotional and crabby these last couple weeks .. so if you see Benny, please remind him I'll return to normal someday...maybe. He's a saint for putting up with me and never once complaining about my mood. You wouldn't believe the things that can cause instant tears these days! For example, I don't think he'll ever say, "Wow. I slept so amazing last night" again. Just for the record.

When you go to bed every night knowing that after a few hours of squirming you might get an hour of sleep and then you'll be up for the rest of the night and will watch the sun rise, you dread going to bed. From 8pm on, I'm just praying that I'll be able to at least get a few hours of sleep. My theory for a while was that if I tried to stay awake later, I'd be so tired that I'd surely sleep through the night .. ha. That ended up just meaning I'd sleep even less hours. I had a good week of sleeping a couple weeks ago and I felt like a million dollars .. unfortunately, it was short lived.

The main reasons I can't sleep are due to an excessively itchy belly that NEVER ever stops itching, leg cramps, restless leg syndrome, aching joints, no longer being able to roll over to switch positions without sharp pains, 801 trips to the bathroom, and hot flashes. This weekend I decided to throw a HORRIBLE toothache and some serious tummy aches into the mix - hey, why not?

Yesterday I woke up in the chair at 5:30am after being up since 3 and I couldn't even move because I was in pain. I thought I had to go to the bathroom so I basically stumbled my way there .. once I got there, I was sure I was going to be sick and then I broke out in a terrible sweat. I was in so much pain I wanted to wake Benny up but didn't .. tried to walk around for a little bit and finally just started feeling better. I took my temp. because I felt like I was burning up -- it was 97.4 - ha! I'm not sure what that was all about but it sure was scary.

The number one comment that drives me crazy is, "Well don't expect this to change when baby comes." Trust me, never once have I thought, "Once baby gets here, I'll just sleep all the time. Won't that be nice?!" While I'm sure I don't quite know what kind of sleepless nights we're in for, the fact that babies don't sleep at night is not a foreign concept to me. Hopefully this is just my body's way of preparing me for that and I'll be a pro by then .. ha. At least I won't have to worry about being awake for work for 3 months! The one thing that keeps me going is Poppy is always up with me squirming and kicking away .. that's something that will never grow old and I'll definitely miss when he/she is no longer in my tummy!

Well, now that the sun is coming up .. I suppose I'll get ready for the day and maybe even make the husband a nice breakfast for all he's put up with lately .. orrrr .. I'll drive to McDonalds and let them do the cooking .. a greasy hashbrown sure does sound fantastic right now.

Hopefully you all enjoyed a peaceful, sleep-filled night! :)

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads, grandpas, and father figures out there! I am lucky to have two awesome men in my life. I have a great father who has raised me to be the person I am today. He is an incredibly strong person who is also full of humor and will always stay young. Benny has learned a lot from him, too, and we both feel blessed to have him in our lives and so close to us. We appreciate all his help, love, and support! The other man is my loving husband. I'm so excited for Benny to be a daddy .. he's very excited, too. I'm excited to watch him with our little one and to raise him to be the kind of man he is himself.

Benny got his Father's Day present in the mail a little early .. turns out Poppy is a genius just like his/her father and can already navigate the US Postal Service.

 Grandpa John also got his present a little early as he was going to be out of town at a concert. He's a pretty proud Grandpa-to-be!

Benny celebrated Father's Day with a dad"chelor" party with his friend, Anthony, who is going to be a daddy in October. They had so many friends show up and it turned out awesome. They camped, played tailgating games, and being men .. took ZERO pictures. Totally disappointed .. but fun was had by all. I really didn't know if they could pull it off and didn't know what to expect, but I was definitely please.. the best part? They brought home over 1,000 diapers. Way to go, daddies!

This is what approximately 1,000 diapers looks like! Can you tell they're proud?!

Showered with {LoVe} - Part 2

My aunts are some of my favorite people so I was delighted when they offered to throw me a shower. It was a great turnout, we all had a blast, and I was overwhelmed by the gifts we received. Our living room currently looks like Babies 'R Us and I LOVE it. I'm so excited to put all of it away in the nursery that I almost want to skip work tomorrow.. but I promise I won't .. maybe.

 Lovely Aunties

Delicious Food

Favors

 

 "A little candle for you to light once the stork has made it's flight. The flame will glow to celebrate Baby Edwards' arrival date." I LOVED this idea!!

