Our little FIRECRACKER has made her BIG BANG!

Our baby girl, Irelyn Louise Painter, joined our family on her due date!!

Born July 4th 2011 at 11:32 pm

6lbs 8 oz 20 in long

After going to the doctor's office the last 3 weeks and being told by my doctor that if she was a betting woman, she would bet that I would go at least a week over my due date, I was pretty sure I wouldn't be meeting my sweet baby girl until mid July! However, she had different plans!! She knew that she was our little firecracker, and had to make her appearance on her due date, Independence Day!

After a long Sunday night of contractions, we decided we needed to get to the hospital Monday morning. Billy made sure to take the bumpy dirt canal road instead of going on the actual road to try to speed things along! My contractions were only 3 min apart when we arrived at the hospital at 8:30 am. It took me all day to get ready for the big show, and she made her appearance just before midnight! 

 

 She has been such a great baby so far! We had a fun little stay at the hospital, but we were so ready to get home!! Her daddy couldn't wait to get her home and show her off! We are both completely smitten over her, and I'm certain she is going to be a spoiled daddy's girl! She already has him wrapped around her little finger!

Maternity Photoshoot

When my friend Lora asked me if I would like to have some maternity photos done, I wasn't quite sure that I wanted to. However, I decided that since every picture that has been taken of me since becoming pregnant has either been a cell phone self portrait, or a really awful shot of me, that maybe if I got some professionally done, I would remember the beauty of being pregnant, not just remember feeling like a whale all the time!!

So, my friend Lora with Transparent Photography came down early one Saturday and took these pics. I am so happy with how they turned out! 

Gotta love Salem Pond! Such great spots for photos!

I love having a reason to be crafty!!!

So, since I found out the babe was a girl I have been so excited to work on a few projects I had stashed away in my internet bookmarks for the day that I had a girl! I was also excited to finally be able to make my baby some of the cute things I had made for others! I have been having so much fun with being crafty for the babe, but realize maybe I'm going to have to start buying more practical stuff soon instead of craft supplies...I'm pretty sure they won't let her leave the hospital without a car seat! :)

First project was some Baby Legs!! This was one of the projects I was most excited for because these things are so expensive at the store! I figured if I could make them myself, I could have any color I wanted for a fraction of the cost of what I could buy them for! I used THIS tutorial, and socks that I found at Target for $2/pair. It took me less than 30 minutes to make all 4 pairs, and it only cost $8 plus tax! I think they turned out so cute, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to make a dozen more!

 

 

Second project is the first of many of these I'm sure, because these are the easiest little blankets ever! I've made these for most of the baby showers I've gone to in the past 2 years, and couldn't wait to make one for the babe! During a trip to JoAnn's yesterday for another project, I came across this adorable birdie flannel! Since I am currently in a birdie/owl phase, I knew I HAD to have it!! I think it turned out so cute!!!

Last project is another little sneak peak into the Nursery! It's not as close to being blog worthy as I thought because I keep having new ideas and changing my mind about things :) I came across THIS project on another craft blog, and knew at once that I wanted to make them for the nursery!! They were another one of those things that I couldn't see spending so much money on when I could just make them myself! They were so easy, and turned out so cute!!

 

So, to answer some questions I'm guessing this will raise, yes I think we have chosen a name, or I at least hope so or I will have to start over on this project :) I am, however, not quite ready to share, because I want to make sure I am 100% sure when she finally comes!!

Lastly, I wanted to share my new favorite site... Pintrest.com! It is an invitation only site, but I requested to join, and got an invite within a week or so!! It is such an awesome place to store all of your ideas and projects, and to find new ones that other people are working on! I've started transferring my some 100+ bookmarks off my browser to this site, and it makes it so much easier to find them! Go check it out!

Almost 25 Week Update

Time for a new post, I'm tried of opening my blog to the same post everyday!!! Since pregnancy/baby is what basically takes up my time and thoughts these days that is the only thing I can think to blog about!

My nursery is getting so close to being blog worthy and I can't wait to share pics! Right now I have three different paints on the wall, and all of my sewing junk still in there, so it will be a week or so, but I'll get some pics up! I was so intimidated by making my own crib bedding, but was pleasantly surprised at how easy it came together! Just a few finishing touches and I'll be done! Here is a little sneak peak!
I am starting to feel a lot bigger! I swear I have popped so much in the last 5 weeks! My non maternity clothes are starting to get much too tight! This is a crummy cell phone pic, but it shows how much I've grown in 5 weeks!

So that's my little update! Baby baking is going great! It is just FLYING by for me! In a way I want it to slow down, but I'm so excited to meet our little girl that it can't come soon enough!

Some questions to all those mommies out there...what are your baby essentials? Best baby advice? Get this not that opinions? I'm looking to find out all I can!

