To Greer

To my precious baby girl,

You are due to arrive in a month. These past nine months we have spent together, in one body, have been some of the most precious of my life. I keep fixating on how excited I am to see your sweet little face. I think I want to see your face because I feel like I know you so well otherwise. I feel you move and kick and roll, it's like we communicate already. I know that you're feisty and strong and sassy. I know that when you get the hiccups you get mad and kick around until they go away. I know that first thing in the morning you like to bump and nudge me... It's like you say good morning but you're a little groggy, too, so you don't kick as hard as usual. I know you'll be cuddly because you're very still if I rub your back when it's out against my tummy. I know that you hate when I climb stairs or walk too fast... Okay, that's probably me.

We have one month left sharing this body and I want to savor every minute of it. I truly can't wait to see your beautiful face but I also know what that day will bring... Lots of people to share you with. There are so many people who already love you beyond measure and cannot wait to meet you. So for now, while it's still just you and me, I want to tell you that this year has been wonderful and it only makes me more excited for all the years to come with you!

Love,
Mommy

Five Weeks Left!

Well, we are five weeks away from Greer's due date! Being able to travel has come and gone. Showers have come and gone. Visits from family before the "it's time" phone calls have come and gone. So now it feels like... we just wait. Don't get me wrong, there are definitely still things to do. AND we have two weddings for people we love dearly that I am so excited about in the next few weeks. But it does feel like we are now in the holding pattern stage. Just waiting on this sweet girl to decide it's time to meet her mom and dad.

So, just to ease some people's minds after my last post... We now have diapers! Haha. I know that made some folks nervous and so you can all rest assured that we now have 100+ newborn and 100+ size 1 diapers. Also, I am currently washing our (mine and Greer's) clothes for the hospital so we will be packed by tonight! I have charged our video camera and regular camera and they are in my bag. It's really starting to feel like she'll be here so soon!

This weekend was so special with mom, Gigi, Susan, Sug and Carolyn in town for my shower here. It meant a lot to me that my family got to meet some of my friends. Kathleen, Christin and Cameron seriously outdid themselves planning such a beautiful day for Greer and me. I have gotten SO many compliments on the food and specific recipe requests - the definite sign of a successful shower!

I just cannot get over how unbelievably blessed Will and I are as a family. As if having this baby isn't wonderful enough, this has been a time that we have been so overwhelmed by the love and generosity of our family and friends. And I don't just mean gifts (although the gifts have been amazing -please know that I'm not the fastest thank you note writer but I am truly thankful for all of the useful and beautiful things for Greer). What I'm really referring to is people's love they have covered us with and their generosity with time, prayers and acts. Sometimes I just can't process how fortunate we are. We are about to start a crazy adventure that will last the rest of our lives and I so appreciate that we are jumping off this cliff feeling so supported. Thank you all for your love. We feel it. Trust me.

I hope everyone is excited about fall's arrival and that you had a great first cool weekend! Next up on the blog will be pictures of the nursery! Yay!!

Cabs

These Are My Confessions...

Okay, I thought I'd come back strong and blog often. BUT it turns out my last two months of pregnancy are busy ones so far. So, just to record some randomness here are some of my preggo confessions...

Very occasionally I fall asleep on the couch and (gasp!) don't take my vitamins before getting in bed. Listen, it's all I can do to drag my pregnant belly the twelve steps to the bed. And we'll pretend I'm brushing my teeth in those twelve steps.

Sometimes I come back out to the couch to sleep the rest of the night ON MY BACK. I know it's a no-no. But our couch is really soft so I feel like I'm not putting as much pressure on my back when I sleep on it. I'm sure it's flawed logic but sometimes you gotta make-do. Rolling from side to side is (for some reason I can't quite figure out) one of the most painful things I do.

Greer will probably come out and immediately slap me in the face. She'll probably want payback for all the poking I do at her. Every time she rolls or kicks for some reason I feel like I need to respond by pushing back. It's automatic at this point. And I'm fairly certain that I noticed the shirt I wore yesterday was kind of dingy where she kicks a lot (and therefor I touch a lot). I'm admitting I have a problem. But on the flip side she may love it. And truly I'll never know. So let's just say she loves it. ;-)

We don't have one diaper yet and I haven't washed one piece of clothing or blanket. I am definitely not prepared for an early baby. Oh yeah, I need to pack for the hospital soon, don't I? Oh, and go see where the L & D floor is at the hospital. And pick a pediatrician. And take the car seat out of the box. Yeah, the to-do list is kind of long at this point.

I thought I was so smart and super cool for not needing to wear too many maternity clothes. And now I am QUICKLY running out of things to wear. With so little time left I will not be purchasing one more thing with a stretchy waist or rouched sides... So it is time to get creative. OR start stealing from Will's side of the closet. Hmm...

