99 more days!!!

We are 26 weeks today! 99 more days until our due date!!! The count down is getting more real now! In 3 1/2 months we will be holding our precious baby boy!

Baby is about 14 inches long and weighs 1 and 2/3 pounds! This week his hearing is becoming more distinct and can now hear Justin and I talking about him (24/7)! :)

We have a 3/4D Ultra-sound scheduled October 25th. We are so excited for this as we have not seen our baby in 7 weeks and cannot wait to see how much he has changed since our first ultrasound! It is a little pricey for the ultrasound, but how special will it be to show Ethan what he looked like in the womb when he gets older!

I have decided on my baby bag! Ever since I first saw The Petunia Pickle Bottom 'Sashay' Cotton Organic bag I have loved it! It is a good price and something I don't think I will get tired of! I better like it, because it is going to be my new best friend! It also converts into a backpack which I think will make holding baby and the bag more convenient!

25 weeks!

We are 25 weeks today and counting down the last 2 weeks in the second trimester! I cannot believe we are almost in our third trimester! Baby Ethan is kicking, punching and flipping like crazy! In the beginning I thought he was going to be very mellow like his Dad, but from all the jabs I have been getting lately, he may be a little more like me- crazy! Ha! Although, in my pre-pregnancy life I was very energetic and loved being active, now I am the complete opposite. I am not sure who ever said the second trimester is your chance to regain your energy level, because that is not the case with me! Laying on the couch and going being in bed at 9:00 p.m. sounds like heaven everyday. I get worn out very easily and once I get to that point there is no turning back! I have also been having a lot of heartburn the past few weeks. I never even knew what heartburn was until I got pregnant. That is one side effect that I will be happy to see dissipate after Ethan arrives. Sleeping is now becoming an issue. Of course my numerous bathroom breaks are enough to annoy everyone in the room (including myself), but more than that, it is hard for me to just turn from side to side. It seems to take me 5 minutes to switch sides and get comfortable, because I have no stomach muscles anymore making me feel like a blue whale flopping inch by inch! Other than that I am doing great and loving everyday I have with Ethan in my belly! I want him to grow big and strong in there!

Speaking of little Ethan, he is measuring around 13 1/2 inches from head to heel! However, I would not be surprised if he is longer considering I am 5'8" and Justin is 6'3". He is also weighing about a pound and 1/2! He is getting to be a big boy! Most importantly this week, he is beginning to develop his baby fat! We love chunky monkeys! His hair is also a distinctive color and texture this week! I was born with very thick dark hair which very quickly became a fine light blond Mohawk (yes, my hair stood straight up, at least it was the 80's and I fit in pretty well)! Justin's hair was also a light brown when he was little so there is a good chance our baby could have lighter hair that eventually turns darker. When Justin pictures a little boy named Ethan, he pictures a blond boy, but I see brown hair. Most of all, I am hoping baby Ethan ends up with Justin's beautiful thick dark hair!

We are getting our new Netflix movie this weekend- Babies! We are super excited for this documentary and just love everything baby right now, so I am sure we will enjoy it!

Justin has nicely placed me on a spending freeze this week! Haha! The way I am surviving this experience is by not looking at anything baby!!! Not going to the baby section at stores or looking Online! If I stay away from these danger zones, then I do not see anything Ethan or I need (or should I say want)?! We'll see how long this lasts.......!

Here are his first pair of shoes:

My Mom got these cute little outfits a few weeks ago:

And his "coming home" outfit, perfect for a cold January day!

These are a few of my purchases! I love the stripes and the Elephant onesie- "E" is for Elephant and Ethan!

Miley does not seem to know what is going on, but we think she is aware things are about to change! His nursery used to be the guest room where she would lay most of the time and now she barely goes in there. We are trying to teach her that it is not her space anymore. Our biggest challenge is teaching her that his toys are not hers! Anyone who knows her, knows she LOVES toys and must have a toy in her mouth when she goes to the bathroom outside or when someone gets home to greet them. So she really doesn't know what to think about the baby's toys. There is a toy dog that we conveniently place on Ethan's bookcase high enough to where she can still reach it and she tries to steal it every day! We have to then tell her it is not her toy. She doesn't seem to be catching on. I guess it is a work in progress!

24 weeks!

I turned 6 months last week and have about 16 more weeks to go! 109 days left, almost in the double digits! Our days are full of happiness and excitement! We are just so thankful for this experience!

Most of you all know Justin very well and as you know he is a very calm and relaxed kind of guy and last week I looked at him and asked him what he was thinking about. He replied, " Just getting anxious" with a huge smile on his face! For Justin to even say he is getting anxious about anything at all is a pretty big deal! We are both so happy to be starting our own little family in a matter of months! I don't think we will ever be able to leave this baby anywhere without us! We are already so attached, and cannot wait to have a little one to take with us everywhere!

