Baby Berry Shower

I had quite the eventful weekend! My good friend Nancy and my next door neighbor Peggy threw me an absolutely beautiful shower. It really was more wonderful than I could have hoped for. The weather was perfect -- sunny and warm (although a tad hot for me with my Easy Bake Oven), my mom came up from San Diego, and Nancy and Peggy really outdid themselves. The theme was a tea party, so Peggy made cute little tea sandwiches and had lots of tea pots and china. Chris and Nancy's husband, Eric, amused themselves by watching the Star Trek movie, but came back just in time for me to open the presents! We got truly adorable presents from everyone, including a handmade security blanket from my former boss Julie. I don't think I have a picture, but it was great. We also received tons of White Sox baby clothes, courtesy of Chris' parents, as well as two Cubs onesies from Peggy's friends Helen and Woody. Chris gives Woody a hard time about the Cubs every time we see him, so it was so sweet of him to order Cubs onesies. Chris assures us that Baby Berry will be a White Sox fan. Finally, Peggy asked everyone to bring a favorite children's book to build up our little one's library -- I don't have a picture of this, but I know we'll have so much fun reading to our little girl. It really was a wonderful shower, and I'm so overwhelmed by the love from everyone!

And because I don't believe I've actually announced our dear little one's name officially on this blog, Charlotte Kay Berry is due in just over 4 weeks! Charlotte, besides being of French origins and sounding perfect with Berry, is also what the French call Strawberry Shortcake (Charlotte aux Fraises). We can't wait to meet her.

Nancy, creative girl that she is, sewed the Charlotte letters! This will be going in her cute little room above the crib.

All the wonderful loot!

Here I am with the three planners - Peggy, Nancy, and Helen

My favorite cake from Freeport Bakery! A Raspberry Cream Torte for our little Berry Girl.

Nancy also made this adorable blanket for Charlotte, which of course fits in perfectly. At some point, once I've gotten everything organized, I'll take pictures of the (almost) complete nursery.

My friend Elizabeth got me, among other things, this little pair of elephant pajamas. When she saw the nursery after the shower was over, she was amazed that we had a pink elephant theme! :)

35 Weeks Showering Down

So I promised (myself, that is) to post belly pictures because it's been over 4 weeks. Well, yesterday my office was nice enough to throw Baby Berry and me a shower! We received TONS of clothes (because I guess no one can resist buying cute little baby girl clothes) as well as a lot of nice things off our registry. Below are a select few from the fun event!

They decorated the Conference Room with cute baby elephants and giraffes, just like the nurery!

Yummy Strawberry and chocolate cake, along with "Berry Sherbet" Punch

35 Weeks next to all the gifts!

Because who can resist an itty bitty shrug with Pooh on it?!

A cute little bathing suit for Baby Berry, including a pink polka dot hat and pink sunglasses. Too cute!

Clothing and Book Explosion

Don't say I didn't warn you that there would be a bunch of posts.

Last night, when we got home from the tour of Labor & Delivery, there was a huge box hidden among our plants in the front yard. Chris' mom and dad, Grandma and Grandpa Berry, sent us a crazy amount of gifts for Baby Berry. I took pictures of them to give you a sense that Baby Berry is one lucky girl. Note: I've also received a number of other cute items from my family and friends that I will be sure to showcase once the nursery is up and running. Also, I don't think our little girl will need any more clothes until she's at least a year old. :)

Adorable onesies in multiple sizes

Close-up on this cute onesie purchased from this great restaurant near the In-Laws in Chicago that makes their own wine. Adorable pink bumble bee pajamas!

More onesies, outfits, and a sweet bear blanket.

These dresses are for 12 months, so they'll be perfect for next spring/summer!

Chris and I are particularly excited about all these books that were either his and his sister's or his niece's. We can't wait to be able to read these to our baby girl!

I asked Chris' mom to make these "hooter hiders." Yes, I kid you not, that is the brand name for these nursing covers -- they have boning at the top, so you can see your baby but no one else can see her nursing. They're wonderful, and I look forward to showing them off, while not showing everything off. Also, Chris' mom sewed a little pocket made out of a baby washcloth in each one to hold whatever necessities Baby Berry will need.


Finally, Chris is holding up a blanket that his mom crocheted when she heard that Baby Berry was on the way. If you enlarge it you should be able to see that she also crocheted the alphabet. It's very impressive, and I'm sure our little one will love it! Chris' mom also crocheted a little bonnet and a bunting bag to keep Baby Berry cozy.

