Your Life Will Never Be The Same

These words, or some variation of these words, echo in my mind. Could this be because I hear them every single day? Your life will never be the same again. Your life is about to change forever. Children are the best and worst thing that will ever happen to you. And the charming advice goes on. While I realize that we are about to have an atomic bomb dropped directly on our perfect lives, I can't help but to hope and pray that some things never change.

I never want to have to forget how much we laugh. Every single day. There has never been a time that we have gone out to eat when Paul hasn't made me laugh hysterically. Usually it is just from him making a funny face or speaking in a funny voice over and over again. Oh the things he does to make me laugh. Like we will be sitting next to an old lady at a stop light who is creeping up on the red light and Paul will randomly peel out of the intersection like it's a race. That makes me almost pee myself. Or he will stand Griffin up on his hind legs and perform a song and dance just for me. It's not witty or sarcastic humor; it's just plain goofy humor. We are on the same wavelength. Have you ever heard the song "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds? It's a really serious love song about one of his many wives, but we tend get a kick out of the song by imagining Griffin at the piano singing the lyrics about us. And for one reason or another, Paul finds me to be particularly amusing at times. Chloe, maybe someday I'll perform my dance to Taylor Swift's "Love Story." Daddy finds this to be quite comical. I think that all of the goofy, insane things we do to make each other laugh are what ultimately keep us grounded, and I look forward to hearing even more laughter in our home as the years pass.


Most of all I pray that my love for Paul only goes stronger. I am confident that he is going to be a wonderful daddy. I can see him outside raking leaves into big piles for Chloe and giving her piggy back rides. She'll have him wrapped around her finger in no time. I love Paul more for loving Griffin the way I do, and his love for Chloe already melts my heart!

Giving Thanks

For all of the mental haziness pregnancy has presented in my daily life, it has created boundless clarity of God's mighty blessings on our family. God has given me the opportunity to help create a human life, and I feel closer to Him than ever. How many times in life are we given the opportunity to do something so awesome? Besides Chloe, this family has so much to be thankful for this holiday season. After spending his first few weeks of life in the hospital, our newest nephew Henry (Hank) Arthur McIvor returned home a happy, healthy baby just in time for Thanksgiving. As you can see, he is the perfect blend of Sophia and Emma.

We cannot wait to meet this little guy!

God has also blessed us with the most amazing family and group of friends. This past weekend we had two baby showers where we received nearly every single item on our registry and more. My mom's shower was first at 11:00 am at The Junction of Hope Restaurant. We had salad bar, sandwiches, and cake. We also passed out adorable, delicious pink and white elephant cookies. My mom made an amazing diaper cake (which Oli thought would probably taste a little poopy). I had so much fun opening the presents. If we weren't sure of her name before our showers she is definitely Chloe now, because Drew and Shantel bought Chloe a cute little green and white, polka-dot chair embroidered with her name. Mom made us an endless supply of burp cloths and bibs in addition to a couple of receiving blankets and warm blankets with silkies on the edge at Paul's request. She even bought the digital monitor that Paul so desperately wanted. My aunts all went in on our travel system. Here are a few photos from the shower.




Kendra, Bobby Kay, and Bob's sisters threw a fancy shower at Kendra's house at 3:00. It was a french country theme and everything from the invitations to the food was absolutely perfect. We had cheese soup, brisket, rosemary potatoes, green beans, and a host of fancy hors d'oeuvres and desserts. At this shower we received quite a few thoughtful gifts including the changing table I mentioned in a previous post, a handmade quilt, and homemade cards from Oli, Ave, and Tay. Additionally, we received a package full of odds and ends Tay found around the house (including a Leapster cartridge) and hand wrapped herself (It turns out that we had to give it all back, but hey, it's the thought!). Here are a few photos from the shower.

First Baby Shower

On November 14, Kelly and Julie threw a perfect, pink and green, elephant themed baby shower for me and Chloe. It was the most beautiful shower ever and we felt so spoiled! The menu included homemade salads, soup, and fresh fruit. For dessert we had an elephant cake and cake suckers. Here are a few pictures.

The dessert table. I held the cake up just like you taught me, mom.

This is the clothesline full of goodies from our registry (plus some!)

Kelly had these blocks made just for Chloe!

A few more decorations including a pink elephant Kelly found on her vacation and a picture frame with Chloe's ultrasound picture.


