Santa Belly

I think I could get a part-time job playing Santa Claus this season. What do you think?

 

Starting into week 29, it doesn't help that this time of year just flies by. Looking forward to just four days of work this week then a stretch of 10 days off!!! I'm hoping to take full advantage of what will be the last nice, long vacation before baby arrives. I'll be spending much of it in the house I grew up in which is always so special this time of year. Remembering so many Christmas's of years past, it's always fun to spend time with my siblings and now having growing families of our own. Mom always makes the house look so beautiful, we enjoy all her delicious Christmas cookies and candy while Dad starts a fire in the fireplace. There is really nothing like being home for the holidays.

The check off list is really winding down. We only have a few more classes left. Baby showers are scheduled, nursery is looking good and the diaper stash is growing! I found an awesome deal online a few weeks ago and had so much fun picking out all the cute colors and patterns for our baby girl. Check 'em out!

I worked on a small project this afternoon. Justin installed some roller shades in the nursery that work great to keep light out. I figure they will come in handy for afternoon naps. Anyway, they were pretty bland, so I did some stenciling on them today. What do you think?

Praying that all of you have a blessed and merry Christmas this week. Take time to remember why it is we celebrate in the first place. We have all been given a very special gift, that of a Savior that came to Earth as a sweet babe to rescue us. We are called to share that gift with those in our lives. I pray that this year we all would give Him the glory and praise He so rightly deserves!

Joy to the world, the LORD has come! Merry Christmas from the Klemsz's.

Preparation

Oh, how I love Thanksgiving! Beautiful food, delicious smells, naps in the recliner, football and added to my thankful list this year...stretchy maternity pants. : )

Justin and I had a great time visiting my family in Homer for a few days. We got our necessary Chick-fil-a buzz, spicy chicken sandwich and a delicious peppermint chocolate chip milkshake. Yum. No Black Friday deals for us, as I do our Christmas shopping pretty much all year round and had presents wrapped and under the tree before Thanksgiving. : )  Came back to Lincoln to celebrate with Justin's family - I will never complain of getting to have two Thanksgivings a year!

I really can't believe it is December already. Can you? I mean, this cold Nebraska winter wind is way too familiar it seems this year. There are only a few things I really like about winter 1) Christmas, 2) flannel sheets and 3) warm beverages (non-alcoholic this year of course ; )  But what can you do? Make sure to start your car at least 10 minutes before needing to leave the house and keep your fuzzy slippers close by.

Things have been busy on the preparing-for-baby front. Justin and I got trained in infant, child and adult CPR and started our "birth expectations" classes. We have learned (and witnessed) A LOT in the past couple weeks. I've been reading up and trying to get as educated and prepared as I can for D-day. That being said, the thing at the top of my list is to go with the flow and as prepared as I can try to make myself, I'm most importantly prepared for my "plans" to go out the window. As much as I'd love to have a natural, drug-free birth, I had the blessing of witnessing my sister go through labor and deliver my nephew, London. As much of a blessing as that was, I remember shortly after realizing to myself "yep, drugs are the way to go".  Now, being in my own situation, I've decided to prepare myself as best I could, learning and practicing my breathing patterns and having Justin practice giving me massages. ; )  We've been to three of these classes so far and I must say, each one has left me more and more confident in wanting a natural birth. That being said, remember what was at the top of my list? Yeah, allowing my plan to go out the window if I needed it to.

So you moms out there, I don't ask for you to convince me one way or another (please), but I'd love to hear your comments on what you chose or maybe were forced to do when you had your babies. Are you glad you went one way or the other? What do you remember most? What was hard and what was easy? No gory details please, just an experience that you wouldn't mind sharing.

Hope this post finds you all in a happy, healthy spirit for the season. Blessings to you all!

Letter to my daughter...

Though you haven't yet a name, my love for you is more than I could ever have imagined. Though I haven't seen your face, or felt your soft skin, my heart swells and my face smiles at the thought of you. I feel you moving, dancing I like to imagine, in my belly as I sit down to write this. You are with me always and I thank God everyday for the miracle that is you.

