My Favorite Things...

So my friend Beth does a "Favorite Things" blog every now and then and I LOVE it... so here is my version

These are a few of my favorite things...

Chapstick- I am ADDICTED to chapstick!!!... no really~ A-D-D-I-C-T-E-D!!... I have to have something on my lips at all times or I will freak out! I literally have about 30 different tubes/pots of chapstick hidden throughout the house in drawers, in purses, and make-up bags so one is never too far away. A few of my all time favorite brands are...

Rosebud Salve~ (retails for $6) Can be found at Sephora, Cosmetic Market, or other make-up specialty stores. This stuff is awesome! I normally don't like putting my fingers in stuff to apply it, but this is the one I keep close to me when I'm at home. Its been around since the 1800's and not only do I use it on my lips, but I use it on my cuticles too... the packaging says it can also be used on blemishes, burns, & diaper rash...Jane Mineral Lip Balm~ (retails for about $4) I get this at Walgreens... comes in several different colors, but my favorites are Toffee & Pink Quartz. Its tinted and leaves just a little hint of color on your lips and is totally moisturizing! I use this every day at work, alone or under lipstick... I heard these were getting discontinued :( so whenever I find them, I buy a few to try & stock up! :)

Aprons- I LOVE girlie, feminie, vintage-inspired aprons! I've been collecting them for over 3 years now!... kinda strange maybe, but its my thing... I have everyday aprons I wear when I cook and special "Holiday" or "Hostess" aprons for different occasions :) ... If you are a good girlfriend of mine & are getting married, you will probably get an apron from me as part of your bridal shower gift because its my favorite thing to give brides-to-be... My absolute favorite apron designer is Jesse Steele (yes- I have a favorite apron designer!)...

Jesse Steele Aprons~ (retails for around $30-40) I get most of mine online on Ebay but can also be found at boutique stores around Nashville like The Dotted Line, Social Graces or Anthropologie... Here are a few pics of the ones in my collection :)

** These also come in matching child-sizes so you know Baby Anniston will have some to match mommy when she is old enough!!... I CAN'T WAIT!! Its gonna be so cute I might die! :)**

Reusable Grocery Bags- Okay folks... get with the times... "GREEN IS THE NEW BLACK"... if you're not taking your own reuseable bags to the grocery store then we can't be friends anymore!!! >=[ ... Seriously!... Shame on you! According to reusablebags.com, over 1 MILLION plastic bags are used EVERY MINUTE!!!! That comes out to 1 TRILLION (that's trillion with a "T") plastic bags consumed worldwide!! Plastic bags do not biodegrade so they end up in our landfills and in our oceans! When a plastic bag breaks down, it breaks down into smaller and smaller toxic pieces that end up contaminating our soil & water... Plus, a reusable bag holds so much more than a regular plastic bag. You could probably fit the things that would go in 3-4 plastic bags into 1 reusable bag! And if you need even more convincing, some grocery stores even give you a small discount off your grocery bill for every reusable bag you bring in!... That's all I'll preach about that for now...

Whole Foods Reusable Bags~ (retails for $0.99) I get mine at Whole Foods Market because they will replace them if they tear & they also have different styles... This one below is designed by Sheryl Crow and is made from recycled plastic water bottles...

And last by not least of my favorite things is...

my iPhone 3G - (retails for $199) Sold at the Apple store & AT&T cellular stores... {I have a confession.. "Hello. My name is Jayne, and I am an iPhone Snob"}... So I never thought a cell phone could change my life so much! Crazy to say, but SO true! This phone is GENIUS and Steve Jobs (CEO & co-founder of Apple) is my hero!!! I think only the people that have iPhones understand the addiction and see where I'm coming from- we should have some kind of support group!... Sweet Wormie is the one that talked me into getting the iPhone. (He bought it for me as a graduation gift) I originally planned on getting a Blackberry instead, but I'm so glad he made me see the light!... and sorry- but no other phone compares! (there are many iPhone imitators, but the others just don't match up!)... The Apps that you can download are endless!! This phone can do it all- it shouldn't even be referred to as just a "phone"!! Plus, the service & support that you get at the Apple store is unbeatable! Love it!!...
That's it for now, but stay tuned for "My Favorite Things: Kitchen Edition" and "My Favorite Things: Health & Beauty Edition" coming soon!!! :)

My doctor's appointment...

Well my doctor's appt went well yesterday... for the most part.