We ate, opened gifts, and talked about the upcoming labor and delivery. Thankfully, only Kylee had a war story to tell, although I have to say that 3.5 hours of pushing a 10+ pound baby after her epidural wore off is quite the frightening war story. We received a lot of nice presents including our Pack and Play, Diaper Genie, bottles, receiving blankets, thermometer, and more. Sara's dog Lola bought Chloe a pair of Nike's, a tutu dress, Mary Jane socks, and a onesie that reads "Cute, petite female seeks intelligent male with full piggybank. Must enjoy finger painting and stuffed animals." I was also really excited to receive our baby wipe warmer. I know what you are thinking. I realize that a wipe warmer is probably a bit over the top in terms of a spoiled baby, but you have to realize that our home was built in 1926 and the wipes would be served up just shy of freezing if we didn't use a wipe warmer!

Paul and I had a lot of fun this weekend sorting through and organizing all of our great presents. I think next weekend will be pretty overwhelming with two showers in a row, but we are really excited to see all of our friends and family!

27 Week Update

Back by popular demand (okay back by Kellie's demand) I have a new baby bump picture. I have decided that now that my belly is getting big I can no longer afford to take the photo before bed in my sweats. While I don't have any stretch marks yet (please pray that continues to be the case), I do feel that the belly is much cuter while clothed! I have to say that over the past week my belly really "popped" again. I came back from Indianapolis and was shocked to see that I could finally fit into most of the maternity shirts I bought. So here is my 27 week shot.



Chloe is doing well and is getting enough exercise flipping and flopping around. Some days I can feel her kicks deeper in my tummy and then other days you can see her bouncing around very clearly through my shirt. I'm not sure that I am in tune enough to figure out her schedule, though I do know always notice her right when I wake up, right after I eat, and right before bed. She kicks randomly throughout the day, but I usually don't notice anymore.

Paul worked on the nursery while I was gone and it is really looking beautiful. I think I'll wait until after I get the rug and changing table in there to post a picture. I love it so much and I love to just go sit in there. I catch Paul brushing his teeth in there and peeking in every now and then, too.

I took the gestational diabetes test on Monday morning. The drink was pretty disgusting like everyone said it would be. The worst part about the test was sitting in the waiting room for an hour. The people were coming out of the woodwork. I have never seen such a collection of people. The guy who sat next to me smelled like he hadn't showered for weeks, and you could see the swine flu just running around high fiving people. Ick. I'm glad it's over! I am supposed to receive a phone call sometime this week or next week if there are bad results. Otherwise, we go over the test results on my next appointment.

Kelly and Julie's "friends" shower is this Saturday and I am super excited! I have a feeling that Kel has been working Jules to the bone. I know it will be the most beautiful shower I have ever seen. Is it Saturday, yet?

The Planning Stages

Ever since we found out we are having a baby girl we have been more excited than ever. We always talk about how we can't wait to meet Chloe! We are obviously not quite ready for her to arrive yet, but we have been channeling our excitement by planning. Immediately after we found out the sex of the baby we went to Babies R Us to pick out a pink outfit. While we were there we decided to start our registry. My mom helped us by finding most of the things Drew and Shantel put on their registry. We went back the next day to add a few things we forgot. When we were done the lady at the counter told us that we only had 85 items and most people have over 150. I thought we already picked out too much stuff for one little baby. Here is a link to our registry. Babies"R"Us - Baby Registry

The next thing we picked out was the crib bedding. We couldn't find anything we liked at Babies R Us, so we picked up a JCPenney Catalog. I am obsessed with elephants and I really wanted elephant bedding. Paul was set on having a pink and green nursery. As luck would have it we found pink and green elephant bedding!


We ordered a four piece bedding set, a diaper changer, mobile, and two window valances. It turns out that Chloe has the luck of the Reiber's and we received a six piece bedding set that included a diaper changer and valance. So we got to take the window valance and diaper changer back!

We are going to paint the walls a sage green color since I refuse to have a pink wall in the house. Paul had the idea to paint a light pink border. He has this whole vision and I'm going to let him run with it (if only because it can be painted over in case it looks bad). We are picking out the paint this week and he is going to paint the room while I am in Indianapolis next week.

We also ordered a crib, which should be here any day now. It is a cherry colored convertible crib. Once we get the crib then we can pick out stain to match our dresser and diaper changing table to the crib. Paul is in the process of sanding down my mom's old dresser. It is a nice solid wood dresser with cute little wavy handles, and I thought it would be perfect for the nursery.