My house is dirty. I try to do something productive at home everyday but after work it is very difficult for me to resist the couch. Every time I decide to clean I end up organizing something instead. Trust me, these are not the same thing.

I have a days-left-at-work countdown. I tried to resist the urge to wish those days away but it happened. And I have 23 left! Eek!

I read that Greer's bones are hardening at this stage so I should be trying to bump up my calcium intake. I read this as: Eat more cookies so that I drink milk with them and eat more Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I'm sure that's just what the doctor ordered, though. It's fine.

Up until mid-week this past week I had started to become a pretty grumpy pregnant person. I had a hard time with the fact that all I want to do is lay around. I'm rapidly getting pretty uncomfortable and I was just generally sour about it. Then I had two epiphanies... (1) I realized that Greer and I are going to spend the next six weeks growing. A lot. So, unless I just enjoy the size I am now the last weeks of my pregnancy will all be spent being negative. Not cool. (2) I am so grateful and excited to be pregnant! It wasn't "hard" for me to get pregnant but it did require some patience and so WHY would I be a jerk about it now?! It's okay to have a bad day. It's okay to cry (hormones pretty exclusively give me that right at this point). However, it is NOT okay to spend my last months before Greer's arrival thinking of my life as hard or being negative. This baby is the most amazing gift Will and I have ever been given and I'm not going to pout about being UNCOMFORTABLE. As soon as that light bulb went off the rest of my week has been borderline blissful! Thank you Lord for a little perspective!

Okay, it is now 3:00 and time to peel myself off the couch. Happy (almost) October everyone! I cannot believe it is fall and Greer's due date is quickly approaching...

Photo Update

I haven't been great about posting photos throughout my pregnancy. So, here's an overview of the last few months in pictures!

The Big News Pt. 1

In order to use this blog as my memory keeper I thought it would be fun to record how we found out Greer was on her way and then how we shared that news with our families. Now... it's hard to talk about pregnancy without bringing up a certain "female calendar" or mention peeing on a very important stick. So, just bare with me. I promise to tread lightly and use soft language (I guess except "peeing" - oops).

So... back in March Will had his spring break and we had big plans to spend it in Aspen with friends. As fate would have it, the calendar lined up so that I would be waiting on a particular "aunt" to show up the day we left for our trip. Again, I'm trying to be delicate here. So anyway, Will and I hilariously discussed how to handle this because he was firm that I was not taking a test while we were on vacation. Did I mention in my last post that I'm impatient? Yeah... so you better believe I planned to take that test the day before we left. There was no way I'd be able "wait it out" on vacation. We were leaving for Colorado on Friday so Thursday morning it would be!

I came home from work on Wednesday night and told Will that I KNEW I was pregnant. The reasons I was so sure all qualify as TMI but you can call it intuition or blind optimism but I. Was. Sure. AND Will didn't admit it at the time but I convinced him that night, too. So we bought a test, I barely slept all night and then bright and early, at 6:00 a.m. Thursday morning I peed on that stick! I'm sorry, I just can't move past the fact that we get this amazingly huge news in our lives from a stick that you pee on... just can't get over it.

As you've gathered by now this test said that magical word - "Pregnant" - I mean, they should put ten exclamation points on that little screen, too. Whether you're excited or not about this major development I think that some exclamation points are appropriate. Just saying. A little punctuation is called for at this particular moment. There is a baby growing inside you INSERT TEN EXCLAMATION POINTS.

So, I waited all of zero seconds to wake Will from his peaceful, baby-free slumber by whisper-shouting, "Will! I'm pregnant!" We were both excited, stunned, nervous, happy,  terrified basically every emotion in the book. At one point Will just hollered, "What have we done?!" Haha. I thought it was an honest reaction to such an enormously permanent development. All in all it was a wonderful and hilarious morning at the Peeples' house. 

Now is where you might think I would start talking about our vacay. Except that before that can happen I obviously called my mom! I am not someone who could play this whole thing cool enough to wait and tell her in a fun, planned way. Nope. I called her on my way to work. She answered and told me she was about to call me to ask me something... to which I replied, "Oh, I was calling to tell you I'm pregnant!" We both cried. It was the best phone call ever. 

NOW we go to Aspen. Will and I were determined to keep our secret that week. It was difficult to keep something like that from a big group that we were staying in the same house with. Here are some highlights.