We have had some updates on the nursery the past few weeks. After looking Online for a bookcase that was cute and safe for the nursery, we could not seem to find anything we liked less than $400, so Justin and and his Dad decided to build baby boy a bookcase themselves! We picked out a bookcase we loved and wrote down the standard dimensions. Thankfully Justin is a talented engineer and can bascially design anything in my opinion and was able to draw out some plans. He had access to some great tools when we were in Fayetteville a few weekend ago and within an afternoon the bookcase was completed! Here is the bookcase we found online and the one they built.

We got his blue and green Land of Nod rug in that is so thick and comfy for all those late night paces to get baby back to sleep! We also purchased his sweet lamb mobile from PB kids!

It is so precious and plays Mary had a Little Lamb, but we are going to change the song to Ethan had a Little Miley! We decided to hang it from the ceiling instead of buying the arm that attaches to the crib and we love this idea so much better!

We also ordered a few totes from PB Kids as well. We got 2 large floor totes, one that says his name for his laundry basket and another for Toys. Along with a couple of rectangle canvas totes to place on the combo for diapers/lotions.

Birthday Wish!

I am 23 weeks and 3 days pregnant today! I cannot believe in a few days we will be 6 months pregnant already!

My Birthday is in 2 days and although I am not completely thrilled to now be in the "late twenties" category (turning 27) this Birthday is very special to me. Last year at this time we knew we wanted to start a family soon and were totally ready to be parents, but were not yet stable enough in the financial world to do so. I knew the time would be coming when we could start trying, but it seemed so far away. All I wanted was to have a baby. I even had a beautiful picture of a mother and a baby on my bathroom mirror to reassure me it would happen soon. As I was blowing out my Birthday candles last year, I wished that by my next Birthday I would be pregnant. I am truly amazed by how incredibly lucky we have been that my Birthday wish came true!

I had my 23 week appointment this week! The doctor said everything is going great and we both look perfectly healthy. The baby's heartbeat was a steady 143 beats per min! Next appointment we have to do a glucose screening for gestational diabetes. This means I better cut down on my sugar habit for the next few weeks!

I have been feeling baby move like crazy! He is one active little guy! I love to feel him move, it is the best feeling ever! I pretty much feel him throughout the day now. Justin also can now feel his kicks as well! It is wonderful to share the experience of his kicks together! This week I even noticed him moving the surface of my belly! It is incredible to not only feel, but see his movements!

Lastly, we have big news! We have officially decided on baby Terminella's name! He may now be called Ethan Emanuele Terminella! We are so happy we can finally call him by his sweet name! We cannot wait to meet you baby Ethan! You are the love of our lives!

Week 21 and 22!

Today I am 21 weeks and 4 days pregnant! I will be 5 1/2 months in 3 days! So exciting!

I can now say that I am distinguishing baby's kicks from lets say, "digestion." :)

I have been feeling the baby kick a lot over the past week 1/2. It is the best feeling in the world and I cannot get enough of those little movements! About a week ago I was sleeping and felt him kick off and on between 1:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. I was so excited to feel him kicking so hard that I barely slept at all because I was just awaiting the next kick! Justin cannot yet feel the little guy, but I am sure in a couple of weeks he will!

I have also hit a growth spurt in the past couple of weeks! The belly has really started to look more and more like a bump! I have gained about 11 pounds. The doctor said I should gain around 25-28, but at the rate I have been gaining the past 2 weeks I may exceed that limit! I am feeling pretty good overall. Some days I have a lot of energy and others I extremely tired and all I want to do it lay on the couch. I have been trying to keep up with yoga and pilates a couple of times a week along with some light cardio. Getting some exercise really helps me sleep at night. When I get bigger I plan to swim at the gym, it is highly recommended for pregnant bodies.

This weekend Justin and I had a lot of fun with the baby's room! I cannot believe how much we accomplished! We knew it would be a long weekend and therefore a good one to start working on the room. We painted the entire room a soft blue color that we love! Oddly enough, we received a call that our furniture was ready to be picked up this weekend, so we put the baby's bedroom furniture together! To top it all off, the bedding also came in a few days ago so we were able to put most of the room together! We absolutely LOVE the baby's room and cannot stop peeking in there!

5 months already?!

I am 20 weeks and 3 days pregnant today! I cannot believe we are more than halfway through this pregnancy! Time is really flying now! The baby is already the size of a small cantaloupe and weighs about 10.5 ounces and is around 10 inches long from head to heel!

To celebrate such a milestone in the pregnancy we went to a local park and took some maternity pics!

The Nursery is coming together!

Wow! What an exciting week we have had! We basically spent the whole week narrowing down cribs, bedding and most of all a name for this baby!