We are very blessed to know some of the kindest people in the world. We were having some trouble finding a diaper changing table. Most people use their dresser as a two-in-one, but our dresser is too tall for me at 5'2'', and we didn't want to buy a dresser/diaper changer when we already had a nice dresser. We were almost able to borrow Kendra's old diaper changer, but it has since been passed down. When Kendra's mother-in-law, Marie, found out that we were looking for a diaper changing table she offered to find one at a consignment shop, strip it, and refinish it to match the crib as a shower gift. I think you would have to be crazy to turn down a kind offer like that. She has already found a nice hardwood diaper changer and probably had it stripped down the day she found it. We will just need a nice soft rug and a glider to finish off the furniture in the room.

We are also very blessed to have three baby showers being thrown for us! My friends Kelly and Julie are planning a "friends" shower on November 14. My mom and Kendra have showers planned for me on November 21. The baby showers are going to be a million times more fun than my bridal shower. We can't wait to get all of our baby stuff!

Baby Names

To say people are "funny" about baby names is an understatement. I know people who refuse to tell you their baby name in fear that you will steal it or dislike it. There are people who honestly don't have a clue what the name will be until the baby is born, and then there are people who will tell you every name they have ever imagined. I always thought that I would be one of the secretive types, but as it turns out, I enjoy talking about anything baby, and that includes baby names.

I have always had two names I liked for a girl. In high school I loved the name Chloe and I can vividly remember telling Paul that someday we would get married and have a baby girl named Chloe (We were the only ones who thought we'd make it this far!). Then in college I fell in love with the name Eliana, or Ellie for short. When we first found out I was pregnant I looked up the meaning of both names. Eliana meant "The Lord answers our prayers." I thought that was the coolest thing in the world, and I was even more sure we were going to have a baby girl. Lately, though, I have been thinking more about both names. When it comes to Eliana I envision a really well behaved, proper, brunette. But I just see our daughter having wild, curly, blond hair with a big Kool Aid mustache, and to me Chloe just fits her better. So after we found out baby girl was a girl we started calling her Chloe.

I do realize that this is both a popular human and dog name. I do know three dogs by the name of Chloe, but they are nice dogs and so the name doesn't have a negative connotation for me :o) Chloe is also the 10th most popular baby name. I never wanted to pick a popular name because I have five close friends and relatives named Kelly. I don't want her to have to be Chloe T. or Chloe #5 or anything like that when she goes to school. So do me a favor when the next person tells you they are thinking of the name Chloe and do that weird, slow head nod thing with a really slow, high pitched "ooooh, I like that" that so obviously means you hate it. Chloe will be eternally grateful!

Ultrasound

In the beginning of the ultrasound baby girl was squished by my full bladder and she wasn't moving around very much. The tech asked me to go to the bathroom to see if we could get her to move around a little more. Sure enough when I came back baby was kicking, stretching, and somersaulting. It was really cool to be able to see her movements on the screen at the same time I could feel them in my belly. She had her legs completely stretched out! Overall, the ultrasound was a success. The doctor said that baby was really photogenic. The doctor found all of the body parts she was looking for and said that hundreds of diseases and birth defects could be ruled out from the results of the ultrasound. Paul knows most of the exact measurements by heart. For example, her leg was 3.44 centimeters, which is about how long her whole body was at week 11. She was 14 ounces and was the size of a small baby doll. We were right on track at about 21 weeks and our due date is still February 10. Here is a blurry pic, but you get the idea.


My neighbor recently noticed that my belly has seemed to "pop." At first I didn't really agree, but I guess lately I have noticed a bit of a belly. I still think that you would have to be very brave stranger to inquire about my due date. I can still hide the bump pretty well if I try, but it does seem to take great effort. When Paul took this 22 week picture I had to laugh when I realized just how much of a belly I have compared to a few weeks ago.


It doesn't really surprise me that my belly is getting so big all of a sudden because it is growing in direct proportion to the strength of baby's kicks. She kicks like a madwoman and it has been really frustrating to me that Paul can't feel it. Last week I was working at my computer when all of a sudden the kicking got out of control. I looked down and my belly was visibly bouncing around. I tried to record it on my phone, but it didn't show up well enough. I wanted Paul to be able to see it! Finally, on the anniversary of week 22, as we got in bed bed baby started kicking up a storm. I told Paul to look and he was in shock. His face lit up and I knew that he could FINALLY see it! He gave her a kiss and she kicked his lips and he felt that, too. It was so much fun to finally be able to share the experience with Paul. He is such a proud daddy!