• Having a freakout moment in the security line at the airport thinking, "Can I go through those new scanners or am I supposed to opt out?! I can't opt out in front of Scott! I went through it... they're approved for preggos. Whew.
• Eating dinner with Robbie as soon as we got to Colorado and him asking out of nowhere if this would be our last vacation just the two of us. Will and I looked at each other dumfounded. Turns out Robbie just heard a kid crying in the restaurant and was trying to be funny. He about gave me a heart attack.
• I drank a LOT of virgin bloody marys that week. A lot.
• I told everyone that I was excited to be on vacation because I could just rest (I could already tell I was going to be exhausted most of the week). I was not there to go out or stay up late. Turned out I was there to sleep in, nap, go to bed early and lay around during the few hours I was awake. I was glad to finally tell all of them I was pregnant and not just super lame. 
• I did feel my first pangs of morning sickness on the trip but it's hilarious to look back now and think that I was sick at all. At that point it was really just feeling nauseated when I was hungry. I thought that would be the extent of it. Again, hilarious.
• I was a little terrified to believe the pregnancy was real. But I did buy our little baby an Aspen t-shirt to commemorate the trip. 

This post got crazy wordy and I am quite positive that you are all worn out by now. Here are a few pictures from our trip. I'll post about telling our families and friends soon. Until then...

Got to see Anna and Jennifer in Vail!

On my birthday before dinner. Definitely an amazing birthday!

At dinner one night.

Before the ski outing that went terribly wrong. More on that to come...

During said ski trip that went terribly wrong. Pregnant and afraid of heights... skiing wasn't the best idea.

I mean, he looks like a dad already RIGHT?!

Greer's T-shirt that I got her on the trip!

 
 

   

Yep. It's a Mommy Blog.

So... in the interest of being ""Just Another Mommy Blog" here are things that I have learned and/or been surprised by during my first seven and a half months of being with child. I am definitely an optimist but I think that you will see a trend throughout this list that I am also a little bit delusional. I don't want to say (um, admit) that I thought pregnancy would be a piece of cake. HOWEVER, I will cop to the fact that every negative side effect of pregnancy was met with an "Oh, that won't happen to me" reaction. Well, all of them except I was totally prepared to gain 50+ pounds. For some reason I totally thought that would happen (and it hasn't... yet).

1. Morning Sickness. I was really surprised to have any form of morning sickness. I think I defaulted to the fact that my mom never had it and so I thought I would get to avoid it, too. I wasn't too sick but I was definitely not my best self for my first trimester. And I had the odd (once or twice weekly) sick "episode." My personal favorite morning sickness moment was when Mary Helen was in town and we got back from being out and about and I got sick in the backyard because I couldn't even make it inside. Greer let me know she was in charge pretty early on...
2. Baby Kicks. I first felt Greer rolling around at about 16 weeks. It was awesome. It really did feel like butterflies. And I guess I expected it to continue to feel like butterflies. Um... yeah, that is definitely not the case. Greer does not let me forget she's there - I swear I feel her moving around for about 75% of my waking hours. And she is strong. A couple of times I have told her out loud that she cannot actually push her way out into the world through my stomach. I LOVE feeling her move around but it does hurt at least once a day - I think that's when she just gets irritated and elbows me with all her strength.We'll just have to wait and see if there's a strong personality to go along with that strong little body.
3. I'm Not Superwoman. Yeah... it turns out I'm not Superwoman. I really went into pregnancy thinking I would be one of those women who didn't have to slow down just because I was pregnant. Yeah right. I'm sure everyone who has had a baby just laughed out loud at me. Two weekends ago I cleaned my house and this is how it worked - clean a room, sit on the couch for thirty minutes, clean the next room, another thirty minutes on the couch. Then I finished the house and took an hour and a half nap. Yesterday we drove back from Little Rock. Apparently sitting in the car wore me out - I napped from 2:00 - 5:15 and then went to bed at 9:00. I'm not exhausted all the time but I definitely get worn out a lot easier.
4. Impatience. I literally have to remind myself daily that it would not be best for Greer to be born today. I really like being pregnant but I am SO ready to see and hold this baby. Really I just want to see her. Maybe I'm really shallow and care too much about what she looks like. But more so I think it's that I'm just incredibly curious. Will she have dark hair and eyes and look just like Will? Will she look like me and make Will question her paternity with blonde hair? ;-) I just want to know! No kidding. I've literally daydreamed about being able to look at her and then putting her back inside my body. I am aware how embarrassing that is but I'm just being real.
5. Missing Work. I am incredibly blessed to be able to stay home full time when Greer is born. I let my office know a couple of months ago that the end of October would also be the end of my time there. Being a stay-at-home mom is something that I have always wanted to be. I have enjoyed the things that I have learned about business and about myself through my job in the last four years. But I am also so excited to start this next phase of my life... mostly. I have to admit I have been really surprised how nervous I am to exit the office working world. It's all that I've known since college and while I have not always loved the schedule or the stress, I do really like the sense of accomplishment and pride I get from my work. And it is scary to let go of that. But I just keep reminding myself that once I get to see this sweet girl's face my world will never be the same anyway. 