We started out with getting an ultra sound to check Little Baby Anniston's heart rate, bladder, weight, etc. and to check my cervix, placenta, & uterus. Then we saw the doctor for my regular 2 week check-up & for him to go over the ultra sound with us. The doctor was very pleased with the way things were looking and how Baby Anniston was progressing. He said she weighs just a little over 2lbs now and is in the 50th percentile... :) so everything is right on track & she's doing perfect! (the extra 38lbs I've put on must be all her "accessories & purses" as Wormie & I like to think of it :)


Anyhoo... I have been having some really bad menstrual-like cramps for the past few days or so and told the dr about that... he said that I needed to start keeping track of how long they last and how far apart they are... he said the cramping is normal, but if they get to where they are 5 minutes apart or last longer than an hour, then he wants me to go straight to labor & delivery & he would meet me there! WOW!... that really scared me!... I'm only 6 1/2 months preggers so it was just a shock that he said that...


**SIDE NOTE** For those that don't know, I have to see my dr every 2 weeks (instead of every month like normal pregnant moms) because I have a bicornuate uterus... which means my uterus is mis-shapped. A normal uterus is shaped kinda like a balloon, but mine is more heart-shaped... which puts me at risk for preterm labor, cervical insufficiency, late-term miscarriages, as well as the baby being breached at time of birth which means I'll probably have to have a C-section... On the bright side, we found out about my uterus a long time ago during an ultra sound I had for a car accident Jeremy & I were in, so from the very beginning of my pregnancy the dr was aware of it & has been able to keep a close eye on me, which has been such a blessing... there are also lots of women who have this issue and go on to have completely healthy pregnancies... we just have to be really cautious and pay close attention to how my body is feeling...

Anyhoo... so the dr tells me this about going straight to labor & delivery if my cramps/contractions get to this point and he would run some tests to see if I am in preterm labor. If that's the case, he said he might be able to delay it and the next step would be to put me on steroids to help Baby Anniston's lungs develop faster in case we wouldn't be able to delay her birth any longer...so here we are... I'M TERRIFIED!!! <=[... which is a good thing for me, because I have a tendency of disregarding the way I feel because I don't want to make a big deal about it...

I've kept a log today of all my cramps and there really hasn't been a pattern so that's good! I've noticed they usually come on when I'm standing or walking so I've been getting them a lot during work- which makes for a really crappy day at work! :( ... The dr said to take it easy and just be careful because uncomfortable positions, standing, walking, and bending over tend to bring it on... When I'm at home, I'm normally fine because I can sit with my feet up and Sweet Wormie takes care of us :) ...[he's making us dinner right now as I blog!... I JUST LOVE HIM TO PIECES!!]...

Everyone please just pray for us as we go throughout this pregnancy!

In other bad news- Baby girl Anniston wasn't really in the mood for pictures yesterday at her photo shoot {errr- I mean ultra sound}... she had her little arm covering her sweet face for most of the time so we couldn't get a good picture yesterday... She must have had a bad hair day or something... Oh well...

To end this blog on a bright note... Sweet Wormie took me and Baby Anniston for a cherry coke Icee and a Slim Jim after the dr so that made me & baby happy! :)... it's the little things...

Memorial Day weekend & Nursery Update...

Well Sweet Wormie & I had a busy Memorial Day Weekend...

We spent all day & night Saturday and half the day Sunday watching our 18 month old nephew, Owen. We have watched him a couple times before while Chris & Melissa went out to dinner, but this was our first overnight with him. We were really excited about getting to spend time with him and especially excited about getting some practice in for our little princess on the way.

Honestly, Owen is such an angel... EXTREMELY active, but still a little angel! He is such a good boy & we had a fun time with him, but boy was it a wake-up call for how hard & tiring it can be! (Thank GOD for nap time! :) Here are a few pics from our time with the "Owenator"...

This little boy LOVES being outside!

One of these boys let a little "bottom burp" slip :)... You can tell in the picture Owen didn't appreciate it too much! HA :)

I just love this... you can tell Owen has been hanging with "Uncle Wormie" a little too long... he's got his "collar popped" on his little polo shirt and is cleaning EVERYTHING!!!... Jeremy was SO proud! He followed Owen around with his iPhone and took 30 pictures I think!...

Jeremy pushed him around like this forever! I got tired just watching the two of them... Jeremy had sound effects & everything!...

Somebody cleaned his plate! What a good little eater he is!...

