Week 36 Bump Recap

Oops! We had a crazy busy weekend and early part of this week so I didn’t get my post written until now! But we are getting dangerously close to the end and I haven’t missed a post yet, so it may be late, but it’s here! Week 36 Recap! Which means I am officially at 37 weeks right now and depending on who you ask that’s pretty much ‘full-term’, which is definitely exciting.  I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’d like her to stay cooking in there for at least 2 more weeks, but it is nice to know that if she came out right now she likely wouldn’t have any issues from coming early and would be able to go right home with us.
Week 36 Bump Update | www.amusingmj.com Baby’s Size: The books kind of quit giving sizes out right now because this is the phase where babies start to get a lot bigger or just a little bigger depending on their genetics, so its hard to truly tell how big she is.  I’m guessing somewhere between 5.5 and 6 lbs.  And that is in my super educated, not medically inclined expert opinion… so take it with a grain of salt.  Oh and one book compared her to the size of Swiss Chard… since everyone has a picture of that in their heads to be able to compare. <end sarcasm font>

Baby’s Progress: More temperature regulation, brain and lung development are the name of the game for the next 3ish weeks.  We will get to have an ultrasound here sometime in the next couple of weeks, so when that happens, I’ll let you know more of how she is doing!

Weight Gain: I gained 2 pounds this week… but I gotta tell you… getting on the scale feels somewhat like an unnecessary evil these days, so I don’t do it very often! It’s easy to see how people would gain a lot of weight and not keep track of it during pregnancy!

Sleep: Well… Sleep was unbelievably awful this week, but I can’t really blame that on the baby.  Our dog, Lexie decided to eat two of my husband’s long black dress socks.  So after about 4 or 5 vet visits (where the diagnosis was either HGE, a stomach infection she has had before or anxiety about the baby) she finally passed them in the middle of the night.  I’ll spare you all the graphic details, but suffice it to say last week was rough.  She wouldn’t eat or drink for 7 days, she wasn’t sleeping well (and so neither was I) and I had more than one emotionally charged (ugh pregnancy hormones) evening where I thought I was going to have to say goodbye to her in my last few weeks of pregnancy. NOT a pretty sight.  But, it turns out she just ate my husband’s socks during the storms last week and needed to get that out of her system.  So she is now mostly recovered and back to eating and generally being a happy friendly dog. But she definitely took us through some sleep training exercises of cleaning up after her being sick and waking up every few hours.  But I’m still hoping to get a week or so of somewhat better sleep before baby girl gets here!

Milestones: As far as baby things go, it has been a fairly quiet week! We had a lot going on in our social lives, work and just life in general, but nothing too notable in terms of baby milestones!

Favorite clothing item of the week: Maternity shorts.  They may be the least attractive clothing item I’ve ever seen… I mean they have more fabric above the waistband than below, but since our temperatures pushed up into the upper 90s over the weekend, they were a much needed relief from my jeans!! I ordered these from Gap and then also have a hand me down pair of linen shorts that are UBER comfy from Old Navy.

Symptoms: I can definitely feel additional pressure on my body, and turning over in bed is a chore, but other than that I really can’t complain! I do have to put my feet up after a long day, but they haven’t swollen much, they just get tired!

Workout: I got to swim laps a few days last week after work and it was glorious! I love being in the water and swimming laps feels much the same as it did before being pregnant, which is a nice feeling!! I also got to walk with a friend on Saturday morning, and spent Monday and Tuesday volunteering at a conference at our church, so I’ve gotten a fair amount of exercise in this week! And although I am tired at night, I feel pretty good, so its encouragement to keep swimming laps and walking (even though I am not doing either strenuously!).

PS. If you missed any of the updates, you can check them all out here.

5 Tips for Decorating a Table

This week my small group of friends decided to have a murder mystery dinner party.  Cheesy… yes, but hysterical.  On more than one occasion during the evening I was laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe! Our group consists of 7 couples, all at a fairly similar stage of life and we are each other’s support network, friends, and confidants.  I’m not sure where my life would be right now without them!! Someone came up with this idea and our group sort of ran with the idea… The theme for the party was Spaghetti Western–the murder mystery piece was pre-packaged, which one of the girls bought online and we served spaghetti and meatballs for dinner (hence spaghetti western).  My contribution was the house to host the party, so I decided we needed a bit of decoration for the tables.

As I was throwing together the decorations for the party it occurred to me that my mom (and aunts and grandmother) all taught me important things about how to decorate a table well that might be useful to share on the blog! These tables were decorated for a specific theme, but many of the ‘tricks’ of how to do it are the same no matter what you are decorating with.

For this party I used two tables- my kitchen table which we moved into the dining room and our dining table.

1. Always decorate in odd numbers: I’m not sure why this works, but there is something visually appealing about odd numbered groupings rather than even numbered groupings.  So I almost always use 3 vases, 5 candles, and so on and so forth.  Like you can see in the picture below–the two mason jars plus the cake stand make 3 and visually balance out the table.  There are also 5 mini mason jars with tea lights in them spread around the table.

