Updated Pictures of the Nursery

We think it is finally done. Mom, Sara, and I have been working on finishing up the nursery. We made a final trip to Ikea and Target today and I think that we have finished. Mom bought us a beautiful lamp that Sara fell in love with as soon as she saw it. Sara and Mom were so happy with the way the room come together. I really like it as well. It has really come together and I think it is very pretty. Thank you Mom for all your help getting the room together. Now all we need is Claire to make it completely perfect.

Shower with Family and Friends

I finally am getting around to getting some of the pictures from the shower posted. It was a very awesome shower and we cannot thank family and friends enough. It was a lot of fun and we received so many great gifts for Claire. Sara and I thank everyone and send our love, appreciation, and gratitude to you all.

The Honey-Do List from my Nesting Wife

What a Sunday. I am very glad that I have had every Sunday off for the past 2 months, and so far, the rest of this month. Sunday's have been a great family day, run your errands day, and mental health day for me. We wake up every Sunday and Sara and I make breakfast together for us and Wes and then we read the paper and do a few chores before we relax and watch football.

This Sunday was a little different. Sara has been making a honey-do list for me over the past week. This was my request because she would keep calling me with all of these different things I needed to do and she wanted done before the baby gets here. We got up as usual on Sunday and made our breakfast. My mom surprised me and called and said she was doing nothing and wanted to come over and help. I was very very happy to have her there. My list consisted of such things as:

1. Moving the computer to the basement which meant I had to move the computer and desk, rewire the internet, our wireless, and also rewire my cable downstairs.
2. Move all the wood flooring material downstairs. We decided to put tile in the kitchen and wood in the dining room. We are doing the tile first and then the wood floors next.
3. I completed the pack and play
4. Rearrange the bedroom to make room for the pack and play. This consisted of moving dressers, tables, a fax machine and phone and a fan. It was not bad.

With each of these items the house was vacuumed, dusted and as Sara likes to say "declutterized" (aka removal of clutter). Mom and I also ran out to Target to get those canvas shelves you hang in the closet to make it more organized. We even found some cute plastic tubs to put on the changing table to store diapers, wipes, etc in. Sara's friend Marilyn had come over Saturday to help hang some pictures. I must say that after looking at the room the other day it is really coming together and is really organized.

Now on to Sara's nesting. The girl is a CLEANING AND ORGANIZING MACHINE! I had come home the other day and found out that she had been sitting on the kitchen floor cleaning the cabinets. She has washed, folded, and arranged Claire's clothes at least 3 or 4 times. Everything on the changing table has been reorganized at least 6 times. Today she calls me and says she cleaned the fireplace. We have a large brick fireplace and she said she cleaned it with soap and water and a towel. I just received a text message from her and she said she just cleared out the dining room of all the clutter. I keep telling her she needs to take a break. She just does not listen very well. In my opinion, she is officially nesting.

Just to let everyone know she has been feeling really good. She looks great and is taking care of herself. We both are very excited for all the fun that may be around the corner. We really have no idea of what any plans are for Claire's birth but she is only 50 days away from full term. Many people in our group of family and friends have her giving birth before Thanksgiving or just there after. I would prefer we make it until December which is only 3 short weeks away. I want little Claire to be as strong and healthy as she can be. At this time we are still without a middle name. Sara is picking between a few that she likes. Nothing has really stuck yet. We continue to say our prayers and count our blessings every day. We thank God for getting us this far and ask him for his blessing to get us through the next many years of her life.

Tomorrow we are going to interview the pediatrician that we think we have picked out. Today, just to butter us up, they sent us a huge welcome packet. I actually thought that was pretty cool. Sara enjoyed it thoroughly.

I have a lot of pictures to put up. I have not even dove into a post about the the shower thrown for Sara by our family and friends. I have pictures of that to put up. That was a really fun day. I hope to get to that this Sunday. Also, Friday of this week, they are throwing a shower for us at work. I work with the nicest group of people and I thank them for all the support they have given to us through all of this.

Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We love you all!

Quick Update

Hi everyone. I have a lot of updating to do but I really have not had the time. I just wanted to let everyone know that Sara is feeling great. We had an ultrasound today and Claire was weighing in at 4lbs. 6ozs. She has gained just over a pound and a half in 3 weeks and 3 days. I have a lot of updates for the site and I will probably get to them this weekend. We send our love to all!

The Crib and Changing Table are Complete

Well today was a really fun day. Mom came and got me around 11 and we went on our search to get a changing table. I had many ideas on my mind. Maybe we could find an old dresser and refinish it. Or maybe find something interesting at Goodwill. Whatever the case I was ready to find something. Mom and I tried a flea market and this cool $99 store in Alpharetta full of many many interesting pieces of furniture. Seriously, if you live in the area you need to check this place out. It is across from the old Dairy Queen on Hwy 9.

Well we did not have any luck at either place. We went to Babies R Us to get the foot board for the crib. While Mom and I were eating lunch Mom made the suggestion we go to Ikea. Well that was a great idea because we found our changing table. Here are pictures of the changing table and the crib.

28 Week Ultrasound

Sara and I went to have the ultrasound on Friday and everything looked great. The doctor was very pleased with Sara's progress. Her cervix and placenta look great. Claire also looks great. They estimated that Claire is weighing in at 2lbs. 14ozs. During the ultrasound they were giving us a good look at her face. Sara and I were watching and Claire was opening and closing her eyes. We both noticed that but the nurse noticed that she was opening her mouth and sticking out her tongue. That sounds like a typical baby of mine. Here are a few pictures that we got.

Here is our Claire. You can see her eyes, nose, cheek, and lips.

This is one looking down at Claire.

28 Weeks Is Here!!!!!!!

Hello to everyone. I know it has been a while since I have last written anything. So many of our prayers have been answered during all of this. I am very happy that Sara and Claire have made it to 28 weeks. This was our next huge milestone and now I feel the sky is the limit. Sara had a doctors appointment today and everything went great. She has gained 5 pounds over the last two weeks and Sara and the baby are very healthy. Sara told the doctor of her back pains she was having and they checked her to see if she was having contractions and she was not. The doctor said just continue to take it easy. It is so neat! They also told Sara that the current plan is to induce her 7 - 10 days before she is due. Her due date is December 30th or 31st.

Claire has been moving around a lot. You can see her kicking through Sara's stomach. Last night it looked like she was tap dancing in her belly. It was hilarious. She has been moving more and more. I keep trying to talk to her and see if she might respond. Nothing yet but I am going to keep trying.

Our families have been great over the last few weeks. Mom bought us a beautiful crib. It is 85% put together because one of the pieces was not made properly so they had to order me a new piece. It looks really beautiful. We got a mattress, a beautiful stroller, and a rocking chair from Dad and Deb. They came over for dinner last Friday and it was very nice to have them over. Sara's Mom bought the cutest dress for Claire. I am pretty sure it is the first dress that we have. She will look so cute in it. Heather gave us a huge back of clothes for Claire. There are some adorable things in there. I keep finding new things to buy Claire. Old Navy had the cutest little outfit on sale online for $6 but I could not see paying $7 for shipping on it. So I decided to stop by the Old Navy in Woodstock and just my luck they had one left. It was on clearance for $3.80. I was so excited. It is really really cute. Sara and I appreciate all of it so much. I just can never seem to say thank you enough to everyone.

Well that is it for now. Sara has her 28 week ultrasound on Friday and that gives me an excuse to take a half day. Love to all from both of us!