26 Weeks and 2 Days

Yes, I know, I'm huge. Look at my shirt...soon I won't be able to fit in my maternity clothes anymore! It's funny because I really don't feel all that different, but when I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirrow, I'm stunned at how big I look! I definitely can't move as quick as I used to and it's getting difficult to bend over and it's getting harder to get up when I'm sitting down, but everything else feels pretty normal. It even got to the point today when we were at Ikea looking at mirrors and I asked Steven if we were looking at one of those funny mirrors that make you look rounder! Let's just say that it wasn't the mirror...it was definitely me! 

Funny Pregnancy Moments

I haven't had a terribly hard pregnancy so far, but I have to admit it hasn't been the easiest either, but there have been a few moments over the past 6 months (I can't believe that I'm already 6 months along!) that I definitely want to remember.

1. Look what you've done to her:
Last Thursday, I co-hosted a couples shower for a co-worker of mine who is getting married in Bombay in December (congratulations Stuty and Aashin!!!). Since it was a couples shower, we invited both guys and gals to the shower, including a male partner in the office who is the partner on most of my jobs. A bunch of us were in a circle talking/mingling and when the partner joined the circle, he looked at Steven and said really loudly, "Look what you've done to her!" while pointing at me. I don't even think that they've ever met, talk about an introduction! I was so embarrassed! I'd like to remind everyone that this is the same partner who suggested the name "Araingah" for the baby!

2. We know what you've been doing:
I hadn't been by the sales office in our neighborhood since I started showing a few months back, so I hadn't had the chance to tell our house sales people that I was pregnant. We ended up telling them when I was around 5 months pregnant and I was obviously showing by then. They saw us from the window while we walked up, so they knew I was pregnant. When we got to the office and told them (there's two women), one of them exclaimed, "We know what you've been doing!" Again, I was so embarrassed!

3. Positive home pregnancy test:
Steven: "Wow."

4. Getting used to the belly:
I am still not used to this baby belly. For some reason, I think that if I need to get past someone in a tight spot, all I need to do is suck in and I'll fit. Yea, right. I tried to get past a girl at K Ry's birthday dinner this weekend, and I totally bumped her with my belly (while I was holding my breath in)...embarrassing!

5. Getting checked out:
When you're pregnant, you just have to get used to people always checking you out. Seriously, we're talking about head to toe stare downs and comments from everyone! I've gotten the range of comments from "Oh, you look so cute" coming from my carpal tunnel doctor to "Whoah, you're huge" from Maria to "It doesn't seem like the baby is going to be small" from a variety of people. For those of you who have told me that the baby's head looks huge, it'll be payback one day, I'm just waiting for my turn...j/k! It's all so funny and the topic of weight appears to be an acceptable topic from everyone. Another conversation piece that I've also enjoyed is bloating and water retention. Fun times!

6. Bare belly:
While out at a very dull client, K Ry and I got on the topic of my belly, as always. I told her that I didn't have a very pretty belly because I've got the linea nigra line which is the dark line that runs vertically on my belly, I've grown a ton of hair on my belly (thanks for pointing that out Maria), and my belly button is just not that cute looking. I've always been a part inie and a part outie, now I'm an outie, but it just looks funny! I ended up lifting my shirt to show her (not exactly the most work appropriate thing to do, but hey, I'm obsessed with my belly) and the manager on our job walked into the conference room. We cracked up laughing while I proceeded to turn bright red. I'll just put it this way, he has two kids of his own and he just didn't bother to ask! Best manager ever. :)

I'm sure there's more to come with only 3 months left!

OBSESSED...with Baby Bedding!

My current obsession is nursery bedding! Bedding is important because it'll be the basis for the theme of the nursery, or at least I keep on telling myself that. :) The first pic is the Dream Hug Love bedding from Kimberly Grant, the second pic is Forest Friends from Baby Gap, and the last pic is Twinkle Twinkle from Pottery Barn.

Dream Hug Love
I love the theme of Dream Hug Love, the characters are so cute and it incorporates elephants, which is one of my original nursery themes (reference to Thailand!). This set has lots of great accessories, but for some reason, you can't purchase the elephant base for the lamp! Such a bummer, but I still love the set!

Forest Friends
This set is from the Gap which got high ratings in Baby Bargains. I really like the pleated crib skirt, but this set has no accessories, I'd have to be creative, which is probably not the best way to go right now due to lack of time, but there are a ton of accessories out there in baby blue and light green, so it wouldn't be that bad. I really like the options for sheets at Baby Gap, so I'll probably end up getting those anyway and I already know that it'll look great with the set.