Western Party Theme | www.amusingmj.com

2. Add some varying heights: My mother is notorious for draping various items in fabric just to give one part of the decor a height boost.  For these tables I used the lace cake stand above and the white cake stand below.  In fact, I’m not sure the cake stand in the photo below has ever actually had a cake on it… I use it much more often to decorate a table or a vignette.

westerntable

3.  Add some texture: For this rustic vibe I love using various burlap items- We purchased the burlap below for our rehearsal dinner tables (I’m pretty sure we just bought it as fabric off the roll at Hobby Lobby and cut into squares), and I have used them countless times for many different parties because they add great texture.  For this table I snagged the rope from Michaels for $5.  It was an easy addition and definitely made the tables a lot more ‘western’.  If you are doing a fancier table texture can be brought in via silk cloth, different types of ribbon, or flowers.   Which brings me to my next point:  westerntable2

4. Flowers: almost nothing adds some va-va-voom to a table quite like fresh flowers. They definitely aren’t the cheapest option for sprucing up a table, but man do they bring the wow factor.  I love buying just a couple of bunches of whatever my grocery store is selling in the right color scheme and then splitting them up into little vases or jars like these to set around.  Funny enough, the same ‘design’ techniques that I use for tables holds fairly true for flower arrangements too: varying heights, odd numbers and texture (i.e. a little greenery or different types of flowers) make for an appealing arrangement!

 

5. Have fun with it! Especially if you are doing a theme, it never hurts to go all out.  I searched Pinterest to find some cheeky cowboy sayings to add some fun flair to the table.  The gold coins were a fun addition (not to mention delicious to enjoy during the party) that really sold the western theme.

All in all I spent about $30 dollars to buy things for this table (and more than half of that was in fresh flowers!), most of the things I had on hand and can be used for various other table/house decorations.  And our guests came over at 6:30 and I got home from work around 5:30, so not too shabby for an hour of time and not much money… plus it was fun to have such a festive setting for our mystery drama!

Week 35 Bump Recap

You know, I keep thinking I’ll do a few projects and write up the posts about them for the blog.  But I’m not going to lie… this whole 3rd trimester pregnancy thing… everything is harder! And getting up the motivation to do a project? Pretty much non-existent right now.  And since I am using the time to hang out with friends, sit and relax with my husband and just generally do nothing, I’m going to savor this time before baby and not feel bad about it! So for now, please forgive my blogging hiatus and just enjoy the pregnancy updates!

Week 35 Pregnancy | www.amusingmj.com Baby’s Size: She is about 5 lbs…which the books say is about the size of a head of romaine lettuce.  We are down to weekly doctors appointments, and the doctor thinks she won’t be a big baby, but is tracking along just like she should be… so I’m going to trust that and not worry too much about a big or small baby!

Baby’s Progress: Apparently this week she loses her downy hair covering her body and the stuff on her skin that protects her from marinating in the womb for 9 months.  At this point she is getting ready for her grand entrance, so she is getting better at her own temperature regulation, etc.

Weight Gain: I gained about 1/2 a pound this week… so around 16 and a half pounds from where I started.  (remember I lost 10 in the first trimester… so really I’ve gained 26 back)

Sleep: I wake up so many times in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom!! Its outrageous! I think I could sleep pretty well if it weren’t for that! I have transitioned full time to using the giant pregnancy pillow since that helps me essentially have two pillows under my head, making it easier to breathe! But it means when I get up to go to the bathroom getting back into our tall bed, over the giant pregnancy pillow (all while being totally huge and off balance) means its a bit of a challenge and I’m pretty sure I wake up Reese every time I do it!

Milestones: The bags are all packed, car seat is in the car, and the husband has all his instructions on what all to do when.  So I feel like we are ready… which probably means she won’t come until after her due date… but in case she does come a little early… we are ready!

Favorite clothing item of the week: Mom and I went shopping last week and bought a non-maternity dress that looked super cute for both a shower and a wedding I attended this week! Dressing up when you are 8+ months pregnant is not easy to do, but I loved how comfortable this dress was and it was flattering too! Also, I snagged a pair of Cole Haan black wedge pumps that have Nike Air in them… seriously the most comfortable dress shoes I have ever owned.  They aren’t the most stunning shoes I have ever seen, but they are really cute and SO comfortable that I could wear them for days and my feet never hurt… which is pretty impressive coming from a pregnant woman!

Symptoms: Nothing much has changed since last week… everything is harder than it was several months ago, but since I get to feel her rolling around and kicking, I’m not going to complain too much.  And really after reading some of the symptoms I could have… I’m going to consider myself blessed!

Workout: I keep hoping it will warm up just a bit more and I can swim laps in our pool… and we are so close to the pool being warm enough… so maybe by next week I can add that as my workout.  But for now… my workout has been just normal every day life… which at this point pretty much feels like a workout!!

PS. If you missed any of the updates, you can check them all out here.