Home preparations for miss Annie!

We have been busy "nesting" over the last few weeks/months making our home just perfect for our little girl!  Right now (and at least for the next 10 months), we live in a 2-bedroom apartment that we really love!  It's a great place and definitely the most "homey" feeling place we have had in all of our locations!  But, as you can imagine, having a 900-square foot apartment also means that we have to get fairly creative when it comes to making room for a little one!  Even though she won't take up too much space, I can't imagine not bringing her home to a nursery that is made just for her. 

So what does that mean?  It means that our second bedroom, which is right now filled with our extra "stuff", needs to be re-organized, cleared out, and transformed into a nursery!!!  Man o man, has that been a task...see exhibit A and B:

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

BUT, we finally feel like we are making some progress!!  And, luckily I've been in the mood to get rid of things, which is a nice surprise :)  Now, our second bedroom looks like this: (much improved from the last few pictures)!!

Annie's room as of 9/20/12

The kitties have also been enjoying the packing... :)  Love these two! 

Sugar (right) fits just perfectly in that box, right? :)  Big cat likes to think she's little :)

The next phase is to move some stuff to long-term storage, re-organize our storage closet outside....then we get to move onto the fun stuff!!!!  Painting and putting things into the nursery! :) 

We have enjoyed picking up things here and there for the nursery!  We already bought a white dresser for her room (my sister found it outside of her school on sale for $60, can't beat that!) - we need to revamp it a little bit - repaint the top, new knobs, etc.  But, it's a great dresser!  You can see some of the other things we've picked up along the way on top of the dresser in this pic:

You can kind of see the color scheme - yellows, bright pinks, light teal (and owls!)

Ben also painted some fun accessories for Annie's room this weekend!  Thanks baby, they look great! :)

Now onto picking out the paint colors....hmm, which shade of yellow?  We are only going to paint one wall for right now because we plan on moving late next summer into *hopefully* a house that we buy!!!

Big decision....hmm...anyone have any great shades of yellow!?

In addition to the nursery, we also wanted to make our living room more "baby friendly."  Here is a picture of our old living room:

LIVING ROOM BEFORE

We decided that we wanted a rug/carpet that was a lot softer than our previous one - and one that was bigger.  Not that Annie will be really crawling before we move out of here, but of course we know that we will be playing with her a lot on the floor and want something comfy!  We ended up getting a pre-bound carpet remnant at Floor Depot on Labor Day weekend when they were having a 50% off sale - so we were able to get this 12'x9' carpet (which is SUPER soft) for only $120!  Can't beat that.

As you can see in the previous picture, while we love it, our coffee table takes up too much space in this smaller living room.  So we decided to trade that in for 2 soft ottomans, which can be used as foot rests and can easily be moved around to give us the space that we need!  We really like the new set-up!  And, we now have a small moveable table (made by my grandpa) that we can use while we are sitting on the couch!  So here is the new living room (once again, the kitties like this as well)!!:

SO...there is the update on our "nesting" :)  We can't wait to get all of the stuff to storage so we can really start putting the nursery together!  I hope it turns out as cute in person as it is in my mind! :)

Time to fatten me up!

....now that's a statement I never thought I would say!!

I went to the doctor today for a check-up and found out that while I had been on the right track the last few appointments, I lost another pound between this appointment and the last.  It's really hard to get it straight in my mind that that isn't a GOOD thing (you lose weight, it's good, right?!).  Well as I'm sure you can all figure, I shouldn't be losing weight right now and the doctor is starting to get a little concerned.  [Side note: once again, this convinces me that I will definitely be doing this meal plan post-pregnancy to lose weight! :)]

Overall, I'm a little bit frustrated with all of this though.  I don't feel like I have been starving myself by any means (and of course I would never do that on purpose), but I have also been trying really hard to control my blood sugar numbers.  So I guess in turn, that means I really haven't been eating all that I should be.  My doctor today told me that they would rather have me eat more carbs/food and have to increase my insulin than have me losing/not gaining weight.  SO, just when I think I have this GD stuff under control and my diet somewhat figured out - things get all mixed up again! :/

I feel like all I think about is food and my blood sugar numbers, and so now I guess I get to think about it even more!  I'm just really hoping I can get on the right track with my weight soon.  This is just coming at a time for work that is very busy and this just seems like "one more thing" that I need to deal with right now.  BUT, this is the most important thing I need to deal with, so I need to make the time!

