Then February Happened

We took maternity pictures for baby II in February. I've never been super into maternity pictures personally, but a friend volunteered to do some for us when I was pregnant with Kate and I felt like this baby needed some fun glamor shots too. I had this vision in mind for maternity pictures that were OUR style. A lace ivory dress, pearls, red lipstick, beautiful warm woodsy colors...

 

Oh my gosh - let me tell you... it was windy and FREEZING! Kate was close by in her stroller all tucked in with fleece and blankets. I'm glad you can't tell in the pictures that the wind was blowing my hair all over the place and I had major shivers and goosebumps.

Jon took the pictures and I was SO happy with how they turned out! The dress was handmade. When I couldn't find anything online that was anywhere close to what I had envisioned, I decided that I could probably figure it out on my own, so with Jon's help I designed and sewed together the dress. It was such a rewarding experience and extra fun that we have pictures now of me wearing it!

The biggest challenges were that I had never sewn with satin before - and it is VERY slippery. Luckily I had a walking foot on my machine and an AMAZING serger from Jon, so the whole thing went together much easier than I anticipated. That isn't to say that I didn't run in to problems, though. Because I didn't use a pattern and just took my own measurements, a lot of adjustments were made as I went along. The whole dress took me a few weeks to make. Oh, and there was also that day that Margo peed all over my satin... That was a good lesson for me in how to properly wash 3 yards of satin and not damage it.

For one of our weekly Saturday activities, we had a game night with a great high school friend (Andrew Nielsen) and his lady-friend, Sarah! We played vintage LIFE along with Jon's sister Beth and her friend Becca who were visiting from Idaho and ate AMAZING desserts.

On another Saturday we got together with the Webers and had a playdate with Kate and their daughter Autumn (who is 5 months younger)

It was so fun to just watch the girls exploring and to catch up with friends from our old ward.

 And here I am at 36 weeks!

Baby is offically head down and as my midwife says: I am ALL baby.

I have officially gained 24lbs so far with this baby, which I was really proud of because I only ever gained 18lbs with Kate. (My doctor's goal for me was 25-30lbs this time around) There's really nowhere left for this little one to go :) People always tell me how tiny my belly is when I'm pregnant (which I appreciate because that means I don't look like a whale) but it's really just because there's nothing but baby solid baby in there. I'm really thankful that I don't get bloated or carry excess water. Also, I'm thankful that I have never had any stretch marks! Fingers crossed that I can make it another 4 weeks without them. I do, however, have an outee :( My belly button never popped all the way out with Kate. Jon and I both think this baby II will be bigger when they are born than Kate was. My guess is 7lb 14oz and Jon's guess is 8lb 2oz.

Now that February is over we are in final baby-prep mode. I'm scheduled to work through March 15th, and then go on maternity leave. These next few weeks should be really fun :)

We're having a baby this month!!