So, that's my list for now. I know that I will continue to learn lots about myself and about Greer over the next couple of months. 

From an update standpoint I had a doctor's appointment today and everything is going well! We had a slight blood pressure "scare" last week which caused some extra bloodwork, a small amount of stress, some added rest this past weekend and an extra appointment (today). BUT everything was right back to normal today. The only bummer news we did get today is that the Arkansas/Alabama game will officially occur without our presence. My doctor just doesn't want me to push it in the heat and with all the hills in Fayetteville. But I still have my Little Rock shower that weekend, which I am REALLY looking forward to! Also, I promise that some of my posts will include pictures. I'll post about the nursery and some other house updates and  I'll have pictures from the shower so... I know you're ALL looking forward those! Haha... until then!

Biting The Bullet

Well... Here we are again. I quit blogging late last year when life got busy during the holidays. And then i just disappeared from the blogosphere all together. Will and I were hoping for a baby sooner than later so it became more and more difficult for me to blog about movies, TV and what I was loving on Wednesdays without typing OH, AND I CAN'T WAIT TO BE PREGNANT in all capital letters. So, in the essence of self control and respecting my hubby's privacy I decided to go MIA for a while. 

No need for the all caps craziness now... we are having a baby this fall. She's due November 12 and we couldn't be happier!

So, where have I been for my first seven months of pregnancy?... In a nutshell I thought it would be so cliche of me to be "just another mommy blogger." So, I wasn't going to blog. 

Then today I had two epiphanies. First, a good friend let me look at the notebook she kept when she first had her baby. It was really helpful for me but I could tell it was really fun for her. She read so many things that she didn't remember and it was sweet to watch her recall all of her little girl's "firsts" that she had written down. I am historically terrible at keeping any kind of journal or diary. But I was pretty good about blogging so this will really be a tool for me to remember this exciting part of life! My second realization was that 90% of the blogs I follow are mommy blogs! So, why wouldn't I want to be one of them? I mean... Come on... I know it was just a case of me over thinking the whole thing. If you get bored reading about my pregnancy or my kid that's totally cool with me. Just. Quit. Reading. ;-) 

So here I am. With so much news. Really just so much new. In the interest of brevity I am going to bullet point some things for now. Maybe later I'll go into some of them in more detail but for now here's the laundry list of life lately for some VERY Happy Peeples:

• On March 1 of this year we found out life would never be the same. We were having a baby! The next day we left for Aspen for Will's spring break. It was a whirlwind of a week and my tale of being newly pregnant and skiing for the first time is one I will definitely share some time.
• April and May were filled with excitement, nausea, nervousness and lots of Chef Boyardee (don't judge... when you're sick you'll eat anything that sounds good). This is also when we shared our news with family and friends which has been one of the most fun parts of pregnancy so far. 
• This summer has flown but the highlight was definitely in June when we found out Baby Peeples is a girl! I had acted really open to having a boy or a girl but deep down I really wanted a girl. I was thrilled! And Will put on a brave face and has gotten really excited about our little girl, too. *Side note: I just had to scroll through Facebook to figure out when we had this ultrasound! I'm already forgetting things! WHY did I resist blogging for so long?! Ugh.* 
• When we found out we were expecting we almost immediately started talking names. We landed on a boy name pretty quickly but committing to a girl's name gave us a lot of trouble. But after finally accepting that I was going to choose a name from a baby name book (something that I will now admit I have always judged others for) Will and I decided to name our sweet girl Greer Allan Peeples. We both really loved the name Greer - it just seemed strong, classic and just unique enough for us. Her middle name means a lot to me. It was my middle name and is my dad's middle name. It was also my great-grandmother and aunt's middle name. Both of these wonderful women went to heaven in past year or so and I wanted to honor them. Also, there aren't two better women for Greer to know she was named after... They were both amazingly strong and funny women. 
• I'm now in my third trimester and we're just 10 short weeks (at most) from meeting our sweet baby girl. Two weeks ago Greer's cousin Francis Holman entered the world and I cannot tell you how impatient that made me. Francis is beautiful and so very perfect. Looking at her sweet face just made me want to hold and love on Greer that much more! 

So... we've got 2.5 months, 3 showers, 1 Hog football game, 2 weddings and much more to go before Greer gets here in November. Lots to be thankful for, to look forward to AND to blog about! Until then, Happy Labor Day!