Our time with Owen also made me see even more what great a father Jeremy is going to be! He just loves spending time with Owen and is so good with him it just melts my heart! He even changed ALL the diapers- even the poopy ones!! Man, is this guy a keeper or what! :)

Nursery Update:

When we got home from our time with Owen, Jeremy continued to work on the nursery... Since my last update, Jeremy finished painting the walls.

His brother, Chris (aka Bob Vila), came over on Monday and they installed the chair rail...

As I type, Sweet Wormie is upstairs putting the final coats of paint on the chair rail and doing some final touch-ups on the walls... It looks AMAZING in there!!! I can't wait for it to be done! Every time I go in her room, I just get so excited. I absolutely LOVE the wall colors! It's so cheery! :)... I just want to get all her furniture and bedding in and sit in her rocker and just wait for her little arrival!!

I'll post some more pics of the finished walls soon... Wormie should have it all done by tonight...

We also ordered her crib and curtains so those should be arriving in the next week or two... Chris and Jeremy are also going to start working on the built-in we have planned for in there. So things are just moving right along...

Anyhoo... I have a doctor's appt tomorrow with an ultrasound, so I'll be sure to let you all know how that goes and post some more pics of Little Baby Anniston...

The story of the strudel trap & the stupid man...

So earlier this week I'm running late to work (as usual) trying to make it out of the house in the morning... I've got my purse & lunch box on my shoulder, a plate of strawberry Toaster Strudels in one hand and a Yoo Hoo in the other (yes, this pregnancy has brought on an unusual craving for Yoo Hoos!!)... anyhoo... I'm in the garage, making my way to the passanger side of my car to load my stuff in, when low and behold the HUGE golfing net my Sweet Wormie has propped against the garage wall FALLS ON TOP OF ME & BABY ANNISTON- trapping us against my car!!!! (no this was not the 1st time this has happened to me-sadly!) ... I was like a cagged rhino... I couldn't get out of there- and I was NOT letting go of the strudels or the Yoo Hoo to make it out!!! For a split second, I had a vision of me giving up the fight and just sitting down on the garage floor to have our breakfast, but eventually, while wrestling with the net, I droppped one of my toaster strudels on the garage floor!! {grrr!}>=[ I WAS SO FURIOUS!!! (not at me for being clumsy and bumping into the net-but angry at my husband for putting it there- of course!)... anyhoo, after the strudel dropped on the floor, I just stared at it contemplating my next move... (pre-pregnancy, I would have thrown them away and gone without breakfast for the morning, but we had to think about Little Baby Anniston! She can't live on Yoo Hoos alone!) By this time, I had past the "10-second rule" and ended up picking it up anyway and putting it back on the plate after I dusted the bottom off... THANK GOD it landed icing-side up! The other strudel was fine. There was a little icing that got stuck on the net, but it was still edible without question!

I finally made it out of there alive and was on my way to work, but after eating the 1st strudel, the guilt started to set in and I couldn't bring myself to make Sweet Anniston eat the one that fell on the floor! ... boy did I sure think about it though!

Here's a picture of the death trap in the garage so everyone can have a nice mental image of me & baby trapped inside against the car...

Later on in the week this stupid man at work really kinda hurt my feelings! The conversation went something like this...

Stupid man: "So Jayne, when is your last day?"

Me: "Do you mean, when am I due?"

Stupid man: "Yeah, that's what I meant. When is your baby due?"

Me: " I'm due August 31st"

Stupid man: "WOW! So you mean to tell me you have another 3 months to go!?... WOW, ARE YOU HAVING TRIPLETS?!"

Me: ?????? {WTF?!} nervous/annoyed laughter was all that could come out of my mouth!

Luckily, there was another guy I work with that heard the whole thing go down (his wife just had a baby and we talk a lot about baby stuff) ... so he helped smooth things over... He told the Stupid man that he just stuck his foot in his mouth and gave him a really hard time about it... so that made me feel better! :) ... but the more I kept thinking about it, I have been really self-conscious about my baby weight since :( ...

I'm sorry, but you just don't say stuff like that to a pregnant lady!!!!! :( Just tell us how beautiful we are and that our baby weight is all belly- no matter how swollen our ankles are or how much weight we've gained every where else!!!!

Nursery update:

We finally got our paint colors picked out and Sweet Wormie started painting this week. He is such a trooper!... Me and Baby Anniston couldn't really help paint because of the fumes, so he painted the nursery all by himself... he did it all on Tuesday and Thursday night after work!