Twinkle Twinkle
When we first started looking at bedding, Steven and I sat down and went through the Pottery Barn Kids catalog (thank you Judy!) and picked out this bedding. We've even gone to the store to check it out. I just loved the way it looked (it's even currently on our registry), but since then, they have gotten rid of the crib skirt and I have no idea why! Also, Pottery Barn's bedding didn't get good reviews in Baby Bargains. Pottery Barn has a ton of accessories and it'd be really easy to match the theme with other accessories since it's a pretty common theme for nurseries.

Decisions, decisions...anyone have an opinion? I need help! We can also just go the plain jane route and just get blue bedding somewhere and go with a blue theme. Afterall, Steven and I barely have matching bedding now. This kid is that spoiled already! I know that growing up my parents and his parents probably didn't even spend more than 30 minutes thinking about baby bedding combined! I'm obsessed



 

Furniture!

As most of you know, we will NOT be taking any of our current furniture to the new house. For some reason, Ikea just doesn't cut it these days. :)

The furniture we picked out for the baby's room (which is a lot nicer than the current Ikea bedroom furniture we have now...go figure!) has arrived. We're waiting to get it delivered to the new house in January. Here's a link to the online brochure. We bought the crib, conversion kit, and combo dresser awhile back and went back during their Once a Trimester sale and bought the nightstand. All of the furniture is in rubbed black which I was hesistant about beforehand, but I saw a similar furniture set with baby blue, mint green and pale yellow bedding and it looked great together. Now all I have to do is pick out bedding, which sounds easier than it's become. :)

We also bought our bedroom set a couple of weekends ago at Bassett Furniture. It's the only bedroom set that we both liked, so it was a pretty obvious choice. Here's a link to the set. We went with the panel king bed, dresser, two drawer nightstands on both sides of the bed, and a bench for the foot of the bed. We got the java finish which is a warmer brown color. For the panel bed, the headboard has brown/black leather that's cushioned. We didn't go with the granite tops for the dresser or nightstands because it would have been $1K more. We figured that we already splurged on the granite countertops in the master bath, so we didn't need it our bedroom anymore. Steven was talking about getting the granite overlays for the tops of the dresser and nightstands, it could work and it'd be a lot more cost efficient. :) We'll see. I'm just glad that we've upgraded from our Ikea furniture!

We're still in the process of picking out a family room couch. I like the Simply Yours Loft collection from Bassett which is a sectional set. We were thinking about getting the right hand and left hand chaise with an armless couch in the middle. I really want a chaise in the set (two is twice the fun!). We've measured out the family room and I think it'll look good. I also really like the shape of the media loveseat, but it doesn't have a chaise. We might just use that in the media room upstairs.

We are definitely getting the Simone daybed for the bay window area of the family room. I absolutely LOVE it! It's so comfy and it'll fit in that area perfectly. Since it's a day bed, it doesn't have a back, so it won't block the view of the outside and it's super comfy. I also really like the brown that it comes standard in, so we can wait until right before we move to purchase it since it should be in stock. Since this couch will be a dark brown, we were thinking that the sectional should be a lighter brown and that we'd paint the family room in a nice mocha color. What do you think? Maybe a splash of red as an accent color? Or maybe that turqoise that's being paired with brown this season...so many choices!

For the kitchen table, we're thinking about the Aris Pedestal Dining Table from Pottery Barn, along with the matching lazy susan (so Asian of us!). Can't decide on whether we should get it in black or mahogany though...too many decisions to make! I'm not sure if we'll go with those chairs or not. I really like them, but Four Hands has quarterly sales where we can get leather chairs for $100, but they might be a bit fancy for the breakfast table.

Those are all of the pieces that we've decided on so far, I don't think that we'll need much besides those for awhile. I think it'll be fun to purchase furniture over time and really make the house what we want it to be. Decorating is going to be the hard part. We've picked up a gazillion paint samples...I don't even want to get started on the topic of paint!

House Update

No new pics of the house, but they've definitely done a lot lately. The inside has been painted. They've fixed the stairs, put in the ballasters, handrails and starter step. All of the cabinets, baseboards, crown molding and countertops are also in. The fireplace mantel is also in along with the granite tile surrounding the fireplace. This past weekend, they put in the tile in the entry way, kitchen, family room and all of the bathrooms. It'll probably be fully grouted by this weekend. We upgraded to 18" x 18" tile in the entryway, family room and kitchen and it looks awesome! It makes a huge difference, but we didn't spring for the diagonal layout...but it would have been nice! The tile in our bathroom shower and tub is a lot darker than I remember it, but I absolutely love it! We're going to have to go with really dark paint in there just to match. The past two Drees model homes had master bathrooms in a gold tone, which I think would look awesome in our bathroom. I never thought that I would say that! They are also working on the backsplash in the kitchen, we spent forever picking it out, I hope that it looks okay! I talked to our builder last week and we'll be getting appliances and our lighting fixtures soon.