So a big thank you to Grandma and Grandpa Berry for the wonderful clothes and books (and my hooter hiders!). And of course a big thank you for all those wonderful gifts from everyone else. We are truly grateful for all the love.

Goodbye 1, Goodbye 2, Hello Love*

So today I am officially 27 weeks pregnant and yesterday was exactly three months until my due date. You know what this means? Hello Third Trimester!

And to celebrate, my body has decided to grace me with new, horrible pregnancy symptom #503** -- raging, hellfire and brimstone heartburn! Yesterday was particularly bad and was set off by, what else, my berry oatmeal. Uggh, my esophagus was en fuego almost all morning until it subsided at lunch, at which point I decided to eat Thai food and it started up again. Note to self, pack Tums to have on hand at work!

Anyway, here are my 27 week pictures. 13 weeks to go!

I'm wearing my prenatal yoga clothes, so please don't mind the odd get-up.


No, that is not some grotesque growth on my belly, simply my finger pointing to my belly button, which is halfway to being an outie.

On the good news front, we received my glider/recliner today! I can now watch TV without putting five pillows behind my back. The bad news is that the matching ottoman is out of stock, so I'm using an end table from Ikea to prop up my feet, which isn't very comfortable. Chris put the glider together, and the cats have been very curious. You can lock the glider in place, so it doesn't move, but I am so afraid the kittehs are going to trap their paws in it as it's gliding back and forth.




*This blog title is to the tune of some montage song in the musical Chorus Line, except that the real lyrics are "goodbye 12, goodbye 13, hello love." You get the idea.
**I made the number up, it's probably something small and boring like symptom #10. Still this may be the most annoying symptom yet!

Wallies!

Thanks everyone for your great decorating ideas. Our good friends are coming up from Santa Barbara for the long weekend, so we'll get started on the nursery in earnest once they leave.

I think I might paint the walls a cheery yellow, and use these decals as a way of sprucing up the room.



I found them here at the recommendation of one of my commenters. I really like these wall decals and think they'll add a nice whimsical touch to the room.

Things are going well. I had a horrible cold last week that caused me to miss work for three days. There isn't a lot you can take when you're sick, so that probably contributed to the lengthy convalescence. And then of course I got poor Chris sick as well. At least I had two cute, cuddly cats to keep me company on the bed.

Decorating Advice Needed!

Yesterday, Chris and I spent almost 4 hours (!!) looking at baby stuff at a certain baby superstore. It took that long (and we haven't even decided on maybe half the stuff we need) because A) we have no idea what we're looking for or what we need, B) we needed to actually try out things like car seats and strollers for functionality, C) it's overwhelming, and D) it's a
huge store. Thank goodness they have a whole section of gliders and ottomans because I needed to sit down and take a break every so often.

We did manage to accomplish a lot over those several hours, like deciding on a diaper bag that's cute but wouldn't embarrass Chris to tote around; picking a stroller frame over a travel system; and deciding on how to decorate the nursery.

Although we're having a little girl, neither of us is really super excited about traditional girly colors like pink and purple, at least for the nursery. We wanted something gender neutral so that we can use the same baby for baby number 2 (although that won't be for a while). So we decided on Kids Line Bunny Meadow. I like it for a number of reasons: 1) I love the sage green, chocolate brown, and cream colors, 2) it's made with organic cotton,which is a bonus, and 3) the pattern is cute but not cutesy.

But my dilemma comes with figuring out how to actually decorate the nursery. To make the room a little more feminine, I plan on hanging up wooden letters of the baby's name (although that seems expensive considering the name we've currently agreed upon is nine letters long). We saw ones yesterday that were cute with pink polka dots. And some of the items we registered for are pink to insert a little more splash of feminine color in the room without being overwhelmingly girly.

I guess where I'm stuck is how to create something like what this mom did for her baby's nursery (I stole this from the above website's reviews on the bedding):



She actually made the adorable border using a stencil. How does one do that? Is it hard?

Here's another picture of the precious room.



Let me know what you think and if you have any ideas. I'd like to know what you think about other colors that would work for the walls that aren't necessarily those three colors of cream, brown, and green. We still have plenty of time, but I'm not the most artistic person in the world, so I need time to plan this out!