So, my crazy organization side (thanks dad :)) came up with a solution - a daily tracking sheet for everything that I eat!  See?  Isn't this WONDERFUL!?  Yes, I used Excel to create this spreadsheet (something that my brother would be proud of to...)

haha...it's one more thing to track, but I think it will really help me make sure I'm eating what I need to (especially right now when work is a little crazy) and getting all of the food that I need to "fatten me up".  Now, I just really hope I don't fatten up too much :).  I'll eventually figure this all out...

Another side note: I also found out today that starting October 29th, I have to go to the doctor TWICE A WEEK until I have this baby!!!  Wow - that's a lot.  Good news - one of those appointments every week will be an ultrasound!  So, I guess even though those with GD have to "prick" themselves more, we get the reward of seeing our baby a lot more too :)  I'll take it!

24 weeks!

Man, it has been WAY too long since I've done a post!  Between work being super busy right now and trying to get the apartment ready for the baby - oh and my little brother getting married (such a fun weekend - still can't believe he is MARRIED though! :) ), I just haven't found the time! 

The last few weeks have been going well though - it dawned on me this last Thursday when I was officially 24 weeks that it is only 15 WEEKS AT THE MOST until this sweet baby girl is in our arms!  It's only 15 weeks (and not 16 weeks) because I found out at my last appointment that because of my gestational diabetes, there is no way they will let me go past 39 weeks.  They really hope I get to 39 weeks, but if I haven't gone into labor by then (which would be December 27th for me), then they will induce me!  So technically, even though our due date is still January 3rd, it is really December 27th at the latest!  Pretty exciting knowing that she'll be here before 2013!!  Our tax refund is also thanking us :)  Here is my 24 week pic!!  Even though my belly is getting bigger (which I LOVE), I think I'm due for a growth spurt any day now! :)

24 weeks!

It didn't take us too long to decide on a name - we had 1 girl name that we loved and about 5 boy names, so it made it easy for us when we found out it is a girl! :)  Her name is going to be Annie!  We just love the name - we love that it is old-fashioned, unique, yet not "weird" (can't do anything too weird with a last name like ours)!  And, I have had a couple of very special Annie's in my life too :)  Her full name will be Anne Jeanine Woloszyn - Jeanine is after my dad's mom, who passed away when I was in 4th grade.  She was such a great grandma and I miss her so much - I wish she was here to share in this special time with us.

Some other highlights from the last few weeks - Annie has started to move like CRAZY!!  And, Ben and my parents have gotten to feel her kick!  There was one night a few weeks ago that I was sitting on the couch and all of a sudden, you could see my stomach jolt forward from the outside.  I swear Ben and I sat there for about 5 minutes just staring at my stomach, looking at her kick from the outside!  It was so cool, I love that Ben's able to feel and see her movements now! :)

I finally feel like I am figuring out all of this gestational diabetes stuff too, which is really nice :)  I am up to 4 insulin shots a day (2 at breakfast, 1 at lunch, and 1 at dinner) - BUT my numbers seem to be doing really well.  I am still on a very low dose for each shot and I haven't had to increase my doses in a few weeks now (knock on wood!).  I haven't had any issues with hypoglycemia either, which is great.  Even though it's going well, I can't say I really have gotten used to giving myself a shot or that I like doing it by any means (sometimes it hurts like h*%*! :))...but, it's all worth it and I could have it much worse.  The other negative is that my cute baby bump now has bruises on both sides....pretty ugly ones at times.   But, I also am oddly proud of the bruises - knowing that I am doing some not so fun things for my child and that she's worth it (welcome to motherhood, right? :) ).  Here is the bare belly at 24 weeks (you can see some of the bruises...there is a big ol' one on the other side I decided not to share)!  No outie belly button yet, but it's only a matter of time :)

Bare belly!

I have another appointment on Tuesday and I am excited to meet with my doctor because we will find out my pregnancy "plan" until I am due.  Basically, every GD patient has a plan on when I get ultrasounds, when I start stress tests, etc.  I should have another ultrasound in 2 weeks for a "growth scan" - just to make sure she is the right size.  At this point, checking to make sure she isn't too big (common issue with GD) and also that she's gaining enough weight (since I started the diabetic diet, I lost 7 lbs at the beginning and just am now back to my pre-pregnancy weight, so they want to make sure she is right on track).  Can't wait to see her cute little face again in a few weeks! :)

Since my photographer never gets in my belly shots, we decided to have a little fun tonight and take a few with him too! :)  The first one is pretty silly...I don't know if Ben could ever have a belly even if he tried (although he is really trying here)!  Such a skinny minny :)

Okay, hopefully it won't be quite as long before my next post!  And, also so they aren't SUPER LONG like this one :)  If you made it to this point, thanks for reading :) :)