Charlotte Baby Shower!

This past Saturday, March 24th, we had a baby shower here in Charlotte.  My sisters, Ashley & Cassie threw the shower, but one of our good friends Victoria also helped.  Everyone did a lot of work for this shower and I cannot thank them enough!  Victoria made the invitations, sent them and kept track of all of the RSVP's.  She also helped prep food on Friday night and again on Saturday.  Ashley, thought of the entire menu which consisted of heavy hors d' oeuvres, drinks and desserts.  She also shopped and made all of the food.  Cassie was in charge of the games.  We played 4 different ones and the winning person/team got prizes(s).  She also had everyone write a piece of advice that they would give Shawn and I, as parents, and then she made a book of all of them.  Ashley & Cassie also shopped and bought everything for the shower.  This included balloons, plates, napkins, utensils, table clothes, streamers and other decorations.  We had a really great turn-out of people, around 25.  It was the perfect amount of people and everyone had a great time!  Baby Anderson also got a lot of great gifts!  Pictures are below with captions.  Again, we cannot thank everyone enough for throwing us a beautiful shower and we will always remember it!

                                                                    Decorations

                                                                        

                         Food Table (Punch, soda, fruit w/yogurt dip, rice krispy                                       treats, cupcakes, frosted sugar cookies & veggies)

                                                                                
                                                                     Cookie Cake

                                                         Homemade "Funfetti" Cupcakes

      Buffet server (Quesadillas, Spinach Dip & Chicken Nuggets)

                                                                  Oreo Truffle Pops

                                                                 More Decorations

                                                                       Shawn and I

                                                              Me & my belly - 31 Weeks

                                                                   Ashley & David

                                                   My dad and I "comparing belly size"

                                                    First game - "Baby Word Scramble"

                                                     My sheet from the word scramble

                                                     Second Game - "Having a Baby"

                                                      Third Game - "Dress the Baby"

                                       All of the "babies" - Shawn, David, Tom & my Dad

                                                                         Gift Table

                                                      Candid shots of "Dress the Baby"

                                                                     Baby Clothes

                                             Baby Advice book that Cassie made for us

                                         More shots of people working on the "Scramble"

                                                                      More gifts

                                                              We got our high chair!

                                                                  And.....more gifts

Preparing one baby for another.....

What do people always tell you to do before you think about having a baby?  They tell you to get a pet first to get in some practice for taking care of something or someone.  What they don't tell you is that when you are ready for a baby that you have to prepare your pet for your expected little one's arrival.  With that said, Shawn and I have been working with Kole on preparing him for the baby.  We started with showing him the baby's room and allowing him to go in and sniff around to start getting comfortable with the room.  Periodically, when we are upstairs we will ask him to show us where the baby's room is located.  He usually will go right up to the door and paw or hit it to shows where the room is located.  We then got a baby swing that we put up in the room.  We encouraged him to get close to it so he would not be scared of it.  He has gotten to the point he will push it with his paw to make it swing.  Then we bought a small baby doll and put it in the swing so replicate the baby.  He is still trying to figure the doll out and its roll and purpose.  We have a video of him showing us where the baby's room is at. 

Recently, we got our stroller and car seat.  We have been placing the car seat various places downstairs.  Initially, he did not want to have anything to do with it and barked some.  Now he will go up to it and sniff it and some times he will paw at it.  However, the stroller is a whole different story.  When you start pushing it around the house, he will start barking at it.  The barking is getting better each day, but he tends to stay away from it when your are pushing it.  He has started going near it when it sits still but still exhibits some apprehension about getting too close to it.  We were able to get a picture of him next to the car seat, but we needed a little help from daddy to feel more comfortable with being next to it. 

Surprise Baby Shower at my work!

Friday, my co-workers surprised me with a baby shower.  One of my very good friends, Mandy, organized the entire thing with the Leslie, the Assistant Planner, who works in my cube.  Mandy and Leslie had a tough job because I have worked in some many different offices since I have been with Belk and they really wanted to make sure that everyone was included.  I knew that I would probably have a shower at work, but I honestly had no clue what day it was going to be etc.  Mandy told me after the fact that she swore I had known because everyone was coming to her desk to give money for the gifts and none of them realized that I literally sit right outside of Mandy's cube.

Here is how it went down: Around 3:30pm, my buyer said that the vendor we had been working with earlier that day had to show us one last thing.  I was like OK and got up and followed her down the hall.  However, when we got to the first meeting room (which was not the one my vendor was in earlier) my buyer opened that door.  Everyone shouted surprise as I walked in and Mandy was their to capture a picture of my reaction, but it didn't come out that well.  The room was full of people that I knew from the Home store area, the office that I worked in when I was an Executive Trainee was in there along with my co-workers from Special Sizes.  Leslie had made the cutest cake (pics below) and their was rice crispy treats, peanuts, a veggie tray, chips and drinks.  Once I had gotten some cake, everyone else got some snacks and then I opened the gifts (pics below).  I got several nice things for the baby and I am truly thankful for great co-workers.  Again, another BIG thank you to Mandy and Leslie for throwing this shower for me :)

                                                Cake that Leslie made (it was confetti cake!)