Your daddy and I are smitten. We love to feel you move inside me. Your dad likes to talk to you and always wants to know how you are doing. We have your pictures on the refrigerator. I thumb through them often, staring in awe and wonder, anxious for the day we get to meet you.

I pray for you. So many dreams I have for you, I pray for God's guidance and strength. For you and for me. I've wanted my whole life to be a mommy. Throughout my years, I know this feeling of happiness and love is undeserved. But we have a Gracious God, who has allowed us to share this love. A love that He first showed us.

So many thoughts run through my head through my days and nights. Wondering. Overjoyed. Awed. I'm not worried or scared. God is with me and I am trusting Him to help me be the best mom I can. I know it won't be easy. I ask for your patience with me. I've played out in my head so many things. Giving you a bath. Changing your diaper. Nursing you. Laughing with you. Rocking and singing you to sleep. Oh, how I can't wait to hold you and sing you to sleep. To smell you.

Your room is getting ready for you. I hope you like it. Your daddy has worked hard getting it just the way I want it. : )  I stop by the doorway many times everyday and just stare. Daydreaming of what life will be like with you here. 

I need you to know how much your daddy and I love you. You are an answer to our prayers. We are so excited for the amazing change that is about to take place in our lives in the next months. We are proud, blessed, overjoyed to call you ours. We love you more than we can even understand.

Love...Your Mommy

It's a......

Wow, what a long and busy day! Work was full of meetings and deadlines, had to grab dinner on the run, did some consignment shopping, and went to Bible study. Seems like there was something I was going to tell you all today, but I can't put my finger on it...; )

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Ok, ok. I have a confession to make. We actually had our ultrasound yesterday morning but had to wait to spill the beans till tonight because I had to wait until Grandma and Grandpa Holgate received these in the mail today...

Yes that's pink folks. Baby Klemsz is a girl! The ultrasound went great. I can't even describe how amazing it was to see every little part of her on that screen. I didn't want it to end. It's hard to believe as long as all continues to go well, I won't "see" her again till she's really her, in our arms. The doctor got some great shots that I just can't stop oooing and ahhhing over.

 

Baby girl

Kinda freaky, but you can see her face on the right looking right at you.

She cooperated very well for us to see that she was all gir!

Baby foot (measures in right now at about an inch and a half)

Leg

Arm

Spine

I'm so amazed at the detail on these ones. 

We did get to share the news with Justin's family in person last night. We all enjoyed biting into some cupcakes to see what color (pink or blue) was inside!

Needless to say, the past couple days have been very exciting! Justin and I are so extremely relieved that everything looks healthy and to top it off, we are having a baby girl. Absolutely precious. God will never cease to amaze me by His creation. As each milestone comes, everything is becoming more and more real to us and we could not be more happy, excited, blessed, to be having this experience and to be able to have so much family and friends to share in it with us. We love you all.

Voodoo Magic

So a week long vacation to Atlanta and Savannah Georgia was a fantastic idea and a success! My lovely sisters live way down south so it is always a treat to get to spend time with them. I flew down with my Mom (thanks for the first class seats, Tami!) and we had a fun (exhausting) time with the girls and of course with my almost-three-year-old nephew, London. What. A. Hoot.

Lovely ladies at the beach (Tybee Island)

 

Baby belly at the ocean.

London as "Buzz Lightyear" for trick or treating.

 

My sister, Jessica, is known to have some kind of voodoo magic/gypsy power to determine the sex of a baby while still in the womb. She has a near perfect record; don't ask me how (don't even ask her how, she doesn't know) but she did try it on my belly last week while I was staying with her. We'll see if she is right or not, but here's video of the result she came up with...

Check back tomorrow for the actual results...

Coming out...

It's official. 

I'm an outie. 

Exciting stuff around here these days! We've got belly buttons popping out, baby moving around in there and Justin trying on a sling (I wish I had a picture to prove it!). Oh, and today is the official "half-way" mark. Whew! I really can't believe how fast this is all moving.

