Happy 97th Grandpa!

The birthday boy!

My Grandpa Whalen turned the big 9-7 this weekend. Everyone knows you can't let a big event like that go by without a party! The family gathered at Grandpa's community to celebrate. All I can say is that I hope I'm still in as good of shape as he is when I'm 97!

Ready to blow out the candles. Thank goodness they went for the number candles instead of 97 of them!

Grandpa with some of his girls: Joyce, Cecelia, Janice, Joanne, Grandpa & Julie

Kelsey, Marshall and Nick enjoying the festivities.

Natalie and Cecelia in town for the celebration. Isn't she the cutest baby?

Happy 97th Birthday Grandpa! We wish you a fabulous year and many more to come!

All Showered Out

I had my final baby shower last Saturday hosted by my wonderful Whalen Aunts. Everything was beautiful and it was so good to see my Mom's sisters again. Aunt Kelsey, Julie, Janice, Natalie and baby Cecelia came in from out of town to help us celebrate! Allie got some cute toys and tons of adorable clothes! She's going to be one stylish little girl. I don't have any pictures yet but hope to get some soon.

A big thank you to all of you for making the day so special for me!

Some Finishing Touches

Allie's room is just about complete at this point. We hung some picture frames over her dresser last night. Currently they house pictures of the disgustingly adorable couple that came with the frames but we're hoping to have some equally disgusting adorable professional newborn photos taken of her after her arrival to replace that couple with. We still need to add the changing table attachment and the changing table pad to the top of the dresser to make it complete.

My Dad sent me this needle-point that my Mom had made for me as a child. I was able to paint the frame white and add the ribbon as a mat so that it would match Miss Allie's room. I realize it still says "Megan" on it, but I risked ruining the entire thing to try to remove that part so we'll just deal with it. After all, she is only a baby and probably won't notice the discrepancy between the picture and her name, right?

Wednesday night we put together the closet shelving unit after a 2 hour fiasco with Target. We really just needed some extra storage since her room is so tiny and thought this would work well in her closet until there is enough space to move it out into her room one day. I still need to purchase a few more bins and bring her books up from the basement but it should be finished soon!

We're super pleased with how her room turned out. Now all we need is Allie-gator to arrive!

At least we know where we're going now

Nick and I had our 36 week appointment yesterday and Miss Allie got a great report. Her heartbeat sounded great, I'm not dilated at all yet, she's head down and on track to be approximately a 7-7.5 pounder when she's born. It was a fabulous afternoon!

We got home and did a little bit of work around the house, including putting the finishing touches on the nursery. We finished hanging pictures around 7:00pm, ate dinner and started watching some TV.

After I eat, I'm supposed to do a kick count. Allie is supposed to move at least 10 times in the 2 hours following my meal. I laid down to start counting and got nothing. That's right, nothing at all. No movements, twitches, rolls, kicks. Nothing. The more I thought about it, the last time I remembered feeling her move was at the doctor's office around 4:00pm.

I tried not to freak out and started using some of the "tricks" I've noticed that never fail to get her moving. I drank a glass of ice cold water. Nothing. I drank a glass of apple juice. Nothing. I poked her in the butt. Nothing. I rolled to my other side. Nothing. I used the restroom. Nothing. I ate a granola bar. Nothing. She had NEVER not moved for that long. She loves the evenings and is usually going crazy. It was now 10pm and I was terrified.

We called the doctor and they told us to head to the hospital immediately to me monitored. We live almost an hour away from the hospital so we didn't arrive until 11pm. I swear it was the longest hour of my life. They hooked us up to the monitors and there was her little heart, just beating away like nothing had ever happened. It was truly the sweetest sound I've ever heard and both Nick and I could finally breathe a sigh of relief. She still wasn't really moving too much so they had me drink an additional 1 liter of ice cold water in 30 minutes. That must have done the trick (FINALLY!) because she woke up and decided to have a little dance party. I was so relieved.

They did pick up some contractions on the monitors as well but didn't seem concerned. Probably just braxton hicks brought on by stress. They went away after some time and I couldn't feel them anyway so it wasn't a big deal for me.

We were released from the hospital about 1:00am with a clean bill of health for myself and the little Stinker. They said they don't know why she would be so still for so long but that if it happens again to come back in immediately. We got in the car and headed home. Allie kicked and rolled the whole way home and I swear hasn't stopped since! Looks like we may have a little trouble maker on our hands in a few weeks.

It was quite possibly one of the longest nights of my life but hey, at least we know where we're going now!

One Month!

Today marks one month from little Miss Allie's due date. Although we technically have 4 1/2 weeks left, it seems totally surreal to be this close. Overall I'm feeling really well and am hoping for the best at this week's appointment. I can't believe it's almost November!

More Progress

We hung the letters in Allie's room last night. I think they're adorable but I might be a little bit biased since I bought / made them. I'm still on the hunt for a few picture frames and need to re-paint the one frame that I screwed up and then we should be just about finished. Only 5 more weeks!

She passed!

Allie passed the non-stress test this morning with flying colors. The doctor said she was moving all around, even when I'm not feeling it. Apparently she is getting bigger and doesn't have quite as much room to really make her kicks and punches count. They also said that she should be sleeping for longer periods of time so there would be longer gaps between the times that I feel her. Nice of them to tell me this now! Could they not have shared this information at my last appointment, before I freaked out??? I felt kind of stupid for calling but at least we know that she is fine and can relax for a little while.