Ultrasound @ 21 Weeks

We had our 21 week ultrasound today! I was so anxious to solidify that our little girl was in fact a little girl! Ever since our last ultrasound I have had this nagging feeling that it was wrong for some reason! However, little baby Painter was not shy at all and showed us right off the bat that she is in fact a SHE!

The tech did all of the medical checks and told us that as far as he can tell from an ultrasound our baby is perfectly healthy! She is measuring 2 days ahead of schedule, which doesn't change my due date, but gives me a little glimmer of hope that she will come early as opposed to late!

She is currently sitting breech with her hands and legs up by her face, so we weren't able to get very good pictures of her face. We are hoping that in the next 7 weeks she moves into a better position because they are going to do a free 3d ultrasound at 28 weeks!

I have finally gotten to the point that in the right clothes I actually look pregnant and not just fat! I took this picture last week, it's not great, but it works for this purpose :) So without further adieu I bring you my first belly shot!

It is just hitting me how close I am to actually bringing this little one home! I know I am only halfway, but if the second half goes as fast as the first, she will be here before we know it! I think it is about time that I start cleaning out the nursery and making it into a nursery rather than a storage room! I have some fun ideas and projects I need to get started on, and this is the first time the whole pregnancy that I have felt the clock ticking away, so I need to get started!

As far as I go, I am feeling great! I have gotten over the crummy first trimester nausea, which thankfully wasn't bad at all. I am finally not feeling so exhausted. I can stay up longer than 8:00pm most days now! I have started to feel the discomfort of sharing my abdomen, which I'm sure is only going to get worse...but is oh so worth it! All and all I am just so excited to be halfway done, and closer to meeting my sweet little girl!

Now if we could just agree on a name... :)

It's a.....

We were able to go get a 16 week ultrasound yesterday to see if we could
tell what our little firecracker is!!!

Although the little one was pretty lazy (I really should have drank that diet coke before I went) we got to see some amazing stuff! Meet our little alien baby!


The babe wasn't cooperating very much and wouldn't turn it's head for a profile shot!
Finally we stirred the babe enough that we caught this brief shot!

It is amazing to me that I am growing this inside me! Women's bodies are incredible!!

This was a pretty funny shot, because the babe had it's legs crossed just like it's momma's! He said the similarities between parent and child start in the womb!

It was nice to see that the babe had all 10 fingers and all 10 toes!

Now, in the next two he reveals to us the gender of our little firecracker...but I am still not sure how exactly! Haha, it is so hard for me to tell from the pics, but I guess I should just trust the tech, as I'm sure he's done hundreds of these! So without further delay...

IT'S A GIRL!!!

The one above is a side view. You see the spine at the bottom, and the little leg and knee towards the left top. He said the lines under the leg verify that it is girl!

This one is a little less clear, but like I said...I guess I believe the tech! Below where it says It's a Girl you will see a long straight white line. That is one femur, and parallel to that is another one which is another femur. The empty black space between he said verifies that it is a girl!

She was being a little lazy, but we did get some good moves out of her! She had her hands up by her face most the time and gave us a few little kicks. Towards the end she gave us a big yawn that let us know she was done with us poking and prodding her, so we finished up! I was so excited that they gave us a DVD of the entire u/s. I have watched it 5 times so far!

So there you have it! I guess we will get further confirmation when I go into my Dr.'s office in 4 weeks for my next u/s and maybe it will be a little more clear to me by then!

Billy was really hoping for boy, and I was going to be good either way, but I will say I REALLY wanted a girl!!! Hopefully we don't get a huge surprise in 4 weeks and find out it is really a boy because I'm pretty sure I am going to start shopping this weekend!

Holiday recap and New Year's Resolutions

So, I know I have been awful at blogging. I have not even taken a picture with my camera since the last ones I posted! I took it with me to Christmas parties with every intention of taking pictures, but never took it out of it's case! So this is what you get about our holidays...They were great! We had fun with our families and spent a lot of time playing Mario Kart, and that is about it!

So in the new year I'm hoping to find the time and motivation to do more things and to take more pictures! I have set a few goals for the New Year and I thought I would share them here so that maybe you guys can help me keep them, since we know how well New Year's resolutions go!

So here goes it:

#1. Gain about 25-30lbs preferably.
#2. Stop working on those rock hard abs.
#3. Cancel all July Lake Powell trips and stay home instead.
#4. Eat a lot of ice cream...how else am I supposed to get all that calcium!?!
#5. Incur huge expenses, for things such as Dr. bills, new furnishing, new wardrobe, etc..
#6. Cut back to only 2-3 hours of sleep per night.

So, there you have it, my New Year's Resolutions...oh and if you haven't guessed it already...

I'M PREGNANT!!!!!

Yes, our plan for the new year is to start the adventure into parenthood! Our little firecracker is due to be here on July 4th, 2011! We can't wait! I have already scheduled my gender ultrasound for January 20th, so we will be finding out soon what the little firecracker will be!