My grand to-do list is coming along nicely. We've registered for several baby prepping classes (it's starting to really hit us that we have so much to learn still). We attended "Baby Wearing 101" last week, where Justin tried on a Maya Sling. If any of you readers out there have any advice/recommendations, I welcome them. I'm pretty sure on a Moby Wrap, but the ring sling was great, too. (And Justin looked so great wearing that thing!) I'm so excited about "wearing my baby". So many wonderful benefits I've read and heard about I just can't wait to try it out and get to have my baby close by me for much of the day. "Diaper Up!" is up this weekend. I'm really excited (yes, folks, EXCITED) to try out cloth diapers. Don't even think about trying to talk me out of it either. I'm going to give it my best and have a really great feeling about it. (Margie - I found a great online deal earlier this week that was buy one get one free for some FuzziBunz cloth diapers, so I ordered a couple with your shower gift money. I have plenty leftover too, so I'll keep you posted on what else I find!)

We had a check up earlier this week. It was fun to have a Grandma there to hear her Grand-baby's heartbeat for the first time. Other Grandmas (and Grandpas), see video below. (Note: you might have to turn up the volume a little more.)

Watching and listening to this makes me so incredibly happy. Each time I am reminded of how absolutely awesome God has made this process of creation. It gets me so excited for when I get to hold that soul in my arms for the first time. Speaking of excitement, in two weeks we go in for our next ultrasound and hopefully get to find out whether we have a boy or girl bouncing around in there. So. Freakin. Excited!

Just call me the "Queen of the Deals"

Ok, ok. I've been a horrible blogger lately. I'm sorry. All my shows started last month and I somehow have accumulated one pretty much every weekday. House, Glee, Modern Family and Fringe. I recommend them all!  And I don't know if I've mentioned it yet, but we got this new glider/recliner chair and I'm in love with it! The minute I sit down, I'm not moving till it's time for bed, or when I have to go to the bathroom ; )

Anywho, so week 18 is coming to an end. I'm sorry, what? That's like almost half way! Yippee! As well as my second trimester has been treating me, I'm just so darn excited to meet the little one. Belly is continuing to expand and I couldn't be happier. My appointment a couple weeks back went well. Baby's heartbeat was 153. I'm now anxiously waiting for the next milestone...feeling the baby move. I don't know what to expect at all but they tell me I'll know when it starts. Also, about a month from now we'll have our ultrasound to see what flavor we are having. Definitely excited for that!

So, the past few weeks I've also been busy finding some sweeeeet deals! Neat Repeatz is this awesome consignment sale I heard about from a friend at church. Basically, a couple times a year, they set up this store of used baby and children's stuff to buy. It was amazing! I bought some maternity cloths for myself for pennies on the dollar of what I would have had to spend brand new. I was most excited about finding the bedding for the nursery! I came across a great pattern with colors that will work for a girl or a boy and it will match perfectly with the color the nursery is already painted! AND it was still in the packaging, AND guess how great of a deal I got on it??  Well, I found the exact bedding still available to purchase online and it was $200 plus the set I found at Neat Repeatz came with the matching mobile which sells for $40. I got both for $80.00!!!  Seriously, I have a gift people. Check out what it looks like here! I put together this gigantic "to do" list that I'd like to have done b.b.a. (before baby arrives!) Carpet cleaning is one of those and I get to check it off tomorrow! Then we'll be ready to start putting the nursery together! So excited! 

Wait, there's more. Quite possibly THE BEST deal I'll come across in my preparing for baby journey! Circle ME is another great little baby boutique that I came across. They offer FREE educational classes, a couple I attended were "Cloth Diapering 101" and "Baby Wearing 101". They too had a consignment sale last weekend that Justin and I took advantage of. We picked up, get this, a bulk package, 288 to be exact, of nursing pads for, wait for it....$5.00!  Can you believe it! I had to see for myself what and incredible deal this was so when we were at Target, we stopped by the baby section and saw you could by a box of 36 for over $5. Sweet deal...confirmed. Justin was such a trooper. I made him carry the box around for me while I continued to shop.

So that's what we've been up to! I want to send a shout out to all the wonderful friends and family who read this blog. It's so encouraging to hear your comments and your own stories. Many of you have been in our prayers. God continues to reveal to me how He's been working in our lives. We love you!