Finding a name for baby has been the hardest of all! We have had the name Ethan picked out for boy and Juliana for a girl for years. Since we found out we are having a boy, we decided to look through names only to find out that Ethan has been in the top 10 category for boys names for almost 5 years. I had no idea Ethan was so popular! As you know, Justin and I grew up with very popular names and we always said that if we could avoid naming our children extremely common names, then we would. So we have done some additional searching and we have narrowed it down to a couple, but we are still deciding. No monogramming yet! Darn! :(

We ordered our glider/recliner this week and we cannot wait until it comes in! It is big and comfy in a neutral creamy taupe color that rocks, swivels and reclines (which is a feature we will get a lot of use out of I'm sure at 2 a.m.)! It's very practical and something that was can use with our future babies.

We have looked all over for baby furniture that converts into big kid furniture for months and we found a collection we love! We had picked out a few pieces at USA Baby, but it didn't come with a dresser that we liked and in our budget. So, we started looking harder at BabiesRus and found a very functional set in espresso wood that will take the little guy from babyhood to his teenage years! The crib actually converts into a toddler then a full size bed, and the dresser and combo are both great sizes which will work well as he grows older.

We discovered on Friday night BabiesRus was having one of their Bi-annual Be Safe and Save trade in sale. Basically you can bring in old unsafe baby gear like a car seat or stroller and save 25% on participating individual items! So we went to an old, nasty (and I mean NASTY) thrift store and we purchased 4 items: 2 strollers and 2 high chairs for under $20 and transported them to BabiesRus where we purchased our 3 piece baby furniture along with the crib conversion kit. We were so excited and felt so well, thrifty!

This week we also chose the bedding for baby! We both were not real into a "theme" for the baby's room, but just wanted nice colors and planned to accent the room with boyish elements. I did not know how hard it would be to pick out bedding for a boy! There are about 1/2 the options for boys as there are girls! After searching every possible website for something we liked and in our price range we finally found bedding we love! It is from the Serena and Lily Henry collection, which we purchased on sale! The colors in the picture look yellow and blue, but it is actually green and blue.

Thank you to both our parents for helping us put together this special nursery for our "little guy!" We know he will LOVE it! :)

It's a Baby Boy

We are having a baby BOY!!! We are so excited and cannot believe we actually know the gender of our precious little baby! We love him so much already!


The gender party was perfect! We are so lucky to have such an amazing and supportive family! We love you all! We cannot wait until you meet our little guy!

Sweet Baby!

The ultrasound wen't great today! We were both a little nervous and excited for the appointment we could barely stand it! It's not every day you see your first unborn child for the very first time! The baby was beautiful! When I saw that sweet little profile I could not believe my eyes! I cannot wait to meet you precious baby!

We saw the little heart pumping hard inside the chest beating a healthy 143 beats per minute. The doctor said the baby measured everywhere perfectly and is weighing 9 oz.! We forgot to ask how many inches the baby was, but we are sure it will most likely be a long one! When the Tech was searching for the sex, she had us turn out heads. She said the baby was being a little uncooperative on that part, but she still knew instantly what it was!

The Ultrasound Tech thought we were a little weird asking her to call a bakery for us, but she did it anyway! Rick's has already called us and confirmed they know what it is, they said they are so excited to be apart of this experience! The whole office said they were talking about our plans to find out the sex, because they had never heard of the cake idea before, and Dr. Grounds made us promise we would call on Monday to tell everyone if it's a Boy or Girl!

We have the baby's sex in an envelope that we will use to make sure they got the cake right! We both want to open it so bad that we even thought about mailing it to ourselves because we are so tempted to open it now!

Before the appointment we were thinking Girl all the way, but now we kind of could see a baby Boy in our future!

1st Ultrasound today!!!

I cannot believe it but today is the day! We finally get to see our precious little one for the first time! We really do not know what to expect, but I am sure we will both be amazed by what we see on the screen! I cannot wait to get our baby's first photos!!! Today we will not find out the sex, but we will actually find out together with our family this weekend. We saw on a baby blog months ago of how a couple had the brilliant idea of having a cake made and the filling define the gender. We always planned to do it this way since all of our family is back in AR and we wanted to share this special experience with everyone.

We called Rick's yesterday and ordered our cake with yellow icing and green polka dots. We will have the nurse call Rick's today after the appointment to tell them to either fill it with PINK or BLUE filling! We also will have the nurse place a note in an envelope with the gender as well so we have back up to keep! The gender party takes place Saturday night August 21st, 2 more days!!! I can barely stand the wait, but we both have a strong feeling it is a baby Girl!

I am officially 19 weeks today, that is if they do not change my due date today after measuring everything. I feel great so far, this has been a very easy pregnancy and I have loved the whole process! I think I was meant to have babies! I cannot believe the baby is the size of a Mango!