She was being a little stinker and wouldn't stay on the monitors for the continuous 20 minutes that they needed but she still passed. The nurse kept saying that we were going to have our hands full when she arrives because she'll be going a mile a minute! I'll take a mile a minute over not feeling her move ANY day.

Non-Stress Test Today

I have been summonsed to the doctor's office today at 11am for a Non-Stress Test. I've noticed that Allie hasn't been moving quite as much this week and started to become somewhat worried last night. She's passing her kick tests (at least 10 kicks in the two hours following each meal) but isn't moving as much between these times. The doctor said it could just be that the movements are not as pronounced because she is getting bigger and doesn't have enough space to move around but it doesn't hurt to check.

I'm positive that everything is okay but it can't hurt to have her checked out. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers today!

Couple More Pics

We added the butterflies and the beautiful glider to Allie's room this weekend. I absolutely love her room. It has become, by far, my favorite room in the house. I spend a few minutes every morning or evening just sitting in the glider and looking around. It's just so peaceful.

We have a little bit more work to do but are getting close to being done!

Not good, not bad

I'd been dreading our appointment this week for the past few days. I just had a gut feeling that something wasn't right although I couldn't exactly put my finger on what it was. The good, make that GREAT, news is that Allie looked wonderful! She's growing right on schedule and is moving and kicking normally. Her little heartbeat was perfect as well.

The bad news is that my blood pressure had more than creeped up. It wasn't into the worry zone quite yet but it was 2 points below the worry zone. I told the doctor about the anxiety I'd been feeling all week over the appointment so they re-checked my blood pressure again before I left. Same result. That result bought me a repeat visit with the nurse at 8:30am this morning to be re-checked. Not exactly my idea of fun but way better than bed rest!

The good news is that my blood pressure was down slightly this morning and was good enough to earn me a free pass to my next appointment in 2 weeks. I guess they're not too concerned which was a huge relief for me. After the next appointment, we'll start going every week for the 4 weeks until she's born.

Overall, I'm feeling good and not showing any signs of true high blood pressure. I'm hoping to get back on the low-sodium train and drink more water so as to avoid a repeat performance next time.

Only 6 more weeks to Allie!

The Name Game

In other Neptune-related news, we're about 99.9% sure we've decided on a name. Looks like it's going to be Allison Jayne and we'll be calling her Allie. I bought the letters to hang over her crib and glued the ribbon on last night. We're hoping to add them to the wall sometime this week.

Only 6 1/2 more weeks to go before little Allie's arrival!

Making Progress

We're making progress on the room! Grandma-ma bought Neptune's bedding for her as a shower gift so we were able to put it in her crib last night. It is so stinkin' cute that I can't stop looking at the pictures! I absolutely love it!

Casey came over yesterday afternoon and helped Nick move the dresser into her room. It looks really good and makes the room feel more complete.


We're working on some finding some decorations and are waiting for the glider (thanks Shelley & Holli!) and a few other decorations to arrive in a few weeks to finish the room. We also need to find somewhere to put all of these shower gifts! I need to take a class on baby room organization or something because right now they're all piled in the corner.

We get more and more excited as her room gets closer to being completed. It makes it feel a lot more "real" to sit in her room and imagine what she'll be like one day.

Thank you to all of you who have helped with the room. We think it's turning out wonderfully!

Exciting Weekend!

We had a very busy but exciting weekend. Friday night I met up with the girls from my soccer team for dinner and a baby shower at Abuelo's. I hadn't seen any of the girls since I had to quit playing at 6 weeks pregnant so it was wonderful to see everyone again and catch up. I don't think I realized just how much I've missed those girls. We had so much fun laughing and talking and catching up on each others' lives. I can't wait to start playing again after Neptune arrives!

Little Miss Neptune loves Mexican food so she was in total heaven all night! The girls were very generous and gave Neptune loads of toys, gear and bath items. Daddy was very pleased to see the Ohio State blanket when I got home!

Thank you ladies for being such great friends! I can't wait to join you back out on the field!

Nick's family threw me a shower on Saturday afternoon. The theme was the Secret Garden, just like Neptune's bedding. If you've ever been to a Bryant party, you know they know how to do it up right! Everything was adorable from the flowers in teapots on the tables to the butterflies and flowers hanging from the ceiling. They really went out of their way to make everything perfect for me and for Neptune. The food was fantastic and the baby carriage cake was this amazing strawberry cake with strawberry filling. So good! The generosity of everyone there was truly touching. Neptune received so many gifts they took up a good portion of Tracy's dining room! I had such a great time yesterday sorting through everything and playing with all of the fun stuff. I didn't take very many pictures but will post some as soon as I start to get them from other people.

A big thank you to Mike and Tracy for hosting the shower in their new home. I know how much work you guys put into getting the house ready in time. Everything was beautiful! Thank you also to the ladies in the family for making my day so special. Nick and I both really appreciate all you do for us!

Couple of Pics

We're making progress on the nursery. We didn't get quite as far as we had hoped to last night but we did get the crib assembled. It was a very weird feeling to be putting together a crib for OUR daughter. I kept walking back into the room and looking at it throughout the evening. I love the crib and definitely feel like we made the right decision!

Nick has done a fantastic job on the room. It looks totally different than it did when we bought the house. He truly is very talented and worked hard to make sure everything is perfect for his little girl. I can't wait to see the room evolve even more as we continue to add more items.

Before pictures:

bright yellow walls, ugly brown doors / baseboards

After pictures:

new crib, green walls, white doors / baseboards

Almost Done

We're hoping to move the furniture into Neptune's room tonight! I can't wait and hope to have pictures to post tomorrow. Keep an eye out for them if you're interested.