Baby Update!!

Again, I am having trouble getting my blog to allow me to separate paragraphs. Just stick with me! I have been really bad at updating about our sweet baby. First, I am thrilled to announce that we are having a GIRL!!! Her name is Aven Grey and we are madly in love with her!

Here is a picture of Aven's face at 30 weeks. She is holding her arm over her eyes as though she is being dramatic. Jon says it is because she doesn't want anyone to see her before her "grand entrance" - then he said that she must get that from me!

I am now 34 weeks pregnant, and I am getting kind of huge - but I am the right weight and measurements, so huge is the size I am supposed to be.

I am absolutely loving the pregnancy thing. I am especially loving it since Aven has gotten wiggly. She gets wigglier and wigglier every day! I can feel her when she has the hiccups now! Jon really loves being able to feel her move around too. For a long time she was very stubborn and would stop moving anytime he put his hand on my belly to feel her - I told him that she got her ornery-ness from him. We did have a problem with my sugar levels getting to high. My glucose test came back not-so-great (which shocked me because I hadn't been interested in sweets at all, but the doctor said that pregnant bodies sometimes can't process sugars and carbs very well so it probably wasn't a dietary problem), so I had to go back for the terrible 3-hour round. Ugh! It was not pleasant to drink that nasty juice again and then sit and wait for them to draw my blood 4 different times. The day I went it was super snowy and I sat in the empty waiting room listening to the lab tech talk about how terrible her boss is and how great the book "50 Shades of Grey" is. This was in between her very frequent smoke breaks (which was really great when she was up in my face drawing my blood and she smelled like smoke so bad). Luckily I had been really careful about eating sugar and carbs since my unfortunate first glucose test, so this 3-hour one came back clean. Thank heavens! I still have to be careful about eating sugar and carbs, but if that is what I have to do to make sure Aven is healthy - then that's what I have to do. But it isn't always so easy. A few days after I severely cut down on sugar, I was having a real struggle because I seriously wanted some chocolate. Poor, unsuspecting Jon came home from work and popped a few M&M's in his mouth. After eating them, he came over to give me a kiss...and I smelled the chocolate...and I cried. He wasn't sure what to do! He apologized and told me that he didn't know he needed to stop eating sweets too, but that he would stop if I wanted him too. Of course this was just a moment of pregnant insanity and I haven't stopped Jon - super sugar loving Jon - from eating whatever he wants. As far as getting ready for Aven to come, we have been kind of slow. I was swamped with the college play and other classes I was taking. Then we hosted Thanksgiving at our house for my side of the family. Then Christmas snuck up on us out of the blue, and after Christmas we went to Disneyland for a wonderful week with my family. So now that the holiday season is officially over, we are in full get-ready-for-baby mode! My Grams gave us a gift card to Lowe's for Christmas to help with getting the nursery ready, so we went and picked out some paint and sweet Jon got to work. I helped a little with the taping, but when it came to painting, he wouldn't let me help, so he took over the project all by himself! He is so wonderful! Here is what the nursery looks like so far:

We have a chair rail to put up between the colors. It's going to have a storybook theme, and we have some great storybook posters we are going to put in some soft pink frames and we are going to use pink accents everywhere. I didn't want to go with a really gender specific color on the walls because I want to be able to use the nursery with different accessories for a boy if we have one in the future. I am really trying to make sure everything is ready for this sweet little girl, but I know that ready-or-not she will make an appearance when she is good and ready. I absolutely don't want to rush this pregnancy experience. I am loving the way that it feels and I love having her all safe and sound tucked away inside. I also realize that as soon as she gets here, I never get to be pregnant with her again - this is a once in a lifetime experience and I want to savor every moment of it! Still, I can't wait to meet her! I can't wait to hold her in my arms and see what she looks like and get to know her personality. I am also really anxious to see how she and Jon interact. He is going to be an incredible daddy! I mean, he painted the entire room by himself so the fumes of the paint wouldn't hurt her. We are both such lucky girls! Only 6 more weeks - or 41 days - until our due date! Lots to do!! I am so excited!! Isn't is amazing how someone so small, who we haven't even officially met yet, can turn our entire lives upside down? And isn't it amazing how I can be so in love with someone so small, who I haven't even met yet?