Now the next step is to paint the chair rail and install that... Hopefully we (er, Sweet Wormie) will do that this weekend :)

Anyhoo... we gotta go to bed... We are babysitting our 18 month old nephew, Owen, tomorrow through Sunday while Chris and Melissa go to KY lake. This will be the first time Jeremy and I have done an overnight with a little one on our own so this should be good practice! :)

Test results...

So I just got a call back from the nurse with my test results... I don't have gestational diabetes! YAY! :)... but the test did show my iron levels are low :( ... she said it wasn't anything to be too concerned about, but I do need to start taking an iron supplement every other day... I'll just add that to the medicine cabinet of a purse I carry around now...
One side effect to the iron supplement though is constipation <:[ ... {Geez!}... As if I wasn't already cranky enough... not looking forward to that!

Bye, bye ankles...

So this weekend, I saw the most horrifying sight...
First let me paint the setting... I had just gotten home from a nice lunch at Cheesecake Factory with my friend Rhiannon (who is also preggers-due July 13th) followed by an AWESOME 1 hour pre-natal massage at Adagio Spa... so needless to say I was quite relaxed when I came home to my sweet husband who was working on the nursery.
He pulled me a chair from the office so I could sit down and a stool for me to prop my feet up with (yes, he is the SWEETEST- I know!)... then I proceeded to pick out paint colors while he called Babies R Us about the furniture we needed to pick up... Jeremy was in and out of the nursery while he was on the phone...
In between paint swatches, I looked over at my feet and saw it... the MOST gut-wrenching thing I have seen so far (and by the way- something tells me its only going to get worse)... Anyhoo... I looked down at my feet and could NO LONGER SEE ANY SIGN OF AN ANKLE BONE!!!... I screamed bloody murder for Jeremy to come back into the room (you would have thought I had seen a snake in the house or something by the way I screamed his name to come help!)... of course he comes running in to see what's wrong and all I could say was "JEREMY! LOOK!-- I DON'T HAVE ANY ANKLES!!" I almost cried as the words came out of my mouth!!
And no people- I am not exaggerating here!... I was all calf & foot... :(
Jeremy of course just laughed and rolled his eyes. He couldn't really comment cause he was talking to the Babies R Us guy, but when he came back and saw what I saw, boy did he just have one "cankle" joke after the next... (he first told me I was being silly and it looked fine, but that's what husbands are supposed to do...) but for the rest of the weekend (especially the rest of that night) I couldn't take my eyes off them! It was like a bad car wreck! I had to keep poking them to make sure it wasn't just a dream...
And to top it all off my foot was incredibly swollen too! My feet looked like two blown-up rubber gloves! :(

I knew this was going to happen sooner or later, but I just didn't expect for it to happen so soon! Plus, its hard to see your body changing this way so fast!

Anyway... I'm planning to post some pictures of me soon through out my pregnancy so you all can see my BIG belly! :)... there will, however; be no "cankle" pictures posted...sorry!

{Drumroll please}...

So a lot of you have been asking us about baby names...and if we have picked one out yet... so here it is... {drumroll please} ...

Our sweet little baby girl will be named "Anniston Jane Weber"!!

Jeremy and I have had a short list of names that we have been throwing around for a while now, but for the last month or so whenever we talk about her or talk to her, we refer to her as "Little baby Anniston" :) ... we just hadn't officially said "ok, this is her name" until we were driving home from church on Sunday and were talking about it... of course everyone at church asked us about names so on the drive home we said to her "ok baby, kick once if you want to be named Anniston" ... and SHE KICKED!! ... so it was settled :) We loved it & she did too!


We don't like the nicknames "Ann" or "Annie" though... so none of you are allowed to call her that! :) ... and when she gets older and her friends call the house asking for someone named "Annie", I'll just have to tell them no one lives here by that name! So there... >=[


The middle name is after my mom... Her middle name is "Jane" spelled without the "y" so that's where we got that.


A few others that were on our list are...

Alexis

Madelyn

Addison


We just really didn't want a name that a lot of people are using, so we ruled out Addison & Madelyn... and Alexis is another favorite of ours, but when my friend Elicia told us about the name it has just really grown on us everyday since and now we love it!...

Yesterday...