They've scheduled our close date as January 4, 2007, which I'm not really happy about. Basically, I'll be huge (7.5 months) and it'll be the start of busy season.

I was hoping to get in before Christmas because I bought all of these cute ornaments at Crate & Barrel at their after Christmas sale last year and I really wanted to use them in our new house this year. I guess I'll have to wait another year. On the positive side though, Steven is adamant about getting a 9.5' tree to put in our living room, which means that we'll probably hit up the Crate & Barrel sale again this year in order to have enough ornaments to decorate the monster tree! Hopefully, we can get the tree on sale after Christmas. Yay...I can't wait!

25 Week and 4 Day Ultrasound

We're starting to get monthly ultrasounds to check the baby's growth. Here are our newest pics from Tuesday. Isn't he cute? He's waving "hi" in the first two pics and playing the maracas in the third, and, of course, there's the obligatory foot shot. I don't think I see bunions. :) He's right on schedule growth-wise and weighs ~1 lb and 15 oz...almost a two pounder! He was head down with his feet up by my ribs. We even got to see him cross his ankles! My level of amniotic fluid was good and his heart rate was in the 140s, which is normal. It's really slowed down since the first time we heard it, which we were told to expect. Anything from the 120s to 180s is normal.

He's been moving more and more lately. We're starting to actually know where he is at because he's making my belly lopsided and we can feel him. It's amazing. I can poke at him and he kicks back...I don't think that he likes to be poked. :)

 

Happy Belated Halloween!

Sorry, haven't had time to update, but we got these cute pics of the doggies in their Halloween costumes (disregard Carrie's scary looking eyes). I bought the costumes at Old Navy last year on clearance after Halloween and have been waiting a full entire year until they got to wear them. BTW, Carrie is suppose to be a devil and Button is suppose to be a witch. We opened up the costumes a couple of weeks before Halloween and we realized that they had mismatched headpieces! Carrie's devil horns were too small to fit on her head and Button's witch's hat was too big for her! I could have switched the head pieces, but then you wouldn't be able to tell what the dogs were suppose to be dressed up as. It's no wonder the costumes were on sale at Old Navy, I have to remember that when the baby comes! At least both dogs looked cute. I think we can use Carrie's cape as a raincoat!
 

Knitting Projects

As you can see, I'm 4/7th of the way through the baby blanket. I laid it out on the couch to see my progress and you-know-who decided to take it for a test drive. I think she's watching Animal Planet in this picture. :)
Here is the first project I finished for the baby, it's a baby hat. I love love love this yarn! I like the short bursts of color and how stretchy it is. I bought a new knitting book the other week, Itty Bitty Hats, hopefully, I'll get some cool projects out of it.

I'm also working on a counted cross stitch for the nursery, but that's really taking me forever. I like knitting because it goes so much faster and you can see your progress almost immediately. Anyways, gotta go to work! 

Look! It's me without a belly!!!

This pic was taken in Thailand before I was pregnant. Look, I don't have a belly! I barely remember those days...hehe. Hopefully I'll get back there again post baby. :)

We're standing next to a baby elephant. We were walking down the street and were so excited to see the elephant! You pay the owners and they provide food for you to feed the elephant, it was a lot of fun and the elephant was so cute! 

House Update

Our cabinets and doors came in last weekend! They've also finished drywalling and texturing the walls. The house is really coming along. There was some issues with the stairs where they had to reframe them, but I think that it's going to be all okay. So exciting! I think we'll be able to move in my early December, I can't wait!


 

Our First Pumpkin

We figured that since we're going to be parents soon that we should start getting more involved in the holidays, so we bought this pumpkin at the beginning of October. Last night, we finally got the chance to carve it. I think that we did a really good job for our first pumpkin. :) 

22 Weeks and 5 days

Yep, definitely rounder...I think that I say that about all of my belly pics. :)

Baby boy Tangy has been kicking more and more each day. He wakes up along with me in the morning and kicks me until I get out of bed and into the shower. Steven actually felt him kick for the first time on the same day as our big ultrasound. Sometimes when I sit on the couch and he's kicking a lot, I can actually see my stomach moving, it's the craziest thing! I enjoy feeling him kick, it's a reminder that it's just not me anymore and there's something alive inside of me that needs me. :)

The hunt for a name is still going on. Here's our short list:
-Ethan
-Aidan (SATC influence keeping it alive)
-Ryan (starts with an R, like me and ends with an N, like Steven)
-Vaughn (like the second syllable of my maiden name, pronounced Von)
-John (the name that runs through my family)
-Eric (just a good name)
-Jet (hehe, it's his current nick name)

We're still taking suggestions.

