Making Room for Baby!

Making the decision to have a child is momentous. 

It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. 

~Elizabeth Stone

So when Kevin and I started down the path to parenthood, we knew to expect changes to our lives. Prepping for Emma's arrival has definitely affected us physically, intellectually, and emotionally!

Well obviously, growing a tiny human inside of me has made for some interesting physical changes to say the least. Not that I have anything to really compare it to, but this pregnancy hasn't been too hard. I haven't had any scares. No major swelling til after Spring Break hit - I could even wear my wedding ring up until two weeks before delivery. Now, I will say bending and moving has definitely become more challenging. For example, I had been walking around the classroom giving editing advise on research paper changes and about a fourth of the way through my students, I was so tired...and then it occurred to me, why am I doing all the moving and shaking here? It was WAY easier to have 150 students bring their laptops to me instead of trying to bend over and look at 150 laptops over the course of the day.

There's been changes to our routines at home too. Poor Kevin had to finally start helping me tie my tennis shoes! I tried to wear slip-ons when I could, but they made the swelling worse, so tennis shoes were the way to go when I had to be on my feet for a good part of the day. Even Lizzy has been affected as she has gradually lost her snuggle spot with me on the couch. It's not that I didn't want to snuggle with Lizzy - there was just literally no room on the couch for her next to me when lying down. The poor thing would do her normal pawing at the blanket, and I'd let her under but she couldn't find a spot to fit.

Just to give you an idea about how things have been growing, here are some baby bump snapshots:


30 Weeks

32 Weeks

35 Weeks

37 Weeks

Additionally, we've had to make some changes to our house to start to accommodate Emma's arrival. We (and by we, I mean Kevin under my supervision) finally finished her room upstairs. Kevin did an awesome job painting, putting together furniture, hanging pictures and drapes! Then, there was the purging of the cabinets and closets. That was a task in itself because when we bought this house we wanted to make sure we had "room to grow" as a family. Unfortunately, when we moved in we unpacked and treated things more like "look at all this room we have to EXPAND." So needless to say, we had acquired quite a bunch of junk that needed to be sorted through, tossed, and/or rehoused so that we had room for bottles, blankets, burp clothes, and all sorts of baby related items. My mom and mother-in-law were a HUGE help to me in getting this done, and it definitely soothed my nesting anxieties.

Here's a look at Emma's completed room:

So with everything mostly ready, we're just counting down the days 

until Emma actually shows up!