So the doctor's appointment went well yesterday... I won't get the results back from the test for a week or two, but the "drink" wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It tasted like a flat orange soda. The only bad part about it was that you had to drink the whole thing in 5 minutes... For a lot of people, that might not have been so hard, but for little ole' me that was tough!... I am a VERY slow eater and drinker, so having to slam that drink so fast made me kinda sick. It also started to burn after the first few sips, so by the end of it I felt like I could throw up!... Then after you drink it you have to wait for an hour before they can draw your blood and not eat or drink anything else.
The needle prick wasn't as bad either. The lady that did it was awesome! I don't even have a bruise today! YAY :)
And after we were all done at the doctor, Sweet Wormie took me & baby to Whole Foods for pizza and Fat Straw for a bubble tea smoothie :)... it was a great "treat"!! :)

We did go to Pottery Barn Kids after that for a little bit to start a registry, but didn't stay for the decorating class. By that time, we were all really tired and just wanted to go home... plus I was really bummed that everything I had planned to register for there was only online! :( We only scanned two things and the rest I will have to add tonight...

Anyhoo... I'll be sure to let you all know when I get the results back from the test!

This afternoon...

So I have a doctor's appt this afternoon to get my glucose levels checked and I am really nervous about it!! I couldn't sleep last night cause I was worried sick about it!
For all you non-moms out there, the glucose test checks your sugar levels for gestational diabetes (which is pregnancy-related and usually goes away after birth, but if tested positive it can cause a greater risk in delivery or needing a c-section cause the baby is too big. It also raises the baby's odds for low blood sugar when born)...
What I'm really dreading is the drink you have to gulp down beforehand and them drawing my blood to do the test! :( Every time I've drank any of those "medical test drinks" I usually throw it right back up! :( Also, I'm a big wuss when it comes to getting my blood drawn... I don't mind shots as much, but drawing blood usually really hurts and leaves me with a big bruise on my arm for a week!
Since my appt isn't until this afternoon, I've had to really watch what I eat and not eat anything with a lot of sugar... but Sweet Wormie (that's Jeremy- for you folks that don't know his embarrassing nickname I use) has promised me a treat after my appt so me & baby are just trying to be positive and focus on that! :) ...

Then after the appt, Jeremy and I are supposed to go to a nursery decorating class at Pottery Barn Kids... we will probably put a few small things on a registry while we're there...so we have a busy afternoon/evening...

I'll let you all know how the dr's appt goes... Please say a little prayer for us!

Preparing the nursery...

Wow! We've been busy!... It takes A LOT to get ready for a baby, and we're not even close to being done yet!

So this is what's been going on since my last post...

For the last month or so, Jeremy and I have been getting the house ready for our newest little family member. (Really my sweet Jeremy has been doing a lot of the work and we {as in me & baby} have been doing the little we can to help and sitting in a chair with our feet propped up giving direction! :). We've decided that her nursery is going to be in the room where the office was and our newly re-done guest bedroom will be the new office. The room that will be the nursery is a little bigger and has the better closet (cause you know she'll need it :)... and Jeremy needs to have an office so the guest room had to go. The crappy part is, besides the fact that we just painted and bought new curtains and furniture for the guest room, we don't have anywhere to put the extra furniture and we don't want to sell it. Right now we have the bed disassembled and crammed against the wall with the mattress and nightstands... we'll probably end up getting a small storage space so we can have room in there to put an air mattress up when guests stay... so we'll see...

We also cleaned out the closets in both rooms, packed up all the winter clothes, and stored all the summer clothes I won't be able to fit into this year... We ended up taking 6 bags of stuff to Goodwill!! Plus, we've got a few things we need to sell on Craigslist too...

The next step for us (hopefully to do by this weekend) is pick out the paint colors for the nursery and get started on that... The nursery colors are light pink, chocolate brown, & taupe. We've already bought our bedding (*see picture below) and we are planning on doing the walls like the picture with light pink on top and taupe on the bottom... so on top of painting, Jeremy is going to install a chair rail too :)

Another project we've got going is a built-in bookshelf/changing table system that Jeremy and his brother Chris (a.k.a. Bob Villa) are going to build. We are very blessed that Jeremy and Chris are very "do-it-yourself" guys and they are amazingly good at it! So I'm really excited about this project!... Below is a picture of the model we are trying to replicate... This piece is at Pottery Barn Kids, but the boys can hopefully get it built for 1/3 of the retail cost! Gotta love that!!

I'll keep y'all posted on the progress of these projects and hopefully we'll have before and after pics soon.