Monday, December 31, 2012

New Year, New Chapter!


2012 has been the most amazing year of my life.
I'm so excited to begin this new chapter in my family's life!
I can't wait to see what 2013 holds for our little family of three!


I hope everyone has a blessed 2013!!!

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Leah's First Christmas

12.25.12
I wanted to make sure to get a short post in with this Christmas being such a special time in our lives. This was our Leah's first Christmas at the ripe age of five days old. David and I have always loved Christmas and everything it represents. And now? It holds an even more special place in our hearts. Christmas will always be a reminder of the day that changed our lives forever. The day we welcomed our baby girl into the world. 

With my due date being Christmas Eve we weren't sure if we would be celebrating Christmas at home or in the hospital. We were so happy that we ended up being home to celebrate Christmas and the birth of our daughter with our family. I thought this little outfit was perfect for our little Leah, seeing as she was the best Christmas present we could have ever hoped for. 



With Leah only being five days old we weren't able to go to Christmas Eve Service or our large family Christmas gatherings {we didn't want to have Leah around a lot of people with the flu going around}, but we did celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with our immediate family, which was intimate and perfect. We had so much fun laughing by the fire, drinking hot chocolate, opening presents, and watching Christmas movies with our family and our little bundle of joy. 
It was perfect :) 


Holiday traditions started!


Our family of five on Christmas Eve :)
{4 days old}

Already looking forward to next Christmas

Thursday, December 20, 2012

She's Here!!! :)

Leah Kimberly Wood
December 20th, 2012
6:44 pm
7 pounds 13 ounces
20 inches

Love has truly been redefined
Our baby girl is happy and healthy, and we couldn't be more in love.   

We have been busy soaking up every minute with our baby girl and celebrating her birth with family and friends, but I have lots of pictures and updates to come! That is if I can pull myself away from holding and staring at my baby girl all day long ;)

Birth video to come as well!

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Pregnancy Updates!

Wow! I can hardly believe I am just a couple days away from my due date. I have been so busy getting everything ready for baby girl and spending lots of quality time with my hubby, family, and friends that I have neglected the blog. I'm trying to play catch up before baby girl makes her debut!
Today I am 39 weeks and 2 days! At our appointment yesterday I was 2 cm. dilated and 50% effaced so now it's just a waiting game and we couldn't be more excited!

How far along?  39 weeks and 2 days!!! 
Total weight gain/loss: 35 pounds
Maternity clothes? Yep
Stretch marks? Nope!
Sleep: Sleeping through the night started getting more difficult around 36 weeks but for the most part I am able to sleep well through the night.
Best moments: There have been so many "best moments" throughout my pregnancy. I have loved being pregnant and sharing this experience with the people I love most. Everyone is so excited for Leah it just melts my heart.  We have the most caring family and friends. 
Nesting and getting everything ready for Leah with my husband has been the biggest highlight of my pregnancy. Leah is so lucky to have such an amazing Daddy. He has never missed one doctor appointment and has been the most supportive and caring husband during our whole pregnancy. He is such an amazing husband and I know he will an incredible father :)
Miss Anything? I miss my energy and being able to move around like I used too! Around 34 weeks is when I definitely started to feel a lot more pregnant. My body started to ache a lot (back, hips, etc.). 
Movement: Yep, lots and they are stronger than ever! David and I will just watch her move in amazement.  Around 31 weeks we started to see elbows and knees popping up...very cool!
Food cravings: Nothing strange! 
Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope, but I have had terrible heartburn all throughout my 3rd trimester (Thank goodness for Tums!)
Have you started to show yet: Yep
Gender: GIRL :) 
Labor Signs: None besides baby girl has dropped and I'm feeling a lot of pressure and occasional sharp pains. At my last appointment (12/18/12) I was 2 cm. dilated and 50% effaced. 
Wedding rings on or off? On 
Happy or Moody most of the time: Very happy and excited!!!
Looking forward to: Meeting and holding our baby girl....WE CANNOT WAIT!!! :)

Some important notes I put in my iPhone that haven't made it on the blog that I want to make sure to include so I don't forget: 

Week 27 - First time I felt her hiccup! From about 35 weeks on I feel her hiccup about once a day :)
Week 28: Constant movement - really started to pop bump wise!
Week 29 - Started feeling kicks in the ribs
Week 31 - Started to really feel elbows and knees with her movements! We also started our baby classes this week :)
November 18th - VERY strong hiccups started! 

Instagram updates on life lately :)
The hubby is finished with finals and clinic so we are spending our evenings like this until baby girl makes her arrival :)

Cookie baking/decorating and Ornament exchange with my girls!

Daddy picking out Leah's 1st toothbrush {My husband is in Dental School so this was very important to him ha!}

My sweet mama-in-law has been making us lots of meals to help out. I thought this was hilarious! This was dinner for ONE night...she takes this whole eating for two thing literally! Ha!