                            Target Gift Card (from the office that I was an Executive Trainee in)

                                            Blanket, stuffed animal and book (from Ann)

                                                        Boppy cover (from Mandy)

                                                              2 outfits (from Marsha)

                            "Home" store gifts (Jungle ExerSaucer, bath time kit & pacifiers)

        "Special Sizes" divison gifts (Starter All-in-One gift set, hangers, pacifier & pacifier wipes



Childbirth Prep Class

Shawn and I had our Childbirth Prep Class this past Friday night and all day on Saturday.  We learned a lot of information that is going to be helpful from knowing the signs of labor, things to expect when we are in the hospital and coming home with the baby.  Their were some things that really surprised us, so I figured I would share some of those with you:

1. How can you be having a baby and have not done ANY research at this point in your pregnancy?  Some of the couples were pushing 35-36 weeks and asking some of the dumbest questions.
2. If a baby is technically full term at 37 weeks and could be born, why are you waiting until you are 30+ weeks to be taking this childbirth class.
3. You want to put a waterproof mattress pad on your bed because if your water breaks in the middle of the night your mattress will be ruined.  We never thought about this and apparently their is NOTHING you can do to get amniotic fluid out of a mattress.  Seeing as we just bought a new mattress and box spring about 7 months ago, we will be purchasing one of these!
4.  Thank god for big feet (apparently I do have something to thank my Dad for)!  I say this because the nurse said that you should be able to birth a baby 1 1/2 pounds more than your shoe size.  Since I wear a 9 1/2-10, I could birth a baby of 11 1/2 pounds easily.  Let's hope this is not the case though!!
5.  Typically, you can judge the size and length of your baby based upon you and your husband.  Neither Shawn nor I are necessarily tall people and Shawn is relatively small in the weight category, so hopefully the baby will be small.

That is all for now, but if I think of anything else then I will be sure to share!

Third Trimester! Updates & More

It is very hard to believe that I started my third trimester last week.  I swear it feels like the past couple of months have literally flown by!  I have not been blogging that frequently because we have had so much going on around the house, with our jobs, etc.  At this point the nursery is basically done, we have a name officially picked out (not telling anyone until she is born though!) and we are doing small things around the house to finish getting prepared.  Everyone likes to make fun of me for my organization and spreadsheets, but we will see who will be kicking up their feet come the middle of April!  Anyway, Shawn went to "Daddy Boot Camp" last Saturday and he said that he learned a lot.  They went over basic information and then a veteran dad came in with his little girl and answered questions, gave advice, etc.  Tomorrow and Saturday we will be in our "Childbirth Prep" class.  We are going to create our birth plan, learn about relaxation/breathing techniques, get prepped on what to expect when we get home from the hospital and I am sure much more!  I am excited and nervous at the same time about this weekend because I am eager to check something off my list, but wonder if it is going to make me more anxious.  We have some fun things to look forward to over the next couple of weeks though because we will be having a baby shower at our house for family & friends and then we are going to have a maternity shoot at the end of the month.  Other than that, not a whole lot to really report and I don't want to bore you with all of the details. 

Facts & Fun Details:
*29 Weeks: Baby is the size of an acorn squash and already measures about 15.2 to 16.7 inches long, with weight between 2.5 to 3.8 pounds. Baby is growing white fat deposits under his skin, and his energy is surging because of it.
*I feel her moving every single day!  I am getting jabbed, kicked and some days feel like I am on a never ending roller coaster.  Today it felt like my belly was a windshield and she was the wipers.  Seriously, she kept moving from side to side.  She also apparently finds it funny to just all of a sudden give me a good whack when she doesn't like something that I am doing; such as working out
*Still no real cravings; everyone thinks that is very strange, but oh well!
*Started having trouble sleeping again and getting tired more often, but this is very common for the 3rd trimester
*"Stock piling for Armageddon" - Shawn's quote, not mine!  He means that we have been stocking up on health and beauty items, paper products, laundry detergent, dryer sheets, dog food/treats.  I wanted to do this so that when the baby gets here we can focus on her and not be worrying about constantly having to run to the store, etc.

 29 Weeks

6th Doctor's Appointment - 29 Weeks

I had my 6th doctor's appointment yesterday and this was the appointment where I had to have the glucose test.  I had to drink this fruit punch "sugar water" 1 hour before my appointment and then they took my blood to basically see how my body handles/processes the sugar.  This "sugar water" wasn't awful like I expected it to be, but it was very thick like syrup and I had to drink the entire 12 ounces in 5 minutes.  By the time I got to the doctors office I literally was getting light headed and could just feel this sugar sitting in the pit of my stomach.  Once I got into the exam room the came and took my blood, which of course they had to send off (24-48 hrs. for the results), and then I had my regular appointment.  The doctor said that everything looks great with the baby.  He said that my blood pressure and weight were both very good.  He took some basic measurements of my belly and said that it appeared that she was growing well; right on track.  She is approximately 2 1/2 pounds and will gain about a 1/2 pound a week from now until she is born.  He thinks that she is going to be an average size baby, somewhere between 7 and 8 pounds (yea!).  It was quite funny when we were trying to listen to her heart beat because she had the hiccups!  It was really cool though.  Other than that, not a whole lot to report with the appointment part.  I will now start seeing him every 3 weeks and at some point it will become every 2 then once a week, etc. until delivery.

I got a call from my doctor today that my glucose test results were back in and I PASSED!! Yippee because if I had not passed then I would have to go in for a three hour test.  This would include drinking 3 of those "sugar" drinks, one each hour and have my blood tested 3 times.  Then, if I didn't pass that I would be diagnosed with gestational diabetes and basically be treated as a diabetic for the remainder of my pregnancy.  I am so very thankful that I passed because I seriously do not know if I would have made it through that 3 hour test after they way I felt just drinking one of those.

Baby Shower - Rocky Mount, NC

Last Saturday we had our first baby shower that was thrown by Shawn's Mom, Sister and Aunt.  We had a great time and received a lot of cute baby clothes, diapers, wipes, the pack and play we registered for and other miscellaneous items off of our registries.  Below are some pictures from the shower!