Our baby furniture is all in now. It's really hard to not go and pick up the rocker glider and start using it!

Will post a couple more pics...

BOY PARTS!!!
As promised, here are his boy part pictures, yes, I know, he's going to hate me. :) Think of this as the first of many embarassing pictures to come. He's definitely a boy...hehe...we're having a boy!!!
 

Big Ultrasound Pics Cont'd

This is his foot. Isn't it the cutest foot you've ever seen?



This is another profile shot. Doesn't he look like Steven? Hehe... 

Big Ultrasound Pics!!!


This is his face. I little scary Halloweenish, I know, but that's him! He was opening and closing his mouth a lot while we were doing the face pictures, it was very cute. :)




Profile pictures. The profile pics didn't turn out as good as the first one because he's gotten so much bigger...15 oz, almost 1 pound already!



Second profile pic.

IT'S A...BOY!!!

Apparently I have no maternal instinct at all, it's a boy...baby boy tangy. :)

It was so shocking to hear that the baby was a boy because I really was expecting the baby to be a girl this whole time. The ultrasound tech was looking and measuring various parts of the baby and when we got to the lower extremities, she asked us if we wanted to know if it was a boy or a girl and we said yes. She focused in and said, "There are the boy parts. It's definitely a boy!" I told her that I couldn't tell and so she moved around and got it from another angle...yep, it's a boy. We'll post the first embarassing baby picture of our little boy once we scan in the ultrasound pictures this weekend. Hehe...I can't believe it's a boy!

Now we really need help with boy names. We like the names that we listed out below, but there's not one that really sticks out. Suggestions please! So far, we've got:
-Christopher Favre Tang
-Araingah...(haha Jessica and Ken!)
See, we desperately need suggestions!

The baby's anatomy looks good, nothing stood out as being bad. Bad news though, my blood pressure's back up. :( I think it was up because I was so excited about finding out that the baby was a boy. It's been high 3 out of the 4 times that I've been to the doctor, that's probably not a good sign. I was told to be a couch potato this weekend and I'll go back in for a bp check on Monday again. She told me to not get too active this weekend and just relax, not go shopping, stuff like that. But we just found out that it's a boy...how can I not go shopping!?!? Hehe...I'll show her, I'm going to shop on the internet this weekend on Steven's laptop on the couch. :) I'm such a rebel!

Names

Since we're finding out the baby's gender tomorrow, I figured now would be a good time to talk names!

Boy Names-
Damien (Steven's not a fan, but I like it, so it remains on the list)
Ethan
Evan (instead of Evangeline for a girl)
Andrew
Tristan
Aiden
Mason
Alec/Alex

Girl Names-
Evangeline (my fav by far, Evie for short)
Julia
Zoey (after me...hehe)
Laura
Kaitlyn or Caitlyn
Gemma or Jemma
Gianna

Whatcha think? We really need help on a name!!!

Kickin' It

Today was the first time that I felt an actual kick from the baby! It started out as a tapping a few weeks ago and lately it's been more of a rumble, but today I felt a real kick! It really surprised me, I wasn't expecting it at all. I can't wait until he/she does it again and maybe then Steven can actually feel the baby. He's been trying to feel the baby kick and he hasn't been able to feel anything, but if the baby starts to really kick hard, then I'm sure he'll be able to feel it soon. :D

20 Weeks and 3 Days
Per my gal pal K Ry, we took a belly pic in the black dress. No, I really don't have all of that junk in the trunk, there's a ribbon back there. :) Wow...I look round. Steven still says that I have a cute belly...I wonder what he's going to think in two months!

Two and one-half more days until we find out the sex of the baby. Let's hope the baby doesn't cross it's legs, I want to go baby clothes shopping!!! Expect a text message or email late Thursday afternoon, or even check out the blog! I'm so excited!!! 

Lookie!! The exterior of the house finished! I love how the brick and stone compliment each other, we didn't want anything that would contrast too much. I also really like the brown look and how the brick doesn't vary in color too much. The drywall is also up, so I think the rest of the process will be very quick. They expect the house to be done in early December, just in time for baby!

We also took the first picture of the baby in the baby's room!!! It doesn't look like much now, but should start to take shape soon. Any nursery theme ideas? I'm thinking puppies since the room was originally meant to go to the dogs...literally. To the left of me, we replaced a window with an exterior door with a doggie door on the bottom. We thought that while we were away at work, we'd baby gate the doggies in the room and they'd have a means to let themselves out. Well, plans change and now it's our baby's room. Let's just hope that the baby doesn't crawl outside through the baby door...just kidding. :) We will definitely baby proof before that becomes an issue!