Opening Gifts

 Wonderful Guests

 Very Special Gifts

We received several very sentimental gifts. On the left are 3 things that remind me of Lauren - a Barbie, her favorite book "Where the Wild Things Are" and a Thing 1 & Thing 2 Sleeper all from her mom, Lisa. In the middle is Lauren's Simba stuffed animal from Lori & Fred. On the right is a box full of goodies from my mother-in-law Donna -- it had Benny's dad's baby quilt, baby towel, Benny & Steve's baby books, and some of Benny's baby clothes... in the picture I'm holding up Benny's footprints from the hospital.

Our house turned Babies 'R Us ... cannot wait to put this all away ... 

Showered with {LoVe}

I enjoyed my first ever baby shower last weekend. My friends Ashlee and Jenessa were so sweet to throw this shower for me in Spirit Lake and even though only a few people could make it that day, we still had a great time and Poppy got lots of good stuff! The theme was none other than "Shower!"

The Hosts

Ash, Me, and Jen

The Guests

 

The Details

1. Watermelon Buggy from Grandpa John (Coolest.Dad.Ever.)

2. Baby Edwards' first ABC book

3."Cloud" Punch

4. "Thanks for Dropping By" favor bags with lemon drops

5. Little Ducky Rainboots

6. Shower Invitations

7. Poppy at the Sign-In Table

8. Children's Book as Guestbook

9. Lovely Flowers from Jenessa

10. ABC Book Instructions

We had a lot of fun & Poppy got lots of cool gifts, including some Iowa State themed presents (of course!):

I was in love with how the ABC book turned out. Here are some pages the artists at my shower created:

 And just so Benny won't feel left out...

I'm looking forward to my shower this weekend with family & family friends and another in August with even more friends!!

Poppy's Big Week!

Babycenter.com: "By now, your baby weighs 3.75 pounds (pick up a large jicama) and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. You're gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, she'll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb. She now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). Her skin is becoming soft and smooth as she plumps up in preparation for birth."

Poppy had a big week this week -- we got to see him/her moving around in the 4D ultrasound, listened to his/her heartbeat, and had pictures taken.

In preparation for Poppy's big week, mama decided to chop her hair off ... I needed a summer/mommy/easy to care for do! It's not really so easy to wear straight, but it takes about 5 minutes to scrunch!





And then we enjoyed some ice cream to celebrate Poppy's big week .. Poppy makes such a good table!










4-D Ultrasound: See blog about our 4D ultrasound here -- 10 Little Fingers, 10 Little Toes

32 Week Appointment: This was a longer appointment than they have been recently -- probably because we discovered that my nurse is our next door neighbor ... and all this time we never made the connection! The other night her and my other nurse were in her driveway and even said, "Look at that cute pregnant lady getting her mail" not having a clue it was me. Small world, huh?

Poppy's heartbeat was 150. The exciting news was that Poppy has turned .. he/she listens to mommy and daddy so well already!  The dr. said we still have a little ways to go but there's still room in their to move. Poppy is a little over 4 lbs. (Still a little peanut!) Poppy moves like CRAZY these days .. I just love it! Every now and then I'll get a hard kick/punch/whatever that hurts a little, but we're both so fascinated that we love watching my belly move all over the place.


Maternity Pictures: We won a family session from Extreme Images by Ashley and decided to use it for our maternity pictures. We had SO much fun with Ashley and love the pictures we've seen so far. Benny even enjoyed the photo shoot and told me he didn't think he used his fake smile. Like "Extreme Images by Ashley" on Facebook so you can check them out. :)

Nursery Update: The changing table/dresser is in the room; now we just need to decide how to arrange the furniture. I'll post a blog about the dresser as soon as the cute knobs come in. I also made a footstool for the rocker -- Poppy has brought out my inner crafter! The next two weekends are filled with baby showers and then we'll be buying what's still needed to be all ready for baby. I get all teary-eyed hanging up all the clothes we have so far..they just seem so little. We were pretty excited to find out Amanda and Anthony are having a girl so now we have some girl stuff on hand in case Poppy is a girl, too!

How I'm feeling: I honestly feel really great! My only complaint is the constantly itchy belly but I've been trying a few different things to help with that. I am sleeping alright other than my arm being sore from my Tdap shot! I'm crossing my fingers the remainder of my pregnancy goes as well as it's been going. 

LoVe