Belly week 36

That's my momma's hand on my crazy belly. :)

Dilated!

Monday I had an appointment with midwife Julie and she ran the Group B Strep test on me. I don't know what the results are yet, but I guess if I'm positive for the infection, I have to have antibiotics during labor.

That's not the cool news, though. Julie wasn't initially going to check me to see if I'm dilated because I'm only 36 weeks, but I was curious and she is sweet so she did and I am!!!

I'm 1 cm dilated and 90 percent effaced, which means that my cervix is 90 percent thinned. Read about effacement and dilation here.

Also, Eleanor's head is apparently quite low. It actually surprised Julie how low she is in my uterus. My mom aptly (and hilariously) pointed out that I'm now sitting on my baby's head. Thanks mom!

Julie guessed that I won't make it to 40 weeks. I hope she's right. I'm ready, I think. I'd like Julie to be on call when I go into labor, though, and apparently she's not on the schedule next week so hopefully Ellie holds out for another week, but I guess she'll come when she wants to so I need to just go with the flow.

So, baby time is fast approaching. How exciting!

Momma G is coming into town tomorrow. We're going to focus our energy on completing the nursery and cleaning the house. I can't wait to hug her!

xoxoL

Ayden Emeth is here!

Congratulations to Rebecca and Breeze! He's a beautiful baby.

Something cute for the weekend

Her clothes are washed and put away and her crib is made up (picture soon I promise). Come see us soon, Ellie!

The story of our glider

I just have to share the story of the great deal I got on our nursery glider yesterday.

A nursery glider is a hybrid of the classic rocking chair and the porch glider. It smoothly glides back and forth on a track and is usually covered with soft padding and fabric. The nursery glider specifically is used in nurseries to lull babies to sleep and to keep them as well as moms and dads comfy during feedings.

So, I went to Babies R Us yesterday and sat in a bunch of gliders. These things range in price from about $200 into the thousands of dollars! The one I liked (and that was within the imaginary budget I had in my head) was $299, but the floor colors were just awful. I asked the saleswoman to check on the store's Web site to see if other colors in the make and model I liked were available. She found this one.

Because all of our nursery furniture is white and because I suspect we'll have this glider for our next baby, I thought a white wood glider with a gender neutral fabric color would work perfectly.

The delivery cost was a whopping $100 so I asked the saleswoman what she could do for me. She said she'd have the glider delivered to the store and the store would deliver it to our home at no extra cost. She then fished out a $75 off coupon, bringing the cost of the glider down to $224.

Finally, I had six gift cards given to me over two baby showers that I wanted to apply to this one purchase. Apparently, the Babies R Us site doesn't let you use more than five gift cards on one purchase so the super nice saleswoman combined two cards into one and used all of them.

The total I had to pay for my almost $300 glider? Just under $60! I was so giddy.

The lady who sold me the glider was so sweet and so helpful. She could have easily told me there was nothing she could do about the shipping cost or decided she didn't want to go the extra mile and combine those gift cards for me. She certainly didn't have to find a coupon for me to use. But she did all of that and I'm so thankful for it.

This experience made my day!

Preggo on the job

I thought everyone would get a kick out of this:














I was interviewing the outgoing colonel of the 198th Infantry Brigade. It was very hot outside especially on that strip of asphalt.

Thanks to Lillie B. for giving me that cute maternity dress!

xoxoL

Columbus baby shower invites

These are so cute. The picture doesn't do it justice, really.

Thanks Dawn and Anne!

I also feel I should mention that the theme of the party is reading and all guests were asked to bring a children's book with a personal message written inside. Isn't that a cute idea?

Eleanor is going to be a very well read child.

Putting together the changing table

This is Morgan preparing to put together the baby's changing table/dresser. Notice his cute "Ranger panties."

I'll post a picture of the finished product later.

Ellie Brooke Gillespie is here!

She's a little early, but Ellie Brooke -- daughter of my good friends Pat and Erin Gillespie -- arrived yesterday.

Here's what Erin said via Facebook:

"Preeclampsia led to emergency csection. Ellie's only 32 weeks, 3 lbs and 4 oz, healthy and beautiful. Please keep her in your prayers."

Congratulations to the new parents! I guess I'm next.

I've got a new gig, but I'm still blogging here

Recently I signed up and was accepted to be a blogger for Gather.com.

To find my stuff, just look up Lily Cox. Mostly what you'll see is my take on meaningless celebrity news, but that's what people want to read these days so that's what I write about.

Some good news: Morgan has just about finished the baby's room and it looks precious. The pictures don't do it justice, but what you're seeing is a very light pink on top of a white strip of chair rail and a darker shade of pink below it.


I hope tonight to take a stab at putting together the changing table. The crib should arrive July 7.

My mom will be in town the last weekend of this month so she'll help me with other design elements such as curtains and where to hang pictures. I can't wait to see the finished product.

xoxoL