A Lamby from Pop Pop and Grammy

Though Baby Girl Rinck may not know it yet- she had an excellent Christmas. We are all so excited for her arrival so she had lots of gifts under the tree this year. Beautiful outfits, great books and, of course, money towards her college fund. One gift though was extra special, at least to mommy.

Pop Pop and Grammy (aka my parents) got Princess Sunshine a stuffed lamb that plays a lullaby for Christmas. The reason this gift was so special to me is that when I was born the first gifts my father ever got me was a lamb that played a lullaby for me. This too is our baby's first stuffed animal.

I braved our attic and found my lamb. Though it looks more like a black sheep now and it only plays a few notes of the lullaby at a time, it is clear that it has had years of love.

The new lamb makes me want to get her room all in order just so I can put the stuffed animal in her crib and eagerly anticipate her arrival.

Our Tiny Dancer

I feel a little odd posting a video of my bare belly on the internet but I wanted to share the baby moving with those of you who are two far away to feel for yourself. You have to look pretty closely to the left side of my belly see her moving. She was having some sort of crazy dance party. I can only imagine her movement as she gets bigger.

So I present to you...

Bump Watch: Week 24

When you are pregnant people are always willing to carry things for you. This week, Laura decided to carry my blog for me. Here is her update on my pregnancy for Week 24.

This week was very special, in part, because the baby kicked Aunt Sarah and Grandma Lola. Aunt Sarah had a very funny reaction to this kick and flew backwards across the room, screaming, "What was that??" She also kicked her Mommy in the ribs all day on Tuesday. In more baby news, Mariah went to her second birthing class and sat in an uncomfortable chair, thus losing a good night's sleep and leaving us all to wonder, shouldn't they have the world's most comfortable chairs at Lamaze? The baby also "visibly moved" and her parents attempted to catch this on video. Her little ears developed so she is starting to hear her family who already loves her! Mariah and Calvin also met their mid-wife who they really liked a lot and they looked at picking out a crib. This completes Mariah's blog entry for 1/7/11, ghost-written by Grandma Lola.

The Baby's Room-The Theme

Prior to finding out whether we were having a girl or a boy I was at a loss for what I would do with the baby's room. About 24 hours after we found out our little Rinck will be a girl I went into full girly mode. I started googling how to make tutus and looking at everything pink with great joy. It was then that the idea came to me. 

Princess Sunshine is going to be born around my favorite time of year in the orchard- blossom season. It is a short lived couple of weeks but during that time the orchard is so beautiful and smells so good. 

To pay homage to this extraordinary time of year and the amazing, loving families she is being born into I want to create an apple blossom tree room. 

I envision an entire wall with a large painted tree. On each branch will be blossoms that have framed photos of our family. 

I was happy to find a baby sheet set that fits the theme. I'm not sure if these are supposed to be apple or cherry blossoms but I'm pretty sure our baby won't know the difference.

Now that a theme has been decided the next step is to recover the future baby's room from the chaos of the wedding. I may have to call in some reinforcements for that task!

Bump Watch: 21 Weeks

We almost missed the 21 week shot because Laura worked from home that day but luckily Peter stepped up and took the photo. I think wearing dresses makes my stomach look a lot smaller.  

Bump Watch: 20 Weeks

Each day I look more and more pregnant. I have gotten to the point where I don't feel as though people will just think I let myself go and recognize that I have a baby in my belly. I have become one of those pregnant ladies who is constantly touching their stomach. I feel as though that is the universal sign for baby on board. You never see a chubby girl bringing attention to a bloated belly that way.

I guess at 5 months pregnant I need to except that i can't wear all of my pre-pregnancy shirts anymore, as this shirt clearly does not fit anymore.

This photo looks somewhat posed but really it was taken mid story. I was telling Laura how Calvin had come home from work the night before and looked at me in bewilderment and said "Hun, you are pregnant" to which I responded "Surprise". Laura captured the surprise moment of my story.

Bump Watch: 19 Weeks

Laura has been very diligent about documenting the pregnancy every Friday. This is greatly appreciated since Calvin and I have only taken one photo ourselves of the Bump and the photo came out terrible. I looked evil and my shirt was all wrinkled. It is clear that we need someone with some photo styling experience to capture this pregnancy.

I am usually called into Laura's office shortly after lunch so we can take our photo. We did just that for the Week 19 photo.

Hours later, though I hadn't had my second lunch yet (yes, I often have two lunches), my belly looked much larger. We obviously needed to document the new size. 

The photos don't lie. I had noticeably grown in a matter of hours! I was a little alarmed that my baby was experiencing some sort of growth spirt and come April I would be delivering a 30 pound baby. As it turns out, it may have just been gas, not that I ever get gas because that would be gross.