Enjoying a Colts game with friends!
 
Pampered preggo day with my pregnant BFF :)

Having a fun and relaxing this time with my husband, family, and friends. Making sure to enjoy these last few days of pregnancy! 

Will keep you all posted!!! :)

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Nursery Reveal!!!

I posted a sneak peek here of the nursery back in August! 
Baby girl's room is now complete and I am so excited to share it with you all! Decorating a nursery has always been a dream of mine. I was planning nurseries in my head way before we were even pregnant! Designing/creating Leah's nursery with my husband will always be one of my favorite memories. I picked out most of the furniture/decorations but he was the one behind all the hard work to make it my dream nursery! And we had so much fun doing it together :)

Welcome to Leah's nursery!
The wallpaper was the inspiration behind the whole room. I just love it! It has a textured sparkle to it that makes the space extra girly and fun :)
The tufted suede fabric wall that my hubby created! (more details below).

Leah's 1st stuffed animal on the left. The hubs insisted that he picked out her first stuffed animal and this is the one he picked :)
 I love all the storage this dresser has for not only her clothes but for diapers, wipes, burp cloths, swaddles, etc. 
Apothecary jars filled with baby powder and cotton balls and her first little perfume bottle :)
One of my best girlfriends got us the Burt's Bee's baby collection as a gift at our Gender Reveal Party since the theme of the party was "What will it bee?"
It later became the splash of color inspiration for the room :)
The elephant piggy bank the hubs and I painted at a local pottery place. We wanted to have a little something personalized from us in her nursery :)
Her sweet little bassinet in our room

Now all we need is our little girl to complete the room :)

DETAILS

Crib: Casablanca Crib by Bratt Decor
Be sure not to order this crib off the Bratt Decor website, it's a lot pricier. A lot of websites carry this crib, so be sure to look around to find the best price (a lot of the websites will offer free shipping, too!) I can't remember which website we used but I just google shopped around for the best deal.

Wall Paper: Candice Olson Design
We purchased this wallpaper from a website called Steve's Blinds and Wallpaper (www.stevesblindsandwallpaper.com). It was about $150.00 cheaper than purchasing the wallpaper from the Candace Olson website!

Paint: The paint was a custom color that was created from all the colors in the wallpaper so their is no specific name for the color :(

Fabric (Tufted Wall): Jo Ann Fabrics

Details on the tufted wall: 
I had this crazy vision to turn the bottom of our wall into a tufted fabric wall. I had never seen it done before but I knew how I wanted it to look in my head. My sweet and patient husband took my crazy vision and made it a reality. We both had no idea where to start but he made it happen for me and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out!

Disclaimer: I spent the majority of the time doing this while my husband put together the tufted wall:



Therefore, this will be a vary vague description of how the wall was created. My husband said he would be more than happy to provide any and all details for anyone who has any questions, but I thought I would at least include the basics!

He started by taking off the floorboard and chair rail trim. He then used thick batting (I can't remember the weight we used but it was the thickest JoAnn fabrics sold and we still doubled it up) and staple gunned it to the wall. The thickness of the batting will determine how tufted the wall will look when complete with the buttons. He then covered the batting with the white suede fabric we picked out at JoAnn fabrics.
(Always make sure to use JoAnn coupons! If you download their app they almost always have a 50% off coupon on fabric!). 
Once the fabric was on the wall he nailed the trim back on. We also had to purchase corner trim for all the corners of the wall. David then measured and took a staple gun and made an X where all the buttons would be placed, which gave it the tufted appearance. (We made the buttons from the same tufted suede fabric so it would match). David then hot glued all the buttons over the staples! Like I mentioned earlier, it's a very vague description but I hope it gives you a better idea :)

Bassinet: Buy Buy Baby
Crib Bedding: Carousel Designs 

Elephant Piggy Bank: David and I went to our local pottery decorating shop and picked out and decorated the elephant.

Blanket: Fabric from JoAnn Fabrics
Mirrored Dressers: Pier One (Hayworth Collection)
Chair: Ikea
Foot Stool: Home Goods (Hubby re-upolstered it with the same fabric as the tuffed wall)
Pillow: Pier One
Chandelier: Home Depot
Mirror: Home Goods (TJ Maxx)
Perfume Bottle: Anthropologie
LEAH letters: Houseworks
Shelves: Target
Yellow Picture Frame: Delaney's Boutique 
Ceramic Owl: Marshalls
Lamp Base: Target
Lamp Shade: Ikea
Owl Stuffed Animal: Pier One
Stainless Steel Giraffes: Marshalls

Feel free to contact me if you have any further questions about anything in the nursery! I would be more than happy to answer any of your questions :)